My fiancé, Derek Stone, deliberately pursued the girl who bullied me in middle school—Vivian Ford—to get revenge for me. He promised me: “After I punish her a hundred times, I’ll dump her immediately and marry you!” But when his punishment game ended, he brought Vivian home from the psychiatric hospital. Afterwards, he casually instructed me: “Vivian has a mental illness and doesn’t remember you anymore. She can’t handle any more stress, so I told her you’re our housekeeper. Also, she’s been having nightmares and needs me to sleep beside her, so you’ll be staying in the guest room from now on.” Everyone was waiting to see me humiliated, but I calmly accepted it all. Derek said with satisfaction: “You’re doing the right thing! Don’t worry, I’ll take care of you from now on.” Six months later, I dragged my luggage out, ready to leave. But Vivian urged me to stay, and Derek threw out a bank card: “Eight million dollars. Stay and take care of Vivian.” I didn’t take it. He didn’t know—this time, I was really leaving him.
“If the money’s not enough, I can add more. You can’t leave.” Meeting my reddened eyes, Derek said frantically: “Vivian’s pregnant again. She needs someone to make her nutritious meals.” His words made me laugh. I had been forcibly injected with large amounts of hormones by Vivian in the past, which damaged my reproductive system. He had promised me with tears in his eyes that he would make sure Vivian could never have children. Now, she was pregnant again. I only remembered that last time, when Vivian miscarried because I gave her the wrong medication, I was stripped naked and locked in the morgue for eight hours, developing severe hypothermia. Seeing that I didn’t respond and just kept walking, Derek tried to make me stay for the first time ever. “I know you don’t like bland food. After Vivian finishes eating, I can take you out to eat.” As soon as he finished speaking, Vivian in his arms suddenly curled up and clung to him. “Derek, my stomach hurts…” Derek’s expression instantly became frantic. He swept Vivian up in his arms and barked an order at me to call the family doctor. I obediently dialed the number. While he was taking care of Vivian, I turned to leave, but Derek grabbed my wrist and scolded me sharply: “Vivian’s in this condition and you still want to leave? How can you be so vicious?” Me, vicious? I laughed bitterly. “If I were vicious, I wouldn’t have called the doctor for her.” Next thing I knew, he yanked me down to my knees. “Apologize!” My knees slammed hard onto the marble floor, and my ankle twisted at a grotesque angle. I didn’t make a sound. “If you hadn’t been so difficult, insisting on leaving home, would Vivian’s stomach hurt? Don’t you owe her an apology?” I took a deep breath, thinking of the people abroad waiting for me to follow up on the project. I lowered my head. “I’m sorry…” Without changing my expression, I snapped my ankle back into place and asked softly: “Can I go now?” Staring at my severely swollen ankle, he threw me onto the sofa. “Your foot’s all swollen and you’re still causing trouble. If it weren’t for you, Vivian wouldn’t have become mentally ill. What’s the point of putting on this disgusting act?” The family doctor arrived quickly. After calming Vivian down, the doctor came over to examine my foot with a pitying look. “The ligaments are almost completely torn. Don’t put weight on it, try not to walk much, or it might develop into a fracture. I’ll prescribe you—” “Mmm…” Vivian let out a perfectly timed moan. Derek instantly exploded in rage, pointing at the doctor and cursing: “The pregnant woman isn’t treated yet, why are you bothering with her! It’s just a sprained ankle, she won’t die. If something happens to Vivian, how will you take responsibility?” Vivian wrapped herself around Derek’s waist. “I want some water.” Derek looked around, grabbed a pair of scissors from the medical kit, and hurled them at me. “What are you standing there for? Go get Vivian some water!” I wiped the blood trickling from my forehead into my eye and limped away. After Vivian drank the water and fell sweetly asleep, Derek finally spoke as if granting me a favor: “Treat your wound too, so you don’t scare Vivian when she wakes up.” When he turned around, he found I had already bandaged myself with gauze. Alcohol, ice packs, gauze—I kept these supplies on hand every day and had to restock them frequently. His eyes showed a moment of surprise. “I’ll take you to get scar removal treatment tomorrow. I won’t let you be disfigured.” I thanked him perfunctorily. Back in my room, I sent that person a message.
