It felt as if she had suddenly fallen into an ice cellar. So cold—despite the height of summer, Nina was shivering uncontrollably.

She thought she was strong enough. She thought she could accept all this. But when she saw it with her own eyes, she couldn't help feeling physically sick.

She rushed out of the bathroom and vomited repeatedly.

From the bathroom behind her came intense sounds of movement and muffled breathing. Since Lucas had rented the entire park today, there were no other visitors, so he was letting loose without restraint.

Nina felt she couldn't stay in this place for even one more second. After finishing, she turned and left immediately.

She took a taxi home and replied to her lawyer's message on the way: "I'm at home. Please have the divorce papers delivered right away."

An hour later, the lawyer personally delivered the divorce papers.

Just then, Lucas also came racing home in his car.

"Nina, why did you leave without saying anything?" His handsome face was filled with concern. "Did I do something wrong to upset you?"

Nina looked up, staring at Lucas for a moment before saying, "I waited for you for a long time but didn't see you return. I thought you might have gone to meet Melody in private, so I just came home by myself."

Lucas's expression froze for an instant but quickly returned to normal.

"My little queen, are you determined to wrongfully accuse me?" Lucas's tone was exasperated yet indulgent. "I swear to you, I invited Melody only because I discovered her in your music playlist, and she just happened to..."

At this point, Lucas suddenly stopped. He looked hesitant, as if considering whether to tell Nina the rest.

Nina's dark eyes deepened. "She just happened to what?"

"Ah!" Lucas let out a long sigh. "I didn't want to betray my friend, but my wife is much more important. Since my wife suspects me, I have no choice but to sell out my buddy."

With that, Lucas opened the car door. "Get in. I'll tell you the truth!"

What game is he playing now? Nina frowned slightly but didn't say anything. She just took the divorce papers and got into the car.

"What's this?" Lucas glanced at the envelope in Nina's hand, asking with slight curiosity.

Nina lowered her eyes and replied flatly, "I'll show you tonight."

Soon, the car stopped in front of a private club. Lucas led Nina inside.

In the club's VIP room, Lucas's good friend Henry was embracing a sexy woman. When he saw Lucas bringing Nina in, he looked up with drunk, hazy eyes and said, "Hey, Lucas, perfect timing! I was just about to look for you!"

"Didn't we agree that my Melody would dress up as that cartoon princess and sing for your wife to celebrate her birthday? But Melody just came back by herself. She told me your wife was angry... I don't get it. Why would she be upset? Doesn't my Melody sing well?"

Nina suddenly realized that the woman cuddling with Henry was none other than Melody, who had changed out of her costume.

"Nina, I know you have a thing about cleanliness, so I didn't want to bring these messy affairs to your attention. But if I don't, I'll be wrongfully accused like some modern-day martyr," Lucas said helplessly. "So I'll just tell you the truth—Melody is actually Henry's mistress. I invited her to sing for you only as a favor to him."

Nina sometimes couldn't help thinking that perhaps all married men were natural-born actors. Otherwise, how could Lucas and Henry act so convincingly?

"Hehe, Nina, don't be angry. I just wanted my little sweetheart to earn some extra cash," Henry acted as if it were completely real. "Since Lucas was going to spend money to make you happy anyway, better for my Melody to earn it than some stranger."

"Get lost!" Lucas kicked Henry as soon as he approached. "Let me tell you, my Nina is upset with me today because of you! You keep a mistress, and I almost took the blame for it!"

They were such convincing actors! Nina silently applauded these two married men in her mind. If she hadn't personally witnessed Lucas passionately embracing Melody at the bathroom entrance just hours ago, she might have actually believed them.

"What? Nina actually suspected you of having a mistress?" Henry widened his eyes, displaying a look of disbelief. “Nina, you must be joking! Everyone in our circle knows Lucas is crazy about you. Since he met you, he's either busy working or revolving around you all day... He doesn't even hang out with his old friends anymore!"

"Every time we organize a get-together and invite him, he never comes. On the rare occasion he does show up, he doesn't drink, doesn't smoke, and certainly doesn't flirt with women. He's like a monk who's taken vows. We don't even bother inviting him anymore... such a killjoy!"

Nina thought, Is this what all men do? Cover for each other with their buddies?

When a wife discovers something, they push the mistress onto a friend, claiming she belongs to the friend, not themselves.

When Henry's wife comes to catch him cheating, would Lucas also embrace Henry's mistress and righteously tell Henry's wife, "My dear, you're overthinking this. You know Henry's character, don't you? Even if he had bad thoughts, he wouldn't dare act on them! Don't worry, I'm keeping an eye on him. If he dares to mess around, you won't need to step in—I'll break his legs for you!"

