My Godfather Husband Gave Our Marriage a Zero, but Refused to Let Me Divorce Him Chapter 03

My Godfather Husband Gave Our Marriage a Zero, but Refused to Let Me Divorce Him Chapter 03

I stared at him, crushed by disappointment.

“Rocco, you froze my cards. I don’t have that kind of money right now.”

Livia let out a sharp, scornful laugh. “Broke? Spare us the act. You’ve been married to Rocco for years. You must have stashed away a fortune. Nobody’s buying the broke act.”

Rocco pinched the bridge of his nose. “Livia’s right. All you think about is money now. You’ll lie about anything. I’ve given you everything, and you won’t even split a twenty-thousand-dollar bill fairly.”

I opened my mouth to defend myself, but my phone rang. It was my mother.

“Odette, I passed out last week. The doctor says I need heart surgery…”

I accidentally put it on speaker.

Rocco froze for a heartbeat, alarm flickering across his face. “Mom’s sick?”

Livia burst out laughing, gasping for breath. “Oh my goodness, Rocco, you’re so easy to fool.”

“Now that your wife’s credit cards are locked, she’s found a new trick. It’s the classic gold-digger move: a sick mother, and next she’ll beg you for cash!”

My mom’s quiet voice drifted through the speaker a moment later. “They need eighty thousand. I’ve scraped together fifty thousand. Could I borrow thirty thousand from you…”

Rocco’s expression turned icy. “Odette, if you’re using Mom to manipulate me, I won’t give you a single dollar.”

Thirty grand wasn’t even enough for one bottle of his rarest wine.

My mom must have heard his tone.

She scrambled to take it back, panic in every word. “Odette, forget it. I’ll skip the surgery. You have enough on your plate as it is. Don’t fight with Rocco over me, okay?”

She remembered how poor Rocco and I once were. For the first few months of our marriage, every time I tried to send my parents money, they refused it outright.

They knew Rocco was wealthy now, but they never wanted to be a burden to us.

This was the very first time she’d ever asked to borrow anything.

A sharp, stabbing pain tore through my chest.

I hurried to reassure her. “Mom, don’t even say that. You can’t put off this surgery! I’ll get you the rest of the money, I promise.”

I hung up the call and broke down in sobs. “Rocco, when you had nothing, my mom lent you money and treated you like her own son. How can you say those things?”

Seeing me cry, Rocco reached out and wiped my tears, his voice softening.

“All right, Odette, stop crying. You’re pregnant. It’s not even that much money. If you quit lying and act like a proper wife, I’ll give you an allowance.”

Livia shook her head and stopped him. She held up her notebook and read her notes aloud.

“Mrs. Visconti is exploiting your sympathy with emotional blackmail. Tears are her weapon. Her trust score remains zero. My recommendation: do not reward this behavior. Deception requires consequences.”

Rocco’s gaze fell on page after page marked with zeroes, and his mood darkened again. “Odette, when did you get so calculating?”

I no longer had the energy to explain myself.

I took a taxi alone to the hospital and went through with the surgery.

On the drive home, a dull ache settled low in my abdomen. But my mother’s surgery date was drawing near, and I needed cash fast.

Ignoring the pain, I dug out every piece of jewelry and every luxury handbag from my closet and headed to a resale shop to sell them.

Thankfully, before Livia came back, Rocco had showered me with expensive gifts. They should have been enough to cover the medical bills.

The appraiser glanced over my collection and sneered. “Don’t waste our time. Every last one of these is fake. Cheap, obvious knockoffs—not even good fakes.”