April Fools “Surprise” Husband Divorcing Me For His “Pure” Girl novel Chapter 99

Chapter 3

I pushed open the door. Same smell hit me like a wall.

Disinfectant. Old person funk. A hint of mildew.

Five years of that stench had seeped into the walls. No amount of air freshener could kill it.

I collapsed onto the couch and pulled out the photograph.

Seventeen-year-old me, grinning like an idiot.

Back then, I had no clue that three days later, my life would implode.

Back then, I thought getting into Stanford was the beginning of something.

I flipped the photo over. Scribbled on the back in Dad’s chicken-scratch handwriting:

“Emma, crush those exams.”

His handwriting was shit-barely literate, honestly.

But I’d carried those words for twenty years.

Ironic, right?

The man who stole my future wrote “crush those exams” on the back of a photo.

Then something clicked in my head.

How did this photo even happen?

A month before the SATs, Dad came home-rare as hell.

He’d been working construction out of state. Barely saw him twice a year.

That day, he showed up with a camera.

Some cheap point-and-shoot. Someone gave it to him. Probably used.

“Emma, c’mere. Let me get a shot of you.”

I stood under the pomegranate tree. He aimed the camera at me.

“Smile.”

I did.

Still nothing.

“Two thousand dollars,” I answered for him. “In a red envelope. Handed to me in front of all the relatives at the reception.”

“Back then, they really didn’t have-”

“Didn’t have what?” My voice rose. “The year you bought your house, they handed you forty grand. But the year I got married, they were suddenly broke? Two thousand bucks was all they could scrape together?”

“That’s not what I meant…”

“Jake.” I exhaled slowly. “I’m not asking you for money. I just want you to understand-I’ve given enough to this family.”

“Emma…”

“Keep the $5 million. Handle Mom’s stuff with Claire from now on. I’m out.”

“What are you saying?”

“I’m tired.”

I hung up.

Leaned back against the couch. Stared at the ceiling.