Chapter 1

There was an unwritten rule among the elite circles.

"Whoever could make Mrs. Bennett cry would earn a permanent spot as Samuel Bennett's kept woman."

One by one, girls with grudges against me came to settle the score, but every single one of them left empty-handed.

Even when someone brought up how one of his mistresses had swapped my birthing water with boiling water, nearly killing both me and my baby, I hadn't so much as flinched.

When tabloids broke the story that he'd been caught sleeping with a tailor shop owner in her car, nobody batted an eye.

But I couldn't hold back my tears. I ran straight to her shop and trashed the place.

"I could've let it slide if it was anyone else. But her? She's the one who hit me with her car and left me crippled!"

Samuel Bennett stared at my prosthetic leg, guilt and heartache written all over his face.

But a second later, he smiled. "She chased me all over town for a 30-buck tip.

"Olivia, she was scared too. Besides, you got hurt because you didn't dodge in time. Don't take it out on someone else over something so small."

That night, a video of my meltdown spread like wildfire through our social circle.

"Now that Mrs. Bennett's done throwing her little tantrum, she should be a good girl and give up her bedroom."

They weren't wrong.

Except this time, my suitcase was coming with me.

*****

I was about to step through the front door of the mansion when the butler spoke up without trying to stop me.

"Mrs. Bennett, Mr. Bennett had your mother's room cleared out."

Every muscle in my body went rigid. I sprinted toward that room like my life depended on it.

The once-immaculate space had been torn apart. My mother's memorial portrait and her keepsake urn lay shattered on the floor, beyond recognition.

Tears flooded my eyes.

Once, just because I'd mentioned that my mother's things didn't feel safe, he'd had a security system installed on this door. No one could open it but the two of us.

Now, Samuel sat there, indifferent to it all. He didn't even lift his head.

"Olivia, how long are you gonna keep this up?

"Do you have any idea what you've done? Your little tantrum destroyed half a lifetime of Jessica's work. What you've lost doesn't even compare. What the hell do you have to be upset about?"

With every word of blame, he forgot the five years I'd spent being the perfect wife. He didn't even notice my leg, drenched in cold sweat from the pain.

He'd used the same cruelty to avenge her.

What about me?

Back then, after a car ran over my right leg again and again until they had to amputate, Samuel had come home looking wrecked. He'd sent every single one of his mistresses packing on the spot.

I'd thought the guilt had changed him, that he'd finally come to his senses.

The painkillers couldn't touch the agony, but I couldn't stop smiling.

I never imagined that everything he'd done was because that woman had told him, "I don't wanna be like all the others."

I wiped the portrait clean and held it against my chest. My voice came out raw and broken. "Let's get a divorce."

Ten years of loving him in secret, and I'd finally gotten my ending.

I'd imagined a thousand beautiful moments together. Not a single one of them looked like this.

Samuel's expression froze for a split second, then his face went dark.

Before he could spit out another word, a noise came from the doorway.

A plain-looking woman poked her head in, cradling a newborn in her arms.

A metallic sweetness surged up my throat.

I stood frozen, watching him reach out a finger to tickle the baby, then gently stroke the top of Jessica's head with all the tenderness in the world.

Only then did his gaze land on me.

"If this is about feeling insecure, I can give you a child. She and her son will never threaten your position."

Even Jessica Hart teared up on the spot.

"Mrs. Bennett, we fought so hard to have this baby. Everything before was my fault. Just let me stay, and I'll do whatever you want. Anything."

At that moment, every drop of blood in my body ran cold.

Samuel had always been terrified of pregnancy. The baby I'd begged for over and over, the one nearly scalded to death during delivery... all he'd given me afterward was blame.

"You're the one who chose a water birth. That's on nobody but you."

Now, through the pity in his eyes, I finally saw how pathetic I must have looked.

I forced my trembling body to turn away, but he yanked me back around.

"Jessica just apologized. Are you deaf? That entire leg was my money. If you can't appreciate what I've given you, then leave everything I paid for behind!"

The words had barely left his mouth when the servants began to whisper.

It reminded me of the year the rumors first started spreading.

The model student every teacher praised had racked up disciplinary notices one after another, getting into bloody fistfights just to defend me.

But somewhere along the way, everything changed.

Walking into the home I'd dreamed about felt more like stepping into a sleazy club packed with escort girls.

I'd cried. I'd screamed. I'd even tampered with their bedroom supplies.

But all I got in return was being forced to clean up the mess they left behind, tidying up after his mistresses.

Eventually, these hands of mine, the same ones that once played piano, learned to take their new toys in for cleaning without being asked.

The thought drove me to roll up my pant leg. Even the servants' eyes locked onto me.

He'd forgotten, too. This leg was destroyed because of him.

My eyes burned like they were on fire.

My hands fumbled desperately, but no matter what I did, the prosthetic wouldn't come off.

Pain swallowed every rational thought. Just as I was about to wrench it off with brute force, Samuel wrapped his arm around Jessica and stormed out, slamming the door behind him.

The impact rattled through my bones.

Every sweet nothing he murmured to her on the other side of the door cut into me like a knife.

After he left, a maid pushed through the door, her attitude far from friendly.

"Mr. Bennett sent me to pick up something for Ms. Hart."