Four years ago, in order to protect my wife, I badly injured three people and killed five in self-defense. The court said I used “excessive defense,” so I was sent to prison.

After I got out, everything at home looked normal on the surface, but something always felt wrong.

Until one day, while I was helping my son with his homework, he suddenly said, “Why didn’t you die in prison? Now that you’re back, Arden doesn’t come play Delta Force with me anymore.”

The man he mentioned was my childhood friend. He was my best buddy for almost thirty years.

Maybe during the four years I was in prison, Arden often came to keep them company and the kid just grew attached to him.

Even though I tried to comfort myself like that, I still felt suffocated, so I went out for a walk alone.

But I had barely reached the gate of the villa when I saw my wife and Arden hugging and kissing.

——

Seren had a bit of a cleanliness obsession. She only kissed me passionately when she was in a really good mood. Most of the time, her kisses were just light and quick.

But the way she was kissing Arden now… the only word I could think of was devouring.

I said, “Seren, does kissing him feel good?”

I was on the edge of exploding, wanting to rush over and hit him, but in the end, I held myself back.

I thought my voice would scare them.

But what I saw instead was relief on their faces.

“We’ve wanted to tell you for a long time, but we didn’t know how to say it. It’s better that you saw it yourself,” Seren said.

She leaned against Arden’s chest and lightly licked her lips which were still wet with his saliva.

No wonder every time I tried to touch her, she said she was taking herbal medicine and needed to “take care of her body,” so she kept refusing me.

So this was what it was. She already had someone else.

In prison, many men cried and told me how their wives or girlfriends had betrayed them after they were locked up. But I was sure my wife would never do that.

After all, I went to prison because of Seren. If I hadn’t acted that night, she would’ve been hurt, maybe even killed.

“You two talk. I’ll go first,” I said.

Right in front of me, Arden kissed Seren again with a deep, lingering kiss.

When their lips finally parted, he even gave her a small bite, making her let out a soft, shy sound.

Then he looked at me with a smile at the corner of his mouth and got into his car.

He was provoking me.

And the car he drove away in was my black Maybach, the one I bought before going to prison.

He lowered the window and gave me a smile. He didn’t say a word, but it felt like he was saying: “See, Lucian? I’m driving your car just like I’m sleeping with your wife.”

My fists tightened, my breathing got heavier and I was already on the edge of losing control.

“Are you still thinking about hitting someone?”

Seren’s cold voice pulled me back. “Don’t forget, you’re an ex-convict with a criminal record. If you dare touch anyone, I’ll personally send you back to prison.”

“Why?” I asked in confusion, not understanding why she would betray me.

“You still dare ask? As a husband, as a father, you spent four years in prison! Do you know how hard those four years were for me? If Arden hadn’t held everything together, the company and this family would’ve fallen apart!” Seren screamed at me, completely losing control.

“I went to prison because of what happened that night!” I yelled back. “I was against that private deal, but you supported Arden’s idea. That’s why we got trapped in the container yard!”

“We were surrounded by so many people. If I hadn’t fought back, do you know what would’ve happened to you? Do I need to explain what those men would’ve done to you?”

“I went to prison to protect you. And this… this is how you treat me?”

“If it wasn’t because I still remembered what you once did for me, I would’ve filed for divorce while you were in prison!” Seren left me with that cold sentence.

“From now on, you’re still the head of this household, but don’t interfere with the love between me and Arden.”

After saying that, she brushed past me and walked away.

I stood there, frozen.

After all those years of love and every risk I took for her, it was all gone in an instant.

“Lucian, stop making a fuss. In this circle, many families are like this.” Seren suddenly turned back again, grabbed my hand and pulled me toward the villa.

“At least Arden and I are only at the kissing stage. I can even promise you that before I fully choose to be with him, I’ll spend some good time with you again.”

I walked forward in a numb daze. Her words completely shattered everything I believed in.

“And don’t worry. I will still be your wife and do what a wife should do. I’ll try to make time for you. I won’t spend all my time on Arden.”

Seren talked as if she were arranging a work schedule.

“There’s 150 thousand in this card. Do whatever you want,” she said. “But remember, if you want to have fun, find someone clean. Don’t come home with diseases.”

After bringing me into the study, she handed me the card.

I looked at the card, then at the woman who now felt like a stranger to me. I said nothing and took it.

“Where are you going?” She suddenly pulled me back as I turned to leave.

“Sleeping,” I replied numbly.

“No. You’re not going. Tonight, I can reward you here in the study. Didn’t you always want to try something different before? Today, I can give you everything.”

Seren was actually taking the initiative. But I felt sick, not just in my mind, but physically, like I wanted to throw up.

Still, I held it in and didn’t refuse her.

That night, I barely slept. It felt like she was trying to exhaust me to death with the way she “rewarded” me.

