Chapter 3

I lived every day in a daze.

Mr. Shaw and Mrs. Shaw fought every day.

In the end, Mrs. Shaw always dragged me into the fight.

“Don’t think I don’t know. He’s the illegitimate son you had with that bitch!” Mrs. Shaw pointed at my room, almost insane.

Mr. Shaw finally could not take it anymore. “What are you making trouble about now! He’s just a child, and nothing happened between me and his mother.”

I curled up in the corner of my room.

The door was kicked open hard.

Ethan strode in, grabbed me, and threw me to the floor.

He yanked my hair and pressed my face against the ground.

“Are you satisfied now? Watching them fight must make you so happy, right?”

I explained through tears, “No, Ethan, I didn’t...”

He reached out and patted my cheek. “It would be so much better if you died.”

“Then there wouldn’t be so much trouble. Why didn’t you die along with that mistress mother of yours!”

“What is the point of you being alive? To destroy other people’s families? Then why don’t you just go die!”

He left.

Mr. Shaw and Mrs. Shaw’s fighting continued without stopping.

I lay on the floor and cried until I could barely breathe.

I hated myself, pinched my own flesh, and shed silent tears.

Maybe Ethan was right. Why didn’t I just die?

3

Today was the anniversary of my mom’s death.

I brought the things I had saved up for a long time and planned to visit her grave.

I quietly went out.

Ethan was about to go out too.

He had almost gotten into the car.

After seeing me, he stepped back and shut the car door.

“You’re not allowed to go. If you go, don’t come back to the Shaw house. I find it unlucky.”

I did not speak and simply kept walking on my own.

Ethan, with a furious face, grabbed my hand.

“I said you’re not allowed to go!”

I lost my balance and fell to the ground, and my elbow hit a stone, splitting open a cut.

It was as if I could not feel pain, and I felt nothing.

He dragged me up and dragged me all the way into a room.

This was his room, and he never let me enter it.

But this time was the exception.

He held the first-aid kit and treated my wound roughly.

My tears fell again without my control.

He thought I was crying from the pain, so his movements slowed a little. “Endure it.”

I wiped my tears away. Why was he always hot and cold toward me?

“Ethan Shaw, do you really hate me that much?” I choked, and my tears gradually blurred my vision.

He did not answer and only quietly treated my wound.

I looked at my bandaged arm, then stood up and wanted to take my things and leave.

But Ethan was very strange today, and he held back his temper. “Go sit down.”

I stubbornly grabbed my things and was about to leave, but he snatched them away from me.

“I told you, you’re not allowed to go. I find it unlucky!” He pinned me against the wall, and the veins bulged on the hand gripping my shoulder.

I held back my tears. “Ethan Shaw, don’t you hate me? Then why do you care whether I go or not? At worst, I just won’t come back here.”

A slap landed on my face, leaving it instantly red.

“Don’t be cheap! Today is my mom’s birthday. Don’t make her and my dad upset again!” He kicked me into the corner, and I felt my stomach churn violently.

A metallic taste filled my mouth, and I forced that mouthful of blood back down.

My heart seemed to hurt more than my body.

Ethan stood in front of me, and I crawled up from the floor and knelt before him. “Ethan, I’m begging you. Let me go. I’m begging you. I’ll never like you again after this. Just let me go...”

I cried until I could barely breathe, but he still looked at me coldly.

I did not know how long we stayed frozen there before he finally left. “Get out, and don’t ever step through the Shaw family’s door again.”

I picked up the things scattered across the floor one by one.

I went to my mom’s grave and set everything out piece by piece.

My tears could no longer fall.

I said a lot to my mom, and I asked her why this had to be my fate.

I stood on the rooftop, and the railing felt a little cold under my hands.

I looked down at the busy traffic below, and tears blurred my vision.

I wiped my tears and climbed over the railing.

I looked downstairs, where fire trucks surrounded the area and police sirens rang through the air.

It seemed like there was nothing in this world worth making me stay.

Ethan Shaw, after this, you won’t hate me anymore.

I closed my eyes and did not look back.