An hour after Gina’s graduation dinner started, David still hadn’t shown up. The dozens of calls I’d made to him had all been declined, and the only response to my text messages was a cold, automated reply: “On my way.” Gina stood up and sat back down five times, her head lowered, her fingers nervously pleating the hem of her dress. She was staring at her speech, utterly paralyzed by the line: “I want to thank my parents.” When I finally reached my breaking point and walked out of the private dining room— I saw David in the banquet hall right next door. He was standing shoulder-to-shoulder with Cynthia, his widowed first love. Smiling in front of them was Cody, Cynthia’s son—a boy whose SAT scores were three hundred points lower than my daughter’s. “Thank you, Mom and Dad, for raising me!” the boy said, giving them a theatrical bow. David had his arm draped warm and familiar around Cynthia’s waist, a proud, gentle smile crinkling the corners of his eyes as he nodded in approval. Amidst the roaring applause of the room, I stood in the doorway and watched them for what felt like an eternity. A profound, bone-deep exhaustion washed over me. I turned on my heel and walked back to my daughter’s table. “He’s not coming, sweetheart,” I said softly. “Just go up there and say whatever you want.” I reached out, gently smoothing away the tight, painfully polite smile on her face. “And as for what we discussed before…” “Mom agrees. We’ll do it your way.” … Gina’s eyes widened instantly. “Really?” I gave her a reassuring nod and patted the back of her hand. Taking a deep breath, she stood up. Her speech wasn’t long—maybe five minutes in total. Aside from thanking her high school teachers, the only family member she mentioned was me. “I want to thank my mother,” she said, her voice clear and resonant. “Without her, I wouldn’t be standing here today.” I watched her speak with such poise and grace. My heart swelled with pride, but beneath it lay a bitter, aching sorrow. Beside me, the relatives on David’s side of the family scowled. “She didn’t mention her father once?” David’s mother muttered, her face hardening. “I always said girls shouldn’t get too much education. It just makes them ungrateful.” David’s sister sneered, her eyes darting toward me. “Mom, don’t just blame the kid. She only says what her mother feeds her.” “My mom didn’t teach me anything,” Gina said. Before I could even open my mouth to fire back, my usually quiet, reserved daughter was standing right behind them. “You’re complaining about my dad, but where is he?” My mother-in-law and sister-in-law froze, their lips curling into defensive sneers. “Your father is a busy man! He obviously got held up by something important. What’s the big deal?” “Exactly. He’s just late, it’s not like he’s dead.” “But you? You’re just an ungrateful little brat. No respect for family.” Gina’s eyes welled with tears, and she opened her mouth to argue, but I gently pulled her back. “It’s not worth it, sweetheart,” I murmured, comforting her. After all, to the two of us, he might as well be dead anyway. The dinner wrapped up around eight-thirty. It wasn’t until Gina and I had walked out the very last guest that we finally made our way out of the venue. At that exact moment, the doors to the adjacent banquet hall swung open. Before Gina could brace herself, she was looking right at David. He was walking out hand-in-hand with Cynthia, her arm looped intimately through his. “Dad…” Gina’s voice cracked, her eyes instantly filling with tears. “Why are you—” “Oh, Professor Foster, is this your daughter too?” one of the high school teachers walking past paused, looking confused. “How did she do on her exams? Was she celebrating next door as well?” Behind them, Cynthia’s son, Cody, stiffened, his smug expression faltering. Cynthia cast a hurt, vulnerable look at David and slowly slipped her hand out of his arm. “I don’t know her,” David said suddenly. “She’s not my daughter. She must have mistaken me for someone else.” A cold shock rippled through my veins. I stared at him, utterly incredulous. “David, you—” “Mom, don’t,” Gina whispered, her hand clutching my arm. She was shaking violently, yet she was still trying to force a fragile, heartbreaking smile onto her face. My heart bled for her in that moment. The sheer cruelty of it. “You’re right, we did,” I said, looking David dead in the eye, each word dripping with quiet venom. “This is my daughter. And we have absolutely no idea who you are.” We turned and walked away. For a fleeting second, a flicker of hesitation crossed David’s eyes. But in the end, he didn’t follow us. An hour later, the front door clicked open. David walked in, smelling heavily of alcohol. “Cody had his graduation dinner tonight too. I was just standing in as his father to give them some support,” he