Chapter 4

While she waited for the final confirmation documents, Hailey drove to the high end grocery store on the corner of Maple Street. She had shopped there every week for five years, always with a list Helen had written for her, always in a hurry, and always with a knot in her stomach about the total.

Today she walked in with her head up and her heels clicking against the polished floor. She pulled a big cart from the row by the door and started down the first aisle without checking a single price.

Water first, she thought, grabbing the biggest crates on the bottom shelf. Then rice, beans, oil, salt. Everything that lasts.

She loaded bulk crates of canned meat, dried fruit, and instant noodles until her cart was heaped to the top. She added water filters, thermal blankets, camping stoves, gas canisters, and three boxes of heavy duty batteries. A young stock boy stared at the mountain of supplies as she rolled past him, and she gave him a friendly wink.

"Planning a long weekend?" he asked, his eyes round.

"Something like that." Hailey smiled sweetly and pushed on. "A very long one."

At the register, the cashier ran the items through in stunned silence. When the total flashed on the screen, it was the size of a small car payment. Hailey slid her card across the counter without so much as a blink.

"Approved," the cashier whispered, and she looked up at Hailey as if seeing a stranger. "Ma'am, that's a lot of food."

"I like to be prepared," Hailey answered, tucking her card back into her wallet. "You never know when things might go wrong."

Near the exit, an older man in a dark uniform had stopped mid step, his mouth hanging open. It was Mr. Doyle, the security guard who had stood by these same doors for years. He had watched her come in every month with her phone in her hand, quietly sending money to Derek's family, always with the same tired look on her face.

He had never once seen her spend a cent on herself.

"Ms. Young?" he asked hesitantly, moving toward her. He glanced at the crates, then back at her face. "That's, uh, quite a haul. Everything all right? How's the family?"

Hailey stopped. For a moment she considered giving him the usual polite answer, the small smile, the quiet they're fine, thank you. Keeping the peace had been her whole life for years. It was a habit as old as her wedding ring.

Then she thought of the boat. She thought of Helen's laughing face, of Derek's arm around Jessie, and of the little hands that had pushed her into the water.

She lifted her chin and looked him straight in the eye.

"The family?" she repeated, her voice clear and carrying. "Oh, Mr. Doyle, I divorced the freeloading family. They can find someone else to sponsor them."

The old guard blinked. "You... what?"

"You heard me." Hailey shrugged lightly, and a cool smile curved her lips. "Five years of paying their bills, feeding their mother, and buying their pearls. I'm done. If they want a lifestyle that nice, they can go out and earn it."

A woman with a shopping basket froze beside the flower stand, her jaw dropping. Two men near the checkout lane turned their heads at the same time. Behind the counter, the cashier put a hand over her mouth.

"Goodness," Mr. Doyle murmured, glancing around nervously. "I'm so sorry to hear that, Ms. Young. I didn't mean to pry."

"You didn't." Hailey patted his arm with a friendly smile. "Honestly, it's a relief to say it out loud. Take care of yourself, Mr. Doyle."

She wheeled her cart out through the automatic doors, past a small crowd that had already begun to whisper behind her. She heard someone gasp. She heard someone else hiss, did you hear that? and she kept walking with her back straight and her steps light.

In the parking lot she opened her trunk, glanced around to make sure no one was watching, and laid her hand on the first crate.

Store, she thought.

The whole crate vanished. She moved to the next one, and the next, until the trunk was empty and the cart was clean. It took less than a minute, and a cool voice rang out inside her head.

[Major wealth acquisition detected. Bonus reward: Pocket space storage capacity increased by fifty percent. Public announcement event recorded: plus twenty points.]

Hailey slid into the driver's seat and shut the door. The black void bloomed wider in her mind, deep and quiet, like a room that had suddenly grown a second floor.

"Fifty percent," she murmured, tapping her fingers on the steering wheel. "Nice."

