Author: Momo Chan

When Victoria’s family lost everything, I lived in a cramped, windowless basement with her. I worked three jobs a day to help her rebuild her empire from the ground up. When she finally reached the pinnacle of success, she promised to give me a real home. Yet, in the third year of our marriage, I accidentally stumbled upon the property deed to our marital home. Under the owner’s name, I saw the name of her first love. With red, tearful eyes, she explained, “This is what I owe him.” I nodded slowly. I pulled out a photograph from our days in that suffocating basement, showing a tiny folding table completely buried under a mountain of debt collection notices, and pushed it across the table. “You paid off your debt to him with a house. So, how are you going to pay back what you owe me?” 1 I gently slid the property deed across the table toward Victoria. The words “Owner: Tristan” stung my eyes like shards of glass. Victoria’s face instantly drained of color. She instinctively reached out to snatch the paper away, but her hand froze in midair. “Joey, please listen to me…” Her voice was hoarse, her eyes rapidly turning red. It was a look I knew all too well. Whenever she felt guilty about wronging me, she would put on this innocent, fragile expression. There was a time when that look would break my heart. “Alright. I am listening,” I said, picking up my glass of warm water. My tone was unnervingly calm. She stared at me, a flicker of panic flashing through her eyes. My absolute composure seemed to terrify her. “Tristan… he hasn’t been doing well.” She struggled to get the words out. “Years ago, my parents violently opposed our relationship and forced us apart. It triggered severe depression for him. He had to drop out of college, and his entire life was nearly ruined.” “So, this house is my way of compensating him. Joey, this is what I owe him.” I nodded, signaling that I understood. “And what about what you owe me?” Victoria froze, looking at me as if I were speaking a foreign language. I didn’t spare her another glance. I pulled out my phone and brought up a photo I had kept for years. It was taken in the cramped, hundred square foot basement in Brooklyn we used to rent. The image showed a battered folding table entirely buried under a mountain of final notice bills. In the corner of the frame, you could barely make out her slumped silhouette, radiating absolute despair. “You paid off your debt to him with a house. So, how are you going to pay back what you owe me?” She looked down at the screen, and her body jerked violently. The photo clearly dragged her back to the agonizing, suffocating memories of us struggling to survive together. To help her pay off the astronomical debts her family left behind, I quit my stable corporate job. I started working three different shifts. I did freelance design during the day, drove a ride share all night, and took on odd jobs every weekend. For three solid years, I never slept more than four hours a night. Once, I caught a severe fever. To save money on a doctor’s visit, I wrapped myself in thick blankets and tried to sweat it out, nearly developing fatal pneumonia in the process. Victoria had held me and cried uncontrollably that night. She swore to the heavens that she would give me a real home and never let me suffer again. She kept her word. She rebuilt her empire and became a ruthless titan of the business world. She also gave me a home. A home with another man’s name legally bound to it. “Joey.” Victoria looked up, the guilt in her eyes practically overflowing. “I know you are the one I have wronged the most. But Tristan and I are completely over. You are the man I love, and you will be my only husband.” “I will spend the rest of my life making this up to you. Please?” She reached out, her tone bordering on begging. “Tristan already lost me. He cannot lose everything else. Think of this house as a final period marking the end of our past.” I smoothly dodged her hand. “Alright. I understand.” Seeing that I wasn’t screaming or throwing a tantrum, her posture visibly relaxed. She genuinely believed I had accepted her absurd justification. Meanwhile, beneath the table, I opened my messages and quietly texted my lawyer, instructing him to draft a divorce agreement immediately. 2 Victoria paused, hesitating before she spoke again. “Joey, can I discuss something with you?” “It’s about Tristan. He got into a dispute with his landlord and was kicked out. He can’t find a suitable place to live on such short notice.” “Do you think… he could move into our house for a little while? Just as a temporary transition.” A bitter laugh almost escaped my throat. Was she completely out of her mind? “Do you honestly think that is appropriate?” I asked coldly. “Why wouldn’t it be?” A hint of impatience immediately crept into her voice. “Joey, when did you become so petty and calculating? I already told you, he is entirely in the past. My heart belongs only to you.” “His mental state is incredibly fragile right now. He is completely alone. What is the harm in helping him out?” “You have my word. I will never betray you!” She sounded so incredibly righteous. But she had already betrayed me. The moment she decided to give our sanctuary to another man, the betrayal was absolute. “Victoria,” I said slowly, pronouncing every syllable. “Do you see me as a puppet you can manipulate however you please?” “Do you think that just because I swallowed years of suffering for you, I deserve to be trampled on like this?” She fell silent. After a long pause, she rubbed her temples and let out an exhausted sigh. “Joey, stop overthinking everything. I am simply helping a friend. My decision is final. I am going to pick him up.” Without another word, she grabbed her keys and walked out. Hearing the heavy thud of the front door closing, I closed my eyes, forcibly swallowing the acidic burn rising in my throat. Getting angry over worthless people was a waste of energy. Right then, my phone rang. It was Victoria’s father, Richard. “Joey, my boy. Come back to the old estate for a family dinner tomorrow with Victoria.” Richard had always treated me incredibly well. I couldn’t bring myself to reject him. “Of course, Dad.” After hanging up, I stared out the window at the darkening sky. My chest felt hollow and freezing. The next day, I drove back to the Kensington estate alone. When the Kensington family went bankrupt, this magnificent ancestral home had been mortgaged and auctioned off. Later, when Victoria climbed back to power, she desperately wanted to buy back the property that held all her childhood memories. But the new owner utterly refused to sell. It was me who visited the eccentric retired professor with gifts, week after week. I spent three entire months wearing him down until he finally nodded and agreed to sell it back to us at the original price. When Richard saw me walk in alone, his brow furrowed deeply. “Where is Victoria? Wrapped up in her nonsense again?” “An emergency board meeting came up. She will be here a bit later,” I lied, covering for her out of habit. Richard patted my shoulder heavily and led me to the leather sofa. He let out a long sigh. “Joey, stop covering for her. I have heard all about what she has been doing lately.” My heart skipped a beat. “Is she tangling herself up with that Tristan boy again?” Richard’s gaze sharpened into daggers. “I warned her years ago. That man is rotten to the core. I told her to stay as far away from him as possible!” I lowered my head and said nothing. Richard rubbed my back, his voice thick with validation and profound regret. “You are a good kid, and you have been wronged. Rest assured, the Kensington family acknowledges you and only you as our son-in-law. If she dares to do anything to betray you, I will be the first one to make her pay!” A sliver of warmth entered my cold heart. I forced a smile. “I am fine, Dad.” Just then, Victoria walked through the door. When she saw me, her face instantly darkened. She was clearly annoyed that I had arrived before her. “Dad, did you call Joey here just so he could complain to you?” Her very first words were dripping with hostility. Richard grabbed his porcelain teacup, looking entirely ready to smash it against the wall, but he held back. “You ungrateful brat, what kind of nonsense are you spouting? Do you really think Joey is that kind of person? If he had uttered a single bad word about you to me, I wouldn’t have even let you through the front gates today!” “Then what is this?” Victoria snapped impatiently. “If he didn’t run his mouth, how do you know about Tristan?” “Do I need him to tell me?” Richard sneered coldly. “You brought that man straight into headquarters and made him your personal assistant. You practically broadcasted your filthy little affair to the entire corporate board. Do you think I am blind?” A bitter smile crept onto my face. 3 Shortly after she left the house yesterday, she couldn’t wait to bring Tristan back and move him into the guest room. Following that, she placed him directly in her company, keeping him glued to her side. Afterward, she had offered me a sickeningly fake explanation, claiming Tristan was new to the corporate world and would adapt faster if she personally guided him. Victoria’s face shifted from pale to green. She took a deep breath, seemingly too exhausted to argue further, and bluntly announced her move. “Tristan is waiting outside. I told him to bring in an urgent document.” Without giving us a chance to react, she turned around and opened the heavy oak doors. Tristan walked in timidly behind her. He wore a crisp white button down shirt, looking the picture of pure, helpless innocence. The moment he saw Richard, he reflexively shrank behind Victoria’s back. Victoria instantly shifted into a defensive posture. “He is only here to drop off a file. Stop glaring at him like he is a criminal on trial. You are terrifying him.” I looked at Victoria as if she were a complete idiot. Tristan stood beside her, his voice trembling and soft like a frightened animal. “Victoria, this is a private family dinner. It is… inappropriate for me to be here. I should just leave.” Yet, his feet remained firmly planted to the floor. He didn’t take a single step backward. “You must be exhausted from delivering the files. Stay and eat before you go.” Ignoring any protests, Victoria forcibly pushed him down into the empty chair right beside hers. That seat was originally meant for me. The atmosphere in the dining room plummeted below freezing. Richard stared coldly at Tristan’s pathetic theatrical act, a mocking sneer curving his lips. “Mr. Tristan, we are both grown men. You can drop the victim act in my house.” Richard slammed his chopsticks onto the table, showing zero mercy. “I can see right through your pathetic little calculations.” Tristan’s face turned deathly pale. Tears instantly welled up in his eyes. “Mr. Kensington, I… I have no idea what you are talking about.” “No idea?” Richard chuckled darkly. “Years ago, when you and Victoria were dating in college, she brought you to this exact house for the first time. The second you walked through the doors, your eyes never stopped scanning the expensive decor.” “When you heard the sheer scale of our corporate assets, the raw greed and scheming in your eyes were practically written across your forehead!” Tristan’s entire body began to tremble, acting as if he were enduring unimaginable humiliation. Seeing this, Victoria slammed her hands onto the table and shot up from her chair. “Enough!” She glared viciously at her own father. “It has been years, and you are still exactly the same! You never cared about what was best for me. You just wanted absolute control over my life!” “When you violently forced us apart, you pushed Tristan into a deep depression! Do you feel even an ounce of guilt? Now that he finally has the strength to step back into the world, why do you have to stab him with such vicious, toxic words?” “Control you?” Richard was practically shaking with fury. “If I really wanted to control you, I would never have let Joey suffer alongside you in that basement when you went bankrupt! You ungrateful wretch, have you completely forgotten who dragged you out of hell?” “I haven’t forgotten!” Victoria’s eyes were bloodshot as she screamed back. “I will spend the rest of my life repaying Joey’s kindness! But that does not conflict with me making amends to Tristan!” With that, she violently grabbed the trembling Tristan by the wrist and marched toward the door without looking back. “Where the hell are you going?” Richard roared behind her. “I am not staying in this toxic house another second!” She dragged Tristan away, fueled by blind rage. From beginning to end, she did not spare me a single glance. She didn’t even consider taking me with her. “Joey, ignore her. Let her roll in the dirt!” Richard was panting heavily. He grabbed my hand. “Stay the night. Have a drink with your old man.” I shook my head slowly and stood up. “Dad, I should go back.” This was a war between Victoria and me. I could not let him completely sever ties with his own daughter because of me. Out in the driveway, Victoria’s car was still parked. She was leaning against the driver’s door, impatiently scrolling through her phone. Clearly, she was waiting for me. So, she finally remembered that she had left her husband inside. I slowly walked toward her. The glow of the streetlamps stretched my shadow out long across the pavement, making me look incredibly isolated and lonely. Hearing my footsteps, Victoria looked up. The impatience on her face only deepened. “What took you so long? Get in.” She pulled open the door and slid into the driver’s seat. I walked to the passenger side. Before my hand even touched the handle, a pained groan echoed from the back seat. 4 “Victoria… I feel so sick… I can’t breathe…” Victoria’s face instantly drained of color. She threw herself over the center console to check on him. “Tristan, what’s wrong?” “I… I think… I am having an allergic reaction to peanuts…” Tristan’s voice was broken and breathy, dripping with agonizing pain. Victoria’s head snapped toward me, her eyes blazing with absolute condemnation. “Joey! You knew Tristan was deathly allergic to peanuts! Why didn’t you warn the kitchen staff beforehand?” I stared at her, completely dumbfounded by her logic. When exactly was I ever informed of his allergies? And why on earth was it my responsibility to manage the dietary restrictions of a random interloper in my father-in-law’s kitchen? Furthermore, all the dishes were already plated and served by the time we even arrived. “I had no idea he was allergic to peanuts,” I answered in a deadpan tone. “You didn’t know?” Victoria’s voice spiked in volume. “You did this on purpose! Are you really that desperate to eliminate him?” A sharp, incredulous laugh ripped out of me. “So what if I did? What exactly do you want from me? Do you want me to write a formal apology for his throat closing up?” “I will let it slide this time!” Victoria hissed through gritted teeth. “Since he will be living under our roof from now on, you better pay close attention! I will not tolerate another incident like this!” She expected me to actively cater to him in my own home? I could hardly believe the words coming out of her mouth. Just how utterly shameless could this woman become? Before I could fire back, Tristan let out another dramatic, strangled groan from the back. The last thread of Victoria’s rationality snapped. “We have to get to the ER right now!” She fired up the engine and looked at me frantically. “Get out of the car!” I stood absolutely still, staring through the window. “You want me to walk back?” We were in the middle of an exclusive, isolated suburban estate. Public transportation did not exist here, and catching a cab at this hour was virtually impossible. Victoria punched the steering wheel in frustration. “The hospital is in the completely opposite direction of our house! I do not have the time to drop you off, Tristan’s life is on the line! Figure it out yourself. Deal with it!” With a screech of tires, she slammed on the gas, leaving me standing in a cloud of harsh exhaust fumes. I stood entirely alone on the dark, empty road. A bitter night wind swept past, cutting through my clothes and chilling me to the bone. She said it so casually. Deal with it. Yes. I had dealt with far too much over the past few years. I pulled out my phone and dialed her personal chauffeur. “Thomas, please come pick me up from the old estate.” Ten minutes later, the sleek black car pulled up. Thomas looked surprised to see me standing alone. “Mr. Joey, where is the boss? I thought you were returning together.” I pulled open the door and slid in. “An urgent matter came up at the company. She had to leave early.” Inside, I was laughing bitterly. She was busy nursing her precious first love. Not long after I got back to the silent house, my phone chimed with a notification. I tapped the screen, and my pupils violently contracted. In the photo, Victoria was fast asleep in a plush hotel bed, wearing a thick white bathrobe. Her pale skin was littered with aggressive, unmistakable red hickeys, trailing from the base of her neck all the way down to her collarbone. Beneath the photo was a highly provocative text: “Joey, Victoria isn’t coming home tonight. She said she can only truly relax when she is with me.” So, the dramatic peanut allergy emergency was nothing but a cheap excuse for them to get a hotel room. Victoria. You really outdid yourself this time. My face was a mask of absolute stone. I took screenshots of the photo and the message, bundled them together, and emailed them directly to my lawyer. Then, I forwarded the same screenshots to Victoria with a single line of text: [I guess giving him the house wasn’t enough. You had to hand over your body too, right?] Within twenty minutes of sending the message, Victoria burst through the front door, looking panicked and slightly breathless. A guilty, caught-in-the-act expression was plastered across her face. “Joey, listen to me, it is not what you think. Tristan and I…” “Shut up,” I cut her off with ice in my voice, refusing to listen to her exhausted, pathetic lies. She tried to step forward and grab my hand. “Come on, stop throwing a tantrum. Nothing happened between us.” I violently slapped her hand away in pure disgust. I turned around, walked into the study, and grabbed a massive, thick stack of old debt collection notices. “Victoria, look at these!” I pointed at the mountain of yellowing bills, my voice violently trembling with suppressed rage. “Do you remember these? When your family went bankrupt, I was the one who moved into that pitch black basement with you. I was the one who starved with you, eating one meal a day!” “To help you clear tens of millions in debt, I emptied my entire life savings. I slaved away in a cubicle all day and drove cabs all night!” “When you got blackout drunk and collapsed on the sidewalk, I was the one who carried you home on your back. When your wealthy former friends humiliated you in public, I was the one who stood in front of you and fought them off! Where the hell was your precious Tristan back then?!” “And look at you now. You climbed out of the gutter. You are the untouchable CEO again. You get your precious first love back in your arms, and suddenly I am just an obstacle in your way?” By the end, I was practically screaming. I took the heavy stack of bills and viciously hurled them directly into her face. The papers exploded into the air, raining down around us. “How exactly are you going to pay me back for this?!”

