Category: English

Xander Shaw said Luna reminds him of the old me. Innocent. Stubborn. Full of wild spirit He even twisted the knife with a smile. “She’s got more tricks in bed than you do. You’re just a dead fish when it comes to sex.” All because that girl likes cats. So he cut off my sister’s medical funds to open a stray animal shelter for Luna. I begged him to save my sister, but he pried my hands away. “Stop making a scene. Your sister’s just a living corpse.” The moment my sister’s heart monitor flatlined, I dialed his sworn enemy’s number. “Paxton, help me make him wish he were dead.” A low laugh came from the other end. “I can help you, but on one condition. You have to marry me.” Sophia’s POV Today is my twenty-seventh birthday. I’d been Xander Shaw’s cherished wife for five years, and tonight’s birthday party was as lavish as it got. Nearly half of London’s elite showed up, everyone praising Xander’s devotion, complimenting me on having such a wonderful husband. I held my champagne glass, smiling as I made small talk with the guests. “Mrs. Shaw, why hasn’t Mr. Shaw arrived yet?” Someone asked with a smile. I glanced at the clock on the wall. It was eight-thirty in the evening. The party had already been going for half an hour. “He had a last-minute international video conference at the company. It’s wrapping up now.” I answered with a smile. But only I knew how pathetic the truth really was. I’d sent Xander three messages and called him twice. Complete radio silence. Just then, a commotion erupted at the entrance to the ballroom. My heart relaxed slightly as I lifted my dress and turned around, but when I saw clearly, I froze in my tracks. Xander had arrived. But he hadn’t come alone. The man wore a sharply tailored black custom suit, broad shoulders tapering to a narrow waist, his features as cold and sharp as a blade. And hanging on his arm was a girl in a cheap T-shirt and jeans, soaking wet from head to toe. The girl looked no more than twenty years old, her hair in complete disarray, clutching a stray cat tightly in her arms, her doe-like eyes staring at the opulent hall in terror. This wasn’t just inappropriate. It was sabotage. The entire room fell dead silent. My fingers trembled slightly as I quickly walked forward. Before I could speak, Xander frowned first, removing his six-figure suit jacket and wrapping it around the shivering girl. “Why didn’t you answer your phone?” I asked softly. “Ran into an emergency.” Xander’s voice was flat, not even glancing at me once, his gaze fixed entirely on the girl. “Her name is Luna. She got clipped by a car while rescuing a cat on the roadside. I took her to the hospital, and on the way stopped by to treat her wound.” On the way? Xander was severely germophobic too. In the past, if I so much as glanced at a stray dog on the street, he’d frown and tell me to go disinfect. Now, he was letting a girl covered in mud and water dirty his expensive shirt? “Today is my birthday party.” I reminded him. “I know.” Xander finally looked up at me. His expression was calm, calm to the point of cruelty. “Sophia, have the maid take her to a guest room to change. Also, call the family doctor over.” His tone was completely commanding. All around us were watching eyes. The envy in those society ladies’ gazes had now turned entirely to mockery. “Xander.” I didn’t move, instead looking at this man I’d loved for ten years. “Do you know what you’re doing?” The girl shrank into Xander’s arms in fright, her voice tearful. “Mr. Shaw… am I causing you trouble? I’ll leave right now…” That single “Mr. Shaw” instantly softened Xander’s expression. He reached out to steady the girl’s shoulder, and in front of all the guests, in front of me, he said softly, “Don’t move. Your wound will open up. As long as I’m here, who dares make you leave?” I felt a ringing sound in my ears. “Mr. Shaw.” Ten years ago, when Xander was eighteen and still a poor nobody, I was seventeen. We’d eat canned soup together in his basement. I used to playfully call him “Mr. Shaw” too, teasing him for being old-fashioned. What did Xander say back then? He’d tapped my nose, his eyes full of affection. “Sophia, you’re the only one allowed to call me that for the rest of my life.” Now, the exclusive nickname had a new owner. After soothing Luna, Xander turned to look at me, his brow furrowed, radiating impatience. “Sophia, you used to be magnanimous. Don’t stoop to a young girl’s level. It’s beneath you.” Beneath me. I felt my heart being squeezed by an invisible hand, crushed to pulp. I straightened my spine. “Fine. Since Mr. Shaw is here on a rescue mission, then this birthday party might as well end.” I took the microphone, turning to announce the party’s conclusion. My wrist was suddenly gripped. Xander’s hold was strong, pinching my bones painfully. He leaned close to my ear, using a voice only the two of us could hear, cold and final as a death sentence. “Sophia, stop making a scene. After tonight, we’re getting divorced.”

Sophia’s POV The party ended in disgrace. Outside, the rainstorm continued to pour. I sat in the back seat of the Maybach. The air pressure inside the car was suffocatingly low. Xander didn’t sit with me. He sat in the passenger seat, head down, replying to messages. The light from his phone screen illuminated his face with a kind of gentle vitality I hadn’t seen in a long time. “Because of her?” I broke the silence. He nodded, admitting it readily. “Yes.” “Why?” “Sophia, look at yourself in the mirror.” Xander lit a cigarette. Through the swirling smoke, his expression was blurred. “Look at what you’ve become. Dignified, perfect, like a programmed robot. You’ve lost that edge you used to have.” My nails dug into my palms. “What edge?” “That wild spirit.” Xander exhaled a smoke ring. “Meeting Luna reminded me. I fell in love with the Sophia who dared to smash a bottle over a harasser’s head. Not this version of you. This polished Mrs. Shaw who only knows how to arrange flowers, pick out dresses, and smile like a pageant queen.” I laughed. Laughed so hard tears nearly fell. These past five years, who made me take etiquette lessons? Who made me restrain my sharp edges for the Shaw family’s reputation? Who said, “Sophia, from now on I’ll handle the dirty work. You just need to be my clean, perfect princess”? He pulled out my thorns, clipped my wings, and locked me in a gilded cage. Now, he complained I couldn’t fly. “She’s a lot like I used to be, isn’t she?” I asked. “Very much so.” Xander admitted frankly. “Seeing her protect that cat in the rain, standing up to people-I felt something. That feeling, I can’t find it in you anymore.” “So that’s your excuse for cheating?” “It’s not cheating.” Xander corrected me, his tone matter-of-fact. “Sophia, our souls stopped resonating long ago. All I have left for you is obligation. Rather than torturing each other, we should let go. The villa is yours. I’ll give you a satisfactory alimony amount.” The car stopped at the entrance. Xander showed no intention of getting out. “I’m not going in. Luna is afraid of thunder. I need to go keep her company.” He said it so openly, as if he were just heading to a meeting. I sat in the darkness, looking at this man who once swore he’d protect me with his life. “Xander.” I called out to him as he was about to push the door open. “What is it?” “What if I don’t agree to the divorce?” Xander paused, then turned his head. Those eyes that once held such deep affection were now frozen over. “Sophia, don’t force my hand. You know my methods. Let’s part amicably and leave you with some dignity. Don’t burn through the last bit of goodwill between us.” The car door closed. A black umbrella opened as he strode into the rain, climbing into a Porsche that had been waiting by the roadside. That was Luna’s car. I watched the taillights of both cars disappear into the rainy night, slowly reaching up to touch the necklace around my neck. It was a pink diamond, worth a fortune. Xander had won it at auction last month and given it to me as a “warm-up gift.” Now it seemed clear-this wasn’t a gift at all. It was severance pay. I pushed the door open and stepped out. I didn’t bother with an umbrella. The icy rain instantly soaked through my expensive gown. My makeup ran, leaving me a complete mess. I walked into the empty villa. On the wall hung our enormous wedding photo. In the picture, Xander looked at me with eyes full of love. I walked over, grabbed the ashtray from the table, and hurled it at the photo with all my strength. The wedding portrait shattered. I crouched on the floor, hugging my knees, and finally allowed myself to cry.

Sophia’s POV I turned off my phone. I didn’t go to the office or return to the Shaw family estate. Xander didn’t come looking for me either. Over these three days, London’s headlines were all about Xander’s new love. “Mr. Shaw Books Entire Amusement Park Late Night to Make Mystery Girl Smile” “Mystery Cinderella Moves Into Shaw Mansion, Wedding Bells Soon?” In the photos, Luna wore Xander’s shirt, standing on his private yacht, laughing with wild abandon. Xander stood behind her, shielding her from the wind, his eyes so tender they could melt ice. Someone asked in the comments: What about Mrs. Shaw? The reply below: Who cares about that trophy wife anymore? I sat on a bench in the hospital, scrolling past these news stories. This was the intensive care unit. Through thick glass, my sister Aria Winter lay quietly inside. Tubes ran throughout her body, the ventilator rising and falling rhythmically. Seven years ago, my family, the Winter family went bankrupt. My parents jumped from a building. When those debt collectors burst in to drag me away as payment, it was fifteen-year-old Aria who charged at them with a knife. She was ultimately pushed down the stairs and left in a vegetative state. Aria Winter was my sister. For these seven years, Aria had been my entire reason for living. A single day in the ICU cost a fortune. When Xander proposed, he said. “Sophia, marry me. Aria will be like my own sister. I’ll hire the best doctors in the world and watch over her for life.” I believed him. For that promise, I endured his parents’ abuse, weathered high society’s cold stares, and transformed myself into the perfect version Xander wanted. But now… The attending physician approached, looking troubled. “This month’s treatment fees… Mr. Shaw has stopped payment.” I jerked my head up. “What?” “Mr. Shaw’s secretary just called. He said Mr. Shaw has frozen this expense from his personal account. If payment isn’t made by sunset today, they might have to… turn off the ventilator.” The doctor couldn’t bring himself to finish. I felt all the blood in my body flowing backward. He stopped the medical payments? Xander was forcing my hand. He knew I didn’t have much cash. I’d been Mrs. Shaw for years, but I’d never had a hand in the company’s money. My monthly allowance was decent, but most of it had gone toward an experimental imported treatment for Aria these past few months. He was using Aria’s life to force me to sign the divorce papers. “I understand.” I stood up. My vision went black for a moment. I steadied myself against the wall. “I’ll figure out the money. The medication absolutely cannot be stopped.” I pulled out my phone and turned it on. Countless messages popped up. I ignored the mockery and probing questions, dialing Xander’s number directly. It rang once before connecting. “Come to your senses?” Xander’s careless voice came through, background noise chaotic, like he was at a racetrack. “Xander, you can stop loving me. You can divorce me.” My voice was shaking. “But you cannot stop Aria’s medication! That’s her life!” “Sophia.” Xander let out a soft laugh. “Aria’s been asleep for seven years. Medical experts say her chances of waking are virtually zero. These seven years, I’ve spent hundreds of millions on her. I’ve done more than enough.” “You made a vow!” “Vows expire. So does love.” Xander’s voice turned cold. “Besides, I need that money for something more meaningful now.” “Something more meaningful?” “Luna wants to open a stray animal rescue center. The location is in the south district. The initial investment requires capital. Rather than throwing money into a bottomless pit maintaining a living corpse’s heartbeat, I’d rather support Luna’s dreams.” I bit my lip so hard I tasted blood. To open a pet shop for that replacement, he was going to unplug my sister’s ventilator? “Xander, you’re a bastard.” “Go ahead and curse. When you’re done, sign the divorce agreement.” Xander didn’t care at all. “Sign the papers, and I might consider extending the payments for three more months. Give you time to find your next meal ticket.” The call ended. I gripped my phone, speechless. Despair swallowed me like a tide. Just then, urgent footsteps echoed from the end of the corridor. A large group of medical staff rushed past pushing a mobile bed. Xander was right beside them, his face terrifyingly dark. I froze. That was… Luna? Luna lay on the bed, deathly pale, her forehead covered in blood. She appeared seriously injured. Xander saw me too, but his gaze didn’t linger for even a second. He immediately shouted at the doctors. “Hurry! Blood transfusion! She has a rare blood type. Does the blood bank still have inventory?” The hospital director rushed over, sweating profusely. “Mr. Shaw, bad timing! There was a multi-car pileup last night. All the rare blood type inventory was transferred! Getting more blood will take at least two hours. Miss Luna has lost so much blood, I’m afraid…” “Useless!” Xander kicked over a nearby trash can. Eyes bloodshot, he turned like a trapped beast scanning his surroundings. Finally, his gaze locked onto me. No, to be precise, it locked onto the ICU room behind me. My heart lurched. An unprecedented terror shot up my spine. Aria also had a rare blood type. The same blood type as Luna.

Sophia’s POV Xander walked toward me step by step. The oppressive force was suffocating. “Xander… what do you think you’re doing?” I stepped back, blocking the ICU door. “Move aside.” His voice was hoarse, brooking no argument. “You want to hurt Aria?” I stared at him in disbelief. “She just had major surgery less than a month ago! Her body is so weak-drawing blood could kill her!” “Only 400cc.” Xander stopped in front of me, looking down from his height. “Just 400cc will save her life.” “What about Aria? What happens to Aria?” I screamed. “She’s a vegetable! She has no ability to resist, and you’re going to exploit her like this?!” “She’s a living corpse!” Xander shouted back. “Sophia, wake up! Aria lying in there is just a breathing corpse! But Luna is a living person! She’s only twenty years old. She got hurt at the racetrack trying to save me! I can’t let her die!” “I won’t allow it!” I spread my arms, gripping the doorframe desperately. “Over my dead body will you touch a single hair on her head!” “Sophia!” Xander lost his patience. Behind us, a nurse’s panicked cry came from the operating room. “Patient’s blood pressure dropping! Heartbeat weakening!” The sound was like a death knell. The last trace of hesitation vanished from Xander’s eyes. He waved his hand. Two bodyguards immediately stepped forward. “Pull Mrs. Shaw away.” “Don’t touch me! Get away!” I struggled desperately, sinking my teeth into a bodyguard’s hand. Blood immediately flowed. The bodyguard yelped in pain and instinctively released me. I lunged forward, wrapping my arms around Xander’s legs, kneeling on the ground. “Xander, I’m begging you… I’ll stop making trouble. I’ll sign. I’ll sign the divorce papers right now! I’ll do whatever you say, just please spare Aria… She’s my only family left…” Xander looked down at me. For that instant, a flicker of reluctance crossed his eyes. But immediately, the nurse shouted again. “Mr. Shaw! She’s not going to make it!” That flicker of reluctance was instantly replaced by ruthlessness. “I’m sorry, Sophia.” Xander bent down, prying my fingers away one by one. “I’ll compensate you later.” “I don’t want compensation! I want Aria alive! Xander, you murderer! You’ll face retribution for this!” I screamed until my voice went hoarse. Xander ignored me and kicked the door open. “Doctor! Go in and draw blood! I’ll take responsibility for anything that happens!” The doctors hesitated, but under Xander’s intimidating pressure, they wheeled their equipment into the ICU. I was held back, forced to watch helplessly as the door closed. I saw the doctor roughly disconnect the lines attached to Aria’s body. I saw that thick needle pierce my sister’s emaciated arm. Dark red blood flowed through the tube. They were draining Aria’s life away. I stopped struggling. I collapsed to the floor, staring at the harsh fluorescent lights on the ceiling. My heart died. In that moment, the Sophia who had loved Xander for ten years died completely.

Sophia’s POV The blood draw lasted ten minutes. Those ten minutes felt longer than a century. Xander stood at the door the entire time, his back to me. I couldn’t see his expression. Finally, the doctor emerged with the blood bag. “Mr. Shaw, we have enough blood.” Xander exhaled in relief, immediately following the blood bag toward the operating room. He didn’t even glance back at me collapsed on the floor or at Aria in the room, her fate unknown. Alarms blared inside the ICU. “Patient in shock! Quick! Epinephrine!” Chaos erupted inside. The bodyguards saw Xander leave and released me, withdrawing one by one. I crawled into the hospital room on my hands and knees. Aria’s face was paper-white. The lines on the heart monitor became erratic, then slowly flattened. “Aria… Aria, don’t scare me…” My hands trembled as I touched my sister’s face. Ice cold. “Prepare the defibrillator! Charge to 200 joules!” The doctor attempted a final resuscitation. “Clear!” Aria’s body jerked up, then fell heavily back down. Once. Twice. Three times. Finally, that sharp, continuous tone announced the outcome. The doctor set down the paddles, glanced at the clock, sighed, and removed his mask. “I’m sorry. We did everything we could. The patient’s body was already weak. Acute blood loss caused multiple organ failure… Time of death, 4:32 PM.” The world collapsed in that moment. I didn’t cry. I just stood there quietly, looking at my sister’s face that seemed merely asleep. Seven years. No matter how hard things got, as long as I could see this face, I felt like I still had a home. Now, home was gone. Destroyed by the hands of the man who swore he loved me, who said he’d protect us sisters for life. I slowly bent down, pressing my face against my sister’s cold hand. “Aria, I’m sorry… I’m useless. I brought a wolf into our lives…” “Don’t worry. I won’t let you die in vain.” I straightened up, wiping away every tear from my face. I pulled out my phone and dialed a number I’d saved long ago but never called. The phone was answered quickly. A deep, languid voice with an edge of danger came through. “Well, well. You finally remembered me?” This was Paxton Reed. Once the Winter family’s mortal enemy. Now, he ruled the city’s underworld. He was also the only person who could stand against Xander. A complete lunatic. “Paxton.” My voice was soft. “I want Xander destroyed. I want him to wish he were dead.” “I want to make a deal with you.” Paxton on the other end let out a soft laugh, as if he’d heard something tremendously entertaining. “The price will be steep, Sophia. What do you have to trade?” I looked at the darkening sky outside the window and the lights turning on in the Shaw Corporation building in the distance. “My life, my body, everything I have.” “As long as you can send him to hell, I’ll give you anything.” The other end fell silent for two seconds. Then Paxton’s voice came through with a smile, like a demon signing a contract. “Deal. Stay where you are. I’m coming to get you.” I hung up. I took one last look at my sister on the bed, then turned and walked out of the room. The operating room light at the end of the corridor went out. The last bit of feeling I had for Xander extinguished with it. Xander, from now on, I’m going to make you live in hell.

🌟 Continue the story here 👉🏻 📲 Download the “NovelMaster” app 🔍 search for “372034”, and watch the full series ✨! #NovelMaster #现实主义Realistic #重生Reborn #浪漫Romance

Three years after getting back together with Xavier, he cheated on me again. With the same woman from three years ago. When I ran into them at a restaurant, he lied and told me she was a client. The next moment, he shielded her behind him, looking at me with wariness and alarm. I knew what he feared—that I’d lose it again and hurt the woman he treasured most. But I simply stepped forward, straightened his slightly disheveled tie, and said gently: “Alright, I understand. Don’t drink too much. Remember to use protection during sex.” After a pause, I suddenly felt my concern was unnecessary, so I corrected myself: “Or don’t do it at all. That’s fine too.” I thought I’d been gentle and considerate enough. But somehow, Xavier’s face still darkened. The restaurant was quiet, with conversations deliberately kept low. Only the occasional soft clink of silverware against plates could be heard. The décor was thoughtful—roses everywhere, no other flowers in sight. Naturally, the people dining here were lovers. Or perhaps some were like Xavier. Everyone just tacitly played along, pretending to be affectionate. I acted as if I hadn’t seen Xavier’s darkened expression at all. I gave the woman he was shielding a slight nod, then turned and left. My friend walking beside me asked quietly, “Why aren’t you angry?” Angry? I didn’t seem to feel anything. Maybe I had been angry before, but it hadn’t helped. I’d even paid a heavy price for it. A price I couldn’t afford to pay a second time. I smiled calmly. “Nothing to be angry about. He was just meeting a client.” My friend looked at me in silence, her eyes filled with complex emotions. I knew what she was thinking. But I couldn’t tell her this was the first lesson Xavier had taught me: Learn to turn a blind eye to his affairs. When dinner ended, Xavier was waiting at the restaurant entrance in his car. I looked at my ride-hailing app still showing a queue, so I didn’t refuse. I opened the back door and got in. As expected, someone was sitting in the passenger seat. She turned around and smiled at me with a mixture of restraint and smugness. “Sorry, Mrs. Harper. I get carsick.” “Xavier took pity on me and let me sit here. There’s no other meaning to it—don’t misunderstand.” Xavier opened the door and got into the driver’s seat, explaining casually: “It’s just a seat. If you mind, I’ll have Bridget switch with you.” I nodded gently, still considerate. “It’s fine. I understand.” “I have motion sickness patches. Would you like one, Miss Sullivan? It might help.” Bridget said nothing. Xavier fell silent too. The car became quiet in an instant. It had started raining outside at some point. It looked cold. My friend sent me a message asking if I’d gotten a ride and whether she should come pick me up. I looked down to reply, not noticing Xavier gripping the steering wheel tightly. After a long while, he finally started the car before the rain got heavier. Bridget spoke again. “Drop Mrs. Harper off first. She lives closer.” At that, Xavier and I spoke almost simultaneously: “That works.” “No need.” I froze, then understood Xavier’s intention and quickly added: “Actually, it’s so late now, and it’s pouring rain. Going back and forth would be too much trouble.” “Why don’t you stay over? I just messaged the housekeeper and asked her to prepare both the master bedroom and guest room…” Before I could finish, Xavier suddenly hit the brakes hard. The tires screeched against the pavement. My forehead slammed into the back of the passenger seat. Before I could process the pain, I heard Xavier say coldly, “Get out!” I realized I’d misread his intentions again, so I shut my mouth. I quickly pulled out my folding umbrella from my bag, opened the car door, and got out. The rain was heavy—the small umbrella couldn’t shield much. I was quickly soaked through. Xavier drove past me, and the splash from puddles soaked my pants even more. I looked down at them briefly. When I looked up again, even the exhaust fumes were gone. In the end, I had no choice but to shamelessly message my friend and ask her to pick me up. She arrived quickly. Looking at me drenched, her eyes filled with exasperation. “You deserve this!” I forced a smile. “Clara, thank you.” “I know you mean well, but I can’t help it. I can’t leave him.” It wasn’t that my feelings wouldn’t allow me to leave him. It was reality that trapped me.

