I loved Asher for a decade. But he was the one who destroyed my life. I was three weeks pregnant when Asher dragged me onto the operating table. He was my husband, yet here he was, disregarding my life and our baby’s, demanding I undergo a bone marrow transplant to save Willow. “Mr. Asher, Ms. Scarlett is pregnant. Do you still wish to proceed with the surgery?” I heard the lead surgeon ask repeatedly before the procedure. The impeccably dressed, strikingly handsome man leaned over me, his gaze devoid of any tenderness. Through my tear-filled eyes, I saw his thin lips part, each word a dagger twisting in my heart. “Proceed with the surgery!” In that moment, I heard my heart shatter into a million pieces. “Hahaha, hahaha…” In the operating room, where the silence was deafening, my laughter was both desperate and desolate. Someone yanked me from the hospital bed. “If you’re not dead, get up!” “Mr. Asher, if you have something to say, just say it.” He scoffed, the disgust in his eyes overflowing. “Don’t put on an act in front of me. It’s sickening.” With that, he pulled out a handkerchief and wiped his hands. “You’d better behave until Willow wakes up.” I clawed at the bedsheets with all my strength. “Get lost!” He loomed over me, grabbing my throat, pinning me against the wall. “Scarlett, I advise you to face reality. Before, you were the precious jewel I held in my palm, but now…” “You’re nothing but trash.” Then, without a shred of pity, he yanked my arm and dragged me out of the hospital room. All the way, I felt like a puppet, my strings manipulated by an unseen hand, powerless against him. He forcibly dragged me to a tombstone. “Kneel!” he commanded coldly. The biting autumn wind tangled my long hair around my face. I guessed that in that moment, I must have looked breathtakingly beautiful. Because he stared at me for several long seconds. Ever since he became convinced that I had harmed Grandpa, he hadn’t truly looked at me. But he quickly regained his composure, pressing me forcefully to the ground. I saw a name carved on the tombstone: Alexander Asher. This was the name we had found together, leafing through dictionaries, for our future son. My heart ached, and I was about to speak when I heard his voice above me, “This is my child with Willow, Scarlett. If you hadn’t been so vicious and caused her miscarriage, I would be a father by now.” “What did you say? Your child with Willow?” I stared at him in disbelief, an agonizing pain ripping through my chest. “Scarlett, don’t push your luck,” he clenched his fists, as if trying to restrain himself. “You owe him an apology!” I owe no one! The late autumn wind raged, chilling me to the bone, and hurting me to the core. Prostrate on the cold concrete ground, it took me a long time to find the strength to speak. “Asher, listen to me. This Scarlett only kneels before heaven, earth, and her parents. No one else is worthy!” He looked down at me, all the past tenderness replaced by bitter hatred. “Scarlett, don’t make me say uglier things.” The silence around us was suffocating. After a long moment, his voice, cold as frost, spoke again. “Grandpa’s life was saved by Willow. Because of that, she can never stand on a stage again. For that alone, my devotion to her is absolute, until death.” I closed my eyes in anguish. The tears I had held back for so long cascaded down my face the moment I bowed my head. I didn’t cry when my hair was burnt off in the fire, nor when I was pregnant and forced into a cold operating room to have my bone marrow extracted, which led to a miscarriage. But in this moment, tears streamed down my face like a relentless storm. There truly is a pain that cannot be put into words.
