Category: English

1 Hooves pounded across the Royal Hunt grounds when Crown Prince Alaric’s arrow struck an orphan—Seraphina Moss, his disgraced mother’s niece. No one predicted he’d fall instantly in love. “She’ll be my princess,” he declared. Problem: he was engaged to me, Lady Evelyn of House Ashbourne. Alaric came to my estate, jaw set. “I bound her wounds. We touched. She’s ruined—she must marry me.” His gaze flicked to me. “You’re the Queen’s niece. You have options. Must you steal from a helpless girl?” As if a Ashbourne would fight for a man. Absurd. Before the scandal spread, a royal decree arrived: I’d keep the title of Crown Princess—but the role would go to another. … Prince Alaric stood in the grand hall of my family’s estate, his posture straight and proud. But his gaze never left the delicate figure of Seraphina Moss beside him. “Seraphina is fragile,” he announced to the assembled guests. “She has only just arrived in the capital, and she has already met with such a disaster. I injured her. If I do not marry her, how can she possibly go on?” “Lady Evelyn, you must understand. For a woman, honor is everything. Seraphina now has no other path but to marry me.” “If you have any compassion at all, you will agree to end our engagement.” So this was it. He had been smitten with her since that first glance at the hunt. For two months, he had kept it hidden, only to choose my birthday—of all days—to publicly humiliate me and my family. My father’s hands trembled, rattling the teacup he held. He cast aside all decorum. “Your Highness,” he demanded, “do you have any idea what this will do to Evelyn’s future? What of her honor?” “You begged the Emperor for this match yourself! The entire capital knows of your betrothal to my daughter. To come here now and break it… what does that make of House Ashbourne?” Seraphina, her face a mask of fear, tugged gently on Alaric’s sleeve. “Cousin, please, don’t argue with Lord Ashbourne on my account. I am not afraid of whispers and rumors. At worst, I shall take my own life. I could never bear to be a burden to you.” Alaric wrapped a protective arm around her. “Do not be afraid,” he murmured. “I will not let you face them alone.” Then, he looked at me, his expression a mixture of arrogance and disdain. “Lady Evelyn, you come from a noble house. Surely you would not deign to compete with Seraphina for a man. You have your pick of worthy suitors. To cling to this engagement would only make you appear desperate.” “Or perhaps,” he sneered, “you are just like all the other women in this city, greedy for the title of Crown Princess.” “Since our betrothal, you have refused every invitation to ride, every poetry gathering I have hosted. You’ve been cold and distant. It’s clear you were never happy with this match. Annuling it should be a relief for you.” The House of Ashbourne had never endured such an insult. I was speechless with rage. All I could do was retrieve the betrothal contract. “Your Highness. Here is the contract. From this day forward, our paths diverge. You are free to marry whom you please.” My gaze fell on Seraphina. “And Miss Moss, there is no need for such a sorrowful performance in my home. You have found a wonderful match. Soon you will hold the most coveted position in the empire. Shouldn’t you be happy?” Seraphina swayed, her face turning deathly pale. “Lady Evelyn, I know my station is low. I would never dare compare myself to you, nor did I intend to steal your fiancé. Why must you mock me so?” Alaric let out a scornful laugh. “You were very quick to end things, Lady Evelyn. Could it be you already have another man in your heart? Perhaps my actions have done you a favor?” He swept his gaze across the guests. “Today is your birthday. Why not choose a new suitor right now? I will even provide a lavish wedding gift myself.” With that, he wrapped his arm around Seraphina and left, a smug smile on his face. The hall erupted in whispers. “Has the Crown Prince lost his mind? Breaking his engagement for some unknown cousin!” “But Lady Evelyn is the Queen’s niece! She’s his cousin too!” “You haven’t heard? He shot this Seraphina girl during the hunt and fell for her on the spot. Now he insists on marrying her.” “I’ve never even heard of this woman. The security at the royal hunting grounds is impenetrable. How did she even get in? There’s more to this story.” “I heard she’s related to the Prince’s birth mother…” “Hush! Don’t speak of that. The Prince’s origins are a forbidden topic. His mother was nothing but a lowly palace maid.” My birthday celebration was ruined, ending in chaos and humiliation. And overnight, the news that Crown Prince Alaric had jilted a daughter of House Ashbourne for an orphan girl became the scandal of the capital. 2 The next day, I was summoned to the palace by the Queen. She is my father’s sister, my true aunt, and has always doted on me. Though she has reigned as Queen for many years, she remains childless—a constant, hidden sorrow. Alaric’s birth mother was a scullery maid the Emperor happened upon at a country palace. She was so low-born that even after catching the Emperor’s eye, she was never granted a title. She died shortly after Alaric was born. Because of his mother’s status, Alaric was bullied by everyone, even the palace eunuchs. He nearly didn’t survive his childhood. But my aunt, the Queen, was the Emperor’s cherished favorite. Her power in the palace was absolute. Seeing the boy’s pitiful state, she took him in, raised him as her own, and educated him with the utmost care. And so, although he was only the fourth-born prince, his adoption by the Queen made him the natural choice for Crown Prince. She held my hand, her voice filled with pain. “My dear child, I know you have been wronged. Alaric is a fool who doesn’t appreciate his blessings. I taught him for years, I promised him the most beloved daughter of our house, and he casts you aside for a pretty face he’s only just met!” “With such judgment, how can he ever hope to rule? All my years of guidance have been wasted.” Her voice cracked. “The blood that flows in his veins is not of House Ashbourne, after all. He is not my own. I see now that he can never truly be.” I leaned against her knee, clutching her sleeve. “Aunt, it is not a bad thing that the Prince has shown his true character before our marriage. It is better than me suffering after I have entered the palace.” “A daughter of House Ashbourne will not lack for suitors.” The Queen smiled, stroking my cheek. “Our Evelyn is the finest woman in the empire. Rest assured, the position of Crown Princess is yours and yours alone. No one can take it from you.” The Emperor and Queen were childhood sweethearts. Their bond was deep. Even without an heir of her own, she remained the woman he loved and trusted most. Because she raised Alaric, the Emperor’s affection extended to him as well. He had made the son of a palace maid the Crown Prince. Now, the Emperor had heard of the broken betrothal and was furious. “Fool! The greatest houses in the land would move heaven and earth for a daughter of House Ashbourne, and you cast her aside for some nobody?” “The Queen arranged this marriage to give you the backing of a great house! You have no maternal clan to support you. This was your foundation, and you have destroyed it with your own hands! You are as witless as a pig!” The Emperor stormed out, leaving a stunned silence in his wake. Despite the Emperor’s fury, Alaric remained defiant. He brought Seraphina with him to pay his respects to the Queen. He knelt before her. “Mother, you have always cherished me. All I wish is to marry a woman I love. I am the Crown Prince. Surely I can marry someone of my own choosing?” The Queen looked at him with profound disappointment. “You and Evelyn grew up together. You once knelt before me and begged for this marriage, claiming you adored her, that you would support each other as equals for a lifetime. And now you say she is not the woman you love?” “It seems to me that this Seraphina has blinded you.” Alaric held his head high, his hand clutching Seraphina’s. “Mother, Evelyn is just like all the other dull noblewomen—bound by rules, stiff, and utterly lifeless. But Seraphina is different! She laughs, she jests, she dances dances never before seen at court, and sings all manner of rustic folk songs. She is vibrant and captivating! Mother, if you only got to know her, I am certain you would love her too!” 3 From behind the screen, a scornful smile touched my lips. Singing folk songs, performing vulgar dances, and being “captivating”? You could find a girl like that in any tavern. The Queen’s voice was ice. “Alaric, do you have any idea what you will lose without the support of House Ashbourne?” The Prince laughed. “I know you speak of the backing of the great houses. But Mother, I am the Crown Prince, the future ruler of this empire. The entire world is my domain. What have I to fear?” His face brightened. “I know you are fond of Evelyn. Why not let her be my consort? When I ascend the throne, I will make her a Noble Consort. Surely House Ashbourne would not dare to object?” Behind the screen, I clenched my fists. The insolence of this boy. The Queen’s voice was chilling. “A daughter of House Ashbourne will never be a secondary wife. Alaric, you are my adopted son, but you are not the Emperor’s only son. Do you truly believe you can hold your position on your own?” “Of course,” he replied, his voice firm. “I am the future Emperor, Mother.” Seraphina spoke in a soft, weak voice. “Your Majesty, I know my station is low. If Lady Evelyn joins the palace, I will never compete with her. I will treat her as a sister, and we will serve His Highness together.” The Queen let out a short, sharp laugh. “Hmph. Alaric, you had best be certain. Once you marry Seraphina, there is no turning back.” His voice rang with conviction. “Yes. I will have no regrets.” The Queen waved a dismissive hand. “Very well. You may leave. I will issue the decree in a few days.” The Prince’s arrogance was boundless; he clearly held no respect for the Queen’s family. I knew my aunt had made her decision. I said no more and slipped away. As I was leaving the Queen’s palace, Alaric cornered me at the gate. “Evelyn, I was impulsive yesterday. After some thought, I admit I was wrong.” “My father, the Emperor, reprimanded me today. I realize now that I should not have damaged your reputation.” “I have already requested that my mother, the Queen, decree Seraphina as my official Crown Princess. But the position of Royal Consort is not a slight to you. This way, we can still be together, and I will not have broken my promise. What do you say?” He looked at me with such tenderness, as if expecting me to nod in grateful acceptance. He was disappointed. I took a step back. “Your Highness, our betrothal is over. There is nothing more to discuss.” He reached for me. “Evelyn, I know I was wrong. Please, forgive me this once. I can apologize to you in front of everyone, restore your honor. How about that?” I snatched my hand away. “Your Highness, please conduct yourself with dignity. You declared with your own lips that our betrothal was void. Have you forgotten?” Alaric advanced, trapping me against a pillar. “Evelyn, a woman must be sweet and obedient to be loved. We were betrothed. A woman rejected by the Crown Prince… who in the empire would dare marry you? If word gets out, your life will be ruined.” I lifted my chin, meeting his gaze. “You need not concern yourself with my affairs, Your Highness. A daughter of House Ashbourne will never lack for suitors. Even if you scream yourself hoarse, the nobles of this land will still line up at my family’s door.” His face darkened. “Evelyn, a little temper is charming. Too much, and a man loses all interest.” “I will inform the Emperor that the wedding will proceed as planned. When you are my consort, I will take the time to properly teach you how to behave.” From that day on, the Prince paraded Seraphina all over the capital. Because his future bride had no family of means, he commissioned the city’s most luxurious jewelers and silk houses to craft a dowry for her, working day and night. Seraphina had never seen such finery in her life. She stroked the silks, her eyes wide with wonder. Alaric held her close, spending gold like water. “I want everyone to bow to you. One day, you will be the most revered woman in the world.” He showered her with gifts, and a cloud of sycophants followed them everywhere, praising him as a man of true passion, a man who would defy the Emperor and Queen for love, who would cast aside the powerful House of Ashbourne for a humble girl. It was, they said, deeply moving. The more he heard it, the more pleased he became. “I love only you,” he told Seraphina, taking her hand. “One day, you will be my Empress, and rule by my side. Who will dare to speak ill of you then? They will all kneel at your feet. As for that girl from House Ashbourne, she will be fit only to serve you.” Seraphina leaned weakly against his chest. “Cousin, are you truly giving up Lady Evelyn for me? She is the daughter of a great house, the Queen’s own niece. She is far more suited to be Crown Princess. As long as you have me in your heart, I am willing to give up the position. Just seeing you every day is enough…” “Besides, the Queen does not seem to like me. I don’t want to make things difficult for you.” Alaric hugged her tightly. “Do not worry. I am the Crown Prince. Can I not give the woman I love the title of princess? House Ashbourne, for all its power, is still a house of subjects. Offering her the position of consort is the greatest honor I can bestow upon them.” “My mother has no children of her own. She raised me. Who else can she rely on? She will yield, you’ll see.” “As for Evelyn Ashbourne… When a king gives an order, his subjects must obey. I want her as my consort, and House Ashbourne will have no choice but to deliver her to my palace!”

