I thought I'd lost it and had cried about it in secret more than once.
Agnes deliberately ran her fingers over the ring and gave me a pitiful little smile.
"Celine, please don't be upset. William saw that I didn't have any jewelry, so he lent it to me for a few days so I'd look presentable. He said you're the most generous person he knows and that you'd never hold a grudge against a pregnant woman. Right?"
The whole table radiated warmth and harmony. Everyone except me. I was the punchline.
I looked at the three of them and felt a chill settle deep in my bones.
William was performing. His mother was playing along. Agnes was provoking me.
I set down my chopsticks calmly and dabbed my mouth with a napkin.
"It's fine. You're carrying a boy, Agnes. That's hard work. Make sure you eat plenty."
My flat reaction earned me a few extra glances from Dorothy and William.
What good would a scene do?
Making a fuss would only tip them off.
I went back to my room, locked the door, and quietly ordered several top-of-the-line hidden cameras online.
The day the cameras arrived, I waited until Dorothy took Agnes downstairs for a walk, then installed them throughout the apartment, covering every angle.
It took exactly one day.
The very next afternoon, the monitoring earpiece fed me sounds that made my stomach turn.
On the same bed where I slept every night, Agnes was moaning breathlessly.
"William, when are you finally going to kick that frumpy hag out? My belly's getting bigger by the day. You can't seriously expect me to keep playing nanny forever. It's humiliating!"
William kissed her and let out a cold laugh.
"Just hang in there a little longer, baby. The mortgage on that apartment she brought into the marriage is almost paid off. Once I sweet-talk her into adding my name to the deed, I'll find some excuse to dump her with nothing. For the sake of our boy, just hold on a few more days."
I stayed up all night compiling their transaction records to build a case.
But while combing through the bank statements, I discovered something even more horrifying.
When my daughter was barely a month old, I'd scraped together every penny I had to buy her a critical illness insurance policy.
William had secretly canceled it and cashed out a hundred and fifty thousand dollars.
And the trail of that money led straight to the brand-new Hermès Birkin bag Agnes had flaunted on social media just yesterday.
To buy his mistress a designer bag, he'd cashed in his own daughter's insurance.
That evening, I had just gotten my daughter's fever down and rocked her to sleep.
William pushed open the bedroom door wearing a smile so tender it was sickening.
He sat down beside me, pulled two documents from his briefcase, and spoke in a voice laced with what was meant to pass for affection.
"Honey, our girl's about to start elementary school. I looked into it today, and the policy's changed. Both parents need to be on the deed for the school-district apartment, or enrollment isn't guaranteed. This place is in your name from before the marriage, so let's go to the housing bureau and add mine. It's all for our daughter's sake."
Dorothy was perched nearby, cracking sunflower seeds and rolling her eyes as she chimed in.
"Honestly, Celine, you think my son's trying to steal your little apartment? How much of his money have you spent over the years? He's generous enough as it is, and he's still looking out for you and the child."
Agnes sat on the couch, one hand resting on her swollen belly, watching me with a smug, satisfied grin.
"Celine, William's worked himself to the bone for this family. Just sign it already."
I stared at the document in front of me. It was labeled as a property title amendment consent form, but buried inside was a trap designed to strip me of everything in a divorce settlement. The sheer audacity of it made my skin crawl.
I picked up the cup of scalding hot tea that had just been poured, aimed it squarely at William's disgustingly tender face, and threw it without an ounce of hesitation.
"Ahhh! You crazy bitch!" William shrieked, clutching his scalded, reddening face. Dorothy and Agnes screamed in unison.
"You want to con me into signing over my apartment so you can throw me out with nothing and make room for your illegitimate child?"
I let out a cold laugh, pulled a thick stack of bank statements, insurance cancellation records, and affair photos from my bag, and hurled them into his face like a blizzard.
"William Dickerson, I'm going to make sure you, your mistress, and your mother lose everything you have and rot behind bars!"
