I couldn't believe what I was hearing.

“Verona left that life five years ago. She's stayed clean ever since, and nobody has dared touch her, especially not after she had her son, Carson. But suddenly, someone grabs her in broad daylight and does all this to her? Tell me, Marianne, who else could have a motive besides you?”

For a moment, I simply stared at him.

Trying to understand how we had ended up here.

Trying to understand how the same man who once crossed continents looking for me could stand in front of me now and look at me like a criminal.

"Darius..." A quiet laugh escaped me. "You really believe I did this? After everything that's happened between us, that's honestly what you think of me?"

"Don't fucking play games with me! I know you're angry our daughter died during surgery! And I know how much you hate Verona. Stop pretending otherwise."

My eyes burned.

Before I could stop myself, my hand flew across his face.

SLAP!

The crack echoed through the bedroom.

For several seconds, neither of us moved.

My palm stung from the impact, and the pain traveled all the way up my arm. I slowly curled my fingers into a fist and forced myself to breathe through the tightness in my chest before finally finding my voice.

"Darius, do you have any idea how shameless you're being right now? You can believe whatever story makes you feel better, but this has absolutely nothing to do with me. Not a single part of it."

A bitter laugh escaped me as I wiped at my eyes.

The moment the words left my mouth, I crouched down and began gathering my daughter's belongings from the floor.

A pink hair clip.

A stuffed rabbit.

A tiny sweater she would never wear again.

The sight nearly shattered me.

I didn't want to stay in the same room as him anymore. I didn't want to look at him, and I certainly didn't want to hear another accusation.

Before I could stand, his hand clamped around my wrist.

Pain shot through my injured arm instantly.

"Fine," Darius said through clenched teeth. "Let's forget feelings for a second and talk about facts. You got discharged from the hospital today, so explain something to me. Why didn't you come straight home?"

I frowned.

"What are you talking about? I went exactly where I needed to go."

His expression darkened.

"Then why were you at an apartment complex in Brooklyn? You've never been there before, Marianne. Never. Yet somehow you show up there on the same day Verona gets taken."

For a moment, I didn't understand.

Then it clicked.

The lawyer's office.

He was talking about the lawyer's office.

Unfortunately, my silence only convinced him further.

"Verona was unconscious when they brought her in," Darius continued, his voice rough with anger. "Do you know what she kept saying? Even after everything she'd been through, she was still begging you to let her go."

He stepped closer.

"Marianne, you know what kind of life she came from. Even if you hate her, how could you do something like this? How could you be this cruel? You're a mother too. Verona has a son. What would her son think of you for hurting her?"

For a second, I couldn't speak.

My daughter was dead.

Dead.

Yet somehow everyone kept asking me to think about Verona's child.

Nobody seemed to remember that I had just buried my own.

I almost laughed.

"Darius, listen to yourself. Just listen to what you're saying right now."

He either couldn't hear it or refused to.

His fingers dug deeper into my wrist.

"You owe her an apology. You owe her an explanation for what happened."

Something inside me cracked completely.

I yanked against his grip.

"Darius, I didn't do it. I didn't touch her, I didn't hire anybody, and I didn't even know where she was. Did it ever occur to you that somebody else could be responsible?" The words came out before I could stop them. "Did it ever occur to you that she might have arranged this herself?"

"Fuck, Marianne! Do you hear yourself right now? You're actually suggesting she'd destroy herself for attention? You're seriously standing here trying to convince me that's what happened?"

Darius dragged a hand through his hair and looked away before turning back to me.

"When did you become this person? When did you get so bitter that you'd say something like that about another woman?"

I stared at him in disbelief.

"You grew up with nothing, Marianne. You know what it's like to be looked down on. You know what it's like to be powerless and have people judge you without giving you a chance."

His voice rose with every sentence.

"And now you've spent five years living as Mrs. Davenport and somehow you've forgotten all of that. You've forgotten exactly what it feels like to be the person nobody believes."

I felt something cold settle in my chest.

"Forgotten what?"

"Forgotten where you came from. You're still just a fucking orphan, Marianne."

The room went silent.

For a second, I couldn't breathe.

Darius looked away first, as if part of him already regretted saying it.

But the damage was done.