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The day my wife gave birth to my brother’s child, my whole family stood guard outside the delivery room—not out of concern for Lina, but fear I’d cause a scene. Mom watched the elevator nervously. “Ethan wouldn’t take the stairs, right?” Dad called security again. “Six-foot-three. Seen him?” Jake paced, fists clenched. “If he shows up, I’ll protect Lina and my son.” But I never came. After the birth, Lina handed Mom her phone. “Call Ethan. If he agrees to be godfather, we can still be family.” She felt no guilt—just pride in giving our parents a grandchild. What they didn’t know? I wasn’t coming. I was under the scorching sun, training for a peacekeeping mission in Africa. A deployment I might not return from. 1 Lina came home after a week in the hospital. I had just gotten back from the training grounds. I opened the front door to find the whole family gathered around the sofa. “Oh, just look at him! He has Lina’s eyes and nose, but that mouth… that’s all Jake,” my mother cooed. “Mom, he’s so little, you can’t tell yet,” Lina murmured, though she was beaming. “Lina, you’ve been through so much,” Jake said, leaning down to kiss her forehead, his eyes filled with an undisguised love. My father sat to one side, smiling so broadly that new wrinkles creased the corners of his eyes. “Of course you can tell! And I say, thank God the baby looks like you two. If he was Ethan’s kid, he’d probably be a disappointment anyway.” He used to be so proud that I was a soldier. He’d always said that a man’s highest calling was to protect his country, even if it meant long deployments without a return date. But now, coming home, it seemed everything had changed. I watched their perfect little family of five, a bitter, ridiculous taste filling my mouth. Four years ago, I’d left home to join the service for a critical mission. Lina and I were newlyweds. I couldn’t bear the thought of her waiting for me, practically a widow if my mission failed. I’d offered her a divorce, urging her to find a new life. But Lina had only gripped my hand, tears in her eyes, refusing. “Ethan, is that the kind of woman you think I am? One who can’t handle being alone?” she’d said, her voice trembling. “My husband is defending our country. How could I, your wife, leave you at a time like this? I’ll take care of your parents. I’ll be here, waiting for you.” The day I left, my parents and Lina saw me off at the airport. My parents were crying, their hands clutching mine, their clouded eyes tracing the lines of my face. “Ethan, don’t you worry,” my father had choked out. “Your mother and I will be right here, waiting for you to come home safe.” “He’s right,” my mother added. “We’re so proud of you. Just focus on your duty.” I’d walked the line between life and death more times than I could count. The thought of them was what always pulled me back. But when I was discharged and came home two months ago, I walked into a completely different world. My place had been taken, firmly and completely, by another man. “Ethan, you’re back.” Jake’s voice snapped me out of my thoughts. The others looked up. My father’s face immediately soured when he saw me, covered in dirt and grime from training. “Look at the state of you! Are you trying to embarrass us? Did you have to show up looking like a mess on the day Lina comes home?” “Are you doing this on purpose? Trying to bring bad luck into this house?” my mother added, her voice sharp. The same woman who used to fret over every cut and bruise from my training now looked at me with pure disgust. Lina, reclining on the sofa, glowed with the light of new motherhood. “Ethan, I know you’re resentful,” she said softly. “But you were gone for years. Even if I could wait, your parents needed a child. You can’t be so selfish as to deny them a grandchild.” Hearing her words, I couldn’t help it. I laughed. “An adopted son’s child isn’t a real heir.” “Ethan, what did you just say?!” my father roared, slamming his hand on the table and glaring at me. “If it werent for Jake, I would have died of a heart attack on the street! He had no family, and he shares our last name. He was a gift from heaven! I’m telling you, if you watch your mouth, there’s still a place for you in this home. But if you insist on making trouble, I won’t hesitate to throw you out myself!” When my father got angry, his eyebrows shot up and his eyes bulged, a truly terrifying sight. In the past, worried about his heart condition, I would have immediately backed down and apologized. But now, I just stood there, unmoved. Seeing my silence, my father raised a hand to strike me, but Jake stopped him. “Dad, it’s okay. It’s normal for Ethan to need some time to accept this.” Jake stood between us, his expression sincere as he looked at me. “Brother, I hope you can come to the christening. As the baby’s father.” I did a quick calculation. The christening was a month from now. The exact day I was due to return to my unit. In that case, I would give them a christening they would never forget. “Fine,” I said. 2 I went into the bathroom to shower. The sound of their happy chatter wasn’t muffled by the door; it flowed right through, clear as day. “Jake, what should we name the baby?” “Whatever you want, Lina. You’re his mother; you have the final say.” Jake’s voice was gentle, and Lina’s tone was filled with a soft reliance on him. Cold water streamed down my neck, clearing my head. I could still remember the overwhelming joy and excitement I felt two months ago, coming home at last. But when I pushed open the door, the first thing I saw was Lina, her belly swollen and round. There was no surprise or happiness on her face. Only fear. “You! What are you doing back?!” Before I could speak, a strange man walked out of our bedroom. “Who is it, Lina?” he asked. He was wearing my pajamas and my slippers. The moment he saw me, he moved to shield Lina behind him. Our wedding photo, once prominently displayed, was gone. Jake stared at me with wary eyes. “Who are you?” he demanded. “Jake, he… he’s Ethan. My husband.” In that moment, it felt like all the blood in my body rushed to my head. My thoughts shut down, replaced by a dull ringing in my ears. Hearing Lina’s words, Jake’s face broke into a smile, and he walked toward me. “Nice to meet you. I’m Jake, your brother. And the father of your child. I…” My fist was my answer. “You son of a bitch!” I threw him to the ground, punching his face again and again. Lina’s screams filled the air as she tried to stop me, too scared to get close. All I could think was, I’m going to kill this parasite who snuck into my life. It wasn’t until my mother’s slap stung my cheek that I stopped. My father pulled me off, and I collapsed onto the floor. My own parents stood over me, their voices a torrent of accusations. The condemnation and disgust in their eyes became a recurring nightmare that would haunt me for a long time. Later, I learned the whole story. In the four years I was gone, Jake had become my parents’ adopted son. He’d taken care of them. And then, he started taking care of my wife. That night, I sat on the sofa and smoked an entire pack of cigarettes. Lina sat beside me, crying through a whole box of tissues. “You’re gone for years at a time,” she sobbed, claiming she did it all for me. “I can handle it, but what about your parents? They’re getting older! They just wanted a grandchild to keep them company. What’s so wrong with that? Jake even said the baby would call you Dad, that he would have nothing to do with him. He’s already given up so much, why can’t you just accept it?” In the dim light of the living room, I looked at her face. It had only been four years, but it felt like a lifetime had passed. As the last cigarette burned down to the filter, I asked in a raw voice, “Do you love him?” Lina didn’t answer, but the way her hand froze told me everything I needed to know. In that instant, all my anger and humiliation felt utterly ridiculous. “Ethan, Jake will be staying in your room for a while.” I had just stepped out of the shower when my father gave the order. “You can pack your things and move into the guest room.” “Why?” My voice was flat. But they reacted as if I’d shouted a challenge, jumping to their feet. My mother pointed a finger at me. “Jake is kind enough to let the child call you Dad! But he is the biological father! What’s wrong with him sleeping in the same room as the mother and child? Ethan, stop being so selfish.” I’d heard that word—selfish—countless times in the past two months. Whenever I showed the slightest hint of disapproval, they’d use it to crush me. But the selfish ones were not me. I wanted to argue, but then I remembered I’d be gone in a month. So I just shut my mouth, gathered my things, and moved into the spare room. That night, exhausted from a full day of training, I should have fallen asleep the moment my head hit the pillow. Instead, strange noises from the room next door kept me tossing and turning. “Wait, I just gave birth, we can’t…” “What do you mean, we can’t? Lina, I’ve missed you like crazy these past few days.” “Ethan’s in the next room!” “So what? He can’t hear. And besides, wouldn’t it be more exciting if he could? Lina, tell me, who’s better? Me, or your husband?” “Mmm… you, of course…” I closed my eyes, my fists clenched so tight my knuckles were white. An image of my first date with Lina flashed in my mind. Back then, she would blush just from holding my hand. Maybe time really does change everything. 3 I didn’t sleep well that night. The next day, I was up before dawn and heading back to the training grounds. This next mission was going to be even more dangerous than the last. I had to be in peak physical condition to avoid being a liability to my team. But as I trained, the ugly memories kept replaying in my head. The loving way Lina looked at Jake. My parents’ fierce protection of him. It all fueled a burning rage inside me. I channeled that rage into my training. I imagined the punching bag was Jake’s face. And I destroyed it. On the way back, I stopped to buy a few buns to fill my stomach. Suddenly, I heard a familiar voice. “Brother?” I turned. The four of them were standing not far from me. Jake was dressed in a sharp suit, his hair slicked back with gel, a pair of gold-rimmed glasses perched on his nose. He looked quite respectable. “Ethan, it really is you! What are you…” He trailed off, looking me up and down. I’d just come from the training grounds, disheveled and sweaty, wearing only a white tank top with my jacket slung over my shoulder. Compared to Jake, I looked like a wreck. Lina stood beside him, frowning, one hand held delicately over her nose. I saw the gesture and my mind flashed back. After every training session in the past, Lina would throw herself into my arms. I’d often push her away, telling her I was covered in sweat. But she never cared. She used to say my sweat was for our country, that she couldn’t be prouder, so how could she ever be disgusted? I guess the difference between love and no love really is that obvious. “Ethan, what have you been doing to look so pathetic?” my mother’s voice cut through my thoughts, dripping with disdain. “If you have no shame, we do!” It was as if all those times she’d tenderly bandaged my wounds and cooked me soup belonged to another lifetime. “Brother, I get it now,” Jake said, his expression one of feigned sympathy. “You were discharged and couldn’t find work, so you started doing construction?” “Ethan, if you need a job, you could have just told me! I can help you find something! There’s no need to degrade yourself like this.” He sounded like he was looking out for me, but without me saying a single word, he’d branded me a manual laborer. I opened my mouth to explain, but when I saw the disgust on Lina’s and my parents’ faces, I closed it again. “Him? Let’s not have him embarrass your company,” my father scoffed, not even bothering to look at me. “He’s got nothing but a pile of muscles.” When I’d first enlisted right out of military school, my father had posted about it on social media for days, bragging about me. Someone had mocked him, saying I was just a dumb jock who was good at fighting but not at thinking. My father had stayed up all night arguing with the man. The next morning, with dark circles under his eyes, he’d clapped me on the shoulder with a proud smile. “Son,” he’d said, “you go protect our country. I’ll protect you.” But now, he was the one calling me a meathead. I looked down, hiding the bitterness in my eyes. “Well… Ethan, we’re heading to dinner. Do you want to join us?” Jake offered. “Let’s not, Jake. That place has a dress code. Ethan, looking like that…” Lina’s voice was soft, but her meaning was crystal clear. “Right,” Jake agreed. “In that case, we’ll see you later, brother.” He gave me a little wave. I watched them walk away, Jake at the center of the group, holding Lina’s hand, looking completely at ease. Fine. This was what they wanted—a son and a husband like Jake. So be it. I’d give them what they wanted. 4 Half a month flew by. It was time for my father’s post-op check-up. I got up early to get ready to take him to the hospital. No matter how he’d treated me, he was still my father. Besides, the surgeon who’d operated on him was a man I’d pulled strings to get, calling in a major favor from a high-ranking officer in the army. The doctor was one of the best in the world and rarely operated on anyone. But when my father saw me ready to go, he just frowned. “What are you doing?” “Taking you for your check-up.” “Save it. Jake is coming to pick me up. If it wasn’t for Jake, I’d be dead from that heart attack! Hmph, raising you has been the same as not having a son at all! Jake met me once and was willing to go beg Dr. Peterson to operate on me!” My father’s words were like a bomb exploding in my head. Dr. Peterson was the surgeon I had arranged! “What are you talking about?! I’m the one who got Dr. Peterson! I…” “You got him?! Ethan, stop lying through your teeth! Do you even know who Dr. Peterson is? Who are you? You think you have that kind of influence? You spent a few years in the army and now you think you’re some big shot.” My father sneered at me, cutting me off. But the moment he saw Jake, his expression changed completely. “Ethan, are you coming to the hospital with us?” Jake asked. “Why would we bring him? He’d just get in the way,” my father said, grabbing Jake’s arm. As they walked out, he glanced back at me. “Ethan, I suggest you learn to be more honest. Don’t disappoint your mother and me again.” In that moment, I finally understood. The truth didn’t matter. What mattered was that in his heart, he had already chosen Jake as his son. As for me, I was just the inconvenient one who came home from service when I wasn’t supposed to. I sat on the sofa as my phone buzzed with notifications. Lina was on a shopping spree with my supplementary credit card. During my four years in the service, I’d earned numerous commendations. The severance pay the military gave me upon discharge, I had it all deposited to that card. I had wanted to give Lina a better life. Now, it was clear that was just my own wishful thinking.

