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No Regrets, No Return, Ex-Husband
NovelShort
Hoàn thành
Four years ago, I was sold at an auction like property, until Dominic bought me and pulled me out of it. I believed he saved me, believed I owed him my life—until three weeks ago, when I almost died...
Chương (7)
第1章
Four years ago, I was sold off to the highest bidder at an auction like I was nothing more than merchandise.
I was twenty-two then, standing barefoot on a raised platform in a velvet dress that clung to me as I trembled under the harsh glare of the lights. My parents had already made the decision for me before they died—selling me off as payment for a debt owed to a mafia lord I had never even seen.
Then Dominic Ashford stood up.
He didn’t place a bid like the others. Instead, he crossed the room, climbed onto the stage, shot the auctioneer in the leg without hesitation, and took my hand as if it had always belonged there.
“You’re leaving with me,” he said. His voice was low and steady, almost gentle, like a promise you were supposed to trust without question.
And I did.
He brought me into a different life and gave me his name. I became Mrs. Ashford.
For four years, I truly believed I had been saved by the only man who could. Everyone around me believed it too. The media painted us as untouchable, the golden couple everyone envied. In the underworld, his name inspired fear, but with me he was soft in ways no one else ever saw. He would brush my hair when I couldn’t sleep, press kisses to the scars I tried to hide, and tell me over and over that I was all he ever needed.
I believed every word.
God, I was so blind.
Three weeks ago, everything shattered.
I was on a private jet headed to Italy to meet him when the plane was taken over mid-air. The pilot’s scream was the first warning, then came the gunfire. Masked men stormed the cabin, shouting demands for ransom, demanding Dominic himself.
But Dominic never answered.
For three days, I sat there under a gun barrel, starving, dehydrated, listening to a silence that hurt more than the threats. My husband never came.
When the rescue finally arrived, it wasn’t him. It was his men. The cabin exploded into chaos—gunfire, smoke, shouting—and then a heavy blow struck my head, pulling me straight into darkness.
When I woke again, everything was too bright, too white, like the world had been washed clean without me.
The sharp smell of antiseptic burned my nose. My skull throbbed violently, like it had been split open and poorly stitched back together. I tried to lift my hand, but my body felt like it belonged to someone else, heavy and restrained by drugs still lingering in my system.
Voices reached me through the haze.
Low. Tight with anger.
“…she’s stable, sir. The head trauma was severe, but she should regain consciousness soon.”
“Why?”
That single word cut through the room like ice. I knew that voice instantly.
Dominic.
My heart lurched. He was here. He actually came. Relief and desperation crashed into me all at once. I tried to open my eyes, to call his name, but my throat felt like sandpaper.
“Sir?” the doctor asked, confused.
“I asked why she’s awake,” Dominic replied flatly, stripped of any warmth. “You should have left her on that plane.”
My breath caught so sharply it hurt. The monitor beside me reacted immediately, beeping faster.
“Boss,” another voice interjected—Enzo, his closest man. “We couldn’t leave her there. The press would’ve torn us apart. The ransom situation—”
“I don’t care about the ransom,” Dominic snapped. “I paid them to delay everything. I needed time.”
Time.
“For what?” Enzo pressed carefully.
Dominic’s voice softened, almost disturbingly calm. “Liliana is with me now.”
The name hit me like a physical impact.
Liliana.
My twin sister. The one who walked away five years ago and never looked back. The one who left me behind to deal with everything—our parents’ debts, their crimes, the fallout that eventually led to my “sale.” The one I had been compared to my entire life.
“She was the one I wanted from the beginning,” Dominic continued, as if discussing something trivial. “Sofia was only ever a substitute. She looked like her, so I accepted it. I bought Sofia because I knew Liliana would eventually return.”
Tears slid silently from the corners of my closed eyes, slipping into my hair.
A substitute.
Four years of marriage. Four years of waking up beside him. Four years of hearing “I love you” whispered like it meant something real.
All of it because I had her face.
“It’s complicated now,” Dominic muttered. “Liliana is fragile. If she sees Sofia… if she sees that cheap imitation still alive, it’ll upset her.”
“What do you want us to do with her?” Enzo asked quietly.
“Preferably,” Dominic said without hesitation, “she should be paralyzed. Or better yet, never wake up at all. A coma would be ideal. A grieving widow is manageable. A conscious ex-wife is a liability.”
Something inside me shattered completely.
I wanted to scream. I wanted to tear myself out of the bed and drag him down with me. But my body refused to obey. I was trapped, forced to lie there while the man I loved casually discussed erasing me like I was nothing more than a problem to be solved.
Then the door opened again.
“Mr. Ashford,” another voice interrupted, urgent this time. “The test results are in.”
“I don’t care,” Dominic replied immediately. “I’m leaving. Liliana is waiting in the car.”
“Sir, you need to hear this,” the doctor insisted. “Mrs. Ashford is pregnant. Seven weeks.”
The room fell into a suffocating silence.
My heart stopped for a fraction of a second before slamming against my ribs.
Pregnant.
We had tried for so long—two years of hope, disappointment, and prayers whispered in the dark. I had imagined that moment so many times: telling him, watching his face change, seeing joy break through whatever walls he had built. I had believed he would hold me and finally be happy.
“Pregnant?” Dominic repeated.
“Yes,” the doctor confirmed, a note of relief in his voice. “But given the trauma and the medication, there are risks. We need to begin treatment immediately to protect the fetus. With your approval, we can—”
“No.”
The single word froze everything.
“Sir?” the doctor asked.
“There will be no treatment,” Dominic said evenly, as if deciding the weather. “There is no child.”
“Mr. Ashford, the baby is viable. If we act now—”
“You’re not listening,” Dominic cut in sharply.
