Chapter 3: Chapter 3



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After trying on the dress, Dolores walked out of the fitting room and looked back toward the dressing room where the man and woman had been talking. The door was securely closed.

“That dress suits you. It matches your temperament.”

The saleswoman had good judgment and taste in fashion; she could pick out clothes that suited her customers just by looking at them. The long pale blue dress Dolores wore made her skin look even paler. The bow around her waist emphasized her slender figure. She was underweight, but it made her look more delicate.

Feeling satisfied with his choice of dress, Randolph went to pay for it. Then he realized that the dress cost almost five thousand dollars. However, since it was the Nelson family he was going to meet, Randolph gritted his teeth and paid the money. Then he looked at Dolores and spoke to her in an icy voice.

“Come on.”

Dolores had felt his cruelty for many years, both as a child and after he abandoned her, but his indifference still made her uncomfortable and made her heart ache. She lowered her head and followed him to the car.

After an uncomfortable ride in silence, the car soon stopped at the main entrance to the Flores’ villa. The chauffeur opened the door for Randolph.

Randolph got out of the car and Dolores followed close behind.

Discover more content at ɢαlnσνeℓs․com Standing in front of the villa, Dolores was entranced for a few seconds. While she and her mother had been struggling to get by because of her brother’s condition, her father was living happily in an elegant villa, enjoying life with the other woman. Dolores couldn’t help but clench her fists.

“Why are you still standing there?”

After sensing that Dolores wasn’t following him, Randolph turned and saw her dumbfounded expression as she stood in the doorway. Dolores hurried to follow him. Hearing from the maids that the Nelson Family had not yet arrived, Randolph let Dolores wait in the parlor.

They placed a piano near the French window in the parlor. It was a Seidel piano and was made in Germany. The price was exorbitant. Her mother bought it for Dolores’ fifth birthday. Dolores had loved the piano since she was a baby and began learning it at the age of four and a half. After Randolph kicked them out, Dolores hadn’t had another chance to play. She couldn’t help but reach out and touch it, feeling familiar and excited at the same time. She lightly pressed a key and a melodious tinkling sound rang through the room. Since it had been a long time since she had played it, her fingers were very stiff.

“Who let you play my piano?” said a clear, angry voice from behind her.

Her piano? Dolores turned and saw Annabelle Flores standing behind her, her fists clenched. Dolores remembered that Annabelle was a year younger than her and had just turned seventeen. She had inherited the good looks of her mother, Beulah Shawn. Although the way she had contorted her face made her look rather fierce at the moment.

“Your piano?”

Beulah and Annabelle had destroyed her mother’s marriage and spent the money that was supposed to be hers. And now even Dolores’s piano had been hers too? Dolores slowly clenched her fists and kept telling herself not to act on impulse. She still had to wait to get back the things that rightfully belonged to her and her mother. She had to hold on. She was no longer the little girl who only knew how to cry after being abandoned by her father eight years before, she had grown up!

“You are… Dolores Flores?” Annabelle only remembered then that today was the day the Nelson Family was arriving and that her father had brought Dolores and her mother.

Annabelle could still remember the miserable look on Dolores’ face when Randolph took them overseas. She knelt on the floor and wrapped her arms around Randolph’s leg, begging him not to send them away.

“I’m sure you’re thrilled you were able to convince Papa to bring you back,” Annabelle scoffed, crossing her arms in front of her chest and glaring at Dolores. “However, you shouldn’t be pleased, since the reason Papa brought you back was only so you could marry the Nelson Family’s son instead of me. It is said that the son…”

As she spoke, Annabelle covered her mouth and scoffed. She couldn’t help but gloat at Dolores’ misfortune of having to marry a disabled man. Marriage was a big event in life. Having to marry such a man would mean the rest of her life was ruined.

Dolores frowned, but before she could say anything, a maid entered.

“The Nelson Family is here.”

Randolph personally met them at the door and ushered them into the parlor. Dolores turned and saw a man in a wheelchair enter. He had definite facial features and a charming look. Despite being in a wheelchair, no one showed him any contempt.