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1 The first day I dropped Lily at preschool, the teacher called: “Your daughter was caught stealing.” I rushed over on my old scooter to find her tied to the flagpole, a “THIEF” sign around her neck. A scream tore from me—until a designer-clad woman kicked my knee, sending me crashing down. She straddled me, yanking my hair. “Trash like you shouldn’t touch what belongs to the Harringtons!” she spat. “That hairclip is worth more than your lives.” I gritted my teeth. “What Harrington treasure is so precious?” The watching parents laughed. “Harrington Capital, you idiot! And this is Jenna Miller—the woman Mr. Harrington swore to protect!” Son of a bitch. Another of my brother-in-law’s mistresses. … I struggled, trying to get to Lily and untie the ropes, but Jenna held me down with vicious strength. Her nails dug into my wrists, the pain so sharp it made my vision blur. The preschool director, a woman with a pinched face, held a megaphone to her lips, her voice booming across the schoolyard. “Let this be a lesson to everyone! This is what happens to thieves!” “Starlight Academy will not tolerate stealing of any kind!” Parents pointed and whispered. Their children, emboldened by the adults, started picking up small stones and throwing them at my daughter. “Thief! Thief!” The childish chants were brutal. Pebbles pelted Lily’s small body. She was shaking, her sobs choked with terror as she pleaded, “I’m not a thief… I didn’t steal anything…” “What proof do you have that my daughter stole anything?” I roared, my voice raw. “That hair clip is hers! It was a birthday present from her father!” Jenna let out a cold, sharp laugh. She reached up and plucked an identical clip from her own daughter’s hair. “Open your damn eyes and look! This is the signature hair clip of the Harrington family’s eldest princess!” She held it high for everyone to see. “It even has her initials engraved on the back! Does your pathetic little knock-off have that?” I froze, finally seeing the subtle difference. My daughter’s clip was a custom-made prototype. Jenna’s daughter was wearing the mass-produced version that was later released to the public. The two girls must have dropped them while playing. Jenna’s daughter had insisted that Lily’s handmade version was hers. After a tantrum, the accusation of theft was born. Fearing the situation was spiraling out of control, I fumbled for my phone and dialed my brother-in-law, Brian. The call connected, but the background was filled with the deafening roar of machinery. “Brian! Get to Starlight Academy, now!” “Come clean up your mess, or I’m calling your wife!” Brian’s voice was muffled and confused. “Elara? I’m in the middle of something! Bad connection.” “Whatever it is, can we talk about it later? I have to go.” He hung up. Jenna and the other parents erupted in derisive laughter. “An actress! Look at her go! Pretending to call a Harrington!” “Who’s next, the President? Think the Secret Service will come save you?” Jenna kicked me hard in the back, sending me sprawling face-first into the dirt. Several of her friends, all decked out in expensive clothes, closed in, their fists and feet a merciless storm against my body. “Look at this pathetic stray! Daring to impersonate a Harrington relative!” “The nerve is just unbelievable!” My jacket was torn, and my scalp screamed in pain as they pulled my hair. 2 Tied to the flagpole, my daughter Lily’s cries were heart-wrenching. “Mommy! Don’t hit my mommy!” I fought like a wild animal, but they held me fast to the ground. My face was shoved into the earth, my mouth filled with the bitter taste of sand and humiliation. Rage and shame burned through me, a fire in my gut. Jenna ordered two school security guards to pin me down, rendering me completely immobile. She then turned to her own pampered daughter. “Sweetheart, Mommy’s going to teach you a lesson,” she cooed. “When you deal with thieves, you have to make sure they never forget.” “You go teach that little thief a lesson. Mommy will take care of the big one, and you can take care of the little one, okay?” Her daughter, a cruel smile on her face, picked up a bottle of black ink, twisted the cap off, and dumped the entire contents over Lily’s head. Lily, still bound, trembled violently. The thick, black liquid streamed down her pale face as her cries turned into hysterical sobs. My vision went red. I thrashed against the guards’ grip. “Stop it! You’ll pay for this! For doing this to a child!” Jenna kicked me in the chest, her laugh cold and sharp. “Pay for it? When you taught her to steal, did you think about the price she would have to pay?” “My price is having Mr. Harrington to protect me. Your price is kneeling here like a dog!” “Trash like you belongs under my heel!” The crowd of parents murmured their approval. Someone even started live-streaming the “righteous” punishment. Vicious comments scrolled across the phone screen: [Serves her right! Like mother, like daughter. The mom should be arrested!] [Look at her face. Not an ounce of remorse. How dare she glare like that?] [Thanks to the Justice Warrior Streamer for showing us what happens to scum.] [How can she still kneel there? I’d have buried myself in a hole by now.] [Streamer, zoom in! I want a good look at that shameless face!] Someone in the crowd yelled, “Film it! Let everyone see what happens to a thief!” Another chimed in, “Yeah! People like this deserve to be socially executed!” The director sidled up to Jenna, fawning over her. “Mrs. Harrington, don’t let this garbage upset you!” “I’ll have her daughter’s enrollment terminated immediately!” “I have connections at every preschool in the city. I’ll make sure this mother and daughter have nowhere to go!” My eyes burned with rage. I stared daggers at the bootlicking sycophant. “You just try it.” CRACK! Jenna’s hand connected with my cheek in a brutal slap. “Did I say you could speak?” I secretly slipped my hand into my pocket, trying to grab my phone to call the police. Jenna’s eyes narrowed. Her stiletto-clad foot stomped down on the back of my hand. She ground her heel in, the sharp point digging into my flesh. With a sickening crack, I heard my own bones break. A scream of pure agony was torn from my throat as a cold sweat drenched my back. The phone, now under her heel, shattered, the screen going black. “Trying to call the police? In your dreams!” “When I’m done with you, I’ll be the one to call them and have you thrown in a cell for a few days.” She lifted her chin smugly, taking the bottle of ink from the director and pouring the rest over my head. The black liquid ran through my hair, staining my white dress. My daughter saw what was happening and her cries became even more frantic. Jenna kept her foot planted on my crushed hand, looking down at me with an air of absolute superiority. “Lick the ink off my shoe. If you do a good enough job, I might consider untying your daughter.” “But it’s just a consideration. It all depends on how well you beg.” 3 The crowd of parents started chanting, their voices a roaring wave. “Lick it! Lick it!” “Teach her a lesson!” “A thief needs to know her place!” For Lily, I closed my eyes. I was trembling. Just as my lips were about to touch the filthy leather, a black Maybach screeched to a halt at the gate. Brian Harrington, my brother-in-law, jumped out, flanked by two assistants and a team of black-suited bodyguards. His face was pale, his forehead beaded with sweat. His eyes darted around the scene, finally landing on me, a pathetic, ink-stained heap on the ground. But he didn’t look at me. Instead, he turned to the parents who were live-streaming, giving his bodyguards a sharp nod. “Hand over the phones.” Terrified, the parents scrambled to comply, not daring to resist. Brian then walked up to the director, his voice quiet but laced with menace. “What happened here today, I don’t want to hear a single word about it outside this school.” The director bobbed her head like a puppet. “Yes, of course, Mr. Harrington! You have my word!” Only after he had contained the situation did he turn to Jenna. He forced a placating smile, reaching out to pat her shoulder in a gesture that looked anything but intimate. “Alright, Jenna, let’s not make a scene. We’ll let the director handle this. Why don’t I have someone take you home?” The triumphant smirk on Jenna’s face vanished, replaced by shock and confusion. She opened her mouth to speak, but Brian quickly clamped a hand over it, muffling her protests. I watched them, a cold knot forming in my stomach. Their interaction was stiff, almost clinical. I chalked it up to them trying to maintain appearances. She was his secret mistress, after all. A relationship not meant for the light of day. Just then, my daughter, still tied to the pole, cried out, her voice hoarse. “Uncle! Uncle, please help me! I’m not a thief!” Brian’s body went rigid, but he didn’t turn around. Lily’s sobs grew more desperate. She pointed to a faint blue ring, drawn with a ballpoint pen, on Brian’s middle finger. “Uncle, why won’t you look at me? Was… was the ring I drew for you yesterday not pretty?” He acted as if he hadn’t heard her, striding over to Jenna. He pulled a black credit card from his pocket and pressed it into her hand. “I’ll handle this. You take your daughter and go home.” His voice was low but held an undeniable urgency. Jenna clutched the card. Though she was clearly unhappy about it, she nodded, grabbed her daughter’s hand, and walked toward the Maybach. Brian finally let out a breath of relief. He barked at his bodyguards, “Quick! Get my niece down from there!” They moved swiftly, undoing the ropes that bound Lily. Her legs gave out, and she collapsed, crawling weakly toward me. And Brian, the moment Lily was free, turned, faced me, and dropped to his knees. “Elara! I’m so sorry! I’m late, I didn’t know it was this urgent!” His head was bowed low, his voice thick with regret and fear. “I’m begging you, please don’t tell my brother. And please, for the love of God, don’t tell Laura!” “Elara, you have to help me cover this up!” Ignoring the searing pain from my shattered hand, I pushed myself up from the ground. Lily crawled to my side, clinging to my leg, her sobs ragged and breathless. I looked at Brian kneeling before me, and a white-hot rage burned through my reason. I raised my good left hand and, with every ounce of strength I had, slapped him across the face. CRACK! “Help you?” I shrieked. “Brian, all the times you’ve messed around on the side, your brother and I have looked the other way! We’ve helped you lie to your wife, Laura!” “But look at this thing you’ve been keeping!” I pointed at the Maybach, its engine still rumbling. “She calls her daughter the ‘Harrington family’s eldest princess’! She tied my daughter to a flagpole! Poured ink on her! Called us thieves!” “She crushed my hand under her heel and ground me into the dirt!” “She shits on my head, and you expect me to wipe your ass?” I was shaking with fury. I slapped him again. 4 “You let her walk all over me! Brian, you’ve really outdone yourself!” “What are we in your eyes, my daughter and I? Just disposable trash? What kind of power have you given her that she dares to act like this?” Brian clutched his stinging cheeks, not daring to argue. He just kept bowing his head, over and over. “Elara, I’m sorry, I’m so sorry!” “I didn’t know she was this crazy! I’ll deal with her when I get home, I swear!” Just then, the Maybach, which had just started to pull away, slammed on its brakes. The door flew open, and Jenna stormed out, her face a mask of fury. When she saw Brian on his knees, with me standing over him, her eyes went bloodshot. “You thieving bitch!” “How dare you hit him?” Jenna lunged at me like a feral animal, her hand raised to strike. Two of the bodyguards reacted instantly, grabbing her from either side and holding her fast. Jenna thrashed in their grip, her voice a stream of curses. “Let me go! You useless dogs!” “Can’t you see this psycho is hitting Mr. Harrington?” “I’m going to rip her goddamn mouth off!” The scene had descended into chaos. At that moment, another car, a stately black Lincoln, pulled up to the gate. The door opened, and a woman in a custom-tailored, dark green silk dress stepped out with practiced grace. A string of sandalwood prayer beads was wrapped around her wrist, and a jade pendant hung from her waist. She moved with an effortless, commanding elegance. It was Laura. Brian’s wife. “I saw a live stream that looked a little familiar, so I came to see what was going on.” Her eyes swept over my disheveled form, then to her kneeling husband, and finally to the struggling Jenna. I shot Brian a sarcastic smile. “Well, Brian, your wife is here. Let’s see how you explain this one.” I was ready to watch the fireworks. Brian caught red-handed, the mistress right there in front of everyone. Finally, someone else would deal with her. But what happened next left me completely stunned. Laura walked briskly over to Jenna, her voice low and placating. “Miss Miller, why don’t we find somewhere private to talk? Let’s not make a scene here, okay?” She reached out to help Jenna up, her posture almost deferential. But Jenna looked at her as if she’d never seen her before. She shoved Laura’s hand away in disgust. “Who the hell do you think you are? You think you can touch me?” She looked Laura up and down, then sneered. “Some stray cat off the street thinks she can tell me what to do? Get lost!” Laura stumbled back, caught by her assistant. She instinctively glanced at Brian, who gave her a sharp, almost imperceptible nod. Laura understood immediately. She lunged forward and delivered a series of sharp, ringing slaps across Jenna’s face. “Who do you think you are?” “Daring to use the Harrington name to throw your weight around!” “You’re nothing!” The crisp sound of the slaps silenced the crowd. Jenna, clutching her burning cheek, was completely bewildered. “You hit me? Do you have any idea who I am?” “I don’t give a damn who you are!” Laura slapped her again, so hard that Jenna staggered. “You seduce my husband and then dare to act high and mighty in front of me? Who gave you the nerve?” With that, Laura grabbed a fistful of Jenna’s hair and started dragging her toward the car. But Jenna fought back, and the two women descended into a tangle of flailing limbs and furious shrieks. “You psycho! Who is your husband? When did I ever seduce him?” Jenna screamed as she struggled. “Let go of me! I only had dinner with the man once!” The crowd of parents watched, their jaws on the floor, as a new wave of gossip erupted. “So this Jenna is the mistress? Caught by the real wife?” “I knew it. The real Harringtons would never let their family act so atrociously in public. She’s just some cheap trash.” The jeers and whispers were even louder now than when they had been directed at me and my daughter. Brian scrambled to his feet, rushing to help Laura drag the screaming, kicking Jenna to the car. “Let me go! You two are disgusting!” Just as they were about to shove her inside, a small, desperate cry pierced the chaos. “Daddy! Daddy! They’re hitting my mommy! Help her!” I followed the sound of the voice.

