Chapter 4How Blessed I Am to Have You as My Brother

Turns out, fairy tales can come true.

After about six months at the factory, Cole caught the eye of the owner’s daughter.

Her name was Valerie. She was five years younger than Cole, a recent college graduate sent by her father to learn the family business.

They said the first time she saw Cole on the assembly line, she was completely captivated.

I had to admit, Cole was handsome.

Even malnourished and perpetually exhausted, he’d inherited the best of our parents’ features: deep-set eyes, a straight nose, and a kind of broken beauty in his silence.

Valerie’s pursuit of him was the talk of the factory.

She brought him lunch, bought him medicine, and even stayed with him through his late-night overtime shifts.

His coworkers all nudged him. “Come on, Cole! She’s the boss’s daughter! Marry her and you can skip twenty years of hard labor!”

Cole always just shook his head. “I’m not good enough for her.”

It went on like this until Valerie’s father, Mr. Hayes, the factory owner, asked to speak with him personally.

Cole came home very late that night. He sat in the dark living room, smoking one cigarette after another.

He never smoked.

“What’s wrong?” I finally asked.

He stubbed out the cigarette, his voice hoarse.

“Mr. Hayes… he knows I was in prison.”

My stomach dropped.

Of course. The background check.

It was over. He would lose his job, and we would have to run again.

“He asked me what happened back then,” Cole continued. “I told him everything.”

I closed my eyes in despair. “And then what?”

“And then…” Cole looked up, his eyes gleaming unnaturally in the dark. “He said there’s an auspicious date next month, and he asked if I wanted a traditional wedding or a modern one.”

I stared at him.

He’s lost his mind.

That was my first thought.

Mr. Hayes had to be insane to want a murderer for a son-in-law.

Good, he’s insane.

That was my second thought.

After all, the Hayes family was rich.

Who wouldn’t want to latch onto a family tree like that?