I had thought that being reborn meant I had already let go.
But I never expected that at this moment, my heart still felt as if something had been carved out, so raw, so hollow, it stole the air from my lungs.
I swallowed the ache and forced myself to move, fingers calmly unclasping the watch on my wrist.
The sharp click of the metal buckle echoed harshly in the study's dead silence.
“Maya!” Weston suddenly rose to his feet. “You don’t have to do this!”
“Uncle Weston.”
I cut him off gently and kept going.
“Rules are rules.”
My handbag. The watch. One by one, I removed my heels, folding each piece neatly and placing them on the floor with steady hands.
At last, I peeled off my stockings, bare feet meeting the icy marble below.
Eliza stood smirking, her eyes brimming with smug triumph.
Hunter’s face, on the other hand, had gone noticeably pale.
When my fingers reached for the buttons of my dress, he finally turned away, unable to watch.
“Enough!”
Weston’s voice trembled with fury and heartache.
“Maya, stop this!”
I calmly folded the dress and placed it on top of the handbag.
“From this moment on, I am just me.”
“My name is Maya Monroe. I am no longer the Emerson family’s child bride.”
When I stepped out the back door of the Emerson house, I wore nothing but my underwear.
At some point, a large crowd of reporters had gathered. The moment they saw me, they surged forward like a tidal wave.
“Miss Monroe, how does it feel to be kicked out by the Emerson family?”
“Is it true they didn’t even let you keep your underwear?”
The blinding flashes made me squint.
“Step aside,” I said quietly, my voice hoarse and unfamiliar to my ears.
Laughter erupted.
A male reporter at the front even angled his camera deliberately toward my body.
His face rang a bell, likely one of the regulars at Eliza’s birthday parties.
Clutching my chest, I forced myself through the crowd.
Someone shoved me hard. I stumbled and fell heavily to the ground.
My side slammed into a sharp rock, and blood spilled out in an instant.
I pressed my hand tightly over the wound, but the bleeding wouldn’t stop.
Gritting my teeth against the burning pain, I forced myself back on my feet and kept running.
The reporters, like sharks drawn to blood, chased after me mercilessly.
It wasn’t until I darted into a narrow alley that I finally lost them.
Just as I emerged from the alley’s shadow, a sleek black Maybach pulled up and blocked my path.
The window lowered slowly, revealing a strikingly handsome face.
“Miss Monroe, I’m Nico Sullivan from the Sullivan Group.”
He stepped out and gently draped his coat over my shoulders.
“My grandfather would like to meet you. May we?”
I stood frozen.
Nico Sullivan was the renowned young heir of the capital’s most powerful family.
The Sullivan family was a true aristocracy, deeply rooted and untouchable.
In my previous life, I had spent ten long years trying to earn even a distant connection with them.
And now, they had come to me.
I straightened my back and gave a steady nod.
“It would be my honor.”
..…
The next morning, inside the Emerson Villa, Hunter sat frozen, staring blankly at the phone screen in his hand.
Top trending headline: “Emerson family’s child bride Maya stripped of title, thrown out, and forced to walk the streets half-naked!”
“Where are our morals? Such disgrace!”
“If not for Young Master Emerson’s leftover pity, she wouldn’t have even left with her underwear!”
“Yesterday, she was the chief designer of Emerson Jewelry. Today, she’s beneath a beggar. What a fall from grace.”
“What’s the fuss? That’s how rich families treat their playthings!”
His finger tapped the video without thinking.
The image of her, bare, stumbling, drenched in shame, made his heart lurch.
When the camera swept across Maya’s bloodied side, lingering on the old scar across her abdomen, his entire body stiffened.
“Hunter, what are you watching?”
Eliza’s voice purred behind him as she wrapped her arms around his neck.
But the moment her eyes landed on the screen, she let out a shrill laugh.
