Chapter 1

My future mother-in-law loved getting something for nothing.

When she shopped, she loved demanding refunds while keeping whatever she'd bought. After I got engaged to her son, she set her sights on me.

Over Thanksgiving I went home with my boyfriend, and she deliberately pointed at the moldy dishes on the table and ordered me to clean them up.

I called a cleaner, and she blew up on the spot.

"You need a cleaner for a few chores? If you can't even do housework, shouldn't you give back part of the bride price?"

I backhanded the boyfriend standing next to me.

"So the refund-only craze has made it all the way to me now?"

After I returned the bride price, she wasn't happy about that either.

1

Linda Carter stared at the handprint on her son's face, her heart aching for him.

"It's just washing a few dishes. What's wrong with doing a little housework?"

"My hand hurts, you know! And I'm still worried you won't even get them clean!"

I laughed. "If you're worried I won't get them clean, then wait until your hand heals and wash them yourself!"

"Oh, and just a reminder: you get what you pay for. An $88,000-bride-price daughter-in-law can't do anything! If you want a housemaid, you'll have to pay a higher bride price."

When I finished, I didn't care how ugly Linda's face had gotten. I paid the cleaner right then and there.

Then I followed the cleaner toward the door, ready to leave.

Seeing me about to slip away, Linda dropped right onto the floor and started throwing a tantrum, rolling around.

"Ethan Carter, this is the wife you want to marry?"

"A perfectly good Thanksgiving, and you bring her home to make me die of anger?"

My boyfriend's face hardened instantly. As if he were blind, he opened his mouth and blamed me. "Jessica Hayes, my mom's health isn't good. Don't talk back to her."

With my boyfriend backing her, Linda grew even smugger.

She simply sprawled flat on the floor, arms and legs flung wide, and started to wail. "I'm a widow who worked herself to the bone raising my son alone, scrimping and saving and spending every penny I had so he could get married. Who knew she'd be the death of me before she's even married in."

Linda's routine flowed without a hitch, nonsense spilling straight out of her mouth, and she didn't even give me time to react.

By the time I came to my senses, her wailing had drawn neighbors from the entire building to watch the show.

I didn't want to make a spectacle of myself, so I stepped forward to help her up.

The moment I reached out, Linda claimed I'd hit her.

She rolled back and forth on the floor, and I watched, helpless, as she polished the grimy floor beneath her to a shine.

Holding back a laugh, I asked, "Aunt Linda, all this drama, you just want the bride price back?"

"Jessica, don't you slander me! If anything, I think you came here to make trouble!"

"Then what did you mean just now about returning the bride price?"

"I..." Linda sputtered for a long while before she managed, "I just want you to learn to do housework!"

"Anything else?"

Her eyes went wide, and for a long time she couldn't get a word out.

I had no choice but to look at Ethan. When it was just the two of us, we'd always been in sync.

But now he didn't even dare look at me. Even an idiot would have understood. Today's whole show was a performance mother and son had put on together for my benefit!

With that thought, I smiled and said, "What if I agree to return the bride price?"

Linda nearly sprang up off the floor. "Really?"

Quickly realizing she'd given herself away, she added sheepishly, "The bride price was a token of our sincerity, too..."

Watching Linda try to have it both ways, I held back a laugh and said slowly, "Aunt Linda, Ethan told me you love doing refund-only when you shop online. If that's really what you're after, just say so."

Linda froze. Her mouth crumpled, and she started to sob.

"When have I ever done refund-only? Why do you love making things up so much!"

"Smearing my good name like this, do you think a widow is easy to push around?"

Ethan seemed to think his mother had suffered some terrible injustice too, and his face grew long.

"Jessica, you've got all these people here gawking. Happy now?"

I felt thunderstruck, and before I could say a word,

Linda grabbed hold of me with hands covered in snot and tears. Before I could react, she dropped to her knees in front of me.

Not caring who was watching, she knocked her forehead against the floor at my feet, thunk, thunk, over and over.

At the sight, the gawking neighbors erupted.

"How can you force an elder to bow down to you like that?"

"Can you even handle that? Aren't you afraid of the bad karma?"

His face dark, Ethan growled at me, "Jessica, is this what you wanted?"

"Or should I bow to you a few times too? Is that what it takes for you to stop acting up?"

I was utterly speechless. "When did you ever see me make your mom kneel and bow?"

"Then why'd you say my mom loves doing refund-only?"

I found it absurd. If Ethan hadn't told me Linda loved refund-only, how would I have known? Every time he told me about it, he'd been practically beaming.

Besides, I wasn't the one who'd drawn the crowd in the first place.

At that thought, I couldn't help a cold laugh. "This is obviously meant to put me in my place, so you can push me around later."

Without thinking, I let go of the hand I'd been using to hold Linda up. I wanted to see exactly what stunt she planned to pull.