Chapter 1

The night before I was due to marry my wealthy fiancé at the courthouse, my best friend, who studied criminal psychology, asked me a strange question.

"Molly, your future mother-in-law never had children. So whose son is your fiancé?"

Perhaps she thought I wouldn’t believe her.

She showed me footage from twenty years ago, when my future mother-in-law spoke firmly to the press.

"Even if this family line ends, I will never have a child or adopt one."

I stared at her.

My fiancé was already four years old twenty years ago.

If he wasn’t her son, could he be my future father-in-law’s child from an affair?

Then my friend slapped a medical report on the table. It showed my future father-in-law was infertile.

"I checked. Your fiancé wasn’t adopted, and he isn’t the child of a relative or family friend. Something’s wrong with that family. Think carefully before you marry him."

My friend had barely finished speaking when a message from my fiancé appeared.

[Honey, I know we’re getting married tomorrow, but I still can’t settle down. Can I pick you up? Will you stay with me tonight?]

Chapter 1

I paused when I saw my fiancé’s message.

There was nothing strange about it.

He often told me he missed me and asked me to spend the night with him.

But what my best friend just said left me uneasy.

I didn’t reply to Barry yet.

Instead, I asked her, "Did you notice something else about him?"

Megan Lewis hesitated.

"Not exactly. But if there’s nothing wrong with his family, why hide the truth from you?"

I looked at the medical report and frowned.

"Maybe I should just ask him."

"No!"

Megan stopped me at once. "If you ask, he’ll know we’ve been looking into him."

"So what if he does?" I asked.

Before she could answer, I sighed.

"Megan, Barry and I are getting married tomorrow. If he’s hiding something, I can ask him about it."

"This isn’t a criminal case. Don’t let your work make you suspicious of everything."

Then I sent Barry Chase a message while Megan watched.

[Barry, I need to ask you something. Whose son are you?]

He replied immediately.

[My parents’ son, of course. Why do you ask?]

I typed back: [Are they your birth parents?]

This time, he didn’t answer.

Three minutes later, Barry sent a message.

[Molly, there’s something I’ve kept from you.]

[My dad can’t father children. To keep people from finding out, my mom has always said they chose not to have kids.]

[They aren’t my birth parents.]

[My biological father was my dad’s cousin. My birth parents died in a car accident soon after I was born, so my parents took me in.]

[It’s a sensitive matter for my family. I planned to tell you after we got married. I’m sorry I hid it from you.]

His explanation seemed perfectly reasonable.

I showed Megan my phone.

She frowned. "What if he’s lying?"

I sighed. "Megan, life isn’t a crime show. I know you’re worried about me, but we’ve been together for years. If something were wrong with him, you would have noticed by now."

"Are you worried his family will mistreat me after the wedding?"

"Don’t be. I won’t let anyone push me around."

I tried to reassure her, but she kept shaking her head.

"No, Molly. Something really is wrong with him."

She looked so distressed that I spoke quickly.

"Megan, take a breath. If you think there’s a problem, we need to figure out what it is."

"Once we know, we can decide what to do."

"No!"

Megan’s voice rose. "We can’t wait! Something about him reminds me of the killers I studied just before they committed their crimes."

I froze.

Since Megan began studying criminal psychology, she had helped the police solve countless cases.

She was never wrong about a suspect.

I often told her how good she was at her work.

And now she suspected the man I was about to marry was a murderer.

Chapter 2

Megan asked, "Molly, how well do you really know him?"

Barry and I met at a coffee shop.

I was working when he came over and asked, "Could I get to know you?"

He seemed polite, and I was single, so I gave him my number.

As we got to know each other, he told me he managed projects for a company and earned enough to support a family.

He respected my boundaries and treated me well.

So, I agreed to date him.

We were together for two full years.

For most of that time, I thought he was an ordinary office worker.

Then, six months ago, he took me home to meet his family.

I sat in the living room of their mansion, stunned, while a housekeeper served me tea.

I asked why he never told me.

He said, "My mom thinks too many people are after money. She told me not to reveal what we have until I was serious about marrying someone."

I wasn’t comfortable with that.

But we loved each other, so I let it go.

Megan knew all of this.

Before I could answer her question, she went on.

"Molly, someone who tests people like that doesn’t trust them."

