In the video, Damian was kneeling by Alice’s feet and letting the woman step on his shoulder with a high-heel-clad foot.

In his hands was a milk bottle, and he was patiently feeding one of the twins.

“That woman is also pregnant, Damian. What are you going to do?” Alice’s charming voice came through the speaker.

Without even looking up, Damian answered in a voice as cold as ice, “She’s just a scapegoat. Someone needs to become the Morrety family’s donna, and she can only be a puppet. She doesn’t have a powerful family that can support her, so she can be easily controlled. As for the baby, if she manages to give birth to it, I’ll get rid of the parasite myself.”

Alice’s lips curled upward for a moment. Then, she wiped the smile off her face. In fake concern, she asked, “Isn’t that too cruel?”

“No. You’re the only one who is allowed to give birth to the Morrety family’s heir,” Damian said.

How very romantic.

I turned off the video and squatted down on the cold floor. My heart hurt so much that I could not breathe. Then, I started stuffing cold pizza into my mouth.

This was an eating disorder I had had since I was a child.

Whenever I was in extreme fear or pain, I would start binge eating. Only when my stomach felt bloated would I feel that I was still alive.

Tears ran down my face, and I only stopped when my stomach started cramping in such pain that I knew it could only be from pancreatitis. I collapsed on the floor. With trembling hands, I called Damian.

“Damian… My stomach hurts… Help me…”

However, I heard a lot of noise from the background, along with Alice’s suppressed moans.

“Annie, be good. I’m in an important meeting. Let the doctor check on you first. I’ll be back in a bit.” Damian sounded a little breathless.

He hung up.

As I lay on the freezing floor, I stared at the crystal chandelier on the ceiling, and I started laughing.

‘Damian, you told me before that mafia members never cried. They only shed blood,’ I thought.

Since he wanted a perfect puppet, I would prepare a perfect funeral for myself.

…

When I woke up in the hospital, Chester was sitting beside me.

“You almost died. Did you know that you have severe pancreatitis? Where’s Damian? He didn’t even come to sign the papers.” He tossed a medical report in front of me.

“He’s busy.”

He was sleeping with his childhood friend, obviously.

I pushed myself up, even though that ended with my face as white as a sheet. “Chester, we need to move the plan forward. I want to ‘die’ on my wedding anniversary.”

“Are you sure? Once the plan is put into motion, you can’t turn back anymore.”

“I don’t need it. I just want his life to turn into a living hell.” I looked outside.

…

The next day, Damian came back exhausted.

In his hands, he held a beautiful jewelry box. In it was an expensive ruby necklace worth millions.

“Sorry, Annie, the meeting yesterday was just too important.”

He knelt by my bed and kissed the back of my hand. When he saw the IV needle attached to it, pity shone in his eyes. “I heard from the doctor just how bad your illness is, and my heart hurts so badly for you.”

Suddenly, I thought that he was a really bad actor.

So, I changed the topic and whispered, “Damian, I want to attend the alumni party tomorrow. I want to meet my university friends.”

Damian frowned at that before nodding. “Alright. I’ll go with you. You can do whatever you want if it makes you happy.”

The alumni party was held at the most luxurious private club in the city.

Like a loyal knight, Damian stayed close to my side. He prepared expensive gifts for all of my friends and even draped a shawl over my shoulders.

“Annie, you’re seriously so lucky.” One of my friends watched me with great longing. “Don Damian really treats you like a princess.”

I smiled politely while counting down the minutes until my staged death.

Just then, the door to the club flung open, and Alice strode in with a fiery red backless dress. She looked like a ball of flames.

The entire place fell silent.

Everyone knew that three years ago, Damian had destroyed the Kent family as a gift for me in order to propose to me. He sent Alice’s father to jail and had the entire family vanish from Zolnah.

Yet the disgraced heiress who should be struggling to survive in the slums was walking straight to us while wearing a diamond worth millions and a champagne flute in hand.

“Good evening, everyone.” Alice pretended not to notice how unwelcome she was and remained smiling. Then, she looked past the crowd and saw the shawl around my shoulders.

