Chapter 2

"Sir, my condolences."

"Alex, try to stay strong."

My phone vibrated endlessly in my pocket, buzzing with sympathy texts from relatives and friends.

On TV, the anchor solemnly reported the news of Atlantic Airways Flight 730's disappearance, confirming all onboard were presumed dead.

And my wife, Chloe, was on that plane.

In my previous life, when I saw that news, I fainted on the spot.

When I woke up, a collection notice from the bank greeted me—thirty million dollars.

Chloe had used our marital home and my company as collateral to take out a thirty-million-dollar loan.

My life, from that day on, plunged into absolute darkness.

But now, looking at Chloe's photo on the TV, my heart felt nothing. In fact, I wanted to laugh.

Perfect. If you want to play games, Chloe, let's play a big one.

I dialed my real estate agent, Mr. Henderson.

"Alex? Calling so late? Is everything alright?"

"Mr. Henderson, I need a favor. My villa, the two apartments downtown, and the office building my company owns—I need you to list them all. Urgent sale."

There was a few seconds of silence on Mr. Henderson's end. He was clearly stunned.

"Alex, you… what are you saying? The market's terrible right now, an urgent sale will mean a huge loss. You'll lose at least…"

"Sell them no matter the loss."

I cut him off.

"One condition: all funds must be in my account within three days."

After hanging up, I didn't pause for a moment. I dialed another number.

"I need you to track someone down. Chloe. And a man she's been in close contact with recently, Daniel Hayes."

The person on the other end was a buddy I'd helped out years ago. He was a private investigator now, with some seriously shady connections.

"Alex, track down Chloe? What's going on?"

"She's not dead."

I said calmly,

"She's with that man, Daniel Hayes. Find their current location for me, the sooner the better."

After arranging everything, I finally had time to glance at my phone.

Dozens of missed calls, all from my mother-in-law, Martha Peterson, and my wife's useless brother, Kevin Peterson.

I swiped away all notifications. Just as I was about to silence my phone, Martha's call came in again.

The moment I answered, a deafening wail erupted.

"Alex! My Chloe! My daughter is gone just like that! How can you call yourself a husband?! Why didn't you stop her from going to that Maldives trip?! You give me back my daughter!"

Her shrill voice pierced my ears.

In my previous life, I was terrorized by that crying for ten years, treating her whole family like royalty.

And what did I get? A bunch of ungrateful leeches.

I held the phone away from my ear, waiting for her wailing to subside a bit, then spoke coldly.

"Done crying?"

Martha's sobbing instantly stopped.