Chapter 5

Cyrus' POV

Elena clearly knew exactly what I wanted to say because she spoke before I could get a word out.

"I know you were the one who saved Marissa. So what? Do you expect her to repay you for it?" She raised an eyebrow, her tone dripping with mockery. "What? You actually think you can be with Marissa? Have you looked at yourself lately? Do you really think you're worthy of the Caldwell family's daughter?"

That was when I finally learned the truth.

Elena had been the one keeping me confined to the hospital.

She had dealt with the kidnappers and made sure they could never tell anyone what had really happened. Then she twisted the story, telling everyone that I'd been too afraid to come home after escaping and had hidden away because I was too cowardly to face anyone after abandoning Marissa.

According to the story Elena had fabricated, Damian had found Marissa while he and his friends were out hiking.

The moment Elena learned about his family background, she saw an opportunity. She gave Damian all the credit for rescuing Marissa and deliberately pushed the two of them together, encouraging them to grow closer until they eventually developed feelings for each other.

By the time I learned what had really happened, the truth had already been buried beneath Elena's lies. In everyone's eyes, Damian was the hero who had saved Marissa, while I was nothing more than the coward who had abandoned her.

Then Elena found the one thing she could use to control me.

My sister was still living in our rural hometown, where my ignorant parents had been planning to marry her off to an old man in the village in exchange for money. Elena gave them enough money to abandon the arrangement, but in return, she demanded that I keep the truth to myself.

Thinking of my sister, who had taken care of me ever since I was a child, I had no choice but to agree to Elena's terms.

When I finally walked out of the study, my legs felt so weak that I nearly stumbled down the stairs. Aria caught me before I could fall and gently stroked my head, her eyes filled with sympathy.

"Child, let it go. Mrs. Caldwell will never allow the two of you to be together."

I only nodded, barely registering her words.

In Marissa's eyes, I had already become a despicable man who would do anything to protect my own interests. Whatever feelings we had once shared were gone, and there was no future left for us.

As Marissa and Damian grew closer, the Davenhurst family suddenly went bankrupt, throwing Elena's plans into chaos.

Then she discovered something even more shocking: Damian was the illegitimate son of the Davenhurst family, and his biological mother was the same woman who had eloped with Marissa's father and caused the car accident that killed him.

Elena was consumed by hatred. She vehemently opposed Marissa and Damian's relationship, but Marissa believed Damian was innocent and refused to leave him.

Instead, she began secretly planning for the two of them to move overseas together.

Unfortunately, Elena discovered their plans and was furious. The same woman had already taken her husband from her, and now her daughter was being taken away by that woman's son.

She ordered me to stop them and bring Marissa home.

But on their way to the airport, Marissa and Damian got into a car accident.

Damian injured his hand so badly that he could no longer play the piano. When I pulled Marissa from the wreckage, her head was covered in blood, but the pain in her eyes wasn't what shocked me most.

It was the hatred.

She blamed me for everything that had happened. I'd learned the day before that she and Damian were planning to leave the country, and she assumed I was the one who had told her mother.

In the end, Marissa negotiated with Elena and convinced her to send Damian overseas for treatment. In exchange, she agreed to marry me.

Elena had once looked down on me because of my background, but now she saw me as something far more useful.

She was afraid her daughter would eventually break free from her control, so she chose me because I was easy to manipulate.

She knew Marissa would never fall in love with me again, and that made me the perfect tool to keep her tied to the family.

Elena didn't care whether her daughter was happy. All she cared about was making sure Marissa would never leave her the way her husband had.

After all those years, I'd finally gotten what I'd wanted. I married the woman I'd loved for so long.

But she hated me and had married me for one reason only: revenge.