I burned every last piece, then reached out to the Vanishing Society. Only after I'd sent them my exact requirements did I tuck my phone away.

When I looked up, James was standing in the doorway with Marcella tucked against his side.

His eyes dropped to the brazier, brows knitting together. "What are you throwing a fit about now?"

I said nothing.

No matter what I did, in James's eyes it was always some childish tantrum.

I'd heard accusations like this more times than I could count. Once, when I still loved him, I would have fought to explain myself.

But I didn't love him anymore. I couldn't be bothered to explain anything.

Marcella's gaze grazed the brazier without lingering, then she hooked her arm through James's and shot me a taunting little smile. "Connie, surely you're not going to start playing the heartbroken martyr just because of one thing he said?"

"All this pretending you don't care about anything. You're trying to get his attention again, aren't you? Win him back?"

She put on an air of perfect understanding. "Oh, who'd have guessed it. Connie's almost thirty, and she's still throwing little-girl tantrums."

"But we're both women, so of course I can read those little games of yours."

With that, she gave James a coy push and pouted. "Aren't you going to go comfort your wife? She is the lady of the Rowe house, after all. What if she gets upset and sends someone to bully me again?"

James ruffled her hair and reassured her, indulgent. "Don't worry. She wouldn't dare touch you. I looked into last time, too. It was another one of my enemies who arranged it."

Listening to them, the hands at my sides clenched tight.

With his resources, there was no way James hadn't uncovered the truth and the person behind it.

But to keep Marcella happy, he'd still chosen to hire someone to take those photos of me, to ruin my name.

I gave a self-mocking laugh. All at once, these seven years felt like the work of a fool.

Seven whole years of my youth, wasted on a man who was never worth it.

I'd even wrecked my own health for him.

"What are you laughing at?" James's eyes sharpened, fixed on me.

I picked up a glass of water and doused the flames, calm. "Nothing. It has nothing to do with you."

With that, I had no wish to stay a moment longer. I turned and walked out.

The next day, the moment I finished canceling my identity records, James's message came through.

【Bring a box of condoms to Allure Bar. Twenty minutes.】

The same as always.

James only ever remembered protection at the last possible second, with the arrow already drawn on the string.

Sometimes, by the time I arrived, I'd walk in on the live performance.

To that kind of thing, I'd long since gone numb.

I was about to ignore it when I remembered the peace pendant hanging at his throat, the one my mother had prayed over for him.

A man like him didn't deserve to wear it.

I turned and headed to the store, bought what I needed, and hailed a cab.

I made it in fifteen minutes. I'd just raised my hand to knock when I heard the jeering through the gap in the door.

"James, you've really got a knack for this. You've trained Constance to heel so well, you say one word and she doesn't dare say two."

"Right, right. James, you got any secrets? Share some wisdom with us."

The room went quiet.

James took a drag of his cigarette and answered, idle. "First, you treat her well. Indulge every little mood, no conditions. Let her fall in deep. Then, once there's no one left around her, she'll depend on you with everything she has."

"After that, no matter how you push her away, she can't leave you. Because in her world, outside of you, there's no one else."

The words set off a wave of laughter and agreement around the room, everyone praising how brilliant his methods were.

Standing in the doorway, I felt like I'd been dropped into ice, my limbs rigid, the blood running backward through me.

For years I'd never understood the change in him. I'd always believed it was something I hadn't done well enough.

Now, hearing the truth with my own ears, I finally understood. It wasn't that I wasn't good enough. It was that some people were never worth a single ounce of my heart.

“Yaoyao, why aren't you going in?”

Marcella's sweet, simpering voice drifted up behind me.

I'd barely turned around when she snatched my hand and yanked hard, throwing herself backward.

By the time I understood what was happening, James had already come out of the private room, carefully easing Marcella up into his arms.

She huddled against his chest, eyes rimmed with red. ：“James, don't blame Yaoyao. I'm sure she didn't mean it……”

James's gaze cut toward me, sharp as a blade. “Apologize.”

Two cold words, and just like that, I was guilty.

I clutched the plastic bag and tried to defend myself. ：“It wasn't me. I didn't push her……”

“Let it go, James. If Yaoyao says it wasn't her, then it wasn't her.” Marcella played the picture of grace and understanding.

Her mouth said she didn't care, but her body just happened to reveal the scrape across her palm.

James's brow knit, the chill around him deepening. ：“Constance. Apologize. Don't make me say it a third time.”

A few of the rich boys from the room spilled out to watch the show.

“Just apologize already, Constance. James won't lift a finger for you anyway. Ha—haven't you noticed there's no one standing behind you?”

“Pushes someone over and still acts like she's in the right! Who does she think she is, Marcella? Everybody's darling?”

“No wonder she can't have kids. Probably because she's racked up so much bad karma the heavens won't grant her any, so she can never sit steady as Mrs. Rowe.”

Listening to the steady drip of their mockery, my long-dead heart gave a dull, aching throb.

The deaths of those four children had always been a thorn buried in my chest.

“Constance, my patience has limits.” James's face darkened.

Marcella cooed her fake comfort. ：“It's all right, James. Yaoyao is Mrs. Rowe, after all. I'm just a nobody, a little commoner. How could I ever measure up to Mrs. Rowe?”

I'd already dug up everything about her background. I lifted my eyes to her, my pale lips curving faintly. ：“Do you really have no background?”

Something guilty flickered in the depths of her eyes.

