Chapter 1

Victoria Finn, the willful and spoiled heiress of the Finn family, married Sebastian Rutherford, the notorious playboy heir of Aurelia.

The first year of their marriage ended in a spectacular scandal when Victoria caught Sebastian locking lips with an aspiring model at a nightclub. The ensuing drama led to a divorce.

Three months later, pressured by their families' joint business ventures, they reluctantly remarried.

In the second year of their remarriage, Sebastian was photographed with his latest starlet. Victoria confronted him on the street, slapping him three times in a row. The video went viral, and they divorced again.

This time, their separation lasted less than seventy-two hours before both families forced them back to the registry office.

By then, the Finn and Rutherford groups were inextricably linked.

After receiving their marriage certificate for the third time.

The playboy Sebastian finally surrendered.

A cigarette between his fingers, his expression was obscure and indifferent.

"Can we just live a normal life?

You curb your temper, Ms. Finn, and I'll stop messing around with women."

Victoria responded with a cold laugh from the driver's seat, rolling up the window.

"Fine. But don't let me catch you cheating."

"If you cheat again, I will never remarry you. Not even if hell freezes over!"

Nothing disgusted her more than a cheating bastard.

Her father's infidelity had driven her mother to a breakdown and eventual suicide.

From that moment, Victoria had vowed to despise the whole world.

She would hurt Sebastian for his betrayals with a ferocity that burned herself just to scorch him.

In the second year after this remarriage.

Victoria traveled to the snow-capped mountains for artistic inspiration. A sudden avalanche trapped her, burying her alive.

When Sebastian received the news, he ignored all road closures and danger warnings. Loading rescue gear alone, he drove into the heart of the storm.

Guided only by the signal from their linked watches, he finally found her, barely clinging to life.

The snow was heavy that day.

Sebastian didn't know how long he had been searching; his cheeks were flushed red from the cold, and his hands were trembling uncontrollably.

"Honey, let's go home."

Victoria stared blankly at him, an indescribable emotion surging in her chest.

At the edge of death, the one who had raced against time to save her was the man she had vowed to hate forever.

Perhaps, she had truly found the right person.

After the mountain rescue, their married life entered a honeymoon phase.

Sebastian curbed his wild ways.

For a full year, not a single whisper of scandal linked him to another woman.

He became a model of discretion, avoiding the old haunts and nightlife entirely.

When friends teased him at dinners, he would smile and say he was "whipped," returning home for dinner before ten o'clock at night.

Things got better and better between them, and Sebastian used every skill he had to love Victoria.

Under the sunset at a bay in Meridia, he confessed his love on a yacht.

Beneath a temple in Switzerland, holding white moonflowers, he played the piano for her.

Under a hot air balloon in Turkey, he swore to love only her for the rest of his life.

They loved with abandon, in every corner of the world.

Until a phone rang.

The piercing ringtone shattered the silent night.

After Sebastian answered the call, his expression changed.

He hurriedly bought a plane ticket back to the country.

"Something urgent came up at the company, I have to go first. Honey, you stay here and enjoy yourself."

He left a deep kiss, turned around, and left.

Victoria touched her reddened lips, watching his retreating figure.

A dense sense of unease spread through her chest.

"Sebastian, you better not be lying to me."

She calmly checked out of the room and bought a plane ticket.

She followed him all the way.

Her methods weren't exactly sophisticated.

But Sebastian was too flustered and tense to notice he was being followed.

Not until the following afternoon.

Sebastian drove to an ordinary residential neighborhood.

Soon, a bruised and battered little girl ran out, throwing herself into his arms.

Following behind her was a woman, hunched over and worn with exhaustion.

Sebastian’s usual good nature vanished instantly.

Gripping a steel pipe, he stormed into the house.

Victoria stepped out of her car.

Victoria got out of her car and watched, frozen, as Sebastian—like a man possessed—brought the pipe down on an older man inside with ruthless, savage blows.

