Chapter 3

When I first entered the Foster family, I clung to Evelyn with every trick I had in order to win her over. I studied poetry with her and buried myself in books.

When she saw I was truly willing to learn, she agreed to teach me. That time with her was the only part of my life that could really be called happy.

Later, I got lucky and won a lantern at the lantern fair. But Charles wanted it too.

In front of everyone, he accused me of stealing his poem and exposed what he called my shameless deceit, turning me into a joke across the capital.

But I had written that poem on my own, right in front of Evelyn.

That year, Charles was praised as a rising genius, while I became the capital's favorite joke, the so-called beggar fraud.

After that, I never liked crowds again.

But my body was in worse shape than I'd thought. After only a few steps, one breath of freezing air made my vision go black, and I collapsed before I could stop myself.

Right before I lost consciousness, I saw Evelyn, who was always calm and composed, panic as she caught me and called my name.

For a second, I almost believed what the system said. Maybe Evelyn did like me a little.

But I still wanted to leave this world.

Because the kind of love she gave me only hurt.

What I wanted was care, tenderness, someone who cherished me, someone who loved me without conditions and couldn't bear to see me get hurt.

The way Evelyn treated Charles...

When I woke up again, I found myself back in bed. For once, Evelyn was sitting at my bedside, holding a bowl of steaming porridge.

"The doctor said you starved yourself on purpose. That's why you're this weak. You've been learning the Foster family's rules for seven years. How do you still not know how to behave?"

"Drink the porridge, then go kneel in the ancestral hall and copy the house rules."

The house rules again.

I stared at her face and felt tired of it all.

In the seven years of our marriage, Evelyn had called me ignorant and improper more times than I could count, then punished me by making me copy those damned rules.

My knees had long since grown thick calluses from kneeling, and I could recite the Foster family rules in my sleep.

Expressionless, I refused. "I'm not going."

"If you really can't stand me that much, then divorce me."

"Then whether I know how to behave or not won't have anything to do with you or the Foster family anymore..."

"Enough."

Before I could finish, Evelyn cut me off, her face dark.

"Do you think someone can just marry into the Foster family and then leave whenever he wants? I don't want to hear this again."

"Someone take him to the ancestral hall."

She looked angrier than I did, and I was the one getting punished.

The system said she liked me, but there wasn't a trace of mercy in her when she punished me.

I even started wondering if the panic I'd seen on her face before I passed out had just been my imagination.

But to my surprise, this time I really did avoid copying the house rules.

Not long after the rough old maid from the Foster family dragged me out of the courtyard, I ran into Nanny Martha, whom my parents had sent.

She hauled me to the front yard, forced me to my knees, and slapped me hard across the face.

"Mr. Hartley, Lord Chancellor heard that you poisoned Mr. Charles. Such cruelty is unforgivable."

"I was ordered to carry out the Hartley family punishment. Thirty lashes."

Smack, smack...

I didn't even get the chance to defend myself before they pinned me down, stripped off my outer robe, and whipped my back bloody. The pain made my whole body shake.

Ever since Charles entered the Foster family, every time anything happened to him, my parents had me beaten under family law.

They even said it was for my own good, that it would teach me proper manners and earn me respect in the Foster household.

But the truth was, at first the Foster family only kept me at arm's length. Even the servants didn't dare go too far with me.

That changed after I was punished in public. Even the servants started looking down on me.

In the whole estate, anyone could step on me.

After thirty lashes, Nanny Martha stopped. "Mr. Hartley, reflect on yourself. I will kindly send your most precious jeweled crown to Mr. Charles as compensation."

After they left, I lay sprawled in the snow for a long time, unable to get back up.

The Foster servants who had watched the whole thing didn't help me. They just mocked me out loud.

"He gets punished by his own family every damn day. There isn't anyone in all of Westland more embarrassing than him. Pathetic."

"Good thing the young master and little miss were handed to Mr. Charles from birth. If Lady Foster had left them with him, this family would be screwed."

The freezing weather quickly turned the blood on my back cold and stiff, and even the pain started to go numb.

After hearing enough of their mockery, I finally found the strength to put my clothes back on. Fighting wave after wave of dizziness, I staggered back toward my room.

But as I passed the garden, I heard laughter.

It was Evelyn and Charles, playing by the pond with the children.