Category: English

In my past life, Jimenez asked me to meet him in the back alley to confess his feelings. I was sexually assaulted by a group of thugs, resulting in vaginal tearing and lifelong psychological trauma. When Jimenez arrived later, he held me and cried, making me a promise never to leave: “I’ll love you forever, even though your uterus is damaged and you can’t have children.” It wasn’t until after his death that I discovered his diary, filled with pages of regret. He regretted helping Aurora, the school’s cheerleading captain, hide the truth. It turned out he had fallen in love with Aurora long ago. Before confessing to me, he had rejected Aurora’s advances. Those thugs were sent by Aurora to get revenge on me. As I lay dying in a hospital bed, Aurora pitifully begged him to keep her secret. Jimenez nodded, helped Aurora, and eventually married me. When I opened my eyes again, I was reborn on the day Jimenez confessed to me. [Morris, meet me in the back alley after school. I have something to tell you. Come alone] I stared in disbelief at the message from Jimenez. I had actually returned to that most humiliating day. Because of this day, I suffered vaginal tearing and had to endure pubic bone pain day and night. After this day, Jimenez took me away from home, leaving my dignity behind in my homeland. My sense of self was shattered and rebuilt. Tears of excitement fell from my eyes. This time I finally had a chance to rewrite my life. Before this incident, I was a top student in my class with a bright future ahead of me. After this incident, I became a factory worker. I suffered so much just to reach the position that had once been within easy grasp. [Okay, I’ll wait for you] I put away my phone and headed straight to the coffee shop at the school gate. In my past life, this was where Jimenez broke things off with Aurora, which led to Aurora taking out her anger on me by hiring thugs to defile me. Now, I sat right behind them. Jimenez and Aurora sat facing each other, Aurora’s face showing shy delight. “What did you want to tell me?” “I’m sorry, I may have given you the wrong impression these past few days.” “I’ve thought it over seriously. I can’t lose Morris. What I felt for you was just temporary attraction. Can we still be friends?” Jimenez spoke on his own, completely oblivious to Aurora’s darkening expression. The server brought two cups of coffee but accidentally spilled them on Jimenez’s clothes, interrupting his words. “I’m so sorry, so sorry.” “It’s fine—” Jimenez suddenly stood up, scanning the surroundings in confusion. The moment he saw Aurora, he glared at her furiously: “Aurora, how dare you show your face in front of me?” Aurora looked bewildered. “What’s wrong with you?” He had been fine just moments ago, but suddenly he seemed like a different person. Seeing Jimenez’s strange reaction, I understood—he had been reborn too. Jimenez only froze for a second, then slowly sat back down after regaining his composure. “Your phone. Let me see it.” Aurora clutched her phone tightly, desperately trying to hide her panic. “Why do you want to see my phone?” “Never mind.” Jimenez rubbed his temples. “This is fine. After she’s been violated, she’ll be more docile and settle down with me.” Everything before me lost its luster. All I could hear in my head was that sentence—after she’s been violated, she’ll be more docile. So this was what he really thought. “Have you been well these past years?” Jimenez’s eyes showed cautious tenderness. Aurora relaxed and smiled faintly. “I’ve been fine.” As long as he didn’t continue that previous topic. Jimenez stared, transfixed, and the next moment his eyes reddened slightly. “That’s good.” “Can we hug, just once?” After the embrace, Jimenez turned his head and made a serious suggestion. “Transfer schools tomorrow. Don’t appear here again. This time I’m truly letting go.”

Aurora didn’t understand, but I knew why Jimenez said this. In my past life, the news of my assault by thugs spread like wildfire. When my classmates carried me home, my lower body was covered in blood. My parents only had one daughter—me. They went completely insane. They didn’t believe it was an accident. They suspected everyone they saw, especially anyone who had conflicts with me. Aurora was the main suspect. I was kind-hearted and rarely had conflicts with anyone. Aurora’s conflict with me stood out prominently. Later, when Jimenez took me far away to help me forget, my parents still wouldn’t let her go. If Jimenez hadn’t helped Aurora hide the truth, my parents would have found evidence long ago and sent Aurora to prison. Aurora’s reputation in our hometown became so terrible she couldn’t hold her head up. I heard she didn’t get into a good university, went abroad, and never came back. In my past life, Jimenez held me with such heartbreak, saying he wished he could tear the culprit to pieces. But when he actually saw her, Jimenez only covered for her, letting the tragedy repeat itself, even giving her his most sincere advice. It turned out the saddest moments are when you can’t even cry out loud. I quickly wiped the moisture from the corner of my eye with my fingertip, even forcing a self-mocking smile at the corner of my mouth. It wasn’t sadness—it was finally seeing clearly. Sitting in the back, I clearly saw that because of Jimenez’s reminder, Aurora secretly deleted the text messages and made an excuse to go to the restroom. In reality, she put money in an envelope and used a pay phone to communicate with the thugs. The two parties never met face to face. This time, Aurora had enough time to do things more discreetly. Jimenez didn’t stop her the entire time. Instead, he watched Aurora’s retreating figure with a longing gaze. Before Aurora came back with a bright smile, Jimenez ordered a Napoleon pastry and left with light, quick steps. Even his retreating back revealed barely concealed anticipation, as if rushing to keep a long-desired appointment. If I hadn’t witnessed his conversation with Aurora with my own eyes, I might have thought he was eager to see me. In this era, Napoleon pastries were a luxury. A small piece cost an entire month’s allowance. Occasionally buying one meant the whole family would share it. Yet Jimenez spent all his money to buy Aurora a Napoleon pastry. I remembered in my past life, my birthday came one month after that incident. That day my spirits were unusually good, and I really wanted a piece of cake. Jimenez looked troubled and told me we had to save the remaining money and couldn’t spend it carelessly. I didn’t know why, but I cried terribly, gasping for breath. Jimenez had no choice but to buy an apple, stick a candle in it, and let me blow it out. It turned out he did know how to cherish someone—I just wasn’t worth it. I watched Aurora joyfully scooping up the Napoleon with a spoon, eating it bit by bit. She was editing a text message, probably to Jimenez, with a sweet smile on her face. [Morris, are you there yet?] Looking at Jimenez’s message, I could feel his anxiety even through the screen. I sneered, turned around, and invited my desk mate to study together at the nearby library.

In my past life, my desk mate had asked if I wanted to study abroad with her in France. I didn’t need to worry about expenses—her family was willing to cover my tuition and living costs. I was especially interested in languages. Since childhood, I had learned fluent French by watching TV. Even then, a small seed had planted itself in my heart. I was determined to become an amazing translator. My desk mate was an immigrant from France. When she heard my spoken French, she was surprised that my pronunciation was so standard. She was an only child, and her family didn’t feel comfortable letting her travel alone. They would only allow her to venture to Europe if someone went with her. I hesitated back then, but ultimately refused. In my past life, I didn’t want to leave Jimenez. Then that incident happened, and Jimenez and I left school, abandoning our education. This time, I wanted to seize the opportunity and never let it slip through my fingers again. When I arrived, Figueroa was already sitting at our spot waiting for me, with various study materials on the table. “Since you’re the one who invited me this time, don’t give up easily. I don’t want to hear you abandon your dreams for Jimenez again.” She shrugged with feigned indifference. I smiled apologetically: “I won’t.” “All I want now is to study, go to France as soon as possible and realize my dreams. People need to take responsibility for their own lives.” There were no online classes at this time. Preparing for exams could only rely on self-study. But Figueroa handed me a brand-new French textbook. “Study hard.” I said nothing more and began seriously memorizing French. After about two hours, I finally looked up and twisted my stiff neck. “Let’s stop here for today. We’ll continue tomorrow.” Figueroa packed up her bag. I took out my phone. Instantly, countless messages popped up, all from Jimenez. [Where are you?] [I don’t see you] [Can you reply? I’m really worr—] The message was sent before he finished typing. I sneered. He wasn’t worried about me—he was worried the incident wouldn’t happen to me. I casually replied: [Sorry, I just saw my phone. I was reviewing with a classmate. You should head home first.] I did it on purpose, deliberately coming to the library so everyone could see me studying and serve as my witnesses. That way, if something happened to Jimenez, they couldn’t blame it on me. Jimenez didn’t reply. I didn’t care. On the way home, I heard passersby discussing in shock with their friends. “Oh my God, did you know? A male student at our high school was sexually assaulted by a group of thugs!” “I heard when they found him, he had rectal prolapse and was covered in blood!” “Those thugs are absolute scum!” “Who knows? Maybe that male student was promiscuous, deliberately looking for thrills, and things got out of hand with those thugs. Otherwise, why didn’t the thugs target anyone else?” Hearing the same rhetoric from my past life, tears nearly fell from my eyes. In my past life, they said the same things about me. Back then, I couldn’t listen to any gossip. I would rush at them, ready to fight. Jimenez advised me that mouths belonged to others, and even if I stopped them for a moment, I couldn’t stop them forever. They would still talk behind my back. He told me not to take it to heart. This time it was his turn. I hoped he could be just as open-minded. The thugs Aurora hired were quite reliable. Since I didn’t go, Jimenez was alone in the alley. So even if they had suspicions, they still dutifully completed their task.

“Mom, I’m home.” I entered with a smile on my lips. As soon as I put down my backpack, I saw Jimenez’s mother standing behind me like a floating ghost. She seemed to have been waiting at my house for a long time. With a dark expression, she saw me enter and—slap—struck me across the face. I had no time to react. I took her slap, and half my face instantly burned with pain, swelling red. My mom stepped in front of me, shouting angrily: “Are you crazy? What are you doing?” Jimenez’s mother was pulled disheveled by my mom, looking even more like a soul-stealing ghost, saying ominously: “Why didn’t Morris go when Jimenez asked to meet her?” “Then Jimenez had an accident.” My mom froze for a second. “Are you kidding me? Are you sick? Jimenez was the one who asked Morris to meet. What’s wrong with Morris not wanting to go? His accident was just that—an accident. Should Morris have taken his place? Do you have no shame? Should Morris have to experience all this?” “Honey, where the hell are you? Get out here! Someone’s bullying your wife and child, and you’re not coming to help!” My mom roared while protecting me tightly. My dad rushed out of the kitchen. As a grown man, he couldn’t hit her, so he used a broom to push Jimenez’s mother out. “Get out!” At the moment the door closed, I saw Jimenez lying on the ground, frowning. He wasn’t lying in the hospital at this time but came to my house—nothing good could come of this. Jimenez supported his upper body with both arms, barely propping himself up. His legs were wrapped in thick blankets, with blood stains faintly visible. His legs had almost no strength. He had crawled to my doorstep using only his hands, dust covering his entire body. Unable to hold on any longer, he collapsed heavily by the door. “Mom.” He frowned helplessly and called out. Jimenez’s mother seemed frozen in place. She slowly turned around, shocked, and rushed to support him. “Jimenez, why aren’t you in bed? Why did you come out?” My mom and Jimenez’s mother were best friends since childhood. My dad and Jimenez’s dad grew up together as close friends. Jimenez and I were childhood friends. Since childhood, our two families had been extremely close. So seeing Jimenez’s terrible condition, my parents couldn’t bear to drive them away. They quickly set up a folding bed for him to lie down. The two of them stood in front of me in perfect sync, like two impregnable mountains. “Jimenez, take your mom home quickly. During recovery, you need to avoid excessive movement.” “Rest well. You’ll recover in time.” Jimenez first looked deeply at me, his eyes surging with indescribable pain and deep love. My parents instantly became alert. Then he lowered his head politely: “Okay.” “I’ll go back and talk to my mom. This has nothing to do with Morris. I was just… too unlucky.” “Mom, let’s go home.” Jimenez’s mother held back tears, grief-stricken: “How can I accept this?” My parents were still kindly advising: “People have to look forward. There’s no obstacle that can’t be overcome. At worst, you can move…” Before they finished speaking, Jimenez silently pulled out a love letter from his bag, looking at me affectionately. “Morris, I know you’ve been reborn too.” “I don’t blame you.” “Even if it’s tit for tat, I’ve experienced what you went through in your past life. I know you like me.” “Marry me. We’ll live a good life together from now on.” Jimenez’s mother chimed in viciously: “If Morris doesn’t marry Jimenez, I’ll spread the word everywhere that Morris couldn’t have him and deliberately hired people to violate Jimenez. This love letter is the evidence!” “Don’t think you can get out of this!”

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On my wedding day, my bridesmaids decided to play a game and hide me among them. They blindfolded my fiancé, Ethan Shore, and told him to find his bride using only his sense of smell. Ethan and I had been childhood friends, dating for ten years. When he walked up to me, his eyebrow twitched slightly. I smiled, about to announce his victory. But Ethan walked straight past me to the first bridesmaid, Sienna. “Darling, I found you!” Sienna stood before him, her face flushing red instantly, looking shy and timid. My smile froze on my lips. The bridesmaids all fell silent. In the heavy silence, Ethan removed his blindfold and naturally positioned himself protectively in front of Sienna. When he looked at me, he casually added, “Sorry, wrong person.” He apologized. The groomsmen quickly jumped in to explain and smooth things over. “Come on, what guy doesn’t have a past?” “I remember back in the day, Sienna’s parents locked her in the house once, and Ethan was so worried he skipped his football game to find her.” “Not just that. Later when the teacher made him apologize, he publicly confessed his feelings to Sienna instead.” “And there was also…” They went back and forth, painting a vivid picture of their colorful youth together. Everyone seemed moved by the memories. Only I was left out, as if I hadn’t been their classmate at all. The heavy wedding dress pressed down on me. The air still carried the scent of Sacred Wood perfume. Ethan once said this was his favorite scent. I had started wearing it too, and never changed it since. So— He had recognized me. I just wasn’t the bride he wanted in his heart. He had recognized me. He just wanted to hold his first love one more time in front of everyone. My chest ached painfully. I looked at Ethan. He was completely lost in the past, exchanging frequent glances with Sienna. Only Quinn walked over to me, patted my shoulder, and loudly reminded everyone: “Why are you all talking about the past? Today is Chloe and Ethan’s wedding. They’re the stars of the show!” Quinn pulled me to the center of the crowd, smiling warmly. “Come on, bride, tell us about you and the groom.” “How did you two meet?” “When did you get together?” “How did he pursue you?” The room fell silent for a moment, all eyes on me. I opened my mouth, about to speak— “Yeah, yeah, tell us.” One of the groomsmen chimed in, his tone dripping with sarcasm: “Our Ethan stayed single all these years for Sienna. We’re all curious what kind of girl could land him.” Eight years ago. After high school graduation, Sienna chose to study abroad. Her breakup with Ethan was dramatic and public. Ethan had gotten drunk and stayed depressed for a long, long time. But later, he actively pursued me. Five years ago that summer, he pursued me for six months. He waited downstairs at my dorm every day, brought me umbrellas when it rained, saved seats for me before exams. When I casually mentioned wanting strawberry cake, he’d go buy it late at night. Back then, his eyes were full of me. All our college friends knew. Our current coworkers all knew. Only our high school classmates didn’t know. At every high school reunion, Ethan never clarified things. Everyone remained stuck in the memories of his youth with Sienna, treating it as something special. When Ethan and I announced our engagement, all our old high school friends assumed I had forced him into marriage. I could let it slide before, but today was my wedding. How could I not care?

“Actually, we—” I started to explain. “That’s enough.” Ethan cut me off. “What’s there to say? We just got together, that’s all.” My breath caught. The words stuck in my chest, suffocating and painful. Ethan seemed completely oblivious. He leaned against the doorframe, shirt sleeves rolled up to his forearms, his gaze fixed on the other side of the room. I followed his line of sight. Sienna stood by the window, sunlight falling on her. She wore a pale pink dress, her long hair draped over her shoulders, quiet and still, like a painting. She seemed lost in memories too, her eyes full of melancholy. Yet she pretended not to care, teasing Ethan instead. “The bride wants to share your story, and you won’t let her?” Ethan smiled faintly. Everyone’s attention immediately shifted to Sienna. “How about you tell us what Ethan was like when he was young?” “Did girls always like him?” “Were you two childhood sweethearts?” Sienna stood surrounded by people, her ears turning slightly red. She glanced at Ethan, then lowered her head, her voice hesitant. “Oh, that’s not really appropriate… today is your wedding with Chloe…” “What’s inappropriate about it?” Ethan walked over to Sienna’s side. “It’s just old stories. What’s wrong with sharing them?” He stood beside Sienna, very close to her. So close their sleeves almost touched. “Why don’t you tell them about the time we skipped class and got caught?” Sienna smiled with pursed lips. “You’re the one who insisted on climbing the fence. Then the dean chased us down half the street and dragged us back to write apologies.” “That’s because you couldn’t run anymore and I went back to pull you along. That’s why we got caught.” They exchanged a glance. Sienna’s face turned even redder as she looked down. Ethan didn’t look away. The corners of his mouth held that smile I’d seen for over ten years. I knew that smile too well. Not a perfunctory smile. Not a polite smile. But the kind with light in his eyes that only appeared when looking at someone he truly liked. These past five years. I thought I had earned Ethan’s smile too. But now I finally understood. In Ethan’s heart, there had always been a place for Sienna. Even though Ethan, Sienna, and I were all childhood friends. Everyone’s eyes could only see the two of them. “Enough of this already.” Quinn really couldn’t take it anymore. “Can we stop talking about ancient history? Let’s get on with the actual ceremony! Groom, find the wedding shoes!” Everyone finally snapped back to reality. The bridesmaids cooperated with Quinn, pushing Ethan toward the bedroom door. Some were laughing, some were cheering. Ethan entered the bedroom and started searching through everything. The nightstand, the closet, behind the curtains—he searched very carefully. At least it looked careful. But no matter where he searched, he always stayed on the right side of the bed. Sienna was standing on the right side. Every time he bent down, he got a little closer to her. Every time he stood up, his gaze landed on her first. “Shouldn’t you be looking for the wedding shoes near the bride?” Quinn frowned. “Groom, why do you keep going over there?” Ethan didn’t hear her, or if he did, he ignored it. He walked to the vanity by the window. Sienna was standing there. When she saw him approaching, she moved aside slightly and said something in a low voice. He smiled and bent down to open the drawer. Watching his back, I suddenly felt exhausted. Not physically tired, but the kind of bone-deep exhaustion that felt like being hollowed out. “Ethan!” Quinn finally lost her patience, her voice rising an octave. “If you don’t find the wedding shoes soon, we’ll miss the ceremony time! I’m telling you, if we miss the auspicious hour, Chloe won’t marry you! She’s got plenty of other suitors who want to marry her!” The room fell silent for a moment. Someone in the groomsmen’s group laughed. “Plenty of suitors?” The voice carried contempt. “I heard she was the one chasing after Ethan?” “Exactly,” another person joined in, his tone full of mockery. “If Ethan wasn’t so soft-hearted, she probably wouldn’t even—” “Enough.” Ethan finally spoke, his voice not loud, with a light, almost indifferent reprimand. “Don’t talk nonsense.” Then he glanced at me. Just a glance, quick, like an inadvertent sweep. No defense, no explanation, not even a frown. He said “don’t talk nonsense” with his mouth, but his tone was full of indulgence. So much indulgence that people felt— Those words weren’t really wrong after all. That was just how Ethan was. Five years. Every time someone misunderstood me, he would speak up for me. Except in front of high school friends. When he instinctively distanced himself from me in front of high school friends. Every word was like a knife, cutting into me one slice at a time. Five years of cuts. I lowered my head and looked at my phone. The screen was lit, showing Ryan’s chat window, still on that message: [Do you really have to marry him? How am I not as good as him?] I stared at those words for a long time, then sent a message: [Come to the wedding venue.]

