In the eighth month of my pregnancy, I caught Lucas Reed cheating for the ninety-ninth time. He tossed shredded lingerie in my face, his smile a mix of mockery and disdain. “You’re as appetizing as a dead fish in bed. How dare you accuse me of cheating?” After a long silence, I calmly proposed divorce again. Everyone around us groaned in exasperation, while Lucas raised an eyebrow and pulled out his phone. “See? I told you she’d only suggest divorce. Pay up, ten grand each.” “Aria, if you’re going to be a doormat, at least try a new tactic. Have some self-respect.” “Haha! She’ll be begging to come back within two days, the ultimate pushover!” Lucas smirked, silently agreeing with his friends’ remarks. But they didn’t know I had already bought a one-way ticket to Germany. Since Lucas had given all his affection to his mistress, And harbored such deep hatred for me, his lawful wife, I would set him free. This time, divorce. I meant it. The air reeked of sex, making my stomach churn. I turned to leave, but Lucas suddenly called out to me. He threw a thong in my face. “Wash it before you go. You’ve been doing this for five years, should be second nature by now.” I dug my nails into my palms until blood dripped onto the floor. Only then did I slowly bend down, cradling my belly, to pick up the underwear. In six years, he had brought Ruby home to fool around ninety-nine times. And I had washed ninety-nine pairs of various underwear. I still remember the time I refused because of a fever. He forced me to kneel in the snow for a day. I was unconscious for three days and nights. The doctors issued countless critical condition notices. I had endured for six years; one more time wouldn’t matter. Bearing the mocking gazes of everyone around, I numbly scrubbed the underwear. Unexpectedly, Lucas’s hoarse voice broke the silence. “If you get on your knees and beg me now, I’ll pretend none of this ever happened.” As soon as he finished speaking, Ruby suddenly collapsed, clutching her chest and gasping for air. Ethan’s face changed instantly. He held Ruby anxiously, fumbling like a lovesick teenager. “Where’s her inhaler? The inhaler!” Lucas’s panicked expression made me momentarily dazed. Last night, when I had slipped and fallen hard, Lucas was about to leave to pick up Ruby. Even though I was lying in a pool of blood, clutching his pant leg and begging him to take me to the hospital, he stepped over me without a change in expression. Before I lost consciousness, I heard him speaking tenderly on the phone. “Just buying vanilla flavor isn’t enough. We’ll try all the flavors tonight.” I lowered my gaze, hiding the self-mockery in my eyes. While his heart and eyes were full of Ruby, I dropped the underwear and stood up to leave. But before I could reach the door, a strong hand yanked me back. “Aria, you know Ruby is allergic to perfume, yet you sprayed it on her clothes. How could you be so vicious! Take off your clothes!” My ankle slammed against the coffee table, and I turned pale from the pain. But it was nowhere near as painful as Lucas’s words. It felt as if all the blood in my body had frozen, even my vocal cords were trembling. “You… want me to take off my clothes?” “You’ve always been so cheap, why act like you have dignity now?” Lucas stood with his hands in his pockets, his eyes full of disgust and hatred. After marrying Lucas, when I begged him to have a good life together, he called me cheap. When I swallowed my pride and tried to please him in bed, I was cheap. When I brought him stomach medicine in the pouring rain, interrupting his “good time,” I was even cheaper. For six years, I couldn’t bear to hear it anymore. I dug my nails deep into my flesh, forcing words through gritted teeth. “Fine, I’ll strip.” With that, I began removing my clothes with shaking hands. My outer garment fell to the floor. Despite it being summer, goosebumps immediately rose on my exposed arms and shoulders. I reached behind to unzip my dress, the thin collar slipping down. Half of my shoulder and the curve of my chest were exposed. Immediately, lewd whistles and laughter erupted around me. I couldn’t help but tear up, but my hands didn’t stop. I gritted my teeth and continued undressing. Lucas’s gaze grew increasingly heated, his chest heaving more and more. Just as the dress was about to fall completely, he whirled around and threw his jacket over me, his face ashen, nearly grinding his back teeth to dust. “Aria Shaw, you’re truly disgusting!” I clutched the dress tightly, looking at him impassively. “Can I leave now?” “Get out! If you have the guts, go die out there!” “Lucas, I feel so awful…” Ruby moaned, and he immediately rushed to her side. I didn’t hesitate to walk towards the door, getting into the car that was already waiting outside. Even as I rushed to the airport and heard the boarding announcement, I felt dazed. I lifted my foot to walk forward, my steps getting faster and faster. Suddenly, two bodyguards appeared in front of me, blocking my way.
