When Naomi Sullivan married me, she was already ten million dollars in debt. I spent the last five years working three jobs to help her pay off her "debts" while providing for her as well as our son, Shane Lewis.

Not once did I ever complain about anything. All along, I firmly believed that my efforts would pay off, and we would eventually lead a good life together.

Last week, our company finally secured a massive investment. Naomi and I hugged as we celebrated the occasion. I thought that the hard times were finally over.

Today, I ended up seeing Naomi featured in the financial news. Dressed in a formal gown, she was hailed as the sole heiress to a multi-billion-dollar empire. She was shown engaged in an animated conversation with her "investor", Jared Lewis.

The news headline read, "Naomi Sullivan Completes Five-Year Adversity Trial, Proves Her Ability to Build from Scratch to the Board of Directors".

I trudge home in a daze. When I get there, the five-year-old Shane is playing with the latest limited-edition toy robot.

He looks at me with a frosty, distant expression that bears an uncanny resemblance to his mother's.

"Mommy told me everything. You failed the trial, Daddy. You care too much about money."

The words of my son, Shane Lewis, hit me like bullets, piercing right through my skull. I stared at him as he played with his limited-edition toy robot. I'd spent three sleepless nights doing freelance design work just to get that for him.

His face, which looked just like Naomi Sullivan's, held a frosty indifference that should never have been found on a five-year-old.

"S-Shane, what are you talking about?"

My throat had tightened. Every word was torture to get out.

"Mommy told me everything," Shane said flatly. "Mommy said that a truly capable man wouldn't constantly talk about money.

"You spend all your time calculating all those expenses. You'd even run two blocks on foot just because of a supermarket discount. And you even got mad at me because I broke a toy."

"I wasn't mad. I was just—"

"Mommy said that's what a petty, low-class man does," Shane interrupted as he coolly repeated Naomi's words. "She said you're fixated on trivial, short-term gains. Your love is both too worthless and too burdensome."

It felt as though something was squeezing my heart, the pain suffocating me.

Every single dollar I scrimped and saved had only been for this family. I gave up all my dignity just to pay off Naomi's massive debts. I'd scalded my arm while working the night shift at the convenience store. I'd even almost collapsed on the road after working dozens of hours straight at the design studio.

But now, Naomi and Shane had reduced all the sacrifices I'd made to me being a petty, low-class man who cared too much about money.

I crouched down to take Shane's hand, but he shoved me away in disgust. "Don't touch my robot. You can't even afford it."

I couldn't afford it? The receipt for that robot was still in my wallet.

My lips parted, but no word came out.

Feeling numb, I straightened up and stumbled backward, my back hitting the cold wall behind me. My gaze swept over the living room before landing on the coffee table. On it was a check and a document—a divorce agreement.

Naomi had already signed it, her signature as refined and polished as she'd looked when she was featured in the financial news.

The check beside it was my "severance pay" for the multiple jobs I had worked and countless sleepless nights that had consumed five years of my youth.

It was so ironic to think that, just last week, Naomi and I had hugged in celebration right here in this living room. She'd said, "We've made it through the tough times, Ian. From now on, we'll be the happiest family alive!"

Looking back now, that was probably just the last line of her script to mark the end of her adversity trial.

My phone started ringing. The word "Darling" flashed on the screen. I woodenly took the call.

"You saw it, right?" Naomi's curt voice rang out. "Our adversity trial has ended, Ian. Congratulations on having completed this process with me, but unfortunately, you have been eliminated."

"A trial?" I croaked. My voice had returned, but my throat was dry.

"That's right. It was just a trial," she confirmed with a scornful laugh. "I needed to prove to the board of directors that, even in the most desperate circumstances, I can still attract a loyal partner and build up everything from scratch.

"Jared is my investor and my real fiance. You're just some guy I picked at random to fulfill the role of my husband in this social experiment. It just so happened that you and Jared have the same last name, Lewis."

