Chapter 3

When I got up that morning, my car key was gone.

There was a note on the table:

【Julian's going out to close a big deal. Borrowing your car.】

Not even a heads-up. She'd just taken something of mine and handed it over to prop up some other man's image.

On whose say-so? I didn't hesitate. I called the police.

Then I dropped the note in the trash, phoned a moving company, and had everything hauled out.

An hour later, my phone buzzed with a vehicle alert. My car had taken serious body damage.

I checked the location and went with an officer to wait at the garage entrance before they got back.

Half an hour later, Rosalind and Julian climbed out of the car.

"That junk car of yours is a real pain in the ass to drive!" Julian kicked the tire, cursing.

"No power, no handling, nothing!"

"You could beg me to drive it later and I still wouldn't!"

I walked over and looked it over carefully.

There was a deep gouge down the right side, all the way through to the bare metal, and the front bumper was caved in.

"Who hit the car?" My voice was ice.

"Backed up without looking. Just scraped it a little." Julian said it like it was nothing.

"Repairs are three thousand. Send it to me."

I pulled out my phone and shoved my payment code right in his face.

"That junker of yours wouldn't even sell for much! Why bother fixing it!"

"Just scrap it while you can!"

Julian saw me holding up the payment code without moving and let out a snort.

"You steal a car now?"

The officer beside me spoke up out of nowhere.

Julian went blank for a second.

"You actually called the cops over something this small?"

I gave an indifferent shrug.

"Did you get my okay before driving my car? No okay, that's stealing, isn't it?"

Julian ground his teeth.

"Babe, just send him the money. From now on you don't drive some poor man's car and pick up his cheap stink."

"A car like this rents for fifty bucks a day at any lot, and that includes the scratch coverage!"

Rosalind rolled her eyes and jumped in.

"Milton, you're really making a mountain out of a molehill! Calling the police over this? It's your own busted mirror that made Julian scrape it in the first place!"

"One little scratch and it's three thousand? Who do you think you're playing for a fool?"

Rosalind dug two hundred bucks out of her pocket and flung it on the ground like she was tossing coins to a beggar.

"Two hundred. That's a day's rental on your car. That covers it, right?"

"Pick it up and get lost!"

Rosalind grabbed Julian's arm, and the two of them strutted off.

I didn't pick up the money on the ground.

Looking at the car that had been with me for five years, I couldn't help a bitter laugh.

I'd bought this car for Rosalind.

Fresh out of college, she hated cramming onto the bus and said it wasn't safe coming home late from work.

Back then I was working three jobs at once.

Up before dawn frying dough at a breakfast joint, out doing sales all day, bussing plates at a barbecue stand at night, hauling rebar at a construction site on weekends.

I wore through several pairs of gloves. The blisters on my fingers rose and healed and rose again.

Nine whole months of saving, and I finally bought that little runabout.

Now it wasn't worth mentioning.

I took out my phone and called the used-car lot.

"Come tow this away and sell it. The sooner the better."

Let it vanish from my life, along with all these memories.

At work, I was going over spreadsheets in my office when a message from Rosalind came in.

It was a video of her and Julian.

The background was the BMW dealership. The two of them stood in front of a brand-new BMW 7 Series, gazing sweetly at each other.

Julian had an arm around her waist. "Babe, this is the car a CEO pulling ten million a year should be driving!"

"You'll never have to sit in Milton's junk heap again, the one you can't even sit up straight in!"

Rosalind flashed a taunting smile at the camera. "See that, Milton? That's what having vision looks like."

I quietly turned off the phone.

Rosalind had already changed.