The process went smoothly.
Brandon’s page was removed from the family registry.
Just like that, he became a dead man in the eyes of the law.
I also quietly had the old post reported and taken down. There was no reason to leave a trail lying around where it might become useful to him later.
Maybe happiness really did bring luck, because around that same time I got promoted again.
The woman who used to stretch grocery money and ask permission before spending on herself had become the kind of white-collar professional other people envied.
Then Brandon disappeared for a fourth year.
By then, my in-laws had started worrying about my future.
I had assumed I would stay single at least until they were much older. But they were more anxious than I was. They kept saying they were afraid that if something happened to them, there would be no man in the house to protect me and Lily, and that we’d be easy targets.
Using their network, they carefully screened several men and introduced me to them one by one.
I didn’t want to waste their good intentions, so I took it seriously.
After thinking it through, I chose Daniel.
Part of the reason was practical. He worked for the Board of Education, and he owned a good school-district condo on the west side of the city. Lily would be in middle school before long, and the best school was there.
But there was another reason too.
Daniel agreed to my condition.
If we ever married, my in-laws would come with me.
Brandon might have been worthless, but his parents were family now in every way that mattered. I wasn’t going to abandon them.
By the sixth year after Brandon vanished, a new urban development plan changed everything. Our old neighborhood was scheduled for demolition and redevelopment. In addition to the compensation money, the family was awarded two apartments.
My in-laws made the decision themselves.
One for me.
One for Lily.
That same Spring Festival, Daniel and I got engaged. His family transferred the school-district condo into my name as an engagement gift. After the holiday, the old house came down, and I moved with my in-laws into the west-side apartment so Lily could prepare for middle school.
My mother-in-law’s cheerful personality made her popular in the new community within days. My father-in-law’s gentle, educated way of speaking made people like him instantly. Daniel moved in too. He treated Lily like she was his own daughter and treated my in-laws like his own parents.
Bit by bit, we built a real family.
Not a patched one.
A real one.
The role that had once been missing in the house, Daniel filled naturally—without performance, without resentment, without being asked twice.
After both families talked it over, our wedding date was set for June.
And then, on the day before the wedding, Brandon came back from the dead.
Daniel and I were at the hotel for the rehearsal. My in-laws had brought Lily and were sitting in the guest seats watching with delighted expressions.
Then the ballroom doors slammed open.
A man who looked like he’d crawled out of a gutter stormed inside.
His hair was wild. His clothes were filthy. His face was gaunt and sunken. There was a crazed look in his eyes, and he came straight at me muttering under his breath.
Before he could get close, Daniel stepped forward and drove one hard kick into his stomach.
The man flew backward.
Hotel security rushed in and pinned him down. As they dragged him up, he started thrashing and screaming.
“Let go of me! Emma, you bitch, how dare you cheat on me? Mom! Dad! It’s me! I’m Brandon! I’m back!”
I walked closer and looked through the mess of hair hanging in his face.
And there he was.
Brandon.
Older, filthier, wrecked by life, but unmistakable.
I took two disgusted steps back.
“Aren’t you dead?” I asked coldly.
His face twisted.
“You’re the one who should be dead! You vicious woman! While I was gone, you stole my family’s property and found another man!”
He didn’t even get to finish before a sharp crack cut him off.
My mother-in-law had crossed the room without me noticing and slapped him so hard his head snapped sideways.
He stared at her, stunned.
“Mom—”
Smack.
She hit him again.
“My son is dead,” she said through clenched teeth. “Who are you pretending to be?”
This time, the response came not from her hand but from my father-in-law’s steel cane.
He swung it into the back of Brandon’s legs, and Brandon dropped to his knees so hard the sound made my teeth hurt.
“You’re not dead?” my father-in-law barked. “Then where were you when I was dying in a hospital bed? Where were you when your mother called again and again? Where were you when you lied to Emma, stole the family’s money, and ran away with another woman?”
Each question made Brandon’s face lose more color.
He had no answer.
My father-in-law cursed him until Brandon’s head hung lower and lower, then struck him once more across the back with the cane.
“Get out,” he spat. “Don’t you dare ruin Emma’s happiness.”
Brandon looked up, eyes wide with disbelief.
“Mom, Dad,” he said desperately, “I’m your son. She’s the outsider. She’s not blood. You’re throwing me away for her?”
My mother-in-law laughed once, bitter and sharp.
“If we had to rely on you in old age,” she said, “your father and I might as well jump into a river.”
Security dragged him out while he kept shouting that I was a liar, that he’d call the police, that he’d expose me.
I folded my arms and watched him go.
I wasn’t afraid.
Not even a little.