Back then, everyone said—

“Miss Carter was born lucky, the brightest jewel in the entire Newport social circle.”

Until the night before the wedding, when I was kidnapped.

They demanded an outrageous ransom from my family.

The total reached a staggering 800 million.

But I wasn’t worried at all.

My parents adored me, and Lucas insisted on marrying me.

Even if it meant draining their entire fortune, they would secure my safety.

At first, the kidnappers treated me somewhat politely.

Until the seventh day, when a bucket of cold water hit me awake.

They yanked my hair and kicked me to the ground.

“Didn’t your family say they couldn’t afford the ransom? Then explain this!”

I looked up.

On the TV screen was Lucas’s triumphant face.

He and Sophia were standing side by side, cutting a ribbon.

Behind them flashed a smug headline:

“Congratulations, Mr. Lawrence, on your first milestone! Another 800 million invested in the new project.”

Eight hundred million.

Exactly eight hundred million.

The kidnappers forced me to call Lucas one last time.

The call connected, but it was Sophia’s voice that answered.

“Mr. Lawrence is busy. Is there something you need?”

“Oh, it’s Miss Carter. Mr. Lawrence doesn’t have time.”

“Oh, come on, Mr. Lawrence, stop fooling around. The meeting is starting soon, and you’ve wrinkled your suit—how will you face the reporters…” The call cut off, their flirtatious banter ending abruptly.

Lucas seemed to be making a silent announcement.

Between love and career, he chose career.

Between me and Sophia, he chose Sophia.

I stood frozen, unable to accept it.

I didn’t notice the kidnappers’ expressions changing.

On the eighth day, the ransom still hadn’t arrived.

The kidnappers broke my fingers as a warning.

Lucas didn’t respond, didn’t yield.

On the ninth day, the ransom still hadn’t come.

They recorded my humiliation, threatening to destroy my reputation.

Lucas didn’t reply, only issuing a company statement that afternoon:

“The Lawrence Corporation will never bow to evil forces.”

On the tenth day, my parents announced they were cutting off the investment and relocating overseas.

I became completely abandoned, stripped of the last shred of value.

The kidnappers were furious.

Their rage drove them to torture and degrade me with everything they had.

At that time, both they and I still clung to faint hope—

That someone would come to save me.

But no one did.

While I was held captive, Lucas and Sophia grew ever closer.

News reports poured in.

The two attended countless events together, hosting grand celebrations.

They mingled and basked in the spotlight, thriving.

Every finance channel was buzzing.

Lucas’s investment was a huge success, and he was poised to become one of the richest men in Newport’s elite.

Ahead of him was a dazzling future.

Behind me, however, was a group of cruel demons.

They took out every bit of their anger and resentment on me.

Whips, daggers, branding irons, steel needles—

They made me beg for death.

On the fifteenth day, I finally found a chance to escape.

I can no longer remember the obstacles and terrors along the way.

I only remember running and running.

Running until my legs went numb, until my wounds tore open again, until I was down to my last breath.

Just as I was about to collapse, about to despair, about to give up,

a melody guided me.

I no longer cared that I was naked.

I didn’t care about dignity or shame; all I wanted was to survive.

But when I arrived at the scene, I saw Lucas taking Sophia to the countryside for charity work.

The setup was grand; reporters filled the place.

How ironic.

He had money for investments and charity, but none to rescue his fiancée.

He had time for receptions and interviews, but none to save his fiancée.

He basked in praise and applause, while I endured humiliation and torture in the hands of a monster.

I stood there, naked and stunned, like a misplaced clown.

I let everyone take in my dripping wounds.

In that moment, every spotlight fell on me.

Lucas’s face immediately darkened.

He didn’t ask if I was in pain, didn’t care what I had gone through.

He only said one sentence:

“Wendy Carter, what are you doing?”

Making a scene? Making a scene?

So all the pain and torture I suffered,

in his eyes, it was just a pointless tantrum to seek attention.

So my blood and wounds

were less important to him than dust on the ground.

I rushed to him, crying, asking why he hadn’t saved me.

“Why, why?”

