Chapter 1

At my wife Mia’s birthday banquet, my mother-in-law Margaret slammed that stack of bank statements into my face,

“Ethan, you lowlife traitor, aren’t you afraid of getting struck by lightning?”

“$800,000 was the retirement money I saved my whole life, and now there’s only $120,000 left. How am I supposed to live?”

I looked at the statements scattered on the floor.

More than a year ago, Margaret heard that I worked at an internet finance company and insisted that I help her invest her money.

I refused right away.

I told her financial products all carried risk, especially high-interest ones like this, and there was no guarantee of principal.

How had she responded back then?

She grabbed my hand, smiling so hard her face was full of wrinkles:

Ethan, Mom trusts you. You came out of the financial regulator, so you’re an expert. A guaranteed product is definitely safe.

If I lose money, then it’s just my bad luck, and I will never blame you.

But now, the P2P platform had blown up, the whole industry had collapsed, and I had not escaped it either.

“Mom, I signed a risk disclosure form with you back then, and I also warned you that this kind of product…”

Before I could finish, Mia’s slap cut me off.

Mia’s eyes were red as she pointed at me and shouted,

“Risk disclosure form? Isn’t that just worthless paper your company uses to trick people into signing?”

“Ethan, how can you even bring up some disclosure form?”

“That was my mom! You took her money to patch the holes in your company. Are you even human?”

The relatives at the next table started whispering to each other.

My wife’s uncle took a sip of liquor and set his glass down hard.

“Ethan, this is on you.”

“How did you promise us back then? You said that money in your hands was ten times better than in the bank.”

“Now that it shrank to this, you need to take responsibility.”

My wife’s aunt added in a sneering voice,

“I heard about this kind of investment product. The internal commission for employees is insanely high.”

“Eighty grand went in, and Ethan probably took at least eighty or ninety grand in kickbacks, right?”

“Look at your car and your watch. You just bought them, didn’t you?”

As soon as she said that, Margaret rushed up and grabbed my collar with both hands.

“So that’s it! You used my retirement money to buy a car and a watch! You parasite!”

While scratching at my face, she cried out to the people around us,

“Everybody, come look! My son-in-law cheated his mother-in-law out of her money. Eight hundred thousand dollars! I’ve never seen that much money in my life, and he blew it all!”

I pushed her hand away and took two steps back.

“I never took a single cent in commission.”

“All the money flows are on the books.”

“The company has already filed for bankruptcy, and I lost my job too. I’m a victim as well.”

Mia let out a cold laugh and slapped a printed divorce agreement onto the table from her bag.

“Victim? Only you know how much dirty money you took.”

“Ethan, I’m not wasting words on you. You have to pay for this money my mom lost.”

“Ten times compensation, eight million dollars. Miss one cent, and you can wait to go to jail!”

Eight million dollars.

In this top-tier city, that was enough to buy a pretty decent house.

When Margaret heard that number, she stopped crying at once, and greed flashed in her eyes.

“Pay me eight million! If you can’t get it, I’ll go hang myself at your parents’ door!”

“I’ll make sure the whole world knows your family produced a scammer!”

I looked at Mia, the woman I had been married to for three years.

“She clearly knew that I quit because I discovered irregular fund flows inside the company and offended people I should not have offended.”

“She clearly knew I spent the entire year staying up late just to help her mom keep an eye on that account.”

Now, all she saw was that made-up eight million.

“Mia, are you sure you want to do this?” I asked.

Mia turned her head away and said firmly, “Whatever my mom says is what I mean.”

“You hurt my mom, so this marriage has to end, and you still have to pay.”

I gave a bitter laugh and bent down to pick up that stack of statements.

“Fine. Since you think I’m a scammer, let’s go through the legal process.”

I walked through the late-night streets and remembered how, three years ago, Mia had red eyes when she begged me to lend money for her dad’s surgery.

Back then, she would still say thank you, and she would still loop her arm through mine and say, “Marrying you was the best thing ever.”

And now? She did not even ask. She had already decided I was a scammer.