Chapter 2

My fingers trembled as I carefully placed everything back in the box exactly as I'd found it.

The next second, the butler Zane came running over in a panic.

"Ethan never lets anyone touch that box. You... you didn't touch it, did you?"

His eyes darted away.

"Zane," I looked up at him, "all these years, you've watched me go through hell and high water with him."

"Can you tell me when these things were put in the box?"

Zane's shoulders slumped, his eyes filled with reluctance.

"The old invitation---that was when you helped us escape from New York to Las Vegas six years ago. Before we boarded the ship, he put it in himself."

I laughed, my throat tightening.

Six years ago, the Chase family was framed and went bankrupt overnight.

Ethan insisted on finding the mastermind and ended up being hunted.

I didn't hesitate to cut ties with my family, changed my name to Lily Lynn, got him fake documents, pulled every string I had to arrange passage on a ship to Las Vegas, and fled New York with him and Zane, desperately fighting for our lives.

On the ship, he kept his head down and said nothing, clutching that wooden box tightly to his chest, tears dripping onto it.

I thought he was grieving his mother's death and the cruel reality that had crushed him.

Heartbroken, I held him in my arms. "Ethan, don't be afraid. I'm here."

He buried his head against my chest, his arms wrapped tightly around me.

He said, "Lily, you're all I have now."

It turned out he didn't only have me.

I was just the only one left willing to suffer with him.

His tears were for his first love, Sophia Hayes, who had left him the moment she learned his family went bankrupt.

Zane looked at my pale face and sighed before continuing. "The birth certificate was placed inside six months after we arrived in Las Vegas. Ethan stayed with Sophia until after the child was born before returning to Las Vegas."

Those six months were the most miserable of my entire life.

I stayed with him in the gambling city, calculating cards day and night, winning him his first fortune for his comeback. But in doing so, we offended some dangerous people at the casino. They threatened to kill us.

We had to hide and run from constant attempts on our lives.

That's when I took a bullet for him.

It pierced through the right side of my chest, just one centimeter from my heart.

At that time, I was already carrying our first child.

But the day after I was admitted to the hospital, Zane came to tell me, "Ethan's mother's death anniversary arrived. He secretly went back to New York to pay his respects."

"Also, Ethan says you need to be careful. Things are too chaotic right now."

Then he left. That trip lasted two full months.

During those two months, I was captured by those people and tortured relentlessly. Covered in wounds, they forced me to reveal Ethan's whereabouts and where he'd hidden the money. I gritted my teeth and said nothing.

Because of the severe beatings, I lost the baby.

Now I know---he was with the woman he truly loved and their child.

I was such a fool.

Zane looked at my calm expression, his eyes reddening too.

"The asset transfer contract was signed and placed inside yesterday."

Yesterday.

I laughed until tears streamed down my face.

Yesterday he held me and said, "Lily, if things go smoothly in New York this time, I'll give you a grand wedding and make you the happiest wife."

It turned out the man I loved with my life had been lying to me all along.