Sharp pain shot through her wrist where it was tightly gripped. Yvonne looked up at the man in front of her, who then resembled a cornered beast. She suddenly smiled brightly. “Is this all the karma I get? Hannah is dead, but look at me, I’m still standing here.”

The words struck like a match to kindling. His gaze darkened with fury.

Without warning, his hand closed around her neck.

Yvonne felt the air vanish from her lungs. Her face drained of color as her body instinctively fought for breath. Tears spilled involuntarily from the corners of her eyes.

Just as she thought he might choke her to death, his grip loosened, and she crumpled to the floor like a puppet with cut strings.

She started coughing violently.

Through the haze of tears, she saw him crouch before her. His voice was cold like ice. “I’m going to make you regret every breath you take.”

He reached out again, but his hand paused in midair before grabbing the collar of her shirt and giving it a sharp tug.

The fabric split with a sharp rip.

“What is this?!” he demanded with his furious voice.

Beneath the fading bruises on her neck, another dark mark cut across her throat. It was a horrifying sight.

Yvonne swallowed the metallic taste rising in her mouth. She covered the marks with her trembling hands as soon as she thought about them.

They were left by the so-called “breath control therapy” during her time in the psychiatric hospital. Day after day, they hung her on her neck and forced her to repeat degrading words as she choked. “Repeat after me! Yvonne is a terrible person, she is unworthy of Jason!”

Tears crawled all over her face as she repeated it again and again, “Yvonne… is a terrible person…”

For the first two years, she had clung to her pride and refused to say that she was unworthy of Jason. But by the third year, numbness had taken over, and she admitted it again and again. She was no longer worthy of Jason.

Jason’s hand brushed across the marks, and Yvonne’s body trembled even more aggressively in response.

Yet she smiled again, even as tears rolled down her cheeks.

“You know how it is overseas. People are into... unconventional things.”

Her voice did not falter under his shocked and furious gaze. “I liked it… Way more exciting than anything we ever had.”

Jason grabbed her by the arm and dragged her into the lounge.

She was then thrown into the bed.

Jason violently crashed down on her and tore through her clothes without a shred of mercy.

Yvonne’s voice trembled, “What would Cindy think of you?”

Jason gave her a harsh laugh. “Who do you think you are? Cindy is pregnant, and you’re just a temporary replacement.”

Her entire body froze as Jason’s hand gripped the bruises on her neck again. His voice was low and filled with malice.

“Yvonne, this is your karma. You can either stay and pay off your debt, or you can leave with those men. Your choice.”

The words “pregnant” and “replacement” echoed in her mind. As she trembled, Yvonne closed her eyes. She stopped resisting in the midst of agony.

There were no kisses and no embraces. There was only his rough and reckless revenge. She was nothing more than a replacement to him, and she was forced to endure everything while he kept snarling the same venomous question over and over.

“Is this how they used to choke you?!”

Just before dawn, Jason stood and left Yvonne without another glance. He ordered coldly, “Clean up. You’ll be entertaining some guests tonight.”

Then the door shut behind him.

When Yvonne regained consciousness, she kneeled on the floor as she shivered and slowly began to tidy the mess and the blood stains. Then she dragged herself to the bathroom.

Her clothes were torn and rumpled. But the top part she had clung to and protected with all her strength, remained intact.

That defiance had angered Jason all the more and made him torture her even more cruelly.

She hesitated as she removed her clothing, revealing what she had tried so desperately to keep hidden. Only then did it begin to surface.

Her arms, shoulders, and back were covered in densely carved words.

When she first arrived at the psychiatric hospital, she had prayed that Jason would come to rescue her. Every time she was tortured, the only thing that kept her going was using her fingernails to slowly carve his and her names into her skin.

One year. Three years. Five years… Eventually, her name faded. All that remained was ‘Jason. Jason. Jason.’

She no longer dared to dream of them reuniting. Jason had simply become her only anchor to keep living.

But… that faith had crumbled. She no longer had the strength to piece herself back together.

Yvonne finally broke down, sobbing beneath the stream of water.

That night, before her body had even recovered, she was forced to attend a banquet and drink lots of wine. Mockery and laughter surrounded her as she could only down glass after glass in silence.

Meanwhile, Cindy was cradled in Jason’s arms, pampered and doted on with gentle care.

Jason kept ordering Yvonne around to fetch drinks and other things. Her steps were unsteady, but she could only grit her teeth and keep going.

At the end of the night, after sending off all the guests, she collapsed over the flowerbed and vomited so violently that her vision spun. Jason stood off to the side and looked disgusted. Without a hint of concern, he tossed a wad of cash at her feet.

“Pick it up and clean it yourself.”

Yvonne clutched her spasming hand and gathered her earnings from the dirt, one bill at a time. She did not say a word.

She could not afford to be sent back to that place. It was too filthy. She wanted to disappear utterly and completely. She did not even intend to leave a trace of bone behind.

Jason and Cindy’s engagement banquet was approaching fast, and he had left all the early preparations in her hands.

“Cindy liked the necklace from the auction. Get it, no matter the cost.”

“The venue decorations do not suit her tastes. Redo it. She wants the banquet on a luxury cruise.”

“Her favorite roses are Juliet Roses. Fly in the freshest ones and fill every corner with them. The food and wine must be exactly to her liking.”

