Chapter 3

I watched her draw back her fist and make a striking motion at her own belly.

The rage tore whatever sense I had left clean out of me.

I snatched up the ashtray and hurled it straight at her forehead.

"Lucia! You're not even human!"

"That's our child. Do you have any idea how hard we fought for that baby?"

She didn't dodge.

Blood ran straight down from her forehead, and she only watched me, cold.

"Edward, you really are a madman."

"But even a madman has to pay the price."

Right there, Lucia pulled out her phone and called the police.

"Assault. Attempted murder."

"Edward, you want to bet I can put you away for life?"

Meeting the hard resolve in her eyes.

My head dropped again.

In the end the officers lectured me at length before they left.

With the cut on her forehead, Lucia looked like the perfect victim.

She walked away with barely any consequence at all.

And me, I was ordered by the police to sign the divorce agreement as soon as possible.

"Fine. You win."

I closed my eyes in despair.

A bitter, self-mocking smile pulled at my mouth.

"I give up."

If this marriage had already lost all meaning.

Then why keep tormenting each other?

I was about to pick up the pen and sign my name.

But a hand suddenly pressed down over mine.

I looked up into Justin's amused smile.

"Mr. Stephens, how can you give up this easily?"

"Tsk, tsk."

"The Mr. Stephens who once ruled the business world, who could burn through a million in ten seconds without so much as blinking."

"And now, over twenty thousand dollars."

"You're one step from getting on your knees to beg. Pathetic, isn't it?"

"A man who's ended up like you, that really is something to be ashamed of."

I didn't argue. I lowered my head.

Before the marriage, I was the willful young heir who could summon wind and rain at a word.

After the marriage, I was the powerful, unrivaled business tycoon.

But Justin was my undoing.

From the moment he showed up, taking over Lucia's attention piece by piece.

Sowing division, bit by bit.

And I fell from the clouds into the mud.

I looked at him, my eyes empty.

"I've already given up. I'll sign, just as you want."

"What more do you want?"

He didn't want me giving up so fast.

To him it was a cat playing with a mouse, and there had to be a game first.

The fun only came when the mouse was worn down to nothing.

Lucia waved a hand and sent everyone out.

Until there were only the three of us left in the room.

Then she frowned, and slid an arm around Justin's waist.

"What is it?"

"A moment ago you wanted to watch me get divorced. Changed your mind so soon?"

Justin's eyes curved with his smile.

"I just think getting it this easily is no fun."

"Besides, Edward's already willing to walk away with nothing in the divorce."

"That means he's got nowhere left to go."

Justin's fingers drifted over Lucia's face, suggestive.

"How about this."

"We turn up the difficulty on the game. What do you say?"

I gripped the hem of my shirt, a bad feeling settling in.

The memory of being tricked into a basement and locked in for three days came flooding back, and the terror with it.

Face pale, I looked to Lucia.

Hoping she would say the words. That's enough.

Instead, a trace of a smile touched the corner of her mouth.

"It's your call."

"So how do you plan to keep playing this game?"

It hit me like a bucket of cold water dumped over my head.

With Lucia backing him, standing behind him.

Justin grew even more pleased with himself.

His gaze drifted slowly down to the swell of Lucia's belly.

"Since you're pregnant, and it's Edward's child."

"Then why don't we let him watch, with his own eyes."

"Watch how he loses this child, step by step?"

Justin stroked his own flat stomach, and something bitter and envious flashed through his eyes.

"Let him find out too, what it feels like to never be able to father a child."

At the mention of never being able to have children.

Lucia's expression turned suddenly dark.

"Fine. We'll do it that way."

"It's the debt he owes."

The plea rose again, and again I forced it back down my throat.

I closed my eyes.

Another memory surged up.

It was what happened after the cake incident, after I fired Justin.

Justin had coasted through college on the money someone sponsored him, living well.

A few years of work after that, kept on a generous salary by Lucia, and he never picked up any real skill.

What he did pick up was a habit of extravagance and waste.

Once he lost that easy, high-paying assistant job.

To keep himself afloat, he went looking everywhere for work and quick money.

And blundered into a dinner party that was anything but respectable.

He became some wealthy woman's plaything, and after one night he'd been used until he lost the ability to have children.

None of it had anything to do with me.

But Lucia still laid the blame at my feet.

And so Justin had been scheming for a long time, waiting all along for today.

Waiting for me to be broken and disgraced.

To fall into his hands.

And then to watch me suffer a fate worse than death.