The day my best friend Rachel Matthews took my husband Julian Woodward away, she said to me,

"Just six months. Help me play a fake married couple so I can pull a bigger property buyout. My parents passed early. I've got no one else."

I have a soft heart. I signed.

Six months later, she sent me a message.

*Sis, I've decided I'm not giving your husband back.*

Below it was an ultrasound. Eighteen weeks.

I stared at that scan, then dug out something else.

An envelope she'd asked me to keep the year her mother was hospitalized.

Inside was a land title certificate.

That family land slated for demolition had already been bought out and paid—five years ago, in Rachel's name.

Four hundred seventy thousand dollars.

Rachel, your parents passed early. You're a pitiable thing.

But this scheme of yours—what year did it really begin?

……

"Julian, that eighteen-week ultrasound Rachel sent me—you'd better explain it."

I leaned back into the couch.

My fingers smoothed the five-year-old buyout certificate, slow and deliberate.

The edges of the paper had yellowed.

But the red seal stamped on it was still sharp and clear.

The line went quiet for two seconds.

Then Julian's voice came through, righteous as anything.

"Rachel's pregnant. The doctor says she's frail, that she can't take the slightest stress."

"Let's part on good terms. Be the bigger person. Just step aside."

A laugh forced its way out of me.

"Six months ago, who was the one on his knees begging me for a fake divorce?"

"And now you want me to be gracious and step aside, to make your poor little tragic couple whole?"

Julian got frantic, his voice climbing.

"Can you not be so selfish?"

"Rachel's parents passed early. I'm all she has to lean on!"

"You've got two good hands and a good job. You'll get by fine without me."

"But Rachel can't! Without me, how are she and the baby supposed to survive?"

I listened to that absurd logic.

A wave of nausea turned in my stomach.

"Julian, did a door slam your brain shut?"

The phone got snatched away by another hand.

Rachel's voice came through, pitched thin and sweet.

"Sis, I'm sorry. I really didn't mean for this to happen."

"Julian and I, we grew close over time. The baby was an accident."

"But I really can't be without him."

"Leave the marital home to us. Think of it as building good karma for the unborn baby."

"Don't worry, once my own land buyout comes through, I'll cut you a share. For sure."

"I'd never let you walk away with nothing!"

I looked at the certificate in my hand—four hundred seventy thousand, already paid.

My eyes went cold.

"Rachel, quite the plan you've worked out. Take the house I put the full down payment on, and raise you and another man's seed in it?"

Julian's tone turned vicious.

"If you dare make trouble, dare refuse to walk away with nothing, tomorrow I'll go back to your hometown and hang banners in your village!"

"I'll let every relative you've got know you were thrown out because you couldn't bear me a child!"

"Let's see where your parents put their faces then!"

Threatening me.

Using the family and the reputation I cared about most to threaten me.

The old me might have caved.

Might have swallowed it down for the sake of saving face.

But now, in an instant, I understood all of it.

This was no fake marriage to scam a buyout.

This was a meticulously planned scheme to strip me bare.

What they were after was the marital home—the one I'd spent five hard years paying off!

I cut clean through his shouting.

"I agree to walk away with nothing."

The line went silent at once.

Julian, it seemed, couldn't believe I'd agreed so readily.

"You… you mean it? No tricks?"

"Tomorrow morning, nine o'clock. The county clerk's office. I'll see you out front."

My voice was level.

"Under property division, spell it out clearly: I'm giving up the house of my own free will, and I won't dispute it."

Beside him, Rachel's voice was so excited it shook. "Sabina! You're such a good person!"

"Julian, hurry up and print the agreement, before she changes her mind tomorrow!"

I laughed, cold.

"Don't worry, I won't go back on it. Whoever doesn't show tomorrow is a coward."

I hung up and dragged the suitcase out from under the bed.

Documents, laptop, a change of clothes. I packed them in.

Julian's things in that apartment, I didn't so much as touch.

They felt filthy.

The next day, outside the county clerk's office.

Julian and Rachel were already there waiting, early.

Rachel wore a loose maternity dress, one hand carefully cradling the small swell of her belly.

A smile on her face.

Julian had those few sheets of paper clamped in a death grip.

The moment he saw me coming, he rushed over.

"Sabina, I've got the agreement printed. Take a look. If there's no problem, just sign."

I took it. Brutal, really.

Not only did he get the house, he didn't leave me a single thing—not the car, not one appliance.

He'd even added a line: the wife voluntarily assumes the joint debts incurred during the marriage.

I raised an eyebrow.

"Joint debt? Since when do we have joint debt?"

His eyes darted away for a second.

He forced himself calm.

"It's… it's the credit card we ran up buying furniture for the place before."

"You make good money anyway. That kind of money's nothing to you."

Rachel came over and tried, all warmth, to loop her arm through mine.

I turned aside and dodged it.

She wasn't embarrassed at all. She just smiled, eyes crinkling.

"Sabina, Julian's got me and the baby to support now. The pressure's just too much."

"Think of it as helping us out."

