Asher looked between the two of them before bending down to scoop up the glasses Victor had punched off his face. “I’ll see you in school tomorrow?”

Dawn all but shoved him out the door without answering that question.

“If I don’t see you in class tomorrow, I’m calling the police!” Asher shouted on the other side of the door, after Dawn slammed it in his face.

Was that a threat? Victor stepped forward, ready to end his unworthy opponent all over again. But Dawn once again stepped between him and killing the man who was actively planning to be with her after her marriage to Victor was done.

“Hurting him won’t solve anything,” she said in a rush. “This is between you and me. Just us.”

His blood boiled at her words. She seemed to care nothing of herself, only of this Asher.

“You made plans!” he said, his signs coming out fast and angry. “This whole time you were with me, you were making plans to be with him!”

“I wasn’t with you!” she replied silently, her signs just as angry as his. “I’m your prisoner, you psycho! What did you expect? That I’d never imagined being with someone else? I’m sure you weren’t faithful for all 364 days between our fucked up anniversaries.

The fact that he had indeed been faithful to her this entire ten years, helplessly so, made him feel even more stupid than Kuang had accused him of being the day before.

“Why him?” he demanded. He hated himself for asking this. But he had to know. “Why would you choose him to follow me?”

“Because he was nice to me!” she screamed with her hands. “Because he treated me decently. Because he wasn’t a total monster. Because he wasn’t punishing me for ten years for something that wasn’t my fault. Because he didn’t blame me for his shitty father’s death. That’s why!”

Her words were even worse than Asher’s. They hit him like bullets, even though her only weapons were her hands. Gone was the tearful and apologetic woman who’d inspired him to end his practical engagement. Here was the real Dawn. The one who still had no remorse for her actions, even nearly ten years of punishment.

Kuang’s words echoed inside his head. “There are consequences for your stupid actions. That’s something you must learn. Someone will have to teach you that lesson, once and for all.”

Most likely, Kuang had assumed that he would be the one to teach Victor this ultimate lesson. But in the end, it was Dawn.

The woman he thought he loved.

The woman he’d given up everything for, only to be thrown aside by her.

Again.