Category: English

My brother is known in our circle for having a terminal case of lovesickness. To chase after the high and mighty princess of the Blackwood family, he practically ripped his own face off and stomped on it. I’m his sister, but my brain has only one mission: to absolutely, under no circumstances, let my brother be a simp. To give him a taste of sweet revenge, I went undercover and got close to the Blackwood family’s eldest son, figuring I’d try a flanking maneuver—get to the source of the problem. It backfired. Spectacularly. In the end, that same princess tied us both up, trussed like holiday turkeys, and threw us in her living room. “I’ll marry your brother! You marry my brother! How about that? I’m begging you two, just stop tormenting me!” Me: ? 1 When my brother, Connor, first started college, he fell for a girl in his year at first sight and completely lost his mind. I later found out she was Julie Blackwood, the treasured jewel of the Blackwood family, famous for her beauty, talent, and proud demeanor. I tried to talk some sense into him. “She’s a goddess, and we’re just mortals. It’s not gonna happen.” My brother insisted I didn’t know a thing, that she was his soulmate. And so, the fool began a two-year-long, frantic pursuit. Daily pick-ups and drop-offs, flowers, and gifts were the bare minimum, and he never even managed to snag the title of “official boyfriend.” They went on dates and had meals together, but to any outsider, it was clear Julie had never said yes. My brother was just a veteran simp, at her beck and call. I called him pathetic, a terminal case of lovesickness. He’d yell back, his eyes red, that he was happy to do it, that you can’t put a price on true devotion. What could I do? Our parents passed away early, so my brother and I grew up relying on each other. Connor might not have a head for business, but he gave me all his kindness and protection. When our parents first died, our relatives circled like vultures, eyeing our family company, ready to tear us apart. It was my brother who shouldered all the pressure, fighting tooth and nail at countless dinners, drinking until he coughed up blood and ended up in the hospital, just to protect our business and protect me. In my heart, my brother is my only family. For him to fall for someone this hard, even if she was a block of ice that would never melt, I had to swallow my disgust and help him strategize for the sake of his happiness. Until Julie’s junior year, when she suddenly took off to study abroad without a word. By then, I had taken over the company. The universe, it seems, has a sense of balance; all the business acumen my brother lacked was given to me. I was tougher than him, sharper. After half a year of battling the old foxes on the board, I had finally secured my position. But my brother completely fell apart. When he heard Julie had left the country, he drank himself into a stupor and ended up in the emergency room. I rushed to the hospital, fuming. I pushed open the door to find him trying to rip the IV drip out of his arm. His face was ashen. “I don’t want to live anymore. Julie doesn’t want me. What’s the point…?” My head was buzzing, my temples throbbing. Without a second thought, I marched over and slapped him. Hard. “She went abroad, she didn’t die! Are you out of money or do you not have a passport? Why don’t you go after her?” The slap seemed to knock some sense into him. He stared at me, stunned, before it finally clicked. “Oh, right… Quick, give me my phone, I need to book a flight!” I tossed him the phone. He eagerly scrolled through his chat history, but after a few swipes, his face fell like a wilted flower. “A few days ago… I saw a guy confessing his feelings to her, and I got so angry I blocked her…” I took a deep breath, fighting the urge to strangle him. “So you don’t even know what country she’s in or what school she’s attending?” My brother shook his head miserably. I was beyond frustrated. “Alright, stop whining. I’ll have someone look into it. You just stay put. Don’t work yourself into an early grave before you even see your precious ‘sister-in-law’.” Hearing the word “sister-in-law,” the fool immediately stopped fussing and obediently lay down. Outside the hospital room, I read the message from the private investigator and fell into deep thought. “Ms. Reid, Ms. Blackwood’s whereabouts have been deliberately hidden. The person responsible is her brother.” Julie’s brother? Xavier Blackwood? The legendary business prodigy who hit the Forbes list by the age of thirty? The Reid and Blackwood families didn’t have any business dealings, and I had never met the man. If he was the one intentionally hiding her, this was going to be a problem. If I told my brother this, he’d just dissolve into another puddle of tears. I rubbed my temples and decided to meet this Xavier Blackwood myself. The next day, I sent my assistant to make contact. She came back pale as a ghost. “Ms. Reid, Mr. Blackwood said…” “Said what? Spit it out.” “He said… the Blackwood family has high standards, and they would never let their daughter marry a crybaby waste of space. He told us to give up now.” I saw red. I was furious. Who the hell was Xavier Blackwood to talk about my brother like that? So what if he cries a little? He’s kind and gentle, and aside from his lovesickness, he’s a great guy! Xavier Blackwood, you’ve made an enemy. Since playing nice didn’t work, it was time to play dirty. First, I sent a few handsome men and beautiful women to apply for jobs at the Blackwood Corporation, hoping a little seduction would loosen some lips. I figured every man has a weakness, right? Less than three days later, they all came back with their tails between their legs. “Ms. Reid, Xavier Blackwood isn’t human! He made us run fifty laps around the company building at the crack of dawn, to ‘build character’!” I gritted my teeth. Fine. If he wouldn’t fall for honey traps or threats, I’d handle it myself. I went home and told my brother, “You watch the company for a few days. I’m going to handle your future brother-in-law.” He looked skeptical. “Are you serious? Or are you just trying to skive off work and go on vacation?” I gave him a cold smile. “Say that again. Do you want me to post all your pathetic love letters online?” He immediately shut up. With the fool at home taken care of, I created a new identity, transforming myself into a recent graduate, and managed to get a job at the Blackwood Corporation. I thought I’d find a chance to get close to Xavier. Instead, I spent a week in the finance department and didn’t even figure out where his office was. My patience wore thin. That afternoon, armed with a stack of questionable financial reports, I barged into the executive elevator. When the doors opened, Xavier Blackwood’s icy face was right there. Our eyes met. We were both stunned. I recovered quickly, shoving the reports into his chest. “Mr. Blackwood, I have an urgent matter to report.” The pressure in the CEO’s office was suffocating. I slammed the evidence of embezzlement I’d spent all week uncovering onto his desk. Even though I was a spy, my professional ethics wouldn’t let me ignore such a massive discrepancy. Xavier flipped through the documents, his expression growing darker. Finally, he looked up at me, his gaze sharp and appraising. Soon after, the executive who had been embezzling funds was fired. And I, inexplicably, became Xavier’s new favorite, promoted directly to his executive assistant. While it wasn’t part of my original plan, it was a lucky break. I had gained his trust. He even specifically requested that I accompany him to a business gala that evening. Talk about a small world. I was on Xavier’s arm when we ran right into my brother at the event. Xavier clearly had a terrible impression of Connor. The moment he saw him, his brow furrowed, and a chill emanated from him. My brother, on the other hand, saw me, and his eyes went wide, his mouth opening, ready to start bawling. I shot him a death glare: Hold. It. In. He choked back his tears, looking utterly wronged. After a few drinks, everyone was a little tipsy. Xavier was slightly flushed, and my brother was swaying on his feet. The fool stumbled over, holding a glass, and yelled at Xavier, “Bro! A toast! To you! May your company prosper and make you a fortune!” Xavier gave him a cold glance and didn’t even touch his glass. My brother’s fragile heart shattered on the spot. His eyes welled up, the dam about to break. My own heart leaped into my throat. If he cried in public, the Reid family’s reputation would be ruined! I quickly grabbed a glass and, when no one was looking, dragged my brother by the wrist out onto the terrace. “Cry, cry, cry! Is that all you know how to do? Can’t you have a little dignity?” I hissed. He sniffled. “But… but I haven’t seen Julie in a month… I miss her so much…” I clamped my hand over his mouth, afraid someone inside would hear. Just then, a cold voice came from behind us. “What are you two doing?” The voice was like a clap of thunder, nearly scaring me to death. I stiffly turned around. Xavier was standing in the shadows, his gaze chillingly fixed on our intertwined hands. “What are you doing?” he repeated, his voice thick with suppressed anger. I let go of my brother’s hand as if I’d been electrocuted, my mind racing. “Um… Mr. Blackwood, I saw this gentleman was drunk and was worried he might cause a scene, so I brought him out for some fresh air. I was just… helping him sober up.” My brother was nodding frantically beside me. Xavier was silent, his eyes darting between my face and my brother’s. Suddenly, understanding seemed to dawn on him, and his expression turned darker than a stormy sea. “Tessa, come here.” In that moment, I was eternally grateful that I’d used my mother’s maiden name for my undercover identity. I sheepishly walked over to him. My brother was still looking at me with the mournful eyes of an abandoned puppy. Xavier grabbed my wrist, his grip surprisingly strong, and pulled me away. I kept looking back, desperately trying to signal to my brother: Don’t worry, I’m fine! Get out of here! Xavier dragged me to a deserted corner, trapping me between the wall and his body. He smelled faintly of wine, and his presence was overwhelmingly intense. His eyes were tinged with red as he stared down at me, a look that made my stomach flutter with nerves. Crap, did he figure out I’m a spy? “Tessa, you like him?” I froze, a million questions marks popping up in my head. What? Seeing my silence, Xavier seemed to get even angrier, his tone laced with scorn. “Don’t. A man who does nothing but cry isn’t worth it. Besides, he only has eyes for my sister. You don’t stand a chance.” I almost coughed up blood. Me? Like my own brother? Am I sick in the head? I shook my head frantically. “No! I swear I don’t like him!” Xavier’s expression softened slightly. “Really?” “Absolutely!” “Good.” He seemed relieved, his voice softening too. “I was going to give you my sister’s address, but if you don’t like him, then I guess there’s no point…” “Wait!” Alarm bells went off in my head. For the sake of my brother’s happiness, I had to go all in. I grabbed his tie, my expression instantly shifting to one of profound sorrow. “Actually… Mr. Blackwood, I was lying. I do like him. I’ve liked him for a long time.” Xavier’s face instantly turned to stone. “Tessa, are you playing games with me?” I went for a full-blown Oscar performance, tears streaming down my face. “I really do like him! But I know he only loves your sister, so I tried to get into the Blackwood Corporation just to see… to see what kind of girl could captivate him so completely…” Xavier stared at me, his eyes a mixture of complex emotions. I cried even harder. “Mr. Blackwood, please just tell me. Let me see her one time, just once, and I’ll give up! I promise, after I see her, I’ll come back and work hard and never think about him again!” In the end, he couldn’t withstand my performance. He let out a long sigh. “Alright, stop crying. I’ll give you the address. But after you see her, you have to give up. A man like that isn’t worth your time.” I nodded furiously. “Don’t worry, Mr. Blackwood! I’ll give up completely! I’ll be totally over him!” Inside, I was cackling with glee. Mission accomplished! After getting the address, I promptly quit my job and flew with my brother to a romantic little town abroad. Connor finally saw the goddess of his dreams. Unfortunately, reality was harsh. At an outdoor café, Julie was laughing and talking with a handsome, scholarly-looking young man, their hands resting on top of each other’s. And that man just happened to be my brother’s sworn enemy, Landon. My brother exploded on the spot, charging over and screaming, “Julie! How could you do this to me? You know I hate him!” Julie was startled, her face clouding over. “Connor, are you ever going to stop? I don’t like you. Why did you follow me here? Can’t you just leave me alone?” My temper flared. My brother might be a fool, but his feelings for you are real. You can reject him, but you don’t get to humiliate him! And Landon was notoriously deceitful. I wasn’t about to let my brother get hurt. I stormed over and, without a word, slapped Landon across the face. Twice. I don’t hit women, but this guy, I couldn’t stand. Smack! Smack! The sound was crisp and satisfying. Landon was stunned. “Who the hell are you? Are you crazy?” Julie was furious, her eyes red. “Why did you hit him? Landon is just a classmate, he doesn’t even like me! What right do you have?” My brother was still stuck on his own point. “I don’t like you? Julie, where did you get that idea? I’m crazy about you!” “I got it from both my eyes! What you do is called harassment, not love!” The scene devolved into chaos. In the end, Julie ran off, and my brother stood there like a wooden statue. “How could she say that to me…” Seeing him so dejected, I felt a pang of sympathy. I had pissed off Xavier, lost my job, and all for this. Just then, my phone rang. It was Xavier. Over and over again, the vibration making my hand numb. Feeling incredibly guilty, I turned it off. “Come on, bro! We’re going for a drink tonight! There are plenty of fish in the sea. We don’t need this one!” I dragged my brother to a local bar. That night, we both drank ourselves into oblivion. When I opened my eyes, my head felt like it was splitting open. I tried to move but found my hands and feet were tied. I looked down to see myself trussed up like a sausage, lying on the floor. Next to me, also tied up and snoring loudly, was my brother. My heart dropped. Crap. Were we kidnapped? Did Xavier find us?

