Category: English

Cameron Lee is a man of rigid boundaries. In Manhattan’s elite circles, everyone knows his “no-touch” policy. For five years, I was the only exception—the wife who held the keys to his world. Until I didn’t. For the third time, our wedding anniversary comes up as an “incorrect password.” I have no choice but to call him. “Cameron, your tablet is acting up. You need to take it to the shop tomorrow.” A playful, high-pitched voice answers the line. “Mrs. Lee? Oh, I’m so sorry! I was playing games on the CEO’s tablet in his office yesterday. I may accidentally changed the password to my birthday.” I freeze for seconds, then hang up. When Cameron returns home that night, I toss the divorce papers onto the coffee table in front of him. He rubs his temples, his face a mask of pure irritation. “Why are you being so petty with a young girl? She’s inexperienced. What’s your excuse for being so immature?” I let out a cold laugh. “Then go spend your life with her and her ‘inexperience.’” Cameron leans down, picks up the papers, and tears them into shreds without even glancing at the terms. He drops the confetti into the trash, his gaze ice-cold. “Rebecca, you’re becoming completely irrational.” “I’m done discussing this, Cameron Lee,” I say, my eyes void of any warmth. “Our marriage was always a strategic merger. We have no emotional foundation. A clean break is the only way out for both of us.” My heart feels like it’s being pierced by a thousand invisible needles. It’s true that we were a business alliance, but over five years of living together, I had unknowingly fallen for him. But what does love matter now? There’s always a first time, and then a second. If I pretend nothing happened this time, what about the next? And the time after that? Am I supposed to spend the rest of my life swallowing my dignity? Gracie Day’s words today were a blatant act of war. Everyone in Manhattan knows that Cameron Lee doesn’t let women get close to him. He’s obsessed with his boundaries and personal space. When he was twenty, a maid’s daughter thought she could play a game. She took advantage of his drunken state after a gala, loosened his tie, and tried to frame a scandal to secure her future. In the end, he had both her hands broken before throwing her out of the Lee estate. She was never heard from again. Cameron has a severe “no-touch” policy. For years, I was the only exception. I was the only one allowed to touch his personal items—his tablet, his phone, his laptop. Even if I wanted to check his messages, he would just ruffle my hair with a tired but indulgent smile, telling me not to stay up too late. Well, from today, that privilege expired. The warning bells are screaming, and I need to cut my losses before I sink any deeper. … A suffocating silence stretches across the living room. We are in a deadlock. He knows my temper. He knows I don’t tolerate a single grain of sand in my eye. On our wedding night, I told him clearly: if he ever found someone else, I would step aside. No drama, no clinging. Back then, he held me so tightly I thought he’d merge me into his own skin. He told me we were a perfect match, a pair made by fate. He said that even without “love,” we could grow old together. He didn’t mind my touch, and I didn’t mind his. Compared to the useless, cheating playboys of the Upper East Side, I preferred him as my husband. For five years, we were the golden couple of the city. Every joint venture between the Lees and the Powells was a massive success. Three months ago, on Cameron’s birthday, I told him I wanted a baby. He had stroked my tear-stained face, moved by the intensity of the moment. “Rebecca, are you sure?” I had sobbed, wrapping my weak arms around his neck. I still remember that second—the flash of light in his dark, narrow eyes. Before I drifted off from exhaustion, something warm and wet dropped onto my face. Then, he pulled me into his broad, warm chest. “Becca… thank you.”

The memory snaps, and I force myself to bury those beautiful moments. I push down the bitterness rising in my throat and sharpen my voice. “Cameron, I want a divorce.” Long minutes pass, and Cameron remains silent, offering no reaction. I’ve always hated his silent treatment. I turn around and head upstairs to pack my things. Half an hour later, as I’m dragging my suitcase toward the door, Cameron finally moves. He blocks my path with his arm. “Rebecca Powell, you’re throwing away a marriage over the password of my tablet?” It’s been a long time since he called me by my full name. I take a deep breath and look him in the eye. “Yes.” His frown deepens. Maybe he’s thinking about the baby in my womb, because his tone softens slightly. “Rebecca, let me explain.” I don’t plan on giving him another chance, but I’m curious to see what kind of lies he’ll spin. “The girl’s project pitch passed the board of directors. She didn’t want a bonus. She told me she hadn’t played games in a long time and asked to use my tablet for a few rounds. So I agreed. The password has been changed back. It was a minor thing, Becca. I’ve already talked to her, and she knows she was wrong. She even said she’d come by to apologize to you in person.” “Be the bigger person. Don’t make things difficult for a girl who just graduated. I promise, I won’t have any contact with her outside of work.” I catch the hidden meaning immediately. “Cameron, you’re already protecting her? Do you see me as some malicious, jealous wife now? You two are ‘innocent,’ I’m the one being unreasonable?” “Becca, that’s not what I meant.” I let out a sharp, jagged laugh. “I don’t care what you meant. I’m getting this divorce. As for the baby… I haven’t decided yet. But don’t worry, even if I have it, I won’t use it to blackmail you.” I leave it at that, pushing past him and walking out of the villa. The staff are terrified, none of them daring to stop me. I take an Uber back to the Powell estate. I expected my parents to support me once they heard the story. The reality is the exact opposite. My father, Josh, chainsmokes one cigarette after another. “Rebecca, it’s not that we don’t want you to be happy, but our business relies entirely on Cameron’s investment. If you divorce him, he’ll divest, and the Powell Group will be underwater by morning.” My mother, Lailah, wearing an expensive face mask, scolds me for being ungrateful. “Cameron has been wonderful to you. He’s a provider. Don’t be impulsive and hand him over to another woman on a silver platter.” Even if he did have a little fun on the side, there’s no such thing as ‘true love’ in the elite world. Marrying into the Lee family was the luckiest thing that ever happened to you.” It all boils down to one word: profit. Over the years, my father’s poor management has brought the company to the brink of bankruptcy multiple times. Cameron saved it every single time. I thought I would be devastated. I thought I would scream. But I feel nothing. I look at them calmly and ask, “So, what do you want me to do?” Josh crushes his cigarette in the ashtray. “I’ve already texted Cameron since you arrived. He’s on his way. Go back with him and be a good wife. Stop running home every time you’re upset; it makes us look like a joke.” Lailah chimes in. “Listen to your father, Rebecca. We only want what’s best for you. Ah, also, Leo has his eye on a piece of land owned by the Lees. Make sure you mention it to Cameron. Ask him to do Leo a favor.” There it is. The reason I was raised as a bargaining chip was Leo Powell. My brother. The Golden Child.

Cameron arrives in ten minutes. His usually perfect hair is slightly messy, a rare sign of haste. He ignores my resistance and grabs my hand, offering my parents a polite, apologetic smile. “This is all my fault. I upset Rebecca.” My father immediately tells the butler to bring out the best tea leaves. My mother insists on cooking dinner herself to keep Cameron for the evening. And I’m just… there. A ghost in the room. No one cares how I feel. Just like that, I’m back in the car, heading back to Cameron’s villa. Before I leave, Mom pulls me aside and mysteriously hands me a small bottle of pink liquid. She claims it’s a “miracle” for marital intimacy. “Men stray not just because of the other woman, but because the wife fails her duties. You’re pregnant now, and Cameron has needs.” “Listen to me, Becca. This potion will make him obsessed with you again, and it won’t hurt the baby.” Instead of taking the bottle, I look at her like she’s a complete stranger. We share the same blood, but today, I finally see her for who she really is. Seeing me frozen, she forces the bottle into my hand. On the other side of the lawn, Dad is frantically trying to light a cigarette for Cameron. Cameron refuses. “Dad, second-hand smoke isn’t good for a pregnant woman.” Josh laughs awkwardly. “Right, right. My mistake.” The scene is absurd. … A few days later, Cameron hires a therapist for me. The therapist claims my “irrationality” is just hormonal shifts from pregnancy. Cameron returns to being the attentive, perfect husband, treating me with such care that I almost wonder if the fight was just a bad dream. But I’m not fooled by the staged sweetness. The coldness and impatience he showed that night left a scar that won’t heal. Every time I feel a phantom pain, I’m reminded of the truth. I can’t act like everything is fine, so I mostly give him the cold shoulder. As long as I don’t mention divorce, Cameron doesn’t get angry. He thinks I’ve been “tamed.” He has no idea that I’ve already booked a one-way ticket to New Zealand. I’m leaving him in a week. I’m leaving Manhattan. I’m never coming back. Not for him, and not for my parents. I’m done being used. I’ve also scheduled an appointment to terminate the pregnancy. It’s tomorrow. But Cameron is keeping a tight leash on me. Even when he’s at the office, he has bodyguards following me. I can’t tell if he’s protective of me or just the heir in my belly. The next morning, I do something out of character: I make him breakfast. He’s visibly surprised. In five years, I’ve rarely stepped into the kitchen, let alone made a full spread tailored to his tastes. After he finishes eating, I tell him I’m going for a prenatal check-up. He reaches for his phone. “I’ll push the morning meeting to the afternoon.” “No need. I can go by myself.” I take the initiative to help him straighten his tie. “Cameron, I’m not a child. I don’t need you or the guards breathing down my neck. Go to your meeting. I’ll call you if I need anything.” Cameron looks down at his perfectly knotted tie, then at me. After a moment of hesitation, he nods. Before he walks out, he reminds me a dozen times to be careful. Then he adds, “Becca, come home early after the check-up. Gracie spent half her salary on a gift for you. She’s coming over tonight to apologize.”

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“We’re done!” I dumped Julian the second he got back from Geneva. “Just because I didn’t get you that vintage watch?” He scoffed, his handsome face saying he didn’t really care. “Yes.” I didn’t even blink. My fiancé, Julian, took his investment team to Geneva for a business trip last week. When he was back, everyone got a gift. He even brought the receptionist a bottle of expensive champagne. Everyone, except me. He completely forgot about me. It should have been my birthday present. The one I kept talking about for two full months — a vintage Cartier watch. His new assistant, Chloe, posted a selfie on Instagram, bragging about her fancy gift. In the photo, she was wearing a brand-new watch from the exact same brand that I wanted. Her caption below: “Best boss in the world! Tysm! Love you always! #BestBossEver” Below, Julian’s comment was brief: “No big deal.” I stared at that post for a long time, then I deleted the text already typed out: “Can’t wait to have you home”. Julian and I met at age seven. We fell in love at eighteen. Twenty years of my life, wrapped up in this man. Once, he put me above everything else. But later, I became the one he cared about least. Take now for example, I’m seriously talking about breaking up with him, but he’s just looking at his phone. It’s a lunch invitation from Chloe. He smirks, sounding annoyed but trying to play it off: “Alright, Ava, stop it.” “What’s the big deal? It’s just a watch. I promise I’ll get you one next time.” “I’m having lunch with Chloe today. Just take a cab and go home.” He adjusts his suit cuffs, hurrying away. I don’t want to stop him at all. Instead, I reply to the email from that haute couture studio in Paris — an offer they’d sent me seven times. “I accept your offer. Flying out soon. See you in Paris.” After sending the email, I slide the engagement ring off my finger, placing it inside his study drawer. Julian, from now on, we go our separate ways. Take care. … “Ava, did you really break up with him?” The moment I step out of Julian’s company, my best friend Sophie calls. “Yeah, I did.” “You guys have been together for nine years! And all because he forgot a gift for you?” I stand still on the sidewalk, watching the endless flow of New York traffic. “It’s not just about the watch.” Before Julian left for Geneva, I specifically reminded him that it’s the perfect place for vintage watches. He swore he’d look for it. In the end, he got limited-edition cigars for his banking partners, and the latest Cartier for his assistant. Yet for me, he returned with nothing. “Sorry, Ava, the schedule was all packed. It just slipped my mind.” “Next time I’ll definitely make it up to you.” In the three months since our engagement, he has forgotten my requests seventeen times. The first time, I had a high fever from a severe flu. I asked him to bring some Tylenol after work. He said yes. But when he got home, he reeked of booze. “A super important client called for a last-minute meeting. Sorry about your meds. I completely forgot.” I didn’t lose my temper. After tucking him into bed that night, I wrapped myself in a blanket and went down to the pharmacy myself. The second time, my personal design studio just landed a massive order. I was working my ass off, so I asked him to drop off some food at the studio. He said yes. I waited until eleven that night. My stomach was killing me, but he never showed up. When I got home, he was already out of the shower, watching Bloomberg in bed. “Sorry, I forgot. It’s just been a long day.” I looked at him, totally speechless. Then came the third time, the eighth, And finally, the seventeenth…

Again and again, I convinced myself that he was just too busy. I got so used to it, preparing myself for him to “forget” every single time. Until one day, by pure coincidence, Chloe’s account popped up in my Instagram recommendations. Her account was entirely filled with her daily life with Julian: “#BestBossEver” On March 21st: “Literally just told my boss I couldn’t sleep from stress. Walked in today to find a luxury sleep care package waiting at my desk.” “Feeling the lucky girl vibes.” On April 7th, she posted a photo from a Michelin-starred restaurant. “Randomly mentioned to my boss last week that I wanted to try this place… And he actually brought me over today! So happy!” “Such a charming, wealthy boss — who could resist?” April 7th, the exact same day I asked Julian to drop off some food for me at the studio. And then, there was today. Julian finally returned from Geneva. Chloe bragged about the watch from him on IG. “Best boss in the world! Thx! Love you always! #BestBossEver” Below it, Julian’s comment: “No big deal.” That watch was from the exact same brand that I wanted. However, for me, Julian had a schedule that was “all packed.” For her, it was “no big deal.” “Sophie, I’ve already made up my mind about this relationship. Don’t talk me out of it,” I say to her on the other end of the line. She falls silent, letting out a sigh. “So, you didn’t tell him about going to Paris either?” “Not yet,” I say, “I’ll talk to him tonight.”

At night, in my study, I’m having a video conference with my future colleagues in Paris. It’s a haute couture bridal studio located on Avenue Montaigne. For Julian, I declined six offers out of the seven they’ve sent me. Now, the seventh time. I say yes. “Everything at the New York studio is wrapped up. I can get on the plane in two days.” “Wonderful, Ava!” Arthur, the founder of the studio, says in pleasant surprise. “Your talents definitely deserve a much bigger stage. When you get here, I will personally show you around Paris.” “What about Paris?” Julian’s voice suddenly cuts in. I turn around, realizing he is already back at our apartment on the Upper East Side. “Back so early tonight?” It’s only eight o’clock. For the last three months, he usually stayed out much later with Chloe or some clients. Julian is caught off guard by the question. He freezes for a second. “What do you mean by that?” He doesn’t press further, brushing past me in a hurry, rummaging through the drawer for two concert tickets. He explains casually: “Chloe bought me lunch at noon. So tonight, I’m taking her to Carnegie Hall for a concert. Just returning the favor. That’s all.” Right after, he quickly adds, as if I cared: “Don’t overthink it.” I simply nod, my gaze falling on those two tickets. They are dated yesterday. This wasn’t some last-minute whim. They had this planned all along. But I’m not calling him out. After all, I’m about to leave him forever. He can go with whoever he wants. That’s none of my business. It’s just that… my eyes still sting for reasons I refuse to admit. “Julian, do you still remember what day today is?”

