Maria calmed herself down and stuffed the paper that was handed to her in her pocket before turning around to face her husband.

She would have to find another time to read that note, but not right now. She looked at her daughter who was still smiling without a care in the world. ​​

She knew that she would have to drag her daughter into this issue even if she didn’t want to.

In a divorce, it was the child that would suffer the most.

Maria didn’t know why, but she just believed the foreign lady that she had just met. She also had had her suspicions, but she hadn’t wanted to believe them because she still had her daughter.

It was heartbreaking to have someone else confirm what she already knew deep down in her heart.

She took her daughter’s hand in her own and walked straight to her scum of a husband with her back as straight as a pine tree.

“Hey dear, I have to go. My office is calling me to do some overtime.” He said.

“Really now, I guess we can’t keep you here then.” Maria struggled to give him her most normal smile, but it didn’t matter, because he wouldn’t have noticed anyway.

“Why? Daddy said he was going to be with Rose all of today.” Rose’s smile turned into a frown so quickly that even a clown would be impressed.

The man became a little impatient, but knowing that it was his daughter, he didn’t show it.

“Sorry little Rose, but it’s work things and I have to work to be able to feed you.” He explained with little guilt. He was already used to lying to his family.

He had started seeing other people at bars after work around 2 years ago and at the beginning, he had felt really bad about it.

He convinced himself that it was due to the stress and that he wouldn’t do it again, but nothing seemed to work.

He was working hard to dig a hole for himself so how could he not jump in?

In the end, he wasn’t able to get rid of the ladies that he had found at the bar and when he came clean to them, they actually started blackmailing him. In hindsight, he seemed to have really messed up when he gave away his personal information. And well, also when he decided he was going to become a douche and cheat on his wife.

After a while, he got used to it. To lying to his wife and daughter and everything else. The more he got used to it, the less he felt it was wrong. Which was just sad in so many ways.

The truth was that it was actually his lover that had sent him a message, she had threatened him. If he didn’t come right now, then she would go to him and expose the truth to his family.

He was actually more than willing to go; he just felt a little bad for this daughter of his.

“Rosy, your father has to go, so can you forgive him?” Maria’s insinuations weren’t caught by the father or daughter.

As for forgiving him, though she felt a deep hatred for her husband, she didn’t want to burden her daughter with similar grudges.

“Fine! But you have to promise to go out with Rosy twice now!”

“Yes, yes. Daddy promises.” His only option was to agree now, everything else could be dealt with later. He then left without even looking back.

After making sure that he had left and wasn’t coming back, Maria took out the crumpled paper that she had stuffed into her pocket and straightened it out.

[First of all, the lines around his ring finger show that he frequently takes it off, he also had a tendency to stuff that hand in his pocket to hide the fact that he is married. As for concrete evidence, the message this number 22193#####]

Maria’s eyes widened. She hesitated before sending a message to the international number, but she still did it within the minute.

Maria: [Hello?]

Unknown Number: [Who is this and how did you get my number?]

Maria: [Um. The foreign lady gave it to me.]

Unknown Number: [ I see.]

Maria: [It’s about my husband…]

Unknown Number: [I know now, give me 5]

Maria: [5 what?]

Maria was looking at her phone and had unknowingly started pacing around. She didn’t know if this was actually a scam, but it was already too late to think about that.

[Why was being mistaken for a scam artist so common for these two? Is it a gift? People think they are scammers, yet still decide to trust them. It must be a gift.]

She was still stuck on the fact that her husband had cheated on her.

Rose looked at her mother in confusion.

Since her daddy left her mommy was acting all weird. She was chewing her nails as she stared a hole into her phone which in turn made Rose nervous, but she knew well enough to not interrupt at that moment.

After what seemed like an eternity, 5 minutes, the notification bell rang again.

Unknown Number: [*file*]

Unknown Number: [This is everything you need, get a good lawyer]

Unknown Number: [But if you’re too lazy to throw away the trash, it’s not my place to interfere. I don’t recommend it though, mold will fester and your daughter might get infected.]

Unknown Number: [When you need help, you should try this number again, just put Three as my name or something. I’m Two by the way]

Maria: […]

Maria didn’t know if she wanted to look at the files, to comment on the lawyer part, or the terrible naming sense first.

There were just too many things to point out.

‘Like really? Your name is Two (which I assume to be a code name) and you want me to add you as Three? Are you trying to be secretive or are you trying to mess with me? How old are you? Are you two years old pretending to be three?’

These were all things going through Maria’s mind, but then she reminded herself of the file. She was about to open it when a small voice by her side made her jump.

“What are you looking at mommy? You’re even ignoring Rosy now. Daddy doesn’t want Rosy and now mommy doesn’t want me either. Humph.” Rose crossed her arms in front of her chest and put on an act for her mother.

She noticed that her mommy looked distressed and so she didn’t want her to keep thinking about the phone that was upsetting her.

Maria quickly put her phone away and picked her child up.

“My Rosy is so heavy now, mommy can barely carry you. Let’s go home okay?” Maria remembered to put up her strong front for her beautiful daughter, to block her from the nastiness that was the truth for as long as she could.

Which would end up being much shorter than she had imagined or that she had hoped for.