“If my wife or my child suffers so much as a scratch today, I will never let you walk away from this!”

“Now get down on your knees and apologize to Cara, right now!”

A bitter, mocking smile tugged at my lips.

Twelve years of a heart laid bare, and what had it bought me……

The crowd kept swelling.

“Just apologize already. A mistress getting smacked around? She had it coming.”

“Of all the things she could do with her life, she picks wrecking someone else's marriage.”

Every word was a blade, carving into my chest.

I braced myself against the wall and rose slowly, too worn out to keep feeding Zane's little circus.

I turned to leave, but his grip clamped down on my wrist.

The force of it felt like it would crush the bones in my hand.

He dragged me back like a dead dog hauled across the floor.

He bent to my ear, the corner of his mouth curling into something cruel, his voice dropping low.

“Didn't you tell me your old man from that backwater town just came to Harborton to see you?”

“Imagine if every street in the city was plastered with private photos of his daughter……”

“Think those old bones of his could take it?”

My whole body went rigid, my pupils shrinking to pinpoints.

Blood caught in my throat, too thick to swallow, too lodged to spit out.

The man in front of me looked like a monster I'd never known.

Watching my face go paper-white, he tipped up the corner of his mouth and gave his phone a little wave.

“Crystal Donaldson, don't go thinking you're tough enough to flip the table on me.”

Those photos were taken when our love ran deepest.

Zane had said he wanted to capture me at my most beautiful.

So I'd handed myself over to him, whole and complete, full of love and trust.

I never imagined they'd become the leash he'd use to break me.

I met his eyes：“You……”

Zane straightened up.

“From the moment we lost the first child, I swore I'd never let a child of mine come to any harm again.”

“Anyone who dares hurt my child, I'll make her wish she were dead!”

My eyes stung and swelled.

I honestly couldn't tell whether I should cry or laugh.

He was paying off the debt he owed my child by lavishing it on someone else's.

How absurd. How pitiful.

I watched him pull up the photo album, thumb hovering over send.

I squeezed my eyes shut and dropped to my knees in front of Cara with a dull thud.

My knees slammed into the marble floor with a heavy crack.

“I'm sorry.”

The excitement in Cara's eyes nearly spilled over as she directed me, savoring every second.

“Say you had no business being a mistress, seducing another woman's husband.”

“If you've got the nerve to be the other woman, you'd better have the nerve to pay for it.”

Zane stood off to the side, his brow knitting on reflex.

But in the end he said nothing.

I stared up at the man before me in despair, jaw clenched so hard my tongue pressed out a mouthful of metallic sweetness.

I forced the words out through gritted teeth：“I had no business being a mistress, seducing another woman's husband!”

Thud, thud, thud. Three kowtows.

A dead silence settled behind my eyes.

“Satisfied now?”

I held my back straight against the waves of insults and condemnation breaking over me from the crowd.

A magnanimous little smile bloomed on Cara's face as she bent down and reached out to help me up.

“Good that you know you were wrong. Come on, get up. I can forgive you now.”

But the instant her fingers brushed my sleeve, she yanked with sudden, vicious force, dragging me forward so I pitched straight down.

Instinct told me to dodge, but my body wouldn't obey.

Cara's grip hauled me with her, and I was forced to crash to the floor alongside her.

She clutched her stomach, tears flooding out in an instant.

“Ah! It hurts so much!”

“Zane, she's not apologizing for real at all! She's still trying to use this to hurt our baby!”

The stares around me stabbed into me like knives.

“That woman is rotten to the core!”

“She’s on her knees and still pulling tricks—has she no shame at all?”

Zane moved almost on instinct.

He shoved me hard, sending me crashing to the floor.

“Crystal Donaldson, you are beyond saving!”

Then he turned, bent down, and scooped Cara into his arms, his voice gone unbearably tender.

“Don’t be scared, Cara. I’ll take you to the doctor. The baby will be fine.”

My back and stomach slammed against the public hospital bench, and pain ripped through me until my whole body shook.

Something deep in my battered abdomen felt like it was dragging downward.

The cramps came in waves, like a dull blade twisting inside me.

In that instant, panic clamped around my heart.

Trembling, I reached up and clutched at the hem of Zane’s trousers.

“Zane… my stomach hurts… it hurts so much…”

He glanced down at me, his eyes full of disgust.

“Stop faking. A stomachache won’t kill you. Don’t embarrass yourself here.”

Cold sweat poured out of me, soaking through every layer of my clothes in seconds. I curled on the floor, hands pressed to my belly, forcing the words out.

“It’s not my stomach… it’s lower…”

Zane looked down on me from his full height, one corner of his mouth lifting into an icy sneer dripping with contempt.

“Watching someone else get pregnant, are you jealous? Want to put on a show and beg for sympathy too?”

“All these years, with that useless body of yours, did you ever once carry a child?”

Every word was a poisoned needle, driving straight into my deepest wound.

Some people you should never have hoped for, not from the very start.

Clinging to my last shred of strength, I fumbled for my phone, desperate to call my father.

I wanted to go home.

I had to get out of here, right now.

Cara nestled against him, the picture of selfless concern for Zane, and laid the blame on me.

“Do you have to make a scene in front of everyone and humiliate Zane?”

Those words lit the fuse on his fury.

He stepped forward, ripped the phone from my hand, threw it to the floor, and ground it under his heel until it shattered.

Nothing left in his eyes but pure revulsion.

“Crystal Donaldson! Haven’t you had enough?”

The nurse on duty noticed how bad I looked and realized something was wrong.

She hurried over, trying to lift me and get me to the emergency room.

But Zane blocked her.

“Leave her.”

“It’s a bad habit we’ve spoiled into her.”

“Let her sit in that room and reflect on how vicious she is!”

The nurse hesitated. “But she really doesn’t look well.”

Zane simply called in his connections at the hospital, his face cold as he leaned on them.

He gave an explicit order: no staff was to treat me.

Then he turned and carried Cara into the VIP room.

Three hours later, after he’d stayed by her side through a full examination and confirmed Cara was perfectly fine—

he finally remembered to come check on me.

Zane stood in the doorway, arms crossed, leaning against the frame.

He let out a sigh, as if making some great concession.

“Cara’s young, she can’t handle being upset. Getting the marriage certificate was just to put her at ease—it’s only a piece of paper.”

“You’ve been with me all these years. So what if there’s no paper? You should know you matter most to me.”

“Stop making trouble. I bought you a ticket to the Maldives. Go clear your head.”

“And when your dad comes to Harborton, he can work at the company too. I’ll arrange a job for him as a security guard.”

But no one in the room answered him. There wasn’t even the sound of breathing.

Zane frowned, sensing something was off.

He crossed to the bedside in two quick strides and yanked back the blanket.

Zane froze.

The vast spread of crimson stung his eyes until they ached.