Arlene Bale.

Camden was the one who had suggested giving her that name. He told me that the name meant "a pledge" or "an oath", and he wanted Arlene to witness his oath to love me and protect me for the rest of his life.

I married him when I was 18 years old.

At the time, his family was on the verge of bankruptcy. On the other hand, I had a net worth of hundreds of millions of dollars.

I had gotten pregnant before marriage back then. Dad didn't want me or his grandchild to suffer, so he gave me a huge sum of money, and I used part of it to pull Bale Group back from the brink of collapse.

Even now, I still owned 30% of the shares in their company.

At first, I had thought of giving Camden both my pregnancy test result and the share transfer agreement as a surprise. After all, I knew that he was still being controlled by the other older shareholders of the company.

But now, it wasn't necessary anymore.

I couldn't sleep the entire night.

Saul emailed me the drafted divorce agreement, and I immediately went to print it out in the study.

When I came out, I ran into Patricia bringing up a big bowl of chicken stew up the stairs. She shielded the stew from me and yelled, "What's the hurry? Don't you know that I spent three hours making this stew for Ruth? How's she going to eat it if it's spilled on the floor?"

I didn't hold back like I used to anymore. I knocked the bowl to the floor and said, "Well, she can't eat it now! Arlene never got to eat it anyway."

Patricia's temper cooled halfway down at the mention of Arlene's name. However, she still stubbornly said, "That's a different matter altogether! Who would have thought that she'd still be disobedient and run off on her own when she was already ten years old?

"That's enough, Angeline. Arlene was my granddaughter too. How could I now be upset about her death? But you can't keep using her as an excuse to act crazy everywhere you go!"

The last strand of my sanity snapped as soon as she talked about Arlene.

"What do you mean by her being disobedient and running out on her own?" I roared. "You watched her grow up! You know how obedient she was! You were the ones who never kept an eye on her! You were the ones who caused her death!"

Camden appeared and pulled me back, dark circles hanging under his face.

"Angeline! How could you talk to Mom like that? Don't you know that she stayed up all night out of guilt? Look at her; her eyes are still bloodshot! You're not the only one who loved Arlene!"

I shoved him aside with all my strength. "Are her eyes bloodshot because of guilt? Or, is it because she stayed up all night making the stew for her new daughter-in-law? Don't you dare use Arlene as a shield against me. I'm not blind!"

Patricia was at her wits' end. She shook her head and exclaimed, "You're out of your mind! You've clearly lost your marbles!"

Ruth pushed the door open and walked out, massaging her temples.

"What's all this noise about?"

Patricia glared at me before smiling brightly at Ruth.

"It's nothing. Go back to bed. I'll bring you another bowl of chicken stew in a while."

Ruth, however, didn't budge. She just smiled lightly at Patricia and said, "Thank you."

Then, she cast me a look of pity and said to Camden, "I know a few skilled psychologists, Camden. Maybe you should bring Ms. White in for a visit. Her condition seems very unstable and abnormal."

Then, she turned and went back into the room.

Camden stared at me like he was seriously considering Ruth's suggestion.

"I'm not sick," I said coldly before returning to my room.

Camden wanted to come after me, but there was a sudden loud cry, and he immediately ran back to hug Ruth.

My lips curled upward in a self-mocking grin. He really was his mother's son. Why did I even get my hopes up about what he wanted to say to me?

The family doctor was quickly summoned. After the checkup, he diagnosed Ruth with food poisoning and recommended that she get her stomach pumped at the hospital as soon as possible.

"Ruth's meals have been personally put together by the nutritionist. How could she possibly get food poisoning all of a sudden?" Camden demanded.

Then, he looked at the butler and said, "Reginald, find the person behind this! Nobody in this household will be exempted!"

Camden's sharp gaze swept across everyone in the villa. Then, he went out after Ruth, clearly planning to drive her to the hospital.

An idea suddenly struck me, and I called out to him.

"Camden."

"If you want to talk, we can do it after I return from the hospital," he said, not stopping at all.

I spoke up again.

"I want to transfer the shares to you."

