Chapter 3

Tears poured from my eyes, dropping one by one onto the floor.

Adrian's expression changed.

"Emma, you're better, why didn't you tell me? I'm..."

Before he could finish, I cut him off.

"Stop pretending, Adrian Black. We're getting a divorce."

I stared at him, speaking word by word.

"My mother's car accident, my kidnapping, being crippled like this—I'm reporting all of it. I'll pursue it to the end."

My voice was hoarse and ugly.

Every word I spoke felt like that knife once held to my throat, slicing my throat open again.

When he heard "divorce" and "report," Adrian's face sank instantly.

"Divorce?" He looked at me coldly. "Emma Vale, are you sure?"

"You're a cripple now. Other than me, who would want a woman like you?"

After the accident, I'd endured countless stares and whispers.

But when the word "cripple" came out of Adrian's mouth, my heart hurt worse than being cut open alive.

Anger and grievance surged up.

I raised my hand and slapped him hard across the face.

"Adrian, what about my mother's life, a living, breathing life? What about all this suffering I've taken on for no reason? Do you even have a heart?"

Adrian went from having nothing to where he was today. Without my mother, he could never have gotten this far.

The year he first built the Black family's legitimate business, he didn't have a cent.

My mother not only sold the house and sold her jewelry.

Without either Adrian or me knowing, she also sold the cornea of one eye.

The year he first built the Black family's legitimate business, he didn't have a cent.

My mother not only sold the house and sold her jewelry.

Without either Adrian or me knowing, she also sold the cornea of one eye.

She wired the money into Adrian's account.

That whole month, she deliberately avoided me. By the time Adrian and I found out, it was already two months later.

My heart ached for her.

She just smiled and said, "Don't I still have one eye? If I'd sold both, I wouldn't get to see my precious daughter and son-in-law happy in the future. Otherwise I really would've traded both for cash to give you."

Tears streamed down my face, beyond control.

Adrian stood in front of me, looking down at me, calm in a way that was terrifying.

"Emma, I admit your mother helped me back then. So after her accident, I found the best doctors and used the most expensive medicine. After she died, I gave her the most dignified funeral."

"We already have a status between us. But Chloe has nothing."

He looked at me, his tone matter-of-fact.

"It's precisely because I love you, precisely because I won't abandon you, that I chose to hurt you in order to protect Chloe."

Every word out of his mouth was like a needle stabbing into my eardrum.

That pain was even clearer than the day my eardrums were pierced.

Outside the villa, the sound of a car engine came.

The next second, the door was kicked open from outside.

A bald man led in a dull-faced, clumsy-moving man.

That was Chloe's father, Frank Reed.

Beside him was Chloe's brother, born with brain damage, Noah Reed.

Frank's eyes swept over me.

"This is her? Not bad-looking."