Husband Fled with First Love, I Saved World with Medical Expertise Chapter 03
Seven days into the lockdown, I knelt on the balcony floor to take a grim inventory.
Half a bag of rice. Less than half a bottle of cooking oil. Enough vegetables in the fridge to last maybe two more days.
I checked the balance on our bank card three times.
Current Balance: $586.41.
I remembered that when last month’s paycheck came in, there had been close to $65,000 in that account.
I opened the transaction history and scrolled through it line by line.
January 15 — $16,500 Wire Transfer: V. Sterling.
January 21 — $11,700 Wire Transfer: V. Sterling.
February 2 — $20,600 Wire Transfer: V. Sterling.
February 8 — $13,700 Wire Transfer: V. Sterling.
V. Sterling.
Vivian Sterling.
Four transfers, totaling $62,500, had bled the account dry in less than a month.
The last transfer had gone out forty-eight hours before the city shut down.
Sixty-two thousand five hundred dollars.
Three years of my savings.
After I left my job at the institute, Adrian told me he made enough for both of us and wanted me to stay home so I could look after his mother.
I’d been covering the mortgage from my pre-marital savings, a steady six-hundred-dollar drain every month.
Utilities, his mother’s supplements, groceries, everything else had come out of the joint fund.
He deposited a little over two thousand dollars into it every month.
My savings had been in there too.
Now it was gone.
Five hundred and eighty-six dollars.
Not even enough to cover the next payment.
I sat on the little stool on the balcony, sunlight warming my back while the rest of me stayed frozen.
A message came in from Adrian.
[Honey, how are things over there? Are you and Mom okay?]
I stared at the word Honey for a long time.
Then I typed back: [Where did the money in our joint account go?]
He replied three minutes later.: [What money?]
[The $62,500 transferred to V. Sterling.]
Read.
No response.
Ten minutes later, he called.
“Claire, listen to me. That money is in an investment account. The return’s going to be high. Once I get back, I’ll —”
“V. Sterling is Vivian Sterling.”
Silence.
“—She was helping me move some assets overseas. It’s complicated, Claire. You wouldn’t get the logistics.”
“I wouldn’t get it?”
I let out a short laugh.
“Adrian, my PhD is in epidemiology, and I have a minor in stats. Want to guess what else I found when I audited our last six months of spending?”
He hung up.
I didn’t call back.
I took a screenshot of the call log and saved it to the Evidence folder.
Evelyn came out of the bathroom leaning on her cane, looking pale.
“Claire, I’m feeling a little dizzy.”
I helped her sit down and strapped the cuff to her arm.
168 systolic.
She was a walking stroke risk. The stress and the dwindling rations were finally catching up to her.
I went through the pill organizer top to bottom. Three pills left.
I called her doctor. Busy signal.
Then I called 911. I got put on hold.
I set the phone down and looked at her trembling hands.
This woman had helped her son scheme behind my back, and now she was clinging to me for dear life.
“Claire… I don’t feel right…”
“I know.”
I broke one of the last pills in half and gave it to her.
“Take this first. I’ll figure something out.”
Hating her was one thing.
Letting her die on my watch was another.