Once Zach heard Yvonne’s voice, he was stunned. But before he could turn around, Bella suddenly cradled her chest.

“Zach, it hurts.”

She collapsed in front of him, and panic filled his face.

“Bella! Bella!”

Yvonne soon arrived before Zach, but he just picked Bella up and shoved her away.

Before he left, he said, “Take care of the rest.”

Yvonne was forced to stay at the police station with the lawyer to handle the mess Zach had left behind.

It lasted until nighttime, and Yvonne did not eat a single thing. Her face was turning increasingly pale.

Once the lawyer finished taking care of everything, he saw Yvonne’s eyes roll back, and she fainted.

She lay in a hospital bed as her head spun. She wanted to open her eyes, but she could not find the strength to do so.

In her daze, she felt as if she could see herself after Zach “died.”

She turned gray overnight as she sat listlessly in their room. She refused to eat or drink and just let herself waste away until her friends found her unconscious at home. They sent her to the hospital.

When the doctor told her she was pregnant, Yvonne felt like she finally had the will to live. Sadly, when she was six months along, she got into an accident. This led to her losing the last thing that connected her to Zach.

She would never forget the driver who crashed into her. That woman shared the exact same face as Bella’s.

After Yvonne woke up, she found only Jacob York, the lawyer, beside her.

“I’m sorry, Mrs. Frank, I can’t get into contact with Mr. Frank. I bought you some soup, though. Have it while it’s warm.”

Yvonne forced herself up through great effort. As she recalled how Zach had left with Bella, she sneered. “Thanks for the trouble, Mr. York. Please go home.”

Once Jacob left, Yvonne pulled the IV needle out and wanted to leave. However, the nurse who came in to change her IV drip saw this and stopped her.

“Why did you pull out the needle? Where’s your family?”

Yvonne looked down. “I have no family.”

The nurse’s words died in her throat. After a sigh, she put the IV needle back in the back of Yvonne’s hand again.

The door opened once more, and another nurse came in to register Yvonne under the hospital. While she wrote, she lamented, “Seriously, people’s lives are so different from each other. Look at Mrs. Frank. She just got a scare, and Mr. Frank got all the specialists to check on her. It’s already midnight, and he still got them back to the hospital. His wife sure is the luckiest woman alive!”

Yvonne wanted to laugh when she heard this, but her eyes shone with tears.

After Zach received confirmation from a few specialists that Bella was fine, he finally felt relieved.

Slowly, rationality returned to him, and he suddenly remembered Yvonne.

Scowling, he gave her a call. He dialed her number more than ten times, but no one picked up.

Casting a glance at Bella and finding her resting, he quietly grabbed his jacket and left.

Yvonne had gotten herself an agent to be in charge of selling her studio.

“Miss Sunderland, these things look expensive. Why are you burning them?”

The agent was shocked to find Yvonne throwing her belongings into the brazier.

With a stony face, Yvonne picked up an unassuming diary from the side and threw it into the brazier without hesitation.

The fire shot up and burned her hand. This led the agent to step forward and pull her back.

“What’re you doing?!”

Zach pulled Yvonne to his side with a glare, but she broke free from his grasp.

The sight of his tense face made the agent say, “You’ve misunderstood, sir. I’m a real estate agent.”

Zach frowned and looked at Yvonne. “You’re selling the house?”

She said nothing in reply. Instead, she asked the agent to leave and said she would contact him later if anything came up.

The sight of Yvonne ignoring him made Zach grab her hand in displeasure.

“Which house are you selling, honey?”

“You’ve misunderstood. I just think this place isn’t big enough and want a larger studio,” Yvonne said coolly.

He immediately felt relieved but thought of Bella. So, he looked at Yvonne and decided to test the waters. “Aren’t you going to ask about that day?”

When she gave no reply, Zach said in a seemingly relaxed fashion, “That woman is Robin’s sister. He’s on a business trip, so he called me. You know that I’m good friends with him, so I can’t just ignore it when his sister’s in trouble. I—”

Yvonne simply grabbed her handbag. “I have some business to take care of. Let’s talk tonight.”

She did not continue listening and left.

Zach found himself a little out of sorts.

Yvonne trusted him fully, and this was the result he wanted. Yet, the whole thing just made him uneasy, even though he could not quite describe it.

Zach stopped talking about going on business trips. After Bella was discharged, she returned to the house she shared with him.

When she saw that Zach was going to leave, she immediately ran to his side and hugged him.

“Behave, Bella. I already told you that I can’t stay outside overnight.”

However, she refused to listen. Instead, she held Zach’s hand and placed it over her undergarments.

With delight in her eyes, she stood on her tiptoes and breathed into his ear.

“Zach, I bought new drugs. Do you want to try them?”

His pupils dilated. He could not reject Bella when she was this seductive.

