Chapter 3

Now Rachel had become the woman by his side, appearing in media cameras to hold his arm and smile boldly.

At the press conference, the reporter asked about our marriage, and she rushed to say, "Mrs. Bennett is very nice. We are good friends, so occasionally I come to see Charles."

I sat at home watching the live stream without saying a word.

Charles didn't clarify, let alone stop Rachel from elevating herself through my status.

He even let Rachel use past events to get under my skin, as if this were all some kind of game he was enjoying.

Then Rachel went straight to the private club I frequented.

In front of several regular customers, she deliberately brought up that she once bullied me, saying that I only got where I was today through marriage.

I still didn't argue or fight with her. I just got up and left quietly.

Charles was in the next room, never coming out or stopping her.

*****

Not long after the phone hung up, news of Rachel popped up one after another.

She started by sending photos of herself and Charles in bed.

In the pictures, she was smiling smugly while Charles had his eyes closed. It was clear that she staged it to get under my skin.

Then she sent a text. [You're like a dead fish in bed. Charles can't even be bothered to touch you. He loves me. It's always been me.]

I didn't reply, and she sent another message. [Back then, in that alley, if Charles hadn't let me off the hook, I would've been locked up. You think he was protecting you? He just couldn't be bothered to let you know who's behind me.]

Still not done, she followed up with a few voice messages, her tone mocking. [Ailany, listen to this. He only laughs like this when he's with me. You're not even worth letting him pay any attention.]

[He saw it when they stripped your clothes off, but he didn't kill me on the spot. That was his choice. He wants you to remember that whether you can be with him depends entirely on whether he's willing to put up with you.]

I looked at Rachel's messages on the screen, and my fingertips stopped on the last one.

I felt my chest was stuffy, like something was pressing on me.

She sent over a recording of a conversation she had with Charles.

Charles's voice was loose and smug on the recording. "When you took off her clothes at school, she deserved it. She got in your way, right?"

Rachel smiled, "Then why did you help her?"

He laughed, "What can I say? I lost a bet. You know why I went after her. It was a punishment for losing a bet.

"As for marrying her. Part of it was because I wanted to mess around with my family, and part of it was because she had no status, no connections.

"Marrying someone like that means I can do whatever I want. She doesn't have anything to fight back with."

Rachel asked again, "Then what about all the nice things you did for her?"

His tone turned casual and smug. "Nice things? I was putting on a show so she wouldn't make a scene. Besides, she can't live without me anyway. No matter how I treat her, she has no choice but to take it."

The recording came to an abrupt end here, and Rachel then sent a text. [Now you should be clear that he never thought of being sincere to you from the beginning.]

After listening to that recording over and over again, I suddenly remembered a lot of things that seemed unreasonable in the past.

The way he pursued me was so fierce back then, and the gossip about other women started surfacing not long after we got married.

And that time in the alley when he saw me being bullied, he only sent the gangsters in and let Rachel go.

It turned out that those were not negligence, not helplessness, but positions he had chosen long ago.

I thought he was protective and affectionate, but everything was a gamble. He admitted that he wanted to rebel against his parents and picked a wife who had no background to manipulate.

What I had taken as an exception, as something meaningful, was merely a performance he had staged.

It felt like a piece of my heart had been hollowed out, and the rest was frozen by the harsh truth.

On the fifth day of the topic at the top of the trending list, Charles finally came back.

As soon as he entered the door, he began to question me. "Ailany, it's been five days. What do you want to do? The news is still on the trending list, and the Bennett family's face has been lost by you."

Before I could speak, Charles continued to question, his voice cold and hard. "You're nothing but a housewife. You eat what I provide, live under my roof, and wear what I buy you. Have I ever treated you badly?

"Without me, you're nothing. What gives you the right to fight me on this?"

He took a step closer, with obvious contempt in his tone. "I told you before. We can each do our own thing.

"All you have to do is play dumb, stay home, and don't interfere with what happens outside the house. I'll keep treating you well.

"But look at you now. You've made a public spectacle of everything and sent me those pathetic photos. You really think that's going to threaten me?

"Don't push your luck. I've already given you more than enough. You should be content with that. So, keep playing the obedient Mrs. Bennett. As for my business, stay out of it."

His tone was even more impatient, with a warning. "A woman of mine needs to know her place. Don't think you can threaten me. Without me, you have nothing.

"So, take down the trending posts, issue a public apology, and then keep your mouth shut and go back to living your life."

He stared into my eyes and added, "If you push me any further, I'll be happy to show you exactly how much you'd have left without me."

I looked at him calmly and said, "Then let's get a divorce.