When I Had A Health Update, I Didn’t Tell My Daughter Or Her Husband That I’d Quietly Sold My Company For 8 Million Dollars.

Robert got me a burner phone. He told me to call him if anything went wrong. That I would have a car waiting two blocks away at all times.

That the security team would be watching from a distance. But I was not going to call. This had to be real.

It had to hurt. It had to be authentic. Because only in true pain is the true character of people revealed.

The first night I left my penthouse. I left behind the warmth, the silk sheets, the panoramic view of the illuminated city. I went down 23 floors and went out into the street.

The February cold welcomed me like a slap. There was no turning back. I walked for hours.

My feet filled with blisters. The plastic bag tore and I had to carry my things in my arms. People dodged me on the sidewalks.

Some looked at me with pity, others with contempt. Most simply ignored me as if I were a part of the street furniture. I spent the night at the bus station.

The smell of urine and desperation stuck to my clothes. An older woman shared a piece of hard bread with me. She told me she had been on the street for five years, that her children had forgotten her.

While she spoke, I thought, Will that be me in a few years if I do not do something now? By the third day, I was ready. Dirty, hungry, frozen to the bone, but ready.

I knew exactly what I was going to do. I would go first to Jessica’s house, then to Michael’s, and finally to the small house of Daniel and Sarah. I did not know what I would find, but I was about to discover it.

Jessica’s mansion shone like an obscene jewel in the middle of the most exclusive neighborhood in the city. Golden gates. Gardens pruned with millimeter precision.

A stone fountain at the entrance. I recognized every detail because I had paid the down payment for that property. $200,000.

I took from my personal savings when she got married seven years ago. I stood in front of the electronic gate. My legs were trembling, not only from three days sleeping on park benches, but for what I was about to do.

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