Author: Momo Chan

After we got engaged, my best friend invited me and my fiancé, Ethan, to appear on the famous reality show, The Moment of Truth. As long as you answered twenty-one questions honestly and passed the lie detector test, you could win five hundred thousand dollars. Facing that huge cash prize, I agreed without hesitation. When we arrived at the studio, Ethan sat onstage and answered the host’s questions. The first question: During your relationship with your fiancée, have you ever slept with another woman? Ethan answered, “No.” Lie detector result: Truth. I let out a long breath, and for the next few questions, Ethan passed without any trouble. Then came the twentieth question: After getting engaged, have you ever texted your ex-girlfriend? Ethan answered, “No.” But at that moment, the lie detector sounded an alarm: False. The final question: If your ex-girlfriend came back to you, would you choose her? Ethan answered, “No.” The lie detector let out another sharp alarm: False! Sitting in the audience, I was speechless for a long, long time. The challenge failed, and the five hundred thousand dollars was gone. And what failed along with it was the relationship I had spent eight years desperately trying to hold together.

After the show ended, Ethan tried to comfort me. “That lie detector wasn’t accurate, Wren. Don’t worry. We’re already engaged, and the person I’m going to marry is you!” “If I really wanted to lie to you, I never would’ve agreed to go on this show.” I looked at him, unable to tell which of his words were true and which were lies. But Ethan’s sister frowned. “Ethan, actually, your ex, Sophia, really is back. She really wants to see you.” Ethan froze and grabbed his sister’s arm. “Are you serious?! Where is she now?” Ethan’s sister smiled. “I was worried you wouldn’t go, and Sophia would end up secretly crying again.” His best friend picked up the conversation. “I told you a long time ago that Ethan never got over Sophia!” “If Sophia hadn’t gone abroad eight years ago, Wren never would’ve had a chance to date Ethan.” “The day Wren got into that car accident, Ethan said he was on a business trip, but he actually flew overseas in secret to watch Sophia’s debut performance!” Hearing that, several of them burst into laughter. I stood where I was, my eyes empty. When pain reached its limit, all that remained was calm. I remembered the day of the car accident. I had been lying in the ambulance, covered in blood, clutching my phone with its shattered screen as I called Ethan. Before I could even speak, he said, “I’m in a meeting. If it’s something important, tell me later.” That sentence blocked off all my panic. And as for the day I was followed. I trembled and closed my eyes, trying to remember. I couldn’t remember. I couldn’t remember how many times I had called him. So it had been twenty calls. But he hadn’t answered a single one. I slowly opened my eyes and walked inside. My best friend’s regretful voice rang out. “Sophia is such a good person. I hope they can clear up the misunderstanding and get back together.” I stopped and asked, “Ethan, are you really going?” The atmosphere froze instantly. After reacting, my best friend forced a fake smile at me. “It’s just a gathering between old friends!” I looked straight into her eyes. Ethan’s sister suddenly ran over and pulled me aside. “Ethan suddenly had something to deal with, so he left in a hurry and told you not to wait for him.” His friend also slapped his own forehead. “Right, he’ll probably be busy until late and might not come home.” I stayed silent the whole time and didn’t respond. Back then, I had never known their relationship was this close. Close enough for them to join forces and shatter the dream I had waited seven years for. Just then, my mother suddenly stood up. “Wren, did you hear everything?” In an instant, everyone’s eyes landed on me. Seeing that I didn’t answer, she suddenly let out a sigh of relief. “In that case, there’s no need to keep hiding it.” “Wren, you and Ethan aren’t right for each other. You’re not good enough for him. He deserves someone better.” I tugged at the corner of my mouth and gave a self-mocking smile. “Then who is good enough? Your precious student, Sophia?”

Her expression stayed calm, without a single ripple. It was as if she didn’t think there was anything wrong with choosing to help her beloved student win back her lover from her own daughter. “Who is good enough for him isn’t up to me. It depends on what Ethan chooses.” That was what she said, but the scale in her heart had long since tilted toward Sophia. My best friend hesitated, then stepped forward. “Wren, you haven’t eaten yet. Let’s go get something to eat first, okay?” I looked at her, disappointment spreading through me thread by thread. Back then, when my best friend was brutally beaten by her stepfather, I was the one who shielded her with my own body and risked my life to help her escape. Every time she saw the scar on my wrist, she cried. She had even said that in this life, if anyone bullied me, she would be the first one to stand up for me. But now, she was standing on the opposite side. I looked away and refused. “No need. You guys continue.” She didn’t really want to take me to eat. She was just afraid I would go make a scene. I picked up my bag and was about to leave. The moment I turned around, a vase brushed past my ear and smashed into the wall. I didn’t look up, and blood dripped onto the floor. “Wren! You’ve had him to yourself for so many years. It’s just one night. Can’t you let Sophia have him for one night?!” My mother’s voice crashed into me from behind, heavier than the vase. Ethan’s sister couldn’t stand it anymore, and her tone carried blame. “Wren, it’s just one meeting. Even if Ethan marries you, he still has the right to socialize freely, doesn’t he?” His friend followed along with a mocking laugh. “Olivia is right. If those two really wanted something to happen, do you think you’d even get a turn?” Another drop of blood fell. I lowered my head to glance at it and didn’t wipe it away. “Fine.” My mother let out a breath of relief and said, “That’s more like it.” “Sophia just came back to the country, and there are still a lot of things she needs Ethan’s help with. For now, don’t bother him with your problems.” I still answered, “Fine.” She frowned tightly, feeling that something was off but unable to say what. Just as she was about to speak again, my best friend suddenly cried out in surprise. “Look at Sophia’s Instagram! She posted a photo with him!” Several of them hurriedly gathered together and opened their phones to check. I didn’t linger and simply walked away. She didn’t understand what I meant. What I was giving up on was not only Ethan, but also her. Ethan came back very late. He tossed his coat aside casually, sank into the sofa, and closed his eyes to rest. He was so tired that he didn’t notice his coat had landed on my suitcase. I had just walked over when he suddenly pulled me into his arms. The perfume scent that belonged to another woman rushed straight into my nose. I struggled, but he pressed my head against his chest. “Be good. Don’t move. Let me recharge for a bit.” I covered my mouth and forced the violent sob in my throat back down. I hated crying. When my father cheated, and the judge asked me in court which parent I wanted to live with, I didn’t cry. When I couldn’t become my mother’s pride, and I watched with my own eyes as she brought Sophia home, let her sleep in my room, cooked her favorite dishes, and even changed her phone wallpaper to a photo of her, I still didn’t cry. Until now, when I desperately wanted to scream and accuse him of everything. But I was also greedily clinging to the warmth of his arms. Seven years. I had waited seven years, and we were only one step away. My nails dug into my palm, and I thought humbly. They all said Ethan would never come back today. But he still came back. Did that mean that between me and Sophia, he had chosen me? I spoke in a hoarse voice. “During the rehearsal, where did you—” A ringing phone interrupted me. After he saw the name clearly, he immediately pushed me away. “Ethan, something happened! Sophia suddenly fainted, and she’s already been taken to the hospital!” He shot to his feet, but I grabbed him tightly. “I have something to say to you!” “Wren, stop making trouble!” he said anxiously, so anxious that he called me by my full name. “We’ll have plenty of time later!” He pried my hand off and rushed out. Later? Would we even have a later? Tears fell onto the back of my hand. “Ethan, what I wanted to say was that I’m not marrying you anymore.”

Ethan didn’t come home for two nights in a row. When he called, his voice was thick with exhaustion. “My friend just had appendix surgery. He has no family with him, and he can’t be left alone.” I was tired too, so I asked him, “Ethan, is this friend of yours a man or a woman?” “…A man.” I laughed. He sounded a little guilty. “What’s wrong?” “Nothing. Just asking.” The one who had appendix surgery was Sophia. On social media, his sister Olivia posted a big group photo. The table full of fruit and flowers had been bought by my best friend. The milk and nutritional supplements on the floor had been bought by his friend. And the bowl of soup Sophia was holding had been made by my mother. My mother had never liked cooking. But when it came to Sophia, she always made exceptions. Funny enough, I had also had appendicitis before. Back then, I called Ethan. He said he was too busy to come and asked if I needed him to call an ambulance for me. When my mother received the news, she replied lightly, “It’s just a small surgery. Why are you being so dramatic?” During the seven days I was hospitalized, none of them came to visit me even once. It wasn’t until I was about to be discharged that the attending doctor looked at my file and asked in surprise, “I saw you were alone the whole time, so I thought you were single. Turns out you’re already married.” I packed the last suitcase. The wedding planning company called first. “Ms. Wren, your husband has already spoken with us on the phone. The wedding is on the eighth, and we’ll come in to set up the venue on the sixth, one day early. Is that okay with you?” Holding my phone, I froze for two seconds. The setup was on the sixth, and the wedding was on the eighth, so who was that extra day in between for? The answer didn’t even require thought. I rushed to the hospital, and as soon as I reached the corner, I heard voices. “They’ve had it so hard. They clearly love each other, but because Wren keeps clinging on, they can’t be together. Let that wedding ceremony make it up to them and fulfill their dream!” My best friend chimed in. “Ethan is only with Wren because he pities her. Have you ever seen him take Wren’s hand on his own?” My mother sighed. “If only Sophia were my biological daughter, I wouldn’t have to watch her suffer like this.” His sister sneered. “Poor Ethan. He has to marry a woman he doesn’t love and spend the rest of his life with her!” I leaned against the wall and listened until the last word. It didn’t hurt. It truly didn’t hurt anymore. I stepped out from around the corner. The five of them fell silent at the same time, as if they had seen a ghost. My mother was the first to block my way and glare at me. “What are you doing here? That night, were you the one who dragged Ethan down and kept him from coming, which is why he arrived so late?!” I looked into her eyes, so calm I didn’t seem like myself. “I’m here to give you what you want.” Hearing the commotion, someone opened the hospital room door from the inside. Ethan hadn’t expected to see me here. His shoulder instinctively shifted toward Sophia, blocking her from me. His body moved faster than his words, faster than his mind. The things he couldn’t say, his body said for him. He looked at me, and his voice carried wariness. “Why are you here?” I looked at the figure standing in front of Sophia and suddenly felt very light. All these years, he had never protected me like that. Not even that time when I was followed, dragged out of the elevator, and choked, my phone smashed on the ground with twenty missed calls on the screen, all showing his name. He had never appeared. “I came to see that friend on the phone who had no one to stay with him.” His expression changed slightly, and he wanted to explain. Sophia poked her head out from behind him, her face pale, and forced a smile. “Wren, long time no see.” “I had surgery right after coming back home. Don’t blame Ethan. He only came to help me because he felt sorry for me.” Her voice was very soft, like a needle wrapped in cotton. Over the years, whenever she spoke in that tone, I became the one at fault. The more understanding she seemed, the more I looked like the villain. My mother grabbed my arm from behind. “Leave. Don’t disturb Sophia’s rest!” The back of my hand hit the door handle and instantly turned red. “One sentence. I’ll leave after I say it.” Ethan’s brows twisted into a knot, and just as he was about to walk toward me, Sophia let out a low hiss of pain. Ethan immediately pulled his hand back and wrapped an arm around her shoulders. “Don’t move. I’ll call the doctor!” My best friend sighed. “Wren, leave yourself some dignity. He doesn’t even have time to listen to one sentence from you.” His friend sneered. “So what if you marry Ethan? A man who doesn’t have you in his heart is truly pathetic!” Sophia blinked her innocent eyes. “I’m sorry, Wren. I didn’t mean to—” “You don’t need to apologize,” I interrupted her. I pulled the ring off my ring finger with force and threw it onto the floor. “Tell Ethan for me.” “I’m not marrying him.”

After I got home, I scheduled a time with the moving company. There was movement outside the door. Ethan had come back. I didn’t go out to greet him like I usually did. Instead, he walked toward me on his own, still carrying the faint scent of jasmine perfume. That was Sophia’s scent. He took my hand, and his fingertip gently touched the base of my ring finger. “You dropped your ring.” After saying that, he took the familiar ring out of his pocket. “I didn’t drop it. I threw it away.” His face darkened. “You don’t have to act like this. There’s nothing between me and her. We’re just friends now.” Friends? Right, a friend for whom he would make up for the “past” with a ceremony and fill an old emptiness. “You don’t have to be just friends,” I said. He suddenly stood up, his voice rising. “Wren! What nonsense are you talking about?” “Look at yourself. With that awful temper of yours, how was I supposed to dare tell you?” I laughed. I was clearly the one who had been played for a fool for seven years, but in the end, I was still the one at fault. “Have you ever truly treated me as your future wife?” He rubbed his brow. “If I didn’t see you as my wife, why would I marry you?” He tried to slide the ring onto my finger, but it got stuck at the knuckle and wouldn’t move. Frowning, he pressed down hard, and pain shot through the bone of my finger. “Why is this ring smaller now?” I didn’t speak and lowered my head to look quietly. It had been too small for a year. I had realized the size was wrong the moment I got it. I soaked my finger in ice water to reduce the swelling, forced the ring on, and my finger stayed swollen for three days. But he had never noticed. Ethan pulled it off and casually said, “Forget it. It’s just an engagement ring anyway. I’ll buy another one later.” The moment he pulled it off, the letters engraved inside the band caught the light. E & S. Ethan and Sophia. He froze, then his fingers tightened, and he quickly put the ring away. I stared at the hand he had tucked into his pocket and suddenly felt very light. So this ring had never belonged to me. Ethan’s phone rang. It was my mother calling. Her voice trembled badly. “Ethan, Sophia is missing. She just had surgery. Where could she go…” Ethan lifted his foot to leave, then abruptly stopped. He glanced at me, as if he had suddenly remembered there was still someone else in the room. “Her job overseas fell through, and she’s in a bad mood. She doesn’t have much family here either, so I—” “Go,” I interrupted him. He froze for a moment. There was a flash of hesitation in his eyes. But in the end, he still left. The next day, I was busy moving when my friend frantically sent me private messages. “Wren, you’re about to go viral!!!” “Look at this dance video. Isn’t this the clip you recorded last time? The whole internet is looking for this person now.” I tapped in and saw trending tags like “angelic dancer from behind” and “genius girl appears on the street.” The next second, a familiar profile picture sent an identity confirmation comment. “This new talent is my student, Sophia.” The comments exploded. “No wonder she’s so full of spirit! She’s actually Ms. Linda’s student!” “I know her! She’s Ms. Linda’s favorite student. Ms. Linda treats her even better than her own daughter!” “I’ve seen her before! She had a minor surgery in our department, and she had a handsome, sweet boyfriend staying with her every day. They’re so in love!” The phone rang. It was my mother. Her tone was still impatient. “I know the person in that viral dance video is you.” “You danced fairly well this time, but it was only a fluke.” “Right now, Sophia needs a stepping stone to break into the theater world here. You stole her lover. Surely you won’t refuse to help with even this small favor, right?” I didn’t speak, and someone else took the phone. Ethan’s breathing grew heavy. “Wren, I’ll make it up to you.” “Let Sophia have this opportunity first.” I heard myself laugh. Make it up to me? In what capacity was Ethan making it up to me on Sophia’s behalf? “Got it.” There was no sarcasm, no questioning, and he even froze for a moment. “You’re… not angry?” “No.” His tone immediately relaxed. “That’s good.” “The wedding is the day after tomorrow. I picked out a new ring, and I’ll send you a picture later. Don’t overthink things. Just prepare properly.” After hanging up, I saw the wedding planning company post photos of the venue setup on social media. So today was the sixth. The design draft I had painstakingly worked on for three months had been turned into a real-life setup. In the video, my best friend and the others were crouched near the side of the stage to supervise, while my mother sat in the first row flipping through the photo wall. She selected the most perfect photo of the two of them from a pile of proofs and placed it in the center. How warm. What a complete family. Then I found my call log and called an entertainment reporter. “The viral ‘genius dancer’ online is holding a wedding. I have exclusive material. Do you want to come film it?”

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I attended my best friend’s mother’s funeral, only to find my wife there—the same wife who was supposed to be on an overseas business trip. She was standing by his side, greeting the guests as if she were his wife. When she saw me, panic flashed across her face. She quickly pulled me to a quiet corner and whispered: “Tyler’s mom always wanted to see him settled down before she passed. I’m just helping him fulfill her dying wish. Don’t overthink it, Ethan.” My “best friend” even put his arm around my shoulder. “I just needed Chloe’s help to play the part, bro. Respect the dead. You’re not that petty, are you, Ethan?” I sneered, brushing his hand off my shoulder, and shoved my wife right into his chest. “Of course not. In fact, why don’t you two celebrate a wedding alongside the funeral today?” The lobby fell into dead silence. The surrounding guests, completely clueless about what was happening, turned to stare at us. Chloe stared at me, her eyes wide with disbelief. “Ethan, do you even hear yourself? This is Tyler’s mom’s funeral! How can you be so incredibly disrespectful?” Me? Disrespectful? I almost laughed out loud. Just two days ago, she told me she had an urgent business trip. I was the one who packed her bags. If I hadn’t come to pay my respects today, I would have never known that her “business trip” was actually her playing the lady of the house at my best friend’s place. No wonder she adamantly refused to let me drive her to the airport the other morning. The whole thing was a lie from start to finish. How did she have the nerve to turn around and accuse me of being disrespectful? Seeing my cold silence, Chloe probably realized she was in the wrong. She walked over and grabbed my arm. “Ethan, please don’t be like this. We can talk about this when we get home. But right now, we have to respect the dead. Tyler is your best friend. We’re just helping him out. It’s not like it’s hurting you.” Oh, right. It wouldn’t hurt me. Even if the two of them slept in the same bed tonight, it wouldn’t physically hurt me! I violently shook off her hand. My heart felt like ice. I stared into her pleading eyes and asked, one slow word at a time, “I’m asking you one last time. Are you coming home with me right now?” Chloe shook her head without a second thought. “The service just started. How can I leave now?” I nodded. Fine. If that was her choice, then we were done. “I’ll have my lawyer draft the divorce papers and send them to you. I wish you two a long and happy life together.” With that, I turned to leave. Tyler ran out after me. Dressed in a black suit, his eyes slightly red, he looked at me with deep sorrow. “I’m so sorry, Ethan. I know I didn’t think this through. But it was an emergency, and I didn’t have time to discuss it with you. Please don’t take it to heart.” “If you want to blame someone, blame me. It has nothing to do with Chloe.” Chloe frowned in annoyance and muttered, “Why are you explaining things to him? Do you think he’d even believe you?” “Getting jealous over your own best friend… you really are one of a kind.” She grabbed Tyler’s arm and pulled him back inside. “Ignore him. Let’s go back in.” Watching them pull and push at each other, I almost wanted to applaud. So now, I was the unreasonable one? My eyes locked onto Chloe’s hand holding Tyler’s arm, and memories started flooding back. For instance, I hated seafood, but Tyler loved it. Chloe’s signature dish was seafood paella. She’d always make a huge batch, tell me not to let it go to waste, and ask me to bring Tyler over for dinner. Back then, I thought she was just being kind. I didn’t realize I was the idiot. Stupid enough to invite the wolf right into my home, handing my wife over to him on a silver platter. Whenever I went on business trips, Tyler would always say he’d look after Chloe for me. “A brother’s wife is my own family. Just let me know if she needs anything,” he’d say. But was she really just “family” to him? They were practically a couple, and I was just the annoying third wheel! Tyler patted Chloe’s hand and stepped back in front of me. He gave me a deep bow. “I’m really sorry, Ethan. I didn’t think this through. If you’re uncomfortable, I’ll go inside right now and clear things up with everyone.” “Even if it upsets my mom’s spirit, I can’t do this to my best friend!” He said the right words, but I didn’t see a single shred of genuine apology in his eyes. “Sure, go ahead.”

