Slowly, she pried his fingers off one by one.

"Julian, you can't bear to let her die, so you can just take it for granted... that you should sacrifice me?"

"It’s not a sacrifice! It’s an expediency!" Julian roared in his desperation, "Just do it for me! I’m begging you! You can even have my life after this!"

Just then, sirens sounded downstairs.

Several police officers and the Fu Corporation’s head of security walked up the stairs and knocked on the door.

The leading officer looked grave: "Mr. Fu, regarding the broken vase at the banquet, who did it? The City Bureau is still waiting for the result."

Everyone’s eyes were fixed on Julian.

Chloe hid behind him, trembling, her fingernails digging into his skin.

Julian’s body stiffened, and his fists clenched until they cracked.

He glanced at Chloe behind him, who looked like she was about to faint, then back at the expressionless Sienna.

Finally, he closed his eyes, lifted a trembling hand, and pointed at Sienna.

"...It was her."

"It was my wife, she broke it by accident."

Those two words were light, yet they felt like a thousand-pound hammer, smashing the last shred of light in Sienna’s world.

Sienna looked at him and suddenly smiled.

At that moment, tears slid from her eyes, but she smiled with an incomparable sense of release.

She didn't argue, and she didn't cry or scream.

She proactively extended her hands and walked toward the police officers holding the handcuffs.

When she passed by Julian, she didn't stop her pace, as if he were just a puff of air.

"Take me away," she said calmly.

Julian instinctively reached out to grab her, but he only touched the cold hem of her dress.

He watched Sienna’s straight back as she walked into the police car and disappeared into the night. His heart suddenly felt like a piece of it had been hollowed out, and it began to ache violently.

Chapter 7

The forty-eight hours in the detention center were the longest darkness Sienna had ever experienced.

Because the case involved "sabotaging foreign affairs activities" and "damaging a national gift," and was considered severe in nature, she was locked in a special solitary confinement cell.

There was no heating, only the harsh white incandescent light overhead, which stayed on twenty-four hours a day, stinging her eyes painfully.

The air conditioning was kept extremely low, the cold air钻ing straight into her bones.

Interrogations happened round after round.

"Why did you break the vase?"

"Do you hold a grudge against the Fu family or the city?"

"Were you instructed by a competitor?"

Those cold questions lashed at her like whips. She was running a high fever, her burns hadn't healed, and every time she opened her mouth to breathe, it felt like swallowing razor blades.

She gritted her teeth and repeated only one sentence mechanically: "It was an accident."

No begging, no excuses.

Because she remembered the man’s hand pointing at her in the end, and that light-hearted "It was her."

The next day, the matter fermented on the internet.

Someone leaked that "a certain wealthy socialite was arrogant, throwing a tantrum at a banquet and smashing a national gift."

Although no names were mentioned, everyone in the circle knew who it was.

The trending topic hung there for a whole day, and the comments section was full of abuse:

"This kind of rich socialite just needs to be taken down a peg!"

"Disgracing the city, they should be sentenced!"

"I heard it was done on purpose, how truly vicious!"

Humiliation, pain, and cyber-bullying... all intertwined.

Sienna huddled in the corner of the detention room, shivering from the cold, her consciousness hovering on the edge between clarity and fainting.

Until the third morning, because the Fu family pulled strings and the case was indeed qualified as "negligence," she was released on bail pending trial.

When she stepped out of the police station gates, the early winter wind cut into her face like a knife.

The thin gown she wore was already dirty beyond recognition, her hair was messy, and her face was as white as a ghost.

There was no car to pick her up.

There were only a few paparazzi waiting for her, pressing their shutters frantically.

"Mrs. Fu, did you break it on purpose?"

"Are you dissatisfied with your husband?"

Sienna hung her head, using her arm to cover her face as she pushed past the lenses that were shoved almost right into her face.

Just as she was about to collapse, a regular taxi stopped in front of her.

The driver was a kind-looking middle-aged man: "Miss, are you going somewhere?"

Sienna, as if she had grabbed a lifeline, pulled the door open and climbed in.

The moment the car door closed, she looked through the window and saw across the street from the police station—

Julian’s familiar Maybach was parked there.

The car window was half-down. Chloe was leaning in the passenger seat, and Julian held a bottle of water, unscrewing the cap to hand it to her, his face showing a look that could even be described as gently helpless.

So, he had come.

But he hadn’t gotten out of the car, and he hadn’t come to pick her up.

He was busy comforting the "culprit" who had been frightened.

Sienna leaned back against the seat and closed her eyes as tears slid silently down her face.

"Driver, let’s go."

Chapter 8

When she returned to the Fu villa, Sienna felt as if her whole body had been pulled apart.

When the nanny, Auntie Wang, saw her in such a state, she was so startled the rag in her hands dropped to the floor.

"Ma... Ma'am? Didn't you go to the banquet? How did you end up like this? Where is Mr. Fu?"

Sienna shook her head, not wanting to say a single word.

Just as she entered the bedroom, her phone rang. It was a bank transfer text message.

【Your account ending in 8888 has received 5 million yuan. Note: Hardship fee. Chloe was frightened, so I’m taking her to the hot spring resort in the suburbs to relax, we will return in two days. Stay at home and heal your injuries properly. —— Julian】

Five million.

The price to buy her two days of imprisonment and her lifelong reputation.

Sienna looked at that string of digits and suddenly felt incomparably nauseated.

She tossed the phone aside and, enduring the sharp pain and high fever, dragged the suitcase she had packed long ago out from under the bed.

Auntie Wang blocked her, her eyes red: "Ma'am! Where are you going? You still have burn wounds, and you just came out of... that kind of place, at least wait until you've recovered!"

Sienna pushed her hands away, her voice hoarse but unusually firm: "I can't wait any longer."

Not a day, not a moment, not a second longer.

She took out the notarized divorce agreement.

Because it had Julian’s signature and thumbprint from three years ago, and she had already had her lawyer expedite the process, today was the day it would become legally effective.

She placed the original agreement in a conspicuous spot on the nightstand. Next to it, she placed the simple gold wedding band Julian had given her, along with the house keys.

She only took the small box containing Mason’s ring.

"Auntie Wang," Sienna looked at the woman who had taken care of her in this house for three years, "When Julian returns, please trouble yourself to hand this to him."

Auntie Wang nodded while crying: "Ma'am..."

"Don't call me Ma'am anymore." Sienna smiled, a smile that was pale and resolute, "From today on, Julian and I have nothing more to do with each other."

She dragged her suitcase, step by step, and walked out of the villa that had trapped her for five years and held all her love, hate, and despair.

The security guard at the gate nodded to her; she didn't return the gesture.

She got into a ride-hailing car headed to the airport.

Outside the car window, the city scenery retreated rapidly.

She took one last look at this city.

Then, she took out her phone, popped out the SIM card, snapped it in half, and threw it into the trash bin in the car.

She put in a new card and dialed a number.

The call was answered quickly, and a man’s lazy, deep voice came through: "Have you figured it out?"

Sienna leaned back against the seat, looking at the gray, overcast sky outside, and said softly:

"Mason, I’m coming to Haven City."

Chapter 9

At the hot spring resort, the heat was suffocating.

Chloe, wearing a bathrobe, nestled against Julian, her voice soft and coy: "Julian, thank you so much for protecting me this time. Otherwise, I would have really gone to jail..."

She paused, carefully observing his expression: "Will... will Sienna hate me?"

Julian was somewhat distracted, spinning his phone in his hand, feeling an inexplicable sense of panic.