Chapter 3 Cruel Shawn

I took my seat, and he slid a phone over.

"What is this?"

Donald paused for a moment, perhaps hesitating, but in the end, he unlocked the phone. One look at the screen was all it took. I started shivering uncontrollably.

The screen showed Shawn standing in a shadowed alley, cigarette in hand, handing money to a group of rough-looking men.

Donald noticed my stunned silence and adjusted his glasses. "He's far crueler than I am. Yes, I did kick you out, but he's the one who paid those vagrants to defile you. He would do anything just to get you, even at the cost of destroying you."

Every word he spoke dragged a nightmare back into my mind. Twisted, haggard, hideous. Jeers, mocking laughter, and my body's agony ringing loudly in my mind. I was taken back to the moment where my unborn child was lost.

"Enough!" I roared as I stood up, and I had to gulp in large mouthfuls of air just to breathe.

My face felt ice-cold.

I could not tell whether my tears came from the pain of that night or from the fact that the love I had believed in for three years had been built on something so filthy.

I stared at Donald and hissed, "You're no better than him. Telling me the truth is just your way of saying the man I risked my life going back to Imperia to date is worse off than you."

My voice turned raspy, and I let my tears fall freely. "You want to prove that I'll never be happy if I left you. You want to prove that you're my best choice, but you're no different than him."

Donald fell silent for a moment before speaking. "Yes, I'm a bastard, and I've failed you, but I never would've switched you out for anyone else. However, I've heard that he's going to change his wife.

"He brought Cecelia to all kinds of events behind your back and even brought her to his family's estate. And…"

He paused again, his sharp gaze still on me. "They got their marriage license. All I did was kick you out. He exiled you from the whole marriage. Come back to me, Yvonne."

Everything inside me went blank. The pain had gone so far beyond its limit that I could no longer feel it.

I opened my mouth and was about to refuse him when someone suddenly grabbed me hard and dragged me up. A furious roar thundered beside me. "As if, Donald!"

Shawn used so much force, he nearly snapped my neck. "You're unbelievable. You got snubbed, and the first thing you did was get comfort from your old flame?"

I did not say anything or even struggle. All I did was stare at him.

Donald stood up. "Let her go!"

A group of bodyguards surrounded him. Shawn snickered, and dark cruelty flickered on his face. "You have no right to speak here. She's my wife! You send her gifts every year and can't even cut ties with her. If you loved her so much, why'd you cheat on her?"

Donald went white, and he clenched his fists. "Don't get too cocky. You'll end up just like me." He turned to me. "Come to me once you've made up your mind, Yvonne."

He shoved Shawn away before he could say anything and stormed off. The air turned thick and heavy, filled with suffocating silence.

I went around Shawn and got into the car. He followed me, growling in panic, "You're not going with him, meeting with him, or even staying in touch with him!"

I gave no response, and that whipped him into a frenzy. He clenched my shoulders and shook me hard. "I'm talking to you! You've gone through one divorce. You won't want a second. He dumped you, and your family ignored you.

"Only I was kind to you. Don't fall for his life. Just marry me and live the life you were meant to…"

He called deception, humiliation, and near-murder kind. I hung my head low and chuckled.

Shawn pulled my head back to his side, and his eyes were filled with an impatient need for answers. "What's so funny?"

I refused to look at him, so I asked, "Are you hiding anything from me, besides Cecelia?"

He froze and turned to the window stiffly. He didn't confess, but his silence was the answer anyway.

I laughed again, and the sound grew louder with every passing second. The ache in my heart started as a dull throb, but it rose and rose until there was only agony.

My raspy laugh scratched the claustrophobic space like a phantom scratching their claws across a blackboard.

"Enough! Stop laughing!" Shawn raised his voice and tried to cover my mouth.

Fury burned and crashed in my chest, threatening to tear me apart. I grabbed his hand and bit down hard.

Only when the taste of iron filled my mouth did I finally let go.

"You're a bastard, Shawn! You want to know who I love most? Yeah, it's Donald. I shouldn't have gotten that divorce. He might be scum, but he didn't knock her up!"

Shawn's breathing intensified, and his eyes gleamed with violence. He wrapped his hand around my throat, and his eyes went crimson.

"You think I don't have second thoughts? I can have any woman I want, and yet I ended up with something used that has a graveyard for her womb! Donald has a good eye for women. At least Cecelia knows how to please a man better than you ever did."