Through the mess of bodies and noise, I spotted the white dress I had fallen in love with lying crushed beneath people’s shoes, the once-clean fabric ground into filth. My vision swam as the beating finally stopped, humiliation burning hotter than the pain in my bones.

At some point, mall security forced their way into the chaos and began scattering the crowd.

Later, I vaguely noticed Stephen’s car slowing as he passed the scene, his eyes flicking to the destruction in the mirror. He hesitated only briefly.

“She has guards. She won’t be in danger,” he muttered to himself.

Seraphina whimpered beside him, curling inward.

“My stomach hurts so badly… maybe when I fell earlier…”

He floored the accelerator, speeding out of the mall parking lot and straight toward the hospital.

I hovered between waking and blacking out, my body soaked in pain, my heart hollowed out by how completely alone I was.

---

I returned to the apartment by myself. Every inch of me throbbed, bruises blooming under torn skin. I didn’t report anything. I didn’t seek treatment. It all felt meaningless. Before leaving the mall, I’d retrieved the ruined white dress, folding it carefully despite the stains.

For two days I lay in bed without moving, counting the hours as though my life had already ended. Stephen never came. No calls. No messages. It was as if I’d been erased.

On the third morning, something stirred faintly inside me — a fragile flicker of strength. I took the dress from the closet, put on a little makeup, and told myself this was the day I would keep my final promise. No regrets. No turning back.

As I got into the car, my phone vibrated. Stephen’s voice came through, cold and commanding.

“Come to this address now. If you don’t, I’ll send someone to fetch you.”

My chest tightened when I saw the location. But I didn’t argue. It was my last day anyway.

The driver stopped in front of a hotel swarming with cameras. Flashing lights hit me like lightning. I tried to retreat, but Stephen seized my wrist and dragged me inside.

Seraphina sat in the first row of the hall. Behind her were layers of journalists, microphones and lenses pointed at the stage. The screen above blazed with bold red words: Public Apology Conference.

Stephen pushed me forward. The microphone was forced into my hand.

“Apologize to Seraphina,” he said quietly. “In front of everyone.”

She wore a pale maternity dress, her expression gentle, victorious. The cameras adored her.

I stood straighter.

“I haven’t done anything that requires an apology.”

His eyes hardened. “Don’t push me, Addy.”

“Seraphina almost lost her children because of you,” he continued. “You humiliated her, frightened her, treated her cruelly. Do you seriously think you owe her nothing?”

I understood then — this was theater. A way to cleanse Seraphina’s name and strip me of mine.

I forced the bitterness down.

“And why are you always defending her instead of me?” I asked. “You’re my husband. Did you ever once ask me what really happened? Or are you certain those children aren’t even yours?”

His face drained of color. He grabbed my arm.

“This is your final warning. If you refuse, your surgery is over.”

I laughed quietly.

His tone turned ironclad.

“Amelia Malonzo, apologize.”

Cameras blinded me. Seraphina’s hands rested lovingly over her belly.

“I didn’t do anything wrong,” I said evenly. “She destroyed everything. Seraphina is the murderer.”

Stephen looked ready to kill me. I pulled free from him.

“My parents were innocent. I was never a bully. The only mistake I made was letting my mother help her.”

The room exploded in noise.

Seraphina staggered toward me. “Why are you lying? You’ll ruin my babies’ lives!”

Before I could respond, she rushed me. I raised my arms — too late.

Her stomach slammed into the table edge. Blood bloomed across her skirt.

“My babies—!”

Stephen shoved me aside and carried her away.

“If anything happens to her, you’ll regret being born,” he said without looking back.

His guards seized me and hauled me after them.

In the hospital hallway, Seraphina sobbed hysterically.

Then Stephen emerged, colder than ever.

“Amelia,” he said flatly. “Go outside. Kneel. Repent to my children. That’s your punishment.”

The guards dragged me out into the cold and forced me onto the stone ground. My knees hit hard.

I didn’t fight.