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I was sitting in the bathroom stall when I heard the new hire, just outside at the sink, loudly telling his family the good news. He’d officially been made permanent. Base salary: one hundred and twenty thousand dollars. I went silent. I’d been at this company for six years. Year one: sixty thousand dollars a year. No raise. Year two: sixty thousand dollars. A five percent raise at the end of the year. Three thousand dollars. Years three, four, and five: sixty-three thousand dollars. No change. Year six: HR just finished my review today. Next year’s raise would be five percent. Sixty-six thousand one hundred and fifty dollars. I currently manage the liaison work for five key projects. Because I was swamped, they hired three new people to report to me. The newest one, just confirmed as permanent, makes one hundred and twenty thousand dollars. It’s nearly double what I make after six years of grueling work. I walked out of the stall, went straight to Dahlia Stone’s office—our HR Director—and resigned. Dahlia looked genuinely shocked. “Why?” “Underpaid. Overworked. Disrespected.” 1 Dahlia Stone stared at me for a good thirty seconds. “Jenna, don’t be impulsive.” “I’m not impulsive,” I said. “I should have said this six years ago.” Since graduating, I had spent six years of my life inside the walls of this company. From a scrappy intern to the woman running point on five of our most critical accounts. The flow of business, the client relationships—they all hinged on me. They’d even hired three new assistants this year just to help me keep up. Yet, my dedication had earned me a starting salary of sixty thousand and a current salary of sixty-six thousand one hundred and fifty. The entry-level male hire, fresh out of his probationary period, was on a one hundred and twenty thousand dollar base. “Dahlia, I don’t want to debate this. Please start the exit process immediately.” Her face hardened. “Jenna, you have five major projects on your desk. Walking out now—isn’t that a little… low?” “Low?” I gave a short, bitter laugh. When I started, this company barely qualified as a legitimate office. Rich Kingsley, the employees, all ten of us, crammed into a twenty-by-twenty-foot shoebox. No AC in the summer, no heat in the winter, and endless, unpaid overtime. I took it all. Fueled by that naive, post-graduate ambition, I helped drag this near-bankrupt operation to the point where we now occupy four full floors of a high-rise. But today, I knew the truth. An intern’s starting salary was double mine. “Dahlia, do you know how much I make in a month?” “Six thousand six hundred and fifteen dollars.” “For that money, I’ve averaged three hours of overtime a day. I’ve revised proposals in the middle of the night. I’ve taken calls on the train during my holiday break to get projects finalized.” “Meanwhile, the new hire, who’s been here three months, clocks in exactly on time and is out the door the minute the clock strikes five. Last week, he messed up a scheduling conflict that brought five department heads to my office complaining.” “And even then, his base is one hundred and twenty thousand. You want to talk to me about ‘low’?” Dahlia finally dropped her gaze. After a long, painful silence, she offered a single, devastating sentence. “Who told you you’re a woman?” “Excuse me?” I stared, certain I’d misheard. Dahlia pursed her lips and sighed, a gesture of weary, female complicity. “I honestly thought you understood the landscape, Jenna.” “You’re a woman. You’re twenty-eight. You’re about to get married, which means a honeymoon, and then a maternity leave, and then a parenting leave… that’s almost a year out of the business, combined.” “The research shows, women’s focus shifts after marriage. Rich Kingsley worries you won’t be able to balance the firm and a family. You have to consider the company’s bottom line.” The words felt like a surgical knife, plunged directly into my chest. The absurdity was so profound I barely processed it. I could only ask the most obvious question. “What about you, Dahlia? You’re five years older than me. Your second kid is in kindergarten. What’s your salary?” Dahlia shrugged, a light, dismissive motion. “Eighty thousand. But Rich is my cousin.” That single statement annihilated my protest. I thought of the countless all-nighters I’d pulled for projects over the last three years. The instant noodles I’d eaten at my desk to meet deadlines. The courses and certifications I’d paid for myself to improve my skills. I’d worked this hard, sacrificed so much, only to be dismissed by Rich Kingsley with five words: You’re a woman. Because I was a woman, my tireless dedication meant less than a new, unproven man. Because I had no connections, the fact that the company would grind to a halt without me still didn’t qualify me for a market-rate salary. It all came down to a single, infuriating biological detail. I finally smiled. “Got it,” I said, standing up. Dahlia flinched. “Got what?” I didn’t answer. I just pushed the door open and walked out. I understood that this company was rotten to its core, and had been for six years. 2 I pulled open my desk drawer and retrieved the brand-new voice recorder I’d bought for meeting notes. Now, it was my only weapon. I slipped it into my jacket pocket. A cup of coffee landed on my desk. It was Spencer Wells, my boyfriend of three years, who outranked me by one level. “Dahlia said you’re quitting?” I didn’t look up. “Yep.” “Because of the salary thing?” My hand paused. I looked up at him. “You know about it?” He hesitated. “I know.” “What is your monthly salary?” I’d never asked him directly, seeing as we weren’t married yet, but now I was consumed by curiosity. Spencer’s eyes darted away. “Three hundred thousand. But I’m a Project Manager. You’re just a Project Liaison. We’re in different tiers, of course it’s different.” I held his gaze. “You were promoted to Project Manager at the beginning of this year. But your salary hasn’t changed for two years.” “I started managing the company’s key accounts the year before that. My five percent raise put me at sixty-six thousand. That’s less than a quarter of your pay.” “I know every project in this company inside and out. Every stage requires my sign-off. Without me, this whole operation would shut down before the afternoon, and not a single product would go out the door.” “Spencer, I am more important to this company than you are.” He frowned. “So what? Ability doesn’t dictate pay, Rich does. Go talk to him if you’ve got the guts.” I stood up. “You’re right. I absolutely will go talk to him.” I needed an answer for my six years of life. I walked toward the elevator immediately. Spencer looked stunned, rushing to intercept me. “Jenna, don’t do anything reckless!” I ignored him, pressing the call button. As the elevator climbed to the fifth floor, my mind was flooded with memories of my time here. In 2022, fresh out of college, I met Rich Kingsley—then thirty-seven—at a job fair. He was just starting out, short on cash, but bursting with passion. “Jenna,” he’d said, “we’re just a handful of people now, but we have a dream and we’re willing to grind. Come join us, and I promise you’ll never regret it.” I believed him. That first year, the company was housed in a cramped apartment. The summer was suffocating, the winter brutal. As the only woman on the team, Rich made a show of looking out for me. He’d slip me an extra five hundred dollars every month, calling it a “hardship stipend.” “Jenna, an Ivy League graduate like you, I’m putting you through hell,” he’d said. At the time, everyone else made four thousand, but I started at six thousand. The second year, the company stabilized. We moved into a modest office in a commercial building. I got my first real desk. Rich was thrilled on moving day, grandly announcing a five percent raise for me—three thousand dollars—by year end. That same year, Spencer joined. My subordinate. Base salary: eighty thousand dollars. The third year, I worked non-stop for two weeks, turning in sixteen different proposals. I successfully secured the Summit Group contract, earning the company a massive payout and finally putting us on the map. My reward? A cheap, mass-produced plaque, and the responsibility for all the company’s major project liaison work. Rich clapped my shoulder, his voice heavy with significance. “Jenna, I knew I was right about you. The future of this company rests on your shoulders.” That year, I was twenty-five. My salary was sixty-three thousand. In the fourth and fifth years, my project list grew, and the company took off, renting four floors of a corporate tower. I lost my office, however, because Spencer was promoted to manager and needed the space. I remember Rich, now sporting a beer gut from constant client dinners, his eyes perpetually yellowed and cloudy from drinking. Oily. “Jenna, don’t blame me. This promotion is strictly about utilizing your talent with the clients, not tying you down to a desk.” Rich puffed on his cigar, playing the concerned mentor. “Spencer came later and hasn’t closed any deals, but he’s a man. He’s better for schmoozing, and frankly, when dealing with the junior staff, a man commands more respect, right?” I was so naive then. I figured he had a point. I didn’t love sitting in an office. As long as the boss valued me, what was a Project Manager title, anyway? Now, hearing Spencer’s self-assured claim—*“We’re in different tiers”—*I felt like a complete fool. The elevator arrived at the fifth floor. I took a deep breath, walked to Rich Kingsley’s office, and knocked. 3 “Come in.” I pushed the door open. Rich was smoking. Seeing me, he immediately stubbed the cigarette in the ashtray, his voice grave. “Dahlia told me you resigned.” He poured me a glass of water himself. “I understand you’re unhappy with your pay. But you’re one of our veterans. The company invested in you for all these years. Walking out now is just bad form, isn’t it?” That word, low, again. I held the glass, looking at him. “Rich, I’ve been here for six years, I make sixty-six thousand. The intern who started three months ago makes one hundred and twenty thousand.” Rich’s face froze, then he plastered on a look of paternal concern. “Yes, the salary thing was an oversight on my part. How about this: I’ll raise you again. Five percent. What do you say?” Sixty-six thousand one hundred and fifty, plus five percent, was sixty-nine thousand four hundred and fifty-seven dollars and fifty cents. Less than seventy thousand. A fifty-thousand-dollar difference from a probationary hire. I didn’t compromise. I went straight for the heart of it. “Rich, I’ve been with you for six years. When times were toughest, we didn’t even have a water cooler, and we had to bring our own toilet paper.” “But you paid me two thousand more than the others then. Now the company is thriving. The smallest project I handle is worth five million dollars. Why are you unwilling to pay me the same as an intern?” I stared at him, waiting for the answer that would finally kill my hope. Rich cleared his throat, instinctively reaching for a cigarette. “Jenna, I didn’t want to say this, but since you’re pressing me, I’ll tell you: Because you’re a woman!” “A woman?” “Yes, a woman.” The fleshy jowls on Rich’s face began to tremble with sudden fervor. “I’ve done the research. Do you know the percentage of female leadership in the Fortune 500? Twenty-one percent! Some companies don’t have a single one. What does that tell you? You women are inherently not the same as men.” “But my performance has consistently been number one in the company,” I couldn’t help but argue. Rich scoffed. “So what? You’re about to marry Spencer, aren’t you?” I was confused. “And?” “And your value has cratered, hasn’t it?” Rich leaned forward, analyzing me like a faulty asset. “Look, once you marry Spencer, you’ll be a good wife. Once the baby comes, you’ll be a good mother. How do you balance family and career? The company hires you, and then you want vacation, maternity leave, and childcare leave. Who pays for the company’s loss?” “Plus, the internet says women’s focus declines after marriage. You’re twenty-eight, almost thirty. In a few years, you’ll be in menopause. There are plenty of young people on the market. Why should I invest in you?” My eyes had gone completely numb. I spoke calmly. “My performance is strong.” “A woman with great performance? Who knows if she had to sleep her way into those numbers,” Rich muttered. “I have high capability.” “How capable can you be? Your boyfriend, Spencer, is the one who got the manager title.” Rich sneered. “I’ve been with this company for six years, from the ground up. I have the deepest institutional knowledge.” “That’s why I didn’t fire you,” Rich said, smiling. “I even gave you a raise. Five percent. That’s generous.” I went silent, staring into the water glass. Rich patted my shoulder, a gesture that made my skin crawl. “All right, stop being angry. I’ll round it up to seventy thousand. Forget the resignation. As long as you keep working hard, the company will take care of you.” “Oh, and the signing ceremony with Summit Group is tomorrow, right? Prepare well. This is our biggest project of the year. Don’t disappoint me.” The Summit Group was a client I’d cultivated for three years. They were famous in the industry for their corporate culture of “respecting women’s career rights and opposing workplace discrimination.” It was especially notable that their newly appointed CEO, Ms. Victoria Graham, was a successful woman who had herself suffered professional prejudice. I looked up at Rich’s smug, smiling face. I stood up. “Don’t worry, Rich,” I said. “I won’t disappoint you.” Then, I turned and walked away. The small voice recorder and the miniature camera, still recording in my jacket pocket, glowed faintly red. 4 That night, I was, unsurprisingly, wide awake. I didn’t know if I could achieve justice tomorrow. I only knew that some things had to be done. And I was ready to be the one who did them. At 8:00 AM, I arrived at the office. Everything was normal. Dahlia, having heard about my conversation with Rich, walked past my desk and glanced at me with an odd, pitying look. At 10:00 AM, Spencer asked me to lunch, supposedly to celebrate that I hadn’t been fired. “It’s a good thing Rich is a good guy and decided not to hold your temper tantrum against you. If my mom knew you were jobless, she’d never let us get married.” I picked up my lunch tray and walked away, not even granting him a glance. At 3:00 PM, Rich arrived. He strode into the open-plan office, looking invigorated. “To celebrate securing the Summit Group project,” he announced grandly, “I’ve asked Dahlia to prepare a big bonus envelope for everyone!” “Rich is the man!” “Best boss ever!” Rich chuckled, waving his hand dismissively. “Dahlia, start handing them out.” The envelopes were distributed. Marcus, an assistant who’d been with the company for three years, gasped. “Five thousand dollars! Rich is so generous!” “Five thousand for me too! Great to be on Rich’s team!” Said a married, older male colleague, his eyes crinkling in a delighted smile. Vivian, at the next desk, tore open her envelope, then pouted. “Why did I only get three thousand?” “Me too. Three thousand.” The female employees, all of them, got three thousand. “Well, three thousand is better than nothing.” “But I work just as hard as the men. Why the difference?” Why the difference? I repeated the question silently, opening my own envelope. Neat, crisp bills. Five hundred dollars. “Jenna, don’t take it personally. I just gave you that big raise yesterday. Giving you too much would make the others talk,” Rich explained, smiling broadly, his eyes watching my reaction intently. I knew he was trying to ‘tame’ me. I didn’t argue or protest. I calmly put the envelope in my desk. “Thank you, Rich.” At 7:00 PM, the Summit Group motorcade arrived downstairs. Victoria Graham, the CEO, and her delegation walked into the conference room. Rich and Spencer were there, all smiles and obsequiousness, greeting the delegation warmly. At 7:30 PM, the ceremony began. Rich, as the CEO, stepped up to the podium to speak. “Thank you, Summit Group, for giving our firm this invaluable opportunity. Since our first collaboration, we have always adhered to a spirit of transparency, fairness, and professionalism. Through our joint efforts, we have achieved significant results. Moving forward, we will continue to provide professional service and quality work, hand-in-hand with Summit Group, to create greater, mutual success.” Rich delivered his prepared remarks with eloquent pride. Victoria Graham, seated in the VIP section, looked satisfied. She took the microphone. “After several years of collaboration, we have absolute faith in your firm’s capabilities. However, even more than capability, our company prioritizes whether your principles of transparency, fairness, and professionalism extend to your employee relations—especially regarding gender equality.” Rich’s face twitched. He chuckled nervously. “Of course, of course.” Before he could finish, the main screen behind the podium went black. A few seconds later, the conversation between Rich Kingsley and me, recorded in his office, echoed throughout the venue. “You women are inherently not the same as men…”

