I had a fever, so I boiled myself an egg.

I didn’t expect my son to come home and call the police.

“There’s a thief in our house,” he told them, dead serious. “She stole one of my eggs.”

The officers thought it was a joke.

Evan didn’t.

“Ms. Blake gave me those eggs. They’re imported. She stole from me, so she should be arrested.”

Then he looked at me like I was a stranger.

“Mom’s just lazy. She’s pretending to be sick. No wonder Dad likes spending time with Ms. Blake.”

I bit down hard to keep from crying.

It didn’t help.

To him, my silence was proof I was guilty.

“Ms. Blake said people who do bad things always act pitiful,” he added coldly.

When my husband got home, he didn’t even ask how I was.

“You sit around all day and still say you’re sick? Sounds like you just have too much time to be dramatic. If you were half as thoughtful as Sophie, I wouldn’t be this exhausted.”

I almost laughed.

When I had a 102-degree fever, he said the clinic was too expensive.

But when his secretary mentioned her villa felt a little cold, he signed a thirty-million-dollar contract without hesitation.

He was never stingy.

Just never with me.

That was the moment I stopped caring.

That night, I stared at the message my father had sent me.

And made a decision.

Tomorrow, I was going home,

not as his wife,

not as anyone’s mother,

but as the heiress I had always been.

After the first decent night’s sleep I’d had in ages, I was jolted awake by my phone.

Adrian Cole’s voice blasted through the speaker.

“Vanessa Sterling, where the hell are you? Evan didn’t go to school. His teacher called me directly. Are you trying to let this whole family fall apart?”

Before I could answer, Sophie Blake’s soft, affected voice drifted in from the background.

“Mr. Cole, don’t be angry. Vanessa still might not be feeling well. It’s just that Evan is already late. If the teacher asks too many questions, it might not look good for you.”

That was all it took for Adrian’s temper to flare.

“What does she know about looking good? She sits around the house all day pretending to be sick and lazy, and she still can’t handle one child.

“You did this on purpose, didn’t you? You wanted to embarrass me.

“I must have been blind when I married you. You don’t have half of Sophie’s sense.”

I hung up.

A second later, my phone started buzzing again. Adrian’s name flashed across the screen over and over.

I muted it and tossed it onto the nightstand.

The old me would never have dared.

Ten years ago, when I first met him, I followed him around like a fool in love.

When he worked late in the winter, I stood outside his office building for two hours in a down coat just to hand him a cup of hot ginger tea. When he said his company was short on cash, I went to my father in secret and begged him to invest, then made sure Adrian never found out.

I had graduated from a top university, but the moment Adrian said women were better off staying home with the children, I put away my resume and traded my life for a stove, a washing machine, and a house that never stayed clean.

To protect his pride, I never told anyone I was the daughter of Sterling International Bank.

The Chanel in my closet disappeared behind cheap cotton T-shirts. When I went out with him, I didn’t even dare carry an expensive bag.

I thought if I was gentle enough, quiet enough, useful enough, he would eventually love me back.

In the end, when I was burning with fever, he couldn’t spare me a single word of concern.

But when his secretary complained that her villa’s living room felt too cold because it was too large, he signed a thirty-million-dollar purchase contract without blinking.

He had never been stingy.

He had only been stingy with me.

I got out of bed and made myself breakfast. Behind me, I heard my son Evan Cole come in.

He slammed his backpack onto the dining table.

“Why aren’t you better yet? Ms. Blake prepares me breakfast every morning and takes me to school. You even forgot to drop me off. You’re the most useless mom ever.

“If I got to choose, I would have picked Ms. Blake as my mom a long time ago.”

Something in my chest seemed to crack.

When I gave birth to him, I was afraid painkillers might affect him, so I endured three days and three nights of labor to bring him into the world.

For eight years, I cared for him day and night. Even when I was exhausted and sick, I dragged myself up to cook for him. No matter how badly I was hurt, I still forced a smile in front of him.

If not for Evan, I would never have endured Adrian and Sophie’s betrayal for so long.

