After suffering a devastating blow to the head, I unexpectedly regained my memories.

Before I could share the good news with my wife, I overheard a conversation between her and the doctor.

"Ms. Morgan, Mr. Johnson is showing signs of recovering his memory again. Do you still want us to inject him with the neurotoxin? This is already the tenth time. Mr. Johnson's father already went to prison after taking the blame for you, and his sister was forcibly committed to a psychiatric hospital. I know you want to protect Liam, but there's no need to do this to Mr. Johnson."

"If Damien regains his memory, Liam's role in the hired attack will be exposed. His life will be ruined. Liam is innocent. He just wanted to prove himself.

"Besides, Liam and I are about to get married. I won't allow anything to go wrong.

"I promised Liam that he and Ben are the only family I have. I will never let them down. It doesn't matter if Damien becomes a fool. I'll hire the best caregivers and look after him as a cripple for the rest of his life.

"Let me spend the rest of my life making it up to him."

My entire body trembled in agony.

So the people who destroyed my family had been right beside me all along.

My father was sent to prison on false fraud charges. While trying to clear his name, I was attacked and left with memory loss.

Since everything was nothing more than my own wishful thinking, I'll give them exactly what they want.

The doctor's hands trembled uncontrollably as he held the syringe filled with a highly concentrated neurotoxin.

"Ms. Morgan, this is the tenth time. Mr. Johnson already has severe brain damage. Are you still going to inject this into his spine?"

With a thud, he dropped to his knees beside the hospital bed.

"Steward Johnson already went to prison after taking the blame for you. Mr. Johnson's sister was forcibly committed to a psychiatric hospital yesterday. The Johnsons have been completely destroyed. Won’t you show him some mercy?"

Amelia Morgan let out a mocking laugh.

The tip of her high heel casually nudged the doctor aside.

"But that’s how I want him to be."

She looked down at me, her tone light.

"If I don't turn him into a cripple who can't even speak, how am I supposed to take all the shares under his name? Liam has suffered so much by my side. I have to use every dollar of the Johnsons’ wealth to give him a wedding that will shock the entire country."

The doctor sucked in a cold breath and backed away repeatedly.

Amelia slowly smoothed her skirt.

"Once the stock transfer agreement has his fingerprint on it, I'll weld an iron cage in the basement of the villa and lock him inside. I'll keep him as a pet with no thoughts of his own for the rest of his life and feed him some scraps on schedule every day. That should be enough to say I've treated him well."

Then she turned to the doctor.

"Need to look away? I've already watched him convulse and foam at the mouth nine times. Today can be a little after-dinner show."

Lying on the hospital bed, I bit down hard on the tip of my tongue.

The taste of blood instantly filled my mouth.

The pain cut straight into my bones, but I didn't dare make a sound or let my eyelids twitch.

Looking at my pale face, the doctor's voice became choked with tears.

"Ms. Morgan, a large dose of toxin could cause irreversible cardiac arrest! Back then, Mr. Johnson sold every keepsake his mother left behind just to help you survive your bankruptcy crisis. If you do this, you'll face retribution eventually!"

Bang!

Amelia kicked the nearby medical equipment, smashing it apart.

"Shut up! If I tell you to do it, then do it!"

She irritably tugged at her collar.

"For Liam and our only child, I will never regret this. I'm going to build the perfect haven for the idiot. If he dies, put him in a garbage bag, throw him into the medical incinerator, and burn him until there's nothing left!"

She pointed at my spine.

"Push it in slower. Don't worry. He's tough. He won't die that easily."

The doctor closed his eyes in despair.

The thick needle plunged brutally into my lumbar spine.

After the first nine rounds of torture, my body had already developed an extremely strong resistance.

The anesthesia no longer worked.

I clearly felt the cold liquid being forced into my spinal cord, little by little.

Amelia walked to the foot of the bed.

"Just injecting the toxin isn't enough. If he ever manages to run away one day, Liam will be scared."

She picked up the scalpel from the tray.

The blade pressed against my ankle.

"Sever it."

