It took everything I had just to push myself upright.

“I didn't do anything wrong. Why should I admit to it?”

Alvin gave a cold laugh, edged with irritation. “You'll never change. You do something wrong, and you never once learn to apologize. It was the same when you hit Sonia back then, and it's the same now that you drugged her. Isabella, when are you ever going to learn to bow your head?”

A laugh slipped out of me.

The wound split open again, blood seeping out, sliding down along my brow.

Bow my head to Sonia?

“Sonia wrecked my marriage, framed my brother into prison, and turned my whole life into a pile of mud. And you want me to bow my head and apologize to her? Alvin, do you really think that's possible?”

Alvin's expression shifted, the corners of his mouth pressing down. “Stubborn to the bone.”

“Looks like the punishment hasn't been enough to clear your head.”

He turned and walked toward the door, telling the bodyguard posted there, “No water, no food. Keep her awake every second, until she comes to her senses.”

The door closed.

Every time I came close to passing out, someone would throw a basin of salt water over me, the sting jolting me back into the pain.

In the end my wounds only grew worse, and with no food for so long my body finally gave out and I blacked out completely.

When I came to again, Alvin was sitting at the edge of the bed, his face cold. “Awake?”

I said nothing.

He paused. “You should count yourself lucky. Sonia and the baby are both fine.”

“Don't go near Sonia again. Or I won't go easy on you next time.”

I looked at him for a long while before I spoke, my voice level. “Understood. From now on I'll stay far away from her.”

And far away from you, too.

Alvin stared at me for a few seconds, as if trying to find some crack in my face.

My expression stayed calm, without a trace of anything extra.

He frowned, an odd flicker passing through him, though his mouth turned sarcastic. “This had better not be you playing meek again.”

Before I could answer, there was a knock at the door.

A nurse leaned half her body in. “Mr. Henson, Miss Harding has been asking for you.”

Alvin was on his feet at once, striding toward the door.

The nurse followed behind, murmuring to her colleague, “Mr. Henson really is good to Miss Harding. They say he's been at her bedside ever since she came out of the ER, never leaving her side for a moment. Miss Harding is truly blessed.”

Never leaving her side.

I closed my eyes.

I had been through all of it before.

Seven years ago, Alvin fell for me at first sight and chased me for a whole year, surprising me with something new every single day.

But what truly moved me was that car crash.

When I was brought to the hospital, the internal bleeding was severe, and I needed massive transfusions.

The blood bank ran short, and to save me he signed a waiver of liability and gave me his own blood.

He nearly lost his life over it.

Back then, Alvin had stayed at my side too, never leaving for a moment.

It was only that love, in the end, couldn't escape those words: everything the same, and yet nothing the same.

I dug out the backup phone I carried with me and dialed the number I hadn't called in three years.

“Ferris Delgado, get my brother transferred to another prison.”

“Do this one thing for me, and I'll marry you.”

The other end went quiet for a moment, then came a low laugh. “Isabella, you've finally come around.”

“One week. I'll have it handled.”

After hanging up, I opened the encrypted file the private detective had sent.

It was a recording of the “victim” from that case, talking with Sonia.

Sonia had kept the person hidden away tight; it had taken me three years just to get word of them.

Once my brother was transferred, I could send those two to hell without holding anything back.

During my days in the hospital, Sonia never stopped sending me intimate photos of her and Alvin, along with pictures from her prenatal checkups.

I saved every one of them and forwarded them to my lawyer.

The worse Sonia behaved, the stronger my claim to my rightful share of the assets when the divorce came through.

I handled the discharge paperwork alone and left the hospital.

When I got back to the villa, though, I saw several workers gathered in the back courtyard.

A bad feeling pressed in on me, and I hurried over.

One of the workers was swinging at the wall.

"Stop!"

I rushed forward.

"Well, look who's home."

Sonia stepped out of the memorial shrine, the little tablet I had carved with my own hands turning over and over in her fingers.

She glanced at me, then tossed the wooden tablet to the ground and stamped on it.

