Chapter 1

A group of unwelcome visitors suddenly show up at a relative's funeral. The man in the lead claims to be my wife's boyfriend and wants to punish me. Apparently, I'm her fresh-faced lover.

I don't want this to turn into a big deal because we're at a funeral, so I tell him we'll settle this after everything's over. Unexpectedly, my wife's boyfriend causes a huge fuss and instructs his men to pin me to the ground, wanting me to get on my knees and grovel at his feet.

The rest of my relatives are unmoved by this. They watch as my legs get broken. I sneer and say, "Your girlfriend bought this urn for my mom. She spent a fortune on this, you know!"

Sure enough, the man is furious. He clamors and wreaks havoc, ultimately smashing the urn to pieces. "How dare you parasites latch onto my girlfriend and try to exploit her! Don't think you're getting a cent out of her!"

What he doesn't know is that the "mom" whose funeral is being held is my wife's mother and my mother-in-law.

The funeral that is crashing is hers, and her urn is the one he's just smashed.

Chapter 1

Rosalie Clarke and I had been estranged and separated for several years now.

That was why I was surprised when her family called me.

"Zayne, your mother-in-law has passed away. We can't reach Rosalie. Please, come back and handle the funeral arrangements."

Hearing that Mona North, my mother-in-law, had passed away, I felt a sudden jolt in my chest. It wasn't grief, but rather as if a tightly strung string in me had snapped.

Rosalie and I had separated about three years ago.

Since then, she'd been living as if she'd never been married—constantly hitting up bars and clubs, hiring male escorts, and completely ignoring my messages and calls.

I frowned upon hearing the news, thinking Rosalie had crossed the line. Something had happened to her mother, and yet, Rosalie was nowhere to be found.

I stared at the voice message for a long time before finally canceling all meetings for the week and heading to Rosalie's hometown. My assistant wordlessly signaled for ten bodyguards to accompany me.

I tried calling Rosalie during my journey there. For some reason, I couldn't reach her.

I opened her social feed and found an update from just an hour ago, showing off her latest shopping spree. Most of the items were men's brands. A man's hand could be seen in the corner of the photo.

Clearly, Rosalie had bought all those things for him.

I sighed, opened our chat, and left her a message about how her mother's cremation was done, and she should come back to say her final goodbyes before the burial.

The message wasn't even sent—Rosalie had just blocked me.

Relatives from the Clarke family told me that Mona had caused quite a scene, demanding a custom urn worth eight million dollars and even staging a hunger strike in the village until she got her way.

"Poor her. If she hadn't gone on that hunger strike, she might not have fallen and passed away," they lamented with pained expressions, though they were quick to step back when it came to paying.

I considered it for a moment, then paid for the urn using Rosalie's card. Almost immediately, Rosalie called me.

"What did you spend so much on? Refund it now."

I didn't want to argue with her about money. I simply urged her, "Come back home. There's been a family emergency."

Rosalie must have heard the dirge playing in the background, and her tone faltered. "Who?"

"An elder in the family passed away," I replied calmly.

Rosalie said nothing and immediately hung up.

I couldn't help but wonder if I hadn't specified that it was her mother who'd passed away, would Rosalie have mistaken it for someone in my family and just ignored it altogether?

After handling everything, I opened my phone to catch up on work, only to get a notification from a forum.

"My fiancée's card suddenly shows a charge of eight million dollars. Does this mean trouble?"

There was no shortage of posts designed to grab attention, so I was about to close it when I noticed that I was following this particular poster. Curious, I clicked in to scroll through and realized it was from Lester Cumin, Rosalie's assistant.

Back when Rosalie first started her company, she and I were still close, and I'd handled most of the company's early arrangements, even helping recruit the initial team. Lester, her assistant, was personally recommended by her. I had followed his social media as part of his background check.

I opened the post to find a slew of comments speculating that his fiancée was paying for a boy toy—a pretty boy they warned him to watch out for.

Uninterested, I was about to unfollow him when Lester posted another update.

"Confirmed, folks—there's definitely someone else. My fiancée is on her way to meet her side piece. I'm on my way to catch them in the act."

