At that time, Merlin didn't know that this was Isaac Franco, the playboy she was about to marry.

During the eight hours she was imprisoned, Merlin thought Dave would be frantically searching for her all over the world.

Knowing his character, if he knew Lily had used such despicable methods on her, he would be furious and vehemently condemn her shameless tactics.

But after finally getting his phone back, he found no messages from Dave, while Lily was ostentatiously showing off her relationship on her WhatsApp Story.

[Who's so lucky? A simple 'period pain' and my partner's been cooking for me for ages. Oh, it's me!] 

The accompanying picture was of Dave wearing an apron and boiling brown sugar water; his profile, with its defined curves, was still breathtakingly handsome, but Merlin felt her heart skip a beat.

During the eight hours she was unaware of his fate, he was showering another woman with affection. And what about her? What was she?

Dave hated the smell of cooking oil in the kitchen, yet he made an exception for Lily. It turned out he didn't dislike cooking; he just didn't like cooking for Merlin.

She was too foolish to trust him again, which was why they treated her like trash and sent her to her nemesis Isaac's bed.

Late at night, Merlin stood at her doorstep, holding the divorce papers, ready to settle things with Dave personally.

Suddenly, a commotion erupted at the elevator entrance. Merlin, as if possessed, hid behind the fire escape door.

“Dave, Merlin didn’t actually believe your nonsense, thinking you were with me just to fulfill some old lady’s ridiculous wish, did she? She’s so adorably stupid.”

“You said you’d just teach her a lesson, but how could you be so heartless? You stripped her naked and handed her over to Isaac and even took so many explicit photos. Ugh…you men are so annoying.”

In that instant, it felt like a truckload of cement had been poured onto her heart, then quickly solidified.

Dave hated the presence of strangers. To accommodate him, Merlin had done everything herself for many years of marriage, never hiring servants.

But now, with five or six servants bustling around the house, he didn’t mind.

He reached out and brushed aside Lily’s long hair that fell in front of her ear, as if Lily were the one he had spent eleven years with.

She glanced at the 999 diamond rings the maid brought, a glimmer of amusement in her eyes.

"I said, my wedding ring can and should only belong to you."

When she married Dave, one had just been released from prison, the other had just been kicked out of her home.

They were penniless. Merlin wore her simple copper ring with unwavering care, even refusing to take it off while showering.

Later, Dave became successful. She understood his struggles, understood the company's growth phase and considered everyone's feelings except hers.

The wedding ring, still slightly red at her knuckles, suddenly laughed, scrubbed it vigorously with soapy water and the metal ring clattered down the drain.

If giving everything couldn't win her heart, then this marriage was better off without it.

Suddenly, a childish voice reached her ears.

"Mommy, what's this strange, crazy woman at my door? Doesn't she have a home? Why doesn't she come home?" Looking up, Merlin almost choked.

Lily's daughter, dressed in Luther's clothes and carrying Luther's schoolbag, acted as if it were all her right, arrogantly ordering Merlin to leave.

Lily also pinched her nose in disgust, "Joel, see that? A woman should never act like that, looking so worthless. It's disgusting to look at." 

Dave, who came out upon hearing the commotion, remained silent, coldly observing his true mistress being pointed at and called a mistress by the child.

That was the home she had lived in for over ten years.

Wasn't it enough that Lily had stolen her status as the mistress of the house? Now she even wanted to take away Luther's things?

Just because she married Dave, did she have to be bullied and abused every day?

Merlin clenched her fists, thinking that if things escalated to the police station, Luther would also be affected at school, so she endured it.

But then she noticed that the schoolbag had the same class, the same student number and even the same seat number as her son's.

But the name that originally belonged to Luther had been changed to Joel.

Merlin stood there, stunned, as if struck by lightning.

If Lily's daughter had taken Luther's place at school, where had Luther been these past few days?

Merlin's head was buzzing.

She couldn't bear to imagine how this three-year-old child, who always slept close to her mother and had never left home, could be huddled in a corner, struggling to survive, all alone, separated from her parents.

