When I ended my marriage with Raiden Curtis, we were both composed. He calmly asked what I wanted.

Without second thought, I replied, “The car, the house, the savings.”

“And half of the company shares.”

For a moment, Raiden seemed taken aback, clearly surprised. “The kids? You don’t want either of them?”

“You’ve always loved them so much. Can you really leave Castor and Amara behind?”

My eyes fell on the marks on my wrist, memories of the many times I had hurt myself.

I gently shook my head. No.

From this point on, besides money, anything tied to Raiden, I didn’t want it anymore.

——

Seeing how distant I’d become, Raiden looked like he wanted to say something.

But after a brief pause, he stayed silent and signed his name on the divorce papers.

When we finally parted, Raiden spoke politely, “I can’t give you the shares, but you’ll always be the mother of our two children.”

“If you ever face any trouble, you can come to me.”

I nodded.

But when I turned away, I tossed the business card he had handed me straight into the trash.

In this life, even if I died, I never wanted to see Raiden again.

Once I got home, I told the housekeeper to pack up everything that belonged to Raiden and throw it all out.

The housekeeper didn’t think too much about it and smiled teasingly. “Ma’am, did you and your husband argue again?”

“Let me tell you something, try to be patient.”

“Sir really does care about you; no need to give up being Mrs. Curtis over a little fight.”

All the pain I had suffered through the years, every bit of humiliation I had endured, Isabella had witnessed all of it.

She knew how deeply I had loved Raiden.

She had also seen me break down countless times because of his betrayals.

She and Raiden were no different; both assumed I would never actually walk away.

But this time, I didn’t cry or plead like before.

Instead, I took the wedding photo off the wall and said softly and calmly, “My mother is gone.”

The smile on Isabella’s face froze right away.

She stood there in a panic, stumbling over her words as she tried to apologize.

I quietly smiled and didn’t reply.

Then I held the photo frame tightly and smashed it apart.

Startled, Isabella gasped and quickly bent down to help clean the mess.

She carefully tended to the small cut on my hand, muttering softly, “Good… that’s a relief.”

“You’re a top graduate from Atmore after all. Even without him, your life will still be fine.”

“Be strong, stop letting yourself suffer for him.”

I answered quietly and lowered my head.

I hadn’t meant to cry. But when I looked down, tears still slipped out on their own.

There was regret, sorrow, and a bit of relief that I had finally escaped.

After ten years of being bound together, this so-called love story between a prince and a Cinderella had finally come to its end.

It wasn’t a happy ending, but it was one that was meant to happen.

That year, I got into Southwestern University with the highest score in the whole county.

It was also that year when I met Raiden, who had returned to his alma mater as an investor.

Like many stories, ours started off beautifully, and we were no different.

Raiden fell for me the first time he saw me. After his speech, he started chasing me like crazy.

He would wait outside my classroom with milk tea and a bunch of flowers.

He even sent money to my roommates just to ask where I was.

He remembered every little thing about me.

And he confessed his love in the middle of a garden full of blooming flowers.

Back then, everyone around us said we wouldn’t make it.

They were sure a small-town girl like me could never match someone like Raiden. But Raiden didn’t care at all, and he just wanted to be with me.

He pushed through all the pressure and proposed, blocking out every bit of malice directed at us.

With him shielding me, my once rough and poor life suddenly turned easy.

Flowers, jewelry, guaranteed grad school, and study abroad. Every opportunity leaned in my favor.

Everything I wished for came without asking.

I was just a teenage girl, simple and full of dreams.

Under Raiden’s relentless pursuit, I fell for him fast.

I gave up everything ahead of me and stepped straight into marriage.

Dating, marriage, pregnancy, childbirth, everything flowed naturally.

For me at that time, life felt almost effortless. Everything I wanted seemed close enough to touch.

I was lost in the sweetness of love, never realizing that fate had already written the cost behind it.

When Castor was born, the Curtis family’s matriarch, Jasmine, someone I had never even met, walked into the hospital room and took my baby away.

She wore a polite smile that looked refined, but her voice was cold and full of arrogance.

“Castor is the heir of the Curtis family, with a noble standing.”

“With your background and experience, you don’t deserve to raise this child.”

The baby I carried for ten long months and delivered through endless pain, I wasn’t even allowed to hold him once.

I couldn’t see him unless they gave me permission first.

I begged Raiden not to be so heartless, not to take my child away from me, but he just stared at me with an odd look.

“My mother’s right. You really are just a small-town girl.”

