Verity’s POV

When my second brother said that, his voice was thick with hatred.

I stood frozen at the doorway, not daring to step inside.

My mom was my dad’s second wife. She died giving birth to me.

Dad was always busy with work, so it was my brothers who held my hand to and from school, who shielded me from every storm.

Aside from my dad, they were the closest family I had in the world.

But not long after Kelsey’s mother married into the family, rumors started spreading inside the house.

They said my dad’s first wife hadn’t died by accident—that my mother had set her up to die.

They said my mom had been a mistress who clawed her way into the family by stepping on a dead woman’s life.

Those words were like poison, seeping little by little into my brothers’ ears.

I wanted to explain, but the truth was, I didn’t know much about my biological mother either. I couldn’t even tell whether those rumors were true.

All my brothers felt was anger and regret. For them, all these years of doting on me felt like a betrayal of their late mother.

Kelsey’s arrival gave them the perfect outlet. A new sister they could pour their feelings into—someone they could favor, compensate, and indulge without guilt.

Me? I became the target of their resentment. Someone to take revenge on.

Worst of all, because I had no proof to clear my mom’s name, I never had the confidence to stand my ground in front of them.

The moment they saw me walk in, the smiles on their faces vanished almost simultaneously.

Suddenly, the air turned cold.

Damon, my eldest brother frowned, clearly annoyed.

“Why are you here?”

My second brother’s gaze swept over me, paused for a split second, then turned cold.

“Verity! You’ve got some nerve showing up! Perfect timing. I was just about to ask you. Did you pocket Kelsey’s allowance for this month?”

I didn’t even understand what he was talking about.

“What?”

“Don’t play dumb!”

Damon’s voice dropped, heavy with pressure.

“Kelsey just told us she hasn’t received a single cent this month.”

His eyes locked onto me, his tone severe.

“She just moved in and you’re already trying to put her in her place, huh?!”

I felt absurdly wronged.

“I’ve never touched her money.”

“Then did it just disappear on its own?”

My second brother, Damien, let out a cold laugh.

“Hey, is this because Kelsey moved in and took the position you used to have, so now you’re targeting her?”

Right then, Kelsey’s eyes suddenly reddened.

She looked startled, hurriedly waving her hands, her voice soft and trembling with carefully measured hurt.

“Damon… Damien… Please don’t be like this…”

She glanced at me, then quickly lowered her head.

“Maybe… she just hasn’t been able to accept me yet. If our sister doesn’t like me, I can try not to appear in front of her so much in the future.”

“Kelsey, there’s no need to care whether she likes you or not. What she thinks doesn’t matter.”

Damon lowered his head, unlocked his phone, and tapped the screen decisively.

The next second, Kelsey’s phone vibrated.

She glanced down, her eyes slowly turning red, then looked up at him in disbelief.

“Damon… this is… this is too much money. I can’t take it…”

“It’s just five hundred thousand.”

His voice was calm, but cold and absolute.

“From now on, I’ll personally give you your allowance.”

After saying that, his gaze shifted back to me.

“As for you, starting today, all the bank cards under your name are frozen.”

I snapped my head up.

“Damon?!”

“Since you haven’t learned how to respect others, take some time to reflect. When you finally figure it out, we’ll talk again.”

My throat tightened. I couldn’t believe my eldest brother would do this to me.

Meanwhile, Damien was already fed up. He stepped forward, his eyes openly hostile.

“If you think this house can’t accommodate you, then leave.”

“Anyway—” He sneered. “You don’t welcome Kelsey, and we don’t welcome you either.”

When I heard that, panic and helplessness surged violently in my chest.

I couldn’t just be convicted like this. I didn’t know whether my mom had been guilty or not, but something I never did, I would not take the blame for.

I pulled out my phone, forcing myself to stay calm.

“Damon. Damien. Please listen to me. I really didn’t touch her money.”

My voice came out rushed.

“I can show you my statements. Every expense I’ve ever made is recorded. I’ve never handled her allowance—not once—”

“Why is everyone just standing around?”

A deep, familiar masculine voice came from the doorway.

Tucker walked in, his assistant following behind him. He was carrying several bags of fresh groceries—clearly just back from the supermarket.

In that instant, I almost instinctively wanted to ask him for help.

But Kelsey was faster than I was.

The moment she saw him clearly, the smile on her face became blinding.

“Bro!”

She practically ran toward him, threw her arms around him, and clung to him like a koala.

“You’re finally here!”

Tucker froze for a moment, instinctively reaching out to support her. The force even made him turn halfway around.

The tips of his ears quickly turned red. His voice carried a helpless smile.

“Get down. What does this look like? You’re not a kid anymore.”

But Kelsey refused to let go. She pressed even closer, smiling without a shred of shame.

“I don’t care. In front of you, I am a kid.”

Then, as if she suddenly remembered something, her peripheral vision swept over me.

She slowly released him, stood properly, and her expression turned awkward and cautious.

“Oh… I forgot.”

She lowered her head, her voice soft.

“My sister-in-law… Oh no, my sister is still here.”

“Verity, are you maybe… uncomfortable because I keep sticking to my brother all the time? That’s why you… didn’t really want to give me allowance?”

