Amelie POV:

The auction continued, each item a blur of opulence and indifference. I raised my paddle half-heartedly for a few pieces of art, just to keep up appearances. Karin, however, seemed to enjoy the sport of it. Every time I bid, she would immediately outbid me, her sweet smile never faltering. I stopped bidding entirely, letting a numb silence define my presence. Carson, of course, indulged her every whim, throwing money around like confetti, his eyes still shining with the news of his impending fatherhood.

Then, the final piece of the night was wheeled onto the stage. A small, tarnished silver locket, nestled on a velvet cushion.

My breath hitched. My face went cold, then hot, then utterly bloodless. It was Mama's locket. The one she' d lost years ago, the one I' d been searching for, praying for. The one that held the only picture of her and me together.

The auctioneer' s voice droned, "Starting bid, five hundred dollars." Five hundred dollars for my mother's last tangible memory. It felt like a punch to the gut.

Without thinking, I shot up from my seat, my paddle held high. "Five hundred thousand!" My voice, sharp and clear, cut through the hushed hall.

Gasps rippled through the crowd. Carson, momentarily startled, turned to me. Karin, however, merely giggled.

"Oh, Mrs. Jarvis," she purred, her paddle raised. "Six hundred thousand." She turned to me, a sickeningly sweet smile plastered on her face. "Is this what Carson gives you to play with, Mrs. Jarvis? Little trinkets?" She then snuggled into Carson' s side, feigning a shiver. "Carson, darling, Mrs. Jarvis looks so fierce. I'm scared." She looked back at me, her smile hardening. "Carson bought me a beautiful diamond necklace today. A reward for carrying his heir. This old thing? It looks like a teething toy for the baby. But if you want it, go ahead. I'll let you have this one. I have your husband, after all."

I ignored her, my eyes fixed on the locket, my heart hammering against my ribs. "One million dollars," I stated, my voice shaking with a fury I hadn't felt in years.

"Amelie, that's enough," Carson' s voice cut in, sharp and dismissive. He reached for my arm. "It's just an old locket. I'll buy you a new one. A better one. Ten better ones."

I ripped my arm away, my gaze burning into his. "It's my mother's! It' s all I have left of her!" My voice cracked, raw with a pain I had kept buried for so long. "Please, Carson. Just let me have this. After everything. After what you' ve put me through. After my grandmother..." My voice trailed off, a silent plea.

He just stared at me, his face unreadable. That cold, calculating look I knew so well.

"Two million dollars!" I practically screamed, my paddle trembling in my hand. It was every cent I had left in my private accounts, money I had saved over years, quietly siphoning it away for my escape. This was it. Everything.

The auctioneer looked from me to Carson, then back. "Two million, going once..."

My chest tightened, a vise grip of dread squeezing the air from my lungs. I had nothing left.

Amelie POV:

"Sold! To the lady for two million dollars!" The auctioneer's gavel cracked down, the sound echoing in the stunned silence.

I blinked, unable to believe it. Carson hadn't outbid me. He just sat there, impassive, beside a smirking Karin. My mother's locket. It was mine. A wave of dizzying relief washed over me, almost making me sway.

My hands trembled as I fumbled for my bank card, handing it to the usher who brought the locket to our table. I reached out, my fingers aching to touch the tarnished silver, to feel my mother's memory in my palm.

But the usher held it back. "I'm sorry, Mrs. Jarvis," he said, his face uneasy. "The card... it's declined."

My world shattered. Declined? It couldn't be. I had meticulously saved every penny. "What are you talking about?" I demanded, my voice raw. "That's impossible! There should be enough..."

"Oh, Mrs. Jarvis!" Karin's sweet, saccharine voice cut in, as she strolled towards me, her wrist laden with newly acquired diamond bracelets. "You mean this card?" She held up my platinum card, a triumphant glint in her eyes. "Carson gave it to me this morning. For a little shopping spree. He said it was a 'consolation prize' for all your… drama." She giggled, a hateful, tinkling sound. "I thought it was a lovely gesture."

