Chapter 2

Less than half an hour after I hung up, Logan canceled every executive meeting and barged through the front door, his face dark with fury.

He didn't offer a single word of reflection. Instead, he pulled out his favorite emotional blackmail routine—the exact guilt trip that chained me down for an entire lifetime:

"When your family’s firm went belly-up, who stepped up and carried all your family's debt? Me!"

"Who paid for your parents’ lavish funeral so they could rest with dignity? Me!"

"Now your little wings are strong enough, and you think you can just dump me whenever you feel like it?"

I sneered inside.

I had to die on the pavement in my past life to find out that my family's bankruptcy was secretly engineered by him from the shadows.

He did it just to isolate me completely, stripping away my safety net so I would cling to him like a parasite.

I slapped the printed bank transfer statements right into his chest.

"Wiring hundreds of thousands to Chloe Stewart over five straight years—is that your idea of helping out a distant relative in need?"

Logan’s face drained of color in an instant.

He immediately scrambled to cover his tracks. "Her family was facing an emergency. I was just lending a hand."

His voice grew irritated, clearly treating me like an unreasonable nag.

Staring at his utter lack of remorse, everything became crystal clear.

This man had never respected me for a single second.

Exposed and humiliated, Logan slammed the front door so hard the frame shook, storming off toward Hayes Manor.

I got in my car and followed him. My original intention was to lay everything out flat with his mother, Eleanor Hayes, and make the split final.

Instead, outside the mahogany doors of the family study, I overheard a conversation that made my blood run cold.

Eleanor spoke first, her tone dripping with annoyance:

"Can't you handle your business more carefully? What if Evelyn finds out?"

"There are only three days left until the setup! Once she signs the prenup, marries you, and gets hit in that car, you, Chloe, and little Leo will be completely set for life!"

"If you screw up now, every drop of effort we put in will go down the drain!"

Logan replied carelessly:

"Mom, relax. You know how Evelyn is. She’s obsessed with me. She'll whine for a day or two and fold. She can't survive without me."

Eleanor added another knife to the pile, her words cruel and calculating:

"I told you long ago, a wife has to be like Evelyn—clean family background, meek personality, willing to carry burdens, and completely gullible."

"Even if she ever figures something out down the road, she’s too weak to fight back."

"A girl like Chloe isn't built to be the lady of the Hayes household. She can only stay behind the curtain. Don't you dare confuse who's who."

Standing in the shadow outside the cracked door, a chill sank deep into my marrow.

In my past life, I genuinely believed Eleanor loved me like her own daughter.

For thirty years, she appeared to take my side, soothing me whenever Logan threw a fit.

It was all a lie. She was his accomplice from day one!

She knew about Chloe. She knew about the secret son. She knew every dirty detail of the planned crash!

Rushing our wedding and showering me with fake affection were just bait to lock me into the Hayes family as a sacrificial lamb!

I didn't kick the door open.

With deadly calm, I recorded every single syllable on my phone, turned on my heel, and slipped away.

I drove straight to Chloe's luxury apartment complex.

I waited downstairs for barely thirty minutes before catching them: Chloe carrying a three-year-old toddler, laughing intimately beside Logan.

The boy's face was an absolute mirror image of Logan's.

In my previous life, I thought this secret child appeared out of nowhere when Logan was twenty-eight. He was already running around before the crash even took place!

The whole story of him becoming "infertile after the accident" was a monstrous, calculated lie from the very beginning!

The puzzle was complete.

Without a second of hesitation, I transferred every cent under my name into overseas private accounts.

I finalized all separation paperwork with my lawyer.

At the same time, I reached out to top local financial media outlets, tabloid gossip creators, and high-profile investigative bloggers, locking in a coordinated drop time.

I set up my live-streaming accounts and organized every shred of evidence into clean, indisputable digital dossiers.

I was preparing a total public execution for the day of the crash.

I wouldn't give the Hayes family an inch of room to breathe.

Late that night, Logan finally came home.

He reeked of Chloe's sickeningly sweet floral perfume, yet he still plastered on his doting mask, pulling me into a hug:

"Evelyn, I'm sorry about earlier. I lost my temper."

"In three days, I'm taking you on a private road trip. I cleared my whole schedule just to be with you. Just the two of us."

I scoffed silently.

In three days, that was when he planned to have that semi-truck crush me.

He was still playing Prince Charming, trying to walk me straight to the slaughterhouse.

I gave a faint, indifferent nod. "Okay."

Thinking he had successfully pacified me, Logan let out a smug sigh of relief.

He went to sleep confident that I remained a bird trapped inside his golden cage.