Part 1After the Breakup, My Ex Demanded I Repay Every Dime

Three years after breaking up with my ex-girlfriend, she dragged me to court.

She wanted me to pay back everything she spent during our relationship.

It wasn’t about the money—her husband was just bored and thought it’d be amusing.

She knew I was in poor health.

She knew I struggled with depression after losing my parents in a car accident and relied on medication to sleep.

She knew I’d attempted suicide once and ended up in the hospital, even receiving a critical condition notice.

And yet, she did it anyway.

In court, I looked at her face—familiar yet distant.

I’d known her for seven years. We dated for five.

Later, she went to study in the U.S.

Through the hardest times, I never thought about giving up on us.

Los Angeles was so far, but I flew back and forth a dozen times.

The court ruled that I had to repay $15,023.

The extra $23? It came from the time I wanted to buy candied fruit on the streets of Chinatown in Los Angeles. It cost $3 per stick. I couldn’t bring myself to spend the money, but she smiled and bought it for me.

Now that small, sweet gesture had turned into a blade at my throat.

What she didn’t know was that the $15,000 in my bank account was everything I had—money meant for my next cancer treatment.

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