Footsteps approached my bed. I could smell him before I saw him—his cologne, the same scent I used to cling to when I thought I was safe.
He leaned in close enough that his breath brushed my ear.
“Get rid of it,” he whispered, loud enough for everyone to hear, cold enough to destroy me. “I finally have the original. I don’t need a spare heir from a counterfeit.”
He straightened, already turning away as if I no longer existed.
“Fix this, doctor,” he added over his shoulder. “If that thing is still inside her when I return, you’ll lose your license. And your hands.”
The door slammed shut behind him.
And everything went dark.
When I woke again, there was only silence.
My hands flew immediately to my stomach.
Flat. Empty. Gone.
The absence hit harder than any pain I had ever known. He really did it. He erased it without hesitation.
I curled in on myself, pressing my face into the thin hospital pillow, screaming until my throat tore and burned.
Hours later, they discharged me. No explanation. No waiting car. No Dominic. Just me standing outside in borrowed silence, my clothes hanging off a body that no longer felt like mine.
The man I had built my entire world around had become the one who destroyed it.
For a moment, I thought about ending everything.
But then his voice returned to me—calm, detached, saying I should be left in a coma.
Something inside me hardened.
No. I wouldn’t disappear for him. I wouldn’t become convenient.
I would survive. And I would make him regret ever thinking I could be replaced.
I still remembered the number.
Madame Verena, the woman who had run the auction four years ago.
My fingers shook as I found a payphone and dialed.
“Hello?” her voice answered, smooth and cautious.
“It’s Sofia,” I said quietly. “Lot 77.”
A pause. Then recognition sharpened her tone. “Sofia… what do you want? After your husband ruined everything four years ago?”
“You remember the man who tried to buy me?” I asked. “The one who said he’d pay anything?”
“Yes,” she replied. “He was furious when he lost you.”
I looked at my reflection in the glass—pale, broken, but still breathing.
“Call him,” I said. “Ask him if he still wants to buy me.”
第2章
I wanted to grieve properly. I wanted to lock myself away in the bed I once shared with Dominic, breathe in whatever trace of him still lingered on the sheets, and let myself fall apart over the child he had ordered erased.
But when the iron gates of the manor came into view, something else stopped me cold.
The entire estate was lit up like a celebration. Warm golden lights spilled from every window, music drifting through the air—soft orchestral pieces, the kind Dominic always preferred at formal gatherings. Luxury cars lined the driveway as if the world hadn’t just collapsed under my feet.
A party.
My chest tightened painfully. I had just lost our baby only hours ago, and yet he was celebrating?
I pushed past the confused security guard at the gate—he recognized me, even through my soaked hair and hollow expression—and made my way toward the front door on unsteady legs. I didn’t bother knocking. I shoved it open.
The sound of laughter died instantly. Conversations cut off mid-sentence. Every head turned toward me.
And there, beneath the grand crystal chandelier in the center of the foyer, stood Dominic.
He had a champagne glass in one hand, while his other arm rested comfortably around a woman dressed in shimmering gold.
Me.
No… not me.
Liliana.
She looked untouched by suffering. Glowing skin, perfectly styled hair, a softness in her expression that made her look like someone who had never been broken apart and rebuilt by force. She looked like the version of me that had never been sold, never been used, never been reduced to something disposable.
Behind them hung a banner stretched across the wall: WELCOME HOME, MY LOVE.
The moment they saw me, the room fell into complete silence.
I must have looked like something dragged out of a storm—rainwater still dripping from my clothes, the cheap gray hospital outfit clinging awkwardly to my body, my face pale and wrecked. I didn’t feel human anymore. I felt like an interruption.
Liliana gasped, breaking the silence. She pulled away from Dominic and hurried toward me, her hands fluttering near her lips in exaggerated shock.
“Sofia!” she exclaimed, her voice overflowing with concern. “Oh my God, I thought you were still resting. The doctor said you needed complete bed rest!”
She reached out like she intended to touch me, but I instinctively pulled back.
“Resting?” My voice cracked. “My baby is gone, Liliana… and you’re holding a party?”
“Please, calm down,” she whispered quickly, tears forming almost too perfectly in her eyes. “I’m so relieved you’re awake. But why are you here? You should be in bed. You shouldn’t be walking around like this.”
“What am I doing here?” I laughed bitterly, the sound breaking apart. “I live here. This is my home. Or did you forget that when you ran away five years ago and left me to deal with everything? You left me to clean up our parents’ mess, to be sold off like debt payment—you left me behind.”
Dominic stepped forward immediately, placing himself between us as though I were the threat.
“That’s enough,” he said sharply, his tone instantly freezing the air. “Liliana has already suffered more than enough. She lost her memory, Sofia. She didn’t know anything. Don’t you dare twist this and blame her.”
My breath caught.
Twist this?
“You’re my husband,” I said quietly, staring at him like I didn’t recognize him. “I needed you today. I needed you there. And instead… you’re here with her.”
“You’re being emotional,” he replied flatly. “Go rest. You shouldn’t be out here. You’re disrupting everything. Leave.”
Then he turned away from me.
Just like that.
There was a time when even the smallest change in my expression would send him into motion—fixing, soothing, destroying anything that made me unhappy. Now I stood there breaking apart on his polished floor, and he didn’t even look back.
“Fine,” I whispered, voice trembling with rage and humiliation. “Enjoy your celebration.”
I turned and ran up the stairs. This time, he didn’t stop me.
I burst into the master bedroom—our bedroom.
Except it no longer felt like ours.
Everything had changed. My perfumes were gone. My clothes were gone. The familiar warmth had been replaced by cold elegance. The closet was now filled with gold-toned fabrics and silk pieces I had never worn. Her taste. Her identity layered over mine like I had never existed there at all.
