Lindsay Donaldson and Benjamin Delgado were New York's most famous couple bound by nothing but hate.

On their third wedding anniversary, Benjamin sat with his wrists lashed together by his own tie, his eyes rimmed red, his voice wrecked to a rasp. "Lindsay. What did you put in my water?"

"An aphrodisiac." Her red lips curved into a smug arc, one hand trailing down across his stomach. "So? Ready to beg?"

There was want churning in his eyes, but under it, undisguised disgust. "You're shameless."

She opened the camera on her phone and aimed it at him. "Is today the first day you've met me?"

He ground out the words through his teeth. "Don't think you can seduce me with a trick like this. I'd rather die than lay a finger on you."

Smiling, she tossed a contract onto the bed. "The North Side project. Let me run it. Otherwise this video shows up at tomorrow's shareholders' meeting."

The day after she secured the project, Benjamin drugged her and had her delivered to a hospital as a live training body.

A doctor and a cluster of interns crowded around her. A heat spread low in her belly and her mind began to swim, but she still managed to curse him. "Benjamin, you're filthy and low and shameless. Watch me ruin you one day."

He let his fine, handsome eyes flick over her, his tone flat, edged with a trace of contempt. "Then I'll be waiting."

She bit down hard on her lip, struggled up off the bed, and there in the crowd she saw a familiar face.

Benjamin had clearly seen it too. His whole body went rigid, and his voice came out urgent, lit with the joy of getting back something he'd lost. "Veronica Barnes?"

The woman in the white coat spoke. "Sir, you know my sister?"

She said she was Vivian Barnes, the twin sister of Benjamin's dead first love.

Under the drug, Lindsay's mind sank all the way into darkness.

1

She had a dream. It was as if she had gone back to childhood, to the days when she and Benjamin had grown up side by side.

She was the most doted-on youngest daughter of the Donaldson family, the brightest rose in all of New York, living loud and unbridled.

He was the cleverest son of the Delgado family, born into a top dynasty, yet he worked himself ragged, graduated first in the city, got into Columbia Law School, and took up his father's mantle to become a lawyer.

From the time they were small, they had treated each other as rivals, competing over grades, over resources, over who came out on top.

Somewhere in all of that, Lindsay had fallen for Benjamin, helplessly, beyond any way back.

They had been promised to each other for years. She had assumed marrying him was simply how things would go.

Until he stood in front of her and begged, in the most abject posture she'd ever seen from him. "Lindsay, I can't marry you. Please tell your family clearly. Call off our engagement."

In that moment her heart felt cut to pieces, yet she still spoke with her pride intact. "Oh? You've finally figured out you're not good enough for me?"

Benjamin lowered his eyes and said it one word at a time. "I've fallen in love with Veronica. I'm sorry."

"This is your choice? A woman who runs a flower shop. What can she give you?" Lindsay pressed down the pain surging up in her and turned mocking. "The truth is I never liked you at all, Benjamin. If you want out, then out. Just don't regret it later."

The calm she forced herself to hold was only there to prop up her crumbling pride.

Benjamin finally let out a breath, and quietly told her thank you.

But right after she'd raised the broken engagement with her family, Veronica suddenly drowned herself in the sea, leaving behind nothing but a note written in blood.

The note said it was Lindsay who had driven her to her death.

No matter how Lindsay explained, Benjamin simply would not believe her.

He came at her with a fury that made it look as though he wanted to kill her, and forced her to accept the marriage.

In the chapel, as they held each other, Benjamin laid the cruelest curse on her. "Lindsay, the two of us should torment each other to death. That's the only way to atone."

Lindsay jolted awake from the nightmare, a fine cold sweat sheeting her back.

She was in an empty hospital room, and just then her phone rang.

"Miss Donaldson, your brother's heart surgery began last night. The surgeon's improper handling caused a blood infection, and he died unexpectedly—"

Lindsay could hardly take it in. "Weren't you told this surgery was very low risk? Who was the surgeon?"

The voice on the line said, "Vivian Barnes."

The dull ache at her heart turned into a sharp, stabbing pain, so fierce she couldn't breathe.

After their parents died, her brother had been the only family she had left.

She pulled out the IV needle and made her way, stumbling, to Vivian's office.

