The entire world's attention was completely captured by the legendary tournament, creating a massive wave of movement across the oceans and providing Marcus with the ultimate cover he needed to escape his family's watchful eyes undetected.
He had strategically used that chaotic period of global movement to leave the western continent entirely, except he never actually returned with the rest of the delegation, choosing to remain permanently in the southern continent.
He abandoned his old life completely, choosing to start over as a penniless nobody in a foreign land rather than return to the toxic noble house that had rejected him.
It was right there in that unfamiliar southern territory that he eventually met Evangeline, Noah's mother, and the two of them fell deeply in love and had children together.
Away from the strict judgments of high society, Marcus found a sense of genuine peace, warmth, and acceptance that he had never experienced before in his life.