I couldn’t stay. I needed to leave. But I had nothing—no money, no access, no cards. Dominic had made sure of that.
Then I remembered the study.
My mother’s jewelry.
The emerald set she had specifically left me in her will. The only inheritance she had protected for me. The last piece of my life before I signed that marriage contract and handed everything else away.
It was kept inside the wall safe.
I rushed there, hands shaking uncontrollably as I entered the code—our wedding date.
A soft beep. Then a click.
The safe opened.
Inside was a velvet pouch containing the emerald necklace and matching diamond rings. I didn’t hesitate. I didn’t even think about value. I only thought about survival. About getting out.
Then—
WEEE-OOO! WEEE-OOO!
A blaring alarm shattered the silence.
I froze.
So he had changed the system.
The study door slammed open. Dominic stood there, breathing hard, his expression tight with something worse than anger—offense. Like I had personally insulted him. Two guards followed behind him.
“I gave you a home. I gave you a life,” he said, voice low and controlled as he walked toward me. “And you repay me by stealing from me?”
“I’m not stealing!” I shouted, clutching the pouch to my chest. “These are mine! My mother left them to me! They don’t belong to you!”
He stopped right in front of me, towering over me without raising his voice. Instead, he simply held out his hand.
“You still don’t understand your place, Sofia,” he said coldly. “When you married me, everything became shared. There is no ‘yours.’ You are my wife. That means everything here belongs to me.”
“I need to leave,” I said desperately. “I have nothing left here!”
“You have a home. You have security. You have me,” he replied as if it were logic, not control. “You only feel empty because you’ve chosen rebellion. A proper wife doesn’t lack anything.”
Before I could react, he yanked the pouch from my hands.
“No!” I cried, reaching for it.
His grip closed around my wrist, tight enough to bruise. “Stop this. You’re humiliating yourself.”
At the doorway, Liliana appeared as if she had been waiting for the perfect moment. Elegant. Calm. Effortlessly composed.
Her eyes landed on the pouch in Dominic’s hand and lit up immediately.
“Oh, Dominic,” she said softly, stepping closer and resting her hand lightly on his shoulder. “Is that Mother’s emerald set? I remember she always said it should go to the daughter who brought honor to the family.”
Dominic looked at me—messy, shaking, desperate—then at Liliana—perfect, composed, radiant.
And made his choice.
“You’re right,” he said.
Then he turned back to me.
“These belong to the lady of Ashford Manor. Someone who carries herself with dignity. Not someone trying to sell off family heirlooms like a common thief.”
He placed the pouch into Liliana’s hands.
“Keep them safe,” he added. “At least one of you understands value.”
“Thank you, Dominic,” Liliana said brightly, holding my inheritance as though it belonged to her all along. Then she looked at me with a soft, pitying smile. “Sofia, don’t be upset. I’ll take good care of them.”
“You can’t do this!” I screamed, my voice breaking. “I am your wife, Dominic! Not her!”
“Then act like it,” he snapped back immediately. “Wives don’t steal. Wives obey.”
He turned to the guards.
“She’s unstable. Take her somewhere quiet,” he ordered, gesturing toward the exit. “Put her in the basement holding room until the party is over. I won’t have her ruining Liliana’s homecoming.”
“The basement?” My voice cracked as they grabbed my arms. “Dominic, please! It’s freezing down there—I just had surgery!”
“Then you should’ve stayed in bed instead of breaking into my safe,” he said without even looking at me. His attention had already shifted back to Liliana, watching the necklace like it mattered more than I did. “Take her away.”
第3章
When the guards finally brought me back upstairs the following morning, I didn’t resist them. I didn’t raise my voice or struggle in their grip. I simply walked into Dominic’s study, placed both hands flat on his desk, and said what had been pressing against my chest like a blade for days.
“I want a divorce.”
Dominic didn’t bother looking up from the documents in front of him. He only let out a slow sigh, as though I had said something trivial and mildly inconvenient, like changing the curtains or rearranging furniture.
“Don’t be absurd, Sofia.”
My fingers tightened against the edge of the desk. “I’m not being absurd,” I replied, my voice unsteady but controlled. “You took my child. You gave my mother’s jewelry to Liliana. You locked me in the basement while you paraded her around this house like she belonged here more than I do. There’s nothing left for me in this place.”
Only then did he lift his gaze.
His eyes were cold, stripped of anything that once resembled warmth.
“There is still plenty here for you,” he said evenly. “You are Mrs. Dominic Ashford. That name carries responsibility. You are expected to maintain it.”
A bitter laugh escaped me before I could stop it. It sounded broken even to my own ears. “Responsibility?” I repeated. “You destroyed my name last night in front of your own staff. You called me a thief.”
“And you confirmed it by trying to take what wasn’t yours,” he replied without hesitation. “But that stays within these walls. Out there, we remain exactly what we’ve always been—the city’s ideal couple. A marriage people admire. I will not let you ruin that because you’re emotional right now.”
He pushed himself up from his chair and came around the desk, leaning against its edge with his arms folded, as if this entire conversation bored him.
“And besides,” he added calmly, “people are already talking. They saw your scene at the gate. There are rumors you’ve become unstable, jealous of your sister’s return.”
“I am not unstable,” I snapped, my voice breaking. “I just lost my baby!”
“That is precisely why,” he said, pointing lightly as if making a correction, “you will attend the charity gala tonight. You will wear what I’ve prepared. You will smile when necessary. You will play your role as the grieving wife who is still loyal. And you will stand beside Liliana as though her return brings you joy.”
“I won’t do it,” I said quietly, though it felt more like a plea than a refusal.
He stepped closer, lowering his voice until it turned sharp and suffocating.