When I finished showering and came out of the bathroom, Xavier was back. He sat on the sofa with his head down, smoking—he’d probably been at it for a while, as the living room was filled with smoke. I paused while drying my hair, suddenly feeling this scene overlapped with three years ago. That was the day before our divorce. He smoked one cigarette after another until they nearly filled the entire ashtray. Finally, through the swirling smoke, he handed me the divorce papers with a cold, resolute expression. I walked forward somewhat stiffly, smiled, and took the cigarette from his mouth. “Stop smoking. It’s bad for your health.” Xavier looked up, his eyes filled with emotions I couldn’t read. I forced a smile. “Don’t worry, I haven’t misunderstood anything about you and Bridget.” “If you say she’s a client, then she’s a client.” “You already had plans with her. It was right to let her sit in your passenger seat and drive her home. I was the unexpected one.” “Don’t worry. I won’t cause trouble for her.” I was considerate and understanding, thinking from Xavier’s perspective. But somehow, Xavier still wasn’t happy. His lips pressed into a line, his expression dark. I grew anxious, almost panicked, telling him, “If you want to bring Miss Sullivan back here, I don’t mind either.” “If she finds me bothersome, I can move out too…” “Enough!” Xavier suddenly snapped, cutting off the rest of my words. He gripped my hand tightly, his eyes bloodshot as he looked at me: “If you’re so gentle and considerate, why don’t you just give up your position as Mrs. Harper!” I bit my lip, enduring the pain in my wrist, and looked at Xavier. “Then would you stop paying for my mother’s medication?” Xavier’s eyes widened. Not getting an answer, I asked again, unwilling to give up. “If I give up this position, will you still cover my mother’s medical expenses?” “Xavier, I can give it up—as long as you keep paying for my mother’s medication. Will you?” Xavier’s pupils contracted sharply. He suddenly flung my hand away and stood up from the sofa with a violent motion. He stared at me intently, not missing any expression on my face. I wasn’t lying. It was all true. I could give my position to Bridget. Really. Xavier seemed to see something in my face. He laughed bitterly. “And you say you haven’t misunderstood?” He came over again, took my hand, and rubbed the spot he’d just gripped red: “Bridget is just my client. I’m not lying to you. Really.” “Vienna, don’t be jealous for no reason. It’s annoying. You know I’m not in the mood to humor you.” I looked down at the spot he’d rubbed, wanting to say I wasn’t jealous. But it seemed pointless. So I didn’t argue. I simply nodded along with what Xavier said. “Okay. I understand.”

After that day, Xavier seemed like a different person. He suddenly stopped going anywhere, leaving late and returning early. In the mornings, he’d have me walk him to the entrance. After putting on his shoes, he’d turn back to kiss my forehead. At night, he’d bring me flowers—sometimes pansies, sometimes irises… Different ones every day. Then he’d kiss the corner of my lips and tell me: “Today, I missed you very much.” But the man who said he missed me spent his days shopping with Bridget and going to hot springs. He pretended affection, and I pretended affection too. Neither of us asked or spoke about it. Until Xavier’s mother’s birthday. Xavier said he wanted to take me back home to celebrate. I agreed. When he came to pick me up that evening, the passenger seat was already occupied. It was Bridget. She smiled at me without a trace of guilt. “Sorry, Mrs. Harper. I get a little carsick.” Was this Xavier testing me? I smiled and nodded, unbothered. “It’s fine. Carsickness is uncomfortable. I understand.” As I pulled open the back door to get in, Xavier got out of the car. He opened the passenger door and looked at Bridget. “Get out.” Bridget’s face changed. She forced a smile. “Mr. Harper, I…” Xavier held the door with a cold expression. “Don’t make me drag you out myself.” Bridget’s face looked even worse. The atmosphere grew tense. Just as I was about to break the awkward silence, Xavier pulled Bridget out. “Either sit in the back or get your own ride.” He didn’t look at Bridget’s expression. He simply helped me into the passenger seat. I felt conflicted, but I knew this wasn’t the time to defy Xavier. So I said nothing. Bridget didn’t call her own ride. She sat in the back. After the car started, Xavier handed me a gift box and explained simply, “For my mother. You give it to her.” I made a soft sound of agreement. Before I could speak, Bridget spoke first: “It’s an emerald necklace. I took Mr. Harper shopping for it. It’s beautiful, isn’t it?” I touched the gift box and smiled gently. “Yes, it really is beautiful.” See—the man who said he missed me. His body was always somewhere else. How could I dare believe him?

Xavier’s mother didn’t have a big celebration for her birthday—just a few family members. She really liked Bridget, finding her articulate and charming. I heard that when Xavier and I divorced the first time, she’d strongly tried to set him up with Bridget. But Xavier hadn’t agreed. Perhaps he found sneaking around more exciting. Today was the same. Xavier walked past me and took Bridget’s hand directly. “I’ve been waiting for you.” “Bridget, you don’t visit often. Without you here, I don’t even have anyone to share my thoughts with.” She took Bridget’s hand and had her sit beside her. She didn’t look at me once the entire time. I was used to it. I calmly placed the gift on the table. “From Xavier. Miss Sullivan chose it.” Xavier’s mother, who hadn’t even glanced at me, surprisingly looked my way. After a moment, she picked up the gift box to look, then had Bridget help her put it on. “You have such good taste.” “Unlike some people—no taste and no tact either.” “So unpleasant to look at.” If this were before, I definitely couldn’t have tolerated it and would’ve left. But now, I just stood to the side, listening quietly, reacting no more than a corpse. Xavier frowned, suddenly feeling something was off. It seemed that ever since Vienna had run into him and Bridget at the restaurant, she’d been like this. Too calm. Or rather… indifferent. For the first time— Xavier got drunk in his own home. He didn’t know why, but his mind kept replaying Vienna standing to the side, head down, silent, seemingly indifferent to everything. Was she… really indifferent? Xavier drank even more. Unable to go back, he could only stay the night at the family estate. Bridget stayed over too. In the room right next to mine and Xavier’s. A deliberate arrangement. I understood Xavier’s mother’s intention. So that night, when Xavier, using alcohol as an excuse, pinned me down to kiss me, I pushed him away. I straightened his collar and smiled. “Wait a moment.” Then I went out and called Bridget over. Under Bridget’s shocked gaze, I closed the door for her and Xavier. Then I drove away from the Harper family estate. Ten minutes later, I received a call from Xavier. He suppressed his voice and asked, “What do you mean by this?” I looked at the road illuminated by headlights and said softly: “Last time you got drunk holding me, you called Miss Sullivan’s name all night. I assumed it would be the same this time.” Xavier roared into the phone, “I didn’t call her name this time!” My tone remained gentle. “I know. But what if you did halfway through? I was thinking of you.”

🌟 Continue the story here 👉🏻 📲 Download the “NovelMaster” app 🔍 search for “372035”, and watch the full series ✨! #NovelMaster #现实主义Realistic #重生Reborn #浪漫Romance

Thirty years into our childfree marriage, my husband’s twenty-eight-year-old illegitimate son showed up at our door. It was the second year since the law granted illegitimate children legal inheritance rights. His purpose for coming was glaringly obvious. I asked my husband what his plan was. His eyes darted around, and he stammered out excuses. First, he claimed we were getting older and needed someone to look after us. Second, he argued that the boy was, after all, his own flesh and blood. Seeing that I remained stubbornly silent, he closed his eyes and played his trump card: “If you had a child out there, you could bring them home too, and they could inherit our assets in the future.” We had been together for thirty years, never spending more than a year apart. He was absolutely certain it was impossible for me to have a secret child. But if he was going to put it like that, then I guess I didn’t need to feel guilty anymore. An illegitimate child? Did he really think I didn’t have any? Not only did I have them, I had more than him! 1 When the young man showed up at my door claiming he was looking for his biological father, my brain short-circuited for a second. Then, naturally, I told him, “You have the wrong house.” My husband and I had agreed to be childfree before we even got married. How could we possibly have a child? The polite smile remained plastered on the young man’s face. His gaze bypassed me, landing squarely on something behind me. His voice rang out, laced with pleasant surprise: “Uncle Thomas… No, Dad—” Dad? I followed his gaze, turning around stiffly, and saw my husband, Thomas Sterling, standing in the living room, watching us. He looked back at us, his face a complex mix of guilt he couldn’t hide. His eyes darted nervously, refusing to meet mine. A bone-chilling cold spread through my entire body. In that moment, what else was there to understand? The three of us sat on the living room sofa. Thomas and the young man exchanged glances multiple times, communicating silently through the air. They were clearly already very familiar with each other. They must have met privately plenty of times. I was the only stranger in the room. I remained silent. Thirty years of marriage. A husband who insisted on a childfree life before we even tied the knot now had a twenty-eight-year-old illegitimate son. I didn’t know what expression to wear or how to even begin processing my emotions. We were both nearing sixty, having just retired from our jobs, holding onto the life savings we had worked so hard for decades to accumulate. And this was the second year since the law had officially granted illegitimate children legal inheritance rights. The young man’s intention in showing up now was crystal clear. 2 Since it was already out in the open, Thomas had no choice but to endlessly apologize and explain. His excuses were pathetic, boiling down to one tired cliché: a drunken mistake in his youth. What a load of crap. Setting aside the fact that Thomas was famous in his youth for his high alcohol tolerance… even if he were blackout drunk, could he really have performed? After thirty years together, the man sitting in front of me, his hair more than half gray, suddenly felt like a complete stranger. I looked at them and asked the first question since Liam walked through the door: “Why didn’t your mother come?” Liam twitched the corner of his mouth. The look he gave me screamed, I knew you’d ask that. “Mrs. Sterling, my mom is very busy. She’s traveling with some friends right now and didn’t have time to come.” I narrowed my eyes slightly, taking a hard look at the young man who shared a striking resemblance to Thomas. I had, after all, lived twenty-odd years longer than him; I wasn’t deaf to the passive-aggressive undertone in his voice. He held his chin slightly high, an arrogant air seeping through his casual demeanor. Just an illegitimate bastard, and he actually thought he had the right to feel superior in front of me? I let out a cold scoff: “So, your mother raised you all these years without ever trying to find your father. And now, she sends you looking for him. What, can she not afford to keep you anymore?” Liam’s face darkened. But before he could even respond, Thomas was already barking at me: “Stella!” I glared at him coldly. He still didn’t have the guts to meet my eyes, just muttering under his breath that even if I was angry, I shouldn’t take it out on the kid. The kid was innocent; he didn’t know anything. Innocent? Of course he wasn’t innocent. As an illegitimate child, his very existence was the original sin in this marriage. Liam didn’t stay long. He only came to deliver a message: he had a girlfriend and wanted to get married, but his current apartment was too small for a married couple. He wanted to move in with us. After all, the penthouse Thomas and I currently lived in was over three thousand square feet. What kind of fever dream was he having? I didn’t bust my ass for half my life just to hand everything over to someone else. I immediately vetoed the idea, but Thomas just kept his head down and stayed silent. As Liam was leaving, he shot me a smirk that didn’t quite reach his eyes. Thomas had already done a DNA test with him. Even as an illegitimate son, his right to inherit was set in stone. I could block him for now, but I couldn’t block him forever. 3 After Liam left, Thomas and I sat in the living room in deafening silence. What’s done was done. Whatever we said now felt pale and powerless. After weighing the pros and cons repeatedly, I suppressed the urge to scream and asked Thomas: “What is your plan?” Thomas stammered for a long time before finally saying: “Stella, we’re both getting older. Our bodies aren’t as strong as they used to be. If we had someone around to take care of us, it would be…” I cut him off: “Save the bullshit. I will never accept him.” The kid is his, not mine. Having him “take care” of me? Does he think I want to be suffocated in my sleep? Liam looked at me with nothing but hostility. I’m not blind; I could see it perfectly well. It wasn’t that I hadn’t considered divorce. But a divorce meant Thomas would get half of our marital assets. Those assets were the result of our combined efforts over more than half a lifetime. Even if it was only half, I refused to let it fall into the hands of someone like Liam. Thomas’s expression shifted several times, eventually suppressing his temper. He rambled on, the gist of it being that what happened happened, Liam carries the Sterling bloodline, and it’s impossible for him not to acknowledge his own son. It’s not like the Sterling family has a royal throne to pass down. “Only bloodline,” my ass. Seeing that my expression remained stone-cold, Thomas finally gritted his teeth and played his trump card: “Stella, if you had a child out there, you could bring them home too, and they could inherit our assets in the future alongside Liam.” He dared to say this because, in our thirty years together, we had never spent more than a year apart. He was absolutely certain I couldn’t possibly have a secret child. Furthermore, I was fifty-seven years old. I was no longer capable of having children. They had planned this perfectly. Waiting until now to show up at my door was probably because they were afraid I might have changed my mind about being childfree earlier on. But who can really say for sure when it comes to secret children? Seeing my face darken, Thomas softened his tone to comfort me: “Stella, I admit I made a small mistake in my youth and wronged you. But we’ve weathered thirty years of storms together. How many years do we even have left? Besides, at our age, it’s impossible to raise a child from scratch anyway. Liam has half my blood; his character can’t be that bad…” Perhaps he didn’t even realize the smug, triumphant look plastered on his own face. Back then, he was the one who suggested being childfree. He said he didn’t like kids, even claimed he had a physiological aversion to them. I happened to dislike kids too, so we reached a childfree consensus. Now, he had stabbed me in the back, only to turn around and mock me: Who told you to be so stupid and not guard against me? 4 Three days. Thomas only managed to play the part of the apologetic, submissive husband for three days. After that, he brazenly started contacting Liam right in front of me. Voice memos, FaceTimes, phone calls—the once quiet living room was now constantly filled with their laughter. Over the past two days, Thomas even suggested changing Liam’s last name to Sterling. I ignored him, coldly watching his smug display. Scum are excellent at camouflaging themselves, often hiding for long periods. But someone like Thomas, who could keep up the act for thirty years? That was truly rare. I was nearing sixty. The drive I had in my youth had long since faded. I lacked the courage to start over completely. Moreover, the assets Thomas and I had built up over our youth were mostly liquidated and tied up in investments. Stripping him of everything wouldn’t be easy. My passive attitude made Thomas believe that bringing Liam into the family was a done deal. After all, the fact that Liam was his biological son was undeniable, recognized even by law. I was too exhausted to look at Thomas’s face anymore. I decided to take a trip with my best friend, Chloe, for a few days to clear my head. Thomas considerately packed my luggage for me. Before I left, he chuckled and offered some advice: “Stella, at our age, there are many things we’re powerless to change. The best approach is just to let it go.” Chloe took my suitcase from his hands, smiling even brighter than him: “Thomas, it’s exactly because of that attitude of yours that Stella and I never have to worry when we go out and have fun.” Thomas didn’t catch Chloe’s underlying sarcasm. He assumed I hadn’t told her about his illegitimate son and thought she was complimenting him. The car door closed, and Thomas’s figure gradually shrank in the rearview mirror. I turned to Chloe and asked, “Are the kids back?” Chloe nodded. “They all got back last night. They’re waiting for you at home right now.” I didn’t say anything else, wearily pinching the bridge of my nose. My left hand, resting by my side, was suddenly enveloped in a warm grasp. I looked down. Chloe was only a year younger than me, but the wrinkles on the back of her hand were just as pronounced as mine. I sighed silently and gently squeezed her hand back. 5 I was gone for five days. For those five days, I cut off all contact with Thomas. When I finally came back and unlocked the front door, the first thing to rush out was a mixed-breed dog I didn’t recognize. The dog barked furiously at me from inside my own home. A strange woman’s voice drifted from the living room: “Daisy, what are you barking at? Is a guest here—” The woman walking toward the entryway swallowed the rest of her sentence the moment she saw me. It was obvious she knew who I was. And in this house, she was the “guest.” An incredibly unwelcome guest. The woman looked about my age. She wore a light pink dress, had permed, voluminous hair, and her face was caked in a thick layer of foundation that settled deeply into her laugh lines. She looked meticulously put together, yet incredibly tacky. Our eyes met. My expression was hostile. Even though I already guessed who she was, I demanded with an interrogating tone: “Who are you? And what are you doing in my house?” A flicker of panic crossed the woman’s face for just a second before she quickly composed herself. She offered a less-than-friendly smile: “You must be Stella, right? I’m Rachel.” Rachel. Liam’s mother. Another voice echoed from inside: “Mom, who is it?” Liam and Thomas appeared behind Rachel simultaneously. Hah. A family of three. How perfect. Thomas was clearly guilty. He stammered, asking why I didn’t tell him I was coming back early. I sneered: “If I told you early, would I have been able to catch this wonderful little show?” It wasn’t until I walked into the living room that I realized it wasn’t a family of three, but a family of four. Liam’s girlfriend was half-lying on the sofa, playing on her phone with her feet propped up on the coffee table. Hearing people come in, she merely glanced up before looking back down at her screen. The audacity to bring his old flame and his bastard son into my home. Thomas had pushed me too far! 6 I slammed my luggage heavily onto the table. The girl on the sofa quickly pulled her feet down and shot me a dirty look. Liam, playing the loyal lapdog, wasn’t going to stand for that. He yelled at me: “Couldn’t you put that down a little more quietly?” I didn’t even give him the time of day: “This is my house. I’ll do whatever the hell I want. What does it have to do with an outsider like you?!” “This is my dad’s house too,” Liam scoffed coldly. He tilted his chin up, looking down his nose at me with a bizarre sense of superiority. “Aunt Stella, at your age, you should be looking for someone to rely on. I think you better start treating me with a little more respect.” I glanced at him, searing his arrogant face into my memory. Rachel stood next to Thomas, smiling tightly with her lips pressed together. Mhm. Like an aging white lotus. I ignored them and jutted my chin toward Thomas, keeping my voice as flat as possible: “Thomas, sit down. We need to talk.” Thomas instinctively looked at Rachel and Liam. Rachel let out a soft hmph and, without bothering to hide her entitlement, sat directly on the sofa across from me. Liam sat down next to her, staring at me with open hostility. They really had no idea what their actual status was here. But of course, that was quietly encouraged by Thomas. Thomas looked at them, then at me, and finally sat down on Rachel’s other side. They flanked Rachel, one on the left, one on the right, protecting her. It made me look like the wicked villain trying to bully poor Rachel. I couldn’t be bothered to waste time on pleasantries and cut straight to the chase: “Thomas, you know exactly how much money we’ve saved up over the years, right?” As soon as those words left my mouth, everyone’s eyes locked onto Thomas. Even the girl playing games on the sofa turned the volume all the way down and quietly pricked up her ears. A bizarre, tense silence fell over the living room. Thomas looked at me for a long moment before finally nodding: “I know.” All our savings were in a single bank account. The PIN was six digits long. I only knew the first three digits, and Thomas knew the last three. When we were young, Thomas and I were terrible with money. We didn’t combine our finances initially. Then Thomas got seriously ill, and we realized that combining our balances wasn’t even enough to cover the surgery. That was when we finally understood the importance of money and started planning to save. To prevent the other from slipping back into bad spending habits, we came up with this method. In front of everyone, I pulled the debit card out of my purse and placed it on the table. “There’s $2.24 million on this card.” Hearing that balance, nobody reacted—except for the girl on the sofa. It seemed Thomas had already told them. Thomas rubbed his hands together and offered an awkward smile: “Stella, uh, about Liam’s wedding… I’ve done the math. A million should be enough to cover—” He didn’t even get to finish his sentence before Rachel cut him off: “Thomas, you just don’t understand the market these days. Based on current trends, what you’re talking about—the banquet, the ring, the bridal jewelry, the photoshoot… We have to do this right, a million isn’t going to cut it…” The girl who had been lounging on the sofa was now sitting up ramrod straight, her restless feet planted firmly on the floor. She nodded eagerly along with Rachel’s words: “Auntie is absolutely right. Liam, when my best friend got married last year, the groom’s family gave them $660,000 just for the engagement gift. I shouldn’t get any less than her, right?” Liam shifted closer to her and affectionately stroked her hair: “Don’t worry, you won’t get any less than her, right, Dad?” The ball was tossed back to Thomas. He didn’t answer Liam directly, but stole a cautious glance at me: “Stella, a wedding only happens once in a lifetime. What do you think…” “Let me finish speaking.” I unlocked my phone and opened the calculator app. “We still have five years left on the mortgage. The monthly payment is $8,000. If we want to pay it off in one lump sum, we need $500,000.” It was a 3,000-square-foot penthouse. We bought it early on when prices were still around $1,000 a square foot. We had paid off fifteen years of a twenty-year mortgage. The only reason we hadn’t paid it off early was that the interest was basically paid up. Based on our current savings, paying off the remaining five years wouldn’t be a strain at all. Before Thomas could say anything, Rachel frowned: “If you calculate it like that, there’s only about $1.7 million left. That’s barely enough to cover Liam’s wedding.” Liam chimed in on cue: “Dad, the mortgage obviously needs to be paid off first. Katie and I barely make enough to cover our own monthly expenses; we definitely can’t help with that.” I looked up from my phone screen, taking in their greedy faces one by one, and slowly smiled: “What are you all dreaming about? Do you really think that $1.7 million has much of a share for you?” Their faces instantly darkened. The furrow between Thomas’s brows was deep enough to crush a fly: “Stella, I thought you had come to terms with this? Why are you saying things like this again? I told you, Liam is my only child—” I raised a hand to stop him: “You only have one child. That’s your business. This is our joint marital property. Naturally, it should be divided equally among our children.” Before Thomas could even process what I had just said, I made a phone call: “Bring the kids in.”

