Chapter 1

When we divorced, my ex-husband walked out with nothing, and the house was awarded to me.

But when I came home after three months away on business, I found my former mother-in-law had moved in with her cognitively impaired younger son, and changed the locks on top of it.

She said it like she had every right to. "This house was bought when my Nathaniel married you, so part of it is his even after the divorce. Me living here is only natural."

I laughed, furious.

It was true the house was bought after the marriage, but every cent of the purchase and the renovation had come from me. Where exactly was the "only natural" in her and her younger son moving in?

I kept my voice cold. "Two choices. Leave right now, or I call the police."

She sneered. "Go ahead. Even if you dragged God himself down here today, I'd still have every right to live in this house."

I stared at her for a moment, then took out my phone and called the police.

Since she refused to accept a graceful way out, since she wouldn't take the decent option, then she couldn't blame me for taking this all the way.

1

"I want to report a break-in. Someone has forced their way into my home. The address is—"

I'd barely gotten that out when Nat Vance, the disabled younger son, snatched the phone from my hand, grinned at me, and slammed it hard against the floor.

For a second I just froze, then my eyes were burning as I fixed them on Paulette Galloway.

Two years married to my ex-husband Nathaniel Vance had taught me exactly who Paulette and Nat were.

Without Paulette putting him up to it, Nat would never have dared grab my phone, let alone smash it on the ground once he had it.

Seeing me angry only delighted her.

"Weren't you going to call the police? Go on, call again, let me see it."

"You think I actually want this house? I only saw it sitting empty, so I brought Nat over to warm it up for you, and this is the thanks I get. You don't know a good turn when you see one."

"And don't kid yourself that you could afford this house without Nathaniel. He was generous. He gave you the house in the divorce. Quit acting hard done by when you came out ahead."

Listening to her, I thought my lungs would burst.

Warm the house up?

I have a father and a mother of my own. What did I need her, a total outsider, coming here to warm anything up?

Moving in with a fool in tow, was that warming the house, or bringing bad luck into it?

And that line, that without Nathaniel I couldn't afford this house. It was laughable.

That eldest son of hers, my ex-husband Nathaniel, had the nerve to cheat on me while I was pregnant, and the shock and rage of it made me lose the baby.

Afterward she didn't blame Nathaniel one bit. Instead she pushed the whole thing onto me, said I had too hot a temper, that I hadn't protected the child.

She even said that if I'd taken proper care of Nathaniel, why would he ever have gone looking elsewhere?

Please.

As if Nathaniel were some emperor.

I didn't have the patience to argue with her. I said flatly, "So you won't move out? Fine. Then pay rent. Three months, ten thousand a month, thirty thousand total."

"You're asking me for money?" Paulette glared at me as if she'd heard something impossible.

The next moment she was pointing at me, shouting.

"I can see money's rotted your brain. Three months divorced and already you don't recognize me as your mother-in-law, as your mother. So I stay in your house a couple of days, what of it?"

"Your name's on the deed, so the house is yours? Nathaniel only chose not to fight you over it in the divorce out of the two years of marriage, the feeling between a husband and wife. And here you are, waving one court ruling around like it makes you somebody."

"Take a look at what you were back then. If my Nathaniel hadn't wanted you, you'd never have married in your whole life. You'd have been an old maid to the end."

"For that alone, even divorced, you should remember what Nathaniel did for you and honor me like your own mother."

Words that shameless had my temper climbing.

Without Nathaniel I couldn't have gotten married, would have been an old maid my whole life?

Who was it back then who begged and pleaded, all but got down on their knees to my parents, begging me to marry Nathaniel?

And who was it who put on that thick-skinned face and said I was born for the good life once I married in, that I'd never have to lift a finger, that I could lie in bed all day if I liked?

5

Please.

Shameless old thing.

I was about to drop all decorum and let her have it when the whole family next door came pouring out.

An old man and old woman in their sixties, and their son, a young man in his twenties.

"Ina Fox, you're back."

The young man greeted me first, then said, "We heard everything from inside just now. This lady may have moved in without your permission, but at the end of the day she was your mother-in-law."

"Like the old saying goes, a teacher for a day is a father for life. A mother-in-law's got to count for at least as much as a teacher, wouldn't you say?"

My face went cold at that.

I knew this young man. His name was Bernard Lawrence, a freeloader living off his parents, five or six years out of college and home every day, either sleeping or playing online games.

Normally none of that was my business, but I hadn't expected him to come out here just to make my skin crawl.