"A baby that died before it was ever born, and you keep its tablet in the house? Bad luck, don't you think?"

She laughed and ran a hand over the swell of her belly. "My baby still needs to be born safe and sound. All this is nothing but a curse on the house."

The blood shot straight to my head.

Six years ago, the knife I took for Alvin didn't just cost me my womb. It cost me my first child.

Afterward, I built a small shrine for that child in the back courtyard, set up a tablet, and paid my respects every single day.

Even when we divorced three years ago, Alvin never touched this shrine.

He had once said he would remember this child forever.

"Alvin agreed to it."

Sonia seemed to read my mind, and her smile grew brighter. "He said keeping these things in the house was too unlucky. Isn't that right, sister?"

Alvin's old promise, his old guilt—now they were a joke.

I lunged forward to stop them.

Several bodyguards in black stepped out and blocked me.

Sonia walked up to me and slapped me hard across the face.

"You think playing the gentle, dutiful wife will win Alvin's heart back?"

"Dream on. If it weren't for you, I'd already be the rightful Mrs. Henson, and my child would be the only heir. Since you insist on coming back, I will never let you off!"

She grabbed a fistful of my hair.

"Take a good look at how your child gets leveled."

The worker's hammer came down on the gray brick, again and again.

The small urn underneath came into view.

My heart seemed to stop.

"Let go of me!"

I struggled with everything I had, my nails raking across Sonia's arm.

She screamed and let go.

I threw myself down, kneeling in the broken brick, and clutched the urn tight against my chest.

"What are you doing!"

Alvin's voice came from behind me.

I turned and saw him stride into the back courtyard.

Sonia clutched her arm, eyes rimmed red, and flung herself into his arms. "Alvin, I only wanted to give the urn back to her, but she wouldn't take it. She cursed at me, said I wasn't allowed to touch her child, and she pushed me…"

Alvin wrapped an arm around Sonia, his gaze landing on me, cold as ice.

"Smash it."

"No!"

I held the urn fast against me. "Alvin, your child is in here!"

His eyes didn't so much as flicker.

"I told you. Stay away from Sonia."

"Even if this is my child, you have no right to use it as an excuse to hurt Sonia."

"Sonia is pregnant. She can't be upset. And yet the moment you come back, you stir up a scene like this."

He turned his head and looked at Sonia, his voice softening. "Are you hurting anywhere?"

Sonia bit her lip and shook her head, her eyes red.

Alvin's words were like a knife, driving into my heart, stroke after stroke.

Even his own flesh-and-blood child—for Sonia, he wouldn't waver.

A bodyguard wrenched the urn from me and slammed it to the ground.

The wood splintered, and the ashes inside scattered across the dirt.

I threw myself down, scrabbling to gather the ash back into my arms.

But a gust of wind came, and it scattered.

No matter how I clawed at it, I couldn't hold it, and the tears wouldn't stop falling.

Sonia watched me, smug, and turned to Alvin. "Since sister can't bear to part with her own child, why not have her eat the ashes, bit by bit? Then the child will be inside her forever. How nice."

Alvin stood beside her, brows drawing together slightly, as if even he found the idea too much.

But the moment Sonia mentioned again that her belly was hurting, Alvin gave his consent.

I couldn't believe it. "Alvin, you've lost your mind!"

I fought with everything I had, but the bodyguards pried my mouth open and forced it in.

Sonia laughed brightly and cooed at Alvin, "I'm scared something will happen to the baby. Let the doctor come check on me, okay?"

Alvin nodded, looked at me in silence, then signaled the bodyguards to release me and walked off with Sonia.

After everyone was gone, I knelt on the ground, retching and retching, then reached for the tablet that had been thrown aside, held it to me, and wept aloud.

I gathered what was left of my child's ashes back into the handkerchief, bit by bit, folding it shut with great care and tucking it against my chest, over my heart.

Feeling its warmth there, the hatred in me only burned hotter.

Back at the villa, I pushed open the bedroom door and froze.

Everything in the room that belonged to me was gone.

