Chapter 8

Sophia's POV

"However."

Ethan threw the cigarette butt on the ground and crushed it with his shoe.

"Considering you're still carrying Quinn family blood in your belly, the family has decided to temporarily not pursue criminal charges against you."

He opened the car door.

"But from now on, you're no longer my wife, no longer part of the Quinn family. Once the child is born, I'll divorce you."

I looked at him and laughed.

Laughed until tears came out.

"Ethan."

I said softly.

"You're going to regret this. One day, you'll know how ridiculous today's choice was."

Ethan frowned, as if wanting to say something, but ultimately just turned aside.

"Get in. Don't make me say it a third time."

I wanted to refuse, but the words stuck in my throat.

I knew resistance was meaningless.

Besides, all my documents were still at the villa. I had to go back to get them before I could leave.

Half an hour later, the car pulled into the familiar villa courtyard.

But after stepping into the villa, the scene before me made me stop in my tracks.

Several servants were moving things out of the master bedroom.

My clothes, jewelry, cosmetics, even my cherished books and photo albums: all carelessly stuffed into cardboard boxes, piled in the hallway like trash.

"Hurry up."

Lydia commanded imperiously.

"Throw anything useless into the storage room."

She looked up and saw me, a victorious smile curving her lips.

"You're back?"

Coming before me, she looked me up and down in my disheveled state, saying smugly,

"Starting today, this villa has a new mistress. Naturally, the master bedroom is no longer yours either."

She raised her hand, pointing to a narrow door at the end of the hallway.

"From now on, you'll live there."

I found this utterly absurd and laughable.

I looked at Ethan mockingly.

"Your grandfather is still lying unconscious in the hospital, and instead of investigating the truth, you let this woman move into our bedroom? Can you face him after doing this?"

"Grandfather became like this because of you. That's the truth."

Ethan's face was terrifyingly dark.

"If not for the child in your belly, you'd still be in jail right now instead of standing here questioning me."

He raised his chin toward a nearby servant.

"Take her to the storage room. From today on, she lives there until the child is born."

Two servants stepped forward, gripping my arms from both sides.

The storage room was worse than I'd imagined.

Less than a hundred square feet, filled with old junk, the smell of mold mixed with the pungent odor of cleaning agents, nauseating.

The servants carelessly threw my belongings on the floor.

"Starting tomorrow, you'll be responsible for cleaning the entire villa every day."

Lydia stood in the doorway, her smile sweet but vicious.

"Because the Quinn family doesn't support freeloaders."

She paused slightly, as if remembering something.

"Oh, and don't think about running away or contacting anyone, because it would be futile. Your phone has been confiscated. I've also instructed everyone that no one in this villa dares lend you a phone. Before the child in your belly is born, someone will watch you every moment of every day."

With those words, the door slammed shut heavily.

I dug my fingertips deep into my palm, trying hard to calm my emotions, then turned to rummage through the pile of belongings for a long time, finally finding all my identification documents.

I gripped those documents tightly. I had to endure for now, endure until I found a chance to escape.

In the days that followed, before dawn each day, I was dragged from the storage room by servants to begin the day's labor.

Scrubbing floors, cleaning toilets, washing mountains of dishes, tending to wildly overgrown weeds in the garden... any slacking off resulted in kicks from the servants watching me.

My three meals were the cold leftovers everyone else didn't finish.

As for Ethan and Lydia...

If before, with Grandfather keeping them in check, they still exercised some restraint and only dared to sneak around...

Now with Grandfather down, they had completely thrown caution to the wind.

The living room sofa, the study desk, the dining table, even the garden swing... everywhere bore traces of their lovemaking.

Several times late at night, tossing and turning on the narrow bed in the storage room, I could hear moans and panting from the other side of the wall, obscene and unbearable.

The gentle consideration that once moved my heart. How laughable it all seemed now.

This afternoon at noon, the sun blazed overhead.

I was ordered to clean the pool.

I crouched by the pool's edge, scrubbing the walls bit by bit with a brush.

At the other end of the pool, water splashed everywhere.

Lydia wore a sexy bikini, her whole body clinging to Ethan, laughing coquettishly.

The servant watching me was a middle-aged woman, currently leaning back in a lounge chair dozing off, obviously drowsy from the stifling afternoon heat.

My scrubbing motion paused slightly.

I raised my eyes, quickly scanning the surroundings.

Ethan and Lydia were immersed in their own world, not paying attention to me.

The villa gate was at the end of the garden, about fifty meters away.

My heart pounded violently in my chest.

I gently set down the brush, pretending to reach for the hose in the corner, but used the cover of the bushes to inch bit by bit toward the gate.

Five meters, ten meters, twenty meters...

Behind me came Lydia's coquettish complaint.

"Ethan, my shoulders are so sore. Massage them for me..."

Ethan chuckled lowly. "Where? Here?"

Panting sounds resumed.

I held my breath and finally reached the gate.

I looked back once.

The servant was still dozing. Those two were still entwined in the water.

Now. This was the best chance to escape.

I gripped the documents in my pocket tightly.

Then without looking back, I slipped out silently.