Half an hour later.

Bound to a hospital bed with restraint straps, I heard Vivian arguing outside the door with her doctor friend, Jenna Deale.

“Vivian, even if you never had real feelings for Ethan, he still worked hard without complaint, handed over his salary and took care of you and the child for six whole years. How could you tie him up and force him to donate a healthy kidney to Jason just because he ruined his kidneys from drinking too much? You have to understand, losing a kidney can severely affect a man’s health and vitality. Ethan’s body was already in poor condition after that car accident when he saved you. This surgery might leave him permanently infertile due to the complications!”

"Wouldn't it be perfect if he lost the ability to have children?" Vivian said coolly and indifferently. "The death of our daughter proves Ethan is unfit to be a father. Removing his kidney will also kill any delusion he has about me ever bearing him another child. A shallow, useless husband like him was clinging to power and willing to do anything he's told, as long as he's guaranteed a lifetime of food and comfort."

Hearing the door open, I quietly closed my eyes.

My cheek felt a slight tickle. It was Vivian brushing the messy hair from my forehead.

"Ethan, as long as you obediently cooperate and get this little surgery done, I can give whatever you want."

After all these years of marriage, it was the first time she had ever spoken to me so gently. But I completely ignored her and calmly looked straight at Jenna:

"Dr. Deale, please proceed with the surgery as soon as possible. I have things to take care of later."

"Something to take care? What could a married man possibly have to do this late at night?"

With her red lips slightly parted and her expression cold, Vivian seemed like she had more to say, but her phone rang at that very moment.

It was Jason’s custom ringtone.

“Jason, don’t be scared. I’m coming to be with you right now.”

Watching her hurry away, Jenna’s eyes filled with even deeper sympathy for me.

“Ethan, if you regret it now, it’s still not too late to stop.”

I thought of how Vivian had covered my father’s cancer treatment expenses for ten years. With a faint smile, I shook my head at Jenna and simply said, “Dr. Deale, I’d like to ask you for a favor...”

Two hours later…

As I slowly woke from anesthesia, the first thing I saw was Vivian sitting by the bed.

Seeing the bright satisfaction on her face, it was obvious that Jason's transplant surgery had gone smoothly.

“Ethan, you still haven’t told me what reward you want?”

I lazily blinked once and replied, “Then I’ll trouble you to peel me an apple.”

My polite and courteous tone made Vivian pause in slight confusion.

After a few seconds of thought, assuming I must be starving, she ordered takeout from several of my favorite restaurants.

But even faced with a table full of my favorite dishes, I didn’t so much as lift a spoon.

Seeing this, Vivian, who rarely sat down to eat with me, frowned and quietly set down her plate and spoon.

"Ethan, if the food on the table doesn't suit your taste, you can tell me what you want. I'll have someone...”

“It’s fine, I’m not hungry at all.”

As soon as I finished speaking, my phone rang. The caller ID was 10086.

I picked up the phone and walked into the bathroom. As soon as I answered, I heard that person's voice, filled with a pitiful tone, asking, “Ethan, I’ve already arrived at the airport in Haventon, but I didn’t see you. Are you... still unable to let go of her?”

“No, I just ran into some unexpected issues on the road. It caused a delay.”

“What happened? Are you hurt? Send me your location, I’ll come right over...”

Interrupting their overthinking, I simply said…

“I can handle it myself. So, can you wait for me?”

Upon receiving an unhesitating affirmative reply from the other side, I lowered my head, barely touching my lips, when Vivian suddenly barged in without a sound.

“Ethan, who are you hiding in here talking to on the phone?”

I swiftly ended the call, then calmly met her gaze. “A friend.”

A friend? What kind of friend would need to hide from their wife to make a phone call?

Vivian sneered, about to speak and question me, but at that moment, a sudden, thunderous sound rang out from outside the window.

At the sound, Vivian immediately strode toward the VIP ward.

Ever since we got married, whenever she would leave me behind to comfort Jason, who was scared of the thunder, I would throw a fit and refuse to let him go.

But now, halfway down the hall, the woman suddenly realized I hadn’t chased after her. A strange, sour feeling surged in her chest, causing her to instinctively furrow her brows.

However, she didn’t think much of it and simply assumed I was being unexpectedly well-behaved.

As a reward, when I was discharged from the hospital the next day, she wasted no time in dragging me to the shopping mall, allowing me to follow behind her and Jason like a lapdog, accompanying them as they went shopping.

Even though all the sales girls in the mall knew I was Vivian’s legal husband, when they saw her clinging intimately to Jason, they still obsequiously handed the shopping bags to me, thanking me for “honoring” their store with my presence.

As I staggered from the weight of the bags and fell down the escalator, Vivian was in the baby store with Jason, picking out children’s items.

When Jason hesitated between pink or blue, she fondly pulled out her black card and bought out the entire store.

Just as I, battered and disheveled, walked into the store, I heard the shop assistant say to Jason with heartfelt admiration.

“Mr. Woods, you’re so lucky to have such a wonderful wife. The baby’s not even born yet and it already has the most loving mother in the world.”

Staring at the little star-patterned hair tie around my wrist, I suddenly recalled that day when our daughter, Yura, was rushed into the ER with acute meningitis.