"Do you think a family that suspicious will treat you as one of their own just because you passed their test?"

Her words unsettled me. Then my phone lit up again.

[Honey, did you ask about my parents because you found something out?]

[I promise I won’t hide anything from you again. Will you come home and spend some time with me tonight?]

[I don’t mean to pressure you. I just got back from the hospital. I wasn’t going to tell you because I didn’t want you to worry, but I feel awful, and I miss you.]

Barry sent a photo right after.

His hand still had an IV cannula in it, and he held a hospital document dated today.

I suddenly remembered last winter, when my fever reached 103.1°F.

Barry took me to the hospital in the middle of the night and stayed awake while I received an IV.

I spent three days there, and he stayed beside me in the visitor’s chair the entire time.

Now he came home alone from the emergency room and told me he felt sick and wanted me there.

And I sat with Megan, discussing whether he might be a murderer.

The whole thing suddenly felt absurd.

I stood and told Megan, "Every family has a few private matters. This isn’t a big deal."

"We’ve been together for years, and he’s never hurt me. If he wanted to, he had plenty of chances. He wouldn’t need to wait until after the wedding."

Then I hurried downstairs. Barry’s car was already parked outside.

My heart ached when he opened the car door.

His face was pale, and his lips had almost no color. Medical tape covered the IV cannula on the back of his hand, which still rested on the steering wheel.

He smiled when he saw me, then took a small box from the back seat and handed it over.

"Your favorite cupcake. They almost sold out."

I nearly cried.

Even when he felt this sick, he remembered to stop at my favorite bakery across from the hospital.

I wrapped my arms around him.

I felt awful for suspecting him with Megan.

I drove us home.

We watched a show together in bed, and Megan’s warnings slowly faded from my mind.

Later that night, I took a shower.

When I stepped out of the bathroom, I saw Barry tip something from a small packet into my glass of water.

It was a white powder.

I froze.

My heart beat faster and faster.

I didn’t want him to know I saw it.

I quietly stepped back into the bathroom, then called out before coming out again. "Honey, I’m done."

Barry smiled and came toward me. He picked up my glass and handed it over as if nothing had happened.

"Have some water."

I looked at the glass but didn’t take it. "I’m not thirsty."

Barry paused. "Don’t you always drink water after a shower?"

I forced a smile.

All I could think about was Megan’s warning that he might be a murderer.

My heart raced.

Then Barry drank the water right in front of me.

"If you don’t want it, I’ll have it."

"But use a different glass later. I have a cold, and I don’t want you to catch it."

I stared at him.

I saw him put something in the water. Why was he fine after drinking it?

Was the white powder harmless?

If it was, why did he add it when he thought I wasn’t looking?

Still confused, I went to bed.

Barry wrapped an arm around me from behind. "Molly, there’s something I think I should tell you."

My whole body tensed.

He continued, "Could you keep your distance from your friend Megan? She’s sent me a lot of messages that were… a little flirtatious."

Chapter 3

"That’s impossible!" I said at once. "Megan would never do that!"

Barry didn’t argue. He picked up his phone.

He opened his chat with Megan. There weren’t many messages, but every one of them made me tremble.

Megan wrote:

[Barry, I feel hot all over. I think I’m sick. Can you come take me to the hospital?]

[Barry, I left a bra at your house last time. It’s a larger size than Molly’s. Could you find it and bring it to me?]

Barry sighed.

"Molly, I didn’t have to pick you up tonight. But when you said you were at her place, I got worried."

"I was afraid she might tell you something that would make you leave me. That’s why I insisted on coming to get you."

My mind went blank.

Everything Megan said came rushing back.

Did she plant those doubts because she wanted Barry for herself?

Barry saw how upset I was and tried to reassure me.

"I know this is hard to accept. Now that you know what she’s like, you can slowly distance yourself from her."

I murmured, "Okay."

My thoughts stayed tangled all night.

Barry soon fell asleep.

He slept deeply, his arm heavy across my waist and his breathing steady.

I lay awake until morning.

Megan’s warning that Barry seemed like a killer about to strike kept clashing in my head with the messages on his phone.

I didn’t know which of them to believe.

At dawn, Barry and I got ready to leave for the courthouse.

His mother, Laura Chase, took my hand and pressed a stack of papers into it. They were agreements to transfer shares to me.

