Author: Momo Chan

At 10:00 PM, the luxury boutique where I worked was finally closing. Elena, the store manager, held up her right hand, which was wrapped in thick bandages. She slid the inventory sheet across the marble counter toward me. “Chloe, I just checked the vault. Everything is accounted for.” “My wrist is sprained, and I can’t even hold a pen. Just sign off on this for me so everyone can go home.” Around us, the other girls were already packing their bags, murmuring and urging me to hurry up. I picked up the pen and was just about to sign my name. Suddenly, bright neon text flashed right before my eyes: [DON’T SIGN IT! She secretly sold 300 limited-edition bags from the vault! If you sign, you will take full responsibility for the missing $400,000 inventory!] [The total value is nearly half a million dollars. You couldn’t pay it back even if you sold your soul. You’ll rot in prison!] I froze, then dropped the pen onto the counter with a clack. “Elena,” I said coldly, “company protocol requires a double-blind inventory count. Everyone, put your bags down. I’m going to open the vault. We need to scan every single item again.” “Once everything is cleared, I’ll sign.”

Elena’s face instantly darkened. “Chloe, what is that supposed to mean? There are only a few of us here. We’re supposed to trust each other.” “We’re trying to clock out, and you want to do a full recount? Are you implying that I, your manager, am doing something shady?” The moment she said this, the other girls in the store shot me hostile glares. Lara, a junior sales associate, slammed her purse onto a chair. “Seriously, Chloe? Cut it some slack.” “Elena is always nice to you. She literally covered your shifts last month when you took time off. Is it really that hard to just sign a paper for her today?” On the other side of the room, Vicky rolled her eyes so hard they almost went to the back of her head. “Right? I’m starving. My boyfriend is literally waiting for me in the parking lot.” “There are three hundred bags in there. Do you know how long a recount will take? You want us all to stay here and waste our time? Our time is money too, you know!” I pushed the inventory sheet right back to Elena. “Section 8 of the company handbook states that the year-end inventory must be verified by at least two employees physically present.” “There are three hundred limited-edition bags in that vault, valued at over $400,000. If anything goes wrong, we’re all screwed.” “If any of you want to take financial responsibility for nearly half a million dollars, feel free to sign it.” I picked up the pen and thrust it toward Lara. Lara flinched, taking a sharp step back. “I’m just a junior associate. I don’t even have signing authority. Don’t look at me.” Vicky quickly turned around, pretending to be very busy organizing her locker. The moment money and legal liability were brought up, the people who were screaming to go home suddenly became mute. Seeing this, Elena tapped her fingers impatiently on the counter to draw my attention. She let out a dramatic sigh, putting on a helpless face. “Chloe, is this because I deducted thirty dollars from your bonus last month for missing your cleaning shift? Are you seriously holding a grudge and trying to punish everyone for that?” [She’s trying to distract you.] [She wants to frame your professional audit as a petty personal vendetta.] [Don’t fall for it. Go straight to the vault.] I turned around and walked toward the vault at the end of the hallway. “Elena, a thirty-dollar bonus is a small thing. Half a million dollars of inventory is not.” “I’m opening the door now. If everything is in there, I will sign immediately.” Elena’s face turned pale. She sprinted over in her high heels, spreading her arms to block the vault door. “Nobody is opening this door today!” “I am the store manager! If I say the inventory is fine, it is fine!” “If you insist on forcing your way in, you are questioning my professional integrity. Think carefully about the consequences, Chloe!”

Elena pressed her back firmly against the heavy metal door. Lara quickly ran over to support her. “Elena, be careful with your wrist! Don’t let her get to you.” Vicky stood by, sneering. “Chloe, you’re crossing the line. You’re just the assistant manager. Do you think you own this place?” “You usually act so quiet, but who knew you’d hold a grudge over thirty bucks? You’re just trying to humiliate Elena.” I stood my ground, my voice flat. “If Elena says everything is in there, let me take a quick look. It takes five minutes to run the infrared scanner.” “If you’re so terrified of letting me in, is it because the bags aren’t actually in there?” The room went dead silent. Could the inventory really be gone? In retail, that meant grand larceny. That meant prison. Lara’s hand, which was holding Elena’s arm, stiffened. Slowly, she let go and took a step back. Elena’s expression turned venomous. “Chloe! Stop throwing around cheap accusations!” “Fine. You want to check? Be my guest.” She reached into her pocket with her left hand, pulled out the key, and shoved it into the lock. But as she slowly turned it, she suddenly slammed her wrist downward with force. Snap! A sharp metallic sound echoed. The key had snapped in half. One half was in her hand; the other half was wedged deep inside the lock. Elena gasped, holding up the broken piece, looking like an innocent victim. “Oh my god… My sprained wrist gave out. I can’t believe I broke the key!” She turned to me, a smirk flashing in her eyes before she quickly concealed it. “What a shame, Chloe. The lock is broken.” “Even if I wanted to let you inspect it now, we can’t.” The floating text flashed furiously again. [She did that on purpose!] [The courier truck loaded with the stolen goods is parked in the B2 basement right now! She is just stalling so her accomplice can drive away!] [Open that door now, or the evidence will be gone forever!] Lara let out a sigh of relief and picked up her purse again. “Well, that’s that. Even God doesn’t want us to work overtime tonight.” Vicky yanked my arm, irritated. “Chloe, have you had enough? The key is literally broken. What do you want to do now? Ram the door down with your head?” Elena sighed, walking over to hand me the clipboard again. “Chloe, we have no choice. Just sign it. I’ll call a locksmith first thing in the morning.” I pulled my phone out of my pocket and started dialing. “The lock is broken? Fine. I’m calling mall security to breach the door.” “That door is opening tonight.”

Elena’s face drained of all color. “Chloe! Are you insane?!” “This is a high-security commercial door! Breaking it requires regional approval! You don’t have the authority to do this!” I ignored her, dialed the mall’s security dispatch, and put it on speaker. “Hi, this is the Tiffany’s boutique on the first floor of Zone C. Our vault lock is damaged, and we have over $400,000 worth of inventory locked inside. It’s a major security hazard. Please bring breaching tools and come over immediately.” The dispatcher asked a couple of quick questions and promised to send someone right away. I hung up and looked at Elena. “As the assistant manager, if the store manager is incapacitated or suspected of a policy violation, I have the authority to take emergency measures.” Elena lunged at me to grab my phone. “You’re out of your mind, Chloe! You’re disrupting mall operations! The company will fire you tomorrow!” I sidestepped her easily. Lara lost her temper, pointing a finger at my face. “Chloe, do you have a mental illness or something? Calling security to smash a door in the middle of the night?” “When the regional manager asks about this tomorrow and finds out nothing is wrong inside, who is going to take the blame? You?” Vicky kicked a nearby stool in frustration. “If you want to be a psycho, do it on your own time. We are leaving. Goodnight!” They turned to walk out. “If anyone steps out of this store before that door is open,” I said coldly, “I will report you to the police as an accomplice to a $400,000 grand theft.” Both of them froze instantly. Lara whipped her head around, her eyes wide. “What the hell are you talking about? Theft?” I pointed at the locked vault door. “Elena swore the inventory was safe, yet she chose to break the key rather than let me look inside.” “If security breaks that door open and the vault is empty…” “Every single person in this room tonight will be a prime suspect in a police investigation.” Hearing this, Vicky immediately grabbed Elena’s arm. “Elena, she’s lying, right? She’s just making things up…” “The inventory is fine, right?” Beads of cold sweat rolled down Elena’s forehead. She bit her lip so hard it turned white. Suddenly, she collapsed to the floor, clutching her arm. “Ah! It hurts so much!” “Lara, quick! I can’t take the pain anymore!” “Call 911! I need an ambulance!” Lara panicked and hurriedly pulled out her phone to dial. Elena leaned against Lara, looking at me weakly as tears streamed down her face. “Chloe, what did I ever do to you? Why are you trying to ruin my life?” “I’m in agonizing pain, and all you care about is some stupid inventory? Do you even have a heart?” I remained unmoved. “If you’re sick, go to the hospital. I won’t stop you.” “Get in the ambulance. But I am checking the inventory tonight.” “If you run away now and the vault is empty, you’ll be the first person the police hunt down.”

Elena’s sobbing paused for a split second. The system alerts flashed rapidly in front of me. [Look at the register counter!] [She was desperately trying to get you to sign because the shipping receipt is hidden right under the inventory sheet!] [That is the hard evidence of her moving the bags!] I walked over to the marble counter. A mess of papers was scattered across it, with the unsigned inventory sheet on top. I reached out and lifted the sheet. Sure enough, hidden right beneath it was a pink copy of a shipping receipt. The timestamp was 8:30 PM tonight. Sender: Elena Juan. Recipient: Marcus Diago. Description: 300 pieces of clothing. Weight: 187 lbs. I knew Marcus. He was Elena’s husband. He owned a high-end luxury consignment shop downtown. The time, the quantity, the recipient—everything matched perfectly. I picked up the slip and turned around. Elena was still groaning on the floor, pretending to be in pain. But the moment she saw the pink slip in my hand, her pupils dilated. “What is that? Put it down!” She scrambled up from the floor like a wild animal and lunged at me. I stepped back, holding the paper high out of her reach. “At 8:30 PM tonight, while the store was still open, you shipped out 187 pounds of ‘clothing’ to your husband, Marcus.” “Elena, 300 luxury leather bags weigh exactly that much, don’t they?” Lara and Vicky gasped. “Elena… did you actually take the bags?” Elena went completely hysterical. “She’s lying! Those are just old clothes I sent to my husband!” “Chloe, you looked through my personal mail! That’s a violation of my privacy!” She clawed at me, trying to rip the paper from my hands, even swinging her plastered arm to strike me. Just then, heavy footsteps echoed from the mall corridor. Two security guards carrying heavy breaching tools rushed to the entrance. “Who called? Where’s the door?” Elena looked at the guards, gritted her teeth, and screamed at Lara. “Lara! Cut the power! Now!” Lara was so terrified by the chaos that she couldn’t think. Acting purely on reflex, she slammed her hand onto the main breaker switch on the wall. Click. The entire boutique plunged into pitch-black darkness. It takes a few seconds for eyes to adjust to sudden darkness. I couldn’t see a thing. Then, I heard the rapid clicking of high heels charging toward me. Someone threw their weight into my shoulder, knocking me to the ground, and pinned me down. Elena used her good hand to aggressively pry open my fingers, trying to snatch the receipt. “Give it to me! Give it to me!”

I brought my right knee up and kicked her hard in the stomach. “Ugh!” Elena gasped, losing her strength instantly, and rolled off me onto the floor. I quickly slid the shipping receipt into my pants pocket. I grabbed my phone, turned on the flashlight, and pointed the bright beam directly at Elena’s face. She was curled up on the floor, clutching her stomach, her face twisted in pain. Gone was her usual elegant, polished manager look. The powerful beam of a security guard’s flashlight swept into the store from the entrance. “Why is it dark in here? Is everyone okay?” The two uniformed guards hurried in. Lara, trembling in the corner, finally found the breaker and flipped the switch back up. The bright store lights flooded the room. The moment Elena saw the guards, her face transformed. She scrambled up, covering her face, and burst into tears. “Officers, thank God you’re here! She’s the one who won’t let us go home! She’s forcing us to break the door!” “I told her we could do it tomorrow, but she attacked me, stole my personal documents, and beat up an injured person!” The two guards hesitated, looking at me. I didn’t even spare Elena a glance. I walked straight to the vault door and pointed at the jammed lock. “The security camera is right above us. We can check who attacked whom tomorrow.” “Right now, please breach this door.” Elena shrieked, “Don’t you dare! This is an internal store matter! Mall security has no right to interfere!” She threw herself in front of the guards. “This door costs $5,000! It’s company property! If you touch it, you’ll be paying for the damages!” The guards looked uneasy, holding their tools awkwardly. “Uh… Assistant Manager, if the Store Manager doesn’t consent, we really can’t just destroy the door. Maybe you guys should sort this out internally?” Lara and Vicky were scared out of their wits by the intensity of the fight. But with outsiders present, they just wanted to sweep it under the rug. “Chloe, just drop it. If this gets out, we’re all going to lose our jobs.” “Exactly, calling security to smash a door over nothing… How is the Chanel boutique next door going to look at us?” Seeing the guards hesitate, a smug smirk crept onto Elena’s face. “Chloe, since you love company rules so much, I’m calling our Regional Manager, Mr. Davis, right now.” “Let’s see what he has to say about your little stunt!” She dialed the number and put it on speaker. After three rings, a sleepy, annoyed voice answered. “Hello? What is it at this hour?” Elena began to sob, her voice dripping with fake helplessness. “Mr. Davis, I am so sorry to wake you.” “It’s Chloe. She’s accusing me of stealing inventory. She actually called mall security and is trying to smash open our vault door right now.” “Please talk to her. If word of this gets out, it will ruin our brand’s reputation!”

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Every time our school had an Open House, Dad would go to Mason’s classroom, and Mom would go to Tommy’s. I once asked Mom, “Who is going to my classroom?” Mom didn’t even look up from washing Tommy’s face. “You’re a big girl now, Summer. You’re mature. Can’t you just sit in your seat and listen to the teacher by yourself?” I thought she was right. I was the easiest, most trouble-free kid in the house. So, every Open House, I sat in my seat and pretended my mother was sitting in the empty chair next to me. I would sit up straight, keeping my back rigid, and write down every single word the teacher said. Today, our midterm results came out. I ranked top of the class. I couldn’t wait to go home and tell Mom and Dad the good news. Clutching my report card, I ran home, bubbling with excitement. I pushed the door open. Mom was hugging Tommy, and Dad was patting Mason on the shoulder. They had bought a big KFC bucket to celebrate Mason ranking fifth in his class. No one looked back at me. No one cared about how I did. I stuffed my straight-A report card back to the very bottom of my backpack and quietly zipped it shut.

My stomach growled loudly at the worst possible moment. At lunchtime, I had opened my lunchbox only to find the food Mom packed had turned sour. I couldn’t swallow it, so I just drank half a bottle of cold tap water. Standing in the entryway, I stared at the steaming bucket of fried chicken on the table and swallowed my spit. Mom finally heard me. She glanced over. Her eyes flickered with guilt for a split second, but she quickly stood up and clapped her hands. “Gosh, kid, do you have to walk like a ghost? No sound at all.” She fished through the bucket and pulled out a bony wing tip—the one with the least meat—and shoved it toward me. “Your brother got fifth place. This chicken is for his celebration. You can chew on the bone and taste the flavor.” I didn’t want the bone. I gripped my backpack straps tight and looked up at her. “Mom, the teacher said tomorrow is the School Open House. I want you to come with me.” The room went dead silent for a second. Tommy immediately threw a tantrum, screaming, “Mom is mine! Summer, you can’t have her!” Dad frowned, shielding Tommy in his arms. “Didn’t you hear your brother? Why are you just standing there? Go to the kitchen and wash the dishes.” I didn’t move. I kept my eyes locked on Mom, stubborn. “But the teacher said a parent must attend.” Mom curled her lip, tossing the bony wing tip back onto the table. “What’s the point of being top of the class anyway? It’s a waste of money to educate a girl. Tomorrow I’m taking Tommy to the amusement park. I don’t have time.” Dad chimed in. “Mason’s school has their Open House tomorrow too. I’ll be going to his.” Panic set in. My voice began to shake. “But everyone else’s parents are going…” Mom’s eyes widened in fury, and she pointed a finger at me, raising her voice. “Summer! How many times do I have to tell you? Can’t you be reasonable for once? Do you have to make trouble for this family right now?”

