Chapter 2

I pointed at my blind eye, then down at my amputated leg.

"Because of him, I turned into this monster."

"Look at me. Pathetic, aren't I?"

The anger that had just flared up in Julian vanished instantly. He dropped to his knees in front of my bed.

He gently cradled my hand between his palms, his eyes brimming with devotion.

"Sera, please don't get upset. No matter what happens to you, I will always take care of you."

These were the same hands that used to hold mine while hiking mountain trails and watching sunsets by the coast.

His hands were warm.

Yet right now, they made my skin crawl.

The mere thought of these hands touching Mia's body triggered a wave of nausea so violent I couldn't stop it.

I threw up pure bile all over his designer jacket.

A flicker of disgust crossed Julian's face before he quickly hid it.

He stood up, stripped off his ruined blazer, and tossed it into the trash can.

"Mia and I are heading out. We'll pick you up when you're discharged."

He wrapped his arm around Mia's waist and walked out without looking back once.

On discharge day, Julian brought a custom, high-end prosthetic leg he had ordered from overseas.

While fitting it onto me, he read the manual over and over, terrified that a clumsy mistake might hurt me.

He was focused, completely absorbed.

I suddenly remembered the day we first met in college; he had that exact same look on his face.

Back then, a chemical experiment went wrong, and boiling liquid spilled over my calf, leaving a massive, horrific burn.

Everyone blamed me for being careless. Only Julian had dropped to his knees, gently cleaning and dressing my wound.

Now, that leg was gone. And so was whatever we had.

Click.

It was finally locked in place.

Julian wiped the sweat from his forehead, visibly exhaling.

A proud smile spread across his lips. "I'll go handle the paperwork. Mia, keep an eye on her."

The moment the door clicked shut behind him, Mia ripped the prosthetic off me.

Fresh out of major surgery, I didn't have the strength to fight her off.

"Sera, I really want to see how you manage to walk on one foot."

When Julian returned, he found the shattered prosthetic dumped in the corner, stepped on and cracked.

He dropped down in a panic to inspect the damage.

"Sera, what are you doing?!"

I hadn't done a single thing, yet his very first instinct was to accuse me.

Mia knelt beside him, helping him gather the broken pieces, looking as innocent and wronged as ever.

"Sera just... she couldn't accept being crippled. She completely lost it and smashed it on the floor."

Julian's brows knit together, his voice booming across the room.

"Sera, what the hell is wrong with you?!"

"Julian, look at my leg! Do you honestly think I have the strength to stomp a titanium prosthetic into pieces? Mia did this—"

He cut me off harshly, his eyes overflowing with disappointment.

"Enough! You don't need to invent pathetic lies just to frame Mia!"

Sitting on the edge of the hospital bed, I froze.

A sharp sting hit my eyes, nearly bringing me to tears.

Julian was never like this before. He used to stand in front of board members and investors when they questioned my tech prototypes:

"Sera never lies."

When I asked him why he trusted me blindly, he simply smiled: "If you say it, I believe it."

And now, he was the one looking at me like I was a deceitful monster.

Julian stopped a passing nurse in the hallway.

He grabbed a basic aluminum crutch and tossed it in front of me.

"Since you hate the prosthetic so much, you can walk out like this."

They walked ahead, their strides brisk and impatient, never once slowing down to check on me.

Within seconds, they turned the corner and disappeared from sight.

I pulled out my phone and dialed my corporate attorney.

"What documentation do we need to report gross corporate embezzlement and fraud to federal investigators?"

"Also, draft an uncontested divorce settlement. Julian Vance is leaving this marriage with absolutely nothing."

Mia loved wealth, didn't she? She wanted to climb the social ladder so desperately.

Let's see if she still worships him when he doesn't have a penny to his name.