Chapter 1

1.

To give my daughter, born allergic to UV light, a happy childhood, I spared no expense and had a top-of-the-line protective suit custom-made for her.

My mother-in-law claimed her grandson Fergus Martinez had the same condition, and my husband Dirk James decided on his own that Fergus would come stay with us over summer break, and that we might as well have a protective suit made for him too.

I had no objection. But once summer break ended, Dirk decided on his own again that Fergus should stay and go to school here.

He even took the spot in the school-district home I had set aside specifically for my daughter, forcing her to commute out of district for school.

When I confronted him about it, he brushed it off.

"An aunt is a mother too. You have the means to give Fergus a leg up, so don't be so petty about every little thing."

My daughter, afraid we'd fight, told me sweetly that it was fine, so for the sake of peace in the family, I bit my tongue.

I never imagined Dirk would push it even further. He confiscated my daughter's protective suit, then said, with a straight face, as if it were perfectly reasonable,

"Girls get married off sooner or later. Daddy's just helping you let go of things early."

My daughter ran to me in tears to tell on him, and this time I wasn't holding back. I screamed at him: "Dirk, I want a divorce!"

"Right now, this instant, take Fergus and get out of my mansion!"

"...

Miranda, do you have any idea how much damage it does to a child when you scream like that? Apologize to Fergus, now."

His brow was drawn tight, his hands clamped over Fergus's ears as he ordered me.

My mother-in-law glared at me, stone-faced and displeased, her voice dripping with mockery: "Miranda, I don't mean to lecture you, but you really do spoil that Tammy Abbott girl rotten."

"Dirk took away her suit for her own good, worried she'd keep running off to play and let her studies go to waste. How can you go throwing around a word like divorce?"

"Back when Fergus came to live here and go to school here, you didn't have a single objection. So why are you being so small-minded now?"

At that, my mother-in-law actually spat on the floor at me.

"You're just faking that big-hearted act. The truth is you're jealous my daughter could give birth to a son."

"Let me tell you something. Fergus is the root of our James family. If anyone's getting out, it's you, and you can take Tammy with you. My son and my grandson can't put up with that kind of hardship."

My daughter's eyes were red from crying, her little hands clutching my collar tight as she said, carefully, "Mommy, it's all my fault."

"Tammy doesn't want you to suffer, Mommy."

Tears fell from her eyes one after another, and my heart twisted in pain while the fury climbed higher and higher.

I'd told Dirk before that I didn't want him or his mother treating Fergus and Tammy differently.

Dirk had held me close and solemnly promised me he'd treat them the same.

I'd believed him, and the only one who got hurt was my daughter.

It wasn't enough that Fergus was enjoying the resources that should have been Tammy's. Now they even wanted to drive out Tammy, the little mistress of this house.

It was because my temper was too good, because I'd given Dirk too much face, that he'd lost track of who outranked whom.

In our three years together before marriage, Dirk had done everything I asked. When his parents pressed him about marriage, I made the firm decision to take him in as a live-in husband under my family's name.

The first year of marriage, he was the same as he'd always been, until I gave birth to Tammy, and there was a faint change in him.

That same year, my sister-in-law gave birth to Fergus, and the change in him became obvious.

Using the excuse that an uncle should look after his nephew, he sent my sister-in-law money and supplies, and even sent his mother out to the countryside to care for her in person.

When my best friend found out, she kindly warned me: "Miranda, that sister-in-law of yours, she's not some mistress your husband's keeping out in the countryside, is she?"

"That's an awful lot of devotion for a brother to his sister. And the two of them don't even look much alike."

I've always had a decent sense for risk. I tested him more than once, and I ruled out my friend's suspicion.

But the way Dirk treated Fergus and my daughter now had me starting to doubt his relationship with Fergus all over again.

Look closely, and Fergus resembled Dirk sixty, seventy percent of the way.

Dirk and his mother had always said a nephew takes after his uncle, but was that really it?

I patted my daughter's back gently, soothing her in a low voice: "Tammy, you did nothing wrong. This is your home."

"With Mommy here, you won't have to suffer either."

I looked coldly at Dirk. "So you think the ones who should get out are Tammy and me too?"

Dirk's tone was displeased, his voice cold.

"Miranda Fox, do you really have to be this petty about everything? My mother's getting on in years and she's not educated. She only wants to protect Fergus. It's not like she's actually telling you to leave."

"You're the one who wanted Fergus gone without any regard for face. That's the only reason my mother said what she said."

The man in front of me now was a stranger, so much a stranger it felt like I was meeting him for the first time.

But this mansion was the twentieth birthday gift my parents gave me. It belonged to me alone, and I had every right to throw them out.