I took the fall for Seraphina Thorne on murder charges, vanishing overseas for ten years. Those ten years, I lived in shadows, unseen, like a rat in a sewer. On that snowy winter night before I left, Seraphina held me, promising she’d protect our family’s legacy and wait for my return, ready to marry me with all the pomp and circumstance we deserved. Over the decade, using the family’s core secrets I’d entrusted to her, she transformed from a marginalized outcast to the Queen of the city’s underworld, known as “The Thorn Queen.” The day I returned early, I clutched our only childhood photo, a corner of it faded yellow. I stood outside the private clinic she’d personally built for me, wanting to surprise her. She arrived, her stride powerful, still the same spirited and impressive woman I remembered. But by her side was a delicate young man, his features a striking resemblance to my younger self. She handed me a signed asset divestment agreement, her voice icy, a tone I’d never heard from her before. “He’s not well, he can’t handle stress. Is this money enough to buy you peace for the rest of your life?”
Behind me, my men were still Seraphina’s loyalists, the ones she’d left with me ten years ago, their only mission to ensure my safety. But now, they exchanged uneasy glances, looking from me to Seraphina, unsure who to point their guns at. Seraphina, however, seemed oblivious to the tension behind me. As if we were alone, she gently took Julian Hayes’s hand, her voice soft in a way I hadn’t heard in years. “Julian, don’t be scared. I’m just handling some personal matters.” She and I were once the two most insignificant outcasts of the Thorne family, clinging to each other for survival in the shadows. Whenever the main family’s kids bullied me, leaving me bruised and battered, she’d shield me. She’d always hold my hand, her eyes crinkling into a smile. “Asher, don’t be afraid. I’m here.” But now… She reached out, effortlessly disarming the dagger I’d hidden in my sleeve. Then she picked up the photo I’d dropped, gently dusting off the dirt. “Asher, ten years, and your temper is still as fiery as ever.” “Seraphina, I’m not well, I can’t take this…” I mimicked her tone, but before I could finish, she cut me off. “Get rid of it!” She shoved the photo back into my hand, then shook hers, as if she’d touched something disgusting. “Your things. Don’t pollute my sight.” Julian immediately rushed forward, spreading his arms to shield Seraphina. “Don’t you dare hurt Sister Seraphina!” Seraphina looked at him, a sudden smile gracing her lips, filled with a nostalgia I couldn’t decipher. She pulled Julian behind her, protecting him. “See? Asher Vance, I can’t abandon him. He’s too similar.” I instantly understood her unspoken meaning. Too similar, too much like the young me who, for her, would willingly charge into a den of wolves. So, over a decade of surviving by each other’s side, it all meant nothing compared to a mere “resemblance to my younger self.” She slowly pulled a handkerchief from her pocket, meticulously wiping each finger, then slapped a pregnancy test report onto my chest. “Asher, with this one, we’ve finally been trying for three years.” “Whatever happens to me from now on, it has nothing to do with you.” “If you don’t cancel this agreement, neither of you is leaving this door today.” I cut her off coldly. She pulled a pistol from her sidearm holster. The bullet grazed Julian’s foot, leaving a scorching mark on the floor. Seraphina’s face finally changed. She moved swiftly, striking my hand with a chop. A sharp pain made me grunt, and the gun clattered to the floor. Seraphina saw the red swelling on my hand. She pulled out a tube of ointment from a nearby medical kit, squeezed some into her palm, warmed it, and was about to apply it to my wrist. Over the years, taking care of me had become ingrained in her. But when I saw the boy behind her, glaring at me with venomous hatred… Seraphina and I, from this day forward, were truly over. I dodged her hand, picking up the gun with my other, unharmed hand, pointing it at the million-dollar crystal chandelier above. “Bang! Bang! Bang!” Amidst the deafening crash of falling crystal shards and the screams of the crowd, Seraphina’s face immediately darkened. I left her with a calm, chilling statement. “Go home. We need to discuss the details of our divorce!”
