Chapter 3

I returned home soaking wet to find the lights blazing inside.

Ethan and Vivian Song were just standing there, looking at me.

As if I were the one who didn't belong.

"It's too late. Vivian's staying at our place tonight. You don't have a problem with that, do you?"

He studied me carefully, his body in a defensive posture.

After all, the old Haley Grant, the Rose of the South, would have definitely rushed over and slapped her.

But now...

I only paused for a second before agreeing casually, "Fine. She can stay as long as she wants."

Before Ethan could furrow his brow, I changed my shoes on my own and headed to the master bathroom to shower.

My stomach ached with a dull, sinking pain.

When the hot water cascaded down, it was warm, gradually washing away the coldness in my chest.

This kind of thing had happened before.

The day Vivian Song returned to the country, Ethan had already brought her home.

I stood in the living room, staring at the man at the door holding a drunk woman, my mind going blank.

"You brought another woman home?" I laughed in disbelief. "Don't you think you should avoid this kind of thing?"

He didn't even pause.

He carried her to the master bedroom and laid her on the bed. My pupils trembled.

He turned around on his own and went to the bathroom to wet a hot towel, gently wiping her face.

While doing all this, he warned me.

"Watch your words."

"Vivian is my childhood friend. She's going through family troubles right now and feeling down. Stop giving her dirty looks."

I stood in the doorway watching him bustle around, unable to describe what I was feeling.

Ethan had severe OCD.

He absolutely wouldn't allow me to come home drunk, reeking of alcohol.

Once when I lost control, he had the driver take me to a hotel to book a room. The point was, I wasn't allowed home.

But Vivian Song could break all his rules.

My thoughts snapped back as someone knocked on the bathroom door.

"Haley, let's talk after you shower." The man's magnetic voice sounded by my ear.

I knew this was already him lowering his pride.

Still, I didn't answer.

When I came out after showering, he was waiting by the door with a hairdryer in hand.

"Sit down. I'll dry it for you."

I happened to be tired. Why refuse when someone was offering to help?

"Let's just move past what happened today," his slender fingers threaded through my hair, but they felt cold, icy, "and we'll make things work."

"Mm, make things work."

Make my own life work.

Hearing that, he breathed a sigh of relief, his tense expression gradually relaxing.

"Good girl."

In the mirror, I observed those downcast eyes.

Ethan had beautiful eyes. When he wasn't smiling, they were sharp; when he smiled, they curved into crescents.

When we first met, I ran into some local thugs at a bar who insisted I go into a private room with them.

Back then, before my family's downfall, I lived like no one in the South dared to cross me, so I hadn't brought bodyguards.

That middle-aged man, emboldened by alcohol, grabbed me by the hair and slapped me hard.

"I'm doing you a favor by sleeping with you!"

Just as the door was about to close, Ethan appeared.

He kicked the man away, then looked down at me with mockery.

"You're usually so arrogant. How are you so pathetic now?"

But I wasn't angry at all. Instead, I fell for him right then.

I chased after him for years.

The hairdryer stopped, pulling me from my memories.

Looking at him again, I realized with surprise that those eyes no longer stirred anything in my heart.

"What's wrong?" Ethan frowned and inexplicably looked away, a heavy feeling settling in his chest.

"Nothing."

He was about to say something when the door was pushed open.

Vivian Song walked in as naturally as if she belonged there, tugging at the man's sleeve.

"Ethan, can you stay with me?"

"You know now that I'm back in England, you're all I have. I'm a little scared."

Ethan glanced at me, hesitating. "Maybe I shouldn't. I..."

"Go ahead."

He looked at me sharply. Time seemed to freeze for an instant.

Then he took a deep breath, as if deliberately trying to upset me.

"Fine, then I'll go stay with her!"

I turned around calmly and got into bed on my own.

That night, Ethan didn't come home.

And I passed out in my sleep, blood pooling beneath me.