Camden gradually slowed down. He told the doctor to send Ruth to the hospital first, then started walking back toward me.

"Why are you bringing this up now?"

I mocked him internally for prioritizing money over his so-called first love.

"I had prepared a surprise for you on Ari's birthday, but so many things happened these past few days, and I forgot about it. Since it's the annual shareholders' meeting tomorrow, I was thinking of transferring the shares to you before it happens."

I then handed him the share transfer agreement, along with the divorce agreement, feeling my heart pounding in my chest.

Camden flipped through the documents and asked, "Why is this document so thick? Is there another document in here?"

Before I could explain further, Camden's phone rang. He quickly answered the call.

It was Ruth. She was making a fuss on the other end of the line after realizing that he wasn't there when she woke up.

I urged him lightly, "Go keep her company after you sign."

Camden hurriedly comforted her in a low voice and tried to suppress his anxiety. Then, without further scrutiny, he signed his name with a flourish on the documents and handed them back to me.

"Wait for me to come back, Angeline…"

I took the documents from him and turned away without sparing him another glance.

He started after me, feeling a little insecure, but he got another call from Ruth again. So, he turned and went off to the hospital instead.

If Camden had caught up to me, he would have seen the pure hatred in my eyes.

I resented him deeply.

I swore that one day, I was going to take back everything he owed me.

After carefully setting aside the signed divorce agreement, I threw the share transfer agreement into the fire without hesitation.

It was just a front, after all. If it weren't for this agreement, Camden would never have signed the documents that easily without a second glance.

While Camden and Ruth were at the hospital, I began packing. I realized that I had held on to all of Arlene's toys and clothes ever since she was a baby because I couldn't find the heart to part with them or throw them away.

Eventually, I managed to fill a few huge boxes of her belongings.

While packing these things up, I felt as though Arlene was still right by my side, calling me "Mommy".

…

I had just finished packing when Camden came back from the hospital with Ruth.

"What are you doing?"

Camden looked at me in confusion.

I didn't look at him and continued sealing up the boxes. "Ari's things. I'm donating them."

I wasn't. I was planning to store them in her favorite sunroom so that she would forever have a home to come back to.

Camden grabbed the things from me and said, "Ari just passed away. It's not like there's no place to store her things here anyway. Leave them here for us to remember her by."

I stared into his eyes with a resentful look.

"You don't have her in your heart. What's the point of remembering her anyway?"

Camden frowned. "How could—"

"Camden! Come here for a while!"

Ruth's voice cut through the air.

He immediately turned and went out to the living room.

Ruth was leaning back against the couch with her cashmere rug covering her body. She looked weak and fragile. Meanwhile, the housekeeper, Emily Jackson, looked like she was hesitant to speak.

Camden raised his voice at her. "Were you the one who poisoned Ruth?"

"No! No way," Emily said, shaking her hands in denial. "It was… It was Mrs. Bale. She was the one who told me to add the stuff to the food."

Everyone turned to look at me. Ruth then said, "Ms. White, do you really hate me that much? Camden, are you sure that I can leave my son here with you in this house?"

Camden grabbed hold of me at once.

"Angeline! What is going on? Was it really you?"

I grabbed his arm in return and dug my nails into his flesh.

"Haven't you always been the smart one, Camden Bale? Can't you even tell who's the one lying here?"

"I'm not lying, sir!" Emily shouted. "It really was Mrs. Bale who told me to do it!"

Reginald then ran down the stairs with a small pack of pills in his hand.

"Sir! I found this in Mrs. Bale's room! Its described symptoms are exactly the same as the poison that Ms. Carroll had been suffering from!"

Camden shook me by my shoulders so hard that it hurt.

"Have you lost your mind, Angeline White? Don't you know how weak Ruth is now? You nearly killed her!"

He shook me so hard that I felt myself getting dizzy. However, I suddenly realized that if I, a fully-grown adult, could be so easily framed like this, then it would be even easier for anyone else to trick Arlene into leaving the villa on her own!

I put up with my dizziness and grabbed hold of Ruth.

