"You almost had me fooled."
The death certificate hit my body. His voice was ice-cold.
"Looks like Mildred was right. You're far more calculating than you appear."
"You—!"
"By the end of today, bring Camille home. She's only six. She doesn't need to learn bad habits from a mother like you."
He turned to leave.
I scrambled to my feet, desperate to stop him.
But Mildred stepped between us.
"Mary..."
Her voice dropped to a whisper only the two of us could hear.
"I know Camille's been dead for a long time."
I stared at her in disbelief.
"Want to know why Clement doesn't?"
She laughed softly. "Because I made sure every piece of news about Camille never reached him."
My fists clenched.
"It really is a shame, when you think about it.
"Diagnosed with congenital heart disease right after her daddy died.
"A matching donor heart was available, but her own mother couldn't scrape together a single dollar. Working four jobs a day, not sleeping, and still couldn't cover the surgery.
"You let that little girl miss her only chance at a donor heart."
My eyes burned red in an instant.
"But don't worry."
Mildred admired her manicure. "She didn't die for nothing. Her bone marrow, her kidneys, her corneas..."
The air left my lungs.
She let out another soft laugh.
"Such a pity you weren't there. When they forced her to sign the consent form, she kept crying for her mommy.
"And you, her mother, were out delivering food." She tilted her head. "Agh—!!"
"You bitch!!"
I locked both hands around her throat. "Give me back my baby!!"
"Enough!"
A slap cracked across my face.
I fell sideways into the garbage heap.
Clement pulled Mildred tight against his chest, shielding her.
Tears glistened at the corners of Mildred's eyes. Her voice broke into a sob.
"I was just asking where she's hiding Camille! You can survive in a landfill, Mary, but a child can't take that kind of suffering!
"I only wanted to take Camille somewhere safe, and you tried to kill me for it!"
"That's a lie! You just said—" "Enough!"
Clement's jaw was clenched so tight the muscle jumped. "If you have even a shred of conscience as a mother, you'll bring Camille back yourself.
"Otherwise, we're getting a divorce."
He wrapped his arm around Mildred and got into the passenger seat.
Divorce?
I laughed.
Fine. But before that, I had one more thing to do.
The next day, a formal complaint letter sat on Clement's supervisor's desk.
At the same time, a banner appeared across the entrance of Delgado Corp.
The bold words read: TECH PRODIGY CLEMENT DELGADO KILLED HIS DAUGHTER FOR HIS MISTRESS. A crowd gathered fast.
And I knelt at the company entrance, holding Camille's portrait in my arms.
Silent. Unmoving.
I'd printed everything he and Mildred had done into pamphlets and handed them out on the spot.
Some people's eyes went red just from reading them.
"Is that the child in the photo? She was so tiny. How could Mr. Delgado just abandon his wife and daughter and play dead for three years?"
"Faking his death is one thing, but cutting them off completely? Froze all the money, faked a foreclosure on the house. Was this really a loyalty test, or was he trying to drive his wife to her grave so his mistress could take her place?"
"The company needs to answer for this! If it's true, does a man like that deserve his position?"
Within minutes, a senior executive came downstairs personally to escort me up.
Clement stood at the door of his office, watching me approach. His expression was unreadable.
The door closed. The executive poured me tea himself.
"Mrs. Fox, why don't you just forgive Clement and Mildred and let this go?"
My hand froze around the cup. "After what they've done, you're asking me to forgive them?"
