Chapter 3

While I was planning my next move, pounding rattled my door the next morning.

"Open this damn door! Get out here right now, you little bitch!"

The moment I unlocked it, Ethan's mother barged in like a raging bull.

"My son just found a real woman who can actually give him children! What the hell are you throwing a tantrum for?"

"You're a useless woman who can't even get pregnant or keep her man happy! How dare you max out my son's hard-earned money?!"

Spit flew from her mouth as she glared at me like she wanted to tear me apart with her teeth.

"Hand over the deed to this place right now! This apartment belongs to Claire and my future grandbaby!"

"You miserable jinx, sign the divorce papers, give up your claim, and pack your trash out of our sight!"

She tore through the living room, tossing drawers and cushions around. When she couldn't find the property deed, she lunged at me in frustration.

I stepped aside smoothly. She swung at empty air and tumbled face-first onto the couch.

"The deed only has my name on it. It’s my premarital asset. If you try to steal it, I’m calling building security and the police right now."

I stared down at her, voice ice-cold.

His mother's eyes bugged out, pointing a trembling finger in my face.

"Bullshit! My son contributes thousands of dollars every month! How dare you call it yours? You're stealing my family's legacy!"

"His money?" I sneered. "Are you going senile? My dad paid for this place in full with his life savings before he died. Your son didn't contribute a single penny. What legacy?"

Choking on her own rage, she dropped flat onto the floorboards.

"Help! Murder! The evil daughter-in-law is abusing her mother-in-law! She's picking on a poor widow!"

I didn't even bother arguing. I immediately dialed the residential manager and had building security drag her out for illegal trespassing.

Right after that, I pulled up the neighborhood community group on SnapChat.

"I need everyone's advice. I'm pregnant, but my mate refuses to acknowledge our baby and is having an affair with our downstairs neighbor, Claire."

"She's living in Unit 102. She's carrying his child, and now her parents and his mother are banging on my door every single day, trying to force me out of my late father's apartment. I honestly don't know how much longer I can take this..."

The second the post went live, the entire neighborhood group blew up.

The local aunties and grandmas hated cheaters more than anything.

"That girl always looked so quiet and innocent, and she's actually a filthy homewrecker?!"

"Shameless! Betraying her own neighbor and stealing another woman's mate!"

"Scum like that deserve to rot!"

The older ladies on our block took zero prisoners.

Within half a day, Claire's reputation was completely trashed across the entire neighborhood.

Whenever she stepped outside, people glared and cursed behind her back. Someone even dumped garbage and rotten eggs on her front door.

Terrified, she barricaded herself inside, too scared to even take out the trash.

And that was just the opening act.

To calm Claire down, Ethan gritted his teeth and promised he would marry her.

Her parents, however, weren't buying his sweet talk. They laid down the law flat out.

"You want to marry our daughter? Sever your mate bond first! Then hand over five hundred thousand dollars in cash, and transfer this apartment to Claire's name! Miss one condition, and you can forget about it!"

Backed into a corner, Ethan pinned all his hopes on his job, trying desperately to close his pending deals.

Too bad I'd already burned that bridge to ash.

I sent screenshots of his sordid affair directly to his company's internal Slack channel and CC'd his boss.

The CEO was furious and instantly stripped him of the massive corporate account he’d been chasing for six months.

Colleagues who used to treat him with respect now crossed the hallway just to avoid brushing shoulders with him.

In just one week, he looked like a walking corpse.

That evening, a timid knock sounded at my door.

I pulled it open. Ethan was standing there with heavy dark circles under his eyes, messy hair, and an utterly defeated face.

*Thud.*

His knees gave out, and he crashed onto the floor in front of me.

With bloodshot eyes, his voice cracked into a desperate sob.

"Summer, please... I'm begging you. Just sever the mate bond with me!"

"I don't want anything anymore! The apartment is yours, the money is yours! Just let me go, okay?"

Looking at him on his knees, my heart felt completely numb.

"Sever the bond?"

I looked down at him with a chilly smirk.

"What's the rush? The real fun has only just begun."

I was holding onto my ultimate trump card, and it was going to drag him into true despair.