After sending it, I held my phone in my palm and looked up. The living room was still noisy. Ethan was still rummaging around. Sienna stood beside him. The distance between them made me sick. “Where on earth did you hide the wedding shoes?” someone asked. Quinn glanced at me. I shook my head slightly. As my longtime best friend, she instantly understood. “Sienna.” Quinn walked over and grabbed her arm. “Did you hide the wedding shoes?” Sienna froze, looking up innocently. “I… I just put them somewhere random. I didn’t know…” “Where did you put them?” Sienna twisted her dress hem with her fingers. After a long pause, she said quietly, “I… I threw them outside.” The room fell silent for a moment. “Threw them?” Quinn’s voice changed pitch. “Where did you throw them?” “Just… in the flower bed downstairs.” Sienna’s voice got smaller and smaller, her eyes beginning to redden. “I don’t really understand these customs. I thought hiding the wedding shoes meant hiding them as hard as possible to find, so their marriage would be happier… I didn’t know…” Before she finished speaking, tears fell. After a few seconds of silence in the room, someone from the groomsmen spoke up. “Come on, Sienna’s never been married. She didn’t know. It wasn’t on purpose.” “Exactly. She threw them, so what? We’ll just find them.” Ethan said nothing, just looked at Sienna once, then sighed. That sigh held no blame, only helplessness. “I’ll go get them.” “Me too!” The groomsmen followed Ethan out. Sienna was about to follow when Ethan raised his hand to stop her. “Don’t come. It’s hot outside.” His voice was very gentle when he said this, like coaxing a child. Sienna nodded. Her tears hadn’t dried, but the corners of her mouth curved upward. Watching this scene, my stomach turned. A few minutes later, Ethan returned, holding a wedding shoe. “Found it.” But the shoe was covered in mud. The red satin was stained with a large dirty patch, looking utterly disheveled. “Can she even wear this?” Quinn frowned, picking up the shoe to examine it. “It’s so dirty!” “Just wipe it off.” Ethan’s tone was casual, as if discussing something insignificant. I looked at that filthy wedding shoe. My heart felt like it was being squeezed tight. “I don’t want it.” Everyone looked at me. “I don’t want it even if you clean it.” I said. “I want a new pair.” The room fell silent for a moment. Ethan frowned at me. “Where am I supposed to buy new ones now? We need to leave soon.” “Then we won’t leave.” I said. Ethan’s frown deepened, impatience creeping into his voice. “Chloe, stop making a scene. Just wipe them clean and it’ll be fine. No one will notice your shoes.” No one will notice your shoes. Those words were like a knife, stabbing precisely into my heart. For over ten years, Ethan had said so many things like this. Chloe, no one will notice you. In this childhood romance, I had been invisible for so many years. In the end, even Ethan himself believed it. I really wasn’t worth his attention. “Is it hard to buy them?” I looked at him, my voice calm. “Or do you just not want to buy them, Ethan? Because you don’t actually want this marriage at all?”

The atmosphere instantly froze. Quinn gasped. The groomsmen exchanged glances. Even Sienna looked stunned. Ethan looked at me, his expression shifting from a frown to something I couldn’t read. After a few seconds of silence, he suddenly laughed. That laugh carried a hint of helplessness, a touch of indulgence, like looking at an unreasonable child. “Fine.” “I’ll go buy them.” Ethan turned and walked out. The groomsmen followed. Sienna hesitated, then followed too. “Wait for me. I’ll come with you. I know there’s a mall nearby…” Ethan didn’t turn around, but his steps slowed, waiting for Sienna to catch up. They walked out side by side, their figures disappearing at the end of the hallway. The moment the door closed, the living room became so quiet you could hear breathing. Quinn came over, crouched in front of me, and looked up at my face. “Chloe,” her voice was soft, “what if Ethan doesn’t come back?” I didn’t speak. I lowered my head, hiding my reddening eyes. Five years. I had believed he could forget Sienna for five years. But every time, he disappointed me. “I don’t want to marry him anymore.” I said. Quinn froze. She opened her mouth but no sound came out. The other bridesmaids quickly asked me: “What about the wedding?” “With so many guests, won’t people laugh at Chloe?” After several seconds, Quinn suddenly smiled. That smile held no surprise, no opposition. Instead, it seemed relieved. “Let them laugh. We’ll be with Chloe anyway.” The bridesmaids all had red-rimmed eyes, gripping my hands tightly. “You should have left him long ago.” “Exactly. That Ethan doesn’t deserve you.” “We’ve always thought you deserved better.” Looking at their faces, seeing the heartache and relief in their eyes. I suddenly realized that maybe I had been wrong all along. I thought if I waited long enough, Ethan would eventually see me. But Ethan didn’t. During those eight years when I wasn’t seen, he just grew more and more accustomed to ignoring me. Footsteps suddenly sounded outside the door. The door opened. Ethan walked in, holding a shopping bag. The groomsmen followed behind. Sienna walked at the back, head lowered, lost in thought. “Got them.” Ethan handed me the bag, his tone slightly expectant of praise. “Went to three stores before finding them. Satisfied now?” I took the bag without speaking. The groomsmen behind him looked strange. They had been joking around before leaving, but now they were all quiet, looking at me differently. Some even avoided my gaze. I didn’t know what had happened, and I didn’t want to know anymore. “Alright, alright, put them on quick. We’re running out of time.” Quinn took the shoebox and crouched down to help me change shoes. “Beautiful.” Quinn said. I looked down and nodded. “Let’s go.” Ethan came over, bending down to carry me. I didn’t dodge. Ethan picked me up, carried me out the door, into the elevator, down to the ground floor. The wedding car was parked at the entrance, decorated with flowers and ribbons. The hood displayed our names—Ethan Shore Loves Chloe. He carried me to the car and was about to close the door when— “Ethan.” Sienna’s voice came from behind, soft and hesitant. Ethan paused. He turned to see Sienna standing two steps away, fingers twisting her dress hem, eyes slightly red. “I… there’s something I’ve always wanted to tell you. I know now might not be the right time, but after today, it’ll be even less appropriate…” The surroundings fell silent for a moment. The officiant nearby reminded him quietly, “Groom, it’s about time. We should go.” Ethan didn’t move. His gaze remained on Sienna, his eyes filled with something thick and intense. After a few seconds of silence, he turned his head to look at me. “Chloe, give me ten minutes.” I looked at him too, and said only one last thing. “Ethan, in ten minutes, I won’t be getting married anymore.”

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My best friend, who I’ve relied on since we were kids, said she got into a big corporation and would soon be able to give me—an MC rider—a wealthy life. I sneered and wished her good luck. Because I knew clearly that during the day she was a cheap intern exploited by everyone, but at midnight she was an assistant wearing a sexy short skirt to drink with her boss. Yet she always grinned foolishly, bragging about how her boss praised her again today and that she’d soon become a regular employee. I kicked over a beer bottle: “Quit. I’ll take care of you!” But my best friend cried and said: “The company has its rules. Just endure this period and it’ll be fine. Once I become a regular employee, we can pool our money to buy a small house and never be apart!” I hated that she’d been completely brainwashed by the workplace and decided to stop managing her affairs. Until that day, when I was racing with over a hundred MC members, I suddenly received a message from her: “Aria, I really can’t learn the rules of big corporations anymore. My boss wants me to sleep with his two major clients tonight. I don’t want to live anymore!” …… 1 I stared deadly at the last line on my phone screen. The Coke bottle in my hand was crushed out of shape. The entire racing track instantly went quiet. Over a hundred people all turned to look at me in unison. I shoved my phone into my pocket, stood up, and whistled. In less than ten seconds, over a hundred people gathered around. “Aria! What’s up!” I kicked over the plastic table in front of me and grabbed the half steel pipe hidden under the table leg. “Get on your bikes. Follow me.” “Where to?” “Grand Hyatt Hotel.” I tucked the steel pipe into my waistband and straddled my modified exhaust Ghost Fire motorcycle. I twisted the throttle, and the engine roared. Behind me, fifty motorcycles ignited simultaneously. Taxi drivers on the road, seeing our formation, were so scared they crashed their cars straight into the curb. Wind poured into my ears, but it couldn’t drown out those words replaying in my head. “Big platforms have their rules. Just endure this period and it’ll be fine.” “Once I become a regular employee, we can pool our money to buy a small house and never be apart.” Natalie, you idiot. I told you long ago that your boss Williams wasn’t human. During the day he had you serving tea, pouring water, and working overtime until 3 AM, and at midnight he had you wear a maid outfit to his room to report on work. You told me that was the training model of big corporations, that every intern had to go through it. I kicked a beer bottle to pieces and yelled at you to quit, and you cried begging me not to make trouble. Fine, I held back. But now you’re sending me a suicide note? Natalie! You fucking wait. Even if I have to tear down the Grand Hyatt Hotel tonight, I’m dragging you out of those bastards’ hands! Grand Hyatt Hotel. When we arrived, a row of black Mercedes S-Classes was parked at the hotel entrance. Several doormen were bowing to open car doors for guests. Seeing fifty motorcycles roaring up, their faces turned deathly pale. “You… what are you doing! You can’t park motorcycles here!” Before he finished speaking, my guys rode their motorcycles straight onto the red carpet at the hotel entrance. Over a dozen bikes blocked the revolving door in a chaotic mess. Four security guards rushed out from the lobby. They had just pulled out their walkie-talkies when my people pressed them down onto the marble floor. “Aria, top floor suite, 2801.” My guy Monkey ran over holding his phone. Ten minutes ago he’d already hacked into the hotel’s reservation system. I squeezed into the VIP elevator with over a dozen of my trusted men. Every second the elevator went up, Natalie’s suicide note replayed in my head. “Ding.” The elevator door opened. But four black-clad bodyguards stood at the door of 2801, very muscular. These weren’t hotel security—they were private security hired by that foreign corporation. The bald leader saw us and immediately blocked our way: “Private event, unauthorized personnel…” I didn’t even let him finish. The steel pipe smashed directly into his brow bone. “Bang!” Blood splattered onto the hallway’s beige wallpaper. The bald man screamed, covering his face, and collapsed onto the carpet. The remaining three bodyguards froze for half a second. Max and Tank each took one down, and the last one was knocked over by Monkey with a fire extinguisher. Four bodyguards, solved in seven seconds. I stood in front of 280

Through the heavy wooden door, deafening music came from inside, along with men’s unrestrained laughter. I raised my foot. “Bang!” The door lock was kicked out of shape with one kick, and the double doors slammed open to both sides! 2 What hit me in the face was the smell of liquor and cigars, and the scent of date rape drugs. I spotted Natalie immediately. She was tied to the armrest of a sofa, her jacket torn down to half, shirt buttons scattered all over the floor. There was blood at the corner of her mouth. A short, fat man was pinching her chin, pouring a wine glass into her mouth. The liquid ran down her neck. Her eyes had already lost focus. And on the leather sofa facing her, two balding middle-aged men had their collars unbuttoned. One was crossing his legs holding a phone recording video, the other was chomping on a cigar laughing with a face full of wrinkles. “Williams, this intern of yours is something else. Great body. Once the drugs kick in, she’ll be howling like a dog.” Standing nearby, Director Williams was holding a wine glass and laughing. “Mr. Zhang, rest assured, I guarantee you’ll be satisfied tonight. We’ve got plenty of this kind of merchandise at our company. Play with one till she breaks, then swap in a new batch.” I gripped the steel pipe, my knuckles cracking. The next second, I kicked over the table in the center of the living room. The coffee table broke in two, bottles and glasses on it shattered all over the floor. “Crash!” The short fat man was so scared his hand loosened, and the wine glass fell to the ground and smashed to pieces. I rushed forward in three steps, the steel pipe precisely smashing into the hand of the balding man recording video. Two fingers broke, the phone flew out, screen shattered. “Ahhhhh my hand!!!” The balding man screamed holding his hand, rolling off the sofa. I grabbed the collar of the other balding man chomping on a cigar and yanked him up from the sofa. On the coffee table was an ashtray filled with ash and cigar butts. I grabbed his jaw with one hand and pressed the entire ashtray over his mouth. “Eat!” “Mmmmph!” He rolled his eyes choking on the ash, his mouth filled with ash and saliva. Williams threw down his wine glass, so scared he backed up three steps. “Aria! Are you fucking crazy! Do you know what kind of place this is!” He pointed at my nose. “You’re social trash who didn’t even finish middle school. Do you know who Mr. Zhang is! If you touch a single hair on his head!” I turned back and walked to Natalie, untying the rope on her wrists. The marks had drawn blood. I took off my leather jacket and wrapped her entire body in it. Her whole body was trembling. She groggily opened her eyes. The moment she saw it was me, tears immediately poured out. “Aria, you need to run…” She grabbed my sleeve. “You can’t fight them… They’ll sue you…” “They have lawyers, connections, we can’t afford to compensate…” I crouched in front of her, using the back of my hand to wipe away the wine stains and blood on her face. “Natalie, who the fuck said anything about fighting? I’m just here to take you home tonight.” 3 Williams had already pulled out his phone from his pocket. “Mr. Stone, there’s trouble on the top floor. Thugs are causing a scene. Come up with people quickly!” He hung up and tilted his head to look at me, a smile on his lips. “Aria, you think bringing a few gang punks lets you run wild on my turf?” “Just wait.” In less than five minutes, a group of people filed in. Leading them was a man in his early fifties with slicked-back hair wearing a custom suit. The company’s Greater China Vice President, Derek Stone. Behind him followed two lawyers carrying briefcases, and over thirty uniformed corporate security guards wearing earpieces. Compared to this group, the dozen or so trusted subordinates I’d brought were clearly outmatched at a glance. After Derek Stone entered, he first scanned the mess all over the floor, then looked at the clients rolling on the ground clutching their hands, and snorted through his nose. Then he looked at me. “Just you?” He pulled out a handkerchief and wiped his hands. “Young age, won’t go to school, bringing a bunch of thugs to a five-star hotel to vandalize and rob.” “Do you know what this is called? Home invasion robbery, gang fighting, intentional assault.” He turned his head and looked at the two legal counsels beside him. “Did you film it?” The legal counsel nodded, pointing at the camera on his chest. “Started filming as soon as we entered, Mr. Stone.” Derek Stone walked to the sofa and sat down, crossing his legs. His legal counsel opened the briefcase and pulled out a stack of A4 papers. “This is the training agreement and confidentiality clause Natalie signed when she joined.” The lawyer pushed up his glasses and handed the papers to me. “According to Article 7 of the agreement, during the training period, if Party B unilaterally breaches the contract and resigns, they must compensate Party A for training fees, client resource losses, trade secret disclosure and other comprehensive expenses…” “Fifty million.” Fifty million. Natalie could work her entire life and never earn that amount. The lawyer continued. “Additionally, tonight’s drinking session was a normal business entertainment activity arranged by the company. Miss Natalie voluntarily participated. Here is her personally signed activity consent form.” The lawyer sneered. “This young lady simply drank too much. We have the hotel’s full surveillance footage to prove it.” “However, you brought gang members to forcibly break into a private room, causing serious injury to two businessmen.” “I think I don’t need to tell you what the consequences are, do I?” That consent form signature was forced on Natalie. I saw through it—this was a setup they’d prepared. Williams came over again, straightening his wrinkled shirt collar, hands on his hips looking at me. “Aria, these are the rules of big companies. Poor people should obediently be toys. Who are you to play the hero saving the beauty? You’re an MC rider who can’t even come up with five thousand bucks, and you want to challenge our corporation?” Behind me, Natalie was trembling all over. She suddenly broke free from my hand and fell to her knees in front of Derek Stone with a thud. “Mr. Stone… please… let Aria go…” “I signed the agreement myself, it has nothing to do with her… I’ll go, I’ll go entertain the clients… please don’t pursue charges against her…” Watching her kneel on the ground begging those beasts, my eyes stung. I grabbed her arm and pulled her up, then backhanded a slap across her face. She froze. “Natalie, stand the fuck up straight. If you kneel to these scum one more time, I’ll cut ties with you immediately.” She bit her lip, tears falling in strings. Dense footsteps came from the hallway, getting closer. Military boots stepping on carpet made muffled sounds. Over a hundred elite security guards urgently deployed from the corporation’s local headquarters completely sealed off the entire top floor. The fire door at the stairwell was locked from inside, the elevator set to exit-only mode. The guys I brought were trapped in the hallway, surrounded front and back by masses of uniforms. No escape. 4 Derek Stone wasn’t in a hurry to make a move. He just sat on the sofa watching me. Muffled sounds came from the hallway—my guys being taken down by stun batons. Screams came one after another. In less than two minutes, the hallway went completely quiet. A security captain walked in, blood on his boots, and nodded at Derek Stone. “Mr. Stone, everyone outside has been subdued.” Derek Stone nodded with satisfaction. He stood up and slowly paced over to me. He sighed. “You think picking up a weapon and having a fight can solve problems?” “In this city, how much are fists worth?” “Capital, legal teams, media, networks—things you’ve never even heard of. Any one of them can crush you to dust.” After speaking, he reached into his suit pocket and pulled out a stack of hundred-dollar bills, weighing them. Smack! Ten thousand dollars slapped hard across my face. The bills scattered and fell to the floor. Williams came over, squatted on the ground, slapping his knee and laughing. “Hahahaha, Mr. Stone is so generous!” Derek Stone looked down at me from above, his voice not loud. “Kneel down. Lick the spilled alcohol off the floor.” “Then have your best friend properly serve the two bosses.” He tilted his head slightly, looking at Natalie trembling in the corner, then his gaze returned. “Do that, and this matter is settled. You take your people and get lost. I’ll pretend tonight never happened.” He stepped forward, bent down, almost pressing against my ear. “Don’t do it. You two will disappear from this world tonight. The fifty million debt, I’ll hang it on your family’s heads.” “Your sick mom, your uncle who sells sausages from a cart—heh, you think they can handle it?” He straightened up and adjusted his cuffs. I didn’t speak. I lowered my head, looking at the hundred-dollar bills scattered at my feet. Natalie suddenly moved. While everyone was staring at me, she quietly bent down and picked up a triangular piece of glass from the broken table on the carpet. She pointed the glass shard at her own neck. She wasn’t crying anymore. “Aria… you go.” Her voice was very soft, very calm. “They won’t let you take me… just go… I’ll handle the penalty myself… don’t worry about me anymore…” The sharp point of the glass had already pierced her skin, a thin line of blood seeping out. I kicked the glass shard out of her hand. She froze. I crouched down and wiped the blood from her wrist with my sleeve. Then I stood up and turned around. At my feet were scattered bills. In front of me were the smug Derek Stone and the sleazy-smiling Williams. In the hallway, all my guys had been taken down. I took a breath. Then I burst out laughing. Derek Stone’s eyelid twitched, and he took half a step back. Williams’s smile froze on his face. Even those security guards instinctively gripped their stun batons tighter. I laughed enough, raised my hand, and wiped the tears of laughter from the corner of my eyes. Then I pulled out my phone. “Williams, oh Williams. You don’t really think I’m just a poor MC rider, do you?”

