Category: English

My father’s first love and my mother’s boy toy showed up at our door looking for a fight. At first, I figured it had nothing to do with me. Until Dad’s first love narrowed her eyes and pointed straight at me. “Why does she get to spend your money studying overseas? Your money is mine. That woman’s daughter has no right to touch it.” Then Mom’s boy toy actually whined at her. “Babe, we’ll have kids of our own someday. The daughter you had with that old man doesn’t deserve your money.” I laughed from pure disbelief. I was the heir my grandfather had trained himself. And these two thought they could come after what was mine? 01 Sometimes, no matter how capable you are, you still have to do things you don’t want to do. Like now. On a bright, lazy afternoon I could have spent doing absolutely anything else, I was sitting here drinking tea with a room full of idiots. The tea was just the right temperature. I took a slow sip. Grandpa was getting old. His health had been failing these past few years, and lately all he wanted was to see the family at least pretending to get along. For that one small wish of his, I had agreed to live with my parents for a while before leaving the country. A little show of fatherly kindness and filial devotion. Something to put an old man’s heart at ease. I just hadn’t expected them to be this stupid. Two leeches raising two more leeches, and now they wanted to challenge me. I didn’t even lift my eyes. “Marissa, at your age, the whole delicate little mistress act is a bad look.” Her face stiffened. “And besides, Grandpa kicked my dad out of the company’s core management ten years ago. What exactly are you showing off for?” My father, Victor Whitmore, and his first love, Marissa Vale, both went pale. My mother was just about to laugh at them when my next sentence wiped the smirk right off her face. “And Mom, this little boyfriend of yours is really not it. He looks like boiled chicken. Pale, soft, one stiff breeze away from passing out. Kidney deficiency vibes, honestly.” I tilted my head. “And kids? Does he not know you’ve already gone through menopause?” “You brat!” My father straightened up in front of the woman he loved, suddenly brave. “We are your elders! Is that how you speak to your elders?” “Exactly! Menopause? What menopause? You’re making things up!” My mother, Lauren, snapped too. “Briar, we finally sit down together for tea, and you have to make it this ugly?” I picked up a napkin and dabbed at the corner of my mouth. Honestly, after living with Grandpa at the old estate all these years, I’d almost forgotten what kind of people they were. My parents had been a classic business-marriage disaster. After I was born, they each went off to play their own games. Their concern for me was basically nonexistent. When I was little and living in this villa, they spent all day partying outside and didn’t come home for more than a year. I was abused by the live-in nanny until I was nearly starved to death. If Grandpa hadn’t returned early from a project in Europe, I would have died in this house. After that, Grandpa was furious. He froze my father’s trust for three years, kicked him out of the company, and took me back to the old estate to raise me himself. Without my parents’ care, I finally had a peaceful childhood. After college, I planned to study abroad and expand our overseas markets along the way. But Grandpa was getting older. He hoped my parents and I could repair things, so he asked me to live with them for a while before I left. A chance to reconnect, he said. Now it seemed there was no need. Bringing their lovers home to provoke me. What was this supposed to be, a lesson in parental authority? Only idiots like my parents could come up with something this ridiculous. I looked at them and smiled. The next second, I flipped the table. After what happened with the nanny, I had learned kickboxing for self-defense. Marissa reacted fast and dodged. Mom’s boy toy shielded her, so she was fine too. Dad wasn’t so lucky. Scalding tea splashed all over him. He opened his mouth to curse, but I cut him off with one cold look. “Mom. Dad. You don’t have the ability to act like elders, so don’t try to pull rank with me.” I dusted off my clothes. “What, did age take your brains with it?” I had no interest in wasting more breath on them. “Briar! I’m your father!” Dad finally lost it. “Is this how you talk to your own father?” Mom couldn’t hold back either. “Briar! I carried you for ten months!” “Do you know I nearly died on the operating table giving birth to you? And this is how you treat your mother?” They usually lived their own separate messy lives, but when it came to dealing with me, they were impressively in sync. “I know all that,” I said, smiling as I pulled a stack of documents from my bag. “That’s why I brought you gifts today.” “Dad, did you know Marissa has a son? Motherly love really is powerful. For her own kid, she can even tolerate someone as old and ugly as you.” “And Mom, your puppy here has been using your money to date more than a dozen girls at school. He’s all over the campus gossip page. You should take a look.” The scene instantly turned brutal. Screams, shrieks, accusations, all tangled together. I blinked, picked up my bag, and walked out. Honestly. They couldn’t even recognize the people sleeping beside them, and they wanted to fight me? 02 After handling some work that evening, I went back to the old estate to see Grandpa. The moment I stepped through the door, the butler came forward. “Mr. and Mrs. Whitmore arrived this afternoon. They’ve been keeping the old gentleman company.” I raised an eyebrow, not surprised. When I entered the living room, sure enough, the three of them were on the sofa. Victor was bent forward, carefully offering Grandpa a cup of freshly brewed pu-erh tea. Lauren sat on the other side, gently massaging Grandpa’s shoulders. Grandpa leaned back against the sofa, smiling. The moment he saw me, he lifted a hand and beckoned, his voice growing stronger. “Briar’s back? Come here, sweetheart.” The harmonious atmosphere in the room froze instantly. Dad’s hand paused in midair, the smile on his face almost cracking. Mom’s hands stopped moving too. The corners of her mouth visibly dropped. Grandpa acted as if he didn’t see their expressions. He waved a hand. “All right. You’ve both kept me company all afternoon. Go home. I have some things to discuss with my granddaughter alone.” “Dad, we…” Mom tried to speak, but Grandpa swept one glance over her, and she shut up immediately. Dad didn’t dare defy him. He could only stand up through gritted teeth. As he passed me, he shot me a vicious glare. Mom followed behind him and rolled her eyes when she walked past me. Once they were gone, the living room fell quiet. “Come. Let’s go to the study. Play a game of chess with me.” Grandpa braced himself on the armrest and slowly stood. I hurried forward to support his arm. His body had gotten worse year after year. The man who once carried me running through the courtyard now had to catch his breath after only a few steps. Even when he placed a chess piece on the board, his hand trembled faintly beyond his control. We hadn’t walked far when Grandpa spoke first, his voice calm. “I heard about what happened at the house today.” “Your parents have always been foolish. You know that.” My hand paused around the chess piece. I said nothing. “These years, you’ve done very well. You learned the company from me. You’re much stronger than either of them.” “In the blink of an eye, that tiny girl grew up.” His voice thickened. “I still remember when you were born. Such a small little thing. I named you Briar. People said a girl couldn’t carry a name that strong.” “I wasn’t happy about that at all.” He tapped the chessboard. “My granddaughter can carry any name in the world.” He looked at me. “And you proved it. You handle the company cleanly, decisively. I knew it. My granddaughter was born to stand above the crowd.” Tears suddenly rolled down his face. “But I still worry about you. A sharp mind can cut the person who carries it. You understood too much too early. You’re sensitive, and those parents of yours are unreliable.” “When I’m gone, what will you do alone?” “Grandpa,” I said, sniffling, “I’m not alone. I still have you with me. I’ll be fine.” Grandpa shook his head and patted the back of my hand. “Put studying abroad on hold for now.” His eyes were tired. “I’ve already given instructions. Starting tomorrow, you will act in my place as chair of the board.” He paused. “But you must promise me one thing. No matter what foolish thing your father does in the future…” “Make sure he never lacks food or shelter.” 03 I became so busy at the company that I barely had time to breathe. Everyone was waiting to laugh at me, waiting to see how a young woman like me could possibly sit firmly in the chairmanship. The first person to come looking for me was Dad. He didn’t even get to see my face before security escorted him out of the building. After all, he wasn’t even a shareholder anymore. Just a spoiled trust-fund failure living off family money. But I hadn’t expected Grant Blackwell to come back to the country. He was the grandson of my grandfather’s closest friend. Born into a military family, broad shoulders, narrow waist, handsome features. Exactly the kind of man most girls would find attractive. My parents had arranged the engagement themselves. Their plan was simple. They hoped I would fall head over heels for that pretty face, lose myself in romance, become as brainless as them, and then let them coax the Whitmore shares right out of my hands. Unfortunately for them, they miscalculated. Since I started learning company business from Grandpa at fifteen, I had seen plenty of men with beautiful faces and rotten intentions underneath. Over the years, I had always been lukewarm toward Grant. He, too, only came looking for me when he remembered I existed. “Briar.” Grant walked up to my desk, his voice carrying just the right amount of concern. “I heard everything. Your grandfather handed the whole group over to you.” “You’re a young woman, suddenly taking on a business this big. The pressure must be enormous. How can your body hold up like this?” He leaned forward slightly, his tone growing gentler. “I’ve already taken a leave from school. I’m back for good this time.” “Briar, you don’t have to carry this alone. I’ll help you.” “I studied financial management overseas. And we’re engaged. It’s only right that I help you manage the company.” Listening to him, I nearly laughed out loud. For a moment, I couldn’t decide whether Grant had no brain, or whether he thought I didn’t. Men were born with this absurd confidence. They always believed that if they were handsome enough and said a few pretty words, women would fall madly in love and hand over everything they owned. I raised an eyebrow, just about to respond, when a powerful male voice rang from the doorway. “Who said my niece can’t handle it?” I looked up and saw my uncle, Raymond Caldwell, standing at the door. This uncle of mine was much smarter than my love-obsessed mother. At least he never directly provoked me the way my parents did. “Where did this pretty boy come from?” Raymond strode over to Grant. “Trying to live off a woman and still making it sound noble?” “My niece needs your help? She grew up learning from the old man himself. Since when does an outsider get to point fingers here?” Grant had thick skin. Even being mocked in public didn’t anger him. He smiled. “I’m Briar’s fiancé.” “It’s perfectly natural for me to share her burden.” “Fiancé?” Raymond rolled his eyes. “And I’m her actual uncle.” Then he turned to me, his face full of smiles. “Briar, let your uncle make the call today. Dump this guy.” “I’ll introduce you to a whole stack of better men. Every single one stronger than this freeloader.” I couldn’t help laughing, though I knew exactly what was at stake. The Blackwell family’s military connections were crucial to the overseas security project I planned to push forward. So on the surface, at least, I couldn’t tear this engagement apart yet. I stood and looked at Grant apologetically. “Grant, I’m sorry. My uncle has always been blunt. He doesn’t mean any harm. Don’t take it personally.” “You should go first. I’ll come find you later.” Grant glanced sideways at Raymond, then looked back at me with a smile. “Briar, I’ll wait for you tonight at the InterContinental for dinner.” Then he left. Only Raymond and I remained in the office. His eyes shifted, and he rubbed his hands together with a smile. “Briar, I heard… you’re chair of the Whitmore Group now?” I understood immediately. So this was what he had come for. I pulled out a chair, sat down, poured him tea, and smiled. “Uncle Ray, we’re family. No need to circle around.” “If you have something to say, just say it.” “My niece really is straightforward!” His eyes lit up, and he immediately followed the opening. “Here’s the thing. Your uncle has a project recently. Guaranteed profit, no loss. It just needs a little startup capital.” “You’re chair now. Could you invest a little in your uncle’s project? Not much. Just a hundred million.” My smile didn’t change. I agreed instantly. “Of course, Uncle.” “As your niece, I have to support your career.” “Have your assistant send over the project materials later. I’ll ask finance to start the process.” Raymond hadn’t expected me to agree so quickly. His eyes brightened. Then he added, “Also, Briar, your cousin just graduated from college this year. Could you let him come to your company and help you out? Let him learn from you.” My uncle and aunt only had one daughter, Iris, who was studying abroad. The “cousin” he meant, Liam, was his illegitimate son. I had heard Mom mention him a few times. Raymond treasured that secret son of his. But my aunt had a fierce temper and tolerated no betrayal. As luck would have it, Raymond had been able to sit comfortably as chairman of the Caldwell family business all these years partly because my mother loved helping her younger brother, but mostly because of his wife. So he didn’t dare let her know the illegitimate son existed. I kept smiling and nodded. “No problem. Once Liam graduates, have him report to HR. I’ll have a vice president mentor him personally.” Raymond was overjoyed and left happily. The office finally quieted down. The smile slowly faded from my face. If there had only been one dog, I might have had a problem. But now there were two. All I had to do was wait for the show. 04 Grandpa’s death came suddenly. That day, I was out of town negotiating a project when I received the butler’s call. I rushed back overnight. Dad had already arranged the funeral. The funeral home was cold. Low music drifted through the air. In the center of the memorial hall hung Grandpa’s black-and-white portrait. Before the coffin, Dad knelt on a cushion, sobbing like his heart had been ripped out. Anyone who didn’t know better would have thought he was the most devoted son in the world. Beside him, a woman held a swaddled baby and gently soothed it. I recognized her vaguely. One of Dad’s mistresses. “Dad! Open your eyes and look!” Dad cried, pounding the coffin heavily. His voice was hoarse. “You finally have a grandson! I gave you a grandson!” “Why couldn’t you wait to see him? Why did you leave?” I stood there as my stomach churned. Just then, my mother stormed in. The moment her eyes landed on the baby in the woman’s arms, she exploded like a firecracker and lunged forward to snatch it. “Victor Whitmore, you filthy stud! You dare bring your bastard child to the old man’s funeral? I’ll smash this little curse to death today!” The woman screamed and dodged back. Dad immediately stood and shielded her. The two of them began fighting in an instant. A proper memorial hall became a circus within seconds. I only stood quietly and looked at Grandpa, as if all the noise had nothing to do with me. My nose suddenly stung. Tears gathered in my eyes, but I held them back with everything I had. Only when the lawyer entered the hall did the chaos finally quiet down. He carried a document envelope in his hand. Grandpa’s will. The lawyer cleared his throat, bowed deeply to Grandpa’s portrait, then opened the will and read it word by word. Most of the real estate would be split equally among my parents and me. Grandpa’s lifetime collection of paintings, antiques, cars, and scattered investment and trust income all went to me. And then came the most important part. The shares of the Whitmore Group. The forty percent of shares Grandpa held during his life would be divided equally between me and my father, Victor Whitmore. Each of us would inherit twenty percent. I stood frozen as half the blood in my body seemed to turn cold. I already held the ten percent Grandpa had transferred to me years earlier. With this inherited twenty percent, I had thirty percent total. Enough to stand firmly in the company. Not enough to fully control the Whitmore Group. And Dad, a useless playboy Grandpa had kicked out of core management ten years ago, a man who wasn’t even a shareholder yesterday, had gained twenty percent overnight. That meant he now had the capital to fight me head-on. I frowned. I knew Grandpa had arranged this out of fatherly love. But he had overestimated my father. Grandpa could give him shares. Dad could not hold on to them. Dad froze for a few seconds, then burst into irrepressible laughter. “I knew it! Dad still cared about me, his son!” He glanced at me smugly. “So what if the old man trained you as heir? I’m not only your father. I’m his only son.” As he spoke, he touched the baby’s cheek. “Briar, you’d better be careful. A girl running a company? That kind of glory never lasts.” I lowered my eyes, expressionless. “Dad, whether my glory lasts or not, we’ll see.” “But it’s true that you’re a poor judge of people. Marissa fooled you for so long. This time, try not to get fooled again.” “I already threw that woman out!” Dad snarled, clearly stabbed in a sore spot. “Just wait until your brother and I replace you.” With that, he wrapped an arm around the woman, held the newborn baby, and walked out of the memorial hall without looking back. Mom was so angry her face turned green. Pointing at his back, she cursed and chased after him in her heels, shouting that she was going to settle this properly. The memorial hall, noisy moments ago, emptied in an instant. Only I remained. Me, and Grandpa lying in the coffin. I stood there for a very long time. So long my legs went numb and lost all feeling. Only then did I brace myself against the cold funeral home wall and move outside one step at a time. From the memorial hall to the parking lot was only a few hundred yards. Holding the wall, I walked for half an hour. That was enough time to think through many things. I suddenly remembered years ago, when Grandpa first brought me back to the old estate. He had stroked my head and said, “Briar, if no one helps you walk, then lean on the wall and walk by yourself. Go slowly. You’ll get out eventually.” I couldn’t hold it in anymore. I covered my face and cried without a sound.