🌟 Continue the story here 👉🏻 📲 Download the “MotoNovel” app 🔍 search for “394994”, and watch the full series ✨! #MotoNovel

At my pre-wedding party, my fiancé’s “girl best friend” leaned against his chest and openly mocked me in front of everyone: “Sister-in-law, I heard your mom was a homewrecker who slept her way to the top. I also heard you used to be a high-end escort, and you only latched onto our Carter after your last sugar daddy dumped you?” Amidst the roaring laughter of the crowd, I backhanded a whiskey bottle against the table, grabbed the jagged glass, and pressed it right against the corner of her mouth. “I was born petty. Whoever dares to throw dirty water on me, I will rip the roof off their house and hang them from the city walls for everyone to see.” They called me a psycho. They said I couldn’t take a joke. I just smiled, pulled out an unlimited Black Amex card, and set up a little betting game. That very night, I ripped the hypocritical, innocent mask right off that “sweet childhood sweetheart.” Everyone thought that was the end of it. Until the day of our Wedding of the Century, when every billboard and screen in the city broadcasted a live feed— That “pure and untouchable” Ivy Thorne was starring in a sickeningly explicit, X-rated scene with my fiancé and his groomsmen. Holding the microphone, I stood amidst the shocked gasps of the entire venue and elegantly announced, “The wedding is canceled.” My fiancé, looking like a stray dog, lunged at me and roared, “Sloane! You toxic bitch! What did you do to Ivy?!” I looked at him like he was a complete joke. “Don’t panic. This is just the appetizer.” “Everything you’ve forced upon me, I will collect back with interest. I’ll make you pay in blood, one piece at a time.” Chapter 1 I was born petty. Whoever dares to throw dirty water on me, I will make sure their entire family never knows a day of peace. When I was a kid, a neighborhood Karen falsely accused me of stealing her packages. I literally hired a crew to rip the roof off her house in the middle of the night. When I started working, a coworker started a rumor that I was sleeping my way up the corporate ladder. I hacked the AV system at the company’s annual gala and played a security video of her and the regional manager getting busy in the supply closet on an endless loop. Gradually, no one dared to mess with me. They all said I was an unhinged, vengeful psycho—until my family arranged a marriage for me. At the pre-wedding party, his “girl best friend” leaned against his chest and smirked at me: “Sister-in-law, I heard your mom was a homewrecker who slept her way to the top. I also heard you used to be a high-end escort, and you only latched onto our Carter after your last sugar daddy dumped you?” Carter Sterling’s friends immediately erupted into laughter, waiting to see me make a fool of myself. I grabbed a whiskey bottle, smashed it against the edge of the table, and pressed the jagged glass right against her lips. “Carter, you have so many friends. I’m sure losing this one won’t matter to you, right?” … Carter’s face instantly darkened. He forcefully swatted my hand away. “Sloane, what crazy stunt are you pulling now?!” “Ivy was just making a joke. Do you really have to take it this far?” The frat boys behind him immediately chimed in. “Yeah, sister-in-law, do you know who Carter is? Your family hit the jackpot marrying into the Sterlings. You really can’t take a simple joke?” “Ivy is our girl, we grew up together. You threatening her like this shows you really don’t know your place.” I actually laughed. I picked up a shard of broken glass from the floor and twirled it between my fingertips. “You see, I’ve never had much of a sense of humor since I was a kid. I don’t understand ‘jokes’.” “So whoever jokes with me, I treat them like a joke.” I looked at Ivy Thorne’s provocative face: “For example, if someone starts a rumor that my mother was a homewrecker, I have every reason to suspect that her mother was the actual homewrecker.” “And that makes her a dirty little affair baby, doesn’t it?” Ivy’s body went completely rigid, and tears instantly spilled from her eyes. Seeing her look so pitiful, Carter grabbed my wrist: “Sloane Kensington, you apologize to Ivy right now!” “Where do you get the nerve to say something like that? Ivy’s father died saving my father’s life! The Sterling family taking care of her is the absolute least we can do!” “If you spout any more of this garbage, I’ll have you thrown out!” Ivy hid behind him, looking like a kicked puppy: “Carter, don’t blame her. Maybe I said the wrong thing… Sister-in-law, I’m so sorry. I shouldn’t have made that kind of joke.” The surrounding friends immediately started criticizing me. “Ivy already apologized, what more do you want, Sloane? Besides, she isn’t even wrong. We’ve seen you getting out of different men’s cars more than once.” “If you’re marrying Carter, shouldn’t you wrap up your little ‘side hustles’? Getting aggressive over a joke… if you’re going to be a buzzkill, you shouldn’t have come tonight.” I was genuinely amused by this pack of idiots. Before coming here, my dad had earnestly told me that the Sterlings were crucial business partners, and this marriage would benefit both our corporate empires. But I’ve known since I was a little girl that tears and compromise are the most useless things in this world. The only way to avoid being bullied is to be crazier and more ruthless than they are. Whoever dares to take a bite out of me, I will smash every tooth in their mouth. I slowly opened my hand, letting the glass shard fall from my palm. “You know what, you guys are right. Getting mad over a little thing like this does make me a buzzkill.” Smug, I-knew-it expressions washed over their faces. Carter’s expression softened slightly, and he opened his mouth, likely to say something condescending. I cut him off immediately: “However… if we’re talking about playing games, I’m the best there is.” “You want to play? Bring it on. Let’s keep going.” I looked around the circle of trust-fund babies who were thrilled by the drama. I grabbed a large glass and poured seven or eight different types of hard liquor into it. “Whoever loses drinks this whole glass, then has to answer one question from the winner. It has to be the absolute truth.” “If you dare to lie, or if you’re too scared to answer, you drink three more glasses.” One of the guys scoffed. “Sloane, games are fine, but it’s boring without any stakes.” I swirled the murky liquor in the glass, my smile deepening. I pulled out a sleek Black Amex card and slapped it onto the table. “Whoever can make me drink a single glass tonight gets this card. No limit.” Instantly, the entire room went dead silent. Carter’s face turned livid. “Sloane, is this enough? You think just because the Kensingtons have money, you can humiliate people?” I ignored him and stared dead at Ivy. “What, too scared to play? Weren’t you so good at ‘joking’ just a minute ago?” “Ivy, you’re up first.” Ivy’s eyes practically glowed with greed staring at that Black Card. She grabbed the dice cup and shook it. When it was my turn, I didn’t even look before I lifted the cup. Six sixes. After a pale-faced Ivy realized she lost, I spoke without hesitation: “Truth: Did your mother marry your father before or after you were born?” Ivy began to tremble uncontrollably. “I… I pick Dare!” I nodded and slid the glass of repulsive liquor toward her. “If you don’t have the guts to admit the truth, that’s fine. Chug this, then call your mom on speakerphone and scream that Ivy Thorne’s mother is the real homewrecker.” Ivy instantly broke down in tears. “Carter! No! I don’t want to play anymore!” Tch. Boring. She had the nerve to bark at me? I stripped her fake skin off in two seconds. Carter exploded. He shoved me back hard: “Sloane, is that enough?! Ivy is a girl, how could you treat her like this!” I genuinely laughed out loud. An idiot like Carter couldn’t even identify the most basic, entry-level manipulative pick-me girl. “When she was spreading rumors about my mother and insulting me, why didn’t you remind everyone she was just a ‘girl’?” I stepped into his personal space, forcing him back: “Carter, you protect her so fiercely, people might start thinking she’s the mistress you’re keeping on the side.” “Is she your ‘best friend,’ or just a friend you can sleep with casually?” Carter was thoroughly enraged. He raised his hand, ready to slap me. I didn’t dodge. I just looked up at him. “Hit me.” “Let everyone see how the young master of the Sterling family beats his fiancée over a mistress’s daughter.” “Should I call your dad right now and tell him tomorrow’s wedding is off?” I pulled out my phone, pretending to dial Mr. Sterling’s number. Carter panicked, snatched the phone from my hand, and smashed it violently onto the floor. “Sloane, you are completely unreasonable!” “Tomorrow is our wedding. You better spend tonight reflecting on what you did wrong. Don’t you dare embarrass me at the altar tomorrow!” He wrapped his arm around a sobbing Ivy and stormed out. His friends threw a few mocking comments my way and scattered. I looked at the mess on the floor and slowly smiled. I’m going to embarrass you? Alright. Let’s see who ends up embarrassed tomorrow! I went home, pulled out my backup phone, and dialed a number: “Run a background check on Ivy Thorne, and that father of hers who supposedly died saving Carter’s dad.” “I want to know absolutely everything about their family. The dirtier, the better.” The person on the other end chuckled. “Boss lady, it’s the night before your wedding. You sure you want to play this big?” “Cut the crap. Before morning, I want every single file in my inbox.” I hung up and looked at my cold reflection in the mirror. Carter Sterling. Ivy Thorne. You thought this was over? I was born a survivor. Since you dared to throw dirty water on me… I’m going to boil that water with your blood, and burn you both alive in it. The next day, the Wedding of the Century between the Sterling and Kensington families was the talk of the city. My dad whispered to me: “Sloane, keep your temper in check. Today is your big day.” “If you really don’t like Carter, just keep him around as a pretty face to serve you. At the end of the day, our family holds the real power in this merger.” I smiled slightly but didn’t say anything. My temper has never been something I could just ‘keep in check’ simply because I wanted to. As soon as I walked into the bridal suite, my phone rang. I answered it, only to hear Ivy’s tearful, victimized voice. I instantly realized what was happening. I swiftly connected my phone’s Bluetooth to the venue’s main PA system. The guests in the grand hall froze as the following audio blasted through the speakers. “Carter, it’s all my fault. If you hadn’t comforted me yesterday, we wouldn’t have done something so crazy and slept together.” “But you’re getting married today. You gave your first time to me… What if Sloane finds out and ruins the wedding?” Then, Carter’s voice echoed through the hall: “It’s not your fault. If Sloane hadn’t provoked you, that accident never would have happened between us.” “If you get pregnant, keep the baby. I’ll take care of both of you.” I leisurely walked out onto the stage and took a microphone. “My apologies, everyone. Thanks for bearing with the entertainment.” “It seems my fiancé has some ‘friendly’ business to take care of before the ceremony can begin.” Mr. and Mrs. Sterling turned green. They roared toward the backstage area: “Carter, you piece of trash! Get out here right now!” Carter quickly emerged from the VIP lounge. Mr. Sterling marched up and slapped him hard across the face. “Apologize to Sloane! If you can’t get her to forgive you today, you are no longer my son!” Upon realizing that their conversation had been broadcasted, Carter glared at me with pure hatred. But intimidated by his father’s wrath, he reluctantly offered an apology: “I’m sorry, Sloane. What happened with Ivy was a mistake. I swear to you, I will never see her again!” He stared at me with venom in his eyes. I returned his gaze with a breezy, unbothered smile. Trying to play me? You’re out of your league. But there was truly no need for this marriage anymore. I have no interest in keeping a dirty man. Just as I was about to speak, a photo was sent to my phone. I tapped it open, and the color instantly drained from my face. I froze in place. The photo showed my mother, bound with thick ropes, dangling over the edge of a skyscraper roof! My phone rang immediately. I answered it in a panic. “Sloane, want your mother to live?” “Come up to the rooftop alone. If you try anything smart, I’ll drop her off the edge.” The call disconnected. I sprinted toward the top floor like a madwoman. Whoever dared to touch my mother would have their entire bloodline buried with her! But the moment I pushed open the rooftop door, several figures lunged at me and pinned me to the concrete. Ivy’s face hovered above mine, a manic, twisted smile stretching across her lips. “Sloane, didn’t you say you like playing games?” “You dared to ruin things between me and Carter. Today, I’m going to play with you until you break!” “I’m going to let everyone see what the high-and-mighty Miss Kensington looks like stripped naked, panting like a bitch underneath a bunch of men.” Carter’s groomsmen surrounded us, their faces twisted with malicious glee. “Sloane, weren’t you acting so tough before? Let’s see you act tough now.” “By the time we’re done making you feel good, I guarantee you’ll be taking a detour every time you see us.” Ivy crouched down and slapped me hard across the cheek: “Sloane, I’m going to livestream every filthy second of this. I want all your high-society friends to admire your performance.” “Do you think your dad will thank us, or will he throw you in the river for bringing him such shame?” Ivy laughed triumphantly, forcing a handful of pills into my mouth. As my body began to burn and my face flushed crimson… She excitedly slapped my cheeks: “Why so quiet? Where’s that heiress temper of yours?” “Beg me. Get on your knees and beg me right now, and maybe I’ll tell them to be gentle.” She leaned in close to my ear: “But once we’re done playing with you, it’ll be time to livestream that old bitch you call a mother.” “Do you think everyone will enjoy watching a mother-daughter relay special?” I looked over at my mother, who was tied up and struggling desperately. Then, my violently trembling body completely lost control, and I began to laugh. One of the men kicked me impatiently. “What the hell are you laughing at?” I was laughing because it was funny. It was hilarious. Ivy was knocking on death’s door and was entirely oblivious. Just then, the Wedding March began playing from the banquet hall downstairs. “And now, please put your hands together to welcome the bride and groom!” The music played on. After the applause died down, a long, awkward silence followed. I don’t know how much time passed. The murmurs downstairs grew louder. “The groom has been waiting forever, where is the bride?” “I don’t know, she was just here. Do you think she got cold feet?” The next second, someone gasped: “Look! The main screen!”

🌟 Continue the story here 👉🏻 📲 Download the “MotoNovel” app 🔍 search for “395010”, and watch the full series ✨! #MotoNovel

