The next day, Anna came to see me again.

“Dr. Summer, you left your watch in my purse.”

Her walk was a little off, but her smile was bright and sweet.

“This watch is exquisite. I doubt you could find another one like it in the entire Harbor City.”

Hearing the envy in her voice, I only glanced at the watch indifferently. I did not even reach out my hand.

“If you like it, keep it.”

Anna pressed her lips together in a smile and set the watch on the table.

“I’ll pass. I don’t have a thing for being wiretapped.”

My hand stiffened.

She sat down across from me and propped her chin on her hand as she asked with a smile, “Dr. Summer, did you enjoy the show last night? I even brought my purse into the bedroom on purpose so you could hear more clearly. Oh, but there were probably some parts that you missed. After all, John doesn’t just like to do it in the bedroom. He enjoys other places even more.”

Looking at the smug smile on her face, I finally understood.

She had known the whole time.

When I did not respond, Anna helpfully pulled out her phone and tapped play on a recording.

“John, between me and Summer, who do you love more?”

“She could never be as naughty as you.”

John’s movements grew rougher. His voice turned hoarse as he said, “You picked a good doctor.”

Anna put her phone away and flashed a provocative smile. “Dr. Summer, I’ll probably have to trouble you again in the future. My husband really enjoys your work.”

She deliberately uttered “my husband” with emphasis.

When I did not react the way she expected, disappointment flickered across her face.

“No wonder John says you’re dull as hell. He wasn’t kidding…”

I suddenly grabbed a fistful of her hair.

“Arghh!” she cried out in pain as I slapped her hard twice.

“How dare you slap me!” Anna clutched her hair uselessly and shrieked while I dragged her toward the door.

“Since you’re so proud of yourself, then let me help you. Let’s give the whole hospital a chance to see just how cheap you are!”

Just then, the door suddenly opened.

“John!”

Anna broke free from my grip and ran straight toward him. She was sobbing.

“I only came to return Dr. Summer’s watch. But she suddenly called me a homewrecker and slapped me!”

Seeing the clear handprints on her cheeks, John frowned.

I just looked straight at him in silence.

Just as Anna’s expression started to swell with triumph, John gave a calm instruction to the secretary behind him.

“Take Ms. Brandt home.”

“John!”

Anna stared at him in disbelief. John merely glanced at her dismissively.

“Remember your place. There will only ever be one Mrs. Shaw.”

Once the entrance room turned quiet, John took my reddened hand and gently blew on it.

“Did that hurt? Why bother arguing with her? She’s just a silly girl who doesn’t know any better.”

“I want a divorce.”

“What?”

I pulled my hand away and repeated the words with deliberation.

“John, let’s get a divorce. We’re done.”

For a split second, he looked stunned. Then, seeing that I was serious, he let out a scoff.

“Summer, think this through. If you divorce me, your life will be over.”

I did not react.

John frowned. “Are you making this into a huge deal just because I have a woman on the side?”

He sounded genuinely unable to understand.

“You know how it is in this circle. Every man does it. And I’ve only been with one woman in all these years of marriage. I’m already better than most men.”

When I remained silent, his face hardened.

“Mr. Shaw!”

Just then, Danny suddenly rushed back in with a pale face.

“Something happened! Ms. Brandt has been hit by a car!”

When Anna was carried in, her entire body was soaked in blood.

Staring at the blood covering his hands, there was a trace of panic in John’s eyes he did not even realize was there.

“Why are you just standing there? Save her!”

However, the moment Anna saw me, she suddenly screamed in terror.

“Dr. Summer, I’m sorry! I’ll stay away from Mr. Shaw from now on. Please just spare my life!”

Right then, Danny and his men dragged in the driver who had hit her.

The man dropped to his knees the moment he entered. He grabbed the hem of my coat as he begged. “Dr. Summer, I did everything you asked! I might not have killed the woman, but I still did it for you! I don’t want to go to jail. Please, you’ve got to help me!”