“You marry Isabella and this is how you treat her? You dare lay a hand on Rissy? I’ll send you to hell myself!”

Victoria trembled, unable to believe her eyes.

Sebastian had never lost control of his emotions like this.

All for this worn-out woman and a child?

Who were they to him?

A wave of nausea suddenly overwhelmed her. She covered her mouth, dry heaving for what felt like an eternity.

The realization struck her belatedly.

During their honeymoon phase, she had forgotten all about protection.

Could she be… pregnant?

Joy swelled in her chest, and she looked up, about to share the good news with Sebastian.

Then her eyes focused on the scene before her, and her pupils contracted sharply.

Her throat constricted as if stuffed with sour, bitter cotton, rendering her speechless.

The woman stood on tiptoe and pressed a kiss to Sebastian's lips.

"Thank you, Sebastian."

Sebastian turned his head slightly, letting the kiss land on his cheek instead.

"Ms. Robinson, I will always be your shield."

Watching Sebastian embrace the woman so affectionately, Victoria felt a chill seep into her bones.

She felt a sense of absurdity, mixed with the sinking feeling that she should have known all along.

"Sebastian, you’re cheating again."

She should have known better.

She could never tie down a playboy.

He was far too amorous.

There were simply too many people he loved.

Without hesitation, Victoria turned around, got back into her car, and drove to the hospital.

She was going to abort this child!

And then she would divorce Sebastian.

This time, they would never get back together.

Chapter 2

After the procedure, Victoria rested in the hospital for three days.

Not a single call came from Sebastian in all that time.

With her heart turned to ashes, she consulted a lawyer. Drafted divorce papers. Carried them back to the silent, empty house.

The house was dead silent.

Suddenly, the door swung open.

A drunken Sebastian was helped inside by Isabella, who was dressed in a professional business suit.

Seeing Victoria, the woman’s gaze faltered.

“You must be Mrs. Rutherford. He had too much to drink. I’m just seeing him home.”

Victoria stared at her coldly.

She saw in her the same defiant look worn by countless other women who had taunted her before.

“Who are you? How long has this been going on?”

Isabella helped Sebastian onto the sofa, then turned to Victoria.

Her voice was soft, laced with a melancholic grace as she spun a tale of forbidden love.

She spoke of a young Sebastian, a university student, falling for his teacher—herself.

A love doomed by circumstance, ending not long after it began.

They went their separate ways, married other people, built separate lives.

Recently, she confessed, her husband’s abuse had escalated. He had beaten her, nearly killed their eight-year-old daughter. Desperate, she had reached out to Sebastian for help.

“I’m sorry. This is my fault. I shouldn’t have gotten involved with him again,”

Isabella said, her voice trembling.

“He offered me a job as his secretary when he saw I had no work and a child to support.”

Then, she knelt. The gesture was sudden, humiliating.

The stark white strands in her hair were painfully visible.

She was nothing like the young, beautiful models and starlets Sebastian had cheated with in the past.

Isabella looked plain and pitiful.

Victoria watched her coldly, a phantom ache throbbing where her child had been.

Sebastian’s eyes fluttered open just then. He lurched to his feet and rushed over.

"Enough!"

He scooped Isabella up with a pained expression, glaring coldly at Victoria.

"What do you think you're doing?

I'm not having an affair with Ms. Robinson, and don't you dare slander her!"

A surge of inexplicable rage rose in Victoria's chest.

Smack!

Her palm connected sharply with Sebastian's cheek.

She raised her hand again, but Isabella moved first.

Shoving Victoria hard, she positioned herself like an angry lioness in front of Sebastian.

"I won't let you hurt my student right in front of me!"

She stood like a furious lioness, firmly protecting Sebastian.

Sebastian's gaze turned instantly tender and complicated as he looked at her.

"Ms. Robinson, you're still protecting me just like you used to."

Meanwhile, Victoria, caught off balance by the shove, fell heavily.