"It was you, wasn't it? You killed Ari! And now, you're trying to frame me! It was you!"

I screamed in her face, demanding an answer from her.

"That's enough!" Camden roared. "Ruth has never even seen Ari before! Why would she want to kill her? Wake up and get back to your senses, Angeline!"

I was very much awake. I couldn't possibly be more awake and aware than I was now.

"She was the one who killed our daughter! Camden Bale, you also played a part in Ari's death!"

The look in Ruth's eyes told me everything I needed to know. She was the one who had killed Arlene!

I grew even surer of my hunch. I couldn't care for Camden, who was trying to hold me back, and grabbed a pair of scissors before rushing toward her. However, Camden slapped me hard, and I fell to the floor.

"You've gone mad, Angeline White!"

Ruth's voice carried a hint of smugness as she said, "I understand your pain, Ms. White, and I won't hold the past against you. But Camden, I'm still going to ask you the same question. Are you sure that my son will be safe in the Bale household?"

Camden had gone numb with anger. He was looking at me with a guarded expression and disappointment in his eyes.

"Don't worry about it, Ruth. I'll take care of everything."

I lay on the floor. My body still hadn't recovered from the miscarriage, and I felt like a broken doll that couldn't move anymore.

I glared at Camden and kept repeating, "I hate you. I'm going to make you all suffer terrible deaths!"

Camden's veins bulged in anger, his eyes turning bloodshot.

"Sedate her. And moving forward, unless I say otherwise, Angeline will stay in the basement!"

I was locked up in the basement for seven days. I never saw anyone else other than the maids who came to deliver my meals to me.

Sometimes, I would hear someone standing at the top of the stairs before sighing heavily and leaving. I knew that it was Camden.

The family doctor had advised that my body would heal better if I could get some sunlight and fresh air.

However, every time Camden thought of letting me out, Ruth would remind him that I was a crazy lunatic who had lost her mind. I was endangering both her and her son because of my malicious intentions.

She said, "This is not imprisonment, Camden. This is for her protection. It's fine if she only hurt me, but what if she goes out and hurts someone outside? She'll get sent to a mental institution!"

Every time, he would be convinced by her words.

Ruth smoothed out the frown on his face and said, "If you trust me, then let me take her out into the woods for a walk instead."

"Alright. You're both mothers. Try to talk some sense into her. When she comes back, I won't lock her up anymore. I'll bring her overseas for a vacation instead."

He even sounded sincere about it.

A crack appeared in Ruth's perfectly crafted expression, but she recovered very quickly and agreed to him.

"Alright."

…

I was rudely awakened by a bucket of cold water in my face.

Ruth appeared before me, wiping her hands in disgust.

"Are you some kind of dog shit, Angeline? Why didn't you just die in that accident? Now, I have to get my hands dirty trying to get rid of you again."

My shocked expression seemed to please her as she continued, "Your daughter's a lot easier to deal with, though. I just told someone to tell her that you were looking for her, and then, I just had to snap off the sign above her head. She really just stood there waiting for you to show up!"

I felt as though I had just fallen into an icy river. I knew that Arlene hadn't died from an accident. It was a premeditated murder all along. Ruth had killed her!

And now, she was planning to kill me by tricking Camden into thinking that she was just taking me out for a walk.

"Come, let's talk about your eventual fate. What do you think about suicide after being kidnapped and gangraped?"

Ruth then grinned slightly while telling the handful of big, burly thugs next to her to proceed with tying her up like me.

My eyes were bloodshot, and I was gagged, but that didn't stop me from struggling with all of my might. At this point, I wanted nothing more than to drag Ruth down to the depths of hell with me, even if that meant giving up my own life.

However, I couldn't budge an inch and could only watch helplessly as the thug leader called Camden via video call.

The thug went straight to the point.

"Hey, Mr. Bale. I heard that one of these women is your wife, and the other is the mother of your son. But you can only save them with ten million dollars. So, who are you going to pick?"

Tears streamed down my face. I kept trying to scream despite my gag. I wanted to tell Camden that this kidnapping was all part of Ruth's plan, and that she killed Arlene, but I couldn't say a word. And of course, Camden couldn't read minds either.

