"Leave the police out of it. If Jerome gets angry, the whole Fox family is finished."
A thread of mockery pulled at the corner of Jerome's mouth.
He'd meant to say he would cut off the Foxes' funding, but in the end the words stayed behind his teeth.
The moment he was back in the country, Jerome went straight home.
He'd turned it over in his head more than once these past days. Nancy really had been wronged this time. A little temper was only natural.
She wouldn't hold it against him.
But the instant he opened the door, he froze.
Dust lay thick over everything, the rooms cold and still, nothing about them suggesting anyone lived here at all.
His face darkened. He yanked out his phone and stabbed at the screen.
"Nancy Fox, you've gotten bold. Now you won't even come home?"
The message dropped into silence. No reply, not a word.
Flora's face filled with guilt.
"Jerome, do you think she's angry?"
"It's my fault. She must have seen what I posted and gotten jealous."
He didn't answer her.
His thumbs only moved faster.
"Don't answer and I'm calling off the engagement."
"Let's see if those gold-digging parents of yours forgive you."
The phone stayed dead.
He stormed into the bedroom and wrenched the closet door open.
Inside, my clothes hung in neat rows, not a single piece missing.
His brow knotted tighter, and an unease he couldn't name crept over him.
His hand trembled faintly as he pulled open the nightstand drawer.
Inside lay a baby's gold anklet, small and delicate, chiming softly at the lightest touch.
Jerome picked it up, and for no reason his eyes went soft.
Baby drifted over at once, happy, reaching out to touch it.
"Mommy, is this for me? It's so pretty."
But Flora leaned in first, her voice all sweetness.
"Oh, what an adorable little anklet."
"Jerome, could you give it to me?"
"No! That's from Mommy, you can't give it to her."
Baby burst into tears, tiny hands batting helplessly at his father's arm, grasping at nothing.
Jerome didn't hesitate for a second. He handed the gold anklet straight to Flora.
"If you like it, keep it."
Flora made a show of concern.
"But won't she be upset?"
"It's fine."
He said it without a care.
"When we have a child, I'll just have another one made for her."
Baby came back to me, crying so hard he could barely breathe.
"Mommy, I don't want Daddy anymore, he's so mean!"
"Why did he give my thing to the bad lady?"
I held him tight, and the tears I'd been holding finally fell.
Every hope, every small thing I'd waited for through these days, all of it was broken now.
My heart was gone for good.
I nodded gently.
"Okay. We won't want him anymore."
Then I took Baby's little hand, turned, and walked out the door without looking back even once.
Jerome's head snapped up, his eyes on the direction we'd vanished.
The unease rose in him like a tide, harder and stronger, until he could hardly breathe.
He began tearing through the bedroom, searching like a man gone mad for anything I'd left behind.
But no matter how hard he searched, there was nothing—only the clothes he'd once bought me.
He remembered, all at once, how I'd come into this house with nothing but a body full of bruises and ragged clothes.
Back then he had pitied me, and decided he would treat me well.
So how had he lost his mind so completely that he'd forced me to take the blame for her crime?
From the very back of the closet, he dug out an old diary.
His hands shook as he opened it.
The 2nd
Dad hit me again. Said the Fox family was nearly bankrupt, that I was useless, that I couldn't even find a good son-in-law.
