“Better to deal with it now than marry him and spend a lifetime facing that coldness.”

Fay still wanted to marry me? I didn't want to marry her anymore.

Back then, because my work required absolute secrecy, I had no right to date or start a family like a normal person.

But Fay fell for me at first sight and launched an aggressive pursuit.

No matter how many times I turned her down, she kept coming back, undeterred.

It wasn't until she saved my mother twice and ended up hospitalized herself from a beating that I finally gave in.

She grabbed my hand and said：“You're on my ship now. Don't even think about escaping.”

The Harding princess, so moved she was crying, had melted something inside me that day.

Memories were beautiful. Reality was cruel.

Fay curled her lips into a cold smile：“Desmond, if you can't pay up, the owner of that antique and the manager will strip your mother naked and break your legs before throwing you out.”

The moment those words left her mouth, every pair of eyes in the room locked onto us, hungry for the spectacle.

“He's done for. There's no way he can afford that kind of money.”

“He's just some nobody. Honestly, someone like him was never good enough for Fay. At least she finally came to her senses.”

Victor's gaze crawled over my mother's body, and when he spoke, his voice was laced with menace.

“If you really can't pay, I'll tear the clothes off this old hag myself.”

“As for breaking legs, I'll leave that to the manager.”

My mother's face drained of all color.

The shock triggered her old heart condition. She clutched her chest with both hands and collapsed to the floor.

She knocked a glass of red wine off the table as she fell, and the wine splashed across Victor's shoes.

“You stupid woman!”

“Smashing my antique wasn't enough? Now you've ruined my shoes and my clothes too?”

“I have a flight to catch for a business trip, and you're out here begging for it.”

Before I could react, he raised his foot and stomped down hard on my mother's stomach.

“No! Stop!”

Fay shot to her feet, but Kerry grabbed her wrist：“Ow! Fay, my leg hurts so bad!”

Fay turned and saw Kerry's bandaged leg. The alarm on her face shifted to pity, and then, slowly, to something cold and hollow.

“Kerry, don't stand up. Sit down.”

“So you won't go rushing in to save them?”

Looking at the redness rimming Kerry's eyes, Fay answered without hesitation：“No.”

On the other side of the room, every staff member in the restaurant had closed ranks around me. I couldn't get anywhere near my mother.

She was curled around her stomach, a low, broken sound forcing itself through her teeth.

“Mom, are you okay?”

No answer. My chest tightened another notch.

“Move! Her condition is flaring up!”

“I already told you, I'll find a way to pay!”

They didn't budge. More bodies stepped in to fill the gaps.

“Pay? How exactly are you going to pay?”

“I'm leaving this city in two hours and I'm never coming back. Where am I supposed to collect from you?”

“Give me an address and a bank account number. Once I have the money I'll transfer……”

“Bullshit. Talk is cheap. There are plenty of deadbeats who skip out on what they owe. If I let a couple of strangers walk out of here, I'd be the idiot.”

The words barely left his mouth before he raised his foot and stomped on my mother's stomach a second time.

“Ahhh!”

Two full-force blows. She curled into a tight ball, trembling, and a mouthful of blood spilled from her lips.

Panic burned through me. I threw myself forward, fighting to break through the wall of bodies.

“Tighten up! He knows how to fight!”

“If you want your money, keep him away from the old hag. Grab her as a hostage. I bet he'll find the cash real quick.”

Victor and Alfred liked Kerry's suggestion. They sent the security guards straight at me.

Terrified for my mother, I spun around to face Fay.

“Fay, my mother has a heart condition, and he's already hurt her twice.”

“I'm begging you. Use the Harding name to tell them I'll pay. I won't run.”

“Please, save my mother.”

Something rippled across Fay's face. In all the time I'd known her, this was the first time I had ever asked her for help.

But Kerry wasn't about to let her soften.

“Ah! My leg's bleeding again.”

“The doctor said if the bleeding damages the tendons around the bone, they'll never heal right.”

“If he hadn't stood there that night, cold and heartless, watching me get crippled, I wouldn't be like this.”

“Now he gets a few scratches and wants it all swept under the rug? What about me?”

Fay sat back down. Whatever urge she'd had to help us was gone.

“Fay, please believe me.”

“You saw my mother coughing up blood……”

“Ha. Not sick before, not sick after, but the second the bill comes she's playing dead.”

“Don't fall for it.”

Kerry's words whipped Victor and Alfred into a fury.

And Fay believed him. She settled back in her chair and spoke the words that severed us forever.

“I am indeed the Harding heiress. But I don't know that man.”

“Don't show him any mercy on my account. Otherwise every freeloader in the city will think they can pull the same stunt.”

My mother and I stared at Fay, blank with disbelief. Once she finished speaking, she didn't spare us another glance.

“Fay!”

My mother tried to call out, but the agony tearing through her chest left her barely able to breathe.

I couldn't wait a second longer.

I swung my fists and fought my way toward her. The guards closed around me, layer after layer.

Two hands against that many bodies were never going to be enough.

When my strength gave out, someone kicked me hard from behind.

Alfred ordered them to pin me down. I couldn't break free.

“Pay up, you broke deadbeat.”

“And the bill too.”

I ground my teeth. ：“I told you I'll pay. I just don't have that kind of money right now……”

“You don't, huh!”

Victor snatched up a pair of scissors on the spot and cut through my mother's clothes, shredding the fabric off her body.

The exposed skin drew jeers and whistles from every man in the room.

My mother scrambled backward in shame, but he grabbed her and threw her back down.

“Stop it. Stop!”

She was crying. Tears blurred her eyes. She looked at me one last time, then gripped the man's hand.

“I'm the one who broke it. Don't make my son pay.”

“He still has a mission to complete. He's a hero. You can't bury him here.”

“Take my life as payment.”

“No!!” She smiled at me. Then she used every last ounce of strength she had and drove the scissors into her own heart.

Blood sprayed across Victor's face. The smell of it filled the restaurant.

Time stopped. I tore free from the hands holding me and threw myself toward her.

“Mom!”

I dropped Victor with one punch and gathered my mother into my arms. Blood wouldn't stop pouring from her chest.

She was holding on by a single breath, waiting for me.

“Mom's no use anymore.”

“The heart was already bad.”

“I'm going to find your father. Son, you are our pride. Don't disgrace him.”

My work was classified. I could never tell anyone what I did, which meant the time I spent at my mother's side had always been next to nothing.

No matter how deep the injustice, no matter how vile the accusations, I had to swallow every last one in silence.

Had I ever regretted it? From the day I took the oath, the answer was no. Not once.

I hauled my mother onto my back, her blood soaking through my shirt, and charged out of the restaurant like a man possessed.

Only then did the rest of the dining room begin to react.

“Oh my God! She's dead! She actually killed herself!”

“Holy shit, someone just died in here!”

Fay shot to her feet, her whole body seizing：“Desmond!!”

At that moment, her assistant hurried in carrying a laptop, her expression grave.

“Ms. Harding, you've got it wrong about Mr. Dickerson.”

“He didn't abandon Kerry. He couldn't intervene!”

“He found a way to get Kerry out that night, but Kerry went back in on his own, spat in the guy's face, threatened him, and nearly blew Mr. Dickerson's cover in the process.”

“Cover? What cover?”

Gina Porter quickly angled the laptop screen toward Fay alone. The moment Fay saw what was on it, her pupils dilated and her legs buckled beneath her.