Category: English

As a single mother, to scrape together tuition for my daughter to study for her master’s degree in the UK, I worked three jobs a day. I even had an accident while working the night shift at a factory—the machine severed two of my right fingers. But the day she got her UK visa, she was at the airport clinging to a wealthy businessman twenty years her senior, crying and laughing. “Daddy, if you hadn’t sponsored me to go abroad, my trash-collecting mom would have ruined my whole life.” I stood behind a pillar in the departure hall, holding up my freshly bandaged hand that was still bleeding through the gauze, frozen in place. I stepped forward to call out to her, but her friend Isabella wrinkled her nose in disgust and shoved me away. “Where’d this old hag come from? Get lost before you dirty Laura’s designer clothes!” I looked at my daughter. She wore exquisite makeup, and her eyes held no trace of guilt—only an icy warning. In front of the rich man, she pulled out two hundred-pound notes from her purse and threw them in my face like she was dismissing a beggar. “Take the money and get lost. I only have a sugar daddy—I don’t have some bottom-feeder poor mom!” People around us pointed and whispered. The wealthy man patted her shoulder approvingly, praising how sensible she was. I didn’t pick up the money. I just calmly watched her go through security and board her flight. Then I turned around and dialed the embassy. “Hello, I’d like to file a formal report. Someone has falsified academic credentials and may be involved in illegal immigration.”

After hanging up with the embassy, I didn’t look back at the security checkpoint. I walked straight out of the departure hall. When the spring breeze hit me, I realized I was soaked through with sweat. The gauze on my right hand was saturated with blood, and fresh pain shot through the wound. In the emergency room, the doctor unwrapped the bandage, his brow furrowing tightly. “What happened? The fingers we just reattached have torn open again!” “Did you get into a struggle with someone? If you keep this up, this hand will be permanently damaged!” I was drenched in cold sweat from the pain, but I just shook my head. “Please, just wrap it tighter for me.” After getting my wound treated, I returned home and pushed open the rusted iron gate. The musty smell of the basement hit me in the face. The room was a complete mess. Before leaving, Laura had used scissors to shred all the old clothes she didn’t want, and thrown them everywhere along with old shoes. Looking at the chaos on the floor, waves of bitterness washed over me. To let her wear decent clothes like other children. I worked three jobs a day to earn living expenses, and even took night shifts at an unlicensed factory to pay for her tutoring. But she broke my heart and trampled my dignity. My eyes grew moist, but in the end, no tears fell. I pulled out a black garbage bag and swept the shredded fabric into it. I stuffed this garbage along with the designer bag I’d bought with money from my first blood donation into the bag. Then I carried these two black bags and mercilessly threw them into the dumpster outside the complex. Just as I finished throwing away the trash, my phone vibrated. It was a reply from the embassy: [Hello. Regarding your report about Ms. Laura’s suspected academic fraud and unclear visa funding sources, we have initiated a joint investigation with customs. Thank you for your cooperation.] Looking at the words on the screen, my lips gradually curved upward. Almost simultaneously, my phone rang. It was Laura. The moment I answered, Laura’s shriek came through: “You old bitch! Did you report me?! Why did customs detain me?! They said my visa has been frozen and they’re going to investigate Daddy’s financial records!” Hearing her voice crack as she screamed, I felt nothing but satisfaction. “Yes. You’re my daughter. I won’t let you sell your body!” “Are you insane?! I’m your daughter! You’re ruining my future! I’ll kill you—” Before she could finish cursing, I hung up and blocked her number. Back in the basement, I looked at the passbook on the table containing my work injury compensation and took a deep breath. This money was originally meant to be her living expenses abroad. Now, I would use it to move out of this basement and start my real life.

The next afternoon, the basement’s iron door was kicked open with a bang. Laura burst in with her suited sugar daddy. Her friend Isabella followed aggressively behind them. “Smack!” A visa rejection letter was thrown in my face by Laura. “You poisonous old witch! Are you satisfied now?! My visa’s been revoked! I’m banned from entering the UK for three years!” Laura pointed at my nose, her eyes bloodshot. “You’re bottom-feeding trash rotting in the mud—fine! But why do you have to drag me down with you!” Isabella beside her covered her nose, her face full of disgust as she fanned the flames. “Exactly! Laura accepted Mr. Osman as her daddy. She was going to become a real lady of status.” “You’re just jealous that Mr. Osman has more money than you, so you sabotaged her, didn’t you? You poverty-stricken lunatic!” Mr. Osman stood with his belly protruding, looking down at my room condescendingly. He pulled a stack of cash from his briefcase and threw it on the table. “Ten thousand pounds. Go to the UK embassy and withdraw your report. Tell them you were having a psychotic episode and talking nonsense.” Mr. Osman flicked ash from his cigar, his tone arrogant. “Women are so short-sighted. Your daughter will live the high life with me. You should be grateful.” I looked at the ten thousand pounds on the table and laughed coldly. “Mr. Osman is so generous.” Then I raised my head and stared at Laura. “She paid someone to take her exams for her.” “Mr. Osman, you don’t really think Laura’s a genius, do you?” “Are you sure she can bring you any value if she goes abroad?” Laura’s expression changed drastically. She screamed in humiliation and rage: “Shut up! Daddy, don’t listen to this crazy woman’s nonsense!” She looked around frantically, then suddenly spotted the passbook I’d placed under my pillow. It was my severed finger injury compensation! “What’s this?!” Laura’s eyes lit up. She pounced over and snatched the passbook. Opening it, her eyes went wide. “Three hundred thousand?! You’ve been hiding three hundred thousand from me!” She reached under the pillow and pulled out my ID card, viciously stuffing it into her own pocket. “Is the password my birthday? Even if you don’t tell me, I’ll figure it out!” My expression changed. I rushed forward to grab it back. “Give it back! That’s my severed finger compensation! That’s my lifeline!” “What do you mean YOUR money? You ruined my dream of going abroad—consider this compensation for my emotional distress!” Laura clutched the passbook and ID card, backing away self-righteously. I lunged and grabbed her wrist, but she yanked hard. My freshly bandaged right hand slammed heavily into the iron bed frame. The wound hadn’t healed at all yet. “Rip—” Sharp pain instantly spread from my fingertips. The gauze was stained red with blood, dripping onto the cement floor. I collapsed to my knees in pain, my whole body convulsing uncontrollably. “Oh please, are you trying to scam us?” Isabella rolled her eyes from the side. Osman snorted coldly and gave a look. His two bodyguards immediately stepped forward and roughly shoved me against the wall, escorting Laura out. “Mom, I’m taking this three hundred thousand.” “You can just rot in this moldy basement and fend for yourself!” Laura waved the passbook and ID card, linked arms with Osman, and strutted away in her high heels. I lay in my own blood, watching their retreating figures, biting my lip until I tasted blood. Laura, since you’re going to be so ruthless, don’t blame me for being merciless.

I endured the severe pain and shakily dialed the police with my left hand. The police arrived quickly, but when they learned that the person who’d stolen my belongings was my own biological daughter whom I’d carried for ten months, they showed helpless expressions. According to regulations, the police could only temporarily classify it as a domestic property dispute and needed further investigation before filing a case. The officer in charge saw me lying in a pool of blood looking pitiful. After taking my statement, he immediately took me to the relevant department. He helped me file emergency reports for a lost ID card and freeze the passbook. The three hundred thousand couldn’t be recovered immediately, but at least I’d secured the money in the account so Laura couldn’t squander it. By the time I returned to the basement after getting my wound re-stitched at the hospital, it was late at night. My right hand was wrapped in gauze, each throb accompanied by stabbing pain. Just then, my phone started vibrating crazily. Hundreds of abusive text messages from unknown numbers flooded my inbox. I opened a short video platform and found that on the homepage feed, Laura had posted a five-minute accusatory video. In the video, she wore fake no-makeup makeup, tears streaming down her face as she tearfully accused me of being an evil mother. She lied to the camera, claiming I’d tried to sell her for bride price money to pay gambling debts, even slandering that I’d deliberately self-harmed my severed fingers to extort money from her. She also played the victim, saying I was jealous she’d received sponsorship to study abroad, so I maliciously spread rumors to ruin her future. Oh my god, how can such an evil mother exist? Unfit to be human! Poor girl, what bad luck to have a mother like that. Support the daughter cutting ties! People like this should just die! The comment section was outraged. Even my former coworkers at the factory believed the lies and sent me messages cursing me out. You always seemed honest, but I never knew you were so vicious, harming your own daughter. Disgusting! Facing the online mob, I didn’t cry. I looked coldly at Laura’s face on the screen, methodically saving her defamatory video with my left hand. Then I took screenshots and screen recordings of all the vicious comments and personal attacks the video had attracted. Next, my gaze fell on the laptop in the corner. It was an old computer Laura had disdained as too outdated to take with her. Laura was careless. She thought emptying the recycle bin solved everything. But she didn’t know that as long as the hard drive wasn’t destroyed, data could be recovered. I spent the whole night using my left hand to control the mouse, using recovery software I’d found online to gradually excavate the secrets buried deep in this computer. When the progress bar reached one hundred percent and I opened the hidden billing statements and chat records that had been recovered, I broke out in a cold sweat, then laughed out loud in the basement. Mr. Osman’s several trading companies were all shells used as fronts for overseas fraud syndicates to launder money! The funds Laura had been dreaming about for going abroad all came from dirty accounts. Not only that, I also recovered several eye-burning videos. The protagonists of the videos were actually Osman and Laura’s friend Isabella, who kept calling him sugar daddy! This seemingly innocent Isabella wasn’t just a business partner—she’d been sleeping with Osman all along. Laura had become a tool Isabella used to please her benefactor. I extracted those money laundering flow statements, along with the exam proxy transfer records and pornographic videos, and organized them into categories. As morning sunlight filtered into the basement, I pressed send. I sent them in encrypted compressed file format to the Economic Investigation Division’s verified report email, copying the tax bureau. Laura, it’s time to wake up from your dream of marrying into wealth.

Three days later, to whitewash her reputation, Laura held a high-profile banquet at a luxury hotel in the city center. She announced publicly that although her mother’s interference had temporarily prevented her from going to the UK, Mr. Osman had already arranged for her to enter a prestigious domestic academy. The banquet hall was brightly lit. Many of Osman’s business associates attended, along with Laura’s classmates. Social media influencers she’d invited for publicity filled the hall. I pushed open the banquet hall doors wearing old clothes, my right hand wrapped in thick bandages. The entire venue instantly fell silent. “Oh my god, that’s the evil mother from online, right?” “How does she have the nerve to show up? Dressed so shabby.” “Probably saw her daughter made it big and came to extort more money. So disgusting.” The guests pointed and whispered, their contempt undisguised. Laura stood on stage in a gown. Seeing me, a flash of triumph crossed her eyes, then she put on a wronged expression. “Mom, what are you doing here? Haven’t you hurt me enough?” She held the microphone, her voice choking. “But no matter how evil you are, you’re still my mom.” “As long as you admit your mistake in front of everyone today, I’m willing to forgive you.” Isabella sneered from the side, stirring things up: “Who apologizes standing up? If you’re truly repentant, you should kneel and apologize to Laura!” “Right! Kneel and apologize!” Several people who’d been bribed started jeering from below the stage. Just then, Osman stood up from the main table, holding documents, looking down at me condescendingly. “Since you’re here, just sign it.” Mr. Osman threw the documents on the floor in front of me. He used a threatening tone to make me sign that notarized statement admitting to slander and severing the mother-daughter relationship. Laura walked to the edge of the stage and threatened me in a voice only we could hear: “If you don’t sign today, I’ll have my online team destroy your reputation so you can’t survive in this city!” “Sign it, and I’ll give you back half the money from the passbook.” Give me back half? Using my lifeline money to threaten me? I looked at the humiliating document on the floor, then at that face on stage that resembled mine yet looked so hateful. I calmly bent down and picked up the pen with my left hand. “Fine, I’ll sign,” I said flatly. Laura and Isabella exchanged glances, smiles of triumph on their faces. Mr. Osman also exhaled a satisfied puff of smoke, watching me submit. I held the pen and walked up to the stage step by step, standing before Laura and Mr. Osman. Then, under everyone’s expectant gaze waiting for my submission, I used both hands and tore the document in half. Then I continued tearing, shredding the document to pieces. With a swoosh, I violently threw the handful of confetti into the shocked faces of Laura and Mr. Osman! Paper scraps fluttered to the floor. Laura screamed: “You crazy old woman, what are you doing?!” “What am I doing?” I looked at them, a cold smile curving my lips. My voice carried through the microphone across the banquet hall: “Laura, Osman. Did you really think that during these past few days when I didn’t fight back, all I did was make one phone call to the embassy?” As soon as I finished speaking, the guests in the hall who’d been ready to watch me humiliated looked at each other. Everyone fell silent. Laura paused, then covered her mouth and sneered: “Phone calls? Who else could you call? The psychiatric hospital?!” “You old hag, are you so traumatized you’re having delusions? Everyone look, this woman’s gone insane! Quick, get security to drag her out!” Isabella beside her joined in the mockery: “Exactly! Wearing rags to a five-star hotel pretending to be rich.” “Mr. Osman, look how pathetic she is. She’s probably money-crazy and daydreaming!” Osman crushed out his cigar, his expression dark, and barked: “A toast refused means a forfeit drunk! Someone, hold this crazy woman down!” “This agreement—she’ll sign it whether she wants to or not!” Two bodyguards immediately lunged toward me. Just as Laura and the others looked triumphant, BANG! The banquet hall doors were pushed open from outside!

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When I was eighteen, after Brooks and I had sex for the first time in our rental apartment, he proposed to me with a cheap ring. At twenty-four, he was found by the Davis family and became the heir to a prestigious and powerful household, but he secretly got engaged to someone else behind my back. On the day of our sixth anniversary, I wanted to surprise him and came home early. I happened to overhear his friend mocking him: “Why are you still living in this dump? Are you really going to refuse the marriage alliance with the Tony family for your first love?” Brooks laughed while biting his cigarette. “How is that possible? I’m just playing around. Alexis doesn’t have the status to be worthy of me now.” The door was slightly ajar, and the words hit me without warning. I froze at the entrance, looking up at the people inside the rental apartment. Aside from Brooks, they were all playboys whose shoes alone cost more than my annual internship salary. Hearing Brooks’s words, they laughed even more mockingly: “Those worthless trinkets she gives you—I’d be embarrassed to carry them in my pocket.” “Yeah, it sounds harsh, but it’s the truth.” My eyelashes trembled as I clutched the gift I’d prepared, having saved up for three months, feeling utterly humiliated. It was already the best thing I could offer Brooks. “When are you planning to break up with her?” Cigarette smoke blurred Brooks’s expression. I couldn’t see clearly, only hearing his indifferent voice: “It’s just an engagement, no need to break up. She’s really stupid—she won’t find out.” The room erupted in derisive laughter again: “She really is stupid, completely played by you.” “But what about Laurient? Can you hide it from her too?” Laurient—I’d heard that name from my colleagues. A genuine heiress. Playful and manipulative, she’d boasted that there wasn’t a man in all of Los Angeles she couldn’t catch. But I’d heard that this time, the man she was pursuing was her social equal, and she was serious about marriage. Brooks showed no emotional reaction to hearing that name. He stubbed out his cigarette and started ushering them out. “Are you done? Alexis is coming home early today.” The group left. I hid around the corner, listening to them complain about how remote and shabby this place was as they walked. Then I heard them say that the engagement between the two families was set for next month. Next month… In the stuffy corridor, I suddenly felt cold enough to shiver. I slowly pieced it together. So the person the Davis family found a year ago—the one whose return was celebrated throughout the city—really was Brooks. I remember looking at Brooks in the kitchen back then and asking regretfully, “You’re both named Davis, why couldn’t it be you?” Brooks asked back with amusement, “Why would it be me?” I looked at him without blinking. “Because… you’re really different.” Brooks didn’t know. When my mom married into that town and brought me along, the first time I saw Brooks, I felt he didn’t belong there. He was smart, aloof, yet strikingly handsome—nothing like that alcoholic, abusive stepfather. Brooks didn’t say anything more at the time. But that very night, the online post was deleted completely. After that, nothing related to the Davis family appeared in my life again. From that moment on, the person I’d loved for eight whole years had already been lying to me. The corridor gradually darkened, the endless darkness seeming ready to swallow me whole. I suddenly felt an urgent need to escape this place. Anywhere would do—I didn’t want to face Brooks. But the moment I stepped around the corner, I locked eyes with Brooks, who was standing at the door. In just a few seconds, Brooks had already guessed what happened. The guilt and regret I’d imagined never appeared on his face. He laughed once, showing that familiar expression somewhere between troubled and annoyed. I knew that look too well. It was exactly like the expression Brooks wore when he used to witness my stepfather about to hit me—troubled, impatient, yet forced to deal with it. Back then, he’d glanced at me coldly, showing no intention of coming over. But in the end, he still pulled me behind him. Later, he protected me with a cold face, time and time again. He was very young then too, no match for an adult’s strength. So he always ended up covered in blood. I’d cry while holding Brooks, soaking half his shoulder with tears. After my mom died, he was the only one who protected me. Brooks always said I was useless, asked how I’d survive without him, but never said he’d abandon me. Memory and reality overlapped as I watched Brooks sigh and walk toward me like he used to. Actually, I was terrified. In that moment, I even blamed myself for not hiding well enough. I wanted to completely disappear and avoid this confrontation. But in the end, under Brooks’s gaze, I asked him numbly, “You’re getting engaged?”