He frowns. “What day? Another anniversary? Give me a break, will you?” “I gotta go.” He turns to leave without hesitation. “Julian!” I stop him, forcing a faint smile. “On your way back, get me a piece of cake, okay? Lady M’s matcha crepe.” He pauses, seemingly remembering something, then his expression softens. “Okay.” “When you get back, I have to tell you something. It’s important.” “Got it.” The door clicks shut. I sit back down in front of my laptop. “Sorry about that, let’s continue…” Julian completely forgot — today is my 27th birthday. Two months ago, he asked me what I wanted for present. I only mentioned two of my wishes. First, I wanted him to help me find that vintage watch I’d been dying for. Second, I invited him to a concert. The watch? He didn’t buy it. The concert? He’s taking someone else. In the end, even my birthday is gone in his brain. But it doesn’t matter. After tonight, I’m heading to Paris. We’ll never see each other again.

That night, Julian didn’t come back right after the concert. I fell asleep on the sofa in the study. In my dream, I see the seven-year-old Julian again. He holds a small tree branch in front of me, trembling at a vicious stray dog. Although he’s afraid, he shouts out loud: “Don’t be scared, Ava, “I’ll protect you!” I also see him at eighteen, by the lake in Central Park, his face flushing as he stammers to me: “Ava, will… will you be my girlfriend? I swear I’ll always put you first!” I keep my head down, blushing: “Yes, I believe you.” At twenty-five, he proposed to me. At twenty-seven, we got engaged. And today, three months after the engagement, I waited for him on the sofa to discuss our breakup. He kept me waiting for so long that I fell asleep. In the middle of the night, the vibration of my phone wakes me up. It’s a text message from Julian. “It’s not safe for Chloe to take a cab alone this late, so I’m taking her home first. Don’t wait up for me, just go to sleep.” I reply. “What about my cake? You forgot again?” My finger hovers over the “send” button for a long time. In the end, I delete it, letter by letter. I reply with one simple word. “OK.” Then I lock my screen, roll over, and go back to sleep. That night, I cry so much my arm gets soaked and goes completely numb. The next morning, I find myself waking up in the bedroom. After a brief moment of confusion, I walk out. There’s a smell of coffee in the air. Julian is in the kitchen. On the dining table sits an exquisite cake box. “Awake now, sleepyhead?” He glances at me sideways, continuing to make the coffee. “Fell asleep on the sofa last night? I had to carry you into the bedroom. You really need to lose some weight, you know?” He complains, but a smile plays on his lips, as if nothing bad ever happened between us, as if we are still that inseparable couple. For a second, I’m in a daze. I walk to the table to open the cake box, my voice softening unconsciously: “I just fell asleep waiting for you. Is this cake from last night? Why isn’t it in the fridge…” “Don’t touch it!”

Julian snaps, slapping my hand away so hard the back of it instantly turns red. “Hey, that’s for Chloe. She said she wanted some cake last night, so I went to that trendy bakery first thing this morning and waited in line for this.” He points to the fridge. “Your breakfast is inside.” I open the fridge. A single bottle of strawberry milk sits alone on the shelf. Strawberry milk? When I was eighteen, Julian gave me a bottle of expired strawberry milk. I got severe food poisoning, vomiting and diarrhea non-stop. I could only lie in the hospital bed for three days. Since then, strawberry milk has been sort of my trauma. Julian was terrified back then. In the hospital, he held my hands tightly, crying his eyes out. He swore he’d never let anything strawberry-flavored near me again. Now, he even forgets about that too. I grip the fridge door, spacing out for a moment. I shut it. Julian stands to the side, frowning. “You don’t want it? Chloe recommended that brand. Said it’s amazing.” “I’m allergic to strawberry, don’t you remember?” “Since when?” “Eighteen. Because of you.” Julian’s brows knit for a second, then loosen up as if it’s nothing. “I forgot.” “I know.”

The tension in the room instantly drops to freezing. Julian opens his mouth to say something, but his eyes suddenly drop to my bare finger. His face darkens at once. “Where’s your ring? Why aren’t you wearing our engagement ring?” He fires off the questions, his tone demanding. I raise my hand, about to answer, when his phone rings. Chloe’s bubbly voice comes through the speaker: “Julian, did you get my cake?” “It better be my favorite salted caramel chocolate!” “I’m almost at the office! It better be there, or I’m gonna be so mad at you!” The stern look on Julian’s face instantly melts into a gentle smile. “Don’t worry, I didn’t forget.” He grabs the cake off the table, drops a quick “We’ll talk tonight,” and hurries out the door. The whole thing takes less than ten seconds. If he had stayed for just ten more seconds, I would have told him. I’m leaving. My flight is tonight. I let out a bitter smile, pull my hair up, and start packing my bags. Halfway through, Julian sends a text. [Wait for me at home tonight. We seriously need to talk.] [When?] I ask. [Around eight. I’ll drop Chloe off first.] My fingertips hover over the screen for a moment, then I type a single word. [Okay.]

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For the ninety-ninth time, my Alpha mate, Kyle, instinctively veered off patrol—straight toward Seraphina’s den. He turned and looked at me like I was the problem. “Why is your scent so weak? I didn’t even sense you. Anyway, since I’m here, I’ll reinforce the wards on Seraphina’s den.” I stood frozen, a bitter smile on my lips. That phrase again. “Since I’m here.” It started a year ago, after my best friend Seraphina moved to the forest edge. My Alpha, the pack’s leader, kept getting “lost” on his patrols. He promised we’d go to the Moonlight Ritual together. Instead, he knocked on Seraphina’s door, holding the ceremonial Moonpetal Nectar meant for us. Rogue werewolves wounded me and left me burning with a fever. I begged him for healing herbs. He gave them to Seraphina for her “moon-sickness.” Even on my own Coming of Age ceremony, he presented his trophy hunt to her. He laid the kill at her door. “Since I’m here,” he’d said. “Think of it as a gift for your friendship.” Another time, it was: “Seraphina’s aura’s been acting up. Since I’m here, I’ll help her settle it.” I watched him disappear into her den. He never looked back. I turned and walked toward my den. He’d forgotten. Today, my pack oath expired. I decided to leave this territory. Since he loved going there, he could stay there for good. Back at my den, a few young werewolves loyal to me were waiting. “Ella, we’re ready to start moving your things.” I nodded. At that moment, the communication crystal on my wrist buzzed. It was a mental link from Kyle. “Where did you go? Don’t wander off.” I flinched. Our mental link had always been one-sided. I was the only one who cared. For a moment, the message made my fingers tremble. But as I was concentrating, his next thought cut through. “Go to the apothecary in the south. Bring me a moonsilver dagger. Seraphina doesn’t have one here.” I stared at the silent words hanging in my mind. He hadn’t noticed I was gone. He only noticed I was gone when he needed me to run an errand. I looked back through our old messages. Almost every message from him was about Seraphina. “Give Seraphina that vial of Stardust Tears from the Elders. I’ll hunt another prize for you later. Seraphina wants to try the heart of a Fire Drake. We’re hunting one tonight. I’ve already found its trail.” Kyle never asked. He ordered. He had already decided before the words reached me. The last one was during a thunderstorm. I had asked if he could come get me. “I’m already home,” he replied. “You can get back on your own.” A moment later, a new post popped up on Seraphina’s PackFeed. It was a photo of a massive, dark wolf, with her perched safely on its back. The caption read: “Almost drowned in this storm! So lucky my guardian knight came to the rescue.” I knew that wolf’s form. I always told myself to be happy for them. He was my Alpha. She was my best friend. I told myself this was normal. But my patience only ever seemed to encourage him. He pushed the boundaries further and further. This time, I left his message unanswered.

As I packed, another message came from Kyle. “Still not back? Seraphina wanted dinner at Starlight Caverns, so I brought her. Meet us there yourself.” This was nothing new. We would make plans to hunt together. But I’d be delayed by pack duties, or tracking a kill. By the time I arrived, only cold scraps remained. Kyle always brushed me off. “Seraphina is weak, she needed to eat. So the food’s cold, it’s still fine. You’re too sensitive.” Don’t be so fragile. That was his favorite line. Rotting vines once tore through my den and wrecked it. When I asked him for help, he said the same thing. “I don’t have the energy for that. Get some of the younger werewolves. Don’t be so fragile.” So I burned the vines myself and reinforced the wards alone. After that, I stopped relying on him. But with Seraphina, he was different. “You don’t have to be so tough,” he told her. “Let me handle it. Your den is near Ella’s anyway. It’s no extra trouble.” I never understood it. I was his future mate. But when I needed him, I was being “fragile.” When she needed him, it was “no extra trouble.” I swallowed the bitterness and sent my reply. “Enjoy. I’ve got things to do.” His response didn’t come for a long time. “Another tantrum? Ella, you’re not a cub anymore. Grow up.”

I had thrown a tantrum once before. Last winter, an ice-wolf’s claw ripped my side open. Frost poison flooded my veins. I reached out through our link and begged for Fire-bloom. He was at Seraphina’s. Her moon-sickness was flaring up, he said. He was busy brewing her a calming tea. “But I’m uncomfortable,” I sent him. He was silent for two heartbeats. “You can still message me, so how bad can it be? I’ll have a courier send some. Just endure it.” That was my breaking point. He was my Alpha. But I would never be his priority. I told him I wanted to sever our mate bond. No reply came. The mind-link between us slammed shut, cutting me off cold. He knew my love for him was the easiest way to control me. He was sure I would never leave. That was my weakness. I suffered alone for two days. I cried until I had nothing left. Two days later, Seraphina came to “mediate.” And like a fool, I crawled back. I never caused a scene again after that day. But this was different. This wasn’t a tantrum. I was serious.

Young werewolves moved in and out, clearing the den. It hit me. After seven years of our mate bond, my home held almost nothing of Kyle’s. A pair of mud-caked boots, a drinking horn, and nothing else. Even those two items were things I had gotten for him. He’d never given me a real gift. Seraphina got a magical stone for her new den. For her birthday, he bought her favorite Ghost Orchids. But for me, he always had an excuse. “That ceremonial stuff is meaningless, Ella. We’re going to be Alpha and Luna. We have to be practical.” I used to question him, to argue about it. He said, “Getting gifts for your best friend makes you look good to the pack. It’s for you.” I let out a bitter laugh. My communication crystal vibrated. It was my mother calling. “Ella, honey? I was calling about your official bonding ceremony. How are things with Kyle?”

Not long ago, Kyle and I met with our parents. They gave us their blessing, ready to set a date for the ceremony. But Kyle put it on hold. He said the pack was expanding, and bonding could wait. At the time, I was disappointed, but I told myself I understood. The pressure on an Alpha was immense. Now, all I felt was relief. A man who couldn’t even find his way to my den… I would be alone forever with him. “Mom, the bonding ceremony is off. I’m ending things.” Her voice went tight with alarm over the crystal. “Why? Did he do something unforgivable?” “No. It’s just… not the right fit anymore.” There was a long silence on her end. Of course she was shocked. Every werewolf in the territory knew how much I loved Kyle. For seven years, I was devoted to him. My mother knew. Seraphina knew. I had chased after him from the start. To get closer to him, I learned his preferred fighting techniques. I studied the ancient scrolls he was obsessed with. I even secretly joined the same hunting party, just for the chance to fight at his side. When he decided to build his pack in the southern forests, I didn’t hesitate. I gave up a coveted spot at the Central Royal City. I packed up my entire life and followed him here. My own mother refused to speak to me for three days. All I could say was, “Mom, if I let him go, I’ll regret it forever.” Back then, Seraphina angrily scolded me, saying: “Ella, you’re hopelessly whipped.”

Seraphina and I were friends for ten years. She was my family. But now, she was taking all of my mate’s attention without a shred of guilt. She never cared how it made me feel. I saw her new post on PackFeed. It was a romantic dinner. My eyes stung. The picture was taken in the “Starlight Caverns.” I had found it in an old text. Sparkling cave walls, exquisite food, the sound of an elven harp. I begged Kyle to go with me so many times. He always said, “We’re going to be leading this pack, Ella. Think about our resources. A dinner that costs that much? I can put glow-stones on the ceiling for you.” He always sounded so reasonable. Every time, I said nothing. But now, Seraphina mentioned it. He took her to the one place I had always wanted to go. After moving the last box, I collapsed on the furs in my new den. I remembered building my last one. I’d messaged Kyle for help, but he was busy with pack defenses. He told me to handle it myself. To save resources, I did it all alone. I pushed too hard and reopened an old injury. It put me in bed for two days. But when Seraphina built her den, Kyle cleared his entire day. “Building a den is hard work, Ella. Your friend is alone. It’s our duty to help her.” I watched him work for her, sweat dampening his hair. I barely recognized him. It was never that he couldn’t. He just wouldn’t do it for me.

I was packing when the communication crystal started buzzing. It was Kyle. “Ella, open the door! You changed the ward’s incantation. What is this?” I took a breath. “It means nothing, Kyle. We’re over. I’m severing the bond.” He ignored what I said and raised his voice. “Seraphina remembered you wanted food from the Starlight Caverns. She brought some back for you, and you do this? Change the password and ignore us? Ella, stop throwing a tantrum!” I wasn’t sure if he didn’t hear me. Or if he’d labeled my decision as my usual drama. Before I could say it again, he hung up. I let out a hollow laugh. My own fault. My love for Kyle was no secret to anyone in the pack. Even he thought I would never leave. The next day, I was at the pack market, getting supplies for my new den. I turned down an aisle and ran straight into them. Kyle, his arms loaded with bags, and Seraphina at his side. The smiles on their faces vanished when they saw me. “Ella, please, don’t get me wrong. Kyle was only helping me. He was worried I couldn’t carry everything alone.” Seraphina tried to explain, reaching out for my hand. But Kyle yanked her back behind him. “Why are you explaining to her? She still owes you an apology. You baby her too much, Seraphina. That’s why she keeps pulling this crap.”

Seraphina gave me a worried look. She followed Kyle toward the trading post anyway. I watched them leave, my chest tightening. Kyle never went to the market with me. He always said it was too much trouble. “Have a courier bring what you need. Why go through the trouble yourself?” But there he was, carrying all of Seraphina’s bags without complaint. Outside, Kyle stowed all their things. Seraphina was already on his wolf back. She was in the seat only a claimed mate was supposed to take. She looked back and waved at me. “Get on,” Kyle said casually. “I’ll take you both home.” My eyes fell on the saddle pad woven from Moon-Grass. The one that marked the Luna’s seat. His brow furrowed when he saw my expression. “Seraphina is fragile. It’s safer for her up front. You can ride in the back.” He remembered all her little quirks. Her fragility, her irregular moon sickness. But he conveniently forgot about my old battle scars. My eyes stung. I forced the words out. “No, thanks. I’m not going that way.” Seraphina started to dismount. “Ella, don’t do this. You don’t want me sitting here, do you? I can get down.” But Kyle let out a low growl, commanding her to stay put. “If she’s not going our way, fine. We’re leaving.” The wolf lunged forward. Dust hit my face as they rode off. He never had any patience for me.

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It was the day before Valentine’s, the day Julian Thorne had finally agreed to marry me. But that morning? He married his ex-wife instead. We were on our way to Manhattan City Hall. He suddenly pulled his Bentley over to the side of the road. I looked at him in confusion, but he just stared blankly at the traffic. “We can’t get married today. Isabelle is back with my son, Leon. His condition has gotten worse, it’s complicated. Lawyers advised us to remarry. It’s to simplify the medical decisions and get him the best treatment faster.” My mind went blank. He tapped his knuckles on the steering wheel, his tone matter-of-fact. “It’s a legal formality for the kid, Ella. You’ve always been so smart. You should understand my position. Our lavish wedding at The Plaza is still happening. You’ll still wear the Cartier ring. Nothing changes between us except a piece of paper. My feelings for you haven’t changed.” I looked at his handsome but unfamiliar face and felt sick. I was about to tell him the news. That we were finally having the baby we’d always wanted. But now, this selfish bastard didn’t deserve to know. And like that, this marriage meant nothing. I swallowed the bile rising in my throat. “So, Julian… when you went to City Hall yesterday and signed a marriage license with another woman, did you think about what that would make today for me?” Julian finally turned to face me, his brow furrowed in annoyance. “Ella, don’t be dramatic. My marriage to Isabelle was always a business alliance. You know that. Reinstating it is for guardianship and medical consent. It’s the fastest way to get Leon treatment. Besides, you’ve always said you hate complications, right?” He was right. I used to swallow all my problems so he could focus on the chaos of Wall Street. He always praised me for being “independent and not clingy.” Now, the independence he praised was the knife he was twisting in my back. I let out a laugh. “So, to avoid ‘complications,’ I’m supposed to accept my fiancé is legally another woman’s husband, right before our own wedding?” “Julian, what the hell am I to you?”

