Every day, I either slept with my eyes tightly shut or stared blankly into space. This made Jacob truly believe I had taken the sedatives.

Leslie, who watched me from the bedside every day, would wear a look of disgust, though occasionally a fleeting flicker of pity would cross her eyes.

“Irene, wouldn’t it have been better if you had been this obedient like this earlier?” She pinched my cheek, making it flushed red with pain.

“After tormenting you for ten years, how can you still be this pretty?” Leslie stared at me without blinking.

Suddenly, Jacob walked in.

I clearly hear the door lock from the inside.

“Irene, you can definitely forgive us, right?" When he looked at the redness on my face, he assumed my health was gradually improving.

In my heart, I refuted him. I won't forgive.

"After all, Leslie is your best friend and I'm your devoted husband. We did all this for your own good. As long as you are good, you'll be the first to get the global limited-edition handbag.”

“Since meeting you, my business has only grown stronger. I can't live without you," Jacob said with complex emotions filling his eyes.

Was sending me to prison and forcing me to take sedatives daily truly for my own good? I doubt I can afford that kind of kindness.

I subtly dug my nails into my palm and the pain travelled to my heart.

I refused to hear any more hypocritical words, so I closed my eyes and pretended to sleep.

From that day onward, I swallowed the anti-inflammatory pills that benefited me and spit out the sedatives.

At the same time, I noticed three bodyguards outside this VIP ward. They disguised themselves as passersby or patients, monitoring me secretly.

I had been thinking of a good way to escape, but how could an ordinary person like me slip past their watchful eyes?

In the evening, Leslie dressed me in a yellow dress and asked me to follow her.

I obediently walked with her to Jacob's Maserati.

Jacob was waiting for me in the car. He looked me up and down, his eyes brimming with admiration.

"Tonight, I'll treat you to a welcome dinner. And your health is better too.”

Leslie pulled me into the car roughly and then sat in the passenger seat with the air of a mistress of the house.

Soon, the car stopped at the most luxurious hotel in Arlington City.

This was the place Jacob proposed to me. Back then, I was completely overwhelmed by the blessings of the crowd.

“My wife, Irene Lambert, served a full ten years in prison for murder. I choose to forgive the past and allow her to continue being Mrs Sinclair.”

Jacob held the microphone and spoke to the guests from the stage.

If he truly wanted to continue our life together, why did he humiliate me like this in front of everyone?

The guests instantly began whispering, their gazes locked toward me.

“So that’s the woman who went to prison. What a pity—she’s beautiful.”

“If it weren't for President Sinclair, she might have been sentenced to life in prison.”

“Heard she killed her own best friend. So heartless.”

Every word reached my ears.

Ten years ago, he could have made me the happiest Mrs. Sinclair. Actually, he still could. It was just now that I refused to be his caged bird.

I took the microphone, ready to refuse in front of everyone, but unexpectedly, I spotted Leslie hiding in the corner, her eyes fixed on me.

It seemed she hadn't dared show herself in public for a decade.

A flush rose to my pale cheeks and a cold smile instantly curved my lips. “Very well.”

The guests cheered as if witnessing a proposal.

Fighting the nausea in my stomach, I said, “I accept.”

In four days, I would leave this place forever. But first, I would gather every shred of evidence against them both. As I departed, I would push them into the abyss.

That night, Jacob told me to rest. The next day, they forced me into a car and took me to a golf facility.

I thought the two of them were going to play golf, but instead they took me into an elevator that carried us down to level B2.

When the pungent smell of disinfectant entered my nostrils, I coughed uncontrollably.

After Jacob said something to several people in white coats, they immediately pinned me down and drew my blood.

In that instant, memories of experiencing this kind of force countless times for the past ten years surged back. And as the wave of injustice and helplessness overcame me, I smashed every piece of equipment in the hallway.

It felt like I was venting all the suffering I had to endure over the past ten years.

Then, from every corner of the corridors, security guards emerged and surrounded me layer by layer.

Jacob pushed through the crowd, clamped his hand around my throat and tossed a black bank card onto the floor. “You're throwing another tantrum again!”

“Blame me for not warning you earlier. Well ... today you're having an embryo transfer procedure,” he said expressionlessly, his grip tightening.

With a complicated expression, I finally asked, "Whose?"

“Ours, of course,” he replied.

Then he gave Leslie the look that he had never given me.

For a moment, time seemed to freeze. My body shook all over. That single sentence filled with double betrayal was delivered with so much ease.

The pain in my neck snapped me back to reality. I refused to have anything to do with this twisted love affair.

“If you behave yourself, you'll still have a place in the Sinclair Family. But you must obey Leslie,” Jacob said coldly.

Everything had changed.

Suddenly, I remembered the days before I went to prison—whenever I so much as frowned, he would immediately blame everyone around me. Once, a drop of dew fell from a tree onto my neck and when he heard me gasp, he ordered his assistant to cut the tree down.

