Chapter 3

I wanted to ask Julian if he knew.

But then I saw a small boy, darting around outside his office.

My beloved, with whom I had spent fourteen years.

He actually had a three-year-old child with another woman.

I stormed into his office.

"Julian, is that child outside yours?"

He merely lifted his eyes.

"Evie, watch your tone and remember where you are."

"My tone? My identity? I am your legal wife!"

He leaned back into his leather chair.

"Blair gave me a son, Evie. My family name needs an heir. You've been unable to have children, so you should understand."

I stared at him, as if seeing him for the very first time.

He paused, then pushed a prepared document across the desk.

When I saw the words 'Divorce Agreement' on it, I ripped it into shreds.

I stared in disbelief at the man I had poured my entire life into supporting.

I refused to sign.

In a rage, I stormed off to my parents' house.

My mother, furious beyond words, burst into Julian's office and slapped him across the face in front of everyone.

"You shameless bastard! Without my daughter, you'd still be rolling in the gutter!"

"You ungrateful snake! A total backstabber!"

Julian's eyes turned cold, menacing.

"Fine," he snarled. "Let's see who can't live without whom."

That very day, Julian pulled all his investments from my father's company.

Word spread like wildfire. The next day, competitors deliberately undercut my father, snatching contracts with ridiculously low bids.

The company's cash flow dried up, and our partners abandoned us one by one.

He even fired our relatives' children from his company and blacklisted them across the entire industry.

Even though those elders were the very people who had once helped him.

When he was just starting his company and had no seed money, it was my family who pooled together every last penny for him.

But with a flick of his wrist, he was ready to destroy all our lives.

My father, consumed by anger, suffered a heart attack and was hospitalized.

Julian ultimately acquired the company for a ridiculously low price.

My mother couldn't bear the shock and fell ill, never recovering.

Julian reappeared, tossing the agreement onto the table in front of me.

"Sign it. You walk away with nothing, but you'll save your parents."

Looking at my father, still in the ICU, I shakily signed my name.

As I left that home, clutching the last few things I owned, Blair was waiting at the door.

"Evie, this is how it should be. If you'd just given up your place sooner, your parents wouldn't have ended up like this, would they?"

She smirked, a triumphant gleam in her eyes.

All the anger and humiliation erupted in that moment. I grabbed a kitchen knife and pointed it at her.

"Get out of my house! Get out!"

Instead of backing away, she suddenly grabbed my hand, forcing the knife's tip sharply into her own abdomen.

Julian arrived just in time, pulling her away.

Under Julian's manipulation, all the evidence turned against me.

No lawyer dared to take my case.

He himself took the witness stand.

"I personally witnessed Evie, driven by jealousy, attack Blair with a knife. She has a volatile personality and had threatened Blair multiple times before."

My parents, still in the hospital, heard the news and, despite their fragile health, desperately tried to fight for me.

But his heart was set on destroying me.

On the day of my final sentencing, my father coughed up a mouthful of blood on the courthouse steps.

He couldn't be saved.

Not long after, my mother also passed away.

I was sentenced to the maximum ten years for aggravated assault.

Yet now, I watched him gather the media, holding a press conference.

He released the lab's surveillance footage.

Desperately trying to clear my name.

"Evie did not target the child. I will pursue legal action against all online misinformation. Regardless of the truth of what happened that year, I owe her, and I will not allow anyone to slander her."

I don't know how long passed.

A single tear splattered onto the darkened screen of my phone.

The screen reflected my own mocking face.