Leah froze. Clearly she hadn't expected me to take it this far.

She sighed and reached over to take my hand.

"Honey, don't be angry."

"I only thought, since you've sponsored Roland all these years, that you were fond of the boy."

"I had no idea you couldn't stand him."

"Fine, fine, fine. I promise I won't contact him again. Just stop throwing around the word divorce every five minutes."

I pulled my hand away and didn't bother looking at her.

Leah cleared her throat a couple of times.

"So, honey, the company's sending me on a business trip for a few days."

"You rest up at home. I'll bring you back a gift."

I'd thought that with Roland out of the picture, this household could hold together a little longer.

After all, it would be too cruel for a girl this small to grow up in a broken home.

I never expected that the next afternoon, when I got off work and went to pick my daughter up from her activity class,

the teacher hurried out to meet me the moment I reached the door.

"Nina's dad, what are you doing here?"

"Nina was already picked up by her mom and a young man."

A bad feeling rose in my chest, and I quickly called Leah.

The phone rang for a long time before she picked up.

"Leah! Where did you take my daughter?!"

Leah's voice came back light and cheerful.

"Off work already, honey? I've already brought her home."

"There's a surprise waiting for you here, so hurry back!"

I couldn't care less about any surprise. I hit the gas and drove home as fast as I could.

I pushed the door open, and there was Roland, sitting on the couch.

A glass of milk in his hand, lifting it toward my daughter's lips.

In my last life, this was exactly how Roland did it, when I wasn't there.

He mixed a heavy dose of crushed sleeping pills into her milk and coaxed my three-year-old daughter into drinking it down.

By the time I found her, her little body had already gone cold.

Terror flooded through me.

I rushed over like a madman and knocked the glass out of Roland's hand.

"Get away from my daughter!"

A sharp crack.

The glass shattered on the floor, white milk splattering everywhere.

My daughter burst into terrified sobs.

I pulled her tight against me, shaking all over.

Roland cried out, staring at the milk across the floor, at a loss.

Leah came running from the kitchen at the noise.

She saw the mess on the floor and her crying daughter, and screamed at me.

"What the hell has gotten into you?!"

I kept my eyes locked on Roland, grinding out my question to Leah.

"I'm asking you. Why is he in my house?!"

Leah quickly pulled Roland behind her, shielding him.

"My trip got canceled, and Roland happened to arrive at the station, so I picked him up on the way for a meal."

I looked at her coldly.

"Leah, did everything I said just go in one ear and out the other?"

"What did I tell you yesterday? You contact him again, we get divorced!"

The moment she heard that, her temper flared too.

"You are completely unreasonable!"

"I brought Roland over on purpose, just so you could see for yourself what a fine young man he is!"

"Spend a few more days around him and you'll change your mind, I promise!"

"I was trying to keep ten years of your sponsorship from going down the drain, and instead of understanding me, you threaten me with divorce!"

Roland peeked out from behind Leah, eyes rimmed red, stubborn and wronged all at once.

"Sir, don't blame Auntie. This is all my fault."

"You two are both my benefactors. I don't want you fighting because of me."

"I'll leave right now, so I won't be in your sight."

He made a show of going for his luggage, then stopped at the door.

"As for the tuition and living expenses, don't worry, sir. I'll find a way on my own."

"Even if... even if I have to steal or rob for it, I'll scrape the tuition together somehow."

Leah grabbed Roland's arm, her face full of pity.

"Roland, don't say such foolish things!"

"Don't you worry. Even if he won't sponsor you, Auntie will put you through college!"

Then she turned and glared at me, vicious.

"Look at what you've done!"

"I actually thought you were a generous, big-hearted man. I never imagined you could be this petty!"

"You're shoving a good kid straight into the fire!"

I was so furious I almost laughed.

Whether he went out stealing or robbing was none of my damn business. I hadn't forced him into anything.

When I said nothing, Leah let out a sigh.

"You've been working too much overtime lately, you're in a bad mood, so I'll let all that anger talk slide."

"I'm going to take Roland out for a nice meal first, to settle his nerves."

"You stay home and calm down. And stop tossing the word divorce around every five minutes."

"Our daughter is only three. If she loses her mother this young, the other kids at daycare will make fun of her!"

With that she took Roland by the hand and headed for the door.

On his way out, Roland glanced back at me.

There was no mistaking the smugness in that look, or the challenge behind it.

Not long after, my phone buzzed.

A message from Leah.

"Since you don't want Roland staying at the house, I'll take him to a hotel nearby for now."

"I'll spend the next few days showing him around, clearing my head."

"You just stay home and think about what you've done."

I stared at the screen and laughed out loud, cold and short.

Reflect?

I did have something to reflect on.

How blind I'd been, marrying a woman who'd sell out her own family for a piece of trash like that.

Leah's heart had turned completely rotten.

If that was how it was, there was nothing left to say.

I called my lawyer straightaway.

"Wyatt Finch, draw up a divorce agreement for me. The faster the better."

Then I called a private investigator I knew.

"I need you to look into two people for me. My wife, Leah Swanson, and a college student named Roland Fox."

