Chapter 3

Sharp pain shot through her wrist where it was tightly gripped. Yvonne looked up at the man in front of her, who then resembled a cornered beast. She suddenly smiled brightly. “Is this all the karma I get? Hannah is dead, but look at me, I’m still standing here.”

The words struck like a match to kindling. His gaze darkened with fury.

Without warning, his hand closed around her neck.

Yvonne felt the air vanish from her lungs. Her face drained of color as her body instinctively fought for breath. Tears spilled involuntarily from the corners of her eyes.

Just as she thought he might choke her to death, his grip loosened, and she crumpled to the floor like a puppet with cut strings.

She started coughing violently.

Through the haze of tears, she saw him crouch before her. His voice was cold like ice. “I’m going to make you regret every breath you take.”

He reached out again, but his hand paused in midair before grabbing the collar of her shirt and giving it a sharp tug.

The fabric split with a sharp rip.

“What is this?!” he demanded with his furious voice.

Beneath the fading bruises on her neck, another dark mark cut across her throat. It was a horrifying sight.

Yvonne swallowed the metallic taste rising in her mouth. She covered the marks with her trembling hands as soon as she thought about them.

They were left by the so-called “breath control therapy” during her time in the psychiatric hospital. Day after day, they hung her on her neck and forced her to repeat degrading words as she choked. “Repeat after me! Yvonne is a terrible person, she is unworthy of Jason!”

Tears crawled all over her face as she repeated it again and again, “Yvonne… is a terrible person…”

For the first two years, she had clung to her pride and refused to say that she was unworthy of Jason. But by the third year, numbness had taken over, and she admitted it again and again. She was no longer worthy of Jason.

Jason’s hand brushed across the marks, and Yvonne’s body trembled even more aggressively in response.

Yet she smiled again, even as tears rolled down her cheeks.

“You know how it is overseas. People are into... unconventional things.”

Her voice did not falter under his shocked and furious gaze. “I liked it… Way more exciting than anything we ever had.”

Jason grabbed her by the arm and dragged her into the lounge.

She was then thrown into the bed.

Jason violently crashed down on her and tore through her clothes without a shred of mercy.

Yvonne’s voice trembled, “What would Cindy think of you?”

Jason gave her a harsh laugh. “Who do you think you are? Cindy is pregnant, and you’re just a temporary replacement.”

Her entire body froze as Jason’s hand gripped the bruises on her neck again. His voice was low and filled with malice.

“Yvonne, this is your karma. You can either stay and pay off your debt, or you can leave with those men. Your choice.”

The words “pregnant” and “replacement” echoed in her mind. As she trembled, Yvonne closed her eyes. She stopped resisting in the midst of agony.

There were no kisses and no embraces. There was only his rough and reckless revenge. She was nothing more than a replacement to him, and she was forced to endure everything while he kept snarling the same venomous question over and over.

“Is this how they used to choke you?!”

Just before dawn, Jason stood and left Yvonne without another glance. He ordered coldly, “Clean up. You’ll be entertaining some guests tonight.”

Then the door shut behind him.

When Yvonne regained consciousness, she kneeled on the floor as she shivered and slowly began to tidy the mess and the blood stains. Then she dragged herself to the bathroom.

Her clothes were torn and rumpled. But the top part she had clung to and protected with all her strength, remained intact.

That defiance had angered Jason all the more and made him torture her even more cruelly.

She hesitated as she removed her clothing, revealing what she had tried so desperately to keep hidden. Only then did it begin to surface.