Part 1My Husband’s Betrayal

After being transported to a historical world, I became the lowest of the servants.

Every day was a blur of the heaviest, most grueling chores, punctuated by the mistress’s verbal abuse and the sting of her whip. After three years, not a single piece of my skin was left unscathed.

Until one day, as I dragged my battered body to the well for water, I overheard two other servants whispering behind the rockery.

“Does that one in there really think she time-traveled? It’s brutal, what they’re doing to her.”

“Serves her right for crossing Ms. Vivian. You know she’s the apple of Mr. Warburton’s eye.”

“I heard Mr. Warburton built this entire historical estate just to appease Ms. Vivian. Hired all of us actors to play along, and made that woman a servant to atone for her sins.”

The wooden bucket crashed from my hands, icy water flooding over my feet.

That evening, the lord of the manor—who had supposedly been away in the capital for three years—finally returned. The “mistress,” Vivian, flew into his arms.

I knelt with the other servants, my eyes meeting the face of the man who looked identical to my husband.

I whispered his name. “Adrian Warburton. It’s been a long time.”

* * *

“Adrian Warburton. It’s been a long time.”

The words hung in the air, and the courtyard fell into a dead silence.

The man Vivian had thrown herself at—the man with my husband’s face—went rigid. A flicker of panic crossed his eyes, there and gone in an instant, before his hand instinctively went up to touch his nose.

It was a nervous habit Adrian always had when he was lying.

It really was him.

Vivian was the first to react. Her voice trembled, but she fought to keep the charade alive. “My lord! This wretched servant has gone mad! How dare she speak your name!”

So, who was this Vivian? Adrian’s mistress?

I watched her over-the-top performance, then turned my gaze back to Adrian. He avoided my eyes, his voice a blade of ice. “Insolent nonsense, offending your masters. Drag her away. Twenty lashes.”

The order was given with a sharp, rushed urgency, as if trying to cover something up.

Two “guards” instantly seized my arms. The rough hemp ropes bit into the unhealed wounds on my wrists, a familiar, dull ache. But this time, the pain in my arms was nothing compared to the ice forming in my heart.

I didn’t struggle. I just stared at him.

I watched the man I once thought I would spend my life with, personally ordering my punishment to please another woman.

I was forced to my knees, and the whip cracked against my back.

“Ugh…”

A choked gasp escaped me as fiery pain exploded across my skin, nearly making me pass out. But I bit down on my lip, refusing to beg for mercy as I had for the past three years. Instead, a cold, bitter laugh forced its way through my clenched teeth.

For three years, in this meticulously constructed historical prison, I had endured every kind of torment from my “mistress,” Vivian. Whippings, starvation, forced kneeling, washing clothes in ice water during the dead of winter… I had genuinely believed I was just unlucky, that I had been transported into the body of a lowly servant and had to accept my fate.

I had even spent countless nights praying that the Adrian in my own time was safe and happy, that he could forget me and find someone new to love.

Ha. How utterly ridiculous.

The whip fell again and again, the pain making my whole body tremble. I lifted my head and looked at the perfect couple. Adrian had his arm around Vivian’s waist, whispering in her ear with an air of intimacy. When his eyes met my pleading gaze, he quickly looked away.

Of course. How could he not know what my life had been like for three years? How could I have held onto even a shred of hope?

Vivian nestled against him, a faint, cruel smile on her lips. When she looked at me, her eyes were filled with undisguised malice and provocation.

The surrounding “servants” began their performance. “The master and mistress are a match made in heaven!”

“Indeed, indeed! A divine couple, the envy of all!”

Vivian’s voice was sickly sweet. “Rewards! Rewards for everyone!”

Look at them. So perfectly matched, so deeply in love. And I was just the tragic fool in their script, the dirt beneath their feet, meant to be tortured to death to elevate their love story.

Adrian seemed pleased by the atmosphere. “Why are you so happy today?” he asked softly.

Vivian immediately shot me a look, her voice a poisonous blend of grievance and spite. “You don’t know, my love, but this Juliet is the most disobedient of them all. She constantly talks back to me, causing me such distress. Now that you’ve returned, you must stand up for me.”

To hate me so much, yet never forget her role… she was truly method acting.

Disgusting. Utterly disgusting.

Adrian’s gaze finally fell on me. “Oh? She dares to anger my lady?” His tone was light, casual. “In that case, another twenty lashes. Beat her until she learns her place.”

Forty lashes in total.

A careless sentence for him, but for me, it could mean a month unable to leave my bed.

The last, faint ember of hope was extinguished.

The whip struck again, pain devouring my consciousness. Their smiling faces blurred, fading into darkness until I finally closed my eyes and saw nothing more.

…

A bucket of ice water splashed over my face.

The sharp, stinging pain forced my eyes open. The first thing I saw was the back of the two of them, walking hand in hand into their chambers.

Tears mixed with blood and cold water streamed down my face. But this time, I wasn't crying from the pain. I was crying for the person I had been, trampled and broken for three years.

Confront them? Question them?

No. That would only make their little play more entertaining.

Adrian Warburton. Vivian.

You stole three years of my life with your elaborate lie, grinding me into the mud.

From this day forward, the Juliet who could love, feel pain, and beg for mercy died under those forty lashes.

The one who survived has only one thought—

Escape.

Escape this hell you so carefully prepared for me, at any cost.

And then, for myself, live.