After Husband Broke the Wishing Willow, He Regretted

All because his kept woman, Valerie Fox, said one line: The wife will never let me stay.

So my husband spent a fortune on the Wishing Willow, the charm that grants any wish, and snapped it in front of me.

Make Lena Henson love Valerie Fox the way I do.

Whatever Valerie asks of her, she'll do it gladly.

The wish came true. I moved out of the master bedroom on my own, slid my wedding ring onto Valerie's finger,

signed the divorce papers, and knelt in front of everyone to beg her to marry Ray Gilbert.

When she said I was an eyesore and told me to get lost, I threw myself down the stairs from the second floor without hesitation and broke both my legs.

Until the day Valerie touched my pregnant belly and joked,

"If the baby were gone, wouldn't Ray finally be free to marry me?"

That night, I swallowed a whole bottle of abortion pills.

The baby was gone. I hemorrhaged, and they took out my womb.

Ray Gilbert finally panicked. His eyes went bloodshot, and he wept as he demanded an answer.

"Lena Henson! I only wanted you to treat her a little better!"

"Who told you to kill our child over one joke?"

I said, calm, "As long as she's happy, nothing that happens to me matters."

Ray Gilbert finally regretted it.

He spent another fortune on a second Wishing Willow, swearing he'd send Valerie away and bring the real me back.

But that same night, Valerie snuck off to the offshore gambling ship, ran up a massive debt, and was held as collateral.

The men would only accept Ray Gilbert's wife boarding the ship in her place.

Ray held the willow branch and couldn't bring himself to snap it.

"Lena, one last time."

"Valerie's timid, she can't take that kind of abuse. Take her place for three days. The moment I have the ransom, I'll bring you straight home."

"Then I'll snap the branch and wake you, and spend the rest of my life making it up to you."

I smiled and nodded. "Okay."

But he didn't know.

Every time I hurt myself for Valerie's sake, the Wishing Willow drained away a piece of my lifespan.

The moment I boarded that ship no one comes back from,

the wish would be complete.

And I would vanish from this world entirely.

1.

The instant I heard him say it out loud, that he was going to send me onto the offshore gambling ship, the smile froze on my face.

My soul, held down by the Wishing Willow, clawed its way back to a brief moment of clarity.

I grabbed Ray Gilbert's hand and dropped to my knees, begging.

"Ray, don't send me there, I don't want to go!"

"I'm begging you!"

Three years ago, the Gilberts went bankrupt and owed a crushing debt.

The owner of that gambling ship brought men into the Gilbert house and dragged me off to cover it.

I was locked on that ship for a whole month.

They broke my ribs, drugged me, kept me caged, put me out like merchandise for men to pick over and amuse themselves with.

Ray Gilbert went half mad. To get me back,

he sold everything he could sell, even sold one of his kidneys, and bought me back in the shortest time he could.

The day he brought me off the ship, he knelt on the dock and held my hollow-eyed body and wept until his whole body shook.

"Lena, I'm sorry. This is the last time!"

"I swear, for the rest of my life I'll never let anyone hurt you again, never let you suffer even a little."

"Anyone who dares touch you, I'll fight them to the death."

But after that, he hurt me countless times, all for Valerie.

And now he wanted to send me back with his own hands.

I clutched his sleeve with everything I had, nearly on my knees before him.

"Let me go, I'm begging you."

"I won't make trouble anymore. Just don't send me back, and I'll do anything you want!"

Ray Gilbert's eyes went red at once.

He pulled me into his arms, his hold so tight I could barely breathe.

"Lena, I'm sorry, I was wrong"

His voice shook, his eyes full of pain for me.

I thought he still held on to what we'd been, that he'd give up sending me onto that ship in Valerie's place.

But the next moment, he choked out,

"But Valerie's still young."

"She's never been through anything like that. She won't survive it."

I went rigid in his arms.

Ray Gilbert cupped my face and looked at me, almost pleading.

"You've already been through it once. You know how to protect yourself."

"And you're stronger than her. You'll get through it, I know you will."

"Lena, I'm begging you, just take her place this one last time."

So the fact that I'd come off that ship alive had become the reason I should go back.

So because I'd been through the abuse, I deserved to be the one who could endure more than Valerie.

It felt like someone was tearing my heart apart with their bare hands.

"But you promised me"

I looked at him through tears.

"You swore. You swore you'd never let anyone hurt me again."

Ray Gilbert's eyes slid away, his hand clamped around the second Wishing Willow.

"This time is different."

"I'm not the Ray Gilbert from three years ago, the one with nothing."

"I've already worked it out with them ahead of time. You're only going to swap in for Valerie. They won't actually touch you."

