He Let Me Drown, Another Man Taught Me Love

For ten years, Nina Avery had stayed by Julian Blackwell's side. On the surface, she was his concierge doctor. In truth, she was also the woman he turned to for his physical needs.

When he came back from violent clashes wounded and bleeding, she treated him. When loneliness gnawed at him in the quiet of the night, she was the one who eased it.

Nina had once believed that if she gave enough of herself, someday she would reach his heart.

But when the woman Julian had always loved suddenly returned to the country, Nina's usefulness vanished. To Julian, she became something disposable.

Even the assistant couldn't bear to see it and tried to persuade Julian to value her. Julian only let out a dismissive laugh.

"Nina was never part of my life plan. I only kept her around because she resembled Aria a little."

In that instant, Nina's devotion felt like a cruel joke.

Later, when he wrapped an arm around Aria Monroe's waist and casually asked Nina to help prepare the wedding, Nina didn't cry. She didn't make a scene. She only smiled until her eyes turned red and quietly agreed.

Then she turned away and made a call.

"The ten-year contract expires in seven days. I'm requesting termination. From this moment on, I will have nothing more to do with the Blackwell family."

......

Ten years earlier, eighteen-year-old Nina had signed a blood contract with the Blackwell family at her father's funeral. In exchange for a secure future, she would remain by Julian's side as his concierge doctor for ten years.

Now, at twenty-eight, Nina stood in the third-floor corridor of Blackwell Manor, gripping the contract that was about to expire. Her heartbeat thundered in her chest.

She should have left calmly.

But sometime during those ten years, she had fallen in love with Julian.

Not because he was the heir to the Blackwell family of Serricilia. Not because he controlled half of the Eastridge Underworld Network. Simply because he was Julian.

Just as she was about to confess her feelings to him, Julian's deep, pleasant voice drifted from the study. "Aria is returning tomorrow. Notify everyone. Her room should be arranged exactly the way it was ten years ago. The engagement banquet will be in autumn. I'm going to marry her."

The assistant hesitated. "Mr. Blackwell, what about Nina?"

Julian fell silent for a moment, then let out a quiet chuckle. "She was never part of my plans. I kept her around because she resembled Aria a little."

Nina froze where she stood, as if struck by lightning.

Aria.

The girl Julian had loved in his youth but could never have.

The young doctor who had stayed by his bedside all night when he was gravely wounded in a gunfight at sixteen.

The childhood sweetheart forced to leave for Nuwhuenia because their families opposed them, the reason he had remained unmarried for ten years.

Nina suddenly remembered that Aria was also a doctor.

Before Nina ever