The world was truly cold and heartless. My role had just been taken away and now even the assistant assigned to me by the company had been recalled.

Carrying my medication, I returned to my hospital room only to see David sitting on my bed with a mocking smile. My heart instantly sank.

"Saveline, did you really think I wouldn’t know? I installed a tracking system on your phone. And you really went all out with this act. Your little 'self-inflicted suffering' performance is quite convincing."

I was wearing a white-and-blue-striped hospital gown, my lips pale and the white bandage on my forehead still seeping with traces of blood. Was the man I once loved actually mocking me, praising my acting skills with a fake smile?

I let out a self-deprecating smirk, but despite myself, tears still slipped silently down my cheeks.

"Crying? Already putting on an act? After all these years, do you really think I don’t know your little tricks? I didn’t take time out of my busy schedule to watch you play the innocent victim. Unlock your phone."

"Give it back to me!" I stumbled forward, desperately trying to snatch my phone back. But how could I possibly stand a chance against David, who was taller and stronger than me?

With one large hand, he gripped my shoulder tightly. The metal studs on his ring dug into my skin, sending a sharp pain through me. Tears streamed down my face uncontrollably.

He signaled his bodyguards to hold me down, then casually adjusted the gold-rimmed glasses on his nose. A cruel smirk curled at the corners of his lips. "Saveline, if you just behave, you’ll suffer a lot less."

I barely managed to let out a single syllable before David’s hand clamped tightly around my throat.

His gaze turned cold and ruthless. "If you don’t want anything to happen to your crippled mother, you’d better post a clarification on X. Now."

He was threatening me with the only family I had left in this world.

Tears of helplessness streamed down my face. No matter how much I wanted to fight back, I could do nothing at all.

“Hello, everyone. I am a hater of Lucia. Out of jealousy over her opportunities, I momentarily lost my judgment and tried to frame her. She has never interfered in anyone’s marriage. I sincerely apologize to Miss Lucia and Mr. David for the trouble I’ve caused."

As I pressed the send button, it felt like my heart was bleeding.

David smirked, his voice dripping with mockery. "See? Why did you even bother with all that useless resistance? If you had been obedient from the start, I wouldn’t have had to come all the way here myself. Your little act of pretending to be sick has been exposed. Pack up and go home. This matter is over. I forgive you. Take this time to reflect on your actions properly."

After delivering his sharp reprimand, he suddenly softened his tone and pulled out his phone.

"Saveline, it’s all settled. I’ll head to the set to see you now."

Without a second glance, he walked out of my hospital room.

With trembling hands, I opened the comment section…

"Shameless! You’re not jealous of Lucia’s opportunities, you’re jealous that she has David by her side!"

"Ugly people always stir up trouble. Are you trying to steal Lucia’s resources? Do you even deserve it?"

"Exactly! You’re not even worthy of carrying her shoes!"

"Ladies, don’t forget. This woman is actually David’s delusional fangirl! Hahaha! She must be furious because she couldn’t even manage to be his mistress!"

I stared at the screen, my vision blurring with tears as the malicious comments flooded in like a tidal wave.

"A disgusting woman like her should just get out of the entertainment industry! We need to boycott her dramas!"

Thousands upon thousands of hate comments filled my screen. My whole body trembled uncontrollably.

Then, another message from David popped up on WhatsApp:

[Saveline, you better not even think about deleting that post. You should have considered the consequences before acting on impulse. This is just a small lesson for you. I hope you learn from it.]

My fingers clenched around the phone as an overwhelming sense of despair crashed over me.

I collapsed onto the floor, utterly drained. Rubbing my swollen, tear-streaked eyes, I sat there in a daze for a long time.

Then, with a clarity I hadn’t felt in years, I typed out a single message to David:

[David, let’s get a divorce.]

David's voice message came through almost instantly, dripping with impatience:

[Saveline, what kind of stunt are you trying to pull this time? How many times do I have to tell you? I’m helping Lucia because it benefits me. My company invested a billion in The Legend of Diana, you were never capable of carrying the lead role. Stop making a scene.]

[Yeah, I was a little rough earlier, but that’s only because you wouldn’t listen. If you behave now, I promise you, you will always be my wife. Lucia will never compare to you.]

I stared at my phone, a bitter laugh escaping my lips.

David was certain that I wouldn’t bear to leave him, so he played his usual game by hurting me first, then offering a so-called "sweet" consolation.

"Miss Carter, why are you sitting on the floor?"

A nurse walked in, startled to see me collapsed there. She hurried over and helped me up.

"Miss Carter, congratulations. You’re pregnant."

The moment she handed me the report, my first instinct was to go straight to the obstetrics department and terminate the pregnancy.

These past few years, I had always wanted a child. I believed that a child would be the bond holding our marriage together. Every time I still harbored hope for David, I longed for a child even more.

But now, when I have completely given up on him, the child arrives at this moment.

For a brief second, I considered keeping the child and raising them alone. But deep down, I knew, I wanted my child to come into this world to experience happiness, not suffering. David would never let my child have a peaceful life.

