Chapter 2

Ashley immediately spotted the orange bag on the floor that held the designer purse. She hurried over, picked up the purse, and turned it over and over in her hands.

Then she eagerly opened the other shopping bags and tore into the packages one by one. "Is all this for me?"

Noah rushed over, eager to please. "All of it's for you. Do you like it? Mom even got a big envelope of cash ready for you. Hang on, I'll go get it!"

He scurried into Mom's bedroom, dug a thick envelope of cash out of a drawer, and held it out to Ashley with both hands. "How's that? You're not mad anymore, right?"

Ashley's eyes were practically glowing, but she only said, airily, "It's all right, I guess."

I had no time for either of them.

I'd noticed that Mom's face had gone pale and her lips were tinged purple. I quickly dug the pills out of her purse and had her take them. "Mom, do you want to go to the hospital?"

Mom shook her head. "I just need to rest a bit."

She was about to sit down on the couch when Ashley plopped right down next to her, knocking her so hard that Mom swayed and nearly fell to the floor.

I caught her and glared at Ashley. "What do you think you're doing?"

Ashley crossed her legs and lifted her chin high, looking down on us like a queen. "Seeing how sincere you all are, fine, I'll meet you halfway.

"But now I have a few announcements to make, so stand there and listen carefully."

"You..."

I was about to cut her off when Mom tugged at my arm. "Let's hear what else she has to say."

A smug smile tugged at Ashley's lips. "First, after the wedding, this house is going to be a home for just me and my man. You two have to move out, and not a single day later. After that, there's no need for us to keep in touch, so don't bother.

"Second, the bride price is sixty-six thousand dollars, and the gold jewelry set is twenty-eight thousand. That's ninety-four thousand total, and it has to be paid in full today.

"And third..."

She turned to me. "Stacey, I hear you run a company?"

I looked at her without responding. She went on anyway.

"Noah told me your company makes over a hundred and forty thousand dollars in profit every year. For a woman to get that far, who knows how many dirty tricks you pulled?

"I may find your behavior disgraceful, but the money's innocent. You'll get married sooner or later, and you can't exactly bring a company with you into your husband's family, can you?"

I leaned against the table and watched her. "So?"

"So, sign the company over to Noah."

She'd opened her mouth and immediately smeared me as some kind of slut, and now she wanted to take something for nothing. I almost laughed out of sheer anger.

"I started that company myself. Why should he get it?"

She didn't miss a beat. "Because my man is the only man in this family. Everything in this family, including what's yours, should belong to him."

As she spoke, she glanced at the packaging scattered across the floor. "You spend money like water, so you must have pocketed plenty over the years.

"I won't hold what you've spent in the past against you. But now that he has me, a good wife, to look after him, are you still planning to hog the company and the savings all to yourself?"

I froze for a moment, not because she'd convinced me, but because I was stunned by the sheer confidence behind her nonsense.

I looked at my brother. "Noah, is that what you want too?"

He finally raised his head, avoiding my eyes. "Stacey, Ashley isn't entirely wrong. I'm getting married, so I should keep some distance from you two. We need boundaries.

"Besides, you'll get married sooner or later. Giving the company to me keeps it in the family. That's better than letting some other man have it."

I took a deep breath, and a flood of memories suddenly surged through my mind.

When we were kids, Mom and Dad were busy with work, so it was Noah who rode me to and from school on his bike every day.