Author: Momo Chan

My boyfriend had depression. His medication and therapy sessions cost thousands of dollars every month. To pay for his treatment, I worked day and night, juggling freelance illustration commissions and running food deliveries. My friends all warned me to be careful of working myself to death. Until one day, I snagged a lucrative delivery run to a high-end gated community. I respectfully handed the premium, $2,500 Japanese takeout order to the customer with both hands. When I looked up, I saw my boyfriend—who was supposed to be at his therapy session—standing in the doorway, looking at me in utter shock. 01 “Shouldn’t you be at the clinic, Arthur Sterling?” I looked at the elegantly and luxuriously decorated mansion, my left hand gripping the takeout box so tightly it hurt. Even though it was 100 degrees outside, I was trembling as if I had plunged into an ice bath. I had only ever seen places like this in TV shows. “I’m sorry, Chloe, listen to me. Dr. Liu had an emergency this afternoon…” “I’m just hanging out at a friend’s house.” Faced with this sudden exposure, Arthur lost his composure and tugged at my sleeve. It was his go-to move when apologizing. It always worked, but not this time. I coldly swatted his hand away. I couldn’t name the designer brand of the custom shirt he was wearing, but ironically, it fit his aura of a wealthy heir far better than the basic clothes he usually wore. I lowered my eyes, pulled out my phone, and opened the appointment app for Green City Hospital. Seeing that Dr. Liu in the psychology department still had available slots today, I lost all interest in exposing his lie. Taking a deep breath, I cleared my head and forced a calm, steady voice: “Arthur, are you having fun?” “Pretending to be a down-and-out, depressed, poor kid around me, acting like you can’t even afford a bubble tea… when in reality, you’re a rich kid who drops $2,500 on a single meal!” My lips trembled. I glared resentfully at the man in front of me, not even realizing my eyes had filled with tears. “You really… played me for an absolute fool…” “Two thousand five hundred dollars! I’d have to complete over six thousand delivery runs. That’s two months of work…” The most ridiculous part was that the only app left open in the background of my phone… was the message I had sent Arthur half an hour ago. I told him I was treating us to an extra dish tonight, planning to make his favorite lotus root soup. Because the customer in this wealthy neighborhood was very generous, leaving a $15 tip. I just never imagined that the tip came from Arthur himself. 02 Arthur would always hold me late at night and say that in this world, my love was the only thing he would never question. Even his parents’ love for him wasn’t as pure as mine. Those whispers once made me rejoice that in a world where true feelings are rare, I was one of the lucky ones. Looking back now, I realized no one else would be stupid enough to brave the risk of heatstroke for a measly dollar hot-weather bonus, just to scrape together his medical expenses for the month a little faster. “I haven’t slept more than five hours a night in so long. I dream about you recovering a day sooner.” “You know this better than anyone, don’t you?” My questioning voice gradually choked with emotion. Arthur’s previously calm expression cracked, and he nodded, his eyes rimmed with red. In that cramped, rundown, one-bedroom apartment, where it took half an hour just to walk to the subway station… He watched me exhaust myself, watched me pinch every penny. Watched me struggle, desperately paying for his fake “slumming it” game, all to treat this fabricated depression. He acted like a god the entire time, watching coldly from the sidelines. “I’ll transfer some money to your bank account as compensation.” “I’m sorry for doing this to you.” Arthur lowered his head slightly, guilt and a trace of helplessness in his eyes. Realizing he couldn’t talk his way out of it, he simply gave up. With stiff fingers, I pulled out the crumpled receipt from my pocket. It was a foot and a half long, filled entirely with premium cuts of meat. I crumpled it into a ball and threw it at him with all my might. Arthur didn’t dodge; his expression was a mix of sorrow and remorse. The cool air from inside brought a touch of relief. Amidst the chirping of cicadas, footsteps approached from nearby. Followed by a woman’s coquettish voice: “Arthur, is the food here yet? I’m starving to death!” 03 Arthur and I broke our standoff, his expression changing slightly. When we both turned, we saw a young woman walking toward us wearing a lace slip dress. Arthur panicked and stepped forward to stop her: “Why did you come out? I’m coming right back in. Be a good girl, go back inside.” But the girl seemed determined to see what was going on. She bypassed Arthur, looked at me with a smile, her almond eyes revealing a hint of familiarity and disdain. “Is this…” Silence. Seeing our mutual silence, the corners of her mouth curved up. She then naturally hooked her arm through Arthur’s and pulled the dusty pink, slightly sheer slip dress down a bit. The red marks on her neck and the curves beneath the fabric were on full display. She leaned against Arthur softly, as if she had no bones. The man’s anxious gaze fell on me. I turned my head away in despair and closed my eyes briefly. My sweat-soaked hair clung stickily to my face, and my temples throbbed with a dull ache. Even if I were dense, I knew exactly what had happened here. I originally thought I was just the unlucky victim in a rich kid’s poverty simulation. Now, it seemed I was also the spicy seasoning in his love story. Just pure, unadulterated bad luck. I didn’t want to stay any longer. I turned around, packed up my delivery box, and prepared to leave. But the girl suddenly called out to me: “Wait, are you the slum girlfriend Arthur plays with outside of school?” “I didn’t recognize you in that delivery uniform. Are you Chloe Price from the College of Liberal Arts?” 04 I stopped and turned back to look at her. Half a minute later, I finally confirmed it. She was Mia, a senior one year ahead of me—the girl with an excellent background and looks, surrounded by admirers like stars around the moon. But we had history. Because she pulled strings to steal my financial aid grant for someone else, I never sucked up to her like everyone else did. Seeing my dark, unnatural expression, Mia tightened her grip on Arthur’s arm. She put on an act of delightful surprise and spoke in a sugary voice: “Arthur, I didn’t expect this! Last year, I casually complained to you about an annoying, pretentiously aloof junior…” “And after asking a few questions, you actually went and messed with Chloe for me! I admire your methods, so brilliant…” Mia looked up, glared at me, and continued: “So brilliant that you played the great talent of our college, Chloe Price, like a dog running in circles.” My hands, hanging by my sides, slowly clenched into fists. The cool air from the house blew on me, but I felt no relief or comfort. To these people, the future, emotions, money, and sweat of ordinary people were like an eyesore of weeds by the side of the road. Not only did they ignore it, but they also had to trample it underfoot and spit on it. Mia leaned in and kissed Arthur’s cheek, like a reward for making a fool of me, and shot me a provocative look. Then, as if remembering something, her expression turned strange and frantic. She asked: “Junior Chloe, did Arthur tell you he had depression?” I frowned, not denying it. The woman in front of me doubled over in laughter. But the words coming out of her mouth made my blood run cold. “That’s because I told Arthur that your younger brother committed suicide because of depression.” “As long as Arthur said he had depression, a brainless fool like you would definitely fall for it.” “And sure enough.” 05 As soon as her words fell, the air stagnated for a moment, leaving only the sound of cicadas. My mind exploded, losing all rationality. I bit my lower lip hard, took off my delivery helmet, gripped it tightly, and smashed it frantically at Arthur. If I swallowed this insult, I might as well go open a steamed bun shop tomorrow. My chest heaving violently, I screamed: “Depression, huh?! Playing poor, huh?! Love poking at people’s trauma, huh?!” “You deserve to have parents who don’t love an animal like you! You deserve to watch your dad beat your mom! Why didn’t he beat you to death too?!” “I’ll fucking beat you to death for your dad right now!” During the year Arthur and I were together, whether he was acting or feeling genuine emotion, we had shared our vulnerabilities. So I knew perfectly well that what he could never let go of was his parents’ coldness and neglect, which left him completely deprived of familial love since childhood. And right now, that became my weapon to verbally attack and curse him. Before they could react, I smashed the helmet into Arthur’s face again and again. Driven by pure rage, I gasped for air. Long-term lack of sleep made my head start to spin. The moment Mia mentioned my brother, Leo Price, the rationality I had maintained all afternoon crumbled instantly. He was my absolute boundary, the one person no one was allowed to touch. Until Mia pulled me away, Arthur didn’t fight back once. He covered his mouth, his hands covered in blood. “Are you okay, Arthur?! I’m calling the police right now!” “This crazy bitch has a death wish, daring to hit you?! I’ll have my dad…” Mia’s angry voice cracked with tears, but Arthur grabbed her hand and shook his head: “Don’t. Don’t.” “It’s… what I owe her.” He smoothed his hair, which I had messed up, stood up, and walked over to me. He pulled a gold card from his pocket and handed it to me: “The PIN is your birthday. I know things can’t be undone, but… anyway, I’m sorry.” I let out a cold laugh, looking at him with eyes full of nothing but ice and hatred. “Die early.” I forcefully snatched the gold card from his fingers, dropped that sentence, and turned to leave. 06 There was $110,000 on the card. I asked the delivery company boss for my final pay and quit my job. The 250-square-foot studio apartment was so small you could see from one end to the other in a single glance. Back then, Arthur and I moved out of the dorms because he said his physical symptoms of depression were getting worse and he wanted me to be with him every day. Originally, I wasn’t without my defenses against Arthur, who had barged recklessly into my life. But seeing him suffer from the same illness as my brother ultimately softened my heart and clouded my judgment. For a while, I couldn’t even distinguish whether my feelings for him were mostly love, or an urgent desire to make amends born from my infinite guilt toward my brother. I just crazily, obsessively wanted to help Arthur cure his depression. It was as if doing so would lighten the nightmare I couldn’t escape. Speaking of which, we didn’t accumulate a lot of things over the year. But the couple’s items we bought in pairs were glaringly painful to look at, so I just threw them all in the trash. Listening to the hum of the old air conditioner, I stared at the ceiling, slowly detaching from my relentless labor, and fell into a deep sleep. In my dream, I couldn’t count how many times I had dreamed of Leo in the bathtub. He lay bloodless in the crimson liquid, his entire body as pale as a porcelain doll, without warmth, without breath. The pill bottle had fallen by his limp fingertips. His closed, long eyelashes curved exactly as they did when he dozed off waiting for me to finish studying day after day. Only this time, he would never open his eyes again. He would never rub his sleepy eyes and ask when his sister was going to bed. On his phone, he had cleared his chat history with everyone, leaving only one final message for me: “Sister, I’m sorry,” and a transfer of $500. That was all the money he had left. The spring colors were vibrant that year when Leo, the golden boy, left in the best season. And I was trapped in that spring forever. 07 The rustling of a plastic bag behind the door jolted me awake. A man wearing a black dress shirt was crouching by the trash can, sneakily digging for something. “Who’s there?” The man froze, then slowly turned around. It was Arthur. He was still wearing a mask, and there were several bandages on his face. I rubbed my aching forehead, forgetting he still had a key to the apartment. The couple rings, mugs, watches, and souvenirs I had thrown in the trash that afternoon had all been fished out by him and neatly lined up on the floor. “Why are you taking these?” Arthur lowered his eyes at my words, hiding his emotions. “I came to pack a few last things to take with me.” “They’re all worthless junk. Young Master Sterling actually wants them?” Sitting up in bed, I took the opportunity to look around to see if there was anything else important. Since things had come to this, I planned to move back to the dorms and terminate the lease here. Arthur held the cheap silver couple ring in his hand, his thumb gently rubbing it. His voice was lonely and low: “Chloe, I know you don’t believe me, but I really mean it. I truly only trust you…” “No one has ever loved me so purely and genuinely. I don’t want to lose you.” I waved my hand, lowered my head, and scoffed. The scene from that afternoon replayed mockingly in my mind. “Mean what? Did you love me so much you specially had me deliver the post-coital meal? Should I thank you for that?” “I can explain what happened with Mia! Nothing has ever happened between us. Getting together was just something I agreed to casually back then.” “And I wanted to break it off with her a long time ago. I’ve already realized the person I truly love is…” “There’s no point in discussing this anymore.” I cut him off coldly, my eyes indifferent. Water dripped into the bucket in the bathroom. The knee-high faucet leaked year-round, and to save on the water bill, I always kept a plastic bucket underneath it. The money saved was just a few pennies. Talking about sincere love now was laughable. The moment the scam was exposed, regardless of whether his feelings were genuine, an uncrossable chasm had already formed between us. “Actually, Arthur, when you used my brother’s tragedy to get close to me, did you ever think that karma would come back to hit you one day?” “What do you mean?” I didn’t answer. I just frowned, opened the door, and gestured for him to leave. Seeing my resolute expression, a flash of hurt crossed his eyes. He then shoved the items lined up on the floor into his bag all at once and stood up. “Stop pretending to have depression.” “Because for every person like you in this world, the stigma surrounding depression gets worse, and the people who actually suffer find it harder to get help.” And the number of people like Leo Price would increase by one. After a long pause, the man in front of me slowly nodded. Then Arthur pulled a bag of ribs and lotus root from behind the door. He had seen my message about the extra dish. “Can you make lotus root soup for me one last time?” “No. Your family’s chef will make it much better.” “I only like the way you make it.” “Chloe, why can’t you just trust me one more time? Give me another chance?” His voice was already choked with tears. I never expected that Arthur, having reclaimed his high-and-mighty status as the prince of Green City, would show such a pleading expression. At this moment, nothing fit the script of his poverty simulation anymore. Regardless of the truth in his words, I remained unmoved and silent. He understood I was refusing. He wanted to grab my hand but eventually let his arm drop. Before walking out the door, Arthur’s eyes were red as he looked back at me. “Do you still love me?” “No.” “Can you love me again?” “No.” 08 After Arthur left, I started packing up the miscellaneous items in the apartment. Preparing to move back to school next week. Packing until the early hours of the morning, I slumped onto the sofa, my gaze falling on a box in the corner of the closet. It was locked. It contained the belongings my brother, Leo, left behind. We were twins. After our parents divorced, they started their own families. We were like the high-cost mistakes of our parents’ youth—no one wanted to foot the bill, and no one wanted to look back. So, from middle school onwards, Leo and I had to rely on each other to survive on minimum child support. Thinking of this made my heart ache unbearably. I gripped a jewelry box tightly in my hand. This was the birthday present Leo gave me the year he left—a hexagram necklace encrusted with small diamonds. He smiled radiantly when he gave it to me, personally fastening it around my neck. “Sister, this is the necklace I bought with my own money! Do you like it? It looks so beautiful on you, better than on a model!” “Even though this one isn’t expensive, I will work hard to put all the most beautiful gems in the world on my sister!” The teenage boy’s eyes were sincere. I poked his single dimple and nodded happily. Leo, I believed you, so I’ve been waiting. Underneath the foam insert of the jewelry box, something rattled when I shook it. I picked it up and found a key. When Leo gave it to me the year before last, this key wasn’t there. He must have put it in later. I took it out, thought for a moment, and my gaze fell on the chipped box in the corner. The lock clicked open. There were only four items inside. An oil painting full of withered sunflowers, an album by his favorite band, “Word and Wine,” a diary, and a piece of paper with an account name and password written on it. My eyes landed on the black diary. I picked it up and placed it on my lap. I started reading from the beginning. The earlier entries were just daily trivia and which girl at school had confessed to him that day. It was only natural. Leo was handsome and fair, with charming peach-blossom eyes, yet he carried an aloof, aristocratic aura. Since we were young, I had accepted many love letters and snacks on his behalf. But perhaps because we were both abandoned at a young age, despite receiving so much admiration, he remained sensitive and delicate, which was why he developed the habit of keeping a diary. After entering A University, Leo, with his naturally gifted voice, quickly became the lead singer of the school band. At every performance, there were fangirls screaming for him. As I delved deeper into the memories, my finger paused on a page. Because Mia’s name had suddenly appeared in the diary. And from then on, she appeared more and more frequently.

