Violette did not answer and closed her eyes.

"Are you going to keep your mouth shut? Fine, shut your mouth forever!" Hans angrily got up from beside her bed and left the room.

He ordered a servant outside the door. "From now on, Violette is not allowed to leave the house. Her daily food is only bread and water. She must learn to live like a poor person. Don't give her any other food."

In the days that followed, she ate only bread and water, causing her body to become increasingly thin and frail.

This made Irene feel powerful in the house, and she took the opportunity to torment Violette by ordering the servants to give her stale bread.

Violette consoled herself with the fact that her divorce was only five days away. She spent her time in her glass house.

She heard the maids whispering next to her glass house, thinking Violette couldn't hear them.

"Oh my... I've never seen Mr. Lombardi so wild and reckless during sex. Hans isn't even like that with Mrs. Lombardi."

The maids giggled.

"I feel sorry for Mrs. Lombardi. She has no idea that while she is locked up, her husband is sleeping with another woman right next to her room."

"Shh, you don't know, Mrs. Lombardi is as cold as a refrigerator. She must be boring in bed, which is why Mr. Lombardi is bored. Besides, we all know that five years ago, Mr. Lombardi's first love was Irene. I'm sure the death of the second young master had something to do with Mr. Lombardi so he could take his sister's wife. Damien must be his biological son. Otherwise, why would Mr. Lombardi make him the heir to the Lombardi family? "

" That's for sure. Since Miss Laurent moved into this house, Mr. Lombardi smiles more often. He treats her like a queen. They go on vacation to various countries, just the three of them, Mr. Lombardi, Damien, and Miss Laurent. They are a real family."

Violette clenched her hand holding the flower watering can while the maids had left.

She came out of the greenhouse and bumped into Damien, who was running down the hallway. He almost knocked her over.

Violette caught his hand before Damien fell.

"Damien, I've told you many times not to run. You'll get hurt," she said gently.

Although Damien was Irene's son, Violette had raised him since he was a baby. She still loved him.

"Stop pretending to care about me! You're not my mother! I hate you!" Damien snapped and pushed her away.

"Damian," Violette looked at him gloomily. "Even though I'm not your biological mother, you shouldn't yell at me and be rude to me. I have raised and loved you all this time. "

Damien grinned arrogantly.

"You're only pretending to be nice to me because you're afraid Daddy will leave you! You're a barren woman who's jealous of my mommy! If you're nice and beg me, I might persuade Daddy not to kick you out of this house, you barren woman."

Violette stared at him in pain, her voice choked. "Damien, who taught you to say such cruel things?"

"Is that wrong? You're barren. My daddy only loves my mommy! You forced my mommy to go abroad and took me away from her. If it weren't for you, me, Daddy, and Mommy would have been living happily together for a long time!”

Damien pushed Violette roughly and hard until she fell onto the hard ground.

Suddenly, a sharp pain appeared in her stomach. Her face turned pale.

"Damien, don't be rough!" Hans suddenly appeared with Irene.

He scolded Damien and pushed him unconsciously, then checked on Violette with a worried expression. "Are you okay?"

"My stomach..."

Before Violette could finish her sentence, Damien's loud cries could be heard.

"Daddy doesn't love me anymore! Mommy, it hurts!"

Hans' attention was immediately drawn to Damien, who was crying in Irene's arms.

His small palms were scraped and bleeding.

"Hans, I'm sorry for Damien's behavior. Please don't hurt him like this. After all, Damien is small, how could he push someone as big as Violette to the ground?" Irene said. Her eyes were teary, tears streaming down her beautiful blue eyes as if her heart ached to see her son hurt.

A guilty expression flashed across Hans's face, and he quickly grabbed Damien and calmed him in his arms. "I'm sorry, Daddy was wrong. Damien, don't cry anymore."

"Daddy, it hurts, my hands are bleeding..."

"Daddy will take you to the hospital." Hans stood up anxiously.

"Hans, my stomach hurts..." Violette tried to call out to him, her voice weak from the pain in her stomach.

Hans turned without glancing at Violette and left.

Irene smiled triumphantly at Violette, then left following Hans.

Violette lowered her eyes to the cold ground, her shoulders slumped as if she had lost all hope. She covered her face and laughed. Her hopes had soared for a moment when Hans showed concern for her, then those hopes fell cruelly in an instant.

The laughter turned into cries of pain.

Pain spread through her body. She curled up, feeling warm liquid flowing down her thigh. Violette's face paled as she saw blood flowing from her leg and pooling on the ground.

"Ah! Ma'am!" A gardener passing by found Irene and shouted in panic as he approached her. "I'll call Mr. Lombardi."

Violette immediately held his hand. "No need. Call an ambulance, take me to the hospital. And please tell the hospital to keep my identity confidential."

