Chapter 1

In my husband Alex's car accident insurance claim, I saw a life insurance policy worth five million dollars.

The beneficiary wasn’t me. It wasn’t our four-year-old daughter, Betty, either.

It was a name I had never heard of—Aurora.

I stared at the name. The blood in my veins turned to ice.

The insurance agent on the other end of the line was still speaking in a polite, professional tone:

"Mrs. Wilson, your husband's injuries are not severe. It's mostly soft tissue bruising. You don't need to worry too much."

"Regarding this policy..."

"I got it." I heard my own voice. It was incredibly calm—scarily calm. "Thank you."

I hung up and sat on the bench in the hospital corridor, clutching the thin photocopy of the document.

There it was, in black and white: Policyholder: Alex Wilson; Insured: Alex Wilson; Beneficiary: Aurora.

The policy was opened five years ago. The very first year of our marriage.

The annual premium: fifty thousand dollars. Paid consecutively for five years.

That was two hundred and fifty thousand dollars in total.

For the past five years, I had stood by his side through his startup journey. I watched him go from having absolutely nothing to building a decently sized tech company.

I gave up my job as a Creative Design Director to become a stay-at-home mom, being his strongest support system.

I poured my entire life savings and the $600,000 cash gift my parents gave us for our wedding straight into his so-called tech startup.

To save money, I scoured grocery apps for coupons. I only bought Betty’s clothes from the clearance racks at Target. The trench coat I was wearing right now was one I had bought three years ago.

Yet, in a dark corner I knew nothing about, he was spending fifty thousand dollars a year to secure a five-million-dollar future for a strange woman.

I suddenly wanted to laugh.

Alex, my dear husband.

What on earth did you take me for?