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.