Chapter 4

The atmosphere stiffened. Julian's face darkened.

Before anyone could react, I had already taken off my coat.

Underneath, I was wearing only a slip dress. As my trembling hands tugged at the straps to slide it down, the lewd, excited stares of the men around me glued themselves to my body.

It made me sick to my stomach.

Everyone was eagerly watching the show, but Julian's gaze grew colder and colder.

Soon, I was down to just my bra and underwear. My fingers clutched the straps tightly, and I stopped for a long moment, making no further move.

Julian watched, then finally let out a laugh, as if to say, *I knew it*.

"What? Not stripping anymore? If I'm not mistaken, even the lingerie you're wearing, I paid for it."

My heart felt heavy and bitter. I couldn't believe he was truly pushing me this far.

But when a person is at rock bottom, they often develop a "nothing left to lose" mentality.

I gently closed my eyes, as if making a decision, and unfastened one of my bra straps.

As the strap slid down, a glass flew through the air, hitting my shoulder with a sharp thud!

I let out a soft cry. A red welt quickly appeared on my fair skin, and the drink from the glass spilled onto my bra.

Julian's eyes, dark as ink, fixed on me. He spoke coldly.

"Audrey, you are truly shameless."

"What? Did I help you discover a new side of yourself, and now you're so desperate, you can't wait to seduce men?"

Maybe it was my imagination, but even though Julian didn't look angry, I heard a hint of suppressed fury in his voice.

But he should have known that I had lost all shame eight years ago.

In all our years of marriage, he had brought different women home every month, just to humiliate me.

He did everything imaginable right in front of me, the sounds of their passion echoing in my ears 1086 times.

But I still routinely prepared the bed for him, and cleaned up the glaring mess left behind.

Because I felt I owed him, felt that reaching this point was my fault.

So I foolishly tried to compensate and win back that brief love with my repeated appeasements and concessions.

And now, for Chloe, he had sold my intimate photos. I had no face left to lose.

I fought back tears, my voice hoarse. "Are you satisfied now? Can we get divorced?"

I stared at Julian stubbornly, but he didn't answer.

"Audrey, I'm out of patience for your act. Your clumsy performance is truly sickening."

I felt a weariness in my heart. Julian still didn't believe me.

I sighed, forced to emphasize again, "Julian, I'm not lying to you. I really want to divorce you."

But Julian looked at me as if he'd heard the funniest joke, a sinister, malicious smile playing on his lips.

"Do you really dare to divorce me?"

"Once you leave with nothing, your father, who's buried under a mountain of debt, will have his fingers chopped off. And can you afford the medical bills for your mother, who's barely clinging to life with medication?"

"Or perhaps our seemingly filial Audrey is planning to let them both die, so she can live it up on their life insurance?"

My heart trembled.

The twenty million dollars borrowed from the Davies family was actually only a third of what was needed to pay off our debts. So I chose to invest it to grow the money. And just yesterday, I had paid off all of the Miller family's debts, and even had thirty million more to return to the Davies family.

But Julian never paid attention to any of this. He stubbornly clung to the belief that I had taken the Davies family's money.

I had intended to tell him this good news, but now, I saw no point.

Seeing my silence, Julian assumed I was feeling guilty.

This only fueled his interest.

"Oh, right. I think I've been too far-sighted with my considerations. What you should be worrying about right now is how you'll get them out of here alive without my help."

Them?

I froze, still trying to process what Julian meant, when the bodyguard pulled back the room's curtains.

With just one glance, through the glass, I saw a small auction happening in the center of the downstairs floor.

And my white-haired parents were being shamefully held down in their seats by a group of bodyguards, forced to watch my private videos displayed as auction items on the stage!

The shameful videos played on a loop, over and over again.

I saw my parents' faces, streaming with tears.

In that moment, I felt like I was walking on thin ice, my every breath trembling.