I was digging through a dumpster for leftover food when my husband, dead for three years, showed up.

He stepped out of a Rolls-Royce and looked down at me like I was nothing.

"Sweetheart, you passed my test. Just like I knew you would."

I stood there holding a piece of moldy bread.

Staring at him blankly.

It turned out that three years ago, at a college reunion, his ex-girlfriend, the campus beauty queen, had made a proposal:

"I want to see if what you two have is real love.

"Fake your death. Cancel all her cards. Take back the house.

"If she's still faithful to you after three years, you pass. You game?"

He had laughed.

"Why wouldn't I be?

"Mary Fox's crazy about me. Forget three years. She'd wait thirty."

Now he turned and shot a smug look at the woman in the passenger seat.

"What did I tell you?"

The bread crumbled in my fist.

Clement Delgado looked at me. "Alright, I'm here to take you and Camille Delgado home.

"Where's Camille?"

"Dead."

I lifted my eyes. "Three years ago, every card was declined. There was no money for her surgery. She died."

——

Clement went still.

His gaze swept across the landfill.

There was nothing here but the endless stench and me, clutching a fistful of moldy bread.

I loved that child down to the marrow of my bones.

Wherever I went, Camille was always with me.

"Stop joking around."

A flicker of panic crossed his face when he spoke. "I mean it. I'm here to bring you both home."

"Home?"

My eyes burned as I looked up at him. "When you faked your death three years ago, they said you still owed a mountain of debt. They took the house too, said it was collateral.

"Camille and I had nowhere to go. We've been wandering ever since. What home is there to go back to?"

His mouth worked uselessly for a long moment before he managed to speak.

"That... that was just part of the test. Don't worry, the house was always mine. Come on, be good. Tell Camille to stop hiding. Once she comes out, Daddy will apologize."

"Then go ahead."

I hurled a death certificate at his face.

"Go down there and apologize to Camille yourself."

When the paper landed in his hands, his fingers trembled.

"Camille..."

He read the words "sudden cardiac death" and his eyes went red in an instant.

"I was only gone for three years. How can Camille be gone?

"You're lying to me, aren't you?"

Clement seized my shoulders. "I know I was wrong. Stop putting on an act to punish me. Just let Camille come out!"

I just looked at him.

A cold, contemptuous curl of my lips.

The hands gripping me shook.

Clement stared at me, and tears fell from his eyes.

"Clement, you really can't see through something this obvious?"

Mildred Sullivan picked up the death certificate.

"Look. Doesn't it remind you of the one I forged for you three years ago?"

She tapped the section with the official stamp.

"It's not even as good as the one I made for you.

"See here? That's not how they stamp these things."

She let out a scornful laugh and looked at me. "Mary, we've both been through this before. Trying to fool us with something like this? You're bringing a knife to a gunfight."

Clement blinked, and the grief drained from his face.

Mildred kept pointing things out to him.

"See the signature? It's so stiff, how could you not notice? And the paper itself, it's obviously been aged on purpose.

"You went through this whole process three years ago, remember? Mary's actually pretty good at this. She even predicted you'd come find her today. Dressed herself in rags and waited for you in a garbage dump."

"That's a lie!"

My eyes stung with tears.

Clement only frowned.

After examining the death certificate front and back several times, the way he looked at me turned to disgust.

"You almost had me fooled."

The death certificate hit my body. His voice was ice-cold.

"Looks like Mildred was right. You're far more calculating than you appear."

"You—!"

"By the end of today, bring Camille home. She's only six. She doesn't need to learn bad habits from a mother like you."

He turned to leave.

I scrambled to my feet, desperate to stop him.

But Mildred stepped between us.

"Mary..."

Her voice dropped to a whisper only the two of us could hear.

"I know Camille's been dead for a long time."

I stared at her in disbelief.

"Want to know why Clement doesn't?"

She laughed softly. "Because I made sure every piece of news about Camille never reached him."

My fists clenched.

"It really is a shame, when you think about it.

"Diagnosed with congenital heart disease right after her daddy died.

"A matching donor heart was available, but her own mother couldn't scrape together a single dollar. Working four jobs a day, not sleeping, and still couldn't cover the surgery.

"You let that little girl miss her only chance at a donor heart."

My eyes burned red in an instant.

"But don't worry."

Mildred admired her manicure. "She didn't die for nothing. Her bone marrow, her kidneys, her corneas..."

The air left my lungs.

She let out another soft laugh.

"Such a pity you weren't there. When they forced her to sign the consent form, she kept crying for her mommy.

"And you, her mother, were out delivering food." She tilted her head. "Agh—!!"

"You bitch!!"

I locked both hands around her throat. "Give me back my baby!!"

"Enough!"

A slap cracked across my face.

I fell sideways into the garbage heap.

Clement pulled Mildred tight against his chest, shielding her.

Tears glistened at the corners of Mildred's eyes. Her voice broke into a sob.

"I was just asking where she's hiding Camille! You can survive in a landfill, Mary, but a child can't take that kind of suffering!

"I only wanted to take Camille somewhere safe, and you tried to kill me for it!"

"That's a lie! You just said—" "Enough!"