Chapter 1 Right before the end of the year, I lost my job. I was scrolling through an online forum looking for work when I stumbled upon a thread: [What’s the fastest way for a girl to make money?] There was a highly upvoted comment near the top. [Find a sugar daddy, obviously! Mine gives me ten grand a month. He remembers exactly what I like to eat and knows exactly when my period is. His sex drive is just insanely high, he always begs for it and keeps me up all night… but he’s super handsome~] Someone replied: [Where do you even find a sugar daddy like that? Is he single?] She replied: [He has a girlfriend, but he hasn’t touched her in a long time. He told me she just lays there like a dead fish in bed, totally boring.] [As for how we met, he accidentally rear-ended my car while he was on a business trip in Miami this year.] My breath caught in my throat. This March, Arthur Sterling had rear-ended a girl’s car while on a business trip in Miami. My fingertips went ice cold. I kept scrolling down. [Today I just mentioned I wasn’t feeling well, and he ditched his girlfriend to take me purse shopping!] Attached was a photo of two hands with intertwined fingers. On the man’s index finger, there was a fresh, superficial cut. It was in the exact same spot where Arthur had cut his finger while slicing fruit for me this morning. 1 I slammed my phone face-down on my lap, my heart pounding violently against my ribs. I squeezed my eyes shut, telling myself it couldn’t be him. Not the Arthur Sterling who would tuck my freezing feet into his shirt on cold winter nights. Not the Arthur Sterling who remembered every single thing I liked, whose eyes practically glowed whenever he talked about me. We had been together for seven years. Our lives had completely melted into one another. Besides, our engagement party was the day after tomorrow. He had personally designed the invitations. It had to be a coincidence. I took a few deep breaths and opened the top comment again. The replies underneath were a chaotic mix of jealousy and vicious insults. But her responses only grew more and more arrogant. [Why are you all so bitter? His girlfriend takes up the space but doesn’t know how to serve him. She deserves to be tossed aside. Men want passion, not a wooden statue.] [My sugar daddy even used his connections to get his girlfriend fired, just so he could give me her position at the company.] [His girlfriend is unemployed now, so he only gives her five grand a month, but he gives me ten grand~] Every single word felt like a physical stab to the chest. A week ago, I was fired from my job without cause. HR just gave me some vague excuse about “upper management decisions.” I went home and cried in Arthur’s arms, feeling incredibly wronged. He kissed the top of my head and said: “It’s just a job, babe. If it’s gone, it’s gone. From now on, I’ll give you five thousand dollars a month.” “You can just stay home, arrange flowers, and binge-watch Netflix. If you get bored, go shopping or get afternoon tea.” When I told him I didn’t want to be a useless pet he kept around, he just laughed and replied: “I love keeping you. I only want to keep you.” Only want to keep you. The words were still ringing in my ears, but now they made my entire body shiver with cold. My hands trembled as I clicked on “Miss Peach’s” profile. Her latest post. [Day 244 of being spoiled by my man. I casually said this looked pretty, and the next second he was taking it home for me~] The photo showed a man from behind, paying at a luxury checkout counter. When Arthur left the house this morning, he wasn’t wearing that suit. But that silhouette… I could trace it perfectly with my eyes closed. My stomach violently churned. I kept scrolling down. [Day 215 of being spoiled by my man. They’re getting engaged, but I’M the one who designed the invitations! Because I love honeysuckle flowers~ Ta-da, aren’t they gorgeous?] The invitation she posted was completely identical to the one sitting in my desk drawer. When Arthur handed it to me, his eyes were brimming with deep affection. “Honeysuckle. It blooms even through the harshest winter. It symbolizes unwavering loyalty and an unbreakable bond.” Loyalty. Unbreakable bond. How incredibly ironic. [Day 198 of being spoiled by my man. Today is his seven-year anniversary with his girlfriend, but he ditched her to come to the movies with me!] I remembered that day. I took the day off work, cooked all his favorite dishes, ordered a custom cake, bought a gift, and lit expensive aromatherapy candles. All I got was an apologetic phone call. “A crisis came up at the company, babe. I have to handle it. I’ll be home late.” I hadn’t suspected a thing. I even told him to make sure he didn’t work too hard. My fingertips were freezing. I could barely hold onto the phone. I kept scrolling, all the way down to her very first post. [Met my absolute dream guy today! He accidentally scratched my car, but he was so polite and insisted on taking me to the hospital to get checked out… but I think he has a girlfriend. Whatever! Letting a top-tier man like this slip away would be a crime! Operation: Steal the Boyfriend has commenced!] Edited on March 4th, 2025. The exact day Arthur rear-ended that girl’s car. “Urgh—” I sprinted to the bathroom and vomited until the world spun. Tears and snot covered my face. The woman in the mirror had bloodshot eyes. She looked like a complete lunatic. So this was the truth. 244 days. Seven months and twenty-two days. Every single night he was “working late,” “entertaining clients,” or had “an emergency.” Every time my heart ached for how hard he was working… he was in another woman’s bed. Even the job I cherished so much—he personally destroyed it, just for her. And he knew exactly how much that job meant to me! After a long time, I pushed myself up from the floor and took screenshots of every single post. When Arthur finally came home. He was still wearing the suit he left in this morning. He didn’t smell like anything suspicious. He was carrying takeout from the Sichuan seafood place across town. The exact place I had casually mentioned wanting to eat last night. Seeing my red eyes, he quickly walked over and cupped my face. “What’s wrong? Were you watching one of those sad movies again?” Before I could answer, the doorbell rang. He frowned slightly. “Might be the building manager. Let me go check.” When he opened the door, a sweet, playful female voice drifted in. “Hi there, delivery delivery!” The voice sounded exactly like Miss Peach from the videos on her profile. Arthur’s body went completely rigid for a split second. He quickly muttered a “thank you,” shut the door, and walked over holding two cups of bubble tea. “I saw a huge line at that boba place while I was driving past, and I figured you might want some, so I DoorDashed it. I didn’t want the fish to get cold while I waited in line.” His explanation was absolutely flawless. I looked up, staring deeply into his eyes. “Arthur, is there something you’re hiding from me?” 2 Arthur’s hand froze right as he was poking the straw into the cup. Instantly, his expression returned to normal. He smiled, pressing the bubble tea into my hand. He affectionately ruffled my hair. His tone was helpless but full of adoration: “Chloe, have you been watching those ‘test your boyfriend’ TikToks again? Those are all scripted for views.” “Besides, how could I ever hide anything from you…” Before he could finish, his phone buzzed. He glanced at it, immediately pressing the lock button to darken the screen. “You go ahead and eat the fish before it gets cold and gross. I need to take a quick call.” He spoke a little faster than usual, turning and walking into the home office. I looked down at the iced matcha green tea latte in my hand. Condensation from the cup slid onto the back of my hand. It was freezing cold. I am deathly allergic to matcha. He had never, ever forgotten that before. It’s just that right now, he had much more important things on his mind. A short while later, he walked out of the office, wearing that familiar, apologetic look. It was the exact same look he wore every time he needed to leave for “business.” “Chloe—” he started. “Is there an emergency at the company?” I didn’t wait for him to weave a lie; I just cut him off. He froze for a second, then quickly nodded: “Yeah, there’s an incredibly urgent project that needs my signature right now.” I looked him dead in the eye. “Can you just not go?” The expression on his face hardened for a fraction of a second. “Chloe, don’t be unreasonable.” “You know how hard I work, how much I hustle—it’s all for our future.” “I have to prove to my mother that I can succeed without the family’s help. I can give you the absolute best life possible.” Arthur’s mother had never liked me. The reason was simple. My background was far too ordinary, even a little broken. I wasn’t “worthy” of the Sterling family’s elite status. Arthur was a true trust-fund heir, born with a silver spoon in his mouth. Before he met me, his family had paved every road for him, even picking out his future wife for a strategic corporate merger. But he defied his entire family’s arrangements just for me. He insisted on being with me. In a fit of rage, his mother cut off all his trust funds and essentially exiled him. She swore that if he could build a successful business entirely on his own, without a single cent of family money, within five years… She would accept me. She would accept our relationship. So for the past five years, Arthur hadn’t rested for a single second. And I had worked just as desperately, constantly trying to improve myself, terrified of slacking off. Terrified of becoming a burden to him. Terrified that his mother’s words—”What can she possibly do besides drag you down?”—would become a reality. His mother never stopped trying to make me back off, either. From an initial offer of half a million dollars, up to a million. And then, just a month ago, she slid a seemingly weightless check across the table to me. Ten million dollars. The condition remained exactly the same: Leave my son. I never took the money. Because I loved Arthur Sterling. And I fiercely believed that he loved me. I stubbornly believed that true love could conquer all obstacles, erase prejudice, and bridge the gap between social classes. Until this exact moment. The unwavering faith I had held onto began to crack and shatter, inch by inch. His phone buzzed again. He glanced at it, not even bothering to invent another excuse. “Chloe, I have to go. Make sure you eat.” Without waiting for a response, he turned and strode out the door. I grabbed my phone and followed him out. Down in the underground parking garage. I saw them. 3 The girl was hanging off Arthur like a koala. Arthur’s large hands securely gripped her thighs, hiking her up a bit so she could hold on tighter. His voice drifted over—it sounded like a reprimand, but it was dripping with absolute indulgence. “Didn’t I tell you to wait in the car? Who gave you permission to come upstairs? Do you just not want to get out of bed tomorrow?” The girl wrapped her arms around his neck and whined playfully: “Yeah, I want daddy to love me nice and hard~” “Besides, look how smart I am! I specifically bought two boba teas and brought them up so I could pretend to be a DoorDash driver. Don’t worry, daddy, your precious girlfriend won’t notice a thing.” Arthur let out a low, dark chuckle, pinching her nose: “My baby is so smart. But you can’t do that again, understand? I’ll give you whatever you want, but you absolutely cannot let her catch you. That is the bottom line.” The girl pouted, wiggling her body unhappily: “Daddy, doesn’t it exhaust you? Every time you see me, you have to change your clothes, absolutely terrified that she might notice something slightly off.” “Do you really love her that much?” Arthur paused for a second: “Yes. I love her. Which is exactly why I can’t let her find out. I can’t let her be heartbroken.” “Then what about me?” “You are my absolute favorite little pet, right after her.” “Hmph. Then you have to stay with me tonight. The whole night. You’re not allowed to go back.” Arthur lowered his head, pressing a quick kiss to her lips. His voice was incredibly tender: “Okay.” With that, he carried her to the car and put her inside. A short while later, the heavy SUV began to rock back and forth. I leaned my back against a concrete pillar, slowly sliding down until I was sitting on the cold garage floor. It turns out that when your heart shatters into a million pieces, it doesn’t make a sound. There are no tears. I don’t know how much time passed. The rocking of the SUV finally stopped. Then, the roar of the engine echoed through the garage, and the car drove away. I opened my recent calls log. I found the unsaved number. And dialed. Arthur’s mother answered the phone. Watching the taillights disappear from view, I spoke with absolute, terrifying calm: “Ten million dollars. I agree to leave your son.” In a private, high-end tea room, Mrs. Sterling set down her porcelain teacup. The corners of her lips curled into a faint smile. “Changed your mind?” “I thought you said you would rather die than leave him.” I didn’t touch the tea in front of me. “He betrayed me.” She raised an elegant eyebrow, not looking surprised in the slightest. “Because of that girl?” Her tone was completely flat. “I had heard rumors. I just didn’t expect you to be the first one to find out.” She seemed to sense that I had zero interest in small talk. “Send me your routing number. The money will be in your account within three days.” She looked at me, her gaze as sharp as a scalpel. “I expect you to keep your word. If you ever bother him again, you know exactly what the consequences will be.” I stood up and left. My phone buzzed with a text from Arthur. [Chloe, I have to work late at the office tonight. I probably won’t make it home. Go to bed early, don’t wait up for me.] I attached the photo I had taken of them in the parking garage and hit send. [Are you actually working late? Or are you sleeping with another woman?] 4 The message sank like a stone in the ocean. I sat on the living room sofa for the entire night. Arthur didn’t come home until the sun was coming up. When he saw the completely untouched food sitting on the dining table… His face filled with intense worry. “Chloe?” He practically sprinted over, reaching out to feel my forehead. “Why are you so pale? Are you sick? Why didn’t you eat anything?” I turned my head sharply, dodging his hand. His hand hovered awkwardly in the air. I looked up at him, my voice dry and cracked. “Did you not see the message I sent you last night?” He frowned, pulling his phone from his pocket, looking genuinely confused: “What message? I was buried in crisis management at the office all night. My phone must have been on silent, I didn’t even check it.” Just as he was speaking, Miss Peach uploaded a new post. [Day 255 of being spoiled by my man. I got caught hooking up with him! His girlfriend sent him a text, but I secretly deleted it~ I’m such a clever little genius!] Attached was a photo of a man’s back, wearing only a hotel towel around his waist. So that was it. My stomach was completely empty. I didn’t even have the energy left to feel nauseous. I offered a faint, bitter smile and looked away. I looked at Arthur, who was still pretending to frantically search his phone. “Maybe it didn’t go through.” He let out a very obvious, heavy sigh of relief. He immediately pulled me tightly into his chest. He rested his chin on the top of my head, his voice so unbelievably soft and tender it could melt ice: “You little scatterbrain. You scared me half to death.” His embrace was still incredibly warm. He still smelled exactly the same. But right now, the only thing I felt was a biting, freezing chill sinking deep into my bones. “I’ve been way too busy lately. I’ve been leaving you home alone so much, with no one to eat with or sleep next to. It’s all my fault.” He murmured softly, sounding as if he loved me deeper than the ocean. “But it’s all going to be worth it. Tomorrow is our engagement party.” “I’ve already arranged everything. I’m going to let the whole world know that you, Chloe Carter, are the only woman I, Arthur Sterling, will ever choose in this lifetime.” I didn’t say a word. I just let him hold me. I remembered the year he was thrown out of his family’s mansion for me. He had to start from absolute zero. I had just graduated college. He didn’t have a single cent to his name. We lived crammed in a damp, moldy basement apartment. We shared a single bowl of instant ramen. He gave me the only piece of hot dog in the bowl. His eyes sparkled with pure, radiant hope as he promised: “Chloe, I know things are rough right now. But I swear to God, I will give you a beautiful life one day.” His tears back then had been real. His heartbreak for my suffering had been real. The light in his eyes… maybe that had been real, too. If I hadn’t seen that Reddit post. If I hadn’t seen the reality of that parking garage. I probably still would have been that naive, stupid girl, trusting him and loving him with everything I had. Right up until my very last breath. The next day. The engagement party. Arthur personally supervised every single detail of the venue. Everywhere you looked, there were wild roses. Because I had once told him that I loved the resilient, romantic life force of wild roses more than anything else. The venue was packed with guests. The only empty seats were the ones reserved for his parents. I wore the gown he had custom-designed for me, standing by his side, accepting the blessings of the crowd. He held my hand in a vice grip, his face radiating absolute bliss. Until the MC on the stage began delivering his emotional, tear-jerking opening speech. Arthur’s cell phone rang. He glanced at the screen and immediately declined the call. But just as the MC was about to announce the exchange of the engagement rings… His phone vibrated again. This time, he didn’t immediately hit ignore. He offered me an incredibly apologetic smile and whispered: “It might be a massive crisis at the company. Let me just take this. It’ll only be a second.” He let go of my hand and stepped behind a nearby floral pillar. I stood rooted to the spot, watching his back as he answered the phone. He wasn’t standing very far away. I could clearly see that initially, he looked annoyed and impatient as he listened. Then, his face instantly turned as pale as a sheet of paper. “What?! Which hospital?! I’m on my way! Tell her to wait for me!” He aggressively hung up the phone. He didn’t even have the presence of mind to arrange his facial expression before he spun around and sprinted back to me. “Chloe, an absolute catastrophe just happened. I have to go deal with it right now.” “I’ll be back as soon as it’s handled. It’ll be fast. You have to wait for me here.” He didn’t wait for my response. He just turned and sprinted toward the exit like a madman. The entire ballroom plunged into a dead silence, followed immediately by an explosion of frantic whispering. Every single eye in the room turned to stare at me. The MC desperately, awkwardly tried to smooth things over. Right then, my phone vibrated. It was a massive bank deposit notification, followed immediately by a text from his mother. [The funds have cleared. Remember our agreement.] Almost at the exact same second, Miss Peach uploaded a new post. [Day 256 of being spoiled by my man. I purposely walked into traffic and got lightly bumped by a car. My man instantly ditched his girlfriend and ran straight out of his engagement party to come see me! I TOLD you guys I was the one he loved most!] I took a screenshot of the post and dropped it into the PowerPoint presentation I had prepared hours ago. Then, I walked forward and took the microphone from the MC’s hand. “Ladies and gentlemen. The engagement is officially canceled. I am incredibly sorry for the inconvenience.” “But before you go, I have a parting gift for all of you.” I cast the PowerPoint—titled [Arthur Sterling’s Infidelity Diary]—onto the massive LED screen behind the stage. The very first slide was Miss Peach’s newest post. Ignoring the deafening uproar erupting behind me, I picked up the heavy skirts of my gown, turned on my heel, and walked out the door. The Uber I had ordered was already waiting to take me to the airport. I powered down my phone, popped the SIM card out, and cleanly snapped it in half. Arthur arrived at the hospital to find that Tara’s injuries were completely superficial. He felt a flash of deep irritation, but he still comforted her in a soft, gentle voice: “Tara, just focus on resting and recovering. I’ll come back and see you tomorrow.” The moment the words left his mouth. His executive assistant called him. “Boss… Miss Carter found out about Tara.”

🌟 Continue the story here 👉🏻 📲 Download the “MotoNovel” app 🔍 search for “394995”, and watch the full series ✨! #MotoNovel

