My wedding was just around the corner, yet I received an engagement invitation from my arch-nemesis. She had publicly posted on her social media: “Sera, you’ve hated me for so many years. Now that we’ve both found our own happiness, I hope we can finally put the past behind us at my party.” I politely declined. There was absolutely no way in hell I was ever reconciling with her. The people in our social circle immediately began trash-talking me on Snapchat while coddling her. “What do you expect? Is Seraphina Vance ever capable of being a decent human being? Did you forget how she tried to steal your boyfriend back in college? Honestly, it’s better if she doesn’t show up!” “Exactly! Anyone who associates with a snake like Sera is just waiting to have their man stolen.” Instead of getting angry, my nemesis even apologized to everyone on my behalf. “Sera, sweetie, both my fiancé and I really wanted your blessing. We just want to move past the drama.” With that, she handed me a physical invitation. The moment I opened it, my mind went completely blank. The groom’s name printed on the card… wasn’t that my freeloading fiancé? “Fine! Since you want me there so badly, I promise I won’t disappoint you!” 1 Looking at the smug, triumphant smirk on Chloe Sterling’s face, I turned and walked away without saying a word. But only I knew that the elegant invitation card in my hand was already crumpled to pieces under my grip. I drove home in a fury. When I walked through the door, I saw Ethan Hayes busy assembling our gold-embossed wedding invitations at the dining table. Hearing the door, he looked up. A warm, sweet smile immediately spread across his face. “You’re back, babe! Hungry? What do you want to eat? I’ll whip something up for you right now.” He was already standing up to head to the kitchen. My gaze drifted down, landing on the table cluttered with wedding favors. Our wedding was in three weeks. Honestly, we could have easily hired a coordinator to handle all of this. But Ethan had insisted. He said it was *our* wedding, and that doing everything ourselves made it meaningful. Yet, this exact man—who acted as if I was his entire world—was named as the groom on my arch-nemesis Chloe’s engagement invitation. Could there really be such a ridiculous coincidence in this world? I didn’t buy it for a second. Thinking of the invitation in my bag, I decided to test him. “Ethan, Chloe invited me to her engagement party. It’s the day after tomorrow. If you’re free, why don’t you come with me?” The very next second after the words left my mouth. His reaction was incredibly defensive. “I can’t. I’m busy.” Realizing his tone was too sharp under my suspicious gaze, he quickly tried to smooth it over. “I mean… Chloe has always targeted you. She definitely has a hidden agenda!” “Plus, I have a business trip that day, so I won’t be there to protect you. I really think you shouldn’t go.” He kept rambling, adding excuse after excuse. But if my memory served me right, this was the first time Ethan had ever directly opposed me. Usually, he was a total yes-man, always putting me and my wishes before everything else. The obvious truth stared me in the face, making my chest feel incredibly heavy, like a physical weight was crushing my lungs. After a long pause, I cut him off and quietly replied, “Okay.” The moment I said it, I distinctly saw Ethan let out a massive sigh of relief. On the day of the party, however, I showed up at the luxury hotel right on time, invitation in hand. Chloe was standing at the entrance of the grand ballroom, wearing a custom crimson designer gown. With her flawless, radiant makeup and a sweet smile, she welcomed every guest. She looked like the happiest woman in the entire world. It was just an engagement party, but I heard that almost the entire elite social circle of the city had showed up. Before I even got close, I could hear the loud, flattering voices of her friends. “Chloe, this engagement is so sudden! You’re going to break so many hearts today.” “I know, right? You’ve been so mysterious about the groom. Is he super handsome?” “Are you kidding? If he wasn’t gorgeous, our Chloe wouldn’t even look at him!” Surrounded by the crowd, Chloe blushed cutely. “You’ll see him soon.” Then, she turned her head and met my eyes. Her smile widened instantly. “Sera! You actually came. I thought you’d ignore my invite.” She looked genuinely thrilled to see me. But I knew exactly what kind of disgusting malice was hidden beneath that sweet, innocent mask. I had absolutely no interest in playing “best friends” with her. She didn’t seem to mind my coldness, still gracefully gesturing for me to head inside. However, the flock of mean girls surrounding