Through the gap in the door, she saw Benjamin holding Vivian in his arms, soothing her in a low voice. "Vivian, it was only an accident. I won't let anything happen to you."

"Lindsay killed your sister. Her brother dying at your hands is nothing but what she had coming. She deserves it."

Lindsay's nails dug deep into her palms, and she felt no pain at all, only a scalding numbness.

Vivian sobbed. "But I'm only an intern. I'm not qualified to perform surgery. What if she sues me?"

Benjamin's tone was uncommonly gentle. "Without my say-so, no one in New York would dare take her case."

A bang.

Lindsay shoved the door open and spoke without a single hesitation. "Benjamin. Let's get a divorce."

She knew Benjamin was telling the truth.

She had never wanted to send Veronica to prison. What kind of punishment was that?

She wanted Veronica to pay in blood for blood.

These three years of marriage, a cage in every sense, she'd had more than enough of them.

His cold gaze settled on her. "Really?"

"Who'd bother lying to you? Three seconds. Divorce or not."

Benjamin glanced at Veronica, and his eyes softened. "I'll have the divorce papers drawn up right away."

Along with the divorce papers, a release waiver was placed in front of her too.

"It was all an accident. Your brother was just unlucky—"

Before he could finish, Lindsay signed her name, clean and unhesitating.

Benjamin looked surprised. "Why are you being so cooperative today?"

Bitterness rose in her throat. She gave a cold laugh. "Clearing the way for you and Veronica. Isn't that nice?"

His eyes went dark, fixed on hers, his voice like ice. "In thirty days, the agreement takes effect. I'd advise you not to get any ideas you shouldn't have. Otherwise I'll make you wish you were dead."

Wish she were dead?

Every single day of these three years, she had been torn between love and hate, scorched by it. She'd already tasted that wish from end to end.

In the morgue, when she saw her brother's body, Lindsay finally broke down and cried. Her hand was still shaking as she held his. "Don't worry. Your sister will avenge you."

She didn't leave the hospital until dawn broke, returning to the cage that had trapped her.

The moment she stepped inside, Veronica appeared in front of her, wearing the air of the lady of the house. "What are you doing here?"

Lindsay shoved her aside, her voice full of contempt. "The thirty days aren't up. I'm still the lady of this house. That's my question to ask you."

The next second, she walked straight into the flower room, picked up an axe, and carried it into the living room.

Veronica's face went white with fright. She pointed at her. "You— what are you doing? I'm calling the police right now—"

Lindsay let out a scornful laugh, didn't even bother to look at her, and swung the axe down into the television. "Go ahead and call."

Everything in this house, except what she could take with her, she would destroy rather than leave for Veronica.

"I've wanted to replace this couch for ages."

"The staircase needs redoing too."

"And I never liked the balcony."

Between Veronica's screaming and the thunderous crash of the axe coming down, the whole mansion was wrecked into ruin, not a single room left fit to live in.

Veronica shrieked, "Lindsay! Just wait until Benjamin gets back. He'll teach you a lesson!"

Lindsay hummed a tune, the corners of her mouth curving up, and smashed every piece of fine dinnerware in the cabinets onto the floor. "I'll be waiting."

When she was done venting, she gathered her things. Her phone suddenly buzzed. She lowered her eyes to look.

It was a text from Raymond Henson, Benjamin's sworn enemy: 【Heard you and Benjamin finally divorced? I always said he wasn't good enough for you. Want to try marrying me instead? I'll help you ruin him.】

Before her marriage, Raymond had been one of her many suitors.

For the sake of that last line, and because Raymond was the lunatic everyone in their circle feared, Lindsay wrote back: 【Sure. Thirty days from now, see you outside the county clerk's office.】

After sending it, she headed for the door, only to be blocked by Veronica.

A smug look surfaced in her eyes. "Lindsay, you act like nothing's wrong, but your heart really hurts, doesn't it?"

"I just mentioned it to Benjamin in passing, and he handed your brother over for me to practice on. Three years married to him, and he never once gave you a proper look, did he? How pathetic."

Lindsay set her suitcase down on the floor, raised her hand, grabbed a fistful of her hair, and slammed her head into the wall.

"Veronica, what exactly are you, that you get to pity me?"

"Until the day that divorce takes effect, you're nothing but a mistress!"