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After the car crash, my adoptive brother thought I had amnesia. To get rid of me, he pointed at his best friend, Liam Sterling, and played a cruel joke. “This is your boyfriend.” In my past life, I immediately exposed my adoptive brother’s lie and continued to cling to him desperately. My reward? A miserable death in a secret, heavily guarded psychiatric facility where he locked me away. Three years after my death, a severely depressed Liam Sterling slit his wrists at my grave. When I opened my eyes again, I was back on the day of the car crash. This time, I walked straight past my brother, opened my arms to Liam, and said, “Husband, hug me.” My adoptive brother accidentally crushed the porcelain mug in his hand. And the man standing in front of me? His eyes instantly turned red as his hoarse voice wrapped around me, pulling me into a desperate embrace. “Okay.” 1 The sharp, sterile scent of bleach stung my nose in the hospital room. My adoptive brother, Caleb Foster, and his best friend, Liam Sterling, stood side by side in front of my bed. I shook my pounding head. For a moment, my mind went blank, the scene before me feeling entirely surreal. “Where am I? Who am I?” Caleb, assuming the crash had wiped my memory, eagerly seized the opportunity. He pointed at the man next to him, a mocking glint in his eyes. “You are my sister, Chloe Foster. And this is your boyfriend, Liam Sterling.” I looked at Liam in absolute shock. The man’s sharp, handsome features were cast downward, tinged with a deep, quiet loneliness. He deliberately avoided my gaze, yet his eyes kept darting back to me, lingering with a heavy, unspoken restraint. He looked exactly as he had in my previous life. 2 In my past life, I had harbored a bitter, one-sided obsession with my adoptive brother for years, clinging to him until he couldn’t stand it anymore. When the car crash happened, he thought I had amnesia. To finally shake me off, he lied and said Liam was my boyfriend. Truthfully, when I first woke up, my memory was a bit fuzzy. But it all came rushing back very quickly. Faced with Caleb’s cruel prank, I didn’t think much of it at the time. Instead, out of pure stubbornness, I immediately exposed his lie, desperate to prove my mind was perfectly intact. I had timidly tugged at Caleb’s designer shirt, my eyes welling with tears. “Caleb, I don’t have amnesia. I’m not lying.” Unable to deal with my crying, Caleb had stiffened but pulled me into a hug. Just like he had done every time I cried over the past five years. “I’m sorry, Chloe. I made a mistake.” Overjoyed, I tossed the whole incident to the back of my mind. I went right back to orbiting around Caleb like a desperate satellite. Ever since I was sixteen, I realized my feelings for my adoptive brother had crossed a line. Whenever he brought a new girlfriend home, I would deliberately sabotage the relationship. Psychology books call it toxic possessiveness. I didn’t care. Caleb tacitly allowed all my outrageous behavior. Many times, when I drove those girls away, he was the one secretly pulling the strings behind the scenes. He indulged my tantrums and allowed my relentless pursuit. Once, blackout drunk, I threw my arms around Caleb and kissed him. He didn’t push me away. Instead, his body went rigid, and he let me take whatever I wanted from his lips. Back then, I foolishly believed that meant Caleb loved me too. But I ignored the most critical detail: he never actually admitted to having feelings for me. I kissed him for what felt like an eternity, until he suddenly snapped out of it, violently shoving me away and ordering me to get the hell out. Caleb had touched his swollen lips, a twisted, mocking smile forming on his face. “Chloe, how could you be in love with your own brother? You’re a sick freak.” I snapped awake as if a bucket of ice water had been dumped over my head. My entire body went numb. “I’m not. I didn’t mean to…” My weak defense trailed off. His voice rose sharply, dripping with interrogation. “You don’t have feelings for me? Really?” The sheer disgust in his eyes carved my heart to pieces. I couldn’t answer. Deep down, I did love Caleb. I was an orphan adopted from the foster system. He was the only person in the entire world who treated me well. How could I not fall for him? As if peering right into my darkest secret, Caleb’s disgust deepened. “Sick freaks like you belong locked up in a psychiatric ward for some serious rehabilitation.” 3 My thoughts snapped back to the present. I stared in bewilderment at Caleb, who was currently smirking at me. He met my gaze, making no effort to hide the amusement in his eyes. In a split second, goosebumps erupted all over my arms. An uncontrollable shiver racked my spine. I dug my fingernails hard into my palms, using the sharp pain to keep my sanity tethered. I looked him dead in the eye and enunciated every word clearly. “I understand, Caleb.” In this life, I refused to have any ties with him ever again. Everything between us ended the moment I died a miserable death in my past life. My days in that private psychiatric facility had been a living hell. Caleb visited me exactly once every two weeks. Unable to endure the daily beatings and electroshock “therapies,” I begged him on my knees to let me out. I had screamed until my throat bled, “Caleb, I was wrong! I don’t love you anymore! I swear!” But every time, Caleb simply looked down at me with cold, indifferent eyes, his voice devoid of any human emotion. “Chloe, it seems your illness is acting up again.” The moment he left, the agonizing torture would resume. I tried to contact anyone I knew, praying they would rescue me. But Caleb was thorough. He wiped my existence from the map. Not a single message ever made it out. Within six months, the abuse finally killed me. But after I died, Caleb lost his mind. He clung to my lifeless body and refused to let go. He said he regretted it. He said he loved me. He cried hysterically, repeating over and over how terrified and conflicted he had been. Falling in love with his adopted sister meant the elite circles of high society would look at him with disgust. My soul had stood right beside him, watching the whole pathetic display with icy detachment. I only felt nauseous. Even now, looking at Caleb triggered a physiological need to vomit. So, I shifted my gaze to Liam Sterling. I opened my arms wide, fighting back my tears, and put on my sweetest, most fragile voice. “Husband, hug me.” 4 Crash! The sound of shattering porcelain echoed sharply in the quiet hospital room. I glanced over. Caleb’s palm was sliced open, blood mixing with the hot coffee from the mug he just crushed, dripping onto the pristine floor. Disgusting. He stood frozen, all the mocking amusement wiped from his face. Replacing it was a storm of pure, unadulterated fury. But I didn’t care about him right now. All my attention was focused on Liam. The moment the word “Husband” left my lips, Liam’s eyes flushed a deep, rimmed red. His entire body went rigid as he looked up at me in utter shock. Disbelief and overwhelming emotion warred in his eyes, eventually settling into a profound, trembling vulnerability. His lips parted, his voice incredibly hoarse. He closed the distance between us in two rapid strides and pulled me tightly into his chest, burying his face in my neck. “Okay.” Caleb clenched his bleeding fist, the blood flowing faster. He coughed pointedly and raised his injured left hand, shoving it right into my line of sight. The metallic smell of blood made me wrinkle my nose. Liam smoothly shifted his body, pulling me to the side and wrapping his long trench coat around my shoulders to shield me. I peeked out from his chest, only for a large, warm hand to gently cover my eyes. “Don’t look. It’s gross,” Liam murmured. With that, Liam stood firmly between me and Caleb, glaring at him with naked hostility. “You know she’s terrified of blood and pain. Are you doing this just to make her sick?” A strange, unfamiliar warmth bloomed in my chest. I gently pushed Liam’s hand away and looked up at his pale, striking face. His features were flawless, exactly as I remembered. But looking closely, there was a sharper, more dangerous edge to him now. In my memories, Liam had always been the quiet, brooding type who kept to himself. This was the first time I had ever seen him ruthlessly call someone out. Clearly, Caleb was just as shocked. “Mind your own damn business.” Caleb rolled his eyes and pushed his trembling, bloody hand toward me again. He was waiting for my usual reaction. “Chloe, I’m hurt.” In the past, I would have panicked, frantically searching for the first-aid kit, crying massive tears while carefully bandaging his wounds. But now? I shrank deeper into Liam’s embrace and cast a look of utter revulsion at Caleb’s filthy hand. “Caleb, there are doctors and nurses in the hallway. I don’t have a medical degree.” “You—?!” I cut him off irritably. “I’m tired. I want to go home.” Out of the corner of my eye, I caught Liam’s lips twitching upward into a smirk. He looked like a smug golden retriever wagging its tail. 5 My body was fine. The doctors said I just needed bed rest at home. Liam absolutely refused to let my feet touch the floor. He insisted on carrying me out of the hospital. Caleb’s face was a mask of dark fury. At that moment, he finally snapped. He grabbed my arm in a vice grip. “Chloe, didn’t you say you wanted to go home?” I peeled his fingers off my arm one by one, leaving angry red marks on my pale skin. “I am. I’m going to my boyfriend’s home. Is there a problem, Caleb?” “Chloe Foster, you are going to regret this.” Caleb let out a self-deprecating laugh, the words practically hissed through his teeth. Regret? My only regret was not realizing my true feelings sooner. My only regret was acting like a total idiot in my past life, letting Caleb play me like a fiddle. Liam placed me gently into the passenger seat of his car and carefully buckled my seatbelt. He started the engine, slammed on the gas, and sped away. For the entire drive, his right hand tightly enveloped my fist, refusing to let go. When we arrived at his penthouse, I felt sticky and exhausted. I told him I wanted a bath. Liam attentively started the hot water. He pulled an unopened bottle of essential oil from the cabinet. When he opened it, the scent of jasmine filled the air—my absolute favorite. Next, he walked into his massive walk-in closet and pulled out a set of loungewear still bearing the price tags. It fit me perfectly. I was a little confused. Liam scratched the back of his neck, a deep flush spreading all the way to his ears. “I saw it while I was out shopping. I thought it would look good on you, so I just grabbed it.” “Did you just ‘grab’ all of this, too?” I pointed past him. Taking up more than half of the massive closet was a full wardrobe of women’s clothing. All brand new. All from the designers I loved most. “Don’t get the wrong idea, I was just… I was…” I blinked at him playfully, waiting for his excuse. Liam let out a heavy sigh, dropping the act entirely. “Is it a crime to buy clothes for my own girlfriend?” Was this really the deeply insecure, overly sensitive Liam from my memories? The guy who used to blush if I so much as said two words to him? In my past life, up until the day I died in that asylum, I barely interacted with him. It wasn’t until I was a ghost that I finally understood the terrifying depth of Liam’s love for me. 6 In my past life, my soul was tethered to the apartment I lived in before I died. I had moved out of the Foster family mansion the moment I realized I had feelings for Caleb. When Liam found out I was dead, he went straight to Caleb demanding answers. But what answers could he get? Caleb released a public statement claiming I had contracted a severe illness and passed away. Liam had no legal right to demand the truth or an autopsy. One night, Liam easily hacked the digital lock on my old apartment. I watched in shock as he stumbled through the door and collapsed into my bedroom. When my ghost drifted over, I saw his tall, broad frame curled into a tight ball on my mattress. His shoulders shook violently, a massive wet patch spreading across my pillow. I wanted to comfort him. But I didn’t even know where to begin. So I just sat on the edge of the bed and quietly watched him. Eventually, I couldn’t hold back anymore. I reached out to stroke his soft, messy hair. But I was just a ghost. I couldn’t truly touch him. My palm phased right through his dark strands. I patted the air above his head, trying to coax him like a child. “Liam, please don’t cry anymore. If you keep crying, I won’t be able to resist kissing you.” The handsome face resting on my pillow trembled violently for a split second. Liam’s eyes snapped open, massive tears rolling down his cheeks. Then, he squeezed them shut in absolute despair. “Liar.” The room fell dead silent. The only sound was his low, shattered sobbing echoing through the dark apartment. 7 From that day on, Liam moved into my apartment, keeping my ghost company. People called him crazy. I thought he was crazy, too. Because Liam developed a habit of talking to himself. One moment he’d be speaking to thin air, sharing something good that happened; the next, he’d be venting about a terrible day. I just stood there, listening quietly. Watching his cold, handsome face constantly stained with tears. Liam withered away day by day. I knew he was sick. The dining table was covered in mountains of prescription pill bottles. I begged him to keep living. But it was useless. He couldn’t hear a word I said. We lived together in that apartment for three whole years. Like two hopelessly lonely souls separated by an impenetrable wall. I couldn’t touch him, I couldn’t feel him, and he couldn’t hear me. The longer I stayed in the mortal realm, the more transparent my spirit became. I knew it wouldn’t be long before I faded from this world completely. Liam continued leaving early and coming home late. I was trapped in the apartment, so I had no idea what he was doing out there. Until the third anniversary of my death. Before Liam left the apartment, he deliberately turned on the TV and switched it to the local news channel. As he walked out the door, he turned back and stared deeply at the exact spot I was standing. My heart pounded with a sense of impending dread. Soon, a breaking news bulletin flashed across the screen: Caleb Foster, CEO of Foster Enterprises, killed in a fatal car collision. Police suspect a targeted hit. The suspect has fled the scene and a massive manhunt is underway. It was Liam. He was such an idiot! Panic surged through me. My soul erupted with an unprecedented burst of energy, shattering the invisible barrier trapping me in the apartment. Guided by some unknown force, I materialized right in front of my own gravestone. Liam was slumped against the cold marble, hugging my headstone, crying like a broken child. “Chloe, I finally avenged you.” Scattered around his feet were empty prescription bottles and crushed beer cans. I hovered around him, panicking helplessly. The massive cemetery was completely empty. No one was around to stop him. “Liam Sterling, I order you, you are not allowed to die! Do you hear me?!” My hysterical, ear-piercing scream seemed to briefly pierce the veil. Liam looked up, staring right into my eyes. The corners of his lips curved up into a breathtaking, satisfied smile. “You came to pick me up, didn’t you?” The moment the words left his mouth, he took a hunting knife and slashed it brutally across his scarred wrist. “Chloe, if there is a next life, I promise I’ll be brave enough to hold your hand.” 8 Thank God, the universe gave me a second chance. Looking at the handsome face just inches away from mine, my cheeks flushed, and my eyes filled with tears. The memory of his dying smile carved a bloody hole in my chest. It hurt so much I gasped. A warm hand gently cupped my cheek, using a thumb to carefully wipe away the tears pooling at the corners of my eyes. “Does your head still hurt?” The car crash hadn’t been serious. I only suffered a few minor scrapes. Compared to the torture I endured in my past life, it was absolutely nothing. I hadn’t been in pain for a while. But I didn’t want Liam to know about my rebirth. I nodded, greedily leaning into the warmth of his palm. “It hurts. It hurts so much. I think I need a kiss to make it better.” “So spoiled.” Liam licked his lower lip, his dark eyes shining brilliantly. “Is a kiss going to be enough?” Before I could even process the words, a hand tangled into the hair at the back of my head. An all-consuming kiss crashed down on me, completely dominating my senses. It felt like he was trying to crush me into his very bones. I was kissed until I was completely out of breath. Suddenly, my phone started ringing. It was Caleb. I didn’t want to answer it. But the man kissing me seemed utterly tireless, showing zero signs of stopping. Annoyed, I reached out blindly to reject the call, but my finger accidentally swiped ‘Answer’. “Chloe, I thought about it. You need to come back to the estate. The maids can take proper care of you there.” “Mmph…” A muffled moan accidentally slipped from my lips. Caleb lost his mind on the other end of the line. “Chloe, what the hell are you doing?! Answer me!” “Don’t get distracted.” I didn’t have the breath to reply to Caleb. Someone grabbed my hand and hit the end call button. Half an hour later, I was still wrapped around Liam like a koala. Violent pounding on the front door, mixed with furious swearing, echoed from the entryway. “Liam Sterling, who gave you the right to touch her?!” 9 Caleb was being incredibly annoying. I wanted to ignore him. But it didn’t sound like he was going to leave anytime soon. Pouting, I reluctantly untangled myself from Liam. He chuckled, ruffling my messy hair, his eyes curving into sweet crescents. “Be a good girl. I’ll go get rid of him.” With his lips still flushed and swollen, Liam walked over and opened the door. He had barely cracked it open when Caleb barged in like a rabid dog. His dark, venomous gaze swept over my body. It finally landed on the blooming red marks scattered across my neck. “You dared to touch her? Liam, you actually touched her?!” Caleb roared, pulling his fist back with pure hatred, aiming a vicious punch straight at Liam’s face. “She has amnesia, you psycho! You’re taking advantage of her!” I screamed. But Liam just casually tilted his head, effortlessly dodging the incoming fist. Was this the Liam I knew? Since when was he this agile? His counterattacks were ruthless, every punch connecting with a sickening thud. In less than ten seconds, Caleb was completely subdued and forcefully shoved out the front door. “Get the hell out! If you ever harass her again, I’ll kill you.” Slam. The heavy oak door shut, leaving me staring at Liam’s broad, intimidating back. When he turned around, the terrifying aura vanished, replaced by his usual gentle warmth. “Did I scare you?” It was honestly a masterpiece. I was dumbfounded. Wait a minute. Something wasn’t right with Liam. “Are you hiding something from me?” Liam scratched the back of his head, nodding shyly. “Yeah. You said you liked them, so I secretly started working out.” “Liked what?” He pointed a long, elegant finger at his own torso. I like abs? When did I ever say that? Then it hit me. In my past life, when I was a ghost trapped in his apartment, I had spent hours staring at his perfectly sculpted eight-pack, whining about how I could look but couldn’t touch. Wait, no, how could he possibly know what my ghost said? I eyed the man in front of me with deep suspicion. I immediately crashed into a pair of eyes brimming with amusement. “I know ‘PancakeLover99’ is your burner account.” Well, wasn’t he observant. It was true. I used to use that burner account to leave extremely thirsty comments on TikTok fitness videos. But did he have to expose me like this?! Where was my dignity? How was I supposed to try out my wicked ideas on him now? Whatever. I threw my pride out the window and rubbed my hands together like a cartoon villain. I stared hungrily at his rock-hard abs. “Can I touch?” His handsome face immediately turned crimson. After a long pause, a response as quiet as a mosquito came from above me. “Yeah.” 10 The next morning, I pushed myself up off his perfectly toned stomach. There were faint red indentations on Liam’s skin from where I had been sleeping on him. He was a remarkably still sleeper. He barely moved the entire night. When I was a spirit, I had slept in the same bed as him for three years. But this was the first time I had ever shared a bed with him in the flesh. Once the initial adrenaline wore off, a massive wave of shyness crashed over me. Blushing furiously, I tried to escape, but his hand wrapped around my ankle, dragging me right back on top of him. His thin lips brushed against mine, teasing and affectionate. “Feeling shy? You certainly didn’t look this way last night when you asked me to call you ‘Master’.” Trembling, I pushed against his chest. “I’m hungry.” Liam’s eyes narrowed slightly, but his hands didn’t stop wandering. “Hmm?” I panicked and clarified. “My stomach is hungry.” Right on cue, my stomach let out a loud rumble. Liam looked deeply disappointed. He pulled his hands back, resting his chin on his hand as he looked at me playfully. “But this part of me is hungry, too.” “…” By the time we finally got dressed and walked out of the bedroom, his private chef had already prepared lunch and left. The entire table was covered in all my favorite dishes. As we ate, Liam asked me, “What do you want to do today?” “I have amnesia, remember? I don’t remember anything.” I decided to tease him. “Why don’t you tell me? What were our dates usually like?” Liam’s face turned pink, but he shook his head with a smug smile. “You just loved being with me. You never wanted to be apart.” “Okay, but where did we usually go?” I wasn’t sure if I imagined it, but Liam’s expression darkened for a split second, a flash of sorrow crossing his eyes. “We…” He fell into a deep silence, as if trying to recall something from a very distant past. “We liked staying at home.” Staying at home? Considering what happened this morning, my lower back was still aching. There was no way we were staying at home today. “Liam, let’s go to IKEA.” “Huh?” “This place is too cold and minimalist. I don’t like it.” Liam wasn’t a fan of lively spaces. His penthouse was practically empty. Everything was decorated in cold, sterile grays and blacks. It didn’t feel like a home at all. I wanted to paint this entire house with my colors. Not just by hanging a few dresses in the closet. I wanted to claim every inch of it. Because Liam was plagued by severe separation anxiety. If I stepped out of his sight for even a few seconds, he would panic and frantically search for me. Only when he saw I was safe would he let out a massive breath and pull me into a crushing hug. “Chloe, I was so scared I’d lost you again.” Tears would well in his eyes as he gasped for air. “When I can’t see you, it feels like a piece of me is missing.” So, I wanted to aggressively mark my territory, to fill that empty void in his heart with evidence of my existence.