I had called Vivian 199 times. Her phone was on, yet she didn’t answer even once.

Inside the emergency room, our daughter whispered to me, her voice as faint as a mosquito’s, “Daddy, I won’t sneak milk candies anymore.”

I cried as I gently stroked her face. “Why would you say that, baby?”

“Because… Mommy must be mad if I wasn’t obedient… That’s why she doesn’t want to come see me. Dad… I’m sorry… I'm such a useless child. I couldn’t help you get Mommy’s love.”

As my daughter lay dying, I knelt with no dignity at the doorstep of Jason’s apartment, begging him to let Vivian come with me to the hospital just for a moment.

What I got instead was Jason summoning bodyguards to pin me to the ground and slap me over and over.

By the time the doctor called to say my daughter had passed, Vivian had just woken up and slowly opened the door.

She looked at my swollen face, too bruised to form words and said indifferently, "I told you not to bother Jason. This is the price you pay for not behaving yourself."

Snapping out of my thoughts, I dropped all the shopping bags and turned to leave. But Vivian coldly grabbed my wrist and pulled me into the luxury watch store on the top floor.

"Ethan, haven’t you always been whining about wanting a watch?"

Watching her grip my wrist and casually start picking out watches for me, Jason quietly clenched his jaw.

He squeezed in between Vivian and me, wrapped his arm around her waist and gave me a mocking smile.

"Ethan, if it weren't for your selfless kidney donation, my body might’ve already collapsed. Vivian, how about we treat Ethan to a nice dinner tonight to show our thanks?"

Vivian gently helped Jason smooth out his bangs with a tender look in her eyes. "My precious Jason, whatever you say goes. I’ll listen to everything you want."

Thinking about the documents I’d left near the villa, I didn’t turn down Jason’s invitation.

On the way home, sitting in the front passenger seat, I clearly heard Vivian and Jason in the back, indulging in their passions.

While stoking the flames of lust, Jason chuckled mischievously and teased Vivian’s growing appetite. "Vivian, could you be a little more mindful of the situation? What if Ethan up front finds out?"

Vivian bit Jason’s ear with a low laugh, all while sneaking glances at me several times through the rearview mirror.

When she noticed that I was completely ignoring them and just playing on my phone, the same sense of irritation that had gripped her last night outside the bathroom door returned, when she overheard me whispering to someone else.

"Ethan, get me a tissue."

She stopped what she was doing and deliberately held her wet hands in front of me.

Without changing expression, I handed her a tissue and was about to go back to my mobile game to pass the time when I heard Vivian’s displeased voice ask me what I was looking at.

Before I could respond, she suddenly snatched my phone.

"Ethan, why did your lock screen change?"

She noticed the family photo of the three of us, which had been there for years, had inexplicably been replaced by a random system image.

For some reason, her face darkened.

Seeing that I had no intention of answering, Vivian coldly threw the phone back at me.

When the car reached halfway up the mountain, Jason suddenly said he wanted to return to the office.

In response, Vivian directly shoved me out of the car and coldly ordered me to go back to the villa first and prepare dinner for Jason.

Two hours later, with my heels rubbed raw, I finally retrieved my documents at the villa entrance.

Just as I was about to leave, a battered delivery truck suddenly appeared.

Two burly men jumped out and, without giving me a chance to resist, forcibly abducted me.

Inside a desolate mining site, barely clinging to life, I saw Jason, his eyes full of mockery.

He viciously ground my hand beneath his expensive leather shoe, but failed to get a single cry of pain out of me.

Jason curled his lips in hatred and sneered. “Ethan, why are you so damned pathetic?”

“We already have a child together and yet you cling to Vivian like a damn fly, acting pitiful, fishing for sympathy, as if she’d really take care of a useless wreck like you for the rest of your life.”

“What a joke. No matter how hard you try to seduce her, the only man she truly loves… is me. You pathetic bastard! What the hell are you smirking about?”

“I’m laughing at how you’re looking for trouble for no reason. All that effort is for nothing.”

Infuriated by my cold, disdainful attitude, Jason slapped me hard across the face twice. Then, smiling with a twisted glint in his eyes, he said, “Ethan, I bet you still don’t know why your daughter suddenly fell ill and died, do you? On her birthday, I joked with her. I told her: if she was brave enough to eat an entire snot worm, her beloved mommy would come home right away and blow out the birthday candles with her.”

"I really didn’t expect your daughter to be dumb enough to actually do it. While she was in agony from the stomach pain, she secretly called Vivian behind your back. But Vivian, just to enjoy a movie with me, didn’t even care. She told the girl to behave and go to sleep, then hung up.”

In a sudden burst of fury, I grabbed Jason by the neck, using every ounce of strength I had to drag him toward the depths of the mine, toward the area rigged with explosives.

As Jason screamed for help, his two thugs rushed over and began to beat me savagely, raining punches and kicks on me.

In the chaos, someone accidentally stepped on the detonator and the decaying mine exploded with a thunderous roar, shaking like an earthquake.

Amid the rumbling collapse, I heard a voice pierce through the dust and debris.

“Ethan!”

It was Vivian.