Along with the thunder came Brooks’s voice. He looked down at me and admitted it frankly. “It’s a marriage alliance arranged by the family. I can’t refuse.” “They would never accept someone as worthless as you into the Davis family. You understand that, don’t you?” “But Alexis, I won’t leave you,” his fingers slowly wiped away my tears. “I’ll still protect you, just like before—” I sensed something was wrong. “What do you mean?” What did he mean by “won’t leave me”? What did he mean by “just like before”? Brooks’s eyes were pitch black. Through those eyes, I saw my own wretched, pitiful reflection. I actually had so many questions I wanted to ask. But now I couldn’t get a single word out. I looked at Brooks and asked him slowly, word by word: “Brooks, you want me to be your mistress?” Brooks didn’t deny it. From the moment the Davis family found him, he knew they would never accept me. He agreed to the marriage alliance while continuing to act out this charade with me here. Just like he said, I was so stupid I’d believe anything he told me. I tried hard to keep my eyes open to stop the tears from falling, but I just couldn’t control them. The corridor window was half-open, rain pouring down wildly. Years ago, I’d confessed to Brooks in the pouring rain, and now I had to end it in the rain too. But Brooks didn’t take my words about breaking up seriously. He calmly watched me finish my tantrum, then brought me back to the living room and casually asked what I wanted to eat. He seemed certain I wouldn’t refuse him, much less leave him. Not until I shook off his hand and started packing did his eyes finally show some emotion. “Alexis, does it have to be this way?” I didn’t answer. Brooks’s grip on my wrist only tightened. He looked at me quietly, as if genuinely not understanding: “I said we can still be like before. I can give you anything you want now. Do you really want to go back to those hard times?” I looked at him numbly. “Brooks, I won’t be a mistress.” “I can survive without depending on you.” “Without depending on me?” Brooks laughed. “Alexis, why are you still so naive?” “Without me, could you have graduated safely from under that perverted school administrator’s hands?” “Without me, could you have so coincidentally met that specialist during your surgery?” “And,” Brooks leaned closer to me, his tone mocking, “If you really care so much about what others think, why did you fall for me back then, confess to me, even kiss me—your nominal brother?” My whole body went cold as I slowly raised my head to meet Brooks’s gaze. So mocking and sharp, landing on me like a knife that cut to the bone. “Alexis,” Brooks looked at me with a smile, “stop pretending.” “You’re not as pure and noble as you claim to be.” Brooks said I was really stupid, that every choice I’d made since childhood was foolish. From enduring my stepfather’s beatings without resistance before, to leaving him now—it was all the same. He swore that within a week, I’d definitely come back to him. This week was probably the hardest week of my life. I hit walls everywhere, work went poorly, I couldn’t even find a place to rent. At critical moments, someone would always show up with more money to outbid me. I had no choice but to temporarily stay at my college friend’s place, but this morning, she told me she couldn’t let me stay anymore. My eyes fell on the phone clutched in her hand. I said softly, “Brooks contacted you, didn’t he?” She sighed. “Even if you broke up, he shouldn’t go this far, right?” She didn’t know much about what happened between Brooks and me. I didn’t want to drag her into this any further. I had to move to a hotel. Before I left, Sophia insisted on transferring me some money. “I know your internship salary isn’t much. Use this for now, pay me back when you get your full-time position.” I didn’t accept it. But the news about my full-time position was indeed supposed to come today. When I arrived at the company, though, the atmosphere was strangely off. Many people looked at me with complex expressions. My heart raced as an ominous premonition arose. Before I could think it through, my boss called me over. The office was silent. My boss took a sip of tea and told me straight out. Among this batch of interns, I was the most qualified for the full-time position, but not anymore. “The company landed a once-in-a-lifetime deal, but that company has one requirement.” I met my boss’s gaze, my heart sinking. “…What requirement?” My boss took another sip of hot tea and spoke slowly: “They require that we fire you.”

On the way back to the hotel, it started raining. The rain felt so cold it seemed to pierce into my heart. Brooks was already waiting at the hotel entrance. When he saw me, he got out of the car with an umbrella, his face wearing its usual smile. “Alexis, when will you break the habit of forgetting your umbrella in the rain?” I stared at the hand holding the umbrella. Brooks was still wearing the ring from when he proposed to me. I found it laughable, but I was too exhausted to laugh. The wet, sticky coat clung to my body, making my voice tremble when I spoke: “Brooks, how far do you have to go before you’ll stop?” “I used to like you, depend on you, but I never did anything to hurt you, did I?” “On our anniversary, I’d been preparing for quite a while.” “The gift I got you—I saved up half a year’s salary for it.” “Back then I even thought, I’m about to get my full-time position, and once things stabilize, we can move to a slightly bigger place.” “Why,” I looked up at him, “why do you have to treat me this way? Why does it have to be me?!” Brooks didn’t respond. His eyes fell on my hand instead. “Where’s the ring?” The ring he’d proposed with in the rental apartment. I’d worn it for six whole years. It wasn’t that he’d never bought me new rings, but I just loved that one. “I lost it.” I turned to walk back inside. “Do whatever else you want, Brooks. My answer won’t change.” Unexpectedly, Brooks backed down. He said he could stay out of my employment situation, but he had one condition. “What?” He gestured at the increasingly heavy rain. “It’s cold. Can we go inside to talk?” The hotel I’d found on short notice was very basic. Brooks waited until I changed out of my soaked coat before speaking. He sent me an address, saying there was a reception tomorrow night and asking me to come for a final goodbye. But on the way there the next day, for some reason, my heart suddenly started pounding violently. It was a high-end club, the kind of place I wouldn’t normally even glance at. Brooks’s private room was on the top floor. I saw many people inside. I saw that the bottles of alcohol they casually opened could buy my cheap rental apartment. In that moment, I finally had a concrete sense of Brooks’s current status and the gap between us. There, I also saw Laurient from the Tony family. She sat beside Brooks, beautiful and radiant. Before I could figure out why Laurient was there, I suddenly heard her say she had a surprise for Brooks. Vaguely, I seemed to hear my name. I suddenly tensed up. Laurient knew about my existence. I watched her casually make a phone call to someone. After a few brief sentences, the smile on her face grew even brighter, carrying the satisfaction of a successful prank. She tilted her head, studying his expression as she asked, “I accidentally got Alexis fired. You won’t blame me, will you, Brooks?” I stood there numbly, feeling coldness slowly penetrate my limbs. Until it climbed to my heart, bringing sharp, tingling pain. So Laurient’s “surprise” was destroying the job I’d just gotten today. Brooks sat beside her, watching her calmly. He didn’t interrupt, didn’t blame Laurient, didn’t even change his expression. I’d never found that indifferent face of his so disgusting. He’d clearly promised me he wouldn’t interfere with my work. I suddenly remembered what I’d said yesterday. I remembered that inscrutable smile on Brooks’s face before he left yesterday. I’d thought that because of what I said, he was slightly moved, had the tiniest bit of pity for me. But there was nothing. When Brooks smiled then, was he laughing at me like I was a pathetic, ridiculous clown? A clown who used to be played by him, yet was busy planning an impossible future with him. But now this clown still had to go find him. Because I saw Laurient reach out and pull a jade pendant on a black woven cord from around Brooks’s neck. I slowly blinked. Finally seeing clearly what was in her hand—it was the pendant my mom left me, my only keepsake of her. So when Brooks suggested going to my hotel room yesterday, it wasn’t because he was cold, and it wasn’t because he was actually willing to back down. It was to find this.

Brooks was as accommodating to Laurient as he once was to me. He casually removed the pendant and tossed it to Laurient. The last tightly wound string in my mind suddenly snapped. I had nothing left now. I’d even lost my job. I couldn’t lose this last memento of my mom too. I pushed hard on the door, but it wouldn’t budge. “Brooks—” I saw Brooks look up. Under the brilliant lights, through the glass, he just looked at me quietly with his usual smile, showing no intention of opening the door. I immediately understood—everything he said yesterday was a lie. He was angry I’d talked back to him, angry I’d thrown away the ring. He was warning me, punishing me, using the jade pendant to force me to compromise. Separated by a door, the hallway was quiet, but the music blasting inside the room was deafening, drowning out my voice. I was nearly breaking down as I spoke: “Brooks, I… I don’t want the job anymore!” “I’ll find the ring and return it to you today!” “Please, please give me back mom’s jade pendant!!” A week’s worth of pent-up emotions exploded. I shouted like a madwoman, drawing the attention of many people in the hallway. But Brooks still didn’t move. The music happened to reach its final few seconds of quiet outro, and everything fell silent. Through the glass, I watched helplessly as Laurient took the jade pendant and tossed it up and down with distaste. Then she accidentally fumbled it, and the pendant fell from her hand. After a crisp, cheap-sounding crack, Brooks suddenly stood up. He stared at the cracked jade pendant, his expression changing beyond his control. The scene suddenly descended into chaos. They seemed to be saying something, but my head was buzzing and I couldn’t hear anything clearly. I don’t know how I got back to the hotel. I only came to my senses when I realized I was completely soaked by the rain. Someone equally drenched stood at my door. That face was familiar—one of Brooks’s friends. “Brooks was taken back by the Davis family. He told me to make sure to tell you that things aren’t what you think. He didn’t mean to destroy the jade pendant.” “About your job, Brooks will handle it. Something came up with the Davis family, but as soon as he can get out, he’ll come find you right away. Don’t…” Before he could finish, I slammed the door shut with a bang. Silence returned to my ears. Water dripped from my sleeves, tap tap tap. I stared silently at the broken jade pendant in my hand for who knows how long before my phone suddenly vibrated. A notification popped up—I’d been fired, along with a transfer for severance pay. The full-time position really was Brooks playing me. Laurient couldn’t tolerate my existence, and Brooks condoned her tantrum. It was all lies. I’d never believe Brooks’s fake sympathy again. After blocking Brooks on all platforms, I bought the earliest ticket out of Los Angeles. I never wanted to come back.

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Right after giving birth, I stumbled upon a post: “My wife just had a baby, but I don’t want to help take care of the kid. What should I do?” Someone replied with advice: “Hurry up and apply for an overseas assignment with your company. Best if it’s for about three years.” The poster was puzzled: “Why?” The advisor explained: “Are you stupid? These three years are when kids are the hardest to take care of. Find a legitimate excuse to get out and you can avoid all the hassle, right?” “Plus, kids have no memories of their first three years. By the time you come back from your assignment, it won’t affect you being a good father later.” “If your wife ever fights with you about it, just tell her how hard you worked making money those three years abroad.” “It’s a win-win situation!” The poster immediately responded gratefully: “Thanks, man.” I stared in disbelief, thinking what awful people these two were. The next second, a message from my husband popped up: “Cedric, the company is assigning me overseas for three years.”

I stared at those words, somewhat confused. Why did Morant’s message sound exactly like what that post had suggested? After a moment of shock, I replied: “Overseas assignment? Why so sudden? Where are you going?” The typing indicator above the chat box appeared and disappeared intermittently. Morant’s message finally came through: “It’s a new project in the Southwest.” “Cedric, this is a rare opportunity. The company values this project highly and specifically requested me to lead the team. Once this is done, I’ll definitely get promoted and get a raise when I come back. Our lives will be so much better.” Morant sounded earnest and sincere. In the past, I probably would have supported his career. But I’d just finished my postpartum recovery period. My parents had died in an accident two years ago, and Morant’s parents were unreliable. If he left now, I’d be the only one managing everything at home, inside and out. I told him what I was thinking: “I don’t want you to go.” “The baby is still so small, I really can’t handle it alone.” “And when my maternity leave ends, I have to go back to work too. Who will watch the baby then?” “If you leave now, you’re dumping all the burden on me.” Morant replied almost instantly: “Cedric, I know how hard this is on you. I don’t want to leave you and the baby either.” “But we need to think long-term. This separation now is for a better future.” “As for taking care of the baby, there’s always a way.” “You can take the baby to work with you. Lots of moms do that, don’t they?” “Just tough it out for a few years. Once I’m back, everything will be fine. You’ll just have to work hard these few years, and when I return, everything will be better.” I frowned, laughing bitterly. How dare he say such things, casually telling me to sacrifice while he wanted to be a deserter? I couldn’t hold back and confronted him: “Easy for you to say. How am I supposed to work and take care of a baby at the same time? Carry the baby to the office? Or should I split myself in half?” He paused for a moment this time, then dropped a bombshell: “If it doesn’t work out, just quit your job.” “I can definitely support you and our daughter, no problem.” “You can focus on taking care of the baby at home. Isn’t that great? Many families arrange things this way.” I stared at those lines, instantly furious, my chest tightening with frustration. I didn’t even want to type anymore. I sent angry voice messages instead. “I’m not willing to do that.” “Before we got married, I made it clear to you that I wouldn’t be a housewife. It hasn’t been that long, and you’re already going back on your word.” “You leaving for three years isn’t fair to me, and it’s not fair to Ellis either.” “The child needs a father. You have parenting responsibilities too.” He defended himself pitifully: “Then what do you want me to do?!” “I’m doing all this for—” “Enough!” I cut him off. “We can’t talk clearly on the phone. Come home early tonight. We need to discuss this face to face.” This time, a full two or three minutes passed before his message finally appeared: “I can’t tonight. There’s a project kickoff meeting. I have to have dinner with the leadership. It’ll definitely be late. Don’t wait up, get some rest.” “I’ll come home early tomorrow and we’ll talk properly, okay?” I was exasperated. Ever since the baby was born, he’d been leaving early and coming home late, suddenly becoming a workaholic. I didn’t think much of it before, but after seeing that post, something felt off. I didn’t give him room to negotiate. “Tonight. I’ll wait for you. We must talk this through.” After a long while, he finally replied with a simple “okay.” I let out a deep sigh. On impulse, I clicked back into that post. Surprisingly, it had been updated.

