Chapter 8 - Realization and Regret
Jason discovered the magazine inside a convenience store.
He read that Allison had used the surname Harper, her mother’s maiden name, because she wanted to live without wealth and discover whether someone could love her without knowing what she would inherit.
He read that she was the sole heir to a fortune large enough to buy his former real estate company 20 times over.
Jason sat down on a bench.
The magazine shook in his hands.
Then he understood the cruelest truth of all.
Allison had never been poor.
She had chosen a modest life with him because she loved him.
She paid rent.
Bought groceries.
Covered preschool.
Paid debts.
Not because she had nowhere else to go.
Because she wanted to build something real with him.
And he traded that for Chloe.
For appearances.
For the pathetic satisfaction of having power over someone he believed needed him.
He had even surrendered his own daughter rather than repay $86,000.
For the first time, Jason cried without thinking about money, reputation, or work.
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He cried because Lily would no longer grow up remembering him as her father.
She would remember him as the man who made her mother cry beside a birthday cake.