He reached for me, but I flinched. His hand froze between us. He sighed, dropping his hand to his side. “Ella, after five years, does a piece of paper really matter more than us? I’ve given you everything. I gave you the best life. You know that. I love you. You’re the only one I want to spend my life with. Nothing has changed.” My mind flashed back to a year ago. We were walking past a baby boutique on Fifth Avenue. He’d pulled me inside, picking up a tiny pair of sneakers. “Ella, once we’re married, let’s have a baby right away. I can’t wait to see a little you, looking at me with your eyes, calling me Dad.” His excitement had been so real then. And this betrayal felt as real now. My hand moved to my stomach. I lowered my voice. “And the child? He gets your name, your insurance… and then what? What’s the plan for them, Julian? Are you going to stay legally married to her forever?”

Julian relaxed. He thought I was caving. “Leon’s condition is complicated. He needs long-term care, and Isabelle can’t manage it alone. I’ll set them up in an apartment on the Upper East Side. They’ll have the best care. I’ll only visit once or twice a week. Ella, I promise. I’ll spend most of my time with you.” I felt an overwhelming sense of irony. How can a man about to be married have two homes? Two families? His phone buzzed. It was his mother. The unshakeable matriarch of the Thorne family. He answered. “Mother. On our way. I’m bringing Ella to the estate in the Hamptons for dinner.” He hung up, not even bothering to ask if I agreed. He spun the car around and merged onto the Long Island Expressway. A glance from the corner of his eye, his tone shifting from demanding to desperate. “Ella, I know how unfair this is. I have no right to ask anything of you.” He paused, his voice dropping to a near whisper. “But the wedding has been announced. All of New York knows. And my mother… she adores you. You know her heart condition. She can’t take a shock right now.” “I’m begging you. Just give me a little time. Let me get Leon and Isabelle settled. Let me find the right way to handle things with her.” He looked at me, his eyes swirling with an emotion I’d never seen before. “Tonight, can we have dinner with her? Please? Give me some time.” I stared at his familiar profile. For the first time, a chill settled deep in my bones. He was turning pressure into a plea. Disguising his selfishness as a necessary evil. He was painting himself as the victim, trapped and torn between two worlds. He was making a bet. A bet on five years of my love. My stomach churned again. I bit my lip and fought not to throw up on the leather seats.

The Thorne estate in the Hamptons was grand enough to feel unreal. As we walked in, Julian’s mother greeted us. Mrs. Thorne, elegant and imposing, took my hand. “Ella! The chef made your favorite macarons.” She didn’t know. In her eyes, tomorrow was a celebration. Her son was marrying the love of his life. At the dinner table, Julian was the perfect fiancé. He cut my steak, poured me vintage champagne. A flawless performance. “Ella, enjoy it. You’ve gotten too thin preparing for the wedding.” Mrs. Thorne looked at us gently. Julian froze for a second, then forced a smile. “She’s right, you need to eat.” He looked at me, his eyes a mix of warning and pleading. He was making a bet. Betting I wouldn’t defy his mother. Betting I wouldn’t humiliate this kind, oblivious woman in front of everyone. After dinner, Mrs. Thorne quietly led me to her study. From a safe behind a painting, she retrieved a velvet box. Inside lay a sapphire necklace that glittered under the light. It was the Thorne family heirloom. “Ella, only a Thorne bride wears this,” she said, fastening it around my neck herself. “I can see how much Julian truly loves you. He used to be so wild. You changed him.” She patted my hand, her eyes growing misty. “You two build a beautiful life. And give me a grandchild soon. With my health… I hope I’m around long enough to hold one.”

The cold weight of the sapphires pressed against my skin. My throat tightened. I swallowed the words of refusal, again and again. The secret pressed on me harder than ever. The grandchild she was praying for was already here, inside me. But her son would have nothing to do with the baby. Later that night, back at our Central Park West penthouse, Julian came up behind me and wrapped his arms around my waist. He smelled of scotch, pressing hot kisses against my neck. “Honey…” My body went rigid. Pure, physical revulsion washed over me. I shoved him off, bolting for the bathroom where I retched over the sink. He followed, gently rubbing my back. “What’s wrong? Was it something you ate?” I splashed my face with cold water, staring at my own pale reflection. “Julian. Don’t touch me.” His hand froze. His expression hardened. “Are you still on this? Ella, I thought you’d cooled off.” I turned, backing up against the cold marble counter. Putting a barrier between us. “So what’s my role in this perfect plan of yours, Julian? Am I the publicly adored Mrs. Thorne, with no legal standing whatsoever? Or a tool to help you cover up your dirty deal, to make it all look respectable?”

He lit a cigarette. His patience was gone. “I already told you. You can have everything but the marriage license. The company stock, this penthouse, all of my personal assets. What I have with Isabelle is duty. That’s it.” Duty. There was that word again. “And what about me? What’s your duty to me?” “With you, it’s love!” he snarled, as if he were the one being wronged. “Don’t push me, Ella.” His voice turned to ice. “You know how much my mother adores you. Her heart can’t take a shock. If we split and something happens to her… could you live with that?” A chill went through me. He was using her against me again. It wasn’t a statement of fact. It was pure emotional blackmail. Her health was her doctor’s and family’s responsibility, not a cage to keep me trapped. He saw my silence and pressed his advantage, exploiting my kindness. “You’re a good person. You’ve always treated her like your mother, right?” Yes, I’m kind. But I’m not a fool. “Besides,” he said, playing his final, brutal card. “Your father’s experimental treatments at Sloan Kettering… the millions of dollars each year. I am paying for that. Can you give him that care if you leave me?” First, emotional blackmail. Then, a financial threat. He knew exactly where to hurt me. My compassion, and my devotion to my father. I looked at the man in front of me. It felt like I’d never known him. Was the gentle man I loved now this monster, chaining me with money and guilt? “Fine.” I said, my voice hollow. “I’m listening to you.” Julian sighed in relief, moving in for a hug. “I knew you’d see reason, Ella.” I sidestepped him. His arms froze in mid-air. I pointed to the guest room. “But I don’t want to look at you. You’re sleeping in there tonight.” His face darkened, but he nodded, desperate to secure my temporary surrender. “Alright. Get some rest.” When the door shut, I sank to the floor. I cried.

To make me accept this absurd reality, Julian took me to see Isabelle. He drove me to our first apartment in Brooklyn. A tiny loft that held all our history. The hard years and the good ones. Now, it was home to his legal wife and their son. The industrial space I remembered was gone. Replaced with a warm, cozy family home. Isabelle was gently giving medicine to a small boy. She wore a simple cashmere set, no makeup, her blonde hair loosely pinned up. She gave me a calm nod. “Please, sit down. Sorry, the place is a mess.” The boy was five or six, pale and thin, but he had Julian’s eyes. He hid behind Isabelle, whispering, “Daddy.” Julian walked over as if I wasn’t there. He knelt, checked Leon’s forehead, and got him a glass of water from the kitchen. He patiently coaxed the boy to take his medicine, wiping a drop from his chin. It was a father’s love. That much was obvious. Deep, instinctual, and impossible to fake. I stood in the doorway, like a stranger intruding on their family. Julian took Leon to his room to show him a new toy. Leaving me alone with her. Isabelle handed me a cup of herbal tea and sat across from me. “I told Julian, you know. That this is incredibly unfair to you.” She sighed. “But you know how he is. Once he makes a decision, no one can change it.” She said it so casually. “He wants it all. The responsibility he can’t abandon… and the thrill he can’t give up. The most important thing is to take care of ourselves, right?”

Her words were meant to sound like comfort. But she was putting me in my place. She was the duty, the responsibility. And I was just the thrill. She picked up a silver frame from the table. A photo of their little family. She wiped a speck of dust off the glass, then gave me a sad, knowing smile. “He never let me throw this away,” she said. “Not even when we were divorced.” “Some ties, you can’t break.” My eyes went from their smiling faces to the sapphire necklace on my chest. Suddenly, it felt ridiculous. The whole thing was a sick joke. I didn’t say a word. I just got up and walked out. She didn’t try to stop me. Her voice floated after me, light and airy. “Ella, don’t blame him. And don’t be so hard on yourself. Give it a few years. You’ll get used to it.” Get used to it? Get used to this twisted, sickening arrangement?

The wedding planning continued, as if nothing was wrong. Julian thought I had accepted it. He was back to being gentle and attentive, desperate to please me. “Ella, how do you like this Vera Wang gown? I had it rushed in just for you. And the ring, I had Harry Winston’s designer upgrade it to ten carats.” He was trying to cover his lies with expensive gifts. He took me to the gallery to pick up our engagement portrait. A giant, framed photo of us kissing on a beach at sunset. In the picture, I was smiling, thinking I was the luckiest woman. Now, the sight of that smile made my stomach turn. Julian pointed at it, mesmerized. “See, Ella? We’re made for each other. I’ll give you the world, I promise. Everything you could ever want.” I stared at that fake smile, and another wave of nausea washed over me. “I need the bathroom.” I ran, hunched over the toilet, and dry-heaved until my throat burned. Only bitter acid came up. The date on my ultrasound report flashed in my mind. I had been pregnant for almost three months.

When I stepped out of the bathroom, Julian had his back to me. He was on the phone, his voice a low murmur. But I still heard every word. “…Isabelle, stop it. I can’t get away right now.” “Leon’s running a fever again? Did you give him his medicine?” “Okay, okay, I’m on my way. Don’t panic. I’ll stop by Magnolia Bakery and get his favorite cupcakes.” It was Isabelle. Even now, in the middle of our wedding plans. All she had to do was mention their son. And he was gone. He hung up, turning to see me standing there. Panic flashed across his face. Then it was gone. He walked toward me, looking regretful. “Honey, something urgent came up at work. A major client just flew in from Europe. I have to go.” I didn’t call out his lie. I held his gaze. “Julian, do you remember what day it is?” He looked at me, completely blank. He’d forgotten. I answered for him. “It’s my birthday.” Guilt washed over his features as he rushed to fix it. “Oh god, Ella, I’m so sorry. I’ve been so busy.” “What do you want? We’ll go to Fifth Avenue right now, you can have anything.” He reached for my hand. I took a step back and shook my head. “Don’t worry about it. You have an emergency. You should go.” He looked relieved that I was being so “understanding.” He kissed my forehead and left. “I’ll make it up to you, I swear. A huge party when I get back. Wait for me.” He grabbed his car keys and rushed out the door. He never looked back.

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On the eve of my promotion to Chief Healer, my Alpha, Leander, secretly submitted a medical deployment application to the Northern War Zone in my name. When I confronted him, he brushed it off. “Celeste used my computer yesterday and accidentally submitted it for you. It was just a little joke.” “Isn’t there a second confirmation? You could have rejected it.” Leander knew perfectly well that if I failed to respond within twenty-four hours, the application would be automatically confirmed. Once it went through, I would have to spend three years in the Northern War Zone, where whether I lived or died would be anyone’s guess. Not only had he kept it from me beforehand, but he had also called it a joke, as though I would be vicious for holding Celeste accountable. Seven years together, and in the end, they meant less than a pretty intern who had been hovering around him for three months. My heart went cold. I said nothing more and confirmed the deployment myself. I never expected him to regret it. … APPLICATION SUBMITTED. If not actively withdrawn within twenty-four hours, deployment to the Northern War Zone will be automatically confirmed for a three-year assignment. When I received the email from the Moonbound Healers Alliance about the Northern War Zone medical deployment, I froze for a second. Then anger surged through me. The documents I had asked Leander to submit yesterday were clearly for my promotion to Senior Healer. What came back instead was a deployment application. My phone buzzed. A colleague from the Alliance’s Human Resources Office had messaged me. Dr. Hart, did you submit the wrong form? High-risk territory deployment applications have a twenty-four-hour cooling-off period. You can still withdraw it. Leander and I had been together for seven years. As an Alpha, there was no way he did not know how dangerous the North was. He had almost died on the border himself. And now I was learning that he had filled out an application sending me there. Our Mate Bond ceremony was supposed to take place next year. I took a deep breath and called Leander with trembling hands. “I received a deployment confirmation for the Northern front. Why?” His careless voice came through the line. “Oh, that. Celeste came to my office yesterday to discuss the data and saw me organizing your materials. She said the Northern War Zone needed complex-trauma specialists like you the most, so she jokingly submitted the application for you.” He paused, his tone as light as if we were discussing what to have for lunch. “She just graduated from the Wolf Medical Academy. She’s passionate and impulsive. She was only joking with you. There is a twenty-four-hour cooling-off period, isn’t there? Just withdraw it.” Celeste. Again. She was the new trainee healer Leander had brought into the pack this year, and after I was promoted to Chief trauma Healer, she was the person most likely to take over my position on the project. Young. Pretty. And every time she looked at Leander, the worship in her eyes was impossible to miss. He knew that if the application was not actively withdrawn within twenty-four hours, it would automatically enter the review process. And once a Northern War Zone medical deployment was approved, it meant at least two years away. Yet he described it as a little joke. “If I hadn’t checked my email in time, that order would have gone into effect. Do you understand how serious this is?” My voice tightened. I could not understand why he had not told me earlier. Leander sighed into the receiver, the impatience in his voice obvious. “Elowen, when did you become so uptight?” “It was a joke. Celeste was going to remind you today anyway. Even if you had really missed the email, she would have told you tomorrow at the latest.” “If you want to report her, go ahead and report me too. I was the one who gave her access.” Then he hung up. I stood before the tall window of the Blackridge Pack Medical Center, looking out at the empty streets before dawn. For the first time, I felt as if I had never truly known the person beside me for the past seven years. Withdrawing the application would take only one email. But at that moment, I no longer wanted to withdraw it. I opened the border medical station database and began downloading epidemiological data, combat-trauma protocols for werewolf patients, and maps of local armed factions. A colleague knocked on the duty-room door. “Dr. Hart, someone is looking for you downstairs.” Celeste was standing in the medical center lobby with two coffees in her hands. When she saw me, she hurried over, her smile bright. “Dr. Hart.” She handed me one of the coffees. “I just spoke to Alpha Leander. He is taking the team to the Northern territories this weekend for a medical outreach program, and he invited me to be his assistant. Do you think it would be appropriate for me to go?” Her eyes were clear, her tone sincere, as though she truly wanted my opinion. It had been three months. Ever since this top student from Stanford Wolf Medical School had joined Leander’s project team, she had been doing the most provocative things with the most innocent expression. I took the coffee but did not drink it. “What do you think? You two have already made up your minds. What do you need my blessing for?” Celeste tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. “Alpha Leander said this medical outreach is important. But I was worried you might misunderstand. After all, you used to be the one who partnered with him…” “Then don’t go.” She froze. “Weren’t you asking for my opinion?” I set the coffee down on the reception desk. “That is my opinion. Don’t go.” Celeste’s expression shifted. Before she could speak, the elevator doors opened. Almost at the same moment, tears welled in her eyes. Leander frowned when he saw her. “Celeste, what happened? Did someone upset you?” “Alpha, no one upset me. I only came to ask Dr. Hart for her opinion… I was afraid she would be unhappy.” Celeste lowered her head, tears falling at exactly the right moment. “I just didn’t expect her to say she didn’t want me to go.” Leander patted her shoulder and comforted her. “It doesn’t matter whether she agrees or not. Since when do I need someone else’s approval to choose my assistant?” Then he turned to me, his eyes full of impatience. “Look how much Celeste cares about your feelings. And you? You’re still making things hard for her over the Northern application?” “She cares about my feelings? For three months, she has been bringing you breakfast and leaving caring notes right in front of me. She fights to sit beside you in meetings, posts ambiguous photos of the two of you on Instagram, and now she wants to act innocent? Who is she performing for?” “I am your partner. But everywhere she goes, she acts as though she is the one who belongs beside you. She has no sense of boundaries at all. She is trying to take my place right in front of me. Calling you ‘Alpha’ every other sentence–doesn’t it make you sick?” “She calls me Dr. Hart to my face, but behind my back she probably wishes I would disappear.” Celeste went pale. She even forgot to cry. Leander stared at me as if he were looking at a stranger. “Are you done? When did you become this cruel?” “Celeste is on my project team. It is my responsibility to mentor her. Why do you always have to make everything so ugly? It’s a normal professional relationship, and you’re twisting it into something dirty.” “Celeste is generous enough not to argue with you. Apologize to her, and this ends here.” I laughed from sheer anger. “Are you insane? You want me to apologize to the person who submitted a Northern deployment application for me? Impossible.” Leander pressed his lips into a thin line. “Elowen, if you insist on refusing to apologize, then the Mate Bond ceremony we planned for next year can be canceled too.” Looking at the man before me, I felt more and more as if he were a stranger. The way he protected Celeste made my anger seem like a joke. I lowered my eyes and said softly, “Fine. Then let’s do as you said. Cancel the ceremony. End whatever bond is left between us.” Shock flashed through Leander’s eyes. Celeste immediately looked as though she wanted to mediate. “Alpha, Dr. Hart must only be saying that because she is angry. Please don’t argue because of something so small involving me.” Leander came back to himself and gave a cold laugh. “Fine. Canceled, then. Don’t come crying to me in the middle of the night, begging to get back together.” He left with Celeste. Before they were gone, I heard him speak to her in a gentle voice. “Don’t worry. We have been together for so many years. She always comes around.” “I have spoiled her too much all these years. This time, she needs to learn a lesson.”

