Chapter 1

Grandmother had been pushed down the stairs by a caregiver at the Silver Pines Resort. In a fit of rage, Clara filed a lawsuit against the culprit.

But before the hearing could even begin, someone pulled her grandmother’s oxygen tube.

The man who gave that order was the very man she had loved for ten years—the crown prince of the Miller Group, Ethan.

Outside the ICU.

Clara clutched the doctor's white coat tightly, her voice trembling with desperate pleas. "Doctor, I beg of you, please save my grandmother!"

The doctors glanced toward Ethan. Seeing his cold indifference, they averted their eyes one by one.

"Mrs. Miller, without Mr. Miller's explicit order... we cannot proceed with the emergency medication."

Watching her grandmother struggle for air, Ethan’s elegant fingers gripped a settlement agreement, sliding it toward her.

"Clara, Scarlett was triggered. It was a manic episode that caused her to accidentally push your grandmother. It was just an accident. She’s young; she shouldn't have to go to prison for someone who is already dying."

"Just sign the papers. I have the best medical resources. I promise your grandmother will be fine."

With bloodshot eyes, Clara slapped the papers away, sending them scattering across the floor.

"If she’s sick, she should be in treatment! Why was she working as a caregiver at the resort just to hurt my grandmother? Grandmother was already fragile; this fall has nearly cost her her life!"

"Ethan, she committed a crime. How is protecting her any different from being a criminal yourself? What right do you have to ask for my forgiveness on her behalf?"

Clara was shaking with rage.

Grandmother was the only person who had shown her kindness during the dark first twenty years of her life.

She couldn't understand it. Ethan knew exactly how much her grandmother meant to her, so why was he stepping in to clear Scarlett’s name?

Moreover, Clara had seen the surveillance footage. Scarlett had been perfectly lucid—she didn't look like someone suffering from a manic episode at all!

But no matter how she tried to explain, Ethan refused to even look at her.

Seeing Clara slumped on the cold floor, Ethan reached out to pull her up. "Clara, be reasonable. Stop fighting me. You have three minutes left."

"Your stubbornness cost your parents their lives ten years ago. Do you want to be responsible for your grandmother's death now, too?"

Ethan’s words were like a blade forged in ice, stabbing deep into her heart.

Her entire body froze as countless memories flashed before her eyes.

Ten years ago, Ethan had fallen in love with her at first sight while she was working at a bar.

To win her over, Ethan had done many reckless things that she would remember for a lifetime.

When he heard that a childhood friend had drunkenly touched her hand, he had that man's hand broken.

"No one is allowed to touch what belongs to me."

Knowing how proud she was, he had cut up all his credit cards and took the bus with her every day to drop her off and pick her up from work, shielding her in his arms.

"I didn't realize your life was this hard. From now on, I will protect you."

It wasn't until she talked in her sleep that he learned her stepfather had once tried to break down the bathroom door while she was showering.

Shaking with fury, he had rushed to her home and got into a brutal fight with the man. Even after being stabbed three times and clutching his bleeding abdomen, he had roared:

"No one is allowed to bully her ever again!"

That was the day she decided he was the one for her.

With her background, marrying into the Miller family was almost an impossible dream.

But for her sake, Ethan had cut ties with his family. The two of them had lived in a rented room, sharing a single bowl of instant noodles without a word of regret.

Until the Millers' long-time family friends, the Scarlett family, came knocking with a DNA test, revealing that Clara was the true heiress who had been swapped by a nanny.

She thought she was finally worthy of him.

But fate's kindness ended there.

Right after the wedding, Clara's biological parents died in a car accident, with only Scarlett—whom they had shielded in their arms—surviving.

Not long after, Scarlett presented a bank transfer record, trembling and weeping before Ethan.

"It was my sister. She resented me for staying in the house and taking her parents' love. She hired someone to stage the accident!"

Facing his childhood friend whom he had never looked at twice before, Ethan pushed her away.

"Impossible! Clara would never do such a thing. If you dare speak such lies again, I’ll have your mouth silenced."

But Scarlett immediately wrote a statement renouncing her inheritance and attempted suicide to prove her "innocence."

From the day he saved Scarlett, everything changed.

...

Clara swallowed the metallic taste of blood rising in her throat and looked at the man before her.

"Why?"

"Ethan, Grandmother was so good to you. Why are you helping an outsider humiliate her?"

Meeting her bloodshot eyes, Ethan merely spoke a few cold words: "Because this is what you owe Scarlett."

Clara laughed silently, her laughter turning into tears.

On the first day Scarlett moved out of the Miller estate, she was kidnapped by a group of thugs.

When they found her, her clothes were torn, and her mind was shattered.

Later, she was diagnosed with a manic-depressive disorder.

While she was lucid, Ethan wanted to bring her home to care for her, but Scarlett said through tears:

"Sister hates me. I’m afraid to go back. My parents are gone, and now only Grandmother is left at the resort. I’ll go work as a caregiver to stay by her side and fulfill my duty."

That single sentence completely captured Ethan's heart.

From then on, he made time every day to visit Scarlett at the resort, and the two grew closer and closer.

Until this time, when Scarlett pushed Grandmother down the stairs, and he forced Clara to sign a settlement.

Seeing her standing there in a daze, Ethan gave a slight signal, and the live feed from the ICU appeared before her.

Grandmother lay on the hospital bed, her forehead wrapped in thick gauze, her exposed skin covered in bruises.

The transparent oxygen mask was strapped to her face. With every weak breath, a faint mist formed on the inside before slowly dissipating.

Everything told Clara that her grandmother was fighting with all her might to live.

Watching the monitor as her grandmother’s frail body began to convulse violently due to the struggle for air, Clara shut her eyes tight.

"I'll sign."

Her hand shook as the pen moved across the paper.

The name she knew so well felt as though it took every ounce of her strength to write.

As soon as she finished the last stroke, she threw the pen aside.

"Save my grandmother, now!"

Just as Ethan was about to speak, his phone vibrated.

Scarlett’s piercing scream came through the line, and he immediately stood up to leave.

Without his order, the doctors didn't dare to enter for the emergency treatment. Clara gritted her teeth and chased after him, grabbing his arm.

"Ethan, tell them to save my grandmother!"

But Ethan, listening to the screams on the phone, didn't even give her a glance. He threw her off with force, as if touching something filthy.

"Stop making a scene. Scarlett is having another episode. I have to get to her!"

Clara had been at the hospital for three days and nights without sleep; her body was severely depleted.

She stumbled and slammed hard against the wall.

An instant later, a sharp pain shot through her ankle, and she lost her balance, collapsing to the floor.

Watching the man's departing back, she didn't want to go on anymore.

Ethan... she didn't want him anymore either.

After Clara's repeated pleading, the doctors finally began the resuscitation.

She gradually calmed down, her trembling fingers reaching into her bag to pull out her phone. She dialed a strange number she had saved for a long time but had never dared to call.

The moment the call connected, her voice was choked with emotion, yet carried the absolute resolve of someone with nothing left to lose.

"The deal you mentioned before... I agree to it."

Chapter 2

The other end of the line went silent for two seconds before a man's slightly surprised voice came through.

"You've made up your mind?"

Clara’s knuckles turned white as she gripped the phone.

"I'll cooperate, but I have one condition."

"Every cent of my parents' estate—I want it back in full."

After her parents passed away, she had entrusted the entire inheritance to Ethan to manage.

Now that she was leaving, she had to take it all back.

"Deal," the man agreed readily. "But transferring the assets takes time. I need two weeks."