Cousin Stole My Husband and Compass, I Ruined Her

At the feng shui appraisal gala, Abner Henson handed our Swanson family's Sky Pool Compass to my cousin, Joyce Swanson.

He sneered at the feng shui journals I'd written back when I was chasing him, calling them nothing but love-talk I'd copied to flatter a man.

He didn't know that his company, worth millions, stood only because of the Triple Wealth Convergence Array I'd laid with my own hands.

Three years ago, when the construction site collapsed, he walked away untouched because of a warding talisman I nearly died drawing to save him.

He was alive today only because I'd used my own innate fortune to carry him through three death-fates.

And today, he pushed me — the woman who had shouldered every calamity for him — straight into the lethal dark-force array my cousin had long since laid.

1

"Wanda Swanson, do you think I've run into something evil lately?"

Abner said, frowning. "The West Side project fell through, the scaffolding at the East Side site collapsed and hurt someone, and even a client I've worked with for two years just went and signed with someone else."

"There's no living like this!"

I said gently, "The northwest corner of the site had the ground disturbed last month, and it clashes straight with this year's seat of the year-god."

"If you'd trust me, have someone set three bluestones in the northwest corner today, and then—"

Before I could finish, he cut in, impatient. "Enough, enough. Spare me your crooked nonsense."

"Joyce already read it for me. It's your birth chart, carrying dark forces, cursing my fortune."

"She said your fate is skewed toward the shadow. Stay by my side too long and you block my path to wealth."

I stared at him, unable to believe it. "You really believe her that much?"

He looked at me with distaste and gave a cold laugh. "If not her, then who? You?"

"What do you know about feng shui?"

"Joyce is the genius heir of your Swanson collateral branch. Half the bosses in the business fawn over her."

"And you? Three years married, and what can you do besides the laundry and the cooking?"

"Tomorrow you go back to the old estate in the country for two months. Once I've gotten past this rough patch, we'll talk. Don't sit at home making things worse for me."

I lowered my head. "I'm not going."

Abner shot me a hard glare. "You dare talk back?"

"What, my word doesn't count anymore?"

"If you weren't so obedient and sensible, do you think I'd have married you in the first place?"

I looked at his furious face and suddenly found it laughable.

I am the thirty-seventh-generation orthodox heir of the Swanson family. Before Grandfather passed, he held my hand and told me a girl who shows too much brilliance draws misfortune. He wanted me to soften my nature, find someone true, and live out a quiet, steady life.

Later I met Abner, and I took him for the man fate had meant for me.

To marry him, I sealed away seventy percent of my spiritual power, hid the headmaster jade pendant, and never once spoke of feng shui to anyone.

I kept his life running smoothly, quietly setting a wealth-drawing fish tank in the entryway, adjusting the scholar's seat in the study, changing the direction of the headboard in the master bedroom, laying a Triple Wealth Convergence Array without a sound.

From a clerk making eight thousand a month to running his own company and making real money, it took him only three years.

He thought it was his own brilliance, that he was a rare genius.

He never knew that every smooth stretch of that road was me, clearing the way and warding off the disasters.

The doorbell rang, breaking my thoughts.

Abner got up to answer it, his voice going gentle at the door. "Joyce? What brings you here?"

Joyce came in, sweet and simpering. "Abner, I came to check on you!"

"I heard your company's been struggling lately, so I brought you a wealth-attracting talisman I drew myself. Stick it up in your office and it'll do the trick, I promise."

Then she saw me and put on a look of surprise. "You're home too, cousin!"

"So sorry, I didn't call ahead. You're not upset, are you?"

I gave a flat murmur in reply and kept my head down, eating my porridge.

But she wouldn't let it go. She lifted her wrist to show off a diamond bracelet, smiling brightly. "Cousin, don't you think this bracelet's pretty?"

"Abner bought it for me yesterday. Said reading feng shui for him was hard work, so it was a little reward."

That diamond bracelet was the exact style I'd had my eye on last month, out shopping. Abner had said it was too expensive and hadn't wanted to buy it.

I never imagined he'd turn around and buy that same bracelet for Joyce.

Seeing I wouldn't react, Joyce pressed on. "Abner says I bring him luck. Not like you, cousin, sitting at home all day, no help to him at all."

"Speaking of it, you must be bored stiff at home. How about I teach you to read a compass? We could start with the basics, the celestial stems and earthly branches."

Abner beamed at her coaxing. "My cousin here is all thumbs. She'd never learn any of that."

I couldn't quite hold it in anymore. I turned to Joyce. "I hear you set a bronze kirin in the southeast corner of Abner's office?"

"A bronze kirin belongs to fire. The southeast corner of his office is the wealth seat, and it belongs to metal. Fire overcomes metal."

"Three days after you put it in, he lost his first project."

"A few more days, and it'll cost a life."

Joyce got flustered at once. "That's a wealth-drawing kirin. How could it possibly cause harm?"

"Abner, don't listen to her. She's just jealous that I understand these things!"

Abner shielded her instantly, glaring at me, his whole face displeased. "Wanda, are you done yet?"

"Joyce is trying to help me out of kindness, and here you are cursing me. You just can't stand to see me do well!"

I watched him standing guard over someone else, and the last bit of hope in me was gone.

I touched my belly. I had meant to give the child inside me a whole family.

Now, there was no point.

I stood and went toward my room. Behind me came Joyce's coaxing voice. "Abner, don't be angry with your cousin. She's just pregnant, her moods swing a lot."

"Let's leave her be. Come, tell me about the gala."

Abner said, gentle again. "Don't worry, I've got it all arranged."

"When the time comes, I'll bring out the Sky Pool Compass as your centerpiece. It'll make your name in the business in one stroke, I guarantee it."

The Sky Pool Compass. That was the headmaster's token Grandfather passed down to me, the sacred heirloom of the Swanson family.

I'd kept it locked in the safe in the bedroom the whole time. I never thought he'd secretly opened my safe.

My fists clenched, my teeth set hard.

Three years of giving, and it turned out that in his eyes, I wasn't even worth as much as a collateral-branch cousin who'd stolen her way into the craft.