The next morning, Candace got in touch with a realtor to arrange tours for potential buyers.

An elderly couple exchanged glances with each other. They wore solemn looks when they asked, "Mrs. Hamilton, you're still recovering from postpartum, so why are you in a rush to sell such a wonderful home? There's nothing wrong with this house, is there? Where will you live once you sell the house?"

"I intend to go back to my old home to rest," Candace answered calmly. "There aren't any disputes for this property. If you're serious about buying the house, I can give you a 500,000 dollar discount, but you have to pay the full price upfront."

"That's fine!" The elderly couple agreed easily as they penned their signatures on the contract.

Candace followed them to the Real Estate Bureau to process the transfer procedures. She then requested the realtor to purchase a fully-furnished home that was ready for move-in in Fohzan. After the sale was completed, she canceled all of her cards.

She rushed to the Government Affairs Agency to pick up her new passport before purchasing a flight ticket that would take her out of Bloomingville the next day.

When night fell, Candace dragged her exhausted body back home. She was surprised to see a pair of red high heels that didn't belong to her on the shoe rack. A man's white shirt was thrown haphazardly on the floor while a black bra was discarded a short distance away from it.

Candace felt as if an explosion had been set off in her brain. She stumbled up the staircase and saw a man and woman entangled with each other through the open master bedroom door. Condoms were scattered all over the floor.

Hearing movement from beyond the door, panic flickered across Yelena's face. She was half-kneeling on the floor and tried to push Shawn, who was positioned behind her. "Shawn, stop fooling around. Candace is back! It's inappropriate for us to do this in front of her—"

Shawn scoffed. "This is my home. What can she do to stop me when she's only 'Mrs. Hamilton' in name and nothing else?"

He gripped Yelena's waist with his large hands and continued rocking into her.

Candace covered her mouth with one hand as she bolted for the downstairs bathroom. She kneeled next to the toilet and vomited violently into it. She threw up so hard that she was spitting out bile by the end of it.

Drained of strength, she leaned against the wall and swallowed large gulps of breath, letting the tears stream endlessly down her face.

Shawn was truly a cruel man. It was one thing for him to parade Yelena around the city; it was another thing altogether to have sex with her in Candace's room. It was utterly humiliating!

Candace dug her nails into her palms and forced the tears to stop. She accepted the glass of water that Lisa offered her and said weakly, "Tidy up the guest room on the first floor for me. I'll be staying there with Jamie tonight.

"Remember to move the pot of aloe vera Lucia left for me from the master bedroom to the guest room. It has to grow in a clean environment. It doesn't do well when it's in a filthy place."

"Understood, Mrs. Hamilton." Lisa paused for a moment before speaking again. "Mr. Hamilton said that Ms. Chapman wants to have your lamb stew. He ordered you to deliver a bowl to them after you're done preparing it. He also said that if you don't do as he says, he'll never come back again."

Candace's gaze turned glacial. "It's perfectly fine with me if he never comes back. At least I'll have some peace in my own home!"

She then went to the guest room and crawled into bed. She covered herself with a blanket and fell into a deep sleep. However, the blanket was suddenly ripped off her body.

Shawn roared from above her, "Have you gone deaf? I told you to prepare the stew for Yelena, didn't I?"

"Why should I prepare the stew for her when I'm still in my postpartum recovery period?" Candace countered heatedly. "Just because you brought her back today to disgust me? Just because you hoped that Jamie and I would die during childbirth so she could usurp my position?"

Shawn stared at her in shock. He stayed mute for a few seconds before finally saying, "So you finally grew a spine, did you? You have the nerve to talk back to me now. I'm going to count to three. If you don't prepare the stew, I'll—"

Powering through the pain in her abdomen, Candace grabbed a glass of water and threw it at Shawn. "Get out! Your mother gave this house to me. You have no right to raise your voice at me here!"

Shawn was caught off-guard by Candace's sudden attack, his white shirt becoming thoroughly drenched. His temper exploded as he bellowed, "Bitch! You have some nerve to attack me!

"You almost ruined Yelena's face that day at the shopping mall when you made her fall. Preparing the stew for her is light punishment as is, yet you still want to argue with me? I guess it's true that a person who grows up without a mother's guidance will turn out to be barbaric and unreasonable!"

Candace had assumed that she couldn't be any more disappointed in Shawn. She never imagined that he would use the pain she kept buried in the deepest part of her heart to attack her.

He had forgotten all about how he had taken her hand in the past and said, "Don't cry, Candy. My mother will be your mother too in the future! I'll ask her to make whatever you want to eat, and I won't let you suffer any hardships! I won't forgive anyone who dares to bully you because you don't have a mother!"