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I love money, but I don’t love men who have more money than I do. So, torn between my successful high school sweetheart and a seemingly directionless bad boy with bleached blond hair, I ignored my parents’ objections and married the bad boy. Because he always knew how to make a quick buck, and he always let me take the lion’s share. Three years later, we closed another massive deal. When it was time to split the cash… My bad boy husband, Arthur, asked me: “Do you want the money, or do you want me?” “I want the money.” He didn’t take a single cent from that deal. Instead, he looked at me and said, “Then let’s get a divorce.” 1 I stopped counting the cash and looked at Arthur in surprise. He knew I loved money. In the past, we would always playfully argue over the split, but in the end, he would always let me take more, making sure I was just a little bit richer than him. We never fought. During our entire relationship, he had never even mentioned breaking up, yet today, he was asking for a divorce. I asked blankly, “Why do you want a divorce?” Standing by the door, he stopped in his tracks, wearing his usual playful grin. “You always get the bigger cut. It’s not fair.” His gaze fell on the remaining stack of cash on the table. He raised an eyebrow and said, “It’s all yours. I’m out of here.” My foot twitched toward the door. This wasn’t the first time he’d played a trick like this. He’d throw a little tantrum and then come right back. I looked back at the money on the table and pulled my foot back. Our profession was scouting out old streets and neighborhoods that were likely targets for redevelopment and buying up the properties. Take this latest deal, for example. We calculated that this specific street was primed for demolition, so two years ago, we started buying the old houses door-to-door. We paid above market value back then, but today, the massive redevelopment payout had just hit our accounts. But to my parents, without a physical storefront or a traditional 9-to-5 job, we were just irresponsible slackers. The next evening, in a rare display of domesticity, I cooked dinner and called him. “Stop messing around. I made dinner. Hurry up and come home.” On the other end of the line, he said he wasn’t coming back. I twirled the ends of my hair around my finger and threatened casually, “If you’re not back by midnight, I’m going to get back together with Liam.” With that, I hung up, a confident smile on my face. Arthur, who was usually easygoing, would explode and get insanely jealous the moment he heard my ex’s name. I sat leisurely on the couch, eating fruit and watching the news, while simultaneously researching which street we should buy up next. It wasn’t until the clock hit 11:30 PM that a wave of panic hit me. I had never felt this kind of imbalance before. I gripped my phone tightly, staring at the minutes slowly ticking away on the screen. Finally, at exactly midnight, there was a knock at the door. I practically sprinted to the entryway and pulled it open. “Miss, your courier package. Please sign here.” A courier in a blue uniform stood at the door. I opened the envelope. Inside was a formal divorce agreement. He was serious? The courier glanced at the document in my hands. “Miss, please sign quickly. I still have to return it. Who gets a divorce in the middle of the night anyway?” I felt a sting of humiliation. I grabbed a pen, hastily scribbled my signature, and slammed the door shut. Then, I immediately called Arthur, but he sent me straight to voicemail. I quickly opened our text thread and started typing furiously. [Liam has been visiting my parents a lot since I dumped him. He’s coming over for dinner tomorrow, and I’m going too. Now that we’re divorced, you finally can’t tell me what to do!] After hitting send, I felt like I had won another round. 2 The next day, I bought some gifts and headed to my parents’ house. When they saw it was me, a flash of surprise crossed their eyes, followed quickly by sheer joy. After all, I hadn’t been back since I ran away from home. Sitting on their sofa was Liam, my high school sweetheart. He straightened his clothes and looked at me, a slight blush creeping up his neck. “Chloe, what are you doing here?” I shot him a look. “It’s my own home. Am I not allowed to come back?” He awkwardly scratched his head. During dinner, I kept my eyes on my phone and secretly sent Arthur a second message. [If you don’t reply in ten minutes, I’m marrying Liam.] After dinner, I stood on the balcony, letting the cool breeze hit me. Still no reply from Arthur. Liam walked over, handed me a glass of water, and said, “I’m sorry. I was wrong back then. I’m the reason you turned out like this…” Liam and I dated during our senior year of college. We were at the stage of discussing marriage. The day we broke up was the day that changed my entire life. I had lost a hundred-dollar bill he had given me, and I quietly apologized. But he berated me in front of our entire class, demanding to know what I was actually good for. I was annoyed, so I yelled back, “It’s just a hundred bucks! I’ll pay you back, okay?!” Instead of letting it go, he suddenly stood up from his desk, grabbed me by the throat, and slammed me against the wall. He had already started a small computer repair shop through his own hard work, and he had become incredibly tight-fisted with money. He told me that making money was hard. He said that even as a college senior, I was still mooching off my parents, and asked if I planned to mooch off him for the rest of my life. I didn’t understand why he was acting like that and continued to argue back. That’s when he slapped me right across the face in front of everyone. Arthur, a notorious slacker from the neighboring department, happened to be walking past our classroom. He rushed in, knocked Liam to the ground, grabbed my hand, and dragged me away to the school track. When I called my parents crying to complain, they both sympathized with Liam’s struggles and even told me that he was right. That day, I hugged my knees and cried my eyes out. I finally understood the importance of money. Spending other people’s money meant they could look down on you. So, I decided I wanted to make money. I wanted to be richer than all of them. That way, no matter how I spent my money, no one could point a finger at me. I didn’t go home for the next few days. Arthur booked a hotel room for me, and I stayed there alone. At night, he took me out clubbing, blowing thousands in a single night. During the day, he took me to fancy restaurants, dropping hundreds on a single meal. At the time, I thought, He’s an orphan. How does he have so much sketchy money? I even asked him if he was doing something illegal. He just sneered. “Money is everywhere, you just need the brains to see it.” After that, I started hanging out with him, demanding he show me how to make money. He always gave in to me, always letting me take the bigger cut. 3 My parents watched Liam and me standing on the balcony and tentatively spoke up: “Chloe, it’s been many years. Liam has been waiting for you.” I knew exactly what they were hinting at. “I’m divorced,” I said flatly. Liam immediately asked if I could give him another chance. I pointed to the old street right across from my parents’ house, my eyes gleaming. “Acquire this entire street, and I’ll marry you. All you have to do is negotiate; I’ll provide the capital.” I could see Liam was hesitant. To him, this kind of business was unethical because it involved keeping secrets from the sellers. I grabbed my purse and turned to leave. “If it’s too hard, forget it. You don’t love me as much as Arthur did anyway.” As I pulled the front door open, Liam’s voice rang out behind me: “I can do it!” I let out a soft chuckle and walked out. Any street I set my sights on, Arthur would have undoubtedly noticed before me. So, the news that I would marry Liam if he acquired this street would definitely reach Arthur’s ears. Just as I expected, a year later, right as Liam was about to finalize the deals, someone swooped in and snatched it out from under him. Every single homeowner who had agreed to sell backed out. I was standing at the corner of the street when Arthur, who had vanished for a whole year, suddenly appeared in front of me with his signature slacker swagger. “You want this street too?” I rolled my eyes at him. “Boss Arthur has already taken it down. What are you pretending for?” He put on a look of total bewilderment. “I just heard the news and came to check it out.” I looked at him closely. His formerly bleached blond hair had long been dyed back to black. He didn’t look like he was lying. But in our line of work, lying without batting an eye was the most basic skill. With every sentence we exchanged, I questioned its authenticity. For the next few days, I followed him around everywhere, eating and drinking on his dime. Every day, I would ask him, “Did you really acquire this street? Transfer it to me.” But his lips were sealed tight. He always just flashed that playful grin and gave me ambiguous answers. I didn’t contact him for the following week because I ended up lying in a private hospital bed. Acute kidney failure. When he rushed in, the playful grin was completely gone. He looked at my pale lips and gripped my hand tightly. His expression had never been so serious. “Why so sudden?” I spoke slowly and weakly, “Maybe it’s my own stubbornness. You know my love for money has become a sickness… “Since I’m dying anyway, can you finally tell me if you acquired that street?” He whispered anxiously, “How can you still be thinking about that street at a time like this?” Tears slipped from the corners of my eyes. “Did you acquire it or not?! I’m dying, and you still won’t tell me?!” Arthur stood up abruptly. “I’ll come see you later.” He turned and walked toward the door. Listening to his retreating footsteps, I quickly grabbed a mirror to check my “sick” makeup. Good, it was flawless. For a second, I thought he had caught on. A day passed, and he still hadn’t come back to see me. Bored lying in bed, I started wandering around the private hospital. I noticed a door slightly ajar. The person lying in the hospital bed inside looked exactly like Arthur. I gently pushed the door open and walked in. He lay weakly on the bed, slowly opening his eyes to look at me. “You’re here…” I frowned deeply and sat on the edge of his bed. “What happened to you?” He parted his lips slightly. “I went to the doctor yesterday to see if I could give you one of my kidneys… but the results came back…” I looked at him sternly. “What were the results?” He let out a weak chuckle. “Just like you, I also have acute kidney failure.” 4 I was stunned. Looking at his frail expression, I couldn’t bring myself to say another word. He patted the back of my hand. He said, “I’ll give you three chances. You can ask me three questions. Consider it my final gift to you.” The questions were on the tip of my tongue, but I swallowed them back. “Just focus on resting for now.” He shook his head. “I’ll be discharged tomorrow anyway. Lying in the hospital won’t do any good. Want to go together?” I nodded. The next day, we both checked out and went back to his place. His condition today genuinely looked like a sick person’s—at least much more convincing than mine. My nose stung with unshed tears. Just like before, he held his laptop, researching which old streets were ripe for acquisition. I sat on the desk, watching him. The first question: “That street, did you acquire it?” He put down the laptop, crossed his arms, and looked at me. “Why do you want to know so badly?” Looking at his haggard face, my eyes welled up with tears. I reached out, hugged him, and started crying. “I don’t know why you wanted to divorce me. If you admit you acquired the street, it proves you still love me.” He reached out, stroked my cheek, and nodded. “I acquired it. When I heard you were going to marry him, my heart broke. I couldn’t stand to see you marry him.” I looked up at him. “Then why did you divorce me?” He gently wiped away my tears and smiled. “Didn’t I tell you? You always took the bigger cut.” I shook my head. “That question doesn’t count. Let me change it. Do you really have acute kidney failure?” He pulled me into his embrace, stroked my hair, and said in a serious, low voice: “You are the woman I love most… I used to wonder if, when we got old, we’d still bicker every day. “When I found out I had this disease, I just wanted to leave the best things I had for you before I go.” He cupped my face, looking at me with deep affection. I froze, nodding slowly as tears welled in my eyes. The next second, he couldn’t hold it in anymore and burst out laughing. The haggard look on his face vanished instantly. 5 I pushed him away angrily. “You lied to me again! I knew it couldn’t be such a coincidence!” He leaned close to my face and whispered, “What about you?” I lifted my chin defiantly. “Of course mine is real! I’m dying and you’re still lying to me!” He shrugged. “Then mine is real too.” I sat on the couch, fuming. “Since neither of us is going to tell the truth, let’s just not talk at all!” He smiled and shook his head. After calming down, I continued, “That last question didn’t count either. I still have two questions left, right?” He nodded. “Whatever you say.” I smiled happily. “Can you give me the contract for that street too?” “Sure.” He took me up to the second-floor bedroom and handed me the contract. I grabbed the contract and happily threw my arms around his neck. He responded enthusiastically. “Now you’re richer than me again.” When we woke up the next morning, I reached for the contract on the nightstand, reading it over and over, a smile playing on my lips. “Time to get up. Come with me somewhere,” he said as he pushed the door open. I waved the contract in my hand. “Don’t forget you have to come with me to the notary office to transfer the contract.” After getting ready, he took me to a jewelry store and asked me to help him pick out a wedding ring. I teased him, “What, are you proposing again?” I used to constantly complain about the ring he picked when he first proposed. It seemed he had finally learned his lesson and was letting me pick it myself. He laughed. “It’s not for you. Just help me pick.” Naturally, I picked the biggest diamond ring in the store. After paying, he slipped the ring into his pocket. Then, we went to the notary office to process the contract transfer. After handing the documents to the clerk, I turned to look at Arthur. He couldn’t hide the smile on his face. It was the exact same expression he had the last time he proposed. I cleared my throat and said, “Wait here. I’m going to the restroom.” I quickly walked to the restroom, washed my hands multiple times, and applied a thick layer of hand cream, prepping myself for the impending proposal. After fussing for half an hour, I held out my fingers. Seeing they looked soft and delicate, I walked back to the counter, thoroughly satisfied. The clerk handed the contract back to me and stated, “This is invalid. It’s a fake contract.” “What?” I took the contract suspiciously, rapidly scanning the clauses and signatures. “That’s impossible. Are you sure you didn’t read it wrong?…” Just as I was about to argue with the clerk, I looked over at Arthur. He couldn’t suppress his smirk anymore. I had been tricked again. I furiously slammed the contract against his chest, screaming, “Arthur, is playing me for a fool really that fun for you?!” He looked at me with that same punchable grin. “I just love seeing you angry.” More and more people in the notary office stopped to watch the crazy woman and the calm man. I took a deep breath. “If you keep this up, don’t even think about me marrying you again!” Arthur stood up. “When did I ever say I wanted you to marry me again?” 6 I pointed at the ring in his pocket. “Isn’t that for me?” Arthur chuckled. “We’re already divorced. Why would it be for you?” In the past, if a joke went this far, he would immediately start coaxing me. But today, he didn’t. Just as I was about to speak again, my parents walked into the notary office with Liam. Liam excitedly handed me a contract. “Chloe, I finally managed to secure this contract! Don’t worry, you don’t have to pay a cent. It’s a gift.” Before I could even speak, he handed the contract to the clerk to process the transfer. I watched the clerk’s serious expression. “Yes, this one is authentic. We will now transfer it to Chloe Price’s name.” Arthur leaned in close and whispered, “I told you I didn’t acquire it, but you didn’t believe me. It seems he’s really changed. Congratulations.” My eyes widened slightly in shock. I quickly snatched my ID back from the clerk. “There’s no need to transfer it.” Leaving my confused parents and Liam behind, along with that smiling Arthur, I walked out of the notary office alone. Back in my car, I stared blankly at the entrance of the notary office. It seemed it really had all been my own wishful thinking. I never believed Arthur would genuinely care about how we split the money. I had always assumed he snatched that old street away just for me. I never expected he only admitted to it because I was annoying him so much. I let out a soft, self-deprecating laugh. All those years of him taking care of me had given me a blind, arrogant confidence. Tap. Tap. Tap. Someone knocked on my window. My parents and Liam had somehow found their way to my car. I unlocked the doors. They got in and immediately started discussing my wedding with Liam. I cut them off. “How did you know I was at the notary office?” My parents looked at each other. Liam stayed silent for a moment before saying, “We originally came to ask about the contract transfer process, and then we saw you.” “The old street was already acquired by someone else. How did you get it? And where did you get so much money?” Liam didn’t speak. My mom told me that to get this street and marry me, Liam had gone to the previous buyer’s house every single day, begging them. He eventually acquired it by paying a 20% premium over the original purchase price. As for the money, he transferred ownership of all his storefronts, sold his old family home, and took out a massive bank loan just to buy that old street for me. My mom told me not to let him down. After dropping my parents off, I went downstairs alone. My mind was a mess. Everything happening recently was slowly spiraling out of my control. Liam chased me downstairs and called out my name. 7 He said, “Chloe, I know with your wealth now, you don’t lack a single street. Maybe that day you just said it casually.” I looked at him coldly. “If you know I don’t want to get married, then why did you come down?” He paused, then said, “Putting that one incident aside, we were really good together before, right?” I didn’t answer. He continued, “The things you and Arthur do, even though they aren’t illegal, they always involve deceiving people…” I cut him off. “Shut up! What do you mean ‘deceiving people’? The money we offered was above market value! It was a willing transaction between buyer and seller.” He kept arguing with me, saying that if they hadn’t sold to us, they would have made even more money when the demolition happened. He also told me that this kind of work looked shady to outsiders, and it would be embarrassing if relatives or friends asked about it and we couldn’t give a straight answer. I covered my ears and walked quickly toward my car. He continued babbling behind me. They completely didn’t understand. Why should I care what other people think? I have financial freedom now; I can go wherever I want. And they definitely didn’t understand how much judgment and mockery Arthur, an orphan, had endured to get to where he was. Besides, the people we contacted… some had family members who were sick and couldn’t afford treatment. Some needed to put their kids through school, or had whole extended families crammed into a tiny, dilapidated house, or needed money for a bride price. Like us, they didn’t know for sure if the demolition would happen. They couldn’t afford to gamble, and they couldn’t just wait around doing nothing. They had tried to sell their houses themselves, but buyers lowballed them relentlessly. So they willingly sold to us. Were we in the wrong? The moment I opened my car door, Liam stopped me. “Have you still not forgiven me?” I said coldly, “Why should I forgive you? The most humiliating moment of my life was given to me by you.” I shoved him hard and got into the car. He said, “Arthur doesn’t even want you anymore.” My hand, about to close the door, stopped. I said quietly, “Even so, you still won’t get a turn.” I will never forget that day after Arthur hit him. Liam rallied a group of “good students” to boycott and slander Arthur, reporting him to the administration and causing a massive scene. Because of that, Arthur was forced to drop out. Luckily, he was strong, and he even comforted me, telling me not to blame myself. In the rearview mirror, Liam was holding his phone, looking incredibly anxious. These people… when I had no money, they constantly criticized me for living off my parents. When I got rich, they hovered around me, constantly analyzing the so-called “pros and cons.” After leaving school, Arthur and I had relied solely on each other. We had no friends, but we thoroughly enjoyed our life as a duo. At a red light, my car stopped right outside the jewelry store Arthur had taken me to that afternoon. I stared inside, lost in thought. Right. Neither he nor I had any friends. So who was that ring for? Maybe he was just messing with me again this afternoon. Maybe he didn’t actually want to hand me over to Liam. Holding onto the confidence built from years of relying only on each other, I made a U-turn and drove toward Arthur’s house. I used my key to open his front door. The first thing I saw was all the furniture covered in white dust sheets. I walked through the entire house. He had left. I pulled out my phone and called him. It went straight to voicemail. I could only comfort myself, thinking he must have gone out of town to scout a new project. We used to do this—randomly disappear for a few days. We would go to other cities to investigate old streets, and if we could secure a deal, we would immediately tell the other person the good news. Of course, these post-disappearance “surprises” weren’t really surprises to us anymore, but we always played along, faking an exaggerated look of shock. I pulled off the white sheets and moved into his house.

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Everyone in the underworld knew that I was the one untouchable weakness of syndicate boss Damien Thorne. Years ago, when I was taken hostage by a rival cartel, Damien risked being gunned down by the feds. He threw away his weapons and gave up his entire fortune just to ransom me back. To ensure no one ever dared to bully me, he danced on the razor’s edge between the criminal underworld and the law. When I got pregnant, he practically waited on me hand and foot, terrified to even let my feet touch the floor. Rumors constantly swirled that he was keeping a pampered canary in a gilded cage on the side, but I never believed them. Until his little bird decided she didn’t want to follow the rules and fluttered right into my face. To beg for my forgiveness, Damien chopped off one of his own fingers. The very next day, that same canary slapped an ultrasound photo onto my lap. “Damien wanted a baby with me so badly, he practically wore himself out~” … “Scarlett… the doctor said your body was already prone to miscarriage… combined with this severe emotional shock… the baby is gone…” “The baby is gone… the Boss is going to lose his mind… he wanted this child for ten whole years…” After Damien’s canary left, my anger and grief triggered a massive hemorrhage. I literally miscarried from the sheer heartbreak. My best friend, Becca, drove me to the city hospital. She stayed by my side, comforting me every second, terrified I might do something drastic. Only she knew how much I had wanted this baby. Since the day I found out I was pregnant, this child had been treated like absolute royalty. Because I was high-risk, I stayed indoors for months, drinking herbal supplements and resting constantly just to keep the baby safe. When Damien found out I was pregnant, the ruthless boss actually cried tears of joy. He issued a syndicate-wide decree: anyone who upset me or endangered this child would face a fate worse than death. So how ironic was it that the one who ultimately destroyed everything was him? My mind was plagued by the arrogant, gloating face of his canary. Yesterday. Damien’s mistress, Chloe Vance, came to me with a video of her and Damien tangled in the sheets. Seeing her spoiled, arrogant face, I calmly forwarded the audio of our conversation to Damien. He rushed to the scene in a blind panic. He kicked and beat Chloe until she was curled into a ball on the floor, and his men eventually had to drag her away. Holding the explicit video of them, I choked back a sob. “The rumors outside… they’re all true?” In that moment, he looked so filthy to me. I didn’t want him anymore. But Damien simply dropped to his knees. Before I could even react, he pulled a switchblade and sliced off his right pinky finger right in front of me, offering his blood as penance. “Scarlett, it’s my fault. I betrayed you. Please forgive me. Just this once, I’m begging you, Scarlett.” We had been in love for ten years. How could my heart not ache? I agreed to give him one last chance. But today, Chloe found me for the second time. Seeing the fresh hickeys on her neck and the ultrasound photo she threw in my face, I felt like Damien had driven a knife straight into my spine. So this was how he had “handled” Chloe after he left yesterday. Ten years of love, and we finally had a baby. I had fantasized endlessly about our beautiful future as a family of three. I swallowed my pride and forgave you. I only asked that you never do it again. Was that really so hard? The baby was gone. Everyone at the hospital expected me to break down in hysterical sobs. But my voice was eerily calm. “It’s gone… then it’s gone.” I made Becca swear to hide the miscarriage from Damien. And I booked a ticket on a cruise ship bound for Belize. When I returned to the penthouse, the air was filled with the rich aroma of slow-cooked beef stew. Damien saw me walk in and presented the stew to me like a prized treasure. He clearly had no idea that Chloe had paid me a second visit today. “Where did you go? You need to rest at home while you’re pregnant. If you need anything done, just have the boys handle it.” I stared at that incredibly gentle, caring face, searching for a trace of guilt. But his perfect, practiced composure made my blood run cold. Seeing my icy glare, the ruthless syndicate boss who held absolute power in the underworld dropped to his knees without hesitation. “Are you still mad at me? If anything happens to the baby… I’ll go insane, Scarlett.” “You know I only love you. I can’t live without you…” “I already had my men throw Chloe into the bay. I swear, nothing like this will ever happen again.” He pulled out his phone, showing me a video of his men supposedly tossing Chloe into the dark waters. The stump of his pinky finger was still seeping blood through the bandages. But this pathetic, groveling display was just a cheap theatrical performance. Even now, he was still trying to play me for a fool. Damien, are you trying to tear my soul apart? When I woke up, Damien was gone. The smell of his cologne lingered on the sheets, making me feel physically nauseous. I got dressed and went to an offline visa center nearby to finalize my travel documents. Not long after, a text from Damien popped up on my screen. [I threw a celebration party for you today. I’ll come pick you up soon.] On my way back from the visa center, I happened to pass by the front hall of one of his exclusive clubs. From a distance, I saw the brightly lit venue. As I got closer, I heard that familiar, sickly-sweet voice. “I’m so jealous of Scarlett. She gets a whole party thrown by you. When will I get a celebration like this?” Through the crack in the heavy oak doors, I saw Damien’s face darken as he pinched Chloe’s chin. “As long as you don’t make a scene in front of Scarlett, I’ll give you whatever you want. Except a title. You will never be my wife.” Chloe whined playfully, “I want that pigeon-blood ruby necklace Scarlett was wearing, please~” Damien agreed easily. “As long as you aren’t stupid enough to run to her again, you’ll have everything she has.” So, his furious rage yesterday was entirely for my benefit. I thought he would reign it in after the last incident. I thought he would cherish my forgiveness and never cross that line again. But he never thought he was wrong. He just thought he hadn’t hidden his cheating well enough. At that exact moment, my phone buzzed. It was a call from Chloe. She clearly called me on purpose so I could hear them flirting. “Alright, I have to go pick Scarlett up now,” Damien’s voice echoed through the speaker. Chloe tugged on his collar, pulling him toward a side room. “Stay with me a little longer~ Once she gets here, you’ll have to play the devoted husband all day~” “No, I need to get her. She just got pregnant, she’s fragile. I can’t risk a miscarriage.” “You only care about her baby~ Did you forget I’m carrying your child too? Why don’t you dote on me?” “Of course I dote on you. You’re my baby, aren’t you?” I pretended I had just arrived at the venue and spoke loudly to the guards outside. “What are you guys celebrating?” “The Boss said he threw this party to lift your spirits during your pregnancy, ma’am.” I found it hilarious. Everyone was helping Damien lie to me. I glanced at the frosted glass of the VIP room. I couldn’t see their faces, but the overlapping shadows on the floor were rhythmically moving. It was obvious what they were doing. Hearing my voice outside, Damien tried to stop Chloe. “Alright, that’s enough. If Scarlett finds out, the consequences will be more than I can handle.” “Oh come on~ Doesn’t the risk make it hotter? Plus, it’s been so long since we did it here~” “If she knew we’d been sleeping together for three years, she’d definitely be pissed.” “If you keep misbehaving, I’m going to have to punish you.” After that, Damien stopped talking. The phone only transmitted their continuous, breathy moans. My fingernails dug so hard into my palms that my whole body shook with pain. Damien… this is how you trample me, over and over again. A full half-hour later, Damien emerged from the side room, pretending he had been handling “syndicate business.” His face was still flushed with the afterglow of his session with Chloe, wearing that same gentle smile he always gave me. In that moment, it made me want to vomit. He placed his hand on my stomach, his palm still radiating Chloe’s body heat. “Is the baby behaving? Do you know how long I’ve wanted this, Scarlett?” Ten years. For ten years, Damien had whispered in my ear every night, going crazy for a child. But none of that stopped him from using hands that had just been all over another woman to play the loving father. The deep love and happiness I thought I had were built entirely on secrets and lies. Peeling back that glamorous facade revealed a truth so disgusting it was hard to breathe. After the party ended, Damien made an excuse about urgent syndicate business and left early. I guessed he was going back to comfort his hidden canary in the VIP room. Bang! Bang! Suddenly, two gunshots rang out across the hillside estate. I looked up numbly, watching several men from a rival cartel charging straight at me. I watched as one raised his gun, aiming right at my face. Just when I thought I was going to die, a familiar figure threw himself in front of me. It was Damien. As he tackled me, the assassins fired several more shots. Damien shielded my body as we tumbled down the rocky slope. From start to finish, he never let me go. He took a bullet to the left side of his chest, his body torn and bleeding from the sharp rocks. Yet all he did was hold me and whisper, “Don’t be afraid.” The infiltrators were quickly subdued. They were just advance scouts who had managed to slip past security and happened to run into me. Years ago, Damien had killed the pregnant wife of a rival border boss. Now, that boss was desperate for revenge. In the hospital, I stared blankly at Damien lying in the bed. You were willing to give your life for me… so why did you treat my heart like garbage? His injuries were severe, but on the third day, he insisted on getting out of bed. He claimed he had a critical negotiation with a rival boss. Hearing those words, the tiny shred of softness that had briefly returned to my heart turned to ash. Seeing me stare at him, guilt flashed in his eyes. “It’s extremely important. I have to go.” “Okay,” I said lightly. For the past few days, wedding supplies had been moving through the syndicate headquarters. Coupled with the digital wedding invitation Chloe had smugly texted me last night, how could I not know where he was really going? Maybe Chloe was right. Damien didn’t love me anymore. And as I looked at his face, all I could see was the nauseating image of him entangled with her. Soon after, I boarded my cruise ship bound for Belize. Ding— A text from Damien: [I’m at the negotiation site, Scarlett.] As if desperately trying to prove himself, he sent me a staged photo of a tense meeting, exactly at the time he was supposed to be arriving at Chloe’s wedding. How did I know it was fake? Because I was watching the wedding live. Chloe was video-calling me, broadcasting the event. The wedding was held in an underground bunker, clearly to keep it hidden from me. Damien was wearing a tuxedo. The blood from his chest wound had already seeped through the fabric from the physical exertion. Yet even bleeding out, he still attended his wedding to Chloe. On the live stream, Damien stood at the altar. After the priest finished the vows, Damien kissed Chloe’s hand and looked at her with deep affection. “I do.” I laughed at my own pathetic stupidity. When he told me this morning that he had an urgent negotiation, I actually harbored a tiny, pathetic shred of hope. Maybe he really did have an emergency? With a man like Damien, the more you trust him, the more he treats you like a fool. After stepping off the altar, Damien texted me: [The negotiation went smoothly. What do you want for dinner?] Me: [Are you really at a negotiation?] The moment I hit send, my phone blew up with frantic calls and texts: [I really am! Wait for me to get back, I’ll explain everything.] On the livestream, Damien looked like he’d been struck by lightning. He didn’t even care that the wedding was ongoing. He frantically tore off his tuxedo jacket and sprinted out of the venue like his life depended on it. But I had already left the country. Even though my ship was in international waters, Damien’s syndicate had massive reach. To ensure I could slip away right under his nose in Belize, I composed myself and sent another text to distract him. [I’ve been feeling out of breath lately. Becca and I are going to take a walk around the border town. We’ll be back tonight.] [I want beef stew for dinner. I want you to cook it yourself.] Sending those texts was just a way to buy myself time. …

