Chapter 1 A Place to Call Home

As usual, Wendy Zeigler had already prepared a basin of warm water for me to soak my hand. A few anti-inflammatory herbs floated on the surface, while a tube of ointment, cotton swabs, and a clean towel were neatly arranged beside it.

She rolled up the sleeves of her loungewear, kneeled in front of me, and gently cradled my right hand. "Moses, did your wrist still hurt today?"

Her voice was soft, as though she was afraid of startling me.

I shook my head. "It wasn't too bad. It just itched a little."

"Don't scratch it." She frowned, her eyes filled with concern. "If you break the skin again, it'll only get worse. You men are always so rough with yourselves."

With that, she carefully lowered my hand into the warm water.

The moment the water covered my wrist, a sharp stinging sensation spread through the swollen, ulcerated skin encircling it.

I couldn't help drawing in a sharp breath.

Wendy immediately lowered her head and gently blew across my wrist. "Hang in there," she murmured. "The doctor said it's because your skin is unusually sensitive. It'll get better if we keep taking care of it."

I nodded.

The truth was, my health had not been good for years. I suffered from dizziness, insomnia, excessive hair loss, and occasional heart palpitations. But the worst problem was always my right wrist.

The skin beneath the obsidian bracelet constantly became red, irritated, and painful. Eventually, the swelling became so severe that even the beads could no longer rotate around my wrist.

Every hospital visit ended the same way. The tests never found anything seriously wrong. The doctors usually blamed stress combined with contact dermatitis.

Wendy had always been even more anxious about it than I was.

She handled the appointments, waited in line, and picked up my medication. She never let me worry about any of it. Once we got home, she personally soaked my hand and applied ointment every single night.

She had done it without missing a single day for all six years of our marriage. Because of that, I had always believed that, although I had married into the Zeigler family, I truly had married the right woman.

Wrapped around my right wrist was an obsidian bead bracelet, its jet-black surface carrying a faint green sheen. It had been placed on my wrist by my father-in-law, Chester Zeigler, on our wedding day.

He had told me it was a family heirloom passed down through three generations of the Zeigler family, reserved only for the son-in-law they truly accepted as one of their own.

Wendy had held my hand then and smiled gently. "Moses, as long as you wear it, you're one of us."

My eyes had filled with tears at that moment.

Not because the bracelet was valuable—no. But because, for the first time in my life, someone had told me I belonged to their family.

I had grown up in an orphanage, surviving on the kindness of strangers and learning to read every expression before speaking. By the time I turned 28, the only thing I had ever truly wanted was a place where I could sit down for a meal without worry—a home where someone always left a light on for me.

So when my father-in-law slipped that bracelet onto my wrist on my wedding day, I genuinely believed that my lonely ship had finally found a harbor.

Because of those words, I wore it for six full years. I wore it while showering, while sleeping, and during late nights working overtime at the office. Even after my wrist began breaking out in rashes, the skin split open, and the pain became so intense that it woke me in the middle of the night, I never once brought myself to take it off.

Because I had always believed it was proof that the Zeigler family had accepted me.

"All right, time for the ointment."

Wendy dried my hand with a towel, her movements so gentle they barely felt real.

The instant the ointment touched my skin, I flinched from the pain. She immediately tightened her hold on my fingers.

"Did it hurt again?"

"Yeah…"

"There, there. I'll be quick."

Her fingertips brushed against the edge of the obsidian bracelet. Then, all at once, her hand paused.