My wife had an affair right after giving birth. I caught her in the act, and she called the police first, accusing me of marital rape and sending me to prison.
Three years later, when I walked out of that cell, I discovered she'd dumped our one-month-old daughter in an orphanage just so she could run off and have fun with her lover. I fought with everything I had left to get my daughter back. To give her a good life, I hauled bricks, made deliveries, and spent twenty years building a company from nothing. We were finally getting somewhere. Life was looking up.
Then, on the eve of our IPO, the company's core project collapsed overnight. Eighty million dollars in debt. Twenty years of blood and sweat gone in a single night.
I rushed to get my daughter's visa sorted out. I transferred every last dollar in my savings to her account. My plan was simple: once she boarded that plane, I'd jump.
I was standing on the window sill, ready to go, when she came bursting through the door. And behind her was the woman I hated more than anyone in this world: my ex-wife.
"Marta, what are you doing back here?" I grabbed the window sill to steady myself, frozen in place.
She was supposed to be on a flight to Australia. I'd walked her to security myself, watched her pass through without looking back. By the time she landed, I was supposed to be gone. I'd thought I'd never see her again. But there she was, standing right in front of me.
"Dad." She said the word quietly, without answering my question. She shifted to the side and reached back behind her. "Look who I brought."
A figure stepped out from behind her. It took me three full seconds to recognize that face. Laura, my ex-wife—the woman who had carved the deepest wound of my life. My expression went cold. The chill rolling off me could have frozen the air solid.
I stared hard at my daughter. "Why are you with her? Don't you know how much I hate that woman?"