Chapter 3The Disabled Maestro Is My Judge

After graduation, I didn't follow my parents' plan. I chose to stay in the city with Savannah.

I taught piano at an art school, and Savannah wrote full-time at home. She had no income, but between my salary and the occasional support from my parents, we managed.

Until the family business went under, and my father left a suicide note before taking his own life.

My mother, completely broken, was institutionalized.

I locked myself in our bedroom, crying for days.

Savannah, who was terrible at domestic skills, started trying to cook for me. When I wouldn't eat, she'd quietly leave the food outside the door, then disappear for the whole day. She would drag her tired, dirty body back to our rented apartment late every night.

One day, I followed her. I found Savannah at a construction site, her slender frame swaying as she hoisted multiple bags of concrete mix onto her shoulder.

I wept uncontrollably. Savannah wiped the grime from her face and smiled, trying to reassure me.

"Dad's gone, but he'd want you to live well."

"Don't be afraid. I'll always be by your side, no matter what."

"I swear I’m going to take care of you."

With Savannah's constant support, I returned to the school. To help pay off the debts my father left, Savannah slept only three hours a night. I also took a side gig playing in a local bar.

When a VIP client in a private room waved ten thousand dollars and demanded I play while naked, I refused instantly. Even though we were only ten thousand dollars away from paying off the last of my father’s debt.

The client laughed and opened a bottle of expensive red wine for me. "If you're so principled, then drink this bottle and play me a drunk piano piece."

I looked at the newly uncorked bottle, didn't think twice, and downed it before starting to play.

When the piece was over, the client applauded enthusiastically, and I was given the ten thousand dollars as promised.

But as I stood up to leave, my body went instantly weak, and I collapsed onto the velvet sofa. The man lunged at me, roughly trying to force himself on me.

"I love defiling artists. Cooperate and I’ll give you twenty thousand more!"

I fought desperately, but he used a drug-soaked cloth to smother me into unconsciousness.

Just as I felt the ultimate despair, Savannah burst into the room and smashed a beer bottle over the man’s head.

"If you touch my boyfriend, I'll kill you!"

She didn't stop until the man was completely incapacitated, blood pooling on the floor.

As she was being led into the police car, Savannah smiled and called out to me, "Baby, don't be sad. I finally got to protect you."

"With me here, no one will ever hurt you!"

Her face in that moment mirrored the fierce protectiveness from five years ago. Tears blurred my vision. I ran after the police car until I stumbled and fell in the pouring rain.

Fortunately, the police investigation cleared everything up. Savannah's actions were ruled justified self-defense.

We held each other tight for a long time. Savannah excitedly told me she had news.

"My book is a hit! Companies are fighting over the rights! We don't have to struggle anymore!"

Immersed in the joy of her success, I leaned in and whispered in her ear, "I have something to tell you too."

"Ms. Savannah Reilly, will you marry me?"

I knelt on one knee, holding up the ring I had been saving for so long.

Later, I poured everything I had into giving Savannah a beautiful, grand wedding. She wore her gown and sobbed through the vows. The handwritten, ten-thousand-word love letter I read at the ceremony made me truly believe we would walk hand-in-hand, forever, in our beautiful, simple life...

The car had unknowingly pulled up to my villa in Vienna’s 19th District.

Owen, still absorbed in the story, asked, "By all accounts, you two should have been happy. How did you break up? Did she cheat..."