"I've got people on the ship watching. The worst they'll do is frighten you. You won't be in danger."

He promised me over and over, as if trying to convince me, and himself.

"The second I have the ransom, I'll bring you home."

"Then I'll snap the branch right away and make you yourself again."

He kissed my forehead again and again.

"Truly the last time."

I wanted to shake my head, but the willow-leaf mark on my wrist suddenly burned.

Forced under the Wishing Willow's control, I let go of Ray Gilbert's sleeve,

gave a meek little smile, and said, "Okay, I'll go."

"Valerie can't get hurt. I have to love her, protect her."

It was exactly what he wanted, and yet Ray Gilbert's face went white.

"Lena"

The car from the gambling ship pulled up at the bottom of the steps.

I was about to get in when a violent surge of panic rose in Ray Gilbert's chest.

He suddenly regretted it and grabbed my hand on reflex. "Lena"

But a second later, Valerie's terrified sobbing came through his phone.

"Ray, I'm so scared"

Ray Gilbert's body stiffened, and slowly he let me go.

Red-eyed, he promised me over and over.

"Three days."

"No, one day!"

"Lena, you only have to hold on for one day."

"I'll sell the company and the house right now, get the ransom together, and bring you home."

"When you're back, I'll spend the rest of my life making it up to you."

I was still smiling that meek smile. "Okay."

But Ray Gilbert didn't know.

My life, from the moment I got into that car, had already begun its countdown.

Ray Gilbert told me to wait one day.

But I waited a full week on that gambling ship.

He never came.

Those men tore my clothes off, made me the prize on their gaming table, forced me to kneel and pour drinks for gamblers reeking of liquor.

Whoever won a round got to yank me by the hair and humiliate me however he pleased, filthy hands falling on me again and again.

The man in charge pressed his foot down on my hand and sneered.

"Still waiting for Ray Gilbert to come save you?"

"He never sold his company. He never planned to scrape together the money to buy you back."

"These past few days he's been at auctions with Miss Fox. One jewel bracelet cost him tens of millions, and now he's throwing a lavish wedding for her, sparing no expense."

The pain nearly tore my soul apart, but the Wishing Willow held my body in its grip.

My face was streaked with tears, yet my mouth kept its meek little smile as I said, over and over,

"It's all right."

"Whatever Valerie wants, Ray should give her."

"As long as she's happy, it's fine if I wait a few more days, suffer a little more."

The men froze for a beat, then laughed even harder.

"What a devoted wife Mrs. Gilbert is."

"Then we'll take you to see it with your own eyes, how Mr. Gilbert dotes on Miss Fox."

They dragged me into a car and brought me to a wedding.

When I saw everything laid out before me, I went rigid where I stood.

Ray Gilbert stood in a white morning suit, gold roses spread out behind him.

Those were the new variety he'd once had specially cultivated to propose to me.

He'd said gold never fades, and ninety-nine of them stood for love that lasts forever.

Now the roses that had once belonged only to me covered Valerie's wedding.

"Lena?"

Ray saw me and his face changed in an instant.

He left his guests standing there, rushed down the steps, and pulled me tight against him.

"How did you end up here?"

Before I could say a word, he was already scrambling to explain.

"Don't get the wrong idea, I can explain!"

"I promised to let Valerie go. I should at least grant her one last wish before we part."

"She only wanted to marry me. This wedding is just to keep her happy, it doesn't count for anything."

"The moment it's over, I'll sell the company and buy you back."

As if afraid I wouldn't believe him, he swore it again and again.

"I gave orders long ago. They wouldn't actually touch you."

"You're safe there. A little scare at most."

"Just hold on a few more days. I'll bring you home, I promise."

He kept swearing to my safety without a shred of shame.

Never once bending his head to look at the skin under my sleeves, already covered in bruised fingermarks and wounds.

I only smiled, meek as ever.

"Okay."

But Ray's whole body went stiff.

He let go of me, staring hard at my face, the guilt in his eyes slowly giving way to unease.

"Lena, why aren't you angry"

"Before, if she so much as touched me, you'd fight with me for days."

"Now I'm about to marry her, and you won't even curse at me?"

The man beside us suddenly let out a cold laugh.

"Mr. Gilbert, why put on this devoted act?"

"It's not your first time pulling something like this."

"Three years ago, when you had us grab Mrs. Gilbert and haul her onto the ship to cover a debt, wasn't that to keep Miss Fox happy too?"

Ray's face changed in an instant. His voice cracked out like a whip.

"Shut up!"

But the man ignored him and turned to me instead.

"Mrs. Gilbert, you still don't know, do you?"

