Jared stared at the divorce certificate on the table and froze on the spot. Then, he found himself shaking as he went in to retrieve it.

As soon as he took a closer look at it, he saw his name written in bold on the certificate.

Something suddenly snapped in his head. It was as if someone had just brought a sledgehammer down on his head. His sight turned blurry and his world began to spin.

"What? How? I never divorced Tamara in the first place!"

Jared's hand shook again, and the certificate fell to the floor with a thud.

"That's impossible. Tamara loves me so much. I gave her everything she had. She would never dream of divorcing me!"

A sudden hunch struck him, and his face turned grim immediately.

"Tamara Wesley! How dare you threaten me with a fake certificate like this!"

Within a matter of seconds, the certificate was completely torn up and shredded into tiny pieces and flung 

Jared sat on the couch in a daze for a long while, his brows furrowing as his temper began rising.

He lit up a cigarette on instinct and began to smoke. It was only after the first drag of nicotine that his anxious feeling began to dissipate.

However, just as he blew out a cloud of smoke, he suddenly remembered that Tamara had asthma and could not inhale any cigarette smoke.

In a panic to put it out, Jared accidentally flicked some burning hot ash on his finger, and it left a slight burn mark on his skin. Yet, he didn't feel the pain. He just felt panicked for some reason.

Just then, he heard a woman's voice next to him.

"Jared, do you think I look good in this dress?"

Jared lifted his eyes in a daze and immediately ran over to hug the woman.

"Tamara! You've finally come home! I missed you so much!"

The woman in his arms froze, and Jared also quickly noticed that something was wr

Every time someone spoke in the surveillance camera footage, Queenie's heart sank further into her stomach by an inch.

Jared's face turned black when he heard Queenie say that he was the one who used Tamara's mother's ashes for the fireworks display. He had never done such a thing!

When Queenie felt the anger radiating from Jared, she couldn't care less about the gash on her face any longer. She just grabbed the hem of his shirt and looked at him with a pitiful expression on her face.

Gone was the smugness from earlier. 

"Jared, you know that I was just telling a joke. I never really did such a thing!

"I was just… jealous. I was jealous that Tamara could always stay by your side in public without any fear. Also, in the end, it wasn't her mother who got blown up in the sky after all!"

Wait… Was Queenie admitting that she wanted to be seen with him?

The immense satisfaction from finally having tamed Queenie quickly put out the fury in Jared's chest. He tightened his arm around Queenie's waist and gave Tamara another dirty look.

"She was just joking. How could you actually go and blow her mother's ashes up?"

The truth was right there for everyone to see—Queenie had been the one who first started the fight, but Jared still chose to defend her and pinned all the blame on Tamara instead.

Tamara felt as if her heart had frozen over.

…

Over the next few days, Jared got hold of practically every cosmetic surgeon in all of Gasteron to make sure that the gash on Queenie's face wouldn't scar.

"I don't care what you all do, but you must make sure that her face returns to normal at all costs!"

Queenie bit her lips and looked at Jared with teary eyes, making her look like a pitiful little puppy.

"If my face ends up scarring, will you still like me?"

Jared gently stroked her face and said, "No matter what you look like, I'll always like you still."

Tamara, who'd been standing outside the door, felt a shiver going down her spine.

Three years ago, an incident had happened at the hospital where she worked, and she ended up being shoved to the floor with a long gash on her forehead. Jared had been so frightened and anxious that he wouldn't stop shaking all over.

She laughed, trying to distract him from her cut. "Why are you so worried? Is it because I'll get a huge ugly scar on my forehead?"

Jared had hugged her tightly back then and said the exact same words to her. "Tamara, no matter what you look like, I'll always love you still.

"I don't want you to feel any pain or hurt. I'd rather be the one getting hurt than watch you in pain."

The man who used to hate seeing her hurt had now long forgotten all of his promises to her.

…

The day Queenie finally recovered completely from her injury, Jared threw a huge banquet for her. And for the entire night, Jared held Queenie's hand and never left her, even for a single moment, acting as though they were the legitimate couple instead.

Everyone's eyes were on Tamara, and their sneers and jeers simply continued being amplified as the night went on.