A sudden, blinding rage surged through me, eclipsing everything. My grandmother's death, Carson's betrayal, my lost child-all coalesced into one burning point of fury. "You bitch!" I screamed, lunging for her. My fingers clamped around her wrist, desperate to snatch my card, to retrieve what was mine. "Give that back! That's my money! That's my mother's locket!"

The usher, startled, dropped the locket. It clattered to the floor, the delicate silver catching the light.

Karin shrieked, recoiling from my grasp. "Get away from me, you psycho!" She pushed me with surprising force, her diamond-encrusted bracelet raking across my cheek. A sharp, stinging pain erupted, and I felt something warm trickle down my face. My hands flew to my injured cheek, and I collapsed to my knees, momentarily stunned by the pain.

But Karin was still screaming, louder now. She stumbled, her expensively shod foot catching on the leg of her chair. With a terrified yelp, she tumbled backwards, landing with a sickening thud. Her hands flew to her distended belly. "My baby! My baby!" she wailed, her face contorted in a mask of fear. Or was it triumph?

Carson was across the room in an instant, his face a mask of terror. "Karin! My love! Are you alright?" He knelt beside her, his hands hovering over her stomach.

She burst into fresh tears, pointing a trembling finger at me. "She pushed me, Carson! She pushed me! She wants to hurt our baby!"

"No! I didn't!" I cried, scrambling to my feet, the blood dripping from my cheek. "She stole my money! She slashed my face! The locket, Carson, it's my mother's, and she stole the money for it!" I looked frantically at the auctioneer, who stood frozen, his face pale. "Tell him! Tell him she lied!"

One of Carson's security guards, a hulking man named Hank, stepped forward hesitantly. "Mr. Jarvis, Mrs. Jarvis didn't actually push her. She just... grabbed her arm."

"Shut up, Hank!" Karin shrieked, clutching her stomach. "You saw her! She threw me down! My baby! Oh, Carson, what if something happens to our baby?"

Carson's face, already pale, hardened into a mask of pure, unadulterated rage. His eyes, usually cool and calculating, now burned with a terrifying, primal fury. "Hank," he snarled, his voice low and dangerous, "take her to the hospital. Now." He scooped Karin into his arms, ignoring me, ignoring the locket, ignoring everything but her.

As he turned to leave, he cast a look over his shoulder. His eyes, blazing with hatred, fixed on me. "Anyone who touched her, anyone who harmed my Karin or my child, will pay. You hear me? I will make sure their entire family pays for this. They will regret the day they were born."

Two of his men grabbed me, slamming me against a pillar. I cried out, struggling against their grasp. "Carson! Please! It was an accident! She lied!"

A heavy thud, then a searing pain exploded in my arm. I screamed, collapsing to the floor, my vision swimming. The pain was so intense it stole my breath.

Carson paused, his head turning slightly. His gaze swept over the scene, over my crumpled form, then back to Karin. "Was that... Amelie?" he asked, a flicker of something, perhaps confusion, in his eyes.

"Carson, please!" Karin sobbed, burying her face in his shoulder. "I'm so scared! My stomach hurts so much!"

The flicker in his eyes vanished, replaced by cold indifference. He picked up his pace, walking out of the auction hall, leaving me to the mercy of his men.

Whispers erupted amongst the remaining guests, a chorus of judgment. "Did you see that? He didn't even look back!"

"Poor Mrs. Jarvis. Imagine your husband protecting his mistress over you."

"She comes from money, but her father cut her off years ago. That old oil baron, Hunt Marshall, hated Carson. Swore he'd disinherit her if she ever divorced him. She's trapped."

The laughter was sharp, like shards of glass. It tore through me, mingling with the searing pain in my arm. I closed my eyes, the memories flooding back, a cruel replay of my life.

Fifteen years ago, Carson Jarvis was just a low-level security guard for my father, a Texas oil magnate. I was the forgotten daughter, raised in the shadows of my father's sprawling ranch, overlooked and unwanted. My father, always a cold, calculating man, saw me as nothing more than a pawn in his empire. He had arranged my marriage to an older, brutish oil baron, a strategic alliance to expand his power.

