While Alberta was at work, I could barely reach her. Wilfred was always in the way.

When she came home, she stayed glued to the phone with Wilfred, video calls, the two of them laughing nonstop.

My monthly allowance had dropped from fifty thousand to two.

I'd argued with Alberta once about whether she'd gotten too close to Wilfred, while turning ice-cold toward me.

She'd just looked at me then, calm, her face empty of anything.

"Nathan, you only married into this family because you played dirty. Don't act sweet after you've already cashed in."

"Besides, Wilfred and I are just boss and assistant. We happen to get along. You're imagining things."

That was when it hit me. Whatever we had came purely from that one reckless night. She had never really loved me.

So I stopped arguing. I stopped asking about the two thousand, too.

But over the past six months, Alberta had gone further and further. Wilfred's feed was crammed with proof of how close they were.

Hot springs together, hiking to catch the sunrise, fancy synchronized ski runs.

And every time Wilfred and I clashed, Alberta took his side without a second's hesitation.

Just like today.

Every time, the cold of it stole the breath right out of my chest.

But at least I'd already booked tomorrow's flight to the States. I was taking my mother there for treatment, and I was leaving Alberta behind.

Right here. Right now.

I looked at Wilfred, standing behind Alberta.

His hands were still resting on her shoulders, his eyes daring me.

I stared at him.

"Alberta didn't give me arcade tokens. And I'm damn sure I'm not throwing dirt on you."

"Which means you're the one who swapped the cash for tokens, and because of that my mother's surgery was delayed and she's paralyzed from the neck down."

I couldn't hold it anymore. I lunged and slammed my fist into Wilfred's face.

But the next instant, a wine bottle smashed into the back of my skull.

I turned my head and saw the loathing twisting Alberta's face.

"Nathan, I won't let you hurt Wilfred."

She shoved past me and wrapped her arms around him, cooing soft words of concern.

And I just swayed, then went down.

When I came to, I was still lying on the freezing floor. The enormous mansion held no one but me.

The back of my head was damp. I'd clearly been bleeding.

Alberta had simply left me there.

What she'd done had sunk below even the lowest bar I'd ever set for her.

But none of it mattered anymore.

I glanced at my phone. In the post Wilfred had just put up, Alberta was nursing him in a hospital VIP room.

Dressing his wound with her own hands. Mouth to mouth, spooning porridge into him.

I laughed and started packing.

I was going abroad this time, and I wouldn't be coming back anytime soon.

So everything that could be thrown out, I threw out.

Including my wedding photos with Alberta, every gift we'd given each other across two years of marriage.

Last of all, I dropped my wedding ring into the toilet and flushed it away.

When it was done, I picked up my suitcase to leave.

Then the whole mansion plunged into darkness. The power had gone out.

I was still puzzling over it when two shadows appeared, closing in fast.

I sensed the danger and snatched up the suitcase to shield myself, but they struck me down with brutal precision and dragged me off.

Two masked men.

They threw me into a battered van, gagged my mouth, and then one of them backhanded me across the face while the other filmed.

They captured the most humiliating sight of my entire life, beating my face swollen, beating it bloody.

The bones in my face felt close to cracking.

"Ninety-nine slaps. That's enough." I don't know how long it had gone on, my face nearly pulped, before the one filming finally called a stop.

The one who'd been slapping me pried my eyelids open, forcing me to meet his eyes.

His voice was ice.

"Wilfred's our buddy. You ever lay a hand on him again, we'll bury you."

I wasn't stupid. This whole thing had Alberta written all over it.

The punch I'd thrown at Wilfred had earned me this, and she'd sent these men to do it.

The second they shoved me out of the car, Alberta came rolling back with her people.

She looked at my face, raw and bloody, and for once in her life she squeezed out two tears for me.

"Nathan, I'm taking you to the hospital right now."

"Don't worry. I will find whoever did this to you and put them behind bars."

The pain had me drifting in and out, so I had no choice but to let her do as she pleased.

And then she actually put me in the same VIP room as Wilfred.

Wilfred took one look at the wounds on my face and sneered.

"Mr. James, wouldn't you call this karma? One punch at me, and look at you now. Beaten to a pulp."

Alberta gave him a playful little smack of mock reproach.

"Wilfred, did you dip your mouth in poison or something?"

Wilfred pushed his luck.

"What can I say? One kiss from you, Alberta, and you'd cry yourself to death from how sweet it is."

Her face shifted at that, and she shot me a slightly panicked glance.

But when she saw me sitting there, paying the two of them no mind at all, her expression darkened instead.

Once the doctor had finished cleaning the wounds on my face, Alberta turned to me.

"Nathan, not only did you frame Wilfred today, you hit him. You owe him an apology."

I didn't waste a look on Wilfred and his smug face. I just stared straight at Alberta.

"Haven't you already settled the score for him?"

"He handed me fifty thousand in arcade tokens for my mother's surgery. That's a fact. Why would I apologize?"

"Or is it that you love Wilfred so much you can't tell right from wrong anymore?"

"What are you talking about? Shut up!" Alberta was furious.

