You Left Me for Doubt, I Made You Beg

Ethan Chase was nothing but a little beggar boy when Mindy Sterling saved him from a pack of stray dogs. While other boys his age were chasing girls and skateboarding, he was already busting open human trafficking rings with a blade in hand, becoming the untouchable "Lone Wolf" of Shamanya. But even the wildest wolf had been tamed by Mindy. During their senior year of high school, when Mindy was trapped in an abandoned warehouse by her rivals, Ethan literally flipped his desk in the middle of the exam and stormed in single-handedly to save her. The first time they made love, Mindy buried her face in his neck, vowing to love him forever. He, however, bit her collarbone until it bled, his eyes trembling with fierce intensity. "Mindy, if you ever cross me, I swear to God I will never forgive you." By the end of the night, Mindy had the little wild wolf completely leash-trained. The very next day, she dragged him to City Hall to get married. From then on, she showered him with luxury cars, jewelry, mansions, and trust funds, spoiling the lone wolf into a devoted puppy who only had eyes for her. Ethan truly believed they would spend the rest of their lives together. That was until the day he scrolled through his best buddy Julian White's i********:. Ethan could recognize the woman's silhouette in the photo with his eyes closed. But it was the caption below that hit him like a physical blow: Waiting for my goddess to propose! His fingertips went ice-cold. With trembling hands, Ethan opened the GPS tracker on his phone and followed the signal to a revolving restaurant downtown. There, he saw Mindy—who was supposed to be on a business trip abroad—holding a bouquet of red roses, practically glued to Julian's chest. The devotion and tenderness in her eyes were something Ethan had never seen. The urge to storm over and demand answers burned inside him. He wanted to ask her how she could be fawning over his best friend when, just last night, she was clinging to him, whispering "I will never betray you" in his ear. But just as he took a step forward, a memory from three years ago crashed into his mind. Back then, blinded by the misunderstanding that her heart had changed, he packed his bags and vanished into a neighboring city. Mindy had searched for him for three days. She finally knelt in the snow outside his apartment building, heavy snowflakes piling on her shoulders. When he came downstairs, her lips were purple from the cold. She only dared to tug at his shirt, begging softly, "Ethan, come home with me, please?" Only after he finally nodded did she allow herself to black out from sheer relief. It took two agonizing days in the ICU before she was finally out of the woods. The moment she recovered, she shoved two documents into his hands: a permanent residency card for Athana and a voucher for a private jet. "I'm permanently banned from entering Athana. If I ever betray you, my punishment will be never seeing you again for the rest of my life." Pulling him into her arms as if trying to merge their very bones, she had vowed, "I won't ever let you have a reason to use these." Yet now, the betrayal lay bare right before his eyes. Standing outside the restaurant, Ethan felt like a total fool. In a daze, he wandered to Mindy's home office villa. Before he could even push the door open, he heard her bestie, Jodie Cook, kissing her ass inside. "Mindy, congrats! You finally bagged the hot guy!" Mindy sounded a bit tipsy, but her voice suddenly turned icy. "Not a word to anyone. If Ethan finds out..." A glass slammed heavily onto the table. Jodie fell silent for a moment before asking cautiously, "Your grandpa is pushing hard for you to get married. Are you really planning to make it official with Ethan?" Ethan's blood ran cold. He held his breath, waiting for Mindy's answer. A second later, Mindy let out a cold sneer and tossed a marriage certificate onto the table. "Grandpa is very happy with Julian. He even gave him the family heirloom." Ethan's mind buzzed. Mindy and Julian got married? Then what was the marriage certificate in his hand supposed to mean? Jodie was equally stunned, picking up the document to inspect it. "Then what about Ethan?" Mindy locked the certificate in the safe, swirling her wine for a long while before speaking, "When we went to City Hall back then, Grandpa had already pulled some strings so that we couldn't get a real one. I had to get a fake certificate to coax him into giving me his heart. Ethan is too wild and stubborn. He's not fit to be the man of the house. Me spoiling him in private is enough." "But Ethan isn't someone to mess with. What if he finds out and leaves again?" Jodie asked. Mindy's face darkened. "Then make sure he never finds out. Tell Zane Shaw to keep a close eye on him." Ethan let out a silent laugh, feeling desperate. It turned out that every single time Zane had picked a fight with Ethan to break his arm and crush his leg, it had all been done at her behest. That crazy roadblock on his way here today was just to stop him from running into her proposal. His pain and his injuries were nothing but calculated tools in her eyes. Before he could process the shock, someone asked the exact question burning in his mind, "Mindy, who do you actually love?" Something seemed to cross Mindy's mind, and a ripple of tenderness entered her eyes. "Ethan, of course. But for the next three years, I'll give my whole heart to Julian too." She traced the rim of her glass. "Julian is so pure. He reminds me of Ethan when he was eighteen. Years ago, when Ethan forced his way into Jones Manor..." She didn't finish the sentence, but Ethan understood perfectly. During those three days at Jones Manor, he had barely made it out alive while saving her. Rumors outside claimed he only escaped by sleeping with the Jones family's daughter. Mindy was the only one who held him and said, "I believe you." Countless nights, she would kiss his scars and whisper, "My Ethan is the purest." It was all a lie. She never believed him. She was disgusted by him. "Keep the wedding in seven days a secret from Ethan. It's best if he has an 'accident' and stays in the hospital for a while," Mindy commanded. Her voice was like an ice pick, killing the last shred of hope Ethan had left. Right at that moment, his phone buzzed three times in succession. One was from Julian, attaching a picture of the marriage certificate and a cheerful emoji. Julian: Ethan, my goddess and I finally tied the knot! Don't you think this certificate looks perfect on us? One was from Mindy. Mindy: Miss you, babe. I'll head back to keep you company as soon as I wrap things up here. And one was from his mentor, Blair Faulkner. Blair: Ethan, are you really giving up the offer from the Athana Conservatory of Music? Your talent shouldn't be buried. I hope you'll reconsider. Staring at the marriage certificate on the screen and then at the "Miss you, babe," Ethan felt like he had been slapped across the face. Suddenly, it hit him. That night in bed, when Mindy mumbled the name "Julian," he hadn't misheard her at all. The person she wanted to call out for had always been Julian. A suffocating pain spread through his chest, making his fingers tremble. Slowly, he opened the chat box and started typing his reply.