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After remarrying Julian Brooks, I put away my bitter face and became a perfect wife. Julian was very satisfied. Until three days later, he saw me entering and leaving a hotel with another man with his own eyes. Postures ambiguous, talking and laughing, like a couple in passionate love. He flew into a rage out of humiliation, smashed photos on my face like crazy. “Grace, who is this man??” I was concise, “My boyfriend.” Julian laughed in anger, eyes blood red choking my neck. “I already cut clean with that little girl, you revenge me like this right?” I raised my eyes expressionless. “Didn’t you say? Marriage is marriage, doesn’t delay us each having love.” “I also want to know, exactly how cool cheating is, to make you tireless again and again.” Chapter 1 Julian’s hand tightened fiercely, suffocation instantly surged up. I didn’t struggle, just looked at him like that. Perhaps my eyes were too calm, making him feel strange, making the madness in his eyes gradually fade, surging out panic. Hand loosened, I coughed violently, leaving a few red marks on my neck. “Grace, you did it on purpose.” His voice was hoarse, gritting teeth, but unwilling. My mouth corner hooked a self-mocking smile. “Think whatever you want, on purpose or unintentional, does it still matter?” Julian closed his eyes, took a deep breath. Veins on the back of his hand bulged. “Break up with him.” “Grace, as long as you break up with him, I can treat it as nothing happened.” I know, always proud Julian. Being able to say such words, counts as making the biggest concession. But based on what he gives me a step down. I have to take it. I lit a cigarette, gently spat out two words, “I won’t.” My light attitude, enraged Julian again. “Grace, don’t be ungrateful!” He pounced over again, pressed me against the corner, choked my neck. Like a desperate trapped beast. “We already remarried, I also did what I promised you, cut off with Chloe.” Julian scratched his hair irritably, “I transferred her to the branch company, won’t meet again in the future.” “What else do you want?” Heh, really cut off? Calling her Chloe one by one, so intimate. Julian thought I didn’t know. Every time he passed Mount Sinai Hospital, he would stop at the entrance to watch for a while. Only because the surgery Chloe had to abort that child was done in this hospital. Two days ago, the secretary accidentally broke the cup on his desk, he flew into a rage, directly fired the secretary. Also because that cup, was a small gift Chloe gave him. Surface cut off with person. Actually, looking at things Chloe gave every day, seeing things and thinking of people. He didn’t go out to get a room with Chloe again, go to Disney to check in, or road trip to see aurora. He didn’t even actively see Chloe once again. But his missing was like a disgusting seed, growing crazy, then growing into a towering tree. Forcibly lying across our marriage. I sneered, just like he treated me countless times before. Poked the burning cigarette butt on the back of Julian’s hand. “You guys cut off, that’s your business, what does it have to do with me?” Hand was burned a blood blister. Julian withdrew his hand without a word. He looked at me confrontationally, eyes full of fatigue. “Grace, do you have to be like this?” Chapter 2 Have to be like this? Listen to these words, how innocent, how passive. As if he is the implicated victim. Clearly he cheated first, he moved heart to other woman first. Three years ago, Chloe was the company’s new intern, young and beautiful, silly sweet white. Understood nothing, always looking up, blinking innocent big eyes asking. “Mr. Brooks, can you teach me?” Julian gradually fell. He initially always mentioned Chloe a few sentences in front of me. “That new intern, stupid very, not half smart as my wife.” But later, it became “That intern positive and motivated, actually quite cute.” Later again, at my birthday banquet. I was blowing candles, wishing to grow old with Julian, looked up found him gone. When I found him, saw him in the next box pressing another girl kissing crazily. My scalp tingled, reacted crazy like, grabbed everything can grab smashed over. Julian silently blocked in front. But dead protected person behind. He said, “Grace, all my fault, is me didn’t hold, come at me if anything.” “Chloe is just an ignorant little girl.” Later again, he even directly played open cards in front of me. Brought Chloe home. “Grace, we are not young anymore, thirty something, what love to imagine?” “I love you, is true.” “But such days too plain, boring, I also need a bit freshness.” “Stimulation Chloe can bring me, you can’t give.” He said marriage should be like this. Have to breathe, otherwise always feel like a fish almost suffocated. So he could righteously have a new home with the intern outside. But let me like stuck in throat, had to smash grievance swallow into stomach. That time I racked my brains, didn’t figure out. Clearly we initially had a happy perfect family. Exactly what did I do wrong? Just destroyed in one day like this. I unwilling, tried thousand ways hundred plans propose let Julian fire Chloe. He did, but turned head raised person in villa outside city. Five days a week go accompany her. Two people like passionate couple played happily. Chloe every three days would update their travel dynamic on TikTok and Instagram. Julian every time went accompany her, wedding ring on hand would take off, then wear her couple style. Even that group of friends around Julian not surprised. Privately called Chloe “Little Sister-in-law” lively. They seemed justifiable, like got whole world’s blessing. And I seemed like an outdated, forgotten in corner, old pearl yellow, abandoned woman. I unwilling. Again crazy like trouble. Spent high price found private detective, took their intimate video, then spread crazy online. Julian flew into rage out of humiliation, forced me delete. He came find me, that day carrying alcohol smell, rushed in desperately tore my clothes. “Aren’t you just jealous? Grace.” “What you want I give you all, money, status position or body?” “I give you all, beg you let go Chloe…” He voice hoarse used force on me. I die not accept this humiliation, grabbed scissors beside stabbed into his shoulder. Floor full of blood. Julian smile insidious and desolate. “Chloe thin skinned, because this matter troubled almost depression, swallowed pills suicide.” “Grace, if you don’t want me hate you thoroughly, delete video.” When Julian taken away by ambulance, he coldly dropped this sentence, head not back. I die dare not submit, is Julian cheated. Then I even self damage eight hundred, also want hurt enemy one thousand. But my persistence didn’t have any use. Instead waited Julian more ruthless revenge. Chapter 3 Is me let people spread their video crazy online. Chloe lost job therefore, washed face with tears all day, even troubled jumping off building rooftop. She was surrounded by group of people, almost taken advantage. But turned head cried to Julian said. That group of people was directed by me. “Julian, all me deserve die, I shouldn’t provoke you, beg you, let your wife let go me!” Her tears made Julian heartache bad. Next day, my Revenge Porn video was mosaicked, spread all over the circle. That period I every day go out, door would have paint splashed words “Bitch” “Slut”. Those days, curtains forever pulled tight. I closed door not out, shrank in shell like turtle. Holding knees sitting on floor, listening to neighbors whispering outside door. I didn’t even dare turn on phone. Once turn on, phone full of filth words, those people once smilingly called me “Mrs. Brooks”, turned head nailed me on shame pillar. Abused me with most ugly words. Julian came back once. He stood at door, looking at mess on ground, frowned. “Grace, do you know wrong?” He squatted down, pinched my chin. “Say you, put good Mrs. Brooks not do, insist make yourself so embarrassed.” “As long as you properly turn one eye close one eye let go Chloe, we no need trouble so ugly.” Long time, I looked up, eyes dry painful, but also empty terrible. “Julian, I admit defeat.” Because an unwillingness, troubled me have nothing, reputation ruined. I afraid. I put divorce agreement in front of Julian. “Let’s divorce, video I delete, also beg you let go me.” Julian stunned for long time, he looked at me sneer. “Divorce?” “Grace, you actually use this threaten me.” “Don’t you know clearer than me? Our two families came together because of alliance, from moment of marriage, only widowhood, no divorce.” He said right, family interest far exceeds everything. When I proposed want divorce, parents first gave me a slap. They accused me act on impulse, a stupid love brain. “Let you marry Julian, not for you children love long.” “Do you still have Gu family in eyes?” When married, I thought me and Julian match made in heaven. But once step wrong, is ten thousand feet abyss. Two families interest bound too deep. Even if Julian raises countless little wives outside, I also have to decently play a, virtuous Mrs. Brooks. But I don’t want endure. “I willing cut relationship with Gu family, only beg, divorce.” Seeing me word by word, attitude firm. Julian stunned, squatted down touched my face. “Grace, stop making trouble.” His tone so casual cold. “We now not children anymore, marriage originally is each take what need, why you insist grab love not let go?” He took deep breath. “Spread your video online, this matter indeed me wrong.” “I already apologized to you.” “Also let people process those traces completely clean.” He impatiently took out check, “How much you want? Name a price, don’t toss anymore.” My eye rims red, but looked at him resolutely. “Julian, I hate you.” “I only want divorce, just this one, otherwise, what you see only will be my corpse.” Julian didn’t care, sneered, hands in pockets. Leaving time looked down, gave me a glance. “Then you casual, Chloe home power cut, she afraid dark, I have to go accompany her.” “How you want trouble? Self casual.” That day, I took knife cut open my own wrist. Blood like broken dam crazy flowed out, dyed bathtub red. And Julian, however dashingly hugging Chloe, smiling exceptionally dazzling in front of blue dome church in Santorini. Later, when he received news, I already lay in intensive care unit. Julian crazy like rushed back country, he knelt before my sickbed, voice trembling, begged again and again. “Grace, beg you wake up, I agree you anything okay? I agree you… divorce!” “Only beg you don’t have matter!” Chapter 4 Good thing nanny sent me hospital timely. Kept my one life. In operating room, Julian face pale signed divorce agreement. “Grace, if which day you regret, want turn back come find me.” “As long as you willing, you anytime can be Mrs. Brooks.” I always turned face away. Didn’t look Julian once again. After divorce, I didn’t happy as imagined. Instead in following whole half year, fell into severe depression. Countless pills swallowed into mouth. Whole person also became bone thin like wood. One side is public opinion pressure, notorious me already not suitable stay in circle. I originally wanted go far abroad, but on day go airport, blocked by my dad’s bodyguard. My dad forced me, “Remarry with Julian.” “Otherwise, don’t blame me suppress your mom’s ashes under Soul Locking Array do ritual.” Boom a sound. Like a thunder, exploded my brain. There was Feng Shui master once said, my mom’s ashes if suppressed under soul locking array, can be beneficial to Gu family development. Back then was me agreed marry Julian. He then suppressed this matter, now old matter mentioned again, nothing but force me submit. My mom originally left nothing, I can’t be so unfilial, even her ashes can’t keep. Coincidentally that time, Chloe pregnant. Lu family gave pressure, forced Julian break up with Chloe. Mother Lu gave Chloe $5 Million check, forced her go abort child. Chloe saw money eyes open, agreed without hesitation. Julian heart thoroughly hurt, quarreled big with Chloe, not few days suddenly knelt in front of me. “Grace, I wrong.” He eye rims red, like a child did wrong thing. “I already cut with Chloe, person I love still is you, Grace, we remarry okay?” I looked at him, suddenly felt very funny. This man, stepped my dignity under foot crushed, now want pick up piece together complete. But I still nodded. After all my life, already because Julian rotten. How would fear more rotten. Just after remarrying. I put away blaming heaven accusing people shrew face, no longer trouble, obedient can’t more obedient. Even did kind of virtuous wife good mother Julian expected most. Julian thought I experienced so many things, finally thought open. “Grace, I love current you more, calm composed, is a qualified Mrs. Brooks.” He just finished saying this to me satisfied yesterday. Today at door bumped into me and man entering leaving hotel get room, whole person almost collapsed. “We remarried! You are my wife!” “So?” I looked at him, “You can cheat, I can’t find boyfriend? Back then you said marriage just a form, each play each fresh, not said like this.” He was choked speechless, face burst green burst white. As for me, instead face more cold notified him. “If you mind, then I also keep him outside, let you eyes not see as clean.” I directly moved out from original wedding room, lived in apartment outside. Before leave I even considerately looked Julian once. “You also good unobstructed take Chloe back live.” “No matter how you guys trouble, won’t have anyone stop again.” After moving out, Julian called me countless times I lazy answer. Fifth day, he couldn’t sit still. I just off work, Julian waited downstairs my office building, seeing me walk out, irritability smashed photos on my face one by one. “Grace, that man exactly what point attract you? Haven’t you cut with him yet?!” Looking Julian irritable and abnormal. I silently looked at him. “Sick go take medicine, don’t lose face here.” Those photos flew like snowflakes, I bent down casually picked one. Is photo me and Ethan kissing under Empire State Building background. I praised nodded, “Photo skill quite good.” “Hired which private detective, next time remember recommend me.” Julian eye rims red, “Don’t change topic, you explain clear to me, otherwise, this life can’t pass!” He re-picked that photo, tightly clutched, gritting teeth asked me. “You said today want go out see client, want overtime, is it lying me? Did you go see this man again?” I calmly looked his eyes, frankly answered. “Yes.” Julian red eyes, eyes surged monstrous anger. “No wonder you so easily agreed remarry, turns out you wanted use this move revenge me!” “Grace, you wake up, this little white face so young, one look is want cheat you.” Julian whole person collapse extreme, almost broken. “You say, you exactly when got together with this man?” “Before we divorce, or after remarry!” I calmly looked photo once. Emitted light sneer. “When you and Chloe lotus root broken silk connected.” “I just wanted know exactly what taste cheating is, exactly how stimulating, to let you linger forget return again and again.” Atmosphere instantly solidified. I instead turned head smiling looked Julian. “Didn’t you say? Marriage just a cooperation, doesn’t delay us each possess love.” Julian face white. Choked speechless. He definitely remembers, when I crazy catch adultery like a bitter woman. He protected Chloe behind, carelessly sent me away. “Grace, can you calm down?” “30 something adult, how still like a child rough hands rough feet.” “We long passed age of love, now bound together because marriage.” Didn’t he say marriage is marriage, love is love? Then I act one for him. Just didn’t expect, his reaction would be so big. Also, always only his share cheating, where tolerate me half bit unfaithful? Julian looked at me, fatigue in eyes almost overflow. “Grace, we start over, okay? You cut with that little white face, I also send Chloe abroad, never let her come back…” “No need.” I stood up, red marks on neck still faintly aching. Old man or little white face. I not stupid, know which choose. “Julian Brooks, you keep your freshness, I not accompany.” He fiercely grabbed my wrist, “Where you want go? Find that man?” “Yes so what?” I looked straight his eyes, “At least he won’t while saying love me, while entangled with other woman unclear, at least, we together very happy.” Julian face instantly became pale. Hand loose, stumbled back a step. “Grace, how you…” “Divorce.” I interrupted him, voice calm, “This time, I propose.”

