Chapter 1

The night before I registered my marriage with Jenna, I went to the hospital and got a vasectomy.

From then on, Lucas would be my only child.

Every year on my brother’s death anniversary, I would take a bottle of good liquor to his grave and sit with him for a while, telling him how Lucas had changed over the year.

Jenna caught me there and frowned. “Ethan, your brother is dead. You still keep talking about things that don’t belong to you. Aren’t you afraid of disturbing his peace? Let me tell you, I only agreed to marry you for Lucas!”

I slowly lifted my head and looked at the disgust on her face. The words stuck in my throat and I forced them back down.

After saying that, she even kicked me once with her foot. “Hurry up and leave. Stop embarrassing yourself here.”

Seeing that I still didn’t move, she shouted in anger, “My word doesn’t count anymore, is that it? Fine. If you want to stay at the graveyard, then don’t come back tonight.”

My mom stood nearby, wanting to say something but stopping herself, wiping tears from the corners of her eyes.

It was only after she saw Jenna leave completely that she finally spoke. “Even if our family owes their mother and son, why didn’t you explain it clearly?”

I opened the bottle, poured a cup for my brother, and gave a bitter smile.

We had lived together for seven years, and Jenna had never once known what was in my heart. She didn’t trust me, so what difference would it make whether I said anything or not?

Over the years, I had taken care of Lucas with everything I had, and I could honestly say I had done nothing wrong by Jenna either.

Even if I knew she didn’t love me, I thought at the very least she had the most basic respect for me.

Besides, the graveyard was up in the mountains. The temperature difference between day and night was huge. How could anyone stay there all night?

My mom reached out and patted my shoulder. “Go home early so you don’t freeze. Don’t go against your own body.”

Just as I was about to get up, Lucas suddenly walked over.

He was my brother’s child, and I had raised him myself.

He really looked a lot like Jenna, from his temper to his appearance, even down to the way he treated me.

“You—”

Before I could even speak, Lucas cut me off. “Ethan, you’re just a useless freeloader living off my mom. You took care of me for my dad, so how can you be so shameless and dream of replacing him? You’re way too greedy!”

I wanted to explain, but she glared at me with disgust. “It serves you right that Mom won’t let you come home to kneel in front of Dad’s grave and repent.”

Looking at her expression and hearing what she said, my heart felt like it was being cut apart by knives. “Lucas, I raised you myself. I changed your diapers, did laundry, cooked, handled everything with my own hands. How can you say that about me?”

“Stop trying to make yourself look good. If my dad hadn’t left the company to my mom to run so well, I would’ve been out on the street already! You say you took care of me, but really you were just after my family’s money. Ethan, you’re disgusting. You can’t even compare to one finger of my dad’s.”

He shouted, and the second he turned around, he raised his foot and stomped hard on the back of my hand before running off.

I gritted my teeth against the pain and staggered to my feet. The fog at the top of the mountain was getting thicker, and a fine rain had already started to fall.

Just as I reached the entrance, I saw Lucas holding another guy’s hand and trying to help him into the car.

“Lucas, what’s going on?” Jenna ran over too to check the situation.

“It’s raining and the mountain road is too slippery. Uncle Paul fell while coming to pick me up and twisted his foot.”

Paul, Jenna’s childhood friend, now worked as her special assistant at her company.

I had heard that Jenna was originally supposed to marry him, but for some reason, by some twist of fate, she ended up marrying my brother instead.

The moment Lucas finished speaking, Jenna jogged over to him and checked Paul’s condition. “How is it? Are you okay?”

The nervous look on her face was like a sharp blade stabbing deep into my heart.

Paul smiled and said he was fine.

Just like that, Jenna and Lucas helped him into the car from both sides.

When he sat down, he even asked, “What about Mr. Lin? Is it not a little inappropriate for me to sit in the passenger seat?”

Jenna lifted her eyes and finally looked at me in the distance. She said casually, “Don’t mind him. He brought it on himself.”

I watched her car drive off, as if the happy family of three sitting inside it were the real family.

The rain got heavier and heavier. Every step I took felt heavier than the last, and by the time I reached home, the sky was already bright.

The villa was quiet. They probably hadn’t come back last night.

When I pushed open the door, the maid’s face was full of mockery. “Mr. Ethan, it’s one thing if you don’t do any work at home, but can you please have a little pity on us servants and stop making trouble for us?”

I looked down at the mud on my shoes and stayed silent for a long time.

Did I really want to spend the rest of my life and my dignity on people who didn’t care about me at all?

I had spent seven years fulfilling my brother’s dying wish, and I could honestly say I had no regrets.

Now, I knew very clearly that I did not want to be their mother and son’s accessory anymore!