He Wanted a Fake Divorce for the Payout, I Gave Him a Real One for the Payback Chapter 02

He Wanted a Fake Divorce for the Payout, I Gave Him a Real One for the Payback Chapter 02

When we walked out of family court, Darren was holding the freshly printed divorce decree, grinning from ear to ear.

He tossed my copy into the glove compartment, where it landed with a sharp little snap.

“All set. Everything’s done.” Darren slapped his thigh.

“Lorna, you’ll live in the apartment from now on. Clara, you can go stay with your mom for a couple of days until the dust settles.”

I stood under the blazing sun and looked at the two of them.

“Darren, even though we’re divorced now, I’m still part of this family, right?” I took off my sunglasses and stared at him. “Since this is all for the relocation payout, we need to make it look real. If I move out right away, what will the neighbors think? What will the city inspectors think? If anyone checks, they’ll know this divorce is fake.”

The smile on Darren’s face stiffened. “Then what do you want?”

“I move back in.”

I pointed at the apartment door.

“I won’t fight anyone for the bedroom. I’ll sleep on the couch. To everyone else, we’ll say we split because of irreconcilable differences, so we’re sleeping separately. But in practice, we’re still family.”

Lorna glanced at Darren. Darren pressed his lips together, his jaw working as he crunched the numbers.

If I did not live there, how was he supposed to explain why I had handed the apartment over to Lorna?

“Fine.” Darren nodded.

“Then you sleep on the couch. Don’t bother Lorna while she rests. She’s in no condition for stress.”

“Of course.” I smiled, pushed open the door, and walked in like I owned the place.

That night, Darren shut the primary bedroom door tight.

I lay on the living room couch with a thin blanket under me, the cushions hard enough to dig into my back.

The wall clock ticked on and on.

After midnight, noises started coming from the bedroom.

First came the squeak of the bed frame, like a mouse gnawing at old wood. Then came hushed voices.

“…She really bought it?” That was Lorna’s voice, oddly light and bright, nothing like her usual dull whisper.

“Like hell she did. But it doesn’t matter. It’s better to have her here watching anyway, in case anyone from the city inspectors comes by and finds a hole in the story.”

Darren’s voice was rough and hoarse.

“That woman is stubborn as a mule, but once the money comes through, she won’t have a leg to stand on.”

“And the money…”

“It’s ours, obviously. That stupid woman signed everything away. She won’t get a damn cent. When the time comes, I’ll find some excuse to kick her out for good.”

“Heh…”

A few muffled giggles followed, then came sounds that made my stomach turn.

The bed frame creaked louder and faster until the rhythm turned into a steady thudding against the wall.

I pulled the couch pillow over my ears.

I was not angry.

Truly.

I was only thinking about the day Nathan died.

Had Lorna made those same noises back then?

Back then, she had collapsed beside his casket, grieving so violently she kept passing out.

Everyone had called her a loyal widow.

Now only a few months had passed. His corpse was barely cold in the ground, and already there was another man’s child in her belly.

The thudding went on for a long time before it suddenly stopped. Then Lorna let out a sharp cry, like a chicken with its neck caught in a hand.

“What’s wrong?” Darren asked.

“My stomach… My stomach hurts.”

“Oh, sweetheart, don’t scare me. If something happens to our baby, there goes our ticket to that extra unit!”

In the dark, I lay with my eyes open, staring at the ceiling light. A dead fly was trapped inside the shade, shriveled and dry.

The bedroom light came on three times that night.

I got up to use the bathroom four times, and every time I passed that door, I could smell something awful.

Sweat, something sour and fishy I could not name, and the stale stench of Darren’s cheap cigarettes.

The smell was enough to choke on.