In the third year of our remarriage, Alvin Henson's mistress got pregnant. Not only did I send over tonics and a caregiver of my own accord, I also thoughtfully cleared out space so the two of them could be alone.
Alvin thought I'd finally learned my place, so he put the company's projects back in my hands. He even let the records of those business dealings he believed long destroyed pass through me again. But he didn't know that from the very first day I came back to him, this was the moment I'd been waiting for.
Three years ago, I caught Alvin and Sonia Harding in bed together, only to be forced out with nothing and saddled with a million in debt.
Right after that, my only brother was falsely accused of attempted rape. The night before his trial, men Sonia had arranged beat him within an inch of his life, and he got eight years.
I knelt on the ground and begged. All it earned me was their laughter.
So when Alvin showed up with a remarriage agreement, I went back to the Henson household without a second of hesitation.
I played obedient for three years. I swallowed three years of humiliation. And at last I gathered all the evidence to win justice for my brother and me.
——
In the third year of our remarriage, Alvin's mistress got pregnant.
Before Alvin could say a word, I'd already had tonics and five caregivers sent over. I even messaged him myself, telling him to spend plenty of time with Sonia.
That same night, Alvin came to me, a mocking smile at the corner of his mouth.
"Isabella, looks like that stretch after the divorce really taught you to behave. You've been so well-behaved lately."
"If you'd been like this from the start, how would things ever have fallen apart enough to end in divorce?"
At first he hadn't believed I could be this obedient either.
But after the remarriage, even when I walked in on him bringing a woman home, I only thoughtfully cleared out so they'd have space, and went to sleep at a hotel.
Alvin finally started to believe I'd grown gracious about it all.
I nodded and said sweetly, "Whatever Miss Harding needs, just tell me. Leave the company matters to me. You go keep her company."
Alvin narrowed his eyes. The words grated on him more and more, yet he genuinely couldn't find any fault with them.
His phone rang. He glanced at it, then deliberately answered the call right in front of me.
Sonia's coaxing voice came through. "Alvin, when are you coming to be with me?"
Seeing my expression hadn't changed at all, Alvin let out a cold laugh and answered her, "I'm leaving now. I'll stay with you all night."
He hung up and turned to go.
Only once the footsteps had completely faded did I reach under the pillow for the file I'd just put in order.
Before the divorce, many of Alvin's company projects had passed through my hands. He had always acknowledged my ability.
After the remarriage, seeing that I really was obedient, he handed the company's affairs back to me.
And those business dealings he thought had long been destroyed—I'd kept backups of all of them.
Not only that, the photos and videos Sonia had sent me to provoke me, I'd saved every one.
Now, this child of Sonia's would be the final straw that broke him.
Three years ago, I caught Alvin and Sonia in bed and divorced him without hesitation.
Alvin's team of lawyers forced me out with nothing and a million in debt.
But only a few days later, my only brother was charged with attempted rape.
I didn't even have the money to hire a lawyer.
At my most hopeless moment, Sonia appeared in front of me.
"Your brother's situation—I actually arranged it. You know how it is, there's nothing in this world money can't fix."
"What can I say. Only watching your life rot to pieces like this makes me feel a little better."
I lunged at her, wanting to tear her mouth apart, but her bodyguards pinned me down hard.
The next day, my brother was sentenced to eight years.
I couldn't accept it.
My brother and I had done nothing wrong, and in the end we were the ones ground under their heels.
As luck would have it, Alvin's father had no use for Sonia and insisted Alvin find a society lady to be his wife.
Alvin, afraid those women would never tolerate Sonia, thought of me again, and came to me with a remarriage agreement.
I agreed without hesitation.
My decisiveness only piqued his interest. "Isabella, don't you hate me more than anyone? What changed your mind all of a sudden?"
I lied and told him I wanted to make things a little easier for my brother in prison.
Alvin smiled. "I'll help you look after him. I hope that after this, you'll know how to behave."
Alvin probably thought I had truly given in.
But only I knew I'd gone back to send him and Sonia straight to hell.
Outside the window, fireworks suddenly erupted across the whole city, lighting up the sky.
I stared at the blooming fireworks and remembered when Alvin and I first got together, how he had booked out the tallest skyscraper in the city and thrown me a birthday party.
Back then he knelt on one knee before me and slid a ring he'd won at auction for two million onto my finger.
"Isabella, I'm so lucky to have you."
The whole city saw those fireworks. The whole city knew that Alvin Henson loved Isabella Gilbert.
From outside the door came the caregivers' chatter. "Mr. Henson really does dote on Miss Harding. I heard there weren't just fireworks—he even won a ten-million necklace for her at auction."
Listening to all this, I only felt the irony of it.
The next day, though, Alvin stormed into the bedroom in a fury.
He flung a report down in front of me.
"The caregivers you sent over put drugs in the tonics. Sonia's hemorrhaging—she's in emergency care right now! Isabella, and here I thought you'd really learned your place, that you'd grown gracious. I never imagined your heart was even more vicious than before the divorce!"
Almost on instinct, I shot back, "The people were picked out and sent straight there. I never had any contact with them. How could I have given them any orders?!"
In his rage, Alvin grabbed my jaw and forced my face up to his.
"The ones who drugged her have confessed with their own mouths. You still dare say you didn't order it?!"
He seized a fistful of my hair. "Isabella, you played obedient for three years just to wait for this day, didn't you?"
I bit my lip and said nothing.
The pain at my scalp was sharp where he yanked, and tears welled in my eyes, but I forced myself not to let them fall.
"Nothing to say? Guilty conscience?"
Alvin's eyes narrowed coldly. "I think you just can't have children of your own, so you can't stand for Sonia to have one with me!"
My blood went cold in an instant.
Can't have children.
Those words were like a knife, cutting at my heart blow by blow.
Five years ago I lost our first child taking a knife for him, and was forced to have my whole womb removed.
Back then Alvin had knelt at my hospital bed and said it didn't matter that I couldn't have children—that having me was enough for him for the rest of his life.
Five years later, he could throw those same words at me as a weapon without the slightest weight on his conscience.
Seeing that I wouldn't answer, the chill in Alvin's eyes deepened.
"Since you're the one who caused Sonia to hemorrhage, then kneel in the courtyard, facing the direction of the hospital, and pray with all your heart, kowtowing until Sonia and the baby come out safe!"
The next second I was dragged, struggling, to the center of the courtyard, and in front of all the servants, my head was forced down again and again toward the direction of the hospital.
The humiliation and the pain made me black out several times.
I don't know how long it went on. My forehead was already a bloody mess, leaving a pool of blood on the ground.
I'd gone completely numb from the pain, blackness washing over my vision in waves.
The bodyguard holding me down finally stopped, then dropped me on the ground like a piece of trash. "Miss Harding is out of danger, but Mr. Henson said that since you did wrong and still refuse to admit it, you ought to go to the basement and reflect properly."
My heart sank.
I had severe claustrophobia, and Alvin knew it better than anyone.
Every time it used to flare up, it was Alvin who held me and soothed me to sleep.
But now, by his own order, I was dragged into the dark basement, with no food and no water.
The darkness came at me like a tide, and I couldn't stop trembling, my mind slowly unraveling.
This kind of torment pushed me to the brink of breaking.
I don't know how long passed. I was so hungry my head swam, but the pain of my wounds wouldn't let me sleep.
At last, just when I felt I was about to die, the basement door opened.
Alvin stood in the light, looking down at me from above.
"Know what you did wrong now?"