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I was the campus golden boy’s biggest simp. I would practically grovel at his feet, sending desperate late-night texts just to get his attention. [Hey, you still awake?] On the other end: [Yeah.] Even that single, freezing reply was enough to make my heart skip a beat. But a second later, a bizarre status notification popped up at the top of the chat window: The user mocked you and shared your pathetic chat history with the entire dorm. I froze. Dumbfounded, I tapped on the profile of his roommate, the terrifying campus bad boy who supposedly despised me and was notoriously homophobic. The user’s mouth curved up by exactly three pixels. Baby texted me. Smells so good. The user is re-reading your message and unzipping his pants. I went completely numb. What on earth was going on? 01 The chat window was acting incredibly weird. If I didn’t figure out the truth tonight, there was no way I would sleep. When I walked into Asher’s dorm room, he was holding his phone out, showing it to the guys. The second his eyes landed on me, his expression turned stiff. My chest tightened. Could those status prompts actually be real? I took a step closer, trying to sneak a peek at his screen. “Hey, Asher. What are you guys looking at?” Asher’s thumb quickly swiped, and he held up a gaming screenshot. His roommate chimed in. “Man, you should have seen it. Asher just pulled off a twelve-kill streak. Absolutely insane!” I let out a quiet breath. Of course. How could I even believe those weird pop-ups? I placed the carton of milk I had bought for him on his desk. “Remember to drink this, Asher. I will save you a seat for lectures tomorrow morning.” Asher gave a careless shrug of agreement. Just as I turned to leave, the bathroom door swung open. Ryder stepped out in a hurry, completely shirtless. I nearly crashed straight into his chest. He leaned against the doorframe, looking down at me. Droplets of water glistened on his pale, defined abs, slowly tracing the lines down. Thinking back to the filthy prompts on his chat status, my ears began to burn. “Ryder,” I mumbled. “What?” he asked. As he spoke, his gaze flicked to the desk. Everyone in the room had a carton of milk on their desk. But Asher had two, while everyone else only had one. I could not exactly ask Ryder about the crude messages on my phone screen. Losing his patience, Ryder brushed past me, his shoulder hitting mine. “If you don’t have anything else, get out.” So hostile. On my walk back to my dorm, I kept my eyes glued to the screen, where the status updates were still rolling. Asher: The user is enjoying a massive ego boost. Ryder: Smells so sweet. What laundry detergent does baby use? So frustrating. I am going to lose my mind. What was this absolute nonsense? Annoyed, I reported the app for a system glitch. 02 I woke up early just to secure a prime spot for Asher in the lecture hall. I waited and waited until he finally walked through the door. He looked tired from pulling an all-nighter, his hair slightly messy, but he still looked effortlessly handsome. Excited, I waved my hand. “Asher! Over here!” Immediately, heads turned. People started whispering. I tried to ignore them, but Asher instantly looked uncomfortable. “Hey, Asher! Sit over here!” a girl called out from a few rows down. Asher hesitated for a fraction of a second before walking past me to sit right next to her. My face burned with embarrassment. I should not have yelled his name in front of everyone. The whole campus knew I was gay. But Asher had not accepted me yet. He hated being associated with me too closely in public. As I sat there wallowing in regret, someone suddenly loomed over my desk. “Is this seat taken?” Ryder had walked in right behind Asher, witnessing the entire painful scene. I shook my head, and Ryder slid into the seat next to me. He was wearing a black hoodie, his hands pale and clean. He reached into the desk compartment and pulled out the breakfast sandwich I had bought for Asher. “Can I eat this?” Well, Asher was not going to eat it anyway. I nodded quietly. Without another word, Ryder tore open the wrapper. I was still sulking, staring blankly at the blackboard. Beneath the desk, Ryder gave my sleeve a gentle tug. “Still upset?” “No.” Ryder let out a low chuckle. “I am not eating your food for free. I will Venmo you.” I wanted to refuse. We were not close enough for me to buy him breakfast, and I had only added his number to keep tabs on Asher’s whereabouts. But I did not stop him. The moment class ended, Ryder’s long legs carried him out of the room ahead of me. My phone buzzed. Ryder sent you $52.00. I hated rich people. A pastry and a carton of milk were nowhere near worth fifty-two bucks. Annoyed but unable to resist free money, I accepted the transfer and glanced at his status. The user’s mood is skyrocketing. 03 Asher rarely initiated conversations. So when he texted me asking if I wanted to play basketball with him, I practically flew to the courts. But when I arrived, my heart sank. It was not just Asher. He had only invited me because they were short a player to make even numbers. Still, when they split into teams, I immediately joined Asher’s side. Ryder was there too, playing for the opposing team. He seemed to be in a terrible mood today. Every time I brushed past him during a play, his brow was furrowed in a tight, dark line. 04 During halftime, I volunteered to grab drinks. I set a heavy plastic bag of cold bottles on the grass, opened one, and handed it directly to Asher. The other guys on the court, who had warmed up to me after a game, started teasing. “Damn, Toby, you really know how to take care of a guy. Asher, man, just give in and date him already.” “Yeah! Thanks for the drinks, sweet cheeks!” I smiled at Asher, and he smiled back as he took the bottle. Everyone scrambled to grab a drink, leaving Ryder standing at the very back. I picked up the last bottle and held it out to him. “Here.” Ryder glared at the bottle, scowling, then turned on his heel to buy his own from the vending machine. I had heard he had a nasty temper. Brushing it off, I unscrewed my own drink and took a sip. When I unlocked my phone to check my messages, I saw the chat status had updated again. Asher: Ego fully stroked. Feeling a massive rush of secret satisfaction. Meanwhile, Ryder’s chat was loading frantically, scrolling with endless updates: Why did he open the bottle for him? He’s smiling again. He smiles so sweetly. Stop smiling at him. So jealous. I want to lock him away so no one else can look at him. I felt a burning gaze on me. I looked up and locked eyes with Ryder. His stare was raw, intense, and predatory. The chat status could not possibly be real. But then why was Ryder looking at me like that? Did I do something to piss him off? 05 When the second half started, Ryder played with a terrifying intensity. Single-handedly, he completely dominated the scoreboard, crushing our team. Someone on our side groaned in frustration. “Is Ryder trying to get scouted for the NBA or what?” “Seriously. It’s not like there are girls watching. Who is he playing so hard for?” Asher’s face grew incredibly tense. He gritted his teeth and tried to keep up. Gradually, my stamina gave out, and my movements slowed. Drenched in sweat, I grabbed the hem of my shirt and pulled it up to wipe my face. My pale, slender waist was fully exposed in the bright sunlight. Just as Ryder dribbled past me, he suddenly grabbed my wrist, pulling my hand down. The referee instantly blew the whistle, calling a foul on him. I pulled my shirt down, staring at him in utter confusion. But Ryder just stood there, a faint, unbothered smirk playing on his lips. 06 Accidents are bound to happen on the court. As I was trying to block a player, someone slid into me, sending me crashing hard onto the concrete. “Ah!” I gasped, struggling to get back up. My knee was badly scraped and already starting to swell. Even with someone supporting me, I could not put any weight on it. “Damn, Mason, you hit him like a truck! Look what you did to his leg!” “Get him to the clinic. That’s going to get infected if we don’t clean it.” I tried to limp, but a sharp, blinding pain shot up my leg. “Don’t move, Toby. Someone needs to carry you.” Everyone turned their eyes to Asher. They all assumed Asher was the closest to me and would be the one to take me. But right then, the campus bell rang, and crowds of students began flooding onto the pathways nearby. Asher hesitated. The silence grew heavy and incredibly awkward. I was about to tell them it was fine, that I could hop there myself. But suddenly, a firm hand gripped my arm, and a broad back blocked my view. “Get on.” Short and commanding. It was Ryder. 07 He was tall, and his shoulders were incredibly broad. The campus paths were lined with blooming jacaranda trees, their purple petals drifting down around us. I looked up at the sky. Ryder carried me in silence before suddenly speaking up, his voice low. “What do you guys talk about?” “Huh?” Ryder’s voice softened even more. “I am not good at talking. You always have so much to say to him. Can you talk to me like that too?” I was trying to pursue Asher. The sweet, heart-fluttering things I wrote to my crush were not exactly things I could share with a guy I barely knew. So, I stayed silent. As we walked, Ryder suddenly gave me a slight jolt, tossing me higher on his back. Startled, I wrapped my arms tightly around his neck. “What are you doing?!” Ryder let out a soft laugh, his large hands securing his grip under my thighs. “Nothing. My hands just slipped.” He gently set me down on the examination table in the clinic, standing by as the nurse began disinfecting my scraped knee. I winced, hissing through my teeth. Maybe trying to distract me from the pain, Ryder suddenly asked, “What do you even like about Asher?” I looked down. During our freshman year, someone had found out about my sexuality and posted about it on the anonymous school forum. The thread stayed pinned at the top for three agonizing days. I was dissected, judged, and ridiculed by the entire campus. I felt like my world was ending. I had crawled into a dark corner behind the old bleachers to cry by myself. Then, Asher had appeared. He walked up to me, handed me a bottle of peach milk, and told me to stop crying. That same night, the forum thread was hacked and permanently deleted. Someone told me they saw Asher leaving the computer lab. From that moment on, I decided Asher was my hero. Gradually, I began following him around like a shadow. Even though he never gave me a straight answer, the rare smiles he threw my way were enough to keep me going for months. The sharp sting of the alcohol prep pad made me flinch, tears welling up in my eyes. When I looked up at Ryder, my nose pink and eyes watery, I must have looked incredibly pathetic. “Ryder, I won’t be able to get around much for a while. Can you do me a favor?” Ryder knelt down in front of me, his gaze surprisingly gentle. “What do you need?” “Help me win Asher over.” I heard his knuckles pop as his hands clenched into tight fists. I flinched. Ryder had a reputation as a ruthless bad boy. Was he going to hit me? “It’s fine if you don’t want to!” I stammered, my voice trembling. Ryder’s eyes looked slightly bloodshot. “I’ll do it. But you have to promise me one condition.” 08 Early the next morning, Ryder knocked on my dorm door. I handed him the breakfast bag I had packed for Asher. He didn’t take it. Instead, he stared down at me with a blank, unreadable face. “So, do we hug first?” He took a step closer, pulling me firmly against his chest. My face pressed directly into the warm, solid muscle of his torso. I went completely stiff. Before I could even process what was happening, Ryder snatched the breakfast bag from my hand. He turned and walked away. The door slammed shut behind him. How terrifying. The condition I had agreed to back in the clinic was simple: I had to teach Ryder how to date. He claimed he had been single his entire life, and though he had a crush on someone, he was too terrified to make a move. He wanted me to teach him the ropes. My heart was still hammering against my ribs from how natural his embrace had felt. Assuming the breakfast had been delivered to Asher by now, I pulled out my phone and texted him. [Did you like the breakfast?] [It was decent. The banana milk was really sweet.] Huh? I had packed peach milk. Did I grab the wrong carton? I opened my chat with Ryder to ask him about it. But the moment his chat window loaded, his status caught my eye: The user is so embarrassed they want to kick a wall. They want to grab you and kiss you senseless. How alarming. I decided it was safer not to poke the bear. 09 Ryder started coming to my room more and more. Sometimes we practiced holding hands; sometimes we practiced hugging. Even my roommate got used to his constant presence, teasing us one afternoon. “Honestly, if I didn’t know any better, I’d swear you two were dating. You’re practically glued to each other.” I watched as Ryder’s lips curved into a faint, satisfied smirk. The audacity! My roommate had no idea he was joking with the campus bad boy. Ryder was only getting dating experience from me to use on his actual crush. Did he want to get killed? I quickly glared at my roommate to shut him up. Then, I turned a flattering smile on Ryder. Ryder’s expression instantly turned icy. He snatched the box of chocolates I had bought for Asher and walked out. The door slammed so hard the walls vibrated. After I showered, I received a rare, unsolicited message from Asher: [That was really sweet of you. Those chocolates are expensive.] His status read: Touched. I was a bit surprised. They were only about twenty dollars. That wasn’t really expensive. [By the way, my birthday party is next Friday. You should come.] Asher was actually inviting me. Overjoyed, I exited the chat, my eyes naturally drifting to Ryder’s status. Because I had been asking him to deliver things to Asher for me, I ended up texting him far more than I ever texted Asher. His status at that moment read: A little overwhelmed by the sweetness, but loving every second of it. 10 On the day of Asher’s birthday party, the weather was miserable. The moment I stepped outside, the sky opened up. I had an umbrella, but to protect the carefully wrapped gift in my arms, I let myself get completely drenched. By the time I finally reached the lounge bar, I realized Asher hadn’t sent me the room number. I called and texted him, but got no reply. His status read: Drunk and having a blast. A cold gust of wind made me shiver. I stopped a server, gave them Asher’s name, and was guided down a dim hallway to a private VIP room. I smoothed down my wet clothes, trying to look presentable, and prepared to knock. But then, through the heavy door, I heard my own name. The atmosphere inside was nothing like I had imagined. The heavy, suffocating stench of alcohol and vape smoke leaked through the gap. The harsh, neon purple lights cast ugly shadows on everyone inside. “Yo, Asher lost the round! Truth or dare, man. What’s the deal with that gay kid who follows you around like a lost puppy? Are you actually going to date him?” Asher’s voice sounded slurred, distorted. “No way in hell. I like girls. I just think he’s hilarious. It’s fun to play along.” “Oh, damn!” The room erupted into loud, mocking laughter. My heart felt like it had been violently squeezed. “Keep going, keep going!” “Asher lost again! This time, it’s a dare! Call your little simp, put it on speaker, and tell him you love him! We want to hear his reaction!” Everyone in the room cheered, their faces twisted with cruel excitement. “Yeah! Let’s see how fast he loses his mind.” Asher looked a bit uncomfortable. But with his friends egging him on, he pulled out his phone. A second later, my screen lit up with Asher’s incoming call.

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My father accidentally added me to a group chat called “One Big Happy Family.” There were only three people in it: my father, my mother, and a stranger saved under the nickname “Princess.” They were in the middle of a flurry of messages, eagerly planning a lavish birthday party for her. Tomorrow was her birthday. And tomorrow was also my birthday, which they had consistently forgotten for ten consecutive years. My mother wrote: The venue has to be absolutely magical. We want her to feel like a real princess. My father sent a massive digital cash transfer: Money is no object. Just don’t let your sister find out. I don’t want her making a fuss and ruining the mood. I silently took screenshots of the chat, preparing to wait for the perfect moment to tear their happy little facade to pieces. Just then, my younger brother, Gary, a straight-A student and the pride of our family, sent me a private message. It was a screenshot of his own chat with our father. Dad, is Gilly’s surprise party all set up? You promised me, this is the last time we lie to her. 1 Staring at the screenshot Gary sent, a cold dread seeped into my bones. A surprise? The last time they would lie to me? Every single year on my birthday, they brushed me off with the exact same tired excuses. “Gilly, something urgent came up at the office.” “Gilly, your mother booked a spa day with her friends. Just order yourself some takeout, okay?” This year, they didn’t even bother with the excuses. They had simply replaced me with a brand-new daughter. I tossed my phone onto the bed, a suffocating weight pressing down on my chest. Gary’s name popped up on my screen again: Gilly, don’t overthink it. Mom and Dad… I cut him off with two words: I get it. Overthink? How could I possibly misinterpret this? The proof was laid out right in front of me. This lavish birthday party for “Princess” was the very “surprise” they were using to justify their lies. I, their flesh-and-blood daughter, was nothing more than a background prop, a shadow meant to highlight the dazzling happiness of another girl. From the living room, I heard my mother’s hushed, excited voice on the phone. “Yes, we want the pink balloons. The largest, glossiest ones you have.” “Stella loves pink. We must make sure everything is perfect for her.” Stella. So that was her name: Stella. I opened my social media app and searched for the name. It didn’t take long to find her. Her profile picture was a polished, professional portrait, and her feed was filled with glamorous photos of her travels all over the world. Her most recent post was a picture of her standing between two middle-aged people. The background was our living room. The two people were my parents. In the photo, they smiled with a warmth and tenderness I had never once seen on their faces. My mother was affectionately linking arms with Stella, while my father stood beside them, his eyes full of pure adoration. The caption read: Thank you to my wonderful Aunt and Uncle! I can’t wait for the party tomorrow! My mother had commented below: Silly girl, there’s no need to be formal with us. My father had left a heart emoji. What a beautiful “happy family.” I saved the photo to my private, encrypted vault alongside the group chat screenshots. These would be the “surprises” I presented to them tomorrow. At dinner, my mother ladled a bowl of hot chicken soup, setting it down in front of me with an eager smile. “Gilly, drink up. I simmered this soup for hours just for you.” Staring at the greasy broth, a wave of intense nausea hit the back of my throat. “Is this to build up my energy for Stella’s birthday party tomorrow?” I asked, my voice light and conversational. My mother’s smile instantly froze on her face. She darted a panicked look at my father, whose expression darkened immediately. “What nonsense are you talking about? Who on earth is Stella?” “Oh? Has your memory started to fail you, Dad?” I pulled out my phone and tapped open the saved photo. “This girl right here. Isn’t she your precious princess?” My father’s face turned a violent shade of grey. My mother scrambled to smooth things over. “Gilly, you’ve got it all wrong. She’s the daughter of an incredibly important client of your father’s. We’re just helping them organize her celebration.” “An important client’s daughter?” I let out a sharp, mocking laugh. “So important that you needed to create a private group chat, save her as ‘Princess,’ and send her massive cash transfers?” “So important that you can completely ignore your own daughter’s birthday?” In an instant, the dining room fell so quiet that only our breathing could be heard. Gary rushed out of his room, grabbing my arm. “Gilly, please, just stop talking!” I shook his hand off. “Why? Are you going to help them keep up the lie, too?” Gary’s face drained of color, his lips parting, but he couldn’t find a single word to say. 2 The next day, on my birthday, the house was entirely empty. On the kitchen counter lay a hundred-dollar bill and a scrap of paper in my mother’s elegant handwriting: Gilly, left some money for you on the counter. Buy yourself something nice to eat. Ten years of the exact same neglect, down to the very last dollar. I crumpled the bill into a tight ball and threw it into the trash can. After our argument last night, they didn’t even bother pretending anymore. Before they left, I had heard my mother gushing on the phone. “The venue is fully set up! It looks like an absolute fairytale!” My father was busy barking instructions on the balcony. “Make sure you pack that bottle of ’82 Lafite. We want to make sure Stella has the time of her life today.” And I was left behind, wandering through my own home like a ghost. Gary had left early as well. Before he walked out the door, he had looked at me with a complicated, aching expression. “Gilly, no matter what you see today, please trust me.” Trust him? Trust that he was simply a co-conspirator in this cruel game? I offered a cold, silent smirk, turning away. Around noon, a moving truck pulled up outside. Two delivery workers carried a massive, velvet-lined box up the steps, decorated with an obnoxious pink bow. Standing by the window, I realized that in their eyes, I was worth less than a parcel. My mother ran down the steps to sign for it, her face glowing with excitement. She directed the workers with frantic hand gestures, terrified they might scratch the contents. I recognized the gold emblem on the box. It was a limited-edition grand piano released just last month, carrying a price tag of six figures. Meanwhile, my own piano sat in the corner of my room, its keys yellowed with ten years of use, its tuning long gone. I had tried to gently drop hints to my mother about it before, but she had always brushed me off. It still plays fine, Gilly. We have too many expenses to worry about right now. It wasn’t that the expenses were too high. It was just that I wasn’t worth the cost. The very last ember of hope in my heart died. In the afternoon, I changed into a sharp, tailored black dress. I applied my makeup meticulously, concealing the exhaustion under my eyes. I refused to let them see me break down. I would draw the line between us with absolute pride. I had overheard the venue’s address during my mother’s phone call yesterday. They had rented out the most exclusive grand ballroom in the city. I called a cab. Along the way, the driver kept glancing at the road ahead, whistling. “Big day today, huh, kid? The entire avenue ahead is blocked off. Apparently, some wealthy family is throwing a massive birthday party for their daughter. The scale is incredible.” I curved my lips slightly, remaining silent. Yes, the scale was incredible. So grand that it required ten years of my quiet misery to serve as its prelude. A plush red carpet stretched out from the ballroom entrance, lined on both sides with towering arrangements of pink roses. The welcome sign at the entrance read: Happy Birthday to our precious Princess. And the signature at the bottom: With all our love, Mom and Dad. The words burned my eyes. I pulled out my phone and sent Gary a text: I’ve arrived to claim your surprise. Taking a deep breath, I adjusted my shoulders, stepped onto my heels, and walked into the ballroom. The room was filled with the clinking of crystal glasses and soft laughter. My parents were standing in the center of the crowd, looking radiant as they greeted their high-society guests. And right beside them stood a girl in a stunning, custom-made pink gown. Stella. She looked like a proud peacock, basking in the adoration and blessings of everyone in the room. My mother stepped forward, gently placing a delicate diamond tiara onto Stella’s head. “Our Stella is the most beautiful princess in the world today.” My father handed her a velvet jewelry box, revealing a sparkling diamond necklace. “Do you like it? I had it custom-designed just for you.” Stella smiled sweetly, her eyes shining. “Thank you, Uncle, Auntie. You treat me so wonderfully.” A chorus of admiring murmurs rippled through the guests. “Gavin, she might be your goddaughter, but you treat her better than a biological child!” “Honestly, we’re all put to shame by this level of generosity.” “If you treat your goddaughter this well, Gavin, your own daughter’s birthday party must be legendary. You’d probably pluck the stars from the sky for her!” My parents laughed warmly, waving their hands in polite dismissal. “Of course, of course, she deserves nothing less.” No one noticed me standing in the shadowed corner of the room. I raised my phone, recording every single second of their happy display. Then, I smoothed down the fabric of my black dress, picked up a glass of champagne, and walked slowly toward them. 3 The laughter and music around me seemed to fade into a dull hum. In my vision, there was only that picture-perfect family of three. My father raised his glass, projecting his voice over the microphone. “Thank you all for joining us today to celebrate our princess…” “Our princess?” I repeated, my voice cutting through the air like a knife. The smiles on my parents’ faces instantly froze. My mother reacted first, stepping forward to grab my hand, but I cleanly stepped out of her reach. “Gilly? What are you doing here?” Her voice carried a sharp tremor. “Come, let me introduce you. This is…” “This is Stella, your precious princess, correct?” I interrupted, my gaze locking onto the girl in the pink gown. The smile vanished from Stella’s face. She looked at me, bewildered, a flash of distress crossing her features as she turned to my parents for help. “Who is this?” a guest whispered in confusion. My father’s face turned a violent shade of red. He stepped forward, his voice a low, warning hiss. “Gillian! Stop making a scene! Go home immediately!” “Making a scene?” I let out a cold laugh. “Dad, have you forgotten what day it is?” “Today is also the birthday of your actual, biological daughter. My birthday.” I pronounced each word with absolute, freezing clarity. The room erupted into a flurry of whispers. The guests’ eyes darted back and forth between my parents and me, their expressions alive with shock. “So she’s the real daughter… then why is…” “Unbelievable. Ignoring your own daughter’s birthday to throw a massive party for an outsider?” “What is Gavin thinking? I don’t understand this at all.” The murmurs drifted into my parents’ ears, and their expressions grew frantic. My mother’s lips trembled violently. My father’s panic quickly twisted into sheer, defensive rage. “Enough!” He slammed his hand down on a nearby table, rattling the glasses. “Did you show up today just to ruin this?” “Ruin this?” I raised my phone, playing the video I had just recorded. “Dad, who is the one ruining things here? Who is the one pretending to prepare a surprise for me, while placing a tiara on another girl’s head?” On the screen, my mother’s gentle voice echoed clearly through the silent ballroom. Our Stella is the most beautiful princess in the world today. The words repeated over the speaker, sounding incredibly mocking in the dead silence. My mother’s face went completely pale. “And what about this?” I swiped to the family photo I had saved. “The daughter of an ‘important client’ who somehow became your precious princess?” I turned the screen toward the guests, letting everyone see the photo and my mother’s affectionate comments. The expressions in the crowd grew increasingly colorful. My father was shaking with rage, pointing a finger at me as he struggled to speak. “Gillian… you…” “What about me?” I met his gaze, my eyes burning with hot tears, though my voice remained steady and cold. “I just wanted to ask you face-to-face: does raising a brand-new daughter feel much better than raising your old one?” “I just want to know what I did so wrong that you had to humiliate and abandon me like this!” My voice rose, carrying the weight of ten years of neglected birthdays and silent tears. Stella’s face went completely pale. She clutched my mother’s sleeve, whispering, “Auntie, this…” My mother shook her off, staring at me, her eyes brimming with a sudden, desperate regret. “Gilly, it’s not what you think. It’s really not what you think!” “Then what is it?” I demanded, stepping closer. “Tell me!” Just then, the grand doors of the ballroom were flung open. Gary rushed in, his face ghostly pale as he took in the chaotic, screaming scene. He ran to me and grabbed my arms, his voice shaking violently. “Gilly, please, let me explain!” “Enough! I don’t want to hear another single lie from any of you!” I tried to wrench myself free. I had achieved my goal. I wanted everyone to see the true face of my perfect parents. I raised my phone, ready to project the screenshots onto the giant screen behind them. “Dad, Mom, it’s time for this play to end!” Just as my finger hovered over the button. Gary lunged forward, ripping the phone from my hand and clutching it tightly to his chest. “Gilly! I beg you! Just give me five minutes! Only five minutes!”

