Chapter 4

"What are you doing, Zane! Let me out, right now!"

Standing barefoot on the soft, plush carpet, I pounded on the bars of the golden cage as I indignantly shouted again and again.

However, Zane grabbed my wrists in one move and snapped a pair of gold shackles around them. When he spoke, he did so with a calmness I had never heard from him before. It was the kind of stillness that came right before a storm breaks.

"I told you, Raina. All you had to do was bear with things until the baby was born. But you put abortion drugs in Moira's stew and caused her to almost miscarry. How did you turn into someone like this, Raina?"

"I didn't! I never put anything in her stew. It wasn't me!" I refuted.

However, Zane didn't listen. He just continued in a steady tone. "Moira needs the money too much to risk harming the baby. So, Raina, if not her, who else could it be but you?"

My blood turned cold when I heard the icy disappointment in his voice.

Looking down, I saw shackles not just on my wrists, but on my ankles too. Zane had even fastened one around my neck. Terror surged through me when I realized all this.

No. I couldn't be locked up here… I had wanted to finalize the divorce tomorrow…

Forcing myself to calm down, I softened my tone and pleaded with Zane. "Fine, I did it. I admit my mistake and swear I'll never try to hurt her again. Can you please let me go?"

However, as the words left my lips, the last lock clicked into place.

Once Zane was sure I had absolutely no way of escaping, he abruptly threw the keys aside. Then, he cupped my face in his hands. His bloodshot eyes burned with an anger I had never seen in him before.

Staring dead straight at me, Zane said, "Let you go? And then what? Am I supposed to just watch you walk into the courthouse tomorrow and divorce me?"

Then, he stood up and pulled out the divorce papers I had hidden away.

My eyes widened in shock. It was almost funny.

I couldn't claim Zane cared about me when he was having a child with another woman. Yet, to claim otherwise was incorrect too, given that he somehow found the divorce agreement I had hidden between the floorboards.

After Zane said his piece, he tore the divorce papers into shreds while ignoring my wails. Then, he turned back to me. His gaze was full of restraint and pain when he spoke.

"Just stay here quietly for the last two weeks, Raina, okay? I've prepared everything you would need. Once the baby is born, I'll let you go and send Moira overseas. Then, we'll go back to how things were."

"But we can't go back, Zane. That possibility is long gone! Let me out!" I screamed hoarsely.

However, Zane had already left and had taken my phone with him. No matter how much I pounded on the bars or shouted for help, the cellar remained empty. No one could rescue me.

I sat in stunned silence until I heard a click. Turning toward the sound, I noticed the wine cellar's cooling system had been turned on.

Then, I heard Moira's sinister voice from outside.

"Now that Mr. Wade knows you want a divorce, I can't allow you to live, Ms. Hill."

"Wait! Don't!" I cried out.

I could feel the cold air blasting through the vents. I pounded against the bars of the golden cage until the sound echoed in the space, but there was only silence from the other side of the cellar door. Eventually, my hands slowed, and then I couldn't move them anymore.

"Zane, save me… Zane…"

I kept calling his name, hoping that he would come. However, it was useless.

My breathing grew weak, and the cold spread through my entire body. I curled into a ball inside the cage, no longer having the strength to shout or move.

I wasn't sure how much time had passed when I was jolted awake by the freezing cold, just in time to hear footsteps outside the cellar door.

Was it Zane?

"Don't blame me, Raina. I can't let you go—not in this lifetime, or the next. I love you too much!"

Zane's voice came from behind the door. I tried to call out to him, but my lips were too stiff. I could only faintly force out, "Z-Za-n-e…"

"Raina? Are you calling me?" he asked.

Then, I heard the sound of a key being inserted into the lock. It seemed Zane was going to open the cellar door.

Was I about to be saved?

But just then, Moira's saccharine voice halted Zane's actions.

"Mr. Wade, the baby and I miss you."

I was so close! Filled with urgency, I tried to scream again. But sure enough, even after channeling all the warmth I had left in me, I could only push out one syllable.

"Za…"

I prayed he had heard me—that he would come in, see me like this, and save me. But instead, I heard two people kissing from beyond the door, which instantly had me dumbfounded.

Then, Moira's dissatisfied voice filled the cellar, but Zane didn't seem to care.

"Mr. Wade, I know I'm not worth even a strand of your wife's hair. But for the sake of your child that I'm carrying, could you allow me to have you just one last time?"

Zane was silent for a long time before answering, "Don't push yourself. You're still pregnant."

"Then, let me help you in my own way. What do you say, Zane?" Moira choked out through sobs.

Debasing herself completely, she pleaded with him like she was worthless. "I promise—once I've given birth, I'll disappear forever. I won't bother you or your wife again. Please, just this once…"

It seemed Moira's plea for intimacy was too honest to turn away. In the end, I heard Zane's pleasured grunts and the sensual sounds of her slurping.

Then, at a barely audible volume, I also heard Zane say, "This really is the last time, Raina…"

In that moment, the frigid air completely froze my heart, shattering the last shred of hope I had for Zane in the process.

Tears filled my eyes. My cries for hope were stuck in my throat. I pulled my hand back from beyond the bars and laughed sorrowfully.

In the next moment, a searing heat spread throughout my frozen body. I felt as though I was being burned alive. I knew what I was experiencing was the last stage of hypothermia—right before I froze to death.

Gradually, the sounds from outside the room faded, and my vision went dark.

In my final moments, dazed and half-conscious, I seemed to see myself finally leaving Zane and escaping this golden cage. I then boarded a plane to a place I had long dreamed of going. As I stepped off the plane, I even saw myself sending Zane a message.

It read, "Goodbye forever, Zane."

…

Early the next morning, Zane woke up groggily in bed. The moment his hand came in contact with the skin of the woman beside him, he froze.

Memories of last night's madness with Moira came flooding back to him. The wave of regret and anguish he felt was so overwhelming that it nearly drowned him.

"Don't frown, Zane," Moira said sweetly.

She helped to smooth the crease between his brows and then curled into his embrace.

"Moira, I don't want the child anymore. I'll give you 100 million. Leave—now," Zane ordered in an icy and final tone.

Moira abruptly sat up in bed at his unexpected words. Her eyes instantly filled with tears, and she was just about to plead.

But the next second, someone pounded on the bedroom door urgently.

I watched as our housekeeper yelled panickedly from the other side of the door.

"Mr. Wade! Someone intentionally turned on the chiller system. Mrs. Wade has been found frozen to death in the wine cellar!"