Chapter 2

Mark's decisiveness gave me tremendous confidence.

After reporting everything to the police, I immediately moved Noelle into a private maternity hospital with tight security and checked her into a VIP room to prevent Mom and Emmett from doing anything desperate.

Once I settled Noelle into the room, I sat in the hallway outside and pulled out my phone. I opened my banking app and found the family credit card under Emmett's name with a 100,000-dollar credit limit.

I suspended it and froze the account.

Next, I opened the mortgage payment account for the house back in our hometown.

I had paid the entire down payment for that house myself, but the deed was in Emmett's name. For the past three years, the 6,000-dollar monthly mortgage payment had been automatically deducted from my payroll account.

I canceled the automatic payments and unlinked the account.

What Mom had said on the phone reminded me just how many years I had spent being this family's cash cow. And now, I didn't want to be one anymore.

After I'd taken care of everything, I leaned back in my chair.

Inside the hospital room, Fiona was feeding Noelle a bowl of soup, while Mark carefully checked through the baby's supplies at the foot of the bed.

Suddenly, my mind drifted back to my wedding day.

When Noelle and I got married, Mom refused to contribute a single cent. She'd claimed that the family needed to save money so Emmett could get married someday.

Not only that, she even shamelessly demanded that Noelle's family give her a 300,000-dollar wedding gift so that it could be used to buy Emmett a decent car.

Naturally, Noelle and her family refused such an outrageous demand.

During the wedding toast, Mom realized that Emmett hadn't been seated at the head table and hadn't gotten to eat the biggest lobster. Right in front of both families and all our relatives, she flipped the table.

The food splattered all over me.

She pointed at me and screamed, calling me an "ungrateful bastard who forgot his own mother after getting a wife". She cursed me, saying I deserved to die.

The entire room gasped in shock, and I stood there trembling from head to toe. I felt like a clown.

It was Mark and Fiona who walked over, ignoring the mess on the floor. They each took one of my hands and helped me up.

Patting me on the shoulder, Mark announced loudly to all the guests, "Henry is a good man. From today on, we're his parents!"

The memory made my eyes sting.

Just then, my phone rang.

It was Emmett.

The moment I answered, Emmett's furious roar came through the phone. He didn't even bother being polite with me.

He ranted, "Henry, what the hell are you doing? I'm at the bridal shop with Jemima trying on wedding dresses. The custom one costs 34,000 dollars! But when I tried to pay, it showed that the card was invalid. The sales clerk looked at me like I was some kind of beggar.

"I was so embarrassed! Hurry up and unfreeze the card! Jemima's still waiting!"

As always, he was so spoiled and entitled.

This was the younger brother I had given in since childhood, whose four years of college I had paid for, and whom I had helped find a job. I had even covered his dating expenses.

Yet, he had never once felt grateful to me after spending my money. To him, it was simply his right.

Looking at the sleeping Noelle inside the hospital room, I walked to the window at the end of the hallway.

My voice turned icy as I called him by his full name. "Emmett Johnstone."

I paused for a bit before continuing, "Didn't you cut my brake line so that I'd crash my car and die?"

The other end of the line instantly fell silent.

I let out a cold laugh. "Then just pretend I'm already dead and go collect the insurance payout to pay for your wedding dress. But before that, you'd better pray the police don't find you first."

With that, I hung up and blocked his number.