explained casually, kicking off his shoes. “I only said that back there because I didn’t want Cody to feel bad by being compared. It would affect his self-esteem.” “We can take your teachers out for another dinner later.” He reached out to pat Gina’s shoulder, but she flinches away, stepping back into the shadow of the hallway. “There won’t be a next time,” I said, watching his face tighten. “The teachers are leaving for vacation. Tonight was the only night everyone could make it. Next up is move-in day.” A suffocating silence settled over the living room. David drew his hand back, his brow furrowing as he looked at our silent daughter. “Fine, forget it then. Gina, you’re an adult now. Don’t be so petty over minor things. The real world won’t coddle your little tantrums.” He turned, walked into his bedroom, and shut the door behind him. Gina stood frozen in the middle of the room, fighting to hold back her tears. I didn’t argue with him. Instead, early the next morning, I handed her a heavy folder. “Sweetheart, I need a favor,” I said gently. “Take a look. Does this divorce agreement look okay to you?” Gina gasped, her entire body tensing as the words registered. “I… my friend’s mom is a really good lawyer. I can ask her to look it over!” The pure, unadulterated relief on her face made my throat tighten with unshed tears. Gina had actually asked me to divorce him three years ago. It was right after Cynthia reappeared in his life and moved into the apartment directly downstairs from us. David was a university math professor. Whenever Gina asked him for help with a calculus problem, he would scowl and snap that he didn’t have time to teach her. Yet, with a single pouty request from Cynthia, he tutored Cody in math every single day for three years without fail. For three years, he never showed up to a single parent-teacher conference for his own daughter. But for Cody’s? He was always there, seated in the front row, perfectly on time. I had screamed, cried, and demanded to know if he even wanted this family anymore. But he would only adjust his glasses, looking at me with a cold, detached pity, as if I were hysterical. “Cody has a weak foundation, so my guidance actually helps him,” he would say. “Gina’s grades are mediocre; tutoring her won’t change much. I don’t invest in low-return ventures. Stop being so emotional and fabricating rumors about Cynthia and me.” He was always so logical. So rational that when Gina graduated valedictorian of her class, his only response to her text was three words: “Not bad, dear.” And then he spent the entire night in his study, painstakingly mapping out a college application strategy for Cody, who had scraped by with a dismal SAT score. “Mom, why don’t you just leave him? Come with me. I’ll take care of you when I grow up, okay?” Gina had told me that a long time ago. Back then, wanting to protect her peace of mind so she could focus on her studies, I had swallowed my pride and smiled, telling her I was fine. But now, there was no reason to pretend. He didn’t want this home, so I was finally going to grant my daughter’s wish. I was letting go. The sharp ring of the doorbell shattered my thoughts. It was Cynthia and her son. “I really didn’t think things through yesterday. I’m so sorry for making things awkward,” Cynthia said, biting her lower lip with practiced vulnerability. “David is just too kind. I only casually mentioned the dinner, and he insisted on playing the father role. But there’s absolutely nothing going on between us, I swear.” “Yeah, Mrs. Foster, sorry about stealing your daughter’s dad for the night,” Cody piped up, a smug grin plastered across his face. From the kitchen behind me, I heard the sharp clatter of a glass slipping from Gina’s hand and shattering. “I know,” I said, my voice dead calm. I extended my arm, blocking Cody as he tried to push past me into the foyer. “But then again, you would know all about having to steal a father.” Cody’s smirk vanished, his face darkening with rage. “What did you just say, you old bitch?” He raised his hand, his fingers curling into a fist. But my eyes locked onto the chain around his neck. My throat closed. “What is that? Where did you get that?” “Rachel, what do you think you’re doing!” A voice boomed from the hallway. David stepped out of the elevator, instantly throwing himself between me and Cynthia’s family. He shielded them like they were his own, the three of them forming a perfect, united front. “David, I just wanted to apologize to Rachel, but she started calling Cody names…” Cynthia whimpered, her eyes pooling with tears. Before David could unleash his fury, I pointed a trembling finger at Cody’s neck. “David, how dare you give Gina’s guardian angel medallion to him?” David froze, the anger dying on his face as the words lodged in his throat. The