The next morning, I walked into brunch with the file in hand.
I placed it in front of Richard.
“You think this gives you the right to send my kids away without telling me?” I demanded.
He frowned. “You wanted better opportunities for them.”
“Not like this,” I snapped.
Before he could argue further, a voice interrupted.
“He didn’t do it for you,” the woman from the restroom said, stepping forward. “He did it for himself.”
She introduced herself as Claire—his sister-in-law.
“I heard him say once you were married, he planned to remove the children,” she said. “He called them distractions.”
Richard denied it, but the documents spoke for themselves.
I took off my ring and placed it on the folder.
“You didn’t want a family,” I said quietly. “You wanted control.”
“And you wanted money,” he shot back.
Maybe that was partly true.
But I wasn’t going to lose my children because of it.
I left with them that day.
