Ruby let out a long, satisfied sigh. Her ego had been greatly fed today.

My eyes turned red as I trembled. Back in high school, she used to make me her imaginary enemy, turning her group against me. However, their bullying had been limited to avoiding me and saying nasty things about me to everyone they knew, which did not affect me that much.

I did not expect her to become even worse after finding out she would be marrying into the richest family in Lark City. My teeth almost broke from how furiously I was clenching my jaw, and I tightened my fists.

Ruby Saunders! Now that I was going to become her mother-in-law, I could not let her bully me anymore, or I would be unworthy of the Henderson name. Her lackeys started to surround me.

I knew that there were too many people against me. All I could do was listen carefully to whatever was happening outside the hall. Once a bodyguard passed by, I would immediately call for help.

That was when Ruby suddenly crouched to the ground to pick up the shards of the smashed alcohol bottles. She played with the shards in her hand and pressed them onto my face hard. The shards sank deep into my cheek.

"Argh!"

Excitement appeared in her eyes when she heard me screaming, and she picked up another shard. Everyone started to heap praises on her. Some of them even applauded.

"Chloe has always copied Ruby! This punishment is too lenient for her. And I can’t believe our Mrs. Milford is dealing out the punishment personally."

"Be grateful. You won't be lucky enough to meet a rich wife like Ruby in the future, but it's different for us. We're Mrs. Milford's best friends!"

"If you plan on copying Ruby again, just look at yourself in the mirror to ask if you're worthy enough! You should be grateful that she's willing to personally deal out your punishment. How can you glare at us?"

Ruby was on cloud nine with everyone's enthusiastic bootlicking. I took the opportunity to use every ounce of strength I had left to announce my true identity. "I'm Connor Milford's mother. If he finds out how I was treated today, you'll all suffer the consequences!"

They were busy trying to get on Ruby's good side because of how powerful Connor was.

Connor controlled Lark City with a firm hand. He was the one who executed his parents' murderers swiftly and ruthlessly. They were part of a rival business. They were once the richest family in Lark City, but Connor destroyed them overnight.

He created a storm in the business world. Anyone who knew of him would tremble at the mention of his name.

Connor's personality mellowed a little after I taught him not to handle things so extremely. Otherwise, the women who tried to approach him over the years would not have had happy endings, and Ruby would never have had the chance to marry him.

Everyone was taken aback by my words before they laughed even louder. "Have you been beaten silly, Chloe? How dare you claim to be his mother! I wouldn't even dare to dream of something so ridiculous."

Ruby's expression turned cold as she figured I was just trying to taunt her. "How badly do you want to be my mother-in-law? Fine. We don't have many guests right now. Take her to my room! If she enjoys role-playing so much, I'll go along with her this time."

Two of her lackeys came up to me. I had a bad feeling about this and quickly waved my hands hysterically to stop them. However, Ruby stepped on my mouth, grinding the bottom of her dirty shoe on it.

"Open your mouth and lick it clean. Aren't you great at yelling? You should use that energy to apologize to me. I might let you go if you make me happy enough.”

I shut my mouth tight as I shook my head in rejection, crying. This minor movement enraged Ruby. She screamed curses at me while choking me, and she slapped me dozens of times. I was already bleeding out of my nostrils, yet she was still not satisfied.

Ruby picked up more empty shards to slash my naked body and left messy wounds on me with her long fingernails. "Sigh… You've dirtied my pretty nails when all I wanted was to teach you a simple lesson. You should’ve just apologized."

She continued viciously as she accused me, "It's all because you were stupid enough to impersonate my mother-in-law. How can I tolerate you insulting my family? You deserve to be taught a good lesson.

"Everyone knows how swift and ruthless my husband's foster mother is when it comes to making decisions. She's also a graduate of an Ivy League university. How can a cheap whore like you compare to a woman like that?"

Someone started thinking about this and said, "Rumor has it that Connor Milford's foster mother is only three years older than he is. Could she really be…"

Ruby interrupted the person with a sneer and pushed the glass shard in her hand into my mouth. "How is that possible? Shouldn’t I know what kind of person Chloe Henderson is? Being a cheap whore is in her DNA.