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Before Grandma died, she entrusted me to my Aunt Vanessa. Vanessa looked at me with disgust and refused. Until she learned my parents left me a massive trust fund. Only then did she agree to adopt me. On my eighteenth birthday, the truth exploded. Vanessa’s beloved daughter, Chloe, was the fake heiress, switched at birth. I was Vanessa’s biological daughter. Chloe, crushed by guilt for stealing my life, left without a word and died in a car crash. Vanessa screamed at me: “I should have strangled you at birth! You are a curse! You killed Chloe!” My biological brother, Ethan, sent me to the remote Blackwood Manor and ordered everyone to ignore me. He said coldly: “Chloe died alone. This is your karma.” For three years in Blackwood Manor, I lost my mind. In the end, driven by hallucinations, I stepped off the edge of the roof. I opened my eyes. I was back at Grandma’s funeral. The lawyer was saying Aunt Vanessa was willing to adopt me. My face was pale as a ghost. I spoke. “I won’t go with her.” Chapter 1 The whispers in the funeral hall vanished instantly. Aunt Vanessa snapped her head toward me, disbelief written all over her face. “What did you say?” Grandma’s lawyer remained calm. He smoothed things over with Vanessa and took me to a quiet corner. He knelt down to my level and asked patiently: “Hazel, can you tell me why?” I looked down at my shoes. In my past life, for the sake of the trust fund, Vanessa treated me decently. Once feelings grew, they treated me like family and stopped caring about the money. We lived noisily but happily until I was eighteen. But when the truth came out and Chloe died, everything changed. Vanessa hated me to the bone. Ethan, my own brother, looked at me with disgust. After Chloe’s funeral, he pulled me out of school. He sent me to Blackwood Manor. A place with only birds and silence. The servants were like robots. They ignored me. Whether I cried, screamed, or smashed things. They had no reaction. Three years. I went from a normal girl to a lunatic. Thinking of the pain when I hit the ground, I shivered. I stayed silent. The lawyer sighed. He tried to explain in simple terms. “You’re a minor. You need a guardian. Vanessa is your closest relative, and she’s wealthy.” “If you go with other relatives, they might fight over your inheritance later.” I went silent. I looked up. The other relatives were peeking at me through the curtains. When our eyes met, they flashed fake, predatory smiles. A clueless child with a massive fortune. I was fresh meat. I compromised. Getting into the car, Vanessa was still holding a grudge. “Sit in the front. You smell weird. Don’t dirty my seats.” I looked at my clothes. Clean. Not a speck of dust. I said nothing. I climbed into the passenger seat and curled my legs tight. Chapter 2 Just like in my past life, I was adopted by the Sterling family. They fed me and clothed me, but offered no warmth. After a while, seeing I was quiet and obedient, Vanessa’s attitude softened. Chloe was lively and fearless. I tried to avoid this family, but every morning, my door was pounded on by little Chloe. She screeched like a monkey. “Hazel! Wake up! Let’s go play!” I rolled over, covering my ears. Silence. Five minutes later, thump thump thump on the window. I climbed out of bed, hair messy, full of resentment. Chloe was standing on a ladder, grinning at me with big teeth. Below her, terrified nannies held the ladder. I opened the window, trying to scare her off with coldness. “Human interaction requires boundaries. We aren’t close. You’re crossing the line.” Chloe, the six-year-old social butterfly, blinked her empty little head. She processed my words and replied with absolute nonsense. “What? We’re eating steak today? But if it’s not well-done, we’ll get a tummy ache.” I took a deep breath. Before I could speak, someone shouted from the gate. “Chloe!” A figure sprinted over. Seeing Chloe so high up, his face went pale. Ethan carefully held the ladder and helped Chloe down. He checked her for injuries frantically. Then he glared at me coldly. “This is the Sterling house. You’re an outsider. You dare bully her?” Chloe scratched his arm. “No! She didn’t bully me! I went to find her!” Ethan froze. The nanny quickly explained it was Chloe’s idea. He looked at me with a complicated expression, mouth opening as if to speak. I closed the window without a word. Maybe because of the ladder incident, Ethan didn’t like me. My room was next to Chloe’s. Great sunlight. Vanessa didn’t mistreat me materially. She had the maid clean it up for me. But after I unpacked, I found the wall between our rooms had been knocked down. The maid was confused and anxious. “We… we weren’t told about this.” Ethan’s voice came from behind, strong and non-negotiable. “Chloe needs space for her things. Go to the third floor and pick a room.” The third floor was empty. Cold and lifeless. I stood at the door, holding my suitcase. Ethan glanced at me, his tone slightly softer. “If you have a lot of stuff, let the maid help you.” The maid took my suitcase. She was surprised by the weight. “It’s so light.” Ethan frowned, accusingly. “You haven’t even finished packing?” I explained calmly. “I have two outfits and some trinkets. This suitcase holds everything I own.” Ethan’s eyes flickered. He hesitated. “Maybe you should stay here…” “No need. I’ll move.” I cut him off. Ethan was hostile toward me. He always thought I would bully Chloe or steal her things. I found it funny. We can’t choose our birth. Blood is set. I can’t change it. I never wanted to fight Chloe for anything. This time, I just want to live. The “Real Heiress” title doesn’t matter. If I stay away, maybe Chloe and I can both survive. Seeing my avoidance, Ethan seemed to realize I found him annoying. He stopped bothering me. Chapter 3 Vanessa was satisfied with my obedience. She sent me to the same private school as Chloe. If a child is a cicada, Chloe was ten cicadas screaming all summer. In elementary school, we were desk mates. Whenever the teacher wasn’t looking, Chloe tugged my sleeve, whispering like a thief. “Hazel, let’s buy candy after school. We can dodge the driver.” I kept a straight face, pretending to be deaf. Chloe got anxious. “Hazel, Hazel, Hazel…” Before she finished, the teacher was looming over us. “What are you two doing?” I stood in the hallway with Chloe for the whole period, numb. For the next few years, this became routine. Chloe buzzed in my ear year after year. The summer after middle school graduation was a rare break. Grades are social currency for rich moms. Chloe and I both did well. Vanessa was proud. She gave us each a credit card, smiling. “Go have fun.” Chloe excitedly planned a graduation trip. That evening on the balcony, only Vanessa and I remained. She sat in a rocking chair, looking at my grades on her phone. Her gaze was scrutinizing, but softened by my performance. “You know your mother and I didn’t get along. I wasn’t planning to raise you.” Vanessa was blunt. My fingers clenched. “To be honest, if not for the inheritance, I wouldn’t have taken guardianship. But people have feelings. I treat you like my own daughter. When you turn eighteen, the money is yours.” She said. I remembered she said the same thing in my past life. In the end, when Chloe died, those words meant nothing. I exhaled deeply, calming myself. I took the card and thanked her. “Thank you, Auntie. I won’t let you down.” I turned to leave, but she called me. Her hair glowed in the sunset. Her face was soft, like a dream. She patted my shoulder. “Hazel, I’m proud of you too.” I prepared myself for a lecture, but her words made my eyes sting. In that moment, I wanted to call her Mom. I wanted to dig up the truth and ask her: Why do you give kindness to your niece, but not a shred of mercy to your own daughter? But I couldn’t. I swallowed the words. Back in my room, I slid down the door and cried silently. Rich kids like Ethan usually intern at the family company after graduation, their paths set. I knew after the trip, Vanessa would send us to the best high school. A bright future for a Sterling child. But Mom. I don’t want to be your child anymore. Chapter 4 The word “Mom” was alien to me. In my past life, I only learned the truth on my eighteenth birthday. Officially, my mother was Vanessa’s older sister. They fought constantly growing up. Vanessa insisted on marrying into a wealthy family despite her family’s objections. Once she married into the Sterlings, she cut ties with her maiden family. When Ethan was born, Vanessa was busy. The nanny, grieving her own grandson, resented Ethan. Abusing a baby is easy. The Sterlings trusted the nanny who had served them for twenty years. By the time Vanessa found out, Ethan was one. Due to abuse, he couldn’t walk or talk. The Sterlings, initially overjoyed by the first grandson, didn’t give up on him at first. But as rumors of his autism spread, the mockery grew. Vanessa’s position in the Sterling family became precarious. Then she got pregnant again. She prayed for a healthy boy. Instead, I was born. A girl born into disappointment. Terrified and depressed, Vanessa paid the nanny to send me to an orphanage, claiming I was stolen. The nanny, guilty, dumped me in a remote place instead of the designated orphanage. She took the money and ran. The Sterlings lost a child, but no one looked for her. They urged Vanessa to have another boy. That same year, Ethan started to recover. When he stumbled through his first “Mama,” Vanessa remembered me. When he said “Dada,” the family rejoiced, and she forgot me forever. Vanessa’s sister—my biological aunt—found me by accident in an orphanage. She brought me to Vanessa’s door, demanding answers. When the door opened, Vanessa was holding Ethan’s hand. I was four. I vaguely remember the beautiful woman looking down at me. She sneered at her sister. “This is your child? Look at her. Thin as a monkey. No fortune in her face.” My aunt was furious. They fought. When my aunt mentioned the “stolen” girl, Vanessa snapped. The unspoken truth was buried under Vanessa’s cruel words. She stared into my eyes and said, word by word: “You are a short-lived ghost. A curse.” I shivered. Even in the orphanage, cold and hungry, I never felt this cold. My aunt slapped her and took me away. She told everyone I was her daughter. She adopted me. That year, Vanessa finally thought of her lost daughter. She checked the orphanage records. Coincidentally, another girl the same age arrived the day I was abandoned. Vanessa thought it was me. She adopted her. She announced she found her biological daughter. That child became Chloe. With a son and a daughter, both healthy, Vanessa secured her place in the Sterling family. She lived a perfect life. I became my aunt’s daughter. Until my aunt and her husband died in an accident, leaving me a massive inheritance and entrusting me to Grandma. Grandma died soon after. My guardianship fell to my only living relative. Vanessa. I circled back to her. But this time, I had to call her Aunt. And Vanessa’s curse came true. I died young. A short-lived ghost.

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I was secretly dating my roommate, the campus heartthrob, Liam. But then, he fell in love at first sight with my sister. He deleted my contact info without hesitation and warned me coldly: “I’m not gay, and I never liked you. You were just a pastime. Don’t take it seriously.” Afraid I would pester him, he even introduced me to his straight best friend, Tanner. He casually suggested I try to turn Tanner. But I didn’t seem to try very hard… and he turned on his own. That day, Liam caught us kissing and punched Tanner like a madman. “You said you didn’t like guys, that’s why I felt safe introducing you to him.” “How dare you kiss my person?!” 1 Inside the basketball court. As the final whistle blew, I walked towards Liam with an iced passion fruit juice in hand. But the scene before me made me stop. My sister, Jenna, had already run up to Liam with water. Liam took it, smiling as he pressed the cold bottle against her cheek. “Cool?” “Mmhmm! But this is for you to drink.” “You must be thirsty after playing.” Liam’s eyes were full of indulgence as he chuckled: “You cooling down is more important. Don’t get heatstroke.” My sister’s face turned redder than before. She turned her head shyly and saw me. She took Liam’s hand and walked over to me. Smiling, she introduced us: “Liam, this is my brother.” “Bro, this is my boyfriend, Liam.” Our eyes met. Liam frowned almost imperceptibly. His gaze on me was cold. Knowing him for so long, it wasn’t hard to understand his meaning: He was warning me not to expose our relationship right now. A sense of powerlessness pressed heavily on my chest. I smiled faintly. “Hello.” He nodded indifferently, his attitude cold. Jenna noticed the cup in my hand and made a confused sound. “Bro, aren’t you allergic to passion fruit?” “Who is that for?” My hand tightened around the cup, and I instinctively looked at Liam. But he just glanced at it and looked away, as if it had nothing to do with him. Jenna caught this. Her gaze darted hesitantly between us. “Bro… why are you looking at Liam…?” Just as the atmosphere turned tense, the passion fruit juice was snatched from my hand. It was Tanner, Liam’s teammate. Also the heartthrob of the Computer Science department. He opened the bottle and took a swig. “I asked him to bring it for me.” He gave Liam a mocking look and walked away. He didn’t even spare a glance for me, still standing there in a daze. Jenna was visibly relieved. But the smile on her lips became a bit stiff. “By the way, Liam, my brother is different from ordinary guys.” He raised an eyebrow. “How so?” Jenna’s cheerful tone sounded a bit harsh at this moment. She said: “My brother, he’s gay.” “Do you know what that means?” “It means he could potentially steal you from me!” My hand hanging by my side clenched involuntarily. I looked at Jenna immediately. But the next second, she laughed happily. “Just kidding! My brother definitely wouldn’t steal my boyfriend.” Liam never looked at me from start to finish. He just smiled casually at Jenna. “I’m straight.” “That hypothesis will never stand.” In the humid air, the feeling of suffocation was amplified infinitely. I moved my lips. “Jenna, that joke isn’t funny.” She smiled and didn’t reply. 2 Liam didn’t return to the dorm until 9 PM. It was a two-person apartment, but most of the time, I was alone. When Liam brought up ending our relationship, I wasn’t surprised at all. “Okay.” I nodded. Liam paused for a second, seemingly not expecting me to be so decisive. He looked at me silently. After a long time, he spoke lightly. “Josh, I have two conditions.” I looked at the man leaning against the door frame, my tone calm. “Go ahead.” “I don’t want your sister to know about what happened between us.” “After all, I never liked you. I’ve never been gay. You were just a pastime.” He paused, lowering his head and curling his lips meaninglessly. “Second, after we break it off, you can’t pester me.” “Josh.” “This is the first time I’ve liked someone so much. Don’t be a stumbling block.” 3 I knew why he said that. One day, shortly after Liam and I got together. When we returned to the dorm at night, he pinned me on the bed and kissed me. I saw a lipstick mark on his collar. “Wai… wait.” I endured the heat burning my ears. I turned my head to stop him. “Hmm?” Liam wasn’t satisfied. He chased after me, pecking at the corner of my mouth. “Not letting me kiss?” I looked at his collar and asked somewhat blankly: “Why is there a lipstick mark here?” He glanced at it and looked away indifferently. Kissing my lips densely, he explained casually: “Went to a club tonight. Someone probably brushed against me.” “I didn’t notice.” My heart, which had just risen, settled down a bit. I lifted my chin and kissed him actively. I said gently, “Then be careful to keep your distance in the future, okay? Don’t let people get lipstick on you again.” Liam stopped kissing me. He stood up from over me, scrutinizing me from above. “Josh, you’re crossing the line.” In the moonlight, the man’s brow was colder and more distant than the night. I froze for a second, my limbs turning cold involuntarily. But I still asked unwillingly: “Aren’t we dating?” “Why… is saying something like that considered crossing the line?” Liam lit a cigarette. Hearing this, he bit the cigarette and smiled absurdly. “You insist we’re dating—” He paused and nodded slightly. “That’s fine.” “But I don’t like being restrained. I know my limits.” Smoke dispersed between us. The distance radiating from Liam, keeping strangers away, was fully revealed at this moment. “Last point, I don’t want anyone to know about our relationship.” “Can you accept that?” He looked at me and smiled lightly. “It doesn’t matter to me whether we date or not.” I thought, he was the first person I liked so much. At that time, just thinking about separating from him felt like dying. So, I endured my red eyes and stood up. Walked over and hugged his waist. My voice passed through my dry throat. After a long while, I trembled: “Okay…” “Liam, I like you…” He gave a “hmm” and bit my ear intimately. His volume was extremely low. “I know.” But it was strange. After that day, I was still clingy with Liam. But unconsciously, I prepared an exit. Letting the love drain away bit by bit. 4 My thoughts returned to the present. Liam’s words “Don’t be a stumbling block” still echoed in my ears. I came back to reality, my expression still calm. “Okay.” “Liam, let’s part on good terms.” “I won’t bother you again.” He stared at me, unresponsive to my words. A moment later, he spoke in a tone colder than before: “Josh, I hope you do what you say.” Liam turned and left after dropping that sentence. “I won’t be back to sleep tonight.” I hurriedly called out to him. “Liam!” The man stopped. A very light sneer came over. “What?” My tone became much more serious. “Jenna hasn’t dated before. Don’t hurt her.” “After you get together with her, don’t be ambiguous with others like before.” “She’ll be sad.” I didn’t say the rest. Because I had tried that feeling. It was so uncomfortable it felt like dying. After a few seconds of silence, Liam slowly turned around. He hooked his lips and chuckled. “What do you mean?” “Josh, do you think I messed around when I was with you?” I turned my head away, physically and mentally exhausted to the extreme. Too tired to deal with him. I just said: “You can go.” The next second, rapid footsteps sounded behind me. Liam grabbed my wrist and slammed me against the door. I groaned in pain. He was 6’3″, four inches taller than me. Even slightly hunched, he was imposing. He slammed his hand heavily on the door panel beside my ear, making my eardrum ache. The hostility around him was impossible to ignore. “Listen carefully, I’ll only say this once. As of now.” “Except for you, I haven’t kissed anyone or slept with anyone.”

