“How to take care of my wife is my business, jos,” Joseph warned.


    jos sneered, “You can inquire about my wife’s life in Houston, so why can’t I inquire about Luzia’s life in Los Angeles? Our alliance is equal, Joseph, what you can do, I can do.”


    “Now I feel that Los Angeles can’t take care of Luzia, I want to bring her back to Houston for a few days of rest,” jos suggested.


    Vivian and Luzia both looked surprised at jos.


    “Impossible!” Joseph directly refused, “Luzia muste back with me to Los Angeles, she is my wife.”


    “You can also stay, once Luzia has recovered mentally, she can return to Los Angeles with you,” jos proposed a solution, while telling him, “You can choose to stay or leave, but Luzia must stay, she needs to go home to see her mother.”


    Joseph wasughed at by jos’manding manner, he was the kind of person who, once his face turned dark, became ferocious, and now he was beingughed at, his twisted smile looked even more terrifying.


    “Very well!” Joseph gritted his teeth, “I hope mypromise will be met with equal reciprocation.”


    Joseph looked at Vivian, his brown eyes radiating a cold light, he was warning Vivian, “My mother also misses her only daughter. I hope when we return to Los Angeles, I can bring Vivian back with us.”


    Joseph deliberately emphasized “mother”, and Vivian shivered; he knew Vivian had received his warning.


    Joseph was triumphant, he generously told jos, “Of course, if you have the time, Los Angeles also wees your visit, great Houston Capo.”


    “If Vivian is willing to go, I am naturally willing to apany her,” jos inwardly detested Joseph, but he wouldn’t show it on the surface, “I am just very curious, I heard that Mrs. Tasneem is recuperating in Europe?”


    “Father will naturally arrange everything for mother, no need to worry,” Joseph didn’t want to discuss this topic further, he dismissed jos, “Alright, you have guestsing.”


    Vivian also didn’t want to be alone with Joseph, she found an excuse to take Luzia and escape from Joseph’s line of sight.


    “You’ve grown a lot, Vivian,” Luzia sat in the corner of the sofa, looking at Vivian with a mixture of joy and envy in her eyes.


    Vivian brought her sweet fruit tea, with transparent ice cubes floating on top, supporting a small fan-shaped slice of lemon, “Have I changed for the better?”


    “Good, very good.” The ice-cold temperature of the fruit tea had condensed a fineyer of droplets on the surface of the ss, and when Luzia’s palm touched it, it became moist, “You’ve be brave and confident, no longer the little girl who cried and didn’t want to marry jos.”This content ? N?v/elDr(a)m/a.Org.


    “Seeing both you and jos doing so well, I’m relieved,” said Luzia.


    “You will also do well, Luzia,” Vivian firmly held Luzia’s hand, “No one understands your pain more than me, and no one wants you to break free from Joseph’s control more than I do.”


    “I am already his wife, there is nothing that can take me away from him,” Luzia shook her head, sounding desperate, “except death.”


    Except death.


    Luzia closed her eyes in agony.


    At the most painful times, when she was tied to the bed and whipped by Joseph, when he pressed her against the frosted ss door, manipting her in front of the bodyguards, Luzia thought of death.


    Los Angeles nights always seemed particrly long, so long that she often felt like she was walking back and forth between life and death, unable to end the cycle. asionally, when Joseph was away on a business trip and didn’t return to the apartment to sleep, she thought of death while lying in the bathtub, which could amodate two people.


    But as she raised and then lowered the razor de in her hand, she couldn’t bring herself to cut.


    She thought about swallowing sleeping pills, pouring a handful into her palm, mixing it with water and swallowing it, but it got stuck in her throat and she couldn’t swallow it. She rushed into the bathroom, scraping her throat and gagging, crying silently.


    At that moment, Luzia knew that she probably couldn’t die.


    No, even if she could die, she probably would only die at the hands of Joseph’s violence, under his body.


    This suffocating rity tormented Luzia, making her mentally dazed and haggard. She didn’t want to worry Vivian, so she deliberately dressed up, but she was still seen through by jos at a nce.


    “Vivian, life is so longLuziamented, burying her head on Vivian’s shoulder, “I’m only 23 years old.”


    Luzia’s distress brought tears to Vivian’s eyes; that phrase “except death” pierced Vivian’s heart like a sharp dagger, causing her to cringe in pain.


    The two embraced each other, hiding in a corner of the banquet hall, suppressing their painful sobs, but even as they wept, they only dared to cry softly, fearing to attract attention and disturb Yazmin’s birthday party.


    It wasn’t until their sobs became hoarse, the tissues dampened one after another, that the stifling, hair-raising cries gradually subsided, leaving only the quiet sobbing that couldn’t be stopped after the big cry.


    “Luzia, be strong, my dear,” Vivian wiped away her tears and offered the fruit tea again to Luzia, “Have some water to soothe your throat.”


    After crying, the relief of the pent-up emotions, Luzia’s spirits seemed much better. Blinking her eyes, dampened by tears, she lowered her head and took a sip of the fruit tea.


    The ice cubes in the fruit tea hadpletely melted, and the tea had been infected by room temperature, no longer cold, and had be a bit bitter upon drinking, but Luzia still drank half a cup, quenching her parched throat, finally feeling some relief.


    “Thank you, Vivian,” Luzia coughed, relieving her throat difort, “I’m okay now.”


    Vivian knew it was aforting statement.


    As long as Joseph was around, Luzia would never be okay.


    “I know these words may sound false, and saying ‘be strong’ is too easy, only the person going through it knows the weight of being ‘strong,''” Vivian stood up, brought back cake, hot dogs, and waffles from the food area, and ced the new fruit tea in front of Luzia, “But Luzia, we are all trying, and I ask you not to give up.”


    “Maybe I won’t be able to wait for that day toe,” the sweet cake barely saved Luzia’s spirits, “I hope I can.”


    “You definitely will,” Vivian said with certainty, “You know, you have always been my little sun in my heart, and I envy you.”


    “Me?”


    “Yes, you,” Vivian said sincerely, “Thank you for apanying me through that dark and confused time; your smile has shone on me like the sun. I once prayed to God, hoping that you could always be so happy.”


    “Will God hear it?”


    “He will,” Vivian said, “I am a devout believer, and God will bless us.”


    Moved, Luzia tugged at the corners of her mouth and smiled, with a little rxation.


    “Well, I believe you, Vivian.”


    Luzia was willing to entrust her trust to Vivian because she was her best friend.


    Even while in the hell of Los Angeles, Luzia always kept her good friend in her thoughts, hoping she was safe and happy.


    Now it seemed that she was indeed safe and happy.


    That was good.