Chapter 6
The next day, Wendy was awakened by furious smashing. Opening her bedroom door, she saw the living room trashed by Lena, including the wedding photo of her and Ethan.
Ethan just smiled nervously, afraid of angering her further. “Smash away, anything to make you feel better.”
Lena giggled at his words, pouting as she sat down. Ethan immediately hugged her. “My darling, you have to tell me why you’re angry.‘
Lena huffed and turned her back to him. “I want to abort the baby, but you won’t let me. Do you want our child to be a bastard at birth?” She added, “You can’t divorce Wendy and marry me, can you?”
The living room fell deathly silent. Ethan looked irritated, sinking into the sofa and lighting a cigarette.
The second cigarette, the third… Until the last one in his pack burned out, he picked up his phone and dialed a number. “I want a divorce from Wendy. Please invite all the clan elders as witnesses.”
agony Wendy spun around and hid in her room, biting her lips hard to suppress sobs. The searing pain of her bleeding palm was nothing compared to the
in her heart.
Soon, not only clan elders but also reporters arrived. In front of everyone, Ethan handed Wendy a divorce agreement, whispering in her ear, “Wendy, cooperate with me. We’ll remarry after Lena has the baby, so the child can have a legal status.”
Without hesitation, she took the pen and signed her name. When he offered inkpad for her fingerprint, she bit through her index finger instead, sealing
the divorce with blood.
Ethan’s eyes flickered with irritation at her decisive act, his lips tightening, but the emotion was quickly overshadowed by Lena’s joyful embrace.
Just then, a respected elder said solemnly, “Ethan, you remember when you angered to death your father to marry Wendy? You swore that if you ever initiated a divorce, you’d take fifty lashes as family punishment.”
Lena panicked, looking at Ethan worriedly, “Ethan, forget it! Fifty lashes could kill you…”
Ethan patted her hand reassuringly, then stripped off his expensive shirt without hesitation, baring his muscled back. “Do it.”
The water–soaked whip sliced through the air, landing across his back. The first lash tore the skin. “Ugh…” He gritted his teeth, spine ramrod straight. Lash after lash fell, leaving his back a bloody mess.
Wendy watched the flaying flesh, memories surging–the first time he took her to the Caldwell mansion, when Benjamin Caldwell raised a cane to strike her, Ethan had shielded her with his body, bleeding from the head. He’d roared at his father with red eyes, “I, Ethan Caldwell, will only marry Wendy Winslow in this life! Kill me if you must!” Now, he risked his life to marry another woman.
After fifty lashes, Wendy swallowed the fourth pill with icy calm and turned to leave. But at the door, a group of thugs surrounded her.
“Bitch!” A one–eyed man slapped her across the face. “Remember me? I lost an eye for just looking at you in that bar.”
Another man with three missing fingers sneered, “And me–lost my fingers for touching you.”
A third yelled, “My company went bankrupt, my parents jumped off a building, all because I said you weren’t good enough for Mr. Caldwell!” Wendy froze. She knew these were the men Ethan had punished to protect her. Now that she was discarded, they’d come for revenge.
“Payback time!” The one–eyed man smashed a bottle and lunged for her mouth.
“Aah!” Sharp glass cut her lips, knocking out several teeth.
“Damn bitch, let’s see if you’re still arrogant!” The man with missing fingers violently tore open the front of her dress and picked up a shard of glass, stabbing it toward her chest,
“SPLAT!” Blood gushed out instantly, making Wendy tremble all over from the pain. “What are you waiting for? Take photos! Let everyone see the end of the slut Mr. Caldwell dumped!”
Camera flashes flickered wildly, capturing Wendy’s embarrassment.
Overwhelming fear ignited her will to survive, and she turned to shout desperately into the villa, “Help! Somebody!”
Inside the villa, Ethan, his back covered in blood, held Lena tightly with unprecedented joy. “Lena, I finally… can marry you!” Vaguely, he seemed to hear Wendy’s cries and instinctively glanced toward the door. But the surrounding jeers quickly pulled his attention back. “Kiss her! Kiss her!”
Ethan withdrew his gaze, no longer caring about the sounds, and leaned down to kiss Lena’s lips tenderly.
Wendy fell into complete despair, a surge of ruthlessness rising. She yanked the glass shard from her chest and waved it frantically at them. “Come on!
Chapter 6
Let’s die together!”
Seeing how crazed Wendy had become and fearing Ethan might discover them, the thugs cursed and fled.
Coming back to her senses, Wendy threw away the glass shard and staggered outside. Sunlight shone on her blood–stained body as she took out the fifth
airport.” pill, swallowing it with blood and tears. While her mind was still clear, she hailed a taxi. “To the
The moment she sat down, the long–awaited medication took effect in a rush. All past joys and humiliations flashed through her mind like a lantern show
their meeting, falling in love, the wedding, the planet, the island, their son..owed by betrayal, arguments, blood, ashes, pain, the flogging…
Countless memories were forcefully torn and stripped away in the mental tempest.
But she had never felt so light.
Ethan, I will forget you…
Please let me go.
From now on, we owe each other nothing. Never see each other again.
