Chapter 1

The night before the holiday, my brother knelt in front of me, sobbing.

"Isabel Gilbert, you're the only one who can help me now."

"If you don't help me, the company's going bankrupt any day now!"

My heart went soft. I found a private lending company and signed a one-million-dollar loan agreement.

The agreement needed a guarantor, and Hudson offered himself.

The moment the money hit the account, he couldn't wait to withdraw it in cash.

"Once I've handled this, I'll make it big, I swear. And I'll pay you back!"

I watched him drive off, and then, out of nowhere, a floating comment appeared before my eyes.

【Whatever you do, don't let him leave!】

【His company's project is a bottomless pit. Even ten million wouldn't be enough to fill it!】

I froze where I stood, unable to believe it, and that was when my husband called.

"Did you borrow money for your brother again?"

I was still wondering how he could possibly know, when another comment appeared.

【Your husband is the one pulling the strings! He got close to you and married you for exactly this day! He wants to see your family ruined!】

1

"Say something, Isabel!"

My husband, Vincent Donaldson, roared through the phone.

"If someone hadn't called to check on the house, how much longer were you going to keep this from me?"

"I only want to ask you one thing today. Are you building a life with me, or with your brother?"

"Hasn't he done enough damage to us already?"

By the end, Vincent's voice broke.

"Our kid is eight now. He wants to sign up for a tutoring class and we have to think about it for days. Every toy is something we have to budget for, over and over…"

"I work all day, I drive a cab all night, and every dollar I make you hand over to prop up your brother!"

"If you can't give me an explanation today, we're getting divorced."

【Don't listen to his nonsense. Working all day, driving a cab all night, it's all fake.】

【Your husband owns eighteen spa and bathhouse locations. He's out there living the good life, and he's keeping a mistress and an illegitimate son on the side!】

I didn't believe a word of the floating comments.

Because everything was just as Vincent said. Over these years I really had helped my brother a great deal.

"Back when we got married, I told you. If you couldn't accept my brother, we didn't have to go through with the wedding."

I was angry now too.

After our parents died, my brother was the only blood I had left.

And all these years, even when I helped him, it was with money I'd saved by scrimping on myself. I never touched the household budget.

If anything, it was the opposite. I worked two jobs every day.

I'd get home at nine at night and still take on outsourced projects from software companies.

The house we live in now, the cab I bought for Vincent, all of it came from my money.

Vincent loved me. I'd always thought that was enough.

"That million in debt is my personal debt. You don't have to worry about it."

"That's easy to say. We're married. Legally that's marital debt, shared by both of us."

Vincent, beside himself, gave me a lesson in the law.

"When is that head of yours going to wise up? Look at what your brother is. Give him a hundred million and does he have it in him to stand on his own two feet?"

"Fine, fine. What can I do, you're my wife. But I'm telling you, this is the last time. If there's ever a next time, we divorce on the spot!"

Listening to the dial tone after he hung up, I felt a little dazed.

The word divorce wasn't the first time he'd brought it up, but this time it didn't sound like a bluff to me.

【She's pretty enough. How does she not have a single brain cell?】

【If she had a brain, would she let her husband mortgage the house without knowing a thing about it?】

【And her brother's project, that's obviously a financial fraudster Vincent brought in himself. What a joke!】

The house was in my name. If Vincent had taken it and mortgaged it, how could I not know?

Something drove me to it. I logged into the county property registry and started searching.

After a whole string of steps, I saw one line of information that cut right into me.

【This property was mortgaged on the xth of x, year x…】