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It was strange. After all, she had experienced such unbearable pain before, but why did she feel so dreadful now?

Ruby’s eyes were slightly red-rimmed, and she could feel the heat of liquid trickling down her cheeks. She could only squeeze her eyes shut and let the man continue his ruthless and violent assault on her.

After what felt like forever, Steve Burton finally fell back, sated. Ruby’s face was pallid due to the pain, almost frighteningly so. From some sort of self-preservation instinct, she curled into a tiny ball the moment Steve withdrew from her.

The bed in Steve’s master bedroom was enormous; Ruby was petite to begin with, and now that she had curled up, she looked even smaller and insignificant. Her body was still shaking from the pain, resembling a frightened kitten.

Regulating his breath, Steve gazed at the shivering Ruby. His tightly pressed lips relaxed as he reached out his hand to gently fix her flushed face buried in the sheets. Noticing the tears accumulating in her eyes, his expression hardened slightly, and his voice retained the coldness he was known for. “Ruby, deep down, what you have always wanted was to be Mrs. Burton, isn’t that right?”

“To you, offering yourself as a commodity for exchange to attain your interests, and anything else between us, is irrelevant. As for sharing hardships as husband and wife, life and death, all of that is unnecessary in your book, isn’t that right?”

As he spoke these words, Steve’s voice slightly ebbed. He turned, picked up his clothes from the floor, and began dressing leisurely.

Only now did he fully comprehend that his love for her was a long, unrequited love story.

Every little change in her made him astoundingly elated. He believed that finally, she was starting to fall for him. But each time, it turned out to be his fanciful thinking, and nothing more.

Maybe she did have feelings, they were just reserved for Edric Reat, while he had been deluding himself over and over again, holding onto hopes of her affections.

He knew that once she became Mrs. Burton, she would no longer need Steve. If there was no Pristine’s Enterprises behind him, if his name wasn’t Steve Burton, if he was just an ordinary 9-to-5 wage-earning man on the street, she, Ruby Gregory, wouldn’t spare him a glance.

If she needed his help, with Gregory’s Enterprises facing such massive problems, her first instinct wouldn’t have been to hold a press conference clearing Pristine’s Enterprises’ name or giving back the US$6,860,000 to him, rather than seeking assistance.

He was her husband, her future support, yet, she never had the inclination to rely on him.

Because of indifference, there was no dependency.

At the thought of this, a dash of disappointment crossed Steve’s eyes. The smile on his face softened, radiating a stunning glow. His gaze upon her was slightly rapt, but in a split second, his usual icy indifference returned. His voice was soft, cool, devoid of any emotion.

“Since you want so badly to be a commodity, I shall treat you as one going forward!”

“A fair exchange, no involvement, I know very well how this works!”

“Don’t worry, from today onward, I will surely make clear our boundaries, just as you wish, avoiding any interference in each other’s matters!”

Upon saying this, Steve paused buttoning his shirt, picked up the bank card that Ruby had returned to him from the edge of the bed, and threw it sternly in front of Ruby: “You don’t need to pay me back this US$6,860,000, as a commodity, this is your rightful share!”

Saying this, Steve neatly arranged his clothes, then turned around coldly and left the bedroom.

–

Commodity… he called her a commodity.

Ruby instinctively curled her body even tighter, her gaze becoming somewhat vacant.

At first, she indeed treated herself as a tool for connecting families when she married Steve, truly as a piece of merchandise.

However, when he uttered those words, she found herself unbearably distraught.

Ruby listened as the apartment door was slammed shut by Steve downstairs. Only then did she turn her eyes, bury her head in the quilt, and the tears fell one by one. The droplets fell harder and harder until, in the end, Ruby started sobbing quietly.