"Luna, do you really hate me that much?" His voice was unreadable, but his dark eyes were bottomless.

"Gideon, you're drunk." She turned her gaze away, but her heart skipped a beat.

As if he hadn't heard her, he spoke again: "You’d rather die than stay by my side?"

Luna had never seen him like this—vulnerable, lonely, and as helpless as a child.

Her nose tingled with an oncoming cry, and a sense of tragedy rose from her heart.

"Gideon, I love you. That has never changed. But if my love has become a burden to you, then I am willing to let go. You can go find the person you love, you can go..."

The rest of her words were swallowed in a kiss.

Perhaps numbed by the residual alcohol in his mouth, Luna felt the heat rush to her head. She couldn't help but wrap her arms around his neck and respond.

Gideon deepened the kiss. His large hand moved skillfully to remove her clothing, and after enough foreplay, he pushed himself inside.

This was the first time Luna truly felt his presence clearly. In an instant, the emptiness and coldness that had resided in her heart for years were filled.

She felt suddenly bewildered. If before she could say with certainty that Gideon didn't love her or even loathed her, she wasn't sure now.

If there was no love, how could they have reached this point?

Was it really just a legal "benefits" relationship?

This question was worth deep thought.

Sensing her distraction, Gideon bit her chin and increased the intensity of his movements.

...

If love is Cupid's arrow—where whoever is hit offers their bleeding heart to the other to be trampled upon—then that was the Luna of her previous life.

But this time, though she had dodged that agonizing arrow, she had fallen into the tenderness Gideon offered. While forgetting the old scars, she began to reclaim those feelings.

But reality often provides a sudden, sobering realization.

The day after Gideon's drunken night, Luna thought things would be different between them. However, the news headlines were filled with reports of the CEO of the Group taking a secret lover to a hotel to spend the night.

Indeed, he hadn't come home all night.

Luna felt she no longer had the energy to struggle. If he wouldn't let her leave, she would just be a bird in a gilded cage. This house was big enough; raising a few pigs or chickens might actually be interesting.

Chapter 22: Just How Vicious are You?

Annie, who was eating, seemed to notice her gaze. She turned around with a piece of chicken in her mouth. "Lulu, what are you thinking about?"

Luna ruffled her hair. "Nothing. Keep eating."

"...Oh." After Annie finished eating, she wiped her mouth, looking a bit worried. "Do you think your CEO husband will be angry when he sees you've turned the house into this?"

Luna scanned the living room, which was now colorful and full of life. She lay on the sofa with an air of indifference. "Let him be angry. It was so lifeless here; isn't it better now that it's fresh?"

Annie pursed her lips and checked her watch. "It's getting late, I should go."

"Come back whenever you have time!"

"..."

After Annie left, the house fell into silence again, though it wasn't as cold as before. The room was filled with the fresh scent of flowers and plants, finally feeling less oppressive.

At seven in the evening, the door opened.

From the moment Gideon stepped inside, his face began to darken. He didn't stop until he saw her crouching on the floor arranging flowers. He frowned. "What are you doing?"

Luna stood up and gave him a smile. After wiping the dust from her hands, she said, "Winter is almost here. I wanted to keep a little bit of spring in here."

Gideon withdrew his gaze. As he was about to head upstairs, he noticed her luggage sitting by the staircase. His dark eyes narrowed, filled with a cold frost.

Luna always felt that when he was angry, he did things without thinking. Having been a victim of that several times, she quickly rushed over to protect her suitcase. "Don't misunderstand. I'm not trying to run away. These are the things I left in Luke’s car last time. He dropped them off this afternoon, and I haven't had time to take them up yet."

As she spoke, she tried to lift the bag to head upstairs, but something rolled out. Before she could reach for it, a hand was faster, picking it up.

Gideon looked at her with a frown. "Why do you have this thing?"

Luna rolled her eyes. "I got into a fight with a dog on the street and snatched it away."

The ugly doll had lost its dignity, lying quietly in Gideon’s arms with its usual polite yet awkward smile.

Gideon’s frown deepened. Just as he was about to ask more, he received a phone call. His expression shifted instantly. He gave Luna a look, then turned and strode away.

When the door slammed shut, Luna looked at the ugly doll on the floor, once again abandoned. She laughed.

They had always been the same—held close when needed, and thrown away like trash when they weren't.

Luna didn't go to sleep. She held the doll and sat in the living room all night.

As the sky began to brighten, she moved her stiff limbs and started to walk upstairs. She had only taken two steps when there was a sound at the door.

Gideon was back, carrying a towering rage.

Luna looked up and opened her mouth to say something, but he raised his hand and slapped her across the face. His voice was as cold and piercing as a demon from hell: "Luna, just how vicious are you? How can you kill someone so easily?"

Heaven knows what he was talking about!

Luna wanted to explain, but the words were swallowed back down. He never believed her anyway; what was the point of explaining?

Ultimately, she just gave a light, airy "Oh." She met his cold eyes. "You're right. I'm vicious, cold-blooded, and I'll stop at nothing to get what I want. So please, be merciful and sign the divorce papers. From now on, we’ll have nothing to do with each other."

Chapter 23: Do You Love Me?

During this time, Gideon kept telling himself that he had misunderstood her, and that everything had nothing to do with her. But what was the result?

Luna wanted to flee, but her back was against the wall. Before she could even utter a word of refusal, Gideon abruptly dragged her upstairs and threw her onto the bed, penetrating her heavily without any warning.

Luna closed her eyes, her heart filled with desolation.

It turned out that even with rebirth, she could not escape such an ending. Gideon had simply found a different way to torture her.

Looking at the man above her, Luna spoke as if possessed: "Gideon, do you love me?"

His movements paused for a fraction of a second. After a cold sneer, he increased his force. "Are you worthy?"

Yes, she wasn't worthy.

"Gideon, I'll give you one week to consider. If you don't sign the divorce papers, then a week from now, what you see will be my corpse. But since you don't care anyway, do whatever you want."

Gideon gritted his teeth fiercely. "Luna!"

She stopped speaking, simply closing her eyes and turning her gaze away.

She had already guessed what his choice would be. Both her past life and this one were a joke; the ending was predestined.

The reason she requested a week was only because she still had things to do.

Gideon had a chest full of rage with nowhere to vent, but the cold indifference on her face was like a thorn stuck in his heart. The words she had spoken in the dressing room echoed in his mind once again.

He couldn't understand what kind of woman Luna really was.

One moment she said she would marry no one but him, and the next moment she could break her promise on the day they were supposed to register their marriage and go to a bar to drink herself into oblivion. On the surface, she seemed not to care about anything, yet behind the scenes, she used every means possible.

Her love was always built upon the lives of others.

Gideon withdrew and left, his eyes full of an inseparable gloom.

As soon as he reached the office, Luke ran in with a shameless look on his face. "Can you just listen to my explanation? There's really nothing between Luna and me. I just saw her walking down the street with her suitcase that day looking quite pitiful, so I took her to dinner. How was I supposed to know I'd run into you..."

Bang!

The door was closed mercilessly.