Just before dawn, I couldn't hold out any longer and drifted off against the couch, half-conscious.

Somewhere between sleep and waking, someone gently laid a blanket over me.

My eyes snapped open and I grabbed his wrist.

Otto froze mid-motion.

He looked down at me, and for a single instant something panicked flickered in his eyes before his face hardened again.

Clutching at his sleeve, I asked hoarsely,

"The divorce agreement. Did you read it?"

Otto's expression went cold in an instant.

"Deidre, are you done making a scene?"

He pulled his hand back, like he'd been holding it in all night and finally couldn't anymore.

"You want to divorce me over three hundred thousand dollars?"

I looked at him, and suddenly the whole thing felt so absurd I almost laughed.

"Otto, that money is what's keeping my father alive."

"You're willing to buy Leah's dog a four-hundred-thousand-dollar collar, but you won't lend me three hundred thousand to save my dad's life?"

Otto's fists clenched, his face dark.

"The money is mine. How I spend it is my business. It's none of yours."

I stared at him, numb.

"But don't forget."

"For this marriage, for our child, I gave up my career on my own."

"All those years of salary, bonuses, my savings from before the wedding—I handed every cent of it to you."

"You were so afraid I was after the Gilbert family's money that you wouldn't even let me live in the apartment your family had ready. You insisted we buy our own place."

"This home, I bought it myself. I paid the down payment myself."

My voice was cracking, little by little.

"Otto, all I asked was to borrow three hundred thousand."

"After everything I've given you over the years, isn't that more than three hundred thousand already?"

Otto's face was ugly.

But what rose in his eyes wasn't guilt. It was disappointment.

"Deidre, you're tallying up money with me now?"

He looked at me like it pained him to the core.

"I love you so much I'd give up my own life for you and the baby, and now you're counting dollars with me?"

He stepped back half a pace, as if he were finally seeing me clearly.

"Leah was right after all."

"You married me for the money."

"You never brought it up before because the time wasn't right."

"The second something happens to your dad, you start figuring out how to pull money out of my hands."

A dry, hollow laugh escaped me.

"Think whatever you want."

I pushed the divorce agreement across to him.

"I want a divorce. I won't take a single cent of your money. All I want is to sell the house and take back the down payment I paid."

Otto's face turned to ice.

"No way! I won't divorce you."

"This house is our marital home! You don't get to sell it! My name is on it too, and as long as I don't sign, you can't sell it. Don't even dream about getting a cent."

I looked at him, and suddenly I didn't even have the strength left to argue.

"Otto, you say you love me."

"And yet you'd stand there and watch my father die."

I said softly,

"Your love. It's terrifying."

Otto pressed his lips into a thin line, as if my words had stung him.

But in the end he only turned and walked toward the study.

"Think it over carefully."

"Kidney failure is a bottomless pit."

"You can choose the family you came from, the one that'll need you to keep pouring money into it forever, or you can choose me and the baby."

"Deidre, it's your decision."

The study door closed again.

Otto seemed to have forgotten that before I became a housewife, I was a lawyer.

And what I was best at was divorce cases.

I'd left one last shred of dignity for our marriage, but now he'd torn it away.

Otto's threats meant nothing to me anymore.

I wouldn't choose him.

I dialed the loan company.

“Yes, I want a loan.”

“Using my house as collateral.”

“I don't care about high interest. I need the money today.”

The moment the loan cleared, I went straight to the hospital.

I didn't just pay the $300,000.

I covered all the follow-up treatment costs too, switched him to the best medications, hired a private nurse, and booked a VIP single room.

When they wheeled my father into the room, my mother sat beside the bed, looking like she could finally breathe.

Watching them, worn out and uneasy, I felt a sharp ache in my chest.

If I hadn't married Otto Gilbert.

All of this, I could have done with ease.

It was love that had stripped me down to nothing, one step at a time.

The door of the room flew open with a kick.

Otto stormed in, eyes bloodshot, Leah Swanson trailing behind him.

He took in the private room, then the payment receipt on the table, and his face darkened in an instant.

“Deidre! Leah told me you were here throwing money around, booking a VIP room, and I didn't believe her.”

“I never thought you'd actually have the nerve.”

He crossed the room to me in a few strides, his voice frighteningly cold.

“Where did this money come from?”

My mother shot to her feet in fright.

“Otto, please don't be angry.”

“We won't stay here. We'll move back to a regular room right away.”

“It's our fault for being a burden on Deidre. Please don't let us come between the two of you.”

My father braced himself against the bed, trying to sit up.

“Deidre, I won't get treatment.”

“Don't tear your life apart for my sake.”

My eyes burned at their words, and I stepped right in front of them.

“Get out.”

Otto's expression shifted.