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My sister and I are the twin bosses of a notorious horror game. As everyone knows, twin bosses in horror games always share a unique, bound trait: we must be killed at the exact same time. If even one of us survives, we will infinitely resurrect. So, when my sister fell in love with a player who entered our dungeon, choosing to surrender her boss status and leave the game to live in the real world with him, I didn’t care. After all, if things went south and she died out there, she would simply respawn back home with me. But by the third year of her departure, I noticed myself growing weaker and weaker. It reached a point where even absolute rookies entering the dungeon could easily slaughter me and clear the game. Finally unable to bear it any longer, I forced my way out of the dungeon, determined to see what on earth my sister was doing. Instead, I found her in a hospital room, her body covered in tubes, barely kept alive on life support. Meanwhile, the boyfriend she had abandoned everything to follow was shamelessly using the massive dungeon points she had accumulated to buy rare items, all just to please some cheap, red-lipped woman. Staring at this utterly ridiculous scene, a chilling, distorted smile spread across my face. Since you are too greedy to kill her because of her points, then I will do it myself. 1 When the iron sword pierced my chest, I didn’t even have the strength to fight back. The male player in front of me, clad in cheap, starter-cloth armor, was so terrified that he collapsed onto his backside, letting go of the sword’s hilt entirely. “Did… did I just solo a boss?” He stared at his hands in disbelief, before erupting into an ecstatic scream, spinning around to shout at his distant companions. “Holy crap! Is this really the dungeon boss? She’s pathetic! She just stood there and let me hack her to pieces!” “Awesome job! I thought this dungeon was supposed to be the Rookie Graveyard? Guess those forum posts were just hyping it up!” A group of clueless newbies crowded around, gesturing wildly at my corpse, their eyes gleaming with the greedy satisfaction of an easy kill. I stared coldly at their pathetic celebration as my vision faded to black. What a humiliating way to die. When I opened my eyes again, I was back in the core chamber of the dungeon. The weightless disorientation of resurrection hadn’t even cleared before I forced my weakened body upright. The lightning-shaped, ghostly blue sigil at the corner of my eye burned with raw fury. I looked up at the holographic control panel floating in the air. Glaring red warning lights pulsed across the screen. What was once a legendary S-class dungeon, a nightmare to even the top-tier players, now bore a shameful B-class tag. I clenched my fists, fingernails digging deep into my palms until dark crimson blood dripped onto the floor. Too weak. My current power wasn’t even a fraction of what it had been at my peak. As twin bosses of this brutal realm, my older sister, Seraphina, and I shared our life force and power. We rose together, and we fell together. Three years ago, my painfully naive sister surrendered her godlike powers for a player named Marcus. She abandoned the game and crossed into the real world to live what she called a normal life. How had I tried to warn her back then? “Humans are nothing but bottomless pits of greed and deceit, Seraphina. If you go out there completely defenseless, they will strip you to the bone and leave absolutely nothing left!” But she had only smiled, patting my head, her once-regal face filled with a desperate longing for cheap, fleeting warmth. “Val, Marcus is different. He showed me what real warmth feels like. I want to take a chance on him.” Warmth? To hell with that. A sudden, violent cough tore through my chest, and I spat out a mouthful of dark, stagnant blood. Feeling my life force drain away at a terrifying rate, I could almost smell the rot of my own soul. Seraphina was in trouble in the real world, a mortal danger so severe it was dragging me down with her. If she had the decency to just die, it would be fine, she would simply respawn here in the core, and we would rule our domain once more. But if she was kept in some half-dead state, she would drag me down to an eternity of pathetic weakness. Looking at the screen, staring at the absolute system protocol: [Dungeon Entities Strictly Forbidden From Exiting Game], a dark smirk curved my lips. I gripped my bone butterfly knife, channeled every ounce of my remaining power, and slammed the blade directly into the core of the console. “Warning! Unauthorized system tampering detected!” “Warning! Critical system vulnerability detected. Dimensional barrier compromised…” The shrill, mechanical alarm blared through the chamber. The massive backlash of energy instantly tore open the flesh of my hand. Blood dripped down the blade, but I didn’t stop. Instead, I drove the knife even deeper. The indestructible glass shattered, and a dark, jagged tear in space ripped open before me. It was a rift to the mortal realm, filled with chaotic currents that would shred a normal human to pieces. Without so much as flinching, I stepped right into the void. 2 The agonizing tearing sensation felt like it was ripping my soul to shreds. By the time my feet hit solid ground, my surroundings had completely changed. The sharp, clinical stench of bleach and rubbing alcohol hit me instantly. A private hospital in the mortal world. The localized reality protocols kicked in immediately, suppressing my already shattered power down to the level of a frail human. I clung to the cold wall, panting heavily, looking up as I followed the faint, agonizingly fragile tether of our twin bond. At the end of the corridor was a tightly closed intensive care room. My twin senses screamed that Seraphina was on the other side of that door. Peering through the small glass window on the door, the horrific scene inside finally met my eyes. On the bed lay a woman who was nothing but skin and bones. Her cheeks were hollow, her skin a ghastly, translucent grey, and her once-glorious dark hair was a matted, dry mess scattered across the pillow. A dirty, oversized hospital gown hung loosely off her skeletal frame, soaked through with some strange chemical fluid. If it weren’t for the residual thrum of our bloodline, I would never have believed this pathetic husk was my older sister, the legendary boss who had once slaughtered countless elite players without mercy. Dozens of thick medical tubes clung to her skin like bloated leeches, draining her veins. A heavy monitor beside the bed beeped rhythmically, actively harvesting her accumulated dungeon points and pumping them out. I watched her through the glass. I felt no pity, only a deep, burning contempt for her sheer stupidity. No wonder I couldn’t even beat a rookie back in the dungeon. I spun my blood-stained butterfly knife with practiced ease. There was no room for hesitation. I had to kill her. The moment she drew her last breath, the twin-reset protocol would trigger. We would shed these fragile, pathetic mortal shells and respawn at full strength back in our domain. My hand gripped the cold brass handle. But just as I prepared to step in and slit her throat, voices drifted through the crack in the door. “Marcus, baby, how many points does this monster have left anyway? I saw these gorgeous S-class glowing vanity wings in the shop yesterday, and I’m still short thirty thousand points.” A woman in a skin-tight, scarlet leather dress leaned against the bed. She twirled a strand of her dyed burgundy waves with bright red-lacquered nails, her eyes dripping with smug condescension. Beside her stood a man in a tailored designer suit, pushing up a pair of gold-rimmed glasses. Marcus, the pathetic worm who had coaxed Seraphina out of her kingdom. Marcus offered a sleek, greedy smile. “Don’t worry, Raven. That stupid bitch is a walking goldmine. As long as we keep her on life support, the points will keep rolling in.” Raven giggled, casting a disgusted look at Seraphina’s limp body. “God, she’s repulsive. If it weren’t for the free points, I wouldn’t spend a single second in this smelly room looking at her pathetic face.” “Just bear with it a little longer,” Marcus chuckled, pinching Raven’s chin. His voice was filled with sheer mockery. “If I hadn’t played the devoted boyfriend and fed her a few cheap lies about warmth, she would have never surrendered her core crest. A literal monster thinking she could live a normal life with humans? It’s hilariously pathetic.” “Oh, Marcus, you’re absolutely wicked.” Raven giggled, wrapping her arms around his neck, pulling down his expensive silk tie. Marcus pinned her against the edge of the mattress. To the steady, mechanical beeping of Seraphina’s life support, they began to make out, tearing at each other’s clothes right in front of my dying sister. Listening from the hallway, my stomach churned with pure disgust. I knew my sister was blind, but I didn’t realize she had crawled into bed with garbage. Trading her divinity for this cheap piece of trash, reducing herself to a living battery. It was pathetic. I gripped my butterfly knife tight, the blue sigil on my temple throbbing with sheer hatred. I couldn’t stand the sound of their breath for another second. Inside, the rustling of clothes indicated they were finishing up. I took a half-step back, raising my leg to kick the door open and slaughter them both. But before my boot could make contact, the brass handle clicked, and the door swung open from the inside. 3 The moment the door opened, I found myself face-to-face with Marcus. He was casually adjusting his tie while Raven stood behind him, smoothing out her tight red dress. When his eyes landed on my face, he froze, his pupils shrinking to pinpricks. “Seraphina?” Raven shrieked, her manicured finger trembling as she pointed at me. “How is that possible? The brain-dead bitch is literally still hooked to the machines inside!” Marcus, however, was quick to recover. The shock in his eyes melted into a chilling wave of pure greed. “She’s not Seraphina,” he whispered, his eyes scanning me like I was a mountain of gold. “She’s the twin boss… Valerie!” I didn’t waste time on words. Reversing my grip on my bone butterfly knife, I lunged, aiming directly for his carotid artery. But as the blade cut through the air, my limbs felt incredibly heavy. Seraphina’s dying state, combined with the crushing reality suppression of this realm, had reduced my physical capabilities to practically nothing. I was weaker than an average human. My once-lethal strike was a joke to him. He stepped aside easily, slipping a gold-glowing card from his jacket. “High-tier item: Absolute Stasis.” A blinding flash erupted, and translucent, heavy chains materialized out of thin air, binding my wrists and ankles. I hit the floor with a dull thud. The bone butterfly knife slipped from my grasp, clattering into a dark corner. “Oh, Marcus, you’re amazing!” Raven cheered. She strutted over, slamming her sharp heel right onto the back of my hand, grinding it into the floor. “Talk about a buy-one-get-one-free deal! Hook her up to the harvester too! I’ll get my wings in no time!” Marcus grabbed a fistful of my hair, pulling my head back with a cruel laugh. “Patience, Raven. The twin boss system is complex. We need to figure out how to siphon both of them without triggering a system override. Take her to the basement.” This private clinic was Marcus’s personal playground, and he had a fully equipped dungeon of his own beneath the floorboards. I was dragged down into the pitch-black basement and suspended from the ceiling by heavy titanium cuffs. “Tell me,” Marcus snarled, holding a crackling high-voltage whip. “Where is the link to the twin core? How do we drain your point reserves?” The whip lashed across my chest. Blinding blue electricity surged through my skin, sending agonizing shocks straight to my nerves. I bit my lip until it bled, letting out a weak, raspy chuckle. I stared at him with eyes that promised his absolute death. “Think you’re tough?” Raven sneered, stepping forward with a vial of corrosive acid she had bought from the system shop. She grabbed my jaw, her face twisted with bitter jealousy. “This pretty little face of yours is just as annoying as your sister’s.” She tipped the vial, pouring the acid directly over my shoulder. My flesh bubbled and hissed, the agonizing chemical burn eating through skin and muscle to the bone. I entire body convulsed. Cold sweat soaked my clothes, but I refused to give them the satisfaction of a scream. They took turns torturing me, using every cruel item in their inventory. Soon, there wasn’t a single patch of uninjured skin left on my body. My blood dripped steadily from my toes, pooling on the concrete floor. But my mind remained razor-sharp. With every strike, I mapped out a hundred different ways to tear them apart. Pain was nothing. As long as I kept breathing, I would carve this debt into their very souls. “Marcus, the bitch is about to pass out, and she still won’t talk,” Raven huffed, wiping blood from her hands. Marcus frowned, reaching for a more brutal tool, when the system tracker on his wrist began to beep frantically with a loud countdown. 4 The shrill countdown echoed through the damp basement. Marcus’s face darkened, and he ripped off his tie in frustration. “Damn it. The mandatory dungeon queue is pulling us in.” Raven pointed a blood-stained finger at me. “What about her? We just leave her here?” “We have to. If we ignore a mandatory summon, the system will delete us,” Marcus growled. He tapped the wall panel, tightening the cuffs around my wrists until they cut off my circulation. “Leave her alive. We’ll finish her off when we get back. It’s just a low-tier B-class run anyway. We’ll be back in a few hours.” “Lucky bitch,” Raven spat, kicking dust in my direction. Two flashes of light enveloped them, and they vanished into thin air. The basement plunged into a heavy, suffocating silence. I stared at the heavy titanium bands around my wrists. The high-tier magic keeping them locked was incredibly strong, but my physical body was already numb from the torture. A bloody, chilling grin stretched across my lips. With a sudden, violent wrench of my left hand, I slammed my wrist against the sharp edge of the cuff, deliberately shattering my own thumb and wrist bones. The loud pop of cracking bone filled the quiet room. Without blinking, I dragged my mangled, bloody hand out of the metal ring, leaving a trail of skin and flesh behind. With one arm freed, the weight pulled me down, and I crashed onto the hard concrete. My internal organs screamed in protest. Coughing up a glob of dark blood, I used my good right arm to drag my broken legs across the floor, inch by painful inch. In the dim light of the corridor, my bone butterfly knife lay waiting. I grabbed the hilt, and the familiar cold texture made my blood boil with adrenaline. Step by step, I dragged myself up the dark, narrow stairs, leaving a thick trail of dark blood behind me. I clawed my way back to the top floor, right back to the intensive care unit. I pushed the door open. Seraphina lay there, looking more like a rotting corpse than a living being, the monitor still pulsing with that weak, mechanical beep. Clinging to the bedside frame, I forced myself upright. I looked down at her gaunt, ruined face, feeling nothing but a cold, hard resolve. “Sera, this pathetic nightmare is over.” Without another word, I raised the knife and drove it straight into her heart. The blade sank deep. Warm blood splashed across my face, and the monitor emitted a long, shrill, continuous tone as the green line went completely flat. At that exact moment, in the dead forest of the B-class dungeon, Marcus stepped out of the portal, his arm wrapped around Raven’s waist. “Marcus, it’s so creepy here… I’m scared,” Raven whimpered, clinging to his chest. “Don’t be,” Marcus said, adjusting his glasses and kissing her forehead. His voice was oozing with arrogance. “It’s just a low-tier run. With the legendary armor I just bought, we could clear this with our eyes closed. Just think of it as a vacation.” But as the words left his mouth, a massive, jagged crimson tear ripped open the dark sky above them. The ground beneath them began to violent shake, and then, the cold, mechanical voice of the system, a voice that struck terror into the hearts of every elite player, boomed across the sky: “CRITICAL WARNING!” “REAL-WORLD TWIN CORE RESYNCHRONIZATION DETECTED. DEATH-RESET MECHANISM SUCCESSFULLY ACTIVATED.” “CURRENT REALM UNDERGOING FORCED STRUCTURAL EVOLUTION… RECONSTRUCTION COMPLETE.” “THIS REGIONAL B-CLASS DUNGEON HAS BEEN UPGRADED TO: SUPER S-CLASS!”

