By the time I rushed back from the funeral home to the villa, it was already close to midnight.
Yet the living room was brightly lit, filled with laughter—the birthday party for Vanessa was still going on.
Liam lifted his eyes and glanced at me faintly, his voice cold as he spoke.
“Where did you go? Why are you only coming back now?”
His tone was as cold as interrogating a criminal, because here at home, he didn’t need to pretend affection like he did outside.
Before I could say anything, Liam’s voice shifted.
“Good timing. Vanessa doesn’t have a dress. Give her your wedding gown. And give her the jewelry set I gave you last time.”
My heart trembled slightly.
His eyes casually swept down to my feet. “The shoes too. The pair you’re wearing looks fine.”
I could feel the friends around us go silent for a moment.
But I smiled—smiled like someone finally waking from a long dream.
Liam, as if still unsatisfied, swirled the wine in his glass and slowly delivered the last cut:
“Because of your false accusation, Vanessa was frightened. So starting today, she’ll be moving into our home. She’s spoiled and picky—her three meals a day can’t be repetitive.”
The air froze instantly.
Everyone was waiting for me to collapse, cry, lose control—waiting to watch my humiliation.
But I suddenly realized that after losing Lila, there was nothing left in me that could still be destroyed.
I took a slow breath, my voice steadier than ever:
“Liam, let’s get a divorce.”
I had said this line in my mind countless times. I’d held it in for so long. Today, I finally had the courage to say it aloud.
Ever since that incident, the love between Liam and me had died completely.
I had kept up the façade because of guilt, but inside, everything had already crumbled.
This was the first time my heart truly sank like an anchor—never again to be moved by him.
Liam’s expression shifted slightly, as if something had pricked him.
He set down his glass, stood up slowly, and walked toward me.
“Clara, what are you throwing a tantrum about now?”
I was so calm I barely recognized myself. “I said, divorce.”
He stared at me, his dark eyes narrowing dangerously.
I lowered my head and slipped off the expensive heels.
“These shoes rub against the skin… but if you wear them long enough, you get used to it.”
I placed the shoes gently in front of Vanessa.
She froze, glanced at Liam, pulled her feet back, yet didn’t dare say anything.
“The dress and the jewelry—I’ll have someone send them to your room.”
The room was utterly silent.
Just as I was about to get up and leave, my wrist was yanked hard.
Liam pulled me forward, making me stumble right into his chest.
“Clara, if you’re going to walk away, you’d better leave behind everything on you that belongs to me.”
I lifted my head and looked straight at him. “Do you want me to take off my clothes?”
He raised an eyebrow, his eyes as cold as a blade.
“When your Bennett family went bankrupt, wasn’t it your mother who stripped you and sent you to my bed? However you came… that’s how you’ll leave.”
A chill ran through my entire body, like being submerged in icy water.
“Or—are you regretting it now?”
Liam let out a cold laugh. “Fine. If you kneel and put the shoes on Vanessa for her—I’ll forgive you.”
I heard a few sharp gasps around me.
But I suddenly laughed.
My marriage with Liam had never been the harmonious, enviable union others imagined.
On the eve of our engagement, the Bennett family went bankrupt.
My father jumped from a building in despair, survived, but lay in the hospital severely injured, needing enormous medical expenses.
Fearing Liam wouldn’t help us, my mother drugged both me and Liam, then made a huge scene afterward to force him to marry me.
That night became the beginning of all my humiliation.
And it completely twisted everything between us.
Liam was forced to marry me.
On our wedding night, he brought another woman home to humiliate me.
He did everything right in front of me, and even the condom—I was the one who opened it and handed it to him.
And the mess left in the room was something I cleaned up on my knees, piece by piece.
For the sake of my family, and for the love I stubbornly held onto, I endured.
For ten years.
Ten years of bowing and scraping.
But now—I couldn’t endure anymore.
“I’ll take them off.”
Before anyone could react, I had already unfastened the clasp of my shawl.
It was deep winter, though the heating inside was warm.
But I stood by the doorway, the cold wind rushing under my dress, raising goosebumps across my bare shoulders and arms.
I reached back and undid the zipper of my dress.
Half my shoulder and chest were exposed to the freezing air.
“Oh my god!”
A few timid guests covered their eyes, unable to look.
I could feel the men watching with interest.
Only Liam’s gaze darkened, lips tightly pressed, and the slight tremor of the cigarette between his fingers gave away something unusual.
The dress slipped off, and I stood there nearly exposed in front of everyone.
The cigarette burned Liam’s fingertip; he dropped it immediately, then shrugged off his suit jacket and threw it over me.
“Clara, you must be tired of living!”
“Everyone shut your eyes. If a single word about what you saw tonight gets out—I’ll make sure you won’t see tomorrow’s sunrise!”
“Get out!”
Liam rarely lost his temper, especially not in a setting like this.
The familiar faces in the room naturally understood and retreated quickly.
“Liam, are you satisfied now? Can you let me go?”
I lifted my chin, staring at him stubbornly.
Even though tears stung my eyes, I refused to let them fall.
I had cried for Liam too many times.
I would not cry for him again.
“Clara, stop playing these pathetic hard-to-get tricks in front of me. It disgusts me.”
Liam still refused to believe me, warning me not to embarrass the Foster family.
I took a deep breath and spoke again.
“Liam, this time, I truly want a divorce.”
Liam looked at me like he had heard the funniest joke in the world.
He grabbed the back of my neck and forced my upper body down.
“You dare divorce me?
Can you afford your father’s daily hospital bills?
Can you afford your mother’s daily shopping expenses?”
“Clara, your mother was the first to kneel in front of me and beg me not to divorce you!”
Liam’s disgust toward my mother—and toward me—had reached a level impossible to conceal.
He hated that my mother drugged him.
He hated that I never fought back.
“Even if your mother didn’t drug me back then, I still would’ve married you. I still would’ve helped you.
But the one method I despise most—was exactly the one you used!”
“Clara, you destroyed our relationship with your own hands!”
No matter how many times I tried to explain, Liam would never believe me.
When I didn’t respond, his frown deepened.
He lifted me and forced me to kneel before Vanessa, pressing my neck down so I’d put the shoes on her.
“Put the shoes on her.
You’ve done lowly things like this for ten years—you should be good at it by now.”