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In the pouring rain, I knelt at a funeral for five hours, sobbing—just to earn a sliver of what my “dying” boyfriend Leo needed for surgery. Then I saw him. Smoking in the VIP section, surrounded by sycophants: “Is it true she’s a professional mourner, even pawning her dead mother’s heirlooms for you?” “Imagine her face,” they laughed, “when she finds out you’re a billionaire CEO—and this ‘sick boyfriend’ act was just revenge on your ex’s rival.” Leo blew a smoke ring. “Her tears are worthless. If she goes blind, so be it.” “Damn, Leo, you know how to handle women.” “She was born trash,” he said coldly. “Her fault for crossing Isabelle.” I stifled a sob. Every whispered “I love you”—a lie. Heart hollow, I called my general father: “I’ll take the arranged marriage.” … 1 I hung up, but the laughter from the VIP section didn’t stop. “Haha, Leo, you’re a master of the game.” “I heard that girl’s wailing is pretty melodic. Bet she sounds even better in bed, huh?” Leo shot the speaker a look. “You want to hear?” “I’ll record it for you guys next time.” “Hey, speaking of which, isn’t this a funeral? Why not bring your little crier over? Money’s money, right?” Leo took a deep drag from his cigarette and flicked the butt away. “She’s not worthy of an occasion like this.” “Besides, it’s not time yet.” The men around him snickered. “Getting soft, Leo? Don’t get caught in your own game.” “Never.” Someone teased, “Leo’s smart. It’s a good thing you didn’t bring her. If she actually managed to save up enough for the surgery, you’d have to stage a fake operation.” “No way. Leo’s just playing around. He’d never get serious.” Everyone fell silent, waiting for his answer. Including me. Finally, I heard his cold, sharp voice. “Of course not. How could I ever marry a funeral crier?” In that instant, my world shattered. Every ounce of pride and self-respect I had was ground into dust. I have no idea how I managed to stumble back to our rented room after accepting the three hundred dollars the butler handed me. At the door, the landlord was waiting, rubbing his fingers together. “Good haul today?” I numbly handed him one hundred and fifty dollars. Yes, it was the landlord who had gotten me this “job.” As thanks, I gave him half my earnings every time. I turned to go upstairs, but then I heard his voice, deliberately lowered, on the phone. “Yes, Mr. Leo, she made a good bit again today.” “Then raise her rent by fifty percent.” I recognized Leo’s voice instantly. The landlord hesitated. “Is… is that a good idea?” “Why not? It’s her own fault for being so good at making money.” “I tell her I’m not feeling well, and she works herself to the bone crying at funerals for me. I’m honestly afraid she’ll save up enough and try to force me to marry her.” “That’s true. If you actually got married, Miss Isabelle would not be pleased.” Leo was silent for a moment. “My guys have been working hard playing along with this act. The bonus will be in your accounts shortly.” The next second, the landlord shrieked. “Holy crap! Is that twenty thousand, five hundred and thirty-four dollars and ninety cents?” “Mr. Leo, that’s so much! And it’s such a specific number.” Leo’s voice was nonchalant. “It’s nothing. Spend it. There’s more where that came from.” Those few, careless words drained all the strength from my body. That was the exact amount of money I had scraped together over three years, one kneeling session at a time. A wave of helplessness crashed over me, and I crumpled against the wall, sobbing until I thought my lungs would burst. He’d sent me a single-page diagnosis, and I had immediately cut ties with my family to move in and take care of him. And with a few careless words, he had sentenced our three years together to death. If my father knew his daughter had become this pathetic, he’d probably disown me on the spot. 2 Back in the rundown apartment, I quickly started packing my things. But as I looked around, I realized there was almost nothing worth taking. The matching his-and-hers slippers he’d bought me for my birthday, $9.99 for two pairs, free shipping. The ring he’d given me—made from a soda can tab—after I’d spent six months caring for him in the hospital, when he’d cried and promised to marry me. The rainbow-colored kneepads he’d bought me after I started my “job,” and the cases of instant noodles in every flavor imaginable. Before him, I was a pampered princess who had never lifted a finger. After him, I ate ramen until I wanted to vomit and never once complained. I truly believed I had found a love that was one of a kind, the most precious thing in the world. Now I knew that even the love was a lie. I opened a drawer. Inside was a thick notebook, filled with my cramped handwriting detailing all his preferences. What he liked to eat, what he didn’t, his allergies, a daily log of his medication. On the last page was my blood donation record. During the leanest times, to make sure his “treatment” wasn’t interrupted, I would secretly sell my blood. The two days before each donation, I would drag him out for a big meal. He would always tease me. “Were you a starving ghost in a past life?” Back then, I thought it was playful banter. Now, I saw the malice and contempt dripping from his words. He never knew that of the five dollars we spent on breakfast, he ate four dollars and fifty cents’ worth. I would gnaw on half a bun and sip from a water bottle, starving until evening when I could finally eat again. I looked around the room: the piss-stained toilet seat, the moldy trash can, the creaky, hard bed. He never cleaned, never acknowledged the filth. Whenever I, fighting back nausea, would try to tidy up, he’d stop me. “Leave it. It’s not necessary.” At first, I thought he was worried about me overworking myself. Now I knew. He never saw this place as a home. He would pull me into bed, lost in his primal desires, but he never once planned a future that included me. It was time to wake up from this nightmare. In the end, I packed only a few of my own clothes and left quietly. But downstairs, I ran into Leo coming home. He looked surprised. “Aria? You have another gig this late?” Leo’s face, once so beloved, now looked like a stranger’s. He was pale, panting. “It started pouring the second I stepped out. Luckily, some kind people gave me a ride home.” The roar of a luxury car engine filled the air. Standing beside it were several impeccably dressed “kind people,” and among them, a woman of breathtaking beauty. I recognized her instantly. It was Isabelle, Leo’s real fiancée. Because on her wrist and around her neck were the bracelet and necklace my mother had left me. My breath caught in my throat. Even the heirlooms I’d pawned… he’d had someone manipulate the sale to get them. For three years, I had been living inside a colossal lie. I trembled with rage. My mother had left me two heirlooms. The priceless family bracelet I had pawned to pay for his “treatment.” All that was left was the necklace. Now, both pieces were on this woman. What was there left to believe? I walked straight up to her and held out my hand. “My mother’s heirlooms. Please give them back.” Leo’s adoring smile froze. “Aria, what are you doing?” I ignored him, my voice stubborn. “I just want my mother’s things back.” He forced a gentle smile, trying to explain. “You noticed?” “What a coincidence. The kind person who helped me just happens to be the one who bought your mother’s things.” “Aria, she helped me, so I gave her the necklace as a thank you. Isn’t it a bit ungrateful of you to demand it back?” 3 My face was a cold mask. I reached for the jewelry. Before my fingers even brushed her clothes, Isabelle let out a cry and collapsed to the ground. Her beautiful dress was soaked in the muddy rainwater, and a bruise was already forming on her forehead. “Why did you push me?” I was speechless. I saw a flicker of genuine pain in Leo’s usually indifferent eyes. He frowned. “Aria, apologize to her. Now.” I laughed in disbelief. “You want me to apologize?” “Go eat shit.” Humiliated in front of his friends, Leo’s face darkened with anger. “Aria, these people are clearly rich and powerful. You don’t want to get on their bad side. Just apologize.” Yes, they were rich and powerful. And so was he, standing right in front of me. The life-saving money I had scraped together, he could give away without blinking. “Never.” Seeing my firm refusal, Leo’s friends egged him on. “Dude, are you whipped? Can’t even control your own girlfriend?” “If you won’t apologize, then you can pay.” “That dress Isabelle is wearing is a global limited edition. Fifty thousand dollars.” I closed my eyes. “I don’t have any money.” Leo was furious now. He shoved me to my knees. His voice was harsh. “If you don’t have money, then get on your knees and kowtow. What’s the big deal?” “You kneel for a living every day. What’s so embarrassing about it? Is it so hard to bow your head for me?” His words were like a carving knife, scraping across my heart, each one drawing blood. To earn money for his treatment, my knees had become calloused, but I had never uttered a single word of complaint. But now, for something I didn’t even do, he was grinding my dignity into the dirt. All to appease his precious first love. The jeers and taunts of the crowd were like daggers, piercing the last shred of my pride. I started to unbutton my shirt. “You want money, right? I don’t have any. But I can pay with my body. How about it?” Leo stared at me like I was insane. “Aria, do you have any idea what you’re saying? Are you crazy?” I looked at him, my eyes unfocused. “Weren’t you the one who said you’d record me for your friends next time? Who wants to go first?” His pupils contracted, his face turning a ghastly white. “You… you heard?” Leo’s voice trembled. “No, that’s not it, let me explain…” I faced him, my voice dripping with scorn. “Explain what? That you’re not sick? That the late-stage leukemia was all a lie?” “You enjoyed watching me kneel and cry for money every day, just so you could squander it all, didn’t you? All because I outshone Isabelle at our thesis defense?” “Don’t worry about it. It was only the twenty thousand I scraped together over three years. Tell your friends to spend it well.” I gritted my teeth. “Leo, I truly wish you really did have leukemia.” I finally understood that hate is just love, shattered. Swallowing my humiliation, I continued to undress. Leo stopped me. He fumbled to cover me with his jacket, his voice frantic. “Aria, I’m begging you, stop.” “What’s wrong? Don’t want to share with your friends anymore?” “Leo, you’re so selfish. I feel sorry for the friends who had to act along with you for three years.” He flew into a rage. “Aria, I’ve already apologized! What more do you want?” 4 I didn’t hesitate for a second. “Let’s break up. And give me back my mother’s heirlooms.” “I know my status as a funeral crier is unlucky, low-class, and unworthy of a tycoon like you.” “I know my place. I won’t wait for you to get tired of me and kick me to the curb. I’ll leave on my own!” My mother’s heirlooms were meant for me to find the love of my life, to be my dowry. I had only pawned them to save Leo’s life. To think that all this time, I was living in his trap, played like a fool for three years. My nails dug into my palms. I had been so blind, so utterly disappointing to my parents. “Aria, listen to me, at first I really was—” “I don’t want to hear any of it. You played me for three years. I’m begging you, just let me go, okay?” Leo finally exploded. “What are you, a funeral crier, putting on airs for? So what if I lied to you?” “You’re a low-life. Marrying you is impossible. But if you’re obedient, I can make sure you’re well-cared for, for the rest of your life. Think about it.” “I’ve thought it through very clearly. I want my mother’s things,” I said, enunciating every word. A crack appeared in Leo’s composure. “You’re being unreasonable.” Isabelle stepped forward haughtily. “You want them back? Fine. I paid a good ten thousand for them. After being worn by me for a while, they’ve appreciated in value. How about twenty thousand? Cash.” Then she pointed to my knees. “Oh, I almost forgot. You earn a living with these. How about you kneel for three full days, and then I’ll give them back to you?” The crowd erupted in jeers. “With her pathetic, broke-ass life? Twenty thousand for three days! Miss Isabelle, you’re too generous!” “She could cry at funerals for the rest of her life and not make that much!” “Maybe if she found a sugar daddy. She’s got the looks for it. Our Mr. Leo is rich, handsome, and fit. She got lucky to be with him for so long.” Leo feigned concern. “Babe, just hold on. Kneel for three days, let Isabelle cool off.” Hearing this, Isabelle grew even more smug. She tossed the jewelry up and down in her hand. “When Leo gave me this, I thought it was some rare treasure. Turns out it’s just your dead mother’s stuff. How tacky.” With a flick of her wrist, she sent the heirlooms flying in a perfect arc, straight into a storm drain. The rushing rainwater swallowed them without a trace. My vision went red. “No!” I wanted to dive into the drain after them, but Leo held me back, his grip like a vise. “Are you trying to get yourself killed? They’re not even that valuable! As long as you stay with me, no strings attached, what can’t you have?” He didn’t understand. Those things were more precious to me than my own life, something money could never measure. I stared at him, my eyes burning, and slapped him hard across the face. Then I turned and walked away. Behind me, Leo’s lackeys were already sucking up to him. “Leo, man, just let a woman like that go. You’re not actually going to chase her, are you?” “No way, you can’t have actually fallen for that funeral crier, right?” The rain fell harder, and Leo’s reply was lost in the storm. I went straight back to the home I hadn’t set foot in for three years. A few days later, a friend of my father’s, a respected elder, passed away. I went to the funeral, as requested. At the entrance, I ran into Leo and his entourage.

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It was the parent-teacher day at my son’s school. Both mother and father were expected to attend. My husband never told me. He took his doctoral student instead. He said I was too busy with work and he didn’t want to bother me. For the sake of peace, I let it go. But today, my son, Leo, had an allergic reaction. I rushed to the hospital, only to find him lying there, his head resting in the doctoral student’s lap as he received an IV drip. After a call to the school, I learned the truth. Leo had secretly changed his emergency contact information. In the space for “Mother,” he had put the doctoral student’s name. And my husband, Theo, had approved it. In that moment, I just felt… tired. That night, I asked Theo for a divorce. He didn’t even look up from his papers. “Over an emergency contact?” “Yes.” 1 Theo rubbed his temples, a weary sigh escaping his lips. “Every time we argue, you bring up divorce. Can you just stop?” He was gathering files from his desk as he spoke. “I have to get to the lab. Can we talk about this when I get back?” His student, Sienna, was standing by the door, holding his coat. “Professor,” she said, her voice soft and deferential, “everyone is waiting for us.” She glanced at me, her expression a perfect mask of concern. “Ma’am, it’s a full group meeting today. It wouldn’t be good for the professor to be late.” They both spoke with an air of strained patience, as if I were the unreasonable one. Sienna’s phone buzzed. A message. She “accidentally” hit the speakerphone button. A loud, boisterous male voice filled the room. “Don’t tell me the professor is still being held hostage by his wife. Seriously, they should have divorced ages ago. Is she going through menopause or something? My vote is for Sienna to just take over. We’ll all chip in for a wedding gift!” I recognized the voice. It was Theo’s newest Ph.D. student. He’d been to our house for dinner. Sienna fumbled with her phone, her face flushing as she silenced it. “I’m so sorry,” she stammered. I looked straight at Theo. “Is that what your students say about me?” He sighed, a humorless laugh escaping him. “What, you expect me to control what other people say? If you keep this up, they’ll say worse.” He moved to walk past me, toward the door. It felt like a stone was pressing on my chest. I threw myself in front of the door, like a madwoman who had lost all reason. “Sign the divorce papers! Sign them now!” My shrill voice made Sienna flinch. Her face went pale, and she looked at Theo with an expression of pure, heartbreaking sympathy. Theo leaned against the wall, his head thudding softly against the doorframe in a gesture of utter exasperation. “Is this really necessary? All this, over an emergency contact?” he said, his voice strained. “I’ve already called the school and had them change it back.” “And the parent-teacher day… Leo is just more comfortable with Sienna. And you’re always so busy with work. That’s why I didn’t tell you. I’m sorry, okay? It was my fault. I’m a terrible person. Are you happy now?” Sienna saw her opening and stepped forward, bowing respectfully. “Ma’am, I apologize as well. Please, don’t worry. Leo will always be your son. I could never take him from you.” The housekeeper, Mrs. Gable, hearing the argument, came upstairs. She’d been with Theo’s family for over a decade, practically one of them. “Now, Olivia,” she said, her tone chiding, “that’s enough. You’ve had your fit. Are you trying to drive Theo to an early grave?” I looked at them. The united front. It was as if they were all offering me a ladder to climb down from my high horse, and I was the one stubbornly refusing. But they were the ones who had pushed me up here. Theo and I met on a blind date. We were a good match on paper, and we married without much fanfare. But right after the wedding, my father was falsely accused of academic fraud and forced into a public apology. Overnight, he went from a titan in his field to a pariah. Theo’s parents were terrified my father’s scandal would ruin Theo’s career. They called me a jinx, a dead weight, and demanded we divorce. Then I got pregnant. They still insisted we live separately. When I went into labor, it was difficult. I nearly died bringing Leo into the world. The first thing I heard when I woke up was my mother-in-law’s disappointed voice. “She hemorrhaged that much and still didn’t die. What a tough one.” I fell into a deep postpartum depression. Using my “recovery” as an excuse, they took Leo to their estate to raise him. I begged them every day just to let me see my son. By the time I was well enough to have him back, Leo had learned to hate me, just like his grandparents did. He called me the “wicked witch,” said I was nothing more than the family housekeeper. He said I wasn’t worthy of being his mother. I tried everything to fix our relationship, but he met every overture with contempt. With Sienna, however, he was naturally affectionate. He didn’t want me at his parent-teacher day. He changed his emergency contact to her name. And Theo had allowed all of it. He’d even had the audacity to blame me for being too dramatic, too sensitive. This time, I was truly exhausted. I just wanted to escape this suffocating life. “Theo,” I said, my voice low and firm, “you’re not leaving this house until you sign these papers.” 