After Marlow left, Josette suddenly appeared out of nowhere.

"Did you see that? Marlow loves me! If I were you, I'd leave him," Josette declared boldly while flaunting the phone in her hand. "All I did was make up something about you getting someone to harass me, and look how anxious he got!"

"Don't bother trying to instigate me. If you want that trash of a man that much, you can have him." Ameera shot her a dull look before turning to pay respect to her deceased parents.

Upon noting her lack of reaction, Josette began to seethe with rage. "You're the one being dumped here. Who do you think you are to have an attitude with me? Marlow waited five years to marry me! You've been nothing but a joke for five years. You are nothing without him!"

Ameera stopped in her tracks. Although she was completely over him, she still felt a hint of sadness. She turned to face Josette and said while holding back her emotions, "I'll still be a daughter to the Meyers even without Marlow. You have no right to challenge me, even if you are his wife. Remember, you're not the one who chased me away. I am the one who chose to walk away on my terms."

"Ameera!" Josette's eyes flashed with anger as she glared at Ameera's departing figure. "I'll make you regret this!"

Ameera ignored her and went to visit her parents' grave. She told them everything that had happened to her over the past five years. She was surprisingly calm the entire time and hardly shed a tear.

"Mom, Dad, I don't love Marlow anymore. Don't worry about me. I'll take care of myself."

It was almost dark when she reluctantly left the cemetery.

The entire time, Marlow never showed up or called.

The cemetery was in a remote area, so she had to walk for a while before she could hail a taxi. Having bid her parents goodbye, she slowly made her way toward the main road.

After walking a short distance, she had the feeling she was being stalked. With that, she quickened her pace and reached for her phone so she could call the police.

Before she could even dial the number, a stealthy figure caught up to her and pressed a handkerchief against her nose.

She fought violently, but it was no use. Her vision became blurred, and soon, she passed out from the solution on the handkerchief.

Then, she was rudely awakened by a freezing sensation. Someone had poured a bucket of ice over her to jolt her awake.

She found her hands tied behind her back and strapped to a column. Her eyes were covered with a black cloth, and she shivered from the cold.

"Who are you? What do you want with me?" she cried out in a quivering voice while a wave of fear washed over her.

"Say something! Who are you? You want money? I have money, more than you ever need! Give me your bank account and I'll transfer it right now!"

She could not see anything and could only resort to negotiating, but there was no response the entire time.

Her clothes were drenched with icy water, and every gust of wind made her teeth chatter from the cold. She was growing increasingly frantic and continued to struggle helplessly.

"Let me go! Who are you?"

The sudden blow of a bat against her stomach made her yelp in pain. "Ah!"

"You don't need to know who I am. All you need to know is that you're going to pay for what you've done," the man declared while raising the bat in the air and swinging it against her stomach again.

Ameera felt her organs pummeled by the blow. Tears welled up in her eyes. "I don't know what you're talking about."

The man stopped bothering to respond and continued to pound her stomach with the bat. Each blow he inflicted was so tremendous that it felt like her organs were going to rupture. She would pass out from the pain from time to time, only to be awakened again.

By the end of the beating, she was numb with pain. There was blood everywhere, trickling down from the corner of her lips down to her shirt, and even her pants were soaked with blood.

It looked like the man had finally grown tired of beating her. He dropped the bat and proceeded to untie her, causing her body to slump to the ground like a rag doll. Her blood continued to spread across the ground as she faded out of consciousness.

When she woke up, there was nobody around her. After she removed the cloth from her eyes, she saw a projected screen in front of her.

It was playing a video of Marlow holding Josette and kissing her on the forehead repeatedly while consoling her, "Don't cry, dear. You're fine."

"Marlow, I refuse to believe this. I don't believe Ameera would ever try to hurt me. She's such a good person! Why would she try to hurt me just because I accidentally shoved her?" she whimpered and cried.

"That may be so, but people change." A pained look flashed across Marlow's eyes. "The truth is that she hired someone to teach you a lesson. If you hadn't called the police, who knows what would have happened?"

"Even if that's what happened, I don't want you to get revenge for me. I don't want you to hurt her."

"You're still looking out for her at a time like this. Don't worry. I'll just teach the person who tried to hurt you a lesson. As for Ameera, I'll make sure to give her a warning."

His eyes were filled with disappointment as he spoke. He looked wholly convinced that Ameera had hired someone to harm Josette.

Meanwhile, Ameera collapsed to the ground and convulsed from the pain. She glared at the faces of the couple on the screen and felt as if her heart had been ripped out of her body all over again. The blood would not stop flowing.

Marlow, the man who once trusted her, was accusing her of a crime she did not commit just to defend Josette. He even wanted to have her punished.