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My sister and I are twins, but we are the extreme opposites of good and evil. She was born with the heart of a saint, treating everyone with kindness, but she was diagnosed with a mild intellectual disability. I have committed countless sins, was clinically diagnosed with the “Warrior Gene” linked to violent psychopathy, and was thrown into juvie for malicious assault. That was, until I found out my sister was being relentlessly bullied by her classmates. They livestreamed her on the Dark Web, letting the audience pay to decide how she would be tortured. The bullies refused to repent. They even bragged that in the next livestream, they would perform a DIY sex-change operation on her. A bullying livestream? I laughed. They didn’t know I was getting out. Because what I do best… is bullying. 1 When I was released from juvie, every single inmate in my cellblock breathed a massive sigh of relief. A fierce storm howled outside the detention center gates. Heavy snow swirled in the air. It wasn’t a good day. The person waiting for me outside wasn’t my sister, as we had promised. It was my mother, her hair completely white. Seeing her again, the usually optimistic, laid-back woman looked like she had aged decades overnight. Her eyes were swollen like walnuts, and she didn’t say a word. She didn’t take me home. Instead, she drove straight to the hospital. Through a layer of thick ICU glass, I saw my sister, her body covered in tubes, lying motionless on a hospital bed. My fist slammed into the glass. My heavy breathing instantly frosted the pane. “What happened?” With trembling hands, my mother held up her phone. Amidst the shrill, chaotic screaming coming from the speakers, my sister’s face—swollen like a water balloon—appeared on the screen. That was when I learned that my sister, who had been putting on a brave face all this time, was being brutally subjected to school bullying. This group of sociopaths wasn’t just bullying her; they recorded videos and livestreamed them on the Dark Web for crypto. In a livestream room titled “Cell 9,” a girl laughed as she used a black Sharpie to draw a turtle on my sister’s face, extending the head obscenely to resemble male genitalia. My sister’s entire face was red and bruised. Her normally bright, doe-like eyes were swollen shut into mere slits. Wherever the Sharpie dragged across her edematous skin, it left deep, humiliating indentations and searing pain. The camera shook. My sister was kneeling on the floor, stripped completely naked, with a dog leash strapped tightly around her neck, restricting her movement. In the video, three girls and one guy were laughing, each louder than the last. The ringleader, a brunette girl, yanked my sister’s hair back. After shaving her head in chaotic, ugly patches, she forced my sister to face the camera. “Be a good pet. Throw a peace sign for the VIP viewers.” A weak, raspy sound squeezed out from my sister’s throat. “You said… there was a stray kitten here that needed help… you lied to me.” Hearing this, the brunette looked up and exchanged incredulous glances with the others, as if saying, Look at this retard! She covered her mouth and snorted, making a fist like a cat paw and tilting her head in mock innocence. “Do I look like a little kitten to you? Meow~” Another burst of maniacal laughter followed. The guy behind the camera was already losing patience. He urged them on. “Why are you wasting time talking to this retard? Let’s get to the good stuff!” My poor sister was violently flipped upside down and pinned to the floor. Humiliated, she was forced to make a peace sign with her legs. The more frantic the bullies’ laughter became, the more donations flooded the chat screen. Once the brunette had her fun, she adjusted her hair, leaned into the lens, and licked her lips. “What do the VIPs want to see next? We can do anything.” Comments flew across the screen. “Have you guys ever done the live eel show? Let’s bring back a classic.” “+10086.” “I’ll fund this. Everyone else, match my donation.” 2 The brunette put on an exaggerated look of regret. “Ah, we couldn’t find the props on such short notice! We’ll do it next stream.” Another comment popped up: “How about golf balls? Three of them! I see a golf club set in the corner.” The brunette looked over her shoulder, clapped her hands, and cheered, “That’s brilliant!” My sister cried out in her hoarse voice, begging for mercy, but her pleas only fueled their sick frenzy. They pinned down my struggling sister like a fish flopping on a chopping block, entirely at their mercy. The deranged howling pierced through the phone speakers. My mother couldn’t bear to watch the rest of the footage, turning her face away. But I stared directly into the lens. I wanted to burn every single one of their faces into my memory. A heavy-set girl pulled a frozen ice pop from a mini-fridge. A cruel smirk stretched across her fleshy face. “Let me numb the pain for you, sweetie, so you don’t keep acting like a bitch in heat.” The next second, agonizing pain caused my sister’s neck to snap backward rigidly. Her entire body convulsed. Her eyes rolled back into her head, and she passed out. A blood-soaked golf ball dropped into the frame. The brunette bent over, picked it up, and forcefully pinched my sister’s swollen cheeks. “Weren’t you the kind one? Weren’t you the pretty one? Even Caleb likes you.” “Don’t think I don’t know you’re faking it. Look how much you’re enjoying this. You like it, don’t you?” She tried to violently shove the bloody golf ball into my sister’s mouth, but my sister’s jaw was locked tight in unconsciousness. She ordered the others to pry my sister’s lips apart, then violently smashed the golf ball against my sister’s teeth, like cracking an egg. The mixture of blood and shattered teeth nearly choked my sister to death. Bloody foam sputtered from her throat. The brunette shrieked, “Ew, gross!” and slapped my sister hard across the face. Then, the group burst into laughter again, as if this was the funniest thing in the world. My fists clenched so tightly my knuckles turned white. The violent, bloodthirsty nature I had suppressed for so long surged violently into my brain. “Hazel lost several teeth. Her lower body was severely torn, and they…” Tears streamed down my mother’s face. She choked on her words. “They stapled her together with a heavy-duty stapler. The doctors say she’ll need at least five reconstructive surgeries to barely regain normal function.” “Not only that, they pumped her stomach and found thumbtacks… and… dismembered cat parts.” “Your sister loves cats more than anything!” My mother couldn’t hold it in anymore. She collapsed to the floor, covering her face and weeping bitterly. “What sin did I commit in a past life to deserve this?” “You didn’t call the cops?” I glared at them, the accusation slipping out instantly. My mother cried even harder. “We were going to. But those monsters threatened us. They said they had even more graphic videos. If we called the police, they would release them and ruin Hazel’s life forever.” 3 The combined manipulation of the school and the bullies’ parents was what completely eradicated my last shred of sanity. After weighing their options, my parents had decided to go to the school to demand justice. But the administration played dead. The school leadership claimed that without witnessing it firsthand, the video could be a deepfake. They said they could photoshop ten similar videos if they wanted to. All of this was because the brunette girl’s father sat on the school’s Board of Directors. That scumbag of a man not only refused to admit his daughter was wrong, but he also pointed the finger at my parents. “Maybe you should get your daughter checked to see if her mental retardation has gotten worse. Or maybe check yourselves, since you’re blindly believing a retard’s nonsense. I’m a busy man, unlike you people.” Before leaving, he couldn’t resist a final jab. “Don’t forget, we only let your daughter into this school out of charity for the disabled. You should have some self-awareness and show some gratitude.” Even my sister’s homeroom teacher testified on behalf of the bullies, claiming my sister was two-faced and frequently bullied others. The victim was suddenly crowned the bully, spat on by everyone. Unable to endure it any longer, my dad went to the bullies’ corporate offices to demand justice. Instead, he was dragged into a blind spot with no security cameras and beaten brutally by security guards. He suffered severe lacerations and a fractured right leg, and he is still bedridden at home. The bullies faced absolutely zero consequences, while my family’s world was completely destroyed. I had never heard of such twisted logic in my life. After much deliberation, my mother decided to play me an audio recording. It was from when my dad went to confront that gang of bullies. The bullies were unimaginably arrogant, openly taunting my dad. “If you insist on calling it bullying, well! Then I guess we’re bullies.” “When is she getting out of the hospital? Next time, I’ll give her a free sex-change operation, hahahaha!” The laughter pierced through my mother’s heart. When she looked at me, her eyes were filled with absolute despair. A smile crept onto my lips. “Bullying? Let me tell you… inside juvie, I am the absolute master of bullying.” 4 My name is Harper Hayes. My sister Hazel and I are twins, but we are the absolute extremes of good and evil. When we were little, we saw a diseased, dying puppy on the street. My sister cried, grieving over the puppy’s suffering. I thought about it for a second, grabbed the puppy’s neck, and snapped it in one motion. To me, the fastest way to end suffering was death. But my sister screamed and cried in horror. During deer hunting season at our uncle’s farm, my sister would always pass out crying from the sight of the slaughter. But I was always the main force pinning the deer down. I had more strength than anyone. Watching the blade go in white and come out red, feeling the warm spray of blood hit my face, a deeply addictive sense of satisfaction would always rise in my chest. It wasn’t until we were older that my parents finally noticed my sister’s delayed reactions. They took her for testing, and she was diagnosed with a mild intellectual disability. My parents were heartbroken. They repeatedly instructed me to always look after my sister. I engraved that mission deeply into my heart. But disasters rarely come alone. During the Fourth of July, a bratty neighborhood kid mocked my sister for being a “retard” and intentionally threw lit firecrackers at us. I pinned the kid to the ground, lit a fistful of M80s, and shoved them all directly into his mouth. The blast shattered his un-erupted adult teeth. His parents howled and demanded a million dollars in compensation. My dad made me kneel in the living room to pray to God for forgiveness. He was sick with worry. “Harper, do you know how much you’ve broken his parents’ hearts by doing this?” I thought really hard about how to prevent his parents from being sad. Finally, I came to a conclusion. “Then let’s just kill his parents too. Then they won’t be sad anymore.” My parents’ faces drained of color. They looked at me in sheer terror. They took me in for testing too. The results showed that my body contained the MAOA gene mutation—the “Warrior Gene.” Simply put, I was a born psychopath. I had a genius-level IQ but was extremely violent. I was a natural-born monster, exceptionally skilled at manipulation and disguise. My thought process was completely alien to normal people, and I loved using extreme, permanent methods to solve problems. Just as the doctors predicted, I was a magnet for trouble. When I was nine, a boy in my class mocked me, saying my cold, dead eyes made me look like an anime villain. I tricked him into following me out back, took a brick, and smashed his mouth to an unrecognizable pulp. Then, I ran to the police station crying, saying a boy was chasing me and tripped and smashed his own face. When I was eleven, Uncle Frank refused to pay back a loan he owed my dad for years. At the dinner table, he mocked my dad for being a cheapskate. I waited until he got drunk and stumbled outside to pee. I grabbed a meat cleaver and chopped his hand so deeply it was only hanging on by a flap of skin. Then I ran back to my relatives, crying that Uncle Frank had dirty hands and tried to touch me. Although I became a frequent guest at the juvenile detention center, I never stayed locked up for long. Every time I went in, I just learned new tricks before getting out. That was until I was sixteen, and I finally slipped up. 5 My sister had kindly helped up an old lady who had tripped and fallen on her own. In return, the scamming old hag claimed my sister was the one who pushed her. The old lady lay in a hospital bed, refusing to be discharged, screaming that my sister had paralyzed her. Facing the local news cameras, her wrinkled face was twisted in malicious greed. “I am a God-fearing old woman! I never tell lies!” Her family jumped up and down, fueling the fire. “If you didn’t push her, why did you help her up?” Because of that, I found an opportunity to kidnap the old hag, tied her up, and repeatedly ran her over with an ATV. She got exactly what she asked for. She was permanently paralyzed. This time, I was caught because a security camera caught the act. I couldn’t talk my way out of it. I hate security cameras. Because I was old enough to be tried, I was sentenced to one year and eight months. With good behavior, I only served one year. My “good behavior” was simply because no one inside dared to cross me. I lived very comfortably. The vibration of my sister’s phone pulled me back from my memories. It was a message from those scumbags. “Make sure you show up next semester. We haven’t had enough fun yet.” Fun? We’ll see who’s playing who. With a face devoid of all life, I slowly turned my head and gave my mother a sweet, innocent, somewhat dopey smile. “Do I look like Hazel?” My mother violently flinched. “You do…” I spent the entire winter break doing exactly one thing: compiling data on the bullies. I dug up a class activity video from their social media accounts. In the video, everyone shared their dreams. Watching it now was wildly ironic. The brunette girl stood confidently in front of the camera, speaking eloquently. “My name is Blair Sterling. I want to become a philanthropist, to help people in need so they can have food, warmth, and never suffer again.” Blair lived in an ultra-wealthy gated community. I specifically took a temporary job as a delivery driver in her area to stake out her house. Blair’s dad was a corporate CEO and sat on the school board. Her mom was a high-powered defense attorney. Because her parents were always away on business, they spoiled Blair rotten. She grew into an arrogant, untouchable tyrant, the reigning queen bee of several local high schools. Blair had actually been involved in a scandal before. Just because a girl wore the same dress as her, she and her gang beat and humiliated the teenager in a VIP club room. The girl suffered a mental breakdown and jumped off a building to her death. The incident miraculously vanished from the internet shortly after. The other two girls in her clique: one wanted to be a doctor to save lives. The other wanted to be a teacher to educate the youth. They seemed like Blair’s besties, but they were actually her lackeys and enforcers. They helped her commit atrocities in exchange for scraps of her wealth and influence. The guy was Trent Lawson. He swung his fists in the air, looking like an upright citizen. “My dream is to be a police officer, to punish the bad guys and be an agent of justice.” Trent was a classic trust-fund brat. He used to pursue Blair, but she kept him on the hook like a desperate fish. He did all her dirty work without complaint. For fun, he frequently spread vile rumors about my sister and photoshopped her face onto obituary photos. Is there such a thing as karma in school bullying? 6 Clearly, God doesn’t always have eyes. These bullies usually come from powerful families. They have money and backing. The idea of “karmic justice” is usually just a delusion victims cling to in order to survive. If someone like me didn’t exist, maybe they really would live perfect, happy lives, effortlessly reaching heights that normal people struggle a lifetime for. Too bad for them. Their only dream moving forward is going to be escaping my demonic grasp. The moment I slung my backpack over my shoulder, the eerie smile on my face seamlessly shifted into Hazel’s innocent, dopey expression. Like a wild beast entering the city, society’s red lights meant absolutely nothing to me. School had just started. Everyone was in a good mood. The homeroom teacher, Mrs. Higgins, was at the front directing the students’ morning cleaning duties. Blair and her three lackeys sat by the back door eating sunflower seeds. Their giggling, obnoxious vibe clashed completely with the working students. Blair chewed her bubblegum while pulling a bottle of designer perfume from her bag, spraying it generously into her hair. Trent had a cigarette between his fingers, blowing smoke rings right in front of Mrs. Higgins, who completely ignored him. Gwen Miller, the heavy-set girl, was spitting out sunflower seed shells with a mocking expression. “I wonder if Hazel the Retard is going to show up. If she doesn’t, we’re going to lose a lot of our entertainment.” Blair put down her perfume and rolled her eyes. “Whatever school she transfers to, we’ll just go wait outside their gates and jump her.” Trent flicked his cigarette butt onto the floor, sending a shower of sparks across the linoleum. “Fuck. I didn’t get to have enough fun last time. Next time I’m definitely bringing the live eels. Thick, fat ones.” Right at that moment, I pushed the door open and walked in. Mrs. Higgins, with her hands on her hips, turned around. Seeing it was me, her eyebrows instantly knotted together in fury. “Your parents caused a massive scene and made me lose my entire performance bonus last year! You actually have the nerve to show your face here?” I ignored her, but she wouldn’t shut up. “If your brain is broken, don’t come to school. It’s not like every piece of trash can actually make something of themselves.” “You’re a rat turd ruining the whole pot of soup. Failing students like you should just drop dead.” Blair looked at me with amusement, dragging out her words lazily. “What’s a little performance bonus, Mrs. Higgins? I’ll have my dad promote you to Dean later.” Mrs. Higgins instantly flipped her expression into a spineless, sycophantic grin. “Yes, yes, of course. Please thank the Board Member for me.” I let out a cold sneer. “Oh, so you’re just a lapdog.” The tiny shred of dignity Mrs. Higgins had left shattered into pieces in front of the students. She exploded instantly. “What the hell did you just say?!” She aggressively stomped toward me. Seeing I didn’t back down an inch, she suddenly stopped. “Oh, I forgot. Your broke, desperate dad kneeling at the school gates trying to extort us for money… that looked like a dog begging for scraps!” I cupped my hand around my ear and said breezily, “Listen, classmates. A dog is barking.” Mrs. Higgins lost her mind. “I’ll rip your mouth off!” She lunged at me. The moment her hand reached my face, I grabbed her wrist in an iron grip. I yanked it backward. Snap! The sickening sound of a joint dislocating echoed through the room, accompanied by Mrs. Higgins howling like a slaughtered pig. 7 I cleared my throat and intentionally screamed even louder than her. “Teacher, please don’t pull my ear! It hurts so much!” The noise drew a crowd of students from the hallway. Mrs. Higgins was in agony but couldn’t break free. I executed a swift spin, twisting her dislocated finger into a sickening contortion. “Ahhhh! My finger!” “Ahhhh! My ear!” Mr. Davis, an intern teacher from the classroom next door, rushed in to break up the fight. “Mrs. Higgins, how could you rip a student’s ear like that?” Mrs. Higgins was in so much pain she couldn’t speak. Thick beads of sweat formed on her forehead. I leaned in close to her ear, gloating. “Teacher, you better go get that checked out fast. What if you wait too long and they can’t reattach the finger?” I let go. Mrs. Higgins’s hand trembled violently, her dislocated finger dangling loosely. Terrified to say another word, she let Mr. Davis support her and rushed off toward the hospital. At this point, Blair still hadn’t noticed anything unusual. She just thought the entertainment had returned. She pulled a box cutter from her desk, slid the blade out, and pointed it at me. “Come here.” I slowly walked toward her. Every step made my heart race with excitement, my whole body trembling. But to everyone else in the room, it looked like I was absolutely terrified. Blair grabbed a dirty mop bucket and hocked a loogie directly into the filthy water. Seeing this, her lackeys immediately followed suit. Within seconds, the murky water was coated in a thick layer of yellow phlegm. Blair crossed her arms, casually kicked the bucket toward me, and tilted her head. “Retard. A welcome-back gift. Drink it.” My eyes scanned the room. Every single student in the class was watching the show. Not a single person stepped up to help. Behind Blair sat a boy with dark hair, his head lowered. I heard someone call his name. “Caleb.” That was the guy who got my sister targeted for revenge in the first place. Trent pulled out a cigarette, looking incredibly amused. “Hold on. Light my cigarette first.” I blankly took the lighter from his hand. Everyone watching burst into hysterical laughter. “Look at that dumb look on her face. She really is a retard! Hahahaha!” If the person being humiliated right now was still my sister, she would be in unbearable agony. Too bad for them. I am not my sister. I grabbed the designer perfume off Blair’s desk, pulled off the cap, and poured a mouthful of the alcohol-heavy liquid into my mouth. Under the shocked stares of the crowd, I smiled, flicked the lighter, and blew the mouthful of perfume directly at Blair’s face. The moment the aerosolized perfume hit the flame, it erupted into a roaring fireball, swallowing Blair’s arrogant, domineering face. The stench of burning protein filled the classroom. Blair’s beautiful brunette hair instantly caught fire. She jumped and shrieked in absolute terror, screaming for someone to put it out. Put it out? I love helping my classmates. I grabbed her by her burning hair and slammed her face directly into the desk. Bang! Bang! Bang! Each impact was louder and crisper than the last. The fire went out. She was seeing stars. She clung weakly to the edge of the desk just to keep from collapsing. Let me give her a helping hand. 8 I hooked the handle of the mop bucket with the toe of my shoe, smoothly caught it with my right hand, flipped it upside down, and slammed the entire bucket of phlegm-water directly over Blair’s head. It all happened so incredibly fast and brutally. Forget her little minions not having time to react; even Blair was caught completely off guard. She inhaled sharply in shock, choking on the filthy water and dry-heaving violently. Blair’s delicate skin was clearly going to blister from the burns. She screamed hysterically. “What are you idiots doing?! Beat this dead bitch to death!” The others finally snapped out of it, pulling out their own box cutters. Trent was the first to charge at me. I casually tilted my head, dodging his wild swing. The next second, I was standing behind him, chuckling darkly. “Too slow. Let me show you what fast looks like.” I wrenched his knife-wielding arm backward, slammed it flat onto the desk right beneath a heavy-duty industrial stapler, and slammed my fist down on it. Over and over again. “Ahhhhh! My hand!” Thick metal staples drove deep into the flesh and muscle of his palm, only stopping when the stapler jammed against his bone. Looking at the blood streaming down his hand, I screamed at the top of my lungs, throwing my hands in the air, looking absolutely terrified. “Stop bullying me!” With that, I sprinted frantically toward the classroom door. Those idiots actually thought I was scared and chased after me. I hid behind the heavy wooden door. The moment Riley, the freckle-faced girl, stuck her head out, I slammed the door shut with everything I had. SLAM! A rush of wind followed by the sound of cartilage crunching. Riley’s deformed, twisted face collapsed backward. She squatted on the ground, howling in agony, clutching her head. I delivered a swift soccer kick straight to her face, sending her flying onto her back. Trent pried the door open and limped after me. I turned and sprinted into the girls’ bathroom. Blair screamed excitedly, “She went into the girls’ room! Block the door! She’s dead!” I smiled. They thought they had trapped me. In reality, as I stood in the corner of the tiled bathroom smiling maniacally, it was the predator locking the prey inside the cage. Blair locked the heavy bathroom door from the inside. In pain and seething with hatred, she inspected the forming blisters on her face in the mirror. “It hurts so much. I am going to absolutely end you today.” I backed away slowly as she advanced step by step. She still thought I was my frail, weak sister. She reached out to grab my shirt. But she didn’t realize that the moment I entered her strike zone… she had entered mine. I delivered a devastating, hammer-like cross straight to her face. The entire left side of her pristine face deformed on impact. The fresh blood blisters ruptured, oozing yellow fluid. Only a transparent flap of loose skin was left hanging off her cheek. During New Year’s on the farm, it only took me three punches to knock out a full-grown pig. If I didn’t want to play with her a little longer, she would have been unconscious on the floor already. Blair shrieked in agony, trying to touch the wounds on her face but terrified of the pain. I pulled out my phone, threw an arm around her shoulder, and aimed the camera at her mangled face. “Say cheese.” “Cheese your mom, you psycho!” “Now I’m unhappy.”