In the hospital, I was tightly strapped to a bed, my face streaked with tears. “Let me go!” “Lucas Reed, the baby is only eight months along. If you force me to have a C-section now, I will never forgive you!” “Lucas, let me go!” I struggled frantically against the restraints, my hair wild like a madwoman, my body shaking uncontrollably. Through a half-open door, I could hear every word of Lucas’s conversation with the doctor. “Mr. Reed, inducing labor two months early will not only cause irreversible damage to the mother, but the fetus’s immune system isn’t ready either. Ms. Sanders’ condition can wait for other options…” Lucas coldly interrupted the doctor. “Ruby can’t wait that long.” “Prepare for surgery.” As the anesthetic was injected into my arm, my body grew heavier and heavier. I was truly terrified now, my voice breaking into sobs. “Lucas, I’m begging you, don’t do this to me.” “He’s your child too…” Lucas stared at me, his gaze hard to read. He walked to my bedside, his tone softening slightly for the first time. “Ruby needs the cord blood to save her life. Besides, if you hadn’t deliberately triggered her attack, she wouldn’t be suffering like this. Bear with it, it’ll be over soon.” “Mr. Reed, Ms. Sanders has fainted.” Lucas’s face changed instantly. He strode out, leaving behind only one sentence: “Do the C-section now!” Tears fell uncontrollably as all the pent-up hatred and grievances poured out. I screamed in despair. “Lucas Reed! You monster! I hate you! I hate you!” Lucas’s figure paused for a moment, but his steps didn’t stop. My shattered heart froze completely in that moment. Cold instruments kept probing inside me. I could clearly feel something being slowly separated from my body, until I felt empty and cold. After a long while, I heard faint, panicked voices. “Doctor, the baby has no heartbeat. It’s a stillbirth…” My eyelashes fluttered slightly, and finally, only endless despair and desolation remained in my eyes. A single tear silently slid down. I seemed to have a dream, where I was back in that small alley. A frail me dragging a bloodied Lucas, hiding from those thugs. The Cinderella and Prince Charming story had descended upon Lucas and me. When we were most in love, he even knelt in front of the Reed family ancestral shrine, swearing in front of everyone that he would marry no one but me in this life. But the scene changed, and I saw the corpses of his parents and mine. Blood spread out on the ground like a long river. I helplessly listened as the traffic police ruled that my parents’ drunk driving had caused this accident. Lucas seemed to become a completely different person after that. Even though I apologized over and over, begging for his forgiveness. But four lives became an insurmountable chasm between us. On the day of his parents’ funeral, Lucas brought people to smash up the memorial hall. I collapsed on the ground in despair: “My parents also died in this accident. Isn’t that enough?” He grabbed my neck, his hands covered in wounds, his eyes bloodshot and desperate. “They deserved to die! But what about my parents! Can their deaths bring my parents back?!” But after the funeral, he still used every means to marry me. Only it was no longer out of love, but hatred. There was no wedding and no marriage certificate. I lived in the Reed house like a rat in the gutter. Until I saw Ruby again, all my strength crumbled at that moment. She looked… exactly like myself at twenty-two. A substitute carefully selected by Lucas. Later, he gave all his love to this substitute and vented all his torture on me, the original. For six years, my heart’s blood was consumed in these six years of love and hate, just as he wished.
