The night Carter Sterling spent a hundred million dollars at an auction to buy a pink diamond for his female apprentice, I was lying in a hospital bed. Because of my seventh accidental miscarriage, the doctor declared that I had permanently lost the ability to ever have children. I was two thousand dollars short for the surgical fees, so I had no choice but to go find Carter in the middle of the night. Instead, I overheard him talking to his apprentice. "Don't worry, that blind woman will never have my child. If she gets pregnant, I'll just kill it." Ten years of delusions shattered in an instant. I resolutely sold my wedding ring—the only thing of value I possessed—paid for a hysterectomy, and walked away from him forever. When we met again, Carter saw a peacefully sleeping baby in my arms. He wept tears of joy, but his face remained stone-cold. "Only you would have the audacity to run away pregnant! But don't think you can tie me down with a kid!" I smirked, offering him a sarcastic smile. "The kid isn't even yours. What are you panicking for?" My savings had run dry a month ago. But I was still two thousand dollars short for the hysterectomy. After agonizing over it, I sent Carter a text. I didn't receive a reply. It wasn't until 10:30 PM that my phone screen finally lit up. My heart raced, and I quickly snatched up the phone. But it was just a news push notification on my screen. [Newly Crowned Master Painter Carter Sterling Spends $100 Million on Pink Diamond to Coax His Wife; A Display of Deep Affection That Envies All!] The woman standing next to Carter in the photo wasn't me, his actual wife. It was his female apprentice, Chloe Hastings. The hundred-million-dollar pink diamond on Chloe's finger sparkled brilliantly—so brilliantly that it made my eyes sting. Tears fell before I could stop them. Buddy, the guide dog who had been by my side for ten years, nudged me sympathetically. I patted his head, then slowly raised my hand to look at the fractional-carat diamond chip on my own ring finger. After staring at it for a long time, I opened a secondhand marketplace app like a woman possessed. Just as I was about to tap "List Item," a text from Carter finally came through. He didn't wire me money to dismiss me like he usually did. Instead, he told me to bring him some hangover soup. Tonight was his celebration party, but I wasn't the one sharing his joy. Because he always felt I was unworthy. On the way there, I scrolled through his exclusive interview on my phone. "Mr. Sterling, as the first Master Painter in a decade to break auction records, what is your secret?" A rare trace of tenderness appeared in Carter's light brown eyes. "I owe it all to these highly gifted eyes." The world thought Carter was just a natural prodigy. They didn't know that these light brown eyes, which suffered from total color blindness, were the ones I had given him. To someone with total color blindness, the world is only black, white, and gray—making reality look like a naturally formed ink wash painting. This abnormal vision actually aided his specific style of art. Because when I was a child, I saw the world the exact same way. Ten years ago, Carter was in a horrific car crash that left him comatose, his eyes pierced and blinded by shattered glass. To repay a debt, I hid it from everyone and donated my own eyes to him. But Carter's grandfather saw right through it and knew those eyes were mine. To thank me, he forced Carter to marry me. I knew Carter hated me, and I never expected anything from it. But to my surprise, he actually agreed to the marriage. It took ten years for me to realize that he only married me to torture me. Half a year ago, the hospital informed me that someone had volunteered to donate their eyes to me. Just like I had done back then, the donor's family demanded strict anonymity. While Carter was secluded in his studio working on his new collection, I secretly underwent the surgery. While he was taking his new masterpieces to the auction house, my vision was slowly recovering. I wanted to give him a surprise. I never expected him to give me a nightmare first. And now, I had to go beg him for a mere two thousand dollars to pay for my surgery. The reality of forever losing the right to be a mother, coupled with my crushing financial destitution, left me unable to breathe. I cursed myself viciously in my heart. Mia, are you really this pathetic?! Why won't you wake up?! Before I knew it, I was standing outside the door to his VIP room. Just as I reached out to push the door open, I heard Carter's tipsy, mocking laughter from inside. "Do you see now? Even without Mia, I can paint masterpieces that sell for a fortune!" My mother had been the nation's top Master Painter. After she died, I was the only one who inherited her true techniques. But when Carter recovered his sight and demanded I teach him how to paint, I refused. Of course, that was just one of the many reasons he hated me. One of Carter's friends laughed and asked, "Carter, when are you going to divorce that blind girl? You've been torturing her for ten years, aren't you bored yet?" Carter lazily swirled the wine in his glass and chuckled softly. "I'll drag it out until she's old and her looks fade, then I'll throw her away. Making her beg for death is much more entertaining, don't you think?" The room erupted in roaring laughter. I pressed myself against the freezing wall outside the door, trembling violently. I let the bone-chilling cold seep into every fiber of my being. Someone else asked, "So when are you going to make things