"Three years ago, the Gilbert Group never went bankrupt at all."

My whole body went rigid.

The man grinned.

"When Miss Fox first started interning at the Gilberts, she brought coffee to Mr. Gilbert's office every single day. Twisting her ankle so she'd fall into his arms, working late into the night so he'd have to drive her home."

"All you did was remind her once, that a woman is better off relying on herself instead of always looking for shortcuts."

"She turned right around and went crying to Mr. Gilbert, asking who you thought you were, putting on airs and lecturing her."

The man mimicked Valerie's tone, sneering.

"Didn't Lena marry you back then because she'd sized up your talent and knew you'd make it big sooner or later?"

"She just got her hooks in earlier than me, picked out a promising stock ahead of time. What gives her the right to call it true love, and call me a gold digger for getting close to you?"

"If you really went bankrupt, left with nothing, she'd have run faster than anyone."

"So they made a bet."

"If you could truly rough it out with him, never leaving no matter how poor he got, then Miss Fox would do it with Mr. Gilbert against the floor-to-ceiling window of his office. Something bold, just once."

The man looked at Ray, smiling.

"To win that bet, and to please Miss Fox, Mr. Gilbert had us help him stage the whole bankruptcy act."

"Then he handed you over to the gambling ship himself, to see whether you'd abandon him."

I stared at Ray, dazed.

His face was ashen. The words rushed out of him.

"Lena, Valerie was young back then. She just wanted to prove something."

"I was only humoring her that one time. I never thought they would actually"

Something tore loose inside me, soul from body.

So that nightmare three years ago had been fake from beginning to end.

The man watched the color drain from my face and kept going.

"That whole month, whatever you went through each day, we reported it all to Mr. Gilbert."

"Beaten until you couldn't get up, and still you wouldn't sign the divorce papers."

"You said even if Ray went bankrupt, ended up crippled, never got back on his feet as long as he lived, you would never leave him."

"Mr. Gilbert was very moved."

"So he turned around and told Miss Fox what you'd said. That you loved him enough to throw your life away."

"If he was willing to use a wife who loved him that much just to coax her, what did she have left to be jealous over?"

"He wanted her to be sensible, to stay by his side with an easy mind."

So my crying and my despair that whole month had only ever been a toy for their flirting.

I wanted to cry. I wanted to ask him why.

But the Wishing Willow wouldn't let me blame him, and it certainly wouldn't let me hurt Valerie.

My soul slammed against this body in agony.

Even with my eyes flooded with tears of pain and despair, my face still held that twisted smile.

"It's all right."

I heard myself say it gently.

"Valerie just feels insecure."

"You wanted to prove you love her. I understand."

The color drained from Ray's face in a heartbeat. He stumbled toward me and pulled me tight against him.

"Lena, don't be like this. I'm scared"

He drew out the second Wishing Willow with shaking hands, his eyes full of regret and pain.

"I was wrong. I never should have turned you into this for Valerie's sake, and I never should have made you suffer in her place."

"I don't want you on that gambling ship anymore. I'll bring you back to yourself right now, even if you never forgive me once you wake."

The man from the ship let out a cold laugh.

"Since Mr. Gilbert regrets it, then we do this by the rules. Miss Fox comes back with us to pay the debt."

"When you've raised the money, come buy her back."

Ray's body went rigid, and his eyes went straight to Valerie.

Still in her wedding gown, Valerie rushed down from the platform and threw herself in front of me, crying.

"Ray, let them take me."

"You were willing to give me this wedding. That's enough for me."

Ray looked at her tear-streaked face, his eyes full of pain.

Valerie had taken only a single step when she suddenly clutched her stomach, her small face draining white as she fainted into his arms.

Ray's face changed in an instant. Everything else forgotten, he scooped her up and rushed out of the wedding.

The results came back quickly. Valerie was pregnant.

But when she woke, she pulled out the IV needle, weeping.

"Get rid of the baby."

"I'm going to be sent onto that ship any moment now. There's no way I can keep this child anyway."

She turned red-rimmed eyes toward me.

"When Lena was sent onto the ship three years ago, didn't she lose her first child too?"

Ray thought of the child of ours that had dissolved into blood.

A shudder ran through him, and he couldn't stop himself from holding her tighter.

He gripped that Wishing Willow branch until his knuckles whitened, his eyes torn.

Only moments ago he had wept and sworn he would bring me back to myself.

And now he wavered again.

For a long while he looked at me, red-eyed, his voice breaking.

"Lena, one last time. This is the only child I'll ever have! This child will be yours too, later!"

"For the baby, take her place for three more days. Please!"

"I'll sell the company right now. Within three days I'll have the money to buy you back, I swear."

