Chapter 2

"Lost my mind?" I repeated his words, bitterness and irony flooding my chest.

"Yes," I said. "I have. Your whole family drove me crazy. Every last one of you."

The volcano inside me finally erupted, years of resentment and fury pouring out all at once.

Henry pointed at me, his lips shaking with rage. "How could you talk to my mom like that? And pull a knife on Ryan? Over a piece of meat? Was that really necessary? How am I supposed to live with myself in this family now?"

"Is this really what you're worried about? Your image with them?" I scoffed, moving closer. "I just gave birth. Does my body mean nothing to you? I have to breastfeed. I need nutrition. Does my daughter's milk not matter either?

"You say you're trying to live like a decent man. Fine. Then tell me—who do you belong to, exactly? Your mom and brother, or me and our daughter?"

He had no answer. He just kept repeating. "You're being unreasonable."

"I'm unreasonable?"

I turned and walked into the bedroom. From the deepest drawer of my nightstand, I pulled out a dark blue hardcover notebook.

That was my ledger.

I had started keeping it the day I decided to marry him.

I walked back to him and opened it to the first page. My neat handwriting stared back at us, every line looking like a fresh cut now.

I pointed to the first entry and read it out loud. "Before the wedding, my parents gave us thirty thousand dollars as wedding gifts. They said it was seed money for our family. The day after the wedding, your mom took twenty thousand of it to buy Ryan a car."

I looked up at him. "And what did you say back then? You said, 'Susan, don't worry. I'm borrowing it. I'll pay you back, double.'"

I met his eyes. "Henry, it's been three years. Where's the money?"

His face drained of color.

I flipped to the next page. "When I was three months pregnant, I was craving strawberries. You saw the price in the cart and frowned. You said, 'They're too expensive. Can't you just eat apples?'"

I kept reading. "The very next day, you bought Ryan the newest iPhone. Over two thousand dollars, no hesitation at all. You told me, 'He needs it to look presentable while job hunting.'"

I held the notebook inches from his face. "So what job did he get with that phone?"

Henry's breathing turned heavy. He reached out to grab the notebook, but I stepped back.

I continued, "And when my morning sickness was at its worst, when I couldn't keep anything down, my mom felt bad for me. She had someone bring back two boxes of supplements from out of town."

My voice trembled now—not from weakness, but from sheer fury. "And then what happened? Your mom came over, picked them up, and took them with her. She said Ryan's girlfriend was visiting for the first time and needed something decent as a gift."

I looked straight at him. "Henry, I was lying in bed that day. I didn't even have the strength to stand up. I watched her take those supplements, and it felt like she was taking my life with them. And where were you?"

I didn't wait for an answer. "You were standing right there, nodding along, saying, 'Mom's right.'"

One thing after another, each memory like a rusted knife, stabbing into a marriage that had already rotted through.

The color drained from Henry's face, turning it a sickly gray.

He opened his mouth, grasping for excuses. "Mom didn't mean it like that. Ryan just... That was all in the past."

"The past?" I snapped the notebook shut. The sound was sharp, like a slap across the face.

I sneered, "Fine. I'll write all of that off. Consider it money thrown away."

My voice suddenly went calm. That calm scared him more than shouting ever could.

I continued, "But what about my daughter's formula?"

I took out my phone. I didn't show him photos or recordings. I simply opened my banking app and shoved the screen in front of his face.

A transfer history filled the display. It showed fifteen thousand dollars, dated the day after my C-section, sent to Ryan.

"My parents were worried I'd be mistreated after giving birth. Right before I was wheeled into the delivery room, they slipped a card into my hand. There was fifteen thousand dollars on it," I said calmly. "They told me it was a welcome gift for their granddaughter. For me to keep. To spend however I wanted."

I watched the color drain from Henry's face, his pupils shrinking in pure panic.

He thought I didn't know.

He thought he'd covered his tracks.

"When I'd just come out of anesthesia, when I was barely conscious and in so much pain I couldn't think straight, you took my phone." I went on. "You unlocked it with my fingerprint and transferred every last dollar to Ryan."

My voice was flat, stripped of any warmth. "You even wiped the transaction history. And you want to call that a 'borrow'?"

I looked straight at him. "Henry, when you borrow money, do you delete every trace of it?"

He froze, like someone had dumped a bucket of ice water over his head.

His eyes darted away, his lips trembling, not a single word coming out.

Seeing him like that, pathetic and exposed, snuffed out the very last bit of warmth I had left for him. Whatever was once called 'husband and wife' turned to ash.

From today on, he was only my child's father.

Nothing more.

Outside the door, shouting and pounding started again.

Megan had clearly regrouped. She'd come back with Ryan, and this time they weren't holding back.