He Humiliated Me, I Married His Powerful Guardian

Chapter 2

With that, Arthur hung up directly. After tapping on the screen a few times, he handed my phone back to me.

"I blocked his number," he said calmly. "If he keeps bothering you, tell me. I'll handle it."

Something warm stirred quietly in my chest. Even after Arthur drove me home, I still felt slightly dazed.

But the feeling did not last long before Jace's messages started flooding my phone.

Jace: Ivy, are you insane? I already apologized to you, and you still ran to Arthur to complain?

Jace: No wonder nobody wants you with that personality.

Jace: You really think a childhood engagement can force me to marry you? Keep dreaming.

I could not quite describe what I was feeling.

When we were children, Jace had been the one clinging to me everywhere we went, insisting I become his bride when we grew up.

Our families had always been close. Since we spent nearly every day together and were inseparable as children, the two families eventually arranged a childhood engagement between us.

The Bennett family was well respected, but compared to the rapidly rising Blake family, we still fell short.

To become someone worthy of Jace, I had spent years holding myself to impossibly high standards.

Everyone praised me for it. Even Jace used to joke sometimes, his warm brown eyes fixed on me with a grin.

"Ivy, you're too outstanding. So many people like you that even I feel threatened sometimes."

So when he casually mentioned one day that he did not want our relationship tied down by a childhood engagement, part of me still held onto hope. Maybe he only hated the arrangement. Maybe he did not hate me.

Now, as I thought back on it, all I could do was laugh at myself.

I calmly added his number to the blacklist. Half an hour later, someone started pounding violently on my front door.

The moment I opened it, I saw Jace standing there with a dark expression.

"So you're really that afraid nobody will marry you? You know how much I hate being pressured, yet now you're using Arthur to force me?"

I looked at the man in front of me and suddenly felt as though everything had changed.

Once upon a time, those same warm brown eyes had looked at me with unmistakable affection as he said, "I just hate the idea of people treating us like some business marriage. If I ever fall in love, it'll be the kind people remember for the rest of their lives. Once I convince Grandpa to cancel the childhood engagement, I'll pursue you properly."

I closed my eyes briefly and forced myself to stay calm. "Jace, I never tried to pressure you, and I certainly didn't use your father against you."

Jace gave a mocking laugh. "Drop the act, Ivy. Everyone knows the perfect good girl is always the first to run crying to someone behind the scenes."

I frowned slightly. "When have I ever done that?"

Before Jace could answer, Mia stepped forward behind him with a mocking sneer.

"Oh please. Stop pretending to be some innocent sweetheart. Back then, when Jace got beaten so badly he couldn't get out of bed for a month, wasn't that your fault?"