Chapter 3 The Promise That Cost Me Five Years

A week later, Holly took me to the vital records office.

She glanced helplessly at the loose necktie hanging crookedly around my neck and reached over to straighten it, but I instinctively stepped back. "I can do it myself. You don't have to—"

She froze before slowly withdrawing her hand. "I always help you with your tie. Look at you—you can't even manage a proper Windsor knot."

My fingers were clumsy, trembling so badly that I couldn't get it right. In the end, I grew frustrated, yanked the tie off, and threw it onto the ground.

Holly tried several times to help, but I refused every time. I didn't want her touching me.

Her expression darkened with each rejection. Finally, she started the car, her face completely devoid of warmth.

"Nathaniel, let me make one thing clear. Even if we remarry, you are not to interfere in my life. Also, Ian is your brother, so stop thinking about picking on him. As for what happened five years ago…"

She paused, a flicker of guilt crossing her face. "Mom and I did wrong by you. But from now on, don't bring it up again. I don't want Ian living with that guilt forever."

I couldn't remember a single thing she was talking about, but I nodded anyway. As long as I listened, everything would be fine. But for some reason, my obedient response only irritated Holly even more.

As soon as we arrived outside the vital records office, the screech of brakes sounded behind us before I could even step inside.

Ian got out of the car and hurried over, stopping directly in front of Holly, staring intently into her eyes.

"Are you really going to remarry Nate? He's carrying the burden of two deaths on his record. If you marry him again, it'll affect your career."

He cast me a sidelong glance, his eyes filled with barely concealed malice. A chill ran through my body, and suddenly, everything around me went silent.

"Ian, you know what happened five years ago..."

Five years earlier, Ian wanted to become a doctor. Without a moment's hesitation, my mother arranged for him to work at my private hospital.

During one surgery, I was the lead surgeon, and Ian assisted me. While I wasn't looking, he accidentally stitched a scalpel into the patient's abdominal cavity while closing up.

Less than an hour after the operation, the patient vomited blood and died. Unable to bear the shock, one of the patient's family members jumped from the roof of the hospital.

The incident caused a massive public uproar.

My mother's first thought had been to make me take the blame. "Nathaniel, you're the older brother. Help your brother just this once. He's finally found a career he truly loves, and we can't ruin that now. He's still so young, after all."

She had cried until she could barely breathe, clutching my hands and begging me over and over.

"But what about my life?" I demanded. "Going to prison will ruin the rest of it."

Alas, my protests had meant nothing to them.

Even Holly stood on Ian's side. She had looked at me with calm, unwavering eyes. "Nathaniel, listen to your mother. It's only a few years in prison. I'll make the arrangements, and you won't suffer in there. Once you're released, I'll come and bring you home."

I had stared at the woman I'd loved with all my youth and suddenly felt as though the entire world had become absurd. "No. He made the mistake himself. Why should I spend the rest of my life paying for it?"

When I refused, Ian dropped to his knees. "Nate, I'm begging you! Just help me out for once! The company, the family inheritance—I don't want any of it. I won't fight you for anything. I just don't want to go to prison."

His pleading had made it sound as though I was the heartless one for refusing to save him.

Holly and my mother—the two women I had loved most in my life—only cared about Ian.

Eventually, they sent me to prison, and Holly even divorced me over it. But she promised that once I got out, everything would be behind us.

I desperately struggled, but no matter what, neither of them had ever looked back. Just like that, I carried the blame and the weight of two lives.

Prison had been nothing like Holly promised. On the contrary, it was hell.

Beatings had become part of everyday life—my teeth pulled out, fingernails torn away, my ribs broken beneath heavy kicks…

However, the warden acted as though he'd been bribed. The doctors were only called in when I was on the verge of dying. And once I recovered, they threw me back into the yard to be used as a punching bag all over again.

That had been my life for five years.

A gust of cold wind made me instinctively hunch my shoulders.

Ian and Holly were still arguing.

I knew Holly's promise to remarry me had only been something she'd said in passing all those years ago, but I didn't need her help anymore. My voice came out low and flat. "Let's forget about it."

Holly stiffened and spun around to face me. "W-What did you say?"

"Forget about getting remarried. If you give me the money, we don't need to do it."

By then, she and Ian could do whatever they wanted.

Holly's face instantly went grim. "Don't regret this, Nathaniel."