He Mocked Me, I Ruined His Plans

Chapter 2

A few days later, I finally figured out what scummy Dad had up his sleeve.

"Elara, how about I take you out to have fun today?"

Right after he said that, a cold snort rang in my ears.

"Once you get gastroenteritis from eating food in the truck food, let's see how Selene puts up with you then."

Oh, so that's his plan. He wants me to come down with diarrhea.

I clapped my hands, putting on my most giddy, excited face.

"Yay! I want to go out and play!"

When we got out of the car, I glanced around the messy, run-down street. There wasn't a single decent-looking shop in sight.

Dad deliberately ordered a whole bunch of food, chattering nonstop about how "this one's so tasty."

We'd barely sat down at our table when he shoved all the food right in front of me.

"Go on, dig in."

I lowered my head. "Dad, I'm not hungry."

"This stuff cost me hundreds of bucks! Making money is hard work, you can't just waste it."

Mom's the one who works her butt off.

All the pocket money Mom gave me went straight into his wallet. I've never spent a single cent of it.

A bright idea popped into my head, and I hung my head even further.

"It's all my fault. I'll tell Mom when we get home, I don't need pocket money anymore."

Dad went dead silent, his face flushing bright red.

Two whole seconds passed before he forced out an awkward, bumbling hah.

"It's not your fault, sweetie. It's just too hot out today, that's all. It's no big deal, don't tell your mom. She's swamped with work, we need to lighten her load, right?"

With that, he reached for the bag of food to throw it away.

I snagged the bag before he could.

"But Dad, this stuff costs hundreds of bucks! You're not gonna throw them away, are you? Mom works so hard to make money, we can't be this wasteful."

Dad swallowed hard, and plopped back down in his seat.

"Not throwing 'em out. If you don't want 'em, Elara, Daddy will eat 'em."

I snickered to myself, but my face was still plastered with that wide, innocent grin only a kid could pull off.

"Daddy, you have to finish every last bite, okay?"

Under my eagle-eyed watch, Dad really did polish off every last bite.

He didn't even make it all the way home before he had to run to the bathroom four or five times with brutal diarrhea.

I watched him turn paler by the minute, silently thanking my lucky stars I hadn't taken a single bite of that garbage.

The second we stepped through the front door, I immediately curled my arms around my stomach and sprinted straight for Mom.

"Mommy, my tummy hurts!"

Mom's face dropped instantly. "Dorian! What did you do this time?!"

Dad was so wiped out he looked almost green, but he couldn't say a word about what had really happened. He just forced a cringing, apologetic smile.

"I took Elara out to get some fresh air! She's just hungry, that's all."

Mom turned to me, concerned. "Is that true, baby?"

I didn't answer. I just kept rubbing my stomach.

"It hurts so bad."

Dad was seething inside, dying to tear me limb from limb. But he still forced a gentle tone as he squatted down in front of me.

"I ate all the food truck food myself. How come your tummy hurts?"

The second Mom heard that, she shoved him hard away from me.

"How dare you take her to a food truck?! That stuff is so dirty, it's full of germs!"

A flash of glee crossed Dad's face, and he opened his mouth to fan the flames.

"Let me explain—"

"No need to explain!"

I panicked, terrified Mom was about to bring up divorce right then and there.

I cut her off immediately, speaking up before she could get another word out.

"It's okay! Just take my pocket money away, that'll fix it!"

Dad froze, his eyes going wide. When he turned his head, he saw Mom nod firmly.

"We'll do exactly what Elara says."

She turned back to Dad, her tone sharp as a knife. "And to make sure you never take her to those sketchy places again, you have to hand over all the previous pocket money you took from her too."

Gritting his teeth and dragging his feet, Dad pulled out the bank card and handed it over.

I swear I heard the sound of his heart shattering into a million tiny pieces right then and there.

As soon as he went back to his room, he was still kicking himself inwardly.

"That was two hundred thousand! I didn't even get my hands on the family fortune yet, and now I'm flat broke! I should've moved the money sooner, damn it!"

I snuck right behind him and caught him talking on the phone.

"The necklace is off the table, that little brat got Selene to take my card away. Only thirty thousand left now!

"I've got to find a way to get divorced and take the assets, all for our child. Just hold on a little longer, okay?"

'Child?'

So that's why Dad wanted to divorce Mom. He already had another wife and a whole other kid on the side.

Deadbeat dad didn't have a snowball's chance in hell of stealing Mom's money!

For the next two months, I turned into Dad's very own personal shadow.

Wherever he went, I went. I didn't leave his side for a single second.

Not only did I keep him from running off to see his other wife and kid, I also nipped every one of his nasty schemes in the bud.

When he tried to "accidentally" drop me on the ground to hurt me, I darted away immediately.

"Daddy smells yucky! I don't want a hug from you!"

When he tried to feed me a piece of fish full of sharp bones to make me choke and scratch up my throat, I pushed the plate away with a disgusted scrunch of my face.

"This fish looks so ugly! I don't wanna eat it!"

When he tried to turn off the AC to make me get heatstroke, I followed the little voice in his head right to the remote.

"Daddy's so silly, you couldn't even find the remote!"

Dad's smiles grew fewer and farther between.

Every time he looked at me, his eyes were filled with nothing but unmasked, bitter loathing.

"What the hell is wrong with this little brat? It's like she can read my damn mind!"