Chapter 4

I don't know how long I lay unconscious in that cold, damp wine cellar.

A heavy, dragging pain throbbed in my abdomen, as if a hand were viciously tearing at my uterus.

I curled up on the moldy carpet, my clothes soaked in cold sweat, my consciousness fading in and out.

Until a click sounded—the lock turning.

Harsh light flooded in, and I instinctively shielded my eyes with my hand.

Standing at the door was Elena.

She was dressed in a bright, glamorous dress, covering her nose and looking at my disheveled state with pure disdain.

"Oh my, sister-in-law, I'm so sorry."

Though she apologized, her eyes danced with malicious glee.

"I was having so much fun these past two days, I accidentally forgot you were down here. Gavin kept thinking you were sulking in your room and refusing to come out for meals."

I struggled to stand up, bracing myself against the wall, the cramping in my lower abdomen making it nearly impossible to straighten my back.

Not wanting to conflict with her again, I weakly pushed past her and stumbled out.

As soon as I reached the living room, I ran into Gavin, who was just about to leave.

Seeing my filthy, pale, and wretched appearance, Gavin's brows instantly knitted together, a flash of surprise and displeasure crossing his eyes.

"Ivy? How did you get like this?"

Before I could speak, Elena, right behind me, rushed forward and clung to Gavin's arm, acting all aggrieved.

"Gavin, don't blame Ivy. She might still be mad at me, so she's been hiding and refusing to show her face for the last two days. It's all my fault."

Gavin's eyes turned cold instantly.

He looked at me and sighed, that familiar expression of disappointment and "tough love" reappearing.

"Ivy, when did you become so manipulative?"

"Have you stopped caring about your own body just to garner sympathy?"

I clutched my stomach, cold sweat dripping from the pain, my voice trembling, "Gavin, I don't feel well... I want to go back to my room and rest..."

"No."

Gavin glanced at his watch, and his previously cold expression suddenly softened.

He walked over, his tone becoming exceptionally gentle, as if coaxing a child: "Come on, my little darling, just hang in there a bit longer, okay?"

"I know you're not feeling well, but today is the appointment to try on wedding dresses. You know how important this is to us. You've been looking forward to this day for so long, haven't you?"

"Be a good girl, don't be willful."

Looking at his tender demeanor, the hardened defenses in my heart traitorously softened once again.

Maybe... he really did care about the wedding, about our future?

I gritted my teeth, enduring the severe pain in my abdomen, and nodded: "Okay, I'll go."

However, when I was led like a puppet to that top-tier luxury bridal shop, all my illusions shattered in an instant.

It wasn't just the two of us.

Kalen and Elena had come along too.

As soon as I stepped into the shop, I felt a bone-chilling cold rise from the soles of my feet.

It turned out that his gentle coaxing and pleading just now weren't for our wedding at all.

It was just to get me, the official fiancée, to be there so Elena could humiliate me to her face and satisfy her vanity.

Elena flitted through the rows of wedding dresses like a social butterfly, while Kalen and Gavin, the twins with supposedly distinct personalities, circled her like two loyal knights, never leaving her side.

"Gavin, do you think this mermaid dress suits me?"

"Kalen, does this one with the veil look good?"

Elena held up haute couture wedding dresses meant for the bride, posing with them one by one.

Gavin stood behind her, his gaze focused and tender. "This one makes your skin look fair. It suits your temperament."

Kalen chimed in from the side, "Our Elena looks good in anything. You'd make the most beautiful bride!"

The shop assistants looked at each other, then surprisingly, all flocked around Elena, serving her attentively.

"This lady really is a natural clothes hanger..."

Meanwhile, I, the actual bride, sat alone on a cold bench in the corner, my face pale as a sheet.

The dragging pain in my belly was getting worse.

No one looked at me.

No one even cared if I tried on a wedding dress.

In their world of three, I was like a superfluous intruder, a prop that existed solely to complete the wedding procedure.

After a long time, a shop assistant finally remembered me.

At Elena's signal, she awkwardly walked over holding a dress.

"Miss... this is what Elena 'hand-picked' for you."

I took it with trembling hands.

It was a bridesmaid dress made of cheap material and a dull color. Even the size was wrong; it was huge, like a sack.

"Are you sure... this is for me?"

"Yes." The assistant dared not meet my eyes. "Elena said your temperament is more simple and you couldn't pull off those elaborate main gowns. This minimalist style... suits you better."

I turned to look not far away.

Gavin was bowing his head to help Elena adjust her skirt hem, his movements careful as if he were holding a rare treasure.

