Chapter 3

Rose did not expect me to ask for money, and her face fell.

Alan's eyes began to brim with tears, and he quickly grabbed a pen and some paper. "Don't be mad, Walden. I'll write you an IOU. I'll get a job when the baby is older, and I'll return you the money with interest."

Alan had barely started writing the IOU when Rose grabbed the paper and tore it in two. "You don't need to do this."

She turned to look at me coldly. "Tell me how much you spent on Alan all these years, and I'll return the full amount to you."

She held Alan's hand. "You don't need to write him an IOU. With me around, we don't need to owe him anything."

I used to think that they were the most important people to me, but they were now standing against me together as my enemies.

My tears were about to burst, but I bit down hard on the tip of my tongue and forced back my tears. "Fine. Let's go through every item."

I started searching through all the receipts for milk powder, diapers, baby items, the nanny, and even hotel rooms. I backtracked through all the payments I made for Alan until I came to the last item, which was also the first money transaction between Alan and me.

When I was 18, my parents refused to let me continue my studies at university. They wanted me to stop schooling and start working right away to contribute my earnings to my older brother's wedding.

They locked me up in the room, and it was Alan who broke the window and saved me. He gave me all the money he had saved and earned from working part-time jobs during school breaks, which came to a total of 1,000 dollars, but I refused it.

Alan smiled then and said, "You're a smart guy, Walden. You'll make something of yourself in the future. I'm not loaning you the money. I'm investing in you. I trust what I see, and I see that you have great potential."

A tear splashed on my phone screen. I quickly wiped it off and deducted that money from the total I paid for him. My phone soon buzzed with a notification from the bank, informing me that Rose had transferred 64,000 dollars to me.

The very first amount was everything Alan had, and it helped save me from falling into an abyss. The last amount, however, was used to buy out a decade's worth of friendship between us.

Once all was said and done, I was so exhausted I could not think straight. I took a shower in a daze, and fell asleep the moment I hit the bed. As I did not have to work the next day, I slept until noon, and by then, there was no one in the house.

A Post-it note was left on the fridge with Alan's handwriting on it. [There's stew in the pot, Walden. Have it while it's hot.]

When I opened the pot, a wonderful fragrance wafted from it. It was my favorite seafood stew. Alan had a shellfish allergy, and his skin would turn red at a touch from it, but I enjoyed this dish, and he had been happily making it for me for years.

I stood silently in front of the pot for a long time before throwing the entire pot of stew away. It was just seafood stew. I could buy it anytime I wanted, and it didn't need to be cooked by someone in particular for it to taste good. I grabbed some bread and bit into it robotically instead.

A notification popped up on my phone right then. It was a social media post from Rose, who shared a picture of their marriage license and the baby's birth certificate with the caption: [Welcome home, Jay Sinclair.]

My hands started trembling when I saw the name.

There was a period of time when Rose suffered from insomnia, and she would wake me up in the middle of the night to chat when she could not sleep. We talked about our future children, and I became wide awake as I imagined our future.

"If we get a girl, let's call her Serene Sinclair because I want her to live her life with serenity, and if it's a boy, let's call him Jay Sinclair, because it means victory."

Rose hugged me and kissed me on the forehead. "Anything their father wants."

However, she used the name for my future children and gave it to Alan's son. I clicked into the comments section and typed with trembling hands. [How could you give him that name, Rose?!]

Before I could post the comment, the page refreshed, and the post was deleted.

I was filled with rage with nowhere to vent, and I started feeling nauseous. I ran into the bathroom and crouched next to the toilet bowl, throwing up for a long time.

All I threw up was water and stomach acid. Just as I was about to stand up, I noticed a white pregnancy test sticking out of the bin. I picked it up and saw that it had two red lines on it.