“She told me I could play around all I want, but when it comes to the baby, she’s the only one who decides.”

I cried until I could barely breathe. Yet Raiden ignored me, pulled me into his arms, and kissed me.

He smiled lightly. “Alright, don’t cry.”

“If you love kids that much, we can always have another one.”

I wasn’t able to push him away, but when his eyes caught the stretch marks all over my skin, Raiden stopped on his own.

Suddenly, hesitation and disgust flashed across his face.

After staying quiet, he only said softly, “You’ve been tired all day. Go to bed early.”

That coldness from Raiden felt like a splash of cold water, pulling me out of a dream I’d been lost in for too long.

I thought about Jennifer’s disapproval, the laughter, and gossip from those around me.

That’s when it hit me, this so-called love story had only ever been a rich man’s passing fancy from the start.

Life had once handed me luck, but now it was here to make me pay it back.

That child was only the start.

During my recovery after childbirth, I fell into deep depression.

I called Raiden, but he never picked up. I sent him messages, yet there was no answer.

I started to worry that something might have happened to him, but the next morning, news of his affair reached me.

Photos of him lying in bed with a young actress spread online overnight.

People started guessing when this Cinderella who married into wealth would finally be thrown out.

The gossip and laughter from strangers completely broke the last bit of hope I had.

I couldn’t accept it.

My condition worsened. I had the most violent fight ever with Raiden.

In a moment of complete collapse, I grabbed a knife and hurt myself.

Right in front of Raiden, I was ready to jump off the building.

At the very last second, he caught me, shaking as he begged for forgiveness.

Like every man caught cheating, he cried and admitted he was wrong.

He said it was all a misunderstanding. He said he still loved me and pleaded for another chance.

That night, Raiden knelt before me, tears running down his face as he looked up. “Elysia, please forgive me just this once, okay?”

I made the second biggest mistake of my life. I decided to forgive him.

For the sake of our child.

Because of the love, I still couldn’t let go of.

Also, because my mother had just been in a car crash, and I had nowhere else to go.

So, Raiden and I ended up back together.

Not long after, I became pregnant again and gave birth to our second child, Amara.

Like Castor, Amara was taken away as soon as she was born.

The excuse they gave was that Raiden needed to stay focused on work and couldn’t stand the noise of children.

To catch even a glimpse of my two children, I had to show up at the old mansion before sunrise each day to complete my chores.

Make tea, pour drinks, massage shoulders, and pat backs.

I even had to kneel and wash Jennifer’s feet.

All of it just to earn a little sympathy, so she would let me stay close to my children.

But what I received for all that effort was Raiden’s endless cheating and my children’s growing hatred.

Castor never once called me “mom.”

Whenever he saw me, he would frown and mutter, “That dumb village woman is here again. I don’t want to see her.”

Amara still couldn’t speak, but she would only cry and reach for her grandmother instead.

Meanwhile, my mother’s illness kept getting worse.

My children’s coldness and the burden of life left me completely drained and hopeless.

When I needed someone’s support, when I was desperate for comfort, Raiden had already built a new family with another woman.

That day happened to be our wedding anniversary.

Castor turned down my invite to celebrate. Raiden ended my call without a word.

His mistress, on the other hand, was the one who sent me a video of them together in bed.

Hearing their intimate voices, I completely broke down inside. I lost control and cut my arm with a knife.

By the time Isabella rushed into the bathroom, I had already lost nearly all my blood.

Terrified, she called Raiden for help, but this time, he didn’t return home until early morning.

He crouched in front of me, smiling as his eyes swept over my wounded arm.

“Didn’t you say you wanted to die?”

“It’s been all night. Why are you still here, hanging around the Curtis family like a stray dog?”

Those words crushed the last trace of calm I still had. Without thinking, I jumped from the balcony.

I survived. Only one leg was broken.

Jennifer dismissed all the gossiping reporters, dragged me into my mother’s hospital room, and stared down coldly.

“The ICU costs twenty thousand dollars a day.”

“If you dare embarrass the Curtis family again, I’ll make sure your mother dies with you!”

That was when I finally understood, death could be a kind of mercy.

I couldn’t let go of the love I once had, nor could I cut off my bond with blood.

So I could only keep crawling through this marriage, stripped of pride and dignity.

Watching my son and daughter drift further away from me.

Watching Raiden flirt with one woman after another.

Watching them use my mother’s life to keep me trapped.

Marrying into money was both a sweet joy and a heavy chain.

Cinderella had climbed to the top and became Mrs. Curtis, but the prince was still lost in his own world of love games.