When I got home, I collapsed onto the sofa, my eyes fixing on the framed photo of my father on the coffee table. They started to burn.

"I told you to take a cab, but you wouldn't listen! It's not like we're short on money! And now look, your reputation is ruined, and you're gone."

"You old man, you promised me after this teaching gig was over, you’d be home to play with your future grandkids. How could you just…"

How could this have happened?

I covered my face and sobbed.

Ryan and I used to work at the same law firm.

When I started taking my own cases, he was just a rookie fresh out of law school.

I saw how hard he worked, and I was happy to be his mentor.

I let him shadow me on cases, walked him through the key points, found precedents for him, and helped him analyze legal arguments, helping him get to where he is today.

We fell in love during that time, and the rest was history.

Honestly, Ryan was never the son-in-law my father wanted for me.

It had nothing to do with money, but with his family.

He didn't come from a wealthy background. He was from a rural family, the oldest of three boys, with his younger brothers still in school.

He'd worked his way through college and, after graduating, sent a large portion of his salary back home to support them.

The fifty-thousand-dollar ring Chloe had demanded was something he couldn't have afforded back then, even if he worked himself to death.

Chloe saw no future with him, and she wasn't willing to struggle and build a life together. So she listened to her family and married a wealthy man from her hometown.

That was what my dad worried about. His family was a burden, and my dad feared they would become my burden, too.

And he was right. When we got married, his family didn't contribute a dime. The condo we lived in was one I'd bought before our marriage.

Most of his money still went to supporting his family, while I left the firm to start my own practice to build our future.

My work was demanding. I was rarely home and rarely had time to talk with Ryan.

So, naturally, I had no idea that he and Chloe had reconnected behind my back.

I found out while I was packing his things. Tucked away in a photo album he thought was hidden was a recent picture of them together.

The date on it was from the month before my father's death.

Swallowing my rage, I packed up all his belongings and couriered them to him, along with the divorce papers, cash on delivery.

I deleted his fingerprint from the smart lock on my front door and changed the passcode.

For the next month, I buried myself in my father's case, re-examining every file and piece of evidence.

I didn't see Ryan again until the day before the second hearing.

He had tried to see me over the past month, but I never answered the door.

We finally met at a coffee shop near the courthouse on the day we were supposed to finalize the divorce.

Ryan looked exhausted. He had dark circles under his eyes, as if he hadn't slept in weeks.

He didn't want to talk about the divorce right away. Instead, he insisted on talking first.

As soon as we sat down, he confronted me. "That video online, you're the one who released it, aren't you?"

"What video?" I feigned ignorance.

He pulled out his phone and showed me the video an influencer had posted.

In the clip, Chloe, in her little sundress, accidentally spills a yogurt drink on herself.

As she stands up to clean it, my father is pushed from behind by the crowd and bumps into her.

My father apologizes, but Chloe suddenly turns on him, and seeing him holding his phone, begins screaming that he's a pervert filming her.

I took a slow, deliberate sip of my coffee.

I was the one who got that video out.

It took me a month of re-watching endless footage before I spotted someone in a corner holding up their phone.

The person who filmed it had been waiting for the story to get bigger before posting it to gain followers.

I went to their house and paid them a handsome sum for the original file.

"So what?"

"Hannah, for the sake of what we had…"

I cut him off, my voice cold. "Were you already cheating on me with her?"

Ryan's face went pale, his eyes darting away.