"What are you doing here?"
"You came to make trouble over a toy?"
"Katherine, when are you ever going to get over that cheap, penny-pinching streak of yours?"
Rain tugged at his hand and said in a soft, coaxing voice, "Come on now, Vivian."
"People who grow up poor are like this. Otherwise she wouldn't have gone working in a nightclub for spending money back then."
"It's all her hard-earned cash. I'll just pay her back, that's all."
She plucked a necklace off her own neck and tossed it on the floor in front of me. "This should cover it."
"Take it and go. Don't ruin our party, okay?"
But I didn't so much as glance at the chain she'd thrown me like alms to a beggar.
I stared straight at Vivian, who couldn't hold my gaze, and let out a bitter laugh. "What else did you tell her?"
"Vivian, you know perfectly well I only went there to save up for my mother's surgery!"
"And I kept myself clean the whole time. I never did a single sordid thing!"
But Vivian gave a cold little laugh, his face blank. "Drop the act. Working the floor as a 'pure' hostess in a nightclub. Isn't that a joke?"
"Just because I didn't call you out doesn't mean you can treat me like a fool!"
In an instant, the way everyone around me looked at me changed.
As if I were a woman who'd thrown herself away, and Vivian was the innocent, decent man I'd dragged down.
I couldn't be bothered to argue with him. I picked up the figure and turned to leave.
But Chloe darted out, snatched it from my hands, and slammed it to the floor. It shattered to pieces in an instant.
She pouted and glared at me, sulking. "You're a bad woman who picks on Auntie. I won't let you get your way!"
A shard sliced my foot, but Vivian didn't even bother to look.
Instead, he praised Chloe. "Good job, sweetheart."
"From now on, that's how you protect Auntie. Don't let anyone pick on her, understand?"
Chloe puffed out her chest proudly. Rain kissed her cheek again and again, and Vivian stood guard beside the two of them, looking for all the world like a family of three.
And I stared at the wound on my foot, and suddenly I laughed.
When the laughter had drained me almost numb, I calmly pulled out a document I'd printed long ago and dropped it in front of Vivian.
"Since I bother you so much, this marriage isn't worth keeping anyway."
"Sign it. Let's divorce."
"It's better for both of us."
In the end, Vivian still refused to sign.
He had me forcibly thrown out of the Whitlock house, leaving only one line behind. "We'll talk at home."
I didn't keep fighting. Instead, I turned around and called the police, reporting them for disturbing the peace.
On the way home, Vivian called me dozens of times. I didn't answer a single one.
So he switched to the cold shoulder too, simply staying away from home for days on end.
I didn't care in the least. After finishing my transfer paperwork at the office, I planned to head straight to Ian's preschool to handle the school transfer.
But when I got to the school, I found out Vivian had already moved Ian's enrollment record somewhere else.
The teacher sighed, then said through gritted teeth, "Ms. Cooley, don't blame me for speaking out of turn."
"I know that preschool. It's a new private one, and I hear the management is a real mess. There have been several incidents of students getting hurt."
"You should really talk it over with Mr. Simmons and bring Ian back here."
Swallowing my anger, I dialed Vivian and told him to cancel the transfer immediately.
But he only said flatly, "Absolutely not."
"That school was started by Rain's brother. He doesn't have many students yet, so he really needs the kids."
"And her brother studied early childhood education abroad. He's more qualified than a lot of teachers here."
"Rain said her brother will give Ian special attention."
I almost laughed out of sheer fury.
"Qualified? If he's so qualified, why have there been several incidents of students getting hurt?"
"Just to please your precious little colleague, you don't even care about your own son's safety!"