“You will,” he said, each word measured. “Because where exactly do you think you would go without me? You have nothing.”
The certainty in his tone made my stomach drop. He knew exactly where I was weakest.
“…Fine,” I whispered after a moment. “I’ll go.”
That night, the gala blurred into a series of flashing cameras, polite laughter, and suffocating elegance.
I wore a black velvet gown with a high neckline and long sleeves, chosen deliberately to hide the bruises that had begun to form on my skin. I stood beside Dominic like a quiet shadow while he moved effortlessly through the crowd—smiling, shaking hands, accepting sympathy for our “loss” as though it belonged to both of us equally.
“My wife has been through a great deal,” he would say, squeezing my hand just a little too tightly each time. “She is devastated, of course. But having her sister back has been a comfort to us both.”
And then there was Liliana.
She wore my emerald necklace.
The one Dominic had torn away from me without hesitation.
It rested against her throat like it had always belonged there, sparkling under the lights while everything I had lost seemed to hang from it like a cruel reminder.
She moved through the crowd with ease, laughing softly, accepting sympathy, playing the role of the long-lost miracle returned.
“Oh, Sofia is incredibly strong,” I overheard her telling a group of guests. “I’m only here to support her. Dominic has been such an anchor for both of us.”
Across the room, she met my eyes and gave me a small smile—soft, sweet, and unmistakably victorious.
I felt sick.
I slipped away to the restroom, splashing cold water over my face until my reflection steadied. When I finally stepped out again, I intended to find Dominic and tell him I wanted to leave.
Instead, I found them.
Out on the balcony.
Hidden in the shadows beyond the lights and music, Dominic stood with his back partially turned, but I could see everything clearly. Liliana had her arms wrapped around his neck, leaning in close as she whispered something that made him laugh—an easy, genuine sound I hadn’t heard directed at me in years.
Then he leaned down.
And kissed her.
It wasn’t brief. It wasn’t careless. It was deep, deliberate, and far too familiar.
Possessive.
I couldn’t move. I just stood there, watching my husband and my sister exist in a world where I no longer seemed to matter.
The next morning, I woke to the sound of construction echoing through the hallway.
Still half-dazed, I followed it until I reached the nursery.
The door stood open.
Inside, workers were dismantling everything. The crib was being carried out piece by piece. The rocking chair was gone. The soft yellow wallpaper with its tiny duck patterns was already being stripped from the walls.
My voice barely came out. “What are you doing?”
Liliana stepped into view wearing a silk robe—my silk robe. She smiled as if nothing was wrong at all.
“Oh, good morning,” she said brightly. “Dominic thought it would be too upsetting for you to keep seeing the nursery now that… well, there’s no baby. So he decided I’ll take this room instead. I’ll be staying here for a while.”
She gestured casually toward the workers.
“Careful with that dresser! It’s antique.”
Then she turned back to me, her expression soft and almost apologetic.
“You don’t mind, do you, Sofia? You weren’t going to use it anymore. Dominic said it would help you move forward.”
Move forward.
My child wasn’t even gone long enough for the world to stop rearranging itself around the absence.
“No,” I said quietly, forcing the words out. “It’s fine. Take it all.”
I walked back to my room without another word and closed the door behind me. This time, I locked it.
Sitting on the edge of the bed, I pulled my phone from beneath the mattress, my hands trembling as I opened my messages.
There was one unread notification.
Sender: Madame Verena
The arrangement is ready. The client has agreed to your conditions. He wants a wife who is compliant, discreet, and already stripped of everything that matters. Are you prepared to disappear, Mrs. Ashford?
第4章
I made my way down the hallway slowly, each step heavier than the last, the stale aftertaste of untouched champagne still lingering bitterly on my tongue. I wasn’t even sure what I was looking for anymore—just water, maybe something simple to steady myself.
I turned toward the kitchen without thinking, but I stopped abruptly before I reached it.
They were there, half-hidden in the low glow of the wall sconces.
Dominic had Liliana pressed firmly against the wall. One hand tangled in her hair, the other at her waist, and his mouth was on hers with a force that didn’t belong to anything careful or accidental. This wasn’t the brief, performative kiss from earlier. This was something deeper—urgent, practiced, familiar.
I let out a small sound before I could stop myself, a sharp breath breaking the silence.
Dominic jerked back immediately.
His eyes flicked to me, then to Liliana, then back again. For a split second, panic flashed across his face. But it vanished just as quickly, replaced by the calm, controlled expression he always wore when he was choosing a lie.
“Sofia,” he exhaled, already straightening his jacket as though nothing had happened. “I… I thought she was you.”
I stared at him, the words not landing at first. I was in a loose grey shirt and sweatpants, barely standing upright, while Liliana still shimmered in that emerald gown like she belonged in another world entirely.
“You thought she was me,” I repeated slowly, voice completely drained of emotion.
“It’s dark,” he said quickly, stepping away from her as if distance could erase what I had just seen. “And you two look identical. You know how difficult it can be sometimes. The shape, the outline… it’s easy to confuse you.”
Behind him, Liliana adjusted her dress, smoothing it down with calm, deliberate movements. There was no embarrassment on her face. Only satisfaction, quiet and certain.
“I’m so sorry, Sofia,” she said softly, her tone sweet enough to feel rehearsed. “I tried to stop him, really. But he was just… overwhelmed. He misses you so much, you know.”
I looked at both of them for a long moment. The air between us felt thick, almost suffocating, like breathing their words would poison me.
“Right,” I said at last, turning away. “That happens.”
I started walking again, intending to leave it behind me. I just wanted my room. I just wanted silence. I wanted sleep—anything that would carry me through until I could finally escape this place.
“Stop.”
