Mia was forced to her knees at my bedside by two bodyguards, made to apologize to me.

Her once beautiful, delicate face was a pale, terrified mask.

At Liam's signal, a bodyguard slapped Mia across the face, again and again.

Her face swelled up like a balloon, a pathetic sight.

But Liam showed no mercy.

He stomped on Mia's fingers, grinding his heel into them.

Mia let out a blood-curdling scream.

"I'm going to make you pay, piece by piece, for every bit of suffering Chloe endured."

As Mia begged for her life, Liam laughed, a cruel, cold sound.

"This is just the beginning, and you're already breaking?"

"You had people torture Chloe. When she... when she was suffering so much, did you ever stop to think?"

As he said this, Liam's gaze faltered, and his voice trembled.

Mia knew it was over.

Everything she had done was out in the open.

Liam's heart was completely closed to her pleas; there was no turning back.

She started to laugh through her tears, pointing a shaky finger at me.

"Chloe, I forgot to tell you. I have another name. My name is Mia Vance."

Mia's eyes were filled with pure malice.

"My mother's name was Elaine."

Elaine.

That was the name of the woman my father had an affair with.

The mistress who had triumphantly called my mother.

Elaine's taunts and provocations were the final straw that broke my mother.

After seeing photos of her husband with another woman, she had slit her wrists in the bathtub, hopeless.

It felt like a block of concrete was lodged in my chest.

I couldn't breathe.

My nails dug into my palms, but I couldn't feel a thing.

"Chloe, don't think you've won. The moment Liam sent you to that mental hospital, you had already lost..."

Before Mia could finish, someone clamped a hand over her mouth and dragged her away.

Liam gently pried my clenched fists open and started applying ointment to the bleeding crescents in my palms.

"Chloe, don't listen to that crazy woman. I promise, I will get revenge for every single thing they did to you."

I couldn't stop shivering.

No, Mia wasn't wrong.

I had lost, completely and utterly.

I had spent seven years worshiping Liam, and it hadn't earned me an ounce of his love.

But Mia, the daughter of a mistress, was the one who held that special place in his heart.

A few careless words from her were enough for Liam to condemn me to a mental asylum.

And those six months of inhuman torture destroyed everything I was.

Mom, I'm so tired of being alive.

It hurts so much.

Can't you come take me away soon?

I miss you so much, so, so much...

You would stroke my hair with your warm hands, kiss my forehead, and tell me I was your treasure.

Mom, you were the only one who ever treated me like a treasure.