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The whole scheme was my arch-nemesis’s idea: first, he got dumped by my best friend. Then, he immediately sent his impossibly gorgeous best mate to try and seduce me. Alistair—the mate—had actually snickered when the plan was hatched. “Hooking her will be easier than walking the dog,” he’d said, ice in his voice. Later, of course. A scandalous chat log would leak between the two campus legends: Alistair: Dude, maybe we should just go kneel outside her dorm together? Brooks: Great idea, man. The wounded dog act? They’ll fall for it. The entire student body would follow the drama like it was a premium Netflix series. And I was the unsuspecting lead. 1 Brooks Coleman. The campus icon at Crestwood University. And my arch-nemesis since we were kids. Our entire lives have been a nonstop battle of wits. I’ve practically memorized The Art of War just to keep up with him. But this time, the jerk had truly dug himself into a pit he couldn’t climb out of. Because, the idiot had gone and fallen hopelessly, irrevocably in love with my best friend, Harper. Right now, Harper was slumped over, staring miserably at her phone, trying to craft a reply to her pathetic suitor. The contact ID, BrooksCrestwood01, looked perfectly generic. I couldn’t resist leaning over. “Brooks is so damn pretentious. It’s bad enough his handle includes the university name, but ‘01’? What is he, the number one loser?” Harper reached out, twirling a strand of my hair around her finger, then gently pinching my cheek. “Honey, who said that was the year he was born?” I immediately got it. My face flamed a furious red. Just then, Harper’s phone vibrated with a new voice message from Brooks. She tapped play. “Baby, do you want me to bring you an iced green tea? Extra sweet, just the way you like it.” Ugh. I practically gagged. That was Brooks. The guy whose words were usually laced with arsenic, who’d rather choke on his own tongue than say anything nice to me. Now he was using baby talk for Harper? I clung to Harper’s arm, rubbing my cheek against her shoulder. “Promise me you’re not going to fall for this massive tool.” Harper smelled like high-end vanilla body mist, but her tone was cool as ice. “Don’t worry. I’m about to dump him.” She sighed dramatically. “His specs are top-tier, sure. Perfect jawline, legs for days, solid eight-pack, and money to burn. But his software system? Total fail. He’s all looks and zero game.” She paused, swallowing hard, a complicated look crossing her face. “Besides,” she finished with a disgusted wave of her hand, “he was just too… polished. Like he was modeling in a cologne ad instead of kissing me.” I had to suppress a shiver of pure, unadulterated disgust. Harper, seeing my face, cleared her throat and gave a solemn nod. “It’s mostly for you, Ev. I couldn’t possibly consort with him. We’re in this together.” That’s more like it. Harper’s fingers flew across the screen, typing her devastating reply. “Sorry, Brooks. I have a new crush.” The text box at the top of the screen blinked madly: BrooksCrestwood01 is typing… BrooksCrestwood01 is typing… A minute later, a voice message popped up. His voice sounded thin and defeated. “And this… crush… what does he like to drink?” 2 I laughed until my stomach ached. Brooks Coleman, the arrogant bastard, was officially a simp. The next second, I threw my arm around Harper’s neck and kissed her cheek, snapping a quick selfie. Then, I unblocked Brooks from the small prison I’d put him in. I sent him the photo. The caption was short and sweet: “Could you stop harassing my woman?” In less than three seconds, my phone was ringing—a frantic video call from Brooks. I hit accept. “What is Harper to you?” His voice was glacier-level furious. “Literal meaning, my woman. Oh, and for the record, I prefer the peach white tea, less ice.” I could hear his heavy, ragged breathing through the speaker. “Sydney Maxwell! Do you even know who you like? Guys? Girls? Do you have any idea what you want?” I didn’t even get a chance to fire back. His mouth opened, and the insults poured out like a verbal machine gun. “When you were three, you liked that kid Gavin from down the street. He said he didn’t like you, and you gave him two black eyes!” “In elementary school, you crushed on the student council president. His Xbox handle was ‘StormRider,’ so you changed yours to ‘StormChaserBabe.’ Seriously?!” “In middle school, you got obsessed with that quiet guy in the ASL club. You signed your confession like you were casting a spell. He looked confused, and you thought he was shy! You dated for a month until you learned enough sign language to realize he was rejecting you in increasingly creative ways every single day!” “High school, that long-distance gamer jerk—you blew your college fund on his World of Warcraft gear and then had to beg me for lunch money—” That still made my blood boil. “Which you didn’t lend me, by the way!” He let out a short, cold laugh. “Not only did I not lend it to you, I immediately told your mother, too.” My facial muscles were twitching with rage. “Brooks Coleman, you absolute monster! I’m finding out about this now?!” “Hmph. Good.” Game on. “Fine. I’ll tell you the truth. Harper is my best friend. And I told her to mess with you. She slept with you, found you boring, and decided to dump you.” I took a deep breath, delivering the ultimate knockout blow. “And, by the way? She said you were a disaster in bed.” Brooks’s voice instantly turned tearful, full of genuine, wounded outrage. “She promised she wouldn’t tell anyone! And a few seconds doesn’t count! It was a whole situation!” “…” Amidst my hysterical, victorious cackle, he hung up. Harper looked at me, doubled over in laughter, and offered a shrug. “Well, he admitted it himself. Though, to be fair, later on he was actually—” She caught my death glare and quickly corrected herself. “He was totally average. Completely unremarkable.” 3 Having thoroughly infuriated Brooks, I was in a fantastic mood. I got back to my dorm room, ready for an evening of uninterrupted bliss, when I saw my roommate, Cara, practically shaking her bed frame with laughter while scrolling through her phone. “What’s so funny?” I asked, intrigued. Cara shoved her screen at me. “Look! Your little frenemy, Brooks Coleman, Crestwood’s star quarterback, got secretly filmed drinking his sorrows away last night. It’s got a million likes already.” I remembered how close our high school scores had been. Both our families, dear old friends, had gathered to discuss college applications. It had been sickeningly harmonious. “Why don’t you both apply to Crestwood? You’ve grown up together, it’d be nice to have someone to look out for each other.” Brooks and I sat on the couch, two perfect, obedient children. Brooks, putting on his best act: “That sounds great, Mrs. Maxwell. I’ll listen to you.” Me, smiling my sweetest: “What a wonderful idea, Mr. Coleman. I was thinking the same thing.” The moment we were alone in his bedroom, we both immediately rolled our eyes, the mutual disdain palpable. We settled it with a vicious game of Rock, Paper, Scissors. He won. Brooks went to Crestwood. I went to Eastwood University. 4 Now, I stared at the phone screen. It was clearly a sneaky, low-angle shot. Brooks was the focus, his face blurry and heartbroken. The man sitting opposite him was only a silhouette. But just looking at the broad shoulders and narrow waist, I knew he was an absolute specimen. The background looked like a dive bar just off campus, the table littered with empty whiskey glasses and beer bottles. Brooks was glassy-eyed, his nose red, giving total broken boi vibes. “I hate her, man. I really do. I despise that woman.” The man across from him idly swirled the liquid in his glass. “Oh? Done with the simping?” Brooks waved a wobbly hand. “I’m not talking about Harper! I’m talking about my enemy! We grew up together. I have never met a worse person in my entire life.” The other man seemed to perk up. “Your childhood friend? What exactly did she do?” Brooks started a theatrical, tearful list of my crimes. “When I was one, she dumped my entire can of powdered formula on the carpet when my mom wasn’t looking.” “When I was three, she convinced a bunch of kids to blow up the toilet in the backyard shed, and I got covered in… stuff!” The man across from him winced. “That’s disgusting. Why didn’t you run away faster?” Brooks took a desperate swig of his drink, eyes blazing. “Because she told me there was treasure in there!” The man’s shoulders started shaking with silent laughter. “And now, she sends her friend to steal my girl and completely tarnish the body I was so proud of…” Brooks got more and more emotional, practically sobbing into his glass. The man across from him picked up a bottle to pour a refill. My eyes, however, were instantly drawn to the hand holding the bottle. It was pale, long, and artistically bony. Strong, but perfectly sculpted. The most incredible part was the faint pink flush on the knuckles. As a certified hand-fetishist, I instantly lost my grip on reality. Unfortunately, the video cut out right there. I glanced at the comments section. “Is the jock trying to sell us something? Take my money!” “A man’s tears are the best kind of emotional lubrication.” “Which queen broke this one?!” “Asking for the cute guy’s Instagram across the table!” “Girl above, the jock is offering you his heart, and you want the spare tire?!” The comment section had officially lost its mind. And so had Harper. “Ev,” she squealed, “Brooks crying is kinda hot. I might have to betray you for a little eye candy.” I was just about to tell her to pull herself together. “I think I found a use for that little leather crop I just bought, hehe.” “…” He took my phone, his long fingers moving quickly to type in his handle. After I sent a friend request, he handed the phone back. “I’ll send you the money back as soon as my phone charges in my room.” “No worries, take your time.” “Thanks.” He gave me a quick wave and walked off, holding his bag of chips. I immediately reported back to Harper. Harper was ecstatic. “Is this what they mean by true, fate-dictated love? I want that kind of highway-robbery romance!” The next second, my phone vibrated. A bank transfer notification. The handsome guy had already paid me back. I quickly sent a message: “Hey there, I’m Sydney.” His reply was instantaneous, short, and powerful: “Alistair.” 5 The night I followed Alistair on instagram, my dreams were the color of bubblegum pink. In the dream, those perfectly sculpted, bony hands were feeding me a ripe strawberry. Just as I leaned in for a bite, the handsome face suddenly morphed into Brooks. He smirked down at me. “Good, Syd? I washed it in the communal sink.” I woke up with a gasp, horrified. Gross. It was a terrible omen. To chase the nightmare away, I sent Alistair a cheerful “Good Morning” emoji right away. Less than two minutes later, Alistair replied with a photo. It was a perfectly plated breakfast: whole-grain toast, a sunny-side-up egg, and a glass of warm milk. The caption: “Morning. Just finished my run. Quick breakfast then off to class.” See? This is what a high-value man looks like. Brooks, that smug jerk, was probably still in bed, drooling on his pillow and grinding his teeth. Just as I was about to reply, Alistair messaged again. “I heard the legendary sandwiches at your North Dining Hall are amazing. I’ve always wanted to try them, but I don’t have a meal card for Eastwood.” Was that subtle? No, that was a straight-up invitation. I practically levitated out of bed, typing furiously. “I have one! I’m heading to North Hall anyway. I’ll treat you!” Alistair instantly replied: “Oh, I couldn’t ask you to do that. You just paid me back yesterday, and now I’m asking you to buy me breakfast?” “It’s nothing, we’re friends!” “Well, then… meet you at the North Hall entrance?” “See you there!” I threw my phone down and bolted to the bathroom to wash my hair and put on makeup. Harper was woken by the commotion and poked her rooster-head out from her bed curtain. “Syd, are you in heat this early?” I hummed a tune while applying mascara. “You wouldn’t understand. This is the call of love.” Harper rolled her eyes and mumbled, “Be careful it’s not the call of a con artist.” I didn’t care if it was a con. If he was that handsome, I was ready to be played.

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They said the girl Sebastian was after this time had a long-term boyfriend who was struggling financially. Sebastian didn’t care. He took what he wanted, consequences be damned. The girl fought like a cornered animal, refusing to yield. The night he finally had her, fireworks lit up the sky over the ocean, a celebration that lasted until dawn. The next day, a river of expensive jewelry flowed to her family’s doorstep as if it cost nothing. Mrs. Gable, our housekeeper, told me all this when she came to deliver fresh clothes to me at the psychiatric hospital. The words caught in my throat, and I coughed up a mouthful of blood before collapsing. When I woke up, Sebastian was standing by my hospital bed. It was the first time I’d seen him in six months. His voice was calm, almost detached, as he warned me. “Nina, if you promise not to cause her any trouble, I’ll let you come home. You can have everything that comes with being Mrs. Archer again.” Finally, I gave a small, defeated nod. Just before I passed out, I’d learned that my brother’s latest investment had failed, leaving him drowning in debt. It was Sebastian’s money that had kept his name from being blacklisted, that had saved him from total ruin. It was just an affair. For my brother, I would stop fighting. 1 The driver was taking me home when we were rear-ended. The car flipped onto its side. The driver was knocked out instantly, and I was severely injured. As the sirens wailed in the distance, I drifted back to consciousness for a fleeting moment. Even then, my first instinct was to fumble for my phone and call Sebastian. It rang for a long time before he finally answered. I swallowed the metallic tang of blood rising in my throat and managed to whisper, “Sebastian, I…” His voice was clipped with impatience. “Didn’t I already send the driver to get you? I told you, I’m busy. Nina, can you just be reasonable for once?” Suddenly, the line was filled with noise. And a familiar voice. A girl’s desperate scream tore through the receiver. “Sebastian, do whatever you want to me, but why did you have to hurt him!” Sebastian’s voice was smooth, but his words were laced with ice. “Sienna, I told you. If you dared to accept his proposal, I’d make sure he spent the rest of his life in a wheelchair.” So that was her name. Sienna. The fragile little flower he was protecting so fiercely. And I suddenly remembered why her scream sounded so familiar. It was the same sound of things shattering, the same sound I had made the first time I discovered Sebastian was cheating, when I had smashed everything I could get my hands on. Sebastian had a talent for driving people mad. On the other end of the line, Sienna was sobbing, begging him to spare her boyfriend. Just before I lost consciousness completely, I heard her plea change. “Please… be gentle…” Her cries morphed from furious curses into soft, broken moans. When I woke up again, Sebastian was sitting on a sofa not far from my bed, idly playing with his phone. He noticed me looking. He hesitated, then reached out as if to check my temperature. I turned my head away. My voice was a raw croak. “I’m fine.” A cold smirk touched his lips, and he retracted his hand without a second thought. “Nina, you just got out, and you’re already staging a car crash? Isn’t it time to stop?” My mind went blank. “I’ve told you many times, no one will ever threaten your position. You are my wife, Sebastian Archer’s only wife.” He leaned back, his voice dripping with condescension. “What do you gain from competing with some young girl who’s barely out of college? Getting yourself all banged up like this?” So that’s what he thought. That this was all a pathetic ploy for his attention. A game. I opened my mouth, but the words felt hollow and useless. “I’m sorry,” I whispered. “It won’t happen again.” I knew I had no right to argue. Not anymore. My submission clearly pleased him. My brother called later to tell me that Sebastian had already paid off next month’s installment on his debt. See? As long as I was invisible, as long as I knew my place, Sebastian would take care of everything. “If this is too painful for you, Nina, just leave him,” my brother said, his voice strained over the phone. “Divorce him. I’ll figure out the money.” My hand holding the phone started to ache. I’d heard what had happened. Everything our family owned had been seized and auctioned off. The cars, the houses—all gone overnight, and it still wasn’t enough to fill the hole. My brother had been beaten by debt collectors until he was spitting blood. It took only three days for him to go from our sprawling riverside mansion to a damp, dark basement apartment. They said that when Sebastian found him, my brother was curled up on a child’s bed, his eyes shut, his face pale, with dried blood on his lips. The worn blanket was too short to even cover his feet. A cup of instant ramen sat untouched on the floor beside him. We had lost everything. We had nowhere left to go. And now Sebastian was offering us cars, houses, and money. All I had to do was be blind. All I had to do was let him and his little flower have their perfect love story. In our situation, who was I to refuse? I forced a smile I didn’t feel. “It’s not painful. I just have to be blind. I can do that.” After I was discharged, I tried to be a model wife. I stopped asking where Sebastian was going or what he was spending. When he was drunk after a business dinner and needed a ride, I gave the driver Sienna’s number. When he said he was craving my homemade seafood chowder, I calmly called Sienna and had her deliver it. When he complained that his new custom-made cufflinks didn’t match any of his suits, I had Sienna contact his personal tailor. This went on for three months. Then, one day, Sebastian called me. It was so unusual I almost didn’t answer. He said he was coming home for dinner tonight. 