Attached was a screenshot from a couple's tracking app showing her current trip, with the destination set as none other than Rosalie's family home.

Chapter 2

I sighed and put my phone away.

There went another unfortunate soul wounded by love.

If I ever had a chance to help him in the future, I thought, maybe I would.

Rosalie still hadn't replied to any of my messages or calls.

Around me, her relatives had already split into small groups and started a game of cards, leaving piles of peanut shells scattered across the floor.

I sat far away. Seeing they weren't interested in bothering me and were even ignoring me, I relaxed a bit.

The stale, foul smell in the room was starting to give me a headache. Lips pressed into a tight line, I contemplated escaping to the outdoors just as chaos erupted beyond the walls.

Opening the door, I came face-to-face with Lester.

He had a crowd of seven or eight people behind him, a phone in one hand and a stick in the other, looking ready to start trouble.

"Lester?" I was taken aback. "What are you doing here?"

He froze for a moment before he waved his stick around and loudly announced to his group, "This is the guy! How else would he know my name if he wasn't my fiancée's boy toy?"

Before I could react, Lester punched me square in the face.

Exhausted from several sleepless days of funeral preparations, I saw stars as I fell to the ground.

Lester smirked and grabbed me by the collar.

"Hey pretty boy, my fiancée isn't even here yet, and you're already acting all weak and innocent!"

With that, he pulled out a small knife from somewhere.

Its sharp edge which grazed the corner of my eye instantly drew blood.

Satisfied at the sight of my blood, he smirked. "You've got the face of a freeloading man. Guess it's that face that's got my fiancée hooked, huh?"

Before I could even process what was happening, he swung the knife at my face again.

"Let's see if any rich lady would want you when I'm done with that face!"

Having been caught off guard and disfigured while being repeatedly called a pretty boy, I eventually lost my temper. I got to my feet and landed a solid punch, sending Lester sprawling onto the ground.

Lester and I were clearly mismatched in strength. He landed hard on the ground, clutching his face and staring at me in disbelief.

"How dare you hit me? You, a sneaky side piece, dare lay a hand on the real boyfriend! My fiancée is the CEO of Clarke Group! And you, a country bumpkin living out here in the boonies, dare mooch off Rosalie? Are you tired of living?"

It dawned on me then—his so-called fiancée was actually my legal wife, Rosalie. At first, I thought Lester had mistaken me for someone else, but now it was clear he had the right person. The real irony was that he was the very sneaky side piece he was accusing me of being.

Trying to avoid further conflict, especially with a funeral underway, I decided to calmly suggest, "There's a funeral going on. It's bad luck to cause trouble here. Why don't you leave, and we'll deal with this after it's over?"

Lester froze, finally noticing the house's setup. There was a portrait hanging in the living room, a small, diamond-encrusted urn shining on the table beneath it.

The relatives around us had paused their card game to watch the scene unfold with curious expressions.

Growing more nervous, Lester raised his stick defensively. "Stay back! This guy seduced my fiancée; I'm just doing what's right! If any of you come closer, I'll take you all on!"

The group of older ladies, however, stayed put. They clearly showed no intention to set the record straight about my identity.

After a long pause, Lester suddenly seemed to understand something and began laughing, pointing at me.

Chapter 3

Lester sneered. "You pathetic, worthless leech. Even your family doesn't stand with you. Who's going to help you now? You're an embarrassment to all men!"

Lester glanced at the memorial photo, and then at the scattered gifts in the house. He scoffed, "That photo must be of your mother, right? And all these gifts are probably from Rosalie.

"You're living off the dead. Don't you have any shame? Your whole family's a bunch of parasites. Don't think for a second you'll get a penny from my fiancée even if someone's dead!"

With that, he directed his group to smash everything in sight. Only then did I realize Lester had brought over two or three dozen people, each one holding a club or stick.

As the memorial photo crashed to the ground, glass shards scattered across the floor. My newly purchased porcelain vases, each worth tens of thousands, toppled one by one, sending sharp fragments flying and cutting into my legs.

I wanted to speak up to stop them, but seeing the recently installed security cameras on the wall, I held my tongue.

