Chapter 3

I refuse!

I'd already tried to talk to her, to end this marriage peacefully.

But we had serious differences.

What my younger son said had settled it for me. I was going through with the divorce, and I was going to keep both boys with me.

Maybe I couldn't guarantee my sons would grow up to be great successes, but I believed I could let them grow up happy, and let them chase their own dreams once they were older.

The moment they were under her roof, she'd manage every part of their lives, mold them into whatever she wanted them to be.

Exactly the way she'd tried to manage me.

I trained in art, worked for two years after graduating, and now I freelanced, mostly on comics.

These past couple of years I'd started using AI to make comic dramas, and my income had climbed from around ten thousand a month to a steady twenty thousand.

But she never thought it was worth anything. Drawing was my dream, and she dismissed it.

Even after my income went up, she still wasn't satisfied with my line of work, calling it unstable, saying I could lose it at any moment.

Saying I had no benefits, no income to fall back on when I got old.

She could always find a reason to tear me down. Not once did she give me any credit.

To this day she has no idea what I've drawn, no idea what comic dramas I've made with AI.

I was certain that once my younger son was living with her, she'd force that same need for control onto him.

I wouldn't let that happen.

After I hung up, I started thinking about how to legally win custody of both boys.

Half an hour later, I got a call from my family.

I hadn't wanted my parents dragged into this, but clearly she'd gotten the court's call too, and instead of talking to me, she'd gone straight to my parents.

My father's tone was sour. This was going to be an interrogation.

What was coming would come. That afternoon, after dropping the boys off at their enrichment classes, I went home.

Her parents were there too, faces cold.

My father didn't look happy either.

"My daughter spent twelve years as your free housekeeper. She's getting old, and you just decide you don't want her anymore?"

"Are you even human?"

My mother-in-law set the tone for the whole thing the second she walked in.

I looked at Cheryl. "I've already filed. Let's all keep this civil. Take your parents and go."