Chapter 7

She grabbed a hammer and smashed every wedding photo, one after another. Glass shards scattered across the floor.

All the clothes Marcus had bought for her, along with the jewelry and handbags, she packed up and sent off. By midnight, everything had been shipped to a second-hand auction house.

She also destroyed the gifts they had exchanged since childhood—the stuffed bunny Marcus had bought to comfort her when she cried as a little girl, and the stacks of practice books for the college entrance exams that he had forced her to finish, tutoring her day after day.

One by one, she carried everything out to the yard and set it on fire.

Her phone buzzed again.

A strange message appeared.

“I never realized how much he loved me—he was even willing to risk his life for me.”

Cecilia replied with a single line.

“Lucy, congratulations. You’ve finally recycled my trash.”

Three hours later, she heard that Marcus had woken up.

At the Leedon family hospital, there had always been five bags of blood stored for him—just in case.

For years, his health had been stable, and he had never been seriously injured. Even so, every six months, she had blood drawn and stored for him, just in case Marcus ever needed it.

But after last night, those five bags of blood were probably gone within five hours.

Just like that, the twenty-seven years between them had been used up completely.

Bodyguards forced her to the hospital.

When she pushed open the door to the ward, she saw Marcus holding Lucy in his arms.

His eyes burned with anger.

“Cecilia! You bribed the doctors so that Lucy lost her baby. And on top of that, you had them remove her womb.”

She froze as Marcus accused her of causing Lucy’s miscarriage.

A nearby doctor immediately said, “Mr. Leedon, it was Ms. Summer. She said that if I didn’t remove Mrs. Leedon’s womb, my entire family wouldn’t be able to survive in this city.”

Marcus released Lucy and walked toward Cecilia.

For the first time, he grabbed her by the throat.

“How could you use money and power to hurt her like this? When did you become such a cruel person?”

Cecilia’s eyes filled with tears as she looked up at him.

The fury and anguish on his face were no longer meant for her.

Pain tightened around her neck as Marcus’s grip grew stronger.

She curled her lips into a faint smile.

“Marcus, it’s just a womb. If money can buy her life, I’ll gladly pay for it.”

His expression darkened with rage.

Without warning, he slapped her hard.

She fell to the ground, fragile and stunned.

His voice was cold as steel.

“Take her to the operating room. Remove her womb.”

Two doctors stepped forward and restrained her.

Cecilia stared at him in disbelief.

“What are you saying? Marcus, what are you going to do to me?”

His icy gaze locked onto hers.

“You can’t owe someone forever, Cecilia. Since you owe Lucy, then pay her back. Once everything is settled, I’ll still take care of you the way I always have.”

With a single glance from him, the two doctors quietly dragged her away.

She tried to struggle, but a doctor pushed an anesthetic needle into her arm.

Almost instantly, her vision began to blur.

Through her fading consciousness, she saw Marcus pulling Lucy into his arms again.

“Lucy, don’t cry. When you cry, it breaks my heart.”

Her awareness slowly drifted away, memories from her youth flashing through her mind.

She was twenty years old, crying in Marcus’s arms.

Marcus smiled mischievously and whispered teasingly, “Cecilia, I love it when you cry. When you do, it really turns me on.”

So that was what real heartbreak meant for him.

When a woman cried for him, that was what made his heart ache.

A sharp pain suddenly tore through her abdomen again.

Through the haze of anesthesia, she faintly heard the voices of the doctors—and Marcus.

“Mr. Leedon… Ms. Summer already had an uterine procedure earlier. Do you still want her uterus removed?”