Chapter 3

I worked from a corner of a farmers' market.

I was just starting to think about renting a proper room and settling in when Vivienne found me.

"Come on," she said softly. "Come home with me."

When I refused, she turned to the vendors and shoppers around us, appealing to them for help.

"Please ！ talk some sense into him."

"I genuinely want to marry him. I want to spend my life taking care of him."

Everyone in the market had already noticed the Rolls-Royce she'd arrived in.

They pressed in from all sides. "You've got a beautiful, wealthy woman like this wanting you ！ and you're still out here as a labor?"

"She's not bothered by your face, she's not bothered by the missing fingers or the legs ！ what are you throwing a tantrum about?"

"Stop being difficult. Go home with her!"

I was furious, but I refused to show it.

I made an excuse ！ said I needed to say goodbye to my former cellmate ！ and slipped away under his cover.

This time I traveled for five days before reaching a small city two thousand miles south.

With missing fingers and no legs, it took genuine effort to land even a menial job at a butcher stall.

But I didn't have time to feel relieved.

Vivienne found me again.

"Ethan, you can't run from me forever!"

The butcher, dripping with sarcasm, chimed in: "You've got a woman that rich willing to marry you and look after you ！ what are you doing out here punishing yourself? Go live the good life!"

I looked at Vivienne with contempt.

"Good life?"

The exhaustion of days of running and the hatred coiled deep inside me finally overwhelmed my self-control.

"Vivienne ！ why won't you leave me alone?"

"You've already turned me into something less than human. Can't you at least let me go?"

Vivienne's face fell, her eyes genuinely confused.

"Marrying you is what you need most right now. And it's a promise I made to you. I'm trying to help you."

I laughed bitterly. "Help me? The way you helped me lose my fingers, my legs, and five years of my life?"

"It was Connor who got tangled up with that lunatic woman. But you killed our child, manipulated the surgery so I'd end up with his face, shipped me off to her ！ and she hacked off my fingers, dismembered my legs. I served five years in prison for the two of you."

"Did you sleep well, these five years? Any nightmares?"

Vivienne sighed, her face drawn with what looked like genuine pain.

"What's done is done. Tearing it all open again won't fix anything."

"I told you ！ I'll marry you."

I looked at her coldly. "And what does that make Connor? What does that make your son?"

Something flickered ！ guilt ！ in her eyes. "What happened with Connor and the boy was an accident."

"As for Connor, I'll compensate him another way."

Looking at the certainty in her expression, I asked, in a voice like ice: "Your way of compensating ！ is it me on odd days, him on even days?"

The guilt in her eyes confirmed it. I'd guessed right.

Revulsion rose in my throat. "Vivienne ！ keep dreaming."

Vivienne's patience finally ran out. Her voice cracked like a whip.

"Ethan Grayson, a marriage certificate is the greatest dignity I can offer you."

"I don't want your dignity," I said flatly. "Give it to him."

"I just want the two of you as far from me as possible."

I moved to leave. Vivienne's warning came from behind me.

"Ethan ！ keep pushing me, and your old cellmates may find their peaceful lives coming to a rather abrupt end."

I stopped.

I turned back, jaw set. "Vivienne ！ you make me physically sick."