The wall clock in that luxury dining room chimed twelve times. Elena stared at the row of food on top of the long, silent table. Everything had already turned cold. She hoped that tonight Arthur would come home sooner. However, just like the two years prior, Elena once again passed this moment all alone.

The sound of the front door being pushed open roughly broke the silence of the house. Elena directly stood up, neatening her dress, and walked quickly toward the direction of the front room with a forced smile.

Arthur Vance entered with heavy steps. His black suit jacket was slung carelessly over his arm, while the knot of his tie was already loose. The man's face was bent, radiating an anger that instantly made the atmosphere of the room feel gripping.

"Arthur, you have returned home? Do you want me to heat up the food?" asked Elena faintly. She took steps drawing closer, intending to take the suit jacket from her husband's hand.

Arthur let out a loud snort. He took a step backward, avoiding Elena's touch as if that woman carried a plague. He stared at Elena from the top of her head to the tip of her feet with a look of disgust.

"Get rid of that damn food, Elena. I have no appetite looking at your face, let alone eating your cooking," said Arthur with a heavy and sharp voice.

Elena stopped her movement in midair. She drew back her hand, then lowered her head deeply. Harsh words like that had already become her daily bread for these three years, but for some reason, tonight it felt far more piercing to her chest.

Arthur walked to the living room and threw his suit jacket on top of the sofa roughly. "That adoptive family of yours truly is a pack of idiots who do not know how to do business. The project in the western district is a mess because the raw material supply from the Miller company is late again. They cannot work, yet they continuously beg for additional investment from me!"

"Sorry, Arthur... I will try to speak with Father tomorrow morning," chirped Elena, trying to suppress her husband's anger.

"Speak?" Arthur laughed cynically. He turned his body around and took steps drawing closer until their distance only had two steps remaining. Elena could smell a thin aroma of alcohol from that man's breath. "You think your voice possesses an influence over them? Do not be naive, Elena. You are merely an useless adopted child in the Miller family. They only exploit your status as my wife to dig up my money. And unfortunately, I have to be trapped with a jinx woman like you."

Arthur suddenly extended a hand, gripping Elena's chin firmly. He forced Elena to look up, staring directly into his hawk eyes which were full of hatred.

"This marriage is the greatest mistake in my life," hissed Arthur precisely in front of Elena's face. "If it weren't because of the ridiculous request of my late grandmother before she died, I would never be willing to look at you, let alone touch you. You are nothing more than just a burden ruining my life."

Elena felt her eyes heating up. Tears had already gathered on her eyelids, ready to spill at any time. The grip of Arthur's hand on her chin felt very painful, but the pain in her chest was far more torturous. She highly wanted to scream and defend herself. She wanted to say that she too had never asked for this matchmaking. During these three years, she had already withheld all her ego, looked after this house alone, and became an obedient wife for the sake of pleasing Arthur. However, all her efforts were never appreciated.

Beneath her dress, Elena's hand clenched firmly until her nails turned white. She held her breath so as not to sob. Elena's thoughts drifted to the past. The image of the stuffy and cold orphanage returned to appear in her head. The Miller family came there and brought her away when she was still very little. Indeed, they had never given a sincere affection and only considered her as a tool for easing business. However, Elena could not forget the fact that they were the ones who gave food, clothes, and a roof to take shelter all this time. That extraordinarily grand sense of debt of gratitude was what locked her mouth, forcing her to swallow all of Arthur's insults whole without daring to fight back even a little bit.

Arthur narrowed his eyes seeing Elena's stillness. Feeling disgusted because of not getting a reaction, he released his grip with a rough jerk. Elena's slender body staggered slightly backward, nearly bumping into the edge of the dining table.

Arthur took out a handkerchief from his pocket, wiping the palm of his hand slowly as if he had just touched an extraordinarily dirty item, then threw that handkerchief to the floor.

