My mother stopped breathing completely amid those vague moans.
While I was taking care of her funeral arrangements, I happened to notice the headline of the day.
[The Rich Young Master Spends Tens Of Millions To Propose To His New Lover, The Former Cinderella Is Coldly Abandoned.]
The fallen Cinderella had returned to what she once was, and with that, two lives were gone.
Soon after, Raiden found out about my mother’s death.
He didn’t say a word, only transferred two million to me quietly.
For him, spending two million to end a problem was worth it.
He thought he had paid me back many times over, so what else could I want?
This was love. This was Raiden’s kind of love.
I should have been grateful, trembling in humility as I accepted it.
But for me, the last connection I had to this world was gone.
My children were gone, and my mother was dead.
I was finally free.
Worn out, I asked Raiden for a divorce.
The first time, he looked at me with clear disgust.
“Divorce? Do you really have the courage to walk away from me?”
“Do you understand that once you leave, you’ll be left with nothing?”
The second time, his tone turned impatient.
“Fine. I’m just messing around outside. It’s not like I won’t come back.”
“Be good, don’t get upset. When I return, I’ll take you on a trip to Phoenix.”
The third time came, Raiden tore the divorce papers apart in anger and shame.
The fourth time, then the fifth, came and went. At last, Raiden agreed.
With superiority in his expression, he stared at me.
“Hestia is right. Letting you calm down for a while might be better.”
“Once you suffer out there, you’ll realize how good the Curtis family truly is.”
He signed his name easily on the divorce papers, waiting for me to break down and beg for him like before.
What he didn’t realize was that this time, I had made up my mind to go.
The villa keys, I handed over to Isabella.
Calmly, I said, “I sold the house, and the new owner agreed to let you keep working here.”
“Isabella, you’ve been the only one in this family who’s ever been kind to me. I hope your life stays peaceful and happy.”
Tears turned Isabella’s eyes red. For a long while, she couldn’t speak.
In the end, she only managed to say one line, “Have a safe trip.”
She never asked where I was heading or what I planned to do.
She simply knew that I had finally broken free from the nightmare of the Curtis family.
After a short silence, I took my suitcase and walked out of that cage that had held me for ten years, never looking back.
At the same time, Raiden, still lost in his soft dreamland, suddenly woke up from a nightmare.