Just over ten minutes ago, the poster had a new problem: “My wife won’t agree to my overseas assignment. She says there’s no one to help take care of the baby. So annoying. Women are so short-sighted.” The advisor quickly replied: “That’s easy. First, work it out with your mom. Have your mom come help out.” “Once you leave, then have your mom find some excuse to bail.” “By then you’ll already be overseas. What can your wife do about it?” “The kid will be tied to her. She can’t just abandon the baby, can she? In the end, she’ll have to deal with it herself.” The poster was ecstatic, sending a string of praise emojis: “Brilliant! Absolutely brilliant! You really get it! I’ll do exactly that!” I felt my hands and feet go cold. This was a coordinated attack against women. Some netizens who couldn’t stand it started cursing: “Have some humanity!” “Your wife just gave birth to your child and you’re scheming against her like this? Did a dog eat your conscience?” “What a time to be alive, even animals can pretend to be human now.” “Red flag! Stay away from this scumbag!” Facing the criticism from netizens, the poster didn’t immediately respond. I thought maybe he felt guilty and didn’t have the nerve to show his face. But after a while, he replied. He shot back at those criticizing him: “What do you know?! Easy for you to talk when it’s not your problem!” “Do you know how much pressure there is in the workplace these days? I’m going out there to advance my career for this family!” “Isn’t it a woman’s natural duty to take care of children? Isn’t it tiring for me to earn money to support the family?” “My mom worked hard her whole life. Helping out is a favor, not an obligation. What’s wrong with that?” “You say I’m scheming? I’m rationally allocating family resources. You’re just jealous!” His comments became more and more extreme and absurd, drawing even more angry criticism from netizens. The thread grew rapidly, quickly turning into a fierce flame war. Until one reply appeared: “Screenshot taken. Everyone, stop arguing. The most important thing now is to make sure his wife knows about this.” “You’d better pray your wife never sees this post.” After this reply, the previously arrogant poster suddenly went silent. A few seconds later, I refreshed the page. The screen displayed: “Sorry, the post you’re trying to access has been hidden or deleted.” He panicked. I clicked into his profile page. It was completely blank, with default avatar and username. There was no useful information to be found. But I wasn’t worried. Those who should slip up will slip up eventually.

At seven in the evening, Ellis started fussing before bed. I held her and paced back and forth in the living room, humming an off-key lullaby. At eight, Morant sent a message: “Meeting’s running long, will be a while longer. You eat first, don’t go hungry.” I didn’t reply, just kept pacing. Ellis’s crying quieted down, turning into pitiful whimpers. At nine-thirty, he sent another message: “Had a few drinks with clients, won’t be back that soon. Just go to sleep.” At eleven, I finally heard keys turning in the lock. He pushed the door open and saw me sitting on the sofa. He froze for a moment: “You’re still up? Didn’t I tell you to sleep?” He walked toward me, trying to hug me. A faint, unfamiliar perfume scent wafted over. I moved aside to avoid him. He looked awkward. I got straight to the point: “Let’s talk about the overseas assignment.” He sat down and began explaining: “Cedric, I know you were upset today.” “This assignment really was too sudden. I had no idea the company would arrange things this way.” I didn’t respond, just looked at him. Seeing my silence, he continued: “Look, raising a kid is so expensive now. Education costs will be even more astronomical later.” “My current position isn’t great—stuck in the middle, and the pay is just so-so. When I come back…” He went on and on, painting a picture of his promotion and raise. But I was too lazy to listen anymore. I asked him: “Did you actively apply for this assignment?” He froze for a moment, his eyes flickering briefly before returning to normal: “How could that be? Of course the company arranged it. If I refused, wouldn’t that make me ungrateful?” “Is that so?” I stared at him, my gaze sweeping across his slightly open collar, where there seemed to be some inconspicuous glitter. “Are you going alone or with someone else?” He turned his head, avoiding my gaze: “My secretary is going too.” His secretary was named Ilysis, a pretty young woman. I understood, and smiled. He was baffled by my smile and quickly changed the subject: “Cedric, I know it’ll be hard for you to take care of the baby alone. I’ve already thought it through—we can have my mom come help.” Hearing this, my heart sank. This line… Morant thought his idea was great, his voice brightening: “My mom’s still in decent health. She can definitely handle taking care of the baby.” “With her helping out, won’t that make things easier for you?” As he said this, his expression was frank and his tone sincere. If I hadn’t seen that post, I might have been fooled by his act. The last bit of hope in my heart disappeared. It really was him scheming against me. I didn’t rush to expose him. Under his gaze, I gently nodded. “Fine, then go.” Since he dared to scheme against me, he couldn’t blame me for what came next. Morant’s face instantly lit up. “Cedric, you really agree?” He seemed to want confirmation, his voice barely containing his joy. “Yeah.” I lowered my head, looking at my fingers twisted together, not wanting to see his nauseating expression. “When are you leaving?” “Next week! Next Wednesday’s flight!” He blurted it out, then seemed to realize he sounded too eager and softened his tone: “The project timeline is tight, they’re pushing hard over there. I wanted to spend more time with you and Ellis, but I really have no choice.” I smiled bitterly. He really didn’t want to stay a moment longer. “But,” he leaned in closer, trying to hold my hand. I shifted slightly, avoiding him. He didn’t seem to mind and continued: “I’ve arranged everything. I’ll call my mom in a bit and have her pack up and come as soon as possible.” “Also, I told Torres that while I’m gone these three years, he should look after you two.” “If there’s any heavy work, hard labor, or anything that needs a man’s help, just ask him. He’s my best friend, totally trustworthy.” I knew Torres—Morant’s childhood friend who grew up with him. They both joined the same company. Morant became a minor manager while Torres remained an ordinary employee. He was pretty helpful. Morant mentioned him often. I didn’t know if this was part of his scheme. But since he’d already made all these arrangements, how could I not go along with his wishes? I said okay. Morant breathed a sigh of relief, hugging me tightly and thanking me for understanding him. This time I didn’t avoid him. I rested my chin on his shoulder and sneered. Morant, it was too early to thank me.

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The day my SAT scores came out, several Ivy League admissions officers showed up at my house, all competing to recruit me. My high school teacher, Ms. Peyton — a woman who worshiped male students — deliberately said when she learned I’d gotten a perfect SAT score: “Jenna, I’m so happy for you! I can’t believe you actually slept your way to getting the test answers and still managed a perfect score! Oh my, I’m just joking. It slipped out. Don’t mind me. Just tell me quietly — how many test writers did you sleep with this time?” In my past life, I cried and explained that I’d studied hard for the exam myself. She sneered: “Right, right, you studied for it yourself. If you didn’t seduce male teachers and get the answers ahead of time, then why are you so upset right now?” That statement made the Harvard and Stanford admissions officers suspicious, and they rejected my application on the spot. In the end, I wasn’t accepted by any university. Three years of hard work went down the drain, and I eventually died from depression. Meanwhile, the male student Ms. Peyton favored most stole my admission spot. When I opened my eyes again, I was back on the day the Ivy League admissions officers came to school. Without hesitation, I chose to call the police: “Officer, I’ve been assaulted, and the witness is my high school teacher.”

The moment those words left my mouth, Ms. Peyton’s expression changed instantly. She never expected that I — usually introverted and timid — would actually call the police in front of so many people. She lunged at me, reaching for my phone. I stepped back, and she nearly fell to the ground. “Jenna, what are you doing? It’s such a small matter. Is it really worth calling the police?” “What witness? I just heard it from someone else. I can’t testify for you!” I froze, staring at her intently. “A small matter? Spreading sexual rumors about me and accusing me of cheating — that’s a small matter?” “You knew the Ivy League admissions officers were coming to my house today. Why would you say something like that?” Ms. Peyton looked as if I’d exposed her, her face turning ugly. But the next second, she laughed dramatically, accusing me of being too sensitive. “I didn’t know the Ivy League admissions team was coming to your house today. I didn’t mean to bring up your… impropriety.” “I’m just worried that if you got into an Ivy League school through these means, you won’t be able to handle the academics there. Your teacher is just looking out for you!” “After all, you’re a girl who became the top science student in the state. Who knows what underhanded methods you used?” She cleared her throat and suddenly raised her voice. Everyone’s attention was drawn back to her, even my mom looked at me with suspicion. “Dear admissions officers, I know this child, Jenna. When she first enrolled, she was at the bottom of the class. Then she transferred to the science class — which was full of male teachers — and suddenly her grades shot up.” “Don’t you think that’s strange? And I’ve caught her going in and out of hotels with male teachers multiple times. As her teacher, it’s hard for me not to think in that direction!” In my past life, Ms. Peyton said exactly this, making the admissions officers deeply disappointed in me. She relied on her position as my high school teacher, knowing no one would question a teacher’s character. She made everyone believe her lies, and no one wanted to hear my explanation. Not only did the Ivy League schools reject my file, preventing me from attending any college. Even my parents were implicated and ridiculed by relatives and friends. Three years of hard work were destroyed. They disowned me. I couldn’t defend myself. In the end, I died from depression. When I opened my eyes again and returned to this day, there was no way I’d let her play her tricks and ruin my college dreams again! “A hotel?” My mom looked at me in disbelief, her lips trembling slightly. “That’s right, Jenna’s mom. You didn’t know, did you? Jenna is a regular at the hotel by the school gate. The first time I saw it, I couldn’t believe she was that kind of person!” After saying this, Ms. Peyton quickly covered her mouth, pretending it was an accidental slip. “Wait, no, no. Oh my! Why did I say that out loud? Just pretend I was talking nonsense. Don’t overthink it!” “I came here today to celebrate Jenna getting a perfect SAT score and bringing honor to our school, even though her methods were a bit… unclean…” All the admissions officers exchanged glances and began discussing among themselves. “I can’t believe she’s that kind of person. Our school can’t admit someone like this…” Even my mom didn’t trust me, frowning as she questioned me: “Jenna, is what Ms. Peyton said true?” “Did you really go to that kind of place? Tell me. How many times did you go?” A trace of delight flashed in Ms. Peyton’s eyes, but I showed no sign of panic. “Ms. Peyton, are you sure you saw me? Then I must have been drugged unconscious, because I don’t remember it at all!” “When the police arrive, you must clearly state the time and location so they can catch the person who assaulted me as soon as possible!”

Ms. Peyton was stunned. The current me was completely different from the me she knew. She never expected I’d be so serious about this — not only showing no shame but practically wanting the whole world to know. “Dear Ivy League admissions officers, I believe Ms. Peyton’s words. She must not be joking!” “But I truly don’t remember any of this. I definitely wasn’t there willingly. With Ms. Peyton here, she can definitely find the culprit and clear my name!” I gripped Ms. Peyton’s hand tightly, speaking earnestly. She recoiled in disgust and immediately shook me off. “You — what nonsense are you spouting, child?” “How shameless can you be? Tell the truth. A month ago, did you or did you not check into the hotel by the school gate?” “And you weren’t the only one who checked in! Admissions officers, if you don’t believe me, you can check the registration records. I swear on my twenty years as a teacher!” At those words, all the admissions officers’ gazes fell on me like countless knives. “Miss Lynn, did you really use despicable means to get the SAT answers and score so high?” “No wonder she scored more than ten points higher than second place. In twenty years, no one has scored this high. So that’s how…” The fruit platter in my mom’s hands fell to the floor, fruit scattering everywhere. She looked at me with tears in her eyes, her voice filled with anger and shock. “Jenna, tell your mother. Is what Ms. Peyton said true? Did you go to a hotel?” “Did you — did you really use those methods to get your grades today? Say something! Are you trying to kill your mother?” “Your father and I poured everything into raising you. How could we have raised a daughter like you?” Ms. Peyton looked at me triumphantly, a smug smile on her lips. I suddenly remembered that before the SAT, I did go to the school hotel. Dylan Cooper had asked me to meet him there. But as soon as I entered and went upstairs, I sensed something was wrong and left through the back door. Only now did I understand — this was a trap set by Ms. Peyton and my classmate, Dylan Cooper. She was determined to have Dylan Cooper take my perfect SAT score. After all, the school’s reward for the top student was a full hundred thousand dollars! To achieve her goal, she was willing to stake her twenty years of teaching reputation. Ms. Peyton knew exactly how to manipulate teachers and parents. She understood that the truth didn’t matter — public opinion was enough to crush a person. Once the admissions officers left, they would spread the news. And then what awaited me would be slut-shaming. In this life, not only would I be unable to attend college, I’d even repeat the tragic fate of my past life. “I did go.” Three words slowly left my mouth. My mom nearly fainted from anger on the spot, and the admissions officers clamored to leave. “However, I didn’t enter any room. I left through the back of the hotel.” Ms. Peyton burst out laughing: “Ha ha ha, who would believe that? Jenna, you usually look so pure and honest, but only I, as your teacher, truly understand what kind of person you are!” “I didn’t deliberately smear you in front of the admissions officers. I just don’t want to see you go down the wrong path and make mistake after mistake!” “As long as you admit your error, we’ll void this year’s results, and you can prepare properly for the SAT next year. I’m willing to tutor you for free!” She spoke with such sincerity, like a good teacher. Only I knew how much she worshiped men and loved spreading sexual rumors about female students. In high school, Ms. Peyton treated male and female students completely differently. When male students asked for leave, she’d approve without checking the reason. But when female students were in so much pain they fainted, she’d just think they were faking. When male students didn’t wear their uniforms properly, it showed boldness and masculinity. But if a female student dared take off her jacket, she was a shameless slut trying to seduce men. She would spend an entire class period scolding female students, treating all the girls in class like enemies. I took out my phone and called the hotel by the school gate: “Could you please check the back door surveillance footage from around 8 PM a month ago?” The front desk quickly sent me the surveillance from that time. It clearly showed me entering through the front door and leaving through the back door less than a minute later.

Everyone watched the surveillance footage. Ms. Peyton’s face showed a moment of surprise, then she also called the hotel front desk. A few minutes later, a year’s worth of check-in records was displayed for everyone to see. “Jenna, the surveillance video only proves you didn’t go this time. It doesn’t mean you never went before!” “This is the check-in record from the past year that I just had the front desk send me. Look for yourself — how many times have you checked in this year?” “Tsk tsk tsk, so shameless at such a young age. I’m truly ashamed for you as your teacher!” “Dear admissions officers, look at what kind of person she really is! Tell me, how could a student like this possibly get a perfect SAT score through her own efforts?” Suddenly, my dad, who had just returned home, saw all of this. He raised his hand and slapped me: “You — how could you do something so disgraceful!” “Go turn yourself in right now, or I don’t have a daughter like you!” My face immediately burned with pain, half of it swelling up. My parents were both furious and shocked. The way they looked at me was complicated. I covered my face, holding back tears. Ms. Peyton’s smile grew even more triumphant. I’d studied hard for three years, finally going from the worst student to the top student, and even my parents didn’t believe me. “Don’t — don’t hit the child! I’m sure Jenna just had a moment of confusion. Otherwise she wouldn’t have done such things for six years!” “I only found out about this from her middle school teacher. Otherwise I wouldn’t dare believe I’d have such a student!” My dad clutched his chest in anger, his face flushed red, pulling out his belt and pointing it at me. “Jenna Lynn! You — you did this disgraceful thing for six whole years! Let’s see if I don’t beat you to death today!” He charged at me with the belt. I ran everywhere to escape. My mom’s tears wouldn’t stop flowing, her eyes red from crying: “Jenna, you’ve disappointed your mother so much!” Seeing me getting beaten, Ms. Peyton almost laughed out loud but forcibly suppressed it, pretending to stop my dad. “Jenna’s dad, don’t get so worked up! No matter what, you can’t hit your child!” The admissions officers also shook their heads in disappointment at the scene. “Miss Lynn, we have doubts about your SAT results and cannot approve your application.” I froze and immediately explained: “Do you believe what she’s saying too? The SAT is fair and secure. How could the answers possibly be leaked?” “Mom, Dad, calm down! Think carefully — I’m just an ordinary student. How could I possibly know the test writers?” “And leaking SAT answers is a criminal offense with a ten-year prison sentence. Who would dare leak them?” My dad lowered the belt in his hand. My mom stopped crying too. Everyone realized this wasn’t realistic. The SAT had military-level security. Even the most powerful person couldn’t get the answers. Suddenly, Dylan Cooper walked in: “Then how do you explain this?” He pulled out a report. My parents were shocked when they saw it. “Jenna, you — you’re pregnant? Early intrauterine pregnancy, six weeks! What do you have to say for yourself?” Ms. Peyton quickly snatched the report and hid it, scolding Dylan Cooper: “Why did you come here? I wasn’t planning to tell them about this. After all, it’s not honorable for a girl…” “Everyone, just treat this as fake, as a joke. Don’t believe it!” Dylan refused to back down: “Why not? Why should someone like her be the top student!” “Jenna Lynn is a shameless slut. She’s always taking birth control pills at school. The whole class has seen it!” With those words, the whole room exploded. My dad wanted to kill me. My mom had a heart attack and fainted on the spot. The admissions officers turned to leave. “How did I give birth to a slut like you! You’re even — even pregnant with some bastard’s child!” My dad grabbed a kitchen knife and came at me like a madman. The scene descended into chaos. Ms. Peyton and Dylan calmly watched the show from the side. “I’m not pregnant! They forged that report! They’re deliberately trying to harm me. Dad, please calm down! Admissions officers, don’t leave!” I desperately explained, completely despairing, but now no one was willing to believe me. My dad couldn’t hear anything. The knife came straight at my neck. The next second, a large number of police officers burst through the door. “We heard a report about SAT answer leaks? I’m the SAT inspection team leader. This matter is serious. We immediately launched an investigation upon receiving the report.” “After examination, student Jenna Lynn’s results are legal and compliant. The test writers and papers were all under strict monitoring, with no leaks whatsoever.” “We are now lawfully arresting Peyton and Dylan Cooper for spreading rumors. Please come with the police.”

