The next day was Jamie's one-month birthday celebration. Shawn, who had spent the last night indulging in bodily pleasures, was surprised to see that Candace hadn't called or texted him when he scrolled through his phone. Her silence was out of the ordinary.

There were many things to prepare for the celebration. He dressed himself and was about to leave when Yelena wrapped her arms around his waist. 

"Shawn, you have to be patient and accompany Candace at home tonight. You need to set your mother's mind at ease. Don't sneak back here to see me, got it? We need to plan ahead if we want our relationship to last."

"You're always thinking about what's best for me, Lena. You've never cared about the hardships that you have to endure."

Shawn spent a long time with Yelena before he took his leave. When he made it to the hotel, he noticed the guests whispering amongst themselves. Meanwhile, 

The villa remained silent. No one answered Shawn's calls. His heart was in turmoil, and he felt as if his head might split apart at any second. He rushed out of the villa and grabbed a maid who was passing by. 

"Where is Mrs. Hamilton hiding?" he demanded. "If you keep the truth from me, I won't forgive you!"

"M-Mrs. Hamilton took Jamie and left last night!" the maid stuttered. "She also burned all the gifts she gave you along with the love letters."

"She burned them all?" Shawn croaked out as he stumbled two steps back. "She loves me more than life itself. How could she bear to burn the gifts she gave me? How could she abandon the title of 'Mrs. Hamilton?'

"She must have run off to the house her mother left behind for her. She must be waiting for me to pick her up!"

Shawn quickly regained his composure. He gritted out, "Don't think you can control me this way, Candace. I'm going to

When Shawn left, Candace tore up all their wedding pictures and threw them into the trash. She then packed all her clothes into her luggage.

Lisa was gripped with panic upon noticing her actions and told Candace that she was going to call Lucia to report what was going on. Candace stopped her and said, "Don't bother Lucia. She isn't doing too well."

"But you're about to leave with Jamie. How can you bear to abandon Mr. Hamilton?" Lisa asked with reddened eyes. "He had two craniotomy procedures, so he can't take too much stress!"

"He won't die," Candace replied indifferently. "Get the lily embroidery in the living room for me. That was Mom's wedding gift to me."

As Candace gazed at the blooming lilies on the embroidery, tears welled up in her eyes and blurred her vision. 

She had been in the sixth grade when her mother, Marika Hanson, was diagnosed with late-stage lung cancer. She didn't have many days left to live, but she had gone behind Candace's back to secretly craft the lily embroidery despite her disease-ridden body.

The day before she passed, Marika had somberly pressed Candace's hand into Shawn's. With her last remaining breaths, she had said, "My dear Shawn, I'm entrusting my precious Candace to you. I hope the two of you will be able to smoothly get married in the future and be happy together for a long time.

"If you fall out of love with Candace, I hope you will set her free. Don't hurt her."

"Don't worry, Mrs. Brightshield. I'll take good care of Candace," Shawn had declared with tears in his eyes. "If I ever let her down, I'll suffer heart-wrenching pain every single day. I'll curse myself to be alone for the rest of my life, and my life will end in tragedy."

Marika's pallid complexion brightened a little. She sounded determined when she said, "Shawn, I have a good eye when it comes to reading people. I trust that you will protect Candace forever. I know that you won't let her shed a single tear."

"Mom, you were wrong about him."

Candace cradled the lily embroidery close to her. She choked out, "Shawn stopped loving me a long time ago. I don't want him anymore either."

The fierce winds rattled the windows as if howling in despair in her stead. Candace wiped her tears away and declared, "Don't worry, Mom. I'm all grown up now. I can live a good life even without depending on Shawn. I'll raise Jamie, and the two of us will live well together!"

…

"Mrs. Hamilton, Mr. Hamilton asked me to deliver this to you."

A lawyer entered and nodded at Candace before handing her a stack of documents.

Candace took the documents from him and noticed that it was a divorce agreement. Shawn was unwilling to pay even a cent of the alimony that was supposed to support Jamie. 

He even demanded that she dissolve the marriage without taking any of his assets and also return the emerald wedding ring he gave her when they got married.

Shawn was truly a heartless man. Candace was about to sign the agreement when her phone was bombarded by a barrage of messages from Yelena.

"Candace, Shawn just paid over 100,000 dollars to buy an emerald bracelet for me. He also spent another 80,000 dollars to buy a matching set of emerald earrings. Do they look nice?

"I remember emeralds being your favorite jewels. What a shame that he has given me the set of emerald jewelry that he gave you in the past. The only part that is missing from the set is the emerald ring on your finger.

"He's such a pushy man. He's already given me enough emeralds to fill two rooms, but he still wants to give me even more. If I refuse his gifts, he'll punish me. He already made me orgasm five times earlier."

Candace's expression twisted as she called Yelena. 

"Yelena, if you didn't get the same tattoo as me and steal the love letters he wrote for me to forge his handwriting, you would never have been able to replace me. Do you really think he would love you without all of your scheming?"

Yelena giggled on the other end of the line. "If you want to blame someone, you can only blame Shawn. His love for you wasn't strong enough. That's why I was able to trick him so easily."

She continued, "I'm pregnant, Candace. I've gotten my trump card. As for you, what did you get in exchange for risking your life to give birth to his child? You still got thrown aside in the end. How pitiful!

"If you knew that this was going to happen to you, you should have just died on that operating table. You could have taken your son with you and spared you both the pain. You know that I'm right. After all, even if the two of you continued to live, you can't escape the fate of being driven out of the house by Shawn."

Candace's hand trembled violently, and she almost dropped her phone. Her voice was tinged with loathing when she asked, "Did you do something so I would have a difficult time while giving birth to Jamie?"

Yelena chortled. "So what if I did? Even if Shawn finds out, he'll just think that you're trying to drag my name through the mud again. If I were in your shoes, I would have already died of embarrassment. I wouldn't be able to cling to the title of 'Mrs. Hamilton' shamelessly like you."

Candace scoffed as she switched off the recording device. She hailed a cab that brought her to the river. She handed the recording device and divorce agreement to the staff members of the death-faking service provider before following their instructions, placing her pink running shoes on the riverbank.

"Ms. Brightshield, I would like to confirm the details with you one more time. You have selected the option to fake your death without leaving a corpse behind."

"Yes," Candace replied, determined to see this through.

She picked up her luggage and disappeared into the night after preparations were complete.

Yelena would get what was coming for her. Candace's departure would mark the beginning of Yelena's hellish life and also the beginning of Shawn's spiral into insanity. Perhaps Shawn would also recover his memory in the process.


The next day was Jamie's one-month birthday celebration. Shawn, who had spent the last night indulging in bodily pleasures, was surprised to see that Candace hadn't called or texted him when he scrolled through his phone. Her silence was out of the ordinary.

There were many things to prepare for the celebration. He dressed himself and was about to leave when Yelena wrapped her arms around his waist. 

"Shawn, you have to be patient and accompany Candace at home tonight. You need to set your mother's mind at ease. Don't sneak back here to see me, got it? We need to plan ahead if we want our relationship to last."

"You're always thinking about what's best for me, Lena. You've never cared about the hardships that you have to endure."

Shawn spent a long time with Yelena before he took his leave. When he made it to the hotel, he noticed the guests whispering amongst themselves. Meanwhile, Candace and Jamie were nowhere to be found.

"Shawn, fooling around on normal days is one thing. But

Chapter 10