Whenever Mom used that line, I knew I couldn’t ask for anything anymore. I turned around and walked into the kitchen. The sink was piled high with greasy plates and utensils. I stepped onto the little wooden stool, plunged my hands into the freezing water, and began scrubbing them one by one. After the dishes, I carried the family’s dirty laundry from yesterday into the bathroom, squatting on the floor to scrub the clothes by hand. My hands turned bright red from the cold, but my mind was still on tomorrow’s Open House. When I finally finished and went back to my room, what I saw made me freeze in my tracks. My backpack had been dumped out. My things were scattered everywhere. Tommy was sitting on the floor, holding my perfect-score midterm paper, tearing it into tiny pieces. I rushed over and shoved him away. “Don’t touch my things!” Tommy immediately threw himself onto the floor, screaming and crying at the top of his lungs. Hearing the noise, Mom and Dad stormed in. Without asking a single question, Dad kicked my shin hard. I lost my balance and fell heavily onto the sharp pieces of torn paper. “How dare you hit your brother! Have you lost your mind?” Dad roared, pointing at my face. Mom scooped Tommy up, cuddling him and patting his back. I pointed at the shredded paper on the floor, tears finally spilling over. “That was my test! I got a perfect score! I was first in the class!” Mom snapped back, exasperated. “It’s just a stupid piece of paper! Your brother is younger than you. Why can’t you just let him have his way? If you’re this petty now, how are you going to survive in the real world?” Mason leaned against the doorframe, chewing on a piece of chicken, his voice dripping with sarcasm. “So what if you’re first? Mom and Dad don’t even want you. How embarrassing.” I didn’t argue. I knelt on the floor under the dim light of my room, picking up the torn pieces of my paper one by one. That night, I stayed up until my eyes were bloodshot, using glue to piece my test back together.

The day of the School Open House arrived. The classroom was packed. Every student had their parents sitting proudly beside them. The chair next to me remained empty. I sat up straight, looking directly ahead, trying my best to pretend Mom was sitting right there. As long as I didn’t look at the chair, I wouldn’t cry. Then, it was my turn to give the student representative speech on stage. But looking at the crowd of parents staring back at me, my throat locked up. Mrs. Sinclair looked at me warmly. “Summer, please invite your mom to join you on stage.” My hands, clutching my speech, sweat profusely. “My mom couldn’t make it.” The parents in the audience began to whisper among themselves. Mrs. Sinclair paused, then walked over and took my hand. Her hand was incredibly warm—a kind of warmth I had never felt at home. She took the microphone. “Summer is an outstanding student. Today, I will stand in as her parent.” At that moment, the tears I had held back all night almost spilled over. After the Open House, Mrs. Sinclair pulled me into her office. She poured me a cup of warm water, her eyes falling on my red, swollen wrists. “Summer, tell me the truth. Is your family treating you badly?” I shook my head. “Mom says there are three of us. I have to be the mature one. I shouldn’t fight for things.” Mrs. Sinclair’s face flushed with anger. She slammed a stack of documents onto her desk. “That’s not being mature, that’s abuse! You got the highest score in the class. There is a fully-funded state summer camp opportunity, and our school only got two spots. It requires a parent’s signature. I am coming to your house today.” Taking my hand, Mrs. Sinclair walked me out with determination.

Mrs. Sinclair held my hand all the way to my house. When she pushed the door open, the apartment was a total mess. Tommy was throwing his toys everywhere, and Mom was chasing him around with a bowl, trying to force-feed him. Seeing Mrs. Sinclair, Mom froze, quickly wiping her hands on her apron. Mrs. Sinclair didn’t waste time on pleasantries. She placed the summer camp registration form on the table. “Mrs. Miller, why didn’t you attend the School Open House today?” Mom’s face turned red, and she tried to defend herself. “Teacher, we have three kids. We have to be fair. Summer is mature, so naturally, we have to spend more time worrying about the two who aren’t.” Mrs. Sinclair cut her off sharply. “Her being mature is not an excuse for you to neglect her! Summer’s grades are exceptional. She won a spot at the prestigious state summer camp. It needs a parent’s signature, and I hope you won’t let her down again!” Hearing the words “state summer camp,” Dad, who had been watching TV on the couch, suddenly stood up. “Summer camp? Can we transfer that spot to Mason?” Mrs. Sinclair was shocked. “Summer earned that spot with her top grades! How could you give it to her brother?” “What’s the point of a girl getting an education? Mason is the future of this family!” Dad said, completely shameless. Mrs. Sinclair was speechless with anger. She warned them that if they didn’t sign, she would report the situation to the school board and social services. As soon as the teacher left, Mom rushed over and snatched the registration form from the table. “This is perfect for Mason. You’re just a girl anyway. It’d be a waste for you to go.” I grabbed the corner of the paper with a sudden surge of strength. “It’s mine! Mrs. Sinclair said only I can go!” Dad marched over and slapped me hard across the face. I lost my footing and fell, my forehead slamming violently against the sharp corner of the coffee table. A sharp, blinding pain shot through my head. Warm liquid began to trickle down my forehead and into my eye. Mom shrieked. “Richard! Look what you did!” For a second, I thought she was finally going to care about me. But she didn’t come to help me up. Instead, she frantically pulled Tommy back. “Move out of the way, Tommy! Don’t let this girl’s blood ruin your new sneakers!”

The blood blurred my vision into a hazy red. The throbbing pain in my forehead slowly spread, but as I sat on the floor, I didn’t make a sound. Mom grabbed a dirty rag from the bathroom and shoved it against my head, muttering curses. “Are you trying to kill us? So much blood! If Mrs. Higgins downstairs sees this, she’s going to start gossiping again.” Dad stood over me, looking at the registration form in my hand with zero remorse. “Hand over the form. I’ll register Mason tomorrow.” I squeezed my forehead, forcing myself to stay calm. Mrs. Sinclair had told me that these camp spots were strictly linked to student records. Registration required verifying student IDs and SSNs. Mason couldn’t just use it. I looked up, staring straight into Dad’s eyes. “You can have the form for Mason. But you have to take me to the clinic to get stitches. Otherwise, when Mrs. Sinclair sees me missing from school tomorrow, she’ll bring the police and CPS here.” Hearing the word “police,” Dad’s face shifted. He didn’t want trouble, and he certainly didn’t want to ruin Mason’s future. “You little brat, you think you can threaten me?” He spat on the floor, but turned to Mom. “Take her to the small clinic down the alley. Don’t go to the hospital. It costs too much and they keep records.” Mom dragged me out of the house reluctantly. The doctor at the little clinic was a man in his fifties. He pulled the rag away from my forehead and frowned deeply. “This cut is very deep. How did this happen? She needs at least five stitches.” Mom let out a fake laugh. “She was clumsy and tripped over the coffee table.” I sat in the chair and spoke in a clear, calm voice that everyone in the clinic could hear. “My dad threw me against the coffee table because he wanted to steal my summer camp spot for my brother.” The clinic went dead silent. Several patients receiving IV drips turned to look at Mom with disgust. The doctor froze, giving Mom a long, hard look. Mom’s face turned bright red, and she lunged forward to pinch my arm. “What lies are you telling?!” I didn’t flinch. I held her gaze and continued. “Doctor, if they refuse to pay for the stitches, you can call my teacher, Mrs. Sinclair. She was just at our house today.” Mom’s raised hand froze in midair. She cared deeply about her public image and couldn’t bear any more embarrassment. She slammed the cash onto the desk, grinding her teeth. But she refused to pay for anesthesia. The stitching was excruciatingly painful. I had to endure it raw. But I didn’t cry. My mind had only one thought: I am done being the good girl. When we got home, I tossed the blood-stained form onto the table and went straight to my room. Mason grabbed it excitedly, shouting in the living room. “Awesome! I’m going to turn this in tomorrow! I’m going to summer camp!” I shut my door, keeping the truth to myself: the form was pre-printed with my Student ID and Social Security Number.

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I came home for college summer break, and my dad made a table full of my favorite food. As he ladled a bowl of homemade soup for me, he smiled warmly. “I made this especially for you, sweetheart. Quick, try some!” But looking at that gentle, smiling face, my blood ran cold. I fought back the sheer terror, slipped my phone under the table, and secretly dialed 91 “I need to report an emergency,” I whispered. “I think someone is pretending to be my father.” “And…” I stared at the kitchen, where the man was slowly turning his head toward me. My voice trembled violently. “I think my real father might already be dead.” 1. “Ma’am, please try to stay calm.” On the other end of the line, the dispatcher’s voice grew instantly serious. “Did you say… someone is posing as your father?” I cupped my hand tightly over my mouth, terrified the man in the next room would hear. I kept my voice at a barely audible whisper. “Yes.” “I suspect… something terrible has happened to my real dad.” There was a two-second silence on the line. Then, I heard the dispatcher murmur to someone next to her: “Potential identity theft, high-risk physical threat. Transferring to Major Crimes.” Soon, a deep, steady male voice broke in. “This is Detective Marcus Kane from Major Crimes. Are you in a safe position right now?” I instinctively looked back. In the kitchen, the man who called himself “my dad” was standing with his back to me, slicing a watermelon. The heavy kitchen knife slammed onto the cutting board. Thud. Thud. Thud. The sound heavy, echoing, like it was pounding directly on my chest. Cold sweat drenched my back. “For now… yes.” “Do not provoke him,” Detective Kane ordered quickly. “Give me your address. We are moving in now.” With shaking lips, I rattled off my address. “Got it. We’ll be there in thirty minutes, absolute max.” “Until then, keep him calm. Act normal. Do not let him suspect anything. Understood?” “Understood…” Just as I hung up, the man in the kitchen suddenly stopped his movements. “Chloe,” His voice was incredibly gentle. “Why are you standing by the door?” My heart squeezed tight. For a terrifying second, I wondered if he had heard my call. But he just turned around, holding a plate of freshly cut watermelon, smiling at me. “Come on, let’s eat.” That face… it was so unfamiliar it made my skin crawl. But his tone of voice was exactly, perfectly identical to my dad’s in my memory. I forced myself to squeeze out a smile. “My professor just called. Just some minor stuff about next semester.” “Oh.” He nodded, seemingly accepting the lie completely. Walking back into the dining room, he sat down, his eyes filled with fatherly warmth. “I made your favorite steak. Try it.” With that, he cut a piece of steak and placed it on my plate. I stared at the meat, my stomach turning in violent waves. Because I was absolutely, one hundred percent certain: the man sitting across from me was not my father. My dad was actually quite handsome in his younger years. He had thick eyebrows, a strong square jaw, and tanned, weathered skin. But this man was thin, with deeply sunken eyes and a high, sharp nose bridge. It was a completely different face. Yet, from the moment I walked through the door, the way he called me “sweetheart,” the way he automatically handed me my house slippers, even his habitual nagging about “eating the steak while it’s hot”—everything was identical to my father. It was as if my dad’s soul had been stuffed into a stranger’s body.

The realization sent shivers down my spine. My family had always struggled financially, so I worked hard and saved every penny at college. My university was far away, and I could only afford to come home once a year. It had been over a year since my last visit. But in just one year, how could my father have acquired a completely new face? “Why aren’t you eating?” The man suddenly spoke. I snapped back to reality, realizing he was staring intently at my face. “Is it not cooked the way you like it?” “No!” I shook my head, an almost instinctual reflex. “Then why aren’t you touching your fork?” My heart skipped a beat. I forced my trembling voice to sound natural. “I’m… I got a bit carsick on the bus ride here. My stomach is a mess. I don’t have much of an appetite.” The man stared at me for a few long seconds, then suddenly smiled. “Then just eat a little.” He stood up to ladle some soup for me. “You’ve had a weak stomach since you were a kid. It’ll only hurt worse if you leave it empty.” I gripped my fork, my palms slick with cold sweat. Why? How did he know a detail like that? It was true. I had a terrible stomach growing up. One winter, the pain was so bad I was rolling on the floor. My dad carried me on his back, running three miles through the freezing snow to the nearest clinic in the middle of the night. He even lost a shoe on the way. But no one knew about that incident except my dad and me. My breathing grew shallow and rapid. The man, however, looked entirely natural, gently blowing on the soup to cool it down before handing it to me. “Careful, it’s hot.” I didn’t take it. The air in the room suddenly went dead silent. The old ceiling fan creaked overhead, and the cicadas screamed outside the window. Sitting across from this stranger felt like a waking nightmare. Suddenly, an idea flashed in my mind. Fighting back the terror, I tried to sound casual. “Dad, wasn’t… wasn’t two days ago Mom’s death anniversary?” The man’s hand paused in mid-air. I stared at him like a hawk. This was a test. Because my mother wasn’t dead. She had abandoned us when I was five because we were too poor, running off with a wealthy city businessman. She even went on to have two more kids with him. This had always been a deeply painful thorn in my dad’s heart. He never allowed me to mention her, and he told the neighbors she had passed away from an illness just to keep his dignity. For all these years, only my dad and I knew the truth. If this man was an impostor, there was no way he would know. The silence in the room became suffocating. A few seconds later, the man chuckled. “You silly girl, are you trying to test your old man?” The blood in my veins froze instantly. “Didn’t your mother run off with that guy and have two kids decades ago? She even sent you photos of them last year, remember?” Boom— My mind went completely blank. The fork slipped from my fingers and clattered onto the floor. How was this possible?! How could he know that?! My dad had never, ever told a soul about that! The man frowned slightly. “What’s wrong?” My lips parted, dry and white, but no sound came out. Right then, the screech of tires echoed from the driveway outside. A heavy, authoritative knock pounded on the front door. “Police! Open up!” I bolted upright from my chair. They were finally here!

The man looked genuinely startled. “The police?” He turned to look at me, a flicker of surprise crossing his eyes for the first time. “What is going on?” I didn’t answer. I rushed past him and threw the door open. Three police officers stood on the porch. The man in the lead was in his late forties with sharp, piercing eyes. “Did you place the 911 call?” I nodded frantically. “Yes! It was me!” His gaze swept past me, locking onto the dining room. “Who is posing as your father?” I pointed aggressively at the man by the table. “Him!” The man slowly stood up, his face a mask of utter confusion. He spoke, his voice cracking slightly. “Chloe… what on earth are you talking about?” “Don’t call me Chloe!” I screamed back. “You are not my father!” The officers instantly went on high alert. The younger officer’s hand dropped to his taser. Detective Kane stepped into the house, his cold eyes analyzing the man from head to toe. “Sir, I need to see your ID.” The man remained silent for two seconds, then quietly reached into his pocket and pulled out his wallet, handing over his driver’s license. Kane took it. I leaned in immediately to look. The moment I saw the card, I froze. The name printed on the license was indeed my father’s. Arthur Miller. And the photo on the card… was the exact, unfamiliar face of the man standing in front of me. “No!” I shrieked, my voice cracking. “This is impossible!” “My father doesn’t look like this!” The officers exchanged a look, their expressions turning highly skeptical. Just then, hurried footsteps sounded from the driveway. “What’s going on? What’s happening?” “Is everything okay at Arthur’s house?” A few neighbors had gathered, drawn by the sirens. An older woman peered through the screen door. Seeing me, she gasped, “Oh, Chloe! You’re back from college?” “Is it summer break already?” I felt a wave of icy dread wash over me. I didn’t recognize a single one of these people. But they all knew my name. The man gave the neighbors a helpless, bitter smile. “I don’t know what’s wrong with her. She keeps saying I’m not her dad.” “What?!” The neighbors gasped in disbelief. “Is she out of her mind?” “Arthur has been raising you since you were a toddler! Who else would he be?” “Did college ruin her brain?” I clenched my fists so hard my nails dug into my palms. “Stay away from me! I’ve never seen any of you before! You don’t live in this town!” The neighbors looked at each other in sheer bewilderment. One of the older ladies, Mrs. Gable, looked deeply concerned. “Arthur, did your girl have some kind of mental breakdown?” Detective Kane clearly realized something was seriously off. He frowned and turned to me. “Kid, you’re insisting this man isn’t your father. Do you have any actual proof to support this?” “I…” My mouth stayed open, but the words caught in my throat. Because the driver’s license, the official records, the neighbors—everything and everyone proved he was Arthur Miller. But only I knew. He wasn’t. He absolutely wasn’t. At that moment, the man walked over to a cabinet and pulled out a thick, dusty photo album. “Detectives, please, just look at this.”

