Chapter 2

“Robert!”

Aunt Diane rounded on my dad.

“Say something! Your daughter’s being treated like a servant, and you’re just watching? What kind of man are you?”

Everyone looked at him.

Dad’s shoulders hunched.

“I listen to my wife.”

Aunt Linda and Aunt Diane’s faces contorted at the same time.

I took the chance to shake Aunt Linda off and head for the door.

Her shrill voice followed me.

“Emily Bennett, stop right there! Did you hear me? You get back—”

I shut the door.

Peace at last.

The sun outside was bright and warm against my skin.

I rode my electric scooter toward the seafood market. Wind rushed down my collar, and I couldn’t help laughing out loud.

I remembered the first time Dad brought my stepmother home two months earlier.

I’d nearly flipped the table.

My dad was such a quiet, decent man. In the ten years since Mom died, he hadn’t so much as looked at another woman.

Then one day, he called and said he was bringing someone home for dinner.

I assumed he meant a coworker.

But when the door opened, I froze.

A woman stood beside him. She looked barely over thirty, only a few years older than me.

“Emily, this is Victoria Hayes.”

My head buzzed. Blood rushed to my face.

“Dad!”

I slammed my fork onto the table.

“What is this?”

“Emily, just hear me out.”

“We’re married.”

When he said that, my whole world seemed to collapse.

I locked myself in my room that night and refused to open the door for anyone.

The next morning, the moment I stepped out, I smelled something delicious.

The dining table was covered with shrimp dumplings, stuffed rice rolls, steamed ribs, chicken wings, and a little bowl of creamy fish soup.

My stepmother sat at the table with a black coffee, looking at her phone.

Dad was gone, probably at work.

“Sit down and eat,” she said.

After breakfast, I figured I couldn’t just eat her food without doing anything in return, so I took her empty coffee cup into the kitchen and washed it.

Then my phone chimed.

I dried my hands and checked it.

Ten thousand dollars had been deposited into my account.

My stepmother’s voice drifted over.

“For washing the cup.”

Later, I brought her bubble tea. Another ten thousand.

Picked up street food for her. Twenty thousand.

Brought in a package. Five thousand.

Carried her shopping bags. Thirty thousand.

I’d never met anyone so generous in my life.

Eventually, I couldn’t stand not knowing. While she was out, I asked Dad, “How did you even meet her?”

He scratched his head, blushed for a long time, and finally stammered out the story.

It turned out Dad worked at Sterling Group.

One night, he’d stayed late. On his way out, he saw my stepmother through the window of a nearby restaurant.

She seemed to be on a blind date. A man in a suit sat across from her, looking respectable enough.

But after something was said, the man suddenly stood and grabbed her wrist, refusing to let her leave.

Dad said he had no idea where he found the courage. He just walked over.

“She said she doesn’t want to go with you. Didn’t you hear her?”

The man looked at Dad. Maybe Dad’s work clothes made him seem intimidating, because the man let go, swore a few times, and left.

Dad thought that was the end of it.

The next day, my stepmother’s assistant came to find him. Ms. Hayes wanted to take him to dinner.

Dad was so scared he nearly quit.

But somehow, after a few more meetings, they actually got together.

Dad said she might have been fighting with her family and married the first man she found out of spite.

“And you were okay with that?”

My eyes had gone wide.

Dad was quiet for a long time before saying, “She’s a good person.”

I didn’t ask anything else.

I could tell he genuinely liked her.

And I got to enjoy the perks.

For two months, I brought her tea, carried her bags, and ran her errands. Whenever she called, I came running.

In just two months, I saved a million dollars.

Now that was a bright future.