🌟 Continue the story here 👉🏻 📲 Download the “MotoNovel” app 🔍 search for “391833”, and watch the full series ✨! #MotoNovel

My psychotic husband loved me more than life itself. To get me pregnant, he worked at it every single night for eight years. On the day I went into premature labor, I was rushing to the hospital when I collided with a mafia boss’s wedding procession. The impact was so severe that my baby’s head was crowning. Yet, I saw my husband holding the bride, telling his lackeys nearby, “What terrible luck. Crashing my wedding and spilling blood. Bury her alive.” A group of men started kicking and punching my pregnant belly. My husband completely ignored my cries for help. Before he left, I heard him mutter, “Pregnant women are the most annoying. They never stop making a scene.” … “Was she attacked by terrorists?! How could a pregnant woman be bleeding this heavily without her husband looking after her?!” “The situation is critical! It could cost both their lives! Notify the surgeons immediately for emergency surgery!” The obstetricians couldn’t fathom what I had endured upon seeing my horrific state. They never would have guessed that my own husband was the one who ordered me to be brutalized like this. Before today, I had absolutely no idea that Arthur Sterling was a mafia boss in T-country. He ordered his men to kick and punch my stomach. While I whimpered for help, he was only worried I would jinx his wedding. “Seeing blood is the worst taboo for a wedding! Such an auspicious day ruined by this unlucky trash.” He quickly ordered them to drag me to the back of the mountain. Then, he held the other woman’s hand tightly. “Don’t be afraid. I’ll take you to the temple to cleanse the bad luck later.” My heart felt like it was tearing apart. It seemed my bleeding and miscarriage were the greatest desecration of their wedding. Weren’t you the one who begged for this child every single night? If only you had looked back, you would have recognized me. Arthur wished my unborn child and I wouldn’t make a single sound, so we wouldn’t pollute their wedding. I desperately shielded my stomach, but it only made them more excited to abuse my unborn child. When Arthur first married me, he treated me like his most prized possession. I was with him for eight whole years. To have a child, he worked at it every night. When he found out I was pregnant, he wept tears of joy. Why are you now killing our child with your own hands? Lying on the freezing operating table, surrounded by the clinking of cold surgical instruments, every sound tortured my nerves. I wondered if it was possible that Arthur had seen my message about going into premature labor and was looking for me. Just then, a familiar voice reached my ears. “Hurry! Save my wife!” I thought Arthur had remembered me. With great effort, I lifted my heavy eyelids and looked through the glass door of the delivery room. But I saw Arthur frantically holding the bride’s pristine white arm, burning with anxiety. Meanwhile, the hospital had been trying to contact my family, but his phone was unreachable. “Are you okay? I told you to let the subordinates handle those things! What if it leaves a scar?” As he spoke, Arthur’s voice actually trembled. So he could cherish another woman this deeply, yet leave me, heavily pregnant, home alone. The reason I couldn’t reach him was probably that he was afraid I’d interrupt his wedding… And I, rushing to the hospital because of premature labor, was bruised all over by the beating Arthur ordered. I had held on this long solely by the sheer willpower to give birth to this child. “Are there no obstetricians available?!” Lying under the pale lights of the operating room, I couldn’t even speak. I could only feel the tearing pain and my blood slowly draining away, but there was no doctor to deliver the baby. “Still can’t reach the family? How could a pregnant woman go into premature labor without anyone looking after her?! This is a high risk for both mother and child!” Because there was no signature, the doctors didn’t dare proceed with the surgery. “There’s no time for signatures! Push her into the OR and have the surgeons perform emergency surgery!” My consciousness blurred. I couldn’t make out the faces around me. Vague, dark shadows flashed past, like demons from hell coming to claim my life and my child’s. “That woman who crashed the wedding today seems to be in this hospital too,” the bride exclaimed, hearing the commotion. “Why isn’t she dead yet? I should have ripped her head off right then and there,” Arthur cursed viciously. Couldn’t reach the family? The man cursing me and my unborn child to die at the end of the hallway… Wasn’t that my unreachable husband? In that moment, Arthur seemed utterly rotten to me. Medical care in this area wasn’t advanced, and this hospital was remote. I could feel that the temporary surgeon called in wasn’t very experienced. “The head is out! The baby is still alive! Quick! Push!” Hearing the baby was alive reignited my hope. But at that critical moment, Arthur’s harsh voice rang out from outside. “Quacks! You’re all quacks! What do you mean ‘minor cut’?! She’s bleeding so much! What if she gets tetanus?! Call all the surgeons out here immediately!” Someone objected, “You can’t. Some doctors are delivering babies, they can’t be interrupted.” My heart felt pierced by a sharp knife. I only hoped Arthur would let me and the baby be, so I could give birth safely. If only for the sake of the eight years we spent wanting this child together. Bang— Then I heard a gunshot echo through the hospital. Followed by Arthur’s low roar: “Get all the doctors out here right now! Now!” The next second, the operating room door was violently thrown open. A subordinate next to him whispered to the second-in-command, “Boss… isn’t this the woman in the photo in the Big Boss’s wallet? The Big Boss has a wife back in the US. Could this be her?” The subordinate was quickly silenced with a glare and a low reprimand, “Do you think the Big Boss wouldn’t recognize his own wife?! We just follow orders!” Through the glass door, I could just make out the bride’s blurry face. I remembered. She was Arthur’s “first love.” People in our circle used to say Arthur only married me to spite her. But his crazy obsession with me after we married made me believe he truly loved me. My baby was stuck in the birth canal. I could feel him kicking inside me, trying to use his own strength to be born. I could feel his vibrant life, but his presence was growing weaker and weaker. He had always been playful in my belly, constantly kicking me with his tiny feet. I had imagined his face countless times. But because there was no doctor to deliver him, he eventually stopped struggling. Outside the delivery room, over a dozen doctors swarmed around the woman in the wedding dress. Fussing over a cut on her hand that was less than four inches long. The man orchestrating all this was my husband. Hearing there was a baby waiting to be delivered inside, Arthur sneered, “It’s just a pregnant woman. If she dies, she dies. If the husband isn’t even around during pregnancy, nobody wants the kid anyway. Hurry up and give my wife some painkillers!” With that, his gaze returned to Mia’s wound, blowing on it and licking it, his heart aching for her. Yes, a pregnancy where the husband isn’t around, a child no one wants. I looked outside the delivery room at the seemingly perfect newlyweds. Their happiness was blinding. It was as if I was just a damned, buzzkill pregnant woman. In fact, Arthur would probably be happier if the child died. Thinking of this, despair soaked through every bone in my body. Outside the delivery room, Mia’s wound was bandaged and practically healed. “It doesn’t hurt anymore! Thank you, Arthur~” Mia’s voice was delicate and soft. “Arthur~ I heard the placenta can boost fetal development~ Did you forget~ I’m carrying your baby too~” “Go, rip her placenta out, dry it, and prepare it for Mia’s medicine,” Arthur ordered with disgust. “If she’s too incompetent to give birth, she deserves to die.” Next, two heavily tattooed men walked in. I lay numbly on the bed, despair leaking from the corners of my mouth. I didn’t even have the thought of struggling anymore. After entering the delivery room, the subordinate from earlier said to the second-in-command, “I really think this woman is the Big Boss’s wife. Should we ask him? They look exactly alike.” He was immediately scolded, “Are you stupid? Even if she is his woman, she’s just a breeding machine. He probably got tired of her and did this on purpose. Didn’t you see how frantic he was for Mia? If it was true love, he wouldn’t have left her alone late in her pregnancy! Do you think that’s possible?” With that, they violently ripped my baby out, forcefully tearing the connected placenta. Just because Arthur wanted to use my placenta to safeguard his bride’s pregnancy. It hurts… It hurts… It really hurts… Even though the pain had numbed me, watching my suffocated baby thrown onto the floor… I couldn’t stop the tears from streaming down my face. He looked exactly as I imagined: a tiny nose, pursed lips, fuzzy hair, and faint eyebrows. He was so small, so pitiful. Yet, because of his father, he never made it into this world. As my heart turned to ash, Mia leaned in close and whispered: “That’s what you get for hogging Arthur for so many years.” I caught the provocative smirk on Mia’s lips, a shockwave exploding in my mind. She knows me?! “That’s what you get for getting pregnant with Arthur’s baby before me. The baby is dead, isn’t it?” With that, she turned to Arthur with a pitiful look. “Arthur, let’s wait a little longer before leaving~ This person is so scary, she keeps staring at me. Why don’t we just cremate her?” “Burn her, so she doesn’t scare you.” Arthur affectionately patted Mia’s head. “Mia, you distribute the bonuses to the brothers later in the wedding. I won’t go.” “Your sister-in-law is heavily pregnant at home. This godforsaken place in T-country doesn’t even have a decent obstetrician. If she goes into premature labor and ends up with a surgeon delivering the baby, my heart would break.” When we first came to T-country, Arthur insisted on bringing me because he didn’t want to leave me alone. How did it end up that he killed our child with his own hands… After speaking, Arthur finally turned his phone on to check the messages I sent. I don’t know who stepped on my baby, but he was flattened against the floor. “That fetus is so disgusting. How could you step on it? The head is squished. You scared Mia.” As he waited for his phone to boot up, he covered Mia’s eyes. Suddenly, Arthur looked as if he’d been struck by lightning. Ignoring Mia in her wedding dress, he spun around to rush back. Using every last ounce of my strength, I ripped off the heirloom jade Arthur gave me and threw it at him. Crash. The white mutton-fat jade shattered into pieces. Arthur, who had been desperately rushing back, froze when he saw the jade. He closed the distance to my window in three strides. The moment our eyes met, he looked as if he had been struck by lightning again. “Why are you here?! Why are you here?!” Arthur’s eyes darted frantically across my face. He couldn’t believe the pregnant woman he ordered his men to beat was me. And when he noticed the flattened baby in the corner… Arthur burst into tears, trembling as he gathered the baby into his arms. “I tried for eight years for this child! I really didn’t know it was you! Chloe!” Arthur fell to his knees, his eyes reflecting a maddening agony. He collapsed onto the floor, slapping himself repeatedly in remorse, sobbing uncontrollably. “Chloe! How could this happen?! How could this happen?!” Arthur screamed like a madman, clutching the baby. He never imagined that the bleeding pregnant woman he found so unlucky at his wedding was his own wife. Right. How could he have known it was me? When I was hit by the wedding car, he never even thought to verify my identity. He just saw me bleeding everywhere and thought I ruined his luck. From beginning to end, he only had eyes for the woman next to him. He never even considered checking who I was. While I was home alone late in my pregnancy, he was busy marrying another woman. He even turned his phone off, afraid my calls would interrupt his wedding. And when I lay bleeding out in the delivery room… Hearing Arthur’s voice, I was initially filled with hope. But it was only because Mia scratched her hand with a box cutter. In that moment, Arthur was completely dead to me. But in the end, when I just wanted to give birth to my child, he dragged my doctor away. Causing my baby, who could have lived, to suffocate in my womb. I just stared blankly at Arthur. He was still wearing the groom’s suit he wore to marry Mia. Seeing my scrutinizing gaze, he hastily stripped off the suit jacket, pulled the ring off his finger, and clung desperately to the dead fetus, hoping to earn my forgiveness. “Chloe, I’m sorry! I never thought you’d go into premature labor! I didn’t betray you! I was just the best man! It was one of my men getting married!” Best man? I found it hilarious. Even at death’s door, Arthur was still making excuses. Pfft— Another gush of blood spilled from my mouth. That cold, ruthless face was frozen right in front of me. I watched his expression shift from shock to confusion, then to contorted agony. “Hurry! Hurry! Save my wife! Hurry up!” Arthur suddenly seemed to lose his mind, waving his gun at everyone around him. “If you don’t save her, you all die!” He held everyone hostage like a maniac, just like he had held the surgeon hostage for Mia earlier. Arthur’s reaction hit like a bombshell, leaving the doctors and his subordinates completely bewildered. What was going on? Who exactly was the boss’s wife? Didn’t he just drag the delivering doctor away to bandage the bride’s cut? Why was he acting crazy now? And he had his men rip the baby out of the pregnant woman, even letting the baby’s head get crushed. I watched Arthur kneel frantically by my operating table. He grabbed my hand, trembling all over. “Don’t die! Chloe! Why is it you?! Don’t die! Why didn’t you call me?! Chloe!” Suddenly remembering something, he knelt on the floor and slapped himself furiously. Everyone was stunned. Was this crying, self-slapping man really the arrogant, ruthless mafia boss from moments ago? Maybe I should help him remember why I didn’t call him. I tried. I whimpered for help, but because he found me noisy, I was dragged to the back mountain and beaten by his men. My eyes met Arthur’s, mine filled with nothing but disgust. A cold smirk curled on my lips, while he looked maddened with pain. “What are you standing around for?! Do you all want to die?!” A broken look flashed in Arthur’s eyes. Unable to bear my mocking gaze, he raised his gun and fired two shots into the ceiling. The hospital instantly erupted in chaos. Everyone rushed to push me into the operating room. “The patient has lost too much blood…” The surgeon, seeing the operating room covered in my blood, rubbed his forehead. He wanted to say my chances of survival were slim, but remembering Arthur’s reputation, he swallowed the words. “Quickly request blood bags.” “Director, the hospital is facing a blood shortage. We don’t have enough in stock.” Arthur’s lips trembled. “Take mine! Take mine!” I found Arthur’s current state laughable. When he left me home alone late in my pregnancy, didn’t he think about what I would do if I went into premature labor? Yet, he still chose to give another woman a wedding and left me behind. Who was he putting on this crazy act for now? To hear me clearly, Arthur had to lean close to my ear. “What is it? Chloe?” “Your… blood… is dirty…” Hearing those words, his face looked as if he had been struck by lightning. With a trembling hand, I pointed at the child with the crushed head in his arms. Arthur looked as if he had been electrocuted. He used his sleeve to wipe the blood off the baby. He was the one who called the baby disgusting earlier, and now he was personally wiping it clean. His hands shook as he looked at the doctor. “Doctor, can this child be saved?” At this moment, he lacked his usual arrogance, replaced by a childlike confusion and innocence. Seeing him like this, the surgeon could only say, “He could have been saved originally, but his head was crushed.” In reality, the moment Arthur pulled the surgeon away during my delivery, the baby was already beyond saving. I was pushed into the emergency room. If possible, I wished I had never met Arthur. As I was pushed into the operating room and Arthur was blocked outside, I clearly saw him kneeling outside the door, clutching the baby. His tone was no longer arrogant, only filled with pleading. “I beg you, you must save her.” It seemed Arthur had always been arrogant since the day I met him. He had never bowed his head. This was the first time I saw him kneeling and begging. But every time the memory of Arthur ordering his men to beat me, or covering Mia’s eyes to protect her, flashed through my mind, a chilling disgust would rise from the depths of my heart. Because of a cut on Mia that was less than four inches long, he dragged away the doctor delivering my baby; the baby that could have been born was suffocated inside me; even though he pushed so hard, he still couldn’t make it into this world. In my eyes. Arthur was completely rotten to the core. While I was being resuscitated in the operating room, Arthur stared at the baby with the crushed head in his arms. He couldn’t understand it. Why? Why didn’t he go down to check when Chloe was hit by the car? He even wanted Chloe to die. Would she ever forgive him? Arthur fell into a deep panic. Chloe even said his blood was dirty right before being pushed in… His gaze swept the room, trying to find the culprit. Mia, who had just miscarried, hadn’t left. Seeing Arthur like this, she stepped forward to comfort him. “It’s okay, Arthur~ We can always have another baby.” But Arthur, who used to dote on Mia, now looked deranged. “Do you know? I wanted this child for eight whole years! Eight years! Why didn’t I look at Chloe’s face clearly?! Why?!” Suddenly, his gaze fixed on Mia’s face. “It was you! It was you! You killed Chloe’s child!” Arthur grabbed Mia by the throat. “They don’t know Chloe, but you do, don’t you?! Mia!” Mia seemed shocked that the man who was always so gentle to her had turned into this over a woman. She shook her head frantically. “I really didn’t recognize her! Did you forget? Ever since we broke up eight years ago, I’ve been in T-country!” “When we got out of the car, if you hadn’t suddenly distracted me, I would have seen Chloe’s face. When we got to the hospital, you threw a tantrum and called all the doctors out, right when Chloe was giving birth! Because of you! Chloe died! You’ve always hated blood, so why did you suddenly want to use a placenta to nourish your baby? Mia, it was you, wasn’t it?” Arthur looked like a demon crawling out of hell. It seemed if Mia didn’t confess, he would snap her neck. “Arthur, I was just jealous! Jealous that she got to keep you all these years! You only married her to spite me in the beginning! But later, whenever I wanted to see you, you refused, saying you had to stay with her! Arthur, did your feelings change?” “Pfft—hehe—” Hearing this, Arthur laughed lowly. “I love her. Do you understand?!” Bang— A gunshot rang through the hospital. Mia, who thought she had escaped death, was shot down. Arthur walked toward the second-in-command, aiming the gun at his head. “They didn’t recognize Chloe, but you definitely did, right?” “You’ve been with me for ten years. I really wonder how Mia convinced you. I seriously doubt if the baby in her stomach was even mine. Where’s the doctor? Do a DNA test on the baby in this woman’s stomach and this man.” While waiting. Arthur sat outside the delivery room again, holding the baby. “Number Three, go get a baby blanket. He’s going to get cold.” Everyone looked at Arthur like he was a madman. The baby in his arms was already stiffening, yet Arthur ordered someone to mix formula. He held a bottle and fed the baby in his arms, coaxing him, “Be a good boy, listen to Daddy. Don’t spit it up.” But how could a dead baby drink formula? Yet no one dared to make a sound. The atmosphere in the room was freezing. The boss’s wife was being resuscitated inside, and now they were waiting for Mia’s DNA results. Not long after, the doctor responsible for the DNA test brought the report, trembling as he handed it to Arthur. Arthur passed the report down, and the subordinates looked at it one by one. It turned out the baby in Mia’s stomach really belonged to the second-in-command. The second-in-command was truly bold. The boss asked him to take care of Mia, and he took care of her right into bed. Arthur laughed maniacally. He had almost ripped out Chloe’s placenta for this bastard child! It was because of this woman that he had reduced Chloe to this state! As long as they were dead, Chloe would definitely forgive him. Arthur waved his hand. A gunshot rang out, and the second-in-command fell to the floor. …

