Chapter 3A Life of Dignity

With that, I turned and walked away.

A storm had broken out, the rain hammering down, each drop a tiny needle against my skin.

The old injury in my leg flared up. It had been broken with a steel pipe in prison. Even with the amputation, the phantom pain lingered. On rainy days like this, it felt like a million ants gnawing at my bones.

I dragged my broken body back to the motel and collapsed onto the bed, a high fever quickly taking hold.

Curled up in the musty blankets, my consciousness fading, I thought I was going to die in this forgotten corner of the world.

My phone rang. It was Nicholas.

“Ava, stop playing dead.”

His voice was a mixture of anxiety and impatience.

“Get to the villa now. Chloe’s kitten, Snowball, is missing.”

“You were always good at finding things. Get your ass over here and help her look for it!”

My throat was raw from the fever, my voice a hoarse whisper.

“I have a fever. I can’t move.”

A cold laugh on the other end of the line.

“A fever? Since when did you become so delicate?”

“You used to run halfway across the city with a 104-degree fever just to bring me a late-night snack.”

“And now you can’t even find a cat? Is it not enough money?”

“You have thirty minutes. If you’re not here, I’ll have someone dig up your parents’ graves and scatter their ashes in the sewer!”

He hung up.

I clutched the hot phone, my eyes dry.

He knew my weaknesses too well.

I dragged myself out of bed, swallowed two fever reducers, and stumbled out into the torrential rain.

By the time I reached the villa, I was soaked to the bone, my face as white as a sheet.

Chloe stood in the living room, wrapped in a cashmere blanket. She looked at me with disgust.

“What took you so long? What’s that smell? Stay away from me.”

She pointed to the second-floor terrace.

“The maids heard something on the roof. It’s too slippery for them to go up. You go check.”

It was a sloped, glass-tiled roof, slick with rain. It was impossible to stand on.

“My leg hurts. I can’t go up there.”

Chloe sneered.

“Ava, if my kitten gets sick from the rain, not even ten of your miserable lives would be enough to pay for it.”

“Go.”

I gritted my teeth and climbed the ladder.

The terrace was empty. There was no cat.

As I turned to go back, a glass tile under my foot came loose.

I fell, hard, onto the concrete below.

A rusty nail, sticking out of a wooden plank, pierced straight through the stump of my amputated leg.

The sound brought them running.

Nicholas and Chloe rushed up to the terrace and immediately spotted the Persian kitten cowering in a corner.

“Snowball!” Chloe cried, scooping the cat into her arms.

Nicholas beamed with relief.

It was a long moment before they even noticed me, lying in a pool of my own blood.

No panic. No concern. Only annoyance.

“You can’t even do one simple thing right. Now you’ve made a mess of the terrace.”

“What if you scared Chloe?”

He waved a dismissive hand at the family doctor who had been summoned.

“Just patch her up. As long as she doesn’t die here.”

The searing pain brought a horrifying clarity.

I looked at the man I had loved my entire youth, and the last flicker of light in my eyes died.

I pushed the doctor away, propped myself up on my hands, and gritted my teeth, forcing myself to stand.

Blood dripped from my trouser leg.

I bent down and gripped the nail embedded in my flesh.

Squelch!

I pulled it out myself.

Blood sprayed, splattering onto the hem of Chloe’s expensive white silk skirt.

She shrieked, stumbling back, the kitten in her arms hissing in alarm.

“This skirt was custom-made! Do you have any idea how much it costs to replace it?!”

Nicholas’s face was cold.

“Apologize!”

My body was trembling with pain, but I started to laugh.

I reached my blood-soaked hand into my pocket and pulled out a small jade pendant, its surface worn smooth with time.

Ten years ago, he had climbed a sacred mountain on his knees, his skin raw and bleeding, to get this for me. A charm for my safety. He had promised me then that he would give me the world.

Later, when he became a tycoon, he threw it in a storage unit.

I was the one who found it, who cherished it all these years.

It was a testament to my love, and to my foolishness.

“You’re right, Chloe.”

“I can’t afford your skirt. Just like I can’t afford to get back the ten years I wasted.”

I held up the jade pendant and smashed it on the ground.

Crack!

The jade shattered into a dozen pieces.

Nicholas stared, a flicker of genuine panic in his eyes for the first time.

“What are you doing?”

“That was our promise! How could you?!”

“A promise?”

I shook my head, my smile a tragic mask.

“These ten years… just consider me a joke.”

He dropped to his knees in the mud and rain, frantically trying to piece the fragments back together.

But some things, once broken, can never be made whole again.

I pointed to my bleeding leg, my voice unnervingly calm.

“This leg… I lost it in prison. For you.”

“From now on, we’re even.”

With that, I turned away, not giving them another glance.

I dragged my mangled, bleeding leg down the stairs, one step at a time.

Behind me, Nicholas roared like a caged animal.

“If you walk out that door today, don’t you ever come back!”

“I’ll blacklist you from every industry in this city! You won’t even be able to beg for scraps!”

“Come back! Get on your knees and apologize!”

I didn’t turn back. I didn’t stop.

The rain was still falling, but I no longer felt the cold.

The moment I stepped out of the villa gates, I took a deep breath.

This time, there was no lingering affection, only release.

Goodbye, Nicholas.

Goodbye forever.