Chapter 3

I thought I would be hurt again by her sarcasm, but at that moment, I felt strangely calm.

Watching her run up the stairs, I spoke in Lapine.

"Okay, I'll leave."

As soon as the words left my mouth, she suddenly turned around. Her face froze as if she had seen a ghost.

In a panic, she quickly opened her smartwatch and typed a message to her mom in Lapine.

[Mom, Mom, something's wrong. He understands Lapine.]

Within seconds, a voice message came.

It was Dylan's voice, clearly filled with disdain. "Sydney, what nonsense are you talking about? Your dad's family went bankrupt years ago. How could he possibly learn Lapine?

"Behave yourself, and stop bothering me while I'm out with your mom.

"I'll bring you some snacks next time."

Sydney, her face tense, stared at me for a long moment. When she saw I wasn't reacting, she shrugged off what I had just said and cheerfully replied to Dylan.

"Okay, Uncle Dylan, enjoy your time with Mom!

"I hope you and Mom have a baby sister for me soon."

Lately, I kept thinking about my past with Ava. After thinking about it, I forced myself to forget.

The sounds of video games continued to come from Sydney's room. I didn't take the game console away like I usually did, nor did I urge her to go to sleep.

I didn't remind her about homework, either, since the teacher would check it tomorrow.

Since she hated me so much, it was fine if I didn't act like a father anymore.

But for days, I couldn't figure out why Ava's acting was so convincing.

At 2 a.m., I received another provocation from Dylan.

[Wyatt, Ava has been messing with me nonstop these days. She's really greedy. Are you not up to it? She even said you can't turn her on at all.]

Along with the message, there was a photo.

Ava stood in front of him, and his hand was suggestively reaching into her collar, his eyes filled with desire that couldn't be hidden.

I tortured myself by looking at the photo over and over, my heart feeling as though it was being squeezed in someone's hand, ready to burst. The pain was unbearable.

Staring out at the pitiful moonlight, I remembered when the Anderson family went bankrupt, when my fiancée left me, and I had nothing. Ava had appeared like a goddess, helping me pay off debts and start over.

Back then, I truly believed that Ava, who was paralyzed from the waist down, was my salvation in this life.

For these seven years, she had shown me so much love. The world called her a woman who spoiled her husband to the extreme, someone who loved me to the core.

I believed it too. That was why I set aside my pride and devoted myself to taking care of her, making meals for her, and doing everything for seven years.

But the truth was, while she said she loved me, she had been entangled with her brother Dylan, who had no blood relation to her.

It wasn't until recently that I learned the painful truth. For all these years, she had secretly given all her true feelings to Dylan, hiding it from me.