I hadn't stayed with the Delgados out of loyalty. I stayed because I was trapped. I hadn't remained by Evan's side out of love. I stayed to survive.
But now? Freedom was within reach. I was done with his games.
"I'm done, Evan," I said, my voice flat.
His smirk vanished.
He lunged. His fingers locked around my throat, pinning me against the mattress. Fresh blood bloomed through the gauze on my abdomen. The IV needle tore across my hand, leaving a jagged red streak.
Evan didn't care.
His grip tightened, knuckles white. "You don't love me? Is that it? Right. I forgot." His laugh was dark. "In your heart, there's only money. You'd sell your self-respect. You'd submit to a man you despise just to keep your position!"
He shoved his phone in my face—humiliating clips from our past lighting the dim room.
"Look at yourself! Is that the woman who begged me to come home? Don't you dare tell me you don't love me, Alice!"
His rage was so volatile that even Bonnie flinched in the corner.
But I didn't cower. I laughed.
I laughed at his arrogance. I laughed because he truly believed his own delusions.
Years ago, when Evan first started parading Bonnie around as "Mrs. Delgado," I had asked for a divorce. The family refused. Catherine had torn my university acceptance letter into confetti.
"You will not leave Evan's side until you give me a great-grandson," she'd commanded. "No matter who he sleeps with, you will fulfill your duty. Your dreams are irrelevant. Your only purpose is to serve your husband."
She doubled the dosage of those vile fertility tonics. To avoid drinking the bitter sludge that made my hands shake—to escape this hell sooner—I submitted to Evan's twisted demands. Not out of desire, but desperation. I needed to get pregnant again. It was my only bargaining chip.
The Delgados never made a losing deal. They had invested years in me and were determined to squeeze out every drop of value.
So I played the part. I tried to conceive, hoping a child would grant me leverage to negotiate my exit.
Fate had a twisted sense of humor. The child I couldn't keep became my liberation.
The video of Bonnie and Evan pushing me into the sea was powerful leverage, but the true key was the surgery. A woman without a uterus—a woman who could no longer breed heirs—was useless to the Delgado lineage. A depreciating asset.
I had succeeded.