Chapter 1

The year I hated Lucas Carter the most was also the purest.

Lucas Carter tortured and killed my dog that I had raised for ten years, all for his little secretary.

To get revenge, I stabbed the little secretary five times, relishing her crazed screams.

Everyone thought Lucas Carter would take my life.

Instead, Lucas Carter just threw me a divorce agreement and said coldly, "You're nothing but a dog of the Carter family. Since you want to go mad, then get lost."

After that night, I never appeared again.

Until five years later, I attended a gala in my father's place and ran into Lucas Carter's little secretary.

The little secretary splashed red wine on me. "Well, well, look who it is. The dog the Carter family didn't want."

I grabbed a champagne bottle and smashed it on the little secretary's head. "Five years and they still haven't taught you how to be human. Today I'll teach you myself."

Yolanda's screams echoed through the room.

Several lackeys standing beside Yolanda immediately positioned themselves in front of her and shouted at me.

"Who the fuck are you!"

"Do you know who you just hit!"

"Let me tell you," the loudest one pointed at me, "she's the fiancée of the Carter Corporation's heir! You've crossed her! Mr. Carter won't let you go!"

Someone else blocked my path, speaking mockingly. "I'd like to see which blind fool dares to offend Mr. Carter's precious darling. Everyone knows Mr. Carter is crazy about his wife. Normally, if Miss Yolanda loses even a single hair, Mr. Carter would turn half the city upside down, let alone crack her head open!"

Yolanda covered her bleeding forehead, glaring at me viciously.

"Let me tell you, Gardenia, I was kind enough to let you go five years ago, but that doesn't mean I'll still be afraid of you five years later! You were nothing but a dog Asher kept at home! Five years ago I could destroy you, and now that you dare to show up, I can destroy you again!"

I looked at how Yolanda had changed over five years.

I had to admit it.

Lucas Carter really had raised her well. The woman who could only timidly call me "Mrs. Carter" back then could now publicly threaten me to disappear, using words like "destroy."

Unfortunately, I've never been a pushover.

Not five years ago.

Not five years later either.

Surrounded by a crowd, I looked at the shattered fragments on the ground, bent down, and under everyone's shocked expressions, picked up a shard and smiled.

"Yolanda."

I walked toward her step by step.

"Five years ago," I held the bloodstained shard, "I gave you too much face."

"What."

I stared at Yolanda's lower abdomen, tracing the shard from her face downward. "I stabbed out your uterus back then, and you still haven't learned your lesson."

"In that case."

My smile turned vicious, and before anyone could react, I raised the shard and stabbed it fiercely toward Yolanda's abdomen.

But.

Before I could stab Yolanda's belly, someone suddenly grabbed my wrist. I heard screaming in my ears, and Yolanda's tearful voice.

"Asher."

"I'm scared."

Five years ago, when I had pressed Yolanda to the ground and stabbed her again and again, Yolanda had shown the same terrified eyes, calling out vulnerably.

"Asher, I'm scared."

Time overlapped.

Behind me came a long-lost yet familiar voice.

"Gardenia, it's been five years."

"What," Lucas Carter's voice was gloomy, "still haven't learned to behave?"

My wrist was forcefully pulled outward. The pain made me frown, but instead of admitting defeat and giving up like I did five years ago, it ignited the blood in my veins that couldn't be contained. I gripped the shard tightly, feeling it pierce my palm, and at the same moment Lucas Carter was about to seize the shard from me.

I quickly turned my head and smiled at Lucas Carter.

"Long time no see."

"Asher."

The shard stabbed viciously into Lucas Carter's arm, blood spattering and blurring my vision.