After My Husband Sent Me to a Psychiatric Hospital, I Decided to Fake My Death Every time my fiancé found a mistress, I would order a male escort at a nightclub. Until I caught him and my best friend in bed, and in a frenzy, I slept with his best friend, Ethan Hayes. But after my fiancé found out, he only raised an eyebrow at Ethan Hayes in public at a business reception and said, “Have fun? How was my fiancée’s… service?” Ethan Hayes had his arm around his new date and laughed without the slightest restraint. “Not bad, just a little uptight, nowhere near as good as that influencer last time.” I completely broke down and slashed my wrist with a dinner knife in front of all the guests. After I was saved, Adrian Blackwood sent me to a sanatorium on an isolated island. After a year of electroshock therapy there, my fiancé finally came to pick me up. But he did not know that I had already forgotten how to love him. A staff member swiped open the heavy metal door. “Miss Bennett, your evaluation has been approved, and Mr. Blackwood has arrived.” I sat on the hard plank bed, looked at the helicopter parked on the lawn outside the window, and nodded. As I walked through the long, pure white corridor, I could hear the idle chatter coming from the control room behind me. “She really knew how to make trouble. With someone like Mr. Blackwood, couldn’t she just turn a blind eye?” “Exactly. He’s handsome and rich, so what’s wrong with him having a little fun once in a while? Why put herself through all this?” A year ago, those voices were nails being driven into my eardrums. Now, they were only voices. Beside the helicopter, Adrian Blackwood wore a crisp cashmere coat and stood in the early winter wind. I walked up to him. He reached out, seeming to want to tuck my windblown hair behind my ear. I moved one step ahead of him and gathered my hair myself. His hand hovered in the air for a moment before slipping back into his coat pocket. He pulled open the cabin door. “Get in.” The cabin was filled with the unfamiliar scent of expensive perfume, and on the leather seat lay a wrinkled piece of expensive women’s lingerie. Adrian Blackwood’s expression changed, and he quickly grabbed the lingerie and stuffed it into his coat pocket. “My assistant is always careless. Don’t mind it.” I smiled faintly without saying anything, because that style of lingerie was Sophia Lane’s favorite. But it was fine, because I had stopped minding long ago. I fastened my seat belt, looked out the window at the outline of the isolated island rapidly shrinking below, and smiled. “Okay.” During the flight, Adrian Blackwood looked at me several times, his fingertips tapping unconsciously on his knee. “On the island… did you adapt to the treatment?” “Mm.” I looked at the clouds. He continued, “I had the servants clean your things every day, so nothing gathered dust.” “Thank you.” He was silent for a while, then took a dark blue velvet square box from his pocket and opened it, revealing an unprecedentedly gorgeous diamond ring with a shockingly large center stone. “The wedding will be held as scheduled next month. I’ve already reserved the seaside church you like.” I did not look at the ring. “Cancel the wedding, Adrian.” He frowned, closed the box, and stuffed it into my hand. “Enough, stop throwing a tantrum. I slept with your best friend, and you slept with my best friend, so we’re even.” “The position of Mrs. Blackwood will always be yours. Be good.” I held the cold velvet box without opening it. I was not throwing a tantrum. I was just going somewhere else. A distant, quiet seaside town, with a lighthouse and waves, without him, and without pain. The helicopter landed on the helipad on the top floor of the villa. Everything was the same as always, yet everything was different. I did not walk into the room that belonged to me and him, but dragged my suitcase toward the guest room. Adrian Blackwood grabbed the handle of my suitcase. “What do you mean by this?” “The room on the island was small, and I got used to it.” I stopped without turning around. “The master bedroom is too empty, so I can’t sleep there.” I remembered the surveillance video where he held Sophia Lane’s waist on our custom water bed, while around her neck she wore the pearl necklace my mother had left me. The pain in my heart at that moment was enough to make me die once. Adrian Blackwood stared at me for a few seconds, then suddenly let out a scoff and released his hand. “Suit yourself. Don’t go too far. My patience is limited.” He turned and left, his back resolute. I looked at him, and the place where my heart was felt as calm as a pool of dead water. It seemed the sanatorium’s treatment really was effective, because I had already forgotten the feeling of my heart beating for him and my emotions rising and falling with him. Late at night, I had grown used to the sanatorium’s hard plank bed, and now I was no longer used to sleeping on a soft bed. During the more than three hundred days on the island, Adrian Blackwood had not called once and had not answered a single letter. When fear soaked into my bones like ice water, I cried and begged the doctors, hitting my head against the wall, only asking them to let me call him. Once, ten times, a hundred times… There was only ever a busy tone in the receiver. Later, I stopped calling. When I got better, I no longer wanted to call either.