Dominic’s voice snapped through the hallway.
I paused but didn’t turn around.
“That’s it?” he said, louder now, footsteps approaching behind me. “You’re just going to walk away and say ‘that happens’?”
Slowly, I turned to face him.
“What exactly do you want from me, Dominic?” I asked. “Do you want me to scream? Break something? Collapse on the floor?”
His jaw tightened. “I want you to care,” he said sharply. “You saw your husband kissing another woman—even if it was a misunderstanding—and you’re acting like it means nothing. Do you even still love me?”
I studied him then, really looked at him. The man I had once believed in completely. The man I had lost a child for.
“I’m tired,” I said quietly. “That’s all. I’m just so tired.”
His expression hardened.
“Tired?” he repeated. “Or guilty?”
My brows furrowed. “What are you talking about?”
“Liliana told me things,” he said with a faint, bitter smile, gesturing loosely toward her. “About you disappearing sometimes. About other men. Is that why you’re so indifferent? Because you’ve already been doing the same thing?”
My stomach dropped. “That’s insane. I am not cheating on you. I was in the hospital losing our baby.”
“Don’t hide behind that,” he snapped. “You’ve been distant for months.”
My voice started to rise before I could stop it. “You and I both know what’s really happening here. Don’t twist this. I see how you look at her. I see what you’ve done with her. The jewelry. The nursery. Everything.”
Dominic scoffed. “You’re being hysterical.”
Liliana stepped closer then, her voice soft and coaxing. “Sofia, please,” she said gently, reaching for my arm. “You’re not thinking clearly. Dominic loves you. I’m only here because I care about both of you.”
“Don’t touch me!” I shouted.
I shoved her away.
It wasn’t meant to hurt her. It was just instinct—panic, desperation, the need to get her away from me.
But we were standing too close to the top of the staircase.
Liliana stumbled backward, her heel catching on the edge of the carpet. She reached out blindly, grabbing my wrist as she tried to steady herself.
“No—!” I gasped.
She pulled me with her.
And then everything fell apart at once.
The world tilted violently. Light, shadow, floor, ceiling—none of it stayed in place. The stairs rushed up to meet us.
Impact came in brutal waves.
Thud. Crack. Another impact.
Pain exploded through my body—my shoulder, my ribs, my head—each collision ripping the breath out of me as we tumbled down the staircase in a chaotic tangle of limbs and sound.
Then everything went black.
Beep. Beep. Beep.
The sound was steady, mechanical, irritating.
When I opened my eyes, the world was white.
A hospital ceiling. The smell of disinfectant. A dull, crushing pain radiating through my body.
I tried to move and immediately regretted it. My arm was in a cast. My ribs screamed in protest.
The chair beside my bed was empty. No flowers. No visitors. No Dominic.
Voices drifted in from the hallway.
“Is she awake?” Dominic’s voice cut through first—strained, almost frantic. I had never heard him sound like that.
“She’s stable, Mr. Ashford,” a doctor answered calmly. “The fall was severe, but she’s recovering.”
“And the baby?” Dominic asked quickly.
My entire body froze.
The baby?
I wasn’t pregnant anymore. I knew that. So what was he talking about?
“The fetus is doing well,” the doctor replied. “Strong heartbeat. It’s quite remarkable, given the trauma. But she will need strict bed rest.”
My breath caught.
She?
I wasn’t the one who was pregnant.
Ignoring the pain tearing through me, I forced myself out of bed. Every step felt like glass under my skin as I moved toward the slightly open door.
Across the hall, another room sat wide open.
Liliana lay inside the bed, pale but composed, almost serene—like someone carefully arranged for sympathy.
Dominic was sitting beside her, holding her hand against his lips as if it was something sacred.
“Thank God,” he whispered, voice breaking slightly. “I thought I lost you. I thought I lost our baby.”
“I’m alright,” Liliana murmured, brushing his hair back gently. “We’re alright. Don’t blame yourself. Sofia… she didn’t mean it. She’s just jealous.”
Dominic lifted his head sharply, his expression darkening. “She nearly killed my heir,” he said lowly, his voice carrying a protective fury I had never been on the receiving end of. “I’m done pretending, Liliana. I’m ending this with her. Soon, you’ll take your place. Just wait—I’ll fix everything. I just need to deal with my grandfather first.”
Then he leaned in and kissed her.
Soft. Certain. Devoted.
I stood there, fingers gripping the doorframe so tightly it hurt, the thin hospital gown doing nothing to warm the cold that had settled inside me.
And suddenly, everything became painfully clear.
I stepped back and quietly closed the door.
Then I returned to my bed.
I sat down, motionless, as the pain in my body faded into something insignificant compared to what I now understood.
There was nothing left for me in that life anymore.
第5章
The next two days passed like I was walking through fog. I moved through the house without really feeling present, only counting the hours until Madame Verena’s extraction team was supposed to arrive. I stayed out of Dominic’s way. I avoided Liliana completely. I didn’t pack a single meaningful thing—just what I was told to bring, as if I was already meant to disappear from my own life without leaving a trace.
But Dominic still wasn’t finished with me.
On the afternoon of the third day, I was passing by his study when I caught voices coming from inside. The door wasn’t fully closed.
“I don’t understand why she has to go,” Liliana’s voice complained, soft but sharp with entitlement. I could almost see her expression—lips pressed into a spoiled little pout. “It’s your grandfather’s eightieth birthday, Dominic. I’m the one carrying your child. I should be the one beside you.”
Dominic let out a tired sigh. “We can’t take that risk, Liliana. You know how Grandfather is. Tradition matters to him. And he’s always been fond of Sofia.”
“He’s old,” she scoffed. “He won’t even realize if I wear her dress and act properly.”
