Chapter 1
The morning after our wedding, my husband threw a filthy towel in my face and said, “From now on, you’re the maid in this house.” His mother smiled—until I threw it back.
We had been married less than forty-eight hours.
I was standing in the kitchen of his family’s house outside Chicago, still wearing the bracelet my mother had given me for the wedding.
Ethan walked in holding a dirty towel.
Without warning, he threw it straight at my face.
“Wash that.”
I stared at him. “Excuse me?”
He leaned against the counter and smiled.
“From now on, you cook, clean, do the laundry, and take care of Mom.”
I thought he was joking.
Then his mother, Diane, walked in carrying her coffee.
She looked me up and down and laughed.
“You wanted to marry into this family, sweetheart.”
I felt my stomach twist.
Ethan pointed toward a pile of clothes near the stairs.
“Start with those.”
“Yesterday you called me your partner.”
“That was yesterday.”
His mother laughed again.
Something inside me snapped.
I picked up the dirty towel.
Then I threw it directly into Ethan’s face.
His smile disappeared.
“What the hell is wrong with you?”
I pulled my wedding ring from my finger.
Diane’s eyes widened.
I dropped it onto the tile between us.
The tiny sound it made seemed louder than Ethan’s shouting.
“I didn’t marry you to become your servant.”
He grabbed my wrist.
“You’re not leaving.”
I looked down at his hand.
“Let go of me.”
Diane stepped between me and the door.
“You signed papers yesterday, Emily. Maybe you should read them before acting brave.”
I froze.
“What papers?”
Ethan and his mother looked at each other.
Then he smiled again.
“The documents my lawyer gave you before the ceremony.”
I remembered signing a stack of papers while everyone was rushing me toward the ballroom.
“You told me they were wedding property documents.”
“They were.”
I grabbed my phone.
Ethan snatched it from my hand and tossed it onto the couch.
“You don’t understand what you married into.”
Then a man’s voice came from the hallway behind us.
“I think she understands perfectly now.”
We all turned.
My father stood in the doorway holding a thick folder.
Ethan went pale.
May you like
Dad looked at the ring on the floor, then at the red marks around my wrist.
Finally, he opened the folder and said, “Emily, there’s something your husband forgot to tell you about those papers.”
