Chapter 4

John didn't come home all night, just as I expected.

Early the next morning I took a cab straight to the hospital for the abortion.

The doctor looked at me, surprised.

“You're at a good age to have a child. Are you sure you want to end it?”

“A miscarriage is hard on the body……”

The doctor tried her best to talk me out of it, to get me to keep the baby.

“I'm sure.”

I gave a bitter little smile. “He was never supposed to happen anyway.”

Mom and Dad were getting divorced. Dad was going to be someone else's dad.

And Mom was heading toward a whole new future.

He shouldn't come.

After I came out of the operating room, I went straight to the old Sanchez estate to find Cindy Sanchez.

“We've already signed the divorce papers. Please let me go, Grandma.”

“You promised me back then. If this marriage ended, no matter whether it was because our feelings broke down.”

“As long as it was John who asked for it, you'd give me another sum of money.”

Cindy sighed, again and again.

“I tried so hard to keep the two of you together.”

“I never thought you'd still end up here.”

What I wanted to say was that you can't force a thing that isn't meant to be.

His heart had never been with me.

Even if he played the good husband where everyone could see, that fact didn't change.

After all my coaxing, the old woman finally gave in.

“All right. Take this five million as compensation for these five years.”

“April, you're a good girl. I truly loved having you as my grandson's wife.”

I took the card. “Thank you, Grandma.”

“I loved you too. We just weren't meant to be.”

Cindy looked at me, reluctant to let go.

“Are you really leaving this afternoon? There's a family dinner later. Why not stay and eat first?”

“No, Grandma.”

I refused politely. “In another city, someone's waiting for me.”

I had just turned to go when John arrived with Yolanda and her daughter.

His face went furious the moment he saw me. “April Finch, you followed me here.”

I had no intention of explaining. I just noticed how glaringly the earrings on Yolanda stood out.

Those earrings were worth two million.

I'd seen them long ago on the vanity, sitting there for a whole year.

More than once I had actually believed John had come to feel something for me.

That he meant to give them to me on our wedding anniversary.

Who would have thought that, after all the going around, Yolanda got them the moment she came back to the country.

It was true after all. You shouldn't set your heart on things that aren't yours.

“Nice earrings.”

I turned and smiled at Yolanda.

“Miss Reyes, I didn't follow anyone. I only came to say goodbye to Grandma.”

“I'm leaving now. I wish you both happiness.”

Sensing the awkwardness, Yolanda quickly had the baby in her arms call out to Grandma.

The moment Cindy saw Yolanda her face soured. “A perfectly fine man, turned inside out by this little schemer until he's lost every scrap of sense.”

“A good family dinner, and you bring someone like this? What bad luck.”

John's tone turned humble as he pleaded with Cindy to accept her.

“Grandma, Yola did nothing wrong back then.”

“She wasn't two-timing anyone. She was tricked by that man too, tricked into going abroad to have the child.”

“Now she knows she was wrong, and she's willing to come back to me.”

“For the sake of your grandson, just accept her, all right?”

Cindy gave me a pitying look.

“A wife this good, and he throws her away, all for a little schemer.”

John did turn to look at me, but his eyes were frighteningly cold.

“April Finch, putting on this big show of grace, then running off behind my back to badmouth me to Grandma?”

“We've already signed the divorce papers. What are you still doing here? Get out.”

Every extra second I stayed would be an insult to the five million on that card.

So I left without looking back.

Walking out of the old Sanchez estate, I felt nothing but lightness.

I pulled out my phone and sent Rolf a message.

“Was that location you sent me yesterday accurate?”

“It's accurate.”

A pause, then another message popped up.

“Snowy, you said you were coming to me. Is that true?”

“When I heard you were coming, I couldn't sleep all night. I kept worrying you were only joking with me……”

“It's true.”

I smiled and gripped the plane ticket in my hand, going to Rolf.

To another city.

Toward the future that belongs to us.