I approached him with wonder. “Hate? Why would I hate you, Ethan?”
He took a deep breath, and when I lifted the blanket — that’s when I trembled. Not out of fear, but out of pity, and the weight of the truth that greeted me.
Ethan’s right leg was missing. A prosthetic leg was what he was hiding.
“I was in an accident two years ago,” he said softly. “When I lost my leg, my fiancée left me. Since then, I felt like I had lost my purpose. My parents… they were afraid I would completely lose the will to live. So when they saw how you treated me without judgment, they said you were the only person who could make me happy.”
I teared up. I didn’t know what to say. “Ethan… even without a leg, you’re still you. You don’t have to be ashamed.”
He smiled, the first time I had seen him genuinely smile. “That’s why they gave you the mansion. Not as payment, but as thanks — because you gave me a reason to live again.”
I walked closer to him and held his hand. “I don’t need the mansion, Ethan. All I want is you — who you are, not what you have.”
And that night, as we held hands, I felt the warmth of true love — without lies, without doubt.
After a few months, we learned to laugh again, travel, and build a family in that mansion — not as a reward, but as the start of a new life.
One day, while we were watching the sunset on the balcony, he hugged me and whispered, “If it weren’t for you, I might have been lost in the darkness a long time ago.”
I smiled and replied, “And if it weren’t for you, I might not have known that sometimes, the most beautiful gift is the person who is willing to love you no matter what.”
The mansion, which once seemed like a symbol of wealth, became a home for two hearts that were wounded but healed — not because of money, but because of true love.
And that’s when I realized: The reason they gave me the $2 million mansion wasn’t to pay me — but to remind me that sometimes, love is a treasure worth more than any amount in the world.