"No…" My voice was already hoarse and broken, and the word I forced out of my throat trembled with despair.

Fabian smirked cruelly and increased the pressure of his foot grinding down on my fingers. The pain was so excruciating that I nearly blacked out.

"You're not worthy of such a fine watch! It should've belonged to me all along!"

He reached down and stripped the watch from my wrist. Then, he put it on his own. After admiring it for a moment with satisfaction, he looked down at me again.

"If it weren't for you, I would have had all of this long ago!"

He punched me in the chest again. Years of manual labor had made him brutally strong, and that single punch made me feel like it had displaced every organ inside me.

A stifled groan escaped me, the agony making it impossible to breathe. I wanted to put up a fight, but I felt as if I had been struck by a sledgehammer. Every muscle screamed in revolt, yet I couldn't move a single inch.

Fabian gazed down at his handiwork with satisfaction, as if I were already a corpse he could toy with at will. His gaze had turned fanatical and twisted, as though he had found the satisfaction he'd always craved in my suffering.

"Look at you!" He pointed at me and burst into manic laughter. "This is what you get for stealing my identity and my woman! This is the retribution you deserve!"

I tried to gather the last of my strength. I wanted to tell him he was gravely and disastrously mistaken. But my throat felt as though it were blocked, and all I could manage was a weak whimper.

Still laughing wildly, Fabian held the watch up in front of my face. "Don't go thinking just because you've lived a few years as an heir, you're the real deal. You're wrong—this watch is mine. This is Yvonne's gift to me! Yvonne is mine! You're nothing but an imposter, a despicable lowlife, and a joke!"

I couldn't fight back or cry for help. Instead, all I could do was let the cruelty of fate rage unchecked upon me.

Grinning savagely, Fabian pulled a hammer out of the car.

The icy cold touch of the hammer spread across my body. He let out a laugh and swung it down with brutal force, smashing my knee to pieces. The searing pain tore a wail from my throat that I couldn't contain.

The sound surged uncontrollably from my throat, echoing bleakly across the desolate wilderness.

In disgust, he grabbed a handful of mud mixed with my blood from the ground and shoved it into my mouth. An overwhelming sense of suffocation silenced any further sound I could make.

I struggled to spit the mud out of my mouth, but it was all in vain. The suffocation was unbearable. My vision began to blur, and my consciousness slowly faded away.

Fabian laughed coldly and raised the hammer in his hand again, bringing it down on my body over and over. Each blow carried all his resentment and rage, and every strike sent bone-deep agony coursing through me.

I didn't know how long it went on, but all I could do was writhe in endless torment as my life seemed to drain away bit by bit.

He shattered my hands, then my feet. I had long lost count of how many times he had struck me.

Before the final blow, Fabian fixed his gaze on my face and said through gritted teeth, "You scum! What gives you the right to have such perfect skin, not do any farm work, or seduce Yvonne?"

He raised the hammer and slammed it down viciously onto my face.

My face caved in deeply, looking utterly horrifying.

In that moment, I wished I could just die and be done with it.

I could feel life slipping away from me, my consciousness beginning to blur. I wanted to fight back, but my body was so weak that I didn't even have the strength to move a single muscle.

What little awareness I had left told me that Fabian had dragged me to an abandoned factory building. I could sense that my entire body had long been reduced to a bloody pulp. Still, the numbness couldn't mask the excruciating pain.

Fabian threw me into a machine, and then a large amount of soil was poured in after me.

The machine roared to life with a deafening clamor. The moment the blades made contact with my body, I lost all consciousness.

My soul rose high into the air, and from above I looked down upon everything that happened next.

Fabian tossed my corpse into a rust-covered wood chipper. I watched as it was mercilessly shredded, the blood mixing with the soil into a crimson sludge.

My soul drifted in the air, watching as my mortal remains were torn apart and pulverized by the relentless machinery. Even in my disembodied state, the agony of it was unbearable.

My remains, mixed with a vast amount of soil, were loaded onto a truck.

The roads grew more and more familiar—it was the way to the rose garden.

I watched as my flesh was scattered across the rose garden. The sea of roses I had once so carefully cultivated for Yvonne had now become my burial ground.

The flowers, nourished by my flesh and blood, bloomed even more brilliantly, while my life dissolved away amidst the sea of blossoms.

Yvonne was dressed in an evening gown, her makeup exquisite and elegant. However, none of it could conceal the iciness on her face.

I knew she was furious.

####CHAPTER-NAME:

Yvonne had a strong need for control. I hadn't replied to her messages for several days, and with me still absent on her birthday, of course, she was unhappy.

Just then, a car pulled up at the party venue. The door opened, and Fabian stepped out. He was wearing a brand-new haute couture suit, a false smile plastered across his face.

"Yvonne, I've prepared a gift for you. I'm sure you'll love it."

Perhaps out of anger at me, Yvonne deliberately smiled at Fabian and acted rather intimate with him.

She took out her phone and sent me a message.