Anyone can talk a big game. I wanted to see if Tyler would actually tell everyone the truth just because I said so. The moment the words left my mouth, Tyler froze in awkward silence. “Ethan, I…” He stammered, but before he could finish, Tyler’s Aunt Brenda walked over. “Tyler, Chloe, what are you two doing out here? And who is this?” The hallway fell quiet, and several guests turned to look at us. Chloe spoke first. “Just a friend. He heard about Evelyn’s passing and came to pay his respects.” A friend? I almost laughed. It turned out I truly held no place in Chloe’s heart. Aunt Brenda nodded, completely oblivious, and even invited me to stay for lunch. Before I could speak, Chloe quickly declined on my behalf. “He’s super busy. He has a ton of work back at the office, so I don’t think he can stay.” I nodded, playing along. “That’s right, I’m very busy. But I can always make time for important events. Like your wedding, for instance. Make sure to send me an invite so I can prepare a nice, fat check.” Chloe’s face instantly fell. She looked like she wanted to scream at me, but with her relatives watching, she bit her lip and kept quiet. Aunt Brenda, totally clueless, smiled warmly. “Tyler and Chloe make such a beautiful couple. We all support them. It’s just a shame about his mother. Out of respect, Tyler really should wait at least a year before they marry.” Ignoring her chatter, I turned and walked away. Seeing me leave, Chloe panicked. “Ethan…” But before she could take a step, Tyler grabbed her arm. “Chloe, please stay and help me light another candle for my mom. I need you by my side.” As I turned the corner, I saw Chloe stop. Without another glance my way, she followed Tyler back into the memorial hall. In that moment, my heart turned completely numb. Maybe I had lost the moment I chose to hope.

When I got home, I barely got my shoes off before a fluffy Ragdoll cat trotted over and rubbed against my leg. Cleo was a stray Chloe and I had rescued from our neighborhood when we first started dating. She had followed us all the way to our door. Chloe said it was a sign of good luck, so we brought her inside and named her Cleo—hoping she’d spend the rest of her life surrounded by love. I sighed softly and picked Cleo up. My marriage was dead, but Cleo would always be a precious baby who deserved to be loved. Sensing my mood, Cleo let out a soft meow and began kneading my chest with her tiny paws. The heavy weight in my chest instantly lightened. I smiled, stroking her head. “What’s wrong, sweetie? Hungry?” Just as I was about to fill her food bowl, the front door clicked open. I looked up to see Chloe walking in. The moment she saw me holding Cleo on the sofa, her forehead creased in irritation. “Ugh, why is that cat on the sofa? I just bought those covers! What if she claws them?” Without warning, she rushed over, grabbed Cleo by the scruff of her neck, and flung her to the floor. There was a dull thud. Terrified Cleo was hurt, I leapt up to check on her. That was when I noticed Tyler walking in right behind Chloe. “Hey Ethan, I was just dropping Chloe off. I figured you hadn’t eaten, so I brought you some food.” He walked over to the dining table and started unpacking a takeout bag as if he owned the place. He was so comfortable, it was like he was in his own house. I watched him coldly, cradling Cleo in my arms. My voice was ice. “Aren’t you in mourning? Isn’t it incredibly disrespectful to barge into someone else’s home right after a death?” “Instead of taking care of your guests, you seem very focused on taking care of another man’s wife.” Tyler’s face stiffened. But Chloe was the one who blew up. She marched over and glared at me. “Ethan Miller, I’ve tolerated enough of your attitude today! Why are you being such a jerk?” “He was nice enough to bring you food and drive me home. What are you even jealous of?” “Stop acting like you’re the king of the house. Just shut up and eat!” I glanced at the greasy takeout boxes on the table. Inside was seafood fried rice. Tyler watched with a smug, mocking look. “Chloe made this herself. Most people don’t get to taste her cooking. Don’t be mad, Ethan. Come eat.” Suddenly, he let out a loud sneeze and took two steps back. “Ah, I almost forgot. I’m allergic to cat hair.” Chloe immediately rushed to his side, looking extremely worried, asking if he was okay and if he needed to go to the hospital. Cleo whimpered, trembling in my arms, terrified by the tension in the room. I found the whole thing hilarious. Seafood fried rice? “I have a severe seafood allergy. Eating this could literally kill me. Do you not know that, or are you just pretending? Or maybe you’re just hoping I’ll die so you can marry Tyler?” Chloe’s eyes went red with fury. She lunged forward to slap me. “Ethan, that’s enough!” Tyler stepped in, pretending to play the peacemaker. “Hey, don’t fight because of me. It’s my fault for coming over, and I crossed the line at the funeral too. Ethan, I don’t want this to ruin our brotherhood, okay?” I scoffed, ignoring him. But then, Chloe suddenly snatched Cleo out of my arms and threw her to the ground. Cleo shrieked in pain and terror. Chloe scoffed in disgust and kicked her. Cleo’s head slammed hard against the coffee table. She collapsed onto the floor, completely motionless. “Chloe! What the hell are you doing?!” I never expected her to hurt Cleo. With a furious roar, I shoved her aside. I rushed over, gently scooping Cleo into my arms. When I felt her shallow breathing, I let out a breath I didn’t know I was holding. But Chloe stood there, completely unbothered, showing no remorse whatsoever. “Stray cats are ungrateful beasts anyway. I told you we should have never brought her home!” Ungrateful? If you ask me, the cat wasn’t the ungrateful one here. Sometimes, human hearts are far more vicious than animals. I stood up with Cleo in my arms, staring coldly at Chloe. Seeing the icy fury in my eyes, her smug attitude faltered slightly. But she still muttered under her breath. “I’m not wrong. Strays carry all kinds of diseases.” “None of your business.” I stormed out of the house, holding Cleo tight.

Fortunately, after a thorough checkup at the vet, Cleo didn’t have any life-threatening injuries. But she was severely traumatized. Fearing what Chloe might do to her if I brought her back immediately, I decided to leave her at the clinic overnight. I drove back home alone. But as I unlocked the front door, I froze. Soft, breathless moans echoed from inside the living room. My hand paused on the doorknob. I couldn’t believe my ears. Even if Chloe and Tyler were completely shameless, this was still my home. And Tyler’s mother had literally just been buried today. No one could be that sick and twisted. But when I pushed the door open… I saw two bodies tangled on the sofa. Chloe’s clothes were disheveled, her eyes glassy with lust, pinned beneath Tyler. In that instant, my brain went entirely numb. The final thread of my sanity snapped. They actually did it. Hearing the door open, they both spun their heads toward me. When our eyes met, Chloe froze. She scrambled to shove Tyler off her, frantically fixing her clothes as she sat up. But the more she panicked, the more she fumbled. Tyler, on the other hand, remained dead silent. He stood up, adjusted his clothes, and kept his head down. “Ethan… why are you back? Weren’t you at the vet clinic with Cleo?” I stared at her blankly. “What? Am I not allowed in my own house?” She wrung her hands nervously. “I didn’t mean it like that.” A suffocating silence filled the room. Tyler took a step forward, trying to sound apologetic. “Ethan, what you saw… it’s not what it looks like. Chloe and I…” Before he could finish, Chloe pointed a trembling finger at him and shrieked, “It’s him! It was all him!” “He drugged me! I didn’t want this! None of this was consensual!” She sobbed, lunging to throw her arms around me. “Ethan, thank God you came back when you did! I don’t even want to think about what he would’ve done to me!” Listening to her crying, I didn’t open my arms. I shoved her away with everything I had. Drugged? Thank God I came back? Did she seriously take me for a fool? Did she think I’d just blindly believe whatever lie slipped through her teeth? Stumbling back from my shove, Chloe looked up at me in utter disbelief. “Ethan, you don’t believe me? I’m the victim here! How could I ever betray you? How could I throw away our years of marriage for your best friend?” Hearing this, Tyler’s expression turned incredibly dark. But he remained silent, willingly taking the fall for the absurd accusation she threw at him. Honestly, I was a bit surprised. Tearfully, Chloe reached out to grab my hand, but I dodged her easily. “Chloe, listen to yourself. Do you actually expect me to buy that garbage?” “I have eyes. And I trust what I see.” She opened her mouth to argue, but I didn’t give her the chance. I slapped the newly printed divorce papers right onto her chest. “Sign it. I’m done with this marriage. I’m out.”

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On our wedding night, Luke handed me a box of birth control pills after it was over. “Rosie, you can’t have kids.” My brows knit slightly. “My body is fine.” He shook his head. “It’s not about that.” “I already have a son out there. He’s five years old.” “I married you, but I also promised her I wouldn’t have a second child.” I felt like I had fallen into an ice cave, shaking all over. “Who is she? Why are you only telling me this now?” “The scholarship girl you used to support. She kept clinging to me and wouldn’t let go.” “But don’t worry. You’re the only one in my heart, and the spot of Mrs. Luke will always be yours.” Luke’s marks were still on my body. Looking at those glaring red bruises, I suddenly found it all ridiculous. “Luke, let’s get divorced.” 1 Luke grabbed my wrist hard. “You want a divorce just for this? Isn’t that a little much?” “Everything I could give you, I gave you. The title of Mrs. Luke, endless pocket money, and even the bone marrow that could save your brother’s life. I’ve been personally looking for it the whole time.” “Now it’s just one kid. I never meant to hide it from you. Is it really that important?” His brows were slightly furrowed, and his displeasure was obvious. I broke free. “Either cut things off with Lily and let her take that kid and disappear from Harbor City forever.” “Or don’t expect me to ever forgive you.” “After all, that’s still my blood, and I’ve raised him for five years. I can’t bear to do that.” Luke sighed and lit a cigarette. The smoke curled around and burned into my nose. It made my eyes sting. Five years, but we had only been together for seven. So in the second year, he already cheated on me. And he even had a child with someone else. If I counted the time, that was the exact year my brother was diagnosed with leukemia. When Luke heard the news, he immediately cut his business trip short and rushed back. He held me in the hospital while I shook with fear, comforting me over and over. “It’ll be okay. I’m here. I won’t let anything happen to your brother.” But it turned out he hadn’t gone on a business trip at all. He had gone to keep his lover company while she gave birth. “Rosie, forgive me. Let’s just let this go, okay?” Luke snuffed out his cigarette and stepped forward, wanting to pull me into his arms. “I promise I won’t ever let you be wronged again.” I shoved him away. I put on my clothes and said nothing, then turned and left. Harbor City nights were cold, and the wind bit hard. My face, which had been burning with anger, quickly cooled down. I wandered the streets like a ghost. I didn’t know where to go. Years ago, my parents passed away and left only my brother and me to depend on each other. Later, after I got together with Luke, I thought fate had finally been kind to me. Luke had promised me a lifetime of devotion and sworn he would never betray me. But seven years later, all I got was finding out on my wedding night that he had already cheated. At that moment, my phone rang. It was the caregiver calling. “Miss Miller, your brother’s condition suddenly worsened. I’m afraid he’s not going to make it!” “He said not to contact you because he was worried it would affect your wedding night…” My heart clenched hard. “I’m on my way right now. Take good care of him!” When I got to the hospital, it took my brother a long time to wake up. But his condition was terrible, and his face was pale as paper. “Sis, you still came.” Looking at him like that, the emotions I had been holding back for so long finally broke loose. My voice cracked. “Why are you so stupid? You were almost dead and still kept this from me?” “They can’t find a matching donor. I could die at any moment. Don’t be too sad, sis.” My brother gave a bitter little smile. “I won’t be able to protect you anymore. At least Luke is really good to you.” “Don’t say that,” I said through tears. “I’ll find another way for the marrow!” I didn’t want my brother to see my tears and feel upset. I left the room and went to the hallway to calm myself down.

2 I didn’t know how I was going to tell my brother that I wanted a divorce from Luke. If I told him now, “Your brother-in-law isn’t a good man at all. He has a child with someone else, and the kid is already five.” “And he won’t even let me have children. He wants me to help raise his illegitimate son.” I was afraid my brother’s body wouldn’t be able to take it. Too many things happened tonight, and even I felt dazed. Then a familiar voice came from behind me. “Rosie, are you okay?” I turned around and saw that Luke had actually hurried over, breathing hard. He was even carrying a thick coat. “You left so fast. I was worried, so I called your brother.” “He told me you came to the hospital. I’m glad you’re okay.” As he spoke, he tried to drape the coat over my shoulders. “What happened tonight was my fault. Go in and see your brother. Don’t let him worry, okay?” Luke’s eyes were deep and dark, as if he were really thinking about me. I turned my head away and refused to look at his eyes. For seven years, every time Luke and I fought, he would look at me with that kind of tender gaze. I really believed his heart belonged only to me, and I would calm down very quickly. Even now, he still wanted to use that trick. It didn’t work anymore. The next second, Luke forcefully took my hand and dragged me into the room. My brother looked at our tightly joined hands and finally relaxed. “Sis, I thought you two were fighting.” “As long as everything’s fine now.” I shook off Luke’s hand, thinking how shameless a person could be. But he didn’t seem to notice at all. He casually sat by my brother’s hospital bed. “I’ll peel an apple for you.” I couldn’t take it anymore and drove him out. “Luke, are you doing this on purpose?” “As long as you don’t deal with your thing with Lily, don’t come in front of me and disgust me.” I lowered my voice as much as I could. “I’ll take care of the divorce papers too.” He just looked at me quietly. “Even if I can find a matching donor, I still can’t be here?” In an instant, I froze. Luke continued, “Rosie, you know I’ve been looking for a marrow match for your brother for a whole year. I finally got a spot, and they agreed they could come to Harbor City for the surgery in seven days.” “I’ve already given them a hefty reward. If I refuse now, everything we’ve done will be wasted.” Putting everything else aside, Luke really had put a lot of effort into my brother’s illness. He was also the one who kept using every connection he had to look for a marrow donor. Even I, his real sister, couldn’t compare. I hesitated. Luke smiled and bent down to kiss me. “Rosie, I knew you’d soften.” “I’ll handle the marrow arrangement. You just promise me you’ll help raise that kid, okay?” This time, I didn’t push him away. But the pain and bitterness in my heart were still there. “Go back first. I want to stay with my brother alone.” After a long pause, Luke let out a soft breath and finally let go of me. Desire had already colored his eyes. “Rosie, today is our wedding night. You’re coming with me.” After I repeatedly refused him, he finally gave up. Unwillingly, he left the hospital. I straightened my clothes and went back into the room. “Brother, there’s hope for your illness.” “In seven days, someone will come to donate bone marrow for you.” Even my brother, who had been forcing himself to stay strong so I wouldn’t worry, finally dropped all his pretense after hearing that. “Sis, I can live…” “I can protect you for the rest of my life now.” I wiped the tears from his cheeks, and the emptiness in my heart was slowly filled in. As long as my brother could live, even if it really meant spending the rest of my life in a fake marriage with Luke. I would still be willing.

3 But I never expected that, after I refused him, Luke would turn around and go to Lily for comfort. When I got her provocative message, I was getting ready to rest on the empty bed beside my brother. “Miss Miller, today is your wedding night, but Luke came to keep me company. You’re not mad, are you?” She sent me a few photos of Luke lying on top of her, clearly satisfied and asleep. He was shirtless, with several scratch marks on his neck. It was obvious what kind of intense sex they’d just had. “Lily, do you not feel even a little ashamed?” I shot back, “Back then, you couldn’t even afford tuition. I took money I saved from part-time jobs to help support you, and this is how you repay me now?” The Lily from before was innocent and naive. We met through a club activity. She always liked to run after me and call me “sis.” That made me think of my sickly brother, who was also so obedient. So I treated her a little better on purpose. Who would have thought I was raising a white-eyed wolf? Very quickly, Lily replied, “Sis, I just love seeing you angry.” “I used to wonder why you always looked so calm and could casually take out a huge sum of money to support me.” “And I nearly ended up working in a nightclub as a hostess just for that money.” Her voice carried a faint smugness. “Later, when I saw your rich boyfriend, I understood where your confidence came from. Since you’re so kind, surely you wouldn’t mind letting me borrow a little of that light too, right?” I held my phone, not knowing whether to laugh or cry. What had been a good deed in my mind had become, in Lily’s eyes, the final straw that crushed her conscience. “Do whatever you want.” I deleted and blocked her, not wanting to say another word. Someone like her was like a parasitic vine. Once Luke got tired of her, where would she go then? I thought that cutting off contact with Lily would be enough. I never expected that the next day, she would show up in the room under the excuse of delivering food. By the time I came back after buying a nutritious meal, she was already feeding my brother with her own hands. “Sis, this is the delivery girl Luke specially found for me. You don’t have to buy meals for me every day anymore.” My silly brother was grinning happily. “Luke really cares about you. He even worries about you getting tired from buying food.” “It really is enviable.” Lily was also looking at me, smiling in agreement. I didn’t know what her purpose in coming here was. But the moment I saw her, my stomach turned with disgust. “Go back and tell Luke I don’t need this.” I looked at Lily coldly. “I’m not crippled. I can buy my own food. He doesn’t need to worry about it.” Just yesterday, I had been thinking that as long as my brother could live, I would put up with Luke. But he kept pushing it further and further. My brother looked at me in confusion. “Sis, why are you mad?” “Did you fight with my brother-in-law? Was it because of me…” My brother was sensitive, and I was afraid he would notice something was wrong. I pulled Lily out with me. “Let’s talk outside.” She didn’t struggle. A smile tugged at her lips as she let me drag her away. “You care about your brother so much. I knew coming here was the right move.” “I know exactly what Luke is planning. Once you can accept it, he’ll take my child and let you raise him.” “But sis, I’m the child’s biological mother. How could I bear that?” A terrifying, mad light flashed in Lily’s eyes. “As long as you agree to divorce Luke, I’ll let your brother live peacefully until the surgery is over. Otherwise, he will die.”

