Chapter 1

Eight months pregnant, and the housekeeper's daughter suddenly created a "pregnancy wellness plan" for me.

She required me to spend six hours every day in the scorching 108°F outdoor heat, sunbathing.

I was roasted until I nearly lost the baby. I begged her to open the door and let me inside.

But she just sat there eating chilled watermelon, smiling sweetly. "Ma'am, pregnant women need plenty of sunshine. It's good for you. I'm only doing this for your own good."

The door stayed locked. No one dared open it.

I couldn't take it anymore. I grabbed a flowerpot and smashed through the balcony window.

An hour later, Sebastian hurried home from his meeting and immediately unleashed on me.

"Vivian, how can you be so vicious! Do you realize that because you threw your tantrum and smashed that window, Sophie got heatstroke and ended up in the ICU?"

"Sebastian, you have time to worry about the housekeeper's daughter, but you can't spare a thought for your own wife and child? If I'd stayed out there any longer, the baby would've died!"

Sebastian stared at me for a moment with an unreadable expression, said nothing, and left.

But that night, someone dragged me out of bed and locked me inside a metal baking chamber.

Outside, dozens of the housekeeper's relatives had gathered.

Sebastian stood there with his arm around Sophie's waist, watching me coldly.

"Vivian, you're utterly malicious and show no remorse. Today I'm going to make you pay for what you did to Sophie!"

My heart kept sinking. I was completely disappointed in him.

I decisively pulled out my phone and called my brother, Marcus.

"Marcus, don't leave a single one of them alive. Not the Hayes family, not the Walsh family. Kill them all."