###Chapter 4

“No!”

I instinctively lunged for the medicine, grabbing onto Freya’s foot.

There was no strength left in my hand, yet Freya screamed and toppled onto the ground.

A tall figure stormed in.

“Freya!”

Cody darted toward her. His cold leather shoe trampled down on my fingers, pain exploding through me like shattering bones, and darkness clouded my vision.

He gathered the sobbing Freya into his arms. “Freya has only stayed here for a few days, and you dared to use such a heavy hand on her?!”

Freya’s face glistened with tears. “Karina scolded me for destroying your happiness and told me to leave. Forget it, I know she’s angry. I’ll move out, don’t blame her.”

“I didn’t…”

“Shut up! Look at you, like some jealous shrew. So ugly.”

Cody’s cold voice sliced through my words, his face like iron.

Sweat chilled my body, and my vision blurred. The last thing I saw was him walking away with Freya in his arms.

That was fine too; what he trampled was not only my fingers, but also my most genuine heart.

“Mrs. Karina!”

The butler’s anxious cry shattered the last thread of my fading consciousness.

When I opened my eyes again, I was lying on a hospital bed. The window outside showed nothing but darkness; it was already night.

The doctor’s respectful voice drifted in. “Karina not only has a gastric perforation, but also two fractured fingers, and she is still running a fever.”

“Get the best specialists,” Cody ordered. “Use the finest medicine, don’t let her suffer.”

“Please rest assured, we have already used the best resources.”

Cody turned back and saw that I was awake. A fleeting trace of guilt crossed his eyes. “Does it still hurt?”

I shifted slightly; my stomach felt as though pierced by ten thousand arrows, and the fingers wrapped in gauze burned with searing pain.

But no matter how much my body ached, it was nothing compared to the pain tearing through my heart.

I lowered my gaze, my voice faint. “Isn’t there a banquet tonight? You should go.”

To my surprise, Cody did not leave. His eyes lingered on me with a complicated look. “I forgot today is your birthday. Why didn’t you tell me?”

I thought of the way his gaze never strayed from Freya, and a bitter smile tugged at my lips. “Would telling you have mattered?”

“Of course. No matter what I was doing, I would come right away to accompany you.”

“Happy birthday, darling.”

He slipped a diamond bracelet onto my uninjured hand, his gaze tender yet resolute.

I froze.

Darling? Cody, how long had it been since he last called me that?

He kissed my forehead softly. “Freya isn’t angry anymore. After all, you two are sisters. Get along well from now on.”

At his words, I lowered my lashes. “Hmm. You should go back and accompany the guests.”

“Why are you always driving me away?” Cody asked, his tone inexplicably tinged with irritation, though still gentle.

I was caught off guard. “But isn’t tonight’s banquet significant?”

That banquet was held especially for Freya, with the purpose of opening more doors for her. The guests must all have been wealthy and powerful, people even Cody could not afford to offend lightly.

Yet, unexpectedly, Cody smiled. “Everything has already been arranged. Tonight I’ll stay with you. I won’t leave.”

After a while, Cody got up and stepped onto the balcony to take a work call. Soon, footsteps followed.

Carlos came in carrying a fruit basket, and his wife walked in behind him with a bowl of oatmeal.

Blame clouded my son’s eyes. “Honestly, such a rare chance to spend time with Aunt, and you just had to fall sick now, making the whole family revolve around you to find happiness?”

Gigi Cameron tugged at his sleeve lightly, then opened the lunch box with a practiced smile.

“This is oatmeal Aunt made herself for you, Mom. It’s good for your stomach, please eat more.”

The moment I spotted the yam in the oatmeal, I knew it was Freya’s doing. I pushed the lunch box aside.

“I’m allergic to yams. I won’t eat it. Take it away.”

At that, even my daughter-in-law, Gigi’s smile faltered, her face darkening slightly. “Then, Mom, you should rest early.”

She closed the lunch box, then left the ward with my son.

Their whispers carried back to me as the door closed.

“Never once in all these years did she mention being allergic to yams, but suddenly now she is. What drama.”

“If only Aunt Freya had been your real mother, then Mrs. Partridge wouldn’t have just been a worn-out, tired-looking woman.”

“She’s never contributed anything to this family, yet she still keeps up that cold front. Who is she trying to fool?”