"Maybe my mom was right," he said quietly. "Maybe you really are cursed. Maybe everyone around you gets hurt eventually, including our daughter Lara."

The world seemed to tilt beneath my feet.

Those words followed me throughout my entire childhood.

After my parents died, relatives abandoned me. I spent years believing I destroyed everything I touched.

The night I almost gave up on my life, it was Darius who found me.

I still remembered him sitting beside me in the rain.

I still remembered him wiping away my tears.

I still remembered his voice.

"People die because life is unfair, Marianne. Not because you're cursed."

Back then, he had saved me.

Now he was the one pushing me back into that darkness.

Tears streamed down my face.

This time I couldn't stop them.

I looked at him and saw a stranger wearing the face of the man I used to love.

"So that's who I am to you now."

My voice trembled.

"A jealous woman who would ruin someone's life for revenge. A vicious woman capable of anything as long as she's angry enough."

Darius opened his mouth.

I didn't let him speak.

"No. I won't apologize for something I didn't do. Whether Verona lives or dies has nothing to do with me."

My throat tightened painfully.

"And from today forward..."

My voice broke despite my efforts.

"...the same goes for you."

For the first time since entering the room, Darius looked genuinely stunned.

I used all my strength to rip my wrist from his grasp.

Then I wiped the tears from my face, picked up my bag, and walked toward the front door.

I grabbed the handle.

"Since you're so damn stubborn, Marianne, don't blame me for what happens next."

The moment I tried to leave, Darius's men stopped me.

I barely made it through the side exit before two bodyguards caught up to me.

One grabbed each arm and dragged me back despite my struggles.

"Darius, let me go!" I shouted. "Stop this before it goes too far."

Neither bodyguard responded.

They pulled me through the private floors of La Serpienten's headquarters and into one of the underground meeting rooms.

I had only heard stories about this place before.

It was where major deals were negotiated, punishments were decided, and people disappeared without anyone daring to ask questions afterward.

The room was crowded with capos, enforcers, business partners, and other men who held power simply because everyone else feared them.

Conversations died the moment I was dragged inside.

My eyes immediately searched the room for Darius.

I found him sitting at the head of the table.

Verona sat beside him with one hand resting comfortably on his arm, as if that position belonged to her.

The sight made my stomach turn.

My daughter's funeral flowers had not even wilted yet.

Yet here they were.

Looking more like a family than Darius and I had in months.

"Darius, please listen to me," I said, trying to pull free from the guards. "You know me better than anyone. You know I wouldn't do something like this."

For a moment, I thought he might actually look at me.

Instead, he lit a cigarette and leaned back in his chair.

"This woman still refuses to admit what she did," Darius said calmly as he looked around the room. "I've given her multiple opportunities to tell the truth, but she insists on pretending she's innocent."

Several men exchanged looks.

A few laughed quietly.

Verona lowered her gaze.

"Darius, maybe we should let it go," she said softly. "I'm worried this will only make Marianne hate me more. To be honest, I'm already scared enough as it is."

The reaction was immediate.

One man snorted.

Another shook his head.

"Scared of her? Boss has protected her for years."

"She's had a better life than most people in this city."

"She doesn't know how lucky she is."

Laughter spread through the room.

I looked directly at Veronica.

For a brief moment, she met my eyes, and I saw the satisfaction she was trying so hard to hide. She was enjoying every second of this.

"Darius, you can't seriously believe this," I said. "You know exactly what kind of person I am. After everything we've been through, how can you still sit there and listen to this?"

His jaw tightened.

"What I know is that Veronica ended up in the hospital while you keep insisting you had nothing to do with it. At some point, Marianne, repeating the same lie doesn't make it true."

"I didn't do anything," I shouted. "I've told you the truth from the beginning. I never touched her, I never hired anyone, and I never even knew where she was."

Darius let out a short laugh.

"You've been saying that for days, and I'm getting tired of hearing it. Every time I give you a chance to take responsibility, you find another excuse."

The room fell silent. Everyone seemed to recognize the warning in his voice. Fear crawled up my spine. Not because of the men surrounding me… but because the man I had loved for ten years was looking at me like I was a stranger.

Darius rose from his chair and walked toward me.

“Break her pride,” he said. “Not her body yet. Just enough so she understands what happens when she keeps lying.”