I waved subtly to the bodyguards waiting nearby, signaling them to hold back unless absolutely necessary. Then, turning to Lester, I gave him a slight smirk.

"Lester, just a heads-up, the damages you're causing here are well over a million. But hey, if you're ready to cover it, keep going."

Lester looked at me like I was an idiot. "Acting tough, are we? All that money comes from my fiancée anyway. What's it to you?"

"I'll break whatever I want! What are you going to do about it? Rosalie is happy to spend on me! I'll keep breaking them!"

Seeing no one stepping in to stop him, Lester grew bolder. He motioned for his men to pin me down before he mentioned in a voice dripping with contempt, "Tell you what. If you get on your knees right now, in front of everyone, and beg me for forgiveness, I might consider letting you go pay your final respects to your mother. Otherwise, you'll just have to watch her witness you getting beaten to a pulp."

I was immobilized as I was held down by a dozen sticks. As I weighed my options, I fixed my gaze on Lester.

"If Rosalie cheated, you should take it up with her. Why come after me?"

At this, Lester's expression changed, a flicker of resentment clouding his gaze. "Rosalie's just too soft-hearted to say no to anyone. How is any of this her fault? It's your fault. If you hadn't selfishly drained her account of that eight million, she would have bought me a new car by now! It's your fault she was humiliated at the dealership when she couldn't pay! You'd better return the money!"

As soon as he finished, a hail of blows rained down on me.

Several strikes hit my stomach, leaving me gasping and nearly stumbling as my face paled.

Lester's grin widened. "That's more like it. Now you look exactly like the good-for-nothing leech you are. Smile for the camera. I'll send a picture of you to all the rich ladies out there. Maybe one of them will take a liking to you."

Hearing this, the onlookers smirked, some even pulling out their phones to snap pictures.

My mind began to reel, memories surging back.

The same thing happened a few years ago. Mona and the villagers had treated me the same way. And now, at her funeral, I was once again being humiliated like this.

Anger exploded within me, propelling me into action. Fueled by rage, I fought back, fending off seven or eight people, taking down each one who came at me.

Chapter 4

The scene was chaotic.

After Lester was knocked down, he took a few solid punches himself.

Clutching his face, he screamed, "Help! Help! He's trying to kill me! If I die here, none of you in this village will be safe!"

Hearing this, the middle-aged men and women playing cards in the corner finally started inching over, hesitantly watching us.

I didn't know where I found the strength, but I fought with a frenzy, keeping ten or so people at bay.

Lester, terrified, held up a wad of cash and shouted, "I have money! I'll give 20 thousand dollars to whoever pins down that pretty boy!"

Almost instantly, the onlookers charged forward. One of them grabbed a chair and smashed it into my calf. As the metal leg of the chair dug into my flesh, I felt my blood pouring out, draining the force of my punches.

The others piled on, grabbing my hands and kicking my injured legs mercilessly. "Kneel! Didn't you hear us tell you to kneel?"

After I used the last of my strength, I collapsed onto the floor.

Seeing I wouldn't kneel, Lester slowly approached, pressing the sole of his shoe onto my head. "You were fighting ten of us just now, weren't you? How come you're lying on the ground, licking my shoes now?"

Ignoring his taunts, I looked past Lester's sneering face toward the urn on the table.

That eight-million-dollar urn was the very thing that had nearly cost me my life at Lester's hands.

I raised my hand, taunting him with a smile. "So what if you keep throwing fits? Rosalie is willing to spend money on me but wouldn't buy you a car. See that urn? It's worth eight million dollars! Rosalie paid for it in full!"

Lester stared at the urn, disbelief written all over his face. He sprang up in anger. "So you did spend that eight million dollars! Why? Why should my fiancée pay for your family's funeral? You must've planned this with your mom, didn't you?

"You're just trying to squeeze money out of Rosalie! Do you have any idea how hard it is for her to make that kind of money? You're shameless!

"Your family doesn't deserve something so expensive! Who are you to spend Rosalie's money?" Lester cursed while grabbing the custom-made urn from the table and smashing it onto the floor. "I'm doing my fiancée a favor by breaking this. Your whole family will suffer even in death!"

