She'd worked hard for that dream. Took jobs at high-end hotels just so she could "accidentally" open the wrong door, or "accidentally" scratch the paint on someone's luxury car.
So instead of being angry, she actually smiled.
"Spare me the righteous act."
"You're only saying all this because you're sorry you didn't think of having your own daughter make her move first. You're mad I beat you to it!"
"In this world, people sneer at the poor, not at the gold diggers."
"The law's clear: a child born out of wedlock has inheritance rights. The money my son will inherit from Dirk is his by right!"
At this, Ina turned to look at me.
"Mom and Dad are right. You should be thanking me."
"Dirk's been furious for ages about you not giving him a child. If I weren't here, you'd be out on the street. At least with me around, you still get a roof over your head. Would anyone else do that for you?"
The relatives were so furious they couldn't speak, and that finally gave me my opening.
"When I said just now that there's no way you're carrying my husband's child, it wasn't because I'm confident, and it wasn't because I trust my husband. It's because my husband is someone I made up."
"Dirk Gray. I picked the name because it sounds like a gray area, a complete fabrication. Nothing real."
"He doesn't exist in this world at all, so how exactly did he get you pregnant?"
The whole room went dead silent.
Paige shrieked.
"Impossible! We've all met Dirk. How could he be fake?"
Darren was frowning too.
"Tania, this is too much. Is this really something to joke about?"
But I wasn't joking.
A few years back, a friend of Paige's had a son who took a liking to me.
The man was more than ten years older than me, barely had any schooling, and treated prison stints like a regular routine. There was no way I was marrying him.
Paige threw fits and threatened to die over it, trying to force me into it, while Darren just smoothed things over, even going so far as to say things like:
"He's done his time courtesy of the state. He's surely learned his lesson by now."
"You have to trust your mother. She'd never steer you wrong!"
I nearly choked on my anger back then. If he was such a great match, why didn't Paige introduce him to Ina?
I refused, again and again, furious about it, but Paige didn't care. She even sent the nephew over to my house, hoping he'd back me into a corner and force the issue.
I was sick of the whole thing, but my company and all its operations were here in town. I couldn't just pick up and leave.
And I couldn't stomach Darren coming to my office day after day, throwing fits.
So I invented a husband.
And to keep them from circling my money, I passed off everything I'd earned as my husband's assets. Which is how I ended up the kept bird who'd married into wealth.
But what I never imagined.
Was that even a made-up husband would catch Ina's eye.
Then again, this was exactly the kind of thing Ina would do. We were the same age, with no blood between us.
From the day she moved into my house, she treated me as her enemy. Everything I had, she had to fight me for. Everything I had, she had to take.
A husband.
Was no exception, of course. Least of all a "rich" one.
I laid the whole story out, exasperated.
"If someone really impersonated my husband and got you pregnant, what you should be doing right now is calling the police!"
When Ina finished listening, she frowned for a brief moment, then laughed even harder.
"My God. With a brain like that, to think I ever saw you as a rival."
"You think I can't tell whether Dirk's real or not?"
"You can't seriously think a few words from you will make me angry, make me feel like I've been conned, and send me running off to abort the baby? So you and Dirk can be together?"