🌟 Continue the story here 👉🏻 📲 Download the “MotoNovel” app 🔍 search for “391832”, and watch the full series ✨! #MotoNovel

During my most innocent year, I kidnapped the aloof, pure campus idol in the middle of the night. Just as I was about to make my move, a barrage of floating comments suddenly flashed in my mind: [The female supporting character better know her place and let the male lead go! He belongs to our female lead!] [Don’t worry, the villainess is just a paper tiger. She doesn’t have the guts to actually do anything. She’s the only G-rated part of this whole R-rated novel.] [The male lead already hated her spoiled rich girl act anyway. Now he’s definitely going to despise her.] The more comments I read, the angrier I got. You tell me not to do it? I’m going to do it even harder. Since he hates looking at me, I’ll make sure he watches me enjoy myself. 1 Just yesterday, my childhood friend, Liam, publicly rejected my confession in favor of the innocent “white lotus,” Mia. Feeling thoroughly humiliated, and knowing that Mia secretly had a crush on the poor, aloof campus idol, Ethan, I angrily decided to become his sugar mommy. But Ethan turned out to be a tough nut to crack. He took the money but refused to be obedient. So, I had him kidnapped overnight, ready to teach him a lesson. Ethan was half-kneeling on the floor, his hands bound behind his back with my necktie. He had probably just taken a shower; water droplets were still clinging to his hair. His dress shirt was quickly becoming damp from the dripping water. I looked down at him from a position of power, enjoying his humiliated and angry expression. “Didn’t I tell you to ignore Mia? Why are you taking my money and not doing your job?” Ethan kept his face completely blank, staring at me expressionlessly. It was as if my words held absolutely no threat to him. I was so angry I almost slapped him, but seeing his god-tier face, I changed my mind. If Mia knew that the untouchable flower on a high peak she idolized was being trampled by me, it would be quite entertaining. I extended my foot, letting my toe slide slowly up from the open collar of his shirt. I maliciously patted his cheek. “If you’re going to be a kept canary, you need to act like one. Did you really think my money was that easy to take?” “Instead of acting tough here, you should be figuring out how to please me.” Ethan’s ears burned red, and he glared at me resentfully: “Chloe, don’t go too far.” I tilted my head and leaned in close, tapping my own red lips: “Think about your alcoholic dad, your sick mom, and your sister who needs tuition.” Ethan hesitated for a long time before finally choosing to submit. He closed his eyes in agony and slowly leaned toward my lips. Right at that moment, the floating comments suddenly appeared: [The female supporting character better know her place and let the male lead go! He belongs to our female lead!] I was startled and instinctively dodged Ethan’s kiss. The comments started scrolling faster and faster, a massive wave of information overwhelming me. I couldn’t believe that someone as beautiful and rich as me was actually just a female supporting character in a novel! The comments popped up again: [Ahhh, I hate these plots where the female side character bullies the male lead! Our male lead’s purity belongs only to the female lead!] [Don’t worry, the villainess is just a paper tiger. She doesn’t have the guts to actually do anything. She’s the only G-rated part of this whole R-rated novel.] [The male lead already hated her spoiled rich girl act anyway. Now he’s definitely going to despise her.] The more I read, the more furious I became. You tell me not to do it? Watch me. Since he hates looking at me, I’ll make sure he watches me enjoy myself. Out of pure spite, I planted a forceful kiss right on Ethan’s lips. 2 Ethan didn’t expect me to kiss him so suddenly and instinctively tried to pull back. I grabbed his head, refusing to give him a chance to escape, and slowly deepened the kiss. Clearly, neither of us had any experience; the kiss was clumsy. Soon, I was out of breath and pulled away. Ethan, however, seemed mesmerized and involuntarily chased my lips for a second. Realizing what he had just done, his face flushed bright red with embarrassment and anger. Panting slightly, I mocked him without holding back: “Your kissing skills suck.” Ethan’s body went rigid. He wanted to retort. But seeing my wet, glistening lips, he pressed his own together and said nothing. For some reason, a wave of heat washed over me and wouldn’t go away. Feeling flustered, I picked up the glass of milk nearby and took a sip. Accidentally, some milk spilled down my fingers. I held my hand up to Ethan’s lips with a look of disdain: “Lick it clean for me.” Ethan’s pupils shrank, and he stared at me in absolute disbelief. As if I had asked him to commit some heinous crime. I hated it when he took my money but still acted like some pure, untouchable saint. I frowned in displeasure and wiggled my pale, delicate fingers: “What? You don’t want to?” “If you don’t want to, you can get the hell out.” I could tell he was genuinely angry. The veins on his forehead were throbbing. The corners of his eyes turned a faint, alluring red, and his voice was hoarse and deep: “Chloe, you’ll regret this.” I ruthlessly shoved my fingers into his mouth, smiling wickedly: “Oh? Is that so? Then I’ll wait for the day I regret it.” “Today is just a little lesson. If you don’t behave, I’ll punish you like this again.” The comments exploded: [Tsk tsk, arrogant, radiant rich girl VS aloof, pure campus idol. I’m kind of shipping this.] [What are you shipping? The villainess is doing this; the male lead definitely wants to hack her into a million pieces.] [Exactly! I bet they’re going to have a Bad Ending. Anyone else want to place a bet?] 3 Early the next morning, when I ran into Ethan in the classroom, he looked at me like I was a complete stranger. As if last night had never happened. There were plenty of empty seats in the college lecture hall, and Ethan usually sat in the corner. He always put his backpack on the seat next to him, radiating a “do not disturb” aura. The girls around Mia were all encouraging her to go over and ask if she could sit next to him. I originally couldn’t be bothered, but the comments triggered my competitive spirit. [Just wait and see. The male lead only makes exceptions for the female lead.] [I remember it’s starting from today that they sit together often, and their relationship takes a huge leap forward, right?] While Mia was still hesitating, I walked straight over. Ethan looked up at me expressionlessly. I pointed at his backpack, signaling him to move it: “I’m sitting next to you from now on.” Ethan obediently moved his bag. As soon as I sat down, Mia’s eyes welled up with tears. The girls around her immediately swarmed over to attack me: “Chloe, why do you have to oppose Mia at every turn? Just because Liam rejected you doesn’t mean you can take your anger out on her!” “Yeah, exactly. She’s so jealous. The moment she saw Mia wanted to sit here, she immediately stole the spot.” Mia put on a show of trying to stop them, her voice thick with fake tears: “Don’t say that. Chloe sat down first. Don’t think so badly of her.” “Mia, you’re just too kind, that’s why people bully you.” “Right, exactly. You can’t just let people like her walk all over you.” I calmly placed my books on the desk, not even sparing them a glance: “Get lost!” “Who do you think you are…” “You get lost too!” Seeing that the class bell was about to ring, they finally scattered. “Whatever, don’t bother arguing with someone like her. You might get bitten.” 4 I realized early on that whenever Mia and I were in the same room, no matter what I did, people would criticize me. It was as if even my breathing was wrong. But whatever. I’ll just be the villainess to the bitter end. The comments debated amongst themselves: [The female lead’s plot armor is too strong. The villainess gets criticized for literally everything. Who wouldn’t be mad? No wonder she hates the female lead.] [What can you do? She’s not the female lead. She just has to take it.] [To the commenter above: Does the female supporting character not have the right to be respected? Does the whole world have to revolve around the female lead?] Because it was a boring lecture, I accidentally dozed off halfway through. When I woke up, I realized I was resting my head on Ethan’s arm. Seeing that his arm was a bit stiff, I apologized awkwardly: “Sorry. You could have just woken me up.” Ethan looked at me, a flicker in his eyes, and said flatly: “Don’t misunderstand. I just noticed that when you weren’t resting on my arm, you snored so loudly you were disrupting the class.” I scratched my head in embarrassment, wondering since when I started snoring. 5 Normally, I would badger my childhood friend, Liam, into having lunch with me. But seeing Mia next to him, I instantly lost interest. Before Mia showed up, Liam was really good to me. So good that I thought he liked me too. But after my confession was rejected, I realized the truth: just like he said, he only saw me as a little sister. As I walked past them, Liam instinctively and somewhat impatiently moved to make room for me. When he saw me sit down next to Ethan instead, his gaze froze for a second. Because we weren’t far apart, I could clearly hear them talking. “Liam, Chloe probably sat over there just to get your attention. Do you want to call her over?” “Ignore her. She’s always been spoiled like this. In a few days, she won’t be able to take it anymore and will come back on her own.” I felt absolutely nothing hearing these insignificant words. Instead, I looked with slight disgust at the bland food on Ethan’s tray: “You have money now, why are you still being so frugal?” Ethan kept his head down, eating without looking at me: “Habit.” I proactively pushed my tray toward him: “But I like my canaries to have a little more meat on their bones. You’re a bit too skinny.” Ethan choked violently, his ears turning an unnatural red. He lowered his eyelids and asked, seemingly casually: “Are you only treating me this well to make Liam mad?” I had nothing to hide from Ethan, so I told the truth: “To be exact, it’s to make Mia mad.” “But…” Ethan looked up, watching me curiously: “But what?” I suddenly leaned in closer and lowered my voice: “If you feed me a bite, I’ll tell you.” Ethan awkwardly turned his head away: “Boring.” I raised an eyebrow noncommittally. I contentedly enjoyed the sight of Mia, sitting a short distance away, biting her lip and looking as if she had suffered a massive injustice. In short, if she’s unhappy, I’m happy. When school ended, a torrential downpour washed over the previously sunny sky. Just as I walked out the school gates, the comments flashed again: [Ooh, is the equipment room scene with the male and female leads happening this soon?] [Both of their clothes are soaked from the rain. In a confined space, it’s impossible not to have some sparks fly.] [Exactly. After this, the male lead can’t stop dreaming about the female lead.] I changed direction and headed straight for the equipment room. 6 Sure enough, as soon as I walked in, I saw a soaking wet Ethan. His white dress shirt clung to his lean waist, outlining the sexy lines of his abs. As expected of the male lead—looks slim with clothes on, but muscular underneath. Perhaps my scrutinizing gaze was too direct. Ethan shifted uncomfortably into the shadows: “What are you doing here?” I walked up to him and waved the umbrella in my hand: “To take you home, obviously.” Just then, footsteps suddenly echoed from outside. Ethan grabbed me and pulled me behind a vaulting horse. We were so close our skin was practically touching. I looked at him, amused: “We have nothing to hide. Why are we sneaking around?” Ethan seemed to realize this too and instinctively tried to push me away and step out. Taking advantage of the movement, I hooked my arms around his neck. Hearing Mia’s voice, I mouthed the words to him: “Kiss me.” Ethan’s entire body went rigid, his heart beating wildly against my chest. Seeing he still wasn’t moving, I wickedly nipped his prominent Adam’s apple. Ethan clenched his fists, the veins on the back of his hands bulging. Perhaps afraid I would do something even more outrageous, he compromised, lowering his head and pressing his lips to mine. Feeling the cold touch of his lips, I pried open his tightly pressed mouth, guiding him to kiss me deeper. In the quiet equipment room, the sound of our breathing slowly grew heavier. Mia, standing a short distance away, clearly noticed something was wrong and called out in our direction: “Is anyone there?” I didn’t want her to see us being intimate just yet. Hearing the approaching footsteps, I proactively tried to back away. But Ethan wrapped an arm around my waist, leaving me no room to retreat. I panicked and frantically threw his jacket over our heads. Unfortunately, the jacket was too small and only covered Ethan. Mia recognized me almost immediately. “Chloe, you!” A camera flash went off, and Mia ran out of the room. Ethan had gone a bit too far this time. I had to bite his lip hard to get him to release me. The comments exploded: [Holy shit, I looked away for a second and the male lead and the villainess are kissing?! And the female lead saw them?!] [Did you guys see how lost in the moment the male lead looked? Could he actually be falling for the villainess?] [What nonsense! The villainess obviously forced him, okay?] I pushed Ethan away, annoyed: “You were very disobedient this time.” “What, are you going to teach me another lesson like last time?” If Ethan hadn’t brushed past my shoulder as he walked out, I almost would have thought I was hearing things. Did those words actually just come out of his mouth? 7 Early the next morning, two things happened that seriously pissed me off. First, the photo of Ethan and me kissing had been circulated. Because his face was covered by the jacket, a lot of nasty rumors started flying around. The underlying message was that I was promiscuous and lacked “female virtue.” To be fair, why wasn’t anyone saying the guy lacked “male virtue”? Second, Liam came up to me with a dark face and demanded an explanation: “Chloe, who is the guy in the photo? Why were you kissing him?” “Just because I rejected your confession? Do you have so little self-respect?” Mia chimed in, trying to play peacemaker: “Liam, even though Chloe moved on a bit quickly, she has the right to like other people!” Liam’s face grew even colder. His dark eyes stared at me intently. It gave me the creeps. I met his gaze head-on, my tone defiant: “Since when do I have to report my relationships to you, my ‘big brother next door’?” “You’re overstepping! And don’t think you’re that important to me.” With that, I turned on my heel and walked away. I could feel his burning gaze drilling into my back. He obviously didn’t like me, yet he still wanted to control me. It was completely ridiculous. Clearly, I had underestimated the butterfly effect caused by that photo. Even my professor was considering revoking my opportunity to enter a major competition. Feeling frustrated, I sat in a small bar, drinking. I don’t know how Ethan found me. He didn’t do anything; he just sat silently beside me. I think I was genuinely drunk. I hugged him and kept asking over and over: “Ethan, am I really a bad person? Why does everyone assume the absolute worst about me?” By the end, I couldn’t tell if it was my imagination or if he actually said: “You’re wonderful.” 8 When I woke up again, I stared in deep thought at Ethan, who was lying next to me, bare-chested. The hickey on his neck didn’t look fake. The scratch marks on his body didn’t look fake. And the comments discussing it definitely weren’t fake: [Are you saying the villainess unleashed her inner beast yesterday and pinned the male lead to the bed and kissed him?] [If the villainess has any conscience left, she should buy the male lead a new shirt. That perfectly good shirt was ripped to shreds.] [All the steam was supposed to be with the female lead, and now only the villainess is getting any action!] As soon as I turned on my phone, Liam’s missed calls nearly blew it up. I had 99+ unread messages on WeChat. Feeling a sense of dread, I clicked into my “Moments.” Nine photos showing Ethan and me kissing from every possible 360-degree angle were sitting right there. The caption was: [So what if we kissed? I kiss whoever I want! I kiss whoever I want!] While I was still reeling from shock, Ethan calmly stood up and started putting on his shredded, rag-like shirt. I facepalmed: “Don’t wear that. Stay here, I’ll go buy you some new clothes nearby.” Thank goodness it was the weekend, and I wouldn’t run into anyone I knew… I stared speechlessly at Liam, who was sitting by the door with dark circles under his eyes. “What are you doing here?” The comments were having a field day: [Did this guy sit outside the door listening to the villainess and the male lead hook up all night? Is he traumatized?] [Apparently he knocked on the door a few times, and the villainess literally pinned the male lead against the door and kissed him, telling Liam to get lost and stop ruining the mood.] [This idiot second male lead, why didn’t he take the opportunity to steal the female lead instead of hanging around the villainess?] Seeing his dark, silent gaze, I turned to leave. Liam grabbed my wrist, his eyes bloodshot as he looked at me: “Break up with him.” I pried his fingers off one by one, my voice icy: “If you have this much free time, go check on your precious Mia. Don’t interfere with my business.” When I got back, Liam was gone, and Ethan had cleaned the room spotlessly. I handed him the clothes I bought: “Once you’re dressed, you can go. I want to rest some more.” Ethan slowly buttoned up his shirt, looking at me with dissatisfaction: “Am I just a tool to you? You use me and then throw me away.” I spat out the water I had just taken a sip of. Liam was acting weird, and Ethan was acting even weirder. That sentence sounded completely wrong no matter how you sliced it. I rubbed my aching forehead and brushed him off: “You know we have a strictly financial relationship. What I did wasn’t out of line.” Ethan was clearly unhappy. He left with a dark expression on his face. 9 Since the “kissing gate” incident, everyone assumed Ethan and I were dating. But Ethan, holding a grudge over how I brushed him off, ignored me for days. In everyone else’s eyes, our relationship looked like I was just desperately chasing after him. Ding-dong. A notification popped up on my phone. It was a birthday party invitation from Liam. I couldn’t help but frown. I didn’t want to go, but the Liam and Chloe families were close. If I didn’t show up, my parents would definitely nag me. If this were the past, I would have spent so much time and effort picking out a gift for him. Now? Whatever. I’ll just buy something random. Who cares if he likes it or not. Mia showed up at the birthday party too. Coincidentally, we both bought him perfume. Except, she bought a woody scent, and I bought an aquatic scent. I sat quietly in the farthest corner, trying to make myself invisible. But Mia just had to call me out publicly: “Chloe, you’ve known Liam for so long, you couldn’t possibly not know he prefers woody scents, right?” Before I could say a word, Liam spoke up: “Mia, you’re talking too much.” I was confused. The comments were even more confused: [Oh my god, wasn’t today supposed to be the plot where the second male lead, desperate to get the female lead, drugs her with an aphrodisiac? Why does this situation look so wrong?] [Am I the only one who noticed the color of the red wine in the villainess’s hand looks a little off?] I stared at the half-empty glass of red wine in my hand, deep in thought. Why didn’t you guys wait until I was dead to tell me?! 10 Soon, I felt my body burning up and my mind growing hazy. Realizing something was wrong, I stumbled out of the room, heading for the restroom. Halfway down the hall, a hand suddenly yanked me into a storage closet. The closet was dim, but I clearly smelled the scent of cedar coming from behind me. It was Liam. He slowly pinned my hands behind my back, his voice hoarse: “Chloe, you’ve been really disobedient lately.” I panicked and struggled with all my might. “Liam, do you know what you’re doing?! Let me go!” Liam took off his glasses, brushed a strand of my hair aside, and took a light sniff: “I still prefer it when you call me ‘Liam’ like you used to.” “Liam, don’t cross the line. If you keep this up, I’ll scream—mmph!” This aggressive kiss was incredibly repulsive. I got vicious and bit down hard. The metallic taste of blood quickly filled both our mouths. But the harder I bit, the more into the kiss Liam became. Pain acted like an aphrodisiac for him. This was the first time I fully realized… He was a psychopath.

