A month after leaving the hospital, I went back to the house that once belonged to both of us. The moment I stood by the door, my mind suddenly drifted away.

This private villa in Southville Bay had been planned by him little by little. It once stood for our love.

When I opened the door, I saw him crouching beside Aurelia, gently putting medicine on her ankle.

“Aurelia got hurt at work. She’ll stay here for now while she heals.”

He looked at me calmly as he spoke.

I walked past them without any expression. “Whatever.”

After hearing that, Heath’s hand froze for a second. He lifted his eyes toward me, confusion flashing across his face.

“If you’re bothered by it, I can…”

I cut him off before he finished.

“You’re thinking too much. Stay however you like.”

With a loud sound, he dropped the item in his hand, stepped toward me, and tightly grabbed my wrist.

The pain made tears gather in my eyes.

“What are you trying to do this time? Don’t think you can bully people again just because you have power.”

Only after seeing my tears did he quickly let go of my hand, shock showing on his face.

Aurelia slowly stood up while limping, quietly crying.

“Heath, I should go. I don’t want to cause problems between you and your wife. I can look after myself.”

Without saying anything else, Heath hurried over and pulled her into his arms.

His eyes were full of care as he softly comforted her. “Stay by my side and don’t go anywhere. I’ll take care of you.”

After saying that, he carried her upstairs.

I looked at his back and slowly remembered the past.

As the illegitimate son of the Curtis family, he spent the first eight years of his life in a broken alley, staying in an old house that leaked whenever it rained and often lost power. After he was brought back to the Curtis family, everyone mocked him for being poor and kept away from him.

When I was ten, I visited the Curtis family for the first time and saw him alone in the back garden, quietly hiding in the corner.

I smiled and pulled out a piece of candy from my pocket before giving it to him. “Big brother, I have candy for you. Come play with me!”

After that, he and I spent the best ten years of our lives together.

I stayed beside him as he slowly reached the top and took control of the Curtis family. Even after the Hamilton family moved to England, I still gave up the family fortune worth billions and chose to remain with him.

But love also came to an end. After finding out he cheated on me, I once completely lost control and kept asking him, “Why did you betray me? You’re the one who said you’d love me forever!”

What I got back was him climbing onto the windowsill and using his life to force me into a divorce.

“Kira, real love is the hardest thing to get in this world.”

“As long as I can’t stay with her, I’d rather die!”

“Let’s get a divorce. If you won’t agree, then I’ll jump!”

Back then, I didn’t believe he’d truly throw away his life for Aurelia, so I shouted at him angrily.

“If you’ve got the nerve, then jump!”

“If you really jump, then we’ll get a divorce.”

Bang.

Yes, he really jumped down.

After that, cheating became something mutually understood without being spoken about between us.

Whenever I was ill, he was with her, eating at an Italian restaurant.

During my birthday, he was in bed with her, staying close to her.

In the end, he even made her his personal driver so they could meet every day.

People all over Avondale mocked me for being foolish, but I simply loved him too much. Was that really a mistake?

But now, I don’t love him anymore.

That night, I called my lawyer friend.

“Cindy, help me make a divorce agreement. I want to divorce him.”

My friend’s relieved voice came from the other side of the call as she answered with a laugh.

“You finally came to your senses and decided to get rid of that garbage.”

“What plans do you have for dividing the property?”

Suddenly, a woman’s sweet voice came from upstairs. The two of them were so wrapped around each other that they didn’t even care that his legal wife was still downstairs.

My hand tightly curled into a fist, my nails digging hard into my palm.

“Based on the agreement Heath and I signed before marriage, all the property belongs to me. He leaves with nothing.”

Heath, you spoiled her while she destroyed everything I had. This is what you owe me.

After the call ended, a message suddenly appeared on my phone.

“Kira, Dad already asked people to speed up your immigration process. In one month, you’ll be able to get it.”

After one month, let’s completely leave everything in Avondale behind.

That night, I cleared away all my belongings and quietly left in the dark.

The next morning, Heath called me more than thirty times.

I answered calmly, but he was full of anger.

“Kira, where did you go?”

