Part 3Cinderella Threw Away Her Glass Slipper

I made the second worst decision of my life.

I chose to forgive him.

For our son. For the stubborn love I couldn't yet sever.

And because a sudden car accident had left my mother in critical condition, robbing me of my last safe harbor.

So, David and I reconciled.

And soon, I was pregnant with our second child, Mia.

Like her brother, Mia was taken from me the moment she was born.

The excuse this time was that David needed to focus on his work and couldn't be disturbed by a crying baby.

Just to see my own children, I had to go to the Thorne estate before dawn every day to perform my duties.

I served tea, massaged Mrs. Thorne’s shoulders and back, and even knelt to wash her feet. I humbled myself in every way imaginable, all for the small mercy of being allowed to spend a few moments with Leo and Mia.

But all my desperate efforts were rewarded with David's flagrant betrayals and the deep-seated resentment of my own children.

Leo never called me "Mom."

Whenever he saw me, he would scowl and say, "That stupid country woman is here again. I don't want to see her."

Mia was too young to speak, but she would cry and reach for her grandmother the moment I came near.

Meanwhile, my mother's condition was steadily worsening.

The coldness of my children, the crushing weight of my life... I was exhausted, hollowed out by despair.

And in the moments when I needed him most, David was off building a new life with another woman.

It was our wedding anniversary.

Leo refused my invitation to celebrate.

David didn't answer my calls.

Instead, his new lover took the initiative and sent me a video of them in bed together.

Listening to their moans and whispers, I finally shattered completely. I lost control and dragged a razor across my arm.

By the time Maria burst into the bathroom, I was bleeding out on the floor.

She frantically called David.

This time, he didn't show up until dawn.

He crouched in front of me, a smirk on his face as he looked at the gruesome wounds on my arm.

"Still here? I thought you were going to die."

"It’s been a whole night. How are you still clinging to this family like a stray dog?"

His words ripped open the fragile calm I’d found.

Without a second thought, I threw myself off the balcony.

I didn't die.

I just broke my leg.

Mrs. Thorne paid off the reporters and had me dragged to my mother's hospital.

She stood over me, her voice dripping with cold fury.

"The ICU costs twenty thousand dollars a day."

"If you ever dare to embarrass the Thorne family again, I will make sure your mother joins you."

For the first time, I realized that even death was a luxury I couldn't afford.

I couldn't let go of the love that once was, couldn't sever the ties to my children. So I remained, shrinking myself into nothingness in a marriage devoid of self.

I watched my children pull away from me.

I watched David move from one woman to the next.

I watched them use my mother as a leash to control my life.

A marriage into wealth was both a sweet paradise and a chain of torment.

Cinderella had ascended to become Mrs. Thorne, but the Prince was still lost in his games of love, "rescuing" one poor, beautiful girl after another.

Until one day, David went too far.

He fell for a socialite in her thirties, a woman with multiple divorces under her belt, and got her pregnant.

Mrs. Thorne was livid.

She slapped me twice across the face, her voice shaking with rage as she berated me for failing to control my husband.

"A woman who can't even hold onto her own husband's heart—what use are you?"

"I am ordering you to clean up this mess immediately. If you don't…"

"I will cut off your mother's medical payments and ensure you never see Leo and Mia again!"

After my marriage had crumbled into ruin, the last thread of family I had left was my only reason for living.

I couldn't lose my mother.

I couldn't lose that final connection.

With a heavy heart, I went to see the woman, Vivienne.

Unlike David's previous flings, she wasn't arrogant or condescending. She was polite, almost deferential.

She called me "Mrs. Thorne" with every other breath, her eyes dripping with faux admiration.

"I'm so sorry, Mrs. Thorne. I never intended to disrupt your family."

"It's just… I love David so much."

"But if it's for his own good, I'm willing to terminate the pregnancy and disappear from his life forever."

Vivienne was true to her word.

She took the money and vanished without a trace.

That night, for the first time in a long time, David came back to our bedroom.

Without a word, he pushed me onto the bed.

For an entire month, he barely let me leave it.

Until I was pregnant with our third child.

As a reward for solving David’s "problem" and a way to keep him at home, Mrs. Thorne made an unprecedented concession: I would be allowed to raise this child myself.

Around the same time, under the care of the Thorne family's private medical team, my mother's health began to improve.

I was ecstatic.

I thought the worst was finally over.

I thought things were finally looking up.

But when I was eight months pregnant…

David pushed me down the stairs.