Chapter 1

On a stormy night, my younger brother was buried in a mudslide while my husband, Hayden, stayed with the woman he loved, listening to piano music.

He used his authority to hold back the rescue team. Just to calm that woman's fears.

When they found my brother's body, he transferred five million dollars. "Road delays. Stop making a scene."

Later, I miscarried, was kidnapped, and jumped from a moving car. His response was always the same. "She didn't mean it. Be reasonable."

Only after I disappeared completely did he realize every "accident" had been a carefully laid trap.

But when he found me in New York, dragging his broken leg, I just smiled, holding my new husband's arm.

"Mr. Hayden, your belated concern is cheaper than garbage."

Vienna's POV

In San Francisco's elite circles, Hayden was famously known as the "cold-blooded devil." He controlled a massive shipping empire with an iron fist.

Yet he had once poured all his tenderness into me.

That year, I was just a poor student working as a dock recorder. After a chance encounter in a rainstorm, he brought me onto his private yacht.

And I stayed for five whole years.

Everyone said that block of cold, hard steel had finally softened. For me.

He would fly a helicopter across the strait during a typhoon just to bring me a box of cold medicine.

Because I casually mentioned "wanting to see snow," he built an artificial ice and snow palace on a tropical island.

Most shocking of all, he married me despite his family's opposition, even though I had no background. After marriage, he protected me so tightly no one could touch me.

In the fourth year of our marriage, San Francisco was hit by a massive mudslide. My brother, a teacher, was buried beneath the rubble.

Hayden wasn't just a tycoon-he was also the sponsor and commander-in-chief of "Blue Shark," the largest private rescue team in the area.

When it happened, he was coincidentally conducting inspections nearby with his elite squad.

I frantically called for help. On the other end, his voice was steady and reassuring.

"Don't worry. I'm here. Calvin will be fine."

However, as the golden rescue window ticked away second by second, the rain kept pounding the crumbling ruins.

I knelt in the mud, my nails torn, my hands covered in blood, yet the heavy excavators and professional search and rescue team he'd promised never came.

Trembling, I called him again. This time the phone rang for a full minute before someone answered.

"Hayden! Where are the excavators? Where's the rescue team?"

I was crying.

"Calvin's been buried for three hours. The muddy water is about to fill the pit..."

"Vienna, calm down."

On the other end, the background noise wasn't the chaotic storm and machinery sounds, but an eerie silence. I could faintly hear soft piano music.

"The road is blocked. The equipment can't get through."

His voice was low, with a trace of stiffness.

"Wait a little longer. I'm trying to arrange air transport."

"The road is blocked?"

A supply truck had just driven past nearby. My heart sank bit by bit.

"Hayden, tell me-where exactly are you right now?"

"I'm at the dispatch center..."

Before he could finish, a sweet, delicate female voice suddenly came through the phone, carrying a coquettish gasp.

"Hayden, there's thunder. I'm scared..."

Then came Hayden's instantly gentle consolation.

"Don't be afraid. I'm here. Put on your headphones and you won't hear it."

A thunderbolt exploded over my head, shattering my last thread of sanity.

That was Grace's voice. Hayden's "sister" who was supposedly recovering abroad, who allegedly suffered from severe depression and panic disorder.

I quickly opened Grace's social media account.

Her latest post was from ten minutes ago.

The location tag showed the safest hillside villa in San Francisco.

In the photo, Hayden sat on the carpet by the floor-to-ceiling window, holding a storybook. Outside, rain poured violently, but inside was warm and cozy.

The caption read: "On this stormy night, I'm lucky to have you beside me, driving away all my nightmares."

"Hayden."

I said, "You're not coordinating the rescue. You're with Grace, aren't you?"

Silence on the other end for a moment, then came his helpless explanation.

"Vienna, Grace's condition relapsed. On thunderstorm nights like this, she self-harms. Your brother is just buried-he's not in immediate life-threatening danger. The rescue team will arrive shortly. Be reasonable and stop always targeting a sick person."

"Reasonable?"

I laughed.

"My brother's life hangs by a thread in muddy water, and you want me to be reasonable? Hayden, in your eyes, is Grace's fear of thunder more important than my brother's life?"

"Why have you become so unreasonable?"

His tone grew impatient.

"I told you I'd make arrangements for your brother. Can you please stop being hysterical?"

The call was disconnected.

I stood in the pouring rain and watched helplessly as a support beam holding up the ruins nearby collapsed with a thunderous crash. The mudslide instantly filled the pit that still had a sliver of space.

"Calvin-!!!"

I threw myself desperately at that pile of mud, frantically digging with my hands.

But it was too late.

When the belated firefighters finally arrived and dug him out, that sunny, cheerful boy who always called me "sis" was already cold and stiff, his mouth and nose filled with sludge.

The doctor glanced once, then sighed and covered him with a white cloth.

"Suffocation lasted too long. If only professional equipment had arrived half an hour earlier... or even twenty minutes earlier to prop up the space, perhaps he could have been saved."

My vision went black, and I completely passed out.

When I woke up again, three days had passed.

I lay in the hospital bed staring at the ceiling.

The nurse was changing my bandages. Looking at the wounds covering my hands, she couldn't help but sigh.

My phone vibrated.

It was a message from Hayden.

No explanation. No apology. Just a notification that he'd transferred five million.

Then a voice message. His tone carried that familiar condescension, that tiredness.

"Grace hasn't been well these past few days. I can't leave right now. Take the money and fix up your family's house. The rescue team said they were delayed. Road conditions. The weather. No one could've done anything. Stop with the tantrums. I'll come back when I'm done here."

Listening to that voice message, my stomach churned with nausea.

Natural disaster? Road condition delays?

In reality, he had personally diverted the helicopter and advance team that should have rescued Calvin, all to comfort Grace.

He didn't even know that Calvin was already gone.

I pulled out the IV needle from the back of my hand and walked to the window.

On the LED screen downstairs, news about the Hayden Corporation was playing.

On camera, Hayden wore a custom-tailored suit, protectively escorting Grace-who wore sunglasses-into a car.

When reporters asked about Grace's condition, his brow furrowed slightly, his eyes full of concern.

"She was a bit frightened and needs rest. I hope everyone won't disturb her."

In that moment, the last ember of warmth in my heart was completely extinguished.

I returned to the hospital bed and pulled out my brother's death certificate from my bag, then dialed my lawyer's number.

"Mr. Chen, this is Vienna. That divorce agreement we drafted before-it can take effect now."

"I don't want any property division. I just want the fastest way to sever all ties with Hayden."

After hanging up, I removed my SIM card and casually tossed it into the toilet.

The water swirled, carrying away all the past.

I touched my bare ring finger. The custom diamond ring he'd proposed with, the one that meant "forever," used to be there.

Somewhere in the ruins, that ring was already buried in the mud.

Just like Hayden's love for me. It looked brilliant, but couldn't survive a single storm. In the end, it could only rot in the mire, never seeing the light again.

"Hayden,"

I whispered to the empty hospital room.

"This time, you destroyed everything yourself."