My head buzzed.

“That’s not—”

“I’m sorry.”

She didn’t give me a chance to finish. Tears welled up immediately.

“I really didn’t mean to. I’ll be more careful in the future. I won’t cling to my brother anymore…”

The moment those words fell, I clearly felt the air around Tucker turn cold.

He didn’t look at her. He lifted his eyes and stared at me coldly instead.

“Tucker, I didn’t—” I opened my mouth to explain.

But he cut me off, looking away first.

He reached into the inside pocket of his suit, pulled out a bank card, and handed it to Kelsey.

“If you run out of money, use this.”

His voice was calm.

“This is dividend income from shares I bought under your name. It doesn’t belong to the marital assets I share with her.”

As he said that, he looked at me again.

There was an unmistakable warning in his eyes.

“She has no right to touch that.”

Verity’s POV

At that moment, it felt like the air was being slowly pulled out of my lungs.

What Tucker did hurt more than if he’d questioned me directly, far more than if he’d accused me like my brothers did.

He’d built everything from nothing. I knew how hard it was for him, so I’d never once asked him for “allowance.”

I had my own income, my own savings.

He rarely gave me anything. Gifts were few and far between.

And I never complained about it.

But now, he handed over the money he earned himself to Kelsey—so casually.

Shares under Kelsey’s name. That meant that when Tucker started his company three years ago, he’d already counted her share in from the very beginning.

At some point, my phone screen had gone dark.

All those bank statements. All that proof. Suddenly, none of it mattered anymore.

No one would believe me. No one even wanted to.

Tucker coaxed Kelsey into cooking with him. My brothers stood around her, laughing and chatting. Not one of them spared me a glance.

Then my phone vibrated. I looked down and saw a message from my lawyer.

[The divorce process will be completed in one week.]

I stared at that line for a few seconds, and strangely, my heart settled.

Right. Why was I still stressing over what was true or not? I was about to be divorced anyway. And I was leaving for Canada soon.

Who my brothers cared about. Who Tucker chose to be kind to. None of it had anything to do with me anymore.

As for the Severins' money, whether they wanted to give it to me or not, part of it was mine by right in the first place!

I didn’t stay for that tasteless, miserable dinner. I just took a cab back to the apartment Tucker and I shared and started packing.

In the master bedroom closet hung all the matching pajamas and lounge sets I’d picked out for us.

I stood there for a while, then packed every single piece into a box.

I was the only one who ever cared about those things anyway.

When Tucker wore them, he never cared whether they matched. He never even looked at me.

The plants in the corner of the living room—I’d picked and raised each one based on his preferences.

The racing models on the bookshelf—I’d hunted them down one by one for him.

Tucker never once asked where any of it came from.

It was like those things just naturally belonged there.

This apartment was filled with traces of me.

And yet, the things that actually belonged to me were pitifully few.

Honestly, before Kelsey showed up, I could endure a lot.

Tucker being cold—I endured it. His being bad at expressing himself—I made excuses for him.

I’d even thought that if he fell for someone else one day, I might still have a chance to pull his heart back.

But it just had to be Kelsey.

The foster sister who’d lived through those dependent, difficult years with him.

A past he could never cut away from his life.

They shared more than ten years of memories.

That kind of bond and reliance never left any room for me—not from the start.

In the month since Kelsey arrived, I saw for the first time how Tucker truly loved someone.

I knew then—he fully intended to go on loving her quietly for the rest of his life, in the name of being her brother-in-law.

But why did I have to be the one sacrificed?

I’m not some idiot who exists just to be used!

Crying and cursing under my breath, I dug through the very bottom of the drawer and found my first love letter to him.

The paper had yellowed with age.

What I’d written on it was still clear.

[Tucker, I’ll keep waiting until you like me.]

I stared at it for a long time, then gently placed it at the very bottom of the box.

‘Verity from ten years ago,’ I thought, ‘I’m sorry. I don’t want to wait for him anymore.’

Tucker came home very late that night.

The cardboard boxes on the floor were impossible to miss. He glanced at them, his brow tightening slightly, like he wanted to say something.

But the hesitation passed quickly.

To him, it was probably just me being moody again—nothing worth paying attention to.

He changed his shoes, his tone casual as ever.

“Why are you packing things up?”

When I didn’t respond, he paused, then added, “Stuff’s old? Thinking of replacing it?”

I answered quietly, “Mm.”

He looked at me for a couple of seconds, as if confirming I wasn’t about to start a fight, then didn’t ask anything else.

He was never good at dealing with my emotions.

And he’d never felt the need to try very hard.

It never once crossed his mind that I might be packing because I was leaving.

I bet in his heart, he was completely certain of one thing: I would never leave him.

After showering, Tucker got into bed like he always did and pulled me into his arms from behind.

His chin rested lightly on my shoulder. His breath was close, his voice low and rough with desire.

“Dad called me today. He said it’s time we have a kid.”

Verity’s POV

At that moment, it felt like something caved in inside my chest.

From the time we got home until now, Tucker never once mentioned the bank card.

Instead, he talked about my dad pushing us to have a baby.