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I came home for the holidays with a busted lip. My childhood friend, who always had a problem with me, smirked. “Did you get bit by a dog again?” With a room full of people staring at me, I said, “My boyfriend bit me.” His face instantly darkened. 1 On the absolute last day of the deadline my mom gave me to come home for the holidays, I finally arrived that evening. The second I walked through the door, I saw my childhood friend, Nate, and his parents sitting in our living room. We locked eyes for a second before Nate put on a mocking smirk. “Avery, did you get bit by a dog again?” When I was five, I insisted on kissing a stray dog and got bitten instead. I had to get three rabies shots. Nate was the one who accompanied me to get the shots, even though he complained the whole time. Since then, it had become his favorite running joke to mock me with. Remembering the story, all the adults in the room chuckled. I reached up and touched my lip. A scab had formed, looking incredibly obvious against my pale skin. Over the sound of their laughter, I spoke up. “No, my boyfriend bit me this morning.” The laughter stopped dead. Under the shocked gazes of everyone in the room, Nate was the only one whose face turned pitch black. Because, once upon a time, our parents used to joke that we were destined to get married. 2 In a silence so quiet you could hear a pin drop, Nate’s mom finally spoke. “Avery, you have a boyfriend now?” I replied politely, “Yes, he’s a senior at my college.” Ignoring Nate’s furious glare, I continued, “He didn’t have time to come with me this trip, but I’ll have him come over after the holidays so we can all get dinner together.” Nate finally snapped, roaring, “Eat my ass!” Then he turned and stormed out to the balcony. Nate’s mom shot me a panicked look and hurried out after him. I shrugged, used to his dramatic outbursts, and pushed my suitcase into my bedroom while the remaining adults exchanged awkward glances. I could hear muffled arguing coming from the balcony. “You were the one who said you’d rather die than marry Avery! Now that she has a boyfriend, why are you throwing a fit?!” After his mom yelled at him, there was a long silence before Nate replied, “I just won’t accept it!” I lowered my eyes and smiled to myself. Three years ago, at a joint family dinner, Nate’s mom joked around and called me her “future daughter-in-law.” To everyone’s shock, Nate blew up. He yelled at his mom for taking the joke too far, then turned his anger on me, calling me shameless for following him around like a lost puppy. He told me to stop bothering him. Nate’s dad slapped him across the face right then and there. And Nate blamed me for the entire humiliation. We had a massive falling out. When it came time to pick colleges, I purposely chose a university in California, as far away from him as possible. I thought our relationship would strictly remain casual acquaintances from then on. So what exactly was he doing now? 3 By the time I changed into my loungewear, Nate was already sitting at the dining table. I didn’t know how his mom managed to calm him down. He didn’t look as furious as he had a few minutes ago. During dinner, everyone deliberately avoided what just happened, sticking to safe questions about my classes. Just as the atmosphere started to relax, my phone rang. Glancing at the caller ID, I couldn’t help but smile. “I need to take this. Please, keep eating.” I stepped out into the hallway. It was Connor, my boyfriend. He asked if I was eating. I lowered my voice and asked, “Why did you bite my lip so hard it bled? I didn’t even notice until I got here.” Connor whined on the other end for a solid minute before finally admitting, “I did it on purpose.” Just as I was about to reply, there was a loud BANG from the dining room. I turned my head. Nate was standing there, his face flushed red with impatience. “Are you going to eat or not? If you don’t eat, you’re doing the dishes.” Connor heard him through the phone. “Are you still eating? Should I order you some DoorDash?” Hearing Connor’s voice, Nate’s face turned iron-gray. “Who is that?” I looked up at him, flashed a sweet smile, and said slowly, “My boyfriend.” 4 Connor went silent on the phone for a moment before saying, “Call me tonight. I’ll wait for you~” The line went dead. In the entryway, only silence remained between Nate and me. Nate stared at my bruised lip for a long time before suddenly asking, “How long have you two been dating? You’re already… kissing?” I locked my screen and slid the phone into my pocket. “We’ve been together for almost a year.” I watched his face cycle from black to red. “Why haven’t I ever seen you mention him?” I thought about it. Nate was probably talking about my Instagram. After our falling out, I never blocked or deleted him, but we basically never texted. I rarely posted on social media anyway, never changed my profile picture or bio, and had never posted anything related to Connor. “I forgot to post about it,” I said, putting my hands in my pockets. Nate let out a light scoff. “Looks like you don’t like him that much.” He sounded like he was breathing a sigh of relief. I looked at him, confused. “Why would you say that?” “If you actually liked him, you wouldn’t keep him a complete secret.” I gently clenched my fists. “You’re wrong. I really love him.” I looked up, staring directly into Nate’s eyes, wanting him to know I wasn’t lying. Nate looked down at me. Seeing that I was entirely serious, a flash of anxiety crossed his eyes. I didn’t want to deal with him anymore and turned to leave. As I brushed past him, he asked softly, “How did you move on so fast?” 5 When Nate publicly humiliated me in front of our parents that day, I was truly devastated. When we were kids, we were inseparable best friends. He had even sent me mixed signals before. During high school, reading romance novels was a massive trend among the girls. The classic trope was always the childhood friends turning into lovers. Everyone who knew Nate and me teased us about it, because we fit the trope perfectly. And Nate never expressed any annoyance. He still walked me home from school, bought me hand warmers in the winter, and refilled my water bottle. I genuinely thought he liked me too. But then he delivered that fatal blow right in front of our parents. What was even more heartbreaking was what my desk-mate told me the very next day: “Did you hear Nate and Brooke got together?” Brooke was the undisputed most popular girl in our grade. She had openly crushed on Nate for three years, but he had never reciprocated. At the graduation party after finals, Brooke confessed to Nate again in front of all our teachers. Everyone cheered them on, even the teachers were smiling, but Nate didn’t say yes then. Yet, someone just told me that the day after Nate humiliated me, they started dating. I thought about it and replied, “I know now. I have some stuff to do, talk to you later.” I tried to distract myself by reading a book, but I couldn’t resist opening Instagram. The first thing on my feed was Brooke’s post announcing their relationship. In the photo, she and Nate were leaning their heads together, looking incredibly intimate. I didn’t even have the courage to click on the picture to enlarge it. A few close friends messaged me asking what was going on. At that moment, I was glad I was naturally low-key on social media. Otherwise, as Nate’s “rumored girlfriend” for all those years, I would have had to make some sort of public statement. But a few minutes later, I put my phone down. A single tear dropped onto the open page of the book in front of me. 6 I didn’t have much time to grieve. I had originally promised Nate we would go to the same college on the East Coast, but I was breaking that promise. When applying, I chose a massive university out in California. That summer, encouraged by my parents, I got my driver’s license, learned how to swim, and traveled to a few different states. When your schedule is packed, you realize you don’t actually have time to be sad. My mom said Nate’s dad brought Nate over to our house a few times, but they never caught me. I was either traveling or taking a class. It wasn’t until right before the fall semester, while I was packing my bags with my mom, that I saw Nate again. Nate’s dad looked at me and said, “You got a tan.” I smiled and nodded, saying I had traveled a lot. Nate stood to the side, saying nothing, just glancing at me every now and then. Maybe he was in a bad mood. He didn’t speak the entire time, only giving me a deep, lingering look right before they left. I kept my head down and didn’t look at him. Before going to bed, I opened Instagram and saw an update from Brooke. She posted: “The new girl can never beat the childhood friend. What you can’t have becomes your white rose.” A classmate commented below: “What happened?” Brooke replied: “We broke up.” Seeing that, I finally understood why Nate had looked so miserable earlier that day. They had broken up. But Brooke’s comment—”The new girl can never beat the childhood friend”—confused me. I didn’t recall Nate having any other childhood friends besides me. If this was the past, I would have definitely gone to ask Nate about it. But during that summer, I had made peace with it. From now on, Nate and I would be friends, at best. I didn’t care anymore. On the day I left for college, right before boarding my flight, I turned my phone off early, missing Nate’s text: “Why did you choose to go to California?” 7 College life was incredibly busy. I picked up a minor and my weekends were completely packed. When Nate suddenly messaged me out of the blue, asking me to click a referral link for some sketchy shopping app, I realized how long it had been since I had even thought about him. I replied: “Sorry, I don’t have that app downloaded.” The “typing…” bubble showed up for a long time on his end before he finally sent: “It’s fine.” I had no desire to make small talk with him, so I put my phone down and went back to writing my essay. It wasn’t until the library was closing that I saw he had sent another message: “When does your summer break start?” It was sent five hours ago. I didn’t reply. And now, Nate was standing in front of me, asking how I could move on so fast. A ridiculous thought sprouted in my head, but I immediately squashed it. “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I said. Nate didn’t say anything else, and I walked straight back to my room. 8 When I got back to campus, Connor came to the station to pick me up. The moment he saw me, he grabbed my suitcase. “You must be exhausted! I’ll take you to get something good to eat.” While walking, Connor looked a little uneasy. I asked him what was wrong. He mumbled for a bit before saying, “About biting your lip that day… I’m really sorry, I just…” He looked down. “I just felt so insecure.” Connor and I had naturally talked about our past relationships once. I didn’t hide anything and told him about my crush on Nate. At the time, Connor acted like it didn’t bother him, but I caught the panic in his eyes. Just like now—looking wronged and panicked. He was worried I might still have feelings for Nate. So I grabbed his hand. “It’s fine. Treat me to ramen and we’ll call it even.” 9 How Connor and I met was actually pretty magical. The library had closed early that afternoon for a holiday. While I was carrying my books back to my dorm, a small puppy suddenly darted out from the bushes. I made eye contact with it for a few seconds before it ran over and rubbed against my leg. I crouched down and pet its head. And then it just stuck to me. The puppy had a collar, so it clearly wasn’t a stray. With no other choice, I sat there, waiting for its owner to find it. After a few minutes, the puppy started whining and burrowed into my arms. I held it, gently rubbing its belly, and it fell asleep almost instantly. A few minutes later, a guy came running over, looking frantic. He looked at me and the puppy in my arms, put his hands together in apology, and said it was his dog. To show his gratitude, he asked for my number. That guy was Connor. 10 Connor was two years older than me, currently in his first year of grad school. When we first met, he would always use “thanking me for finding his dog” as an excuse to bring me lunch at the library or help me organize my study notes for finals. He quietly and seamlessly infiltrated my life. Even my friends couldn’t stop praising him. But I wasn’t the type to be swayed just because the people around me approved. Nor did I treat Connor differently just because he was handsome. I had already learned my lesson with a pretty face when it came to Nate. What made my heart flutter was a tiny incident. Connor asked me to go to an amusement park. Honestly, this was the first time I had ever gone out alone with a guy. I used to ask Nate to go, but he would always verbally agree and then never actually follow through. When Connor brought me to the park that day, I was in a bit of a daze. In the past, I never would have imagined my first time at an amusement park would be with someone else. Seeing me space out, Connor waved his hand in front of my face. I snapped out of it and smiled at him, but accidentally bumped into a little girl wearing a princess dress. Her ice cream cone fell to the ground. Looking at the little girl’s face, which was about to burst into tears, I panicked. Connor reacted faster than I did. He immediately crouched down to comfort her. “Oh no, where is this little princess from? Princesses don’t cry so easily.” He wiped away a tear that was about to fall with a tissue. “The big sister didn’t bump into you on purpose. Big brother will buy you a brand-new ice cream to make up for it, okay?” Connor looked up and gave me a quick wink. I got the hint, crouched down, and started apologizing. “I’m so sorry, sweetheart! Sister didn’t mean it.” Connor used the distraction to run and buy the exact same ice cream. When he handed it to the little girl, her face lit up. He sweet-talked her a bit more, and she happily walked away. I instinctively froze in place, waiting for Connor to scold me for being clumsy. Because in the past, whenever something like this happened, Nate would always scold me, looking completely annoyed. Nate never seemed to have any patience for me. But Connor just smiled and patted my head. “The little princess is gone. Now, my lady, if we don’t hurry, we’re going to miss the fireworks.” He gently grabbed my wrist and pulled me forward. He talked the whole way, mentioning he had already checked TikTok to find the best spot to watch the fireworks and take pictures. I stared at him and blurted out, “Why aren’t you mad at me?” Connor stopped and looked at me, seemingly confused as to why I would even ask that. A second later, he flashed a bright smile. “Cinderella lost her glass slipper because she was nervous. It’s actually really cute when Miss Avery is a little clumsy. On campus, you’re always this serious, perfect academic. I never get to see this side of you.” My nose suddenly stung. So, one day, when Connor came to the library to study with me, even though he was sitting right across the table, he slid a piece of paper over to me. It read: “Will you be my girlfriend?” Drawn at the bottom was a crying little puppy. I burst out laughing. I realized then that I had completely stepped out of the shadow Nate had cast over me. The man sitting across from me was emotionally stable and gave me so much security that I could throw myself wholeheartedly into a healthy relationship. So, I wrote “yes” on the paper. 11 Connor was incredibly thoughtful whenever he planned holiday surprises or gifts. He would always check my schedule in advance to make sure his plans wouldn’t stress me out. He would randomly pull a flower out of his coat on the way back from a date, or plan fully-researched weekend getaways. During a long weekend, he took me to a coastal city nearby. We went to the beach I had been dying to visit, and he took a perfect polaroid of us. He placed that polaroid in the clear case on the back of his phone. He took care of everything; there wasn’t a single detail he missed. Our three-day trip was perfect. If it weren’t for the uninvited guest waiting for us when we got back, the joy would have lasted much longer. We were walking hand-in-hand back to my dorm when my roommate called. “Avery, your brother is on campus. The RA wouldn’t let him into the building, so he’s waiting for you downstairs.” I was confused. “What brother?” “I don’t know, he’s tall and handsome. A bunch of girls already asked him for his number.” As we approached my dorm. I spotted Nate in the crowd instantly. He looked over, about to call out to me, when his eyes locked onto our intertwined hands. Nate’s eyes instantly turned red.

