Chapter 1

Eva Fuller's haughty voice came through my phone's speaker.

"Who's this lunatic barking his head off at me? You've got some nerve. Go ahead and try me, if you dare. I'll prove to you just who has complete control over Joverton City! How dare you talk to me like that! I can have you executed a hundred times for that!"

The call was cut off without hesitation. Eva hadn't even recognized my voice.

We'd been married for just over a month when I was urgently recalled to the military for a top-secret mission, forcing me to cut off all contact with my family.

I was gone for seven years. When I left, I entrusted my family and the family business, Stewart Group, to my newlywed wife, Eva.

But in the end, my family had been humiliated and disgraced because of me. Even in death, they had no peace, their bodies not even laid to rest properly. I'd trusted the wrong person and invited nothing but danger into my family.

Melissa Abbott, Eva's assistant, could see that the call had been disconnected. The scorn and mockery in her eyes grew as she adjusted her ruffled outfit and declared, "Did you hear that? Ms. Fuller doesn't even recognize a madman like you!

"Did you seriously think you had any grounds to complain about me to her? And what's this nonsense about returning your family's ancestral cemetery, huh? How dare you impersonate Ms. Fuller's husband! That bastard ended his short-lived existence long ago!"

I froze. So while I was away on my mission, Eva actually had me declared dead.

Melissa flicked her hand, signaling a group of bodyguards to surround me tightly.

"Ms. Fuller only has eyes for the top superstar, Mr. Shawn Eckhart. If you're going to scam someone, at least do your homework. You tried pretending to be a dead husband, huh? There's no hope in that, you know. The dead should just remain in their coffins instead of crawling back out to get on the nerves of the living."

The surrounding residents also started passing judgment on me.

"He must've been so desperate to live off a woman that he has lost his mind. To think he's pretending to be a dead man, whose body must've turned to dust by now!"

"I know, right? I can't believe he's trying to pass himself off as the husband of the richest woman in the city! He should take a good look at himself in the mirror first."

Suppressing my rage, I ignored the chatter around me and walked toward my parents' urns, which had been used to prop up some flowerpots. I wanted to dig them out of the soil and rebury them properly, but Melissa beat me to it.

She kicked the urns with her sharp heels, and they shattered instantly. My parents' ashes spilled across the ground, mixing in with the dirt and fertilizer.

Scoffing cruelly, she declared, "The ashes of the dead make the perfect fertilizer for Mr. Eckhart's roses. I guess that means that even trash has some use to them after all. Mr. Eckhart said that, instead of letting such worthless junk occupy the land, it would be better to at least grow some flowers. It'll be far easier on the eyes that way."

My eyes turned red. The worthless junk she spoke of was my parents' ashes! Even though they'd died in service to the country long ago, that didn't stop Eva from using their reputation as national heroes for her own benefit.

But in the end, they couldn't even rest in peace.

When my younger sister, Lucy Stewart, saw our parents' ashes spilling on the ground, she let out an anguished cry and rushed over. She used her scarred hands to scoop up the ashes.

"No… No…"

Melissa kicked Lucy down in disgust, shrieking, "Get lost, you dimwit! Don't you dare sully Mr. Eckhart's roses! You think a moron like you can protect their ashes? Don't think so highly of yourself!"

Lucy stumbled and rolled on the ground, her palms sliced open by the shards. Even as blood flowed freely from her, she continued her desperate attempt to gather our parents' ashes.

I watched as she struggled on the ground, exposing the shocking bruises and cigarette burns that covered her arms. The murderous rage in my heart finally boiled over.