1: 1

Anne James and I had finally reached the end of an eight-year courtship, and we were about to hold our engagement ceremony.

What I never expected was that on the day itself, when my parents and I arrived early at the hotel private room Anne's mother had booked, the room had been done up to look like a memorial shrine.

Instead of the red, celebratory setup it should have been, the room was crowded with funeral wreaths, and long strips of white cloth and black gauze hung from the ceiling, drifting faintly in the draft from the hotel's air conditioning. The whole thing looked genuinely eerie.

On the altar table facing the door sat a black-and-white photo of Anne's father. The middle-aged man in it, with features so much like Anne's own, gazed out at us with a sorrowful face.

My parents and I just stood there, stunned.

...

Anne and I had been high school classmates, and we tested into the same college. I'd had a crush on her back in high school, and in college I pursued her hard, until finally, in our sophomore year, she became my girlfriend.

Now I'd just finished my master's degree and landed a spot at a solid large corporation here in town, and Anne's job had settled down too, so we'd finally put the wedding on the agenda.

I never imagined that the moment we simply started the engagement, Anne's mother would greet us with a show of force.

Anne's father had died when she was very young, and her mother, Sophie Finch, had raised her by selling breakfast food. Back in high school, there were always clueless kids who mocked Anne for smelling like breakfast sandwiches.

So in my memory Anne was always insecure about herself, and over the years I'd been understanding about how hard things had been for her, careful with her sensitive feelings.

That was why, when Sophie insisted on setting the engagement banquet on the fourth day of the fourth lunar month, even though I thought the date was unlucky, I still agreed, and even helped talk my parents around when they found it distasteful.

I'd even sent her three thousand dollars when she insisted on booking the hotel and arranging the banquet herself.

But it never crossed my mind that Sophie would set up the engagement banquet to look like a memorial shrine.

My mother reacted first, glaring furiously at Sophie. "In-law, today is the big happy day my Bill Whitney and Annie get engaged. What is all this stuff you've filled the room with?"

Sophie ignored my mother entirely and came over, all smiles, to pull me by the arm.

"Bill, you're here. Come on, quick, kneel and bow to Annie's father, light three sticks of incense. Once he knows Annie's getting married, he can rest in peace."

Then she looked at my parents. "In-law father, in-law mother, don't just stand around. After Bill finishes his bows, it'll be your turn too."

The whole thing left me completely stunned.

My mother was about to explode on the spot, but my father, his face gone dark, held her back.

I wanted to blow up too, honestly. Setting up the engagement banquet like a memorial shrine was already absurd. Fine, make me, the son-in-law, kneel and burn incense for my father-in-law. But why drag my parents into it?

Seeing that I hadn't moved, Anne came over and tugged at my clothes. "Bill, what are you standing there for? Hurry up and bow to Dad, he's still watching."

"Why?" I heard how dry my own voice sounded.

"Why what?" Anne asked me.

"I'm going to marry you, and paying respects to your father is only right. But why does it have to be at our engagement banquet, and why is the banquet set up like this?"

I looked straight into Anne's eyes as I asked.

Anne's gaze flickered toward Sophie, and Sophie straightened her back with total conviction. "You're about to marry our Annie. How can you even ask a question like that?"

"After the engagement, we're all one family, so of course you kneel and bow to her father. If you won't, then don't expect to marry our Annie."

I gritted my teeth and was about to speak when Anne quietly tugged at my clothes again, looking at me with those pitiful eyes.

Looking at her like that, my heart softened all over again.

"I truly want to marry Annie. I can even let go of the fact that you've set up our engagement banquet like a memorial shrine, and I'll go along with paying respects to my father-in-law. But why—" I turned to look at my parents. "Why make my parents kneel and bow to him too?"

Sophie curled her lip and didn't bother answering me. She just reached under the altar table and pulled out three white cushions, slapping them down onto the floor one after another, lining them up in a neat row.

Then she grabbed three sticks of incense off the altar, stuffed them into my hands, and jerked her chin at my parents. "In-law, in-law mother, don't just stand there. The guru said that as long as we kneel and burn incense for my old Joshua James today, both our families are guaranteed smooth sailing from here on."

With that, she pressed her palms together and murmured to the portrait of Anne's father. "Old Joshua, I know it hasn't been easy for you down there all these years. Once your in-laws kneel and burn incense for you, your merit will be complete. You have to bless our Annie with a lifetime of wealth and fortune."

In the second year of my master's, Anne had once told me Sophie seemed to have joined some kind of organization that said if you worshipped devoutly, you wouldn't suffer in the next life.

I was a little worried at the time, but I was buried in coursework, so I just told Anne to keep an eye on Sophie and make sure she didn't get swindled out of her money.

Now, though, it was clear the brainwashing was more frightening than being swindled.

Watching Sophie rambling in her trance, I turned to look at Anne, who stood there at a total loss. "Annie, do you honestly think my whole family should kneel and bow to your father?"

2: 2

A confused look crossed Anne's face.

"Bill, there's nothing I can do. Maybe... maybe you should just listen to my mom..." She looked at me, her eyes swimming with tears, the same way she'd looked at me the countless times before when she'd pushed me to give in.

