Chapter 2

I thought I'd hidden it well—I never imagined she'd spotted me long ago.

But I didn't understand what she meant by it.

She didn't expose me, and she even warned me to stay quiet.

Just now I'd been blinded by anger.

Thinking it over now, storming in would only have tipped them off.

In the end I decided to go home first.

On the way, I thought about how even if I sold the store, I'd still owe over a million.

Not to mention the safety accident at the construction site.

Someone had even lost their life over it.

I'd originally thought I was the one who'd brought in the substandard wire.

I'd chalked it up to bad luck and accepted the compensation and the penalty.

Now that I knew the truth, there was no way I could keep sitting still and waiting to die.

The moment I got home, the debt-collection calls started coming, one after another.

I took the cursing like a whipped dog.

"Thomas Delgado, you're a goddamn fraud!"

"You actually used cheap wire? Did the dogs eat your conscience?!"

"If you can't afford to pay, just wait to rot in prison!"

I gripped my phone tight and apologized over and over.

"I'm sorry. I'll pay it back, I swear."

"Give me a little more time, please don't sue me."

After the call ended, I slumped onto the sofa.

The debt collectors, the people demanding money, the ones cursing me—it kept up until evening.

Violet came home as usual.

The moment the door opened, she called out to me sweetly.

"Honey, I'm home."

She changed her shoes and came over to sit beside me.

"Don't worry, you've got me."

"I'll get through this hard time right along with you."

Then she went straight to the kitchen.

Before, I would have been touched.

I would have thought I'd married a good wife.

Now all I felt was disgust, and more disgust.

She spent half an hour in the kitchen, then carried out a bowl of steaming soup.

"Honey, drink up."

"I heard it's good for that, you know—maybe it'll help us get pregnant."

I looked at the soup in the bowl and sneered inside.

That same line.

Over the past three years, I'd heard it countless times.

Every time I drank every last drop. Now it just made my whole body go cold.

I moved my eyes off the soup.

"I don't feel like drinking it today."

Violet's eye twitched.

"Honey, don't be so negative."

"I know you're under a lot of pressure, but your health comes first."

"Drink it—maybe then we'll have a baby."

She nudged the bowl toward me again.

I stared into her eyes.

Those eyes—gentle enough to fool anyone.

So I pushed the bowl away again.

"I said I don't feel like drinking it today."

The smile on her face froze.

Then she demanded, "Thomas Delgado, what exactly are you trying to do?"

"It was just a mistake, wasn't it?"

"Who doesn't slip up now and then?"

I leaned back against the sofa and gave a small laugh.

"Right, nobody's perfect."

"But the truth is, this really was because of me."

Her gaze flickered for a moment, then quickly settled.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Are you saying I was the one who stuck that cheap wire on your site?"

I didn't say anything. I just looked at her.

She grew uneasy under my stare.

"I'm warning you—don't get pushed around out there and then come home and take it out on me."

"I make you soup out of kindness, and this is the face you give me?"

I asked her flatly.

"If it's so useful, why don't you drink it?"

She stammered.

"I'm a woman, it wouldn't do anything for me."

"Besides, the ingredients in this soup aren't cheap—we can't waste them."

Was she afraid of waste, or afraid of problems?

I'd known the answer for a long time.

I pushed the bowl aside and got ready to stand and go rest in the room.

Her expression changed.

"Thomas Delgado, don't be ungrateful!"

She grabbed my arm. "Are you drinking it or not?"

I stopped, and said the same thing again.

"As long as you'll drink it, I'll drink it."

I stared straight at her.

She started to panic, then suddenly slammed the bowl onto the floor and screamed.

"Then nobody drinks it!"

The porcelain burst apart, soup splashing all over the floor.

She stormed off to the room. "Don't even think about touching me tonight!"

I looked at the shards on the floor.

The soup was still steaming, but my heart was going cold, bit by bit.

Just as I was about to bend down and clean it up, my phone rang again.

I thought it was another debt-collection call.

I picked it up and saw it was a court summons.

The construction company I'd recently worked with.

They had formally charged me with causing a safety accident.