Chapter 2
1379 Words
Charlotte's POV:
But Ethan hadn't always been like this.
The year I graduated from college, my parents lied and told me they were seriously ill to trick me into coming home. In reality, they planned to marry me off to an elderly man in exchange for a hefty dowry.
Ethan arrived just in time.
Without hesitation, he handed over every penny of the compensation payout he'd received, nearly thirty thousand dollars, to free me from them.
Taking my hand firmly, he looked me straight in the eye and asked, "Will you come with me?"
I left with nothing but a backpack.
Without a second thought, I followed him to build a life from scratch in a new city.
During our hardest years, Ethan was swindled by a business partner. The only way to cover the financial losses was to secure a major new contract.
When a client deliberately made things difficult and pressured me into drinking far beyond my limits, Ethan grabbed my wrist and immediately tried to take me away.
"We're leaving," he said through clenched teeth.
I stopped him and shook my head.
"It's okay," I whispered. "I can handle it."
In the end, we secured the contract.
But I ended up in the hospital getting my stomach pumped.
After only one day, I was already trying to leave because we didn't have enough money.
Ethan refused.
We nearly had a huge argument over it.
Eventually, he gave in when he saw me grimacing in pain while trying to pack my belongings.
That night, the two of us squeezed onto a narrow hospital bed.
From behind, he wrapped his arms tightly around me.
A scorching tear landed against my neck.
"Charlotte," he whispered hoarsely, holding me closer. "I swear I'll never let you down."
"In the future, no matter what happens, I'll protect you."
The year his business finally began to flourish was also the year I became pregnant.
Back then, we were each other's entire world.
We loved each other completely.
We happily planned our wedding together, convinced that happiness was finally within reach and that our family was about to begin.
Then a single accident shattered everything before it could arrive.
Coming back to the present, I lowered my gaze toward my stomach.
It was flat. Our child was long gone.
Deep down, I knew that after such a devastating accident, there had never been any chance of saving the baby.
Even so, a sharp pain stabbed through my heart.
Cold sweat broke out across my body.
The ache nearly suffocated me.
I reached toward Ethan instinctively, wanting to grab him, to ask him why he didn't love me anymore.
Before I could speak, his phone rang.
It was Lily.
"Daddy," her small voice asked through the speaker, "why isn't Mommy home yet?"
Ethan immediately shot to his feet.
The concern on his face was impossible to miss.
"Go to bed first, sweetheart," he said gently. "When you wake up tomorrow, you'll definitely see Mommy."
The moment he hung up, he ordered his assistant to trace Laura's location.
Throwing the gauze aside, he shouted toward the kitchen, "Rebecca, come help treat her wound."
Watching him leave without the slightest hesitation, I hurried after him.
I grabbed onto the edge of the car window.
"I need to talk to you," I said desperately.
His anxiety had completely overwhelmed his usual patience.
Naturally, he didn't notice that my speech was no longer impaired.
I sounded completely normal.
He frowned impatiently.
"Can you stop clinging to me?" he snapped.
Without caring whether I might get hurt, Ethan started the engine.
The car lurched forward, the sudden movement throwing me violently onto the pavement.
But less than a minute later, he stopped. The driver's door flew open as he hurried back, and for a moment, hope surged inside me.
I thought I finally had a chance to explain everything.
Instead, he grabbed my arm, hauled me upright, and shoved me into the passenger seat.
The bitterness in his voice was unmistakable.
"Charlotte," he said grimly, "am I supposed to spend my entire life paying back what I owe you?"
In that instant, every confession I wanted to make disappeared. Every plea, every attempt to save us—gone.
Ethan drove at an alarming speed.
It felt as though he were venting all of his frustration through the accelerator.
I clutched the door handle tightly, fear written all over my face.
"Could you slow down?" I asked quietly.
Instead, the vehicle accelerated even more.
In the rearview mirror, I could see the irritation etched across Ethan's features as he instructed his assistant over the phone.
"Get to the bar first and find Laura."
When we arrived, chaos had already broken out.
Inside the bar, Laura was pinned beneath a man.
Her dress had been pulled out of place.
She struggled desperately and screamed for help.
Without hesitation, Ethan stormed forward and delivered a vicious kick to the man's chest.
The man crashed backward.
Ethan immediately removed his suit jacket and draped it over Laura's shoulders.
Then he grabbed an unopened bottle from a nearby table and smashed it against the man's head.
The glass exploded, dark liquor trickling down the man's face.
Every trace of restraint vanished from Ethan's eyes.
Grinding the man's fingers beneath his polished shoe, he demanded coldly, "Where else did you touch her?"
The man screamed in pain. "She begged me for that contract! What right do you have to lecture me? Let me go!"
Ethan's response was immediate, his voice deadly calm. "She's with me."
Standing in the hallway, I watched the man I once loved lose control of another woman. The sight was absurd, painfully absurd. But it was also my answer. What was left to ask?
Laura quickly grabbed Ethan's arm.
"That's enough," she said softly. "That project is important to you. A little humiliation doesn't matter. I can handle it."
Only then did I realize why she felt so familiar, that stubborn determination, that willingness to sacrifice herself. She reminded me of who I used to be.
Something flickered across Ethan's face, a memory, perhaps. Then he said quietly, "If I can't even protect someone important to me, then I'd rather lose the contract."
The man who once failed to protect me had finally become powerful.
But the promise he once made to me was now being fulfilled for someone else.
Laura avoided the hand he extended toward her.
"Charlotte will misunderstand if she sees this," she said gently.
Only then did Ethan notice that I'd followed him inside.
When he saw the tears in my eyes, his expression tightened.
For a brief moment, guilt flashed across his face.
But it disappeared as soon as he noticed the bruises on Laura's arm.
The marks looked like fingerprints.
His gaze instantly hardened.
"If you hadn't deliberately delayed things," he said accusingly, glaring at me, "Laura wouldn't have gotten hurt."
Because he still believed I was mentally impaired, he spoke without restraint.
He didn't bother hiding what he truly thought anymore.
"It's been six years, Charlotte," his voice was exhausted. "When are you finally going to let me have a new life?"
The truth hit me with brutal clarity. Without me. That was the life he wanted, a life without me. Fine. Then I'd give it to him.
Ethan wrapped an arm around Laura's shoulders and guided her past me.
When he realized I wasn't following, he stopped and turned around.
His brows furrowed.
"What are you doing now?" he asked impatiently. "Another tantrum?"
I shook my head.
Looking him directly in the eyes, I answered calmly, "I'm not going back."
- Writer
