THE DIVORCE GAMBIT From Dumped Wife to CEO's Forever novel Chapter 869

No one could fathom the elation surging through Dowager Vance. She and her daughter had been locked away in this hole for four days. Four whole days.

She had no idea how she'd made it through. Throughout her life, aside from the grief of losing her son, she had known nothing but comfort and ease. She had never endured a moment of true hardship.

But these four days in the dark room had been a lifetime of suffering condensed into one horrific experience. The food was slop fit for pigs. The floor was her bed. She didn't even have clean water.

On the first day, she had been on the verge of dying from despair. She refused to eat or drink, her pride forbidding her from touching the disgusting filth they offered.

But by the second day, after her stomach had digested its last remnants of food, she couldn't hold out any longer. Humiliated and nauseated, she forced herself to eat the moldy scraps the guard had brought. It wasn't just the hunger. The room was so dark you couldn't see your hand in front of your face. Even when she was awake, rats and cockroaches were constant companions.

Every waking moment of these four days had been consumed by a desperate desire to escape. And now, finally, a glimmer of hope.

Rosemary was just as ecstatic. Four days! She had finally been granted a reprieve. She scrambled up from the floor and grabbed her mother's hand, tears of joy streaming down her face. "Mother, this is wonderful! It must be someone from the royal family coming to save us!"

The Vance family were benefactors to the crown, after all. If they hadn't provided that crucial intelligence all those years ago, would the royal family be thriving as it was today?

Dowager Vance nodded in agreement. Yes. It had to be the royals.

At that thought, a venomous look flashed in her eyes. "Once we're out of here, I'm going to make that little bitch Freya pay!"

The excitement on their faces vanished instantly, and their hearts plummeted.

Rosemary demanded, "If you're not releasing us, why did you let us out of the dark room?"

"A big shot wants to see you," the guard said, his eyes filled with disgust. "Now follow me."

It was true what they said. People really were different. Caitlin had been locked in that same room for a long time, yet she had emerged looking completely unfazed. But look at this mother and daughter duo. Their eyes were vacant, faces covered in cuts, clothes stained with blood. They were a pathetic sight. It was easy to imagine the miserable time they'd had these past few days.