I had been with Lucas Sterling for five years when the massive earthquake hit, forcing him to make a life-or-death choice. He didn’t even look at my crushed leg. Instead, he frantically dug through the rubble to save his childhood sweetheart, Chloe, who had only suffered a few scratches. He tossed me a bank card. “There’s five million in here. Enough for your amputation and a comfortable life.” “Don’t contact me again. She’s sensitive. Seeing someone disabled like you would give her nightmares.” I didn’t cry or make a scene. I just watched him carry her away without a backward glance, running toward the medical team. I stayed there alone, surviving through the aftershocks. I had to saw off my own leg to stay alive. A year later, I got fitted with a prosthetic and ran into Lucas at a charity gala. He grabbed me desperately, his voice trembling. “Aria, you’re alive? I only saved her first because I thought her injuries were worse.” He said it was unavoidable and asked if I could give him another chance. I smiled and pulled my hand away. “Bad timing. I’m already married, and I just found out I’m pregnant with twins.”
Lucas tossed that bank card onto my dust-covered chest as the aftershock subsided. Around us, steel and concrete groaned, punctuated by distant cries of anguish. My right leg was pinned under a massive concrete slab, mangled and bloody, already numb beyond feeling. “The password is your birthday.” Lucas didn’t even bend down. He held Chloe Bennett in his arms as she trembled. Chloe’s face had a layer of scraped skin with a few droplets of blood seeping through. “Lucas, I’m scared. We need to go. This place is going to collapse again.” Chloe buried her head in the crook of his neck, her voice soft and shaky. Lucas immediately tightened his arms around her, looking at me with nothing but impatience and disgust. “Did you hear that, Aria? Five million. That’s the settlement for our five years.” “That’s enough to get the amputation at the best hospital, get a decent prosthetic, and live comfortably in some small town.” I gasped for breath. My lungs felt like they’d inhaled glass shards; each breath tasted of blood. I looked at this man I’d loved for five years. He usually kept his face cold, showing warmth only when he was with me. I thought that was love. It turned out it was just because Chloe had gone abroad, and he needed a docile substitute. Now that the real deal was back and facing a life-or-death test, I—the substitute—had become a burden. “Are you sure you want to leave? With my leg like this, I might not last until the rescue team arrives.” My voice came out hoarse. I tried to sound calm. Lucas frowned slightly, as if weighing something. Chloe sobbed at just the right moment. “Lucas, that slab looks like it’s moving again…” Lucas’s expression changed. He gave me one final look. “If you’re lucky, you’ll survive. If not, it’s fate.” “Chloe is sensitive. Seeing you all bloody will give her nightmares. Don’t come near us again.” With that, he carried Chloe away, stepping over the rubble without looking back, running toward the flickering rescue lights in the distance. That retreating figure was resolute, without a trace of hesitation. I lay there in the cold pile of broken stones, clutching that blood-stained bank card in my hand. How ironic. Five years of love, one leg—traded for five million. Lucas probably thought he got the short end of the deal. I thought I came out ahead. After all, seeing a bastard’s true colors—that’s what the price bought me. I don’t know how long passed before I heard voices from above. “There’s a survivor here! Badly pinned!” “Stretcher! Now!” A beam of light hit my face. It was too bright to open my eyes. I forced the corners of my mouth into a smile and said to the blurry figures, “Thank you. I’m not dead yet.” Before I lost consciousness, I heard someone say, “The leg can’t be saved. We need to amputate immediately.” That’s fine. Broken things—whether legs or men—should be cut away cleanly.
