Chapter 4

Delilah had both families over within the hour.

She said she wanted to settle the accounts once and for all, so I would stop misunderstanding things.

My mother-in-law walked in and slapped my forty-three-thousand IOU down on the table.

"Jacob, the fastest way to ruin a marriage is muddy accounts. Delilah isn't even asking for the principal back, just normal interest. She's being more than fair to you."

My mother cradled her sprained wrist, her eyes red with anger.

"My son needed surgery, and using his wife's card counts as borrowing money?"

"Whoever gets sick pays for it. Isn't that just how it works?"

My mother-in-law looked at me.

"Besides, he skipped the proper procedure. Break the rules, live with the consequences."

Alden sat beside Delilah and laid the private hospital annual membership on the table.

"Jacob, if it bothers you this much, I can return the card."

"But the hospital's already activated it, so I'd only get thirty percent back. I'll pay Ms. Delgado back for the rest over time."

Delilah frowned.

"No need to return it. Your health can't wait."

Then she pushed a property confirmation across to me.

"Sign it. I'll have Alden clear the six hundred thousand before year's end."

I opened to the first page.

It said the one point two million from selling my premarital property had been voluntarily gifted to the couple's shared life.

That the forty-three-thousand debt under my name was genuine and valid.

And that in the event of divorce, the loan and interest would be deducted from the division of assets.

I looked up at her.

"And if I don't sign?"

"Then the six hundred thousand gets treated as an ordinary loan. You'll have no standing to chase it, no right to demand it back."

"That's marital property."

"The money came out of my personal account."

Delilah shoved the pen into my hand.

"Jacob, I've already backed down once. Don't burn through my patience."

I didn't take it.

My mother-in-law suddenly seized my hand.

"Sign it. What kind of future do you think you'll have divorced? No job, no head for money. Who's going to marry you once she's done with you?"

I pulled my hand back.

"That one point two million came from selling the house I owned before the marriage. It's mine!"

"Once you're married, you and your money both belong to this family! Yours, mine, what's the difference?"

She reached for me again.

My mother stepped in between us.

"My son doesn't want to sign, and nobody's going to force him!"

I gripped the confirmation, ready to tear it up, and my mother-in-law's face changed as she lunged for it:

"Don't you dare tear it. You're signing today!"

Several of us crowded the table, and her elbow knocked over a glass.

It hit the floor and shattered, shards flying everywhere.

My mother, standing in front of me, was shoved back two steps by my mother-in-law, stepped on a grease stain nobody had wiped up, and went down hard.

The back of her head struck the corner of the cabinet, and blood soaked into her collar fast.

"Mom!"

I dropped to my knees to hold her.

Delilah pulled out her phone. I thought she was calling an ambulance. Instead she turned first to Alden, whose hand the glass had cut.

"How's your hand?"

Alden blinked, then looked down at the blood beading on his fingertip.

"Stings a little."

Delilah immediately pulled out a tissue and pressed it to the cut.

I held my mother, her head covered in blood, and looked up at her.

"Call an ambulance."

"It's just a surface wound. Don't blow this up again."

"My mother is bleeding."

"Alden's hurt too."

Her voice was so calm it was almost cold.

"Jacob, moments like this are exactly when you have to keep your priorities straight. Don't lose your judgment just because she's your mother."

I took out my phone and called emergency services.

The second I hung up, a hospital billing statement popped into my inbox.

The private hospital membership had been activated on the same day I had my appendix surgery, a year ago.

That day I'd passed out from the pain in the ER, and the nurse called her seven times from my phone.

She said she was out of town.

But on the statement, at 18:47, the accompanying-patient signature read Delilah Delgado.

That was right when they'd wheeled me into the operating room.

She'd been on the top floor of the same hospital, sitting through Alden's full checkup.

I held the phone up in front of her.

"You weren't away on business that day."

Delilah's pupils shrank a fraction.

"Jacob, let me explain."

I didn't listen anymore.

The ambulance arrived soon after.

Before I got in with my mother, I set the property confirmation back on the table.

Delilah chased me to the door.

"Calm down first. Come back tomorrow and sign it."

I looked at her, and the last bit of hope in me was gone.

The phone buzzed in my palm.

【Your divorce filing has passed review.】

At the same moment, a court clerk was placing a call to Delilah.