Chapter 1

Three years into my marriage, my husband's family stole my dad's accident settlement money and used it to buy a luxury mansion.

At the housewarming party, my mother-in-law decided my parents' memorial portraits were "bad luck" and threw them in the trash.

My husband told me to just let it go. His sister held up her phone and live-streamed herself calling me a jinx to the whole internet.

They thought I had no one in my corner. They thought I deserved to be crushed under their heels.

I didn't fight. I didn't argue. I just quietly wiped the mud off the portraits—and pulled out a yellowed IOU for ten million.

The rain came down in sheets.

I knelt beside the trash bins in the mansion complex, digging through the reeking kitchen garbage with my bare hands.

Rainwater mixed with slop splashed across my face.

My fingers got sliced open on broken glass, blood streaming down with the mud and water.

But I couldn't feel the pain.

I only felt cold.

Cold straight to the bone.

Ten minutes ago, I'd just set my parents' memorial portraits in the spare bedroom of the new house.

Today was the housewarming party.

It was also the first day Kairo and I moved into the new place after getting married.

I just wanted my mom and dad to see my new home.

But the moment I turned to go get water in the kitchen, the portraits vanished.

My mother-in-law, Beverly, stood in the living room directing the housekeeper to spray air freshener.

"Why would anyone bring junk frames like that into a new house? Smells like death."

"Bad luck to keep them around. Better to just throw them out."

I tore downstairs like a madwoman.

Finally, in a black garbage bag at the very bottom, my hand found that familiar wooden frame.

The glass was already shattered.

My parents' faces were smeared with vegetable scraps and grease.

That was the last thing I had left of them in this world.

I took off the expensive coat Kairo had bought me before the wedding and carefully wrapped the portraits up.

Like I was holding two frightened children.

I carried them, step by step, back to that brightly lit mansion.

Standing at the door, I didn't push it open right away.

Rainwater ran down my bangs and into my eyes. I blinked, but didn't move.

Something in the bag pressed against my palm—the corner of that waterproof pouch.

I glanced down at my hand.

Took a deep breath. And pushed the door open.