Marry Into My Family

Julian slept for three days.

His mother had attacked him with broken glass after he gave up revenge.

He had not fought back.

The wounds were clean.

No defensive marks.

That made me angrier than anything.

He still could not truly hurt the woman who had treated him as a weapon.

When he finally woke, his first question was,

“My mother?”

“At the police station,” I said. “Attempted murder.”

His eyes dimmed.

I gave him the recording and investigation file.

“Before you see her, listen.”

He listened.

He learned the truth.

That his mother had lied.

That my parents had not harmed her.

That she had been the one who tried to hurt my mother.

That he had been born from her own crime turned back on her.

Julian’s face turned cold.

Not angry.

Not broken.

Cold.

After that, he stayed in the hospital and healed.

I sat beside him peeling an apple.

“You were bleeding. Why didn’t you go to a hospital? Why crawl back home?”

He said nothing.

But I heard him.

The ring I prepared for Iris… Mother probably threw it away.

My hand slipped.

The knife cut my finger.

I hissed.

Julian sat up so fast the IV line tugged.

He pressed the call button.

The nurse arrived, looked at my finger, then looked at him.

“It’s a tiny cut. It’ll heal by itself.”

I almost laughed.

Julian looked embarrassed.

I looked at him.

This man had nearly bled to death.

And he panicked over my scratched finger.

Then his thoughts sank again.

If her parents had wronged me, maybe I still had the right to marry her.

But now… my mother nearly destroyed hers.

And I almost destroyed her family.

What right do I have?

I put down the apple.

“Julian.”

He looked up.

“Marry me.”

“What?”

I smiled.

“My father likes you. I like you. Why don’t you marry into the Jiang family?”

His eyes widened.

“For the record, you’ll be the live-in husband.”

His thoughts exploded.

I can! I can! I absolutely can!

His face, however, tried to remain calm.

“Okay,” he said.

Just one word.

But his smile betrayed him.

I leaned closer.

“You are really easy to please.”

He took my uninjured hand.

For once, I did not hear lies.

Only relief.

Only love.

Only the boy who had been used as a weapon and finally found somewhere to belong.

This time, he did not enter my family as a fake brother.

He entered as the man I chose.