I'm born with a curse, so I never speak another word since I'm old enough to be understanding.

Since my six-year-old daughter, Jada Westfield, accidentally knocks over my sick older brother, Cain Westfield, my wife, Serena Harlow, sends her to a dog-training facility immediately.

Jada has gotten bitten by dogs in the past, so she's extremely terrified of them. I do everything I can to stop Serena from sending Jada there—even resorting to groveling in front of her, my forehead sticky with blood—yet Serena never spares a glance in my direction.

Instead, she helps Cain up to his feet and gently pats the dust off his pants. But the moment she speaks up, her voice is glacial and ruthless.

"Don't think I can't tell that Jada did this because you've been secretly grooming her to do so. You're an extremely manipulative mute, after all. Your dirty blood courses through Jada's veins as well. If I don't start teaching her a lesson at an early age, she will eventually grow up as a pathetic loser.

"I'm sending her to the facility so that she can learn the rules of this world. She will learn that seniority takes precedence over everything. This also serves as a lesson for you to never harm the person you aren't supposed to engage with!"

I finally find Jada, who has gotten trapped in a cage filled with a dozen rabid mutts. Her body has already been torn into pieces.

I suppress the pain in my heart as I put pieces of Jada together like a jigsaw puzzle. After more than 20 years, I finally utter my first sentence.

"Serena Harlow, I want you to pay the price with your blood, and I want you to lose everything you have in life."

I returned to the Harlow family villa holding my daughter's incomplete corpse. Serena Harlow was in the garden, personally planting roses for Cain Westfield.

The blood-red roses bloomed lush and vivid.

Serena gazed at Cain tenderly, but the moment she spotted me, disgust flashed across her face.

"Adrian Westfield, look at yourself. What a mess. Is the Harlow family going bankrupt? Can we no longer afford to keep you? You look like a filthy beggar with that matted hair and dirty face."

"You think this will make me feel sorry for you? You can't even raise your child properly. All you know are manipulative little schemes. Why can't you learn something from Cain for once?"

Cain glanced at me with satisfaction, then said in a gentle voice, "Adrian is just worried about Jada. If I had kept my distance from Jada, she wouldn't have run into me. He must be blaming me. You should just bring Jada back home."

Serena frowned. "That child has been ruined by this waste of space. I sent her to the dog training facility to learn discipline. I'm saving her. This has nothing to do with you."

She turned to me. "Hurry up and go clean yourself up. Stop being an eyesore here."

I held Jada's corpse and stared at Serena, my face expressionless.

I was born with a curse. Whatever I said always came true in inexplicable ways. Ever since I became aware of it, I stopped speaking altogether.

I used to hate that this affliction fell on me. Now I only hoped my words would come true as soon as possible, so they would receive their punishment.

Because I had not spoken for so long, my voice came out hoarse and unpleasant. "Serena, you're right. The Harlow family is going to go bankrupt."

Serena's eyes widened in shock when she heard me speak. "Adrian, you can actually talk!"

Then her shock turned to fury. "What a scheming snake you are. To win my sympathy, you've been pretending to be mute all these years! What, can't keep it up anymore?

"Let me tell you, all of the Harlow family assets belong to me and the child Cain and I will have. Don't even think about it. If you even think about harming him, I'll make you pay."

She refused to look at me anymore. "Even seeing you disgusts me. Throw away that filthy thing in your hands and get lost."

My hands trembled as I held Jada's corpse. She was already dead, yet her own mother, the mother she loved, called her a filthy thing.

I remembered how every night she would lift her tender little face and ask me, "Daddy, if I'm a little more obedient, will Mommy be willing to tell me bedtime stories? On my birthday, will Mommy take me to the amusement park? She promised us before."

Agony tore through my heart. My hands shook uncontrollably as I held Jada's body. Tears streamed down my face as I roared, "Serena, this is not a filthy thing! This is the corpse of your daughter, Jada. She's dead, just as you wished!"