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My childhood best friend and the school’s resident bad boy made me confess my love to him fifty times before he would agree to date me. After my 49th failed attempt, I gave up. For my final attempt, I chose to love myself. In a quiet corner of the campus, Carter Hayes, the brilliant chess prodigy who had recently skyrocketed to fame, pulled me into his arms, his voice laced with grievance: “Maya, will you consider me now?” 1 On the college football field, I made my 49th confession to Nolan Pierce. Nolan smiled, patting my head. “Maya, I’m sorry, but I still can’t say yes.” Laughter erupted from the students gathered around us. Chloe Sterling, the school’s reigning queen bee, stood proudly next to Nolan. “Maya, why do you keep doing this to yourself? How many times has it been? If you aren’t tired, we’re definitely tired of watching it.” She playfully slapped Nolan’s shoulder. “And you, couldn’t you be a little gentler with your rejections?” Nolan shrugged helplessly. The casual intimacy between them made them look incredibly close. Nolan stepped forward and slung an arm over my shoulder. “We’re heading out to grab lunch. Want to come with us? Silly girl.” He was always like this. Every time he rejected me, he would immediately give me the illusion that if I just tried a little harder next time, I’d succeed. I subtly shifted my body, slipping out from under his arm. “No thanks. I still have a few case briefs to memorize. I need to go back and study.” Nolan seemed used to me using studying as an excuse to reject his invitations. He let out a cold scoff. “Boring.” Then, he draped his arm around Chloe’s shoulder and walked away. “Boring.” That was the word Nolan used most often with me. “Why do you always wear jeans? You don’t have any feminine charm at all. Boring.” “We’re in college, and all you know how to do is study? You’re like a nerd. Boring.” “Other girls know how to cook, and you don’t? Boring.” And so, I changed my tomboyish personality. I studied less, started wearing dresses, and learned how to make bento boxes. I tried so hard to become the gentle, cute girl Nolan liked. But none of that was the real me. I pulled the ribbon out of my hair and handed the lunch I had spent hours making for Nolan to the janitor sweeping the bleachers. 2 While I was in my dorm memorizing case briefs, I got a text from Nolan. [For your 50th confession, don’t wear the dress you had on today. It’s ugly.] Because I didn’t reply for a while, Nolan sent a second message. [My mom says she hasn’t seen you in a while. Come over for dinner this weekend.] Nolan and I grew up together, and I had liked him for a very long time. During my very first confession, Nolan made a deal with me: once I confessed to him fifty times, he would agree to be with me. But I had also made a decision. After the 49th failure, I would give up. The first 49 times were my pursuit of love. The final time would be my defense of my own dignity. Even if he said yes on the 50th try, our relationship would never be equal. I wanted to be with Nolan, but being with him wasn’t the only goal I had in life. The previous 49 confessions had slowly eroded my feelings for him. I quietly blocked his number and went back to memorizing my briefs. Would Nolan notice? He probably would. After all, in the past, if I didn’t reply, he would just keep texting. But he probably wouldn’t care. With his bad-boy charm and top-tier grades, he certainly wasn’t lacking beautiful girls around him. 3 The next day, I walked into the classroom wearing baggy sweatpants and a hoodie. Nolan was surrounded by Chloe and a few other girls, laughing and joking around. When he saw me, he looked me up and down once, then immediately looked away. Because he liked girls in dresses, I had basically only worn dresses recently. “Maya, I heard you confessed again yesterday, and surprisingly, you got rejected by Nolan again.” Tyler, the guy sitting behind me, suddenly announced loudly. The students around us went quiet, looking like they were ready for a show. I turned my head and caught Nolan looking over from the corner of his eye, but he made no move to stop Tyler. Tyler continued his mocking. “If you ask me, Nolan and Chloe are the perfect match. The handsome guy and the beautiful girl, a match made in heaven. You should stop daydreaming.” I smirked. “So what? What does it have to do with you? Do you have a crush on Chloe?” Tyler stammered, “Y-you don’t talk nonsense. I’m not delusional like you.” “At least when I like someone, I have the guts to go for it openly. Do you?” Tyler was speechless, glaring at me with a face pale from anger. Nolan stepped in to smooth things over. “Alright, alright, class is starting soon. Everyone quiet down.” He shot me a deep look before taking the seat behind me. I turned back to the front and continued reading my textbook. My roommate, sitting next to me, looked at me with starry eyes. “Maya. You’re so cool.” In the past, to maintain the gentle image Nolan liked, I would always silently endure any mocking without responding. I wasn’t going to coddle them anymore. After the first two periods, an announcement came over the PA system. Carter Hayes, a chess prodigy from our major, had just won another international championship. The TVs around campus started playing the interview Carter gave after his victory. Everyone started buzzing with excitement. Because of his tournaments and training, Carter rarely attended classes in person, and he hardly interacted with anyone. People were endlessly curious about him. They wondered why someone so incredible at chess would choose to major in pre-law. 4 My roommate excitedly tapped my shoulder. “Maya, do you know Carter? I saw him from a distance once. His face is unreal.” I nodded. “Yeah, I know him. He’s pretty handsome.” Tyler, overhearing me, scoffed from behind. “Maya, stop bragging. Carter’s barely been to class a few times, how could you possibly know him?” “Or did you realize you couldn’t get Nolan, so you decided to switch targets? Don’t be delusional. Carter would definitely never look twice at you. I actually saw him talking to Chloe once.” Chloe immediately smiled bashfully. “Oh, it was nothing. He’s just very serious, and we’re a bit more familiar with each other. I’ll introduce you guys next time, we’re all classmates after all.” Nolan was playing on his phone next to her, completely ignoring the conversation. He only sneered when Tyler said “Carter would never look twice at you.” I wasn’t lying. I really did know Carter. After all, last night, he had trapped me in a corner and held me in a suffocatingly tight hug. When he found out my 49th confession had failed, Carter immediately hopped on a plane back to campus. By the time he reached my dorm building, you could still see the frantic panic in his eyes. Carter’s hug was so warm, I couldn’t bear to push him away. “Maya, will you consider me now?” Carter’s voice was soft, carrying a mix of hope and grievance. It completely contrasted with his cold, aloof exterior. Once he found out I liked Nolan, he had been waiting for my 49th failure. Waiting for me to give him a chance. I hugged him back. “Let’s see how you do.” Those few words were enough to make the guy in front of me ecstatic, spinning me around in the air several times. While the class was still gossiping, they suddenly saw Carter walk through the classroom door. Everyone went dead silent. One of Chloe’s friends whispered, “Chloe, do you think Carter is here to see you?” Chloe looked thrilled, but played coy. “Don’t be silly.” Carter was wearing a black turtleneck under a trench coat today. The dark clothes made his skin look even paler, and the unapproachable aura around him was even more pronounced. He walked straight to my desk and pulled out two movie tickets. His voice was careful and hesitant. “Last time you said if I won the championship, you’d give me a reward. Let’s go see a movie, okay?” 5 Everyone around us stared in shock. No one could believe I actually knew Carter, let alone had this kind of relationship with him. “Sure. Wait for me at the campus gate after class.” Carter smiled and nodded, ruffling my hair. “Remember to bundle up. You aren’t wearing enough.” Then, looking entirely satisfied, he left. The second Carter left, almost the entire class swarmed my desk, asking how I knew him. Even Tyler shamelessly walked over, hoping I’d introduce him. Carter was his idol. I just smiled and gave a few polite, vague answers. I didn’t care about Nolan’s face, which had turned completely thunderous. In the afternoon, because I was copying down notes, I was the last one to leave. As I packed my bag and headed for the door, Nolan blocked my path. He used his body to block the exit. “Maya, what kind of game is this? Playing hard to get?” I looked up, meeting his eyes. “Nolan, what gives you the right to talk to me like that?” He suddenly smiled, almost like he was conceding defeat, and pulled out two movie tickets, stepping closer. “Weren’t you just trying to force me to watch some boring tearjerker with you? I really don’t understand how girls’ brains work. What’s so great about these movies?” Girls? Right. Nolan always had plenty of girls around him. I took a few steps back. “I’m sorry, I’m busy today. Ask someone else.” I tried to walk away, but Nolan grabbed my wrist from behind. “What is that supposed to mean?” I answered without hesitation. “It means I already have plans with someone else.” The words hung in the air, leaving both of us stunned. Nolan’s smile turned icy. “Maya, holding grudges is boring. “Do you really think I care who you watch a movie with? Trying to use another guy to trigger my competitive side is incredibly childish. “Fine! There are plenty of people who want to watch a movie with me. I don’t need you.” With that, Nolan let go and swaggered away. Actually, I was just stating a fact. I didn’t mean anything else by it. Nolan was overthinking things. 6 A few years ago, when my grandmother passed away, the person I was closest to, Nolan knew how devastated I was. But when I called him, hoping he would come keep me company, Nolan said no. He had already made plans to play basketball with his friends. His exact words to me were: “I already have plans with someone else. I’ll hang out with you tomorrow.” His tone had even carried a hint of impatience. Nolan did come keep me company the next day, but the moment I needed him most had already passed. Maybe he thought I was saying it now as revenge, but I wasn’t that petty. Revenge meant you still cared, and I was slowly learning not to care about him at all. At the campus gate, Carter stood in the snow, his head bowed, leaning against a sleek black sedan. I didn’t know how long he’d been waiting. Even with a mask and a beanie, his 6’2″ frame and innate, aloof aura made him the most conspicuous person in the crowd. When he saw me, Carter’s dark eyes instantly lit up. He stepped forward and pulled me into a hug. I was startled and tried to push him away. He wouldn’t budge. He leaned his lips close to my ear, his voice whining. “Just a hug. I’ve been waiting for you out here forever, I’m freezing to death.” Nolan, who had just walked out of the campus gates, saw the entire thing. His expression shifted slightly, but the next second he morphed back into the joking, laughing guy with his friends. A friend bumped his shoulder, and he just raised an eyebrow indifferently, walking right past us. Carter let go of me quickly and opened the passenger door. In the car, I looked at him curiously. “When did you get your driver’s license? Didn’t George always drive you around?” George was Carter’s manager. Carter’s ears turned bright red. “I just got it last month. I can’t exactly bring a third wheel along when I’m trying to woo a girl, can I?” Hearing that, my face flushed slightly. When we got to the theater, I went to buy popcorn while Carter waited. When I came back, he was surrounded by several girls asking for his Snapchat. Carter shot me a desperate look for help. Suddenly feeling mischievous, I stood where I was. I wanted to see how he’d handle it. Normally, George would have already stepped in to block them. Seeing that I wasn’t moving, Carter looked at me with pure affection. He suddenly leaned down, said a few words to the girls, and pointed at me. The girls immediately looked disappointed and walked away. “What did you tell them?” I asked curiously. Carter looked at me pitifully. “I said, my girlfriend is watching me from right over there, and she probably wouldn’t be happy about it.” Hearing that, I blushed and coughed, shoving the bucket of popcorn into his chest before turning and speed-walking into the theater. Carter quickly followed. Even though I couldn’t see his face, I knew he was smiling. 7 After the movie, Carter walked me back to my dorm building. Just as I turned to leave, he suddenly pulled down his mask, wrapped his arm around my waist, and pressed his lips to my forehead. A small gift box was slipped into my hand. The second the kiss ended, Carter’s face turned beet red. He practically sprinted back to his car. In his panic, he fumbled with the ignition before finally driving off. My cheeks felt burning hot. I didn’t know if it was windburn from the snow or just plain embarrassment. Back in my dorm, I opened the box. Inside lay a delicate, beautiful bracelet. I looked down at the slightly worn bracelet currently on my wrist. Nolan had given this to me for my 18th birthday. Back then, I had sworn I would wear it for the rest of my life. Later, I found out Nolan had originally bought it for another girl, but she thought it was too cheap and rejected it. Nolan went out and bought her an expensive one instead, and tossed this one to me. It even had the other girl’s initials engraved on it. Thinking back on it now, I unclasped Nolan’s bracelet and put on the one Carter gave me. The next day was Saturday. My family lived locally, so I always went home on weekends if I wasn’t busy. Nolan lived right next door. Our families were close, and we had frequent dinners together. Today was no exception. Nolan’s mom came over early with a mountain of groceries. I hurried over to help her carry them in. Nolan’s parents had always been wonderful to me, so I respected them deeply. Nolan trailed behind his mom, glaring at me coldly. “Oh no, I forgot the jalapeños and garlic. You two run out and grab some for me.” Nolan and I exchanged a look. Without any valid excuse to refuse, we headed out together. On the way, my phone buzzed. It was a text from Carter. A cartoon cat saying: [Miss you]. The corners of my mouth curled up. 8 [Did you get to the airport yet?] Carter had to fly out of state for an intensive training camp today. Once he arrived, his phone would be confiscated. He wouldn’t be able to communicate with the outside world for days. [Just got here.] Carter sent a picture. It was of him kissing my forehead in the snow last night. Following the photo was a voice memo. He sounded cautious. “Maya, George just sent this to me today. I don’t know who took it, but they posted it to the campus Confessions Page. Please don’t be mad, okay?” I tapped the original photo and zoomed in. It clearly showed my profile and Carter’s. I hadn’t realized we were standing so close yesterday. My smile widened, and I casually hit ‘save’. [I’m not mad. Focus on your training.] Carter: [Okay. I’m boarding now. Wait for me.] Followed by a “goofy smiling puppy” sticker. I couldn’t help but laugh out loud. Was this really the cold, aloof chess prodigy the news always talked about? Suddenly, I noticed the street had gotten noisy. I looked up to see a few girls approaching Nolan, asking for his Snapchat. Nolan glanced at me, then pulled out his phone, smiling brightly. “Sure. It’s my honor to be added by such beautiful girls.” The girls, flattered by his charm, laughed happily and even invited him to hang out. Nolan said he was busy but promised to hit them up next time. Only then did they reluctantly leave. In the past, seeing a scene like this would make me feel miserable and angry. Now, it felt like I was an objective bystander. I just thought Nolan’s smile looked incredibly fake. Nolan suddenly leaned in close. “Jealous?” “No,” I replied flatly. “Take me off your block list, and I’ll delete those two girls right now.” Nolan sounded incredibly confident, like he was sure I would agree. I ignored him. Suddenly, the phone in my pocket was snatched away. “Stop being stubborn. Are you really going to keep me in the penalty box forever? Unblock me, and we can go back to how things used to be.” Nolan held my phone high out of reach. I reached up to grab it, exposing my slender wrist. When Nolan saw the bracelet Carter had given me, his pupils shrank. He violently grabbed my wrist. “Where is your bracelet?” 9 While Nolan was stunned, I snatched my phone back. “I lost it.” “Lost it? Didn’t you say you’d wear it for the rest of your life? Think hard, where did you lose it? We’ll go look for it together.” Nolan grabbed my hand, trying to pull me along to search. I yanked my hand back. “It’s just a piece of junk nobody wanted anyway. Why are you so frantic?” “What do you mean ‘nobody wanted’? I bought that specifically for you.” I really couldn’t stand his hypocritical acting anymore. I couldn’t hold back. “ZWY. The initials engraved on the bracelet. Nolan, do you really still have the nerve to say you bought it specifically for me?” Nolan froze. Maybe even he had forgotten who the bracelet was originally meant for. I turned around. “Go buy the groceries yourself. I’m going home.” When I got home, I went straight to my room. What was supposed to be a good mood had been completely ruined by Nolan. Remembering the Confessions Page Carter mentioned, I went online to check it out. Maybe because it was the weekend and fewer people were online, the photo hadn’t gotten much traction. Just a few comments saying we looked cute together. My mood slowly settled, and I pulled out my textbooks to study, forcing myself to completely forget about the drama. When my parents called me for dinner, I didn’t go out. I just said I was tired and wanted to sleep. Monday morning, I had class, so I headed to campus early. I didn’t know why, but I felt like everyone I passed was staring at me, pointing and whispering. At first, I thought I had accidentally worn my pajamas to school. I looked down. My outfit was perfectly normal. When I walked into the classroom, I saw Nolan holding his phone, looking at me with eyes full of ice. I glanced to the side and saw the picture of Carter kissing my forehead on his screen. A girl sitting near Chloe suddenly announced loudly to her, “Thank God you knew the inside story, Chloe, otherwise we really would have thought that girl was Carter’s girlfriend. Turns out she’s just a desperate stalker.” Chloe smiled bashfully. “Carter and I grew up in the same neighborhood. Our families are close. Both his parents are high-profile lawyers, so he was just raised to be very polite. He doesn’t know how to reject girls who throw themselves at him.” “Carter’s mom has told him off for it a few times, but he’s always worried about hurting girls’ feelings.” Hearing this, I understood what had happened. 10 Everyone seemed to be waiting for me to explain myself, but I just walked to my seat expressionless, pulled out my phone, and checked the Confessions Page. Initially, there were plenty of people commenting that we were a cute couple. But in the middle of the night, an anonymous user posted a massive paragraph claiming I was a stalker obsessed with Carter, constantly harassing him. Many others piled on, claiming they’d seen me following Carter everywhere. They even accused me of two-timing—confessing to Nolan while simultaneously harassing Carter, calling me garbage. The court of public opinion had completely turned against me. Suddenly, a girl sat down next to me. “Maya, you really are just a desperate stalker. First you harassed Nolan, now you’re harassing Carter. I advise you to give up while you can. Carter will never like you. He likes elegant girls from good families, like Chloe.” Others chimed in. “Yeah, if Carter really liked Maya, he would have stepped up to defend her since this blew up so fast. The fact that he hasn’t proves he doesn’t care about her at all.” Chloe walked over to Nolan’s desk and glanced at him. “Don’t talk nonsense, guys. Even if Carter liked me, I’d still have to think about it.” I didn’t respond, just picked up my book and started reading. In a situation like this, explaining was useless. People only believe what they want to believe. Finals were next month. I needed to keep my GPA as high as possible to achieve the goal I had set for next semester. A sudden gasp from Chloe broke my concentration. “Nolan, is this for me? How did you know this is my favorite brand of chocolate?” Sitting on Nolan’s desk was a beautifully wrapped box of chocolates, which Chloe was just about to open. Nolan snatched it away from her. Chloe froze. Nolan patted her head. “Be good. I’ll buy you something even better next time.” Even as oblivious as Chloe was, she understood this wasn’t for her. She looked slightly embarrassed. “Oh, it’s fine. I’m sick of chocolate lately anyway.” Nolan dropped the chocolates onto my desk. “I don’t like sweets anyway, so consider it your lucky day.” Everyone watched in shock. No one expected Nolan to take the initiative to offer an olive branch to me. This was the first time Nolan had ever bowed his head to me. In the past, whenever we fought, I was always the one to apologize. Chloe’s expression was already crumbling, but she forced a strained smile. “Well, with everything that’s happened, Maya probably needs some sugar to help her mood.” I pushed the chocolates away, my voice cold. “My desk isn’t a trash can. Don’t give me things you don’t want.” No one expected me to reject Nolan. Nolan picked up the box, his face flushed with anger, but mindful of the audience, he just gritted his teeth. “Fine!” As if to prove it really was just something he didn’t want, Nolan walked straight to the trash can and threw the chocolates away. Chloe’s face looked even worse. After all, she had just said she wanted those chocolates. Now Nolan threw them in the trash rather than give them to her.

🌟 Continue the story here 👉🏻 📲 Download the “MotoNovel” app 🔍 search for “425825”, and watch the full series ✨! #MotoNovel

