The sharp sting of disinfectant slowly pulled me back to consciousness.

"Well, well. A cheap little slut really does have a cheap little life. No matter what anyone does, you just won't die."

Prudence's eyes were full of contempt, her voice dripping with scorn.

I kept my eyes lowered and said nothing, quietly switching on the voice recorder I always carried.

Seeing that I wouldn't speak, she stepped closer and grabbed me by the collar. "Louise, do you really think Charles loves you? He just wanted to play at living an ordinary person's life with you. What a shame. He doesn't even know you're the real eldest daughter of the Pruitts."

"If you'd only said the word, maybe he wouldn't have divorced you at all."

I stayed silent.

Prudence's lips curved into a soft laugh, and she went on. "You're a lot tougher than that son of yours. Flung into the air by a car, and you still wake up this fast. Your boy was different. I barely nudged him with the car and he died right there on the spot. So dull, really."

"Thinking of dragging me into court? What a pity. Charles loves me. He'd never let you get away with it. Take a good look, Louise. These are photos of me and Charles in bed."

With that, Prudence pulled a stack of photos from her bag and flung them into the air, letting them scatter down around me.

Every single photo was different, but in every one of them the two of them were naked, doing things too unspeakable to name.

My heart clenched hard, and a bottomless bitterness spread through my chest.

Whatever last shred of feeling I had for Charles was draining away.

Prudence smiled, smug. "There are plenty more where those came from. On your anniversary, I was the one who tried a hundred and eight positions with him and went through ten boxes of condoms, and only then did he decide to come clean to you himself."

"So you... how pathetic." Mockery flickered in my eyes as I spoke, weak and faint. "Stooping to something like this just to get attention."

Prudence's eyes darted around. Then she dropped to her knees with a thud and, out of nowhere, began slapping herself.

Crack!

Crack! Crack! Crack!

The crisp sound of palm against skin rang out through the silent hospital room.

"I'm sorry, Miss Mason, I was wrong. I'm begging you, please don't put these photos out there. My reputation doesn't matter, but Sanchez Group is still Mr. Sanchez's company. I can't let you destroy everything he's built over all these years."

"Let me kowtow to you, all right? Please, don't spread them. You can hit me, curse me, it was my own poor skill behind the wheel that made me run you down, but this has nothing to do with Mr. Sanchez. Can't you leave the innocent out of it?"

And with that, Prudence made a show of getting ready to bow her head to the floor before me.

Before I could even work out what act she was putting on this time,

the very next second Charles's voice erupted, rage barely held in check. "Louise! What are you kicking up a fuss about now?!"

Charles strode in, pulled Prudence to her feet, and gathered her into his arms.

"Charlie, I just came to look in on Miss Mason. I never thought she'd threaten me with these photos, forbid me to marry you..."

"She even said I'm not allowed at the wedding three days from now, that she'll take my place at the altar. I—I was afraid it would hurt the interests of both the Sanchez and Pruitt families, so I begged Miss Mason to let us go..."

Charles's brow furrowed. "Louise, how did you turn into something this unreasonable? You're no different from a shrew."

My voice was hoarse as I threw it back at him. "Right. A CEO of Sanchez Group and the eldest daughter of the Pruitts, both cornered by one commoner. Say that out loud and see if people don't laugh."

Charles's expression stalled for a moment. He held Prudence and murmured, "Don't be afraid, Prudence. You're the eldest daughter of the Pruitts. There's no need for you to bow your head to her."

At the words "eldest daughter of the Pruitts," a flash of guilt passed through Prudence's eyes and was gone.

She feigned innocence. "Just now I was only so worried, so afraid of damaging your interests, that I acted on impulse without thinking..."

She hadn't finished before I cut her off, my voice sharp with scorn. "Was it impulse, or was it just instinct? You'd better learn to tell the two apart."

Back when Prudence was living off my family's support, she'd worn that same pitiful look, dropping to her knees and kowtowing at the slightest thing in front of my parents. In the end, things that were never my fault all got pinned on me.

Prudence glared at me, loathing in every line of her face.

"Enough." Charles cut in. "Apologize to Prudence, and we'll pretend none of this ever happened."

I should have been used to how he always took her side.

Yet watching him stand up for Prudence, my heart still gave that faint, involuntary sting, like the prick of a needle.

"Charlie, my face hurts so much..."

Prudence cupped her cheek, her voice small and pitiful.

Charles frowned. "I'll make sure you get justice. There, now. Go pick out your gown. In three days you'll be my bride."

Something twisted sharply in my chest.

I remembered the days I'd huddled beside Charles in that basement, when he used to hold me around the waist and murmur, "One day I'll throw you a grand wedding, and make you the happiest bride in the world."

For all our years of marriage, I'd waited for the wedding he promised, sneaking looks at bridal gowns more times than I could count.

But later, he broke his word.

His bride had become someone else, and the promise was forgotten completely.

The moment Prudence left, Charles's face went cold, his gaze shadowed as he looked at me. "Can't you show a little sense? I'm doing this for our future too."

"Charles, there is no future." My voice came out hoarse and flat.

Something in him lurched without reason. He opened his mouth to ask what I meant, but Prudence's startled cry rang out from beyond the door.

His attention snapped away. He didn't believe I'd have anywhere decent to go if I left him.

So he simply turned and walked out.

Not long after he'd gone, three bodyguards forced their way in. Two of them dragged me up off the hospital bed.

The third tipped over a bucket, and out spilled ice, mounds of it, breathing cold into the air.

Something clicked into place, and I shouted, "What are you doing? Charles and I are already divorced. There's nothing between us. You can't treat me like this!"

The bodyguard pinning me down sneered. "It's all on Mr. Sanchez's orders. He said you needed a lesson, so you'd face reality and accept his arrangements like a good girl."

My knees slammed down onto the shards and ice, and the raw pain drove my brows together hard.

The burning sting in my knees was quickly numbed away by the cold.

Three hours later, I couldn't feel my knees at all. I struggled to rise, but they held me down without mercy, and I knelt two hours more.

In the end I couldn't take it, and I passed out.

When I woke again, I was one day away from leaving Charles for good.

My face was bloodless as I pulled out my phone and requested an expedited divorce certificate.

The reply came quickly.

【Rush order processed. Your certificate will be ready at three this afternoon.】

I gripped the phone, unable to tell whether there was more joy or more grief in me.

Ten years of true devotion, and in the end all I got was a body full of ailments, and a lost child.

I couldn't even win my child the justice he deserved.

At three o'clock, I stood at the door of the county clerk's office right on time. Certificate in hand, I placed a next-day delivery order for Charles's copy, addressed to the site of his wedding.

A Bentley pulled up in front of me. The door opened, and the butler bowed to me with the utmost respect. "Young mistress, welcome home."

I got into the car and gazed out the window.

Waiting at a red light, I saw, in a car across the way, Charles locked in a passionate kiss with Prudence.

That man who had always been so reserved and level-headed, who had never once been willing to show me too much affection in public, was now kissing her deeply behind a half-lowered window.

I drew my eyes away and rolled up the window.

The car started again, merging into the flow of traffic.

From this day on, Charles and I were nothing to each other.

The road ahead was long, and we would never meet again.