"I didn't hear it ring earlier. What's going on?" I couldn't bring myself to be patient anymore.

"Well... So, it's about Kylan. Kolton, do you have 200 thousand dollars in cash on hand? This time, Kylan was playing some game online and got tricked again. Now he's even mortgaged our house in the hometown!" In Damien's eyes, whatever Kylan did wrong, it was someone else who led him astray or tricked him. He thought Kylan was excellent in every way. Even secretly mortgaging the house was a sign of his competence.

Wait, so the Conway family's old house was in Kylan's name? Otherwise, if the property deed and ID card didn't match, he wouldn't have been able to mortgage it.

So that meant Liana had nothing in the Conway family.

"200 thousand dollars? How could I have that much money? You knew it..."

I was shocked! I thought their little schemes amounted to borrowing one or two thousand dollars at most. I didn't expect that they'd ask for 200 thousand dollars. They were really overestimating me.

"Didn't you get a promotion and a raise last year? You said yourself you'd be getting year-end bonuses, and that'd be three or four hundred thousand dollars, right?" Damien said anxiously on the phone.

Good grief, they were even calculating all my savings. Forcing myself to stay calm, I came up with a plan. "Please calm down. The bonus was given in stock shares, so I can't come up with that much cash right away. He got scammed online, right? How about we call the police?"

This was the most reasonable advice I could offer as a brother-in-law. But just as I expected, it was hard to convince someone hell-bent on doing the wrong thing. As soon as Damien heard me mention calling the police, he flew into a rage, cursing me out over the phone for a good twenty minutes before calming down. He accused me of coming up with lousy ideas just to avoid paying.

I coaxed him, saying I'd try to figure out a way to get the money together in the next couple of days. Only then did he hang up.

I felt it wasn't worth it, all these years of enduring everything in silence. Each time I compromised, it only made them push their limits further.

So I found them a lending platform and told them I'd thoroughly checked it out. It was safe and reliable. I assured them they could borrow as much as they wanted, and I'd take care of the repayments later.

Damien was too old to understand these things, so he had his precious son, Kylan, handle it. Kylan was useless at everything except squandering money. Knowing I was backing him up, he completed the procedures fast, using both his and his father's ID cards.

After they got the money, Damien sent me a text message thanking me for my years of secret support, saying I was so helpful to them. He even urged me and Liana to start having children soon. In the end, he reminded me that the monthly loan repayment was 8 thousand dollars.

I remained calm, continuing my investigation work.

After the excuse of frequent overtime, Liana's lies had escalated to the point of frequent short business trips. What used to be just after-work meetups had now turned into a constant need to be with Patrick, which was like she couldn't wait to be by his side at all times. Even waiting in a hotel for a whole day until Patrick finished work seemed to bring her joy.

I couldn't even imagine what my wife, who often gave me the cold shoulder, looked like when she was fawning over someone else, waiting for him to get off work.

After we got married, if I was even ten minutes late to pick her up because of traffic, she'd give me the cold shoulder for a long time and scold me for not leaving earlier.

Now, I just tried to voice a minor complaint, "Honey, have you been too busy lately? We haven't had sex for a long time..."

Her face instantly darkened. "I'm at the peak of my career. Are you only allowed to get promotions and raises while I'm not allowed to succeed?"

I'd only said one sentence, yet she always seemed to have some big retort waiting. It seemed when someone didn't like you, even your breathing became a nuisance.

"Of course not. Fine. Just make sure you'll take good care of yourself, sweetheart. Looks like you've gained weight again. Is that stress weight?"

She shot me a glare and didn't reply, continuing to pack her clothes into her suitcase.

Sensing her impatience as she sped up her motion, I contacted the private investigator Stephen quickly. I told him to keep an especially close eye on these next few days. It seemed like something was about to happen.

Stephen worked quickly. Liana had been out for less than half an hour when he sent me the hotel, room number, and floor.

I checked the hotel. Wow, what a surprise. It was right next to the hospital where Patrick worked.

Liana left behind her devoted husband and traveled miles to meet her lover, yet still had to pay for the room herself. That was embarrassing.

Strangely, I wasn't even that angry anymore. I suspected I had become numb to this kind of emotional pain.

I even sent her a voice message, as calm as ever: [Sweetheart, did you get on the train? Let me know when you arrive, okay?]

Ugh, I disgusted myself. Naturally, Liana didn't respond.