"Starting tomorrow, do not ever wait for me to return home again. You are only wasting your time," said Arthur coldly without feelings. "And tell that damn family of yours, if they mess up one more project, I will not hesitate to stop the entire flow of funds to their company. I do not care if they will go bankrupt or die of starvation."

Without waiting for an answer, Arthur turned around and took steps climbing the stairs heading toward the main bedroom on the second floor. The sound of the bedroom door closed with a loud thud echoed in all corners of the house.

After Arthur left, Elena's defense collapsed. Both of her knees turned weak, making her fall to a sitting position on top of the cold marble floor. A speck of tear finally escaped and wet her cheek, followed by a voiceless crying that suffocated the chest.

Elena stared at the dark blue dress she wore, then shifted to the wedding anniversary candle which began to melt completely on top of the table. This luxury house, this marriage, and the status as Arthur Vance's wife, everything felt like a prison that did not possess iron bars. She was confined in a sense of guilt and low self-esteem, bearing all the hatred for a mistake she had never even committed.

"Three years... I gave my entire life, sacrificed every drop of my self-esteem merely to wait in this house. I cooked, I cared, I swallowed all his verbal abuse with the hope that one day later he would look at me as a wife. But it turns out, in his eyes I have never become a human."

Elena gripped her chest which felt very suffocated, withholding the sob restrained in her throat.

"I beg for affection from a man who considers me dirty, while my own family only waits for me to bring home the wager money. God, if my presence in this world is only a mistake, why did I have to be born? Why is there not even a single place in this world that can accept me sincerely? Is my life truly this despicable, to the point of not being worthy to obtain even a penny of happiness?"

CHAPTER 2: The Return of the Heart's OwneTwo weeks had passed since that gray wedding anniversary night. Time moved slowly, dragging Elena into a gripping, lonely routine inside the grand residence of the Vance family. To her, this luxury house was nothing more than an empty labyrinth confining all her hopes.

That afternoon, the bias of the western sunlight began to penetrate the large glass windows, illuminating fine dust floating around. Elena was kneeling in the living room, cleaning a mahogany wood table with a piece of cloth. The small scratches on the table surface reminded her of her own heart—heavily blemished, wounded, yet forced to keep looking clean from the outside.

Suddenly, the roaring sound of a highly unfamiliar sports car engine rumbled in the front yard. Not long after, a clicking sound from the main door handle was heard, followed by steady footsteps. It was still afternoon, and it was unusual for Arthur to return home this early. Normally, the man would only step foot in the house after midnight, leaving Elena awake in solitude.

Elena placed her cloth down, neatened her simple cotton house dress, and walked toward the front corridor with a racing heart. She hoped that maybe Arthur's mood was good today. Maybe today there was a little room for a normal conversation.

However, Elena's footsteps instantly stopped at the threshold of the living room. The entire supply of air around her seemed to be sucked dry.

Arthur was not alone. Beside her husband stood a woman with platinum blond hair styled very gracefully. The woman wore a Paris designer haute couture dress wrapping her curvaceous body very fashionably. A luxury branded bag hung from her elbow, radiating the aura of a high-class, sophisticated socialite. The woman was Victoria Belmont. Arthur's first love, the woman who went abroad right before their ridiculous matchmaking could be carried out.

"Arthur, you know? This city hasn't changed at all since I left for Paris," Victoria said with a crisp, spoiled voice. Her tone of speaking was so familiar, as if she had never gone anywhere. Very casually, she linked her arm through Arthur's muscular arm, pressing her body close without awkwardness.

Elena was fixed in her place, frozen like a wax statue. Her heart beat rapidly, hammering her chest cavity with a painful sensation that suddenly felt suffocating.

'Why does Arthur let another woman touch him like that? Even during these three years, he always brushed off my hand every time I tried to draw close merely to neaten his tie before he left for work. Why can that woman do it so easily?'

