Chapter 6

With that, I ignored Jim's tightly furrowed brows, turned around, and walked away. I had barely taken a step when Harriet blocked my path.

"Cecilia, it's just a house. I'll give it back to you. Why are you making things difficult for Jim?"

Her eyes were wide and filled with pitiful tears, but I was not moved in the slightest.

I looked at her coldly. "Move. You were perfectly willing to ask for the house back then, so why are you pretending to care about Jim now?"

Harriet's face went deathly pale.

I knew I had hit the mark. If she had not wanted the house, Jim would never have given it to her.

Her tears immediately spilled over, and someone suddenly grabbed my wrist.

I was about to pull free when Jim violently shoved my hand away. I had no idea how much force he had used. I stumbled backward several steps just to keep my balance, and my lower back slammed straight into the corner of the desk.

"Ah!"

A sharp cry escaped me.

Before I could recover, Jim's angry voice rang out. "Cecilia, when did you become so aggressive? Why are you talking to people like this?

"You signed the property transfer yourself. We only changed the name. No one said you can't live there. How long are you going to keep targeting Harriet just because of what happened with the marriage certificates?"

The moment he finished, he turned around. He carefully wiped the tears from Harriet's face, treating her like something precious.

The tenderness in his expression was completely different from the man who had just shoved me.

His gentle reassurance only made Harriet cry harder. She sniffled and said, "I'm sorry, Jim. I was never really your sister anyway. If Cecilia doesn't like me, I'll move out right now. I don't want to make things difficult for you."

She pulled open the door and started to leave. He grabbed her and pulled her back.

"Harriet, are you really going to break my heart like this? Don't ever say things like that again. The person who should leave is someone else, not you."

Those words, 'someone else', cut deeper than anything. He did not have to say my name. I knew exactly who he meant.

Sure enough, the next second, he grabbed my arm and shoved me outside. "Cecilia, you have gone too far this time. I have to give Harriet an explanation."

He looked down at me from above. His gaze was ice-cold, completely empty of affection.

Yet my heart did not hurt anymore. There was only an endless calm. I gave a relieved smile and got to my feet. I did not want to spend another second with him.

I was just about to leave when I heard the crackling sound of electricity beside me. I turned toward the noise. Before I could even see who it was, a stun baton struck me and knocked me to the floor.

A painful, numb tingling sensation surged through my entire body. Then I heard the security guard's trembling voice above me.

"I'm sorry, Mr. Smith. I'm so sorry for the disturbance. I'll remove Ms. Carter immediately."

Jim's eyes hardened. His next words cut straight through me. "This is a workplace. As far as this office is concerned, she is an unauthorized person causing a disturbance. If something like this happens again, you can find another job."

The security guard immediately bowed and nodded. "Yes, Mr. Smith. Of course, Mr. Smith."

He roughly dragged me toward the elevator. My lower legs scraped against the floor, leaving them burning with pain. All around me, I could hear the whispers of more than a hundred employees.

So, this was the explanation Jim wanted to give Harriet. He was willing to trade my pain for her satisfaction. I wanted to laugh, but my lips would not move.

Through my blurred vision, I thought I saw a flash of reluctance in Jim's eyes. However, the door closing firmly behind him without a moment's hesitation told me it had only been my imagination.

The security guard certainly did his job thoroughly. Even though it was raining, he still dragged me outside and left me on the street.

…

I did not know when I lost consciousness. When I opened my eyes again, I was already lying in a hospital bed. Someone was holding the hand that hung over the edge of the bed.

"You're awake, Cecilia?"

I turned my head. Jim's exhausted face came into view. There was still dark stubble along his jaw. I had no idea how long he had been sitting beside my bed.

If this had happened before, I would have been worried sick. I would have complained about how badly he was treating his own health and insisted that he go home and rest.

However, now, I did not even blink. I calmly pulled my hand out of his and stared silently out the window.

Jim stared at his empty hand for several seconds before smiling with relief.

"Still mad? Don't worry. I've already filed for divorce from Harriet, and the property transfer is being processed too. Are you happy now?"

His lowered voice and careful tone sounded as if he were making a great sacrifice for me. However, underneath it all was an accusation that I had been unreasonable.

I gave him a faint smile. Even being angry felt like too much effort at that point, so I merely hummed softly to let him know I had heard him. Jim, however, did not seem satisfied. His brows furrowed as his expression slowly hardened.

Something clearly felt wrong to him, although he had not figured out what it was yet.

Then someone knocked on the hospital room door.

"Mr. Smith, your wife's egg retrieval procedure is complete. You can get ready to go to the sperm collection room."

The well-meaning reminder plunged the entire room into an eerie silence.

Even though I had long since stopped expecting anything from Jim, my fingers still tightened around the blanket when I heard those words. Every single word was familiar. Yet somehow, when they were put together, they sounded completely foreign.

I looked up at Jim, but he avoided my eyes. Only after walking the doctor out did he come back and grab my hand, his expression completely sincere.

"Cecilia, listen to me. Please do not get angry yet.

"Harriet just wants to know what it feels like to have a baby. She doesn't have a boyfriend, so she asked me to help her. The doctor doesn't know about our relationship, so when she called me her husband, she was just making assumptions. Don't take it seriously."

Jim really was explaining himself. He genuinely thought this was no big deal, as if what he had done was perfectly reasonable.

I simply stared at him, hardly able to believe what I was hearing. I had thought my heart was already completely dead, that nothing could hurt me anymore. Yet I had never imagined that the one thing I had once dismissed as my wildest fear would actually become reality.

In that moment, all the emotions I had buried for so long finally came crashing to the surface.

I raised my hand and slapped Jim hard across the face. "Why?"

Jim was stunned for a moment. He was just about to speak when the hospital room door opened again.

It was Harriet.

He immediately forgot that he had even been about to question me. His face tightened as he stood and headed for the door. When he reached it, he still stopped and looked back.

"Cecilia, calm down first. We'll talk once you have cooled off."

The door slammed shut behind him with a loud bang. With it, my heart finally shattered into pieces.

The truth was, I was not angry. I was disappointed. I was hopeless.

Jim would never live to see the day I calmed down.

My sobs continued until nightfall, and only then did I finally run out of tears. After completing my discharge paperwork, I went home to pack my things. This time, I still took the bank card Jim had given me—880,000 dollars.

I would consider it his way of buying back the share of the house that belonged to me.

I had just reached for the drawer when something slipped out from the hidden compartment.

It was a diary.

I slowly opened it. The more I read, the more shocked I became. By the end, I could only smile as if I had finally accepted my fate.

I did not put the diary back where I had found it. Instead, I left it in plain sight in the living room, where Jim could not possibly miss it. It was my final little surprise for him before I walked away for good.

From that moment on, I would have nothing more to do with Jim or anyone in the Smith family.