Chapter 1

As a single mother, to scrape together tuition for my daughter to study for her master's degree in the UK, I worked three jobs a day.

I even had an accident while working the night shift at a factory—the machine severed two of my right fingers.

But the day she got her UK visa, she was at the airport clinging to a wealthy businessman twenty years her senior, crying and laughing.

"Daddy, if you hadn't sponsored me to go abroad, my trash-collecting mom would have ruined my whole life."

I stood behind a pillar in the departure hall, holding up my freshly bandaged hand that was still bleeding through the gauze, frozen in place.

I stepped forward to call out to her, but her friend Isabella wrinkled her nose in disgust and shoved me away.

"Where'd this old hag come from? Get lost before you dirty Laura's designer clothes!"

I looked at my daughter. She wore exquisite makeup, and her eyes held no trace of guilt—only an icy warning.

In front of the rich man, she pulled out two hundred-pound notes from her purse and threw them in my face like she was dismissing a beggar.

"Take the money and get lost. I only have a sugar daddy—I don't have some bottom-feeder poor mom!"

People around us pointed and whispered. The wealthy man patted her shoulder approvingly, praising how sensible she was.

I didn't pick up the money. I just calmly watched her go through security and board her flight.

Then I turned around and dialed the embassy.

"Hello, I'd like to file a formal report. Someone has falsified academic credentials and may be involved in illegal immigration."