They arrived at the hospital. As Violette had requested, the doctors kept her presence at the hospital confidential.

"Where is Mr. Lombardi? We've called him, but he's not answering the phone!" a nurse said anxiously. "We need him to sign the consent form."

"Ma'am, what should we do? Mr. Lombardi isn't answering his phone even though I've called twenty times using your number," the gardener said anxiously.

The doctor said seriously, "We can't wait. The situation could be dangerous for Mrs. Lombardi if we wait any longer. This child cannot be saved because of the delay, and Mrs. Lombardi's body is severely malnourished..."

Violette turned to look at the nurse and took the consent form. "Perform the surgery. This child... I don't need it anymore."

She had waited for this child for fifteen years. She found out about her pregnancy today and lost it on the same day.

Hans had always looked forward to this baby coming into their lives. But he wasn't there when this child needed him to save her.

Violette took off her wedding ring and threw it in the trash.

"Okay, we'll perform the surgery immediately, ma'am."

Violette stared at the ceiling of the operating room. Her face was pale, her lips colorless and marked with bite marks because she kept biting them.

The doctors and nurses were busy around her, preparing the equipment for the surgery.

"Mrs. Lombardi, we're about to begin the surgery. We'll give you anesthesia so you won't feel any pain."

"No need. Don't give me anesthesia."

She needed a reminder of when the fully developed fetus was removed from her womb and how Hans was not present.

"Okay, start the operation."

"Yes, doctor."

Violette felt something being pulled out of her body, and the pain grew sharper. She tried not to cry, but her tears could no longer be held back.

"It's over, Mrs. Lombardi. The fetus has been removed."

Violette felt her body go weak, and everything went dark.

Tears streamed from the corners of her eyes.

Violette woke up to the sound of a nurse talking beside her bed.

"... yes, that's what I heard. Mr. Lombardi has been at the hospital since this morning, but he doesn't know that his wife is being treated at the hospital. He is in a VIP room with a woman. I heard that he is at the hospital because his nephew is sick after falling. Mr. Lombardi even called in all the best doctors at the hospital just to treat a child who had only a scratch. "

" I feel so sorry for Mrs. Lombardi. While her husband was taking care of another woman's child, she was waiting for approval for her surgery, but Mr. Lombardi didn't answer her calls. In the end, the baby in her womb couldn't be saved."

"It turns out that the love story of Mrs. and Mr. Lombardi was just a fairy tale. I saw Mr. Lombardi treat a woman named Irene as if she were the apple of his eye."

"Shh, let's go. We can't talk about this. No one can know about Mrs. Lombardi's surgery."

"Yes, we have to leave before Mrs. Lombardi wakes up."

The nurses' voices finally faded away. They didn't notice Violette's clenched fist under the blanket.

She opened her eyes with a blank stare, then got out of bed and pulled the IV out of her hand.

Her face was still pale. Barefoot, she walked out of her room.

She stopped at the door of the VIP room, hearing laughter and cheerful chatter from inside.

"Daddy, I'm sleepy. Read me a story."

Through the crack in the door, Violette saw Hans sitting back on the bed with Damien on his lap. Irene sat on the side of the bed, cutting fruit.

Hans was dressed casually, showing that he wasn't going to work.

Violette remembered that when she was sick, Hans had only sent a doctor to check on her, but had still gone to work.

When he received the message that Irene had a fever, he immediately rushed to her apartment and stayed the whole night, his phone off.

It was very clear how differently Hans treated the people he loved.

Violette had had enough of all this. She was going to disappear from Hans's life.

She backed away and turned to run, but bumped into a nurse carrying food for a patient, making a loud noise that drew attention.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry...."

Hans came out of the VIP room and was surprised to see Violette sitting on the floor.

Violette quickly wiped her tears and tried to smile.

"Vio?" He frowned and knelt to help her up. "Why are you here? Why are you wearing a patient's gown?"

"I'm being treated here."

"Are you seriously injured?" His face turned panicked and anxious when he saw the blood flowing from Violette's wrist because she had forcibly pulled out her IV. "Why didn't you tell me?! You're bleeding!"

Violette stared at her wrist. Only a single drop of blood had come out, but it was enough to make Hans's cold face turn fearful and panicked.

He was a man who never flinched when faced with dozens of enemy guns and sneered when pushed to the brink of death. But now he was panicking and anxious just from seeing a single drop of blood on Violette's hand.

But all of that was just a facade.

Violette's heart was tired.

"I'm sorry, I was so focused on Damien that I forgot you were hurt."

"It's okay. I know Damien is more important because he is the heir to the Lombardi family." Violette smiled widely. However, her heart was crying for the child she had lost.

Hans looked at Violette's smile, sensing that something was different about her, and it made him uncomfortable.

