Manuel frowned when he heard that, waved to the servant and gave him a few instructions.

Soon a doctor in a white coat came over, took the cat's body and began to examine it.

“It was indeed cut out with a knife and the technique was very professional. The cat was slowly bled to death in pain.”

Then another security guard came running to report, “We just checked the surveillance and only Miss Gloria came to the garden in the afternoon.”

Manuel's expression suddenly darkened and he looked down at Gloria, “Do you have anything else to say?”

Gloria moved her lips but said nothing. She knew that that kind of thing would be the result.

Finally, she whispered, “What can I say? You never believed me. What else can I say?”

Manuel hesitated when he heard that.

“Sister, are you saying that I deliberately framed you?” Slyvia shook her head and cried even more sadly, “Kitty is the only thing my mother left. Even if it's a false accusation, how could I bear to use its life to frame you?”

As Slyvia said that, she could not bear the shock and fainted.

Manuel quickly supported her, his expression becoming cold and hard again, “Gloria, I didn't expect you to be so vicious now.

“I was the one who abandoned you at the wedding. If you want to blame someone, you should blame me. Why are you taking it out on Slyvia's cat?”

His eyes were full of disappointment as he continued, “We in the Norton Family don't want a young lady who is so mean and cruel. So, why not cancel the engagement?”

“Okay,” Gloria said calmly.

Manuel's anger suddenly froze and then his face became even gloomier. “I'm not kidding you, don't regret it.”

Just as he opened his mouth, Gloria’s parents hurried over.

Without further ado, Gloria’s father slapped Gloria in the face, “How could I raise such a vicious daughter like you?!”

Gloria's face was already swollen from the previous beating and that time blood was oozing out.

Gloria’s father was still furious and raised his hand again when he yelled, “If you can kill a cat today, I think you can kill a person tomorrow. So, I won’t let you free from now on.

“I don’t know why since you woke up, you have always disturbed the whole family. If I had known you would become like this, I would rather you died in that car accident!

“Someone, lock her up for me. No one is allowed to bring her food. We'll talk about it when she's done reflecting on her actions.”

There was a needle-like pain on her face and her head was aching and she felt nauseous. Gloria could not help but dry heave a few times, but the pain in her body could not compare to the pain in her heart.

What had happened that year was that she was the one who dragged her parents and Manuel out of the car that was about to explode one by one.

Because she was saving them, she was hit by the explosion and suffered a head injury, becoming a vegetable and lying there for three years.

But then she was blamed for not dying in that car accident.

Gloria could not tell whether the red fluid on her face was blood or tears. She raised her head and looked at those people who were originally closest to her.

At that moment, their faces looked more unfamiliar than ever before.

Gloria smiled, but her eyes gradually became dead silent and at that moment something completely left her.

Manuel and Gloria’s mother panicked and felt like they had lost something forever. They could not help but plead for Gloria at the same time.

Slyvia stopped them, “Manuel, although I don't want my sister to be locked up, my father's approach is not unreasonable. It's better for my sister to learn a lesson now than for her to get into bigger trouble outside in the future and not be able to deal with it.

“After all, people could only protect her as long as she is at home.”

Hearing Sylvia’s words, Gloria’s mother withdrew her hand.

Manuel also nodded, “I was inconsiderate, it would be good for her to learn a lesson from this.”

Gloria was locked up in an abandoned garage.

Slyvia leaned on Manuel's shoulder with a hidden smile of triumph and said caringly, “Don't worry, I will bring food to my sister and she won't really starve.”

Manuel nodded, “Thank you.”

After Slyvia left, Manuel felt a little sorry for Gloria, so he took a step back and said, “I just said it in anger.

“When Sylvia's depression stabilizes, we will hold the wedding again. Gloria, there is no need for you to be so extreme.”

He looked at the date and continued. “The third day of next month is a good date.”

Gloria felt no emotion at all. She no longer had any expectations for her fiancé.

Her wedding would indeed be on the third day of next month, but the groom would no longer be Manuel.

When Slyvia, who was hiding outside the door, heard Manuel's words, she could not help but grit her teeth and a vicious light suddenly burst out in her eyes.

Slyvia did not expect that after three years of hard work, Manuel still refused to give up on Gloria.

Her nails dug deep into her palms. When she returned to her room, she dialed a number, “Create an accident and kill Gloria!”

At midnight that night, a fire quietly spread.

Gloria did not know that the god of death's scythe was hanging over her head.

In the first twenty years of her life, she was constantly filled with the shadows of her parents and Manuel. 

That tie that they had all been dug out from the bottom of her heart, it felt like there was a hole as big as a bowl in her chest.

She could not help but curl up. Her tears had dried up, but the pain was long and intense and even breathing was heart-wrenchingly painful.

At that moment, she felt disheartened and suddenly felt that there was nothing in the world worth lingering on.

So much so that when she saw the sudden fire, Gloria did not move.

However, the shrill alarm outside woke up everyone in the Huerta Family villa.

“What happened?”

“The garage where Miss Gloria is imprisoned has caught fire!”

Manuel's expression suddenly changed and he quickly rushed towards the garage, but someone was faster than him and kicked open the garage door first, “Sister!”

