Chapter 1

My in-laws plunged off a cliff during a mountain hike, yet my wife, the captain of the local Search and Rescue squad, refused the dispatch.

She chose to take her junior intern up the hills to light fireworks for his birthday instead.

By the time my in-laws were located, their bodies were shattered beyond recognition.

Only then did my wife bother to call me, her voice dripping with casual disdain.

"Have your parents' bodies brought to our station. Austin needs to dissect two more cadavers to qualify for his coroner certification."

She genuinely believed the dead couple on the mountain was my parents.

I smiled, immediately arranging for the two mangled corpses to be hauled over to her facility.

1.

The moment the stretchers were wheeled inside, Celeste finally walked in alongside Austin.

"Ugh! Why do they look so grotesque? I'm going to have nightmares tonight!"

Austin let out a high-pitched shriek and ducked behind her.

Celeste kicked the body bag with visible disgust, glaring at me.

"Why didn't you clean up the bodies first? Didn't you hear that your parents terrified Austin?! Apologize to him right now!"

I stood there in sheer disbelief at the absurdity of it all.

"Apologize? On what grounds?"

Before my in-laws drew their last breaths, I had received their emergency call and notified Celeste with plenty of time to spare.

Yet what was she doing?

She was playing with fireworks on the ridges with Austin, deliberately blowing past the golden rescue window.

I initially assumed she was just reckless and distracted by him.

Never did I imagine she let them die simply because she thought they were my parents!

Austin smirked, watching the drama unfold.

"Wyatt, Celeste's folks always lectured you about your toxic ego. You won't even apologize for your own parents, which proves you never respected a word they said."

Celeste crossed her arms, her brow furrowing with disdain.

"I was planning to buy them decent caskets, but now it's clear they got what was coming to them."

"Raising a stubborn, ungrateful son like you... God probably punished them for your sins!"

My expression hardened. "Buy a casket or don't, but keep your mouth shut about my parents."

Celeste waved a hand dismissively toward her crew.

"Don't waste our rescue supplies on these two. Just find an old utility rack and drag them in."

Austin chimed in with venomous glee.

"Why even waste a rack? Didn't we drive the municipal dump truck over today? Just toss them in the back."

"You won't get mad, right, Wyatt? We're just saving valuable resources for the living."

Looking at my in-laws being hoisted into the bed of a trash truck, I couldn't help but chuckle.

"Not at all. In fact, I think your idea is brilliant."

Ever since I married Celeste, her parents had completely dropped their sweet facade.

They forced me to quit my career as an attorney to become Celeste's full-time househusband.

They barged into our house every few days under the guise of evaluating my performance.

Every visit required an eight-course meal made strictly with fresh organic ingredients.

The moment they caught Celeste holding a mop, they would scream at me until their faces turned purple.

"Our daughter is a decorated rescue captain! She works exhausting hours, so how dare you make her lift a finger at home?!"

They turned me into an unpaid maid for their daughter.

Now, their beloved daughter was having their shattered remains hauled away in a garbage truck. If that wasn't poetic justice, I didn't know what was.

Austin thrust a printed flyer into my chest, his eyes gleaming with mockery.

"The second I heard your folks died, I prepared a little gift. Take it. No need to thank me."

The flyer was an advertisement for a low-end pet cemetery.

Cremation, a cardboard urn, and a tiny plot were already mapped out.

For a dead dog.

Seeing me hesitate, Celeste snapped immediately.

"Burial plots are impossible to find these days! Thank Austin right now! He's doing this out of the kindness of his heart since you donated their bodies for his practice!"

Laughter bubbled up inside me until tears nearly escaped my eyes.

"Thank you, Austin. The moment you finish cutting them open, I'll make sure they're buried in that dog cemetery."

Watching the garbage truck rumble away, a dark thrill settled over my chest.

I truly couldn't wait to see Celeste's face when she finally learned whose bodies she was throwing in the trash.