🌟 Continue the story here 👉🏻 📲 Download the “MotoNovel” app 🔍 search for “581054”, and watch the full series ✨! #MotoNovel

Ever since my best friend confessed that she was sleeping with her married boss, I had not slept a wink. On one hand, it was a twenty year friendship that I could not bear to cut loose. On the other hand, my moral conscience was screaming at me. I absolutely despised women who destroyed other people’s families. But she was my only true friend. Torn and desperate, I called into a popular late night advice podcast. By the time the host finished breaking down my situation, a cold sweat had completely soaked through my shirt. 1 The moment my call was connected, my hands gripping the phone were clammy. My throat felt incredibly tight. “Host, I have a best friend I’ve known since elementary school. We were so close we used to share everything. When I got married, she was my maid of honor. But recently, she secretly confessed that she is the ‘other woman.’ The guy is an executive at her company. He has a wife and kids.” Saying those words out loud made my chest physically ache. I kept telling myself that this was wrong. I loathed home wreckers more than anything. But the second I thought about our two decades of history, all those tears and laughs we shared, my resolve crumbled. My voice broke into a quiet sob. “Should I just cut her out of my life? I really can’t bear to do it. She is my best friend.” The host’s voice was deep, steady, and entirely devoid of sugarcoating. He cut straight to the bone. “Let me throw a radical hypothetical at you. If she wasn’t playing the ‘other woman,’ but was instead selling her body to strangers for cash, would you still keep her around as a friend?” I didn’t even have to think about it. The words slipped right out. “Absolutely not.” The second I said it, I froze. Both actions crossed massive moral boundaries. Why was I giving her a free pass for destroying a family, just because she held the title of ‘best friend’? The host’s words hit me like a sledgehammer. He continued, his tone sharp. “Then why do you tolerate her actively ruining another woman’s home? If she committed arson or murder, would you keep her by your side just because you ‘grew up together’? We cannot choose our blood relatives, but we can choose our friends every single day of our lives. A friendship is not a blood pact. You do not owe her your own moral compass.” I fell utterly silent. Tears slipped silently down my cheeks. I tried to defend her, though I knew I was only lying to myself. “Because… we have such beautiful memories. I keep thinking, what if she realizes her mistake? If she ends the affair, can we still go back to how things were?” I was still desperately clinging to a fantasy. I wanted to believe it was just a moment of weakness, and that our twenty years of sisterhood would somehow guide her back to the light. The host shattered that illusion without mercy. “That is not a ‘mistake.’ That is a rotten core. Do not expect her loyalty to you to somehow make up for her collapsed morality. She did something disgusting, and then she bragged to you about it. That proves she doesn’t even feel an ounce of shame. Stop betting on her humanity based on your shared past.” He paused, letting the silence hang heavy before his tone turned deadly serious. “You are a married woman, so I am going to spell this out for you. You think we are debating morality right now? We are talking about your own safety. Allowing a proud homewrecker to casually stroll in and out of your life is planting a landmine in your own living room. Your husband is going to notice. Once he realizes you tolerate and even accept a woman with zero boundaries, what message does that send him? It is an invisible permission slip. He will think, ‘Wow, my wife is completely fine with infidelity. She accepts mistresses.’” Those words felt like a bucket of ice water to the face. I had never looked at it from that angle. I was so wrapped up in my own emotional attachment that I had completely ignored my own marriage. I had ignored my husband. He was right. How could I risk the sanctity of my own home just to shelter her toxic secrets? I took a deep, shaky breath, shoving my heartbreak down into the pit of my stomach. My voice finally steadied. “Okay. I know what I need to do now. Thank you so much.” 2 I ended the call, dropped my phone onto the sofa, and let the tears flow freely. I wanted to type out a long text message to give our friendship a proper burial. But as my fingers hovered over the screen, I just could not bring myself to hit send. Right then, my thumb accidentally tapped the live stream button on my screen. I had forgotten to exit the app completely. The host’s broadcast was still playing in the background. And he was speaking a truth he hadn’t wanted to say directly to my face. “To be honest with all of you listening, I only gave that caller half the truth just now.” His voice was heavy, laced with a dark warning. “There is a psychological concept called the Broken Window Theory. If you walk past a building and all the windows are pristine, no one dares to throw a rock. But if just one window is already shattered, human nature kicks in. People can’t resist the urge to pick up a stone and smash another pane. It is basic, ugly human nature.” My entire body went rigid. The phone nearly slipped from my sweaty palm. “That caller’s best friend is a broken window.” Every single syllable drilled directly into my skull. “Her husband is a flesh and blood mortal man. His temptations are unpredictable. Is he going to look at her best friend and think: ‘Well, her window is already broken anyway. Why shouldn’t I be the one to throw a stone?’ Never put human nature to the test. Telling her to keep that mistress away from her husband isn’t about upholding justice. It is about saving her own life.” In that exact fraction of a second, all my hesitation, all my nostalgic grief, completely evaporated. All that was left was a terrifying chill creeping down my spine. I always thought my indecision was a sign of a loyal heart. I never once realized that my so called ‘attachment’ was not only warping my own morals, but actively planting a lethal bomb under my own roof. I slowly picked up my phone, wiped my eyes dry, and opened her contact profile. I deleted the emotional goodbye paragraph I had drafted, and firmly tapped ‘Block.’ Outside the window, the sky bruised into a deep purple twilight. I gathered my scattered emotions and walked into the kitchen to start making dinner. I planned to sit down with my husband when he got home, tell him everything, and explain the boundary I had finally drawn. “Honey, I’m home,” Mark called out, pushing the front door open. I walked over out of pure habit to take his suit jacket. As my fingers brushed against the fabric of his pocket, they grazed a smooth, metallic tube. I pulled it out. It was a lipstick. It was not my shade. It was a very specific dusty rose tint. The exact shade Jess had worn every single day for the last five years. The tip of the lipstick was freshly smeared. My heart violently contracted, and the suit jacket nearly slipped from my trembling fingers. I forced a mask of casual curiosity onto my face. “Whose lipstick is in your pocket?” Mark’s eyes darted away for a fraction of a second before he smoothly brushed it off. “Isn’t it yours? I found it wedged in the passenger seat. It probably fell out of Jess’s purse the last time I gave her a ride. You guys are always together, you know how she is.” His tone was incredibly calm, laying out a perfectly logical excuse. Any other day, I would have bought it without a second thought. But the podcast host’s chilling warning was still echoing in my ears. The blood in my veins turned to ice. The ‘landmine’ the host had warned me about was not a future possibility. It had already detonated right under my feet. I didn’t expose him on the spot. I just turned around in silence and walked back to the kitchen, my entire back violently trembling. I dug my nails into my palms, forcing myself to breathe, and began piecing together every single detail I had blindly ignored. Jess had been dropping by our house constantly lately, always claiming she was ‘just in the neighborhood.’ She was always dressed flawlessly, and the way her eyes lingered on Mark always carried a strange, sticky heat. Mark had been coming home late for months. His excuses were always ‘overtime’ or ‘entertaining clients.’ His phone was permanently on silent, and he even took it into the shower with him. For my birthday last month, Jess gifted me a designer necklace. It was the exact same necklace I had seen a photo of on Mark’s phone a week prior. He had told me he was buying it for a ‘VIP client.’ There was even a time I walked into the living room and caught them whispering and laughing on the sofa. The second I entered, they snapped apart, looking like deer in headlights. All those little coincidences. My ‘deep sisterhood’ and my ‘happy marriage’ were nothing but a grotesque stage play. 3 I shoved the nausea deep down into my stomach and mechanically finished cooking the dinner spread. The doorbell suddenly rang. A massive, vibrant bouquet of purple violets obscured the doorway. Behind it was Jess’s brilliantly smiling face. Before I could even process her presence, she squeezed past the door frame and threw her arms around me. “Surprise! I bought you your absolute favorite flowers!” My entire body went stiff as a board. Every hair on my arms stood on end. Jess pulled back, a dramatic pout forming on her glossy lips. “Sophie, what is going on with you? Did you seriously block me on social media?” I opened my mouth, completely unsure of what to say, and possessing zero desire to explain myself. Jess seemed to misread my awkward silence. She laughed and affectionately ruffled my hair. “I knew it. You definitely pressed the wrong button by accident, didn’t you? Sophie, you are getting so bad with technology. My little nephew knows how to use his phone better than you do.” Her tone was sickeningly sweet, playing up her usual quirky, innocent persona. She acted as if this was just a silly little misunderstanding between two lifelong friends. I played along, giving a stiff nod and forcing a wooden smile onto my face. Seeing the dining table covered in steaming dishes, Jess’s eyes practically sparkled with fake tears. “You are the absolute best, Sophie. You cooked all my favorite dishes! Honestly, your cooking hits the spot better than my own mother’s.” It was only then that I looked down at the table and truly saw it. Every single dish laid out was either Jess’s favorite or Mark’s favorite. Not a single plate held food that I actually liked. These were the two people I loved and trusted most in the entire world, and they had joined forces to slaughter my soul. They took my unconditional love and turned it into a punchline. A bitter, corrosive taste flooded my mouth. I swallowed hard. I managed to pull up the corners of my mouth into a smile that looked more like a grimace. “As long as you guys like it. Oh, I think I forgot to bring up that bottle of red wine from the trunk of the car. Let me run down and grab it.” “I’ll go,” Mark said, putting down his chopsticks to stand up. “No!” My voice spiked sharply, carrying a shrill edge that even surprised me. I didn’t dare look at their faces. I grabbed my keys from the entryway console, along with my old backup phone. The second the door clicked shut behind me, I quickly unlocked the backup phone. Before stepping out, I had deliberately opened a voice recording app on my main phone and left it hidden on the bookshelf. I dialed my main phone from the backup device. The call auto answered silently. A second later, Jess’s voice came through the speaker. “Sophie is acting super weird today.” Mark’s voice followed, sounding irritated. “Of course she is acting weird. How many times do I have to tell you to be careful? You literally left your lipstick in my coat pocket.” “What? Do you think she figured it out? Mark, listen to me right now. Sophie is my best friend in the world. I might lose you, but I refuse to lose her!” Mark let out a cruel, mocking scoff. “Oh, so now you want to play the fiercely loyal best friend? You didn’t seem too worried about protecting Sophie when you stripped naked and crawled into my bed.” Jess gasped, sounding playful rather than offended. “Hey! I was just testing the merchandise for my bestie. What if you were bad in bed?” “You stubborn little fox.” What followed was the unmistakable, wet sound of skin on skin, and heavy kissing. Before, it was just a strong suspicion. Now, the absolute, disgusting truth was pouring directly into my ears. My knees buckled. I slid down the cold hallway wall, pressing my hand hard over my mouth to muffle my violent sobbing. My brain was flooded with a chaotic reel of memories I couldn’t stop. In college, when Mark formally asked me out, I brought my best friend along to meet him. Jess was brutally cold to him the entire night. She picked apart his clothes, mocked his career prospects, and nearly started a screaming match at the restaurant. When the night ended in disaster, Jess grabbed my hands and looked me dead in the eye. “Sophie, this guy is a loser. He is not good enough for you. Dump him!” Back then, I just thought she was being fiercely protective and a little too picky. Years later, when we got married, Jess was my maid of honor. She cried harder than I did at the reception. She hugged me tight and whispered fiercely. “You better be happy. If he ever dares to make you cry, I will personally destroy him!” But during the vow exchange, looking back now, I remembered the incredibly complex, dark look in her eyes as she stared at Mark’s profile. Even after the wedding, they supposedly hated each other. Whenever Jess came over, they bickered constantly over the smallest things. The movie choice, the seasoning in the food, a random news headline. I always played the exhausted peacemaker, secretly feeling so lucky that I had a best friend who ‘kept my husband in check’ and a husband who ‘tolerated’ my difficult friend. I wiped my face dry, saved the audio file to a secure cloud drive, and took a deep breath. This recording was going to be my golden ticket in divorce court. 4 When I walked back to the dining table, my face was a mask of perfect calm. I looked straight at Mark. “I’m done cooking from now on. I am going out tomorrow to look for a job. I’ve been out of the workforce for too long.” Mark’s brow furrowed in deep disapproval. “Why the sudden urge to work? Isn’t it nice staying at home? It’s not like I can’t afford to take care of you. The corporate world is exhausting, the office politics are toxic. I just don’t want you to suffer.” Jess’s eyes, however, lit up with fake excitement. “Are you serious? Sophie, that is amazing! Come work at my company. I have enough pull to make sure nobody messes with you, and we get to see each other every single day!” Her tone was so warm, so incredibly genuine. Her eyes sparkled with what looked like pure support. Staring at her flawless performance, my mind boggled at how a human being could be so terrifyingly deceptive. I shook my head, keeping my voice entirely flat. “No thanks. I want to rely on my own abilities and find my own path.” I refused to let my life be entangled with hers for another second. I needed to get as far away as possible from the cage she and Mark had built around me. I was taking my life back. Mark tried to shut it down again. “I make enough to support this family. Your place is right here at home.” Before I could respond, Jess shot Mark a glaring look. “Stop being so controlling! My Sophie is incredibly talented. Why should she be locked up in your house like a pet? She isn’t a canary in a cage. She deserves her own life.” Watching her aggressively defend my honor made the air leave my lungs. The harder she played the fiercely loyal best friend, the more sickening the irony became. The physical pain in my chest was blinding. I didn’t argue. I just gave a quiet nod. Only one thought echoed in my skull. Get away from them. Run as fast as you can. For the next few weeks, I operated in total secrecy. I drafted divorce papers with a lawyer and sent out my resume like a machine. Finally, my hard work paid off. I landed a solid position at a mid-sized firm. But barely a month into the job, my department manager started targeting me. No matter how flawlessly I executed a project, he found a way to tear it apart. He forced me to work ridiculous overtime hours and humiliated me in front of the team, calling me a “washed-up housewife” who couldn’t keep up with modern business and didn’t belong in a corporate building. Just as I was on the verge of breaking down and quitting, Jess magically appeared at my company. She stepped in, completely humiliated my manager, and had him fired on the spot. That was when the horrifying truth dropped. Jess had requested a lateral transfer from her corporate headquarters and was now my direct superior. In that moment, the blood froze in my veins. Absolute despair washed over me. I was running as fast as I could, but she was a shadow sewn to my feet. In the following weeks, Jess played the role of the benevolent mentor to perfection. She guided me through projects step-by-step and shielded me from office politics. But her ‘kindness’ felt like a concrete boulder crushing my chest. My coworkers began looking at me with deep resentment. In their eyes, I was just the “boss’s pet,” a useless parasite who only survived because of nepotism, and the reason the previous manager got the axe. Even Mark started treating me with open disdain. He dropped by the office one afternoon to bring me coffee. “Look at yourself. You completely lost your mind demanding all this independence. Without Jess holding your hand, you are absolutely nothing. You’d be eaten alive. Just quit and go back to the kitchen where you belong.” I stayed silent, grinding my teeth. That only fueled his ego. “You do not have the brain for a career. Look at Jess. Look at the aura she commands when she negotiates a deal. That is what a real career woman looks like. Stop making a fool of yourself, accept your reality, and go home to cook dinner.” Hearing him so blatantly compare me to his mistress made my stomach violently churn. I had reached my absolute limit. I slowly lifted my head and stared directly into his eyes. “Mark, when you and Jess are rolling around naked in bed together, does she strip off her clothes with that same ‘career woman aura’?” Time stopped. Every single coworker in the open-plan office who was pretending to work instantly froze, their jaws dropping as they stared at our cubicle. Mark’s pupils shrunk to pinpricks. It looked like he had been struck in the face with a baseball bat. The color instantly drained from his skin, leaving him looking like a corpse. He opened his mouth, but only a pathetic, breathless wheeze came out. I stood up, pushing my chair back. “I am officially resigning tomorrow. The divorce papers are already drawn up. I never want to see either of your disgusting faces for the rest of my life.” I turned on my heel to walk away. Behind me, there was a loud splash. The iced coffee in Jess’s hand had slipped from her trembling fingers and crashed onto the floor. Her face was paper white. Her glossy lips were visibly shaking. At that exact second, the heavy glass doors of the office suite were violently shoved open. A middle-aged woman with perfectly styled curls, wearing an elegant, vibrant silk dress, stormed into the room like a hurricane. “Jess! Which one of you is Jess?! Show your face right now, you shameless, husband-stealing home wrecker!!”