The first blow came without warning. A fist slammed into my ribs and forced the air out of my lungs. I staggered into the edge of the table, pain exploding through my burned shoulder as my body folded. Before I could recover, someone grabbed my arm and yanked me up only to throw me down onto my knees again.

Laughter spread around the room as if nothing serious was happening.

“She still thinks she can stand?” one of them said. “She won’t last long like this.”

“I didn’t do anything,” I choked out, forcing myself to look toward Darius even as my voice broke.

A kick hit my side before I could finish. Agony exploded through my abdomen. That side had barely healed after losing a kidney. My body was still weak from the surgery.

My vision blurred. Lara's smile flashed through my mind. Her laughter. Her tiny hand in mine.

Tears slipped down my face.For a moment, I genuinely thought I was going to die.

Then someone grabbed my shoulder where the bandage was still attached and twisted me around. The dressing tore open completely.

I screamed, and warm blood immediately soaked through the fabric.

Veronica sat beside Darius with her hand pressed lightly against her chest, as if she was disturbed by what she was seeing. But her eyes stayed steady, calm, and focused on me in a way that didn’t match her expression at all.

I looked at Darius again, still holding onto something inside me that refused to die, still waiting for him to recognize me.

He was leaning back in his chair, watching everything without a flicker of emotion, like I was nothing more than noise he no longer cared to silence.

Another hit followed. Then another. They stopped treating me like someone who could speak and started treating me like something that only reacted. Every time I collapsed, they dragged me back up. Every time I tried to breathe, something else interrupted it.

My body stopped responding properly. My vision blurred at the edges. The floor became harder to distinguish from the room itself. Blood dripped down and gathered beneath me.

Eventually I couldn’t stand anymore. My legs gave out completely and I fell forward, shaking, curling slightly in on myself because there was nothing else left I could do.

“Darius…” I whispered, barely able to form the word. “Please… stop this.”

He stood up.

The entire room went silent at once.

Even the men stopped moving.

For a brief moment, something inside me reacted to that silence. Not hope exactly. Something worse. Habit.

He walked forward slowly and picked up a heavy wooden chair.

“This is the price... For touching Veronica.”

I shook my head weakly, trying to speak through the pain. “I didn’t…”

But he had already lifted the chair higher.

And in that moment, I understood there was nothing left to argue, nothing left to reach for. Whatever I had been to him before was gone, replaced by something he could erase without hesitation.

The chair came down.

And everything went dark.

…

When I finally opened my eyes again, Verona was already there. She stood at the edge of the room like she belonged to it, like she had always been part of my pain instead of the reason behind it.

My body still ached from everything before, but the moment my gaze landed on what she was holding, everything else disappeared.

It was Lara's music box!

My breath caught painfully.

I had given it to Lara on her third birthday.

She had loved it so much that she slept with it beside her pillow every night.

After she died, it became the only thing that still carried traces of her.

I pushed myself upright despite the pain tearing through my body.

"Who gave you permission to touch that?" I demanded, my voice shaking.

Verona turned the music box slowly in her hands. The soft melody drifted through the room. A melody I hadn't been able to listen to since Lara died.

"This?" Verona asked softly. "Carson saw it and immediately fell in love with it. He wouldn't stop talking about it."

My stomach dropped.

"Give it back." I reached for it instinctively.

Verona stepped back. "Darius gave it to me," she said casually. "He said Carson could have it."

For a moment, I couldn't process the words.

"No." My voice came out barely above a whisper. "No. That's impossible."

Verona's smile deepened.

"Carson likes it very much," she said. "I suppose children know how to appreciate gifts."

The cruelty beneath her words was impossible to miss.

"Give it back," I repeated.

"Why?" she asked. "Lara isn't using it anymore and my son, Carson treasures it already. You wouldn't want to upset a child, would you?"

Before I could speak, the door suddenly opened.

Darius walked in.

The moment his eyes landed on Verona, something shifted across his face, quick and controlled, before it settled into something unreadable.

“Get out,” he said simply.

Verona looked at him, then at me, as if memorizing the moment. Then she smiled gently and lowered her gaze.

“Of course,” she said. “I’ll leave, baby.”

As she passed me, she leaned in just enough for me to hear her clearly.

"Good luck,” she whispered. “He always chooses me when it matters.”

Then she was gone.

