Mr. Kane Got Blacklisted

Mr. Keller heard the commotion and asked, “What’s going on?”

Vermont calmly handed a tissue to Felicity and casually said, “Oh, nothing. The cat at home caught a cold and is in a bad mood.”

Felicity took the tissue with a guilty expression, helped wipe the water from Vermont’s face, and listened carefully to his explanation.

“You know, I have a lot of siblings. When my parents were younger, they were busy making money, so they left me in the countryside with my grandfather. He was just an ordinary farmer who couldn’t read or write. As long as I stayed healthy, he thought I was doing fine. There were no extracurricular activities or tutoring—just playtime after school until I was about eleven or twelve. Then my grandfather’s health declined, and my parents brought me back to Rivera.

When I got to the city, I didn’t fit in. At a school event, the teacher asked everyone to showcase a talent, but I had none. I couldn’t follow the English lessons, couldn’t tell the difference between real and fake designer clothes, and even struggled with using a knife and fork at banquets. People saw me as a country bumpkin. I felt inferior back then. During New Year’s, when my siblings received gifts, my parents told me to pick first, but I didn’t dare choose what I really wanted. I always felt unworthy. Don’t be fooled by my current status; I was just pretending because I’d been through a lot. What really changed me was my fiancée.”

Felicity paused and looked up at him. She thought he was making things up, but his words made her uncomfortable.

When she visited the Snyder family for dinner, she talked to Vermont’s older brother and sister-in-law. The relationships among the Snyder siblings were distant, likely due to their blended family. Vermont was closest to his eldest brother, Corbin.

Corbin and his wife shared stories about Vermont’s tough childhood in Rivera. His time there was much harder than he let on.

him to an elite school in Rivera. The kids there

would have blamed him, thinking any

was in college in another province and

a deep pond, and the son of a powerful man threw his watch into it, demanding Vermont retrieve it or he’d expose an

life and didn’t care about certain things. He didn’t wear underwear, so he didn’t think his grandson needed to

obey whenever they used this against him—for chores,

self-esteem, and Vermont was repeatedly humiliated by his peers because of

the boy, pinning him down and repeatedly punching him. Even as the boy’s friends kicked and hit Vermont, he

went from cursing to crying and begging for mercy. When Corbin finally

were afraid of offending them.

He learned to compromise and be diplomatic. To fit in, he started getting close to those people and ignored

was mostly because the Kane family was powerful in Rivera, and Keegan was their eldest

thing was spotless—he obviously treasured it. He’s stubborn and easy to fool. If I told him I wasn’t sincere about our friendship, would he cry? Forget

worry about Vermont’s colorful dating history. She feared some old flame might reappear. But after hearing Corbin, she realized