Her back slammed into the sharp corner of a table, a jolt of piercing pain shooting through her.

A sharp hiss escaped her lips.

Clutching her aching back, she forced herself upright, clinging to the last shreds of her dignity. She flung the divorce papers onto the floor between them.

"Sebastian Rutherford, we're done!"

Sebastian snatched the agreement and signed his name without even a glance.

"Have the Finns already planned how they're going to beg me to remarry you?"

He simply didn't believe Victoria would ever truly leave him.

Their previous two remarriages had proven one thing: the Finns and the Rutherfords were inextricably bound.

Victoria retrieved the signed agreement, her gaze fixed on their intertwined hands.

After a long moment, she drew a deep, shaky breath.

"This time, I will not remarry you. Not ever again."

She turned and went upstairs, grabbed her ID and passport, and walked out.

Sebastian sipped the hangover remedy soup Isabella had prepared for him, watching her retreating figure with an indifferent expression.

"See you at City Hall in a month. Don't tell me you'll chicken out?"

"I'll be there."

"Have the Finns figured out how they're going to apologize to me?

This divorce isn't my fault this time."

His arrogance remained unshaken.

Face pale, Victoria clutched her stomach and left without another word.

A leopard really never changes its spots.

Once a cheater, always a cheater.

Tears streamed down her face as she walked.

She wept for her own foolish soft-heartedness.

And for the child who would never see the light of day.

Chapter 3

The divorce agreement would take effect in one month.

Victoria arranged the division of assets and made a phone call.

That afternoon.

She was working at her office when Sebastian suddenly barged in and seized her wrist.

"What did you do to Rissy?!

She came home crying, wanting to drop out of school. She said you're spreading rumors at school that her mother is a mistress!"

Sebastian's eyes were vicious as he glared at Victoria, enunciating every word.

"She's just an eight-year-old child. Was it necessary to push her this far?"

"What?"

Victoria started to speak, but was cut off by Isabella, who had followed him in, her eyes red from crying.

"There is nothing going on between Sebastian and me."

"He just took pity on me. He's helping me with my divorce lawsuit and letting me work as his temporary secretary."

"Why would you slander me like this and make my child suffer for it!"

Isabella wept, her face a portrait of wretched exhaustion.

Combined with her age, it easily convinced onlookers that Ms. Finn was being unreasonably vindictive this time.

"I heard Mr. Rutherford has turned over a new leaf. Why won't Ms. Finn just let it go?"

"Exactly. She actually dragged this mess to the school. Is she trying to ruin that child's life?

"

"Tsk, tsk. Just like an heiress to enjoy playing these 'catch the cheater' games."

The overwhelming flood of condemnation made Victoria laugh out of sheer anger.

"What proof do you have that I did this?"

"Who else could it be?"

Sebastian's gaze was ice.

"You ruined that actress before, spreading lies about her. This is no different."

Victoria was rendered speechless.

"Back then, I did it to divorce you..."

"Come with me to the school and apologize immediately!"

Sebastian didn't want to hear it.

Victoria was practically dragged all the way to the broadcasting room of an elementary school.

Sebastian said coldly:

"Admit over the broadcast right now that you spread those rumors, and apologize."

Victoria shook her head indifferently.

"Impossible. I won't apologize for something I didn't do."

She would never bow down.

Isabella instantly broke down.

She rushed forward and slapped Victoria hard across the face, twice.

A stinging, fiery pain bloomed on Victoria's cheeks. She was stunned.

She, the heiress of the Finn family, had always been the one to deliver slaps.

No one had ever dared strike her!

And certainly not her husband's... his former mistress!

"You!"

Furious and humiliated, she raised her hand to slap back.

But her hand was tightly seized by Sebastian!

Victoria looked at him in shock.

"You're... letting her hit me?

Sebastian, have you lost your mind?!"

Perhaps the anger and pain in her eyes stung Sebastian's sight, for he loosened his grip.

Once free.