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Mom called me at my classified government position and asked me to come home. She said she’d arranged a marriage for me. The woman was supposedly perfect in every way. Not only beautiful, but also the CEO of one of New York’s most prominent corporations. Because of my special security clearance, I couldn’t fly commercial. My boss even lent me his personal vehicle to make a good impression. I arrived at my fiancée’s company right on schedule and was about to back into a parking spot when a red Ferrari came speeding toward me. I couldn’t brake in time and crashed right into it. The driver arrogantly rolled down his window and started cursing at me. “Are you fucking blind? Do you even know how to drive?” I suppressed my anger and shot back, “You’re the one who stole my parking spot. How is this my fault?” He looked at me with complete disdain. “Your parking spot?” “Listen up, you hick. I might as well tell you—in New York, there’s nothing the Johnson family can’t handle. Got it?” I froze for a few seconds, then pulled out my phone and called my fiancée. “I’m hearing from your company’s people that the Johnson family runs New York. Is that true?”

If it weren’t for my mom, I wouldn’t have even bothered making this call. Hitting my boss’s car wasn’t something money alone could fix. If my future girlfriend showed some remorse, I might be able to sweep this under the rug. “I’m busy. Make it quick.” Her voice on the phone was impatient. “Miss Molina, I think you should come down here yourself, or else—” Before I could finish, I heard the dial tone. She’d hung up on me. I stood there stunned. Were all rich people this rude? Seeing this, the guy who’d stolen my parking spot practically burst out laughing. “And here I thought you were somebody. Turns out you’re just full of shit.” “If I were you, I’d pay up now. Once Miss Molina finds out her car’s been hit, you probably won’t make it out of New York alive.” The guy saw I was barely in my twenties and driving an out-of-state plate. He didn’t take me seriously at all. “Sir, are you going to be reasonable about this or not?” “You’re the one who cut me off and stole my spot. I haven’t even gone after you yet, and now you’re trying to scam me?” I pointed at the security camera overhead. “There’s footage right there. If you keep lying, I’ll call the cops right now!” When I mentioned the police, he only got more aggressive. “Go ahead and call them, you hick. Even if the cops show up, you’ll just end up paying more.” The more he talked, the more excited he got. The air reeked of alcohol. I clenched my fists, my eyes narrowing. “You don’t want me calling the cops because you’ve been drinking, right?” As soon as the words left my mouth, he shoved me hard. “Whether I’ve been drinking is none of your damn business. Pay up!” “If you try to weasel out of this, I’ll make sure you never leave New York!” I’d spent years at my unit with almost no contact with civilians. I had no idea how to deal with thugs like this. Seeing his arrogance, my anger kept rising. “You’re the one who hit my car, and now you’re trying to pin it on me. What’s wrong with you?” The crowd around us gasped. “Holy shit, this Anthony guy’s got balls. Talking to Jacobs like that? Does he have a death wish?”

“Most people would run from Miss Molina’s car, and this guy actually crashed into it. He’s got guts, I’ll give him that.” “Just his bad luck. Of all people to piss off, it had to be Jacobs—Miss Molina’s right-hand man!” As the murmuring grew louder, Jacobs got even more smug. “You hick, you actually dared to curse at me? You must be tired of living!” His threats didn’t faze me. In fact, I almost wanted to laugh. “So you’re Jacobs, the assistant. I suggest you watch your mouth.” “If you really piss me off, even your boss won’t be able to handle the consequences.” “Fuck you!” After cursing at me a few more times and still not feeling satisfied, he rolled up his sleeves and charged at me. “What, New Yorkers throw punches when they can’t win an argument?” Jacobs swung at me several times but couldn’t even touch my sleeve. “Try dodging one more time, hick!” “You think I won’t call Miss Molina right now?” Despite Jacobs’s repeated provocations, I didn’t fight back. I just kept evading. Not because I was afraid of him, but because before I left my unit, my boss had warned me repeatedly: “Everything you do represents our organization. Don’t get into conflicts with civilians.” Besides, I don’t really “fight.” When I strike, it’s to kill. Seeing my silence, Jacobs thought I was scared and threw another punch at me. At that critical moment, a voice roared from behind. “Stop!” “Jacobs, you’re my personal assistant. How can you just brawl with people in the street?” Molina, surrounded by bodyguards, walked quickly up to me. “You’re Anthony?” I looked the woman over carefully. I had to admit, my mom had decent taste. A crimson dress hugged her perfect figure. If I had to find a flaw, it was that her eyes were ice-cold when she looked at me. “Miss Molina, nice to meet you. Allow me to introduce myself.” “My name is Anthony. I’m from—” “No need!” Before I could finish, Molina impatiently cut me off with a wave of her hand. “We’re not compatible. Go back where you came from.” For a moment, I thought I’d heard wrong. I’d driven from my unit to New York—over ten hours straight—without even stopping for water. And the first thing she says to me is to leave? Was she playing me for a fool? At that thought, my temper flared. “You must be the girlfriend my mom found for me. Molina, right?” “You won’t even let me finish talking before telling me to leave. That’s pretty rude, don’t you think?” After hearing me out, Molina’s expression changed immediately. “Rude?” “Anthony, why don’t you turn around and look at that building behind you. Do you really think you’re worthy of me?” She glanced at me from head to toe. “I don’t know what my father was thinking, trying to marry me off to a loser like you.” As soon as she said that, the crowd erupted again. “What? This Anthony guy is Miss Molina’s fiancé? That’s unbelievable!” “A clueless hick like him should take a good look in the mirror and see if he’s worthy.” “Miss Molina is every man’s dream in New York. I’m the first to object to this marriage.”

As the chatter grew louder, I was completely baffled. When did I ever say I wanted to marry her? Even if I did want to, I’d need approval from my superiors first. “Fine, fine, I’m a loser. Happy now?” “Since Miss Molina isn’t interested, can I at least get the dowry back?” “My mom specifically told me on the phone—if this doesn’t work out, make sure to get the gift money back.” Actually, my mom never said that. I just couldn’t stand Molina’s attitude. The moment I finished speaking, Jacobs jumped in. “You hick, who the hell do you think you’re looking down on?” “Miss Molina is New York’s youngest billionaire. You think she needs your pocket change?” Watching this scene unfold, I finally understood what a real lapdog looked like. “Jacobs, I just want my stuff back. What does that have to do with whether she’s a billionaire?” Molina’s face flushed red with anger. “It’s just eighty thousand dollars. Here, I’ll give it back.” She pulled out her phone and transferred the money on the spot. “I’m sending you a hundred thousand. Keep the extra for gas money.” I smirked and gave her a slight smile. “Well, thank you so much, Miss Molina.” Just as I turned to leave, Jacobs suddenly shouted. “Hey, hick! Stop right there!” I paused and slowly turned around. “What? Does Jacobs want to invite me to dinner?” Jacobs gave me a sinister smile, then whispered something in Molina’s ear. The next second, New York’s so-called youngest billionaire exploded in anger. “Anthony! You dared to crash my car?” From Jacobs’s expression, I could tell he’d been badmouthing me to Molina. He really had the art of manipulation down to a science. Based on how Molina had treated me earlier, I knew explaining wouldn’t help. I didn’t bother wasting my breath. “Just tell me how much you want. I’ll pay you.” Molina seemed surprised that I’d admit it so readily. Her eyes flickered with confusion. “Pay? Can you even afford it?” “This Ferrari was my eighteenth birthday present from my father. Only three exist in the world, and this is the only one in the country.” “A single scratch is worth more than your life. What are you going to pay with?” I raised an eyebrow, my lips curving into a faint smile. “Miss Molina, just name your price. Whether I can afford it is my problem.” “Ten million!” Before I could respond, Jacobs jumped in again. “The entire front end is caved in. We can’t fix it here—it’ll have to go back to Italy to the original factory.” The onlookers gasped. Even the car’s owner, Molina, looked surprised. “Jacobs, this car only cost just over ten million when I got it. Fixing a bumper doesn’t cost that much, does it?” Jacobs immediately waved his hand dismissively. “No, no, Miss Molina. You’re not seeing the full picture.” “This car was a birthday gift from your father. Its sentimental value is priceless, wouldn’t you say?” “Making him pay only ten million is us being generous.” After hearing Jacobs’s reasoning, Molina thought it made sense and lowered her head to consider. “Fine! Ten million it is. No problem!” I didn’t give her time to think. I agreed on the spot.

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“Ethan! You married such an ugly woman, made our entire family a laughingstock, and now you’re throwing your life away for her! How long are you going to keep this up?” The hospital room door wasn’t fully closed. My mother-in-law’s voice was sharp and piercing. My hand froze on the door handle. I heard a few seconds of silence inside, then his calm, emotionless voice. “Mom, you know what I want.” “I knew it. You’re still doing all this for Serena.” My mother-in-law’s voice trembled with rage. “No matter how much you love her, it’s useless. Using Elara Winters to provoke us won’t work either.” My whole body went cold. Three years. I thought he was the only one who didn’t find me ugly when everyone else did. I thought his life-risking rescue was love. Turns out I was just a pawn he used to defy his family. Turns out every time he looked at me, he was looking through me at another woman. I steadied myself against the wall and slowly backed away to my own hospital room. If that’s how it is, this marriage isn’t worth keeping.

Elara’s POV I’m known as the ugly woman in our circle. Thick bangs covering half my face. Black-framed glasses thicker than bottle bottoms. Face always caked with dark foundation. Lips blurred with deep-colored lipstick. Walking down the street, no one gives me a second glance. But no one knows I make myself ugly on purpose. All because of my mother. My mother was famously beautiful back in the day. My father pursued her for years before she finally married him. But less than three years into their marriage, he started cheating constantly. My mother went from heartbroken to desperate, eventually dying of depression. Before she died, my mother grabbed my ten-year-old hand and looked at my face, though young, already showing signs of stunning beauty. With her last bit of strength, she said, “Elara, remember what Mom tells you. Being too beautiful, men will deceive you. Nothing good comes of it. You must protect yourself. Hide that face.” I remembered. From then on, I started making myself ugly. My bangs got thicker, my glasses heavier, my clothes always the most unremarkable colors. My father arranged countless blind dates for me. Every single man ran away because of my ugliness. On my hundredth blind date, I sat in a café across from a man in a suit. The moment he saw me, his brow furrowed. “Miss Winters,” he began, voice dripping with undisguised disgust. “The matchmaker didn’t tell me… you looked like this.” I kept my head down, saying nothing. “Honestly, looking like that… how do you even dare go on blind dates?” The man sneered. “Who would want to marry you?” I gripped my coffee cup tighter. The man picked up his own cup and suddenly splashed it in my face. “Your makeup’s ruined. Suits you better.” The cold liquid ran down my cheeks, washing away the foundation and revealing the fair skin underneath. I looked up, about to stand. “Bang!” A long, slender hand reached over from the side and grabbed the man’s wrist, twisting hard. “Ah!” The man screamed. “Apologize.” A deep, cold voice spoke. I turned to see a man in a custom-tailored suit. He was tall with an upright posture, deep-set eyes, a high nose bridge, and thin lips pressed together. His whole presence radiated an air of cool elegance and nobility. Right now he was gripping that man’s wrist, his eyes cold as ice. “Who the hell are you?!” the man struggled. “Apologize.” He repeated, his voice not loud but carrying undeniable authority. The man was intimidated by his presence and stammered out “I’m sorry” to me before scrambling away. The man let go and pulled a handkerchief from his suit pocket, handing it to me. “Here.” I stared, taking the handkerchief in a daze. “Women shouldn’t have to put up with that kind of treatment.” He looked at me, his gaze calm. “Next time something like this happens, call the police.” With that, he turned and left. I stood there watching his tall figure disappear through the café door, my heart pounding. I remembered him. After returning home, I started investigating. His name was Ethan Sterling, the youngest heir to Sterling Enterprises. Twenty-six years old, he’d been running the family business for three years with decisive methods and outstanding ability. He was recognized in our circle as the perfect man. Even more rare, his private life was clean. No scandals whatsoever. I fell for him. But before I could figure out how to approach him, Ethan Sterling came to me first. “Miss Winters,” he sat in my family’s living room and got straight to the point. “I want to propose a marriage alliance with you.” I was stunned. “Why me?” I asked. “I’m not good-looking.” Ethan looked at me, his expression very calm. “Appearance doesn’t matter. I think you’re very suitable.” His words weren’t romantic, but coming from him, they made my heart race. Mom said being too beautiful meant getting deceived by men. But I made myself ugly, and he still wanted to marry me. I thought I’d met the right person. For three years of marriage, Ethan treated me well. He never minded my ugliness. In fact, when others gossiped about my appearance, he would gently take my hand and say, “Elara, you’re wonderful.” I loved design, so he invested in opening a studio for me. I had a sensitive stomach, so he remembered which foods I couldn’t eat. Whenever he came back from business dinners, he’d bring me oat milk. On my birthday, no matter how busy, he’d cancel work and spend the whole day with me. Once, I was in a car accident. The car flipped into a ditch and could explode any moment. Ethan rushed over without hesitation, pried open the deformed car door with his bare hands, and dragged me out. Not ten meters away, the car exploded. He shielded me with his body. The flames licked his back, leaving severe burns. When I woke up in the hospital, the first thing I asked the nurse was, “Where’s my husband?! How is he?” “Mr. Sterling’s back burns are serious, but he’s not in life-threatening danger,” the nurse said. “He’s in the room next door.” I immediately pulled out my IV and stumbled over to the next room. Just as I was about to push the door open, I heard Ethan’s mother’s voice inside. “Ethan! You married such an ugly woman, made our entire family a laughingstock, and now you’re throwing your life away for her! How long are you going to keep this up?!” My hand stopped on the door handle. A few seconds of silence inside, then Ethan’s calm, emotionless voice without any feeling. “Mom, you know what I want.” “I knew it! You’re still doing all this for Serena!” His mother’s voice shook with anger. “I’m telling you, you’re the best heir in our family. Serena can never enter our household! No matter how much you love her, it’s useless! Using Elara Winters to provoke us won’t work either!” I stood frozen, my whole body turning cold. What were they just saying? For Serena? Who’s Serena? Overwhelming panic and an ominous premonition swept over me like an icy tide, drowning me instantly. I steadied myself against the wall and slowly backed away, retreating to my hospital room. After several seconds, I pulled out my phone with trembling hands and sent a message to a private investigator. “Look into every connection between Ethan Sterling and Serena. The more detailed, the better.”

Elara’s POV Every minute, every second waiting for the reply felt like torture. My head was buzzing. His mother’s shrill voice and Ethan’s calm response echoed repeatedly in my mind like poisoned knives, cutting my barely warmed heart to bloody shreds. Finally, the information came through. I opened it with trembling hands. Inside was a thick stack of documents with many photos attached. Serena Hayes, heir to the Hayes family, Ethan Sterling’s first love. The two were perfectly matched, recognized in their circle as the ideal couple. Three years ago, they were preparing to marry, but during premarital health checks, they discovered Serena couldn’t have children. For a top-tier elite family like the Sterlings, heirs were of utmost importance, so the Sterling family firmly opposed the marriage. But Ethan loved Serena deeply and insisted on marrying her. The Sterling family began aggressively targeting the Hayes family business. Eventually, unable to withstand the pressure, Serena tearfully broke up with Ethan. After the breakup, Ethan started going on frequent blind dates, but he didn’t like any of the women. Until he met me, the famously ugly woman in the circle. From then on, everything connected. He didn’t marry me because I was special, much less because he saw my inner beauty. It was simply because among all the blind date candidates, I was the most unacceptable. The most embarrassing. The most shameful. The best tool to humiliate the Sterling family and force his parents to compromise. He deliberately married an ugly woman to defy his family, to make them give in and agree to let Serena marry him. I stared at the information on my phone and suddenly laughed. As I laughed, tears fell. Pain wrapped around me like a huge net, tightening and tightening until it nearly strangled me. Mom said being too beautiful would get me deceived, but even making myself ugly, I was still deceived. Deceived more thoroughly, more ridiculously, more pathetically! These three years, what I thought was happiness was just an elaborate performance. I was just a tool Ethan Sterling used to defy his family. Just a pawn to express his love for Serena. I thought I’d found light, not knowing that light was just someone else’s mirror reflecting somewhere else! I sat in the room and cried for a long time. Then I wiped my tears, took out my phone, and called Ethan’s mother. My voice was calm. “I want to divorce Ethan Sterling.” A few seconds of silence on the other end. “What did you say?!” She raised her voice in disbelief, as if she couldn’t believe what she’d heard. “Elara Winters, looking the way you do, you dare ask for a divorce? Do you know how many women in our circle are desperate to marry Ethan?” “How I look is none of your business,” I said. “I must divorce him. If you don’t agree, I’ll get a lawyer and go through legal channels. Making a scene won’t be good for anyone.” She was furious on the other end, but I could hear a hint of relief and eagerness in her tone. Of course. She had long been disgusted by me, this “ugly woman,” and wanted me gone to make room for a beautiful, suitable socialite. In her mind, Serena wasn’t good enough for Ethan, and I was even less worthy. “Fine!” She finally agreed. “I’ll handle the divorce. Wait a few days.” After hanging up, I took a deep breath, checked myself out of the hospital, and went home. The first thing I did when I got home was throw things away. I took out everything Ethan had given me over the years, necklaces, bracelets, rings, handbags, and threw them all in the trash. Just like throwing away three years of foolishness. A few days later, Ethan came home. His back burns hadn’t fully healed, slowing his movements, but he still wore an impeccable suit, his posture upright, his features handsome. “Why are you sitting here?” he asked, his tone habitually gentle. “The servants said you’ve barely eaten these past few days.” I looked up at him. Before, every time I saw this face, my heart would race and my face would flush. But now, looking at him, I only felt strange and cold. Ethan didn’t seem to notice the change in my expression. Or rather, he’d never truly paid attention to my expressions. He glanced at the calendar on the wall and casually took my hand. “Are you upset I haven’t been back to keep you company? Today’s your birthday. I had them prepare a party at the most luxurious Hilton hotel downtown. It’s still early. Let me take you to pick out a dress first, okay?” Before, hearing him remember my birthday and specially prepare a party would have made me ecstatic. But now, my heart felt only barren indifference. Still, I didn’t expose him. “Okay,” I said softly. Ethan drove me to a high-end boutique. As soon as we entered, his phone rang. “You pick first. I need to take this call,” he said, walking aside. I paid no attention and went upstairs to look at dresses. I liked a champagne-colored gown, simple and elegant. “This one. Wrap it up for me,” I told the saleswoman. “I want this dress.” A soft female voice suddenly spoke from behind me. I turned and saw the woman speaking. My blood instantly ran cold. Serena Hayes. The bright, radiant face from the photos, nestled beside Ethan, that face was now right in front of me. She wore a cream-colored suit with slightly curled long hair and exquisite makeup. Her eyes carried an innate sense of superiority as she stared at the champagne dress in my hands with a half-smile.

