Chapter 3

3

My phone buzzed again, this time with an aggressive call from the debt collection agency.

"Mr. Hayes, the mortgage under your file is officially past due. Please resolve it immediately, or your credit score will be ruined."

I let out a cold sneer.

"Those properties are not under my name. Go find the person who actually owns them."

"Mr. Hayes, you are listed as the primary co-borrower―"

"Then take me to court."

I hung up and instantly blocked the number.

Not two minutes later, Fiona began bombing my phone with calls.

I refused to pick up.

She switched numbers and sent dozens of voice messages.

I tapped the first one, and her hysterical shrieking filled the room.

"Calvin Hayes! How dare you refuse to pay the mortgage!"

"The bank called Mason directly! Are you trying to destroy his future?"

"Pay that money right now! If Mason loses those condos, I swear I will ruin you!"

I silenced my phone and slipped it into my pocket.

I walked straight into the corporate headquarters of my new workplace.

A massive crowd had gathered in the lobby.

Fiona, with her hair disheveled and dragging Nina by the hand, was sitting on the floor making a massive scene.

"Everyone, look at this! Calvin Hayes, an engineer at this company, is a heartless monster who abandoned his family!"

"He left his leukemia-stricken daughter to die at home while he lives it up outside!"

"How can a respectable company employ such human scum? Aren't you afraid of karma?"

Nina cried right on cue, her small face red from forced tears.

Surrounding employees whispered and pointed in disgust.

I stood outside the circle, watching the wife and daughter I had once nearly died trying to protect.

To force me into paying her brother's mortgage, she was willing to destroy my career and cut off my livelihood.

I pushed through the crowd and stepped into the center.

"Are you done making a fool of yourself?"

Seeing me appear, Fiona sprang from the floor like a wild animal and lunged for my collar.

"Calvin! You finally decided to show your face!"

"Give me the money right now! Mason's mortgage cannot default, and Nina needs her medication next month!"

"If you don't pay, I'll kill myself right here! I'll let everyone see how you drove your own wife and child to death!"

I sidestepped swiftly.

She grabbed empty air, stumbling forward and nearly falling flat on her face.

Nina immediately charged at me, wrapping her arms around my leg and sinking her teeth into my thigh.

"You bad dad! Pay the money! Give us the money!"

I shook my leg and kicked her off.

The force wasn't brutal, but it was enough to break her grip.

Nina froze in utter disbelief, unable to fathom that the father she used to kick and scream at had actually fought back.

With a loud wail, she burst into an even louder tantrum.

Fiona lost her mind completely.

"You hit our child? Calvin, you animal!"

"Nina has leukemia! Do you have any shred of conscience left?"

The crowd's murmurs of condemnation grew louder.

Several people pulled out their phones to record.

I stared at Fiona with chilling calm, my voice steady yet loud enough to echo across the entire lobby.

"Leukemia?"

"Fiona Summers, Nina's comprehensive medical report from last month showed all her blood panels were completely normal."

"That so-called 'relapse' was just a lie you fabricated to squeeze money out of me for your brother's luxury renovations, wasn't it?"

The entire lobby went dead silent.

Fiona's face turned paper white in an instant.

Nina's theatrical sobbing stopped dead in her tracks.

Fiona frantically clamped her hand over the phone in her pocket, her eyes darting in panic.

"What... what nonsense are you spewing?"

"The doctor said that was just temporary remission! It could come back at any second! We need emergency savings!"

I let out a dry laugh. "Emergency savings?"

"What about the hundred thousand dollars my father earned by selling his kidney?"

"What about the fifty-thousand-dollar settlement I got when I broke my leg doing high-risk construction labor?"

"Every single cent went straight into your brother's two riverfront condos!"

I pulled a stack of printed bank statements and the taped-together purchase contracts from my bag.

With a sharp flick of my wrist, I scattered the papers into the air.

"Take a good look, everyone! This is the woman accusing me of abandonment!"

"She used my dying father's blood money and every drop of my sweat to buy luxury real estate for her brother!"

"Who would dare stay married to a monster like this?"