I was folding the last coat I wore all the time into my suitcase when my bedroom door flew open with a violent bang. The sound was so loud it made my heart jerk in my chest.

Adrian stormed in like a violent gust, his eyes bloodshot, a terrifying, murderous aura clinging to him.

He crossed the room in a few strides and clamped a hand around my wrist. The grip was so tight it felt like he was about to crush bone.

“Ann! I already told you Emma and I have nothing going on! She already lost a pup because of us, and she’s ended up like this. Why can’t you just let her go?!” he roared, each word forced out through his teeth.

I stumbled from the force of his pull. A sharp pain shot through my wrist, and my face went instantly pale.

“Adrian! Let go! You’re hurting me!” I fought to twist free, but it was like an ant trying to shake off a steel trap.

My cry of pain only seemed to make him angrier. He glared down at me, disgust and exhaustion written plainly across his face.

“Acting again? You’re acting again?” His voice dripped with contempt.

“Back when I begged you to get back together, you did the same thing, putting on that pitiful little face. I thought you were innocent. I thought you were real. I played along! But now?”

His eyes turned hard. “Now when I look at you like this, still refusing to admit anything, I just feel tired. I’m exhausted.”

He shoved me back without warning. My spine slammed into the cold wardrobe with a dull, heavy thud.

“How did you become like this?” he snapped, looming over me, his chest heaving. “Is it because I spoiled you for too many years? Spoiled you until you became completely out of control until your heart turned to stone?!”

He bent closer, voice vibrating with rage. “Do you have any idea what Emma went through last night?! A Rogue pried her door open in the middle of the night and broke in! She got hurt all over trying to defend herself! Now she screams the second she sees anyone she’s practically having a mental breakdown!”

I leaned against the wardrobe, rubbing my throbbing wrist.

“He doesn’t trust us anymore."

That was my wolf inside my chest, its last warning to me.

Listening to his accusations one after another, my heart sank into an icy pit.

“It wasn’t me.”

I lifted my head and met his blazing eyes. My voice was hoarse from struggling, but every word came out clear.

“It wasn’t you, then who was it?!” He didn’t believe me for a second. He cut me off like a judge delivering a verdict, sarcasm sharp on his tongue.

“Who else would hate her that much? Ann, I just forgot our anniversary. I just didn’t get you a gift. And you’re going to take it out on her with something this vicious?!”

“I said it wasn’t me!” I raised my voice. The anger and humiliation I’d been forcing down slammed around in my chest.

“Enough!” Adrian barked. The last of his patience snapped. He’d made his decision. “If you can’t stand her, if you’re that jealous of her, then go experience her life yourself!”

My stomach tightened with a sudden sense of dread. “What are you talking about?”

“I mean starting today, you’re moving out of here and into where she lived.” His tone was ice, absolute.

“She lived like that, you’ll live like that. You’ll stay in that cramped, damp basement of hers. You’ll eat the cheap food she could barely afford. You’ll work multiple jobs a day like she did. You’re going to learn what real suffering looks like.”

“You’re insane. I’m not doing that.” I stared at him, not able to believe he could even say something so absurd and so cruel.

“Not doing it?” Adrian gave a cold laugh. His eyes were knives dipped in ice. “Ann, do you really think you still get to refuse?”

He didn’t give me another second to argue. He grabbed my arm again and dragged me out of the bedroom, down the stairs, and shoved me into the car. No matter how hard I fought, he didn’t flinch.

The car finally stopped in front of that run-down complex. He hauled me out, shoved me inside a room where even the lock had been busted, the entire place torn apart.

There were scuff marks on the floor like someone had struggled. Dots of blood. The air itself felt wrong, restless, unsafe.

I stared at the place, at the fact it wasn’t even livable, and tried to reason with him anyway.

“Adrian, the door is broken. This isn’t—”

“What, our proud Luna can’t handle it?” he cut in, mocking, not a flicker of hesitation in him. “Emma could live here. Why can’t you? Tomorrow morning, I’ll pick you up for work.”

Then he turned and walked out like he didn’t care whether I lived or died. The engine roared as he drove away, leaving me alone in a space filled with danger and chaos.

