Chapter 3

Walking out of the bank, Barbara kept refreshing her mobile banking app.

Balance: $10,000.00.

Even on our way to the restaurant, she kept secretly pulling out her phone to refresh the screen, terrified that the money would suddenly vanish.

When we sat down at a high-end sushi place, she looked completely out of place and tense.

My heart ached for her. I could only imagine what kind of miserable life she had been living for the past three years.

I had left so much wealth for her before I left, yet Michelle had never even taken her out for a decent meal.

I kept placing salmon sashimi onto her plate.

"Eat up, Barbara. Order whatever you want. It's on me."

After lunch, I took her to the mall and bought her several new outfits to replace her worn-out, faded dress.

"It's getting dark. Let me call an Uber for you so you can get home before your mom starts worrying."

Barbara nodded. Having eaten her fill and gotten new clothes, the hostility in her eyes had mostly faded.

She looked at me with a complicated expression, her gaze conflicted and uneasy.

"My mind is a mess right now... Is everything you said really true?"

I gently ruffled her hair.

"If you want to believe it, it's true. If you don't, then no amount of proof will ever make it true to you."

"I won't try to force you to believe me anymore. Time will show you the truth."

This time, she didn't push my hand away.

While opening her bank account earlier, I had printed out all my bank statements from the past three years.

My salary flows, the monthly transfers to Michelle, the child support history, and the mortgage release documents...

Every single piece of paper proved I was telling the truth.

Barbara's world was visibly crumbling.

I could see she wanted answers, maybe even wanted to lean on me for support.

But I remained silent.

Because back at the bank, when I checked her ID, I noticed something.

Her name wasn't Barbara Miller anymore. It was Barbara Dupont.

I asked her when and why she had changed her last name.

"Three years ago," she said, her voice dropping. "Mom made me do it, and... I wanted to do it back then, too."

Her eyes had been filled with a defiant pride when she said that.

At that moment, I felt a bond snap between us.

I was still her father, and I would still pay her child support, but I could no longer offer her the unconditional warmth I had felt when I first saw her today.

It felt as if she was no longer my Barbara, but someone else's.

Her Uber arrived.

After adding my WhatsApp, Barbara remained quiet.

I opened the car door for her and quietly slipped all the cash from my wallet into her backpack.

"Go home. Text me when you get there. Listen to your mother, and if you ever run out of money, just WhatsApp me."

Barbara nodded silently.

Watching the car drive away, I let out a long breath.

I stood under the streetlights for a long time.

The city's sky looked the same, yet everything had changed.

I checked into a hotel and bought a pack of cigarettes—something I hadn't done in years.

Just then, my phone rang. It was Michelle.

The moment I swiped to answer, a deafening screech blasted through the speaker.

"Robert! What the hell did you say to Barbara?"