He flipped open the very first page. My breath hitched. In the photo, it was my sixth birthday. I was sitting in front of a cake, laughing. The man holding me in the photo… was the stranger standing in front of me. The second photo showed my middle school graduation. He was standing right next to me. The third was from my high school graduation, where he was holding a bouquet of flowers, his eyes red with pride. In every single photo, it was this unfamiliar face. “No…” My knees buckled. “This is impossible…” I remembered so clearly that my dad did not look like this! A blinding pain ripped through my skull, as if my brain was being torn in two. Detective Kane looked down at me, his eyes turning cold and stern. “Kid, do you realize that making a false police report is a serious federal offense?” “I didn’t make a false report!” I cried out desperately. “He is really not my father!” The younger officer couldn’t help but chime in. “If he isn’t your dad, how does he know everything about you? How does he have photos of you growing up? Why does everyone in this neighborhood recognize you?” “I…” I was on the verge of a total breakdown. But my deep love for my father kept a tiny flame of sanity alive in my chest. I took a deep breath. “I want a DNA test! Science doesn’t lie! He is not my father. Our DNA will not match!” Detective Kane looked at the man. The man’s eyes welled with tears. He looked at me with heartbreaking tenderness. “If that’s what my girl wants… then let’s do it…” Mrs. Gable shook her head in disapproval. “Chloe, he’s your own father! If you force him into this, you’re going to destroy this family!” But I grit my teeth, hardening my heart. “Do it!” To put the matter to rest once and for all, Detective Kane agreed. A forensic tech brought in a rapid mobile DNA testing kit. He took swab samples from both the man and me and loaded them into the machine. The thirty minutes we spent waiting for the results were the longest, most agonizing moments of my life. I stood by the doorway, my face pale, my body trembling uncontrollably. The neighbors gathered around the man, offering him soft words of comfort. Finally, the machine beeped. The printout came out. Detective Kane’s face was incredibly grim. “The results are in. It’s a perfect familial match. You and Arthur Miller are father and daughter. What else do you have to say for yourself?!” I grabbed the report, my fingers shaking so violently I almost tore the paper. How could this be? Even the DNA matched? “You’re coming with us to the station,” Detective Kane said coldly, grabbing my arm to lead me out. The man stepped forward, tears streaming down his face. “Detective Kane, please! She’s just confused. Don’t charge her, she’s still just a kid!” “She went off to the big city for college and saw how successful people live. She’s ashamed of her poor, useless dad. It’s my fault. I couldn’t give her a better life.” “Don’t take her. Take me instead!” I screamed in absolute fury, “Shut up! You are not my father!” Detective Kane couldn’t stand it anymore. He barked at me, “Your father is doing everything to protect you, and this is how you treat him?!” “Let’s go!” “You need to learn your lesson!” With that, he pushed me toward the door. My wrists hurt, and my body felt completely trapped. But in that split second of despair, a memory flashed in my mind. I struggled against his grip, desperately pulling out my phone. “Wait! Detective Kane! Look at this!” Kane’s face was hard. “What now?” With everything I had, I shoved the phone screen in front of his face. The moment Detective Kane looked at the screen, his eyes froze. He slowly raised his head, his gaze sweeping over the man in the dining room, then over the neighbors standing in the yard. His eyes turned razor-sharp. “Everyone, draw your weapons!” The veins on his forehead bulged, his voice trembling with a sudden, icy panic. “We have a major crisis in Oakridge! Call for immediate tactical backup!”

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At my twenty-second engagement party, my fiancé, Carter Vance, announced in front of all the guests that the one he truly loved was my stepsister, Chloe. I became the laughingstock of the high society overnight. After the party, he grabbed my hand in the parking lot and explained in a gentle tone. “Maddy, I know you’re hurting right now. But Chloe… her health is fragile. She can’t handle any more stress.” “Don’t worry, I will marry her, but it’s only out of responsibility. Nothing will change between us. You will always be the most important person in my heart.” My fingertips went cold with rage. He probably didn’t know that our families’ merger agreement had a backup clause for the marriage alliance. One Sterling daughter would marry him. The other would have to marry the notoriously ruthless, dangerous, and cold-blooded tycoon, Dominic Blackwood. That night, looking at the city lights outside my floor-to-ceiling window, I dialed an unfamiliar number. “Mr. Blackwood, about the marriage contract. I agree.” “Three days. I’ll be waiting for you.”

The moment I hung up, the bedroom door was pushed open. Carter walked in, holding Chloe in his arms. “Maddy, I’m sorry I didn’t tell you about this beforehand. Don’t blame Chloe.” Looking at their locked hands, I forced a cold smile. “You two sneaked around behind my back and made me the laughingstock of the city. Why shouldn’t I blame her? Besides…” Before I could finish, Chloe took a step forward, looking pitifully weak. “Maddy, we can’t control our feelings… I know you and Carter have been betrothed since childhood, but he and I… we’ve been together for a while now.” As she spoke, she intentionally pulled down her high collar, revealing a prominent hickey on her collarbone. I looked at Carter. He avoided my gaze guiltily. “It’s my fault. At the project celebration party the other night, we both drank too much, and then… Carter only went public because he wanted to take responsibility.” “Can’t we… can’t we just get along like we used to? We’re still family, right?” Under the dim light, the malice in her eyes was practically overflowing. Before I could speak, Martha, the housekeeper who had raised me, couldn’t hold back. “You certainly have quite the tricks, Chloe. Knowing Mr. Vance was Ms. Madelyn’s fiancé, you still did something so shameless. You really are your mother’s daughter!” Chloe’s mother was the mistress who drove my biological mother out of her own home. Martha’s sharp words made Chloe tremble, her face twisting into a mask of pure victimhood. Carter immediately pulled her into his embrace and barked at Martha. “No wonder Chloe always feels so unwelcomed here! Even a housekeeper thinks she can stomp on her! I can’t imagine how much abuse she’s endured!” I watched him coldly. Growing up, he always told me Chloe was pitiful and that I should yield to her. Whether it was a limited-edition collectible or a rare vinyl record, as long as Chloe wanted it, he would pressure me to give it to her. “You have everything, Maddy. Don’t fight her for it.” But he never understood that Chloe didn’t actually care about those things. She just loved stealing whatever belonged to me. Martha wanted to say more, but I raised my hand to stop her. I stepped forward and slapped Chloe hard across the face. “If Martha can’t speak, I will!” “The Sterlings are a family of status, and my mother came from a highly respected lineage. You expect me to step aside for the daughter of a home-wrecker? In your dreams!” My hand brushed against a cold fountain pen on my desk. It was the first gift Carter had ever given me. Because it wasn’t expensive, Chloe had never cared to steal it. But I had cherished it. I picked it up, looking at both of them. As Carter watched in shock, I slammed it onto the floor. The nib bent, and ink splattered across the floor like a shattered heart. “Since it has come to this, I wish you two trash well.” “The engagement is off.” Chloe gasped, her knees buckling as she sank onto the rug. “Maddy, it’s all my fault! If… if Carter still loves you, I can step aside! I can just die!” She grabbed a silver fruit knife from the tray on the coffee table, holding it against her wrist, closing her eyes as if she were about to slice down. It looked dramatic, but the blade wasn’t even touching her skin. Carter’s face paled with worry. I sneered, pulled an utility knife from my desk drawer, and threw it at her feet. “You don’t seem determined enough, dear sister. Here, use this. It’s much sharper.” Carter grabbed her off the floor, shielding her behind his back, glaring at me. “Madelyn! I never knew you were such a vicious woman! She is your sister!” “Now you remember she’s my sister? When you two crawled into the same bed, did you care that she was my sister?!” Maybe it was the first time he had ever seen me snap. He stood there, stunned. After a long silence, he gritted out: “I know this is unfair to you, but letting you stay by my side is already the biggest concession I can make.” “We’ve been together for so many years. I can’t just watch you become a joke.” I glanced at Chloe. Her expression was tense, terrified I would bring up Dominic. It seemed Carter didn’t know about the backup marriage clause with Dominic Blackwood yet. Good. There was no need to let him know. “Our contract is void. Mr. Vance, please refrain from breaking into a single woman’s room late at night. It’s inappropriate.” “Martha, show them out.” Infuriated by my indifference, Carter scooped Chloe up in his arms and stormed out. At the door, he threw a cold threat over his shoulder. “I’ll tell your father everything that happened tonight. He will get justice for Chloe.” “Great. I’ll be waiting.”

I underestimated Carter’s shamelessness, and I overestimated my father’s love for me. Less than thirty minutes after they left, my father, Richard Sterling, called. The moment I answered, he started screaming. “Madelyn! What the hell is wrong with you?! Do you have any idea how important tonight’s engagement gala was for the company?” His voice was dripping with fury, as if I were the one who had messed up, not his precious stepdaughter. Holding the phone, I walked over to the window. My voice was as cold as the night wind. “Dad, I didn’t lose my mind. Carter embarrassed me in front of everyone, called off our engagement, and chose Chloe.” “What was I supposed to do? Smile, bless them, and let the world think the Sterling daughters are pushovers?” Silence hung over the line for a few seconds. Then, Richard’s tone softened, playing the emotional card. “Maddy, I know you feel wronged. But Carter was just confused. What man doesn’t make mistakes? You two grew up together; the foundation is there. Just give him a way out, and this will all blow over.” “As for Chloe… she’s your sister. Can’t you just let her have this one?” Let her have this one. I had heard that phrase my entire life. My heart turned to stone. “Dad, you should actually be glad Carter chose Chloe.” Richard gasped. “What do you mean?” “It means the alliance between the Sterlings and the Vances is still on. We’ve just swapped the bride.” Before he could respond, I hung up. I knew he cared more about the business merger than my feelings. But this time, he was wrong. I wasn’t leaving him a successful merger. I was leaving him a bomb that would blow the high society apart. I looked at the text message from Dominic Blackwood’s assistant. It contained an address and a time. Tomorrow night, 7:00 PM. The Apex Club. Perfect. Everything was going according to plan.

The next evening, I arrived at the Apex Club fifteen minutes early. It was the most exclusive private club in the city, heavily secured and reserved only for the ultra-wealthy. A host led me to the penthouse suite, respectfully opening the door. The main lights were off, save for a dim spotlight over the bar. A man sat with his back to me, holding a cigar between his long fingers. Smoke swirled around him. He wore a black silk shirt with the top two buttons undone, revealing hints of a toned chest. His shoulders were broad, his waist narrow, standing tall like a dark monument. Just his silhouette radiated a powerful, dangerous aura that warned people to stay away. Hearing my footsteps, he slowly turned around. My breath caught. Rumors said Dominic Blackwood was a thirty-year-old cold-blooded, unstable madman. But no one mentioned he had the face of a fallen angel. Sharp brows, a high nose bridge, and thin lips that naturally curved into a cold, mocking smirk. His gaze was incredibly predatory, as if he could strip away all my armor and read my deepest secrets. “Miss Sterling. Punctual,” he said, his voice deep, smooth, and resonant like a cello. Suppressing my shock, I sat across from him. “Your time is valuable, Mr. Blackwood. I wouldn’t dare keep you waiting.” He let out a low chuckle, stubbing out his cigar in the ashtray, and slid a document toward me. “I assume you know I don’t do charity.” “What do you gain from marrying me, and what are you willing to sacrifice? Have you thought it through?” His eyes were sharp, evaluating me like a high-stakes deal. I didn’t look at the paper. Instead, I looked straight into his dark eyes. “I know you need a suitable wife to appease your family and the media to shut them up.” “And I need a powerful ally to break free from the Sterlings and the Vances, and to take back everything that belongs to my mother.” “We both get what we want, and we don’t interfere with each other. In public, I will play the perfect Mrs. Blackwood. In private, I won’t interfere with your life.” A heavy silence fell over the room. Dominic just stared at me, his eyes unreadable. Just when I thought he was going to refuse, he stood up, walked over, and leaned down close to me. The scent of expensive tobacco and crisp sandalwood enveloped me. He raised his hand, his thumb gently tracing my cheek. His touch was intimate, but his eyes were ice-cold. “Do you know what people call me out there?” “They call me a psycho.” He leaned into my ear, his voice dropping to a dangerous whisper. “Aren’t you afraid a psycho will swallow you whole?” I forced my body not to stiffen, meeting his gaze with a sharp smile. “Well, I’ve lived twenty-two years and never met a real psycho. I’d love to see it.” “Besides, a person with nothing to lose fears nothing. Mr. Blackwood, I have nothing left to lose.” He stared at me for a few seconds, then straightened up and laughed. The low, rumbling laugh echoed in the quiet room, sending a shiver down my spine. “Interesting.” He picked up a pen and signed his name at the bottom of the contract. “Tomorrow morning, 9:00 AM. We’re going to City Hall.”

At 9:00 AM the next morning, I stood outside City Hall. Dominic’s sleek black Maybach was already waiting by the curb. He stepped out, dressed in all black with dark sunglasses, his expression unreadable. The process was incredibly fast. We filled out the paperwork, took the photo, and got the license stamped. Holding the marriage certificate, I felt a rush of vertigo. From deciding to marry him yesterday to becoming his legal wife today, it had only been forty-eight hours. As we walked out of City Hall, Dominic took off his sunglasses and looked at me. “Regretting it?” “No,” I replied, shaking my head. “It just feels surreal.” His lips twitched. “It’ll feel real soon enough.” He opened the passenger door. “Get in. I’m taking you somewhere.” I didn’t know where we were going, but I got in anyway. The car sped through the city and stopped in front of a high-end luxury jewelry boutique. “Time to pick out your ring, Mrs. Blackwood,” he said simply. I froze. “Is that necessary? We’re just a contract marriage.” As if reading my mind, he said coldly, “If we’re putting on a show, we do it right. I don’t want my wife being looked down upon because she doesn’t have a ring.” The store manager was already waiting. Seeing Dominic, he greeted him with a wide smile. “Mr. Blackwood, everything is prepared.” Several exquisite diamond rings were displayed in front of us, each costing a fortune. But my eyes were drawn to a simple, elegant platinum band. Dominic followed my gaze and raised an eyebrow. “Good taste.” He had the clerk take it out, grabbed my hand, and slid it onto my ring finger. A perfect fit. Just then, the door chime rang. Carter and Chloe walked in, arm in arm. Our eyes met, and the air instantly froze.

“Maddy?” Carter was the first to react. He stared at me, then at Dominic, his brow furrowing deeply. “What are you doing here? And who is this…?” Chloe’s face went completely pale the moment she recognized Dominic. She clutched Carter’s arm, her voice trembling. “Carter… that’s Dominic Blackwood, the CEO of the Blackwood Group…” Carter’s pupils shrank. Dominic Blackwood’s name was feared throughout the entire business world. He instinctively pulled Chloe behind him, looking at Dominic with guard. Dominic, however, didn’t even spare them a glance. He just kept his head down, focusing on the ring on my finger, then raised my hand to his lips, kissing it gently. “Do you like it, Mrs. Blackwood?” The words “Mrs. Blackwood” echoed clearly through the quiet boutique. Carter’s face turned green. “Mrs. Blackwood? Madelyn, what the hell does this mean?! Did you do this just to get back at me…?” Feeling insulted, he took a step forward to grab my wrist. “Are our years of history that cheap to you? You just threw yourself at some random man—” He didn’t finish. Dominic effortlessly caught his wrist mid-air. It looked like a casual block, but Carter’s face twisted in agony. “Mr. Vance,” Dominic’s voice dropped, carrying a suffocating pressure. “Watch your mouth and your place.” “She is my wife now. You don’t get to touch her.” With a slight twist, Carter let out a painful groan and was forced to back off. Looking at Carter’s shocked and humiliated face, a wave of satisfaction washed over me. I wrapped my arm around Dominic’s, smiling brightly at them. “Carter, Chloe, I forgot to introduce you.” “This is my husband, Dominic Blackwood.” I flashed my ring, the massive diamond catching the light, blinding Chloe. “We just got married and came to pick out rings. What about you two? Are you shopping for rings, too?” Chloe’s lips trembled, but she couldn’t say a word. She never could have dreamed that after being discarded by Carter, I would immediately marry Dominic Blackwood—a man a hundred times more powerful than Carter. The fiancé she had schemed so hard to steal was nothing compared to Dominic. Carter’s expression was incredibly ugly. He stared at me, his eyes filled with disbelief and a trace of… regret he didn’t even notice. “Madelyn, you’re crazy! Do you know who he is? Marrying him will ruin you!” “My life is none of your business, Mr. Vance,” Dominic said, wrapping his arm around my waist and pulling me close, looking down at him coldly. “You should worry about yourself.” “I heard the Vances are bidding on the Southside development project? What a coincidence. I want it too.” With that single sentence, all the color drained from Carter’s face.

