The purest love had been that year, when Athena Gray stormed into the club and crushed the ones who had bullied me. Her actions had not deserved prison, yet they carved an unshakable mark into her life.

The wealthy heiress was cast out of her family, and in the end, she squeezed into a filthy basement with me.

In those darkest days, I held her close and wept, asking if she regretted everything. But she only smiled, her eyes soft and warm.

“How could I regret it? Your safety matters more to me than my life.”

“This life of Athena will always be your dog. If you are safe, then all suffering is worth it.”

She poured every drop of her strength into lifting me up, even while she drove herself into power, rising higher and higher.

Everyone knew I was the one inside the heart of Athena, someone untouchable, someone no one dared provoke.

But on our wedding anniversary, I opened her safe, and inside was a thick stack of documents, from pregnancy check-ups to kindergarten admission notices.

Five years ago, when I had been slashed and left on the edge of death, she had told me she went abroad to hunt the culprit.

In truth, she had secretly carried a child for someone else behind my back.

Athena gave no explanation; she simply severed a bodyguard’s hand right in front of me. The bloody hand dropped at my feet, and she lifted her brow, her voice sharp as steel.

“If you can’t even guard things properly, then this hand is of no use!”

I sneered and slammed the divorce papers against her face.

“Cut the crap. Sign them.”

She only smiled. “I said, until death we will never divorce.”

“If you want to leave me, then see if you dare kill me!”

——

When we were eighteen, we had vowed to share life and a grave together.

Yet only now did I realize pure love could turn, and even the most beautiful vows could wither away. And once they withered, they deserved to be destroyed.

I slid the knife I had hidden beneath the sofa into my hand and lunged at her neck.

She did not flinch; she leaned toward the blade. At the last instant, I twisted my wrist, and the knife sank deep into her shoulder, holding fast.

She smiled, though the hand gripping the knife trembled slightly.

“What? You can’t do it?”

“Waylon Gasper, after all we’d been through, did we need to come to this over such a small matter?”

“That child was just an accident. If you don’t like it, I’ll have him sent abroad in a few days.”

Small matter? Accident?

Five years earlier, she had been attacked by enemies.

I had taken three knife wounds for her, one in my chest, one in my thigh, and one to my lower body.

I had lost so much blood that she had not hesitated to abort her three-month pregnancy to donate to me.

When I woke, the doctor had told me I would never have the chance to be a father in this life.

I did not cry, but Athena’s eyes had gone red.

She knelt at my feet, her tears spilling as she bowed, striking her own face again and again until it swelled like that of a madwoman.

“Waylon, it’s my fault, I ruined you!”

She clung to me tightly, her forehead bleeding onto my skin, and even as her body trembled with pain, she never released my hand.

“Walyon, I don’t need children, I don’t need anything, I only need you!”

“We will never separate in this life. I, Athena, even in death, will never betray you!” she vowed, every word burning with fierce conviction.

Those desperate words tore apart the last shred of my dignity. I sneered, pulled a photo from my pocket, and slapped it hard against her face.

“No need to bother, your accident, I already took care of it.”

“I went to the kindergarten. The environment was fine, but the security was far too poor.”

Her child knelt there, his cheeks streaked with tears, a gun pressed coldly to his head. I watched as the veins on her forehead swelled, standing out one by one.

Together for ten years, she had never once raised her voice at me, never once shown anger.

Yet today, because of another man and his child, her eyes burned with murderous fire.

She slammed me hard against the wall, tore the knife from her bleeding shoulder, and turned the blade to my neck.

“How dare you lay a hand on a child!”

“Waylon, have I treated you too well, to the point you’ve forgotten who you are?”

“If I hadn’t protected you, you would have died long ago!”

“Now your wings have hardened, and because you can’t have children yourself, you go after someone else’s? To do something this vile, you truly are disgusting!”

Each word cut into me deeper than any blade, leaving me humiliated beyond endurance. Yet I laughed, my calm sinking into my very bones.

“Didn’t you always say, if we want to part, one of us must die?”

“Others don’t dare do it, so I’ll trouble Athena to do it herself.”

“Go on, kill me. If I don’t die, the two of you won’t have peace anyway.”

But the bloodstained knife never pierced my neck.

She looked into my stubborn eyes and gave a gentle smile.

“Waylon, I told you, we don’t need to push this into a you-die-or-I-die situation!”

“That child, whatever you choose to do with him, it’s your decision. Whether he lives or dies, I won’t interfere anymore.”

“But this matter ends here. From now on, you are not allowed to bring it up again, do you understand?”

Cold-blooded as ever, just like me.

Athena did not look at me again, nor did she sigh. She slammed the door and walked out.

Ten years, never once had I seen her back. In my memory, she had only ever rushed toward me through storms of blood and rain, using her body to shield mine. Her back now was as resolute as I had always imagined, yet if one looked closely, there was a faint trace of urgency.

