Ethan’s little canary had run away again. This time, he forced a high-speed train to make an emergency stop just for her. That night, he hurried home and saw the divorce papers in my hand. He let out a muffled laugh. "The little girl was being disobedient. It took a lot of effort to catch her and bring her back. Honey, you understand, right?" I still handed him the pen. He sneered: "You can't be serious. You really want a divorce?" "You signed a prenuptial agreement. If we divorce, you won't get a single cent!" I nodded: "I want a divorce." Ethan's smile faded. "You're not going to treat your mom's illness anymore? You're just going to watch her die?" He threw out the trump card that had never failed him before. I calmly shook my head. "I'm not treating it anymore." Ethan's face completely darkened. He didn't know yet. My critically ill mother had been lying on that very high-speed train. The hours of delay caused her to miss the critical window for her treatment. From now on. This place could never trap me again. 1 Ethan was very arrogant. He was certain I couldn't leave my mother. After all, she was severely ill, and the medical bills were incredibly expensive. And my pockets were completely empty. As long as he had a hold on my mother, it was like he held my life in his hands. So no matter how far he went, even having an affair with my mother's former student, I never dared to mention divorce. But this time, not only did I bring it up, but my attitude was also incredibly calm. So even he was taken aback. We remained at an impasse for a few seconds. Ethan was the first to break the silence. He chuckled lightly and patted my head: "Alright, don't make yourself sick with anger." "Are you still mad that Chloe ran to the hospital last time and disturbed Mom's rest? I promise there won't be a next time, okay?" "Besides, didn't you get your revenge in the end? The poor girl was terrified of you." The "revenge" he mentioned... Referred to the time Chloe, just to provoke me, barged into my mother's hospital room and showed her a bunch of intimate videos of her and Ethan. My mother couldn't catch her breath and almost died right there. I was furious to the extreme. I brought people to block her at her workplace, beat her until she was crying and begging for mercy on her knees, and even got her fired. That was the second time I had completely lost my mind. "Don't touch me! You're filthy!" I scoffed, slapping Ethan's hand away: "Ethan, your promises are just like you—worthless!" Ethan pulled his hand back in pain, his eyes suddenly turning sharp. Obviously, being repeatedly rebuffed by me today had ignited a fire in him. Right at that moment, his phone rang. He glanced at me and answered it. It was Chloe's aggrieved voice. "Ethan, I wanted to go apologize to Mrs. Davis, but the nurses said she was transferred..." "But all the specialists you hired are at this hospital! Does Chloe hate us so much that she'd risk Mrs. Davis's health just to spite us? And Mrs. Davis, too, how could she let her daughter act so recklessly!" Ethan gently comforted her for a while. When he put away his phone and looked at me again, he had resumed his usual careless demeanor. "Olivia, you colluded with Mom just to get back at me? Tsk, Mom really is getting old and senile from her illness." He lazily held a cigarette in his mouth: "Are you mother and daughter so sure I wouldn't dare pull the medical team?" Countless times in the past. This was how Ethan forced me to compromise. Using my mother as a bargaining chip, forcing me to obey, even making me bow my head to the mistress he was keeping. It was a tactic that never failed him. But now. Looking at his posture, thinking he was in control of everything. I suddenly wanted to laugh. And as I laughed, my eyes uncontrollably turned red. I violently grabbed an ashtray and hurled it at him as hard as I could. "Pull them! Pull your medical team right now! My mom and I don't need your charity!" Blood seeped from Ethan's forehead. The veins on his forehead bulged. After a long silence, he stood up, walked toward the door, and said indifferently: "Olivia, you might not have a conscience, but I can't be without one." "After all, a teacher's grace is as heavy as a mountain. I can't be as reckless and willful as you and delay the teacher's treatment." What answered him... Was another vase I hurled fiercely at his back. 2 The door slammed shut heavily. I collapsed onto the sofa, drained of all strength. My eyes fell on the shattered pieces covering the floor. Remembering Ethan's phrase, "A teacher's grace is as heavy as a mountain," I let out a mocking laugh. Exactly how shameless do you have to be... To say such weighty words so lightly, and so self-righteously? And exactly how much of a failure was I... To have let my life turn out like this? Ethan was, indeed, once my mother's student. Back then, he wasn't the heir to the Sterling family; he was just a kid who had nothing. Raised by a single, violent, gambling-addict father, he had a gloomy personality, terrible grades, and was a problem student that no teacher wanted to deal with. Later, my mother noticed the bruises on him. As his homeroom teacher, she did home visits time and time again, but they always ended in vain. Pitying him because he was skin and bones, my mother frequently invited him to our house for dinner. That year, we were in high school. Two miserable kids from single-parent homes ended up crossing paths. Those years, my mother, a senior teacher, personally tutored Ethan, helping him transform from a despised underachiever into a top student, eventually getting into a prestigious university. This led to Ethan later following his biological mother back to the Sterling family, and with his knowledge and the halo of a top university... He managed to earn a place and recognition within the Sterling family. Later, he changed completely. I asked my mother if she regretted it. She only shook her head: "At least it gave a child a different life." But as she shook her head, tears fell: "My only regret is letting you marry him!" When she was critically ill, she gripped me tightly: "If I don't make it, you should head to New York. Don't keep holding on for my sake." "Do whatever you want to do. My Livvy shouldn't be trapped here." Only then did I realize that my mother had known everything all along. I forcefully wiped my face and looked at the message popping up on my phone. [Olivia, that cruel woman who always stopped us father and daughter from seeing each other is finally gone. No one can stop you now!] [Your little brother is still young and can't handle things. You're my only daughter. If you're willing to come home, everything I have in the future, including the