The dark red liquor choked up through my nose, but Daniel clamped a hand over my mouth and nose.

“Olivia personally chose this. If you waste it, you’re disrespecting her effort.”

With my airway suddenly blocked, the alcohol flooded down the wrong way, burning into my lungs. My face flushed instantly, the whites of my eyes spreading as my vision blurred. Just when I thought this was how it would end, Daniel finally let go.

He tossed the bottle aside. It shattered across the ground.

Then he kicked me hard in the back. I stumbled forward and dropped to my knees on the broken glass.

Olivia sat across from me, sipping red wine from a stemmed glass as she spoke coldly.

“This is your punishment for what happened three years ago. If Daniel isn’t happy, you take it.”

Then she suddenly noticed the blood on Daniel’s finger and rushed over to kiss it.

“Oh, no, Daniel. You’re hurt.”

She turned and slapped me across the face.

The sting burned, but it couldn’t compare to the pain in my chest.

“You motherless bastard. How dare you hurt my Daniel?!”

…

People online were right.

Never show your wounds to anyone.

I never celebrated my birthday. The first time I ever did was because of her.

Back then, she asked me why, and I foolishly thought it was because she loved me too much. So I told her the truth I had buried for over twenty years.

“Because my mother died giving birth to me. I’ve always felt that if it weren’t for me, she wouldn’t have died.”

I never imagined that she would one day use those words against me.

The warmth of her slap still lingered on my face, but she didn’t spare me another glance. Instead, she cradled Daniel’s hand again.

“Honey, when you deal with him, be careful not to hurt yourself. Do you want me to worry myself sick?”

While the two of them flirted and laughed behind me, the hatred inside me grew thicker and heavier, until I wanted nothing more than to tear them apart, bone by bone.

After a while, Olivia finally returned to her seat. Daniel spat lightly on me, then crouched down in front of me with a wicked grin.

“You’ve had the wine. If I don’t let you taste the sweetness of my love with Olivia, that just wouldn’t be right.”

The crowd immediately erupted in cheers.

“Daniel really knows how to have fun!”

Before I could react, the bodyguards dragged me to my feet.

Daniel picked up a chair and smashed it into my waist, sending me flying like a dying dog.

However, that still wasn’t enough.

They hauled me back up, again and again, smashing the chair down until my back could no longer straighten.

Suddenly, Olivia seemed to remember something. She walked over, excitement lighting up her face.

“Oh my God, how could I forget?

“You once said you’d stay with me for life. Even if I don’t love you anymore, you still love me, don’t you?”

I let out a cold laugh through gritted teeth.

I had given her so much freedom and indulgence that she had become delusional.

She needed to be cured.

She waved a hand, and a servant brought over a pregnant female dog.

“Today is an especially lucky day. I paid a lot to a fortune teller to get that reading. Consider yourself lucky.”

“This dog has been with Daniel and me since we got together. Marrying into our family is a blessing you could never earn in multiple lifetimes.”

They forced me to my knees.

The moment I realized what she was about to do, I struggled, straining against their grip with everything I had. But I couldn’t break free.

A bodyguard punched me in the face. Another kicked me in the stomach.

Once, twice, three times. Each time, the impact blurred my vision.

Olivia laughed like she had gone mad.

The servant lifted the dog higher, cradling it like a bride on display.

“Go on,” Olivia said, her voice light, almost playful. “Say it. Say you take the dog as your wife.”

I clenched my teeth, saying nothing.

Olivia tilted her head, smiling.

“From now on, this dog is your wife. You’d better take good care of her… and the puppies in her belly.”

A wave of nausea surged up. My stomach churned violently as I gagged and vomited onto the ground.

With just a glance from Olivia, a bodyguard stepped forward and drove a fist into my face.

“You’re just an ex-con, and you dare look down on my dog? Well, then.

“Beat him. Beat him until our dear Max Miller is willing to call this dog his wife.”

I had always loved the classics. Because of my family, I valued dignity and loyalty above everything else.

