After choosing a screened donor through a private sperm bank and having my daughter, I met someone I actually liked.
For my daughter's sake, I hid my identity as a finance titan and decided to take my time observing him first.
Then he slipped a ring onto my finger. A fake diamond worth thirty dollars, handmade over three sleepless nights.
I was touched and aching at the same time. I made up my mind to tell him everything.
But before I could open my mouth, his female cousin jabbed a finger toward my face and sneered, “I hear you're demanding eleven thousand for a wedding gift?”
“You're used goods dragging some man's bastard around. Where do you get the nerve to ask for money?”
I swallowed my disgust and pushed back. “Eleven thousand is a lucky number. Besides, it all goes right back to the new household. Why shouldn't I ask?”
She looked at me like I was something stuck to the bottom of her shoe.
“Used-up women are whores. Since when does a whore get paid to marry?”
“Listen here, you little tramp. Nobody in our family wanted you. You want through the door? Forget a wedding gift—you're paying us two hundred thousand for the trouble of putting up with you. You hear me?!”
The sheer, naked greed of it nearly made me laugh.
That was the best she could come up with?
I'd been planning to hand him hundreds of millions.
……
I couldn't be bothered wasting words on someone this crude and calculating.
If she hadn't opened her mouth just now, I'd already be at the title office signing a villa over to Jacob Matthews.
When she saw I wouldn't even look at her, she let out a cold laugh and lunged straight for my bag.
My daughter was terrified. She came running on those short little legs to shield me and accidentally stepped on the woman's foot.
The screaming started instantly. “You little mongrel! Are you fucking blind? These shoes cost eighteen thousand. Can you even pay for them?”
She'd never been yelled at like that in her life. Her face crumpled and the tears spilled over.
For Jacob's sake, I forced my anger down. “I've let everything you said so far slide. But screaming at a small child like that—is that really how you were raised?”
She fired right back. “You got knocked up before you were married and you want to lecture me about upbringing? Have you no shame at all?!”
I went still for a few seconds.
I'd spent years at the top. The women around me were old-money heiresses and society wives. This was the first time a gutter-mouthed bully had come at me like this, again and again.
Watching her strut with that kind of arrogance, fury climbed my spine. My hand was already pulling out my phone.
Then I glanced at Jacob standing beside me, and forced myself to stop.
I could hold back. She couldn't.
She got right in my face again. “Let me spell it out for you, tramp. Our family never wanted you. You think I can't see it? You latched onto my brother just to get your hands on the redevelopment money!”
“A piece of trash dragging her little bastard along, thinking she'll ride her way to the top. You really think that highly of yourself!”
The moment those words left her mouth, the crowd around us started whispering.
“See, I always say, people who look pitiful are usually the ones who deserve it. Young girl like that, won't walk a straight path, already eyeing someone else's redevelopment payout.”
“Didn't you hear? Got pregnant before she was even married. Kid's already a few years old. A woman like that is never up to any good.”
“No wonder the man's family doesn't want her. If my son brought home a woman like that, I'd beat him half to death.”
This time I really did laugh. Out of sheer disbelief.
I knew Jacob's situation. His bedridden grandmother. His younger brother with an intellectual disability.
Aging parents who couldn't leave the house. Every ounce of financial pressure resting on Jacob's shoulders alone.
Before getting involved with him, I'd watched him carefully. He was poor, but fiercely proud.
So after I started pretending to be poor and moved in alongside him, I quietly funneled money into his hometown to set the redevelopment project in motion. It was the only way I could ease his burden without bruising his pride.