4 When she said the last few words, Lily deliberately lowered her voice. But it shattered my last line of defense. Without the slightest hesitation, I slapped her. “If you touch my brother, I’ll send you to keep him company in the grave.” “Your bargain-bin son means nothing to me. Whoever wants to raise him can do it.” Lily’s cheek swelled up instantly, and even spit was knocked out of her mouth. She didn’t get angry. Instead, she took my hand on her own. One slap, two slaps, three slaps… she kept slapping her own face. “You’re right to scold me. I’m shameless, I betrayed trust, and I deserve to be hit.” “But my child is innocent. Sis, I beg you, please give him a way to live.” When I realized something was wrong, Luke was already standing in front of me with a dark face. “Rosie!” He caught my wrist and shoved hard in the opposite direction. “Don’t go too far.” “Lily only realized her mistake and came over on her own to make up with you.” “How can you keep hitting her and even use the kid to threaten her?” I lost my balance and fell to the ground. Pain shot through my lower back instantly. “Ah…” I cried out in pain. “Luke, she was the one who grabbed my hand and made me hit her. Are you blind?” But Luke didn’t hear a word of it. He only gently touched Lily’s cheek with his hand, comforting her, “Don’t be scared. I’m here. The kid will be fine too.” Lily obediently swallowed her tears and told Luke to take her away. At that moment, my brother heard the commotion and came out of the room. “Sis!” He saw me sitting on the ground and panicked. “Are you okay?” But when his eyes landed on the way Luke and Lily were tightly clinging to each other, he instantly understood everything. His brother-in-law had cheated! “You bitch, how dare you bully my sister.” My brother got furious and went to shove Lily, trying to stand up for me. But before his hand could even touch her, Luke kicked him hard in the stomach. Then, right in front of me, he crashed heavily to the floor. His urine bag and IV line all scattered in a mess on the ground. “No…” My heart broke as I crawled to my brother, tears pouring down nonstop. But Luke only hesitated for a second before coldly throwing out one word: “Serves you right.” Then he wrapped his arm around Lily and turned to leave. My heart was completely dead. Because of Luke’s kick, my brother had to go through another long emergency surgery before he woke up. But his condition still worsened. “Sis, don’t cry.” Right now, he didn’t even have the strength to wipe away my tears. “Don’t go looking for him for me. Don’t beg the person who hurt you.” My brother could tell what I was thinking and stubbornly forced me to agree before he would go to sleep. I nodded through tears, but after I went out, I still took a taxi to Luke’s place. He was lazily soaking in an indoor hot spring with Lily, and the atmosphere was suggestive. When he saw me barge in, he wasn’t surprised at all. “What? You finally know to beg me now?” “I heard about your brother’s condition. What do you want to do?” Luke took a sip of red wine and looked at me with amusement. I spoke with difficulty. “As long as you can get the donor here early to switch the marrow, I’ll agree to any condition.” “Then kneel down and apologize to Lily with a loud kowtow.” When I saw Lily pull out her phone and get ready to record, my breathing tightened. Was pride important? Yes. But my brother’s life was more important. I gritted my teeth, knelt down, and kowtowed to Lily. “I’m sorry. I was wrong.” Not long after that, my phone suddenly rang wildly. A familiar nurse’s voice came through in tears. “Miss Miller, your brother pulled out his own IV. He’s gone.” “He received a video on his phone of you kneeling, and he asked me to tell you that from now on, don’t ever kneel for him again…”

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Following Ethan Vance around for ten long years, he finally asked me to marry him. He even put a blindfold on me, whispering that he had a massive surprise waiting. But the second I took a single step into the room, a bucket of freezing cold water splashed right over my head. “Chloe, when the hell are you going to wake up?” “Did you honestly think I would ever marry you?” My hands trembled as I ripped off the blindfold. There he was, sitting on the plush leather couch, casually sipping a glass of whiskey. “See? I told you she’d fall for it! Whoever bet against me, pay up!” Seeing my silence, Ethan scoffed, his eyes flashing with amusement. “Honestly, Chloe, you’re not getting any younger. You should find some random guy to marry before you end up dying alone with ten cats.” The moment the words left his mouth, his friends burst into roaring laughter, throwing me looks of pure disgust. But when I actually took his advice and married someone else, why did he end up on his knees, begging for me back?

Ethan smiled warmly and waved at the waitress. “Hey, bring us a glass of every single alcohol on this menu!” “And one of every appetizer too!” With that, he snatched a thousand-dollar bill from his friend’s pocket and tossed it to the waitress as a tip. Seeing this, the realization hit me like a physical blow. I was just a clown to him. Again. One of Ethan’s friends complained loudly. “Oh my god, Chloe, how can you be so stupid?” “Anyone with half a brain could tell this was a prank! Why would a guy like Ethan ever put a ring on you?” “Seriously, stop being so delusional. He would never marry you!” Listening to their back-and-forth mockery, I clenched my jaw so hard my teeth ached. Ethan threw back a shot of whiskey, his voice dripping with fake sincerity. “Ah, free drinks taste the best. Thanks for paying the tab, boys!” “But hey, Chloe, don’t be too sad. I did promise you a surprise, didn’t I?” He reached into a nearby trash can, pulled out a cheap, tarnished metal bracelet, and tossed it to me. The girl sitting next to him couldn’t help but chime in, giggling. “Ethan, how could you give her something someone literally threw away?” She intentionally shook her wrist, letting her expensive designer bracelet catch the light. Her eyes were filled with mockery. Ethan stared at me, his lips curling into a smug smirk. “Our Chloe isn’t that superficial.” “As long as it’s from me, she’ll cherish it like a treasure. Am I right, Chloe?” Seeing me actually take the bracelet, his friends burst into another round of snickers. “Wow, she really is a cheap doormat. She’ll take literally anything.” If this were the old me, I would have screamed, cried, and fought to defend my dignity. But now, I just calmly used the cheap bracelet as a hair tie to pull my hair up into a neat bun. “Thanks. I actually have wedding toasts to make today, so having my hair down isn’t really practical.” Hearing this, Ethan froze for a second before letting out a loud laugh. “Wait, Chloe. Are you seriously still playing along with this fantasy?” “Toasts? Do you honestly think I’d ever introduce a girl like you to my parents?” “You’re daydreaming in broad daylight. There must be something seriously wrong with your head.” He crossed his legs, looking at me with nothing but disgust. Even though I had expected this, hearing those words directly from his mouth still made my chest ache with a dull, throbbing pain. The truth was, I already knew today’s proposal was a setup. Yesterday at noon, I had made lunch and brought it to Ethan’s office, just like I always did. But as I reached the door, I heard loud laughter coming from inside. Peeking through the crack, I saw Ethan sitting on his couch, smoking a cigarette. “Ethan, you’re the king of savage bets. Only you could pull this off.” “Let’s see if that delusional girl actually believes you’re going to marry her!” “But you’ve played her so many times. Will she really fall for it again? She looked pretty pissed off last time.” “Tell you what, if you lose, you have to make Serena sing for us. I heard she’s a music major at—” Before the guy could even finish his sentence, Ethan kicked him squarely in the chest, sending him sprawling to the floor.

Ethan’s face was terrifyingly dark. “Who the fuck do you think Serena is?” “She’s a classical music student! Not some cheap bar singer!” Everyone in our circle knew that Serena was Ethan’s ultimate muse. Her reputation was more important to him than his own life. If anyone dared to say a single bad word about Serena, they’d pay for it dearly the very next day. The guy who made the joke quickly scrambled to his knees, begging for mercy. “I’m sorry, Ethan! I was being an idiot! Please, don’t take it seriously!” Watching that scene yesterday, I felt like my heart was being shredded by a thousand knives. I hadn’t even realized my collar was soaked with my own tears. Ethan had completely forgotten. He forgot the promises he once made to me. “Hey, little girl. Follow me from now on. I’ll protect you, and no one will ever hurt you again.” “Chloe, if neither of us is married in ten years, let’s just settle down together.” Those two promises were engraved in my heart. Too bad the one who said them forgot, while the one who heard them was trapped by them. Today marked exactly ten years. And yes, I was indeed getting married. But my groom wasn’t Ethan. Pulling myself back to reality, I forced a tight smile. “Anyway, I have to go sign my marriage license now. Enjoy your drinks.” But the moment I took a step toward the door, Ethan grabbed my wrist in a vice grip. “Chloe, what kind of act is this?” “Do you seriously think you can drag me to City Hall by pulling a stunt like this? Have some self-respect!” Looking at his exhausted, annoyed face, a wave of profound weariness washed over me. The Ethan who once fought off a gang of thugs just to keep me safe was long gone. The man in front of me only wished I would vanish from his sight. Before I could speak, a sweet, high-pitched voice echoed from the doorway. “Ethan!” I turned my head. Serena was running toward him, her eyes wide and innocent. Ethan instantly let go of my wrist. He even wiped his hand on his pants several times before reaching out to clasp Serena’s hand. His gaze softened into pure tenderness. “Why are you here, babe? This place is too loud for you.” Serena crossed her arms and pouted. “You’re one to talk!” “I heard your friends were celebrating a proposal today! How could you not invite me to such an important event?” Panic flashed through Ethan’s eyes. Thinking quickly, he pulled one of his friends, Brad, forward with a nervous laugh. “Oh, you know how busy your music rehearsals are. I didn’t want to bother you.” “Actually, today is the day Brad is proposing to Chloe! You came just in time to witness their special moment!” With that, he nudged Brad hard. Brad quickly wrapped a sweaty arm around my shoulders, playing along. “Yeah, absolutely! We’re heading to the courthouse to get married right after this!” I looked up and was met with Brad’s greasy, acne-scarred face. Out of all of Ethan’s friends, Brad was the one I loathed the most. He was a creep who constantly made inappropriate, highly sexual jokes about me in public. He had ruined my reputation in our social circle. Brad leaned down, whispering in my ear so only I could hear. “Ethan’s never going to touch you, sweetie.” “Why not just roll with me? I promise I can show you a real good time in bed.” An overwhelming wave of disgust surged inside me. I violently shoved him away and bolted for the door. But Brad lunged forward, trying to grab me into a tight embrace. In sheer panic, I screamed at the top of my lungs. “I already have a husband! He’s waiting for me outside!”

The room fell dead silent for a second before exploding into a collective roar of laughter. “Chloe, stop acting. Don’t you get tired of living in a web of lies?” “Seriously, Brad is being so sweet to you. Don’t break his heart!” “Kiss her! Kiss her! Kiss her!” Watching me get humiliated, Ethan didn’t look worried at all. Instead, he joined in on the chanting. “Honestly, Chloe, I think you and Brad make a perfect couple.” I clenched my fists, staring Ethan dead in the eye. “I said, I have a husband.” “If you don’t believe me, you can come to City Hall right now and see for yourselves!” To prove my point, I reached into my bag to grab the wedding invitation, only to realize I had mailed out the last of the physical ones last night. Seeing my hesitation, Serena stepped forward, putting on her best fake-nice face. “Chloe, you know I’m always on your side. But this time, you’re being really unfair to Brad.” “He gathered so much courage to confess to you. Even if you want to reject him, you shouldn’t make up such a pathetic lie to hurt him.” “After all… everyone knows you’ve been chasing Ethan for a decade. How could you suddenly have a husband?” “Don’t be mad. Everyone is just looking out for you. Lying like this is only going to ruin your own life.” The moment Serena finished speaking, the crowd nodded in agreement. “As expected of a classical music student—so elegant and sensible.” “No wonder Ethan loves her. If I were him, I’d choose her in a heartbeat over someone as crazy and dramatic as Chloe!” Hearing their praise, Serena frowned slightly, looking at me with mock pity. “Chloe, just apologize to Brad, and we can all pretend this never happened, okay? We’re still friends.” There it was. That line again. Every single time there was a conflict, she would play the mediator. She always pretended to support me, but in reality, she was just forcing me to bow my head and apologize. And Ethan and his friends absolutely ate it up. I pulled out my phone, tapped the screen a few times, and held it up in front of their faces. “The paper invitations are gone, but I still have the digital e-vite.” “If you guys are so curious, you’re more than welcome to join. I’ll make sure you’re well accommodated.” A few of them leaned in to look at the screen. Suddenly, one of them gasped. “Holy shit… a private island wedding?!” “Isn’t that Sterling Island? That place is worth hundreds of millions!” Ethan scoffed and slapped my phone down. “Please, it’s obviously fake.” “Look at Chloe. Does she look like someone who could get married on a private island?” “She probably just photoshopped her name onto someone else’s invitation. Talk about desperately trying to look rich.” The mocking sneers on everyone’s faces deepened. “Chloe, your delusions are getting out of hand!” “Exactly! As if a billionaire who owns a private island would ever look at someone like you!” Serena walked over, trying to grab my arm gently. “Chloe, please don’t do this to yourself.” “Why must you embarrass yourself like this?” “Ethan might not love you back, but he’s always treated you like family. Doing this is only going to make him hate you more.” Ethan laughed dismissively. “Serena, don’t waste your breath on her. You can’t talk sense into a crazy person.” I let out a soft sigh and slowly pulled off my glove. On my ring finger, a massive, flawless pear-cut diamond ring caught the light, sparkling brilliantly. Serena gasped, her eyes widening in shock. “Is that… ‘The Star of the Ocean’ from the Christie’s auction?!”

Ethan, being a regular at high-end auctions, instantly recognized the name. He lunged forward, grabbing my hand and staring intensely at the diamond. After a long silence, he looked up, his voice sharp with suspicion. “Where did you steal this?” “This ring is worth over ten million dollars.” I blinked, genuinely surprised myself. I knew Julian was wealthy, but I didn’t realize the ring he gave me when we got engaged was *this* expensive. Seeing me space out, Ethan sneered. “Yeah, you definitely stole it.” “With your bank account, you couldn’t even afford a single dust particle on this ring if you sold all your organs.” Before I could fire back, my phone vibrated in my palm. I pushed past the crowd to a quieter corner and answered the call. “Hey. Yeah, I’m on my way. Wait for me.” The moment I hung up and turned around, Ethan was standing right behind me. He held a lit cigarette, his eyes dark and unreadable. “Let me guess. Was that your imaginary billionaire husband calling?” I nodded calmly. “Yes. It’s time for our appointment at City Hall.” “If you guys are so eager to watch, you’re welcome to follow me.” Before Ethan could say anything, his friends cheered. “Hell yeah! I want to see this ‘billionaire’ who supposedly bought a private island and the Star of the Ocean!” “Chloe, don’t chicken out when we get there!” I turned to walk out, but Ethan suddenly grabbed my arm again. “Chloe, this is your last chance to tell the truth before we walk out those doors.” “If we actually go to City Hall and no one shows up, you’ll be the laughingstock of the entire city.” I frowned, looking at him with genuine confusion. “Ethan, why are you so convinced I’m lying?” “I am getting married. For real.” Without waiting for his reply, I shook off his hand and walked out, the group trailing close behind me. Along the way, his friends pulled out their phones, recording me for their Snapchat and Instagram stories. “Guys, you won’t believe this! Ethan’s ultimate simp is claiming she’s marrying a billionaire today!” “Look at her! The ultimate clinger says she’s got a sugar daddy who bought her a private island!” They blasted the videos to their entire social circles. Within minutes, I became the joke of the town. Everyone was eagerly waiting to watch me fall flat on my face. When we arrived at City Hall, however, Julian’s car wasn’t parked at the entrance. Ethan’s friends immediately pounced on the opportunity. “Oh, look! Where is this mysterious husband? I don’t see anyone!” “Did your billionaire husband turn into a pumpkin?” They laughed loudly, intentionally drawing the attention of bystanders. “Hey everyone, come look! This girl claimed she was marrying a billionaire and dragged us all the way here! Turns out she’s completely full of shit!” “People these days will lie about anything just to feel important!” “Tell you what! I’ll make a bet right now! If her ‘billionaire husband’ actually shows up in the next fifteen minutes, I’ll hand everyone here a hundred bucks!” “But if he doesn’t, this lying bitch has to pay everyone a thousand!” With money on the line, a crowd of curious onlookers quickly gathered, whispering and pointing at me. Everyone was waiting to watch me burn. Feeling the suffocating weight of dozens of judgmental eyes, I instinctively took a step back. “What’s wrong? Are you scared now? Want to run away?” Brad sneered, stepping into my personal space. But before I could even open my mouth to speak, a warm, firm hand wrapped securely around my shoulder. A gorgeous bouquet of hand-woven, delicate wire roses was gently pressed into my hands. “I am so sorry, sweetheart. I got caught in traffic.”