The thought of my innocent child never seeing this world, taken away because I was helpless, felt like a knife through my heart.

Dizzy and unsteady, I made my way to the obstetrics and gynecology department.

But the doctor told me that my current condition was severe hypoglycemia. They were concerned that I might suffer from oxygen deprivation to the brain during the procedure. They advised me to go home and recover for two weeks before considering the surgery again.

I took a taxi home and looked at the cold, empty mansion, feeling waves of pain surging through my heart.

Once upon a time, I had been moved when David bought me this house.

What was once a love nest had now become a prison.

Before our marriage, David had suggested that, as public figures, we should keep our private lives as hidden as possible.

At his suggestion, we chose to have a secret marriage.

Many people in the entertainment industry lived in our neighborhood and since he and I usually walked separately and given that I was just a minor celebrity, there was no chance that the media would ever associate me with him.

Until late at night, David came back carrying a gift box.

Seeing me curled up on the sofa, his brows furrowed slightly.

"I bought you the latest Hermès bag. Stop throwing a tantrum."

He was always like this. He’d strike with one hand and offer a sweet with the other, convinced that my love for him was unbreakable.

As long as he gave me the slightest way out, he thought I’d gratefully scramble to take it.

Looking at the cherry blossom pink bag, I found it laughable.

He knew me best. I never liked anything pink.

Sure enough, my phone’s special notifications chimed. Lucia had posted an update:

"Straight men are so scary! Even though it's the latest Hermès, I really don’t like gaudy pink! Time to punish him, hmph!"

"So? Giving me this gaudy pink bag that Lucia doesn't like is her way of punishing you? Am I just a part of your game with her?"

David's originally handsome features instantly darkened with a layer of frost. "Can you stop acting like that?"

He walked over, sat down and gently reached out to brush away the stray strands of hair on my forehead.

His touch made me feel physically sick. I wasn’t sure if it was morning sickness or just pure disgust at the sight of him. I gagged and spat out a mouthful of sour bile, instinctively pushing him away.

"Saveline, are you insane? Are you done yet?"

Funny enough. He didn’t care that I was throwing up. He only cared that I had pushed him.

"Yes, I must be sick. I've been insulted by millions of comments, I don't dare turn on my phone and I still apologize. If that's not being sick, then what is?"

Even after being cursed at so harshly, my voice remained soft and petulant as I voiced my grievance.

I'd always been gentle and timid by nature. When others bullied me, I would simply avoid them.

I remembered being bullied by a girl who acted sweet but was actually manipulative.

Without hesitation, David stepped in front of me and said sharply, “You better jump and drown in the river. That way, people would still think it’s just a piece of trash!”

The manipulative girl ran off after being scolded and David gently pinched my nose, speaking softly, “You little weakling, what would you do without me? You’d get bullied too much.”

I never imagined that one day, David would stand against me.

My parents were in the business of mining raw diamonds. That year, the mine collapsed.

My parents were driven to suicide by public opinion, leaving me trapped in endless darkness.

I was taken in by our housekeeper, but it was David who stole his father’s antique collection worth over ten million dollars and sold it on the black market to get the money to set up a home for me and the housekeeper in another city.

As for David himself, he was beaten severely by his father and then kicked out of the family.

When I was broken and battered, he treated me like a treasure.

But now that all the hardships had passed, the man who once pulled me out of the abyss was the same one pushing me into another torment that devoured me from the inside out.

I closed my eyes, bit my lip and choked back my tears. “David, let’s at least keep some dignity for each other. Let’s end this on good terms and get a divorce.”

David frowned slightly, his voice laced with confusion. “Saveline, you’re really divorcing me over something this trivial? It’s just cyberbullying, haven’t you been through worse? When your parents killed all those people, weren’t the insults you got back then even harsher? You’ve already been through it once, haven’t you? Why are you still so sensitive? I really don’t get you.”

The people closest to you always knew where it hurt the most.

He knew better than anyone that my parents’ deaths were a pain I would never be able to face in this lifetime. Yet, at this moment, he tossed it at me so effortlessly, as if it was nothing.

"Get out! I don’t want to see you!"

With bloodshot eyes, I hurled a pillow at him.

"Shrew! Completely unreasonable."

Cursing under his breath, he grabbed the sakura pink bag and stormed out.

Not long after, Lucia posted a new update:

"My big straight man couldn’t even complete a simple little task. Girls, tell me, should I make him kneel on a washboard?"

David immediately replied: "Diana, have mercy!"

The comment section was flooded with people squealing about how sweet they were.

It seemed I really was just a piece in their game.

Love was supposed to be for both of us, but while I was still figuring out what went wrong, I had already been pushed from the main role in his story to just a background character.

It was just another cliché romance story, where the new lover laughed while the old one cried.

I wiped away my tears and unlocked my password-protected notebook.

Then, I dialed an international call across the ocean.

James was the CEO of the world’s largest diamond mining company.

Growing up alongside my father, I had learned a lot about raw diamond mining.

Even though my father had fallen from grace, his reputation in the industry remained formidable.