She lunged at me and slapped me across the face, palm cracking against the wound.

The bandage they'd just wrapped came undone.

The pain was unbearable.

But I would not let this woman see me flinch.

My voice came out cold.

"One hundred slaps. Perfect. A nice round number."

"Alberta, I want a divorce."

This time I saw it. She really did panic, just for a moment.

But she pulled herself together fast.

"What hundred slaps? You're not making any sense."

"Nathan, I married you. I'm not divorcing you. So you can relax."

Wilfred had been watching the whole show with a hidden grin.

At Alberta's words, his face stiffened, and when his eyes came back to me, they were full of calculation.

That night, through the first half, Alberta tended to me without stopping. She fed me sips of water and even trimmed my nails.

She told me that whether or not my mother was truly paralyzed, she would hire two caregivers to look after her properly.

What was she doing?

She didn't want the divorce, so now she was putting on a performance?

I didn't have the energy for her. I closed my eyes and pretended to sleep.

Who could have guessed that within minutes Alberta had drifted over to Wilfred's side.

The two of them murmured and flirted, growing more and more intimate, looking for all the world like a couple.

The next day.

After I woke, I went to the ICU to see my mother.

There was no avoiding it. She saw the wounds on my face.

She looked at me, aching with worry.

"Nathan... who did this to you? Was it Alberta...?"

I gripped my mother's hand and forced out a smile.

"Mom, it's just a few scratches. It's nothing."

"Tonight I'm taking you away, to the States for treatment. Trust me, it won't be long before you're fully better."

The words had barely left my mouth when the door flew open with a kick. Alberta walked in, Wilfred and two bodyguards at her back.

I was about to throw them out when Wilfred pointed at me and said,

"Nathan, did you steal Alberta's project proposal? Do you have any idea how important that project is to us?"

I frowned.

“What proposal? I have no idea what you're talking about. You're not welcome here. Get out!”

Alberta tucked Wilfred behind her and fixed me with a cold stare.

“Nathan, didn't I tell you before? You're not allowed to touch anything to do with the company. So why did you steal the proposal?”

“Don't tell me you're jealous of Wilfred. Bothered that I've been getting close to him? Why are you being so unreasonable?”

“I'll give you one chance. Hand over the proposal, and I'll forgive you.”

I'd never laid eyes on this so-called proposal. How was I supposed to hand it over to her?

I looked at Wilfred. The smug satisfaction on his face told me everything.

“I didn't steal any proposal. Wilfred is framing me. Call the police if you don't believe me.”

But Wilfred didn't panic in the slightest.

He spoke with absolute certainty.：

“Alberta, the proposal went missing only a little while ago, so it has to still be in the hospital……I'm betting Nathan hid it right here in this ICU!”

My mother lay on the bed, struggling to call out Alberta's name.

“Alberta……Nathan didn't steal any proposal……you have to trust him……”

I quickly urged Alberta too.

“I would never steal something like that, Alberta. Take your people and leave. My mother isn't well. You're disturbing her.”

I thought Alberta would trust me, just this once.

And even if she didn't, surely she wouldn't push this hard. My mother was lying paralyzed in that bed, after all.

But all it took was for Wilfred to say,：

“Alberta, maybe we should just let it go.”

“I know the team and I pulled three straight all-nighters to finish that proposal, but it's fine. We can just make another one.”

Alberta's expression changed in an instant.

She shot me a glance.

“So you won't hand it over? Then I'll just have to have it searched out.”

She gave the order to the bodyguards behind her.：

“What are you standing around for? Search every inch. Find the proposal Wilfred worked so hard on!”

The two bodyguards started tearing through the room at once. All I could do was keep my body between them and my mother.

I hadn't taken the proposal, so no matter how thoroughly they searched, they came up empty.

In the end, their eyes settled on my mother's bed.

I held my mother tight and turned to Alberta for help.：

“Alberta! I've said it a hundred times. I didn't steal anything, and there's no way I'd hide a proposal here with my mother. Take them and go!”

A flicker of hesitation crossed Alberta's face.

Before I could feel any relief, Wilfred suddenly pointed beneath my mother's pillow.

“Alberta, look. What's under the pillow?”

A bodyguard rushed over and yanked the pillow up hard, pulling a folder out from underneath.

On the cover, in plain sight, were the words “Project Proposal.”

Alberta's voice went ice-cold.

“Nathan, didn't you say you didn't steal it? Then what is this?”

But I didn't hear a word she said. I leaned in to check on my mother. When that bodyguard ripped the pillow up, he'd torn out the IV needle still feeding into her.

Blood was pouring from her neck, fast.

“Nathan, I'm talking to you. Are you deaf?”

Alberta grabbed my arm.

In that moment, my loathing for this woman hit its limit.

I swung my hand and slapped her across the face.

“Get out! Take your people and get out!”

Alberta had never seen me treat her with such open contempt. Her pupils shrank, her eyes full of disbelief.

I had no time for her. I brushed past her and ran out to find a doctor.

By the time the doctor stopped the bleeding and pulled my mother back from the edge.