But instead, he tore off an entire piece of shedding skin from my back that had yet to fully peel away.

Pain shot through me and I instinctively rubbed my back against the ground before retreating deeper under the table.

Victor’s pupils contracted sharply, as if struck by lightning.

Without a care for his dignity, he dropped to the ground, meeting my gaze at eye level. When he spoke, his voice was hoarse, as though something was choking him. "Eve, what's wrong? Why is your skin peeling off like this? Are you feeling unwell?"

Before I could respond, Clara immediately choked up and cut in, her voice trembling. "The island has sunshine all year round and Eve's skin is so delicate. It must have peeled from sunburn. This is all my fault. Victor, if it weren’t for me, you wouldn’t have been angry enough to send my sister to the island in the first place."

"Clara, this isn’t your fault." My mother held Clara in her arms, her voice full of affection. "Even though Eve is my biological daughter, I can’t defend her against my conscience. She’s already in her twenties, does she not know how to avoid the sun if it’s too hot? I think she knew we were coming to pick her up and deliberately stood under the sun to put on this act of suffering."

The moment my mother finished speaking, Victor’s expression darkened instantly.

Without hesitation and ignoring my struggles, he grabbed my ankle and forcibly dragged me out from under the table.

My freshly shed back scraped against the ground, sending unbearable pain searing through me. Blood gushed from the raw wounds, staining the floor.

Yet Victor remained indifferent, merely casting a cold glance at me as he reprimanded, "Eve, is this your pitiful act? So not only are you vicious toward others, but you're also ruthless to yourself."

"Compared to the cruel things you've done to Clara over the years, forcing a young girl to stand naked at our wedding, sending you to an island to enjoy nature for six months was barely even a punishment!"

I ignored Victor. My body, weakened from excessive blood loss, screamed for sustenance. I had to eat and fast.

Just then, a large rat darted out from the yacht’s kitchen, sending the guests into a frenzy. People clung to one another, shrieking and jumping away in terror.

But my eyes lit up. Without hesitation, I lunged at it.

Under the stunned gazes of Victor and my parents, I bit down on the rat and swallowed it whole with satisfaction.

"Ah!" My mother let out a shrill scream of agony. "Is this still my daughter? How could living in isolation on Snake Island for just six months strip her of even the most basic humanity?"

Victor staggered, almost losing his balance. "Eve, I know you're terrified of snakes. But Snake Island is a beautiful place, full of harmless, non-venomous snakes. No matter how angry you are at me, you shouldn’t have done something so disgusting and self-destructive to yourself!"

Just as his words fell, Clara suddenly dropped to her knees, sobbing as she frantically slapped herself.

"If it weren’t for me, my sister wouldn’t have ended up like this. Take her back home. I'll stay on Snake Island for the rest of my life to atone for my sins and make it up to her!"

My mother’s cries abruptly stopped. She turned to me, her face twisting in fury and pointed a trembling finger at me as she screamed, "Eve, how can you be so vile? Just to drive Clara away, you've reduced yourself to a beast! Do you have no dignity left as a human being?"

Victor's dark eyes locked onto me, his gaze unwavering.

Suddenly, he let out a low chuckle, sending a chill down my spine. "Eve, don’t you love pretending to be a snake? Then let me bring you some company to play with properly."

With a flick of his fingers, someone immediately stepped forward and threw a bag full of writhing snakes at my feet.

"Eve, I know better than anyone how terrified you are of snakes. Even just seeing a rope shaped like one used to paralyze you with fear."

He stared at me coldly, a calculated glint in his eyes. "Right now, you will apologize to Clara and publicly promise never to trouble her again. Otherwise, I’ll open this bag and let you have a real taste of dancing with snakes."

Seeing that I remained silent, a fleeting trace of hesitation flashed through Victor’s eyes, but it disappeared just as quickly.

"Lock her in the karaoke room with the snakes. She can come out when she admits her mistake and begs for mercy."

With that, Victor threw me and the entire bag of snakes into the glass-walled room. He then crossed his arms over his chest, confidently waiting at the door for my screams and submission.

I used to be terrified of snakes. Even after my body was gradually altered by the researchers on Snake Island, transforming me into something inhuman, the sight of a snake would still make me tremble.

But later, in order to break me completely, the researchers threw me into a pit swarming with thousands upon thousands of snakes. There was no food, only the snakes themselves.

They forced me to adapt. Forced me to survive. Forced me to forget that I was ever human.

If I didn’t want to die of thirst or starvation, there was only one rule to follow—survival of the fittest. The strong devoured the weak.

