Chapter 3

I did want the divorce.

But the year I married Rolf, he promised he'd take care of me, told me to quit my job and stay home as a full-time housewife.

I'd just finished my residency at the time. I was about to start at the hospital.

He looked so sincere, so full of feeling, that I softened and said yes.

I've been out of it for too many years.

Going back to medicine now would be genuinely hard.

And on top of that, Rolf runs a real estate company that clears seven figures a year.

If I divorced him, all of that would fall straight into Isabel's lap.

The car and the house we bought together would go to her too.

I'm not stupid.

I never stayed with Rolf for our daughter.

I stayed for the money. Nothing more complicated than that.

But I wasn't going to make it easy for him.

When I kicked the bathroom door open, Isabel and Rolf both jumped.

Our daughter, standing off to the side, only cried harder at the sight.

The two of them were tangled together, clothes half off, faces flushed red.

I roared at Rolf, "You've got the nerve to post about your dirty little scheme? Get out here right now! Move it!"

Isabel just covered her mouth and giggled behind her hand.

"Madison, you're so calm. If it were me seeing something like this, I'd be crying my eyes out."

I let out a cold laugh.

"Cry about what? You're the one who should be crying. You wouldn't let me have any peace, so I won't let you feel smug either. You get out here too!"

I rushed over, grabbed her by the hair, dragged her out, and threw her down on the floor.

The teachers from the summer program crowded around, and the second they saw a man and a woman in that state, everyone understood exactly what was going on.

I picked up my phone and called my in-laws.

Rolf wouldn't have dared cheat right under my nose without his parents feeding him plenty of ideas and helping cover for him.

"I caught your son in the act. The two of you get over here immediately, or I don't know what I might do."

They knew what I was capable of. They flagged a cab and raced over without stopping.

Our daughter, afraid I'd hurt Isabel, wrapped her chubby little arms around her.

"Mommy, I won't let you hurt Aunt Isabel. She's good to me. She's my real mom. All you ever do at home is laundry and cooking, but she's the one who takes me to the amusement park with Daddy, and she makes me cotton candy with her own hands. She really loves me."

"Last time she stayed up so late knitting me a scarf that her eyes swelled up. Grandma and Grandpa told Daddy your personality is too domineering, and I think you should change it too, or I won't let you be my mom anymore."

I hauled her up and set her off to the side.

"You have a congenital heart condition. You can't go on the thrill rides at the amusement park. Didn't your father ever tell you that?"

"You love sweets, and they gave you cavities that wake you up in pain every single night, so I stopped letting you have candy. Is that wrong too?"

"Did you forget who buys the toys in this house?"

Her face went white. In a small voice she said, "You do."

"That's right. Name-brand, authentic, collaboration toys that cost tens of thousands. When I said buy them, I bought them."

"But somehow I raised an ungrateful little thing like you. You call a thief your mother, you throw away everything I've done for you. In the old days they'd have drowned you in a river for that, do you know that?"

My in-laws' faces darkened. "Madison, how can you talk to a child like that? What does she understand? She's only six."

"Six years old and already full of twisted logic. What happens when she grows up? You told me to let Rolf take care of her, said I wouldn't have to worry about a thing. This is how you brainwash a child, isn't it?"

Isabel covered her mouth, tears spilling over.

"Madison, please don't be angry. Rolf and I are truly in love. I've never wanted anything from him. I just love him for who he is."

"I'm begging you, can't you leave us alone?"

The corner of my mouth curved up, amused. "Go on, then. How much money will it take for you to walk away from him?"

Isabel froze, as if she hadn't expected me to name a price outright, in front of all these people.

She bit her lower lip and hesitated for a long moment.

Just as I was about to lose my patience, she finally spoke.

"Eight million. Not a cent less."

This time, the one wearing the shocked expression was Rolf.