When David Sutton said Wyatt Shaw was capable of murder, Yvonne Sutton truly thought it was a joke.

The Wyatt Shaw she knew was cheerful, loved to laugh, and was always rational and composed. Everyone said he would snap, but she couldn’t understand. ’How could a perfectly normal person suddenly snap? And so what if he did? Could he really turn into a completely different person?’

With these thoughts in mind, Yvonne Sutton followed David Sutton to find Wyatt Shaw. And there, in a grimy alley, she saw him—a cigarette dangling from his lips, beating a man with an air of utter contempt, one punch after another.

His hair was disheveled, his suit jacket was tossed aside, and he was wearing a white shirt. The shirt was spattered with blood, like blooming red plum blossoms.

His eyes were filled with utter disdain, as if the bloody heap on the ground wasn’t a person, but a piece of trash.

Quincy Hughes was sprawled on the ground, covered in so much blood he could no longer even cry out, only twitching intermittently.

A dozen or so burly men, dressed like local thugs, surrounded them. They were presumably Quincy Hughes’s underlings, but they were all kneeling on either side with their heads bowed, none daring to make a sound.

Chad Miller tried to step forward and reason with him several times, but Wyatt Shaw shoved him away each time.

"If you keep hitting him, you’re going to kill him! Wyatt, goddammit, snap out of it!" Chad Miller yelled, frantic.

Wyatt Shaw spat the cigarette butt onto Quincy Hughes. The corner of his mouth twitched, and then he grabbed a steel pipe from nearby, scraping it along the ground as he approached the man.

"I gave you a chance," Wyatt Shaw said, his eyes darkening. "But you just had to go looking for death."

Seeing Wyatt Shaw raise the steel pipe, David Sutton scrambled over to stop him.

"Get out of the way!" Wyatt Shaw roared at David Sutton.

"Stop this madness!"

"You son of a bitch..."

"Honey..." Yvonne Sutton called out, her voice trembling.

At just that sound, Wyatt Shaw’s body went rigid. He slowly looked up. When he saw it was Yvonne Sutton, his eyes looked lost for a moment before a hint of panic took over, and he hastily dropped the steel pipe.

He ran a hand through his hair, looking lost, then strode toward Yvonne Sutton. When he reached her, he positioned his body to block her view of the blood-soaked Quincy Hughes.

"What are you doing here? Was it David Sutton...?"

"Honey, I’m scared," Yvonne Sutton said, her face pale as she looked at Wyatt Shaw.

Wyatt Shaw took a deep breath and pulled Yvonne Sutton into his arms.

"Don’t be scared. I’m here."

"Don’t... kill him."

"I was just teaching him a lesson."

"That video was fake."

"I know."

"Can we go home, please?"

"Okay."

Still worried about them, David Sutton drove them to The Lucky Spoon Diner in his van. Mrs. Miller had been pacing anxiously by the door, and when she saw them return, she hurried forward.

"Hurry inside, it’s cold out here!"

She ushered Yvonne Sutton and Wyatt Shaw inside, then deliberately fell back a couple of steps to ask David Sutton if anything terrible had happened.

David Sutton shook his head. "Luckily, Yvonne stopped him. Nothing major happened. Chad Miller is over there handling the aftermath."

Mrs. Miller clutched her chest. "That gave me a real fright. He hasn’t been like this in so long."

David Sutton looked toward Wyatt Shaw worriedly. "I thought he was completely better. And I... I went and provoked him."

Because Wyatt Shaw’s shirt was stained with blood, Mrs. Miller got him one of Chad Miller’s sweatshirts.

Wyatt Shaw went into a room to change. Still worried, Mrs. Miller asked Yvonne Sutton to go in and keep him company.

’They must have seen Wyatt have an episode before,’ Yvonne guessed. ’That’s why they’re being so cautious.’

She entered the room to see Wyatt Shaw lighting a cigarette with one hand and unbuttoning his shirt with the other. The moment he saw her, he stubbed out the freshly lit cigarette.

"Come here." He tilted his head, raising an eyebrow at her.

Yvonne Sutton walked over to him, and he lifted her up, setting her down on a table.

"You take it off for me," he said, bumping his forehead gently against hers.

In truth, Yvonne Sutton’s heart was still racing, and her hands trembled slightly as she undid the buttons.

He took her hand, squeezed it firmly, and guided it as she undid the buttons.