Without a second thought, Victoria rushed forward and kicked Isabella right in the stomach.

Kicking her to the ground!

"Thud!"

As it happened, there was a staircase right there.

"Help me!"

Isabella rolled helplessly down the stairs just like that.

Her trailing scream vanished into the air.

Victoria froze.

Sebastian rushed down like a madman.

"Isabella!"

"Ahhh!

It hurts!"

Isabella had tumbled down several steps, landing with a sickening thud.

Blood trickled from a cut on her forehead, her entire demeanor the picture of pitiable distress. Cradled in Sebastian's arms, she trembled, tears streaming down her face.

"Sebastian, I just want to live a normal life, I beg you."

"Please make Ms. Finn clear my name. Please tell her to stop hurting me."

Her tears fell like rain, a portrait of utter wretchedness.

Victoria stood on the landing above, looking down on them with icy detachment.

In that moment, the final balance within Sebastian tipped decisively.

He gathered Isabella carefully into his arms, holding her securely against his chest.

His gaze, when it lifted to meet Victoria's, was arctic. "Victoria Finn. This is far from over."

Then he turned and walked away.

Behind his back, unseen by him, Isabella glanced over his shoulder at Victoria.

A faint, triumphant smile touched her lips.

She formed two silent words with her mouth: 'You lost'.

Watching his merciless retreating figure, Victoria felt a pain in her heart as if it had been gouged out.

A long while later.

She collapsed to the ground, her whole body weak.

A piercing pain radiated from her stomach.

Victoria knew that she had indeed lost.

Sebastian was about to completely turn against her, casting aside any regard for who she was.

The last time he did this, he bankrupted a major corporation, forcing its CEO to kneel at his feet and beg for mercy.

And that was merely because the man had tried to touch her waist.

Chapter 4

Until the sky turned dark.

Victoria stumbled to her feet and called her father.

After a long while, the call connected.

"Sebastian is going to make a move against our company..."

Her father cut her off sharply.

"Why would he do that? Did you go trying to catch him cheating again and piss him off?"

"It's normal for successful men to have women on the side, especially someone like him. Can't you be a little more sensible?"

"Go apologize to him right now! Beg for forgiveness! Or I'll kick you out of the Finn family and cut you off without a cent!"

With that, her father hung up viciously.

Victoria put away her phone, standing in the cold wind, her shoulders trembling.

"So cold."

Since her mother died, she hadn't had a home.

Once upon a time, she thought that if Sebastian turned back to her, he would give her a home.

But it turned out to be nothing but a pipe dream.

Her heart would never beat for him again.

Step by step, she walked out of the school.

Her vision went black.

Someone had knocked her out from behind.

When she woke up, she was blindfolded, the smell of dampness and rotting garbage assaulting her nose.

"Felt good kicking me earlier, didn't it?"

Isabella stepped forward and slapped Victoria hard across the face several times.

"Strip her. Take some photos. Let everyone enjoy the show."

"Oh, and I want to see something exciting."

"Also, don't try anything else!"

After speaking, Isabella waved to the tattooed thugs behind her.

The men walked over with leering grins.

Realizing what was about to happen, Victoria forced her trembling voice into a fierce but hollow warning.

"Get away!"

"I am the heiress of the Finn family! If you dare touch me, you're dead!"

"Get away! No... I'll give you money! As much as you want!"

"Let me go!"

"Heh heh heh, playing with a rich heiress like you is exactly what we want!"

Amidst the men's jeering and filthy breath,

Victoria went from screaming for help and struggling to despair and numbness.

She never imagined she would end up like this.

She was supposed to be the high-and-mighty heiress of the Finn family.

In the past, she never would have thought that her pride and confidence,

would be ruthlessly crushed in this small, filthy dump!

The men roughly tore Victoria's clothes open.

They pinched and squeezed her pale skin, forcing her into various poses,

Snapping one humiliating photo after another.

One of the men swallowed hard, unable to control himself.