This was meant to break me.

The blows kept raining down.

At first, each strike carried the sharp pain of bones threatening to shatter. However, as it went on, my body, just like my heart, slowly went numb.

Daniel grabbed my hair. “Well? Are you going to say it or not?”

I split my lips into a grin, trying to use extreme pain to drown out the numbness in my heart.

“Go ahead and kill me if you can. Otherwise, I’ll make every single one of you suffer a thousand times more than I ever did.”

The smile on Daniel’s face twisted into something more vicious.

“What? Did I hear that right?

“Olivia, your ex isn’t just useless. He’s delusional, too.”

Olivia suddenly raised her hand, signaling them to stop.

For a split second, my pathetic heart stirred again.

Did she still have even a shred of feeling for me?

…

The next second, however, I understood her intention and wished I could go back and slap myself for that thought.

“Oh, how could I forget? A wedding needs a cake.”

Daniel and Olivia exchanged a look, satisfied smiles spreading across their faces.

The bodyguards lifted me again. My injuries were so severe that I didn’t even have the strength to resist anymore.

A massive cake was suddenly wheeled in front of me.

I realized what they were about to do, but before I could react, I was thrown straight into it.

Sticky, suffocating sweetness engulfed me as thick cream covered my entire body.

The cake collapsed over me, burying me underneath.

The dense layers pressed against my mouth and nose. The suffocating feeling returned as the air in my chest was slowly drained away.

I closed my eyes, almost accepting it.

For the first time, I regretted leaving my family behind when I was young, coming to Harbor City alone to build a life from nothing.

But most of all, I regretted meeting Olivia and falling for her so completely.

Maybe my choice back then wasn’t wrong. She was.

She had always been a devil, and I was foolish enough to think I could turn her into an angel.

My life began to flash before my eyes, and the memory I wanted to hold onto the most was of my childhood, playing in the sand with my father on the beach.

Regret swallowed me whole.

I had once imagined that one day, I would hold Olivia’s hand and stand proudly before my father and introduce him to the woman I love.

I never thought that the very person I loved would kill me one day.

No, I couldn't die yet.

I haven’t made these two pay for what they’ve done!

A jolt of clarity hit me.

Slowly, I moved my left hand, wiping the cream off my face. Fresh air rushed into my lungs like lifeblood, and my mind snapped back into focus.

The jeers and insults around me poured back into my ears.

The sky was growing darker.

Almost there. I should just hold on a little longer.

I already lost once. I wouldn't lose again.

“Max should take a good look at himself. How dare he dream about Olivia? A toad wanting to date a swan.”

“Even before prison, he was nothing but a pretty face. How could someone like him ever deserve Ms. Johnson?”

“Olivia and Daniel were meant to be. Those years with him were just for fun. Who knew he’d take it seriously?”

How ridiculous.

All these years, and I never realized.

They had been together long ago, and I was the blind fool who never saw it.

Seeing my head emerge, Daniel grabbed my collar again, ready to shove me deeper into the cake.

I grabbed his wrist and growled, “Try it, I dare you. This is a society governed by law. If I die, you won’t get away with it.”

“Is that so?”

He glanced at Olivia, who shrugged with a smile.

“Oh? Poor Max Miller gets released from prison, attends his ex-girlfriend’s wedding, and can’t handle it, so he takes his own life. What does that have to do with us?

“Did anyone here see Max today?”

The crowd immediately played along.

“Huh? Who saw him?”

“No one. After the wedding, we partied at Olivia’s house until morning. Never saw any Max or whoever that is.”

Olivia let out a mocking laugh.

“See that? Three years ago, I could destroy the garage surveillance. Three years later, I can do the same with the villa cameras.”

“You’re just an ex-con. If you die, you die. Who would even care?”

The madness continued, and the celebration grew more unhinged by the second.

Then suddenly, a car horn blared, and the sound of car doors slammed in unison.

A commanding voice cut through the chaos.

“Everyone, stop right now!”