She shrank back behind James as if frightened.

His brow furrowed as he shielded her behind him. “Constance, you'd threaten Marcie right in front of me?”

“Someone get over here. Make her kneel right there. She doesn't get up until we're done.”

The bodyguards trailing him stepped forward at once and forced me down onto the floor, rough and unceremonious.

Bone struck concrete with a hard crack, and the pain pulled a sharp gasp out of me.

Before they went back into the room, I clawed desperately at the hem of James's trousers, my voice low and pleading. ：“James, that peace pendant on your neck. Give it back to me.”

“I'll kneel two days and two nights. Just give me back the peace pendant.”

James reached up and touched it, then kicked my hand away, looking down at me from on high. ：“It's a piece of junk. You actually think I want it?”

“When we're finished in there, I'll give it back.”

The door shut. I knelt there, numb. Now and then a passing guest pointed and whispered. I heard none of it.

I don't know how long it had been when the thick smell of smoke suddenly reached me, and the next second the door swung open.

My voice came out raw. ：“James, the peace pendant……”

Before I could finish, he hauled me up by the arm. “The room's on fire. Move.”

He had Marcella tucked against his other side. She slid me a glance, unreadable, then said in a worried tone, ：“James, this is all my fault. I didn't keep that fire under control…… Yaoyao's peace pendant is still in there. Let me go back for it.”

Marcella made a show of leaving, and James caught her back, pulling her hard against him.

"It's a worthless trinket. Lose it, buy another."

With that, James reached for my hand, meaning to take me out with him.

I glanced at his neck and saw the red cord truly wasn't there anymore. I jerked my hand away from his and turned, walking straight back into the private room.

James moved to stop me, but just then Marcella let out a soft cry. "Ah... I think my calf got burned. Will it scar? James, I'm scared..."

His attention snapped to her. Without a moment's hesitation, he scooped Marcella up and left.

After they were gone, I searched the smoke-choked room for a long time before I finally found the peace pendant, abandoned in the corner of the sofa.

By then the flames had spread, but I didn't care about the risk of being burned. I reached out, snatched it up, and clutched it against my chest.

My mother had knelt up ninety-nine steps to pray for this before she died.

Just as I reached the door, the frame collapsed in flames. I threw myself clear of it, dodging desperately, and finally made it out.

The moment I escaped, my vision went black and I passed out cold.

When my mind surfaced again, before I could even open my eyes, I heard James's voice cut through the room, leaving no room for argument.

"Graft her skin onto Marcie. Marcie's only twenty. She has her whole youth ahead of her. She can't be left with scars."

"As for Constance Vance, she's already past her prime. There's no need to worry about her."

The doctor seemed to hesitate. "But Miss Vance's burns cover a large area, while Miss Pruitt's burn is only the size of a fingernail. There's really no need..."

Before the doctor could finish, James cut him off, impatient. "If I remember correctly, I own this hospital. I'm the one who pays your salary."

The doctor paused a few seconds, then gave in. "Yes, Mr. Rowe."

"But Miss Vance doesn't have much undamaged skin left. I'm afraid we can only graft from the scalp..."

"Then take it from there. Anything goes wrong, it's on me." James didn't hesitate at all.

I lay limp on the bed, and when I felt a faint sting in my arm, my consciousness sank back into darkness.

When I woke again, three days had passed.

I looked at myself in the mirror, wrapped head to toe in bandages, and my eyes brimmed.

I lifted my hand and touched the top of my head.

The thick hair was gone. Only cotton and bandages remained, with a faint seep of blood through them.

Ding!

I picked up my phone and saw a message from Mrs. Rowe.

【The divorce paperwork is finalized. I'll give you the divorce certificate and your mother's belongings tomorrow. Do you need me to buy your plane ticket?】

I worked my stiff fingers.

【No.】

I had just stepped out of the bathroom when I saw Marcella sitting at the head of my bed, holding the peace pendant I'd dragged out of the fire.

My pupils shrank. "Give it back!" My voice came out harsh.

I lunged to take it back.

But Marcella dodged me with ease.

Click.

A flame leapt from a lighter, and Marcella held the pendant above it.

She gloated. "Constance Vance, you think you're so capable? I want you on your knees, repenting to me!"

Repent for what?

I opened my mouth, asked nothing, my eyes locked on the pendant in her hand.

Seeing I didn't move, Marcella offered a "kind" reminder. "Back when you saved James, why didn't you save Olive? Because you already knew he was the heir to the Rowe family, so you wanted to slip in while she was gone."

"Constance Vance, who said you had no schemes? Look how cushy these seven years have been for you. You almost gave birth to a bastard, too."

"Tsk, tsk. You breed like a sow. I've already killed three of your bastards, and I never imagined you'd manage to conceive a fourth. Cheap to the bone."

She paused, her expression delighted, her gaze dropping to my flat stomach. "Heh. But a bastard's still a bastard. I won't let him be born, and he won't live!"

Dread rose in my chest. I asked, my voice cracking, "Who are you, really? Why would you go after my children? They were innocent!"

No matter what, the children were innocent.

And yet Marcella wore the look of a petty soul drunk on victory.

Rage surged through me. I wanted nothing more than to rush at her and tear her apart.

Marcella smiled gently and said it plainly. "Olive was my sister. I came to take my revenge."

"Whose fault is it that you didn't save my sister back then? All these years you've climbed up on her flesh and blood, and you've had quite the comfortable life, haven't you~"