Feeling thirsty, I got up and went downstairs to pour some water. But I saw Adrian Blackwood on the rooftop terrace, making a phone call. His voice was not loud, but I could hear him clearly. “Do you like the ring? Mm, of course it looks good on you. It’s a gift for you, so you don’t need to thank me.” After a short pause, his tone became even gentler. “Are you settling into the new apartment? If you need anything, tell me directly.” His tone was indulgent, and that tone had once belonged only to me, but now it no longer did. I held my glass of water and stood quietly downstairs, listening for a while. I found it meaningless. I had just turned around when I heard him say, “Claire? When did you come down?” He had already hung up the phone. “Just now…” He wanted to explain, but I interrupted him. “I was thirsty, so I came down for some water. Keep going, don’t mind me.” He walked toward me and reached out as if to grab me. But I had already turned around and gone upstairs one step before him. At the corner of the staircase, I saw from the corner of my eye that his gaze had been following me the whole time. The next day, when I went downstairs for breakfast, Adrian Blackwood saw me and instinctively wanted to come over and give me a good-morning kiss. That was his habit. But this time, I took a step back and avoided his lips. His smile froze on his face, but he did not say anything. Adrian Blackwood stood up, picked up his coat, and walked outside. “I need to go out for a while.” “Okay,” I replied. He reached the door, stopped, and looked at me. “You don’t want to ask anything?” I froze for a moment. Indeed, if it were the old me, I would definitely have dug to the bottom of it. I would have asked what he was going out to do, how long he would be gone, and with whom. I did not know when I had started becoming so insecure and so afraid that he would leave me. Fortunately, I would not do that now. I spoke in a calm tone. “No.” Adrian Blackwood stood in place for a few seconds, but in the end, he said nothing. After he left, I got up and went to the room to pack my luggage. There was actually not much to take. I did not want to bring the clothes I had worn during my hospitalization, because seeing those clothes would remind me of those painful memories. I put the “Recovery Diary” I had written in the sanatorium into my suitcase, then took it out again and threw it into the trash. Every page of that diary was printed with a template, and at first I filled the “triggering event” column with “Adrian Blackwood,” then it became “none,” and the last few pages were completely blank. Adrian Blackwood came back soon, and he brought his three friends with him. They discussed company matters in the billiards room. The door was not fully closed, and I could hear their conversation from the living room. “Adrian, how are things with her?” It was Ethan Hayes. Adrian Blackwood’s voice was very calm. “Not bad.” Ethan Hayes said again, “But seriously, hasn’t that little lover of yours, Sophia Lane, been a bit too flashy lately? That ring on her hand, did you really give it to her? The style is exactly the same as the one Claire picked back then. You really have guts.”
Adrian Blackwood’s voice rang out. “As long as she likes it.” Ethan Hayes said, “Aren’t you afraid the one at home will find out? You finally got her out of the sanatorium, so don’t provoke her into going back in again.” Adrian Blackwood answered, “If she knows, she knows. She’ll make a scene for a while, then behave. It’s the same routine every time, and she never gets tired of it.” Casual and matter-of-fact. The billiards room fell silent all at once. I sat on the sofa, flipping through a book, my heart calm. Ethan Hayes came out of the billiards room, walked to the sofa, sized me up, and curled his lips into a smile. “Miss Bennett, you look much better.” I did not respond. He walked over and sat beside me. “Honestly, I still remember that night last year. You look much thinner now, so I wonder if you still feel the way you did back then.” Adrian Blackwood came out last, looked at me, and said, “There’s a party tonight. Get ready. You’ll attend with me. You’re my fiancée, understand?” “What time does it end?” I asked him. He looked a little confused, as if he did not know why I was asking that question, but he still answered, “Eleven.” My flight was at one in the morning. So I nodded, which counted as agreeing. Ethan Hayes laughed. At the party, Adrian Blackwood brought me around to socialize and introduced me to others. In truth, he did not need to introduce me, because that farce back then had caused such a huge stir that everyone remembered I had once been a madwoman who slept with her fiancé’s friend and was personally sent away by her fiancé. Those people piled smiles on their faces for Adrian Blackwood, but when they looked at me, there was something else in their eyes, as if they pitied me. I smiled politely and did not care. “Adrian.” Sophia Lane’s sickly sweet voice came over. She naturally walked to Adrian Blackwood’s side, hooked her right hand around his arm, and the diamond ring on her ring finger was glaring under the lights. “Thank you.” Adrian Blackwood’s expression was normal, and he even smiled gently at her. “As long as you like it.” It was as if I did not exist at all. I felt a little nauseated, so I withdrew the hand that had been holding Adrian Blackwood’s arm. “I’m going to the restroom.” Adrian Blackwood lowered his voice by my ear. “If you really want to make a scene, wait until we get home. Don’t make trouble on this kind of occasion, understand? Come back quickly.” I hummed in agreement and looked at my pale face in the mirror, overlapping with the shadow of myself in a hospital gown at the sanatorium in my memory. I slowly pulled out a perfect smile at the mirror, then turned and left. When I came out of the restroom, I saw Ethan Hayes smoking in a corner. When he saw me, he started talking and blew out a smoke ring. “Look at you. Are you forcing yourself to hold it together? Jealous again, aren’t you? Sophia really is something. She had to wear that ring out to show off. If she provokes you into going crazy again later, she’ll be happy.”
