Chapter 3

Lila's body swayed and she fell toward the coffee table nearby.

Lila cried out in pain, her face contorted as she clutched her lower abdomen.

"Lila!"

Ethan's expression changed dramatically.

"My stomach, my stomach hurts so much."

Lila's face was deathly pale, her voice trembling.

Ethan scooped Lila up and rushed toward the hospital.

As he passed me, his eyes were as vicious as if I had committed some unforgivable crime.

But I knew very clearly that Lila had hit the table herself just now.

That was also when I learned.

Lila and Ethan had been sleeping together for a long time. They even had a child.

After several hours of emergency treatment, the child still couldn't be saved.

"Are you satisfied now?"

Dad's face was flushed red with anger. He raised his hand and slapped me hard across the face.

Dad had used his full strength with that slap.

My cheek burned with pain, my eardrums ringing.

But the physical pain was less than one ten-thousandth of the pain in my heart.

Everyone blamed me for causing Lila to lose her child, forcibly demanding I kowtow to Lila in apology.

Of course I wouldn't agree.

The consequence of my stubbornness was this:

Ethan and my parents put pressure on the hospital where I worked.

The promotion that was within reach evaporated just like that.

They even used this as leverage to force me to sign divorce papers.

Then I was sent to the detention center by the three people closest to me.

"When you do something wrong, you have to face the consequences."

"When you realize your mistake, then we'll bring you home."

I laughed bitterly in my heart.

Home?

What home did I have left?

The moment I discovered Ethan and Lila's affair, my home was gone.

After I went in, I was deliberately targeted.

I ate rotten food, drank dirty water.

I was also frequently subjected to unprovoked beatings...

While I was being tortured to the point where life seemed worse than death, my husband and my parents were accompanying my sister on vacation abroad.

It wasn't until a month later when they returned that they heard I had nearly died inside.

After a full eight hours of emergency treatment, I was finally pulled back from death's door.

When Ethan and my parents rushed to the hospital, I had already been sent back to my room.

However, when they saw me on the hospital bed---emaciated, barely human in form from the torture---

Ethan's first words were actually:

"Do you know you were wrong now?"

"Don't forget you still owe Lila an apology. You can use your recovery time to think about how you're going to apologize to her. Because of you, Lila has been in a terrible mood. She almost developed depression."

Ethan's voice was cold and hard, his tone as indifferent as if I were just some unimportant stranger.

They say the greatest sorrow is a dead heart.

If my heart had died when Ethan and my parents sent me to the detention center,

Then after hearing Ethan's words just now, my heart died even more completely.

In that moment, I lost all desire to argue.

My tone was flat, devoid of any emotion:

"I was wrong."

I was wrong.

Wrong to have been blind enough to fall in love with a cold-hearted, ruthless man like Ethan.

Wrong to stupidly expect my parents' love when I knew they were biased.

Ethan kept glancing at me through the rearview mirror, several times wanting to speak but holding back.

Until the car stopped at the entrance of my apartment complex.

I opened the door and got out, thanking him politely:

"Thank you!"

Just as I turned around, Ethan finally couldn't hold back and called out:

"Clara!"

I stopped and turned back around, quietly waiting for him to continue.

"How can you live in a place like this?"

"All these years, have you... been struggling?"

As Ethan spoke, he surveyed the surroundings of the complex.

The lighting was dim, the rickety iron gate covered in rust.

The exterior walls of the building were mottled and dilapidated.

His eyes reddened, his voice hoarse:

"Do you want me to help you..."

"No need. I'm doing fine. Thank you for your kind offer."

I didn't understand.

The person who had been so ruthless to me, who forced me to divorce and sent me to jail---why was he now putting on this deeply sincere act?