A/N: This is a roller-coaster ride. I'm warning you.

>If you give up on early chapters, you'll miss out the plot twistssss. It's up to you. (05/08/22)

English is not my mother language. 10/19/21

* * * * * *

Oily skin? Check.

Chapped lips? Check.

Dry hair? Very check.

This is me now. Natalia Yushkova. After being married for three freaking years, my marriage slowly ripped apart.

Having the name of Yushkova attached to yours can make you into another whole person. Everything must be precise or much better--- perfect. All eyes are on you waiting for you to make mistake and be taunt countless of times.

It all happened to me. And I cannot recall how many times. Thanks for my two-faced bestfriend that has been ALWAYS there for me whenever something funny happens.

Oh yes. Always.

Even inside our own home. We are currently residing at the Yushkova mansion. We never separated from my husband's parents. Never got to design our own bedroom, never got to do shopping for our curtains and never got to choose a paint for our own wall.

Every move inside the house was being monitored. Heck, even our honeymoon was not even special and sacred.

As I've said, my best friend, Ariel Zippi who's been with me through good and worst times, was and will always be compared to me.

My mother-in-law, Victoria, would deliberately state at the whole family gatherings how she wish she has a daughter-in-law like Ariel. To the point she invited her to have a long term vacation at the Yushkova manor. Very considerate.

I know!

Being only a twenty-three year old housewife is not much of a great honor for me anymore. Most of the time, I am deprived of going out with my friends and seeing my own family.

I have wasted my married life being the perfect wife I could never be for my husband, Devon and a perfect in-law his family could ever dreamed of.

My husband keeps himself busy at the business empire his father, Euro, founded. I only see him every midnight and when my alarm hits six o'clock in the morning, he's already gone for work. He never defended me once and well, that's how life is unfair to me.

As for the rest of his family, they treated me like a wall flower. Only necessary on gatherings such as tonight as well as in the moments of bantering.

Later, we're having a celebration for our good-for-nothing wedding anniversary.

Enough of this pretentious blissful household. This is one of few times that I will see my family.

Oh how much I've missed them.

Victoria sent a team of make up and fashion guru inside the master's bedroom to make sure I will be presentable in everyone's eyes. The experts looked at me from head to toe and their eyes expressed a shock tone.

I'm not a ghost.

You see, my skin is now pale white and my once toned body was reduced to a fragile looking one. I lost my sense of fashion and no one taught or criticized me about it.

"Natalia. So nice to see you. It's been few years since your wedding day." The fashion expert, Ziv, uttered.

I didn't answer but gave him a peck on his cheeks in return to the same gesture he initiated.

"Where are those clothes that I've pledged to give you every month?" He questioned me unhappily as he scanned me circling my body.

Really? Hmm. Now I know where Ariel brought 'her' collectible custom made clothes from.

"I've given it to a really close friend of mine. You know me, I don't want to repeat clothes. Forgive me?" I replied shrugging my shoulders and walked gracefully to my dresser.

"Of course gem." Ziv answered. He was one of those few persons that I trust. He once told me that he knows what a true gem is when he sees one. He even called Ariel a barbie and a leech to which he earned a scolding from me back on the day of my wedding.

He really do know what he says.

Milda, the make up artist and also an elite in the industry, had done a great job on moisturizing my skin before caking me up and made my skin glow with no effort.

"Many thanks to you two." I said from the bottom of my heart as I scanned myself on the mirror after three hours of beautification. There's no more trace of a haggard looking housewife. A glowing and fierce woman has resurfaced instead.

"Ziv, as promised, I will give you three of my sketch designs." I uttered to the man.

"Are you serious?! Give me! Give them to me!" He panicked in a good way and raised up his two hands to received from me.

I walked towards my wardrobe chuckling and opened my vault. And there it is. My handmade folder full of sketches of clothes and jewelries. I have piles of it since it's only once a year that Ziv and I can converse and get together. The Yushkovas tapped my mobile phone and put tracker into it. Same goes with my laptop.

Ziv made an 'N' clothing line bearing my designs that I have gifted him back in the days of me being a maiden.

"Thank you for these my gem. My competitors will salivate again with these creations. Do not worry, the profit of N line is secured on your personal account under your maiden name." He winked at me.

"I know I can trust you my friend." I uttered grinning.

A secret. I earned millions from those sketches. I said to Ziv that I only need a portion of the gains but he gave me eighty percent instead. He said I deserved it as Ziv treated me as his consultant and that his name will be at the peak once my designs materialized. Which it did. He's now a worldwide respected fashion guru and creator.

"Milda, as for you, a set of limited artist-designed jewelry by yours truly." I gave her a simple black box containing the trinkets. I owned a jewelry shop from my unmarried days---The Belle Shop. I have my dummy owner and CEO, Trish Vene, to take over the business before I got married.

Why? Because the Yushkova family drafted a prenuptial agreement to the distate of Zimmer household, my family. So as to appeased my parents, I was forced to let go of my wealthy aspirations in life to protect what's mine and give a face to my family. Which I never regretted and I'm thankful for everyday.

Seeing both of my friends joyful and satisfied, I've made my way to the party.

As I descend, I was thinking of the last straw that ruined my daydreams of having a future loving family. It was when my unborn child died. My angel was just two months old, I believe, when I miscarriaged.

At first, I didn't know that I was pregnant. Only my mother-in-law and bestfriend knew my real situation. I was naive to believed that I was sick and should take medications which harmed my angel on the process. Two years after, one of the maidservants told me of my real condition but was too late.

She secretly brought the supposed-to-be-thrown ultrasound result from the hands of Victoria and proved that I was with an unborn child.

Later that day, I cursed myself from being innocent from those things and let myself be a victim of those two vile women.

From that day on, I wailed at unimaginable agony and saw the world in black and white.

Deedee, the maid that confessed to me, served me faithfully from that day onwards. She's been my eyes and ears inside the mansion with no reward of bonus in return because she felt guilty at what happened to me.

I've waited so long for this moment. The moment when I can be free of this narcissistic household. My patient tank has been empty for several months. I cannot take a little bit of mockery from them anymore. I've been a good wife and a person.

I can no longer be.

Wearing my Ziv tailored black evening gown adorned with my own limited edition of jewelry and a three-inch stiletto, I've graced the grand stairs of the Yushkova mansion looking for my husband.

"Now, where is that cheater?"