Lester's car pulled up beside me before I'd gotten very far.

He rolled down the window and said, "I knew you were upset. Fine, you don't have to apologize. But honestly, getting jealous over a single mother and her kid? Come on."

"I came all the way out here to pick you up. Get in."

I didn't bother responding. I walked straight to the passenger side and pulled open the door.

Jill was sitting there.

She raised an eyebrow and gave me an apologetic look. "Sorry, Linda. I'm not feeling great today, so I took the front seat. You don't mind sitting in the back, do you?"

Lester's eyes darted to me, his lips parting as if ready to jump to Jill's defense.

On any other day, I would have frowned and insisted. I would have argued my way back into the passenger seat, the seat that belonged to the woman of the house.

But today, I said nothing and climbed into the back.

The visa center was over ten miles from downtown. Cabs were nearly impossible to flag down out here. If he wanted to come pick me up, fine. I'd treat him like a free ride.

Lester looked surprised. His lips moved, and he turned his head to say something to me.

Jill cut in before he could. "Lester, the car behind us is honking. Let's go."

I closed my eyes. I didn't know how long we drove before the car came to a stop.

When I opened them, we were parked outside a Michelin-starred restaurant.

I frowned. Lester smiled and said, "Jill knows you're upset about the green card. She wanted to treat you to dinner. Her way of making it up to you."

"No thanks," I said flatly. "I want to go home."

But Lester just laughed and pulled me out of the car.

"Come on, be good. Jill and I will explain the whole marriage certificate thing over dinner."

I sat down with a blank expression and spent the entire evening watching the three of them play happy family.

One moment, Jill was cooing as she slid her steak over to Lester, asking him to cut it for her. The next, Henry was throwing a fit, demanding Lester feed him.

My patience ran out. "If you have something to say, say it."

Lester took his time. "Hold on. Let me order some wine first."

He'd barely finished ordering when Henry knocked over the bottle of red wine.

Jill let out a gasp.

Lester turned to me quickly. "Babe, let me take Henry to the restroom to clean up. Wait here for me."

Jill shot me a smug look, then grabbed Lester's arm and led them both away.

I waited for a full hour. Not one of them came back.

Instead, the restaurant manager appeared, all polite professionalism. "Ma'am, we're closing up for the night. I'll need you to settle the bill. The total comes to a hundred and fifty thousand dollars."

I froze.

A second later, my phone buzzed with a message from Lester.

"You just had to make things difficult for Jill and the kid. You still won't apologize. It's because I've spoiled you rotten."

"I've frozen your card. You're in a foreign country with no money to pay. Let's see if you're ready to back down and apologize."

The manager watched me staring at my phone in silence and raised his voice. "Ma'am! The bill, please!"

Whispers rippled through the remaining diners, punctuated by quiet laughter.

"Can't afford to eat here, so why bother coming? Embarrassing her whole country."

"People like that should just go back where they came from..."

Countless mocking stares landed on me, each one stinging like a slap across the face.

My phone kept buzzing.

"Linda, apologize to Jill. Promise you'll never bring this up again. Otherwise, you can sit there until they call the cops on you."

I read his message, my expression unchanged.

Then I looked up and spoke in flawless English:

"Call your manager. Tell her Ms. Taylor is here."

The manager had no idea what that meant, but something in his gut told him he'd better do exactly as I said.

After he left, I pulled out the bank card from my wallet, snapped it in half, and tossed it in the trash.

Lester really thought I was nothing more than a parasite, a vine that couldn't survive without him to cling to.

What he didn't know was that I'd inherited everything my parents left behind. Their holdings spanned the globe.

I'd never told him any of this, and for one reason only: when my parents died, their will stipulated that if I ever married, I had to conceal my identity from my spouse. The moment my partner discovered who I really was, every asset I owned would revert to the family trust, and I'd be left with nothing but an annual dividend.

I understood why they'd done it. They were protecting me from being bled dry.

I used to believe Lester was different.

He was driven, ambitious. His grades were exceptional enough to earn him a faculty position straight out of school. He'd even been selected for a government-sponsored fellowship abroad.

But when the final list came out, his spot had gone to someone with connections. The blow nearly destroyed him. He locked himself in his study for days, hollow-eyed and defeated.

I couldn't bear watching someone that brilliant gather dust. So I quietly had my assistant donate an entire building to a prestigious overseas university. In return, I secured a joint research fellowship and a visiting professorship.

When Lester heard the news, he wept with joy. He pulled me into his arms, his voice breaking.

"Linda, I'm going to work so hard out there. Once I've made something of myself, I'll bring you here for good."

The truth was, I didn't care about a green card.

All I cared about was not wanting our time together limited to three months a year.

The thought drew a bitter smile to my lips.

Lester had never planned to keep me here at all.

