Chapter 3

Before I could even bring up the divorce, my son wrapped his arms around my leg.

He looked up at me, eyes brimming with tears.

"Mommy, please don't divorce Daddy, okay?"

"I don't want to be an orphan kid with no mom."

Nicholas had gotten one thing right.

Even if he set me free, I couldn't leave.

My parents depended on the Mortons.

And a boy couldn't be left without his mother.

But he'd miscalculated one thing.

That day, in my mother's hospital room, while they plotted out how to keep stringing me along, I was standing right outside the door.

Inside, my father was beaming, his face flushed with satisfaction.

"I kept up this fake debt for so long, of course she'll stay put and play the dutiful Morton daughter-in-law."

My mother chimed in. "And there's me too."

"I was never sick at all, forever camping out in a hospital bed. Have I ever complained?"

My son, sitting on Erica's lap, sounded downright resentful.

"I've always wanted Auntie to be my mom, obviously. Dad, why'd you make me pretend I couldn't bear to lose her?"

"Wouldn't it be better if you two just got divorced? Auntie's way better than Mom. She never nags me about anything."

"Grandma says so too. Mom's already a hen that can't lay eggs. Only Auntie can give me a little brother."

Outside the door, the pain in my chest was so sharp I could barely breathe.

Because of Nicholas cheating on me, again and again.

The Mortons had become a laughingstock in Shengjing's high society.

My mother-in-law blamed me for failing to hold onto my man, and made me kneel out in the snow one winter night in Shengjing.

An entire night.

I slipped into unconsciousness, and when I woke I had not only lost the baby just beginning to take shape inside me, I had lost the ability to ever bear a child again.

My parents nodded eagerly at his words and urged Nicholas on.

"Exactly. Son-in-law, why not make the switch? Lindsay was never as good as her sister growing up. She doesn't deserve the Mortons as they are now."

Nicholas said nothing.

He reached out, hooked his arm around Erica's neck, kissed her on the mouth, and drank her in greedily.

"Why would I switch?"

"Who else could ever be as spineless as Lindsay?"

"I give her a scrap of love, you put on your pitiful little act, and she swallows my cheating one time after another."

"A woman this stupid, you really couldn't find a second one."

I was pretty stupid, all right.

On the way back, I clutched the signed divorce papers, tears dripping down one after another.

But surely a person doesn't have to be stupid their whole life.

I picked up my phone and booked a flight out of the country three days from now.

And while I was at it, I posted the photos of Nicholas and Erica in bed online.

No fun keeping the joy to yourself.

Once that was done, I went and got my hair done and had a facial.

Everything at the mall I'd always liked but never let myself buy, I bought it all.

Only then did I go home to the Mortons, cheerful as could be.

The moment I stepped through the door, Hilda hurled a crystal cup straight at my face and split my forehead open.

The pain at my temple was so sharp it brought tears to my eyes.

Warm blood slid down and dripped onto the carpet beneath my feet.

She acted as if she hadn't seen a thing, holding Dean in her arms, glaring at me with pure venom.

"Look at what kind of mother you are. Dean went to school today without even a jacket. Are you trying to freeze my grandson to death?"

This was Dean's usual trick for framing me.

Faking a nightmare in the middle of the night, saying my daytime scolding had terrified him.

Refusing to eat on purpose, starving himself until he fainted, then telling Grandma I abused him.

Every time, it gave Hilda a reason to grind me down and teach me a lesson.

Whether it was a slap across the face or being forced to kneel.

Dean would just watch, grinning, and once in a while pipe up.

"Mommy, you're really so useless. Auntie would never be like this."

This time was nothing more than the same old trick.

When we left the house this morning, I'd put his jacket on him with my own two hands.