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?”

Yvonne nearly broke down in that instant.

But she forced down the lump in her throat, yanked her wrist from his grasp, and flung herself onto the nearby doctor with all her strength.

Her voice came out eerily calm. “What do you mean, look after you? Haven’t I had enough flings on this cruise already?”

The doctor was startled. He was about to say something when Jason roared at him, “Get out!”

The doctor bolted for the door. As he left, he saw Jason grabbing Yvonne and throwing her violently onto the bed.

“You’re that desperate, Yvonne?!”

“Yeah. You never managed to satisfy me. When I was overseas, I had a different man every day. You? You’re boring.”

Whatever shred of emotion was left in Jason’s eyes vanished without a trace. He pinned her down brutally as he growled savagely. “Then you’d better enjoy this.”

What followed was violent and merciless; it was like a storm without relief. Her body was tossed like a ragdoll beneath his weight. The agony dragged her mind back to those days in the psychiatric hospital. Electric shocks, hands around her throat, lashes across her body. The past and present blurred into one endless nightmare.

His sole purpose was to hurt her. When it ended, he slammed the door behind him without looking back.

In the dim room, Yvonne curled into herself. Her whole body spasmed as nausea clawed its way up her throat. She doubled over and dry-heaved uncontrollably as tears poured down her cheeks.

Was this what she wanted? To degrade herself so completely in front of Jason, to make him hate her beyond redemption?

But it hurt so much…

It was like being torn apart from the inside out. She wanted to die right then and disappear completely.

After showering, she received a message from Jason, asking her to go to the main hall of the cruise.

When she arrived, he spared her just a glance before pointing with his chin toward a table covered in leftovers.

“Eat.”

Yvonne did not move right away. She had not eaten in days. Her condition had worsened, and her throat often spasmed uncontrollably. Every time she tried to eat, it came right back up.

She had lost even more weight because of that.

​​Jason tossed a stack of cash at her face without a trace of sympathy. Yvonne picked up the chopsticks while she trembled.

Cindy leaned gently against Jason’s shoulder and said softly, “Jason, just let her go.”

Jason chuckled coldly. “If you hate to see food go to waste, then find someone to finish it off.”

Yvonne ate slowly and emotionlessly. None of the food was to her taste, and Jason knew that better than anyone. She used to hate these dishes so much that she could not even force them down. But in the psychiatric hospital, having food at all had been a luxury. She had long since learned not to be picky.

She ate one bite at a time, but her throat spasmed violently in protest. She tried to fight through it, but in the end, she could not hold it down. She turned aside and threw up in pain.

Jason’s expression darkened. “You’re disgusting, Yvonne!”

“Eat. All of it. You’re not leaving until you finish it!”

He left with Cindy. His face was full of disgust.

Yvonne vomited up everything she ate. Her throat was pushed to its limit. She began to taste blood, and a wave of dizziness hit her again. She had to drag her messy self out to the deck to get some air and clear her head.

Cindy was already standing there, almost as if she had been waiting for her.

She looked Yvonne up and down and smirked, “You really are a mess… Yvonne, compared to Jason, I went easy on you back then.”

Yvonne’s body went rigid, and the agonizing pain tore through her again.

“You should disappear forever.”

As she finished her sentence, Cindy stepped forward suddenly, grabbed Yvonne’s hand, and shoved it against her own shoulder. Then she threw herself over the railing.

Yvonne’s blood ran cold instantly.

“Cindy!” Jason’s roar came from behind as he charged toward them just in time to see Cindy fall into the sea.

The scene mirrored a memory burned deep into his mind. Years ago, her sister had been pushed into a burning fire by Yvonne.

His eyes reddened, and the veins on his forehead bulged. Something inside him snapped. His voice tore through the air like a trapped beast.

“You’re a monster, Yvonne!”

“You should’ve died instead!”

The words hit Yvonne like a sledgehammer. But before she could react, Jason shoved her off straight into the ocean.