Chapter 3

"Why are you lying, Erica? We didn't use any peanut butter for the cheesecake!" I retorted.

Erica just looked at me innocently with confusion written on her face. "It's not on the traditional ingredient list, but you said that Ms. Dawson liked hers with peanut butter. You even purposely made me put a good dollop of it in the batter, Mr. Valencia. What are you talking about?"

Amanda immediately stomped on my already hurting calf and screamed, "You absolute bastard! What else do you have to say for yourself?"

I let out a cry of pain and choked out brokenly, "We've been married for years, Amanda Dawson. Do you really not know what kind of person I really am?

"It's obvious that whatever happened today was an entire ploy to set me up! You can go ahead and investigate it further if you believe me. But if you don't, then just go ahead and assume that I was the one who did it."

The only thing that broke me was the fact that Erica, whom I'd treated very well and even thought of as family over the past seven years in the Dawson household, had personally helped Leroy by stabbing me in the back like this.

A hint of doubt crept onto Amanda's face, and she removed her foot from my leg.

Just then, Leroy's voice rang out from inside the ward.

"Mandy… I feel terrible…"

That line was more than enough to reignite the anger she had toward me.

"Throw this bastard into the animal enclosure for three days as his punishment," she told the bodyguards.

She had an animal enclosure in her huge manor, where she kept two wild, untrained tigers roaming inside.

I panicked and instinctively reached out to clutch at the hem of her dress, looking at her pleadingly, but she just kicked me off and went into the ward to comfort Leroy.

The bodyguards immediately dragged me back and threw me into the enclosure. The two tigers immediately ran up to me and roared ferociously in my face, but their long chains held them back.

I curled myself tightly into a ball and stayed unmovingly in the center of the enclosure, not daring to move a muscle. I kept telling myself that this was just my punishment for ever falling in love with Amanda in the first place.

It was morning, just a few hours later. Amanda's dad, James Dawson, came up to the enclosure with a bodyguard and opened the door.

Meanwhile, my body was numb and frozen after having been tensed up in a still position for so long.

He stood before the cage and said faintly, "I've already heard about everything that happened last night."

A sliver of hope appeared in my eyes. "Are you going to save me, Dad?" I asked.

"A cruel bastard like you doesn't deserve to address me like that! We don't need a son-in-law like you!"

I stared at him in disbelief. "You don't want me to treat your hand for you anymore?"

Back when James was younger, he had had a medical issue, and his right hand couldn't function anymore after that.

When I arrived, I tried getting in his good books by asking the system for a cure and treated him with acupuncture needles daily, slowly helping him regain some sensation in his right hand after a long time.

He'd even cried tears of joy when he realized he was regaining sensation in his hand and hugged me, saying I was his life-saver and that he would never accept anyone else as his son-in-law if it weren't me.

But now, he just scoffed and said, "The miracle doctor Leroy brought to me cured my right hand. What the hell does that have anything to do with you?

"Leroy's already successfully invited the miracle doctor to our home, and he said that there was a way to completely cure my hand without the need for acupuncture.

"You were never skilled enough to cure me. You just learned the basics and pretended you knew everything to make me fawn over you. It's all your fault that I had to suffer years of getting stabbed by needles for nothing! And I swear that I'm going to get back at you for that!"

I had learned all my acupuncture skills from the system, which meant it was all accurate. I just made up that I learned it from the "miracle doctor" as an excuse back then.

But now, I couldn't be bothered to explain myself anymore.

After all, Leroy was the rightful male protagonist of this book's plot. Everyone naturally loved him and believed in him the moment he showed up.

I guess that this was the charm and halo of being the protagonist of a story.

James threw a stack of documents at me through the metal bars. They were the divorce papers.

However, I shook my head and said, "I won't sign it."

I would be returning to my world in three days. I couldn't possibly fail my mission now. Then, all of my past efforts would have been completely in vain!

James looked at me condescendingly and said, "I guess Leroy was right about you all along. You're just a gold digger who's after our family's wealth.

"If you refuse to sign the divorce papers, then don't even think of ever coming out of the enclosure!"

I lowered my head and tucked it between my knees, refusing to look at him again. James huffed angrily and turned to leave.

I remained alone in the enclosure for days without a bite to eat because Amanda never thought to have anyone bring me food.

The tigers in the enclosure also hadn't been fed in three days, and they kept growling and hissing furiously as they paced irritably, tearing and biting at the chains holding them captive, their eyes never leaving me.

I could see the chain links bending little by little in the tigers' mouths and felt a sense of despair. Was this how my life was going to end after all?

Seconds later, the tigers broke free from the chains and pounced on me with their jaws wide open.

"No!"

Amanda's heart-wrenching scream suddenly reached my ears.