2 After we ate, as I was mechanically laying out his suit for the next day, he grabbed me, pushing me down onto the bed. “Nina, you’ve been so good lately,” he murmured, his breath hot against my skin. “It’s almost not like you at all…” A trail of kisses fell across my face. The scent of gardenia, Sienna’s signature perfume, filled my senses, clinging to his skin, his clothes, everything. The room grew warmer, and the cloying fragrance intensified until I felt a violent wave of nausea rise in my throat. I forced it down. But as he moved over me, lost in the moment, he whispered her name. Sienna. My mind went white. My fingers clenched the pillow until my knuckles were bone-white. In the next second, a strength I didn’t know I possessed surged through me. I shoved him off. I scrambled to the bathroom and collapsed over the toilet, dry heaving. Sebastian followed me. The desire in his eyes vanished the moment he saw me. He leaned against the doorframe, a frown creasing his brow. His voice was laced with annoyance. “What’s wrong with you?” I couldn’t answer. The only sound was the wretched gagging that echoed in the small room. His patience wore thin. “Go to the hospital tomorrow and get it checked out,” he said, his voice cold. The sound of his car roaring away into the night stole any hope of sleep. I curled into a ball on the edge of the bed, trying to fight the sickness coiling in my stomach, but it was useless. I got up and started rummaging through the drawers, desperate for some kind of medication. Instead, tucked away in the back of a cabinet, my fingers brushed against a cheap pearl necklace, the metal clasp already tarnished and faded. The cold metal felt searing hot in my palm. I remembered the year Sebastian had nothing. We were twenty-two. To teach him a lesson, his family had cut him off completely, forcing him to start from the bottom. The rich young master who used to spend millions a month was suddenly earning a pittance, wearing cheap clothes, and living in a cramped employee dorm. It broke my heart to see him like that. I secretly gave him half of my allowance. Under the moonlight, he’d held me, his voice thick with emotion. “Nina, you’re so good to me.” To buy me a birthday present, he took on every part-time job he could find, working until he was dizzy with exhaustion. When he finally handed me the pearl necklace, his face was flushed. “The quality of these pearls can’t compare to the ones in your closet… Nina, if you don’t like it, you can just say so…” I didn’t say anything. I simply took off the brand-new designer necklace I was wearing and put on his. I wore that cheap string of pearls for years. It became his get-out-of-jail-free card, a reminder of a time when his love felt real. Snapping out of the memory, I walked to the balcony, the necklace clutched in my hand. With a single, decisive motion, I flung it into the night. It landed somewhere in the flowerbeds below, swallowed by the darkness. Two months later, an unexpected guest appeared at my door. Sienna. She was dressed in the latest chic designer suit, an expensive watch on her wrist. The earrings she wore were the very ones Sebastian had paid a fortune for at an auction a few weeks ago. I knew then that she had accepted his obsessive, possessive love. And like so many women before her, she had come to tell me to get out of the way. “He doesn’t love you anymore. There’s no point in you holding onto this position.” She looked me up and down, a smug smile on her face. “And I need the title of Mrs. Archer to wash away the stain of being the other woman.” But now, I needed that title too. All I had left was my brother. I could give up anything else, but not this. When I didn’t respond, a flash of hatred crossed her face. She slammed her hand on the table and stood up. “Nina, why couldn’t you just control your husband? Why did you let him drive me and my boyfriend to a dead end?” Her voice rose to a hysterical pitch. “I’m like this because of you! Because you’re pathetic! It’s all your fault!” “If I can’t be happy, then you and Sebastian, the two people who ruined my life, don’t deserve to be happy either!” She lunged at me, throwing her entire weight onto me. My hip slammed into the sharp, metal-edged corner of the dining table. The pain was so intense it stole my breath. I tried to push her off, but before I could even exert any force, she threw herself backward, crashing to the floor and taking the plates and cutlery with her. I turned just in time to see her clutching her stomach, a crimson stain rapidly spreading across the fabric of her dress. She was… pregnant? Mrs. Gable’s screams echoed in my ears as Sebastian’s frantic shouts came from the entryway. The next second, a sharp, vicious slap struck my face. The force was so great I could taste blood. “Nina!” he roared, his face a mask of fury. “I thought bringing you home meant you’d finally learned your lesson. I can’t believe you’re still the same manipulative, spiteful person you’ve always been!” A bitter, acidic feeling rose in my throat, thick with the taste of blood. My voice was a hoarse whisper. “I didn’t push her…” He didn’t listen. He scooped Sienna into his arms and ran out the door. The man who was always unflappable, even at the negotiation table, was trembling. A week later, my brother called. “Nina, can you ask Sebastian why he suddenly unlinked his card from my repayment plan? If it’s too much trouble, then just… forget it.” 3 I mumbled a quiet “okay,” knowing how proud my brother was. He would never have called me if he wasn’t completely desperate. When I called Sebastian, he answered almost immediately, as if he’d been waiting for my call. “What card? Oh… that one. I thought it had been compromised, so I unlinked it. Is there a problem?” His tone was casual, but his words were a hammer blow to my heart. My hands twisted the hem of my shirt. I forced myself to speak. “But… my brother’s payment is due. Sebastian… can’t you just… care about me again, just this once?” The old nickname I used for him felt foreign on my tongue. The line went silent on his end. After a moment of rustling, a different voice came on. It was Sienna. “Nina, don’t you know the company is tight on cash right now? You and your brother are like two bottomless pits. No matter how much money he gives you, it’s never enough. You’re going to drag him down.” Tight on cash… This morning’s headline flashed in my mind. “CEO SEBASTIAN ARCHER BUYS LOVER MULTI-MILLION DOLLAR MANSION AND LUXURY CARS!” So that was why they were tight on cash. An endless bitterness spread across my tongue, a swarm of tiny insects gnawing at me from the inside out. “Sebastian has put me in charge of this,” Sienna continued, her voice dripping with satisfaction. “If you can manage to please me, he’ll naturally take care of your brother’s debt.” I didn’t hesitate. “Okay.” “I’ll text you an address. Come see me tomorrow, and I’ll tell you what to do.” I never imagined the address she sent would be my childhood home. Standing outside, looking at the familiar walls, felt like stepping into another lifetime. The peach tree we had planted in the yard was in full bloom. I remembered planting it with Sebastian. He had asked me, “Do you know the language of the peach blossom?” I shook my head. He leaned in, his lips brushing my ear, his hot breath sending shivers down my spine. “It means, ‘I am your love’s willing captive.’” A spring breeze rustled the leaves, pulling me back to the present. I gave a bitter, self-mocking smile. I walked into the yard. Through the floor-to-ceiling windows, the sun illuminated the furniture inside, casting a warm glow through the white sheer curtains. And I saw them. Two bodies, tangled together on the chaise lounge my mother had loved more than anything. Sebastian’s breathing was heavy, his voice a low murmur of seduction and warning. “Alright, but you promised you wouldn’t go too far.” Sienna laughed, pushing playfully at his shoulder. “You gave me the house. Why do you still care so much what I do in it?” Gave her the house? I lost control. I stormed inside. “You really gave her this house?” Sebastian sat up, slowly draping a robe over his shoulders. “Yes. The paperwork is being processed.” His words buzzed in my ears. I flew at him like a madwoman, my fists pounding against his chest. “Why would you give it to her! You promised me! You promised that if I behaved, you would give this house back to me!” “Sebastian, why her? Why!” He grabbed my flailing wrists and shoved me hard onto the sofa. It was soft, but the impact sent a dull, throbbing pain through my abdomen. “She lost a child. This house is my compensation to her,” he said, his voice devoid of emotion. “If you had been the one to lose a child that day, I would have compensated you too.” “And Nina,” he added, his eyes cold. “Don’t forget why you’re here today.” In that instant, I forgot how to cry, how to scream, how to hate. By the time my senses returned, Sienna was dressed. “Nina, I haven’t really decided how to punish you,” she said, looking down at me. “Why don’t you… get on your knees and beg me.” Her condescending gaze ignited a fire of humiliation inside me. But I knew I couldn’t refuse. The room fell silent. Then, there was a soft thud. It wasn’t the sound of my knees hitting the floor. It was the sound of my spine, straight for twenty-six years, finally shattering. Sienna smiled. “I don’t have all day to sit around with you. This is your house, you should know where the security cameras are. If I check the footage later and I don’t see you kneeling, well… I’m afraid I won’t be able to help your brother.” With that, she took Sebastian’s arm, and they left. The pain in my abdomen grew worse. It was so bad I couldn’t stand up straight. Every time I tried to rise, to ease the cramping, the security camera in the corner would twitch, a silent reminder from the person watching on the other end. If I ran, if I stood up, my brother was finished. As night fell, I felt a sudden warmth spread between my legs. In the faint moonlight, I saw that my pants were soaked in blood. Terrified, I called my brother. I was sobbing, telling him I thought I was dying, that I was bleeding so much. He came. He was still wearing his work uniform. He scooped me into his trembling arms and ran towards the ambulance. “Nina, don’t sleep! Open your eyes and look at me!” “Nina! Stay awake!” Just before they pushed me into the operating room, my vision blurred, but I saw him. Sebastian. It was the first time since we were married that I had ever seen him look so panicked. The man who was always meticulously put together, down to the last hair on his head, was so frantic he had put his jacket on inside out. 4 The moment the operating room doors swung shut, Marcus slowly turned his gaze to Sebastian, who was still reeling from the shock. “Sebastian! What have you done?!” “I told you, if you didn’t love her anymore, you should have let her go! We would have paid the money back! Why would you do this to Nina?!” “Are you happy now?! Are you satisfied, now that you’ve broken her?!” Marcus’s fist connected hard with Sebastian’s jaw. Sebastian didn’t fight back. He just kept asking, his voice hollow, “What’s wrong with her? What happened to her?” He had seen all the blood. In all the years he’d known Nina, he had never seen her so hurt. Marcus didn’t know what was wrong either. In that instant, guilt and self-loathing washed over him. If he hadn’t failed, if he’d just been content with the money and assets he had, Nina would never have had to endure any of this. She could have remained the proud, untouchable princess she was meant to be. She would have had the strength to walk away from Sebastian. His clenched fist went slack. In that moment, Marcus realized that he was just as much to blame for all of this. “Family of Nina Archer? Is the family of Nina Archer here?” The operating room doors opened. Sebastian, snapping out of his daze, started to move forward, but Marcus shoved him violently aside. “I am. I’m her brother.” “I’m… her husband…” Sebastian mumbled. The nurse shot Sebastian a look of pure contempt. “You’re her husband? Don’t you have any common sense? Don’t you know a pregnant woman needs to be kept calm and free from stress?” “She suffered a severe blow to her abdomen, and combined with extreme psychological distress and emotional volatility… this child can’t be saved. We need to perform a D&C.” “Here is the surgery consent form. Someone needs to sign it before we can proceed.”

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When I received my $1,000 year-end bonus, I was having dinner with the heads of the company’s 120 most important partners. When they learned that I, the person providing all services to them, only got this much, the atmosphere at the table became very subtle. Meanwhile, my colleagues were flooding the group chat with excitement over their $20,000 bonuses. I finished that meal calmly. Seven days later, my contract expired, and I left gracefully. My boss’s wailing almost burst through the phone: “Why! Why did they all pull their investments!” Chapter 1 Seven days before my contract expired. The dinner was held at “The Grand Hyatt” in the city center. The light of the crystal chandelier scattered like crushed diamonds on every well-dressed face. Sitting here were the heads of 120 partners who determined 90% of “Apex Solutions’” revenue lifeline. And the person responsible for maintaining relationships with all 120 clients was me, Celine. I was raising my glass, navigating effortlessly between tables, exchanging pleasantries with every familiar CEO. Many of them had dealt with me since my first year. Our relationship had long transcended simple vendor-client dynamics. “Celine, for our group’s new project next year, it has to be you. I don’t trust anyone else.” Mr. Warner, the Procurement Director of a well-known group, patted my shoulder, his tone sincere. I smiled and nodded: “Rest assured, Mr. Warner. As long as I’m here, your business is my business.” Just then, the phone in my pocket vibrated like crazy. I excused myself to the restroom, leaned against a quiet corner in the hallway, and tapped the screen. It was the company’s Slack channel, currently flooded with festive red notifications. “Thanks Mr. Sterling! Thanks Apex! $20,000 bonus received! Let’s create glory again next year!” The speaker was Leo, my colleague, whose main job was organizing my project reports and putting his name on them. “Wow! Leo is awesome! I got $20k too!” “Me too! The company is amazing this year!” “Mr. Sterling is generous! Hard work pays off!” … Screenshots of $20,000 transfers slapped my face silently, one after another. Expressionless, I swiped past these blinding reds and opened my banking app. A new transaction lay there quietly. Amount: $1,000.00. No random decimals, no blessings, just a cold round number, like a tip to dismiss an intern. I stared at that number for a full ten seconds. No anger, no disappointment. The last flicker of “expectation” in my heart was completely extinguished at this moment, leaving only numb ashes. I should have known. Returning to the main table, the atmosphere was still lively. I put my professional smile back on, as if nothing had happened. Mr. Warner next to me was clinking glasses with someone. His elbow accidentally bumped my phone. I instinctively lit up the screen to put it away, and the number 1,000 flashed in his peripheral vision. Mr. Warner’s brow furrowed imperceptibly. He put down his glass and asked seemingly casually: “Celine, your company did so well this year, the bonus must be substantial, right? Seeing your colleagues in the group chat so happy.” I met his gaze frankly and calmly spat out: “One thousand.” The noisy main table seemed to have been pressed mute. Within a second, everyone’s voice disappeared. Several CEOs nearby heard this number. Their expressions were colorful, from initial surprise to disbelief, and finally, all turned into a kind of knowing anger. They were all smart people. A core backbone who provided them with 24/7 service and maintained 90% of the company’s lifeline got only a measly one thousand dollars, while those office clerks whose names they couldn’t even recall got twenty thousand. The implication was self-evident. The atmosphere became awkward and subtle, but I acted like nothing happened. I raised my glass, stood up, and smiled decently at the silent table. “Thank you all for your support over the past year. This toast is to you. Cheers.” I drank it all in one gulp. The spicy liquid slid down my throat, seeming to burn away all the forbearance and fatigue of these years. I actively steered the topic to next year’s market planning, forcibly pulling the dinner back on track with my professionalism. But the thorn had been planted in everyone’s heart. No matter how I livened up the atmosphere, that subtle barrier lingered. Clients began to exchange glances frequently. There was sympathy, indignation, and a certain resolution in their eyes. The dinner ended hastily. Guests left one by one. Mr. Warner walked last. Passing by me, he stopped. Those eyes that had seen countless people looked deeply at me. He lowered his voice to a volume only we could hear: “Celine, you’ve been wronged. This place isn’t worth it. If you have any thoughts, contact me anytime.” Warmth surged in my heart. I nodded solemnly: “Thank you, Mr. Warner.” After seeing off the last guest, I returned to my empty home alone. Instead of opening the computer to handle work emails as usual, I made myself a cup of tea. I had no anger, nor sadness. When a person gives up on something completely, emotions become redundant luxuries. I opened the computer, didn’t look at the annoying work, but created a new document titled “Handover List.” I began to methodically list the process of each job, the basic information of each client, and the basic framework of each project. My mind was terrifyingly clear. Then, I looked at the calendar on the wall. A red circle highlighted the date seven days later, marked with two words: Contract Expires. My eyes were calm and firm, like a general about to press the nuclear button. Finally, I opened my phone and found the WeChat of a headhunter I added a month ago. He asked if I had any intention to jump ship. I replied “Stable for now.” Now, I deleted that sentence and typed: “We can talk now.” Chapter 2 Six days before contract expiration. When I walked into the office, an air of joy so thick it was almost sticky hit my face. Everyone’s face was beaming with the excitement of receiving a huge sum, discussing whether to travel to Europe or buy a new car. Leo, wearing a pair of brand-new custom leather shoes and carrying a luxury briefcase with a logo so big it was blinding, walked past me high-spiritedly. He deliberately stopped by my desk, placing the bag “casually” on the corner, complaining exaggeratedly: “Oh, impulse buying yesterday. This bag isn’t that good-looking anyway. Celine, what do you think?” I didn’t even look up, staring intently at the handover document on the screen, and replied lightly: “It’s okay.” Leo’s smile froze for a second, then he raised his voice again, shouting to colleagues around: “Bros, to celebrate our great harvest this year, afternoon tea is on me! Top tier, order whatever you want!” “Wow! Leo is generous!” “Thanks Leo!” A group of people surrounded Leo, ordering happily on their phones. Laughter turned the small office area into a market. From start to finish, no one asked me “What do you want to drink.” I was like a transparent person, automatically isolated from this celebration that had nothing to do with me. At 3 PM, the boss Mr. Sterling, with his signature beer belly, appeared in the office with a glowing face. “Colleagues, quiet down!” He clapped his hands. Everyone quieted down, looking at him with adoring eyes. “This year, our company has achieved unprecedented good results! This is inseparable from the hard work of everyone here!” His voice was loud like a bell. His gaze swept over Leo and other employees who received high bonuses, with an approving smile. “I always say, Apex never treats any striver badly! As long as you work hard, the company will see it! Next year, I hope everyone continues to work hard, and we’ll double the bonus again!” He passionately painted a big picture, but those shrewd eyes perfectly avoided my direction, as if by design. As if I, who brought 90% of the business to the company, did not belong to the ranks of “strivers.” After the speech, Sterling waved at me: “Celine, come to my office.” I stood up calmly and followed him. Closing the door, Sterling’s smile faded a bit, replaced by an earnest expression. “Celine,” he poured me a glass of water himself, “Don’t think too much about this year’s situation. I know your contribution is great, the company sees it all.” I held the water glass, silent, listening to his performance. “But you have to understand, your success relies largely on the company’s platform. Without the golden sign of Apex, how would those big clients know you? Although Leo and others are not as capable in business as you, they have put a lot of effort into internal coordination and process management. Even without credit, there is hard work.” He began his gaslighting speech, “Your bonus is a bit less, but this is the result of comprehensive consideration. You are still young, look long-term. Next year, as long as you maintain this year’s momentum, I guarantee your red packet will be the biggest one!” I nodded, showing just the right amount of gratitude and obedience: “I understand, Mr. Sterling. I will keep working hard.” Sterling was obviously very satisfied with my “sensibility” and “obedience.” He felt that this most useful old ox had been completely tamed by him. He patted my shoulder: “That’s right. Work hard, the company won’t treat you badly.” Walking out of the office, I heard snickers from Leo and a few colleagues in the pantry. “See that? Celine is destined to be an old ox. Doing the most work, getting the least money, and still obedient after being fed a pie by the boss.” “Exactly. Does she really think those clients recognize her? It’s all for our company’s face. Without the platform, she’s nothing.” “Deserved. Who asked her to be so capable, making us look useless.” I walked past the pantry expressionless, returning to my desk. Those malicious words, like the buzzing of flies, could no longer stir any waves in my heart. I opened an encrypted folder containing a 50-page document titled “Core Client Relationship Deep Maintenance Manual.” It recorded not only client contact information and contract details but also complex personnel relationships within each company, decision-makers’ personal preferences, psychological bottom lines in negotiations, and “hidden rules” like where their children went to school. This was the crystallization of my years of effort, the true lifeline maintaining these 120 clients. I calmly encrypted and packed the core part of this manual and uploaded it to my private cloud drive. After doing all this, I felt like a heavy shackle had been removed. At this moment, Sterling walked out of the office and announced high-spiritedly: “Good news everyone! We won another new project! The client specifically asked for our strongest team! Celine, this project