official with Chloe?" Chloe, who had been sitting obediently by his side, immediately blushed. She playfully buried her face in Carter's chest, coyly fiddling with the pink diamond. "Oh, stop it. There are too many people fighting over the title of Mrs. Sterling. I just want to be Carter's good little apprentice..." Carter gently stroked her hair and spoke in a tone I had never heard him use before. "Mia didn't fight for the title. She stole it." So that was how Carter saw it. Even though he had explicitly agreed to this marriage himself. I stood outside the room, biting my lip so hard I tasted blood. Inside, Chloe sounded aggrieved. "But Mia keeps getting pregnant with your child... She's been trying so hard all these years..." Carter's freezing voice pierced straight into my bones. "Don't worry, that blind woman will never have my child." "If she gets pregnant, I'll kill it." My breathing stopped. If she gets pregnant, I'll kill it. So that was why... that was why I had "accidentally" miscarried seven times?! "Miss, aren't you going in?" A waiter, seeing my deathly pale face, pushed the door open and gestured for me to enter. In an instant, every pair of eyes in the room locked onto me. Carter glanced at me and said coldly, "Are your legs broken, or are you dead? Is standing at the door eavesdropping fun for you?" I took a deep breath, brought the hangover soup over to him, and carefully poured it into a bowl. A ten-year habit is hard to break. My hands, acting entirely on their own, placed the soup I desperately wanted to throw in his face gently in front of him. Like a perfectly domesticated dog. The room was silent for a moment. Then, piercing laughter erupted, completely drowning me out. I didn't get angry. I just crouched in front of Carter, my tone pleading. "I saw a bag I really like. It costs two thousand dollars..." Carter had Chloe take a sip of the hangover soup. She immediately stuck out her tongue and grimaced. "Ew, what did you put in this? Are you trying to poison me, sister...?" Under Carter's permissive gaze, Chloe giggled and dumped the entire bowl of steaming hot soup directly over my head. "Sister, something this gross... you should just drink it yourself..." The hot liquid cascaded down my head and seeped into my eyes, burning with a fiery pain. But this hangover soup was made exactly to Carter's specific tastes. I had made it for ten years. How could I have gotten it wrong? Hearing my scream of pain, Buddy barked frantically at the door, anxious and terrified. Carter frowned, kicked me away, and turned to tenderly blow on Chloe's lips. They were so close their lips were practically touching. I knew he was being intimate with Chloe specifically to humiliate me. In the past, my heart would have ached, but after years of accumulated torment, it had grown completely numb. Taking advantage of the moment, Chloe playfully hit Carter's chest. "Carter, Mia is watching..." Someone muttered from the side, "Watching? Does that blind girl even have the equipment for that?" The laughter erupted again. Chloe smiled triumphantly, wrapped her arms around Carter's neck, and kissed him. Amidst the cheering crowd, Carter didn't push her away. After the passionate kiss ended, Carter pulled out his phone, opened Zelle, and shot me a mocking look. "A two-thousand-dollar bag? You?" A harsh notification sound pinged from my phone. Zelle transfer received: $5. The second the notification ended, Chloe suddenly grabbed the entire ice bucket off the table and dumped it over my head! Ice cubes crashed against my skull and clattered onto the floor. The metal bucket slammed down over my head like a glacier. My vision went dark, and I collapsed uncontrollably to the floor. "That's enough! Who told you to do that?!" Carter's furious voice echoed through the room. But Chloe just held up her slightly scraped hand, looking pitiful. "It hurt, so my hand slipped..." Before I lost consciousness, the cynical voices of Carter's friends drifted into my ears. "Mia, can you stop playing the fragile victim?" "Chloe was just playing a joke with you, and you're trying to extort her?" "Carter, look at this blind girl. The acting is getting a bit pathetic..." With the crowd egging him on, Carter backed himself into a corner and said coldly: "Mia, are you really going to just lie there?" "Fine! Then lie there! Keep lying there! If you die here today, no one will give a damn!" With that, he and his entourage swaggered out of the room. Before leaving, he locked the door securely and ordered that no one was allowed to open it. In the absolute darkness, my consciousness grew heavier and heavier. Everything felt like it was reverting to the days when I was blind. After giving my eyes to Carter, my health had severely deteriorated. I was especially susceptible to the cold. Carter actually knew this, because years ago, he was the one who had rescued me from an ice cellar. The endless darkness wrapped around me, piercing me like a thousand blades. That heart, which had once beaten so vibrantly and passionately, completely shattered under the weight of countless wounds. Bang! Something smashed open, jolting me awake. As my vision focused, I realized the room door had finally been battered open by Buddy. He rushed over, frantic and terrified, circling me and relentlessly licking my hand, only to find me completely unresponsive. Buddy could only whimper low in his throat, desperately trying to wake me. I struggled to prop myself up. I saw Buddy's forehead, a bloody, mangled mess, and the blood on his paws. A trail of blood led