I didn't care about my ragged clothes.
Forgetting all dignity and decorum, my mind screamed a single word: Survive.
But when I followed the sound to the scene, what I saw was Caleb hosting a charity gala with Sabrina at The Plaza Hotel.
The event was grand, and the place was crawling with reporters.
How ridiculous.
He had money to invest, money for charity, but no money to ransom his own fiancée.
He had time for press conferences, for interviews, but no time to save his own fiancée.
He was here, basking in praise and applause, while I was left to suffer all the humiliation and torture at the hands of demons.
I stood there, covered in scars, like a clown who didn't belong.
Forcing everyone present to stare at the fresh wounds covering my body.
In that moment, all the spotlights turned on me.
The warmth vanished from Caleb's face.
He didn't ask if I was in pain, nor did he care what I had been through.
He only said one thing.
"Evelyn, what are you throwing a fit about now?"
A fit?
So all the pain and torture I had endured… in his eyes, it was just me being unreasonable, trying to get attention.
So all the blood and scars on my body… to him, they meant less than a speck of dust on the floor.
I rushed over in tears, demanding to know why he hadn't saved me.
"Why? Why?"
"I'm your fiancée! We promised to spend our lives together!"
"I'm carrying your—"
Before I could finish, Caleb cut me off heartlessly.
Under everyone's gaze, he pushed my hand away.
His gaze was a heavy, complicated mix of emotions I couldn't begin to untangle.
"Evelyn, why can't you just be sensible!"
"I had Sabrina handle it the moment I got the news. Once this busy period is over, the money will be sent in full."
"You were never going to be in any real danger, so why put on such a pathetic act here?"
How could anyone use their own dignity and life to put on an act?!
I stood there, staring in disbelief at the man I had once loved so deeply.
But even as tears streamed down my face, Caleb's expression remained unmoved.
He just seemed to be quietly blaming me for disrupting his charity event.
In the end, I was wrapped in a blanket and led away.
Sabrina came over, feigning concern.
But she deliberately loosened her scarf, revealing the fresh hickeys on her neck.
"Aren't you curious why your parents didn't come to save you?"
"Isn't it strange how Caleb's attitude towards you changed so drastically?"
"Because you're not a Van Doren at all!"
Sabrina told me that on the day they received the ransom note, my parents were frantic.
They claimed they would spare no expense, even if it meant bankrupting the company, to save me.
But Caleb stopped them.
He produced a DNA report.
It said I was an imposter, switched at birth by a vengeful nanny.
The real Van Doren daughter had died long ago from the nanny's abuse and torture.
These words stopped my parents in their tracks.
The cherished jewel of the Van Doren family... turned out to be an imposter.
The years of love they had given me made it impossible for them to abandon me completely.
But their hatred for the woman who had killed their real daughter left them unsure how to face me.
After much hesitation.
They left me a fifty-million-dollar trust fund and entrusted me to Caleb's care.
In truth, they had done all they could for me.
They just never expected Caleb to be so heartless.
He took that fifty million dollars, the money that was supposed to save my life.
And invested it in his new project.
With it, he skyrocketed to new heights, his future limitless.
But he left me to be tortured until I was barely breathing.
That day, I cried until I had no tears left.
When I looked up, Caleb was standing before me.
He was silhouetted against the light.
I couldn't see his expression, but I saw the necklace around his neck, identical to Sabrina's.
He looked down at me, his voice low.
"Evelyn, I won't abandon you because of your past."
"But I want you to remember, you no longer have the Van Doren family to rely on."
"If you want to marry me, to become Mrs. Hawthorne, you need to be sensible."
Everyone tried to convince me that this was Caleb's way of extending an olive branch.
That he knew of my proud nature, knew of my unbearable ordeal.
Yet he was still willing to tolerate, accept, and forgive me.
This was proof that he loved me.
But this so-called love sounded more like a threat.
The old Evelyn Van Doren would have been angry, furious, would have raised hell.
But after everything I'd been through, I was scared.
I realized my fate rested entirely on Caleb's whim.
My life, my future, my everything.
It was all up to him.
So, I did as he wished.
I became sensible.