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In my previous life, my mate Jack left me surrounded by rogues in order to save his fragile human foster sister, Lily. He carried the pregnant Lily out of the encirclement and said to me coldly, “Lily is human, and she can’t hold on. You’re different, so hang in there a little longer. I’ll go find people to save you.” But until I was torn apart alive by the rogues, I never waited for him to come back and save me. When I opened my eyes again, I had returned to the day of the formal mate ceremony. Lily arrived late, and I smelled the scent of a pup on her. This time, facing pressure from every member of Black Pack and Jack’s coercion, I gave a cold laugh and directly rejected the alliance marriage. 01 I opened my eyes. Moonlight spilled in through the banquet hall windows, and the air was filled with the scent of the fireplace and pinewood. I lowered my head, looked at the pure white ceremonial gown on my body, and suddenly dug my fingertips into my palm. It hurt. It was not the terrible pain of being torn apart by rogues, but a vivid, sharp sting. I was back. I had returned to the formal mate ceremony between Black Pack and Shadowfang Pack. A commotion came from the entrance of the banquet hall. I raised my head and, without the slightest surprise, saw my affectionate fiancé Jack quickly pass through the crowd and walk toward Lily, who had just arrived. He moved so fast that it was as if his life would vanish with hers if he were one second late. The guests from the surrounding packs instantly gathered around, and whispers and discussions rang out everywhere. “Isn’t Jack a little too concerned about this foster sister?” “After all, Lily’s parents died protecting the Alpha and Luna. Two brave humans left behind only one fragile daughter, so of course they have to protect her well.” “But today is the mate ceremony. Leaving the future Luna standing aside like this—what is that supposed to mean?” I stood in place and watched coldly as Jack led Lily to the front of the banquet hall as if he were protecting a priceless treasure. Lily wore a thin long dress, and under the moonlight, her originally flat lower abdomen actually showed a somewhat unusual swell. Jack took off his outer robe and wrapped her tightly in it, and even his voice was trembling. “Lily, don’t be scared. I’m here.” Lily leaned in his arms, her face as pale as paper, her lashes trembling slightly, but one hand instinctively protected her lower abdomen before she turned her head and suddenly retched. That movement was far too obvious. The discussions around us instantly quieted, and everyone’s gazes became subtle. Luna Sarah pushed through the crowd and rushed over, her face livid. “What are you standing around for! Hurry and help Lily to the lounge in the back!” On Shadowfang Pack’s side, my father David’s face also darkened, and he turned to look at the representatives sent by each pack. I followed his gaze and swept my eyes over those representatives without saying a word. It was still the same ugly faces. It had been the same in my previous life too: whenever a huge scandal happened, their first reaction was always to suppress it, then push me out as a shield. “Healer Miller.” I pushed through the crowd, and my cool voice was especially clear in the silent banquet hall. “Since she’s unwell, don’t trouble her by taking her to the back. Examine her right here.” The accompanying Healer Miller froze for a moment, then subconsciously looked at Luna Sarah. Luna Sarah’s expression turned ugly, and she lowered her voice to warn me. “Emma, today is your big day. Don’t make trouble.” I met her gaze without giving an inch. “It is precisely because this is my mate ceremony that we need to clarify everything. Lily is Black Pack’s foster daughter and has a special status. She retched on an occasion like this, so shouldn’t she give everyone an explanation in public? If something is wrong and the hall full of guests is startled, who can afford to take responsibility?” Jack supported Lily, his brows tightly furrowed. “Emma, Lily is already like this, and you still insist on pushing her?” I stared at him, my eyes without a trace of warmth. “Am I pushing her, or are you feeling guilty?” As soon as those words fell, the banquet hall became deathly silent. Healer Miller crouched down to examine her, and Lily’s lashes trembled violently as her fingers clutched Jack’s shirt tightly. I could see it clearly: she had woken up long ago and was only pretending to faint. After a while, Healer Miller moved his hand away from her wrist, his face turning deathly pale. Luna Sarah immediately reached out. “What exactly is going on? Did she catch a chill?” Sweat broke out on Healer Miller’s forehead, and he braced himself as he spoke. “Based on the examination results… Miss Lily should be carrying a pup.” Carrying a pup. Those two words exploded in the banquet hall like a thunderclap. I heard the sounds of people around us sucking in cold breaths. “Carrying a pup? Lily doesn’t even have a mate, so where did the child come from?” “Look at how nervous Jack is… It couldn’t be…” The discussions surged over like a tide and could not be suppressed at all. Luna Sarah panicked and shouted sharply, “Nonsense! The moonlight is wrong tonight, Healer Miller, you made a mistake! Hurry and take her away!” “Wait.” I took a step forward, and my boots stepped on the stone floor with a crisp sound. “Luna Sarah, since Lily is carrying a pup, we must make it clear who the father is. If someone deceived her, forced her, or deliberately hid a relationship, we will report it to the Werewolf Council right now. The ceremony is not over yet, so no one can run.” When she heard that it would be reported to the Werewolf Council, Lily finally could not keep pretending anymore. She suddenly opened her eyes, her eye sockets red, tears falling in large drops as she begged in a hoarse voice, “Emma, don’t report it… It’s my fault. It’s all my fault…” I looked down at her from above. “Tell us whose child it is.” She bit her lower lip, but she refused to say the key point and only kept shrinking into Jack’s arms, crying in such a pitiful way. “Jack… don’t say it… Please don’t say it…” Jack. She called him so intimately. I suddenly felt incomparably disgusted and pointed at Jack. “She is your foster sister in name, yet she’s carrying a child of unknown origin in her belly. Every word from you is ‘Lily’ and ‘don’t be scared.’ Jack, tell me, what are you afraid of?” 02 Jack’s Adam’s apple rolled violently. He looked at me, then lowered his head and looked at the trembling Lily in his arms. The next second, he did something that shocked the entire hall. In front of all the pack members, representatives from each pack, and allies, he knelt straight down before me. “Emma.” He raised his head, and his eyes were full of pleading. “Lily lost her parents when she was young, and her health has never been good. That night, I drank too much… I’m the one who wronged you.” With a boom, the people around us completely exploded into chaos. The representatives of each pack whispered to one another, and even though David’s people tried to stop them, they could not stop the spread of this earth-shattering scandal at all. “The child is mine.” Jack gritted his teeth and admitted it. “But the one I love is you. Emma, I’m begging you, let this child be born.” I looked at his humble figure kneeling on the ground and only felt that it was absurd to the extreme. The person he was kneeling to was me, but every word he said was protecting Lily. Lily cried and shook her head, struggling as if she also wanted to kneel. “No, Jack didn’t force me… It was only that one time. I didn’t do it on purpose…” Seeing this, Luna Sarah’s eyes shifted, and she immediately changed into a serious expression as she began calculating very quickly. “Emma, this matter has already become like this, but the pup is always innocent. After the child is born, register it under your name. You will still be Black Pack’s only Luna, and no one will ever surpass you!” I slowly turned my head and looked at Luna Sarah. “Register it under my name?” “Yes!” Luna Sarah seemed to have grabbed onto a life-saving straw. “Lily won’t fight with you. She only wants a place to settle down. After you marry in, Jack will live properly with you, and Black Pack will handle the rumors outside.” A few Black Pack elders beside her also came forward, talking over one another as they tried to persuade me. “What pack doesn’t have something like this? He’s an Alpha, so he was confused for a moment.” “If you want to be Luna, you must have the tolerance of a Luna.” “Jack has already knelt to you in public, so do you still want to force Lily to her death?” Listening to these disgusting remarks, I suddenly laughed. The sound of my laughter seemed especially abrupt under the moonlight. They did not think they had wronged me. They thought that since the matter had already happened, I should know my place and accept this mess. I should hide Lily’s shame, preserve Black Pack’s heir, and help Jack continue maintaining his devoted image. In the future, I would even have to raise this child for them and pretend that nothing had happened. In my previous life, I had believed their bullshit. In my previous life, for the greater picture of the alliance between Shadowfang Pack and Black Pack, I swallowed this insult. I thought that as long as I took one step back, Jack would settle down. After our marriage, he was indeed obedient to me in everything, caring and considerate, and he would become nervous for ages even if I frowned once. Until that fierce battle with the rogues. I was trapped in the encirclement, isolated and helpless. With my face covered in blood, I reached my hand toward him. “Jack, save me…” But he turned around, picked up Lily, who had only scraped a little skin, and rushed out of the encirclement. More and more rogues gathered, and the smell of blood choked me so badly that I could not breathe. I desperately swung my claws and looked at him in despair. He stood in the safe zone and looked coldly at me struggling in the encirclement, without the slightest warmth from the past in his eyes. “Emma, Lily is human, and she can’t hold on. You’re different, so hang in there a little longer. Reinforcements will arrive soon.” He held Lily just like that and watched helplessly as the rogues tore me apart. Before I died, through the moonlight, I saw Lily lying on his shoulder and showing me a smug, vicious smile. It turned out that all his kindness to me had only been to stabilize Shadowfang Pack and make me willingly become Lily’s shield. Pulling my thoughts back, I looked at Jack, who was still kneeling on the ground, and my eyes turned completely cold. “You want me to acknowledge the bastard child you had with your foster sister? You want me to enter your pack as the laughingstock of every pack?” I took a step forward and looked down at him from above. “Jack, what the hell do you think you are, that you deserve to have me serve as your cover?” Jack’s expression changed abruptly. “Emma! I’ve already knelt down and begged you, so what else do you want?!” “What do I want?” I turned around to face all the guests, and my voice rang through the entire banquet hall. “Everyone present today is a witness!” My voice echoed beneath the moonlight. “Black Pack clearly knew that Jack and his foster sister Lily were secretly involved and that she was pregnant, yet they still proceeded with the alliance marriage with Shadowfang Pack! After the matter was exposed, their first reaction was not to admit their fault, but to force me to swallow this insult and force me to be the mother of this child!” “In their eyes, I, Emma, have only one use, and that is to serve as a shield for this shameless couple!” 03 David finally could not bear it anymore. He rushed forward and lowered his voice in an angry roar. “Emma! Are you insane?! Do you know the value of an alliance between two packs? Isn’t it just one pup? Just raise it! Will you only be satisfied after you make this matter impossible to end?!” I turned my head and looked at this wonderful father of mine, and my heart was filled with desolation. This was my biological father. In his eyes, his daughter’s dignity and lifelong happiness could not compare to a pile of numbers on the territorial border. “Dad.” I looked at him coldly. “If I endure this today, then tomorrow Shadowfang Pack will become Black Pack’s subordinate. Do you think what they want is only the title of Luna? What they want is for the entire Shadowfang Pack to pave the way for this child!” David choked, his face livid, yet he could not say a single word for a long time. I no longer paid attention to him and picked up the alliance contract between the two packs from the table, then used both hands to apply force. “Rip—” In front of everyone, I tore the contract in half, and the fragments scattered over Jack’s face like falling snow. “From today on, the engagement between Jack and me is terminated!” I tossed the scraps of paper in my hand straight into the fireplace in the center of the banquet hall as if I were throwing away trash. “Jack, take your lover and your child and get out of my sight.” After saying that, I turned without looking back and strode out of the banquet hall under the shocked gazes of everyone present. The night wind lifted my long hair, and my back was straight. This was only the beginning. The pain of being abandoned that I suffered in my previous life—I would make them repay it a thousandfold and ten thousandfold. On the second day after the mate ceremony, the entire werewolf territory exploded. Rumors spread through every pack, and eight out of ten were about Black Pack’s scandal. Black Pack’s reputation crashed the moment the market opened, and resource allocation within the territory fell into chaos. David flew into a rage at the residence, smashed everything he could smash, pointed at my nose, and cursed me as an ignorant wastrel. “You will go to Black Pack immediately and apologize! Say that you lost your head last night! This alliance marriage must happen!” I sat on a stone chair and calmly drank herbal tea, not even lifting my eyelids. “If you want the marriage, you go marry them. I’m not marrying him anyway.” “You—!” David was so angry that he raised his hand to hit me. “Hit me.” I raised my head and looked at him coldly. “If this slap lands today, I will take all the cooperation channels my mother left behind and leave Shadowfang Pack tomorrow. Then you can see whether those packs will cooperate with you or with me.” David’s hand froze in midair, and his face alternated between blue and white. When my mother was alive, as Luna, she single-handedly established trade partnerships between Shadowfang Pack and several surrounding packs. The Alphas of those packs only acknowledged my mother’s favor. Before she died, she handed all these networks to me. This was also why David had always feared me, yet had no choice but to support me. “You think you don’t have to listen to me anymore, is that it?!” He gritted his teeth and lowered his hand. “Yes.” I stood up and straightened my robe. “Dad, I don’t care whether Shadowfang Pack lives or dies. But no one should even think about touching what my mother left me. Black Pack is a bottomless pit now, and if you insist on jumping in, I absolutely won’t accompany you.” After saying that, I directly left the main manor building of Shadowfang Pack and moved into an independent residence under my name. As soon as I settled in, my Gamma Kate—my mother’s capable assistant when she was alive, who had followed me ever since my mother passed away—sent me an encrypted record. “Emma, I found it. Over the past six months, large amounts of money have flowed abnormally out of Jack’s private accounts.” I opened the record and scanned through the transfer lists line by line. Sports cars, custom jewelry, overseas trust funds… and even a luxury villa by the sea. And the ultimate beneficiary of all these assets was Lily. Even more laughably, the funds used to purchase that villa had actually been public funds that Jack secretly misappropriated from a real estate project jointly advanced by Black Pack and Shadowfang Pack. I looked at the numbers on the screen and laughed coldly. Jack, oh Jack, you really are a hopeless romantic. You took my Shadowfang Pack’s money to support your lover. “Kate.” I looked at Gamma Kate. “Keep a close eye on the flow of this money. Also, investigate Lily’s records in Black Pack. I want the original files of every action she has taken since childhood.” In my previous life, Lily always occupied Jack’s time with all kinds of excuses, such as being weak and needing care. I wanted to see exactly how many lies were hidden inside that delicate body of hers. 04 That afternoon, Jack actually came to my door. There were dark circles under his eyes, so it was obvious he had not slept all night, and he was holding a large bouquet of my favorite white lilies. “Emma.” He stood outside the door, his voice hoarse and carrying a trace of coaxing. “Are you still angry?” Looking at his affectionate appearance, I only felt my stomach churn. “Jack, do you need something?” I leaned against the doorframe and had no intention of letting him in. “Emma, I handled what happened last night badly. Lily’s emotions were unstable, so I could only comfort her first at the time.” He sighed, took a check from inside his clothes, and handed it to me. “This is a check for thirty million, as my apology to you.” I lowered my head and glanced at the check. Thirty million. To stabilize me, he really had spent a lot of money. In my previous life, he had also used this kind of seemingly unreserved compensation to gradually lower my guard. I took the check, flicked it twice casually, and suddenly smiled. “Jack, do you think I’m short of these thirty million?” He froze for a moment, and his eyes became somewhat panicked. “Emma, I know you feel wronged. I’ve already made arrangements for Lily. She will move out of Black Pack and go to a foreign sanatorium to wait for the birth. In the future, she will never appear in front of you again.” “Is that so?” I looked at him with a half-smile. “A foreign sanatorium? Or is she going to the seaside villa you bought for her with Shadowfang Pack project funds and become its mistress?” Jack’s expression changed instantly, and his pupils suddenly contracted. “You… you investigated me?” “Things that have been done will always be discovered.” I smashed the check hard into his face. “Jack, you used my Shadowfang Pack’s money and took someone else’s things to buy favors. Did you really think I was blind?” The sharp edge of the paper cut his cheek and left a thin trace of blood. He did not even bother to wipe it and stepped forward, wanting to grab my hand. “Emma, listen to my explanation. That money was only temporarily misappropriated, and I’ll make it up! My feelings for you are real!” “Real?” I suddenly shook off his hand, and my eyes were as cold as ice. “Your real feelings mean making me raise your child? Your real feelings mean holding a mate ceremony with me while buying another woman a villa? Jack, take your fake affection and get out!” “Bang!” I slammed the stone door shut, completely shutting out his hypocritical face. Outside the door, it was quiet for a moment before his voice came, suppressing anger. “Emma, don’t be too ruthless! Without Black Pack, do you think David will let you go? We’ll see!” I leaned against the back of the door, listening to the sound of his footsteps gradually fading away, and a bloodthirsty cold smile curved my lips. Then we would see. In this life, if I did not strip a layer of skin off you and Black Pack, then my name would not be Emma. Over the next few days, Black Pack had a very hard time. Its reputation kept falling, and several important partnerships were forced to stop because the funding chain had broken. Although David was angry with me, after seeing Black Pack’s mess, he did not dare mention the alliance marriage so easily again. As for me, I secretly sped up the closing of the net. “Emma.” Kate placed a thick file bag on my stone table, and her eyes carried a bit of disbelief. “You guessed right. All of Lily’s past records were fabricated by herself.” I pulled out the documents and quickly flipped through them. “Her so-called weak health and need for care were all fake. There is one more thing—her parents’ deaths were not an accident at all. That fire five years ago was deliberately designed by her. She tampered with things in advance so that her parents would be trapped in the fire, right when Jack’s parents happened to see them. Her parents ‘sacrificed themselves’ to save Jack’s parents, and she was then naturally adopted by Black Pack.” I looked at Lily’s gentle smile in the photo, and my eyes gradually turned cold. What a perfect image of weakness and harmlessness. In my previous life, for the sake of such a ruthless woman, Jack left me surrounded by rogues and let me be torn apart alive. “There is one more thing.” Kate lowered her voice. “About the pup in Lily’s belly…” “Speak.” “I found that she secretly went to a human hospital in the city for a prenatal checkup three months ago. I used some connections and got her medical records, and there is a DNA test report inside.” Kate pushed a report in front of me. “That pup is not Jack’s at all.” I suddenly raised my head, and my pupils shrank slightly. Not Jack’s? “Whose is it?” Kate took a deep breath. “It belongs to Derek’s younger brother, that notorious playboy, Tom.” Derek was the Alpha of Ironclaw Pack. Black Pack’s biggest rival in the territorial dispute. Looking at that DNA report, I suddenly could not help laughing loudly. I laughed until tears almost came out. Jack, oh Jack, you pride yourself on being extremely clever, and for one woman you could even abandon the life of your future Luna, but in the end, not only are you raising someone else’s child, you are also cleaning up your mortal enemy’s mess! This was simply the biggest joke in the world! “Emma, should we release this report now?” Kate asked. “No rush.” I put away my smile, and icy killing intent flickered in my eyes. “If we release it just like this, it would be too easy on them. I want them to fall completely from their highest moment.”