Feelings changed. Everything else changed after that.

She smiled bitterly until she cried.

'Marlow, would you regret everything if you ever found out about the truth one day?'

The projector continued to replay the footage of Marlow and Josette together. The thought of Marlow harboring such suspicions toward Ameera made her feel stabbing pains in the depths of her heart.

Soon, the projector played a new video of Marlow cooking for Josette. His previous hateful glower was substituted with a warm and doting smile. He looked at Josette with so much tenderness and love. It was the same look he once reserved for Ameera in the past.

"Ameera, when can I finally call you my wife?"

"Ameera, my dear, I love you so much. Hurry up and marry me already."

"I, Marlow Brunsfield, will love you forever. Whoever tries to pick on you will have to go through me."

"Honey, I'm a great cook. Let me cook you all three meals. You're the only one in the world who gets to eat my cooking. Not even my parents have that right!"

"Honey, Josette saved your life and mine, too. She's an orphan, so let's take care of her."

"Of course, I'm serious about Josette. All she asked for was a lifetime together. I can give her that much at the very least."

...

Everything Marlow once said continued to replay in her mind. His promises, his heartfelt confessions, and his lies stung her ears like a thousand needles.

The man who loved her in her memory was a far departure from the man she was looking at on the screen. In her mind, the distance between them could not be reconciled.

The sky had darkened completely by now. She lay helplessly on the ground and allowed the darkness, along with the cold, to consume her.

When she regained consciousness, she tried to drag her lethargic body. The dried blood pooled beneath her body and streaked across the floor as she moved.

She had lost all feeling in her lower stomach. Nevertheless, she forced herself to get up and walk out.

Even the warmth of the sunlight could not warm up her body or her soul. She eventually collapsed on the side of the road before someone took her to the hospital.

"Miss Meyer, you sustained serious injuries in your lower abdomen, and your uterus has ruptured. We need to perform a surgery to remove the damaged tissue."

Ameera listened to the doctor's advice with hardly a trace of emotion. Ever since she lost her baby, she had accepted the fact that she was never going to conceive again.

So be it...

At least, she got away from Marlow alive.

As soon as she regained consciousness after the surgery she found herself gagged with a cloak thrown over her head. She was yanked to meet Marlow.

"Josette, she's here. After you teach her a lesson, no more sadness, okay?" Marlow regarded Josette with a tender look as he spoke.

Josette kissed Marlow and asked with a coy wink, "I can do anything to her?"

"Yes, whatever you want. I'm here with you." Marlow indulged her. He would take care of things even if someone ended up getting killed.

Josette clapped his hands triumphantly and ordered the bodyguards to bring the urns over.

Ameera recognized the urns immediately. They contained the ashes of her parents.

"What are you doing?" She tried to speak, but her voice came out as muffled groans.

"Marlow, I'm going to destroy the ashes of her parents as punishment." Josette grinned coyly and turned to Marlow for approval.

"Alright."

"Stop it, Marlow! Look! These are your parents-in-law. You were the one who made the urns yourself! Please, you have to stop her!" Ameera was crying hysterically and squirming desperately, but everything she said was muffled.

However, Marlow only had eyes for Josette the entire time. He hardly noticed the urns she held.

Ameera felt nothing but dread as she watched the ashes scatter in the air. Her heart was in pieces.

'Marlow, why do you only have eyes for Josette?'

She was restrained by the bodyguards and could not even budge a muscle. The pain in her body was too much for her, and soon, she passed out.

Upon seeing this, Josette scattered the remaining ashes.

"Let's go, Marlow. I'm not upset anymore."

"Alright." Marlow carried her away. He suddenly slowed down his pace as they drew near the unconscious Ameera. Regardless, he didn't even spare a look at her. He barely even turned to acknowledge her.

When Ameera woke up, the ashes on the ground had all but vanished. She palmed the empty urns. Her tears had run dry.

After she returned to the house, she collected her newly processed documents and took one last look at the house where she had spent five years of her life. A cynical smile curled upon her lips.

Then, she grabbed a baseball bat and proceeded to smash the Lego sets they had built together. She ruined the couch they bought together, then the television they bought together…

She used the final ounce of her strength to destroy everything in the living room. After she was done with her rampage, she looked at the chaos and broke out into a jaded chuckle.

Then, she threw the baseball bat aside and scribbled a long sentence on the wall with her lipstick.

"Marlow, do you remember telling me that the punishment for betraying someone true to you was to swallow ten thousand needles? The greatest regret in my life was falling in love with you!"

With that, she left the house without turning back, leaving everything she once had with Marlow in ruins.