"Molly, these are for you."

His father nodded beside her. "We’ve already accepted you as our daughter-in-law. This family is yours now, and we’ll always treat you well."

Barry smiled and held out his hand. "Come on, honey. Let’s get married."

I nodded.

I was about to leave when Megan rushed in.

She grabbed my arm and tried to pull me away. "Molly, listen to me. Don’t marry him!

"Give me two days. Just two more days, and I’ll find out what’s wrong."

I shook off her hand.

All the anger I held back through the night finally spilled out.

"Megan, Barry and I have no reason to hurt each other. Why would he kill me?"

"And even if he wanted to kill me, why would he have to wait until we were married? What would stop him now?"

Megan fell silent. Her lips moved, but no words came out.

Then Barry walked up behind me.

He frowned and said, "Sweetheart, don’t forget what you promised me last night."

I paused.

Megan turned to me at once, and her expression changed. "Molly, what did you promise him?"

I didn’t answer.

I held her gaze for a moment, then followed Barry downstairs.

On the way to the courthouse, Barry promised again and again to treat me well for the rest of my life. He said he would give me anything I wanted.

I leaned back, closed my eyes, and said nothing.

My thoughts were a mess.

At the courthouse, we took a number and waited.

When our turn came, the clerk asked for our IDs.

I unzipped my bag to get mine and accidentally pulled out the papers Barry’s parents gave me.

They scattered across the counter.

As I gathered them, I took another look.

A chill ran down my spine.

I lowered my head, hid my phone behind my body, and quickly sent Megan two words.

[Save me!]

Chapter 4

I slipped my phone back into my bag and forced a smile when I looked up.

"Barry, I think I forgot my ID."

Barry stopped sorting through his paperwork. "That can’t be right. Didn’t you say you put it in your bag yesterday?"

I moved my bag behind me. "I must have been mistaken. Maybe it’s still in a drawer at home. I’ll go back and get it—"

Before I finished, Barry took the bag from my hand. My whole body went rigid.

He unzipped it, felt around inside, and pulled out my ID. Then he held it up in front of me.

"Here it is, silly."

His voice was gentle, and he was still smiling. But sweat broke out across my back as I stared at the ID, unable to speak.

The clerk behind the counter looked up at us, then studied my face.

She set down her pen.

"If you’re having second thoughts, I suggest you go home and take some time to decide. Marriage is a big step."

"You’re both here by choice. There’s no need to rush."

Barry’s expression darkened. He turned to me with a frown. "Molly, what’s wrong?"

I gripped the strap of my bag and tried to think.

I couldn’t mention the agreements.

I couldn’t even let him know I noticed something on the papers.

"I…"

I took a breath and met his eyes. "I’m suddenly scared. I need more time to think."

Barry’s lips parted.

He stepped closer and lowered his voice. "Did Megan say something to you?

"She came to the house this morning to stop you, and now you don’t want to get married. That can’t be a coincidence. What did she tell you?"

"Molly, she’s trying to turn you against me."

I shook my head. "No, she didn’t."

I held his gaze and pressed my lips together. "Barry, you know what happened with my parents."

"They rushed into marriage and divorced less than a year after I was born. My mom always said she regretted marrying before she was sure. She wished she could have given me a stable home."

"So I’ve been afraid of marriage for as long as I can remember."

"It’s not that I don’t want to marry you. I just… need a little time. Can you give me that?"

Barry’s expression shifted several times.

I could tell he was anxious.

He pinched the seam of his pants without seeming to notice, as if something had thrown his plans off course.

At last, he sighed and gently rubbed my head.

"Okay. Let’s go home. We can come back when you’re ready."

The sun shone brightly when we left the courthouse, and the glare made my eyes ache.

Barry opened the car door for me. I sat down with one hand on my bag and felt the edge of the papers through the canvas.

The share transfer agreement was still inside.

Barry drove me to my building and wanted to come up.

I said I needed some time alone.

He stood beside the car and watched me for a long moment before telling me to rest.

He said he would bring me dinner that evening.

As soon as his car turned out of the neighborhood, I left and took a cab straight to my office.

When I arrived, I saw a message from Megan.

[What did you find?]

My hands shook so badly that I mistyped my reply three times.

[He’s going to kill me after we’re married.]