Chapter 2

"Lindsay Simmons, isn't it precisely because you became Mrs. Morton that you're lucky enough to have your husband clean up your messes?"

Watching Nicholas say it without a shred of shame,

I couldn't stop myself from closing my eyes.

Right.

I was lucky.

I was so incredibly lucky.

If I hadn't overheard what he said to my parents that day, maybe I'd have gone on being this lucky for the rest of my life.

I walked out of the Morton Group building.

Standing on the sidewalk below, I turned and looked up at this landmark of Shengjing.

Ten years ago, before we were married, the Morton family wasn't yet the richest family in Shengjing.

Back then the richest man in the city was some nouveau riche developer.

He'd taken a fancy to me.

He named me by name and told the Simmonses he wanted to marry me.

My father was on the verge of agreeing.

It was Nicholas who knelt outside the Simmons house for three days and three nights before my father relented and gave him two more years.

Two years. Overtaking the richest man in the city was nearly impossible.

I thought about it all night, then sold the herbal formula I'd poured my heart into developing for fifty million dollars and handed every cent of it to Nicholas.

And he delivered.

In less than six months, he'd earned the right to marry me.

It drizzled on our wedding day.

The cold, damp weather made the knees he'd ruined kneeling ache unbearably.

But he lifted me into his arms, his pale face full of joy.

"Lindsay, from now on I'll protect you. No one will ever bully you again."

That was the first time in my life anyone had ever cherished me.

So this was what it felt like to be loved.

But...

Could a love carved that deep into the bone really change too?

Like dew.

Like a flash of lightning.

In the end, ten years passed, and I could rarely find any trace of the man who had once loved me in Nicholas.

There was only cheating, betrayal, and lies.

The first time Nicholas cheated, I asked for a divorce.

The next day, my father's creditors showed up at the Simmons house.

Thirty million dollars owed.

Pay it back, or they'd cut off his hand.

My father, who had never much liked me, knelt on the floor with his hair gone white, clutching my hand and weeping.

"Your dad's old. One hand's no great loss. Don't get involved, sweetheart. Just live a good life, and I'll rest easy."

Nicholas stepped in to help without being asked.

"Honey, your herbal formula gave me fifty million back then. This thirty million, I'll pay it gladly."

"But I can't come up with all of it at once. Don't file for divorce. Let me pay it off month by month. All right?"

Only thirty million.

With what Nicholas was worth now, there was no way he couldn't produce it.

It was nothing but a tactic to force me to stay married.

I agreed.

He was my father, after all.

Even if he'd treated me badly, when I was little he'd once let me ride on his shoulders to watch fireworks and reach for the stars.

The second time Nicholas cheated, I asked for a divorce again.

The next day, my mother fell ill.

The Morton family's medical team had her admitted for treatment that very day.

Erica was away on business overseas for work, so the entire responsibility of caring for my mother fell on my shoulders.

Nicholas sat up through the night at my mother's bedside for me, his eyes gone bloodshot, and still he held my hand and comforted me.

"Honey, let me take care of Mom. You're not well, you need your rest."

In the quiet hospital at midnight, he held me, his voice very soft.

"Lindsay, when you're old, I'll sit at your bedside just like this. And if you go first, I won't go on living."

"You suffered so much as a child. That's why heaven sent me to love you."

The divorce came to nothing.

For my parents, and for that laughable little hope for love still buried in my heart,

I swallowed his betrayals, one after another.

Until the thirtieth time.

When his mistress showed up at my door and ground my face beneath her heel, I truly couldn't bear it any longer.