I closed my eyes, shutting out the children’s voices as they faded into the distance.

Yet why did their words still cut me so deeply, leaving me bleeding inside?

Fever and disappointment dragged me into a heavy drowsiness. Cody returned from the balcony and saw me murmuring uneasily in my sleep.

As he gazed at my pale face, memories stirred of many years ago, when the girl he had married into the family was still young. She had once been beautiful, full of vitality. Like any girl in love, she would cling to him every night, whispering his name with devotion.

Before he had the chance to cherish that youthful face, time had already etched its traces across her brow.

A finger brushed gently against my skin, the ticklish touch stirring me awake. My eyes opened drowsily. “Cody?”

He looked at me. This was his wife, his woman. In his eyes, strands of burning emotion began to spread.

I was still dazed when his thin lips pressed against mine.

“Karina…”

His voice grew hoarse, and the sound of shattering glass suddenly came from the doorway.

###Chapter 5

When I turned, Freya stood at the doorway, tears spilling over her eyes, the ground scattered with petals and fragments of a broken vase.

“I only came to apologize to my cousin for adding yams by mistake. I didn’t know I’d be interrupting you two…”

Her voice faltered. Biting her lip, she turned and ran.

“Freya, it isn’t what you think!”

In his haste, Cody shoved me aside.

Unprepared, I tumbled from the hospital bed. The impact of my forehead against the floor sent a sharp pain bursting through me, blood instantly staining my skin.

Yet Cody didn’t even look back. He chased after her, panic written across his face.

“Karina was burning with fever and delirious, and I was only taking care of her.”

From the hallway came Freya’s choked reply. “You don’t need to explain to me. She’s your wife, stay with her!”

“Must you say this just to ease your heart? Let me see your hand, it’s bleeding!”

“I’d rather die than let you care for me! Leave me alone!”

Through the narrow crack of the door, I saw Cody at last lose all patience. He gathered the sobbing Freya into his arms and strode immediately toward the emergency room.

Blood blurred my vision, yet in my heart I mocked my foolishness.

I tore the bracelet from my wrist and hurled it to the floor, shattering it into fragments. I cried until my tears ran dry, and then, at last, I laughed.

Because of another gastric hemorrhage, along with the head injury, I remained in the hospital for several more days.

Cody never appeared again. I knew he was busy soothing Freya.

My son’s family never came either.

Only my daughter, Suzy Partridge, who is studying abroad, sent me a message to ask after me. Her final words pierced my eyes with unbearable pain.

[Don’t make Dad angry anymore. For decades, he has worked hard enough for this family. Can’t you be a little more considerate of him?]

I was the one covered in scars, yet I was expected to understand his betrayal?

Never had I thought that even my most beloved daughter would speak so cruelly.

But it no longer mattered.

I would give them all they wanted, even if it meant changing to a different wife and a different mother.

On the evening of my discharge, I returned home alone, riding in a taxi.

Walking into the house, I found the villa in complete disarray, untouched for days. Newspapers, toys, and empty snack bags littered the floor, as if they had neither eyes nor hands to care enough to clean.

Carlos lounged on the sofa, waving the luxury cruise tickets Freya had given them.

“There were only five luxury cabins left, so we didn’t book one for you. But I figured you wouldn’t be interested anyway. You like staying home all day, an old woman who’s never seen the world.”

Yet once, I had been the most promising young lawyer, courted by the world’s top ten law firms. Once, I too dreamed of traveling across the country, reaching the ends of the earth.

And after sacrificing everything, what had I gained in return?

My daughter-in-law came down from upstairs, her face lit with joy.

“This global limited LV handbag, only ten in the world! Aunt Freya helped me get one. My god, this is something money can’t even buy.”

On the sofa, my granddaughter swung her legs lazily, eyes fixed on her tablet as she cried out, “I’m hungry, Grandma! I want strawberry pancakes!”

My daughter-in-law stepped in with her bag, pushing the door open as she proudly announced to the neighbors.

“We’ve had enough of takeout these days, Mom. Tonight, I want to eat truffle risotto.”

My son complained right after.

“So annoying! The laundry is piling up in the washing machine!”

Not one of them spared a look at the scar on my forehead. Not one of them asked how I was feeling. Instead, they barked orders, picking on me with disdain, just as they always had, crushing my identity as family, reducing me to nothing, like an ant ground into the dust.