"So that ten-million-dollar debt…"

"Oh. That was just another way of referring to the startup capital I needed. After all, how else could I gauge a person's true character under adverse circumstances if I hadn't framed it as a debt?"

"Naomi!" I snapped, my nails digging into my palm. "You vile, contemptible woman!"

"Am I? But this so-called vile, contemptible woman is now the heir to a multi-billion-dollar fortune. Take the check and leave with your dignity, Ian. Don't make me lose all respect for you in the end."

After a pause, she said something even crueler to me.

"By the way, Shane isn't your son. His parents are Jared and me. I was never pregnant with your child. You were just playing the role of a proxy parent in Shane's part of this social experiment.

"Now that the real man of the house will be returning, you need to move out of the house at once. It belongs to my real family with Jared and Shane."

It felt as though I'd been plunged into an icy lake.

"Jared and the legal team from Sullivan Group will be arriving in 30 minutes. They'll handle the rest with you. Remember to at least act in a dignified manner."

The call ended, but I continued clutching my phone. It felt like I was holding a burning coal.

A proxy parent in a social experiment?

It turned out that they were the ones who allowed me to be a father in the first place. And they were now taking that privilege back.

I didn't move. I wasn't going to just leave like this. I was going to take back every single thing that belonged to me.

The doorbell rang ten minutes earlier than Naomi had said. They seemed pretty eager.

When I opened the door, I saw Jared—the business tycoon I saw smiling brightly on the financial news—standing on the doorstep. He had a man and a woman with him, both in business suits. They were probably the lawyers from Sullivan Group.

"How nice to meet you, Mr. Lewis," Jared said, his voice cool and calm.

He didn't come across as arrogant or overbearing. Instead, he surveyed me with a pitying look.

"The past five years must've been hard on you. To be honest, you did a lot better than I'd anticipated. Your acting was… very realistic," he remarked before brushing past me.

He strode right into the living room as if he owned the place.

"Shane, Daddy's here."

Shane immediately dropped his robot and scampered into Jared's arms, nuzzling against him. "Daddy Jared! You came!"

After Jared snapped his fingers, someone who looked like a secretary handed Shane a box that contained the latest limited-edition toy.

"Of course I'd come here. I promised you that once Mommy's 'game' ended, I'd take you home. Let's go to Dreamyland this weekend, okay?"

"Yay! I love you and Mommy the most, Daddy Jared!" Shane squealed.

They were blissfully engaged in their happy conversation, as if no one else were around. It seemed as though they were a family, while I was just an actor who'd completed my part and was supposed to get off the stage.

My heart had grown so numb that it no longer stung in pain.

Jared scooped Shane into his arms before taking a look around. His eyes landed on the upholstered couch I'd bought secondhand. His brow creased as if he'd just spotted something dirty.

"What was Naomi thinking? How could she stay in a dump like this and use such cheap furniture? None of these things is good enough for her."

Turning to one of the lawyers, he said, "Make a note of this, Mr. Meyer. Get a cleaning company to come over and toss out all the furniture. Cheap trash doesn't have a place in Naomi's house."

"Understood, Mr. Lewis."

Every word Jared said had explicitly canceled out all of the effort I'd put in throughout the last five years.

I'd stuck to a frugal budget only for the sake of the "shared future" of the family, but in his eyes, I was sullying his sophisticated fiancee's life with cheap trash.

The lawyer came up to me. After introducing himself as Edwin Meyer, he handed me a pen, saying, "Mr. Lewis, kindly sign the divorce agreement. The five-million-dollar compensation is already the highest industry standard for a roleplay project such as this. Ms. Sullivan and her fiance are being very generous with you."

"The highest industry standard?" I repeated with a look of incredulity.

They were basically reducing my life to a business transaction.

"That's correct," Edwin said before adjusting his glasses. "Apart from that, being a decent and kind-hearted man, Mr. Jared Lewis has asked me to give you a reminder not to engage in any form of continued harassment.

