Chapter 1
My husband, William Lee, fancied himself a saint. To help a poor, tragic escort pay off her debts, he secretly stole the 100 thousand I'd saved for IVF treatment.
When I confronted him, he looked at me with unbearable pity. "She needs this money far more than we do. We can always have kids later, but a life is at stake."
Watching him wallow in his own self-righteousness, I finally woke up.
He wanted to play the saint? Fine. I would play along.
I listed our house deed, car keys, and even his parents' pension cards on OfferUp for next to nothing.
If William was so determined to do good deeds, then let's lose everything together for charity.
*****
The banking app screen flickered before my eyes, the balance in my savings account glaring like a neon sign, burning into my retinas.
100 thousand dollars. The three hundred thousand dollars I'd spent three years saving for IVF vanished, just like that.
My fingers were so cold I could barely hold onto my phone. I dialed William's number, and as soon as he picked up, I could hear the thumping bass and drunken laughter of men and women echoing from some club.
"Hello? Mia, what's up? I'm at a club with some clients right now," he said, sounding a little impatient.
I clenched my palm so hard that it hurt, forcing my voice to stay steady. "William, where's the 100 thousand dollars in our account?"
The line went quiet for a few seconds. Then William's voice came back, defensive and righteous. "Oh, that money? I used it for an emergency."
"An emergency? What kind of emergency costs 100 thousand dollars? That was our IVF. Why didn't you ask me first?" My voice shot up, sharp and trembling.
"Keep your voice down. It's not that big a deal." William lowered his voice, turning the blame on me. "If I'd told you, you wouldn't have agreed. You're a little selfish. I had no choice. It was life or death."
"Whose life?" My heart dropped like a stone.
"You remember Yvette? That escort I use downtown? She's a really sweet girl. Her kid brother's got leukemia and needs a bone marrow transplant, but they're still short 100 thousand bucks for the surgery.
"I mean, isn't that tragic? She's a young girl, you know? And when she cried, it tore me apart."
Yvette. That name hit me like a punch to the gut. She was an escort in her early twenties, the kind William would see downtown.
Every time William stumbled home drunk, he'd go on about what a good listener she was, so sweet, and had the saddest life story.
I always thought he was making offhand remarks after long nights wining and dining clients.
Never in a million years did I think his so-called sympathy would stretch far enough to drain our joint savings, the fund meant to buy our future child a shot at life.
"William." I was shaking all over, my teeth chattering with rage. "That was our child. Have you forgotten how long we've been trying? All those hormones I've swallowed, all those injections I've endured. Did you notice nothing?
"And now you give all the money away to an escort who's nothing to us?"
William was acting all high and mighty, like he was the judge of my morals. "Mia, how can you say that? How is she 'nothing to us'?
"It is a real person's life. Does that mean less to you than an unborn child? Where's your compassion? We can always have kids later, and we can always make more money.
"But if we don't save Yvette's brother now, he's gone for good. She promised she'd pay us back, even if she has to work herself to the bone. Can't you have a little heart? Stop being so hung up on the money."
Listening to him play the martyr, I laughed. It came out rough and raspy, like a punctured bellows.
I had no heart? I quit my high-paying job for this family, put everything into trying to get pregnant, scrimped and saved. I couldn't even let myself buy a single piece of clothing over 200 bucks.
Whenever William got wasted at work events, I'd drive out in the middle of the night to pick him up, then come home and whip up some concoction I prayed would sober him up, cleaning up his puke and mess.
When his parents got sick, I was the one running myself ragged, taking care of them better than their own daughter ever did.
I thought this was what it meant to be a team, that all of this was for our future together.
Turns out, in William's eyes, everything I did for our family mattered less than some escort's sob story. My kindness was only good enough for my own family, while his was for saving the whole damn world.