Five Years I Thought She Was Greedy, She Was Dying

Synopsis

Mandy Sherman was the wife I kept out in the countryside, the one I married before I made it. After I hit it big, she became a stubborn stain on my reputation that I couldn't scrub away. When I brought Chloe Ludwig home, Mandy wouldn't take the hint. She wouldn't leave, wouldn't shut up, and wouldn't stop making scenes for years. The first year, Mandy came at me with our newborn daughter in her arms, begging me not to divorce her. I had every last thing she owned dumped on the street. The second year, she came knocking in the dead of winter, bruised and clutching a police report, begging for help. I figured she was playing me, tossed fifty grand on the ground, and told her to get lost. In the third and fourth years, she vanished. I figured she was finally smart enough to stay gone. Then, in the fifth year, that number flashed on my screen again. A voice cried, "Dad, the guy who hit Mom drove off. But Mom's not waking up, and I can't make her."