"Celia lost her temper for a moment, so it's only natural she'd want to throw me out."

I never imagined Eleanor Rowe could turn black into white so brazenly.

This afternoon, it was clearly she who had said it.

That she would one day become Neville Pruitt's wife, fair and square, and that I should know my place and quietly get out.

She'd even boasted that the one Neville had loved all along, from start to finish, was her.

Even this marital home we'd bought together—Neville had handed the largest master bedroom over to her.

"Celia, let me tell you the truth. Neville says he'll treat my child as his own."

"As for you, he never once intended to have a child with you."

"That's why he kept finding excuse after excuse to refuse you."

Her words cut into me until I couldn't stand it anymore.

So I threw her out, her things along with her.

What I didn't expect was that she would deliberately trip herself.

She fell onto the lawn by the door.

It caused heavy bleeding down below, and she was rushed to the hospital.

All of it—she had clearly done it on purpose.

And now she was the one pointing fingers.

Heaping every bit of the blame onto me.

"No, that's not how it was…"

Before I could finish.

Neville, his face full of impatience, took a whistle from the butler's hand.

It was the tool he usually used to train his mastiffs.

As the whistle's shrill note rang out.

His icy words sounded against my ear.

"Tear every scrap of her clothes off her!"

"Didn't she throw all of Eleanor's things out the door?"

"Today I'll let her get a real taste of what it feels like to be alone and helpless."

With that, he pulled Eleanor Rowe close into his arms, intimate and tender.

"Eleanor, don't you worry. Every wrong you've suffered, I'll get it back for you in full today, down to the last bit."

The mastiffs, given their command, lunged at me without a moment's hesitation.

Their sharp teeth shredded my clothes into pieces in seconds.

A violent pain began tearing through my lower belly.

Thinking of the child inside me, all I could do was beg Neville for mercy.

"Neville, let me go. I know I was wrong, I really do."

With nothing left to cover me, I was bared naked before the crowd in an instant.

The people coming and going through the complex turned their eyes on me, one after another.

Among them were more than a few sleazy ones, leering at me with lust in their stares.

"Tsk, tsk. Not only does this woman have a great body, she's fair-skinned and gorgeous too. One look and a man's mind starts wandering."

"Who knew our complex came with a perk like this."

"This place was worth every penny."

Out of fear, my whole body trembled.

I curled in on myself, lying inside the dog cage.

My clothes, already chewed to shreds by the mastiffs, lay tossed in the corner.

The dogs were lapping at their water now, off to one side.

Waiting for Neville to give his next command.

The lustful stares all around me, the mocking voices.

They made me wish the ground would swallow me whole.

I struggled to cover my naked body.

Trembling, I inched toward the corner.

But the pain in my body wrenched cries out of me that I couldn't hold back.

A whole chunk of flesh had been torn from my arm, blood soon sliding slowly down my wrist, and sweat began breaking out across my forehead without stopping.

The sweat seeped into the wound, and the pain nearly made me black out.

I clenched my teeth hard, trying, in this way.

To draw my focus off the pain.

But it did nothing at all.

Perhaps because he noticed how ghostly pale my face had gone, Neville's brow knit tight.

He let go of Eleanor Rowe and strode over to stand before me.

And when he saw the wound on my arm, he couldn't help the sharp breath he sucked in.

Just as he was about to speak, Eleanor edged up behind him, right on cue, and opened her mouth.

"Neville, don't be angry with Celia anymore."

"It's all my fault. That's the only reason she threw me out of the room."

"Celia, I know you did nothing wrong. It was all me."

"Let me kneel down and apologize to you properly, all right?"

Even now, she was still putting on a show.

But the pain was so bad I couldn't get a single word out.

All I could do was glare at her, shaking with fury.

If I could, I would have torn that mask off her face and made Neville see.

See exactly what kind of vile creature Eleanor really was. Catching sight of me, filthy and broken inside that dog cage, she curled her lips into a cold little smile where no one else could see.

Then, in front of everyone, she really did drop to her knees in front of me, every gesture pure performance.

She even bowed her head to the ground in apology.

"Celia, it's all my fault."

"Whatever you're upset about, take it out on me."

"I know I'm a divorced single mother. I deserve to be hated and resented and thrown out of the house."

"Since you can't stand having me around, I'll leave right now. I won't be an eyesore to you anymore."

"I only beg you, don't be angry with Neville over this. Please?"

Eleanor knelt before me, tears streaming down her face like rain on pear blossoms.

At the sight, what little tolerance Neville had left for me vanished in an instant.

He helped Eleanor up, then settled her into a chair.

When he turned his head back toward me, there was nothing in his eyes but boundless disgust.

"Celia, you really are vicious!"

