“Why not lower your standards and marry me?”
“I wouldn’t mind becoming the Brooks family’s prized son-in-law!”
They shouted from below, but it was all for sport—
Passing glances, smirking, treating me as if I were a toy to be mocked.
One of them even stepped forward to lay hands on me.
Before he could touch me, Ethan kicked him hard.
“Watch your mouth.”
In his mind, no matter what, women who had once pursued him were off-limits to other men.
“Oh? Feeling protective, Ethan?”
Someone teased.
Ethan gave a cold chuckle, his gaze locking on me like a blade.
“Protective? I just think a woman like her isn’t even worthy of your attention.
If you know any farmhands out in the sticks, go ahead and introduce Lily to them—she’s better suited to slopping pigs.”
I looked at him calmly. After five years, he was still the same venom-tongued man.
Once upon a time, his words might have driven me mad with anger.
Now, they barely caused a ripple inside me—
Because when you don’t care, he can’t hurt you.
A chorus of jeers rose around us.
“Ethan, you really are ruthless.”
“To say something like that—did you forget she’s the real daughter of the Brooks family?”
Ethan calmly pulled out his phone and tapped the screen. His lock screen was clearly a photo of a beautiful woman.
“See this?”
He held the phone up for everyone to see.
“My girlfriend is the Brooks family’s heiress. Robert and Margaret Brooks fully approve—unlike some people who are like stray cats, unwanted by anyone.”
The moment I saw the wallpaper, I recognized her—it was Sophia Brooks.
I had no intention of responding and was just about to stand up.
Every gaze in the room immediately shifted toward me, as if expecting me to finally lose my composure and confront Ethan.
After all, that’s how it had always been between us.
When we were kids, he once poured ink into my meat pie.
I put laxatives in his oatmeal porridge.
Neither of us ever let the other off easily—
And I never allowed him the last word.
But now? Now Ethan was as light as a feather in my heart.
I picked up my bag and headed toward the exit.
“Lily Anderson!”
His voice, tinged with irritation, rang out behind me.
I paused mid-step.
Ethan rose from his seat, anger flashing in his eyes.
“Five years without seeing me, and you don’t have a single thing to say?”
For a split second, I thought maybe it was love turned to hate.
But no—that was just an illusion.