Chapter 3

All the love and hate flowed out along with my blood.

In my daze, I remembered that afternoon seven years ago when the earth shook.

The school building collapsed. I was trapped under a concrete slab, waiting to die in despair.

But Adrian frantically dug through the rubble and pulled me out bit by bit with his blood-soaked hands.

The aftershocks continued, and when a huge boulder fell toward us, he didn't hesitate to throw himself over me, using his back to create a protective bridge.

Debris rained down on his head, his back, his face, but he gritted his teeth and smiled at me.

"Harper, don't be afraid. As long as I'm here, you won't die."

After that, he had a vicious scar on his back.

I traced that scar with trembling fingers, sobbing uncontrollably.

But he just smiled like a fool.

"Why are you crying? This scar is proof that I love you."

And in high school, some girls cornered me in an alley.

They called me a fatherless bastard and said they'd use box cutters to slash my seductive face.

It was Chloe who charged in alone to protect me, pointing at them viciously.

"You dare touch her? Just try it!"

From that day on, Chloe walked to and from school with me.

She told me so earnestly.

"Harper, we're going to be best friends for life."

When I woke up in the hospital, Adrian's gaze fell on the crisscrossed scars on my wrist, and he sighed softly.

"Harper, I always thought you were smart."

His voice was low, like he was stating something he'd known all along.

"What's so bad about staying by my side?"

"You know your background. I could never possibly agree to marry you."

"All that talk about marrying you on the nineteenth proposal... I was just humoring you."

Ever since my father ran off with his mistress, my mother's mental state had been unstable.

And Adrian and Chloe both came from elite families.

Whenever people gossiped about me behind my back, Adrian and Chloe would fiercely defend me.

I often asked myself: what had I done to deserve such care from these prince and princess figures?

Adrian paused, his eyes unreadable.

"Harper, what exactly do you want? Money? Love? Medical resources for your mother? Or..."

He leaned close, his voice sharp as a blade.

"Do you want me to give you a child?"

Motherhood securing status-it had always worked.

But I used all my strength to slap him hard across the face.

"I want you gone! Never let me see you again for the rest of my life!"

Adrian froze for a moment.

He slowly traced his cheek with his long fingers, then laughed, pressing his tongue against his back teeth.

The hospital room door was pushed open again.

Chloe walked in carrying a basket of mangoes, her laugh bright and deliberate.

"Oh my, my dear best friend, playing hard to get again?"

She walked to Adrian's side, her eyes sliding past me.

"Adrian got tired of that game seven years ago. It's not appropriate to keep playing it now."

She began peeling a mango for me.

But I'm allergic to mangoes.

Chloe had known that from the day she met me.

She deliberately showed off the dazzling diamond on her ring finger.

Adrian had once said he would buy his future wife the biggest, most brilliant diamond ring.

Remembering how I'd accidentally gouged a piece of flesh from my palm while crafting Adrian's wedding ring, my heart throbbed with dense, sharp pain again.

Chloe handed me the peeled mango. I raised my hand and slapped it to the floor.

The juice stained her dress.

Adrian's eyes darkened immediately.

"Harper, if you have a problem, take it out on me!"

"Chloe's been good enough to you! She doesn't even mind me supporting you after we're married! What more do you want?!"

Chloe looked at me with wounded eyes.

"Harper, do you really need to target me like this?"

I was about to throw them out when two trending topics suddenly appeared on my phone.

The first was the joyful news of a marriage alliance between the two elite families of Adrian and Chloe.

But the second was a record of my seven-year romance with Adrian.

The comments were full of people cursing Chloe for being a homewrecker who knew about me and pursued him anyway.

Adrian's usually unrestrained face suddenly turned dark.

He ground out the words through clenched teeth.

"Harper, you're really despicable..."