The woman's hat brim was pulled low. I couldn't see her face.

I looked away and raised my paddle. “Three point five million.”

Bidder No. 8 followed immediately. “Four million.”

Whispers rippled through the room.

An ordinary jade bracelet had just been bid up to four million dollars, far beyond market value.

Joe's frown deepened. He pressed down on my wrist. “Sarah, it's just a bracelet. It's not worth spending this much.”

I pulled my hand free and raised my paddle stubbornly：“Four point five million.”

Bidder No. 8 matched it almost instantly. “Five million.”

I gripped the paddle until my knuckles went white.

Five million. That number was already beyond what my personal account could cover.

I took a deep breath and turned to Joe. “Bid for me.”

Surprise crossed his face, but mostly disapproval. “Sarah, calm down. It's a bracelet——”

“It's not just a bracelet.”

I cut him off, my voice raw. “Joe, that's the bracelet I sold. My mother's. I sold it to raise money for you.”

Joe's expression froze.

I said it again：“Bid for me.”

He was silent for a few seconds, then finally raised the paddle. “Five point five million.”

Every pair of eyes in the room locked onto our table.

Bidder No. 8 didn't counter right away.

I thought she'd given up. My heartbeat had just started to slow.

“Six million.” The next second, the woman's voice came, unhurried, almost taunting.

I whipped around to look at No. 8.

She seemed to sense my gaze. Slowly, she removed her mask.

Red lips curved upward, eyes bright with amusement. Lillian Fox.

I turned to Joe.

His face had gone tight, lips pressed thin, his throat working once.

“Sarah, this price is absurd. There's no reason to keep going.”

“That's my mother's heirloom!”

While we argued, the bidding window closed.

The auctioneer's gavel came down.

The jade bracelet went to Lillian Fox.

That gavel might as well have struck my chest. Whatever was left of my faith in this marriage died with it.

I nearly ran out of the auction hall.

At the end of the corridor, Lillian was admiring the jade bracelet on her wrist.

When she saw me, her smile sharpened.

“What a coincidence. We just saw each other at the hospital yesterday.”

“And now here we are again at the auction.”

It clicked. Last night at the hospital wasn't an accident. Lillian had staged the whole thing. But none of that mattered right now. What mattered was getting my mother's bracelet back.

“Give me the bracelet. Name your price.”

Lillian let out a scornful laugh.

“With what money? You couldn't even come up with six million in there.”

I bit my lip. ：“What do I have to do to get you to give it back?”

Lillian stepped back and crumpled to the floor.

“Sarah, it's just a bracelet! Why did you push me?”

She curled up, arms shielding her stomach, eyes reddening on cue.

Joe came rushing from the other end of the corridor and shoved me aside.

Sunny was right behind him, throwing himself next to Lillian. “Aunt Lillian, does it hurt?”

Once he'd confirmed Lillian was fine, Joe looked up at me. His voice cut like a blade. “Sarah, why did you push her?”

Sunny ran up to me, fists clenched, and demanded, “Mommy, why did you push Aunt Lillian? I hate you!”

His small fists were balled so tight they shook.

The two people who once loved me were both interrogating me for the sake of another woman.

I crouched down and looked Sunny in the eyes：“Sunny, Mommy didn't push her.”

“You're lying! Aunt Lillian fell down! Daddy said you pushed her!”

Lillian was crying prettily, tears rolling down her cheeks like rain on petals：“Joe, don't fight with your wife because of me.”

“And Sunny, don't talk to your mommy like that.”

“It's all my fault. If I'd known that bracelet was her mother's keepsake, I never would have bid against her.”

She pulled free from Joe's arms and stood up on unsteady legs.

“I'll give the bracelet back to her right now.”

She walked toward me and, in a voice only I could hear, hissed：“You've been sitting in my seat for seven years. It's my turn to be Mrs. Delgado.”

With her back to Joe, the malice in Lillian's eyes was completely undisguised.

But for my mother's keepsake, I held my tongue and reached out to take it.

The next second, she slammed the jade bracelet against the floor.

Shards burst in every direction.

I dropped to my knees to pick them up. A fragment sliced my fingertip, and a bead of blood seeped into the jade.

Lillian's sobbing drifted down from above me. “Joe, I really meant to give it back to her. I don't know why I couldn't hold on to it.”

Joe patted her back. When he looked at me, all that was left in his eyes was irritation. “It's just a bracelet. It broke. Get over it.”

I stared at him in disbelief and laughed, the sound thin and wretched.

That was when the ground lurched violently beneath us.

“Earthquake! Run——”

Screams erupted everywhere. The crowd stampeded toward the exits.

Joe scooped Lillian up by the waist and bolted.

I choked down the bitterness clawing up my throat and rushed to Sunny, reaching for him so we could escape together.

He wrenched his hand free. His voice was shrill.

“You're so evil you pushed Aunt Lillian down!”

“You're a bad woman! Don't touch me!”

I stumbled back several steps trying to keep my balance and fell to the ground anyway.

Sunny didn't spare me a single glance. He ran straight to Lillian. “Aunt Lillian, it's too dangerous here. Let's go!”

His small voice was full of worry.

A sharp crack overhead.

I looked up. One of the steel cables holding the crystal chandelier had already snapped.

I tried to scramble to my feet and dodge, but I was a second too late.

The heavy fixture slammed into my back.

Blinding pain, then darkness swallowing everything.

In the last second before I blacked out, all I saw were three silhouettes walking away.