gold guardian angel medallion had been crafted from my own grandmother’s dowry jewelry. Gina had worn it every single day of her life for fifteen years. “It’s just a necklace,” David said, recovering his cold demeanor. “Cody was getting frequent colds back then, so I gave it to him for protection. Rachel, why must you always obsess over such trivial things?” I slowly lowered my hand. A cold. A trivial thing. When that medallion went missing, my daughter was in the ICU with severe pneumonia, fighting for her life. As she lay there with an oxygen mask strapped to her face, she was crying, blaming herself for losing her precious necklace. And all this time, it was a joke. “Fine. I won’t care anymore,” I said, looking at David. A strange, liberating smile spread across my face. “Go and be their family, David. Gina and I don’t need you anymore.” For the first time, David’s composure cracked. “Why do you always have to blow everything out of proportion?” he muttered, shooting a frustrated look at Gina behind me. “No wonder she’s turning out just like you—completely incapable of rational thought!” I smiled faintly. “We’ve been rational for long enough.” I took my daughter’s cold hand in mine. “If you won’t leave this house, we will.” David violently slammed the door shut behind him, his heavy footsteps echoing down the hallway as they left. “Mom, I’m sorry,” Gina whispered, her knuckles white. “You guys are fighting because of me again…” My heart broke for her, and I instantly squeezed her hand. “Gina, you have never, ever been the problem. Let’s pack our bags today and move back to my old apartment, okay?” Through her tear-filled eyes, she nodded vigorously. David didn’t notice we were gone until the following morning. He sent me a single text: “?” It was his usual concise, arrogant style, waiting for me to call him and beg for forgiveness. I didn’t bother to reply. By the third day, losing his patience, he added Cynthia and Cody to our family group chat. “From now on, Cynthia and Cody are part of the family,” he announced. “If you need anything, just talk in this group.” Cynthia immediately shared a photo of the three of them dining at a Michelin-starred restaurant. Cody quickly followed with a smug caption: “Thanks for the brand-new gaming laptop, Uncle David! Runs smooth as butter!” A five-thousand-dollar custom gaming rig, and David didn’t even blink. Yet, when Gina had asked for a five-hundred-dollar laptop for her college classes, he had lectured her on vanity and greed. I didn’t have the energy to watch their pathetic performance. I left the group, and Gina did the same. David’s call came through almost instantly. “Rachel, what is the meaning of this?” “It means we’re getting out of the way so the three of you can play house,” I said, my tone indifferent. “Is there a problem?” “How much longer are you going to keep up this childish act?” David sounded utterly exhausted, as if he were the victim here. “You pack up and leave without a word, and now you’re going out of your way to humiliate Cynthia and Cody. Have you ever stopped to consider the position you’re putting me in?” He spoke with such self-righteous indignation. I simply hung up. I was done wasting my breath on him. We cut off all contact. But a week later, Gina realized she had left a vital document behind, and we had to return to the house to retrieve it. The moment I unlocked the front door, we were greeted by the warm, cozy sight of David, Cynthia, and Cody sitting around the dining table, laughing. “It has a very modern, artistic feel. I love it,” David was saying. He unbuckled the sleek leather watch from his wrist and carelessly tossed it into the trash can. In its place, he slipped on a crude, poorly made woven bracelet Cody had gifted him. That watch was the birthday present Gina had bought him last year, using an entire year’s worth of academic scholarship money. Gina stood frozen in the entryway. A quiet, hollow laugh escaped her lips. Without a word, she opened her hand and let the designer tie she had bought for his upcoming birthday drop straight into the trash. David spun around at the sound. A brief wave of embarrassment washed over his face when his eyes met ours. “Cynthia wanted to celebrate my birthday, and their apartment downstairs had a leak, so I told them to come up,” he explained quickly. Neither I nor Gina gave him a response. We walked past them as if they were ghosts, searching the rooms for what we had left behind. “It’s been a week, and today is my birthday. Are you two still going to give me the cold shoulder?” David grumbled, his brow furrowing. I looked up at him. “Yesterday was Gina’s birthday. Did you remember?” Their birthdays were only a day apart. David’s face drained of color. In the bedroom, Gina found her document, grabbed my hand, and silently