Chapter 1

"Look at you, dressed like absolute white trash. You really came all the way to Australia just to humiliate me?"

My daughter, Chloe, jabbed her manicured finger into my face, her features twisted with venom.

The cashier's check in my trembling hand felt like burning lead.

That piece of paper represented three hundred thousand dollars—the entirety of my life savings.

It was the money I had scraped together after working twenty straight years behind the grill of a greasy diner, combined with selling my only house back home.

I had come here to plead with her to come home to the States.

David had a documented history of severe domestic violence, and I didn't want her whole life ruined.

Instead of listening, she and David had called a high-end private psychiatric hospital, claiming I was suffering from extreme paranoid delusions.

Ten minutes later, two burly orderlies had pinned me to a stretcher.

They confiscated all my belongings, including my cashier's check, and forcibly hauled me away into that private asylum in Melbourne.

Her gaze had been dripping with greed and contempt.

"David promised me that the second he has this money, we're getting married."

As they strapped me down onto the cold hospital bed, the brutal truth finally hit me.

This was an ambush from the start.

All they ever wanted was the three hundred thousand dollars in my pocket.

I shut my eyes and went limp.

What they didn't know was that in my tough life, there was one thing I did better than anyone else:

Playing dumb.

"Look at you, dressed like absolute white trash. You really came all the way to Australia just to humiliate me?"

Chloe pointed straight at my nose, her pretty face contorted with rage. That designer coat she was wearing probably cost more than all the clothes I had worn in the last twenty years combined.

My knuckles turned white as I gripped the cashier's check.

This little slip of paper represented three hundred thousand dollars—the proceeds from selling my only home back in our small town, and the sweat and burns from twenty years of firing up the diner griddle at 3:00 a.m.

I had endured a grueling twenty-hour flight across the globe to Melbourne. I hadn't come here to be spat on.

"Chloe, David has a record for domestic abuse! Everyone knows what he did to his ex-wife!"

"Are you really going to trap yourself with a monster just for a shortcut to an easy life?"

My voice trembled, sounding more like a desperate plea than an accusation.

"Come back home with me. We can use this money to get you a fresh start back in the States, buy a nice condo, anything you want."

"Go back?" Chloe sneered, letting out a sharp, mocking laugh.

"Back to that rotting, freezing dump of a town?"

"Wake up, Mom! I'm on the verge of securing my permanent residency. I'm going to be a real Australian citizen!"

"And you want me to throw that away?"

She snatched the check straight out of my hands, her eyes gleaming with repulsive hunger.

"David said as long as we have this money to secure our investment visa, my permanent residency will be rubber-stamped."

"And as for the abuse? He hit his ex-wife, not me."

"Besides, what real man doesn't have a bit of a temper?"

My heart felt as if it were being crushed by an icy fist, suffocating me with sheer agony.

The daughter I had raised all on my own for over two decades, my only child whom I treasured above my own life, was speaking to me like this.

"You can't give him that money!" I lunged forward, trying to grab the check back.

"Chloe, please listen to me! That man is walking poison—you're jumping straight into hell!"

"That's enough!"

A hulking figure stepped out from behind Chloe. It was David.

With a brutal shove, he knocked me backward. My head slammed against the drywall, sending a white-hot burst of pain through my skull.

David rattled off rapid-fire sentences to Chloe, his arrogant gaze raking dismissively over my worn, five-year-old winter jacket.

Chloe's expression flickered several times. Finally, she took a deep breath, and a sickeningly sweet smile spread across her face.

She walked over and helped me up, her voice suddenly dripping with fake warmth.

"Mom, I'm so sorry. I lost my temper."

"David is just worried about you. He thinks your mental state has really deteriorated lately."

I stared at her warily. "What are you talking about?"

"Look at you. You flew all this way, talking nonsense, screaming that David wants to kill me."

Chloe stroked my back with gentle hands, but her eyes were completely dead.

"The jet lag must be making you hallucinate. We really think you should go get checked out at a clinic."

The blood in my veins turned to ice.

I saw right through it.

This wasn't a spontaneous argument. It was a calculated trap.

They never wanted my advice. They only wanted the three hundred grand.

"No! I'm completely fine!" I fought back, shoving her away.

But David was already holding his phone to his ear.

He barked a few words into the receiver, hung up, and shot me a chilling grin.

Ten minutes later, a heavy knock echoed against the door.

Two massive men in EMT uniforms stepped inside.

Carrying restraints, they marched toward me without a shred of expression.

"What are you doing?! Get your hands off me!" I screamed, looking at my daughter in sheer horror.

"Chloe! I'm your mother! How could you do this to me?!"

Chloe looked away, not daring to meet my eyes.

"Officers, my mother suffers from severe paranoid schizophrenia and acute violent tendencies. Please, make sure she gets the intensive care she needs."