Chapter 4

4: 4

4.

I carried the baby up to the inpatient ward on my own.

The nurse reminded me to settle the bill.

I tried again and again, and every payment failed.

Then my phone lit up with an alert.

"Your bank card has been suspended."

Behind me, the people in line clicked their tongues, impatient.

I dug through my whole bag and came up with only a few dollars in loose change.

Natalie had just fronted the money for the supermarket damages.

I couldn't bring myself to ask her for anything more, so I called Thaddeus.

More than a dozen calls, and no one picked up.

All I got was one cold reply.

"Once you've thought it through, come back and apologize to Jade."

"Apologize, and the card will work again."

I stared at the screen, cold all over.

Earlier, when I'd left the hospital room, Thaddeus had taken half a step after me.

He'd looked at the baby's little hand, bruised purple from the needle, and for a second something like pain crossed his eyes.

But in the end, he'd stopped.

Because of Jade.

Because he wasn't willing to let Jade feel slighted.

So this was his way of forcing me to bow my head.

The payment window prompted me again.

I looked down at my ring finger.

And in the end, I slid off the wedding ring.

A ring that had cost over ten thousand sold for two thousand three hundred.

The clerk asked me again and again, "Once we take it back, there's no getting it returned. Are you sure?"

I looked at the pale band of skin around the base of my finger and gave a small nod.

I used the money from the ring to pay the medical bill, then bought a plane ticket home.

A few hundred dollars left in the account.

But it was the first time in all these years that I'd truly held money that was mine.

I wanted to go back and pack a few clothes.

But the key wouldn't go into the lock no matter how I tried.

My fingerprint didn't work either.

I knocked for a long time, and the door finally opened.

Jade stood behind Thaddeus, wearing my slippers.

"You're finally back."

Her tone was easy, as if she were the real mistress of this home.

Thaddeus glanced at the baby in my arms, and his face softened a good deal.

His hand even lifted without his meaning it to.

But he looked at Jade beside him, and his face went cold again as he lowered it.

"You can come in. Apologize to Jade first."

I stood there for a few seconds.

"This is my home."

"Oh, so you still remember it's a home?"

Thaddeus blocked the doorway, his expression strange.

"If you do, then stop throwing divorce at me every chance you get."

"For the sake of how you've cared for the baby, bow your head today and we'll call it over."

I'd picked out every piece of furniture in this place myself.

In the kitchen there was still a bottle I hadn't had time to wash.

And now, to walk into my own home, I had to apologize to the woman who'd taken it over.

"Never mind."

I took the printed divorce papers out of my bag and set them down at the door.

I laid that key, the one that would never open the door again, gently on top to hold them in place.

"It's not like I planned to come back to this home anyway."

Thaddeus froze.

The pity in his eyes turned to pure impatience.

"Celine, what more do you want?"

"It's just an apology, it's not some huge deal. Why do you have to be so stubborn about it?"

I didn't answer him.

Holding the baby, I walked alone toward the elevator.

And then, in the very moment I stepped into it,

a sudden crash came from behind me.