Chapter 2

Another officer stepped in and murmured something in the young officer's ear.

The young officer's expression shifted slightly, and he nodded.

He turned to look at me.

"Ms. Simmons, we've heard back from Downtown Memorial."

"The patient in the ICU has been confirmed dead."

"And the cause of death was acute liver failure from eating poisonous mushrooms."

He paused, and his tone grew complicated.

"The hospital confirmed that if the five-hundred-thousand deposit had been paid in time so they could bring in blood plasma for a full transfusion,"

"the patient would have had an eighty percent chance of survival."

I closed my eyes, and the tears slid down without a sound.

"Bang! "

The door of the interrogation room was kicked open.

Thomas swaggered in with his private lawyer.

"Officer, no need to keep questioning her."

He dragged out a chair and sat down, sprawled and arrogant.

"She's already admitted it, hasn't she?"

"Using her own mother's death as a setup to swindle money out of me."

I opened my eyes and looked at him coldly.

"Thomas, what are you doing here?"

"I'm here to give you a way out."

He pulled a document out of his briefcase and slapped it down on the table.

"Divorce agreement."

"Just sign it, agree to walk away with nothing,"

"and publicly admit in front of the media that you hid marital assets and attempted fraud."

"Then, out of the goodness of my heart, I'll go down to the police station and drop the case."

He leaned forward and lowered his voice.

"Otherwise, half a million on the table is more than enough to keep you inside for a few years stitching prison uniforms."

I looked down at the agreement. It was all spelled out.

I would voluntarily give up all property, vehicles, and savings in my name.

I would even take on most of our shared debt.

"Walk away with nothing?" I laughed.

"Thomas, you've really got this all figured out."

"That five hundred thousand is our shared property, and half the down payment on the house is mine too."

"What gives you the right to send me out with nothing?"

Thomas gave a cold snort.

"The right?"

"The right that you're a greedy leech who bleeds herself dry for that brother of yours!"

"The right that you used something as low as faking your own mother's death to con money!"

He pointed at my face, spit flying.

"Rita, I've put up with you long enough!"

"Three years of marriage, and how much have you hauled back to your family?"

"Your brother's college tuition, your parents' medical bills, which one of them wasn't sucking me dry?"

I looked at him quietly.

Three years of marriage.

Every cent of my own salary had gone to the household expenses, while his money stayed locked in his fist.

When my parents got sick, I paid with my own savings.

My brother worked his way through school, and now and then I'd chip in a couple hundred for living costs.

In his mouth, that became me sucking him dry.

"Thomas." I cut off his tirade.

"At the hospital today, did you even look at the body?"