"If you don't come back this instant, I'll run off with Fabian."

But Fabian, mistaking this for Yvonne having feelings for him, flashed a smug grin. Thinking his chance had finally come, he set about ingratiating himself with Yvonne even more eagerly.

He took Yvonne to the sea of roses I had prepared. The roses were blooming with extraordinary brilliance.

When Yvonne's gaze fell upon that splendid sea of roses, a flicker of complex emotion passed through her eyes.

"Yvonne, do you like this sea of roses?" Fabian asked, his voice carrying a hint of anticipation he could barely conceal.

Yvonne gave a faint smile and replied flatly, "Yes, very much so."

A satisfied smile spread across Fabian's lips.

"Did you prepare all of this on your own?" Yvonne asked.

There was a trace of puzzlement in her eyes as she looked at Fabian, who hadn't been back for very long.

Fabian's smile grew even brighter, yet it appeared all the more hideous and grotesque.

"Yup."

Yvonne walked closer to the sea of roses. I could tell she liked it very much, but there was something strange about her expression.

"How did the roses here grow so well?" Yvonne murmured, gently stroking the rose blossoms.

"Of course they're blooming beautifully. Yvonne, I know who you hate the most, so I turned him into fertilizer to nourish these roses."

Yvonne raised an eyebrow. "Oh, him? He deserved to die."

I knew Yvonne had mistakenly thought Fabian was talking about Jordan Cooley, heir of the Cooley family. He was infatuated with Yvonne, so he had been constantly undermining, both openly and behind my back, in business.

Yvonne had tried to have him killed more than once. But he was obsessed with staying alive, so he had a dozen bodyguards around him at all times.

"But something as beautiful as roses shouldn't be contaminated by something so filthy. Get someone to clear out the soil and replace it with fresh soil. I don't want anything of him left here. It's making me sick."

Yvonne's words made Fabian's smile freeze instantly. He stood rooted to the spot, clearly having never anticipated Yvonne would make such a request.

However, he quickly recovered and smirked coldly.

"Yvonne, are you worried I'll get found out someday?" he asked somewhat teasingly.

Yvonne cast him an icy glance and replied, "I'm just worried about my sea of roses being contaminated."

A flicker of darkness passed through Fabian's eyes, but he quickly masked his emotions and nodded.

"Alright, I'll do as you say. I'll have all the soil here placed with fresh ones."

Yvonne turned and walked away without saying anything more, leaving Fabian standing alone amidst the sea of roses.

And I, existing as a soul, watched all of this unfold with pain and helplessness.

I wanted to tell Yvonne the truth. I wanted her to know that this sea of roses had been nourished by my flesh and blood. But I knew I couldn't.

All I could do was watch as Yvonne turned and walked away, her figure growing more and more distant, my heart filled with endless regret and sorrow.

Days passed, and true to his word, Fabian had people clear out all the soil from the rose garden and replace it with fresh earth, just as Yvonne had requested.

He did it so thoroughly that he even had a new fence put up around the garden, making it look all the more beautiful.

Yet, despite all he had done, Yvonne's attitude never changed. She remained cold and indifferent toward him. If anything, she grew more distant.

Fabian began to panic and started to doubt whether his plan had gone wrong. He tried to figure out the reason, but his efforts proved fruitless time and again.

Yvonne sat in her office, irritably calling Bryce Nolan and me repeatedly. She had planted Bryce by my side to keep track of my every move.

However, I had already told Bryce in advance to use my being at a social engagement as an excuse. Yet, the appointed time had long since passed, so he was growing panicked too.

"Mrs. Madden, there's something I have to tell you. The truth is, Mr. Madden came back a while ago. He said he wanted to prepare a surprise for you before your birthday—something about roses—so I kept it from you the whole time.

"By all accounts, he should have shown up by now, but I can't get in touch with him either."

Upon hearing this, Yvonne froze on the spot, her expression darkening. Suddenly, as if something had just occurred to her, she shot to her feet.

Yvonne pressed her lips together, her hands trembling slightly. The air around her was oppressively heavy, as if she were deeply unsettled.

Just then, a partnership proposal from the Cooley Group came through, signed with Jordan's name.

Yvonne's expression instantly stiffened.

"Go pull up the airport surveillance footage from the time Nathaniel came back that day," she said, her voice quivering slightly.

She then fumbled anxiously to unlock her phone but inadvertently tapped on a trending news headline. It was a photo of Fabian at a press conference.

She had been about to swipe it away, but when she spotted the watch on Fabian's wrist, her gaze instantly turned sharp and icy. She seemed to have seen something she couldn't believe.

Her hand started shaking as she held the phone, the light from the screen casting an eerie glow on her pale face.

Not long after, Bryce hurried back. His face was equally ashen, and he spoke with visible difficulty.

"Mrs. Madden, after Mr. Madden left the airport that day, Fabian picked him up and drove him out to the countryside. After that, there was no more word from him."

Yvonne's phone instantly dropped to the floor.