Go Away, My Dear Ex-Husband

Stephanie kept going on about her mistakes and Kayla, pissed off, yanked a bunch of weeds from the grave and tossed them at her feet.

Her eyes went icy, glaring right at Stephanie. “This is my mom, not yours! Stop pretending to be the perfect daughter. You haven’t been here in five years. You don’t even know how I ended up in prison!”

Stephanie’s face flickered with panic and she grabbed Lionel’s sleeve without thinking. Lionel stepped in front of her, but Kayla couldn’t believe it—there he was, standing in her way.

“Kayla, how can you talk to your sister like that? She’s just speaking the truth! You broke the law, that’s on you, not her!” Lionel said, his voice firm.

Kayla just sneered, her eyes still locked on the tombstone. “Is that so?”

She had known for a while now that her family didn’t have her back. The first thing she did after getting out of prison was track down the person in charge of the security footage.

Since Lionel wouldn’t help her, she would do it herself. She’d learned the hard way that trusting anyone but herself wasn’t an option.

She had spent a lot of money to get the contact details of the fired employees—money her mom had secretly saved for her, money most people would never see in a lifetime.

She was going to meet them and this was the first time she would step out since being released.

She dressed quickly, determined to get things done on her own. But just as she was about to leave, Lionel stopped her. “Kayla, where are you going?”

Kayla slowed down, trying to hide what she was up to. “Just going out to pick up a few things.”

"I'll drive you," Lionel offered.

"No need," Kayla replied flatly.

He hesitated, then grabbed a jacket from the couch and handed it to her. "It’s cold outside. Put this on."

Kayla paused, looking at him, trying to make sense of his actions. But she couldn’t figure it out. "I’m fine," she said, but Lionel didn’t let it go, pulling the jacket over her shoulders.

She didn’t argue, too worn out to care anymore.

As she drove, Kayla replayed the earlier scene in her mind. Nothing could change what had happened, but it didn’t stop the anger from bubbling up.

She had finally gotten her hands on the surveillance footage, she’d seen Stephanie steal the account books with her own eyes.

Kayla gripped her fists. Five years of waiting and now she wanted revenge. She wanted Stephanie to feel what she had felt—pain, loss, betrayal. She wasn’t going to let this go.

Just as she was about to leave, she saw something that stopped her in her tracks. Stephanie was sitting at a table, sipping tea like she had all the time in the world.

But it was the man sitting across from her that made Kayla's heart drop—he was from the rival company, the one who had tried to steal her mother’s tech.

Kayla watched as Stephanie handed him a stack of documents. It all clicked. They were planning to take everything, the company, the money, everything her mother had left behind.

She never thought Stephanie would go this far.

Later, when she got back home, Stephanie was there waiting. "Where are you off to this time?" she asked, her voice too sweet. "Looking for a job?"

She smiled a little too knowingly. "I heard from Lionel you're job hunting. I’m the financial director now. You can just work for me. No need to go out and look elsewhere."