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The day before my wedding, I went to get my nails done. My fiancé came back with coffee and casually handed a cup to the nail tech. “Hey, add me on Ins. My wife can book you for her nails from now on.” I stared at him coldly. Sensing my gaze, he smiled. “Don’t tell me you’re jealous again? I’m just making a friend. Maybe she’ll give you a discount next time.” I glanced at his phone screen. The note read: Amy, curvy, blonde, single. I smiled. A dog really can’t stop eating shit. Since he loved making friends so much, I’d help him invite all his female “friends.” Using his phone, I messaged his ex-girlfriends, his flings, the ones he’d met for dinner, the ones he’d sexted late at night, one by one: “My wedding’s tomorrow. I saved you a seat. Please come.” “Hello, is this the Grand Hotel? I need to add three more tables for tomorrow’s reception.” The manager paused. “That’ll cost extra.” Money wasn’t an issue. Less than five minutes after I hung up, Ethan’s call came through. “Why are you adding tables without discussing it with me first?” His voice was sharp and urgent, like I’d committed some unforgivable crime. I leaned back on the sofa, suddenly finding it almost funny. “I just want to invite a few more friends. What’s the problem?” I said. “What friends need three whole tables?” He pressed on relentlessly. “My parents said they can’t pay for the extra three tables.” I said mockingly, “It’s just adding some tables. Do you really need to blow up like this?” He continued angrily: “Sophia, you’re doing this because I added that nail tech on Ins, aren’t you? It’s normal socializing and you have to make a big deal out of it!” Normal socializing. He made it sound so simple. I gripped my phone tighter. “So sleeping with Christine at that hotel was also normal socializing?” Silence on the other end. “That was before we registered our marriage. Are you ever going to let it go?” It was indeed before the marriage registration, but we were still dating then. Last March, he said his company was having a team retreat and stayed at a hotel overnight. I only found out later that his “team retreat” companion was his ex-girlfriend Christine. “And staying at Wendy’s place for three days, that was also before registration?” “Will you ever stop?” Last month, he said he was on a business trip for three days. Turns out he was with Wendy. Right here in the city, less than ten kilometers from my home. Wendy posted a breakfast photo on her feed. The hands visible across the table wore a watch I’d given him. “Transferring twenty thousand dollars to Rachel and saying you’d take care of her, that was also before marriage?” “Sophia!” “You told everyone you were single, said I was just someone your family set you up with, said you didn’t love me at all…” “Enough!” He suddenly roared: “That’s all in the past! What’s the point of bringing it up over and over? What man doesn’t have a past? You’re just petty, just looking for trouble!” He took a breath, his voice turning cold. “Anyway, my parents won’t pay for those three tables. You invited them, you figure it out yourself.”

I leaned back on the sofa, suddenly feeling exhausted. Three years. Every time it was like this. I thought marriage would change him, thought he’d settle down. I really overestimated myself. “Twelve hundred for three tables, right?” I didn’t waste any more words and transferred the money directly. He paused for two seconds, saying “what are you doing,” but the next second I saw: Payment received. Immediately followed by a message: “You’re the best, babe. Let’s not talk about the past anymore. You’re the only one I love! Can’t wait for tomorrow’s wedding.” Looking at those words, I felt sick to my stomach. I typed back: “You better look forward to it. I’ve prepared a big surprise for you.” He asked what surprise. I didn’t reply. After hanging up, I picked up the phone and called my lawyer. “Mr. Wilson, draft me a divorce agreement. I need it after the wedding tomorrow.” The lawyer was clearly stunned. “But isn’t your wedding tomorrow?” “Yes. The wedding will happen, and I’m getting divorced too.” He didn’t ask further, just told me to send over the marriage certificate for filing. I pulled out that little red booklet from my bag, took a photo, and sent it over. About five minutes later, Mr. Wilson called back. His voice sounded off. “Miss Sophia, something’s wrong with this marriage certificate.” My heart skipped a beat. “What do you mean?” “I checked the registration number. It doesn’t exist in the system. Miss Sophia, this marriage certificate is fake. You two have no legal marriage relationship.” I stood there holding the phone. Originally, I only planned to invite those women to give him a little surprise. Now it seemed the surprise wasn’t big enough. I opened my phone and started going through Ethan’s flirty chat logs, transaction screenshots, intimate photos, saving them all into a folder. Three years’ worth of evidence was all here—so much the folder could barely hold it all. I compiled all the material into a slideshow, set it to the background music of “Love For Sale,” and sent it to the MC: “For tomorrow’s wedding, replace the video with this one.” The MC was silent for a full ten seconds before replying with one word: “Okay.” I closed my phone and lay in bed. I didn’t sleep all night. The next morning, while I was getting my makeup done, Ethan sent a message: “Babe, I’m so excited. Finally getting to marry you.” I stared at the screen for two seconds before replying: “You’ll be even more excited soon.” Then my mom called: “Sophia, who exactly did you invite for those three tables? Why didn’t you tell us?” I said, “Mom, just watch the show today. Don’t ask so many questions.” She sighed. “Don’t do anything crazy.” I didn’t answer. After hanging up, I deleted all the photos with Ethan from my phone. Not a single one left. I called the hotel manager: “Those three tables of mine, arrange them directly facing the stage.” After hanging up, I took a deep breath, lifted my wedding dress hem, and walked out of the dressing room. Guests gradually arrived. I stood at the entrance greeting them, counting down in my mind. Ethan came over, glanced at the three empty tables, and asked, “Who did you invite? Why aren’t they here yet?”

I smiled and said, “Just invited a few of your ex-girlfriends.” His face instantly went pale. “What did you say? Are you crazy?” He lowered his voice, angry. “I just added that nail tech on Ins and you’re doing this? You have to cause a scene on our wedding day?!” I picked up a glass of champagne and took a sip without responding. Ethan stared at me for a while, then turned and left, his face dark as thunder. After a while, he came back with his parents and mine following behind. He said coldly, “Sophia, come to the dressing room. We need to talk.” My mom asked quietly, “Sophia, what’s wrong?” I didn’t answer. The group entered the dressing room and the door closed. As soon as the door shut, his mother spoke first: “Sophia, what’s the meaning of this? Inviting my son’s ex-girlfriends on his wedding day? Have you no sense of occasion?” I said calmly, “Mrs. Carter, I just invited a few friends to the wedding.” “Friends?” Ethan’s father slammed his hand on the table. “My son said you invited his ex-girlfriends! Do you think I’m an idiot? You’re deliberately trying to embarrass our family!” Ethan pointed his finger at my nose, nearly poking my face. “Sophia, isn’t this all because I added someone on Ins? Is this necessary? Inviting ex-girlfriends? Are you out of your mind?” I looked at him and laughed. “Added someone on Ins? You noted her as hot body, fair skin, single, you flirted with another woman right in front of me, and you ask if this is necessary?” Ethan’s mother interrupted: “Men make small mistakes sometimes. Making such a scene, how will you live together after this? I’m telling you, we’re cutting the wedding money to eight thousand. Let this be a lesson!” My mom exploded: “What do you mean small mistakes? He flirted with another woman right in front of Sophia! How shameless can your family be!” “What’s wrong with our family?” Ethan’s mother’s voice was even louder. “Your daughter invited ex-girlfriends to the wedding! What kind of behavior is that? I’m telling you, if you want this wedding to happen, behave yourselves. If not, forget it!” “You—” My dad’s face turned red with anger. “Eight thousand if you want the wedding, not a penny if you don’t!” Ethan’s mother turned her face away, crossing her arms. My mom’s hands were shaking with rage. “What kind of family are you? Don’t you know what your own son is like? This wedding is off!” “Fine, call it off! Who cares!” Ethan’s mother sneered. “With your daughter’s attitude, who’d want her after my son?” “What did you say?!” My dad rushed forward to argue, but my mom held him back tightly. The dressing room erupted into chaos. Ethan stood in the middle, not saying a word, his face even showing a hint of smugness. I looked at him and suddenly smiled. “Of course we’re having the wedding.” Everyone fell silent, all eyes turning to me.

My mom froze. “Sophia, what are you saying?” I didn’t look at her. Staring at Ethan’s mother, I said slowly and clearly: “Forget the eight thousand. I don’t want a single penny.” Ethan’s mother’s expression changed instantly—from scowling to smiling, faster than flipping a page. “That’s more like it. Wouldn’t it have been easier to do this from the start?” Ethan also relaxed, a smile appearing on his face as he walked over to put his arm around me. “I knew you couldn’t let me go.” I stepped aside, dodging his hand. My mom stood frozen, looking at me with red-rimmed eyes full of disappointment. My dad turned his face away, his shoulders shaking. I couldn’t bear to look at them. I turned and opened the dressing room door, walking out. As I left the dressing room, Ethan followed behind me. “Sophia, wait for me.” I didn’t stop. “By the way, I didn’t just invite ex-girlfriends,” I said. He froze, catching up to grab my arm. “What do you mean? Who else?” I didn’t answer. “Say something! Sophia! Who else did you invite?” I shook off his hand and kept walking. The MC approached. “Bride, can we start?” I nodded. “Let’s begin.” The music started. I walked onto the stage. Ethan stood opposite me, smiling stiffly, his eyes constantly glancing at those three empty tables. The MC announced loudly: “Does anyone here object to this union?” As soon as he finished speaking, the banquet hall doors burst open. A woman walked in. She wore a loose dress, one hand supporting her slightly swollen belly, walking step by step to the front of the stage. When Ethan saw her face, he froze completely. “Why are you here?” She didn’t look at him. She raised her head to address everyone, her voice not loud but every word clear: “I object. And so does the baby in my belly.” The entire hall erupted. I looked at her belly, then at Ethan’s face, which had turned deathly pale in an instant. In that moment, I understood everything. I raised my hand and slapped him hard across the face. The crack echoed through the silent hall. Ethan covered his face, eyes wide, staring at me. Before he could speak, the doors moved again. A second woman walked in. “I object too.” A third. “I also object.” Fourth, fifth, sixth… Over thirty women walked in one after another. Five of them were visibly pregnant. They lined up in three rows in front of the stage, all staring at Ethan. The entire venue exploded. People stood up, some screamed, some held up their phones to record. Ethan’s face was deathly pale, his whole body trembling on stage. He shouted at security: “Get them out! All of them out! Security!” Security rushed up to remove the women. The women struggled, screaming “scumbag” and “liar,” their voices sharp and piercing. Ethan grabbed the microphone, his voice shrill and panicked: “Continue the ceremony! Ignore them! Continue!” I smiled. I took off my ring and threw it hard at his face. “No need to continue. I object too.” I turned to face everyone below the stage, saying slowly and clearly: “I organized this wedding to expose this scumbag.” The big screen lit up. Ethan’s expression changed instantly. He rushed over frantically: “Turn it off! Turn it off now!”

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On the fifth day of my postpartum recovery, my husband suddenly brought his mistress into the VIP postpartum suite. He yanked off my blanket and forcibly exposed my engorged chest to the air. “Her kid just got weaned and is throwing tantrums. You’ve got plenty of milk—hurry up and pump a bowl to feed him!” He moved toward me with a breast pump without any regard, his eyes looking at me like I was a free dairy cow. I desperately tried to cover my chest, but he pinned my wrists to the bed with a death grip. His mistress stood beside him holding a bowl, smacking her lips with malicious intent. “Summer, you’re a mother now. Can’t you even spare some milk? How can you bear to watch my child go hungry?” In my panic, I grabbed the scalding hot chicken soup that had just been delivered to my bedside and threw it at them. “Then have this bowl of soup too!” “Murder!” The boiling chicken soup, meat and all, hit her face. The greasy broth dripped down. Ethan raised his hand and slapped me hard across the face without hesitation. “Summer, are you insane?!” My ears rang. I stared in disbelief at this man I’d been with for years. “You dare hit me?” Ethan’s face was full of rage as he pointed at my nose and cursed. “So what if I hit you? Look at what you’ve done!” “Rose came here out of the goodness of her heart to see you. Fine, you won’t give milk, but then you throw boiling water on her!” “How can a woman be so vicious? Has your conscience been eaten by dogs?” Rose covered her face and rolled on the ground. “Oh my face! It’s ruined!” “Ethan, your wife is too cruel. I just felt bad that my little Toby had no milk to drink!” “She’s so engorged—what’s wrong with pumping out a little? It’s not like we’re asking her to die!” “I think she just looks down on us poor relatives from the countryside. She despises us!” Ethan grabbed my collar and yanked me up from the bed. “Summer, get on your knees and apologize to Rose right now!” “If you don’t make Rose happy today, forget about finishing your postpartum recovery!” I looked at him coldly. “Ethan, did they inject progesterone shots into your brain?” “I’m your wife. I just gave birth to your daughter five days ago!” “You bring another woman into my room, forcibly strip my clothes, and want to feed my milk to a three-year-old?” “You call that human behavior?” Ethan showed no remorse. “So what if he’s three? Three-year-olds need nutrition too!” “Your milk would just go to waste anyway. Might as well feed it to my nephew to boost his brain.” “Besides, Rose has doted on me since I was little. Without her, I wouldn’t be where I am today.” “You married me, so you have to honor her with me. That’s the rule of the Anderson family!” I laughed bitterly. “Honor her? With my breast milk?” “Ethan, are you sick? If you’re sick, go get treatment. Don’t act crazy here!” As I spoke, I reached for the call button by the bed. Ethan was quick. He grabbed the cord and yanked it hard. “Want to call for help? You think this isn’t embarrassing enough? I’m the one who’s embarrassed!” “Let me tell you, Summer—today you’re pumping that milk whether you like it or not!” He turned to look at Rose, still playing dead on the floor. “Rose, stop crying. Grab the breast pump.” “I’ll hold her down, you pump it. We’re bringing back a bowl for Toby no matter what.” Hearing this, Rose immediately scrambled up from the floor. “Ethan really does care about me. Summer, don’t take this the wrong way, but women are just milk-producing tools after having kids. Now that you’re producing, who cares who drinks it?” I struggled desperately, kicking and crawling toward the corner of the bed. “Get away from me! Don’t touch me!” “This is illegal! I’m calling the police!” Ethan pounced on me, his knee pressing hard on my freshly sutured abdomen. “Call the police? Go ahead! Can the police stop a husband from having his wife pump milk?” “You’re just a selfish, poisonous woman who won’t even make this small sacrifice!” He pinned my hands down, twisting my arms behind my head. Rose took the opportunity to lunge forward and rip open my hospital gown.