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On a reality show, I was driving my childhood-friend-turned-movie-star past a cemetery. The car stalled four or five times in the span of a mile. I lost my temper, got out of the car, and started screaming at the graves. Miraculously, the car didn’t stall again. My childhood friend quietly reminded me from the passenger seat: “It stalled the first time because you ran out of gas.” The next day, the top three trending topics online were: #TheMovieStarAndHisAngryAssistant #SeenPeopleFramedButNeverGhosts #Ghosts: LeaveUsAloneYouPsycho 1 Liam Vance and I grew up together. He became an A-list movie star, and I became his slacker personal assistant. When he was on set acting, I was sleeping. When he was on variety shows, I was sleeping. Once word got out, being Liam’s assistant became the most coveted job in the industry. A lot of Ivy League grads heard that the A-lister’s assistant just slept all day, so they started competing fiercely, trying to drag me down and take my spot. With so many jealous eyes on me at the agency, I felt a rare sense of impending crisis. Just like when we were kids, I cornered Liam against the wall, stood on my tiptoes, and raised a threatening fist. “Tell me the truth, are you going to replace me?!” Liam raised an eyebrow. He reached out, wrapped his hand around my fist, and pinned my arm above my head, leaning in to trap me between his body and the wall. When our faces were only inches apart, he drawled in a slow, lazy voice: “Who told you I was getting a new assistant?” Liam’s dark eyes stared intensely into mine. His eyelashes were incredibly long. In that split second, my heart skipped a beat. My throat felt dry, and I inexplicably swallowed hard. I feigned composure, turning my head away. “Sooner or later, I’ll show them that I’m irreplaceable!” “Oh?” “Well, aren’t I?” Liam said it like it was an indisputable fact. But thinking about my actual job performance, I blushed in sheer shame. 2 Liam was invited to be a panelist on a workplace reality show. It featured professionals from all walks of life. Unfortunately, the show featured an absolutely perfect executive assistant named Sarah Sterling. She memorized all her CEO’s habits and preferences, organized documents with ruthless efficiency, and never procrastinated. She was the textbook definition of a corporate elite. A celebrity guest teased Liam: “Does watching her make you want to swap assistants?” Liam didn’t even pause to think. “Not considering it. I think my assistant is perfectly fine.” After the episode aired, Liam’s fans flooded his Twitter replies with photos. The first photo: Me drooling on a sofa while asleep on a movie set. The second photo: Liam handing me a coffee, looking at me with a helpless, fond expression, saying, “Wake up, shift’s over.” The third photo: Liam standing up, memorizing a script, while I sat next to him playing games on my phone and grinning like an idiot. The fans went wild: [THIS is your ‘perfectly fine’ assistant? The hierarchy is completely upside down!] [Listen to us, Liam! You’re an A-lister now, it’s time to upgrade your staff.] On the show, Sarah subtly hinted that if Liam wanted to poach her, she wouldn’t mind jumping ship. 3 People immediately smelled the drama. The CEO of Sterling Corporation publicly stated: “Sarah is my younger sister, and she’s a huge fan of Liam Vance. If she really jumps ship to work for him, as her brother, I can only give them my blessing.” Fans started desperately pleading with Liam: [Sarah is a corporate elite AND a CEO’s sister. Be smart, fire the slacker and hire Sarah!] [Exactly! With Sarah as your assistant, your career will hit the stratosphere.] [The little assistant needs to stop leeching off Liam and leave.] The internet was a bloodbath over this trivial issue. For the finale episode, the CEO of Sterling Corp specifically requested to meet Liam. Usually, Liam drove while I sat in the passenger seat eating snacks. But to avoid getting ripped apart online, I aggressively teleported to the driver’s side door. I yanked it open, started the engine, rolled down the window, and yelled at Liam: “Get in.” Liam leaned close to the cameraman. The cameraman, assuming Liam was about to serve some premium handsome B-roll, focused intensely, his hands steady as a rock. In the next second, Liam said: “My little assistant is always this hardworking. Tell me, if I don’t treat her well, where else could I find an assistant this good?” With that, he got in the car. The cameraman froze, looking thoroughly confused. 4 It was getting late, and we were driving past a large, desolate cemetery. The car stalled out four or five times. I finally lost it and slammed the car into park. Liam looked at me in a panic, but couldn’t grab me fast enough. I stormed out of the car and started screaming into the dark: “Alright, alright! Wake up, all of you, and listen to me! “I don’t care if you’re someone’s great-aunt, second cousin, or grandpa! I don’t care if you died last year or got buried today, I want to know what the hell your problem is! “You think just because Liam is nice, you can bully us?! It’s a one-mile stretch of road and you stalled my car five times! Is there no law and order in the afterlife?! “I don’t care who you are, back off right now! I’m starting this car, and if it stalls one more time, I’m digging up your bones to make soup!” When I got back in the car, Liam’s expression was incredibly complicated. I thought he was scared, so I patted his shoulder. “Don’t worry!” “The elders always say when you run into paranormal crap, you just have to cuss them out. You can’t show fear.” I turned the key. The car started perfectly and didn’t stall a single time until we reached our destination. I smirked at Liam. “See? Told you it works.” Right before we got out of the car, Liam looked at me and said quietly, “Actually, the first time it stalled, it was because we were out of gas.” The cameraman sitting in the back seat didn’t dare breathe. And me: “…” Oh, crap. Unsurprisingly, the internet exploded the next day. #TheMovieStarAndHisAngryAssistant #SeenPeopleFramedButNeverGhosts #Ghosts: LeaveUsAloneYouPsycho Netizens: [Oh man, if she can curse out a ghost like that, cursing me out would be a piece of cake.] 5 The incident trended for days. People were so curious that they purposely drove empty cars to graveyards at night to yell at tombs. They used the exact same speech I did. The result? The cops found dozens of people walking in circles around gravestones, looking exhausted with massive dark circles under their eyes. At the break of dawn, the cops stood there in total confusion as people hugged their legs, sobbing: “Officer, help! There are real ghosts!” If one person claims it, it’s a coincidence. If a whole crowd claims it, it’s a pattern. Since no one else successfully replicated my “method,” the internet decided I was a complete fake. [If this graveyard thing is real, I’ll eat literal garbage while doing a handstand!] [It’s obviously a PR stunt. Since when do personal assistants need PR stunts?] [Did you guys watch the show? Sarah is competing for her job. Sarah is amazing, so this useless slacker had to invent a viral stunt to stay relevant. It’s not that hard to understand.] Sarah Sterling posted on X: [I believe all high-level positions should be built on solid professional skills. Cheap gimmicks never last. My professional background is rock solid, so I think Liam Vance should consider my offer. I think we’d make a great team.] The implication was clear: I didn’t deserve to be Liam’s assistant. The CEO of Sterling Corp retweeted his sister, adding: [Anyone with eyes can see how outstanding my sister is. I will always be the ultimate financial backer for my sister’s idol-chasing dreams!] How interesting. I read the posts out loud, using a highly sarcastic tone toward Liam: “Wow, she’s the sister of a corporate CEO, and she’s so professional. If she became your assistant, she could take perfect care of you and bring in massive sponsorships.” I sighed, shaking my head dramatically. “Unlike me, who is just a complete waste of space.” Liam’s lips curved into a faint smile. “Who called you a waste of space? Is the emotional value you provide not valuable? In my eyes, eight hundred Sarahs wouldn’t equal one of you.” I knew Liam was just buttering me up. 6 Thinking back on our childhood, I clicked my tongue. “When the kindergarten teacher assigned arts and crafts, you did mine without a word. “Through all our school years, whenever it was our turn to clean the classroom, I stood to the side playing while you scrubbed the floors. “In college, you attended events to earn extracurricular credits for me. Even now at work, I’m just a salted fish. “Liam, why are you so good to me?” Liam raised an eyebrow, his gentle voice low and deep: “Because someone told me she was going to marry me, so I had to do all her chores.” He looked at me with a lingering, almost resentful gaze. I coughed dryly to cover my embarrassment. Okay, that did happen, but it was just dumb kid stuff. Liam and I had been neighbors since we were in diapers. When we were little, I watched a wedding on TV. I grabbed one of my mom’s silk scarves, threw it over Liam’s head, and declared: “Liam, you are the bride now. You have to marry me!” Little Liam’s usually stoic face turned red. His eyes sparkled, and he held my hand like a little adult. “No, you have to marry me.” I was too lazy to argue, so I threw the scarf over my own head and chirped: “Fine, I’ll marry you. But you have to give me all your snacks and do all the chores I don’t want to do.” Little Liam nodded seriously. “Okay.” It was an absolutely tyrannical contract, but Liam had strictly enforced it to this day. Hearing Liam bring it up, my briefly motivated heart immediately went back into slacker mode. “True. Why should I try hard? As long as I have you, I’m set.” Liam was wearing gold-rimmed glasses, making him look elegant and refined, but the gaze behind the lenses was burning hot. Seemingly very satisfied with my answer, he whispered, “Exactly. You just need to stay by my side.” Liam had always possessed an inexplicable possessiveness over me. I knew that. Growing up, any boy who tried to get close to me inexplicably distanced themselves shortly after. They all had one thing in common: they looked at Liam with pure fear. Other people might be scared of him, but not me. I was socially anxious and hated dealing with people anyway. His hovering suited me perfectly. 7 Liam was famous for his sharp tongue. Many netizens were furious that I was his assistant and demanded he fire me. Liam posted on X: [Are you paying my salary?] The translation: Why do you care? I’ll hire whoever I want. You’re getting way too comfortable trying to manage my personal life. His fans decoded the message and immediately pivoted to stand by his side: [Look, maybe our Liam’s assistant is a bit useless, but she’s cute! She’s easy on the eyes.] [So what if it was a PR stunt? People are bullying her right to her face; is she supposed to just take it? I support the little assistant!] Since I didn’t have any actual professional skills to brag about, the fans scraped the bottom of the barrel and settled on praising my face. Absolutely no one believed that my graveyard stunt wasn’t staged. Because the fans couldn’t find any solid arguments to defend me, they were racking their brains trying to fight off the haters. God knows they hadn’t even fought this hard for Liam before. Maybe it was a “love me, love my dog” situation. But the fans were ultimately losing ground to the haters, simply because there really wasn’t much to defend. The head of Liam’s fan club messaged their group chat: [Girls, my brain is about to explode.] I was secretly lurking in the fan group chat, absolutely terrified to say a word. 8 Furious at the rejection, Sarah Sterling went and became the assistant to Liam’s biggest rival. His rival was an actor named Carter Hayes. He debuted around the same time as Liam. But no matter the project, Liam always eclipsed him. The final nominees for Best Actor last year were Liam and Carter, and Liam took the trophy. So Carter had the industry nickname “Forever Number Two.” Since Carter couldn’t beat Liam in acting, he looked for other ways to win. The moment Liam posted his defense of me, Carter immediately signed Sarah. Sarah was bitter, and the two struck a deal. Carter posted a thinly veiled insult toward Liam: [Thank you to Mr. Vance for allowing me to hire such incredible talent. Mr. Vance might run his team based on ‘feelings,’ but I believe the world needs capable people. If everyone just relied on nepotism…] Carter left the thought unfinished, but it resonated with a lot of hardworking people online. For the first time in his career, Liam was hit with a massive wave of hate. [How did he even win Best Actor? Was that nepotism too?] [In this world, there really is no place for people who actually work hard, huh.] [If the assistant fakes paranormal stunts, the boss is probably a fraud too. A word of advice: don’t play with the occult for clout, you might actually get cursed!] I finally understood what it felt like to be completely unable to defend yourself. Liam’s manager, Brenda, came to see us. She knew about my relationship with Liam and both our family backgrounds, so she wasn’t worried at all. Liam raised an eyebrow, a bit surprised. “People are still offering me scripts in the middle of a PR crisis?” Brenda rolled her eyes at him. “Sorry, it’s not for you. The offer is for Chloe.” I whipped my head around, even more shocked than Liam. “Wait, for me?! Who?” Brenda said, “It’s for that insanely popular paranormal reality show, Maximum Hauntings. The number-one ranked expert on the show specifically asked for Chloe. Word is they’ve run into something incredibly dangerous.” Liam went silent for a moment. He gritted his teeth and asked, “I heard that expert is really handsome and in his early twenties?” Brenda nodded, completely hyped. “Exactly! A hot guy specifically requested our Chloe. She’s so lucky…” Brenda kept praising the guy. Liam’s face grew darker and darker. I could tell he was about to explode.

🌟 Continue the story here 👉🏻 📲 Download the “MotoNovel” app 🔍 search for “391830”, and watch the full series ✨! #MotoNovel

The day before I was set to study abroad, I went to say goodbye to my aloof childhood best friend. His face remained entirely expressionless. He merely asked which university I was attending, then turned to leave. I pressed my lips together and eventually hid the confession gift I had prepared behind my back. Suddenly, lines of text began to float in the air right in front of me, like a live-stream comment section. [Female Lead, hurry up and confess! He’s absolutely crazy about you!] [He’s playing so hard to get. Pretending to be all cold and indifferent to her face, but secretly crying his eyes out at home all night.] [Wait, wasn’t it because the female lead was leaving him that the male lead snapped, followed her abroad, and then locked her up in a basement?] [OMG! Are we jumping straight from pure romance to forced confinement?!] 1 Startled by the floating text, I instinctively called out his name: “Ethan, wait a second.” The figure walking away stopped. He slowly turned around and asked, “Is there something else?” He looked completely indifferent. On the continuously scrolling text above him, the word [Confess] kept appearing, making me dizzy with a sudden burst of courage. I brought the gift hidden behind my back out to him. “Ethan, I like you. I have for a long time.” Ethan’s expression froze, and the scrolling text halted as well. “Your birthday was a few days ago, and I had this gift picked out ages ago, but…” My smile was tinged with bitterness. “If I don’t give it to you now, I might never get another chance.” Ethan’s face was hidden in the shadows, his expression unreadable. I lowered my head, staring at the ground, feeling a burning heat spread across my ears. On the ground, as if thawed, the comments started scrolling frantically again. [Wait, did my internet lag? Did I miss a crucial plot point? Why does the female lead suddenly have a mouth and know how to use it?!] [I’m just as confused. O_O] [Something’s wrong! Something’s very wrong! Based on how hard the male lead simps for her, shouldn’t he be thrilled she confessed? He should be announcing he’s buying out the whole airport today! But look at his face…] [To the person above, do you remember what happened on Ethan’s birthday? The female lead ran off early with the second male lead!] [Oh, I remember! The male lead wanted the female lead to blow out the candles with him, but he couldn’t find her. He got so mad his heart condition almost flared up!] His birthday! Reminded by the comments, the memory suddenly clicked into place. That day, I had stuck close to Ethan, chatting and trying to make him smile. But he seemed completely distracted, like something very important was weighing heavily on his mind. I got so mad that I deliberately dragged an upperclassman outside to get some fresh air. By the time I cooled down and went back inside, the private room was completely empty. So, he had gone looking for me later. [Actually, based on my years of reading web novels, Ethan was probably planning to confess that day, but the main character ran off with some random guy halfway through!] [The commenter above is right. I saw Ethan secretly blowing up heart-shaped balloons. He blew up twenty of them all by himself, and stuffed a ring inside every single one.] [Tsk, so pure and innocent!] Rings? I snapped my head up, looking at Ethan. He was staring at me expressionlessly. After a long time, he let out a mocking chuckle. “You like me? How do you plan to prove it? “Hmm? Chloe, how exactly do you plan to prove that you like me?” 2 All my previous soft-heartedness and affection vanished into thin air at his cold interrogation. I took a sharp breath and glared furiously at Ethan. He looked back at me with complete indifference, as if he were looking at a complete stranger who had nothing to do with him. [Oh no, our precious Chloe is going to run away angry again!] [Ethan! You have a perfectly good mouth, why can’t you just use it to talk properly?! Go home and cry about it later!] [Alright everyone, nothing to see here. The plot is returning to its original track—imprisonment and forced love!] Just as I was about to turn around in anger, seeing the comments predict my exact move actually made me feel too embarrassed to leave. My gaze returned to Ethan’s face. It was an incredibly pale and beautiful face. He had narrow, elegant eyes with an upward tilt at the corners, giving him a somewhat classical look. I don’t know if it was the comments influencing me, but I genuinely thought I saw a faint hint of red around the beautiful corners of his eyes. I sighed, took two steps forward, and tilted my head up. At this moment, the distance between us was incredibly close. So close I could almost feel his breath. He lowered his eyes, looking at me in confusion, his pure black pupils reflecting my figure. I cheered myself on frantically in my head, then suddenly leaned in and pressed my lips against his. Cool, soft, and slightly trembling. That was the immediate sensation Ethan’s lips gave me. To be honest, in all my years of life, I had absolutely zero kissing experience. I only knew to press my lips against his; I had no idea what came next. I froze against his lips, feeling the deafening heartbeat of the person in my arms. There was no sound of breathing. He had forgotten to breathe too. I don’t know how much time passed before he suddenly took a step back, staring at me with an unreadable expression. “What is the meaning of this?” His entire face was bright red. He was already very fair-skinned, so he flushed easier than most. Even the back of his neck, visible above his collar, held a faint pink hue. My mood instantly soared. I grinned at him and said, “Didn’t you want me to prove I like you? Is this enough?” “Or… how about this?” Deeply encouraged, I stepped forward again, cupped his face, and planted a loud, wet kiss right on his lips. “If you still don’t believe me, I’ll tear up my plane ticket right now, okay?” I wrapped my arms around Ethan’s neck and said softly, “I’ll just stay by your side. I’ll go wherever you go, until you believe me.” Before I even finished speaking, Ethan violently ripped my arms from his neck and glared at me furiously: “Chloe, are you done messing around?!” 3 He pushed me so hard I stumbled violently, barely managing to steady myself. I looked at him in absolute shock, not understanding why the mood had taken such a sudden, sharp nosedive. [Keep pushing it. Keep acting up, male lead. This is exactly how you lose your wife.] [Chloe finally gathered the courage to confess, and this is what he does?!] The comments echoed exactly what I was feeling. I gritted my teeth tightly, refusing to let the humiliating tears fall. He remained completely oblivious, his voice still icy as he said, “Chloe, do you really like Alex that much? Do you like him so much that you’d stoop to pretending with me just so you could stay here and be with him?” I looked up at him in utter bewilderment. The tears lost their battle for control and fell anyway. [Huh?] [Bro Ethan, that one sentence just completely derailed me.] [Wait, does he think Chloe is confessing to him so she can stay in the country and sneak around with the second male lead?!] “And then what?” Ethan demanded coldly. “You’d stay here, date me, and still be with Alex on the side? And later, are you planning to marry me while cheating on me with Alex?” “Chloe, do you have any basic moral compass at all?! You truly disappoint me!” The angrier he got, the more the ambiguous pink flush on his face faded without a trace. [What an advanced train of thought. I don’t even know how to judge this…] [Everyone, does anyone remember that after his birthday, Ethan secretly told Chloe’s parents that she was dating some random bad boy? That’s what caused her parents to urgently pack her off abroad to study. So, it makes sense he’s thinking this way.] […] [As expected of a psycho. So manipulative.] I scanned the words on the comments, finally realizing that my parents throwing me out of the country was actually Ethan’s doing! The fury of being tattled on behind my back mixed with the sting of being rejected. Old grudges and new anger merged into a sea of fire that rushed straight to my head, and I instantly lost all rationality. “Believe whatever you want! Who wants to like a despicable coward like you anyway?! You think I can’t live without you?!” I fiercely threw the un-gifted present onto the ground, turned around, and marched away. [Sigh. It’s over again.] [And so, the story will inevitably head toward the imprisonment arc we’ve all been anticipating…] [Wait! What is he doing?! What is Ethan doing?] [Chloe, turn around quickly!] [Daughter! Turn around!] 4 Of course, I didn’t turn around, nor did I pay attention to the scrolling comments, because my face was completely covered in tears at that moment. Liar! They’re all liars! Who said Ethan liked me? Would someone who liked me yell at me like that? Would he question me like that? I bet he doesn’t like me one bit. Getting my parents to send me abroad was probably just so he could get rid of me once and for all. I wiped the tears from my face aggressively and walked into the security checkpoint. [Why is Bro Ethan still crouching there?] [Did Chloe’s gift break when she threw it? It looked like it was made of glass.] Those comments wanted me to see… that he was picking up the gift I threw? I pondered this internally, still not turning around, dragging my coat toward the boarding gate. [Something’s wrong! Bro Ethan is having a heart attack!] I snapped my head back. Through the glass, I saw a black figure curled up in agony on the exact spot we had been standing. It was Ethan. His face was deathly pale. His hands still tightly gripped the gift I had given him—a watch. But the glass face of the watch had shattered completely. The broken shards had cut his hand, and blood was staining the floor tiles of the airport terminal. I screamed in panic and immediately sprinted back toward him, but a security worker at the checkpoint stopped me. Through that pane of glass, I watched helplessly as people swarmed him from all directions. Soon, someone brought a wheelchair and wheeled him away. From beginning to end, his hands tightly gripped that shattered watch that had cut him so deeply. Only after he was taken away did I finally snap back to reality. The security guard looked at me with sympathy and gently reminded me that if I wanted to return to the main terminal, I could take another passageway. “No, I won’t,” I muttered to myself, wiping the tears from my face. “It’s useless to go back. He doesn’t believe I like him anyway.” 5 During the eight-hour flight, I drifted in and out of sleep. The comments never stopped chatting. From their text, I gathered a lot of information. First, if Ethan’s and my story were a novel, then we were destined for a tragic ending. In this story, I was a proud heiress who liked Ethan but was constantly wounded by his icy demeanor. To save my pride, I always pretended to be close with an upperclassman named Alex. Reading this, I felt a pang of guilt. Before this, I truly had used Alex many times. Whenever Ethan gave me the cold shoulder, I would drag Alex right in front of him, trying to hint that plenty of other people loved me. Alex was more than happy to play along. To be honest, I always believed that liking someone meant treating them well—wanting to buy them things I liked, wanting to be the first to share anything fun I encountered. So, I always thought Ethan’s coldness toward me all these years meant he didn’t like me at all, perhaps even found me annoying. But the comments said Ethan loved me to the point of madness. Instead, it was Alex who didn’t like me at all. He was only willing to cater to me because being with me meant he could skip twenty years of hard work. The comments also said Alex had a childhood sweetheart, and they were the main characters of another book. Once Alex climbed his way to the top of high society, he would dump me—the woman he used—and fulfill his childhood promise to marry his sweetheart. I didn’t want to believe what the comments said, but I had to. Because based on all the facts, everything they said was true. My mind was racing, my thoughts a tangled mess. Looking out at the clouds through the window, I couldn’t help but let out a long sigh. [Sigh, my poor daughter is getting all emo.] [Don’t be sad, Chloe. The real hard days are still ahead. When Bro Ethan completely loses it and locks you up, that’s when you’ll really have no one to cry to.] [Stop talking about it, it makes me want to cry. Why can’t two people who love each other just be together properly?] [Heh, because Ethan has an inferiority complex! He always felt his poor health made him unworthy of Chloe. He wanted to avoid her but couldn’t help getting close, and then he’d have a massive breakdown whenever he saw her with other guys. Honestly…] [Actually, you can’t really blame Ethan for his twisted emotional expression. He was raised by his cold, unsympathetic grandfather. He has no idea what love is; he only knows what possession is. Then, subconsciously, because he likes Chloe, he can’t bear to truly possess her. He went back and forth, agonizing over it until he broke himself.] Seeing this comment, I suddenly remembered when Ethan was little. 6 Ethan’s grandfather built the family corporation from scratch, but tragedy struck in middle age when his son and daughter-in-law both died in a car accident. Only young Ethan survived, but he was left with a severe heart condition as a consequence. Left as the only heir, his grandfather naturally valued him immensely, raising him to take over the family empire. But terrified of anything triggering his heart condition, his grandfather was incredibly overprotective, strictly forbidding him from experiencing any intense emotional fluctuations. Because I was Ethan’s friend, his grandfather allowed me to play with him. Every time I visited, he would instruct me to take careful care of Ethan. Originally, I was full of complaints about this. After all, we were both kids. Why did I have to take care of him? Besides, he was the older brother, and I was the younger sister; shouldn’t it be the other way around? But all that resentment vanished shortly after I saw Ethan. For one thing, Ethan was just too beautiful. I was instantly captivated by his looks on the spot. Secondly, Ethan was incredibly good to me. If there was delicious food, he let me pick first. If there were new toys, he offered them to me first. If I casually mentioned wanting to play the newest video game, he’d have it delivered to my house the very next day. When did things change? It seemed to be after my high school entrance exams. I asked him to hang out, but he didn’t show up. I didn’t see him for a long time after that. When I finally saw him again, I threw myself at him crying, saying how much I missed him. But he had become cold and distant. I felt confused and angry. From then on, we started a cycle of constant, petty antagonism. Until Alex appeared, which made his temper even more unpredictable. Pondering this, I took out my phone and texted my grandfather: [Grandpa, around the time of my high school entrance exams, was Ethan sick?] The signal on the plane was surprisingly good. A moment later, my grandfather replied: [That’s right. He had to undergo heart surgery during that time. He wouldn’t let me tell you. I remember you threw a tantrum crying for a long time.] He added another message: [Little Ethan’s health was very poor those few years. Once, I caught him secretly crying. He said he was afraid he would die and make you sad. Sigh, you two were so close back then. Who would have thought you’d grow apart as you got older.] Understood. I understood everything now. Back then, Ethan became cold toward me because he was terrified I would be heartbroken if I lost him, so he deliberately distanced himself. Since that was the case, I couldn’t help but wonder what changed his mind. What made him become the person the comments described—someone who would imprison me just to be with me? To be honest, I was actually looking forward to it a little. [Is it just my imagination, or does our daughter seem to have regained her fighting spirit?] [News flash! Even though Chloe’s plane hasn’t landed yet, Bro Ethan is already in A-City buying a manor! Friendly reminder: it comes with a luxurious basement.] [What?! Shouldn’t Bro Ethan be in the hospital right now?!] [Wow, this is intense! The imprisonment countdown begins now!] 7 Seeing that comment, I immediately sat up straighter. If he could travel alone to a foreign country to buy a manor, it meant his health must be fine right now. A huge weight lifted from my heart. As for the “imprisonment” the comments mentioned, I thought it was highly unlikely. Because I simply couldn’t fathom how someone who had so sternly rejected me just moments ago would suddenly want to possess me completely. It wasn’t until I got off the plane and arrived at my new place that I received a call from a friend. My friend said that when Alex found out my parents had sent me abroad, he quickly went to them to declare his loyalty, swearing he would never give up on me. And unfortunately, my parents were visiting Ethan in the hospital at that exact moment. Ethan had just woken up, only to hear Alex proclaiming his devotion to my parents right in front of his hospital bed, declaring he would marry no one but me. He even used Ethan as an example, saying how fragile life is, that someone could fall ill or meet a tragic accident any day, so one must seize the person they love while they can. According to my friend, Ethan turned deathly pale with anger. Without saying a word, he ripped out his IV, went straight to the hospital roof helipad, and demanded to be flown to A-City. After hearing my friend’s account, I was utterly speechless. It was hard to say whether Ethan was provoked by Alex or actually took the “life is fragile” part to heart. Regardless, if all this made Ethan finally realize what he wanted and decide to be with me, then I was very happy. I wanted him to be happy, to follow his heart and fight for the person he liked. If that coincidentally aligned with my heart’s desire, then that would be perfect. Filled with anticipation, I stepped onto campus and attended my first class. Even though I had been hastily thrown out of the country, my university and major had been carefully selected—it was Jewelry Design, my absolute favorite. The first class with the professor was very pleasant. Instead of starting with a lecture, he immediately assigned a project: to design a piece of jewelry to the best of our abilities, without considering any practical constraints. For some reason, I thought of Ethan’s birthday. I thought of the twenty-something rings hidden inside balloons that I never got to see. I decided to design a ring. I rolled up my materials and walked out of the classroom. As I was walking down the steps, the comments, which had been chatting about random things, suddenly grew excited. [Here it comes!] [Oh ho! Bro Ethan! Fresh out of the hospital bed and you’re already here lurking in the corners?] [Crawled right out of his hospital bed, flew on a plane, bought a massive estate, and came straight to stalk Chloe without even sleeping! Bro Ethan, with this level of perseverance, you could succeed at literally anything.] Seeing the text on the comments, I started to worry about Ethan’s health again. I was just about to walk toward him. Right then, my phone rang. In that instant, I felt the expression of Ethan, hiding behind a tree, turn incredibly dark. I looked down. The caller ID read: [Alex].

