Chapter 3

My husband’s villa sat in the wealthy district of Virgo Town. David had bought it with the dowry my father left me.

I stood at the front door, soaked to the bone. Mud and blood mixed together, dripping onto the spotless marble steps.

【Countdown: 36 Hours 00 Minutes.】

An entire night had slipped away. The Elderwood’s tangled root tendrils seemed to spread through my veins and reach every corner of my body. Every breath I drew stung as if shards of glass scraped against my windpipe.

Shivering, I fished the key out and slid it into the lock.

Click. The door swung open.

Warm air washed over me. The room reeked of expensive perfume, tangled with cloying, sickly sweet scent that turned my stomach.

“David…” I called weakly, bracing myself against the wall as I dragged my feet toward the second-floor bedroom.

If only he would hold me. If only he would say he loved me… I whispered the words like a mantra, trying to hypnotize myself into hope.

The bedroom door hung ajar.

The moment I pushed it open, every last shred of hope and struggle crumbled into dust.

On the wide double bed, two naked bodies writhed against one another.

David, my husband—the man who once swore he would always protect me—pinned the woman named Susan beneath him. Susan was a bar floozy from town, and she let out brazen, breathy moans.

“David…” My voice came out hoarse, like a broken bellows, shattering the lewd atmosphere in the room.

The two people on the bed froze instantly.

David turned his head. When he spotted me standing in the doorway, looking like a ghost, there was not a flicker of guilt on his face. Only sharp, unmasked revulsion.

“What are you doing back here now?” David grabbed the quilt to cover Susan, pulling his pants on as he strode toward me.

“You… you two…” I pointed at the woman on the bed, my body shaking uncontrollably.

“Well now, David, is this your worn-out wife?” Susan poked her head out from under the covers and giggled, her eyes sharp with provocation. “She looks just like a beggar. I’m far better than her, aren’t I, David?”

I ignored Susan’s taunts and locked my gaze firmly on David’s eyes. I searched for even a flicker of panic, or a glimmer of sympathy.

Nothing. There was absolutely nothing.

Only cold indifference and disgust.

“David, save me…” I threw myself forward without hesitation and clung to his thighs. “I’m dying. I’ve been bound by the Elderwood Covenant. The countdown only has a little over thirty hours left. You love me, right? Kiss me, tell me you love me, and my Heartbeat Petal might grow back…”

David stared at me as if I had lost my mind, then shoved me away violently.

My skull crashed against the sharp corner of the nightstand. Warm blood flooded into my eyes, blurring everything into a sea of crimson.

“If your brain’s broken, go get it fixed!” David loomed over me. “What Elderwood Covenant nonsense? Eve, can’t you stand the thought of me cheating? Have you completely lost your senses?”

“I’m not crazy! It’s real!” In desperation, I tore open my collar, revealing the charred brand, thick black fluid oozing out from its edges. “Look! It’s draining my blood! If you love me, I can survive!”

David glanced at the brand and wrinkled his nose in revulsion. “It’s disgusting. I don’t know where you got that hideous mark just to scare me. Eve, since you’ve seen everything, we’ll file for divorce tomorrow. Susan’s pregnant. I can’t let her child grow up without a legal name.”

Pregnant.

Those three words stabbed straight into my already hollow heart, three sharp blades twisting deep.

We had been married for three years. David always claimed he didn’t want children. It turned out he just never wanted mine.

【Warning: Subject experiencing extreme emotional collapse. Vitality depletion accelerating.】

【Countdown: 35 Hours 10 Minutes.】

I lay sprawled on the floor, staring at blood coating my palms, and suddenly broke into wild, hysterical laughter.

“Hahaha… Divorce? Pregnant?” I laughed and coughed up blood. “David, do you honestly think you can get rid of me?”

I lifted my head. One blood-streaked eye pinned him in place, a gaze fit for a ghost crawled up from the depths of hell.

“Without my Heartbeat Petal, none of you will get a happy ending!”