Chapter 3

I struggled and tried to fling his hand away, but he was frighteningly strong.

"Mr. Garner, are you going to force yourself on me now because you believed the nonsense that the domestic staff have been spouting?" I retorted, sneering.

His hand tightened suddenly. "How dare a shameless woman like you talk about such things with me?"

I looked straight into his eyes without saying anything.

After a moment, he suddenly said, "I know that you did all those things to get my attention. If you obey me in the future, I can consider letting you be my lover."

I almost laughed out loud when I saw how conceited he was. "I don't want that."

He gave me a resounding slap in the face.

"How could that man of yours be better than me? Don't get too big for your boots, Elise!"

He had hit me so hard that I saw stars, and there was a faint taste of blood in the corner of my mouth.

His gaze stopped on my red and swollen face for a moment, and his tone actually softened slightly.

"Don't be so willful. If you break things off with him, you'll have everything that Sasha has, except for the fact that she'll be my wife."

I laughed coldly. "I told you that I don't want that."

He was provoked by my attitude. He grabbed a stack of documents from the table and threw them hard at me.

"Then get out of the house! We don't need a promiscuous woman like you!"

I didn't even bother to look at him and just turned and left.

It would be better to leave now instead of continuing to be an eyesore around the place.

I had just walked out of the storeroom when I saw Sasha standing at the door, staring maliciously at me.

"Elise, why do you keep pestering Andon?"

I snorted. "Andon is just trash, and you're the only one who sees him as a treasure. I don't want him."

I passed her and walked straight over to the stairs.

"Aargh! What are you doing, Ms. Fulton? Don't push me!" Sasha suddenly screamed shrilly behind me.

I turned in shock and saw her fall down the stairs.

My eyes widened, and my mind went blank.

The domestic staff heard the noise and rushed over. Andon charged out of the storeroom and threw himself madly at Sasha.

"Sasha!"

He picked up Sasha, who was covered in blood, and his voice trembled with pain and heartache.

Sasha leaned into his embrace, looking piteous. Her voice was barely above a whisper. "I-It's not Ms. Fulton's fault. I was careless and made her angry…"

She looked tearfully at Andon. "But I can't live without you…"

"Elise!"

Andon looked up and glared at me, his eyes reddening with anger. He looked like a wild beast that was about to devour me whole. "How dare you treat Sasha so violently? Get her!"

A few strong bodyguards came up to me at once. They pinned my hands roughly behind my back and pushed me down on my knees in front of Sasha.

My knees crashed heavily on the marble floor, and I turned pale with pain at once.

"Which hand did you use to push Sasha?"

Andon towered over me as he looked down at me, and there was no trace of warmth in his voice at all.

"I didn't push her," I forced the words out through gritted teeth.

"You can check the security footage."

Sasha huddled in Andon's arms and began crying even harder. "Don't look at it, Andon. It was all my fault. I fell on my own, and it has nothing to do with Ms. Fulton."

"Sasha, you're just too kind."

Andon wiped her tears away gently. "Venomous women like her aren't worthy of you pleading on her behalf."

I laughed self-deprecatingly. Andon never believed me, neither in this life nor in the last.

Andon said coldly, "Since you won't say which hand it was, then I'll maim them both."

My heart sank. I was a law student. My life would be ruined if my hands were crippled.

"N-no!"

I shook my head in terror. "You can call the police on me, but don't touch my hands!"

Andon smiled cruelly. "Do you care about your hands that much? Well, I'll make it even more painful for you.

"Go and bring me the gardening shears that the gardeners use to prune the roses."

Sasha shot me a gleeful look as she nestled in Andon's arms. I trembled all over with hatred.

I could not understand it. I hadn't done anything wrong. Why did I always have to suffer such disasters for no reason?

Andon took the gleaming shears and walked toward me step by step. He crouched down and pinched my little finger.

"This is the consequence of not obeying."

He spoke in a low voice in my ear, his voice as soft as the murmur of the devil. "You loved me so much in my past life and were so meek. In this life, why—"

I did not hear the rest of it clearly, but I understood at once. He had been reborn, too.

All my hatred for him surged up in my chest. I stared fixedly at him, wishing that the look in my eyes could make him die a slow, torturous death.