Seeing his face, Dolores realized it was the man who was flirting with the woman in the boutique. Was it the eldest son of the Nelson Family? In the dressing room, she had clearly seen that he could stand up when he put his arms around the woman. He hadn’t used her for strength either. What was going on?

While Dolores was still wondering why Matthew was pretending to be handicapped, Randolph called out to her.

“Dolores, come here. This is the eldest son of the Nelson Family.” Then she bowed in respect and a maid pulled up a chair for her so Randolph could be on the same level as Matthew. “Mr. Nelson, this is Lola.”

Randolph felt sorry that such a dignified and lovely looking man had become handicapped.

Matthew’s eyes fell on Dolores and he noted that she was still young. Noticing how thin Dolores was, probably from malnutrition, he narrowed his eyebrows. This was a marriage arranged by his late mother. As a son, he could not in good conscience break the promise. And that was why he spread the word that he could not detoxify and that he had been paralyzed after being bitten by the poisonous snake abroad, just to change the Flores Family’s mind. However, the Flores Family did not.

Matthew lapsed into silence and his expression fell. Randolph thought Matthew was unhappy with Dolores and hurried to explain. “She’s still young and just turned eighteen. If she could have a good life, she’d grow into a beauty.”

Matthew scoffed to himself. He couldn’t tell if Dolores was a beauty or not, but he did sense Randolph’s peculiar behavior, and the fact that he wanted so badly to marry his daughter to him that he didn’t even care that he was a ‘cripple’.

With an icy stare, he raised one of his eyebrows. “I was injured during my business trip abroad and I’m afraid I can no longer walk. I can’t perform husbandly duty-”

“That doesn’t matter to me,” Dolores replied instantly.

Randolph had promised her that, whenever she gave herself to marriage, he would return her mother’s wedding gifts to her. Even if it meant marrying Matthew and getting divorced the next day, Dolores would agree. With a moment to reflect on everything, Dolores had understood Matthew’s true wishes. He could stand, but he chose to sit in a wheelchair and she guessed it was because of the woman Dolores had seen him with. He did not want to keep his promise to his mother and wanted the Flores Family to put an end to the arrangement. However, she had not expected Randolph to be willing to sacrifice his only unwanted daughter to keep the promise.

Matthew narrowed his eyes and looked at her. A shiver ran down Dolores’s spine at his gaze and bitterness coated her tongue. Why would she want to marry him? If she didn’t agree to the marriage, she would most likely be sent away again and she would never get her mother’s fortune or her piano back.

Dolores lifted the corners of her lips and forced a smile. She was the only one who knew the bitterness behind the smile. “We were destined to be married since we were children. So, no matter what happens to you, we’re already engaged. There’s a reason why ‘in sickness and in health’ is in the marriage vows.”

Matthew’s eyes darkened and Dolores had to resist the urge to cringe. Matthew had to admit that Dolores was good at talking.

Randolph, sensing nothing unusual, asked carefully, “So, as for the wedding date…?”

Matthew’s expression changed in a split second and he looked calm and demure again. “According to the agreement, it was already decided between two families, how could we break the promise?”.

Dolores lowered her eyes and didn’t dare look at him. He was as unhappy with the agreement as she was, perhaps more so. His consent was mere because a promise was a promise.

“That’s great.”

Randolph was glad of the news. Relating to the Nelson Family through an insignificant daughter was certainly a good thing. Although the Flores Family was wealthy, they were no match for the Nelsons.

Randolph stood and bowed deeply to Matthew. “I have asked my chef to prepare dinner, please eat here before you leave.”

Matthew frowned, disgusted by Randolph’s behavior of going after wealth and power.

“No, thank you. I still have some things to take care of,” he said, declining the offer and waiting for Abbott Baron to push him outside in the wheelchair.

As he passed Dolores, he held up his hand gesturing for Abbott to stop and looked up. “Is Miss Flores free later?”

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