The doctor cried out in alarm, but Amelia did not pause for even a moment.

With a forceful slash of her wrist, she cut down.

The instant my tendon snapped, the toxin spread throughout my body.

The double agony completely drowned me.

I gripped the bedsheet beneath me with all my strength.

Every fingernail broke, and blood stained the white sheets red.

Two tears rolled from the corners of my eyes and fell onto the pure white pillow.

The intense pain made my entire body convulse.

I suddenly opened my eyes, my pupils unfocused.

Amelia immediately threw away the bloodstained scalpel and replaced it with an expression of extreme concern.

She picked up a cup of water and carefully brought it to my lips.

"Damien, don't be afraid. Did you have a nightmare?"

Her voice was so gentle, and her eyes were full of concern.

"Here, have some water. I'm here with you. No one can hurt you."

I turned my head away.

The water ran from the corner of my mouth and down my neck.

Amelia took out a handkerchief and carefully wiped it away.

"You just had a seizure. The nerves in both your legs have completely died. To save your life, the doctor had no choice but to perform a lumbar puncture."

Her eyes reddened, and her voice choked with emotion.

"It's all my fault for not taking better care of you. The doctor said you may never get out of bed again."

She took my hand and pressed it against her cheek.

"But it doesn't matter. Even if you become a cripple who can never leave his bed, you'll still be the only love of my life. I'll take care of you forever."

I looked at her affectionate face, and my stomach churned violently.

Instinctively, I flailed my arms and desperately shrank toward the edge of the bed.

I just wanted to get farther away from this poisonous woman.

Amelia's expression changed.

She lunged forward and tightly grabbed my shoulders.

"Damien! Stop moving! Your back is still bleeding!"

She was incredibly strong, her arms tightening around me.

The puncture wound in my back instantly tore open.

Warm blood flowed out and soaked through my hospital gown.

"I'm sorry... I'm sorry, Damien! This is all my fault!"

Amelia buried her head in the crook of my neck, and hot tears fell onto my collarbone.

"I'm so afraid of losing you. You can hit me or yell at me if you want, but please don't hurt yourself."

She was practically kneeling beside the bed as she raised her right hand to swear an oath.

"I swear I'll never let you suffer even the slightest grievance again."

I stared at the ceiling.

Amazing.

This Oscar-worthy performance had fooled me for seven whole years.

I stopped struggling.

Tilting my head, I put on a dazed, foolish expression, raised a bloodstained finger, and pointed at my chest.

"It hurts... In my dream, Dad was crying... My sister's face was burned away by fire... They were calling for help... It hurts so much..."

Amelia's body suddenly stiffened.

A trace of panic flashed through her eyes, then she let out a long sigh of relief.

"It’s okay, Damien. Those were just dreams, the complete opposite of reality."

She stroked my hair, her tone gentle.

"Your dad retired to an island overseas. He spends his days fishing and enjoying the sun. Your sister is studying for exams at a boarding school. They're both doing very well.

"I'll protect you as if you were my own life. If anyone dares touch you, I'll kill them."

I fought back the urge to vomit and didn't pull away.

Amelia stood up and straightened her wrinkled collar.

"You're all alone and must be bored. How about I ask the nanny to bring Ben over to keep you company? You always liked children."

That was the illegitimate child she had with Liam Hill.

I can’t believe Amelia wanted to use the child of my enemy to replace my dead daughter.

Suddenly, I turned my head away and covered my eyes with both hands.

A sharp cry escaped my throat.

"No! Scared! Dizzy... Want to sleep!"

I buried my face in the blanket.

My body trembled uncontrollably.

A mocking smile curled at the corners of Amelia's lips.

"Damien, now that you're sick, you need to learn to rely on your wife more. Stop being so stubborn."

She let go and turned to leave the hospital room.

‘Amelia, you'd better not die too soon.’

"I want to go home... I want to go home..."

I wailed at the top of my lungs in the hospital room, throwing pillows and water cups onto the floor.

Amelia pushed the door open, and her brows instantly knitted together.