"She was born this way, but has always been deluded into thinking she’s someone else. Why else would she copy me back in high school? She probably told people that she was the Saunders heiress rather than me!"

She stuffed my mouth with a piece of my torn dress to stop me from calling for help. "This is the way things should be."

Ruby sat prettily on the sofa while she watched the others kick me intermittently. She smiled happily at the sight. After a while, she got bored and picked up my phone, which I left at the side. She used my bloody fingers to unlock my phone.

While going through my photographs, she found a picture of me with Connor. It enraged her, and she came running up to me to give me several hard kicks.

"You vixen! I wondered what you were doing at my wedding. You're trying to seduce Connor because you're jealous of me marrying into a rich family!"

She carefully picked out the sharpest piece of glass and started slicing my face with it. "You love to be slutty, don't you? Let's see how you’ll seduce men once your face turns to shreds."

Ruby sliced up my face again and again. The sharp pain nearly reached my bones as my skin was cut up. I was about to suffocate from all the crying. All I could do was shake my head continuously as I begged her to let me go.

Ruby's besties were also commenting shrilly with malevolence.

"That must be a photoshopped job. That vixen has gone crazy thinking about men!"

"Who do you think you are to want Lark City's Connor Milford? Only someone as elegant and noble as Ruby is worthy of the Milfords. Have you gone crazy imitating her? Do you think you're good enough?!"

Insults came flooding toward me, but I had no way of explaining myself as I was gagged. All I could do was grunt. However, they probably would not have listened even if I could speak.

Ruby continued scrolling through my phone. She did not find any other information, aside from a few photographs I had taken with others. However, her anger did not subside. She glared at me savagely and looked like she was about to smash my phone.

I tried to beg her through my gag as I crawled over to her with my hands frantically reaching out to her. Tears were about to flow from my eyes again.

All Ruby did was burst out into a laugh. She ignored my begging and smashed the phone hard on the ground. She even went as far as to step viciously on it. "That's really good crawling you're doing. Keep going!"

I could only watch as my phone was destroyed. It was already smashed to pieces, but Ruby still insisted on stepping on it crazily.

It agitated me so much that I threw up blood, but the torn dress was still stuffed in my mouth as a gag, so I could only swallow it back down my throat.

There was an important proposal on that phone that I had worked on while on the way to the wedding. With the phone smashed to pieces, the document might not be retrievable, even if the phone could be fixed.

Moreover, the phone contained photographs with a childhood friend who had passed away. They were the last memories I had of him.

He had put the phone together for me. It was the one thing he had left to me after death, and it was the only one of its kind in this world.

Ruby got interested when she saw how much in despair I was. She kept flipping the pieces over to make sure every part of the phone was destroyed. She even went as far as to pour alcohol all over the pieces to soak them and ensure the phone could no longer be fixed or recovered. When she was finally happy with the results, she let out a long, happy sigh.

"I'm just borrowing it for some fun. Here, you can have it back." She kicked the remaining pieces of the phone at me.

My eyes were swollen from all the crying, but I still struggled to check if there was any chance of getting the phone fixed. My fingers trembled as I reached out to touch every piece carefully. The phone was as badly damaged as I was.

I was drowning in pain and helplessness as I pressed the phone tight against my chest. I was in a lot of pain. My childhood friend had told me that the phone’s color was inspired by the sunset we watched together on the day he confessed to me. He had said its orange-pinkish color was just like my blushing face.

The last of my memories I had of him were gone along with the man I loved most in this world…

Ruby clicked her tongue. She looked delighted as she admired how pitiful I looked with a smile on her face. "Look at how swollen your cheeks are. You should stop crying, or you'll get disfigured. Don't say I didn't warn you."

Someone poured her a drink while another massaged her hand.

"You were incredible, Ruby. No wonder Connor Milford is mesmerized by you!"