He froze for a few seconds. After realizing that it really was me and Ruth who were captured and tied up, he immediately answered, "I'll give you 20 million dollars for both of them. Nothing must happen to either one!"

The thug laughed and said, "I'm only letting you pick one, idiot! Only one! Do you now understand what I'm saying? Now hurry up. I don't have much patience left!"

Then, he turned and punched me squarely in the face. "Shut up, you noisy bitch!"

He turned to Ruth and shot her a lustful look.

"Say, Mr. Bale, I heard that you only got to where you are today because of your wife. You must want to save her, don't you? As for me, I think I'm pretty interested in your secret lover instead. I'd love to have a little taste of her—"

"Shut up! Don't you dare touch Ruth!" Camden yelled, his face darkening.

The thug lost his patience and repeated his question again. "Hurry up and make your decision! Who are you picking?"

Contrary to my anger and fury, Ruth's long hair fell around her ears as she kept shaking her head at Camden on the screen, tears falling down her face.

"Camden, save Ms. White! I don't want to live anymore if they touch me like that! I'd be filthy!"

Camden kept shaking his head as well. "No, Ruth! I won't let that happen to you!"

The thug then gagged Ruth and said, "So, you're picking her?"

Camden cast me a complex look. He went silent for a few seconds, the past ten years we'd spent together suddenly flooding his mind in fleeting moments.

The beauty of the past we shared together got more and more distant, and soon, only bitter resentment was left.

Camden finally spoke, his voice hoarse.

"Yes, but—"

The thug laughed, interrupting him. "Alright, that's it. You don't have the right to any buts after that!"

Camden's short reply sounded like an explosion going off in my mind. I thought that I had no more tears left to cry, but they began streaming down my face again. My body ached, and my internal organs were hurting after being still messed up from the miscarriage.

Still, why was I even harboring any hope in Camden anymore?

The thug exchanged a smile with Ruth without Camden noticing. He then continued, "You have ten minutes. If you don't come here by then, you're getting neither of them back!"

The last of my hopes was crushed beneath his feet. I felt as though I'd died once, and the excruciating pain in my whole body suddenly felt somewhat liberating all of a sudden.

The thug grinned greedily at me and said, "It's been a while since I'd slept with anyone. Let's start with you, shall we?"

He hung up and started toward me. I struggled hard and kept backing away, but the wall was right behind me, and there was nowhere for me to go.

His greasy hands tore my clothes off, and red handprints marked my fair skin. I felt a wave of disgust overwhelm me.

Ruth's cold voice sounded.

"Hurry up."

She got up and left, but not before smiling victoriously at me and saying, "Don't worry, Angeline. There's no rush. You'll be able to meet your darling Ari soon."

Ari.

I still hadn't avenged Arlene yet. I couldn't let them get away with this!

I dug my fingers into my palm and gathered all my strength in my leg before kicking the thug right in the balls.

He was caught completely off guard and fell to the ground. By the time he got back up, cursing and swearing at me as he lunged toward me, the warehouse was suddenly kicked wide open from the outside.

The new figure came closer toward us. When I finally caught sight of the family crest on the newcomer's uniform, I finally relaxed a little.

The time that I had agreed to go back to Dad had arrived. Since the private jet couldn't get in contact with me, the bodyguards on duty searched for me based on my tracker location. So, I wasn't at all surprised that they would show up.

I used the last of my strength to grab the bodyguard closest to me and said, "Add one more thing to the stuff I asked you to prepare—the surveillance footage from this warehouse."

"Yes, Ms. White."

Then, I passed out.

…

When I woke up again, I found myself in a hospital bed in another country, Beldania.

Dad held my hand and told me that they had managed to investigate everything.

"Good. Send them all to Camden."

"The bodyguards were worried that the family crest would expose us, so they knocked that Ruth Carroll woman unconscious. She doesn't know what happened. How do you want us to deal with her, Angie?"

I chuckled coldly. "Leave her at the door. I want her alive."

I was going to make sure her life was nothing but a living hell.