Chapter 3

"What?"

"Not divorce her?"

"But she doesn't love me anymore."

"All she sees is money and Mom and Dad's house."

"I can't keep living with her."

"I feel like I'm going to lose my mind!"

I looked at my brother, his face twisted with pain and already close to tears again.

I pulled out a tissue and handed it to him.

"You're a grown man. Stop crying at every little thing."

"Do tears solve anything?"

He blinked. "But I... I really don't have a way out."

"You don't. I do."

His eyes lit up, and he asked in a rush, "Sis, what's your plan?"

"First, call her and tell her to come home."

"I'll help you with this."

"And remember."

"No more trying to kill yourself over things like this. Do you know how hard Mom and Dad worked to raise you?"

"If something happened to you, what would they do?"

He hung his head, guilt all over his face.

"Sis, I'm sorry. I just couldn't see a way through."

"That's why I..."

I patted his head. "Enough. You've got a big-shot lawyer for a sister, and when something like this happens, you don't come to me. You just swallow it and eat the loss in silence."

"A setback teaches you something. Call this one a lesson bought and paid for."

He nodded hard.

Then, at my signal, he dialed Mia.

The second he switched to speaker, she picked up.

"Come to your senses yet?"

"Honey, come home for a bit."

"I asked if you've come to your senses."

"Yeah."

At his answer.

Mia laughed on the other end.

"Smart of you. Wait there, I'll be over soon."

The call hadn't ended yet.

And I caught the faint sound of a man's voice beside her.

"Baby, your skin is so smooth."

"Stop it, Everard can hear."

"Tch, so what if he does?"

"He's a useless piece of trash."

"If he weren't still worth something to us."

"I'd have kicked him to the curb ages ago."

Then the sound cut off.

Because Mia hung up.

His eyes went red, his whole body shaking. "Sis, you heard it. That man is the one Mia's cheating with. The truth is... he's met with me a few times."

"Met you for what?"

"He said he'd leave Mia, as long as I paid him."

"And you paid?"

"Yeah."

"How many times? How much?"

"Three times. Eighty thousand total!"

I pressed a hand to my forehead, at a loss for words.

His own sister was a top lawyer.

And he let someone threaten him and didn't dare say a word.

It would be a lie to say I wasn't angry.

But he'd already been through enough.

I was afraid that if I scolded him, it would bring back the tragedy of my last life.

So I forced the anger down.

And smiled as I comforted him. "Don't worry. Whatever he took, I'll make him cough it back tenfold, a hundredfold!"