Both of them started frantically leaving traces of their love in their place. It felt like every spot was covered in their sweat.

Satisfied, Bella watched as Zach moved above her.

While he was asleep, she recorded videos and sent them all to Yvonne.

After Zach woke up, he realized that he had stayed over overnight.

He grabbed his hair in frustration and thought of a few excuses. Then, he picked the most reasonable one before he called Yvonne.

However, after he gave his excuse, this was all Yvonne said, “Got it.”

A second ago, Zach could imagine her disappointed expression. He even thought of a lot of things to say to get her back into a good mood. But to think that Yvonne would be so calm!

With a dark expression, he picked up his phone and typed a message.

When Yvonne was done with her shower, she saw Zach’s long message.

She just deleted it after a glance.

She no longer had any interest in Zach’s carefully crafted lies.

On Yvonne’s birthday, Zach imported plenty of Ecuador roses and filled up the venue for her birthday party.

Their mutual friends asked her about it.

“Yvonne, Zach’s so good to you. Look at the decorations and the color of the tablecloth. They were all picked based on your preferences!”

“Naturally. Yvonne has a firm hold over Zach’s heart. In the past, whenever someone flirted with her, Zach would stew in jealousy for a week.”

“Yes! I remember an upperclassman asking Yvonne for her contact number once, and Zach saw it. He threw a basketball at that guy so hard that it gave him a concussion. He only recovered after being on bedrest for a week!”

To that, all Yvonne did was smile.

If their mutual friends could remember these things, Yvonne would remember them too.

In the past, after Zach “died”, she relied on those memories to get her through another day. But whenever she remembered those past events at present, they were like glass shards that stabbed into her heart. Every time she breathed, it would hurt.

“Are you girls talking about me again?”

A familiar hand found its way around Yvonne’s waist, and Zach’s voice traveled into her ears.

Their friends exchanged glances before they teased her, “Look. It’s just been a moment since he last saw you, and he’s already worried about you leaving!”

Zach chuckled, and he was about to speak when the door suddenly flung open.

Someone spotted him and immediately ran toward him like a hurricane.

She hugged him tightly.

“Zach, I thought that I’d never see you again!”

Zach was stunned, but he noticed that Bella had shown up barefoot with scratches on her face. Right then, his amusement faded away, and he instinctively tightened his grip around her.

“Who is she?”

“I don’t know. What’s Zach’s relationship with her?”

Suddenly, there were murmurs all around.

Zach narrowed his eyes and quickly turned to Yvonne.

The moment Bella showed up, Yvonne had instinctively clenched her fists.

It was her birthday, and she just wanted to meet her friends one last time before she left.

Even so, Bella still had to ruin it.

All of her dignity crumbled like dirt at the moment.

The sight of Yvonne swaying on her feet alarmed Zach for a moment. But before he could say anything, Bella threw her tear-stained face into his arms again.

Zach looked at Bella’s neck. The red handprints and red marks there made him burn with anger. Rage surged through him as he demanded, “Who did this?!”

His question made Bella tremble as she looked at him. Then, with a whisper only the three of them could hear, she said, “It was… my uncle. He said that… you just wanted to toy with me, and he wanted—”

“He has a death wish, huh?!”

Zach quickly removed his jacket and covered Bella before he picked her up.

As for Yvonne, she instinctively grabbed Zach, even though he was oozing ruthlessness.

Just some time ago, Zach was brought to the police station because he had hurt someone. She had to work herself down to the bone to make sure the news never went out. He could not afford to be so rash again.

Yvonne wanted to say something, but her words died in her throat when Zach glared at her.

“Yvonne, I’ll make it up to you for your birthday. You’re a woman too. Can’t you feel some empathy?”

Soon, Yvonne smiled bitterly. “Is that how you see me?”

Zach tensed up, while Bella grabbed his shirt.

“Isn’t it true?” he growled.

Then, he shoved Yvonne away and left the hall.

The moment he left, everyone burst into a ruckus and started talking about it.

“Did you see that? Him? Loving? It’s all just an act!”

“What’s the point of him being a loving husband? Good times fade away quickly, and he can have as many women as he wants. Yvonne won’t be able to get rid of all of them.”

Their words stabbed Yvonne in the heart like knives.

Even so, she maintained a numb smile as she sent her guests away.

As her friends gazed at her with concern, she made sure to retain the last of her dignity. She needed to hide the humiliation Zach had dealt to her with her own power.

Eventually, everyone left, and she was alone in the room full of the fragrance of roses.

Like a kite with a broken string, she collapsed to the floor. After this fatal blow, her heart was shattered into pieces. All of her sadness burst forth like water from a broken dam, and she bawled on the floor. She no longer cared about her image.

The man who claimed that he would protect her for life had lied to her!