Chapter 4

4: 4

Two a.m., the emergency room at downtown General.

The doctor used tweezers to pull the shards of glass out of my palm, one piece at a time.

"Severe dislocation of the right wrist joint."

He studied the X-ray, his brow drawn tight.

"You won't be able to carry anything heavy with this hand from now on. And your range of motion will be badly affected."

I looked at my right hand, wrapped into a lump of white gauze, my eyes dry and aching.

"It doesn't matter, doctor."

My voice was hoarse.

"I probably won't need to work my fingers so hard on a keyboard anymore."

After I left the hospital, I stood in the cold wind by the street.

Once I had the money, I went alone to the cemetery and handled every part of Grandma's funeral.

I watched them lower Grandma's urn into the grave.

"Grandma, from now on Monnie only has herself."

"Watch from up there, and see how I settle the score for you."

Just then, the phone in my pocket started to buzz.

I pressed answer and, without thinking, started the recorder.

"Monica, where are you? You've been making a scene all night. Have you calmed down yet?"

I said nothing, listening to the steady beep of a machine on the other end of the line.

"Rosamond had a terrible scare last night. The doctor says she has to stay in a VIP room to save the pregnancy."

Adam's voice was full of blame for me.

"I already put your twenty thousand down as her hospital deposit."

"Don't be so ungrateful. Rosamond is a poor woman who got abandoned."

"As her good buddy, was I supposed to just stand by and watch her suffer?"

I listened to his lies, and a mocking curl came to the corner of my mouth.

When I stayed silent, Adam only got more impatient.

"All you have to do is bring some nutritional supplements to the hospital and apologize to Rosamond."

"The money for Grandma's grave, I'll borrow five thousand from a buddy and cover it for you first."

"Adam."

I finally spoke, my voice calm.

"Grandma is already buried."

The line went noticeably still.

"Where did you get the money?"

"That's not something you need to worry about."

I gently ran my hand over Grandma's headstone.

"You take good care of Rosamond Fox and her twins. Whatever you do, don't leave that hospital."

With that I hung up and dropped his number straight into the blocked list.

Back at the apartment.

I packed up everything that belonged to me and shipped it out.

Before I left, I stood in the empty living room.

Sunlight slanted through the floor-to-ceiling windows, sharp and glaring.

Last night's surveillance footage. The recording of Adam and Rosamond's affair and that ultrasound. The severe injury report from the ER. And the screenshots of Adam's mother posting from her vacation in Miami.

I put it all together into one complete post.

The title I kept simple:

《My boyfriend of five years crippled my hand for his mistress's twins, and stole my grandmother's burial money.》

I pressed send.

As a web novelist with hundreds of thousands of followers.

The moment my post went out.

It was bound to set off a tidal wave online.

I tossed the apartment keys onto the bloodstained coffee table and turned to pull open the front door.

"Goodbye, Adam."