Chapter 3

Our eyes met.

The next second, the disgust came right back into Austin's face. "You're doing this on purpose. Playing for sympathy."

"A gold digger is a gold digger. This sweet little act is all you've got."

"That's how you tricked me from the start, isn't it?"

So this was what he thought.

Once, when his fever wouldn't break and the hospital handed us a critical-condition notice, I knelt over and over to pray for a charm to keep him safe, until my knees were rubbed raw.

Once, when he liked paper cranes, I folded him a thousand of them.

All of it.

Every last thing, just another one of my gold-digger tricks.

The phone buzzed.

Right on cue, Janice was calling.

Austin didn't step away to hide it. He answered on speaker, right there in front of me.

"Austin."

"My nose is all stuffed up. I think I've caught a cold. Could you come over and keep me company?"

Janice's voice was soft and coaxing.

There was no stuffiness in it.

No trace of feeling unwell either.

If anything, she sounded like she was showing off. Look how someone dotes on me. Look how someone loves me.

"Wait for me!"

"I'm coming right now!"

Austin shot me one glance, then turned and left.

His steps were quick.

As if he couldn't reach Janice fast enough to hold her.

Terrified she might suffer even the smallest slight.

In that moment, something in my nose stung and I could barely hold it back, my eyes gone dry.

But who was there to cry for?

I shook my head, dragged myself up, and made my slow way downstairs against the wall to swallow a cold tablet.

Sleep was gone after that.

So I sat down beside my daughter and watched her little face.

Not long after, it vibrated again.

I picked it up. A message from Austin.

【Move out of the house tomorrow.】

【And take the little brat with you. A daughter is nothing but a money pit.】

Right after it, the bank's message came in: 【Ms. Summers, thirty million has been credited to your account.】

I looked at that string of zeros.

I covered my mouth and coughed several times, then said to my daughter, "Baby."

"I'm sorry. From now on it's just going to be the two of us."

"But thirty million is more than enough for you and me. I'll send you to the best schools, dress you up pretty, and never let anyone push you around."

"And I'll never let you become the kind of 'gold digger' they say I am."

At that very moment.

Janice sent a video.

There was Austin, a man who'd never so much as rinsed a dish, who'd never once set foot in a kitchen, standing at the stove and working a spatula.

"Janie."

"Go easy on the spice, no peppercorns, no cilantro, right?"

Listening to it broke something in me.

I'm allergic to mango.

Yet for my birthday once, Austin had gotten me a mango cake.

I don't eat garlic.

He always forgot that too when he ordered.

I used to think it was just work. That he was too busy to keep it in his head.

Only now did I understand. His whole mind was taken up remembering everything about Janice.

There was no room left for me, the third person.

I didn't reply. I dragged my worn-out body up to pack.

This home.

Let them have it.

The farther I took my daughter, the better.

Everyone said I was a greedy gold digger.

But this gold digger had no designer clothes in her closet, no name-brand bags.

No jewelry worth millions.

Only a single ring, the one that marked the mistress of the Farley household.

Janice, on the other hand.

While she was supposedly helping me chase Austin, she'd been quietly taking plenty of expensive gifts from him.

One bracelet alone was worth three million.

Bags packed.

I sat on the couch and waited for Austin.

If we were parting.

Then I'd be taking back the token that had sealed us together.