I froze.
"Wasn't it you who—"
Randolph cut me off and told me a story.
His mother, Eva Lambert, had been Colin Gilbert's real first wife.
To help Colin get his company off the ground, she'd handed over every cent of her savings.
But once he'd made his fortune, he tricked her into a divorce with the excuse that they needed to be legally single to buy property, then turned around and married Burton's mother, who was already pregnant.
Eva learned the truth later. When she tried to demand answers for herself and for Randolph, my mother-in-law treated her like the mistress and humiliated her.
The truth was the exact opposite of everything my mother-in-law had told me.
For a moment I didn't know who to believe.
Randolph read my silence for what it was and let out a breath.
"It's fine if you don't believe me. I just don't want to watch you get played the way they played my mother."
I went and checked it out at once.
By the time I confirmed that everything Randolph said was true, Burton was back.
He grabbed my wrist and dragged me to the hospital.
"Apologize to Lorraine!"
"I did nothing wrong!"
His eyes were full of disappointment.
"You almost killed her baby!"
"Rebecca, when you turn into someone like this, how am I supposed to spend my life with you?"
When Lorraine caused me to lose my baby on the spot, he hadn't spared me a single word of blame, let alone made her apologize to me.
I looked up at him and smiled.
"Then let's not."
He faltered, then said coldly, "Your parents' company is a supplier for the Gilberts. The day you divorce me, they go bankrupt."
My parents' company was their life's work.
Back when Burton was courting me, he'd handed the Gilberts' biggest purchase order to my family's factory himself.
I thought it was love.
I thought he cared about my family.
Only now did I understand that as long as the order sat in his hands, it was leverage to keep me in line.
Seeing me go quiet, his tone finally softened.
He came over and reached out to touch my hair.
I turned my head away.
He didn't take offense, just drew his hand back and sighed.
"As long as you behave and cooperate, your parents' company will always be a supplier for the Gilbert Group."
"Lorraine's baby will be yours once it's born. You won't have to worry about a thing."
"You get to be a mother without ten months of carrying it. Haven't I been good enough to you?"
So this was what he called being good to me.
I looked into his eyes, the eyes that had once been full of tenderness whenever they landed on me.
Now there was nothing in them but calculation and entitlement.
I said nothing.
He wasn't wrong. My parents' company had to lean on the Gilberts to thrive.
But if I could get the Gilberts to change their heir, this threat would simply cease to exist.
I sent Randolph a message:
【I can help you get back everything that's yours, but I have one condition.】
Randolph replied the second he saw it:
【I'm abroad. I'll be back tomorrow and we'll talk it through.】
With his answer in hand, I looked straight at Burton and said it again.
"Divorce!"
Something flickered in Burton's eyes, confusion, and beneath it an uneasiness he couldn't name.
"Becca, I've never once thought about divorcing you..."
Lorraine went suddenly pale and asked me through her tears, "Ms. Pruitt, why won't you let me go?"
Burton glanced at her phone, then immediately called his assistant.
"Send them up."
Something told me this was bad. I got up to leave.
Burton blocked my way.
"Selling Lorraine's private photos on the dark web is a crime."
"For the sake of you being my wife, I'll smooth things over with Lorraine so she doesn't press charges. But your illness really does need to be treated."
The words had barely left his mouth when four men came toward me.
"Ma'am, you'll have to come with us."
I refused to go, and Burton's face went dark and cold.
"Becca, if you're scared now, it's already too late. I know it's your illness that made you do something this vicious."
"Don't worry. I've already spoken with the director. As long as you cooperate with the treatment, you'll be home soon."
The four men came forward and pinned my arms.
I struggled with everything I had. It made no difference.
Burton used the moment to take my phone.
As they dragged me out of the room, Lorraine mouthed the words at me:
"You lost."
At the psychiatric hospital, two nurses forced a cup of water down my throat.
Within minutes my arms and legs began to go weak.
They dragged me into a chair and strapped down my hands and feet.
The drug took hold fast, and as the treatment went on, step by step, I sank into unconsciousness.