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On my wedding bed, I found a piece of lingerie that did not belong to me. White lace, in a very sexy style. I searched the records on the smart lock of our new home. At two in the morning yesterday, my fiancé entered the wedding home. The time he stayed there was six hours and forty-seven minutes. Standing in the new home, I suddenly felt like the place was as cold as an ice cellar. I called Ethan Carter. It rang for a long time before he picked up, and a girl’s sweet, coy laughter came from the background. I recognized that voice; it was Mia Reed, an intern at his company. I took a deep breath and asked him, “Where were you last night?” He paused for two seconds, and his voice was so gentle there was not the slightest flaw. “At the office, rushing a proposal until dawn, and then I slept there.” Hearing his weak excuse, I suddenly felt like this marriage was a joke. Ethan Carter, this wedding is off. Three months ago, I bought this apartment. Back then, Ethan held me and spun around the unfinished space again and again. “Clara, this will be our home from now on.” He pointed to the balcony and said we should put a wicker chair there. “You love the sun, so in winter you can sit there and read while I make you coffee.” My parents paid the down payment for the apartment, and I paid the mortgage myself. The renovation money also came from the savings I had built up over the years as a designer. But Ethan said he was a design director, so he had to handle his own wedding home personally. He drew three versions of the plans, went with me to home improvement stores, and talked to me about lighting, flow, and storage. During that time, I really thought I was marrying the right person. Only later did I learn that half of his care for this apartment was not for me. I opened a social media app and searched Mia Reed’s name. Her profile picture was a side-profile photo, and she wore a light-colored slip dress with a bracelet on her wrist. My pupils suddenly shrank. That bracelet was a gift from my mother. Last month, Ethan said we needed to shoot a short video with a “legacy”feeling on the wedding day, and he wanted to take the bracelet in advance to match it with the props. At the time, I did not think much of it. After all, we were about to get married, and my mom liked him a lot too. But now, Mia was wearing my bracelet and smiling at the camera in a video. The caption was: [My boyfriend said our new home should have traces of me in it.] In the video, she was standing at the entrance of my wedding home. She wore the slippers I bought, unboxed the dinnerware I ordered, and lit the diffuser I had carried back from overseas. Someone in the comments asked: [Girl, is this your wedding home? It’s so beautiful!] She replied: [Yeah, he said every inch of our home will be designed around my tastes.] My stomach churned. I kept scrolling down, and the more I looked, the colder I felt. Two weeks ago, she posted a video of herself testing the mattress. The bedding that flashed across the camera was the dark green silk set I had chosen. She lay on the bed and said with a smile, “He said my lower back isn’t good, so he specially changed it to a softer mattress.” That day, my old back injury had flared up, and the pain was so bad I could barely stand straight. But Ethan said a client needed urgent revisions to a proposal, so he could not take me to the hospital. I took an Uber to get an X-ray by myself, and the doctor told me to rest in bed. That night, he came home and brought me a box of pasta that had already gone completely cold. He said, “Clara, I’m sorry, I was just too busy today.” I even comforted him instead and told him work was important. So his so-called busyness had been bringing another woman over to test my wedding bed. I sat on the living room rug in the wedding home and went through nearly half a year of Mia’s posts. Every single one was like a knife. She seared steak in my kitchen and took photos wearing my apron. She called the coffee mugs I bought “couple mugs.” She had even filmed a video with suggestive music, and the camera swept over the master bedroom, bathroom, and walk-in closet. The title was: [What does it feel like to move into the wedding home your boyfriend prepared in advance?] When I reached the end, I suddenly laughed out loud. As I laughed, tears hit my phone screen. It was not that I had never sensed something was wrong. Ethan had become busier and busier over the past six months. In the past, no matter how busy he was, he would answer my calls, but now he often went missing for an entire night and only said the next day that he had drunk too much at a business dinner and slept at a coworker’s place. In the past, he remembered what foods I avoided, but now he would put things I was allergic to on the table and then frown as he said, “Clara, don’t be so sensitive, life doesn’t have to be that complicated.” It was not that I had not noticed. It was that I did not dare to believe it. Seven years of love, from school uniforms to a wedding dress. I stayed with him as he went from an assistant designer making three thousand a month to a design director at the company. When he stayed up all night rushing drawings, I sat beside him and made him coffee. When a client berated him until he broke down, I held him and said, “Ethan Carter, you’re going to make it.” When his startup failed and left him in debt, I took out my savings and paid it back with him little by little. I once thought that what we had could survive time, poverty, and every storm. I never thought it would fail to survive a young girl who knew how to act sweet and admire him.

My phone rang. Ethan sent me a message. [Clara, did you go to the wedding home? The paint was just finished there, and the smell is strong, so don’t stay too long.] [I’ll come pick you up after I finish work later.] I looked at those two fake, hypocritical lines of concern, and my fingertips turned cold. I replied: [No need, I’m already back.] He quickly sent back a kissing emoji. [Good girl, after the wedding is over, I’ll spend proper time with you.] I stared at that emoji and only felt sick. I returned to the apartment where I lived and locked the door from the inside. Ethan did not come back tonight. At one in the morning, another record popped up in the lock’s backend system. Ethan had entered the wedding home. I looked at that record, and my hand shook so badly I could barely hold my phone. Five minutes later, Mia updated her feed. In the photo, two hands were folded together, and there was a faint scar on the back of the man’s hand. That scar was from when Ethan had cut himself on broken glass while saving me. Mia captioned it: [He said tomorrow will be exhausting, but tonight he still wants to stay with me.] Tomorrow was the day our two families were supposed to meet before the wedding, and it was also the day Ethan’s parents had proposed adding his name to the property deed before the wedding. I closed my eyes and suddenly calmed down completely. At six in the evening, the two families met in a private room at a hotel. My parents arrived early, and they were still carrying gifts prepared for Ethan’s parents. My mom reminded me in a low voice, “Clara, marriage is a big deal, so if something feels wrong, say it, and don’t always endure everything alone.” My chest ached, and I forced a smile. When the Carter family arrived, they made quite an entrance. Ethan’s mother wore a dark red suit, and as soon as she came in, she grabbed my hand. “Clara, we’re about to be family, so I’ll just speak plainly.” She said family with her mouth, but her eyes kept sweeping over my parents. Before all the dishes had even arrived, she steered the topic to the apartment. “You two have such a good relationship, and as parents, we’re happy to see it.” “It’s just that for this wedding home, it really isn’t proper to have only one person’s name on it.” My dad set down his coffee cup, and his tone was steady. “The apartment is Clara’s premarital property, and she is paying the mortgage herself. We have no objection to Ethan living there with her after marriage, but there is no need to add his name.” Ethan’s mother’s expression darkened. “That makes it sound like we’re outsiders.” “Ethan is going to spend his whole life with Clara, so isn’t it the same no matter whose name is on the apartment?” My mom smiled faintly. “If it’s all the same, then not adding it is the same too.” The private room went quiet for a moment. Ethan quickly tried to smooth things over and held my hand. “Mom, let’s not talk about this today.” Ethan’s mother glared at him in dissatisfaction and said, “Why not? The wedding is almost here, so if we don’t talk about it now, should we wait until there’s a fight later?” Ethan’s father also spoke up: “Clara, I’m not trying to be petty. When a man gets married, he has to have some dignity. If the home you two live in later only has your name, outsiders will think Ethan is taking advantage of you.” Ethan said in a low voice, “Clara, I’m not after your apartment. It’s just that my parents do have a point. Don’t worry, after my name is added, I’ll pay the mortgage with you.” I looked at him. “You’re currently paying your parents’ mortgage every month, plus a car loan and credit card bills. What are you going to use to pay it with me?” Ethan’s face stiffened. Ethan’s mother immediately frowned. “Clara, that’s an ugly thing to say. If husband and wife calculate everything so clearly, how are they supposed to live together in the future?” I gently pulled my hand back. “I’m just asking for clarity.” Ethan looked at me, and there was a hint of displeasure in his eyes. In the past, as long as he said a few soft words, I would give in and step down. But today, I did not. Ethan’s mother could not help raising her voice: “Our Ethan is so outstanding, and there are plenty of girls lining up outside who want to marry him. If he weren’t sentimental about the past, why would he have dragged it out until now before getting married?” My mom’s expression changed. I held her hand down and asked calmly, “Do those girls you’re talking about include Mia Reed?”

The cutlery in Ethan’s hand fell onto the table. Ethan’s mother frowned. “Who is Mia Reed?” Ethan immediately looked at me. “Clara, what are you overthinking now? Mia is just an intern at my company.” “I’ve been leading her on a project lately, so we’ve had a little more contact.” There was blame in his tone, as if I were being unreasonable. I smiled. “I only asked casually, so why are you nervous?” He looked at my smile, and panic flickered in his eyes for an instant. But very quickly, he returned to being gentle. “I’m afraid you’ll misunderstand. We’re about to get married, and I don’t want someone irrelevant to affect our relationship.” I lowered my head and drank my coffee without saying anything else. The meal was very tense. Before we left, Ethan’s mother still would not give up. “You two should discuss adding his name again after you go back. It would be best to handle it before the wedding, or else it won’t sound good if people ask.” My dad said coldly, “No one will ask.” Ethan walked me to the car. He lowered his head and looked at me, his eyes complicated. “Clara, what’s wrong with you today? Is it pre-wedding anxiety?” I looked up at him. “Ethan Carter, have you ever lied to me?” He was silent for one second, then smiled and rubbed my hair. “Silly, I wouldn’t lie to you even if I lied to anyone else.” I turned sideways and avoided his hand. “I hope so.” Over the next three days, I prepared for the wedding as usual. I confirmed the guest list, checked the banquet details, and revised the schedule. Ethan thought I was just throwing a small tantrum, so he started becoming especially attentive. Every day, he sent me good morning and good night messages, ordered takeout for me, and even came personally to wait for me downstairs at my apartment building. But every night after eleven, he would still appear at the wedding home. Once, he did not leave until three in the morning. Early the next morning, Mia posted a selfie video. She was wearing a men’s white shirt and drinking coffee on the bay window of my home. The caption read: [He said the wedding is just a formality, and who you love is the real answer.] Someone in the comments teased: [Your man spoils you so much, when is the wedding?] She replied: [Soon, once he finishes dealing with the trouble.] The trouble. So I was the trouble. I saved the screenshots and sent them to my lawyer friend Olivia Hayes along with the lock records, video links, and the property management surveillance request form. Olivia called me, and her tone was frighteningly cold. “This is no longer just a simple relationship dispute.” “Your apartment was entered multiple times without permission, and it was also used for commercial filming and traffic generation, which involves infringement. If the bracelet is in her possession, you can also demand its return.” “Also, you previously said you paid for the renovation materials, but several payments went through Ethan’s company account?” “Yes.” “Then investigate it clearly. If he moved company project materials and design resources for private use, that’s enough to get him in serious trouble.” I looked at the dense evidence on my computer, and finally felt a little support in my heart. The pain was still there, and so was the disgust. But I would no longer be like I had been before, only crying and asking him why. I wanted everyone to see clearly what kind of thing he really was. On the fourth day, someone took the initiative to add my contact information. The profile picture was that familiar innocent side-profile photo. There was also a message attached: [My name is Mia Reed, and I left a piece of lingerie at your place.]

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“Your monthly salary is five thousand, and you still dare to spend thirty thousand on a bag. Does your mom know you’re this vain?” I was just wearing the luxury bag I had saved up to buy for the company retreat, and my department manager, Karen Chen, openly mocked me in front of everyone. The company’s livestream camera was pointed at me the whole time, and she deliberately magnified my embarrassment in front of the camera. “Young people care too much about vanity. Just to buy a bag, you eat instant noodles for three months. If word gets out, people will think our company is exploiting its employees.” What she didn’t know was that I bought this bag with money from my side hustle, and it had nothing to do with my salary. I stayed quiet and didn’t defend myself. Who knew that the next day, she would arrange for me to work overtime nonstop for three days and three nights, using her authority to step all over me and bully me, and even call it “building my stress tolerance.” On top of that, she took all the results of the project I was responsible for, collected the five-hundred-thousand-dollar bonus at the company meeting, and only tossed out one light sentence: young people, more experience is always a good thing. I still didn’t say a word. Who would have thought that my tolerance wouldn’t make her back off, but only made her humiliate me even more. At the company annual party, in front of three hundred people, she projected the medical report showing I had been hospitalized for a bleeding stomach from working overtime onto the big screen, then smiled and said— “These days’ young people are really trading their lives for money. I really don’t know what they’re after.” Under the endless laughter, I slowly stood up. “Manager Chen, since you care about me so much, let me tell you something—” “Your husband came looking for me in a hotel room last night, and he definitely didn’t comfort me like that.”

In my third month after joining the company, we had a team-building event, and I carried a bag worth thirty thousand dollars. It wasn’t a big brand, just a niche designer piece, and I had saved up for half a year from my side writing work to buy it. The team-building event was at a resort outside the city, with four round tables set up in the private room, and as soon as everyone sat down, my bag caught people’s attention. “Nina, that bag is so pretty. How much was it?” “A little over thirty thousand,” I said casually. As soon as the words left my mouth, someone across the table let out a sneer. Karen leaned back in her chair, twirling a knife and fork in her hand, and swept her eyes over me from head to toe. “Nina, how much do you make a month again?” “Five thousand.” “Five thousand a month, and a thirty-thousand-dollar bag.” She slapped the knife and fork onto the table. “Do your parents know you spend money like this?” The private room went quiet, and everyone’s eyes landed on me. I held back the urge to roll my eyes. “I earned this money myself. How I spend it is nobody else’s business.” Karen didn’t answer. She pulled out her phone, took a photo of me, and lowered her head to type. I thought she was posting in the work chat, so I didn’t care. It wasn’t until a coworker at the next table quietly told me, “Nina, Manager Chen is livestreaming. Almost three thousand people are watching you right now…” I took the phone from my coworker and looked— A livestream platform, with the title: [What do you think about a girl making five thousand a month carrying a thirty-thousand-dollar bag?] The comments were flying by fast. “Vain.” “Either her family’s loaded, or someone’s taking care of her.” “Girls these days…” My face burned at once. Karen was still smiling at the phone screen in front of the camera, “I just think young people these days don’t really know how to plan. Their salary isn’t high, but they still want to buy luxury goods. That kind of spending mindset isn’t very healthy.” I took a deep breath, handed the phone back, and said nothing. When the team-building event ended and we went back to the company, I thought that was the end of it. I didn’t expect that this was only the beginning. The next day at 8:30 a.m., I arrived at the company right on time. Karen stood by the time clock, holding a stack of files. “Nina, you’re late.” “8:29. I’m not late.” “I say you’re late, so you’re late.” She shoved the files into my arms. “This is the first draft of next week’s bid proposal. I want it from you before tonight.” I lowered my head and glanced at the thickness of the file. It was at least two hundred pages. “I’m not responsible for this project.” “You are now. What, you don’t want to do it?” I looked at her and took the files. “Fine.” When I got back to my desk and opened them, I froze— The data inside was a complete mess, the table format was wrong, and even the page numbers were off. This wasn’t a job where I just needed to work overtime and rush it. It was basically asking me to remake the whole thing from scratch. I looked up at Karen, and she was already back in the supervisor’s office, smiling at me through the glass. The meaning behind that smile was very clear: if you don’t like it, get out. I took out my phone, opened the chat box, and sent my mom a message. “Mom, when you told me to come work at your friend’s company to experience life, did you mean experience how people set traps for me?” My mom replied in seconds: “What’s wrong, baby?” I thought about it and still put the phone down. My parents’ company would eventually be mine to take over, but before that, I wanted to try relying on myself. If I couldn’t even handle one Karen, how was I supposed to manage hundreds of people later? I started organizing the files. At noon, a coworker named Jordan came over and lowered his voice. “Nina, did you piss off Manager Chen? Ever since she livestreamed your thing yesterday, the whole company chat has been talking about you.” “What are they saying?” “That you… are keeping a sugar daddy.” I almost laughed. If I had a sugar daddy, would I still be sitting here getting bullied by a department manager? “Forget it. I’m not going to bother with her.” Jordan looked like he wanted to say more, but in the end, he left. I worked overtime until ten at night and redid the entire bid proposal. When I sent it to Karen, I thought it was over. The next morning, Karen slammed the proposal onto the table in the morning meeting. “Nina, what the hell did you make? The data is all wrong, and even the company name is wrong. Where on earth are your eyes?” I picked up the bid proposal and looked at it— The company name really was wrong. But that wrong character had been handwritten, with a black ballpoint pen, and the handwriting was exactly the same as the pen on Karen’s desk. “Manager Chen, I didn’t write this. I submitted the electronic version. There’s no way it would have handwriting after printing.” “Then you’re just making excuses.” Karen kicked her chair back and stood up. “The bid proposal has a problem, the client is going to walk, and you want to take responsibility for that?” The whole room fell silent, and everyone looked at me. I clenched my fists so hard my nails dug into my palm. “Fine, I’ll redo it.” “Have it on my desk by two this afternoon.” “Okay.” I turned back to my desk and redid the proposal. At noon, I sent it to her. At 1:50, she sent it back with more than ten red marks on it. I changed them one by one. At 1:59, I turned it in. At exactly 2:00, she walked out of her office and shouted from the hallway. “Nina, you don’t need to do it anymore. I already gave it to someone else.” “What do you mean?” “What I mean is, you’re not capable enough. You’re off this project.” I stood at my desk and looked at her. Standing next to her was Jordan, and he was holding the very proposal I had just revised. Jordan didn’t dare look at me and kept his head down. Karen patted Jordan on the shoulder. “Young people need to be steady. Don’t be so impatient, and don’t use spending to show off.” She was saying that to me. I didn’t say anything. Back at my desk, I started writing my resignation letter. Halfway through, I stopped. Why? What exactly had I done wrong? I put down my phone and deleted the resignation letter.

