The crowd watching outside broke into screams.
"Whether it's her period or a miscarriage, how can anyone torture a woman like this?"
"Let her out, hurry! She's lost too much blood—she'll die!"
The voices around me, the shouting, were faint against my ears.
By then, I had already slipped into unconsciousness.
Seeing me collapsed in the dog cage, motionless,
Neville shot up from his chair and rushed to the front of the cage.
When he saw how pale I'd gone from the blood loss,
he finally panicked, ordering the dogs to stop and shouting at the butler to bring the key at once.
In the moment the butler turned away to fetch it,
Eleanor, standing behind him, let a small, triumphant smile cross her lips.
Ten minutes later, the butler finally ambled back, and the key to the dog cage was nowhere in his hands.
"Mr. Pruitt, the key to the cage seems to have gone missing somehow."
Neville frowned, glaring at him in displeasure.
"You're the one who's always kept that key. And now you're telling me it's missing?"
Sweat poured down the butler's face.
His eyes drifted, almost without thinking, to Eleanor standing behind Neville.
At that, Eleanor stepped forward at once.
"Neville, maybe Celia hid the key herself."
"She threatened me before."
"She said if I didn't get out of your marital home, she'd lock me in the dog cage."
"She even said she'd already thrown the key away, that even if you came, you couldn't save me."
I forced my eyes open, staring weakly at Neville, and I never imagined he would choose to believe Eleanor yet again.
Five years of feeling between us, gone in that single instant.
"Celia, I'll give you one last chance."
"Kneel down, apologize properly to Eleanor, and I might consider forgiving every mistake you've made and letting you out."
My cracked lips curled into a cold smile.
"Neville, you want me to apologize? Keep dreaming."
"When my father gets here, I'll show you exactly what regret feels like."
Hearing that, Neville's voice came out thick with impatience.
"Celia, you're still talking big, even now."
"I looked into it long ago. There's no so-called heiress in the Gilbert family of Northport."
"Right now, your only choice is to kneel down, apologize, and beg for mercy."
The words had barely left his mouth when the iron gate was flattened by a tank.
Behind the tank came a row of armored assault vehicles.
A passenger door swung open, and a man in tactical gear appeared in front of him.
"I'd like to see who dares make the eldest Gilbert daughter kneel and beg for mercy."