One of the maids saw me standing in the doorway and said, head bowed, "Ma'am, your things have been moved to the room downstairs."

The room downstairs was the servants' quarters.

The only person with the authority to order that was, in all likelihood, Sonia.

I turned and went down, pushing open that narrow little door.

The whole room was cramped and cluttered, my clothes shoved haphazardly into a plastic bin.

I tucked the handkerchief of ashes under the pillow.

The door stood open.

At some point Alvin had walked in. Seeing me standing there in silence, he offered an explanation. "Sonia needs to rest properly for the pregnancy. The room upstairs gets good light, so I'm giving it to her."

"You'll stay here. Tell the maids if you need anything."

I didn't look at him, and I didn't say a word.

That room had once been built to order, by Alvin, just for me, the largest in the house and the one with the best light.

Back then he'd promised me that once our child was born, he'd have a nursery opened up right beside the bedroom, that our child would have the very best of everything.

But now, Alvin probably didn't even remember.

He seemed pleased by how compliant I was, and went on. "Sonia said she wants the chicken soup you make. She's picky with the pregnancy, and it's rare for her to actually want something. Go make it and bring it up to her."

I lifted my head and looked at him.

I understood that even if I refused, Alvin had a thousand ways to make me comply.

I truly didn't have the strength to argue with him anymore, so I just nodded.

"Fine."

Looking at me, so obedient, Alvin pressed his lips together. He seemed about to say something, but in the end he turned and left.

I went to the kitchen and worked for two hours to get it right, but when the soup was carried up, Sonia took a single sip and frowned.

"Too salty."

Her hand slipped, and the whole bowl tipped over onto my arm.

A searing pain burst across the surface of my skin. I bit down on my lip and didn't make a sound.

Alvin's gaze fell on my arm, already reddening and swelling, and his brow creased faintly.

But Sonia spoke first. "Oh, I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to."

Alvin was silent a moment. "I'll go down and get you some burn ointment."

After he left, I quietly started cleaning up the mess on the floor, only for Sonia to stamp down on the back of my hand.

The sole of her shoe ground into my fingers, and the sharp pain made me suck in a breath. I instinctively tried to pull my hand back, but she only pressed harder, a smile tugging at her lips.

"No need to rush off."

She bent down, her voice low enough that only I could hear. "Your brother, in there. Don't you want to know how he's doing?"

My pupils contracted, and I met her eyes, brimming with malice.

"A place like prison, you get all kinds of people. Your brother's got such a refined look to him. He must be quite popular, don't you think?"

She tilted her head. "I heard last week he got beaten in there. Two broken ribs. Don't tell me you didn't even know that."

Those words were the last straw.

The string that had been pulled taut in my mind all this time finally snapped.

I yanked my hand free, snatched up that bowl of scalding chicken soup, and flung it into Sonia's face.

She shrieked and sprang up, her face and arms flushing red in an instant.

"My face... it's so hot... Alvin! Alvin!"

Alvin came rushing in at once, and the moment he saw the scene before him, he slapped me across the face.

He put his full strength into it. I went sprawling to the floor, the back of my head cracking against the leg of the bed, my vision blacking out.

"Isabella! Have you lost your mind!"

Alvin crouched down and pulled Sonia into his arms. "Sonia, Sonia, are you all right?"

Sonia had passed out cold, giving no response at all.

Alvin looked at me, his words almost ground out through his teeth. "If anything happens to her, I'll have your life for it."

He swept Sonia up and rushed out of the room.

Before he left, he gave an order to a few of the bodyguards. "Lock her in the freezer! Don't let her out without my word!"

I was dragged into the freezer, the darkness and the sub-zero cold flooding in together.

My mind began to blur.

Just as I was about to slip under, I thought of my brother in prison, of my unborn child, of every humiliation I'd endured these past years.

I couldn't die yet.

I bit into the tip of my tongue, fighting to stay conscious.

By the time my whole body had nearly frozen stiff, the freezer door opened, and I was hauled into a car like a dead dog dragged by its legs.