“That’s exactly the problem,” Dominic snapped back immediately. “He knows Sofia too well. Four years of marriage, he’s studied her without even trying—how she moves, how she speaks, even how she stays silent. If you walk in there pretending to be her, he’ll expose you in minutes. And if he learns about the divorce or the pregnancy before I secure his support for the CEO vote, I lose everything.”
I leaned against the hallway wall, a faint, bitter smile forming despite myself.
So that was what I had become. The only person in this entire twisted family who could still “represent” me properly was an eighty-year-old man I wouldn’t even get the chance to say goodbye to.
“So what, I just stay here?” Liliana asked, annoyed.
“No,” Dominic replied. “You can come. Just stay out of sight. Sofia will play the wife. You’ll be introduced as her sister. That’s all—for tonight.”
I didn’t argue. I didn’t fight it. There was nothing left in me for another battle. It felt like one last performance before the curtain finally dropped.
I changed into the navy silk dress Grandfather had once complimented during last year’s Christmas dinner. Before leaving, I picked up the gift I had already prepared for him—a vintage wristwatch he had admired for months but never bought for himself. It felt heavier than usual as I held it, like even the gesture was dragging me down.
I got into the SUV first, sliding into the front passenger seat. Dominic took the wheel, his grip tight, controlled. Liliana settled into the back seat right behind me, humming softly under her breath in a way that scraped against my nerves.
“Let’s just get this over with,” Dominic muttered as he started the engine.
The weather had turned ugly without warning. A storm rolled in from the coast, painting the sky in deep shades of bruised purple and grey. Rain hammered against the windshield, swallowing the winding cliffside road ahead and turning it into something blurred and unstable.
“Can’t you go faster?” Liliana complained from behind me, kicking the back of my seat. “This is so dull.”
“The road’s slippery, Liliana,” I said quietly, staring out at the edge of the cliff where the ocean churned violently far below. It looked endless, unforgiving.
“Nobody asked you,” she snapped back instantly.
A moment later, she added under her breath, “I’m the wife anyway. Even if you’re playing one for the night—”
Before she could finish, headlights suddenly exploded into view.
Blinding. Close. Impossible to avoid.
“Dominic!” I shouted.
He slammed on the brakes.
The tires locked instantly. The SUV lost control, skidding across the wet road like it had no weight at all. Everything turned into chaos—white light, rain streaks, the sound of metal struggling against physics. We spun once, then again.
Then came the impact.
A violent crash tore through the vehicle as another car slammed into us from behind. The force sent us hurtling toward the guardrail.
Metal shrieked as we broke through it.
The world tilted violently.
And then everything stopped.
Silence followed.
I gasped, trying to breathe through the shock. The airbag had deployed, filling the front seat with dust and pressure. My head throbbed painfully.
“Dominic?” I called out weakly.
The car groaned, shifting.
That’s when I looked down—and froze.
My entire side of the vehicle was suspended over nothing. The front wheel hung in open air. Beneath me, the ocean crashed violently against jagged rocks far below.
We were hanging off a cliff.
“Don’t move,” Dominic said, his voice tight and unsteady.
He was safe—his side still on the road. But the balance had shifted dangerously toward me.
“Dominic, help me!” Liliana screamed from the back seat. “I’m scared! The baby!”
Dominic unbuckled his seatbelt.
For a brief moment, I thought he was coming to me.
“Please,” I said quickly, reaching toward him. “My door’s stuck. I can’t get out.”
The vehicle creaked again, dipping slightly lower.
Dominic looked at my outstretched hand… then toward Liliana.
“If I move to pull you out,” he said, voice strained with fear, “the weight shift could send us over the edge.”
“Then pull me over to your side!” I cried out. “Dominic, please!”
“Dominic! The baby!” Liliana screamed again.
Something changed in his expression then. The panic disappeared, replaced by something cold, deliberate, final.
He didn’t reach for me.
He let go of me instead.
“No—” I breathed, the realization hitting harder than the crash itself. “Dominic, don’t—”
He shoved the door open. Wind and rain rushed into the car. Without hesitation, he pulled Liliana out and dragged her onto the wet asphalt.
“I’ve got you,” he said urgently, holding her close as he steadied her on the roadside.
The car shifted again, lighter now, the imbalance becoming worse.
I looked through the cracked windshield. I could see them clearly—Dominic holding Liliana, both of them safe on solid ground. I was still inside, suspended over the abyss.
And he was looking at me.
Watching.
Not moving.
“Dominic!” I screamed, my voice breaking into something raw and desperate.
He turned his face away.
The metal groaned violently. Another tire slipped past the edge.
For a second, everything held.
Then gravity took over.
The SUV tipped forward and plunged.
The world dropped away beneath me.
As the car fell, the last thing I saw was the taillights fading into the storm and my husband standing on the road with another woman in his arms—watching me disappear without stepping forward once.
He had once pulled me out of darkness.
Now he had decided I should go back into it.
第6章
Dominic’ POV
The scream simply stopped.
And somehow, that silence was worse than everything that came before it—the grinding metal, the violent screech of steel tearing against rock, the distant thunder of impact echoing up from the canyon below. Those sounds at least made sense. They belonged to something happening.
But the silence that followed did not.
One moment, she was there. I could still hear her voice cutting through the storm, calling my name, begging me not to let go.
And then, in the next breath, there was nothing. Only the empty space where the vehicle had been—swallowed completely by the cliffside darkness.
“Oh my God,” Liliana gasped, pressed tightly against my chest. She was shaking so badly I could feel it in her grip, her fingers clawing into my soaked shirt as if I were the only thing anchoring her to the world. “Dominic… is it over? Is she gone?”
I couldn’t answer.