But he obviously doesn’t love me!

So to him, was a child never about love—just something to appease my dad?

I felt short of breath and pushed Tucker away without thinking.

He paused, clearly startled, then his brows knitted together.

“What’s wrong?”

I’d never turned him down before—not even when I wasn’t feeling well. This was the first time.

I took a breath. My throat felt tight. “I’m on my period. I’m uncomfortable.”

He contradicted me almost immediately.

“That can’t be right. I’ve counted—your period shouldn’t be today.”

I couldn’t stop myself from letting out a quiet laugh.

It was shallow but laced with a sarcasm even I couldn’t suppress.

“It hasn’t been regular for two months already.”

I looked at him, my voice soft. “You remember it that clearly?”

He went quiet for a second, clearly in the wrong.

But it never occurred to him that my cycle was irregular because I’d been pregnant back then. Seeing I wasn’t interested, he didn’t push it. He simply reached out and pulled me back into his arms.

The gesture was casual—firm enough that refusal wasn’t really an option.

“Then get some sleep.”

His breathing slowly evened out.

I stayed awake, staring at the dark ceiling as tears silently soaked into the pillow.

I was painfully aware that for Kelsey’s sake, he didn’t even seem to be considering a divorce—and was still thinking about having a child with me.

But Tucker… we’re not having kids.

The next morning, he was already gone when I woke up. I still had a lot to take care of.

Documents were spread all over the table: housing for the Canada study program, visas, partner schools, health insurance. Every detail needed my personal confirmation.

Just six more days.

Then I could start over.

That was when my phone started vibrating.

The moment I answered, a panicked voice came rushing through.

“Verity! You need to get here now! Tucker’s back on the track!”

My head rang.

“What?”

“He entered an underground rally race. Someone set him up! Water was dumped on the track—the car lost control and flipped! Everything’s chaos right now!”

I barely registered the rest.

The ringing in my ears surged. My vision washed out white. The steering wheel shook in my hands.

I don’t even remember hanging up. I just remember slamming the gas, the car shooting forward.

I’d always known how dangerous racing was.

In the early years, when Tucker had no money and no name, rally racing was his only shot.

Prize money. Sponsorships. A way up. He was betting his life on the wheel.

But later, after he started his company, things stabilized.

He’d promised me back then.

“Honey, if you’re worried, I’ll quit.”

He’d said it so confidently, smiling, ruffling my hair.

And now, today, he’d gone back without telling me.

The car sped down the road, but my hands felt ice-cold.

A fear so intense it felt suffocating rose up inside me.

When I arrived, I could see the chaos from far away.

Crooked caution tape. Shouting crowds.

I didn’t even stop to ask what had happened; my eyes locked onto the overturned race car by the track.

The frame was mangled. The door was jammed.

In that instant, only one thought remained in me.

‘Is he going to die?’

Even if we were on the verge of divorce, the moment I saw that familiar car, I knew I couldn’t stay detached.

That was someone I had once loved deeply.

I forced my way through the crowd, stumbled to the car, and dropped to my knees.

“Tucker!”

My voice shook as I grabbed the warped door, trying desperately to pull it open.

Someone tried to stop me. “Verity, calm down! Rescue is already on the way—”

But I couldn’t hear them.

All I saw was the blood smeared across the driver’s seat, terrified it wouldn’t stop.

My knee slammed into the gravel. Pain shot through me.

But I didn’t care.

I worked with several staff members, prying at the door with everything we had.

The metal sliced my fingers. Blood mixed with sweat.

Finally, we heard a click.

The door gave way.

I held my breath and leaned in to take a look.

But my entire body froze in place.

Tucker was slumped in the driver’s seat, barely conscious, his forehead covered in blood.

But his body was twisted protectively to one side.

In his arms, he was shielding someone…

It was Kelsey.

He’d pulled her into the safer position. Her head rested against his shoulder. She looked pale, but there were no obvious injuries.

Tucker’s back, meanwhile, had taken the full force of the impact.

At that moment, it felt like someone had ripped my chest open.

The sound of the ambulance came closer and closer, piercing and irritating.

The medics moved quickly, efficiently, loading them onto stretchers.

I stood there, as if nailed to the spot.

I was unsure whether to follow—or turn around and leave.

In the end, I took a shaky breath, turned around clumsily, got into my car, and followed the ambulance to the hospital.

The doctor gave the update soon after.

“The accident wasn’t severe. Mr. Afton has a mild concussion and some external injuries. It was close, but he was lucky.”

“As for the woman, she also has a mild concussion. Observation will be enough.”

I nodded, my fingers trembling slightly.

As long as he’s okay…

I forced myself not to think further.

At least for now, I didn’t want to question why Tucker and Kelsey were together at the racetrack.

I headed for Tucker’s hospital room.

The nurse had just finished checking him and reminded him not to get out of bed.

Before she finished speaking, he was already pushing himself upright.

“Where is she?”

The nurse blinked. “Who?”

“The one who came in with me.”

His voice was tight and urgent, his brows tightly furrowed.

“She’s timid. She’s never been through anything like this. That crash must have terrified her. I need to go check on her.”