I woke up in a makeshift field hospital tent. The anesthesia had worn off. Where my right leg had been was now empty, yet it transmitted bone-deep phantom pain. A nurse was changing my bandages. When she saw I was awake, her eyes reddened. “You’re so strong. You didn’t make a sound during the entire surgery.” I wanted to smile, but my facial muscles were too stiff. It wasn’t strength. My heart had died, so I couldn’t feel the pain. A man on the bed next to me sighed and handed me an orange. “You’re alive. That’s what matters.” I took the orange, peeled it, and put a segment in my mouth. It was so sour that tears streamed down my face. I pulled out my phone. The signal was spotty. Opening social media, I found it flooded with news about the earthquake. The top trending topic read: [Lucas Sterling’s Deep Love in Earthquake Ruins, Never Abandoning His Love Through Life and Death] The accompanying image was a blurry photo. Against a dim background, Lucas held Chloe protectively, his eyes anxious yet affectionate. The comments section was full of praise: [Oh my god, this is true love! You see real feelings in life-or-death moments!] [I want a boyfriend like this too. He makes you feel so safe.] [Adversity reveals true character. Their love is so moving.] I also found one comment that didn’t fit: [Am I the only one who remembers that Lucas had a girlfriend for five years? Where is she?] Someone immediately replied below: [Oh, her? I heard she ran away to save herself. Nothing like our Chloe, who got injured because she stayed with Lucas.] [That kind of woman deserves to be dumped. Good riddance.] I closed my phone, my stomach churning. Ran away to save myself? Chloe’s skill at twisting the truth must have been honed during those five years abroad. It was Chloe who insisted on dragging Lucas to vacation in this area. When the earthquake hit, I was the one who pushed Lucas into the load-bearing wall’s triangular safe zone, which is why I got crushed. Now I’d become the heartless woman who abandoned her lover. Impressive. I looked at my empty pant leg. That last bit of sadness in my heart evaporated, replaced by a cold feeling. Lucas Sterling. Chloe Bennett. We’d settle this account slowly. A month later, I transferred back to the city hospital. Five million, plus my original savings, was enough to hire the best care and stay in the best private room. The doctor said I was recovering well and could prepare to be fitted with a prosthetic leg. Rehabilitation was a long process. During the adjustment period, my residual limb was rubbed raw and bloody by the prosthetic. Every step felt like dancing on knife points. But I didn’t cry. Compared to the despair of being buried alive in the rubble, this pain was nothing. That day, I was practicing walking with crutches in the hospital garden. A young man sat on a bench with his right arm in a cast, hanging in a sling around his neck. He was furiously typing into his phone. “I’m not going! My arm is broken, and he still wants me to go through with an arranged marriage?” “Broken means broken! Even with a broken arm, I’m still handsome!” “I don’t care about the family business. I just want to race. I just want to have fun!” He threw his phone onto the grass. Huffing angrily, he looked up and met my eyes. A ridiculously handsome, arrogant face crashed into my view. Caught staring at him, he froze for a moment, then his ears turned a bit red. “What are you looking at? Never seen a handsome guy lose his temper?” His tone was aggressive, like an agitated husky.
The next day, I saw that husky again. The nurse said he was the heir to the Prescott family fortune—Ryan Prescott. Another unlucky soul. During the earthquake, he’d volunteered for rescue work and got his arm crushed by falling rocks. He’d been laid up in the hospital for a month. His family kept pressuring him to come home and take over the business, but he insisted on pursuing extreme sports and was currently staging a rebellion. This plot sounded familiar. I ignored him and continued practicing my walking. But Ryan turned out to be a social butterfly—or more accurately, just too bored. He picked up my crutch and practiced a few moves with it like he knew what he was doing. “Hey, how did you lose your leg?” He pointed at my leg. If anyone else had asked like that, I’d have swung my crutch at them. But his eyes were clear and curious, without a trace of malice or pity. “Earthquake. Got crushed,” I said flatly. “What a coincidence—I also got injured in the earthquake.” He pointed at his arm. “But I was going in to save people. You were the one being saved, right?” “Yeah, I guess so.” I didn’t elaborate. “Well, your prosthetic looks pretty cool. Like the Terminator.” He squatted down, studying my carbon fiber prosthetic with great interest. He made me laugh. “What good is cool when I can’t even