I kicked the door open, startling the three people inside.
Jill let out a shriek and scrambled behind Lester.
Lester looked taken aback for a moment, then his expression shifted to something uncomfortable. "You... why are you back?"
I let out a cold laugh. "It's my house. Why wouldn't I come back?"
Lester opened his mouth to respond but couldn't find the words. Before he could, Henry launched himself at me like a little cannonball, slamming his head straight into my stomach.
I crashed backward into the corner of the table. A searing pain tore through my lower back, and I staggered, collapsing to the floor.
"Waaah! Bad woman! It's all your fault!" Henry screamed. "Every time you show up, Mommy and I have to leave! You bad woman! Don't you have your own home?! Why do you have to steal ours!"
Lester pulled Henry back with an awkward look on his face, his tone stern. "Kids say things they don't mean. It'd be pretty petty of you to hold it against a child."
I clenched my jaw and dragged myself to my feet. "Fine. I won't hold it against the child."
Before the satisfied smile could fully form on his face, I was already across the room. My palm connected with Jill's cheek with a sharp crack.
"When a child misbehaves, the mother pays the price. This is what you deserve, Jill!"
But my wrist was seized in an iron grip.
The next second, a burning sting exploded across my own cheek.
I fell to the floor again, staring up at Lester, his hand still raised.
His face was like stone. "Are you done, Linda?! Clearly today's lesson wasn't enough for you!"
Something seemed to occur to him then, and his expression darkened further. "That bill today was a hundred and fifty thousand dollars. You don't have a cent to your name. How did you pay for it?"
Before I could answer, Jill was already crying. "Linda, even if you're angry at us, you shouldn't hurt yourself like that!"
She pressed her fingers to her lips, eyes wide with feigned horror. "No wonder the manager was smiling at you when we left. Did you... did you and he..."
Lester's fury ignited. He stared at me, his face twisted with disgust. "Linda! You'd sell your body just to avoid apologizing?! This is how you treat me?!"
"You're... how can you be so shameless!"
His hand shook as he pointed at the door. "Get out! Get out right now!"
"You want to split up? Fine! We're done! Now leave!"
I wiped the blood from the corner of my mouth and rose unsteadily to my feet. "Lester, this is my house. The ones who should get out are you three."
Jill's eyes glinted with mockery, but her voice stayed soft and patient. "Linda, I know you put in some money back then... but Lester already transferred the deed to my name." She gave a little apologetic shrug. "I'm sorry, but I'm going to have to ask you to leave."
My head snapped toward Lester. "You transferred our home to Jill?!"
Jill walked over and looped her arm through Lester's, her expression carefully troubled. "He was worried Henry and I wouldn't feel comfortable living in someone else's house, so he put it in my name. He said that way I'd finally have a real home of my own..."
I had long since stopped expecting anything from this man. But the words still cut through me like a knife.
"This is our home! We picked out every tile, every piece of furniture together! Lester, how could you!"
He looked at me without a shred of warmth. "The house belongs to Jill now. Nothing you say is going to change that."
I stared at the two of them for a long time.
The couple's pajamas. Her arm threaded through his. The child who called her "Mommy" in the home I had paid for.
So that was it. The pajamas I'd never seen him wear with me were already on someone else.