It wasn’t like I didn’t try to run.

One time, when I took the trash out into the alley, I spotted my chance and bolted for the street. I didn’t even make it far before a Warrior appeared out of nowhere and blocked my way.

Night fell. Cold wind poured through the gap in the broken door, whistling like a warning.

With all my strength, I dragged the only heavy cabinet in the room over and jammed it against the door, bracing it as hard as I could against the frame that barely held.

Outside were drunks shouting, neighbors screaming, every sound sending my pulse racing.

I curled into the chair in the farthest corner, gripping a fruit knife I’d found in the kitchen. The handle was icy, biting into my palm.

I stayed like that, eyes wide, listening to every movement outside the door, braced for anything until morning.

Those heart-stopping noises outside finally started to die down. Gray daylight seeped through the filthy window, thin and bleak.

The nerves I’d kept tight all night loosened just a fraction, and exhaustion crashed over me like a wave, almost swallowing me whole.

I leaned back against the cold wall and slowly slid down until I was sitting on the floor, thinking maybe I could close my eyes just for five minutes. Just five.

BANG! BANG! BANG!

The pounding on the door exploded like thunder. Every nerve that had relaxed snapped tight again, and my heart seemed to stop for one horrifying beat.

“Ann! Get out here! It’s time to go to work!”

Adrian’s voice, cold, stripped of any humanity, cut through the broken door like a blade.

My body felt empty. Like someone had drained me. Even lifting a finger felt impossible. My throat was so dry I couldn’t speak and I didn’t want to.

A few seconds of silence.

Then a heavier impact.

BAM—!

The door, already on its last breath, finally gave out. The lock shattered with a loud crack. The door slammed inward, and the cabinet I’d wedged behind it scraped and slid as the force shoved it aside.

In the harsh light, Adrian stood in the doorway with two Warriors behind him, like a grim reaper in human form.

He was backlit. I couldn’t see his expression but I could feel his gaze, cold and appraising, like I was an object to be inspected.

He strode in and grabbed my arm, yanking me off the floor with zero mercy. The movement was so rough it sent a dull ache through my back where I’d slammed into the wardrobe the day before.

“Look at you,” he scoffed, scanning the wreck of me, my hollow face from a sleepless night, my clothes wrinkled and unwashed. “Just one night and you can’t handle it? Emma lived like this for a whole year.”

Pain and humiliation churned in my stomach.

I lifted my head and forced a cold smile. My voice was raw, but clear. “Adrian… did I do this to her?”

His brows pulled tight.

I kept going, every word like an ice nail hammered in. “You keep saying ‘because of us.’ But the one who slept with her was you. The one who crushed her afterward who made sure she couldn’t find a decent job was you.”

My eyes locked on his face as it shifted. “All I did back then was break up with you. I even warned you not to go too far. Did you listen?!”

I stared him down. “So tell me why do you get to blame me for all of it? Why do I have to pay for your guilt and her misery?!”

“Ann!”

He roared like a beast with its tail stepped on, rage rising because I’d hit the truth dead-on. His grip tightened until my arm screamed, like he meant to crush it.

“You’ve always been good with words,” he hissed, “but don’t forget this time it was you!”

It didn’t matter how many times I said it wasn’t me, that it had nothing to do with me. Adrian wouldn’t listen. He only insisted I atone.

I laughed inside, bitter and cold.

The divorce agreement he’d signed with his own hand was sitting safely in my bag right now. But I couldn’t say it, absolutely couldn’t.

With him in this state, if he found out we were already divorced especially if he found out I was pregnant he’d never let me go. He’d only lock me down in an even more extreme way.

He dragged me outside. I stumbled along, and my other hand slid quietly, instinctively to my belly.

It was still flat, but it held everything I was terrified of losing.

Baby… hold on a little longer. I’ll get you out. I swear I will.

He shoved me into the car and drove me to the restaurant where Emma used to work.

The days that followed felt like a nightmare I couldn’t wake up from.

He forced me to do every job Emma had ever mentioned.

In the greasy back kitchen, I washed mountains of dishes. The reek of disinfectant stung my nose. The cold water soaked my hands until they turned white and wrinkled.