And Sunny's voice, brimming with concern.

“Daddy, take Aunt Lillian to the hospital, quick!”

“Her hands are all red. Mommy must've pushed her!”

Lillian had a few scrapes. I was the one barely clinging to life.

But neither father nor son spared me a thought.

Not even a backward glance.

When I woke, I was in a hospital.

A doctor pushed through the door. “Mrs. Henson?”

I nodded. He flipped through my chart, his tone grave.

“You're six weeks pregnant. You need strict bed rest for the next several days.”

“If something like this happens again, there's a high chance you'll lose the baby.”

My hand went to my stomach without thinking.

So the loss of appetite these past weeks wasn't stress. There was a child growing inside me.

“Mrs. Henson? Are you listening?”

“I'm listening.”

I pulled my hand away. My voice was flat, as though I were talking about someone else's life.

“My husband and I are in the middle of a divorce.”

“Schedule me for a termination. As soon as possible.”

The doctor faltered, words caught behind his teeth.

“Why don't you think it over tonight. If you still want to go through with it tomorrow, we can fit you in that same day.”

The door had barely closed when my phone buzzed.

I opened it. A message from Jordan.

【Hal Whitney at Crestpoint Capital is interested in buying the shares. Terms to be discussed in person. 3 PM, The Riverside Club.】

I typed back a single word, "OK," and several more messages popped up one after another.

【I dug into Joe's travel records for the past seven years.】

【Starting five years ago, he was flying to Paris constantly. Hundreds of round trips in total.】

【Up until a year ago, when Lillian came back to the States. After that, he never went to Paris again.】

Five years ago?

I stared at those words, and something detonated inside my skull.

Five years ago, I was pregnant with Sunny. The morning sickness was so bad I ended up hospitalized for dehydration.

Joe told me the company was expanding overseas. Said he had to travel constantly for work.

Then I fell at home and went into premature labor.

Joe was still abroad, supposedly closing deals.

He only made it back when I was on the verge of dying.

His hands shook when he signed the consent forms.

He gripped my hand so hard his knuckles went white, his eyes red-rimmed.

“Sarah, don't you dare die on me.”

“If you die, I'm going with you.”

That was the first time I'd ever seen Joe lose his composure because of me.

I held on for that promise. Gritted my teeth through every second of it.

In the end, Sunny and I both pulled through.

Every time I thought back on that night, I told myself all the suffering had been worth it.

Even if he'd been absent for my entire pregnancy, at least when it mattered most, he was afraid to lose me.

But now, staring at the flight records Jordan had sent, my blood ran cold.

The day I went into premature labor was March seventeenth.

Joe's flight records showed he'd flown back from Paris that day. Not Mexico, where he'd told me he was on a business trip.

My hands were shaking, but I forced myself to type the next line.

【What else did you find?】

Jordan's reply came fast.

【Five years ago, Lillian moved out of her host family's place into a mansion in a gated community.】

【Rent was about $10,000 a month. The account paying for it belonged to someone with the last name Delgado.】

The phone nearly slipped from my fingers.

Ten thousand dollars a month.

Four years. Twelve months a year. That was four hundred eighty thousand dollars.

During those same four years, I was living in a basement apartment smaller than three hundred square feet, too guilty to spend fifty bucks on a winter coat.

When I was pregnant with Sunny, I craved cherries. I saw the price tag and put them back.

I drew a long breath and crushed every feeling back down where it belonged.

【Hold on to all of this. I'll decide what to do after I meet with Mr. Whitney.】

I closed the chat and checked the date.

I'd been unconscious for two full days.

Less than four days left.

Time was running out. I pulled the IV from my arm and got up.

On my way out, I caught a glimpse through the doorway of the room next to mine. Lillian's room.

Joe scooped up a spoonful of porridge and blew on it gently.

“Careful, it's hot.”

Lillian was propped against the headboard, a coy little pout on her lips.

“Joe, I can feed myself.”

“Your hand's scraped up. Don't move it.”

Sunny sat at the foot of the bed, watching them with wide, eager eyes.

Joe scooped another spoonful, this time sprinkling some dried pork floss on top.

“Eat more. The doctor said you and the baby are both underweight.”

Lillian opened her mouth obediently, then whined：“Just spend more time with me. When I'm happy, I eat more.”

“So are you staying with me tonight?”

Joe paused for a beat. “I'll stay a little longer.”

Sunny piped up from the side. “Don't leave, Daddy! Let's all stay with Aunt Lillian!”

Joe smiled and agreed right away：“Okay.”

He set the bowl down and reached over to tuck the blanket around Lillian's shoulders.

I bit down on my lip until I tasted iron and swallowed it back.

Then Sunny seemed to remember something.

“Daddy, I haven't seen Mommy in two days. Where did she go?”

My feet froze to the floor.

Joe answered without looking up：“Your mom got a little scratch. She'll be fine in a few days.”

Seven stitches across my back. Nearly lost the pregnancy.

A little scratch.

Or maybe Joe had been so busy taking care of Lillian that he'd never bothered to look at my chart at all.

Sunny let out a disinterested "oh" and turned back to make Lillian laugh.

My fists clenched, nails digging crescents into my palms.

Lillian looked up and met my eyes. She mouthed the words slowly：

【Your man. Your kid. They're both mine now.】

I smiled, cold and sharp, and mouthed right back：

【A deadbeat dad and his brainwashed kid. They're all yours.】