Chapter 1

For three years of marriage to Giles Delgado, we lived in a basement that leaked.

He worked five jobs a day, said he was saving up to give me a home.

So when the doctor told me my condition had gotten worse, my first reaction was to apologize.

"Am I going to be a burden on the family now?"

I came home clutching the diagnosis, and the moment Giles saw the medical file in my hand, his face darkened.

"The hospital again?"

"Sally Henson, hospitals are a scam. Don't put that kind of load on this family."

I looked down at the diagnosis and, out of nowhere, laughed.

"And if I really were sick, if I were dying?"

Giles frowned.

"Don't say things like that. I'm still saving up to give you a real wedding."

"If you're really sick, I'll sell a kidney to treat you."

That night I couldn't sleep at all. I didn't want to be anyone's burden anymore.

I swallowed every painkiller I had.

When I opened my eyes again, I watched Giles walk out of the bedroom.

It turned out the other side of that basement was a private estate.

In the lavish living room, Lillian Fox stood laughing with a glass of red wine.

"Mr. Delgado, it really can't be easy, living in that awful place every day, playing poor for her."

Giles pulled off the twenty-dollar digital watch and tossed it carelessly into the trash.

"What can I do."

"If you don't test someone, how do you know who's sincere."

In that moment, I finally understood.

All those years of hardship were a sincerity test he had staged.

Only I had actually died inside that test.

......

"Is she really sick?"

Lillian set down her glass. There was no fear in her voice, only probing.

Giles tugged his collar open, baring the watch on his wrist, worth half a million.

"Probably not."

"She's seemed pretty lively lately, hasn't missed a shift. Yesterday she even gave me three hundred dollars."

"Today's whole act is most likely her trying to make me feel sorry for her."

I drifted under the crystal chandelier, watching him change out of that jacket washed pale from wear.

A servant bent to take it and stuffed it straight into the laundry hamper.

That jacket. I had mended it three times.

When the cuff tore, I sat up sewing it until the small hours.

Giles had held me then and said,

"Sally, once I have money, I promise I'll give you a good life."

It turned out he only wanted to see how much I'd suffer for him.

Giles handed Lillian a box of supplements, the price tag reading five thousand dollars.

That was a year's rent on the basement. It was also the treatment cost I'd agonized over and never dared to pay.

Lillian leaned in toward him, smiling.

"Five thousand dollars. Thank you, Mr. Delgado. If she saw this, she wouldn't start crying again, would she?"

Giles picked up his water glass, his tone flat.

"Let her cry."

"If she can't even accept that your health isn't good, then she's too small-minded."

"Not just anyone gets through the Delgado family's door."

Something smug flickered in Lillian's eyes.

"But she is your legally married wife."

Giles let out a laugh.

"Legally, yes."

"The Delgados haven't acknowledged her."

Behind him, Teresa Delgado came down the stairs.

She had a cashmere shawl draped over her shoulders, and she cast a glance toward the basement.

"Today is the last day of the third year."

"If she hadn't pulled this stunt, she could have signed the formal induction agreement tomorrow."

"She picks this exact moment to fake an illness. A poor girl really has no class."

I stood frozen.

The last day of the third year? What agreement?

Giles said nothing.

Teresa went on.

"Lillian is far more sensible than she is. I told you long ago to choose Lillian, and you wouldn't listen."

"Three years. If you wanted to see whether she was sincere, you've seen enough."

"If you really mean to marry her openly, make her sign the property waiver agreement first."

Lillian offered a soft word.

"Ma'am, don't say that."

"Sally's had it pretty hard too."

Teresa gave a cold laugh.

"Hard? Three years in a basement makes her pitiful?"

"When the Delgados were building this from nothing, we lived that way too. If she wants all this, she has to eat a little bitterness."

"Mom, that's enough."

Teresa looked at him.

"Feeling sorry for her? Then go check on her."

Giles was quiet for a few seconds, then picked up his phone.

On the screen was a call from the landlord.

"What now?"

The landlord's voice was shaking.

"Mr. Delgado, something's happened to your wife, I think."

"I knocked and no one answered, and I heard a pill bottle drop to the floor inside."

Giles's face went cold.

"She's faking. Ignore her."

"No need to call the police."

"Tell her when she's done with the act, she can open the door herself."

I looked down and saw that broken basement light still flickering.

Beside the bed, my body had already gone cold.

My hand was still clenched tight around that diagnosis.

On it were the words: malignant tumor, terminal stage, immediate hospitalization advised.

And my husband was in a private estate a few hundred feet away, waiting for me to bow my head and admit I was wrong.