Chapter 2

2、

I went straight to bed without saying another word.

Later that night, Garrett quietly snuck a bowl of warm food into the bedroom, trying to appease me.

My resentment toward him softened just a fraction.

The next morning, I woke up early to pack my bags.

That was when I noticed the deed to my luxury apartment was missing from my suitcase.

I remembered distinctly that the paperwork had arrived right before our trip, and in my rush to pack, I had tucked the folder straight into my luggage.

How could it just vanish?

Seeing the panic on my face, Garrett asked, "Babe, what's wrong?"

With a grim expression, I replied, "The deed to my downtown apartment is gone."

Hearing this from the hallway, my sister-in-law, Brianna, sneered loudly.

"What are you implying, Gwen? Are you saying someone in our family stole your precious paperwork?"

Rhonda chimed in immediately, stomping over with a screech.

"Garrett, look at the kind of woman you married! Not only did she freeload off us, but now she's accusing us of being thieves!"

"This is an outright insult!"

Caught in the middle, Garrett tugged at both of us, trying to play peacemaker.

"Mom, calm down, Gwen never accused anyone."

"Babe, don't jump to conclusions. Maybe you dropped it while packing at home and never brought it with you."

That seemed plausible.

Desperate to escape this toxic household without wasting more breath arguing, I dragged Garrett straight to the car and headed home.

Yet after tearing our place apart, I still couldn't find the deed, leaving me no choice but to request a replacement.

A few days later, my phone rang with an unfamiliar number.

"Hey, I'm ready to move into the apartment you sold me. Hand over the keys."

I was stunned. "What are you talking about? When did I ever sell an apartment? You have the wrong number."

The man on the line grew hostile.

"Don't play dumb with me! I wired the full three hundred and fifty thousand dollars, and I already have the deed in my hands."

He snapped a picture of the document and texted it to me. It was indeed my missing deed, clearly bearing my legal name.

A surge of blinding rage hit me.

My eight-hundred-thousand-dollar luxury apartment had been sold under the table for a mere fraction of its value, and I hadn't seen a single cent.

From the details he spilled, I discovered it was Rhonda who had sold it to him.

The buyer was one of her distant relatives.

My deed hadn't gone missing by accident; Rhonda had stolen it right out of my suitcase.

I called Rhonda immediately to confront her.

"Who gave you permission to sell my property behind my back?!"

Rhonda didn't sound guilty in the slightest; her tone dripped with smug satisfaction.

"So what if I sold it? That's what you get for refusing to pay your three hundred and twenty-six dollars and talking back to me! Consider this a lesson!"

"That apartment was bought entirely before our marriage! It has nothing to do with your family! What you did is grand theft and fraud!"

I yelled into the phone, trembling with fury.

"Illegal?"

Rhonda scoffed arrogantly.

"You're married to my son, so what's yours is his, and what's his is mine! Selling my own family's property isn't illegal!"

"The deal is done, and the cash is sitting in my account."

"Did you really think I couldn't put a spoiled brat like you in your place?"

My patience and restraint had only invited more cruelty from her.

There was no reasoning with a delusional narcissist, so without another thought, I dialed 911.

When I arrived at the local precinct near her town, Rhonda was causing a massive scene in the lobby.

The second she spotted me, she lunged forward, trying to slap me across the face.

"You ungrateful little brat! How dare you call the cops on me?!"

Garrett rushed through the doors, his face pale and distressed.

"Gwen! That's my mother! How could you take things this far?"

I shoved Rhonda aside and fixed a cold, piercing stare on Garrett.

"When your mother humiliated me over dinner, you didn't say a single word."

"Now that she stole my deed and illegally sold my property, you dare come here and lecture me?"

Garrett's face turned an ugly shade of red.

Rhonda continued to screech, insisting she hadn't stolen anything and had merely sold family assets.

Ignoring her dramatics, I presented all the purchase records and legal titles to the detectives, proving the apartment was entirely my separate premarital property.

From a legal standpoint, Rhonda was facing severe criminal charges.

However, both Rhonda and her buyer relative were legally illiterate, naively believing that holding the physical deed meant the sale was finalized.

They had no clue about escrow, title transfers, or real estate laws.

The fraudulent transaction was completely void.

The property remained legally mine.

If I chose not to press charges, Rhonda could avoid prison time.

Garrett dropped to his knees right there in the station, weeping and begging me to spare his aging mother.

I had zero desire to forgive her.

Yet as he knelt on the floor, swearing on his life that he would never let her mistreat me again, I reluctantly agreed to drop the charges.

Even so, I decided to move out of our shared condo.

I needed space to seriously reconsider whether this marriage was worth saving.