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My father had a stroke abroad, dying. My boyfriend Liam, who was supposed to be with him, was unreachable. Dad’s last wish was to see me settled. I called Liam again and again until someone answered—cheers and toasts in the background: “To a long, happy life!” He’d married his childhood sweetheart, Anna, to fulfill her mother’s birthday wish. I begged him to come, just to stand with me once, for my father’s sake. Liam’s voice was cold, impatient. “Nina, are you faking your father’s death just to pressure me into marriage?” “Anna’s mother is sixty today. The living come first. Don’t ruin this.” I hung up, took my father’s hand. “Dad,” I whispered, choked, “I’ll do as you said. I’ll go abroad, marry Daniel.” A faint smile touched his lips. “You always said you had a boyfriend… I waited, but never saw him.” “Daniel is loyal, capable. With him, I can rest… and face your mother.” I nodded, tears falling. “I promise.” Liam was my father’s protégé, a student he had sponsored since he was a boy. We had been together for six years, a secret we kept from the world. Liam claimed that his humble, rural background would make people think he was just riding my coattails, that his achievements weren’t his own. This business trip was for a major academic conference. My father hadn’t been well and could have skipped it, but he insisted on going. He was nearing retirement, and he wanted to personally introduce Liam to the titans of their field, to open doors for his future. Before they left, Liam promised me he would take good care of my father, that he would bring him back safe and sound. But my father couldn’t be saved. The doctors said if he had been brought in sooner, his chances would have been excellent. When he collapsed, Liam, who was supposed to be sharing his room, was nowhere to be found. It was a housekeeper who finally discovered him. I went through the motions of arranging the funeral, my heart a hollow, numb cavern. At the memorial, all of my father’s colleagues and students in the country came to pay their last respects. Everyone except Liam. I overheard some of the junior researchers whispering. “Why isn’t Liam here? Wasn’t he at the conference with the professor?” “Professor Davies was so good to him. No matter how busy he is, he should be here.” “Oh, I know what happened,” one of them said, pulling out his phone. “Looks like he went home to get married. Check this out…” He showed them his social media feed. Just moments ago, Liam had posted a nine-photo collage of wedding pictures with his old flame, Anna, including a shot of their marriage certificate. I pulled out my own phone. His feed was blank. He’d blocked me. Our last chat was still open, my desperate pleas for him to come home frozen on the screen. I couldn’t lie to myself any longer. Six years of my life, and I had lost everything. It had been three days, and he hadn’t returned a single call or sent a single text. Of course not. He was finally married to the woman he’d never gotten over. Why would he spare a thought for me, the insignificant placeholder? Carrying the funeral portrait of my father into our empty home, it finally hit me. I had no one left in the world. The grief was a tidal wave, and I collapsed, sobbing. My father had made me promise to fly out to Daniel in ten days. To put his mind at ease, I had booked the ticket right there in front of him. I had a week left. This city was haunted by memories of Liam. I needed a new start. The next day, when I went to my father’s office to clear out his things, I finally saw him. Liam was beaming, handing out candy to the other researchers in the department. Everyone else, likely trying to spare my feelings, avoided mentioning my father. Liam, oblivious, just offered me a piece with a guilty smile. “What’s this, wedding candy?” I asked, my voice flat. “Sorry. I don’t eat sugar.” He followed me into my father’s office, speaking as if nothing had happened. “Why isn’t the professor in today? He could have at least told me he was leaving without me. I waited for him for two extra days!” The mention of my father was a fresh stab of pain. This man, who was responsible for his death, who had been off celebrating with Anna, dared to blame my father for leaving him behind. “Shut up, Liam,” I snapped. “How dare you even say his name? You knew he wasn’t well, and you left him alone!” “Don’t you understand? If it weren’t for you, he wouldn’t have gone on that trip. He wouldn’t have collapsed with no one there to help him. He would still be alive!” Liam’s face darkened. “That’s enough! I can’t believe you’ve stooped to lying just to pressure me into marriage. Nina, you’ve become disgusting.” “Can you stop being so dramatic? Your father is a grown man. Am I obligated to be his 24/7 babysitter? It’s not like he’s never traveled alone before. What is wrong with you?” Even now, he was full of excuses. My father had treated him like a son. When his family was facing financial ruin and wanted him to drop out of school, my father had paid for his education all the way through his master’s degree. Liam used to joke that he would care for my father in his old age, like a real son. But to please Anna’s mother, he had ignored my father’s desperate calls for help. I had seen the call log on Dad’s phone. Ten missed calls to Liam, right when he collapsed. Not one was answered. “I wish I had never met you,” I whispered. Then my father wouldn’t have worked himself to the bone for him, and he wouldn’t have died with the regret of never seeing me married. Seeing the raw grief on my face, a flicker of guilt crossed Liam’s eyes. His voice softened. “Nina, I know it was wrong of me not to come back with him. But you don’t have to blow this out of proportion and use it to erase the six years we had together.” “Tell you what,” he offered. “I’ll go over to his house tonight, have a few drinks with him, and apologize in person. How about that?” Before the words were even out of his mouth, his phone rang. He glanced at me and stepped away to answer. A sweet, delicate voice drifted from the receiver. “Liam, honey, I just burned my hand cooking. It hurts so much…” Instantly, a look of panic washed over Liam’s face. “Okay, baby, turn off the stove and just wait for me in the living room. I’m on my way.” He rushed off without another word to me. The promise to apologize to my father was forgotten in an instant. When I arrived at my apartment, the one I had bought after graduation so we could be closer, I found Anna on a stepladder, taping a large, red “Double Happiness” character—a traditional wedding decoration—to the door. She saw me and a triumphant smirk played on her lips. She deliberately smoothed out the garish symbol. “You must be Nina. Liam’s told me about you. Thanks for taking care of him all these years.” “Oh,” she added, gesturing towards the curb. “By the way, I cleaned out some of your old stuff. See if there’s anything you still want.” I followed her gaze. All of my belongings were piled next to the trash cans. Our matching mugs, our toothbrushes, my clothes, the throw pillows from the sofa… “Anna, who are you talking to?” Liam poked his head out of the door, an apron tied around his waist. When he saw me, his expression shifted rapidly. He gave a weak, awkward laugh. “Anna couldn’t find a place yet, so she’s just staying here for a little while. Don’t get the wrong idea.” I couldn’t believe his audacity. He brought her into my home. “You tell me not to get the wrong idea while you’re married to her? Liam, what am I to you?” My heart felt like it was being beaten with a dull hammer, a slow, aching throb. He hesitated, glancing quickly at Anna. “It was just to make her mom happy. It was her only wish for her sixtieth birthday. I couldn’t exactly say no…” So you could crush my father’s dying wish and trample all over my heart instead? The thought plunged me into an icy sea. “Liam, have you ever considered what this makes me? A homewrecker. The other woman. How am I supposed to live with that?” Anna, who had been standing silently by, stepped forward and tugged on my sleeve, her eyes wide and pitiful. “Nina, I never wanted to compete with you for anything.” “We really only did it to make my mom happy. We’ll find a way to clear things up later.” “I’m so sorry! Please, don’t be angry with Liam.” Her face was pale, but behind the damsel-in-distress act, her eyes glinted with a possessive, triumphant light. I yanked my arm away. “Don’t bother with the theatrics. Your emotional blackmail won’t work on me.” Tears suddenly welled in her eyes. She looked down, as if deeply hurt. “Nina, are you blaming me?” “How could you say that? Weren’t you the one who used your father to emotionally blackmail Liam into dating you in the first place?” she whispered, leaning in so only I could hear. “Who are you trying to fool with this holier-than-thou act?” You can trash my feelings, but you will not slander my father. SLAP! My body moved before my mind could catch up. I slapped her across the face. Liam lunged forward, shielding Anna and shoving me back with brutal force. “Nina, what the hell are you doing?” “If you have a problem, take it up with me! Anna is innocent! She was just trying to be a good daughter.” “Liam, you’re the ungrateful one!” I screamed, my voice raw. “My father was so good to you, and you didn’t even care if he lived or died!” A crack appeared in Liam’s composure. He seemed to waver for a second. Anna, however, stepped forward to defend him. “Nina, why do you keep bringing up ancient history? Besides, your father only sponsored Liam because he saw his potential. Even without your father, Liam would have been successful.” “You knew he loved someone else, but you forced yourself on him, trying to use your father’s kindness to trap him with guilt. How is that any better?” When Liam’s family was poor, when his parents wanted him to quit school and work in a factory, my father had been the one to step in. I remember Liam on his knees, thanking my father, promising to repay his kindness for the rest of his life. “Is that how you see it, too?” I asked, staring at Liam. He turned his head away, his silence a confession. I didn’t want to waste another second on this disgusting pair. It would only make me more of a joke. But they weren’t done with me. “Nina,” Anna said, her voice syrupy sweet. “Regardless of anything else, Liam and I are married now. It’s probably not appropriate for you to keep living here…” I pointed a shaking finger at Liam, who was still looking at the ground. “Didn’t he tell you? I own this apartment. I should be calling the police on you for trespassing, and you have the nerve to try and kick me out?” “Get out,” I snarled. “Both of you, get out!” Liam glanced at Anna’s shocked face, then tried to placate me. “Nina, you don’t have to be so aggressive. Anna is just staying for a little while. She’ll move out as soon as she finds a place.” “You two are certainly good at playing the victim while you squat in my home,” I shot back. “Well, I’m not having it. Get out. Now!” His face flushed with humiliation. “Nina, does your father know you act like this? Maybe I should have a word with him tomorrow and set him straight.” “Good idea,” I said, my voice dripping with venom. “Why don’t you run headfirst into a wall right now? Maybe you’ll catch up to him in the afterlife!” He exploded. “You’re unbelievable, Nina! People who curse their own father deserve to go to hell!” Anna pretended to intervene. “Nina, don’t fight with Liam. It’s all my fault. I never should have come back…” I tried to pull my arm away from her grip, and she stumbled backward, tumbling down the short flight of steps and passing out. Liam rushed to her side, scooping her up into his arms. Before he left, he shot me a look of pure hatred. “Nina, if anything happens to Anna, I will never forgive you.” Six years of a secret love, and all I got was “I will never forgive you.” How pathetic. I went inside, and the scene that greeted me was almost unrecognizable. A giant wedding portrait of Liam and Anna hung on the wall behind the sofa. The closet was full of Anna’s clothes. The bedroom was a disaster zone, with a torn pair of black stockings and a maid’s costume hanging off the bedpost. An open box of condoms on the nightstand was half-empty. A wave of nausea washed over me. I ran outside and called a moving company that very night, telling them to throw out every single piece of furniture in the apartment. I didn’t see Liam for the next few days, but I heard plenty about him from the junior researchers. “The annual academic symposium is coming up. Liam must be really confident this year. He’s been taking his new wife on vacation all week. Look at these pictures…” I glanced at the social media post he’d blocked me from seeing. The places they were visiting… they were from the itinerary I had planned. The route was identical to the one in the detailed honeymoon guide I had spent months creating for us. That evening, Liam called me. “Nina, I can’t get ahold of the professor. He was supposed to give me that research paper he was working on. Can you get it for me?” “In your dreams, Liam. That’s my father’s work. Why would I give it to you?” I hung up before he could reply.

