She sneered and said to the two burly bodyguards beside her, “Teach her a hard lesson!”

The bodyguards responded and stepped forward, grabbing me tightly.

One of them pressed hard on my neck, forcing me to kneel.

I gritted my teeth and struggled with all my strength, trying to resist.

However, my strength was no match for two grown men. My knees slammed heavily onto the ground with a dull thud.

Then, my head was smashed down against the floor.

Once, twice…

Warm blood flowed down from my forehead, and my vision gradually blurred.

“What are you doing?”

Sam’s voice trembled slightly.

I forced my eyes open. Through the haze of blood, I saw Sam standing at the doorway, staring at me without moving while holding Ethan’s hand.

Isla stepped forward and hooked her arm around Sam’s, speaking as if she had been wronged.

“Hazel refuses to confess even when threatened with death. For your safety, I really had no other choice…”

Thick anger quickly replaced the pain in Sam’s eyes, and his voice turned cold.

“Hazel, I’ll give you one more chance. Tell me who that man is!

“I’ll pretend this never happened, and you’ll still be my wife.

“When I inherit the family, you’ll be my donna!”

I slowly raised my head, not daring to let my tears fall.

There were clearly only two days left before I could live a completely different life.

Why was it that in two lifetimes, I still fell into Isla’s hands, unable to escape her malicious framing?

“Sam, I’ve already said it. There is no other man. I was framed.”

Ethan stood by the door, poking his head out and crying toward me, “Mom, you’re scaring me. Just admit it already! I want to go home…”

My heart shattered.

The son I had doted on for five years didn’t believe me and even wanted me to confess to a crime that never existed.

“See that? Even your son feels ashamed of you. Hazel, how long are you going to keep being stubborn?”

Sam looked at me with disappointment and said to the bodyguards, “Continue. Don’t stop until she confesses.”

Suddenly, Ethan ran over, crying, and kicked me in the back.

“You’re a liar! I don’t want you as my mom anymore!”

The kick wasn’t heavy, but it felt like it went straight into my heart, leaving me in unbearable pain.

My own son…

When I was being framed and abused, he not only didn’t believe me but came over to strike me as well.

At that moment, my heart completely died.

Sam was also startled by Ethan’s action.

Watching him cry as he ran away, Sam said to me coldly, “Hazel, for Ethan’s sake, as long as you confess, I won’t pursue your betrayal anymore.”

After giving Isla a few instructions, he hurriedly chased after Ethan.

A sudden fear rose in my heart. I struggled and crawled toward the door while shouting desperately after Sam.

“Sam! Please don’t leave me here!”

Isla dragged me back with a vicious grin. I struggled wildly, my nails scratching her arm.

She took a step back, covered her arm, and coldly ordered the bodyguards, “Since her hands won’t behave, break them one finger at a time.”

My eyes widened in disbelief as I stared at her.

“You want to break my fingers?”

No!

I couldn’t lose my hands! I still had to enter my mentor’s biological research center. I have a bright future ahead of me!

I struggled again, but the bodyguards pinned me down firmly.

“Isla, you can’t do this… Sam won’t allow it!”

I screamed hoarsely as despair swallowed my reason.

Isla sneered at me, as if looking at a dead person.

“Don’t worry. He’ll never know.

“I never planned to let you leave alive.

“I can only erase the stain on Sam if you die. Then, I can be with him openly.”

I stared at her in shock, forgetting even to struggle.

One of the bodyguards stepped forward and roughly grabbed my left hand.

“No!”

My shrill scream echoed through the room. With a sharp crack, my vision went black, and I nearly lost consciousness.

“Please let me go. Tomorrow—no, I’ll leave Latia right now. I’ll disappear forever from Sam’s sight!”

My voice was barely audible. The pain made my entire body spasm, and despair completely overwhelmed me.

Isla let out a soft snort.

“Only the dead can truly disappear. Continue!”

The second finger was snapped.

My whole body convulsed, cold sweat instantly soaking my clothes.

Then the third, and the fourth.

The searing pain surged like waves, almost swallowing my consciousness.

Suddenly, a sharp ringtone rang out. Isla’s expression changed, and she hurriedly answered the call.

“Sam, don’t worry. The bodyguards are professionals at interrogation. There’s a doctor present too. Nothing will go wrong.”

Her voice was gentle, but her smile was vicious.

“Hazel seems convinced you won’t hurt her. She even threatened me, asking me to let her go.”

As she spoke, she pressed the speakerphone button.

Sam’s furious voice came through the phone. “Hazel, let Isla give you the punishment you deserve!”

They were the exact words as in my previous life, and it made my mind go blank.

So, even after being reborn, I still couldn’t escape dying at their hands.

And this time, it was even more humiliating.

With all ten fingers forcibly broken, I didn’t even have the strength to scream anymore.

I lay limp on the ground like a dying fish.

My will at that moment was completely broken, as if ten fingers were connected to the heart.

Isla only glanced down at me, sneering.

“Dying already? Don’t worry. I won’t let you die so easily.”

She turned to the bodyguards and said, “Call the doctor. Reattach her fingers!”

The doctor and nurses entered trembling. They put an oxygen mask on me to maintain my faint breathing, treated the wounds, and reset and fixed my broken fingers.

I lay on the cold hospital bed like a shattered doll, my consciousness drifting.

Isla led Ethan to my bedside.

Ethan stared at me silently while Isla leaned close to his ear and spoke softly, her voice carrying a poisonous gentleness.

“Your mom betrayed your dad. You have a traitor mother. People will laugh at you. Are you afraid?”

After a moment of silence, Ethan softly answered, “I’m afraid. I don’t want to be laughed at!”

My breathing quickened. My eyelids trembled as I struggled to open them.

Satisfied with his answer, Isla laughed quietly.

“Ethan, your mom is in a lot of pain right now. Do you want to help her feel better?

“Go take off that tube. Then she won’t be in pain anymore, and no one will laugh at you.”

My eyes snapped open. Through the haze, I saw Ethan’s innocent face.

He looked at Isla, then at me, and actually reached out and pulled out the tube.

“Mom, don’t do bad things anymore,” he muttered. “I don’t want a mom like you.”

His voice carried hatred born from being thoroughly poisoned.

My heart turned to ashes.

Even after being reborn, I still couldn’t escape a fate of death.

My own son was going to send me off with his hands!

And in such a humiliating, desperate way.

A piercing alarm rang out.

Isla hugged the frightened Ethan and walked toward the door, coldly instructing the bodyguards, “Take care of it.”

The bodyguards dragged me roughly out of the hospital and threw me into the cold mud outside.

Heavy rain poured down, smashing against my twisted body.

This was the most remote slum in Neopolis. Homeless people die on these streets every day.

I struggled to open my eyes. Rain hit my eyelids, twisting everything in my vision into a blur.

Facing death once again, my heart suddenly became calm.

Being reborn wasn’t to defy fate, but to let me experience once more, clearly and deeply, what it meant to have ten thousand arrows pierce the heart and be torn apart piece by piece.

This time, there probably wouldn’t be another rebirth…