Chapter 3

Tim probably thought I was just throwing a tantrum.

When he realized I'd blocked him everywhere, he started sending messages through our mutual friends.

"Denise, are you done acting out?"

"So you caught me with Lisa. Is that really worth disappearing over?"

"Fine, I admit I was wrong. Happy? Now hurry up and add me back."

"Keep this up and I'll come to your place and find you!"

I didn't reply to a single one.

When he couldn't reach me, he started calling my parents.

All they knew was that Tim and I were dating, and they'd thought well enough of him.

When the call came, they figured we'd just had a fight.

"Denise, honey, Tim says he can't get hold of you. He's beside himself."

"You young people, is there anything you can't just talk through? Why would you block him?"

I told my mother calmly.

"Mom, we broke up."

"If he calls again, don't answer."

She kept trying to talk me around, so I just hung up.

I knew they'd worry, but I didn't have the strength to explain right now.

Tim's patience ran out fast.

His texts went from demanding answers to threats.

"Denise, I'm warning you, don't try to pull this with me."

"You think I can't live without you? Plenty of women are after me!"

"You've got three days. Crawl back here and apologize, or we're finished for good!"

I looked at those texts and felt nothing.

Finished for good?

We were finished a long time ago.

The moment he held Lisa in his arms and called me a "block of wood," it was finished.

On the third day, the police came for Tim.

When they took him into the station on suspicion of fraud, he was completely stunned.

"Officer, isn't there some mistake?"

"Denise and I are a couple. This was just normal money moving between partners."

The officer laid out the chat logs and transfer records I'd provided.

"Tim James, when Ms. Denise Pruitt transferred two hundred thousand to you, you stated clearly in the chat that the money was for an investment in the 'Riverside Avenue property project in Cloud City.'"

"But according to our investigation, that project does not exist."

"And you have a large purchase record, from a designer store, for goods bought for a woman with the surname Fox."

"This already constitutes fraud."

The color drained from Tim's face.

Only then did it hit him that I wasn't joking.

I really was pressing charges.

He panicked.

He started calling me, and when he couldn't get through, he switched numbers and called again.

I didn't answer a single one.

The moment he was released on bail, the first thing he did was go find Lisa.

He thought she'd stick with him and help figure something out.

He rushed to her place, only to find it empty.

Her phone was off, and she'd blocked him on WeChat too.

He checked the bank account holding my two hundred thousand. Balance: zero.

Lisa had taken his money and run.

The fact left Tim's mind a blank.

He started looking for me everywhere.

He knew that now, only I could save him.

If I dropped the charges, he'd be in the clear.

He got on a train to my town, and for the first time it wasn't me going to him.

He rushed to my house, and my parents blocked the door.

"Please, please let me see Denise!"

"I was wrong, I really was wrong!"

"I'm done with Lisa. Denise is the only one I love!"

He frightened my parents, but they held their ground at the door.

"Tim, just go. Denise doesn't want to see you."

"Where is she? Tell me where she is!"

He knelt at my door and cried.

The neighbors all came out to watch, pointing and whispering.

"Isn't that the boyfriend of the Pruitt girl? Heard he works in the big city."

"Tsk, tsk. Down on his knees crying like that, he must've done something to wrong her."

Tim didn't care.

He had only one thought: find me, beg me to forgive him.

He went to the library to look for me.

Abigail stopped him.

"So you're Tim?"

She looked him up and down, contempt all over her face.

"What are you here for? Denise doesn't want to see you."

"Abigail, I'm begging you, just tell me where she is."

Tim's voice was hoarse, his eyes shot through with red.

"I can't lose her. If I go to prison, my whole life is ruined!"

Abigail let out a cold laugh.

"Ruined? When you were ruining Denise, did it ever cross your mind it might come to this?"

"Do you have any idea what she's become because of you?"

Tim froze, looking at Abigail without understanding.

"She… what happened to her?"

Abigail looked at him and said it word by word.

"Denise has been hospitalized."