Chapter 4

I did not know how much time had passed before the pain dragged me back to consciousness.

Anna was grinding her heel into my wound again and again.

“John told you to take care of me before he left. What are you lying there for? Get up!”

My eyes reddened as I sneered, “Even after all this, he still refuses to divorce me? As long as we’re still married, you’ll always be nothing more than a mistress!”

“You…”

Anna pressed down harder with her foot. Her face twisted with fury.

Then, she let out a vicious smile. “It doesn’t matter if John won’t sign the papers. Once you’re dead, the marriage will end on its own.”

Before I could react, someone behind me clamped a cloth over my mouth and everything went black.

When I came to again, I was on an abandoned rooftop.

My vision was still blurry. I had just managed to steady myself when the door was kicked open.

“Summer!”

John sounded really furious.

I snapped back to my senses and realized there was a scalpel in my hand.

Anna was curled up on the ground in a miserable heap. Her eyes were swollen from crying.

“Dr. Summer, I’m sorry! Please just let me go!”

She clutched at the leg of my pants, knocking her head against the concrete as she begged. I shook my head to get some clarity, realizing that the drug she had given me earlier must have had hallucinogenic effects.

“Summer, don’t do anything rash!”

Anna and I stood only inches from the edge of the rooftop.

From where John stood, it must have looked like I was holding a knife to her throat.

Anna suddenly leaned closer and let out a malicious chuckle.

“Relax, I’ve got one more gift for you.”

As soon as she said that, a swarm of reporters flooded the area below.

They raised their cameras and microphones, shouting questions.

“Ms. Summer, before you married Mr. Shaw, did you hide the fact that you had been assaulted?”

“Ms. Summer, you’ve had no children for all these years. Is that because the assault left you with lasting complications?”

Someone in the crowd held up a phone. It was playing the humiliating video from back then. The terrified screams of that young girl overlapped with the nightmares that had haunted me for years.

I felt my blood turn to ice.

John’s expression changed just as drastically. He grabbed the person beside him and roared, “Who the hell called them here?”

Amid the chaos, someone suddenly grabbed my trembling hand.

The scalpel twisted in my grip and plunged straight into my abdomen.

“John, help me!” Anna cried as she tried to run toward him.

She barely ran far before I caught her by the hair. Right in front of John’s horrified gaze, I drove the blade into her stomach.

“That’s where it really hurts.” My eyes were burning. Tears streamed down my face. “If I’m going down, I’m taking you with me.”

The stab Anna had forced into me had not been fatal, but me? I had not held back.

Blood sprayed on the floor. My vision began to spin and John seized that moment to rush forward. He wrenched Anna from my grasp and carried her away. I clutched my stomach and collapsed to my knees on the floor. Before I lost consciousness, the last thing I heard was John’s cruel voice.

“Summer has lost her mind. Lock her up in the asylum. Keep her from hurting anyone else.”

“Mr. Shaw, admission to a psychiatric facility requires a family member’s signature.”

John was in a hurry to get Anna treated. Without even looking, he signed his name.

When Anna woke up, she was hysterical.

“John, the doctor says I’ll never be able to have children now. It’s all Summer’s fault!”

John did his best to comfort her, but in his mind, a strange restlessness still gnawed at him. He thought to himself. “Summer has lost a lot of blood too. She has always been stubborn. What if she refuses treatment?”

That thought finally pushed him to his feet. He walked toward the door.

The door swung open before he reached it.

“Mom?”

John froze in surprise. Deborah lost no time and spoke in a cold, clear voice.

What she said drained all the color from John’s face.