🌟 Continue the story here 👉🏻 📲 Download the “MotoNovel” app 🔍 search for “391829”, and watch the full series ✨! #MotoNovel

I was on the train when I got a text from my ex-boyfriend. “I have a new girlfriend now. I don’t want her to get the wrong idea, so let’s just delete each other’s numbers.” Wait, is this guy actually psycho? A second later, my roommate sent me a message. “I’m dating Liam now. You don’t mind, right?” Like hell I didn’t mind. I handed my phone to the guy sitting next to me. “Hey, handsome. Can you do me a favor?” 1 My phone buzzed. I opened it to see a text from Liam. “I have a new girlfriend now. I don’t want her to get the wrong idea, so let’s just delete each other’s numbers.” Wait, is this guy actually psycho? A second later, my roommate sent me a message. “I’m dating Liam now. You don’t mind, right?” I stared at the screen for three solid minutes. The silence in my head was deafening. Sarah was my roommate, and the main reason Liam and I broke up in the first place. She always styled herself as the “guardian” of our relationship, doing incredibly boundary-crossing things under the guise of “helping us.” When Liam was first pursuing me, Sarah volunteered to be his wingman, which she mostly used as an excuse to make him buy her dinner. Whenever Liam and I fought, she would stay up all night texting him, claiming she was just trying to mediate. She even picked out the birthday gift he got me. She made a point to ask me in front of our whole dorm: “Chloe, do you like the necklace? I went to the mall with Liam yesterday to pick it out.” “You picked it?” “Yeah! Liam told me he had no idea what to get you. I have great taste, right? You’re so lucky to have a roommate like me. Oh, by the way, we booked a table at Boom tonight for your birthday, you should go get ready.” I watched Sarah happily doing her makeup, then tossed the jewelry box onto her desk. “This necklace matches your dress perfectly. You should wear it tonight.” Then, I pulled out my phone and texted Liam to break up. Liam: “??? Are you serious? Why?” Me: “Because a relationship is for two people. Three people is a crowd.” 2 The train’s intercom announcement interrupted my thoughts. Looking at the back-to-back texts from those two, there was no way it was a coincidence. I could vividly picture them sitting together, gossiping about me, and hitting send at the exact same time. I was furious. After thinking for a second, I got an idea. I glanced at the guy sitting in the seat next to me. He had a black baseball cap pulled low over his face and headphones in, seemingly asleep. Would it be too rude to bother him? But faced with the choice between being polite or swallowing this disrespect, I chose to be impolite. I reached out and gently poked his arm. “Hi. Excuse me.” His cap slid up, revealing an incredibly handsome face. He was exactly my type. He didn’t look annoyed at all, just a little confused. I shamelessly held my phone out to him. “Hey, handsome. Can you do me a favor?” The screen showed Liam’s text. The guy frowned when he read it. I thought he was going to say no, but a second later, a knowing smirk crossed his lips. He took my phone, held the voice memo button, and said in a deep, casual voice: “Bro, who the hell are you?” He looked up at me, his eyes curving into a smile. “Is this the kind of favor you needed?” 3 “Yes! Yes!” I nodded frantically. This guy caught on so fast, I didn’t even have to explain the plan. “Thank you so much, man. You are as kind as you are gorgeous.” Damn my lack of a filter. Did I really just say that out loud? The smile in his eyes deepened. Suddenly, my phone started vibrating violently. We both looked down. A barrage of texts from Liam. “Chloe, who the f*** is that guy?” “Did you break up with me for him?!” Seriously? This guy was so delusional it hurt. “Oh, he’s triggered,” the handsome guy observed. A mischievous glint flashed in his eyes. He asked, “Do you want to make him even more triggered?” Huh? Before I could process it, he held down the voice memo button again. “Oops. Looks like we got caught.” He let go, sending the message. This guy was a professional menace. A second later, Liam called me. I was going to decline it, but I saw the guy next to me looking at my phone with the eagerness of someone wanting to watch the drama unfold. Fine, I’ll indulge him. I hit accept. “Chloe, who the hell is with you?!” Liam immediately demanded. A good Samaritan I met on the train. Obviously, I wasn’t going to say that. But since the guy was sitting right there, I was too embarrassed to claim he was my boyfriend. “Liam, why are you calling me? Won’t your new girlfriend get the wrong idea?” I asked innocently. Liam choked on his words. “I only texted you that because—” Before he could finish, he was cut off. “Baby, I don’t care what his new girlfriend thinks. But if you keep talking to him, your new boyfriend is going to get jealous.” The guy next to me had suddenly leaned in close, his warm breath ghosting over my hand holding the phone. Even though I knew he was acting, hearing him call me “baby” in that voice made my entire face turn bright red. “F***!” Liam cursed violently on the other end. “You played me, Chloe! No wonder you suddenly dumped me! You better hope I never find out who he is, or I’ll beat the shit out of him.” He hung up. What a psycho. 4 Having completed his mission, the handsome guy leaned back in his seat. He said sagely, “You won. Your ex is definitely more miserable than you are right now. No guy can handle thinking he got cheated on. Especially finding out after a breakup.” “You speak with such authority. Is it from personal experience?” The guy: “…” He turned to look at me, his face deadpan. “Do I look like someone who gets cheated on?” Deep eyes, a perfectly straight nose, and a flawless jawline. No. He looked like the kind of guy who handed out the heartbreak, not the one receiving it. “Thank you.” I genuinely thanked him from the bottom of my heart. If it weren’t for this Train Vigilante, I wouldn’t have been able to get the upper hand on Liam. Thinking about Liam and Sarah together still disgusted me. But remembering how triggered Liam just got made me feel a thousand times better. “Don’t mention it. Putting trashy exes in their place is every citizen’s civic duty.” …Such high moral standards. He had to be a college student. I asked tentatively, “Are you in college?” He nodded. “Yeah.” “Which one?” “A University.” What were the odds?! I gasped excitedly, “We must have shoveled manure together in a past life to have this much fate in this one!” The guy fell into a visible silence. “Miss, I don’t know about you, but I definitely did not shovel manure in any life.” He better realize I was just using internet slang. 5 Sarah and I got back to the dorm around the same time. The moment she walked in, she bee-lined for me, leaning heavily against my desk. “Chloe, why didn’t you text me back?” I did. I replied with silence. Sarah probed, “Are you ignoring me because you’re upset about Liam and me?” If she hadn’t brought it up, I would have genuinely forgotten. But since she was so obsessed with it… I picked up my phone, opened my chat with Sarah, and sent a “👍”. Me: “There, I replied.” “Chloe, what is that supposed to mean?” I looked up at her. “You asked me to reply. I replied, and now you’re mad?” Sitting nearby, our other roommate Mia snorted with laughter. “What are you laughing at?” Sarah snapped, turning her hostility toward Mia. “You,” Mia replied simply. Sarah ignored her and turned back to me. “Chloe, when you didn’t reply, I was so worried! I was terrified you were mad at me. I mean, you have every right to be mad, but I really don’t want to lose you as a friend.” Her voice got smaller and smaller, dripping with manufactured guilt. She always did this. Just like when we fought over her texting Liam all night. She had stood in the dorm, crying and apologizing. “Chloe, I just saw how unhappy you were fighting with Liam, so I tried to help! I was doing it for both of you. If you don’t like it, I’ll never do it again.” She had cried until her eyes were swollen and red. Even though she was the one completely violating my boundaries, she somehow made it look like I was being a crazy, unreasonable bully. “Chloe, I swear it’s true! I’ll show you the chat logs, we only talked about your relationship!” It was about our relationship. Liam: “Sarah, if Chloe was as sweet and understanding as you, we wouldn’t fight at all. She’s such a spoiled princess, she gets mad over nothing. I’m so sick of her sometimes.” Sarah: “Don’t say that about Chloe! I’m sure she has a reason for being mad. You probably did something to upset her. And anyway, I’m not as great as you say I am.” … Out of hundreds of pages of texts, she specifically made sure I saw those messages. It only made me angrier. I knew she did it on purpose back then. And I knew she was doing it on purpose now. 6 “Did you know? When Liam first confessed to me, I was so shocked, I rejected him immediately. But you really can’t control your feelings. I figured since you guys have been broken up for months, and he swore he had zero feelings for you anymore, I finally said yes. Liam said we should all grab dinner sometime as an apology. When are you free, Chloe?” I’m free never, because I’m afraid I won’t be able to resist smashing a plate into both of your faces. I started to reconsider my life choices. Had I been too nice? Was that why she thought I was a total pushover? I slammed my phone face-down on the desk. “Sarah, I’m not a target dummy. Stop shooting your arrows at me.” Sarah: “?” “Are you done putting on a show? When Liam and I were together, I didn’t want to call you out on your pathetic little schemes. I gave you too much grace, and now you actually think you’re untouchable. “Does picking up my trash make you feel special? Does dating my ex make you feel proud? “You came over here spewing all this garbage just so you could see me look sad and defeated. It feeds your ego. Sorry to disappoint, but I’m not as fake as you are, and I won’t give you the satisfaction.” She clearly hadn’t expected me to rip off her mask and expose her true intentions so bluntly. Sarah’s face turned the color of raw liver. Her voice shook. “Chloe… you’re being really mean today.” Me: “Well let me tell you, it’s not just going to be today. If you don’t like how mean I am, you can stop talking to me.” 7 Sarah stormed out in a huff, and my ears finally found peace. Mia gave me a massive thumbs up. “Girl, your combat power is off the charts today! You always used to just turn a blind eye to her.” I gave Mia a full rundown of what happened on the train. Mia slapped her thigh. “No way! Why don’t I ever meet gorgeous, helpful vigilantes on the train?!” …Was that really the main takeaway here? Mia was instantly invested. “He goes to our school? What’s his name? I’m searching the university confessions page right now.” She unlocked her phone. “Ethan Cole. Computer Science.” “People are literally begging for his info and posting pictures of him. Holy crap, he’s top-tier.” Mia shoved her phone in my face. It was a photo of Ethan, zoomed in to fill the screen. He was mid-shot on a basketball court, the muscles in his arms flexing perfectly. Under the red and white jersey, you could see a glimpse of a lean waist, defined abs, and… Mia sighed in awe. “You are eating good.” Me: “I haven’t eaten anything yet.” I pulled up Ethan’s WeChat profile. Wow. His feed was even cleaner than his face. Zero posts. I had no idea how to even start a conversation with him. Unlike me. My life was a mess, but my social media was highly curated. Mia asked, “By the way, are you still going to the Class President’s birthday dinner tomorrow?” Me: “Yeah, why wouldn’t I?” Mia: “I figured you wouldn’t want to watch Liam and Sarah aggressively making out in front of you.” Me: “They can eat each other’s faces. I’ll be eating the steak.” Mia: “I thought it would make you lose your appetite.” I looked at her, confused. “They’re just being annoying, they aren’t taking a dump on the table. Why wouldn’t I eat?” Mia: “…” 8 The next day, in the private dining room. “Liam, I gotta hand it to you. You managed to bag the two prettiest girls in our major. Got the old flame on the left and the new spark on the right.” “Yeah, Liam, tell us the truth. Who do you like more? The ex or the current?” A few drinks in, and people were already talking too much. I frowned. That was an incredibly disrespectful question. Liam didn’t answer immediately. He just looked over at me. When I met his gaze, he awkwardly looked away. A moment later, he threw his arm around Sarah’s shoulders, pulling her into his chest, and smirked at the table. “What do you guys think?” Sarah’s face turned bright red. She leaned into Liam’s chest, acting all shy and delicate. “Stop it, everyone is watching.” Then, she looked at me with fake magnanimity. “Chloe, don’t be mad. I’ll scold him for you.” Wait, why would I be mad? Can I just eat my food in peace? Stop dragging me into this! But there’s always someone who just wants to watch the world burn. “Chloe, you look really unhappy. Are you still not over Liam?” Me: “Not even a little bit.” “Don’t deny it, Chloe! We totally understand. Our guy Liam is a total catch, right?” Do these people not speak English? I looked at the guys making the jokes, and then at Liam, who was sitting there silently enjoying it. Four words popped into my head: Birds of a feather. I felt profound regret that I was ever blind enough to date Liam. It felt like stepping in dog crap. “Sorry I’m late.” Suddenly, the private room door swung open, and a familiar voice rang out. I looked over. It was Ethan Cole. Oh thank god! It’s Ethan! I shot up from my chair instantly. “You’re here!” “You’re here!” Two voices spoke at the exact same time. Me and the Class President. The President looked at me in shock. “You guys know each other?” So he was friends with the President. I was even more certain now that we definitely shoveled manure together in a past life. I nodded vigorously. “Yeah! He’s my boyfriend.” My eyes locked with Ethan’s across the room. I frantically sent him SOS signals with my eyes. He raised an eyebrow, a flash of surprise crossing his face. Then, the corners of his lips curled up into a slow, knowing smile. “Yeah. That’s right. I’m her boyfriend.” 9 After Ethan said that, the entire room went dead silent for a few seconds. The President was the first to break it. He looked thrilled. “Since when?! Why didn’t you guys tell me?!” Me: “Because keeping it a secret is more exciting.” The President was speechless. I looked at the guys who were just making fun of me, flashing them a sarcastic smile. “Do you really think that with a boyfriend looking like this, I’d be hung up on Liam?” At that moment, the expressions on everyone’s faces were absolutely priceless. Especially Liam’s. His face went completely dark. Mia was sitting next to me. When Ethan started walking toward us, she immediately jumped up and offered him her seat without a word. Ethan sat down, leaned in close to my ear, and whispered, “Which one is the ex?” Human nature is truly universal. Even he wanted the tea. I muttered, “Third one on your left.” I instinctively looked over, only to find Liam glaring daggers at us, looking absolutely furious. Ethan gave his assessment: “You have terrible taste.” …I literally could not argue with that. Sarah suddenly spoke up. “Chloe, you got a new boyfriend so fast! How come you never mentioned him in the dorm?” Still with the passive-aggressive tone, acting like she was the victim. I let out a loud, exaggerated sigh. “Because I was scared of you, obviously!” I grabbed Ethan’s hand and waved it in the air for everyone to see. “He’s very precious to me. I couldn’t risk you stealing him too.”

