Chapter 3

Julian didn't speak, but he didn't pull his hand away either.

He lay down beside me, wrapping his arm loosely around my shoulders over the blanket.

Since my own grandfather passed away, that was the first time I felt something close to "love."

Soon after, I gave birth to Leo.

When Leo was only seven months old, I excitedly told Julian that I hoped our son would grow up as free as the wind.

He chuckled, calling me naive.

The very next day, his family took Leo away to be raised by elite nannies in the main estate.

I nearly lost my mind.

Dragging my weak, post-partum body, I begged to see my baby.

But Julian held me tightly in his arms, telling me that professionals would take better care of him.

But what about me?

I was his mother! Did I not even deserve to hold my own child?

The ugly truth, which I had desperately tried to ignore, finally shattered our fragile peace.

I begged Julian to let me raise him.

He only lifted my chin coldly. “Chloe, you aren’t qualified to raise the Vance heir.”

“Leo needs an elegant, sophisticated mother, not the daughter of a family who used a deathbed favor to force a marriage.”

I stared at him, my hands slipping from his expensive suit jacket.

A deathbed favor?

Didn't we marry because of our grandfathers' lifelong friendship?

Julian pinched my jaw, whispering viciously in my ear.

“Only your family would be shameless enough to think my grandfather did this out of charity.”

Julian told me that my grandfather had used a past life-saving favor to blackmail his family into the marriage on his deathbed.

I wasn’t with my grandfather when he died, so I knew nothing about this.

But I knew my grandfather was a man of integrity. He would never do such a thing!

But Julian believed it. The Vance family believed it. And that was enough to condemn me.

“You know what, Chloe? Every time I touch you, I feel physically sick. Watching you desperately believe that I could love you makes me want to destroy all your little delusions.”

“But that’s too easy. You ruined my life, and you haven't been punished enough.”

He pressed his lips against my ear, looking like a loving husband to anyone watching.

But his words were pure poison.

“You are going to sit right here as Mrs. Vance. You are going to watch Scarlett and me love each other, and you are going to watch your son reject you. That is your punishment!”

He almost screamed the last part, his eyes bloodshot.

I was frozen in horror.

All those moments of warmth... the "love" I thought I felt...

It was all a lie.

Julian had never changed.

He loathed our marriage, and he loathed me.

A loud ringtone snapped me out of the nightmare.

I sat up abruptly. It was only 7:30 AM.

Wiping the cold sweat from my neck, I realized I had dreamed about the early days of our marriage.

My phone was buzzing. The caller ID read: Julian.