I snapped back. Looked at the cold breakfast on the table.
I stood up and took the rain gear out of the closet.
“Put your rain coat on. We're going.”
My son nodded, pulled it on, and followed me out.
I got on the electric scooter and rode straight into the wind and rain, out of the complex.
This time, I didn't look back. Not once.
The afternoon of the second day of the college entrance exam.
While my son was still in the exam hall, I went home.
I found a few oversized plastic sacks.
Every designer dress in my closet, every brand-name purse, every piece of jewelry worth anything in the box.
I packed it all up and shipped it to my mother's old house in the countryside.
On the way back from the courier station, I checked the GPS on a whim.
Then I turned off-route and headed for Crestview High School.
That was the exam site for Monica Fox's daughter.
The test still had half an hour left, but the school gate was already packed with parents waiting to pick up their kids.
One thing, though, stuck out like a sore thumb.
Parked across the street was a massive luxury RV, impossible to miss.
A huge red banner hung across the side.
Gold-foil lettering read：Wishing Marjorie Fox top honors and a brilliant future.
Flowers and balloons were arranged all around the vehicle.
The parents nearby were whispering among themselves.
“That family's got money. Look at this whole production.”
“I heard it's the girl's stepfather who arranged all of it. He's so good to those two.”
“Even a real father might not go this far. That mother is one lucky woman.”
Jeffrey was standing right beside the RV.
He was holding a steaming cup of milk tea, which he handed to Monica with obvious tenderness.
She took it with a coy smile and leaned against his shoulder.
He didn't pull away. Instead, his arm went around her waist.
They looked at each other and smiled—for all the world, a loving married couple.
I took out my phone and opened the camera.
Zoomed in. Framed them pressed together, body to body.
Took over a dozen high-definition shots.
Then I tapped into the album and backed every single one up to the cloud.
Before, if I'd seen something like this, I would have stormed over, demanded answers, screamed and sobbed until I couldn't breathe.
But now there was nothing inside me. Not a single ripple.
I put my phone away and left.
That evening, I ordered my son his favorite pizza.
Then I told him I was running to the store for some toiletries and headed downstairs.
I went straight to the open-air barbecue stall outside the complex.
Chloe Bennett was already there waiting for me.
The table was loaded with skewers and a row of ice-cold beers.
I sat down, cracked a bottle open, and tipped it back, draining nearly half in one go.
“You're really going through with it?” Chloe handed me a skewer and asked quietly.
“Yeah. Already shipped everything out.” I bit into the meat. It tasted incredible.
“Does Jeffrey know?”
“He still thinks he can have the loyal wife at home and the woman on the side. Living the dream.” I let out a cold laugh.
Chloe sighed and clinked her glass against mine.
“Honestly, good riddance. These last few years have been suffocating for you.”
“So what's the plan after?”
I swallowed the meat, chased it with another mouthful of beer.
“No plan.”
“I just want to take my son and get as far from that piece of garbage as possible.”
I drank three beers that night.
The buzz was just right.
No pain. Just my whole body loose, and the feeling that a new life was already on its way.
The morning of the third day of the exam.
I was carrying a few fried dough sticks and two cups of soy milk, strolling through the complex at an easy pace.
I'd barely reached the base of the building when I ran right into Jeffrey coming the other way.
