In front of a hall full of guests, I secured a major deal for the Hughes family.

Yet, to my shock, Ethan Hughes’s younger sister shoved me down the spiral staircase in front of all the elders.

Looking down at me sprawled on the carpet in disgrace, Isabella Hughes’s eyes burned with jealousy.

“Don’t think that just because you landed this billion-dollar contract, you can keep your seat as the Hughes family’s daughter-in-law.”

“You’ll never be better than your sister, my true sister-in-law—Emily Carter!”

“When my brother takes over, you’ll be thrown out with nothing!”

Clutching my bleeding eye from where it had struck the steps, I bent slowly to pick up the scattered business cards. A wave of indescribable exhaustion swept over me.

Staring at the girl who once cried and begged me to teach her how to shoot, I felt no anger, only bone-deep weariness.

“You don’t need to drive me away. Once this deal is done and I’ve repaid your family’s favor, I’ll leave on my own.”

A stabbing pain seared deep in my eye, sharp enough to rob me of breath.

Ignoring the need for a hospital, I bent to gather the contracts one by one. They were the fruit of two months of sleepless work, deals struck with over a dozen corporations across the globe.

Isabella froze for a moment, then sneered coldly.

“Sophia Carter, this is your retribution for stealing Emily’s place!”

Lifting my bloodied face, I answered calmly,

“Isabella, this deal was your brother’s order. If you ruin it, you’re destroying his hard work as well.”

Her expression twisted, rage flaring in her eyes. She raised her voice to a shrill pitch.

“Sophia! Stop pretending! If it weren’t for you, Emily would already be my sister-in-law! Who would’ve needed you?”

She hurled the papers straight at my wounded eye.

The fragile orb could hardly withstand the blow, and the pain nearly made me pass out.

I bit my lip, forcing myself not to cry out.

Just as I gripped the railing, struggling to stand, Ethan appeared.

He cast me a faint, impatient glance.

“Isabella is still just a kid. Why lower yourself to her level?”

“Business deals like this shouldn’t involve a woman anyway.”

“Hand me the contract, then apologize to Isabella, and this matter will be over.”

Hearing Ethan, Isabella smirked triumphantly. Her shrill voice carried across the hall:

“Even if she kneels, I’ll never forgive her! If not for her being useful enough to make money for us, how could a murderer like her ever be allowed into the Hughes family?”

The guests, enjoying the spectacle, began to murmur.

“The current Mrs. Hughes looks beautiful, but how could she do something so vicious?”

“I heard she pushed her own sister down the stairs just to marry her would-be brother-in-law.”

“That’s how she took her sister’s place, fulfilling some childhood marriage pact to marry into wealth.”

“No, no, I heard the Hughes family canceled the engagement last minute because of her business skills, and the poor Miss Carter couldn’t bear the blow, so she jumped herself…”

“Shh! Don’t say that out loud!”

At their whispers, Ethan’s expression flickered with guilt.

I lowered my gaze, saying nothing in defense.

As Ethan squirmed under the scrutiny and turned to leave, I sat calmly where I was and said evenly:

“My eye injury is severe. I could lose my sight, which means I won’t be able to handle business in the future.”

The moment Ethan Hughes heard that I could no longer sign contracts for the Hughes family, his impatience flared, his face tightening with anger.

“It’s just an eye injury, some blood—why make such a fuss?”

“At most, you’ll have blurry vision. What’s the big deal?”

“Don’t forget, you came into the Hughes family under a contract. You’re here to sign deals in the name of Mrs. Hughes, to boost our image!”

“You’d better remember your place, instead of pretending you have the right to throw tantrums like a real wife!”

Three years ago, the Hughes Group was in crisis.

They tracked me down—while I was running a startup in Silicon Valley—shorted my company on purpose, and drove me to the brink of bankruptcy.

Then they leveraged my mother’s debts to coerce me into signing a three-year contract.

Their condition was clear: if I helped the Hughes family survive the crisis and paid off all their debts, they would give me back my freedom.

I believed them.

And so, I was forced to return, replacing my deceased sister Emily Carter, and marry Ethan Hughes, becoming the Hughes family’s daughter-in-law.

In name, I was their daughter-in-law. In reality, I was nothing more than unpaid labor.

I took care of their household, managed their company, conducted business negotiations, and expanded their ventures.

When negotiations turned cutthroat, I became a bargaining chip, ready to be sacrificed at any time.

On top of that, I had to raise Isabella Hughes through her rebellious teenage years.

