I accidentally saw a notification pop up on my husband’s phone saying that an automatic transfer had been completed when I was using it for navigation.

Immediately after that, his ex-girlfriend, Wanda Blake, sent him a message on WhatsApp:

[I’ve received this month’s 10,000 dollars for child support. Thank you, Koah. I don't know what I would have done without you.]

I froze.

“Child support?

“Koah, you told me that the money you send every month was for medical expenses for your mother’s treatment!”

Koah Quinn’s expression stiffened as he explained, “Honey, don’t misunderstand. I just felt that life has become really hard for her because she’s a woman raising a child on her own. Her ex-husband refuses to pay child support, so I wanted to help her out…”

I touched the old watch on my wrist. The one I had not replaced in years to save money, and felt extremely disappointed.

“Your monthly salary is only 6,000 dollars. Where did you get so much money to send her?”

He was silent for some time before finally admitting. “I used the money we had set aside for the new house’s downpayment.”

I was stunned.

He had taken the money my parents had scrimped and saved for decades for me as downpayment for a home and then transferred it to his ex-girlfriend as child support.

“Honey, it’s not what you think it is!”

Koah turned around anxiously to explain things to me, but his hand on the steering wheel slipped, and the car instantly swerved in an S-shape.

A series of sharp braking sounds and angry shouting immediately erupted from behind us.

Koah pulled the car over to the side of the road, then quickly held my shoulders and said, “Honey, don’t be mad. Things really aren’t the way you think!”

“Wanda divorced her husband two years ago. Her ex-husband was irresponsible. He didn’t want the child and refused to pay child support. I just couldn’t bear to see the two of them suffer, so I wanted to help.”

“I swear I don’t have any other intentions!”

I clenched the phone tightly in my hand and asked in a low voice, “When did this start and why didn’t you tell me?”

Koah glanced at me. His face was pale. After a long pause, he finally said, “You’ve always disliked Wanda, and you value that money more than your own life. If you’d known, you wouldn’t have agreed to let me help her, so I had no choice but to do this secretly.”

In an instant, I understood what he meant. He was implying that I was cold-hearted and greedy, and that was why he had to keep this from me. He was afraid I would stand in the way of him supporting his ex-girlfriend’s child.

I suppressed the anger in me and asked in a deep voice, “When did the two of you get back in touch and when did you start giving her child support?”

Koah looked at me guiltily. After a long while, he said, “Two years ago… since she divorced her ex-husband…”

“She had no other choice and was desperate when she came to me. Wouldn’t I be leaving them in despair if I didn’t help her?”

I did not respond, but continued asking, “Since the so-called medical expenses you sent to your mother every month were fake, does that mean you were not taking care of your mother every weekend either?”

“Tell me… if you weren’t visiting your mother on weekends, what were you actually doing?”

Koah’s face was ashen. He rubbed his nose and stammered, “I was working part time…”

After being married to him for so many years, I could immediately tell that he was not telling the truth.

I had no patience left to listen to his lies. I snatched his phone and opened his Notes app.

I knew he had the habit of writing a diary there. Out of respect for my spouse’s privacy, I had never checked.

Now, as I flipped through it, I finally realized how much he had done behind my back for his ex-girlfriend and her child.

Every single weekend, he spent time with his ex-girlfriend and her son, leaving our child and me out of his life.

I randomly opened a note from last weekend and saw that he had taken Wanda and her son, Timothy Blake, to Shanrel Dinoland, where the three of them spent two days enjoying themselves.

That same day, our son, Charlie, was heartbroken all afternoon because his father failed to show up, as promised, for his parent-teacher meeting.

Meanwhile, I was trying to save the cost of one lunch and accidentally cut my wrist with a kitchen knife while preparing a homemade meal for Charlie. I nearly injured my right hand so badly that I might never have been able to lift it again.

Scrolling further back, I saw messages showing that he had driven Wanda and her son to the hospital in the middle of the night because Wanda’s son had nothing more than a minor cold.

He ran back and forth personally, sparing no expense, even paying a large sum to get a specialist to see the boy.

Meanwhile, that very same day, my son had a persistent high fever. I could not reach him no matter how many times I called, so I had no choice but to carry my son on my back all the way to the emergency unit in the hospital.

There were no beds or doctors available when we arrived. We had to wait in line just to be seen.

I was so desperate that I nearly knelt and begged the doctors and nurses on duty. Only then did they get an empty bed so my child could lie down and rest.

…

Scene after scene from the past flashed before my eyes like a slideshow.

So, this was the truth. Every single day, he was an absent husband and father in our small family, yet he played the role of savior in his ex-girlfriend's life.

I clutched the phone tightly as I kept scrolling. The more I scrolled, the redder my eyes became, until I could no longer hold back the tears.

Seeing me like this, Koah’s face turned pale as he tried to defend himself. “Honey, Wanda’s son is still young. He needs a father’s love. He cries all day asking for his dad. I had no choice.”

I retorted. “You went over there to be her man, to be her child’s father. What about our family? Where is my husband? Where is my son’s father? Is he dead?”

After saying that, I sneered. “With how things are now, you might as well be dead.”

As I spoke, I grabbed the water bottle in the car and hurled it at Koah with all my strength.

With a loud bang, the bottle struck him right on the forehead.

He clutched the wound, grimacing in pain, and looked at me with a hint of complaint.

“Honey, you hit me too hard…”

I ignored him and shouted angrily, “Koah, the downpayment for that house was money my parents left me before they died. How dare you touch it!”

“Our son is about to start elementary school. Without an apartment in the school district, how is he supposed to go to school?”

“Call her and get that money back now!”

