Chapter 5

Countless baby items were neatly arranged throughout the room, clearly purchased by Tristan for Yasmin and her unborn child.

I asked, "Where are the things from my bedroom?"

Yasmin put on an innocent expression and replied, "Mrs. Barnes, I'm so sorry. I didn't realize that junk belonged to you. Professor Barnes told me I could do whatever I wanted with the stuff in the house, so I just..."

I let out a cold laugh. "How long has it been since I signed those divorce papers? How is this suddenly your home? I paid for half of this house, and even though Tristan and I are divorced, that doesn't make it yours!"

I ignored Yasmin's hysterical attempts to stop me and headed upstairs to confront Tristan. When Yasmin realized she couldn't stop me, she tore off her lingerie, slapped herself hard across the face in front of me, and then collapsed to the floor in tears.

Tristan quickly heard the commotion upstairs and rushed down without his slippers. He spotted me immediately and roared, "Bridget! What kind of scene are you making now?"

He wore only underwear, his upper body covered with visible scratch marks.

Yasmin sobbed as she explained, "Professor Barnes, Mrs. Barnes came by but was locked out. I rushed to open the door for her without changing my clothes, but when Mrs. Barnes saw the marks on my body, she seemed to get angry. She kept calling me a shameless woman, tore my clothes, and slapped my face..."

Her tears spoke louder than her words. Her damp lashes were fluttering, swift to pry pity from any man.

Tristan shouted, "Bridget, don't you realize Yas is pregnant? You've been pregnant yourself—you know how difficult it is! How dare you hit her? If anything happens to her baby, I'll never forgive you!"

With that, he gently cupped Yasmin's face and blew on her skin like soothing a child's scraped knee. "There, there, Yas. She just can't stand seeing me treat you well! Don't let her upset you!"

I watched the two of them clinging to each other like lovers and could no longer contain myself. "Tristan, look carefully..."

I stepped forward to where Yasmin stood, raised my hand, and delivered a full, deliberate slap across her face. A red handprint quickly formed on her cheek, and I declared, "This is what my slap actually looks like!"

Yasmin stood frozen in shock, momentarily forgetting to fake-cry. But in the next second, the scene before my eyes blurred with motion.

Tristan grabbed my shoulder and threw me onto the living room floor. He pinned me down with his knee and began slapping my face with savage force. He snarled, "Yasmin is my woman! When you slap her face, it's like you're slapping my face!"

I whimpered in pain but couldn't fight back under his weight. Blood began flowing from my nose, yet Tristan showed no signs of letting up.

"You should really look in a mirror and see what you've become! You don't even look like a woman anymore!"

With that, he grabbed a makeup mirror from the living room table and smashed it against my head. In an instant, the mirror shattered, and I caught glimpses of myself in the broken pieces.

Due to pregnancy hormones, my face was puffy and my hair disheveled, giving me an unkempt appearance. Soon, I saw blood streaming from my temple, down my chin, and dripping onto the shattered mirror pieces on the floor.

The entire house fell silent, with only the sound of my blood hitting the broken mirror fragments.