Chapter 1

Every single month, I handed over my entire paycheck to my wife.

Yet, when my mother needed urgent spinal surgery, there wasn’t a single penny left in our bank account.

I gently asked her where all the money had gone.

She just squared her shoulders and sneered at my incompetence.

“You barely bring home a few hundred bucks every month! How much savings were you actually expecting?”

I truly thought it was my own fault.

Until I saw her buying an expensive imported watch for her first love’s younger brother with my hard-earned cash.

That was the exact moment everything stopped making sense.

1.

“Silas, you know my wife is about to give birth. I really don't have any spare cash to lend you!”

I looked down and gave a quiet nod.

After that, I wandered aimlessly down the cold street.

Passersby whispered and pointed at me.

“Look at him pretending! He just doesn't want to pay for his own mother’s treatment, otherwise how could he be completely broke?”

“Exactly. He earns the highest wage in our entire workshop! I don't buy that he can’t even afford medical bills!”

I couldn't believe I didn't have a single cent either.

Yet Maren had told me with absolute certainty that every dime I earned over the years was gone.

“Do you have any idea how much groceries and winter clothes cost these days?”

I looked down at my worn-out boots, patched over half a dozen times, and pulled my frayed coat tighter around myself.

The November wind cut through me like ice.

My senses felt completely numb.

Then, I saw Maren.

A young man stood right next to her.

She was smiling warmly, taking his measurements with a soft tape.

“I’m going to make you two custom jackets so you can switch them out.”

“By the way, do you like the watch I bought you?”

I froze in my tracks.

My gaze dropped to the man’s wrist.

I had seen that exact imported Swiss watch on my plant manager’s wrist.

It cost at least a thousand dollars.

My hands clenched into tight fists inside my worn sleeves.

My monthly paycheck was only seventy dollars.

“Take these grocery cards too. You’re still young and need real nutrition. Next time, I’ll bring you some premium vitamins.”

No wonder our grocery money vanished the moment it arrived.

My loving wife was feeding another man.

I stared at the two of them laughing and talking under the gray sky.

My heart sank to the very bottom of an icy pit.