He Pushed Me to Marry an Old Man, Then Cried When I Said Yes Chapter 03

He Pushed Me to Marry an Old Man, Then Cried When I Said Yes Chapter 03

When we were kids, Ethan used to carry me like this too.

When I was twelve, my parents died in a car accident. The shock drove me into hiding, and I went three full days without eating or drinking.

Ethan was the one who found me and carried me home when I was barely alive.

Back then, he held my thin hand and said firmly, “Harper, from now on, my home is your home. My parents are your parents.”

“Don’t be scared. I’m here. I’ll always protect you.”

His shoulders were still as warm and broad as they had been back then.

They just did not belong to me anymore.

When we reached the bottom of the stairs, Ethan set me down.

“Harper,” he said, adjusting my veil with a smile in his eyes, “this is as far as I can carry you. You’ll have to walk the rest of the way yourself.”

Claire was visibly upset. “The groom is supposed to carry the bride all the way to the car!”

“Rules can bend when they need to.”

“Ethan, what is wrong with you today?” Claire was trembling with anger. “You’ve been acting off since the second you walked in. Did someone put a spell on you?”

“Claire,” I said, taking her hand and patting it gently, “it’s fine. I can walk by myself.”

Ethan was never really my groom.

What right did he have to carry me to the car?

The wedding limo was parked about a hundred yards away.

Once I finished that stretch of road, everything between Ethan and me would be over for good.

After I got into the car, Ethan stood by the door without moving.

“Harper.”

He looked at me steadily, with an emotion in his eyes I could not understand.

In the end, he only said, “Take care of yourself.”

Claire’s voice was sharp with irritation. “Why are you still standing there? Aren’t you getting in?”

Ethan smiled and pointed toward the car behind us. “I’ll ride in that one. I’ll follow behind and make sure you all get there safely.”

Then he shut the door with a heavy thud.

Claire frowned, confusion deepening on her face. “What is wrong with Ethan today? Why is he acting so strange?”

“Nothing complicated,” I said softly. “He just wants me to marry into the Lancaster family in Vivian’s place.”

“In Vivian’s place?”

Before I could answer, Claire suddenly realized something was wrong.

“Wait. Driver, stop!”

“You’re going the wrong way. Why are you driving over there? Turn around.”

“Claire,” I interrupted her, “the driver isn’t going the wrong way. I’m the one they’re sending to marry into the Lancaster family.”

“The Lancasters?”

I told Claire everything from beginning to end.

By the time I finished, she was shaking with rage. “That son of a bitch! How could Ethan do this to you? Does he have no conscience at all?”

I was surprisingly calm. “The Shaw family raised me for all these years. Consider this my way of repaying them.”

“Yes, they raised you for more than ten years, but you saved Ethan’s life back then. You paid that debt a long time ago.”

“And these past two years, whenever Ethan’s back acted up and he was laid up in bed, unable to do anything, you stayed by his side and took care of him every minute.”

“You gave him so much. What gives him the right to treat you like this?”

Claire was right.

If we were talking about repaying a debt, I had already repaid mine long ago.

But it no longer mattered.

As my thoughts drifted, my phone chimed with a new message.

It was from Vivian.

Vivian: [Harper, today is such a wonderful day. Ethan just gave me a wedding gift. What do you think? Isn’t it beautiful?]

I stared blankly at the emerald-green jade bangle in the photo, and my whole body went cold.

That bangle was the keepsake my mother had left behind. It had been passed down from my great-grandmother’s generation.

Because I had been too young back then, Mrs. Shaw had been keeping it for me all these years.

They had clearly promised to return it to me after I got married.

How could he give it to Vivian without my permission?

“Stop the car!”