Seeing Slyvia, Manuel's pupils shrank. “Sylvia, don’t!”

Slyvia rushed into the fire regardless.

Manuel had no choice but to follow her closely.

Seeing Manuel, Gloria, who was staring at the fire with a numb expression, finally had a glimmer of light in her eyes.

But then Slyvia, who was running in front, suddenly smiled and said to Gloria silently, “Sister, do you think he will save you or me?”

After saying that, she let out a scream and fell down.

Manuel subconsciously caught Slyvia, then looked at Gloria with a somewhat conflicted expression.

Finally, he picked up Slyvia and said to Gloria who was in the depths of the sea of fire, “Gloria, I will send Sylvia out first and then come back to save you.”

However, the fire was too big and there was no possibility of entering.

The last glimmer of light in Gloria's eyes was completely extinguished.

She stared blankly at Manuel as he strode away, his back getting farther and farther away.

Seeing his parents running over and anxiously surrounding the unconscious Slyvia, her heart hurt more.

No one remembered her anymore.

In only three years, she became a complete outsider.

Gloria sat down again and watched the burnt beam fall before her eyes with an expressionless face.

“Fine, death may not be a kind of relief,” she muttered.

At the end of my consciousness, the shadows of those people became blurred across the sea of fire.

Gloria raised her head and forced back the tears that were about to fall from her eyes. She hoped that she would never have to see Manuel and that couple again in her next life.

An unknown amount of time had passed before Gloria opened her eyes and saw the white roof of the hospital.

She realized that she seemed to be lucky enough not to die.

A sneer suddenly came from the side.

Gloria turned around and meet Slyvia's undisguised vicious gaze, “You are really lucky. Even such a big fire didn't burn you to death.”

She laughed again, took out the mirror she had prepared and gloated, “But when you see yourself clearly, I'm afraid you won't want to live anymore.”

Only when she looked at herself in the mirror did Gloria understand what Slyvia meant.

Her face from the left forehead to the corner of her eye that was burned.

Gloria's pupils could not help but shrink.

Tears in Gloria's eyes were about to overflow.

For a woman, having her face ruined was probably more painful than death.

Sylvia then leaned closer to Gloria with some sympathy, “Do you think Manuel will still marry you now?”

But the scenes of collapse and madness that Slyvia had imagined did not occur. She narrowed her eyes, forcefully stuffed a scalpel into Gloria's hand and then cut her own face.

By the time Gloria reacted, Slyvia had already shouted, “Ah, sister, don't!”

Just then Manuel came in from outside. 

The next second Slyvia cried and threw herself into his arms. “Manuel!”

Manuel was slightly stunned and asked, “What happened?”

Slyvia could not stop shaking in his arms as she accused Gloria, “Gloria, she... she's going to ruin my face.”

Seeing half of her face covered in blood, Manuel's expression suddenly turned cold. His sharp eyes suddenly shot towards Gloria.

Their eyes met and Gloria picked up the scalpel that had fallen on the bed with an expressionless face, then raised her hand and threw it towards Slyvia.

When the scalpel cut through the air like an arrow and stabbed straight at her, Slyvia's pupils suddenly contracted and she could not help but scream in fear.

Manuel did not expect that Gloria would dare to hurt people in front of him. In a hurry, he quickly raised his arm to block the flying knife that was still coming at him.

There was an inch-long wound on his arm.

“Manuel!” Slyvia grabbed his hand distressedly.

An unspeakable disappointment in Manuel's eyes.

“Before you always said that we wronged you and sided with Sylvia,” he said in a deep voice, “Then, how do you explain it now?”

Gloria did not want to explain at all. After having walked the line between life and death, she had become more open-minded about many things. She looked at the two people hugging each other with a cold look in her eyes.

“Didn’t you want to blame me for her ruined face? That’s why I did it. Besides, no matter how I defend myself, I’ll still be the one to blame for her false accusations against me.”

“Gloria!” Manuel's expression became even more gloomy and he felt that Gloria was simply unreasonable at that moment.

Gloria’s father and mother, who followed closely, also felt as if they had never known their daughter.

Slyvia also said in a weak voice, “Sister, I know you are so angry because Manuel saved me but not you last night.

“I should be the one who got disfigured. Don't even mention you cutting me. As long as you don't hate him, I'll do anything you ask me to do.”

Manuel frowned upon hearing that and said, “You are not wrong, Sylvia. You broke into the garage to save her, so if I want to save someone, I'll save you first. And I can save whoever I want to save and it's not up to others to interfere.”

At the end of his speech, his voice sounded like it had been chilled by ice and there was no trace of warmth on his face.

Gloria remained calm from beginning to end.

No matter how many reasons there were, no matter how good the excuses were, if they did not care anymore, they would always find reasons.

After thinking that through, Gloria suddenly felt extremely bored. When she heard Slyvia's words, she even smiled good-naturedly as she muttered, “I don't blame you. On the contrary, I want to thank you.”

‘Thank you for making me realize that people’s hearts are fickle,’ she continued in her heart.

Everyone present was a little surprised to hear that.

“I think she still hasn't admitted her fault,” Gloria’s father also said, “From today on, you must reflect on your mistakes in this ward and don't leave!”

After saying that, several people escorted Slyvia away.