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1-9

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I was the real daughter of this family, and my life’s ambitions were simple: lie down, binge-watch shows, and order takeout. When my sister, the one they’d raised as their own, found out I was back, she was determined to prove her superiority. We each took over one of the family’s failing subsidiary companies at the same time. She publicly mocked me, “Some people are just born useless.” The words had barely left her mouth when a breaking news alert flashed across the TV. An old factory I owned, a forgotten piece of property, was being rezoned by the city as part of a core development project. The compulsory purchase payout: one billion dollars. 1. “Nora, just look at yourself!” My mother, Eleanor, pointed a trembling finger at my nose, her voice shaking with rage. “Can’t you learn a thing or two from Isabelle? Show some ambition!” “If you had half of Isabelle’s drive, do you think the Ashworths would need to be sucking up to the Lee family?” Standing beside her was my sister, Isabelle, the product of a lifetime of elite education. She was wearing a designer suit, her makeup flawless, radiating an aura of competence. A graduate of an Ivy League school and fluent in four languages, she was a goddess in everyone’s eyes. And then there was me, in a baggy T-shirt and shorts, about to order a bucket of spicy crawfish. My mother had dragged me out of bed for this business gala, all to pave the way for Isabelle’s networking. She stared at my T-shirt, her brow furrowed in disgust. “You’re going to wear that? You’ll be the laughingstock of the city! You’ll shame the Ashworth name!” Isabelle glided over at the perfect moment, her voice a soft, gentle murmur. In her hand, however, she held a gown she no longer wore. “Mother, don’t be angry. Nora, I’ve only worn this Dior once. You can wear it. Please, don’t embarrass the family.” Her tone was pure charity, as if she were donating to the poor. I couldn’t be bothered to respond, but my mother shoved me into a room and forced me into the ill-fitting dress anyway. At the gala, Isabelle was the center of attention, moving through the crowd with effortless grace. She could charm guests with fluent French and hold her own in conversations with business titans, a glass of champagne always perfectly poised in her hand. I, on the other hand, just wanted to find a dark corner and disappear. A greasy-looking man with a predatory smile drifted towards me, holding a drink. “You must be the other Miss Ashworth. I’ve heard so much about you. Care to join me for a drink?” I looked at him and asked, in all seriousness, “Does this drink come with a side of crawfish?” The entire room fell silent. The man’s face turned the color of raw liver. Isabelle elegantly swept in to “rescue” me, her words a masterclass in public humiliation disguised as an apology. “I’m so sorry, Mr. Davies. My sister doesn’t know any better. She grew up in the countryside, you see. She’s not used to… all this. Please, don’t hold it against her.” My father, Richard Ashworth’s, face was a thundercloud. He dragged me home, cleared his throat, and slammed two files onto the coffee table. “These are two of the group’s subsidiaries, both on the brink of bankruptcy. You’ll each take one. You have one month. Whoever can turn their company around will prove they are more qualified to…” He didn’t finish, but his meaning was crystal clear. His gaze softened as he looked at Isabelle, full of hope, then shifted to me, his voice turning to ice as he added, “I know what Isabelle is capable of. But you? What exactly do you bring to this family?” Isabelle picked up one of the files, a confident, predatory smile playing on her lips. “Father, Mother, don’t worry. I won’t let you down.” She shot me a triumphant, challenging look. I shrugged, picked up the other file without even bothering to read the company’s name, and stuffed it in my pocket. “Right. Got it.” My apathy drove them to the brink. “Nora! What is that attitude?” my mother shrieked. “Do you have any idea how much Isabelle has sacrificed for this family? She’s out there securing investments, chasing leads, working herself to the bone! And you? All you do is lie around and order takeout!” Her voice was shrill and grating. I was too tired to argue. I just turned and went back to my room. 2. The next day, I went to see my so-called company. It was a dilapidated office with a few scattered desks and a dozen employees who looked like they’d lost the will to live. The company had five hundred thousand dollars left in its accounts. I called in the accountant. “Divide this five hundred thousand among all the employees based on their years of service. Consider it a severance package and bonus.” The accountant stared at me, bewildered. “Ms. Ashworth, this is… this is all the liquid cash the company has left. If we pay this out, we’re officially bankrupt!” “Then let it go bankrupt,” I said, my tone final. That afternoon, the company was officially dissolved. I dusted off my hands and went home to continue my grand project of doing absolutely nothing. That evening, Isabelle returned, a storm of energy and ambition. Her heels clicked an aggressive rhythm against the hardwood floor. She kicked my door open and threw a financial report at my face. “Nora! You useless piece of trash! I closed a million-dollar deal today! And you? You dissolved the entire company! You are absolutely hopeless!” I slowly tore open a bag of potato chips. The crunch was satisfying. “Oh. Congrats.” “You—” She was so furious her chest heaved, the hand pointing at me trembling. “The Ashworth family has no room for a degenerate failure like you! Just you wait!” I watched her storm out, then popped another chip into my mouth. Why fight it? Lying down is so much more comfortable. The next morning, I was ripped from my sleep by a commotion. My mother, Eleanor, barged in, followed by a few of the house staff. “Throw all of this junk food out! And these sloppy clothes! Get rid of them!” I sat up, frowning. “Mom, what are you doing?” “What am I doing? I’m teaching you how to be a respectable human being!” She stood with her hands on her hips, her face a mask of disappointment. “Your sister was up until three in the morning working for this family, and you? You sleep in like a bum! Starting today, all your credit cards are cancelled. You’ll get a thousand dollars a month for living expenses. Let’s see how you manage to be a slob on that!” I watched in mild annoyance as the staff tossed my beloved snacks into trash bags. Arguing was exhausting, so I kept my mouth shut. Once they were done with their rampage, I slowly got up, got ready, and received a call from an unknown number. It was a former employee from yesterday, a man named Leo. “Ms. Ashworth, thank you! Thank you so much! My wife is sick and we desperately needed the money. What you gave us… you saved my family!” His voice was thick with tears, overflowing with gratitude. He said the former employees had pooled their money and wanted to treat me to dinner. I declined. I wasn’t looking for credit, and honestly, going out to eat sounded like a lot of work. But somehow, word of this got back to Isabelle. At dinner that night, she started in with her signature passive-aggression. “Well, well, if it isn’t our great philanthropist. I hear you used the company’s last dime to buy loyalty. You’re really something, Nora. You’d rather throw money at strangers than lift a finger to help your own family.” My father snorted. “You can’t make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear. And now you’re trying to buy a reputation? If that half-million had gone to your sister, she could have turned it into a real project. In your hands, it just went down the drain.” I sipped my soup, saying nothing. My silence only egged Isabelle on. She pulled a cheap-looking cloth tote bag from her purse and tossed it in front of me. “I figured since your cards are cancelled, you probably can’t afford a new bag. I saw this at a street stall today and thought of you. Twenty bucks. You’re welcome.” The look in her eyes was one you’d give a beggar on the street. I looked at the tote bag. It had a Peppa Pig print on it. I found it strangely amusing. “Thanks, sis.” I took it without any fuss. It would be perfect for grocery shopping tomorrow. Her face turned pale with rage. She didn’t even finish her dinner before storming upstairs. My mother sighed, her heart aching for her precious daughter. “What a tragedy. Isabelle is such a wonderful girl, and she’s stuck with a sister like you.” I quietly finished my food. Funny how easily the word “sister” rolled off her tongue. They all seemed to forget that Isabelle and I shared no blood. 3. In the days that followed, Isabelle was a woman possessed. She left early, came home late, and was in a constant whirlwind of meetings and business dinners. Her company, I heard, was thriving, quickly securing second and third rounds of funding. As for me, I took my Peppa Pig tote bag to the farmer’s market every day. With my allowance slashed, I had learned the fine art of haggling with old folks over the price of potatoes. One day, while I was in a tense negotiation over a particularly fine-looking russet, a man in a sharp suit found me. It was Leo. He looked much better than the last time I’d seen him. With him was a middle-aged man. “Ms. Ashworth, let me introduce you. This is my cousin, Mr. Wallace. He’s in the construction materials business.” His cousin handed me a business card, his demeanor polite and respectful. “Ms. Ashworth, it’s an honor. Leo told me what you did. You’re a person of great integrity. I’m looking to expand my warehouse space, and I heard you happen to own an abandoned old factory. I was wondering if you might be interested in selling?” I blinked. An old factory? Then I remembered. It was a birthday gift from my grandfather when I turned eighteen. He’d held my hand and said, “Nora, you have a kind heart, not like the others. This piece of land will bring you good fortune one day.” But the place was out in the middle of nowhere. It had been deserted for years. I’d almost forgotten it existed. “That place… is it worth anything?” “Absolutely!” Mr. Wallace’s eyes lit up. “It may be remote, but the lot is huge, which is exactly what I need. I’m prepared to offer you three million dollars. What do you think?” Three million. To me, it was an astronomical sum. Leo was an honest man, and his cousin seemed trustworthy. I didn’t hesitate. On the day we signed the contract, I made sure to bring my Peppa Pig tote bag, which held my ID and birth certificate. The first thing I did after getting the money was go to the mall and buy a mountain of snacks. Then I took a cab home. When I walked into the living room with my arms full of bags, the three of them—my mother, father, and Isabelle—stared at me with suspicion. “Nora! Where did you get the money for all this?” my mother demanded. “Oh, I sold that old factory grandpa gave me,” I replied nonchalantly. “You sold it?” Isabelle shrieked. “You actually sold it? For how much?” “Three million.” “Three million?” Isabelle burst out laughing, as if it were the funniest joke she’d ever heard. “Nora, are you an idiot? That factory might be remote, but the land alone is worth at least five million! And you sold it for three? You are the definition of a squanderer!” She looked genuinely heartbroken, as if the factory had been hers. My father’s face was grim. “Reckless! Why didn’t you discuss a family matter with us first? Three million… you’ve been swindled!” I looked at their indignant faces and suddenly felt very tired of it all. “It’s sold. What’s the point of saying all this now?” I didn’t want to waste any more breath on them. I just took my snacks and headed upstairs. Behind me, I heard Isabelle’s cold, contemptuous laugh. “Useless is as useless does. You could hand her a winning lottery ticket and she’d probably use it as a napkin.” 4. A month later, it was time for the Ashworth family’s formal dinner. It was a family dinner in name, but in reality, it was a victory party for Isabelle. Her subsidiary, they said, had tripled its market value in a single month, becoming a small miracle in the industry. At the party, Isabelle wore a stunning red gown, her chin held high as she accepted fawning compliments from all our relatives. “Isabelle is just brilliant! A true Ashworth!” “Yes, not like some people who just take up space and throw away money.” All eyes darted subtly in my direction. I was in my usual uniform of a plain white T-shirt and jeans, sitting in a corner, completely engrossed in dismantling a king crab leg. It tasted good, if a little salty. Isabelle, holding a glass of champagne, glided over to me, looking down her nose. “Nora. I hear you’ve been living quite comfortably off the money from the factory sale.” I nodded. “It’s been great. I’ve achieved snack-sovereignty.” She let out a short, sharp laugh, just loud enough for the whole room to hear. “Some people are just born useless. You can give them a mountain of gold, and they’ll waste it all. You can give them an opportunity, and they’ll destroy it with their own hands.” She paused, the disdain in her eyes utterly undisguised. “A month ago, we were given the same starting line. I turned my company into a ten-million-dollar asset. You dismantled yours. And now, for a measly three million dollars, you’ve sold the most precious thing grandpa ever left you. Tell me, Nora, what is the point of you?” The room went silent. Everyone was watching me, waiting for the punchline of the joke that was my life. My mother’s face was a canvas of embarrassment and humiliation. She looked at me as if I were her mortal enemy. My father’s expression was just as dark. I slowly wiped my hands, looked up, and was about to say something. Just then, on the large screen in the center of the hall, the financial news program was interrupted by a breaking news bulletin. “We have an update on the city’s urban development strategy. The municipal government has officially decided to rezone the southern suburban district into a core development area for the construction of a new technology hub…” The newscaster’s voice was crisp and clear, echoing through the silent hall. On the screen, a massive zoning map appeared. A bright red circle was drawn emphatically in the center of the map. That spot… I narrowed my eyes. It looked familiar. The smirk hadn’t yet faded from Isabelle’s face. She followed my gaze and scoffed, “What are you looking at? You think a national project like this has anything to do with a failure like you?” The words had just left her mouth when the newscaster’s voice swelled with excitement. “According to our sources, the compensation standards for this rezoning will be the highest in the city’s history. Notably, the former Starlight Machinery plant, located at the very heart of the core zone, is projected to have a compulsory purchase payout of up to… one billion dollars!” Starlight Machinery. Wasn’t that the name of the factory I just sold? The entire banquet hall was plunged into a silence so deep it was deafening. Every single pair of eyes in the room snapped towards me. The smile on Isabelle’s face froze solid.

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Before my father died, he left me four sealed envelopes, one to be opened every three years. The first told me not to study medicine. So I enrolled in the police academy. In three years, I earned two commendations for valor. The hospital where I was meant to begin my residency was destroyed in an explosion. The second told me not to stay in the country. So I transferred to an international law enforcement agency. In three years, I took down five major drug lords. The house I owned back home was blown up by my enemies. The third told me not to marry a comrade. I hesitated. But I chose my partner, the woman I’d gone through hell and back with. In the three years after our wedding, she took three bullets for me and shielded me from a dozen knife attacks. The day she found out she was pregnant, she told me: “I’ve already scheduled the abortion. Jasper and I have a son.” Jasper… my protégé. With trembling hands, I opened the fourth envelope. It said: 【DO NOT GET DIVORCED】 1 “What did you just say?” When Jocelyn Kane uttered those words so casually, I thought I’d misheard. “Is this some kind of joke?” She tossed a stack of photos onto the table. A little boy, looking so much like her, was cradled in her arms. Ninety-nine photos, all taken from a father’s perspective. The child looked just like him. The way she gazed at the boy was so tender, so full of love. They were both smiling, a perfect picture of a happy mother and child. “Remember that year I was on assignment overseas? And Jasper took a year’s leave of absence?” Jocelyn lit a slim cigarette, her movements unhurried. “He was with me. For the birth.” I snatched the pregnancy report from the table and threw it at her face. “He was my protégé! You slept with my goddamn protégé!” Her almond-shaped eyes narrowed. “Is there a problem?” “When did it start?” “Our wedding night. A funny coincidence, really. I was drunk and mistook him for you. He was good in bed. I developed a taste for it.” She picked up the crumpled report and tossed it into the trash. “And I promised him I wouldn’t have another man’s child.” “Jocelyn!” I lunged, my movements fast and lethal. She intercepted my strike with ease. After a few exchanges, she exploited an opening, spinning behind me with fluid grace. A sharp kick buckled the back of my knee. “I’ve been more than fair to you these past three years, Shane. Don’t push it.” I stumbled forward, catching myself on the wine bar. “I’ll tell you after we’re done here.” She turned to leave. “Stay where you are!” I threw a punch. She spun back to block it, and a blade slid from her sleeve. A flicker of shock went through me as the knife sliced across my chest. A searing pain tore through my pectoral muscle. She used the opening to kick my knee again, forcing me to the ground. She wiped her hands clean. “Be careful, or you might just die by my hand.” My head hit the corner of the table. Blood dripped into my left eye as I glared at her retreating back, the sound of the slamming door echoing in the room. Now I knew why my father had warned me not to marry a comrade. It didn’t matter that she was my partner for six years. That we had faced death together, that she had saved my life more times than I could count. Betrayal is betrayal. The fourth envelope was stained with my blood. The words DO NOT GET DIVORCED were a glaring, mocking red. I knew my father was always right. But this woman… I couldn’t stay married to this woman. Shaking the blood from my hand, I staggered to my feet and dialed my divorce lawyer. 2 I was in the middle of discussing the terms with my lawyer when Jocelyn stormed in with her people. She snatched the freshly drafted agreement and tore it to shreds. “Let’s go.” She grabbed my arm, her grip like steel. I twisted out of her hold, forcing her back. “You really intend to divorce me?” “That’s right.” Jocelyn nodded, then turned her cold gaze on the lawyer. “If you dare to type another word for him, you’ll regret it.” The lawyer’s face went pale. He stood, gave a nervous bow, and practically scurried out of the room. “Jocelyn!” I roared, my frustration boiling over. She smirked. “Come on, husband.” I ignored her. I had already memorized the terms. I went to the computer, added the final clauses, and hit print. “Shane Maddox!” She gripped my hand, trying to stop me, but I shoved her away and pressed the button. “Sign it, Ms. Kane.” She snapped the pen I offered her in two. With a sweep of her arm, she sent everything on the desk crashing to the floor. “Don’t you understand? The only reason you’re alive right now is because you’re married to me!” I frowned. “If you divorce me, you won’t even know what killed you!” She said it with such furious desperation, for a second it felt like we were on a dangerous mission, like I’d just charged in without my vest to take down a target, and she was tearing into me for being so reckless with my life. I pushed her away. “Who the hell do you think you are to tell me what to do?” “Your wife!” A sharp blow to the back of my neck. Darkness. When I came to, I was on the bed, my clothes in disarray. Because of the pregnancy, her usual fire was missing, but there was a searing pain on my shoulder. A fresh bite mark. She stood over me. “Don’t mention divorce again. Anything else, you can have your way.” She turned and walked out. I grabbed a wine glass from the nightstand and hurled it at her back. It shattered against the doorframe. She only paused for a fraction of a second before leaving. I scrubbed furiously at the lipstick smudges on my skin, only managing to smear them into a red haze. I gritted my teeth in rage. Not long after she left, priceless, one-of-a-kind auction items began arriving at the apartment, each one worth a lifetime’s savings for most people. “Ms. Kane said that if there is anything else you desire, sir, you only need to ask.” I didn’t even glance at the treasures. I could earn my own damn fortune. These things were no comfort. I needed an outlet. My protégé, Jasper, had vanished along with Jocelyn. I drove to my private firing range. “Change the targets. I want pictures of Jocelyn Kane and Jasper White.” 