Chapter 2

Vivian's POV

Adrian didn't answer.

We sat facing each other for a long time without saying a word.

Ash from his cigar fell onto the back of his hand, but he didn't seem to notice.

I thought he wouldn't agree.

To my surprise, he suddenly laughed.

Adrian stood up, stubbed out his cigar in the ashtray in front of me, and leaned down to look at me.

"Looks like Serena was right."

I froze.

He took out his phone and transferred six million dollars to someone right in front of me.

Then he sent a voice message.

"I lost. I've transferred the six million."

I stared at him in disbelief.

"What are you talking about?"

"Serena said you'd threaten me with divorce sooner or later."

He reached out and casually brushed the tip of my nose, just as he used to.

"You just cost me six million dollars."

Slap!

I smacked his hand away.

"I'm not joking!"

Adrian glanced at the reddening back of his hand and casually withdrew it.

He sighed, looking thoroughly impatient.

"Vivian, can you stop this? Enough already."

"Isn't it always the same trick with you?"

He even chuckled carelessly.

"If you really want my attention, why don't you go find yourself another man? Maybe then—"

I used every ounce of strength I had and slapped him hard across the face.

His head snapped to one side.

I stood there trembling.

"What happened to the fourteen-year-old Adrian Moretti who was willing to destroy his entire future for me?"

The room fell silent.

Adrian froze for a few seconds before turning away with a cold laugh.

I knew he'd remembered what happened all those years ago.

When he was fourteen, his mother adopted me after I lost both my parents.

But she never truly treated me like a daughter.

To her, I was living proof of her husband's betrayal.

I looked almost identical to the woman who had destroyed her marriage.

Whenever Adrian wasn't home, she would torment me. She forced me to wear clothes that didn't fit, and sometimes even dragged me outside the family club so the men there could leer at me and pass judgment.

That day, my school uniform had been torn, my face was covered in bruises, and she was dragging me out of the room by my hair.

Adrian knelt in front of his mother, repeatedly striking his forehead against the floor until blood appeared.

But she only sneered.

"Do you know why your father abandoned us?"

"Because of this girl!"

"She looks exactly like that woman!"

As she spoke, she picked up a pair of scissors and started cutting at my clothes.

"If you love seducing men so much, then let's give everyone a good look at you!"

"That's enough!"

Adrian finally snapped.

With a furious roar, he grabbed a metal ornament from the table and hurled it at the man standing beside his mother.

The man was one of the family's bodyguards, the very person who had been assaulting me.

He collapsed to the floor and never got back up.

When the police arrived, Adrian didn't try to defend himself.

As they led him away, he looked back at me.

There was no blame in his eyes.

No resentment, either.

He was sent to a juvenile correctional facility because of what happened.

Meanwhile, I had always been a close second in my class. I threw myself into my studies and worked harder than ever until I finally became the top student.

By the time he returned to me, he had already missed his best chance at an education.

He was taller and thinner.

Yet the first thing he said when he saw me was:

"As long as you're doing well, that's all that matters."

Back then, I swore I would love only him for the rest of my life.

But fourteen years later, I was beginning to regret it.

I regretted spending all those years with my heart belonging to only one man.

Adrian exhaled a cloud of smoke.

"What's the point of dragging up the past over and over again?"

I stared at him, my fists tightening unconsciously.

"Adrian, do you know why you were willing to give up everything for me back then?"

My voice trembled.

"Why?"

He lifted his chin and leaned closer.

"Because we were young and stupid."

I froze.

"What did you just say?"

"When we were fourteen, how many people had we even met?"

He gave a faint laugh.

"You meet someone who makes your heart race, and suddenly you think you can spend the rest of your life with them."

"But how many times do you get to be fourteen?"

I couldn't find the words to answer.

He looked at me with a trace of mockery in his eyes.

"Vivian, are you planning to spend the rest of your life stuck at fourteen?"

"All these years, and you still haven't grown up?"

My eyes began to sting.

But he had already picked up his jacket and was preparing to leave.

"Let the past stay in the past."

"Forget about it."

"Forget?"

I repeated the word hoarsely.

"Then how am I supposed to forget that you gave up your position in the family for me? That you fought those men to protect me? That you later built your own business from nothing?"

He stopped walking.

I took a deep breath.

"After you returned to the family, some street gangs started harassing me."

"To protect me, you took control of that territory again and personally warned everyone to stay away from me."

"You used to wait outside my school every single day."

"Later, one of my teachers told you to stop coming around."

"He said a gang member with a criminal record would ruin my future."

I smiled bitterly.

"You stayed up all night."

"The next morning, you went to work as an apprentice at an auto repair shop."

"You started from the very bottom, built your own business piece by piece, and eventually became the real power behind the Moretti family."

"You were eighteen that year."

"You told me that you wanted your love to lift me up, not hold me back."

I looked at his back.

"How am I supposed to forget that?"

Only my voice filled the room.

After a long silence, Adrian finally turned around.

"That's your problem."

The door closed in front of me.

It turned out those precious memories had only ever mattered to me.

I didn't know how long I stood there.

By the time I came back to my senses, I had already drafted a divorce agreement on my computer.

Adrian was probably at Serena's private estate at that very moment.

I took the documents and headed there.

Before I could knock, I heard Serena laughing inside.

"What do you mean by handing me the family signet in front of everyone?"

"Don't forget, I'm your father's wife now."

Through the slightly open door, I saw Adrian holding Serena on his lap.

The tenderness in his eyes was almost painful to look at.

"I want everyone to know that the love I give you is meant to lift you up."

The divorce papers slipped from my hands.

At eighteen, he'd started out as an apprentice at an auto repair shop and told me he wanted his love to lift me up.

At twenty-eight, he was holding a woman who looked almost exactly like me and repeating those very same words.

The man who had once been willing to get his hands bloody rather than let anyone hurt me...

Now found it easy to mock me.

"What are you doing here?"

A childish voice suddenly sounded behind me.

I turned sharply.

Leo was standing there.

I quickly gathered the papers, turned around, and walked away.

I'd originally planned to wait for Adrian to return before handing him the divorce agreement.

But early the next morning, before I was even fully awake, a vicious slap landed across my face.

Serena stood beside my bed, her eyes bloodshot.

"Where's my ring?"

"My mother's heirloom is missing! Where did you hide it?"

Only then did I realize her ring was gone.

She'd heard that I'd visited her estate the previous day, so she'd immediately dragged Adrian here to confront me.

I grabbed her wrist before she could slap me again and shoved her away.

"I did visit yesterday, but I was there to deliver divorce papers."

Adrian frowned.

I lifted my chin.

"If you don't believe me, check the security footage."

Serena's face visibly paled for a moment.

She had used tricks like this to frame me countless times before.

But in the past, I'd been so focused on Leo that I never bothered to argue with her.

Things were different now.

I was done putting up with it.

I stared straight at her.

"Do you want to check the cameras right now?"

"If the footage proves I took it, I'll report myself to the police."

I paused, then looked at her coldly.

"But if you hid it yourself and deliberately framed me..."

"Then we can let the lawyers and the police discuss defamation and malicious accusations."

Serena's breathing hitched. She nearly lost her balance.

Just then, a childish voice suddenly rang out.

"Mommy stole the ring!"