Chapter 2

A fierce wind howled outside the door as soon as Ashton stepped out of the lawyer's office. Large raindrops pelted down, and he stood by the roadside with a numb expression on his face.

Jezebel called him just then, her voice arrogant and dripping with mockery.

"Had fun with the stuff you took?"

Ashton was silent for a few seconds before asking in a hoarse voice, "What do you want?"

"What do I want?" Jezebel sneered coldly in response. "You really are quite stubborn in your ways, aren't you, Ashton Rivers? Since you took my money, get home right now to the master bedroom and clean everything up. Damien will be staying with me tonight."

Even though Ashton had already decided on the divorce, his heart still clenched suddenly, and his nose stung with tears.

A long while later, he finally replied bitterly in a muffled voice, "Okay."

However, his obedience didn't satisfy Jezebel but further fuelled her anger instead. Her sharp voice shot from the other end of the line like a poisoned needle into Ashton's ear.

"Fine, Ashton! I knew you would do just about anything for the sake of money!"

Then, she hung up abruptly on him.

The rain poured down heavily, and Ashton just stood blankly in the rain, unable to come to his senses for a long time.

He only snapped back to the present when a passing middle-aged woman patted him on the shoulder and asked worriedly, "What's wrong, young man? Are you alright?"

A piercing pain shot through his palm. He'd gripped his phone so hard that the metal edge had cut into his bruised-up hand and made him bleed.

He didn't think that he would still be so upset after all.

By the time he got home, he was soaked to the bone. He wanted to quickly take a hot shower before tidying up the master bedroom, but when he pressed his thumbprint onto the villa's smart lock to unlock it, he was prompted with a warning that said, "Unauthorized entry".

Ashton froze.

It took him a while to realize that his front door access had apparently been revoked.

He smiled bitterly and lowered his eyes before knocking gently on the door, but there was no response. He then tried ringing the doorbell a couple of times, but still, there wasn't a stir in the villa.

Ashton ended up standing outside the villa door in the raging wind and pouring rain in his thin T-shirt for two whole hours.

He shivered in the cold as he quickly developed a high fever and his head throbbed with dizziness.

Finally, the door was opened from the inside.

The butler, Butch Devlin, walked out with a cold expression on his face and gave Ashton a haughty look. There wasn't an ounce of warmth in his eyes.

"You may enter now, Mr. Rivers.

"Ms. Vesper specifically instructed that you are to abide by the Vesper family's rules since you've taken her money. These two hours are just a light punishment for you. We hope that you will properly behave yourself from now on."

Ashton's face was deathly pale. He was too dizzy and out of it to think clearly. But there was one thing he understood, which was that Jezebel had deliberately stranded him outside the door to freeze.

He chuckled self-deprecatingly, staggered to his feet, and silently entered the villa.

After showering and changing out of his wet clothes in a daze throughout, he barely made it into the master bedroom to clean up. Then, he tried staggering back out but collapsed onto the floor, completely losing consciousness altogether.

In his hazy state, Ashton felt as though a fire was burning fiercely within his body, while at other times, he felt like he was plunged into the center of the ocean in the middle of winter.

The intense suffocating feeling filled him with all kinds of despair, and yet, he wasn't able to wake up from it, no matter what.

It wasn't until a sudden brute force yanked him up by his hair and lifted him right off the ground before slapping him hard in the face, twice, that he finally managed to come to.

Damien's loud roar was heard all throughout the villa. His clothes were disheveled, and his chest was peppered with hickeys and love bites as he stood at the door. Clothes were strewn all over the floor behind him from the doorway.

Jezebel had gotten her bodyguards to restrain Ashton as she glared at him, her eyes blazing with fury.

"What the hell were you pretending to lie on the master bedroom floor for? Were you deliberately trying to embarrass Damien?"

Ashton finally regained consciousness and realized what had happened. He'd collapsed on the floor in the master bedroom before he'd managed to go back to his own room, while both Jezebel and Damien had waltzed right into him when they came back.

Damien's face was ashen. "Jazzy! He did it on purpose! He knew that my career had been on the rise and he's trying to ruin me! How am I supposed to continue surviving in the industry if he starts spreading rumors about me?"

He then turned to leave in a rage, but stumbled and nearly fell. Jezebel saw it at once and grabbed him before he fell. Then, she turned to Ashton and screamed, "Now get the hell out of here!"

However, Damien wasn't going to let Ashton off the hook that easily. He grabbed the nearest thing within his reach and threw it straight at Ashton's head—which turned out to be a heavy crystal vase that cracked right open on Ashton's forehead.

Fresh blood immediately poured out of the wound on Ashton's head, dripping down his cheeks.

Ashton had already been dizzy and disoriented before this, and now, the impact made him keel over to the ground and writhe in extreme pain.

He raised his hand in a daze to cover the wound on his forehead. Then, he realized that his forehead was absolutely burning to the touch.

So, he'd developed a fever after all…

Ashton remembered how Jezebel used to feel sorry for him whenever he developed a fever in the past. She'd even walked into a freezer to freeze her body before walking back out to hug him tightly, all in an attempt just to get him to cool down.

"Ash, seeing you sick like this hurts me more than if I were killed. I'd take away all of your pain for you if only I could."

But now, those heartwarming moments had long since vanished. The only thing that was left behind was the growing torment that would last him forever until he was dead.

Jezebel looked at Ashton's weak appearance and suddenly stiffened. Her hands clenched subconsciously.

Just as she was about to take a step toward him, Damien pulled her back and said in a shaky voice, "Jazzy, you should just let me go. Let me leave this place!

"No matter what happened in the past, he would still kneel on the ground without ever daring to lift his head! But look at him staring at me blatantly right now! It's obvious that he's only trying to humiliate me! He's reminding me that this master bedroom belongs to him and I'm not welcome in it!

"But I'm also a man! And I have my ego and my dignity to protect!"

Jezebel immediately pulled Damien into her arms and stood on tiptoe to peck him on his cheek. "Don't be mad. I'll set things right for you.

"Go sit on the bed and wait for me. I'll take care of everything."

Then, she kicked Ashton harshly to the side and walked to the bed with Damien.

Ashton staggered backward by several steps and slammed his lower back heavily against the corner of the low cabinet. A sharp pain immediately swept through his body, and he fell to the ground again in a disheveled state as though he were the despicable third wheel in their relationship instead.

He chuckled self-deprecatingly as he endured the pain and struggled back to his feet.

He calmly began, "I didn't mean to… I just wasn't feeling well…"

"Not feeling well?" Jezebel interrupted, her face darker than thunder. "Can't you think of a better excuse than this, Ashton Rivers? You can't even be bothered to continue with your act now that you've gotten all the money?

"You're such a filthy, disgusting piece of shit!"

Ashton was rooted to the ground, completely stunned. He couldn't explain himself. But his silence only made Jezebel even angrier than ever before.

"What, you can't even speak now? Fine!

"Since that's the case, we'll just have your mother take full responsibility for her son's mistakes! Notify the nursing home and tell them to take 'special care' of my dear mother-in-law!"