When I woke up again, it was three days later. Lucas sat by the bed, his face expressionless as he brought over a bowl of porridge, making to feed me. I discreetly avoided him, my voice hoarse. “When will you give me the divorce papers?” He barely lifted his eyelids, his voice low. “Open your mouth.” “I’m willing to leave with nothing. The divorce papers, you…” “Ugh—” The moment he forcefully shoved the porridge down my throat, I instinctively bent over, violently retching. A lot of it splashed onto his legs. He seemed oblivious, his face ashen as he smashed the bowl on the ground, forcefully gripping my neck, his tone icy cold. “Aria Shaw, don’t play the divorce card with me. You’re destined to be trapped in the Reed family for life, struggling and atoning forever!” “If you have the guts, just die! Otherwise, you’ll never get rid of me.” He paused, his gaze falling on my flat abdomen, his eyes devoid of any warmth. “You should be grateful that this bastard was stillborn. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have let it live either. Carrying the Shaw family’s bloodline only disgusts me!” I was choking, struggling to breathe, but I masochistically dug my nails into my palms, looking at him, slowly breaking into laughter. The laughter grew louder and louder, yet tears streamed down my face. So, so my six years had been this pathetic and laughable. I closed my eyes in despair, my voice trembling: “Lucas Reed, just strangle me to death.” Lucas stared at me intently, his eyes bloodshot, his grip tightening. Until a jarring phone ringtone suddenly broke the silence of the room. His whole body shuddered. He glanced at the caller ID and roughly pushed me away, leaving without looking back. I sprawled on the bed pathetically, clutching my neck and coughing violently like a drowning person, tears smearing my entire face. The next moment, Ruby sent a picture. It was a pregnancy test. It clearly showed: 4 weeks gestation, threatened miscarriage. Another message quickly followed. “On your sixth anniversary, we tried all sorts of new positions under the starry sky where you two first fell in love. This child was conceived that night.” “Aria Shaw, if you know what’s good for you, you’ll leave the Reed family on your own.” My hand holding the phone turned white at the knuckles. On our sixth anniversary, Lucas had disappeared until dawn before coming home. He smelled of Ruby’s perfume. I was already asleep and was roughly awakened by him. He ignored my pleas and cries, seeming to have lost all reason as he ravaged me all night. Until I started bleeding and was rushed to the hospital to save the pregnancy. And that day, Lucas had actually come to me straight from her bed. My stomach churned violently. I could no longer control myself. Ignoring my torn wounds, I rushed to the bathroom and vomited until I saw stars. I collapsed on the floor, hugging myself, breaking down in heart-wrenching sobs. Later, I lay alone in the hospital for half a month. I never saw Lucas again until the day I was discharged. Three hours before my flight to Germany, I still went back to the old mansion for my parents’ ashes. As I was driving away, suddenly, out of nowhere, Ruby rushed in front of my car. My pupils constricted as I slammed on the brakes. The tires let out a sharp screech, barely stopping an inch from her knees. Yet Ruby collapsed to the ground, covered in blood. “Ruby!” Lucas, who was behind me, saw this and his face changed. He quickly ran over to embrace the bloodied Ruby. Ruby clutched his hand tightly, blood continuously spurting from her mouth. “Lucas, don’t blame Mrs. Shaw. She definitely didn’t mean to.” I stumbled out of the car, instinctively looking towards Lucas, urgently saying: “It wasn’t me, she ran in front of…” But before I could finish, Lucas suddenly looked up, his eyes bloodshot as he stared at me, his neck flushed red with bulging veins. The bone-deep hatred in his eyes rendered me speechless. “Aria, wasn’t killing my parents enough? Do you have to harm everyone around me?! What the hell did I do to deserve this from you?! Do you have to destroy my entire family?!” By the end, his eyes were crimson, glaring at me viciously. “Aria Shaw, you really deserve to die!” A chill inexplicably rose in my heart. The next second, he carried Ruby to the car, then sat in the driver’s seat himself. As the engine roared to life, Lucas’s eyes grew increasingly red. The next moment, he floored the accelerator, driving straight towards me.
With a sharp screech of brakes, my entire body was thrown into the air. The moment my body hit the ground, I seemed to hear my bones shattering. The pain blinded me. Every bone ached excruciatingly. “If anything happens to Ruby, you’re dead!” “Lock her in the room, don’t let anyone release her!” Throwing down these words, Lucas sped past me with the moaning Ruby. I didn’t even have the strength to struggle, helplessly allowing the bodyguards to lock me in the room. The pain made me break out in a cold sweat. I don’t know how long I lay on the ground. The will to survive told me I had to save myself. I gritted my teeth and slowly crawled up from the ground, staggering to find the first aid kit. I cleaned my wounds myself and took several painkillers. Just then, a knock sounded at the door. “Mrs. Reed, Mr. Reed instructed us to take you to the hospital to apologize to Ms. Sanders.” “Mrs. Reed?” “Mrs. Reed!” When they received no response from me, the bodyguards began forcefully twisting the doorknob. But I had already locked the door from the inside. Expressionlessly, I took out a lighter and began setting fire to this bedroom I had once lovingly decorated. The flames devoured the past, as if burning away a ridiculous dream. As the raging fire engulfed me, I closed my eyes and allowed the flames to consume me. Billowing black smoke seeped out from under the door. The door was suddenly pounded with thunderous force, but showed no signs of giving way. Amidst the chaotic footsteps and screams, I tightly hugged my parents’ ashes and jumped out the window, limping away from the villa. Until that mansion was far behind me, the explosive “BOOM” still pierced the quiet night sky. The shackles that had confined me for six years finally fell away at this moment. Just as Lucas and I’s lives would never intersect again. Check-in, ticketing, baggage drop, security… Before boarding, I took out my SIM card, snapped it in half, and casually tossed it in the trash. Then I headed towards a brand new future without looking back.
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