Chapter 3

“Jimmy, I don’t know what you’re talking about.”Dorothea turned to face him.

His expression darkened, his voice cold as ice. “Dorothea, I know you’re upset. But I’ve already made it up to you. If the Bel Air villa isn’t enough, just tell me what you want.”

“But you crossed a line going after my child! You knew Chrisette has a severe pollen allergy, and you still hid pollen under the sheets?”

“She’s three years old, Dorothea. Three! How could you do something so cruel to her?”

At his words, Dorothea felt her blood surge backward and something stab viciously into her heart. So the moment something happened to his mistress’s daughter, the blame could be pinned on her without proof, just like that. Furious, she let out a cold laugh. “Jimmy, if I had really wanted to hurt Chrisette, do you think she’d still be alive today?”

“Dorothea! How dare you still try to argue your way out of this?” Seeing that she still refused to admit it, Jimmy’s anger only flared hotter, his eyes frighteningly cold.

“Whether I’m lying or not can be proven. There are surveillance cameras in our bedroom. They’re on all day except when we’re asleep. If someone really harmed Chrisette, one look at the footage will tell us who did it.”

Dorothea let out a mocking laugh and was just about to pull out her phone to check the bedroom footage when a slender figure suddenly rushed into the guest room and charged straight at her.

Kim lunged at her like she’d gone mad, knocking the phone out of Dorothea’s hand so that it shattered on the floor, while her nails raked across Dorothea’s cheek and she screamed hysterically, “I know you’re unhappy that I moved in, and I can accept that! But why would you go after my child?!”

“My child is my life! Were you trying to kill me too?!”

Her emotions spiraled out of control, and her vision went black as she nearly collapsed.

Jimmy caught her from behind.

He pulled her tightly into his arms, holding her as if she were something rare and priceless.

Meanwhile, blood was running down Dorothea’s cheek where Kim had scratched her, and he didn’t even spare her a glance.

She pressed a hand to her face and repeated, “Jimmy, I’ll say this one last time. I didn’t do it.”

“That room used to be yours,” Kim said through tears, crying even harder on cue. “Who else would deliberately hide pollen under the sheets to trigger Chrisette’s allergy? If you didn’t want to give up the master bedroom to me and Chrisette, you could’ve just said so. There was no need to do something like this to Jimmy’s child and me.”

Jimmy gently wiped away Kim’s tears, then lifted his eyes toward Dorothea, his gaze dark and vicious, every word bitten out through clenched teeth. “Dorothea, the facts are right in front of us. I’ll give you one last chance. If you still refuse to admit it, then don’t blame me for what I do next.”

It felt as if something had clenched tightly around her heart, and all the color drained from her face.

The man standing in front of her was no longer the same man who had once stepped forward to defend her when others falsely accused her of stealing, the same man who had once stood by her side and proved her innocence.

She lifted her eyes, the rims red, and cut him off. “Jimmy, I’m telling you—I will never admit to something I didn’t do!”

Since none of them believed her, she no longer had the strength to keep arguing. The truth was the truth, and as for those who refused to believe her, she would never love them again.

Without waiting for a response, Dorothea turned around and was about to leave this ugly scene behind.

Whatever patience Jimmy had left finally snapped.

“Dorothea, you’ve really disappointed me. You’re being far too disobedient.”

He lifted a hand and gestured behind him. “Do it. Let her experience what an allergic reaction actually feels like.”

The moment the words fell, two bodyguards immediately stepped forward, wrenching Dorothea’s arms behind her back and pinning her down by force.

She couldn’t fight them off and was held there helplessly, while another two bodyguards walked over carrying a large basin of peanut juice, stopped in front of her, grabbed her jaw hard, forced her mouth open, and poured the entire basin down her throat.

Dorothea clenched the hem of her clothes so tightly that her fingertips turned white.

She didn’t understand. His phone could just as easily pull up the surveillance footage and reveal the truth, so why wouldn’t he believe her? Why wouldn’t he even bother to check? There was only one answer. Because in his eyes, there was only Kim and Chrisette now.

Dorothea was severely allergic to peanuts. Even a palmful was enough to leave her body covered in hives and her breathing labored.

