Chapter 6

Ethan returned, looking like a corpse.

As expected, he didn't find Vivian.

He kept his head down, his voice raspy and broken.

"Are you happy now, Mom? She’s gone. I can't find her."

He was back.

But he locked himself in his room, refusing to eat or drink.

But what could he do? Even if he starved himself, his family just put him on an IV drip.

They would keep him alive.

Even if he was just an empty shell with no soul.

When I realized he was trying to slit his wrists in the bathtub, I rushed into his house with his favorite food.

Seeing the bathtub filled with blood and the pale, lifeless boy, I screamed.

I ran out of the room, tumbling down the stairs, bleeding from my forehead. Even though my body was covered in bruises, I couldn't stop.

This shouldn't be the ending.

He was supposed to give up on Vivian, not die for her!

Why! Why would he die for her!

I didn't understand, and I wouldn't allow it!

He was in a coma for three days. His parents looked like they had aged ten years.

When he finally woke up, his mother slapped him hard across the face.

"You ungrateful brat! If you want to die, do it cleanly! Why are you doing this to us? Are you trying to drive us insane?"

"Your brother traded his life for yours! What right do you have to die?"

Ethan stared at the ceiling for a long time, tears soaking into his pillow.

I stood by his bed, watching him.

I gently wiped his tears away.

Seeing him cry, my tears fell too.

His voice was hoarse and incredibly exhausted.

"Elena... talk to me."

For the first time, he let me see the fragile soul hidden beneath his arrogant, perfect exterior.

"Okay. I'm listening."

After his parents left, he opened up to me for the first time about his brother.

"My brother, Harry, carried our entire family on his shoulders. But he... he just fell in love with an ordinary girl."

"I was three years old when I heard my parents screaming at him."

He spoke in a flat, emotionless tone.

"An arranged marriage is your destiny, Harry. You have no choice."

Harry looked at the empire he had built with his own sweat and blood. Now, his parents were forcing him to abandon his first love of ten years.

For the first time, he rebelled.

He ran away and married the girl he loved.

The two brothers had ended up on the exact same path.

"After my brother left, my parents started grooming me. They called him a traitor, ungrateful, and told me never to be like him."

Back then, he didn't understand.

Why his brilliant, perfect brother had suddenly become a taboo, a failure.

"Later, during my mother's birthday party, some business rivals they had offended hired thugs from the black market. They kidnapped me and locked me on a boat rigged with explosives."

Harry wasn't even supposed to be at the party.

His parents had lied about being sick to trick him into coming back, intending to drug him and throw him into the bed of a wealthy heiress who fancied him.

Ethan's eyes turned red as he spoke.

"My sister-in-law realized something was wrong. She tried to help me escape, but we were both captured."

The memory of the fire that day had haunted Ethan for over a decade.

The kidnappers gave Harry a choice. One had to die.

"My parents fell to their knees, begging Harry to choose me, his little brother."

"They screamed, 'Harry! He is your own brother! How can you watch him die?'"

Harry broke down. Looking at his wife and his family, he couldn't choose. He couldn't...

"His wife couldn't bear to see him suffer. She bit her tongue and committed suicide."

"Harry traded himself to get me back."

By the time the police arrived, Harry secretly detonated the bomb.

In the massive explosion and fire, he and his wife were united forever.