When Damian returned to the hospital room, I had just ended the call.

He seemed to be stunned for a few seconds when he saw the smile still lingering on my lips.

How long had it been since I last smiled like that in front of him?

He stared at me with a kind of quiet greed. I knew he wanted to ask who I had been speaking to.

However, he could not. He knew he should not come any closer.

He should be singing lullabies to Serena’s unborn child instead.

Damian assumed the call was probably from some relative.

He picked up the files he needed and turned to leave, not even glancing back.

“There’s some family business I need to deal with. I’ll come see you tomorrow.”

However, Damian never showed up the next day, the day after, or the day after that.

Instead, I kept receiving video after video from the family members who thrived on gossip, each one showing Damian and Serena together.

It was as though he was trying to provoke me. He was taking her to every elite social event he could.

He went out of his way to introduce Serena to everyone, and she clung sweetly to his arm, smiling so brightly like she was the real wife.

The day I was discharged, Damian posted nine carefully edited photos on Instagram.

In them, he and Serena were riding a hot air balloon at sunset. Their fingers were interlocked, gazing out at the horizon.

He looked happy and free.

I left a comment: [May you have the perfect family, be blessed with both a handsome son and a beautiful daughter, and have a love that lasts forever.]

Ten minutes later, Damian called me repeatedly.

I did not pick up a single call.

Half an hour later, I checked myself out of the hospital. As I passed the OB-GYN department, I saw Damian and Serena.

I overheard a nurse say to her, “Miss Lane, you’re so lucky. Your husband takes such good care of you. He’s here for every appointment.

“He even has staff lay down blankets on the bed for ultrasounds so you won’t get cold, and he covers all the sharp corners in the room so you won’t bump into anything… He won’t even let you take a single step around here. He insists on carrying you himself.”

The other expectant mothers nearby all looked at her with envy.

I did not have the strength to correct them. All I wanted was to hold onto a shred of dignity and quietly walk away.

I tried to slip past them unnoticed—quietly, carefully.

However, Damian turned his head and narrowed his eyes.

“Claire? What are you doing here?”

What he really wanted to ask was why I ignored his calls and what my comment was supposed to mean.

Before he could say more, I instinctively lowered my head and explained, “I wasn’t following you. Just ran into you by coincidence, really. I’m sorry if I disturbed you. I’ll leave now.”

“Wait.”

The moment Damian furrowed his brows and said that, I saw a flicker of something dark flash across Serena’s eyes.

She clung tighter to Damian’s arm, but her face remained sweet.

“Claire, I’m really grateful you donated blood to me. If it weren’t for you, I’d probably still be dizzy right now.

“Please, can we bring Claire home with us? Just for a little while?”

Her tone was innocent.

However, her eyes were anything but.

Damian looked at me for a moment like he was trying to figure something out. Then, he simply said, “Whatever you say, Serena.”

I already planned to return home to pack my stuff. That was the only reason I did not reject Serena’s invitation.

Sitting in the back seat of Damian’s sleek black Ferrari, I kept my head turned toward the window. The city blurred by.

Then, I saw something under the seat.

It was a damp piece of lace lingerie. It was torn in half.

Serena covered her mouth, pretending to be shocked.

“Oh! I can’t believe that’s still here.”

“Damian, didn’t you say you already got rid of it?”

I took a deep breath. My nails were digging hard into my palms.

Serena snuggled into Damian’s chest, playfully hitting him with a shy smile.

Damian let out a low laugh, blaming himself while secretly watching my reaction.

However, I just happened to meet his gaze with a blank expression.

He looked away a second later, embarrassed. Even his attention to Serena became half-hearted.

It was as though the whole show had lost its audience, and without an audience, there was no point in performing.

Halfway through the drive, Damian finally spoke.

“Claire, you’ve been staring at your phone ever since you got in the car.”

In the rearview mirror, his eyes narrowed, and his tone was unfriendly.

“Are you talking to some family member or someone I don’t know?”

I had just finished booking my flight and turned off my phone screen. I closed my eyes, leaned back to rest, and replied in an indifferent tone, “I was just reading the news.”

A flicker of irritation deepened between his brows when he heard what I said.

Without a word, he turned and snatched the phone from my hand, unlocking it with practiced ease.

Both of us froze for a moment. The password was my birthday.

He had typed it in so smoothly, so naturally, like he had done it a thousand times before.

His face flushed red with anger and embarrassment.

He locked the screen immediately, ignoring whoever I might have been texting. His voice was sharp.

“Don’t overthink this. I’m warning you.”

I shook my head and replied calmly, “I don’t understand what you mean. I’m not overthinking anything.”

However, saying that only seemed to make him angrier.

Just then, Serena let out a delighted giggle.

She wrapped herself around his arm and batted her lashes playfully.

“Damian, that’s the day we first met. It’s worth remembering, isn’t it?”

He brushed her hand away. His voice was laced with irritation, or maybe something else entirely. “Yeah, whatever. Let’s just go home.”