is yours. Follow up long-term, strive to make it our benchmark for next year!” Everyone’s eyes focused on me, with jealousy and gloating. I looked up at Sterling’s determined face and, for the first time, rejected him directly. “Sorry, Mr. Sterling.” My voice was not loud, but unusually clear, “My labor contract expires in six days. I cannot guarantee the continuity of this project. For the sake of the client, please hire someone else.” The entire office went dead silent instantly. Chapter 3 Five days before contract expiration. The calm was broken by an urgent phone ring. The company’s largest and longest-partnered client—HuaSheng Group’s system suddenly had a major bug, causing their entire production line to stop. The technical department investigated urgently for two hours, helpless. As the nominal client contact, Leo was scolded bloody by HuaSheng’s technical director on the phone. Apart from saying “we are handling it,” he knew nothing. Finally, HuaSheng called Sterling’s mobile directly. The tone was icy, issuing an ultimatum: “Mr. Sterling, I don’t care about your internal problems. I name Celine to handle it. If it’s not solved within two hours, we will not only terminate cooperation but also sue for breach of contract!” Sterling’s face turned white instantly. HuaSheng’s orders accounted for nearly 20% of the company’s annual revenue. Losing them meant breaking a leg. Sweating profusely, he ignored his dignity and ran to my desk, his tone unprecedentedly humble: “Celine, Celine! Emergency! Quick, HuaSheng’s system has a problem, handle it immediately!” Everyone in the office watched this scene with complex eyes. I didn’t raise any conditions or put on airs, just calmly closed my notebook: “This is the last thing within my duties.” I put on my headphones and started connecting to HuaSheng’s server remotely. In the office, Sterling and a group of technicians surrounded me, daring not to breathe loudly. Leo stood in the outer circle, his face green and white, eyes full of resentment. On the screen, dense code scrolled rapidly. Relying on five years of experience maintaining the client’s system and the plan I wrote privately predicting potential loopholes during the last upgrade, I quickly located the root cause. It was an extremely hidden database interface conflict, a hidden danger left by an irregular operation by HuaSheng’s internal IT staff last time. The technical department couldn’t find this point because they didn’t understand the client’s entire system architecture. My hands flew over the keyboard, modifying code, restarting services, clearing caches… A series of operations flowed like water. An hour later, I took off my headphones and said to Sterling: “Solved.” Almost simultaneously, my phone rang. It was HuaSheng’s technical director personally. “Celine! Thank you so much! You are our savior! The production line has resumed!” He was relieved on the phone, then changed the subject, speaking meaningfully, “Sister, to be honest, a talent like you staying in a company like Apex is a waste. It’s not worth it.” I smiled: “You are too kind.” Crisis averted, Sterling breathed a sigh of relief. But his look at me was no longer grateful, but more fearful and dissatisfied. He realized that this employee he had always manipulated at will actually mastered power he couldn’t control. Seeing this, Leo immediately leaned over to Sterling, whispering poison: “Mr. Sterling, don’t you think this is strange? The tech department was clueless for half a day, and she fixed it as soon as she started. Did she hide a hand on purpose, just to squeeze the company at this time to negotiate terms with you?” These words hit Sterling right in the heart. He would rather believe employees were playing tricks than admit his management and judgment were wrong. He looked at me, his fear deeper. I couldn’t be bothered with their inner drama. Crisis handled, my task was done. I printed a document, walked to Sterling’s desk, and placed it gently. “Mr. Sterling, this is my work handover list. Please review it and designate a successor.” Sterling picked up the list and flipped through a few pages. It only listed the company names, standard contracts, and public contact information of the 120 clients. As for the maintenance manuals, key network maps, and communication skills that were truly core and relied on personal experience and relationships… None. It was a handover list that was procedurally perfect but practically worthless. Chapter 4 Four days before contract expiration. Sterling eventually designated Leo to take over my work. This might be a declaration of power, telling me: Look, your core work can be easily taken over by an employee I like. Holding that dry list like an imperial decree, Leo sat opposite me arrogantly. “Celine, let’s start. Tell me one by one, what special quirks each client has, what they like to hear, what they avoid. Make it clear.” His tone was not like handing over work, but interrogating a prisoner. I opened the list and pointed to the first client: “HuaSheng Group, Procurement Director Wang Jianhua, contact number 139xxxxxxxx. This is public information. Contract terms are here, special requirements are standardized in Annex 3. Next.” “Wait!” Leo interrupted me, “That’s it? Who wants to hear this! I want to hear the ‘hidden rules,’ things not on the document! Like Mr. Warner, what tea does he like? What to note when eating with him?” I raised my eyelids and looked at him calmly: “Sorry, my handover content is limited to standardized information recorded on the list belonging to company assets. As for my private friendship with Mr. Warner and my personal communication experience, that falls under my personal scope and is not within the handover obligation.” “You!” Leo turned red with anger, “You are uncooperative! Celine, don’t think you’re special just because you’re leaving! You are deliberately making things difficult for me!” His voice became sharp, particularly piercing in the quiet office. I leaned back in my chair, looked at him, and for the first time in front of everyone, showed undisguised aggression: “Is there any sentence in my handover document you don’t understand? Or, with your professional ability, you can’t understand these basic client materials?” One sentence poked Leo’s sore spot of incompetence. His face turned pale instantly, lips trembling, unable to refute a word. Colleagues around began to whisper. Some gloated at Leo’s embarrassment, thinking he usually bullied others and finally hit a wall; others thought I was too arrogant, daring to confront the “favorite” publicly just because I was leaving. Seeing the situation getting out of control, Sterling had to come out to smooth things over. “Alright, alright, we are all colleagues, talk nicely.” He cleared his throat, turned to me, and spoke in an elder’s tone, “Celine, be generous. Leo is also doing it for work. Just pass on your ‘experience.’ It’s all for the good of the company.” Looking at Sterling’s hypocritical face, I only found it funny. “Mr. Sterling,” I responded calmly, “Experience cannot be taught; it can only be accumulated personally through solving problems and communicating time and time again. My contractual obligation is to hand over work, not to open a years-long private training class for my successor. If Mr. Leo needs me to teach him hand-in-hand even basic client relationship breaking, I suggest the company re-evaluate whether he is competent for this position.” My words were like a sharp knife, not only cutting Leo’s face but also slicing off Sterling’s peacemaking attempts. Sterling’s face darkened completely. The office fell into a dead silence. In this solidified atmosphere, my phone vibrated lightly. I picked it up. It was a WeChat message from Mr. Warner. Opened it. It was an exquisitely made electronic offer from a new company I had never heard of, named “Value Co-Creation.” On the offer, my position was: Senior Partner. The salary column showed a number I had never imagined. I turned off the phone, looked up, met Sterling’s gloomy gaze, but felt unprecedented relief inside. I’m done with this mess.

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My ex-boyfriend is rooming with my brother. My brother cursed while Venmo-ing me living expenses. “Happy now? You’re only with me for my money!” Sebastian Sterling saw this and added two zeros to the amount. “Mine is longer than his. I can make you happier.” Sebastian thought my brother was my current boyfriend. He bet with others that a gold digger like me would come crawling back with just a wave of his hand. I knew he was up to no good. Sebastian gave me his Black Card. I rejected it. My brother gave me a “Buy 10 Get 5 Off” coupon. I took it. Sebastian gave me a carefully selected gift. I rejected it. My brother gave me a half-used pack of tissues. I took it. Sebastian panicked completely. “Is my money Monopoly money? Would it kill you to spend it?!” Chapter 1 My brother cursed as he transferred my living expenses. “Happy now? You’re only with me for my money!” I didn’t dare breathe, grinning like a sly fox on the other end of the phone, full of flattery. As soon as I received the money, I loaded it all onto my campus meal plan. I’ve been a big eater since I was little. The all-you-can-eat buffet downstairs from my apartment closed within a month; the owner ran away overnight without telling me. When stocking up for holidays, my parents took turns guarding my door. Bought snacks you don’t like? No problem, I’ll handle it. Leftovers? Put them down, I’m here. The greatest charm of a mature woman is solving problems. Mom says since I was born, the family has never had leftovers. When I graduated high school, Dad asked where I wanted to go. I immediately said I wanted to go to my brother’s university. My brother froze, then clutched his meal card like he was facing a formidable enemy. Bad news! Disaster approaching! I scrimped and saved every month just to treat my mouth well. But by the end of the month, I’d still be out of money for food. At times like this, I’d do some gig work that provided meals. My brother, worried about me running around day and night, gritted his teeth and transferred me $500 from his own allowance. As soon as the disaster relief funds arrived, I turned into his simp. Before I could flatter him more, two messages popped up on my phone. Another transfer notification appeared, adding two zeros after the five hundred. My ex-boyfriend’s message followed closely. [Mine is longer than his. I can make you happier.] Chapter 2 It was noisy on my brother’s end. Someone seemed to be calling his name outside the dorm. He threw his phone on the desk and went out. He forgot to hang up. On the other end, Sebastian’s voice rang out. Someone was jeering beside him. “She just broke up with you, Sebastian, and turned around to hook up with someone else. Heh.” “Sebastian drops $50k just like that. Too cheap for that fickle woman.” Sebastian laughed carelessly, eyes narrowing slightly, long fingers playing with his phone. “A woman like Holly… I just need to hook my finger, and I can pry her back.” I stared at the $50,000 that just hit my account, lost in thought. When I first came to college, I ate and ate, advertising various restaurants on my social media. Whether it was “Collect likes for discounts” or “Repost for free drinks.” Give me a benefit, and I’d bite the hook. Some said I looked like a “dining shill.” Rumors got wilder, saying I tricked men into taking me to specific restaurants to get kickbacks. I don’t know where Sebastian heard this. With a halo over his head, he descended from the sky to punish me, the villain. “Date me. I’ll treat you to dinner. How about it?” Heaven-sent relief food? That’s very kind. I nodded like a pounding garlic pestle and agreed immediately. Sebastian set various traps, planning to expose my true colors in public. He asked me to take him to dinner. That day, he dressed formally. Suit ironed flat, shoes polished bright. An outfit fit for any high-end occasion, yet I dragged him to the street food night market. Explosively spicy snail noodles. Super spicy duck necks. Fiery skewers. I ate until my face was red, turning to ask him: “Feels good, right?” Sebastian looked at me with his ass on fire. He tested me as long as I dragged him through the night market. In the end, between enforcing justice and saving his butt, Sebastian chose the latter. He broke up with me. My eating buddy was gone. I was sad for a long time. Later, one of his bros let it slip, and I found out the truth. The more I thought about it, the angrier I got. Son of a bitch. There’s always someone trying to bully honest, good women like us. I looked at the $50,000 with resentment. Is this some new humiliation play? Afraid of a trap, I cautiously returned the money to Sebastian. On the other end of the phone, the notification for the returned $50k rang. The messy dorm instantly fell into a deathly silence. My brother came back. He picked up his phone and said: “Holly, someone just gave me two ‘Spend $10 Get $5 Off’ coupons. Want them?” I take advantage when I see it. “Yes!” Sebastian silently picked up his phone and typed a message to me. [Want my Black Card?] Just as he hit send, a red exclamation mark popped up. [Message blocked.] My brother chatted with me while cleaning up trash. “I have half a pack of tissues left here.” “Want!” “Won a dollar off coupon from a soda cap.” “Hand it over.” “The cookies I bought went a bit stale.” “It’s fine, I don’t mind.” “Sebastian, no swinging from the ceiling fan!” “Oka… wait, what?” My brother gathered a box of junk for me. When I went to pick it up, I heard someone in the boys’ dorm had a hearty tug-of-war between his neck and the ceiling beam. I couldn’t help sighing. Youth is wild. The RA and school doctor surrounded Sebastian, asking about his health. Sebastian remained silent, head lowered. When he passed my brother, Gavin was still buried in conversation with me. “Don’t blab in front of my girlfriend. I don’t want her to know about our relationship.” I received the benefits and grinned greedily. “Don’t worry, I won’t let anyone know about us.” My brother was pursuing a senior who lived opposite my dorm. Knowing this, I chanted his praises in her ear daily like a monk reciting scriptures, boosting his presence. If the senior knew we were siblings, my praises would sound like self-promotion, zero credibility. Hearing this, Sebastian’s face changed colors. He looked at us with extremely complex eyes. “Gavin, you two… what is your relationship?” My brother answered honestly: “She’s my sister.” My brother took my dad’s last name; I took my mom’s. He didn’t know I knew Sebastian, so he didn’t explain further. Sebastian looked at me, then at my brother. He sneered, his tone turning sarcastic. “So, a ‘sister’.” He pulled a utility knife from his pocket, aiming at his wrist. “There seems to be a bug in my wrist, jumping around. I’ll pick it out.” The RA turned pale and roared: “That’s a fucking artery!” Chapter 3 My brother now had extra expenses for dating, on top of his own living costs. And because of me, he had to save some disaster relief funds every month. I felt a bit guilty. Just then, I saw an ad for day-labor housekeeping at a hotel. I signed up immediately. I wanted to scrape together some money to buy my brother the shoes he’d wanted for a long time. Knowing this, my brother was moved to tears, saying his little sister had grown up. I worked all day. When I clocked out, it was dark. Standing on the roadside, I called my brother: “It’s a bit remote here. Drive over and pick me up.” My brother said: “Find a place to wait a bit. I’m dropping off your sister-in-law first. I’ll get you in ten, fifteen minutes.” I said okay and waited by the road. A few minutes later, a black Porsche stopped in front of me. Window rolled down. I saw Sebastian’s face. He looked me up and down, then glanced at the hotel behind me. His brows furrowed slightly, the usual lazy smile fading. “Why are you here alone? Where’s Gavin?” Seeing Sebastian’s face, a nameless fire rose in my heart. Blame myself for being blinded by hunger back then, getting tricked by this venomous fox. My tone naturally carried resentment. “He went to see his girlfriend.” Sebastian seemed to laugh in anger. “So he just abandoned you?” I scratched my head. Felt weird, but not entirely wrong. I didn’t know how to answer, so I stood there like a log. “Get in. I’ll drive you back to school.” Sebastian opened the door. After getting in, I told my brother not to come; someone gave me a ride. Sitting in the passenger seat, I turned to look at Sebastian. Two buttons of his collar were undone, revealing a silver chain. The pendant glinted cold light, swaying with his movements. My eyes followed it down, stuck on his collarbone. “Why do this kind of thing?” Sebastian’s voice was cold. Listening closely, there was anger. I thought he meant my housekeeping job, despising my work again. “What do you rich people know? Who wants to do this if not for money?” Sebastian’s grip on the steering wheel tightened. He gritted his teeth: “Just for five hundred dollars?” “Yes! Just for five hundred dollars!” I answered righteously. Dirty and tiring, meeting all kinds of weirdos, but it pays well! And provides meals! Sebastian asked: “Then why didn’t you take what I gave you?” “Is my money Monopoly money? Would it kill you to spend it?!” I wanted it too! But my IQ took the high ground then. By the time I snapped out of it, the money was returned. Can’t say such spineless words now. I smiled breezily like a saint. “Because it’s inappropriate.” Sebastian closed his eyes in despair, voice light as a whisper. “Then is he appropriate?” My phone rang in my pocket. The ringtone drowned out his sentence. I answered. My brother’s voice came through. “Holly, are you at school? Who drove you?” I looked at Sebastian. He shook his head, signaling me not to say it was him. So I lied: “A colleague drove me. We were going the same way.” My brother asked me to text him when I got to the dorm. I agreed. Sebastian’s car stopped at the school gate. I thanked him and got out. Just as I was closing the door, I heard Sebastian ask hoarsely: “Holly, must you go down this path? What he can give you, I can give you too.” Give me what? Daily wages? Damn fox, always hitting my weak spot. Thinking of him badmouthing me in the dorm today, I got angry. I dropped a decisive sentence: “No need!” Back in the dorm, I checked my phone and saw Sebastian’s new post. [My life is ruined by a scumbag.] Me: “?” What now? Chapter 4 I pulled Sebastian off the blocklist, debating all night how to advise him to see a neurologist. He was acting weird tonight. I suspected hanging himself damaged his brain. Holding my phone, I dozed off. When I opened my eyes the next day, my screen was full of my brother’s SOS messages. [Sis, my roommate Sebastian is acting weird. I’m scared.] [Woke up today and saw him sitting by my bed, staring at me like a resentful widow. Scared me to death.] [Not only that. His eyes are weird, tone is weird, questions are weird.] [He asked what brand of body lotion and shampoo I use, and what clothes I like.] [I answered, and he got a bunch of matching items, wandering in front of me like a clone.] [So scary, Sis! What is he doing?!] I could feel his breakdown through the screen. Recalling Sebastian’s post last night, a bold guess formed. [Bro, are you close with Sebastian usually?] My brother paused, then listed things. [He rarely stayed in the dorm before. Just started recently.] [Oh, I brought him lunch once. His eyes got weird then, and he moved back the next day.] [I think I said ‘Good morning’ to him.] [I helped him bring in laundry.] [He saw my broad shoulders, narrow waist, and sexy body.] My brother listed items, getting more desperate. [Is that kid coveting my ass?] My mood became heavy and complex. Ex-boyfriend fell in love with my brother. God, is this a plot that should appear in a romance novel? Nothing more to say. I sighed. [Bro, go weld some iron underpants.] My brother didn’t dare stay in the dorm for a second. Grabbed his coat to run. Just one step out, Sebastian’s chilly voice sounded. “Gavin, where are you going?” That day, I saw my six-foot brother forced into a corner. Hiding in the bathroom, calling me, voice desperate and helpless. “These rich people don’t treat honest folks like humans! I have a girlfriend, yet he won’t let me go, asking where I’m going, with whom, doing what.” “I know I’m beautiful, but a gentleman pursues properly! Forcing a good man into prostitution is villainous! My heart only holds your sister-in-law. A married man can be killed but not insulted! I won’t yield to evil forces!” I made up my mind, slamming the table. “Bro! I will protect your happiness and your ass!”

