After I left, he begged me for forgiveness.

I had just stepped out of the villa when Brian’s cold, emotionless voice came from behind me.

“Aurora, leave the safety bracelet. Daisy has been having nightmares lately. She needs it more than you.”

My footsteps halted at the threshold.

That bracelet was the only keepsake my parents had left me.

I turned back slowly, feeling a faint heat rise in my eyes.

He stood under the porch, expression indifferent, not even bothering to look up.

“Don’t make that pitiful face,” he said flatly. “If you can’t part with it, name your price.”

I smiled.

Nine years of marriage, and it wasn’t worth a single bracelet.

I should have known. In his eyes, I was never a wife, only a caged possession.

I no longer wanted to argue.

I only remembered that winter when I refused to give my ski goggles to Daisy.

He tore my coat apart in front of everyone and threw me into the snow,

watching me shiver in the freezing wind.

I walked up to Daisy, took off the bracelet, and placed it on her wrist myself.

“I hope your child will be safe,” I said softly.

For a brief second, Brian’s expression wavered,

as if he suddenly remembered I was human too.

But before he could speak, the bracelet slipped from Daisy’s wrist and shattered on the floor.

A shard of jade cut her leg, blood spilling in vivid red.

“Daisy!”

Brian’s face changed instantly. He rushed to hold her in his arms,

his voice panicked. “Call the family doctor!”

The servants all stood in silence, their eyes cold, laced with mockery.

I suddenly laughed.

Last night, when I had a heart attack, he was taking Daisy out to watch the stars.

I collapsed on the floor, gasping for air, while he stepped over me,

only telling the butler, “Change the carpet. I don’t want Daisy to smell it tomorrow.”

I pulled up my suitcase and turned to leave.

That cold hand seized me again.

“Apologize.”

I froze. “What did you say?”

He yanked me so hard I fell to the floor.

The jade shards cut into my knees, pain ripping through me.

“You hurt her and broke her things,” Brian said, towering over me. “Shouldn’t you say sorry?”

I suddenly recalled how many times I had said those two words over the years.

When the soup was too bland, I apologized.

When I texted him because I worried he drank too much, I apologized.

When I saw his flirtatious messages with Daisy, I still apologized.

Kneeling, I lowered my head and bowed three times to Daisy.

“I’m sorry.”

When I lifted my face again, blood was on my lips, but my smile was calm.

“Brian, is that enough?”

He sneered and leaned closer. “Don’t forget, your father is dead. There’s no one left to protect you.”

I didn’t respond.

When the doctor arrived, he brushed past me

as if I were nothing but air, but dust.

I stood there, watching him gently wipe Daisy’s tears.

And in that moment, I felt strangely light.

Perhaps this would be the last time I stood in this house.

Because I finally understood that in this place called “home,” there had never been a place for me.

I watched Brian carry Daisy away in panic while the others whispered.

No one looked at me again.

At that moment, I realized there was nothing left for me to lose.

Dragging my suitcase, I walked quickly down the hallway. The villa’s front door was ahead. The cold wind rushed in, and for the first time, that chill felt sobering.

Just as my hand touched the doorknob, a car horn sounded outside.