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The maid obediently left. Caleb looked at Seraphina, his cold demeanor from earlier
completely gone as he pulled her into his embrace.
“Last night you kept complaining about your back hurting, but today you’re apologizing to someone and it’s suddenly fine?”
Seraphina blushed and playfully punched Caleb’s chest. “How can that be the same? Last
night was… in bed.”
They treated me like air, flirting shamelessly as if I weren’t even there.
I thought I’d feel sadness or anger, but now, everything had turned to numbness. Perhaps it was the system’s forced memory erasure taking effect, but I couldn’t even recall what it
felt like for Caleb to love me.
Soon after, the doctor came to examine me. Caleb’s men kept rushing him.
“It’s just a broken rib, right? How serious can it be? I don’t want to be stuck here
babysitting you all day.”
H
So, after receiving the doctor’s assurance that I was “barely fit for discharge,” they drove
me back to my residence and dumped me there.
Scenes like this played out countless times every day. Caleb’s men only saw me as a tool, a human shield for Seraphina.
I took my own medicine back at the villa. My stomach ached dully with hunger, but the
villa was empty. Even the maid who was supposed to cook for me was gone.
Caleb called, his voice cold as he announced:
“That maid you picked out for yourself was attentive, but she didn’t do a thing for
Seraphina. You’re forbidden from having a maid for three months. That’ll teach you a
lesson!”
“Seraphina hasn’t been feeling well lately, so I called your family doctor over to her place.
It’s just a minor injury for you, I’m sure you’ll recover with some rest.’
He didn’t leave anyone to take care of me. Did he expect a freshly discharged patient to
fend for herself?
I gave a bitter laugh. “Okay.”
“After this week, I’ll send the doctor back.”
“Okay.”
The voice on the other end paused, sounding deeply annoyed.
“Are you done yet? How long are you going to keep making a fuss over a bowl of nourishing broth?”
“You promised before we got married that you’d be Seraphina’s human shield willingly.
You’ve been ‘Mrs. Thorne’ for a few years now, but you really think you’re my wife? Stop
dreaming. Seraphina is my true princess.”
I nodded blankly. “Okay, I know.”
He seemed surprised for a moment, then sounded satisfied. “That’s more like it. If you
need anything, just tell the butler.”
A woman’s voice quickly drowned out his brief gentleness.
“Caleb, I’ve been waiting for you for ages.”
Caleb hung up without hesitation.
The countdown now showed 24 hours remaining.
I found some food the maid had left in the fridge.
For some reason, the electricity and water were cut off. The food was clearly on the
verge of spoiling, and I couldn’t heat anything, but I was so hungry my stomach hurt. I
wolfed it down.
Seraphina Hayes’ latest video popped up automatically on my phone.
I meant to swipe it away but accidentally tapped on it.
The video’s background seemed to be a high-end restaurant. This time, Seraphina had not only several adhesive bandages on her neck but also on her arms and waist.
Seraphina closed her eyes, making a wish in front of a cake.
Suddenly, violin music began to play. The camera panned to the side, revealing huge bouquets of roses.
Nestled within the roses was luxurious, high-end jewelry.
Seraphina cried tears of joy, happily throwing herself into Caleb Thorne’s arms. Caleb gently smiled, wiping away her tears, and personally placed the necklace around her neck.
The comments brimmed with envy: [Mysterious bro is so handsome! Goddess and him, forever together!]
Seraphina replied in the comments:
“My fiancé is the most handsome man in the world. He wants to give me nothing but the
best.”
527
“He waited for me for a long time, and last week, I finally decided to marry him.”
“We’re holding our wedding ceremony next month, and we’ll be live-streaming it for everyone.”
The screen’s light shone on my face. As I ate, my stomach twisted in excruciating pain. I suddenly caught sight of Seraphina’s message at the bottom of the bowl.
[Elara Vance, I deliberately had the maid cut off your water and electricity, and left spoiled food in the fridge. You didn’t eat it, did you?]
My stomach had been messed up from being starved for days during my captivity by Caleb’s associate, making me unable to eat anything unclean.
My stomach instantly churned, and I threw up.
Just then, Caleb Thorne called. I opened my mouth to ask for help, but was met with a furious torrent of scolding.
“Elara Vance, for a bowl of nourishing broth and a few maids, you actually posted Seraphina’s info on the dark web’s infamous list!”
“If Seraphina loses even a single strand of hair, I swear I’ll make your life a living hell!”
I clutched my lower abdomen, shaking my head. “It wasn’t me, Caleb. My stomach hurts, can you come-”
“It’s not you *again*? Besides you, who else has that travel photo of Seraphina? It was a photo of you and Seraphina together, and you cunningly cropped yourself out, leaving only
her!”
“And you’ve been to the restaurant Seraphina and I ate at today. Who else would expose her location?”
“I even saw you following Seraphina’s social media account.”
Caleb’s voice dripped with blatant disgust.
I even suspected that if I appeared before him, he’d force me to kneel and kowtow to Seraphina.
Just last month, Seraphina said she was scared of thunder and wanted me to stay with her.
The moment I approached her bed, she deliberately kicked me off.
That day, I was made to humiliate myself until my lips were split and bleeding before Seraphina finally, softly, said it was ‘okay’.
Today, Caleb once again pinned the blame on me without a second thought. My forehead was sweating with pain, but I desperately tried to explain, “I really didn’t…”
On the other end of the phone, Seraphina shrieked in terror, “Caleb, I’m so scared, is someone coming to kill me?”
The call disconnected.
My face pale, I dialed 911. The next moment, Caleb’s men kicked open the door.
But they weren’t there to save me. Instead, they dragged me up. “It’s your turn again today to take the fall for Seraphina.”
An ambulance siren wailed outside. I struggled desperately. “I don’t feel well, I need to go to the hospital.”
The men exchanged glances and burst into laughter.
“This Elara Vance really is just as Seraphina said-she’s faking it.”