She didn’t know how much peanut juice they had forced down her throat. She only felt the world spinning around her and her consciousness slipping away.

Through the haze, a memory surfaced—their first date. She had accidentally eaten peanuts and gone into a full-body allergic reaction.

Jimmy had run three red lights just to get her to the emergency room.

From that day on, not a single peanut had ever appeared in the villa again.

And now, he was standing not far away, holding Kim in his arms, watching all of this with cold, indifferent eyes.

Only when Dorothea’s body broke out in hives, her breathing turning shallow and strained, on the verge of suffocation, did the bodyguards finally let go.

Dorothea collapsed onto the floor, too weak to even sit up.

Through her blurred vision, she saw Jimmy supporting Kim as they walked out, his voice softening as he said to her, “Let’s go. Chrisette just woke up at the hospital. She’s asking for you.”

Dorothea watched as his figure disappeared completely from sight.

No. She couldn’t die here from an allergic reaction.

She had to live. She had to get out of the Hemenways alive.

Biting down hard on her lip, she forced herself to stay conscious. With trembling hands, she dialed emergency services.

When she woke up again, she was in a hospital room, an IV drip feeding anti-allergy medication into her veins.

Jimmy sat beside the bed, carefully applying ointment to the exposed areas of her skin.

When he saw her eyes open, he said flatly, “You’re awake? Don’t move. I’m not done applying the ointment yet.”

He continued what he was doing as he spoke. “I know you feel wronged, but Chrisette’s allergic reaction was too severe. And Kim just had a baby. She’s extremely emotionally unstable while she’s recovering. If I hadn’t been harsher with you, this wouldn’t have blown over.”

“I’ve already called in the best specialists in New York. You’ll be fine soon.”

“Once you’re discharged and feel better, whatever you want, I’ll give it to you.”

“This is the new phone I bought for you. I already had the company’s tech department transfer all the data and information from your old phone.”

A mocking sneer rose inside her, but on the surface, she only nodded obediently. “Okay. I understand.”

The very next second, Jimmy received a phone call and hurriedly left, using work as an excuse.

How could Dorothea not know? He was going to accompany Kim and Chrisette, but none of that mattered anymore. From beginning to end, all he had ever wanted was to keep her confined, controlled, possessed, and toyed with.

Soon, the day she would truly leave would come, and since she had no way to take revenge on him for now, then when that day came, she would send them both straight to abyss!

With a cold smile, she pulled up the bedroom surveillance footage, wanting to see who had scattered the pollen under the bed, only to discover that part of the recording was blank. Kim really was good at this, but Dorothea would not let her off so easily. One day, she would get hold of Kim’s weakness.

Dorothea spent an entire week in the hospital. During that week, Jimmy hardly showed up, which suited her just fine.

A week later, her condition had finally improved enough for her to be discharged, but Jimmy never came to pick her up.

She returned to the villa alone. But the moment she pushed open the guest room door, she found Kim standing right in front of her.

Dorothea frowned, instantly on edge.

“Why are you in my room? Aren’t you supposed to be staying in the master bedroom?”

Kim gave a small smile, her tone deliberately gentle.

“I heard you were getting discharged today, so I came to wait for you. About what happened last time, I was too emotional. I wanted to apologize to you.”

She paused, then added, “You can’t be a mother, so you probably don’t understand how scared to death I was…”

Her words were suddenly cut off by a kid’s laughter coming from inside the room.

Dorothea pushed past her and froze at the sight that shattered her completely.

The guest room was a mess. All her belongings had been dragged out and scattered everywhere.

Chrisette sat on the bed, surrounded by pages. It was Dorothea’s handwritten sheet music from the past three years.

One by one, the little girl tore the pages apart, crumpled them into balls, and tossed them to the small dog crouching nearby.

The dog wagged its tail excitedly and ran over to grab the paper balls in its mouth.

“Chrisette! What are you doing?!”

Dorothea rushed forward, her voice shaking with anger.

Chrisette looked up at her with wide, innocent eyes. “Oh, you’re back, Auntie Thea! Mommy said I could play in your room. These scrap papers are so fun! Even the dog likes them.”