Chapter 2

Back at the rented apartment, Nina had already fallen fast asleep in my arms.

Tear tracks still streaked her face, and even in her sleep her little body kept twitching uneasily.

I laid her down on the bed as carefully as I could, took off my coat, and stepped into the bathroom.

In front of the mirror, I lifted my sweater. Faint blotches of purple bruising showed under the skin on the right side of my abdomen.

It was a sign the disease had been getting worse this whole time.

A month ago, on his way home from a night shift, Paul Dickerson had been struck dead on the spot by a drunk driver in a dump truck.

The man's family had money, and to escape criminal charges they'd handed over three million to settle privately, no hesitation.

Back then I was still drowning in the grief of losing my husband, moving through the days in a daze.

Summer and Samuel had thumped their chests and sworn to me at the traffic police station.

"Sweetie, you're too torn up right now. It isn't safe to keep this money in your account."

"Better to put it straight under Nina's name, set up a fixed deposit. This is the money Paul paid for with his life. No one gets to touch it."

I'd believed their lies.

I'd thought that even if my husband's family was mean-spirited most of the time, in the end they still cared about their own flesh and blood.

Until a few days ago, when I stumbled into who they really were.

That day I'd gone back to the old house to collect some of Paul's things.

I'd just reached the door of the master bedroom when I heard Samuel's excited voice inside.

"Mom! The Lawrences finally gave in yesterday!"

"As long as we buy a big place downtown, paid in full, and put down a million for the bride price, we can register next month!"

Summer slapped her thigh, delighted.

"Now that's more like it! Our family's going to have a fat little grandson!"

Samuel lowered his voice.

"But Paul's money…"

"What's the rush!" Summer let out a cold snort. "The money's sitting in that little brat's account, and I'm her own grandmother."

"Once the first week's mourning is over, I'll go to the court and apply to be that little brat's guardian. In the name of raising the child, I'll take that card into my own hands."

"Then I'll just walk into the bank with the passbook, go through the paperwork, and pull the money out for your house and your bride price."

Samuel still had his doubts.

"And Carla's going to let that happen?"

"She doesn't get a say!" Summer ground out through her teeth.

"She's an outsider with a different surname and both her parents dead. What kind of waves can she possibly make?"

"The second that money's in hand, I'll pack her off back to the countryside."

"As for that money-pit brat, we'll just dump her on old Lawrence out at the edge of the village. A few hundred a month for him would already be us being generous."

Standing outside the door, I shook all over, clamping my hand hard over my mouth to keep from crying out.

Three million, bought with my husband's shattered body, and they didn't mean to leave his own daughter a single cent!

Not content to wring out the last drop of his blood, they wanted to throw my Nina into the fire too!

From that moment I knew that in this world, apart from me, no one would ever truly love Nina.

If my body were healthy, I'd have a thousand ways to drag it out and wear them down. But I was out of time.

I pulled open the drawer under the sink, dug out an unlabeled white pill bottle, tipped out two painkillers, and swallowed them dry.

The bitterness spread across my tongue, but it couldn't press down the anxiety churning inside me.

I had to tear away half of that money as fast as I could, get it solidly into my own hands.

Only with the money could I get Nina settled.

Find a reliable family to take her in, and leave behind enough to carry her to adulthood.

Even if it meant being branded greedy and vicious, spat on by everyone, I didn't care in the least.

That was when my phone lit up.

It was a local news alert. On the screen was Samuel's face, brimming with righteousness.