“Deidre, who do you think you're talking to?”

I stared him down.

“I told you to get out. Don't disturb my parents' rest.”

Leah tugged gently at Otto's sleeve.

“Deidre, you suddenly pulled out this much money. Of course Otto's going to wonder.”

“You're still carrying his child. Don't do anything to betray him.”

My father shook with rage and climbed straight off the bed.

“You apologize to her!”

“My daughter is decent and honest. You have no right to drag her name through the mud!”

Leah instantly shrank into Otto's arms, eyes red, and cried out:

“Otto, he's going to hit me!”

Otto's face changed in a flash, and he shoved my father aside.

“Who said you could touch her!”

My father slammed hard into the nightstand, the corner of his forehead splitting open at once, blood streaming down his face.

He collapsed to the floor, lips white, without even the strength to cry out in pain.

My mother screamed and threw herself toward him.

“Samuel!”

My mind went blank with a roar, and I rushed out shouting:

“Doctor! Somebody, help!”

Otto froze where he stood, staring at his own hands, the fury on his face finally giving way to panic.

“I didn't mean to. I just didn't want him to hurt Leah.”

I stood up and slapped him hard across the face.

“And Leah spreading filthy lies about me, that's fine?”

Otto's head snapped to the side from the blow, and Leah rushed to steady him, all tenderness.

“Otto, don't blame Deidre. She's just too worked up right now.”

Otto looked at me, eyes red.

“Deidre, I'll ask you one last time. Where did the money come from?”

I let out a cold laugh and held my phone screen up to his face.

The loan page was right there, clear as day.

“See it?”

“A loan. Using my house as collateral.”

“High interest. Cleared today.”

Otto's pupils contracted sharply.

“Are you insane?”

“Who gave you permission to mortgage our home?”

Leah frowned along with him.

“Deidre, how could you be so unreasonable?”

“Otto loves you so much, and here you are scheming after his money.”

“How is that any different from those gold diggers?”

I looked at her and smiled.

“Shut up.”

Her face went white.

I turned to Otto.

“I told you long ago that I wanted a divorce.”

“Sell the house. All I'll take back is the $1 million down payment I put into it.”

“Weren't you afraid I was after your money?”

“Divorce me now, and I'll guarantee you won't have to cover this debt.”

Otto stared at me, hard.:

“I won't divorce you.”

“However much you borrowed, I'll pay it off for you.”

My smile turned colder.

“You pay it off, and I'll borrow more.”

“Once the house is fully mortgaged, I'll borrow on the strength of being Mrs. Gilbert.”

“Otto, tell me, if I really turned into a deadbeat debtor, would you and your company get dragged down with me?”

Otto finally froze, as if he were seeing me for the first time.

“Deidre, you're insane.”

“I can get a lot more insane.”

Right in front of him, I dialed my mother-in-law.

“I want a divorce from Otto. I won't take a cent except the down payment on my house.”

“Within ten minutes, I want to see $1 million in my account, and I want to see his signed divorce agreement.”

“Otherwise, I'll go take out a predatory high-interest loan right now, using the name of Mrs. Gilbert.”

“Every minute late, I'll borrow another $1 million. As long as Otto and I are husband and wife, even for one minute, that debt lands on the Gilbert family. I'll drag the Gilberts, I'll drag Otto, I'll drag every last one of you straight down to hell with me.”

My mother-in-law's shrill voice came back at once.

“Deidre, are you insane?”

I said calmly,:

“The clock starts now.”

Ten minutes later, Mrs. Gilbert arrived at the hospital with the Gilbert family's lawyers and bodyguards.

A bodyguard pinned Otto by the shoulder and forced him down in front of the divorce agreement.

Otto wrenched against the grip and looked at me, eyes bloodshot.

“Deidre, do you really have to do this?!”

“Do you really have to come to this with me over money?!”

All I said was, “Sign.”

The light in his eyes died, bit by bit. He stared at me in despair, his voice going hoarse.

“I can pay the money back. I can pay for your father's treatment too.”

“Stop this, please?”

“We can't divorce.”

“We have a child.”

I looked coldly at my mother-in-law, and she immediately signaled the bodyguards.

A bodyguard shoved the pen into his hand, and the lawyer flipped the agreement to the signature page.

He gripped the pen so hard the veins stood out on the back of his hand.

“Deidre.”

“Say something.”

“Say you were wrong, say you won't borrow the money. Tell them to stop.”

I stood right where I was, not even a flicker in my eyes.

Otto's eyes were terrifyingly red.

Held down by the bodyguard's grip on his shoulder, his fingers trembled so badly he could barely hold the pen.

When the tip touched down, it gouged deep lines into the paper, but he signed his name all the same.