"Once the buyout settlement comes through, I'll pay you back double!"

I looked at her face and choked down the disgust.

"Fine. I'll sign."

I clicked the pen open and signed my name in two quick strokes.

Julian stared at the signature on the agreement and let out a long breath.

"Sabina, smart of you to know your place."

"From here on out, you go your way, I'll go mine."

"And don't be eyeing Rachel's buyout settlement. That's for the baby."

I tucked away my copy of the agreement.

Looked at him, cold.

"Don't worry. I won't be eyeing a cent of it."

"Here's wishing you two a long happy life together, and a child soon."

With that, I turned and walked off.

Behind me came Rachel's voice.

"Julian, we finally have a home of our own!"

"The baby can run around in a big house from now on!"

I listened to it.

And let out a cold laugh.

A big house?

I hope the two of you live in that house in peace.

I dragged my suitcase straight to an apartment near the office.

I lay down on the bed and slept peacefully, a good night's sleep.

The next day, the moment I opened my phone,

a post from Rachel turned up in my feed.

The photo was Julian from behind, in an apron, cooking in the kitchen.

【A love where both run toward each other—looking forward to our new home and our baby. Thanks to certain people for letting go, so I could meet the right one.】

Underneath, nothing but likes and comments from mutual friends.

I opened the group chat with our mutual friends.

It had already blown up.

Julian was in there pouring out his sob story to anyone who'd listen.

"Guys, I'm finally free."

"That woman, Sabina—she had to control everything."

"She'd check the books even when I bought a pack of cigarettes. The woman's a vampire!"

"And she was so obsessed with money. Walking away with nothing was the only way I bought my freedom."

A few clueless people in the group chat chimed right in.

"You've really been through it, Julian!"

"Better to cut a gold-digger loose early."

Rachel dropped a two-hundred-dollar luck-of-the-draw cash gift into the chat.

Playing the good-hearted peacemaker.

"Come on, everyone, don't talk about Sabina like that. She had her own struggles too."

"Honestly, I just couldn't stand watching Julian end up out on the street."

"So I took him in out of kindness. I never expected feelings to grow over time."

"I hope you'll all wish us well."

Watching the screen fill up with congratulations on his fine new wife and wishes for a long, happy life together.

I opened the keyboard and typed out a line to set the record straight.

Then I thought about it, and quietly deleted it.

Explaining myself to these people now would be a pure waste of breath.

Instead, I turned on screen recording.

Every message of theirs, every lie, every twisting of the truth.

From the first word to the last, I saved all of it, leaving nothing out.

Once that was done.

I cleanly exited every group chat we shared.

And while I was at it, I blocked Julian and Rachel completely, both their messages and their numbers.

Out of sight, out of mind.

I washed up and took a cab straight to the bank.

Sitting down at the VIP counter.

I slid my ID across to the teller.

"Hi. I need you to cancel the supplementary card linked to Julian Woodward's phone."

"And the joint account in both our names, freeze it and settle it out completely."

Back when we set it up, it was just the easy thing to do, every household expense ran through that account.

Julian's dead-end paycheck barely covered his own cigarettes and drinks.

For the past few years, I'd been the one keeping him afloat.

Now it was time to cut him off.

I'd just stepped out the bank's front doors.

When my phone rang.

An unfamiliar local number.

I picked up, and a frantic voice came through.

"Hello? Is this Sabina? It's Katherine Lambert, I used to live next door to Rachel's family!"

"Mrs. Lambert? Is there something I can do for you?"

"Oh, thank goodness I got through!"

Katherine's voice dropped very low.

"Sabina, have you seen Rachel lately?"

"What's happened with her?"

"Something's gone down at her family's old house!"

"This morning a whole crowd of men showed up."

"Carrying red paint, splashed her door until it was covered in writing!"

"All of it stuff like pay your debts or your whole family dies!"

My heart gave a hard jolt.

"Debt collectors?"

"What else could it be!"

Katherine slapped her own thigh.

"Those men pounded on that door like animals, said Rachel owed them millions!"

"I was too scared to even step outside."

"Sabina, you stay far away from her, don't let her drag you down with her!"

"I understand. Thank you, Mrs. Lambert."

I hung up.

Stood there on the street.

And in that moment every thread in my mind closed into a full circle.

I finally understood.

Five years ago, Rachel received four hundred and seventy thousand dollars from her property buyout.

But she'd never saved a cent of it.

She'd burned through all of it long ago, and even gone deep into loan-shark debt!

The sham marriage was never about scamming a buyout settlement.

It was about scamming the marital home out from under me!

She needed a property worth millions to plug the hole the loan sharks had torn open!

No wonder she'd pressured me overnight to walk away with nothing.

No wonder she was in such a rush to get the house signed over into Julian's name.

So it turned out she was hunting for a scapegoat.

And Julian, that fool.

Still thought he'd landed himself a wealthy woman about to cash in on a buyout.

Grinning, he slipped his own neck right into the loan sharks' noose.

I took a deep breath.

And couldn't help but laugh out loud.