The urn hit the ground, shattering into countless pieces. The agate and emerald pieces embedded in it scattered, and a cloud of fine dust filled the air, making everyone instinctively cover their noses and mouths.

The relatives who had been holding me down froze for a moment. Realizing they would be in big trouble if they stayed any longer, they fled the scene within seconds.

Only Lester remained, yelling with spite. "Worthless piece of trash! You and your mother both deserve to die with nothing left to bury you in!"

"Who are you saying deserves that kind of death?"

Rosalie arrived just as Lester was in the middle of cursing. She stepped into the room, frowning, her whole demeanor tinged with frustration at being forced into the situation.

"Zayne, don't tell me you made up an excuse just to see me. Your mother passed away a long time ago, didn't she?"

Before she even finished speaking, Lester opened his arms and rushed to greet her.

"Baby, you're finally here! This country bumpkin almost beat me to death!"

Rosalie peered at me with clear impatience. "Why did you hit Lester? He doesn't know anything. If you have a problem, come at me."

Lester's eyes lit up at those words, and he clung to Rosalie's arm, whining, "Rosalie, since you work so hard, I'll let this nonsense with the pretty boy slide. Just make him return the eight million dollars to you. If we hurry back now, we can still make it in time to pick up the car!"

Chapter 5

Lester was still happily daydreaming while I had already tidied up my appearance, ready to leave.

Rosalie, hearing about the eight million dollars, suddenly remembered the matter at hand and pulled me aside, asking urgently, "What's going on? Who passed away? What was the eight million dollars for?"

I glanced at the photo knocked down to the floor by Lester and smirked.

Rosalie hadn't realized it was her mother's funeral.

Although Mona had been staying here, Rosalie assumed it was the funeral of my relative, as this property was bought fully by me.

Rosalie continued to berate me as if I was on Mona's property. "Also, did you ask for Mom's consent before you held the funeral here? Why would you do something so unlucky—"

"Before she passed away, she insisted on a custom box for the remains. Just the box alone cost eight million dollars." I interrupted Rosalie, ignoring her previous question and answering her earlier one instead.

Without a second thought, Rosalie accused me, "Don't you have your own money? Why are you using mine? Things wouldn't have escalated like this if you hadn't used my card."

I understood what Rosalie meant; if I hadn't used her card, Lester wouldn't have seen it, and he wouldn't have come over.

So what?

I got cheated on, was labeled as the homewrecker, and insulted—yet it was my fault?

I looked at Lester, then back at Rosalie before slowly mentioning, "So, you didn't tell him that you're married? You didn't tell him that I'm your legitimate husband and that he's the freeloading boy toy?"

Stunned, Lester looked back and forth between us in disbelief. "How could that be? A country bumpkin like you can't possibly be married to Rosalie. You're out of your mind!"

Rosalie, however, remained silent.

Lester started tugging on her. "What's going on? Rosalie, say something!"

Finally fed up, Rosalie shook Lester's hand off, stood up, and lashed out at me.

"Are you done? Do you have to bring it up now? Boy toy? Homewrecker? Do you really have to put it that way? Don't you know how this will affect Lester's reputation if it gets out? Aren't men all about their reputation? Can't you show Lester some consideration?"

As Rosalie impatiently paced back and forth, she accidentally stepped on the pile of white ash on the floor.

She suddenly noticed the mess on the floor was a broken urn, and, disgusted, shook her shoe, then turned and looked at us, frowning.

Only then did Lester, stammering, recount what had happened.

After listening, Rosalie patted Lester's shoulder in a calming gesture. She then said to me, "Lester went too far this time. I won't make you pay back the eight million dollars. Consider it my compensation to you. But if you dare gossip to others, I won't hold back."

With that, she took Lester's hand, intending to leave.

I stopped them. "Aren't you going to ask who passed away?"

"We may be husband and wife, but there's no love between us anymore. Do I really need to spell it out for you? So no matter who in your family passed away, I have no obligation to pay or personally come over. I'm already showing you respect by being here. Don't push it, Zayne."

Enduring the pain throughout my body, I walked over, picked up the overturned photo, and tossed it in front of Rosalie.

"Take a good look at whose funeral this is and whose urn your lover smashed."