company, will be yours!] Even though we hadn't been in contact for years, the selfishness and coldness in the bones of my biological father hadn't changed a bit. Even hearing that the wife who had shared his hardships in their youth had passed away, he didn't show a hint of sadness. He even had to kick her while she was down. I lowered my eyes, staring quietly at the words on the screen. I only felt it was ridiculous. All mine? That brother of mine was the precious son this man had longed for, the son he didn't hesitate to abandon his wife and daughter for. Would he really be willing to let me, his daughter, take half of the family fortune? I'd be the biggest joke if I believed his nonsense. But since leaving was a foregone conclusion, there was no reason not to use this stepping stone delivered right to my door. I twitched my lips and replied: [Okay, I'll go back.] 3 As if trying to teach me a lesson... Ethan never came home again. I didn't care. I handled my mother's funeral alone. My mother was an only child. My grandparents had passed away long ago, and we had no other relatives. Everything was kept simple. After everything was done, I went home to pack my bags. I didn't expect that right after I stepped through the door, the keypad lock chimed again. The moment I locked eyes with Chloe. I was still a little incredulous. "How did you get in here?" She even had the passcode to my house? Since when? Did Ethan give it to her? Or, during those days and nights when I was running to the hospital taking care of my mom, had he already moved this woman in? Sleeping in our bed? Thinking of those possible scenes... I felt a moment of nausea. "Oh, Mrs. Sterling is home?" Chloe smirked, her red lips curling. She walked in with practiced ease, acting as if she were the lady of the house: "Mr. Sterling left a jacket behind, I'm just here to grab it. I'm used to just walking right in, I forgot you might be home. You don't mind, do you?" Before I could answer, she seemed to remember something and let out an "Oh": "I almost forgot. You're a full-time housewife, with no work to keep you busy. Aside from holing up at home, you really don't have anywhere else to go." After she finished speaking, she turned and strutted into the bedroom in her stilettos. Soon, she came out carrying Ethan's clothes. Seeing that I was calmly watering the plants, completely ignoring her behavior, it was like a punch landing on cotton. Her face instantly darkened: "Some people spend all day guarding a few pathetic plants, unable to hold onto their man's heart, not even having a decent career. What a pathetic way to live! Wouldn't you agree, sister?" I put down the watering can, looked at her, and chuckled. "Career? You mean being a sugar baby whose only job is to warm someone's bed?" I clapped my hands loudly: "Well, I guess it takes skill to lick a sugar daddy until he's comfortable enough to hand you a job, right?" Back when I got Chloe fired from her job... Ethan turned around and hired her as his secretary, which was undoubtedly a harsh slap in the face to me. Chloe's face instantly flushed bright red. She pointed at me, her voice shrill: "It's still better than being a piece of trash like you! Even with a degree from a top university, you're still blacklisted by the entire industry. Olivia, tell me, who in this entire city would dare to hire you?" My face went pale. What Chloe said was the truth. The day I found out Ethan was cheating, I had brought up divorce. The very next day, I lost my job. To pay for my mother's medical bills, I also thought about starting my own business. But the reality was, any project I was involved in would eventually fall through, or even inexplicably blow up, leaving me with piles of debt. Over time, no one in the entire industry dared to hire me, let alone anything else. Until that day, when I broke down again because I couldn't afford my mother's medical bills, Ethan looked at me and smiled. He said: "Olivia, this is your punishment for bringing up divorce. Be a good Mrs. Sterling, and what could you possibly lack?" From that day on. I never dared to think about it again. It was also from then on. That I realized how cold-blooded this man truly was. He could use his power to severely punish the thugs who used to bully me. And he could use the same methods, without breaking a sweat, to crush an ordinary person like me into the mud. 4 Probably because she saw me lose my composure. Chloe felt she had won a round and said smugly: "Did I hit a nerve? I'm just telling the truth." She flipped her hair and leaned in close to me: "Olivia, you must be so mad, aren't you? Mad that a country bumpkin you've always looked down upon crawled into your husband's bed!" She said hatefully: "You and your mother looked down on me, thinking I should rely on your charity and live at your mercy, humiliating me. So I stole your man! I stole her son-in-law!" My eyes turned icy, and I said coldly: "My mother genuinely helped you. But you? Your mind is twisted, and you actually use such absurd lies as an excuse for your own shamelessness!" Chloe used to be an impoverished student in my mother's class. She lived with relatives in the city and always wore a torn coat. My mother was always soft-hearted, so she frequently bought her clothes and shoes, and gave her my lightly used clothes. I never imagined that this kindness would be seen as humiliation in her eyes. "What kindness? Your mother just used helping me as an excuse to show off that she had a daughter who was better than me in every way!" "But so what? In the end, your man was still seduced away by me!" Chloe smiled, her eyes full of malicious delight: "You don't even know. That day when your teacher fell asleep, Ethan and I were right by her bed... The look on her face when she woke up was absolutely fascinating." "It's a pity, though. We couldn't piss that old hag to death." My brain buzzed. Blood rushed to my head. I turned around and, amidst Chloe's screams, viciously grabbed her by the hair. Bang. Her head smashed heavily against the wall. "Ah! You dare hit me!" Wearing a short skirt, Chloe was no match for me at all. Pinned down by me, she could only scream and curse: "I'm going to make Ethan cut off your mother's medical funds and make that old hag croak early!" My eyes were bloodshot. I held her down and smashed her head against the wall, over and over again. "If you don't know how to speak like a human, I'll teach you!" At this moment, I didn't care about anything. I just wanted to shut her up and make her pay! Until a massive force violently threw me away, accompanied by a man's disbelieving, furious roar: "Olivia! What the hell are you doing?!"
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