her weren’t about to let me off. They immediately stepped forward and blocked my path. “Seraphina Vance! I’m warning you. Chloe was nice enough to invite you because she’s a saint, but don’t you dare ruin this for her.” “If you try to cause any drama today, we will make sure you regret it.” Hearing this, Chloe immediately feigned a worried look and stopped them. “Guys, don’t say that. Sera wouldn’t do that.” “Chloe! Have you forgotten how she tried to steal your boyfriend in college? She has a history of being a homewrecker. Who knows what she’s planning today?” “Exactly. Look at her, dressed up like she’s trying to seduce—” The girl suddenly stopped mid-sentence. Sensing something off, I followed her gaze and realized she was staring intently at my wrist. Then, she asked in a loud, shocked voice, “Wait, why is that bracelet on your wrist?” I frowned, not immediately catching her drift. I snapped back, “It’s on my wrist because it’s mine. Why else?” Chloe stepped closer to me, her eyes wide with shock and disbelief. “You… you’re lying. That bracelet belongs to my fiancé!” 2 The guests nearby began to gather around us, their curious eyes pinning me down. Whispers broke out in the crowd. “What’s going on over there?” Seeing the audience grow, Chloe’s friends raised their voices even louder. They sneered and pointed at me. “Seraphina Vance, you are truly disgusting. Do you have a pathological need to steal other people’s things and men?” “Actually, let me correct myself. Do you just have an obsession with stealing everything that belongs to Chloe?” They stared at me like they were interrogating a criminal. Standing in the center of the drama, Chloe’s eyes welled up with tears, looking like the ultimate victim. At first, I thought she threw this engagement party just to humiliate me by showing off that she had stolen my fiancé. But now I realized it was much worse. Chloe wanted to completely ruin my reputation and destroy my life. My eyes darkened as I watched her look at me with a deeply hurt expression. “Why, Sera? Why did I sincerely invite you to celebrate my happiness, only for you to do something like this?” “I don’t know how you managed to steal that bracelet, but if you hand it back right now, I promise I’ll pretend none of this ever happened.” The moment she finished, one of her loyal minions immediately barked, “Why should we let her off? If you ask me, we should call the police and have her arrested!” “Such a beautiful day, completely ruined by her presence. How pathetic!” I glanced at the two girls shouting the loudest. They were Chloe’s ultimate bootlickers. Everyone in the room was looking at me with absolute disgust. Thanks to Chloe’s years of rumors and manipulation, I had always been completely isolated in this social circle. This wasn’t my first time experiencing this kind of setup. I vividly remembered the first time she pulled this. We were in elementary school. Chloe accused me of stealing her favorite necklace. Back then, I was too young to do anything but cry and clumsily try to explain myself. But nobody, not even the teachers, believed a single word I said. As we grew older, her schemes got smarter. She plagiarized my essay, then turned around and told everyone I was the one who copied her. On the day I was scheduled to give a major presentation, she went into the system and deleted my entire slides deck. I couldn’t beat her at her dirty games, so I tried my best to just avoid her. But she was like a piece of cheap gum stuck to my shoe—no matter what I did, I couldn’t shake her off. Eventually, I gave up trying to fit in and stopped attending these social events altogether. Since she couldn’t frame me in person anymore, she started spreading rumors behind my back, painting me as a spoiled, arrogant, and tyrannical rich girl. I didn’t even notice when it happened, but suddenly, everyone started comparing me to her. They put her on a pedestal while dragging my name through the mud. The last major incident was the infamous “homewrecker” rumor from college. The absolute truth was that her boyfriend at the time had randomly blocked me in the hallway, confessing his love to me out of nowhere while saying a bunch of creepy things. I didn’t say a single word. I just rolled my eyes and walked away. Yet, the very next morning, photos of us standing in the hallway were plastered all over the campus forums. With Chloe fueling the fire, everyone began calling me a slut and slut-shaming me online. I didn’t bother to explain. First, because I couldn’t care less about what those idiots thought. Second, because I knew they wouldn’t believe me anyway. Though, after I slapped a few of those trolls with defamation lawsuits, everyone shut up pretty quickly. Coming back to reality, I heard someone snap at me. “Sera Vance, are you staying silent because you’re guilty?” I let out a cold, mocking laugh, looking straight at Chloe. “Since you guys are so confident that I stole this bracelet, go ahead. Call the cops.” Hearing this, the girl next to Chloe immediately unlocked her phone to dial 91
