Chapter 1

The first day of my marriage, I'd barely sat down when my mother-in-law came over carrying a plate of tough old celery.

"Livvy, house rules. For the first three days, a new bride eats nothing but celery."

"It's what makes a dull mind sharp. Your degree doesn't match my Jarvis Simmons's, so from now on you'll need to work twice as hard at everything."

The older brother chimed in from the side, sipping at the top-shelf whiskey I'd brought.

"That's right. And don't touch that braised fish. Fish makes you stupid, and the babies you have later will come out stupid too."

I looked at my pregnant sister-in-law beside me. There was only a small dish of pickled scraps in front of her, and she sat with her head down, her face gone blank.

Then I looked at that plate of celery, roots still on, dirt not even washed off, and I turned to Jarvis.

"Is this what you think too?"

He nudged my arm and dropped his voice.

"My parents are retired professors. There's a lot you could learn from their rules."

"Just eat it. When my sister-in-law married in, she ate a whole plate. Don't be ungrateful."

I smiled, picked up a mouthful of celery, and slid it into my mouth.

A satisfied grin spread across the mother-in-law's face. "There, that's more like—"

Before she could finish, I shot to my feet, grabbed the tablecloth, and swept every dish straight into the sink.

"Mom, this celery really works. I can't sit still at all now."

……

The smile vanished from her face, replaced by something ugly.

"You dare. Thirty years of teaching and I've never seen anything so ill-bred."

The father-in-law sat squarely at the head of the table and let his eyes flick over me.

"In a family like ours, we hold to rules and decorum."

"You've come through this door, so you'll keep this house's rules."

Gregory Simmons, the older brother, set his glass down hard and turned to Jarvis with a sneer in his voice.

"Jarvis, this is the fine wife you picked? First day married and she's already climbing over your head."

"Can't keep her in line? Fine. Your big brother will do it for you."

Jarvis stood beside me, his face flushed red, and forced a smile in his mother's direction.

Then he turned and grabbed my hand.

"Livvy, stop making a scene."

"Mom and Dad are old, and they mean well. What's wrong with a younger person going along with them?"

"Just apologize to them and we can put this behind us."

I stared at his face. My lips were curved, my voice gentle, exactly the way it had been when we were dating.

But the hand clamped around my wrist had gone white at the knuckles, the bone grinding into me until it hurt.

I wrenched my hand free and locked my eyes on his.

"You make me eat a plate of celery with the roots and dirt still on it, not even washed, and you call that a rule?"

"Jarvis, did you know all along what they were going to do today?"

His eyes slid away. He didn't deny it.

And all at once I understood why, the whole time we were dating, he'd never brought me home for a meal, never let me meet his parents.

The father-in-law set his face and coughed twice, then lifted his chin at the sister-in-law.

"Those who won't be taught must be punished. Eldest boy's wife, go bring out the bitter melon left over from last week."

She flinched all over and instinctively looked at Gregory.

Only after he gave an impatient nod did she push herself up, cringing, and walk slowly toward the kitchen with her big belly.

Before long she came back carrying a large plate of bitter melon.

The edges of the slices had already turned black, the sauce thick and stringy. It had clearly gone bad.

She set the plate in front of me, her head bowed low, and murmured to me.

"Just bear it, sister. This is a woman's lot."

The mother-in-law folded her arms across her chest and tilted her chin high.

"Suffering is a blessing. Clean this plate and I'll pretend today never happened."

I looked down at the bitter melon, already grown over with white fuzz, and I laughed.

"You want me to eat this?"

I sent the plate flying with one slap of my hand, and the juice splattered all over her.

"Did you all get your brains slashed to pieces on some bulk-deal app?"

She shook with rage.

Jarvis couldn't hold his face together any longer and shoved me hard.

"Enough. Get in that room and think about what you've done."

I staggered back two steps, and before I could steady myself Gregory had already come around from the side.

They didn't give me a single chance to fight back, dragging and hauling me into the bedroom, then locking the door.

I pounded on it and shouted.

"Jarvis, open this door."

But it was the mother-in-law's smug voice that came from the other side.

"Lock her in for a day and she'll be tame by tomorrow. That's how we broke in the eldest boy's wife, isn't it?"

I froze where I stood, shaking all over.

Then, from beyond the door, came a smothered scream, and the dull thud of a belt striking flesh.