Chapter 3

I'd slipped it onto him while Garry wasn't looking.

Inside the carriage, Crystal nestled against Garry's side.

"Garry, she's your wife. Don't you feel anything for her?"

Garry stroked her cheek.

"You're the one I love. She's nothing but a marriage-alliance commodity. If my parents hadn't forced me, I'd never have married her."

"That role was mine to give you. She had the nerve to cut you, to disrespect me like that. She's going to pay for it."

"Don't worry. The Fox family thinks we're off on our honeymoon. Two whole months. Play with her however you want. Just don't play her to death."

Crystal's bright, tinkling laugh spilled through the earpiece.

A cold light rose in my eyes.

Then let's see who plays whom to death first.

Before long, we arrived at the so-called princess's manor.

Looking at that gate, all the agony of my past life came flooding back.

After I was dragged into the manor, Crystal had my clothes stripped off and a chain fastened around my neck.

She made me live like a dog, eating the foulest slop, caged with the pigs.

Threatening that if I didn't obey, she'd kill both me and Garry.

Slowly my body and mind went numb, until I was little more than a walking corpse.

Even that wasn't enough for her. She brought in an old wooden torture horse and forced me down onto it.

The pain tore through me, and I begged and begged.

She looked at the blood pooling across the floor and only laughed, delighted.

"So fun, so fun. Garry, dear, who'd have thought big sister here was such a filthy little slut."

"Only, when we do this to her, will it upset you?"

Garry held her close, his voice dripping with indulgence.

"How could it. You're the one I love most. She dared to cut you. Torture her however you like."

"Victoria, you didn't really think you'd traveled back in time, did you?"

"The two months are up. This honeymoon surprise, do you like it?"

Under my stunned stare, he pressed a switch.

The clear sky went pitch black in an instant. I looked up, and a plane crossed overhead, its lights blinking.

I froze where I stood, my heart torn to shreds.

Crystal pulled out her phone and took photos of me.

"Big sister, if these pictures ended up in front of the Fox family, I bet they'd lose their minds."

"The great heiress of Fox Group. A famous director. And now here she is, on all fours like a bitch in heat."

"If this made the news, imagine the sensation."

In that moment something in me went to ash. I broke completely.

I ran, stumbling like a lunatic, out and away.

And a speeding truck crushed me into a pulp.

When I came back to myself, a single tear had fallen from the corner of my eye without my noticing.

I clenched my fists, holding down the fury filling my chest.

"Princess, we're here now, so keep your word. Hand over the hundred taels."

Seeing that I wouldn't take the bait, Crystal waved a hand, ready to just take me by force.

Garry called out to stop her.

"Leave her. Help me with my wound first. It hurts like hell."

Two hours passed before they came out.

Garry had changed into clean clothes. He limped over to me.

"Victoria, I just begged the princess, and she agreed to let you stay."

"Aren't you happy? Now we can be together again."

I stepped back in disgust.

I could have cut off my own ears. God only knew what I'd just had to listen to.

Garry and I had never even shared a bed since we married. I'd had no idea he was into things like that, that he was a submissive on top of it. It was sickening beyond words.

"You're here to be the princess's kept boy. So what about me?"

"I don't want to stay here. Have the princess give me the gold, and I'll leave right away."

Garry couldn't understand why I'd turned so cold all of a sudden.

"Victoria, do you really think if you take the money the princess will let you go?"

"Don't be naive. This is a world that eats people alive. Break the rules and you die."

"I'm doing this for your own good. You think I want to serve the princess? You're the only one I love."

The manor guards forced me down to my knees.

"You filthy woman. The princess is showing you mercy. Plenty of people would give anything to get inside this manor and never can."

"Don't refuse a toast only to be forced to drink the penalty. Come in as a maidservant, or die. Your choice."

My knees hit the ground, and I sucked in a sharp breath at the pain.

"What is the meaning of this, Princess?"

"In broad daylight. Don't tell me you mean to murder someone in the open street."

Crystal let out a scornful laugh, no longer bothering to act.

"I'm a princess. If I kill a filthy little woman like you, what could you possibly do about it?"

"You two, hold her down for me. I want to see just how tough that mouth of hers is."

Pinned so hard I couldn't move, I could only take the slap full on. Blood welled at the corner of my mouth at once.

"What are you staring at? Those eyes of yours make me sick."

"Once I've had my fill of you, I'll gouge them out and see how arrogant you are then."

Still not satisfied, Crystal struck me a few more times.

I fixed my reddened eyes on her.

"Hit me, and you'll regret it."

She seized a fistful of my hair.

"Still running that mouth, are you? Garry, go inside and bring me a pair of scissors."