Elara’s POV “Sorry,” Serena walked forward, her voice soft but her tone anything but polite. “I also like this dress. Even though you were here first, but…” She looked me up and down, taking in my thick bangs and black-framed glasses. The corners of her mouth curved into a perfectly measured smile. “I think it suits me better. Why don’t you just let me have it?” I gripped the dress tighter. The fabric was soft, but right now it felt like thorns. “No.” I turned to the saleswoman. “Ring it up.” Serena’s smile faded a bit. She reached out and grabbed the other corner of the dress. “I really love it. Miss, looking the way you do… you’d look about the same in anything. Why not do me a favor? Just let me have it, can’t you?” We stood there in a standoff, the air thick with silent tension. “What’s going on?” Ethan’s deep voice came from the stairway. Having finished his call, he came up and saw this scene. His brow furrowed almost imperceptibly. Serena saw him and her eyes lit up instantly, though her hand didn’t release the dress. “Ethan? You’re here too?” Her gaze moved between me and Ethan, then showed a look of realization. “I see, this must be your wife? If I’d known she was Mrs. Sterling, I wouldn’t have fought for it. This dress can go to Mrs. Sterling.” She let go as if her earlier insistence had been just a joke. But the next second, Ethan reached out and took the champagne dress directly from my hands, handing it to Serena. “No need to give it up.” He looked at Serena, his voice gentler than before. “This suits you. Go try it on.” A flash of triumph crossed Serena’s eyes. She took the dress, smiled at me, and walked into the fitting room. My hand froze in mid-air, my fingertips still holding the sensation of the fabric being taken away. I slowly lowered my hand, clenching it into a fist, nails digging into my palm. The slight pain couldn’t suppress the dull ache in my chest, like a knife slowly cutting through flesh. Only then did Ethan turn to me, as if he’d just finished handling some trivial matter. “Elara, that was Serena, a friend of mine. She’s rather straightforward, but she means no harm. It’s just a dress. We can pick another one.” I looked up at him through my thick lenses. “Why don’t you just tell the truth? You’re saying she suits it better because you think my face doesn’t deserve this dress, doesn’t deserve anything beautiful, right?” Ethan was clearly taken aback. He seemed surprised I would ask this, even more surprised I would directly pierce through this veneer of decency that no one had called out before. “That’s not what I meant.” He quickly adjusted his expression, his tone taking on a hint of helplessness. “If I thought you weren’t good enough, why would I have married you in the first place?” Why marry me? Those words were like a poisoned blade stabbing straight into my heart, the pain making my vision go dark. Yes, why? Because I was ugly in just the right way, the perfect tool, the ideal pawn to infuriate the Sterlings and force them to compromise! Growing up, hiding my appearance, I’d heard countless mockeries. Classmates’ whispers, blind dates’ cruel words, my father’s sighs. Those words were like needles. After being pricked long enough, I had grown numb. But Ethan was different. These three years, his gentle consolations, his casual protections, even his life-risking rescue, like warm water, they slowly softened my frozen heart, making me develop impossible fantasies and dependence. Then, he personally, in the calmest, most casual way, completely shattered that false warmth. This hurt worse than direct cruelty! I suppressed the sob in my throat and the surging pain, said nothing, and turned to another rack, randomly grabbing a plain black dress. Just then, the fitting room curtain opened. Serena walked out. The champagne dress perfectly outlined her figure, making her skin look like snow and her presence dazzling. She twirled, the hem creating an elegant arc. “Miss Hayes, this dress is perfect for you!” the saleswomen gushed. “It’s like it was custom-made for you!” Ethan’s gaze also fell on Serena. His eyes were deep, clearly reflecting Serena’s image. In those usually cold eyes, I now saw a tenderness I’d never seen directed at me. Though it was just a fleeting moment, I caught it. My heart felt like an invisible hand was squeezing it tight, the pain making it hard to breathe. “Ethan, does it look good?” Serena asked with a smile, her gaze casually sweeping over me nearby. “Yes, very good.” Ethan nodded, his tone affirmative. Serena’s smile grew brighter. She walked to Ethan’s side and naturally tucked her hair behind her ear. “By the way, I heard tonight is Mrs. Sterling’s birthday party? At the Hilton?” “Yes.” Ethan nodded. “I happen to be free tonight.” Serena looked at me with a proper smile. “Mrs. Sterling, you don’t mind if I come celebrate your birthday too, do you?” Before I could answer, Ethan already replied, “Of course not. You’re welcome to come.”

Elara’s POV The Hilton hotel’s top-floor ballroom was brilliantly lit. The birthday party Ethan prepared for me was massive, inviting nearly half of New York’s elite. I wore that unremarkable black dress, my thick bangs and glasses obscuring my face as always, standing beside Ethan like a mismatched shadow. I could feel gazes from all directions, curious, probing, and mostly undisguised contempt and snickering. “What was Mr. Sterling thinking, marrying someone like…” “She really is so ugly. Mr. Sterling is so outstanding. Why would he marry her?” “Who knows? Maybe… unique taste?” The scattered comments buzzed like mosquitoes, drilling into my ears. I kept my back straight, my expression blank, as if I heard nothing. Soon after the party began, Ethan publicly gave me a gift, an expensive diamond necklace. When the velvet box opened, gasps and envious sounds rippled through the crowd. “Thank you,” I accepted it, my voice flat. Serena arrived a bit later. The moment she appeared, she drew everyone’s attention. In her champagne dress with exquisite makeup and an elegant smile, she seemed like tonight’s true protagonist. “Sorry I’m late.” Serena walked up to me, her tone sincere. “I didn’t have time to prepare a gift. Don’t be upset, Mrs. Sterling. Let me play a piece to wish you happy birthday.” Then she smiled at Ethan. “Ethan, I remember you play piano beautifully too. How about we play a duet? Consider it entertainment for Mrs. Sterling’s birthday. What do you say?” The guests started cheering. “Yes!” “Miss Hayes and Mr. Sterling are such a perfect match!” “Exactly, they look like a real couple.” Ethan looked at Serena’s expectant eyes, glanced at silent me beside him, hesitated briefly, then actually walked over. A harmonious duet began, a four-hands version of “Für Elise.” The man cool and noble, the woman bright and moving, sitting together like a perfect painting. The surrounding comments grew louder, this time with less pretense of discretion. “Now that’s a perfect match…” “If only Mr. Sterling had married Miss Hayes.” “Such a shame…” “That Elara Winters is really… taking up space. Someone so ugly actually married New York’s most outstanding heir. What a waste.” Each comment was like a poisoned needle, densely piercing my heart. I stood there, feeling the air around me growing thinner, those gazes and words nearly drowning me. I turned and went to the balcony. The night breeze was cool, dispersing the suffocating warmth and noise from the ballroom. I leaned against the balcony railing, took a deep breath, then slowly released it. Light footsteps sounded behind me. Then a warm body pressed close, arms wrapping around my waist from behind. My body stiffened. “Why did you come out here alone?” Ethan’s deep voice spoke near my ear. “Don’t take those people’s words to heart. They’re just boring gossip.” I didn’t move or speak. Ethan seemed to think I was still upset. His chin gently rubbed the top of my head, his tone softening further with a coaxing quality. “Elara, I’ve told you, you’re wonderful. You don’t need to care what others think of you. As long as I like you, that’s enough.” Like? I almost laughed coldly. What did he like about me? Did he like using me as a tool to defy his family? Or like using me as a foil for his devotion to Serena? Ethan probably felt verbal comfort wasn’t enough. Seeing my continued silence, he suddenly turned his head and unexpectedly kissed my neck. The warm, soft sensation came. My whole body trembled, instinctively about to push him away. Just then. “Bang!” The glass balcony door was suddenly pushed open. Serena stood in the doorway, her face still wearing a smile she hadn’t had time to hide. Seeing us embracing, especially Ethan’s kiss on my neck, her smile instantly froze. Her face paled slightly, her eyes quickly misting over. “Sorry, I’m interrupting.” Her voice was somewhat choked. After speaking, she turned and ran off, her retreating figure looking somewhat disheveled. Ethan immediately let go of me, his expression clearly changing, his eyes following Serena’s disappearing direction with obvious worry and a hint of struggle.

Elara’s POV He quickly withdrew his gaze and looked at me, his tone returning to calm. “Don’t take what happened earlier to heart. As long as I like you, that’s what matters. I’m going to make a call.” He hurried after her. I stood there, looking at the empty doorway, tried to twist my lips into a self-mocking smile, but couldn’t even manage that. I couldn’t stay at this birthday party another moment. I turned to leave. Just as I reached the curb by the hotel entrance, a figure blocked my path. It was Serena. Her eyes were still a bit red, but her expression had already been adjusted, carrying a condescending scrutiny. “Mrs. Sterling, leaving already?” Serena looked at me, her tone soft but her words barbed. “The birthday girl leaving early isn’t very appropriate, is it? Or are you upset seeing Ethan chase after me?” I didn’t want to entangle with her and moved to walk around her. “Don’t go.” Serena reached out to stop me. “Let’s chat. About Ethan, about your ridiculous marriage. I think you need to know some things…” “Move.” My voice was cold. “What, feeling guilty? Knowing you’re occupying a position you shouldn’t?” Serena didn’t shut up. She even stepped forward and grabbed my wrist. “Let me tell you, Ethan doesn’t even…” “Let go!” I tried hard to shake her off. We struggled on the curb. Serena was wearing heels. Her foot seemed to slip. She screamed, her whole body falling backward, and she gripped my arm tightly. She pulled me off balance too. “Ah!” The sharp sound of brakes and impact came almost simultaneously! In the chaos, I only felt a huge force strike me. I was thrown, my forehead and cheek experiencing unbearable pain. Warm liquid instantly blurred my vision. Serena’s scream was right in my ear. Intense pain and dizziness consumed me. My consciousness blurred. I felt people gathering around, chaotic voices, the ambulance siren… In my haze, I seemed to see Ethan’s hurried figure. That usually calm, cool face showed clear panic for the first time. Then I heard fragments of conversation, as if from far away. “Mr. Sterling, both patients are severely injured and need surgery urgently, but there’s only one operating room available. Mrs. Sterling’s face is injured with a deep wound. Without immediate treatment, she may be disfigured. Miss Hayes injured her hand. Without immediate treatment, it may affect her piano playing.” Then I heard Ethan’s voice. “Save Serena first. She still needs to play piano.” “But Mrs. Sterling…” “Don’t worry about her. Appearance doesn’t matter to her anyway!” Doesn’t matter. Those words were like a knife, stabbing through my heart. Yes, because I’m ugly, it doesn’t matter… My vision went black. I completely passed out. When I woke up, I was in a hospital room. No one was beside me. I touched my face, wrapped in thick bandages. The door opened. Serena walked in with a group of friends. Her hand was also bandaged, but she wore a smile. “Elara Winters,” she walked to the bed, looking at me with contempt. “I heard you were badly hurt, your face all torn up. I thought you would definitely be disfigured this time. I didn’t expect the doctors the Sterling family found would be good enough to fix you.” “Though even fixed, it can’t hide your original ugliness. Those thick bandages match your bangs and glasses nicely, equally hideous.” The men and women behind her let out low laughs. I closed my eyes, not even bothering to look at them. “Get out.” Before Serena could speak, a girl next to her in a pink suit with curled hair shrieked first. “What’s your attitude? Serena came to visit you out of kindness, and you dare tell her to get out? Being ugly is bad enough, but your manners are terrible too. So disgusting.” I opened my eyes, my gaze coldly sweeping over that girl, then looking at Serena. “Take your dog and get out. You’re not welcome here.” “Who are you calling a dog?” The pink-dressed girl’s face flushed with anger. She rushed forward to hit me, raising her hand to slap my face. My face was injured and my movements hindered. Just as that slap was about to land. “Hey, Emma, it’s not good to hit a patient.” A man in a floral shirt stopped the pink-dressed girl. He looked about twenty-seven or twenty-eight, with lecherous eyes. He looked me up and down on the hospital bed, a malicious smile on his lips. “So you’re Mrs. Sterling? Quite the temper. But I have a method that cures all kinds of disobedience.” He took two steps forward, approaching the bed, his gaze sticky and presumptuous. “I’ve seen plenty like you, not much to look at but full of attitude. Women like you just need to be put in their place by a man. No matter how proud you are, you’ll behave after being with enough men.” As he spoke, he actually reached out to pull back my blanket.

🌟 Continue the story here 👉🏻 📲 Download the “NovelMaster” app 🔍 search for “416029”, and watch the full series ✨! #NovelMaster

The day the Wilson family came to take back their biological daughter, Mrs. Elena said in front of everyone: “Don’t worry. I’ll be a better mother than you, her adoptive one, ever were.” I didn’t say anything. I signed the papers and let go. After that, my daughter Aria called me once a week, her tone ten times sweeter than before. “Mom, the Wilsons hired a nutritionist for me. I’ve gained several pounds.” But the collarbones in her video call looked even sharper than when she left. “Mom, Blake took me to the amusement park. I had so much fun.” But there was a band-aid over her right eyebrow. She said she bumped into the carousel. “Mom, they transferred me to a private school. All my classmates are really nice to me.” But when I looked up the school, there was no enrollment record for her at all. The last time we spoke, she said the Wilsons were taking her abroad to study, so it might not be convenient to stay in touch. Right before hanging up, she suddenly lowered her voice and said quickly: “Mom, there’s a diary in the second drawer of my closet.” I found the notebook that same night. Inside was a photo of the Wilson family’s son. On the back, in Aria’s handwriting, were four words: “He’s not human.”

“Who is he? What inhuman thing did he do?” I stared at those words in the diary—”He’s not human.” My fingers wouldn’t stop trembling. My fingertips pressed so hard they nearly tore through the thin photo. “Mom, what’s wrong? Why aren’t you sleeping?” My son Adrian rubbed his sleepy eyes and pushed open my bedroom door. “Adrian, go get dressed.” I snapped the diary shut, my voice hoarse like I’d swallowed sand. “Where are we going this late?” Adrian looked at me, confused. “New York.” I stood up and grabbed my jacket from the couch. “To find your sister!” Adrian froze for a moment, then panic flashed in his eyes. “Did something happen to Aria?” He didn’t ask another question. He just turned and went to grab his backpack. The 3 AM flight. The entire cabin was so quiet it made me anxious. I stared out at the pitch-black sky. All I could think about was Aria’s trembling voice at the end of our last call. “Mom, I miss you so much.” That was the only time she hadn’t forced a smile since the Wilsons took her away. The plane landed in New York just as dawn broke. I pulled out my phone and sent Aria a message. “I have some work that suddenly brought me to New York. Mind if I stop by to see you?” My heart was in my throat. A full half hour passed before she replied with a single line. “Oh Mom, bad timing. My parents took me on vacation. We’re not in New York right now.” I looked at those words, my hands and feet going ice cold. She didn’t even send an emoji. That wasn’t like Aria at all. “Mom, what did Aria say?” Adrian leaned over to look at the screen, his brow instantly furrowing. “She says she’s not in New York.” I pocketed my phone and strode toward the exit, dragging my suitcase. “So where are we going now?” “To the Wilson estate.” The Wilsons lived in New York’s most exclusive neighborhood. Their standalone villa halfway up the hill had its gates shut tight. The security was intense. They wouldn’t let outsiders in. Adrian and I stored our luggage at a convenience store at the bottom of the hill and changed into plain workout clothes. Following the landscaped perimeter of the estate, we circled around to the back wall of the Wilson property. There was a bamboo grove here that didn’t get much foot traffic. I crouched in the grass, eyes fixed on the closed wrought-iron back gate. “Mom, is Aria really in there?” Adrian kept his voice low, his fists already clenched tight enough to crack. “Wait here. I’ll go ask around.” I spotted a middle-aged woman in a cleaning uniform walking past with a bag of trash. I immediately approached her. “Excuse me, did the Wilsons go on vacation today?” The cleaner looked startled and sized me up. “Vacation? No, the whole family’s inside.” My heart dropped. Aria had lied. Or someone had been lying with her phone. “I bet the Wilsons are thrilled to have found their biological daughter. They must spoil her rotten, right?” I forced a smile, trying to sound casual. The cleaner looked around, then curled her lip. “Spoil her? That house is a living hell!” My blood turned to ice. “What do you mean?” I pulled two hundred dollars from my pocket and discreetly slipped it into the cleaner’s glove. Her eyes lit up and her voice dropped even lower. “You don’t know—that son of theirs, Blake, he’s got something wrong with his head.” “He used to enjoy torturing small animals. When he got bored of that, he started torturing people.” “Several housekeepers have been beaten so badly they quit!” I dug my nails into my palm, forcing my voice to stay steady. “What about their biological daughter?” The cleaner sighed and shook her head. “They say they brought her back to live the good life, but really she’s just a toy for that psycho!” “Just yesterday I heard her screaming in the yard. They said she fell down the stairs.” “Mrs. Elena even yelled at her for not watching where she was going and ruining the new carpet.” My head erupted with a deafening buzz, like someone had taken a sledgehammer to my skull. My baby, the one I’d raised for eighteen years, the one I couldn’t even bring myself to yell at—in their house, she’d become a plaything for a lunatic? “I’m gonna go in there and kill them!” Adrian had crept up beside me, his eyes bloodshot, already lifting his leg to kick down the door. “Get back here!” I grabbed him around the waist and dragged him into the bamboo grove. “Mom! Let me go! They’re hurting Aria!” Adrian struggled violently, tears streaming down his face. Just then, a piercing siren wailed closer and closer. Not a police car—an ambulance! The ambulance screeched to a stop at the Wilson estate’s front gate. I shoved Adrian aside and looked over.