But just as she was about to press call, Chloe suddenly slapped the phone out of her hand, sending it clattering to the floor. 3 Chloe didn’t explain her actions to her friend. She just turned to me, looking incredibly distressed. “Sera, if the police actually arrest you, your reputation will be completely ruined.” “If you love this bracelet so much, I can just ask my fiancé to give it to you as a gift… but please, you can’t keep living your life stealing from others.” She spoke with such gentle concern, as if she actually cared about my future. I was so angry I almost laughed out loud. Reputation? Did I even have one left in this room? “You keep claiming this bracelet belongs to your fiancé. Do you have any actual proof?” I stared at her, curious to see how she’d lie her way out of this one. Without skipping a beat, she sobbed, “My fiancé wears this bracelet every single day. Since today is our engagement, I asked him to take it off so we could clean it. And suddenly, it magically appears on your wrist today of all days? Do you honestly think anyone believes that’s a coincidence?” “The truth is right here. I don’t even care about getting it back anymore, I just don’t want to see you ruin your life over your jealousy.” Looking at her playing the righteous, magnanimous saint, I chuckled softly. “Fine. Let’s wait until your fiancé gets here, and we can ask him ourselves how this bracelet ended up on my wrist.” This bracelet was indeed a gift from Ethan. But what Chloe didn’t know was that these were custom-made puzzle-lock couple’s bracelets. He had commissioned them specifically. The unique thing about these bracelets was that once they were locked onto your wrist, they couldn’t be taken off normally. The only way to unlock them was to bring both bracelets together, touching them for about ten seconds, and the magnetic lock would automatically release. And if I remembered correctly, when Ethan left the house this morning, his bracelet was still firmly locked on his wrist. Under my steady gaze, a flicker of panic flashed across Chloe’s eyes. So, despite her big talk, she wasn’t entirely confident either. I saw her mouth open, trying to say something to salvage the situation. But before she could speak, her angry minions lost their patience. One of them stepped forward and yelled: “Why are we wasting our breath on her? She’s just being stubborn. Let’s just rip it off her wrist!” “It’s not hers, period! Since her parents clearly didn’t teach her any manners, we’ll do it for them today!” With that shout, a few of the girls physically surrounded me. I was trapped and outnumbered. Within seconds, they grabbed my arms, pinning me down while trying to violently yank the bracelet off my wrist. But the bracelet was custom-sized to fit my wrist perfectly. Without the unique unlocking method, it was physically impossible to pull off. In no time, my skin was scraped raw and turning a painful, angry red. But they didn’t care about hurting me. They only cared about tearing the jewelry off. “Why is this stupid thing so tight? You bitch, what kind of trick did you use to lock this on?” “Just cooperate and you’ll suffer less!” Suddenly, a sharp pop echoed, followed by a searing flash of pain in my wrist. The intense pain brought tears to my eyes, and I began to struggle violently, trying to push them off me. With both of my hands pinned, I had no choice but to kick out blindly, trying to force them to let go. My foot connected with one of the girls in front of me. In response, they cursed loudly and shoved me hard onto the floor. My hair fell wildly over my face. My knees and elbows scraped against the hard floor, tearing the skin. I looked like an absolute mess. But nobody was looking at my injuries. Instead, everyone’s attention was drawn to my handbag, which had fallen and burst open when I was shoved down. The contents of my bag were scattered across the floor. Among the clutter, a few elegant, gold-embossed cards were glaringly obvious. “What is this?” “Why… why does this wedding invitation have your name and my fiancé’s name on it?!” Chloe rushed over and picked up one of the cards, her voice trembling with shock. 