She had a fist in Vivian's hair, slamming her head into the wall, again and again.

"A murderer like you should pay with her life!"

Blood ran down Vivian's forehead as she thrashed. "You dare do this to me? Aren't you afraid Benjamin will find out?"

Lindsay let go all at once and watched her crumple to the floor with cold eyes.

A force hit her from behind. Benjamin.

He threw Lindsay down hard, disgust written all over his face. "You killed Veronica, and now you want her sister dead too?"

"Lindsay, and here I thought you'd changed. I should have known you'd still make me sick."

He pulled Vivian tight against him, his voice urgent. "Vivian, are you all right?"

A dull pain spread through Lindsay's lower back, but she still laughed, brazen. "She killed my brother. So what if I hit her a few times?"

"You feel that sorry for her?"

Vivian clung to Benjamin's arm, shaking all over. "Benjamin, she smashed everything in the house, and she said I had to pay with my life for her brother..."

"This house is filthy now that she's lived in it." His thin lips parted, and what came out was cruel. "Her brother died by your hand. That's what they call getting what you deserve. You don't have to be afraid of her."

Above the center of the living room, the crystal chandelier began to swing hard.

Lindsay tried to get up, but her body wouldn't obey.

The next second, with a deafening crash, the chandelier broke loose and came down on her.

The pain tore from her spine through every inch of her, as if a thousand needles were driving into her flesh, until she couldn't breathe.

She lay sprawled on the floor, the last of her strength drained away, and all she could see was Benjamin holding Vivian, his eyes as tender as if he held some rare and precious thing.

When he looked at her, his gaze turned to ice, an ugly smile at the corner of his mouth. "Serves you right."

Vivian asked him, "Are you really just going to leave her? What if something actually happens to her?"

Benjamin's voice was cold. "Better if she dies."

Only after he carried Vivian out did Lindsay, with what was left of her, dial for an ambulance before she lost consciousness completely.

When Lindsay surfaced from the dark, she was already in a hospital.

What she hadn't expected was Vivian, standing there in her room.

There was a smile on her lips, and the smugness on her face she couldn't hide. "Lindsay, did you hear it just now? Benjamin said it'd be better if you died."

"I knew it. He's always loved me most. Back then I left a note written in blood, just to see exactly how much he loved me. I never imagined he'd torture you for three whole years for my sake. What a thrill."

"So I've decided to end his test and go back to him."

Lindsay's heart was pounding so hard it felt like it would leap out of her chest. She forced the words out in disbelief. "There never was any twin sister. You're Veronica!"

"You staged all of it. Why?"

Back then, she had already told her father to call off the engagement.

If Vivian hadn't faked her death, she could have married Benjamin without trouble.

And Lindsay would never have had to suffer through those three years.

Vivian let out a snort of laughter. "To test whether his heart was really mine, of course. I'm not as pretty as you, and my family's nothing special. Who's to say he wouldn't fall for you over time?"

For one test, she had made Lindsay and Benjamin tear each other apart for three years.

Lindsay had always paid back every wrong. She rose, closed her hand around Vivian's throat, and walked her toward the window.

"Tell Benjamin the truth, or I'll throw you out right now!"

She would not be condemned for nothing!

Half of Vivian's body hung out the window, and terror set her shaking from head to toe, yet she couldn't get out a single word.

Benjamin walked in to exactly this scene. His pupils shrank, and his voice was thick with terror. "If Vivian dies, you'll pay with your life!"

Lindsay's grip tightened by degrees. She smiled as she spoke. "Her life is in my hands. You shouldn't be threatening me right now. You should be on your knees, begging me."

Benjamin didn't hesitate for a moment. He actually knelt, his eyes full of nothing but fear for Vivian. "Fine. I'm begging you. Just let Vivian go, and you can have my life..."

Lindsay had never imagined that Benjamin, always so cold and proud, would truly kneel for a woman.

A vicious irony washed through her, and she laughed until she could barely catch her breath. "Benjamin, you really are pathetic."

The words were barely out when Vivian, seizing the moment Lindsay loosened her grip, shoved her away hard.

On instinct Lindsay snatched up the scissors beside her and drove them into Vivian's belly. She turned her head toward Benjamin. "This is what they call getting what you deserve."