Mia lay in the hospital bed for three full days.

The doctors mentioned she had lost a lot of blood, and her uterus had suffered severe damage. They said it might be really tough for her to conceive again.

James appeared once after she woke. His eyes were shadowed with bruises. He tried to hold her hand, but she pulled away.

He stayed silent for a long while before finally speaking in a hoarse voice, “Zinnia… Her ankle was seriously injured that day. I had to take her. How are you? That day… Did you cut an artery? How did you bleed so much?”

The medical report sat on the bedside table, but he did not even glance at it.

Mia said nothing, turning her head to the side. “Get out.”

James froze for a moment. There was a hint of offense in his eyes.

After that, he did not come again.

However, the hospital bills were paid on time.

A private suite, the best medication, the most meticulous care.

This, apparently, was his version of making up to her and being kind to her.

Just then, her phone lit up. A silent notification appeared at the top of the lock screen.

It was a flight booking confirmation.

The departure would be three days later, two o’clock in the afternoon.

It was the only fragile thread of hope she could grasp.

On the day of her discharge, Mia returned home carrying the printed divorce papers.

However, she stumbled upon a scene that made her blood run cold.

On the large bed, Zinnia, clad only in a thin silk slip, was locked in a kiss with James.

The heavy, ragged sound of their breathing stabbed into her ears like needles.

Her surgical wound in the lower abdomen flared as if it had split open again. A piercing pain shot through her, sharp enough to make her dizzy.

James, hearing a stir at the door, turned around to look.

“Mia? You’ve been discharged? Why didn’t you say anything? I could have picked you up.”

His tone was casual. It was as though the utterly scandalous scene unfolding before her was completely normal.

She had just endured a hemorrhage that nearly took her life, lost her unborn child, and bore deep scars on her womb.

Yet her husband, while she hovered between life and death in the hospital, was in bed with another woman at home.

Zinnia’s eyes locked with Mia’s empty stare, and her lips lifted in the faintest of smirks.

She rose and brought a cup of hot cocoa.

“Mia, why do you look so pale? Haven’t you recovered yet?”

Mia looked up, noticing the fresh, red hickeys on Zinnia’s neck.

She didn't answer.

The next moment, the cup clattered to the floor, scalding hot cocoa spilling all over Mia’s hands.

“Ah!” Caught off guard, Mia jolted as the scalding heat seared through her. Pain spread instantly through her body.

“Mia!” James jumped up.

“The cup was too hot, I… I didn’t hold it right… James, check if Mia’s okay! It’s my fault, I’m so clumsy…”

James roughly wiped the cocoa from her face and neck.

After a few swipes, he paused for a moment, looking at her reddened face and hollow eyes.

After a few seconds of silence, he suddenly reached out, gently cupping Mia’s reddened cheek in his palm and rubbing it lightly.

His voice lowered, tinged with barely noticeable guilt.

“You didn’t even try to move out of the way.”

Mia turned her head sharply, dodging his hand.

James’s palm hung frozen as his expression darkened.

At last, seemingly to shatter tension in the air, he spoke to Mia,

“Your birthday’s tomorrow. I’ll make it a big celebration. Consider it an apology, and a way to chase away bad luck.”

Mia finally lifted her eyes and glanced at the bedroom drawer.

"No need to wait for my birthday," she said with a dry and hoarse voice. "There's something you need to do right now."

James raised an eyebrow. “What?”

Mia pulled out the documents she had prepared and handed them to him.

James signed the papers without even looking at them.

“Why go through all this trouble? Jewelry? Property? Just have my assistant handle it. You’re my wife. There’s no need for this hassle.

“The birthday party goes on as planned.”

He returned the signed papers to her. His tone regained its usual controlling edge. “Let’s have a proper celebration. Whatever you want, you’ll get it that day.”

Mia took the seemingly weightless papers that carried the weight of a thousand burdens. She stared at his familiar signature. She did not look at anyone else and turned around to leave the room.

In three days, she would finally be able to leave this place for good.

On the night of the birthday party, the villa was ablaze with light.

Mia wore an expensive custom gown, like a porcelain doll without a soul, tightly held by James at her side.

He was unusually patient and gentle today. His gestures were intimate, as though they were a perfectly loving couple.

Only Mia could feel the iron grip of control in the hand resting on her waist.

“Tired?” James noticed her stiffness and leaned down, asking in a low voice, “Just a little longer. Once we cut the cake, it’ll be over. I ordered it specially for you. You’ll love it.”

Cake?

Mia had long since stopped expecting surprises from James.

This so-called birthday celebration felt more like a corporate meeting.

The enormous three-tiered cake was rolled out, extravagantly decorated with delicate sugar roses.

James grabbed her hand, guiding her over the knife as they cut the cake together.

At that moment, the guests barely forced out their congratulations to Mia.

Suddenly, a scream echoed from a corner of the hall, followed by the shrill crash of broken porcelain.

A middle-aged guest clutched his mouth. There was crimson bleeding between his fingers. He staggered backward and knocked over a champagne tower behind him.

From the other direction came more gagging sounds, and a noblewoman, whose face was ghostly pale, fell to her knees, spewing pieces of cake.

“Something’s… something’s wrong with the cake!

“It’s poisoned! Someone poisoned it!”

“Quiet! Stay calm!” James’s voice cut through the chaos. He yanked Mia behind him, eyes sharp as a hawk, scanning the room.

His face was stone. His gaze moved through the panicked crowd until it landed on Zinnia’s instantly pale face.

