Chapter 2

2.

I flipped on the lights and looked around the apartment.

Everything was exactly as I remembered it before the divorce from Gavin Vance.

It was a modest two-bedroom place.

Maya had the master bedroom, and the second room had been converted into a private dance studio for her.

Gavin was rarely home, often gone for weeks at a time.

Maya thought he was a high-flying businessman on constant work trips, but I knew he was just out drinking and gambling.

Every night, after Maya finished her practice, I would roll out a thin mat on the studio floor to sleep.

I didn't feel like the owner of the house; I felt like a squatter in my own home.

The floor was freezing and hard on my back, but I never complained for her sake.

My few pieces of clothing were shoved into a tiny corner of Maya's walk-in closet.

Even then, she complained that my cheap, clearance-rack clothes made her designer dresses smell like poverty.

She acted like I was a burden she was forced to tolerate.

Fine. If she doesn't want me in her space, I'll take mine back.

I opened a furniture app on my phone and ordered the most expensive king-sized bed I could find with same-day delivery.

The workers were efficient and had the bed set up in the dance studio within two hours.

I watched them assemble the plush mattress and velvet headboard.

For the first time in years, I was going to sleep in a real bed without waking up with a backache.

After paying the delivery crew, I felt a strange sense of peace looking at my new bedroom.

Then, my phone rang. It was Gavin.

The moment I picked up, his voice started booming through the speaker.

"Elara, have you lost your mind? Why am I getting calls from some fancy ballet school about tuition?"

"She's just a girl. She's going to get married and have kids anyway. Why are we wasting money on this crap?"

In my past life, Gavin hadn't just cheated; he had a whole second family and a mountain of gambling debt.

His mother hated me and was constantly whispering in his ear to leave me.

When debt collectors showed up at our door with knives, Gavin had literally peed himself in fear.

I had hidden all of that from Maya to protect her education and her image of him.

I had agreed to a divorce where I took nothing but Maya's custody.

She ended up hating me for it, thinking I had cruelly separated her from her wonderful father and grandma.

She used to scream, "If Dad were here, he'd actually love me!"

"You're a bitter woman who ruined our family!"

But I knew the truth. To Gavin, his daughter was just a liability he didn't want to pay for.

After the divorce, he never sent a single cent in child support.

I spent my whole life being the villain so she could have a hero.

I rubbed my forehead, laughing at how pathetic it all was.

"Oh? I thought you adored your little princess," I said coldly.

Gavin never told her no. He let her skip homework and stay up all night on her phone.

He played the "cool dad" role because it cost him nothing.

But he never put up a dime for her future.