Every day, Yvonne was pushed to exhaustion. By day, she had to fulfill Jason and Cindy’s endless demands. By night, she was nothing but an outlet for Jason’s desires. Every morning, it took her a long while just to gather the strength to get out of bed.

She had planned every detail of the engagement banquet. But when the spotlight hit the stage, she was not the one standing there.

It was Cindy, arm in arm with Jason, bathed in attention and admiration from every direction.

Compliments rang endlessly in Yvonne’s ears. She stood in a corner, where not a single ray of light reached her. She was so utterly drained that she did not realize when her eyes had closed.

She had often dreamed of getting engaged to Jason.

In her dream, he had looked at her with eyes full of deep affection, as though he wanted to pull her into his soul. He had gently slipped a ring onto her finger.

“You are mine now. Unless I die, we will never be apart. Not in this lifetime. Not in the next.”

Guests around showered them with blessings, wishing them a long and happy life together.

In the dream, she was supposed to be smiling. But in reality, her face was covered in tears.

How could humans possibly compete with fate? She was going to die. They would never again stand side by side.

When Yvonne woke up, Cindy was sitting right across from her.

“Well, well. Yvonne. It has been a while,” Cindy said as she held a wine glass with perfect poise. Her gaze dropped with cold disdain. “I truly do not understand. If you were going to sit here crying now, why did you do what you did back then?”

Yvonne hurriedly wiped away the tears that had escaped her dreams.

Cindy’s stare made her hands tremble again. The trauma of past bullying had never truly faded.

“Hard to believe, right?” Cindy said coldly, “Back then, Jason stood up for you. And now, he is in love with me. How could a man like him fall for someone as weak and boring as you? Fortunately, you ruined yourself.”

Yvonne lowered her head and pressed her left hand tightly over her right. She said with her hoarse voice, “I will not… get in your way.”

“Oh? If you are not hoping to win him back, why did you come back at all?”

As Cindy spoke, she tipped the glass of red wine and poured it over her own gown.

Her expression shifted at once. Shock and panic flashed across her face as she cried out, “Yvonne!”

“Yvonne, what are you doing?!”

As expected, Jason’s furious voice rang out behind her. He strode over as his eyes blazed in anger. “Why are you picking on Cindy?!”

Yvonne’s first instinct was to laugh. She wanted to tell him, “Cindy has always been the one bullying me. When have I ever bullied her?”

But when she looked up and met Jason’s eyes, she saw that beneath the anger, something else flickered.

Was he hoping for her to be jealous?

Yvonne lowered her gaze and hid her twitching hand behind her back. Her voice was calm. “She chased off the man who tried to talk to me. Why shouldn’t I give her a hard time?”

The flicker in Jason’s gaze extinguished immediately. It was replaced by a cold and cutting indifference.

“You should be punished.”

At his request, a waiter brought over drink after drink. Yvonne immediately knew what he meant. Her hands clenched tightly as she took a slow step forward. She picked up a glass and poured it over her head.

“Keep going.” His voice was cold.

She poured another. And another. The wine soaked her hair and trickled down her face. People began to gather and watch the spectacle.

“Isn’t that Yvonne? Serves that vicious woman right!”

“Jason used to dote on her so much. She brought this on herself.”

Yvonne stood there drenched as she shivered uncontrollably.

Jason looked away from her and walked away with Cindy in his arms. He ordered just before he left, “Watch her. She’s to stand here for ten hours.”

Sticky alcohol clung to every inch of her. She stood like a caged animal on display.

It was past midnight when they finally let her go.

She stumbled across the deck and saw Jason returning, clearly drunk.

Yvonne wanted to avoid him, but she suddenly heard the sound of him falling, followed by silence. She was worried, so she turned back to check on him.

Jason collapsed outside of his room, and his face was flushed with an abnormal red.

He had a fever.

Yvonne’s heart clenched. She dragged him inside with great effort. She poured him some water and wiped his face down. After settling him in, she got up to find a doctor. But Jason suddenly clutched the hem of her shirt tightly.

“Don’t… go…”

Her heart sank. In the end, she stayed.

She replaced the cold towel on his forehead over and over again. Not once did she close her eyes throughout the night. He drifted in and out of consciousness until the first light of dawn. Only then did the fever finally break.

Yvonne felt like she was about to collapse as well. Just then, someone knocked on the door. It was Cindy.

Her expression tensed the moment she saw Yvonne. But Yvonne simply pressed the towel into her hand and said hoarsely, “When he wakes up… tell him it was you who looked after him.”

With that, she turned and left, limping as she went. She had only made it a few steps when everything went black, and she collapsed to the floor.

They stayed on the cruise for seven days. That day, Yvonne fainted on the deck and woke up again. She had a high fever and barely made it back to her room.

The fever burned on and off for three days. Luckily, during those three days, Jason was also looking for her.

The doctor on the cruise brought her medicine as part of his job, emotionless and perfunctory. She had just murmured her thank you when the door burst open and Jason stormed in.

He walked straight up to her and frowned when he saw her sickly appearance.

“What’s wrong with you?”

Yvonne’s fingers curled faintly. “It’s just a fever.”

Without warning, Jason grabbed her wrist. His voice was low, and if one listened closely, there was the faintest tremble.

“That night… was it you who looked after me?”