For the sake of her childhood friend, Kelly threw me overseas for three years. I had just broken my leg, was penniless, couldn’t speak the language—I could only survive by scavenging through trash. I called her more than once, begging: “Kelly, I really can’t go on like this.” All she left me with was cold indifference: “If it weren’t for you, would Hudson have gotten hurt? Once you fix that spoiled rich boy attitude of yours, I’ll bring you home.” Winter was brutal. Just as I was about to die on a street covered in snow, a wealthy heiress named Summer bought me. It wasn’t until three years later, when Kelly and I ran into each other by chance, that she stopped me: “Yan, three years and you still haven’t fixed that entitled attitude!” I frowned, ignoring her words, and called Summer. “Honey, another woman’s trying to seduce me. When you come pick me up, bring bodyguards to teach her a lesson.” The moment I finished speaking, Kelly snatched my phone and hung up the call. “Yan, when will you ever drop this spoiled act? Now you’ve learned to lie too.” As her words fell, snow began drifting through the air. Meeting Kelly’s disappointed gaze, this scene instantly pulled me back three years. Kelly and I were young sweethearts who went from college straight into marriage. Everything went smoothly. The world envied and praised us—perfectly matched families, a golden couple. Kelly’s lifelong promise to me was: “Yan, you’re an heir to a fortune, I’m a socialite. We’re made for each other—no one can tear us apart.” Her devotion made me willingly give her everything—company shares, household authority, all of it. Three years into our marriage, she went to countless hospitals, determined to give me twin children through IVF, to give me a sense of family. But my perfect wife changed completely after Hudson appeared. Hudson was her childhood friend. I heard his family moved away after going bankrupt. When Kelly encountered him again, Hudson was being beaten by loan sharks—his wife had run off with another man. That familiar face from childhood, bruised and alone, sitting on the side of the road—he looked pitiful. Oh, the night they met, Kelly had gone out to buy me a cake. I’ve hated myself countless times for craving that damn cake. On that street, Hudson recognized Kelly first. Two simple words stirred Kelly’s childhood feelings. “Kelly.” So Kelly brought him home. I was waiting excitedly for that cake when I saw a dejected man standing behind Kelly. Kelly said: “Hudson, my childhood friend. He’ll be staying with us for a while.” This was the first time Kelly brought a man home, and the first time I completely lost it in front of her. I smashed everything in the villa that could be broken. A shard even cut Hudson’s face during my rampage. Kelly rushed Hudson to the hospital in a panic, ignoring me as I collapsed on the floor, my old injury flaring up, begging her. “Kelly, my leg hurts.” As Kelly helped Hudson out the door, she only threw back: “Yan, stop faking.” So I went to the hospital alone. When I arrived, after the examination, the doctor said if I’d come two minutes later, they might not have been able to save my leg. Then the doctor pulled out paperwork from Kelly’s recent IVF procedure. “Your wife is three months pregnant. Please take good care of her.” This joy washed away my anger. For the sake of the baby, I could overlook tonight. As I left the examination room, I happened to run into Kelly. “Temp, you’re pregnant.” Kelly was cold: “What’s there to be happy about? I owe Hudson my life. I need to repay him first.” I stood frozen. “Kelly, if you keep treating him like this, we’re getting divorced.” I thought my threat would work. Instead, Kelly slapped me and forced me to apologize to Hudson. “Yan, you’re so childish. Hudson is the one who’s hurt right now.” So this was how it felt when the woman you love compared you to another man. The pain was unbearable. I was forced to apologize. I went back to my family home. I thought Kelly would come to make up with me. But in the end, I couldn’t stand it and softened first, going back. I opened the door to find Hudson lying in the bed Kelly and I shared, wearing the lingerie shorts Kelly had given me. The sight burned my eyes. I lost it, completely lost it. I grabbed Hudson’s arm, dragging him out of the villa. But Hudson fell down the stairs. That fall landed him in the hospital. The doctor said he’d injured his head and might suffer brain death. It sounded like a death sentence for Hudson, but in reality, it was a life sentence for me from Kelly. Once again, she looked at me with utter disappointment. “Yan, you’re trying to kill someone. Do you understand that?” Kill someone? I wasn’t. I tried to explain—the villa’s staircase was only two stories, and Hudson had fallen on his own. Kelly wouldn’t listen. She just kept accusing me. “Someone as privileged as you could never understand Hudson’s suffering, never empathize with his struggles. In your entitled eyes, is Hudson’s life that worthless?” I had nothing to say. Faced with this version of Kelly who so blatantly favored and protected Hudson, I truly couldn’t speak a word. Silence and self-mockery were my final defenses. But Kelly pushed me. “Yan, when something happens, all you do is stay silent. And you dare to smirk?” “Let me tell you—yesterday, I accidentally fell down the stairs. Our baby is gone. This is your punishment for hurting Hudson.” The baby was gone. It felt like countless fine threads were woven through my entire skin, threatening to flay me alive. The pain was unbearable. I steadied my emotions and only said: “I understand.” But Kelly’s punishment wasn’t over. She sent me overseas. “When Hudson wakes up, that’s when you can come back. Fix that spoiled attitude of yours and reflect on what you’ve done.” The final result of this cold war was Kelly abandoning me in a foreign country where I knew no one, stripping me of all my money, even cutting off all my connections. Leaving me without hope, without anyone to help. She said it was for my own good. “Yan, only by personally experiencing how hard Hudson’s life was can you truly empathize.”
