Dorothea didn’t understand what Jimmy was talking about, but she still turned to face him.

“Jimmy, I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

His expression darkened, his voice cold as ice.

“Dorothea, I know you’re upset. But I’ve already made it up to you. If the Bel Air villa isn’t enough, just tell me what you want.”

“But you crossed a line going after my child! You knew Chrisette has a severe pollen allergy, and you still hid pollen under the sheets?”

“She’s three years old, Dorothea. Three! How could you do something so cruel to her?”

Before his words had even fully settled, a slender figure rushed into the room.

Kim lunged straight at her like she’d lost her mind. Her nails scraped across Dorothea’s cheek, drawing blood as she screamed hysterically.

“I know you don’t like me moving in. I get that. But why would you take it out on my child?!”

“My kids are everything to me! Were you trying to kill her?!”

Her emotions spiraled out of control, and her vision went black as she nearly collapsed.

Jimmy caught her from behind.

He pulled her into his arms, holding her tightly like she was something priceless and fragile.

Meanwhile, Dorothea stood there with blood running down her cheek, and he didn’t even spare her a glance.

She pressed a hand to her face and said again, steadily, “Jimmy, I’ll say this one last time. I didn’t do it.”

“You used to sleep in that room. Who else would’ve done something like that on purpose, knowing it would trigger Chrisette’s allergy?”

Jimmy stepped closer, pressing her harder.

“Dorothea, the evidence is right there. I’ll give you one last chance—”

She lifted her gaze, her eyes cold as she cut him off. “Or what?”

Kim, pale and trembling in his arms, combined with Dorothea’s defiant attitude, finally snapped whatever patience Jimmy had left.

“Dorothea, you’ve really disappointed me. You’re being difficult right now.”

He lifted a hand and gestured behind him.

“Do it. Let her experience what an allergic reaction actually feels like.”

Two bodyguards stepped forward, carrying a large bowl of peanuts.

Dorothea was severely allergic to peanuts. Even a handful was enough to cover her body in hives and leave her struggling to breathe.

They forced her down without hesitation. Before she could resist, they shoved the peanuts into her mouth.

To keep her from spitting them out, they immediately poured water down her throat.

She didn’t know how many peanuts they forced into her. All she knew was that the world began to spin, her vision blurring as her consciousness began to slip.

Through the haze, a memory surfaced: her first date with Jimmy. She had accidentally eaten peanuts back then and gone into a full allergic reaction.

To get her to the emergency room, he had run three red lights.

After that day, there had never been a single peanut in the villa.

But now, he stood not far away, holding Kim in his arms, watching everything unfold with cold eyes.

Only when Dorothea’s body broke out in hives, her breathing turning shallow and strained, on the verge of suffocation, did the bodyguards finally let go.

Dorothea collapsed onto the floor, too weak to even sit up.

Through her blurred vision, she saw Jimmy supporting Kim as they walked out.

His voice softened as he spoke to her, “Let’s go. Chrisette just woke up at the hospital. She’s asking for you.”

Dorothea watched as his figure disappeared completely from sight.

No. She couldn’t die here from an allergic reaction.

She had to live! She had to get out of the Hemenways alive!

Biting down hard on her lip, she forced herself to stay conscious. With trembling hands, she dialed emergency services.

When she woke up again, she was in a hospital room, an IV drip feeding anti-allergy medication into her veins.

Jimmy sat beside the bed, carefully applying ointment to the exposed areas of her skin.

When he saw her eyes open, he said flatly, “You’re awake? Don’t move. I’m not done applying the ointment yet.”

He continued what he was doing as he spoke.

“I know you feel like this is unfair, but Chrisette’s allergic reaction was really bad. And Kim just had a baby. She’s not in a stable place right now. If I didn’t handle this the way I did, people would talk.”

“I’ve already called in the best specialists in New York. You’ll be fine soon.”

“Once you’re discharged and feel better, whatever you want, I’ll give it to you.”

From beginning to end, all he ever wanted was to keep her confined, controlled, possessed, and toyed with.

It didn’t matter anymore. Soon, she would be gone for good.

She just nodded obediently.

“Okay. I understand.”