I lifted my head slightly. The year’s first snow was drifting down in silent flakes, settling on my lashes and soaking into my hair. The world felt unreal, like I had already crossed halfway into another life.

The snowfall thickened until I could barely keep my eyes open. My limbs were heavy, distant, as though they no longer belonged to me. The cold finally dragged me under, and just before everything went dark, I heard a guard shout in alarm.

“Sir, she’s passed out!”

Stephen didn’t even glance my way.

“Wake her up,” he said flatly. “She’s not done kneeling.”

A bucket of freezing water slammed into my face. I choked violently, coughing until my chest felt like it was tearing apart. My heart was failing, my whole body screaming, yet all I did was count the seconds in my head, unwilling to waste the few I had left before the funeral home came for me.

Inside the ward, Seraphina was wrapped around Stephen, shaking like she might shatter.

“Our babies… they’re gone,” she whispered through sobs.

He stroked her hair tenderly, his voice softer than I had ever heard it.

“Don’t cry. We can try again. I won’t let this pain be for nothing.”

She stared down at her now-flat stomach and broke down again.

“I have nothing. No family, no child, no standing. What’s left for me? Maybe I should just—”

“Don’t say that,” he cut in sharply.

She pulled away, eyes red and swollen.

“Stephen… can I replace Amelia? Can I be your wife in this life?”

The room fell silent.

The guard knocked once more. “Sir, she’s fainted again. We can’t wake her this time.”

Stephen finally stepped out and stared at me sprawled in the snow. My skin was drained of color, my lips tinged blue, my soaked white dress clinging to me like a shroud.

“Call a doctor,” he snapped. “Just don’t let her die.”

Even now, punishment came first.

I was jolted awake by an injection, barely conscious before I was hauled onto a small boat. My fingers were frozen, useless, as someone pressed an urn into my hands. Stephen stood nearby, expression glacial. Seraphina, bundled in layers, leaned weakly against him.

When we reached open water, he said only, “Begin.”

I wobbled to the railing, the wind slicing through my bones. I looked at the urn and gave a hollow laugh. My life had been nothing but wounds — now even this final task was forced upon me.

Seraphina crept closer, her tone deceptively gentle.

“Amelia… how does it feel, scattering our babies by yourself?”

I ignored her and lifted the lid. At that moment, she shoved me. The urn slipped free and vanished into the sea.

“My children!” she screamed, pretending to lunge after it.

Stephen pulled her back at once.

“Seraphina, stop!”

Then he turned on me, eyes blazing.

“You did that deliberately!”

“Yes,” I said quietly. “Just like she pushed me deliberately.”

Seraphina clung to him, sobbing. He wrapped her in his arms as though she were porcelain.

“Retrieve it,” he ordered me.

“It’s gone,” I replied.

“Then jump in and find it.”

I met his gaze, strangely peaceful.

“Alright.”

I stepped off the boat.

The water swallowed me whole, my white dress floating briefly before sinking into blackness. Stephen shouted something behind me, but it was distant, fading.

Seraphina cried out weakly, clutching her chest.

“Stephen, I don’t feel well…”

He stared at the sea for a moment, then said, “Send another boat. She can swim. Head back and call an ambulance.”

The water numbed everything. I stopped struggling. My thoughts blurred, darkness closing in.

The burial, the punishment, the pain — it was finally over.

At last, I was free.

Stephen’ POV

Seraphina was asleep when I got her back to the hospital. Her face looked pale, so fragile, like she might break if I looked at her too hard. I sat beside her bed and held her hand gently, feeling the warmth that was mine to protect. Her tears slid down her cheeks even in her sleep, and she murmured weakly.

“Stephen… don’t leave me, okay? I’m so scared.”

I lowered my voice, trying to soothe her, but there was this gnawing panic deep in my chest that I couldn’t shake. The waves outside crashed against the shore, a constant reminder of last night. My mind kept replaying Amelia’s face just before she jumped—the calm, cold certainty in her eyes.