When I returned to the duty room, the computer screen was still glowing. Three hours remained on the withdrawal countdown. I began searching for the latest briefings from the Northern border medical stations. Last week, an ambulance had been ambushed and two healers had been killed. One treatment station, short on supplies, had been forced to choose which of the wounded could receive care. But it was also where the most advanced combat-trauma techniques for werewolf patients were being developed, and where the world’s best healers rotated through the front line. If I returned after two years, that experience alone would allow me to compete directly for a Senior Healer position. Maybe it was not so bad after all. In the past, to fit into the stable life Leander wanted, I had given up three chances to take high-risk territory deployments. Now, it seemed I no longer had to worry so much. I shut down the computer. A message from my best friend, Maeve, popped up. Elowen! I saw Leander and Celeste at pack social night! God, the two of them were practically pressed together during the game! She sent me a video. The lighting was dim, but I recognized Leander at once in the center of the crowd. Celeste sat beside him, her cheeks flushed. Someone shouted, “Leander, truth or dare? If it’s a dare… hug the nearest woman for thirty seconds!” Amid the laughter, Leander turned and naturally pulled Celeste into his arms. Whistles and cheers exploded around them. They looked so intimate that anyone would think they were the fated pair. My heart stung as if pierced by a silver needle. I replied to Maeve: I know. Leave them alone. Then I began organizing the documents I needed to take with me when I left. After all, there was not much time. I would depart in a month. Two weeks later, Leander’s beta delivered an invitation. “Tomorrow evening, Alpha is hosting a project wrap-up dinner at the Mooncrest Medical Exchange Center. He asks that you attend.” “I’m busy.” The beta looked surprised. “But you contributed a great deal to this project…” “I have plans.” He smiled. “You may bring a companion. Alpha specifically said he hopes you will be there.” Several colleagues looked over at us. I accepted the invitation. On the night of the banquet, Celeste stood at the entrance to the hall in a pink cocktail dress, holding a certificate for Outstanding Young Researcher. The moment she saw me, her eyes lit up and she hurried over. “Dr. Hart, you’re here. Today is the day I passed my probation. I was afraid it wouldn’t feel festive enough, so I begged Alpha to combine his project wrap-up dinner with my celebration.” Expressionless, I said, “Congratulations.” “Thank you, Dr. Hart.” Her smile was radiant. “We saved you a seat at the main table.” I found a seat in the corner. Leander came looking for me. His suit was impeccable, his face handsome, his expression cold. “Elowen, go to the main table. What are you doing hiding here?” “It’s quiet here. I like it.” Leander took a deep breath. “I have let you give me the silent treatment for two weeks. Are you not finished yet? Since when have you not sat beside me at a celebration banquet? All this over a deployment order that has already been withdrawn?” Several people looked toward us. I met his eyes and said nothing. I also did not tell him that I had never withdrawn the order. A familiar professor smoothed things over. “Dr. Hart, come sit with us. We have kept a seat for you.” There was indeed an empty chair beside Leander. Celeste walked over naturally and took it. Then she turned to Leander. “Alpha, this is perfect. We were just discussing next month’s Global Pack Medicine Summit. Now that I have become a full staff member, you said you would take me out to see more of the world.” She looked at me with clear eyes. “Dr. Hart should come too. The three of us can go together.” I lifted my glass of water. I remembered the night Leander and I returned from South Sudan last year. He had said he would definitely take me to the next global summit. “When the time comes, you need to take photos with those top experts,” he had said while helping me smooth my skirt. “Let the people who say you rely on me see that this is your own strength.” The way my heart had moved then was real. The way it had gone cold now was real too. “The two of you should go. I don’t have time lately.” The moment I finished speaking, Leander’s face darkened.

Halfway through the banquet, I went out to the terrace for air. Leander followed me and grabbed my wrist. His palm was callused from years of holding surgical blades. “Elowen, what exactly do you mean by this?” “Exactly what I said.” I pulled my hand free. Leander laughed in anger. “How long are you going to keep acting like this? Is this still about the Northern deployment order?” Clearly, from beginning to end, he had believed I was merely throwing a little tantrum. “I asked Celeste. She really did plan to remind you. Even if you hadn’t seen the email, she would have told you the next day at the latest. Stop being so petty.” I nodded. “Yes. You’re right. I should thank her.” “Don’t use that tone with me.” He released my wrist, his voice hard. “You are coming with me to the summit next month. We agreed on that.” Then he turned and left, the hem of his suit jacket cutting a sharp line through the air. At eight o’clock on the morning of the summit, I stood at my apartment window and looked down. Leander’s car was parked below, and Celeste leaned against it, occasionally glancing up toward my floor. I drew the curtains shut. My phone vibrated with a message from Leander. Come down. Do not make me say it again. I replied: Packing. Not going. Is the summit less important than packing? If you do not come this time, don’t regret it. After sending that message, he left with Celeste. That day, he posted three updates on Instagram. Every single one included Celeste. Brought a young researcher to her first world-class summit today. That spark in her eyes reminds me of the beginning. She got shy after a few legends in the field praised her work. Summit photo. New voices deserve to be seen. The future belongs to them. Comments from mutual friends appeared one after another. Is Alpha bringing a student or a mate? He is so attentive. Dr. Hart didn’t go? Did the strongest healing duo break up? Celeste really is talented. Alpha has an eye for people. Maeve sent me screenshots, furious. Celeste is absolutely doing this on purpose! You and Leander may not have gone public, but everyone in the circle knows you’ve been together for seven years. This is disgusting. Aren’t you going to do something? Was it disgusting? A little. But more than that, it was liberating. One intern had been enough to let me see clearly what seven years of love had been worth. The more I cherished him, the more he took it for granted. The withdrawal period for the Northern deployment order had passed. That was that. I began preparing my gear. High-risk territory aid was not easy. I needed ballistic armor, emergency healing kits, multiple vaccines, antimalarial drugs, and psychological training for battlefield post-traumatic stress disorder. But once my mind settled, it felt less like exile and more like a new beginning. Before I left, I asked Maeve to have dinner with me. Northern food would take some getting used to. I might as well start early. Maeve stared at me. “Leander and that intern are already acting like that, and you still have the mood to try new food?” “Why wouldn’t I?” I smiled. Work was work. Love was love. Whenever Leander and I had argued before, I had always been the one to make peace. But this time, he had crossed my bottom line. On the way back to my apartment, I even found myself humming. Maeve looked at me in disbelief. “Have you really let go? I saw Leander and Celeste’s Instagram. They’ve been interacting even more since they came back from the summit…” I did not answer. When we passed the old campus of the Wolf Medical Academy, I asked Maeve to go ahead and went alone into the ivy-covered laboratory building. The rooftop was where Leander and I had first met. Eight years ago, I had still been a wolf medical student. He was already the youngest regional director of the Moonbound Healers Alliance and the newly appointed Alpha of Blackridge Pack. That night, I had been harshly criticized by my mentor for a surgical error and had hidden there to smoke. He found me and led me to the railing. “Look down.” He pointed at the thousands of city lights below. “What is one mistake in the span of an entire life?” From a terrified wolf medical student, I later became the partner who worked most seamlessly with him. Before every dangerous mission, we often came here. Together, we discussed injuries, argued over treatment plans, and shared our breakthroughs. Leander liked leaning against the railing and looking out at the lights of the medical center in the distance. “Elowen, you’re improving so quickly that I almost feel threatened.” Back then, I had smiled at his profile. “Then you had better work hard. Don’t let me surpass you.” In our third year, in an interpack border zone, a breach appeared in the area under my responsibility and three team members were infected. Headquarters investigators accused me of negligence in front of an entire tent of people and wanted to send me back to the pack. Leander stood up and stepped in front of me. “I am the chief supervisor of this epidemic zone. I will take responsibility for every issue. Dr. Hart’s protective protocol carried my final signature. If anyone is to be disciplined, discipline me.” He bore all the pressure and voluntarily applied to extend his time stationed there as a remedy. After the investigators left, I stood in the tent that reeked of disinfectant and watched Leander’s profile as he organized medical reports. My trust in him and my love for him grew so full they almost overflowed. We got together after that night. Now, those memories had become sharpened silver blades, cutting deep.

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On Valentine’s Day, a $5,200 charge popped up on my credit card. I was still processing it when an unknown number called. “Hello, is this Ms. Tiffany Vance? I’m calling about the Valentine’s package from Mr. Jenkins. The Ecuadorian roses and the Dom Pérignon are out for delivery, and your 3-star Michelin dinner reservations for tonight are all set. Will you be at the office to receive the delivery?” I froze. Liam and I kept our office romance a secret for three years. Just two days ago, he held me close and reassured me: “Baby, just wait a little longer. Once I make Director, we can finally go public.” I asked the so-called luxury concierge, “Are you sure you have the right person?” The guy paused, checking his notes. “Let me pull up the details… It says here it’s from your boyfriend, Liam Jenkins. Is that right?” I nodded at first, but then it hit me. My last name is Vance. But my first name isn’t Tiffany. Tiffany was our new intern. The second she joined, she made sure everyone knew she was the CEO’s niece. By week one, she closed a massive client I’d spent three months chasing. Liam scoffed at her back then. “Total nepo baby. She only landed that deal by riding her uncle’s coattails. What’s the big deal?” I just smiled and let it slide. Turns out, he was playing the perfect boyfriend to someone else—on my dime. I let out a cold laugh. “Actually, swap those roses for a massive funeral wreath. And cancel that dinner reservation.” …… I hung up just as Tiffany strolled in, armed with a dozen aggressively expensive coffees. “Happy Valentine’s Day! My boyfriend wanted to treat the whole department to coffee!” She slammed a cup on my desk with a smirk. “Emilia, this is Blue Bottle. You’ve probably never had it, right?” My coworkers instantly swarmed her, kissing up as usual. “Your boyfriend is so good to you! Rich, handsome, and so considerate—he even thought of us!” “Seriously, Tiffany is literally God’s favorite. The CEO’s niece and she has a perfect boyfriend? When do we get to meet this dream guy?” Tiffany noticed my silence and seized the moment. She raised her voice so the whole office could hear. “Emilia, didn’t you mention you had a boyfriend too? What did he get you for Valentine’s? It’s awfully quiet over there…” She looked at me in pure mockery. “Don’t tell me… he didn’t get you anything at all?” A coworker scoffed. “Emilia talks about this guy every day, but have any of us actually met him? Three years, and not a single sighting. I bet she just made him up!” “Yeah, totally. Look at Tiffany’s boyfriend—the surprises never stop. Emilia, what has your boyfriend ever given you?” I shot a glance at Liam. Panic flashed across his face. He forced an awkward laugh, scrambling to change the subject. “Come on guys, leave Emilia alone. So she invented a guy to save face. It’s no big deal.”

My instincts told me something was off. Usually, whenever coworkers joked about my boyfriend, Liam would just ignore them and play dumb. But today, he was way too eager to brush it off. I checked my banking app, only to find my alerts under $1,000 were turned off. $388… $698… $999… Dozens of charges I never made. All from this month alone. So that’s why. No wonder Liam tried to shut them up so quickly. He was terrified I’d connect the dots. My blood boiled. I shot out of my chair. “Liam…” But before I could finish, Tiffany’s shrill voice cut me off. She walked over, flashing a smile as she looped her arm through Liam’s. “Everyone, let me officially introduce you. Liam is my boyfriend.” “I wanted to keep it low-key, but Liam didn’t want to keep me hidden anymore. He insisted on going public for Valentine’s Day!” The office erupted. “Wait, Liam is your boyfriend? No wonder I saw you guys leaving together last month!” “You two are literally a perfect couple! Wealthy heiress and handsome high-flyer!” “Come on, Liam. Don’t tell me coffee is all you got her for Valentine’s. Spill!” Tiffany giggled behind her hand, but her gaze cut me like a knife. “Oh, it’s nothing crazy. He just Zelled me $15,000 for Valentine’s, ordered 999 roses and booked a Michelin-star dinner. They’ll be delivered here in a bit, you’ll see.”

I stood there, staring at Liam in disbelief. Three years of a secret romance. He told me he valued his privacy. That he didn’t want to be office gossip. I respected that. I never breathed a word about us to anyone. But now? Tiffany just claimed he insisted on going public for her. Then what the hell was I? What were our three years together? Liam came from nothing. He sent most of his paycheck back to his family every month, and I never complained once. I figured he was strapped for cash, so I always picked up the tab. No big deal. It wasn’t until this moment that the truth hit me. He wasn’t broke. He just didn’t think I was worth his money. I bit my lip hard, refusing to let him see me break. Tiffany shot me a taunting look. “Emilia, what’s with that look? Aren’t you going to congratulate us?” Looking at her expression, it all clicked. She knew about Liam and me from the very beginning. She did all of this on purpose.