2 I clung to Theo’s arm, refusing to let him go. “Olivia! Are you not happy until you’ve driven everyone insane?” He took a deep breath, trying to calm himself. The next second, he exploded like a volcano. He kicked the coffee table, sending glass shattering across the floor. “Ah!” Sienna screamed, shrinking back in fear. Her scream seemed to shock Theo back to his senses. He rushed to her side, helping her up and pulling her behind him. “It’s okay, it’s okay. I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you.” The apology was for her. Sienna shook her head, her eyes red-rimmed as she clutched his sleeve. “I’m fine, don’t worry about me…” she whispered. “The most important thing right now is to calm your wife down.” Just like that, Theo was calm again. He ordered Mrs. Gable to bring Leo downstairs. A moment later, Leo appeared, trembling at the top of the stairs. He was wearing only a thin pair of cartoon bear pajamas. He said, “Dad.” He said, “Auntie Sienna.” He didn’t even glance at me. I automatically reached for his coat, wanting to wrap it around his small shoulders. He flinched away from me in disgust. “You smell weird,” he sneered. “It’s gross. I’m not wearing your clothes.” He shot me a look of pure disdain and ran to Sienna. “Hey, sweetie, why are you wearing so little?” Sienna said, her voice dripping with affection. She took off her own coat and wrapped it around him, scooping him into her arms. “Auntie Sienna, you’re so nice,” Leo mumbled into her shoulder. “Not like some people… who just fight with Dad all the time…” Theo cleared his throat. “Leo, apologize to your mother. She’s upset because she didn’t get to go to your school event. If you don’t apologize, she’s going to leave us.” Leo’s eyes lit up. “Is the wicked witch finally leaving?” he chirped. “I’m not apologizing! Go on, get out! I want Auntie Sienna to be my mom!” It was like a knife twisting in my heart. Was this really the child I had nearly died to give birth to? Theo’s brow furrowed. “Don’t talk like that! Apologize to your mother, now!” Leo, stubborn like his father, just shook his head, his eyes turning red. “No! I hate her!” Even Theo couldn’t get through to him. It was Sienna who finally broke the stalemate. “Sweetie,” she cooed, “why don’t you apologize to your mom? As a little favor for Auntie Sienna, okay?” Leo bit his lip, hesitated for a moment, and then actually gave in. “Sorry,” he muttered. “There, you happy?” Theo let out a breath of relief. “See? He apologized. Now can you stop this drama? I’m giving you an out. Take it.” Just then, Sienna’s phone buzzed twice. She glanced at it and typed a quick reply. Then, Leo’s smartwatch buzzed twice. For the next two minutes, the phone and the watch buzzed back and forth. A sly, knowing smile played on Leo’s lips. He stole a glance at me. My stomach dropped. They were messaging each other. About me. It felt like a hand was closing around my throat, squeezing the air from my lungs. Without a word, I snatched the watch from Leo’s wrist. And there it was. A group chat. Just the three of them. The group name was “The Safe Harbor.” Leo: The wicked witch is so annoying! I hate her! Sienna: Leo, sweetie, you shouldn’t say bad things about your mommy~ But it breaks Auntie’s heart to see you so upset. Leo: Why doesn’t she just die? Then I could be with Auntie Sienna forever! Sienna: Leo, you should keep thoughts like that to yourself. If your mommy found out, she might spank you… Reading the last message, I started to tremble uncontrollably. Leo was flailing, trying to grab the watch back. “Wicked witch! Don’t touch my stuff!” His small fists pummeled my face, my neck. The watch slipped from my grasp and shattered on the floor. “You stupid witch!” Leo shrieked, his face red with fury. He picked up the broken watch and threw it at my head. A sharp pain, and then I felt something warm trickling down my temple. The broken screen had cut me. I shuddered, my limbs going numb. My heart seized in a painful knot. I pressed a hand to the wound, my voice surprisingly calm. “I’ll buy you a new one.” Leo wasn’t having it. He spat at me. “Get out! Get out!” He kept shoving me, pushing me away. Theo, seeing the blood, looked torn. “Leo, that’s enough.” He handed me a tissue. “You know, if your son isn’t close to you, maybe you should think about why. You’re so aggressive. Who could possibly like you?” He sighed. “He apologized. You should be satisfied.” I blinked back the stinging tears. “Sign the papers, Theo. I’m done.” 3 “Olivia! Don’t push your luck! It’s such a small thing! I had the entire family coddle you, and it’s still not enough?” I looked up at him and shook my head. The emptiness in my eyes seemed to startle him. “…You really want to divorce me?” “Yes,” I said, my voice firm. Theo laughed, a harsh, angry sound. “You’d better think this through. Everything you have, I gave to you. After the divorce, you’ll be nothing but a washed-up, second-hand woman that no one wants.” “You won’t get a penny of my money! And you can forget about custody of Leo!” He thought he was threatening me. He had no idea I no longer cared about any of it. I nodded calmly and pointed to the divorce agreement. “You should read it. Custody of Leo goes to you. I’m only taking the house my father left me before we were married. I don’t want anything else.” The hand holding the papers was trembling slightly. Sienna chose that moment to reappear, her eyes red. “Ma’am,” she began, her voice trembling, “this is all my fault. If you really can’t stand me, I can apply to switch advisors… You’re a family. I’m just an outsider. Please, don’t let me come between you.” “I can even leave this city, disappear from your lives forever. I just want the professor to be happy…” She bit her lip, on the verge of tears. Theo’s brow furrowed, his eyes filled with sympathy for her. Leo immediately jumped to her defense. “Auntie Sienna, you’re not an outsider! If you leave, I’m going with you!” He shot me a sly look and whispered in Sienna’s ear, “Dad won’t want to be without me. He’ll leave the wicked witch and come find us.” I heard every word. The irony was suffocating. “Theo, let’s get a divorce,” I said, my voice flat. “Do you really think this marriage has any meaning anymore?” “Ma’am, please don’t be impulsive,” Sienna pleaded. I couldn’t help myself. “Sienna, who do you think you are? And what’s with the Good Samaritan act? You’re dying for us to get divorced so you can move in. Stop the performance.” “Olivia!” Theo was shaking with rage. He pulled Sienna protectively behind him. “You can take your anger out on me, but leave innocent people out of it.” Just a moment ago, he had refused to sign, no matter what I said. Now, just because I had said a few words to Sienna, he snatched up a pen and scrawled his name across the papers. It was laughable. “There! I hope you don’t regret this,” he snarled, throwing the papers in my face. The sharp edge stung my cheek. Then, dead silence. I crouched down and picked up the scattered pages. I straightened them, kept one copy, and left the other for him. “Thank you,” I said. “Don’t you have a meeting? You should go. Don’t be late.” He stared at me, his eyes wide with disbelief, as if he couldn’t understand my calmness. Under his stunned gaze, I went back to the bedroom. My bags had been packed for two weeks. I pulled out my suitcase and handed a gift-wrapped box to Leo. “Your birthday is next month. This is for you. It’s the Barcelona Bear you wanted.” “I don’t want it!” he pouted, rolling his eyes at me. He snatched the box and marched over to the fireplace. With a final, defiant glare, he tossed the bear into the flames. The fire swallowed it whole. “Auntie Sienna will buy me one!” he declared. I felt nothing. “Fine. Do what you want.” I turned and walked toward the door, Theo’s cold words chasing me. “The moment you walk out that door, Leo has nothing to do with you! He will never call you ‘Mom’ again!” “And don’t think for a second I’ll ever come crawling back! I’ll be glad to be rid of the dead weight!” His voice grew more frantic. I knew he was trying to make me back down. I just waved a hand over my shoulder, a lightness spreading through my chest. “Whatever.” “I don’t want him as my son anymore anyway. And as for you, I’ve had enough.” I didn’t slow my pace. I walked out of that house, out of that life filled with pain and bitter memories. I was finally free.

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My mother picked two suitors: a wealthy gentleman for my sister Evelyn, and a blind, wheelchair-bound scholar’s son for me. I devoted myself to his care—funding treatments, describing the world, becoming his eyes. Doctors said his legs were fine; perhaps it was psychological. Then we were kidnapped. As a knife stabbed toward Evelyn, my husband suddenly stood, yanking me in front of her. The blade pierced my heart. His bodyguards called him “Young Master.” He wasn’t disabled. His father, the city’s richest man, had staged this to test sincerity. “You passed,” he whispered as I died. “But I love Evelyn. I’ll repay you next life.” I awoke back at the choosing day. 1 In the living room, my mother was all smiles, chatting with two young men. One was Julian Harelik, sitting in a wheelchair. The other was the impeccably dressed Harrison Ford. Just like last time, my sister Evelyn’s gaze was fixed entirely on Harrison. My younger brother, Will, ever the troublemaker, saw my pale face and decided to poke fun. “Is there even a choice here? Rachel’s dressed like a farm girl. She and the blind guy are a perfect match.” He smirked. “But Evelyn has been the campus queen since we were kids. We can’t let a cripple ruin her.” My fists clenched. “So what you’re saying is that I, the sister who has fed and clothed you your whole life, deserve to be ruined?” “Don’t you forget how you’re still alive today!” Evelyn and Will were twins, three years my junior. From a young age, my parents had drilled one idea into my head: the eldest sister is like a mother. I had to care for my siblings like an adult and help support the family. So, the best food always went to them. New clothes were always for them. When Will needed a kidney transplant, it was my kidney that I gave. Now, Will wanted to marry some socialite, but we couldn’t afford the bride price. So my mother, shameless as ever, had contacted the Harelik and Ford families—families we hadn’t spoken to in over a decade—to demand they honor some casual, long-forgotten marriage pact made by our grandparents. She planned to use my and Evelyn’s dowries to pay for my brother’s wedding. But having lived and died once already, I had nothing left to lose. “I choose Harrison,” I announced, my voice ringing with a newfound firmness. “Or I won’t marry at all.” Everyone stared at me, stunned. Tears welled up in Evelyn’s eyes. I had never been so assertive, never dared to claim something she wanted. She immediately cast a pleading look at Harrison. He understood. He sat down beside her, pulling her into his arms. “Evelyn and I felt a connection the moment we met. As her older sister, I’m sure you wouldn’t want to stand in the way of her happiness.” Evelyn clung to his hand, her eyes misty. “And you know I’m terrible at taking care of people. I couldn’t possibly live with Julian. What if his condition gets worse because of me? I’d feel so guilty. Rachel, you learned traditional medicine from Grandpa, didn’t you? If you were with him, you might even be able to cure him. It would be a good deed.” I glanced at the silent Julian, a small, knowing smile playing on my lips. “So, you’ve decided on Harrison, then.” She nodded. My mother quickly sealed the deal. “Alright, it’s settled then.” But in the next moment, Julian moved. He lifted a slender hand, removed his dark glasses, and revealed a pair of startlingly bright eyes. Then, he stood up from his wheelchair. He walked past me, straight to Evelyn, a smile gracing his lips. “You don’t have to worry about taking care of me. I was just playing a little joke on everyone. And while I’m not from this city, my father is the wealthiest man in Crestmont. You’ll live a very comfortable life with me.” His voice was smooth as silk. “Evelyn, would you give me a chance to win your heart?” I scoffed inwardly. Of course. He was reborn, too. That made things much easier. 2 While everyone was still reeling from the shock, I spoke up. “Mom, since that’s the case, I’m not getting married. As for how much of a dowry you can get from them, that’s up to you.” My mother’s face flushed with embarrassment. One was the son of Crestmont’s richest man, the other the heir to a prominent local family. She couldn’t afford to offend either of them. And right on cue, Harrison’s competitive streak flared. He stood up, meeting Julian’s gaze. “A gentleman does not steal another’s love. Do you understand?” Julian returned his look without flinching. “Who is beloved, I believe, is for Miss Evelyn to decide.” A handsome curve formed on his lips as he turned his gaze, now filled with an overwhelming tenderness, back to Evelyn. “Do you remember, when we were children here in Seabrook, my grandfather set up a chess problem under a tree? You were the only one to solve it, and in less than an hour.” “I was so captivated by your intelligence then, I swore I would marry no one but you in this life.” “Don’t feel pressured. I will compete with Harrison fairly. No matter who you choose in the end, I will respect your decision.” In my past life, I had never understood why his love for Evelyn ran so deep. Now, hearing the reason, I could only find it laughable. I was the one who solved that chess problem. But I couldn’t blame him for the mistake. Back then, I was perpetually hungry, giving all my food to my siblings. I was shorter and scrawnier than Evelyn. But I had no intention of revealing the truth. It was all so pointless. Seeing Evelyn nod, Harrison, though displeased, agreed to the competition. This was no longer just about a girl; it was about the pride of two powerful families from two different cities. The show was over. I stood up to go to my room, but my mother stopped me. “Where are you going?” “Oh, I’m leaving this house to go live with Grandpa.” “You are not! If you leave, who will they marry?” I let out a sharp laugh. “Mom, what, you want both wealthy sons-in-law? If you’re that desperate, why don’t you marry one of them yourself? I’m not interested in anyone’s leftovers.” With that, I went to my room to pack. The truth was, my grandfather had disowned our family long ago. Twenty years ago, my mother, greedy for money, had boasted that his medical skills could bring the dead back to life. She insisted on bringing a corpse to his clinic, nearly ruining his lifelong reputation. He threw her out and severed all ties. Only I, after I was old enough, would secretly visit him. I had a natural talent for traditional medicine. In my last life, I could have inherited his legacy. I had to give it all up because I married Julian. I was too busy working odd jobs to pay for his treatments, saving up to take him on trips to lift his spirits. This time, I would live for myself. 