Chapter 3

Rosie's eyes instantly welled up, her tears falling like a broken string of pearls. She threw her arms tightly around Julian.

"Julian, please don't be mad at her, it's all my fault... I just wanted to convince her to stay. I told her I'd gladly give up the title, even for the baby's sake, as long as she was happy. I thought she was just acting out of spite, but I had no idea... I never thought she'd actually choose a terrifying man like Callum over forgiving us."

She wiped her tears and looked at me with a pitiful, innocent expression. "Sylvia, please don't go. That place is actual hell..."

Julian's already dark expression turned thoroughly thunderous upon hearing Rosie's words.

He patted Rosie's back to soothe her, then slowly raised his head, locking onto me with a gaze that was utterly sinister and dripping with malice.

"Is that so?" Julian let out a sudden, cold laugh, his lips curling into a mocking sneer. "No wonder you didn't even hesitate for a second to accept the deal. You aren't throwing a tantrum at all, Sylvia. You're just dying to throw yourself into Callum's bed, aren't you?"

His eyes brimmed with condescending disgust and vile assumptions.

"What? Were you in such a rush to find your next sugar daddy? When exactly did you hook up with that crippled freak? Let me tell you something, Sylvia. Even if I sold you, as long as I don't give the word, our engagement is not over! You'd better drop those cheap, slutty thoughts right now!"

Julian looked at me like I was a pile of nauseating garbage. "You absolutely disgust me, Sylvia."

Faced with his barrage of vicious insults, I felt no anger. I didn't even try to defend myself.

I looked at Rosie standing beside him, secretly hiding a triumphant smirk, and then at the man in front of me—the man who would have once given his life for me, but who was now trampling me under his feet without a second thought.

Explain? Defend myself?

It was just too exhausting.

I finally realized how utterly foolish it was to try and prove your innocence in a thoroughly rotted relationship. No matter what I said, Julian would only ever believe Rosie.

"Think whatever you want, Julian," I replied, my voice completely devoid of emotion.

Julian clearly hadn't anticipated such a chillingly indifferent response. He was so used to my obedience and my eyes full of love for him, that the sheer deadness in my gaze caused his breath to catch in his throat.

He swallowed his temper and spoke in a tone of arrogant charity. "Drop the holier-than-thou act in front of me. This is the absolute last chance I'm giving you, Sylvia. Bow your head, admit your mistakes right now, and promise you can tolerate Rosie and the child she's carrying. Do that, and I might just be merciful enough not to send you away."

"There's no need," I said, finally raising my eyes. "Julian, let's just cancel the engagement. I'll give up my place to her. From now on, we draw a clear line and have absolutely nothing to do with each other."

The arrogance on Julian's face instantly shattered, quickly replaced by the explosive fury of being rejected to his face.

"Draw a line?" Julian let out a bark of furious laughter, pointing a finger at me through gritted teeth. "Good! Perfect! You really are still throwing a tantrum, aren't you?"

"The car from Callum's estate is coming tomorrow. I'm warning you, Sylvia, if I don't personally show up to stop them, you are completely finished! Do you actually think you can walk out of that monster's clutches alive?!"

He confidently pulled Rosie by the waist against him, absolutely certain I couldn't survive without him. "I can't wait to see you begging on your knees tomorrow!"

With that, as if even looking at me for another second was a waste of his time, he turned and swept out of the room with Rosie.

I watched his retreating back, and the very last flicker of light in my eyes completely burned out.

The next day, a black Maybach carried me deep into the thick night of Long Island, eventually coming to a halt in front of the notoriously terrifying estate.

Meanwhile, in a Manhattan penthouse.

Julian stood restlessly in my empty bedroom.

The designer gowns he had bought me were still hanging in the closet, and the priceless jewels were completely untouched on the vanity. I hadn't taken a single thing with me. I had left without a trace, as if I had never even existed in this house.

"Julian, baby, stop staring at that." Rosie hugged him from behind, her voice dripping with a sultry whine. "How could a woman like her ever survive a crippled freak like Callum? I bet you, in less than three hours, she'll abandon her pride and be crying on the phone, begging you to bring her back."

Julian didn't say a word. He just stared at the torrential rain pouring outside the window, while an unfamiliar, deeply suffocating sense of panic suddenly surged from the very bottom of his heart.

Three hours passed. The phone remained dead silent.

Five hours passed. The thunder was deafening, yet there was still no desperate cry for help from me.

That deathly silence began to violently tear at Julian's sanity. All those horrifying rumors about Callum torturing women to death suddenly began slithering through his mind like venomous snakes.

Julian completely lost his nerve.

He abruptly shoved away the still-chattering Rosie.

"Sylvia... You absolute lunatic. You actually dared to stay with that monster!" His eyes were bloodshot, and his voice carried a violent tremor that even he didn't notice.

He rushed to his car and slammed his foot on the gas pedal. With the deafening roar of the engine, he drove like a madman through the pouring rain toward Long Island.