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I was the daughter of the strongest warrior in the Crimson Pack, but my life was destroyed by two werewolves with their own hands. The first was Ethan, the Alpha heir who grew up with me. To avenge his fated mate Maya, he broke my legs with silver nails himself. The second was Luke, the Alpha of the Ridge Pack, who saved me in my darkest moment. He appeared when I was at my most helpless and took me away from the place that had broken my heart. He encouraged me to accept treatment and rehabilitation training, leading me out of the shadows. But when I was ready to return to training, he framed me for using wolfsbane to murder my own packmates. Later, he even tore the tendons in my limbs with a silver blade, turning me completely into a cripple. I was banished from the Pack and died miserably in the wilderness. When I opened my eyes again, I had returned to the night before my legs were broken. “Audrey, tomorrow is my coming-of-age ceremony, and you have to be there.” Ethan, standing in front of me, said the exact same words he had said in my previous life. I smiled. This time, I wanted to watch them walk into the trap I had set for them.

My heart felt heavy, as if a huge stone were pressing down on it, and my fingertips were a little numb. Sure enough, he said the same thing as in my previous life. But I refused to give up, and I tried to find an excuse not to go. “But I have something to do…” Before I could finish, Ethan frowned, his tone filled with displeasure, and the first thing he brought up was our friendship of more than ten years. “Audrey, what do you mean by that?” “When have you ever missed one of my birthday gatherings before?” “Are we still friends or not?” My face stayed calm, but deep down, I was shocked. In my previous life, I had been tricked into the council room by his sweet words, and then my legs had been broken alive with silver nails. Holding back the pain churning in my chest, I pretended not to notice the stiffness in his tone and kept testing him. “I have to be there?” Ethan’s tone was forceful, leaving no room for discussion. “Whether you still want me as your friend of more than ten years is up to you!” I always remembered how, in my previous life, after he learned my legs were broken, he unilaterally cut off contact with me. He had even turned away without hesitation after I was mocked and shoved down by Maya’s lackeys, just like today. I could not understand why growing up with him for more than ten years had earned me such carefully planned scheming. Fortunately, I had come back to life. In my previous life, I swallowed all that loss, but in this life, I would never repeat the same mistakes. But plans could not keep up with change, and just as I reached the intersection, a car came speeding toward me like it had gone mad, moving so fast that I had no time to dodge. I instinctively closed my eyes, thinking I could not escape this disaster and that coming back to life was nothing more than a cruel joke fate had played on me. In the next instant, a force yanked me backward. After stumbling until I steadied myself, I had not yet recovered from the shock when I looked up and met a pair of deep black eyes. It was Luke. My body instinctively felt sick, and I almost threw up. In my previous life, I had been like a homeless stray dog after my legs were broken, and he had protected me. But he was also the one who had not hesitated to give false testimony when I was accused of using wolfsbane to murder my packmates, personally destroying my future. “Are you okay?” His gentle voice made Luke seem very kind. But this time, because I had not been deceived, I saw his completely cold eyes with my own eyes. I remembered when I was accused in my previous life of using wolfsbane to murder my packmates, and I tried to take the evidence to the elders to demand justice. It was he who, as my mate, announced in front of the entire Pack that I was guilty. An Alpha’s word was a command. If he said I had used wolfsbane to murder my packmates, then I had used wolfsbane to murder my packmates. No one questioned it, and no one argued. Otherwise, why would Luke, who supposedly loved me so much, personally declare me guilty? The betrayal from the werewolf closest to me saddled me with a terrible reputation I could never wash clean. After that, I lost all hope and was prepared to spend the rest of my life like that, but then my tendons were torn apart by werewolves with silver blades, and Luke locked me in his basement. I became completely useless, a person who could only depend on him. In this life, I would not only get away from these two evil werewolves, but I would also take revenge.

“Audrey, what’s wrong?” Luke saw that I had not spoken for a long time and subconsciously frowned as he called out to me. The flash of impatience in his eyes was clear to see. The moment my hand touched his, an inexplicable pull came from my fingertips—it was the instinct of a fated mate. I gritted my teeth, forced down that impulse, and shook off his hand. “Thank you, Alpha Luke.” After leaving those words behind, I turned and walked away, but Luke chased after me. “I saved you, and all I get is one thank-you?” “What, Alpha Luke, do you want me to become your mate to repay you?” I looked at Luke, my words sharp. He was shocked by the way I acted. That made sense, since at this point in my previous life, we did not know each other well, so by all logic, I should have been extremely grateful to him. But the hatred from my previous life made it impossible for me to endure him at all. While Luke was distracted, I had already gotten in the car and left. After returning home, I looked at everything familiar, and my tears kept falling. When my parents saw me crying, they thought Ethan had bullied me and hurriedly questioned me. To keep them from worrying, I made up a random excuse and brushed it off. But being able to see my parents again still made me very content. In my previous life, after I was locked up, my parents searched for me many times without success and began to suspect that Luke might be harming me. Unfortunately, they were eventually plotted against and not only lost their status, but also lost their lives. Fortunately, there was still time for everything now. After reassuring my parents, I secretly hired someone to investigate Luke, as well as Ethan and Maya. Three hours later, I obtained all of their information. Looking at the densely packed words on the page, my heart felt as if it had fallen into an ice cellar. So that was it. So Maya and Ethan were the true fated mates. No wonder Ethan would risk everything for her. And although Luke and Maya came from the same Pack and grew up together, he was not her fated mate. He was only her most loyal guardian, nothing more. Yet I had become the target of their games. While flipping through their information, I looked at the messages Ethan had sent me. [I’ll wait for you, Audrey, and if you don’t come, my coming-of-age ceremony won’t be complete.] [Audrey, didn’t you say you would stay with me for the rest of your life? You won’t even come to one coming-of-age ceremony?] [I miss you so much.] The many messages meant that Ethan wanted me dead. In the end, I replied with one message. [I’ll be there.] Ethan immediately replied right after. [I’ll wait for you.] In the past, the two of us had also messaged each other like this, and Ethan had even sworn to me, “From now on, I’ll always reply to your messages immediately.” Ethan really had done it, but everything changed after Maya appeared. I did not understand how Maya had changed Ethan in just half a year. In my previous life, I disliked Maya very much, because she always used her identity as an outsider to morally pressure people. When I asked her to participate in Pack training, she cried and said, “Vance, are you looking down on me because I come from a low background, so you’re targeting me on purpose?” At first, Ethan would still take my side and scold Maya. “Are you sick? Which part of what she said meant that?” But later, Ethan would only frown. “Enough, Audrey, Maya didn’t do it on purpose.” At that time, I did not notice anything wrong, and sometimes I even complained to Ethan about Maya. But all of that became the reason he used silver nails to pierce my legs. He glared at me fiercely and said, “Do you really look down on people that much? What did Maya ever do to you? Why are you always targeting her? Is it just because she likes me?” “Audrey, when did you become so vicious? Aren’t you just relying on the fact that your father is the strongest warrior in the Pack to humiliate people? Let’s see how you become a warrior after this.”

That day was the darkest moment of my life. I had even thought about dying. Later, my parents went to Ethan for an explanation because of me, but no one testified for me. My parents were also suppressed by Ethan. Much later, I finally learned that this was only the beginning of my life’s descent into misery. After getting my emotions under control, I made several phone calls before falling into a deep sleep. Early the next morning, Ethan called me. “Don’t forget to come.” “Okay.” After hanging up, I used an unfamiliar number to send Luke a message. Then I contacted my parents, Alpha Marcus Hart, and prepared everything before setting out for Ethan’s coming-of-age ceremony. Whether Maya could handle today’s big show would be up to her. Ethan’s coming-of-age ceremony was grand, and the members of our Crimson Pack, as well as werewolves from nearby Packs, all came. Maya stayed by Ethan’s side like she was the hostess. My arrival caused quite a stir. Everyone knew about my relationship with Ethan, so when they now saw Maya standing beside him, they naturally could not help looking over as if they were watching a show. When Maya saw me, she looked as if she had seen some terrifying werewolf and instinctively hid behind Ethan. “I’m sorry, Vance, I just, I just wanted to…” I interrupted Maya’s act of pretending to be timid and afraid. “Congratulations, and happy coming-of-age.” I handed over the gift and turned to leave, but Ethan grabbed me. “You just got here and you’re leaving? Are you really giving me that little respect?” When Ethan grabbed me, the anger in Maya’s eyes was almost impossible to hide. I raised my brows and looked at her. “Someone’s about to cry, so why aren’t you going to comfort her?” Following my gaze, Ethan immediately saw Maya’s slightly red eyes. “Maya, are you okay?” Maya shook her head in grievance, and Ethan looked at me angrily. “Audrey, you bullied Maya again, didn’t you? Are you crazy? Do you feel awful if you don’t bully Maya for a single day?” I swore I had not even touched a single strand of Maya’s hair, so how had I bullied her? So when he favored another person, he really could become completely unreasonable. I rolled my eyes at Ethan. “Did I bully her through the air? Ethan, you were the one who shamelessly asked me to come to your coming-of-age ceremony, and now you’re treating me like this. What do you mean? Was this on purpose?” My voice was loud, and the surrounding werewolves all heard me. Some werewolves even stood on my side. “What is Maya even doing? Audrey didn’t do anything, so why is she crying?” “You don’t get it? She’s just a delicate little werewolf.” Those almost mocking words made Maya’s expression turn awkward. But Ethan did not think there was anything wrong with Maya, and instead, he glared at me through gritted teeth. “Are you satisfied now?” After that, Ethan chased after Maya, who had run off. Meanwhile, I looked at their backs and fell into thought. Ethan, this was only the beginning, and tonight was destined to be a sleepless night. Then I looked toward the raised platform, where my people were already ready. Tonight, no one could even think about running. Thinking of that, I could not help smiling. But as soon as I turned around, I met a pair of gloomy eyes. How could I have forgotten him? As Maya’s greatest guardian, how could he not show up? The moment we looked at each other, Luke could not put away his expression in time, so he could only give me an awkward smile. Just then, my phone rang, and when I saw the message, I could no longer hide the smile in my eyes. Then I walked straight to Luke’s side. “Alpha Luke, what a coincidence. Do you know Ethan?”

Facing my question, Luke frowned slightly. “I don’t know him.” “Oh, then who are you here for? Today is Ethan’s coming-of-age ceremony.” “I…” The words Luke blurted out could no longer justify themselves. Under the pressure of my step-by-step stare, Luke smiled awkwardly. “I came to join the fun.” “Is that so?” I cleared my throat. “Everyone, the man in front of me is the Alpha of the Ridge Pack. Don’t you want to come meet him?” My words made the werewolves present come forward one after another, and after they surrounded Luke, I took the opportunity to go to the preparation room. Sure enough, I saw a heated scene. I quickly opened my phone and started recording. Only then did I return to the gathering hall. At this moment, Ethan was looking for me. After he saw me, a smile with unclear meaning appeared in his eyes. The coming-of-age ceremony officially started five minutes later, and during that time, Ethan kept staring at me, afraid that I would run away. He did not even notice that Maya had already been away from his side for a long time. Five minutes later, Ethan stepped onto the platform. “Everyone, today is my coming-of-age ceremony, and I am very grateful for the arrival of one werewolf.” Everyone looked at me one after another. Unfortunately, Ethan waved at Maya instead. She ran onto the stage excitedly and said coquettishly, “Ethan, what are you doing?” “Today, I might as well tell everyone the truth. Maya is my fated mate, and Audrey and I are only childhood playmates who grew up together.” At this moment, my heart no longer hurt that much. Then Ethan openly expressed his love, and Maya cried from being moved. Only at this moment did Ethan finally look at me. “I also want to say one more thing. In truth, everyone has always misunderstood the relationship between Audrey and me. I know Audrey spread those rumors herself, and I’ve been unable to stand her for a long time. Today, I’m going to avenge Maya.” As soon as Ethan finished speaking, several werewolf warriors rushed toward me. But before they could get close, the doors of the gathering hall were pushed open. My parents came in with Alpha Marcus Hart and Luna Serena Hart. This time, Ethan froze. “Dad, Mom, why are you here?” “It’s your coming-of-age ceremony, so what’s wrong with us coming?” Alpha Marcus and Luna Serena looked at Ethan in confusion. At that moment, I screamed. “Ah, who are you, and what are you trying to do?” When my parents heard the commotion, they hurriedly rushed over, and Alpha Marcus and Luna Serena also came to me. At that moment, Ethan’s face was filled with embarrassment, and he frowned as he looked at everything. But I secretly smiled at Maya behind Ethan, then mouthed, “You’re dead.” In the next instant, an ambiguous sound came from the projection screen in the gathering hall. Everyone looked toward the sound, and what they saw was the most exciting scene. [This is a paid chapter point]

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I suffer from selective mutism. Whenever my emotions get too intense, my throat locks up, and I can’t utter a single word. Everyone at school teased me and called me the mute freak. Only Chloe and Ethan protected me. When I wanted to confess my love to Ethan, Chloe read my love letter out loud for me. On the day he proposed, Chloe was the one who shouted “Yes” on my behalf. I thought they were the two people in the world who understood me best. Until we started planning the wedding. I wanted a beautiful beach ceremony, but Chloe ruined it by saying, “A castle wedding is way more romantic, Ethan.” I wanted our house to be downtown, but Chloe spoke up first. “Audrey hates noisy places. The suburbs would be perfect for her.” Ethan bought the suburban house immediately. On our wedding day, I finished putting on my bridal gown and walked out, only to find the entire house completely empty. I sent a single question mark in our family Snapchat group. A group FaceTime call popped up instantly. My entire family was already at the wedding venue. Ethan spoke through the screen, his tone casual. “Audrey, you don’t need to come to the venue anymore. Chloe is going to walk down the aisle and complete the ceremony for you.” My mom, Sarah, joined in to pressure me. “Audrey, a wedding is a massive event. What if you freeze up and can’t speak in front of everyone? Our family cannot afford to be embarrassed like that.” Chloe smiled sweetly on camera. “Audrey, a wedding is just a formality. It doesn’t matter who stands at the altar. Besides, I’m Sarah’s daughter too. It’s the same thing.” In that moment, I, who had been silent for years, suddenly found my voice in front of everyone. “You two can have the wedding. I’m out.”

The moment the words left my mouth, Ethan frowned. “Audrey, Sarah is right. A wedding is a high-pressure environment. You can’t handle it.” Chloe chimed in gently from the side. “Yes, Audrey. Just leave the ceremony to me. Don’t force yourself.” I opened my mouth. I wanted to tell them that I had practiced my wedding vows hundreds of times in front of the mirror. I wouldn’t have messed up. But my throat felt like it was clogged with wet cement. Not a single sound came out. Sarah sneered. “A mute is a mute. Why are you guys even wasting your breath on her?” The call disconnected. A few minutes later, Ethan posted a livestream link of the wedding on his Instagram. By the time I clicked on it, the ceremony had already started. Chloe was wearing a wedding dress identical to mine. She held my favorite bouquet of white roses, walking down the aisle with a radiant smile. The live comment section was buzzing. “I knew Ethan would choose Chloe in the end!” “Chloe and Ethan are the perfect match. Period!” I typed in the chat: The bride is Audrey. Someone replied instantly. “So what? It’s been like this for years, hasn’t it? Chloe has to do everything for her anyway.” “Lmao, the mute girl wouldn’t even survive a day without Chloe.” My hands shook violently as I stared at the screen. Back in high school, every time my mutism kicked in, Chloe would step up to speak for me. She yelled at the bullies for me. She answered the teachers’ questions for me. She even took my place in speech competitions. As time went on, even though I could technically speak sometimes, everyone just assumed I was completely mute. Ethan and Chloe stopped waiting for me to speak altogether. They made every single decision for me. This time was no different. Nobody asked if I agreed. They just replaced the bride. On the giant screen at the venue, my pre-wedding photos with Ethan were still playing. But nobody looked up at them. Everyone’s eyes were glued to Chloe. Ethan took Chloe’s hand. Under the officiant’s guidance, they exchanged rings and took their vows. When the officiant asked if the bride would take the groom as her husband, she blushed and nodded. “I do.” Those two words should have been spoken by me. The crowd erupted into thunderous applause. Ethan’s friends started chanting in unison, “Kiss her! Kiss her!” Chloe lowered her head with a crimson face, tugging at Ethan’s sleeve as if she didn’t know what to do. Ethan shielded her behind his back. “Alright guys, that’s enough. Audrey is the real bride. Chloe is just standing in to help us finish the ceremony.” “Oh, come on, Ethan! Stop acting. Who doesn’t know you love Chloe?” “Exactly! The bride’s already been swapped. Why keep up the act?” “You two probably wanted this wedding for a long time!” Laughter filled the venue. Not a single person in that room remembered me. After the ceremony, Chloe posted a photo on Instagram. In the picture, she and Ethan were leaning close to each other. In the background, my bridal cardboard cutout stood alone in a dusty corner. Her caption read: My first time pretending to be a bride! It felt pretty good. Wishing my bestie and my childhood friend a lifetime of love! Ethan was the very first person to like the post. Someone commented: “Chloe is too nice. If I were her, I would have just married him for real!” “You and Ethan are the ultimate match!” Tears splashed onto my phone screen. I lost track of how long I cried. Eventually, Sarah posted a short video in the group chat. In the video, Chloe had changed into an evening gown. She was walking table to table with Ethan, raising her glass to toast the guests. She was graceful, social, and drank every glass of champagne with ease. Sarah’s voice could be heard in the background: “Having a daughter as wonderful as Chloe is the greatest blessing of my life.” I always knew everyone loved her. Including my own mother. Chloe and I were from a blended family. Even though I was Sarah’s biological daughter, she always favored her stepdaughter, Chloe. At the very end of the video, the wine glass in Chloe’s hand suddenly slipped and shattered on the floor. She leaned heavily against the table, clutching her stomach, and began to dry-heave uncontrollably.