Candace could still recall his promise to her as if he had made it just yesterday. How could he bear to hurt her so deeply just because he wanted to protect Yelena?

The immeasurable pain that she felt traveled from her feet to the top of her head. Tears poured from her eyes as if a dam had been broken. Her burning rage set her entire body aflame, making her feel as if she were a bomb that was about to explode at any second.

Candace no longer wanted to be a doormat that Shawn could trample on whenever he pleased. She yelled, "If you think that I'm so useless, go ahead and look for Yelena. Why did you even come back? I never begged you to come back to humiliate me!"

"Candace, I only came back with Shawn because he wanted to pack some of his clothes. We had no intention to humiliate you." Yelena clutched her red nightdress tightly. Her voice was small when she murmured, "It's just that he suddenly got in the mood and couldn't control himself, so I also…"

She groveled at Candace's feet. "I'm sorry, Candace. It's all my fault that the two of you are arguing like this. I've already asked Lisa to change the bedsheets in your room, so you can use the bed as usual—"

"Drop the innocent act!" Candace glared daggers at Yelena. "I'm going to count to three. If you don't get out of my sight, I'll have Lucia drop by and personally teach you the rules of this household!"

Shawn's face twisted upon hearing Candace's words. Lucia had always doted on Candace. If she found out about what was happening, he would have a difficult time handling her.

Incensed, Shawn wrapped an arm around Yelena to take her away. "Just you wait. This isn't over yet!"

The door shut with a resounding click as Candace closed it in their faces. Shawn seemed rather troubled as he guided Yelena back to his car, looking extremely upset.

A short distance away, the maids pointed at them as they whispered amongst themselves, wearing matching expressions of surprise.

"Mrs. Hamilton finally stood up for herself. I feel relieved, though I'm just an onlooker. Good on her!"

"Mr. Hamilton was way out of line this time. How could he ask a woman who's recovering from her postpartum to prepare food for his lover? If I were in her shoes, I would have wanted to kill him. That son of a bitch got what was coming for him."

"You're right. Even the most timid person has a temper, let alone Mrs. Hamilton. No matter how much she loves Mr. Hamilton, no one should have to endure such torment!"

"Mr. Hamilton only has the guts to act this way because he knows Mrs. Hamilton loves him. Her love for him is going to wither away sooner or later. He'll regret treating her this way when the time comes!"

Shawn scoffed. His biggest regret in life was conceding to Lucia's wish for him to marry Candace.

Candace's malice ran deep. When he had awoken from his coma all those years ago, Yelena had been the one who stayed by his side and cared for him. Candace had been beside herself with jealousy, to the point that she got the same tattoo as Yelena on her chest.

She even claimed that the person he saved from the fire was her. What was even more ridiculous was how Candace had shown him a box of love letters and insisted that he was the one who wrote them.

Shawn wasn't blind. There was no way he wouldn't recognize his own handwriting. He had written those love letters for Yelena!

Yelena studied Shawn's cloudy expression from the corner of her eye. She could almost feel the rage rolling off his body in endless waves. She pretended to stand up for Candace. "Shawn, Candace loves you a lot, so she probably couldn't immediately accept what we were doing in her room earlier…

"She's still in her postpartum recovery period, so she's not supposed to be stressed. You should be the bigger person and let it slide this time."

"You're too kind, Lena. Candace tormented you so much today, but you're still willing to speak up for her."

Shawn's heart squeezed as he drew Yelena into his arms. He exclaimed angrily, "I'll make sure she understands the consequences of angering me! I'll have someone prepare a divorce agreement right now. I'm going to evict Candace from the house by force!"

Yelena leaned against Shawn's chest, her eyes flickering with animosity. Candace would be so disappointed in Shawn for serving her divorce papers when she was still in her postpartum recovery period, so she would most likely agree without putting up a fight.

Once Candace was out of the picture, the position of "Mrs. Hamilton" was as good as hers!

When Shawn left, Candace tore up all their wedding pictures and threw them into the trash. She then packed all her clothes into her luggage.

Lisa was gripped with panic upon noticing her actions and told Candace that she was going to call Lucia to report what was going on. Candace stopped her and said, "Don't bother Lucia. She isn't doing too well."

"But you're about to leave with Jamie. How can you bear to abandon Mr. Hamilton?" Lisa asked with reddened eyes. "He had two craniotomy procedures, so he can't take too much stress!"

