Chapter 4

Since I no longer had any relatives, there was no need for a funeral. I stayed by my father's bedside for a while, telling him about my mother, and about myself. I spoke intermittently until dawn. Before leaving, I looked at my father, Arthur Vance, who had been motionless for ten years, and said with a choked voice:

"Dad, I'm tired."

Early the next morning, my mother's body was cremated. I put her urn into a box and took it home. Along with it, I brought the divorce papers I'd had someone draft.

The moment I stepped inside, I ran into Liam and his ten other women sitting at the dining table, laughing and chatting.

"Sign them."

I said coldly, slamming the divorce papers onto the dining table.

"So you ran out in the middle of the night just for these divorce papers? Ashley, you've really lost your mind!"

Clutching the urn in my arms, I lowered my head:

"Liam, let's just let each other go."

"I don't love you anymore."

Before, I would still argue with Liam, and sometimes, when tempers flared, we'd even come to blows. I would point my finger at him and accuse him, telling him his declarations of love all those years ago were just a joke. Most of the time, I still held onto a sliver of hope, hoping he'd forgive me, hoping we could make the marriage work. So when he said he liked 'wild' women, I'd learn to please him in bed. When he liked 'innocent' women, I'd wear his favorite outfits to make him happy. But then, one woman after another moved in, and my heart slowly turned numb. Those tricks I used to please him became my shame, and his outlet for humiliating me.

"What's this that fell out... Sebastian Thorne?"

Chloe picked up the business card that had fallen and read the name aloud. So, it was Sebastian.

Liam's lifelong arch-rival, the one he'd never even met, who lived across the ocean.

The next second, Liam, his face dark, slapped me.

"You say you don't love me because you found someone else?! Do you even know who Sebastian is?!"

My ears rang, and I couldn't even stand steady. The urn in my hands crashed to the floor, shattering. Watching the dust scatter, I stood there, frozen. Instinctively, I knelt, trying to gather the ashes. But no matter how I tried to scoop them, it was useless. Chloe then grabbed a carton of milk and poured it onto the floor, and the other women followed suit. The powdery ashes instantly became a sticky mess.

"Ah!"

In that moment, something in me snapped. I grabbed a chair and, like a madwoman, swung it at Chloe. Liam had no time to react; Chloe was already on the floor, clutching her head.

"Liam... I'm so hurt."

Someone called an ambulance. Liam dragged me by the hand, forcing me to watch her at the hospital.

"If anything happens to her, you'll pay for it with your life!"

That day, I was forced to give Chloe blood, repeatedly, until even the doctors said I couldn't give any more. Only then did Liam let me go. He said it was my own damn fault.

For those few days, I hid in my father's hospital room and didn't leave.

"Well, well, if it isn't Ashley, hiding here! Thanks to your little attack, Liam's been so good to me now."

"Is this your father, Ashley? Why isn't he moving?"

Chloe, now favored, walked and spoke with a haughty air. She repeatedly fiddled with my father's oxygen tube, curiously asking me what it was.

"Don't touch that!"

I shoved her away, and she stumbled back a few steps, clutching her head. The next second, she charged forward, ripped out my father's oxygen tube, and playfully held it in her hand, smiling.