"I'm sorry..." That was all he could say, then he realized Violette wasn't wearing shoes.

"Why did you forget to wear your shoes? Who took care of you at the hospital?”

“There is a gardener. But I've already sent him home.”

Without saying anything, Hans carried Violette bridal style.

"Hans..." Irene came out of Damien's room and froze when she saw Hans carrying Violette.

"Damien is looking for you. His wound hurts again and he scratched it until it bled. Please persuade him to stop scratching his wound.”

"Sorry, Irene. I have to take Violette to her room first."

For the first time, Hans refused Irene's request and walked away.

Violette watched Irene's face darken behind Hans's back.

Hans put Violette to bed and called the doctor to check on her.

Violette had already told all the doctors and nurses to keep quiet about her miscarriage.

“Mrs. Lombardi fell, and on top of that, she's malnourished and very weak.” As he said this, the doctor looked at Hans strangely and muttered, “How can Mrs. Lombardi be malnourished?”

A look of embarrassment flashed across Hans's eyes. “It's because she's on a diet. I've told her repeatedly to stop dieting.”

Violette stared at him expressionlessly, seeing the lie he was telling to cover up his embarrassment.

The doctor nodded in understanding and left.

Hans held Violette's hand gently. “Vio, I'm sorry. My behavior was outrageous. If you had apologized to Irene, this wouldn't have happened.” He was still blaming Violette for what had happened.

“Just forget it. Irene has forgiven you, as long as you are nice to her, she will forget about this problem.”

“Then please thank her for me, ” Violette replied with a fake sweet smile. Inside, she was gritting her teeth.

Since she would be leaving soon, Violette knew it was better not to waste her energy arguing with him.

Hans smiled softly and stroked her cheek. “As long as you behave yourself, everything will go back to the way it was. You will always be Mrs. Lombardi.” Hans pulled the blanket up around Violette and kissed her forehead. Violette turned her face away, avoiding his kiss.

“Vio...” Before Hans could ask her anything, his attention was diverted by the ringing of his cell phone.

It was a call from Irene.

"Sorry, I have to go check on Damien," he said and walked out of the hospital room.

He didn't even stay long to keep her company.

Violette lay in bed and closed her eyes. Tears streamed from the corners of her eyes. She cried until her eyes were puffy and her voice was hoarse.

To make up for his mistake, Hans changed his attitude and treated Violette as he had before. He gave her many gifts and asked Violette's favorite restaurant to send her favorite food to her hospital room every day until she recovered.

A few days later. While waiting for Hans to pick her up, Violette walked around the hospital. She sighed enviously as she watched a pregnant woman being taken for a checkup by her husband.

She rubbed her stomach, and the pain stabbed her again. Her child was gone. She still remembered the pain when the fetus was removed from her body.

Violette took a deep breath and turned to return to her room, but bumped into someone who had just come out of the obstetric examination room.

"Ouch!"

Violette froze when she saw who was coming out of the examination room.

"What a coincidence to run into you, Violette!" Irene smiled. "Why are you here?"

Violette looked around for Hans, but only Irene was there. This was unusual because Hans was always by Irene's side.

"I should be the one asking why you're here alone and out of the examination room..." Violette's breath caught slightly when she looked toward the obstetric examination room.

Irene followed Violette's gaze and smiled proudly. "As you can see, I'm having my pregnancy checked.”

Then she picked up the papers that had fallen on the floor when Violette bumped into her.

"Look, these are my pregnancy ultrasound results. I'm three months pregnant." She pointed to the ultrasound image of Violette and stroked her stomach. "This is my baby with... Hans. Isn't it beautiful? Hans always wanted a cute little daughter. He hopes this baby is a little girl."

Violette's eyes were fixed on the ultrasound image in her hand. It was painful to see that, while she had just lost her baby.

Irene was very shameless. She was carrying the child of the Lombardi siblings. Violette looked at her with disgust.

Irene watched her, as if waiting for a devastated reaction on Violette's face.

But Violette was indifferent, refusing to give her the satisfaction of seeing her pain.

"Oh."

"Oh?" Irene followed Violette's words in disbelief. "You should be sensible and divorce Hans!"

"Why don't you ask Hans to divorce me?" Violette shook her head in derision. "If it's Hans's child, he will definitely take responsibility for you," she continued indifferently, then walked past Irene.

Irene followed her quickly.

"Violette, don't be arrogant just because everyone praises you for Hans's love for the world. It's all fake and solely to maintain the alliance between the Renault and Lombardi families because they have to keep a barren woman like you." She then continued her sentence, smiling victoriously.

"Did you know that Damien is Hans' biological son?"

Violette didn't stop walking and considered Irene's words to be nothing more than the buzzing of insects.