His desperate pleading quickly drew a crowd from around the hospital.

I stood there frozen. The whole situation felt absurd. Just as I tried to shake him off, John suddenly roared in fury.

“Have you lost your mind, Summer?! Do you know she has a clotting disorder?”

His shout made me flinch. I looked up at him in disbelief.

“You don’t believe me? You actually think I’d do something like that?”

“Mr. Shaw, Ms. Brandt has a rare blood type. Our blood bank doesn’t have enough. If we don’t transfuse her immediately, she won’t survive!”

Someone in the crowd shouted, “Hey, Dr. Summer has the same rare blood type! A life for a life, just take hers!”

Voices quickly rose in agreement.

“Get her inside!” John’s expression darkened as he ordered the staff to drag me into the transfusion room.

I suffered from severe hereditary anemia. Every month, I had to receive transfusions just to stay healthy. With the amount of blood Anna had lost, they might just drain me dry. The moment the needle pierced my vein, panic surged through me and I began to struggle.

“John, have you lost your mind? Did you forget that I…”

“A life’s at stake, Summer. Don’t be so selfish.”

John turned and walked away without any hesitation.

By the time the blood draw was finished, I couldn’t even stand.

“Mrs. Shaw, Mr. Shaw says that as long as you continue behaving and stop mentioning divorce, he’ll arrange a transfusion for you.”

Only then did I realize that John had not forgotten about my condition.

A weak scoff escaped my lips. “I’m divorcing him, even if it kills me.”

As soon as I said that, my strength gave out completely and I collapsed to the floor. When I opened my eyes again, John stepped closer and grabbed my wrist in anger.

“Summer, are you still not getting it? Without my family’s backing, even staying alive will be a problem for you.”

My gaze fell on the needle marks along his arm.

My smile was resolute. “Let me die then.”

John’s breathing hitched. His eyes reddened as he shoved my hand away.

“Fine! I’d like to see how long you can keep that attitude.”

That very night, news spread across the internet that Summer Shaw, the medical prodigy, had allegedly hired someone to commit murder. The backlash swelled. The hospital director held a press conference in person, but even that could not contain the growing storm.

My phone rang nonstop all night.

Only one person could have pulled all the strings to make this happen so fast. It was John. When my desperate apology never came, he pushed even further. Just as the public outrage started to simmer down, another headline dropped.

Someone had leaked my medical records from years ago.

PTSD. Severe depression. Emotional disorder.

That was it. The powder keg exploded again. I had been a rising star in the medical field. Overnight, my name was ruined.

I went to the hospital the day that followed and found the director bowing and scraping in front of John. When John saw me, his face filled with a smug, mocking look, like he had been expecting this all along.

“Summer, I told you before. Without my family, you’re nothing. What’s this? Couldn’t take the pressure and came to beg already?”

I calmly pulled my resignation letter out. Looking at my credentials on the resume, despite everything, a pang of sorrow cut through me. No one but John understood how difficult the road to becoming a doctor had been for me. He had always known that my greatest dream was to save lives.

Alas, at that moment, he had proven to me with brutal clarity that my years of dedication meant less than an order from him. Staring at the resignation letter, he looked thrown for a moment. Then, his fury curdled into a laugh.

He got up and dragged me to Anna’s hospital room.

“Resigning isn’t enough. Since you had the nerve to do something this evil, then you should pay for it.”

The moment Anna saw me, she lost control again.

“You murderer! What are you doing here? John, I don’t want to see her! Make her leave!”

Her hand had been crushed under the wheel of the car. The injury had left her permanently disabled. John wrapped her arms around shoulders and tried to soothe her before signaling the bodyguards to pin my right hand down on the table.

The moment I realized what he was about to do, a wave of terror surged through me.

“John, you can’t… Arghh!”

The guard’s knife drove straight through my palm. The searing pain nearly made me pass out on the spot. Looking at my mangled, blood-soaked hand, I let out a desperate scream while John merely looked away, unmoved.

