The Wife He Treated Like a Dog

"I'm not leaving Felix for money! We love each other!" The girl sprawled across the master bed looked thoroughly ravaged, clothes in disarray, lips swollen from kissing. Her face bore a striking resemblance to Felix Garza's long-lost first love, Stephanie Wallace, close enough to be painful. "You're the ninety-ninth woman who's said that to me." With a calm glance, Jade Woodard signaled for the bodyguards to set the items down, five hundred thousand dollars in cash and two non-disclosure agreements. "Sign. Take the money and disappear." The girl gave a sharp, mocking laugh. "Jade, everyone knows you're just Felix's pet. Don't tell me you actually think you're his wife! Felix told me he's never even kissed you, not once, because he thinks you're disgusting!" Faced with the girl's vicious curses, Jade remained expressionless, because it was the truth. In Terravale's upper circles, everyone knew the same story. On paper, Jade Woodard was Felix Garza's wife. In reality, she was the pet he kept on a leash. And as far as the world was concerned, she had only herself to blame. After all, she had done whatever it took to marry him. At Felix and Stephanie's engagement party, she had drugged him. Then, when he was too far gone to think clearly, she climbed into his bed. And when the truth came out, she made sure the press got there first. By the end, with a questionable pregnancy and Felix's father, Austin Garza, choosing mercy over scandal, she succeeded in taking Stephanie's place. Felix had no choice but to marry her. Stephanie fled in heartbreak and humiliation, disappearing without a trace. For a man like Felix, cold, ruthless, and impossible to corner, it was the deepest humiliation of his life. He hated Jade for it. Right after the wedding, while she was still wearing her gown, Felix shoved her down a flight of stairs. The public story was that she had suffered an accidental miscarriage. "You're only fit to be my pet." And Felix had spent the next five years proving he meant it. When he wanted her, he summoned her. When he was done, he discarded her. She was his beast of burden, his servant, and the toy he used to vent his lust and anger. But the truth was, everything Jade did had been forced upon her by Chloe Wallace, Stephanie's mother. The year she graduated from college, her grandmother fell critically ill and needed a liver transplant. Jade had no money, no connections, and no way out. That was when Chloe found her. "Stephanie is still young. She isn't ready to settle down, but the marriage alliance between the Garzas and the Wallaces cannot be broken by the Wallaces. If you do exactly as I say, Jade, your grandmother lives." For her grandmother's life, Jade completely sold her soul and dignity. And while she paid the price, the Wallace family spent the next five years quietly profiting off Felix's guilt. The girl sneered and slapped the agreements straight into Jade's face. Then she turned and tried to leave. A bodyguard stepped in front of her. "Just wait, Jade!" Forced at last to press her fingerprint onto the documents, Naomi Kelley threatened her before storming out. Jade barely spared it a thought. That night, Felix had her grandmother taken, her only family for many years. By the time Jade arrived, her grandmother, wearing only a thin layer of clothing, had been locked inside a massive glass enclosure crawling with snakes. She was huddled in the corner, shaking violently from cold and terror, her face drained of color. She didn't even have the strength left to cry for help. And Naomi was curled up in Felix's arms, teary-eyed and trembling, looking so fragile. The moment she saw Jade, she let out a scream. "Jade, I'm sorry! I won't do it again!" Jade stopped cold, panic already clawing up her throat. Before she could make sense of anything, one of the bodyguards drove a brutal kick into the back of her knee. She hit the ground hard in front of them. "Why did you humiliate Naomi with money and have someone kidnap and threaten her? Jade, it seems you really have a death wish!" "I didn't kidna..." Before Jade could finish her sentence, the bodyguard slapped her hard across the face. The slap came so hard it sent her collapsing at Felix's feet. Her forehead struck the floor and split open on impact. Jade instantly realized that explaining was useless. The most important thing right now was to save her grandmother! She pushed herself upright, blood running down her face, and crawled toward him. "Felix... Please. Whatever you think I did, punish me for it! But let my grandmother go! She's old and sick. She can't survive this! Put me in there instead, please. I'm begging you!" "You certainly will be punished. A pet that bites its master must be taught a severe lesson, right?" His voice was vicious, but the gesture that followed was almost tender. He tilted her chin up with the pointed toe of his black leather shoe. Blood from her forehead slid into her eye, mixed with tears, and dripped onto the polished leather. Something flickered across Felix's face. For five years, Jade had stayed by his side through everything, through every humiliation, every command, every cruelty, every degradation. No matter how far he pushed her, she only trembled, swallowed her pain, and endured. He had never seen her so shattered before. "Felix, my shoe got dirty. Having Jade wipe them clean can serve as her apology... Jade, what do you say?"