Chapter 1

My husband and his cousin's wife dumped their ten-year-old daughter on me, and wouldn't spend a cent doing it.

I was about to tell my husband to take the girl back when a string of danmaku suddenly lit up in front of my eyes.

【Wait! This child is your husband's illegitimate kid! His whole family knows!】

【In your past life you insisted on sending the child back, and your mother-in-law came after you, screaming that no one wanted you because you'd been passed around and couldn't get pregnant, and your husband only took you in as a leftover.】

【The truth is your husband was putting drugs in your water on purpose, causing you to miscarry over and over, so the child would end up staying with you naturally.】

【After you refused, you were forced out with nothing, wandering around in a daze, until a truck hit you on the side of the road and threw you into the air.】

I glanced at the two of them, their faces so alike, and quietly clenched my fists.

Then my eyes settled on my husband's tense face, and I suddenly smiled.

"Fine. Then she can stay here."

I wanted to see how he'd keep this lie going.

……

"She's only doing you a kindness. Whose fault is it that five years of marriage and you still can't produce a single child?"

"You'll clear out the master bedroom on the sunny side in a bit and give it to Georgie."

"Learn to be a good mother. The whole estate goes to her someday, and it's her we'll be counting on to look after us in our old age."

The words had barely left my husband Jared Cross's mouth.

The danmaku lit up.

【The estate he's talking about is the house you and he are paying off together.】

【The truth is his bride price and the money for the house were all borrowed from his parents, with an IOU signed in advance, so that when he divorces you, you'll be thrown out penniless and still owing the loan.】

Something roared in my head, and a nameless fury rose up in me.

Jared had been lying to me the whole time.

He'd said the money was his own savings, said we hadn't taken on any outside debt to get married.

So it had all been planned out from the start.

Seeing that I still hadn't said anything, his cousin's wife walked over.

"Look at you, you can't even take care of a child. It's the middle of the day and you don't even know to make lunch?"

"No wonder, a woman who's never carried a child. Not a shred of motherly love in you."

She rolled her eyes and dug a list out of her bag.

"Every day you're to prepare a full course meal, fresh meat, eggs, and milk. You hear me?"

"This girl is the root of the whole Cross family!"

I knit my brows, stared at her, and suddenly smiled.

"Isn't this your child?"

"What does she have to do with the Cross family?"

Her breath caught, and the color drained from her face.

Jared, who hadn't said a word until now, stood up in sudden displeasure and stared at me coldly.

"His wife saw that you couldn't have children, so out of kindness she gave you her own daughter to raise."

"Don't be so ungrateful."

Georgie stood there sucking on a lollipop, her big watery eyes lifting to look at me.

"I want buttered garlic shrimp, and a little cake too."

She didn't even call me anything.

She treated me like the hired help.

She said it and turned to leave, without so much as another glance my way.

His cousin's wife took Jared's arm and, muttering, headed back toward the room.

I lowered my eyes. Two strands of Georgie's hair lay by my feet where they'd fallen.

I bent down, picked them up, and slipped them into a clear plastic bag.

I crossed the hallway and crept over on tiptoe.

Through the gap in the door I heard his cousin's wife's voice.

Her face was full of worry, her fingers twisting tightly together.

"Jared, aren't you afraid Penelope will find out about the child? If she ever learns this kid is one you had on the side, won't she blow the whole roof off?"

Jared rolled his eyes, unconcerned.

"Afraid of what? Georgie's smart, she won't slip up."

"Besides, even if she finds out it makes no difference. She can't have kids, so who else is she going to lean on in the future but Georgie?"

"Once Georgie's grown and earning money, I'll kick Penelope Henson to the curb, and she'll be on her knees begging me not to divorce her."

It was like I'd been dropped into an ice cellar, my whole body shaking.

The man who just yesterday had held me and talked about building a life together had already made up his mind to throw me out.

To think I'd felt so guilty, believing I really couldn't conceive, that I'd wanted to try IVF.

"But what if one day she decides something's off about the child and wants to send her back—"

Before she could finish, Jared cut her off.

"I've had the paperwork ready for a long time."

"If that day ever comes, I'll send her out with nothing, and the farther she crawls the better!"