I couldn’t even draw a full breath.
My pulse pounded violently against my ribs, erratic and suffocating, as I stared at the shattered guardrail. Twisted metal jutted outward like broken bones, pointing into the void where the car had disappeared. Rain lashed across my face in sharp, relentless sheets, but I barely felt it.
Because everything inside me had gone strangely hollow.
I had done it.
The realization didn’t come all at once—it settled slowly, heavily, like something sealing shut inside my chest.
I had made the choice.
In that brief, impossible moment when the vehicle tilted and physics demanded its price, I chose who stayed and who went. It wasn’t chaos in my mind. It was calculation. Cold, immediate, undeniable.
The heir.
The original.
The one I was supposed to protect.
I pulled Liliana out.
And I let Sofia go.
“Dominic?” Liliana’s voice trembled as she tugged at my sleeve again. “Talk to me. We’re okay now. The baby is safe.”
Something inside me snapped.
A sharp, sudden surge of anger tore through my chest, so intense it drowned everything else. I shoved her away before I even realized what I was doing.
She stumbled back onto the slick asphalt, her expression collapsing into shock as she looked up at me.
“Stay back,” I said harshly, my voice barely recognizable.
Without thinking, I ran.
I scrambled toward the edge of the cliff, my shoes slipping uselessly against mud and broken gravel. The expensive leather, the ruined suit—none of it mattered. I dropped to my knees at the shattered barrier, gripping the cold, rain-slick metal with shaking hands as if I could force reality to undo itself.
The storm swallowed everything around me.
And then I roared her name into it anyway.
“Sofia!”
Nothing came back but the sound of the wind and the crashing waves hundreds of feet below.
I squinted into the darkness, my hands shaking uncontrollably. Where is the car? Where is the light?
I expected to see headlights beaming up through the water. I expected to see the car caught on a jagged rock halfway down. I expected… something.
But there was nothing. Just a black, gaping maw of ocean. The current down there was vicious; I knew that. It swallowed ships. It swallowed bodies.
“Sofia!” I screamed again, my voice cracking.
Why was I screaming? I wanted this, didn’t I? I wanted the clean slate. I wanted the problem gone so I could focus on Liliana and my son.
But as I stared into that void, I didn’t feel relief. I felt a phantom pain in my chest, like a rib had been ripped out.
I remembered her face in that last second.
She hadn’t looked angry. She hadn’t looked hateful.
She looked… broken.
“Dominic!”
The raw, animal sound of her voice played on a loop in my head. She had looked at me not as her killer, but as her husband. She expected me to save her. She always expected me to save her.
And for four years, I had. I was her god. I was her world.
And I just threw her away like garbage.
“Dominic, please!” Liliana crawled toward me, grabbing my ankle. “Get away from the edge! It’s dangerous! She’s gone, Dominic! She’s gone!”
I looked down at Liliana.
The rain had plastered her hair to her skull. She looked terrified, yes, but there was something else in her eyes. Relief.
She was glad.
For the first time in five years, looking at Liliana’s face—the face I had obsessed over, the face I had bought Sofia to replace—I felt a wave of nausea.
She looked exactly like Sofia.
But she wasn’t Sofia.
Sofia would have jumped over the edge to save me. Sofia would have died before she let me fall.
“I have to go down there,” I muttered, trying to stand up, my equilibrium gone. “I have to… maybe she jumped. Maybe she’s on a ledge.”
“Are you insane?” Liliana shrieked, standing up and grabbing my shoulders. “It’s a three-hundred-foot drop into freezing water! No one survives that! She’s dead, Dominic! The car is gone!”
She shook me.
“Think about the baby! Think about us! This solves everything! We can say it was an accident. The hydroplaning… the storm… no one will know you chose me. No one will know!”
I stared at her mouth moving, the words blurring together.
This solves everything.
I looked back at the edge. The darkness seemed to be staring back at me, mocking me.
I had the original now. I had the woman I wanted.
So why did I feel like I had just lost the only thing that was real?
Sirens wailed in the distance. Blue and red lights flickered against the wet cliff face, getting closer.
I sank back onto my heels, the mud soaking through my trousers. My hands were empty.
I looked at my palms.
Ten minutes ago, I was driving her to a party. I could still feel the ghost of her warmth in the passenger seat.
Now, there was just rain.
“Dominic, the police,” Liliana hissed, composing herself instantly. She wiped her face, practicing her tears. “Remember. It was an accident. You tried to save her. The car just… slipped.”
I closed my eyes, the image of Sofia’s terrified face burned into my eyelids.
“Yeah,” I whispered, my voice sounding like it belonged to a stranger. “I tried to save her.”
I stood up, turning my back on the cliff. I wrapped my arm around Liliana, pulling her close as the police cruiser screeched to a halt.
第7章
Dominic’ POV
Blue and red emergency lights pulsed across the rain-soaked road, flickering over the wet asphalt in chaotic bursts that made everything feel unreal. The downpour had only grown heavier, turning the storm into a wall of water that washed mud from my shoes but did nothing to rinse away what had already settled deep inside me.
“Sir? Mr. Ashford?”
The voice came from a young police officer standing a few feet away. He looked uneasy, almost frightened, as if he couldn’t quite believe he was the one questioning me here—on a cliffside, in a destroyed suit, facing a man like me.
I tried to respond, but nothing came out. My throat felt raw, as though filled with shattered glass. Every time I blinked, I saw it again—the car slipping, tilting, disappearing. And her eyes right before it was gone.
“He’s in shock,” another voice answered quickly, softer, trembling.
Liliana.
She was seated on the edge of an ambulance bumper, wrapped in a thermal blanket that reflected the flashing lights. When she looked up at the officer, her eyes were glossy with tears, her expression fragile in a way that looked almost rehearsed. Perfect grief. Perfect survival.