“Ethan, if you let her touch me today, I will never forgive you!” Ethan snorted coldly, his eyes full of disdain. “Never forgive me? You’re just a receptionist. Without me, could you even survive?” “If I hadn’t been charitable enough to marry you, you’d still be starving in some rental apartment!” “This VIP postpartum suite costs eighteen thousand a day, and my mother paid for it. What right do you have to make a scene here?” Eighteen thousand a day, paid by his mother? Absolutely ridiculous. Just as Rose’s breast pump was about to touch me, urgent knocking suddenly came from outside. “Is the patient in room 602 okay? Did someone press the call button?” A nurse’s voice came from outside the door. Ethan put on a gentle, refined smile and went to open the door. “Nurse, it’s nothing.” “My wife just gave birth and her emotions are unstable. She accidentally touched the cord.” The nurse looked inside suspiciously, her gaze landing on Rose’s oil-stained clothes. “What happened to this lady?” Ethan sighed, putting on a helpless expression. “My wife has postpartum depression and a bad temper. She just threw soup on Rose.” “We’re trying to calm her down. I’m so sorry for the trouble.” The nurse looked at me lying pale in the bed. “Emotional fluctuations after childbirth are normal. Family members need to be understanding.” “However, if there are violent tendencies, I suggest bringing in a psychologist.” I used all my strength to call for help. “Help me! He’s abusing me!” But my voice was extremely weak. Ethan walked over and held my hand with fake concern. “Summer, I know you’re suffering. Stop talking nonsense.” “Nurse, you can go ahead. I’ll take good care of her.” The nurse nodded and closed the door as she left. The moment the door closed, the tenderness on Ethan’s face vanished instantly. “Smart move, not saying anything crazy.” “Otherwise I’ll send you to a mental hospital where you’ll never see your daughter again!” I didn’t argue back. Fighting head-on now would only hurt me more. Just then, the hospital room door was pushed open again. My mother-in-law, Martha, walked in carrying large bags. “Oh my goodness, Rose, what happened to you?” Rose immediately threw herself at Martha, crying dramatically. “Martha, you have to help me!” “I came to see her out of kindness, and not only won’t she feed Toby, she threw boiling soup on me!” “If my face is ruined, how can I face people?” Martha immediately pointed at my nose and started cursing. “Summer, you dare hit my niece?” “We let you stay in such a nice place—did we bring you here to be some pampered young mistress?” “Rose came all this way. What’s wrong with asking you for some milk?” “Your milk is so fishy anyway. My Toby drinking it is doing you a favor!” I endured the pain from my incision and asked hoarsely: “Ethan said you paid for this VIP postpartum suite?” Martha hesitated, her eyes dodging. “Of course! If I didn’t pay, did you?” “Your pathetic monthly salary couldn’t even afford the toilet here!” A mocking smile appeared at the corner of my mouth. “Really? Then I’ll check the payment records tomorrow to see exactly who paid.” Ethan impatiently grabbed Martha’s arm. “Martha, don’t bother with her. She’s a lunatic right now.”

Ethan turned to look at Rose, his tone ingratiating. “Rose, I’m really sorry about today. She’s so emotional right now, her milk probably isn’t good anyway.” “If Toby drinks it and gets indigestion, that would be bad.” “Why don’t you go take a shower and change clothes? Stay here tonight.” My eyes flew open. “What did you say? Let her stay here?” This was a single VIP suite. Although there was a caregiver bed, it absolutely couldn’t accommodate a third person. Ethan rolled his eyes at me, his tone matter-of-fact. “Why not? This room is so big—leaving it empty is wasteful.” “Rose took an overnight bus to come see you. You want her to stay in a hotel? That costs money!” “Besides, Rose has had a child. She has experience. She can stay and help take care of you during recovery.” I laughed coldly. “Take care of me? Is she here to take care of me or to drain me dry?” Martha slammed her hand on the bedside table. “Summer, don’t be so ungrateful!” “Rose staying is an honor for you. Don’t be ignorant of your blessings.” “It’s settled. Rose sleeps on the caregiver bed, Ethan sleeps on the couch.” “As for you, don’t moan and groan at night and disturb their sleep!” Ethan opened the premium postpartum meal that had just been delivered and started eating with his fork. “The food at this VIP postpartum suite really is good. Better than restaurants outside.” I watched him eat with gusto. “That’s my postpartum meal. I haven’t eaten yet.” Ethan didn’t even look up. “You just threw soup everywhere. You’re probably too upset to eat anyway.” “This stuff gets fishy when it’s cold. Me eating it for you is saving food.” “Besides, you only gave birth to a useless daughter. What’s the point of eating so well? Whether you supplement or not makes no difference.” Rose walked out of the bathroom wearing my pajamas, staring at the empty plates and swallowing. “Oh my, Ethan, you ate it all? You didn’t leave me any.” Ethan wiped his mouth. “Rose, there’s bone broth in the kitchen. I’ll get it for you.” He actually ran to the kitchen and brought out a bowl of premium bone broth. It was specially prepared by the hospital to replenish my blood and qi. Rose picked up the bowl and frowned in disgust. “What is this stuff? It’s all slimy. Looks disgusting.” Ethan quickly explained. “Rose, this is good stuff!” “Women who eat it get beauty benefits. Hurry and try it.” Rose picked up the spoon and was about to put it in her mouth. The hospital room door suddenly burst open as a chubby kid charged in. “Mommy! I want meat! I want meat!” This was Rose’s three-year-old son, Toby. He slammed into Rose’s legs, nearly knocking over the bone broth. “Oh my precious baby, how did you get in here?” At the door, an old woman with a fierce face, Edna, poked her head in. “The security guards at this hospital are so blind. They wouldn’t let me in. Luckily my clever grandson snuck in when they weren’t looking.” I looked at this whole clan of people and felt my temples throbbing. “Ethan, get them out of here immediately! This is a VIP postpartum suite, not your village marketplace!” Ethan’s face darkened. “You shut up! This is Rose’s mother-in-law. How dare you talk like that?” Toby saw the bone broth in Rose’s hands and immediately reached for it. “I want that! I want it!” Rose quickly handed the bowl over. “Okay, okay, Toby eat it. Eat more to grow tall.” Toby scooped a big spoonful into his mouth. The next second, he spat it all out onto the carpet. “Disgusting! What is this garbage!”

Crash! The porcelain bowl shattered on the floor. I looked at the mess and shouted sternly. “You spoiled brat! Do you have any manners?!” Toby was startled by my voice, then immediately burst into loud tears. “Bad lady yelled at me! Bad lady!” Rose immediately hugged her son protectively and yelled at me. “Summer, what are you doing? You’re an adult picking on a child?” “It’s just a broken bowl! Toby’s a boy—him breaking your bowl brings you good fortune!” Edna also charged forward, pointing at my nose. “That’s right! Our Toby is the only boy in our family. He’s precious!” “You only gave birth to a useless daughter. What right do you have to yell at my grandson?” Not only did Ethan not stop them, he stepped forward. “Summer, apologize to Toby right now. You scared him. If he has nightmares tonight, I won’t let this go!” This was the simple, honest family I once believed in. “Apologize?” “Dream on.” Ethan’s patience seemed completely exhausted as he rushed over and ripped off my blanket. “Fine, you won’t apologize?” “I think you’ve gotten too comfortable in this VIP room and forgotten who you are!” He turned to Rose and Edna. “Rose, Edna, you sleep in this bed tonight.” “This mattress is imported, really soft. Perfect for Toby.” Rose’s eyes lit up as she immediately carried Toby over. “Oh my, how could I?” Despite her words, she’d already plopped down on the edge of the bed. I was horrified, clutching the sheets desperately. “Are you insane? This is my hospital bed!” Ethan grabbed my neck and started dragging me off the bed. “Your hospital bed?” “You’re a useless woman who gave birth to a girl. What business do you have in a VIP room? Go sleep on the benches in the hallway!” I’d just had a C-section five days ago. The wound wasn’t fully healed yet. Being dragged so roughly, a tearing pain shot through my abdomen. I broke out in a cold sweat, my hands desperately clawing at his. “Ethan, this is attempted murder!” Ethan winced but instead of letting go, he pressed me harder to the floor. “Murder? I’m disciplining my disobedient wife!” “If you don’t give up that bed today and pump that milk, I’ll beat you to death!” Rose fanned the flames gleefully from the side. “Ethan, you have to be harsh with women like this.” “If you don’t beat them, they won’t behave. Once you beat them into submission, they’ll know how to serve people.” Edna chimed in. “Exactly! In our village, what woman doesn’t get back to work right after giving birth?” “She’s the only one who’s so delicate, staying in some VIP postpartum suite. Bah!” I hit the cold floor hard. My wound split open. Blood stained my hospital gown. I stared at Ethan with eyes full of hatred. “Ethan, you’re going to regret this.” Ethan looked down at me from above, his eyes full of contempt. “Regret? The biggest regret of my life was marrying you!” “You think you’re something special?” “I’ll tell you the truth—I’ve been sick of your high-and-mighty act for a long time!” “Once you finish postpartum recovery, get the hell out of my house. You leave with nothing!” As he spoke, he raised his foot, about to kick my stomach. Rose shouted excitedly from the side. “Kick her! Teach her a lesson!” Just as Ethan’s foot was about to land in that critical moment— BANG! The heavy solid wood door was kicked off its hinges. The door slammed into the wall with a deafening crash. “Who are you telling to leave with nothing?” Ethan shuddered, his foot frozen in midair. Everyone in the room turned around in terror.

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My boyfriend Ethan brought me home to meet his family. His adopted sister Leah had just gotten out of the pool, and her bikini strap had snapped. She let out a little cry, hands flying to her chest, and ran straight toward Ethan. “Ethan, the strap broke! Help me tie it back on!” The butler and servants all lowered their heads. Ethan seemed completely used to this. He took her hand, turned her around, and expertly tied a knot. His hand even slid across Leah’s bare back as he said flippantly, “What kind of cheap stuff did you buy? Next time I’ll get you something better.” I was so angry I nearly blacked out. “Ethan!” I snapped. “Are my words just going in one ear and out the other?” Leah turned back to look at me with timid eyes. “Claire, don’t read too much into it. We’re just siblings. If something was really going on between us, I’d already be the lady of this house, wouldn’t I?” After saying that, she turned back around, her voice taking on a coquettish tone. “Ethan, I’ve told you so many times—after you tie the bikini straps, you need to adjust things properly so the shape looks good!” “You’re like a block of wood. You totally ruined the shape.” Leah actually reached into her bikini right then and there, adjusting herself in front of Ethan like no one else was watching. And Ethan didn’t look away at all. His eyes dropped to her chest and stayed there for two full seconds. Then he sighed helplessly and actually reached out like he was about to help her. “Leah, don’t you have hands?” I finally snapped. I strode forward and planted myself between them. “Ethan, am I dead to you? Is this something you can just ‘help’ with? Even if you grew up together, there’s a line between men and women. Don’t you two have any sense of boundaries?” The more I thought about it, the angrier I got. I’d always known Ethan had an adopted sister. But I had no idea they were this close—completely crossing the line between siblings. In front of all these people, and in front of me, they could do something like this. I didn’t dare imagine what went on when they were alone! The moment I finished speaking, the air went still for a beat. Then Ethan suddenly burst out laughing and wrapped his arm around me. “Jealous?” He nuzzled my neck with his nose. “You’re right. I’ll be more careful from now on, okay? Don’t be mad. Besides, I completely see Leah as a kid. Looking at her is like looking at my own daughter.” That only added fuel to the fire. He still didn’t think he’d done anything wrong. Daughter? What kind of father ties his twenty-year-old daughter’s bikini and runs his hand down her back while he’s at it? I shoved his hand away irritably. Before Ethan could say anything, Leah clicked her tongue impatiently. “Come on, Claire. Ethan coaxing you once is cute. If you keep this up, you’re just being unreasonable.” Ethan’s mother—my future mother-in-law—walked over carrying a fruit platter, a polite smile plastered on her face. “Claire, it’s your first time visiting our home. Let’s not make a fuss over something so small. Ethan and Leah are just close. You’ll get used to it.” She handed me a piece of watermelon. “Leah grew up without parents. We all love her like she’s our own. Ethan especially treasures her. Please be understanding.” I was trembling with rage. Everyone around me was looking at me like I was overreacting. Including Ethan, who clearly didn’t think his behavior—or his family’s words—was problematic in the slightest. I took a deep breath, about to speak, when Leah suddenly started complaining loudly. She stamped her foot at Ethan. “Ethan, I’m hungry! Didn’t you say the chef was making sushi today? I can’t wait anymore!” Ethan’s brow immediately furrowed. He looked at me, his tone cooling. “Are you done making a scene? Can we go eat now? Leah has a sensitive stomach. If she goes too long without eating, it’ll hurt.” In that instant, my heart went cold. Was I the one making a scene? All he talked about was Leah. Because Leah wanted to eat, I had to swallow my grievances. With such a wonderful sister around, why did he even need a girlfriend? I closed my eyes, forcing back the sting of tears. “I’m done. Done making a scene, and done with you. Ethan, let’s break up.” The moment I turned to leave, I paused and looked back at Leah. “By the way, I heard siblings who are close sleep in the same bed to deepen their bond. I wish you and your brother a happy life together.” I strode toward the door. Ethan suddenly grabbed me, yanking me back so hard I stumbled. He gripped my wrist so tightly my bones ached. “Can you please give me some face in front of my family? Stop being so unreasonable!” “Tell me what you want to eat. After dinner, I’ll have the driver take us shopping. I’ll spend time with you properly, okay?” His tone softened, as if this were some enormous compromise. I laughed. Everything came after his precious sister. What was I to him? I wrenched my arm free and looked at my wrist, now red from his grip. I sneered. “No need, Mr. Brooks.” With that, I turned and walked away without hesitation. This time, Ethan didn’t follow. Behind me, I heard Leah’s gleeful voice. “Ethan, what’s wrong with her? We already said we’re siblings, but she insists on imagining there’s something between us. Total paranoia!” Ethan’s mother was sighing too. “Ethan, is this really the type of girl you like? She has such a temper. She’s going to cause trouble if you take her out.” Ethan rubbed his temples irritably and casually slung his arm over Leah’s shoulder as they walked toward the dining room. “Mom, drop it. I’m annoyed. Forget about her. If she wants to leave, let her leave.” “Come on, Leah. Let’s get you that coffee you love.” Tears streamed down my face instantly. I held them back as hard as I could, but the moment I got into the cab, I broke down completely. For this man, I’d turned down the stable job my parents had arranged and moved to his city all by myself. We’d been together for three years. I thought our love was unshakable. What an idiot I’d been!