The gate was violently pushed open from inside. Blake walked out in expensive designer pajamas, cursing under his breath. “Hurry up! Don’t let her die in the house, it’s bad luck!” “So disgusting. All that blood. Makes me sick.” He walked while shaking water droplets off his hands in disgust. Those droplets had an unmistakable tint of red. Right behind him, Mrs. Elena followed in high heels, clicking rapidly. Her hair wasn’t even mussed. Her makeup was flawless. “Blake, watch your step. Don’t let that filth touch you.” She pulled out a handkerchief, looking at him with nothing but sympathy, and wiped his hands. “It’s all that damn girl’s fault. Couldn’t even cooperate with a simple game. Ruined everything!” Blake kicked the doorframe. “It’s okay, sweetie. I’ll buy you that new sports car. Don’t be upset.” Mrs. Elena coaxed him gently, her tone dripping with indulgence. Two paramedics rushed out pushing a gurney. The person on it was covered by a white sheet already soaked halfway through with blood. A lifeless hand dangled off the side of the gurney, so thin it looked like it would snap in the wind. Around the wrist was a deep ligature mark. In that moment, I felt my breathing stop. That was my Aria! The Aria I’d raised from a tiny baby with my own hands! I’d thought being reunited with her biological parents would be a blessing. “Move! The patient has lost too much blood and needs a transfusion immediately!” The ER doctor, drenched in sweat, shouted at Blake, who was blocking the path. “Are you blind? How dare you talk to my son like that?” Mrs. Elena’s eyes flashed. She pointed right at the doctor’s nose and started screaming. “Do you know who we are? One phone call and I’ll make sure you never work in New York again!” The doctor’s face went pale with rage, but a life was on the line. He could only grit his teeth and bear it. “Family needs to come with us. We need signatures!” The nurse pushed the gurney into the ambulance and urged them anxiously. “I’m not going to that depressing place!” Blake took a step back, his face full of revulsion. Mrs. Elena frowned and covered her nose. “Why would we go? Blake’s been traumatized. He needs rest. Just take her. I’ll pay double the medical bills!” “Are you even human? That’s your biological daughter in there!” The nurse finally couldn’t take it anymore. Her eyes red, she shouted. “Smack!” The sharp sound of a slap rang out in the quiet morning. The nurse clutched her face, staring at Mrs. Elena in disbelief. “Who do you think you are to lecture me? I gave birth to her. Her life belongs to me. Whatever I tell her to do, she does!” Mrs. Elena shook out her hand, sneering. “Get lost! Stop blocking my view! I’ll go to the hospital myself later.” The ambulance doors slammed shut and it roared away. I hid in the bamboo grove, shaking like a leaf. My teeth bit into my lip until it bled, the taste of rust spreading through my mouth. I clamped my hand over Adrian’s mouth. He was already crying so hard his whole body convulsed, like an injured animal desperate to break free. “Don’t move! Going out there now won’t change anything!” I pressed my mouth to Adrian’s ear, my voice shaking but carrying an undeniable ferocity. “They have money and power. You can’t beat them, and you’ll just get yourself destroyed!” Adrian looked at me in despair, tears falling in fat drops onto my hand. The Wilsons turned and went back into the villa. The gate slammed shut with a bang. I let go and pulled Adrian to his feet, running down the hill. “To the hospital!” We flagged down an Uber and headed straight for New York Central Hospital. In the car, the driver kept glancing at us in the rearview mirror. “Going to the ER this early in the morning?” I forced down the churning in my gut and nodded. “Did you see that ambulance just now?” The driver sighed and jerked the wheel. “I saw it. What a tragedy. That came from the hillside estates, right?” “You know about it?” I asked tentatively. The driver snorted. “Anyone who drives Uber in New York knows about that bastard from the Wilson family.” “That Blake kid is a born psychopath.” “I heard when he was little he liked torturing animals. As he got older, it only got worse.” “Too bad they’re rich. They can throw money at any mess he makes and it all goes away.” I gripped the hem of my jacket. “No one does anything?” “Do anything? Alexander only cares about money, and Mrs. Elena only has one son. She loves him like he’s the center of the universe.” The driver lowered his voice. “I heard from a driver who worked for them—the Wilsons recently found their biological daughter.” “They call her their daughter, but really they just brought her back to be that psycho’s punching bag.” “After all, beating outsiders causes trouble if it gets out. But your own family? Even if you beat them to death, who’s gonna say anything?” My heart felt like it was being fed through a meat grinder, crushed over and over. My Aria, that sweet angel who felt sorry for stray cats. In that house of horrors, she’d been treated like a toy for an animal! “Mom.” Adrian grabbed my hand. His hand was freezing. “I’m going to kill him.” I squeezed Adrian’s hand back, staring at the hospital building ahead. “You don’t have to.” “I’ll send them to hell myself.”

The light outside the ER was blindingly bright. Adrian and I sat on a bench around the corner of the hallway, wearing masks. Less than thirty feet away, I watched Alexander arrive in a hurry. He wore a sharp suit with a perfectly knotted tie. He didn’t look like a father called in the middle of the night for his daughter’s emergency. He looked like he was heading to an important business meeting. “What happened? How did she end up in the hospital?” The moment Alexander saw Mrs. Elena, his brow furrowed deep enough to crush a fly. “There’s a major acquisition this morning. Don’t you know we can’t have any negative press right now?” He didn’t ask if Aria was dead or alive. His first concern was his stocks. Mrs. Elena rolled her eyes and shot back defensively. “Why are you yelling at me? Blake had a little too much to drink last night and got a bit rough, that’s all.” “Aria’s usually pretty tough. Who knew she’d be so fragile today? One bump into the coffee table and her head split open.” Her breezy tone made it sound like she was talking about a broken vase. My nails dug deep into my flesh, my palm sticky with blood. “Aria’s a curse. We never should have brought her back after abandoning her.” Alexander irritably loosened his tie. “Should’ve just let her rot with that poor excuse for an adoptive mother.” “This is all for Blake, isn’t it?” Mrs. Elena lowered her voice, but it carried right to my ears. “Better to have a sister at home for him to take his anger out on than have him kill someone on the outside!” I shot to my feet, the last thread of rationality in my mind snapping with an audible crack. Adrian wanted to rush over and tear those inhuman mouths right off their faces! I grabbed Adrian’s arm and shoved him back down into his seat. “Patience! Don’t ruin the plan!” Adrian sobbed. I clenched my fist, nails digging into flesh, suppressing my own urge to charge forward. I had to save Aria. And I had to make them pay a price worse than death! The ER door opened. A doctor walked out, exhaustion written all over his face. “Who’s the family for Aria?” Alexander walked over impatiently. “I am. She’s not going to die, is she?” The doctor froze, a flash of anger in his eyes. “The patient has multiple soft tissue contusions, a mild concussion, and most seriously, a fractured ulna in her right arm that requires immediate surgery with pins!” “And…” The doctor paused, his tone turning severe. Alexander let out a cold laugh. He pulled a check from his pocket and stuffed it directly into the doctor’s white coat. “Dr. James, don’t say things you shouldn’t. Be careful what comes out of your mouth.” The doctor’s expression changed several times. Finally, he let out a deep sigh and didn’t return the check. “Go pay for the surgery.” The doctor dropped the words coldly and turned back into the ER. Alexander turned to Mrs. Elena. “Go pay the fees, then have Tom take her to the old villa in the suburbs.” “Having her at home is an eyesore. Don’t let Blake see her and get upset.” Mrs. Elena pursed her lips. “I know. You better get to the office. This place is filthy.” Alexander left without looking back. Mrs. Elena glanced disdainfully at the line at the payment counter and walked toward the VIP lounge. The hallway was left with only a few scattered family members of other patients. This was my only chance. I pulled Adrian up and walked quickly toward an empty patient room. Inside were isolation gowns and masks the nurses had changed out of. I quickly pulled one on and pressed a nurse’s cap down low. “Adrian, go downstairs and call a car. Park it in the alley behind the ER back door.” “Keep the engine running and wait for me in the car.” Adrian looked at me with worry. “Mom, can you do this? Let me go in with you!” “You’re too conspicuous.” I pushed him away. “Remember, no matter what happens, protect Aria!” I took a deep breath, picked up a stainless steel tray from the hallway cart, and walked toward the ER observation room with my head down. The door was slightly ajar. The moment I pushed it open— My tears fell uncontrollably.

“Don’t come near me… Please don’t…” The person on the bed shrank into the corner. She held her head in her hands like a cat traumatized beyond reason, shaking like a leaf. Her once-beautiful long hair had been hacked off unevenly, and there were even a few bald patches on her scalp. The face I’d kissed a thousand times was now swollen, with dried purple-black blood crusted at the corner of her mouth. The oversized hospital gown couldn’t hide the purple and blue whip marks covering her entire body. Her right arm hung limply, secured in a temporary splint. This was the Aria the Wilsons said they’d hired a nutritionist for, the one who’d gained several pounds! “Aria…” I threw down the tray, ripped off my mask, and rushed to the bed. Her body went rigid. She looked at me timidly through her fingers. In that moment, I clearly saw the disbelief and extreme fear in her eyes. “Mom…” Her lips trembled as she let out a sound as faint as a mosquito. “Mom! Why did you come? You need to leave! They’ll kill you!” She suddenly pushed at me frantically, though she had no strength at all. Tears mixed with blood streaked down her face. “Don’t be afraid. I’m here. I’m taking you home.” I pulled her tightly into my arms, feeling her skeletal body trembling violently. My heart was torn into pieces. “No… we can’t leave…” Aria clutched desperately at my clothes, her eyes fixed on the door in terror. “Blake will get angry. If he finds out you came, he’ll kill you. He’ll kill Adrian!” “He’s insane. He’s really insane!” She sobbed incoherently, clearly suffering from severe psychological trauma. “Listen to me, Aria.” I cupped her face and looked directly into her frightened eyes. “Adrian’s waiting for us downstairs. That animal Blake—I’ll deal with him myself!” “Right now, we’re leaving. Understand?” I didn’t dare delay. I threw back the covers. Around her ankles were raw, chafed marks from iron shackles! Animals! Worse than animals! I gritted my teeth and lifted her onto my back. She was as light as paper. My tears flooded out again. I wrapped her tightly in an oversized white coat and put a mask on her. Head down, I walked quickly out of the observation room. Mrs. Elena was still in the VIP lounge making an appointment for a manicure. The nurses in the hallway were busy resuscitating another patient. No one noticed me carrying a patient toward the fire escape. The stairwell was long. I carried her down step by step. My knees ached from the weight, but I felt nothing. All I felt was the warmth on my back—Aria’s silent tears. I pushed open the ground-floor safety door. A blast of cold morning air hit us. Adrian’s Uber was parked thirty feet away, doors wide open. “Aria!” Adrian rushed over and took Aria from my back. The moment he saw her condition, he dropped to his knees and wailed. “Aria! How could they… how could they do this to you!” “Adrian, don’t cry…” Aria weakly lifted her uninjured left hand and touched Adrian’s head. “Get in the car!” I shoved them both into the back seat. “To the train station! Fast as you can!” I threw a stack of cash at the driver. Without a word, he floored it. After a few blocks, I confirmed we weren’t being followed. I let out a long breath and turned to the back seat. “Adrian, I booked the next train out. Take Aria to Houston in the south.” “I had an old friend rent us a place there. I’ve also contacted a discreet private clinic.” “You don’t need to worry about anything. Just take care of Aria.” Adrian’s head snapped up, staring hard at me. “What about you?” “I’m not leaving.” I looked out at the passing streetscape, my voice cold as a knife dipped in ice. “They tortured Aria like this and think no one will touch them?” “Mom, don’t do anything stupid!” Aria struggled to sit up, panic written all over her face. “The Wilsons have connections everywhere. You can’t fight them! Can’t we just go to the police?” “The police?” I turned around and looked at Aria’s scarred face, letting out a cold laugh. “The police would be letting them off too easy.” What I wanted was their ruin. Their family destroyed. To see them on their knees, begging like dogs for my forgiveness! “Adrian, take Aria and go.” I opened the car door, preparing to get out at the red light. “But—” “No buts!” I cut him off sharply, my gaze fierce. “If you think of me as your mother, take Aria as far away as you can!” The car door shut. I stood in the cold morning wind and watched the Uber disappear around the corner. The game was officially beginning. I was going to make the Wilson family suffer, starting today! “Just wait, Mrs. Elena,” I murmured. “I told you—if you couldn’t be a good mother to Aria, then let me, her adoptive mother, do it.”

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The day before we were supposed to get our marriage license, my fiancée Clara Jones confessed to me: “Steve Richard, I need to tell you something. I slept with Charles Brooklyn because I’m going to have his baby.” “His mother is seriously ill. She hopes to see her grandson born before she dies.” My heart ached so badly from her sudden confession that I couldn’t breathe. Finally, I let out a sigh. “If that’s the case, then I’ll let you go.” Clara smiled and patted my chest: “I knew you’d be the most understanding. Don’t worry, as soon as I have the baby, I’ll come right back and we’ll get our marriage license.” “Remember, we’re not breaking up.” After saying that, she carefully protected her belly and left. Until the day she gave birth, my wife was in the same delivery room. I smiled and greeted her: “Congratulations on your son. My wife had a beautiful daughter!” Clara and I had been together for five years. I proposed seven times. Each time I carefully set up the perfect atmosphere to propose, but it would always be ruined by a phone call from her childhood friend Charles. My friends felt indignant on my behalf, saying their relationship crossed boundaries and telling me to break up with Clara. After all, she was a woman I’d loved for five years. Letting go was easier said than done. I made a bet with myself—if this last proposal got ruined too, I’d let her go. To my surprise, she said yes. But when it was time to get our marriage license, she confessed that she needed to have Charles’s baby. I broke down emotionally and demanded: “Clara, why?” “Charles’s mother is in poor health. She hopes to see him get married and have children before she dies.” As soon as she finished speaking, I fell silent for three seconds, then laughed. His mother was in poor health, so she didn’t hesitate to choose to have Charles’s baby. My mother was also in poor health, but Clara chose to be indifferent. I sighed. “If that’s the case, then I’ll let you go.” I meant we were breaking up, but Clara refused to acknowledge it as a breakup. She smiled and patted my chest: “I knew you’d be the most understanding. Don’t worry, as soon as I have the baby, I’ll come right back and we’ll get our marriage license.” After saying this, she carefully protected her belly as she left, as if she were already pregnant with his child. The staff at the office were probably encountering this situation for the first time and stood there stunned for a moment. I stood up, gave a bitter smile, and left dejectedly. At the door, I saw Charles running toward Clara with an umbrella. The two of them kissed passionately like star-crossed lovers reunited after a great ordeal. I thought I had truly let go, but witnessing it in person still hurt. Charles noticed me and waved. “Steve, thank you for being understanding. I promise you, once Clara has the baby and fulfills my mother’s wish, I’ll send her right back to you.”

Use her and then send her back to me? What am I, a recycling center? Through the rain, the three of us made eye contact. Clara was tense, Charles looked hopefully expectant, making me seem like the villainous home-wrecker. Passersby who didn’t know the situation pointed at me, insinuating I was a shameless third party. My heart grew cold. “I wish you both a healthy baby.” After dropping that line, I turned and left. Without an umbrella, the rain soaked me completely. I looked pathetic, like I was running away. What she didn’t know was that my blessing was permanent, because I had agreed to get back together with my ex-girlfriend. Daisy was thrilled. She held me all night and wouldn’t let go. I drank, she drank with me. I poured out my bitter feelings, she listened quietly. When I got drunk, I said a lot of nonsense to her. That night, we were wild until dawn. I had planned to introduce her to my mother, but unexpectedly her family business had some changes and she needed to go abroad for a while. As for Clara, after that day, we barely had any contact. Not until after she got pregnant, when Charles couldn’t wait to post on Instagram. In the photo, he was kneeling down kissing her belly while Clara stroked his head. They both looked so happy, with congratulatory comments flooding in below. Someone who didn’t know the situation left this comment: “Clara, you’re pregnant with Charles’s baby? What about Steve?” “We were so busy congratulating them, we forgot that Clara and Steve were the ones who were engaged.” I smiled and replied: “What choices she makes are none of my business.” I didn’t get a chance to type out the word “breakup” before I was met with countless mocking and contemptuous comments. They laughed at me for being pathetic, saying the only reason I was putting up with this was because I wanted Clara’s family money. Even though they phrased it as joking, I knew they were serious. I was done with Clara. Whatever decisions she made naturally had nothing to do with me. As I put down my phone, Clara’s call came through. “Steve, don’t mind what they’re saying.” “We just need to live our own lives well. I didn’t realize you loved me this much and had become so understanding. I almost feel guilty toward you.” “Don’t worry, after I have his baby, I’ll come right back and marry you.” She kept talking, but then I heard her gasp. Afraid I’d notice something, she hastily explained that Charles was giving her a massage and tried to hang up the video call. However, the video didn’t close, and I saw everything they were doing. “That idiot Steve is really generous with you!” “Don’t talk about him like that. If he weren’t so magnanimous in letting me have your baby, you’d never get to be a father!” “Be careful, the doctor warned us.” I’m not a pervert. I don’t have a hobby of watching other people in bed. I hung up the video, took a shower, and slept until morning. Until I was woken by a phone call. I didn’t even remember to change my clothes and ran to the hospital in my slippers. Aunt Sarah had a handprint on her face. From the force, whoever hit her must have struck hard. My mother sat in a wheelchair, tears streaming down her face. Across from them were Clara and Charles. I immediately understood what had happened. There were many onlookers discussing who the real home-wrecker was. I pushed through the crowd and walked in. When my mother saw me, guilt washed over her face. “Son, you’re here.” “Isn’t Clara your fiancée? You two are engaged. She’s still wearing the engagement ring I picked out for you both.”

