Chapter 2

On the day I was discharged, Gideon came to pick me up.

When we returned to our sprawling luxury villa, the three children were lined up in the living room. None of them looked the least bit remorseful. Leo, in particular, glared at me with undisguised hostility.

"Beatrice, I've hired a professional rehabilitation therapist for you," Gideon said, gesturing to the woman standing behind the kids.

Camilla, dressed in a sharp, tailored business suit, walked toward me with a practiced smile. "Hello. I'm Camilla. For the foreseeable future, I'll be overseeing your facial recovery and psychological counseling."

I looked at her, an imperceptible sneer curling the corner of my mouth.

Letting Camilla in? That was exactly my plan. You have to gather all your targets under one roof if you want to annihilate them in one fell swoop—leaving absolutely no survivors.

On her very first day moving in, Camilla began testing my boundaries.

Under the guise of me "needing a quiet environment for recovery," she moved me out of the master bedroom and into a dismal, poorly lit guest room. Gideon turned a blind eye to this, glossing it over by claiming it was strictly for my health.

I didn't throw a fit; in fact, I accepted it with a serene smile.

"Camilla is right," I told Gideon mildly. "Looking the way I do right now, I shouldn't be sleeping in the master bedroom anyway. I wouldn't want to scare you in the middle of the night."

A flicker of guilt flashed through Gideon's eyes, but it was quickly replaced by relief. "I'm sorry you have to compromise like this, Beatrice."

In the days that followed, I completely relinquished all authority. I stopped disciplining the three kids, stopped enforcing their bedtimes, and stopped limiting their junk food and video games.

Leo became entirely unbridled. He took scissors and carved up our designer leather sofas; Mia threw my expensive jewelry into the toilet and flushed it away; little Thomas acted like a feral animal, kicking, biting, and violently spitting at anyone who dared come near him.

Not only did Camilla do nothing to stop them, she secretly encouraged their behavior. She probably figured that as long as the kids drove me to madness, I'd pack my bags and clear out that much sooner.

What she didn't know was that every day, locked inside my closed room, I was covertly working with my lawyer to track down all the marital assets Gideon had been secretly funneling away.

One afternoon, Gideon went out to attend a high-profile medical symposium. Camilla was doing yoga in the living room, while the three children were playing in the study.

Gideon's study was strictly off-limits. It housed his collection of rare, antique medical texts, along with a priceless set of surgical instruments rumored to have been used by 18th-century European royalty. Normally, he wouldn't even let me touch them.

Coffee cup in hand, I strolled down the hall and stopped at the door of the study.

Leo was wielding one of the antique scalpels, trying to pry open a parchment-bound manuscript. Mia, meanwhile, had knocked over an inkwell onto an out-of-print anatomical atlas.

"Leo, that knife is very sharp. Be careful not to cut yourself," I reminded him gently, then turned on my heel and walked away.

Half an hour later, Gideon returned home early.

The moment he pushed open the study door, his furious roar echoed through the entire villa: "What are you doing?!"

I emerged from the guest room to find Gideon shaking with rage. The parchment manuscript had been torn to shreds, and the priceless scalpel had been used to slice apples, now covered in sticky juice and dirt.

"Who did this?!" Gideon bellowed at Leo.

Terrified, Leo broke down into loud wails. "I... I just wanted to see what was inside..."

Camilla hurried over. Seeing the scene, all the color drained from her face, but a mother's instinct kicked in, and she immediately shielded Leo. "Gideon, don't scare the child! What does he know?!"

"What does he know?! Do you have any idea how much these books and instruments are worth?!" Gideon's eyes were bloodshot. He raised a hand, ready to strike Leo.

I stepped forward and gently caught his arm.

"Gideon, calm down," I said, my tone overflowing with extreme, saintly compassion. "They are just worldly possessions. Is there any need to get this angry?"

Gideon stared at me in absolute disbelief. "Beatrice, do you realize how important these things are to me?!"

"I know," I sighed softly. "But didn't you always teach me to have a big heart, to be forgiving? You said these children are orphans, that they grew up without parental love, so we need to give them extra tolerance. Now, they've merely made a small mistake, and you're flying into a rage. Were all those things you used to tell me just lies?"

Gideon choked on his words. Those were, indeed, the exact same excuses he had used to brush me off and force me to endure the children's heinous behavior over the years.

"But..."

"No buts," I interrupted. "Isn't showing tolerance to these children the very core of your charitable mission? If you hit Leo today, and word gets out... what will people think of the great philanthropist who's about to run for Chairman of the Medical Board?"

Gideon's face turned from ash-pale to livid green. Shaking, he finally let his raised hand drop in defeat.

Watching from the sidelines, a flash of smugness crossed Camilla's eyes. She actually thought I was helping her. She had no idea I was intentionally forcing Gideon to swallow his fury, letting it ferment and fester inside him.

"Camilla, could you take the kids out of here?" I said.

Camilla practically scurried out, towing the three kids behind her.

Only Gideon and I were left in the study. Staring at the ruined mess on the floor, he painfully buried his face in his hands.

How does it feel when the boomerang of your own hypocrisy strikes you right between the eyes? I sneered inwardly.

This is just the beginning, Gideon. Everything you cherish most in this world... I will make you watch as they are destroyed one by one, right by your own hands.