“Give me a few more days. Let me handle things here first.” He called me urgently: “Didn’t we agree on six months? Are you having second thoughts?” “No, there’s just some trouble. I need a little more time.” “The professor’s recommendation letter should arrive soon. Check for it and register your name at the branch office.” In the middle of the night, I woke up tormented by chest tightness and heart palpitations. I reached for the medication on my nightstand and swallowed it in one gulp. But the symptoms didn’t ease—they got worse. Nausea, a dull pain in my frontal lobe, wave after wave. Painful memories I had temporarily forgotten all came flooding back into my mind. I couldn’t help grabbing any sharp object nearby and scraping it hard across my skin. I didn’t sleep all night. At dawn, I discovered that the medication on my nightstand had been replaced with vitamins! Blood rushing through my body, I ignored the intense dizziness and charged straight into Derek’s master bedroom, grabbing him by the collar. “Derek, did she switch out my emergency antidepressants?” My finger pointed at Vivian in his arms. I was disheveled, like a madwoman. The next second, he covered my mouth and forcibly dragged me out of the bedroom. Once again thrown onto the cold floor, I couldn’t help but laugh bitterly. Laughing at myself for forgetting the pain once the wound healed. Last time, Vivian had secretly unfastened my climbing safety harness, causing me to fall from eight meters high. After I came out of the ICU, the man gently comforted Vivian, then turned to me with harsh words: “If you don’t have the ability, don’t do extreme sports anymore. Look how scared you made Vivian.” Seeing him carefully close the door, afraid of waking the person inside, I asked with some desperation: “Do you know what it’s like when depression attacks…” He cut me off. Without saying a word, he quickly pulled me to the living room. “I know you’re suffering. But if you just endure it, it’ll pass. If Vivian gets stimulated, she could suffer brain death!” “I drove her to mental illness for your sake. Can’t you show her a little more tolerance?” I sneered mockingly. “How else should I be tolerant? Wash my neck clean and hand her a knife to play with?” “You…” He glanced at the bedroom and issued a command like a favor: “I promise you, after she gives birth, we’ll get married. But in front of her, you have to keep playing the role of housekeeper and accommodate her in everything.” He looked at the time, assumed I had agreed, and went back to accompany Vivian without looking back. I opened my phone and asked the doctor for another bottle of medication. “Has your condition gotten worse? You need to manage your emotions. Don’t let it develop into severe depression.” I comforted the doctor instead, not telling him why I was going through the medication so fast. It was late morning when Vivian finally woke up moaning. “Derek, my chest feels tight…” Derek panicked instantly, holding her tightly to comfort her. When the doctor said the cause was accidentally taking antidepressant medication, his eyes darkened with unclear emotions. “Derek, I just thought the things Elena ate in front of me looked delicious. I didn’t mean to…”
I sat to the side, indifferent, remotely replying to my project partners’ questions. My phone was suddenly knocked to the ground. The screen cracked from one corner and completely shattered. Last time my phone cracked in one corner, he said he’d take me to get it fixed. He never kept that promise. “Don’t you know to hide such dangerous medication when you take it? Are you happy now that Vivian took it by mistake?” I was stunned by the scolding. My phone kept vibrating. “Who’s messaging you?” Derek was furious. Without even looking, he stomped on it and crushed it completely. The vibrations stopped. I said nothing, just knelt down numbly and picked up the glass shards with my bare hands. I stood up, looked him straight in the eye, and decisively shoved the glass pieces into Derek’s mouth. I had no computer. All the data I had just been transferring hadn’t been backed up. Everything was destroyed in Derek’s hands. He was shocked and suspicious, using both hands to pull the glass from his mouth. “What are you doing, you psycho!” I was as calm as a real psycho. “Just demonstrating what a psychotic mental state looks like.” Meeting my eyes, he hesitated for a moment. “Mmm…” Vivian whimpered and began crying softly. Derek instantly rushed to her, picked her up, and ran toward the hospital. With tweezers, I picked out the glass shards from my palms one by one, then went out to buy a new phone. When I returned to the villa, Derek was sitting on the sofa with a dark expression, holding a recommendation letter in his hand. “You’re joining Azure Lotus?” Before I could answer, he tapped the recommendation letter on the coffee table. “Give this recommendation letter to Vivian.” I thought I had misheard and asked in disbelief: “Give it to her? You expect a mentally ill girl with no knowledge to go to Azure Lotus?” As soon as the words left my mouth, he