Chapter 8

No one expected Jiang Ye to suddenly appear and pull me away.

Ms. Zheng shouted something behind us, but no one could make out her words anymore.

All I knew was that as I was shoved into the car, my face was smeared with tears.

Jiang Ye leaned in closer.

He kissed away every single tear, one by one.

“Don’t cry.”

“I know she pushed this burden-me-onto you, but there’s nothing I can do… sis, I have nowhere else to go.”

No.

He did have somewhere to go.

When Ms. Zheng divorced her ex-husband, she fought for most of their assets-half she kept for herself, the other half… she left to me.

And on the day Jiang Ye came of age, I handed everything over to him.

That included more than thirty properties scattered across the country. He could live in a different one every month without repeating.

Jiang Ye seemed to sense what I was thinking and gave a faint, mocking smile: “Sis, I never really had a home to begin with. If you abandon me again, where else could I possibly go?”

That single sentence shattered me inside.

I reached out and stroked Jiang Ye’s face.

In that blur, I seemed to see the twelve-year-old boy, just returned from abroad, his face and body covered in bruises from fights, shadows and resistance written all over his features.

The first time he saw me, he spat viciously.

“You’re the mistress my dad’s sponsoring?”

His curses, a mix of Chinese and English, were shockingly filthy.

I heard every single word, clear as day.

Eight years have passed.

Now, this mouth only knows another kind of filth.

“Sis, seeing you cry this hard doesn’t make my heart ache-it only makes me want you even more.”