After waking from surgery, I reached for the phone beside me and made a call.

It was answered quickly, and I choked out, “Brother, can you come pick me up in four days?”

“As long as you want, I can come tomorrow, no, I can come get you right now and take you home!”

"No, wait a little longer. I still have some things to check. I suspect the car accident that happened to me and my parents wasn't that simple. Give me another four days."

Hearing my brother’s familiar voice, tears welled up, but I managed a smile through them.

Just then, Jeremiah pushed the door open and walked in. Seeing the smile on my face, he froze for a moment.

Noticing someone had come in, I quickly said, “Something came up. I’ll hang up now.”

Trailing behind Jeremiah was his little shadow, Margaret. I silently watched as they approached.

Seeing the bandages wrapped around me, a flicker of hesitation crossed Jeremiah’s face. He reached toward me with a pained look, but I dodged his hand.

Margaret seized the moment and said, “Sister must’ve met someone else. That’s why she doesn’t want Brother Jeremiah near her, right?”

Jeremiah’s tender expression vanished, replaced by pure disgust. “Lainey, you were already indecent five years ago. I can’t believe you still haven’t changed after all that time inside.”

“I don’t even know what Mom was thinking, forcing me to marry a whore like you. It’s utterly disgusting.”

With that, he turned sharply and left.

But Margaret didn’t move.

She looked at me with a smug smile and said, “The wedding in three days will be all about Brother Jeremiah and me. As for you, just go rot in some dark corner.”

When I didn’t respond, a flicker of displeasure crossed her face. Suddenly, she pulled out the diamond pendant.

Only then did a spark of life return to my lifeless eyes.

“Lainey, you care about this pendant so much? Fine, if you want it that badly, I’ll give it back to you.”

With merciless cruelty, Margaret smashed the pendant against the floor.

The diamond shattered.

And with it, the last shred of feeling I had left for Jeremiah turned to ashes.

Like a broken dog, I tumbled off the bed, ignoring the needle still lodged in my hand, desperate to gather the scattered fragments of the diamond.

But the shards tore into my skin, blood spilling onto the floor and seeping into the broken pendant.

Margaret, satisfied with her cruelty, walked away with a triumphant smile.

The next day, Jeremiah called.

“Lainey, go turn yourself into the police tomorrow. Tell them you hit someone in a car accident.”

His voice dripped with shameless righteousness.

When I stayed silent, he sighed and added, “Margaret drank a little too much when she was accompanying a client before. You also know that driving after drinking is more likely to cause an accident. Now someone has started to investigate this matter again, so you should voluntarily turn yourself in tomorrow..”

“And the wedding?” I asked calmly.

“The wedding goes on as planned. Your legs are useless anyway. Margaret will attend the banquet for you, but the name on the marriage certificate will still be yours.”

“I’m not going.” I refused flatly.

Jeremiah’s momentary shock at my refusal quickly gave way to an angry laugh. “I know how much you want to be part of your own wedding, but since you’re the one who ‘Knock someone down,’ you have to bear the blame, right?”

“Margaret going to the wedding in your place, you going to jail in hers, what’s the problem? If anything, Margaret’s the one getting the short end of the stick. You know how much a woman’s reputation means.”

I stared, stunned by the sheer shamelessness of it all.

Before I could respond, Jeremiah hung up.

My gaze fell on the small box beside me, the shattered pieces of the diamond pendant Margaret had destroyed.

I closed my eyes, tears welling up in my eyes.

I packaged the missing information from the days when my parents had the car accident and sent it to the relevant personnel.

When I was discharged and returned home, the living room was in utter chaos, and from the kitchen came muffled, obscene noises that turned my stomach.

Then I saw it, an unbearable scene.

With his back to me, Jeremiah was eagerly losing himself in Margaret, and she, drunk on pleasure, turned to give me a smug, provocative smile.

She mouthed silently: Useless thing, have you seen enough?

Disgust hit me so hard that I fled upstairs and threw up. It took ages before I could breathe normally again.

I didn’t know how much time had passed, but just as I reached the bedroom door, I saw Jeremiah standing there as if he’d been waiting.

He grabbed my wrist sharply.

“Lainey, can you show a shred of shame?”

“Didn’t I tell you to go turn yourself in? Or are you really going to wait for the police to drag you away?”

But as he caught sight of the wounds on my body, his voice faltered.

A flicker of conflict and hesitation clouded his face.

I shook off his hand and replied calmly, “I’m a cripple. How could I possibly hurt anyone?”

Jeremiah’s face darkened, clearly seconds away from erupting. But his phone rang.

He turned away to answer it, teeth clenched, while I quietly slipped back into my room.

I wrapped myself tightly in the blanket, curling into the cold silence.

Over and over, I whispered in my heart. Just one more day. Just one more.

Just as I was about to drift into a dazed sleep, Jeremiah suddenly yanked me out from under the blanket. This time, his eyes blazed with fury as he stared at me.

"Lainey, are you trying to die!?"

"You actually went and tattled to my mom again. You really are shameless, anything to become Mrs. Ross, huh?"