Tamara wanted to leave. She'd just turned around when Jared took the wine from Queenie's hands and pressed it into her hands.

"Queenie's just recovered from her injuries. You will drink in her place."

Tamara felt her blood freeze. She was an incredibly light drinker and would fall unconscious right after a few sips. Even during their wedding ceremony back then, Jared had made sure to switch out all alcoholic drinks for plain water for her.

"Alcohol is very damaging to the body. You'll never have to drink another sip as long as I'm still around."

Tamara was still in a daze, but Jared was starting to lose patience with her. He narrowed his eyes before forcefully yanking her jaw open and pouring the contents in the wineglass straight down her throat.

Tamara ended up choking badly on the wine. A single teardrop slid down her face and mingled with the rest of the wine she was choking up.

Jared was just starting to feel bad for her when Queenie suddenly hissed aloud in pain and held on to her ankle.

"I think I twisted my ankle…"

Jared immediately stopped feeling bad for Tamara and quickly picked Queenie up, bridal-style, and brought her over to the nearest couch. Then, he started gently massaging her leg.

"How could you be so careless? You're such a clumsy oaf. Must you always make me worried about you?"

Jared was so focused on Queenie that he never even realized that Tamara's face had turned redder than a tomato.

The intense burning sensation Tamara felt inside her body told her that something was terribly wrong with the wine. She used to be a nurse, after all. She could literally feel her blood boiling in her veins.

She quickly scrambled off to the toilets.

Her vision was turning dark and blurry, and she could feel herself slowly losing consciousness. She then suddenly overheard a few men talking to each other in low voices outside.

"Didn't Mr. Fender arrange everything himself? How could she go missing?"

"Mr. Fender sure is heartless! I can't believe that he'd actually let us have a go at his own wife just because he wanted to please his new mistress!"

"I guess he's already sick of her, but she can only blame herself for that. Come on, let's hurry up and find her. She can't have gone far!"

Tamara's heart sank to the bottom of her stomach. To think that Jared had been behind everything after all!

Her heart may have already been slashed to ribbons before, but now, she was sure that even the ribbons were shredded into nothing.

She staggered to her feet, gritted her teeth, and mustered just enough strength to punch a fist against the mirror that immediately shattered into pieces.

The glass shards cut into her skin until her hands were a bloody mess, and it was only then that she managed to regain her rationality.

She waited inside until she was sure that the voices were gone. Then, she carefully made her way out of the toilet and walked out of Fender Mansion.

Fred had been waiting for Tamara for a while. His eyes turned red as soon as he caught sight of her. However, when he saw the cuts on her hand, he immediately felt the anger rising inside of him.

"Jared Fender, that bastard! Why I ought to—"

Tamara gritted her teeth and fought hard against the physical pain eating into her. Shaking her head, she said, "Dad, let's just go, now!"

It wasn't until they finally boarded the plane that Tamara finally heaved a sigh of relief. She then took out her phone and blocked Jared on every communication platform she had.

"Who said I wouldn't be able to leave you, Jared Fender?"

Tamara wasn't only capable of leaving him. She could also let Jared fall from the sky, landing him straight into the depths of despair.

Jared was lying in Queenie's bed just then, and he suddenly felt a sense of unease.

He held a hand to his chest and hurried toward Tamara's room, but it was completely empty, save for the divorce certificate on the table which was a massive eyesore to him.

Jared stared at the divorce certificate on the table and froze on the spot. Then, he found himself shaking as he went in to retrieve it.

As soon as he took a closer look at it, he saw his name written in bold on the certificate.

Something suddenly snapped in his head. It was as if someone had just brought a sledgehammer down on his head. His sight turned blurry and his world began to spin.

"What? How? I never divorced Tamara in the first place!"

Jared's hand shook again, and the certificate fell to the floor with a thud.

"That's impossible. Tamara loves me so much. I gave her everything she had. She would never dream of divorcing me!"

A sudden hunch struck him, and his face turned grim immediately.

"Tamara Wesley! How dare you threaten me with a fake certificate like this!"

Within a matter of seconds, the certificate was completely torn up and shredded into tiny pieces and flung to the ground.

Queenie happened to walk in just then. She looked at Jared sleepily and asked, "What

Chapter 7