Chapter 242

The words were so crooked and difficult to decipher that Carissa spent a long time making sense of them. When she finally understood, she looked up at Ryan with swollen eyes, tears streaming down her face. The words felt like daggers piercing her heart, causing her to curl up slightly in pain.

In the days before the massacre, she had returned to Northwatch Estate and discussed the Victory Pass battle with Melanie, who was worried about Dominic. She feared her father might meet the same fate as her husband and sons. Carissa tried to comfort her, but her own anxiety about her grandfather and her concern for her mother were palpable.

Outside Melanie’s courtyard, Carissa bumped into Ryan. He lifted his small face and asked his aunt if she was unhappy.

Carissa smiled and ruffled his hair, saying, “I’m a little unhappy, but I’ll cheer up soon. Don’t worry, Ryan.”

At the time, she had been preoccupied with her own worries and had given a somewhat dismissive answer. Perhaps Ryan sensed her unhappiness and thought buying her candied apples would lift her spirits.

During the year or more Carissa spent waiting to marry after returning from Meadow Ridge, she primarily spent her time playing with the children, trying to bring them joy and alleviate their fear of losing their fathers. As a result, her nephews and nieces were very close to her.

Ryan had been five years old then, old enough to understand the gravity of the situation. He saw his grandmother and mother crying all the time and knew his father was dead. Being smart and sensitive, he had become very dependent on Carissa and was especially close to her.

Ryan continued to write laboriously. After a while, his wrist was clearly exhausted, so Carissa suggested he take a break. But he stubbornly clenched his fist and continued writing.

Through painstakingly slow writing, the truth of how he had escaped was finally being revealed. That day, he had slipped out at noon. Afraid of being caught, he asked his attendant, Sunny, to wear his clothes and hide in the house to fool his mother. Ryan then crawled through a dog hole to leave the estate and buy candied apples.

Back then, Sunny had only recently been brought to Northwatch Estate. Yvette had planned to make him Ryan’s study companion, a detail Carissa was unaware of.

Ryan had just bought the candied apples, intending to take them to Valor Estate for Carissa, when he was struck on the head midway. When he woke up, he found himself locked in a dark room with several other children. They had been captured by human traffickers.

The other children were frightened by threats and dared not resist, but Ryan fought back and was brutally beaten. These children faced three possible fates: becoming beggars, being trained as thieves, or, for girls, being sold to brothels. That day, Ryan’s leg was broken, condemning him to a life as a beggar.

The traffickers gave a drug to all except the girls to render them mute. Some of the older children, who were literate, had their fingers smashed to prevent them from writing or reading, as beggars would earn more sympathy and money if they appeared more pitiable.

Since Ryan was wearing a servant’s outfit and was only five years old, the traffickers hadn’t considered that he might know how to read, so they hadn’t smashed his fingers.

Over the past two years, as Ryan moved from place to place, he eventually learned of his family’s massacre after being held by the traffickers for over half a year. At the time, many people were saying that the Duke of Northwatch’s family had been completely wiped out. He believed this meant Carissa was also dead.

The past two years had been incredibly harsh for Ryan. He tried to escape countless times, only to be caught and brutally beaten each time. Whenever he begged for food, someone was always watching him. Most of the time, he couldn’t escape due to his injured leg, and getting caught meant a severe beating.

Over time, he grew fearful of trying to run away. He began to feel despair and numbness. Additionally, the traffickers gave them medication that needed to be taken every few days—missing a dose caused severe discomfort, making it impossible to leave.

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