Before I could respond, a sharp pain shot through my head, and everything went black.

When I woke up, I was tied to a chair. The surroundings were dim and suffocating, filled with a chemical stench that made me gag.

At that moment, a graceful woman walked in.

When I saw her face, I froze.

It was Diana Lockwood. Her face now bore an uncanny resemblance to Naomi.

Diana was the Lockwood family's adopted daughter, Jared's sister in name.

"Winter, do you realize what you've done wrong?" she asked, her tone mocking.

I blinked, stunned, before shaking my head. "No! I didn't do anything wrong. I accidentally broke his glass. That's all. I didn't know…"

Desperately, I asked with a hint of flattery, "Diana, please. Can you get me out of here? I don't want to stay here. I—"

Diana burst into laughter, cutting me off. Her eyes brimmed with disdain as she looked at me.

"Winter, you're so adorably naïve. I worked so hard to get Jared to send you here. Do you really think I'd let you go that easily?"

Her words left me bewildered.

Diana had always been kind to me. I couldn't believe her words.

"Winter," she continued, "someone like you, born into nothing, doesn't deserve Jared. Your biggest mistake wasn't breaking that glass. It was daring to love Jared.

"I've stood by his side for so long. He should have been mine. If it weren't for you, we would've been together ages ago. But it doesn't matter. It's not too late. Jared finally sees who truly deserves him. It's me!"

Diana had always been unusually attentive to Jared, but I had chalked it up to sibling affection. Never had I imagined her feelings for him were way more than that.

"Oh, and by the way, Jared told me to take good care of you. He wants you to properly atone to Naomi."

With that, Dianna pressed a button on the remote in her hand and smugly said, "Let's see how long you can last."

The next moment, an intense current surged through the chair, jolting through my body. My limbs went numb, and a sharp, searing pain radiated through me.

Diana seemed unsatisfied with my reaction and increased the intensity of the electric shock.

My body convulsed uncontrollably. The pain pushed me to the edge of consciousness.

The shocks grew stronger, layer upon layer, until my back felt like it was being burned.

My mind began to slip away, fading into darkness.

Just then, Diana stopped.

But as my awareness slowly returned, she pressed the button again.

The renewed agony ripped a scream from my throat.

She toyed with me, keeping me trapped between the brink of unconsciousness and the harsh pull of awareness.

After nearly an hour of torment, she repeated the same question as before. "Winter, do you realize what you've done wrong?"

I knew she wasn't just asking about the broken glass. She wanted me to admit that loving Jared had been a mistake.

But neither of those felt like a crime to me.

I slowly forced the words out, "I… did… nothing… wrong."

Her eyes flickered with a brief flash of surprise.

Suddenly, she pulled out her phone and answered a call on speakerphone.

"Jared, Winter says she did nothing wrong. But honestly, she's already in pretty bad shape. Maybe we should let this go. Naomi wouldn't want—"

For a moment, hope sparked in me. After three years together, Jared must feel something for me, right?

But I had underestimated the hold Naomi had on his heart. To him, she was sacred and untouchable.

Jared cut Diana off coldly, saying, "If Naomi knew her keepsake had been destroyed, she would be upset for sure. Do you think she'd just let it slide?

"Diana, if you feel bad for Winter, I'll find someone else to deal with her. I don't believe that she's that tough."

Diana hesitated, then sighed. "Fine. But don't blame me if she ends up seriously hurt. She's your wife, after all…"

"Wife? She doesn't deserve to be my wife. She's nothing more than Naomi's substitute. If she has upset Naomi, then it doesn't matter who she is. She should know that she's just my plaything," Jared said with disdain.

Diana ended the call with a triumphant grin, but her expression twisted into something sinister as she turned to me.

Suddenly, I found myself thinking that maybe I really was wrong. I should never have married Jared. I should never have loved him so deeply and so blindly.

If I hadn't loved him, I wouldn't have expected anything from him. And I wouldn't be here, utterly shattered.

Just then, a searing pain jolted me back to the present.

Diana had retrieved a branding iron from somewhere and pressed it against my calf.

I watched in horror as my skin reddened, blistered, and began to ooze.

However, I bit down hard, refusing to scream.

My voice seemed to be Diana's stimulant. Every time I whimpered, she would press harder and burn deeper.

The physical agony overwhelmed me. Tears poured uncontrollably down my face.

Seeing me curl up in pain, Diana pressed the button again.

With the dual torment of the electric shock and the branding, my body grew more and more uncontrollable.

Just then, a warm trickle ran down my legs, soaking the chair. A foul, acrid smell lingered around me.

Diana wrinkled her nose in disgust and sneered. "Gosh, Winter! How could you urinate in public? Are you an animal?"

Yes, the electric shock caused me to lose control of my bladder.

The intense humiliation surged through me. Every ounce of my being screamed to retort, but I had no energy left.

Diana, seemingly not satisfied, ordered someone to bring in a full-length mirror.

She placed it in front of me, forcing me to see the wreckage of what I had become.

Meanwhile, she stood off to the side and looked down at my misery with a sense of superiority. Occasionally, she would snap pictures of my humiliation with her phone.

Every day after that, Diana would ask me the same question. My answer remained the same—I did nothing wrong.

It wasn't that I was stubborn or defiant. I was simply stating the facts, as I couldn't lie to myself.

Moreover, I had only refused to apologize as they wished, and they were already using such cruel methods to punish me.

If I admitted I was wrong, I couldn't bear to think of the consequences that awaited me.

However, I never anticipated that Diana would escalate her methods when she noticed my refusal to apologize.

The pain grew more brutal by the day—electric shocks, whips, branding.

Each time I came close to death, Diana would bring me back to life. When she saw that I had basic signs of life, she resumed her cruel methods of torment.

She sprayed pepper spray on my wounds, sprinkled salt over them, and forced me to kneel on the floor covered in broken glass.

Still, Diana seemed to find that physical torment wasn't enough. She had people torment me mentally too.

They took turns humiliating me, telling me I was worthless and just a cheap plaything. People like me didn't have the right to love someone and weren't worthy of anyone's love.

And the only reason I became Jared's wife was because I'd stolen Naomi's place.

I was just too greedy, wanting something that wasn't mine to begin with.

I had broken the glass Naomi had given him on purpose because I was so jealous and wanted to take her place.

I was nothing but a petty wretch.

They repeated these things to me every single day, drilling them into my mind over and over.

But I knew better.

Just because they said it a hundred times didn't make it true.

I gritted my teeth and endured, refusing to bend to their cruelty.

Even when they gave me spoiled food, I ate it without a flicker of emotion.

I was going to escape.

And finally, the opportunity came.