He swore I would be his queen for life.

I always thought sincerity would be returned with sincerity. But the reality slapped me hard across the face.

My heart ached painfully.

Three seconds later, I calmly reached into my pocket for my phone and confirmed the flight ticket for three days later.

“Where are you going in three days? Let me tell you—after you give birth to the baby, you're not allowed to go anywhere!” said Jacob when he saw my screen.

I stared at him for a full ten seconds. “That's none of your business.”

Leslie leaned closer and whispered in my ear, "Do you know why I asked you to carry this baby? Because over the past ten years, I had gotten pregnant with Jacob's baby twice, but each time, for various reasons, I miscarried."

Slap! I slapped Leslie so hard that my palm went numb.

During those agonizing ten years, the two people I trusted most had been cheating behind my back.

Leslie touched her face, which was marred with visible signs of injury and tears streamed down her face.

Jacob embraced her with heartache, then directed all his fury at me, “Apologize, now!”

I sneered. Apologize to those who hurt me?

“I won't apologize,” I declared, my voice utterly fearless.

Jacob threw two more bank cards onto the floor. “Each has seven hundred and fifty thousand dollars in it. Whoever grabs one gets to keep it—just help me pin this woman down.”

His eyes saw nothing but Leslie. He didn’t care at all how everyone viewed him.

The security guards scrambled to grab the cards. The two who succeeded pinned me down, one on each side, their fingernails digging painfully into my arms.

With everyone watching, Jacob gently stroked Leslie’s face. “Go ahead. Slap her—keep going until you’re happy.”

Though I was pinned down by those burly security guards, my gaze never left Jacob.

Without hesitation, Leslie flashed a sinister grin and slapped me hard across the face.

Instantly, a burning sensation shot through me.

I struggled to fight back, but the guards held me down with iron grips.

Jacob said to me, "It's just a few slaps. You won't die."

With a smug expression, Leslie slapped me ten more times. Her gaze grew even fiercer than the heat on my face, that it almost burned me to ashes.

Finally, she stopped slapping me.

"Take her to the VIP ward. Let her recover first,” Jacob said after studying my swollen cheek.

Just when I thought he might show some mercy for our old times' sake, the next words he said shattered my hopes.

“Damn it. If you'd just obeyed, you could've had that transplant surgery sooner. Now we have to treat the infection in your facial wounds first.”

I was escorted by security guards to the private ward like a puppet on a string. The next day, Jacob came to the ward and stared at my wounds. His eyes held only disgust; there was no trace of pity in them.

I couldn't help but say, “I will never compromise with you! No matter what!"

Jacob looked at me in a daze.  After a pause, he spoke slowly, “You've changed. The old you would obey me without question.”

When I stared into his dazed eyes, I saw surprise and confusion in them.

“I still have feelings for you. As long as you ...” Jacob’s voice softened.

“It hurts so much!”

His words were interrupted by Leslie outside the door.

He sprang to his feet, slammed the door and rushed out.

Leslie was clutching her belly, then she collapsed at the entrance of the ward.

“My lower abdomen hurts so badly! The attending doctor just said I must have the transplant surgery immediately! If it fails this time, I won't have any more eggs left.” She sobbed and buried herself in Jacob's embrace.

He immediately lifted her into his arms.

When she left, she winked and smiled at me, then her expression quickly changed into a look of pain.

Even though their voices were still ringing in my ears, I didn't care about them anymore.

When passing by Jacob, I smashed the court divorce judgment in my arms onto his chest. “It's for you.”

The judgment listed how he had cheated on me during the marriage and that the woman involved was my best friend.

He picked it up with disgust, as if handling worthless trash. The next second, his expression froze.

He trembled as he forced a smile. "This fake looks so real."

“It’s just asking you to be the biological mother of the child. Is that really such a big deal?” He frowned at me, looking at me as if I were garbage.

I held my head high and strode out. The car I had booked ahead of time was already waiting outside the golf course.

“Before going to the airport, I have to pick up my grandma first,” I said to the driver.

He immediately turned the car around and sped toward the small mountain village I knew well.

Jacob and Leslie's figures grew fainter in the rearview mirror. I confirmed the recordings and videos on my phone, destroyed the SIM card and tossed it out the window.

My former lover and best friend, I would like to thank you for letting me learn how to see people's true nature.

“Ma'am, why are you going to such lengths? Why did you throw away the SIM card?” The driver glanced at me out of the corner of his eye.

But I remained silent. Jacob held absolute power in Arlington City, so I had to make sure I vanished from his world, no matter what the cost.

All these years, I should have been working hard in my career, but I trapped myself in an imaginary ivory tower for the sake of so-called love.

I would leave this city forever today, as if I had never been here at all.