"Why don't we just screw her? Bro, I can't hold back anymore!"

"No! If this bitch calls the cops later, the charges will be too heavy. Just take the photos!"

But as their hands roamed over her again and again, their lust began to rise.

Soon, Victoria heard the sound of a zipper unzipping.

"No! Don't!"

In a moment of desperation, Victoria bit the inside of her cheek and spat out a mouthful of blood.

She screamed, struggling like a trapped beast in despair.

"If you dare touch me, I’ll kill myself right here and now!!"

The group faltered in fear.

They hadn't intended to commit murder anyway.

"Forget it. Let's just take the photos and go. We got the money anyway."

"What a shame. A beauty like that, and we can only touch, not taste."

...

She had lost all sense of time.

The sound of the door opening finally reached her.

Testing her wrists, she found them unbound.

Stiffly, clumsily, she pulled her discarded clothes back on, piece by piece.

Victoria didn’t go to the police. She went to the cemetery.

Weak and drained, she leaned against the cool marble of her mother's headstone, tears falling silently.

It felt as if she were crying out a lifetime’s worth.

"Mom," she whispered, her voice raw. "They all take advantage of your absence to hurt me."

The next day, pale as a ghost, she returned with fresh flowers.

She stayed for three days.

She didn't eat. She didn't drink.

Just sat with her knees drawn to her chest, staring blankly at her mother’s portrait until she collapsed and was taken to the hospital.

During this time, Sebastian began an open, brazen affair in the media spotlight.

He escorted Isabella to events reserved for spouses, a clear public statement.

He confronted the parents and students who had bullied Rissy at school, then publicly declared the girl as his own.

He secured Isabella's divorce, ensuring her ex-husband was left with nothing and sent to prison.

Isabella remained constantly by his side.

Time and again, she flooded her social media with gratitude.

[I thought I had descended into Hell, but he led me back to Heaven.] — accompanied by a photo of their clasped hands.

[He says we are the happiest family of three.] — a picture of the three of them, smiling before a carousel, Sebastian holding both Isabella and Rissy.

[To think you don’t mind my past, and are still willing...] — this one was the most revealing. The crumpled white sheets of a five-star hotel bed, a familiar, bare masculine shoulder in the frame.

Seeing that final image, Victoria felt nothing but a wave of nauseous disgust and bitter irony.

She remembered, with painful clarity, the solemn pledge Sebastian had once made to her.

Yet in just one year.

He was tainted again.

Disgusting.

She turned off her phone, refusing to see any more.

One week later, at her mother's graveside, she came face to face with the last person she wanted to see.

Sebastian stood there, surrounded by bodyguards, who were in the process of digging up her mother's grave.

Victoria lost all control.

She rushed forward, throwing herself between them and the desecration.

"Stop! Who gave you the right to touch my mother's resting place?!"

Sebastian watched her with cold eyes.

"It's been a week. You vanished for an entire week.

I looked everywhere. Finally found you here."

"Aren't you going to explain yourself?"

Victoria could only feel the profound absurdity of it all.

"I disappear, and instead of asking why, you're here... after sneaking around with Isabella. What explanation could you possibly want?"

Sebastian's gaze darkened.

"It's not what you think with her. What I feel for her is just... gratitude."

"Gratitude?"

A bitter, furious laugh escaped Victoria.

"Gratitude that involves kissing? Gratitude that involves sharing a bed? Gratitude that makes you dig up my mother's grave?!"

"Then I want some of that gratitude too! Your kind of gratitude must be truly extraordinary!"

Sebastian's carefully restrained composure shattered.

He lunged forward and grabbed her wrist so hard it hurt.

"If I hadn't cleaned up your mess last time!

You'd already be in prison for assault and slander!"

"I only dug up your mother's grave to force you out—to make you apologize to Isabella!"

Victoria struggled desperately: "Get out!

Never!"

Hearing this, his gaze grew darker as he signaled the bodyguards nearby.

