Chapter 1

Three years after our divorce, I ran into my ex-husband at the hospital.

He was carrying supplements, accompanying his mistress to a prenatal appointment.

I was there for a follow-up on the legs they had broken at the Wifely Virtue Academy.

At the sight of my wheelchair, his knuckles turned white.

“Why didn’t you call me to pick you up when you got hurt?”

I answered calmly,

“You blocked me.”

After a long silence, he draped his jacket over me.

“Sorry. I forgot. Come home with me. I promised your dad I’d take good care of you.”

I backed my wheelchair away, making my refusal clear.

He let out an angry laugh. “All these years, and you still haven’t learned to behave?”

I smiled without answering.

It wasn’t that I hadn’t learned.

My husband simply had a keen nose. He would get jealous if I wore another man’s clothes.

“You get cold easily. Don’t make me worry, okay?”

Ethan Hayes spoke gently, as though we had never separated.

He picked up his jacket to drape it over me again.

Then the word “paralysis” on my medical chart stopped him cold.

“Claire, it’s been years. Ava and I stopped blaming you a long time ago.”

“Come home. I’ll find you the best specialists.”

I declined politely.

“That really isn’t necessary. My husband is coming to pick me up.”

Ethan’s brows drew together, but before he could speak,

Ava Collins emerged from the examination room, her belly slightly rounded.

She froze when she saw me, then broke into an affectionate smile.

“Claire! They let you out of the Wifely Virtue Academy?”

“I hope you won’t be doing any of those disgusting things again.”

Her voice carried. Everyone around us looked at me with contempt.

Some even took secret pictures and whispered.

Ethan stepped in front of me, his warning sharp.

“Ava. Watch what you say.”

Ava pouted innocently.

“It’s just been so long since I saw Claire. I couldn’t help myself.”

She smiled at me, her eyes full of smug provocation.

“Today marks a hundred days of my pregnancy. Ethan’s throwing me a party. He even gave the auction house an unlimited bid to buy me jewelry.”

“He also had all that jasmine you planted pulled out and replaced with my favorite roses.”

“Did they serve Michelin-starred food and champagne at the academy, Claire?”

Only after saying it did she seem to realize she had slipped up.

Ava covered her mouth, looking embarrassed.

“Please don’t take that the wrong way. I was just wondering if you’d like to come.”

“It’s okay if you don’t have a dress. You can wear one I don’t want anymore. We won’t even make you show an invitation.”

Ethan shot her an icy look.

“That’s enough.”

He handed me a card, his voice softening again.

“When you come home, I’ll throw you an even bigger party.”

“Take this. Buy yourself a new dress and some jewelry.”

I raised an eyebrow.

He had actually given me a supplementary card linked to his own account.

Ava looked so upset she nearly dug her nails through her palms.

I found it funny, but I felt nothing more.

“No, thank you. I wish you both a lifetime of happiness. I won’t get in your way.”

“As I said, my husband is coming.”

After a long pause, Ethan spoke hoarsely.

“Claire, stop this. After everything you did, you didn’t even have friends left. How could you have a husband?”

“I know you resent me. But you’re disabled now. Who can you rely on if you don’t come home with me?”

He was right about one thing.

Once, he had been the only person I could rely on.

Ethan’s father was a compulsive gambler. His mother had remarried and left long before.

Whenever his father came home, Ethan got beaten.

His thin body was always covered in bruises.

I used to take rubbing alcohol and bandages from home for him.

After a while, Dad asked if I’d been getting into fights.

“Or have you been eating the bandages?”

Ethan didn’t want anyone to know, so I kept his secret.

Until Dad saw him for himself and sighed in heartache.

“Come have dinner with us, son.”

My mother had died when I was young.

Dad raised me alone.

Taking care of me was already hard enough, but he always set aside an extra portion for Ethan.

Then Ethan’s father went to prison for murder.

Looking at the boy who had no one left, Dad asked,

“Would you like to live with Claire and me?”

Ethan nodded.

Dad filed the adoption papers right away.

He worked three jobs to keep us both in school.

The year Ethan started college, Dad worked himself to death.

His last words were a plea for Ethan to take care of me.

Ethan wiped away his tears and held me as I sobbed.

“You have me now.”

“No matter what happens, I’ll always love you.”