“Why is she pregnant with someone else’s baby? When I came closer and heard more, I learned she said she won’t break up with you, that the wedding is just postponed until after she gives birth.” “What kind of situation is this?” “Our Richard family may not be wealthy and powerful, but we’re decent people. How can we allow this kind of nonsense?” Before I could speak, Charles stood in front of Clara, using his body to shield her from everyone’s judgmental stares. “What are you implying?” “Are you saying we’re indecent?” “No, young man, but aren’t you being indecent?” Someone pointed at Charles with moral outrage. “That woman is someone else’s fiancée, yet she’s pregnant with your child. That’s not just indecent, it’s morally corrupt.” There were many onlookers. They weren’t helping my mother and me—they were just bored and looking for drama. The accusations grew louder. Charles and Clara were encountering this situation for the first time. I looked at the handprint on Aunt Sarah’s face and asked Charles with a dark expression: “Did you hit her?” “Yes. She had a foul mouth and insulted Clara.” “Bam!” I hit him back with equal force. Clara screamed. “What are you doing? Charles didn’t hit the wrong person.” “You should control your aunt’s mouth instead of hitting Charles.” As she spoke, she angrily took off her engagement ring and threw it at me. “Everyone, please quiet down. We’re not the kind of people you think we are.” The surrounding noise died down. Once it was quiet, Clara helped Charles face the crowd. “He and I are the real couple. As for him—” Clara pointed at me. After a moment of hesitation, she spoke: “We broke up a long time ago. He’s been shamelessly stalking me, saying his mother is seriously ill and dying soon. He’s using moral guilt to make me feel too bad to hurt him.” “Tell me, what should I do?” As soon as she finished speaking, the criticism that had been directed at them turned toward my mother and me. My face was full of anger. “Clara, you’re talking nonsense.” “First, the day I found out you were going to have someone else’s baby, we broke up.” “Second, I never stalked you. Third, my mother’s health really isn’t good, and she didn’t know anything about…” “Not stalking? Then what was that just now?” “You humiliated me and attacked Charles.” “You almost made us look like the indecent ones.” I stared hard at Clara. After meeting my eyes for a few seconds, she guiltily looked away. Charles gripped her hand tightly, giving her courage. My mother cried and tugged at my hand. “Son! Did you two really break up?” “Were you really the one shamelessly stalking her?” “Mom, I didn’t…” “Tsk, you say you didn’t, but then why would your mother attack that young man?” “Exactly. If you two hadn’t broken up and she had wronged you, we could understand you hitting him. But that’s not the case!” “Right, make her apologize.” Aunt Sarah believed me, but everyone else insisted I was shamelessly stalking her. Finally, my mother slapped me and then knelt down before Clara and Charles. I couldn’t stop her in time and could only watch as she apologized to Charles. “I apologize on behalf of my son. He was immature and caused you trouble.” “From now on, please rest assured, Steve Richard won’t stalk you anymore.”

Clara also looked at me with panic. She hadn’t expected things to develop this way either. Seeing she had no reaction and just kept looking at me, Charles pulled her into his arms. “That’s more like it. Tell him to stop stalking my wife from now on.” “Let’s go!” Clara bit her lip, said nothing, and showed no intention of leaving. Finally, Charles just picked her up and carried her away. As soon as they left, my mother collapsed heavily on the ground. “Mom!!” I quickly crouched down to help her up. She seemed to be holding on to her last breath to say one final thing to me. “Steve, don’t stalk her anymore. It’s… not good.” I shook my head, full of guilt: “I didn’t. I really didn’t.” “From the day at the license office when she said she was going to have Charles’s baby, I broke up with her.” I was about to tell her about getting back together with Daisy when she closed her eyes with a look of regret. No matter how I called to her, she wouldn’t wake up. When the doctor told me she was gone, my whole body went rigid. My mother hadn’t even learned about Daisy and me getting back together. How could she just leave? I lay by her bedside, overwhelmed by guilt, my face covered in tears. Clara called me. I didn’t answer, so she kept calling. Finally, I picked up. “Steve, how is your mom doing now?” “I’m sorry. I really didn’t expect to run into your mother at the hospital.” “You have no right to mention her to me.” I practically roared. “I told you we broke up that day at the license office. I never stalked you…” “And I told you, we’re not breaking up.” “Having Charles’s baby is because his mother’s health is poor. What’s wrong with me giving him a baby?” “After she has a grandson, maybe she’ll perk up and fight off her illness.” “I thought you understood me. I didn’t expect you to be so selfish, just like your mother.” After saying this, she hung up. From then on, she never called me again. My mother’s death made me start to detest Clara, yet she was still waiting for me to contact her. After I returned to my hometown to handle my mother’s funeral, I went out to see the world. I visited Daisy. She was too swamped with work to get away. She said things would get better after these few months and asked me to wait for her. Meanwhile, Clara, who hadn’t contacted me for months, suddenly started calling me like crazy. I wanted to block her, but I knew she’d just use a new number to keep calling. When I answered, she immediately laid into me. “Steve, why didn’t you tell me you quit your job? You disappeared for months—where did you go?” I didn’t respond to her questions, so she softened her tone. “Are you still mad about last time?” “Then I apologize, okay?” “Just wait a little longer. When the time comes, I’ll personally go apologize to your mom.” “No need. She doesn’t need your apology.” “You don’t deserve her forgiveness either. After all, she always treated you like her own daughter. You loved steak, so she made it for you. You liked pretty dresses, so she saved money to buy them for you.” Bringing up the past, my heart felt no pain, only hatred. Perhaps because Clara had been separated from me for so long, and afraid of provoking me into never coming back, she kept lowering her tone when speaking to me. Finally, I hung up on her. I didn’t leave. Instead, I stayed to be with Daisy. Because she was already pregnant with my child. I was so overjoyed I didn’t know how to express it.

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That day, during the parent-child event, I was sweating buckets inside that heavy mascot costume, jumping around just to get a few more laughs out of my son. When I stepped off stage, Chloe handed me a bottle of water, saying casually: “While you were bouncing around up there for half an hour, Liam and I were making out backstage.” “He said he felt bad seeing me struggle with Leo alone.” Liam was a struggling student I’d sponsored for four years. Just ten minutes earlier, he’d clapped me on the shoulder, his face earnest as he promised: “Ethan, don’t worry. If Chloe ever betrayed you, I’d be the first to stand against it.” Chloe stood in front of me, her voice dripping with contempt: “Choose now. Are you going to finish this act with your son, or are we going to fight about divorce again, like always?” I watched my son, who’d just been calling me Dad, now clinging to Liam, whining and calling him “Mr. Liam.” A wave of pure disgust washed over me. This toxic wife, this ungrateful son – I wanted none of them anymore.

“Why him, of all people?” I clenched my fists, asking in a low voice. Chloe just chuckled. “Ethan, what are you pretending to be clueless about?” “Liam is young, smart, and understands me… not like you, who spends all day either fussing over Leo or nagging about trivial details and endless chores.” This self-righteous arrogance was even more repulsive than the infidelity itself. “Dad!” Seven-year-old Leo rushed over, clutching a handful of colorful candies. He stuffed the candy into his pocket, then pointed at the insulated lunch box in my hand and complained. “Dad, your homemade lunch is so gross. It’s all vegetables, no flavor at all.” Leo pouted, then proudly held up the candy in his hand like a trophy. “Mr. Liam gave me this candy, and it’s so sweet! He even said he’d bring me some every day from now on.” I looked at the cheap, artificially colored candies in his hand, preparing to take them away. “Leo, your cough isn’t gone yet. You shouldn’t eat anything this sweet…” Leo pushed my hand away, his little face scrunched up. He hid behind Chloe, muttering softly. “Dad, are you going to start fighting about divorce again…” “Today’s a school event, can you just let me enjoy it?” Even my son had started calling my pain a “fight.” I froze, a chill running through me. Just then, Liam walked over, his eyes red-rimmed. “Ethan, I’m so sorry…” He lowered his gaze, his voice timid. “Chloe and I just made a mistake. Don’t blame her, it’s all my fault.” As he spoke, he naturally squatted down, hugged Leo, and gently patted his back. “Don’t worry, Leo. Adults will sort out adult problems. Mr. Liam will always be on your side.” Leo hugged his neck tightly, nodding repeatedly. Chloe, in front of several other parents, reached out and patted Liam’s shoulder, shielding him. “Ethan, it’s a school event today. Don’t embarrass our son in front of the whole school. If you want to fight, do it at home.” I held back, not wanting to make a scene, until the crowd gradually dispersed. I reached out to take Leo’s hand and lead him home. But he forcefully pulled away, turning to run towards Liam. He looked up, his eyes full of anticipation, and asked. “Mr. Liam, can you come to our house for dinner tonight?”

That evening, Chloe actually brought Liam home. Liam changed into a pair of dark blue slippers that Chloe had bought just a few days ago. I had asked her why she bought men’s large, and she’d said they were on sale at the supermarket. He walked into the kitchen as if he owned the place, pulling fried chicken and sweet sauce out of a bag. “Leo, come wash your hands! Your favorite fried chicken is here!” He smiled brightly, a hint of challenge in his eyes. “Chloe specifically told me Leo’s been craving this lately, so she asked me to bring some.” I stood in the entryway, watching him naturally open the cupboard and take out plates and forks. I suddenly realized that Chloe had already prepared this home for another man. At the dinner table, Leo ate, his mouth greasy, not even glancing at the vegetables I’d made. “Dad’s food has no flavor. Mr. Liam’s takeout is so much better.” He loudly declared, gnawing on a drumstick. I frowned, looking at the dipping sauce: “Leo is allergic to peanuts. Is there any peanut in this sauce?” Liam immediately put down his fork, frowning as he looked at Chloe. “Ethan, I checked the ingredient list. Absolutely no peanuts.” “Are you being too sensitive, or do you think I would intentionally harm Leo?” Chloe reached out and ruffled Leo’s hair, her tone clearly annoyed. “Ethan, stop being so dramatic.” “It’s because you’re so paranoid all the time that you’ve made the child so spoiled.” “Liam is a professional preschool teacher. Wouldn’t he know these things? Stop making such a big deal out of nothing.” Watching Chloe’s self-righteous expression, seeing their “happy little family” scene, I found the meal impossible to swallow. After dinner, Liam voluntarily offered to do the dishes. When I walked into the kitchen to get water, he had his sleeves rolled up, deliberately exposing an old silver watch on his wrist. The watch was a distinctive style, with a small star engraved on its face. It was the wedding anniversary gift Chloe had given me three years ago. I loved it back then and wore it for a long time, only putting it away when the clasp broke. “That watch…” I stopped at the kitchen doorway, my voice tight. Liam continued washing dishes, speaking softly. “Chloe said you don’t like these little things, and it was just gathering dust in a drawer, so she gave it to me.” Every word sounded like an apology, but every syllable declared his claim over her. “It’s fine, you can keep it.” I walked out of the kitchen with my glass of water. Chloe grabbed my arm and pulled me onto the balcony. She closed the sliding door, lit a cigarette, and looked at me coldly through the smoke. “Ethan, I’m warning you, don’t keep bringing up divorce.” “Do you think divorce is some kind of fun game?” She exhaled a smoke ring, then began to list our three previous reconciliations. “The first time, Leo had a high fever in the middle of the night, and you couldn’t handle it alone. You called and begged me to come back.” “The second time, your dad collapsed with high blood pressure and was hospitalized. Who ran around paying bills and dealing with everything?” “And the third time… you can’t leave this home, and you can’t leave me.” “Liam is sensible and obedient, he won’t threaten your position. You’d better be smart and not mess things up.” Every time I softened, every compromise I made for the child and the family, became her leverage to humiliate me today. Back in the bedroom, I pulled open the bottom drawer. Neatly stacked inside were three divorce decrees, and three photos from our reconciliations. In the photos, Chloe smiled lovingly every time. And I, every time, foolishly believed she had truly changed for the better. But it turned out, she was just increasingly convinced that I would never leave. Late that night, I got up for water. Passing Leo’s room, the door was ajar. Liam’s hushed voice came from inside: “Leo, if Mom and Dad really separate, who do you want to live with?” I stopped, holding my breath. The room was silent for a long time. Then, I heard the son I had raised from infancy say: “I want to be with Mom, and Mr. Liam.”

The next morning, I took my transfer request to Principal Thompson’s office at the kindergarten. I didn’t want Leo to stay in Liam’s class. I was afraid he’d be a bad influence. But the principal looked at my application with a troubled expression. “Mr. Miller, actually, Mr. Liam is usually very attentive to Leo.” “And, I’ve heard from other parents that you’re too strict with your son, and he’s under a lot of stress.” I was stunned: “Other parents?” As I walked out of the office, several parents who were usually active on the SnapChat group immediately gathered around. “Mr. Miller, it’s normal for young teachers to be close to kids. You shouldn’t be so sensitive.” “Exactly. What dad isn’t stressed about raising kids these days? You should be happy a teacher is willing to help out more.” It was then I understood: Liam had already painted me as an overly controlling man to everyone. At the end of the hallway, Liam suddenly emerged from a storage room and cornered me. “Ethan, do you know why Chloe likes me?” I looked at him coldly: “Because you’re a jerk.” He didn’t get angry, instead he said softly: “Chloe says I’m like you when you were younger. But she also says you’re too boring now.” He took a step closer. “Chloe has actually told me a lot about you.” “Like your college roommate, and the person who took care of you after your surgery, and your old gym buddy.” “Chloe says every single one of them knew how to please her, how to make her happy, better than you did.” Liam chuckled scornfully, “Ethan, you’re a real failure as a person.” My mind exploded. All those years, what I thought were misunderstandings and coincidences, were actually all humiliations Chloe had carefully arranged for me. I went home at noon, slamming my bag onto the couch, and confronted Chloe, who had just gotten off work. “Is what Liam said true?” “My college roommate suddenly moving abroad, my post-surgery caregiver bringing you soup in the middle of the night, and my gym partner leaving the group… was it all because of you?” Chloe paused, her hand on her jacket, and frowned impatiently. “Ethan, what’s wrong with you? Those are all in the past, do we really need to dig up old dirt?” She stepped closer to me. “Didn’t you already know what kind of person I am?” “All these years, haven’t you been the one clinging to this family, insisting on giving Leo a complete home?” All those years of what I thought were misunderstandings, what I thought were friendships falling apart, were actually all chronic humiliations Chloe had inflicted on me. In the evening, Leo returned from school. He was carefully holding a handmade award medal made of colorful construction paper. As soon as he walked in, he shouted excitedly. “Mom, look at my medal, isn’t it pretty? The class is having a parent-child event on Friday!” I walked over, wanting to see his artwork. But he stepped back, hugging the medal tightly to his chest. “Don’t touch it! Don’t mess up the little flower on it, Mr. Liam helped me glue it.” My hand, suspended in mid-air, slowly withdrew. On the back of the medal, clumsily written in English, were the words: Mom, Me, Mr. Liam. Leo hugged the medal to his chest, looked up at me, and added softly. “Dad, can you not come to the event on Friday?” “I’m afraid you’ll get upset again and make Mr. Liam angry.”

I still went to the parent-child event on Friday. The classroom was decorated warmly and festively. Each child was on stage, displaying their drawing of “My Family.” When it was Leo’s turn, he proudly held up his drawing. I wasn’t in the picture. Only him, Chloe, and Liam. The parents in the class politely applauded. Liam, sitting in the front row, had red-rimmed eyes, nodding repeatedly with emotion. The teacher hosting the event seemed a little awkward and asked softly: “Leo, who did you draw? Why isn’t your dad in the picture?” Leo clutched the corner of his shirt, his voice clear. “Dad always scolds me, won’t let me eat candy, won’t let me watch TV.” “Mr. Liam plays with me and buys me yummy food. I want Mr. Liam to be my dad.” Kids are brutally honest, and sometimes their honesty cuts deepest. A few embarrassed laughs rippled through the classroom, and some parents tried to smooth things over, saying children don’t know any better. I stood up, striding to the front of the stage, wanting to take Leo home. Chloe suddenly grabbed my wrist from the side. “Ethan, what are you doing?” Apparently, in her eyes, even my disappointment and sadness had to be timed so she wouldn’t lose face. I forcefully pulled my hand away from hers and stormed out of the classroom. Just as I reached the stairwell, Liam *pretended* to follow me out. “Ethan, don’t be mad at Leo…” He mumbled apologies, but forcibly shoved a photo from the parent-child event into my hand. In the photo, Leo was standing on tiptoes, hugging Liam’s neck, while Chloe stood beside them, smiling gently and indulgently. Liam leaned close to my ear. “Ethan, children are actually more honest than adults. They know who is better to keep around.” “Staying in this family will only make everyone miserable.” I crumpled the photo into a ball and tossed it into a nearby trash can, leaving the kindergarten without looking back. Soon after I got home, Chloe returned with Leo. She walked directly to the coffee table, pulled a document from her briefcase, and pushed it heavily towards me. It was a divorce agreement. “Ethan, since no one is happy, let’s just get divorced.” She leaned back on the couch, her tone as calm as if discussing the weather. “You can stay in this house for now, but I must have custody of Leo.” “You’ve seen how unstable Leo is right now. He can’t be without Liam’s care.” I looked at the neatly printed agreement and suddenly found it utterly absurd. “Chloe, are you asking me to give my wife and son to a homewrecker?” She frowned, her voice full of impatience. “Don’t say such nasty things!” “We’ve gotten to this point because you weren’t good at managing a family. Even our son rejects you, so don’t blame anyone else.” “Just sign it. Let’s part ways amicably.” Leo hid behind Chloe’s legs, tightly hugging the teddy bear Liam had given him. I squatted down, looking at the son I had raised from infancy, my voice tight. “Leo, do you want to come with Dad? Dad promises that from now on…” “No!” Leo hugged the bear even tighter, tears welling in his eyes. He backed away repeatedly, crying and shouting at me. “Dad, can you stop pushing me!” “I don’t want to choose you! I want to be with Mom and Mr. Liam!” In that moment, I suddenly didn’t want to fight anymore. I stood up, walked to the bedroom, and retrieved the three divorce decrees. And a cross-district school transfer application form I had already stamped. I pushed all these documents towards Chloe. Chloe’s face finally changed when she saw the transfer application, her brow deeply furrowed. “Ethan, what do you mean? What game are you playing now?” I picked up the pen on the table and swiftly signed my name. “It means that this time, I’m not looking back.”