But in the end, he was Adrian’s son after all.

Cold. Ungrateful. Cruel.

My fingers tightened around the sandwich in my hand. Then I turned to him and smiled.

“Fine.

“I’ll take you to Ms. Blake later.

“From now on, she can be your mother.”

Evan stared at me, wide-eyed, as if he hadn’t understood what I meant.

I ignored him and went straight to the bedroom to pack.

I owned so little it was almost pathetic. The closet was packed with Adrian’s custom suits, and any one of them cost more than half a year’s worth of the bargain clothes I wore.

In the mirror, the woman looking back at me had dull skin, tired eyes, and shadows that no amount of sleep could hide.

There was nothing left of the girl in the white dress who used to turn heads on campus.

I gave a bitter smile.

Enough.

From now on, I was going to live for myself.

I had just reached for my wedding ring when the door was shoved open.

Adrian stormed in. The second he saw the packed suitcase, his pupils tightened.

Then anger flooded his face.

“Vanessa, what the hell is wrong with you?

“What kind of nonsense were you saying in front of Evan? Telling him to call another woman Mom? Do you even know how to be a mother?”

His righteous tone almost made me laugh.

I didn’t know how to be a mother?

Back then, to give birth to his son, I nearly bled out on the operating table.

When the anesthesia failed and the pain made me bite down so hard I almost cracked my teeth, I still begged the doctors to save the baby first.

When Evan was little and had a seizure from fever in the middle of the night, I ran across half the city in a thin coat with him in my arms, searching for an emergency room. I was shaking from the cold, but I never loosened my grip.

And now, because I ate one of his eggs, he wanted the police to arrest me.

Because of a few words from an outsider, he believed his own mother was lazy, sick on purpose, and pretending to be pitiful.

The child I had nearly died to bring into the world had chosen to protect the woman who treated me like an eyesore.

I let out a cold laugh.

“You’re right. I don’t deserve to be his mother.

“So I’m making room for someone who does.”

The anger on Adrian’s face seemed to falter. For the first time, I saw a flash of panic in his eyes.

Before he could speak, Sophie walked in carrying Evan.

The moment she saw my suitcase, she frowned with a gentle, concerned expression.

“Vanessa, why are you being so ungrateful?

“Mr. Cole has money and status, and Evan is such a sweet child. Do you know how many women would kill for a life like this?

“Because of your little tantrum today, Mr. Cole had to suspend an international meeting and rush home. That delay could cost millions. You’re a housewife. How would you understand what really matters?”

Her gaze flicked to the wedding ring on my hand, and she gave a soft laugh.

“Besides, you’re still wearing the ring. You’re not really leaving. Stop making Mr. Cole angry.”

Evan suddenly threw himself into Adrian’s arms and burst into tears.

“Dad, she’s bad. I want Ms. Blake to be my mom.”

The panic in Adrian’s eyes vanished.

He pointed at me and shouted, “Vanessa, enough.”

“Keep this up, and you won’t like what happens.”

I looked at the three of them, standing there like one perfect little family, and laughed.

“No need to threaten me.

“Adrian, I want a divorce.”

“A divorce?”

Adrian looked as if he had heard the funniest thing in the world. His eyes filled with contempt.

“Vanessa, has staying home all these years rotted your brain?

“In the past ten years, aside from washing socks and making noodles, what else have you done?

“Where would you go without me? Dig through market trash? Sit on the curb and beg?”

He paused, then seemed to remember something, and his smile grew even crueler.

“Oh, right. You probably don’t even know where the airport entrance is.

“Whenever you went anywhere, I drove you. You don’t even know how to swipe a subway card, and you think you can leave by yourself?”

My fingers tightened around my phone until they turned pale.

For one brief moment, I really did panic.

Back when I lived with the Sterling family, I either flew on my father’s private jet or had a driver waiting for me. I never had to carry my own suitcase.

After I married Adrian, he said a woman didn’t need to show her face in public.

