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."

The next second Benjamin came at her in a fury and drove his foot into Lindsay's chest.

He held the wounded Vivian against him and screamed himself hoarse. "Doctor!"

"Vivian, you're going to be fine..."

A coppery sweetness rose in Lindsay's throat. She spat out a mouthful of blood and gave a cold laugh. "Benjamin, she isn't the little sister of your dead first love. She is Veronica Barnes. The suicide back then was a sham, staged by her to test how real your feelings were—"

That sham had cost her three whole years.

Right now all she wanted was to tear off Vivian's mask and clear her own name.

A knife had gone into Vivian's belly. Her face had drained white. "Benjamin, she just threatened me. She said if I didn't tell you this, she'd throw me off the fifth floor. She comes from money, she has power, I can't fight someone like her..."

"Is this how she drove my sister to her death too? I'm so scared..."

The doctor rushed in and started working on Vivian's wound.

Benjamin's face was frost. He picked the bloodied scissors up off the floor and signaled the others to leave.

He walked toward Lindsay, one step at a time, closed a hand around her throat, his voice low and dark. "To clean up your own reputation, there really isn't anything you won't do, is there."

"Veronica already died at your hands, and you still slander her. Now you want to kill her own sister too. Lindsay, why are you this vicious?"

He stared at her, eyes heavy, and then, for no reason, he smiled—a smile with a cold that cut to the bone. "Don't tell me it's because you're in love with me. Jealous enough to lose your mind?"

Lindsay's face flushed dark red. She clawed at the back of his hand, leaving bloody streaks, and forced out every word with the last of her strength. "I'd sooner love a stray dog off the street than ever love you!"

"Good. So would I."

Benjamin said it slowly, and the hand pinning her throat eased open.

Lindsay had barely drawn a breath when pain bloomed through her belly. She looked down, disbelieving.

Benjamin had driven the scissors into her abdomen with terrible force.

The pain swallowed every word she still meant to say.

"This one is what you owe Vivian."

He yanked the blade out and stabbed it hard into her chest. "And this one is what you owe Veronica."

He truly meant to take her life.

The violent pain wracked her whole body, yet she couldn't even cry out.

He dropped her on the floor like a broken rag doll. The blood was leaving her fast, her mind washing blank, and all she could manage was, "Benjamin..."

He didn't bother to spare her even a glance. His voice carried a cold that reached the bone. "You'd better die right here. Otherwise what's waiting for you is endless torment..."

With that, he turned and left without looking back.

Lindsay only felt cold, her whole body as if soaked in ice water.

She had never imagined she would truly die at the hands of the man she had loved for twelve years.

Her eyes lost their focus, her hands fell limp...

Maybe death was the only ending left for her.

When Lindsay woke out of the darkness, she found she hadn't died.

But she soon found she'd been locked up.

The nurses' chatter drifted to her ears. "Mr. Delgado says Miss Donaldson has a severe delusional disorder, that we need to increase her treatment..."

"A perfectly normal person—how does she just go mad like that? And she nearly killed Vivian. If Mr. Delgado hadn't been there, Miss Barnes really would have died at her hands."

"Vivian's a lucky one, though. Mr. Delgado fell for her at first sight. She gets hurt and he watches over her three days and three nights without sleeping..."

Lindsay got up, pounded on the door, and shouted, "I'm not crazy! Let me out!"

The doctor came quickly, restraint straps in his hands, his face calm. "Miss Donaldson, whether you're really mad or only pretending makes no difference to me. What matters is that Mr. Delgado gave an order: you're not to have it easy..."

"Either you behave, admit you slandered Miss Barnes, and apologize to her, or you take all of this."

So it was Benjamin after all.

She wasn't dead simply because Benjamin still didn't think she'd suffered enough.

A mocking smile touched the corner of Lindsay's mouth. "Tell Benjamin that Vivian is a liar, and he's a fool!"

"Even if I die right here, I will never apologize to her!"

She picked up a ballpoint pen and pressed it to her own throat, a look of release in her eyes.