4 Those were the wedding invitations for my upcoming wedding with Ethan. I had kept a few in my bag to mail out later. Now, Chloe held them up for everyone to see. Her dramatic gasp drew the entire room closer. Everyone crowded around us. The girl standing next to Chloe snatched one of the cards and read the contents out loud so even the people in the back could hear. A terrible, sinking feeling settled deep in my stomach. But in my current state, I couldn’t physically fight them to get the cards back. I could only sit on the floor, forced to listen to her mockingly read the words while the crowd’s judging, disgusted stares rained down on me like daggers. “And here she was pretending she didn’t care about Chloe’s man! She literally printed fake wedding invitations! Sera Vance, are you seriously going to deny that you’re trying to steal Chloe’s fiancé now?” “Writing someone else’s fiancé’s name on your own wedding invitation… how desperate and sick do you have to be?” “If someone did this to my man, I’d throw up for three days straight.” “Sera, are you genuinely delusional? Do you seriously hallucinate that everything Chloe has belongs to you? Do you have no shame?” My standing in this circle was non-existent. Which was exactly why I had never planned on inviting any of these people to my wedding in the first place. Ethan had agreed, saying that our wedding should be about our happiness, not about showy rituals. We only wanted people who genuinely loved and supported us to be there. I never imagined that this beautiful sentiment would be twisted into proof of my “obsession” and “delusion.” They even started whispering that the engagement photos inside were probably photoshopped. They only believed what their warped minds wanted to believe. They only believed Chloe. Anything I said would just be white noise to them. To them, I was the ultimate villain. As the crowd’s insults grew louder, Chloe suddenly raised her hand. “Enough!” She wiped away a fake tear, looking incredibly brave as she looked down at me. “No matter what your sick goal is, Sera, you won’t break us apart. I trust my fiancé.” “He’ll be here any minute. Once he arrives, the truth will come to light.” Hearing Chloe’s absolute confidence. I didn’t need to be a genius to realize that she and Ethan had already hooked up behind my back. Simply put, Ethan was going to take her side. I was too exhausted to analyze how or why he betrayed me. The throbbing pain in my sprained wrist was getting unbearable. I was genuinely worried that if I didn’t go to the hospital soon, I’d end up with permanent nerve damage. I reached for my phone on the floor, intending to call the police. But before my finger could even touch the screen, a bucket of ice water was violently splashed all over me. My phone screen was instantly covered in water, making the touch screen completely unresponsive. I gasped from the freezing shock and looked up. One of Chloe’s close friends was standing over me, dropping an empty ice bucket onto the floor. She sneered down at me, suddenly pulling a small Swiss army knife out of her purse. “Are you awake now, Sera Vance?” “Since you’re awake, I think it’s time someone taught you a lesson on how to behave.” “Aside from your pretty face, you’re inferior to Chloe in every single way. You’re nothing but a cheap whore who uses her looks to seduce other women’s men.” She took a slow step toward me, playing with the small blade. “I’d be doing the world a favor by ruining that pretty little face of yours today!” Chloe was insane, and her friends were completely unhinged. No girl would ever be indifferent to having her face mutilated. I tried to scramble backward to escape, but my sprained wrist gave out, and I couldn’t get up. Chloe stood in the background, whining, “Guys, please don’t do this,” while simultaneously listing all my “crimes” to egg them on, ending with a hypocritical, “Aren’t we being too harsh on her?” She had absolutely no intention of stopping them. This was exactly the bloody show she wanted to see. Seeing the girl raise the knife, aiming it right at my face, I forced myself to sound cold and steady. “If you touch me, I promise you will spend the rest of your life in prison!” “Oh, please! Who are you trying to scare? I’d love to see how you’re going to make me regret this!” “Did you honestly think anyone in this room is going to help you?” But just as her words echoed through the room, the loud, aggressive roar of multiple luxury sports car engines sounded outside the venue. Everyone froze and turned toward the glass entrance. A fleet of black luxury sedans pulled up, and a tall, incredibly handsome man in a tailored suit stepped out, his face carved of pure ice. “What the hell is going on here?”
🌟 Continue the story here 👉🏻 📲 Download the “NovelMaster” app 🔍 search for “462015”, and watch the full series ✨! #NovelMaster
Leave a Reply