Chapter 6

The place descended into chaos as I was roughly shoved into the operating room. Eloise's words echoed in my ears.

"You think you can use what you've done for me to manipulate me forever? Who do you think you are?"

Every plea that rose to the tip of my tongue died in my throat.

When Eloise had been most interested in me, all it took was a slight, feigned frown for her to put on a show of concern. Now that Aiden was back, she no longer needed to use me to spite him.

"Ah! It hurts..."

I was strapped to an electric shock bed. Every jolt sent a wave of agony through me, making my scalp go numb. It felt as though my flesh was being ripped from my body.

There was no surgery. This was nothing more than Aiden's way of punishing me.

What about Eloise? Did she not know what was happening, or did she know full well and still choose to help Aiden torture me?

The restraints held me firmly in place. Every breath felt as though it might be my last, and every electric shock brought me closer to believing I was about to die.

As the machine's intensity increased, the bed became soaked with my cold sweat. I had no idea how much time passed before it felt as though something had been forcibly torn out of me. The last bit of strength I had been clinging to finally gave way.

I slowly closed my eyes and sank into endless darkness.

By the time I regained consciousness, I was back in my hospital room. Even the slightest movement brought unbearable pain. I spent two days in the hospital, and Eloise never once came to see me. She was busy preparing for her engagement party with Aiden.

I thought I would not see Eloise again before I left. Then, on the day I was discharged, a short video suddenly exploded across every major platform.

The moment I played it, my body went rigid, as though every drop of blood in my veins had frozen.

The man in the video was my dad.

Before his death, he had confronted Jacqueline Kirk, Aiden Jenner's mother, demanding to know why she had deceived him.

Jacqueline turned everything around and painted him as the villain. Hugo Jenner even had someone drag my dad outside and humiliate him in front of everyone before kicking him in the head.

"If you're that desperate for a woman, I'll give you what you want."

My dad cried out desperately, "She was the one who deceived me! I only got together with her because she told me her husband was already dead..."

No one was willing to listen.

Someone even posted photos of Eloise and me in the comments.

[Guess a gold digger's son grows up to be one too. The gene runs in the family.]

[Is he doing it for revenge? Poor Aiden.]

Reading the vile comments pouring in, I clenched my fists tightly.

Just then, Eloise appeared with an icy expression and forcefully dragged me into her car.

"Today is Aiden's birthday, and you deliberately released this video to humiliate him and the entire Jenner family?"

I stared at her in disbelief.

"How could it be me? Aiden was obviously the one behind this..."

Eloise cut me off coldly.

"Enough. You'd even stoop this low just to play the victim, gain my sympathy, and get my attention? Aiden already sent you the video and gave you a chance to deal with it privately. He was kind enough to help cover up your dad's disgraceful past, yet you exposed it yourself to frame him. Now you have the nerve to turn around and blame him?"

My breath caught in my throat.

At that moment, I finally understood that she did not care about the truth at all. In her eyes, her future husband could do no wrong, no matter what he did.

Once again, she pushed me forward to be someone else's punching bag.

Eloise dragged me over to Aiden.

"Apologize."

I pressed my lips together and said nothing.

Aiden sneered before speaking first.

"Just hearing someone like him apologize makes me sick. Since he insists he did nothing wrong, let's punish him until he learns his lesson. Eloise, how about throwing him into the walk-in freezer to cool his head? You don't have a problem with that, do you?"

Eloise fell silent for a moment. An unreadable emotion flickered across her eyes.

The next second, she smiled gently at Aiden.

"He embarrassed you, so he deserves to be taught a lesson."

In Eloise's eyes, a kept man like me, who had lived off her for five years, could never truly leave her. All she had to do afterward was soothe me with a few sweet words and toss me a reward, and I would come crawling right back to her side.

She never imagined that I would willingly give up a sugar mommy as generous as her.

I was mercilessly thrown into the walk-in freezer, and the heavy door slammed shut behind me.

"Open the door! What gives you the right to lock me in here? Eloise, let me out!"

The freezing air rushed into my lungs, chilling me to the core almost instantly.

She had already let them torture me, and now she was locking me in a place this cold. She had no intention of letting me off easily.

As the cold seeped deeper into my body, I curled into a ball and trembled uncontrollably. Frost gradually formed on my eyelashes and at the corners of my eyes.

Only then did I realize that every moment over the past five years when I had desperately clung to even the smallest scrap of warmth had been nothing more than a nightmare disguised as reality from the very beginning.

Just as my consciousness began to fade, the freezer door finally opened.

Someone pulled me up from the floor, and an unfamiliar voice sounded beside my ear.

"Don't fall asleep. I'm here to take you away."