That was where the call ended.

It was late by the time I got home.

Several Rolls-Royces and Maybachs were parked at the gate.

Even the Harding matriarch had come.

"Since the Delgado heir is Neal, and since the two of them are already husband and wife in every real sense, then we break the rules and let them marry."

Neal and Phyllis were still standing there fingers laced together, wrapped up in each other, kissing like they couldn't contain themselves.

Everyone watching gave satisfied nods.

"Here, these are all my gifts for Neal."

"The suit is pure hand-stitched silk, custom-made. And the shoes, the luxury jewelry, all of it."

The moment Fay Harding finished, she turned to look at Phyllis.

"And the Harding family's heirloom jade ring? Bring it out now too, put it on Neal."

Her words had barely landed when the servants noticed me standing at the door.

"Young Master, you're back."

Every head turned toward me. The stepfather curled his lip in a cold smirk. Neal looked smug but didn't dare let it show.

Phyllis and my mother just sat there watching me, perfectly at ease with themselves.

As I walked in, Phyllis stood and came toward me.

Her face, in that moment, gave me only one feeling. Cold.

Not a word of explanation, no greeting either, she simply put out her hand and asked me to hand back the Harding family's heirloom jade ring.

The servants looked at me with eyes full of pity.

In that instant, everything I had called family and love turned to ash.

"Before I give it back, there's just one thing I want to know."

"If you never loved me, why did you agree to be engaged to me first?"

"Is the human heart really that weak under any test?"

Phyllis's expression darkened.

"Then do you know why I changed my mind, why I broke it off and got engaged to Neal instead?"

How would I know that? She saw me stay silent and took it to mean I didn't dare say.

"Hmph. So you don't dare say it in front of everyone?"

"So it turns out you're afraid of people finding out what terrible thing you did too?"

Terrible thing? I had never done anything to wrong a single person, so I pressed her for the truth.

"You say I did something terrible? Then tell me. What exactly did I do?"

The words had barely left my mouth when Neal rushed over and threw his arms around Phyllis.

"Phyllis, stop. Don't say it."

"Whatever my brother did, he had his reasons. He was probably afraid I'd steal Mom's love away."

He was crying again. What did he have to feel wronged about? Then he turned to face me and dropped straight to his knees.

"Brother, please don't be angry."

"No matter what you've done to me, I won't hold it against you."

"I won't take Mom from you. And as for control of the company and Phyllis, if you're unwilling to give them up, then I won't dare ask for them."

"All I want is for my father and me to live out our lives in the Delgado house, simply, in peace. That's all!"

With that, he kowtowed to me. Phyllis quickly stopped him.

"Neal, don't kneel to a man that black-hearted. And you certainly don't need his permission to have happiness or a place in this family."

"As long as I, Phyllis Harding, am alive, I'll protect you. One day of my life, one day of protection. A lifetime, a lifetime of it."

The words sounded so familiar. She had once said the very same thing to me, to protect me.

How everything had changed while the things themselves stayed the same.

"Are you two done with the performance? Because if you're done, then tell me. What did I do?"

Phyllis started to speak, but Neal shook his head hard.

On the surface it looked like he was shielding me. In truth, the more pitiful he looked down there on his knees, the more Phyllis would do anything for him.

"Neal, this time I'll question him if it kills me."

She looked at me, her eyes full of fury.

"You already had everything. So why did you hire someone to kill Neal?"

The moment the words left her mouth, everyone who'd been seated shot to their feet.

Every eye on me held nothing but contempt and righteous fury.

My mother came off the couch and rushed at me.

"Did you really pay someone to kill Neal?"

The stepfather charged over too, jabbing a finger at me. "Fine, forget how you treated me and my son all these years, but now you go and try to kill him this way? Thank God he's all right."

I hadn't even opened my mouth to answer when a slap landed across my face.

It was hard enough that I lost my footing.

My face throbbed, and blood ran from the corner of my mouth.

"You animal, say something!"

"Exactly like your father. Back then he sent people to break my legs, and now it's your turn to want his child dead. Every bit as vicious as your father."

The Harding family stayed silent, but they'd loathed me long before this.

"Didn't I tell you not to speak? Why wouldn't you listen?"

"My brother already lost his mother, isn't that pitiful enough? Even if he did something worse to me, I still wouldn't be angry."

"People always say stepfathers and stepsons are cruel, but not every stepfather and stepson is cruel!"

I got to my feet and wiped the blood from my lip. Bit by bit, my heart went cold.

"You only listened to what you wanted to hear. Not one of you asked whether I actually did it."

"My answer is one word. No."

"Your father hired people to break his own legs back then and pinned it on my father. Now you've learned his trick and you're pinning this on me."

"We did no such thing. If you insist on saying so, then I'll prove myself with my own death."

With that, Neal picked up a fruit knife, ready to end it.

Phyllis rushed after him and grabbed hold of him.

With Phyllis there, how could he possibly succeed in dying?

But not a single person in that room could see through it.

"Let me die, let go of me!"

"No, you're not the one who deserves to die. He is!"

Phyllis had someone keep watch on Neal, then stormed over to stand in front of me.

"There's nothing left to say between us."

"Hand over the jade ring."

I smiled, and it was a bleak thing.

I held out my hand and tried to work the ring off.

But the band was small. Easy to slide on, hard to pull off.

Phyllis lost her patience, thinking I was stalling on purpose.

She grabbed my arm outright and, with no care for whether it hurt, forced the ring off.

The pain scraped down to the bone and cut through my nerves, and I couldn't hold back a cry.

She didn't soften. It was as if she wouldn't stop until the ring was off.

Only when I heard the jade grind through the bone of my finger, my tears dropping onto her wrist, did the ring finally come free.

Everyone around me watched with disdain, and my mother, to protect Neal, ordered me thrown out.

"Don't think being my son gives you license to do whatever you please to Neal and his father."

"Someone, throw him out of the Delgado house so he can work that rotten nature out of him."

"Once you've suffered enough and let go of your malice, I'll bring you back."

But the stepfather stepped out and stopped my mother.

"My love, if you throw him out like this, how will it look to outsiders, for me and Neal? They'll assume the two of us bullied her."

"For your sake, I won't hold against him everything he's done to us."

"He only has to kneel right now and apologize to us in his own words, and we'll treat it as though nothing happened."

My mother nodded, visibly moved, then coldly gave me her order.

"You animal, did you hear that!"

"Get over here and kneel and apologize to your father and your brother, now!"

I stood facing them, one man against the whole room.

"I never did those things, and I will never apologize!"

"And here's a reminder for you. My father is already dead, so where did this bargain-bin father come from?"

Seeing that I not only refused to apologize but had defied those two,

my mother was so furious she gave the order on the spot. "You've turned on me, daring to cross me."

"Someone break his legs. Let's see if he's still got the nerve to talk back!"

Several bodyguards rushed over and pinned me down, and just as everyone was fixed on the show, the front doors were kicked open from outside.

A crew of well-trained, stone-faced bodyguards poured in.

"You think the Delgado family has no one left?"

"A tea girl who pours drinks and a spineless nobody, and you dare bully my nephew..."