Chapter 2

As soon as Eugene was done talking, the rest of the villagers immediately burst into laughter.

"You poor thing, Maria! You don't have a dime to your name, and you're obviously doing much worse than us all," one of them jeered. "Mr. Doyle is still so nice to show you some kindness and take you in. Aren't you going to drop to your knees in gratitude and kiss the shoes on his feet or something?"

"Exactly!" another chimed in. "All you have to do is be their nanny! Isn't that so much better than living on the streets for years?"

Janice proudly circled her hands around Eugene's arm and said, "Don't worry, Maria. I won't make things hard for you. You just need to cook and clean every day!"

Eugene scoffed. "Why are you worried about that? She was born to do hard work. Her best talents are feeding pigs and serving people anyway!

"We were forced to divorce due to some external circumstances back then. I promised her that I would come back to remarry her, but she ran away from home for five whole years!

"And now, she's crawling back to me with her tail between her legs. She deserves all the hardship that's coming, if you ask me!"

My expression darkened when I heard that.

So, it turned out that Eugene didn't think that divorcing me while I was eight months pregnant and marrying Janice right afterward was a huge matter at all.

I couldn't believe those words had come from Eugene's mouth. He used to give me piggyback rides while walking through muddy fields, ate as little and saved as much as possible to buy skincare for me, and promised me that he would repay me for all my hardship for the rest of his life.

That old Eugene was long gone.

However, it didn't matter anymore. That chapter of my life had ended. I had remarried and even gave birth to a little boy afterward.

I took a deep breath and spoke to them in a calm voice. "Weren't you all here to welcome a highly-celebrated archeologist? Let's go."

The villagers were stunned. They exchanged looks amongst themselves.

Janice doubled over in laughter, revealing the pearly white teeth hidden behind her blood-red lips.

"You? An archeologist? Nonsense!"

She then stood on tiptoe to point at the banner hung above our heads. "Do you even know how to read? Can you read this? Do you know anything about history? I bet you can't even read half the words on this banner!"

The other villagers joined in, laughing harder.

"Exactly! The person we're welcoming is a world-renowned archeologist expert, and she's also the wife of the billionaire, Mr. Rupert Kingston!" one exclaimed.

"Mr. Kingston is a model husband who's even been interviewed by The Daily Newspaper before," someone else added. "He would always cook for his wife, no matter how busy he is, and he's still very sweet and intimate with his wife even after five years of marriage!"

"You? Seriously?" another villager scoffed. "Do you think your life is a fairy tale? You're not even worthy to dust the shoes on his feet!"

Their insults somehow made me feel warm and cozy inside.

Rupert was nothing like Eugene. Eugene would always let Janice make things extremely difficult for me, but Rupert would dote on me and spoil me with his love every day.

No matter how busy he was with work, he would always remember to bring me my favorite breakfast sandwich from the Urban Hotel. If it rained, he would always show up at my work holding a massive umbrella over his head.

Even when I stayed up late all night working on my reports, he would always prepare hot cocoa in a thermal flask for me and leave it on my desk.

While I got lost in my memories, Janice's sarcastic laughter snapped me back.

"Oh, Maria," she said in a singsong voice. "Did you really think that you were some sort of archeologist? Were you imagining what it would be like to be the billionaire's wife?

"By the way, don't you think it's a coincidence? My little cousin, Jack Harthrow, is Mr. Kingston's driver, and he told me that Mrs. Kingston always wears a special gold locket because that was Mr. Kingston's engagement gift to her, and he'd spent a fortune on it at the auction."

Janice suddenly stopped and yanked me by my collar. "So why do you also have a gold locket around your neck?"

The villagers immediately fell into stunned silence.

Eugene froze. Then, he glanced at the locket around my neck disdainfully and said, "And which dumpster pile did you get that dumb locket from, Maria Johnston? Did you really think that would make you rich? Aren't you a little too obsessed with marrying rich now?"

I ignored him and gently caressed the locket around my neck. The look in my eyes softened, and the corners of my lips curled upward.

Janice was enraged by the sight. She immediately grabbed the locket and tore it off my neck, breaking the necklace.

I was caught off guard and lost my balance at once.

Janice laughed. She cackled victoriously and said, "Maria, your locket might look like the locket Jack told me about, but you can't think that the idiot who gave you this stupid locket was Mr. Kingston, the billionaire. Know your place and where you stand."

The rest of the villagers roared with laughter at her words. After all, they could never associate someone as respectable and unattainable as Rupert with a so-called village girl like me. To them, we were from completely different places in society.