run?” “Who says you can’t run? Once my arm heals, I’ll take you racing. You don’t need legs to drift.” Ryan patted his chest in promise, pulling at his injury and grimacing in pain. Just like that, we inexplicably became hospital buddies. He was talkative and loved to complain. Every day he found new ways to tell me jokes or curse out his rigid older brother. With him around, the tedious days of rehabilitation weren’t quite so unbearable. Just when I thought things would continue peacefully like this, certain people had to come looking for trouble. I went to the mall to buy shoes. Because my right foot was prosthetic, I only tried on the left shoe. The sales associate was very considerate, helping me find a pair of soft flats. I’d just put one on when a familiar voice came from behind me. “Lucas, do you think those shoes look good? But won’t flats make my legs look short?” My movements froze. In the mirror, I saw two figures reflected. Lucas Sterling wore a custom-tailored suit, still looking every bit the polished gentleman. Chloe Bennett clung to his arm, wearing a white dress. Enemies on a narrow road. I didn’t want to deal with them. I stood up to go pay. Chloe had sharp eyes. She spotted me immediately. “Isn’t that Aria?” She covered her mouth dramatically. Her gaze fell on my prosthetic leg, a flash of satisfaction in her eyes, though her face showed exaggerated shock. “Oh my god, your leg… you really amputated it? How terrifying. You look like a robot.” She shrank into Lucas’s embrace, her body trembling. Lucas’s gaze swept over my leg, his brow instantly furrowing into a knot. “Aria, didn’t I tell you not to come near us?” “Chloe is sensitive. The way you look—are you deliberately trying to scare her?” I laughed at the absurdity. Did he own this mall? I turned around, looking coldly at this pair of bastards.
“That’s a fresh take. The earth doesn’t revolve around you two, you know. I came to buy shoes. How exactly am I scaring your fragile little princess?” “And stop with the ‘scare her’ talk. She looks pretty healthy to me—out shopping and everything. Wasn’t she at death’s door back in the rubble?” Chloe’s face went pale. Tears came on cue. “Aria, I know you resent Lucas for saving me first, but the situation was urgent at the time… Can’t you stop being so aggressive?” People around us started whispering and pointing. “Why is that woman acting like this? The other one already apologized.” “Exactly. Being disabled is pitiful, but that doesn’t mean she can guilt-trip people.” Lucas listened to the surrounding discussion, standing even straighter. He pulled out a card from his wallet and tossed it on the counter. “I’ll buy every shoe in this store. Except for the one on her foot. Aria, take your cheap shoe and get out. Stop being an eyesore.” The card spun twice on the counter with a crisp sound. Just like that other card. I clenched my fists, nails digging into my palms. That pain was nothing compared to the cold feeling in my heart. This was the man I’d loved for five years. To save him, I’d not only sacrificed a leg but nearly my life. Now, to please his beauty, he wanted to strip away my dignity in front of everyone and trample it underfoot. The sales associate looked uncertain, glancing between me and Lucas. “Sir, there is a first-come, first-served policy. This lady was indeed here first…” “Shut up. Swipe the card.” Lucas didn’t even lift his eyelids. “I want every shoe in this store. Except the one on her foot.” Chloe put on a fake show of persuasion beside him. “Lucas, don’t be so harsh. Aria is physically disabled now, so she must be emotionally sensitive and fragile.” “These shoes are cheap and poorly made—beneath our status—but they’re probably the best she can afford.” As she spoke, she took half a step back, disdainfully covering her nose and mouth with her hand. Her gaze lingered for a second on my prosthetic leg. “After all, life isn’t easy for disabled people. Wearing cheap stuff is normal for them. Let’s not fight with her. She’s quite pitiful.” More and more onlookers gathered. Lucas listened to this and snorted. “Did you hear that? Chloe is kindhearted. She’s giving you charity.” I took a deep breath. Hold back? With people like this, showing restraint only makes them think you’re weak and easy to bully. I reached out and grabbed that unwanted flat. Since he loved throwing money around so much, I’d give him a taste of his own medicine—right in his precious face. My hand had just lifted, before I could follow through. A large hand wrapped in bandages suddenly intercepted, pressing down on that black card on the counter. Then a lazy voice rang out, carrying three parts amusement and seven parts provocation. “Well, well, if it isn’t Mr. Sterling. Showing off your money again to prove your existence?”
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