"You mean that little beggar? He was so annoying, always following me around, so I kindly took him to an orphanage." Joel smiled innocently, but Merlin broke out in a cold sweat.

"There's no orphanage in Frostvale City! Where did you take Luther? Tell me!" She shook the little girl's shoulder forcefully, but she flew two meters away like a kite with a broken string, hitting her head on the corner of a table.

"Daddy, did I do something wrong until that Auntie hit me so hard?” she asked, “Please, Auntie, forgive me…" 

Even more suffocating, Lily suddenly knelt down, tears streaming down her face.

“Merlin, if you have a problem, come at me! I've tolerated all the beatings and scoldings you've given me before, but the child is innocent. Don't drag the child into this, okay?”

“Yes, I’m shameless. I fell in love with a married man—so what? I love Dave so much that I can’t pull myself away. I was foolishly infatuated.”

Merlin was about to argue when someone brushed past her, their hair and shirt collar swaying.

“Merlin, it's just a small matter, is it necessary to make such a big deal out of it? Are you only happy if you drive them to their deaths?”

“I used to think you were just straightforward and cute, when did you become so vicious?”

Dave's gaze was gentle, his eyes filled with nothing but the incessant commotion of Lily and her daughter.

His own son was missing, possibly dying, yet he seemed oblivious, not even bothering to ask.

Merlin felt as if a sharp stone was stuck in her throat.

She opened her mouth, but no sound came out.

Even a blind man could see who was forcing whom, yet he could utter such cruel words with his eyes wide open.

Why were Lily and her daughter’s issues treated as serious, while she and Luther were dismissed even in a life-or-death situation?

Did being unloved mean they didn’t even deserve to live—only to be abandoned and sacrificed?

"You don't want Luther, but I do!" Merlin searched frantically for three days and three nights, finally finding Luther.

His small body was limp, his skin blue from the cold, curled up quietly in the mosquito-infested garbage disposal center, clutching the piggy bank his father had given him.

"Mom, I cracked the computer virus at Dad's company, but I need to pay a fee to fully recover the files."

"Mom, I didn't mean to, can you please beg Dad not to abandon us?"

He was on the verge of death, his thin, cold body unable to withstand the constant rubbing and breathing on to warm him.

Worse still, Luther's severe allergic reaction triggered asthma and he was on the verge of suffocating. Dave, who had brought him specially made, highly effective medicine, refused to see him.

She waited from dusk till dawn, kneeling in the rain all night, holding her ailing child, pleading with him to save Luther.

But all night, Dave was busy comforting the frightened Lily and her daughter to sleep.

He was so anxious that he summoned all the doctors in the city to be on standby, yet he was so stingy that he wouldn't give Merlin a single dose of the medicine.

"He's been stealing since he was little. If we don't teach him a lesson, what will he do—murder or arson!"

"He just wanted to help you with his own pocket money. What did he do wrong!"

Merlin raised her voice, her nose stinging, almost crying.

"Why don't you investigate Lily? Instead, you're trying to destroy us, mother and child."

He used to be so considerate. Even a slight frown from her would cause him endless worry; forgetting to say goodnight would keep him tossing and turning all night.

Now, tears streamed down her face uncontrollably. Luther was delirious with a high fever, yet he narrowed his eyes, his gaze filled with scrutiny and suspicion.

“Keep making things up, Merlin. Do you know that Lily just had an…”

“Oh, Dave, please stop. That's all I should do.”

Interrupted by Lily’s “sensible” manner, the last sentence, “just received ten million in investment funds,” was forced to be phrased differently.

“Lily is a highly educated returnee from overseas. With her in charge of the company, what problems could possibly arise? Besides, if such a major loophole had truly occurred, wouldn’t I know?”

What if Lily was deceiving her superiors? What if her intention was to steal company secrets for money?

Merlin had investigated; Lily’s ex-husband had recently made a name for himself in the computer field, but his progress was limited to core technologies.

If the secrets were truly stolen, everything Dave was so proud of would be gone.

But the words caught in his throat.

The child was in shock and suffocating; he held the life-saving medication in front of her, slowly counting the pills. "This area is your punishment for laying a hand on Lily and hurting her."

