And me? I was just a waitress working this extravagant gala.

Zoe let out a derisive laugh, her gaze raking over me with undisguised contempt. She'd clearly recognized me as Mrs. Vance.

She shifted her position, subtly blocking Seth's line of sight, the scorn in her voice barely concealed.

"A waitress deliberately wandering over here to get Seth's attention? Do you have a death wish?"

"You could work here your entire life and still never afford the dress Seth personally picked out for me. It's worth millions."

"You'd better start figuring out how you're going to pay for the one you just ruined."

In that moment, the gulf between Seth and me came into sharp, brutal focus.

The dress he'd casually bought for Zoe was worth more than I could save in several lifetimes.

Most of the guests at this gala were the kind of people who worshipped power and trampled the weak. Plenty of them were more than happy to fawn over Zoe, the pampered heiress.

After all, she might very well become the next Mrs. Vance.

The insults piled on, one after another.

I lowered my eyes and bowed my head in humiliation.

The day Seth told me he was tired of me, he'd immediately cut off my living expenses.

Life had only gotten harder since then, and no one dared to help me.

I shouldn't have been at a gala like this in the first place. But Seth's birthday was in a few days, and I wanted to use the money I'd earned myself to buy him a gift.

I'd hoped to use the occasion to sit down and talk with him properly.

Even if it was all a misunderstanding, it needed to be cleared up.

I just never imagined that I was the joke all along.

Zoe pressed a kiss to Seth's cheek and pouted playfully.

"You don't still have feelings for that country bumpkin, do you? This waitress kind of looks like her. Is that why you're going easy on her?"

A flash of irritation crossed Seth's eyes. He scoffed.

"Didn't you say it yourself? That hick was just exploiting my gratitude. That's the only reason she saved me back then. She came crawling to me, begging for a truce, all so I'd cover her grandfather's medical bills."

"A scheming piece of trash like her, too low-class to even show in public. You really think she could make me stop caring about you?"

"I just didn't want you dirtying your hands."

"Someone drag her out and slap her ten times. Then throw her out of the gala."

So that was what he'd always thought of me. That I was nothing but a manipulator, exploiting his gratitude for my own gain.

The words I wanted to say caught in my throat like shards of glass.

My heart felt like it had been stabbed a thousand times. Tears pooled in my eyes, threatening to fall but refusing to.

Once again, every hope I'd placed in Seth crumbled to nothing. All I could do was clench my fists, powerless.

Before I could even react, Zoe poured an entire glass of red wine over my head. It ran down my face, soaking me from head to toe. As she leaned in close, her voice was a venomous whisper in my ear.

"So what if you're Mrs. Vance? The one standing beside him is still me."

I instinctively tried to fight back, but the bodyguards moved fast. They pinned me to the ground and struck me across the face, ten times, without mercy.

My cheeks swelled almost instantly. The pain blurred my vision, and no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't steady myself on my feet.

Through the haze, I watched Zoe loop her arm through Seth's, triumphant and glowing, as they went to toast the other guests.

I was thrown out of the gala like garbage. I struggled to my feet.

The manager hurled a handful of crumpled bills at my face, his voice cold and flat.

"You're fired. Don't bother coming back."

I clutched the bills in my fist and tried to wipe the sticky wine from my clothes. I hadn't gotten far before a group of thugs blocked my path.

They spat vulgar insults, rough hands already yanking at my blouse.

"The lady told us this one's a tramp. Said everything she does is to seduce men."

"Now that I'm seeing her up close, she wasn't wrong."

Instinctively, I thought of Seth.

Just one more time. I'd trust him one last time.

Clinging to that thought, I called him.

The call hadn't even connected before one of the thugs ripped the phone from my hand and smashed it against the pavement.

It wasn't until the ringtone on the other end died on its own that he finally deigned to send a text.

"Don't bother me unless it's important."

"Annoying."

The light in my eyes dimmed, word by word.

Seeing that, the thugs' gazes turned darker, their movements bolder. One of them tore open my blouse.

"Looks like whoever you called for help doesn't plan on saving you, sweetheart."

"I heard she used to go for a dollar a night. Now she's playing the virtuous maiden?"

When the coins hit my body again, the memories came flooding back, impossible to stop.

When Seth had spent a fortune tracking me down, I'd still been on my knees begging for a waitressing job.

After my birth parents took me home, the family love I'd craved shattered like a soap bubble at the first touch.

My father was a gambler. When he drank, he took a belt to me until my skin split open and bled.

My mother had cancer. She died not long after.

So I was passed around, sold from one person to the next. I never finished high school. I survived on odd jobs.

I was working at a diner when my father tracked me down. Said he'd turned over a new leaf. Instead, he drugged me and hung a degrading sign around my neck advertising me for a dollar a night.

Coins pelted my skin. A vagrant dragged me onto a filthy mattress by force.

And in that moment, when I had no one and nothing left, Seth appeared.

He pulled me into his arms, shielding me completely, and his voice cut through the air like a blade.

"She is my one and only fiancée. Anyone who touches her answers to the entire Vance family."

After that, he taught me taekwondo.

