Chapter 3I Survived Prison to Expose the Fake Heir

The years of torture in the hellhole that was prison had left me powerless to fight back. All I could do was cover my head and try to dodge the blows.

It wasn't going to be long now. I just needed to wait a little longer.

I kept repeating those words to myself. As long as I could hold out until the auction began, everything would be turned on its head.

Simon didn't stop until sweat beaded on his forehead. As soon as he pulled his foot back, Phoebe and the other two hurried over, offering him water and massaging his shoulders.

"Are you tired, Simon?"

"You should've just let your men handle this, Simon. Don't dirty your hands for the likes of him."

Simon snorted and casually brushed their hands away. "Didn't you say everything had already been taken care of? Why is this impostor showing up now and getting on my nerves? Are you telling me that one of you still wants to marry him?"

The three women who'd haughtily taunted me earlier were now hanging their heads, meekly allowing Simon to admonish them.

Bruised and battered, I stared at them, unable to understand how things had ended up like this. After Dad took the three of them in, he treated them as if they were his daughters.

Even when other wealthy families tried to establish a connection with us by offering to marry one of them, he refused to use them as a bargaining chip. He said that in our family, everyone had the right to choose their own happiness.

Dad would never sacrifice our future and our happiness for material gain. That applied to me and the three of them as well.

As though she had heard the question in my heart, Kayla, who had always been the calmest of the three, crossed her arms and magnanimously offered an explanation.

"Ian, if Simon hadn't told us the real reason the Luther family took in the three of us, we'd probably still be kept in the dark. You guys were the ones who kidnapped and trafficked us in the first place. How could you have the nerve to put on an act and take us in after that?"

I was stunned by the righteous certainty on Kayla's face.

We kidnapped them? What kind of nonsense was that?

Why would I have begged Dad to take in three complete strangers if I hadn't heard the traffickers saying they were going to beat them up and leave them crippled?

But now, it was suddenly my fault instead.

Not to mention that Simon showing up at my family's doorstep, claiming to be related to us, had been utter nonsense from the start.

Dad had a vasectomy right after I was born. There was no way he would've had any other children after me.

Unfortunately, I had explained all of this to Phoebe, Kayla, and Haley countless times, yet they simply refused to believe me.

Perhaps this was the price I paid for being too blind to see the true colors of the people around me. Gripped with sadness, I ended up shedding a few tears.

"The three of you…" I croaked. Even though I could taste blood in my mouth, I pushed myself to finish my sentence. "The three of you are so dumb."

All because of a lie from Simon, they had sent Dad to his death and robbed me of five years of my youth.

Even more absurdly, these three women, hailed by everyone as the three queens of the business world, had been completely played by a thug like Simon.

What a joke.

When Simon heard my words, his eyes flashed with a trace of panic. He glanced at Phoebe and dragged her aside so forcefully that she stumbled.

A trace of displeasure crossed Phoebe's face, but she still smiled at Simon. "What is it, Simon?"

Simon growled under his breath, "Didn't you say you'd already made him mute? How is he talking again? I don't care. Even if you have to cut out his tongue today, don't let him say another word."

The viciousness in Simon's voice made Phoebe shudder. Was this really the same Simon who had seemed like an angel to her?

Before she could make sense of it, Simon put on a vulnerable expression again.

"Phoebe, you know how much effort it took for me to uncover the truth and reveal it to you guys back then. What if Ian starts spouting nonsense? I even thought that if you weren't the one who ended up winning this auction, I'd still be willing to marry you…"