Terrence's cold gaze swept toward the source of the noise. When he saw me, his hand instantly dropped from Sienna's waist.
Almost guiltily, he rubbed the bridge of his nose and walked toward me.
"Why did you suddenly come back here?This place is full of shady people—why didn't you bring anyone with you?"
The concern in his words sounded no different from before. But after watching him hold Sienna so intimately, every gesture of his only filled me with disgust.
The hand that once always reached for me now hovered in the air.
"I just felt like coming back. What about you?"
My indifferent question cut off whatever reprimand he had been about to unleash.
He opened his mouth, but before he could answer, Sienna chimed in sweetly, "I just got back to the country. I asked Terrence to show me around. Surely you're not jealous over something so small, right?"
Seven years had passed. I was now the wife of a powerful CEO. Yet Sienna's gaze toward me was still the same—contempt wrapped in disdain.
Bolstered by her family background, she even stole what belonged to others with self-righteous ease.
"Denise, why aren't you saying anything?"
Pouting, she tugged at Terrence's sleeve. "Help me explain to her. I was young and foolish before, and I already apologized. Tell Denise not to be angry with me anymore..."
Her sickeningly coy words made my hands tremble. I finally cut her off. "Have you said enough?"
Delighted that she had gotten a reaction, Sienna burst into tears, throwing herself against Terrence's chest.
"I told you, I was just a silly girl back then. Besides, most of it wasn't even me—it was my friends! Why do you still hate me so much?"
Heart aching, Terrence brushed away her tears.
"Denise, that's enough. Don't go too far!"
The urge to argue burned in me, but his sharp rebuke smothered it to embers.
Even though I had already decided to leave, why did my chest still ache so violently?
Why—when he knew exactly how much I hated her—would he ask me to forgive, to erase the past as if it never happened?
Back in our senior year of high school, because Sienna's crush once spoke a few extra words to me, I became her target.
Every morning, my desk was filled with vile things: dead rats, bloody sanitary pads, even used condoms.
My homework mysteriously vanished after I handed it in.
Rumors spread that I was selling myself outside of school. Boys from other classes came to me, asking crudely how much I charged per night.
After school, her lackeys would drag me into the girls' bathroom by my hair.
They snapped humiliating photos, singed off my eyebrows with a lighter, pressed cigarette butts into my skin as if I were an ashtray.
The sound of sizzling flesh mixed with their laughter, scars were carved into my back—scars that would never fade.
When Terrence first saw them, the man who hadn’t shed a tear even when his own legs were broken trembled as he kissed each mark.
Hot tears fell onto my back, searing straight into my heart.
He whispered, “Denise... just give me a little more time. I'll hunt down everyone who ever hurt you and make them pay."
And he did as he promised.
The powerful, untouchable Terrence avenged me, except for one person.
The one who escaped was Sienna, conveniently studying abroad.
And it was on this last step that Terrence lost his way—because he fell in love with the very woman who once tormented me.
My silence stretched too long, and he mistook it for dissatisfaction.
His eyes lingered on me for a few seconds. The words of reproach circling his lips softened into a curt, "Get in the car."
Sienna wiped her fake tears and smiled sweetly, playing innocent. "I knew Denise was kind. She would definitely forgive me."
She reached toward me, her hands lacquered in the same blood-red polish I remembered all too well.
Instinctively, I stepped back.
But then, like the venomous creature she was, her fingers dug sharply into the soft flesh of my waist.
I gasped, raising my hand to shove her off.
She took the chance to stumble backward deliberately.
And in Terrence's eyes, the scene became something else entirely—not her cruelty, but my petty act of revenge.
