A Life for $900—My Husband’s Choice

During Labor Day weekend, my father-in-law was bitten by a venomous snake while hiking. The only vial of antivenom was used by a townsfolk to save a dog.

Soon after, my father-in-law died from the venom, his face contorted in agony.

I rushed to the villager’s house, only to find a whole pit of snakes being artificially bred, along with bags meant for “release into the wild.”

I was so furious I gritted my teeth, called the police on the spot, and swore to seek justice for my father-in-law.

But the next day, Ryan Carter asked me to meet him at the villager’s house and threw a document straight at my face.

“Emily Carter, your dad was bitten by accident. Why are you blaming someone else? Grace just graduated from college and has a bright future ahead of her. How can you be so cruel as to make her pay with her whole life for a dead man?”

“Sign this agreement, and she’ll give you nine hundred dollars as compensation for your dad.”

“Otherwise, you won’t get a single penny!”

I refused to sign.

Later, Ryan kept his word—he didn’t let me receive a cent.

But then he knelt on the steps outside the police station, slapping his own face until it was swollen and bloody, begging them to reopen the investigation.

“What did you just say?”

“Nine hundred? Compensation?”

I never expected Ryan to say something like this.

The man who died was his own father!

“What, you think it’s too little?”

Ryan’s face was cold as ice.

“Grace is just a low-level town official. Nine hundred dollars is her entire week’s salary—and she offered it to you out of pity.”

“Nine hundred dollars is exactly what a vial of antivenom costs. Your dad didn’t use it while he was alive—buying it now is just… some kind of comfort.”

My whole body shook with anger as I shouted at him:

“My dad died a horrible death! And as his son, this is how you honor him?”

Ryan seemed to be holding himself back, speaking with forced calm:

“Emily, I know your dad raised you alone. I understand that you’re grieving.”

“But I just want him to be laid to rest. Isn’t that me helping you be filial?”

Helping me be filial?

So after everything that happened, he hadn’t even checked on the family.

For days, we couldn’t find him—

turns out, he was here, protecting Grace.

That agreement must have been his plan all along.

Looking at his exhausted face, I asked coldly:

“Ryan, have you lost your mind? You don’t even know the whole situation, and you’re negotiating on behalf of the murderer?”

“What exactly is your relationship with her?”

At my question, Grace’s eyes welled up with tears, and she whispered timidly:

“What murderer? How can you say that about me…”

Ryan raised his voice, shouting at me:

“Emily! Don’t you dare use that word to insult Grace!”

He stood up, his eyes full of accusation as he glared at me:

“You’re the one who doesn’t understand the situation. Do you think just because there’s a dead man, the police will believe only your side of the story?”

“You probably don’t even know—Grace has a license to breed snakes. Even if the police investigate, they won’t find anything wrong!”

No wonder, when the snakes were discovered, Grace had looked so calm, so detached.

But I never said I called the police because she was raising snakes.

No—

I suspected that my father-in-law’s death wasn’t an accident at all.

Thinking of his eyes, wide open even in death, my heart twisted painfully.

My mother-in-law fainted several times from grief.

When she couldn’t find Ryan, she clutched my hands and begged me again and again:

“Tell Ryan—if his father’s death wasn’t an accident, we have to make the killer pay with their life!”