The moment I got back to the apartment we shared, I started packing my things. For two whole days, Ethan didn’t call or text me once. I forced myself not to be pathetic and started planning my new life. I messaged the HR department of a company I’d previously turned down, asking if the Director’s Assistant position they’d offered me was still available. They replied quickly, saying the position was still open and asking when I could start. I told them next Monday. Just when I thought this chapter of my life was closing and I was ready to start fresh, the doorbell rang. I opened the door. Ethan stood there holding a huge bouquet of blue roses, though his expression showed little remorse. “Surprise!” He forced out a stiff smile and thrust the flowers forward like he was checking off a task. “Babe, I’m here to apologize. Forgive me, okay?” Even as he spoke, his eyes drifted over my shoulder into the apartment, as if checking for something. Before I could respond, Leah suddenly appeared from behind him. She shoved an elegant gift box into my arms with a bright smile. “Claire, don’t be mad. Getting angry all the time is bad for your skin.” With that, she breezed past me like she owned the place, slipping on house slippers and walking right in. Those were the fuzzy slippers Ethan had bought me—my favorite pair. Ethan immediately followed her in, not even glancing at me. All his attention was on Leah. “Careful. Don’t trip.” He pulled me onto the couch. “Baby, look—Leah even came all this way to apologize to you.” He opened the gift box. Inside was a necklace with a huge diamond that was almost blinding. “Remember that ‘Heart of the Ocean’ you glanced at during the auction? I bought it for you. Do you like it?” My heart skipped a beat. Before I could process it, he moved behind me and personally fastened the cold necklace around my neck. “It’s beautiful,” he murmured, his breath tickling my ear. “It suits you.” Leah, who’d been standing silently to the side, suddenly spoke up. Her tone carried just the right hint of envy. “You’re so lucky, Claire. Ethan treats you so well. I’m honestly jealous.” She stepped closer, staring directly at the necklace around my neck. Her lips formed a little pout and her eyes began to redden. “Ethan, I’ve never gotten such an expensive gift from you my whole life. At the auction, I told you how much I loved this ‘Heart of the Ocean,’ and you just pretended not to hear me…” The warmth on Ethan’s face instantly froze, replaced by guilt and indulgence toward his sister. He coaxed her, “Leah, be good. Next time I’ll buy you something nice first.” “I don’t want next time. I like this one,” Leah started whining, reaching out to tug on my arm. “Claire, you’re the sweetest. Can you just let me try on the necklace? Just for a second. Let me see how it looks. Just to satisfy my little wish…” “I—” Before I could finish, Ethan was already frowning impatiently. “Just let her try it on. It’s just a necklace. Leah likes it so much—why are you being petty with her?” Without even waiting for my consent, he personally unclasped the necklace he’d just put on me and turned to fasten it around Leah’s pale neck. “Ethan, this necklace looks way better on me. Look how beautiful it is!” Leah’s tears vanished instantly as she twirled around, beaming. Ethan smiled indulgently, his eyes full of doting affection. “Our Leah looks good in anything. You’re a natural.” Watching the two of them laughing and playing around in front of me, I felt nothing but nausea. The necklace that should have been mine had spent less than a minute on my neck before becoming a tool to please another woman. I forced a bitter smile. “Is this why you came today? Just to disgust me?” Leah shook her head innocently. “Claire, how can you say that!” “My brother gave you the ‘Heart of the Ocean’ just to make you happy. He’s never bought me a necklace this expensive!” “Before he came, he even called to ask me for advice. I was catching up on sleep after jet lag, and he woke me up with that phone call!” “Honestly, he’s so clueless about how to make a girlfriend happy. Claire, you really need to teach him.” Ethan smiled and patted her head. “Come on now. What kind of sister talks about her brother like this in front of other people?” “I’m not ‘other people’! I’m your closest sister!” In the blink of an eye, they were laughing and playfully shoving each other again. The “Heart of the Ocean” diamond swung back and forth in front of my eyes, stabbing painfully at my vision. I reflected on what kind of temporary insanity had made me open the door for them. Nearby, Leah was being tickled by Ethan, laughing so hard she could barely stand. “You’re so mean! I’m telling Claire all your dirty secrets!” She squirmed free and nimbly ran over to sit next to me, pulling out her phone and opening her photo album. I kept my face cold. I wanted to see just how much lower they could sink.

She tapped on a video. The scene showed the Brooks family study. Ethan was handling some documents. Leah, wearing a silk camisole nightgown, walked in carrying a glass of milk. She set the milk on the desk but didn’t leave. Instead, she climbed directly onto Ethan’s lap. “Ethan, you haven’t told me a bedtime story in forever.” Ethan put down his pen and looked at her helplessly. “How old are you? You still want bedtime stories?” Leah wrapped her arms around his neck and whined, “I don’t care. I want one.” Then she suddenly leaned down and kissed Ethan on the lips. “That’s a down payment.” The Ethan in the video froze. Then his Adam’s apple bobbed and his eyes darkened. He didn’t push her away. Instead, he lifted his hand to her back, his voice turning husky. “You little vixen.” The video cut off abruptly, the image shaking violently. Outside the video, Leah was doubled over laughing. She wiped tears from the corners of her eyes. “I’m telling you, Ethan is so innocent. I was just teasing him and his face turned red as a tomato.” “But of course, he didn’t disappoint me. He carried me back to my room and told me stories all night long.” “No offense, Claire, but is your sex life a little… lacking? Ethan’s physical reaction was way too strong.” The video had just finished playing, freezing on Ethan’s face, written all over with desire. Ethan next to her reached out and flicked her forehead hard. “What nonsense are you spouting? Claire and I have a perfectly fine sex life. Mind your own business.” Leah refused to back down, and the two of them started roughhousing again like I wasn’t even there. The phone was tossed carelessly onto the couch by its owner. I calmly picked it up and sent that video—along with several other disgustingly intimate clips from her photo album—to my own phone. Then I deleted the sending history. When they’d finally tired themselves out, Ethan finally remembered I existed. He was still slightly out of breath as he looked down at me, his tone carrying a trace of commanding generosity. “Alright, you saw it. Even in that situation, all I did was tell her stories. I love you. That should be enough.” “So stop throwing tantrums, okay? Let’s just live our lives.” My chest felt stuffed with rage. So now he was the victim? But I forced that rage down and smiled, nodding. “Okay. I know I was wrong. I won’t do it again.” I was wrong, alright—wrong to think I could just walk away cleanly after breaking up. With scum like him and a homewrecker like her, if I didn’t ruin them both, how could I live up to the three years I’d wasted on him?

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Today was my prenatal checkup. Just as I was about to leave, my husband, Ocean Pack’s Alpha Kael, received a call from his Beta. “Alpha Kael, Lila is standing on the outside of the harbor railing, saying if you don’t come see her one last time, she’ll jump.” He fell silent for a few seconds, then turned to look at me. “Elara, something happened to Lila. I might need to go check on her.” I looked into his eyes and spoke calmly: “Does it have to be you? What about me and the baby if you leave?” Kael’s voice trembled, unable to meet my gaze: “The Beta already called the police, but she won’t let anyone near her.” He gripped my hand tightly, so hard that his knuckles made faint cracking sounds. “Elara, that’s a human life. I promise, once she’s safe, I’ll send her away immediately.” “When I get back, I’ll go with you to the prenatal checkup.” With that, he grabbed the car keys and left without looking back. After he left, I collapsed to the floor clutching my abdomen as blood trickled down my thighs. The housekeeper rushed over when he saw me and carried me to the car, taking me to the hospital. The doctor shook his head at me in the emergency room, his voice full of regret: “Luna Elara, we couldn’t save the baby.” I closed my eyes and nodded gently. The baby was gone. Kael, our fate together has ended as well.

In the third winter of my marriage to Kael, he brought back a young Omega named Lila from the border during a hunting trip. Lila curled up in his cloak, lifting her head to glance at me timidly. Kael said she was being hunted by rogues with nowhere to go, and he wanted to take her in as an assistant. He promised she wouldn’t overstep. But I clearly saw the tenderness in Kael’s eyes when he said this, looking at Lila. I wanted to refuse, but that day, Kael lost his temper with me for the first time. “How can you be so heartless? Where else can Lila go if she doesn’t stay here?” “As Luna, don’t you have any grace at all?” That day, I knew that Kael had crossed the line with this Omega. I watched his figure disappear at the end of the hallway and suddenly laughed. A tearing pain shot through my abdomen as warm blood soaked through my dress. This child that Kael and I had hoped for over three years ultimately couldn’t be saved. After the D&C procedure, I returned to the villa I shared with Kael, my face deathly pale. The old housekeeper drove very slowly, asking nothing the entire way. The car stopped in front of the villa. I was clutching my aching abdomen and had just pushed open the car door when headlights lit up from behind. Kael saw me holding my stomach with my pale face and froze for a moment. Then he took two strides over and scooped me up in his arms. “Elara, what’s wrong? Is your stomach bothering you?” His voice carried panic as his arms tightened, holding me against him. When he lowered his head, a cheap perfume smell wafted over. My gaze swept across his neck, where a fresh red mark was imprinted. After entering the house, I pushed away his arms and stepped back, looking at him with disgust: “Kael, let’s get divorced.” Kael froze in place, then his expression turned irritated and impatient: “Elara! How long are you going to keep this up? I already told you I’ll send her away. Why can’t you be more understanding?” I looked at the man before me, my memories somewhat hazy. In every wolf’s eyes, Kael loved me deeply. He would fight the Rogue King for precious supplies for my sake. He would brawl with the elders who opposed our engagement for my sake. These things once made me believe I was the happiest Luna in the world. Until Lila appeared. The struggle and pain on Kael’s face were just like when he knelt before me begging for forgiveness. The first time I caught Kael and Lila having sex in our marriage bed, he swore to the heavens that he would drive Lila out of Ocean Pack and never see her again. That proud Alpha knelt at my feet in front of both packs. He said he was just confused for a moment, that the one he loved had always been me. At that time, I touched the barely formed child in my womb, softened my heart, and decided to give him one more chance. But now I know this man isn’t worth it. Kael grabbed my hand and opened his mouth with what he thought was devotion: “Elara, I told you this is the last time I’ll see her. Didn’t we agree to make things work? Please stop fighting with me, okay?” Looking at him, I only found the man before me utterly disgusting. I was too lazy to keep arguing with him. I directly called the housekeeper to take me to my room without even glancing at him. The sound of Kael smashing things rang out behind me. I couldn’t care less.

I settled into the lakeside healing cabin in White Moon Pack. I sat by the window wrapped in a thick blanket, my hand unconsciously resting on my abdomen. The old housekeeper brought medicine and meals every day, never mentioning Kael or what was happening at the villa. I was content with the peace, wanting only to completely distance myself from that place full of lies and betrayal. On the third afternoon, the wooden door was shoved open violently. Kael walked in with a chill, carrying several exquisite gift boxes. “Elara, I’ve been looking for you for three days. So you’ve been hiding here.” I didn’t turn around, still looking out the window: “I’m not hiding. I just don’t want to see you.” He walked to my side, reaching out to touch my hair, but I dodged by tilting my head. His hand froze in mid-air, his tone carrying a hint of grievance: “I know you’re still angry. I’ve already sent Lila to the European branch. I’ll never let her appear before you again for the rest of my life. I’ve already done this much. What more do you want?” I finally turned my head to look at him. His reddened eyes looked affectionate and pathetic, but I only felt extreme disgust. Thinking about how he had held Lila with these hands, spoken sweet words to Lila with this mouth, made me nauseous. “Kael, I don’t want anything.” My voice was calm. “I just want to divorce you.” The ingratiating expression on his face instantly vanished. “Divorce? Elara, are you insane? Just because of one insignificant Omega? I already sent her away! Are you still going to hold onto this?” I looked into Kael’s eyes and suddenly remembered long ago, when I first met him. Back then, I met Kael at a bar and fell in love with him at first sight. I believed he was my mate, wanting to spend my life with him. But when I learned he was Ocean Pack’s Alpha, I hesitated. Powerful Alphas always had all kinds of temptations around them. I didn’t know if Kael truly loved me. My parents respected my opinion greatly. They said if I was unwilling, I didn’t need to worry about the century-old alliance. I could take my time finding an Alpha I liked. It was Kael who knelt before White Moon Pack’s altar, swearing to the Moon Goddess. “Elara, I, Kael, will never betray you in this lifetime.” “There will only ever be you as my partner.” “I will protect you and White Moon Pack with my life.” The vows in my ears seemed like yesterday, yet had long become the biggest joke. “Insignificant?” I laughed. “When she was having sex with you in our marriage bed, did you think that too? When you knelt at my feet swearing before both packs, did you think that too?” “That’s all in the past!” He slammed the table, the gift boxes tumbling to the floor from the impact. “I told you I was just confused for a moment! The one I love has always been you! Can’t you be more magnanimous? As Ocean Pack’s Luna, you should have a Luna’s grace!” “I don’t have that kind of grace.” I stood up, took the divorce agreement from the drawer, and threw it in front of him. “Sign it. Let’s make a clean break.” Kael’s face instantly turned pale. He picked up the agreement, his fingers trembling uncontrollably: “You had this prepared all along? You’ve wanted to divorce me all along, haven’t you?” “You forced me to.” I looked at him, my eyes devoid of any warmth. “From the day you betrayed me, things between us were finished.” “I don’t agree!” He violently tore the agreement to shreds, his eyes bloodshot as he looked at me. “The two packs’ alliance has been bound for a century. You think you can just divorce me? Do you want White Moon Pack and Ocean Pack to go to war?” “That’s your problem.” I walked around him toward the door. “I have countless backup copies of the agreement. In three days, I’ll formally submit the divorce application. If you don’t agree, we’ll see each other in court.” “Elara!” He rushed over to grab me, but I dodged to the side. “Get lost. Don’t let me see you again. You disgust me.” Kael looked at my resolute eyes and finally understood I wasn’t just throwing a tantrum. He clenched his fists tightly, nails digging into his palms. Finally, he glared at me fiercely and slammed the door as he left. The snow outside fell heavier. I leaned against the doorframe, slowly sliding to sit on the floor. Tears finally flowed uncontrollably.

I moved back to White Moon Pack’s ancestral home. Mom didn’t ask much, just brought the medicine she’d prepared into my room. At dinner, I put down my spoon and spoke: “Dad, Mom, the baby is gone. I want to divorce Kael.” I cried as I told them everything. Mom’s soup bowl crashed onto the table. Her hand trembled as she touched my flat abdomen. “My poor child, how could you bear all this alone for so long?” Dad’s face turned ashen. After a long silence, he slammed the table hard: “You must divorce that animal! No century-old alliance is worth more than a single hair on your head!” I leaned into Mom’s embrace as the grievances I’d accumulated for days finally broke through. I stayed at the ancestral home. I thought the divorce process would proceed smoothly, but when Dad returned from the territory council hall, he was shaking with rage: “That animal Kael! He’s forcing all the processing plants on the West Coast to break their contracts with us, cutting off our fishery sales!” I shot to my feet, blood rushing to my head. How dare he? How could he have the nerve? I grabbed the car keys and rushed out. I had to ask him if he had even a shred of conscience left. I pushed open the door to Kael’s villa. Kael was half-reclined on the sofa. Lila was wearing my silk nightgown, the moonstone necklace my father gave me for my eighteenth birthday around her neck. She nestled in his arms, feeding him grapes. My treasured white porcelain tea set was now being used by her to brew cheap fruit tea. Hearing the commotion, Kael’s head snapped up, his expression instantly darkening. Lila shrank back, burrowing deeper into his embrace. “Who let you in?” His voice was ice-cold, without a trace of guilt. “Aren’t you the one clamoring for a divorce?” I pointed at the necklace around Lila’s neck, my voice trembling: “Kael, this is my villa. Your little Omega is wearing my things.” “What’s yours and mine?” He frowned, his face full of impatience. “Lila likes it, so what if she wears it for now? As Ocean Pack’s Luna, how can you be so petty and mean?” “I’m petty? You’re working with outsiders to cut off White Moon Pack’s livelihood, and you have the nerve to call me petty?” “You brought this on yourself!” Alpha Kael shot to his feet, shielding Lila firmly behind him. “You insisted on forcing me to send Lila away, then sent rogues to intercept and kill her on the road! If I hadn’t arrived in time, she’d already be dead! I’m doing this to teach you a lesson!” I looked at Kael, finding it utterly absurd: “Kael, she’s not worth my effort to deal with. I find it beneath me.” Kael demanded sharply: “If not you, then who? Besides you, who else would dare hire assassins on my territory?” Lila peeked out from behind him, sobbing softly: “Luna Elara, I’m sorry. It’s all my fault. I’ll leave right now. I’ll never disturb you two again.” As she spoke, she started to get up, but Kael pressed her back down. “Don’t go!” he shouted. “With me here, no one can bully you!” Watching Lila and Kael’s coordinated performance made me nauseous. I wanted to leave this place of trouble as soon as possible. Kael turned to look at me, deliberately softening his tone as he reached for my wrist: “Elara, stop this. I’ve already arranged it. Next week I’ll send Lila to the Antarctic research station. I’ll never let her come back for the rest of her life. Let’s forget about all this and live well together, okay?” Looking at his hypocritical face, the last trace of attachment in my heart turned completely to ash. I pulled my hand back, a shallow smile appearing on my face: “Okay.” Kael froze, clearly not expecting me to agree so easily. The joy in his eyes was impossible to hide: “Elara, I knew you still had feelings for me!” I withdrew my wrist and spoke calmly: “However, next week is the renewal ceremony for the two packs’ alliance. After the ceremony ends, I’ll move back.” He nodded repeatedly, so excited he could barely speak: “Yes, yes, yes! Whatever you say!” I said nothing more and turned to leave the villa. The moment I closed the door, the smile vanished from my face. Kael. Lila. What you owe me, what you owe my unborn child. I’ll claim it all back, principal and interest, at next week’s renewal ceremony.