3 After packing, I hurried to the entrance of our neighborhood to catch a cab. But Julian was there, blocking my path. It was the first time I had ever stood so close to him. I realized then how tall and perfectly sculpted he was. A beautiful vessel, but a rotten core. “Rachel, you’re reborn too, aren’t you?” I met his gaze, my head held high. “Yes. I remember every one of your cold glances, every lie you told me. And I remember the piercing pain of that knife.” He sighed. “I’m sorry.” “Save your cheap apologies. I will never forgive you. Now get out of my way.” Suddenly, his hand clamped around my arm like a vise. “You can’t leave.” In the next second, two of his bodyguards dragged me into a car. I was taken to a lavish villa and surrounded by his men. “Julian, what the hell are you doing? I’m not bothering you and Evelyn anymore. Why are you holding me captive?” “Rachel, in our last life, I said I would compensate you. If she doesn’t choose me this time, I will marry you and ensure you live a life of ease.” I snorted. “And if she does choose you?” “Then I’ll give you a sum of money and let you go. For now, I need your help. Tell me everything she likes.” He leaned in closer. “Tell me what she likes to eat. I’ve invited her for dinner. I’m going to cook for her myself.” Though my heart was filled with hatred, seeing him so devoted to Evelyn still sent a pang of pain through me. I bit my lip, refusing to speak, but his grip tightened until I thought my bones would break. “Expensive things,” I finally choked out. “The more expensive, the better.” After he went into the kitchen, I scouted the villa, looking for any possible escape route. Soon, the doorbell rang. Evelyn stood at the door in a pink dress, her face a picture of shy anticipation. Julian greeted her with a warm smile. “Thank you,” she cooed, her voice artificially sweet, before noticing my presence. “What are you doing here?” Julian quickly explained. “She’s here to help me win you over. I figured your sister would know your preferences best.” Though her eyes were filled with disdain, she forced a gentle smile. “Julian, you’re so thoughtful.” When we sat down to eat, I didn’t hold back, digging into the air-freighted lobster and king crab. But Evelyn was busy tapping on her phone. Soon, it rang urgently. “Mom? Calm down, what’s wrong?” “What? I’ll be right there.” After hanging up, she suddenly dropped to her knees in front of me. “Rachel, Will needs another kidney transplant! Please, help him! You can’t just let him die!” My mind went blank. After the last surgery, the doctor had said Will’s recovery was excellent and a relapse was highly unlikely. “You’re a match, too. Why don’t you donate?” But she acted as if she couldn’t hear me, banging her head on the floor. “Rachel, please, I’m begging you, save him!” Julian, his heart aching for her, pulled her up from the floor and into his arms. He then turned to me, his eyes blazing with anger. “You’re so selfish!” With that, he swept Evelyn out of the house, but not before ordering his guards to keep a close watch on me. 4 I was locked in a room on the third floor. No amount of pounding on the door did any good. I found a heavy trophy on a shelf and, without hesitation, smashed it against the window. Looking down from the third-floor height, my legs trembled. I closed my eyes and jumped. But fate was not on my side. I landed hard, breaking several ribs. The pain was so intense I could barely breathe. Just then, Julian walked over. I instinctively begged for help. “Take… take me to a hospital.” But his voice was glacial. “You’re not going anywhere. You’re staying here to donate a kidney to your brother.” I stared at him in disbelief, tears streaming down my face. “I only have one kidney left. If I give it to him, I’ll die.” “Yes,” he said flatly. “I know.” My heart turned to ice. “This is your compensation?” “I’m sorry. I can’t bear to see Evelyn sad. Just consider it another debt I owe you.” I lay in bed for days, my injuries slowly healing, but my life was ticking away. The feeling of waiting for death was a slow, creeping despair. Five days later, Evelyn came into my room alone. Seeing me tied to the bed, she burst out laughing. “Sister, since you’re about to die, I’ll tell you the truth. The one who needs the kidney isn’t Will. It’s the person he hit with his car. And what a coincidence, they’re a perfect match for you.” Tears poured from my eyes. “Have I ever been anything but good to you? Why are you doing this to me?” She shot me a venomous glare. “If you want to blame someone, blame Julian. If he were really a cripple, I would have let you have him. But he’s not. So I want them both!” I closed my eyes in sorrow. She untied my restraints. I got up and followed her slowly. As we reached the door, I suddenly shoved her out with all my might and slammed the door, locking it from the inside. I grabbed the can of gasoline I had prepared and doused the room, then struck a match. Evelyn pounded on the door frantically. “What are you doing? You can’t die! I’m calling Julian right now!” My voice was calm, detached. “I’ve already called the police. If you don’t want Julian to find out you conspired to trick him, you’d better pray I burn to death!” The pounding stopped. I stood amidst the swirling flames and laughed, a wild, liberating sound. Finally, release. Farewell, to this world that had never once been kind to me.

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1 On my birthday, my mother-in-law, fresh off the operating table, was rushed back into the emergency room. In a newly posted video by an intern, he was the one holding the scalpel, cutting her open. My wife, who was supposed to be the lead surgeon, was nowhere in sight. The caption read: “They say an intern isn’t qualified to operate? Doesn’t matter when the department head’s wife has a soft spot for you.” My colleagues flooded the comments, gushing over the “cute” revelation. I forwarded the video to the hospital director. It wasn’t long before my wife called, her breathing ragged, her voice sharp and broken. “So I forgot your birthday! Is that any reason to run to the director with fabricated stories about me violating hospital policy?” “I’ve had enough of your irrational nonsense! This time, even if my own mother sides with you, I’m done! We’re getting a divorce—” She hung up before I could get a word in. But she didn’t know. Her mother wouldn’t be siding with me anymore. Because the patient who bled out on the table, the one whose post-op rescue failed because an intern was at the helm, was her mother. A doctor was standing in front of me, impatiently holding a death certificate for my signature. “We did everything we could. You can take the body once you’ve signed.” The gurney had already been wheeled out of the ER, yet this doctor just kept pushing the form at me, completely ignoring the flagrant violation of an intern performing surgery. A bitter, ironic smile touched my lips. “I refuse to sign. I’m requesting a medical malpractice investigation.” The doctor’s smile became strained. He tried to reason with me. “Dr. Collins, the department head, said the cause of death was post-operative complications. The surgery itself was fine.” I insisted. The doctor, left with no choice, finally relented. In the work group chat, the intern, Mark, tagged me. “@Dr. Grant, I’m so sorry. The caption on my video had a typo. I meant to write ‘Dr. Collins’ but my phone autocorrected it to ‘wife’. I’m so sorry for the misunderstanding.” Other colleagues quickly jumped to his defense. “It was just a typo! What’s the big deal?” “If my attending doctor had been as amazing as Dr. Collins when I was an intern, letting me get hands-on experience, I’d be showing off too.” “It’s just a normal mentor-mentee relationship. Why does Dr. Grant have to make it sound so sordid?” These were the same people I’d bailed out of trouble countless times. But the moment they sensed that my wife, Dr. Amelia Collins, the head of our department, favored the new intern, they didn’t hesitate to throw me under the bus to curry favor with him. And now, even knowing he had performed an unauthorized surgery, they were still lying through their teeth. I let out a cold laugh and typed back: “You know perfectly well whether it was a typo or not.” The moment I hit send, I was muted. The group administrator was, of course, my wife, Amelia. I closed my eyes, a profound bitterness welling up inside me. I left the hospital to gather the documents needed for the malpractice claim. As I was leaving, the circulating nurse from the surgery rushed to find me. “Dr. Grant! The patient Dr. Collins let Mark operate on… something’s happened!” I looked at her calmly. “And?” She couldn’t meet my eyes, her voice dropping to a whisper. “There might have been a problem with the surgery. The family is demanding a malpractice investigation.” She took a breath. “Dr. Collins is hoping you’ll take responsibility for it.” I thought I’d misheard. Amelia, in her reckless attempt to boost Mark’s career, had let him operate. Now that it had ended in disaster, she wanted me, her own husband, to be the scapegoat to protect herself and her pet intern. For him, she had forgotten her duty as a doctor, and now she was discarding me without a second thought. The most tragic part? She still had no idea who the patient was. My heart turned to ice. “No. She made this mess, she can clean it up.” I brushed past the nurse and walked away. A few moments later, a video call from Amelia popped up on my phone. Her face was contorted with rage. “How can you compare yourself to me? I’m the department head! You’re just a regular doctor. If you lose your job, you lose your job!” “Ethan, have a heart! Mark is just starting his career! You can’t ruin his entire life just because you’re being selfish!” Wasn’t I the one with a heart? The promotion to department head was originally mine, but I gave it to her. I had poured my heart and soul into our marriage, and this is what I got in return. The disappointment in my eyes must have registered, because her tone softened into an apology. “Honey, I didn’t mean that. I was just thinking about how hard it was for us when we were interns, all the crap we had to take. I just wanted to look out for him.” “Mark really wants to be a doctor. If you help him with this, I’ll take back what I said about the divorce…” Before she could finish, Mark’s face appeared in the frame. “Dr. Collins, I don’t want you to sacrifice yourself and stay in a failed marriage because of me.” A derisive smile twisted my lips. “That’s right. Being married to me must be such a hardship for you.” 2 “Such a hardship that everyone in the department is defending you and your precious intern.” “So let’s just get the divorce. Then you can have a marriage without any hardships with him.” My words struck a nerve. “Ethan Grant! Are you deaf? I told you, there’s nothing going on between me and Mark!” she shrieked. “I guess what everyone in the department says about you is true! You’re just a paranoid, accusatory asshole!” Mark gently stroked her back, his voice a soothing murmur. “Dr. Collins, as much as I want to be a doctor, I won’t let you get dragged into this. I’ll take full responsibility.” Amelia’s eyes filled with adoration and pain. “I’m your mentor. I’ll see this through to the end. I won’t let anything happen to you.” Her voice then shifted, becoming cold and commanding. “Ethan! You are going to the director and you are telling him that you were the lead surgeon on that case, and Mark was only there to observe. If you don’t, I’ll have the divorce papers signed and on your desk by tomorrow!” She hung up. I felt nothing. Not a ripple of emotion. In fact, I almost wanted to laugh. She had already signed a divorce agreement during our first major fight over Mark. All it needed was my signature to become legally binding. By the time I finished preparing the malpractice claim, the sun was rising. A colleague, one whose ass I had saved during a previous patient complaint, called me. “Dr. Grant, come on. It wasn’t easy for Mark to get this internship. You’ve helped us out so many times, what’s the big deal helping him out this once? Besides, helping him is helping Dr. Collins. You don’t want to see her get into trouble, do you?” I didn’t even bother to respond. I just hung up and blocked his number. Amelia, these spineless colleagues… I was done with all of them. I pulled the divorce agreement from my desk drawer and signed my name. Then I packed up all of Amelia’s belongings and had them couriered to Mark’s apartment. When I saw a photo of Amelia and her mother, my eyes stung with tears. My own family was a mess; I’d never known parental love. After we married, my mother-in-law treated me like her own son, filling a void I never thought could be filled. When she found out about Amelia and Mark, she had chewed Amelia out more than once, furious on my behalf. She deserved a long, happy life. Instead, she was gone because of a minor surgery. The next day, I walked into the department to find Mark sitting at my desk, a smug look on his face. “Dr. Grant. You’ve been suspended pending investigation. Dr. Collins has asked me to take over your duties.” I stared at him coldly. “You two are the ones who broke the rules. What does that have to do with me?” Mark just smiled and pulled up the surgical records on the computer. “Dr. Grant, according to this, you were the lead surgeon for yesterday’s operation. I was merely an observer.” I stared at the screen, a sense of absurdity washing over me. To frame me, Amelia had actually altered the official surgical log. I took a step forward, my face grim, and reached out. Mark cried out and staggered back, clutching his face. “Dr. Grant, why did you hit me?” Amelia, who had just arrived at the doorway, threw the cup of hot coffee she was holding directly at me. “Ethan! How dare you lay a hand on him!” she screamed. “Apologize to Mark now!” My colleagues, drawn by the commotion, stared at me in shock. The hot liquid scalded my left cheek, mixing with the blood trickling down from my forehead. The burning on my face was nothing compared to the searing pain in my heart. Amelia didn’t even seem to see my injuries. She fussed over Mark, who was completely unscathed. “So you screw up in surgery and you can’t even own up to it? The record says you were the lead surgeon! Stop trying to drag Mark into this!” How laughable. This was the woman I had once loved with all my heart. “Dr. Collins,” I said, my voice dangerously low, “if my skills are so poor, how exactly did you get your position as department head?” I’d hit her where it hurt. Her eyes blazed with fury. “Ethan Grant! You better back off while I still have some shred of affection left for you!” I laughed coldly. “Affection? Don’t you think it’s a little late to be talking about affection? I’ve already—” “Enough!” The hospital director, Daniel Zheng, strode into the office, his face a thundercloud. “What do you think you’re doing, causing a scene like this in a clinic? Want the patients to have a good laugh? It looks to me like none of you want your jobs anymore!” Fearing for their positions, my colleagues quickly scattered. 3 Daniel stared at Amelia and me in silence for a few moments before turning his fury on me. “Ethan, as the lead surgeon, your failure during an operation resulted in a patient’s death. You are suspended, effective immediately, pending a full investigation! After the investigation, you will be terminated. Whether or not you will face legal charges will be determined at that time.” I stared at the director in disbelief. He knew perfectly well who the real lead surgeon was that night. Before I could speak, Amelia and my colleagues all voiced their support for the hospital’s decision, some even adding that a reckless doctor like me should be thrown in jail. Mark, with the air of a victor, drove the final nail in. “This isn’t your clinic anymore. What are you still doing here?” Amelia didn’t stop him. Instead, she ripped my ID badge from my coat, threw it on the floor, and ground it under her heel. I took one last, long look at the woman I had given my heart to, and at the colleagues I had once considered friends. Numb, I turned and walked away. I didn’t leave the hospital right away. I went down to the morgue to see my mother-in-law one last time. To tell her I was sorry, and to promise her that I would not take the fall for Amelia and Mark. When I got home, the apartment was a disaster. The air was thick with a sickeningly sweet, unfamiliar scent. All of my belongings had been thrown into trash bags. The various awards and certificates I had earned over the years were scattered on the floor, covered in footprints. And from the bedroom, I could hear unmistakable sounds. Rage erupted in me. I kicked the bedroom door open. “Get out!” The two figures on the bed jumped, startled. Mark pulled Amelia into his arms and had the audacity to glare at me. “Don’t you know how to knock?” Amelia pulled the sheets up, her face flushed with unsatisfied desire, her eyes full of resentment. “I’ve already decided to divorce you. What are you doing back here?” I laughed, a harsh, grating sound. This was my apartment. Why the hell should I give it up for this disgusting pair? Mark had certainly wasted no time making himself at home. His clothes were already hanging in the closet. I ripped his clothes from the hangers and threw them out the door. “Don’t forget, I bought this place. If anyone’s leaving, it’s you two!” Amelia’s voice was a shrill shriek. “What do you mean, your place? This is our marital home, which means half of it is mine! If you were any kind of man, you’d just give it to me! And don’t you dare go crying to my mother about this! I’ve earned this after all the years I put up with you!” Fury pulsed through me. How dare she even mention her mother? My eyes were red as I squeezed the words through clenched teeth. “You still have no idea who died in that surgery, do you?” Amelia scoffed. “She’s dead. Why should I care who she was?” She gestured to the door. “Now get out, unless you want to watch me and Mark get back to it?” Mark leaned in and deliberately nibbled on Amelia’s ear, a mocking expression on his face. “Actually, I think Dr. Grant can’t bear to divorce you. That’s why he’s making up excuses to stay.” Amelia playfully slapped his chest. “Too late for regrets. Does he really think he’s irreplaceable? I’ve already thought it through. I’ll divorce him first, then tell my mom. By then, it’ll be too late for her to object.” Her arrogance was so perfectly, tragically ironic. “She won’t be objecting,” I said, my voice flat. “She won’t get the chance.” Amelia’s smirk widened. “So, my mom finally sees you for who you really are and isn’t on your side anymore? That’s fantastic. I always said, what kind of mother sides with an outsider over her own daughter?” I pulled the entire file from my briefcase—the hospital admission forms, the surgical consent, the code blue report, the declaration of death—and threw it in her face. “Amelia, your mother won’t be objecting because the person who died on that operating table… was her.”

