The morning of my wedding, my own sister locked me in a bathroom stall.

The boy I had sponsored out of poverty couldn't bear to see my fiancée standing alone at the altar, so he stepped up and married Lillian Gates in my place.

My sister was so moved that she claimed him on the spot as a brother and let him complete the marriage alliance with the Gates family in my name.

My fiancée said, "Silas, you healed my legs. I love you. I respect you. But Liam and I have already registered our marriage. From here on, one of you is my husband, and the other is my boyfriend. Things between us can stay the same… alright?"

I slapped her across the face.

What she did not know was that her legs were never fully healed. In seven days, without my brace, she would be unable to walk again.

What she also did not know was that my sister–so certain of her schemes–had never even seen our parents' will.

So what made her think the company had been left to her?

I climbed out of the bathroom stall and limped into the hall. The first thing I saw was Lillian Gates, her hand in Liam Forrester's, smiling as she toasted the guests.

"Thank you all for coming today to celebrate my wedding with the White family heir. This marks a new step in the partnership between the Gates and the Whites."

Lillian stood with him on the elevated platform. She deliberately left Liam's name vague. Many in the room still believed the man engaged to her was me.

The applause thundered through the hall.

Lillian caught sight of me out of the corner of her eye. Her expression darkened. She shot me a warning look–telling me not to cause trouble.

Liam followed her gaze. His face lit up. He quickly walked over to me.

"Brother, perfect timing. Today is a double celebration. Come, have a drink with us."

Before the ceremony, my sister Charlotte White had suddenly said she needed to speak with me urgently. She pulled me into a bathroom stall and locked me inside.

Moments later, a bucket of foul-smelling dirty water was dumped over the door.

My tailored suit was soaked through, the stench overwhelming. The staff nearby pinched their noses, their disgust impossible to hide.

Charlotte rushed over, trying to pull me away.

"Silas, whatever it is, we can talk after the ceremony–"

She cried out.

My hand had already struck her across the face.

She clutched her swollen cheek, staring at me in disbelief.

"You hit me?"

I let out a cold, mocking smile and said nothing. I raised my hand again.

Before it could fall, someone grabbed my wrist.

Lillian's face was cold and tense.

"Silas, you've gone too far. You skipped our wedding and made me a laughingstock. And now you're hitting your own sister?"

I looked at the woman I had grown up with. My chest tightened. I was about to explain myself–when Liam suddenly dropped to his knees in front of me.

"Brother, if you're angry, be angry at me! I couldn't bear to see Lillian standing alone on stage, being judged.

"I did all this to repay a debt. I just didn't want to delay the cooperation between the Gates and the Whites.

"Now that you're back, I won't even ask why you ran away from the wedding!"

It sounded like he was defending me.

However, in just a few sentences, he had already turned my absence into me abandoning the wedding.

Charlotte bit her lip and dragged me off the stage, lowering her voice as she threatened me.

"Silas, if the Gates cancel this partnership, it'll all be your fault. You'll go down as the one who ruined everything."

I looked at her. Her face was twisted with anger. A chill settled in my chest.

When our parents died in a car accident, she was only ten.

I had stood in front of her without hesitation–shielding her from shareholders who wanted to seize the company, from relatives who wanted to take everything.

Back then, she looked at me with admiration.

Now, there was only hatred in her eyes.

"Silas, why can't you ever think about me? Liam is more suitable for the Gates than you are. Can't you just give Lillian to him?"

I shook off her grip and looked straight at Lillian.

"Are you really choosing Liam?"

Lillian's eyes locked on mine, then drifted to Liam, and then back again. Indecision showed on her face.

That hesitation was what broke me.

When the car accident had taken her legs, the entire world had walked away. I had not. I had pulled her out of the mud by myself.

I had put the company in Charlotte's name. I had assembled the best surgical team in the country. I had lived in the lab for a year. The next year, I developed a new implant material. With the best surgeons and that material, I had helped Lillian stand again.

She had been on her feet for less than a month, and she still couldn't choose.

The corner of my mouth lifted in a cold smile. I don't share women.

Liam suddenly grabbed me, his voice turning soft and pitiful. "Brother, don't worry. Even though Lillian and I have already registered our marriage, I'll give her back to you."

He pulled out a marriage certificate from his coat, tore it in half, then into pieces, and flung them into the air.

Lillian rushed forward and held him tightly.

"Liam, we've already registered. No matter what happens, you are my husband. That won't change."

She raised her reddened eyes and glared at me.

"Silas, do you have to push him to death?"

I had not even spoken when, the next second, a wine glass smashed heavily near my feet, shattering instantly.

A shard cut across the top of my foot, and blood seeped out.

Lillian did not even glance at it, her tone growing more impatient.

"All those years I was in the hospital bed, you were always busy, staying in the lab day and night. I never saw you.

"It was Liam who stayed by my side in the hospital, taking care of me without rest. He didn't mind how filthy I was. He cleaned me, took care of everything. Where were you?

"Since fate made me marry Liam, then Liam is my only husband."

My damp clothes clung tightly to me, the cold seeping into my bones.

Lillian had forgotten–I was in the lab because of her.

Charlotte's expression darkened as she pulled me aside.

"Silas, stop it. The more you make a scene, the more humiliating it is for you.

"The only solution now is for you to give your hospital and medical team to Liam as a betrothal gift. I believe Lillian won't pursue the broken engagement after that. It will also make Liam's position as our sworn brother more proper."

I looked at her coldly and said firmly,

"My parents only had one son. Where did this brother come from?"

We parted on bad terms. That same night, I posted on my socials announcing the end of my engagement with Lillian.

However, I did not expect to see a haggard Lillian at my door the next day, with a troubled-looking Liam behind her.

