Chapter 3

After marrying Hans, I did consider having children.

But he always felt that I wasn't "positive" enough. He was worried that my psychological state would negatively impact a child's growth.

To help me change, he enrolled me in psychology courses. He even hired a therapist for me.

I told him that, for me, he was more important than any therapist.

But clearly, he didn't take my words seriously.

When he began secretly contacting Susan—having meals, coffee, even shopping together and exchanging gifts—my mental state was bound to suffer.

I only planned to take my things while packing my belongings. However, I ended up uncovering a stack of receipts he had hidden at the bottom of the wardrobe. They were receipts of everything from car keychains to luxury watches and jewelry.

As "senior and junior", "stepmother and son-in-law", they sure had a great relationship.

If Hans had chosen someone else, I might have considered Grandma's wishes and kept up appearances in the marriage.

But of all people, he should never have chosen Susan!

No one knew better than I did what kind of person Susan was.

Before our friendship fell apart, she had jokingly asked me why my family was so well-off, while she had to live a poor person's life. If she ever had the chance, she would take everything from me and make them hers.

And that was exactly what she did. She took my dad away from my mom.

Now that she was dissatisfied with Dad growing old and earning less, she was going to take Hans from me.

"I support you if you've thought this through. Just don't be as foolish as your mom!"

When Mom passed, she had been so impulsive that she didn't leave anything behind for me.

After Susan married my dad, she took control of our family's finances. My spending plummeted the moment Susan became my stepmother.

"She just can't stand to see you living better than her! Someone like her will get what's coming to her!" Grandma complained. She, too, felt indignant because of Susan. Thinking of Mom's fate brought tears to her eyes.

"I'll live better than her. I'll live better than all of them!" I felt confident as I thought about the preparations I had made over the past three years.

…

"Yarmilla, I heard you and Hans had a disagreement. If it's because I asked him to bring you to my birthday party, then I apologize. It's not his fault. I was the one who insisted he help us reconcile.

"You haven't spoken to me for years. I feel terrible about it. And legally speaking, you're my daughter now. I truly want us to go back to how things used to be."

Susan knew exactly how to disgust me. That was why she deliberately said those provoking words.

I didn't need to see her face to know exactly what kind of expression she must have had on the other end of the line.

"Done talking? If so, I'm hanging up."

I had already blocked Susan's number ages ago. I only picked up by mistake because she used someone else's phone to call me.

She was utterly nauseating.

It seemed like I would have to stop answering calls from unfamiliar numbers too from now on.

"Yarmilla, what's done is done. Do you think hiding will make it all go away? Whether you like it or not, my current identity is something you can't change!"

Susan, afraid I'd hang up, raised her voice immediately. Of course, now that her status was different, her tone was no longer the meek, clingy one I used to hear softly calling my name.

"I never planned to change anything. If you want to pick up the garbage I've thrown away, be my guest. Just take it."

As for that scumbag Charlie, I stopped thinking of him as my father long ago.

And Hans? Susan wanted to take him away, didn't she? I'd hand him over on a silver platter!

"You knew?" Susan asked coldly. She still didn't realize that I knew about her secret interactions with Hans over the past year.

"It doesn't matter whether I know or not. What matters is whether Charlie Sullivan knows."