🌟 Continue the story here 👉🏻 📲 Download the “MotoNovel” app 🔍 search for “391828”, and watch the full series ✨! #MotoNovel

I secretly dated the boy next door for six years, and we were finally planning to go public. I was happily preparing a family dinner, hoping to surprise him, when I overheard a familiar voice coming from next door. “Ethan, your innocent first love is coming back. What are you going to do about the backup sister?” He didn’t say anything. As the silence stretched, another friend laughed: “I gotta say, Ethan’s got some serious charm. Even the Vance family heiress fell for him. He’s been enjoying all the perks of a devoted ‘little puppy’ for six years.” “Mia, that innocent little flower, she wants to wrap you around her finger the second she gets back. She even invited you to celebrate her birthday. If you show up with your backup sister, do you think she’ll regret leaving you?” … The next day, Ethan actually brought me to Mia’s birthday party, putting on a huge show of how deeply in love we were. But when Mia ran out crying, he shoved me aside and frantically chased after her. I went home covered in spilled wine and bruises, and climbed up to the attic he never allowed me to enter. The entire wall was plastered with photos of him and Mia! My heart turned to ash. I called my brother, who was living abroad. “Matt, I’ve thought about the arranged marriage. I agree to it!” 1. “Chloe, is everything okay?” The line was quiet for three seconds before my brother’s familiar, worried voice came through. A wave of warmth rushed over my heart, my nose stung, and I almost burst into tears. “What could possibly be wrong? It’s just… I saw the neighbor’s dog just had her second litter of puppies, and I’m still single. It’s not fair.” My brother burst out laughing, his tone lightening significantly: “Very ambitious of you!” “Wait, isn’t your neighbor Ethan Sterling? He’s been terrified of dogs since he was a kid. He has a dog now?” I was suddenly speechless, not expecting my brother to have such a good memory. Thankfully, he didn’t press the issue and got back to the point: “So, when are you coming back? Or do you want to meet him first before making a final decision?” I quickly replied: “No need. I trust you and Dad’s judgment. You guys start planning the wedding; I’ll finish things up here and head back immediately.” “Alright.” “Are you going to invite Ethan to the wedding? I heard his ‘innocent little flower’ is back. He might just end up getting married right after you.” So, everyone knew he was waiting for his innocent little flower. I was the only one kept entirely in the dark. I lowered my head, fighting back the sting in my eyes. “I’m not inviting him. We had a massive falling out.” My brother paused, instinctively asking, “Why?” “Because of their dog.” Just as I finished the sentence, I heard a noise at the door. I quickly hung up the phone. When I looked up, I met Ethan’s smiling eyes. “What dog? Who were you talking to?” “My brother. We were talking about your dog.” “I don’t have a dog.” Realizing I was taking a jab at him, Ethan didn’t get mad. Instead, he laughed and tackled me onto the sofa. “If I’m a dog, then what are you, huh? My little puppy?” I tried to push him away, but he grabbed my hand and pulled it toward his waist. “Isn’t this the ‘dog waist’ you like so much?” He leaned in closer, his breath brushing against my nose, almost kissing my lips. This level of intimacy used to make my heart race and my face flush. Now, it only made me feel uncomfortable and resistant. As I struggled against him, a clear row of teeth marks on his collarbone was revealed. I don’t know what scraped against the cuts on my leg, but it felt like they were being torn open again. The sharp pain made tears fall uncontrollably. Seeing me cry, Ethan immediately panicked. “What’s wrong, Chloe? Did I hurt you?” He helped me sit up and looked me up and down. Finally, he noticed the several bleeding cuts on my calf. His voice began to tremble with heartache. “How did this happen? How did you get so many cuts? Why didn’t you call me?” He seemed to have completely forgotten what happened at the birthday party. I stayed silent, unsure if I should remind him and rip off his mask of deep devotion. “Be a good girl, stop crying. I’ll put some medicine on it.” He kissed my forehead and got up to fetch the first aid kit. “You’re so bad at taking care of yourself. What would you do without me?” I stared blankly at his back. Yeah, what would I do without him? I chased after him for twenty-two years, and for the last six, we were inseparable. But Ethan, what I wanted was never a fake dream or a fake you! 2 I couldn’t sleep. Jolting awake from a nightmare in the middle of the night, I slipped out of Ethan’s arms and sat barefoot on the bay window, watching the moon. I must have dozed off at some point, because I woke up with a start when Ethan picked me up in the morning. He smiled helplessly: “Why are you sitting on the windowsill instead of sleeping in bed? And you’re not even wearing enough.” Before he even finished his sentence, his expression drastically changed. “Why are you burning up?” I felt groggy, my brain like mush, and I didn’t want to talk. I let his palm rest on my forehead, bringing a cool, comforting touch. His handsome brows furrowed. He wrapped me in a blanket and silently started changing my clothes, maneuvering my limbs to get me dressed. I weakly raised a hand to push him away. “I can do it myself. Just… just get me a cold towel.” It felt like my tongue was tied in knots as I spoke. Ethan effortlessly swatted my hand away. “I’ve dressed you so many times before. Why are you suddenly shy now that you’re sick?” After forcefully getting me dressed, he carried me to the car. While we were waiting in line to register at the hospital, Mia walked in from outside, her eyes red. She locked eyes with Ethan and stood there, speechless and tearing up. “Ethan…” Ethan’s face shifted. He immediately stepped out of line, grabbed her shoulders, and asked nervously, “Where does it hurt?” “I… I was being clumsy. I burned myself making porridge.” She rolled up her sleeve, revealing a red, swollen patch on her arm. Ethan’s eyes instantly reddened. He gently lifted her arm and blew on it carefully. “Don’t do this kind of rough work anymore. Tell me whatever you want to eat.” Mia nodded, breaking into a smile through her tears. “Ethan, you’re the only one who treats me this well.” Ethan raised a hand and ruffled her hair. “Silly, if I don’t treat you well, who will?” Mia smiled coyly, her gaze sweeping past me sitting on the bench. But Ethan seemed to have completely forgotten about me. He registered for Mia, fussed over her, and never once looked back at me until they left. See, this is the difference between the backup and the main character. No matter how deeply devoted he acted, the moment Mia appeared, my role as the understudy vanished into thin air. I let out a bitter laugh, forced my heavy body to stand up, registered myself, and headed to the outpatient clinic. My fever was too high; I needed an IV drip to bring it down. Fighting off dizziness, I went to get my medication alone, then headed to the IV area. I was so exhausted during the drip that I fell asleep. I don’t know how long I slept, but I was shaken awake by a little kid next to me. “Miss, why isn’t your boyfriend here with you? Your blood started backing up into the tube while you were asleep. My mom called the nurse for you. But we have to leave now, and it’s dangerous for you not to have anyone watching.” I gratefully thanked the kid and his mom, then forced myself to stay awake and watch the IV bag. It was already afternoon by the time the IV finished. Ethan still hadn’t looked for me, not even a single phone call. I stood up, planning to go home by myself, but fell back into the chair, dizzy and weak. Left with no choice, I dialed Ethan’s number. Hearing that I was still at the hospital, he froze for a long time. “I’m sorry, Chloe. Mia was in so much pain, and she couldn’t stand the smell of the hospital, so I thought I’d drop her off and then immediately come find you…” Before he could finish, Mia’s sweet voice came through the receiver. “Ethan, is it done yet? I’m so hungry~” Even though Ethan immediately covered the receiver, her clear words still reached my ears. “Chloe, it’s not what you think. Head home first, and I’ll explain everything later.” I curled my lip, not really caring to hear his “explanation.” His so-called explanations were nothing but endless lies. I said: “It’s fine, Ethan. I can manage on my own.” There’s no one in this world who can’t survive losing someone else. Especially Chloe Vance losing Ethan Sterling! I hung up, hired a courier to help me, and safely made it back home. That night, Ethan didn’t come home like he promised. Late at night, while my boss had me working on an urgent file, my phone suddenly chimed. I checked it and saw that Ethan had shared one of Mia’s posts. It was a picture of their shadows leaning intimately against each other, accompanied by a sentimental caption. [Who says no one will wait for you where you left them? The person who truly cares about you is the one who, no matter how far you go, will always be there when you look back!] I was just about to click “like” when I noticed the post had been deleted. However, the next moment, a notification popped up on my alternate account. He had reposted it. He blocked my main account when posting but forgot I had him added on my alt. I smiled and unfollowed him on both accounts. 3 That night, without Ethan, I actually slept incredibly well and woke up feeling much better. I arrived at the office right on time and handed my resignation letter to the director. She was very reluctant to see me go, but knowing I was going back to get married, she could only helplessly offer her blessings and a hug. After I finished handing over my work, my colleagues, who had just been sad to see me go, started clamoring for me to treat them to a farewell dinner now that they knew I was leaving to get married. Of course, I didn’t refuse. I booked a restaurant and a karaoke room. I don’t know if Mia and I were bound by some twisted fate, but I actually ran into her again when I went to the restroom during karaoke. Meeting my surprised expression, Mia seemed much more composed. “What a coincidence. You’re here to play too, Chloe?” I gave her a polite smile. I didn’t think we had anything to talk about, so I turned to walk back to my private room. But she didn’t seem to share the sentiment and sidestepped to block my path again. “You seem to really dislike me, Chloe. Why? We have so much in common. You even dip your beef in vinegar, just like me.” Her words made me turn my head slightly to look at her. I had always wondered why Ethan insisted on dipping beef in vinegar for me every time. He had explained that it tasted better that way, but I could never get used to it. Looking back now, that was just an excuse. The vinegar dipping was just him projecting his habits with Mia onto me. My stomach churned with acid; I felt nauseous enough to throw up. But Mia kept talking. “Besides, don’t you think we look very similar, Chloe?” That one sentence completely destroyed all my defenses. The strength and dignity I had forced myself to maintain crumbled in an instant. “Is that so? What a coincidence. I have things to do, so I won’t keep you company.” I shoved past her shoulder and fled. Back in the private room, feeling my hands and feet turn icy cold, I downed a glass of liquor just to feel warm again. My colleagues were cheering for me to sing a song. Just as I was about to pick one, the door was violently thrown open. Ethan stood in the doorway. He stared at the packed room for a few seconds before his furious eyes locked onto me. I was about to ask him what was wrong when he crossed the room in three strides, grabbed me by the neck, and roared, “Who was the guy you brought with you?!” I had never seen him look so ferocious. I trembled slightly. “What guy? What are you talking about?” Ethan’s eyes were bloodshot. Even as my colleagues surrounded him, pulling at him, he didn’t loosen his grip in the slightest. “The guy you brought into the restroom to assault Mia! Tell me, who is he?!” As it became harder and harder to breathe, I slapped Ethan hard across the face. Shocked, he let go, but the suppressed rage radiating from him only grew thicker. Protected by my colleagues, I slumped onto the sofa, coughing for a long time before I found my normal voice again. “Ethan, have you gone crazy?! How could I possibly bring a man into the restroom and assault Mia?!” “If it wasn’t you, then who was it?! You were mad that I left you at the hospital for her, mad that I didn’t come home for two days to take care of her, so you orchestrated this revenge! How can you be so venomous?!” My heart ached bitterly. I offered a sad smile and nodded. “Since you’re already so convinced it was me, why didn’t you call the police?” Ethan pressed his lips tightly together. The disappointment in his eyes pierced me inch by inch. “You were so brazen because you knew I wouldn’t call the police, didn’t you?” I met his gaze, the mockery and derision in my heart roaring loudly. He’s ready to strangle me to death; what wouldn’t he dare do? He suddenly grabbed my wrist and dragged me out of the room. My colleagues stepped in front of us to block him. I gratefully shook my head at them. “I’m sorry. My personal issues are ruining the mood. You guys keep playing; I’ll be right back.” Only then did my colleagues step aside. Ethan dragged me into another private room. Inside, Mia was huddled on the sofa, wrapped in Ethan’s jacket, shivering, while several of his close friends surrounded her, trying to comfort her. Ethan threw me in front of Mia and commanded sharply: “Apologize to Mia.” “You should be glad Mia wasn’t seriously hurt today. Otherwise, I would absolutely make you pay the price.” My knee slammed into the corner of the sofa, and I hissed in pain. Mia, tears shining in the corners of her eyes, shook her head repeatedly. “Ethan, let it go. It’s not Chloe’s fault. I was just unlucky.” Having said that, she let out low, whimpering sobs, like a pathetic kitten, making everyone feel sorry for her. But what did I do wrong? I chuckled softly and stood up from the floor. “I’m really curious, Ethan.” “As the old saying goes, ‘catch the thief with the loot.’ You’re concluding that I hurt Mia based entirely on your own words. Sorry, but I won’t accept the blame, and I don’t have time to play along with this farce. If you bother me again, I’m calling the police.” 4 Twenty-two years of being childhood friends, I thought my character needed no proving in Ethan’s eyes. However, in front of Mia, twenty-two years meant absolutely nothing. His bias and favoritism were so blatantly obvious, and I… I was nothing but a stand-in in this game of love! I didn’t go back to my colleagues’ room. I paid the bill at the front desk, apologized to everyone in the group chat, and said my goodbyes. When I got home, I collapsed onto the sofa, exhausted. In a daze, I remembered six years ago when a drunk Ethan begged me to take him in. I helped him onto the sofa in the living room and stared blankly at his sharply defined, handsome face. I don’t know how long I watched him before he suddenly opened his eyes. His gaze was burning, trapping me like a ring of fire. “Do you like me?” Hearing his question, I nodded as if possessed. The corners of his mouth turned up slightly. He yanked me toward him, grabbed the back of my head, and kissed me passionately. From that day on, I became his girlfriend in everything but name. I had heard of Mia, but I had never met her. When Ethan and she were dating, I was a junior in college, getting tortured half to death by my thesis. By the time I finally had some free time, their story had already reached the “abandoned by love” phase. I thought I was the medicine that healed his broken heart, but looking back now, those six years were nothing but a joke. The next day, I hired a moving company to pack everything into boxes. Ethan didn’t have much stuff here. His house was right next door. Because he found it troublesome, he didn’t move everything over when we started living together; he only brought over his daily necessities. Now, returning his things only took one small cardboard box. I opened the front door to his house, retrieved all the photos of me and the little couple’s trinkets I had given him, and left the key on the table. As for my belongings and some old items in the apartment, I packed them all up and shipped them abroad. After doing all this, as the real estate agent was conducting the final walkthrough, I finally remembered that Ethan still had a key. I called him, but he hung up on me time and time again. Finally, he sent a text: [Unless it’s an apology and reflection on what you did, I don’t want to hear another word from you right now.] Speechless, I simply hired a locksmith to change the lock. After handing over the apartment, I took my suitcase early the next morning and boarded the plane leaving the country. Leaving the home I had once been so attached to, I felt incredibly light and free. Just before boarding, my phone received numerous birthday wishes. My friends wished me a bright future, peace, happiness, and a beautiful marriage! I replied to them one by one, then turned off my phone. As the plane took off, I thought to myself: With so many blessings, I will definitely be happy! 5 When the plane landed, it was the dead of night in London. I dragged my suitcase out of the airport and immediately spotted my family waiting anxiously. “Dad, Mom, Matt.” My brother seamlessly took my suitcase, allowing me to run straight into my mother’s arms unimpeded. It feels so good to hug my family again! I hugged my mom tightly, tears nearly springing to my eyes. “It’s so good you’re back. I missed you so much.” My mom patted my back gently, making my guilt grow even heavier. Nine years ago, driven by that hazy infatuation in my heart, I ignored my parents’ advice and insisted on staying in Shanghai for college. Though they were helpless, they couldn’t bear to force me and ultimately let me stay. I never expected that separation to last nine years. I only ever went home for brief visits during Christmas. Making them endure the agony of missing me for nine years… I was truly an unfilial daughter! “Mom, I’m never leaving again. I’m going to stay right here with you and Dad.” My mom and dad looked at each other and smiled: “That’s wonderful! Your dad and I have been waiting for the day our family would finally be reunited.” Laughing and chatting, I took my dad’s arm with one hand and my mom’s with the other as we walked out of the airport. Meanwhile, back at Ethan’s house, the situation was completely different. He sat on the floor, having an emotional breakdown, repeatedly dialing my number. Every year for my birthday, Ethan would order a custom bracelet from Stars well in advance, and on the day of my birthday, he would get a reminder to pick it up. This year was no exception. When he received the call, he suddenly realized today was my birthday. But looking at his phone, he suddenly realized I hadn’t initiated contact with him a single time recently. Not even today. He felt as if something had drained from his heart, leaving his chest tight and uncomfortable. After thinking it over, he sent me a message. [Since it’s your birthday, I’ll let this go. As long as you say sorry to Mia, we can consider this matter closed.] When he sent the message, a glaring red exclamation point appeared next to it. The pop-up notification on the screen made his eyes widen in disbelief. [Sorry, you are not friends with this user. Please add them as a friend first.] This time, Ethan was truly angry. He furiously dialed my number, but only heard the prompt that my phone was turned off. After calling over a dozen times, the panic in his heart grew larger and larger. Finally, unable to bear it anymore, he ignored Mia’s attempts to stop him, floored the gas pedal, and sped home as fast as he could. When he arrived at my door, he found that his key no longer opened it. He couldn’t understand why I was throwing such a massive tantrum this time. Clearly, I was the one in the wrong. He kept banging on my front door, but the people who opened it were a newlywed couple. He returned to his own home in defeat, only to realize he couldn’t find a single item related to me anymore. Even our one pair of matching mugs and slippers had vanished without a trace. And those little trinkets I had given him over the years—he couldn’t find a single one either. He deeply regretted not properly storing those small items. Mia rushed over and tried to comfort him: “Sister Chloe is probably just upset and went out to clear her head. She’ll be back once she cools down.” He shook his head in agony. “You don’t understand her. She’s never been one to do things without considering the consequences.” As soon as he said that, he froze himself. The events at the karaoke bar flashed through his mind. He stared at Mia with a dark, intense look, as if trying to see right through her. “That day at karaoke, are you sure it was Chloe who brought that man in to assault you?” Mia shuddered. “I never said it was Chloe! I only said that right after Chloe left, that man came in. I…” “Get out!” Before she could finish, the man roared at her. As Mia ran out of the house crying, Ethan suddenly smashed his phone and violently slapped himself twice across the face. 6 I knew nothing about what was happening in Shanghai. Perhaps due to the insomnia from the previous few days, I didn’t even suffer from jet lag and slept straight through until the sun was high in the sky. As soon as I came downstairs, I was greeted by my family enthusiastically wishing me a happy birthday! Holding my gifts, my entire heart felt stuffed full of happiness. After breakfast, feeling bored and lazy, I crouched in the plaza watching some kids skateboard. It looked so fun that I borrowed a skateboard from a little girl to try it out. Unfortunately, I pushed off too hard and almost went flying. Just as I was about to fall, a pair of strong arms caught me securely. “Thank you!” When I looked up, I was stunned by an incredibly handsome face. He had very Eastern features, but with a pair of light blue eyes. This combination made him far more handsome than any male celebrity I had ever seen. “Want to learn how to skateboard?” He tilted his head slightly toward me, offering a gentle smile that naturally made people feel at ease. I couldn’t help but nod. With that, he steadied me. Using his toe, he expertly flicked the skateboard up and helped me onto it. I thought he was going to teach me how to glide, but the next moment, he stepped onto the board as well. With a single push, the skateboard started moving. Under his guidance, we even performed two simple tricks on the board, drawing applause from the kids around us! By the time we stopped, my face was bright red. It was my first time being so close to a stranger. No wonder people say foreign cultures are more open. While I was feeling awkward, my brother ran over from a distance. He looked at him, then looked at me. “You two seem to hit it off. You got familiar fast.” “Huh?” Before I could react, the man held his hand out to me and introduced himself. “Miles Sterling. Nice to meet you. I hope I didn’t leave a bad first impression on Ms. Vance.” I looked at him in surprise, not expecting him to be Miles Sterling, my prospective fiancé. While I was zoning out, my brother suddenly winked at me. “He’s still holding his hand out.” Embarrassed, I quickly reached out and shook his hand. “Hello, Chloe Vance.” He didn’t mind my awkwardness at all and continued, “What do you want to do for your birthday today? Amusement park, shopping, or a movie?” His composure instantly made me feel a little less stiff. “Anything is fine.” He thought for a moment. “Hmm, then I’ll arrange the schedule. If we do all of them, we might get home a little late.” I was a bit stunned. Is that what “anything is fine” meant to him? But I truly hadn’t relaxed in a long time, so I didn’t correct his interpretation. When we went to the amusement park, my brother shamelessly insisted on tagging along. Not only that, but he also brought a whole bunch of his friends. This loud, rowdy group swarmed through the amusement park like a plague of locusts. Miles stayed by my side the entire time, carefully looking out for me. It didn’t take long for me to realize that this group seemed terrified of Miles. One look from him, and they immediately kept their distance. After playing for two hours, Miles seemed to notice I was losing interest, so he took me and ditched the rest of the group. After lunch, we went to see a movie. I don’t know if we just had bad luck, but a bratty kid sat behind me and kept kicking my seat the entire movie. At first, Miles very politely asked the parent to control their child. But the parent just let it go in one ear and out the other, completely ignoring him. A cold smirk appeared on the corner of Miles’s mouth. A few minutes later, he suddenly waved at the empty air. Two minutes after that, he moved to the row behind us, sitting two seats away from the kid, and started continuously chatting with the empty seat next to him. I don’t know what he talked about, but less than five minutes later, the kid burst out crying and absolutely refused to stay in the theater with his mom any longer. I spent the whole time trying to suppress my laughter, completely unable to focus on the movie. When Miles walked back to his seat, he adjusted his jacket and whispered to me, “Laugh if you want to. Don’t hold it in.” I mouthed one word to him. “Legend.” By the time we finished shopping, it was completely dark outside. I thought Miles was going to take me home, but instead, he drove me to the beach. My brother and his friends had set up barbecue grills and tents on the sand. We all crowded together, talking and laughing. When the moon was at its highest, they brought out rows of fireworks and eagerly lit them. The fireworks bloomed, filling the sky with brilliance. My brother patted my head. “Make a wish. Miles said a cake was too cliché. Fireworks are perfect—grand, and closest to the stars.” I turned to look at Miles, gave him a grateful smile, then closed my eyes and made a wish to the sky.

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