I reached for the phone to make him call his ex-girlfriend, but he snatched it away and said to me, “Honey, can’t you have a little compassion? Wanda is a single woman raising a child. That ten thousand dollars every month isn’t just for the kid. It also goes toward her mortgage. Where would she possibly find money to return to you?”

I stared at him in disbelief, my voice trembling as I spoke.

“Koah, do you even know that your son is almost seven years old, and our family doesn’t even have enough money to pay his school fees?”

“To earn more, I get up before dawn every day to work a side job selling breakfast! Even when I injured my leg, I was afraid to go to the hospital for treatment!”

“As for you… you not only give all your salary to your ex-girlfriend to raise her son, but even help her pay off her mortgage by lying that you are paying for your mother’s medical expenses.”

“Have you lost your mind?”

Koah’s eyes widened. He looked at my leg in panic and said, “Honey, does your leg feel better now?”

“Do you want me to take you to the hospital to have it checked?”

I scoffed. “Don’t put on a fake pretense. If you really cared about me, why didn’t you answer when I called you thirty times that day?”

Koah seemed to recall something, and his face turned deathly pale in an instant.

His lips moved as if he wanted to explain, but in the end, not a single word came out.

Just as I was about to continue, our son’s voice suddenly came from the back seat of the car.

Rubbing his sleepy eyes, he called out to us in a drowsy voice, “Daddy, Mommy, are we at North Bay Elementary School already?”

I reached back, carried my son from the back seat into the front seat, and said softly, “Not yet. Did Mommy and Daddy’s voices wake you up?”

Sitting obediently in my arms, my son shook his head.

Seeing this, a trace of guilt flashed through Koah’s eyes. He was about to say something, but I cut him off.

“Let’s go. Take our son to get familiar with the elementary school first. We’ll talk about everything else when we get home.”

The rest of the drive passed in silence. Neither Koah nor I spoke.

Our son was about to graduate from kindergarten and enter elementary school, and I had long ago chosen North Bay Elementary School for him, a school renowned for both its faculty and its education quality.

However, to attend that elite elementary school, one had to own an apartment within the designated school district nearby.

To secure my son's admission, I engaged in countless negotiations before reaching an agreement with a family about to emigrate overseas. I wanted to use the money my parents had left me to pay the downpayment and arranged to transfer the remaining balance to their bank account each month.

I had originally thought that my son’s admission to North Bay Elementary School was secured.

That was why I had reserved a spot for him and specifically brought him along to familiarize himself with the school environment.

I never imagined that Koah would do something like this behind my back, destroying every plan and effort I had made for our son.

Just as I was wondering what to do next, Koah’s phone rang suddenly.

I did not know what the person on the other end of the line said, but his expression turned grave.

After hanging up, he looked anxious, sweat gathering on his forehead, and said apologetically, “Honey, something urgent just came up at work. My boss needs me to rush over and deal with it immediately.

“I can’t take you and our son to North Bay Elementary School anymore. I’ll drop you off here. You can take a taxi there.”

With that, he pulled over to the side of the road and opened the car door, motioning for my son and me to get out.

I stared at him in disbelief. “Koah, are you out of your mind? It’s 39°C outside today! You want me and our son to stand out here at noon waiting for a car?”

“Aren’t you afraid he’ll get heatstroke?”

Koah kept apologizing, but his hands kept moving. He got out of the car and pulled my son and me out anyway.

Then, he drove off without a backward glance, ignoring my furious expression and our son’s look of disbelief.

I took my son to stand under the shade of a tree, but even after waiting for a long time, we still could not get a taxi.

As the minutes ticked by, I knew we would not make it to the school in time for our scheduled visit even if we managed to get a car now.

As such, I called the teacher and canceled the campus tour.

When I was about to take my son home, I suddenly noticed him staring longingly at a nearby water park.

I stopped trying to pull on my son’s hand to guide him away from that place. In a gentle voice, I asked, “Sweetheart, do you want to go play at the water park?”

Even though my son was looking at that place eagerly, he still shook his head obediently and turned down my suggestion.

He had always been sensible and well-behaved, knowing just how hard I worked to earn money, and never willing to spend an extra cent.

Thinking of the way Koah had written in his diary about taking that mother and son to have fun in Shanrel Dinoland, my heart tightened.

I turned around and took my son by the hand, walking toward the water park’s ticket booth.

I spent 300 dollars to buy one ticket for him and one for myself, then took him inside.

While we were playing in the park, my son spotted a lion plush in a shop and could not take his eyes off it.

It was his favorite animal.

I took him into the store and had just picked up the lion plush when a child suddenly darted out from the side and snatched it away.

He grinned at my son with smugness. “I took it first! It’s mine!”

Not wanting to argue with a spoiled kid, I asked the clerk to bring out another lion plush.

However, the clerk looked troubled and said there was only that one left.

Seeing the longing look in my son’s eyes, my heart softened.

Turning to the child, I said, “We picked up this toy first. Please give it back to us.”

The child clutched the plush and spat at me viciously.

“I’m not giving it to you! Go to hell, you ugly freak!”

Frowning, I was about to look for the child’s parents when I saw Koah appear in front of me…. The very man who was supposedly working overtime at the office. He was holding onto Wanda, who was smiling brightly.

The color drained from Koah’s face the moment he saw me.

Suppressing the tremor in my body, I questioned, “Koah, didn’t you say you were going back to the office to work overtime? Why are you here?”

“So, this is what you meant by something urgent, bringing them to the water park to have fun?”

A flash of smugness and provocation flashed across Wanda’s eyes before she quickly stepped in to explain things for Koah.

“Don’t be mad, Xena,” she said softly. “Tim said he wanted to come to the water park. I was worried about his safety, so I asked Koah to help look after him. You wouldn’t mind, would you?”