“My husband… he did everything he could,” she said through shaky sobs, reaching for my hand and gripping it tightly. The pressure wasn’t comfort—it was control. “The road was so wet. We lost traction and spun. My… my twin sister was in the back. She was trapped inside.”
The officer lowered his gaze and started writing in his notebook. “And the victim’s identity?”
“Liliana,” she replied instantly.
No hesitation. No crack in her voice.
“My sister, Liliana,” she repeated, carefully shaping the lie. “She came to visit us. She… she didn’t survive.”
I turned my head slowly to look at her.
She wasn’t just speaking. She was replacing her.
Taking Sofia’s name, her identity, her place in the story—while Sofia’s body was still somewhere beneath the storm, far below the cliffs and the crushing dark water.
My stomach twisted violently.
I wanted to retch. I wanted to shout that she was lying. I wanted to tear the words out of her mouth before they became permanent.
But the words wouldn’t come. I killed her, my mind whispered. If I say she’s Sofia, I admit I let my wife die to save my mistress. I go to prison.
So I stayed silent. A coward. Again.
Then, a black Rolls Royce tore through the police barricade, ignoring the officers waving it down. It screeched to a halt right next to the ambulance.
My stomach dropped.
Grandfather.
The driver opened the door, and Salvatore Ashford stepped out. He was eighty years old, leaning heavily on a cane, but his eyes were sharp as diamonds. He didn’t look at the police. He didn’t look at the wreckage.
He looked straight at me.
“Dominic!” he barked, his voice cutting through the storm. “What is this? I heard there was an accident. Where is she?”
Liliana stood up immediately. She dropped the blanket, revealing the navy silk dress—Sofia’s dress. She rushed toward him, arms open, tears streaming down her face.
“Grandfather!” she cried, throwing herself at him. “It was horrible! We lost her! We lost Liliana!”
She buried her face in his coat.
For a second, the old man stood still.
Then, he shoved her.
It wasn’t a gentle push. He planted his cane on the ground and physically repelled her. Liliana stumbled back, shocked.
“Don’t touch me,” Salvatore snarled.
“Grandfather?” Liliana gasped, her hand flying to her chest. “It’s me… it’s Sofia. I’m okay. I’m safe.”
Salvatore stepped closer to her, squinting in the harsh police lights. He looked at her face—the face that was identical to the one I had watched fall. He looked at her posture. He looked at her eyes.
“You are not Sofia,” he said. Low. Dangerous.
The air left my lungs.
“Of course I am,” Liliana stammered, her smile faltering. “I’m your granddaughter-in-law. I’m—”
“Sofia doesn’t cling,” Salvatore spat. “Sofia doesn’t wail for an audience. And Sofia would never, ever look at Dominic with that look of relief when her sister just died.”
He turned his gaze to me. It was a look of pure disgust.
“Where is my granddaughter, Dominic?”
The question broke me.
The numbness shattered. The silence in my head was replaced by a roaring scream.
Where is she?
I turned around, facing the cliff edge. The black emptiness.
She was down there. Alone. Cold.
She was afraid of the dark. I knew that. I used to leave a nightlight on in the hallway for her.
And I just dropped her into the deepest darkness imaginable.
“She’s… she’s there,” I whispered.
“Dominic?” Liliana hissed, stepping toward me. “Stop it. Tell him. Tell him I’m Sofia.”
“No!” I roared.
The sound tore from my throat, raw and ugly. I shoved past Liliana, nearly knocking her into the mud.
“She’s not my wife!” I screamed at my grandfather, pointing a shaking finger at Liliana. “That’s not her! That’s the fake! That’s the copy!”
The police officers stopped writing. The paramedics froze.
“Dominic, stop!” Liliana shrieked, grabbing my arm. “You’re hysterical! You don’t know what you’re saying!”
“I know exactly what I’m saying!” I ripped my arm away. “My wife is down there! Sofia is down there!”
Panic, hot and blinding, seized me.
Why was I standing here? Why was I talking?
I had to get her. I had to pull her out.
I started running toward the broken guardrail.
“Mr. Ashford!” a police officer shouted, lunging for me.
“Let me go!” I fought them off, kicking and thrashing. “She’s in the water! She can’t swim! She never learned to swim because I told her I’d always be there to catch her!”
“Dominic, please!” Liliana was crying now, real tears of terror because her plan was unraveling. “Think about the baby! Think about the future!”
“To hell with the future!” I screamed, my eyes fixed on the abyss.
I broke free from the officer and scrambled to the edge. I looked down.
Nothing. Just black waves crashing against jagged rocks.
No tail lights. No wreckage.
Just the end of the world.
“Sofia!” I screamed her name until my voice gave out. “I’m coming! Just hold on!”
I put one leg over the broken rail. I was going to jump. I didn’t care about the height. I didn’t care about the rocks. If she was dead, I needed to be dead too.
Strong arms grabbed me from behind. Two officers, then three. They dragged me back from the edge, pinning me to the wet asphalt.
“No! Let me go! She’s waiting for me!”
I thrashed against the mud, sobbing like a child.
Salvatore Ashford stood over me, leaning on his cane. He looked down at me with no pity, only cold judgment.
“You fool,” the old man whispered. “You traded a diamond for a piece of glass. And now you’ve lost both.”
He turned to his driver.
“Call the coast guard. Tell them to find Mrs. Ashford’s body. And get this… woman… out of my sight.”
As the officers held me down, forcing a sedative into my arm, the last thing I saw was Liliana standing alone in the rain, wearing a dress that didn’t belong to her, looking at me with hatred.
And beyond her, the empty cliff edge.
Silent.
Final.