"Keep digging. Dig up the ashes and dump them in the sewer."

The heavy thud-thud-thud of digging filled her ears.

Victoria stared daggers at Sebastian, her heart trembling in agony.

Finally, she closed her eyes numbly.

"Fine. I'll apologize."

In this world, the only thing she held dear was the mother who used to hold her gently in her arms.

She didn't want her mother to be disturbed, even in death.

Seeing her finally give in, Sebastian let out a sigh of relief.

"Let's go. Come home with me and apologize."

Victoria paused, stunned.

"Has she already moved into our marital home?"

Sebastian realized how that sounded and averted his gaze, explaining:

"No, it's because you caused her to have a mental breakdown. I only brought her home to help stabilize her mood."

"Let's go."

Victoria didn't want to hear any more.

Right now, all she could do was hold onto her pride.

Pretending she hadn't been crushed to pieces.

Chapter 5

Stepping back into the home she hadn't seen for a week felt profoundly alien.

A strange vase of white jasmine sat in the corner.

Toys and children's books were scattered about.

Then she saw her: Isabella Robinson, holding the hand of an eight-year-old girl.

"Sebastian, you're back."

The smile on her lips froze when she saw Victoria.

She lowered her head, looking timid and submissive.

"Ms. Finn, you're back too."

Victoria fixed her with a gaze of pure, icy hatred.

"If I hadn't come back, this home would have been taken over completely. Isn't that what you were hoping for?"

Isabella flinched, casting a helpless, pleading look at Sebastian.

Sebastian's brow furrowed deeply.

"That's enough. I brought you back to apologize!"

Eight-year-old Rissy, sensing the tension, suddenly launched herself forward like a tiny cannonball.

She shoved Victoria hard.

"You bad woman! You're bullying my mom!"

Caught off guard, Victoria fell backward.

The back of her head struck the sharp edge of the stair railing with a sickening thud, sending a spike of pain through her skull.

"Agh! You wretched child!" Victoria scrambled to her feet, ready to retaliate, but Sebastian seized her arm in a vice-like grip.

"I said, apologize!" His voice dropped, growing more ominous.

"Must you pick a fight with a child who doesn't understand anything?"

Gritting her teeth against the pain, Victoria glared at him.

"Remember your mother's urn,"

Sebastian warned, his voice low and final.

A wave of utter desolation washed over Victoria. S

he wrenched her arm free and turned her empty gaze to Isabella.

"I'm sorry."

"Is that good enough for you?"

The words fell from her lips, weightless and hollow.

Once you stopped caring, even an apology lost its sting.

Sebastian watched her detached, resolute demeanor, a pang of inexplicable panic tightening his chest. "Where do you think you're going?"

Victoria didn't answer.

She simply continued walking toward the door.

"Sebastian, Rissy says her stomach hurts!"

Isabella held the child, looking at Sebastian with helpless eyes.

Two women.

One needed him.

One gave him the cold shoulder.

Without hesitation, Sebastian turned, picked up Rissy, and took Isabella to the hospital.

Days bled into one another.

It wasn't until the cooling-off period ended that Victoria finally called Sebastian.

"See you at City Hall tomorrow. Surely the great Mr. Rutherford isn't afraid to show up?"

A fortnight without seeing Victoria had left Sebastian increasingly irritable and unsettled.

"I'll be there. But will your father actually let you go through with it?"

he retorted, the implied threat hanging in the air.

The line went dead before he finished.

Sebastian stared blankly at his mobile, a sudden wave of panic washing over him.

Isabella walked in holding a cup of coffee.

"Sebastian, what's wrong?"

A month of being sheltered and cared for by him had erased much of her weariness, restoring her gentle, elegant composure.

Almost against his will, Sebastian found himself confiding his recent turmoil.

When he finished, Isabella stepped closer. She wrapped her arms around him, holding him gently, stroking his back in slow, soothing circles. "It's alright. I'll always be here."

