Chapter 4

In the powerful Langford family, I was always the outsider. At the same time, I was their only blemish.

These whispered conversations never reached me directly, but words could be like invisible blades. One or two might not matter, but after hearing them repeatedly, they began to cut deep.

"Sir, you shouldn't pay attention to those people. They're just a few servants. If you can't stand it, you can have them dismissed. No matter what, you are the head of the Langford household. That will never change."

The words did little to comfort me. Dismiss one batch, and another would come. As long as Victoria's attitude toward me remained the same, it wouldn't matter who was in their place. "If there's something you want to say, just say it."

When I entered the living room, I seated myself on a chair without hesitation. Beatrice Langford didn't speak immediately, but the flicker of bitterness in her eyes didn't escape my notice. In her mind, she had never truly acknowledged me. Even though I was officially the man of the Langford family, she saw me as nothing more than a nanny for her granddaughter. She was willing to bow her head, but only because Lily needed me.

"Ethan, I won't beat around the bush. I've already spoken to Victoria. I've heard you're planning to leave the Langford family. Over the years, Victoria might have been surrounded by scandals, but most of them were harmless. For someone like you to marry her, it was an enormous step up. I don't understand what you're trying to achieve here."

"If it's because of what Lily said, I think you know the truth. Without her, you wouldn't have even stepped through the Langford gates. She wasn't wrong. Your years of wealth and privilege came at the cost of my late son. Gains come with losses. Is it really worth it to hold a grudge against a child?"

To outsiders, I was her youngest son. She often played the role of a vulnerable woman to achieve her ends. I felt a wave of exhaustion. "Mrs. Langford, I think you know that none of this is what I care about."

"But your father cares, Ethan. Your mother was nothing more than a shameless mistress. The fact that you were raised in the Hale family was a mercy. You should know how to repay that kindness."

This was the true Beatrice Langford. She appeared as a gracious matriarch, willing to raise me, her husband's illegitimate son, yet never truly taking responsibility for me. That said, after my mother's death, the Hale family did raise me. Some things, from the very start, come with a clear price tag.

I stayed in the Langford family for ten years willingly, but I'm tired now. To the Hales, I was a useful pawn, a tether to keep the Langfords and their granddaughter under control. To Victoria, I was a husband in name, someone who could handle Langford affairs and serve as a nanny, caring for the child left behind by the man she truly loved. To Lily, I was the man she believed was trying to usurp her late father's place, someone she despised at all costs. Even to outsiders, I was a pathetic figure, someone who had married his brother's admirer for the sake of power. They gossiped, hurled insults. Perhaps their words were even crueler than I dared imagine.

No one ever cared that I was Ethan Hale. Just me, as myself. That's the rule of this world: if no one loves you, then you are nothing.

But I desperately wanted to be my own person.

"Mrs. Langford, I didn't threaten anyone, nor did I play any tricks. I will leave the Langford family," I said, my voice catching slightly at the end. "The future of the Hale family and Lily Langford is not my responsibility. What I owed the Hales, I've paid back in full. As for my mother's remains, I don't believe that someone as concerned with appearances as you would compromise your own dignity over something so trivial. As long as Lily is here, Victoria will never abandon the Hales. Isn't that right?"

They chose the gentlest way forward, sacrificing the one person no one cared about: me, the orphan with no one on his side.