Chapter 2

In the video, my husband, Elliot Keating, was on his knees at my feet, sobbing so hard his voice was breaking apart. It was taken five years ago. "Please! I'm begging you, get the ticket back! Sadie's waiting for her surgery! Without the money, she'll die!"

In all the years I had been married to him, I had never seen him cry like that. On the threadbare bed behind him lay our daughter, Sadie Keating. She was only seven years old and already diagnosed with end-stage kidney failure.

The medical bills were astronomical, and our family could not scrape together even 10,000 dollars.

From her corner of the bed, Sadie called out to me in a faint voice, "Mommy, save me. It hurts so much."

It cut through me like a knife. I would have taken every ounce of her pain onto myself if I could.

Sadie was the baby of our family, the daughter my husband and I loved most. She was sweet and obedient. She was barely steady on her feet when she was already toddling after me to help collect scraps to sell.

For her sake, I had even resorted to loan sharks, borrowing at crushing interest rates just to keep her treatment going.

I wanted nothing more than for her to live, to grow up healthy. However...

Elliot was still pleading, "I beg of you! Please, just go get the ticket back!"

He pitched forward and beat his fists against the floor, over and over again until his knuckles split and blood smeared across the ground beneath him.

The version of me in the video stood above him, unmoved. My voice was perfectly calm. "I already sold it. Let it go."

He collapsed where he knelt. His weathered hands, rough as dried bark, covered his face.

"It's over," he choked out. "It's all over."

What came after that was the part where I forged the suicide note to shield myself from the public backlash.

The live stream audience lost their minds.

Wesley pointed at me, shaking with fury. "You forged the note! You failed Sadie! You failed Dad!"

I watched his composure crumble, raised my hand, and slapped him across the face. "I have nothing to answer for, not to anyone."

The influencers froze, stunned that I had actually struck him. A young man with a righteous look about him shoved me to the ground and jabbed his finger in my face. "You don't deserve to be called human! You're the one who should be dead!"

"She must despise her own family! Her poor husband covered for her and hid the truth, yet she doesn't even appreciate it!"

"Are the police not coming? The evidence is right there! Don't let her get away!"

Wesley spoke through clenched teeth. "That camera recorded it by accident years ago. It was with Dad's things. I never wanted to release this video. You forced my hand! You don't deserve to be a mother. And you never deserved to be Dad's wife!"

His words landed, and something in my chest ached. Wesley seemed to realize he had gone too far. A flicker of regret passed through his eyes, but when he turned back to me, his voice was just as hard.

"Mom, if you go to Dad's grave right now, apologize, and tell me who you sold the ticket to, I'll forgive you. We can still be a family."

The comments were flying past too fast to read.

[Don't let her off that easily! She belongs behind bars! Lock her up and throw away the key!]

[She needs the harshest sentence possible, or she'll never learn!]

I looked up at him quietly. "So, this is what you're gonna do? Put your own mother on trial in front of the whole world?"

"I'm trying to stop you from making things even worse.

"Dad was the best man who ever lived. When your first husband sold you off to a gambling house to settle his debts, Dad borrowed money he didn't have to get you out and marry you. When your health was falling apart, he followed the men from our town overseas to the gold mines just so you could have a better life!

"It was dangerous as hell out there, and he still wired tens of thousands home to you every single month for living expenses and medical bills. He loved you that much! And all you ever did was throw it back in his face!"

Every sentence landed like a sledgehammer against my ribs.

He was right. Elliot was the best thing that had ever happened to me.

I was born into a family that prized sons above all else. My parents had abused me from the day I could walk, and I had grown up riddled with health problems because of it.

When my brother needed money to get married, they sold me off to a man with a bad leg on the edge of our town who had already beaten three previous wives to death. From the day of that marriage, I was beaten within an inch of my life on a near-daily basis. I had three miscarriages, and my body was ruined.

If it had not been for Elliot, I would have spent the rest of my life in that hell.

After we married, he treated me like I was made of glass. A single cough from me would keep him up all night, pacing as he watched over me until morning.

Eventually, to pay off the debts from what it cost to marry me and to cover my medical bills, he had no choice but to go work abroad.

By the time those debts were cleared, Sadie's kidneys had failed. Hence, we went back to the loan sharks, borrowing all over again to pay for her treatment.

Most days, we barely had enough food for one meal, let alone two. Wesley was so malnourished that he would pass out at school. On top of everything, the loan sharks sent collectors to our door who would beat my husband until his face was covered in blood.

I used to think about it constantly. If only we had money, everything would be different. Money could fix all of it.

Then, as if fate had finally decided to show mercy, Elliot bought a ten-dollar lottery ticket on a whim from the shop downstairs. That ticket struck the jackpot of 30 million dollars.

The moment we found out, I wept with joy, terrified that it was all a dream.

"So who did you sell it to? Both times!"

"Who could possibly be worth more to you than your own husband and son? Your daughter-in-law is about to give birth. Are you really going to stand by and watch your grandchild be born with problems?"

The influencers hammered me with question after question, their eyes locked on my face, watching for the smallest crack.

I shook my head. "Trust me. You're all better off not knowing. Our debt to the loan sharks is almost paid off. The ticket makes no difference to how we live. As for the grandchild, it hasn't been born yet. If there's a problem, she should just terminate. It's not really a life yet anyway."

My coldness only poured fuel on the fire.

[What did this family do to deserve someone like her?]

[Her whole family is the unluckiest in the world. Sixty million dollars, gone, just like that. What a shame they didn't catch her making the deal this time. Is there really no way to find out who she sold it to?]

[Did everyone forget? Just stake out the lottery office. Whoever shows up to claim the prize is the buyer.]

The moment I saw that comment, my chest tightened.