“Seraphina, rest. I’ll make a call.”

I slipped my hand from hers and stepped into the hallway. My fingers trembled slightly as I dialed my assistant.

“Did you find her yet?”

There was hesitation on the other end. The wind and the waves made it hard to hear.

“Still looking, sir. The sea’s too dark. We sent ten more boats, but…”

I cut him off, my voice tight. “Keep looking. She’s a champion swimmer. Nothing can happen to her.”

I rubbed my forehead. I knew she wasn’t careless. “Amelia had once taken the provincial swimming championship. That stretch of sea was nothing to her. She had done this on purpose. She wanted to make me panic, make me sweat. Heart surgery is in two days, she can’t afford to disappear.”

I muttered to myself, trying to convince myself it was just worry, but my gut twisted with unease. My gaze went to the snow piling outside the window. Inside my mind, her last smile kept haunting me. That smile wasn’t hers. Not completely. It was sharp, knowing, untouchable.

No, I told myself. That’s not Amelia. She loved me before. She threw herself at me when my family went bankrupt, offered everything she had to help me pick up the pieces. She had fought for me like a warrior. She never would leave.

The next morning, I made sure Seraphina was in good hands with the nurse and drove home alone. The silence hit me the moment I pushed open the door.

“Addy?” I called out. Twice. Nothing.

I walked into the bedroom and froze. The wedding photos—the wall that used to shine with our happiness—was empty. The coffee table, the display cabinet in the living room, stripped clean. I called the servant, my chest tightening.

“A few days ago, after Miss Amelia returned from outside, she ordered all photos with you burned. Nothing left,” they said.

Impossible. She had treated those photos like treasures. She stared at them for hours, dragged me into the memories over and over. She could not have just let them go.

The phone rang. Seraphina’s voice, trembling, came through the speaker.

“Stephen, where are you? I… I had a nightmare about our babies. Can you come back?”

I looked around the empty room, every corner scanned like a hawk. No trace of her anywhere. My reply was automatic, but my heart raced anyway.

“I’m coming. Stay there.”

Even when I sounded calm, I felt every inch of my chest tighten. Amelia had disappeared, and I had no idea if she’d show up for her own heart surgery. But I would find her. I had to.

---

Seraphina threw herself into my arms the second we got back to the hospital. She was crying like her heart was breaking, and I held her tight, patting her back, trying to calm her down. But my mind wasn’t really there.

She tilted her head up, tears streaking her face, and asked softly, “Stephen… are you thinking about something?”

I could feel her trembling against me. “You… can’t find Amelia? Is she okay?”

I shook my head, the tension tightening my jaw. “No word from my men yet,” I said, thinking of the calls I’d just made. Still nothing.

Her face crumpled, and she whispered, “I’m so sorry. If it wasn’t for me… none of this would have happened. It’s because of me she… she jumped.”

I squeezed her tighter. “Hey. None of this is your fault. We just lost our twins… that’s enough. You rest now.”

She sniffled, still burying herself in my chest, and I felt her eyes flicker with something she tried to hide. I forced a slow exhale.

She’ll be fine. Amelia’s a swimming genius. She almost made the national team. She probably swam ashore and hid because she doesn’t want to see me. That’s why she hasn’t called.

And the heart surgery… she can’t miss it. She won’t.

I forced a smile for Seraphina, but inside, I was still twisting over every second she was out there.

The next two days, I focused on Seraphina, making sure she ate, rested, and stayed warm. But the moment it got quiet at night, my mind betrayed me, replaying Amelia’s face, her calm, steady look just before she jumped.

I told myself over and over she would come back for the surgery. She’s not reckless enough to risk that. She’s just… acting out. Trying to scare me. But damn, it worked. I can’t shake it.

I got to the hospital early, sitting on a bench outside the operating room, tapping my fingers on my knees without even realizing it.

The nurse came by again, looking a little nervous. “Mr. Holt, has Mrs. Holt shown up yet?”