At the college reunion, my impulsive, runaway bride of a sister finally returned. Everyone was making bets, certain that Ethan would dump me and choose my sister. Instead, he kept his eyes fixed straight ahead and gently slipped the diamond ring onto my finger. “All these years, Maya is the one who stayed by my side. Besides her, my heart has no room for any other woman. I will never let the woman I love lose!” My sister’s face turned deathly pale, and she ran out of the room in tears. After we got married, Ethan spoiled me endlessly. He never allowed any other woman to get close to him. Until later, when I found intimate videos of him and my sister hidden on his computer. In the videos, my sister was playing hard to get, her eyes hazy and seductive. “Ethan, you’re already married to Maya. Aren’t you afraid of breaking her heart if she finds out?” Ethan, consumed by passion, murmured mindlessly. “In the end, she’s just a substitute anyway. I gave her the title of wife, but I’ll give my love to you, okay?” My heart turned to absolute ice. I knew my time to leave had come. 1 “Are you really going to leave?! What happens when Ethan eventually remembers everything?” Grandma Wright was anxious and angry. Looking at the explicit videos I had brought her, she was filled with a complex mix of emotions. Years ago, Ethan had been in a terrible car accident that wiped his memory. He forgot our entire history together and mistakenly believed he was deeply in love with my sister, Chloe. He insisted on marrying her. It was only after Chloe impulsively ran away on their wedding day that I finally had the chance to return to his side. My eyes fell on those sickening videos. I lowered my eyelashes, desperately trying to hide the bitter pain in my eyes. When I finally spoke, I had regained my usual calm. “Grandma, the person he loves right now isn’t me.” Seeing my ironclad resolve, Grandma Wright could only sigh in defeat. “This… alright. It’s too unfair to you.” “Getting the divorce papers is the easy part, but erasing your entire identity and background will take me about two weeks.” I thanked her and went back to our bedroom. Late that night, Ethan finally came home. He turned on the light, his face etched with exhaustion. Seeing me sitting on the sofa with my laptop, he frowned slightly. He walked over quickly, draped his suit jacket over my shoulders, and placed a beautiful, custom cake box on the coffee table. “Why are you still up so late? A client meeting ran long tonight, so I picked up some dessert for you on the way back.” I just stared blankly at the cake box, not saying a word. This bakery was incredibly popular; you had to wait in line for at least an hour just to get inside. “What are you looking at so intensely…?” He chuckled softly, leaning over to look at my screen. The smile instantly froze on his face. This man, who was known for his ruthless, cutthroat tactics in the boardroom, was suddenly holding my hand with extreme caution, his palms slick with cold sweat. “Maya, it’s not what you think. Your sister has been harassing me constantly. She slipped me something when I wasn’t paying attention. You have to believe me, my heart only belongs to you now.” An indescribable wave of sour grief surged from the bottom of my heart. Without changing my expression, I pulled my hand out of his grasp. “Let’s get a divorce.” Panic washed over his face, clear as day. I unlocked my phone and showed him the text messages Chloe had just sent me. “Maya, this is my ultrasound report. The baby is Ethan’s.” “Ethan specifically made time today to take me to the clinic to set up my prenatal care. It took a little longer than expected, so please don’t be mad at him.” “Oh, by the way, my morning sickness has been terrible lately. I couldn’t stomach the cake Ethan specifically bought for me, so I told him to bring it home for you. I didn’t want it to go to waste.” Chapter 2 Ethan’s pupils dilated in sheer panic. He forcefully snatched the phone from my hand and frantically deleted the chat history and the videos. He grabbed me by the shoulders, his eyes filled with pure terror. “Maya, don’t listen to her crazy lies! I know absolutely nothing about a baby, and I am never divorcing you.” “Even if there really is a baby, I won’t let her have it and ruin our marriage.” He immediately pulled out his own phone and dialed his assistant. His voice was harder and more ruthless than I had ever heard it. “Tomorrow morning, deal with whatever is in Chloe’s stomach!” “Warn her that if she ever speaks garbage to Maya again, I will destroy her!” He hung up the phone. But I clearly saw his web browser still open on his screen. Search: “Best nutritional foods for pregnant women in the first trimester.” My heart turned to absolute ice. That night, it felt like an invisible, bottomless canyon had opened up between us in bed. The next morning, he skipped breakfast, grabbed his briefcase, and hurried out the door. An hour later, my sister updated her Instagram story. The photo showed her and Ethan standing side-by-side in front of a sprawling, luxury villa. The caption was dripping with fake innocence. “Being spoiled so much is actually kind of exhausting. I couldn’t eat the cake yesterday, so today he sent me premium bird’s nest and sea cucumber.” “But what touched me the most is that he said he wants to give me a real home. So today, we’re house hunting!” I gripped my phone tightly. I took a screenshot of her post, uploaded it directly to my own public social media, and walked out the door. The paparazzi swarmed them outside the villa almost immediately. A reporter named Dave asked the most aggressive question. “Mr. Wright, didn’t you publicly declare you would never let Maya lose? So what is going on with you and Chloe now? And who is the father of the baby she’s carrying?” Ethan spotted me standing on the edge of the crowd. He panicked, shoving past the reporters to explain himself to me: “Maya, don’t misunderstand! Whatever happened between me and Chloe is strictly in the past. This house is just a compensation settlement for her. I told her I expect her to never bother me again.” In just a few sentences, he completely washed his hands of the situation. In that moment, the sheer hypocrisy and cowardly opportunism of this “mature” man was on full display. The media immediately caught on, pivoting their attacks directly onto Chloe. “Years ago, Mr. Wright loved her more than life itself, but she just had to play games and run away from her own wedding to test him. Now that he doesn’t love her anymore, she’s desperately throwing herself at him.” “Is the baby she’s carrying even Mr. Wright’s?!” The more the reporters speculated, the more aggressive they got, pushing Chloe to the brink of tears. Her face flushed with furious anger, she charged forward, her voice shrill and piercing. “What do any of you know?! Maya took advantage of my absence and stole Ethan from me!” Highly emotional, she ripped up the sleeves of her blouse and yanked her skirt up to her knees. Suppressed tears spun in her eyes, but she stubbornly refused to let them fall. “Do you really think I ran away from my wedding because I didn’t love him?! During that time, I went to Mount Shasta. I crawled up the entire mountain path on my hands and knees, praying for Ethan’s recovery. I bruised and deformed my own knees for him!” “When I found out Ethan and Maya were together, I fell into a severe depression. I tried to kill myself multiple times.” Ethan’s eyes locked onto the horrifying, jagged scars on her wrists and her permanently misshapen knees. His eyes slowly darkened with heavy emotion. Chloe’s tears finally broke free, streaming down her face. “What did I do wrong?! Now you’re all wildly speculating about my unborn baby! I’ll tell you all right now, the father of this baby is—” “Shut up!” Chapter 3 Ethan snapped back to reality. He shot a nervous glance in my direction and quickly cut her off. His voice was flat, devoid of any visible emotion. “Chloe, no matter the reason, we can never go back to how things were. Have some self-respect and stop harassing me.” Chloe glared at him with pure hatred, biting her lip so hard it began to bleed. Finally, drowning in the media’s mocking laughter, she turned and ran away crying. Ethan swept a cold, warning glare over the gloating reporters. “No one is allowed to publish a single word of what happened here today!” He personally drove me home. The entire ride was unnervingly silent. He didn’t yell at me for leaking Chloe’s post to the public, and I didn’t bring up his sordid affair with her. But just as I opened my door to step out, before I even had both feet on the pavement, he suddenly slammed his foot on the gas. 2 “Ethan, stop the car!” I screamed in agonizing pain. The hem of my long skirt had caught in the heavy car door. I was dragged violently across the asphalt for over three hundred feet. The skin on my knees was shredded, leaving two gaping, bloody holes and a gruesome trail of blood on the driveway. The car finally slammed to a halt. I desperately tore the fabric of my skirt to free myself. But instead of getting out to help me, he slowly pulled the car forward, made a U-turn, and accelerated rapidly, aiming the heavy tires directly at my wrists. I shrieked in terror, my entire body convulsing. He finally stopped, stepped out of the car, and stood over me. He looked down at my bleeding body, his voice colder and more ruthless than I had ever heard it. “This is your one and only warning.” I let out a miserable, tragic laugh. I knew he did it on purpose. The moment he saw his precious sister cry, he couldn’t even be bothered to keep up the act of loving me anymore. Despite Ethan’s threats, Dave the reporter published the entire confrontation. Enterprising internet sleuths even dug up photos of Ethan taking Chloe to her OBGYN appointments a few days prior. The internet unanimously took my side, dragging Chloe through the mud and ripping her reputation to shreds. Ethan was furious. He tracked Dave down at his media company, beat him with a baseball bat, and used the Wright family’s massive corporate influence to get him blacklisted from the industry. The situation blew up, severely damaging the Wright Corporation’s stock and public image. Grandma Wright was livid. She immediately summoned both our families to the Wright estate. “Ethan, how could you do this to Maya?! When Chloe abandoned you at the altar, you were completely broken. Maya is the one who stayed by your side and pulled you out of that dark place! Now, what are you going to do about the baby in Chloe’s stomach?!” Grandma Wright shot a vicious glare at Chloe, then raised her heavy wooden cane to strike Ethan. Suddenly, Chloe threw herself in front of Ethan, dropping to her knees in front of Grandma Wright. She gripped the cane tightly, crying so hard she was gasping for air. “Grandma, this is entirely my fault! Please don’t punish Ethan!” My father, feeling profoundly humiliated by his eldest daughter’s actions, slapped her hard across the face and tried to drag her toward the door. “You have completely destroyed the Carter family’s reputation! Get your ass home right now!” Due to the intense cyberbullying over the last few days, Chloe looked incredibly frail and exhausted. She clutched her red, swollen cheek, clinging desperately to the staircase banister, sobbing hysterically. “I’m not leaving! I lost Ethan! The only thing I want is to keep my baby! Is that a crime?!” The bright red handprint on her pale face severely triggered Ethan. Seeing that Chloe absolutely refused to let go, my father violently yanked her arm. “Ah!” Suddenly, she missed a step and tumbled backward down the grand staircase. “Chloe, watch out!” Ethan’s pupils shrank in terror. His body reacted faster than his brain. Without a second thought, he violently shoved me out of his way to get to her. I was thrown completely off balance, stumbling backward until I crashed heavily into the massive, custom saltwater aquarium in the center of the living room. CRASH! The thick glass shattered into thousands of pieces. Jagged shards of glass drove deep into my back. I was instantly drenched in my own blood. Ethan managed to catch Chloe perfectly. As the two of them rolled safely to the bottom of the stairs, the back of Ethan’s head struck the marble steps. Chapter 4 A blinding pain ripped through my body. Strange, unfamiliar fragments of memories flashed rapidly through my mind. Before I could even process them, Chloe’s cries of pain snapped me back to reality. “Ethan, my hand is scraped.” Ethan looked at the tiny droplets of blood oozing from her palm. His brow furrowed in deep distress. He immediately scooped her up into his arms and sprinted toward the door. Grandma Wright panicked, shouting after him. “You ungrateful bastard! Maya’s injuries are a hundred times worse! She’s bleeding out!” Ethan didn’t even pause his stride. “Grandma, Chloe has a severe blood-clotting disorder! I can’t waste a single second!” Lying in a massive pool of my own blood, I let out a weak, bitter laugh before letting the darkness completely consume my consciousness. His memories were completely scrambled. The one with the life-threatening blood-clotting disorder was me. 3 “Maya!” Seeing that my bleeding wouldn’t stop, Grandma Wright frantically called an ambulance and rushed me to the ER. After being wheeled out of emergency surgery, I was placed in a VIP recovery room—coincidentally, right next door to Chloe’s room. As the nurses wheeled my bed past her open door, a scene stabbed me straight through the heart. “Chloe, you’ve been through so much. I already picked out a name for our baby. Whether it’s a boy or a girl, let’s call it Riley, okay?” Ethan was sitting on the edge of her bed, holding her closely, pressing his forehead against hers with overwhelming tenderness. He casually glanced up and saw me being wheeled past the doorway by the nurses. After a brief second of hesitation, he reluctantly let go of Chloe and chased after my bed. After learning from the nurses that my injuries were severe, and that the road rash from being dragged by his car still hadn’t fully healed… He looked at me with an incredibly complex expression, rubbing his temples in exhaustion. “Maya, there is absolutely no need for you to purposely exaggerate your injuries just to get my attention. I told you I wouldn’t abandon you, and I meant it. Chloe is pregnant. I was terrified she might have a miscarriage, which is why I brought her to the hospital first.” “The baby is innocent. Her blood doesn’t clot properly, so having an abortion is entirely too dangerous for her. But don’t worry, I already made a deal with her. I’m going to send her abroad. You’ll never have to look at her again, okay?” I instinctively placed my hand over my stomach, fighting desperately to hold back my tears. The name Riley… that was the name Ethan had picked out for our future child, back before his memory loss. Just moments ago in the operating room, the trauma surgeon had informed me that I was one month pregnant. My baby wasn’t even born yet, and Ethan had already been stolen from me. Now, was he going to steal my baby’s name too? “And what if I say no?” Swallowing the bitter acid in my throat, I forced the words out in a raspy whisper. Ethan froze. Noticing the tears pooling in my eyes, he assumed the nurses had hurt me while changing my bandages. He immediately took the ointment tube and began applying it himself. His movements were incredibly gentle, but his words left absolutely no room for negotiation. “Maya, stop throwing a tantrum. I admit I mishandled the situation today. I promise you, from now on, I will never see her again. I will spend the rest of my life making it up to you.” I didn’t say another word. I didn’t cry, and I didn’t scream. I finally realized that this man—who swore he would never let me lose—had ensured my absolute, total defeat. Because of the harsh antibiotics, I tossed and turned in agony the entire night. Ethan stayed by my bed, tirelessly blowing cool air onto my stitched wounds to ease the burning. “That’s weird. Why is the wound still bleeding?” Slowly, he started to realize something was wrong. Just as he reached for my medical chart hanging at the end of the bed, his phone rang with an unknown number. “Heh. Ethan Wright, didn’t you put out a massive PR statement swearing you would never betray Maya? What a beautiful, devoted persona. So… if I butcher Chloe and the little bastard growing inside her, you probably wouldn’t care, right?” Chapter 5 Dave the reporter laughed maniacally through the speaker. Immediately following his laugh, Chloe’s terrified, blood-curdling screams echoed through the phone. “Ethan! Save me! He’s going to cut my baby out…” “Chloe!” Ethan’s face drained of all color. Pleased with his reaction, Dave laughed even harder. “Hahaha! If you want to save Chloe, you have exactly one hour to bring Maya here and trade her for your precious ex. Let’s see if you’re actually willing to make the sacrifice.” Ethan’s expression turned incredibly grim. He hesitated for a fraction of a second before violently dragging me out of the hospital bed and throwing me into his car. “Ethan! You’re actually going to trade me for her?! Who the hell do you really love?!” I was absolutely devastated. I pounded frantically against the locked car windows, crying and screaming in a panic. Ethan slammed his foot on the gas, roaring at me in sheer frustration: “Maya, your sister’s life is on the line, and you’re still obsessing over who I love more?!” “Don’t worry, he just wants to humiliate me. He doesn’t have the guts to actually kill anyone. But Chloe’s medical condition is too fragile. I can’t take that risk.” “Stop fighting me! I usually let you get away with everything, but this is different. I swear I will make this up to you later.” With a harsh screech of brakes, he parked the car outside an abandoned warehouse. He opened the door, dragged me out, and without a word of explanation, bound my hands and feet with zip ties and shoved a greasy rag into my mouth. I fought back with everything I had, my muffled sobs breaking through the rag. He gently wiped the tears from my face, a brief flash of conflict crossing his eyes. “Maya, I’m sorry. You’ll have to endure this for a little while.” “Just stay quiet and cooperate. Do not provoke him. I already called the cops on the way here. Once I successfully get your sister out, SWAT will breach the building and rescue you.” With that, he hoisted me over his shoulder and marched into the warehouse. I shook my head frantically. My surgical wounds had torn open and were bleeding profusely, and my stomach was twisting in violent, agonizing cramps. “Hahaha! The great Ethan Wright finally admits he can’t let go of Chloe!” To exact his revenge for being blacklisted, Dave brutally smashed Ethan over the head with a steel pipe before honoring the deal and releasing Chloe. Chloe shot me a triumphant, mocking glare, subtly exchanging a knowing look with Dave. The next second, she threw herself into Ethan’s arms, sobbing. “Ethan, I knew you loved me the most! My stomach is cramping so badly, please, get me to a hospital.” Seeing her looking so pale and close to fainting, Ethan didn’t dare waste a second. Ignoring his bleeding head wound, he practically carried her out the door. Dave gripped a hunting knife, walking toward me with a malicious grin. “Hahaha! Ethan dumped you! And since I took your sister’s money, I have to make sure you get the VIP treatment!” I shook my head in absolute terror, trapped and defenseless. I could only watch helplessly as the blade plunged deep into my stomach. When he ripped the knife out, my blood splattered across the concrete wall like dark paint… After rushing Chloe into the ER, a deep, suffocating sense of dread settled in Ethan’s chest. The image of my desperate, terrified eyes flashed relentlessly in his mind, accompanied by waves of blinding headaches. Unable to stand any longer, he slid down the hospital wall and collapsed onto the floor. A flood of strange, fragmented memories violently pierced his brain, making it almost impossible to breathe. But he forced himself to stay conscious and called the police captain. “Hello? Did you rescue Maya?!” The answer on the other end of the line drained every ounce of blood from his face, leaving him looking like a corpse.

🌟 Continue the story here 👉🏻 📲 Download the “MotoNovel” app 🔍 search for “395011”, and watch the full series ✨! #MotoNovel

