Chapter 2

2

"Alaric, do you think Serafina is hiding because she doesn't want to save me?" Rosalind asked, her eyes welling with fake tears.

Alaric reached out and tenderly smoothed her hair.

"Don't be silly. It's just a little leukemia. Even if she won't do it, I'll search the whole country to find you a match."

Rosalind pouted. "But the doctors said her marrow was perfect. They said they'd never seen such a high match rate between two unrelated people."

Alaric glared at the locked door. His voice was a vow. "Then I'll tear this world apart until I find her for you."

At that moment, my heart felt a sharp, phantom pain.

Looking at them, memories of the past flooded back.

Alaric and I were college sweethearts. Back then, he was like sunlight breaking through the morning mist―warm and bright.

I was the one who fell first.

We stayed together after graduation. I thought he was my everything.

I worked alongside him, building his company from the ground up. We shared every hardship.

He promised to take care of me forever.

In the beginning, he meant it.

But reality has a way of crushing dreams.

During the early days of the business, I was the one handling the clients.

That's how I met Dominic Hearst, the heir to the Hearst Empire.

Dominic was a spoiled playboy who only worked to amuse himself.

From the moment he saw me, he hovered like a fly. He constantly tried to touch me during business dinners.

One night, Dominic got drunk and tried to force me into his lap. Alaric didn't hesitate. He smashed a glass bottle over Dominic's head.

That single act cost us everything.

We lost the Hearst contracts and had to empty our savings to keep Alaric out of prison.

But the true cost was much higher.

That night, Alaric held me and apologized. He promised that once he made it, he'd never let anyone hurt me again.

He kept half that promise. Once he was successful, no one else hurt me.

He took over that job himself.

I tried to push the memories away.

I looked at his cold, heartless face. It had been years, but he looked more miserable than I remembered.

The humid summer wind messed up his hair, highlighting the deep furrow in his brow.

He looked burdened.

He kept Rosalind close, his eyes fixed on the weeds that had grown waist-high around my porch.

The year I "betrayed" Alaric was our second year of marriage.

I was one month pregnant. Neither of us knew it yet.

His business was finally taking off. He had investors lined up.

Then, everything collapsed. Investors pulled out. The bank called in his loans.

His properties, his cars, and his factory were all headed for the auction block.

Alaric couldn't eat. He couldn't sleep.

To make it worse, his mother was diagnosed with cancer that same year. The medical bills were astronomical.

I used every connection I had to find out what was happening. It turned out Dominic Hearst was the one pulling the strings.

He was finally getting his revenge for that bottle to the head.

Dominic came to me with a deal.

He said he could make the Hearst Group invest in Alaric's company. He said he'd pay for the mother's treatment.

I knew there was a catch.

The devil doesn't do charity. He wanted something more valuable than money.

I asked him why he was doing this.

Dominic looked at me with pure disdain. "Because I can. I love watching you ants squirm while you realize you're powerless."

"And I still haven't forgiven your husband for making me bleed. Now, he's going to pay."