Chapter 4

I walked out of the building in a daze, catching a cab straight to our home on the west side of town.

A year ago, Jason had specifically bought this house so I could rest and focus on trying to conceive in peace.

Sitting on the couch, I ran through my options for my next move when my phone suddenly vibrated like crazy.

"Hazel!"

My uncle Jerry's voice nearly exploded through the receiver.

"Your mom had a sudden brain hemorrhage! The hospital says we need to pay ten thousand right now to clear her for emergency surgery!"

My head went blank, and I scrambled to open my banking app and try to make a transfer.

[This account has been frozen.]

Refusing to accept it, I switched to another card, and then another. However, every single one was frozen.

To help build the business, I had stepped back from my career years ago, funneling every cent of my savings into Jason's corporate accounts.

With trembling hands, I dialed Jason’s number. He was my only lifeline left.

The phone rang for an agonizingly long time, so long that I was right on the verge of despair before someone finally picked up.

"Hello?"

The voice that came through wasn't Jason's, but rather Susan’s lazy, nasal giggle.

My heart instantly skipped a beat.

"Susan? Where’s Jason? Put him on the phone! I have an emergency!"

"Hazel, what's the rush?" Susan’s voice sounded light and airy. "Mr. Gibson is in the shower right now, so it’s not a good time for him to take a call. He handed his phone to me so I could pick out a few things for my pregnancy."

"You..."

"Hazel, you’re calling about money, aren't you?"

She cut me off, her tone turning sharp and poisonous in an instant.

"Since you refused to behave, Mr. Gibson naturally has to give the money to someone who actually listens to him instead. All that money of yours is more than enough to cover the best postpartum care center for me and buy the highest-quality vitamins to nourish my body."

"That is my mom's emergency money! Susan, I am begging you, put Jason on the phone!"

Susan let out a soft sneer from the other end. "Emergency money? So what?"

"When your uncle called earlier, I declined the call myself. Mr. Gibson has no idea about any of this, so don't count on him coming to save you."

Those words hit me like a bucket of ice water, soaking me from head to toe.

"Why... why are you doing this?"

"Because I can't stand you," Susan laughed, her voice sounding brutally innocent. "Why do you get to live such a great life while I have to survive on your charity? I could just step on you to climb all the way to the top."

I gripped my phone, my entire body shaking uncontrollably.

Back when Jason’s business was struggling the hardest, we didn't even have money for food. It was my mom who secretly sold her only old house behind my back, stuffing the chequebook into my hands.

"Sweetheart, take this money for the emergency," she had told me. "I trust that he'll give you a good life."

Yet now, her "good son-in-law" was letting another woman sever her last line of survival.

With shaking hands, I scrambled through my contact list, calling every single old friend and former colleague I knew. I even pawned off my brand-new luxury bags at rock-bottom prices.

Only after scraping together whatever I could from every corner did I manage to pull together ten thousand and send it over.

However, it was too late.

My phone rang half an hour later.

There was a suffocating silence on the other end, followed by Uncle Jerry's broken sobs.

"Hazel... the doctors tried everything... Your mom... she’s gone."

Suddenly, I lost all strength, and I slid down onto the floor, clutching my phone tightly. I was in such agony that I could not even shed a tear.

My phone rang once more. This time, it was my lawyer.

"Ms. Marshall, the divorce agreement is fully drafted, and the stock ownership documents have been verified and approved. Given that the husband committed adultery, we have a very strong chance of making him leave the marriage with nothing. When are you planning to submit this to the court?"

I closed my eyes.

"Right now."