“I’m your fiancée, your childhood sweetheart, your lifelong partner…”

“I’m pregnant…”

Before I could finish, Lucas cut me off without mercy.

He pushed my hand away in front of everyone.

He looked at me with a heavy, complicated expression.

“Sophie, why can’t you learn your lesson!”

“I had Sophia start negotiations as soon as we got the news. Once this phase passes, the money will be transferred.”

“You would’ve been fine anyway, so why put on this act?”

How could anyone risk their dignity and life just to act?!

I stood there frozen, staring in disbelief at the man I had loved since I was young.

But even after my tears ran dry, Lucas’s expression didn’t change.

He only vaguely blamed me for disrupting his charity event.

Eventually, I was wrapped in a blanket and taken away.

Sophia pretended to care.

She deliberately loosened her scarf, revealing hickeys on her neck.

“Aren’t you curious why your parents didn’t save you?”

“Isn’t it strange that Lucas suddenly changed so much?”

“Because… you’re not the Carter family’s daughter at all!”

She told me her parents were nearly driven insane with worry the day they received the ransom letter.

They said they would spare no cost, even bankruptcy, to save me.

But Lucas stopped them.

He showed them a paternity test.

He said I was just a fake—switched at birth by the nanny.

The real Miss Carter had already died from the nanny’s abuse.

Those words made her parents stop trying to rescue her.

The Carter family’s cherished daughter—

turned out to be a fraud.

Years of raising me made it impossible for them to let me go entirely.

But their hatred for their daughter’s death left them unsure how to face me.

After a long hesitation…

They left me an 800‑million‑dollar dowry and entrusted me to Lucas.

They were actually kinder than I deserved.

They just never expected Lucas to be so ruthless.

He took that 800 million—her dowry, the money meant to save my life.

He invested it in his new project.

With that, he became the richest man in Newport’s social circle, with a limitless future.

He let me be tortured until I was barely hanging on.

That day, I cried every tear I’d ever had.

I looked up, and Lucas was already standing before me.

He stood against the light.

I couldn’t see his expression, but I saw the necklace around his neck—matching Sophia’s.

He lowered his head and said,

“Sophie, I won’t abandon you because of your wretchedness.”

“But remember this—you have no family to return to.”

“If you want to marry me, if you want to become Mrs. Lawrence, you have to learn to be obedient.”

Everyone said this was Lucas softening, showing goodwill.

He knew I was spoiled, knew my unbearable past.

Yet he was still willing to tolerate, accept, and forgive me.

That alone proved he loved me.

But that so‑called love

sounded like a threat.

If it were the old Wendy, she would’ve raged, fought back, made a scene to the bitter end.

But after being crushed again and again by fate,

I was afraid.

I realized my life was completely in Lucas’s hands.

My future, my happiness, and sorrow,

all decided by him.

So I did as he wanted.

I learned my lesson.

At meals, I pretended not to see the elegant Sophia sitting across from me.

I silently swallowed whatever they put on my plate.

Even when my stomach was already sick.

Even when my heart was lodged in my throat.

I didn’t dare show even a trace of irritation.

Because I was terrified—terrified of that abyss of uncertainty.

Compared to the leaves and filth I ate while held captive,

forcing down the food in front of me was nothing.

I tried my best to play the obedient, docile wife, burying all my pride and temper.

But there was one thing I couldn’t do.

I couldn’t accept intimacy with Lucas.

Every touch, every breath against my skin,

dragged me back to those hellish fifteen days.

Back to those kidnappers crawling over me.

I was terrified.

Terrified of remembering.

Terrified of having those barely healed wounds exposed again.

Whenever Lucas came near and touched me,

I would shake uncontrollably.

Then scream and push him away.

Lucas didn’t hit me as the kidnappers did.

He only looked at me coldly and said,

“Sophie, haven’t you had enough?”

I no longer had the right to be willful.

But I didn’t dare speak, didn’t dare meet his eyes.

I could only curl up in the corner, trembling.

My arms wrapped tightly around myself, clinging to the last shred of dignity I had left.

But the more I did this, the angrier Lucas became.

On my birthday night, he had been drinking.

He yanked me close, gripping my head and demanding, “Speak! Why won’t you speak?”