The video cut off abruptly. I looked up and stared at my reflection in the mirror. The wedding dress didn’t fit. The chest was two inches too loose, and the waist was so tight it left painful red welts on my skin. It was Chloe’s style. And it was tailored to Chloe’s measurements. I began to strip the dress off my body. The zipper got stuck on my back. I had to tug at it roughly before it finally slid down. I suddenly realized how absurd my life was. As the actual bride, I had been completely excluded from my own wedding from start to finish. My phone screen lit up. A message popped up in the family group chat. “Congratulations, Chloe…” Before I could read the rest of the sentence, the message was instantly unsent. The next second, Chloe and Ethan both tagged me in the group. Chloe: Audrey, I’m so sorry. My stomach started hurting out of nowhere. Ethan and the parents are taking me to the ER right now. Ethan: Audrey, you’ve had a long day too. Are you hungry? I’ll buy you something on my way back. Before I could even type a response, Chloe answered for me. Audrey loves those cinnamon rolls from the bakery near campus. Ethan replied instantly: On it. But I hadn’t eaten those cinnamon rolls in years. I actually hated them. It was Chloe who loved them. She used to drag me to that bakery every week. Somewhere along the line, everything she liked became what I supposedly liked. Every detail she “remembered” about me never actually belonged to me. The family chat was buzzing, the unread messages quickly reaching 99+. I had known for a long time that they had another group chat, one that didn’t include me. Sometimes, when someone accidentally posted something in our shared chat, they would quickly flood the screen with random messages to bury it. I started typing, wanting to ask what that “Congratulations” was about. But halfway through, I deleted it. The tears I had just stopped began to fall again. Whenever they talked, I could never get a word in. On the rare occasions I did text, everyone would collectively ignore me. I had tried to confront them about this before. Chloe had told me, “Audrey, you’re just too quiet. You only say one or two words at a time. We honestly just don’t notice.” So, I tried to speak up more. If they didn’t reply, I would repeat myself. But Ethan would just frown and cut me off. “Audrey, saying it once is enough. We can hear you.” Of course they could hear me. They just chose to ignore me. They chose to treat me like a mute. My phone buzzed again. It was a direct message from my supervisor at the news station. Audrey, the UN-backed NGO team we’re sending to Somalia is still missing a sign language interpreter. Are you interested? Ever since I heard about this deployment opportunity, I had been waiting to discuss it with Ethan. But now, there was no need. I clicked “Accept” and sent my application. Then, I threw myself into packing my things. Most of my important belongings had already been moved to the new suburban house. My room here was only filled with old clothes. All of them were hand-me-downs that Chloe didn’t want anymore. I stuffed them all into a giant trash bag and threw them in the bin. Ethan and Chloe didn’t return until very late into the night. And they weren’t alone. Sarah, Andrew, and Ethan’s parents, Rachel and David, were all with them. They thought I wasn’t home. The whole family sat in the living room, talking. Just as I was about to walk out of my room, I heard Chloe’s sobbing voice. “Ethan, what do we do? You and Audrey just got married legally… but I’m pregnant with your baby…” My brain went entirely blank. It felt like a bomb had exploded in my ears. The next second, I heard Ethan comforting her, his voice soft as he pulled her into his arms. “We will explain it to Audrey later. If we sit her down and talk to her gently, she’ll understand.” Sarah stared at Chloe’s stomach, her voice tight with anxiety. “Chloe, sweetie, don’t cry. You have to think about the baby.” Rachel chimed in. “Well, you two already had the wedding ceremony anyway. Let’s just have Ethan and Chloe sign the marriage certificate instead.” Andrew and David shook hands, laughing. “Well, looks like we really are one big family now.” “We’ve always been family. No need to be strangers.” A cold dread crept up from the soles of my feet, freezing me to the core. I blinked away my tears, and suddenly, everything clicked. That deleted message in the group chat… they were congratulating my best friend for getting pregnant with my husband’s child. I always knew I could never compete with Chloe for my family’s affection. But I never expected that everyone, literally everyone, knew about their affair and kept me in the dark. I had been played like a fool, kept around just to watch them perform their happy family drama.

My throat ached with a burning tightness. I forced myself to stand straight, my eyes bloodshot, my teeth biting into my lip until it bled. Finally, I walked out of the hallway. I couldn’t control my rage anymore. I grabbed a glass vase from the console table and slammed it onto the hardwood floor. It shattered into a million pieces. Ethan jumped up from the sofa, panic written all over his face. “Audrey!” Seeing my state, Chloe turned pale and rushed forward to grab my arm. “Audrey, I’m so copy. The pregnancy was an accident. I swear I never wanted to take Ethan away from you…” The suffocating pain in my chest made it hard to breathe. I couldn’t say a single word. Forcing my tears back, I raised my hand and violently shoved her away. Using sign language, I demanded: Why? Why did you play me like this? Why did everyone lie to me? “Enough! What are you waving your hands around for?” Sarah rushed over and pushed me back hard. “If you can’t speak, then keep your hands to yourself! Don’t you dare stress Chloe out!” I stumbled backward, almost falling over the shattered glass. Ethan gasped, instinctively reaching out to catch me, but he stopped himself and looked away. Chloe began to cry hysterically, pulling out her phone. “Audrey, it’s my fault. I’ll make an appointment at the clinic right now. I’ll get an abortion.” Instantly, everyone rushed to stop her. Ethan held her tight, murmuring gently, “Chloe, don’t do anything stupid. I will take full responsibility for you and the baby.” Sarah pointed a finger at me, screaming, “Audrey, Chloe is your best friend! Don’t be so heartless!” “Ethan and Chloe loved each other first. They only let you have Ethan out of pity! What right do you have to throw a tantrum now?” Rachel sighed, her voice dripping with guilt-tripping sweetness. “Audrey, I know you’re a good girl. You wouldn’t want Chloe’s baby to grow up as an illegitimate child, right?” Everyone was cornering me, forcing me to nod, telling me: It’s time for you to step aside. Slowly, I raised my hands and signed a single question: Why should I? My heart felt like it was being squeezed by a giant, icy hand. I gasped for air. Ethan walked over and tried to hug me, his voice softening into a pleading tone. “Audrey, I’m so sorry… I promise you, once the baby is born and Chloe is recovered, I’ll divorce her and marry you. I swear.” I was too exhausted and heartbroken to speak. I could only struggle against his grip, pounding my fists against his chest. But he only held me tighter, whispering “I’m sorry” over and over again into my hair. Eventually, I stopped fighting. I went completely limp. They took my silence as submission. They thought I had agreed. The dramatic crisis was finally resolved to their satisfaction. Chloe wiped her tears and smiled. “Thank you, Audrey. Don’t worry, as soon as the baby is born, I’ll leave Ethan. You will always be his true wife.” Sarah’s attitude softened as well. She didn’t yell at me anymore. She even went to the kitchen and made me a grilled cheese sandwich, adding an extra slice of cheese. Growing up, I never got the extra slice of cheese. Only Chloe did. Now, I finally got my eggs. But I didn’t want them anymore. On the drive back to our new house, Ethan kept apologizing. He said Chloe had a weak constitution, and an abortion would devastate her health. He said his parents had been begging for a grandchild and he couldn’t bear to disappoint them. He even said his feelings for me would never change, and he would make it up to me tenfold in the future. But how do you make up for a betrayed heart? A crack in a mirror is permanent. Ethan dropped me off at the bedroom door, looking guilty. “Audrey, take some time to calm down. I’ll sleep in the guest room tonight.” He turned and walked away, his posture tense. The door shut. My tears finally fell freely. I remembered the day Ethan proposed. He had taken me for a walk by the river. Halfway through, fireworks had lit up the night sky. He had dropped to one knee, holding out a diamond ring. “Audrey, I love you. Let me protect you for the rest of our lives, okay?” My heart had beaten so fast, and I had cried tears of pure joy. I truly believed that to him, I was the only one. But now, while he claimed to love me, he cherished Chloe more. He couldn’t bear to let her lose the baby, so much so that he was willing to sign a marriage license with her. My phone screen lit up on the nightstand. My application for the Somalia deployment had been approved. We were set to leave in two days. The NGO team would be stationed there for a minimum of three years. I opened the portal and changed my deployment duration to permanent. A relationship of three is too crowded. This time, I chose to walk away.

The next morning, I went to the news station to complete the handover paperwork. When I got home, Chloe and Ethan were both there. On the coffee table lay two signed marriage certificates. Chloe was leaning against Ethan’s shoulder. “Ethan, am I being too selfish? If it weren’t for the baby, we would never have registered our marriage.” “Audrey is supposed to be your wife.” Ethan wrapped his arm around her. “Then we’ll just have to treat her even better from now on.” I clutched my car keys tightly and walked in. Seeing me, they quickly pulled apart. Chloe stood up, panic in her eyes as she tried to explain. “Audrey, don’t get the wrong idea. I…” I didn’t even look at her. I walked straight past them into my bedroom to grab my packed suitcase. Chloe pushed the door open and ran inside. Seeing my suitcase, she grabbed my arm, tears streaming down her face. “Audrey, where are you going? If you want me to leave, I’ll leave! Please don’t do this…” I pulled my arm away and dragged my suitcase toward the front door. But she chased after me, blocking my path at the top of the stairs. “Audrey, I want you to be happy more than anyone else does! But I just can’t let go of Ethan. I’m sorry, just give me some time…” She had slept with my fiancé behind my back and gotten pregnant. And now, she had the audacity to ask me for time. I laughed, a bitter, breathless sound. “Get lost.” But she refused to let go, tugging at my sleeve as we struggled near the edge of the staircase. “Audrey, please…” I couldn’t take her hypocrisy for another second. With every ounce of strength left in my body, I violently yanked my arm back. “Get away from me! I don’t want to hear your voice!” Chloe lost her footing on the hardwood stairs. She fell backward. She rolled all the way down to the foyer. Very quickly, a pool of bright red blood began to seep through her clothes. Ethan rushed over like a madman, violently shoving me aside. “Are you insane?!” He scooped Chloe up into his arms and ran out the door. I was thrown against the wall, sliding down to the floor, my shoulder throbbing so hard my vision went black. Chloe lost the baby. She cried hysterically in the hospital bed. Both families gathered around her, whispering words of comfort. The moment I stepped into the room, Sarah’s hand flew across my face. Slap! “How did I raise such a monster?!” Sarah screamed. Ethan sat by the bed, holding Chloe. He stared at me with pure coldness. “Audrey, you’ve disappointed me so much. You couldn’t even tolerate an innocent child?” Rachel joined in, her voice dripping with venom. “Chloe promised she would divorce Ethan eventually! What more did you want? That was my grandchild…” I opened my mouth, trying to say, “I didn’t push her.” But Chloe beat me to it. “Don’t blame Audrey… it was my fault. I just didn’t stand firmly…” Ethan squeezed Chloe’s hand. “Chloe, stop defending her! Haven’t you done enough for her over the years?” His eyes were filled with pain and protective rage for Chloe. Yet, when Sarah slapped me across the face, he hadn’t even blinked. Sarah glared at me. “Apologize to Chloe. Right now!” “Sarah, please, you’re misunderstanding. Audrey really didn’t push me!” Chloe cried out. But the more she “defended” me, the more convinced everyone became of my guilt. Because they had already decided I was the villain. I raised my chin, staring back at them. One clear, sharp word cut through the room. “Never.” Sarah froze. Then, she lunged at me to strike me again. I fought back my tears, standing my ground. For the first time in my life, I talked back to her. “I will say it one last time: I did not push Chloe. I am your biological daughter, Sarah. Why do you never believe me?” “You…” Sarah’s face flushed a deep, angry purple. She pointed a trembling finger at me, gasping for air, before her eyes rolled back and she collapsed onto the floor. The hospital room descended into chaos once again. Nurses rushed in to wheel Sarah to the emergency room. Andrew glared at me, his voice filled with disgust. “Audrey… do you have to ruin this entire family to be satisfied? Are you trying to kill your mother?” The hospital door was wide open. In the hallway, several nurses and visitors peeked in, whispering and pointing at me. I heard someone murmur, “What an ungrateful brat.” That label had been forced onto my head for as long as I could remember. I had spent my entire life enduring Sarah’s favoritism and constant criticism, always accepting it in silence. I turned around, pushed past the gossiping crowd, and walked toward the exit. “Audrey!” Ethan yelled from behind me. “Get back here!” I didn’t look back. Once outside, I hailed a cab and headed straight for the airport. A text from my colleague popped up: Audrey, our flight leaves in an hour. Don’t be late. I replied: On my way. I shoved my phone back into my pocket, leaned against the window, and closed my eyes. This family, this relationship… I was leaving it all behind.

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On the very day my billionaire grandfather passed away, my family showed their true colors. Everyone was fighting over his estate. My dad couldn’t stop them, so he dragged my mom and joined the chaos. When I arrived at the estate, Grandpa Charles was still lying on the bed. They hadn’t even bothered to change his clothes. Some relatives were tearing each other’s hair out over a luxury high-rise deed. Others were rolling on the floor, wrestling for his Rolls-Royce keys. This bunch of usually sophisticated, upper-class snobs was now fighting like animals at a Black Friday sale. My mom hugged a heavy metal safe and screamed at me. “Hailey. What are you standing there for? Take the diamond ring off your grandfather’s finger.” I rubbed my hands together and knelt beside the bed, ready to slide the ring off. But the moment I crouched down, I saw Grandpa’s pinky finger twitch. I rubbed my eyes. Grandpa Charles’s hand was completely still again. My heart did a flip. I didn’t dare touch the ring anymore. Instead, I gently squeezed his finger. It was freezing cold. It didn’t feel like a living person’s hand at all. Just to be safe, I stood up and yelled over the noise, “Everyone, stop fighting! We need to get Grandpa to the hospital right now!” The shouting temporarily died down. My aunt, Mary, rolled her eyes at me. “Your grandfather was literally just discharged from the hospital to die at home. What hospital?” I hesitated. “What if… what if he’s not actually dead?” My uncle, Mark, snatched a piece of paper and threw it right in my face. “He had terminal brain cancer, Hailey. He was going to kick the bucket sooner or later. Now that he’s finally gone, why are you trying to ruin things with your bad vibes?” I picked up the death certificate and stared at it. It looked completely authentic. Did I really just hallucinate? Was Grandpa actually dead? Mark’s wife, Chloe, curled her lips in disgust. “Dead is dead. But the old man didn’t even leave a proper will! If he had, would we even need to be here tearing each other apart?” “My son, Leo, is the only grandson who carries the Miller name. Who else is the fortune supposed to go to?” Mary instantly lost her temper. “My son is also a boy! Why shouldn’t he inherit? If anyone is disqualified from the family trust, it’s Hailey!” She shot a venomous glare in my direction. “Hailey is going to marry some guy and change her last name anyway. She won’t even be a Miller. Giving her a piece of jewelry or two is already more than generous.” My mom went berserk. She lunged forward and shoved Mary. “Who the hell do you think you are, Mary? You married out and changed your name too! Charles loved my daughter the most when he was alive. If anyone deserves the lion’s share, it’s Hailey!” Seeing them about to claw each other’s eyes out again, I covered my ears in sheer frustration and looked back at Grandpa. This time, I saw it clearly. His eyelid twitched. It absolutely wasn’t an hallucination. Grandpa was alive! But why was he faking his death? My throat went dry. I swallowed hard and tugged at my mother’s sleeve. “Mom, please, stop fighting. I don’t want any of the inheritance, okay? Let them have it.”

The room fell dead silent. Mark and Chloe exchanged looks and muttered under their breath, “What an idiot. Does Hailey even realize how much money Charles had? It’s enough for three generations to burn through for a lifetime.” Mary crossed her arms, sneering. “Oh, cut the saint act. If you really don’t want the money, why don’t you sign a waiver right now? Who are you trying to put on a show for? The corpse?” Actually, I was putting on a show for the “corpse.” But honestly, I couldn’t entirely blame my family for being so heartless. Grandpa had always been an incredibly eccentric man. He had built a multi-billion-dollar empire from scratch, dominating real estate, tech, and retail. Even the state governor had to treat him with utmost respect. By all accounts, with that kind of wealth, our family should have been living like royalty. But Grandpa was naturally paranoid and hyper-cautious. He always suspected everyone was trying to steal his money. When my dad got married and asked for help with a down payment on a house, Grandpa accused him of trying to carve up the family estate. He threw my dad out of the house after a massive screaming match. When Mary didn’t get into college and wanted to open a small boutique, Grandpa mocked her relentlessly, saying she would just lose all his money. When Mark wanted to study abroad, Grandpa blasted him for being a spoiled brat who only wanted to squander his hard-earned cash. So, despite our patriarch being the richest man in the state, our three families lived on tight budgets, constantly pinching pennies. How could such a stingy, overly calculating man pass away without securing his fortune first? This fake death was a setup. He was testing us! My knees went weak, and I threw myself by his bedside, sobbing loudly. “What is wrong with all of you? Grandpa just passed away, and all you care about is dividing his money! Aren’t you afraid of breaking his heart?” “Stop acting! If you’re so noble, sign the waiver!” Mary clapped her hands, and Mr. Davis, Grandpa’s senior estate lawyer, walked into the room, dressed in a sharp, expensive suit. “Mr. Davis, Hailey just said she wants to waive her inheritance rights!” Mary yelled eagerly. Mr. Davis looked at me. “Is this true, Miss Hailey Miller?” Before I could speak, my mom panicked and pinched my arm hard. “She’s talking nonsense, Mr. Davis! My girl is just devastated by grief. She didn’t mean it!” Mr. Davis nodded slowly. “Actually, before Mr. Charles Miller passed, he did leave a will.” “And everyone in this room has a chance to inherit his entire estate.”