He'd already given his legal sponsorship to Jill.

No wonder every time I visited, I'd find things in the house that didn't belong to me. No wonder every time, even before my three months were up, Lester would pack my bags and usher me toward the door.

All along, during the nine months I was gone, another woman had been living in the home I'd carefully made ours.

The restaurant manager returned moments later, and right behind her was the owner's representative. The moment she saw me, she bent at the waist in greeting.

Then she turned to the manager.

"Ms. Taylor is our boss. Her bill doesn't need to be—"

I raised a hand, cutting her off.

"Why wouldn't it need to be settled?"

I tapped a finger toward the security camera on the ceiling.

"Walking out on a check is theft. Call the police. Under local statutes, the outstanding amount should be recovered at ten times its value."

Lester, you had it backwards.

You lied to me all these years without a shred of guilt, and the only reason you got away with it was because I loved you.

Now that love is gone.

Let's see how far you fall.

I went home. The moment I pushed open the door, I was greeted by the picture of a perfect little family.

Henry sat curled in Lester's lap, begging him to tell a story. Jill stood beside them holding a plate of fruit, popping a grape into Lester's mouth every now and then. Her fingertip grazed his lips, and a blush crept across her cheeks.

But my eyes locked onto one thing only: the matching pajama set Jill was wearing. Nearly identical to the one on Lester.

I'd bought those pajamas. I'd begged Lester to wear the matching set with me. He'd barely glanced at them.

"Linda, that's so childish. Only teenagers do that."

The next year, when I came back, the pajamas were gone.

I'd always assumed he'd thrown them away.

I kicked the door open, startling the three people inside.

Jill let out a shriek and scrambled behind Lester.

Lester looked taken aback for a moment, then his expression shifted to something uncomfortable. "You... why are you back?"

I let out a cold laugh. "It's my house. Why wouldn't I come back?"

Lester opened his mouth to respond but couldn't find the words. Before he could, Henry launched himself at me like a little cannonball, slamming his head straight into my stomach.

I crashed backward into the corner of the table. A searing pain tore through my lower back, and I staggered, collapsing to the floor.

"Waaah! Bad woman! It's all your fault!" Henry screamed. "Every time you show up, Mommy and I have to leave! You bad woman! Don't you have your own home?! Why do you have to steal ours!"

Lester pulled Henry back with an awkward look on his face, his tone stern. "Kids say things they don't mean. It'd be pretty petty of you to hold it against a child."

I clenched my jaw and dragged myself to my feet. "Fine. I won't hold it against the child."

Before the satisfied smile could fully form on his face, I was already across the room. My palm connected with Jill's cheek with a sharp crack.

"When a child misbehaves, the mother pays the price. This is what you deserve, Jill!"

But my wrist was seized in an iron grip.

The next second, a burning sting exploded across my own cheek.

I fell to the floor again, staring up at Lester, his hand still raised.

His face was like stone. "Are you done, Linda?! Clearly today's lesson wasn't enough for you!"

Something seemed to occur to him then, and his expression darkened further. "That bill today was a hundred and fifty thousand dollars. You don't have a cent to your name. How did you pay for it?"

Before I could answer, Jill was already crying. "Linda, even if you're angry at us, you shouldn't hurt yourself like that!"

She pressed her fingers to her lips, eyes wide with feigned horror. "No wonder the manager was smiling at you when we left. Did you... did you and he..."

Lester's fury ignited. He stared at me, his face twisted with disgust. "Linda! You'd sell your body just to avoid apologizing?! This is how you treat me?!"

"You're... how can you be so shameless!"

His hand shook as he pointed at the door. "Get out! Get out right now!"

"You want to split up? Fine! We're done! Now leave!"

I wiped the blood from the corner of my mouth and rose unsteadily to my feet. "Lester, this is my house. The ones who should get out are you three."

Jill's eyes glinted with mockery, but her voice stayed soft and patient. "Linda, I know you put in some money back then... but Lester already transferred the deed to my name." She gave a little apologetic shrug. "I'm sorry, but I'm going to have to ask you to leave."

My head snapped toward Lester. "You transferred our home to Jill?!"

Jill walked over and looped her arm through Lester's, her expression carefully troubled. "He was worried Henry and I wouldn't feel comfortable living in someone else's house, so he put it in my name. He said that way I'd finally have a real home of my own..."

I had long since stopped expecting anything from this man. But the words still cut through me like a knife.

"This is our home! We picked out every tile, every piece of furniture together! Lester, how could you!"

He looked at me without a shred of warmth. "The house belongs to Jill now. Nothing you say is going to change that."

I stared at the two of them for a long time.

The couple's pajamas. Her arm threaded through his. The child who called her "Mommy" in the home I had paid for.

So that was it. The pajamas I'd never seen him wear with me were already on someone else.