The Crippled Husband's Billion-Dollar LieChapter 1

Godfrey Matthews glanced up from the apple he was peeling, sparing me a look between slices.

"Amanda, you got that three hundred grand saved up for the wedding gift yet? Regina Fisher's belly is starting to show. If we don't get this wedding going, her mom's gonna come banging on our door."

Elise Matthews, fresh off her SATs, bounced out of her bedroom and skipped over to me.

"Amanda! Amanda! I've got the Apple bundle and the graduation trip all planned out. It's only fifty thousand dollars. Just transfer it to me!"

I leaned against the wall, clutching the test results I'd just picked up from the hospital. A dull, stabbing ache pulsed through my chest.

Category 4 breast nodule. The doctor had stressed that I needed to be admitted for further testing as soon as possible. Malignancy couldn't be ruled out.

I set the report on the coffee table and told them I needed the money for treatment. That I needed rest.

My mother-in-law barely glanced at the report before she started in on me.

"Every woman gets a few lumps. What's the big deal? Do you really have to be this dramatic about it?"

"Godfrey's wedding and Elise's future are what matter right now. Don't you dare use some little health scare as an excuse to stop taking care of this family."

My husband wheeled his chair around to face me. There wasn't a shred of concern in his eyes.

"If I hadn't saved your life, would I be stuck like this?"

"All I'm asking is for you to help out my family a little. Why does that have to be so hard?"

There it was again.

The same line. Every single time.

——

"I'm paralyzed because I saved you."

That sentence was a get-out-of-jail-free card. It hung on Vincent Matthews' lips and was carved into my bones.

For five full years.

Five years of being led around like a blindfolded mule, the whole family holding the reins. They'd wrung me dry of every last drop of sweat and every last dollar.

All to repay the so-called "debt of a life saved."

My mother-in-law crumpled my medical report into a ball and tossed it in the trash.

"Amanda Summers! Are you so disgusted by Vincent's condition that you want to wash your hands of this family? Let me tell you something—not a chance!"

"If Vincent hadn't been paralyzed saving you, would we be living like this? Would we be scraping by in this misery?"

"Don't even think about running. You owe this family!"