The moment those words left his mouth, the bickering stopped. Everyone locked their eyes on the lawyer. Mark couldn’t hold back. “Mr. Davis, stop beating around the bush! Tell us, did he leave everything to my son, Leo?” Mr. Davis calmly pulled a stamped document from his leather briefcase. The will was incredibly short, with only a few lines printed on it. “To my ungrateful descendants: If you can find my most precious possession within three days of my passing, you will inherit my entire estate.” Everyone stared blankly for a few seconds. No one expected Grandpa’s will to be so bizarre. Mary rolled her eyes. “Even in death, he has to be a pain in the ass. How the hell are we supposed to know what his ‘most precious possession’ is?” “Mr. Davis, can you at least give us a hint? He owned so many things. Where do we even start looking?” The others chimed in. “Yeah! Give us a clue!” Mr. Davis tapped his foot lightly. “His most precious possession is hidden right here, in this old family estate.” “There is only one of it. Whoever finds it first will be the sole heir to the entire Miller fortune.” The old estate had three floors, but Grandpa lived quite minimally. Mary’s eyes suddenly lit up. She bolted toward the master bedroom. “I know what it is! It has to be that!” Though no one knew what she had realized, everyone immediately stormed after her like a pack of wolves. We watched as Mary reached into a secret compartment inside the nightstand and pulled out a yellowed land deed. She clutched it to her chest like a lifeline, looking at us defensively. “I found this first!” My dad stared at it for a moment, his eyes widening. “That’s the original deed to this estate! How did you know it was there?” Mary smirked triumphantly. “Because Dad loved me the most, obviously. I saw him hide it there when I was a kid.” “Mr. Davis, is this deed the most precious thing?” Mr. Davis simply offered a polite, enigmatic smile. He didn’t say yes, and he didn’t say no. “The truth will be revealed on the day of the funeral. Remember, each family can only submit one item.” “But let me make this clear: if no one finds the correct item within three days, the entire Miller fortune will be donated to charity.”

I gasped. Grandpa’s net worth was easily over eight billion dollars. No one in their right mind would willingly let eight billion dollars slip through their fingers, especially when they were so close to it. Mary held the deed tighter, but a shadow of doubt crossed her face. This land deed had been passed down through generations. To fund his early business ventures, Grandpa had once mortgaged it. The very first thing he did after making his first million was buy this land back and build this estate. It was where my dad, Mark, and Mary grew up. It was undeniably sentimental. Mark and Chloe were green with envy. Still, Mark sneered, “Charles owned dozens of properties. Who knows if he even remembered this old paper?” “Come on, let’s keep searching.” My parents immediately joined the frantic treasure hunt. Seeing me standing frozen, my mom smacked my shoulder. “What are you doing? Search! Even if we don’t sleep for three days, we have to find it!” I looked down at Grandpa, who was lying peacefully in his bed, playing dead. My mind raced. What on earth did Grandpa want us to find? I couldn’t figure it out yet, so I could only follow my parents around to pretend I was searching. To find this “possession,” Mark hired a top-tier private investigator. Mary literally brought in a celebrity psychic. My parents were desperately debating who they should hire. Finally, my mom snapped her fingers and called her father, Andrew. “Andrew and Charles used to be best friends back in the day. He might know what Charles valued most.” But fearing her elderly father might get too emotional, my mom didn’t tell him that Grandpa had “passed.” She just asked casually over the phone. Andrew chuckled on the line. “What did Charles love most? Well, it had to be his late wife, of course. She’s been gone for over thirty years now.” “Why are you asking? Did your husband finally decide to kiss up to his old man?” My mom quickly made up an excuse and hung up. My parents decided to focus on things related to my late grandmother. Eventually, they actually managed to find their original engagement ring hidden deep inside Grandpa’s pillowcase. Meanwhile, the other two families seemed to have found their own leads, but everyone kept their mouths shut, glaring at each other like enemies.

Three days later, the funeral was held at the local chapel. Grandpa’s “body” was placed in a glass cooling casket. The funeral home staff had dressed him in a formal suit. My greedy relatives had spent the last three days hunting for treasure, not spending a single second mourning him. Of course, because of their neglect, nobody realized that Grandpa had been sneaking out of his casket late at night to eat snacks and use the restroom. The funeral was grand. All the men wore tailored black suits. The same people who were screaming at each other yesterday were now crying as if their hearts were breaking. Mary wept loudly, “Dad! How am I supposed to live without you?” Guests held her shoulders, comforting her. “He’s in a better place now. Stay strong.” As everyone sobbed, I stood there silently, not shedding a single tear. Once the tedious service concluded, the main event finally arrived. Holding the will, Mr. Davis stood before the gathered crowd of relatives and distinguished guests. “Today, we lay Mr. Charles Miller to rest. As per his final wishes, whichever of his three children presents his most precious possession will inherit his entire estate.” Mary was the first to step forward, holding the yellowed deed. “My dad valued this land more than anything. Even though it’s remote, he turned it into a premier resort. Someone once offered him a hundred million dollars for it, and he flat out refused!” “This is undoubtedly his most cherished possession!” Mary held the deed high, looking incredibly smug. It seemed her celebrity psychic had given her a massive dose of confidence. My mom whispered anxiously in my ear, “I heard your aunt’s psychic supposedly channeled your grandpa, and he confirmed it’s the deed! What if it really is?” I glanced toward the casket. Grandpa lay there perfectly still, looking incredibly dead. Mary had definitely been scammed. Grandpa wasn’t even dead yet, so how could a psychic channel him? Sure enough, Mr. Davis examined the deed briefly, then shook his head. “This is not his most precious possession.”

The smile on Mary’s face froze. Her expression instantly distorted with rage. She dropped her elegant act and screamed, “Fuck you! Who are you to decide? I bet you’re just trying to steal my dad’s fortune for yourself!” Security guards quickly restrained her. Mr. Davis remained entirely unfazed. “Next.” Mark nudged my dad’s shoulder. “Jason, what do you think Dad’s most precious thing is?” Before my dad could speak, my mom pinched his arm. “None of your business!” Mark rolled his eyes. “Keep your secrets then. We found it anyway!” Mark reached into his pocket and pulled out an old, beat-up car key. “This is what my dad cherished most.” The key was ancient. It didn’t belong to a Rolls-Royce or a Bentley, but to an old commercial truck. Mark explained proudly, “This key belonged to Charles’s very first delivery truck. Decades ago, he was driving it to make a delivery when he got caught in a massive landslide. The truck was severely damaged, yet it miraculously kept running just long enough to get him to safety.” “Since then, no matter how rich he got, he refused to sell it.” “For forty years, that truck has sat in the family garage. He had it serviced regularly and even hired someone to drive it weekly just to keep the engine from rusting. He treated that truck better than his own sons!” It looked like Mark’s private investigator had actually done some solid homework to dug up this piece of history. I looked at Grandpa again. His fingers seemed to twitch. Could it really be the truck key? My parents began to sweat. Everyone stared at the lawyer. Mr. Davis glanced at the key and said calmly, “This is not his most precious possession.” Mark lost his mind. He lunged at Mr. Davis, sobbing. “How can it not be? My investigator swore it was! Mr. Davis, look, if you let me inherit, I’ll give you half! Please! If I don’t get this money, I’m ruined!” But Mr. Davis coldly brushed him off. Now, only our family was left. Everyone stared at the three of us, waiting for a trainwreck. If we couldn’t produce the right item either, over eight billion dollars would go straight to charity! My dad took a deep breath, his hand trembling as he reached into his pocket. Was it really the engagement ring? I looked at my dad, then at Grandpa. Something didn’t sit right with me. What did Grandpa truly value? Something he would fake his own death just to get us to understand. Suddenly, it hit me. I grabbed my dad’s hand. “Dad, don’t. I know what Grandpa’s most precious possession is.”

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My husband, Ethan Vance, wanted to enjoy a tropical vacation with his mistress. So, he somehow brought his twenty-three-year-old self back to cover his shift at work. The younger version of Ethan was irritably flipping through financial reports at the desk. When he looked up and saw me, he froze, completely stunned. “Holy shit. Did I actually end up marrying you?” Our daughter, Lily, stumbled out of her room, rubbing her eyes. “Daddy?” she called out in her sweet, sleepy voice. Young Ethan froze instantly. Even the tips of his ears turned bright red. He was shaking with excitement. Tears welled up in his eyes, and his voice trembled. “You’re so afraid of pain… It must have hurt so much to give birth to her…” “Mommy,” Lily interrupted quietly, looking up at me with timid eyes. “Is Daddy back to kick us out this time? Is he going to marry that Serena woman?” Ethan’s jaw clenched hard. His face instantly darkened. “Who dares to kick you out?” Though he still looked like a young college kid, his explosive temper and terrifying aura were exactly the same as the current Ethan. He looked around our sleek, luxury penthouse. Then, lowering his voice, he tried to comfort Lily. “Don’t worry, Lily. This will always be our home.” “Did you just have a bad dream?” Lily stared at him with wide, terrified eyes. Fear was written all over her face. She took a big step back, startled. Then she burst into a loud sob. I rubbed my temples and politely, yet coldly, told Young Ethan to take a seat in the living room. About half an hour later, I finally got Lily back to sleep. When I walked back out, Young Ethan was staring blankly at a pile of shredded wedding photos on the coffee table. “Who is the homewrecker?” he asked. His voice was incredibly raspy in the dimly lit room. He squeezed the torn photos so hard his knuckles turned white. It felt like he was forcing the words out through clenched teeth. “Who the hell is this Serena woman?” “She ruined our family, didn’t she?” He looked up at me, his eyes red and tearful. His voice shook. “I gave you my whole life when I was eighteen. I couldn’t even bring myself to raise my voice at you.” “It must be that woman’s fault…” Outside, the night was dark. The city lights flickered through the window. I said nothing. I just pulled out my phone. I dialed Serena’s number. A few seconds later. A deep, steady male voice came through the speaker. He sounded extremely annoyed. “It’s the middle of the night. Why are you calling Serena? What kind of drama are you trying to start now?” Hearing his future self speak. Young Ethan was completely frozen in shock. His face instantly turned pale and rigid. Just as he was about to blow up and scream, I put a finger to my lips, signaling him to be quiet. I asked into the phone in a flat, emotionless voice: “When are you coming home?” “Next month.” The background sound of waves crashing on the beach, mixed with a romantic love song, sounded incredibly cozy and intimate. But the words that followed stabbed into my ears like ice. He paused, took a deep breath, and continued. “Serena is pregnant.”

It felt like someone had suddenly wrapped a plastic bag tightly around my neck. Every breath I took sent a sharp pain through my chest. I felt like I was suffocating. “It was just an accident. We forgot protection once.” His tone was so casual, as if he were just talking about what to have for dinner. “Serena won’t affect our marriage. She promised to get an abortion.” “I brought her out here not just to relax, but to find a clinic for the procedure.” “I’m the one at fault here, so I have to take responsibility and look after her until she recovers.” Right then, Serena’s sweet, whiny voice echoed from the other end. “Ethan, baby, come back over here~” In the next second, the call was abruptly cut off. Less than thirty seconds later, a Snapchat message popped up on my phone. “My 23-year-old self should have arrived by now.” “He’s careless. Keep an eye on the company’s business for him.” The phone screen glowed coldly on the coffee table. Young Ethan stood opposite me, wrapped in a dead silence for a very long time. I blankly glanced at his chest. My name was still tattooed right over his heart. I turned around, pulled a set of divorce papers from behind a sofa cushion, and handed them to him along with a pen. “Your future self refuses to sign.” “Do it for him, will you?” He looked up and stared straight at me. A dry, bitter laugh escaped his throat. He cursed under his breath. “Fuck.” Then, he swung his arm and slapped himself hard across the face. He roared with a desperate, sobbing voice: “Ethan Vance, are you fucking blind? How could you sleep with a piece of trash like Serena Miller?”

It was true. At twenty-three, Ethan already knew Serena. Only back then, he absolutely loathed her fake, damsel-in-distress act. Later, when he started his own business, Serena joined the company. Ethan used to point at her nose and call her an idiot almost every single day just to vent. Back then, I even defended her. “She’s just a fresh graduate, Ethan. It’s normal for her to make mistakes.” “Just guide her a bit.” Every time I said that. Ethan would wrap his arms around me. “Nora, if it weren’t for our baby on the way, I would have fired her a long time ago.” I didn’t think much of it. I just focused on my pregnancy and managed our home. Gradually, he stopped mentioning Serena as much. I was foolish enough to think it was just because the business was doing well. I never suspected a thing. Until one day, when I was eight months pregnant. I stopped by his office after my prenatal checkup. I pushed the door open, only to see Serena sitting right on Ethan’s lap. Her hand was unbuckling his belt, and she was rubbing her soft body against his cheek. Her white shirt was wrinkled, and her pencil skirt was pulled up almost to her waist. Looking into Ethan’s bloodshot, lust-filled eyes. I shook with rage. Like a madwoman, I threw myself forward, grabbed Serena’s hair, and dragged her violently to the floor. I swung my handbag and bashed it against Ethan’s face with all my might. The metal buckle sliced a bloody gash across his cheek, but it didn’t ease the burning hatred in my heart. My mind raced with memories of all those years we spent building our life from scratch. I thought of how I threw up every single day during my pregnancy, how I could barely walk, and how the pelvic pain kept me awake all night. Just the night before, I had cried myself to sleep over the stretch marks covering my stomach. And yet, Ethan, who was about to become a father, was having a sleazy affair right in his office. It felt like my heart had been ripped open, cold wind rushing into the wound. I didn’t care about dignity anymore. I shoved past the employees who tried to hold me back. Their pleas of “Nora, calm down, think about the baby!” fell on deaf ears. I grabbed a heavy laptop from his desk and hurled it straight at Ethan’s head. “Go to hell, you bastard!” But Serena was fast. She threw herself over Ethan to shield him. The heavy laptop slammed hard into the back of her pale neck before shattering on the floor. Screams erupted in the office. Half of them were because Serena’s neck was sliced open and bleeding heavily. The other half was because of me. My water had just broken.

The premature labor started with no warning. Drenched in sweat and trembling from the intense pain, I was wheeled into the delivery room. The doctor shouted anxiously, “Where is Nora’s family?” The hallway was deathly quiet. Ethan’s parents lived in another state and weren’t supposed to fly in until closer to my due date. My own parents had divorced years ago and had long abandoned me. “Where is your husband? Giving birth is a major event, he needs to be here.” I painfully turned my head to look through the glass door of the delivery room. Ethan, the man who usually remained calm under any pressure, was running frantically down the hallway, carrying Serena in his arms. He was practically begging the nurses. “Please, get me the best plastic surgeon. She’s still young, she can’t have a scar on her neck. I’ll pay whatever it takes. Just contact them now.” Knowing that giving birth carried risks, I swallowed my nausea and dialed his number. But when he picked up, his voice was filled with absolute rage. “Serena was just leaning over to grab a contract, and her hair got caught on my belt! That’s all it was!” “You didn’t even ask before jumping to conclusions, throwing a tantrum in my office, and hurting her.” “Now that things are a mess, you still expect me to put you first?” Ethan hissed, his voice cold as ice. “Nora, you are acting like a lunatic.” Then, I heard Serena playing the saint in a weak voice nearby. “Ethan, don’t talk to Nora like that.” “It’s fine… I don’t plan on getting married anyway, so a little scar doesn’t matter.” At dawn the next morning, I gave birth to Lily. Meanwhile, Serena was sleeping peacefully under Ethan’s obsessive care.

That ugly scandal became a thorn in our marriage. He fired Serena. He still came home on time and played with Lily, but he completely checked out of our relationship. He didn’t care about my feelings anymore. We became strangers living under the same roof. We used to cuddle on the sofa and talk about everything. Now, our only conversations were stiff updates like “I have a dinner tonight,” “I’m flying out tomorrow,” or “I’ll be sleeping at the office next week to hit a deadline.” At first, I still tried to share things like “Taking care of the baby is so exhausting” or “Lily rolled over today.” But eventually, my replies dwindled to “Okay,” “Fine,” and “Understood.” Eventually, our only connection was the cold monthly allowance he transferred to my bank account. I never stepped foot in his company again. But I heard rumors. People in the office gossiped about me, calling Ethan a poor guy who was stuck with a crazy, controlling wife. I didn’t even want to think about it. I just used his money to raise Lily and keep our lives going. Until our sixth wedding anniversary, Ethan sent me a surprise. A diamond necklace worth two hundred thousand dollars. I genuinely thought he was finally trying to make amends. But before a smile could even form on my lips… The new courier apologized in a panic. “I am so sorry, ma’am. I got the address wrong.” “This necklace was meant for Mr. Vance’s wife. The delivery address is the estate on the East Side, not here.” “I am so sorry, could you please give it back? I just started this job, and I can’t afford to pay for something this expensive.” He took the necklace back with trembling hands. He quickly pulled out his phone to call someone. “I’m sending you the correct address. Don’t mess up like I did.” “Mr. Vance completely adores this Mrs. Vance. If her lunch isn’t prepared on time, we’ll both be fired.” I froze. Then, a bitter laugh escaped me. So that was it. For the past six months, Ethan had been keeping Serena in a luxury mansion on the East Side. To everyone else, she was the real “Mrs. Vance.” What did that make me?

