Chapter 9

As soon as Sophia stepped inside, she rushed forward and wrapped her arms around Alexander's waist, tears spilling down her cheeks.

"Alex, I miss you so much... I miss Andy too. Please, just let me see him, just once."

"I know Olivia suddenly divorcing you must've bruised your pride, and maybe you can't accept it right now. But I'll wait for you, Alex. I really love you."

"What's so special about Olivia anyway? I'm a woman, I know exactly what she's doing. She's just playing hard to get, trying to steal you away from me. Can't you see that? I'm the one who truly understands you. Wouldn't it be nice? The three of us, me, you, and Andy, living a happy life together?"

She went up on tiptoe, trying to kiss him like she used to.

Back then, when she played the pitiful card and threw herself at him, Alexander would always cave.

Men are weak like that, she thought. No way this time would be any different.

But the very next second, Alexander's hand clamped around her throat, his eyes dark and unreadable.

"You love me?" he said, voice like ice. "If you loved me, you wouldn't have run straight into the arms of some foreign tycoon the second the Carter family hit rock bottom, abandoning me without so much as a second thought."

"You only came back a year ago because you found out he wasn't some rich international businessman, he was a con artist. A sadist who liked hurting women. Even your so-called marriage certificate was a fake. And when you realized the Carter family had bounced back, stronger than ever, that's when you decided to crawl back, drug me, get pregnant, and try to trap me all over again."

"Because you know damn well that as a nobody from the Evans family's side branch, you'd never make it to the top without me."

Sophia's face drained of color. She hadn't expected him to dig up that much. She shook her head over and over, her voice trembling.

"No, Alex… You've got it all wrong. You know I've always been pure, kind-hearted. I'd never do something like that…"

His grip tightened, his tone low and lethal.

"Pure and kind-hearted? Don't insult my intelligence, Sophia."

"You think I don't know what you did to Olivia that day? You staged that whole self-harm scene and pinned it on her. And worse, you dared show her that video of the baby dying, just to push her over the edge and drive her away from me."

"You want to talk about vicious? That was monstrous. And now, you're going to pay for it."

Sophia didn't understand what that meant, until she heard a familiar voice behind her.

Stepping out of the bedroom, with a sick grin stretched across his face, was the very man she had fled from overseas.

Her ex-"husband." The sadist.

"Well, well," he sneered. "Long time no see, sweetheart. I've missed the sound of your screams."

Sophia collapsed to the floor, scrambling to clutch Alexander's leg, sobbing uncontrollably.

"Please, Alex! Don't do this to me. I barely survived that hell. I'm begging you, don't send me back there."

Alexander looked down at her coldly, his voice devoid of pity.

"Because of you, I threw Olivia into hell. I lost her. And now I'm living in hell too."

"So tell me, Sophia... why the hell should you be spared?"

She was dragged out screaming.

She never escaped again.

Because this time, her punishment was permanent.

The man sawed off her legs, for running.

And fed them to wild dogs.