3 As I was setting up the range, my instincts screamed. I snapped my head to the side. A bullet grazed my hair and slammed into the reinforced concrete wall just inches away. I stared at the deep crater in the wall and spun around. “Who’s there?” A loud laugh echoed through the space. Jasper stood there, holding an assault rifle, aiming it right at me. “Sorry, boss. Ran out of targets. Mind standing in for a bit?” Beside him, Jocelyn sat calmly in a chair, dressed in full combat gear, watching the show. “You brought him here?” This range was mine. I had only ever given Jocelyn access. This was our place. We trained here, ran drills, even had dates here. It was our secret base. “Get him out of here,” I seethed. Jocelyn just smiled at me. “Jasper’s not a great shot, and you’re fast. He won’t hit you. As his mentor, you should give him some practice.” “Jocelyn—” Before I could say more, Jasper opened fire. A spray of bullets stitched across the wall. I dove, rolled, and scrambled for cover, using every evasive maneuver I knew. When it was over, the wall was riddled with deep gouges. I looked up, breathing heavily, at Jasper, who had emptied his magazine. He clicked his tongue. “This is boring. I can’t hit him.” Jocelyn rose from her chair and walked toward him with a smile. “You know what your biggest problem is?” She stood beside him, lining up the shot, her head tilted alongside his. Panic seized me. “Jocelyn!” “Focus on this point.” Her index finger covered his as they squeezed the trigger together. Jocelyn’s marksmanship was even better than mine. Even with a target moving erratically, I had nowhere to run. A bullet screamed past my cheek and exploded against the wall behind me. Blood dripped onto the floor. Jasper’s eyes lit up. Jocelyn smiled as he reloaded, taking aim at me again. This time, every bullet was a near miss, tearing through the air, grazing my skin. My knees gave out and I sank to the ground, gasping for breath. Jocelyn watched, her arms crossed. Jasper shouted, “Stay still, boss! Or the next one might just go through your head!” I pulled the dagger strapped to my thigh. I got to my feet and strode towards him. “Boss, I said don’t move!” I ignored him. Jasper took aim. Anyone trained by Jocelyn saw a massive improvement in their skills. I dodged the first shot, picking up my pace. Jasper started to panic. A hailstorm of bullets rained down on me. A few grazed my arm, leaving deep, bleeding furrows that exposed the bone. It only made me move faster. “Either you kill me right now, or I kill you.” The moment he aimed for my heart, I vaulted over a table, launching a flying side kick that sent him and his rifle crashing to the ground. “You lose.” I pinned him by the throat, the dagger raised high. “Aah!” As Jasper screamed in terror, I felt the cold press of metal against the back of my head. The Desert Eagle. The one I gave her. “Let him go.” 4 I’ve had enemy guns pointed at me more times than I can count. But this was the first time it was one of my own. “Jocelyn, are you really going to kill me?” Her voice was ice. “Try me.” I laughed. “Alright.” I plunged the dagger into Jasper’s shoulder. BANG! The bullet tore through my chest from back to front. In ten years of service, I’d never been shot. Because she was always there, standing in front of me. Now, the only gunshot wound I had… was from her. Jasper scrambled out from under me and ran to Jocelyn’s side. I coughed up a mouthful of blood. Jocelyn pulled Jasper away, turning to speak into her comms. “Med team to the firing range.” 5 Jocelyn had spared my life. The bullet missed my heart by a fraction of an inch. It didn’t even puncture a lung. But the recovery was long. When I finally woke up, the medical staff was gone. Only Jocelyn was there, watching over me. I flinched away from her outstretched hand. “Are you angry?” She settled for tucking the blanket around me instead. “I was worried about you.” I didn’t speak. “Shane, I was wrong. Whatever you want, just ask.” “Anything?” “Anything.” “Alright.” I sat up. “First, put on this blindfold.” She obeyed, letting me tie the silk ribbon around her eyes. I took her hand and placed a pen in it. “You want me to sign something?” she asked, an eyebrow raised. “My assets?” “Afraid you’ll miss them?” She laughed. “Of course not. Whatever you want, Shane. I’ll sign it all. You can have everything.” “Good.” I guided her hand to the signature line of the divorce papers. “Let me guess, fifty billion? A hundred?” I just smiled. She signed her name without hesitation. The moment the pen lifted from the paper, she went rigid. She ripped off the blindfold. “I knew it.” She waved the papers in my face. “Don’t play these games with me!” She threw the agreement towards the trash can. “Jocelyn!” I lunged for it, but she blocked my path. “Is there nothing else you want? You’re that determined to divorce me?” “Yes! Now move!” She grabbed my face, forcing me to look at her. “Divorcing me will get you killed!” I froze. “You think I don’t know what’s in the fourth envelope?” she asked with a bitter smile. “Your father was trying to protect you. He doesn’t want you to die, and neither do I.” “I don’t need your protection!” I shoved her hard. The next second, she pulled me into a brutal kiss. “Jo—mmph!” I struggled, pushing against her. My hand caught on her shirt, and as it tore, I saw it—the ugly, puckered scar of a through-and-through bullet wound she’d taken for me, surrounded by a roadmap of countless other scars. My resolve faltered. Instead of throwing her off, I bit down hard on her lip. The coppery taste of blood filled my mouth before she finally let go. We were both a mess, panting as we stared at each other. She wiped the blood from her mouth, her composure seemingly restored. My voice was cold. “Find some time. Get rid of the baby.” A medical report landed in my lap. An abortion. “Did you really think I would keep your child?” I looked at the date on the form. It was from the day of our first big fight. I froze. Then, a slow, cold smile spread across my face. “Well done, my dear wife.” Her fists clenched. She surged forward, cupping my face in her hands, her expression fierce. “Promise me. You will never mention divorce again. We are going to be husband and wife for the rest of our lives.” A frantic pounding on the door. Jocelyn, who had been about to kiss me again, froze. The annoyance in her eyes was palpable. “Get out!” “Jocelyn!” It was Jasper’s voice. He burst through the door. “Jumper… Jumper’s gone!” 6 Jocelyn couldn’t believe it. She doted on that child. He had a security detail patrolling 24/7. Who could have possibly taken him? Jasper’s red-rimmed eyes shot to me. Jocelyn’s gaze followed. “It was you. You leaked his location.” She frowned. “I did not.” “Only you knew about him! Only you knew your wife’s every move! If you have a problem, you take it up with me! Why would you hurt a child?” “Enough!” I gasped, the pain in my chest flaring. “What’s the point of throwing baseless accusations? We need to figure out how to get him back!” Jasper choked out, “The people who took him… they’re the boss’s enemies…” Jocelyn went still. I understood immediately. We both moved at the same time. But I forgot about the blade hidden in her sleeve. In an instant, she had me pinned against the balcony railing, the knife pressed to my throat. “Shane, if Jumper dies, I have no reason to live. If you won’t agree to the exchange, we die together, right here, right now.” Everyone said Jocelyn Kane was heartless, except when it came to me. But even I didn’t know that her child with Jasper was her entire world. I stopped struggling. “Fine. But we’re getting a divorce.” Her hand wavered. “Deal.” I smiled. Turns out, getting a divorce wasn’t so hard after all… 7 Ever since we signed the papers, Jasper seemed a lot less frantic. Jocelyn, however, was in a rush. The moment my signature was on the page, she had me tied up, thrown in a car, and delivered to the kidnappers. She had shielded me from their bullets and blades countless times. Now, she was handing me over to them herself. The little boy was returned to her arms. “Jumper!” Her eyes were red as she clutched him, pressing a firm kiss to his forehead. She didn’t even notice as Jasper shoved me towards our enemies. I was dragged before their leader. The woman’s upper face was hidden in shadow, but her red lips curved into a smile. “Shane Maddox. After you killed so many of my people, I never thought you’d end up in my hands.” I just smiled back. “Still not going to untie me?”

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When Cole Sterling couldn’t afford his college tuition, I was the one who stepped up. I funded his entire four years of university, bankrolled his lavish lifestyle, and helped him become a corporate CEO. With the endless resources I poured into him, he became a celebrated success story. But when he learned that his childhood sweetheart was getting married, he orchestrated a car crash to have me killed. As my consciousness faded, he walked over to me. “If you hadn’t used your money to tie me down, sponsoring me all those years ago, I would have been the one marrying Luna Reed! Only with you dead can I finally be with her!” The next time I opened my eyes, I was back on that fateful day, a black card in my hand, ready to fund his education. And he had been reborn, too. 1 I opened my eyes and found myself holding a credit card. Across from me, Cole Sterling stared with cold, hard eyes. He still carried the air of refined arrogance that my money had cultivated in him. He shot me a look of pure disgust. “Arabella Thorne, I’ve had enough of you!” he sneered. “Stop trying to corrupt me with your filthy money. I’ll figure out my own tuition. This time, I’m going to live my life my way!” In the next instant, his harsh expression melted away, replaced by a look of pure clarity. He bypassed me completely and walked straight to Luna Reed. He took her hands, his voice trembling with emotion. “Luna, this time, no one will ever keep us apart.” I watched the scene unfold, my emotions shifting from a burning rage to confusion, and finally settling into a cold, clear calm. In my last life, when I heard Cole’s family had run into financial trouble and he couldn’t afford tuition, I went to him immediately. I offered to pay for everything. He had taken my black card with a smile, calling me kind and gentle. Throughout his entire college career, I spent eighty percent of my allowance on him. I transformed him from a charity case into a playboy who drove sports cars, frequented exclusive clubs, and threw money around like it was nothing. After graduation, he wanted to start a business. Without a second thought, I gave him my entire trust fund—assets, stocks, and cash worth over a billion dollars—that my parents had set aside for me. With my money and my family’s connections backing him, he became a phenomenal success, a titan of the business world. Later, we got married. We had children. But I never knew that all along, he was hiding another woman in his heart. Not until the day the news of Luna Reed’s wedding broke. He went mad. He would fly into rages over nothing. He drank himself into a stupor night after night. Once, it was Luna’s fiancé who called, asking me to come and pick him up. When I arrived, I found him slumped in a drunken heap in Luna’s apartment, muttering her name. “Luna, it’s my fault.” “I never should have sold you out for a credit card.” “It was all Arabella’s fault. She blinded me with her money.” “I hate her. God, I hate her.” “Luna, can we get back together? Just like we were in college…” It was only then that I learned the truth. In college, he had been taking my money and spending it on Luna. When I found out, we had a massive fight. In my anger, I seized control of the company and froze all his accounts. I wanted to make him understand that I was the one who had given him everything. I never imagined it would drive him over the edge. He hired someone to stage a car accident, to have me killed. As I lay bleeding out, my vision blurring, he appeared at the scene. His voice was like ice. “If you hadn’t used your money to tie me down, sponsoring me all those years ago, I would have been the one marrying Luna Reed! Only with you dead can I finally be with her!” Remembering all this, I casually tossed the black card I was holding to a passing student. “Hey,” I said. “I’ll sponsor you through college. All four years, everything’s on me.” The student who caught the card stared at it, his face a mask of disbelief. Cole watched me give the card to a complete stranger, and a flicker of regret crossed his face. But it was quickly replaced by fury. “Arabella, don’t think you can provoke me like this. I won’t fall for it. No matter what you do, I will never accept your sponsorship!” I looked at him, feigning surprise. “Cole, what on earth are you talking about? Who said I was ever going to sponsor you?” 2 My words made Cole freeze. He stared at me, his eyes wide with disbelief. “Arabella, what are you playing at? You were obviously going to give that card to me. I’m the one who rejected it.” I laughed. “Could you be any more self-absorbed?” Cole refused to believe it. He scoffed, “It doesn’t matter what act you put on. Everyone knows you’re obsessed with me. But in this life, you’re destined to never have me!” Seeing that his narcissism was still fully intact gave me a sense of relief. In this new life, I was going to make sure he learned exactly how cruel the world could be. I ignored him and took the hand of the student I had just sponsored. “What’s your name?” The student was still in a daze. He blushed as I held his hand. “I’m… I’m Nathaniel Vance. Nate.” I smiled. “That’s a great name, Nate. Let me buy you dinner. Come on.” I took Nate to a high-end restaurant. He looked around, a little intimidated by the opulent decor. “Um, I’m a freshman this year,” he offered nervously. “I know,” I said, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. “I’m a freshman too.” “What?” Nate stared at me, his cheeks turning pink. “What, I don’t look like one?” “You seem more like a senior, someone who knows their way around.” I laughed. “Do I look that old?” “No!” Nate quickly backpedaled. “That’s not what I meant. Oh, right, I still don’t know your name.” “I’m Arabella Thorne.” As Nate and I talked, I noticed he was actually very handsome. Exactly my type. And he was sweet and endearing. Just then, we heard footsteps approaching. It was Cole, with Luna in tow. In my last life, he had squandered my money without a thought, a regular at places like this. But in this life, he was just a poor kid whose family was in ruins, unable to even pay his tuition. Had he forgotten? Or had his rebirth somehow altered his circumstances? As I wondered, Cole spotted me. He clearly assumed I was there waiting for him. As he walked past our table with Luna, he sneered. “Trying to get my attention this way? Desperate for a little recognition? Give it up, Arabella. It’s never going to happen.” I rolled my eyes and turned back to Nate, placing a piece of food on his plate. “You have to try the house special. It’s delicious.” Nate blushed and nodded eagerly. Cole huffed and sat down at a nearby table with Luna. He still carried himself with the aristocratic air I had bought for him, ordering a dozen expensive dishes from the menu without a thought as to whether they could finish them. Luna looked worried. “Cole, it’s just the two of us. Don’t you think this is too much?” Cole spoke loudly, making sure I could hear. “It’s fine, don’t worry about it. This is how I always eat. Besides, this place is just average. We’ll make do for tonight. Next time, I’ll take you to a Michelin-starred palace in Paris. The ingredients there are sold by the gram; every bite is worth its weight in gold.” 3 I had to stop myself from laughing out loud. He had truly forgotten that he was now a broke student who couldn’t even afford tuition. But Luna’s face lit up with happiness at his words. She shot me a smug, triumphant look. Then she raised her voice. “Cole, since this is the first day of our relationship, I have a gift for you.” Cole looked at her expectantly. “What is it?” Luna pulled a sweater from her bag. “I knitted this for you myself.” The light in Cole’s eyes dimmed. Luna had no way of knowing that in his past life, the gifts I gave him were watches worth hundreds of thousands and sports cars worth millions. After all that, how could a simple knitted sweater ever compare? Luna’s face fell. “What’s wrong? Don’t you like it? I poured my heart into every single stitch.” Cole quickly plastered on a smile. “No, I love it! Of course I do!” But after taking the sweater, he tossed it aside without a second glance. I opened my purse. Inside, just as I remembered, was a small gift box. It contained a pair of matching couple’s bracelets worth sixty million dollars. In my last life, I had given them to Cole. He’d loved them and wore his every day. But one day, my bracelet disappeared. I thought it had been stolen. It wasn’t until I saw Luna again that I realized the thief was Cole. He had stolen my bracelet and given it to her. I took out the box and pushed it across the table to Nate. “What’s this?” he asked, curious. I gave him a mysterious smile. “Open it and see.” When Nate opened the box and saw the matching bracelets, he was mesmerized by their dazzling luster and exquisite design. “These are beautiful,” he breathed. “I’ve never seen anything like them.” “Of course not,” I said matter-of-factly. “The ruby and sapphire on those were bought at a high-end auction. I designed the bracelets myself and had them custom-made by an international team of jewelers. They’re one-of-a-kind.” Nate looked at them in awe. The commotion caught the attention of Cole and Luna. Luna’s eyes turned red with envy as she stared at the bracelets. Cole shot to his feet, his expression a storm of emotion. He rushed to our table and tried to snatch them. “Put those down! Don’t you touch them!” Nate quickly hid the bracelets behind his back, glaring at Cole. “What are you doing? Why are you trying to steal my things?” Cole seemed to snap back to reality, remembering that in this life, the bracelets were not his. But he still turned to me, his voice full of resentment. “It’s just a stupid bracelet. If I wanted to, I could buy ten of them.” I knew his pride was fragile and his ego was massive, but I hadn’t realized the extent of his delusion. I looked at him calmly. “Cole, if you can afford it, go buy one. Why are you shouting at me?” Nate chimed in, equally annoyed. “Yeah, what’s your problem?” Cole’s face flushed with anger, and he retreated to his table. Luna tried to comfort him. “Cole, just ignore them. So what if they have a little money? We don’t care about that.” “I’ve lost my appetite,” Cole snapped. “Let’s go.” The waiter had just brought their food to the table. “But I haven’t eaten yet,” Luna whined. “We’ll eat later,” Cole said dismissively. “I’ll treat you to something better.” Though reluctant, Luna had no choice but to follow him. But as they tried to leave, the waiter blocked their path. “Sir, your bill comes to a total of eight thousand, five hundred and twenty dollars.” Cole nodded. “Eight or nine thousand, that’s nothing. I’ll just…” He trailed off as he patted his pockets. The color drained from his face. 4 Feeling the empty lining of his pockets, Cole finally remembered. In this life, his father was a gambling addict, his mother was in long-term care at a hospital, and his family was drowning in debt. Eight thousand dollars was nothing to the man he used to be. But to the man he was now—a student who couldn’t even scrape together his tuition—it was an astronomical sum. His expression turned grim. His eyes flickered towards me. “Sir?” the waiter prompted. “How will you be paying?” Cole gritted his teeth and turned to Luna. “Luna, I… I don’t have any money on me. Can you cover this?” Luna was horrified. “Cole, are you kidding me?” Cole’s face grew even darker. “Why would I joke about this? I really don’t have any money.” Tears welled up in Luna’s eyes. “No money? Then why did you bring me to such an expensive restaurant? Why did you order so much?” Her suspicion grew. “Wait… you’re not one of those dining scammers, are you?” Their conversation put the waiter on high alert. He immediately spoke into his walkie-talkie, calling for security. Cole’s face was a thundercloud. In his past life with me, he could spend whatever he wanted. All he had to do was ask, and I would give it to him. He had never been humiliated like this. “Luna, just lend it to me,” he said through clenched teeth. “It’s not like I won’t pay you back.” Luna looked down. “My monthly allowance is only two thousand. I don’t have that kind of money.” Just then, his phone rang. “Hello, is this the son of Maria Sterling?” “Your mother’s hospital bill is due. The total is one hundred and thirteen thousand dollars, plus nursing fees, which comes to a total of…” Cole hung up before the person could finish. His face was ashen, all the arrogance of his rebirth completely gone. He looked at the tearful Luna, then his gaze drifted back to me. After a moment of internal debate, he clenched his fists and walked slowly towards my table. He stared at me, a bleak, defeated smile on his face. Then, as if surrendering, he forced out the words. “Give me the card.” I knew he was out of options. Reality had finally hit him. If it weren’t for our past life, maybe he would have had a chance. But now, I was only interested in giving him a final push off the cliff, not pulling him back up. I glanced at him. “What did you say? Say it again.” Cole’s fists tightened, as if he had made a momentous decision, or perhaps as if he were enduring the greatest humiliation of his life. His face was a mask of suppressed rage and shame. “I lose, okay? Is that what you want to hear? Stop humiliating me. Just give me the unlimited black card, and promise you’ll stop throwing your rich-girl tantrums at me… and I’ll agree to accept your sponsorship. I’ll be your boyfriend.”

