Chapter 1

“Mrs. Blackwood, your cerebral aneurysm is in a critical position and has already started to bleed. We need to operate as soon as possible. If it ruptures, your life will be in grave danger.”

“If I go through with the surgery, how much will it cost?”

“A conservative estimate would be two hundred thousand.”

Two hundred thousand? The Davies family was bankrupt, my father had a stroke that left him paralyzed, and we were saddled with colossal debt. Everything I owned that was worth anything had been sold to pay off my family’s creditors. Where on earth would I find two hundred thousand now?

And here, in the Blackwood family, I, the eldest daughter-in-law, was treated worse than dirt.

When I left the hospital, the sky outside had already turned dark.

I hadn’t walked far when my phone rang. A cold male voice cut through the silence. “Get to the Nightshade Club. Now.”

It was an order, leaving no room for refusal.

I stared at the medical report in my hand, then thought of my current relationship with him. I bit my lip. “Fine.”

The Nightshade Club was Newport City’s most notorious upscale club. When I arrived at the private room, it was packed with men and women, exuding an air of opulent debauchery.

Julian, the man seated in the center of the room, swirled his drink. He snapped his fingers when he saw me enter, and the room instantly fell silent.

He lifted his gaze to me. “Come here.”

I hesitated, then walked over. The moment I got close, he seized my wrist, pulling me roughly into his embrace.

“Julian, let me go!”

He held me in a vice-like grip with just one arm. “Mrs. Blackwood, are you *sure* you want me to let you go? Think about how much your family still owes me. And think about your father’s medical bills.”

I gritted my teeth, giving up the struggle. “Can you… can you lend me another two hundred thousand?”

He laughed as if I’d told a joke, looking me up and down. His gaze finally settled on my gaunt face. “What part of you is worth two hundred thousand, exactly?”

He clamped his fingers on my chin, twisting my head to face the crowd. “How about you pick a man, spend a night with him, and if you please him well enough, maybe you’ll get your two hundred thousand.”

“Do you really have to humiliate me like this?”

“Humiliate?” Julian sneered, his cold lips brushing my ear. His voice was like a whisper from hell itself. “Compared to what your family did to mine back then, what is this humiliation?”

Agony ripped through me, and I squeezed my eyes shut.

The Davies and Thompson families had been close for generations. Julian and I were childhood sweethearts, and in college, we were the campus’s most envied couple. But the year we were preparing to study abroad together, the Thompson family’s empire suddenly collapsed.

Julian’s father couldn't bear the shame and took his own life.

I desperately pleaded with my father to help the Thompson family, only to accidentally discover that my own father was the one behind his family's downfall.

At that time, I didn’t know how to face Julian, so I broke up with him.

He didn't know the truth back then. He simply couldn’t believe I would leave him at his most vulnerable, his most desperate time.

He knelt outside my family’s mansion all night, soaked to the bone in the rain, begging me not to leave.

But my father, meanwhile, seized the opportunity to eradicate him completely.

By the time I rushed to him, Julian had already been beaten into unconsciousness.

I fought with all my might to protect him, but I took a brutal blow to the head, leaving me with lasting aftereffects.

To stop my father from destroying Julian entirely, I had no choice but to agree to an arranged marriage, joining the powerful and rising Blackwood family.

Six years later, Julian staged a fierce comeback. The first thing he did upon returning to Newport City was to systematically dismantle and bankrupt my family's corporation…

Just then, someone from the side chimed in, “Mrs. Blackwood, Mr. Thompson is actually doing you a favor, isn’t he? Everyone knows the eldest Mr. Blackwood is disabled, and your child was conceived through IVF. Has he ever truly *satisfied* you, all these years?”

As the man finished, the whole room erupted in laughter.

Amidst the mocking sound, I clenched my fists tightly, speaking in a deceptively calm voice. “Fine. Then I’ll pick one.”

Julian’s face instantly darkened.

I scanned every person in the room, their leering faces swimming into view.

I looked like I was genuinely making a choice, then settled on the man who had just spoken. “You’ll do.”