Jason Weiser

Your wife is a demon in human form.

Chu broke into tears again.

How?

How was that possible?

She was so sweet, so kind.

She needs to last only another 15 days as your wife.

If she can manage that, then she'll have no more need for her deception, the father's voice said.

There's no other way?

Chew wiped his nose.

There's not, the father replied.

She has to die.

Miss Thousandfeet watched the form of the man in anguish over his wife.

The millipede had come out from under the rock to get a break from the talks of marriage, but here was a man in nearly as much anguish as she was.

She loved Longbody.

He understood her in a way that no one ever did.

Her family did not love him.

They gave their approval, of course.

On paper, Longbody was a good match.

A hard worker, he brought himself up from nothing, and he was wealthy, but he was also covered in dirt.

Miss Thousandfeet couldn't help but hear the sneers of her sisters, that she was going to be a seamstress to a worm, that he didn't understand their world, and he wouldn't be able to take care of her in the way she deserved, that he was using her as a stepping stone, and that she would be trod on and disregarded, like the dirt in which they would both live.