She'd sent me a screenshot of a transfer.
Split into three payments, totaling 1.3 million.
The source account was my parents' retirement card. I'd been depositing into it for three years; I knew that number by heart.
"Thank you, Dad and Mom, I got it! I love you guys so much. When the baby grows up, I'll tell her too—that she's a child who grew up being doted on by Grandpa and Grandma!"
My fingertips trembled. My heart actually skipped a beat.
Just as I was about to reply, she withdrew it.
"Sorry, sis, sent it to the wrong person."
"You didn't see anything, right?"
I didn't reply. Those screenshots kept flashing before my eyes.
One million was what I'd desperately saved up for the family after I started working.
Three hundred thousand was my parents' retirement money.
They hadn't kept a single cent for themselves.
And they hadn't spent any of it on me or my child either.
They gave it all to Vivian.
In an instant, it felt like a dull knife was sawing back and forth across my heart. The tearing pain stripped away all my rationality.
Since they were the ones who were heartless first—
Then I didn't need to keep up appearances either.
I picked up my sleeping son and went downstairs.
I took a cab straight to Vivian's apartment complex.
The place she lived in was something I'd only found after we broke up—after begging this person and that person, pulling strings and bothering a whole circle of people.
All because my parents thought the cheap places had a bad environment.
And the expensive places Vivian didn't want to pay for.
Everything I'd once given to this family now felt like a slap across my face.
Burning hot. The sting went straight to my heart.
Just as I entered the complex gate, I ran straight into three people coming out, holding a child.
Vivian put on her usual act, pushing back:
"Mom, you really don't need to come all this way—it's too hard on you. My place is small, not as comfortable as that apartment my sister gave you. Seeing you squeeze onto the couch every day, it really breaks my heart…"
Mom—who's always had sky-high standards for quality of life—waved her hands dismissively.
"What nonsense is that? I'm your mother. You're raising a kid alone right now—if I don't look after you, who will?"
"We're family. Don't talk like that. It makes us sound like strangers."
Vivian smiled softly.
"Actually, I could hire a postpartum nanny too. There are plenty of affordable ones now."