After living in the snake pit for two months, I no longer saw snakes as terrifying creatures. To me, they had become nothing more than delicious food.

As I opened my mouth and bit into a green snake. I saw Victor’s staggering steps reflected in the glass.

"Eve, are you insane? What are you doing…?"

Victor had no idea that a single rat could never satisfy my hunger.

But this bag of snakes he had so graciously delivered to me was the greatest gift. The perfect nourishment.

Under the horrified and bloodshot gazes of Victor and my parents, I raised my head high and swallowed the writhing snake whole.

Victor’s eyes were bloodshot as he rushed into the karaoke room, yanking the snake from my hands and tossing it aside. Then, he pulled me into a tight embrace.

"Enough, Eve. Stop forcing yourself like this. Let’s not fight anymore, okay?"

I didn’t understand why he had taken my food away.

At the research institute, in order to secure more funding, they had transformed me into a "snake woman" and sent me to serve men with particular tastes, to be their amusement.

I had learned that only by pleasing men could I earn the right to eat.

So, I parted my tongue into two halves and obediently knelt before Victor.

Tucking my loose hair behind my ear, I reached out to unbuckle his belt.

His pupils shrank in disbelief and his voice turned hoarse and heavy.

"Eve… what exactly did you learn during those six months on Snake Island? Do you even remember that you are the heiress of the River Family?"

Victor suddenly grabbed my hand, his face filled with pain.

"When you played the piano, you were like a goddess, high and untouchable. How can you use these hands, the same hands that won national piano awards, for something so degrading, just to please men?"

His knuckles turned white from how tightly he gripped me. I didn’t understand his reaction, only that his hold was hurting me, so I instinctively pulled my hand back.

He was the one who sent me to this island. Here, my body had been altered into something others desired and my mind had been tamed into submission, turned into something less than human, something closer to a snake.

To survive, these hands, this mouth and every inch of my body had long since been used for things far filthier than he could imagine.

And now, he was disgusted by me. Calling me dirty.

I stared at him, unblinking. Yet, in the face of my gaze, he didn’t even have the courage to look me in the eye.

His lips pressed into a tight line. Then, his voice was cold and sharp.

"Find out exactly what happened to Eve on Snake Island in the past six months!"

The wait felt endless. Victor held me on his lap, wrapping my hands tightly in his palms, as if trying to pass warmth into me.

But he didn’t know that every drop of my blood had been replaced, that I had long become a cold-blooded creature. No matter how much warmth he tried to give, he would never thaw me.

Half an hour later, two men dragged my caretaker before us.

"I entrusted Eve's well-being to you," Victor's voice was icy, pressing down like a blade. "Now tell me, how did she turn into this? Neither human nor snake, all in just six short months?"

Under his interrogation, the caretaker trembled uncontrollably.

From the moment I set foot on Snake Island, she had already been bought by Clara and sent me into the research institute.

"Mr. Winters, please spare me! I really can't say!" The caretaker knelt repeatedly, pressing her palms together in desperate pleading. "I took someone else's money. If I speak, I'll die!"

Victor was so tense that he seemed to stop breathing. With just a glance, his bodyguards stepped forward, making the caretaker tremble and beg even more desperately.

"Mrs. Eve couldn’t bear the loneliness of the island and started consorting with an old snake catcher. Ever since they began living together, her behavior became stranger and stranger."

To prove her words, the caretaker pulled out her phone and showed Victor a video she had recorded.

At that time, I still had a shred of humanity left. I knew that the wedding ring on my hand was something important to me.

In order to retrieve my wedding ring, I had exhausted myself to the brink of death under the snake catcher’s commands, all just to please him.

In the video, the snake catcher laughed heartily with satisfaction. “As expected of a woman from the city, her skin feels as smooth as jade. And that figure… Now I can’t even think about doing anything else all day except playing with her!”

Victor remained expressionless, but the surging murderous intent and pain in his eyes were terrifying.

“You were so desperate on the island that even an old, shriveled and ugly man was good enough for you? Eve, were you born a whore, or are you doing this just to take revenge on me?”

His repeated accusations made my whole body tremble.

At that moment, an overwhelming surge of male pheromones flooded my senses and an insatiable hunger consumed me. My pupils narrowed into vertical slits against my will.

That male presence, lured by my scent, was drawing closer.

Without a second thought, I dashed toward the deck and leaped into the sea.

"Eve, you are not allowed to die!"

"Eve, don't!"

From the deck, Victor and my parents' voices rang out, filled with terror and agony.

Under everyone's horrified gaze, my body surfaced and sank in the water a few times before twisting into an extreme arc, entwining around the cold body of a massive python.