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It was eleven o’clock at night. I had just locked my car when a crimson warning flared before my eyes. 【WARNING! Your husband, who is currently in a divorce cooling-off period, is about to kidnap you, broadcast your nude photos across all platforms, and then dismember you, throwing your remains into the sewer!】 【This gold digger, who shamelessly exploited love and money, now wants a divorce and a share of assets. She deserves this retribution!】 I was utterly bewildered. I’m just a single working woman; where would I get a husband? Before I could even react, a pair of cold hands suddenly tightened around my neck. “Run, why don’t you? Aren’t you trying to get a divorce?” In a daze, I was dragged and thrown into a black van. In the darkness, cold handcuffs clamped onto my wrists. … The moment the car door slammed shut, those hands clamped down on my throat. A wave of suffocation instantly sent my heart racing, my whole body trembling uncontrollably. “Sweetheart, I’ve been so good to you. Why do you insist on a divorce?” I used every ounce of strength I had, speaking in broken gasps. “Look, mister… you’ve got the wrong person! I’m not married, and I’m not your wife!” “You bitch, what are you blathering about?” My words completely enraged him, and the grip on my throat tightened even further. 【Is this woman insane? Lying through her teeth! She’s in a divorce cooling-off period with her husband and dares to say she’s not married!! Her husband has rage issues, saying this is a death wish!】 【If she quickly withdraws the divorce petition and softens her stance, she might survive!】 The crimson subtitles scrolled rapidly, making my heart clench. Despite my overwhelming sense of injustice, breathing became increasingly difficult. I dared not argue further and pleaded, “Please, let go of me! We don’t have to divorce, everything can be discussed! Just release me first, let’s talk!” The man paused, his hands loosening slightly on my neck. “Are you serious? You’re not lying to me?” “Absolutely not!” I quickly pressed on, gasping, “I was foolish before, overlooking your kindness. You’ve always been so attentive to me, working hard to support us, accommodating my every whim. I shouldn’t have impulsively filed for divorce…” I racked my brain, uttering insincere words, and thankfully, the man’s hands slowly released my throat. I slumped onto the seat, gulping for air, my back already drenched in cold sweat. He remained silent for a moment, then moved to sit in the empty seat opposite me. But even in the darkness, I could still feel the murderous intent in his eyes. I hadn’t eaten dinner, having worked late, and my emotions were running high. Suddenly, my blood sugar dropped. Feeling dizzy and lightheaded, I couldn’t hold on any longer and pleaded, “I… I have low blood sugar. Could I get something to eat?” As soon as the words left my mouth, the man abruptly stood up. I froze, startled, curling up into the corner of the seat. He leaned in close, his rough fingers abruptly hooking my chin, forcing me to look up at him. The sudden, intimate proximity made my heart pound. What was he going to do? Was he going to strip me and take nude photos? Or simply dismember me? I clenched my fists, trembling uncontrollantly, not daring to breathe loudly. “You better not try any tricks with me.” With that, he finally released my chin. At that moment, I finally breathed a sigh of relief. Watching him get out of the car and walk to the trunk, for a fleeting second, I considered opening the door and escaping. But realizing I had no strength left, I quickly abandoned the idea of saving myself. The man unlocked my handcuffs and handed me a bag of bread. I wolfed it down, thinking he had finally calmed down. But just as I was about to take another bite, he abruptly snatched the bread away. The next second, he grabbed my hair, glaring at me fiercely. “I’ve been so good to you, giving you everything you asked for. Why did you still trick me, betray my feelings, and steal my money?” A sharp pain shot through my scalp. I quickly squeezed out a sob, feigning remorse. “I’m sorry! It was all my fault, I was foolish and made a mistake! I swear I won’t do it again, never!” The man finally calmed down, sitting back in the opposite seat. My taut nerves relaxed slightly, but the cold sweat on my back hadn’t dried. 【This guy yelled about revenge, but when it came down to it, he’s a total softie! His love-struck brain is beyond saving!】 【This woman has some tricks up her sleeve, she’s got the guy wrapped around her finger again! If she doesn’t mention divorce, he’ll probably treat her like a queen. It’s true love!】 The subtitles continued to fan the flames. But I didn’t even know who this man was; I was caught in this messy situation unjustly. “You keep saying you love me, but do you really know me? Look closely, who am I?” The man looked up, a cold, obsessive glint in his eyes. “Sarah Miller, the only daughter of the Miller family. I saw you in an alley when I was ten, and I’ve never forgotten you. Your waist is 24 inches, hips 35 inches, you’re a Cancer, you love sweet and sour food, can’t stand cilantro, are afraid of the dark and spiders, need hot ginger tea during your period, and always curl your feet against the wall when you sleep.” He described these minute details perfectly, and I was utterly bewildered. 【This guy is so devoted! He’s been waiting for this woman for fifteen years!】 【He knows even her smallest habits inside out! Let’s see how this gold digger tries to deny it now!!】 The subtitles scrolled furiously, and my mind was a jumbled mess… “Some things… even I don’t remember clearly.” Had I crossed into the wrong world? Or was there really someone with the same name as me who was involved with him? But why would someone slander my reputation, making me bear the ignominy of being a ‘gold digger’? I couldn’t just die without clearing my name; I had to explain! “I’ve never been married, you’ve definitely got the wrong person! A check of the marriage registry would show I have no marriage records whatsoever! My cloud drive contains everything from the past five or six years—my private photo albums are all of my daily life, not even a single photo with a man. My chat logs are only work-related with colleagues, or daily reminders from family. I’ve never had any romantic interests, let alone been engaged to be married or gone through a divorce!” As soon as the words left my mouth, the subtitles exploded before my eyes. 【Oh my god! Is this girl crazy? A knife at her throat and she’s still arguing!】 【Help! Does she think she can turn the tables with just her words? Doesn’t she see who she’s up against?!】 【I’m speechless, I don’t understand this move! Is she really not lying? But who would believe that?!】 But the man suddenly leaned over, snatching my phone from my pocket. His fingers rapidly scrolled across the screen, a fleeting flicker of doubt in his eyes. He then found my cloud drive and opened my private photo album. A sliver of hope had just risen in my heart, thinking he was finally going to believe me. But the next second, he suddenly let out a low chuckle, then angrily threw my phone away and savagely clamped his hands around my neck. “Do you take me for a fool?” “I… I didn’t…” 【This woman is too bold! Still trying to lie, even when the truth is practically staring her in the face.】 【The guy definitely won’t spare her now, will he? Stupid and wicked, still arguing now, she’s leaving herself no way out!】 【I bet a bag of chips this woman won’t survive tonight! Everyone, watch and see!】 Each subtitle made me crumble. “You really got it wrong! I don’t know who stole my information to impersonate me! I don’t even know you, why won’t you believe me? Why…?” Who could be so vicious as to frame me like this? Even if I die and become a vengeful spirit, I won’t let that person go! 【This girl’s hysteria doesn’t seem faked. Could someone really be impersonating her?】 【Oh my god! Is she being used as a scapegoat? The fake one played him, and the real one is taking the fall!】 【But how can marriage be faked? The guy’s face went green when he saw her phone, he must have seen something, right?】 【This drama is interesting! Am I the one who transmigrated, or is this woman the one who did? Waiting for the truth to come out!】 The man suddenly released his grip on my throat. I slumped back into the seat, gasping for air. “I really don’t know you, and I’ve never been married. You’ve definitely mistaken me for someone else!” Before I could finish, a sharp, cramping pain shot through my lower abdomen. I looked down and saw that my dress was soaked with a large patch of blood. Embarrassment instantly flooded me. I frantically covered it with my hand, wishing I could disappear into the floor. 【Holy crap! Her period just came at the perfect time! This woman is lucky! The guy’s probably going to feel bad for her, right?】 【I bet you! This guy won’t be able to lay a hand on her for a while. Next thing you know, he’ll be rubbing her belly!】 I endured the pain, not holding out any hope. This man had just been so menacing; how could he possibly care about me? But the man glanced at my flushed face and the hand covering my dress. Without a word, he suddenly started the car and drove out of the garage. The subtitles instantly flooded the screen. 【Help! Is this man actually going to buy brown sugar water? This thoughtfulness is so unexpected!】 【He was played by a woman and he’s still so protective of her, this guy isn’t losing out at all by being deceived!】 【The ultimate combination of a love-struck fool and a simp! This guy is beyond saving! The more I watch, the more annoyed I get!】 The car stopped in front of a coffee shop, and the man pushed open the door and got out. Not long after, he returned with a hot ginger tea, which he handed to me. I stood frozen, a mix of emotions swirling inside me. But before I could react, he drove to a convenience store, came back with a pack of sanitary pads, opened the car door, and took my arm. “I’ll help you to the restroom.” “I can manage myself,” I quickly refused, feeling deeply uncomfortable with such intimacy. But he didn’t let go, insisting on supporting me. He even took off his jacket and wrapped it around my waist to cover the stain, his movements clumsy but filled with care. 【Oh my god! This is too much pampering! What kind of spell did this gold digger use to trick this guy like this?】 【It was supposed to be a kidnapping, how did it turn into taking care of her period? This guy is something else!】 After I came out of the restroom, clutching the warm ginger tea in the car, my mind was in a whirl. But I was certain of my own character; even if I had amnesia, I would never toy with someone’s emotions. Yet, I was equally sure I hadn’t lost my memory, and everything before me felt bizarre. Could there truly be another woman in the world who looked exactly like me and was married to this man? But why would she try to smear my name? I closed my eyes, furiously racking my brain. The next second, I abruptly opened them. I knew why! Inside the car, the man and I sat opposite each other, in a long silence. I decided not to tip my hand just yet. The cramping in my lower abdomen grew more intense; I couldn’t bear it any longer and whispered, “Could you recline the seat a bit? I want to lie down for a while.” As soon as the words left my mouth, he reached out and adjusted the button, and the seat slowly tilted back. Before I could thank him, a jacket, still warm from his body, was placed over me. “Is the pain bad? I’ll go buy painkillers.” Countless question marks appeared on the subtitles, presumably expressing utter exasperation at the man’s “simping” behavior. “No need, thank you.” I quickly declined, a mix of emotions churning within me, but still felt compelled to explain. “I truly am single, I’ve never been married, and I don’t know you. Maybe… there’s someone else in this world who looks exactly like me, and she’s the one you’re involved with.” The man lowered his head, his fingers stroking his phone case, but didn’t respond. I dared not say more, and the car fell silent again. A while later, he opened his phone’s photo album. A glance from the corner of my eye, and I was instantly stunned. Every photo showed a woman who looked exactly like me, smiling intimately as she linked arms with him. But I was certain it wasn’t me. “We’d only been married for less than a month when you suggested living separately, always abroad, only communicating by email. You only contacted me when you needed living expenses!” He suddenly spoke, his voice tinged with an indescribable weariness. “I thought you were just throwing a tantrum, but I never imagined…” My heart jolted, and I finally pieced things together. The woman impersonating me had never truly spent time with him, merely maintaining an “online marriage.” And she had constantly been asking this man for money—not just living expenses, but also insisting on investments. In just one month, she had already swindled over a million dollars from him. No wonder the man was so furious; defrauding him was despicable enough, but she had also been constantly deceiving him emotionally. Just then, my phone suddenly vibrated. The screen displayed “Olivia.” I hadn’t seen her in over a year, and I’d heard she’d been sick. Why was she calling me now? Had something happened to her? I desperately wanted to answer, but the man immediately looked at me with alarm. “She’s my best friend! Don’t worry, I won’t say anything to her.” The man hesitated for a few seconds, then released my wrist. I answered the call, about to say, “I’m going to sleep, I’ll contact you later!” when Olivia’s voice preempted me: “Honey! The doctor I introduced you to has agreed to meet! Hurry up and finalize the divorce, don’t get tangled up with that lunatic, he’s not worth it!” I was instantly stunned, a surge of anger rising within me. “What are you talking about? When did I get married? Where are these divorce papers?” “Oh, come on, stop pretending!” Olivia’s tone carried a hint of mockery. “I know you don’t want to mention that psycho! Marrying him is a stain on your record! But don’t worry, I’ll find you someone better in the future! Leaving him is a new beginning, don’t dwell on it!” “I didn’t…” I still tried to argue, but the man suddenly snatched my phone, abruptly ending the call. The next second, he grabbed my hair, violently pressing my head against the car wall with enough force to make my scalp tingle. A flurry of dense subtitles instantly exploded before my eyes. 【Holy crap! Isn’t this ironclad proof? Even her best friend said so! How can this woman still argue?!】 【Serves her right! She’s still playing innocent at a time like this, it would be against all reason not to dismember her now!】 【No wonder she could trick the guy, she had someone advising her from behind! This best friend is quite something, not plastic, but genuinely helping with bad deeds!】 【I originally thought she was innocent, but now it seems she’s just a good actress!】 My eyes reddened from the pain, and I stammered out an explanation. “It’s not like that! I don’t know why she’s saying that! I really haven’t gotten married, and I didn’t ask her to introduce anyone to me!” “Still trying to deny it? Your best friend admitted it herself, how long do you plan to lie to me?” “I’m not lying to you!” Tears streamed down my face in desperation. “Olivia is lying…” Suddenly, a glaring red line flashed in the subtitles. 【When I was working abroad, I heard a plastic surgeon mention something similar! A woman had surgery to look like her best friend, then used her friend’s identity to trick a man out of his money! When the truth came out, she got away scot-free, and her best friend was the one who suffered!】 【There’s such a thing!! Quick, tell us more!】 But at this moment, the man suddenly pulled out a dagger and pressed it against my carotid artery. Just as the blade was about to pierce my artery, another red subtitle furiously scrolled across the screen. 【Holy crap! I remember now!! This plastic surgery girl, Olivia, bragged at a party abroad that she got surgery to look like her best friend, Sarah Miller, and would definitely hook the attractive man, Leo Evans, who had a crush on Sarah!】 【Olivia was full of envy and resentment towards her best friend. She meticulously planned it out, first deliberately distancing herself from Sarah, claiming she was going abroad for medical treatment, but secretly going to a plastic surgery clinic to transform into Sarah. The two friends already looked somewhat alike. After the surgery, Olivia used makeup to become Sarah’s spitting image, and began to deceive Leo! Leo didn’t suspect a thing, mistakenly believing Olivia was Sarah, and poured all his heart and money into her!】 【I’ve seen this story in novels! This is the first time in real life! This woman, Olivia, is truly malicious!】 I froze in place, my blood running cold. All those seemingly harmless details I had ignored now linked together into a complete chain of conspiracy. Olivia had been my inseparable best friend since college; we’d shared every joy and sorrow. I’d always considered her my closest confidante, never once thinking to guard against her. I remembered two years ago when she suddenly told me she was going abroad for medical treatment. She even borrowed my ID, claiming it was to help me obtain an international medical license. I agreed without much thought. After she returned, she always borrowed my clothes and frequently asked about my habits. For instance, I don’t eat cilantro, I’m afraid of thunderstorms, and I drink warm ginger tea during my period. She even grilled me about my little habit of curling my legs in my sleep. She also deliberately mimicked my makeup and speaking style. At the time, I simply thought she genuinely liked my aesthetic. Looking back now, that was all her premeditated groundwork! 【Here’s the kicker! Olivia is the illegitimate daughter of the Miller family, Sarah’s half-sister!! Olivia’s mother seduced Sarah’s father years ago, trying to use the child to secure her position, but even after the child was born, the Miller family never acknowledged her!】 【No wonder the two of them look somewhat alike! That explains everything! She was a parasitic sister masquerading as a best friend all along!】 【Jealousy truly distorts people beyond recognition! Her own mother shamelessly destroyed another family, and she followed suit. To steal her sister’s life, she even changed her face—what else is she capable of?!】 【Sarah is too pathetic! The best friend she poured her heart out to harbored such malicious intentions, she truly was unlucky in her choice of friends!】 【Thank goodness Leo had a change of heart and didn’t act! Otherwise, Sarah would have died such an unjust death!】 The cruel truth shattered my perception repeatedly! “Olivia, I won’t let you get away with this!” But the dagger in Leo’s hand remained pressed against my neck. Just as I was wondering how to explain, Leo’s eyes suddenly reddened. My heart gave a violent jolt, and I boldly guessed that he, too, could see the subtitles. The next second, the dagger slipped from Leo’s hand. He actually knelt down directly in front of me. “I’m sorry… I almost hurt the person I love most. I was foolish, deceived, and nearly killed you by mistake.” “You’re not wrong, Olivia is! She transformed herself to look like me, used my identity to scam a marriage and money, and had us all running in circles.” “You go now, we can involve the police later. I’ll definitely help you get justice; I won’t let her off easy!” “Calling the police would be disadvantageous for you. After all, you did commit kidnapping. If Olivia insists on pressing charges, you’ll also be implicated.” Leo was stunned, his eyes instantly welling with emotion. He bent down and picked up the dagger from the floor. “Then I’ll kill her myself and avenge you! A vicious woman like that doesn’t deserve to live!” “Don’t be impulsive!” I quickly grabbed his wrist. “It’s not worth ruining your life for a wicked woman like her. Her evil deeds will be exposed eventually; we don’t need to sacrifice ourselves in this way.” Leo stared at my hand holding his, his gaze gradually softening. “Okay, I’ll do whatever you say.” The subtitles on the screen suddenly refreshed: 【??? This development is a bit off! How did these two suddenly develop such chemistry?】 【What chemistry? They’re giving off major couple vibes, okay!】 【Help! Just a moment ago they were at daggers drawn, now it’s getting kind of sweet?】