A gnawing stomach ache woke me up. Opening my eyes, I saw a blood bag hanging above me, and the small nurse’s guilty explanation. “I’m sorry, Ms. Scarlett, Ms. Willow urgently needs a blood transfusion. There’s no matching blood type in the blood bank, so Mr. Asher ordered…” Ordered them to draw my blood! Heh. I frowned, glancing at the needle in my arm, then nonchalantly closed my eyes. Out of sight, out of mind! Let them do whatever they wanted. I swallowed a few stomach pills with cold water and drifted back to sleep. When I woke again, I didn’t know how much time had passed, only that the sky was a dull gray, even gloomier than my mood. I struggled to get up, wanting to go to the bathroom, but despite all my effort, I couldn’t straighten myself. Finally, Martha, the cleaning lady, saw me and helped me. “Dear, you’re so weak. Why don’t you call your family to come and take care of you?” Family? The only person I could call family, my husband, had abandoned me. Where did I have family now? The thought brought a fresh wave of sadness. I had originally planned to tell him the happy news of my pregnancy when he returned from overseas, so our family could be happy and together forever. But instead, what awaited me was such devastating news. *Scarlett, let’s get a divorce!* “Why?” I couldn’t accept it. “If there’s no love, we separate. You were the one who said it.” He slowly exhaled a puff of smoke, his tone indifferent. My eyes welled up, but I forced a smile, maintaining my last shred of dignity. “Yes, I said it.” “I’ll have someone send over the divorce papers. Remember to sign them.” Then, he stood up and left. I stared at his retreating back, my heart utterly broken. In that moment, I despairingly believed that he truly didn’t love me anymore, which was why he was so cruel. Later, I realized things were far more complicated than I had imagined. And the mastermind behind all of it was lying in a hospital bed, playing the pitiful role of a damsel in distress saved by a hero. Who would believe me if I said she framed me? Even Grandpa, the only one who could prove my innocence, had become a vegetable, unable to speak a single word. Everything was so coincidental, it was terrifying to think about. Only Asher, however, believed it without a doubt. He was convinced that I was the culprit who caused Grandpa to become a vegetable! He hated me to the core! But fortunately, he hadn’t completely lost his humanity. These past few days, he would send a nurse to bring me food every day. Sometimes it was chicken soup, sometimes my favorite lotus seed porridge, or something else. My heart swelled with a foolish hope, thinking he had uncovered the truth and changed his mind. But then I overheard him, telling the nurse, “Make sure you keep a close eye on her. Until Willow is out of danger, I need to ensure she’s alive.” So that was it! My existence, to him, was nothing more than a tool. I lay in the hospital for twenty days straight. My body didn’t improve at all; instead, I grew weaker. It turned out Willow was experiencing severe rejection after the bone marrow transplant, so I was forced to become her personal blood bank. In Asher’s words: fresh blood would be more beneficial for his precious Willow’s recovery. Grandpa was a vegetable, and Willow was in the ICU. Asher’s temper was as volatile as it could get. Before, when I rescued Grandpa from the fire, my hair had accidentally been burned off, damaging the follicles. Later, I finally found a specialist who patiently treated me until my hair grew back. All because Asher said he liked me with long, flowing hair. But now, my hair was falling out in handfuls, looking like dull, withered grass. I was terribly thin, a shadow of my former self. Finally, after one transfusion after another, the doctor couldn’t help but warn him, “Mr. Asher, if this continues, Ms. Scarlett’s life will be in danger. Don’t you think…?” But all I heard was Asher’s cold reply, “Her life doesn’t matter!” All he cared about was Willow. Tears silently slipped from the corners of my eyes. In the quiet hospital room, I buried my head in the blankets and sobbed silently. When you are favored, you always act without fear. I would fuss, and he would laugh. But once the love died, he could turn away instantly, while I was trapped in memories, unable to move forward. …A month later, Willow’s condition finally stabilized, and I got a temporary reprieve. That afternoon, several severely injured car accident victims arrived at the hospital. The entire staff was swamped. I took advantage of the chaos, secretly changed into a cleaning lady’s uniform, and slipped out. I stood on the street in late autumn, gazing up at the brilliant blue sky. In my hazy memory, everything seemed unchanged, yet everything had changed. I couldn’t stop the surge of grief. Under the dim streetlights, I crouched in a deserted alley, weeping uncontrollably. It was that day I saw an old classmate I hadn’t seen in ages – Caleb Sterling. “You’re awake?” A deep, magnetic baritone. I stared blankly at him, unable to speak for a long moment. “What, don’t you recognize me?” He held a cup with a straw to my lips. After I took a few sips, he lowered the cup, smiling, and extended his hand. “Scarlett, long time no see!” “Long time no see!” I tried to make my voice sound normal. Five years ago, I chose Asher over Caleb. The day after Caleb heard the news, he processed his paperwork to go abroad and never returned. I thought we would never see each other again. I never expected that five years later, we would meet again in this way. Suddenly, past memories flooded my mind, churning my insides with a sickening feeling. After much thought, I simply managed a small smile. “Caleb, welcome back.” Caleb smiled too. “I’m waiting for you to throw me a welcome party!” “In my current state…” “It’s okay, I’ll wait for you!” He wore gold-rimmed glasses, and when he smiled, his perfectly white teeth added to his scholarly charm. He slowly merged with the image of the young man in my memory. *Scarlett, I like you!* *Three years or five years, I’ll wait for you.* That afternoon, with dappled tree shadows, the wind blew my hair, brushing his face. The young man in white, looking at me, had eyes full of starlight. I smiled brightly at him, yet spoke the cruelest words, “I’m sorry, Caleb, the person I like is Asher.”