Before Elena chanced to utter even a single word to greet them or rebuke that intimacy, Arthur looked up. His sharp eyes directly collided with Elena's pair of eyes. However, there was something very different today. The grey line of sight that was usually so cold, sharp, and full of hatred every time it looked at Elena suddenly softened. That look changed drastically as Arthur looked down, staring at Victoria's face inside his embrace.

"You only need to accustom yourself to the atmosphere here again, Victoria. I will accompany you around the city this weekend," Arthur said. His voice, which usually boomed full of commands, now sounded so gentle, trembling with a deep tone of attention.

'That voice... so he can speak that gently? A tone of speaking full of warmth and protectiveness like that, I haven't heard even once during three full years of suffering being his wife. Why does destiny feel this cruel to me?'

Hearing Arthur's voice, Victoria then shifted her line of sight from the man and stared straight at Elena. A triumphant smile expanded on her lips painted with bright red lipstick. A flash of mockery was clearly visible in her eyes. With a movement deliberately made slow, she released her link from Arthur's arm, then took steps approaching Elena with a highly artificial, graceful style.

"Oh, Elena. Long time no see," greeted Victoria. Her eyes moved down, staring at the cloth still held tightly by Elena, then shifted to look at Elena's loose and cheap house clothes. "Good to see you are still... as diligent as before. I thought after three years of marriage with Arthur and living in a mansion as luxurious as this, your taste would improve a little. It turns out you still look exactly like a domestic servant."

The sentence slid out so smoothly, yet its impact was like a blade slicing Elena's skin. Elena clenched her hands firmly behind her back, trying to restrain her body from trembling violently in front of this woman.

"What are you doing here, Victoria?" asked Elena, trying hard to keep her voice flat and not broken by the tears suddenly pressing in her throat.

"Victoria just returned from Paris, and she will frequently help me in the Vance Group's grand projects ahead," Arthur was the one who answered. The man took steps forward, cutting the distance, then stood sturdily precisely beside Victoria as if emphasizing where his position was. "And watch your speech, Elena. Victoria is my guest of honor in this house."

Victoria let out a small laugh, a laughing sound that sounded like a mockery in Elena's ears. She covered her mouth with slender fingers adorned with a glittering, expensive diamond ring. "It's all right, Arthur. I understand. Besides, we all know how she managed to be in this luxury house. Married because of an old will from a grandmother who was already dying... truly a grand stroke of luck for an orphanage child, isn't it?"

An extraordinary heat traveled across Elena's cheeks, as if she had just been slapped in public. The humiliation was that blunt, demeaning her lonely, solitary origins. Elena stared at Arthur with a pleading view. She hoped her husband, the man legally bound by marriage vows to her, would rebuke Victoria for trampling upon his own wife's self-esteem inside their house. However, Arthur only stayed silent. His face was bent indifferently, not at all disturbed by the cruel insult launched at Elena.

'Arthur, please speak. Say something for the sake of my self-esteem. I am your wife. How can you let another woman enter our house and treat me like filth right in front of your own eyes?'

A painful silence wrapped the room. Elena drew a long breath, gathering the last remnants of bravery she possessed as the mistress in this house.

"Victoria, please get out of here. This is my marriage," Elena said with an emphasized tone, even though her heart was already crushed to pieces.

"Enough, Elena!" snapped Arthur suddenly. His voice booming like thunder broke the silence, making Elena jolt backward in surprise. The anger on Arthur's face now completely returned, specifically directed at Elena.

"You don't possess even the slightest right to drive Victoria out from here!" continued Arthur with eyes flashing in fury. "You want to know why she is here? Because she is the woman who should have stood beside me from the very beginning! She is the true owner of this house, not you!"

Those cruel words came straight out from Arthur's mouth, sliding without brakes, without caring about how ruined Elena's feelings were upon hearing them. The sentence collapsed the remaining defense fortress that Elena had built with patience all this time.

