Chapter 6 Seeing how stubborn and unyielding Xanthe remained , he waved his hand coldly . " Don't hold back , " he ordered the bodyguards . " Carry out the family punishment ." With every lash of the whip , the bodyguard asked her , " Ma'am , do you admit your mistake ? " One blow came after another . By the thirtieth lash , her dress was soaked with blood , but she still hadn't utter a single word . At the thirty - third lash , Xanthe could no longer endure it - she collapsed and fainted . That night , she developed a high fever that wouldn't go down . It wasn't until three days later that she finally woke to the sound of her phone ringing - it was Trevor . " I'm three hours away , " he said . Exhausted but determined , Xanthe forced herself to get up and start packing . But in the end , she only brought her ID . Just then , a call came in from someone at the company - it was Shelly , one of her former trainees . " Ms. Wentworth , " the young assistant said in an anxious tone , " when are you coming back ? President Connolly had Ms. Vasquez take over your position these past few days , and she's already messed up several deals ! " Her anxiousness came even more obvious as she went on to update her mentor . " Even SMR Group , who's been working with us for years , just terminated their contract . But it's like Presiden Connolly's possessed - he didn't blame her at all . In fact , when we brought it up , he blew up on us . " As she listened to the complaints , Xanthe suddenly remembered when she first joined the company as Barrington's secretary and made a mistake on a deal . He'd been so furious he didn ' speak to her for a whole week . But that felt like a lifetime ago . Now , she had no interest in looking back . In a calm tone , she replied , " Shelly , I have nothing to do with the company from now on . You don't need to report anything to me . " She had barely ended the call when the company's shareholders started phoning one after another . The moment she picked up , they unleashed their anger on her . " Xanthe , as President Connolly's secretary , it's your job to correct him when he's wrong ! What have you even been doing lately ? You haven't shown up to the office , and you let Vionnet - who clearly has no idea what she's doing - handle company affairs ? What kind of secretary are you ? " Those shareholders were always the same - spineless in front of the CEO and quick to take it out on her instead . Whenever something went wrong , they used her as their punching bag . Back when she still loved Barrington , she had taken all the blame without a word of protest . But now , she had no intention of playing nice . 12:39 pm D " You're all so dissatisfied with Barrington ? Then why don't you grow a spine and tell him to his face ? Pathetic cowards ! " she snapped . With that , she hung up . The truth was that the only reason things ever ran smoothly for Barrington was because she had been cleaning up his messes behind the scenes all these years . When the shareholders were upset , she stood in the line of fire . When the company lost deals , she went begging to her old folks to fix it . But she never told Barrington - she didn't want him to feel guilty . Now , she had let go of him completely - and she was taking back everything that was hers . From her bag , she pulled out her abortion records and locked them into the study's safe . Inside it were the divorce papers , her resignation letter , the abortion records , and the ashes of ninety - nine love letters . And one last thing - the villa's security footage . She copied the clip of Vionnet drugging herself , along with the recording of her revelations from three days ago , and saved it all to a flash drive . ' Hopefully , she thought , ' he'll appreciate this little divorce keepsake .' Downstairs , a car was already honking for her . At the same time , her phone buzzed nonstop with Barrington's messages . [ Xanthe , Vionnet messed up a few deals . I need you to handle it . I know you've always had issues with my relationship with her , but I'll explain everything to you tonight when we get home . ] When she didn't respond , the tone of his messages changed - from pleading to threatening . [ Damn it , Xantie , we're both adults . Stop being petty , can you ? Keep this up and your bonus next month gets cut in half . You'll apologize in front of the entire board . ] Looking at his messages , Xanthe let out a cold , mocking smile . Without letting him say one more thing , she blocked every number he used to contact her and deleted his information altogether . She scrubbed every trace of herself from the villa - completely , cleanly , without hesitation . Outside , beside a limited - edition Maybach , a guy stood in a perfectly tailored suit . Trevor held a faux but everlasting white tulip bouquet , the sunlight outlining his figure . He met her eyes . " Xanthe ," he muttered , " I've come to take you home . " 12:39 pm