Chapter 4

When Yvonne arrived at my house, she complained that the narrow, winding streets in my neighborhood had scratched up her newly serviced car.

"I told you not to bring your fancy cars here."

The rundown neighborhood roads were a maze, with electric scooters parked everywhere.

When Jason first moved in, he could never find his way around. He insisted on waiting for me outside the neighborhood entrance when I finished work in the morning.

More often than not, I'd find him miserably standing under a streetlight—getting eaten alive by mosquitoes—and have to lead him home after he'd gotten lost trying to find the entrance.

"This is the crappiest car I own."

Yvonne rolled her eyes and tapped the partition of the Mercedes, signaling the driver to pull away. "Has Jason never taken you anywhere in a car?"

She leaned over curiously and helped me pull out the seatbelt I'd been struggling to find.

I pressed my lips together and said nothing.

I was saving every penny I earned to pay for my education, so I couldn't afford to waste money on cabs.

When I was with Jason, I always rode behind him on his beat-up scooter, which had barely functioning brakes.

At first, he could hardly keep it straight. But the more he rode, the more confident he became. He started twisting the throttle a little harder.

The hot summer wind whipped against my face as I clung to his T-shirt around his waist. I'd lean forward and kiss his cheek whenever he turned his smiling face toward me.

That was when I felt closest to him.

"Do you know what people say about you?" Yvonne asked. "They say you're the easiest and cheapest girlfriend Jason has ever had. Before you, he used to spend three million a month on women. Even then, that wasn't enough.

"Ever since you two got together, he's saved enough money to buy three companies."

She turned to me with a serious look. "Has he ever given you money in the three years you've been together?"

"He has." I absently rested my hand on my stomach. "The most he's ever given me was 800."

That was in our second year together.

Jason hadn't lost interest in me as Lilian had predicted. If anything, he seemed to care about me more as time went on.

He even spent his days off handing out flyers with me under the scorching sun. His arms got so badly sunburned that his skin started peeling. Still, he grinned and handed me the only bottle of cold water.

One day, I fainted from low blood sugar and ended up in the hospital. That was when I found out that I was pregnant.

Still in a daze, I watched the doctor slide a bill across the desk.

"You'll need to pay the deposit to register for prenatal care."

The $3,000 deposit stood out in stark black print.

I called Jason.

"What's wrong, love?" he asked with an amused chuckle.

He was probably playing poker as I could hear chips clinking in the background, followed by someone casually calling out, "20,000 dollars."

"I'm at the hospital," I rasped, overcome by sudden pain.

"What's wrong?" he replied, his tone growing tense. "Are you sick?"

"Not exactly," I sniffled. "Jason, could you send me 3,000 dollars?"

He went quiet for a moment. Then, I heard the rustle of clothing.

When he spoke up again, he sounded anxious and slightly out of breath. "Riley, did you see me somewhere today?"

I froze, then realization hit me. He thought I'd seen him behaving like the rich heir he was and that I was asking for money to test him.

I chuckled and closed my eyes. "I haven't seen you today."

"Then why are you suddenly asking me for money?" he muttered.

"Let me check how much I have left. I'll give you whatever I can tonight, okay?"

"Forget it."

I pressed a hand against my icy chest and hung up.

Then, I returned to the doctor's office.

"What are the cheapest abortion pills you offer?"

That day, I paid 800 dollars for an abortion.

I spent the next three hours writhing in pain and drenched in sweat.

When the nurse came to help me afterward, she sighed and said, "Thank goodness the abortion was complete. If it hadn't been, you might have needed a procedure to remove the remaining tissue."

I smiled and wiped away the tears at the corners of my eyes.

"Guess I got lucky, then."

When I got home that evening, Jason took one look at my pale face and froze.

"Riley, were you really sick?"

He dropped to one knee in front of me. His hands trembled slightly as he asked, "Is it serious? What did the doctor say?"

For a moment, I thought that if I told him the truth, he would finally be honest with me.

But I didn't want his honesty anymore.

I wrapped my arms around my aching stomach and curled into a ball. "I'm fine now."

"That's a relief," he sighed before reaching into his pocket for something. "This is how much I've earned recently. I borrowed a little from my friends, too."

He couldn't even look me in the eye. "Here… take it."

I lowered my gaze.

In his hands was a crumpled wad of bills.

There were exactly 800 dollars.