Chapter 1 Carter Sterling was the most notorious workaholic in New York. Because of it, our wedding had been postponed a full nine times. Even when everyone in our social circle mocked me, he remained entirely unmoved. Even when it was my mother’s dying wish to see me married, he just gave me the same tired excuse: “Stella, I’m just too busy right now.” It wasn’t until my mother passed away, full of regrets, that Carter finally felt a pang of guilt. To make up for it, he threw a ten-million-dollar wedding at the most expensive hotel in Manhattan. But the very next day, I was blocked at the hotel doors. The security guards rolled their eyes at me endlessly: “Where did this crazy lady come from? The bride is the CEO’s childhood best friend. Did you get kicked in the head? Keep dreaming.” I refused to accept it and tried to force my way inside. In response, Carter simply called the cops. After being held in a precinct cell for twenty-four hours, I became the laughingstock of the entire city. When the wedding was finally over, Carter casually tried to coax me: “It was just a ceremony. The little girl wanted one, so I gave it to her. It’s not like we signed a marriage license. Is it really that big of a deal?” But this time, I didn’t cry, and I didn’t make a scene. Because someone else had already given me the wedding he couldn’t. … Yesterday, right there in the police precinct, I accepted my actual childhood best friend’s proposal. As soon as I finished handling my mother’s post-funeral arrangements, I was going to leave. Carter was completely oblivious. He even leisurely lit a cigarette. Through the drifting smoke, he delivered his arrogant apology. “That’s enough. Mia has severe depression. Are you really trying to push her to suicide?” With that, he turned on the TV. Every major news network was broadcasting footage of me trespassing at the wedding yesterday. “Carter Sterling, come out here! I waited for you for eight years! Why are you doing this to me?!” On the screen, I was screaming his name, looking like an absolute clown. The hair and makeup I had spent three hours perfecting were completely ruined as the security guards dragged me away. Even his groomsmen had looked at me with impatience: “Stella, come on. Be reasonable. You’re making a complete fool of yourself right now!” But I hadn’t cared how I looked. I just kept desperately trying to push my way inside. Until the police sirens suddenly blared. With the sharp click of the handcuffs locking around my wrists, my heart completely died. The pathetic footage of me had been captured and spread all over New York. Carter clearly had the power to stop it, yet he allowed the media to run wild. There was only one reason. Because I was disobedient, he wanted to punish me. Mia Harper walked over, biting her lip, looking the picture of innocence. “Stella, you have to believe me. I really just wanted to experience a wedding. I would never ruin your relationship with Carter. Can’t you just pity me for once?” I was so sick of hearing her use pity as an excuse. Because he pitied her, Carter ran off to comfort a “suicidal” Mia on my birthday. Because he pitied her, we had to drag Mia along on our one annual vacation. Because he pitied her, I was even expected to hand my own wedding over to her. I had had enough. I looked up at Mia, catching the blatant provocation hidden deep in her eyes. I offered a faint smile. “You’re already married, why call me by my first name? You two are a perfect match. Happy wedding.” Mia’s face instantly flushed beet red, as if her deepest, darkest secret had just been exposed to the world. “Stella, what are you doing?! Do you really have to humiliate me like this?!” As she spoke, a dark glint flashed in her eyes. She grabbed my hand and forcefully yanked it toward her own face. “It’s all my fault. Go ahead, hit me, Stella.” But before my palm even grazed her cheek, a massive force shoved me backward. Blinding pain shot through my entire body. Because of the scuffle yesterday, the security guards had thrown me to the concrete several times. My arms and knees were covered in scrapes that hadn’t even been treated yet, and now I had fresh injuries. Meeting my agonized expression, a flash of reluctance crossed Carter’s eyes. But at the sound of Mia’s soft whimpers, he snapped right back to attention. “Stella Davis, stop putting on an act. Be careful you don’t play with fire and get burned!” With that, he grabbed Mia’s hand, walked out, and slammed the door behind them. Chapter 2 I felt no joy and no sorrow. For the next three days, I handled my mother’s funeral arrangements entirely alone. Carter never came back. In the eight years we had been together, he had never once stayed out all night. Usually, when we fought, I was always the one to bow my head first. But this time, I didn’t yield. Instead, Mrs. Sterling—Carter’s mother—showed up uninvited. Her face was dark with displeasure. “Stella, I know Carter was in the wrong this time, but you can’t be so unforgiving. This is Carter’s house. What gives you the right to lock my son out?” The sheer humiliation I had suffered was lightly brushed over by her. As long as I showed any signs of caring, I was the one being aggressive and unreasonable. But then again, she had looked down on me for eight years. In her eyes, there was only Mia. “From a poor, single-parent family. I still have no idea what Carter sees in you.” Back then, she wore her disdain on her sleeve, never even trying to hide it. There was one time I actually gave up and tried to leave. Carter raced his sports car all the way to the airport to catch me. He held me tightly, crying. “Stella, can’t you just hold on, for me?” And that momentary lapse of my soft heart pushed me permanently into the abyss. “Mia has the mind of a child. She has depression and almost killed herself. Why can’t you be a little kinder?” Mrs. Sterling’s blatant favoritism was almost honest. She cast a highly critical eye over me. It made me feel like a piece of garbage. I’m not kind? Their entire family only cared about Mia’s emotions. But who had ever genuinely cared that I had just lost my mother? “Mrs. Sterling, Carter and I broke up. I’ll be leaving very soon. You don’t have to worry.” Mrs. Sterling’s face instantly turned livid. Just as she was about to explode, the front door clicked open. Carter and Mia walked in. He looked stern and imposing. He had clearly heard what I just said. Mia warmly grabbed my hand, putting on a sickeningly sweet face: “Stella, don’t be mad. Here, this is the gift we bought you from our trip to Paris.” Hearing the word Paris, my tightly locked heart still gave a painful twitch. I had told him so many times how much I wanted to go to Paris, but he was always “too busy with work,” dragging it out for over a year. Afraid of making him feel guilty, I had pretended I didn’t care. I was trembling all over. In that moment, a thousand words threatened to pour out of me. But when they reached my lips, I couldn’t utter a single syllable. I simply pushed Mia’s hand away and shook my head. “Stella Davis!” Carter grabbed my wrist, his voice dropping low. “Stop making a scene. Can’t you see my mom is here? She already dislikes you, so just be sensible for once!” Mia chimed in, playing the peacemaker: “Yeah, Stella. The elders are here. Whatever issues you have, we can talk about them later.” They played off each other perfectly, pushing all the blame onto me. I laughed. “Are you two deaf? I’ve said it more than once: Carter and I broke up. Why the hell do I care if his mother likes me or not?” For a split second, the room was so quiet you could hear a pin drop. “Carter! Look at this wonderful fiancée of yours, daring to speak to me like that!” Mrs. Sterling’s shrill voice pierced the air, her hatred for me reaching its absolute peak. “She can’t even compare to a single toe of Mia’s! Break up with this woman immediately!” As soon as the words left her mouth, I pulled the engagement ring off my finger and calmly set it on the coffee table. “No need to trouble him. We’re already done.” With that, I grabbed my suitcase and headed for the door. Two shrieks echoed from behind me as Carter took massive strides to chase me down. “Stella, what the hell are you doing?!” He grabbed my hand and frantically shoved the ring back onto my finger. His eyes actually held a hint of pleading. “Stop this. It’s been three days. Why are you still angry?” He asked the question with so much resentment, as if I was the one being completely unreasonable. The grip on my hand grew painfully tight, and I cried out. Startled, he let go, then immediately reached out to pull up my sleeve. “Don’t move. Let me see, let me see.” Ignoring the pain, I struggled violently, even managing to slap him across the face three times. He didn’t even try to dodge. Instead, his eyes suddenly turned red. “I didn’t know… no… I didn’t know you had so many injuries.” A man who was usually so articulate and composed was now stammering incoherently. Chapter 3 But I didn’t feel a single shred of emotion. Only the desperate need to break free. “Let me go!” Carter grew angry, a domineering look filling his eyes. “Your mom is dead, and your dad has been dead for years. Where else can you go? The only person you can rely on now is me!” Rely on him? I let out a shaky, broken laugh. “How am I supposed to rely on you? Have you ever, even once, stood by my side?” “Not only did you not stand by me, but you had me thrown in a holding cell. You made me the pathetic laughingstock of the entire city.” “Do you even know my mother just died?! All I wanted was to give her some peace of mind before she passed, why did you have to make that so incredibly difficult?!” Looking at my cascading tears, Carter’s heart seemingly stopped. A wave of intense remorse washed over him. “Stella, I regret it. I truly regret it. I thought because you had waited so many times before, making you wait one more time wouldn’t—” My brain buzzed, and in a moment of sheer breakdown, I slapped him across the face again. My understanding and forgiveness never earned his cherishing; it had simply become ironclad proof that I could be treated like garbage. Dragging my suitcase, I resolutely got into my car. But the next second, a heavy, suffocating wave of perfume hit my nose. The car had just been returned by Mia a few days ago, and it was filled with her things. I didn’t think twice. I slammed my foot on the gas and sped out of the driveway. Carter refused to give up, chasing right behind me in his own car. But very quickly, I realized something was horribly wrong. The brakes weren’t working! I yanked the steering wheel frantically, but at the red light, I still slammed headfirst into the car in front of me. With a deafening crash, I completely lost consciousness. “Stella!” I faintly heard Carter’s agonizing scream echoing in my ears. When I woke up, my body was in excruciating pain. I had a broken rib, and the rest of me was covered in severe lacerations. The doctor’s face was full of relief. “It’s a good thing you weren’t going too fast, so your internal organs didn’t rupture. If you had been going any faster, you would be dead or permanently paralyzed.” Carter, the corners of his eyes red, listened intently to the doctor’s instructions. I struggled to reach out with my left arm, hooked my phone, and started dialing 911. Noticing this, Carter asked anxiously. “Stella, who are you trying to have arrested?” I glared at the culprit standing in the room, pointing at a leisurely-looking Mia, and roared: “Who else could it be?! Tell her to get out!” Mia put on her signature, innocent face again. “Stella, I was planning on taking it to the shop to get fixed tomorrow. Nobody knew you were going to drive it.” My chest ached furiously from the effort of speaking, my voice reduced to a harsh whisper because I was so weak. “The car has been broken for that long, and you didn’t tell me?! You only say you were going to fix it tomorrow after I get into an accident?! I almost died!” As I finished speaking, I hit the call button. But suddenly, Carter snatched the phone from my hand and ended the call. “Stella, it’s all a misunderstanding. There’s no need to take it this far.” My vision instantly went black. For a moment, I honestly couldn’t tell if my physical wounds hurt more, or if my heart was just suffocating me. I used the last of my strength to murmur: “Get out… all of you, get out…” Mia pouted and scoffed. “Why are you being so dramatic? You just got a few little scratches, it’s not like you—ah!” Smack! Carter delivered a heavy, resounding slap, cutting her off completely. “Get out!” Carter’s voice was low and gravelly, the veins on his forehead bulging. He had clearly reached the absolute limit of his patience. Holding her cheek, Mia’s eyes filled with tears. “You actually hit me. For this bitch, Stella?!” Her tone was sinister. The look she gave me before slamming the door shut was enough to make my blood run cold. Chapter 4 I was completely drained of energy, possessing no more strength to care about their drama. But for five straight days, a ridiculously busy Carter stayed by my side, tending to my every need. Several times, I grabbed the water cup next to me and threw it at him, but I couldn’t drive him away. “Stella, just focus on healing. Once you’re better, we’ll talk.” He spoke softly, but carried an air of absolute refusal to leave, no matter what I did. I eventually stopped paying attention to him, letting him do whatever he wanted. Until one day, taking advantage of a moment when he stepped out, I grabbed my bags and my mother’s urn, and discharged myself from the hospital early. But while I was waiting for an Uber by the curb, an almost feral Carter charged toward me. “Stella Davis! You are utterly ruthless!” He threw a blood-soaked piece of clothing right in my face. Having just left the hospital, I had barely any strength. The force of the throw sent me crashing to the pavement. “What is this? What does this have to do with me?!” He grabbed me by the collar, furious: “Still lying! Mia is missing, and this bloody shirt is all that’s left! You’re the only person who’s had a grudge against her lately!” I froze on the spot for a solid ten seconds. The only reason was because it was just too absurd. “There is zero proof that I did this! You should be calling the cops right now, not blaming me!” I yelled, panting heavily. Carter’s face stiffened, his expression seeming to waver slightly. Suddenly, his phone buzzed. He thought it was good news, but when he opened the message, his face completely darkened. He shoved the screen right into my face, his eyes bloodshot. “Look for yourself!” I frantically grabbed the phone. On the screen, Mia was tied up, kneeling on the ground. There was blood on the corner of her mouth, and she looked as if she had been brutally beaten. “I really know I was wrong. What do I have to do for you to forgive me, Stella? I really didn’t break the car on purpose. I can’t feel my legs anymore. Stella, please, just let me go.” Saying that, she desperately kowtowed against the floor. The video abruptly cut off. A sudden, sharp pain flared in my scalp. Out of nowhere, Mrs. Sterling had appeared and violently slapped me three times across the face. “You bitch! Mia is the daughter I raised! How could you do this to her?! Are you even human?!” I couldn’t catch my breath, completely defenseless. Just as another slap was about to land, Carter intercepted her hand. “Stella, speak! Where is Mia?!” I lay on the ground like a puddle of mud, tears streaming down my face. “It has nothing to do with me, I have absolutely no idea! What do you want me to say?! And the color of that blood in the video is completely fake!” Mrs. Sterling was hyperventilating with rage, lunging forward to hit me again. “Still making excuses! I will never let a woman like you marry into our family! You won’t shed a tear until you see the coffin. You’re just asking for a beating.” Carter blocked his mother, signaling that he would handle it. His eyes swept the surrounding area before finally landing on my mother’s urn. My heart stopped. I frantically lunged to grab it. But he was faster. He snatched it up. “What are you doing?! Give the urn back to me!” Ignoring the agonizing pain in my abdomen, I dragged myself across the pavement and fell to my knees. I lowered myself into the dust. “I’m begging you, give the urn back to me.” I sobbed uncontrollably, attempting to use my last shred of dignity to awaken the final trace of their humanity. But Carter looked away, his voice light and freezing cold. “I’m giving you one last chance. Are you going to tell me or not?” Mrs. Sterling was frantic, glaring at me as if I had murdered her entire family. “Mia is just a child! How did she ever offend you that you have to be so ruthless?! Where is she, tell us now!” I completely broke down, even slapping my own face. “I really don’t know! I swear to God, if I’m lying, may lightning strike me dead!” Even though my voice was practically tearing at the seams, Carter closed his eyes in frustration. When he opened them again, a flash of pure malice crossed his face. Crash. Everything seemed to move in slow motion as the urn shattered into a hundred pieces on the concrete. The ashes inside drifted out, scattering in the wind. “Ahhhh!” I let out wave after wave of agonizing screams, throwing myself onto the ground to protect the ashes with my own body. It felt like a knife was twisting furiously in my heart. A flicker of pity crossed Mrs. Sterling’s eyes, but she still maintained her hard expression and said I brought it on myself. Carter clenched his jaw. Just as he was about to speak, his phone rang again. Seeing it was the police precinct, he answered immediately. “Mia Harper has been found. Please come to the precinct immediately, we have matters to discuss in person.” His brain buzzed. He instinctively looked down at me on the ground. But in that split second, accompanied by a blood-curdling scream from Mrs. Sterling, a flash of cold steel caught his eye.

🌟 Continue the story here 👉🏻 📲 Download the “MotoNovel” app 🔍 search for “394996”, and watch the full series ✨! #MotoNovel

Chapter 1 It was my tenth year of being adopted by the Sterling family. The true heiress returned, riddled with injuries and illnesses. Looking at the old scars on his biological sister’s wrists, my brother Arthur’s gaze toward me grew increasingly cold. My adopted parents, who had originally planned to send me abroad to study, hesitated. Arthur, however, made the decision for them with a cold sneer. “Since she took Mia’s place and enjoyed a life of luxury all these years, she can stay and be Mia’s lifelong maid to atone for her sins.” Later, Arthur forced me to marry him. For the five years of our marriage, he found every possible way to torture me, making me donate blood and act as a human guinea pig for the true heiress. Until that massive fire. Without a moment’s hesitation, he scooped up the true heiress and charged out of the flames, leaving me locked inside the room to burn to death. When I opened my eyes again, I had returned to the day I was adopted at the orphanage. Mr. and Mrs. Sterling, dressed in haute couture, stood before me, their eyes full of parental affection: “This child looks so bright and lively. We’ll take her.” A violent shudder ran through my entire body. The next second, I grabbed a fistful of mud from the ground and shoved it into my mouth, drooling and giggling idiotically at them: “Hehe, meat… yummy… so yummy…” “Hehe, meat… yummy… so yummy…” I crammed that ball of foul-smelling, black mud into my mouth, my teeth grinding audibly against the grit. Muddy water dribbled down the corners of my mouth, dripping onto the yellowed collar of my old orphanage uniform. The maternal affection on the wealthy woman’s face froze instantly. It looked like she had just swallowed a dead fly. She recoiled in disgust, taking a half-step back, her designer heels clicking sharply against the concrete floor. “Director, is this child… mentally impaired?” The orphanage director, sweating profusely, reached out to wipe my face. “No, Mrs. Sterling! Nora is usually the smartest child here. I don’t know what’s gotten into her today…” I violently swatted the director’s hand away. I wiped my mud-caked hands directly onto the wealthy woman’s ridiculously expensive custom skirt. Mumbling incoherently, I cried out: “Mommy… hug… hungry…” Mrs. Sterling shrieked, frantically swatting at her skirt as if she had just been infected by a deadly virus. The teenage boy who had been standing silently to the side finally spoke up. Arthur. The brother who had personally shoved me into hell in my previous life. He looked down at me from his towering height, his eyes assessing me like a pile of unrecyclable trash. “Mom, let’s go.” “Bringing a filthy thing like this home will only upset Mia.” “There are plenty of kids in the orphanage. Pick a clean one.” Mrs. Sterling, still visibly shaken, pulled out a silk handkerchief and covered her nose and mouth. “What awful luck. She looks decent enough, but turns out she’s a retard.” They turned on their heels and left, without a single backward glance. I kept up my idiotic giggling. Only when that black Maybach completely disappeared from sight did I slowly drop the foolish act. “Ptui.” I spat the mud out of my mouth. It was incredibly bitter. But compared to the agony of my previous life—having my blood drained and being burned to a crisp crisp—this little bit of mud was nothing. The director poked my forehead, furious at my failure to seize the opportunity. “You stupid brat! That was the Sterling family, the richest family in the city! Such an incredible opportunity, and you completely blew it!” “Do you have any idea how many people would kill for that position?!” I watched the direction the Sterling’s car had gone, my eyes as cold as ice. That position? The position of being a living blood bank, a guinea pig for experimental drugs, and a punching bag for the true heiress? Whoever wants it can have it. In this life, my only goal is to send them straight to hell. From the corner, a timid-looking girl stepped out. She looked at my mud-covered mouth, a flash of mockery and greed in her eyes. It was Chloe. In my past life, she bullied me endlessly at the orphanage. Just now, when the Sterling family was leaving, their gaze had lingered on her for a few seconds. “Nora, you really are an idiot.” Chloe smoothed down her ill-fitting dress, smiling smugly. “Since you don’t want it, I’ll just have to enjoy the Sterling family’s wealth in your place.” I looked at her as if looking at a dead woman. The corners of my lips curled into an eerie smile. “Be my guest.” “I hope you… enjoy it… thoroughly.” Chapter 2 Chloe got her wish and was taken away. On the day she left, sitting in that luxury car, she rolled down the window and flipped me the bird. Arthur sat beside her, gently handing her a piece of chocolate with a tender expression. That was a tenderness I had begged for on my knees for three days and three nights in my past life, yet never received. I wasn’t jealous. I only found it hilarious. Chloe thought she was going to heaven. Little did she know, she was entering a slaughterhouse disguised as a golden palace. The Sterling family’s true heiress, Mia, suffered from a rare blood disorder. She required long-term blood transfusions and constantly needed to test various experimental treatments. The Sterling family didn’t adopt a daughter out of the goodness of their hearts. They adopted one to raise an on-call “spare organ.” Chloe’s blood type, coincidentally, was a perfect match. The motorcade drove away. The orphanage returned to its deathly silence. Because my “crazy episode” had chased away the VIPs, the director punished me by withholding dinner and sending me to the back mountain to gather firewood. As it was getting dark, near an unmarked graveyard on the back mountain, I saw a strange old man. He was wearing a tattered, old-fashioned tunic suit, staring blankly at a weed. I recognized that weed. In my previous life, trying to please Arthur, I had obsessively studied countless medical texts. It was Spanish Needles. Highly toxic, yet a miraculous medicine. The old man seemed to sense my gaze and whipped his head around. His cloudy eyes suddenly shot out a piercing gleam. “Girlie, is this weed edible?” I walked over expressionlessly and stomped a venomous snake to death right next to the weed. “The weed is edible, but you’ll die if you eat it.” “The snake’s gallbladder is edible, and eating it will keep you alive.” The old man froze for a second. Then he erupted into a booming, thunderous laugh. “Interesting.” “Everyone else thinks I’m dirty, thinks I’m crazy, but you, girlie, you aren’t afraid.” “Since the Sterling family doesn’t want you, I’ll take you.” The director was eager to get rid of a “retard” like me. When filling out the paperwork, she didn’t even verify the old man’s identity. Carrying a small, beat-up backpack, I followed the old man out of the orphanage. The old man’s name was Silas Vance. Known in the underworld as the “Ghost-Handed Reaper.” In my past life, he was an internationally renowned medical genius. Even the Sterling family had offered exorbitant sums just to secure a meeting with him. Unfortunately, in my past life, I was locked in a basement. I only heard his name but never saw his face. In this life. I am his only disciple. Ten years. A full ten years. Deep in the mountains, I lived among venomous insects and medicinal herbs. I tested every herb imaginable and mastered acupuncture techniques that bordered on the supernatural. I also forged a heart colder and harder than a viper’s scales. Ten years later. Old Man Vance tossed a gold-foiled invitation at me. “Girlie, your apprenticeship is over.” “Go. There’s an auction in the city. Bring back that thousand-year snow lotus for me.” I caught the invitation. My fingertips gently brushed over the small print that read “Sponsored by Sterling Group.” The corners of my lips curved slightly upward. Arthur, Mia. Long time no see. Your “maid” has returned. Chapter 3 The city’s most exclusive, top-tier auction. I wore a simple black qipao, the upper half of my face concealed by a silver mask. Only the lower half of my face and my cold, detached eyes were visible. Old Man Vance had given me a fake identity—the miracle doctor, “Nameless.” As soon as I entered the venue, I caught a whiff of a familiar, rotting stench. Not literal rot. But the unique stench emanating from the depths of a Sterling family member’s soul. In a VIP box on the second floor, Arthur held a glass of wine, looking down at the floor below with careless arrogance. Ten years had passed. He was more mature, and even more cold-blooded. His perfectly tailored suit hugged his tall frame, but it couldn’t hide the violence bred into his bones. The woman sitting beside him wasn’t Mia. It was a woman so emaciated she looked like a skeleton. Even from this distance, I could see the dense cluster of needle marks and scars covering her wrists. Chloe. The girl who had once strutted so haughtily, eager to enter the Sterling family. Now, she was cowering at Arthur’s feet like a dog drained of its life force. She held a peeled grape in her trembling hands, offering it to Arthur’s lips. Arthur didn’t even look at it; he slapped it away with the back of his hand. The purple juice splattered across Chloe’s face. “Disgusting.” “Go wash your face. Don’t ruin Mia’s appetite.” Chloe shuddered violently and scrambled on her hands and knees toward the restroom. The surrounding guests turned a blind eye to this. As if she were merely a pet kept by the young master of the Sterling family. I withdrew my gaze and found a seat in a corner. The auction soon began. I had no interest in the initial lots. Until the thousand-year snow lotus was brought out. Starting bid: five million. “Ten million.” From the second-floor box, Arthur lazily raised his paddle. The entire hall went silent. Everyone knew the Sterling family’s eldest daughter, Mia, was in poor health. This snow lotus was obviously for her. No one dared to bid against the Sterling family. The auctioneer raised his gavel: “Ten million going once, ten million going twice…” “Twenty million.” A cold, clear female voice suddenly rang out from the corner. The crowd erupted in murmurs. All eyes zeroed in on me. Arthur’s hand, holding his wine glass, paused, and he slowly turned his head. Through the dazzling light of the crystal chandeliers. His gaze wrapped around me like a venomous snake. “Thirty million,” he stated coldly. “Fifty million,” I didn’t even bat an eye. “Eighty million.” Arthur’s voice carried a distinct edge of anger. “One hundred million.” I picked up the teacup in front of me and took a slow sip. “Mr. Sterling, care to keep going?” Arthur abruptly stood up, the wine glass in his hand shattering with a loud crack. Blood mixed with red wine dripped down his hand, a startling sight. He stared at me, his eyes terrifyingly dark. It wasn’t about the money. It was about my voice. Even though I deliberately lowered it, even though ten years had passed. Some things are etched into your very bones. “Who are you?” He leaned against the railing, body angled forward, like a wild beast ready to pounce. I set down my teacup, looked up, and gave him a faint smile from behind the mask. That smile. It was no different from the smile I gave ten years ago when I was eating mud at the orphanage. Only the idiocy was gone. Replaced by murderous intent. “Who I am doesn’t matter.” “What matters is, I’m taking this snow lotus.” Chapter 4 After the auction ended, I was cornered in the parking garage. Over a dozen men in black suits surrounded me. Arthur emerged from the shadows, casually flipping a sleek butterfly knife in his hand. The blade danced between his fingers, glinting coldly. “In this town, no one dares to snatch what I have my eye on.” He walked up to me, using the tip of the knife to lift a strand of my hair. “Take off the mask.” “Let me see which rich heiress is so eager to die.” I didn’t move. I just looked at him calmly. “Is Mr. Sterling planning to rob me in broad daylight?” Arthur scoffed. “Rob? You flatter yourself.” “Leave the lotus, leave a hand, and you can get the hell out of here.” He waved his hand, and two bodyguards immediately stepped forward, reaching out to grab my shoulders. In that split second. I moved. It wasn’t some flashy, theatrical dodge. It was a lethal, calculated strike aimed directly at a vital point. I grabbed the wrist of the bodyguard on my left and twisted it violently backward. Crack. The sharp sound of bone breaking echoed through the empty parking garage. Immediately following, a side kick sent the bodyguard on my right flying like a kite with a snapped string, crashing heavily onto Arthur’s car. The car alarm blared. Dead silence fell over the garage. The cold smirk on Arthur’s face froze. He probably never imagined that a woman who looked so delicate and fragile could strike so ruthlessly. “You…” The remaining bodyguards rushed me all at once. I ripped off the restrictive slit of my qipao, revealing long, toned legs. My body moved like a ghost, weaving through the crowd. With every strike, a man went down. Three minutes. The ground was littered with groaning men. I smoothed my slightly disheveled hair and walked toward Arthur, step by step. Arthur finally panicked. He gripped his butterfly knife tightly and yelled, “Stay back! Do you know who I am?!” “The Sterling family will never let you get away with this!” I walked right up to him and reached out my hand. Under his terrified gaze, I caught the butterfly knife between two fingers. With a slight twist. Snap. The blade, forged from hardened steel, was cleanly snapped in half by my bare hands. Arthur’s pupils dilated in shock. He stumbled backward instinctively, tripped, and fell hard to the ground. Looking utterly pathetic. I crouched down, bringing my eyes level with his. I reached up and took off my mask. Revealing a face that was stunningly beautiful, yet incredibly familiar to him. That face slowly merged with the memory of the mud-covered idiot from ten years ago. “Arthur.” I called out softly, my tone as gentle as a lover’s whisper. “What, it’s only been ten years and you don’t recognize me?” Arthur looked as if he’d seen a ghost, his face instantly draining of all color. “N… Nora?!” “Weren’t you retarded?!” I reached out and patted his stiff cheek, my fingertips icy cold. “Yeah.” “Only a retard would let you all bully her.” “Only a retard would act as your personal blood bank.” “Only a retard would throw her life away for the sake of so-called ‘family.’” I stood up, looking down at him from above, my eyes turning completely glacial. The subservience of my past life, the pathetic groveling of my past life. In this moment, it all vanished like smoke in the wind. I planted my foot squarely on his chest, the sharp heel of my stiletto sinking into his flesh. Listening to his muffled groans of pain, I felt an unprecedented surge of satisfaction. “Arthur.” “The game has just begun.”