In the next second, she covered her mouth in exaggerated movements, though her amusement never reached her eyes. “My goodness, Annie, that shawl you’re wearing… What a coincidence. That’s the limited-edition shawl Phoenix launched this season, and it’s the brand I created.”

Whispers rippled through the crowd instantly.

“Didn’t the Kent family go broke? Where did she get the money to create a luxury brand?”

“I heard that Phoenix received a huge investment…”

Alice seemed to be basking in the crowd’s puzzlement.

She twirled the champagne flute and cast a flirtatious glance at Damian’s tensed jaw before crooning in a sickeningly sweet manner, “That’s right. I thought that I was done for, but later on, I got myself a good husband.

“Not only did he give me a startup capital worth tens of billions, but he even used his connections from both the criminal world and legal world to help me launch more than ten luxury brands across the globe.”

After a brief pause, she gave me a challenging look. “He said that he couldn’t bear to see my talents fade into obscurity. After all, I’m the most special woman he’s ever met.”

My heart clenched, and the sharp pain made all the blood drain from my face.

Back then, Damian had traveled frequently to Cesely Isles on the excuse that he had to get rid of the family’s traitors, but he was really paving the road for Alice. He used the family’s power to help my mortal enemy rise to power.

“Annie?” When Damian noticed me trembling, he held my waist and scowled. “You’re so pale. Are you feeling sick again?”

His loving facade made me feel nauseous.

“I’m going to the washroom.” I pushed his hand away and tried to leave the suffocating space.

However, when I walked past Alice, she discreetly extended a foot in my path.

I could not avoid it in time and staggered so badly that I nearly fell.

Damian quickly grabbed me.

“Oh my!” Alice covered her mouth in feigned alarm, but her eyes shone with malicious glee. “Donna Annie, why are you so unsteady on your feet? Is it because you’re old now and suffering from osteoporosis?”

“That’s enough!” An enraged shout stunned the entire crowd.

Damian let go of me and went up to Alice. He grabbed Alice’s thin neck with one hand and lifted her from the floor.

“Who let you in? Get out, now!”

Alice’s face turned red as she kicked around in the air. Tears pooled in her eyes, and she looked like she had suffered a great injustice.

Damian seemed visibly affected by that.

He let her down and ordered her to leave again.

After smoothing out her wrinkled red dress, Alice could only listen to him and leave.

When she walked past me, she spoke at a volume only the both of us could hear. She whispered, “Don’t act so smug, Annie. Want to bet that he’ll come running to me and leave you behind the moment I call him?”

I ignored her and went straight to the washroom.

Once I splashed my face with cold water, I stared at the woman in the mirror. Her face was pale, and her dull eyes slowly filled with determination.

When I walked out of the washroom, Damian was smoking while leaning against the wall. The moment he saw me, he immediately put out his cigarette. Panic shone in his eyes as he walked over and held my hand.

“Annie, about the brand. I didn’t know it was hers. You know that my subordinates sometimes don’t notify me when they do certain things.”

What a cheap lie.

Damian knew everything that went on in the Morrety family. He would know even when a fly flew through his territory.

Just then, his personal phone rang. Only a handful of mademan knew that number.

Damian took one look at the screen, and his expression changed.

He answered the phone, and out came Alice’s shrill cries. It was especially piercing to the ears in the quiet corridor.

“Damian, help! Leo is down with a fever, and he’s spasming! The doctors say he’s in critical condition! You have to hurry!”

He hung up and looked at me before swallowing. “Annie, the company—something happened at the harbor. Our goods have been seized. I need to deal with it.”

It was yet another lie.

However, I did not expose him. I just called out to him softly. “Damian, you promised me before that no matter what happens, you’ll keep me company tonight. Don’t go, please?”

A strange wave of panic suddenly seized his heart.

It was a weird feeling, reminiscent of a hunter who was about to lose his most prized prey. His instincts told him that if he walked out that door today, he was going to lose something forever.

His knuckles turned white around his phone, and conflict raged in his eyes.

Leo was his and Alice’s child.

His phone vibrated again, and he received a photo from Alice. It showed Leo in the hospital.

The scales tilted in Alice’s favor.

He sucked in a deep breath, took a step forward, and kissed my forehead. It was as if he wanted to use that to make sure that I still belonged to him.