I curled my lips into a mocking laugh. Turning around, I dialed the bodyguard’s phone.

“Let the kid go. I haven’t sunk so low as to lay hands on a child.”

“But the father’s information, I want it in ten minutes!”

My people searched, yet they found nothing.

With Athena’s methods, protecting someone had always been effortless.

Even I could only dig up a few scattered clues, yet even those few were enough to shatter the emotions I had struggled to hold together.

Five years ago, on the night I nearly lost my life, Athena had not been there.

I believed she had taken people to avenge me. But no, she had only been a few steps away, tangled in the arms of another man.

So the betrayal had begun that early.

When she swore she could never betray me in this life, her body and her heart had already strayed elsewhere.

I endured the sudden ache tearing through my chest, my grip tightening around the bloodstained knife, and I drove it hard through the screen.

Deep affection had long been broken; between us, only hatred remained.

The child had not even been sent home, yet her people could no longer stay still.

They came after me. The door flew open, and at once he rushed in, a dagger raised and thrust straight toward my chest.

“Bastard! You dared go after my child, I’ll kill you!”

I tilted my head instinctively, dodging the strike.

But the blade couldn’t be avoided. It scraped across my arm, leaving a long, raw cut.

Skin split open, blood streamed out.

Yet I didn’t seem to feel the pain. I shoved his head down and smashed it hard against the doorframe.

My men held him down, forcing him to his knees in front of me.

He didn’t cry, just glared at me with fierce, stubborn eyes.

The man was indeed striking, his gaze sharp and steady.

He looked much like me back when I was still young and untested.

Even the fire burning in his eyes was the same as mine now.

But sadly, he didn’t understand that with only this bit of wildness, there was no way he could walk away unharmed.

I casually picked up the baseball bat leaning against the wall and swung it hard at his leg.

The crack of bone mixed with his screams, yet not a bit of pity rose in me. I enjoyed his pain, as if it were a song for my broken love.

Before the second hit could land, the door flew open. A cold wind rushed in, filled with anger.

The dark mouth of a gun aimed at me, and Athena’s voice cut through like ice.

“Waylon, let him go. I don’t want things between us to get uglier than they already are!”

With one hand, she held the gun; with the other, she pulled him close into her arms.

Her eyes softened, her voice turning gentle.

“Don’t be afraid, I’m here.”

A familiar line. Ten years ago, walking through blood toward my broken self, she had said those same words.

I laughed through the tears. “And if I say no?”

She laughed too.

“You’ve already taken his child, that’s enough. Let him go. Let’s act like nothing happened. That’s the best ending we’ll ever get.”

I knew her too well, and I could see the killing intent hidden under her smile; she truly wanted me dead.

Along this road, we had supported each other, and she had once poured all her tenderness into me, almost making me forget how many bodies she had stepped over to reach where she stood today.

No anger, only shame. I grabbed her hand and pressed the gun against my forehead.

“Do it then, kill me!”

“Athena, you know my nature. If I walk out alive today, you’d better be ready to collect the corpse of your pretty boy!”

The sharp click of a bullet being chambered cut through the air.

Athena’s bloodshot eyes locked on me as her fingers tightened around my throat.

“You think I don’t dare?”

“I can let go of the child’s matter, but him, you cannot touch!”

“Waylon, don’t push me!”

I stared back at her with a blank face.

The tense standoff broke with the sudden shrill ring of a phone. Athena let go of me and pressed answer.

When she hung up, her smile softened once more.

She gently stroked Nolan’s head, her eyes brimming with doting affection.

“The child is fine. You’ve caused enough trouble. Leave now, and don’t come back again.”

Nolan’s eyes were bloodshot as he limped toward the door.

A single dismissive sentence, as if to end everything, far too easy.

I lifted my chin, and the bodyguards instantly blocked Nolan’s path.

Athena shot me a cold glance.

Between us, a single look was enough; our tacit understanding needed no words.

Then her lips curved faintly as she beckoned Nolan over. “Come, apologize to Waylon before you leave.”

He stiffened, resentment and grievance clouding his face. Yet he still obeyed, moving reluctantly to stand before me.

He bowed.

“Mr. Gasper, I was too impulsive. I came at you without knowing the truth.”

“Hurting you was my fault. But you also lost a child, you should understand how I feel, right?”

“A father who can’t even protect his own child, what difference is there between that and trash?”

He called it an apology, but every word was a blade to the chest.

I raised my hand and struck him hard across the face.

“The last person who dared speak to me like that, their bones have long since rotted away!”

“How many lives do you think you have, to provoke me so recklessly?”

Nolan clutched his face, crying like a wounded deer on the verge of death.

I sneered and delivered another backhanded slap, the sharp crack echoing through the room.

Nolan stood unharmed, yet I collapsed to the ground.

Athena stepped forward, her heel grinding mercilessly into my hand. Her coldness was so foreign it pierced straight into my bones.

“I told you, don’t touch him!”