Chapter 1

The door to the attic study opened, and Mom walked a woman out.

This was the fifth client this month.

She was a rising celebrity who was disliked by her sponsor due to her hard-to-conceal odor. As such, she'd booked an appointment with Mom a month in advance.

Today, she'd finally gotten rid of the body odor that had troubled her for years.

"I'll definitely come back often in the future, Jennie. I'll recommend you to others too." The celebrity kept turning back as she walked. Her eyes crinkled as she smiled, clearly satisfied.

"Alright, as long as you're happy. Just remember to make an appointment next time, or there might not be any openings." Mom saw her off after exchanging a few more pleasantries.

She then returned to her so-called study in the attic, which she always kept locked up.

I sat at the doorway, watching as the door to the study closed once again. The pen in my hand paused over my homework as I drifted into a daze.

Mom was a renowned perfumer in our small town. She'd run her shop here for nearly ten years, yet almost none of the locals come to her for business.

That was simply because her services were extremely expensive. She charged 200 thousand dollars per session.

Mom's clients were all celebrities or wealthy socialites—the rich or the powerful. Drawn by her reputation, they travelled from miles away just to get rid of the unpleasant odors that troubled them.

After all, once people had money and comfort, they would start chasing pleasure. The richer they were, the less tolerant they became of even their smallest imperfections.

Although Mom's perfumes were expensive, a single application would last them an entire month. No matter how severe the body odor was, it could be completely masked.

But most importantly, there was something almost magical about the perfumes she created. Those who used them seemed to gain an irresistible charm that drew in other people.

Several rising starlets ended up landing wealthy sponsors after using Mom's perfumes, their careers taking off overnight.

There were even some wealthy socialites who booked appointments with Mom just to win back their unfaithful husbands.

Even when there was nothing physically wrong with them, they still sought her help, and the results were remarkably effective.

Many came looking for Mom, but she only took ten clients every month. Everyone else got turned away, no matter how much they offered to pay.

People said she had integrity and stuck to her principles instead of chasing money. Some even said that she was blessed by Aphrodite, and her talent should go global.

Mom would just smile and shake her head at those comments. She seemed to be uninterested in taking her craft beyond our small town.

Most thought she simply didn't care about fame or fortune, but I knew better.

Mom never even finished middle school. After dropping out, she went straight to work on the assembly line at a factory in the town.

For decades before she started her perfume business, she worked job after job just to get by. She had never studied perfumery, nor was she trained for it. I had never even seen her buy perfume ingredients.

And every secret Mom had was locked inside that study in the attic.

The attic was completely off-limits in our house. No one was allowed up there except for her.

Once, when I was younger, I played hide-and-seek with some other children and ran up to the attic. I hid behind a stack of cardboard boxes outside the study, but was found out by Mom before anyone else did.

That was the first time she ever hit me.

I was brought up in a single-parent household, and I'd never met my father.

Mom rarely paid much attention to what I was doing, but she never held back when it came to spending money on me.

That was the first time I had ever seen her lose her temper like that. She warned me that if I ever went near the attic again, I could pack my things and get out of the house.

After that, I never went near the attic again. But the secret hidden behind those doors stayed in the back of my mind for years.