A five-year-old boy with a severe heart defect lived for barely a month because I defied his family’s wishes and fought tooth and nail to perform a heart transplant on him. The result? He drowned the very day he was discharged. His family stormed the hospital and stabbed me eighteen times. My boyfriend, pretending to try and save my life, leaned in close and whispered viciously in my ear. “Know why you’re being stabbed? Because I tricked this hillbilly family into thinking you botched the surgery…” “Sarah, you have to die so I can take your place as the Chief of Surgery!” When I opened my eyes again, I was back on the exact day I first consulted that little boy. 1 “Surgery? You only do surgery on crippled people!” “My sweet grandson is perfectly healthy! You’re just a quack trying to squeeze money out of us!” The shrill, grating insults echoed in my ears. I clutched my chest, gasping for air. What was happening… Didn’t I just get stabbed to death? “Ma’am! Watch your language!” “Dr. Jenkins is the youngest Attending Surgeon in the entire cardiothoracic department!” Jessica, a medical intern, stepped in front of me, indignantly defending my honor. I slowly raised my head. I saw a ragged-looking older woman clutching a five-year-old boy in her arms, spit flying from her mouth as she yelled. Sitting across from my desk was a scruffy, middle-aged man, his head down as he scrolled on his phone. That man! That was Billy Miller—the man who stabbed me eighteen times! Why was I seeing him again… Could it be… Did God open His eyes and give me a second chance at life?! Before I could fully process it, Billy crossed his legs and spoke with absolute arrogance. “I just looked it up on WebMD. My son’s symptoms match a basic respiratory infection. Just write us a prescription for some antibiotics so we can leave.” Jessica was so furious she could barely stand still. She fired back instantly. “You can’t trust random things you read on the internet! Dr. Jenkins has clearly explained that your son’s heart condition is critical!” “The only option is a transplant! If he doesn’t get surgery, your son won’t live past the month!” Billy slammed his hand on the desk and stood up, pointing a menacing finger at me and Jessica. “You little bitches dare curse my son?! You looking for a beating?!” “If you mention surgery one more time, I’ll tear this whole hospital apart!” The five-year-old, Tommy, realizing what was going on, started throwing a massive tantrum in his grandmother’s arms. “I don’t want surgery! I don’t want it! I don’t want it!” “Surgery hurts! They want to hurt me! Grandma, hit them! Kill them!!” “Oh, my sweet boy, don’t cry, you’re breaking Grandma’s heart! I’ll beat her up for you right now!” The grandmother, Martha, hoisted Tommy up, raised her hand, and swung it directly at my face. This entire scene was sickeningly familiar. In my past life, holding true to my medical ethics, I forcefully admitted Tommy to the hospital. When a suitable donor heart became available, I spent hours convincing his mother to sign the consent form and personally performed the transplant. The surgery was a massive success. His recovery was flawless. A few days later, he was discharged. But I never expected that on the very day he went home, the family—unable to say no to the brat’s whining—would completely ignore my strict medical orders and let him go swimming in a freezing lake! The extreme shock sent his heart into an arrhythmia. He couldn’t even make it to the shore before he drowned. Bang! I slammed my hand down on the desk. Martha froze mid-swing. Billy snapped his head to look at me. I looked at them, my voice completely calm and indifferent. “Don’t worry. From this day forward, I will never operate on him.” Today, I finally understood a universal truth. My top-tier medical resources shouldn’t be wasted saving idiots. People who seek death don’t deserve to live. 2 Billy assumed I was intimidated by his outburst. He sat back down, looking smug. “Should’ve said that from the start! You women just need to be put in your place!” Martha pulled Tommy back into her arms and spat on the floor toward me. “What terrible luck! Getting up bright and early to come to the hospital, only to get assigned this black-hearted quack!” “Let’s go! We’ll make the nurses find us a real doctor!” “What’s going on? Why is it so loud in here?” A male voice came from the doorway. Everyone turned to look. A handsome doctor in a crisp white coat walked in. It was Dr. Mark Evans, my boyfriend of seven years. I stared at him, my eyes bloodshot. His vicious words right before my death echoed in my skull. I used to think we were the perfect couple, moving from medical school sweethearts to successful professionals. I had no idea he had viewed me as a thorn in his side this entire time! “Dr. Evans! Thank god you’re here!” “These people are actually insulting Dr. Jenkins’s expertise!” Jessica let out a sigh of relief, looking at Mark like he was our savior. Mark frowned slightly upon hearing the different titles—”Dr. Evans” versus “Dr. Jenkins” (who held the title of Attending Professor). Without asking my permission, he casually picked up Tommy’s charts and scans. “Is that so? Let me take a look at the scans.” “Hmm… there is a bit of inflammation. A few days of IV antibiotics will do the trick. It’s nothing serious.” Hearing this, the three Millers let out a collective sigh of relief, looking at Mark like he was a god. “Male doctors are just more reliable! See? I told you my son was fine!” “You are so smart and moral, doctor! Not like this black-hearted woman who actually wanted to cut my precious grandson open!” Mark stood next to me and spoke with a sickeningly modest tone. “Sarah is young. She relies entirely on her surgical skills to hold her position, so it’s natural that she likes to show off in front of patients.” “She just got a little too eager and made a mistake this time. Please, forgive her.” I watched his performance with cold, dead eyes. This kind of gaslighting—pretending to defend me while actually throwing me under the bus—wasn’t a first for Mark. It was laughable how blind I was in my past life, actually believing he was looking out for me. “Dr. Evans, could you be our doctor instead?” “If we stay in the hands of this black-hearted woman, my grandson will end up dead!” Martha grabbed Mark’s hand like it was her lifeline. Being treated like a savior clearly fed Mark’s ego, but he put on a conflicted face and looked at me. “If I take over Sarah’s patient, she’ll get angry. I don’t think that’s very…” “It’s fine. He’s yours.” I spoke with absolute sincerity, then turned to Jessica. “Hand Tommy Miller’s entire file over to Dr. Evans.” “Oh… okay…” Jessica hesitated for a second, but handed all the documents to Mark. I checked my watch. “Clinic hours are over, right? Let’s go grab lunch.” “Sarah, don’t be so immature. The patients are right here, this isn’t the time to eat…” Mark frowned in disapproval, but before he could finish his sentence, I had already walked out the door with Jessica. In the hallway, Jessica kept looking back, finally asking in confusion. “Dr. Jenkins, aren’t you angry?” “Of course not.” The Millers were thrilled, acting like they had just struck gold. Little did they know, the real reason Mark hadn’t been promoted all these years was because he was an incompetent hack. In this entire hospital, outside of my retired mentor, I was the only one who could accurately diagnose Tommy’s true underlying condition, and the only one capable of performing that specific transplant. I couldn’t wait to see what Tommy’s condition would look like after a few days of Mark’s “treatment.” 3 Martha, having grown up in a rural trailer park, was a walking megaphone. It didn’t even take a day before she had broadcasted the tale of the “Black-Hearted Sarah Jenkins” and the “Savior Mark Evans” to the entire hospital. The drama even reached the ears of the hospital’s upper management. That afternoon, the moment I opened the door to the Chief of Surgery’s office, a flurry of papers was thrown right at my face. Dr. Davis, the Chief, pointed a furious finger at me. “Sarah, read the complaint letter from Tommy Miller’s grandmother yourself!” “Attempted murder for profit, medical incompetence, disrespecting the elderly… You’ve really outdone yourself this time!” I picked up one of the papers and glanced at it. Wow! It was neatly typed out on a printer! For a woman who could barely string a coherent sentence together, Martha was surprisingly tech-savvy. “Medical-patient relations are already tense, and you pull a stunt like this!” “The board has decided: your salary is suspended for six months. And your nomination for the ‘Surgeon of the Year’ award is being revoked and given to Mark!” I looked at Mark, who was standing proudly next to Dr. Davis, and smiled knowingly. The “Surgeon of the Year” award was the ultimate stepping stone for a promotion to Attending. No wonder he went through so much effort to orchestrate this circus. Dr. Davis turned and patted Mark on the shoulder, his tone softening considerably. “Since this has blown up, the local media is actually interested in Tommy’s case. You absolutely must cure him.” “Tomorrow morning, I’ve scheduled a tour with several news outlets. You will be the face of our hospital’s excellent patient care. Make sure you perform well!” Mark gave Dr. Davis a warm, confident smile. “Thank you for the opportunity, Dr. Davis. I won’t let you down.” It was almost time to clock out. Mark and I walked out of Dr. Davis’s office, one after the other. Mark quickened his pace and grabbed my wrist. “Sarah, it’s been all day! Stop throwing a tantrum!” I slapped his hand away and pulled out a tissue, wiping my wrist aggressively as if I had been touched by infectious bacteria. “I forgot to tell you, Mark. Let’s break up.” Over the past seven years, I had never once gotten genuinely angry with him, let alone mentioned breaking up. Because of that, Mark didn’t even take my words seriously. He rolled his eyes and threw his hands up in exasperation. “You just want me to coax you, don’t you?” “Fine, fine, fine, it’s all my fault. Are you happy now?” “Yes, I took your patient, and I took your award nomination… but you’re just not skilled enough. Is that my fault?” Not skilled enough. What an unfamiliar critique. I hadn’t heard that since my first year of med school. I crossed my arms and looked at Mark, genuinely amused. “Mark, you really shouldn’t think so highly of yourself.” Mark stepped forward, blocking my path, seamlessly transitioning into his practiced gaslighting routine. “Sarah, a woman’s career will never outlast a man’s. It’s just biology.” “Look at yourself. You’re in your thirties, your surgical skills are regressing, and your reputation is tanking.” “How about this: you just resign, hand all your clinical trials and networking contacts over to me, and we’ll get married right away.” “Get out of my way! Good dogs don’t block the road!” I didn’t listen to a single word he said. I raised my right leg and delivered a brutal, precise knee strike directly to his groin. “AGHHHH!!” Mark collapsed to the floor, clutching himself in agony, letting out a shriek that sounded like a slaughtered pig. “Sarah Jenkins! You’re going to pay for this!” 4 Early the next morning. The hospital was swarming with reporters. Mark walked at the forefront, followed by a massive entourage, looking every bit the prestigious hotshot doctor. “Our hospital prioritizes patient care above all else. Every patient who walks through our doors receives five-star service.” “Nurse Jessica! Why are you eating breakfast? Hurry up and check the blood pressure in bed 2!” “Interns in the back! You look tired from your night shift? Go re-organize the medical files for this entire floor!” … When I walked out of my office, I saw my colleagues being ordered around like slaves, every single one of them muttering curses under their breath. Jessica, who had already heard about my breakup with Mark, was standing with her hands on her hips, fuming. “All morning, he’s been bossing around the nurses and interns from the entire building just to cater to his one patient!” “He gets a tiny bit of power and completely loses his mind!” I handed a platinum credit card to Jessica and took the medical files from her hands. “We’re already short-staffed; we can’t have the team burning out. Go use my card to buy everyone a massive breakfast spread. I’ll go do the rounds for Emily Carter myself.” VIP Room 404. Before I even walked in, I heard a vicious argument. “It’s just a stupid toy piano! So what if my sweet grandson broke it!?” “Look at you, dressed like a slut! Who knows what man you slept with to get that money? You have no morals, no wonder your kid got a heart disease! It’s karma!” “Yeah! My grandma said everything I see is mine! If you don’t give it to me, you can’t have it either!!” Pushing the door open, I saw Tommy stomping on a shattered toy piano like a little wrecking ball. Martha was standing with her hands on her hips, verbally abusing Emily and her mother. Mrs. Carter held Emily tight against her chest, her eyes red with tears, too stunned by the sheer trashiness to respond. “Destruction of private property, illegal trespassing in a private VIP room, defamation of character… the witnesses and evidence are all here. I’m calling the police.” I pulled out my phone and dialed clearly. Right then, Mark’s parade of reporters arrived at the door. Acting like a benevolent CEO in a soap opera, he reached out and swatted my phone down. “I arranged for Tommy to be placed in the VIP wing. I can personally pay full price for the broken toy.” “Sarah, you’re being far too aggressive. You need to learn how to be kind!” I crossed my arms and stared him down. “The VIP room costs $10,000 a night. You booked them for ten days. The toy piano is a limited-edition designer piece that costs $20,000. That’s $120,000 total. Pay up right now.” Mark’s eyes practically popped out of his skull. His annual salary was barely over $200,000. This was equivalent to giving up more than half a year’s pay! “What’s wrong? Dr. Evans made a grand promise in front of all these reporters. Are you trying to back out now? Your ‘good guy’ persona is going to crumble.” Mark glared at me with pure hatred, reluctantly pulling out his debit card. Noticing the row of camera lenses pointed at him, he quickly adjusted his expression and let out a heavy, dramatic sigh. “Sarah, I know you’re bitter because Martha realized your skills were lacking and chose me over you.” “But they weren’t wrong to choose a more capable doctor. You should just admit your own shortcomings!” I rolled my eyes, too lazy to argue with his delusions, and turned to walk toward the nurse’s station. Surprisingly, Mark followed me, pulling me into a secluded corner. Seeing that the reporters were busy filming Tommy’s family, he dropped the act and showed his true, malicious face. “Sarah, since you’re so bitter, let’s put our cards on the table. Want to make a bet?” I paused. “What kind of bet?” “If I cure Tommy, you voluntarily resign your Attending position and recommend me as your replacement!” After dating for seven years, this was the first time I truly saw Mark’s real face. A rotten core with zero medical ethics, willing to gamble with a patient’s life just for a promotion! I was practically trembling with rage. “And if you don’t cure him, you stand in the main hospital lobby and scream ten times that you’re a useless scrub who lived off Sarah Jenkins. How about that?” “I want the Attending position, but I’m putting my entire reputation on the line. You’re not losing out on this deal, Dr. Jenkins!” So Mark knew exactly what he was. He knew he had lived off my success. During med school, his grades were so mediocre he could never have gotten my elite mentor to advise him. I had to beg on his behalf. When applying for jobs, if I hadn’t made it a strict condition that any hospital hiring me had to hire him too, he wouldn’t have even been allowed to clean the floors at this top-tier hospital. Looking at his insanely confident face, I was both furious and highly amused. “Since you’re so desperate for me to agree, I look forward to seeing your so-called ‘capabilities’.” 5 After calling janitorial to clean up the room. Mrs. Carter grabbed my hand, her eyes red. “Dr. Jenkins, thank you for helping us just now.” “To be honest, I really don’t know how to deal with unreasonable people like that. I had already contacted the charge nurse to switch our rooms.” Looking at Mrs. Carter, my heart ached. In my past life, when Billy Miller lunged at me with a knife, it was Mrs. Carter who threw herself in front of me, taking several fatal stab wounds on my behalf. Tragically, Mark never even attempted to save me, and I bled to death. I failed Mrs. Carter’s bravery, and I missed Emily’s surgery the very next day… “Mrs. Carter, don’t worry. I promise you, Emily will recover and be perfectly healthy.” Logically, doctors shouldn’t make absolute guarantees to avoid giving false hope. But facing Mrs. Carter, I bet my entire medical career and reputation on that firm promise. Mrs. Carter smiled through her tears. “Dr. Jenkins, I believe you.” “Don’t listen to those rumors. You are the best doctor here!” After that day, articles, videos, and photos of my confrontation with Mark went viral, even trending at number one on social media. The news outlets created a dedicated reality-style column covering “Dr. Jenkins and Dr. Evans: Two Doctors, Two Heart Patients,” assigning reporters to document everything. Mark changing Tommy’s bandages? Filmed. Tommy going to the bathroom alone? Filmed. I didn’t participate in the circus. I spent all my time aggressively coordinating with organ networks to secure a suitable donor heart for Emily as quickly as possible. A week later. Jessica came running to me in a panic. “Dr. Jenkins! Something happened! Tommy is crashing!” By the time Jessica and I reached VIP Room 404, a massive crowd had gathered outside. On the bed, Tommy, who had been full of life days ago, was as pale as a corpse. The monitors were flatlining, screaming continuously. Mark was kneeling on the bed, using a defibrillator to shock Tommy while turning his head to scream at the assisting doctors and nurses. “Turn up the joules! Are you all useless?!” Clear! Tommy’s body jerked violently into the air like a broken ragdoll, then slammed back down. Martha and Billy were sobbing hysterically in each other’s arms, their previous arrogance completely gone. “It’s still not working! Higher!” A male intern, sweating profusely, finally yelled out. “Dr. Evans, we can’t go any higher! You’re going to fry the patient’s organs!” Watching from the doorway, I frowned. “Tommy’s condition was critical, but it shouldn’t have deteriorated to this stage in just a week. What happened?” Jessica, ignoring the reporters circling them, explained it to me. “It was Dr. Evans. He insisted on treating Tommy’s condition purely as inflammation. To ‘cure’ him faster for the cameras, he massively overdosed him on IV antibiotics!” “Idiot.” “Mark is an idiot, and the Millers are idiots for trusting him.” Remembering how the Millers had murdered me and ruined my reputation in my past life, I turned around with Jessica and walked away. The male intern inside spotted me and screamed. “Dr. Evans! Dr. Jenkins is right outside! Let’s ask her to come in and help!!” 6 The eyes of the entire crowd locked onto me. I looked at Mark, who was frantically searching for another instrument. “If I take over Dr. Evans’s patient, he’ll get angry. I don’t think that’s very appropriate.” “However, I suppose I am a doctor with morals. If Dr. Evans gets on his knees and begs me, I’ll agree.” “A human life versus kneeling down—it should be an easy choice, right?” Mark’s eyes were bloodshot with hatred. He instantly refused. “Who needs your help?!” “From now on, if you dare interfere with this patient, I’ll make you pay!” Exactly the answer I expected. I left the scene without looking back. That afternoon, after clinic hours ended. Jessica ran over, excitedly gossiping about the morning’s fallout. “Dr. Jenkins, I got the full scoop on what happened after you left.” “I heard Dr. Evans pumped Tommy full of heavy stimulants to revive him. The kid is alive, but he’s basically hanging on by a thread.” “To prove his treatment plan was right, Dr. Evans personally ran a full diagnostic check on Tommy again from head to toe.” “When the results came out, every doctor and nurse in the hospital saw that Tommy actually had a severe heart defect, and that Dr. Evans had rapidly worsened it in just a few days! It totally cleared your name…” I suddenly stopped walking. Jessica followed my gaze and saw Mark arguing with Martha in a secluded corner of the hallway. “Tommy’s condition is extremely critical. He needs a heart transplant immediately.” Martha cried, beating her chest in agony. “Why does he need surgery?! Didn’t you say it was just an infection?! You have to take responsibility for this!” Mark, struggling to contain his impatience, repeated himself. “That’s why I’m telling you, Tommy needs surgery right now. Sign the consent form so I can make the arrangements.” Martha shrieked and jumped up like a madwoman, slapping and hitting Mark wildly. “No surgery! Absolutely not! If we wanted surgery, we would have stayed with that female doctor! Why did we even hire you?!” “My sweet grandson was perfectly healthy, and you turned him into this!” “You monster, give me back my grandson! Give him back!” Mark’s patience snapped. Dropping the facade entirely, he slapped Martha across the face, sending her crashing to the floor. He walked over and ground his expensive dress shoe into her hand, his voice chillingly dark. “Do you think I’m some bleeding-heart saint like Sarah Jenkins who saves everyone she sees?” “If curing that little brat wouldn’t get me a promotion, do you think I’d waste a second on you?” “Let me be clear. The reporters are at lunch. It’s just the two of us in this hallway. If you don’t sign this paper right now, I have a hundred ways to make you die of ‘extreme grief and a sudden heart attack’ right here on the floor.” Martha was so terrified she wet herself. Trembling, she picked up the pen and paper, and shakily scribbled her name at the bottom. The old saying is true: evil is best tortured by evil. Having watched a great show, my mood improved significantly. I quietly put away my phone, which I had been holding up to record for the last five minutes, and walked away with Jessica. 7 Jessica was so creeped out her arm hair was standing up. “Dr. Jenkins… I don’t recall Dr. Evans ever performing a heart transplant before…” “He has.” I thought back. “He assisted me. Standing next to me and handing me tools.” “Since he’s acting so confident, maybe he thinks he’s a genius who can learn a highly complex surgery just by watching it once?” Jessica let out an awkward, nervous laugh. “Dr. Jenkins, you have a very dark sense of humor…” I looked down at my phone, checking an email. Seeing the latest reply, I smiled. “Mark shouldn’t be worrying about how to perform the surgery right now. He should be worrying about finding a donor heart.” “Because I’m sorry to say, my Emily found one first.” Emily and Tommy shared the same rare blood type. In my past life, Tommy was registered first and was higher on the emergency list. When a matching heart was found, Mrs. Carter and Emily actually told me not to feel guilty, and to prioritize Tommy’s surgery. But what I could never have imagined was that the heart—a miracle countless families prayed for—was given to Tommy, who completely wasted it! The mother and daughter’s immense grace was rewarded with the tragedy of “the surgeon was murdered, surgery cancelled.” In this lifetime, no one was taking Emily’s heart away! VIP Room 506. I delivered the news to Mrs. Carter and Emily. Mrs. Carter wept tears of joy, holding my hand and asking over and over to confirm. “Really? Emily can really have the surgery?” “Dr. Jenkins… I… I’m not hearing things, right?” I smiled and nodded, sitting on the edge of Emily’s bed, gently encouraging her. “Emily, don’t be scared. Dr. Sarah is going to prepare very carefully. It won’t hurt at all.” Emily’s soft little hands gripped mine, and she shook her head. “I’m not scared of pain.” “Dr. Sarah, make sure you don’t get too tired, okay?” My heart melted. I looked at Mrs. Carter. “The surgery is scheduled in three days. I will give it everything I have.” A heart transplant is a massive procedure. As soon as I booked the OR, the entire hospital knew. When I was getting into my car to go home, Mark blocked my path in the parking garage. “I heard you found a matching heart?” I ignored his nonsense, trying to close my car door. Mark shoved his hand into the doorframe, speaking with absolute self-righteousness. “Give the OR slot and the donor heart to me. You know how important Tommy’s surgery is to me.” “It’s important to you. Why the hell should I care?” “You’ll give it to me.” Mark looked at me like he had me completely figured out. “Let’s put aside the fact that you’ve loved me for seven years and could never be that ruthless. Just based on your bleeding-heart savior complex, there’s no way you’d sit back and watch Tommy die.” I took a step forward and whispered directly into his ear. “Then you are dead wrong.” “If you and that little brat somehow manage to survive this, I’ll step up and stab you myself.”