“What game are you playing now? Are you trying to run away from home again and hide at Grandma’s place to stir up trouble?”

I slowly let out a breath.

Back when Heath first cheated me, it wasn’t that I never thought of ways to fix it. I had gone to Grandma Cecile crying and making a fuss before.

She felt sorry for me, angrily scolded Heath, and even sent people to bring Aurelia back to the old residence for punishment once.

Ninety-nine family strikes, Heath blocked everyone for her. His body was covered with injuries as he lay in her arms, while the woman cried painfully.

He stared at me and said in a cold voice, “Kira, even if you complain, it won’t change anything.”

“If I don’t love you anymore, then I just don’t. Acting like this only makes me dislike you even more.”

That day, as I looked at his stubborn face, I suddenly laughed. That laugh carried comfort and freedom.

After that, Grandma Cecile kept giving Aurelia a hard time and scolding him again and again. He always thought it was because of me, but the truth was that she only felt too bad for me.

“You’re thinking too much. I just need some peace and quiet.”

After hearing that, the man finally calmed down a little and spoke without emotion.

“Go anywhere you want, but if you still try to hurt Aurelia, I won’t forgive you.”

The call ended. I carelessly threw the phone aside and dropped onto the bed.

I was extremely tired.

I stayed there blankly for the whole day, from morning until night, and I couldn’t even feel hungry.

Bang.

Someone suddenly kicked the bedroom door open, and I quickly sat up in fear.

Heath stormed inside in anger and roughly pulled me to my feet.

“Kira! So this is your idea of wanting peace? Paying people to post black PR articles?”

“The crash was already an accident, but you had people turn it into a story about the mistress trying to kill the legal wife, making Aurelia cut her wrists and try to kill herself!”

I couldn’t understand what he was talking about and quickly tried to explain.

“I stayed in the hotel the whole day. I didn’t do any of this.”

“Mr. Curtis can control all of Avondale, yet checking the truth is too hard for you? Instead, you’re making up lies for no reason?”

He tightly held my wrist, and his grip kept getting stronger.

After unlocking the phone, he raised it in front of me, and a news article appeared before my eyes.

[Mistress uses every trick to move up, purposely breaking traffic laws and causing a car crash?!]

The comments underneath looked even worse.

[Some mistresses should stop acting so shamelessly. The whole Avondale already knows how loving the Curtis couple is!]

[So disgusting, completely cheap and without morals, and she even tried to hurt people!]

[Someone like her should just die. Being a mistress isn’t enough, now she even wants to murder someone!]

A painful headache spread through my head, and I truly had no idea about any of these things.

“Heath, if I really planned to kill her, I wouldn’t choose such terrible methods.”

“I’d directly beat her in front of everyone.”

His anger had already confused his mind, and he couldn’t listen to my explanation anymore.

A moment later, his eyes stopped on the divorce agreement resting on the table. I said nothing.

Heath shoved my hand away and immediately stepped over to pick it up.

After looking through it for only a short moment, he violently tore the paper apart.

The veins on his forehead stood out, and his brows pressed tightly together as he shouted at me.

“Divorce? Kira, you really know what you’re doing, huh? After nearly killing Aurelia, now you want a divorce so you can run away?”

“Back then, your own family already gave up on you just so you could marry me. Without me, you’re nothing. You’re like an old broken shoe nobody wants anymore.”

Every word Heath said cut deeply into my heart again and again.

Everyone in Avondale knew the Hamilton family had worked in politics for generations. They hated business families the most, and there was no way they wanted their heir to marry into a merchant family.

Back then, I insisted on marrying him. Grandfather beat me until my body was covered in wounds, and I went through ten hours of emergency treatment before surviving.

In the end, Dad only left me with one sentence.

“Your grandfather and I will only give you this one chance.”

“Within ten years, if you want to return home, we’ll wait for you in England, but you must never come back to Avondale and completely cut ties with him.”

But now, all the things I gave up had become the cruel weapon he used to hurt me.

“Heath, back then, you were the one who asked me to get a divorce and let you two be together. Now I agree.”

“I’ll print another copy. Once you calm down, sign it.”

He stepped in front of me and grabbed my neck tightly, his eyes completely red.