Lillian held a bouquet of red roses. The moment she saw me, her bloodshot eyes lit up.

"Stop this. No matter how angry you are, it should've passed after one night, right?"

"Silas, I know you love me. We're not breaking up."

I glanced at the mark on her neck and let out a cold laugh.

"You've already slept with Liam. Not breaking up? What–do you want me to be your side man?"

"Don't say it like that." Lillian frowned. "Liam is my husband. You're my boyfriend. We can stay the same as before. Isn't that fine?"

I looked at her like she was insane.

I seriously wondered if the accident had injured her brain instead of her legs. Otherwise, how could she say something like that?

But my stunned expression gave her the wrong idea–she thought I loved her enough to compromise.

Liam clenched his teeth in anger but forced a fake smile. He stepped forward and tried to grab my sleeve. I raised my hand to avoid him.

I had not even used any force, yet Liam fell straight backward.

Lillian tried to catch him but was dragged down with him.

Suddenly, Lillian clutched her stomach tightly and shouted at Liam:

"The baby! Our baby!"

Lillian miscarried.

When she came out of the procedure, she had her men drag me to her bedside. A bodyguard pinned my back with his foot and forced me down.

"Silas, you are paying for what you did."

Her face was a mask. She gave a small head movement. The bodyguard kicked me. I went onto my elbow. The skin opened.

She did not look. The bodyguard pulled me up.

"Don't worry. It's almost over."

A bad feeling rose up. I tried to go for the door, but the bodyguard had me back on the floor in a step.

She got out of bed slowly. Her eyes had something in them that did not belong on her face.

"Lillian, what are you doing?"

She put her foot in my stomach.

The breath went out of me. The world went white. I curled around the pain.

I had spent every dollar I had on her legs. The legs she was using right now were what I had given her.

So she could do this.

It was not an answer I could find.

She was not done. She gripped my chin and made me look at her.

"Silas, the one thing you should not have done was hurt my child. Do you have any idea how hard it is for a Gates woman to carry one?"

I had all the air to scream and no breath to do it with.

Of course I knew. The Gates family had a long history of infertility. That was why Mrs. Gates had picked me for Lillian. Not just because our mothers had been close, but because my surgical work made women fertile.

The Gates had a rule: no engagement. Only after a wife had given birth would she be qualified to enter the Gates family.

I had been the only exception.

Lillian's hand went up. The slap came down. Then another. The room rotated.

I was a rag on the floor. I was barely breathing.

The door opened. Charlotte White, my own sister, came running in. She kicked me in the chest before she said hello.

"Silas, have you lost your mind? You made Liam lose his first child."

Anyone listening would have thought it was Charlotte's child.

I coughed up a mouthful of blood.

When the cousins came for the family assets after our parents died, Charlotte had been surrounded by dozens of them. I had stood in front of her. I had taken the kick meant for her.

She had cried into my shoulder, called me her brother, and promised to protect me.

This was how she protected me.

I forced my body up. I lifted my hand. The flat of it landed across her face.

I had nothing left to lose.

While the room turned to look at her, I broke for the door. The bodyguards were behind me, but this was my hospital. I knew the corridors.

I made it to a private room and locked the door.

The doctor said I had three broken ribs. I bit the inside of my mouth and tasted blood every time I breathed.

The pain made my hate clean.

They were both going to pay.

The phone rang.

"Mr. White, the latest version of the implant is finished. Are we installing it on Ms. Gates today?"

Lillian thought her legs were healed. She thought I had no more value. That was why she had been brave enough to tell me to be her side piece.

What she did not know was that her leg still needed one final support implant.

And I was the only person on Earth who could perform the surgery.

Without it, in seven days, she would not be able to stand.

While I was healing, Charlotte and Lillian called over and over. I ignored them. They sent texts. The texts were all ultimatums: apologize to Liam, hand over the hospital, or else.

I blocked them both. I left Liam's chat unblocked.

Liam kept texting me. The content was different. He sent me photos of Lillian taking him to the Gates home. He sent me intimate clips of him with Lillian. He sent a photo of the front of White Industries.

[Brother, Charlotte said we are family. She insisted on giving me a position at the company. They made me deputy general manager right away.]

[I told her this was your title, but she insisted I take it.]

[She gave me this, too. (Photo: an expensive watch.)]

Evidence is evidence.

I had been trying to understand why Charlotte would choose Liam over me, her actual brother. I closed my eyes. I saw her panicked face when she heard about Liam's miscarried child.

A theory took shape.

A knock came at the door.

The person who walked in was the last person on Earth I had expected.

"What are you doing here?"

Seven days later, at the Gates family dinner, mostly healed, I walked in with an invitation in my hand.

My luck was not great. I ran into Lillian at the door.

She was in a fitted dress, her arm linked intimately with Liam's, chatting and laughing with the elders one by one.

She saw me. The smile dropped. She came over and grabbed my arm.

"Silas, I knew you couldn't bear to break up with me."

She gave me a practiced, seductive smile and reached for me.

"Don't worry. I keep my word. As long as you hand the hospital to Liam, you can still be my boyfriend. I'll treat you and Liam the same."

Her hand never reached me. Another hand caught hers and pulled it away.

A lazy, careless voice came from behind me.

"He is your uncle by marriage. Pawing at an elder like that? Did my older brother not teach you any manners?"

It looked like a light pull, but Lillian lost her balance and went down in front of the champagne tower.

The glasses shattered one after another, drawing everyone's attention.

Lillian looked like a drowned rat. Her angry words died in her throat when she saw who was standing in front of her.

"Aunt... you... why are you here?"

She tried to stand. Her knees would not hold. For a moment, she could not get up.

Her eyes filled with familiar panic, and her voice trembled.

"My legs... why can't I feel my legs?"