Chapter 3

The new lock had been in for barely half an hour when Chester came storming into the residential compound, out of his mind with rage.

"Clarissa! Have you lost your mind?"

He pounded on the door hard enough to draw a crowd of neighbors in no time.

I pulled the door open and looked at him coldly. "What? Come to win justice back for your precious little darling?"

"Why did you hit Darlene? And why did you throw all her things out in the hallway?"

Chester jabbed a finger at my nose and roared. "I already gave that apartment to Darlene! She's a widow raising a child alone, and Barnaby's health is poor. Can't you show a shred of sympathy? Where did all your old kindness go?"

"Sympathy?"

I laughed, furious past the point of anger. "Chester, you use the apartment I earned killing myself over blueprints every night to show her sympathy. If you're so noble, why don't you hand her your own life instead?"

"You're being completely unreasonable!"

His face went ashen, but he was still fighting to save face.

"Duke Abbott saved my life. Taking care of Darlene is only right and proper! As my wife, you should be supporting me!"

I gave a cold laugh and pulled out a ledger, throwing it straight into his face.

"Since the whole neighborhood is here today, let's settle these eight years of accounts, one line at a time!"

"For eight years, you made sixty-five dollars a month, and behind my back you gave Darlene Ramsey thirty-five of it every single month. The rest went to your cigarettes and liquor. This household ran on my wages and mine alone!"

The neighbors crowding around started to murmur.

I kept going.

"Three years ago, my father died of a sudden heart attack on the workshop floor. The plant gave the family five hundred dollars in survivor's benefits out of compassion. You lied and told me that money was locked away in a fixed-term account at the bank. And what actually happened?"

"You took it in secret to buy imported specialty medicine for Darlene Ramsey's son! When I was seven months pregnant and wanted a twenty-cent apple, you told me we had to save up for her son's school fees and that I should just bear with it!"

The whole crowd erupted.

"God almighty! Taking your father-in-law's death money to raise another woman's son? Is that even human!"

"No wonder Clarissa was so thin even while pregnant. Who could live like that!"

"This isn't repaying a debt, this is practically keeping a mistress!"

Chester's face flushed crimson in an instant. He scrambled down to snatch the ledger off the ground, growling low. "Clarissa! You really have to air the family's dirty laundry in public? Can't you leave me a little face!"

"You do something lower than an animal and you still want face?"

My voice went cold. "Chester, you keep saying Duke saved your life. Do you really think I don't know anything?"

I lowered my voice right at his ear. "That mine accident back then. Did Duke really push you out of the way on his own, or did you climb out over his shoulders to save your own skin?"

Chester froze where he stood.

"You... what are you talking about! You're insane!"

He was faking calm, but the guilt in his voice was impossible to hide.

Darlene, who had rushed over hoping to watch me get humiliated, caught that exact line.

She looked at Chester, the color draining from her face.

"Whether I'm talking nonsense or not, you know in your heart."

"Chester, neither you nor Darlene Ramsey is getting your hands on this apartment. And every dollar you took from me over these eight years, plus my father's survivor's benefits, twelve hundred dollars in total, you'll cough it back up to the last cent within three days! Otherwise, I'll report you for embezzling those benefits and for your indecent private life!"