I quickly turned to meet James’ gaze.

“Where’s my little pearl necklace?” I asked him.

James frowned and looked at me like I was a spoiled child.

“Adrianne, haven’t you had enough of this? Are you really going to move out? Celine has a hard time to control her strong-willed puppy. Besides, these things aren’t important. Let it go.”

He brushed our memories off as if our relationship meant nothing to him.

I just looked at him as I asked him again, “Where’s my little pearl necklace?”

In response, his frown deepened. Celine, who was standing beside him, answered with a fake concern, “Adrianne, why don’t you check under the bed? Maybe I moved a bit earlier and it fell there.”

When I heard her answer, I glared at her angrily.

Celine had to have done this on purpose. She knew that necklace was the only thing my biological father had left me.

I swept under the bed a few times until I saw the shards of the pearl necklace.

The moment I saw it, I rushed forward and slapped Celine across the face!

“How dare you! How dare you break it!”

Celine hit the floor after I slapped her. She looked at James helplessly, then covered her cheek. I immediately pounced on her, wanting to hit her again. But James grabbed my wrist and said in a low voice, “Enough!”

My husband then spun me away, shoved me a few steps back. I stumbled onto the bed. Meanwhile, he helped Celine up carefully before looked at me with displeasure.

“Adrianne, maybe I was too kind to you before. That kindness made you arrogant and violent. You even hit your own sister!”

Not long after that, James reached over and switched off the light. It made my heart race.

“For the next few days, you will stay in your bedroom and think about what you did. I’ll cut the power,” he said.

I stared at him in shock as I shouted at him, “James! You know I’m claustrophobic!”

Yet, he only gave me a cold look.

“I know. That’s why this will teach you a lesson. When you realize your mistake and apologize to Celine and let her live here, I’ll let you out.”

Without another word, James snatched my phone from my hand, helped Celine steady herself and left the room. Out of his sight, where he couldn’t see, Celine shot me a mocking look and a small smile.

I pushed and pulled at the door, but James’ bodyguards slammed it shut. The room went black and silent. I sank to the floor, shaking. My breath came fast and shallow.

“Let me out … I don’t care about you anymore … Help … ”

Unfortunately, no one answered my cries.

The last thing I remember before everything went black was tears streaming down my face as I slid to the floor.

In the pitch-black room, I lost all sense of time. I didn’t know how many days had passed. All I knew was that I kept waking up crying, then fainting again over and over. In fact, I might have fainted ten times in total.

Just when I thought I might die in there, the door creaked open. I instinctively closed my eyes.

“You look awful! James said he’d cut off your electricity, not your water. Why can’t you clean yourself up? Go wash and make yourself presentable before you come out!” a voice shouted in disgust.

The moment I looked up, I could see my mother, Margaret Llewelyn, standing in the doorway. As always, she looked graceful and elegant. But her eyes were filled with disdain.

She would only care whether I’ve exceeded her expectation as a good daughter or not. She had never cared about my claustrophobia.

I stared at her blankly. I knew what would happen if I didn’t obey. If I refused, she’d have people drag me out and force me to do what she said. It wasn’t the first time.

After I washed and changed, my mother gave me a quick judging look. Then, she ordered her bodyguards to carry me to the living room.

The living room was wide and bright, but the first thing I saw made my stomach twist. A dog’s corpse was in the middle of the floor. It was Celine’s dog, Bella.

Next to the body, a maid was kneeling on the ground. I frowned, recognizing her. She had always been kind to me.

My mother glared at the servant as she angrily asked the maid, “Tell me, who ordered you to do this?”

Celine sat beside her, crying pitifully. Manwhile, James held her gently. He was comforting her as if she were the only one who mattered.

The maid’s frightened eyes flicked to me. I saw guilt flash in them. Under my mother’s threatening gaze, she finally pointed a shaking finger my way.

“It was … it was Mrs. Goldwyn who told me to do it. She said the dog broke something important and wanted it dead. Please, don’t blame me … I was just following orders! I didn’t want to kill the dog.”

The maid desperately explained, practically begging James and his bodyguards to forgive her.

Celine let out a loud sob as she talked, “Adrianne, you could have come to me if you were angry! Why did you hurt my dog?”

“I know Bella was wrong, but I already said sorry. If that wasn’t enough, you could’ve punished me instead. Why did you take it out on her?”

After she said that, tears streamed down her cheeks. James’ and my mother’s eyes turned cold as they looked at me. After he finished comforting Celine, he turned to me with a hard expression.

“Adrianne, I thought locking you in your room would help you reflect on your behavior. I didn’t expect you to go this far. You even dared to get someone to harm a dog?”

James looked at me with disappointment as if he pitied me before saying, “I’m your husband. I can’t watch you keep making mistakes. Please make up for this. Kneel to Celine’s dog and apologize.”

