After I Let Him Marry My Stepsister, He Regretted It

Chapter 2

Lucian's brow furrowed.

Victoria rose from her seat and took my hand, her eyes already glistening with tears.

"Nora, I know this hurts, but Lucian loves me. Please don't blame him."

The bracelet on her wrist flashed under the lights. It was a keepsake from my mother. My father and stepmother had taken it from me yesterday, saying Victoria needed something to make her look good today.

I pulled my hand away. "Victoria, you're right."

After the banquet, Lucian blocked my path in the underground parking garage.

He looked down at me, his voice cold enough to freeze the air. "Nora, Victoria is in poor health. She can't take even the slightest upset. If you dare lay a hand on her, I won't spare you."

A bitter smile tugged at my lips. In my previous life, I had stayed by his side when he had nothing, helped him entertain clients, and drunk myself sick for him. I had even given birth to twins. Yet all I amounted to was nothing important.

I lowered my gaze. "Mr. Vaughn, you chose Victoria. Of course I'll get out of the way."

Lucian went still for a moment.

After a long silence, he finally said, "As long as you know your place, I will introduce you to someone suitable."

I never looked back. I turned and left. The moment I walked through the front door, my stepmother was already ordering people to carry things out of my room. They were taking my ruby jewelry. I had spent three years saving every penny to buy the loose gemstones one by one, then had them set into the shape of twin blossoms.

When Lucian saw it, he had smiled so gently. "Nora, do you want to marry me and stay with me forever?"

My breath caught, and I almost rushed over to stop them.

My stepmother glanced at me, her face full of irritation. "What are you doing? You are not becoming Mrs. Vaughn anymore. This set is perfect for your sister. If you dare make trouble before the engagement, I won't let you off!"

I clenched my jaw and slowly stepped aside without saying a word. After they left, I pulled an old tin box from the deepest corner under my bed. Inside was a yellowed love letter.

Three years ago, before leaving to teach in a remote border town, a man asked me if I would leave with him when he came back. Back then, all I could think about was Lucian, so I never answered. Now, I picked up my phone and sent him a message.

Nora: Can you help me fake my death and get out of here? I am willing to go with you.

News of Lucian's engagement spread through the entire circle overnight.

Everyone was waiting for me to make a fool of myself.

"Didn't Lucian once say Nora was the only woman he would marry? Look at him now. He still picked someone else. She got dumped in front of everyone. Who would want her after that?"

"She must have done something disgusting to make Lucian throw her away."

I let the gossip slide right past me. In my previous life, I had heard things far worse.

The Vaughn family soon delivered the engagement gowns.

Victoria slipped into a custom-made dress and twirled before the mirror.

My stepmother lovingly smoothed her hair. "Victoria, you look beautiful. If anyone ever gives you a hard time, come home and tell me. I will deal with them."

My father sat on the couch, flipping through property documents as he chose storefronts for her dowry. From the doorway, I suddenly remembered my wedding day in my previous life.

Victoria had cried through the entire night. My stepmother's eyes were swollen from comforting her, while my father turned his anger on me. "Victoria is heartbroken, and you still have the nerve to dress like it is a happy occasion? Are you trying to rub salt in her wounds?"

I should have seen it sooner. They had never loved me.

My mother died on the operating table when complications arose during my birth. From then on, my father decided I was the child who had come to collect a debt. Before I was even two months old, he shipped me off to my grandparents in the countryside.

My grandfather taught me to ride a bike, while my grandmother stayed up late taking in my clothes. Whenever I scraped my knees, my grandfather would carry me home while my grandmother cursed the rough roads, her eyes brimming with tears.

When I was 10, my grandmother passed away, and I was finally brought back to the city. By then, my father had remarried. My stepmother thought I was embarrassingly country, while my father complained that I had no idea how to behave.

Victoria peeked out from behind them and asked, "Is she the new maid?"

Desperate for my father's and stepmother's approval, I traded my sneakers for proper shoes, practiced piano until my fingertips were sore, stayed up late studying etiquette, and little by little molded myself into the daughter they wanted.

Years later, I crossed paths with Lucian again at a dinner party. He had spent six months teaching in the mountains near my grandmother's home during college. We had known each other for years.

He took my hand and said, "Nora, you were never meant to live by anyone else's rules."

Yet he later became the man who locked me inside that villa and broke both my legs.

I was about to leave when Victoria suddenly called out to me.

"Nora, Lucian is taking me to an art exhibition. Come with us."

She did not give me a chance to say no before pulling me into the car. But the moment we arrived, my eyes landed on the painting hanging on the wall. It was the one my grandfather had left me.

"Chasing the Wind" captured the wildflowers blooming on the hill behind my grandmother's home, the very flowers I had watched grow up with me.

I rushed over. "Why is this painting here?"

Victoria smiled, her eyes full of challenge. "You can't bear to let it go? Too bad. Lucian bought it for me!"

She leaned toward me, lowering her voice. "Your grandparents spoiled you when you lived in the countryside, and even after you returned to the city, Lucian still cared about you. Why should you get to have it all?"

Then she pulled a small knife from her bag and viciously slashed the painting.