Claudia’s sobs were raw and desperate, drawing sympathy from everyone around.

But I only shook my head, lowered my gaze, and pried my clothes free from her grip.

The sharp crack of a slap rang out. My head snapped to the side.

“Selene,” Lawrence seethed, “I was the one who asked Claudia to raise Alex. If you need someone to hate, hate me—don’t take it out on her!”

His voice dropped to a cold threat. “If you don’t agree to save Claudia, I’ll divorce you. Right here. Right now.”

In all the years of our cold war, Lawrence had tried everything—pleading, anger, even cruelty—but he had never once uttered that word. Divorce.

I stared at him, momentarily hollow, my mind flashing back to the beginning.

We had met young. He was the only person who never cared about my so-called lucky star, never asked me for miracles. With him, I could laugh, breathe, and be myself.

When we fell in love, he treated me like I was the only thing in the world worth cherishing. Everyone believed our story would end in happily ever after.

Until the day of our wedding.

That morning, the Ashford family’s stock market holdings collapsed, losing tens of billions in a single day. Bankruptcy loomed.

Before a hall full of guests, Lawrence begged me—for the first time—to save the Ashford family.

Everyone thought I would agree. It was such a small thing for me, and I had saved countless entrepreneurs before.

But this time, I clenched my teeth and refused to speak.

Even when he and the entire Ashford family knelt, bowing their heads to the floor, I stayed silent. Tears streamed down my face as I wrote a blood oath: I would never utter another word again.

The room had gone deathly quiet. Lawrence’s devastation was something I still saw in my dreams.

In the years that followed, he swung between tenderness and cruelty, desperate to make me speak again.

When Alex was born, he clung to hope—that motherly love would make me break my vow. But all he saw was me rocking our crying infant in helpless silence.

When Alex could walk, he once ran toward me from across the street—straight into the path of a car. I froze, unable even to shout “Stop.”

Disappointment hardened into something colder. Lawrence stopped expecting anything from me. Claudia secured the investments he needed, pulling him out of crisis. From then on, he spent his days with her, taking Alex along. To outsiders, they looked like a perfect little family of three.

---

The sharp voice of a nurse snapped me back to the present.

“The boy from the car accident—his condition’s critical! Blood pressure only seventy! Get the defibrillator, now!”

The words struck me like a hammer blow. My knees buckled, and I sank to the floor.

Lawrence yanked me upright.

“Selene, you refuse to help others—but what about Alex? He’s your son!” His voice cracked. “I saw you tell an old man on his deathbed that he would live—and he lived for another ten years!”

“Alex’s life is hanging by a thread. How can you just watch him die?”

I could only weep in silence.

Something in him snapped. His hand shot to a nearby tray, grabbing a scalpel. The cold steel pressed to my throat.

“Selene, if you don’t speak to save Alex—believe me—I’ll kill you!”

His eyes were wild, bloodshot, pleading and furious all at once.

But I closed my eyes, tears sliding down my cheeks, and held my silence.

“Speak! Speak!”

The scalpel’s blade bit into my neck, slicing the skin, parting flesh inch by inch.

“Ah!”

Lawrence’s roar was animalistic. He thrust the scalpel toward my head with such force that a cold jolt shot through me. Metal grazed the corner of my eye; heat and wetness blurred my vision.

The blade buried itself deep in the ward’s wall, quivering from the impact.

“You bitch!” His voice shook with rage. “You wouldn’t even spare your own son. What right do you have to live?”

His palm crashed against my face.

Blood trickled from my lip, but I swallowed my words.

More blows followed—harder, faster—until the world tilted and my body folded to the floor. I stayed silent, even as the hospital staff rushed in to restrain him.

“If you keep hitting her, someone’s going to die. Don’t be impulsive,” the attending physician warned. “I swear we’ll do everything we can to help.”

“What good will that do?” Lawrence seized the doctor by the collar, voice low and lethal. “If Selene speaks, Claudia’s legs can be saved. My son can live. Can you guarantee that?”

When the doctor couldn’t answer, Lawrence shoved him aside.

“Selene,” Claudia sobbed, “I know I’ve wronged you these past years, but it was all to take care of your son. Please—help me.”

I slumped against the wall, vision glassy.