She hurried over and grabbed my flailing hands.

"Okay, okay. We're going home. I’ll take you home right now."

She knew very well that I was now an irrational madman.

To calm me down, she immediately had her assistant handle the discharge paperwork.

She helped me off the hospital bed and carried me all the way to the underground parking garage.

After settling me into the backseat of her black Maybach, she climbed in right beside me.

Inside the black Maybach, Amelia held me in her arms, her chin resting beside my ear.

"Damien, from now on, I'll be your legs. Wherever you want to go, I'll carry you there.

"For the rest of my life, I'll never let go of your hand."

I leaned against her chest and listened to her steady heartbeat.

So it seemed the heartbeat of a cold-blooded animal was no different from that of a normal person.

The car stopped in front of the Morgan estate.

Amelia carried me into the living room.

The moment I looked up, my gaze locked onto the object in the center of the room.

A portrait and an urn stood in the middle of the living room.

It was a Chihuahua Liam had raised.

Amelia placed me in a wheelchair and pushed me in front of it. Suddenly, she reached out and pressed down hard on the back of my neck.

"Kneel and pray, Damien."

Her voice was soft, but it carried an authority that could not be resisted.

Since my legs were completely useless, I fell straight out of the wheelchair and landed heavily on my knees before the dead dog's portrait.

Amelia crouched down and stroked my face.

"Our baby was lost due to premature illness. A priest said we need to pray for other living creatures so our baby's soul can rest in peace. Can you offer a few prayers for the dog?"

She looked at me gently.

"Why aren't you praying? Don't you want our baby to rest in peace?"

I stared at the dog's portrait.

For the past three years, every morning at six o'clock, Amelia had unfailingly woken me up and forced me to kneel here and pray.

She said it was to help our dead daughter pass on peacefully.

If my prayers weren't loud enough, she would punish me by not letting me eat for the entire day.

For three years, my knees were frequently bruised and bloodied, and I had exhausted every tear I possessed.

It turned out I hadn't been offering prayers to my daughter, but to a dog.

My stomach churned violently.

I collapsed onto the floor and opened my mouth.

"Blegh."

Amelia immediately covered her nose and took two disgusted steps backward.

Then she shouted dramatically, "Mrs. Garcia! Come clean this up! Damien is acting up again!"

She grabbed a tissue and carelessly wiped my mouth before taking me back to the second-floor bedroom.

After throwing me onto the bed, she turned and went into the bathroom.

I rolled off the bed and dragged my crippled legs with both hands as I slowly crawled toward the space beneath it.

From a narrow gap at the very back, I pulled out an old cell phone I had hidden there six months ago.

Hundreds of text messages flooded in instantly.

Every single one was from Liam.

In a photo, Liam was shirtless, pinning Amelia down on the deck of a luxury yacht.

The caption stated, [The yacht Amelia bought for me. You've probably never even seen one, cripple.]

The next photo was of the two of them wearing custom attire worth a fortune, kissing.]

[What an idiot. Amelia is about to transfer all of the Johnsons’ shares to Ben. Thanks to you and the death of your entire family, my son and I are set.]

I recalled three years ago when I ignored the pain in my stomach and stayed awake for three consecutive nights helping Amelia write the proposal that secured the multibillion-dollar project.

On the night of the celebration banquet, she handed me a bowl of oatmeal.

She said the company was still in its early stages and that we needed to learn to live frugally.

Then I looked at the final message on the phone.

Liam had suddenly sent a voice recording.

I tapped it open.

"I hired the guy who smashed your head. Amelia made you pray to my dog every day because she wanted to vent my anger. Watching you crawl on the floor like a dog was the most satisfying thing ever. Hahaha..."

I turned off the phone before raising my head and stared at the calendar on the wall.

Three days later would be my wedding anniversary with Amelia.

It would also be the day she planned to use my shares to hold the wedding of the century with Liam.

I pulled out my backup phone and dialed a hidden overseas number.

"It's me.

"Prepare to receive me. In three days, I want the Morgans gone."