Chapter 2

As Ethan Vance's bride-to-be, not a single driver was willing to give me a ride.

So, I had to walk all the way back alone, just like I had done so many times before.

By the time I reached the estate, it was well past midnight. My feet were covered in painful blisters.

Ignoring the physical ache, I hurried straight to my room and packed everything I owned into my suitcases.

I needed to get out of this sickening place as fast as possible!

It wasn't until I dragged my bags down the stairs that the butler stepped forward to stop me. "The engagement was right around the corner, Miss Clara. You shouldn't have thrown a tantrum at Mr. Vance. You've swallowed your pride so many times before; why make a fuss now?

"There were so many high-profile guests there. You made Mr. Vance lose face, and he still has business deals to close. If you walk out now, he might not bother looking for you. Why don't you just apologize like you always do? Once he calms down, you'll still be Mrs. Vance."

Mrs. Vance? In this house of more than a dozen staff members, had anyone ever truly treated me like a lady of the house?

Even the maids looked down on me!

If Ethan hadn't tacitly permitted it, would any of them have dared to treat me this way?

Ever since my father passed away and Ethan’s dad took me in, I had lived under their roof, pushed around, walking on eggshells, and enduring everyone’s quiet contempt.

I had had enough. I shoved his hand away. "There's no need! Even if I die on the streets, I will never step foot in this house again!"

We were completely, utterly toxic.

There was nothing left here worth clinging to.

Ethan had always claimed I was the most embarrassing woman to be seen with.

He told me I wasn't as pretty as Isabella, wasn't as smart or sophisticated as Isabella...

According to him, I fell short of her in every single metric.

So he kept me locked away at home, forbidding me from going out and embarrassing him in public.

And Chloe? A former club hostess with barely a high school diploma.

Just because she shared a few facial features with Isabella, he treated her like the most precious woman on earth after Isabella herself.

To protect Chloe, he had hurt me more times than I could count.

I still remembered that night clearly.

Chloe had called him in tears, claiming a patron was harassing her at the bar. Ethan literally dumped me on the side of the highway and sped off into the night just to comfort her.

I had stepped inside the highway rest stop to buy him food. When I walked out, the parking lot was completely empty.

I thought he had just pulled ahead onto the highway.

It was past midnight. I was terrified of the dark, and I ran along the asphalt crying my eyes out, desperate to find his car.

All I met was dead silence.

I sat shivering in that rest stop until morning, until a state trooper finally gave me a ride home.

When I dragged my exhausted body back to the house, Ethan was holding Chloe in his arms, gently rocking her to sleep.

The moment he saw me, he kicked me out of the master bedroom. "Watch your step, don't wake her! She was traumatized tonight and just fell asleep!

"She lost her job, but she has pride—unlike you, who just sits around my house leeching off me. She refused to take my money, and since she has nowhere else to stay, she's staying here."

In every single word he spoke, he never once considered me family.

He never considered this place our home.

I had been furious, but seeing the gentle smile on his face whenever he talked about Chloe, I couldn't bear to ruin his mood.

"She keeps having nightmares and needs someone beside her," he had told me. "Move your things to the guest room tonight. I'll stay with her in the master bedroom."

Everyone on the outside whispered that I was the lucky future Mrs. Vance.

Only I knew the bitter truth: the title was a hollow joke.

I was nothing more than an emotional punching bag he could discard at will—a convenient body to satisfy his physical desires!

Back then, just to earn a single smile from him, I had tolerated every humiliation.

Looking back now, I felt utterly pathetic.

I had brought all that misery upon myself!

Dragging my suitcases, I wandered aimlessly along the sidewalk.

After being abandoned by him so many times, I no longer feared walking down dark streets alone, nor did my blistered feet hurt anymore.

He had kept me locked away for years, never letting me travel.

I pulled out my phone and searched for the highest-rated hidden getaway spot online.

It turned out to be a quiet, rustic small mountain town. I booked the earliest train ticket available.

I ended up waiting in the station lobby until dawn.

It didn't matter. I had already mastered the art of waiting alone.

As the train pulled away and the landscape blurred past the window, a deep, long-lost peace washed over me.

It was right then that news of Ethan and Chloe’s engagement broke.