My mother’s face twisted with disgust.

She told me, “I knew you’d turn out rotten. You’ve always been jealous of Celine. And now you’ve gone after her dog! I agree with James. If we don’t punish you, who knows what you’ll do next?”

Their words hit me like knives. My chest tightened so much that I could barely breathe.

I forced a smile and said, “You’re saying that while I was locked in my room, without my phone, suffering from claustrophobia … but I somehow ordered her to kill Celine’s puppy?”

“I’ll say this once more. I didn’t do it. And I won’t kneel to a dog. It wasn’t the dog’s fault at all. It was someone else’s. James, you can check the CCTV if you don’t believe me.”

I didn’t even look at my mother. I knew that even if she saw the truth, she’d ignore it. My mother would always side with Celine.

I already experienced it first-hand for too many times. And by now, I had stopped expecting hope for her.

When I finished speaking, I saw a change in James’ expression. He frowned slightly, as if assessing the truth of my words.

Seeing that, Celine quickly tugged at his sleeve.

She feigned her sadness, saying, “Well, Adrianne, if you don’t want to kneel, then don’t do it. Bella has been with me for years, but she’s not as important as you, Adrianne.”

“I know I can’t compare to you. If you want to do something to my dog, I can’t stop you. Or if you even want to do it to me, I’m okay with that. It’s all my fault.”

Her words made my mother cry out in pain. “Oh my beloved daughter.”

Then she looked angrily and shouted, “Look at what you’ve done to your sister! You killed her dog. What’s next? Will you hurt her, too? Since James won’t punish you, I’ll do it myself as your mother!”

Her face twisted with rage before me.

“You will kneel today, whether you want to or not!”

James frowned and looked at me as he followed along with my mother by saying, “Since your mother said so, just kneel. It’ll calm her and Celine down.”

I looked at their fake, self-righteous faces and let out a bitter laugh. After that, I turned to leave without a word.

But before I could take another step, Celine stepped in front of me. She reached out to grab my arm, but I instinctively shook her off.

A faint, victorious smile flashed across her lips just before she stumbled backward and fell heavily to the floor.

“Celine!”

James immediately shoved me aside and rushed to her. The force of his push sent me crashing to the ground. If I hadn’t instinctively protected my stomach, things could have ended much worse.

Although I had always known that James only cared about the baby inside me because he needed it for Celine’s experiments, the fear of losing it still made my chest tighten.

Before I could speak, a sharp slap cracked across my face.

Smack!

Warm blood trickled from the corner of my mouth and I felt dizzy.

“You ungrateful daughter! I just told you to stop, but you still dared to attack Celine! If anything happens to her baby, you’ll pay for it!”

My mother looked at me even with more anger. But what she just said made me realize that everyone already knew. Celine was pregnant with James’ child. I was the only one left in the dark. I was her real daughter, but my mother still sided with Celine.

In an instant, I felt utterly hopeless.

Meanwhile, James helped Celine to calm down. After that, he walked to me with a cold and empty expression. Without a single glance at my injuries or my swollen belly, he grabbed my arm and yanked me up.

I groaned in pain, but James didn’t care. In the next second, he forced me down to my knees in front of Bella’s lifeless body. Before I could resist, his hand pressed hard on the back of my head.

“James … let me go … ” I choked out, my voice shaking.

Yet, James just looked down at me with eyes full of ignorance. Without hesitation, he added more pressure on my head.

Bang!

After that, he slammed my head against the floor. The second blow made me dizzy that I couldn’t help but feel bile rising in my throat several times.

Once James released me, I fell limply to the floor. He then looked at me that looked dishevelled and gagged, ordered his bodyguards.

“I’m taking Celine to the hospital. Keep an eye on her. She will kneel to the dog ninety-nine times, then bury it herself. Don’t let her use any tools.”

Once he said that, James gave me one last cold glance.

“Adrianne, this is a lesson. Don’t make trouble for them.”

Soon enough, James carried Celine out of the house. My mother followed behind, pretending to be heartbroken.

The moment the door closed, I squeezed my eyes shut. Before I could move, the bodyguards forced me down again.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

No one said anything. The sound of my knees hitting the hard floor echoed through the empty mansion.

After the ninety-ninth kneel ended, I collapsed like a lifeless doll. The wound on my head had split open as blood dripped down my face, which made me look scary.

“Ma’am, you still need to dig the hole in the back garden. Please forgive us,” one of the bodyguards said flatly.

Then, they dragged me outside. They forced the shovel from my hands and made me dig with my bare fingers. I clawed at the dirt again and again until my hands were shredded and bleeding. The bones were almost visible beneath my torn skin.

But I managed to use my trembling thumb to dial for help. The moment I whispered my address into the phone, the world went dark. I collapsed to the ground.