So I locked myself inside this house. I rarely even went to the supermarket near the neighborhood by myself.

Just then, my phone vibrated.

A text from my father appeared on the screen.

[My sweet girl, I’ll come get you myself tonight and bring you home.]

The light from the screen fell across my face, and the panic inside me disappeared.

Adrian didn’t notice. He was still scolding me.

“I’m taking Evan to school. Stay home and think about what you’ve done.

“Stop filling your head with nonsense. When I get back tonight, dinner had better be on the table.

“If you can’t even do that much, what kind of wife are you?”

After venting his anger, Adrian swept out with Sophie and Evan.

Not long after, my father’s car pulled up in front of the villa.

That evening, after I returned home, my father cooked an entire table of food for me.

But just as I picked up my fork, my phone rang.

“Vanessa, you’ve really grown some nerve, haven’t you? Running away from home now?”

Adrian’s roar made my ear ache.

“Get back here and make dinner. Evan is hungry.

“You think I’m going to coax you just because you’re throwing a tantrum? Don’t push your luck.”

My father heard him and snatched the phone from my hand, furious.

“Adrian, do you have any idea who you’re talking to?

“Apologize to my daughter right now and fire that woman, or I’ll bankrupt Cole Group within three days. Try me.”

Adrian went quiet for two seconds, then sneered.

“Playing rich now? Vanessa, did you hire some actor to scare me?

“You want more money, don’t you? Fine. I’ll raise your monthly allowance to eight hundred dollars. That should be enough.

“Now get back here, take care of the kid, and stop getting in the way of my work.”

Eight hundred dollars.

Listening to his self-righteous tone, I almost laughed.

Sophie could casually post a diamond necklace Adrian had flown to Switzerland to bid on.

But when the rice cooker at home broke and I wanted to buy an ordinary replacement for three hundred dollars, he frowned and told me the old one could still be fixed.

Whenever I argued, he blamed me.

“Stop comparing yourself to her. Sophie helps me close deals. You just sit at home and eat for free.”

I leaned toward the phone and said coldly, “Adrian, eight hundred dollars is exactly what you’re worth.”

Then I hung up before he could start yelling again.

My father stroked my hair to comfort me, and my eyes instantly burned. All the grievances I had swallowed for years finally spilled out.

After I told him, piece by piece, what I had endured over the past decade, his face darkened with rage. He picked up his phone and called his secretary.

“Notify every supplier, upstream and downstream. Anyone who works with Adrian Cole is making an enemy of Sterling Group.”

“And especially,” my father added with a cold laugh, “that subsidiary of his preparing for IPO, J-Tech Holdings. I want it shut down immediately. Personally.”

I was still listening to him give instructions when my phone rang again.

It was Adrian.

His voice was hoarse with exhaustion and anger.

“Vanessa, who the hell was that actor pretending to be your father? Why was J-Tech’s listing application rejected?”

I gave a faint laugh, didn’t answer, and blocked him.

So my father worked fast.

Good.

That saved me the trouble.

That same day, my father hired the city’s top divorce attorney and sent Adrian the divorce papers.

Since coming home, I no longer had to get up at four every morning to make breakfast for Adrian and Evan. I no longer had to clean until my back ached, or bargain over a few dollars’ worth of groceries.

Over the next two weeks, Adrian changed numbers again and again to call and text me.

I blocked every one.

One day, my father took me shopping, and we ran into Adrian, Sophie, and Evan.

Evan trailed behind Sophie in tiny steps, all ten fingers hooked through four or five luxury shopping bags.

He said carefully, “Ms. Blake, I’m hungry.”

Sophie stopped at once. She turned to Adrian with tears already shining in her eyes and tugged at his sleeve.

“Adrian, I haven’t even been shopping that long. Why is Evan already acting up?

“Did I do something wrong? Is that why he’s trying to make things difficult for me?”

Adrian was frowning at his phone. When he heard her, he glared at Evan.

“Can’t you see I’m busy? The company is about to collapse. Can you be more mature and stop causing trouble for Sophie?”