Chapter 1

Hector was hunched over the laundry basket, quietly scrubbing clothes in the sink when his mother-in-law stormed in. Without a word, she tossed a pair of dirty socks onto his face, her eyes filled with contempt.

“Not only have you been washing that for the past forty minutes, but you also forgot to pick up all the dirty stuff. Who made you think that anyone here would be your slave? Trash like you should know your place and make sure this doesn’t happen again!”

Just then, his wife, Madison, walked into the laundry room and stood in front of her mother, Abigail, trying to stop her from saying anything more.

“Mom, stop!” she said, feeling terrible that Hector was being treated like that, knowing he had dignity too.

Hector glanced at them. After all, he was just the useless son-in-law of the Edmund family, one who could only do house chores.

“Don’t try to stop me!” Abigail snarled, clearly furious. “Isn’t he someone worth talking to like that?! Not only is he useless to the family, but now he’s also forgetting to do the chores properly. If only you hadn’t married a worthless man like him.”

"Mom, he's doing the chores like he should."

"Is that enough to make up for how useless he is in this house?" Abigail snapped. "I can’t wait for the day I get the chance to toss him aside. You're beautiful, Madison, and there are plenty of men out there. You deserve better than a worthless man like him."

"Mom!"

"You need to raise your standards and stop settling for garbage like him!"

Hector said nothing but reached for the socks and grabbed them. He put them in the water and continued washing them. Madison saw this, and a look of disappointment crossed her face.

Although she had never loved Hector, she hated the fact that he always took everything they did to him without standing up for himself. She had wanted to protect him because they were married, but he had always been a coward and a loser in the eyes of others.

Even her family was mocked and despised by other prominent families, and it was all his fault. Abigail hated that her beautiful daughter was married to someone like Hector when there were other men from wealthy families she could have chosen.

So, she was especially mean to him.

“He isn’t even worth my time,” Abigail stated, rubbing her temples in frustration. “We still have to deal with the company's issues.”

Hector glanced back at her, and from the look on his wife’s face, he could tell that something serious was bothering her, so he paid attention.

“Has there been any word yet?” Abigail asked.

“That’s why I came to find you,” Madison replied. “We’ve contacted every family we could during this financial crisis, but none of them responded or offered to help but the Jayden family agreed.

Abigail’s face brightened. “They agreed? Thank goodness! Here I was, thinking we had no chance.”

“However, they had a condition,” Madison added.

“What condition?” Abigail asked, willing to do whatever it took to get the support they needed.

“They said they’d only help if one of the girls from this family marries their son.”

Abigail beamed. “That’s even better! Which son? Is it the first or the second?”

Madison shook her head. “It’s the third son—Jack.”

“Jack!” Blood drained from Abigail’s face as the image of the man flashed in her mind. “You mean the fat, ugly, short one? Who would want to marry someone as hideous as him?”

“I have no idea,” Madison said. “The family meeting is starting soon. We have to go.”

Hector frowned. He could already predict the outcome of the meeting. None of the women would agree to the marriage, and the only one who could be sacrificed was Madison.

“Let’s go,” Abigail said, turning to leave.

Hector, nearly done with the laundry, walked over to Madison. “Can I join the meeting?”

Without glancing at him, she replied, “Perhaps,” and walked off.

Hector watched her leave before hurrying to finish the laundry so he could meet them before the meeting started.

At the other side of the estate, the Edmund family gathered around the large table in the family meeting room. Anxious expressions were etched on their faces as they tried to come up with a solution before the head of the family arrived.

“We all know who should marry that fat man,” one of them said.

“We absolutely cannot let her marry him.”

“Why would they suggest such a thing in the first place? Who would want to marry a man like him?”

“Tsk! If only we had a rich son-in-law instead of that trash Hector,” one of them remarked, shifting the conversation from the crisis to Hector.

Madison frowned but said nothing. There was no point in speaking yet.

One of the women chuckled. “Where is the son-in-law in question? Scrubbing the toilet floor, perhaps?”

“Probably. He’s useless and can’t help in a situation like this.”

“If only my sister had married a rich man, we wouldn’t be in this mess,” another said. “That useless trash can’t even help the family in times of need.”

Just then, Hector slipped into the meeting room, and everyone turned to look at him like an intruder. Disgust and disdain marked their faces.

“Speak of the devil, here he is.”

“He’s here for the meeting? How disturbing. What can he do when he couldn’t help before? What an idiot.”

"He's probably here just to sit and look like an idiot or entertain us by making a fool of himself. I can't wait for him to try something."

Without saying a word, Hector took a seat at the far end of the table, opposite his wife. She glanced at him briefly, shook her head, and looked away.

‘I wasn’t late after all,’ Hector sighed in relief.

“Since no one has come up with a solution,” Abigail said, “the meeting will begin now.”

At that moment, Mr. Edmund, the head of the family, walked into the room, signaling the start of the family meeting.