It wasn't that she had never suspected it, but she was too afraid to do a DNA test on Damien and Hans.

But now she didn't care about that anymore because in two days she would leave everything behind and disappear from Hans Lombardi's life.

"You don't believe me? I'll prove it to you at the Lombardi family dinner tomorrow. Oh, I forgot to tell you that Camila didn't invite you." After saying that, Irene bumped Violette's shoulder and walked past her with her chin raised.

Violette stared coldly at her back.

Hans picked up Violette and left the hospital. Violette tried not to think about Irene's newly discovered pregnancy.

Hans drove her back to the villa. Throughout the trip, there was no conversation between them. Hans glanced back several times to check on her because it was unusual to see Violette so quiet.

"Are you still in pain?"

"No," Violette replied indifferently.

"Then why are you so quiet?"

"Ah, I'm just thinking, it's been so long since I've been home to my family," Violette replied.

Hans' expression softened.

"If you want to see your family, I'll arrange for you to visit them. I'll accompany you."

"You don't need to accompany me. I can go alone."

"How could I let you go alone? I'm going with you."

Violette looked at him indifferently, knowing it was just a false promise from Hans.

"I'm worried you'll leave Irene and Damien alone. You can't bear to leave them even for a day."

Hans's face stiffened.

"Don't talk nonsense. I'll book a ticket to France tomorrow and accompany you. It's been a long time since I visited the Renault family. I miss the Renault family's vineyard." Hans smiled slightly as he looked at her. "Remember the first time we met? You were hiding from language class and secretly eating grapes in the garden. You were so cute then."

Violette looked at him, her eyes closed as memories of their childhood flooded her mind. She first met Hans during the Lombardi family's first visit to the Renault family to discuss their engagement.

"You were crying because you wanted the grapes on the high branch, but you couldn't reach them because you were too short. You ran up to me and asked me to get the grapes for you." Hans continued his sentence nostalgically.

From that moment on, fate intertwined between them. They grew up together and eventually got married.

Violette believed that she was the only woman in Hans's life until Irene appeared and slapped her with the cruel reality. Violette closed her eyes, erasing the memory from her mind.

At that moment, her phone rang. She glanced at it and saw a message notification from Mr. Smith.

Mr. Smith: Ma'am, the divorce was approved earlier today. I will send the documents to you.

Violette smiled, looking pleased and happy. Hans glanced at her and tried to peek at Violette's phone.

"Did you receive some good news today?"

Violette immediately closed her phone screen and smiled as if nothing had happened.

"Yes. I just received happy news—one of my friends finally divorced her husband."

"Your friend got divorced, but why are you happy?"

“Because my friend has suffered so much. Her husband cheated on her and even had a child with his mistress. Do you think a man like that should be left?” Violette looked at Hans meaningfully.

Hans chuckled and replied, “Not only left, but also destroyed. They are a disgrace to all men.”

Violette sneered inwardly, but in front of Hans, she only smiled and looked ahead.

***

The next day, their flight was scheduled for five in the afternoon.

Before leaving, Violette went into her old room and placed the divorce papers, the miscarriage report, and all the intimate photos and videos that Irene had sent her into Hans's safe in the wardrobe.

While they were waiting at the airport, Hans's phone rang, and Violette saw Irene's name appear on the screen. Hans stepped away to answer the call and then returned.

"Honey, I'm sorry... it looks like I can't accompany you to the Renault family. The Lombardi family elders have suddenly called an emergency meeting, and I have to be there immediately." He looked at Violette with a guilty and regretful expression.

"It's okay. I already told you I can go by myself." Violette smiled calmly. She knew it was a lie because Irene had told her that her mother-in-law was hosting a Lombardi family dinner to acknowledge Damien as Hans's son and the child in Irene's womb.

"All right, call me when you arrive in France. I'll follow you later. The guards will escort you safely."

Hans was about to kiss Violette on the forehead, but she turned her face away with a look of disgust.

Hans froze for a moment, his brow furrowed, then turned and walked away hurriedly. Several guards followed behind him. The others remained at Violette's side.

Violette crossed her legs gracefully and glanced at the guards. "You don't need to escort me. People from the Renault family will pick me up."

They looked at each other hesitantly, then obeyed her, leaving Violette alone in the waiting room.

A few moments later, Violette received a message notification from Irene.

[Hotel Eclipse. Come, I will prove to you that Damien is Hans's biological son and that the entire Lombardi family will acknowledge me.]

Violette stared at her phone screen for a while, then calmly closed it and stood up. She wasn't going to leave; that would only be insulting to herself.

She looked around one last time. A smile spread across her face; for the first time, she felt a strange sense of freedom.

Violette tore up the plane ticket Hans had given her.

"Goodbye, Hans Lombardi. We won't meet again.."

She turned and walked away without looking back.