Chapter 2

Aston's words struck me like a thunderbolt, roaring and ringing in my ears.

I could see Mom and Dad turning increasingly pale while our creditors exchanged glances with each other before pulling out their loan agreements. The total amount of those agreements was more than enough to financially ruin our family forever.

I stammered, "P-Please, don't do this."

Tamara tugged on Aston's shirt hem and said, "She's still Hailey's mom after all. You shouldn't push things too far."

"No. This is the perfect time to teach Hailey that even adults need to be punished too when they do something wrong," Aston said with a nod of his head while kicking at the food container on the floor.

"Belinda, you ruined the food that Tamara brought for Hailey. So, unless you lick every drop of food off the floor, I will not reconsider my decision."

The grievance, hatred, humiliation, and shock all crashed onto me like a tidal wave at once.

"Why?" I demanded, unable to hold back. "Why must you do this to me!"

I growled, "I've been with you ever since I was 17 years old. What did I ever do wrong? What did I do to you? Why must you humiliate me like this!"

"Because you never loved me in the first place! The only thing you love is the fact that I'm the heir to the Powell empire!" Aston yelled back at me. His eyes were bloodshot as he came closer to me.

His voice trembled. "You and your entire family chose Alvin first, didn't you? You've all been lying to me for so many years!"

I sank to the floor helplessly. However, Aston still refused to let things pass.

"Your family was already in talks to marry you to Alvin in the first place, and yet, you kept shamelessly leading me on the entire time! It's just because you thought of me as your safety net! Or your second choice!

"I was the foolish one who gave up my arts degree overseas and came back home to take over the family business just because I wanted to prove myself to you!

"But what did you do instead?"

He then pulled Tamara even closer to himself.

"If Tamara never told me about it, I would never even have known that you were already happily offering yourself to Alvin while I was stuck at the hospital recovering after that horrible accident!"

He gritted his teeth while glaring at me like he wanted to tear me apart.

"How dare you do such a thing to me, Belinda! To think that I used to be so in love with you in the past!"

Something crumbled in my head. All of the horrible memories of the past suddenly flooded into my mind, suffocating and overwhelming me. They threatened to drown me in the darkness.

…

Ever since I was little, I knew that there had been some sort of secret betrothal agreement between my family and the Powells. There was a high chance that I was going to be forced to marry the heir to the Powell family after growing up.

That time, Mom and Dad didn't know that the Powells had a second illegitimate son, Aston, who was living overseas.

The eldest son of the Powell family was Alvin, and he was a whole decade older than me. He was also a very well-known, notorious playboy in Southbay. He was also cruel and ruthless, and he'd forced a handful of his business rivals to their deaths in the past.

Mom and Dad were determined to have Alvin's grandmother, Muriel Woodard, who was also the Powell family's matriarch, annul the so-called "betrothal".

The Powells were very powerful, and Mom and Dad were worried that things would get complicated if I stayed, so they bought me a plane ticket abroad to lay low and hide. They kept me out of trouble. They said that they would bring me back after everything was resolved.

However, I met Aston for the first time while I was wandering the midnight streets alone in Barclena. He was the one who helped me fight off two drunkards who were catcalling me.

He then introduced himself to me as Aston Barrera, saying that he took his mother's last name.

I looked into his smiling eyes and somehow lied for the first time in my life. I told him that I was an exchange student on scholarship.

We were drawn to each other like magnets. We fell deeply in love. He drew many portraits of me and told me that he wanted to continue drawing my portraits for the rest of our lives.

During the hot summer nights, he also told me about his deeply hidden past, word by word, including the father he never met, the mother who suffered from mental illness and later passed away in despair, and a grandmother back home, whom he could only occasionally see via video call.

He told me that he knew that he was an abandoned child from a large, prominent family from a very young age. He'd never received much love in his life. Even his own mother had used him as a means to live a comfortable life.

He once thanked me for teaching him how to love, cherish, and be grateful for things. He promised me that he would hold my hand forever and never let go.

I suppressed the slight panic in my heart, thinking that maybe it was good enough if I continued living here with him without ever going back home.

However, I got a couple of phone calls from Mom later that day, which temporarily pulled me out of my fairytale for a moment.

Apparently, Muriel absolutely refused to call off the betrothal and insisted that I get married to Alvin. If I refused, then the Powell family would do everything in their power to completely ruin and devastate the Crawford family.

I couldn't bear to watch Mom and Dad get destroyed like this without doing anything about it. So, I lied to Aston that I was going back home to visit some relatives and ran straight home after touching down at the airport.

I fell to my knees before Powell Manor, crying and begging Muriel to agree to annulling the betrothal. Yet, she sat in her seat like it was her throne, looking down on me like I was a mere subject about to face her judgment.

"You little bitch. Does marrying into the Powell family sound that despicable to you?"

She then showed me a few videos of Aston arriving at the airport. He'd actually followed me all the way home!

I recalled how ruthless and merciless Muriel and Alvin could be and burst into tears once more. I crawled up to her and tugged on the hem of her shirt.

"Please don't harm him, Mrs. Powell! I'll do anything you say!"

"I've lived a good life. Of course, I can't bear to watch people bully you," she said. "You want to call off the betrothal? Sure."

Her lips then curled up into a menacing grin.

"I want 50% of the stakes in your family's company. Also," she said, thumping her staff against the floor, "You have brought shame to the Powell family. As punishment, you will travel to the shrine in the mountains on foot to repent for your sins!"

She pointed to the top of a faraway mountain.

"Remember that you're only allowed to walk up every step on your knees. If you dare to cheat, I will never let you off the hook."

I couldn't remember how far I walked that day. However, I would forever remember the pain of climbing all the steps on my skinned knees.

Mom cried as she helped me up with every step I took. Dad's back was far more hunched than I'd ever seen before.

By the time I made it 15 miles and halfway up the mountains, my knees were already bloody and skinned raw from all the "walking".

However, at that moment, Alvin appeared right by the roadside with Tamara, who had still been his secretary back then.

"Aww, what a touching scene," he said mockingly while clapping his hands in disdain. "You're certainly doing a lot for an abandoned mongrel that nobody even pays any attention to, Ms. Crawford.

"But hey, did you know that your beloved actually shares the same bloodline as me?

"His real name is Aston Powell, and he's my dad's illegitimate child. He's my half-brother, if you will."