“Nina, you still don't believe us?" Seeing that Nina remained silent, Henry grew anxious and decided to go all in. "Fine! Since you don't believe me, I'll prove it to you. I'm going to take this little flirt right here, right now, in front of you and Lucas! Then you'll have to believe me, right?"

With that, he threw Melody onto the sofa and pressed himself over her, pretending to force himself on her.

Lucas visibly panicked. His body shifted, clearly wanting to intervene.

But he quickly regained his composure and didn't step forward, only warning verbally, "Henry! What are you doing? This is indecent!"

Then he put his arm around Nina and pulled her toward the door. "Let's go, let's go. They're disgusting. Nina shouldn't watch this—it'll taint your eyes."

He was clever, knowing that at this moment he shouldn't pull Henry away but should remove Nina from the scene instead.

After all, once Nina was gone, Henry would stop the act.

The two left the club. Nina guessed that after dropping her home, Lucas would immediately find an excuse to leave so he could return and comfort Melody.

Sure enough, as soon as the car stopped, Lucas's phone rang right on cue. He answered and launched into his usual work excuse, "What? There's a problem with the North City project? You guys are really something!"

Nina closed her eyes wearily, no longer wanting to hear his lies.

"Go ahead," she said, getting out of the car before he could even hang up. "Remember to come home tonight. I... have some documents for you to sign."

Tonight, let's sign the divorce papers.

From then on, they would part ways, owing each other nothing.

Shortly after Lucas left, Nina received a video.

It was sent by Melody.

Nina hesitated but finally opened it.

As soon as she played it, Melody's sugary voice came through the phone: "Waaah, Daddy is so mean! Daddy pushed his poor babe onto someone else. I was almost forced..."

"You have the nerve to complain?" Lucas smacked Melody's peach-like bottom and scolded her with a laugh. "If you hadn't insisted on dressing up as a princess, none of this trouble would have happened today."

"But I missed you," Melody said in a flirtatious voice. "Doesn't Daddy miss his little kitty too?"

"Cut it out!" Lucas said coldly. "If you ever show yourself to Nina again, I won't let you off so easily!"

"Ah... Daddy… don't let me off... I love it when Daddy treats me roughly..."

Then came scenes too explicit to watch.

Nina couldn't bear to look anymore and closed the video.

But Melody apparently wasn't satisfied with that. She sent many more videos, each containing explicit content.

[Hmph, Nina, you seem quite pleased with yourself today. Do you think Lucas really loves you that much? That he'd even have his good friend try to take me just to prove his innocence to you? Are you feeling smug inside?]

[But do you know that this 'perfect husband' of yours actually tangles with me every day? Every time he works late, he's doing me. Every meeting he attends is held on top of me. Even on his business trips, he takes me along.]

[Haha, watch the videos. In his office, in his Mercedes... even on planes and cruise ships, we've done it everywhere. Does he desire you this deeply? Let me guess, he probably hasn't touched you, his plain old wife, for ages?]

...

Reading these provocative messages, Nina slowly closed her eyes.

In her mind, a voice that wasn't hers suddenly spoke, "Nina, why are you such a pushover? I didn't give up my life to save you just so you could live so pathetically."

"Send the videos to Lucas, or post them online. See if that tramp still acts so smug."

"Expose them! Destroy them! Don't make me look down on you!"

How nice, Nina smiled. She was hearing her "sister's" voice again.

Her sister wasn't like her. She was weak and helpless, but her sister was brave. When their father beat their mother, she would only hide in the closet and cry, but her sister would rush out to protect their mother.

Then her sister and mother would be beaten bloody by their father. Only she, hiding in the closet, would be spared from the beatings.

"Waaah, Mom, Nancy, are you in pain?"

"Waaah, I'm sorry. I'm so useless. I'm such a coward..."

How she hated her cowardly, weak self.

But why had she become the only survivor of that deliberate fire?

It wasn't fair. Her mother was so kind, so gentle. Her sister was so brave, so strong. They should have been the ones to survive.

And weak, cowardly Nina should have died in that fire.

Perhaps because she could never accept being the sole survivor, after leaving the hospital, Nina began hearing a voice in her head.

It was her sister's voice.

Her dead sister had come back to life in another form, inside her body.

Doctors called it schizophrenia.

But that wasn't it. That wasn't true. This was her sister's voice—she recognized it. Her sister couldn't bear to leave her alone to face this huge, strange world, so she had stayed. Her soul had been reborn inside Nina's body. They shared one form and would never be separated again.