If I can’t even beg to save my own child, why should I save her?

Lawrence’s face hardened. At that moment, I knew something in him had broken.

He seized my throat and slammed me against the wall. “Selene, listen to me. If Claudia’s leg isn’t healed tonight, I’ll make you feel every ounce of her pain. If Alex dies, you die with him. Don’t test me.”

The pressure on my windpipe stole my breath. I clawed weakly at his wrists until darkness nipped at the edges of my vision. Only then did he let go.

---

His bodyguards dragged me down the hall and locked me inside the utility room.

That evening, Nanny Evelyn came with a tray of food. She lingered at the door, her voice hushed.

“Madam, I heard everything. I know these years haven’t been kind to you, and Claudia has treated you cruelly. But… even for your own sake, you should help.”

I shook my head, mute.

Her sigh was heavy. She left without another word.

When the footsteps faded, I broke. Silent tears soaked my sleeves.

Alex might resent me for my silence, might hate me for not being there—but he was still my son. My blood. My heart.

---

Sometime past midnight, pounding shook the door.

Lawrence stormed in, his face a mask of grief and fury.

“Because of you, Claudia’s leg was amputated!” His howl rattled the walls. “Bitch! Why didn’t you save her?”

I bit down hard on my lip, tasting iron. But somewhere in my eyes, a flicker of satisfaction glinted.

Maybe I am small-minded.

How could I bear to watch another woman wedge herself between my husband and me? How could I stand to see her raise my child as her own?

Especially when she was the one who had endangered my Alex in the first place.

“Didn’t I tell you?”

Lawrence’s gaze darkened, the light draining from his eyes.

“I’ll make you feel the same pain she’s suffering.”

At his signal, shadows shifted in the doorway—his bodyguards stepping forward.

“How did Claudia’s leg get broken? I’m going to make you understand it today!”

Lawrence’s voice was low and venomous.

“Someone! Get a car!”

The bodyguards seized me at once. “Hold her.”

He climbed into the SUV, slammed the door, and floored the accelerator.

My legs were bound with thick rope, my upper body pinned by two men. I couldn’t move—only watch in frozen horror as the headlights bore down on me.

The impact came like a lightning strike. Pain exploded through me, white-hot and blinding. My legs crumpled beneath the weight of the car. I bit down so hard that a piece of flesh tore from my tongue, the copper taste flooding my mouth.

The SUV rolled back. Lawrence stepped out, eyes dark and unhinged.

“Selene,” he said slowly, “this is your last chance. Promise to give Claudia a good life in her remaining years—and speak to save Alex—and I’ll let you live.”

His mouth twisted in rage.

I met his gaze and gave him a bitter smile. I shaped the words with my lips: Dream on.

His expression sank into something black and soulless. He stalked over, then ground his heel into my shattered ankle.

Agony ripped through me, so sharp I saw stars. My nails dug into my palms, breaking skin, but still he pressed harder, over and over, eyes fever-bright with cruelty.

“Are you sure you won’t speak?” His voice was a growl. “I won’t give you another chance.”

I was half-conscious, my body trembling, the world narrowing into throbbing pain. Words were beyond me.

---

Barely fifteen minutes had passed when I heard shouting from outside the courtyard.

“Let me go!”

The sound jolted me upright—it was my brother.

The bodyguards dragged him in, struggling against their grip.

Ten years I had hidden him, always fearing Lawrence might use him against me. I had prepared for everything. And still, he found him.

Lawrence’s hand clamped around my brother’s throat. “I’ve changed my mind,” he sneered. “Instead of letting you and Alex die together, I’d rather make you watch your family suffer—piece by piece.”

His tone was almost casual. “From now on, every ten minutes I’ll take one of his hands. Should I chop them clean off, or break every finger first, one by one, before finishing the job?”

He yanked my hair, forcing me to look.

My brother met my eyes, shaking his head even as he gasped for breath.

“Sister,” his voice rasped, “don’t forget what our parents told you. Don’t do anything you’ll regret—no matter what.”

“Shut up!”

Lawrence snapped his fingers backward with a sickening crack.

“Ah!” My brother’s scream pierced the air.

Lawrence’s gaze pinned me like a knife. “Remember this, Selene—he’s suffering because of you.”