As if sensing my gaze, Gavin looked back.

Seeing the shabby dress in my hands and the dead silence in my eyes, he frowned slightly. He seemed to sense that something was off.

"Ivy..." He hesitated, his tone probing. "If you don't like this one, I can pick another—"

"I love it."

I cut him off, a mocking smile curling on my lips.

I was leaving soon anyway. What did it matter what I wore?

Perhaps, in his heart, the love I had guarded with my life for so many years was just like this cheap dress—ill-fitting and unpresentable.

Holding the rag-like dress, enduring the excruciating pain in my abdomen and the bleeding in my heart, I forced out a smile uglier than crying.

"Fine. Since you chose it, I'll wear it."

After trying on the dresses, they wanted to go choose rings.

I couldn't hold on any longer and used feeling unwell as an excuse to stay in the car.

Gavin didn't insist I stay; he even seemed somewhat relieved. "Then rest in the car. Don't go in and spoil the mood."

Watching the three of them leave, I took out my phone.

Elena's social media had indeed been updated.

[Some things are mine without me even having to fight for them.]

The photo showed the priceless pink diamond ring, "Heart of Eternity," sparkling on her slender finger.

That was the ring Gavin had won at an auction with a high profile, promising it would be my wedding ring.

Now, it had become a toy to make Elena happy.

Back at the estate, Gavin came to my room.

He handed me a blue velvet box.

"This is your ring."

I opened it to find a plain band with only tiny diamond chips.

"Where's the pink diamond?" I asked, knowing the answer.

Gavin looked a bit unnatural but quickly recovered his matter-of-fact tone.

"Elena just got back and needs some jewelry to keep up appearances. That pink diamond is too flashy; it doesn't suit you. Besides, she's not in good health, and being in a good mood helps her condition."

"Ivy, be reasonable." Gavin sat down beside me and wrapped his arm gently around my shoulders, his tone as soft as if he were coaxing a petulant child.

"It’s just a ring. It doesn't prove anything. You know you’re the only one in my heart."

"After the wedding is over, I’ll make it up to you with an even better one. Okay?"

I looked at his face, so full of apparent deep affection, and felt a wave of desolation wash over me.

I used to be so pathetically in love with this gentle side of him. In the past, whenever he softened his stance and spoke in that tone, I would compromise without a second thought, abandoning all my boundaries.

Only now did I realize the truth: he simply didn't care about me.

In his eyes, I was just a plaything he could dismiss with a few sweet words. He thought that as long as he tossed me a piece of candy, I would willingly swallow all the humiliation and do the very things I hated.

"Okay."

I accepted the plain band calmly. "I won't make a fuss."

Gavin touched my head with satisfaction. "I knew you were the most reasonable one."

Just then, his phone rang.

It was Elena.

"Gavin... I had a nightmare... I'm so scared..."

Gavin's face instantly turned anxious, a nervousness I had never elicited from him.

"Don't be scared, I'm coming right over."

He hung up and gave me a hurried glance. "Elena has an emergency. I'll come back later."

With that, he turned and left without a shred of reluctance.

It was late at night.

I took some painkillers and lay in bed, drifting in and out of sleep.

Half-awake, the door was roughly pushed open.

A strong smell of whiskey approached.

Before I could react, a heavy body pressed down on me, hot, rough hands tearing at my pajamas.

"Mmph... let go..."

I struggled desperately but was pinned down by the wrists.

The man buried his face in the crook of my neck, his movements wild and urgent, without a hint of pity, only beastly desire.

"Elena... my Elena..."

He shouted that name in my ear, lost in passion.

*Boom—*

My mind went blank.

By the moonlight outside the window, I saw the face that was identical to Gavin's but twisted with wickedness and drunkenness.

It was Kalen.

He mistook me for Elena.

Or rather...

In the countless nights over these three years, those crazy moments I hadn't noticed, every time he entered my body, he was thinking of Elena!

This was a complete, filthy game of substitution!

To protect Elena's purity, Gavin directed Kalen's lust towards me.

And Kalen used me as a tool to fantasize about Elena!

Disgusting.

An unprecedented nausea almost suffocated me.

I felt the fruit knife under my pillow.

In that moment, I really wanted to kill him.

But the instant the knife tip pressed against his back, I stopped.

No.

Killing him now would be letting them off too easy.

I let go, allowing the knife to slide under the bed.

I lay with my eyes open, staring fixedly at the ceiling.

My tears had run dry, and my heart was completely dead.