He said that once I could defend myself, I'd never have to be afraid again. Even when he wasn't by my side, I could protect myself.

I replayed every move Seth had taught me, pacing my energy, and put every last one of them on the ground.

They scrambled away like rats.

Memory and reality blurred together, and the truth settled over me like cold water. Seth wasn't here anymore.

I laughed bitterly and bent down to pick up the coins scattered across the pavement from the fight.

The man who used to ache at the slightest hint of my suffering, who would have taken every bruise onto his own body if he could—where had he gone?

Two people who had loved each other that deeply. How had it come to this?

Only in that moment did it finally hit me. Cinderella was never meant to become a princess.

When I opened my eyes again, I was in a hospital bed. Someone had cleaned and dressed the cuts on my face.

Seth spooned oatmeal to my lips, and the concern in his eyes was impossible to hide.

Something in my chest softened without warning. But before the feeling could take root, Zoe called, and just like that, he left.

My repaired phone sat on the nightstand. The screen lit up again. It was a message from the international firm I'd interviewed with.

"Congratulations. After careful review, you have been selected for the position. We sincerely invite you to join our team."

I typed back that I accepted the offer but needed a little time to handle some personal matters.

They agreed without hesitation.

Back at the house, I started packing, exhaustion weighing down every movement.

When I finished, I realized everything I owned fit into a single suitcase.

As expected, Seth didn't come home that night. For once, I slept soundly.

My phone lit up again. A notification that the birthday gift I'd ordered in advance had been delivered to the villa.

There was no reason to give it anymore.

I hesitated for a moment, then went to the front door to collect the package anyway.

I didn't expect what I found when I opened it. Zoe and Seth stood on the doorstep together, and I caught the tail end of their conversation—they were discussing wedding details.

When he saw the red marks on my neck, he frowned instinctively, a flash of something like concern crossing his eyes.

"I didn't come pick you up from the hospital because something came up."

"Don't take those banquet hall jobs anymore. Haven't you embarrassed me enough?"

"I was just teaching you a lesson. After all these years, how have you still not shaken off that cheap, desperate look?"

So he had recognized me that night after all. He'd just pretended not to know me.

Because he was afraid I'd embarrass him.

He'd rattled off all those sentences, and not a single one asked if I was okay.

Even though I'd already let go of any expectations I had of him, the ache in my chest was impossible to ignore.

Maybe because he thought everything was settled between us, he felt even more free to say whatever he wanted.

I nodded, shifting aside without much care to let them in.

But the next second, my phone rang. It was the hospital.

"Your grandfather's treatment requires an additional payment. Please settle the balance as soon as possible."

Zoe saw her chance. She hooked her arm through Seth's and grabbed the crystal ball from the delivery box, hurling it to the floor.

"You should know by now that Seth and I are getting married. Did you really think a cheap little gift like this would help you cling to him any longer?"

"Your marriage to Seth was never anything more than a scheme to repay a debt."

"You'd better start familiarizing yourself with the wedding program. Seth and I will need you to emcee the ceremony."

"Do this one thing right, and I'll make sure your grandfather gets the help he needs."

Seth instinctively pulled his arm, a half-hearted resistance, but he said nothing. He let it happen.

Zoe tossed a thick stack of wedding planning brochures into my arms.

I opened them. Every page was dripping with luxury, every detail meticulously planned. My fingertips went cold.

I thought of my own wedding to Seth.

A handful of guests. Bare-bones. Barely a ceremony at all.

Not a single one of Seth's friends or family had shown up. It had been just the two of us in that church, exchanging vows in a ceremony so simple it barely qualified as one.

Back then, I'd been naive enough to believe he truly loved me, that he was genuinely too busy with work to do more.

Even though I'd handled every detail of the wedding on my own, I'd still felt happy.

But now, staring at these pages, the realization cut through me with perfect clarity.

Seth had always been capable of patience. He'd simply never spent any of it on me.

I took the brochures with steady hands, my voice scraping out rough and dry.

"Fine. I understand."

"I hope you keep your word."

Then I turned to Seth and added one last thing.

"Since that's how things are, let's get a divorce. Make room for your new bride."

Seth looked at me with a flicker of surprise, as if my calm compliance had caught him off guard. But he didn't dwell on it. In his mind, this had been the arrangement all along. There was nothing left to explain.

"That's a good girl. Just do your job as Mrs. Vance."

"Once I've had my fill, I'll come back to you. Naturally."

"Use this time to learn how things work in high society. Stop embarrassing me."

Whether it was deliberate or simply instinct, Seth brushed right past what I'd said about the divorce.

He was so certain I couldn't leave him. So certain I loved him too much. He took everything I gave him as though it were owed, and he enjoyed it without a second thought.

So he ignored everything I felt.

It had always been like this. I loved him too much, and he'd turned my devotion into something he was entitled to.

But none of that mattered anymore.

Because I was about to leave him.

Zoe shot me a triumphant look, one eyebrow arched, and followed Seth into the bedroom. Within moments, muffled sounds drifted through the door, unmistakable and intimate.

Seth's voice came again, low and breathless, and my feet froze to the floor as if nailed there.