🌟 Continue the story here 👉🏻 📲 Download the “MotoNovel” app 🔍 search for “395012”, and watch the full series ✨! #MotoNovel

I was my parents’ only biological child, but I was nothing more than a tool they used to discipline their adopted son and daughter. When my adopted brother, Leo, was caught secretly filming women in a fitting room… My father forced me to take the blame. I was beaten so badly by the victim’s boyfriend that both my legs were broken. While I lay in agony, my father used the moment to lecture Leo: “You see that? Thank God your older brother was here to take the fall. Otherwise, it would be your legs that were broken today!” When my adopted sister, Mia, stole money from the house to send to a guy she met online… My mother shattered both of my arms with a baseball bat. When I couldn’t feed myself, she threw my dinner bowl onto the floor and pointed at me, telling Mia: “Look at how pathetic and disgusting your brother is! Remember this—this is what happens to thieves!” But the pain was inflicted entirely on my body. How could Leo and Mia possibly learn a lesson when they never suffered the consequences? Just as expected, on the day of the Winter Festival. The two of them got into a vicious, screaming match over whether the traditional festival pastries should be sweet or savory. In the struggle, a bowl of hot pastries was knocked over, spilling all over the floor. My mother flew into a rage and kicked me hard in the ribs while I was lying helplessly on the floor. “You useless animal! Is this how you teach your younger brother and sister?! They’re fighting over something so stupid, and you can’t even stop them?!” My father was even more ruthless. He dragged my broken, useless body into my bedroom. “From this second on, you get no food and no water! You stay locked in here! When your brother and sister finally learn how to behave, then you can come out!” I was utterly bewildered. I broke down, screaming in despair: “They are the ones who made the mistake! Why am I always the one being punished?!” …… My father raised his hand and slapped me brutally across the face. “You dare talk back to me?! If your brother and sister are acting out, it’s because you failed to set a good example as the eldest!” My mother seized the opportunity to lecture Leo and Mia: “Your brother was only going to be locked up for one day. But since he refuses to show any remorse, it’s going to be at least three days now.” Leo’s jaw dropped in genuine shock: “But Mom, his arms and legs are broken. If you lock him in there without food or water for three days, is he even going to survive?” Seeing my pathetic, agonizing state, even Mia couldn’t bear it: “Mom, I promise I won’t fight with Leo anymore. Please don’t punish Liam.” Hearing this, my parents exchanged a look of deep, triumphant satisfaction. But my father still cleared his throat and maintained his harsh facade: “Absolutely not. I said three days, and I mean three days.” “And to make sure you two don’t try to sneak him any food, we’re packing our bags. The four of us are going on a road trip to the next state over! We’ll be back in three days!” Without waiting for another word, and completely ignoring my desperate pleas for mercy. My parents forcefully shoved Leo and Mia out of the room and locked my bedroom door from the outside. “You stay in there and reflect on what you’ve done. I’ve already transferred every cent out of your bank account, so don’t even think about ordering food delivery.” Seeing that they were actually going to leave… With all four of my limbs broken, I was terrified and overwhelmed with grievance. I desperately banged my forehead against the floor, crying and begging: “Mom, I’m sorry! I know I was wrong! I shouldn’t have talked back! I promise I’ll do whatever you say from now on! Please just let me out! Both my arms and legs are broken, I can’t even take care of myself… if you lock me in here for three days, I’m really going to die…” From the other side of the door, my mother’s impatient voice drifted in: “Too late.” “If I let you out just because you begged a little, how am I supposed to discipline your brother and sister in the future?” “If I hear one more word out of you, I’ll make it five days!” Hearing that, despite the suffocating injustice burning in my chest… I didn’t dare knock on the door again. Because I knew they were absolutely capable of doing it. Last summer, my father drove us all to visit my grandmother. On the way, Leo and Mia got into a physical, screaming fight in the backseat over a mobile game. No matter what I said, they wouldn’t stop. Seeing the chaos, my father abruptly pulled the SUV over to the side of the highway. I was afraid he was going to hit them, so I opened my mouth to plead on their behalf. Before I could speak, my father yanked my door open and violently dragged me out of the car. “Your brother and sister are fighting like animals, and you have the nerve to just sit there?!” Before I could even process what was happening… My father got back in the car and sped off into the distance. I walked for eight agonizing hours through the pitch-black night until I finally reached my grandmother’s house. My feet were covered in burst, bleeding blisters. My grandmother cried, her eyes red with heartbreak. But my father physically blocked her from applying ointment to my feet. Instead, he used the moment to lecture Leo and Mia: “Your brother got incredibly lucky today. He only got some blisters and didn’t get eaten by coyotes.” “Next time you two dare to fight in my car, I’m throwing you out!” But on the drive back home, when Leo and Mia got into another vicious screaming match over who got to sit in the passenger seat… The person my father dragged out and abandoned on the highway was, once again, me. The more I thought about it, the more toxic and bitter my heart felt. I stared at my banking app, which showed a balance of $0.00. Dragging my broken, useless body across the floor, I painstakingly searched every inch of my bedroom. I couldn’t find a single piece of candy or a drop of water. As the hours dragged on, my stomach cramped so violently with hunger that I couldn’t straighten my back. The pain from my shattered arms and legs was excruciating, drilling deep into my bones. I could only lie flat on my bed, using my elbows to painfully, slowly type out messages to my parents: [Mom, my stomach hurts so much from the hunger. Could you please ask one of the neighbors to bring me some food?] [Dad, I promise I’ll be a better role model from now on. Can you please call a doctor to set my broken bones? I’m terrified that if we wait too long, I’ll be permanently crippled.] But my messages sank like stones into the ocean. Neither of them replied. Instead, it was Mia who texted me: [Liam, I ordered you some UberEats! I told the driver to leave the food on the window sill right outside your bedroom window. Make sure you grab it!] A brief flash of joy lit up my heart. Even though my parents constantly punished me for Leo and Mia’s mistakes over the years… The two of them were actually very close to me. Not only would they beg for mercy when my parents were punishing me, but they would always apologize to me afterward. It was just a shame they were too young and immature. They never learned their lessons, and they always repeated their mistakes. And I was always the one forced to pay the price. Just as I was thinking this, I suddenly heard the heavy deadbolt on the front door click open. My heart jumped into my throat. Then, I heard a strange, unfamiliar male voice from the hallway: “Come on in. Nobody’s home.” Chaotic, heavy footsteps echoed through the house. I was so terrified I covered my mouth and held my breath. “Don’t worry. I’ve been casing this house all day. The whole family went on vacation. They left with suitcases; they won’t be back anytime soon.” “Leaving for a road trip right on a holiday. This family must be loaded. You toss this room, I’ll take the other one.” As the two men spoke, their footsteps grew closer and closer to my bedroom door. I frantically, painfully dialed my mother’s number: “Mom! Call 911! Someone broke into the house…” I was in absolute panic, but the only response I got was my mother’s furious scolding. “Liam Carter! I haven’t even locked you up for a full day, and you’re already making up ridiculous lies?! You are a terrible influence on your brother and sister!” “Mom, I’m telling the truth…” Before I could finish, she hung up the phone. And right at that exact second, the footsteps stopped right outside my bedroom door. “Why is this door locked from the outside?” Hearing that, I let out a microscopic sigh of relief. I hurriedly tried to dial 911 again. But with all four of my limbs broken, hitting three simple numbers on a touchscreen was a monumental, agonizing task. I finally managed to dial the number, but before I could hit send, my bedroom door was violently kicked open. “I told you! If a door is locked in an empty house, there’s definitely good shit inside…” The phone slipped from my elbows, falling to the floor in my panic. I found myself staring dead into the eyes of a man with a massive, jagged scar across his face. The next second, I threw my body desperately toward the phone. I had barely touched it when the scarred man lunged forward and pinned me to the floor. “Fuck! You said you cased the place! Why is there a guy in here?!” He clamped his hand over my mouth, trapping me in a suffocating chokehold. The other man, slightly heavier, was sweating profusely: “What do we do, man?! We were just supposed to do a quick B&E. If we got caught, it wouldn’t be a big deal. But now he’s seen our faces…” Hearing this, the scarred man’s face turned dark, and the hand covering my mouth tightened viciously. “Then we make sure he never sees anything again!” A suffocating, crushing pain enveloped me. I thrashed wildly, using the absolute last ounce of my strength to hit the “Emergency Contact” button on my lock screen. The exact fraction of a second the call connected… I used every bit of energy in my broken body to tear the scarred man’s hand away from my mouth, screaming at the top of my lungs: “MOM! HELP ME! SOMEONE BROKE IN…” My voice was abruptly, brutally cut off. The scarred man drove a heavy hunting knife deep into my chest. I collapsed onto the floor, staring in despair at the glowing phone screen. Just before the scarred man reached down to end the call, my mother’s impatient, venomous voice finally crackled through the speaker: “If you want to die, then just fucking die! Stop trying to ruin our vacation with your psychotic tantrums!” The call disconnected. The scarred man glanced at the call log, let out a furious grunt, and plunged the knife into my body again. And again. And again. “Still want to call the cops, huh?!” Blood sprayed across the floor, but my body felt incredibly numb. The physical pain was absolutely nothing compared to the agony in my heart. In the final second before my consciousness completely faded… I only had one thought. I guess Leo and Mia will finally learn their lesson this time. Mom and Dad finally traded my life to buy their good behavior. When I opened my eyes again, the air was filled with noisy, chaotic sounds. I looked down at myself in confusion. There wasn’t a single stab wound on my body. I didn’t feel any pain. “Did you buy the return tickets yet?” Hearing my father’s voice, I instinctively looked up. I saw him frowning, sitting side-by-side with my mother in lounge chairs on a sunny beach. Not far away, Leo and Mia were playing in the sand. I instinctively lunged toward my parents, screaming their names, but my body passed right through them like smoke. It was only then that I realized. I was dead. My soul had somehow floated across the state to be with my parents. “I bought them for Tuesday. Holiday flights are ridiculously expensive right now.” My mother took a sip of her orange juice, complaining in annoyance. “Thank God we used that fight as an excuse to leave Liam at home. If he had come with us, we definitely wouldn’t have had enough budget for this trip.” I stared at my mother in absolute, paralyzing shock. I recognized every single word she was saying, but in that moment, I couldn’t comprehend the meaning behind them. “We didn’t have a choice. The kids were begging for a vacation, but money is tight. Everyone in our neighborhood knows Leo and Mia are adopted. If we left either of them at home, the neighbors would gossip and say we play favorites. We had to leave Liam behind.” My father’s expression was grave: “But you didn’t leave him a single cent. What if he actually starves? And his arms and legs—are you sure they’re just minor fractures? Is it really okay to delay taking him to the hospital?” My mother shook her head dismissively: “Relax. Mia is close to him; she definitely ordered him some UberEats. As for his arms and legs, they just look scary. When we get back, we’ll just take him to an urgent care clinic and have them set.” Hearing this, my father let out a sigh of relief. But then, Leo and Mia started fighting again down by the water. Leo accidentally popped Mia’s inflatable swim ring, and Mia started screaming that she was going to destroy his stuff in retaliation. “Why are they fighting again? I’ll go break it up…” My mother started to get up, but my father stopped her. “Wait until we’re back in the hotel room. We have to save face in front of all these strangers.” My chest ached so badly I felt like I couldn’t breathe. So… my father actually knew the importance of ‘saving face’ in public. Then why, when he broke my arms, and the neighbors asked what happened… why did he loudly announce that I was being punished for stealing money? Why did he subject me to their disgusted stares? I stared at my father in agony, and watched him let out a heavy sigh. “If only Liam were here. We wouldn’t have to worry about ‘saving face’ with our own biological kid.” “We could take all our frustration out on him, and use him as a punching bag to scare Leo and Mia into behaving.” Oh. So that was it. As the absolute peak of heartbreak consumed me, my vision began to blur and twist. Memories from my life began playing out before my eyes like a movie. At the amusement park, Leo and Mia demanded expensive, massive plush toys. My father slapped me across the face—even though I had been standing there in total silence—and screamed: “You’re too old to be begging for toys! Grow up!” Then, he turned to Leo and Mia with a warm, gentle smile and asked which ones they wanted. Terrified by his outburst, they stuttered and shook their heads. My parents praised them for being so well-behaved and bought them the cheapest, smallest keychains instead. A neighbor who was also at the park with her kids saw the whole thing and praised my parents: “You two are such amazing parents. You treat your adopted kids so well! Even I wouldn’t buy my own biological kids those expensive toys.” My parents couldn’t hide the smug pride in their eyes, but they smiled humbly and shook their heads: “They’re all exactly the same to us.” At school, Leo and Mia’s grades dropped, and the teachers called my parents in. The teachers gently suggested that my mother wasn’t paying enough attention to her adopted children, pointing out that I—a grade above them—was consistently ranking in the top three of my class. My mother’s face turned bright red with humiliation. That night, she ripped all my perfect test exams to shreds, screaming: “We spend so much money sending you to school, and you can’t even get first place?! If you’re going to be this useless, you might as well drop out!” I slumped onto the floor, crying over the torn pieces of paper. I whispered in confusion: “But Mom… I did get first place this time.” Unfortunately, my mother didn’t hear my question. She had already turned her back to comfort Leo and Mia, using the moment to urge them to attend extra tutoring sessions. “When Liam got into trouble, I told you we shouldn’t have taken on this burden, but you wouldn’t listen. Who knows if Liam is going to hold a grudge against us for the rest of his life.” My mother’s voice pulled me back from my memories. I followed her gaze and looked at my father. I saw his hand stiffen around his drink for a second, before he let out a careless, dismissive laugh: “Relax. How could a biological child ever hold a grudge against his own parents? A few sweet words and he’ll come running right back to us.” The exact second my father finished his sentence, his cell phone started ringing. “Why is Liam calling me again?” While muttering his annoyance, my father answered the call: “Hello. Is this the father of Liam Carter? This is the City Police Department. We just disrupted a violent home invasion and robbery. I deeply regret to inform you that Liam has been killed…” My father froze for a few seconds. His broad shoulders began to tremble uncontrollably: “Are you an actor Liam hired? This kid is getting completely out of hand. Making up lies like this just to trick us into coming home…” “My badge number is Z5171. Your address is 742 Evergreen Terrace, Apartment 103. The news should be hitting the local stations right about now. You can look it up yourself.” A heavy, suppressed sigh echoed through the speaker: “Before Liam was killed, he called you and your wife multiple times. If either of you had just dialed 911… based on our response times, your son would still be alive.” The call disconnected. My father’s hands shook violently as he opened Safari and searched for our home address. My mother hadn’t heard the conversation on the other end of the line. She looked at my father in confusion: “What kind of stunt is Liam pulling now? He called me earlier and lied about someone breaking into the house, trying to get me to call the cops.” My mother let out a disdainful, mocking laugh: “I didn’t buy it for a second. He even called twice, putting on a great performance…” “Shut up!” My father roared, his eyes completely bloodshot. My mother jumped in fright, her own temper flaring up: “If Liam pissed you off, why are you yelling at me?! Do you think I’m some pathetic pushover like him that you can just abuse whenever you want…” “Liam is dead!” My father screamed, cutting her off, and shoved his phone screen into her face.

🌟 Continue the story here 👉🏻 📲 Download the “MotoNovel” app 🔍 search for “394997”, and watch the full series ✨! #MotoNovel

