"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.
Julian, oh Julian.
That one true love you can't stop pining over.
She's about to hand you one hell of a gift.
I'd just finished lunch.
An unknown number lit up my phone.
I picked up and said nothing.
"Hello? Sis, it's me."
Rachel's voice came through, deliberately soft and syrupy.
In the background, I could hear her gagging.
"Ugh, this morning sickness is killing me."
I tapped the call-recording button.
My voice stayed flat.
"If you've got something to say, say it."
"Sis, don't be so cold."
Rachel put on her sweetest tone.
"It's just, I've moved into the new place, and I found that bag of yours still here."
"I think it's gorgeous, and the baby loves it too."
"Just think of it as a maternity gift to me, okay?"
I raised an eyebrow.
That bag was a limited edition I'd paid fifty grand for.
She actually had the nerve to ask.
I played along, letting out a sigh like a woman down on her luck.
"Rachel, I'm renting now. Money's tight."
"I was actually planning to list that bag on a resale site for some living expenses."
The moment she heard that, she laughed, smug and pleased.
"Oh dear, Sis, how'd you end up in such a rough spot?"
"If I'd known, I'd have told Julian to leave you a few hundred more."
She paused.
"But don't you worry."
"Once my buyout settlement comes through next month."
"That house in Julian's name will be all mine."
"And if I'm in a good mood, maybe I'll toss you a few thousand."
"Let you have a nice holiday too."
I lowered my eyes.
That was exactly the line I wanted.
"Is that so? Congratulations in advance, then."
I reminded her, offhand.
"Oh, right. The property fees and utilities on that house are due this month."
"Two thousand eight hundred total. Make sure you pay on time, or they'll cut off the water and power."
Before she could blow up.
I hung up.
Looking at the file saved successfully on my screen.
I gave a cold little laugh.
One more piece of evidence.
Less than half an hour later.
The landline at the company front desk started ringing like mad.
The receptionist picked up, got startled, and rushed to transfer the call to me.
"Sabina! Are you out of your mind?!"
The line had barely connected before Julian's furious roar came through.
"Who gave you the right to cancel my card?!"
"The fact that it was opened with my ID."
I held the receiver a little further from my ear.
"What? Card won't go through?"
Julian was breathing hard with rage on the other end.
"I'm at the baby store! Buying prenatal supplements for Rachel!"
"The card got locked when I went to pay!"
"There were a dozen people in line watching me!"
"You humiliated me in front of everyone!"
I listened to him falling apart.
And felt nothing but satisfaction.
"You brought the humiliation on yourself."
I told him, ice cold.
"It's not just the supplementary card. I froze the joint account too."
"From today on, don't expect to take a single cent from me."
"Don't you have a sweet little wife about to be worth millions?"
"Have her pick up the tab."
"Sabina! You poisonous witch! You just wait!"
Julian raged uselessly on the other end.
I yanked the landline cord straight out of the wall.
The world went quiet.
During the lunch break.
I took the buyout documents and the recording I'd just made.
And went to a law firm downtown.
Found John Whitney, the attorney who specialized in property disputes.
"Lawyer Whitney, I need to draft an anti-fraud and asset-protection declaration."
I slid the documents across the desk to him.
"I want to make sure that any debt Julian Woodward and Rachel Matthews run up out there—"
"—has nothing to do with me. Not a cent of it."
John Whitney flipped through the pages.
He pushed his glasses up.
"Ms. James, you're very thorough."
"Still, just to be safe, I'd like to check the current ownership status on that marital home."
"Go ahead."
He opened his laptop and logged into the internal system.
He entered the property deed number.
A few seconds later.
His brows pulled tight.
"Ms. James, something's off here."
"What is it?"
He turned the screen toward me and pointed at a line of red text.
"This house. Yesterday afternoon."
"That's three hours after the two of you finalized the divorce."
"Julian put it up as collateral on a high-interest loan."
"For three hundred thousand dollars."
I shot to my feet.
I stared at the mortgage record on the screen.
I almost laughed out loud.
Three hundred thousand!
To buy Rachel her prenatal supplements, to play the big man.
Julian had quietly handed the marital home over to a loan shark operation.
He thought Rachel's four-hundred-seventy-thousand-dollar buyout settlement would hit her account next month.
So he didn't care about the predatory interest on that three hundred thousand at all.
He'd cut off his own last way out with his own two hands.
"Lawyer Whitney."
I drew a deep breath and pressed down the wild joy rising in my chest.
"Print this mortgage record."
"Lock it in the safe with all the other legal documents."
Julian had cut off his own last way out with his own two hands.
I locked every legal document in the safe.
A morning a few days later.
I'd just walked into the company lobby, coffee in hand.
The front desk was mobbed, packed wall to wall.
A security guard was sweating through his shirt, trying to push the crowd back.
"Move along! Don't make a scene here!"
The crowd.
Julian's parents, in their old clothes.
Sitting on the marble floor, throwing a full tantrum.
"There's no justice in this world! Everybody come look at this poisonous woman!"
Julian's mother slapped her own thigh, screaming herself hoarse.
"Stealing my son's money! A shameless tramp!"
"Threw my son out, didn't even leave him a roof over his head!"
Julian's father held up a banner.
It read: Sabina James, Corrupt Executive—Married for Money, Robbed My Son, No Conscience Left!
Rachel cradled her showing belly.
She stood off to the side, eyes rimmed red, wiping at tears.
Crying out her accusations for my watching coworkers to hear.
"Sabina shoved me on purpose, fighting over the money."
"I almost lost the baby yesterday."
"She can't have children of her own, so she wants to kill mine."
"We only wanted the share of the money that belongs to Julian, and she won't even leave us a way to live."
Around them, coworkers who knew nothing started whispering and pointing.
"God, Director James always seems so cold and untouchable, who knew she was this vicious behind the scenes."
"Right? The girl's pregnant and she still pushed her to the brink."
"Bullying old people too. That's going too far."
Just then.
A loud bang.
The elevator doors opened.
The CEO came charging out, face like thunder.
He took in the scene in the lobby and went livid.
"Sabina! What the hell are you pulling here?"
He jabbed a finger at my face, shaking with anger.
"This company is where you come to work, not to drag us through the mud!"
"Right now! This instant! Get down on your knees in this lobby and apologize to them!"
"Make this go away!"
"Then hand in your resignation! Or I call the police and have you taken in!"
I stood there with my coffee.
Looking at him.
Before I could even open my mouth.
Julian came lunging out of the crowd.
His eyes were bloodshot, wild.
He hurled an envelope hard against my chest.
"Sabina! You bitch!"
"Hand over whatever's left in that account! Call it emotional damages!"
"Or I'll see you ruined in this company today!"
The envelope dropped to the floor.
A handful of forged medical bills spilled out of it.
I let the scraps of paper scatter around my feet.
I looked at the two of them, and the old couple wailing on the floor.
"You want me to get down on my knees and apologize?"
I let out a soft laugh.
It wasn't loud, but it carried a chill.
I reached out and opened the briefcase I had with me.
"Julian, do you think you've already won today?"
I took out a small, high-output projector.
Turned.
And plugged it straight into the big screen behind the front desk.
"Sabina! What are you doing! Haven't you embarrassed us enough?"
The CEO roared, trying to stop me.
I swept up the front desk microphone in the same motion.
And pressed the projector's display button.
The screen lit up.
A five-year-old bank statement appeared on it.
I held the mic, my voice booming through the speakers, filling the whole lobby.
"Rachel's buyout money was already blown five years ago!"
"Julian, the house you mortgaged, the money you threw in on top of it—"
"—it all went to a deadbeat buried under millions in online loans!"
