“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?”