Chapter 3
The moment I hit the ground, I ignored my forehead bleeding from the marble steps and scrambled to find the jade ring, only to see it shattered into pieces.
Jessica sat on the floor crying. “I’m sorry, I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to.”
Lucas rushed down from the second floor, his face full of concern as he reached for me, but I slapped his hand away hard.
I stepped forward and struck Jessica across the face.
“You did that on purpose, didn’t you? You deliberately pulled me down and deliberately destroyed my things.”
“No, Miss Warren, how could you think that? I treasured your grandmother’s-Mrs. Warren’s things just as much—”
I wasn’t listening to her excuses. As I raised my hand for a second slap, Lucas shoved me hard to the ground.
Caught off guard, I fell again, my palm landing right on the sharp jade fragments. Blood streamed out.
“Vivian, even your crazy has limits. You’re the one who pushed Jess down the stairs.”
Through my tears, I saw the cruel gleam in his eyes. I knew he was punishing me for my defiance.
“Lucas, I’m bleeding. It really hurts.”
I was betting he’d turn around, but instead he smiled mockingly, scooped Jessica into his arms, and walked away without looking back.
As he reached the door, he left me with one final blow.
“Vivian, Jess is a Warren daughter too. Your mother is dead, and if she wants to claim her place in the family, I’ll help her do it.”
I sat there in a daze, watching Lucas’s figure disappear step by step.
The desert wasteland in my chest began to ache.
The blood just wouldn’t stop flowing.
But the Lucas who used to lose sleep all night over a single scratch on my body was never coming back.
When I was fifteen, my mother killed my stepfather, then brought her drug-addicted lover and Jessica back to the Warren house.
Jessica took my room and stole my toys.
When she ate, I was forced to kneel.
When she caused trouble, I took the beating.
She basked in our mother’s love while I was locked in the damp basement.
In the end, they killed my grandmother together.
Lucas knew all of this. To protect me, he’d even taken salt-water lashes across his back.
Now, he was doing this on purpose.
He knew exactly how to hurt me the most, so he showed no mercy.
Like training a wild animal-he wanted me to learn obedience, so he had to break my claws and fangs.
Through my tears, I opened the ‘Countdown’ app and marked the ninety-ninth “X.”
Out of a hundred chances, there was now only one lonely empty box left.
Like it was mocking all these years of humiliation I’d endured.
Two nights later, Lucas came home to the mansion reeking of alcohol.
The moment he saw me, he pulled me into a deep embrace, nuzzling against me.
“Vivian, baby, wifey, I missed you so much.”
Using alcohol as an excuse to make peace-another one of Lucas’s signature moves.
But tonight, Jessica’s sickly sweet scent clinging to him made me want to throw up.
I shoved him away hard.
Lucas’s eyes, filled with tender affection just moments before, instantly turned cold.
“Vivian, what the hell?”
“I don’t want to.”
“Still jealous, baby? You know how our crowd works-it’s all just for show. You’ll always be Mrs. Sinclair, that’s never gonna change.”
The smug smile on his face completely shredded what was left of my broken heart.
A wave of deep exhaustion hit me, and I sighed.
“Lucas, I’m tired. I don’t want to keep playing this game with you anymore.”
Those words suddenly ignited his rage.
“Vivian, don’t think I don’t know-your grandmother raised a boy toy for you from childhood, didn’t she? Peter, right?”
“Why do you think he suddenly came back from abroad the year we got married? It was for you, wasn’t it? You want to run to him, don’t you?”
“You’re just like your mother-a whore who’ll never learn loyalty. You think I can’t live without you?”
With trembling hands, I slapped him hard across the face.
“Lucas, is this your excuse for hurting me all these years?”
My words silenced him. After a long moment, he stood up from the bed.
His face was full of contempt and disdain.
“Vivian, if you won’t sleep with me, there’s a whole line of girls out there waiting their turn. Honestly, after screwing you for all these years, I’m getting bored anyway.”
