Chapter 1

At the engagement party, Julian tore up our agreement on the spot, selling me for a single dollar to Callum, a man rumored to be a bloodthirsty, crippled psychopath.

Our mutual friend frowned.

"Are you out of your mind? Sylvia stayed by your side through your hardest three years, and you're really going to send her off to be tortured by a freak like Callum?"

Julian casually swirled the whiskey in his glass.

"It's just a little punishment. Rosie is carrying my child and needs a title, but Sylvia is too damn proud. Not only did she refuse to step down, but she also upset Rosie and affected her pregnancy."

"Callum is a twisted cripple. Give it three hours, and she'll break down completely. By then, she'll obediently accept Rosie's existence and even willingly stay as my hidden mistress."

The friend looked at my retreating back and couldn't help but ask, "Aren't you afraid you'll push her too far, that she'd rather stay with that psycho than come back to you?"

Julian let out a light scoff.

"Absolutely impossible. She loves me so much she'd give her life for me. Even if she takes a trip to hell, she'll only beg me to be her savior."

I picked up that one-dollar coin from the floor, without a single tear or tantrum.

Later, Julian broke into Callum's estate like a madman, begging me to go back with him.

But the disabled man from the rumors simply stood up, pulled me securely behind him, and sneered, "My wife. Is she someone you are even fit to touch?"

 ......

I stood all alone in the center of the hall, wearing the couture gown prepared specifically for tonight's engagement party.

Right in front of me, my fiancé, Julian, was holding a woman in a revealing red dress tightly in his arms.

That was Rosie, the most notorious stripper from Manhattan's underground clubs. And for the past month, she had been Julian's "true love," the one he spent every night with.

"Sylvia, didn't you always brag about how much you loved me?" Julian looked down at me from his high horse, a mocking smirk curling on his lips.

He fished around in his pocket and pulled out a coin.

The one-dollar coin arched through the air and landed right on my shoe.

"To let you prove your love, I've decided to fulfill your wish. I have traded you to Mr. Callum. Your worth is exactly this one dollar."

Uncontrollable laughter erupted across the ballroom.

"Oh my god, Callum? The crippled psycho who lives in the cliffside mansion?"

"I heard he's a sadist. None of the women sent to his bed ever made it out alive."

"Julian is ruthless. Selling his fiancée to a monster like that for a dollar... he's practically sending her to her death."

The whispers around me felt like poisoned needles, piercing my ears.

I stared at the coin on the floor, my vision blurring for just a second.

Three years ago, Julian's company was on the verge of bankruptcy, drowning in massive debt.

It was me who worked multiple jobs day and night, sold every piece of jewelry my mother left me, and even braved the pouring rain to beg investors just to help him tide over the crisis.

I lived with him in a dingy basement, listening to him swear that he would marry me and give me the best wedding in the world.

Now, he was the new golden boy of the business world.

And what he gave me in return was publicly selling me for a dollar to a bloodthirsty, crippled predator, all for a stripper.

The guests around me watched like I was a clown, eagerly waiting for my breakdown.

In their eyes, an orphan who had just lost her only protection and was about to be sent to hell had no other choice but to fall on her knees and beg for mercy.

Julian turned around and looked at me arrogantly. "Sylvia, if you get on your knees and beg me right now, admit that you can't live without me, and swear never to interfere with Rosie and my affairs again, I might consider canceling this deal."

He was so sure that I loved him, so sure that I was terrified of a freak like Callum, so sure that I had nowhere else to go.

I suppressed the sharp, piercing pain in my chest and spoke. "Julian, if you just wanted to give Rosie and the baby in her belly a proper title, you didn't have to humiliate me like this. We can just call off the engagement. I'll leave tonight and give up my place to her."

I thought this was the last bit of decency we could maintain.

But those words seemed to step on Julian's sore spot.

His smug smile vanished instantly, his eyes turning dark and contemptuous.

"Impossible!"

"Sylvia, do you think too highly of yourself? Do you really think anyone else would want you once you leave me?"

Rosie leaned against his chest, chiming in flirtatiously, "Exactly, sister. In this circle, if Julian doesn't protect you, who would even spare a second glance at you?"

Julian cut her off impatiently, his eyes locking onto mine.

"I said it already. You either accept Rosie and the baby to stay. Or, take that dollar and go wait for death in that lunatic Callum's bed."

Looking at his vain, mean-spirited face, I suddenly felt that our past was nothing but a ridiculous joke.

I took a deep breath, then slowly bent down.

A flash of triumph crossed Julian's eyes. The people around us let out disdainful snickers, thinking I was finally going to give in.

But I simply reached out and picked up the coin from the floor.

I looked straight into Julian's eyes. "Fine. I accept the deal."

The smile on Julian's face froze instantly. He stared at me in disbelief. "What did you say?"

"I said, I accept the deal."

"Sylvia! Are you crazy?!" Julian practically lunged forward, grabbing my wrist in a vice grip. "Do you have any idea what kind of monster Callum is? If you go there, you won't even leave with a whole corpse! Are you throwing your life away just to spite me?"

"Spite you?"

I looked at him like he was a complete stranger and yanked my hand away from his grip.

"Julian, you were the one who used this one dollar to personally sell off every last trace of what we had."