Chapter 3

I gave a cold laugh.

"Not leaving, huh? Fine."

I took out my phone and dialed building management directly.

"Hello, is this security? There's an old lady in my place who refuses to leave, and she brought in a pile of stinking garbage. Could you come up and deal with it?"

My mother-in-law's eyes went wide. She couldn't believe I'd actually dare to call security.

Marina rushed over and snatched the phone out of my hand.

"Adrian Fox, are you crazy! That's my mother!"

"Apologize to her right now!"

I stared at her without flinching.

"Why should I apologize?"

"She comes here with a pile of rotten vegetable scraps to disgust me, and I'm supposed to be grateful?"

"Marina, get this straight. My family paid the down payment on this house, and I'm the one paying the mortgage."

"This is my home, and she's not welcome here."

Mrs. Abbott was shaking with rage. She dropped down onto the floor and started throwing a fit.

"Marina, look at this! This is the fine man you married!"

"And he talks about being respectful! I'll be lucky if he doesn't drive me to my grave!"

Marina hurried to pull her mother up, then whipped around and screamed at me.

"Adrian Fox, you are going to get down on your knees and apologize to my mother today!"

"Otherwise this isn't over!"

I looked at Mrs. Abbott on the floor, then at Marina, her face full of anger.

The last flicker of hope in my heart died completely.

"Kneel and apologize? Dream on."

I turned, walked into the bedroom, and locked the door behind me.

No matter how they cursed me out there, I ignored them.

The farce outside went on for more than ten minutes.

It wasn't until the building security guard actually came up and knocked that Mrs. Abbott finally left with Marina, grumbling and cursing.

The place finally went quiet.

I came out of the bedroom, scooped the rotten vegetable scraps off the table along with the plastic bag, and threw them in the trash.

Then I started packing my things.

Since I was getting divorced, there were some things I needed to take with me first.

I opened the bottom drawer of the wardrobe and pulled out a box.

Inside were several gold bars I'd bought before the wedding, kept for a rainy day.

At the current price of gold, they had to be worth at least a hundred thousand.

But when I opened the box, it was completely empty.

My head buzzed.

No thief had broken into our home.

The only possibility was Marina.

I called her right away.

It rang for a long time before she finally picked up, her tone thoroughly annoyed.

"What do you want now? I'm out having dinner with my mom!"

"Where are the gold bars from my wardrobe?"

I got straight to the point.

There was a two-second silence on the other end.

"Sold them."

I was shaking with rage.

"Those were mine. How dare you take them and sell them without my permission!"

Marina didn't feel the least bit guilty. If anything, she was completely self-righteous.

"What do you mean 'yours' and 'mine'? Once you're married, it's all joint property!"

"My brother's about to get engaged, and the girl's family suddenly tacked on another hundred thousand in wedding gift money."

"My mom can't come up with that much. As his older sister, how could I just stand by and do nothing?"

I could hardly believe my ears.

"You give your mom thirty thousand every month—that's over seven hundred thousand in two years!"

"And now you're telling me she can't even come up with a hundred thousand?"

Marina argued like she had every right.

"What do you know? Nathaniel spends a lot when he's dating."

"A while back, to keep up appearances, he went and bought himself a nice car."

"The money in my mom's hands was gone long ago."

I gripped the phone, my fingers slowly tightening.

"So all that money you handed over to your parents out of devotion actually went straight into Nathaniel's pocket?"

"Seven hundred thousand isn't enough for him, and now you want to sell my things to fill his hole too?"

Marina flared up too.

"How can you talk like that? He's my own brother!"

"Besides, those gold bars are just sitting there anyway. What's wrong with taking them out to help the family?"

"Nathaniel's girlfriend comes from a family with money and power. If he marries into it, we'll all get to benefit later."

"A grown man like you, without even this much business sense—no wonder my mom says men like you are the most useless of all!"