Over the next month, Karen pushed things even further. She dumped all the hardest projects in the company on me, calling it “training.” Those were all projects nobody else could handle and had thrown away, with difficult clients, tiny budgets, and tight deadlines. I stayed silent and took them all on in silence. I ran around meeting clients during the day, revised proposals at night, and was still at the company on weekends. Even the coworkers couldn’t stand it and tried to talk me out of it: “Nina, of all people, why did you have to offend her? Her husband is the company vice president. You can’t beat them.” Her husband was the vice president? No wonder. I checked the company’s org chart. Karen’s husband was named David Brooks, and he had been in charge of operations for eight years. Karen had only been in the company for two years, and she’d gone from an ordinary employee all the way up to manager. Her promotion speed was really fast. But I didn’t have time to care about any of that. The client for my current project was a very difficult middle-aged woman. Three previous project managers had all failed to handle her. I ran around for two weeks straight, showing up every day outside her company, and finally I got to meet her. The first time we met, she rejected my whole proposal. The second time, she cursed me out for half an hour and said I clearly didn’t understand her industry. The third time, she started cursing Karen. “Your company’s manager Chen promised me a rebate when I signed the contract last time, and in the end I got nothing. Go back and tell her this deal can be done or not, but don’t think I’ll ever trust anyone in your company again.” I immediately caught the word rebate. “The rebate you’re talking about is…?” “What, playing dumb? Isn’t your company always like this? Five percent of the contract amount gets privately kicked back to the client contact. That’s exactly how she talked to me back then.” On the surface, I didn’t show any reaction, but inside, my heart was already pounding out of my chest. “You mean the person who handled you before?” “The one surnamed Chen. She said her husband was the vice president, and she got to call the shots at the company.” I silently memorized everything the client said. But I didn’t make a scene. I just kept working on the proposal. After another week of running around, the client finally gave in and signed the contract. The contract value was twelve million dollars. It was the biggest deal the company had this year. I brought the contract back and handed it to Karen, thinking she would finally shut up. I never expected that at the company meeting, in front of everyone, she would say— “This deal was landed because I laid a ton of groundwork in advance. Young people like her just do the running around. The real tough parts were all handled by me.” After she finished speaking, the whole room erupted into applause. I sat in the corner, watching Karen on the stage, holding up the contract I had spent a month getting signed, smiling with pride. The project bonus was five hundred thousand dollars, and all of it went into her pocket. I didn’t get a single cent. After the meeting, I went to her privately. “Manager Chen, I handled this project on my own from the early stages all the way to the signing. The bonus…” “The bonus?” She leaned back in her chair and rolled her eyes. “Who pays your salary? The company gave you a platform, so what more do you want? Young people shouldn’t be so petty.” “I’m not being petty. I just want to know why my work achievements got…” “Your workachievements?” she cut me off. “Is your name on the contract? Does the client even know you? You’re just a small employee on the execution side. Don’t think so highly of yourself.” I took a deep breath. “Fine, I understand.” “Then get out.” I turned and left. Back at my desk, I opened my phone and sent the client a message. “Ms. Turner, about the rebate you mentioned last time, I’d like to know the exact amount.” The client replied in seconds: “Why are you suddenly asking about that? Isn’t your company always doing it that way? That time it was five hundred thousand.” Five hundred thousand. The contract was twelve million dollars, and a five percent kickback was exactly six hundred thousand. She took the client’s rebate and pocketed my project bonus too. I started organizing the evidence. Chat logs, transfer records, project files, company accounts… I found that after David Brooks was promoted to vice president, the reimbursement process for multiple projects in the company changed. The expenses that originally needed layer after layer of approval would move insanely fast as long as they went through Karen’s department. And all those projects had one thing in common—the client contact had changed. I sorted through each clue one by one and saved them on a USB drive. Before I could make my move, Karen made hers first.

That night I worked until midnight. When I left the company, I found my car had been smashed. The windshield was shattered all over the ground, and four big words had been spray-painted in red across the car body— “Gold digger, get lost.” This was a gift from my parents when I joined the company, a three-hundred-thousand-dollar car, and I had driven it for less than three months. I stood beside the car, shaking with anger. After a while, the police came, and after checking the surveillance footage, they found that it was done by a woman wearing a hat. The footage was blurry, and her face couldn’t be seen clearly, but I recognized her instantly from her height and the way she walked. Karen. I told the police about my discovery, and they said they needed clearer evidence. The next day at work, I deliberately didn’t mention the car. When Karen saw me, she was all smiles. “Nina, did you sleep well last night?” “Pretty well.” “That’s good. Young people need to pay attention to their health and not work too hard.” I looked at her and suddenly smiled. “Manager Chen, did your husband rest well at home?” She froze for a second. “What do you mean?” “Nothing. Just asking.” She stared at me for a few seconds, then turned and left. I didn’t alert her. I kept collecting evidence. For the next week, Karen kept targeting me even harder. She canceled all my time off and made me come to the company even on weekends. She transferred me to a position where I could only copy documents and serve other people, calling it “rotation training.” She posted a screenshot in the company chat, a photo I had uploaded to social media three years ago, with the caption: “Nina’s image back then and now is pretty different. Looks like she’s really ‘grown’ a lot.” The comments below were full of “if you know, you know.” Jordan found me in private, his eyes red. “Nina, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to take your project. She forced me to. She said if I didn’t help her, she’d fire me…” “It’s fine. I know.” “You… you’re not angry?” “I only get angry at people worth it.” Jordan hesitated for a moment, then handed me a USB drive. “These are some things she told me to save. You can look at them yourself.” I opened the drive, and inside was a backup of the chat logs between Karen and David Brooks. I read through them one by one, and a cold sweat broke out on my back. Karen and David had used their positions to fake project costs, pocket client rebates, and take kickbacks from suppliers. In two years, they had siphoned at least three million dollars from the company. Part of that money was sent into accounts belonging to David’s relatives, part was laundered through procurement channels, and part was transferred directly to Karen’s personal card. And the reason the company had never found out was because Karen’s department handled a huge number of projects, the amounts were large, and with David helping cover things up in operations, finance couldn’t trace anything. I packed up all the evidence and saved three copies. One was on the USB drive, one in the cloud, and one was mailed to my mom.

On the third day, the company held its annual party. More than three hundred people filled the entire banquet hall. Karen wore a red evening gown and stood on stage hosting the event, her voice sweet and her smile polished. “Over the past year, our company has achieved excellent results. Thank you all for your hard work…” I sat in the corner, holding a glass of water, watching her. “Especially our department. This year, we completed one of the company’s core projects, with a contract value of as much as twelve million dollars…” The big screen started playing a PPT presentation, showing each department’s performance. Karen’s department was listed at the top. “This achievement couldn’t have been made without the trust of company leadership, and it also couldn’t have happened without every single person on the team’s effort…” She paused and looked toward our table. “Of course, there were also some young employees who exposed certain problems in their work. For example, unhealthy spending habits, unprofessional personal conduct, and so on. But these are all little bumps in the process of growth. I believe they will mature slowly.” Everyone’s eyes landed on me again. I knew she was talking about me. The big screen flipped to the next slide, which was an “Employee Spotlight” display. It wasn’t showing performance. It wasn’t showing work photos. It was showing my medical report. It said: stomach bleeding, hospitalized for treatment, advised to stay in bed for one week. The date was two months ago, from the time I was sent to the hospital after working until three in the morning. The hall went quiet. Standing on stage, Karen smiled and said, “These days’ young people are really trading their lives for money. I really don’t know what they’re after. They push their bodies beyond their limits to chase a lifestyle they can’t actually afford, and in the end, the one who suffers is still themselves.” Some people in the audience laughed along, and some lowered their heads without saying a word. I looked at the medical report on the big screen for a long time. Then I stood up. The chair made a harsh screech, and everyone turned to look at me. Karen looked at me too, her smile unchanged. “Nina, do you have something to say?” “Yes.” I walked onto the stage and took the microphone from her. She stepped aside naturally, thinking I was about to say something about thanking the company. I turned around and faced everyone. “Manager Chen, since you care about me so much, let me tell you something.” “What is it?” “Your husband came looking for me in a hotel room last night, and he definitely didn’t say that to comfort me.” The entire room went dead silent. The smile on Karen’s face froze. I looked at her. “You thought I didn’t know?” “What are you talking about?” “I’m saying your husband, David Brooks, asked me to meet him at a hotel next to the company at eight last night and said he wanted to talk about ‘work arrangements.’” “You’re lying!” “I have the chat logs on my phone. Want to see them?” I pulled my phone out of my pocket, opened the chat screen, and handed it to her. On the screen, under David Brooks’s profile picture, it clearly said— “Nina, are you free tomorrow night? Let’s talk about your next step. I’ll pick the place. It’ll be the hotel next to the company, and I’ll send you the room number later.” Time: yesterday at 3:00 p.m. Karen’s face changed. Her hands started to shake. “This… this can’t be…” “You can call him and ask.” Karen pulled out her phone and dialed David Brooks’s number. She turned on speakerphone. “Hello? What is it?” David’s voice came through the receiver, carrying a hint of irritation. “Did you ask Nina to meet you at a hotel last night?” Silence for three seconds. “Who told you that?” “Did you or did you not?” “She’s lying! I didn’t!” “Then check your phone. You messaged her at three yesterday afternoon.” Silence again. This time, it lasted a long time. There were more than three hundred people in the room, and no one said a word. Karen hung up and looked up at me, her eyes red. “You… you did this on purpose?” “I didn’t do it on purpose. I did it deliberately.” I put my phone away and turned to face everyone. “Manager Chen and Vice President Brooks have more than one issue. Over the past two years, they have siphoned more than three million dollars from the company through their positions.” The crowd exploded. “Bullshit!” Karen rushed over to grab the microphone. I dodged her and kept going. “I have three million dollars’ worth of transaction records, chat screenshots, and client testimony, all backed up.” “Also, after the company’s travel reimbursement process was simplified, every project handled by Karen’s department had costs inflated by an average of fifteen percent. Finance can verify all of it.” Karen went insane. She lunged at me and slapped me across the face. I didn’t dodge. The sharp sound spread through the entire hall. Security rushed up and pulled her away. She was still yelling, her voice sharp and harsh. “You bitch! You seduced my husband and now you’re slandering me! I’m going to sue you!” I held my face and looked down at the crowd. “Call the police.”

