Chapter 3

She had aged visibly.

I leaned back against my chair, looking her over.

"Can I help you?"

She took two hesitant steps forward, her fingers twisting the hem of her faded cardigan, her voice trembling.

"Chloe... I know I shouldn't have come."

"I'm here to plead on Austin's behalf."

Austin. My ex-husband.

Hearing his name roll off her tongue gave me an eerie sense of dissociation.

"He truly, desperately needs this project."

She hung her head.

"His mother is very sick. Liver cancer. The chemo treatments every month cost a fortune. He's borrowed from everyone he knows, but he's still tens of thousands short."

Her eyes welled up with tears.

"He sold his condo. He's living in a rented studio now. He works all day and stays by his mother's bedside at the hospital every night. He's lost so much weight."

I stayed silent, just watching her quietly.

She bit her lip, appearing to muster every ounce of courage she possessed.

"I heard your brother once needed life-saving medical funds too... so you of all people must know what that despair feels like."

"So could you please... give him one more chance?"

The office hung in absolute silence for several beats.

I looked at the mother and daughter standing before me.

"If he needs money, give it to him yourself."

She stiffened, lifting her tear-streaked face in shock.

"I already have," she whispered.

"I've given him every penny I could scrape together."

I kept my eyes on her, offering no reaction.

Perhaps assuming my silence meant hesitation, she took half a step forward, her lips fluttering nervously.

"You went through the same agony back then. You know the terror. Just think of it as... as helping a dying woman."

"No."

My voice was quiet, yet sharp as glass.

Her shoulders instantly slumped.

"Then... could you perhaps lend him the money?"

"I'll sign the promissory note myself. We'll pay interest matching standard bank rates."

Lend him money.

When she uttered those words, her eyes dared not meet mine, her fingers twisting her sleeves into knots.

The second she mentioned borrowing money, that freezing winter night flashed through my mind.

Leo's surgery still had a twenty-thousand-dollar deficit.

I had exhausted every relative, placed every possible call.

I scrolled through my contact list over and over, my thumb hovering over his name for what felt like an eternity.

In the end, I dialed.

"What do you want?" he answered coldly.

I choked back tears: "Austin, could you please lend me some money? Leo needs surgery, and I'm coming up short."

Silence lingered on the other end for a few agonizing seconds.

"My mother says finances are only shared between husband and wife. If you're willing to remarry me, everything can be arranged."

Back then, he wouldn't spare me a single dime. And now he sent his mistress to beg from me? What gave them the right?

"I went to him for a loan once," I said, looking straight into her eyes.

"He refused. He told me that if I remarried him, we could negotiate."

The blood drained completely from Gemma's face.

"I..."

She couldn't form another sentence.

I stood up, picked up my handbag and car keys from the desk, and walked right past her out of the office.