With that, Jeremiah ripped open my clothes with his bare hands.

A chill spread across my chest as I reached out to push him away. "What are you doing?!"

Jeremiah sneered, "What am I doing? I’m doing exactly what you’ve always wanted me to do."

As I struggled beneath him, he scoffed, "You messaged my mom to complain again, didn’t you? Just so you could hurry up and become Mrs. Ross? And now you’re pretending to be some chaste little angel, who are you trying to fool?"

I froze.

I had never sent anything to his mother.

Jeremiah took advantage of my stillness, pinned my hands above my head, and trailed harsh kisses down my neck.

I couldn’t break free, and tears began to fall uncontrollably.

When Jeremiah felt the wetness, he instantly lost interest.

He got up, grabbed his clothes from the floor, and sneered coldly, "What an act, playing innocent when you’ve already been fucked by who knows how many men."

I pulled the blanket tighter around me and shut out his words completely.

Jeremiah cast me a glare filled with disgust.

"Remember to go to the police station tomorrow and turn yourself in. Don’t make me drag you there..."

Before he could finish, his phone rang. It was Margaret.

Over the call, she cried and begged him to come over, saying she was scared and couldn’t bear to be alone.

Without a second thought, Jeremiah tossed me aside and stormed out.

At that moment, I quietly grabbed some clothes and began to pack.

But when I opened the wardrobe, it was filled with clothing tailored for Margaret’s figure. Not a single piece would fit me.

Aside from the clothes I had worn before prison, I had nothing of my own.

Gazing at the wardrobe packed with black silk lingerie, I turned around, grabbed a pair of scissors, and shredded every last piece.

Then I took my box and wheeled myself downstairs.

What I didn’t expect was to see someone completely unexpected.

I approached calmly, a sweet smile on my lips. "Madam, what brings you here so late at night?"

When she saw me wrapped in bandages, his mother, Naomi Ross’s eyes filled with heartache. She rushed toward me, arms halfway open, then hesitated, afraid even a touch might hurt me.

"Lainey, how did this happen to you? Was it that boy did he do this to you?"

I said nothing.

Realizing the truth in my silence, Naomi’s expression faltered, but she still clung to a sliver of hope.

"Lainey, be good. I’ll fight for you. That brat has gotten completely out of hand!"

She pulled out her phone and began calling Jeremiah.

She dialed again and again. No answer.

Her smile turned awkward as she looked at me, forcing a strained chuckle.

“Lainey, Maybe Jeremiah's just… busy right now, you know…"

Before she could finish, I handed her the explicit photo Margaret had just sent me two minutes ago.

"You’re right, Auntie. He is indeed very busy."

Naomi stared at the provocative message. The smile on her lips collapsed.

She looked at me, eyes heavy with sorrow, and whispered, "Lainey, I’m sorry. This is all my fault."

"If I had known Jeremiah would become like this, I would’ve never pushed the two of you together. During those five years, you were in prison, I kept urging him to visit you. Every time, he told me he did…”

Seeing her try to shift the topic, I followed her lead and revealed the truth.

"The one who stabbed someone back then… it was Margaret. Jeremiah was the one who found me and begged me to take the blame. I didn’t want to, at first. But he said if I did he’d consider marrying me."

"You’ve seen it now, Auntie. Jeremiah already has someone he loves. The wish you had for me to marry him, I can’t carry that out anymore."

"This… this… how could this be…"

Naomi stood frozen, unable to accept that all her heartfelt hopes had led to this.

Just as I turned to leave, Jeremiah called.

I deliberately turned on the speakerphone, and his vicious voice burst through.

“Lainey, are you a bitch or what? I just tried to sleep with you and you refused, then you go whining to my mom? What the hell is wrong with you?”

I lifted the phone and met Naomi’s eyes.

In silence, I told her: that it wasn’t that I refused, it was because this was who Jeremiah truly was.

Naomi’s face went cold with disappointment. Her voice trembled with rage as she snapped, “Jeremiah, that’s enough! All those years of raising you, what were they even for?”

“Mom, go ahead, take her side. Who's your real child, huh? Lainey is just some filthy slut who's been with God knows how many men. A whore with a kid. Why the hell are you defending her?”

“Whatever. I’ve said enough. Just stop helping her. She needs to be knocked down a peg. Maybe then she’ll remember who her savior really is.”

Jeremiah hung up without a trace of hesitation.

But just before the call ended, both Naomi and I clearly heard Margaret’s coquettish voice purring through the line.

“Brother Jeremiah, let’s do something exciting tonight, okay? Tonight, I belong only to you.”

The room fell into suffocating silence.

After a long, heavy pause, Naomi let out a weary sigh and finally said, “Lainey, if you want to leave… then go. I won’t stop you anymore.”

She looked at me with guilt in her eyes.

“It’s me who owes you. From the beginning, you and Jeremiah were a mistake. I should never have used your sacrifice to push you toward him.”

I didn’t say another word.

I quietly gathered my things, stepped out of the villa, and booked a hotel for the night.