Chapter 1

My mother-in-law's medical report came back, and it was terminal cancer.

Just as I was desperately worrying about how to pay for her treatment, a miracle happened. I won thirty million dollars in the lottery.

I rushed home, eager to share the life-saving news with my family. Instead, I was hit with a brutal slap in the face.

My wife demanded a divorce, and all our marital assets had already been transferred to her younger brother.

"Cole Morrison, listen to me closely! You won't get a single penny from this family!"

"Divorce my daughter right now! We are not paying off your secret loans!"

It all started over a single scam call.

I stared at the woman I had loved for nearly ten years.

"Cole, love only works when life is easy. In hard times, you're just dead weight. My parents need to save that money so my brother can get married."

Hearing my wife's cold words, I swallowed my explanation.

After all, I wasn't the one dying of cancer.

1

My mind went completely blank when I saw the medical report.

Terminal cervical cancer.

The doctor told me her condition had been dragged out for too long. It wasn't entirely untreatable, but the medical bills would be an absolute fortune.

Hearing there was still a sliver of hope, I didn't hesitate for a second. I rushed to the counter to book an emergency consultation, which cost nearly a thousand dollars just for the specialist fee.

All my savings were in my wife's hands, leaving me with barely ten dollars in my pocket.

Luckily, it was just enough to cover the fee, or I would have had to borrow money from friends.

I tracked down the specialist and practically fell to my knees, begging him to squeeze my mother-in-law into his packed schedule.

The doctor warned me that even with the most expensive experimental treatments, her chances of survival were razor-thin. He told me to prepare for the worst.

I walked home with a heavy heart, my mind racing over how to break the devastating news to my wife.

As I passed the corner convenience store, I remembered the lottery ticket I had bought on a whim earlier that morning.

I was in no mood to check it, but the store clerk recognized me and ran out to grab my arm.

"Man, don't walk away! You won! You hit the grand prize! Thirty million dollars!"

I froze, staring at him in disbelief.

"Stop messing with me, man. Someone in my family is really sick right now, and I―"

The clerk dragged me inside to the terminal screen. The winning numbers matched mine perfectly, followed by the eye-popping jackpot figure: $30,000,000.

I stood there in a daze, with only one thought echoing in my head.

We had the money. We could actually afford to save my mother-in-law!

The emotional rollercoaster left me dizzy as the clerk rambled on about needing to claim the prize at the state lottery headquarters.

It wasn't until I walked out gripping the winning ticket tightly in my pocket that reality finally sank in.

This was real.

I pulled out my phone to call my wife, but my mother-in-law, May Yates, called me first.

"Cole Morrison! What the hell did you do? How could you secretly take out three hundred thousand dollars in shady online loans?!"

"I'm telling you right now, you pay that back yourself! Don't you dare expect me and your father-in-law to bail you out!"

I frowned, completely baffled.

"Mom, what are you talking about? What three hundred thousand dollars? What loans?"

May screamed into the receiver.

"Stop playing dumb with me! The debt collectors just called my phone! Don't you dare drag my daughter down with you!"

She hung up before I could even get a word in.

I felt a surge of frustration, but as I forced myself to calm down, I remembered the recent news warnings about phone scams targeting families.

Without wasting another second, I sprinted home.

The moment I pushed open the front door, I saw my in-laws sitting on the sofa with ice-cold expressions.

May pointed a finger at my face and yelled.

"You still have the nerve to come back?"

"Where's the money? What did you do with that three hundred thousand dollars? Hand it over!"

Her aggressive attitude stung, but she was still my wife's mother, so I swallowed my anger and spoke calmly.

"Mom, it was a scam call. I never took out any loans."

"If you don't believe me, you can check my bank statements right now."

I unlocked my phone and held it out, but May slapped it out of my hand, sending it crashing onto the hardwood floor.

"You still won't admit it until you see the grave, will you?"

"Tell me! Did you gamble it away or blow it on something filthy?"

"We didn't raise Roxanne through hardship just to let her suffer with a loser like you! I should have never let her marry you!"

"We haven't seen a single cent of that money, so don't you dare expect Roxanne to pay off your debt!"

Looking at my shattered screen, the joy of winning the lottery vanished, replaced by simmering rage.

"Why do you believe a random stranger over your own son-in-law?"

"You call me a parasite? What about your golden boy, Ben? He's a grown man who leeches off his sister, parties every night, and constantly gets into fights!"

I was furious, bringing up things I had held back for years.

Ben was my wife Roxanne's younger brother. Their parents favored him endlessly and expected Roxanne to fund his lifestyle.

Every time Ben caused trouble, I had to clean up his mess. Yet, because I grew up an orphan, the whole family looked down on me.

My words hit a nerve, and May sprang up, slapping me hard across the face.

"Why didn't the collectors call anyone else? They called us! Ben just brought his girlfriend and her parents over to talk about marriage, and you ruined everything, you jinx!"

I glanced at the teacups on the table and understood.

They weren't just mad about the fake debt. They were furious because they felt I had embarrassed them in front of Ben's future in-laws.