Chapter 1

When my husband was putting together back-to-school gifts for our daughter, he prepared two, as always.

One was a top-of-the-line computer he'd had to pull strings and wait nearly half a year to finally get his hands on.

The other was a palm-sized knockoff doll he'd bought from a roadside vendor—my daughter was long past the age of liking that kind of toy.

Thomas casually picked up the doll and handed it to his daughter, pretending to be even-handed.

"In Dad's eyes, Zoey, you'll always be my little girl."

Just as she was about to speak, he turned to Rachel, the daughter of his first love, Molly.

"Rachel, you'll need this computer once school starts."

"If you need anything else, just let your Uncle Thomas know."

I watched him ruffle Rachel's hair, and watched my daughter press her lips together and pick the doll up off the floor.

A stifling weight sat in my chest, neither rising nor sinking.

When I was hemorrhaging through a difficult labor at the hospital, he was staying at his first love's place, changing her baby's diapers.

While I was running all over town with our daughter to tour schools, he paid in full for a house in a top school district for Molly.

While I flipped through a sixty-dollar prep book helping our daughter choose which colleges to apply to, he paid a fortune for a professional application team for Molly's daughter.

I took the doll from my daughter's hand and patted the dust off its plastic skirt.

"Give both gifts to her. Zoey doesn't need them."

And I don't need this anymore either.

……

Thomas's raised lips froze.

"Ina, this kind of childish thing isn't right for Rachel anymore."

I looked calmly into his eyes.

"They're the same age. So it's right for my daughter?"

Thomas pinched the bridge of his nose and turned his gaze back to our daughter.

"Zoey, say it yourself—do you like it or not?"

Pinned by his stare, she took a step back, lowered her eyes, and didn't answer.

He was always like this—whenever a question was hard to answer, he tossed it to someone else.

He knit his brows, his voice dropping a notch.

"Stop being so timid and shrinking all the time, just like your mother—can't handle a big occasion."

Then Thomas took out his phone and opened his photo album.

"Look how beautifully Rachel is dressed. She even played the piano in front of thousands of people, without the slightest stage fright."

The pride in his eyes was practically overflowing.

It was something my daughter, in all her years, had never once been given.

Sure enough, the light in her eyes went completely dark.

And then a tangle of emotions rose up in me.

That day wasn't only Rachel's piano recital—it was also my daughter's coming-of-age celebration.

She was supposed to step happily into adulthood in the dazzling custom haute couture gown I'd had made for her.

But while I was doing our daughter's makeup, Thomas had taken the gown over to Molly's place.

I only found out when I saw the message he'd sent half an hour earlier.

The excitement in my daughter's eyes brimmed over with tears, and they wouldn't stop falling.

"Dad promised he'd come see me today…"

The not-so-pleasant piano music stopped, and my thoughts finally came back to me.

I stepped forward, put myself in front of my daughter, and cut off his line of sight.

"Thomas, let's get a divorce."

Thomas's brows, relaxed a moment ago while he was lost in the memory, suddenly drew together.

"Is that really necessary?"

"Ina, you've gotten pettier and pettier these past few years."

My daughter stepped forward and took my hand.

Seeing the sorrow in her eyes, I looked back at Thomas.

"Think whatever you want."

No matter how my daughter and I tried to explain ourselves.

In his mind, the two of us were always the ones in the wrong.

Rachel lowered her eyes, the picture of understanding, her tone carrying a hint of forbearance.

"Aunt Ina, I know you hold a deep prejudice against me and my mom."

"So this computer that Uncle Thomas bought especially for me—let Zoey have it."

She leaned hard on the word "especially."

And as she said it, she made to push the computer toward us, her face full of reluctance to part with it.

A large hand pressed down on the box, stopping her from handing the gift over.

Thomas held down his temper.

"Enough, Ina, don't push it too far!"

"It's just a back-to-school gift. I'll get your daughter a replacement, all right?"

The words had barely left his mouth when my daughter gently let go of my hand.

She buried her face in her hands and ran toward her room without looking back.

Thomas's hard jaw shifted, and he reached out, almost without thinking, in the direction she'd gone.

I waited for him to move, waited for him to take that one step toward our daughter.

But he hesitated.

Beside him, Rachel gave only a soft little sniff.

That one sound was enough to nail him in place.

Watching that fleeting flicker of reluctance in his eyes, I felt only how absurd it all was.

The man who, learning I was pregnant, had been too happy to sleep all night.

If he'd known back then that one day he'd treat his own flesh-and-blood daughter this coldly.

Would he have found it unbelievable?

I twitched the corners of my mouth, and just as I was about to speak—

A special ringtone sounded from his phone, and Molly's voice leaked out of the earpiece.

Thomas's brows smoothed out.

The girl on the sofa curved her lips and looked at me smugly.

I paid her no attention and turned to walk toward my daughter's room.

She had stuffed herself completely under the covers, not so much as a hem showing.

I didn't pull the blanket off. I just patted the mound of it.

"Zoey, after you finish registering for school, would you like to go abroad to visit Grandpa and Grandma?"