He remembered clearly that all the arrangements for this birthday, especially the cake, had been volunteered by Zinnia herself.

Still, only for a moment did his eyes linger.

Then, they shifted slowly to Mia.

Mia felt as though she had fallen into an ice pit.

“My apologies, everyone, for the scare.” James's calm voice was steady and commanding, carrying an authority that brooked no opposition. “Tonight’s incident will be thoroughly investigated. The Yorick family will compensate tenfold for any medical expenses and damages.

“As for this cake…” His tone turned cold.

“It was Mia’s responsibility.”

Mia felt like she was struck by lightning. She looked up at him in disbelief.

“No… it wasn’t me…” rasped Mia. Her voice was dry and hoarse.

However, no one cared for her explanation.

“So, it was her…”

“How could Don Yorick marry such a venomous woman?”

Each whisper and murmur was like a poisoned arrow striking her heart.

She looked at James.

He knew! He knew Zinnia was responsible!

Yet he chose to sacrifice her, to protect Zinnia.

“James…” Her lips trembled, forcing out words with all her strength. “It was clear…”

“Shut your mouth!” James’s voice cut through sharply. He turned to his waiting aides and said in an icy tone, “Take her to the basement holding room and let her calm down. No one lets her out without my order.”

The words basement holding room struck Mia like a thunderclap.

She had severe claustrophobia, and James knew it!

The memory of being locked and tortured in an abandoned restroom years ago had left deep psychological scars.

Yet he intended to lock her in there?!

“No! James! Don’t put me in there! I’m scared! I swear I’m not lying! There’s something in the cake! It’s Zinnia! She did this!”

Mia completely panicked. “I don’t want to go there! I’ll die! Please!”

James bent down and peeled her fingers away one by one. His gaze was ice cold, stripped of even a trace of warmth. “Babe, listen. You need to calm down.

“Take her away!”

Two black-clad aides advanced, showing no mercy as they hoisted Mia off the ground and dragged her from the hall.

James loosened his tie irritably as he watched her disappear down the corridor.

Zinnia approached. Her voice was soft, tinged with guilt. “James, it’s my fault. If it weren’t for me…”

“It’s none of your business, Zinnia.” James patted her hand. His tone softened. “She was just too reckless. Come on, let’s go calm the guests.”

He put his composed, polite smile back on and, together with Zinnia, walked toward the whispering crowd, as though the earlier incident had never happened.

Mia curled up in the cold corner, trembling all over.

The sting on her face was still fresh, but what terrified her more was the endless darkness and the suffocating confinement.

Childhood shadows and the nightmare from six years ago crashed over her in waves.

Her breathing grew shallow. It was like her heart was clenched by an invisible hand, nearly jumping out of her chest.

“Let me out… please… let me out…”

She pounded helplessly on the heavy iron door. Her nails scraped bloody scratches into the wall. Her throat was so hoarse she could barely make a sound.

She had no sense of how long time had passed until a soft click of the lock sounded and a beam of light cut through the darkness.

Her eyes brightened. She scrambled toward it. “James, let me out! I-I know I was wrong! Please…”

Her voice died as she saw who had come.

Zinnia stood at the doorway, elegant and composed, looking down at her in utter disarray.

She leaned slightly forward. Her delicate fingers flicked over the lavish sapphire necklace at her throat, seemingly without a thought.

“Pretty, isn’t it?” Zinnia’s voice was low. Each word was laced with poison. “James gave it to me. He said the color suits me.

“Thirty thousand of your nude photos got it for me, I hear.”

The scars she had long buried, the wounds that had numbed her with pain were ripped open by James’s own hand.

This necklace, now on another woman’s neck, was flaunted to crush the last shred of her dignity into dust.

Zinnia crouched, lifting Mia’s chin with a fingertip.

“Did you really think James loved you? You’re just a stray dog he picked up on a whim. He plays with you when he’s amused, discards you when he isn’t. No matter what I do, he will always be on my side.

“No woman by the Don’s side should be as pathetic as you, shrieking and sobbing at every little thing.

“You… are simply not worthy.”

Mia’s pupils dilated. She had no strength left to argue; only endless despair and numbness remained.

Then, outside the holding room, a series of sharp thuds and the crash of heavy objects rang out.

A few masked, armed men broke through the perimeter without warning, storming into the underground area.

Their movements were precise. It was as though they knew every inch of this place.

“Don’t move!”

Cold gun barrels were pressed against Zinnia’s and Mia’s temples.

They were pinned down with brute force, cloth forced into their mouths, hands cruelly tied behind them.

“Don Yorick’s women? Perfect timing!”

Mia’s mind went blank. She could not understand what was happening.

She only felt the darkness swallowing her completely.

…

Then, she opened her eyes again.

She was in an abandoned warehouse at the dock.

The masked men shoved her and Zinnia to the center.

Across from them stood James, whose face was dark as iron.

“Let them go.”

From the shadows, a man in a crisp white suit stepped forward, calm and composed.

The man was Shawn Gray, the young don of the Gray family.

He clapped slowly with a playful smile on his face.

He signaled his men to push Mia and Zinnia forward. The ticking of explosives attached to the women echoed clearly in the silent warehouse, each second slipping away.

“Of course.”

His words came slow and measured as though he was discussing nothing more serious than the weather. “I’ve prepared the full transfer documents for the East Harbor Dock.”

A subordinate handed him a folder.

“Sign this, and you can take one of these two women. The choice is yours. As for the one you leave behind… she’ll go out with a bang, becoming history along with this old dock.”