Chapter 5

Then, I suddenly let out a light laugh and made a call. "Get me a few people here."

As soon as I hung up, Jonathan scoffed, "Victoria, who are you trying to fool?

"You don't have a single dollar with you. Who could you possibly call?"

Emily let out a soft sigh, her voice gentle. "Victoria, I know this is hard for you to accept, but this is already how things are now."

She reached down and ruffled Henry's hair. "Jonathan took pity on us, a single mom and her kid, so he signed the house over to me."

I kept quiet, watching them silently.

Our shouting drew a crowd of neighbors. Someone recognized Jonathan and called out, "Isn't that Professor Foster? Mr. Foster, Mrs. Foster, do you need us to call the cops for you?"

Emily smiled sweetly and said, "It's fine. She's someone from my country, unwilling to leave my place."

Hearing that, everyone shot me disgusted looks, and someone yelled, "Ugly foreign woman. Get out of here! This isn't the place for trash like you. Our country doesn't want you."

"Get out of our country!" they said together.

Jonathan turned to look at me. "Leave now, Victoria. Apologizing won't fix anything now. You already had a bad name."

I stared at him, my face blank. "300 thousand dollars."

"What?"

"The total price of this house," I said calmly. "I paid half, so you put in 350 thousand dollars. Jonathan, I'll pay you back that 350 thousand dollars."

Jonathan looked at me, his patience wearing thin. "Victoria, stop talking nonsense. It took you years of loan payments to save up your 350 thousand dollars. Where would you ever get the money to pay me back?"

He whipped out his phone and made a call. "This is Jonathan Foster. I want to report someone for forging paperwork to fraudulently obtain a Marriage-Based Green Card.

"Yeah, I've got proof. Could you send someone to arrest her immediately?"

Jonathan hung up the phone and looked at me with a complicated expression. "Victoria, all it would take is an apology to fix this.

"I've already explained to you that once Henry goes to college and Emily and Henry are settled, we can finally get married. Why won't you go along with it?

"You've already waited ten years. Why couldn't you wait another ten years?"

I scoffed, but inside, I felt so miserable.

So I spent ten whole years on someone like him. What a waste.

Jonathan took a deep breath and said to me, "If you promise never to bring up anything about Emily and me again, I can clear things up with the Immigration Office and tell them it was all a misunderstanding.

"I know you hate all the back-and-forth travel. I promise I'll come back to spend every college holiday with you. Back home, we can live like a married couple again."

Hearing that, Emily shot me a venomous glare, but her voice was still soft as she said, "Victoria, don't be so stubborn.

"Do you realize that if the Immigration Office takes you away, you'll not only be locked up for ten years, but you'll also be hit with hundreds of thousands of dollars in fines?

"The restaurant bill might be something the manager can help you with, but when it comes to the cost of prison, that's not something anyone can bail you out of."

As she finished speaking, footsteps echoed outside the door.

Jonathan's face turned grim, his voice carrying a hint of menace. "Victoria, this is your last chance. If you agree on what I've said, I'll make them leave. If you don't, I'll have no choice but to let them haul you off."

I gave a calm smile, pulled my hand free from Jonathan's grip, and walked forward.

Several tall men, all dressed in black suits and wearing sunglasses, strode in from outside.

Jonathan's jaw tightened, like he'd finally made up his mind. He gave me a long, hard look.

Then he pointed at me and said, "It's her."

Before he could finish, I raised my hand and ordered, "Wreck it. Rip this place to shreds."