Chapter 2

I tried to remind him. I was worried he'd take me back to the Bennett house, or do something else, like send me off to some lab.

"Did it hurt?"

Alexander suddenly asked.

"Huh?"

"A little..."

I tried hard to think back. All I had were a few blurry fragments.

When I was suffocating from the smoke, part of me had actually felt relieved.

My dad and Mr. Bennett had served together. After my parents died in a car crash, Mr. Bennett brought me into the Bennett family.

The Bennetts were the richest family in Harbor City. Mr. Bennett worked overseas year-round, and Mrs. Bennett treated me like her own. To make us seem even closer, she even changed my name.

When the Bennett family took me in, everyone said I was lucky. Only I knew how suffocating that life really was.

Mrs. Bennett demanded a lot from me. Music, horseback riding, endless tutoring... and if she wasn't satisfied, I got punished hard.

She'd lock me in the basement and make me kneel. She'd hit me, and the bruises would stay for days.

Once, Alexander noticed the marks on my arm and asked what happened.

I told him quietly, "I was punished."

Alexander let out a cold scoff. "Emily Bennett, you're getting better and better at lying.

"Since when do the Bennetts punish people like that?

"Mom always wanted a daughter. She took you in out of kindness and spoiled you rotten, and this is how you act?"

Alexander didn't know there were punishments in the Bennett family. He also didn't know Mrs. Bennett had ordered me to make him fall in love with me.

After she found out that Sophie Grant, the scholarship girl, had taken Alexander's first kiss,

Mrs. Bennett slapped me hard across the face.

"Useless!"

"You can't even handle one scholarship girl. What a waste raising you."

"Emily Bennett, listen well. The one marrying Alexander Bennett has to be you."

I looked at Mrs. Bennett in confusion.

Even when I died, I still didn't understand.

Why was I the only one ever punished?

Why did it have to be me who married Alexander?

Alexander was so outstanding. Even if it wasn't Sophie Grant, there were plenty of elite families lining up to marry into the Bennetts.

So why did it have to be me, an orphan with nothing special going for her?

But I had no choice. I had to obey Mrs. Bennett and break Alexander and Sophie up.

At the school library, I offered Sophie Grant about 700 thousand dollars.

It was every cent I could get my hands on.

I handed over the bank card and tried to persuade her nicely. "Take the money and go study abroad."

"The Bennett family will never let you be with Alexander."

Sophie took the card, her eyes full of smug mockery.

"Emily Bennett, so you like Alexander, huh?"

"The Bennetts were kind enough to take you in, and this is how you repay them? Don't you think you're disgusting?"

My heart gave a painful throb. She wasn't wrong.

If I were Alexander, I'd think I was disgusting too.

Sophie turned right around, gave the card to Alexander, and cried pitifully.

"Alexander, Emily Bennett is forcing me to leave."

"My mother is seriously ill, and I don't have Emily's luck or a family like the Bennetts backing me up."

"Please, stay away from me from now on. I'm really scared..."

That day, I stupidly thought everything had worked out, so I called Mrs. Bennett from my room while she was away on a business trip.

"Mrs. Bennett, do I really have to marry Alexander?"

There was a few seconds of silence on the other end before her cold voice came through.

"Fine."

"But then you have to give him a child."

I couldn't help asking, "Why?"

"Did you take me in just so I could be raised for Alexander?

"I don't want to..."

I didn't want to force someone into something he didn't want. I didn't want to make him hate me even more.

Mrs. Bennett cut me off furiously. "Shut up."

"What, you want to leave the Bennett family and go back to that rundown orphanage?"

I fell silent.

The Bennetts were rich, sure, but this was never my home. I never felt comfortable here.

She gave a cold laugh. "If you want to leave, fine. Once the child is born, you can get the hell out."

That was the deal. And that was how I'd repay the Bennett family.

I gripped my phone and sat there thinking for a long time.

Until Alexander suddenly stormed in and smashed my phone.

He warned me, "Emily Bennett, stay away from Sophie Grant."