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1 No one in Northwood City’s elite circles knew my husband—the man who supposedly adored me—was the same rugged star of illicit videos driving women wild online. John Hughes, my coldly disciplined husband, had “saved” his assistant Mila after she was forced to shoot 108 erotic films to pay a debt. He became her co-star. I recognized him by the birthmark above his hip. That night, I confronted him in tears. “She was drugged,” he dismissed. “I was her first. No feelings—just physical.” But he lied. He was addicted. Their videos grew wilder, even filming beneath our wedding portrait. Night after night, I lay awake, listening to their muffled moans above me. The final straw? When I showed him my positive pregnancy test, he exhaled cigarette smoke and said, “Get rid of it. Mila’s pregnant too.” I turned away and dialed a number: “Bankrupt Hughes Corp. within a month.” I hung up just as John descended the stairs, cradling a flushed and pliant Mila in his arms. He was wiping her down with a towel, completely oblivious to my presence. Mila saw me and immediately ducked her head, tugging on his sleeve. “John, your wife is still here.” Only then did his eyes land on me, his brow furrowed in annoyance. “I’ve already booked the appointment for your procedure. Why haven’t you left yet?” He didn’t even try to soften the blow. “Don’t worry, you can move back in after Mila has the baby.” Mila’s face bloomed a deeper red. “It’s your fault for not being careful,” she mumbled into his chest. John chuckled, a low, intimate sound that twisted a knife in my gut. He playfully tapped her nose. “You don’t like it when I wear them. Besides, who uses protection for a video shoot? If it happens, it happens. It’s not like I can’t afford to raise another child.” I stood there, numb, listening to their graphic chatter as silent tears traced paths down my cheeks. In five years of marriage, no matter how lost in the moment he was, John never forgot protection. The tiny life growing inside me was a drunken mistake. All his talk about not wanting me to suffer through childbirth was a lie. He just never wanted a child with me. Seeing my tears, John tossed a black AmEx card at me. It clattered onto the marble floor. “That’s enough. There’s enough on that card to last you three lifetimes.” He followed it with a set of divorce papers. “Sign them. My child will not be born a bastard.” “We can get remarried after the baby is older,” he added, as if it were a generous concession. My vision blurred. I remembered the day he’d proposed, sliding the ring onto my finger, his eyes burning with sincerity as he swore to love only me, forever. That was only five years ago. “It’s just a baby,” Mila chimed in, a flash of triumph in her wide, innocent eyes. “It doesn’t matter who gives birth to it.” I tilted my head back, forcing the tears to retreat, and picked up the pen. When John saw me sign without a moment’s hesitation, he let out a cold, humorless laugh. “See? You’re no different from all those other gold-diggers.” He then flashed the signed papers at Mila. “Happy now? Can I finally pay off your debts, little one?” “I just didn’t want things to be unofficial,” she cooed, pulling a blanket around her shoulders. She walked over to me, deliberately letting the blanket slip to reveal a fresh love bite on her collarbone. “Elara,” she said, her voice dripping with false sympathy, “if you ever need anything, anything at all, you just have to ask me or John.” She was already playing the part of the new Mrs. Hughes. 2 A bitter smile touched my lips. I hoped she would enjoy her one-month reign as the lady of the house. “I won’t need anything,” I said, my voice flat. I turned to leave, but a hand shot out and grabbed my wrist. Mila. Before I could react, she crumpled to the floor. I stared, stunned, as she lay there. Before I could utter a single word, her eyes filled with tears as she looked pleadingly at John. “John, my love… maybe we shouldn’t keep the baby,” she sobbed. “I’ll pay my own debts. I’ve already been ruined once, what’s one more man…” John lunged toward her, shoving me aside so hard I lost my balance. My head cracked against the corner of the console table, and a sticky warmth trickled down my temple. He didn’t even glance at me. His entire world was the sobbing woman on the floor. He scooped her up, his gaze turning to me, now as cold and hard as granite. “Elara. Apologize.” He didn’t ask. He didn’t investigate. He just condemned me. The tears I’d been holding back finally fell, hot and bitter. I didn’t know if it was from the searing pain in my head or the crushing weight of it all. I remembered the night he’d been drugged by a business rival and had ended up in Mila’s bed. He’d knelt at my door for hours afterward, begging me to forgive him. “Elara, I was drugged, I swear. I’ve already paid her to keep quiet. It will never, ever happen again,” he’d pleaded, his voice cracking. “Don’t leave me. Please.” I had swallowed my pain, convincing myself it was a one-time accident. I’d pretended it never happened. But then he’d hired her as his personal assistant. And now this. The man who was once so above it all, so untouchable, was debasing himself in cheap videos for her. The first time was an accident. What about the second? The third? The hundredth? I tilted my chin up, defiant. “I didn’t push her.” Suddenly, Mila shrieked. She pointed between her legs. “John! Blood! There’s so much blood!” The color drained from John’s face. He swept her into his arms, his voice tight with a panic I had never heard before. “It’s okay, baby, don’t be scared. The doctor is on his way.” In his haste, he snagged the wind chime hanging by the door, and it crashed to the floor, scattering into a forgotten corner. He had made it for me, by hand, after our first date. Our decade-long history, as fragile as the string that held the chime together, snapped under the weight of a one-year affair. A sharp cramp seized my abdomen, a pain that radiated through my whole body, but I barely registered it. I watched his retreating back, a sour burn in my throat. The fabric of my dress was turning crimson with my own blood, but he never looked back. Not once. I remembered a time I’d gotten a small paper cut, and he’d panicked, calling in a team of specialists just to look at my finger. Now, I was bleeding on the floor, and not a single servant dared to help me. Just as the pain threatened to pull me under, a hand reached out to me. I looked up, saw a familiar face, and a desperate flicker of hope ignited in my chest. “John…” I whispered. But it wasn’t a hand of salvation. He hauled me to my feet and dragged me toward the sauna, his face a merciless mask. He shoved me inside and threw the lock. “You misbehaved,” he said, his voice flat. “You need to be punished.” A wave of heat washed over me. Through the glass, I saw Mila take the remote control, her face a picture of feigned kindness. “Oh, John, you shouldn’t be so harsh with her. I’ll just turn the temperature down a little.” But the heat in the small room was already climbing, becoming unbearable. The temperature gauge began to flash a red warning. The scorching air amplified the pain throbbing through my body. I slammed my fists against the door. “John, let me out! I’m going to die in here!” 3 For a second, John’s expression flickered. He started toward the door, but Mila grabbed his arm. She blinked her big, innocent eyes, a single tear tracing a path down her cheek. “But I turned it down, John. Seventy-eight degrees is the perfect temperature for comfort. How could she possibly die?” John’s hand dropped. His face hardened into a mask of disgust. “Elara, are you so pathetic you’d lie just to slander Mila?” “You disgust me.” He turned to the maids. “No one is to open that door without my permission.” My heart hammered against my ribs, each breath a struggle. I used the last of my strength to scream, “John, if I die in here, my family will never let you get away with this!” He paused, then slowly turned, his face a canvas of pure contempt. “Your family? You mean the Wiltons?” He let out a short, cruel laugh. “Your father is dead. Your mother remarried the second she could. Do you still think you’re the golden princess of Northwood City?” “If it wasn’t for me,” he sneered, “propping you up all these years, do you really think you’d still be living the same lavish life you were born into?” The moment he turned his back, holding Mila close, my legs gave out. I collapsed to the scorching floor. Tears of blood stung my eyes as I watched them walk away through the glass. “John Hughes,” I whispered into the suffocating heat, “you shattered my heart. I will never, ever forgive you…” When I woke up, John was sitting by my bedside. My gaze was empty, hollow. I saw a flicker of something—was it pity?—in his eyes, but it vanished as quickly as it appeared. “The doctor said your body isn’t suited for childbirth,” he said, his voice devoid of emotion. “Telling you to get the procedure was for your own good.” “The baby’s gone now. It’s for the best. Mila has a kind heart; she said she’ll let you help raise our child.” “And the sauna… the thermostat was broken. She didn’t do it on purpose…” A mocking smile twisted my lips. Every word was a defense of Mila. He hadn’t once asked me if I was in pain. If I was okay. My heart was a dead, cold thing in my chest, but my eyes still filled with tears. I stared at him, then slowly, deliberately, I raised my hands. They were swollen and blistered from the heat. John, who had still been defending Mila, stopped mid-sentence. His eyes widened. “What are you doing?” I ignored the searing pain and began to force my wedding ring off my swollen finger. It pulled at the raw, ruined skin beneath. “Are you insane?” he yelled, grabbing my wrist. His touch sent a jolt of agony through me, and my eyes watered, but my voice was calm. “The ring. You can have it back.” This ring. John had crafted it himself. Back then, he was just the unacknowledged bastard son of the Hughes family. I had defied my own family to marry him. He’d spent a month apprenticing with a master jeweler, barely sleeping, just so he could give me a proper wedding ring. For all these years, I had treasured it like a sacred artifact. I never took it off, not even to shower. A storm of complex emotions crossed John’s face, but I was too tired to try and decipher them. His grip on my wrist tightened. I winced. “You’re hurting me.” He finally realized and let go. “Elara, I’m sorry. I—” Just then, a soft sob came from the adjoining room. Without another glance at me, John spun around and rushed next door. “Mila? What is it? Did you have a nightmare?” he cooed, his voice a gentle murmur. Mila’s voice was thick with tears. “John, what am I going to do? They’re threatening me again! I only wanted the money to save my mother, why are they doing this to me?”