She smiled, but there was no warmth in it. Money was no longer a problem. It never would be again. And Derek would never touch a single cent of it.

Twenty minutes later, on the other side of town, Helen pulled into the parking lot of the same supermarket where she had shopped every week for years. She was in a bad mood, and her cheek still ached under a layer of powder. She swept through the doors in her good coat and grabbed a cart without looking at it.

She filled it in her usual way, fast and careless. Imported cheese, fresh salmon, a bottle of expensive wine, a box of chocolates she did not need, and three bags of the fancy coffee Jessie liked. She hummed under her breath as she went, sure that everything would go on Hailey's card as always.

At the register, she piled it all on the belt and gave the cashier a tight smile. "Put it on the card, dear."

"Of course, Mrs. Klein." The girl scanned the last item and held out the reader. Helen pulled the little plastic card from her purse and tapped it against the screen.

Beep. Beep. Beep.

The cashier frowned at the display. "I'm sorry, Mrs. Klein. It says declined."

"Declined?" Helen scoffed, waving one hand. "That's ridiculous. Try it again."

The girl tried again. The machine gave the same flat little beep.

"I'm sorry," the cashier said, lowering her voice and glancing at the line building up behind Helen. "The system says this account has been closed."

"Closed?" Helen's voice cracked and shot up, and heads turned. "That's impossible! That's my daughter in law's card, and she has plenty of money. Check it again!"

"Ma'am, I've checked it three times." The cashier's cheeks turned pink, and she shifted her weight nervously. "Would you like to use a different card?"

"I don't have a different card!" Helen snapped, and then she realized how loud she had been. Her face began to burn.

There were at least eight people waiting behind her now. Two women in yoga clothes. An old man leaning on a cane. A young mother holding a baby on her hip. Helen could feel every one of their eyes on her back.

"Is there a problem, Helen?" one of the women asked sweetly. Helen recognized her from the building next door, a nosy woman named Patricia who never missed a piece of gossip.

"No problem at all," Helen answered stiffly, lifting her chin. "There's just been a small mistake with the card."

Patricia's lips curled. She leaned closer to her friend and did not bother to whisper. "Oh, honey, it's not a mistake. Didn't you hear? Hailey is already telling people she divorced the freeloaders."

The words landed like a slap. Helen went rigid, and the color drained from her face and then came rushing back, hot and red.

"What did you say?" she demanded, her voice shaking.

"I said Hailey was in here not an hour ago," Patricia replied, batting her lashes with an innocent look. "She told Mr. Doyle at the door, loud as anything, that she got rid of the freeloading family. Said they could find someone else to sponsor them. I assumed you already knew."

"That's a lie!" Helen hissed, though her hands were trembling against the edge of the counter. "She would never say something like that."

"Well, she certainly did," the young mother chimed in, bouncing her baby with a pitying frown. "I heard it myself."

Somebody snickered near the back of the line. The old man with the cane cleared his throat and looked away. The cashier stared at the floor as if she wished she could disappear.

"Ma'am," the girl whispered miserably, "would you like me to set your things aside?"

Helen opened her mouth, and nothing came out. Her ears were roaring and her lips had gone numb. Every neighbor she had ever bragged to about her wonderful daughter in law was standing within ten feet of her, watching her stand there with an empty card and a cart full of food she could not buy.

"Keep it," she choked out. "I don't want any of it."

She shoved the cart away so hard it slammed into the counter, and the bottle of wine rattled inside. Then she turned and walked out on stiff legs with her head down and her purse clutched to her chest, while Patricia's voice floated after her, sweet as poison.

"Bye now, Helen! Give Derek our best!"

The doors slid shut behind her. Helen half ran across the parking lot with her ears burning and her breath coming in short, ugly bursts. She yanked open the car door, dropped into the seat, and slammed it so hard the whole frame shook.

By the time she reached the car, the full rumor had already spread: Hailey was rich, Hailey had cut them off, and Hailey had called the Klein family freeloaders in public.