"He won't die," Candace replied indifferently. "Get the lily embroidery in the living room for me. That was Mom's wedding gift to me."

As Candace gazed at the blooming lilies on the embroidery, tears welled up in her eyes and blurred her vision.

She had been in the sixth grade when her mother, Marika Hanson, was diagnosed with late-stage lung cancer. She didn't have many days left to live, but she had gone behind Candace's back to secretly craft the lily embroidery despite her disease-ridden body.

The day before she passed, Marika had somberly pressed Candace's hand into Shawn's. With her last remaining breaths, she had said, "My dear Shawn, I'm entrusting my precious Candace to you. I hope the two of you will be able to smoothly get married in the future and be happy together for a long time.

"If you fall out of love with Candace, I hope you will set her free. Don't hurt her."

"Don't worry, Mrs. Brightshield. I'll take good care of Candace," Shawn had declared with tears in his eyes. "If I ever let her down, I'll suffer heart-wrenching pain every single day. I'll curse myself to be alone for the rest of my life, and my life will end in tragedy."

Marika's pallid complexion brightened a little. She sounded determined when she said, "Shawn, I have a good eye when it comes to reading people. I trust that you will protect Candace forever. I know that you won't let her shed a single tear."

"Mom, you were wrong about him."

Candace cradled the lily embroidery close to her. She choked out, "Shawn stopped loving me a long time ago. I don't want him anymore either."

The fierce winds rattled the windows as if howling in despair in her stead. Candace wiped her tears away and declared, "Don't worry, Mom. I'm all grown up now. I can live a good life even without depending on Shawn. I'll raise Jamie, and the two of us will live well together!"

…

"Mrs. Hamilton, Mr. Hamilton asked me to deliver this to you."

A lawyer entered and nodded at Candace before handing her a stack of documents.

Candace took the documents from him and noticed that it was a divorce agreement. Shawn was unwilling to pay even a cent of the alimony that was supposed to support Jamie.

He even demanded that she dissolve the marriage without taking any of his assets and also return the emerald wedding ring he gave her when they got married.

Shawn was truly a heartless man. Candace was about to sign the agreement when her phone was bombarded by a barrage of messages from Yelena.

"Candace, Shawn just paid over 100,000 dollars to buy an emerald bracelet for me. He also spent another 80,000 dollars to buy a matching set of emerald earrings. Do they look nice?

"I remember emeralds being your favorite jewels. What a shame that he has given me the set of emerald jewelry that he gave you in the past. The only part that is missing from the set is the emerald ring on your finger.

"He's such a pushy man. He's already given me enough emeralds to fill two rooms, but he still wants to give me even more. If I refuse his gifts, he'll punish me. He already made me orgasm five times earlier."

Candace's expression twisted as she called Yelena.

"Yelena, if you didn't get the same tattoo as me and steal the love letters he wrote for me to forge his handwriting, you would never have been able to replace me. Do you really think he would love you without all of your scheming?"

Yelena giggled on the other end of the line. "If you want to blame someone, you can only blame Shawn. His love for you wasn't strong enough. That's why I was able to trick him so easily."

She continued, "I'm pregnant, Candace. I've gotten my trump card. As for you, what did you get in exchange for risking your life to give birth to his child? You still got thrown aside in the end. How pitiful!

"If you knew that this was going to happen to you, you should have just died on that operating table. You could have taken your son with you and spared you both the pain. You know that I'm right. After all, even if the two of you continued to live, you can't escape the fate of being driven out of the house by Shawn."

Candace's hand trembled violently, and she almost dropped her phone. Her voice was tinged with loathing when she asked, "Did you do something so I would have a difficult time while giving birth to Jamie?"

Yelena chortled. "So what if I did? Even if Shawn finds out, he'll just think that you're trying to drag my name through the mud again. If I were in your shoes, I would have already died of embarrassment. I wouldn't be able to cling to the title of 'Mrs. Hamilton' shamelessly like you."

Candace scoffed as she switched off the recording device. She hailed a cab that brought her to the river. She handed the recording device and divorce agreement to the staff members of the death-faking service provider before following their instructions, placing her pink running shoes on the riverbank.

"Ms. Brightshield, I would like to confirm the details with you one more time. You have selected the option to fake your death without leaving a corpse behind."

"Yes," Candace replied, determined to see this through.

She picked up her luggage and disappeared into the night after preparations were complete.

Yelena would get what was coming for her. Candace's departure would mark the beginning of Yelena's hellish life and also the beginning of Shawn's spiral into insanity. Perhaps Shawn would also recover his memory in the process.