Chapter 3

My lips betrayed me with a bitter curl.

My lips couldn't help but curl into a bitter smile.

Six months ago, Aria, who had been living abroad, suddenly returned to the country.

Brent said she was all alone in the world, and without even giving us a heads up, he brought her to live with us.

At first, I didn't think much of it. I even felt sorry for the young girl and took care of her in every way.

Until one time, she poured a glass of red wine over her own head, then fell to her knees and kept bowing to me, begging me to let her go.

After that, the way Brent looked at me started to change.

That day, he wouldn't listen to any of my explanations. He threw me in the attic and starved me for three days, viciously warning me: "Jolene, you've disappointed me so much! Aria means more to me than you can imagine. If you target her again, even if you're my wife, I'll make you pay the price."

Incidents like this kept happening, and Brent's gaze grew colder and colder towards me.

I had originally planned to divorce Brent after our child was born.

But I never expected Aria would suddenly jump off a building.

And the culprit behind her suicide was supposedly the abusive messages and malicious voice recordings I had sent her.

Those words were indeed hard for anyone to accept, but I hadn't said them.

Brent didn't believe me though.

His eyes were red with grief for Aria. He even disregarded their unborn child, determined to avenge his beloved.

"Sir... your wife seems... seems... You'd better go see for yourself."

Brent was momentarily stunned.

Then his face twisted with impatience: "After all this time, she still dares to throw a tantrum?!"

The amusement park manager hesitated, then reluctantly said: "It's not that, sir. It's your wife... she seems to have stopped breathing..."

Brent's large hand, which was holding Aria, froze.

After a few seconds of silence, he let out a dismissive laugh.

"Her methods of escaping punishment are getting more and more sophisticated. To avoid kneeling and apologizing to Aria, she's even thought of playing dead?!"

"Tell her that even if she's dead, she must apologize to Aria first before dying! Otherwise, don't blame me for being unkind!"

The amusement park manager's forehead began to break out in a cold sweat.

He wanted to say more, but seeing Brent's enraged face, he ultimately backed down.

Aria looked up innocently: "Brent, why don't we let it go? Even though Jolene doesn't like me and makes things difficult for me at every turn, she is still your wife after all. As long as I can be by your side, Brent, I can endure it." Brent held her even tighter. "Aria, you don't need to be afraid of that petty woman Jolene. She can't hold a candle to you. I need to teach her a lesson this time so she'll back off in the future."

"But..."

"It's alright, trust me. I won't steer you wrong."

A tear dropped onto the back of my hand. Only then did I realize that I had been crying silently for some time.

Can a soul feel heartache too?

Brent didn't say anything more, but he seemed distracted for the rest of his work.

In the span of an hour, he glanced toward the door no less than ten times without realizing it.

Finally, he slammed his laptop shut and ran his fingers through his hair in frustration.

Having completely lost his patience, he gently coaxed Aria, "Aria, I don't know what kind of game that Jolene woman is playing, but I'm going to drag her here to apologize to you right now."