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Immediately after my rebirth, I signed the contract to livestream eating Carolina Reapers on the Mexican border. In my past life, my husband’s childhood friend, Chloe, used a supernatural sensory-swap system to force her taste buds onto mine. She deliberately ate raw aloe skins and drank pure wormwood extract on her daily livestreams to build a “resilient, struggling-girl-next-door” persona. Meanwhile, back home, I would be drinking warm honey water but experiencing a bitterness so intense it caused stomach spasms and made me throw up blood. I begged her to stop, but Chloe just looked at me with wide, innocent eyes. “Amelia, I know you want Ethan’s attention, but you don’t have to fake it so dramatically!” Ethan’s voice back then had been filled with utter disgust. “You’re too spoiled, Amelia. You sit at home all day doing nothing, yet you can’t stand to see Chloe working so hard to pay off her debts.” Chloe’s “bitter detox” streams went viral for a month, and the internet crowned her the most inspirational girl of the year. Meanwhile, I died in our bedroom of a ruptured gallbladder, literally starved and bitter to death. My body wasn’t even found until weeks later. Since you love sharing tastes so much, Chloe, let’s see how you like the feeling of liquid fire burning through your stomach. 0

“Amelia, the contract for the extreme pepper tasting in Mexico has been sent to your email. Do you want to sign it now?” My agent Sarah’s voice over the phone was filled with hesitation. The Carolina Reaper. Its heat index exceeds 1.5 million SHU. Just touching its juice can blister your skin. A normal person would be in tears just smelling it, let alone eating it. I stared at the bolded waiver clause on the screen. *The signee assumes all responsibility for any physical injuries caused during the tasting.* I tapped “Confirm.” Departure in three days. The lingering taste of pure bile was still in my mouth—the result of the raw dandelion greens Chloe had started chewing on this morning. In my past life, on this exact day, I was still completely in the dark, thinking I had contracted some bizarre disease. I had run to three different hospitals and done full-body scans, only for all the results to come back perfectly normal. On the drive back, Ethan had glanced at me with nothing but annoyance, telling me to “stop making a scene over nothing.” My phone screen lit up. It was a Snapchat message from Chloe. “Amelia! I’m starting my ‘extreme bitter challenge’ livestream today. Will you come and show some love? 😘❤️” In my last life, I actually went. I left a bunch of supportive comments. Then I took a sip of plain water at home and gagged from the intense bitterness. I didn’t reply. I tossed the phone onto the sofa. The front door clicked open. Ethan walked in, holding two cups of boba. “Hey babe, I got you your favorite mango pomelo sago.” He smiled warmly, his eyes curving into two handsome crescents. I used to fall for that smile every single time. Now, it just made me sick. I took the drink and took a sip. The moment the sweet liquid hit my tongue, it turned into an overwhelming, toxic bitterness. It tasted like someone had emptied a bottle of concentrated liquid medicine down my throat. My stomach spasmed violently. But I kept my face completely blank and set the cup down. Compared to the agony of dying from bitterness in my past life, this was nothing. “Why aren’t you drinking?” Ethan leaned in, his voice dripping with concern. “Don’t want it.” “Are you feeling sick again? I told you, stop staring at your phone so much. The blue light is messing with your head.” His care was flawless. Every word was perfectly placed. So perfectly placed it felt rehearsed. I looked at him and said flatly, “I signed a contract. I’m going to Mexico in three days.” Ethan froze. “What are you going to Mexico for?” “A livestream. Eating hot peppers.” The smile on his face cracked. “Are you kidding me? You can’t even handle medium salsa at Chipotle. What kind of peppers are you going to eat?” “Carolina Reapers.” He slammed his boba cup onto the table, splashing liquid everywhere. “Amelia, have you lost your mind?” He never called me by my full name unless he was genuinely angry. I tilted my head. “Didn’t you say I was too spoiled? I’m just building some resilience.” Ethan took a deep breath, trying to suppress his anger. “Are you throwing a tantrum? Just because of what I said the other day?” “No.” “Then stay home and stop making trouble. Chloe is under a lot of pressure right now. She’s drowning in debt and relying entirely on her streams to survive. Don’t add to the drama.” I almost laughed out loud. Add to the drama? In my past life, I stayed quiet. I couldn’t eat a single bite of food. My mouth was full of ulcers, and my tongue was so swollen I couldn’t speak. He called me dramatic. Chloe said I was putting on a show. In the end, I quietly died in my bed, and nobody even came to collect my body. “Ethan, have you ever thought about something?” I stared into his eyes, pronouncing every word clearly. “What if every bit of bitterness Chloe is supposedly eating… is actually being felt by me instead?” The room went dead silent for three seconds. Then, Ethan let out a soft, pitying laugh, as if looking at a lunatic. “Babe, is the stress getting to you? Maybe I should book you an appointment with a therapist.” Right then, my phone rang. It was a FaceTime call from Chloe. Ethan glanced at the screen, swiped to answer, and his voice instantly softened by three octaves. “Hey, Chloe. What’s up?” “Ethan! My first stream went so well! I ate three raw aloe leaves, and the chat was calling me so brave!” On the screen, Chloe was smiling brightly, green aloe slime still smudged on her lips. Meanwhile, the back of my throat was completely numb, and a wave of nausea washed over me from the phantom bitterness. Ethan didn’t even look at me. “That’s amazing, Chloe. I knew you could do it.” Chloe’s eyes shifted past Ethan’s shoulder, landing on me. “Oh, Amelia is there too! Amelia, you look so pale. Are you sick? You really need to take care of yourself.” Her tone was sickeningly sweet, but her eyes were dripping with triumph. I curled my lips at the screen. “I’m fine. It’s probably just the smell of your raw aloe. It’s so strong I can smell it right through the screen.” Chloe’s smile stiffened for a fraction of a second. But she recovered quickly. “Amelia, you’re always so funny.” She hung up. Ethan turned around, his brows furrowed in deep annoyance. “What was that about? Chloe is literally working herself to the bone to pay off her debts. Why do you have to be so passive-aggressive?” “I didn’t mean anything by it.” I stood up and walked toward the bedroom. As I passed him, I paused. “By the way, I’m not changing my mind about Mexico. If you try to stop me, I’ll pack my bags and move out today.” The gentle facade on Ethan’s face finally shattered. He clenched his phone so hard his knuckles turned white. “Amelia, you’ve changed.” I shut the bedroom door. Through the thin wood, I heard him make a call. “Chloe… Amelia says she’s going to Mexico to eat Carolina Reapers… Yeah, the super hot ones… What should I do?” I couldn’t hear Chloe’s reply clearly, but I knew her tone all too well. In my last life, she had used that exact same tone to tell Ethan: “Ethan, Amelia is just too high-maintenance. Don’t baby her.” The hallway fell silent. Then, Ethan’s footsteps faded away. I lay on the bed, staring at the ceiling. The bitter taste in my mouth finally faded slightly. The email confirmation for my flight and contract lay quietly in my inbox. Three days. I only had to endure three more days. 0

The next morning, I was woken up by the doorbell. I opened it to find Chloe standing there, holding a large paper bag. “Amelia! I made you some organic dandelion and mint cleansing tea. It’s great for reducing inflammation.” She was wearing a floral sundress, her makeup flawless. She looked like the perfect, sweet family friend. I didn’t reach for the bag. “How do you know my door code?” Chloe tilted her head, her smile unchanging. “Ethan gave it to me. He said you weren’t feeling well and asked me to check on you.” Without waiting for an invitation, she pushed past me, walking straight into the kitchen to grab a mug. She moved around the space like she owned it. “Here, try it. I made sure not to put any sweetener in it.” She handed me a steaming mug. I looked down. The pale yellow liquid had a few mint leaves floating on top. She had done this in my past life too. Except back then, she brought a matcha detox shake. I had taken one sip, and the moment the liquid touched my tongue, a bitterness so foul it felt like pure poison flooded my throat. I spent the entire night throwing up until my stomach acid turned yellow. I pushed the mug back. “I’m not drinking that.” Chloe’s smile faltered. “Amelia, don’t be like that. I spent two hours brewing this.” “I’m not being any way. I just don’t want you wasting your time.” I leaned against the counter, my gaze cold and steady. “After all, you have a livestream later, don’t you? What’s on the menu today? Pure wormwood extract? Or goldenseal powder?” Chloe’s fingers tightened around the mug. “Amelia… how did you know I was going to use goldenseal today?” “Just a guess.” She stared at me for a few seconds. The warmth in her eyes vanished, replaced by a cold calculation, before she quickly put her mask back on. “You’re so weird today, Amelia. I don’t eat stuff like that. I just do normal green juices.” “Right. Have fun with that.” I took the mug from her hand, walked over to the sink, and poured the hot tea straight down the drain. Behind me, Chloe gasped, her manicured nails digging into her palms. “Amelia… do you have a problem with me?” “No.” “Then why did you just pour out the tea I worked so hard to make for you?” Her voice began to tremble with tears. This trick worked on Ethan every single time. I turned around. Her eyes were already red, her lip trembling, her chin tilted up in the perfect picture of an innocent victim. “Save it, Chloe. Ethan isn’t here. Your little performance is wasted on me.” Her face went instantly cold, the mask slipping off entirely. But in less than a second, she was weeping again. “Amelia, I don’t know what I did wrong… Did I misunderstand something?” The sound of keys jangled at the door. Ethan walked in. The first thing he saw was Chloe crying in the kitchen, and the empty mug sitting in the sink. His face darkened instantly. “Amelia, what did you do?” Chloe wiped her eyes right on cue. “Ethan, it’s fine! Amelia probably just didn’t like the tea… My cooking is terrible anyway. It’s my fault.” Ethan rushed to Chloe’s side, throwing an arm around her shoulders. “Chloe spent her entire morning making this for you, and this is how you treat her?” “I said I didn’t want it.” “If you didn’t want it, you could have just said so! Why did you have to dump it right in front of her? Do you have any idea how hurtful that is?” Looking at him shielding Chloe so protectively, I found it hilarious. In my past life, when I was curled up on the bathroom floor clutching my stomach in agony, he was busy sending virtual roses in Chloe’s livestream chat. “Ethan, you get this mad over a dumped cup of tea. But do you have any idea that my mouth has tasted like pure battery acid since yesterday?” “Here we go again.” He let out a harsh, mocking laugh. “Amelia, can you stop making everything about yourself? Chloe eating healthy has nothing to do with you. If your mouth tastes bad, go see a doctor. Stop trying to blame her.” Chloe kept her head down, her shoulders shaking as she sobbed quietly. Ethan’s heart practically broke for her. “Come on, Chloe. Let’s go. We don’t need to deal with her nonsense.” He began guiding Chloe out of the apartment. As he passed me, he stopped. “If you’re still going to Mexico, then we have nothing left to talk about.” The door slammed shut. Standing in the empty living room, a fresh wave of intense bitterness flooded my mouth. It was worse than before. Chloe must have started eating the goldenseal powder. I walked into the bathroom and looked in the mirror. My tongue was covered in tiny, painful red blisters. In my past life, these didn’t appear until the third day. She was ramping up the dosage. My phone buzzed with an Instagram notification. Chloe’s livestream was live. The title read: *”Trying the Extreme Goldenseal Powder Challenge. Doing whatever it takes to pay off my brother’s medical bills.”* The comment section was overflowing with sympathy. *”Oh my god, that stuff is notoriously bitter! Chloe, you didn’t even flinch!”* *”This is a real independent woman. Unlike some people who just sit at home playing the rich housewife.”* *”Keep going, Chloe! Sending you all my love and super chats!”* I locked my phone screen. I dragged my suitcase out of the closet, unzipped it, and began throwing my clothes inside. Three days was too long. I changed my flight. I was leaving tomorrow. 0

By 2:00 AM, the bitterness in my mouth was so unbearable I couldn’t sleep. Chloe had started a late-night stream. This time, she was drinking concentrated wormwood tea. The chat was filled with crying emojis. Meanwhile, I lay in bed, feeling as if a gallon of black ink had been poured down my throat, burning its way from my esophagus to my vocal cords. My phone lit up. It was a text from Ethan. “I’ll take you out for sushi tomorrow to make it up to you. Just don’t go to Mexico, okay?” I didn’t reply. A second text popped up immediately. “Chloe said she didn’t mean to make you feel bad. She’s been crying all night. Can’t you just be the bigger person?” I flipped my phone face down under my pillow. The next morning, as I dragged my suitcase toward the front door, Ethan blocked the hallway. He was in his sweatpants, his hair messy, looking like he hadn’t slept at all. “Are you really doing this?” “Yes.” “Amelia, I’m telling you, you can’t handle spicy food. Last time you had jalapeños on your pizza, your lips were swollen for two days. Have you forgotten?” “That was then.” I tried to step around him to grab my shoes. He grabbed the handle of my suitcase. “Why do you have to be so stubborn? Do you ever think about my feelings?” “Your feelings?” I looked up at him, finding the words absolutely pathetic. “Ethan, did you ever think about mine? When I told you my mouth tasted like poison, you said I was faking. When I told you my stomach was killing me, you told me to stop being dramatic. Now I’m leaving, and you want to talk about *your* feelings?” He choked on his words, his grip on my suitcase loosening slightly before tightening again. “I only said those things because I care about you! Why can’t you see that?” The doorbell rang. Ethan opened it. Chloe stood outside, her eyes red and puffy as if she’d been crying for hours. “Ethan… is Amelia leaving because of me? It’s all my fault. I shouldn’t have brought that tea… I’m so sorry…” She looked ready to burst into tears again. Ethan immediately pulled her into the apartment, patting her back gently. “It’s not your fault, Chloe. She’s just being stubborn.” Over Ethan’s shoulder, Chloe looked at me. Her eyes were watery and pathetic, but deep inside them, I saw that familiar, icy smirk. It was the exact same look she gave me in my past life. When I was on my knees begging her to stop streaming, she had looked down at me with that exact same smug smile. Then, she had turned to Ethan and wept beautifully. “Amelia, please don’t go. I won’t come around anymore, I promise… I shouldn’t have intruded…” Ethan turned to me, his eyes blazing with fury. “Amelia, are you happy now? Chloe has no family. I’m the only person she can rely on. Why are you so heartless?” I yanked my suitcase handle out of his grip. “Ethan, remember every single word you said today.” “When you finally taste the bitterness Chloe has in store for you, don’t come crying to me.” His face flushed red with anger. “Are you threatening me?” “No. I’m warning you.” I rolled my suitcase out the door. Just as the elevator doors were closing, I heard Chloe’s voice drift from the apartment. “Ethan… do you think Amelia is having a mental breakdown? Maybe we should get her some help…” Ethan’s reply was muffled. “She’s probably just losing her mind.” As the elevator descended, I looked down at my phone. Chloe’s Instagram follower count had just hit 50k. Her stream title was now: *”Kicked out by my friend’s wife, trying not to cry too loud.”* The video showed her sitting on a park bench, holding a cup of herbal tea, wiping away tears as she drank. The chat went wild. *”I feel so bad for Chloe. That wife is a literal monster.”* *”Some people get to live in luxury and still hate to see others work hard.”* *”We love you, Chloe! Don’t let her get to you!”* Suddenly, another wave of intense, sharp bitterness surged in my mouth. It was stronger than yesterday, as if someone had dumped pure bile powder onto my tongue. My stomach contracted violently, and I had to lean against my suitcase for support. Not enough. This pain wasn’t enough. I needed something far more brutal to send right back to her. My phone rang. It was the coordinator for my contract. “Amelia, we’ve confirmed your flight for 3:00 PM today. Once you land, a driver will take you to the base. The Carolina Reapers were just harvested from the farm. They are incredibly fresh.” “Perfect.” I stood up straight, wiping a trace of bitter spit from the corner of my mouth. “Please prepare extra. I don’t want to run out.” There was a brief silence on the other end. “…Amelia, normal people can’t even touch these things. Are you sure?” “I’m sure.” I hung up and ordered an Uber straight to the airport. Ten minutes before boarding, Ethan’s name flashed on my screen. “Amelia, if you get on that plane, we are getting a divorce.” I looked at the boarding countdown, put the phone to my ear, and said: “Draft the divorce papers. I’ll sign them. But before you do, you might want to ask Chloe one thing—who exactly is her taste-swap system bound to?” The line went quiet for a long moment. Then, a scoff. “You really have lost your mind. Taste swap? System? Amelia, go get your brain checked.” The boarding announcement chimed. I stood up and walked toward the gate. “Just wait and see.” 0

I landed in Mexico just as dusk was falling. My local guide, Marcus, was a lean, dark-skinned man. “Amelia, the Carolina Reaper is no joke. Local farmers here use it as a pesticide. They spray it on crops to keep pests away. Are you really going to eat this live?” “Yes, really.” He looked at me like I was walking to my execution. We drove for over three hours into the mountains. The streaming setup was simple—a rustic wooden table inside a metal-roofed shed, with several sealed plastic containers laid out. Marcus put on heavy-duty gloves and opened one of the boxes. An invisible wave of pure, pungent heat hit my face. Tears instantly welled in my eyes. But my tongue didn’t taste spicy. It still tasted bitter. Chloe was still streaming. Marcus scrambled back two steps. “Just smelling it is brutal. Are you absolutely sure…” “Set up the phone. We go live in ten minutes.” He hesitated but did as he was told. The moment the stream started, viewers began trickling in out of curiosity. It was a brand-new account with zero followers, so no one knew who I was. The title was simple: *”Eating Raw Carolina Reapers Live.”* I put on gloves, reached into the container, and pulled out a small, wrinkled, deep-red pepper. It was tiny, barely the size of my thumb. Marcus was frantically shaking his head behind the camera. I took a bite. For the first three seconds, I felt nothing. On the fourth second, the gates of hell swung wide open. It wasn’t just spicy. It was fire. It felt like someone had pressed a red-hot iron plate directly onto my tongue, searing its way down my throat, through my esophagus, and straight into my stomach. My entire body doubled over. Tears and sweat poured down my face instantly. But on my tongue… The bitterness was gone. The bitter taste from Chloe was being rapidly, violently obliterated by the sheer heat. The system swapped our senses. If I tasted heat, she would taste it too. And this was the most extreme heat on the planet. The chat exploded. *”Holy crap, is she actually eating it?”* *”A Carolina Reaper?? Is she trying to die??”* *”She’s crying but she’s still chewing. This girl is insane.”* I forced myself to swallow the first pepper. My stomach felt like a grenade had detonated inside it. But the bitter taste that had tortured me for days was entirely gone. Replaced by a pure, all-consuming burn. It felt amazing. My phone began vibrating frantically. It wasn’t notifications from my stream. It was Snapchat calls from Chloe. One after another, missed calls piling up. I picked up a second pepper and smiled at the camera. “Alright guys, round two.” The moment I bit down, my phone finally connected. I hadn’t picked it up—Marcus’s hand had slipped and swiped the screen while trying to mute it. Chloe’s blood-curdling shriek pierced through the speaker. “AAHHH! Amelia, you lunatic! What are you eating?!” “My mouth! My mouth is on fire! Help me, Ethan! Ethan, help me!” The viewers on my stream heard everything. The chat was suddenly flooded with question marks. *”Who is that? Why is she screaming?”* *”Wait, she said her mouth is on fire? The streamer eats the pepper, and some other girl’s mouth burns? What kind of black magic is this?”* Chloe’s screaming continued in the background. Then, Ethan’s panicked voice cut through. “Chloe! Chloe, what’s wrong? Why are your lips swelling up?!” “It’s Amelia! She’s eating something! Ethan, make her stop! Please!” Ethan’s voice turned into a roar of pure fury. “Amelia! Stop this right now! You’re hurting Chloe!” II chewed the Carolina Reaper, my tongue so numb from pain that I could barely feel it anymore. But Chloe could. This time, the one suffering was no longer me.

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