“The ward happens to be short of a caregiver. Since you’re the reason Anna ended up like this, you’ll be the one taking care of her while she’s hospitalized.”

I collapsed onto the floor. The pain was so overwhelming that I could not speak.

Anna nestled against John’s chest and shot me a triumphant smile.

I did not know how much time had passed before the pain dragged me back to consciousness.

Anna was grinding her heel into my wound again and again.

“John told you to take care of me before he left. What are you lying there for? Get up!”

My eyes reddened as I sneered, “Even after all this, he still refuses to divorce me? As long as we’re still married, you’ll always be nothing more than a mistress!”

“You…”

Anna pressed down harder with her foot. Her face twisted with fury.

Then, she let out a vicious smile. “It doesn’t matter if John won’t sign the papers. Once you’re dead, the marriage will end on its own.”

Before I could react, someone behind me clamped a cloth over my mouth and everything went black.

When I came to again, I was on an abandoned rooftop.

My vision was still blurry. I had just managed to steady myself when the door was kicked open.

“Summer!”

John sounded really furious.

I snapped back to my senses and realized there was a scalpel in my hand.

Anna was curled up on the ground in a miserable heap. Her eyes were swollen from crying.

“Dr. Summer, I’m sorry! Please just let me go!”

She clutched at the leg of my pants, knocking her head against the concrete as she begged. I shook my head to get some clarity, realizing that the drug she had given me earlier must have had hallucinogenic effects.

“Summer, don’t do anything rash!”

Anna and I stood only inches from the edge of the rooftop.

From where John stood, it must have looked like I was holding a knife to her throat.

Anna suddenly leaned closer and let out a malicious chuckle.

“Relax, I’ve got one more gift for you.”

As soon as she said that, a swarm of reporters flooded the area below.

They raised their cameras and microphones, shouting questions.

“Ms. Summer, before you married Mr. Shaw, did you hide the fact that you had been assaulted?”

“Ms. Summer, you’ve had no children for all these years. Is that because the assault left you with lasting complications?”

Someone in the crowd held up a phone. It was playing the humiliating video from back then. The terrified screams of that young girl overlapped with the nightmares that had haunted me for years.

I felt my blood turn to ice.

John’s expression changed just as drastically. He grabbed the person beside him and roared, “Who the hell called them here?”

Amid the chaos, someone suddenly grabbed my trembling hand.

The scalpel twisted in my grip and plunged straight into my abdomen.

“John, help me!” Anna cried as she tried to run toward him.

She barely ran far before I caught her by the hair. Right in front of John’s horrified gaze, I drove the blade into her stomach.

“That’s where it really hurts.” My eyes were burning. Tears streamed down my face. “If I’m going down, I’m taking you with me.”

The stab Anna had forced into me had not been fatal, but me? I had not held back.

Blood sprayed on the floor. My vision began to spin and John seized that moment to rush forward. He wrenched Anna from my grasp and carried her away. I clutched my stomach and collapsed to my knees on the floor. Before I lost consciousness, the last thing I heard was John’s cruel voice.

“Summer has lost her mind. Lock her up in the asylum. Keep her from hurting anyone else.”

“Mr. Shaw, admission to a psychiatric facility requires a family member’s signature.”

John was in a hurry to get Anna treated. Without even looking, he signed his name.

When Anna woke up, she was hysterical.

“John, the doctor says I’ll never be able to have children now. It’s all Summer’s fault!”

John did his best to comfort her, but in his mind, a strange restlessness still gnawed at him. He thought to himself. “Summer has lost a lot of blood too. She has always been stubborn. What if she refuses treatment?”

That thought finally pushed him to his feet. He walked toward the door.

The door swung open before he reached it.

“Mom?”

John froze in surprise. Deborah lost no time and spoke in a cold, clear voice.

What she said drained all the color from John’s face.