1 My first day working at a publicly traded corporation. I had barely set my bag down when my female supervisor, Brenda, suddenly raised her hand and swept my full coffee mug off the desk. It shattered on the floor. “Chloe Carter? You’re the new girl?” “You’re pretty young to be playing such dirty games.” The entire open-plan office instantly went dead silent. I forced my anger down: “Director Brenda, I don’t understand what you mean. Have I done something to offend you?” “Playing dumb with me?” “You’re a fresh college grad. No experience, no connections. Your name wasn’t even on the campus recruitment list. How exactly did you parachute straight into the core Marketing Department?” “If it wasn’t for your skills in bed seducing my husband, do you really think you could ever walk through the doors of Apex Enterprises?” I was completely dumbfounded. When my dad told me to start at the bottom of his company to gain experience before taking over the family business, he never mentioned the place was filled with people like this. Thinking back to my father’s advice before I left home—telling me to hide my identity so I could truly learn and grow—I forcefully swallowed the burning rage in my chest. Just as I was about to speak, she suddenly let out a sharp laugh, pulled a stack of photos from her pocket, and threw them directly at my face. The photos scattered across the floor. The one on top was a picture of me in the same frame as Board Director Robert Evans. Last week, I had come to the building for my final interview. I was walking past the lobby bulletin board to read the announcements, and Director Evans happened to be talking to someone a short distance away. We were standing far apart, completely unrelated. But someone had maliciously cropped and photoshopped the image to make it look like we were standing shoulder-to-shoulder, intimately close. “You’re practically pressed up against him, and you still have the nerve to play dumb?” Brenda stepped heavily onto a printed copy of my resume, grinding her designer stiletto heel into it. The whispers from my coworkers instantly exploded around me: “No wonder she was a nepotism hire. She slept her way in through Director Evans.” “She is pretty, though. Makes sense why the Director made an exception.” “That is so disgusting. Using her youth and looks to destroy someone else’s marriage.” “I heard these homewreckers are the best at playing innocent. They look so pure on the outside, but God knows how filthy they are behind closed doors.” Their words pierced my ears like needles. I clenched my fists, my fingernails digging deep into my palms: “Director Brenda, that photo is photoshopped. I only saw Director Evans once during my final interview, and we didn’t even speak a single word to each other. I was hired through the standard HR recruitment process. You can’t just slander me like this.” “I’m slandering you?” Brenda suddenly thrust her hand out, her manicured finger almost jabbing me in the nose: “When my husband came home last night, he had your resume saved on his personal phone! If you didn’t send it to him begging to be his sugar baby, why would he specifically save it?!” “Chloe Carter, don’t push your luck. You’re a cheap homewrecker who slept her way to the top. Stop acting like some pure, innocent virgin in front of me!” I took a deep breath, desperately trying to explain standard corporate procedure: “Resumes are distributed automatically by HR. The profiles of all final-round candidates are synced to the department heads and the relevant board directors. That is standard operating procedure.” She looked at me like I had just told the funniest joke in the world, her voice rising to a screech: “You have a worthless bachelor’s degree! You probably don’t even know how to put together a PowerPoint presentation! Do you honestly think you’re qualified for the core Marketing Department? I bet you only got your college diploma because you slept with your professors!” Laughter erupted across the office. Someone pulled out their phone and started secretly recording me. Others muttered loudly: “Honestly, it’s probably true. That kind of stuff happens all the time on college campuses now.” “Look at her face. Total fox. She definitely knows how to work a man.” I couldn’t hold it back anymore. My voice dropped several degrees: “Director Brenda, defamation carries legal consequences. If you continue to make these baseless accusations, I will file a formal complaint with the Department of Labor!” Brenda let out a harsh scoff, suddenly grabbing a massive stack of folders from my desk and hurling them at my chest: “A cheap homewrecker like you is trying to lecture me about the law?! Today, I’m going to teach you a lesson. At Apex Enterprises, my word is the law!” She turned and yelled at her assistant: “Bring her every single analysis report, sales spreadsheet, and client dossier from last year! All of it!” Ten minutes later, a pile of documents half as tall as I was sat on my desk. It was all loose, disorganized physical paper. Some of the pages were yellowing and missing information. Brenda crossed her arms, looking down at me like I was trash. “You have three hours to organize all of this raw data into Excel spreadsheets. Every project needs to be categorized and statistically analyzed, accurate to three decimal places. If you miss a single data point, you’re fired!” 2 I stared at the mountain of paperwork, my brow furrowing: “Director Brenda, it would take at least three days to digitize and organize all of this. Three hours is physically impossible.” Brenda raised an eyebrow, deliberately projecting her voice so the entire floor could hear: “Impossible? Just go find my husband!” “Sleep with him again! Forget three hours, he’ll find someone to do it for you in three minutes!” She leaned in close to my ear, her voice dripping with venom: “After all, that’s what you’re best at, isn’t it? Just spread your legs and your problems disappear. Stop pretending you actually want to work hard.” “Let me make this clear: don’t play these fake games with me. Instead of wasting time here, you should be figuring out how to serve my husband better. Who knows, maybe he’ll even give you a raise.” The surrounding laughter and catcalls blended together, so grating it made my skin crawl. “Brenda’s right! A homewrecker should stick to doing a homewrecker’s job.” “Stop acting so high and mighty. You slept your way here, don’t try to build a monument to your virtue now.” “Hurry up and go find Director Evans, otherwise you definitely won’t finish in three hours!” I clenched my fists so hard my knuckles turned white. I ignored them. I turned around, booted up my computer, and buried my head in the data entry. The vicious gossip behind my back felt like knives carving into my skin. Every single second was pure agony. Three hours later, I printed out the spreadsheets I had managed to complete and handed them to Brenda. I truthfully stated that some of the data still needed to be cross-referenced, so it wasn’t fully finished. Brenda merely glanced at the top page before ripping the entire stack of spreadsheets to shreds. The torn paper rained down over my head like snow. “You call this a spreadsheet? The data is a mess, the formatting is wrong. This is worse than garbage!” Without warning, she grabbed her iced coffee and threw it directly into my face. “I can tell you have absolutely zero focus for this job! Your head is entirely filled with how to seduce men!” “Since you can’t finish the work, get your ass into the breakroom and wash the mugs!” “You will scrub every single coffee mug and the espresso machine until they are spotless! There cannot be a single stain! I will inspect them before we leave tonight. If they fail, you will stay here all night and scrub them again!” My coworkers watched me stand there, dripping with sticky coffee, but no one dared to step forward. Instead, a few muttered mocking insults: “Serves her right. That’s what she gets for being a mistress.” “This is the karma you get for destroying someone’s marriage.” I wiped the cold coffee from my eyes, swallowing my humiliation, and walked into the breakroom. I put on rubber gloves and started scrubbing the mugs one by one. Throughout the afternoon, coworkers constantly came in to get water. Every time they walked past, they would stop and stare. Some pretended not to see me, while others were deliberately passive-aggressive: “Oh my, what is Miss Carter doing washing mugs? Why don’t you go ask Director Evans for help?” “Maybe the Director got bored of her, so she’s got no one left to protect her.” My hands paused over the sink. Tears welled up in my eyes. My first instinct was to pull out my phone and call my dad to save me. But just as my finger hovered over the dial button, I forced myself to calm down. My father went through a lot of trouble to hide my identity so I could truly learn how the company operated. If I blew my cover now, not only would all my effort be wasted, but my father would be deeply disappointed in my lack of resilience. I gritted my teeth, wiped my tears with the back of my arm, and went back to scrubbing. When I finally finished washing every single mug, I stepped out of the breakroom, only to find Brenda blocking my path. She glanced into the room and let out a cold snort: “Finished already? Let me guess, you just half-assed it?” She walked into the breakroom and inspected the counters. Suddenly, she pointed to a back corner of the industrial espresso machine: “There’s still a stain here! Did you do this on purpose?! Scrub it again! Keep scrubbing until I am satisfied!” I looked at the faint mark she was pointing at. I forced down my boiling anger: “Director Brenda, I have scrubbed it as thoroughly as possible. That mark is a permanent scorch mark from the machine aging. It cannot be wiped off.” She suddenly raised her hand and slapped me hard across the face. The sharp, cracking sound instantly silenced the entire office floor. My cheek burned like fire. My ear was ringing loudly. Brenda grabbed me by the collar of my blouse and dragged me out into the center of the main office: “You’re a filthy little homewrecker, and you dare talk back to me?!” “Today, I’m going to show everyone exactly what kind of shameless, disgusting trash you really are!” 3 She pulled out her phone and, right in front of everyone, drafted a massive post on the company’s internal forum and LinkedIn. The headline was blindingly toxic: [Apex Enterprises Intern Chloe Carter Caught Sleeping with Board Director! Confronted by Wife and Forced to Scrub Toilets! Justice Served!] In less than half an hour, the post went completely viral. My full name, my university, and even my private Instagram accounts were doxxed by the internet mob. My DMs and comments were utterly obliterated by a tidal wave of abuse. “Disgusting green tea bitch! Get out of the corporate world! You make me sick. Can’t survive without a man paying your way?” “Looks so innocent, but spends all her time figuring out how to steal other women’s husbands. So cheap!” “Absolute trash. Destroys a family and plays the victim. I hope she dies!” “Apex needs to fire this parasite immediately! Don’t let her ruin the company’s reputation!” “Look at her face, I bet she was sleeping her way through college too. What a disgrace!” Every single comment felt like a knife twisting in my chest. My hands shook uncontrollably as I held my phone. My entire body felt like ice. My coworkers crowded around me. Some held up their phones, recording my reaction. Some read the vicious comments out loud, cheering and laughing. Others sneered sarcastically: “Chloe, look at you! You’re famous! The whole internet knows you’re a homewrecker now.” Brenda shoved her phone screen directly into my face. Watching the abuse roll in, she smiled with absolute, victorious arrogance: “Well? Chloe Carter, doesn’t feel too good, does it? This is exactly what happens when you try to seduce my husband!” “I already told you, I didn’t—” Before I could finish. She suddenly grabbed a handful of my hair and shoved me hard toward the floor. “Now get the hell out of my building! Submit your resignation, publicly confess that you’re a homewrecker, and apologize to me! If you do that, I’ll delete the posts!” Pain shot through my scalp, my body trembling, but I clenched my jaw and refused to bow my head: “I did nothing wrong! I will not resign, and I will absolutely not apologize!” Brenda’s eyes widened with fury. She drew back her designer heel and kicked me hard in the stomach: “You arrogant little bitch! Let me tell you something, the cyberbullying is just getting started!” She leaned down close to my ear, her voice purely malicious: “You can play tough all you want, but I wonder if your mommy and daddy have the same psychological endurance? What are your relatives going to say when they see this?” “I’m going to make sure everyone they have ever met knows they raised a cheap, filthy whore who sleeps with married men to get a job!” “I’m going to make sure people spit on them when they walk down the street. They won’t be able to show their faces at work! Let’s see how they like being cursed at and treated like garbage! I want to see if your precious parents can survive that kind of humiliation!” Those words pierced straight through my heart like a serrated blade. I snapped my head up, glaring at Brenda, my eyes burning with absolute, unfiltered rage: “Don’t you dare!” “What wouldn’t I dare do?” Brenda’s laugh grew even more maniacal: “As long as it gets you to pack your bags and get the hell out of here, I’ll do whatever it takes!” “If you’re a good little girl, resign, and apologize right now, I might just let your parents off the hook. Otherwise, we burn together!” 4 The surrounding coworkers eagerly chimed in: “Chloe, just quit. Don’t drag your parents down with you.” “Brenda gave you an out. Acting tough now is just stupid.” “Hurry up and apologize. Don’t humiliate your family any further.” I lay on the floor, every bone in my body aching as if I’d been beaten. My ears were filled with nothing but their insults and jeers. A heavy, suffocating mix of despair and pure fury surged in my chest. I didn’t understand. All I wanted to do was prove myself through my own hard work. Why was this happening to me? Are normal people not allowed to be exceptional? Does being exceptional mean you must have used disgusting, underhanded tactics to get there? Why?! I slowly pushed myself up from the floor, my eyes locked onto Brenda in a death stare: “I am warning you. Do not cross that line.” “Cross the line? I haven’t even started yet!” Brenda was completely unhinged now. She spun around, stormed into the breakroom, and came running out holding a heavy, stainless steel Yeti thermos filled to the brim with boiling water. “Today, I’m going to destroy that pretty little face of yours! Let’s see how you seduce men after this! Let’s see if your parents ever have the courage to show their faces in public again!” She raised the heavy thermos, aiming the boiling water directly at my face. I instinctively squeezed my eyes shut. Right at that exact second, a panicked, desperate voice roared through the office: “Stop! Brenda, are you out of your fucking mind?!” Director Robert Evans came sprinting across the floor, gasping for air. He lunged forward and grabbed Brenda’s wrist with a vice grip. The boiling water in the thermos sloshed violently, splashing out. A few searing drops hit my forearm. It burned like fire. Brenda thrashed against him, screaming like a banshee: “Robert! You’re actually protecting this little whore?! She seduced you, she ruined our marriage, and you’re defending her?! I am going to rip her face off today!” “You’re wrong! She isn’t my mistress!” Director Evans’ face was as pale as a sheet of paper. His voice was physically shaking. Brenda grew even more furious, violently shoving him away: “I think you’ve been completely brainwashed by this little fox! Do you think I’m a complete idiot?!” Screaming, she raised the thermos to throw it again. I didn’t have time to dodge. I could only watch helplessly as a wave of scalding, boiling water rushed toward me. “Don’t touch her!” Director Evans threw himself forward like a madman, using his own body as a human shield to cover me. The majority of the boiling water splashed directly onto his back. He cried out in agony, his face contorting in pain. Brenda froze for a split second before her rage exploded to new heights: “Robert Evans! You actually took boiling water for her?! I am going to kill you both!” She reached out, her claw-like nails aiming straight for my hair. Director Evans desperately held her back, screaming at the top of his lungs: “Do you have any idea who she is?! You have destroyed us!” “Who is she?! She’s a cheap homewrecker!” “She is the Chairman’s only daughter! She is the sole heir to Apex Enterprises! The Chairman sent her here undercover to learn the business! I only found out her true identity yesterday, and I didn’t have time to warn you… You have completely ruined us!” That sentence dropped like a nuclear bomb, instantly annihilating all sound in the room. Brenda’s hand froze in mid-air. The psychotic rage on her face instantly dissolved into sheer, unadulterated terror. Her mouth opened and closed like a dying fish. It took her a long time to stammer out a single sentence: “You… what did you say? She’s… Chairman Carter’s daughter?” The coworkers surrounding us were completely paralyzed. The phones they were using to record me hovered frozen in the air. The mockery and contempt on their faces instantly morphed into raw, unconcealed panic. The people who had just been aggressively jeering and insulting me quickly lowered their heads, absolutely terrified of making eye contact. I slowly stood up from the floor. Enduring the stinging pain in my arm and the dull ache in my stomach, I smoothed out the wrinkles in my ruined blouse. Brenda’s legs gave out completely. She collapsed into a pathetic heap on the floor, muttering incoherently: “Impossible… this is impossible…” I walked step by step until I was standing directly over her, looking down at her pathetic form. My voice was perfectly calm, but it carried a bone-chilling frost: “Director Brenda. I told you from the very beginning. I didn’t do any of those things. But you refused to listen, and you pushed me to the absolute brink.” “Every word you just said, everything you did to me today, and all those posts on the internet… I am going to calculate the cost of every single one of them, and you will pay for it.” Director Evans clutched his scalded back, struggling to his feet. He roared at the paralyzed coworkers: “What are you idiots standing around for?! Call 911!” “And delete every single post and comment on the internet! Right now! If anyone breathes a single word of this, you are fired immediately!” The coworkers snapped out of their trance, frantically pulling out their phones to delete their posts. Someone scrambled away to call an ambulance. Brenda, still sprawled on the floor, suddenly flipped over and began aggressively kowtowing to me: “Miss Carter… I’m so sorry… I was blind, I completely misunderstood you… Please, be the bigger person and show me mercy. Please spare me…” I completely ignored her. I pulled out my phone and dialed my father’s private number. The moment the call connected, the tears I had been desperately holding back finally broke through. My voice trembled slightly: “Dad. Someone is bullying me at the company.” My father’s furious, booming voice echoed through the speaker: “What happened?!” “Who dares to touch my daughter?!” “Chloe, stay right there. I am coming down right now!” Less than three minutes after I hung up, the sound of heavy, thunderous footsteps echoed from the main entrance of the office floor. My father, dressed in a sharp black bespoke suit, strode in. His expression was terrifyingly dark. Behind him trailed the Head of Corporate Security and the Chief HR Officer. The sheer, overwhelming pressure of his presence made the entire floor hold its breath. “Chloe!” My dad’s eyes instantly locked onto the angry red burn on my arm and the glaring handprint on my cheek. His eyes turned bloodshot in an instant. He crossed the room in three massive strides and gently grasped my wrist: “Who did this?” The collective gasp from the coworkers was audible. Everyone’s eyes were wide with sheer terror. “Holy shit, Chloe Carter really is the Chairman’s daughter!” “And what we just did to her… we’re dead. We are all completely dead!” “I’ve worked here for ten years and I’ve only ever seen the Chairman at the annual gala! I heard he had her late in life and spoils her like a princess. We are going to get slaughtered for this!” Brenda was still paralyzed on the floor. Seeing my father, her soul practically left her body. She scrambled forward on her hands and knees, her knees hitting the hardwood floor with a heavy thud: “Chairman Carter! I was wrong! I was so wrong! I didn’t target Miss Chloe on purpose!” My father viciously kicked an office chair out of his way. It slammed into the wall and shattered into pieces. None of the employees had ever seen the Chairman lose control like this. They were all frozen in absolute terror. “On my way down here, I had my team investigate the situation!” “You called my daughter a whore, threw coffee on her, slapped her across the face, and tried to permanently disfigure her with boiling water. You call that not on purpose?!” “If your ‘purpose’ had actually succeeded, would my daughter even be alive right now?!” “It was a misunderstanding!” Brenda wailed hysterically, pointing a shaking finger directly at Director Evans: “Chairman Carter, please, you have to listen to me! It was him! It was Robert!” “I’ve suspected Robert was having an affair for months! He’s been coming home late every night, he put a new password on his phone. When I finally managed to snoop through it, the only suspicious thing I found was Miss Chloe’s resume!” “I thought Miss Chloe was seducing him to get a job here! I was so blinded by anger that I did all of those things!” Director Evans clutched his burned back, his face chalk-white as he lunged forward: “What kind of delusional garbage are you spewing?! When did you go through my phone?!” “I only found out Chloe was the Chairman’s daughter yesterday! I was literally just about to tell you when you started this massive psychotic meltdown!” “Bullshit!” Brenda suddenly jumped up, pointing her finger right in Director Evans’ face, screaming: “If you had told me she was the Chairman’s daughter, do you really think I would have dared to touch a single hair on her head?! You kept it a secret from me on purpose!” “You wanted her to take my Director position so you and your little mistress could run off into the sunset together, didn’t you?!” “You are completely insane!” Director Evans was shaking with rage: “I have worked at Apex for ten years! Why would I ever risk my career over something so stupid?!” “You are the one who is pathologically paranoid! You beat people up and humiliate them without a shred of evidence, and now you’re trying to pin the blame on me?!” “I’m pinning the blame?!” Brenda let out a cold, sharp laugh, her voice rising to a screech: “Robert Evans, do you dare stand there and say your hands are clean at work? That massive project last year—didn’t you embezzle company funds to pay for your mother’s medical bills?!” “And last month! You took a fifty-thousand-dollar kickback from a supplier so they could use cheap, substandard materials! Did you honestly think I didn’t know about that?!” The entire floor erupted. The coworkers were absolutely stunned, whispering frantically to each other: “Is that true?! Director Evans actually embezzled company money?!” “And he took kickbacks?! That’s a massive federal crime!” “Oh my god, this is insane. Even if I get fired today, witnessing this drama was worth it!” Director Evans’ face turned a sickly shade of green. He reached out, desperately trying to cover Brenda’s mouth: “You crazy bitch! Shut the hell up!” “I’m crazy?!” Brenda violently shoved him away, reaching into her blazer pocket and throwing a thick stack of photos onto the floor. It was a collection of photos showing Director Evans dining with shady suppliers and accepting thick envelopes of cash. “I’ve had these photos saved for months! I was trying to save your reputation, but since you forced my hand, I am going to expose every single piece of your filthy, disgusting laundry!” “Don’t you dare!” Director Evans’ eyes went red with desperation. He shoved Brenda hard: “If you didn’t throw psychotic tantrums at home every day and control every single cent in my bank account, do you think I would have resorted to this?!” “Besides screaming and throwing things, what else are you even good for? Compared to her, you aren’t even worthy of shining her shoes!” “Her?!” Brenda froze for a second, then lunged at him like a rabid animal: “Aha! You finally admit it! You really do have a filthy little mistress on the side!” “Who is it?! Is it that slutty little assistant of yours, Mia?! I always saw you two making eyes at each other!” Director Evans, scratched and cornered, completely lost his mind and roared recklessly: “So what if it is?!” “Mia is a hundred times sweeter than you! A thousand times more caring! She would never act like a completely unreasonable, psychotic banshee like you! You are a shrill, miserable shrew! I have been sick of you for years!” Those words struck like a lightning bolt, silencing the entire room. Even I was stunned. So Brenda’s initial suspicion was correct—it was Assistant Mia. But because the only “evidence” she found was my resume, she dumped all her psychotic rage onto me? I had actually taken the fall for Mia! The office erupted again, the whispers now too loud to contain: “Oh my god! It was actually Assistant Mia?!” “No wonder Mia was backing Brenda up and helping her insult Chloe earlier! She was trying to divert the heat away from herself!” “That is sickening! The two of them teamed up to torture Chloe, but the real rot was inside their own marriage!” Brenda stood rooted to the spot, her face ashen. She stared unblinkingly at Director Evans, then suddenly let out a piercing, hysterical laugh: “Good… very good! Robert Evans! You really were sleeping with that cheap little slut!” “I slaved away at home for you! I protected you and took the heat for you at this company! And this is how you repay me?!” Director Evans had completely given up caring. He pointed his finger right back at her: “You have the nerve to say that?! Last time you accepted luxury handbags from a client and got reported to compliance, who buried it for you?! And when you leaked our client database to a competitor, who took the fall for that?! Do you think I’m blind?! The illegal, shady shit you’ve pulled at this company is ten times worse than mine!” “Bullshit! I never did that!” Brenda shrieked, launching herself at Director Evans, scratching and biting him like a wild animal: “I’m going to kill you, you cheating bastard! I’ll take you down with me!” Director Evans saw red. He raised his hand and delivered a brutal slap across Brenda’s face. The two of them devolved into a vicious brawl. Hair was pulled, clothes were ripped to shreds. Loose documents, shattered phone screens, and spilled coffee mixed together on the floor. It was absolute, utter chaos. Brenda screamed as she threw punches: “You ungrateful, treacherous piece of trash! I must have been blind to ever marry you!” Director Evans fought back, roaring: “I’m the one who was blind! Marrying a psychotic bitch like you ruined my career and destroyed my life!” My father’s face was dark with fury. He barked at the security team: “Pull them apart! Call the police immediately! Have them investigated for every single one of these charges!”

🌟 Continue the story here 👉🏻 📲 Download the “MotoNovel” app 🔍 search for “395013”, and watch the full series ✨! #MotoNovel