The Wife He Treated Like a Dog

Chapter 5 I Will Never Apologize!

Taking care of Naomi was torture.

Her injuries weren't serious at all, but she acted as if she couldn't move a single muscle. Eating and drinking, Jade even had to attend to her bathroom needs.

At night, it became even worse. One moment she was thirsty, the next hungry, one moment cold, the next hot.

She knew Jade's fingers were badly frostbitten, but she still forced her to stay up all night peeling nuts, dozens of pounds at a time. By the time Jade finished, her fingers were bleeding. Naomi grabbed a handful of the peeled nuts and threw them straight at her.

"You got blood everywhere. That's disgusting. How am I supposed to eat this?"

"Then don't eat them."

Jade cleaned up quietly, her face expressionless. That only made Naomi more irritated.

She had been trying to provoke Jade all along. When that didn't work, she decided to escalate.

"Oh, right... You probably didn't know this. The snake in that room, the one whose fangs weren't removed? I was the one who put it there."

"What did you say?" Jade stared at her in disbelief.

"You heard me clearly, didn't you?" Naomi smiled, clearly enjoying the shock and pain spreading across Jade's face.

"Why would you do that?" Jade rushed toward her, fury flashing through her eyes.

Naomi didn't answer. Instead, she tilted her chin toward the door.

Jade turned instinctively. The door opened. A man stepped inside holding a box. It was the urn containing her grandmother's ashes!

"Give that back!" Jade lunged forward, but her injured ankle slowed her down. Before she could reach him, the man opened the window and tossed the urn out from the twenty-seventh floor.

"No!" Jade screamed and rushed to the window. Half her body leaned out as she desperately tried to grab it, but she was too late.

The urn slipped past her fingertips and shattered against the pavement below.

At that exact moment, a street-cleaning truck drove by. Water sprayed across the road. The ashes were scattered and washed straight into the storm drain.

"People die. Ashes just take up space. Given to the Birds. No need to thank..."

She didn't finish the sentence. Jade lunged forward and grabbed her throat with both hands. Her eyes were blood-red.

Naomi's face turned pale as she struggled desperately. Her nails scratched across Jade's hands. But Jade only squeezed harder until Felix appeared.

Several guards rushed forward and pried Jade away. One of them snapped two of her fingers before Naomi was finally freed.

"Felix... If you hadn't come in time, she would have killed me... I was so scared..."

Naomi collapsed into Felix's arms, sobbing dramatically.

"Yes, I was going to kill you! You killed my grandmother and scattered her ashes! Naomi, I will never let this go... Never!"

Jade was pinned to the ground by several bodyguards. Even though she was covered in injuries, she struggled desperately, as if she couldn't feel the pain.

Felix frowned in disgust. "Your grandmother's ashes? She's living perfectly well in a nursing home. I checked the surveillance footage this morning! Jade... Making up stories just to cause trouble for Naomi? Apologize to Naomi! Right now!"

Felix commanded, every word smashing into Jade.

Jade slowly looked up and looked at him. For some reason, she suddenly remembered a summer ten years ago.

Back then, she had just finished her college entrance exams. To earn money, she took a job as a hospital aide. That was when she met Felix.

At the time, she didn't know he was the heir to the Garza family. She simply called him Lex.

Lex had temporarily lost his sight in an accident. His temper was terrible. He snapped at everyone, except Jade. With her, he was always polite.

The doctors ordered strict bed rest. But Lex hated staying still. Under his pleading, Jade secretly snuck him out of the hospital. They held hands as they wandered through markets. They ate street food and went to the movie theater. They even took a silly photo together. And once, they tried dancing in a public square.

Jade was clumsy the entire time, stepping on his feet over and over.

"You have to apologize! Right now!" Lex said with a playful smile.

That moment had planted a seed in Jade's heart. Years later, when she saw him again at Stephanie's engagement party, she felt shy and excited. Everything that followed, however, was nothing like what she imagined. And Felix ended up hating her.

Jade knew she had hurt him. So she devoted everything to him, hoping that one day he might grow to care for her.

But now, she finally understood. It had always been nothing more than her own foolish wish.

"I will never apologize!" Her voice was soft. But the hatred in her eyes could have drilled straight through Naomi.

Felix was thoroughly enraged by Jade's response and immediately ordered his bodyguards to slap her.

"Don't stop until she admits she was wrong."

The slaps rained down on Jade's face, each one delivered with full force. Jade's thin cheeks quickly became red and swollen, and blood slowly began to seep from the corners of her mouth. Her ears started ringing loudly.

But Jade never opened her mouth to apologize or beg for mercy until she completely lost consciousness.