Julian laughed, a sound so wretched and pathetic.

"So why tell me this now? Are you showing off that you’ve humiliated me once again?"

Vivian shook her head in disapproval, a trace of distress crossing her eyes.

"It’s just because I love you too much, Julian. How could I bear to lie to you..."

She couldn't bear to lie to him, yet she was willing to gamble with his father's life and watch him break his own spine apologizing to a mistress.

She instinctively reached out to take his hand and hug him.

Julian looked at the woman he had loved for ten years, his heart filled with mixed emotions.

This hug, which he had longed for for seven years,

Now, it left him with nothing but an overwhelming sense of nausea.

He pulled his hand away forcefully and, without a moment's hesitation, strode past her and left.

After arranging a car,

Julian returned to the hospital intending to take his father away.

But the ward was empty.

He hurriedly called over a nurse who was passing by.

"The patient in this room—"

The nurse glanced at him and said indifferently,

"He passed away and was taken away just a moment ago. Try the morgue."

The world seemed to have been pressed on pause.

Julian’s blood felt frozen; his hands shook so violently he couldn't hold anything.

"Impossible... they promised they would save my father..."

The nurse seemed to recall something and sighed.

"There was nothing we could do. The people who wanted your mother's ward weren't ordinary; it was the eldest daughter of the Lin family."

"You know she’s famous for how she dotes on her husband. When her husband mentioned it was noisy, she had all the patients in this area kicked out!"

Dotes on her husband... but which husband was she doting on?

Looking at the surveillance footage of Lucas being held in her arms.

Julian almost laughed until tears streamed down his face.

It had always been Lucas who was pampered in the palm of her hand. Then what did that make him?!

What was the ten years he had spent accompanying her from obscurity to today, and what was his father’s unjust death?

He wiped his tears away slowly, shambled into the morgue, and held his father’s cold hand, crying until he had no strength left.

The cold wind brushed his cheeks; the morgue was bone-chilling.

But Julian wasn't afraid at all, because the only person in this world who would protect him was gone.

His mother, his wife.

The two women who should have loved him most had all become executioners who hurt him the deepest.

He snuggled by his father’s side like a child, tears sliding down silently.

"Dad, I’ve been bullied. Won't you wake up and look at me?"

But this time, no one would gently stroke his head to comfort him.

Only the rustling cold wind responded.

Just then, a click—

A sound came from the door.

Looking at the slender, elegant silhouette standing outside.

Julian’s dead eyes suddenly lit up, his pupils widening, his chest pounding wildly from the shock.

So, his father had left him one last path of retreat—it was her!

Chapter 9

Outside the emergency room.

The doctor finished an examination on Lucas and reached a conclusion.

"Don't worry, Ms. Lin. Your husband is just suffering from simple anemia; it’s nothing serious."

Vivian frowned slightly, correcting him instinctively.

"He is not my husband."

Halfway through, she seemed to realize something, her brow furrowing.

"Just anemia?"

The doctor was stunned for a moment, then nodded straight away.

"Yes."

Vivian’s heart skipped a beat, her thoughts drifting back to an hour ago.

Using Julian’s mother’s medical expenses to threaten him was, after all, a bit too ruthless.

She had planned to offer a sincere apology and invite experts to examine his mother.

But Julian had just left, and she was about to chase after him.

Lucas’s call had come through.

"Vivian, I feel so unwell. Could you please come and check on me..."

Hearing the weak, thread-like cry for help on the other end of the receiver.

She glanced at Julian’s receding back, her throat bobbing as struggle flashed in her eyes.

She remained silent for a few seconds, eventually sighing.

"Wait, I’m coming."

She consoled herself by thinking that, after all, Lucas had lived with her for seven years.

If something happened to him, her helping him was only natural.

Julian would surely understand.

But now, listening to the doctor, she suddenly felt some regret.

It was just anemia; how serious could it be?

She should have stayed with Julian at that moment...

An unexplained irritability surged in her heart. She tugged at her collar, preparing to leave.

"Vivian?"

Lucas, who had been lying on the bed in a stupor, slowly woke up and called out to her, his voice full of guilt.

"I’m sorry, I’m disturbing you again."

Vivian looked at his pale face and said flatly,

"It’s fine."

A flash of joy appeared on Lucas’s face, and he asked cautiously,

"Then... can I still contact you in the future?"

"You know how it is, no one in the family likes me. Today, when I fainted, no one cared."

Watching the pleading in his eyes.

Vivian’s heart softened, and she was about to speak.

But Julian’s face flashed before her eyes without warning.

"Vivian, I waited for you for seven full years. How could you treat me like this?!"

Recalling these words, her heart gave a sudden, hard jerk, causing a sharp sting in her chest.

Looking at Lucas in front of her.

Her eyes, which had held a trace of tenderness, gradually turned cold. She pulled the hem of her clothes from his grasp, her tone hard.

"We’ll let today pass, but from now on... let's try to meet less often."

"You have children; you have something to rely on in the family."

"Julian has sacrificed so much for me; I can’t fail him again."

Hearing this, Lucas’s eyes suddenly turned red, tears falling in torrents, his voice filled with disbelief.

"Vivian, are you abandoning me?"

Seeing him like this, a surge of irritation welled up in Vivian’s heart.

"We were only partners to begin with; parting ways is normal. I made that clear to you long ago."

Lucas didn't care about anything else and stood up to embrace her.

"Vivian, no, don't go!"

Vivian pulled her hand away coldly, her tone so flat it was almost cruel.

"Lucas, don't forget, you have a wife."

"No! She is not!"

At this point, Lucas didn't bother to pretend anymore, roaring hysterically at her.

"She is old enough to be my mother! A lecherous old hag—I don't love her at all!"

"You don't even know how disgusting I feel every time I sleep with her. I... I really can't go on with her anymore. Vivian, I love you..."

He knelt before Vivian, begging, crying uncontrollably.

"Are you disgusted because I’m dirty?"

"I’m really not dirty. Every time I sleep with her, I wash myself over a dozen times. Vivian, please don't abandon me. I’ll go divorce her right now. It doesn't matter if I don't have a title; I can be a mistress..."

But no matter how he cried, Vivian just stood by and watched quietly, her eyes devoid of sorrow or joy.

"I promised Julian that I would love only him for the rest of my life."

Chapter 10

"Love only him?"

Lucas was almost red with anger, his face twitching hideously in fury.

"If that’s really the case, then why did you sleep with me in the first place? Why did you have three children with me?"

"Vivian, stop lying to yourself! You don’t love Julian as much as you say you do—"

"Shut your mouth!"

Vivian coldly cut him off, the veins on her forehead throbbing.

"If you hadn't come running to me in tears, claiming your mother-in-law forced you, threatening me with reporting the matter to the police and ruining Julian’s reputation as the son of a rapist, why would I ever touch a piece of trash that’s been played with by an old woman?"

As these words fell, the air plunged into a deathly silence.

The color drained from Lucas’s face instantly, turning as pale as paper.

His lips parted and closed, unable to utter a single word.

A long while later, he stared stubbornly at Vivian for a long time, unwilling to give up, and roared.

"I don't believe it, I don't believe it!"

"Vivian, we’ve been together for seven full years. I don't believe you haven't felt a single thing for me!"

Vivian gave him a faint, condescending look.

That look was very faint, very light, as if she were looking at a corpse.

"What makes you think that I, Vivian, would be moved by a piece of used trash that was delivered to my door?"

Her voice was soft, yet it carried a bone-corroding, heart-searing force.

It completely crushed Lucas’s last shred of hope.