Chapter 3

The veins on Mark’s forehead bulged.

He looked ready to kill the boy right then and there.

Gritting his teeth, he forced a smile that looked uglier than weeping.

"He's just a child... He picked up bad habits at the orphanage."

I dropped my smile immediately, my tone turning dead serious.

"Mark, this won't do."

"Since he has zero blood relation to us, he's just an ordinary adoptee."

"Harboring an ungrateful, lying brat like this in our home is asking for ruin."

I locked eyes with Mark, speaking every word with chilling clarity.

"The monarchy is dead, and we’re not raising an entitled little prince in this house."

"Send him away."

Mark froze.

Send him away?

This was the boy he had doted on for ten years!

Yet... was he actually his son at all?!

A brutal war was raging in Mark's head.

He was attached, but his pride could not swallow the humiliation of raising another man’s bastard.

Leo threw himself onto the floor, kicking and screaming.

"I’m not leaving!"

"This is my house!"

"You old hag, who are you to kick me out!"

He pointed right at my nose, screeching insults.

I instantly turned to Mark with a wounded, tearful gaze.

"Mark, listen to how he talks to me."

"I only agreed to take him in for your sake, and this is how he treats me?"

Looking at Leo thrashing on the carpet, Mark’s mind was flooded with vivid images of his mistress laughing at him behind his back.

His sanity finally snapped.

He stormed over, grabbed Leo by the collar, and slapped him across the face with all his might.

Leo’s cheek swelled instantly.

The boy went completely mute from shock, forgetting how to cry.

"You little bastard, how dare you insult my wife!"

Mark roared, spit flying, his eyes rimmed with madness.

"I gave you food, I gave you shelter, and you think you can run your mouth here?!"

When the word "bastard" tore from Mark’s throat, his voice sounded like it was dripping blood.

He was cursing Leo, and he was cursing the woman who had made a fool out of him.

Fighting back the smirk tugging at my lips, I fueled the fire.

"Honey, don't be so angry. It’s not worth ruining your health over an outsider."

"I heard there’s a strict, locked-down military reform school on the outskirts. They specialize in troubled kids like this."

"Tuition is a hundred thousand a year. Strict discipline, zero home visits for a full year."

"Let’s send him there. At least we’ll have fulfilled our civic duty."

Mark wanted nothing more than to erase this living proof of his humiliation.

He nodded violently like a bobblehead.

"Send him!"

"First thing tomorrow morning!"

"I'm packing his bags right now. Get out of the main house—he's sleeping in the basement tonight!"

Mark hoisted Leo up by the scruff of his neck like a dead chicken.

Leo finally snapped out of his daze and started shrieking at the top of his lungs.

"I don't want to go to the basement!"

"I want my mom!"

"You bad dad, if you hit me, I'll tell my mom to cuss you out!"

Hearing "my mom" shattered Mark’s last thread of restraint.

He kicked Leo square in the backside.

"Your mother is a lying whore!"

"And you’re a worthless little leech!"

"Get down there!"

Mark personally dragged Leo down into the cold, damp basement.

The heavy door slammed shut and locked, cutting off Leo’s muffled screams.

Panting heavily, Mark staggered back into the living room and collapsed onto the couch.

Burying his face in his hands, he looked as if he had aged ten years in ten minutes.

I walked up behind him and gently massaged his tense shoulders.

"Mark, don't tear yourself apart over a stranger with no blood tie to you."

"As long as you love me, even if we never have children, I’ll stay by your side forever."

Mark grabbed my hand tightly, tears streaming down his face.

In his twisted mind, I was the only person left in the entire world who truly loved him.

"Honey... you’re the best thing in my life."

"From now on, it's just the two of us. We're never bringing up adoption again."

I looked down at the thinning hair on the crown of his head.

A freezing, vicious smirk curved my lips.

Just the two of us?

Keep dreaming.

The real show has only just begun.

This was merely step one of my revenge.

I will make you destroy everything you cherish with your own hands, until you are left bleeding and completely bankrupt.