I Rented My Husband Out and Bought My Daughter A Heart Surgery Chapter 02

I Rented My Husband Out and Bought My Daughter A Heart Surgery Chapter 02

The warmth in the room felt almost staged. Like Bria and I had walked into someone else’s home by mistake.

“Maren…”

Alistair shot to his feet and hurried over, reaching for my bag.

“Coraline’s landlord suddenly sold the place. They had to move out overnight.”

“They haven’t found anywhere yet. I was thinking… maybe they could stay here for a while?”

I didn’t answer.

I just watched as the house staff carried our things, one by one, into the storage room.

Coraline spoke softly, but the satisfaction in her eyes was impossible to miss.

“I’m really sorry, Maren. My health hasn’t been great, so I need a room with good light and ventilation.”

“Alistair let me take the master bedroom.”

Bria’s room was gone too.

Dexter had taken it over.

Her favorite porcelain doll lay on the floor outside, its limbs snapped clean off.

For a moment, Alistair looked uneasy.

“Maren, if you’re not okay with this, I can find them another—”

“I’m fine with it.”

I held out my hand.

“The rate stays the same. But staying in my house comes with additional fees.”

“Usage. Space. And your time.”

The sound was sharp.

Alistair slammed my bag onto the floor, his face turning cold.

“Maren Halbrook, have you lost your mind?”

“You’re saying this in front of a child? Have you no shame left at all?”

I almost laughed.

He was the one who brought another woman and her child into our home.

And somehow I was the one crossing the line.

Alistair grabbed Coraline and Dexter and headed for the door.

As he passed me, he flicked a debit card straight at my face.

“Five hundred thousand. That enough for you?”

“If money’s all you care about, then go chase it.”

The door shut.

Hard.

Silence fell over the house.

Bria sniffled beside me, gently dabbing at my face with a tissue.

Only then did I realize the card had cut the corner of my eye.

“Mom… it’s my fault.”

“If I wasn’t sick, Dad wouldn’t treat you like this every day.”

I pulled her tightly into my arms.

“I’m not upset.”

“Once your surgery is done, everything will be okay. That’s all that matters.”

She fell asleep in my arms, still clutching me, the same child who once refused to sleep without her father’s bedtime stories.

Now she cried herself to sleep.

I looked at the crease in her brow. It felt like something had run me over.

When did we become this?

When did we stop being a family?

Was it when Coraline’s husband died, and Alistair started going over every night to “keep her company,” so often that when he came home, tabloids assumed he was cheating.

Or when he decided Dexter needed a father figure, never missing a single parent-teacher conference or school event, while my daughter was labeled the “other woman’s child” and bullied for it?

Or the first time Bria collapsed from cardiac pain, when I called him over and over and every call went unanswered?

By the time I reached the hospital, every doctor had been pulled away to treat Dexter’s minor injury.

Her heart stopped three times, and I broke down begging before I could stop one doctor long enough to save her life.

I took a slow breath.

Then I packed.

Carefully. Quietly.

I lifted Bria in my arms and walked out of that house without looking back.

A week passed in the new place.

Not a single message from Alistair.

But Coraline never stopped. Links. Articles. Photos. Celebrity outlets covering their outings.

Like she was afraid I might miss it.

I opened them one by one.

Every place they went—Bria and I had once wanted to go.

Even the outlet publishing it was the same one that had covered my wedding.

“Maren, I told Alistair to pay to take those articles down, but he said you have plenty of money.”

“This is my fault. Maybe I should sell the jewelry and bags he bought me… help you clean it up?”

She sent photos with it—luxury gifts, carefully framed, meant to provoke.

The old me would’ve shown up at her door. Destroyed everything in sight.

Now?

[That would be great. Thank you.]

I sent it without a second thought.

Nothing came back.

Just when I thought things might finally quiet down—a notification hit.

$1,000,000 deposited.

I froze.

Then I saw the note attached.

And the blood in my veins turned ice-cold.