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1 After graduating from college, my billionaire parents, claiming it was for my own good, signed me up for an overseas youth volunteer program. With a noble air, they arranged for the staff to send me to the most arduous location. Later, a new virus broke out in Niger, where I was stationed, causing countless deaths and injuries. Flights back home became impossible to find. I called my parents, begging them to help me return, but received only cold mockery: “Adam! You need to remember, you are an international volunteer now. This is your moment to shine and contribute!” “Don’t expect us to pull strings for you. You can only come back when the volunteer group returns!” “We’re very busy. Don’t keep calling us unless it’s important.” Helpless, I had no choice but to call my childhood friend. But even this last shred of hope was shattered by her utterly indifferent voice. “What? Do you have to be superior to everyone else? Everyone else can stay, but you can’t? Isn’t that what you told Aiden before?” “A malicious person like you deserves to stay in such a disgusting place and rot!” With that, she hung up the phone and pressured the agency, completely cutting off my hope of returning home. Everyone in the volunteer group eventually found ways to return home, leaving me with no one to turn to for help. In just two days, I contracted the supervirus. On the brink of death, I was rescued by a medical aid team dispatched by the government. I sat numbly in the temporary ward, awaiting treatment, when I saw a post from my foster brother, Aiden, on his social media. 【Grateful to my loving parents! They heard I was bored, dropped their work, and took connecting flights to accompany me on a trip abroad~】 I didn’t make a scene as usual. Even though I knew Aiden had done this on purpose, I just posted a sarcastic smiling emoji in the comments section. In the temporary ward in Niger, I was alone in a small room, waiting to receive treatment. A nurse, wearing a full isolation suit, walked in and hooked up my IV. The silence in the ward was broken by the continuous ringing of my phone. Recognizing the caller on the screen, I pressed the answer button with trembling hands. “Adam, do you have any humanity left?!” “Do you know how many times Aiden has been sad because of your comment! He’s your brother, how can you be so malicious!” I looked at my legs, growing weaker each day from the virus, and spoke with a bitter laugh. “What’s wrong with a comment? I just didn’t want to offer blessings. Is that such a heinous crime?” “Sometimes I really wonder, maybe you guys made a mistake back then. Maybe Aiden is your biological son, and I’m the one who was adopted!” A moment of silence fell on the other end of the line, then a familiar female voice finally spoke. “Adam, you’ve misunderstood your father and mother.” “Our family always goes on a trip during the summer break, and you’re volunteering now, so…” “When you come back, your father and mother can go with you again, okay?” My face felt as if it had been slapped hard. My lips trembled for a long time before I spoke with a self-mocking laugh. “Is that so?” “Do I deserve it?” My father’s angry roar suddenly echoed. “What’s the point of talking to such a rebellious son!” “I’m his father! Do I need his permission for what I do? Tell him I’m giving him one last chance. If he doesn’t apologize properly to Aiden, then he can reflect in Niger for the rest of his life!” After a string of harsh words, the call was abruptly cut off. The self-mocking smile on my lips hadn’t even had time to fade before I was engulfed by sadness. Yes, these were my parents. Didn’t they know the situation in Niger? International news reported it daily; even children knew how terrifying the supervirus was. But they simply didn’t care. Because the son they cared about most was always by their side, protected perfectly. In their minds, Aiden was obedient and sensible, while I was barbaric and unreasonable. So, as soon as I graduated from college, they went to great lengths to sign me up for the overseas youth volunteer program, and then self-righteously told the person in charge that I had voluntarily chosen to go to the most difficult place. Niger’s environment had been reported on the news many times; it wasn’t just poverty, but also many unknown viruses, and going there and never returning wasn’t impossible. They knew everything, yet they still insisted. If I showed even a hint of resistance, I became the “ungrateful,” “overbearing and pampered” prodigal son in their eyes. Under my parents’ daily high-intensity cold pressure, I reluctantly had no choice but to go. When I first arrived in Niger, the harsh environment and rough food, every single thing was unbearable. But all of that could be overcome. It wasn’t until the supervirus outbreak, when statistics showed the infection mortality rate was as high as seventy percent, that I truly felt a sense of fear. Recalling the despair of having no one to turn to for help, an unknown surge of anger welled up in my chest. Impossible. I wouldn’t apologize. I would never bow down, not in this lifetime. 2 The day the medical team returned home. I was dressed in the highest level of protective gear, dragging my luggage, looking disheveled as I exited the station. I brushed past Aiden, who was wearing custom-made clothes. “Mom, Dad, you’re both so wonderful! I said I wanted to go out and have fun, and you both dropped all the company’s business to accompany me.” A familiar, gentle male voice, etched in my memory, responded with a laugh. “You silly boy, you’re our precious son. It’s just a small wish, your dad and I will definitely do our best to fulfill it.” “Haha, silly child, no matter how busy Dad is with work, are you not more important?” “As long as you’re safe and healthy, your dad and I will be completely satisfied!” The voices weren’t loud, but they struck me like thunder, making me stop dead in my tracks, standing foolishly in place. My entire body felt cold to the point of numbness, as if even my blood had congealed from the sudden drop in temperature. Only then did I truly understand. When my parents said they had no time to help me, they were actually reserving that time for Aiden. In their eyes, my life was less important than Aiden’s travel plans when he was bored. For so many years, I had compromised countless times, without bottom, just to get my parents’ attention, yet I still couldn’t compare to Aiden. In the year Aiden was adopted, the company flourished, rising to become a top-tier enterprise in H City, and my mother also received good news about a pregnancy. But compared to the company’s booming success, the child seemed less important. From then on, Aiden was declared the Miller family’s lucky star by my father, believing that good fortune would follow if he was treated well. From a young age, I was indoctrinated with the idea that I must always yield to my brother. Until one time, during a primary school final exam, I came home with an award for being first in my grade, only to be met with a slap from my father. Because Aiden had run home crying, saying I looked down on him. No matter how I explained, in their eyes, I was just making excuses, bullying Aiden because I was the Miller family’s biological son. From then on, Aiden tasted the sweetness of manipulation, and I lost my parents. My relationship with my parents became increasingly strained and distant, all because of Aiden’s provocations. My memories stopped abruptly there. Dr. Lee, beside me, patted my shoulder. “Adam, what’s wrong? Is there something bothering you?” I forced a smile and shook my head, pretending nothing had happened. Reality was already starkly clear. Until I boarded the plane leaving home, I had still held onto hope, believing that family bonds were unparalleled. But this near-death scare made me realize that, in my parents’ eyes, I truly was expendable. 3 Due to the after-effects of the supervirus, even after returning home, I couldn’t go directly home. The medical team arranged for me to receive follow-up rehabilitation treatment at the hospital. Dr. Lee, seeing my continuous silence, thought I was homesick. He put one arm around my shoulder, gently reassuring me. “It’s alright, Adam. We’ve actually achieved a significant victory against this virus. See, you’re doing well now, aren’t you?” “And your leg needs better treatment to recover.” “If you’re homesick, I can help you talk to your family. We can do a video call so you can see them.” Hearing the caution in his voice, my eyes welled up slightly, but I couldn’t bring myself to refuse. After sending the address to Dr. Lee, I was assigned to a Level 1 isolation ward. A live video call was open on my phone. In the camera, Dr. Lee stood smiling at the entrance of my family’s villa. After confirming the house number, just as he was about to knock, he heard the sound of a car engine from outside the garden. My parents and Aiden got out of a black luxury car. The three of them were smiling sweetly, looking like a loving family. My father paused when he saw Dr. Lee. “You are?” Dr. Lee’s gentle voice came through the phone: “Hello, are you Adam’s parents? I’m Dr. Lee, from the medical aid team to Africa.” “It’s like this, a supervirus outbreak occurred in Niger, which you should all be aware of.” “Adam, while volunteering in Niger, unfortunately contracted…” Dr. Lee’s words were cut short by my father’s furious roar. “Enough! What kind of stunt is Adam pulling now?!” “Does it mean that what I say no longer matters?” “I don’t care if you’re a cat, a dog, or an actor Adam hired. Please tell that rebellious son that our Miller family has no room for deserters!” “My stance is still the same. He’s only allowed to return home when the entire national volunteer team has withdrawn!” The voice on the other end was slightly distorted, but the anger in the reprimand was clearly discernible. I looked at my father’s flushed face in the video and couldn’t help but let out a bitter laugh. Really, he thought too highly of me. Hiring an actor? He actually thought of that. If I truly had that capability, I would have cut ties with them long ago. Dr. Lee seemed stunned by the sudden outburst of anger, stammering for a while before speaking again. “No, no, I… I’m not an actor, I’m really a doctor from the city hospital, and a member of this medical aid team to Africa…” “Enough! I don’t want to hear any more of your lies!” “No matter what tricks Adam is playing, I will not budge on letting him come back!” “What supervirus, how ridiculous! Tell him, even if he dies, he better die honestly in Africa and not come back to defile our eyes!” With that, he didn’t wait for Dr. Lee’s response, tightly pulling Aiden by the hand, then strode purposefully into the house. With a loud bang, Dr. Lee instinctively covered the microphone of his phone. But with such a loud sound, how could I not hear it? Even though I had told myself a thousand times not to have any more expectations for the Miller family, not to rely on anyone anymore, at this moment, the world before my eyes still involuntarily twisted. My fingers trembled slightly as I put down the phone. I knew it all too well. They clearly knew that all I ever wanted was just a tiny bit of concern that parents could give. But even that little bit, they were so stingy with. After experiencing life and death, I should have given up on this fake family affection long ago. 4 After the examination and treatment reports came out, several specialists immediately gathered around me for a consultation. Although no one told me the detailed situation, from their fragmented conversations, I still gathered some information from the nurses’ chats. “Oh, what’s wrong with the young man in bed 37? He’s all alone, looks quite pitiful.” “I heard he was a volunteer in Niger, got infected there. Luckily, he ran into our hospital’s treatment team.” “But… although the virus problem is solved, the complications…” “Tsk, tsk, the follow-up treatment costs a lot too!” I looked at my bank card balance on my phone, feeling colder and colder the more I looked. Since high school, I had lived in the school dormitory, and my monthly allowance was always five hundred dollars, as suggested by Aiden. He claimed it was for my own good, fearing I would go astray if I had too much money, yet he himself squandered twenty thousand dollars a month on living expenses. But five hundred dollars was a luxury for a teenager, barely enough to fill my stomach. Even if I only dared to order the “poor student’s meal” in the cafeteria, I could only save enough money for cheap toilet paper each month. After entering college, while others were enjoying their long-awaited freedom, I was already rushing between three part-time jobs a day. After graduating from college, before I even had a chance to work, I was sent abroad by my parents with nothing. The little more than a thousand dollars left in my bank account was what I had saved from part-time jobs and work-study programs during school. This meager amount of money, how could it possibly cover the exorbitant medical fees? From the doctors’ words, I learned that not only did I need treatment for complications, but the subsequent rehabilitation costs were also significant. With no other options, besides my parents, I couldn’t think of any way to raise enough medical funds in a short amount of time. That afternoon, despite the doctors’ strong objections, I resolutely completed the discharge procedures. 5 Upon arriving home, my finger pressed against the door lock, but there was no response. I had to knock loudly. Soon, the front door opened, and Aiden looked at my disheveled appearance with some surprise. “Adam, why are you back?” I gave him a cold glance, offering no response, and dragged my suitcase past him into the house. But just as the front door closed, a remote control flew straight at my face. Unable to dodge, I felt a sharp pain on my forehead, and blood streamed down my cheek. “Why are you back?! Didn’t I already say you’re not allowed to return without permission! What methods did you use, where did you get the plane ticket?!” My father’s voice was filled with barely contained rage. “And you had the nerve to send someone to lie to me, saying there was a virus outbreak in Niger! Full of lies, utterly depraved!” “How can you be so useless! Why can everyone else persevere, overcome difficulties, but not you! Are you more precious than others?” “Look at your brother! How are you in any way comparable to Aiden! When will you finally stop causing me trouble?!” I looked up, wiping the blood from my face with my sleeve, my expression blank, but inside I found it laughable. Even now, he thought I had used underhanded means to return home without permission. The path from the front door to the living room wasn’t long, but it was certainly long enough for them to notice my already limping leg. Yet, from beginning to end, everyone in the family offered me only rebuke and disdain. If it weren’t for needing money for treatment, I think I probably wouldn’t have stepped foot in this house again. I struggled to drag my suitcase, wanting to go upstairs to my room to rest. Aiden, however, followed me, his face full of concern, trying to grab my luggage. “Adam, are you okay? Are you feeling unwell somewhere? Let me help you take your luggage to your room, okay?” Although his words sounded caring, his hand was tightly twisting my pinky finger, pulling it upward with all his might. The biting pain made me instinctively swing my hand to shake him off. Aiden, following the force, landed on his bottom, his face full of disbelief, an expression of hurt spreading across his features. “Adam! Are you… are you misunderstanding me? I just wanted to help you.” “Yes, I know you’ve always looked down on me. I’m just an adopted son of the Miller family; you’re the biological son.” “But, but I grew up in the Miller family. I’ve always considered you and Mom and Dad my closest family!” He spoke with increasing agitation, his voice growing louder and louder, until finally, he seemed to collapse to the floor from exhaustion. My father fumed, his already angry expression instantly turning crimson. But from my perspective, Aiden’s face, hidden beneath his arm, was clearly smiling. “Rebellious son! You ungrateful child!” “How dare you compare yourself to Aiden! How are you in any way comparable to Aiden! When you were born, I should have strangled you!” “To spare me from being infuriated to death now!” 6 Ignoring the theatrical farce, I limped back to my room. My body, not yet fully recovered, was weak, and all I wanted was to lie down and sleep soundly. But as soon as I opened the door, my entire body jolted awake as if by an electric shock. In my bedroom, all my personal belongings were piled in a corner like trash. Aiden’s piano, music stand, figurines… occupied every corner of the room. Even the bed was covered with his clothes. “Oh, I’m sorry, Adam. See, I was in a hurry and forgot.” “Mom and Dad bought me a new master-grade piano. To make space for my darling, I had to put the old piano in your room for now.” “Adam, you wouldn’t be so stingy, would you!” Aiden’s voice carried a hint of provocation. Even when he leaned in close to me, the malice in his eyes was clearly visible. Seeing that I didn’t respond, he took another step closer, whispered softly into my ear: “Why did you come back? You don’t actually think there’s still a place for you in this family, do you? Now, in Mom and Dad’s eyes, they only have one good son: me.” “Silly brother, I advise you to be smart and leave on your own, or don’t blame me for getting my hands dirty!” Watching Aiden’s smug expression, I was so furious I gritted my teeth. In that moment, anger surged through my brain. I dropped my luggage, grabbed Aiden, and threw him to the floor, starting to hit him. Aiden was stunned for a moment, then began screaming. “Help, help! Dad, Dad, come save me!” “I’m sorry, it’s all my fault, I won’t do it again, I’m sorry, I’m sorry!” “Waaah, please, Adam, let me go, I’ll never occupy your room again, ahh!” A wave of cloying sweetness made me feel nauseous. Just as I was thinking of giving up and giving him a few more slaps, a voice roared: “Enough!” A figure behind me threw themselves onto Aiden, shielding his body. “Adam! How did you become like this?! If you want to hit someone, hit me! Your brother is innocent!” “Waaah, what did Aiden do wrong!” “It was Mom who saw you weren’t home, so she temporarily lent your room to him.” My mother wept profusely, her tears falling like rain. With one hand, she shielded Aiden, and with the other, she didn’t forget to check his injuries. Just then, a large hand viciously seized my raised fist, dragging me from the floor and roughly throwing me against the wall. “You little bastard! Now you dare to defy your elders, even raising your fist at your own mother! You’re nothing but an animal!” As those words landed, the light in my eyes completely died. Was this house truly still my home? The curses uttered by my own father were the most venomous curses in the world. My body trembled with pain, but I didn’t pause, shakily getting back to my feet. My left hand, having collided with the corner of the wall, was already fractured and deformed. But I felt no pain whatsoever. Now, I just wanted to leave this place and never come back.

