Chapter 1

On the night of our wedding anniversary.

My husband burst through the front door covered in blood, collapsed to his knees, and broke down sobbing.

"Honey, please help me! I borrowed from loan sharks — if I don't pay back five million, they'll cut off my hand!"

My mother-in-law pressed a knife to her own throat, threatening to force me to sell the school-district property my parents had left me.

"Natalie, that's your husband! A house can always be replaced, but once someone's gone, they're gone for good!"

Watching this mother-and-son duo put on their Oscar-worthy performance, I couldn't help but laugh.

"I'll sell the house. But I have one condition."

"What condition?"

"I want to watch them cut off one of his fingers first — just to verify this loan shark story is actually real."

Eleven o'clock at night.

The violent rattling of the door lock shattered the dead silence of the house.

Ethan stumbled inside.

Before I could even stand up, he dropped to his knees at the entryway with a heavy thud.

A wave of thick, metallic blood smell exploded through the air.

His white dress shirt was soaked crimson, his face covered in bruises.

His left arm hung at an unnatural angle — the sight was jarring.

"Honey, save me, please save me!"

He was a mess of tears and snot, his trembling hands digging into his chest to pull out a crumpled piece of paper, which he slapped onto the floor.

It was an IOU.

Amount: five million dollars.

Borrower: Ethan Collins.

A bloody fingerprint was pressed at the bottom.

I sat on the couch, book still in hand.

My eyes swept coldly over that IOU, then settled on his face.

"Five million — what did you do with it?"

Ethan hadn't expected my first reaction to be neither screaming nor rushing to help him. He froze for a moment.

Then cried even louder.

"I... I wanted to get us a bigger place, so I invested with a friend in crypto, and it all went sideways!"

"It was a loan shark, Natalie — the interest compounded all the way to five million!"

"The guy said if he doesn't see the money by midnight tonight, he'll take my life! And cut off my hand!"

As he said this, he crawled toward me like a dog, wrapping his arms around my legs.

His expensive dress pants smeared blood all over me.

"Honey, I know you can figure this out!"

"That school-district property your parents left you — it's worth exactly five million on the market right now. Please sell it. I'm begging you!"

So that was his angle all along.

I didn't move. I just looked down at him, the corner of my mouth curling into a cold, sardonic smile.

"Ethan, have you forgotten? That property is the only thing my parents left me. It's mine — premarital assets."

Ethan stiffened.

A flash of shock and venom crossed his eyes, but panic quickly swallowed it.

"Natalie, at a time like this, does it really matter whose name is on it?"

"I'm your husband. Are you really going to let me die?"

"How can you be so heartless — is money more important than a life?"

His voice cracked from screaming, spittle landing on my slippers.

I pulled my leg back in disgust, stood up, and looked down at him from above.

"A life is important, of course."

"But Ethan — is yours worth five million?"

"What did you just say?"

Ethan stared at me wide-eyed, as if he didn't recognize me.

The old Natalie had been gentle, attentive, and completely at his beck and call.

She would fuss over him for half the day over a paper cut.

But now, faced with a husband covered in blood, I was doing the math.

"I said you're not worth it."

I bent down, picked up the IOU, and flicked the paper with my fingertip.

"Investing in crypto?"

"As far as I know, you don't even know how to open a brokerage account."

"This 'friend' of yours — what's his name? What's his number? Let me call him right now and verify."