Part 3Never Look Back
About 2,003 characters · Part 3 is the last of the three Parts printed here; Part 4 continues in the official app.
My marriage to Adrian was a suffocating, airless prison.
In public, we were the perfect, loving couple. We attended galas and entertained guests, always by each other's side. The media often snapped photos of him buying me luxury brands or bidding on priceless jewels at auction, dubbing him the ultimate doting husband.
But behind closed doors, he would take out his rage on my body, hissing that I was no better than a whore he’d paid for. After each time, he would toss the expensive jewelry at my face.
"Here's your service fee," he'd sneer. "At least you're a high-class one."
I didn't know when this life would end, or how much longer I could endure it.
Then, a small mercy: my mother's condition improved, and she was discharged. I didn't want her to worry, so I’d tell her how thoughtful and considerate Adrian was, what a wonderful man he was. But no matter how well I acted, how could a mother not see the truth?
She left me a letter, telling me to find my freedom. Then she followed my father.
My spirit shattered completely.
I stopped eating, stopped drinking. No tears, no outbursts. I just faded. Soon, I fell into a coma, my vital signs slipping away.
My mind, however, was crystal clear.
I developed a sick, twisted craving for death. It was the only way out, the ultimate release.
But Adrian wouldn't allow it.
Every time I drifted close to the edge, a pair of hands would pull me back. I could hear Adrian’s voice in my ear, choked with sobs. He spoke with a gentleness and desperation I had never heard before.
He said he had lost. He said that through the endless, torturous days, he had somehow fallen in love with me.
How absurd.
After being revived yet again, a doctor gave me the news: I was pregnant.
A fruit had grown from the flower of my suffering. I felt like my life was now shackled forever.
I didn't want this child. I secretly scheduled an abortion at a different hospital.
But Adrian found me.
He locked me away, with guards watching me twenty-four hours a day, until I gave birth to Leo.