Chapter 5

Suddenly, I burst out laughing, which eventually turned into a heart-wrenching, racking cough. Tears streamed down my face. My heart felt as though it was being crushed, and the pain was so intense that I couldn’t even stand up straight.

So, it was never that he didn’t have money. He had simply poured every last cent into taking care of that “financially struggling” Jolene.

I held my phone and stared at the text notification confirming the twenty thousand dollar deposit, my heart breaking. If Howard had given me even a tenth of that amount, Lily could’ve been transferred to the best private hospital and had a fighting chance at survival.

I wiped away my tears, stood up, and thanked the HR manager. “Thank you.”

As I walked out of the office, I heard the employees whispering around me.

“Hey, look. That’s Howard York’s wife.”

“I heard that because of Jolene, Howard couldn’t care less whether his daughter was dead or alive.”

“I knew it! I was wondering how Jolene could afford to wander around the office every day carrying Hermès bags on a single mother’s budget. As it turns out, she’s Mr. York’s charity project.”

A female colleague, taking pity on me, lowered her voice just enough for me to hear clearly. “Mrs. York, you have no idea. Jolene is a total joke in our company. She spends more every month than our CEO makes in a month. Just yesterday, she unboxed a new designer bag, claiming it was a ‘consolation gift’ from Howard.”

Another colleague joined in with a cold sneer. “Financially struggling single mother? She lives a more luxurious life than any of us here. She goes out for two-hundred-dollar steak lunches daily and gets a full high-end high tea every afternoon. Is she even here to work? She’s just here to enjoy being catered to by Howard!”

My heart seized in my chest, and I almost lost my footing.

“What’s most disgusting,” the female colleague continued, her voice rising with anger, “is that during the performance review every month, Jolene’s proposals are either plagiarized straight off the internet or written for her by interns. To scrape up bonus money for her, Howard forced the people in our team to put her name on our proposals, calling it ’teamwork.’ The performance bonuses that were supposed to go to us ended up right in her pocket!”

“Exactly! For that major project last month, Louis pulled three all-nighters to get it done, but Jolene got top billing on the submission. Howard even warned us not to talk, saying Jolene was going through a tough time at home and that we should be more understanding.”

Every word felt like a slap across my face.

I recalled how, last winter, I had tried to save a few dollars on the heating bill by holding Lily, who had a high fever of a hundred and four degrees, as we shivered under two layers of blankets in our rented apartment.

I recalled how I ate nothing but plain bread for three days straight just to squeeze out enough money for household expenses before eventually collapsing from exhaustion at the subway entrance.

I leaned against the wall for support, my fingernails digging deep into the wall.

“Excuse me, please,” I said softly, pushing through the crowd of onlookers.

As I stepped out of the building, the sunlight was blindingly bright, yet it couldn’t warm my cold heart.

I hailed a cab and headed straight to the courthouse. The courtroom was crowded, but my mind had never been clearer.

“Your Honor, I’d like to file for divorce,” I said as I handed over the documents, my voice firm and unwavering. “Here is the evidence of the transfer of assets, the message logs proving marital misconduct, and the transaction records showing that he gifted a joint property to a third party.”

I laid out each piece of evidence one by one: the screenshots of the AI-generated replies, Jolene’s social media posts showing off her luxury purchases, testimonials from Howard’s colleagues, and that itemized “charity” record.

“Under marital property law, any unauthorized disposal of joint assets by one spouse gifted to a third party during the marriage is invalid,” I said, looking straight at the judge. “Over the past three years, Howard York has transferred funds and covered expenses for Jolene Foster totaling over three million dollars. I am requesting a full recovery of all these funds.”

The judge scanned through the materials with a frown. “Mrs. York, are you sure you want to add Jolene Foster as a co-defendant? This might be a tough legal battle.”

“I insist on pursuing it,” I said through clenched teeth, my eyes bloodshot. “Every bag he bought her, every meal, and every vacation was all paid for with my daughter’s and my blood, sweat, and tears. Since he loves that little arrangement so much, I’m going to make sure he's left penniless.”

When I stepped out of the courthouse, I had already received the formal case acceptance notice.

I was going to settle this account, item by item, and get back every penny with interest.