Chapter 1The Dead Husband's Secret: A Widow's Vengeance

I never imagined that my husband's ashes wouldn't just be buried, but would be sliced down the middle and divided up like a birthday cake.

On the day of my husband’s funeral, a young boy suddenly walked into the memorial hall.

"Ma'am, my family is taking half of my dad's ashes. We're going to put him in our family's private mausoleum."

"From now on, on the anniversary of his death, we will pay our respects separately. Do not bother us."

I stared at the boy, who looked like a carbon copy of my late husband, Marcus. It felt like I had been struck by lightning.

Fighting back my violent trembling, I asked him, "Who is your mother?"

The boy shot me a look of pure disdain.

"My mom is waiting in the car. She said she doesn't care to see your face. She just wants half the ashes."

I sprinted down the stairs like a madwoman, but the moment I saw the face of the woman sitting in the luxury SUV, I froze completely.

It was Vanessa. The same Vanessa who, according to Marcus, was his money-hungry first love who had moved to Europe years ago to marry a rich expat!

I gripped the wooden urn tightly, my mind a blank, buzzing void.

Suddenly, my phone buzzed in my pocket. It was an anonymous text message:

[Marcus isn't dead. He is currently at a mansion in the Hills, fitting wedding dresses with his third wife!]

......

The tinted window of the SUV slowly rolled down. Vanessa sneered and threw a heavy manila folder out of the window, hitting me square in the chest.

"Take a good look at that, Chloe," she mocked.

"This is the ten-million-dollar trust fund Marcus set up for me and our son before he died, along with the paternity test."

"What exactly are you? You were nothing but a free maid who served his family for seven years."

Impossible... All of Marcus's money was in our joint account!

My hands shaking, I pulled out my phone, desperate to open my banking app to check the balance.

Before I could even unlock the screen, a series of automated bank alerts popped up.

[Your checking account ending in 8831 has a current balance of: $0.32.]

[Notice: A $500,000 personal line of credit under your name is past due...]

My brain practically exploded.

The money was gone, and I was somehow saddled with half a million dollars in debt!

Immediately following the bank alerts were several vicious texts from an unknown number: [The $1.2 million loan your husband Marcus took out against the house is past due. If you don't pay up tomorrow, we're taking your organs as collateral!]

My ears were ringing so loudly I couldn't process a single thing.

"Oh, sweet Jesus!"

"Those eyes, that nose! He is absolutely a child of our bloodline!"

A shrill, wailing cry snapped me out of my trance.

My mother-in-law, Martha, burst out of the funeral hall from nowhere. She shoved me hard out of the way and threw her arms around the boy, hugging him tightly.

"Mom... what are you doing?"

I stared at her in absolute disbelief.

Martha whipped her head around, her face twisted with malice. She pointed a trembling finger right at my nose and screamed.

"You barren, useless bitch!"

"You've been married into this family for seven years and haven't produced a damn thing! What right do you have to speak?!"

"Vanessa gave our family a golden grandson! Half of these ashes rightfully belong to her and the boy!"

Vanessa looked at me with open disgust and handed a legal document through the car window.

"Sign this waiver relinquishing all claims to marital assets, and get out of my sight."

I kept my head down, biting my lip so hard I tasted blood.

My husband faking his death, his mistress forcing me out, the crushing, astronomical debt... I was trapped in a suffocating web.

I thought about the anonymous text mentioning his "third wife."

My fingernails dug so deeply into my palms they drew blood.

I had to find out what the hell was going on.

If Marcus wasn't dead... then whose ashes were currently sitting inside this urn?!

"Fine... I'll give you everything," I whispered.

"But Marcus was my husband. Please... let me keep half of his ashes as a keepsake."

I kept my head bowed, putting on the perfect performance of a thoroughly broken, devastated widow to hide the murderous hatred burning in my eyes.

Vanessa let out a triumphant, mocking laugh.

Her bodyguard stepped forward with a brand-new, mahogany urn.

Unbelievably, she actually had him use a silver spoon to scoop out half of the ashes from Marcus's urn, splitting it exactly like a cake.

As I watched their taillights disappear down the street, I rushed back into my house and dug out an old, unwashed razor Marcus used to use.

I carefully sealed it inside a Ziploc bag.

Then, following the address from the anonymous text, I took an Uber to the upscale gated community in the Hills.

Peering through the tall, black wrought-iron gates, I stared at a massive, European-style mansion in the distance.

The front doors were wide open, and a sleek luxury transport van was parked in the driveway.

Through the pouring rain, I saw a man in a crisp white tuxedo holding an umbrella.

He was gently and lovingly adjusting the train of a wedding dress worn by a beautiful young woman.

When the man turned his profile toward me, my breathing completely stopped.

It was Marcus! He was alive!

My hands shaking violently, I pulled out my phone, desperate to open the camera and record this.

THWACK!

My vision went completely black. A sickening, agonizing pain erupted from the back of my skull.