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I was kidnapped as a child. To fill the void, my parents adopted a girl from an orphanage. Years later, when I finally reunited with them, the adopted daughter committed suicide by overdosing on sleeping pills. She left behind a thick photo album—a meticulous record of her life as the family’s “perfect princess.” Seeing those photos, my parents were utterly devastated. At her funeral, they wept until they choked, screaming curses at me: “If you hadn’t come back, Mia would never have done this!” They said I was the one who deserved to die. And their wish came true—my biological brother ran me down with his car. When I opened my eyes again, I was back on the day of the reunion ceremony. 1 I woke up on the bus. My adoptive mother, Martha Miller, gently shook my arm. “Chloe, sweetie, we’re here. Wake up.” I opened my eyes, staring at the familiar scenery with a momentary blankness in my mind. I had just had a dream. In that dream, I was killed. My biological brother, Maverick Sterling, hit me with his car, sending me flying thirty feet. My arm snapped like a dry twig. Maverick had stepped out of the car, looking down at me in a pool of blood with nothing but ice in his eyes. “Chloe Sterling, you’re the one who should be dead,” he’d hissed. “Why did you have to come back? Give Mia back to me!” The curses of my biological parents still rang in my ears: “If you hadn’t come back, Mia would never have sought death.” They hated me to my core, yet they were the ones who had searched for me. Mia was their adopted daughter. After I was snatched by traffickers as a toddler, my parents were paralyzed by grief. It was Maverick, my older brother, who suggested: “Mom, Dad, we’re never going to find her. Let’s just adopt someone from the orphanage.” They took his advice and adopted a girl around my age. They named her Mia—a name meant to signify that she was “theirs” forever, a vessel for the love they could no longer give to me. Mia was raised like a princess. Meanwhile, I was sold from one trafficker to another, forced to beg on street corners. Eventually, I ended up in a dusty Midwestern town, nearly starving to death under a bridge. Martha Miller found me. Her husband had died in a construction accident years prior, and she was raising a son three years younger than me. After taking me in, she worked three jobs—cleaning houses, waitressing, and sewing—to raise us both. We were poor, but I felt a warmth and love I never knew existed. Then, Arthur and Catherine Sterling found me. They arranged a grand “reunion ceremony.” In my past life, I had died on the way back from that very life. Looking at the Sterling Building now—the massive headquarters where the ceremony was being held—I felt a cold shiver down my spine. Arthur had invited the media to build hype, using my “tragic return” to boost the company’s stock. “Chloe, is that the building? It’s so grand,” Martha said, her eyes turning red. “You’ve suffered enough, baby. Once you go back, you won’t have to live this hard life anymore…” She choked back her tears, forcing a bitter yet relieved smile. I knew she didn’t want to let me go. In my last life, she had spent the entire bus ride home crying after I left with the Sterlings. 2 I looked at her. “Mom, did you bring my photo album? Give it to me.” “I did.” Martha pulled a tattered, worn-out album from her bag and handed it to me. I flipped through it. It was a record of my survival. Every page was a testament to the life I actually lived. Mia had an album too. Hers was a fairytale—the story of a little girl becoming a high-society heiress. In my previous life, on the day of the reunion, we all cried together. Mia had slipped away early, locked herself in her room, and swallowed a whole bottle of pills. By the time my parents brought me home, cheering and celebrating, the housekeeper found her. The joy vanished instantly. Arthur carried Mia’s limp body to the car, screaming for the driver. The doctors shook their heads. “We did everything we could. Prepare for the funeral.” Catherine had fainted. Mia had tucked a suicide note into her “princess” album. [Mom, Dad, Maverick—thank you for the endless love you gave me.] [Now, I’m giving everything back to Chloe.] [Goodbye. If there’s a next life, I want to be your real daughter.] My parents wept over her childhood photos. She was their “Crown Jewel.” They thought: How much pain was she in to do this without a word? Maverick flew back from his study abroad program that night. He sat in Mia’s room until dawn, whispering her name, consumed by guilt. “Mia, I was too late. I didn’t protect you.” “Why were you so stupid? Why didn’t you talk to me?” “You want to die? I’ll go with you. But first, the person who caused this will pay.” They blamed Mia’s death on me. They regretted finding me. At the funeral, they told me to get out and never show my face again. As I walked aimlessly down the street after the service, Maverick’s sports car came screaming toward me… 3 I snapped back to the present. I took Martha’s hand and walked toward the Sterling Building. The lobby was packed with reporters. My biological parents were waiting at the front, their necks craned, searching for my arrival. Maverick wasn’t back from London yet. When we appeared, the Sterling employees parted to let us through. Cameras flashed. Reporters swarmed. Arthur and Catherine walked toward me, their eyes welling up. Catherine opened her arms. “Chloe, we finally found you! Our baby girl!” I didn’t run into her arms. I didn’t cry. I stepped back, avoiding her embrace. They froze. Arthur tried to smooth things over. “Chloe, you’ve suffered so much. Come home with us. We’ll make it up to you a thousand times over.” I looked past them. In the back of the crowd, Mia was standing there in a custom Chanel suit. Her eyes were filled with nothing but disdain. I cleared my throat and looked at the couple in front of me. “I came today because I wanted to tell you one thing: I am not going back to the Sterling house.” I looped my arm through Martha’s. “My mother raised me through blood and sweat. I have to repay her. I’m staying with the woman who actually took care of me.” Arthur and Catherine’s faces paled. They never expected this script. “Chloe, don’t be difficult,” Arthur said. “We appreciate what your adoptive mother did. We’ll compensate her. We’ll give her a million dollars.” The employees began whispering. “Does she even know what Sterling Industries is worth?” “If she goes home with the Chairman, she’ll have more money than she can spend in a lifetime. Is she an idiot?” “Her adoptive mom looks like a total peasant. A million dollars is more than she’d make in ten lifetimes.” A reporter piped up. “Chloe Sterling, your parents are among the top three wealthiest people in this city. They’ve prepared luxury cars and estates for you. Don’t make a mistake.” I looked at him calmly. “I am an adult. I have the right to choose my own life. I choose my mother.” I thrust the tattered album into Catherine’s hands. “You missed my childhood. This album will show you exactly how I grew up. Consider it my gift to you. Goodbye.” I took Martha’s hand and pushed through the crowd, walking out of the building. Behind me, I heard Mia’s mocking voice: “What an actress. She’s probably just playing hard to get to ask for more money. Absolutely disgusting.” 4 Catherine frowned. “Mia, don’t talk about Chloe like that. This family owes her.” Arthur dismissed the media and the staff. He walked over to Mia, his tone sharp. “Mia, watch your mouth. What kind of heiress speaks like that?” Mia pouted. “I’m sorry, Dad.” Then she shifted gears. “Since she doesn’t want to come back, maybe we should just let it go? Blood isn’t thicker than water. To her, that woman is her mother. Just like me—even if my biological parents showed up, I’d only ever recognize you two.” Catherine felt a pang of guilt. Her voice was strained. “It’s not the same. We pampered you from birth. Chloe’s mother is poor. Chloe must have suffered terribly.” She flipped open the album. The first photo was of me at five years old, wearing rags, helping Martha shuck corn in a dusty field. Arthur looked at the photo, and both of them felt a sharp sting in their chests. It triggered a memory. When I was born, the Sterlings were just starting their business. They weren’t wealthy yet. When I was three, they took Maverick and me to a theme park. Maverick wanted to ride the Ferris wheel. I was too small. Catherine wanted to stay behind with me, but Maverick threw a tantrum. “I want Mom and Dad to sit with me! Dad on the left, Mom on the right!” They relented. They always spoiled him. They left me at a snack stand, telling me not to move. The park was packed. The vendor was overwhelmed. No one was watching. Maverick laughed with delight as the Ferris wheel rose. The three of them watched from the air as a man picked me up and vanished into the crowd. By the time they got down, I was gone. As they turned the pages of the album, Catherine started to cry. The album showed me growing up in the mud. They looked at Mia—who had been a dirty orphan once—and realized they had given her everything they owed to me. They had pampered her until she was spoiled and arrogant. Every photo reminded them that I and Mia had swapped lives. I was the one who belonged in the palace; she was the one who belonged in the dirt. Mia noticed the sympathy shifting. She grabbed the album and slammed it shut. “Mom, stop looking at this. She doesn’t even want you. Why are you staring at her photos? It’s just going to make you miserable. I’ll burn it for you.” 5 “Stop it!” Catherine snatched the album back. “Mia, give it to me.” Mia wouldn’t let go. “Mom, why are you doing this to yourself? I’m doing this for your own good. I don’t want you and Dad to be sad.” Catherine pulled so hard she fell to the floor. Arthur’s temper exploded. He slapped Mia across the face. “Enough!” Mia clutched her cheek, tears welling up. “Dad… you’ve never hit me before.” Arthur’s face was grim. “Mia, can you be sensible for once? Your mother and I are stressed enough. Stop causing trouble.” “I’m the one causing trouble?” Mia laughed through her tears. “Fine. I’m the problem. I guess there’s no room for me in this house anymore.” She wiped her eyes and stormed out. “I’m leaving. I won’t bother you again!” Catherine watched her go, filled with regret. “Arthur, was that too much? We’ve never laid a hand on her. What if she does something desperate?” Arthur looked at his palm and sighed. “I was angry. I hit her too hard.” He paused. “Call Maverick. Tell him to go find her and talk some sense into her.” 6 A few days after I returned to my real home, Arthur and Catherine showed up with their arms full of designer bags and gifts. I had worked part-time throughout college and saved enough to renovate Martha’s house the year before. It was decent now, but to the Sterlings, it was still a hovel. Martha invited them in. They tried to act friendly, asking about my life. I told them I had a degree in Biotechnology and was working as a junior technician at a local lab. Arthur’s eyes lit up. “Chloe! Sterling Industries specializes in skincare and cosmetics. Your major is exactly what our R&D department needs. Come work for the family company.” When I didn’t answer, he added, “I’ll triple your current salary.” Catherine played the emotional card. “Chloe, competition is fierce right now. Our new product line is hitting a wall. Please, come help your parents.” I stood up to show them out. “I’ll think about it. If that’s all, you should go.” They looked at me pleadingly. “Chloe, just call us when you’ve decided. We just want our family to be whole.” I said coldly, “Your adopted daughter doesn’t seem to want me there. I’ll consider the job, but moving into your house? No.” Arthur promised, “Don’t worry about Mia. We’ll handle her. She won’t give you any trouble.” “I’ll let you know.” I waved them off. 7 Martha told me she’d support whatever I chose. I waited two weeks. During that time, Arthur and Catherine called me daily. I also heard that Maverick was back. After Mia got slapped, she had gone to a club and gotten trashed. Maverick had picked her up and carried her home. She had cried in his arms all night. The next day, to cheer his “princess” up, Maverick took her on a shopping spree, spending hundreds of thousands of dollars. She had asked him: “Maverick, if Chloe comes back and bullies me, whose side will you be on?” Maverick ruffled her hair. “Silis, don’t be stupid. I grew up with you. She’s a stranger. I’ll always protect you.” Maverick had a girlfriend, a wealthy socialite currently finishing her degree in Paris. I finally called Arthur and agreed to the job. The refusal at the ceremony was just a move to gain leverage. Of course I was going back. How else would I get my revenge? The memory of Maverick killing me was a nightmare I couldn’t shake. My tragedy was tied to him, and I wasn’t going to let him off easy. Arthur and Catherine picked me up the next day. Since I refused to move into the mansion, they got me a luxury apartment near the office. I joined the R&D department as a lead technician. That weekend, they invited me to the mansion for dinner. Maverick and Mia were there. It was the first “family” dinner. Maverick was cold. He looked at me with the same hostility as Mia. In their eyes, I was the reason Maverick had been abused by his parents. When I was kidnapped, Arthur and Catherine had blamed him for years, telling him that if he hadn’t been so selfish about the Ferris wheel, I wouldn’t have been taken. He had grown up under their shadow and their lashes. Mia was his only light. After a beating, she’d bring him candy. “Don’t be sad, Maverick. You still have me.” She was his savior. I was the demon who had dragged him into hell. At the table, Arthur tried to break the silence. “Chloe, are you seeing anyone? Do you want us to set you up?” Before I could answer, Catherine jumped in. “I think Silas Vance, the second son of the Vance family, would be perfect. We have a merger plan with them…” Mia interrupted. “Mom, didn’t you tell me to get to know Silas? Why are you giving him to Chloe now?” Catherine smiled awkwardly. “I had tea with Mrs. Vance yesterday. She mentioned Silas wasn’t interested in you. I thought Chloe might have better luck.” Mia’s face darkened. “Mrs. Vance is wrong. Silas and I are great. He even invited me to a concert!” Arthur smoothed it over. “Fine, Mia. You keep seeing Silas.” Mia’s expression softened. “Don’t worry, Mom. I’ll secure the Vance alliance.” Maverick dropped his fork, his cold face becoming even colder. He stood up. “I’m full. I’m going to my room.” Mia took two bites of food and followed him. “Mom, Maverick looks sick. I’ll check on him.” 8 After dinner, Catherine showed me the house, telling me to pick a room for when I felt “ready.” The estate was massive. I told her I’d walk around on my own. As I passed a door on the second floor, I heard Mia and Maverick arguing. “Mia, Silas Vance is a playboy. He’s not good enough for you. I won’t let you marry him.” “Maverick, I have to marry someone eventually, don’t I? You have a girlfriend. I don’t like her, but you aren’t breaking up with her.” “She’s pregnant,” Maverick’s voice was strained. “I can’t just leave her. But Mia, you don’t have to marry. I can take care of you for the rest of your life.” “She’s pregnant?” Mia laughed, her tone bitter. “Wow. I guess I really should focus on Silas. Maybe we’ll actually fall in love.” “Don’t you dare.” “Just watch me.” Yikes. Over the next few months, I buried myself in work. Mia worked in Quality Control. We had to interact often, and she tried to sabotage me constantly, but I neutralized every move. I learned that the Sterlings and Vances had a messy history. The Vances used to be the main suppliers for Sterling Industries. They had helped Arthur start the company and even bought shares when the Sterlings were struggling. But as the company grew, Arthur kicked the Vances off the board and switched suppliers. He burned the bridge. Now, Sterling Industries was stagnating, while the Vances had patented a new technology that everyone wanted. Arthur’s solution? A marriage alliance. It was a desperate, almost delusional move. One weekend, Mia posted a photo on Instagram: [At a concert with my favorite person.] It showed two hands linked together. She was officially with Silas Vance. The next morning, I ran into her in the elevator. She brushed her hair back, revealing hickeys on her neck. She smirked at me. “Silas is mine. Don’t even think about the merger.” “Congratulations,” I said flatly. “To the future Mrs. Vance.” “Stop acting like you’re above it,” she hissed. “You’re dying of jealousy. Don’t think for a second that working here makes you a Sterling. You’re just an ugly duckling. You’ll never be a swan.” Mia was in a white designer dress and diamonds. I was in a sharp black power suit. Looking at our reflection, I didn’t think I was the one losing. The elevator hit the lobby, and Silas Vance was standing there in a tailored suit. Our department had invited him for a technical seminar. Silas stepped in, his eyes immediately locking onto me. Mia grabbed his arm. “Silas, let’s have lunch later.” “I’m here for work, Mia,” Silas said, pulling his arm away coldly. “Maybe later.” Mia’s face fell. She saw Silas staring at me in the mirror. “Hi, Mr. Vance,” I said politely. He reached out to shake my hand. “Nice to meet you. You must be Chloe.” Mia looked like she was going to explode. She thought I was her rival for a man. She was wrong. I was only interested in the supplier.

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After the accident, the doctors insisted I had amnesia. But I remembered everyone who came to visit me. Well, almost everyone. I remembered everyone except the Hollywood A-lister, Carter Hayes—the very star I had bankrolled into fame. So, I pulled all my funding and investments from his projects. I even started publicly shipping him with his on-screen romance. The internet cheered, congratulating Carter for finally escaping the clutches of the “spoiled East Coast heiress.” But in a corner where no one could see… He was begging me, “Sienna, can’t you just try to remember how it felt to love me? I swear I’ll do better this time.” 1 After the car crash, the doctors were absolutely certain I had amnesia. Yet, every single person who came to visit me, I recognized perfectly. The doctor was a top-tier neurologist, one of the best in the country. Faced with my skepticism, he remained steadfast. “Ms. Sterling, I assure you, you are definitely missing a piece of your memory.” I sat in my hospital bed, hugging my laptop, complaining to my best friend, Chloe, and my childhood friend, Liam. “This doctor is just trying to cover his bases. I’ve seen everyone I’m supposed to care about these past few days. If there was someone so important missing, wouldn’t you guys know who it is?” Chloe fell silent and exchanged a long look with Liam. Liam seemed lost in thought for a second before a slow, amused smile spread across his face. “Exactly,” Liam said. “If you remember everyone you’re supposed to, what kind of amnesia is that?” We all agreed. It was time for me to check out of the hospital. 2 Today was discharge day. Suddenly, an uninvited guest burst into my VIP suite. He looked travel-worn, his handsome face etched with exhaustion, like he had been flying across the country just to get here. Seeing me in my hospital gown, he froze in the doorway, his expression darkening. “Sienna, I’m late.” “I didn’t know this time… it was real.” “I’m sorry.” The guy’s sorrow seemed so genuine, and that broken, brooding look elevated his already incredible face to another level. He was exactly my type. Blinded by his good looks for a moment, I didn’t think too deeply about the implications of his words. “It’s fine, it’s fine. Come on in, it’s drafty in the hallway.” Perhaps sensing my friendly tone, the tension in his eyes eased a bit. But then he pushed his luck. He actually stepped forward and grabbed my arm. “How are your injuries?” Even though he was gorgeous, I hate being touched by strangers. I frowned and pried his fingers off my arm. “My injuries are fine, but… do we know each other?” The room fell dead silent. He stood up straight, looking at me with a bizarre expression, his perfectly shaped eyebrows knitting together. “Sienna, are you still mad at me?” “I admit, going to London was a sudden decision, and I didn’t discuss it with you. But this isn’t the time to throw a tantrum. I took a red-eye flight back here. I’m exhausted. Stop playing games, okay?” He spoke with such conviction, using my first name like we were close. He didn’t act like a stranger at all. Besides… he managed to get in. The trained security guards outside my door hadn’t stopped him. That meant he must be someone I knew. Before he could finish his lecture, a sudden realization hit me. I hit the nurse call button. It felt like I had just figured out the twist in a murder mystery, and I was oddly thrilled. “Hold the discharge papers! I think the victim of my amnesia just walked in!” 3 Chloe, who had been out finalizing my paperwork, rushed back into the room. She first glared at the two security guards who were standing there awkwardly, cursing them out. “Why are you letting any random stray dog into this room?” Then, like a fiercely protective mother bear, she stepped between me and the guy. “Carter Hayes, do you have no shame?” Chloe comes from a long line of Ivy League academics; she’s pure old money. Hearing her swear, I sat up straighter. I realized this situation was more complicated than I thought. “I was overseas for the past two days. I only had time to check the news yesterday and realized the car crash wasn’t a stunt,” Carter said, standing under the harsh fluorescent lights. The cold light highlighted the obvious regret in his dark eyes. But judging by Chloe’s reaction, he wasn’t exactly a good guy. “Get out. The kid is grown, and now you want to be a dad? The revolution is over, and you’re still waving the old flag. What does this have to do with you? Stop acting like you care!” Chloe sneered, clearly not done. She pointed a finger right at his face, backing him toward the door. “Who do you think you’re fooling? You went overseas just to accompany that weak, manipulative little childhood sweetheart of yours to her classes, didn’t you?” “What, did she pretend to be sick again so you’d run to her?” Carter, who had been silent, looked like a nerve had been struck. His expression instantly darkened. “Watch your mouth. I make my own decisions. Maya hasn’t done anything to you. If you have a problem, take it out on me.” “I was waiting for you to say that.” “I’ve been dying to teach you a lesson, you ungrateful prick.” The voice answering Carter didn’t belong to Chloe. It was a lazy, arrogant male voice. Liam, whom I had sent downstairs to grab a package, had materialized in the doorway at some point. He was born with a silver spoon in his mouth and lived life exactly how he wanted. Before Carter could even react, Liam dropped his easygoing smile and threw a hard punch right at Carter’s face. Liam is a fitness fanatic. He’s built like a tank, with a ridiculously low body fat percentage and terrifying strength. Accompanied by Chloe’s delighted laughter… Carter Hayes hit the floor. 4 I was successfully discharged. Carter Hayes was admitted. On the ride home, I relentlessly pestered Chloe for details. She remained stubbornly tight-lipped about everything involving Carter. But I knew how to use Google. Even though I wasn’t entirely sure how to spell his last name at first, the moment I typed “Carter H”, his name popped up as the top suggested search. It made sense if he was a celebrity. And honestly, if he needed it, throwing some resources his way wouldn’t have been a big deal. After all, Liam had beaten him up without asking questions. And Carter hadn’t pressed charges. If this had escalated to the police, Liam’s dad would have grounded him, and Liam would have whined to me about it endlessly. Giving Carter a few roles as a thank-you for keeping quiet would have been an easy fix. As I scrolled, I saved a few photos of him to my phone—he was definitely my type visually. That was, until I started seeing my own name pop up frequently in his comment sections and fan forums. My smile froze. 5 [Dying from the cuteness… You guys, look at these photos a fan took in the UK of Carter and Maya walking on campus from behind! [Don’t judge me, but I’m kind of glad the ‘Plague’ got into a car crash and was hospitalized. Otherwise, when would Carter ever have a moment to breathe and visit Maya?] [Watching the Plague chase after Carter for years, I felt nothing. But seeing the elite, sophisticated vibe of Maya standing next to him actually makes my heart ache. Only the true girlfriend can make a toxic solo-fan break down.] [Everyone chill out. What if the Plague wakes up from her crash and gets so mad she shuts down our fan page? She’s a top-tier East Coast heiress with massive industry connections, remember?] [Honestly, I think you guys are being too mean to Sienna. She’s a big reason why Carter was able to fight his way to the top and stand before us today. They’re both women, why pit them against each other?] [LMAO, get out of here you gold-digging apologist. Why should we feel sorry for the Plague? She used her money to tear apart young lovers and forced Carter to be with her! If the genders were reversed, the comments would be destroying her.] … It took me a minute to process it. I was the “Plague” his fans wanted to burn at the stake. The comments revealed way too much information. I had the gist of it now. Shocked, I immediately locked my phone, bolted out of my house, and went straight to Chloe’s. I needed the full story. 6 “So you’re telling me, I used to be this unhinged over a guy named Carter?” After listening to Chloe’s two-hour, non-stop, highly animated recap, I was dumbfounded. I had actually thrown a drink at a business partner in public, just for Carter. Was this guy cursed? I furiously deleted the photos I had just saved and unfollowed him on Instagram. Because my emotions were now involved, that face I had thought was stunning ten minutes ago suddenly looked bland. Honestly, he wasn’t even as good-looking as Liam. Chloe’s throat was dry from talking. She chugged a glass of water, looking exasperated. “You get amnesia, and I have to be the one to relive all these toxic memories. It’s not fair.” This was the first time I actually felt the weight of having amnesia. When I tried to access those memories in my brain, there was just a bizarre, empty void. “So I really threw my weight around, acted like a bully, and played the homewrecker who tore apart childhood sweethearts?” “Yeah, right,” Chloe slammed her water glass down on the glass table. “That little hypocrite Maya rejected Carter at first because he was poor. She never accepted his feelings. It was only after you threw millions at him and made him a star that she came running back. How does that make you the homewrecker?” She glared at me. “You’re giving yourself too much credit! The way I see it, you were just the ultimate sugar mommy getting played.” It was hard to believe I had done something so stupid. I forced down my nausea and summarized the situation. “So I spent my money and energy turning him into an A-lister, and he turns around and dates his childhood crush, getting both the career and the girl, while I get nothing?” “Not entirely nothing,” Chloe patted my shoulder. “At least you got a terrible reputation out of it.” Um… okay. What a spectacular return on investment. 7 A week passed, and the internet was still cursing my name. I figured it out: fans take after their idols. If they liked a backstabbing ingrate, I’d just let them have him. Besides, Liam was driving me crazy, so I didn’t have the mental energy to care about meaningless internet drama. Since the day I was discharged, Liam, who usually did whatever he wanted, started acting like a lunatic. Except for going to his office, he went nowhere else. He just followed me around everywhere. He even moved his workouts to the home gym in my basement. Forced to sit and watch him do dumbbell flys, I rubbed my temples. “Liam, my sweet brother, you follow me around all day. Don’t your girlfriends—numbers one through eight—mind?” Between sets, he turned to look at me. His attractive, flirtatious eyes were sharp but filled with amusement. “Of course they don’t mind. I might play the field, but Sienna is always number one. That’s a known fact.” “Alright, just to make sure you haven’t forgotten me, it’s my turn to test you. How did you celebrate your eighteenth birthday?” I: “…” 8 Ever since Liam found out that my amnesia was real, but specifically isolated to Carter Hayes… He dragged me to several different hospitals. Only after getting confirmation from multiple doctors did he first show a profound sense of relief, like a massive weight had been lifted. But somehow… It had devolved into this ridiculous routine where he tested my memory of him every five hours. We grew up together. I couldn’t imagine forgetting Liam’s name; if I did, my brain would be completely useless. I answered him casually: “I remember. Back then, I was about to go to college, and my brother wouldn’t let me go skydiving. You secretly took me to Dubai to do it. Later, your dad beat you up for it, and you were stuck in bed for two days.” I listed the events easily. But a jolt went through my heart. Some memories really don’t fade. Even though so many years had passed, that near-soul-leaving sensation of free-falling from the sky in a foreign country was still vivid. Equally vivid was the rebellious, fearless teenage Liam. A strange feeling bubbled up inside me. When did that cynical little boy suddenly grow into society’s definition of a golden boy? Seeing that I remembered perfectly, he smiled in satisfaction. But then he muttered, “Did you forget the person you liked the most, or the person you hated the most? Why do you remember me so clearly, but…” Here we go again. I was the one who was in a car crash, but he was acting like he was the one with brain damage. Thankfully, my phone rang. Without checking the caller ID, I answered it like a lifeline. The tone on the other end wasn’t very respectful. In fact, it sounded like an aggressive interrogation: “Ms. Sterling, I heard you’re doing fine and have fully recovered, but we still haven’t received the contract for Director Nolan’s new movie that you promised. I’m calling today to confirm—did you forget?” “Who is this?” What kind of nobody talks to me like this? The voice paused. “Ms. Sterling, this is Carter Hayes’s manager.” “I don’t know you.” I realized that not only had I forgotten Carter, I had forgotten everything and everyone associated with him. “Ms. Sterling, are you flaking on us? To be honest, our team prioritized this project. We cleared his schedule for the entire second half of the year for this. This is…” I actually laughed out loud. “What does that have to do with me?” The manager clearly didn’t expect that response. “Excuse me?” My patience was gone. “I said, I have absolutely no relationship with Carter Hayes. This is my private number. Do not bother me again.” Over her shocked gasp, I hung up the phone. Hearing the name Carter Hayes, Liam reacted like a triggered alarm. He dropped his dumbbells and marched over. “What happened? Are you upset? Did that punk cause trouble for you again?” He had just finished lifting. His muscles were pumped. He looked like he was ready to kill someone. Liam, you crazy kid. You really are a good friend. I patted his shoulder to calm him down. “It’s not a big deal.” I had amnesia; what kind of impact could Carter possibly have on me now? He was just a smudge of dirt. I’d just wipe him away. My life afforded me plenty of room for error. 9 I pulled all the resources I currently had invested in Carter. But he had already made a name for himself in the industry. Even without my help, his career was booming. Aside from losing the role in Director Nolan’s film, the impact wasn’t huge. When we talked about it, Chloe was furious. “It’s too easy on him. If it weren’t for you, an amateur like him would never have broken into the elite Hollywood circles.” I rested my head on my hand, bored, looking at my freshly manicured nails. “Let it go. He’s just a passing phase.” I could make him or break him with a thought. But it wasn’t worth my time. Having power and not abusing it, always leaving a little leeway—that was the philosophy my father taught me. I kept it close to my heart. Just as my manicure finished, my phone rang. I answered it. It was a man’s voice, slurred with alcohol. “Sienna, I want to see you.” 10 I recognized Carter’s voice. Not because I was secretly obsessing over him. Mainly because his commercials and news were everywhere; it was hard not to recognize it. But I was curious. “And?” I wondered to what extent I had spoiled him in the past… To make him think that I, Sienna Sterling, was someone he could summon just because he “wanted” to see me? There was a pause on the other end. The man’s voice was mumbled, but the grievance in his tone was obvious. “The internet says you don’t want me anymore.” Thinking of those comments, I looked down to admire the rhinestones on my nails and chuckled dismissively. “They’re right.” “Your fans seem very happy about it.” I had unfollowed Carter on Instagram. Fans sniffed out the drama, dug around, and discovered that numerous brands associated with me had ended their partnerships with him. The reaction was pure joy. [Best news ever! The Plague is finally letting our star-crossed lovers go! sobbing Star-Moon shippers, it’s time to celebrate!] [Carter, you survived! You made it through the darkness. Your future is going to be so bright!] [LMAO, the heiress wants to ship them now? A grassroots star turned A-lister x Ivy League gorgeous scholar. Overcoming a rich girl’s obsession and long distance—it’s the ultimate ‘love conquers all’ trope. Anyway, if you’re going to love Carter, you might as well love the Star-Moon ship! You won’t regret it!] Some big fan accounts were even doing cash giveaways to celebrate Carter escaping the “spoiled heiress’s clutches.” I honestly didn’t understand what they were so happy about. They still didn’t get it. The entertainment industry replaces people quickly. Beauty isn’t a scarce resource. Power is. I was the one holding the power in this dynamic. I was the one who could pull out and walk away whenever I wanted. I wasn’t the Plague to their idol. I was his ATM. They didn’t understand that now, but that was fine. I was bored, and feeling a little wicked. While Carter was still crying on the phone… I casually retweeted a photo of Carter and Maya posted by a shipper account, and added a comment: [Absolutely stunning couple. God-tier pairing. Love it.] Send. Since his fans wanted me to ship them, I’d oblige. It was a great way to signal to the world that I had moved on from Carter. I like doing things that are low-cost and highly efficient.