After a week in the hospital, her condition finally improved, and she was cleared for discharge.

She returned to the villa alone. But the moment she pushed open the guest room door, she found Kim standing right in front of her.

Dorothea frowned, instantly on edge.

“Why are you in my room? Aren’t you supposed to be staying in the master bedroom?”

Kim gave a small smile, her tone deliberately gentle.

“I heard you were getting discharged today, so I came to wait for you. About what happened last time, I was too emotional. I wanted to apologize to you.”

She paused, then added, “You can’t be a mother, so you probably don’t understand how scared to death I was…”

Her words were suddenly cut off by a kid’s laughter coming from inside the room.

Dorothea pushed past her and froze at the sight that shattered her completely.

The guest room was a mess. All her belongings had been dragged out and scattered everywhere.

Chrisette sat on the bed, surrounded by pages. It was Dorothea’s handwritten sheet music from the past three years.

One by one, the little girl tore the pages apart, crumpled them into balls, and tossed them to the small dog crouching nearby.

The dog wagged its tail excitedly and ran over to grab the paper balls in its mouth.

“Chrisette! What are you doing?!”

Dorothea rushed forward, her voice shaking with anger.

Chrisette looked up at her with wide, innocent eyes. “Oh, you’re back, Auntie Thea! Mommy said I could play in your room. These scrap papers are so fun! Even the dog likes them.”

A sharp ringing filled Dorothea’s ears, and her mind went blank.

The sheet music she had worked so hard on, hiding it from Jimmy, pouring everything into it, had become nothing more than trash in the eyes of a three-year-old.

She had carefully saved every page, planning to organize them over the next few days and send them to an orchestra overseas for a chance at an audition.

That was her way back. After the divorce, it was her only shot at returning to a classical orchestra and stepping back onto the stage as a pianist.

Dorothea took a slow breath. She reminded herself that this was just a three-year-old child.

Forcing down her anger, she said, “Chrisette, give me the rest of those papers, and I’ll forgive you for what you did.”

A flash of stubbornness crossed Chrisette’s face. “No! Mommy said this room is mine today!”

She turned and shouted, “Mommy! Auntie Thea is trying to kick me out! You have to help me!”

Kim stepped forward when she heard that, a faint, mocking smile tugging at her lips.

“Come on, Dorothea, it’s not a big deal. Chrisette likes your useless sheet music. Just let her play with them. Why are you being so petty?”

The anger surged through Dorothea.

She couldn’t hold it back anymore. She pushed past Kim and reached for the sheets in Chrisette’s hands.

In the next second, the kid’s foot slipped, and she tumbled off the bed.

Her scream rang out, followed by loud, panicked crying that echoed through the entire villa.

Kim’s expression changed instantly. She shoved Dorothea aside and rushed over, pulling Chrisette into her arms.

“Chrisette! Are you okay? Don’t scare me, baby!”

Dorothea’s head slammed hard against the bedframe. Blood from the back of her head trickled down her neck.

Hearing the commotion, Jimmy came down from the upstairs study and immediately checked on Chrisette in Kim’s arms.

Clutching her swollen forehead, Chrisette sobbed, “Daddy, it hurts! It hurts so much!”

Meanwhile, Kim burst into tears. “I know. I know I’m just a nobody compared to you, Dorothea. I’m not as capable. I can’t play piano like you. But Chrisette just wanted to look at your music, and you… you actually laid hands on her!”

Jimmy turned to Dorothea, his voice cold and sharp.

“So over a few sheet music you composed, you’d hurt a three-year-old? Is that how much you hate Kim and her child?”

Dorothea felt like something inside her had shattered.

So he had always known what those scores meant to her and still let someone else purposely destroy them.

She lifted her gaze, staring straight at him. “Jimmy, I didn’t—”

He cut her off, his expression dark.

“Dorothea, did you forget what you promised me? When you married me, you agreed to leave your past behind and just be a dutiful wife.”

That old piano, barely more than junk at this point, was the only thing he had ever allowed her to keep.

“Stuff like this shouldn’t exist in the first place. I’ll give you anything else but not this.”

As soon as he finished speaking, two bodyguards rushed in and dragged her out of the room.