That was how we arrived at home.

As soon as the Ferrari rolled to a stop, Damian tossed the phone into my lap like it was burning his fingers.

He got out, helping the fragile-looking Serena back to the master bedroom.

“Make something Serena likes,” I heard him say to the housekeeper. Then, after a pause, he added quietly, “And a few dishes Claire likes too. Set the table for three.”

His voice was soft. It was as though he was too embarrassed to let me hear it, but I heard it anyway.

I did not know how to respond to his so-called kindness anymore.

The time we used to love each other felt like they belonged to someone else’s memory, far in the past. Was I supposed to be grateful? Should I be cold and indifferent?

I chose to say nothing. I turned around and went to the guest room to gather my things.

However, I was stunned when I opened my suitcase. Every piece of clothing inside had been shredded beyond repair.

Only a few things were intact—my passport and documents, still hidden in the suitcase’s lining.

Grateful for that much, I hid them securely on my person and prepared to leave quietly.

Before I could make it to the door, two men grabbed me and dragged me down to the basement.

They threw me inside like trash.

That was when I saw Serena standing calmly in the corner.

She looked me up and down with mocking disdain.

“You’ve got quite the tolerance, Claire,” she sneered. Her tone was filled with smug delight. “Most women would have run away by now, after being humiliated like that. But not you. You just keep… clinging onto ridiculous fantasy.”

She gave a theatrical gasp. “Oh, that’s right. Your sweet old grandmother passed away last month, didn’t she? Now that she’s gone, you’ve got no one left to run to—not even to cry to, except Damian.”

Her eyes lit up with cruel delight as she turned toward me.

“Do you remember the day you begged Damian with tears to take the private helicopter, just so you could see your grandmother one last time before she died?”

I held my breath.

She pulled out her phone and held up the screen, eyes glittering.

“He said no because he’d already promised me a sunset over the Aegean Sea that night. Romantic, right? You lost the last person who ever truly loved you, and he was busy chilling champagne for me.”

Her words echoed off the cold, concrete walls, ricocheting like bullets.

I could not take it anymore. With a sharp slap, I knocked her phone from her hands.

Serena burst into a laugh. It was sharp and high-pitched.

“Oh, Claire, did you know Damian gave me full control over this house? I even moved the ammunition cache next door.

“And now… it’s time.”

Before I could react, a deafening boom split the air, and heat scorched everything in its path.

The walls crumbled, and the ceiling crashed down. I was slammed to the floor, pinned beneath a chunk of debris. Blood trickled down my face.

I saw Serena nearby, also trapped, but a slab of wall still shielded her, giving her a chance.

Thick, choking smoke clawed its way into my throat with every gasp.

My lungs burned, and my vision swam.

Then, just before I blacked out, I heard it.

“Claire!”

It was Damian’s voice.

Then, I heard the panicked shouts of his men.

“Sir! It’s too dangerous! You can’t go in! Rescue’s already on the way—”

“Get out of my way! Claire’s still in there!”

He ran in.

Through the smoke and fire, he spotted Serena first.

She was pinned beneath the fallen wall, weakly calling out to Damian for help. “Damian, help me…”

His heart skipped a beat. He rushed to her, lifting the rubble from her body with his bare hands.

“Hang on, Serena!”

He picked up the dust-covered Serena in a hurry, only to turn and find me also lying crushed under a collapsed wall.

Our eyes locked. He hesitated just for a second.

As my blood-blurred vision swam, I saw him bite down hard, then turn his back on me.

Leaving me buried in the rubble, alone in the smoke.

The heat seared my skin, and the thick smoke clawed its way down my throat. Every breath felt like torture.

I knew only one thing. If I gave up now, I would really die.

No! I had to live.

Even if it was only to see the day Damian would regret this so deeply it tore him apart!

I clenched my jaw, pushed against the fallen wall with all the strength I had left, and slowly, inch by inch, crawled toward the hidden emergency tunnel I remembered from the house’s blueprints.

It was the only fireproof section of the entire villa. The air vent at the end led out behind the garden wall. Maybe, just maybe, I had a chance.

Come on, faster…

Then I saw it.

It was the moon over the garden, the freedom I never dared to hope I would see again.

I collapsed into the rose bushes, thorns tearing into my cheeks until they bled, but I did not feel anything. Instead, I laughed. I laughed freely, wildly, like I had not in years.

In the end, I got into that black Rolls-Royce waiting outside and headed for the airport.

After checking in my luggage, I boarded the flight to Landale, coughing all the way.

Just before takeoff, a message from Damian lit up my phone: [I don’t have time for your games. Come see me now.]

The old me might have dropped everything, my pride included, and ran back to him without a second thought.

Not anymore.

I simply powered off my phone, pulled out the SIM card, and tossed it in the trash.

The plane took off. The landscape slowly faded beneath the clouds.

Damian and I were done now. Forever.