Chapter 3

Everyone turned toward the door. Nathan Grady strode in, all decked out in a handsome suit. His face brimmed with anger.

He cut through the crowd, grabbed my wrist, pulled me up from the floor, and shielded me behind him.

"Ashton, you and your family have gone too far!" He stared at Ashton, his voice ice-cold. "You were the ones who chose to acknowledge her identity and bring her home, so why are you humiliating her like this now?"

The living room fell completely silent. Every live-streaming camera swung toward Nathan.

I stared at him from behind. His back looked the same as it did 20 years ago.

When I joined the orphanage at the age of four, Nathan was already there. He was a scrawny kid with a slight limp in his left leg, hobbling whenever he walked.

When the older kids at the orphanage stole his food, he never fought back. I was the one who rushed forward and snatched his bowl back, only to be shoved to the ground by one of the older kids, scraping my knee until it bled.

He crouched down and blew gently on my wound, crying harder than I did.

"From now on, I'll protect you." He sniffled as he said it.

And he kept his word. Whenever someone bullied me, he would stand in front of me. Even when they beat him until his face was swollen and bruised, he never backed down.

One day, someone came to the orphanage and said he was the missing son of the family who owned Grady Corporation.

As they took him away, he gripped the door and shouted at me, "Wait for me! Once I've established myself, I'll come back for you!"

The following year, the Scotts found me and took me back, too. That very day, he came to the Scott residence and asked for our families to arrange an engagement for us.

Throughout the years I spent in prison, there were countless times when I felt like dying. Nathan was the one who kept coming to visit me. He would smile at me through the window and say, "Just hang in there for a bit longer. Once you get out, I'll marry you."

If there was anything or anyone I was still attached to in this world, it was him.

Ashton frowned and said nothing.

On the side, Tina stood with her head lowered. She raised a hand to wipe the corner of her eyes before saying, "I'm not trying to make things difficult for Isabel either, Nate."

Her voice was soft and hurt. "But Isabel… stole my earrings when no one was looking."

I was completely blindsided.

"It's a limited-edition piece that Mom left to me before she passed away. I've been looking everywhere for it..." Tina raised her head and looked at Nathan, tears clinging to her eyelashes. "I'm not trying to pick on Isabel. I'm just really upset."

Nathan's body stiffened. He turned and looked at me.

"Is that true?"

Those words escaped his lips without any effort at all.

I stared right into his eyes. When I was four years old, he had crouched on the ground and blown gently on my bleeding knee, his eyes filled with concern. But right now, that same pair of eyes held nothing but doubt and suspicion.

We had known each other since I was four. It'd been two decades. Yet here he was, asking me if I'd done what Isabel said I did.

Did he think I was the kind of person who'd steal?

I said nothing.

Nathan waited for a few more seconds, but I still didn't speak. His gaze hardened. He slowly released me and took a step back.

Tina continued to weep, her shoulders shaking.

Nathan closed his eyes for a moment. When he opened them again, all the warmth had vanished from his expression.

"Guess you've really changed after spending all those years in prison," he said, his voice sharp as he eyed me. "Aside from crawling on all fours like a dog, you're going to bark like one and apologize to Tina."

I watched his mouth move. I heard those words come out of him. Suddenly, the past 20 years felt like a dream.

The system quietly chimed in my mind. "Time remaining: 6 hours and 52 minutes."

Without the slightest hesitation, I got on my knees.