His lips parted slightly, but before he could speak, a phone call stopped him.

“Aurelia woke up? I’m heading there now!”

He casually let go of me like throwing away garbage, and I heavily dropped onto the floor.

A warm liquid slowly ran down my body, while a severe pain spread through my lower stomach.

I reached out to touch it, and it was blood!

My face instantly lost all color, and I cried out in fear, “Heath, help me, I’m bleeding!”

His steps suddenly stopped, and he turned around to look at me.

After only a few seconds, an irritated look appeared on his face. “That’s enough! Just because you want to stop me from seeing Aurelia, now you’re pretending again!”

“It was only a fall. Are you really that weak? You didn’t even die in the car accident!”

After saying those words, he never looked back again and quickly left.

And I passed out in the blood.

A strong disinfectant smell suddenly woke me up.

The doctor stayed beside my hospital bed and quietly shook his head.

“Miss Hamilton, the child couldn’t be saved. The earlier car accident already left complications behind, and this time, you arrived too late. Your uterus suffered serious damage, so you might never become pregnant again.”

I blankly lay on the hospital bed while tears slowly covered my eyes.

The doctor continued saying comforting words near me, but I couldn’t hear them anymore.

This was the second baby, Heath, that we lost, and it was also the final one.

Three years earlier, after learning he was cheating, he jumped from a building to pressure me into divorce, and the shock caused me to miscarry immediately.

I waited three years for this child to arrive, but before I could even feel its warmth, it left again.

“Kira, I hope our future child is as sweet and kind as you.”

“Once we have a child, there’ll be one more person in this world for me to love.”

At twenty-two, those words stayed deeply in my mind, but now he once again destroyed our child with his own hands.

My hand slowly touched my flat stomach, as if the child was still there.

Heath, I’ll definitely make you suffer the consequences!

After the doctor walked out, I called Cindy.

“The investment contract I asked you to prepare before isn’t needed anymore.”

“And I want to pull back the investment and take back every asset from Heath’s company! I want him to be left with nothing. He has to pay for this!”

Night slowly arrived.

Heath walked into my hospital room and let out a cold laugh.

“Kira, you really treat the hospital like your own house, coming here whenever you want.”

I turned my face away and ignored him.

He came over to my bedside, handed me a paper and pen, and coldly spoke.

“This situation caused a huge problem for Aurelia. It already seriously affected both her life and her family’s life.”

“You’ll personally write an apology letter, saying you were paranoid and schizophrenic, purposely spreading lies about innocent people. You’ll also say you’re willing to pay all mental damage compensation and personally apologize to her.”

After hearing that, I stared at him in shock, anger rising inside me.

“Heath, is something wrong with your head? Why should I apologize for something I never did?”

Heath pushed down on my shoulders and softly replied.

“At this stage, why are you still pretending to be innocent? In all of Avondale, I can’t find a second person who wants her dead as badly as you do.”

I laughed loudly, my voice carrying sarcasm.

“Could she be putting on a show by herself?”

He laughed too.

“Not everybody likes acting and pretending the way you do.”

“Kira, after you follow what I said, I’ll take you to Iceland right away and finally keep the promise I owe you.”

It sounded so believable that if I didn’t have Aurelia’s WhatsApp, I might’ve truly trusted him.

Three days ago, she was still showing off on Instagram:

“My health’s been bad recently, but someone already arranged an Iceland vacation for me. Who wants free plane tickets and hotel stays?”

The things she threw away had somehow become a gift for me.

Seven years passed. The honeymoon we missed before because of work, and later after our love disappeared, was now going to happen like this.

“No, Heath. I didn’t do anything wrong, and there’s no way I’ll apologize.”

“I, Kira, take responsibility for the things I do. If I didn’t do it, then I didn’t do it!”

His brows tightened as he suddenly threw the paper at my face, the sharp edge cutting my cheek.

The door slammed shut hard.

A message suddenly appeared on my phone.

“Miss Hamilton, your immigration process has been completed. Welcome to England. We look forward to your return to Avondale again!”

I slowly breathed out. Everything should finally be over now.

After I finished packing my luggage, an urgent call suddenly came in.