Sebastian closed his eyes, allowing himself to sink into the quiet comfort she offered.

He didn't consider this a betrayal.

The one he truly loved had always been in his heart.

Isabella was merely offering solace.

It didn't count.

It was Victoria who shouldn't have been yelling at him in the first place.

A long while later, Isabella walked out of the office.

Her gaze turned cold as she sent a message.

[Release the photos.]

She had to make them divorce!

Rissy needed a new, wealthy, young father.

Soon, a trending topic set the headlines on fire.

[The heiress of the Finn family performance art in a dump!

Explicit photos grab attention!]

Photo after photo showed Victoria in compromising positions from that day.

Inside his office, Sebastian kicked the door open with a crash, his face a thundercloud.

"Get those headlines taken down! Now!"

Meanwhile, Victoria's father struck her across the face. Hard.

She stood with her head bowed, one hand against her stinging cheek, her expression utterly hollow.

Her father looked at her with a mix of heartbreak and disgust.

"Tomorrow, you will go to Sebastian.

You will kneel and beg him not to divorce you."

"Your body has been exposed to the entire nation!

Who would dare marry you now?!"

As she listened, a laugh escaped her.

Her body trembled uncontrollably, a single crystal-clear tear tracing a path down her cheek.

"How laughable."

"You don't ask how those photos came to be.

You don't ask if I wanted this divorce.

You just lay all the blame at my feet."

"Are you truly my father?"

Mr. Finn's face darkened further.

"Silence! Tomorrow at the civil registry, no matter what, you will not sign those papers."

"Or don't blame me for disowning you!"

Victoria lifted her tear-filled eyes and nodded.

"Fine. May you get everything you deserve."

Chapter 6

The next day, Sebastian arrived as scheduled.

He looked coldly at Victoria, whose cheek was swollen on one side and whose expression was distant. "It's not too late to regret this."

"With those photos flying around everywhere, do you think anyone would still want to marry you?"

"Why did you take those explicit photos with those people?"

"Give me a reason."

His arm seemed to tremble slightly, betraying his unstable state of mind.

Victoria remained silent, simply lowering her head to sign the papers.

She then slid them over to Sebastian.

"Sign it."

Sebastian was momentarily lost for words.

He stood up in a fit of frustration and scribbled his signature without hesitation.

Grabbing his suit jacket, he turned to leave.

"After this divorce, we won't be getting back together so easily.

You have to pay the price for what you've done!"

He got into the car without looking back, while Isabella in the passenger seat gently fastened his seatbelt.

She glanced toward the entrance and smiled at Victoria, who stood clutching the divorce decree.

She mouthed two words once more.

'Thank you.'

Victoria tucked the decree into her pocket, her gaze cold as she watched the car speed away.

"Hah, don't mention it."

"You can have Sebastian, that cheating piece of trash."

She looked down, pulled out her phone, and made a call.

The call connected.

"Uncle, get me out of the country. Now."

A relieved chuckle came from the other end.

"I wanted to take you away when your mother passed, but you insisted on staying here to guard her grave."

"I'm glad you've finally come to your senses."

Victoria watched the withered leaves swirling in the distance, her voice flat.

"I wasn't thinking clearly before. I am now."

In truth, she had always had an escape route.

The only reason she had played that game of remarrying Sebastian twice was that she had genuinely fallen in love with him.

But she had kept those feelings well hidden.

So well, in fact, that both her father and Sebastian believed the marriage was purely a business alliance between the Finn and Rutherford families.

But Sebastian was no longer the man he was when Victoria was eighteen.

He was no longer the boy she had fallen for at first sight.

With his countless affairs, he had systematically destroyed Victoria's sincerity.

And this was the final straw.

They would never meet again.

Chapter 7

That evening, Victoria discarded her SIM card, blocked all contact with Sebastian and the Finn family, and boarded her uncle's private jet.

She left behind the country that had nearly destroyed her.