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For this trip, Ethan Harper bought tickets for three people again. Besides us, there was also his “bro” Chloe Lynn. Seeing my face darken, Ethan Harper smoothly threw out that same old line: “Don’t get the wrong idea.” “I’ve known Chloe for so many years, and if anything was going to happen, it would’ve happened a long time ago.” That line again. When Chloe moved into the apartment upstairs, Ethan Harper said the same thing, and as a result, he went to her place to play games every day and disappeared for hours. “You don’t play games anyway.” “It’s not like I’m supposed to have zero time for myself just because I’m dating you.” He even wanted to bring Chloe along for our anniversary. “We’re all friends, so I can’t just leave her home alone as a single girl, right?” Even when I was choosing a wedding dress, he insisted on dragging Chloe along. “Didn’t you say I have straight-guy taste?” “Chloe’s a girl, so let her help you choose.” I turned my head and looked at Ethan Harper, who was still chatting with Chloe on his phone with great enthusiasm. My heart sank lower and lower. “Ethan Harper, either you keep your distance from Chloe, or we break up.” “You choose.” 1. Ethan Harper finally stopped typing and frowned at me. “Stop making a scene here.” “I’ve known Chloe for seven or eight years, and if something was going to happen, it would’ve happened already, so why would it wait until now?” That line again! I couldn’t take it anymore, and with red eyes, I pressed Ethan Harper for an answer. “Ethan Harper, I want you to choose.” Ethan Harper looked at me as tears fell from my eyes, then pursed his lips impatiently. He was just about to speak when his phone rang. Chloe’s laughing voice came from the other end. “Hurry up and come play.” “We’re all waiting for you!” Ethan Harper immediately got up, wedging the phone against his shoulder as he changed shoes, and casually brushed me off. “Stop crying, and we’ll talk about it when I get back.” “I’m going to hang out with my friends for a while.” The door slammed shut with a bang. I froze in place, watching Ethan Harper disappear, and my tears fell straight down. It was so familiar. It seemed like every time Chloe appeared, Ethan Harper would always leave me behind. He couldn’t remember the dates of my period, but he remembered to stay with Chloe all night when she had cramps. He complained that I took too long shopping, but he could spend an entire day with Chloe picking out keyboards in a newly opened store. He called me delicate, but he remembered to bring Chloe a sun umbrella when he went out. … Words can lie, but actions don’t. Belatedly, I realized that Ethan Harper had actually already made his choice. I was the one who hadn’t caught on. I wiped my tears messily and sent a message to the pinned avatar on my phone. [Let’s break up.] Then I put down my phone, went into the bedroom to pack my things, and prepared to move out. I had just zipped my suitcase shut when Ethan Harper rushed down from upstairs. A gaming headset was still hanging around his neck, and his face was full of irritation at being interrupted. “Sophia Miller, I really don’t get it.” “It’s just one extra person on a trip.” “She’s not even getting in your way, so what exactly are you mad about?” “Can you stop being so controlling?” I zipped up my suitcase, stood up, and looked at Ethan Harper. “Ethan Harper, you’re dating me, not Chloe.” “Can you stop bringing her into everything?” “Dates, movies, and now even our trip—you have to bring her too.” “Have you ever considered how I feel as your girlfriend?” Ethan Harper gave a mocking laugh, and every word was full of dissatisfaction. “I’m still doing it for you!” “One minute, you say I have straight-guy taste and take bad photos.” “The next, you say I don’t give you emotional support when we go shopping.” “So now I found a girl to keep you company, and that’s still not okay?” “It’s not like I’m supposed to lose all normal social life after I start dating you, right?” Just as the two of us were arguing fiercely, Chloe came over. She grabbed my hand as I was about to leave, her eyes slightly red as she tried to smooth things over. “Sophia, Ethan.” “Stop fighting, you two.” “At the end of the day, this is all my fault.” “I just saw that I’d never been to that place either, so I thought I’d tag along and have fun with you guys.” “I won’t go anymore, so you two go have fun.” “Don’t let me make things unpleasant between you two.” I ignored Chloe. I pushed away the hand she used to stop me, lifted the suitcase handle, and tried to leave. But even though I hadn’t used much force, Chloe suddenly fell to the floor, clutching her knee and crying out in pain. I instinctively turned around to help her. Smack! Ethan Harper suddenly slapped the back of my hand away, and he used so much force that I sucked in a breath from the pain. “Stay away, because I’m not indulging your temper.” As he spoke, Ethan Harper crouched down to help Chloe and looked up to glare at me. “If you want to leave, then leave!” “I just don’t understand.” “Does dating you mean I can’t even have friends?” “Didn’t you want me to choose?” “Then I choose Chloe!” 2. Ethan Harper’s glare was fierce, like I was his enemy. I opened my mouth, but I was already too disappointed to say anything. So I simply turned around and dragged my suitcase away. Behind me, I could still vaguely hear Chloe’s tearful voice. “Ethan, don’t worry about me!” “It’s fine if it hurts a little.” “Hurry and go get Sophia back.” “You two are about to get married!” Ethan Harper gave a cold snort. “I’m not chasing her!” “If she wants to make trouble, then let her.” “I really can’t stand her spoiled-princess temper anymore!” “If I don’t teach her a lesson now, what will happen after we get married?” I listened in silence. I thought of the sweet words Ethan Harper had said when he first pursued me. “I just like spoiling you.” “To me, your temper is just like a kitten acting cute.” People really do change. My tears fell harder, and I quickened my pace as I left. Later that night, Ethan’s mother called me. “Sophia, did you and Ethan have a fight?” “I heard you even moved out of the house you were supposed to live in after the wedding.” “You two are about to get married, so what can’t be discussed properly?” I took a deep breath and corrected Ethan’s mother. “Auntie, we didn’t have a fight.” “We broke up.” “We’re about to get married, but if he still thinks about hanging out with another woman every day, then there’s no need for this marriage.” “You should know very well what’s going on with Chloe.” “Ethan Harper and I really are impossible now.” Ethan’s mother understood, but she only let out a long sigh. “I know that Chloe, and I don’t like her either.” “Ethan really has no sense of boundaries.” “I’ll talk to him properly and make him apologize to you.” “Please forgive him just this once.” I didn’t pick up that line of conversation. I only asked Ethan’s mother one question in return. “Auntie, do you still remember how many times Ethan Harper and I have reached this point because of Chloe?” The other side was left speechless by my question. So I answered it for Ethan’s mother myself. “The ninth time.” “I’m tired, and I don’t have the energy to fight anymore.” Actually, the worst time we fought before, Ethan Harper and Chloe cut ties completely. Ethan Harper blamed me. Every time we had an argument, he would glare at me like he did today and viciously demand: “I already cut Chloe off for you, so what else do you want from me?” I had nothing to say. So I agreed to let him make up with Chloe. But what happened in the end? They only got worse. I didn’t say anything more and hung up on Ethan’s mother. At dawn, Ethan Harper sent me a message. [Chloe refunded her ticket, so are you satisfied now?] Seeing that I still didn’t reply, he sent another message half an hour later. [My mom already lectured me.] [I know I was wrong, so come home.] “We’ll go on the trip tomorrow.” I still didn’t reply, and instead, I blocked Ethan Harper. Early the next morning, Ethan Harper knocked hard on my door. When I opened the door, Ethan Harper’s gloomy face appeared, and his voice was pressed down with anger. “You blocked me?” I nodded. “Yes, because we’ve already broken up.” “Don’t come bother me again.” Ethan Harper hadn’t expected me to be so straightforward. He helplessly suppressed his anger and coaxed me gently for a few lines. “Sophia, I already know I was wrong.” “Don’t be mad at me anymore.” He leaned forward and tried to reach out to pull me. “Come on, wasn’t Miami the place you always wanted to go?” “Hurry and pack your things, or we’ll miss the flight.” “I promise you, this time it’ll just be the two of us.” But as soon as he finished speaking, Chloe’s crisp voice came from downstairs. “Ethan, we’re going to miss the flight!” “Hurry and get Sophia to come with us!” 3. Ethan Harper’s hand froze in midair. I also followed the sound and looked down. At the villa entrance, Chloe was sitting in the passenger seat, smiling up at me. She waved at me smugly and provocatively, then shouted: “Sophia, hurry up.” “Otherwise, it’ll just be Ethan and me going on the trip!” I withdrew my gaze and looked at Ethan Harper just like that. He explained to me awkwardly: “Refunding the ticket would cost hundreds in fees, so it would be too wasteful.” “Chloe and I talked it over, and in the end, we didn’t refund it.” “But don’t worry.” “This time, her hotel and itinerary are completely separate.” “She definitely won’t bother us.” I tugged at the corner of my mouth, finding it beyond absurd. “Ethan Harper, do you even believe what you’re saying?” “Last time we went to Europe, you said the same thing.” “But as soon as we landed, didn’t Chloe say either her original hotel had no rooms and insist on squeezing into our suite, or that she was scared and unsafe alone and had to follow us everywhere?” “And last time in Iceland, she said she didn’t bring enough warm clothes, so you gave her my down jacket and let me freeze…” “Enough!” Ethan Harper couldn’t listen anymore and shouted at me in anger from embarrassment. “Do you think being so passive-aggressive is fun?” “I already apologized to you, and I saved your ticket, so what else do you want?” “Are you planning to force me to cut Chloe off again and revolve around you every day before you’ll be happy?” As he spoke, Ethan Harper simply withdrew the hand he had planned to use to hold mine. He looked at me coldly. “I’ll ask you one last time.” “Are you going or not?” “No.” After saying that, I directly shut the door. Ethan Harper’s furious voice came from outside the door. “Fine, fine, fine!” “If you’re not going, I’ll go with Chloe.” “Sophia Miller, don’t regret it!” The sound of footsteps gradually faded. Listening to it, I couldn’t even feel angry anymore and only felt relieved. For several days in a row, almost everything on Ins was Chloe’s updates whenever I opened it. She posted one nine-photo grid after another of herself and Ethan Harper. The two of them smiled brightly at the camera with intimate expressions, like a couple deeply in love. Some mutual friends we both knew also kindly reminded her in the comments. [Ethan is about to get married.] [Chloe, isn’t it kind of inappropriate for you to drag him out on a trip?] Chloe replied with a snickering sticker, and every word was full of smugness. [Ethan insisted that I go.] [He said things have been too suffocating at home lately, and it’s more relaxing to hang out with me.] [We asked Sophia too, but she was the one who didn’t want to come.] [She’s still having a fight with Ethan.] I knew Chloe had posted this deliberately for me to see. I glanced at it coldly, then swiped past it. We had already broken up, so what was there to care about? By the fourth day, probably because there had been no movement from me, Ethan Harper finally couldn’t hold back anymore. He couldn’t resist using Chloe’s phone to send me a voice message. The attached picture was of a pretty bracelet. [Sophia, are you still mad at me?] [I know I was wrong.] [Even while I was out having fun this time, I was thinking about you.] [Look, I brought you a bracelet.] [Pretty, right?] I didn’t reply. A moment later, Chloe sent me another voice message. This time, it was her own voice, and her tone carried deliberate showing off. “Sophia, Ethan really cares about you.” “He was originally thinking of buying one for me.” “The sales associate said there was a discount if he bought two, so he immediately thought of buying one for you too.” “It’s just that mine is a little more expensive, and yours is the cheap one.” “Don’t mind it.” I had the speaker on. Noah Carter, who was sitting across from me, heard some of it and frowned. “Is that your friend?” “That’s a really disrespectful way to talk to someone.” I smiled indifferently and blocked Chloe too. “No.” “She’s just… my ex-boyfriend’s unofficial side chick?” “Something like that.” “Sorry for wasting your time, so I’ll pay for this meal.” “You’ve probably noticed.” “I just broke up, so I’m not really ready to start another relationship so soon.” “I only agreed to come sit down because my mom has been pushing me too hard these past few days.” As I spoke, I got ready to take out my phone and pay. Noah Carter pressed my hand down. “I already paid.” “It’s fine, because I have plenty of time to waste slowly.” “When it comes to getting a wife, everyone relies on their own ability.” “After all, the wife is right here, so whoever has the ability gets to marry her.” 4. The night Ethan Harper and Chloe came back from their trip was the class reunion we had agreed on long ago. When I arrived, the private room was buzzing with conversation. I heard someone ask Ethan Harper: “Ethan, when exactly are you and Sophia having the wedding banquet?” “We’re all getting impatient waiting!” Ethan Harper tapped the gift box in his hand and replied carelessly: “Let’s wait a little longer.” “Sophia has been fighting with me lately.” “It’s just because Chloe and I are close, and she got jealous.” “She hasn’t even been seeing me lately.” “Look, didn’t I bring a little gift to coax her?” A more sensible classmate reminded Ethan Harper with a few words. “Ethan, if you ask me, you’re about to get married.” “You really should settle down and keep some distance from other women.” Sure enough, it was exactly as I had guessed. Ethan Harper immediately shot back the next second: “Why are you so sensitive too?” “I’ve known Chloe for seven or eight years.” “We’re seriously just buddies, and if something was going to happen, it would’ve happened a long time ago.” Chloe immediately echoed him too, her voice sweet and coquettish. “Exactly, Ethan and I are totally innocent.” “We could share a blanket and still just chat all night.” “Don’t talk nonsense, okay?” “When Sophia gets here later, you all have to help us say some nice things and tell her to stop making trouble.” The private room burst into noisy laughter again. I pushed open the door. The laughter stopped abruptly, and for a moment, there was dead silence. Ethan Harper hurriedly stood up and offered the gift box to me like a treasure, saying: “I’m sorry, Sophia.” “In front of our old classmates, I’ll apologize to you properly.” “I wasn’t careful with my words that day and made you angry.” “This is a little gift for you.” “Chloe and I really are just good friends.” “Can you stop being mad?” Chloe, who was beside him, also stood up. Today, she had deliberately worn a round-necked top, and around her neck was the necklace Ethan Harper had bought for her. It was bright and obvious, like a provocation. “Sophia, just forgive Ethan.” “If you keep making a fuss, then Ethan and I will have no choice but to cut ties.” “You shouldn’t be the kind of person who won’t let Ethan have even one good friend after he starts dating, right?” The two of them worked together perfectly, as if they had suffered some enormous grievance and were humoring me. I only found it absurd, and my brows tightened deeply. Looking at the two of them, I asked in genuine confusion: “Why are you two telling me all this?” “I’ve already said it many times.” “Ethan Harper and I have already broken up.” “And now, I already have a boyfriend.” As soon as I finished speaking, the door of the private room was pushed open by Noah Carter. He naturally walked to my side, stretched out his long arm, and firmly wrapped it around my shoulders. Then he smiled and said: “Sorry, I was late because of parking.” “Let me introduce myself.” “I’m Noah Carter, Sophia’s boyfriend.”

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My husband was away on a business trip, and after I recovered from my injuries, I secretly went behind his back to driving school to learn how to drive. A young female student accidentally hit me, and she looked at me with disgust. “You’re already this old, and your eyesight is this bad. Why are you still trying to learn how to drive?” The girl was beautiful, and she was the first to make a big deal out of it, so the instructor and the other students all took her side. My two toes were shattered in a crush fracture, and I was in unbearable pain, so I insisted on calling the police. The girl’s mother rushed over and slapped a card into my hand. “Isn’t this just about money?” “Is ten grand enough?” “Take it as charity! My monthly allowance is over a million, and I can’t be bothered to argue with someone like you.” There was a time when I would not have cared about this little bit of money. But after my car accident injury and the revocation of my driver’s license, I had been resting at home all this time. The company collapsed during that period, and my husband alone was responsible for the family’s expenses and debts, while there was no telling where my daughter’s college tuition would come from. I gritted my teeth and reached down to pick up the card from the ground, but the girl’s mother stepped on my hand. “If you want the money, apologize to my daughter first, and promise you’ll never show up in front of her again and bother her.” I was so humiliated I didn’t know how to answer. Just then, another figure hurried over to the girl. “Mia, who’s trying to scam you?” “Dad’s got your back!” The man followed the girl’s gaze and looked at me. The next second, the cold rage on his face drained away, leaving him deathly pale. My humiliating gaze turned to shock. How had my husband, who was supposed to be on a business trip out of town, suddenly come back and become someone else’s father?

I couldn’t feel the pain in my shattered toes anymore, and I struggled to my feet. “Ryan?” “Didn’t you say your manager was bullying you and sent you away on a month-long business trip?” A week ago, when he left the house, he was wearing a faded suit and driving a used car that had been flooded. Now, he was wearing an expensive custom-tailored suit. A black business Mercedes was parked in front of the driving school. The girl’s mother pouted and clung to his arm. “Ryan, who is this woman? Do you know her?” “She tried to extort money from Mia. I gave her ten grand, and she took it.” “I was just waiting for her to apologize to Mia.” Ryan avoided my gaze and turned to the woman beside him, handing over a beautifully wrapped gift in his hand. “I’m pretty familiar with her.” “Summer, take our daughter to the car first. I’ll handle this.” “Be good and don’t make a scene.” “I promise, once our daughter gets her license, I’ll take you both to Hawaii, okay?” He coaxed her and kissed her again, and only then did the woman take the girl and leave. I stared at them in a daze, my teeth clenched, my whole body cold to the bone. How could I still not understand? My husband of twenty years had had a child with another woman! I felt sorry for him working so hard that I couldn’t even bear to take painkillers, yet he gave another woman a million dollars a month as spending money! I trembled and tried to say something, but my throat felt like it had been tightly gripped, and not a single sound came out. “Fine.” “Since this has already happened, I admit I did something that wronged you.” Ryan had already calmed down, and his face carried a trace of relief and release. “But your company really did go bankrupt before. In these past few years, I built everything back up on my own, and the assets are under my parents’ names, so it has nothing to do with you.” “If you want a divorce, you won’t get a single cent.” “If you don’t want to divorce and keep living with me, I can make sure you and our daughter have a comfortable life.” At the end, he took my hand and let out a soft sigh. “Grace, at our age, there are a lot of things we really don’t need to overthink.” I looked at the husband in front of me in disbelief. I couldn’t believe that the man who had insisted on wiping me down, washing my feet, and taking care of me when I was injured, making me think he was the one who loved me most in the world, could actually face me so calmly and so coldly after I found out he was cheating on me. I wiped away the tears that had somehow spilled onto my face and suddenly laughed. “Ryan, you can’t even be bothered to lie to me a little, can you?”

The black business Mercedes in front of the driving school rolled down its window, and the girl said she was hungry, urging Ryan impatiently. Ryan picked up the card from the ground and stuffed it into my pocket. “Go to the hospital and get checked out first, and calm down while you’re at it. Think it over carefully.” “When I get home tonight, I’ll explain everything to you and make it up to you.” With that, he waved happily toward the other side. The vivid look on his face was like a child who had just gotten the toy he wanted. My past, my whole life up to that point, came crashing down all at once…… “Grace, I found that woman’s name and address……” Three hours later, my best friend gave me a name, Summer Reed. And an address for a housing complex. I took a taxi there, and along the way, I seemed to have gone crazy, replaying my past with Ryan over and over in my mind. We met at nineteen, and by twenty we were already married. My family was well-off, and Ryan was capable. The two of us quickly found an opportunity, got rich, and started a company. We lived a happy, ordinary life. Until four years ago, on my thirty-sixth birthday, everything changed. I was at a gathering with family and friends when I got a call from the company secretary and learned that Ryan had gotten into trouble, gotten into a fight with someone at a bar, and been beaten up. I was so anxious that I immediately drove over. But because I was too emotional, I ended up in a car accident on the way. My driver’s license was revoked, and I lay in bed for four years before my injuries healed. And during those four years, the company went bankrupt, and Ryan was forced to take odd jobs, coming home late every day and working himself to exhaustion. Even so, he still took careful care of me. I couldn’t get out of bed, and he fed me, washed my feet, and wiped me down, day after day without change. I felt so sorry for him. So once I recovered, I immediately went to get my driver’s license, thinking that even driving for a rideshare app would help ease some of Ryan’s pressure. But how had he suddenly ended up with a daughter? He had already turned things around, so why was he still watching me and our daughter suffer? I wanted all of this to be a nightmare, but even when I pressed hard on my shattered toes, the pain still didn’t wake me up. I didn’t understand! If he didn’t love me, why did he need to keep up this act with me for so long? “We’re here—” The driver pulled over, and I looked at the upscale housing complex in the city center. Very quickly, I noticed that right across from the complex was a bar that looked extremely familiar. It was clearly the exact place the secretary had sent me the location for four years ago! I went mad looking for people to ask what had happened in that bar on the night of my thirty-sixth birthday. It wasn’t until nightfall that I learned that when I drove there to find Ryan, he was fighting over Summer and got beaten up. After learning the truth, I felt like a joke! I don’t know how I made it to eleven o’clock. When Ryan came back, I was sitting dazed on the flower bed downstairs, my eyes completely numb. “Grace, are you crazy?” When he saw me, he panicked and rushed over to grab me. “Your foot is injured this badly. Why didn’t you go to the hospital?” I shook my head blankly. “Ryan, I don’t hurt.” “That car accident four years ago made me stop being afraid of any injury.” He looked away guiltily. “Why are you bringing that up all of a sudden?” “I didn’t tell you to come find me. You were the one who got into the car accident, which caused problems with the company’s business and eventually made it go bankrupt.” “And I still took care of you for four years. Isn’t that enough?” I smiled dazedly. “Ryan, aren’t you the one who’s mixed up?” “I’m your wife, not some mistress who can’t be shown in public!”

