Falling for My Contractual Wife

The driver grinned and chimed in. "Yep! Clearview Village is booining now. Mountains decked with cocoa trees. Villagers won't have to toil as hard in the future. Oh, and speaking of Clearview Village, they're sprucing up Myrtle Peak to turn it into a tourist spot. Folks in that neck of the woods are making the big bucks."

Soon, Grace spotted Myrtle Peak which was being constructed of

The Shermans' old home wasn't far, so Grace got off here.

The whole mountain was fenced off. Grace could kinda make out its original look through the construction. A cement road snaked halfway up. Grace trailed it up. This spot held a ton of memories.

Back in the day, she'd hike this mountain to gather wood. She remembered rescuing a kid here once.

She found him sprawled, bloodied. She dropped her load, hoisted him, and hauled him out. She carried him nearly two miles to the hospital.

She had no idea what was wrong with him. He clung to her necklace so tightly that she couldn't snag it from him before she left.

Luckily it wasn't anything fancy, just some plastic.

In a hurry to get back to chopping wood, she ditched him at the hospital.

But when she came back, her scythe and basket were gone. Daisy gave Grace a beating, even breaking her stick.

The next day, Grace tried to claim her necklace from the kid, but he was gone. The doctor said his rich family had taken him.

Now, she reckoned the kid was running from trouble. She'd been gutsy then. If his pursuers had found out, she'd be toast. She wondered how he was doing now.

There was another memory here, too. When Grace was a kid, she'd found a pup on the mountain.

Daisy said no pets, called them a waste and threatened to slaughter it if she brought it back.

So, Grace raised it up there and even built it a dog house from some branches.

Daisy forbade Grace from taking food form home so Grace helped out an elderly man who lived alone and in return, he gave her some scraps. Grace raised the little mutt for five months. Later, the pup vanished one day. Grace bawled for days.

Thinking about it got her misty-eyed. Those were simpler times. Her joys and worries revolved around work and feeding the pup.

Lost in thought, she overheard two men chatting behind her.

Their voices clicked in Grace's mind. She spun around and froze

It was Brian.

Brian seemed to have sensed something and locked eyes with her. Brian's

eyes

widened.

Before his brain processed what just happened, Brian approached Grace.

Grace looked around. This place had long been flattened because of construction. She had nowhere to hide.

Before she could bolt, he marched over and grabbed her wrist.

Their eyes locked, Brian's grip trembling.