As the words left him, the willow-leaf mark on my wrist withered completely.

It was the last request Ray had made of me through the Wishing Willow.

The request fully spoken, the lifespan it had drained from me dropped to zero.

The moment I got into that car bound for the ship, I would die.

I looked at him in despair, and the last spark in my eyes went out.

My body, under the Willow's control, walked obediently toward the men from the ship, and there was even a gentle smile on my face.

"All right."

"As long as Valerie and the baby are safe, I don't mind dying."

Ray's head dropped hard, and he didn't dare look at me again.

The car was just about to pull off when two old figures rushed in front of it and threw their bodies across its path.

"No!" My parents knelt in front of the car, clutching at the hood.

"Please, we're begging you, don't take Lena!"

"She's already been tortured to this. If she goes back she'll die!"

The men from the ship climbed out, annoyed, and set on them with fists and feet.

"Get out of the way!"

I watched my parents beaten to the ground, and the pain nearly tore my heart apart.

I wanted to throw myself out and shield them, but my body was locked tight by the Willow, and all I could do was sit in the car with tears in my eyes and a smile on my lips.

My father lifted his head, saw the state of me, and old tears spilled over at once.

"Lena, look at your father"

"How did you end up like this?"

Ray stepped forward to help him up, explaining in a rush.

"Dad, it's only temporary."

"Three more days and I'll buy Lena back, I'll bring her back to normal."

My father shoved him off hard and pointed at the Wishing Willow in his hand, roaring.

"Don't call me Dad!"

"Lena stood by you from nothing to all of this, lost two children for you, lost her womb! "

"She'd have given her life to save you and protect this family, and you kept a mistress behind her back, and used this evil thing to turn her into something that's neither human nor ghost!"

My mother crawled sobbing to the side of the car and grabbed my hand.

"Ray, she loves you so much. How could you bear to ruin her like this!"

My father wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth and lunged at Ray.

"Give me the Wishing Willow!"

"Even if it costs my life today, I'm getting my daughter back!"

Valerie immediately clung to Ray, crying.

"Ray, let him take it."

"It doesn't matter if I die, but the baby is your own flesh and blood."

"It hasn't even been born. It can't be sent onto that ship with me!"

On instinct Ray shielded the Wishing Willow and gave my father a hard shove.

My father staggered and fell, straight down under the wheel of the car.

The driver couldn't brake in time, and the wheel rolled right over him.

Blood burst from my father's mouth.

"Dad!"

The searing pain finally broke through the Willow's control.

Convulsing, I tumbled out of the car and crawled over to gather my father into my arms.

The men from the ship pressed impatiently.

"Mr. Gilbert, is she coming or not?"

"We'll count to three. If she isn't in the car, we take Miss Fox."

"Three."

Valerie's face was deathly pale as she held her stomach tight.

Ray looked at my father lying in the pool of blood, then at me sobbing until I shook, his face full of pain and regret.

"Lena, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to"

The men from the ship spoke again.

"Two."

Ray shut his eyes and gripped the Wishing Willow tight.

When he opened them, he still moved to stand in front of Valerie.

"Lena Henson, get in the car now. You have to protect Valerie and the baby!"

The Wishing Willow tore at my soul again.

My hands still held my father with everything I had,

but my body crawled toward the car door against my will, and I curled on the ground, wailing in agony.

Red-eyed, Ray lifted me off the ground and forced me toward the car, his voice so small it was almost pleading.

"Lena, I'm begging you, listen to me one last time."

"The moment you get in, I'll break the Wishing Willow."

"I swear I'll never see Valerie again, that I'll stay with only you, be good to only you!"

The light in my eyes had long since gone out.

All that was left was the last of my hatred and the one fixed thought of saving my father, and it gave me the strength to break free once more.

I pointed at my father in the pool of blood and said, one word at a time,

"Break the Wishing Willow now. Use it to save my father's life."

"The moment he lives, I'll get in the car."

Ray froze for an instant, then nodded at once.

"All right, I promise you!"

He snapped the Wishing Willow and made his wish in a hoarse cry.

"Save Lena Henson's father!"

The instant the willow branch broke, my father's faint breathing finally steadied.

The men from the ship called out the last number.

Ray, red-eyed, shoved me into the car and clung to the door, swearing.

"Lena, I'll sell the company right away, I'll pay any price to buy you back!"

"I swear, this life, I will never betray you again. I'll love only you!"

But before the words were even out,

blood surged up from my mouth, spattering his face and that snapped-off length of Wishing Willow.

My body crumpled hard into the seat,

and the last breath in me cut off completely, right there under his terrified eyes.