🌟 Continue the story here 👉🏻 📲 Download the “NovelMaster” app 🔍 search for “416022”, and watch the full series ✨! #NovelMaster

Benjamin, the new intern at the company, accidentally ate some hallucinogenic mushrooms and started tripping. He lunged at my fiancée Audrey and kissed her wildly. Not only did Audrey not push him away, she actually ran her fingers through his hair. Then Audrey explained to me, “He didn’t mean it. Stop looking so serious.” I laughed bitterly. “Even if he wasn’t in his right mind, why did you kiss him back? You even used tongue.” Audrey raised an eyebrow. “I didn’t! It was just a reflex.” “If you don’t like it, then quit. Once you’re not an employee here, you won’t have to see any of this anymore!” She never expected that on the day that intern got his permanent position, I actually resigned. From that day on, I disappeared from her world. Five years later, Audrey met with me as a partner of my company. She had no idea what my position was now. She looked at me with pity. “After all this time away, you’re still just an assistant. If you apologize, I’ll let you come back to work for me.” I closed the file and made a phone call. “This partner doesn’t meet our standards. We’re canceling this deal.”

I got up to leave. Benjamin pressed his hand on my files. “William, you’re already here. Don’t rush off. We haven’t even started talking yet!” “Blanchett Family Group is a Fortune 500 company. Surely your employees have better manners than this?” Carter, a former colleague, snorted and crossed his arms. “Clearly just some errand boy who’s never seen the real world. Does he really think one phone call can make or break a project?” “Hey, don’t talk about William like that!” Benjamin frowned and glared at Carter, though the reprimand seemed superficial. “After all, he has some special history with Audrey. Since things didn’t work out, he’s holding a grudge and won’t negotiate with us. It’s understandable.” I glanced at my watch. “Fine. You have twenty minutes to say whatever you want. I have another meeting after this.” “William, getting addicted to this act?” Audrey spoke up slowly. She leaned back in her leather chair, looking lazy. “Since you want to play, I’ll play along. We’re all old friends here. Don’t be too harsh on the price.” As she spoke, her eyes swept over my plain shirt and stopped on my left ring finger. I wore a simple, humble ring there. No gemstone embellishments. Not even gold. Benjamin followed her gaze, his lips curling up. His tone was light. “William, you actually got married? Why didn’t you invite us to the wedding?” Carter immediately chimed in, nudging Benjamin with his elbow. “When are you and Audrey getting married? I saw you picking out wedding rings yesterday.” “Carter!” Benjamin playfully punched his shoulder, though his ears turned red. “Don’t talk nonsense. Audrey and I are just colleagues.” Audrey’s lips curved slightly as she deliberately reached out to adjust Benjamin’s collar. This gesture drew ambiguous jeers from Carter and the other colleagues. I looked down and organized my files, completely unmoved. I’d been through the same thing five years ago. This little provocation was nothing. The door to the private room opened and a server came in with coffee. I had no intention of staying to watch their performance. I turned to leave. “Wait, William!” Benjamin rushed up but deliberately shoved the server. Coffee splashed all over my back. My white shirt was instantly soaked through with the brown liquid. “Oops!” Benjamin exclaimed, though he couldn’t hide the smile at the corners of his mouth. “William, are you okay?” The server frantically handed me napkins. “I’m sorry, sir. I didn’t mean to…” “It’s fine.” I took the napkins, my voice calm. “Someone pushed you.” Benjamin’s expression changed. “What are you trying to say? You weren’t careful and now you’re blaming others?” Carter immediately backed him up. “Exactly. We all saw it. You clearly turned around too fast.” I turned back. The soaked white shirt had become semi-transparent. Coffee dripped from the hem onto the floor. The situation was pretty bad. “William,” Audrey finally spoke, her tone tinged with faint annoyance. “Stop embarrassing yourself.” She casually grabbed a suit jacket from one of her subordinates and tossed it on the sofa nearest to me. The meaning was obvious. I didn’t touch the jacket. I just calmly turned around. “I’m going to the restroom.” I barely managed to clean up my back with water when my phone buzzed with a message: [Car’s downstairs] I replied with a simple “okay.” As I walked out of the restroom, I heard hushed voices from around the corner. “I heard when he suddenly quit back then, he’d gotten some woman at the company pregnant. It was a whole thing…” “Keep your voice down… but I heard about that too. Something about not handling it cleanly, almost ended up in a lawsuit…” Halfway through their conversation, they saw me and immediately fell silent. Benjamin raised his hand to adjust his shirt collar, his tone casual. “William, Audrey said she’ll give you one more chance. Sign at the price we stated, and she can throw some other projects your way.” I walked right past them and pushed open the door to the private room. Audrey was flipping through my files. When she saw me come in, she didn’t stop. She just glanced up. “This report isn’t bad.” She closed the file and pushed it forward lightly. “Come back to Rayjedo Company. I’ll give you double the salary.” “No need.” I took back my files. “Today’s negotiation ends here.” “William!” Audrey’s volume suddenly spiked. “You think working at Blanchett Family Group makes you special? They only hired you because you’re cheap! Where’s your supervisor? How could they let you handle a project worth hundreds of millions?” I didn’t respond. I just turned toward the door. As my hand touched the doorknob, her voice rang out again. “William, it’s been five years. Haven’t you had enough of this tantrum?” I paused. A tantrum? How arrogant did someone have to be to think that five years of separation was just throwing a tantrum? “Audrey,” I said calmly. “My time is valuable.” Her expression darkened. “What are you acting so high and mighty for? If it weren’t for me back then, do you think you could have become team leader?” She looked at me with contempt. “You go work odd jobs at Blanchett Family Group and forget who’s responsible for that impressive resume of yours?” I didn’t bother with this lunatic. I just got in the elevator.

The air before a storm was hot and sticky. I sat in the car, watching messages constantly pop up in my class group chat. Class president @everyone: [Tonight at 7 PM, Parson Hotel. Bring your families! Dr. Andre will be there too!] Of course it had to be tonight. We hadn’t been in touch for five years. I never expected Audrey had already become the second-in-command at Rayjedo Company Group. The person who was supposed to show up at today’s negotiation was originally a vice president from Rayjedo Company. They changed it at the last minute. Made me step in shit. Someone @’d me: [William, why aren’t you responding? You have to come! Dr. Andre always cared about you the most!] I stared at the screen and finally replied “okay.” Dr. Andre had been kind to me. I couldn’t disrespect him just because I didn’t want to see Audrey. That evening, Audrey booked the Presidential Hall at Parson Hotel and let everyone party freely. Our class of 36, plus family members, made for a lively crowd. As soon as I pushed open the door, I heard Benjamin’s laughter. He stood next to Audrey, surrounded by several classmates flattering him. Someone saw me and immediately stirred up conversation. “Oh, William’s finally here!” “I heard after you quit, you haven’t had steady work? Man, they say the closer you are, the better your chances. You and Audrey got recruited by the same company right out of school. Why didn’t you know to hold onto her?” I smiled and didn’t respond. I found a corner to sit in. The class president was already drunk. He suddenly slapped the table. “What do you guys know! William back then… *hic*… to go to the same school as Audrey, he could have gotten into Harvard!” “Oh my god! Really?” “Of course it’s true! His family told him to think carefully, but he insisted on going to the same school as Audrey!” Everyone sighed. Audrey swirled her wine glass, smiling faintly. “Everyone has their own fate.” I couldn’t help but think of that youth that would never return. Back then, I really was stupid enough to downgrade my school application. At eighteen, I believed some things were worth sacrificing all rationality for. Now, hearing her casual tone, I just felt laughably naive. Benjamin laughed loudly nearby. “Whatever you say about William’s feelings back then, they were real and brave. Come on, everyone raise a glass to William!” Someone immediately chimed in. “Benjamin really has class! Now you and Audrey have both career and love. That’s true fulfillment!” “Some people, well, they chose their own path and have to deal with the consequences. Can’t blame anyone else.” I looked down and sipped my coffee. The coffee was warm, but it couldn’t warm the coldness in my fingertips. My phone vibrated. It was my mom calling. I got up and went to the balcony. Her voice on the other end was slightly angry. “What time are you coming back? Go pick up the kid.” I turned to the side and lowered my voice. “Soon. Right away.” When I hung up, I turned around and found two female classmates standing at the balcony door, their expressions odd. “William, did you have a wedding ceremony? We’re all old classmates. Why didn’t you invite us?” I shook my head. “No ceremony.” “But we just heard you say… you need to pick up a kid?” I smiled, half-joking. “Yeah, my job now is picking up and dropping off kids.” The two exchanged glances, their expressions somewhat strange. When I returned to the private room, I learned Dr. Andre had something come up and couldn’t make it. I grabbed my jacket from the back of the chair. “Enjoy yourselves, everyone. I need to go.” A drawn-out teasing voice came from behind me. “Oh my, the employer’s kids need their driver to pick them up!” Everyone laughed. I turned to look at the female classmate who’d just talked to me on the balcony. Is this what she told them? I didn’t bother to argue. I pushed open the door and left. Outside the hotel, rain poured down. I waited for a while, but the rain didn’t let up. People from the party gradually started leaving the hotel. Audrey held a black umbrella and walked up beside me. “Where do you live? I’ll give you a ride.” “No need.” She stared at me and suddenly said, “William, what exactly do you want?” I looked at her like she was an idiot. “I don’t want anything. But Audrey, aren’t you afraid your fiancé will be jealous if you give me a ride?” Audrey frowned. “I was forced into what happened with Benjamin back then. He was delirious from the poisoning. What could I do? If there was really something between us, we’d have kids by now.” I looked at her calmly. “Then I wish you both many children. Is it too late for that?” “You—” I didn’t wait for her to finish. I walked straight to a taxi that had stopped by the curb.

On the day I went to a business reception, the financial news broke the story about the failed partnership between Rayjedo Company Group and Blanchett Family Group. Dozens of unknown numbers suddenly appeared on my phone. I could guess it was Audrey. When we broke up years ago, I blocked all her contact information. If she wanted to find me, besides making a public announcement in the class group, she could only bomb me with calls from new phone numbers. Actually, this project could have been a win-win situation. I didn’t want to bring personal matters into work. But every word out of her mouth was about how I wasn’t worthy to negotiate with her. Since she hadn’t learned to respect people, I didn’t need to save her face either. “William?” The familiar voice made me stop in my tracks. I turned to see Audrey with her team standing by the red carpet. Benjamin stood beside her, his well-fitted formal wear overly conspicuous under the spotlights. “This kind of event requires an invitation.” Benjamin deliberately raised his voice. “William, you didn’t sneak in following your boss, did you?” Carter immediately helped. “Want me to talk to security? They can let you in to take care of your master.” His fake concern drew sideways glances from people around us. Audrey frowned at me. “That’s enough. Stop embarrassing yourself.” She reached out to pull me away. “As my subordinate in the future, you’ll naturally have chances to come to events like this and see the world. Don’t be childish just to spite me. There are reporters inside.” I calmly pulled my hand back. “Audrey, seems like Rayjedo Company has a lot of free time? The deal fell through and you still have the mood to attend receptions?” At the mention of the deal, her expression instantly darkened. “All because a server accidentally spilled coffee on you?” “William, did you feed everything you learned to the dogs? Blanchett Family Group actually lets someone like you handle negotiations?” A male colleague behind her scoffed. “Audrey, don’t overestimate Mr. William. If he had the ability to ruin a partnership between Blanchett Family Group and Rayjedo Company, he wouldn’t be dressed like this at a reception!” “Like a beggar!” This seemed to comfort Audrey. “I wouldn’t go so far as to think a small-time employee like him could control the whole situation.” Benjamin immediately added, “Right. William’s wearing cheap knockoffs without a single brand name. He can only dream about being a leader!” Carter fake-sympathetically tried to smooth things over. “Don’t say that. Back then, William insisted Audrey choose between letting you get your permanent position or keeping him. He probably didn’t do so well after leaving Rayjedo Company in a huff!” I looked down and adjusted my cuffs. This outfit was from my mom’s small independent brand. The colors and style suited my personality. I didn’t see anything wrong with it. “Are you done?” I said calmly. “If you’re done, please move. I’m in a hurry.” Audrey looked displeased. “Do you not understand what people are saying?” Seeing I wasn’t responding, she finally softened her attitude. She turned and took the guest pass off Carter’s neck. “Since you want to go in so badly, just stay by my side and behave.” I was about to speak when Mr. Jason from the event’s organizing committee jogged over. He interrupted our standoff. “Mr. William, your speech is ready. Mr. Brown is asking if you want to review it first?”

Audrey’s expression froze instantly. The smile on Benjamin’s lips that hadn’t yet faded stiffened. He looked at the newcomer with some disbelief. “Excuse me, I think you’ve got the wrong person. A speech? Only three people are giving speeches at today’s reception…” I took the folder and said to Mr. Jason, “These people are not allowed inside.” Audrey grabbed my wrist. “What do you mean?” “Exactly what I said.” I gently pulled my hand back. A rare flash of confusion crossed her eyes. She probably still thought I was the same fool from years ago who would interpret her slightest consideration as special attention. Who would feel warm inside because she forcefully took the coffee from my hand and replaced it with hot milk. Who would have his heart race because she threw my proposal on the desk in front of the whole department and said “redo it,” then stayed up all night helping me revise it. Times had changed. That kind of “kindness” only made me feel violated now. Not long after entering the venue, my phone suddenly vibrated. I answered and heard my mom’s anxious voice. “The kid fell playing with toys and keeps crying for you…” I immediately told a colleague, “I need to make a video call. If I’m not out when it’s time, you’ll give the speech for me.” Then I quickly walked toward the lounge. … After hanging up the video call, I got a message from my colleague: [Speech went well!] I let out a long breath and prepared to return to the venue. Just as I reached the corner of the hallway, I heard voices from Audrey’s team coming through the half-open VIP room door. “I’m so pissed! He wouldn’t let us in, but luckily I was smart. I paid a few guests to swap passes with us. Audrey, you better reimburse me when we get back!” “That William just bluffs. He wasn’t even one of the three speakers. What an act!” “Who does he think he is, keeping us out with one sentence? Is his employer really that powerful?” “No matter how powerful his employer is, they wouldn’t help a driver flex like that, right? Unless…” “Everyone shut up!” Audrey’s voice carried irritation. “This reception is full of potential clients. Don’t you understand what situation Rayjedo Company is in right now? Stop gossiping about irrelevant people.” She glanced at her watch. “In half an hour, Business Weekly is doing my interview in the first-floor interview area. Check all the materials again.” I shook my head helplessly and turned back to the venue. After it ended, I prepared to go home. Passing through the first-floor lobby, I saw a well-known financial talk show doing a live broadcast at the hotel. Audrey sat in the interview seat as an invited “young business representative.” She wore a sharp suit, her makeup perfect, her expression composed. The host smiled. “Ms. Audrey, you’ve had impressive achievements in the industry in recent years, but you seem to keep your personal life very private?” Audrey smiled faintly. “Career comes first.” “I heard you once had a first love, but ultimately didn’t end up together. What’s your view on men who use marriage to achieve class mobility?” The host’s question was loaded. Audrey frowned slightly, seeming unwilling to discuss it. Benjamin, sitting in the audience, immediately picked up the topic. “Everyone, don’t pressure Ms. Audrey to talk about private matters. She really was almost deceived by a certain scumbag back then.” He sighed as if helplessly. “But now that man’s older, he’s fallen to being some rich woman’s driver and has to pick up kids.” My steps that had been moving away paused. This man he was referring to was me? This interview was being broadcast live. Once spoken, those words couldn’t be taken back! I took out my phone and opened the interview’s live stream. The comments had already exploded. [How could a scumbag like that be content as a driver? He’s definitely after the rich woman, lol!] [Ms. Audrey is so beautiful and capable. It’s inevitable she’d meet a scumbag or two!] [I heard that man was Ms. Audrey’s first love. Ms. Audrey has stayed single all these years. She must have been really hurt!] I didn’t need to guess who was directing this narrative. Back then, I gave Audrey a choice. If she let Benjamin get his permanent position, I would resign. Although it ended unpleasantly, I left Audrey with her dignity. From beginning to end, no one knew we had been a couple. After Benjamin attended our class reunion and heard some old stories, he must have guessed some of the reasons why I was hostile toward her. But without knowing the full story, could he just slander me like this? I sneered and closed the live stream. Benjamin had sharp eyes. He immediately raised his voice. “Oh, isn’t that the first love of Ms. Audrey you just mentioned?” He deliberately directed the camera toward me. Some reporters eager to sniff out gossip rushed forward with their microphones. “Mr. William, is it true that you rejected an invitation from a prestigious school just to latch onto Ms. Audrey?” “There are rumors that after you were fired from Rayjedo Company Group, you specifically became a driver for rich women?” “Are you here today to use Ms. Audrey for publicity?” Benjamin stood to the side, his lips slightly curved. The business interview instantly turned into entertainment gossip. The next second, the venue doors suddenly burst open and a boy in a custom-tailored little suit ran in. All the cameras instantly switched direction. “It’s the son of Caitlyn, the youngest female billionaire in the capital!” someone exclaimed. “Oh my god, seeing him in person for the first time!” The whole venue erupted. Even Benjamin’s eyes lit up as he stared at the noble little figure. After all, this was the heir to a truly elite family! A tiny bit from him could sustain an ordinary person’s entire lifetime of struggle. Benjamin, who was closest to the child, reacted fastest. He immediately crouched down, his face breaking into a sickeningly sweet smile. “How come you’re here all alone?” He reached out to touch the child’s hair, but the little boy’s eyes suddenly lit up as he called out sweetly, “Daddy!” Benjamin was shocked and delighted. “Oh my god! The kid called him daddy! So Benjamin is Caitlyn’s husband?” “No wonder Ms. Audrey treats him so specially!” “Turns out he’s the real elite!” Benjamin thought perhaps the child’s mother was selecting a husband. He stammered happily, “B-baby, say it again?” The little boy wrinkled his nose. I couldn’t help but want to laugh.

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