I walked straight past him. I returned to Adrian Blackwood’s side. Adrian Blackwood looked down at me, satisfaction in his eyes. His body smelled of Sophia Lane’s perfume, and I did not know what they had done during the time I was away just now. But none of it mattered anymore. I glanced at my phone, and there was still half an hour until ten. Adrian Blackwood lowered his head and said by my ear, “The wedding will be held next month. I’ve looked at a few venues, and when we get home tonight, I’ll have my assistant send you the information so you can choose.” I looked at him. “I already said it. Forget about the wedding.” There was a hint of warning in his voice. “There should be a limit to your temper tantrums. I said the position of Mrs. Blackwood will always be yours. What else do you want from me? Do you want me to get down on my knees and beg you?” He was a little impatient and took my indifference as me making trouble. “I don’t want you to do anything,” I said. “I just won’t marry you anymore.” “Enough.” He said coldly, “Do I have to send you away again before you’ll come to your senses? Don’t be so ungrateful.” I took a deep breath. “You still think I’m throwing a tantrum, don’t you?” “What else?” He sneered. “Isn’t it just because of Sophia? How many times have you sulked at me over this already?” I wanted to say that I really did not care anymore. But before I could say it, Sophia Lane walked over again. She “accidentally” spilled wine on the front of her dress, let out a delicate cry, and fell smoothly into Adrian Blackwood’s arms as he walked over. “Adrian, I think I drank too much.” She leaned softly against Adrian Blackwood, and the hand wearing the ring wrapped tightly around Adrian Blackwood’s neck. Adrian Blackwood frowned, but he did not push her away, and instead wiped her with a handkerchief. She lifted her eyelids and glanced at me, clearly not drunk and clearly provoking me. Ethan Hayes looked toward me, as if waiting to watch a good show. Adrian Blackwood held Sophia Lane by the waist, his brows furrowed, but he did not push her away and instead glanced at me. If it were the old me, I would already have gone crazy and rushed forward to hit someone. But the current me only said calmly, “Since Miss Lane isn’t feeling well, you should take her home.” Adrian Blackwood’s expression seemed a little ugly. He opened his mouth as if to say something, but Sophia Lane interrupted him. “Adrian, take me home, okay? My head is so dizzy. I only want you to take me, just like before, okay?” Adrian Blackwood hesitated for a while, then said to me, “Go home first and wait for me. I’ll come find you right after I take her home. Don’t make trouble, be good, and wait for me to come back.” I smiled and nodded. “Okay.” Adrian Blackwood picked Sophia Lane up in his arms and left under everyone’s gaze. Ethan Hayes clapped as he walked over and sized me up from head to toe. “Damn, Miss Bennett, which sanatorium did you go to that worked so well?” “Did you really change, or are you holding back something big?” I ignored him, turned around, and walked straight outside. Ethan Hayes’s voice came from behind me. “Are you really going home obediently? Not waiting for Adrian to come back and coax you?” I did not pause, and I did not turn back. I called a car, went home first to get my luggage, and then went to the airport. I boarded the plane and switched my phone to airplane mode. I slept, and it felt like I slept for a long time. After waking up, I got off the plane. I turned off airplane mode. Almost instantly, my phone vibrated violently.
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