Arthur stared at Elena with eyes full of a deep flash of annoyance. "Don't ever dream you can replace Victoria's position in my heart, Elena. You must know your place. You are only a temporary replacement wife, a doll I was forced to display. Your presence in this house is nothing more than just fulfilling a ridiculous and wrong command from my late grandmother about an old-fashioned matchmaking of the past."

Victoria smiled contentedly, glancing at Elena with a highly distinct demeaning look. She again pressed her body to Arthur's arm, deliberately showing off their intimacy in front of Elena's eyes, emphasizing that she was the true winner.

Elena felt her world collapse instantly. All the joints in her body suddenly turned numb. The tears she had been withholding to the death since afternoon finally escaped, flowing to wet her cheeks without being able to be dammed anymore. Elena's chest rose and fell, withholding an extraordinarily intense suffocation that made it difficult for her to breathe.

'Three years... these three years I was always foolish thinking that his cold attitude was only due to his rigid and reserved character. I always hoped, with my patience, obedience, and sincere service every day, one day his frozen heart would melt. It turns out I was completely wrong. I only wasted time caring about a man who considers me nothing more than a mistake.'

Elena witnessed with her own eyes how Arthur held Victoria's waist gently, guiding the woman inside his study room which was forbidden for Elena. Before stepping inside, Arthur closed the large oak wood door with a powerful slam precisely in front of Elena's face—locking Elena out from their life, forever.

Inside the gripping, cold silence of the house, Elena finally truly understood her position very bitterly.

'It's not that he cannot behave gently. It's not that he doesn't know how to love or treat a woman with respect. He just doesn't want to give that gentleness to me. The entire room in his heart is already full, and it belongs only to Victoria Belmont. I truly never existed, and will never be valuable in his life.'

It only took three days for Arthur Vance to finish what he had started since the night of Victoria's return.

That afternoon, the sky outside the window looked cloudy and gray. Elena was standing in the kitchen, staring blankly at a teacup from which a thin steam exhaled, when the sound of arrogant footsteps was heard approaching.

Arthur walked into the dining room, followed by Victoria Belmont behind him. Without uttering even a single word, Arthur threw a thick, dark blue document folder on top of the marble table. The sound of the folder's impact echoed loudly.

"Sign that," Arthur said without small talk. His voice was flat and cold. "That is our divorce papers. I have already asked my lawyer to finish it as quickly as possible."

Elena stared at that blue folder. Not a single tear fell from her eyes as she faced them. Her look was instead empty, staring straight toward the sheet of paper that would end three years of her life. The pain in her chest was so dense to the point of making her eyes feel dry.

"Arthur..." Elena finally voiced, staring at her husband with an erected voice, though it felt hollow. "Why this quickly? Does three years of our marriage possess not even the slightest meaning to you?"

Arthur snorted cynically, folding both of his arms across his chest. "Do not act as if you are shocked, Elena. This marriage from the beginning was a mistake. I am not giving a single penny of marital assets. Besides, your family has already obtained plenty of profits from me!"

"Profits?" Elena repeated that word with a forced bitter smile. "Then what about the remainder of my life? During these three years I always obeyed all of your wishes. I looked after this house, I withheld all my ego, I tried to be a good wife to you even when you ignored me. Why do you have the heart to treat me like trash?"

Victoria stepped forward a step, throwing a thin smile full of triumph. "Oh, Elena. Do not be naive. You are only a replacement wife because of a ridiculous will. Arthur never loved you. Hurry up and sign, do not waste Arthur's valuable time."

Elena ignored Victoria. Her eyes were still pointed at Arthur, demanding an answer from the man whom all this time she had served with her whole heart. "Arthur, say something. Are all my sacrifices all this time truly of no value in your eyes?"

"You came to this house without bringing anything, so you also must leave without bringing anything," answered Arthur cruelly without hesitation. "Victoria and I will immediately formalize our relationship next month, and I do not want any past matters hindering my way."

Elena stared at Arthur who stood sturdily in front of her. That very second, a bitter awareness hit her mind.

