Olivia didn’t cry. She didn’t beg. She just looked at him with pure contempt. “Fine. You’re a boring, predictable man anyway, David. You wanted a ‘simple’ girl? Good luck finding one who isn’t just better at hiding it than I was.”
She left the next day. David threw himself into his work, but the betrayal stung for a long time. That night, he had a nightmare that felt all too real.
He was standing at the altar of a grand Episcopal church. The organ was playing, and the light through the stained glass was beautiful. Olivia walked down the aisle in a gown that cost more than Martha’s house. She looked like an angel.
But as she reached him, he noticed something moving under the silk of her skirt. The fabric began to bulge and shift. The guests gasped as the hem of the dress lifted, and instead of feet, a mountain of trash began to spill out—greasy takeout boxes, crumpled receipts, and unpaid bills from a small-town library.
The trash piled up around his ankles, cold and smelling of rot. He looked up at Olivia, and her face was a twisted mask of greed. “You owe me!” she hissed in the dream. “You all owe me!”
David woke up drenched in sweat. He sat on the edge of the bed and realized he’d dodged a bullet. He wasn’t ready for another relationship, but he knew one thing: he was going to make sure Martha was taken care of.
Back in the small town, Martha sat at her kitchen table. It was payday. She opened her banking app and, with a practiced motion, hit “Send.” Half her meager check disappeared, heading to an account in the city.
“My poor girl,” Martha whispered to the empty room. “It’s so hard for her out there. Everyone is so greedy in the city. She just needs a little help to get ahead.”
She got up and put a pot of plain water on the stove for her pasta. She couldn’t afford butter this month, but she didn’t mind. As long as her daughter was happy, that was all that mattered.
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