When Madison walked through the door, Alexis was nestled against Joel's side, playing lady of the house as she barked orders at the servants.

Joel heard the sound and lifted his gaze toward Madison.

"Starting today, Alexis is the woman of this house. Everyone answers to her." His eyes settled on Madison. "Including you."

His stare was ice. Not a trace of warmth.

Because she'd kicked Alexis's dog, he was using his so-called amnesia as an excuse again, handing her title as Mrs. Delgado to someone else.

He expected her to rage. To lose control. To break down and then give in, the way she always had. He expected her to still care.

But she no longer wanted to be Mrs. Delgado. And she no longer cared whether his amnesia was real.

Madison said nothing. She turned and headed for the stairs.

Alexis stepped into her path, eyes glittering with triumph and contempt.

"There's still so much I don't understand about running this house. I was hoping you could teach me, sis."

Before Madison could respond, Alexis grabbed her wrist and pulled her toward the bar counter.

Madison's custom coffee machine, the one she'd waited months to have shipped from Italy, had been wrecked beyond recognition.

Rage blazed through her. She wrenched her hand free.

"Who told you you could touch that?"

Alexis only smiled, smug and unhurried, lifting a steaming cup of coffee from the counter.

"You still think you're the high-and-mighty Mrs. Delgado? Joel stopped loving you a long time ago. You're nothing."

The words barely left her mouth before she hurled the coffee straight at Madison.

Scalding liquid hit her neck and slid beneath her collar. Madison flinched, her skin burning.

The bitter-sweet stench of coffee flooded her nostrils. Her stomach, already wrecked by morning sickness, revolted instantly. She clamped a hand over her mouth and doubled over, retching.

Everything in her stomach came up, all over Alexis.

Alexis froze for a few seconds, then let out a piercing scream.

Joel came running. He found Madison half-collapsed on the floor, dry-heaving, tears squeezed from the corners of her eyes by sheer reflex.

His body moved before his mind caught up. He rushed toward her, reaching out to help her stand.

Instinct. The kind carved into bone. For a split second, he forgot he was supposed to have amnesia.

Alexis watched him and felt her chest seize. She cranked up her sobbing.

"Joel, I only asked her how to use the coffee machine, and she threw coffee at me and vomited on me."

Her voice cracked into a pitiful whimper. "I know she doesn't like me. If she wants me gone, I'll go. But why does she have to humiliate me like this?"

Joel's brow furrowed. The concern drained from his face, replaced by cold disgust.

"Madison, you never learn. I told you she's the woman of this house."

Madison wiped the tears from the corners of her eyes. She looked up at him, and when she spoke, her voice could have cut glass.

"The woman of this house? Whose name is on the marriage certificate, Joel? Hers?" She held his gaze without flinching. "Did you forget how to read along with everything else?"

Joel went still. He had never seen this version of Madison before.

Alexis recovered first.

"Joel, she's deliberately provoking you. She doesn't respect you at all."

That hit the nerve it was meant to. Fury swallowed whatever was left of Joel's reason.

"Drag her outside. She kneels for one hour and thinks about what she's done."

Two bodyguards moved immediately, seizing Madison by the arms.

She struggled against their grip, staring at Joel's cold, indifferent face. It overlapped with the face in her memory, the one from before.

The Joel who used to hold her like something precious. Who stayed up all night at her bedside when she was sick. Who noticed every small thing about her.

Who once whispered, in a moment so tender it ached: "Madison, I'll love you until the day I die."

His love had been so brief.

Numbness and pain crashed through her in equal measure as the guards forced her to her knees outside the front door of the villa.

Then Madison raised her voice, sharp and clear, aimed straight at the living room.

"Joel Delgado. If you make me kneel out here, and your mother finds out how you've treated me, do you really think your little secretary will live to see tomorrow?"

Her voice wasn't loud, but every word landed with absolute certainty.

Joel's eyes narrowed. His mother had always taken Madison's side.

And the Delgado family's rules left no room for a woman like Alexis to set foot through the front door, let alone claim the house as her own.

The air went still. They stared at each other, neither willing to look away.

The sky split open without warning, and rain came crashing down in sheets.

Water soaked through Madison's clothes in seconds, plastering the fabric to her skin like ice. Yet she stood in the downpour with her spine ramrod straight, her gaze fixed on Joel through the living room windows. There was no plea in her eyes. Not a trace.

Something twisted in Joel's chest, sharp and unbidden. A terrible thought surfaced.

Did she want to leave him?

He crushed it almost instantly. She couldn't leave him. She loved him too much.

His eyes went cold.

"Madison, you really think this is your house to throw tantrums in? Don't you dare use my mother to strong-arm me!"

He wrapped his arm around Alexis's waist and headed for the stairs without a backward glance, leaving Madison standing in the rain.

The downpour only worsened, each drop hammering against her body like a fist.

The bodyguards moved toward her, ready to force her to her knees. Madison lifted her gaze and pinned them with a stare that could cut glass.

"You know what Mrs. Delgado is capable of. If I kneel today, do you really think you'll be alive tomorrow?"

The color drained from their faces. They exchanged a look, and the old woman's reputation did what Madison's words alone could not. They released her, stepping back with grudging reluctance.

Madison stumbled back inside. Every step sent a dull, dragging ache through her lower abdomen.

She made it to the second floor. Joel's bedroom door was ajar, and through the gap she saw something that made the world tilt sideways.

Joel had Alexis pinned against the headboard. Their bodies were tangled together, moving in a rhythm that left nothing to the imagination.

Alexis looked up. Through the crack in the door, her eyes met Madison's.