I waited for her for seven days in the Thorne Estate. It wasn’t that she didn’t want a divorce; she simply didn’t have time. Julian sent me another “battle report.” In the photo, he lay on Seraphina’s lap, as she leaned down, tenderly peeling an apple for him. Sunlight bathed them, painting a scene as beautiful as a picture. Ten years later, I stepped into this house I’d once risked my life to protect, but now as a defeated man about to be kicked out. I glanced at the photo, then handed it to Marcus behind me, my face devoid of emotion. “Find out which room he’s in. Hang him from the balcony for me.” “He stays there until Seraphina comes back to sign the papers.” The wind was strong that day, carrying the chill of early autumn. I watched Julian, hanging from the third-floor balcony, still cursing relentlessly. I pulled my trench coat tighter. Marcus carefully held a black umbrella over my head. Julian, still dangling upside down outside the third-floor balcony, continued to curse obscenely. My expression was indifferent as I quietly waited for Seraphina to arrive. “Asher Vance, how dare you do this to me! Just wait until Sister Seraphina gets back, she won’t let you off! She’ll kill you!” “If you know what’s good for you, just sign the papers and get out of the Thorne family! Stop clinging to Sister Seraphina like a parasite!” I didn’t bother to meet his gaze. It wasn’t until Seraphina’s familiar black Bentley sped into view that I pulled out the prepared fountain pen. Seraphina’s movements paused as she stepped out of the car, her face instantly grim, her gaze sharply piercing me. The divorce agreement in my hand fluttered to the ground, caught by the wind. I spoke, my voice cold: “Marcus, shut his mouth. Just don’t kill him.” “Enough, Asher Vance! He’s just a kid!” Seraphina’s voice trembled with a hint of desperation. The moment she moved closer, the fountain pen in my hand plunged violently into her shoulder. Scarlet blood instantly stained her moon-white trench coat, the color a searing pain in my eyes. “You know he’s just a kid?!” “Then what about our Leo?! He was just a baby when he died, wasn’t he?!” Seeing my near-collapsed expression, a flicker of anguish crossed Seraphina’s brows. Instead of retreating, she stepped closer, seizing my hand and pushing the pen deeper into her flesh. She unhesitatingly emptied a bottle of pills into her mouth, swallowing them down with her own blood. “Asher, he’s young, he doesn’t know any better. It doesn’t have to go this far.” “You’ve gotten your anger out. Let him down.” My hand, in the end, still trembled. The pen slipped from my grasp. The scar on my abdomen, left from saving her, began to throb faintly. Before, she protected me with her life. Now, she was coercing me with hers. I was utterly exhausted, waving my hand weakly. “Let him go.” Julian was brought down, soaking wet. He lunged into Seraphina’s arms, wailing, pointing at me, his eyes filled with raging hatred. “Sister Seraphina, he almost killed me! He even forced you to take those pills! Our baby… our baby might…” Seraphina, her eyes red, held him tight, gently comforting him. “It’s alright, it’s over. It’s okay if there’s no baby. You’re still young, we’ll have other chances later.” Julian fainted in her arms, utterly distraught. Seraphina carried him, hurrying into the car and driving away. The divorce agreement I’d thrown on the ground was run over by her speeding tires, splattered with mud. The divorce still didn’t happen. Leo’s memorial day was approaching, and I didn’t want any more disruptions. But Julian, once again, proactively provoked me. He sent a package, inside only a small card. “So what if you made me lose a baby? Sister Seraphina will just compensate me twofold, and you, you’ll never get close to her again!” Along with the card, another item fell out. It was the jade amulet I’d personally made for Leo, crafted from the only piece of precious jade my mother left behind. It should have been enshrined in Leo’s memorial hall, accompanying the eternal flame that never died out. How did it end up in Julian Hayes’s hands?