But this time, I didn't want to give in.

"Annie." My voice came out dry. "You're always like this. There's nothing you can do. But just because you can't do anything, does that mean you have to put my whole family in this position?"

My mother let out a scornful little laugh at that and started to say something, but my father held her back.

The truth was, my mother had never much liked Anne. It wasn't that she looked down on her for coming from a single-parent home. It was that Anne was always so soft and helpless, with no mind of her own, and my mother worried I'd have a hard life because of it.

I'd spent a long time talking my mother around before she reluctantly agreed to Anne and me.

"Bill, I'll support any decision you make. But marriage isn't just about two people. It's about two families." When she saw I was set on marrying Anne, my mother asked me, "If someday you and Sophie have a falling-out, and Anne takes her mother's side, what will you do then?"

What had I said back then?

I couldn't remember.

But now, here I was, caught in exactly that kind of impossible spot.

Anne was still pressing me. "Just do what my mom says. Our relatives and friends are almost here. If they see all this, won't it make things awful for me and my mom?"

She was right. My parents had told the relatives too. My aunt had just texted to say she was already on her way.

Seeing me hesitate, Sophie raised her voice at me. "Hurry up and bow! The guru said it won't work once noon passes! If your family doesn't kneel and bow today, you'll have three years of bloody disaster, and our Annie will suffer right along with you!"

Talk like that, on a day meant to be happy. My mother's face went dark, and she couldn't hold it in any longer. "Are you cursing us, in-law? What bloody disaster? On a good day like this, you come out with talk like that!"

My father frowned too, his voice low. "You're Anne's mother, so we didn't want to say anything harsh. But this is going too far. Their engagement is a happy occasion. What's the meaning of carrying on like this?"

Sophie rolled her eyes the moment she heard it, planted both hands on her hips, and started yelling right at my parents. "What do you two know? I'm doing this for Anne and Bill's sake! Why can't you understand that?"

The more she talked, the more worked up she got, until spit was practically flying onto my father's face.

If they wanted to make things hard for me, I could take it. I'm a man, after all.

But making things hard for my parents crossed a line I wouldn't allow.

Because whether it was my parents or Anne, they were the people who mattered most to me.

I looked down at Anne. "Do you think this too?"

She took my hand. "Bill, just bow to my dad, and then we can get engaged nice and smoothly, all right?"

"Annie, you know as well as I do that this puts us in an impossible position." I pulled my hand out of hers and took out my phone. "I'm calling the relatives right now. The engagement is off."

3: 3

"Bill, what are you doing? You—you're not going through with the engagement?" Anne's voice came from behind me, shaking, thick with tears.

But I'd already made up my mind.

"You're the one who doesn't want the engagement." I turned and took my parents' hands. "Dad, Mom, I had the hotel hold a room next door. Today we'll just take the relatives out for a meal."

My mom nodded and shot Sophie a hard look. "Fine by me. In-laws who put us through this? Better off without them."

"My son has bent over backwards for the two of you for eight years. Eight years, isn't that enough? And now you want our whole family to kneel down and bow our heads? I'm telling you, not a chance!"

My dad clapped a hand on my shoulder. He said nothing, but there was approval in his eyes.

He'd never said a word about my marriage, but I knew he'd been on my mom's side all along.

But the second we turned to go, Sophie threw herself at me.

"Bill! What is this supposed to mean?!" She grabbed my arm, her grip shockingly strong, nails digging into my flesh. "You dated my Annie for eight years, and now you just call it off, just like that?"

She yanked me hard enough that I stumbled, a sharp sting shooting up my right arm. Three raw scratches already ran across it.

I tried to wrench free, but she held on tight. All I could do was lower my voice. "Sophie, let go."

"I won't!" She didn't loosen her grip. If anything, she clamped down harder. "If you dare walk out that door today, I'll take Annie to hang myself outside your workplace! I'll let the whole world know that Bill Whitney is an animal who used a woman and threw her away! I'll let your boss see exactly what kind of man you are!"

Then she dropped onto the floor, staring up at the portrait of Anne's father, slapping her thigh and wailing like her heart was being torn out. "Oh, Joshua! Open your eyes and look! Your daughter's been trampled on! This heartless piece of trash slept with your girl for eight years, and now he won't even bow his head to you, now he won't even go through with the marriage!"

"People like this will get what's coming to them! You have to stand up for your daughter!"

Ten-thirty came, and the hotel officially opened for the day and cranked up the air conditioning. The drapes billowed, the paper flowers on the funeral wreaths rustled and clattered, and layered over Sophie's howling and Anne's quiet sobbing, the whole thing made your skin crawl.

My mom hunched her shoulders, shook off my dad's hand, and charged forward to slap Sophie across the face. "Have you lost your mind? If you weren't pulling this circus, why on earth would we call off the engagement?"

"Pulling this garbage on a day like this, aren't you afraid of the bad luck it brings!"

The slap left Sophie stunned. It took her a long moment to snap out of it, and then she came clawing back at us. I quickly pushed my mom behind me.

Sophie's nails raked my arm again, leaving a few more cuts that burned like fire.