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I had just claimed the prestigious Prima Award for dance, the culmination of two decades of brutal work. I was eight months pregnant, exhausted, and soaring. Then my husband told me I had to hand the title over to his Golden Girl. When I refused, Lachlan ordered me to dance on a stage riser he’d covered in sharp carpet tacks. The agonizing stabs pierced the soles of my feet. Blood mixed with my suddenly ruptured waters, streaming down my legs. I curled up, begging him to stop, but his voice was a sheet of ice. “You winning already upset Kinsley, and now you have the pregnancy, too. People shouldn’t be so greedy, Anya.” “Besides, you won’t need to dance anymore. You have me.” I lost the baby and, eventually, married another man. He came for me, on his knees, and in a terrifying fit of madness, broke his own leg with a glass vase. “If I pay you back my own leg, Anya, will you finally look at me?” 1 “Lachlan Mercer, are you out of your mind?” “I’m eight months pregnant! How can I dance on that?” My voice echoed, panicked and thin, in the cavernous, empty theater. Two of his security guys—thick, silent men—held my arms in a grip like steel vises. The stage lights were blinding, illuminating the dark, wooden percussion riser right in front of me, its surface studded with hundreds of sharp, silver tacks. Lachlan adjusted the cuff of his bespoke suit, slow and deliberate, and then gripped my chin. His tone was casual, as if discussing a slight change in the dinner menu. “The doctor said the baby is perfectly stable, Anya. Tell me, do I believe you, or do I believe a specialist in fetal medicine?” A sharp contraction seized my lower abdomen, a sudden, brutal pain that was becoming more frequent. Eight months of carrying our child had already pushed my body to its limit. The voice that once promised me forever now only delivered a bone-deep cold. Fear, thick and paralyzing, began to spread. I softened my tone, pleading. “Lach, please, I’m pregnant. Our baby is coming soon. Don’t do this to me.” But his face was immutable, the anger in his eyes frigid. “You winning the Prima already devastated Kinsley. Now you have the baby, too. You can’t be this greedy, Anya.” “You upset her. You’re going to apologize.” Kinsley Wells. Lachlan’s true north, the girl he’d cherished on a pedestal since high school. The one no amount of effort, no amount of success on my part, could ever measure up to. In that moment, a profound, gut-wrenching regret washed over me. I regretted loving Lachlan Mercer. My nose stung. Bitter tears, hot against the cold in the air, started to fall. “Lachlan, dance is all I have. If I can’t dance, I have nothing left.” He scoffed, a dry, cruel sound. “You’re still selfish. You’d even use our child as a bargaining chip for your career.” He wiped away a tear with a chillingly cold thumb. My body shivered violently at the contact. “But I can overlook it.” “You won’t need to dance anymore. You have me.” “Didn’t you always want a big wedding? I promise you, if you complete this dance, apologize to Kinsley, and do it right, I’ll give you the wedding. As soon as the baby is born, we’ll get married.” I was trembling, the abdominal pain intensifying. But it was Lachlan’s look of chilling possessiveness that truly suffocated me. The guards’ grip loosened. I tore free and grabbed the sleeve of his jacket. “Lachlan, I won’t dance. I surrender. I’ll take the baby and disappear. I’ll never show up in front of you or Kinsley again.” I clung to him, my voice ragged and broken. “Please, just let me go.” His expression darkened instantly. He ripped his sleeve from my grasp, the force sending me stumbling back, nearly pitching me onto the tacks. “Anya, what is this drama?!” His voice was a whip-crack, slicing through the air. “I’m offering you the wedding you wanted, and you’re still making a scene?” I stared at him, a choked, hysterical laugh caught in my throat. The wedding? Did he truly think I cared about a ceremony? “I don’t need your wedding.” I shook my head, tears mixing with cold sweat. “I just want my baby safe. I just want my legs.” “Enough!” He exploded, seizing the back of my neck and forcing me to look straight into his eyes. “Anya Reid, don’t push me!” “It’s just a few scratches on your feet. You’re not going to die.” He sneered. “You’re such a star, aren’t you? You used to get hurt all the time in training. Why the sudden delicacy?” His fingers clenched, the pressure making my vision swim, but I instinctively clamped my hands over my belly. Lachlan’s hand slid from my neck and clamped hard onto my wrist. A dark, unreadable emotion churned in his eyes. He flicked his gaze toward the guards. “Put her up there.” “No! Lachlan!” I fought, twisting backward, but the guards were too strong, dragging me forward by the arms. In my struggle, my calf brushed the edge of the riser. An immediate, searing pain shot up my leg. They tossed me like a broken doll toward the center of the wooden box. “Ah!” The instant my body contacted the surface, hundreds of tacks simultaneously impaled my palms, my knees, and my shins. The agony turned my vision red. I tried to curl up to shield my abdomen, but the slightest movement drove the pins deeper. Warm blood immediately saturated the thin fabric of my dancewear, spreading into sickening, dark stains on the wood. “Dance.” Lachlan stood just outside the spotlight, his voice laced with cruel anticipation. “You love it so much, don’t you?” I tried to push myself up, trembling, but my hands slipped the moment I lifted them from the tacks, throwing my balance. A tack plunged deep into the arch of my right foot. I threw my head back, a broken, involuntary sob tearing from my throat. That desperate movement put tremendous pressure on my belly. A sudden, sharp, twisting pain made me freeze. Something was terribly wrong. “The baby, Lachlan. Please, save the baby.” 2 I managed to look up, seeing blood now streaming down my inner thigh. A gush of amniotic fluid, already stained crimson, spread across the wooden surface. I could smell the metallic tang of blood, the scent of life—mine and the baby’s—ebbing away. Lachlan finally took a half step forward. The light cast harsh shadows on his sculpted features. I thought, hoped, his heart might soften. Instead, he spoke into his phone. “Kinsley? Are you watching the feed? She won’t ever dance again.” A tearing pain erupted in my abdomen. I convulsed, doubling over, my fingers clawing at the wooden surface, only to be pierced again by the tacks. The physical torment was eclipsed only by the realization: my suffering, my humiliation, was being offered up as a trophy to another woman. “Lachlan, the baby.” I trembled, weakly reaching out a bloody hand, my voice a barely audible whisper. “I think… I’m in labor.” “More of your theatrics?” Lachlan scoffed, his eyes sweeping disdainfully over my soaked clothes. “Anya, your acting skills truly have improved.” The side door of the theater swung open. Kinsley Wells glided in, her stiletto heels clicking sharply on the concrete floor. She wore a pristine white dress, radiating an artificial purity under the spotlights. “Lach, honey, I came to watch Anya dance!” Her overly sweet voice grated in the empty space. I writhed on the tacks, agony making me sweat profusely. My fingernails dug into the wood, immediately drawing more blood. Kinsley approached, then suddenly pressed a hand to her nose and gasped dramatically. “Oh my God, what is that smell?” She pretended to look down at my drenched skirt, her expression one of manufactured shock. “Anya, you didn’t… did you lose control? Is she wetting herself?” Lachlan frowned, a flicker of disgust crossing his face. He actually took a half step back. That small movement hurt more than any of his words. “It’s my water.” I struggled to lift my torso, cold sweat pouring down my temples. “Please, call an ambulance.” Kinsley suddenly crouched down, scrutinizing my pained, twisted face up close. Her red lips curved into a wicked smile. She spoke just loud enough for only me to hear. “Watch closely, Anya. I’m going to show you, right now, who Lachlan will choose.” “Ah!” Before I could react, Kinsley grabbed my hand. She yanked hard and then, with a sharp cry, dramatically threw herself backward, near the edge of the riser. A few tacks scraped her slender arm, leaving shallow, insignificant lines of blood. “Kinsley!” Lachlan’s eyes went wide. He lunged forward instantly, shoving me aside to sweep her into his arms. My already precarious body, weakened and bleeding, was thrown off balance by his shove. I crashed fully onto the center of the wooden box. Several tacks drove deep into my back. The intense, piercing pain made my vision go black, and a guttural cry escaped my throat. “Lach, honey, it hurts so bad.” Kinsley clung to him, tears streaming down her face, her voice fragile and heartbroken. Lachlan’s eyes flashed with a murderous rage. He turned his head and glared at me, the fire in his eyes threatening to incinerate me. “Anya Reid, are you trying to die?!” Then, he slammed his foot into my stomach! “CRACK!” The impact sent me flying off the riser and onto the hard concrete floor. A firestorm of pain exploded in my abdomen. I curled into a fetal position, cold sweat soaking my entire body. I clutched my belly, tears and blood pooling beneath my head. “The baby! My baby!” Lachlan watched me, his voice a cold snarl. “Anya, you’re truly disgusting. How dare you push Kinsley?” Kinsley leaned against him, her face a mask of tearful fragility. “Lachlan, does Anya hate me? I only wanted to watch her dance.” Lachlan gently wiped her tears, his voice laced with tenderness. “Don’t be scared, darling. I’m here. No one will ever hurt you.” With that, he lifted Kinsley into his arms and walked away. He didn’t spare me a final glance. Only the guards remained, looking uncomfortable. “What do we do with her?” “We can’t just let her die, can we?” “This is a mess. Take her to the hospital.” 3 I lay on a freezing gurney, blood continuously pooling beneath me. “My God, what happened to her?” “Where is the family? The patient is hemorrhaging badly, risk of emergency delivery and fetal distress. We need to operate immediately!” The doctor frantically looked around, seeing only the cluster of awkward security guards. “Where is the father? We need his signature!” The guards exchanged uncertain looks and finally called Lachlan. Over the phone, Lachlan’s voice was detached and utterly sarcastic. “What is she faking now? The doctor already confirmed the baby was stable.” “Mr. Mercer, the doctor says your wife is in distress. It’s a very critical situation.” “Hmph.” He sneered. “Her due date is weeks away.” “Anya’s best skill is acting. She’d use her own child as leverage. Tell the doctor to let her get on with whatever she’s doing and not to bother me again.” The line went dead. The doctor’s face fell. “Absurd! This is a matter of life and death!” I lay on the moving stretcher, my consciousness starting to fade. But Lachlan’s final words cut through the pain, sharp and absolute. He didn’t care if his child lived or died. The intense pain was a constant blur as I was rushed into the operating room. Under the blazing surgical lights, I felt my life force slowly draining away. In a haze, I saw Lachlan’s retreating back, holding Kinsley. So final. So cruel. He really didn’t love me. He didn’t even want our baby. Then I knew. I wouldn’t love him anymore, either. “Blood pressure dropping rapidly!” “Prep for transfusion!” “Patient is in shock!” The voices of the medical team grew distant. My world dissolved into a heavy darkness. When I woke up again, a doctor was standing over me, his expression complicated and sorrowful. “Ms. Reid, I have some unfortunate news.” My hand automatically went to my abdomen. It was terrifyingly flat. “The baby?” My voice was hoarse, unrecognizable. The doctor sighed. “I am so sorry. You arrived with severe hemorrhaging and catastrophic amniotic fluid loss. We did everything we could, but the baby suffered an acute lack of oxygen and passed away.” My entire world imploded. Eight months. I had felt him grow day by day. I had bought small outfits, imagined the first time he would call me Mommy. Now, it was all gone. “Also,” the doctor hesitated. “Your feet and knees had multiple deep puncture wounds. We’ve cleaned and sutured them, but…” “Will I ever dance again?” I gripped the bedsheet so tightly my knuckles turned white. The doctor was silent for a long moment. “Theoretically, yes. But it will severely limit your ability to perform high-level professional work, and you will require years of intensive physical therapy.” The first clear thought I had was to call the funeral home. I had to bury my child. The second was to call my lawyer. I needed divorce papers drafted immediately. I saw Lachlan three days later. He pushed the door open and walked straight to my bedside. “Anya Reid, how long are you going to keep up this act?” He looked down at me, his eyes filled with sheer annoyance. “Have you had your fun? I told you Kinsley and I are nothing. I’m giving you the wedding.” I stared at him, suddenly realizing this man was a complete stranger. His gaze finally drifted to my flat abdomen. A look of startled confusion, then sudden, misplaced joy, flashed across his face. “You delivered early? Why didn’t you tell me? Where is the baby? Is it a boy or a girl?” That was the moment the dam broke. My tears finally came, hot and endless. The door swung open just then. It was the funeral home attendant, carrying a small, rose-pink velvet box. My voice was quiet, almost unnervingly calm. I pointed to the small box. “You wanted to see the baby?” “He’s right there.”

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