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1 In the fifth year of my relationship with Alice Zinberg, we had another argument. She grabbed her keys and stormed out, once again choosing the silent treatment. I sat quietly on the sofa, fuming for a while, then scrolled through short videos, chuckling heartily. Around 2 AM, I was woken by my phone. Alice’s voice on the other end was icy enough to freeze water: “I’ve been out here all this time, and you haven’t called me once?” It was then I awkwardly remembered she was still out there, wandering in the freezing cold. I apologized, “Uh, why don’t you… just not come back? Let’s just call it quits.” A brief silence fell on the other end of the line after I said that. Then, with a “smash,” the call was disconnected. I was so tired I couldn’t keep my eyes open, so I rolled over and fell comfortably asleep in my warm bed. When I woke up the next day, I heard rustling in the living room. Going out, I saw Alice packing her suitcase. She seemed not to notice me, just silently stuffing her belongings into the suitcase. I stood there, frowning, watching her for a while, worried she might accidentally take some of my things. She finally finished packing, zipped up her suitcase, and then calmly said, “You need to cool down. Let’s not contact each other for a while.” Her words sounded familiar. It seemed like this happened once last year too. We had a huge fight, and she grabbed her keys, intending to leave. I went over and desperately grabbed her. “Why are you doing this again? Why do you always leave me alone? Can’t you just say what you mean to my face? Why are you always avoiding things!” She actually didn’t leave. Instead, she went back into the bedroom. When my emotions had somewhat calmed, I saw her emerge with her suitcase. Her voice was distant and calm, completely unlike my hysteria. “You cool down for a few days, and we’ll talk later.” For the next half a month, she truly didn’t contact me again. All the messages I sent, all the calls I made, vanished like stones in the sea, receiving no response. I was distraught then, crying every day and unable to sleep. In the end, I actually swallowed my pride and sent messages begging for forgiveness. Once it happened, it happened again. Alice discovered that the silent treatment worked exceptionally well on me; I didn’t need comforting and would sort myself out. So, she began giving me the cold shoulder repeatedly. I went from desperately craving a response to gradually learning to self-soothe, step by step. Only I knew how I endured that process. Now, just like last year, she stood before me with her suitcase, her expression blank, seemingly devoid of emotion. She even offered generous advice: “Don’t overthink things. Eat well, work well. You’re not without other things to do besides clinging to me.” I rubbed my sleepy eyes and casually replied, “Okay. Be careful on your way.” Alice’s previously indifferent expression stiffened slightly. Clearly, she hadn’t expected me to even utter a single word of retention. I took two steps towards the bathroom, then remembered something and turned back to remind her, “Did you pack your summer clothes too? Take them with you today if you can, save yourself another trip.” Her face darkened. She didn’t speak, just slammed the door shut and left. My heart suddenly relaxed. It felt good; it was finally over. 2 Today was Saturday. In the past, I would always pester Alice to spend the weekend with me. Later, Alice found her trick against me: whenever we argued, she’d grab her suitcase and leave. And once she left, it would be at least half a month. I was forced to get used to spending one holiday after another alone. From writing hysterical little essays at first to gradually becoming numb and detached, and finally returning to the joyful holiday state I had when I was single and spent time with friends, it only took a year. I cooked myself a steaming bowl of century egg and lean pork congee. After eating, I curled up on the sofa, petting my cat and watching a horror movie. Outside, the weather was gloomy, with a drizzling winter rain. I had the heating on, enjoying my comfortable solitude. As one movie ended, I made myself a hot drink and casually browsed my social media. To my surprise, the first post was one Alice had just made. 【Accompanying Mr. Davis on a business trip】 The accompanying photo was a selfie of her and Leo Davis, arms linked, at the airport. Leo was her university classmate and business partner. They were very close. Every time Alice and I had the silent treatment, it was always them two going on a long business trip together. The first time I found out, I was mentally drained for a long time. I wasn’t sure if they were simply colleagues or if there was something more. Until the second silent treatment, the third silent treatment, Alice, without exception, took Leo on a business trip out of town, leaving me alone at home. I started furiously messaging and calling Alice, demanding to know what she meant, why she always went on business trips when we argued, and always took Leo with her. She usually took an assistant on business trips, so why didn’t she take one with Leo? Three days later, Alice calmly replied with a few words: 【Think what you like.】 Then she disappeared again, not answering a single word. I knew then that there was no need to continue this relationship. I wiped my tears, my hands trembling as I typed a few words: 【Then let’s break up.】 Then I turned off my phone, forbidding myself from going crazy and making a fool of myself, trying to bury myself in work to distract myself. A few minutes later, my phone vibrated. I couldn’t wait three minutes and picked it up to look. It was a message from a work group. Various app notifications. A text from the bank wishing me a happy birthday. It wasn’t until 9 PM that a message with Alice’s name finally popped up. Two short, cold words. 【Whatever.】 I completely broke down, crying uncontrollably on the bed. As I cried, I sent messages accusing her of not loving me at all, meticulously listing all the disappointments and neglect I felt from her, trying to awaken a tiny bit of guilt in her, trying to make her realize she wasn’t fit for this relationship. But everything was, as always, a stone sinking into the sea. It was as if no one was on the other side. Or rather, she didn’t even bother to read a single word. I scrolled through her social media, seeing photos of her having dinner with Leo and clients, a harmonious scene, everyone smiling happily. A bucket of cold water was poured over my head. I clearly saw myself as a struggling, yet utterly pathetic clown. My reason clearly told me that she was not a good partner. I finally stopped sending messages. But life became a blur. I tried hard to act like everyone else, but everything became mechanical and numb. Only when I dragged my exhausted body home, looking at the empty house, could I not help but squat down and cry. I knew she was likely a terrible person. But I missed her terribly. I knew I was incompetent and fragile, but performing as a normal person had already drained all my energy. I indulged in my painful thoughts of her in the darkness. I didn’t know when it would end. Until thirty-six days later, she finally contacted me again. 【Calmed down yet?】 【Still breaking up?】 I stared numbly at the message. The message came too late, no longer stirring my anticipation or excitement. I slowly typed out two words: 【Up to you.】 She sent a voice message. “I brought you a birthday present. I’m coming back now.” Her voice was light, with a hint of laughter. There seemed to be another man’s laughter beside her. That laughter was distinctive—it was Leo’s voice. Even through the phone screen, I could imagine them, fresh off the plane, dusty but vibrant and full of spirit. Unlike me. I was like a dirty, trapped beast in a cage. All my pain and struggles had not affected Alice in the slightest. Everything I felt in this relationship felt like my own sensitivity, my own overthinking, a self-made drama. And Alice, generous and stable, had tolerated me. 3 My thoughts returned to that social media post. There were already several comments below it. A: 【A perfect match, Mr. Zinberg.】 B: 【Nonsense, our Leo is clearly both talented and handsome!】 Alice: 【Good eye.】 C: 【A month-long business trip? Leaving your boyfriend alone at home again? How do you smooth things over? #doghead#】 Alice: 【We’re adults. Do you expect me to be with him all day long?】 C: 【True, men shouldn’t be spoiled.】 Amidst all the trivial comments, a striking one suddenly appeared. Quinn Riley: 【Boyfriends don’t need company, but male partners on a business trip definitely do~】 That “~” conveyed a strong sense of sarcasm. This was the boyfriend of Eleanor Vance, another female partner at Alice’s firm. I’d heard they were supposed to get married this year, but it was already year-end, and there was still no news. Eleanor, his girlfriend, had been on just as many solo business trips with Leo as Alice had. I’d heard that the last time his mother was hospitalized with an illness, he was swamped at the hospital alone, while Leo posted a selfie with Eleanor, cheek-to-cheek, in front of the Eiffel Tower in Paris. They claimed it was a business trip, but anyone who didn’t know might think it was a honeymoon. Quinn had a huge fight with Eleanor over this. Although they reconciled, their relationship was no longer the same, and marriage hadn’t been brought up again since. When his comment appeared, the previously lively social media feed seemed to hit a pause button; there were no new comments for a while. Just as I was about to scroll away, I saw a new comment pop up. Leo: 【Buddy, don’t be overly dramatic. Is business more important, or your petty little love affairs?】 Leo: 【If you want to marry a rich person and get rich without effort, just be a pretty face, don’t mess things up for yourself.】 Quinn quickly replied: 【Compared to certain people who can’t travel for business without a female partner accompanying them every time, I’m much more independent at work. Who are you calling a pretty face?】 After a ten-minute pause, Leo replied with just two words. 【Nonsensical.】 Ever since Quinn found out Eleanor was always on solo business trips with Leo, he hadn’t gotten along with him. They’d always exchange words, even I had grown accustomed to it. I closed my social media and was about to make dinner when my landlord called: “Hey Adam, your lease is up next month. You’re renewing, right?” I looked around the apartment. A spacious, bright open-plan apartment with the most bustling night view of S City outside the window. Alice had always wanted me to move into her apartment, but I was always worried about the risk of being kicked out if I lived in someone else’s place, so I insisted on living alone. She was very clingy back then; the next day, she showed up at my door with her suitcase, looking pitiful. I had just started working then and didn’t have much money, living in a cramped thirty-square-meter apartment far from the city center. I knew Alice was used to a good life, and I always felt it would be unfair to her to make her live in such a small place with me. So, as soon as I became a full-time employee and got a raise, I gritted my teeth and moved here. It cost almost half my salary every month. “No, I won’t,” I told the landlord. “I’m planning to move to the east side of the city.” That would be closer to my workplace. I also wouldn’t have to leave home at 6 AM every morning to catch the subway. The landlord was a bit surprised: “What’s wrong? You used to say this place was convenient because it was close to your girlfriend’s company.” “Yeah,” I responded softly, kicking my slippers, and chuckled, “We broke up.” The landlord was very sympathetic, comforted me for a while, and then kindly introduced me to a moving company before hanging up. 4 The company was preparing for a live streaming event at the mall recently. I was busy coordinating with my new junior colleagues. The two new colleagues were recent female university graduates, full of energy and enthusiasm, which even invigorated us old hands in the workplace. After coordination that day, the two insisted on dragging me to eat barbecue, saying we needed to relax after so many tiring days. At a roadside food stall, I snapped a photo of the barbecue table, overflowing with food under the dim yellow lights. The two university girls tilted their heads into the shot, smiling cleanly and brightly. The photo frozen, I happily posted it on social media: 【Coordination complete! We can finally enjoy a good weekend tomorrow!】 By the time I got home, it was past midnight. A long-awaited message from Alice popped up on my phone. She had taken a photo of her eating with a client, almost as if she were reporting to me: 【I’ll be back in another week.】 【I brought you a gift.】 I pretended not to see it, disinfected and charged my phone, and placed it by my bedside. In the past, when I was first given the silent treatment, I would panic and furiously message her, just begging for a tiny response. Later, I forced myself, after each of her departures, to try and get used to single life. I gradually stopped messaging her. She, in turn, softened her silent treatment strategy, becoming less completely unresponsive. From sending me one message a month, to calling me every half-month, then weekly, then every three days. What a blessing. This kind of blessing, whoever wants it can have it. After showering and getting into bed, I saw Alice had sent a few more messages. 【What did you do today?】 【Work was tiring?】 【Fell asleep?】 I set her messages to “Do Not Disturb.” Not deleting, not blocking, not responding. I had learned very well from her.

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