Chapter 1

"I told you, I'm busy!" Nadine Larson snapped. "How many times do I have to explain this to you? I don't have time for your games or playing along with your little divorce charade!"

"Busy? Do you mean you're busy traveling around the world with Jason?"

Silas Fitzroy practically screamed the words, pouring all his pent-up hurt into that one accusation.

There was a long silence on the other end of the line.

"Silas, I've told you before." Nadine sighed. "Jason was my best friend Penelope's husband. Before she passed away, I promised her I'd take good care of him.

"He got injured a couple of days ago, and you've been making a fuss every day. I couldn't exactly bring him home just to keep you company and play with you.

"Be a good boy, okay? Have you forgotten? Only good children get candy."

In the past, Silas would've listened to her without question. He hadn't known what it meant to be injured, much less understood what a car accident was. If Nadine said something important had come up, then it must have been important.

Whenever she told him to be good and wait patiently, he would do exactly that until she came home.

In fact, until recently, he had looked forward to Nadine bringing Jason home every day so they could all play together, even though Jason had never liked him.

But Silas was no longer the simple-minded man with the mental capacity of a ten-year-old.

A month ago, a car accident had left a nerve in his brain compressed, and, against all odds, his intelligence had returned to normal.

The nerve compression had also left him needing surgery, forcing him onto the operating table. Yet at that very moment, Jason had suffered nothing more than a few superficial scrapes, and Nadine had summoned every doctor in the hospital to examine him.

Silas had called her 39 times, but no one had answered a single call. All he could do was watch helplessly as his hand was permanently damaged, destroying any chance he had of ever painting again.

Whenever he thought about it, his heart ached so badly that it felt like a blunt knife grinding into him over and over, leaving him barely able to breathe.

"Do you even know what happened to my hand—"

"Nadine, where did you put my underwear?"

Jason's voice suddenly rang out through the phone.

Nadine said, "Silas, I'll take you to the castle to play when I get back, all right? I'm really busy right now, so be a good boy."

Sounding slightly flustered, she ended the call in a hurry.

Silas opened his mouth, but once again, he swallowed the rest of what he had wanted to say.

A drizzle suddenly began to fall.

Silas lifted his gaze, remembering how everyone had looked at him with pity after his intelligence had been impaired by an abduction.

Back then, Nadine had held him in her arms and promised, "No matter what happens to you, I'll always love you."

From that day on, the collectibles around the house had been replaced with adorable plush toys, the piano room had become an art room where he could scribble and draw to his heart's content, and all the furniture had been replaced with cute, whimsical designs. His bedroom had even been transformed into a prince's chamber.

He hated being alone, so Nadine brought her work home to keep him company. He loved playing house, so she found plenty of people to play with him. He enjoyed pretending to be a warrior who slayed the dragon and rescued the princess, so she had everyone in the house to play along with him.

She'd given him so much love, but everything changed after Jason's wife passed away.

Now, all Nadine ever said was, "I promised my best friend I'd take good care of Jason."

Silas knew all too well what that meant. She didn't love him anymore. Or perhaps she still loved him, just not as much as she used to.

Just as she'd done moments ago, she treated him like a child who couldn't understand anything.

He pulled out his phone and called his lawyer, Robert Wells.

"Are we suing Nadine again?"

"No," Silas replied. "I'm suing Jason this time.

Silas took a cab from the courthouse back to the Larson residence. The moment he stepped inside, he saw Nadine sitting on the couch with a cold expression, while every household staff member stood nearby.

"Did you sue Jason?"

Bitterness surged within Silas.

For the past two weeks, Nadine had constantly claimed she was working overtime or simply failed to come home at all. Yet the moment he sued Jason, she had returned so quickly.

But what about him?

He'd undergone major surgery, but 39 desperate phone calls hadn't been enough to bring her to his side when he needed her to save his hand.

He bit his lip, struggling to suppress the bitterness rising within him.

"What about it?" he shot back. "He stole you away from me. You told me before that people like him were homewreckers, and that we had to be ruthless when dealing with them."

He had no intention of telling her that his intelligence had returned. Even if he did, she might not believe him, so he continued speaking to her the way a child would.

"Who told you to do that?" Nadine fumed. "And who told you he was a homewrecker? You've been throwing tantrums for the past two months! Haven't you had enough already?"