Chapter 1

I spent half my life's savings sending my only daughter abroad to study. Less than a year later, she dropped out.

I thought someone had hurt her, so I brought thirty bodyguards to the airport to bring her home.

Instead she came down off the plane heavily pregnant, arm in arm with a Black man,

laughing so hard her whole body shook.

"Mom, isn't this what you wanted, for me to go abroad and better myself? Well, Sanjay and I made you a grandchild. Aren't you happy?"

I looked at the crowd of aunts and uncles standing behind Sanjay,

and understood at once. These people had come to bleed my family dry.

For nearly twenty years I'd worked from before dawn until after dark, building a mountain of gold for this one daughter,

and now, to a pack of strangers, I was nothing but meat already laid out on the cutting board.

That night, I transferred every asset in my daughter's name back into my own,

then brought in an old naturopath to restore my husband's health and mine.

They were counting on the fact that she was my only child, weren't they?

Fine. Then I would have another child through IVF, a son who could truly carry on the line.

……

The wind at the arrivals gate was so damp it felt ready to wring out water.

My daughter, Melissa Swanson, hung on Sanjay's arm, smug and satisfied, a hint of challenge at the corners of her eyes.

The same look she'd worn in middle school, the day I dragged her out of the internet café where she'd been skipping class,

and she lit a cigarette right in front of me, cool as anything.

I stared, unable to believe it, at the round curve under her dress.

Seven months, at least.

But I'd sent her abroad less than a year ago.

Something went cold in my chest, and the cold ran all the way to my fingertips.

Melissa tilted her head against the man's shoulder, the challenge in her smiling eyes sharpening.

"By tomorrow at the latest, all of Baltimore will know that Carolyn Dickerson's daughter got knocked up out of wedlock by a Black man."

She stroked her belly and watched me, triumph all over her face.

Waiting for me to rage, to lose it, the way I had countless times before.

Begging her to go back to school and study properly, begging her not to skip class or get into fights, begging her not to cut school and smoke.

But I didn't say a single word.

I thought back to twenty years ago, the hard labor that brought her into the world.

My former mother-in-law had favored sons over daughters, and the moment she heard it was a girl, she turned and walked out.

My ex-husband was a mama's boy, and his whole family lived and ate by his mother's moods,

so they all grew cold to me and pushed her aside too.

To prove a point, and to protect her better,

I walked out of that marriage before my confinement month was even over, taking nothing with me.

That same night I carried her out of my ex-husband's house.

When I met my current husband, I had thirty dollars to my name.

After that we worked ourselves to the bone, from running a street stall to heading a nationwide chain of tens of thousands of restaurants,

building the Swanson Group into a mountain of gold together.

My current husband loved me so much it spilled over onto her. He was the one who suggested we not have a second child, and he gave her all of his love.

Alongside me, from before dawn to after dark, he watched over her studies so she wouldn't go bad, and sent her abroad to learn a trade.

We did it for no other reason.

Only so she'd never have to swallow the kind of humiliation we'd swallowed while building the business.

I never imagined that less than a year after she went abroad,

this was the gift she'd bring us in return.

Seeing that I said nothing, Sanjay grinned, two rows of white teeth showing,

one hand on Melissa's swollen belly, and said in broken English,

"Mom, don't you worry. From now on my family will take good care of Melissa, and the two of us will run the Swanson Group well. You and Dad can retire in peace."

He smiled that brazen smile, Mom this and Mom that.

But there wasn't a shred of respect for me in any of it.

Just then a crowd of seven or eight came pouring out from behind him, men and women, old and young.

A whole family, neat and orderly, filing off the plane one after another like they were moving house.

No wonder Melissa hadn't taken the private jet I'd arranged and insisted on cramming onto a commercial flight.

So Sanjay had used marrying her as an excuse to bring his entire family into the country.

Put nicely, it was immigration.

Put plainly, they'd come to bleed my family dry.

But Melissa didn't notice, or didn't care.

She'd gone and done it all behind my back, siding with outsiders who wanted to watch me humiliated.

The rage I'd braced for never rose. I was so calm my breathing stayed frighteningly steady.

Face flat, I made a small sound, "Mm," and said, "That's nice."

Melissa froze for a second.

Sanjay froze too.

The crowd of them behind him, the excitement and greed in their eyes nearly brimming over.

Maybe in their minds, I was supposed to have my bodyguards drag Melissa off to a hospital to end the pregnancy,

then pull every string I had to cut the two of them apart for good, so they'd never speak again as long as they lived.

And Melissa, the way she had countless times before, would fight me, cry at me,

call me a controlling psychopath, threaten to kill herself until I caved,

and hand her a fat sum to soothe her feelings.

But I did none of it.

I only had the bodyguards bring the car around and turned toward the parking lot.

"Something's come up at the company. Sort out the rest yourselves."

Melissa held her belly and called after me, sounding put out.

"What could be more important than welcoming Sanjay's family?"

I didn't turn around, didn't bother to answer.

Let it go.

From now on, whatever happened to Melissa Swanson,

I no longer wanted any part of it.

Once in the car, I sent a message to the family doctor.

【Go to the Appalachian Mountains right away and bring your master here.】

They were so sure she was my only child, so sure they could bleed my family dry, weren't they?

Fine. Then I'd have another child through IVF, a son who could truly carry on the line.