Chapter 2

Eric and Amanda’s marriage had been arranged by their families, with both families being of comparable social standing.

In truth, my family was nouveau riche. My grandfather had made his fortune in coal mining.

By my father’s generation, the family had moved into the jewelry business, but really, we had only traded coal for precious stones. Besides, coal and diamonds were both made primarily of carbon.

The same was true of my family members. Whether we dealt in coal or jewelry, we were still nouveau riche at heart.

That was why Dad wanted Eric to marry a young woman from an equally prominent but more cultured family. He hoped she might lend a little refinement to the next generation of our family.

Amanda was the perfect candidate. Her father was an art appraiser, while her mother was a renowned painter.

Amanda herself had earned a graduate degree from a prestigious university. She was exceptionally intelligent and was only twenty-three when she graduated.

Afterward, she joined her academic advisor in researching a deadly infectious disease. The work did not pay much, but it was highly respected and sounded deeply impressive whenever anyone heard about it.

Unfortunately, she had since given all of that up to become Eric’s housewife.

I remembered Eric being twenty-eight when he was introduced to Amanda.

Twenty-eight was the prime of a man’s life. It was the age when he was eager to build his career, yet Dad expected him to get married and allow himself to be tied down.

The idea was particularly absurd where Eric was concerned. I was five years younger than him and had witnessed every rebellious phase he had ever gone through.

Eric had always been wildly popular with women.

He was rich and strikingly handsome, with the kind of charisma that drew people in. He carried himself with a lazy, effortless confidence, rather like a well-fed cheetah strolling across the savanna without a care in the world.

He had always been the most popular boy at school, and people naturally followed his lead. Since high school, only the prettiest girls ever rode on the back of his motorcycle. There was a different one every few weeks.

As well as he treated me, I had to be fair and admit that Eric was an unapologetic womanizer. So, one could easily imagine how much he resented and resisted the arranged marriage.

The first time Dad seriously brought up the match over dinner, Eric had scoffed. I still remembered his exact words.

“She already has a master’s degree at twenty-three? Dad, have you lost your mind? She must be some socially inept nerd who has spent her entire life buried in books.

“I bet no one else would marry her. Why are you so determined to make your own son’s life miserable?”

Dad ignored his complaints. Without even looking up, he asked, “Are you going to meet her or not?”

Eric went. At that time, he and several friends had secured a parcel of government land for a major development project.

They were at a critical stage. Their funding could not afford to be disrupted.

Eric was fiercely proud and hated being threatened more than anything. Under ordinary circumstances, he might have dug in and waited Dad out, but too much money was at stake.

There was no point cutting off his nose to spite his face, so he swallowed his pride and compromised.

The evening felt less like a date and more like a formal meeting between two families, with both sets of parents seated opposite each other.

I actually had a very good first impression of Amanda. She certainly looked nothing like the awkward, bespectacled nerd Eric had imagined.

She was fair-skinned, with beautiful eyes and a naturally gentle demeanor.

However, her appearance was not what struck me first. It was her presence.

She gave the impression of someone kind and accepting, yet sheltered from the harsher realities of life. There was something wonderfully pure about her.

My parents smiled throughout the dinner. It was obvious that they were very pleased with Amanda.

Eric, however, liked a very different type. His taste had not changed in years. He preferred curvy bombshells with long, wavy hair and bold, glamorous features.

To make matters worse, Eric arrived late that evening. He had done so deliberately.