slapped my left cheek numb. It swelled up high. From the corner of my eye, I could see his right hand was also trembling slightly. “I caused her to be delayed two years in graduation. Her career has been struggling ever since. I looked into it—it’s just a nominal position. You can help her with the work she can’t complete.” I pressed my tongue against my swollen cheek with a half-smile. How come when I was forced to drop out of high school and go abroad, no one thought to compensate me? “Fine, you give it to her.” With that, I walked past him, sat on the sofa, and started booking a plane ticket. The second before my phone was snatched away, I locked the screen. “What have you been doing lately?” I was used to his inconsistent controlling behavior. “If you want to know, just open the phone and look, won’t you?” But even when the phone showed it was locked, he never opened it. The password had always been my birthday. I had repeated it countless times. He never remembered it. I snatched it back. “Let me tell you how long it’s been. It was yesterday.” I didn’t know if he felt even a moment of guilt in his heart. I only saw him flee in panic. Tonight’s dinner was made by a hired housekeeper, all sweet dishes. I frowned and picked at a few bites. A piece of mango cake was pushed in front of me. “Not to your taste?” I casually tossed it in the trash. His expression turned ugly. “How can Elena waste food?” Vivian immediately squatted down, trying to dig through the trash can for something, but Derek stopped her in time. I was dazed, remembering when Vivian had forced my head into a bathroom trash can to search for a necklace with my mouth. “Stop being unreasonable!” Derek’s angry shout pulled me back to reality. The dishes in front of me trembled from the force. “Derek, I can’t eat high-sugar foods. And I’m allergic to mangoes.” The man’s rage immediately died down. He stared at the mango cake in the trash, lost in thought.
“Hiss~” Vivian’s hand was somehow cut by something sharp in the trash can. Derek’s mind went blank. He only cared about her wound. “Derek, I remember you said you’d take me to the beauty salon for scar removal. How about tomorrow?” Vivian’s eyes immediately filled with tears: “But you promised to help me water the flowers…” Derek’s expression showed difficulty. I said calmly: “I’ll go by myself.” The next day, as soon as I left the villa, I called my friend abroad. “Today’s the day. Contact them and send a car to pick me up at the airport directly.” I chose a spot without surveillance cameras to wait for the car, not wanting Derek to know my whereabouts. But within minutes, I was surrounded by a group of people. “Elena, the beautiful girl returns home and doesn’t even tell us old classmates?” These were the people who had bullied me alongside Vivian back then. Seeing them, my blood froze. Discomfort instantly swept through my entire body. With a thread of rationality, I reached for my medication, but just before it reached my mouth, someone nearby snatched it away. “I heard people with severe depression will kill themselves? We’ve never seen that before!” I was surrounded until I couldn’t see a ray of sunlight. I curled up in agony. But someone grabbed the hair on the back of my head tightly, forcing me to display my anguished expression before their eyes. “There are no cameras here. Even if we played you to death, no one would know.” In the chaos, someone pulled my hair, someone slapped me, someone tore at my clothes, and camera flashes blinded me. “Stop it!” Everyone uniformly released me. I saw Vivian pick up my dust-covered medication from the ground and shove it into my mouth. “Why did you save me?” Vivian showed me that all-too-familiar smile, like a coiled venomous snake. Only then did I realize—everyone had been fooled. She never had a mental illness at all. “Naturally because I’m afraid you’ll die.” “I can only be this unrestrained because of Derek’s guilt. But if you died, how would I know who he feels more guilty toward?” “I want you to live consciously and watch how I toy with you.” She helped me up and straightened my clothes and hair. Before I could react, she grabbed my hand and leaned backward provocatively. “Vivian!” Derek finally found the “lost” Vivian and rushed straight to her, completely ignoring my disheveled state. “They were bullying Elena. I helped her, but she tried to hit me. My stomach hurts so much…” Derek swept her up in his arms, kissing away the tears at the corners of her eyes tenderly. He turned his head and glared coldly at me. “Ungrateful! They should have beaten you to death!” I stood there thunderstruck. The successive mental shocks left me somewhat dazed. Watching the car drive away, leaving me alone, I ignored the people watching and laughing behind me and limped away. Two hours later, carrying only my passport, I got out of the car at the airport. Before the plane took off, I received a message from Derek: [Vivian’s at her prenatal checkup. Come over and get examined too. Give her a proper apology.]
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