"Yeah! You taught that disrespectful vixen a lesson on Mr. Milford's mother's behalf before even officially marrying into the family. She'll be so proud of you."

"Once you give the Milfords a big, fat baby boy, there will be no place for vixens like her to threaten your position."

"We're going to get rich by sticking with Ruby!"

Everyone did their best to fawn over her, and it cheered Ruby up tremendously. She gave everyone a big wave and promised to convince Milford Corporation to invest in their businesses. This got everyone going, and they stepped on me in excitement.

"Don't worry, I won't forget about you. Since you love men so much, I'll introduce someone to you… Wait, no. One man might not be enough to satisfy you. Why don't I strip you naked and throw you to the beggars? You can seduce as many men as you want then!"

Everyone laughed as they used me as the butt of their joke. Connor's voice finally came from outside the door as they were laughing. His strong, dignified voice sounded lighthearted as he asked, "What's the happy occasion here?"

Everyone immediately worked together to block Connor’s view of me as they stood in front of me frantically to greet him. "Hello, Mr. Milford!"

Connor's expression cooled when he saw how messy the room looked. His curt words sent chills down everyone's spines. "What happened here? Why is it so messy?"

Ruby was the first to snap out of it. She smiled coquettishly. "It's nothing. I was just having some fun with my friends."

"Why is there someone lying down behind you?"

I could not make any noise with the gag in my mouth. Ruby took the opportunity to make up stories to smear my name. "Oh, sweetie, that's just a slutty vixen. You have no idea how horrible she is. She's trying to seduce you by wearing a similar dress to mine!

"Fortunately, my friends were here to protect me. Otherwise, she might’ve ended up replacing me in this wedding and marrying you."

Tears filled her eyes as she leaned into Connor's arms coyly to get some comfort from him. Connor started to console his petite wife. His voice was filled with danger as he was prepared to execute anyone who had crossed her.

"How did security allow a stranger to enter this place? Do they still want their jobs? How dare they allow such filth to dirty our wedding!"

Ruby was satisfied with the outcome and wiped away her tears. "I'm fine now, sweetie. Don't be mad."

She silently looked around to enjoy the envious gazes everyone was throwing at her. She would always parade her relationship around to satisfy her great ego.

When her husband took her side, Ruby was even more confident that beating me up was the right move. After all, she had to fight off any potential love rivals, and I was the best candidate to be hung out to dry as a warning to other women.

"All of my family members are here, baby. Come with me to meet my elders."

Connor held Ruby's hand as he said, "By the way, my foster mother might be young, but she was the one who helped me behind the scenes with great advice when I was expanding my business. Everyone in my company respects her a lot.

"She's part of the Henderson family. They have strict family rules and place great emphasis on etiquette. Make sure you don’t make any mistakes when you meet her."

"Don't worry, sweetie. I just helped her teach someone who disrespected her a lesson. She will definitely love me." Ruby blinked at him innocently as she nodded her head in affirmation.

As they were about to leave, I held back my pain to hit my head desperately against the table corner and was finally able to create some noise. Connor looked over at me. I was close to dying.

Ruby stood in front of Connor coyly, and her cherry lips pouted. "She's the vixen who wanted to seduce you. You shouldn't even be looking at her. It would only disgust you."

When Connor saw my disheveled clothes, he raised his hand to wave the bodyguards in with repulsion. "Get rid of anyone unimportant."

As he brushed by me to leave, the phone that I was gripping tight in the palm of my hand fell next to his foot. He paused for a moment and stopped the bodyguard from dragging me out.

He started questioning me sternly as rage filled his voice. "How did you get your hands on this phone?"

I looked up at him. My face was covered with blood and bruises. I looked so horrible from my wounds that he could not recognize me at all.

Connor instructed the bodyguard to remove my gag and continued questioning me about where my phone came from.

I spat out the piece of glass that was covered in my blood and spit. The thin scab on the corner of my lips ruptured with this action, and a thin river of blood dripped all the way down to my chin.

I looked up pitifully at Connor as I opened my mouth to call out to him hoarsely, "Connor…"