Chapter 2

Terror rushed straight to my skull.

I curled backward into the bed, trembling.

"Don't touch me! You'll go to prison for this!"

One of them sneered.

"Your husband practically begged us to take you. Stop acting innocent. If he can't satisfy you, we're happy to step in."

For three brutal hours,

I lay there like a lifeless doll tossed between them.

There wasn't an inch of unbruised skin left on me.

They didn't leave until they had satisfied their disgusting urges.

Just then, my phone screen lit up with an anonymous text.

[Lucas is an extreme germaphobe. Now that you've slept with a bunch of bums, he'll never touch you again.]

My stomach dropped.

This wasn't random.

Someone had deliberately leaked that I was left unattended in this room.

Only Vivian could be this sick.

She would do anything, no matter how depraved, to steal Lucas away.

A year ago,

she had thrown herself from a third-story window, breaking her leg,

just so Lucas would stay by her side day and night.

Then she swallowed a handful of sleeping pills, landing in the ICU for twenty-four hours.

When she woke up, she had stared up at Lucas, weeping pitifully.

"I'm depressed. If you don't love me, I have no reason to stay alive."

And now, she had used this vile, sickening trap to obliterate my marriage with Lucas.

I didn't know how much time had passed.

A nurse finally came in for routine rounds.

The moment she saw my battered body, she dropped her clipboard, screaming in horror.

"Where is her family?! Where are the patient's relatives? How could they be so irresponsible?!"

They scrambled frantically to check my vitals and call Lucas.

It took hours

before they finally showed up.

Lucas didn't ask about my injuries first. Instead, he looked at me and said casually,

"I thought you'd kill yourself to preserve your purity. Turns out you're just a coward clinging to life."

"Suddenly, Vivian's depression doesn't seem like such a bad thing. If she were in your shoes, she would've died before letting herself be tainted!"

Those eyes of his, once filled with adoration for me,

now held nothing but cold detachment and revulsion.

All the grand romantic gestures he had made for me flashed through my mind like a cruel slideshow.

Once, just because I craved pastries from Paris, he hired a private jet overnight to fly them in.

On my birthday,

he rented out an entire amusement park, putting on a private fireworks show just for me.

Every moment that once brought me to tears of joy

had now transformed into the sharpest blade, carving my heart to pieces.

Five years of love was nothing more than an illusion I had dreamed up.

Yet why should some fragile concept of purity matter more than my life?

Parting my dry, cracked lips, I screamed at him, hysterical.

"They're the criminals! Why am I the one paying the price?!"

Beside him, my parents grew impatient.

"What's done is done. Just get discharged. Go home and take a thorough shower."

"Don't gross Lucas out."

Before my body had even begun to heal,

they dragged me back home.

The moment the front door swung open, my mind went completely blank.

There was Vivian, sitting openly on the sofa I had bought.

Drinking the soda I had stocked.

Wearing my silk pajamas.

Watching TV and laughing her head off.

Her cheeks were rosy, glowing with health, showing none of the miserable, suicidal despair from a year ago.

It was obvious she had lived a luxurious life abroad this past year.

Meanwhile, look at me.

Broken down by rumors and trauma,

I had forgotten how to smile a long time ago.

"Vivian, didn't we tell you to lay low? Why did you come straight here?"

The three of them rushed forward, shielding Vivian behind them,

blocking my glare.

"Maya's going to lose it if she sees you."

Vivian pouted.

"But this is my home too. Since Maya already saw me, we don't need to hide anymore."

Mom and Dad playfully tapped her nose, their faces full of fond indulgence.

"You little troublemaker, always keeping us on edge."

Then Mom turned to me, demanding coldly,

"Maya, from now on, Lucas spends Monday, Wednesday, and Friday with Vivian, and Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday with you and the baby."

"You have a child with Lucas now, so stop throwing tantrums."

I let out a bitter, mocking laugh.

"Mom, Dad, are you seriously telling Vivian to be his mistress?"

Vivian stiffened.

Her big eyes instantly welled up with delicate tears as she looked to Lucas for help.

Lucas's expression darkened immediately.

"Watch your mouth! Everything you have today was bought with Vivian's prayers and sacrifices! If she hadn't gone to church to pray for you, where would your success have come from?"

Prayers again.

It had become their favorite weapon to emotionally blackmail me.