“I’m sorry, Annie. It’s really an emergency, but I swear to you that I’ll come back immediately once I’m done with it.”

Then, he let go of me and walked toward the elevator. He moved so decisively that he never once turned back around to look at me.

I stood in the empty corridor. As the elevator door closed, it obscured me from his sight.

“You don’t have to give me anymore excuses, Damian,” I whispered to the air, and I smiled, as if I was free.

“This was the last time, and you still chose her, Damian.

“This will also be the last chance I give you.”

A day before the wedding anniversary, I went to the place where we first met. It was an abandoned harbor located in the suburbs.

Damian built the One and Only manor for me over there to show that I was his one and true love.

However, when I walked into the manor, I found that the decorations and furniture inside had completely changed.

The light-blue curtains I loved had become pink curtains. The white gardenias in the garden were uprooted, and in their place were lilies—Alice’s favorite flowers.

There was even a baby’s cradle in the master bedroom.

I went to the bathroom. The door wasn’t shut tight, so I heard the sound of water running inside, along with a man and woman laughing.

“Dear, if Annie learned that you’re with me right now, would she get so upset that she’d get a miscarriage?”

That was Alice’s voice.

Damian just tightened his hold over her waist and grunted, “Don’t ruin the mood. Just get on your knees for me.”

I stood in the shadows. Despite my hands and feet going cold, I felt strangely calm.

I did not rush in to start screaming hysterically, nor did I point a gun at their heads like a madwoman.

Instead, I turned around and went to the secret drawer at the bedside table.

In it was a thick album, and on the cover was hand-stitched, blue enchantress.

The album contained all the photos we took over the three years of our marriage.

I turned to the first page.

Damian smiled gently and sincerely in the photo, as if I truly was his entire world.

I took out the gold lighter Damian often used from the drawer. On it was the Morrety family’s emblem—a viper curled around a sharp sword.

Click.

Blue flames jumped up and shone against my cold eyes.

I brought the fire close to the edge of the photo, and the flames instantly lapped greedily on the paper. It first burned off his eyes, then my wedding gown, and finally, the fake happiness.

The acrid scent of paper burning filled the room.

With an expressionless face, I watched the flames burn through the pages. The memories I once treasured twisted, charred, and were finally reduced to ashes under the heat.

The two people inside the bathroom were still laughing, but the album in my hands was already burnt.

As smoke rose from the damaged album, I walked to the trashcan in the corridor.

The damaged, burnt album plunged into the trashcan with a thud. Some sparks flew, but it soon faded into the darkness.

I let go, and the expensive lighter also fell down with a dull thud.

Three years of love. Three years of lies. Even the fool called Annie died in the flames.

Half an hour later, Damian walked down the stairs in a clean suit. He looked refreshed.

“Annie? Why are you here?”

When he saw me, panic flashed in his eyes for a moment, but he soon hid it.

“I wanted to take a look at the place we first met.” I went over with a smile and smoothed his tie. “Damian, I’ve prepared the private jet for tomorrow. I’m going to go to the island on the Great Western Ocean to retrieve the surprise I prepared for you.”

Damian squeezed me so tightly it felt like he wanted to break my bones.

“Alright. I’ll wait for you. Annie, once our wedding anniversary is over, let’s move to a place where we’re the only living souls in the area.”

I did not ask for a reason. I just stood on my tiptoes and kissed him. It was not as sweet as before. I only felt the bitterness of betrayal on my tongue.

“Sure. Goodbye, Damian.”

Then, I turned around and left.

…

The next afternoon, Damian was sitting in the manor’s messy bed while toying with a lock of Alice’s hair.

“Don Damian, this is Donna Annie’s surprise for you,” his assistant whispered.

I had someone send the surprise to his office in Morrety Corporation early in the morning.

Damian took it and asked, “Where’s Annie?”

The assistant was about to answer when the news channel suddenly broadcasted emergency news.

“Latest update. A private jet belonging to Morrety Corporation exploded and plunged into the Great Western Ocean due to unknown reasons. Preliminary investigation indicates that Annie Morrety, the wife of Morrety Corporation’s president, was the only passenger on the plane at that time.”