Chapter 3

I raised my hand to slap Lana back, but Patrick seized my wrist in a vice-like grip.

I glanced around the room. Everyone was looking at me like I was their sworn enemy.

Cradled in Lana's arms, Douglas kept crying and pointing at me.

"I hate her! Make her leave! Make her leave!"

Patrick pointed toward the door. "Agnes, Douglas is scared of you. Stop making him cry. Just leave for now."

Before I could even react, he forcibly shoved me outside. The door slammed shut behind me, and everyone inside started hurling insults at me.

It had started raining outside. I reached into my pocket and realized I'd left my car keys in the room.

I turned around and pounded on the door several times.

Someone inside shouted through it, "Why are you still shamelessly hanging around here? Do you have to scare Douglas to death?"

"Give me my car keys!" I shouted back.

Then Patrick's voice came from inside. "Douglas gets triggered whenever he sees you, so we can't open the door. Why don't you figure out how to get home yourself?"

I lowered my hand. My chest tightened painfully as a damp chill slowly seeped through my entire body.

I stood in the rain for nearly an hour before I finally managed to hail a car. The moment I got in, I received a message from Emma Harding, my college classmate.

"Agnes, are you still getting Mr. Underwood's medication for his next course of treatment?"

Ever since his heart surgery, Mr. Underwood had seemed to recover well on the surface, but his condition remained fragile.

His doctor had prescribed an imported medication that he needed to take long-term without interruption. It was hard to get locally, and only with Emma's help did I manage to secure a reliable supply.

The medication was ridiculously expensive at 400 dollars a box. Since no one else ever offered to pay, I'd been covering the cost all along.

But now that Mr. Underwood was no longer going to be my father-in-law, there was no reason for me to keep paying for his medication.

"I won't be getting it anymore," I replied.

Emma quickly messaged back. "What happened? Was the medication not working?"

"Patrick and I broke up."

Emma went silent for a long while before finally replying, "Honestly, I never thought you two would break up. You were always so good to him, after all. I still remember how, back in college, you helped him with his projects and wrote his papers for him.

"You worked yourself to exhaustion and sometimes barely had time to eat, all so he could graduate without a hitch. I never imagined that even after graduation, you two wouldn't end up together."

I replied, "That's all in the past now."

I closed my eyes and slept through the rest of the ride.

When I got home, I added the WhatsApp contact Professor Massey had given me. His display name was simple—Bradley Massey.

After hesitating for a moment, I sent him a message.

"I don't want to hide anything from you. I've just come out of a relationship, and things ended pretty badly."

He replied almost immediately, "I know. You were engaged before, right?"

I was about to send another message, but then I realized it might be difficult to explain everything over text. So, I decided to call him instead.

After I told Bradley the whole story about Patrick and me in one breath, he said, "I'm looking for someone suitable to marry. What happened on your end wasn't your fault. Since you've decided to end things with Patrick, I'm willing to go ahead with you. Let's register our marriage in three days."

I froze for a moment.

Three days from now was the day Patrick and I had originally agreed to register our marriage. But he'd had a child with Lana, and now I was about to marry someone else.

"Okay."

After the call ended, I was about to text Patrick to formally end our engagement. But before I could finish typing, the door opened.

Patrick stormed in and pointed an accusing finger at me.

"Agnes, you deliberately made a scene today and upset Dad so badly that his heart started acting up! You ruined Thanksgiving for everyone! And Douglas was so frightened by what you did that he's still crying and feeling insecure.

"To make it up to Douglas and help him feel more secure, you don't need to show up for the marriage registration in three days. Lana will go instead. That way, no one will call Douglas a bastard, and he'll be able to grow up healthy and confident.

"You're the reason Douglas feels so insecure in the first place, so Lana and I getting married is how you make amends. You have no right to object!"

Thinking about how I'd be registering my own marriage in three days, I nodded and said, "I have no objections."