For the next few days Leah didn't contact me, and I was glad for the quiet.

But every time I looked at my daughter, I couldn't shake the worry.

This house wasn't safe anymore.

Who knew what low, filthy trick Roland would pull next.

So I quickly packed a few of Nina's clothes and her everyday things.

I drove her straight to my parents' place.

I'd barely arrived when two photos came through from Roland.

The first showed a luxury king bed in a five-star hotel, an Apple set laid out neatly across it. Scattered beside them were several designer watches and a few pieces of high-end menswear, tags still uncut.

The second was two hands laid one over the other, a pair of matching Cartier rings on the ring fingers.

No guessing needed. The hands belonged to Leah and Roland.

I looked at the two photos and let out a cold laugh.

Roland probably really thought he'd landed himself a rich woman.

He had no idea.

The reason my family lived in a nice house and drove nice cars was that I'd worked myself to the bone over the years to make vice president.

Leah, meanwhile, had never pushed herself. After all these years on the job she was still stuck in that easy little admin position, going nowhere.

Every month, after taxes and benefits came out, her take-home pay was a pitiful six thousand.

And all of it went straight to that family of hers, who'd only ever valued their sons over their daughter.

I hadn't wanted her to feel small shopping with her friends, so I'd gotten her a supplementary card on my account.

I never imagined she'd take the money I'd broken my back to earn and use it to play rich woman in front of some other pretty boy.

I called the bank and had that card frozen on the spot.

My mother heard the commotion and came out of the back room. Seeing the look on my face, she hurried over.

"What's the matter? You look terrible. Did you and Leah have a fight?"

I didn't want the two of them worrying, so I took a deep breath and pushed the feeling back down.

"It's nothing, Mom. Just a little trouble at work."

"I'll probably be busy the next few days, so I need you and Dad to look after Nina for me."

My father came out of the study and took his granddaughter from me.

"Go on, take care of what you need to. We've got Nina."

"But listen to me, son. If anyone's treating you badly, don't you dare bottle it up."

"Your mother and I will always be on your side. Worst case, you come home, and we'll take care of you."

Hearing my father say that, my eyes stung.

In my last life, after I died.

My parents couldn't bear the grief of burying their own child, and before long they both passed away, one after the other.

In this life, I would never let that tragedy happen again.

After leaving my parents' place, I drove back to our complex.

I'd just parked and was about to head inside when I ran straight into Leah and Roland.

Leah's face was livid. The moment she saw me, she charged over.

"Clark Gilbert, what the hell is this supposed to mean?!"

"What gives you the right to freeze my card?!"

I looked at her coldly.

"Get one thing straight. That's my card."

"If I freeze my own card, do I need to file a report with you?"

Leah flushed red with rage, and for a long moment she had no idea how to fire back.

Roland saw it and stepped forward at once, sliding an arm around her shoulders.

"What do you mean, your card?"

"Clark Gilbert, don't think I don't know. Leah told me everything. The life you've been living all these years, you owe it all to her, out there working herself to the bone."

"I never imagined you'd be this ungrateful, using the marriage to get your hands on Leah's money!"

He turned to her, his face full of tenderness.

"Leah, a man like this doesn't deserve you."

"All he'll ever do is drag you down. You should just hurry up and divorce him!"

I laughed to myself. A few days ago he was calling her ma'am, and now it was Leah this, Leah that.

It was rush hour, and neighbors were streaming in and out of the complex.

Hearing the argument over here, they stopped one by one and gathered around.

The second Roland saw the crowd, his eyes went red and his finger jabbed at me.

"Everyone, please, be the judge of this."

"He promised he'd support me all the way through college."

"But right before the term started, he suddenly said if I wanted the money to keep coming, I had to do whatever he told me."

"To go... to go and keep company with those rich women he set me up with!"

"If Leah hadn't stepped in and offered to sponsor me for free, I might've..."

Roland clapped a hand over his mouth, the very picture of a man who'd suffered some terrible wrong.

The neighbors' eyes on me changed in an instant.

"Oh my. He always looks so respectable, and behind closed doors he's running a scheme like this!"

"You really can't judge a book by its cover. Looks like such a fine young man, and his heart's this rotten."

"Exactly. He's got a kid of his own, how can he be so cruel to somebody else's child!"

Listening to the muttering around us, Leah stepped closer and said in a low voice, a note of smugness in it,

"Clark Gilbert, you hear that? The people always see the truth."

"I'm warning you. Unfreeze that card right now and I can still smooth things over for you. Don't let this blow up into something you can't clean up."

"And stop giving Roland a hard time, or I really will think about divorcing you!"

I looked at Leah and laughed out loud.

"Fine."

"Let's divorce. But you walk away with nothing."

Leah froze.

Roland suddenly shrieked.

"Clark Gilbert, in your dreams!"

"You're nothing but an idle, kept-man parasite. Every cent of it is Leah's!"

"If anyone's walking away with nothing, it should be you!"

I looked at him and gave a soft sneer.

"Roland, I know you want to land yourself a rich woman."

"But before you moved in on my wife, didn't you ever run a background check?"

"Take a good look at who's actually earning the money in this house!"