“You think taking care of me isn’t something you should do?” As I laughed, I bit down hard on my teeth. “Or did you change your heart, feel like I’m not good enough, and think that taking care of me is your way of making up for me so you can feel like you still have a conscience?” He laughed once, then suddenly let go of my hand. “Grace, Mia is twenty-one.” I was struck like I’d been hit by lightning. Twenty-one? Three years older than my daughter? That meant…… “She was already born before you married me?” Ryan lit a cigarette. “Yes, I never changed my heart. The person I’ve always loved has been Summer.” “That year, she got sick, and we were broke. If we didn’t have money, neither she nor the child would have survived.” “Just then I noticed you were interested in me, and your family was well-off, so I married you and saved their lives.” “So the reason I took care of you wasn’t to make up for anything. It was to repay you for saving their lives.” “The money I made over the past two years was only enough for them to use, so I couldn’t spare any, which was why I pretended to be poor.” “Now my business is starting to recover again, and it’s enough for you and our daughter to go back to the life you had four years ago—” I couldn’t bear to listen anymore. It felt like icy needles were stabbing every pore in my body, and the pain tore me apart! I completely broke down and grabbed his collar. “What am I then?” “So all these years, you’ve just been acting with me? Am I just a tool in your eyes?” “Ryan, how could you……” “How could you do this to me!” My sorrowful roar made him frown tightly. He held me like he was trying to comfort me, but his words were cold and harsh. “I haven’t done anything wrong to you.” “These years, I’ve fulfilled the responsibilities of a husband. In the future, I’ll keep playing the role of your husband and the role of Lily’s father.” “You’re already forty, and your health is not good. Be rational.” “Pretending not to know anything is the best choice for you.” My body stiffened. I no longer felt anger toward him. All that was left was deep fear! I shoved him away and felt like I no longer knew him. He was so strange that the hair all over my body stood on end! “No!” “Ryan, you are not my husband.” “Divorce!” “I’m divorcing you—” “Ring ring ring—” The sudden ringtone cut off my words. It was my daughter, Emily Miller, calling. I stepped back several paces, putting a wide distance between myself and Ryan before I dared to answer. My daughter’s cheerful laugh came from the other end. “Mom, I’m off work!” “I got last month’s paycheck. It’s three thousand bucks! I’ll take you out to eat tomorrow!” I suddenly couldn’t breathe through the bitter ache in my chest. My daughter was eighteen this year, and after getting into college, she found a summer job because our family wasn’t well-off, working overtime every night until eleven or twelve. But Ava, the daughter of Ryan and Summer, had clothes on her body that cost enough to cover my daughter’s tuition for four years. I dug my nails into my palm until it bled before I finally forced out a shaky “Okay” and hung up. Ryan, who had just put out his cigarette, walked toward me. “Grace, be rational. After the divorce, can you afford Lily’s life?” “You’re like this already, and you can’t even take care of yourself. How are you going to take care of her?”

I stared blankly at Ryan. There was so much I wanted to say, but when the words reached my lips, all that came out was a bitter laugh. “Ryan, do you really think of her as your daughter?” “Do you even care about her?” Ryan had developed anemia caused by bone marrow failure, and every six months he needed a stem cell transplant from our daughter. That kind of pain, worse than death, had already been endured by our daughter several times. Yet she had never once complained. What she got in return was Ryan’s deception, and him not caring at all! In the first month after she started working, our daughter was bullied by customers and cried so hard she nearly broke down. The restaurant owner didn’t care. I couldn’t get out of bed. When I called Ryan, he only gave a perfunctory reply that he was busy. But when Ava had hit me and was unharmed herself, Ryan rushed over in a panic at the very first moment. Facing my question now, there wasn’t even a trace of guilt in his eyes, and his voice was flat. “Of course I care about her. From now on, I’ll cover her tuition. Whatever Mia has, she’ll have too.” “Of course, the premise is that you need to behave.” “You know what should be told to her and what shouldn’t.” With that, he turned and went upstairs. I was left standing there, nearly numb, unable even to move my feet. I didn’t know what I should do anymore. I had nothing now, and my foot was injured. How was I supposed to make money and take care of Lily? I could get a divorce. I could endure a hard life. But Lily could have a better life. What right did I have to drag her through suffering with me? I couldn’t breathe again. In my despair, my best friend called again. “Grace, everything’s been checked.” “That bastard Ryan got together with Summer when they were freshmen! But that daughter of his doesn’t seem to be their biological child.” “I found some of Ava’s hospital records, and her blood type doesn’t match that pair of scum……..” My best friend had known me since childhood. She came from a very good family, and she was the only person I could trust right now. She would never lie to me. Which meant Ava was not Ryan’s biological daughter? Just as that thought surfaced, I saw my daughter’s tired figure. She was still wearing her restaurant uniform, too exhausted to even stand up straight. But after seeing me, she forced herself to perk up because she was afraid I would worry. Then when she noticed the injury on my foot, her eyes went red with panic. “Mom, why is there so much blood on your shoe?” I didn’t even have time to care about my own injury. I forced myself to stay strong and took my daughter’s hand as we went upstairs. “Lily, I have something very important to tell you.” “Let’s go home first and see your dad.” I couldn’t pretend to know nothing and keep staying with Ryan. I had to tell Ryan that Lily was his only daughter. That way, even if I divorced him, he wouldn’t abandon Lily and would give her a better life. That was the best solution I could think of. But when we got home, before I could even say anything, Ryan was already going to take our daughter to the hospital. “Lily, my bone marrow problem is getting worse. In the future, I may need a stem cell transplant every three months, so you need to be mentally prepared.” My daughter didn’t refuse, but she said somewhat awkwardly, “Dad, can we go to the hospital in a few days? I’m sick lately. I feel awful, and I’m a little too weak.” Ryan was still smiling, but his brows had already begun to knit together slightly. “Be good, Lily. Dad has to keep traveling tomorrow, and I might not be back for a month. We can’t delay it.” I could not bear to listen any longer, so I grabbed Ryan and took him back into the bedroom, locking the door behind us. “Do you even have a heart?” “You’re not going on a business trip. You’re taking Summer and her daughter to Hawaii! Can’t this wait a few days?” “Lily said she’s sick. Don’t you know how painful stem cell transplants are?” Ryan’s face was full of impatience. “She’s my daughter. What’s the big deal if she suffers a little for me?” “Mia’s body is weak. Only Lily can help me.” “I’ll give her enough compensation.” At that, my whole body began shaking violently on its own, and my mind buzzed. So Ryan wanted to keep Lily not out of fatherly love, but simply because he needed her stem cells! He had no feelings for us at all, and even the fact that Lily was his only daughter would not change that! Hatred surged to the extreme in my heart, and instead I calmed down. “Okay, Lily can go with you to the hospital.” “But it’s too late today. We’ll talk about it tomorrow.” After Ryan reluctantly agreed, he went to bed and rest. I couldn’t lie down next to him, so I went to my daughter’s room. Then I explained everything to her through the night, packed our things, and took her away from this house. The next morning, Ryan called. “Grace, did you take Lily away?” “If you keep causing trouble like this, aren’t you afraid you’ll use up all my patience and end up with nothing?” Looking at my daughter beside me, who had cried until her eyes were swollen and still had not come out of the grief, my voice was left with only bone-deep coldness. “Ryan, from now on, my daughter and I have nothing to do with you anymore, and we won’t do anything for you ever again.” He let out a cold laugh on the other end. “You’re threatening me?” “Grace, you know Lily isn’t my only daughter.” “I don’t need her to ease my bone marrow disease, but without me, you two won’t even have a place to live!” Is that so? Then we’ll see. I looked at the bright morning sun on the horizon and hung up decisively.

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On our wedding anniversary, I personally went to the hotel penthouse to catch my husband cheating. Dominic Vance was leaning back on the sofa, his arm wrapped around his young mistress, casually lighting a cigarette. “Elena, you’re five years older than me. You should have known you couldn’t keep me forever. Aren’t you tired of trying to control me all these years?” The young girl snuggled into his chest, giggling. “Elena, sweetie, an old woman should know when to give up. Men just prefer younger, fresher girls.” As soon as she finished, the room erupted into laughter. I smiled too. For five years, I fought his family to secure his inheritance and put him in the CEO chair. But he dumped all the company’s burdens on me, traveling the world with one fresh young face after another. Every time I caught him, his excuse was always the same: “I’m still young, I haven’t had enough fun yet.” Over the years, I didn’t know how many of his messes I cleaned up, or how many scandalous headlines I buried. Everyone said I was hopelessly in love with Dominic, to tolerate him to this extent. But they didn’t know that my absolute tolerance for him came entirely from his face—he looked exactly like his older brother, my late first love. I spent five years weaving a dream for myself. But now, it was time to wake up.

Seeing the smile on my face, the laughter in the room stopped. Dominic put away his smug grin, frowning as he crushed his cigarette in the ashtray. “How many bodyguards did you bring this time? It’s always the same trick, Elena. It’s getting boring.” On the way to the hotel, I had actually planned on that. I even brought a dozen security guards. But right now, I just felt exhausted. “If you’ve had your fun, tone it down. I’m only here to warn you: don’t push it too far.” I took the photos out of my bag and threw them at him. They were all intimate pictures of him and Chloe Sinclair. “Today is our wedding anniversary. Remember to come home tonight.” Dominic glanced at the photos, a flash of embarrassment crossing his face. The next second, he pulled Chloe closer by her waist, lifted her chin, and kissed her deeply. His voice was low and gravelly. “Got it, wife. Chloe and I still have some business to finish. Don’t let the door hit you on the way out.” The spoiled rich heirs in the room cheered and clapped. I walked out of the noisy room with cold indifference. At 8 PM, I dragged my exhausted body back to our mansion in the Hamptons. A candlelight dinner was ready. To create a romantic atmosphere, my assistant had even prepared a heart-shaped cake. No matter how wild Dominic acted outside, he always made sure to come home for dinner on our anniversary. Not because he loved me, but because we had to take photos to post on Snapchat and Instagram, pretending we were deeply in love to quiet the media rumors. But tonight, I waited until 10 PM, and Dominic still wasn’t home. Just as I was about to call him, Chloe sent a message using Dominic’s Snapchat account. [Chloe: Dominic is watching the city lights with me. He’s not coming home tonight, sweetie.] Next was a video. The lighting was dim and the quality was blurry, only showing two tangled bodies. But their heavy breathing was crystal clear. The girl’s voice was sickeningly sweet. “Dominic, today is your anniversary. Won’t your wife be angry?” Dominic let out a low, breathless laugh. “She’s a thirty-year-old woman. Does she really think she owns me?” Over the past five years, I had received too many provocations like this. Dominic always allowed his mistresses to use his phone to torment me. But missing our wedding anniversary for a mistress—this was a first. If this were the past, I would have immediately sent men to drag him back. But this time, I set my phone down and quietly finished my cold steak. Halfway through, my phone suddenly buzzed wildly. Instagram was blowing up. Paparazzi had caught Dominic and Chloe kissing passionately on a luxury yacht on the Hudson River. Usually at this time, the trending topics would be about our anniversary and how perfect we were. But tonight, it was about Dominic’s blatant affair on our wedding anniversary. The city lights of Manhattan reflected on the dark water. Dominic held Chloe’s face, kissing her with deep emotion. Everyone was waiting to see me humiliate myself. Some internet trolls even tagged my account. My assistant, Sarah, called me in a panic. “Elena, should we take down the trending topics?” In the past, I would have already contacted the PR team to make the news vanish. Today, I hesitated. I stared at the looping video of them kissing on my screen, and said calmly, “No need.” A sudden wave of nausea hit my stomach. I covered my mouth, ran to the bathroom, and threw up. When I looked up, my face in the mirror was as pale as paper. I pulled a pregnancy test report from my bag, tore it into pieces, and threw it in the trash. This baby was a complete accident. I couldn’t keep it, and I didn’t want to. Cold tears slid down my face. I clutched my flat stomach and cried silently in the empty, massive house. Since marrying into the Vance family, I rarely cried. I couldn’t afford to. In everyone’s eyes, Elena Sterling was a ruthless, powerful businesswoman who controlled the Vance empire. But I felt pain, too. And because of one person, I had nearly lost my mind trying to fulfill his dying wish. Now, my promise to him was fulfilled. I had no reason to stay.

The scandal stayed online all night, making our crumbling marriage the talk of the town. When Dominic finally returned, I was just about to leave for the office. He grabbed my wrist with terrifying force. “Elena, why didn’t you bury the news yesterday?” His voice was filled with rage. “Chloe was called a homewrecker all night! People are blocking her door, and she can’t even leave her house!” I shook off his grip and rubbed my sore wrist. “I warned you yesterday not to go too far. You didn’t listen.” Dominic looked at me in disbelief. “Elena, since when did you become so jealous? You were never like this.” Yes. In the past, I always cleaned up his messes behind his back. It made him believe that my tolerance was a given. I glanced at my watch. “The board meeting is at ten. You have two hours. Don’t be late.” I turned to walk toward the door. But before I could take a step, Dominic slammed me against the wall, pinning my wrists. His breath was heavy, his eyes burning with an emotion I couldn’t read. “Elena,” he muttered. I froze. For years, he only called me by my full name when he was angry. The only other time he called me so softly was when he was drunk, kissing me while whispering how much he hated me. “Don’t be greedy, Elena. Since you chose the Vance empire, don’t expect to ever have my heart!” He let go of my wrists and warned me coldly, “Don’t touch Chloe. You have no right to control me.” Dominic turned and walked upstairs. He didn’t see me leaning against the wall behind him, dry-heaving in pain. Looking at his tall, straight back, sometimes I really couldn’t tell dream from reality. The first time I met Dominic was on a rainy day. Julian Vance had just died. The greedy uncles of the Vance family had kicked nineteen-year-old Dominic out of the family estate to steal his inheritance. The teenager stood in the pouring rain, holding his brother’s urn, letting the rain soak him completely. I watched him from my car for ten minutes. The moment I pushed the car door open, he turned around, and our eyes met. Time seemed to stop. I stared at his face, my heart beating frantically. They looked so much alike. He looked exactly like Julian did when he was young, as if Julian had crossed ten years of time to stand before me again. “Dominic Vance, right?” I reached my hand out of the car. “Get in.” The boy clutched the urn tighter, stepping back defensively. “Who are you?” “A friend of your brother’s.” His eyes were red as he stared at me, his voice raw. “Why should I trust you?” “I can help you take back your family’s empire,” I said, leaning forward to grab his cold hand. “On one condition. Marry me.” I needed the title of Mrs. Vance to help Julian protect his family’s legacy.