I ignored her, locking eyes with Liam. My voice cracked. “Liam, I don’t buy it. Tell me yourself.” Liam avoided my gaze for a split second. But he quickly squared his shoulders. His tone was cold and detached. “Emilia, I admit you’re attractive, but face reality. Tiffany is the one I love.” “Could you stop obsessing over me? It’s pathetic. You’re acting like a total stalker.” I scoffed. Thinking back, when Tiffany landed that massive client, Liam wasn’t sneering. He was jealous. Bitter that his own girlfriend was just a nobody. Bitter that a trust-fund baby like Tiffany wasn’t already in his pocket. At his words, the coworkers’ stares felt like daggers. “Jesus, Emilia. Did you seriously think you were Liam’s girlfriend?” “This is hilarious. Tiffany is rich, connected, and capable. What do you even have?” “Tiffany, your uncle is the CEO, right? Just have him fire this psycho. Sharing an office with her is gross.” I let out a cold laugh. “Fire me?” “Why don’t you ask Tiffany if she has the pull?”

Tiffany paled for a second. But the crowd’s flattery fueled her ego. She marched up to my desk, glaring down at me. “Emilia, do yourself a favor and just quit. I’ll pretend the whole ‘hitting on my boyfriend’ thing didn’t happen. Otherwise, I’m calling my uncle to get you kicked out!” I sat back down, unbothered. “Sorry, but I won’t be quitting. If anyone has a problem with me, there’s the door. Don’t let it hit you on the way out.” “You—” Tiffany’s face turned beet red. “Fine, Emilia! Since you’re so desperate to humiliate yourself, I’ll let you see what a real Valentine’s gift looks like!” “If Liam is really your boyfriend, where’s your surprise?” I let out a laugh. A surprise? Bring it on. I’ll wait. Because they’re the ones in for a rude awakening today… Not me.

The office drama died down for now. I stepped out to use the restroom, only for Liam to corner me in the hallway. He looked impatient. “Emilia, was I not clear enough? Why are you still dead set on hanging around the office?” “Tiffany is the CEO’s niece. Being with her fast-tracks my career by ten years. And you? What could you possibly offer me?” I stared at him. So this was the real Liam. “You’re dumping me just because Tiffany claims to be the CEO’s niece?” Liam frowned. “Don’t make it sound so ugly. People trade up. I did nothing wrong. If you want to blame someone, blame your own family for being nobodies!” He turned and stormed off. I watched him walk away with a cold laugh. When I first joined the company, my dad—Robert Vance, the real CEO— wanted to put me straight into the executive suite. But I wanted to work my way up from the bottom. Just to prove myself. To avoid any special treatment, I kept my identity under wraps. After three years of grinding it out, my dad decided it was time. At the quarterly meeting, he’d reveal who I was and make me Marketing Director. I had planned to tell Liam today. Give him a Valentine’s surprise. I didn’t expect a slap in the face instead. Three years of my life, completely down the drain.

Back at my desk, I pulled up every charge Liam made on my cards. Especially all the times he secretly swiped my card to buy gifts for Tiffany. I screenshotted every receipt and built a detailed document. Right before I clocked out, a huge commotion erupted outside. Two coworkers rushed up to my desk, sneering down at me. “Liam’s gift for Tiffany is here, down in the lobby! Come see what a real gift looks like!” “I bet you’ve never seen anything this luxurious in your life.” They didn’t stop talking as they grabbed my arm, dragging me out. Instead of fighting back, I just went with it. After all, they had a point. I had never seen what a $5,200 funeral wreath looked like. I kind of wanted to see it myself. As we hit the lobby, a concierge’s booming voice echoed through the space: “Delivery for Tiffany? Valentine’s gift from a Mr. Jenkins.” I looked over. Inside the black van sat a massive object shrouded in velvet. Tiffany gloated before stepping forward, acting shy. “Hi, my boyfriend ordered this for me. Thank you.” The crowd buzzed with envy. A few even shot me mocking looks, hoping for a scene. The next second, the concierge yanked the velvet cloth away. Underneath sat a giant wreath of white lilies and chrysanthemums. The concierge raised a megaphone and blared: “One funeral wreath from your boyfriend, Mr. Jenkins. Sign here, please.” The room went dead silent. All the color drained from Tiffany’s face.

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It was our eighth anniversary party. I lost at Truth or Dare. My punishment? A full glass of 151 rum. The amber liquid sat before me. All eyes in the Manhattan penthouse locked onto Julian Vance. The taunts began. “Julian, time to be the hero!” “Take the fall for your queen!” After all, everyone in New York high society knows me. Aurora Hayes. Severely allergic to alcohol. Five years ago, one bite of a rum cake put me in anaphylactic shock. I ended up in the ICU. Julian stayed by my bedside for three days, his eyes bloodshot. He swore he’d never let me touch a drop of alcohol again. I looked at him. But Chloe, his new intern, sat beside him. She pouted, her innocent look now edged with challenge. “Oh? Does sweet Aurora get to skip the rules?” The party fell silent. Julian didn’t take the glass away. Instead, he calmly pushed it closer to me. “She’s right. A game’s a game.” He ruffled my hair. “Be good. I brought your EpiPen. I won’t let anything happen.” Triumph flashed in Chloe’s eyes. I didn’t glance at the medicine in Julian’s hand. My hand closed around the glass of rum. I tilted my head back and downed it. The liquor burned my throat like a blade. Julian was right. A game’s a game. This eight-year game of love was over. … The rum hit my stomach like a bomb. I grabbed the marble countertop. “Excuse me,” I muttered, stumbling towards the door. After my last ICU trip, my doctor’s warning was dire. He’d said it in front of Julian. For my allergy, pills were useless. Alcohol meant immediate throat swelling. I would need an injection and a hospital, fast. A mild reaction meant shock. A severe one meant death. Luckily, a private hospital was across the street. I could make it. “Aurora!” I reached the door when Julian grabbed my wrist. “It’s just a game. Don’t be dramatic. Here, take this. I’ll drive you to the hospital now.” From his suit pocket, he produced a sleek metal case. The cap twisted off as he tipped it into his palm. Empty. He froze, shaking it again; nothing.

Julian looked stunned. His head snapped towards Chloe. “Mr. Vance…” Chloe blinked, her voice trembling. “The… the stuff inside… I threw it out…” “I was tidying your suit jacket… I thought it was an empty, expired vitamin bottle, so I got rid of it.” Her eyes welled up as she spoke. My throat started itching and burning. My vision began to blur. Julian finally realized something was wrong, pulling me close. He glanced at Chloe, let out a sigh, and said, “Just be careful next time.” A bitter sting shot through my chest. I leaned on him, each breath a struggle. After eight years together, I knew Julian inside and out. He was a control freak, possessive of his space. No one, including me, was allowed to touch his things. When we first moved in, I tidied his study once. I organized some papers he’d left on his desk. He came home, saw it, and his face went dark. He didn’t speak to me for the rest of the night. I sent over twenty apology texts. He read every single one but ignored them all. A midnight drive to his office, Beef Wellington in hand, was my last resort. All that effort earned me was a grudging, “Don’t let it happen again.” I learned my lesson that night. From then on, his things were completely off-limits. But Chloe, an intern for six months, went through his pockets. She threw away the medicine that could save my life. And all she got was a soft, “Just be careful next time.” The color drained from my lips. A frantic rhythm hammered in my chest. Then my legs gave out from under me. I slid down his body, falling to the ground. “Aurora!” Julian’s voice was sharp with panic. He fumbled, trying to lift me. The room erupted into chaos. Someone yelled, “Call an ambulance!” Chloe let out a piercing scream. “Ah!” The arms about to lift me paused. Then they pulled away, turning elsewhere. A sickening thud. My head slammed against the cold, hard floor. The crystal chandelier above shattered into glittering specks. Through the haze, I saw Julian’s back. He was bent over Chloe, anxiously checking her ankle. Something deep inside me snapped. A voice in my head spoke with clarity. This eight-year game of love was over. I had lost. Then, everything went black. I blacked out.

I woke up in a private VIP room. A nurse came to check my vitals. “Miss Hayes, you’re aware of your severe allergy to alcohol, correct?” I just nodded. She flipped through her clipboard, her tone sharp. “You knew, and you drank anyway? You were in shock last night. Ten more minutes, and you would’ve been dead.” My head cleared a little. I held onto one last sliver of hope. “Who… who brought me here?” She gave me a look like I was an idiot. “The paramedics. A server found you passed out on the apartment floor and called 911.” It was his party with all his friends. If even he left me there, why would any of them help? The nurse was still lecturing me. “Remember, you can never, ever touch alcohol again.” “I know. I’ll make sure she stays away from it.” I froze, my head snapping towards the voice. Julian stood in the doorway. Chloe stood right behind him.

She was wearing a cream cashmere sweater. It had a small, embroidered logo, a perfect match to the one Julian had on. That was the matching set I’d commissioned from a designer in Italy for his birthday. We were supposed to wear them on our trip to the Amalfi Coast. But Julian had always called the sweater “childish.” He never once put it on. Yet here he was, wearing his, while he’d given mine to Chloe. His eyes caught mine; he nervously tugged at the hem of his sweater. “Things got messy last night. A drink spilled all over Chloe’s silk dress, soaked right through. I had to take her back to the apartment to change. By the time I got back, the server said an ambulance had already taken you.” His explanation revealed an even crueler truth. The night I was being rushed to the ER, he took the woman who pushed me to drink to our home. Bile rose in my throat, but nothing came up. Chloe hid behind him, looking like a scared little rabbit. “Aurora, I am so, so sorry about last night. I told Mr. Vance this morning I absolutely had to apologize in person.” I didn’t say a word. My eyes were locked on the sweater she was wearing. My voice was ice when I finally spoke. “Take it off.” Chloe shuddered. Julian immediately stepped in front of Chloe. “Aurora, what the hell are you saying? She came to apologize and you’re telling her to strip?” My knuckles went white on the bedsheets. I gritted my teeth, my glare burning past him, fixed on the collar of her sweater. “I said, take it off!”

Tears instantly flooded Chloe’s eyes. She shot a helpless glance at Julian, then slowly unzipped the sweater. Beneath it, a vintage dress appeared. It was a vintage Dior. My mother’s hands had restored it for me, the same winter she was diagnosed with cancer. The chemo made her hands tremble. But from her hospital bed, stitch by painful stitch, she mended the torn lace and intricate beadwork. She told me she wanted me to wear it for our first dance at the wedding. “I might not be there to see it, honey… but if you wear this, it’s like I’m with you.” I remembered Julian making a solemn vow.  “I swear, if I ever hurt Aurora, I don’t deserve to live.” My mom just looked at him, sighed, and said nothing. After she died, I held that dress and cried for days. I thought at least I still had him. But that promise was now smoke. Julian’s eyes followed mine, landing on the dress. His expression changed. His voice was sharp, accusatory. “Why are you wearing that?” Tears clung to Chloe’s lashes as she bit her lip. “You said I could pick anything from the closet… I saw this one in the very back and just assumed it was… old…” Her hands trembled as she fumbled with the side zipper. “I’ll take it off for Aurora right now.” There was a sharp, tearing sound. She’d yanked the fragile antique zipper. The seam my mother had sewn at the waist ripped apart. A long gash now split the delicate satin.

“Chloe!” I shot up in bed, my eyes burning with rage. “Ah!” she shrieked, clutching the torn fabric to her chest. “I… I didn’t mean to.” “Enough!” Julian snapped, shrugging off his jacket and wrapping it around her shoulders. “Aurora, it’s just a dress. Did you really have to push her this far?” I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. “That dress was…” “I know. The last thing your mother gave you…” His voice rose, thick with impatience. “But she’s gone! It’s just a dress. Things get old, they tear. It happens. If you’re so attached, I’ll have a replica made. A perfect one. Ten of them, if you want! A hundred!” A white-hot rage flooded my veins. My grip on the sheets tightened; blood backed up into the IV tube. “My mother restored this herself! It’s one of a kind! You can’t buy that!” As we screamed at each other, Chloe’s sobs grew louder. “Please, stop fighting… It’s all my fault. I shouldn’t have worn your clothes. I’ll pay for it, okay?” She pulled out a cheap, worn-out purse and fumbled for crumpled bills. A twenty, a ten, a five… “Take this. If it’s not enough, I’ll give you my paycheck next month… and the month after…” She held out the pathetic pile of cash, leaning over to place it on my nightstand. The jacket slipped, exposing her bare shoulder again. Chloe gasped, scrambling to cover herself, her face a mask of embarrassment. His face filled with pity, Julian pulled a black card from his wallet. He threw it on the bed. “There’s two million on it. Buy all the vintage dresses you could ever want.” He looked down on me, his eyes like chips of ice. “Aurora, what have you become? Humiliating a girl over a dress, trying to shame her with money. You’re being irrational. Get some rest. We won’t bother you again.” He put his arm around Chloe and walked out without a glance.

Before she left, Chloe looked back over her shoulder. With a victorious smile on her face, she raised an eyebrow. Then she hooked her arm through Julian’s, right in front of me. The door slammed shut. I picked up the black card, tears finally breaking free. This was the card for our joint trust account. We’d made a pact to put money in it every month. It was for our future wedding, our first house, our global travels… our entire life together. And now, for another woman, he took it out without hesitation. My tears dripped onto the plastic, blurring our names. “Aurora Hayes” and “Julian Vance” bled together into an unrecognizable smudge. Just like our relationship.

I checked myself out of the hospital alone. I went back to our penthouse in SOHO to pack. Now that it was over, nothing was left for me in that home. The apartment was a rental. A clean break. I dragged out a suitcase and started throwing things inside. A folder tumbled out from the walk-in closet. I bent down to grab it and saw what was inside: a property deed. My whole body went rigid and I rubbed my eyes hard. The owner’s name was printed in sharp, clear letters: Chloe Miller. The date on the deed was three years ago. A sudden, icy dread washed over me. Chloe had only started at Julian’s company six months ago. An intern, who was immediately made his executive assistant. I’d questioned it. Making an intern his right-hand woman seemed reckless. But Julian said he’d seen himself in her. A kid from nothing who just needed a chance, just like he’d been. He never mentioned they already knew each other. He kept saying Chloe was just an employee. And I believed him. But looking at this, the lies started three years ago. The rot in our relationship had set in long ago. I was just now smelling the stench. Then, I heard a key turning in the lock. “Aurora?”

Julian’s face lit up when he saw me. He smiled. “You’re back. Why didn’t you call? I would’ve picked you up.” He didn’t explain why Chloe was behind him. He strode over to hug me, boasting to her over his shoulder. “See? I told you. Aurora can’t stay mad at me for long.” I dodged his arm and threw the property deed down in front of him. “What is this?” The smile vanished from his face. “Oh, that…” He swallowed, forcing a casual tone. “Chloe’s from my hometown. Her family is struggling. They wanted her to drop out and marry for money. No education, no way to survive in the city. So when she came to New York, I set her up with a small apartment through the company.” “But don’t worry, it’s just a loan. She’ll pay it back.” He shot a look at Chloe. “Right, Chloe?” I thought of her crumpled bills in the hospital. The irony almost made me laugh. “How is someone who pays for a dress in installments going to repay a three-million-dollar apartment?” Chloe’s face turned bright red. The innocent act dropped. “Who the hell are you to judge me? You’re the other woman here. Why shouldn’t my fiancé spend money on me?” She grabbed Julian’s arm, chin held high, pointing right at me. “Truth is, when we wore those matching outfits, we were meeting the parents. We’re engaged, and we’re setting a date.” The words hit me like a lightning bolt, the room starting to spin. I had prepared myself for him cheating. I had prepared for lies. But I never, ever imagined he had a whole fiancée back home. I stared at him in disbelief, my lips trembling. “Is that… true?”

