“Since you know you stole my life to get where you are now, this is how you treat your so-called benefactor?”
Hearing that, he dropped the act entirely.
“Benefactor? If you really wanted to be my benefactor, you should’ve never come back. For eighteen years, I was the only young master of the Carter family. You’re the one who took everything that should’ve been mine!”
“But it doesn’t matter anymore. I told you long ago—you’ll never beat me. Watching your parents and your fiancée treat you like you’re invisible... how does it feel to be abandoned by the whole world?”
“Oh, and your leg—did you really think the Carter and Parker families couldn’t afford to fix that? Back then, I just shed a few tears, and Emily replaced all your medicine out of pity. I still laugh when I remember how pathetic you looked after realizing you’d be crippled for life!”
I stared down at my useless left leg, and every insult and injustice over the years surged to the surface.
I couldn’t take it anymore—and slapped Ryan hard across the face.
In an instant, his cheek turned red and swollen.
But instead of retaliating, he smirked.
Before I could react, he collapsed from the force—right into Emily’s arms.
“Ethan, are you insane?”
“Ryan only came to keep you company because he thought you’d be lonely, and you treat him like this?”
Ryan lay weakly in her arms, covering his face and sobbing.
“Emily, I’m sorry. I just saw Ethan struggling and wanted to help. I didn’t expect him to lash out like that.”
“Don’t be mad at Ethan. After all, the Carter family raised me, and he’s still my benefactor. It’s just a slap—let’s just forget it.”
Watching him fake it again made my blood boil.
“Forget it? Why forget it?”
“Emily, how exactly did my leg become disabled? Don’t you owe me an explanation?”
Panic flashed across her eyes, but she quickly regained her composure.
“What is there to explain? Haven’t I done enough these past ten years? So many people told me not to get engaged to you, but I stayed anyway. How long are you going to hold this over my head? Is my life not enough compensation?”
“Ethan, I truly regret letting you save me!”
Saying that, she suddenly snatched a knife from a waiter’s tray and slashed at her wrist—
But he was quickly restrained by the crowd that rushed over.
“You’re heartless! Miss Parker’s been driven this far—what more do you want? You think a tiny favor gives you the right to act like this?”
“With someone like him, if Miss Parker hadn’t been so kind, who would even want him?”
I ignored their scorn and turned to Emily, speaking each word with calm precision:
“Emily, you don’t need to regret it—because I won’t marry you.”
The sneers around me grew louder.
Emily broke away from the crowd, walked up to me, and looked at me with disgust.
“Ethan, fine. As you wish, our engagement is over! But before that, you must apologize to Ryan!”
She reached out to grab me, and I stepped back quickly.
Just as she was about to catch me, a figure stepped between us.
“Sorry, I’m late, husband.”