But Carson, with his rough charm and fierce loyalty, had swept me off my feet. He promised me a life of love, freedom, and passion. On the day of my forced wedding, he burst into the chapel, a whirlwind of defiance. "Amelie, come with me!" he'd yelled, his eyes burning with a reckless love. "Don't marry him! Marry me!"

I was terrified, not for myself, but for him. "My father will kill you!" I'd pleaded.

"Let him try!" Carson had roared, grabbing my hand. "I'd rather die with you than live without you!"

We ran. We ran for weeks, hiding from my father's relentless pursuit. Carson was shot, seriously wounded, protecting me during one of their ambushes. I knelt beside him, sobbing, begging my father on the phone, "Please, Daddy! Let us go! Just let us be free!"

"You chose your bed, Amelie," he'd said, his voice cold as ice. "He will betray you. He will break you. And when he does, you will come crawling back, broken and penniless. I swear it." Then he'd hung up, and the 'poison pill' clause was enacted. He issued a 'kill order' against Carson, a constant threat that fueled Carson's ambition.

But Carson pushed through. He swore he would build an empire, one so vast that even my father couldn't touch us. At our secret wedding, he looked into my eyes, his voice choked with emotion. "I will never let you lose, Amelie. I will never betray you. I will only love you."

He hadn't. He had.

"Don't worry, Amelie," he'd said to me, years later, after the first affair, after the kidnapping, after he'd trapped me with my father's clause. "You'll always be Mrs. Jarvis. You'll have all the luxury, all the prestige. Just stay by my side. That's all I ask." He thought I'd forgiven him. He thought I'd accepted my fate.

He was wrong.

The 'kill order' against Carson was quietly lifted years ago. My father' s other children, ambitious and greedy, had engaged in a brutal power struggle. They killed each other, leaving me, the once-unwanted daughter, as his only surviving heir. My father, riddled with guilt over my mother's fate and now his own children's demise, had given me an out. A way back.

My grandmother's death, the locket, the brutal betrayal in front of the world-all the chains that bound me had finally snapped. There was nothing left holding me.

I would leave. For real this time.

Amelie POV:

A week later, Carson finally showed up at the hospital. He' d been busy, of course, hosting a lavish press conference to announce Karin' s pregnancy and their impending engagement. The news had spread like wildfire. Mrs. Jarvis was out; the new, fertile Mrs. Jarvis was in.

I was awake when he entered, a grim-faced shadow falling across my hospital bed. He looked tired, lines etched around his eyes, but it was irritation, not concern, that dominated his expression.

"Amelie," he said, his voice tight. "Are you alright?" It sounded more like an accusation than a question.

"I'm fine," I replied, my voice raspy. My arm was heavily bandaged, a dull ache throbbing beneath the gauze.

"Good. Good." He nodded, then waved a dismissive hand. "About that locket... I had someone retrieve it. It's at home. Just like you wanted." He then turned his anger on the auction house. "And those imbeciles at the auction, allowing such a scene! I' ve already contacted my lawyers. They' ll be facing a hefty lawsuit."

He stared at my bandaged arm, his brow furrowed. He reached out, his fingers cool against my skin. "Who did this?" he demanded, his voice hardening. "Who dared touch my wife?"

I let out a soft, mirthless laugh. "Your wife? Which one, Carson? The one you just announced your engagement to, or the one lying here in a hospital bed, thanks to your little 'firecracker'?" My words cut through the air, sharp and precise.

He sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. "Amelie, please. Don't be melodramatic. It was an accident. Karin was scared, she's pregnant. These things happen." He then leaned in, his voice dropping. "Look, she's apologized. She said she didn't mean to hurt you. She's a good girl, just a bit emotional. Let it go. She really doesn't want any more trouble."

He straightened, a forced smile pasted on his lips. "And speaking of letting things go, I need you to be there. At the engagement party. Tonight. I need you to give a toast. To our future."

My blood ran cold. He wanted me to toast his engagement to another woman. The mother of his child. The woman who had just landed me in the hospital. The absurdity of it all was breathtaking.

He thought I would comply. He expected it. He always did. He thought I was his to command, bound by my father' s cruel clause and my own desperate loyalty.

But he was wrong. I was no longer his wife. I was no longer bound. And tonight, I would make sure he understood that.