His eyes darted away, unable to meet my gaze. “It was an old arrangement from back home. A promise our families made… But I swear, nothing happened between us! I have never cheated on you!” He sighed, as if making a huge sacrifice. “Since you already know, I’ll just be straight with you. The apartment is compensation for her.” “Why are we compensating her?” Julian just kept finding a new low. That apartment was worth three million dollars. Two million of that was my inheritance. My mother’s legacy. Another six hundred thousand was from my personal savings. Julian only put in four hundred thousand, and half of that was a loan. His face flushed with anger. “I’ve supported you for eight years! So what if you pitched in?” I gave him the seed money. My contacts were his first clients. I built the core of that company. He was just the face of the operation, and now he was claiming he supported me. The sting of betrayal faded, leaving only a cold numbness. I looked at him, my voice flat and steady. “Julian. We’re done.” I grabbed my suitcase and turned to leave. His face tightened as he started after me. But Chloe grabbed his arm. “You can go. But you need to pay the rent first.” “This apartment is in my name. You’ve lived here three years without paying a single dime.” I stopped dead and turned back to Julian. Seeing he had my attention, his tone softened instantly. “Alright, stop making a scene. I just hadn’t gotten around to telling you. And let’s be real, Aurora. You’re twenty-eight. Who do you think you’ll find after me? Be smart, okay?” Right on cue, Chloe snickered. I looked at the man in front of me. He was not the man who knelt by my mother’s bedside and swore to protect me. At this point, I didn’t even care about the money anymore. I looked up at Julian, and a slow smile spread across my face. “Fine.”

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In my past life, as the rightful legitimate daughter of the clan, I was framed by an impostor, left homeless and died miserably on the streets. Reborn, I returned to the day my biological parents came to take me home. This time, I will bind the Truth System to that fake daughter. The rain was cold. My blood was colder. I was Elara, the true daughter of the Vance Pack. In my first life, I was framed by an impostor. My parents kicked me out. I was a weak human in a world of wolves. I starved to death on the dark streets. In the Afterlife, the Arbiter looked at me. He was a giant wolf with fur like white smoke. His eyes were gold. “They did not believe your truth,” he growled. “I will give you a second chance. I will give you a Truth System.” A flash of light hit me. I was back. I stood in the Vance mansion. It smelled like expensive pine and rain. Jessica, the girl who took my place, walked through the door. She looked like a sweet, perfect wolf. “Sister,” she purred. “I have been looking forward to meeting you.” Suddenly, a glowing screen popped up over her head. **[System Notification: She is planning to rip your throat out. She wants to see you rot in the dirt.]** Jessica’s mouth twisted. Her voice changed. “Dammit! They found this trash. I need to make Mom and Dad kick her out into the street tonight!” Jessica slapped her hands over her mouth. Her eyes were wide with terror. The room went silent. Every wolf in the room stared at her. I smiled. Let the game begin. 1. My parents, Alpha Richard and Luna Martha, stared at her. “Jessica!” Richard growled. His voice was deep. It made the floor shake. “What is this foul language? We raised you to be a Lady Alpha!” “We taught you etiquette! How can you curse like a rogue?” My chest tightened. They only cared about her manners. They didn’t care that she called me trash. Jessica started to cry. She looked like a wounded pup. “I… I don’t know what happened… Those weren’t my thoughts…” She looked at me. Her eyes turned a dark, venomous red. “Daddy, Mommy… the moment Elara walked in, I felt a dark energy. She is cursed! She brought a demon into our house!” My parents turned to me. Their gazes were like ice. “Elara!” Martha hissed. “What kind of dark magic did you learn in that backwater town? How dare you use it on your sister?” “Listen to me. You are a Vance now. Leave that low-class garbage behind!” “We brought you back because we had to. Don’t embarrass us!” My brother, Tyler, sniffed the air. His muscles tensed. “Jessica is right. She smells like rot. We need a cleansing. I won’t feel safe sleeping under the same roof.” I shook my head. “I didn’t bring anything! She spoke her mind!” They ignored me. Richard called Brother Thomas. He was a rogue shaman who took bribes. Thomas looked at Jessica and winked. “Miss Elara has a dark attachment,” Thomas lied. “It requires physical expulsion. Jessica must be the one to do it. She must strike Elara eighty-one times with a silver-tipped whip.” The guards tied me up. The silver in the whip burned my skin. Jessica picked up the whip. Her eyes gleamed. **[System Notification: Her wolf is begging to see your bone. She wants to lick your blood off the floor.]** “I’m so sorry, Elara,” she whispered. But her mouth said: “Look at this! Mom and Dad always take my side. In this pack, you are nothing but a dog to me!” Hearing this, my parents only frowned. “Jessica, hit harder! Beat the demon out of her!” The leather sliced my skin. The silver bit into my flesh. Eighty-one times. When it was over, I collapsed. I smelled like iron and pain. “The storage closet is best,” Thomas said. “A dark space will keep the demon away.” They threw me into a damp, windowless room on the first floor. No bed. No light. 2. I curled up in the corner of the closet. My body was trembling. The door creaked open. Jessica walked in. She looked down at me like I was a cockroach. “You did something, didn’t you? You made me speak.” “You are so naive, Elara. Even if I say the truth, so what? Mom and Dad will always choose me. You are a loser from the boonies.” “Do yourself a favor and go back to the dirt you came from.” Footsteps approached. Jessica’s face shifted to terror instantly. “Sister, what are you doing? Please, don’t hurt me!” She grabbed a silver letter opener. She jammed it violently into her own arm. Hearing her scream, my parents burst in. “Elara! What did you do to Jessica?!” I looked at them coldly. “I didn’t do anything. I just watched her perform a show.” “You think we’d believe she stabbed herself? Are you insane?” Jessica gasped weakly. “I just… I just asked if she was scared… and she… she stabbed me…” Richard and Tyler glared at me with pure hatred. Their eyes turned yellow. “How can you be so vicious? How did our blood produce something so heartless?” Richard raised his hand to slap me. But Jessica’s voice rang out again. **[System Notification: She is proud of her trick. She wants to see you dead.]** “I came in here to trigger this bitch! I told her she has no place here, and then I stabbed myself to frame her!” She slapped her hands over her mouth. Richard’s hand froze. “Did you hear that?” I asked. “That is the truth.” Tyler scoffed. “Clearly the cleansing wasn’t enough. The demon is making her say crazy things to frame herself.” They took Jessica to get bandaged. They didn’t even look at me. “Why?” I asked their retreating backs. “You know she is telling the truth. Why do you still side with her?” Martha turned. Her lip curled. “Elara, love takes time. Jessica has been our daughter for eighteen years.” “Even if she is a liar—look at her. She is elegant. She is a strong wolf. That is what a Vance looks like.” “You? You are a farm girl. You are unpresentable.” “Then why bring me back at all?” “The police made a scene! We couldn’t leave our blood out there without the media tearing us apart.” “The Vance Pack won’t let you starve, but don’t you dare think you can replace Jessica.” They walked away. My heart finally turned to stone. 3. I went to find Silas Powell. He was the Alpha of the Shadow Pack. He was the strongest, most dangerous wolf in the city. He was supposed to marry Jessica. I walked into his office. He looked at me with boredom. “What? Is the Vance family swapping brides now?” He stood up. He was huge. He smelled like a storm and rain. He walked toward me. He looked like he wanted to break my bones. “Get out of my sight!” he growled. **[System Notification: Heart rate 180. He is desperate to claim you as his Mate. His wolf is howling for you.]** I did not move. “I’m here to make a deal.” Silas stepped closer. His skin was burning hot. He leaned down and sniffed my neck. **[System Notification: His wolf is begging to lick your skin. He wants to bite you.]** “What kind of deal, little wolf?” “I know you don’t want to marry into my family. If Vance Enterprises goes bankrupt, your parents will cancel the wedding.” “I have a way to tank their stock. I help you destroy them. In return, you give me ten million dollars and the Vance estate.” Silas laughed. It was a dark, cynical sound. “You want to destroy your own pack? You are a dangerous female.” “Do we have a deal, Alpha Silas?” “If your family goes under, you go down too. You want to lose everything?” “I told you, this is a trade.” Silas nodded. “Ten million. It’s a gamble. But nobody is stupid enough to scam me.” He handed the slip of paper to his secretary. Five minutes later, the funds cleared. “Next week is the Grand Gala,” I said. “I need you to add a segment to the program.”

