“She better not come crawling back to beg for reconciliation!” Andre roared at the screen.
Elise trembled with fury, unable to imagine how devastated and enraged her mother must be hearing such callous words after just losing her only daughter.
Overwhelmed by anger, she stepped forward and tried to slap Andrew, but her hand passed straight through his body.
Hatred surged within Elise—for her indecisiveness in life and her helplessness in death.
The other end of the call remained silent, but Andrew didn’t hang up.
“Drew, who’s on the phone?” Kimberly’s coquettish voice drifted from the bedroom.
Elise’s mother, trembling with rage, shouted into the phone, “Andrew, my daughter’s body isn’t even cold yet, and you… you’re already fooling around with your mistress?!”
Her accusation ignited Andrew’s fury. “Mrs. Watson, who are you calling a mistress?!”
“If it weren’t for your daughter’s scheming, Kim and I would have been the rightful pair! Your daughter is the one who used dirty tricks to force away the true partner, shamelessly climbing her way to the top as the real mistress!”
With that, Andrew hung up, wrapping his arms around Kimberly and returning to bed.
Elise stood frozen, her feet feeling like they were weighed down with lead.
So, in Andrew’s eyes, she was the mistress all along.
She let out a bitter laugh. How patient he must have been, enduring all these years for the sake of his company.
When Andrew returned to the bedroom, Kimberly’s expression shifted from joy to hesitation, then to deep regret. Her eyes filled with tears as she murmured, “Drew, about last night…”
She lowered her gaze, her demeanor full of guilt as if she had committed an unforgivable sin. “What we did was wrong. Elise is your wife. I can’t be the one to ruin your marriage.”
“Drew, from now on… let’s not see each other again.”
Her last words seemed to sap all her strength. She avoided Andrew’s gaze, tears streaming down her face as she turned to run.
Andrew caught her around the waist, holding her tightly. “Kim, don’t go!”
“You know you’re the one I consider my wife. Elise? She’s nothing compared to you—not even a single strand of your hair.”
Kimberly stayed in his embrace, her back turned to him, and softly chided, “Don’t talk about Elise like that! No matter what, she’s still our benefactor…”
The word “benefactor” slipped from her lips reluctantly, each syllable laden with humiliation and helplessness, as if she had no choice but to acknowledge it.
Andrew’s expression darkened instantly, his tone icy and cutting, “So what if she has money? In front of me, Elise is nothing but a dog, wagging her tail at my feet for a single smile.”
“This time, she’s caused such a scene—I can’t wait to see how she’ll clean up the mess! Mrs. Watson must be senile to go along with such blatant lies. Does she not fear her words might come true, that her daughter might really die?”
“If Elise doesn’t kneel and apologize to me this time, I’ll divorce that insufferable woman.”
Every word from Andrew’s mouth was a blade slicing through Elise’s heart, leaving her gasping for air, hunched over in pain.
Eight years of marriage—five years of tenderness followed by three years of distrust and contempt. No matter how Andrew treated her, Elise had never wavered.
She had poured everything she had into loving him.
But in the end, all she got in return was his relentless insults and degradation, as though he couldn’t wait to grind her into the dirt.
Biting her trembling lower lip, Elise stared at the man she had loved for most of her life.
