His Secret Fortune and Her Sweet Revenge

Late that night, I was crouched in the back kitchen, cleaning pork intestines.

Out of nowhere, I got a phone call from my daughter, ten years in the future.

After a brief jolt of surprise, I finally confirmed that the person on the other end really was my daughter, Lila Abbott.

"Sweetheart, ten years from now, Daddy's illness is better, right? And you got into the college you wanted, and our whole family is living happily together."

"Tell Mommy, quick—did you get into Southgate University?"

Lila went quiet for a long moment, and then, all at once, she burst into sobs.

"No. It's fake. All of it is fake."

"Daddy was never sick, and he never had any debt. He's living in a big house with Aunt Wanda."

"He just wanted to drag you down, to force you to hand over the secret recipe."

The words had barely left her when a hospital call bell rang out.

Lila begged me through her tears:

"Mommy, this is the third time you've been rushed into emergency care."

"Please. Don't believe a single word Daddy says ever again."

……

My mind gave a sudden buzz, and my whole body wouldn't stop shaking.

How could that be?

Sylvester Delgado and I were middle school classmates.

From school uniforms to a wedding gown, he had given me everything he had, holding nothing back.

The money at home was mine to manage; the house was in my name.

Even a year ago, when he was diagnosed with kidney failure, he couldn't bear to let me sell the house to save him.

He said that no matter what, he wanted to leave me and our daughter a place to shelter from the storm.

I couldn't win the argument, so I quit my steady, low-paying job, took the secret recipe my father had left me, and sold braised deli food to pay for his treatment.

Seeing that I still said nothing, Lila let out a helpless sigh.

"Mommy, you don't believe what I'm telling you, do you?"

"I guess that makes sense. Daddy was always so gentle and attentive in front of you. You gave me up to Grandma just so you could take care of him—how could you ever suspect him?"

My lips trembled, and guilt surged up in me like a flood.

Ever since disaster struck our family, I'd thrown myself completely into earning money for Sylvester's treatment.

And to keep those creditors from reaching my daughter.

I'd had no choice but to send Lila back to my hometown and ask my mother to look after her.

The child I'd raised with my own hands couldn't grow up at her parents' side, and it always left me feeling like I owed her.

"No. That's not it. Mommy does believe you." I explained in a rush.

"It's just—you said Daddy is living in a big house, so he must have plenty of money. Didn't you go to him for help?"

A day as husband and wife makes a lifetime of bond. However heartless Sylvester was, surely he wouldn't stand by and watch his own daughter lose her mother.

After another long silence, Lila finally spoke:

"I did. But Aunt Wanda said you and Daddy were already divorced, that whether you lived or died had nothing to do with them."

"I wouldn't give up, so I ran to beg Daddy. He said this was the punishment you deserved—that it was your fault for breaking him and Aunt Wanda apart all those years ago."

The past flickered through my mind, one scene after another.

My relationship with Sylvester had never been as smooth as outsiders believed.

Three months into our marriage, I happened to catch him kissing his junior schoolmate, Wanda Pruitt, on the street.

I'd just found out I was pregnant, and Sylvester wept and swore up and down that he'd cut ties with Wanda completely from then on.

Only then did I choose to give him a chance to make things right.

I just never imagined he would hold it against me for it.

That he wouldn't leave even the last shred of feeling between a husband and wife.

Just then, a doctor's voice came through from the other end of the line.

"We were lucky to bring her back this time. But if she doesn't have the surgery soon, the patient may not last another month."

Lila's sobbing reached my ear.

"Mommy, I'm sorry," she cried. "Even working four jobs a day, I'm still nowhere near enough for the surgery. I can't save you. What do I do, boo-hoo-hoo……"