Clement's jaw was clenched so tight the muscle jumped. "If you have even a shred of conscience as a mother, you'll bring Camille back yourself.

"Otherwise, we're getting a divorce."

He wrapped his arm around Mildred and got into the passenger seat.

Divorce?

I laughed.

Fine. But before that, I had one more thing to do.

The next day, a formal complaint letter sat on Clement's supervisor's desk.

At the same time, a banner appeared across the entrance of Delgado Corp.

The bold words read: TECH PRODIGY CLEMENT DELGADO KILLED HIS DAUGHTER FOR HIS MISTRESS. A crowd gathered fast.

And I knelt at the company entrance, holding Camille's portrait in my arms.

Silent. Unmoving.

I'd printed everything he and Mildred had done into pamphlets and handed them out on the spot.

Some people's eyes went red just from reading them.

"Is that the child in the photo? She was so tiny. How could Mr. Delgado just abandon his wife and daughter and play dead for three years?"

"Faking his death is one thing, but cutting them off completely? Froze all the money, faked a foreclosure on the house. Was this really a loyalty test, or was he trying to drive his wife to her grave so his mistress could take her place?"

"The company needs to answer for this! If it's true, does a man like that deserve his position?"

Within minutes, a senior executive came downstairs personally to escort me up.

Clement stood at the door of his office, watching me approach. His expression was unreadable.

The door closed. The executive poured me tea himself.

"Mrs. Fox, why don't you just forgive Clement and Mildred and let this go?"

My hand froze around the cup. "After what they've done, you're asking me to forgive them?"

"Look, I know Clement went a bit too far, and Mildred was out of line too.

"But Clement is the backbone of this company. Every major project has his name on it.

"You have to think about the bigger picture here, don't you?"

I couldn't speak.

The executive smiled at me. "How about this: I'll put a formal warning on both Clement's and Mildred's records. And for you, I can arrange a settlement. A generous one.

"What happened to your daughter, I'm truly sorry. But you and Clement can always have another child. You're still married, after all.

"Clement's career is only going up. As Mrs. Delgado, you'll want for nothing."

I was so furious I laughed. "Fine, protect him. But why are you protecting Mildred too?"

The executive paused.

"You didn't know? She was personally recommended by him. He vouched for her."

I nearly dropped my cup.

I had submitted my resume to this company three times.

Each time, it vanished without a trace. No explanation.

I'd begged Clement once. Just asked him to put in a word with management, get me an interview.

Not a guaranteed position. Just an interview.

I knew his influence. He wouldn't have even needed to go through the higher-ups to make it happen.

But he told me he couldn't. It would look like favoritism.

He said not to put him in that position.

So for me, it was "favoritism."

For Mildred, it was a personal endorsement straight through the door.

My knuckles went white around the cup. I stared at him.

"And if I don't accept?"

The executive gave a thin smile. "I'd advise you, Mrs. Fox, not to go to war with this company."

I hadn't been out of the building long.

The internet exploded with stories about me.

DERANGED WIFE EXPLOITS DAUGHTER'S DEATH TO EXTORT HUSBAND

TECH RISING STAR CLEMENT DELGADO'S TROUBLED HOME LIFE

WIFE SUSPECTS HUSBAND OF AFFAIR WITH FEMALE COLLEAGUE — DID SHE USE HER DAUGHTER'S DEATH AS A WEAPON OF REVENGE?

Just like that, the tide of public sympathy turned. Every person who had pitied me was now aiming their guns at me instead.

The comment sections overflowed with praise for Clement and Mildred.

"I've had the privilege of working with Mr. Delgado. Genuinely great guy, impeccable work ethic, and always respectful toward women."

"I don't know what there is to complain about being Mrs. Delgado."

"Bet Mary Fox is the one who's been cheating."

"I've met Ms. Sullivan in person once. She's an absolute sweetheart, always professional with male colleagues. Of course someone that pretty is going to attract jealous haters."

The trending numbers were too high to be organic.

I knew Clement's hand was behind it.

I went back to the home I hadn't set foot in for three years.

My fingers traced the photograph on Camille's urn, a bitter smile pulling at my lips.

"I'm sorry, baby. Mommy didn't protect you."

I set the divorce papers on the table.

I was reaching for Camille's urn to take her with me when the door was kicked open.

Clement strode in carrying Mildred, whose forehead was wrapped in gauze.

"Where's Camille?"

I wiped the tears from the corners of my eyes. "What do you want?"

"What do I want?"

Clement let out a cold laugh. "Mildred was attacked. You put Camille up to it, didn't you?"

"Clement!"

My fists clenched. "What are you talking about?"

Mildred shrank against Clement's chest.

"Mary, why bother denying it? When that child swung a hammer at my head, I saw her face clear as day. It was her.

"She even said she was getting revenge for you.

"If Clement hadn't gotten there in time, I was completely caught off guard. That child might have actually killed me."

I clenched my teeth so hard my jaw ached.

Clement looked at me, his gaze ice-cold.

"I knew it. Camille's been with a mother like you and now she's learned to lie.

"If I'd known it would come to this, I would have taken her with me three years ago."