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1 I stood frozen outside the breakroom. Blood still seeped through the gauze on my cheek, but the tears fell faster. Roger’s voice carried through the door, cold and clinical. It was a blade that cut apart every shred of faith I had clung to for three years. “The moment I paid her mother’s hospital bills, I started the clock,” he said. His tone was unrecognizable from the man who once swore he loved me. “Jona needs that overseas commendation. Bianca is tough. And she is naive enough to take the blame.” So that was it. I was not a partner. I was a tool. A stepping stone. “Once she returns, I will convince her to transfer her combat medic merits to Jona. In exchange, I marry Bianca. It is a fair trade.” Fair? I spent three years dodging shrapnel, stitching wounds, bleeding for that commendation, all to clear a path for his favorite colleague. That was his idea of fair. His colleague slammed his coffee mug down and stormed out. He froze when he saw me in the hallway. Roger looked up. His eyes met mine, and his pupils tightened. My mind shot back three years. He had held my hands, looked into my eyes, and told me he loved me. But he said I had to serve three years as a combat surgeon to prove my devotion. Come back, and I will marry you. For three years, bullets grazed my head. Mortar fire damaged my hearing. I operated with insurgent rifles at my back. Every time I was near death, I told myself it would be worth it. Survive, and I could marry Roger. Everyone knew Roger was a genius with severe affective detachment. He could not feel emotions. But during the darkest year of my life, he took out his checkbook and operated on my dying mother himself. I thought he was my savior. I did not know he was leading me into another hell. “Roger, we are done.” My voice was terrifyingly calm. It felt as if those three words had drained the last life from my veins. … Roger frowned, clearly annoyed by the interruption. “Bianca, eavesdropping is incredibly unprofessional.” He stood up, adjusting his pristine white coat. “But since you heard it, it saves me the trouble of drafting a cover story. Come to the chief of surgery’s office with me this afternoon and sign the merit transfer over to Jona. Tomorrow morning, we go to the courthouse and get married.” I stood perfectly still, staring directly into his eyes. There was absolutely no warmth there. Just a barren, calculated wasteland. He didn’t even have the basic human decency to look guilty about getting caught in a lie. The veil finally dropped. He wasn’t terrified of losing me. He never loved me at all. “Let me repeat myself, Roger. We are breaking up.” “I am not giving my commendations to Jona. And I am absolutely not marrying you.” I spun on my heel and walked away. Roger lunged forward, his long fingers clamping around my wrist like a vice. I could hear the forced patience in his voice, masking a bubbling irritation. “Bianca, stop being irrational.” “You serve three years in a combat zone, and I marry you when you get back. That was the transaction we agreed upon from day one. Why are you suddenly backing out of the deal?” A transaction. The love I had literally risked my life to prove was just a line item on a ledger to him. I looked back at him, a bitter, broken smile twisting my lips. “Because you lied to me.” Roger blinked, genuine confusion washing over his handsome face. “You told me you loved me,” I whispered. “I would never put my life on the line for a man who was just using me.” He stared at me, totally lost. His emotional detachment meant the concept of “love” was like a foreign language he had never bothered to study. But for some reason, hearing me say those words made his chest tighten. His gaze flicked down to the fresh, bloody scrape on my cheek and my red, swollen eyes. A strange, suffocating pressure built in his lungs. He honestly wondered if he needed to schedule a psych evaluation. Something inside him felt medically wrong. While he was distracted, I ripped my arm out of his grip and kept walking. I hadn’t even made it past the outpatient corner when a chaotic scream ripped through the corridor. Before I could process what was happening, a hysterical middle-aged woman tackled a nurse against the drywall. She had a hunting knife pressed tight against the nurse’s carotid artery, twisting a fistful of her hair. “You worthless bitch! You gave me the wrong meds and killed my baby! You’re paying for my child’s life with yours!” I recognized the sobbing nurse instantly. It was Jona. Instinct overrode my trauma. My combat training kicked in, and I took a slow, calculated step forward to de-escalate. “Ma’am, I need you to breathe. Look at me.” “Do you know who I am? My name is Dr. Bianca. I’m a combat surgeon, you might have seen me on the local news. Just lower the knife, and we can figure this out.” The woman locked her wild eyes on me for a few agonizing seconds. She seemed to recognize my face. She pulled the blade a fraction of an inch away from Jona’s throat, swinging it erratically in my direction. “Figure what out?!” she shrieked. “Do you know how many rounds of IVF I went through?! I finally got pregnant, and this stupid slut mixed up my prescription! My baby is gone! And she had the nerve to tell me I was just genetically defective and deserved the miscarriage!” I took a deep, steadying breath, closing the distance inch by inch. “She was entirely out of line, and I am so sorry she said that to you. Listen to me. I went to med school with one of the best fertility specialists in the country. Her success rates are incredible. I will personally introduce you to her. You’re still young. You have so much hope left to start a family.” The woman’s crazed expression wavered. The hand gripping the knife began to tremble. She was breaking down. She was just about to drop the weapon. Suddenly, two hands slammed violently into the center of my back. I was shoved hard, launching directly into the woman. The sickening sound of tearing flesh filled my ears. The hunting knife buried itself straight to the hilt in my abdomen. Agony exploded through my nervous system like a live wire. The waiting room erupted into terrified shrieks. The grieving mother went pale, dropping the handle of the knife like it burned her. Hospital security rushed in, tackling her to the linoleum. Hot, thick blood pulsed out of my stomach, pooling rapidly onto the pristine white tiles. I clamped both hands over the wound, fighting the darkness closing in on my vision, and weakly turned my head to see who pushed me. It was Roger. He was the one who threw me onto the blade. 2 My vision blurred, but the sheer disbelief anchored me to consciousness. Roger was standing at the edge of the crowd. He looked down at me, doing a rapid, clinical visual assessment of my blood loss to calculate if the wound was fatal. Once he was satisfied I wasn’t bleeding out fast enough to die on the spot, his face went completely blank. He wrapped a protective arm around a trembling, crying Jona and walked away. I collapsed into the growing puddle of my own blood and let the darkness take me. When I finally opened my eyes, the harsh scent of antiseptic and sweet fruit filled my nose. I was in a private recovery suite. Roger was sitting in a chair beside my bed, meticulously peeling an apple with a surgical scalpel. “You’re awake,” he said smoothly. “I apologize. My psychiatrist informed me that my actions in the lobby were socially unacceptable.” “He said I shouldn’t have based my decision purely on the triage of survival probabilities. But looking at the variables, if that woman twitched, Jona’s carotid artery would have been severed. Immediate exsanguination. Zero chance of survival. By pushing you into the blade, I ensured you took the hit to the lower abdomen. Highly painful, but statistically non-lethal.” He finished the peel in one continuous ribbon and offered the apple to me. “From a purely mathematical standpoint, I made the correct choice.” “Let’s renegotiate our deal, Bianca.” I didn’t take the fruit. I slowly turned my head to stare at the wall. “Get the hell out of my room,” I rasped. Roger paused, clearly confused by my hostility. He tried again. “I recognize that your emotional state is volatile right now. Fine. You can keep your combat commendations. Consider this a trade for saving Jona’s life today.” “We’ll go to the courthouse tomorrow.” Another transaction. He was bargaining with my life like I was a used car on a lot. A wave of absolute, sickening revulsion crashed over me. I pushed through the searing pain in my stitches, threw my torso forward, and swung my arm. Crack. My palm connected violently with his cheek. But when I opened my mouth, a pathetic, broken sob tore out of my throat instead of a scream. “Stop treating me like an animal, Roger!” “You’re a brilliant surgeon! You know the anatomy! The blade missed my inferior vena cava by literally a fraction of an inch! If it had severed that vein, the mortality rate is one hundred percent!” “What if I had died right there on the floor?!” Roger froze entirely. For the absolute first time in my life, I saw something fracture behind his eyes. It was raw, unadulterated terror. He slowly lowered his head, his voice dropping to a hollow, tight whisper. “I’m sorry. I’ll take my cognitive therapy more seriously. I will learn how to protect you properly.” “Just… please don’t die, Bianca.” The room fell into a suffocating, heavy silence. When he realized I wasn’t going to look at him or speak another word, he set the apple on the nightstand and quietly walked out of the room. A second later, my phone buzzed on the table. I answered it. A deep, steady voice came through the speaker, grounding me instantly. “Bianca. I’m on a military transport plane heading your way. I’ll be touching down soon.” “Pack your things and come with me. That man doesn’t love you. He doesn’t even possess the biological capacity to understand what love is.” Tears spilled over my eyelashes, soaking into my hospital pillow. I felt like an idiot. A tragic, pathetic cliché holding onto a ghost. “But Wyatt,” I cried softly, “he saved my mom. He promised he was going to learn how to keep me safe.” “Let me be stupid just one last time.” Wyatt let out a heavy, frustrated sigh on the other end of the line. “And what happens if he’s just playing you again?” I closed my eyes, letting the last thread of my naive hope snap. “If he’s lying to me again, I’ll pack my bags and leave with you.” “And I will never, ever forgive Roger as long as I live.” 3 The next morning, I ate the apple Roger had left for me. We got back together. He visited my room every single day. Sometimes he brought fresh fruit. Sometimes he just sat in the armchair, quietly reviewing my chart and checking my surgical drains. He would awkwardly force himself to make small talk, trying to mimic what he thought a normal, loving boyfriend sounded like. His cognitive behavioral therapy was clearly making a dent. He was trying. But he was also the chief of cardiothoracic surgery. His schedule was brutal. On the Friday afternoon we were finally supposed to go get our marriage license, two emergency trauma surgeries got dumped on his lap. He rescheduled for the following week. But when the next week rolled around, a massive pile-up on the interstate flooded the ER. “Bianca, I’m so sorry. I can’t scrub out right now. Next week. I promise I will clear my entire afternoon next week.” “It’s fine,” I told him over the phone. “Save lives. Drink some coffee.” I was a doctor too. I understood the triage. I took the bitter disappointment swelling in my chest and locked it in a box. It was just another week. I survived three years of artillery fire; I could survive a few more days of waiting. Later that month, the hospital administration held a mandatory all-staff assembly. After the Chief of Medicine droned on about budget cuts, he switched gears. “Additionally, HR is rolling out a massive update to our internal benefits and payroll software. We need to update our dependent and marital status records.” “If anyone here has recently gotten married, please raise your hand so we can get a preliminary headcount.” A ripple of low chuckles went through the auditorium. Everyone knew this was the Chief’s way of publicly teasing the staff. I glanced to my right. Beside me, Roger slowly raised his hand. Immediately, a chorus of catcalls and whistles erupted from our department’s seating section. “Oh, come on, Dr. Roger! The whole hospital knows you’re dying to put a ring on Dr. Bianca, but raising your hand before the ink is dry doesn’t count!” “Seriously man, you two are making us sick with the lovesick puppy routine! Give us a date already so we know when the open bar is!” “Put your arm down, Chief, she’s not going anywhere! Just make sure you get the good champagne!” The good-natured teasing made my face burn. I smiled, a warm flutter in my chest, and gently tugged on the sleeve of his white coat. “Put your hand down, you idiot,” I whispered playfully. “He asked for people who are already legally married.” But as I looked across the aisle, my stomach dropped. Jona had her hand raised too. And she was staring directly at me, a vicious, triumphant smirk plastered across her face. Every alarm bell in my nervous system went off at once. A second later, Jona stood up. Her voice carried clearly through the massive room. “You guys have it all wrong.” “I’m the one who married Dr. Roger.” Dead silence. And then, absolute chaos. The auditorium exploded like a grenade had been dropped in the center aisle. Hundreds of eyes darted frantically between me, Roger, and Jona. The whispers morphed into a deafening roar of shock and aggressive gossip. The Chief of Medicine froze at the podium, completely blindsided. It took him a solid ten seconds to recover. “Alright, settle down! Shut it down! This is a professional environment, not a tabloid! Assembly dismissed! Everyone back to your wards!” I couldn’t hear the rest of his speech. It felt like a mortar shell had gone off right next to my head. The ringing in my ears was absolute. My entire body went numb. I stood up and moved like a ghost, letting the current of the exiting crowd carry me toward the hallway. Roger caught up to me in a deserted stairwell, grabbing my arm. He looked incredibly guilty. “Bianca, please let me explain.” “Jona’s father was my mentor in med school. He practically raised me. He has stage four pancreatic cancer. His dying wish was to see his daughter married to someone who could take care of her. We made an arrangement. I used this marriage to repay my life debt to him.” “But Jona and I already have a contract. The second her father passes away, we file for an annulment. Then I marry you. I swear.” I stared at his perfectly symmetrical face. My chest felt hollowed out, like someone had taken an ice scoop to my ribs. The cold draft howling through my empty chest was unbearable. “When exactly did you two go to the courthouse?” My voice sounded like crushed glass. Roger flinched. He dropped his gaze to the concrete floor. “It was… the first Friday afternoon we were supposed to go.” “Then why did you keep telling me ‘next week’?” I asked, my voice terrifyingly calm. “Bigamy is a felony, Roger.” He stared at his shoes, his voice laced with heavy, genuine remorse. “I’m sorry. I lied to you again. I just thought I could stall you long enough until my mentor passed.” The chill seeped all the way into my bone marrow. “Roger,” I whispered. “I am never, ever going to forgive you.” 4 I walked straight to the HR department and put in for an indefinite leave of absence. Given the spectacular public humiliation I had just endured, the HR director didn’t ask a single question. She just stamped my paperwork with a look of deep pity. As I walked out of the hospital’s main glass doors, someone stepped into my path. Jona. Her chin was tilted up, radiating the smug arrogance of a victor standing over a corpse. “Giving up already?” she sneered. “If Roger hadn’t promised me your combat commendations, I wouldn’t have even let you stick around to play his pathetic little side piece. But we’re legally bound now. If you keep throwing yourself at my husband…” “You’re nothing but a cheap, homewrecking whore.” Her insults didn’t even register. I was just exhausted. “You have zero class, Jona. You’re a disgrace to your father’s reputation,” I said coldly. “And regardless of your pathetic jealousy, you shouldn’t speak to the person who took a knife for you like that.” I don’t know which button I pushed, but Jona instantly lost her mind. “Took a knife for me?!” she shrieked, her face turning ugly. “That psycho bitch lost her kid because she was genetically weak! Her body was trash! It had nothing to do with me mixing up some stupid pills! And then she had the nerve to go slit her wrists at my house?! My family had to pay out a massive settlement to her gross husband!” “She should have just died quieter! Fucking white-trash parasites!” My expression darkened instantly. As a medical professional, her lack of empathy was horrifying. Mixing up a patient’s prescription was a catastrophic, lethal error. Instead of remorse, she was spitting on a dead woman’s grave. I opened my mouth to verbally tear her apart, but a blur of motion caught my eye. A middle-aged man in a filthy jacket was sprinting toward us from the parking lot, a massive meat cleaver gripped in his fist. Jona saw him. All the blood drained from her face. She let out a bloodcurdling scream and scrambled backward. The man swung the heavy blade wildly, catching Jona on the upper arm. She screamed again as he chased her toward the glass doors, roaring like a wounded animal. “My wife killed herself because of you, and you’re still out here running your filthy mouth! My family is dead! I have nothing left to lose! I’m sending you straight to hell, you murdering bitch!” Jona tripped over the curb and crawled frantically toward the hospital lobby. Patients and nurses in the atrium began screaming, scattering in total panic. My combat instincts took over. If an active shooter or a maniac with a blade got loose in a crowded hospital lobby, it would be an absolute bloodbath. I spun around and sprinted toward the danger. The man grabbed a heavy metal trash can and hurled it at Jona’s back. She went down hard, sprawling flat on the concrete. Before she could get up, he grabbed her by her hair, yanked her head back, and pressed the edge of the cleaver against her throat. “Run! Keep running, you piece of shit! I’m going to carve you up!” “Stop!” I yelled, skidding to a halt a few feet away, my chest heaving. “Don’t do this!” I pleaded. “Do you remember me? I’m Dr. Bianca! I signed the forgiveness waiver for your wife when she stabbed me!” The man glared at me, his eyes wild and bloodshot. His grip on the cleaver tightened. “Back off! I don’t kill innocent people!” “You’re a good person, Doc. But if you’re trying to save her—forget it!” Security guards began slowly circling us, drawing their batons. The man’s jaw set. He was fully prepared for suicide by cop. “I’m trying to save you!” I screamed, desperate to break through his psychosis. “You and your wife adopted a little girl, right? Lily! She’s eight! When I went to your house to drop off the legal waivers, I met her. She’s so smart! She already lost her mom; she cannot lose her dad today!” “If you die here, or rot in a cell, she goes into the foster system! They’ll tear her apart!” The man’s lower lip began to tremble. He stared into space, unconsciously whispering his daughter’s name. “Lily…” The cleaver shook against Jona’s skin. A raw, guttural sob ripped from his throat. “But I crossed the line! I don’t have a way back!” “Doc… please. Call social services. Tell them I’m sorry. I failed her…” Tears flooded his eyes. When a person cries heavily, their vision blurs for a fraction of a second. Their adrenaline spikes, then dips. It’s the ultimate tactical blind spot. This was my window. I shifted my weight, preparing to lunge forward and secure his wrist. Just wait for the blink. Now—! Suddenly, a violent force slammed into my spine. I was shoved hard from behind. I stumbled forward, completely losing my footing, crashing directly into the man holding the cleaver. The blade didn’t hit Jona. It went straight into my stomach. It slid perfectly into the exact same, partially healed surgical wound from a month ago. Except this time, the blade was wider, heavier, and it went so deep the steel tore through my back. A horrific fountain of arterial blood exploded from my torso, painting the concrete red. I collapsed to my knees, choking on copper, and slowly turned my head. I didn’t even need to guess. It was Roger. Bianca, my fading mind whispered to itself. You got played again. I hit the pavement, completely submerged in a pool of my own blood, and the world went totally black.