all the way back to the heavy wooden door. The tears I had been holding back finally broke free. I hugged a terrified Buddy, sitting on the floor and crying until my throat was raw. At that moment, a Zelle notification popped up. It was from Carter, totaling exactly two thousand dollars. He had left a sarcastic note: [For your medical bills.] I didn't tap to accept it. I didn't need it anymore. I would never need it again. It was snowing heavily outside. My clothes were completely soaked with hangover soup and ice water, hanging off me stiffly. They felt like tiny needles stabbing into my skin. But I didn't feel cold, because the agonizing pain radiating from my lower abdomen made it nearly impossible to walk. I don't know how much time passed before I slowly pushed open the door of a pawnshop. The moment I walked in, the security guard at the door eyed me warily and raised his stun baton. "What do you think you're doing here?!" Buddy bared his teeth at him. But when the owner saw the diamond ring I held up on my ring finger, he immediately smiled and invited me inside. After getting the cash, I rushed straight to the hospital for the hysterectomy, and then I booked a flight. During my entire week in the hospital, Carter never sent me a single message. I knew he was waiting for me to apologize. Because for the past ten years, no matter what happened, I was always the one to initiate peace. Carter seemed absolutely convinced that I couldn't live without him. I wasn't discharged until half a month later. When I returned to the house, everything was exactly as it had been the day I left. Which meant Carter hadn't been home in two weeks either. I opened Chloe's Instagram. They had spent the last two weeks escaping the winter chill in the Bahamas, and had just returned today. The photos showed them having romantic dinners, swimming together, whispering sweet nothings... Every single photo depicted the life I had once dreamed of having. Right then, Chloe sent me a text. [Mia, why won't you just give up? The one who isn't loved is the actual third wheel.] [Carter treats you like garbage, why do you refuse to divorce him?] [I guess it's true. Your mother was a homewrecker, and the bastard child of a homewrecker is still just a homewrecker. You're pathetic!] The screen illuminated my deathly pale face as I heavily typed back three words: [She wasn't.] Before I could send anything else, Chloe sent me a live location pin. I didn't hesitate. I headed straight to the nightclub where she was. Once I spotted my target, I marched up to her, grabbed her by the hair, and slapped her hard across the face. "Apologize! Apologize to my mother right now!" Chloe was completely stunned by my swift, fluid attack. "There are so many people here... how... how did you find me?!" It took her three seconds to process what was happening, and then she shrieked and cursed. "You blind bitch, you can see?!" "You want me to apologize? What a joke! Your mother was a homewrecker! A filthy homewrecker everyone despised! The apple doesn't fall far from the tree!" I didn't give her a chance to say another word. Just as I raised my hand again, several men rushed at me like maniacs. But I had backup. Buddy lunged, sinking his teeth into one of the men's arms, tearing violently! Buddy was fierce and brave. He took down one man, then turned to attack the next. Using his small body, he physically blocked the attackers from reaching me. I grabbed Chloe by the collar, enunciating every word. "I will say it one last time. Apologize to my mother!" Chloe was pale with terror, but she stubbornly refused to back down. "A slut is a slut! What are you arguing about?!" "Your mother seduced Carter's father! She killed his mother! Do you really have no idea?!" "What? Are we not allowed to talk about how your homewrecker mother destroyed Carter's family?!" My breathing grew ragged. I slowly picked up a glass bottle, smashed it against a table, and pointed the jagged edge at Chloe, my face devoid of emotion. "I'll say it one last time. Apologize to my mother, or I swear I'll—" Before I could finish, a familiar, roaring voice exploded in my ear. "Mia, touch her and see what happens!" Buddy let out a sharp howl of pain. Carter struck him brutally with a stun baton. But Buddy didn't even try to bite Carter back. Buddy knew I loved him, so he didn't dare hurt him. He could only lie helplessly on the floor, whimpering for me to save him. I forgot all about Chloe, instantly scrambling up and throwing myself toward Buddy. But before I could reach him, a massive force grabbed me and yanked me back. Smack! A brutal slap landed on my left cheek. The sting was fiery. My ears rang violently. I could see Carter's lips moving in front of me, but I couldn't hear a word he was saying. Smack! Before I could recover, Carter struck me again, even harder. The massive momentum threw me toward the wall. My forehead slammed against the brick with a sickening thud. Blood immediately began streaming down the side of my face. After a moment of dizzying vertigo, his ethereal voice finally broke through the ringing. "Mia, apologize to Chloe." He pulled a tearful, weeping Chloe over to me, his voice terrifyingly cold. "Get on your knees! Apologize to Chloe!" This was the first time Carter had ever hit me. For the past ten years, no matter how much he mentally tortured me, he never laid a hand on me. Because the Sterling family had strict rules: men were forbidden from hitting their wives. But today, he broke that rule for Chloe.
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