"Any such behavior will be regarded by the legal team as malicious provocation against the entire Sullivan family. I'm sure you wouldn't wish to bear the consequences of such an act."

It was an undisguised threat.

Jared came over with Shane in his arms and a courteous smile on his face.

"Please don't get the wrong idea, Ian. We're not threatening you. You're a smart man. I'm sure you know what the right choice for you is, right?" Jared said.

Looking down at Shane, he said gently, "Shane, say goodbye to this… man here. He's moving out of our home."

Shane lifted his head from Jared's shoulder and looked at me. He used to stare at me with a look of dependence, but now, his gaze was impatient and distant.

"Let's go, Daddy Jared. I don't want to see him. Mommy said that his poor-man energy and stingy attitude would rub off on me."

Poor-man energy and stingy attitude?

That completely destroyed what little warmth remained in my heart.

Staring at Jared and Shane, I laughed.

My laughter startled Jared and Edwin. They probably expected me to either explode in rage, curse them out at the top of my lungs, or fall to my knees and beg.

Laughter was the only thing they didn't expect from me.

"Why are you laughing?" Jared questioned, his brow furrowed.

"It's nothing," I said, my expression stilling after my laughter died out. "I just thought you guys proved to be great actors as well."

I walked into the bedroom and dragged out several storage boxes from under the bed. I bought them a few days ago. My plan was to use them to organize our off-season clothes in preparation for our new life following the end of our hard days.

"Oh? Have you come to your senses and decided to pack up so you can get the hell out of here?" Jared called out mockingly as he leaned against the doorframe with his arms crossed.

I ignored him.

One by one, I methodically sorted through all of the expenses I'd covered in the last five years. During that time, I'd printed out the bank transaction records of my income from the three jobs I worked.

I also compiled my credit card statements and the detailed transaction records for the supplementary card used to make payments for Naomi's so-called heavy debts.

Jared's expression went from scornful to confused before eventually growing wary.

"What the hell are you doing, Ian? Don't tell me you plan on using this pile of junk to extort money from us. Well, I'm telling you right now that it's not going to work. We have the best legal team there is."

I said nothing. From a dedicated document folder, I took out a thick stack of receipts and invoices. And finally, I took out the receipt for Shane's limited-edition toy robot. The receipt had been issued in my name, and my debit card was listed as the payment method.

I gently placed that receipt on top of all the evidence, as if it were the final mark to end these five absurd years of my life.

Once I was done with that, I closed the boxes. All three large boxes had been filled, but not with my personal items. They contained my blood, sweat, and tears spilled in the last five years—the entirety of my life during that time, which had been reduced to nothing.

I looked at Jared and Edwin, saying, "I'm taking these with me."

Evidently, Edwin found my actions inconceivable as well. "Those are records of the shared family expenses, Mr. Lewis. You have no right to take them all away. Besides, they can't serve as grounds for you to demand additional compensation."

"Who said I wanted additional compensation?" I tossed back at him.

I turned to Jared, who was eyeing me like I was some kind of madman. With a scornful smirk, he declared, "There's no changing you, huh? All you care about is money. You're a hopeless case, Ian."

"That's right." I nodded, admitting to it. "I'm a hopeless case who can't be changed. All I care about is money."

After all, money was the only thing in this world that wouldn't betray me. I lugged the boxes of "junk" to the doorway and changed into my shoes.

Up until now, I didn't even bother looking at Shane.

The only things I took with me were my passport, debit card, social security card, and the boxes of evidence that mattered more to me than my life.

As I opened the door to leave this "home" that I'd dedicated five straining years of my life to, Jared spoke up behind me.

His voice wasn't that loud, but it was clear enough for me to hear as he said to Shane, "See that, Shane? I was right, wasn't I? A man like him isn't worthy of being your father. Money is the only thing he sees."

Even as the door closed, I heard them laugh.