Chapter 1

During my lunch break, my mom called and said that the heavy rain a few days ago had caused the pigsty at home to collapse. The damage was extensive, so she asked me to transfer 20 thousand dollars to her so she could hire someone to fix it.

I responded with a simple "Okay" and hung up. Afterward, I opened my mobile banking app, ready to transfer the money, only to find that there were just 500 dollars left in my account.

There had been at least 50 thousand dollars in there just a few days ago—how could it be down to only 500 now?

I immediately thought of my wife, Stella Carpenter. That card was in her hands, so she must have spent the money. What had she done to blow through 50 thousand dollars in just a few days?

I called her, barely able to contain my anger, and asked, "Stella, where did the money in the account go?"

Stella hesitated and stammered, unable to give me a straight answer. My heart sank as a bad feeling crept over me.

"Did you transfer the money to your brother again?" I pressed.

"My brother was short a little money to buy a car, so I just..." Stella's voice trailed off.

I pinched the bridge of my nose, at a loss for words.

Stella and I had dated for three years before getting married seven years ago. Our daughter was six now. Our two families didn't have any prior connections before Stella and I decided to get married. The process of discussing marriage had been nothing short of contentious between our families.

Stella's mother, Paige Willis, had demanded a monetary gift far beyond what I could afford.

She said with a scoff, "My daughter has been with you for three years. We have to calculate the cost of those three years of her youth."

Stella sat beside Paige with her head down and didn't utter a word.

In the end, our two families compromised. We settled on 288 thousand dollars, which all went to her parents. Right away, her parents turned around and gave that money to her brother, Silas Carpenter.

At the time, I felt sorry for Stella for having such biased parents, but I never imagined that she was just as biased toward Silas as they were.

I switched to a different account and transferred 30 thousand dollars to my mom. Then, I went to my boss to apply for annual leave.

Our company offered good benefits. We had ten days of annual leave per year, with an extra two days added for every year of service. It could go up to a maximum of 20 days.

Going by the number of years I'd worked in the company, I'd long been eligible for 20 days of annual leave. Yet, I had never taken any of it. Each year, I had converted my unused leave into overtime pay, which was deposited into my salary account.

But this year, I was determined to finally enjoy some time off.

When I got home, Stella was still busying herself in the kitchen. Dorothy, our daughter, ran up to me excitedly when she saw me.

She called out sweetly, "Daddy!"

I picked her up and sat down on the couch with her. We flipped through some picture books together.

During dinner, Stella remained quiet. When we were nearly finished eating, I casually said, "I quit my job. From now on, I'll stay home and enjoy life."

Stella's spoon that was reaching for her food froze. She glanced at me disbelievingly. "You must be joking!"

I stared back at her seriously. "Do I look like I'm joking?"

Stella went back to eating without another word. She probably thought I was kidding. After all, my job, while far from easy, paid extremely well. There were months when I earned as much as 100 thousand dollars.

The only reason I would suddenly give up such a great job was that I'd gone crazy.