I nearly said aloud, Do it yourselves. I won’t serve you anymore.

The phone rang. It was Cody.

“Come to the Alterio Clubhouse immediately.”

###Chapter 6

When I stepped into the clubhouse, I caught sight of Cody from afar, holding a trembling Freya on the sofa.

Never before had I seen Freya so undone, her hair tangled, her clothes in disarray, her neck and shoulders marked with hideous red-purple stains that spoke of shame.

I stood frozen, and Cody’s gaze locked on me.

There was a sinister chill in his eyes, colder than anything I had seen in over twenty years.

Freya clung to his lap, dabbing away tears as though she had endured the deepest humiliation.

“Cody, thank heavens you arrived in time. Those thugs didn’t violate me. Please, don’t be angry with Karina anymore.”

Cody’s face was dark as if drenched in ink. “Karina, apologize!”

My heart dropped, and I stammered in confusion. “What did I do? Why should I apologize?”

His cold eyes grew sharper, making me stand, frozen.

“If I hadn’t shown up, would you have let those beasts defile Freya? Since when have you become so cruel? What right do you have to be called mother and grandmother by the children?!”

At some point, my son had appeared behind me. His shocked gaze flicked from Freya to my face, then hardened into fury.

“Last time you hurt Aunt Freya, Dad forgave you, thinking you would realize your mistake and change. Who knew you would go even further, all because Aunt Freya moved into our house, all because you didn’t get a cruise ticket?!”

The injustice hammered against my skull, a metallic taste rising in my throat. I cried out at the father and son, cast from the same mold.

“I didn’t do it! Why do you believe her the moment she speaks?!”

“Because Aunt Freya is kinder than you! She would never lie!”

My heart felt as if a sharp blade had pierced straight through.

Cody frowned. “I’ve said all that needs to be said. Don’t test my bottom line. Karina, apologize!”

After twenty-five years, he knew me better than anyone. He knew I would never hurt even an ant.

Yet when it came to Freya, he couldn’t even be bothered to investigate before deciding it was me.

I raised my head, choking back my tears, my eyes locked stubbornly on father and son.

“No matter what happened, it was all Freya’s scheme. I will never apologize!”

Freya broke into sobs. “Cody, forget it… I shouldn’t have come back. I shouldn’t have interfered with your family. It’s all my fault.”

Cody released Freya and came toward me step by step. His tall, oppressive shadow swallowed me whole. I tried to shrink back, but he caught the back of my head in his grip.

“All these years, I’ve spoiled you. But if I don’t punish you this time, what will happen later?”

He leaned down, ignoring my frantic struggle, and brushed a kiss against my forehead.

“Don’t worry. I’ve already replaced the cruise ticket that Freya failed to buy. You are my wife, I won’t leave you behind.”

“You kneel and apologize to Freya, then we’ll call it even.”

In fact, he had planned to give me a surprise on that cruise.

Next month was our twenty-fifth wedding anniversary, and he remembered I liked fireworks, so he had secretly arranged a million-dollar fireworks show for me.

But now, he had to give Freya an explanation, so that way, I would owe her nothing.

Cody picked up a brick from the ground. Under my terrified gaze, he brought it down hard against my right knee.

The night was so heavy it felt as though it would never clear.

I knelt on the ground, watching father and son guarding Freya as they left. My knee throbbed as if shattered, blood soaking through my skirt.

Clenching my teeth, I dragged myself home.

The villa was empty; only the butler had not yet gone to bed. I knew the whole family had gone to the hospital to keep Freya company.

“Your leg, what happened? Do you need me to take you to the doctor?”

“No need. Anyway, I’m leaving.”

“You, where are you going? Does sir Cody know?”

The ten-day period had come. I was ready to roam far and wide, to step into the vast world, flying away from this dark fortress that had devoured my youth and half a lifetime of love, never to return.

I did not answer the butler. I went back to my room, slipped off my wedding ring, and tossed it into the trash along with the smiling girl in the wedding photo.

At last, I placed the signed divorce agreement on Cody’s bedside.

With my documents in hand, and under the butler’s doubtful gaze, I climbed into a taxi. I headed for the airport without once looking back.

“Happy 50th birthday, Cody.”

Goodbye, never again.