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On the twentieth day of the silent treatment between me and Carter Vance, he posted a picture holding hands with the high school prom queen on his Instagram. I quietly logged into my college application portal and changed my top choice to Seattle, thousands of miles away. At a party, his friend teased him: “Mia, if you don’t go apologize to him, Carter might actually end up with someone else.” I whispered, “I’m sorry.” Carter smirked. “Whatever. Go back and pack your bags. We’ll head to campus together tomorrow for move-in day.” I gave a vague response. Carter didn’t know that I had already bought a plane ticket to Seattle for tonight. 01 I am the daughter of the Vance family’s housekeeper. At the age of seven, I moved into a small room on the ground floor of their mansion. My job was to take care of his daily needs. For ten full years, serving him became a task etched into my bones. I was docile and obedient, and Carter’s mother often praised me. Carter, however, despised me. The first time we met, he was standing on the staircase wearing a white button-down shirt and dress shorts, looking as perfectly put together as a porcelain doll. I was wearing a faded, torn, oversized t-shirt, staring blankly at everything around me. His eyes could not hide his disgust. Mrs. Vance introduced me to him. She said I was Mary’s daughter, Mia. My father had run off, we had nowhere to go, so we came to rely on her. He didn’t say a word, just turned and went upstairs. Mrs. Vance told me that from then on, my job was to take care of Carter. My mom also told me that the Vance family was very powerful and that it wasn’t easy for us to be allowed to stay. She told me to keep my head down, work hard, and never do anything to anger Carter. I knew Carter didn’t like me, so to be able to keep living there, I tried to make myself as invisible as possible. Every day, I quietly helped him organize his clothes and tidy his room. For the first three months I was there, Carter didn’t speak a single word to me. That year, he got sick. Mrs. Vance was going through a difficult time and was traveling abroad. The family doctor came and prescribed medication, but by nightfall, his cough hadn’t improved. I remembered a home remedy my grandmother used to make: poached pears with peppercorns. When I made it and brought it to him, Carter looked at it with utter disgust. “Mia, are you trying to poison me with some weird country remedy?” I replied timidly, “It’s not poison. The pear is good for you; it stops the coughing.” Carter looked annoyed: “If it doesn’t work, will you get the hell out of my house?” I froze, standing to the side, not daring to breathe. Carter let out a scoffing sound and drank it. The next morning, his cough was much better. 02 Before elementary school started, my mom found a boarding school for me. It was a bit far, so I’d only be able to come home on weekends. I felt a wave of relief. Leaving the house meant my mom wouldn’t be put in awkward situations with the Vance family, and I wouldn’t have to deal with Carter’s moods anymore. While I was packing my things and waiting for the bus, my mom ran over, out of breath, to tell me the news. Mrs. Vance had arranged for me to attend the same elementary school as Carter. She wanted me to take care of him at school. I whispered, “Can I not go?” My mom grabbed my shoulders. “Mia, don’t be stupid. Carter’s school is prestigious. So many people want to get in but can’t.” I lowered my eyes and said nothing. 03 From then on, I became Carter’s sidekick. I followed him from elementary school to middle school. Getting his lunch, carrying his backpack, doing his homework. Everyone knew I was the tail he couldn’t shake. In middle school, he made a bunch of friends. I was the tail lagging far behind the group. Constantly monitoring Carter’s mood and his needs. His friends all said I was his devoted admirer. If Carter told me to go north, I absolutely wouldn’t dare go south. The only thing that never changed was Carter’s disdain for me. In eighth grade, Carter went out and got a jacket he really liked dirty. He pulled me out of bed in the middle of the night to hand-wash it. I was only wearing a thin spaghetti-strap nightgown, my face burning red with embarrassment. Carter mockingly remarked, looking away, “With a body that flat, who’d even want to look.” A seed of youthful insecurity quietly took root. In my sophomore year of high school, the academic pressure intensified, and I studied day and night. Carter suddenly decided he wanted to eat my cooking. He made me cook dinner every night and bring it to school for his lunch the next day. By the time I finished studying and cooking his food, it was past midnight, and I still had to wake up early to wait for him to go to school. At lunchtime, I heated the food and brought it to Carter. His friend put an arm around him and said, “Not bad, Carter, having your little wife cook for you.” Carter’s expression instantly turned cold. With a look of disgust, he tossed the food I had heated up to his desk mate to eat. I didn’t say a word, just waited silently for the guy to finish, washed the container, and went back to studying. That year, I finally seemed to start developing. I especially hated running during P.E. class. But I couldn’t get excused. I wasn’t Carter. During P.E., he was almost always playing basketball on the other court, and the teachers never said anything to him. When it was my turn to run, some guys would always whistle at me. I unconsciously slowed my pace. Noah Sterling from the class next door happened to walk by and handed me his school jacket. This caused a wave of whispers. I had seen him at the back-to-school assembly. I heard his family’s business was very well-known. He was polite and gentle, and both his looks and grades were top-tier. “Put this on. You still have half a mile to run.” I hesitated, but took it. Later, someone in my class spread a rumor that I was shameless, deliberately trying to seduce Noah by wearing his jacket. From the back row, Carter kicked over a desk with a loud crash. Everyone immediately shut up. That evening, Carter didn’t wait for me to go home. He said since I was so capable, I should have Noah walk me home. I sighed, took out some change, and went to take the bus. To my surprise, Noah was there too. He was quietly listening to vocabulary words and waved at me. I sat down next to him, and he took off his headphones. I knew the jacket incident had caused trouble for him too, and I softly apologized. Noah smiled indifferently. “Mia, just ignore the rumors. Focus on your studies. “We only have two and a half years until college. Have you thought about where you want to go?” Noah had a very gentle, handsome look, completely different from Carter’s sharp, aggressive features. I was momentarily stunned. Where did I want to go to college? I had never really thought about it. I only ever thought about how to get my grades higher, and then higher still. I didn’t have money for tutoring. My mom managed to borrow Carter’s notes for me. I had to admit Carter was smarter than me; he often understood concepts after reading them just once. I needed to repeatedly practice and review to consolidate my understanding. Having his notes was incredibly helpful. My mom said that when the time came, I should apply to the same schools as Carter. His family had money and resources; the school they chose would definitely be a good one. I didn’t know which university Carter would apply to. Noah smiled gently: “Think carefully about the school you truly want to go to.” When I got home, my mom said Carter wasn’t coming home for dinner. She asked me where he went. I shook my head and said I didn’t know. When Carter finally came back, it was past midnight. He looked exhausted, with some blood on his hands. He walked in, gave me a cold glance, and went upstairs. I softly asked if he needed me to bandage him up. Carter didn’t say a word and went upstairs. I continued researching different universities online. It was the first time. I clearly felt that I could leave Carter and have a place I truly wanted to go. Later, I anxiously asked my mom if she had ever thought about leaving the Vance family. After all, we couldn’t live there forever. My mom also seemed a bit lost. She said that ever since she divorced my dad, she had been working for the Vance family. Even though Carter’s temper could be erratic, Mrs. Vance was relatively easy to get along with. Over the years, I had never seen Carter’s dad at the mansion. I only knew from fragments of conversation. Carter’s family’s company was massive, and his dad was very busy. His parents had a bad relationship; their marriage was a business arrangement. After he was born, his dad got another girlfriend. Mrs. Vance took care of Carter. Besides working, she often traveled, leaving my mom to look after the house. My mom said she originally planned to work there until I graduated college, then take her savings and start a small business. I quietly asked if she had considered leaving when I graduated high school. My mom silently stroked my head and didn’t say a word. 04 Ever since the jacket incident, Carter found new ways to mess with me every night. Whether it was getting him water or organizing his desk. Or changing his bedsheets and washing his new clothes. I was just thankful that I was no longer sleeping in the same room as my mom, so she wouldn’t worry. If Carter didn’t sleep, I couldn’t sleep either. I had to constantly hover around him, doing chores. A few times, exhaustion took over, and I just fell asleep. I would always wake up on the sofa in Carter’s room. By the time I woke up, Carter would already be gone. I took the bus back and forth by myself. It took longer, but I felt much more relaxed. I thought, if I completely offended Carter, maybe he would just ignore me forever. But thinking about it, that was obviously impossible right now. I could only use doing practice tests as an excuse to stop spending time trying to please him. A week later, Carter had a basketball game. Usually, for his games, I would buy drinks and prepare a change of clothes for him. This time, I didn’t go; I stayed in the classroom memorizing vocabulary. My mom called, saying Carter had been in a bad mood lately. Mrs. Vance asked me to take good care of him. She had ordered boba to be delivered to the basketball court and asked me to go pick it up. I took the boba and sat on the sidelines. A few students were laughing and chatting. “I told you so, she couldn’t hold back. When Carter ignores her, she gets terrified.” “A simp has to know her place. She pretended for a few days, but couldn’t help herself.” I didn’t say anything. On the court, Carter went up for a jump shot, drawing a wave of cheers. He gave me a long, deep look, gesturing for me to hand out the boba. I handed them out to the others first. I brought the last cup to Carter. He stood with his hands behind his back, looking at me with a nasty glint in his eye. I stood in the sunlight, holding the boba out to him, facing everyone’s mockery. I whispered, “Carter, your boba.” Carter didn’t look at me, his voice casual: “Bring it to my mouth. I twisted my wrist; it hurts.” I put the straw in and held it up to him. Carter leaned down and took two sips. His friends whistled at him, and he smiled indifferently. I really didn’t understand why he was acting like this. Until I turned around and saw Noah Sterling sitting on the bleachers across from us. Was he trying to compete with Noah? Both had good family backgrounds. Both were exceptionally good-looking and smart. It was inevitable they’d be compared. I didn’t expect Carter, who usually never paid attention to anyone, to start noticing Noah. I didn’t think too much of it. Following Carter’s orders, I held the boba up to his lips. At least if Carter was in a good mood, he wouldn’t make things difficult for me, and I could get a good night’s sleep. 05 Two months before graduation, for Carter’s eighteenth birthday, he invited his friends out for karaoke. It was loud and lively, everyone was having a great time. Halfway through, Carter took a phone call, completely lost his temper, and smashed a bunch of bottles, scaring everyone into silence. His friend noticed something was wrong and tried to comfort him, but Carter yelled at him, so he quickly ushered everyone else out. I sat there, anxious, silently hoping to blend in and sneak out, terrified of getting yelled at too. Just as I reached the door. Carter spoke coldly. “Mia, get your ass over here.” Startled, I walked over to him. He scoffed, “What are you afraid of? Do I bite?” I quickly shook my head. “Where’s my gift? You came to my birthday empty-handed?” “I, I bought one. When I got here and saw everyone else’s gifts were so expensive, I didn’t bring it out.” I pulled out a fountain pen I had bought on a whim on the way there. It cost $15. It couldn’t compare to the designer brands the other students gave him. Carter snorted coldly. “Wow. Two years ago, you gave me socks. “Last year, you gave me shoes. I thought this year you were going to give me underwear, but this is it?” My face turned red at his words. I had actually planned out his gifts: socks two years ago, gloves last year. Because I got mocked for the socks, I saved up to buy shoes last year. This year, I had to save for college tuition. I didn’t have any extra money, so I just bought a random fountain pen. The shop owner had even decorated it with a pink ribbon flower. I apologized softly. “I’m sorry for making you unhappy.” “This isn’t the only thing you do that makes me unhappy.” Carter mocked with surprising calmness. Then he crooked his finger. “Come here.” I slowly took a step closer. Carter reached out, forcefully wrapped his arm around my waist, and pulled his head against me. His breath was scorching hot. I tried to push him away, but he exerted a little more force. I fell onto his lap. Carter was very strong. He buried his face in my neck, his lips leaving a trail of warmth. Shocked, I stammered, “C-Carter…” He seemed to freeze for a moment in his haze, then bit down on my neck. A sharp pain shot through my whole body. Held so tightly I couldn’t struggle, I finally gave up and endured the pain. After a long while, he returned to his usual self and spoke casually. “Mia, if you dare tell anyone, you’re dead.” Angry and flustered, I touched the bite mark on my neck. Carter’s expression revealed nothing unusual. Before we went back, he told me he was going to apply to Boston University. The bite mark forced me to wear a scarf to school, almost getting caught by my mom. She had recently found out from Mrs. Vance about the school Carter was applying to and told me to follow him. She would also occasionally ask Carter about the majors at Boston University. Carter would patiently analyze them for her. The way he acted in front of adults versus in front of me was completely different. He probably just saw me as an easy target. Mrs. Vance also said it would be good for us to apply to the same school, so we could look out for each other. His family had a mansion near the campus there. She even mentioned that Carter had overseen some renovations remotely two years ago. She said I could live there too when the time came. I just nodded obediently every time. As for where I actually went, it wouldn’t matter to Carter. There was no need to reveal my true plans. Time passed quickly amidst intense studying. Fortunately, Carter’s mood was relatively stable that year. He didn’t constantly look for reasons to make trouble for me. I had more time to study. But the tension only truly dissipated after the exams were over.

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