I led my men, rushing to the memorial hall as fast as possible. The door to the hall was ajar, and I saw the scene inside at a glance. Clutching the cold jade amulet, I stood quietly outside the door, listening to Julian’s sobbing accusations from within. “Sister Seraphina, why aren’t you avenging me?! Killing that maniac would be nothing but lifting a finger for you! Why aren’t you doing it?!” “Kill him! Go kill him now!” Seraphina let him pound her chest, like a statue devoid of pain, until his voice grew hoarse from crying. “Sister Seraphina, that was our baby, the one we waited three whole years for.” Three years? My heart was heavily struck by that number. That was the period when, to put her mind at ease, I voluntarily underwent “body conditioning” treatment, temporarily losing my fertility. Seraphina knelt beside Julian’s bed, tightly holding his trembling hand, tenderly kissing his forehead. “Julian, we’ll have a baby. We definitely will, again.” The soft light fell upon them, a scene that mirrored exactly how she used to comfort me after Leo’s death, when I was tormented by nightmares night after night. “Tomorrow is Leo’s memorial day. I’ll take you to the eternal flame again to pray. It will definitely work.” “Clatter—” The jade amulet in my hand dropped to the floor. Three years ago, Seraphina was cornered by Elias Sterling’s forces. To save her… I entrusted our newborn Leo, barely a month old, to his nanny, then led the bodyguards she’d left me, carving a path of blood for her. She survived. My Leo, however, died that very night. Holding his cold, lifeless body. I felt like my entire world had crumbled. To soothe me, Seraphina didn’t hesitate to kneel through every church and monastery in the region’s outskirts. She eventually lit an eternal flame for Leo in this memorial hall. She said that if the eternal flame burned for a thousand days and nights, our Leo could reincarnate and return to us. But my destiny supposedly clashed with Leo’s, requiring me to take a fertility-suppressing medicine to accumulate spiritual blessings for him. I didn’t believe in ghosts or gods, but I believed in her. That bitter herbal concoction, I drank it for three years straight, ignoring every rumor and piece of gossip. But it turned out, it was all a lie. She just… didn’t want another child of mine. The sharp sound startled the two inside. The moment Seraphina turned her head, a fruit knife from the table grazed my cheek, embedding itself deeply into the door panel behind me. She rushed towards me, grabbing my shoulders, her voice laced with an almost imperceptible tremble. “Asher, are you alright? Are you hurt?” I didn’t answer her. I raised my hand, pulled out the knife, and plunged it back into her brow bone. The tip of the knife was less than an inch from her eye. There, a faint scar remained. It was from when she was eighteen, fighting a wolfhound starved for three days in Elias Sterling’s underground fight club, all to get medicine for me. She was almost blind in one eye then, but when she returned with the medicine, she smiled more brightly than anyone. Because I was saved. I wouldn’t die. I was a sobbing mess then, lunging at Elias Sterling and biting him with all my might, only to be kicked away, sent sprawling across the floor. Scarlet blood streamed down Seraphina’s brow bone, blurring the expression in her eyes. Yet her hand instinctively remained at my back, protecting me from being scratched by a protruding nail on the door. I couldn’t stop my eyes from reddening, but the hand holding the knife was steady as a rock. “Seraphina Thorne, you should know, Leo is my only bottom line.” I could care less about anything else in this world, but that child… The moment I chose to save Seraphina, I had already given him up. What a well-behaved child he was, his small face pale with fear when I handed him over from my arms, yet he didn’t cry a single sound. Seraphina didn’t move, nor did she explain. She let me use the knife’s tip to reopen the old scar on her brow bone, new injury covering the old, leaving no trace of how it once looked. Julian, however, shrieked and rushed forward, violently shoving me aside, then picked up the fallen knife, aiming to stab me in the heart. I kicked him away, picked up the jade amulet, and pressed my gun to his forehead. The young man, who moments ago was as fierce as a cub, immediately shrieked and latched onto Seraphina’s waist. “Sister Seraphina, save me! This lunatic is trying to kill me!” Seraphina, who had been unresponsive, finally frowned, her face darkening as she looked at me. “Asher Vance, I thought you had caused enough trouble.” “You don’t want a divorce, yet you expect me to watch you kill him. Seraphina Thorne, is your husband really that easy to bully?” I smiled, cocking the gun with one hand. “My wife, canoodling with another man in my son’s memorial hall. A single stab, and it’s over? That’s not how things work in this city.” Before I could pull the trigger, the entire memorial hall was instantly surrounded by Seraphina’s men. Dark muzzles of guns were aimed directly at me. I remembered, the last time she’d assembled such a large force was three years ago, against her arch-nemesis, Elias Sterling. Nearly a hundred men encircling us made my dozen bodyguards seem so outnumbered. Seraphina casually wiped the blood from her face, her blood-stained hand pressing against the muzzle of my gun. Her gaze fell on the jade amulet tightly clutched in my hand, her voice cold and hard as iron. “If you don’t like it, I won’t let him come here again.” “Asher Vance, know when to stop.” I stared at her intently, then at the trembling young man behind her, and smiled as I pulled the trigger. “Click.” An empty click. My gun was out of bullets. Seraphina’s brow twitched. She seemed to sigh in relief, taking a step towards me.
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