"This area is the consequence of your mockery of Joel."

Watching all the life-saving medicine flushed down the toilet, Merlin's eyes widened in fury.

"Even tigers don't eat their cubs! Dave, how could you bear to treat your own son like this?”

“How could you bear to watch him die? How could you be so heartless?!" Her desperate roar was no match for Lily's rushing figure.

"Dave, my lower body is itchy. The doctor said I should hand-wash my underwear, but these servants' hands are too rough." Her eyes pointedly fixed on Merlin, she sighed softly.

"My sister's hands have been pampered for years, so they're delicate. Unfortunately, in my sister's eyes, I'm just someone unworthy of being presented to the public..."

A pampered, free nanny?

Watching him clutch the last half of the special medicine, she sneered coldly.

"You should know what to do." Merlin slumped to the ground, never having hated anyone so much.

The child's heart-wrenching cries and the child's vomiting of blood were nothing to him; Lily washing her underwear was his top priority.

Did not being loved mean even living became a luxury?

The underwear had a large patch of yellowish, sticky discharge at the crotch, with a single hair still attached.

If Dave had never been serious about her, it would be one thing, but he had once been passionate and devoted; how could he now be even more depraved than others?

She washed it in humiliation, enduring the nausea, painstakingly scraping away the filth with her fingernails, losing even the last shred of dignity, thinking this would buy Luther's life-saving medicine, but he treated Luther's life like a game.

"Kneel down, apologize, repent for what you've done." He glanced at them coldly, then quickly looked away, as if not worth a second longer.

Everyone expected Merlin to throw a tantrum, to become hysterical. But this time, she was quiet, silent and didn't utter a single unnecessary word.

She knelt down, kneeling in repentance. "It was my fault."

"My fault was handing out flyers on the freezing streets, my hands covered in chilblains, just to buy you your favorite birthday cake."

"My fault was risking my life to give birth to Luther just because you said the child was cute."

"My biggest fault was willingly sacrificing for you all these years, never causing you any trouble, thinking you could see all my goodness, only to become the funniest joke in the world!" Her smile remained, but her eyes had long lost their liveliness, filled only with endless hatred.

"Dave, either save Luther, or kill me now, otherwise, I will make you pay a hundredfold, a thousandfold price!!"

On the last day, Luther finally recovered. The ward was piled with small cakes and paper airplanes that Dave had sent, as if in apology.

"That day, thankfully, Mr. Carlson contacted Mr. Vincent, otherwise the child would have been in danger." Merlin's hand trembled as she fed Luther porridge, her head turning away blankly.

"Who did you say?"

The nurse, after taking her temperature.

"Mr. Carlson, the top-ranked of Frostvale City's Ten Outstanding Youths."

Her heart suddenly ached and she instinctively gripped her spoon tightly, only to hear the nurse teasingly say, "You two are truly blessed. You're complete strangers to Mr. Carlson, yet he's so kind as to rescue you simply because you live next door to his beloved wife."

"This kind of fortune is something most people couldn't accumulate in several lifetimes."

"What?" Her breath caught in her throat, her heart nearly stopping.

She ran next door, overwhelmed with bitterness, only to find Dave and Lily, mother and son, enjoying a harmonious family meal of an eighteen-layer cake.

The room was filled with paper airplanes he had folded himself, beautiful and neat, a stark contrast to the ones he made for Luther.

She stood there dumbfounded outside the door, like an alien.

"Mr. Carlson really dotes on his wife. I heard that his wife and child only sneezed and he immediately called in the top asthma doctor overnight, afraid that anything might happen to them."

The nurse said enviously, but Merlin smiled numbly and said through the glass window, "That's nice." Then she turned and left.

Yes, they were the real family; she and Luther were just a tool for practice.

The child was still young and didn't know what a bonus was; he only knew that this little cake was exceptionally exquisite.

"Mommy, did Daddy make up for his loss, so he gave me a little cake as a reward?" 

Merlin couldn't bear to dampen the child's joy, so she forced a smile and asked softly, "Luther, how about we get a different daddy?"