"All this time I thought you were kind and sensible and considerate. I never imagined you could be this poisonous behind closed doors."

"I told you, Eleanor just had her baby. She's still weak and fragile. I asked you to take better care of her."

"And instead you threw her out of the house, and nearly caused her to hemorrhage. She almost died."

"I truly regret ever falling for a hypocrite like you!"

"And now you won't forgive her, and you keep up this stubborn act!"

"Fine. Today I'm going to make you pay. I'll teach you exactly what it means to get what you deserve."

With that, he raised the whistle again, about to blow it.

In the crowd, there were plenty of women who couldn't bear to watch, and one after another they spoke up to plead for me.

"That's enough, isn't it? Look at her, the dogs already stripped her bare and shredded her clothes, and she's covered in this many wounds."

"Her face is so pale, and her belly's a little swollen. She really does look like she's pregnant."

Hearing that, Neville's hand froze just as he was about to blow the whistle.

And in the moment he wavered, undecided.

Eleanor, right beside him, crumpled to the floor at exactly the right time.

Neville rushed to gather her into his arms.

"Eleanor, are you okay?"

Eleanor shook her head and, right in front of me, made a show of leaning into Neville's embrace.

"Neville, I'm fine. It was my own carelessness that made me fall and start bleeding."

"None of this has anything to do with Celia."

"Just forgive Celia this once, please."

Wounded tears slid slowly down Eleanor's cheeks at precisely the right moment.

Seeing her like that, the faint trace of forgiveness Neville had felt toward me an instant ago was wiped away completely.

This time, he didn't hesitate for even a second. He turned toward the two mastiffs and blew the whistle.

"Carelessness, my foot. If she hadn't shoved you, how could you possibly have bled like that!"

"Celia, since you did wrong, then you'll take the punishment you've earned."

"Bite her hands! Crush them!"

“I'll make you understand what regret really means.”

The words had barely left his mouth before the two mastiffs behind him fixed their eyes on my hands, teeth bared.

I tried to swat them away.

But my hands were nowhere near fast enough.

Seeing that I wouldn't submit, one of them clamped down on my calf, quick and brutal and exact.

The pain came fast, ripping a scream out of me.

At that, the other lunged for the back of my hand and bit down hard.

The flesh tore away in an instant, and the agony nearly dragged me under.

Yet the pain didn't stop there.

Once I stopped struggling, the two mastiffs turned on my hands together.

Every bite was like plunging my hands into a vat of boiling oil and being made to turn in it.

The pain and the searing heat across the backs of my hands were unbearable.

Before long, the flesh there had been torn off and swallowed, piece by piece.

And at the same time, blood began to seep slowly from my lower body.

It wasn't just blood.

It was the child I had once longed for with everything in me.

And now, its own father had killed it with his own hands.

The onlookers watched, drawing sharp breaths.

Ignoring the pain in my hands, I forced the words out at Neville through gritted teeth.

“Neville, you killed my child with your own hands. I will never let you off so easily!”

“Just wait. When my father gets here, I'll make you pay for my child with your life.”

Neville had still been smirking, his lips curled.

Until his gaze dropped to the ground beneath me.

A pool of blood lay there now, silent and dark.

His pupils shrank, and he took a step back, his face unreadable.

“How……how is this possible……”

He spun around and bellowed at the butler behind him.

“Where's the butler? Bring me the key to those cages, now!”

Before the butler could even turn.

Eleanor stepped forward, faster.

“Celia, how can you say something like that? This is probably just your period.”

“Besides, if you really were pregnant, why say nothing until now? Why wait until this exact moment to tell Neville?”

“Don't tell me you're using an excuse like this to get Neville to forgive you for what you did before.”

“If so, you really have disappointed us.”

To stoke Neville's anger, Eleanor kept going.

“Neville, you've been so good to her, so patient with her.”

“And she actually says something this vicious, this heartless, to you.”

“Even I can't bear to listen to it.”

“If it were me, I'd never bring myself to let you get hurt.”

Eleanor's words quickly convinced Neville that he had spoiled me far too much.

And convinced him, too, that the miscarriage was a lie.

He stared at me, the disappointment plain on his face.

Then his eyes filled with anger he made no effort to hide.

“Celia, how much longer are you going to keep lying to me?”

“You really have disappointed me.”

With that, he gave a sharp whistle, ordering the mastiffs to go for my belly.

I curled in on myself, trying to shield it.

But a tearing, shredding pain ripped across my back.

The agony forced me to twist slightly to one side.

And in that gap, the mastiff in front of me threw itself at my belly.

Its sharp claws raked down without mercy, again and again.

Before long, a wide spread of blood began pouring from my lower body.