led me toward the exit. David took a sharp breath and chased after us to the elevator, opening his mouth as if to explain. But behind him, Cynthia let out a soft, dramatic cry. “Ow! My wrist…” David frozen. He stopped in his tracks. He didn’t take another step toward us, and we didn’t look back. I thought we would quietly drift apart like this until we finally left the country. But I never anticipated what would happen next. Just days before our departure, Gina was hit by a car. By the time I rushed to the hospital, I was covered in a cold sweat, my hands shaking uncontrollably. Thank God she had reacted quickly enough to avoid the full impact. Aside from a fractured leg and a mild concussion, she was going to be fine. When she finally woke up and saw me, the tears instantly began streaming down her face. “Mom… the money in my account is gone. Thirty thousand dollars… all of it, gone…” My brain went entirely numb. That money was the prestigious academic merit grant she had received from the school district. She had seen the notification of the transfer and panicked, rushing out to the bank to dispute it. In her state of distress, she hadn’t seen the speeding sedan crossing the intersection… But there was only one other person in the world who knew the PIN to her savings account. I drove straight back to the house and slammed the debit card onto the table in front of David. “I transferred the money,” David said, entirely unbothered by my fury. “I bought Cody a small studio apartment near his campus. He’s an art student; dorm life doesn’t suit him. He needs his own creative space. My funds were temporarily tied up, so I just borrowed it for a bit.” “David!” My nails dug so hard into my palms that they nearly drew blood. “That was Gina’s money!” “She doesn’t need it right now anyway,” David replied coldly. With a violent crack, my palm connected with his face. I couldn’t hold back anymore. “That was her money! How dare you steal from her? She was hit by a car because of what you did! She almost died!” “What?” A flash of panic finally broke through David’s stoic facade. “A car accident? Is she—” “Rachel, I know you’re upset, but how can you lie about something like that?” Cynthia’s soft, whimpering voice cut in. “I literally just saw Gina downstairs a little while ago and said hello.” She lowered her head, looking like she was on the verge of tears. “We’ll pay the money back. If it makes you feel better, I’ll drop to my knees and beg your forgiveness right now.” She made a show of sinking to her knees, expecting David to stop her. And he did. David’s expression hardened instantly. “Rachel, you’re still the same pathological liar,” he sneered, looking down at me. “Even if I did take her thirty thousand dollars, so what? I raised her for eighteen years. Is thirty thousand dollars too much to ask in return?” I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. My phone buzzed in my hand. It was Gina. My call to her from earlier was still active. “Mom, I heard everything,” her fragile, raspy voice came through the speaker. “Let him keep it. Consider the thirty thousand dollars my final payment to him. We’re even now.” I didn’t know a heart could feel so entirely hollowed out. A high-pitched ringing filled my ears, drowning out David’s voice as he spoke. “I’m taking Cynthia and Cody on a trip this week,” David said, tossing the words over his shoulder as he guided Cynthia toward the door. “Next week, when school starts, we’ll all drive up to Boston together.” I didn’t say another word. The next morning, I walked into his study and laid the signed divorce papers and Gina’s declaration of parental estrangement flat on his desk. Who said we were going to Boston with you? My daughter hadn’t just been accepted to Ivy League schools in the US. She had also received a full scholarship to Oxford. “Mom, do you think you’ll ever regret this?” Gina asked quietly a week later, sitting in her wheelchair at the airport gate. “You’ve been married to Dad for so long.” “Do you think you’ll regret it?” I asked, looking down at her. “You’re so young, and you’re moving across the world with your mother on your shoulders.” We looked at each other, and then, at the exact same moment, we both laughed. Neither of us would ever regret this. That was all that mattered. Gina had only panicked about the stolen money because she was worried about our expenses abroad. But she didn’t know that my career and personal savings were far greater than she could have ever imagined. We had all the leverage in the world to leave that toxic shadow behind. Ten hours later, our flight touched down in London, a vast, open sky welcoming us to our new life. The moment we turned our phones back on, both of our devices began vibrating violently.
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