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My sister, Chloe, got sick. Since then, she slapped my fiancé, Ethan, every single day. “Ethan Carter! You thought my family was biased toward me, didn’t you? You wanted to avenge my little sister, right?” “Hit me back! Why don’t you hit me back?!” “Why do you look down on me? Why do you call me a drama queen? You hate the whole world, but you only love Scarlett, don’t you?” Slowly, Chloe’s screaming turned into sobbing. “Why? Why does everyone else love me, but you don’t?” That night, Ethan didn’t come home. Later, on my birthday, the night of my surgery, and the night I almost died, he never came back either. When I finally saw him again, he tricked me onto the operating table under the guise of a marriage proposal, just to drain my bone marrow for Chloe. At their wedding, to protect Chloe’s reputation, Ethan publicly accused me of being the one who seduced him. So, I left the city. I walked away from that sole, fake, and fleeting bit of love. 1. Five years later, Ethan found me at a funeral home. I was doing reconstructive makeup on a corpse that had been completely disfigured in a car accident. Ethan’s lips trembled. “After leaving me, you ended up living like this?” “Thanks to you and your wife, being a mortician is the only makeup artist job I could find.” Ethan’s eyes turned red. He said anxiously, “Scarlett, I only wanted to teach you a lesson. I didn’t want you running around screaming to everyone that Chloe was a homewrecker… I never thought you’d rather vanish than apologize to me.” I shoved him away. “State your business and get out. If you don’t have any, just crawl back to where you came from.” His lips moved, and he said, “Chloe’s cancer relapsed. We need you to donate bone marrow again.” I burst into laughter. “Ethan, did you forget? You told the world I was a homewrecker. Why would a dirty little homewrecker be sweet enough to donate bone marrow to her rival?” Hearing my response, Ethan’s eyes widened in shock. His face turned cold, and he reached out to grab my arm. “Scarlett, stop talking like that out of spite.” “You just packed up and ran away all these years. Chloe was the one staying by your parents’ side, taking care of them. Plus, she’s your sister.” “How can you just watch her die?” I took a step back. My voice wasn’t as hysterical or angry as I thought it would be. “I just rebuilt the face of a dead person.” “I earn my own living with my own hands. I don’t find it creepy or cursed at all.” “At least dead people don’t team up with my fiancé to steal my bone marrow.” I picked up my makeup kit and brushed off some non-existent dust from my apron. “So don’t talk to me about sisterhood. If you don’t have anything else to say, stop bothering me. My new client today was in a horrific car crash, and the facial reconstruction is going to take a lot of work. I don’t have time to waste on you.” Something I said must have triggered him. His face darkened. Just as he was about to point his finger at my face and lecture me like he used to, his phone rang. I saw the caller ID. It was Chloe. He turned his back to me and picked up. “Chloe? Yes, I found Scarlett.” “Oh, she’s doing just fine. She’s too heartless to actually suffer. Don’t worry, she’s thrilled to hear we’re letting her come home.” “Yes, she’ll agree to the donation.” I stood there, listening to him twist the truth so effortlessly. I was completely speechless. When he hung up and turned back to me, that smug, confident look was back on his face. He acted as if my rejection just now was nothing but a cheap negotiation tactic. Sure enough, Ethan started offering me terms. “You know Chloe has been fragile since we were kids. We can’t let her know about certain things. It’ll stress her out.” “If you’re still bitter about the past, you don’t have to move back into the family house. I’ll buy you a separate condo and wire you a huge sum of cash. But we can only visit you twice a week at most. You know how Chloe gets…” I cut him off. “Save it.” Ethan froze. His endless babbling stopped instantly. The look on his face was pure shock. After all, the old Scarlett would never have interrupted him. Back then, just to have him stay with me a little longer, I would listen to him ramble and scold me like a submissive puppy. “I have work to do, and I can afford my own meals. You should save your charity for the homeless, Mr. Carter.” Ethan was choked by my words. Finally, he let out a long sigh. “Scarlett, do you really have to talk to me like this?” How else should I talk to him? I didn’t think there was anything left to say between us. “Scarlett, you weren’t like this before. You’ve changed. You know I had no choice back then. It didn’t mean I didn’t love you. Why can’t you just understand me?” “Didn’t I use to be the most important thing in your life?” Of course I knew I wasn’t like this before. But when you get tripped up and fall flat on your face enough times, you naturally learn to grow thorns to protect yourself. I looked up and stared coldly into his eyes. The sheer chill in my gaze made him flinch for a second. Suddenly, I smiled. It felt as if a heavy chain around my heart had finally snapped. “Yes, because back then, my world was too small, and I was starving for love.” “So I foolishly believed you were my rock, the lover who would protect me.” “But now I realize, Ethan, you’re really nothing special.” The color instantly drained from Ethan’s face. I gave him a mocking smirk. “What? Are you going to get my boss to fire me again?” “Get lost. If you stay here any longer, your wife might find out I won’t save her. She’ll get so stressed she might have another panic attack.” Ethan followed me all the way to the morgue doors before finally stopping. He stood there, hesitating, a flicker of conflict in his eyes. After a moment, he turned and left. Another reconstructive mortician nudged me with her elbow. “Who was that hot guy?” “I heard he put up a million-dollar bounty just to find you.” My chest tightened. A million dollars. When my parents threw me out of the house, he wouldn’t even give me a hundred bucks. But for another woman, he didn’t hesitate to throw around a million. He loved her so much, yet he still came to me acting like a heartbroken, tragic hero. I didn’t hesitate to tell my colleague, “Just a piece of trash from my past.” She laughed nervously. “Alright, you don’t have to say if you don’t want to. No need to be so harsh.” Without looking up, I said, “If someone tricked you into being a homewrecker, stole your bone marrow, and now comes back demanding more, what would you call him?” She fell silent. After a while, she whispered, “An enemy. Someone I’d pray ends up on my prep table so I can mess up their embalming.” I didn’t hate him that much. Love and hate both take energy, and I didn’t want to waste a single drop of mine on worthless people. To be fair, Ethan never technically tricked me into being a homewrecker. He just waited until my bone marrow was inside Chloe, and then immediately released a joint statement with her family announcing that the bride-to-be had been switched to Chloe. And when I screamed at him in front of the reporters, he looked at me and said, “Scarlett, I never said I was going to marry you. It was all in your head.” Chloe, who had just recovered from her illness, sobbed on camera. “Scarlett, I don’t know why you’re doing this. Since we were kids, you’ve always wanted to steal everything from me. I let you have everything else.” “But Ethan is the love of my life. I can’t let you have him.” The flashing camera lights turned my face pale. I looked past the crowd at our parents. They stood quietly behind Chloe. When my dad met my eyes, he turned his head away. My mom had pity in her eyes, but her mouth opened to spit out: “Scarlett, how can you be so shameless? Seducing Ethan, your own sister’s fiancé?” 2. I wasn’t always the outcast in this family. They used to love me. I used to be an important part of the household. On our living room wall, there were two height-tracking charts. The higher one was Chloe’s, and the lower one was mine. Every time we measured our heights, Mom would hug me and say, “Look at that! My baby is growing so fast!” No matter how busy they were, they would always take us on vacations around the world every summer and winter. We watched penguins in Antarctica and lions in the African savanna. Once, we saw a flock of flamingos gathered by a drying riverbank. With a few loud cries, they took flight, looking like a massive, flying red cloud. “Wow!” Back then, Chloe and I held hands, completely amazed by the sight. But when I looked down at the riverbank, I heard a sad cry. We looked closer. It was a flamingo with a broken wing, running fruitlessly after the flock. I thought it was so sad and asked Mom and Dad to save it. But Chloe was the opposite. She was always the cold, rational one. She looked at me and said, “That’s just nature, Scarlett. Survival of the fittest. You shouldn’t try to change fate.” The moment she finished speaking, blood started gushing from her nose. Mom said the African heat was too dry for her. So, we flew back home immediately. Our parents took Chloe to the hospital for a check-up. When they came back, their faces were pale. With red eyes, Mom stroked my head. “Scarlett, Chloe is very sick. You have to let her have her way from now on, okay?” Dad nodded beside her. “Chloe won’t be able to play with you for a long time. You need to learn to take care of yourself, and take care of her.” After saying that, he turned around and wiped his tears. Being so young, I only understood one thing. Something bad had happened to my family. So, I nodded solemnly. “I will.” I thought this was just me being a mature, understanding daughter. But slowly, my entire existence was erased, piece by piece. Because Chloe needed more sunlight, my bedroom was turned into her playroom. Because Chloe suffered from severe migraines during her treatments and needed absolute quiet, my piano lessons were canceled. Later, on my birthday, Chloe handed me a gift. My usually elegant sister leaned in close and whispered, “Scarlett, why couldn’t the sick one be you? You’re so useless anyway.” I gasped and stumbled backward. The gift dropped and shattered on the floor. But Chloe burst into tears before I could even process what happened. “Scarlett, I know Mom and Dad have been ignoring you because of my sickness.” “But you don’t have to take it out on the gift I bought you. If I could choose, I wouldn’t want to be sick either. Do you know how jealous I am watching you celebrate your birthday?” “Every year, you get to look forward to a new age. But for me, it’s just terror. I don’t even know if I’ll survive to see the next one.” Our parents’ hearts broke. They wrapped her in their arms, their faces filled with pain and pity. When they looked at me, their eyes were full of disgust. My mom, who used to praise me for being so easygoing, said coldly, “Throwing a tantrum over nothing! You are so selfish and greedy. Why can’t you be more mature?!” From that day on, I never had another birthday party, because it made Chloe sad. Hearing this, Mia, my colleague, gasped. “Your sister said that to you, and you didn’t tell your parents?” I smiled faintly. “When people are biased, the truth sounds like a lie anyway. What was the point of talking?” At first, I did try to tell them about Chloe’s cruelty toward me. But they just sat in silence for a long time. Then, the woman who gave birth to both of us said with a sigh of disapproval, “Chloe is sick, Scarlett. Why do you have to be so petty with her?” “Can’t you just let her win for once?” Eventually, even when I said absolutely nothing, Mom would lean against the hospital wall, exhausted, and stare at me with cold, hollow eyes. “Scarlett, your sister was right.” “Why couldn’t the sick one be you?” Mia’s eyes welled up with tears. She looked at me, trying to blink them away. Then she said, “Screw them. We don’t need them.” “From now on, we’ll celebrate every single birthday with you.” I smiled warmly at her. “Thanks, I appreciate it. But after some things happened, I stopped celebrating birthdays altogether.” She wanted to ask why, but hesitated. I said casually, “The day I was tricked into donating bone marrow, and the day I found out the truth…” “That was my birthday.” “When I was lying on that operating table, Ethan told me he had a birthday surprise for me.” “When I woke up, I saw him putting a ring on Chloe’s finger, telling her they’d pick out the prettiest bridesmaid dress for me.” 3. Honestly, they didn’t even have to trick me. I wouldn’t have refused to donate my bone marrow to Chloe. They were just paranoid because of their own guilt. Because they knew how much they owed me. My SAT scores were great, which made Chloe cry. So, to keep the peace, I chose a major they hated: Mortuary Science. The day my college acceptance letter arrived, my mother actually looked a bit guilty. “We have enough money to support you for the rest of your life.” “It’s just a college major, don’t be so dramatic. Why don’t you drop out and come work at the family company?” I ignored her. Mom frowned, clearly annoyed. That night, when I went downstairs to get some water, I heard her talking to Dad. “Scarlett is too cold-hearted.” “She always acts like we owe her something. If she wasn’t my own flesh and blood, I wouldn’t even look at her.” Dad replied, “Then don’t.” With just those few words, my college fund was cut off. I didn’t receive a single dime for living expenses. I had to work multiple part-time jobs. Using my skills in cosmetics, I occasionally got hired to do makeup for freelance models. That was how I met Ethan, who had also been cut off by his family and was working as a part-time model. He was incredibly handsome, and everything he wore looked like custom designer clothing. He was constantly booked for gigs. Naturally, we got close. When he found out about my family, his eyes were full of sympathy. At that time, we hadn’t made things official yet. There was just that sweet, innocent tension between us. One day, Ethan suddenly told me he was going home to call off an arranged engagement. I thought he was joking and laughed. “I didn’t know you were some rich heir. Who even does arranged marriages these days?” But Ethan’s face was deadly serious. He looked straight into my eyes. “I’m serious, Scarlett.” “I have someone I love now. So I am calling off that wedding, no matter what.” A few days later, my parents, who hadn’t called me in months, suddenly phoned. They stared at me as if they were evaluating a piece of cheap merchandise. After a long silence, they sighed with disappointment. “Studying dead people really brings bad luck.” “No wonder he wants to call off the wedding.” “Yeah, if only Chloe weren’t sick.” They dragged me to a luxury hotel without explaining anything. When they pushed the door open, a wealthy middle-aged couple was sitting inside. Next to them was Ethan. The engagement cancellation was never mentioned again. When Ethan realized that I was the younger daughter of the Miller family, his eyes lit up like stars. He told me, “Scarlett, we are meant to be.” “Don’t worry. I’m here now. I will protect you and never let you suffer again.” “I will love you forever.” What a beautiful promise. And back then, I actually believed him. I believed he would love me forever. My heart was so full of happiness that I forgot to refuse my parents’ demand for me to move back home. When we arrived, Chloe was sitting at the dining table, slowly sipping an expensive organic green juice. Seeing me, a smirk spread across her face. “What happened? You look so happy.” Instinctively, I hid my ring finger behind my back. Her smile vanished instantly. She said flatly, “Scarlett is a big girl now. She has secrets.” That very night, Chloe went missing. Our family searched for her all day. My parents were losing their minds. I walked up to Mom to comfort her. “Don’t worry, Mom. Let’s call the police first. We’ll find her.” Suddenly, her hand flew up and slapped me hard across the face. My ears rang from the impact. “This is all your fault!” “You have someone who loves you! You think you’re so special! If Chloe weren’t sick, you wouldn’t even be standing here gloating!” “You ungrateful brat! Chloe left a note. She said you were rubbing your wedding in her face because you hate her! Now she’s sick, her immune system is weak, and she’s been gone for twenty-four hours. Are you happy now?!” Dad watched the whole thing with cold eyes. Nobody bothered to ask if I had even spoken a single word to Chloe since I got home. Eventually, Chloe was found in the public library. She looked at the red slap mark on my cheek, and her lips curled up. She turned to Mom and said, “Mom, Scarlett really crossed the line this time.” “We should teach her a lesson, right?” Seeing our parents nod, my heart turned to ice. At that moment, I wanted to see Ethan so badly. So, even though they locked me in the basement, I managed to break the small window and crawl out. The broken glass sliced my arms and legs, leaving me covered in blood. I dragged myself all the way to Ethan’s apartment. He wanted to hold me but was terrified of hurting my wounds. His eyes were filled with tears of pure rage and heartbreak. “How could they do this to you?! What right do they have?!” After my wounds were bandaged at the hospital, Ethan wanted to go demand justice from my family, despite my protests. I held him back. Ethan was more furious than I was. He asked hoarsely, “Are we just going to let them get away with this?” I shook my head. It wasn’t that I didn’t want justice; it was just impossible. If a stranger hurts you, you call the cops. But with family, the law just calls it a “domestic dispute.” “You can’t choose your bloodline, and you can’t easily cut off your family.” Ethan gently held my hands, treating them like fragile glass. “It’s okay, Scarlett. You can choose your partner.” “From now on, as long as I’m here, I will never let anyone hurt you again.” Ethan used to be my entire world. 4. The memories faded from my mind. I guess Ethan’s sudden appearance had dragged up all those old, painful thoughts. Not long after Ethan found me, my deputy director, Robert, called me into his office. He poured me a cup of tea and started talking about family, his own struggles, and his past conflicts with his parents. Then, he said in a warm, fatherly tone, “Scarlett, I know how hard it was when you first started here. As a parent myself, hearing about your past breaks my heart.” “But blood is thicker than water. When you get to my age, you realize that regretting not making peace with your parents before it’s too late is a pain you can’t cure. You’re still young. Don’t let your past become a permanent regret.” I knew someone had pulled some strings. Whether it was my parents or Ethan, I didn’t care. The old Scarlett believed family was an unbreakable bond. The current Scarlett believed that some bonds were meant to be burned. I looked calmly at Robert. “Whether they are family or strangers, donating bone marrow is a personal choice.” “I know what you’re trying to do, but I already donated once.” “I don’t owe them anything. So, my answer is still no.” Robert sighed. “But she’s your sister.” “Have you thought about what happens if you refuse? She will die.” “If you let your own sister die, how will people look at you? It’ll ruin your reputation here at the funeral home.” I didn’t get it. I worked at a crematorium. My daily “clients” couldn’t talk. Why would I care about my reputation? I looked up at the man who had been a good boss to me. The door to his private lounge was slightly ajar. I didn’t even need to guess who was hiding inside. “I understand, but I still refuse.” “To them, I’ve always been invisible. Since I’m just an extra, we should keep out of each other’s lives. They throw me away when they don’t need me, and drag me back with guilt trips when they do.” “I despise people like that.” “Bam!” The lounge door was kicked open. My father rushed out and slapped me hard across the face. He glared at me, his eyes bloodshot with rage. “We raised you! We fed you, clothed you! How dare you talk about cutting us off?! You ungrateful bitch!” Robert jumped up instantly and pulled me behind him. “Keep your hands to yourself! Why are you hitting her?!” “Do you want to solve this or not?!” My cheek felt numb. I knew it was already swelling up. I looked at my furious, weeping parents. Then I looked at Ethan, who was standing behind them with a slight frown, and I just laughed. I turned to Robert. “Robert, you said the old director brought me here when I was a complete mess.” “You gave me a job, and I appreciate that. Usually, I wouldn’t say no to you.” “But did you know? The day the old director found me, I was actually trying to hang myself.” “But I was so broke, I couldn’t even buy a decent rope. It snapped.” The angry expressions on my parents’ and Ethan’s faces turned white instantly. Guilt and panic flashed across their faces. Honestly, The time I spent with Ethan after escaping my family was the happiest of my life. No Chloe, no toxic parents. We did everything I had always wanted to do but couldn’t because of Chloe. We ate foods I was never allowed to touch. Then, Ethan was scouted by a talent agent. He starred in a few low-budget web series and became an overnight sensation. Dozens of agencies wanted to sign him. Ethan’s only condition for signing any contract was that I had to be his personal makeup artist. When his first movie premiered, his agency threw a massive party. My parents and Chloe showed up. Ethan held my hand tightly under the table and whispered, “Scarlett, my manager invited them. If you’re uncomfortable, we can leave early.” “No need.” This was his big night. I didn’t want to ruin it for him. Chloe walked over, smiling as she swirled a glass of juice. “Scarlett, you ran away for so long without a word. Mom and Dad were worried sick. Turns out you were just busy chasing a boyfriend.” I raised my glass of champagne, drank it in one gulp, and walked away without saying a word to her. When I turned back, Chloe was still standing there, smiling. My mother was whispering insults next to her. I knew she was calling me ungrateful. A few days later, Ethan suddenly said to me, “Scarlett…” “I think your sister is actually pretty pitiable.” “She’s so young and has this awful disease. She can’t eat anything fun, can’t travel, and her family doesn’t even understand her.” I didn’t get it back then. My parents practically worshipped the ground she walked on. How did Ethan come to the conclusion that Chloe was unloved? It wasn’t until I woke up on that cold operating table that I finally understood. The “ununderstanding family member” he was talking about… was me.

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Right before the drop tower launched, my best friend gave my boyfriend a quick look. In perfect sync, he unbuckled his safety harness and ran off with her. I was left sitting on the ride, completely frozen. My boyfriend stood in the safe zone, smiling. “Serena said you’re too chicken. She said the only way to cure your phobia is to face it head-on, so have fun riding it alone!” The ride shot up. As Serena watched my terrified, ridiculous expression, she burst into hysterical laughter, snapping photos of me with her phone. My boyfriend said something to her, a helpless smile on his face, before picking her up and hoisting her onto his shoulders so she could get a better angle for her photos. I couldn’t hear his words over the wind, but I could easily guess what he was saying. “Alright, once you’ve had your laugh, don’t tease her anymore. Chloe is sensitive, she’s pathetic enough as it is.” I have always been a coward. We grew up together for twenty years, and this was always their way of “helping me build courage.” When we were kids, Serena purposely threw rocks to attract a stray dog. Ethan carried Serena on his back and climbed up a wall, leaving me to be chased around the yard, sobbing in terror. In high school, Serena locked me in a room with two creepy older guys who started groping me. She and Ethan stood outside the door, giggling. … Every time I shook with fear, it was just entertainment for Serena. And Ethan would always stand behind her, lazily saying, “Don’t do it again next time.” But his “next time” was always just a green light for Serena to find a new way to torment me. As the drop tower climbed sixty feet into the air, the stomach-churning weightlessness hit me. But suddenly, I realized I wasn’t scared anymore. When the ride finally hit the ground, two pairs of hands reached out to help me up. I pushed them both away. “From now on, I don’t need either of you to help me build courage.”