The silence she left behind felt heavier than her presence.

I turned to Darius immediately.

“Why did you give her that?” I said, my voice breaking as I forced myself to speak through the pain. “That music box belonged to Lara. You know exactly what it means to me.”

I could barely sit up straight, but I still looked at him, waiting for something that felt like truth.

Darius exhaled slowly.

“It’s just a thing,” he said as he stepped closer and brushed my hair back. “You’re making this bigger than it needs to be.”

“It’s not just a thing,” I snapped. “I gave that to Lara. She loved it. She carried it everywhere. It's one of the only things I have left of her.”

He didn’t react to the words the way I needed him to.

Instead, he kept his hand there like I was something fragile that needed managing.

“I know what it is,” he said more calmly. “But you’ve been difficult lately, and I needed to handle things in a way that made sense.”

Difficult?

“So you took something that belonged to our daughter and gave it to her son?” I whispered.

“I’ll replace it,” he said. “I can buy you a hundred music boxes. Just stop reacting like this.”

I stared at him.

“No..." My voice shook. “You don't get to replace Lara.”

For the first time, he looked slightly uncomfortable.

But it lasted only a second.

Darius's expression shifted, impatience creeping in.

“You’re overreacting again,” he said. “This isn't something worth breaking down over.”

I let out a short, empty laugh.

“Not worth it?” I repeated. “Is that what I am to you now? Is that what Lara is? Everything we loved is just not worth it?”

Before he could answer, the door burst open.

His assistant rushed in, out of breath and pale.

“Mr. Davenport,” he said urgently. “There’s a situation on the rooftop. Miss Stuart is there, and she’s threatening to jump.”

Darius froze.

“What?” he muttered under his breath.

The assistant lowered his voice slightly.

“She’s saying… Miss Marianne pushed her.”

The room went still.

Darius turned his head slowly toward me.

“What did you do?!” he asked.

I blinked. “What are you talking about?”

But he was already moving before I could finish.

“Bring her up,” he ordered sharply. “Now.”

I was pulled out of the room again before I could even process what was happening.

The rooftop was already crowded when we arrived.

Doctors. Security. Voices shouting over each other.

And at the center of it all stood Verona.

She was near the edge, crying in perfect timing, holding Lara’s music box like it was something precious she was barely keeping together.

“Darius,” she cried the moment she saw him. “She forced me to take it. She said if I didn’t, she’d destroy me. I didn’t know what to do. I was scared.”

Her voice broke exactly where it needed to.

Darius moved toward her immediately.

“Hey,” he said softly. “It’s okay. I’m here.” His entire tone changed in a second. “Nothing is going to happen to you,” he added. “I’ve got you.”

Something inside me went completely still.

I watched him.

Watched the way he looked at her.

Then my eyes dropped to the music box again.

Lara’s music box.

In her hand.

I pushed forward despite the pain tearing through me.

“Give it back,” I said hoarsely.

Verona flinched on cue, then stepped back and it slipped.

The music box fell from her hand, hit the edge, and dropped out of sight.

The sound it made was almost nothing.

But inside me, something shattered completely.

“No…” My voice broke as I leaned forward instinctively. “No, no, no!”

I tried to move, tried to run, tried to reach anything that might undo it, but a hand grabbed me hard.

“Marianne, Veronica was literally about to jump off a building and you still pushed her like that. Do you even care if someone dies?”

Darius’s voice cut through the rooftop like something final, something already decided before I could even speak.

I turned slowly. My body was shaking, but not from fear. It felt worse than that, like something inside me had already been worn down past breaking.

“Let me go!”

For half a second, his grip loosened. Just enough for me to feel it, just enough to think he might actually hear me. But then Veronica’s crying pulled his attention back like a string tied around him.

“Darius…” Veronica sobbed, stepping closer while wiping her face. “I didn’t do anything wrong. I told you I wouldn’t touch her, and I didn’t. So why is she still doing this to me?”

She shook her head like she could barely stand. “I just want a normal life. I just want an apology. Is that really too much to ask? Or is it just because I came from nothing that I don’t deserve basic respect?”

Her voice trembled exactly where it needed to, every pause placed too perfectly to feel real.

I stared at her through blurred vision, trying to understand if she was truly like this or if I was the only one seeing it clearly.