In the dining hall, I balanced heavy trays through the crowd, getting snapped at and ordered around by impatient customers. My legs swelled. They ached until I felt like I might collapse.

At night, I worked a convenience store shift, restocking shelves, dealing with all kinds of people who wandered in after dark, forcing myself to stay awake no matter how heavy my eyelids got.

I tried to avoid anything that required real strength. If I moved too slowly, the supervisor’s icy stare and sharp commands would slice into me.

A few days in, Adrian’s car appeared silently in front of me.

He rolled down the window and looked at me filthy, exhausted, panting and his eyes held no softness at all. Only a nearly cruel kind of assessment.

“Ann, you can’t take it already? It’s only been a few days.”

He leaned slightly forward, voice tempting like he was offering charity. “If you can’t handle it, it’s simple. Go apologize to Emma properly. Admit you were wrong, and we’ll go home right away.”

In just a handful of days, I could feel myself wasting away. My clothes hung loose where they used to fit. My skin went sallow with malnutrition. The dark circles under my eyes were so heavy no makeup could hide them.

The physical exhaustion and the mental suffocation pressed down on me like two mountains.

But when I touched my belly and felt that faint, stubborn presence, I told myself I had to hold on.

Still, fatigue and the growing unease in my belly wrapped tighter, like cold vines. I knew if I kept forcing it like this, I might lose this pup in a matter of days.

“Fine.” I straightened, forcing my spine to hold. “I’ll apologize.”

Adrian’s tightly knitted brows finally relaxed, like he’d just solved a massive problem. He reached for me, but I turned aside and avoided his hand.

He didn’t care. His voice even softened rarely, briefly. “See? Wouldn’t it have been better if you’d done this from the start? Come on. Let’s go home.”

Home.

The word sounded like a joke.

Stepping back into that familiar house felt like walking into another lifetime.

In just a few days, Emma had been pampered back to health. Her cheeks were rosy. She wore soft pajamas, and everything about her glowed with the shine of being cherished.

She sat on the sofa arranging flowers, elegant and composed.

Then there was me—gaunt, sallow, carrying the stubborn smell of grease and cheap disinfectant from the restaurant no matter how hard I scrubbed. Standing next to her, we looked like we belonged to two different worlds.

Emma saw me and froze. Then her eyes reddened fast, her lips trembling, as if she’d been wronged beyond words.

Adrian immediately stepped forward and gathered her gently into his arms, murmuring reassurance.

“Don’t be scared, Emma. She’s just here to apologize.”

Something inside me was dead calm like a lake frozen solid.

I walked up and stopped a few steps away from them, lowered my lashes, and spoke with no emotion at all.

“Emma, I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said those hurtful things. I shouldn’t have hit you.”

Emma stayed buried in Adrian’s chest, sniffling softly, not responding.

Adrian patted her back and turned his gaze to me, commanding. “And what about the people you sent to harass her? Hurt her? Apologize for that too.”

I lowered my head again, hiding everything in my eyes. The words scraped out between my teeth.

“I’m sorry, Emma… for the shock and the harm you suffered. I… I’m sorry.”

Adrian finally looked satisfied. He waved a hand, like dismissing an unimportant servant.

“Go upstairs. Take a shower. Clean yourself up. Look at you.”

Then he stopped looking at me entirely. He turned back to Emma, voice gentle, asking what she wanted for dinner. careful, attentive, like she was precious.

I stood there and watched him, watched the way he cradled her like a treasure, and a thin, cold curve slowly formed at my mouth.

I didn’t go upstairs.

While everyone’s attention stayed on Emma, I stepped backward quietly, carefully toward the entryway.

There was a pair of flats in the shoe cabinet I hadn’t worn in a long time. I slipped them on and didn’t hesitate for a second before pulling open that heavy iron door.

Outside, a black Rolls-Royce was already waiting, its sleek body catching the sunset like polished obsidian.

I didn’t look back.

I opened the door and got in. The instant it shut, it cut off the house behind me—cut off the place that used to be “home,” and the relationship that had been choking me to death.

The car pulled away smoothly, leaving the villa, Adrian, and every filthy piece of my past far behind.