---- She only noticed that something was wrong after a month went by. When she realized that she had been scammed, the scammers had already disappeared. All the savings the Stanes had spent years gathering were gone, just like that. The banks took away their shops to repay their debt. At that point, the Stanes even had to worry about having enough money to buy their next meal. "Henry, I'm really sorry. I should have listened to my mom. If I had chosen to marry you, my family wouldn't have ended up in this state." I scowled in annoyance. "Jt happened due to your idiotic decisions. It had nothing to do with who you picked to marry." "No. That's not true." Hedgar shook her head, and ---- her tears fell on my sleeve. I wiped them off in disgust. "My dad asked around and learned that Leon's wife sent the scammer over!" she said. "She wants to ruin my family!" I almost laughed at that. To think that Leon would go this far. After the Stanes went bankrupt, James became bedridden. My father had been keeping his distance from James over the past few years, but he still went to visit him in the hospital. He even called me and said grimly, "James treated you kindly when you were a child. He's hospitalized now because of a stroke. Would you like... to visit him? "Tn any case, we won't be interacting with them much in the future." ---- Stroke? The situation was worse than I thought. James was paralyzed and could not move. His mouth was slanted, and drool kept spilling out of his mouth. When he saw me, he immediately started crying. "Urgh... urgh..." I could not understand what he was saying, but I did not want to hear him asking me to marry Hedgar again. I politely put down the fruits I brought over and kept my distance. "Take care of yourself, James. Things will get better." My father said nothing. He just peeled an apple for James quietly. ---- Hedgar's bad decisions brought this hardship upon her family.