Darius’s expression changed immediately. It always did when she cried.

“Don’t move,” he said to her first, voice sharp but controlled. “I’ve got this.” Then his attention snapped to me, colder now, harder. “You hear that? This is exactly what I’m talking about.”

My chest tightened.

“What are you talking about?” I asked, barely able to breathe properly.

Veronica stepped back slightly, still crying, still performing like every reaction had been rehearsed.

“Darius…” she whispered again. “I don’t feel safe. She hates me. I can feel it.”

Darius cursed under his breath, frustration flashing across his face as he looked at me like I had become a problem he needed to contain.

“Marianne! You’re not going to let this go, are you?”

My voice came out low. “Let what go? The truth or whatever you’ve already decided to believe?”

Veronica moved again, closer to the edge this time, just enough to make everyone tense.

“Don’t,” Darius snapped instantly, his tone breaking for the first time. “Veronica, stop. I’ve got you. I said I’ve got you.”

He turned back to me, fully changed now, completely focused.

“Apologize,” he ordered.

I blinked once. “What?”

“Apologize,” he repeated, louder this time. “Right now.”

The air around us tightened. Everyone was watching now, waiting for me to bend. I gave a short laugh, more disbelief than anything else.

“I didn’t do anything,” I said slowly.

Darius stepped forward and kicked the back of my leg. Pain exploded through me and I dropped instantly, my injured body hitting the ground hard enough to steal my breath.

“Fuck…” I gasped, trying to steady myself.

Before I could move, he forced me down again, pressing me into the ground like my resistance meant nothing.

“Apologize,” he said again.

My vision blurred, not just from pain but from shock.

“Are you serious right now?” I whispered. “Have you forgotten I’m your wife?”

For a second, something flickered in his eyes. Not softness, not warmth, just hesitation. It was brief.

Then Veronica screamed again.

She stepped closer to the edge, crying harder.

“Darius, I’m scared…”

That was all it took. Everything in him shifted back.

“Marianne,” he said coldly, “this is a human life. Are you really going to be this stubborn right now?”

Then he turned to his men.

“Make her apologize.”

Two bodyguards grabbed me immediately. I struggled, but my body was already too weak, too damaged.

His attention stayed on Veronica, his tone completely different now.

“It’s okay,” he kept saying to her. “Come down. I’ve got you. I won’t let anything happen.”

She kept crying, shaking her head, playing fragile while I was being forced down into the ground.

They pushed my shoulders, forcing me lower until my knees hit the concrete and my head was dragged down after.

“Say it,” one of the men said.

“No,” I whispered. “I didn’t do anything…”

They shoved me again.

“Say it.”

My breath shook as I fought to stay upright.

Darius finally looked at me again, but there was nothing left in his expression.

“No more games,” he said. “Just apologize.”

I stared at him. At the man I had once trusted completely. At the man I had loved until there was nothing left of me. And I understood there was no version of this where I was believed.

“I won’t,” I said quietly.

Silence.

Veronica gasped again, stumbling slightly, and that was enough.

“Enough!” Darius snapped.

He moved instantly toward her. He caught her before she even reached the edge properly, holding her like she was something fragile and irreplaceable.

“Hold her,” he ordered without looking back. “Don’t let her fall.”

I stayed on my knees as they released me slowly, like I was no longer important enough to restrain.

Someone grabbed my arm and pulled me up.

“Take her back to the ward,” Darius said coldly, still focused entirely on Veronica.

His voice didn’t change when he said it. It didn’t soften. It didn’t hesitate.

It sounded like I was something to be removed.

I looked back once as they dragged me away.

Veronica in his arms, still crying softly.

And Darius not looking at me at all.

...

In the ward, I lay still for a long time, staring at nothing. The silence felt heavier than pain, heavier than anything that had happened before.

Then I stood up.

Every movement hurt, but I kept going until I reached the rooftop again. My daughter’s music box lay shattered below.

I stared at it for a long time without moving.

Then I pulled out my phone.

“Mrs. Davenport,” I said when she answered.

“I want the fake death plan now. Move it up.”

“Finally,” she said.

Ten minutes later, a black car stopped outside the hospital.

Twenty minutes after that, the world behind me was gone in fire and smoke on a road no one would trace back to me.

And I didn’t look back.