Chapter 2

Sylvia was kicked out of the property shortly after Odell left with Tara in his arms.

She was swiftly placed under house arrest after returning home, forbidden to leave the house for any reason other than when she needed to perform her routine pregnancy checkup. This was also the same period when she received the divorce papers.

After that, Sylvia never saw Odell again—until a month after she gave birth.

It was before noon, and Sylvia was spending time with her children in her room when she heard Tara’s voice drifting in from outside.

"Aunt Tonya, I'm here to pay Sylvia and her child a visit. Please excuse me.”

Aunt Tonya stood in front of the door and voiced her unfiltered discontent, "You aren't welcome here. Get out!”

Tara sneered, “Odell already signed the divorce papers with Sylvia some time ago, and I will be marrying him soon. That means I’m going to be the boss of this place soon enough. Don’t you think you’re the one who should scram?”

Aunt Tonya was so exasperated that she could no longer bite her tongue. “You’re a shameless woman!”

Tara’s demeanor suddenly shifted. She raised her hand, ready to slap Aunt Tonya’s face.

This was when Sylvia opened the door and stepped between Aunt Tonya and Tara.

Her sudden appearance caught Tara off-guard for a moment. She quickly drew her hand back and proceeded to cast scrutinizing looks at Sylvia.

Sylvia's complexion was unhealthily pale, and her figure was quite unlike a woman who had just given birth as she looked skinny and frail.

She regarded Tara with an indigent look. “Well, Tara, you’ve seen me. Will you leave now?”

Tara was visibly pleased to see how poorly Sylvia was doing. She answered with a smirk, “I’d like to see the child too. Excuse me if you don’t mind.”

“The little one just fell asleep. Why don’t you come next time?”

“Next time?” Tara chuckled. “Sylvia, don’t tell me you forgot about the divorce papers you’ve signed with Odell? Odell will have full custody of the child, and when I marry him, I will be the mother too. If you have a shred of decency left, you’d let me see my child and have some bonding time. Maybe I’ll be nicer to the child in the future that way.”

She did not try to mask her hostile intention as she said this.

Sylvia's hands that were resting against the sides of her body clenched and tightened.

Just the thought of her child having to call Tara "mother" in the future and potentially be abused by her made her shake with anger!

There was no way she could make Odell see reason, much less make him amend the divorce papers.

She could not even fight against Odell for the rights of custody of her child!

After a while, Sylvia forced herself to calm down and said, "I want to see Odell. If I can’t see him, you can’t see the child either.”

The last six months of caring for her children on her own had led her to completely give up on any hopes of salvaging their marriage.

She would not ask Odell to change his mind concerning their marriage, but the children were a central part of her life!

Tara answered audaciously, “Odell is very busy right now and doesn’t have time to come here."

Sylvia answered icily, “In that case, please leave.”

Tara scoffed, “Why, you, how dare you?!”

Sylvia made no response and remained unmoving by the door.

Tara was getting impatient and was about to shove Sylvia out of the way.

Sylvia had not recovered from the pregnancy yet, so she could not muster the strength to put up an ounce of resistance. With one quick shove, she tumbled onto the floor.

Aunt Tonya hurriedly helped Sylvia up, then she went up to Tara and slapped her in the face.

Tara put a hand to her face and stared at Aunt Tonya in bewilderment. "How dare you hit me?!"

Aunt Tonya rebuked her angrily, "You were the one who bullied Sylvia first!"

This was when Tara’s lips suddenly curled up into a subtle smile, hinting that she was up to something.

Sylvia suddenly had a bad feeling about the current situation.

Sure enough, within a few seconds, they could hear the pitter-patter of footsteps coming from the living room downstairs.

Odell’s long, slender legs trotted in their direction.

Tara raised her hand and landed a vicious slap on the side of her own face that was left unscathed up until this point.

The slap produced an abrupt, crisp noise.

Then, she suddenly switched to a pleading tone, "Sylvia, I never meant to take your place. All I wanted was to visit you and the baby. I have no other ill intentions…”

Sylvia and Aunt Tonya were stunned by this sudden display.

Odell immediately sped up his face when he heard the slap. When he noticed Tara’s beet red cheeks, a desolate gloom suddenly came over his face. The anger radiated around his body like a heatwave.

The hue of Sylvia’s face that was already pale enough in the first place managed to turn even whiter.

Tara practically pounced onto Odell's chest and shed angel tears. “Odell, our child would have been born by now if not for the accident. I just wanted to see her baby, but they somehow had this idea in their minds that I was some kind of child abuser. As if chasing me out wasn’t bad enough, they had to hit me too.”

Odell hugged her and spoke softly, "Don't cry. I'll make things right.”

Then, he cast a look at Sylvia. “Were you the one who hit Tara?”

Aunt Tonya was about to step forward to confess when Sylvia forcefully yanked Aunt Tonya behind her.

She was familiar with Tara’s tricks by now and knew that someone upright like Aunt Tonya would only succumb to Tara’s ploys. No matter how they explained, Odell would not believe them either way.

Sylvia met Odell’s gaze with her own and stated, “It was me. I hit her.”

Odell's expression turned solemn.

Tara was taken aback by Sylvia’s confession.

Odell turned to Tara again. “Tara, how many times did she hit you?"

Tara quickly wiped the look of surprise off her face and reverted to a wounded expression. “Once.”

Odell observed that both her cheeks were glowing red and said, "Tell me the truth."

Tara whispered, "Twice."

"How many times?" Odell was running out of patience.

Tara put on a show of reluctance to tell the whole truth. “I think it was like six times."

Aunt Tonya immediately cried out, "You're lying! Sylvia didn't hit you at all. It was me—"

"Aunt Tonya!” Sylvia quickly grabbed her and interrupted her, “Head inside and look after the kids for me.”

Sylvia winked at Aunty Tonya as she said this.

Aunt Tonya swallowed her displeasure and proceeded to head into the room but not before shooting daggers at Tara.

Sylvia closed the door, then turned to Tara and Odell and said, "I was in the wrong. I’ll apologize to you both.”

Odell pursed his lips and considered her without a word.

Tara sniffed and looked at her with a benevolent gaze. "It’s alright. I won’t hold it against you seeing that we were best friends in the past.”

Then, she turned to Odell, “Let’s go, Odell. My face hurts so much that I think I need to go to the hospital."

Tears slowly streamed down her eyes as she said this.

Odell's demeanor that seemed to have softened a little suddenly turned solemn again.

"I'll take you to the hospital after I get justice for you." After he consoled Tara, he immediately turned to Sylvia and commanded, "Come downstairs with me.”

With that, he went to the living room downstairs while holding Tara close to his body.

The two were very intimate together.

Sylvia clenched her fists and fought the urge to cry as she followed them to the living room.

Odell sat on the sofa with Tara still in his arms. Then, he instructed the two bodyguards under his payroll, "Hold her down and give her sixty slaps.”

Sylvia's eyes widened.

She knew that he was going to exact revenge for Tara in some sort of way, but she never expected it to be in the form of sixty slaps!