Chapter 4
I cried until my tears dried up.
Standing on the balcony, I looked down below.
The roses that Winnie liked had replaced the climbing roses I’d once planted myself.
Tears welled up again, but as I stared blankly at the scene, the door to my room creaked
open.
It was Winnie.
She was holding a cup of hot milk in her hand.
“Grace, I remembered you left the party so suddenly and didn’t eat. So, I made you a cup of
warm milk.”
She smiled as she walked toward me, but I took a step back, refusing.
“I don’t drink milk.”
She froze for a moment, then laughed lightly.
“Grace Baker, do you still dare to refuse me? Don’t you know what situation you’re in?”
“You think I don’t know about you and Ethan?”
“Let me tell you the truth: Ethan has never loved you. All these years, he’s never cut ties
with me.”
“He only approached you to get revenge on you and your mother. He wanted to humiliate his stepmother’s daughter–destroy you.”
With that, she pulled out her phone and played a recording.
In it, Ethan’s voice was filled with mockery and disdain.
“A woman who tried so hard to marry into a wealthy family–what good could her daughter
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Chapter 4
be? I’m going to make her beg me, crawl on her knees, and beg for mercy under me.
Then a burst of laughter erupted in the background.
“You don’t know, she looks pure on the outside, but when she moans… she’s a slut.”
A familiar male voice rang out–one of Ethan ‘s closest friends.
“Don’t you think, bro, that you’re just giving her what she wants? You’re letting her enjoy it?”
“I won’t let her get away so easily. I’m going to take her to the top, make her fall in love with me, and then crush her down to the ground–boom!”
“Hahaha, you’re the best, man!”
The bloody truth was laid bare before me.
I cried harder, a bitter, self–mocking smile twisting my face, my heart breaking into pieces.
I locked eyes with Winnie, and in the next second, she poured the milk over my head.
A loud scream followed.
“Ah! Grace! Even if you don’t like me, you can’t throw milk on me! This dress was personally designed for me by Ethan!”
Immediately after, Ethan burst through the door and pulled Winnie into his arms.
Winnie, playing the victim, complained.
“Ethan, your sister must not want me to be her sister–in–law, so she’s doing this to me. I must have done something wrong.”
Ethan comforted her in a low voice, then walked toward me, his face dark.
He raised his hand.
Slap!
The impact was sharp and solid.
Chapter 4
My cheek went numb.
I had already been dizzy from crying for so long, and the slap sent me crashing to the floor.
Ethan stood above me; his eyes cold as ice.
“Grace Baker, you’re nothing but an outsider. Don’t forget your place.”
I lifted my gaze to meet his, my eyes filled with despair.
For a moment, I thought I saw something in his eyes–something I couldn’t quite
understand.
Was it pity? Or was it just cold indifference?
He finally spoke again, telling me to reflect on my actions, before turning and leaving with
Winnie. The door slammed behind them with a deafening bang.
As I stared around the room, I noticed that the photo of me and Ethan I’d left on the table
was gone.
He had started erasing all traces of us long before.
At this moment, I couldn’t even prove that those six years had ever been real.
I grabbed a pair of scissors in a frenzy and started cutting the sheets he had slept on the night before, slicing them into shreds.
I then held the tip of the scissors to my neck.
My mother’s face suddenly flashed through my mind.
The scissors slipped from my hand, clattering to the floor.
At that moment, I realized–this was Ethan’s revenge.
He had used my mother to control me, knowing I wouldn’t dare resist.
I spent the rest of the night wide awake, unable to escape the torment.
14:23
Shattered Vows
