Chapter 3

I found Dad was not at home.

A seriously ill patient who needed dialysis three times a week had gone out alone in the middle of the night?

He must have seen the phone Mom left at home and discovered that her real location wasn't some damn processing plant in Southside Industrial Park, but a luxury villa in the wealthy North Ridge Estates.

I bolted out the front door like a madman and flagged down a taxi.

"To Hawthorne Estates. Hurry!"

I was on the verge of losing my mind. My palms were slick with sweat.

The entire ride there, I prayed nonstop.

'Mom, Mom... It's bad enough that you carried the wrong phone. But how could you forget to turn off the location-sharing app? If Dad caught you playing wife to another man, his fragile heart and failing kidneys would probably give out on the spot.'

I repeatedly called Mom's other number, but it was switched off.

Kyle probably didn't allow her to take calls at night. She was certainly dedicated to her role.

Security stopped the taxi at the entrance to Hawthorne Estates. Without even waiting for my change, I shoved the door open and took off running.

The neighborhood was eerily quiet at night. Only the streetlights stretched my frantic shadow across the pavement.

Just as I reached the corner near Kyle's estate, I heard it: Dad's heart-wrenching cough.

I stopped dead in my tracks. Then I ducked behind a landscaped tree and carefully peeked around it. The first floor was brightly lit.

Dad stood outside the garden fence less than thirty feet away. His frail body trembled in the night wind like a withered leaf.

I followed his line of sight.

Through the floor-to-ceiling windows, Mom was gently draping a robe over Kyle's shoulders. The next second, he pulled her into his arms.

They exchanged a smile. The scene was so warm and intimate it could have come straight out of a romantic television drama.

"No... Ruby..." Dad clutched his chest and let out a heartbreaking cry.

In that moment, I watched the light leave his eyes. For all this time, he'd believed he was the burden. He'd felt guilty watching his wife toil away on the assembly line.

Instead, the truth he saw tonight was completely different. Instead, his wife had been living in comfort and luxury with another man.

"Dad!"

I couldn’t care less about being seen anymore; I rushed out and grabbed him before he collapsed.

When he saw me, his eyes filled with disbelief and despair. "Son, you knew too? Have you all been lying to me?”

I opened my mouth, only to realize I couldn't offer a single explanation.

What was I supposed to say?

Tell him Mom was selling her dignity to pay for his medical treatment?

That would destroy him even more than simply telling him she'd had an affair.

Inside the villa, Mom must have heard the commotion. She turned toward the window.

The moment she saw Dad's deathly pale face outside the fence, the glass in her hand slipped onto the floor.

"Jayden!"

Mom shoved open the glass door and charged outside like a woman possessed.

Kyle's expression darkened instantly, and the warmth vanished from his face.

"Ruby, didn't you swear to me that you'd cut all ties with your ex-husband?”

Mom dropped to her knees, trying desperately to explain, but Kyle took a disgusted step backward.

"Get out. Don't come back tomorrow. Liars make me sick."

Dad looked even more shattered after hearing that. He shoved me away.

Like a caged beast gone mad, he turned and ran toward the road. He didn't want to look at Mom anymore. He just wanted to escape this absurd, revolting scene.

"Dad! Stop! It's dangerous!"