Ethan laughed, reaching out to ruffle my hair. “Did you freeze up, Chloe? Your courage didn’t grow, but you look even dumber now.” Serena chimed in, banter rolling off her tongue smoothly. “Hey, I’m willing to take my time to help her get better.” I pressed my lips together, staring at the two of them putting on their little show. “This isn’t helping me. This is bullying.” Serena’s smile froze on her face. “Chloe, that’s actually so hurtful. I spend my free time trying to help you, and you call it bullying?” “Fine! How about I go ride the roller coaster? The one thing I’m absolutely terrified of. Would that make us even?” She turned and started walking toward the roller coaster. Ethan frowned, glared at me, and grabbed her arm. “Don’t force yourself. You cried last time. I’ll go with you.” I just stood there. Yet, just minutes ago, before we got on the drop tower, Ethan had looked at me and said: “You can’t be this childish, Chloe. It’s just an amusement park ride. You don’t need someone to hold your hand.” When the roller coaster came to a stop, Serena was buzzing with excitement. “Having someone ride with you is actually so fun! See, Chloe? It’s not even that scary!” But nobody was riding with me. Ethan looked at my expressionless face. “If you’re still mad, how about we ride the drop tower with you one more time?” But this time, they chose the double-seater drop tower—the “Lovers’ Express.” It was designed so that the riders had to face each other and hug tightly, or the seats would tilt during the drop. Engraved on the ride was the slogan: “Give your deepest trust to the one closest to you.” When the operator mentioned they only had room for two, Ethan glanced at me. “Chloe was pretty freaked out just now. Let’s not push her. Serena and I will go.” They laughed and strapped themselves in, facing each other. It was so strange. When they wanted a good laugh, I wasn’t allowed to be scared. But now, suddenly, my fear was convenient for them? I stared at them as they buckled their safety harnesses. “Ethan, the engagement ceremony in five days? Let’s call it off.” Ethan’s playful expression vanished, replaced by sudden panic. “Chloe, stop throwing a tantrum! We’ll talk when I get down!” Once the ride ended, they chased me all the way to the entrance of my neighborhood. My mom was sitting outside, chatting with the neighbors. Seeing me, she frowned. “What’s wrong? Did you have a bad time?” Serena suddenly walked up, looking incredibly hurt, and wrapped her arm around my mom’s. “Mrs. Miller, we were just trying to help Chloe with her anxiety like you asked. But she said I was bullying her, and now she wants to break up with Ethan.” Ethan caught up, adding, “You can’t just throw the word ‘breakup’ around so easily, Chloe.” My mom’s face darkened instantly. She grabbed my ear, pinching it hard. “Calling off the wedding just like that? Who do you think you are?!” The neighbors started whispering. My mom’s voice grew louder and harsher. “This girl is a coward. Ethan and Serena were nice enough to help her, and she’s being an ungrateful brat!” “Do you want to stay a useless loser hiding in this house for the rest of your life?!” As the neighbors stared and gossiped, my face burned as if I had been slapped. Ethan stepped in front of me, shielding me slightly. “It’s okay, Mrs. Miller. It doesn’t matter if Chloe is like this. I’ll protect her.” Hearing this, my mom got even angrier. She dragged me upstairs by my arm. The moment the front door slammed shut, my tears finally spilled onto the floor. “Mom, why am I your daughter, but you always believe other people over me?” My mom let out a cold sneer. “I gave birth to you. You think I don’t know what kind of pathetic creature you are?” “Ever since you were a kid, you’ve been terrified of everything. You’re nothing like Serena. You can’t do anything right… you’re just like your spineless father!” Her words carved into my bones like a knife. But I wanted to be brave too. When I was little, money was tight. My mom had high expectations, and she viewed my dad’s gentle nature as cowardice. She used to scream at him, saying his weakness was the reason we were poor. So, she tried to “toughen me up” since I was a toddler. When I was three and afraid of the dark, she locked me in the dark closet. I cried until I lost my voice. When she finally let me out, she beat me anyway. When I was afraid of water, she shoved my face into a basin. If I couldn’t hold my breath, another beating followed. She called it “desensitization.” But it only made me more terrified. Because making a mistake meant punishment, and punishment proved I was useless. Then, when I was eight, my dad decided he would rather lose custody of me than stay with my mom. He divorced her and left. From that day on, I didn’t dare to do anything wrong. I was terrified that if I messed up, my mom would abandon me too. Meanwhile, Serena, who grew up next door, was outgoing, charming, and always knew exactly what to say to please adults. My mom would always say wistfully, “I wish Serena were my daughter.” My mom pointed toward my bedroom, her voice dripping with disgust. “Go to your room and think about what you did.” “If you leave Ethan, who else is going to do charity work by marrying you?” She then dialed Serena and Ethan’s numbers. Her voice instantly softened, sweet and warm. “Serena, sweetie, I’ll make Chloe apologize to you guys. Come over for dinner tonight, okay?” I leaned against my bedroom door, wiped my tears, and called my friend. “Lucy, you’re leading that volunteer teaching program to the remote mountain school in five days, right? Do you still have an opening?” “Are you sure, Chloe? That place is totally off-grid. No signal, no Wi-Fi, and there are snakes. Aren’t you terrified of snakes?” “I’m not scared.” “But what about your engagement? How are you going to explain this to your mom? She’ll skin you alive!” I gripped my phone tightly. “Lucy, I want to run away. Just this once, I want to be brave for myself.”

Serena and Ethan arrived early, carrying heavy grocery bags. Ethan came to me first to apologize. “Chloe, we bought all your favorite foods. Don’t be mad anymore, okay?” I didn’t answer. When dinner was served, the table was covered in Serena’s favorites: mashed potatoes with sausage, ratatouille, and red wine braised beef. Serena gasped. “Oh my gosh, these are all my favorites! Thank you, Ethan, for driving all the way to get them, and thank you, Mrs. Miller, for cooking them!” But in front of me sat only a single ceramic pot. I lifted the lid. Inside was a bowl of live, crawling garden snails. I almost knocked the bowl off the table. Back in elementary school, some boys had stuffed snails into my backpack. When I reached in to grab my books, my fingers brushed against that slimy, wriggling texture. I had screamed and cried, and from that day on, they gave me a nickname: “Snail Girl.” Since then, I had been utterly terrified of them. But when my mom found out, she started forcing me to eat them. “It’s because you haven’t had them enough. Eat more, and you won’t be scared anymore.” Once, she forced me to swallow one. I vomited so hard I ended up in the ER with acute gastroenteritis. Back then, Ethan had snuck into my hospital room, gently stuffing a chicken leg into my hand. “Chloe, move in with me in the future. I promise I will never force you to eat anything you’re afraid of.” “It’s okay to be a little cowardly.” The sincerity in his eyes back then was the exact reason I fell in love with him. But now, he picked up one of the crawling snails with his fork and dropped it into my bowl. “They look scary, but they’re actually super nutritious. You can even eat them raw.” I stared at the crawling snail in my bowl, picked it up, and dropped it into Serena’s bowl. “Then she should eat it.” Ethan immediately grabbed it back and put it in my bowl. “How can you do that? Serena thinks they’re disgusting. Just looking at them gives her goosebumps.” My mom slapped the back of my head. “Just eat it and stop dragging your feet. Who are you pulling that miserable face for?” I stared at the bowl for a long time. Then, I picked up the snail and put it in my mouth. I felt like throwing up. But I forced myself to swallow. It turned out… it wasn’t actually that scary. They watched me, their faces filled with satisfaction, like scientists looking at a successful experiment. The dinner continued to be lively. Ethan picked the bones out of the fish for Serena, and my mom scooped soup for her. I sat there like an unwanted piece of furniture. Halfway through the meal, Ethan suddenly spoke up. “Oh, by the way, Chloe. For your team’s project presentation tomorrow at the office… why don’t you let Serena do it?” “You get so nervous in front of crowds. You’ll probably stutter.” For once in my life, I caught on instantly. I knew exactly what Ethan was doing. He pretended to care about my anxiety, but he also knew this project was a huge deal. He wanted to hand the spotlight to Serena. But I had stayed up for three consecutive nights to finish that deck. I didn’t care about showing off, but I wanted to try. Just once, I wanted to stand at the front. “I want to present it myself.” The table fell dead silent for a second. Ethan frowned. “Are you sure? There will be a lot of people tomorrow. Don’t freeze up on stage.” My mom gave me another disappointed look. “You can’t even speak clearly in front of your own relatives. Why bother?” “It’s fine if you embarrass yourself, but don’t embarrass Ethan.” I looked at them seriously. “Haven’t you guys always wanted me to be braver?” Serena tried to smooth things over. “I think it’s amazing that Chloe is taking this step. I support you!” That night, I stayed up until 2:00 AM practicing with the slides. But I never expected that when I stepped onto the stage the next day, several key data slides would be completely blank. I froze on stage. Ethan sat in the front row, watching me calmly for a few seconds. Then he stood up and spoke to the room. “Having the courage to stand on stage is the first step. But professional capability is about mastering your data and improvising under pressure.” At the same time, my phone buzzed in my hand. It was a Snapchat message from Serena: “Ethan and I deleted those two slides on purpose! In the real world, clients throw curveballs at you all the time. You need to learn how to improvise without panicking!” Dozens of eyes stared at me. My hands shook uncontrollably. No slides. No data. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. I stumbled through it. I tripped over my words three times. It wasn’t a masterpiece, but I finished it. When I was done, Ethan and Serena looked visibly stunned. Stepping off the stage, I received a text from Lucy: “We’re leaving for the mountains the day after tomorrow. Have you made up your mind?” I replied: “Yes. I already bought my ticket.”

At the after-work happy hour, Serena had a few drinks and immediately started sharing embarrassing stories from my childhood. “You guys have no idea how much of a coward Chloe is.” “Back in middle school, some kids locked her in the gym equipment locker overnight. She just cried until her voice went hoarse. She didn’t even dare to knock on the door to ask for help!” A coworker wiped a tear from laughing. “Chloe, you’re literally a tragic pushover.” Serena nudged Ethan with her elbow. “Ethan, tell them. Am I lying?” Ethan looked at my humiliated face, hesitating for a moment. But Serena tugged at his sleeve, and he finally opened his mouth. “Yeah. When the teacher finally found her and asked what happened, she was so scared she just hid behind me and wouldn’t lift her head.” The entire table roared with laughter. My nails dug deep into my palms. I gathered every ounce of my courage. “Can you stop? I don’t like being laughed at.” The table went dead silent. A coworker leaned in and whispered to me, “Don’t pick a fight with Serena. Her family has connections. Even the boss told everyone to look out for her.” She paused, realizing something. “Wait, if you and Serena grew up together, you must know the boss too? Why are you…” I froze. I remembered how badly I wanted to be close to Ethan. I had worked myself to the bone to pass the interviews for this company. But when we ran into each other in the lobby on my first day, he didn’t even say hi. Later, he told me, “I don’t want people giving you special treatment just because of me, Chloe. You need to grow on your own.” I forced a tight smile at my coworker. “We just went to the same school. We aren’t close.” Later in the night, someone suggested going to an escape room. An asylum-themed escape room with a five-star horror rating. Clearly, it was targeted at me. When we were splitting into groups, everyone actively avoided me. One coworker joked, “We don’t want to get dragged down by you, Chloe.” In the end, only Ethan, Serena, and I were left. Ethan looked at me with conflict in his eyes, but ultimately stepped over to Serena’s side. “Chloe, this is a great chance to build your courage. Try doing it alone.” Everyone went in, paired up. Except me. I felt like I was eight years old again. My mom didn’t love me, and the neighborhood kids didn’t want to play with me. Whenever we played games, nobody ever picked me. I had wanted to go home back then, but my mom had dragged me back to the group. “You always shrink back like a sewer rat! If you acted more like Serena, people would actually want to play with you!” I had stood alone under a tree. Then, Ethan had walked over. “I’ll be in your group.” But the moment Serena’s partner left, Ethan immediately abandoned me to go to her. Twenty years later, I was still the one left behind. I used to think Ethan was the savior who would pull me out of my insecurity. But in reality, he had always held Serena’s hand, watching me drown in deep water. The staff member at the door asked me, “Ma’am, are you going in alone?” I clenched my fists. “Yes. Just me.” The heavy door pushed open, and everything went pitch black. The smell of bleach, flashing red lights, and mannequins draped in white sheets surrounded me. At a corner, Serena suddenly jumped out to jump-scare me. My foot slipped, and I fell hard, my forehead slamming against the sharp metal frame of a prop bed. The lights in the room flashed on instantly, followed by a chorus of laughter. “Oh my god, Chloe! You’re so easy to scare!” My knee was bleeding, and a huge bump was already forming on my forehead. I brushed the dust off my clothes, turned around, and walked straight out of the building. Ethan chased after me. “Are you mad? Serena only did that for your own good.” I swallowed the pain and shook my head. “I’m not mad.” He reached out, patted my bruised forehead, and smiled. “That’s my good girl.” The group dispersed. Ethan was going to drive Serena home. “Her apartment is in a sketchy neighborhood. It’s too dark for her to go alone.” “You can just Uber back, okay?” I looked into his eyes. “Why is it that when it comes to Serena, you never think she needs to ‘toughen up’?” His mouth opened, but no words came out. Suddenly, I had no desire to hear his excuse. “Forget it. Just go.” When I got home, my mom was sitting on the couch eating grapes. “Did Ethan drive you home?” “He went to drop off Serena.” My mom tossed a grape skin into the trash. “Look at how useless you are.” “Ethan has a great family, a great career. Serena fits him so much better. He must have been blind to choose you, and yet you’re still not satisfied.” I looked at my mom, really looked at her. “Mom, you’re right. Serena suits Ethan way better than I do.” “And she suits being your daughter way better, too.”

My mom snapped, standing up instantly. “You dare talk back to me? Who do you think wants you anyway?” “You’re just like your spineless father! You’ll never be half the girl Serena is!” I shut my bedroom door. She spent half the night screaming curses outside. I put on my headphones and began packing my bags. The next morning, I went out to buy supplies for the mountains. Snake repellent, bug spray, a first-aid kit… When I returned, the front door was slightly ajar. I heard laughter coming from the living room. First, it was Serena’s voice. “During the engagement party, when Chloe walks onto the stage, we should trigger a little prank to scare her. It’ll be great for her anxiety.” “Should we throw a fake snake or a dead rat?” Ethan went silent for a long time. Serena sounded annoyed. “Why are you making that face? If you’re going to take her side, then just ignore me!” He finally sighed. “Fine… but this is really the last time. I don’t want Chloe getting too traumatized.” He claimed he cared, yet he agreed to it anyway. My mom laughed along. “A little scare is good for her. She’s been talking back lately. This will teach her a lesson.” The afternoon sun was blazing hot, but I felt freezing cold. My own engagement party was going to be turned into a public humiliation prank. But it was fine. It really didn’t matter anymore. The room inside went quiet. I pushed the door open. Ethan immediately stood up, looking nervous, and wrapped an arm around my shoulder. “We were just planning the perfect engagement party for you, Chloe.” “Okay,” I murmured. Serena leaned in. “Hey Chloe, I’m taking Ethan out for a bachelor night tonight. You don’t mind, right?” “I don’t mind.” But at 2:00 AM, my phone rang. I had to drive to a bar to pick up the two of them, completely drunk. Serena’s makeup was smudged with tears as she clutched Ethan’s sleeve. “If you hadn’t refused to go to the same college as me… if you had just confessed to me back then, I wouldn’t have lied and said I didn’t like you.” Ethan covered his eyes with his hand, his voice thick and raspy. “I regret it too… I shouldn’t have gotten drunk and kissed Chloe just to make you jealous. I shouldn’t have stayed with her.” “But she looked so pathetic when she smiled…” I leaned against the doorframe of the bar, my knees going weak. On the night of our high school graduation, we had all gotten drunk. Ethan, completely wasted, had pulled me into an alley, kissed me, and whispered, “I love you so much.” That was the first time anyone had ever told me they loved me. I had felt like the luckiest girl in the world, my head spinning with joy. He had fallen asleep on my shoulder, and I hadn’t dared to move an inch, my heart racing all night long. Ten years. It was all a mistake. I let out a mocking laugh at myself. Of course. Why would anyone ever love a girl like me? I hauled both of them into the car and took them home. The next morning, Ethan and Serena came to pick up my mom, saying they were going to the venue early to set up. I knew they were going to set up their “surprise.” Ethan stood at the door, smiling. “Take your time getting ready, Chloe. No rush.” I nodded, watching their car drive away. Lucy was waiting for me at the train station. When I arrived, Ethan Snapchat-messaged me: “Take your time, we aren’t fully ready yet.” In the background of his voice note, I could hear Serena shrieking with laughter. “No, this fake rat doesn’t look real enough! Find another one!” So that was their surprise. I didn’t reply. My mom sent a voice note in the family WhatsApp group: “Chloe is always so slow and can’t handle big crowds. We’re delaying the start of the ceremony to let her prepare.” I smiled, muted my phone, and stepped onto the bus with Lucy. Right before my phone lost signal in the mountains, I received one last voice note from Ethan. “Where are you? You can come now. We’re ready.” In the background, Serena laughed, “Hurry up, Chloe! Your surprise is waiting!” I turned off my phone and never looked back. Meanwhile, at the hotel banquet hall. Ethan and the others waited. The double doors were suddenly pushed open. Serena screamed and threw the prop rat. But the only person standing at the door was the hotel manager. “Miss Miller asked me to deliver a message. She won’t be attending her engagement party. She hopes you all have a wonderful evening.” Ethan’s smile shattered. My mom froze in utter disbelief.

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