A slow, triumphant smile spread across her lips, mockery spilling from her gaze like venom. Then she draped her arms over Joel's shoulders and let out a breathy, theatrical moan.

Something hot and metallic surged up Madison's throat. She clamped both hands over her mouth, barely keeping the blood from spilling past her lips.

She couldn't watch. She turned and fled to her own room like a hunted animal.

The moment she locked the door behind her, a mouthful of blood poured into her cupped palm. Bright red. Violent against her skin.

She slid down the door and crumpled to the floor, still wrapped in her soaked clothes. The cold seeped into her bones as pain folded her body in on itself. Her vision blurred at the edges, then began to dissolve.

Time lost its shape. The chill burrowed deeper.

She fumbled for her phone and dialed Joel's number on instinct. Once. Twice. Again and again. No one picked up.

She dragged herself out of the room on her hands and knees. From behind the bedroom door, the sounds hadn't stopped. Rise and fall. Rise and fall.

When she opened her eyes again, she was in a hospital bed. A doctor stood beside her, his expression grim.

"Miss Maddox, you spiked a hundred-and-two-degree fever. Between the rain exposure and the severe emotional distress, your pregnancy is extremely unstable. You cannot endure any further stress. If you do, we may not be able to save the baby."

Madison stared at the ceiling and nodded.

Not long after, a commotion erupted in the hallway. Every member of the medical staff was summoned away.

The nurses chattered as they rushed past her door.

"Mr. Delgado's Miss Pruitt got admitted. Apparently things got too rough in the bedroom. He called in every doctor in the hospital to see her!"

"And look at Mrs. Delgado in there. Pregnant, burning up with fever, and not a single person looking after her. That amnesia of his sure is selective. Seems like the only person he forgot is his wife."

"When it comes down to it, the one who isn't loved is the real other woman. Miss Pruitt is the one Mr. Delgado actually cares about now."

Every cruel word found its way into Madison's ears, precise as a blade.

She turned her head toward the window. Outside, the rain had stopped. Her eyes held nothing but emptiness.

In the days that followed, Joel stayed at Alexis's side, tending to her every need. He never once learned that his wife was in the hospital too.

On the third day, Madison checked herself out of the hospital against her doctors' protests. She had a finals competition to attend.

This was her gift to her unborn child, and the foundation on which she and her baby would build their future.

Backstage at the venue, she ran into Alexis Pruitt.

Alexis sauntered past her with a look of unbridled triumph.

"Madison, surprised to see me here? So what if you two were childhood sweethearts? So what if you sat by his bedside after the accident? In the end, you couldn't hold on to any of it. His body, his heart, the title of Mrs. Delgado. It's all mine now."

"And today, I'm going to destroy what's left of you."

The finals presentations followed a randomized order. Alexis happened to be slotted right before Madison.

She walked onto the main stage and unveiled her finished designs, and the blood in Madison's veins turned to ice.

The collection Alexis presented was her Starlight Memories series.

Alexis held the microphone and shamelessly narrated every design concept and creative inspiration that Madison had poured countless sleepless nights into developing.

In the audience, Joel sat front and center in the VIP section, his face radiating undisguised pride.

"Alexis has a real gift for design," he remarked.

The judges nodded in agreement, murmuring their approval.

Madison's mind went blank. She never imagined Joel would take designs she treasured like her own flesh and blood and hand them to another woman.

The host called her name several times before she snapped back to reality and walked onstage.

She drew a deep breath, presented her designs, and met the stunned gazes of the audience head-on. Her voice came out clear and unwavering.

"Esteemed judges, hello. My name is Madison Maddox. This Starlight Memories collection is my original work. The pieces Miss Pruitt just presented are a complete plagiarism of my designs."

The moment the words left her mouth, the venue erupted.

The judges exchanged uneasy glances, their eyes drifting toward Joel in the VIP section, waiting for him to weigh in.

Joel rose slowly to his feet. His gaze swept over Madison, cold as a blade, and his lips barely parted.

"Madison, what do you think you're doing?"

"Look at yourself. What kind of spectacle is this? You call yourself Mrs. Delgado? You're an embarrassment."

Madison swallowed the agony churning inside her.

"I'm making a spectacle? You took the work I poured my heart and soul into, night after night, and gifted it to your mistress. And I'm the one making a spectacle?"

Joel's expression remained glacial.

"Is your heart really that ugly? Just because we're married, no other woman is allowed to exist near me? When did you become this person?"

Madison laughed out loud. "Who changed here, Joel? You or me?"

"In your eyes, everything I am is worthless. But of course it is. You can't even remember your own promises."

"You said you'd love me until the end of your life." Her voice dropped. "Turns out your life was shorter than I thought."

She turned to Alexis, who stood there glowing with satisfaction, and the corner of Madison's mouth curved upward.

Then, in front of everyone, she walked to the fire safety station, grabbed the extinguisher, and brought it down on Alexis's counterfeit pieces. The display shattered into wreckage across the floor.

Alexis shrieked the moment she processed what had happened. Her fans surged forward, lunging at Madison, screaming at her to drop dead.

The venue descended into chaos. Madison was hopelessly outnumbered and shoved to the ground.

Joel's first instinct was to pull Alexis into his arms and rush her out of the building.

Madison curled into herself on the floor, both hands locked over her lower abdomen, objects raining down on her body. She trembled with pain but refused to let go.

It wasn't until security regained control that she was finally pulled free.

Her hair was tangled and wild, her appearance wrecked, and a thin line of blood seeped from a gash at her temple.

Reporters lifted their cameras in unison, capturing every frame of her humiliation.

Mockery and vicious remarks swirled around her. She seemed to hear none of it. She simply kept walking, steady and resolute, toward the exit.