Chapter 1

In the fifth year after I was sent to the mountains, I finally found a chance to escape from the cowshed.

Dragging my broken leg, I knelt in front of the car of a businessman who had come to town to do charity work, begging him to save my life.

But the one who stepped out was my own brother.

He fingered his prayer beads with an air of noble compassion—then, after he saw my face clearly, he ground his heel into the back of my hand.

"Theresa Henson, running into me today is your karma."

He took out his phone and made a call:

"Your dog got loose and you didn't even think to look for it?"

...

01

It hadn't been long since he hung up.

Austin Lambert came running up with a few villagers.

When Austin saw Russ Henson, his knees buckled and he dropped to the ground, kowtowing over and over.

"Mr. Henson! I'm so sorry! So sorry! I didn't fasten the chain tight enough last night, and this little wench got out and spooked your car!"

Russ took a disinfectant wipe from his assistant and wiped his fingers.

"Austin, I pay you a hundred thousand a year to keep this animal in line."

"You can't even keep a dog on its chain? Do you still want that money or not?"

The moment Austin heard his pay might be docked, he scrambled up from the ground and yanked the belt from his waist.

He didn't care that there were passersby around.

He swung his arm and lashed the belt across my back.

"You think you can run? You think you can run? I'll break your other leg today!"

The belt came down again and again, splitting my back open in bloody gashes.

I lay convulsing by the car wheel and lifted my head to look at my brother.

Russ watched the blood run down my back, and the corner of his mouth curled up.

Then he tossed the wipe onto my face.

"Drag her back. The ground here is filthy today—don't let her die in front of my car."

The car window rolled up, and the car drove off.

Austin spat, grabbed a fistful of my hair, and looped the rope around my neck.

He tied me to the rail on the back bed of the tractor and dragged me back into the deep mountains.

My unset broken leg scraped along the gravel road, leaving a trail of blood.

Back at the cowshed in the village.

Austin locked a rusty iron chain around my neck and kicked me twice in the stomach.

"Damn it, you almost cost me my meal ticket! Starve her for three days—nobody gives her water!"

The gate was bolted from outside, and rats scurried in and out of the straw pile.

I curled up in the mud, like a dog that had lost all fight in it.

Night fell.

A gap was pushed open in the wooden boards of the cowshed's back wall.

Patsy Chavez from next door bent low and squeezed through.

She was carrying half a cracked bowl, with water and half a piece of cornbread in it.

"Such a sin... child, hurry, take a bite. If you don't make it through tonight, you'll be gone."

The old woman touched my forehead, tears falling.

I opened my mouth and swallowed the half piece of cornbread, grit and all.

As the water slid down my throat, some of my senses came back.

"That Mr. Henson seemed like such a good man—how could he stand by and watch someone die..."

Hearing Patsy's question.

I forced a bitter smile, and then the tears wouldn't stop.

Five years ago.

I was still the second daughter of the Henson family.

Back then my father had died in a car accident, and my mother sank into depression, locking herself in her room and refusing to eat all day.

I couldn't sleep at night, terrified that after losing my father, my mother would leave me too.

I heard the maple leaves on the back hill had turned red—that was where my father had proposed to her.

I took my mother to the edge of the cliff to see the red leaves, hoping to reawaken in her some hope to keep living.

At the edge of the cliff my mother stopped.

She turned to look at me, her eyes empty.

"Theresa, without your father, I really can't go on. Let me go."

With that she shook off my hand and fell backward off the cliff.

"Mom!!!"

I lunged to grab her, but caught only a scrap of her clothing.

I knelt at the cliff's edge and wept.

Camille Roman, who had been gathering herbs in the mountains, came running out.

My brother arrived with the search-and-rescue team and the police.

But they couldn't even recover my mother's body.

Camille dropped to her knees, pointed at me, and burst into tears.

"Mr. Henson, I saw it with my own eyes! She was saying something about wanting shares... and then she got into an argument with your mother..."

"I saw her push your mother off the cliff with my own eyes!"

My brother's eyes were bloodshot.

He rushed over and clamped his hands around my neck, squeezing harder and harder.

"You animal! She was your own mother! You'd kill your own mother for the family fortune!"

I clawed at his hands and cried out.

"I didn't! I don't know anything about any shares! I just couldn't hold on to Mom!"

He didn't believe me, and from that day on he hated me to the bone.

Russ thought prison was too easy on me.

He used his connections to hand me over to Austin Lambert, a man in the mountains who had beaten three wives to death.

He brought Camille, who had testified, back to the Henson home and kept her there like a benefactor.

My thoughts came back to the present as the old woman brought the water to my lips.

The wooden door of the cowshed was kicked open from outside.

Several bodyguards shone flashlights on my face.

Camille walked in, covering her nose.

She saw the water in the old woman's hand, kicked the bowl to pieces, and the water splashed across my face.

"You old wretch, who told you to feed this worthless dog?"