Chapter 1

The food that my fiancee, Winona Ziegler, ordered arrived half an hour after the order was placed.

She eagerly placed the king crabs worth over 1,000 dollars in front of her childhood sweetheart, Caeden Gardner, then set a huge serving of premium seafood boil right by his hand.

Then, she pushed a glass of plain water toward me. "Ansel, don't just sit there. Have some water! Plain water is good for you. Aren't you always going on about staying healthy?"

Caeden looked at the table full of seafood, then at the glass of water in front of me, looking troubled. "Winnie, this doesn't feel right. Ansel doesn't have anything to eat at all. Why don't we give him some of the king crabs—"

Winona cut him off immediately. "Cade, don't worry about him! He's just greedy. Your stomach isn't well, and you've suffered so much abroad. You need to eat something good to replenish yourself."

With that, she put on disposable gloves, skillfully cracked open a king crab claw, and placed it on Caeden's plate.

I stared at that crab claw.

Last week, I had a high fever and wanted a hot meal. But Winona complained that delivery fees were too expensive and told me to just go to the kitchen and have some cereal. Now, she'd just dropped 1,000 dollars without batting an eye.

After the meal, the table was littered with seafood scraps.

Caeden leaned back on the couch and rubbed his lower back. "Maybe it's jet lag, but my back feels a tad sore."

Winona immediately grew anxious. Not even bothering to take off her gloves, she said, "Cade, your back hurts? I'll buy you a massage chair and have it delivered to the door right away."

She grabbed her phone and opened a shopping app. "How about this one for five thousand dollars? It has the most complete features. I'll order it now."

But when she entered the pin number to make the payment, a red exclamation mark popped up on the screen.

"Payment failed."

She froze for a moment, then tried again. Still, it failed.

Winona's brow furrowed, and she turned to glare at me. "Ansel, did you secretly cancel the card? Why can't I pay for a massage chair? Are you really such a miser?"

I sat at the dining table, looked at the confirmation in my banking app that her card had been successfully frozen, and calmly turned off the screen.

"It might have hit the spending limit and gotten flagged by the bank's risk control system. I'll go to the bank tomorrow and ask about this."

Winona eyed me suspiciously, her expression sour. "Of all times, it had to get flagged right when Cade needed it. You did this on purpose, didn't you?"

Caeden sighed beside her, putting on a show of being understanding. "Winnie, forget it. Don't blame Ansel. Five thousand dollars isn't a small amount. I can do without the massage. I'll just tough it out."

But because of the pitiful act he put on, Winona felt even more sorry for him. She shot me a look of pure disgust.

"Cade, you're just too nice! That's why people take advantage of you!"

She stood up, pointed at the master bedroom door, and issued me an order. "Cade needs to adjust to the time difference. Since the bed in the master bedroom is softer, he'll sleep there tonight. You can go sleep in the guest room."