I brought Dominic back to the Sterling estate and announced our marriage to my family. My father was so furious he smashed his glass. “If you marry him, you are dead to this family!” But I didn’t hesitate. I took Dominic’s hand and walked out the door. At that time, the Vance family was a sinking ship, about to be devoured by other elite families. I voluntarily married down to help Vance Group survive. The only condition was returning Dominic’s rightful share of the inheritance. Two months later, Dominic and I had our wedding. Not a single member of the Sterling family showed up. All of high society mocked me for marrying a charity case. The next day, I brought Dominic into Vance Group. At first, we kept a respectful distance. I treated Dominic like a younger brother, teaching him how to run a business. He would call me “boss” or “Elena,” blushing whenever I got too close. His personality was completely different from Julian’s. But that face was eighty percent identical. I often found myself dazed just staring at him. Under my management, the near-bankrupt Vance Group was brought back to life, though it made us many enemies. Whenever trouble arose, I always shielded Dominic. The most dangerous time, kidnappers threw him into the ocean. Without hesitation, I dove into the freezing water to save him. When we dragged ourselves onto the shore, my forehead hit a jagged rock. My face was covered in blood. To protect Dominic, I was truly willing to give up my life. In the hospital, Dominic held my hand, crying until his eyes were swollen and red. But I just smiled and wiped his tears away. On my birthday, Dominic rented a luxury yacht and set off a city-wide fireworks display. “Elena, I love you. Let’s be a real husband and wife, okay?” He held a bouquet of roses, looking at me nervously, his eyes shining like stars. I closed my eyes and kissed him. And in that kiss, I kissed the boy who would never return. Once we were together, Dominic became incredibly clingy. At the office, he would steal kisses whenever no one was looking. At home, he wrapped himself around me, burning with passion. If I pushed him away even slightly, he would whisper my name in that deep, seductive voice until my heart melted. But I didn’t like him calling me “boss” or “Elena” during those intimate times. I always made him call me “Nia.” To please me, Dominic began wearing only black and white shirts and suits. He even started wearing glasses, even though his vision was perfect. My gaze on him grew more and more intense. It was as if Julian had truly returned to me. But the good times didn’t last. During a business trip, Dominic got into a horrific car accident and was put on life support. That day happened to be the annual shareholder meeting to officially name him CEO. Hearing about his accident, the board immediately conspired to replace him. I hesitated, but in the end, I left the hospital and drove straight to the board meeting. After a fierce battle, using my own influence and reputation built over the years, I took the CEO chair myself. At the same time, I exposed the dirty laundry of Dominic’s corrupt uncles, sending them straight to prison. When Dominic finally woke up, I rushed to his hospital room. His face was pale, but his eyes were ice-cold. “Elena, is the family business more important than my life?” I knew he would blame me, but I had no choice. Before I could explain, he let out a bitter laugh, which turned into tears. “I never understood why you helped me for no reason. It turns out, all you wanted was the Vance empire.” “Dominic, that’s not true…” I tried to explain, but he cut me off. His voice was cold and detached. “You won, Elena. The company is yours. Don’t come near me until I’m discharged.” After leaving the hospital, Dominic officially took the President title but dumped all the actual work on me. He began staying out all night, drinking and bringing different women to hotels. Sometimes, he even brought them back to our mansion, messing around in our bed. I had to catch him over and over, burying his scandals time and again. At first, my heart broke. Eventually, I just felt numb. Dominic hated me, and this was his way of punishing me. But because of my guilt, I tolerated everything. We went from a loving couple to toxic spouses, torturing each other under the same roof. Now, I finally see clearly. He is nothing like Julian. It’s time to wake up from this five-year dream. On my way to the office, I booked a one-way ticket out of New York.

Because of yesterday’s scandal, Dominic behaved himself today and showed up to the board meeting on time. After the meeting, we walked back to the executive suite together. The moment we opened the door, Chloe threw herself into Dominic’s arms, sobbing hysterically. “Dominic, I’m pregnant. I don’t know what to do…” Dominic turned to look at me, and I couldn’t hide the shock in my eyes. He took the pregnancy report, his face darkening. Chloe whimpered, “If you don’t want it, I’ll get an abortion…” “Keep it,” Dominic said, pulling her tightly against him. His voice was firm. “Move into the mansion. I’ll hire the best nannies to take care of you.” “But…” Chloe peeked at me timidly. “Is that really okay? What about Elena?” “Ignore her,” Dominic said with a sneer. “Elena, you can’t have kids anyway. You wouldn’t want the Vance bloodline to end with us, would you?” I instinctively clutched my stomach, my hands tightening into fists. Dominic looked at my stomach with disgust. “What? Unhappy because I said you’re barren? In the past five years, how many times did you actually let me touch you?” He took Chloe’s hand, lacing his fingers through hers, and walked out. Everyone in the hallway stared at me. I pretended not to see. My phone lit up. Marcus, my lawyer friend, had sent an email with the divorce papers. Dominic moved fast. When I got home, Chloe’s things were already piled high in the living room. “The master bedroom is for Chloe. You move to the guest room.” Dominic followed me into our bedroom. My blankets and clothes had been thrown onto the floor. I didn’t make a scene. I quietly packed my clothes, picked up my blanket, and walked to the guest room. “Elena, you’re so generous, just giving up without a fight?” Dominic blocked me at the guest room door, gritting his teeth. “If you just cry and beg me, maybe I won’t keep this child.” I pushed him out of the room and smiled faintly. “Congratulations on the baby.” The next second, Dominic slammed the door and stormed off, leaving the massive villa in dead silence again. The next day, Dominic suddenly called an emergency board meeting. He wanted to transfer twenty percent of the company’s shares to Chloe and her unborn child, and proposed removing me from the board entirely. Dominic sat at the head of the table, his eyes full of malice. “Elena, this company belongs to the Vances. An outsider like you shouldn’t have her hands on it anyway.” Several old board members immediately chimed in. “Elena has held this position for too long. It’s time to step down.” “Mr. Vance is fully capable now. Elena should go home and rest.” “Why should an outsider run our company?” Everyone waited to see how I would fight back, but I simply nodded. In truth, I didn’t want this seat anymore anyway. “I resign,” I said, looking at Dominic. I couldn’t help but warn him one last time, “But regarding the shares, I suggest you think it over carefully.” “Jealous?” Dominic sneered. “Elena, money and power are the only things you ever care about.” “Go home and rest. Don’t come back to the office.” He was using the exact corporate strategies I taught him to destroy me.

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After three years of infertility, my husband and I tried IVF for a year. Finally, I successfully got pregnant with quadruplets. The pregnancy was brutal. I threw up for months, and my belly swelled up like a giant balloon. The doctor suggested reducing the number of fetuses for my own safety, but my husband refused instantly. “Scarlett, they are all our babies. I can’t bear to lose a single one of them.” Pale and exhausted, I touched my belly and nodded. I couldn’t bear to let them go either. When I was six months pregnant, my husband’s bros set up a betting pool on the babies’ genders. It turned out to be three boys and one girl. My husband won the bet and made ten million dollars. Later, I accidentally overheard a conversation between Carter and his friends. “Carter, your plan was pure genius. You got Scarlett to carry babies for four different women at the same time.” Carter’s voice was indifferent. “Since I can’t give them the title of Mrs. Sterling, the least I can do is give them a child. Scarlett is occupying the position, so this is her duty.” My blood ran cold. The four babies inside me… none of them were mine.

“Carter, you’re amazing. You solved the kid problem for four women in one go,” Tyler chimed in. “And the mothers are all gorgeous. The kids are going to be stunning.” Tyler sighed. “It’s a pity about Delilah. She was our college sweetheart. Who would have thought she’d die of a terminal illness so young? But you’re a good man, Carter. You left her a child. We just have to wait for Scarlett to give birth.” “Sienna is also crazy about you. She’s loved you for nearly twenty years. Since she couldn’t have you, she begged for your baby.” Another guy added, “Too bad your heart only belongs to Celine. That’s why you came up with this plan to put all the embryos in Scarlett’s womb. That way, you don’t betray Celine, and everyone gets what they want.” “But what happens if Scarlett finds out? If she realizes none of the four babies in her belly are hers, she’ll probably lose her mind, right?” Carter’s voice remained cold and detached. “So what if she knows? She only has herself to blame for taking a spot that doesn’t belong to her.” The others laughed. “True. Even if she finds out, she’ll probably just swallow her pride and give birth anyway. After all, they’re still your kids. Scarlett worked so hard to marry into the Sterling family. She’s like a stray dog you can’t kick away. No matter how mad she gets, you just need to wiggle your finger, and she’ll come crawling back.” They burst into laughter, their words dripping with malice and mockery. Standing behind the door, a wave of icy coldness rushed from the soles of my feet to the top of my head. I looked down at my heavily swollen belly. My nails dug deep into my palms. What did they mean? The babies inside me… weren’t mine? I had suffered for six months. I threw up every day, my feet were too swollen to fit into shoes, and my hair was falling out in clumps. And before that, there was a whole year of IVF. Countless needles, endless hormone pills. After all that pain, the babies I was carrying belonged to other women? The conversation in the living room continued, but I couldn’t hear anything anymore. I knew Delilah. We went to the same college. She was Carter’s first love. When I heard she passed away from an illness recently, I actually felt sorry for her. Now, she was dead, but her child was growing inside my body. It was so absurd that a terrifying chill crept up my spine. I forced myself to breathe, holding back the urge to scream and storm out. Outside, they were already betting on the babies’ genders. Hearing Carter’s voice mixed in with the laughter made me shudder. We had been married for three years, and I realized I didn’t know the man sleeping next to me at all. I touched my stretched, tight belly. There were four babies inside. One belonged to Delilah. One belonged to Sienna. What about the other two? I knew Sienna too. She was Carter’s childhood friend. She had been secretly in love with him for years. I guess Carter was a real saint. He couldn’t give her his heart, so he gave her a baby instead. I suddenly started laughing, but the tears kept falling. If Carter wanted to give them babies so badly, why did he make me carry them? How could he be so cruel? I clenched my fists so hard my knuckles turned white. My lip was bleeding from biting it so hard. I used to think Carter’s constant worry and care during my pregnancy was a sign of his love for me. All the prenatal vitamins he bought, all his gentle reminders—I thought it was sweet. It was all a lie.

The loud voices and laughter continued outside. “I bet on two boys and two girls!” “I bet all four are boys!” Then, a sweet, high-pitched female voice rang out. “Why are you all betting on boys? I think girls are great. I bet three girls and one boy.” She turned to Carter. “Carter, do you prefer boys or girls?” The voice was familiar. It was Celine, Carter’s secretary. Carter replied casually, “I like both. Boys are easier. Girls are too fragile.” Tyler teased, “So, Carter, what’s your bet?” “Since Celine likes girls, I’ll bet three boys and one girl.” Celine. So she was the third woman. I smiled bitterly. They were carrying on right under my nose, and I was completely blind to it. I didn’t know if they were brilliant actors or if I was just incredibly stupid. Celine whined, “What do you mean girls are fragile?” Carter chuckled and pulled her into his arms. “Aren’t you? Who was the one crying because she was too scared of the pain of childbirth? You cried several times just during the egg freezing process.” “But it does hurt!” Celine pouted, then added, “Oh, by the way, Scarlett never seems to cry. Those IVF needles are so long, and she did it for a whole year. Did she really never cry once?” Carter snorted. “Scarlett is thick-skinned. She doesn’t feel pain like you do. She never cried. Not like you, crying over a tiny scratch.” Tyler flattered, “That’s because Celine has Carter to spoil her. Only girls with someone to protect them get to be fragile. Girls with no one to love them, like Scarlett, just have to suck it up.” “Exactly. Carter only put the embryos in Scarlett’s womb because he didn’t want Celine to go through the pain of pregnancy.” “Scarlett’s belly is as big as a beach ball now. Gross. I wonder what she’ll look like after popping out four kids.” “She was already plain. Carter wouldn’t even look at her naked anyway. Now…” Their vulgar jokes and disgusting laughter made me want to throw up. I stumbled back two steps, my face completely pale. Thick-skinned? So I didn’t feel pain? Of course I felt it. But because I thought I was carrying our babies, I endured it. No matter how much it hurt, I never made a sound. Even when my nails broke from clenching my fists, even when my mouth was filled with the taste of blood, I stayed silent. But my endurance was brushed off as being “thick-skinned.” I remembered the day the IVF succeeded. Carter held my hand, his face filled with worry. “You suffered so much for our babies, Scarlett.” He would touch my belly and speak to the unborn fetuses. “Be good in there. Don’t torment your mom.” When I was throwing up and couldn’t eat, he would feed me spoonful by spoonful. “You have to eat something. You’ve lost so much weight. Once they are born, I’ll make sure to scold them for making you suffer.” It turned out his worry was fake. His care was only for the babies. I was nothing but a breeding machine to him. I closed my eyes, wiped away my tears, and called the clinic to schedule an abortion. Carter, I’m done with you. And these babies you are so eager for? I’m not giving birth to them.

By the time I walked out, Tyler and the others had already left. Only Carter and Celine were in the living room. I intentionally made some noise to give them time to pull apart. I couldn’t confront them yet. Celine’s face was flushed. She was pretending to report some work to Carter. “Mr. Sterling, there’s an urgent meeting tonight. The car is waiting outside.” She turned to see me and put on a warm smile. “Mrs. Sterling.” Her eyes landed on my huge belly, a smug, knowing smirk playing on her lips. “Your belly looks even bigger today. You are so blessed to carry quadruplets for Mr. Sterling.” Looking at her fake face, I didn’t even have the energy to respond. Seeing my cold reaction, Celine excused herself. But before she left, she gave Carter a lingering look. It was a secret signal. Carter noticed me coming out of the guest room on the first floor. He frowned slightly, his voice carrying a hint of suspicion. “When did you get back? Why didn’t you make a sound?” I looked at his lips, which still had a faint trace of her lipstick. My eyes stung. It was so obvious. How had I been so blind before? I smiled mockingly at myself and lowered my eyes. “I was exhausted when I got back, so I fell asleep in the guest room. I just woke up.” Carter seemed to breathe a sigh of relief. His expression returned to normal. “How was the check-up today? I promised to go with you, but something came up at the office.” He sounded so guilty. I used to believe that guilt. I used to comfort him, telling him his work was more important and that I was fine going alone. But I would never believe him again. “It went well. The doctor said the babies are very healthy.” Carter asked a few more detailed questions before relaxing. He always asked for details in the past. I thought it was because he cared about me. Now I knew who he really cared about. Carter walked over and rubbed my belly, talking to the babies for a while. In the past, I would have smiled happily at this scene. Now, my heart was bleeding. I clenched my fists to keep myself calm, but the tears still threatened to spill over. Carter didn’t notice my distress because he simply didn’t care. “I have an emergency meeting tonight and might be back late. Take care of yourself.” I forced a smile and nodded. “Okay.” After Carter left, I walked up to the second floor, holding the handrail. My belly was so big that I couldn’t see my feet, which was why I had moved to the guest room on the first floor after my fifth month. I hadn’t been to our master bedroom in a long time. When I pushed the door open, I saw the messy sheets and the lingering scent of sex on the bed. On the wall behind it hung our wedding portrait. How ironic. My chest ached so badly that I couldn’t stop the tears. But I forced myself to stay calm, wiped my face, and gathered all my personal documents. Before going back downstairs, I walked to the window and looked down. The car parked at the gate hadn’t left yet. It was rocking violently. I closed my eyes, a wave of nausea hitting me. In the middle of the night, Carter came back. He smelled strongly of Celine’s perfume. He reached out and gently stroked my belly, his movements careful and reverent. I felt sick to my stomach. I pretended to be asleep. Memories of our past flashed through my mind, and my tears soaked into the pillow. I still couldn’t understand why he did this. But it didn’t matter anymore. The next morning, I went to the hospital. The doctor looked at me with a deep frown. “You are almost seven months pregnant. Terminating a pregnancy at this stage is extremely dangerous. I don’t recommend a late-term abortion.” My face was expressionless as I made up a lie. After a series of examinations and assessments, the surgery was scheduled. When I got home, I was completely drained. The surgery was in three days. I had three days to prepare everything. And I was going to leave Carter a grand parting gift.

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