When morning came and she finally fell asleep on the chair, I slipped away to take a shower.

I remembered scenes from movies, where a woman who had been assaulted would keep washing herself over and over, feeling she could never get clean.

Right then… that was exactly how I felt.

I even wanted to grab sandpaper and scrub off the outer layer of my skin.

After showering, the sadness and exhaustion hit me all at once.

I fell asleep with those feelings and when I woke up again, it was already afternoon.

When I went to the living room, I saw Seren’s parents sitting on the sofa, their faces dark and serious.

“Why are you still sleeping at a time like this? Did you sleep like this when you were in prison? What bad luck. Our daughter ended up marrying someone like you.”

My mother-in-law still acted the same as before, covered in expensive jewelry from head to toe.

But back then, when Seren and I almost broke up, she cried and begged me not to leave her daughter, even threatened to kill herself if I didn’t marry her.

And now she said I was the bad luck?

“I heard you saw everything yesterday? Since you already know, there’s nothing left to hide. We came today for two things.”

“First, we’re taking the child to stay at Arden’s place. We’re all living there now. Second, we’re warning you, don’t you dare interfere with Seren and Arden’s relationship. Otherwise, we’ll send you back to prison.”

“You, a morally rotten ex-convict, don’t deserve my daughter!”

My father-in-law said this with a stiff face, then stood up to leave.

Did he forget that when he was caught hiring prostitutes, I was the one who pulled strings to get him out?

Now they called me the one with “bad morals”?

“Caspian, are you sure you want to go?” I asked my son.

He was only seven or eight. I wanted to give him a chance.

But he turned around and glared at me, his face full of disgust.

“Mom said I can take Arden’s surname from now on. I’ll be Caspian Thorn. I’m not using your stupid ex-convict surname!”

After saying that, he grabbed my father-in-law’s hand and walked off, asking excitedly, “Did Arden buy me the computer? Did he buy the 5090D he promised? I want to play Delta Force! I want to go all out!”

“He bought it,” my father-in-law replied.

“And you don’t need to call him Arden anymore. Soon, Arden will be your real father.”

My father-in-law said this while looking straight at me, clearly trying to provoke me.

I clenched my fists but said nothing.

The house felt huge and empty and now, it really was just me left inside.

The ironic part was that our wedding photo was still hanging in the living room. And near the wine cabinet, there was another picture of me and Seren kissing under a tree, with Arden making a silly face in the corner of the photo.

They were the woman I loved the most and the friend I trusted the most. I was willing to risk my life for them, but in the end, they didn’t hesitate to betray me and make a fool out of me.

People’s hearts these days were really something else.

I was sitting on the sofa smoking when my phone rang. It was an unknown number.

“Lucian, I’m out too! I called you the moment I got released. I’ll be using this number from now on!”

It was a man’s voice, full of excitement.

His name was Welly Broth. He looked even prettier than some girls. He got locked up for drunk driving and hit-and-run, at least that’was what the record said.

But the truth was, his own older brother framed him. He wasn’t even the one driving.

While we were inside, he almost got targeted every day because he looked so good. But I protected him.

From that day on, he treated me like his real brother. “Let’s meet another time. I have some things to deal with right now, so I won’t look for you yet.”

Right after I said that, another call came in. It was my dad.

I quickly said to Welly, “I’ll talk to you later, my dad is calling.”

What I feared most was my parents finding out about everything.

They were getting older. If they knew what happened, the anger might seriously hurt them.

“Lucian, listen to me,” my dad said. “Feelings are complicated. Since Seren has fallen for someone else, don’t hold on anymore.”

“And besides, Arden is a good kid. During the four years you were in prison, he took care of us even better than you, our own son.”

“So if you keep causing trouble, don’t blame me and your mother for cutting ties with you!”

My dad’s angry voice came through the phone.

So even my own parents had turned against me?

My chest hurt. I didn’t say a word and just hung up.

If everyone had betrayed me then I might as well act like they didn’t exist.

I still had my work, at least that hadn’t left me.

I got up, cleaned myself up, put on a suit and headed to the company.

The Vale Group was the company I built with my own hands. Since university, I started my own business.

I made money through small mobile games and later our MOBA game exploded overseas. Half of the overseas market for local games was basically under my control.

Before I went to prison, we even had a AAA game ready to launch on Steam, but everything got delayed because I was locked up.

Now that I was out, with both love and family gone, this game was the only thing I could rely on to climb back to the top.

But when I arrived at the company entrance, the security guards stopped me.

“I’m Lucian Vale. The Vale Group belongs to me,” I explained.

The guard laughed coldly. “Oh, do you think if your surname is Vale, then the Vale Group is yours? My surname is Vale too, does that make me your dad?”