Is this destiny?

Mr. Heine heard that Julia is asking for millions of dollars and his mind went blank for a moment. Of course, that is why she married him. For the money. She may be talking about status and events, but all that boils down to money.

He wondered if anyone ever loved him for who he is, and not for what he has. Yes, there were two people. One was his wife Eileen, and she is dead. And the other person was his son who left him and does not want to have anything to do with him. 

Mr. Heine remembered that Julia started showing up in his life before his wife passed. At that time, she was coming as a friend of Eileen. It was not very often, maybe once or twice a month. After Eileen passed, Julia continued coming with an excuse that she is giving him company or to check on him. And then he saw Julia look at Ron with loving eyes and a caring expression… and she put a bandaid on Ron\'s knee when he fell and scraped it... and he ended up thinking that she will be a good mother for him. What a joke!

He wondered, is it possible that Julia had something to do with the death of his first wife? It happened so long ago that his memory is blurry and even if he follows that suspicion, he will probably not be able to prove it.

\'It is better not to think about it. It won\'t bring Eileen back...\', he thought.

Mr. Heine forced his mind to return to the present.

"You want money to leave while rumors are that you were playing with underage boys? Do you think that I am a fool who will allow you to drag me down with you?"

Julia didn\'t get it. "What do you mean?"

"Underage boys. That is rape because they are too young for consent. It is only a question when the police will come to take you in. If I give you any money to flee, aren\'t I helping a criminal? My reputation and my business will suffer."

"Your reputation. Your business." Julia repeated slowly.

"Yes. My reputation. The reason why you married me. And my business. I employ more than half of the town. If that goes down, everyone will suffer. I can\'t allow hundreds of families to fall apart because I could not keep mine together."

Julia watched her husband as he stood up and was walking toward the door. And with every step he took, panic swelled inside her. Is he abandoning her? She does not want to be alone again. Life, before she became Mrs. Heine, was lonely and horrible, no one wanted to associate with her. Is she supposed to go back to that?

"Where are you going?" She asked anxiously.

"I see that you messed up most of the house. I will help clean it up. I expect you to leave within one hour, if you are lucky, you will leave before the police come. And if in one hour from now you are still here, I will call the police to take you away."

Julia swallowed hard. Did he say police? This is worse than she thought. "Where should I go?"

"That is your problem." He said dryly and left the room.

Julia jerked when the door closed behind him.

He left her on her own and her mind was racing. What to do? What to do? She can\'t think of anything. Her biggest problem so far is the lack of money. Mr. Heine said that he will not give her any, and he never changes his mind about the money. Can she call someone for help? All her friends are in this town, and they probably don\'t want to have anything to do with her. What about her out-of-town family? She does not get along well with any of them. If she goes to a hotel, her money will dry out quickly.

\'Money, money, money...\', she chanted and then she got an idea.

Julia stood up and went to the master bedroom. No matter what the second step is, the first one is to pack. She has enough money to reach Springfield, and she will stay in a hotel for a night of two while she figures out her next move. In Springfield, she can sell some of her jewelry. That should last her a while.

~ Los Angeles, the Cliffside Villa ~

It is mid-afternoon in Los Angeles, Ron and Zula are back in Ron\'s room.

They are watching online articles and all the buzz they created. It started slow, and it took about half an hour for someone to spread that fire to social media, and then it spread like crazy. The whole town is talking about Mrs. Heine and her misdeeds.

Just as they suspected, Mr. Heine is kept out of that. He is portrayed as a good husband who devoted himself to the business in order to provide for his family, while his wife did all those disgusting things without his knowledge.

Ron was aware that townsfolk will never crucify his father. But how Ron sees it, his father is just one of the people who refused to listen. Just one more who chose to believe in the comfortable lie without questioning if that is a lie or not… because he does not care. Well, if the town is not willing to punish Ron\'s father, Ron is.

"It is time for the next step.", Zula reminded Ron.

Ron smiled smugly and ran his program which will send to Mr. Heine\'s business partners emails with the summary of Mrs. Heine\'s misdeeds and links to the articles.

Mr. Heine employs people from the town, but he depends on his business partners for financing. And those people will not be so kind as to work with a man who is housing a child abuser for a decade. How many of his business partners will believe that he was not aware of his wife\'s behavior for such a long time? Even if it\'s half, the other half will cancel collaboration with Mr. Heine and that will hurt the man more than his wife leaving him.

Mr. Heine takes pride in his company. He spent numerous hours every week working and making it grow.

Ron is confident that if his father was more present, his mother would still be with them. She was sickly and died alone when Mr. Heine was on a business trip.

Ron remembers that his father always said how he needs to work hard because other than providing for his family, he is providing for the town as well. Ron sneered internally at the hypocrisy. He knows that his father was doing it for himself.

Mr. Heine enjoys that his business expanded from one factory in a small city to multiple locations in surrounding states, and now Mr. Heine has a company which is large enough to get him to be associated with the White family. Or maybe his business grew so much BECAUSE he is associated with the White family. Well, it does not matter. Mr. Heine\'s legacy is going down, and all this is happening with Jeff\'s blessing.

Ron exhaled and closed his eyes. Now, his father will lose his business, and Ron knows, that will hurt the man more than anything else. As for the employees… they all live in the town that enables people like Julia Heine. They deserve what is coming.

Ron felt a set of soft lips against his, giving him a light kiss, and he wrapped his arms around Zula.

Zula leaned on him. "This is like sleeping beauty, but in reverse."

Ron lifted his eyebrow suspiciously. "Why reverse? Aren\'t I a beauty?"

Zula burst into giggles. "Yes, you are. A handsome beauty."

Ron exhaled and tightened his hold on Zula. He is confident that there is no other girl like Zula: sweet and patient and smart and understanding and fierce and amazing in every way possible. And she loves him. And he loves her back.

"Zula, how about after this is done, the two of us go on a vacation?"

Zula looked at him with her eyes open wide. "The one with a sleepover?"

Ron hummed in confirmation. "A long weekend, or a week… Depending on our schedule."

Zula grinned and buried her face in his neck. Ah, Ron will let her sleep by his side! And who knows, maybe more than that… But she will not push it because she knows that they didn\'t go beyond hugging and kissing due to Ron\'s trauma. She wants to go all the way with him, but she will wait until he is ready. She will wait as long as it takes because he is worth it.

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