I still couldn’t escape. Because, no sooner had Caleb left, than two men in black suits and sunglasses dragged me into a car. “Meeting someone right under my nose, Scarlett, you’ve really grown audacious!” In the extended limousine, Asher squeezed my chin with one hand, making tears well up in my eyes from the pain. “For the sake of the love we once shared, let me go!” I almost pleaded. “Love we once shared?” He sounded as if he’d heard the funniest joke in the world. “Scarlett, after all these years, you’re still so delusional!” “What do you mean?” I knew he wanted to tear me apart limb by limb, to make me suffer a slow, agonizing death. But I didn’t blame him. “I never loved you!” His thin lips parted, slowly spitting out the words. It felt like a lightning bolt had struck me, leaving me utterly shaken and about to collapse. “So, the one you’ve always loved is Willow?” Despite the immense humiliation, I couldn’t help but ask. His narrow, phoenix-like eyes stared at me. “What do you think?” *What do you think?* In that moment, my world imploded. I was taken back to Deerwood Manor. It was ironic, really. This manor, Asher had built it with his own hands for me. In the throes of our passionate love, he jokingly called it our “love nest.” Now, it felt more like an exquisite cage. It trapped me, but not necessarily him. “Quick, tell me, who was that man?” The moment we entered, Asher violently threw me onto the bed. My forehead hit the headboard, and I immediately felt blood seeping out. But before I could even try to deal with it, he grabbed my throat and pinned me against the wall. “Tell me, who was that man?” “If you don’t love me, why bother?” I looked at him. Blood still flowed freely, down my face, my neck… finally blossoming into crimson stains on the pristine white bedsheets. My brows were so tightly furrowed with pain that I knew I must look hideous. But he stared at me, unblinking, his gaze so complex that for a second I almost thought he was worried about me. “Do you think I can’t find out?” I stayed silent, my face flushed, slowly struggling for breath. He sneered, not only refusing to let go, but tearing off the clothing I had used to cover myself. “Scarlett, we’ve known each other for so many years, and I never knew you could be so cheap.” I still looked at him. I watched him talking to himself, suddenly bursting into a furious rage. With a ripping sound, he stripped the clothes from my body, then bound my hands and feet. Rescued from the brink of suffocation, I retorted mockingly, “Oh, so now you don’t find me dirty anymore? Mr. Asher is really desperate, isn’t he!” *Slap!* One blow, and half my face went numb. He stood over me, looking down, and every word he spoke sent chills down my spine. “Scarlett, I’m dragging you to hell with me!” Two hours later, he was done with me, sated and uncaring. He pulled up his pants and slammed the door shut, leaving without a backward glance. I lay there like a dead fish, feeling nothing but profound humiliation. On the bedroom wall, our framed wedding photo still hung. He had his arm around me, and I leaned on his shoulder, smiling as if we were a match made in heaven. But it was all a cruel irony. The next day, I received an anonymous email. I opened it, and the content nearly made me faint. “Scarlett, why do you think he married you? Do you think your parents’ car crash was merely an accident? Scarlett, you fool, stop being so delusional. Asher has always loved Willow, from the very beginning.” Just a few lines, but they hit me like a lightning bolt, snapping me awake. I thought everything he had said was just empty words, spoken in anger. But it was all true. Thinking back to how my parents both died in a car crash, forcing me to transfer all the shares of our family company to my name, I couldn’t help but feel a chilling dread. So, that was it. That was his true motive. And I, a complete fool, had thought he loved me! Scarlett, how could you be so stupid! I looked at the family photo in my wallet, wanting nothing more than to bash my head against the wall and die. But I couldn’t.
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