Serena froze for a moment, then let out a cold laugh. "Adrian, so this is why you stopped pretending to be mute? It was getting in the way of your little performance in front of me, wasn't it? To curse your own daughter like that. How vicious can you be?"

She snatched Jada's corpse from my arms and glanced at it carelessly. Cruelly, she said, "Since you claim this lump of rotting flesh is Jada, let's have the dogs identify it.

"We'll see if it's human flesh or just animal meat you found somewhere for your little show!"

Soon, the butler, Taylor Pole, led over two large black dogs. Serena tossed the bundle in her hands in front of them. The dogs caught the scent of blood and excitedly dragged out the remaining limbs, beginning to gnaw.

I lunged forward frantically to snatch Jada back, but Taylor and his men held me down.

I screamed at Serena, my voice raw with anguish. "Serena, that's your daughter! She was killed by dogs, and now you're feeding her to them? Are you even human?"

Serena carefully positioned herself in front of Cain, shielding him from the bloody scene on the ground.

She looked at me mockingly. "Adrian, your act is quite convincing. You've clearly put a lot of effort into this little scheme, but use your brain for once. Jada is learning discipline right now. She's perfectly fine at the dog training facility.

"In a week, I'll bring her back myself. No matter how much of a scene you make, I won't give in. You need to learn your lesson this time."

Rage filled me until I tasted blood. Like a madman, I broke free from the men restraining me and finally snatched back what remained of my daughter's body.

The black dogs had been eating eagerly. Suddenly robbed of their meal, they bared their teeth at me.

Serena frowned and had someone take the dogs away. Her patience with me had run out. She refused to look at me any longer and turned to leave, pulling Cain along with her.

I shouted at their retreating backs, "My child is dead, and yours won't survive either!"

Ever since Cain's wife died and he came to stay with us, Serena had been carrying on with him. At first they snuck around, doing everything they could to hide it from me.

Until one day, Serena came home with Cain covered in injuries. She looked at me with eyes that were cold and unfamiliar.

She slapped me hard across the face. "Adrian, I never thought you could be this vicious. If I hadn't arrived in time, Cain would've been beaten to death. If anything happens to him, you'll wish you were never born."

It was the first time Serena had ever hit me. I had no idea what had happened and tried to ask using sign language, hurt and confused.

But she had no patience to wait for me to finish. She warned me, "Stop putting on that innocent act. I won't believe you anymore.

"If you can't accept Cain living here, I don't mind divorcing you and marrying him instead."

After that, Serena and Cain stopped hiding their relationship. She treated me like I didn't exist and made their affair known to everyone. Everyone knew I'd been cuckolded. Even her mother, Maya Vale, couldn't do anything about it.

I thought about divorcing her countless times, but I never took that step because I knew I'd never get custody of Jada. In the end, my daughter was torn apart.

I held what remained of Jada and cried until I passed out. When I woke again, Taylor and his men were dragging me to Serena's bedside.

Serena lay in bed, her face pale, one hand resting on her stomach. Cain stared at me, his face full of righteous anger.

"Adrian, I know you resent me. You think I took Serena from you. But the baby was innocent. That was our child. How could you be so cruel as to sacrifice an unborn life just to get your voice back?"

The curse had come true. Their child was gone.

I smiled coldly.

Seeing my reaction, Serena's fury intensified. She had Taylor whip me several times. The places where the lash struck immediately began to bleed.

She spat out, "So that's why you suddenly started talking. You must have used some twisted method to trade our child for your voice!

"I've been too soft on you all this time, letting you forget your place. Now that the child is gone, Adrian, you have to pay the price!

"You want to speak? Not in this lifetime!"

Taylor brought over a bowl of medicinal liquid. Two men pinned me down firmly while he grabbed my throat, trying to force it into my mouth. I clamped my lips shut and fought with everything I had.

They pried my jaws open. As the liquid tipped toward my mouth, despair washed over me. If I drank this medicine, I would become truly mute.

Serena Harlow, you heartless bitch!