She was spoiled, reckless, constantly causing trouble. I cleaned up her messes again and again, maintaining the image of a responsible sister-in-law, even rebranding her reputation repeatedly to make her look better in public…

Thinking of this, Robert Hughes had already made up his mind.

He turned to me and said,

“Since your eyes are injured and no one else will want you, it’s best if you behave, stay put, and stop dreaming beyond your station. The Hughes family will ‘take care of you’ for the rest of your life.”

I sneered inwardly.

That was always how the Hughes family dressed up their words—grand on the surface, rotten underneath.

“Taking care of me” was nothing more than keeping me trapped in their home, treated like a dog to be ordered around.

I shook my head and said,

“My eye has been damaged permanently. I won’t be able to negotiate or sign deals again. And besides, the three-year contract is up. It’s time for me to leave.”

Robert grew anxious, but still snapped impatiently:

“You’re a blind woman now—where else could you possibly go? Only the Hughes family is kind enough to take you in. Staying here is no big deal, just one more place at the table. Stay.”

The last word was issued like a command.

But what he never expected was that, after three years of submission, I would finally resist so firmly.

“No, Mr. Hughes. A businessperson values credibility above all. The contract has expired. It’s time for me to go.”

Ethan grew frantic.

He stormed over, yanked me up from the floor, and roared furiously:

“Sophia Carter, what do you mean by this? Are you really going to hold a grudge against Isabella over something so small?”

“You’re her sister-in-law! Do you have any sense of what it means to be an elder?”

“Have you thought about this—if you’d treated Isabella better all along, would she be this angry at you?”

“If you ask me, Sophia, our family hasn’t even pursued you for abusing Isabella, and now you dare to walk away? Don’t you think that’s going too far?”

The onlookers, confused and eager for gossip, began whispering among themselves.

“My God, Mrs. Hughes actually abused her sister-in-law! No wonder the girl retaliated—she had it coming!”

“Exactly! Isabella Hughes always has such a good image in public. She doesn’t seem like the reckless type at all. It must be this wicked woman’s abuse that pushed her to act out in front of everyone!”

“Poor Isabella…”

“Nonsense! Don’t you know Isabella’s past scandals? She used the Hughes family’s influence to bully classmates and even harass others. If it weren’t for her family’s PR covering it all up, her reputation would’ve collapsed long ago!”

“And wasn’t Sophia Carter the one managing her PR? She hid everything for Isabella, making her look clean. Now it’s backfiring on her—serves her right!”

Voices rose and fell around me, each harsher than the last.

I listened, a bitter smile curling on my lips.

They didn’t know. They couldn’t know.

When my mother learned that the Hughes family had used her debt to coerce me back, guilt consumed her until she fell gravely ill.

Even then, they forced us out of the hospital under the excuse that her medical bills hadn’t been paid.

If not for the Hughes Group sinking deeper into crisis, they never would have remembered me at all.

I stared at the crimson drops staining the pristine white tiles, my lips curving into a cold smile.

The company I built—burning through countless sleepless nights, finally nearing success, only days from going public…

They destroyed it all, wiping out my life’s work for their own profit.

Over the past three years in the Hughes family, because I managed everything so tirelessly, their lives had been smooth, prosperous.

Isabella, freed from financial crisis, clung desperately to her social status. Terrified of falling, she drowned herself in reckless spending and flaunted wealth, becoming more and more arrogant—brazen enough to slap anyone, no matter who they were.

The Hughes family cared most about their reputation, and Isabella’s behavior threatened it, dragging down their stock prices.

When persuasion failed, they simply dumped her onto me.

They called it “letting her elder sister-in-law discipline her.”

But in truth, they were exploiting my PR skills to whitewash her image.

To clean up her disasters, I followed her everywhere, patching up mess after mess.

I rebuilt her image into something flawless.

And for that, she despised me all the more.

Time and again, she jabbed a finger in my face, snarling:

“Sophia Carter, even my parents don’t dare control me like you do. Who do you think you are, ordering me around?”

“You’re nothing but a dog kept by the Hughes family! And a dog dares to lecture its master?”

“If you ever try to control me again, believe me, I’ll have you killed!”

So when she blinded me today, I wasn’t surprised.

It was the revenge she had long been plotting.

Even as I lay on the floor, I caught the triumphant smirk tugging at her lips.

Pain stabbed my ruined eye again, sharp and merciless.

A fleeting, bitter smile twisted across my face before vanishing.

Facing the Hughes family pressing in on me, I stayed calm, my voice steady as I said: