Chapter 4

A month slipped by before I knew it.

For a whole month I didn't call Isaac once.

Without his three thousand a month in household money, I was living better than ever, running up online loans and swiping credit cards.

Even at my next hospital checkup, the doctor said the cancer cells were slowly shrinking, and that as long as I took my medicine on schedule, my body would keep recovering.

I was so happy I nearly cried.

And then I couldn't help myself, so I swiped my card again and rewarded myself with a big gold bracelet.

I was still riding that high when Isaac, who'd been gone for over a month, came home.

Our daughter was in the middle of eating. She dropped the chicken leg in her hand and darted behind me.

I soothed her softly, pulled out a wet wipe, and cleaned her little hands and mouth.

“Coco, take your learning tablet and go to your room, okay? Mommy will tell you a story tonight.”

She didn't hesitate at all and went straight to her bedroom.

She was only three, but she knew perfectly well whether her father was good to her or not.

“Looks like you've been squirreling away plenty of money behind my back all these years. Eating pretty well tonight, aren't you?”

“In that case, sign this.”

He pulled a contract in duplicate out of his bag, and when I saw what was on it, I nearly dumped the food on the table into his face.

“What is this? You want me to pay rent?”

“I damn well married you, I've lived in our own marital home for four years, and now you want me to pay rent?”

“Fifteen hundred a month in rent, plus another fifteen hundred for household expenses. Isaac, did you get kicked in the head?”

“You want money, there's none. You want my life, there's even less of that. If you're not afraid of the embarrassment, I'll post this agreement online and let people judge for themselves.”

The two copies I'd been holding were snatched right back out of my hands.

He narrowed his eyes and looked me over, giving nothing away.

“Dorothy, who taught you to act like this? We're husband and wife, one and the same. What good does it do you to ruin me?”

“The company's been so hard to keep running lately. I've been under so much pressure I've slept at the office for over a month, and you couldn't spare me a single kind word!”

“Since you've still got money on hand, from now on I won't be transferring you any household money. Coco's school fees are on you too.”

He said it staring straight at me. I knew he was waiting for me to blow up, to demand answers.

Instead, I just calmly kept eating.

These days I couldn't be bothered to deal with him, and I certainly wasn't going to agree to anything he said.

Isaac waited a long while, then slammed the door and left again.

I rolled my eyes at his back.

I'd already dug up the truth over the past month. His company wasn't failing to make money like he claimed. It was making a fortune.

Last year alone it cleared hundreds of millions in profit, and he was clutching every cent of it, saving it for his woman on the side and her child, while still handing me only three thousand a month.

Just thinking about it made my blood boil.

But as long as we weren't divorced, he was legally obligated to pay off the loans I ran up.

The moment that crossed my mind, I couldn't eat another bite.

That same night I maxed out every loan on every app.

With that money, I built my parents a little house back in their hometown.

I bought a big three-bedroom in the city too and put it in their names.

The rest I turned into gold and quietly stashed away.

And so I kept robbing Peter to pay Paul, covering the minimum payment every month, and so far Isaac hadn't noticed a thing.

Not that he ever came home!

I took my medicine on time and cooperated fully with my treatment, and at last, at my next follow-up, the doctor told me the cancer cells in my body were under control.

In that instant, I wept with joy.

Right then my phone rang, and the second I answered, Isaac's furious roar came through.

“Dorothy, what the hell have you done behind my back!!!”