Chapter 2

The Ellington family came from a long line of Grandmasters. But Anya had been autistic since childhood, and her own family had cast her aside because of it.

My father couldn't bear to watch a prodigy wither away, so he brought her home.

From then on, she had her own set of utensils in the Castellan household, her own desk, and even her own bed.

Meanwhile, her mother, Dolores Lorn, came to collect her only once a year for a single dinner on New Year's Eve.

Back then, Anya wasn't a champion. She wasn't even treated like a normal person. She was nothing more than an abandoned dog. Nothing changed until she won her first world championship, and even then, she didn't return to the Ellingtons.

Instead, she dropped to her knees before my father and made a vow. "Grandmaster Castellan, in this lifetime, I will never let you or Mark down."

My father merely smiled and offered her a few earnest words of advice. "This is only the beginning. You must guard against arrogance and impatience. There's still a long road ahead of you!"

She nodded obediently but kept sneaking glances at me from the corner of her eye.

Officially, I was only her practice partner back then. In truth, I had already become her assistant.

I filled an entire notebook with her preferences, dietary restrictions, pre-match meals, and training schedule.

Once I saw it all laid out like that, she no longer seemed like the withdrawn, friendless girl I had always known.

She was just a pitiful thing with wet, reddened eyes who gripped my hand and refused to let go.

In her teens, Anya would thank me for everything I did for her onstage, in front of everyone.

By her twenties, she simply took it all for granted, as if she were entitled to every bit of it.

During her campaign for a fifth consecutive title, my father threw himself in front of a car to protect her and was left in a vegetative state.

That same year, she became pregnant with twins. That was how I became the Ellington family's live-in son-in-law.

Because of the children, Dolores, who had never liked me, stopped objecting. Instead, she simply assigned Anya an agent.

That night, Anya rested one hand on her rounded belly and raised the other as if she were swearing an oath. "Harlan Swinton is a well-known agent with plenty of experience in the field. He's only here to take some of the burden off you."

She kissed the corner of my mouth. Her eyes shone with something like starlight. "You still have to take care of the twins. I can't bear to watch you wear yourself out for me any longer."

In a way, she was right.

After just three months of caring for her, I had grown so thin that I barely looked like myself.

Thankfully, the delivery went smoothly.

Afterward, however, she only grew busier. She came home less and less often. Whenever I asked why, she always gave me the same answer: training.

I knew that winning a seventh consecutive title was her life's ambition, so I stopped asking. Instead, I poured my heart into winning Harlan over, even though he never really warmed to me.

If I wasn't staying up all night making him soup, I was sending him one luxury gift after another.

Again and again, I asked him to take good care of Anya. True to his word, he didn't disappoint.

On the night Dolores planned to throw him a birthday party, I had already prepared a gift and ordered a cake when the media broke the scandal: Anya and Harlan had spent the night together at a hotel.

I stood there with the twins in my arms, my entire body rigid.

Dolores thrust her phone at me and forced me to answer the reporters clamoring on the other end.

A deafening ringing filled my head. The taste of blood flooded my mouth and throat, and I couldn't force out a single word.

Dolores pinched me hard and hissed a threat into my ear. "Marcus Castellan! If you want to see the children again, you'd better open your mouth right now!"

My hands shook as I took the phone. At her prompting, I told the reporters in a trembling voice that I believed in Anya.

That night, my name shot onto the trending lists, and the label [Cuckold] was plastered all over me.

The moment the call ended, however, Dolores took the twins and left.

My marriage collapsed, and my reputation took the fall with it.

My father was little more than a living corpse now, and our children were the last thing I had left to hold on to.

Afterward, I went to Anya and demanded that she give me the children back.

She showed no guilt whatsoever. She merely shook off my hand in irritation. "The kids will get a top-tier education if they stay with their mother. What would they even learn from you? How to be a parasite?

"You want to know why I cheated? Why don't you take a good look at the pathetic state you're in now? Why don't you ask yourself what you even have compared to Harlan?"

With that, she threw a folder at my feet, pointed to it, and continued, "This is the match analysis Harlan put together. If you have the time, you should study it. Stop acting like some rabid dog all the time."

The contempt and indifference in her eyes cut deep.

When my emotions finally pushed me past my breaking point, I slammed myself into a hallway pillar.