Chapter 4

The moment the words left her mouth, the eyes of the thugs flared with murderous rage.

In the underworld, cargo heists and dead brothers were the ultimate betrayal—punishable only by death.

Right then, Ethan pushed through the crowd, his face grim. He stepped in and asked:

"What's going on here?"

Scarlett grabbed his arm, pointing dramatically at me:

"Ethan, I found proof of the mole!"

"It’s Sera! She was the one who leaked the shipping route! Those men had been with the Vance family for over five years. Their blood is on her hands!"

Ethan’s fists clenched, his body shaking as he tried to contain his fury.

The syndicate and his brothers-in-arms were his absolute red lines.

"Where is the proof?"

Scarlett immediately gestured to a guard, who brought forward a burner phone and several printed call logs:

"I searched her room myself last night while she went downstairs."

"There are logs of calls made to an untraceable number right before the heist. Our tech team recovered the data. It's her!"

With the "evidence" laid out, the thugs began shouting for my blood.

I stared at the burner phone, panic rising. "That’s a lie! I lost that phone weeks ago during the ambush! The only phone I have now is the new one Arthur gave me!"

"Ethan, if you don't believe me, just call your grandfather. He will clear my name!"

I desperately pointed to the new phone on my nightstand, hoping to prove my innocence.

But when Ethan heard "Arthur," his eyes turned to blocks of ice.

He sneered, as if my fate was already sealed. "My grandfather? He’s been bedridden and in critical care for months. Even I haven't been allowed to see him. You expect me to believe he personally gave you a phone? Sera, if you're going to lie, at least make it believable!"

"Call him? A dirty traitor like you doesn't deserve to disturb my grandfather!"

He didn't believe a single word.

My heart sank into a bottomless pit. I struggled weakly:

"I'm telling the truth! Look at the texts—"

"Enough!"

Ethan roared, cutting me off:

"Caught red-handed, and you still have the audacity to lie?!"

He glared at me, his eyes burning with disappointment and cold rage.

"It seems the mango juice from a few days ago wasn't enough to teach you a lesson."

He turned to his guards, his voice chillingly cold:

"Throw her into the flooded dungeon. No one lets her out without my direct order!"

They dragged me down into the freezing, flooded basement dungeon. The filthy, foul-smelling water rose to my chest, quickly draining all the warmth from my body. Rats and insects gnawed at my flesh in the darkness.

By nightfall, I was burning up with a dangerously high fever.

Sometime later, the heavy iron door creaked open. Scarlett walked in alone.

With no one else around, she didn't bother hiding her venomous, ugly face.

She stared at me with pure malice:

"Sera, how much longer are you going to cling to the title of Mrs. Vance? You’ve been sticking to Ethan like a parasite just because of some ancient contract made by that half-dead old man."

She squatted down, shining a bright flashlight directly into my swollen eyes, and sneered:

"You know, it’s remarkably easy for someone to die in this wet cell. If a guard 'accidentally' forgets about you and lets you drown... well, what a tragic accident that would be."

"So, be a good girl and confess to being the mole. Maybe I'll pity you and ask Ethan to spare your pathetic life."

"Otherwise, you can rot in this sewer!"

I slowly lifted my head. Squinting through my matted hair, I gathered the very last ounce of my strength and spat right in her face.

Scarlett didn't expect me to be so stubborn.

Wiping my spit from her cheek, her face contorted with hysterical rage.

She raised her hand to slap me across the face, but footsteps echoed from the corridor outside.

Her expression shifted instantly, and she froze.

Ethan walked in, his face grim, his cold eyes sweeping over my battered state.

"Still refusing to tell the truth, Sera?"

"Keep playing tough, and even I won't be able to protect you."

I forced my head up, my body aching all over, yet I gritted my teeth:

"I already told you the truth..."

"Why should I confess to something I didn't do?"

My defiance completely broke his patience.

Ethan's rage boiled over. Laughing coldly, he whipped out a heavy leather whip from his belt and handed it to Scarlett.

He gave a brutal command:

"Fine. Still unrepentant, I see."

"Scarlett, you do it. Teach her what happens to those who betray the Vance family and refuse to repent."

I gasped, my body trembling uncontrollably. If Scarlett got her hands on me, she would torture me to death.

A flash of sadistic glee crossed Scarlett’s eyes as she bowed her head obediently:

"Yes, sir."

She took the whip, stepped up to me, and whispered in a voice only I could hear:

"You brought this on yourself, you little bitch!"

With a cruel whistle, the leather whip cut through the air and slashed violently across my skin.

She whipped me with a savagery worse than any professional torturer, pouring all her jealousy and venom into every single strike.

Ethan stood just feet away, watching with a blank expression.

I didn't know how I survived it. My agonizing screams echoed through the wet dungeon. The pain was so intense that I prayed for death to claim me right then and there.

Finally, on the twenty-second strike, merciful darkness took me.

When I opened my eyes again, a faint sliver of morning light filtered through the small, grated window. I lay collapsed in the filthy water like a discarded rag doll, my breath shallow.

Suddenly, the dungeon door clicked open soundlessly.

A shadow slipped inside with predatory grace—it was the man who had saved me before!

He rushed to my side, using a silenced pistol to shoot through my chains. Lifting me into his arms, he whispered urgently:

"Hang in there, Sera. On Arthur's orders, I'm taking you out of here."

I slumped against his chest, too weak to even murmur a reply. Only the hot tears spilling from my eyes burned against my skin.

Five years of marriage. One dead child, and a broken body.

Ethan Vance,

we are done. We should never cross paths again, not in this life, and not in the next. At long last... I am free.

Fifth Chapter