Chapter 1

I’m a vice president overseas.

Yet my parents and daughter are sleeping under an overpass and digging through trash for food.

The day I come home, I plan to surprise them.

Instead, outside their apartment complex, I see them picking through someone else’s discarded leftovers.

Mom and Dad are painfully thin.

My daughter, Isabella, is covered in dirt, with a strip of cloth tied over her eyes.

I rush over, snatch the sour-smelling food from their hands, and throw it onto the ground.

“Mom, Dad, I know you like saving money, but you can’t eat food out of a dumpster!”

They stare at me without moving.

The next second—

Mom’s eyes turn red.

She slaps me hard across the face.

“You monster.”

“Why did you even come back?”

Dad bends down and grabs a broken brick from the ground.

“You ruined this whole family!”

“I’ll kill you!”

I dodge as he swings it at me.

Then Isabella suddenly drops to her knees.

“I’m hungry…”

Her hands desperately search the ground.

She grabs the spoiled leftovers I just threw away.

Then she starts stuffing them into her mouth.

“Isabella!”

“Don’t eat that!”

“Mommy has money. I’ll take you somewhere nice to eat!”

Bang!

The brick in Dad’s hand slams into my head.

Pain explodes through my skull.

The world spins.

Then Dad’s furious roar crashes into my ears.

“We sold everything we owned to pay off your debts!”

“You have money?”

“Bullshit!”

...

I have been working overseas for six years.

I start as a junior employee.

Then I work my way up to vice president.

Everything back home, I leave to my husband, Evan Ridley.

Every month, I wire him $25,000.

Some of it is for Mom, Dad, and Isabella.

Some is for renovating my parents’ old house.

The rest is supposed to go toward buying them a new place in the city.

Evan is always complaining on the phone.

“Everything is getting more expensive.”

“Stop thinking about coming home all the time.”

“Just focus on making money.”

“If you earn more, everyone at home can live better.”

So I swallow my homesickness.

And I keep working.

For six whole years.

The moment I walk out of the airport, Evan calls me.

“Anna, Isabella scratched someone’s luxury car.”

“The owner wants ten thousand dollars.”

Usually, Evan handles everything that happens back home.

But now I’m finally here.

“Are you and Isabella okay?”

“We’re fine, but the owner yelled at her. She’s been crying.”

“As long as you’re both okay. I’ll handle it.”

There is a brief pause.

“How are you going to handle it from overseas?”

I’m just about to tell him I’m already back.

But his voice suddenly turns impatient.

“Hurry up. The owner’s getting angry again.”

“Fine. I’ll send you the money.”

After hanging up, I immediately transfer him $25,000.

I don’t want my family being humiliated over money.

A few minutes later, Evan sends me a message.

**Done. Isabella says she loves Mommy.**

I smile and type back.

**If everything’s okay, take Isabella home.**

There is one thing I do not tell him.

I’m already back.

Very soon, our family will finally be together again.

I have waited for this day for so long.

I get into a cab outside the airport.

“Could you drive a little faster?”

Forty minutes later, the car stops outside my parents’ apartment complex.

But the moment I step out—

I see something I will never forget.