"Stop! Stop this at once! This is madness!"

Maya's arrival interrupted Taylor as he tried to force the medicine down my throat. I fell from their grip and hit the ground, coughing violently. My mouth filled with the taste of blood.

Maya surveyed the scene and sighed heavily. She helped me to my feet. "Adrian, are you alright?"

I forced out a few words. "I'm fine."

Maya's whole body trembled. She looked at me in disbelief. "Adrian, you can speak now?"

She aged a decade in seconds. Her legs buckled and tears streamed down her face as she muttered, "It's over. It's all over."

Serena looked at her strangely. "Mom, what's wrong with you?"

Maya's voice came out tired and worn. "Years ago, when the Harlow family was on the brink of ruin, your father consulted a psychic at great cost. She said that as long as you married a mute born under a specific sign, the Harlow fortune would hold.

"But once the mute spoke, the family would be destroyed."

The prediction was right, but the psychic hadn't known I was only pretending to be mute because of my curse.

Serena didn't believe any of it. She scoffed at the whole idea. "That's just superstition meant to fool old people like you. The Harlow family's fortune was built by our own hands. What does it have to do with that useless waste of space Adrian?

"If he had any real ability, he wouldn't have raised such a terrible daughter."

Maya hesitated. She'd had her doubts too, but the Harlow family business had flourished rapidly after Serena married Adrian. Her father died just two years after the consultation.

She couldn't help but believe it, even as she clung to hope that it wasn't true.

At the mention of Jada, Maya perked up. She'd always doted on Jada. "Where's Jada? Why don't I see her?"

Serena looked at me with a cold smile. "Adrian couldn't raise her properly, so I sent her to the dog training facility to learn some discipline."

I looked at Maya, my voice hoarse. "Jada is already dead."

Serena couldn't stand me telling the same lie over and over. She said impatiently, "How long are you going to keep this up? You're going to claim that pile of rotting meat is Jada again, aren't you?

"Someone, take that heap of flesh and burn it to ashes. Scatter them in the rose garden as fertilizer."

They took Jada's remains and threw them into the fire. This time I didn't struggle.

Jada was already gone. There was no point in keeping her broken body. I'd just let the fire take her. Maybe she'd find peace, and in another life, she'd have a mother who loved her.

Maya looked between Serena and me, unsure who to believe. She left in a hurry, heading for the dog training facility.

After Maya left, Cain spoke, his voice heavy with grief. "My poor child. She never even got to see the world. She would have grown as big as Jada, calling us mom and dad.

"And you got hurt because of this, Serena. Do you think we'll be able to have children again?"

Serena clutched her abdomen, forcing down her sadness to comfort him. "Cain, we'll have children in the future. Don't be upset."

She turned to me, her eyes filled with even more disgust. "Adrian, I let you off easy just now because my mother showed up. But I still need to teach you a lesson.

"Since you caused Cain to lose his child, you can repay him with one of your legs."

Taylor walked toward me slowly. Fear drove me backward until I tripped over a chair and fell to the ground with nowhere left to go.

My voice shook. "Serena, you already killed my Jada. Now you want to break my leg? Don't forget, I'm your husband of seven years!"

Serena paused. Seeing her hesitation, Cain spoke again.

"Serena, don't. You don't need to do this for me. I'm already the outsider here. Our child could never compete with Adrian's standing in this family. You keep saying our baby will inherit everything, but we both know no one believes that."

Serena said firmly, "I run this house. What I say goes. And Adrian is nothing compared to you."

Without further hesitation, she signaled for Taylor to bring the rod down hard on my leg. Pain exploded through me, and cold sweat covered my forehead.

One leg twisted at an unnatural angle, clearly broken. I looked at Serena and used the last of my strength to say, "Serena, you'll never have children again. You'll die alone, and dogs will devour your corpse!"

I passed out from the pain. The last thing I heard was her voice.

"Keep Jada at the dog training facility for another month. Remember, every extra day she stays there is because of him!"