Annabelle Linton: "I will never love you. Just let me go, okay?"
Leona Grant: "Fine. The day I die."
...
The lonely night was so quiet you could hear a pin drop.
But Annabelle Linton, trapped in the dark dungeon, found it impossible to stay calm.
She pounded desperately on the door, shouting in a panic, "Leona Grant, I was framed! I didn't try to kill Vivian Yates's child! Someone set me up! Come out and listen to my explanation!"
"Let me out! Leona Grant, you have no right to lock me in here! Let me out now!"
"Leona... I'm begging you, please let me out. I'm carrying our child. Are you really willing to let him suffer along with me? He's the sole heir of the Grant Family. The child is innocent!"
"Leona Grant!"
Annabelle Linton screamed, her cries breaking down into choked sobs.
She had been locked in here for four months, and tomorrow she would be sent to prison. No matter how resilient she was, she couldn't remain calm now.
Because she knew that once she went there, she would never come out alive.
"Leona Grant, let me out!" Annabelle Linton pounded on the door, unwilling to give up, desperately clinging to her last shred of hope.
"Out?" A delicate voice laced with sarcasm seemed to descend from above. Vivian Yates stood before the door, looking at Annabelle's pathetic state. "Things have come to this, and you still expect to get out? How utterly ridiculous!"
Annabelle Linton followed the sound of the voice and saw Vivian Yates standing at the iron gate, looking as noble as an angel.
Seeing her, she didn't know what she was supposed to feel.
For four years, she had been married to Leona Grant. On the surface, she was the glamorous Young Madam of the Grant Family, but she lived a life more wretched than anyone could imagine.
No one in this family could stand her. She endured their cold glares and walked on eggshells every day, yet she was always treated like dirt.
She lived each day in constant fear, eating leftovers, living in a damp and chilly room, and even using things the servants had cast off. But what was the point of it all?
How could two people receive such vastly different treatment?
And then there was her—Vivian Yates!
She enjoyed everything that should have been Annabelle's as if it were her birthright! She even became pregnant with her husband's child!
She hated her. She had always hated her!
But she had to admit, right now, Vivian was the only one who could offer her a chance of survival.
Annabelle Linton clung to her like a drowning person to a lifeline, shouting frantically, "Vivian Yates, I was framed! I didn't kill your child, someone set me up! Don't you want to find the person who really killed your baby? For the sake of us growing up together, please help me see Leona. We can work together to find the real culprit!"
"See him?" The corners of Vivian Yates's lips curled into an amused smile. "You killed my child. Why on earth should I help you?"
Annabelle Linton clenched her fists and said, holding back her anger, "The fetus-preserving medicine I brought you that day—I brewed it with my own hands. There couldn't have been anything wrong with it. Someone is trying to frame me and harm your child! Help me. Just help me see Leona, and I swear I'll help you find the killer! If you help me, I'll do anything you ask!"
"Anything?" Vivian Yates's smile deepened. She nodded smugly. "Alright then. Beg me. Get on your knees and beg me. If you beg until I'm satisfied, then maybe I'll take pity on you!"
Annabelle Linton looked up, her face a mask of anger and humiliation, only to be met with Vivian's cold smile. "What, you don't want to get out anymore? Don't want to see your precious Leona?"
'I've lost count of how many times this has happened.'
'And I've lost count of how many times I've regretted ever meeting her.'
'But I have to beg. If I beg her, I can get out. This is my last chance.'
'I'm not afraid of death, but I can't die now.'
'I can't die like this, under a false accusation.'
With a THUD, Annabelle Linton fell to her knees. Through clenched teeth, she said, her voice devoid of emotion, "I'm begging you. Help me."
Vivian Yates looked at her and burst into gleeful laughter.
For four years, she had dreamed every single day of the moment she could trample this woman under her heel.
And now, her dream had come true.
'Pure joy. I've never been this happy before!'
"Help you see him?" Vivian Yates shot her a derisive look. "And what would you do if you saw him? Tell everyone you were framed? Or tell everyone that *I* was the one who framed you?"
Her vicious gaze shot to Annabelle's stomach, her eyes turning frigid. "Besides, you're carrying a bastard in that belly of yours. How could I possibly let you live?!"
Annabelle Linton froze for a few seconds as fragmented memories flashed through her mind. Her eyes widened in horror as she pointed a trembling finger at Vivian. "You... You!"
"So you finally get it?" Seeing Annabelle's devastated expression, she roared with laughter. "But it's too late now. Heh, you idiot!"
Annabelle Linton stared at the woman before her in utter disbelief, a wave of dizziness washing over her. "It was you. It was really you! Why would you do this? You're so vicious... you killed your own child just to frame me! You bitch! You're a monster, and you'll die a horrible death! I'm going to tell them!"
"Tell them? Who would believe you? Do you really think you can walk out of this iron gate?"
Annabelle Linton, who had just stood up to leave, faltered. As if she had just realized something, she stared at Vivian in disbelief.