Chapter 4

I said, "Have you ever heard of a prenuptial agreement? My parents saw right through you. Before the wedding, they transferred all my assets.

"Sure, you can claim half if we divorce, but right now the only assets I have are a monthly salary of one thousand and the mortgage I owe on a house.

"If you'd like to be kind and pay that off for me, I'd welcome it."

In reality, my actual income was far more than one thousand.

But my parents were afraid I'd be taken advantage of, so my salary had always been deposited into their accounts.

And my bank card always had one thousand on it, enough to cover my basic expenses.

Elian's scheme had failed. The smile vanished from his lips. "Louise, you are being shameless."

I played with a strand of my hair. "Between the two of us, who's really the shameless one?

"Not only did you openly go to your mistress on our wedding day, but now you brought her right in front of me. Aren't you afraid I'll have someone teach her a lesson?"

Claire was so frightened that she quickly hid behind Elian. "I'm scared. Why is Louise so fierce?"

Elian felt his blood boil. He pulled her into his arms and glared at me. "Louise, only now do I realize how vicious you are. Does threatening a young girl make you feel good about yourself?"

I let out a cold laugh. "Weren't you just threatening me? It's best not to be such a hypocrite. You wouldn't want to get your karma one day, right?"

In the past, I had always been gentle and submissive in front of Elian and would never speak to him like this.

I had barely even raised my voice at him.

If this were still the poor college student Elian from before, he would have swallowed the humiliation.

But now his soul was that of the business elite from his previous life, accustomed to being flattered and deferred to.

Elian couldn't stand being treated like this. He charged forward, grabbed my collar, and raised his hand to strike. "Today I'll teach you a lesson so you know what happens when you disrespect your husband."

It happened so fast that no one had time to react.

I instinctively closed my eyes.

But seconds later, the expected pain never came.

Instead, Elian let out a painful cry and collapsed to the floor, clutching his already deformed hand as he stammered, "Who are you? What business do you have interfering in a matter between my wife and me?"

Before I could process what was happening, I was pulled into a warm embrace.

Dominic Parker looked at me with concern. "Are you all right?"

I stared at him blankly. "Dominic?"

Dominic was the boy who had lived next door to me when I was young.

Later, he went to university abroad, and we hadn't contacted each other since then.

I remembered when I was young and naive, I had a crush on him.

After all, a man with a gentle smile, sharp intelligence, and endless patience was my type.

Later, I fell for Elian partly because he had a nice smile too.

But wasn't Dominic supposed to be abroad? Why was he suddenly here?

I was so confused that I didn't even realize I was still in his arms.

He had no intention of taking advantage of me. After letting me go, he patiently explained, "I received your wedding invitation and wanted to see you off as you walked down the aisle. I never expected you to go through something like this.

"Lately, I've been wanting to find a chance to talk with you, and today I happened to hear you were at this café. I didn't expect my timing to be so perfect."

Time had left no trace on him.

Instead, it had only added to his mature charm.

As I looked at him, I found myself growing a bit shy. "Fortunately, you showed up. Otherwise, I probably would have taken that slap."

Seeing our interaction, Elian was seething with jealousy. "I'm not even dead yet, and you're already flirting with another man right in front of me. How dare you call me shameless?"

I almost forgot this lunatic was still here.

I wiped the smile off my face and landed a full-force slap across his face. "You think everyone in this world is as filthy as you? Don't lump me in with you. It disgusts me."

I knew he was trying to smear me with false accusations of being unfaithful.

To be honest, even if people misunderstood me, I didn't care.

Why was it that when a man cheated, women were expected to endure it, but when a woman did the same, she was treated like she had committed an unforgivable crime?

And besides, I hadn't cheated at all.

Elian looked at me in disbelief, clutching his red, swollen cheek. "You dare hit me. Do you believe I'll make sure I'll never marry you?"

Idiot.

I didn't want to waste another word on him. I ordered the security guard to throw him out.

As he was dragged away, he was still shouting, "Louise, I'll be waiting for the day you crawl back to me and beg for my forgiveness."

After that, perhaps busy chasing money, Elian surprisingly gave me a few days of peace.

But Claire didn't let go of the chance.

Not only did she send me messages every day sharing sweet moments with Elian, but she also posted several explicit photos of the two of them on her social media.

One was nearly nude. A mutual friend asked me curiously, "Did she join some kind of cult? That's terrifying."

I answered seriously, "Probably. I mean, what normal person posts half-naked photos of themselves?"

My peaceful days didn't last long. Finally having some free time, I went out to get a bag I'd had my eye on for a while.

But as soon as I got out of the car, everything went black.

Right before I lost consciousness, I heard Elian's voice. "Bitch, since you don't want to do things with dignity, don't blame me."

Seriously?

When I opened my eyes again and saw the burly men in front of me, I let out a sigh. "Just tell me, how much do you want?"

For someone from a family like mine, the most important lesson we learned growing up was how to handle being kidnapped.

After all, life was precious. As long as I was still alive, everything could be negotiated.