Then they gathered everything: her handwritten compositions, her piano certificates, her music books, and scores. Then, they dumped it all into a large metal barrel in the backyard.

Jimmy personally lit a torch and tossed it in.

The flames shot up instantly, thick smoke billowing into the air.

Dorothea collapsed into hysteria.

“No!”

Dorothea watched with her own eyes as everything connected to the piano burned to ash.

Meanwhile, she was pinned to the ground by the bodyguards, her cheek pressed hard against the concrete.

Every time she struggled, her skin scraped against the rough surface, sending sharp unbearable pain across her face.

But she didn’t care at all. All she wanted was to break free and hurriedly put out the fire.

By the time everything in the metal barrel had burned to nothing, her cheek was torn and bloodied, staining a small patch of the concrete beneath her.

She couldn’t hold on any longer. Darkness swept over her, and she completely lost consciousness.

When she woke up again, she found herself locked in a pitch-black, enclosed room.

Dorothea snapped fully awake.

She knew this place. It was a punishment room in the Hemenways' villa, designed for servants who stepped out of line.

The space was barely two square meters, and at unpredictable times, venomous insects would be released inside.

Her whole body trembled as she curled up in the corner, forcing herself to endure the feeling of unknown bugs crawling across her skin.

She had no idea how much time had passed when she finally heard Jimmy’s voice outside the door.

“Dorothea, why are you always so difficult? Why can’t you just behave and be a proper wife?”

“You have to understand that everything I do is because I want to keep you by my side. I love you that much.”

At last, the door opened, and she was let out.

At her bedside, the floor was littered with cigarette butts.

Jimmy had stayed there for three full days. The emotion in his eyes looked too sincere to be fake.

It took Dorothea a full week to recover. Only then did the swelling from the insect bites across her body finally start to go down.

Then came Kim’s birthday. Even though she hadn’t fully recovered from childbirth, she insisted on throwing a party.

Jimmy, of course, agreed without hesitation.

Kim looped her arm through his, acting sweet and innocent. “Jimmy, can Dorothea come to my birthday party, too? We’re going to be, like, sisters from now on. We should share everything, right?”

Jimmy turned to Dorothea.

“Dorothea, you heard her. You’ll be in charge of organizing Kim’s birthday party.”

A cruel smile tugged at his lips.

“Use the same standard as your own birthday parties. I wouldn’t want anyone saying I play favorites.”

A sharp pain suddenly stabbed through Dorothea’s chest.

There was a time he had said to her, “Dorothea, I’ll be there for every birthday you ever have. And I’ll give you ninety-nine completely different birthday experiences.”

And for the past three years of their marriage, he had kept that promise.

But now, his tenderness and affection were no longer hers alone.

A week later, the yacht party was dazzling, the lights almost blinding.

Dorothea, dressed in a simple gown, moved through the crowd nonstop.

She kept a close eye on every staff member, checking every detail, making sure nothing went wrong.

At the same time, she had to greet guests, playing the role of a perfect, dutiful hostess.

Kim, on the other hand, was dressed to impress, basking in attention as she accepted compliments and gifts from every direction.

Dorothea couldn’t be bothered.

After all, she had already received a message from her mother-in-law.

In just half a month, everything would be finalized. Dorothea would finally be free of the hell that was Jimmy.

Suddenly, Kim’s gaze landed on her. “Hey, Dorothea, I don’t think you’ve given me a birthday gift yet.”

Dorothea clenched her hands so tightly her knuckles turned white, but she said nothing.

“Forget it, I won’t make things difficult for you,” Kim said with a smile. “You’re amazing at piano, right?”

She pointed toward the piano nearby. “Why don’t you play something for me?”

“Alright.” Dorothea walked over calmly and sat down at the piano. She took a deep breath and began to play.

When she finished one piece, Kim pouted. “That’s it? Play another one.”

Dorothea didn’t refuse. Her expression didn’t change as she continued playing.

When the second piece ended, Kim had already walked up behind her.

Before Dorothea could react, Kim had already slammed the piano lid down hard right onto Dorothea’s hands!

A sharp crack echoed through the yacht. It was the unmistakable sound of bones breaking.