Chapter 4

"Oh honey, why are you so angry? Your blood pressure will go up, and I'll feel so bad for you."

"Lydia, I'm not trying to criticize you, but Dad's getting up there in years. Can't you be a little more accommodating?"

Hannah wore the same outfit from earlier that day, her neckline cut even lower now. She burrowed into my father's arms—a man thirty years her senior.

I truly admired her. Servicing my husband during the day, servicing my father at night.

Clearly, my father had no idea he was being cuckolded by Nathan.

Nathan's nerve was truly remarkable—he dared touch my father's mistress?

I tested the waters, asking Hannah:

"As one woman to another, if you were me and your husband cheated, how would you feel?"

Hannah paused, then smiled:

"I'd only blame myself for being incompetent."

"I'm not criticizing you, but you're always busy with work and never bother to dress yourself up. How can you expect your husband to be interested in sleeping with you?"

I wanted nothing more than to rush over and slap Hannah across the face right then.

But thinking twice, that would be letting her off too easy. Mimicking her manner, I smiled at my father:

"Dad, don't you want to know who Nathan's cheating with?"

Hannah's brow tightened. She shot me a glare:

"Like I said, who doesn't matter. What matters is you hurry up and give him a baby."

"Besides, you're probably overthinking it. Look how busy Mr. Hayes is with work, spending all day working overtime in his office. Where would he find time to cheat?"

Yes, I never imagined it either.

This man who came home every day, who video-called me during lunch breaks, who rarely attended business dinners—I never thought he'd be keeping a mistress in his office. My father's mistress, no less.

As if afraid I'd say more, Hannah pressed her chest directly against my father's face and cooed:

"My birthday's coming up, darling. What birthday present are you getting me?"

"I'll buy you an island and name it after you."

"Yay! Darling, you're so good to me!"

The two started making out right in front of me.

On my mother's birthday, when she came home, Dad had been rolling around on the couch with a female college student twenty years his junior in exactly the same way.

Coincidentally, today was also my birthday.

Nathan had forgotten. My father had forgotten too.

Fine. If everyone wants to hurt me like this, then let's all be destroyed together.