Chapter 5 — Because of his ex-wife, he lost everything

more than five hundred thousand yuan (about 1.7 billion VND). I had planned this amount of money in advance. When I was confined, I would hire a nanny, buy newborn clothes, pay for diapers, and take early education classes for my child after he was born. Everything needed money. I've even finished looking at the postpartum care center and plan to make a deposit next month. But when I stood in front of the ATM, looking at the balance displayed on the screen, my whole body felt like a basin of ice water was poured from head to toe. Balance: 3,247.58 yuan. Three thousand two hundred and forty-seven yuan, five dimes and eight cents (about 11 million VND). More than five hundred thousand yuan in savings, only more than three thousand yuan left. I thought I was mistaken, so I rubbed my eyes and looked again, the number had not changed. I took out the card, put it back in, checked again, the result was still the same. My fingers began to tremble, I don't know whether from anger or fear. I took a deep breath to calm down, then went to the counter to print out transaction statements for the last three months. The printed statement is extremely long, filled with transfer notes. The recipient has only one account, the account owner's name is clearly printed: Tham Duong. I looked down each line. Eight thousand, twelve thousand, five thousand, twenty thousand, thirty thousand, fifteen thousand... Starting two months ago, large sums of money were transferred, the time gap became shorter and shorter, the amount of money became larger and larger. The last three payments were transferred last week, one for ten thousand, one for eight thousand, one for fifty thousand. The three sums combined are twenty-three thousand (nearly 800 million VND). These last three payments alone have wiped out the last bit of savings in my account. I clutched the statement, my knuckles turning white. Standing in the middle of the bank lobby with people passing by, I suddenly felt like the whole world was quiet, so quiet that I could only hear the ringing in my ears. I took out my phone and called Luc Hanh Chu. The bell rang for a long time before he picked up the phone. The other end of the line was noisy and seemed to be outside. "Hello?" Luc Hanh Chu's voice sounded very relieved, not at all like someone who was about to get divorced.

“Luc Hanh Chu, where is the money in the joint account?” My voice was very low, each word seemed to hiss through my teeth.

"Ah, that," Luc Hanh Chu replied calmly, as if talking about a trivial matter that was not worth mentioning, "Tham Duong said he had to take care of the school for Duong Duong, the best experimental school in the district, you know? The competition is very fierce, paying for favors plus the school selection fee, it costs more than fifty thousand in advance. I don't have much cash on hand so I transferred it from the joint account there."

I felt my temples twitching continuously.

“That's fifty thousand (1.7 billion VND).” My voice trembled. "That's our shared savings, the money we've accumulated over the past two years. Of that, thirty thousand is my money. On what basis did you transfer it all to your ex-wife without telling me?"

“Khuong Dan Thanh, what are you making such a fuss about?” Luc Hanh Chu's voice started to feel uncomfortable. "Our child is still young, there is still a long time between birth and use of money. Let Duong Duong use this money to solve urgent matters first, we will earn it back later. Furthermore, Duong Duong is also your child, can a father like you abandon him?"

“Let's get it back later?” I almost laughed out loud. “You won't earn any money later Should I also give it to Tham Duong? Is there a month when you don't transfer money to her? Half of my salary has been spent over there, tell me, what can we get back?"

“If you say that, it's gone.” Luc Hanh Chu's voice was cold. “It's natural for you to spend money on Duong Duong. If you can't accept this point, why did you marry me in the first place? I knew from the beginning that you had a son."