"The Warren Group, originally a real estate giant, has officially declared bankruptcy with debts exceeding 10 billion dollars. Chairman Robert Warren suffered a heart attack during a press conference and has been rushed to the hospital..."
The news was blaring from a TV in a private room of a Velora City hospital, and right now, the man in the headlines-Robert Warren-was lying on the hospital bed.
He looked terrifyingly pale, clutching his chest tightly. He was struggling to breathe, face twisted in pain, barely conscious. He mumbled weakly, "Meds... meds..."
Seeing her father like that, Noelle Warren completely ignored the pain from being shoved to the floor.
Crawling across the ground, she grabbed the bottle of pills that had rolled away. But just as she reached for it, a polished dress shoe slammed down on her hand.
"Ah...!"
She let out a sharp cry. The pill bottle slipped from her grasp and rolled further away.
"Hurts, doesn't it? Watching the one person you care about most slowly dying in front of you."
The man wore a crisp silver suit and had the kind of devastating good looks that made people hate him for it-but his eyes were cold as ice, cruel even. He ground his heel into her hand with a vicious twist.
Noelle felt like her bones were being crushed. Her beautiful face was soaked in tears.
"Fabian, I was wrong. I really get it now. I shouldn't have fallen for you, shouldn't have married you. This is all my fault-it has nothing to do with my dad. You've already ruined the Warren Group and buried us in debt. Please... let my father take the medicine. If he doesn't, he's going to die. I'm begging you."
"Noelle, your biggest mistake was hiring someone to rape and kill Sophia," Fabian Sinclair's voice cracked like a whip, his anger painting his face terrifyingly grim.
"I didn't! That wasn't me!"
Yes, she had envied the love Fabian had for Sophia Spencer, but she would never do something that unforgivable. She was a woman too-how could she ever go that far?
Fabian didn't believe her.
"Sophia was sweet, kind, wouldn't hurt a soul. If it wasn't you, then who else could've done it?"
Noelle's voice trembled as she asked, "Then why did you even agree to marry me two years ago if you think I killed her?"
Back in high school, she'd fallen for Fabian at first sight-chasing him for five years, then married him for two more.
Seven years. She knew better than anyone that his heart belonged to Sophia.
What she hadn't known was that Fabian had blamed her for Sophia's death all this time... and hated her for it.
So why bother marrying her at all?
Fabian's fingers clamped around her jaw like iron, nearly breaking it.
"To make you suffer," he said through gritted teeth. "To watch you give up everything for me-your dreams, your pride. To see you cry over my coldness, lose sleep over nothing but a word from me. It makes me feel amazing."
His words cut deeper than anything. Noelle's whole body shook from the pain, tears falling like rain.
"So that's what it was all about. It was all just revenge."
She used to be the strong and proud heiress of the Warren family. But for him, she gave all that up. She traded in her future as a concert pianist, taught herself to cook with hands that once only touched piano keys, knit sweaters for him, massaged his head when it hurt.
At just twenty, she had forced herself to become the perfect gentlewife-hoping someday he'd finally see her for who she was, forget Sophia, and love her back.
But she never saw it coming-that all of it, everything she gave up, meant nothing. From the beginning, her so-called marriage had been nothing more than his twisted payback plan.