"Sorry for scaring you," Wyatt Shaw said, his voice hoarse.

Yvonne Sutton shook her head and leaned into his embrace. Listening to his heartbeat, her own pulse slowly steadied.

"Don’t do that again," she said.

"Okay. I’ll listen to you."

Wyatt Shaw took off his shirt and pulled on Chad Miller’s sweatshirt. It was yellow with a Doraemon pattern on it. But because Chad was short and thin, the sweatshirt looked like a crop top on Wyatt.

Yvonne Sutton couldn’t hold back a snort of laughter.

Wyatt Shaw grabbed Yvonne Sutton’s waist, trying to stop her from laughing, but when she only laughed more freely, he bit her lip. Their playful teasing turned into a kiss, which grew deeper and more passionate.

Just then, a knock came at the door. Mrs. Miller called from the other side, "The noodles are ready. You two should come out and eat!"

After the two of them finished their noodles, Chad Miller returned. He kept his report brief: "He’s fine."

Hearing this, Yvonne Sutton felt much more at ease, and both David Sutton and Mrs. Miller breathed a sigh of relief.

Wyatt Shaw scoffed. "He got off easy."

Wyatt Shaw, David Sutton, and Chad Miller went upstairs to talk, while Yvonne Sutton helped Mrs. Miller clean up the kitchen.

After some thought, she decided to ask Mrs. Miller about the old woman’s son and Hannah Abbott.

Perhaps because the story involved Hannah Abbott, Mrs. Miller hesitated, unsure whether she should speak.

"You all want me to help Wyatt Shaw move on from his past, don’t you? But how can I help him if I don’t know anything?"

Mrs. Miller sighed. "I’ve told you before, that girl, Hannah Abbott, had a really tough life. Her parents died when she was young, and she had to get by with her older brother. But she was always so sweet and sensible, always thinking of him. Then, when she started middle school, she suddenly became rebellious. She dyed her hair blond, got ear and lip piercings, and all that. She stopped paying attention in class and spent all day hanging out at the arcade. Ethan Abbott didn’t know how to guide her, and he didn’t have the time. For a while, the two of them would fight every time they met, nearly to the point of disowning each other."

"Later, a high school boy started pursuing Hannah Abbott. He tricked her into drinking, and when she got drunk, he... he assaulted her." Mrs. Miller’s eyes turned red as she spoke of it.

"And as fate would have it, Ethan Abbott stumbled upon the scene. Of course he went crazy. He grabbed the first thing he could find and beat that high schooler to a pulp. Luckily, Wyatt Shaw was there to stop him. I heard all this from Chad. Apparently, things got serious later—the high schooler ended up in a vegetative state. To protect Ethan, Wyatt had no choice but to go home and beg his parents for help. They paid up, but Ethan was still sent to a labor correction facility." 𝒇𝒓𝒆𝒆𝙬𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝒎

’So it wasn’t Wyatt Shaw who beat that boy into a vegetative state,’ Yvonne Sutton thought. ’The old woman was mistaken.’

"While Ethan Abbott was in the facility, Hannah Abbott was at her lowest. Wyatt Shaw took care of her in Ethan’s place, and it was during this time that Hannah fell in love with him."

"But back then, Wyatt Shaw was still hiding the fact that his family was wealthy, which led to everything that followed. When Ethan Abbott got out, Hannah Abbott needed surgery for appendicitis. He couldn’t raise the money, so in a desperate act, he tried to rob someone and was killed in the process. Because of that, Wyatt felt an immense guilt toward Hannah. He took care of her constantly, and over time, he developed feelings for her as well."

"After Wyatt Shaw went back to his family, he funded Hannah Abbott’s education. To make it easier to care for her, he arranged for her to go abroad shortly after he did. They lived overseas for six years, and just when they were about to get married, they got into a car accident together. Hannah died at the scene, and Wyatt spent half a year in the hospital."

"When he returned to the country, we found that he’d forgotten all about Hannah Abbott. At first, we were angry, but we soon realized it wasn’t that he’d forgotten—he was suffering from some kind of mental issue. He would have these episodes from time to time. Whenever they happened, he’d become incredibly violent and wouldn’t stop until he saw blood. It was terrifying. After he married you, though, he became much more cheerful. I really thought he had recovered, but then tonight..."

Yvonne Sutton was silent for a long time after hearing the story. Then she suddenly asked, "Do I look like Hannah Abbott?"