The snow abroad was heavy. On the first day, I could only spend the night at the airport, staring at the gates, hoping Kelly would come back to take me home. On the second day, security kicked me out. She couldn’t understand what I was saying, I couldn’t understand her—I didn’t even have any identification on me. On the third day, I grabbed a passerby’s leg, having completely lost my dignity. I begged them for money. They kicked me, but finding me too pitiful, threw down some cash before walking away. I clutched that money like it was my last hope. I ran to a payphone to call that number burned into my heart. The call was quickly answered. I thought I even heard Hudson’s voice. But all my attention was on getting home. “Kelly, bring me home.” Kelly’s voice sounded strange, her breathing rapid, her words broken and choppy. “Kelly, Kelly.” But Kelly only responded absently: “Mm, mm.” Thinking she’d heard me, I walked back to the airport. My feet blistered and bled, the flesh nearly fused to my shoe soles, my body long since numb from the cold. Waiting for Kelly to pick me up, my leg hurt more and more frequently. I remembered the doctor’s warning, so I used my last bit of bread money to call Kelly. The moment she answered, I heard her accusation. “Yan, can’t you endure any hardship at all?” I rushed to speak. “Kelly, if I delay any longer, they’ll have to amputate my leg.” But the call disconnected. I didn’t know if she’d heard me. I just felt pain, pain everywhere, pain so intense I couldn’t breathe, pain that made me cry out Kelly’s name over and over. If this had been before, she would have descended like an angel, rushed to my side, saved me from hell. This time, I fell into an endless abyss, struck down by darkness with no hope of rising again. After that call, I passed out. A kind stranger sent me to the hospital. The nurse brought a diagnosis showing my leg needed amputation and required a family member’s signature. Looking at that leg, tears fell. The nurse tried to comfort me. “If your family is willing to pay, the hospital does have a second treatment option.” “There’s no one. My wife is dead.” In that moment, I was surrounded by pitying, sympathetic gazes. The moment Kelly betrayed me was the moment she died in my heart. She died on the road when she went to buy me that cake. She died the night she personally sent me overseas. The only person I’d wronged was myself. Kelly was right—I was so used to living like a spoiled heir that I had no ability to protect myself. From that day on, I never called Kelly again. Occasionally, I’d receive calls from people around me saying Kelly was trying to reach me, but I refused them all. At this moment, Kelly spoke up again to accuse me. “Yan, can you please show some respect? I’m talking to you—can’t you hear me?” I pushed away Kelly’s slender wrist. “Three years ago, did you properly listen when I spoke to you?” If she had, I wouldn’t have been amputated. My nose stung. I stepped back twice and held up the diamond ring on my finger. “Kelly, I’m remarried.”
Kelly laughed dismissively: “Ha.” “Still the same old tricks. Aren’t you tired of this?” True, when Kelly and I were dating, I did often use the tactic of saying other girls were pursuing me or that I had backup options to stir up conflict and emotion in her. So it was normal she didn’t believe me. But I didn’t want to get tangled up with her anymore. I tried to leave, but Kelly blocked my path. “Fine, you say you’re remarried—I believe you. Yan, have you considered that we’re still not divorced?” I stared at Kelly, confused. Didn’t the divorce papers reach her a year ago? During these three years abroad, Summer had helped me file for divorce on the grounds of spouses being separated in different locations for two years. When the court notice came, it even had Kelly’s signature. Now, what did she mean by this? Hudson, who’d been silent nearby, showed a flash of panic in his eyes. “Kelly, Yan is just joking with you.” Hudson’s voice made me want to vomit: “Shut up.” Then I looked at his head: “Weren’t you supposed to be brain dead? Yet here you are, perfectly fine and disgusting people. Did Kelly resurrect you with some miracle cure?” My words made Hudson’s face turn white, then green. He could only turn to Kelly for help. “Kelly… didn’t you tell him I recovered?” Recovered. When did that happen? So even knowing Hudson had recovered, Kelly still sent me away. A wave of nausea suddenly hit me. Kelly grabbed my hand again: “Since we’ve run into each other, I’ll take you back home this time.” I tried to pull away but was dragged along anyway. “Let go. My wife will be here to pick me up soon.” Kelly’s eyes held teasing amusement: “Oh really? I’d like to see which blind woman dares to steal my man.” Before, I loved this side of her—the possessive sweet talk. Now, compared to Summer, Kelly was just a narcissist. Being forcibly brought to the car, Kelly said she’d come overseas to find the best rehabilitation hospital for Hudson. Domestic facilities couldn’t compare to foreign ones. Today happened to be the day she was supposed to sign a contract with the rehabilitation hospital. In the car, Hudson sat across from us, his eyes practically glued to Kelly. The chemistry between them made me sick. I was just afraid Summer wouldn’t be able to find me—she might lose control. Getting out of the car, I realized the rehabilitation hospital Kelly mentioned belonged to Summer. And today happened to be when Summer said she was coming here for some project signing. Kelly forcefully draped her arm over my shoulder as we walked in. People who knew me widened their eyes and began whispering to each other. “How is her husband, he involved with this woman?” “Quick, go report this to she.” Hudson lowered his voice and gloated beside me. “Yan, these three years you were gone, Kelly has been carrying my child. Even if you come back, you can’t take away her love for me.” I knew Kelly had betrayed me. My heart no longer rippled with emotion, because I saw Summer walking toward me in the distance.
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