Chapter 1

"Chris!!"

 Chris who was washing the dirty dishes in the kitchen heard an angry yell from behind him.

 Looking back, he saw his wife standing akimbo at the enterance of the kitchen.

 "H-honey?"

 "Don't honey me" Cindy snorted.

 "How can you still be washing the dishes by this time? For pete sake it's been more than twenty minutes. Isn't that enough to deal with all the dirty dishes?"

 Chris twisted his fingers as he glanced at the huge heap of dirty dishes. Cindy's family ran a resturant that had an average customer rate of five hundred.

 Their plates numbered more than a thousand, and he was the human dish washer.

 Twenty minutes? he wouldn't even be done washing these plates in an hour.

 "I.. give me one hour. I promise to try my best" Chris clenched his pale fingers that were starting to hurt.

 "You better" Cindy slammed a debit card on Chris chest.

 "After you are done washing, go shop groceries alright? i will send you the items through text" saying this, Cindy grabbed some of the clean plates and left.

Chris sighed, resuming his washing.

 You might be wondering why a man like him would act like a lady simp. Truthfully, he felt like he owed Cindy's family alot.

 They were the ones who fed and clothed him right from age one. Although he always got bullied by the other family members, Cindy's grandfather who was the family patriach was an exception.

 He always doted on him, but sadly passed on when he was twelve. But on Cindy' grand father's will, he wished that Chris and Cindy get married.

 Although Cindy felt repulsed marrying a trash like Chris and tarnishing her reputation, she couldn't go against her father's last wish.

 However, their marriage was a loveless one. Cindy got into the marriage because she was forced to, and Chris got into the marriage because he wanted to pay back Cindy's late grandfather for his goodwill.

 Chris finally finished washing after a couple hours. He shoved the debit card into his pants pocket and checked on his java phone.

Truly, he saw an SMS with a list of foodstuffs to buy.

 Walking out from the kitchen of the resturant through the backdoor, he saw Cindy's younger sister Felicia.

 She was taking a selfie pic with an expensive Iphone.

 Felicia noticed Chris and walked over towards him.

 "Hey. Have you thought of my proposal?" she bit her lower lips seductively.

 "What proposal?"

 "Silly guy. What i told you last week" Felicia giggled.

 Chris finally remembered. Apparently last week, Felicia tried seducing him to cheat on Cindy with her. She even promised to pay him up some cash anytime he did.

 But Chris was a man of principles. He naturally declined. But it would seem like Felicia was quite the stubborn type.

 "What do you say? Everybody in the family knows that Cindy is still a virgin. Hehehe. Depriving her husband of pleasure. Who does that?" Felicia chuckled.

 "However, i am going to give you what my sister never did.. pleasure.. bliss" she groppled her boobs at Chris face.

"Alright, stop it. You are a lady so have some decency" Chris shoved Felicia away.

 He wasn't going to be swayed by these paltry temptations.

 "What is your problem huh? i am trying to give you my body on a platter of gold. Why are you not accepting my advances huh? or are you gay?"

 Chris ignored Felicia, walking past her. He exited the resturant premises and began walking towards the closest grocery store.

 After a few minutes of shopping, he paid and exited the grocery store.

 On his way, seven boys suddenly surrounded him. Judging by their mode of dressing, Curtis deduced they were a bunch of street ruffians.

 "Hey. Are you Tyler's relative?" the leader of the ruffians, a guy with a tiger tatoo wearing tank top and shorts snorted with folded arms.

 Chris became wary. Tyler was Cindy's younger brother, plus he was a naughty trouble-maker.

 "Why? did he do anything wrong?" Chris asked.

 "Do anything wrong? that bastard lost a bet but refuses to pay up" the Ruffians leader snickered.

Chris face sank. He could sense the looming danger.

 "But.. how does that have to do with me?"

 "Hmph. You still don't get it?" the leader grabbed Curtis by the neck.

 "He's your relative. So you gat to pay up for him!"

* * *

CINDY'S MUNCHES RESTURANT..

 Cindy paced around in the kitchen, taking glances at her wristwatch.

 What in the hell was taking this guy so long huh? her stock just ran dry and she had alot of customers waiting to be cartered for.

 At that moment, her phone suddenly rang. It was from an unknown number.

 "Hello" she picked up the call.

 "Are you Mrs. Cindy Cortez" a dignified male voice sounded from the other end.

 "Yes i am. Is there a problem?"

 "Your husband Chris has just been admitted into Wellington hospital"

 "Whaat?"

* * *

WELLINGTON HOSPITAL..

 Cindy dashed into the reception area. Just as she was about to approach the receptionist, a hand tapped her shoulder from behind.

 Looking behind her, she saw a middle aged man wearing specs and a lab coat.

"Are you perhaps Mrs. Cindy?" Dr. Connors smiled.

 "Yes. Are you the doctor? where did you admit my husband? what happened to him? can i see him?" Cindy threw multiple questions in one breath.

 "Calm down madam. Let's talk as we walk" Dr. Connor beckoned as he began to walk down the hallway.

 Cindy ran after him, trying to keep up.

 "Actually, your husband was brought in here by some good samaritans" Dr. Connor began to explain.

 "Good samaritan?" Cindy caught an underlying meaning.

 "Yes. They explained that they saw him in the middle of the street, unconscious and battered"

 "I did a quick scan on him. Some broken bones and flesh injuries. No harm in his life. But i just wanted a family member to be aware"

 "When would he be back on his feets?" Cindy asked.

 "Next week"

 Cindy nodded. They finally arrived at the door leading to a ward.

 "He's inside" Dr. Connor whispered.

 Heaving a deep breath, Cindy pushed open the door and walked in.

 The strong smell of medecine permeating the air almost got her dizzy

Then she saw Chris, lying on a sick bed.

 He was currently bandaged like a mummy, with a drip connected to his wrist.

 Tears welled up in Cindy's eyes. She would be lying if she claimed she wasn't feeling anything.

 Years living with this man under the same roof caused her to develop feelings for him.

 However, she tried her best to conceal these emotions. Chris wasn't worth these feelings. He was just a good-for-nothing trash.

 Unworthy of her love.

 "His condition was this severe?" she shot a questioning look at the doctor who bent his head in shame.

 "Actually madam, it's much worse than you think it is"

 "Your husband might not be able to use his legs again in the future"

 "A cripple?" Cindy's heart clenched.

 "If that's how you put it, yes"

 "Isn't there a way to fix it?" Cindy sounded hopeful.

 Curtis was a trash with his limbs intact. A crippled version of him? how worst would it be?

 "Madam. It would only take a miracle. His chances of scaling this tribulation is less than ten"

Meanwhile unbeknowest to anyone, Chris was caught up in a strange delimma.

 He was currently in a waste land that looked like a desert. The wind kept howling, causing the dry sand to thrash about.

 Chris did his best to shield his eyes as he remained motionless. Somehow, the gravity here was so strong that moving his limbs was so difficult.

 Suddenly, an object burst out of the sand. The wind stopped and the mad sands went back to nomalacy.

 Chris squinted his eyes to get a better view of the object.

 It was the ebelm of a silver Owl, with glowing red eyes. Strangely, he couldn't even identify the kind of metal it was made of.

 At that moment, the strange object shot towards him. Chris couldn't even react because the object moved at an insane breakneck speed that couldn't be tracked with the human eyes.

 "Arrrgh!!" he let out a pained scream because the strange object shot directly into his chest, burrowing a deep hole into his chest.