'Everything is in vain. All my struggles to touch his heart, all my patience facing his cold attitude during these three years... never possessed a meaning. He is not a rigid man or one unable to cherish. He was only waiting. He was only keeping watch to see Victoria return. And I am merely a heap of stumbling stone currently ready to be kicked out by him.'

That extraordinarily deep feeling of heartbreak instead froze her tears. Elena did not want to show her weakness in front of that woman.

"Quickly take that pen and sign," interjected Victoria while tapping her nails on top of the marble table. "Don't tell me you are deliberately stalling time so that you can extort Arthur for more together with your greedy adoptive family?"

Arthur nodded, agreeing with Victoria's utterance. "The true nature of the Miller family indeed has never changed. Always opportunistic and using you as a tool to dig up profits from my company. Quickly finish this, Elena. My patience has already run out."

Elena lowered her head. With a hand that felt stiff yet certain, Elena took the pen on top of the table. Every scratch of her ink felt like the end of her foolishness. As soon as that signature was finished, Arthur directly snatched the folder without looking at her again, then took steps leaving together with Victoria who laughed contentedly.

Right after the front door closed tightly, the phone inside the pocket of her house dress vibrated very violently. The screen lit up brightly, displaying the name 'Adoptive Mother'.

Elena slid the green button and answered with a weak voice. "Hello, Mother..."

"Elena! Where are you right now?!" screamed Sarah Miller from the other side of the phone, full of a panic mixed with anger. "You must speak to your husband right now! Arthur's assistant newly sent an official email that Vance Group is suspending the entirety of the bailout funds and investments for our eastern region expansion project! What actually did you do in that house until making Arthur furious, huh?!"

Elena drew a short breath that felt suffocating. "Mother... Arthur just divorced me. I... I newly signed it."

"What?! You already signed it?! Are you crazy, Elena?!" Sarah's voice exploded far more hysterically. "The Miller family business is currently on the edge of a horn! Next month's grand project is our last wager! If Arthur withdraws the entirety of his investment right now because of this divorce, our company will be completely ruined and we will go bankrupt!"

"I possessed no choice, Mother... Arthur was the one who forced me," chirped Elena faintly.

"You must possess a choice, foolish child!" snapped Sarah cruelly. "Listen well, Elena! You came to the Miller family house as an orphan from a squalid orphanage! We were the ones who gave you food, bought you clothes, put you through school, and gave this honorable position to you! Now is the time you return the favor for all the money we have spent to raise you!"

"Mother, please... I too am currently ruined right now," Elena cut in faintly, begging for an understanding she would never obtain.

"There is no word of please!" cut Sarah without mercy. "Return to Arthur! Kneel in front of his door! Crawl at his feet if necessary! Beg him to cancel that divorce, or press him to remain the main investor of our grand project! Remember Elena, if you chance to fail doing this and make the Miller company ruined, do not ever dare to step your foot in this house again! You are no longer a part of our family!"

Click.

The phone connection was disconnected unilaterally. Elena lowered her phone slowly, then released it just like that until the object lay on top of the floor.

Both of her knees suddenly turned weak, making her slowly collapse and sit on top of the cold marble floor. Inside that quiet and hollow room, the defense she had built stubbornly since earlier finally collapsed completely.

Elena's chest felt very suffocated, like being struck by a large rock making it difficult for her to breathe. Every exhalation of her breath felt torturous and triggered an extraordinarily intense stinging pain in the pit of her stomach. The beads of tears which since earlier froze on her eyelids now finally broke, dripping one after another passing her pale cheeks, then fell wetting the marble floor.

Elena did not shout, nor did she scream. Her crying broke without a sound, only consisting of a sob restrained in her throat that made her entire shoulders and slender body shake violently on top of the floor.

While hugging her own knees, Elena reflected inside a dense despair. She felt her life had never truly meant anything. Let alone to Arthur or the Miller family, even to herself, her presence felt like a mistake that should not exist in this world.