2
Shaking my head, I spotted my daughter, Pippa, sneakily grabbing a piece of fruit. I walked over and scooped her up. “You had a big breakfast
this morning. No more snacks, or you won’t
have room for dinner.”
Just then, I felt someone staring at me.
Instinctively, I put Pippa down and turned
around. Jake was heading my way, followed by
his entourage.
Pippa, seeing me distracted, made a funny face
and scurried away with her plate of fruit.
8:17
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39
Jake frowned. “Bella, what are you doing here? Now that you see I’m doing well, you’re trying
to leech off me?”
He arched an eyebrow, looking at me with a smug look. He’d already decided I was here to
latch onto his success, and a flicker of
satisfaction crossed his face. But his words
were pure poison.
“I gave you a huge chunk of the money when
we divorced. Isn’t that enough for you?”
“A million bucks should keep you afloat for
life.”
He glanced around the auction hall, a sudden
understanding dawning on his face. “So that’s
why you’re here. You’ve been burning through
cash for the past five years.”
“Giving you all that money was a mistake. It
modo you wortoful Vou nood to find
པ་སང༦ ་ས་་་
8:17
((
39
made you wasteful. You need to find a man and get rid of your bad habits as soon as possible.”
Five years later, Jake’s attitude towards me was
as toxic as ever.
The people sucking up to Jake seized the
chance to tear me down.
“This is Mr. Foster’s ex–wife? She’s nowhere
near as beautiful or elegant as Ms. Summers. Doesn’t look like she’s done a legit day of work
in her life.”
“Totally. Someone who’s so broke that they
would dare come to an auction hall? You can
tell what she’s after… Tsk tsk tsk.
Embarrassing for Mr. Foster.”
“Women who are sluts are just trash. Security?
Get this gold digger out of here. She’s making
the whole place look bad.”
<
8:17
Hearing all their insults, I couldn’t take it
anymore.
39
I held up my phone, recording. “I’ve got
everything you just said on tape. Get ready for
a court summons.”
Before I could finish, a sharp pain shot through my knee.
I reached down to touch it, and Mikey snatched
my phone.
The eight–year–old grinned at me. “Mom… Ms.
Sterling, these people are just saying what’s
true. You’re always trying to leech off of
successful people.”
I didn’t have much feeling for Jake, but I had
carried this child for nine months.
I was devastated to hear those words come out
of his mouth.
<
8:18
39
I took a deep breath. “What did you just say?”
Mikey ignored me and smashed the phone on
the ground. Then he shrugged innocently. “You
heard what you heard.”
He ran to Lily, hugging her around the waist
and looking up at her adoringly. “Mom, am I
doing the right thing?”
My own son was calling someone else “Mom.”
It was too much to take in.
A sharp pain flared in my chest.
I winced.
Jake’s face flashed with a brief look of panic,
but it vanished so quickly that I thought I must
have imagined it.
