Chapter 7

He thought that if he cut off my way out, I'd have no choice but to go back to him and keep being the Mrs. Shaw he could push around. He was wrong. The more he acted like this, the more determined I became to leave him.

After hanging up, I didn't cry and I didn't break down. I calmly opened my laptop and reorganized the translation I'd already finished. Then I called Professor Linden back.

"Professor, don't be mad. A man like that isn't worth your anger. If this publisher won't work, then we'll find another one. Good work doesn't stay buried forever."

Professor Linden went quiet for a long time, then let out a relieved little laugh. "Good girl. You really have grown up. Don't worry. I'll help you see this through."

With my last retreat cut off, all it did was fire up every bit of fight I had left. From that day on, I started reaching out to major publishers at home and overseas on my own, sending out my resume and sample translations again and again.

Most of them vanished into the void. A few replied, but after the first round of conversation, nothing ever came of it. I knew Andrew's shadow had to be behind it. He was using his connections and power to blacklist me across the board.

My parents watched me work late every night, getting thinner and thinner, and it broke their hearts. More than once, my mom tried to persuade me. "Lottie, maybe forget it. Don't keep fighting him. We can't beat him."

I shook my head. "Mom, this isn't about whether I can beat him or not. This is my career. My dream. If I give up now, then I'll spend the rest of my life living in his shadow."

I couldn't lose. And I couldn't afford to.

Just when I was starting to feel hopeless, an email from overseas lit a spark of hope. It was from Echo Press in Germany, written in careful, polite German.

They said they'd come across a paper I published in graduate school on the evolution of modern German literary movements, and they were deeply impressed by my insight and writing.

They had recently signed a rising new author and were preparing to launch that writer on the international market, so they urgently needed an excellent translator working between German and Chinese. They wanted to invite me to take part in an online translation test.

At the end of the email was a link to an encrypted file containing an excerpt from the novel. They gave me one week.

I held my phone and reread that email more than ten times. Every word felt like a spark, lighting up the dead wilderness inside me.

Echo Press. That had been my dream publisher since college. Almost every book they put out became a classic.

I never would've imagined that in the darkest moment of my life, opportunity would arrive this quietly. My hands were shaking when I replied, thanking them and accepting the invitation.

In that moment, the gloom hanging over me for days felt like it had been split open by a sudden beam of light. Andrew Shaw could shut down my path at home, but he couldn't stop me from walking into a bigger world.

I shared the good news with my parents, and they were even more excited than I was. With red eyes, my mom held my hand and said, "I knew it. My Lottie is the best."

My dad quietly went into the study, took out all my dust-covered books one by one, and carefully wiped them clean with a damp towel. "You've suffered enough these past years," he said. "From now on, go after whatever you want. Your mom and I are here." Seeing the new white at my parents' temples and the unconditional support in their eyes, my nose stung.