🌟 Continue the story here 👉🏻 📲 Download the “MotoNovel” app 🔍 search for “425828”, and watch the full series ✨! #MotoNovel

My best friend wouldn’t stop nagging me, listing out every pathetic, desperate thing I had done while chasing Tristan Vance. “You gave him your entire heart,” she said, exasperated. “And he treated you like a piece of furniture.” Finally, she sighed, poking me hard in the forehead. “Please tell me you’re done running after him like a lost puppy!” I hesitated for a moment, genuinely confused, and asked, “Who is Tristan Vance?” 1 The moment the words left my mouth, the hospital door creaked open. A man in a crisp white button-down and tailored trousers stood in the doorway. He had a lean, sharp build. With his fine features and gold-rimmed glasses, he radiated an aloof, old-money elegance. My best friend, Harper, let out a loud, exaggerated gasp. “Mr. Vance! You actually found the time to visit?” She then shifted her gaze to the woman trailing right behind him. “Oh, and Miss Blake is here too? Makes sense. Our Stella almost died saving Tristan, which means she practically saved you too, Serena. You definitely owe her a ‘thank you’, don’t you think?” Harper sneered. “Your timing is impeccable. If you came any later, Stella might have already been discharged.” Amidst the verbal crossfire, I turned my attention to this “Miss Blake.” She was wearing a blush-pink skirt suit, her chestnut hair half-pinned up in a chic, elegant style. Even after hearing Harper’s heavily veiled sarcasm, her expression didn’t change. She spoke in a soft, gentle voice. “I came specifically to thank Stella. I heard she’s being discharged? Her injuries must not be too serious, then.” 2 According to Harper, I ended up in the hospital because I was trying to protect Serena. Well, more accurately: the moment the massive billboard collapsed on the commercial set, Tristan rushed to shield his childhood sweetheart, Serena. And I, like an idiot, rushed to shield my boyfriend, Tristan. The result? The golden couple stared lovingly into each other’s eyes, perfectly safe and unharmed. Meanwhile, the collateral damage—me—got exactly what I asked for: a trip to the ER. Serena stepped past Harper and stood by my bed, her voice soothing. “Stella, we’ve investigated the incident. We’ve confirmed the fault lies with the brand’s production team, and Tristan has already dispatched our lawyers to hold them accountable.” She gently slid a settlement agreement onto my lap table. “Anyway, it’s not a huge deal. Tristan and I both agree it’s best if you just sign this liability waiver for now. Once this blows over, we’ll make sure you’re compensated. “Besides, to be completely honest… if you hadn’t suddenly thrown yourself at him, things probably wouldn’t have gotten this messy.” Tristan and I. She said it so naturally, instantly drawing a thick line in the sand between “them” and “me.” Looking at the two strangers in front of me, my heart gave an involuntary, painful squeeze. I frowned, finding my own physical reaction completely baffling. Seeing my silence, Serena casually pushed the waiver closer, looking utterly confident that I would sign it on command. “Tristan and I have to catch a flight for a business trip, so we won’t disturb your rest.” Tristan stood off to the side, his handsome face completely unreadable. He offered a single, cold sentence: “Get some rest. Stop causing unnecessary drama.” And just like that, he turned and left with Serena. 3 The second they were out the door, Harper absolutely exploded. “Stella Monroe, are you a complete doormat?! That woman practically wiped her shoes on your face, and you just sat there?!” I stayed silent for a moment. “Look, I really want to be mad with you, but I literally have no idea who those people are…” Harper sucked in a sharp breath. It finally dawned on her that when I asked Who is Tristan Vance?, it wasn’t a dramatic expression of a broken heart. I, Stella Monroe, had been hit in the head so hard I literally got amnesia. 4 After the doctor confirmed my diagnosis, Harper practically wept tears of joy. “Getting hit in the head was the best thing that ever happened to you.” A giant question mark materialized above my head. “?” Harper looked at me with deep sincerity. “While you still have a functioning, rational brain, let me give you a piece of advice: stay the hell away from Tristan Vance.” Then, she filled me in on the messy, dramatic love triangle between me, Tristan, and Serena. “Serena is Tristan’s childhood sweetheart. Unfortunately for them, her family went bankrupt during their sophomore year of college, and her dad shipped her off to Europe.” Meanwhile, I had just started my freshman year. I spent four entire years chasing Tristan before I finally managed to thaw the campus ice prince. It was the peak of the tech startup boom, and Tristan and I decided to build a company together. I was always by his side—networking, pitching to investors, working the room. We spun like tops, working ourselves to the bone. We went from drinking with clients until we ended up in urgent care, to finally sitting at the head of the boardroom table, having people respectfully call us Mr. Vance and Ms. Monroe. Back then, we were the power couple of the industry. The year our company went public, Tristan had planned to propose to me. But that was the exact same year Serena returned to the States. 5 The moment she came back, she effortlessly took everything that was mine. The company I had built from the ground up, bleeding and sweating alongside Tristan for years? Serena just frowned, sighed, and said she “couldn’t find a reason to stay in the country.” With that single sentence, she wiped out years of my hard work and successfully ousted me, stepping in as the new Brand Director. And me? One of the original founders? I was demoted to a mid-level manager handling logistics. Hearing this backstory felt like listening to a stranger’s life. Not a single ripple of emotion stirred in my chest. Harper watched my calm face cautiously. “Stella… how are you feeling right now?” I thought about it for a second, then said firmly, “He’s human garbage. To hell with him.” 6 The next time I saw Tristan was the day of my discharge. Dressed in a charcoal-gray suit, he was holding a generic fruit and floral basket. His long, elegant fingers looked like they belonged in a magazine. He was conventionally gorgeous, exuding an effortless, old-money aura. Serena trailed behind him like a delicate little bird, smiling. “I told Tristan you were getting discharged today. We didn’t want to show up empty-handed, so we specifically picked out this basket.” Her eyes immediately darted to my bedside table. It was empty. Her face tightened. “Stella, what’s going on? It’s been days, and you still haven’t signed the liability waiver? “Do you have any idea how much pressure the corporate sponsors are putting on us? Are you dragging this out just to throw a tantrum? “You’re being completely unreasonable and unprofessional.” 7 I completely ignored Serena’s interrogating tone. I turned to look at Tristan. “Tristan Vance?” He looked down at me, a hint of impatience in his voice. “What is it now?” I nodded. As long as he was the right guy. “Let’s break up.” He froze. Harper had just walked in from the hallway and heard exactly that. Her face lit up with pure, unadulterated triumph. She strutted to my side and tapped her temple. “Mr. Vance, our Stella…” She was about to say my brain was finally working. Tristan snapped out of his daze, his brow furrowing. “Is there something wrong with your head?” 8 Harper’s face turned beet red with anger. She slammed my medical chart right into his chest. Reading the diagnosis on the paper, Serena couldn’t hide her shock. She looked me up and down, then gently tugged on Tristan’s sleeve. “Tristan, maybe we should go talk to the doctor. Let’s see what exactly is wrong with her.” Tristan’s gaze lingered on me for a moment before he gave a slight nod. He turned and walked out with Serena. The hospital door clicked shut. Through the thin walls, Serena’s soft, calculating voice drifted in. “Amnesia? Really? “How come she remembers everyone else, but conveniently forgot only you? “Even if she forgot everyone, knowing Stella’s personality, she should still remember you. “Of course, I’m not saying she’s faking it… but you were about to break up with her. Maybe she’s just using this as a new tactic to make you stay…” A moment later, Tristan’s calm, arrogant voice filtered through the crack in the door. “Yeah. She could never forget me.” 9 Serena kept going. “I know you’re worried about her, but if she’s using tricks like this to manipulate you now, what extreme things will she do next?” She urged him to leave. “It’s just a girl throwing a temper tantrum. Tristan, you have a company to run. Let me stay and talk some sense into her.” Tristan remained silent for a second, then said coldly, “Handle it.” Her blatant manipulation oozed through the door. Harper was practically breathing fire. I didn’t care at all. I seized the moment to ask the only question that actually mattered. “Hey, you said the company Tristan and I founded went public. I’m a shareholder, right? So I should be getting a massive annual dividend?” Harper scoffed. “Obviously. “If your company wasn’t pulling in insane revenue, do you think Serena would have dropped her ‘holier-than-thou’ act and practically begged to join the executive team?” Harper looked at me proudly. “What is it? Have you finally come to your senses? Are you going to use your board power to kick her out and take your throne back?! “I’ve been telling you to do that for years—” I cut her off, waving a dismissive hand. “If I’m already rich, why would I fight her for a stressful Brand Director job? “She wants to work overtime to make me money? Sounds like a great deal to me.” 10 When Serena walked back into the room, Tristan was gone. “Stella, Tristan is incredibly busy right now. If it isn’t an absolute emergency, please stop bothering him.” Her gentle tone masked a thick layer of arrogance. “I know you two are technically dating, but given his status and position now, your lack of tact is putting him in a very difficult spot.” I smiled agreeably. “Don’t worry, Ms. Blake. I definitely won’t hold him back. “After all, I co-founded the company with him. I want him to succeed more than anyone. Why would I cause trouble for my own cash cow?” I was thrilled he was out there grinding to boost my stock portfolio. Serena’s face stiffened. She forced a smile and slid a freshly printed document onto my tray. “I’m glad you see it that way. In that case, sign this liability waiver.” I smiled. “Yeah, I can’t sign that.” Serena gave me a look that screamed I knew it. “You’re causing all this drama just to force me out of the Brand Department. But it’s not going to work.” I cut her off. “Harper told me the contracting company that built that set was recommended by you. “A massive structural failure happened under your watch, and you think you can just sweep it under the rug with a piece of paper?” 11 I might have amnesia, but I wasn’t stupid. While I was in the hospital, I took the time to read through the case files. Serena’s frantic desperation to get my signature meant this accident was directly tied to her. “Who was contracted to build that massive set? I heard your family fell on hard times. Landing a massive corporate contract like that… your little brother must have been thrilled, right?” Serena’s face turned ugly. I ignored her and kept going. “A multi-million dollar project, completely botched. You must be having a really hard time explaining this to the board and the sponsors. “If you can get me to sign this waiver, you can hand it over to the corporate clients as a neat little peace offering. Problem solved, everyone is happy… except me, the sacrificial lamb. “But tell me, Serena,” I looked at her, genuinely perplexed. “Why on earth would I do that for you? “Do you honestly think you hold any weight with me?” 12 Serena took a deep breath. “Stella, I have no idea what you’re talking about. It was just a freak accident. Whether you sign it or not, I have my ways of handling it. “But Tristan is ready to dump you. You’d better start thinking about your own future. “You can’t rely on his lingering pity to leech off him forever.” She turned to leave, tossing one last quiet insult over her shoulder. “He doesn’t love you anymore. Forcing yourself on a man who doesn’t want you is just pathetic.” 13 I couldn’t care less. I unlocked my phone. Besides work group chats, my messages were completely peaceful. Pinned at the very top was Tristan. I tapped on his profile. The chat history was entirely me, pre-amnesia, acting like a desperate simp. Paragraphs of checking in on him, bringing him lunch, asking about his day. And scattered sparsely in between were his cold, one-word replies. [Yeah.] [Got it.] [Fine.] It read exactly like an employee texting a hostile boss. Harper walked me to the elevator, giving me strict instructions. “Be careful. Call me immediately if you can’t remember something.” I laughed and promised I would. The building concierge helped me scan my fob and took me up. Using my fingerprint to unlock the door, I stepped inside and looked out at the stunning, panoramic city view. My mood was fantastic. Beep. The smart lock chimed again. Tristan had come home. He was wearing a gray wool overcoat, looking like a strict, repressed academic. He pinched the bridge of his nose. Behind his gold-rimmed glasses, his sharp eyes carried a trace of exhaustion. Seeing me, he paused. “You’re fully recovered?” His gaze was freezing, looking at me like I was a clown performing a terrible magic trick. “If you have amnesia, how did you know how to get home?” 14 I replied politely, “Mr. Vance, I have amnesia, I didn’t lose half my brain cells.” “Drop the childish games.” His eyes flared with annoyance. “Since you’re better, get back to the office tomorrow. “You’re already severely lacking in competence. With you gone these past few days, Serena has had to do all your work on top of hers.” He rubbed his temples, his voice dripping with tired frustration. “I’ve told you a million times, Serena and I grew up together. I view her as family. Why do you insist on making her life so difficult?” I nodded. “You’re absolutely right. I really shouldn’t be making her life difficult.” I didn’t care about their childhood romance. All I cared about was that she kept generating revenue for my shares. Tristan froze, clearly not expecting me to agree. “Are you finished, Mr. Vance? If so, please leave.” Harper had told me that in my peak simp era, I had bought this luxury condo to be our future marital home. As he brushed past me, Tristan suddenly grabbed my arm. His brow furrowed, his handsome face hiding a dark irritation. “What kind of reverse psychology is this now?” 15 Silence hung in the air for a second. Then, Tristan dropped my arm like it was trash. “Forget it. You always pull these stunts. Is this your new strategy to get my attention? “Don’t forget to show up to work tomorrow.” With that, he left without a shred of hesitation. Before going to bed, I scrolled through Instagram to familiarize myself with my old life. The first thing that popped up was a new photo. It was Serena, smiling sweetly, leaning her head on Tristan’s shoulder. They looked like the perfect power couple. The comments were flooded with: [Goals!] [You guys are so cute together!] [When’s the wedding?!] I dropped a comment below: [Office romances are cute, but please don’t let it affect your productivity.] Do not mess with my dividends. Three seconds later, Tristan replied to my comment. [Are you insane?] 16 The next day, the second I sat at my desk, I saw a mountain of files piled high. The guy sitting at the next desk spun his chair around and barked orders at me. “Stella, handle these. And don’t forget you need to go on-site this afternoon to oversee the brand promo setup.” He scoffed, full of disdain. “You got a tiny scratch and acted like the sky was falling. Do you know how many days you’ve been out? If everyone took time off like you, this company would collapse.” A guy in thick black glasses chimed in with a sneer. “She’s a nepo-baby, what do you expect? Manager Higgins, you better watch your mouth around her. “Taking off over a little scratch, leaving Director Blake to clean up her mess and apologize to the sponsors…” Wow. Serena had some loyal lapdogs. Harper was right. My old brain really was broken to put up with this. I was a founding equity partner, yet I was sitting here doing grunt work for free, letting middle management talk down to me? I beamed a bright smile at them. “A tiny scratch? How about I drop a steel beam on your head and we see how you feel? “And with gossiping little men like you running around, the company’s already collapsing.” The guy in glasses turned bright red, then pale. Serena materialized out of nowhere. “Stella, you just got back. Why are you picking fights with your coworkers?” She stepped in to play the peacemaker, putting on the act of a benevolent leader protecting her team. “You were gone for days. Their workload doubled. Isn’t it normal for them to be a little frustrated? “We all work for the same company. Why are you being so petty?” Oh, so when they insult me, she watches the show, but when I insult them, I’m being petty? I clapped my hands slowly. “Bravo, Director Blake. You’re so kind and generous. It’s just a shame about your hearing. You didn’t hear a single insult they threw at me, did you? “Since you love playing the martyr with other people’s dignity, should I commission a statue in your honor?” Serena’s face froze. She clearly hadn’t expected me to publicly humiliate her like this. “Are you targeting Serena again?” I turned around. Tristan was standing there, looking down at me with an icy glare. He was just as deaf and blind as she was, only seeing what he wanted to see. With Tristan backing her up, Serena instantly grew a spine. She smiled gently, looping her arm through his. “It’s fine. Don’t blame Stella. I’m used to it.” Tristan’s lips pressed into a thin line. “Is this company your personal playground to throw tantrums?” Before I could answer, he ordered, “My office. Now.” 17 The moment the door closed, Tristan started tearing into me. “Why won’t you sign the waiver? Do you have any idea how much money the company will lose because of your petty stubbornness? “Stella, I thought you at least knew how to look at the big picture.” His tone was heavy with disappointment. “The old you knew exactly what was appropriate and what wasn’t.” I nodded in sudden realization. “In other words, you got too comfortable treating me like a doormat, and now you feel entitled to it?” I tossed the dossier I had compiled last night onto his desk. “The contractor who built that promo set entirely ignored our safety regulations and blueprints. That’s why it collapsed. “In other words, they cut corners. It wasn’t an ‘accident.’” The air in the room shifted. Tristan frowned, glancing down at the papers. I looked at Serena. “This project was overseen by Director Blake. She should bear at least ninety percent of the liability. Furthermore, it appears the contractor is actually Director Blake’s younger brother?” Tristan’s head snapped up. He stared hard at Serena. Serena bit her lip, her voice trembling. “Stella, I know you’re angry that I took your Director position, but you shouldn’t stoop this low. “Corporate bidding has strict protocols. I’m just a mid-level director, I don’t have the power to rig a bid.” Serena was utterly incompetent, but she was a master at using Tristan’s name to bully the procurement department into doing her bidding. I didn’t have the time or energy to fight her on this. A faint smile touched my lips. “I’m thrilled you’re working for me, Director Blake. Why would I frame you? “I don’t dislike you because you’re malicious. I dislike you because you’re talentless, yet you insist on acting like you run the place. “You’re in way over your head.” 18 All the color drained from Serena’s face. She furrowed her brow, and her two loyal lapdogs immediately jumped in to defend her. Serena’s assistant barked at me, “Just because you’re the CEO’s girlfriend doesn’t mean you can throw your weight around and make up lies! Everyone knows how hard Director Blake works! “You might be dating Mr. Vance, but does anyone in this company actually respect you? “If I were you, I’d keep my mouth shut and be grateful I get to ride his coattails, instead of making a fool of myself.” I stood there calmly. The mocking, scornful eyes of the office staff were fixed on me. Whispers hissed through the bullpen. Through the glass walls of his private office, Tristan stood silently, just watching the circus unfold. It was hilarious. “I compiled all the evidence in that file. You didn’t even look at it before accusing me of abusing my power. “I am Tristan’s ex-girlfriend, yes. But more importantly, I am a founding equity partner of this company. “If I truly abused my power, you would have been fired an hour ago, and you wouldn’t be standing here running your mouth.” I stood up, my voice turning to ice. “I officially resign from my position as Operations Director.” Tristan jolted, staring at me in shock. I thought he was going to threaten my severance package. Instead, his lips parted slightly. “Ex-girlfriend? What are you talking about?” I looked him dead in the eyes, enunciating every word. “Before I left the hospital, I told you we were broken up, Mr. Vance.”

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