When Sebastian and Isabella returned to the house, a strange emptiness filled the space.

Seeing Isabella's belongings scattered around, Sebastian rubbed his temples in irritation.

"Isabella, you and Rissy should move out tomorrow."

Isabella's confident smile froze.

"Sebastian, what do you mean?"

Sebastian leaned back on the sofa, his gaze distant.

"I will remarry Victoria eventually.

I don't want any more conflict when that happens.

You should leave tomorrow."

A wave of icy dread washed over Isabella.

Her fingers clenched so tightly her nails dug into her palms, but she felt no pain.

A calculated glint flashed in her eyes before she smiled and nodded agreeably.

"Of course."

"But you don't look very happy. How about a glass of wine to help you relax?"

She walked over to the wine cabinet, turned her back to Sebastian, and poured a glass.

Sebastian was looking down at his phone and absently took the wine she handed him.

After a few glasses.

In his drunken haze, he seemed to see Victoria standing before him, wearing a sexy red nightgown.

"Victoria, can you please stop fighting with me?"

"I've missed you so much this past month, so much..."

He walked over and pulled her tightly into his arms.

They spent the night entangled in desperate passion.

That night, 'Victoria' was incredibly passionate, her hands constantly caressing his back.

He was drunk, too.

He lost himself, venting over a month of pent-up longing and desire.

"Victoria, I love you. I’ve really fallen for you."

"Please don't divorce me, please..."

After getting those words out, Sebastian passed out cold.

Beside the bed, Isabella stared at his face with resentment.

A moment later, she smiled with a sense of release.

"It’s fine. I have all the time in the world to wear you down."

A plane soared above the clouds in the sky.

Landing in a future Sebastian could never reach.

The morning sun poured in through the floor-to-ceiling windows.

Sebastian opened his eyes in a daze, feeling a splitting headache.

When he turned his head, the person lying beside him wasn't his recently divorced ex-wife, Victoria.

It was the teacher he had always respected and admired, Isabella!

His heart seized, and a sudden wave of panic and a feeling of being tainted washed over him.

He bolted upright, his voice frantic and helpless.

"Isabella, why are you here!"

Isabella sat up, the mottled marks on her body revealing just how intense the night had been.

She dressed unhurriedly, her eyes filled with gentleness and a helpless indulgence.

"You were drunk last night and wouldn't let go of my hand... You seemed to mistake me for Victoria."

"But I don't blame you."

She was as forgiving and gentle as she had always been.

Yet every word stabbed ruthlessly into Sebastian's heart.

His expression grew even more ghastly.

In the end, Sebastian finished dressing and took a deep breath.

"Isabella, last night was entirely my fault. I will give you appropriate compensation."

"Let's just pretend this never happened, alright?"

Isabella’s expression froze completely.

But she simply lowered her head in silence, finished dressing, and walked out.

She didn't cling to him, nor did she threaten suicide to demand a status.

Sebastian returned to the office, staring dead at his phone.

But there was no message from the person he was waiting for.

One day.

Two days.

By the third day, Sebastian couldn't hold back any longer.

He weighed his words carefully and sent a text message.

[I can remarry you, on the condition that you apologize to me.]

The message was sent, but it was like a stone dropped into the sea—silence.

Irritated, he started calling Victoria.

But she had clearly blocked him; she didn't pick up a single call.

Then, like a madman, he searched for her on every messaging app.

One by one, the bright red exclamation marks stung his eyes.

"Victoria, do you think I have to coax you again this time?"

"You were clearly the one in the wrong. I helped you clean up the mess and spent a fortune to kill the news online."

Sebastian couldn't help but pace anxiously around the room.

The fourth day passed.

A week passed.

He finally stood outside the Finn family home.

When Richard saw him, he looked surprised.

"Sebastian, what are you doing here?"

Sebastian didn't bother with pleasantries and got straight to the point:

"Father-in-law, I want to see Victoria. I want to remarry her."