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The moment I succeeded in winning over the brooding male lead, I chose to exit the world. I didn’t hesitate for a second, not even when he begged me, broken and humbled, to stay. Later, back in the real world, my life fell apart. The System found me again. It offered me five million dollars to go back into the book and win him over one more time. Just as I was about to agree, a stream of comments flashed across my vision: “Holy crap, the ex who ditched Aidan is back.” “LOL, does she seriously think he’s still in love with her?” “The second ‘Tasker’ not only got his Darkness Value down to negative one hundred, but she also chose to stay, giving him the family he always wanted.” “The happy couple is about to get married. Can the ex-wife please have some self-respect and not bother them?” 1 It took me a long moment to process it. The “ex-wife” they were talking about… was me. Beside me, the System was still buzzing in my ear, trying to sell me on the deal. “All you have to do is make Aidan Sterling fall for you again, and you’ll get five million dollars. Even if you fail, you’ll get fifty thousand for your trouble. How about it? It’s a bargain, right?” It was a bargain. And right now, I desperately needed the money. But the comments echoed in my head. I stayed silent for a moment, then said I needed to think about it. So, the System decided to send me back into the book first. To be precise, it sent me back to the home Aidan and I once shared. The tiny apartment, old but filled with a familiar warmth, was exactly as I’d left it three years ago. Aidan hadn’t moved a single thing. Even the dress I’d accidentally stained just before I left was now hanging in the closet, clean and pristine, as if waiting for me. I remembered that dress. It was from a famous designer, all the rage at the time. When Aidan had secretly bought it for me, I’d chewed him out for spending so much money. He didn’t argue, just lowered his gaze, his long lashes shadowing his cheeks, and waited for my anger to fade. Then, he’d coaxed me, in that soft, gentle voice of his, to try it on. I looked down, the silky fabric cool against my fingers. I took a deep breath. If Aidan had truly forgotten me… then why was this apartment still here? I looked up again, my eyes scanning the small room. My gaze was suddenly caught by a white piece of paper taped to the window. A few large, scrawled words were visible through the glass. FOR SALE. PRICE NEGOTIABLE. URGENT. The sharp, decisive strokes were unmistakably Aidan’s. 2 A fresh wave of tiny text flooded my vision: “Hahaha, look at her face. The ex-wife is stunned. He wasn’t holding onto their past; he just hadn’t gotten around to selling the place.” “She really thought he still loved her like before. Plot twist: now that he has our sweet Sophie, he won’t even give his ex a second glance.” “The only reason the System brought her back is to create some drama for Aidan and Sophie. Get ready for some prime humiliation, folks.” I pressed my lips together. So that was it. The System was willing to offer five million because it was certain I would fail. Its real goal was to cast me as the villain, the obstacle in the main couple’s love story. He was getting my labor for a mere fifty thousand dollars. Fifty thousand. I laughed, a bitter, self-mocking sound. To play the fool for fifty grand… it wasn’t a small amount. It was enough to cover a week of treatment in the ICU. I summoned the System and coolly accepted the deal. The System was thrilled. It deposited a large sum of money into my account for expenses, though it could only be used within the book’s world. Since Aidan was so eager to sell this place, I might as well be the one to buy it. I clutched my phone, my fingers dialing a number I knew by heart. It rang for half a minute before someone picked up. A bright, clear female voice came through the line. “Hello? Who is this…?” I froze for a second, then glanced down to confirm the number. It was definitely Aidan’s. “Hi, I was passing by and saw the ‘For Sale’ sign in the window…” “You want to buy the apartment?” the person on the other end exclaimed, her voice bubbling with excitement. “That’s wonderful! Finally, someone wants it.” I asked cautiously, “Are you the owner?” “I’m the owner’s girlfriend. You can just call me Sophie.” So, this was the second Tasker. As my mind went blank, a brief murmur of voices came from the other end of the line, like two people whispering. It felt like an eternity passed before someone picked up the phone again. Aidan’s cold, detached voice came through, sharp and clear. “Hello. Is it convenient to meet and discuss this in person?” 3 I waited in the coffee shop, a bundle of nerves. Finally, a sleek, understated luxury car pulled up to the curb. A picture-perfect couple stepped out. I hadn’t seen Aidan in three years, but he was just as striking as ever. The last traces of youthful uncertainty in his features had been replaced by the quiet confidence that comes with power and wealth. He leaned casually against the car door. Sophie said something that made him smile, and he reached out to gently ruffle her hair. From across the distance, his gaze drifted in my direction. It rested on me for a fraction of a second before moving on, as placid and undisturbed as a still lake. I was still lost in a daze when Sophie sat down in front of me. She offered me an apologetic smile. “My boyfriend had to run, he could only drop me off. I’ll be handling the details in his place.” I nodded, my voice genuine. “I can tell you two are very happy together.” Sophie’s smile deepened. “He runs a tech company. The net profit is in the nine-figure range every year. It’s not about the money from the apartment, you know? We just… don’t want to keep it around anymore.” Her tone was laced with a faint, unmissable sense of superiority. I nodded again and, following procedure, asked to see the apartment. Sophie paused, a flicker of awkwardness in her eyes. “I don’t have the keys. If you want to see it, my boyfriend will have to take you himself.” I blinked, confused. “He didn’t give you the keys before you came?” Logically, any property sale involved a viewing. Aidan couldn’t possibly be unaware of that. Sophie sighed, a hint of frustration in her smile. “I asked, but he wouldn’t give them to me. He’s never even taken me there.” She lowered her voice conspiratorially. “To be honest with you, this is the place he lived in with his ex-wife when he was just starting out. It just… gives me the creeps. That’s why I want it gone, and fast.” “Oh,” I said. “In that case, I don’t need to see it. We can just sign the contract.” Sophie’s face lit up. Afraid I’d change my mind, she immediately pulled out the sales agreement. But she didn’t have the deed, so we couldn’t transfer the title just yet. We’d still have to wait for Aidan. With time to kill, I looked at this woman, a fellow Tasker, just like me. My curiosity got the better of me. “How did you and he get together?” What I really wanted to know was how she had managed to win him over. The System had told me that after I left, Aidan had briefly relapsed into a second darkness. He’d attempted suicide, slit his wrists… his Darkness Value had skyrocketed to a level that threatened the stability of the entire world. Sophie had appeared at his side during that critical time. She not only lowered his Darkness Value but completely replaced me in his heart. Aidan was not an easy man to win over. She must have gone through hell. But Sophie just smiled brightly. “He had just been abandoned by his ex-wife and was completely heartbroken. I was just there for him, comforting him. It didn’t take long for us to make it official.” Was it really that simple? I could hardly believe it. Once again, the screen of my vision was flooded with mockery: “Hahaha, the ex-wife is having a meltdown. Aidan has zero resistance when it comes to our girl Sophie.” “Don’t forget, it took the ex ten whole years to win him over. She threw herself at him countless times before he finally, reluctantly, agreed to be with her.” “Sophie just had a few conversations with him, and all of the ex’s years of work went down the drain. That’s the power of true love, baby.” … I silently watched the jeering words scroll by. They were right. My journey with Aidan had been incredibly difficult. So difficult that I never wanted to live through it again. 4 Aidan’s parents never loved him. At a young age, they abandoned him in a psychiatric hospital, leaving him to the mercy of abusive orderlies. The place was filled with violent, unhinged patients, a veritable prison guarded like a fortress. Even with the System’s help, I nearly died getting him out of there. I took Aidan to a new city where no one knew us. I made sure he went to school, got an education, stayed on the right path. I even arranged for expensive therapy sessions every week. I did all of it hoping he would finally, completely, trust me. But Aidan was too smart. He effortlessly saw through the façade of this world, including my identity and my mission. After graduation, Aidan was the state’s top scholar. I threw a party to celebrate, overjoyed for him. But he quietly pulled me aside, his expression cold, a flicker of self-deprecation in his eyes. “You’re doing all this to win me over for your mission, aren’t you?” After the initial shock, I sighed, my voice catching. “I’m in love with you. That’s my mission.” Aidan scoffed, clearly unconvinced. My heart hammered in my chest. I pressed my head against his chest, my voice a small murmur. “Aidan, please, don’t get hung up on all that. These last few years… they’ve been so hard. You have to hurry up and make my life easier.” My voice broke. “I really, really love you. Please don’t question me like this again. It hurts too much.” … After college, Aidan started his own company. We moved into that tiny, rundown apartment. It had no heating in the winter. I was always cold, and my feet would get so numb they ached. Every night, Aidan would massage them for me, his eyes red with unshed tears, silent but full of pain for me. By then, we were married. His life goal had shifted from building a tech empire to destroy the world to the mundane task of making enough money to buy his wife a house. We hustled during the day and held each other in that small bed at night. I remember being harassed by an investor I was trying to win over; I didn’t dare tell Aidan, so I just walked the streets alone, crying. Another time, when a rival company came after us, I stood in front of Aidan without a second thought, taking the blow that sent me to the operating room. I don’t know how many times I went through things like that before Aidan slowly, painstakingly, fell in love with me. And compared to my decade-long effort, Sophie had done it in just three short weeks. She’d brought his Darkness Value down to negative one hundred and pushed his Affection Meter all the way to one hundred percent. 5 Sophie was still chattering on about the sweet little moments she shared with Aidan. She said it was love at first sight for him. I swallowed the lump in my throat and took a sip of my milkshake. “Has he… ever mentioned his ex-wife to you?” Sophie thought for a moment, then a triumphant smile spread across her face. “Never. I think he’s completely over her.” I nodded. It was better this way. I didn’t actually want to ruin their relationship. When Aidan showed up, I’d just act like I was full of regret, pathetically throwing myself at him. Given his personality, he’d probably be disgusted and push me away. Once he rejected me, I’d take my fifty thousand dollars and happily exit this world. As I was plotting, Sophie’s phone rang. Her face lit up. “My boyfriend’s meeting is over! He’s coming to pick me up. We have a date tonight, so let’s deal with the apartment tomorrow, okay?” I froze for a second, then forced a smile and a nod. “Okay, I’ll just be going then…” “Where do you live?” Sophie asked, grabbing my arm affectionately. “I’ll have my boyfriend give you a ride.” The smile on my face froze solid. Sophie was just too insistent. Before I knew it, the car door had clicked shut, and I was inside. The cool, clean scent of pine wood hung in the air. I could hear Sophie’s sweet, playful voice as she showed Aidan her new manicure. Aidan was sitting right in front of me. From my angle, I could see his hands on the steering wheel, his knuckles sharp and defined. He kept his eyes on the road, but he responded to her every word. I glanced at the rearview mirror, at the handsome lines of his face, and felt a wave of disorientation. Aidan had never been this patient with me. When we were together, he was always so insecure, so full of dread. He knew about my mission and was terrified I would leave at any moment. He’d wake up in the middle of the night, startled, his hand frantically searching for me on the other side of the bed. I would have to soothe him, again and again, exhausted. “I won’t leave you alone. I love you, and it has nothing to do with the mission.” I kept telling him that lie, right up until the moment I left. He had cried then, clutching my hand, begging me not to go. Begging me to stay just a little longer, just a few more years. I had sighed and refused every plea. His face had gone pale, his eyes swirling with a storm of pain and madness. “Why? Don’t you love me? How can you just leave me like this? You said you’d never leave me alone!” I gave him a bitter smile. “I have someone I love in the real world.” … Aidan’s eyes flickered up, catching my gaze in the mirror. He frowned. The car lurched forward with a sudden, violent screech of brakes. Caught off guard, my forehead slammed against the window with a dull thud, leaving a blooming bruise. “Sorry,” Aidan’s voice was raspy. He turned his head slightly. “We’re here.” It took me a moment to register. “Oh,” I said, managing a “thank you.” When I’d gotten in the car, Sophie had asked for my address, and I’d just blurted out the name of a random apartment complex. I arranged to meet Sophie next time and got out of the car. Aidan kept his eyes down, never once looking back at me. He didn’t linger for a moment; the car’s taillights vanished around the corner almost instantly. At the busy entrance to the complex, I wrapped my arms around myself and slowly sank to the ground. I don’t know how much time passed. Then, the familiar luxury car pulled up again, silent and imposing, right in front of me. The window rolled down, revealing the sharp, defined profile of his face. Aidan stared at me, his expression unreadable. “Get in.” 6 I’d expected Aidan to find a way to see me alone. I just hadn’t expected it to be so soon. Too soon for me to prepare myself to face him. As we were locked in a stalemate, Aidan lifted a hand and lit a cigarette. I frowned instinctively. I hated it when he smoked. In the past, I would have snatched it from him without a word and stamped it out. And the Aidan back then was always so obedient. When I told him to quit, he never touched another one. He would never have been like this. He would never have sat there, shrouded in a pale haze of smoke, studying me so brazenly. I bit back my words, about to speak. The comments flooded my vision again: “What’s she hesitating for? Does she actually think he wants something from her?” “He’s known she was back for a while. He just didn’t say anything in the car because he didn’t want Sophie to get the wrong idea.” “The only reason he’s seeing her alone is to warn her not to run her mouth in front of Sophie. He couldn’t care less about her.” I stood rooted to the spot, the silence heavy around me. It was like a bucket of ice water had been poured over my head. The impulsive flicker of emotion I’d felt a moment ago was extinguished completely. I had no right to tell him what to do anymore. The hand resting on the car window, pale and elegant, dropped lazily. Aidan expressionlessly averted his gaze. As if remembering something, he crushed the cigarette with a flicker of derision. “You want to buy the apartment, don’t you? Get in. I’ll take you to see it.” 7 The ride was silent. Aidan showed no intention of speaking. But my mind was a chaotic mess of scrolling text. “Well, at least she knows her place. She took the back seat, knowing the passenger seat is for the girlfriend.” “He’s supposed to be warning her, so why is he taking her to their old place?” “Don’t worry, guys. He doesn’t know her real plan yet. Once she shows her true colors, he’ll be even more disgusted with her.” … When we arrived at the door, I couldn’t help but speak. “Don’t you have anything… to ask me?” Aidan’s hand, holding the key, paused. He glanced down at me, a brow raised, silently waiting for me to continue. I mustered my courage. “Like why I came back. How long I’m staying. Or… why I want to buy this apartment.” “Not interested.” Aidan looked away, his tone flat. “I don’t care who buys it. I’m erasing everything that has to do with you. As for why you’re back…” He stuffed his hands in his pockets and let out what sounded like a humorless chuckle. “You’re not planning to try and win me over again, are you?” I was silent for a beat. “What if I am?”

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I was the vicious fake heiress, raised in a wealthy family. After I died, the man I grew up with, my supposed soulmate, plastered my intimate photos online, calling me a cheap tramp who only knew how to seduce men. Protesters swarmed my family home, cheering that I had gotten what I deserved. To distance themselves from my “taint,” my parents burned our entire villa to the ground overnight. They even fed my ashes to the dogs. Everyone said I deserved to die. But then, on the day of the real heiress’s lavish, live-streamed wedding to my childhood sweetheart… They received a wedding gift from me. 1 The grand wedding of Elle and Elliott was a star-studded affair. In the audience, my parents dabbed at their eyes, whispering, “Our Elle is finally getting married. Our precious girl.” My ghost hovered in the air, a familiar ache twisting in my chest. They used to dote on me just like that. Suddenly, someone in the crowd exclaimed, “They’re a perfect match! Elliott and Elle are made for each other.” “Right? Not like that Vera,” another voice sneered. “She occupied the role of the Vanderbilt family heiress for years, but she was always just a cheap fake. Even in death, she’s considered bad luck.” Elle, on the stage, seemed to hear my name. She paused, a faint, contemptuous smile playing on her lips. It’s true, I thought with a self-deprecating pang. I had stolen twenty years of her privileged life. She had every right to mock me. But then, Elle looked directly into the camera. “Actually,” she said, her voice clear and bright, “I have Vera to thank for something.” “She prepared a wedding gift for us.” A gift? From me? My spectral form froze mid-air. I didn’t know anything about a gift. Before I could even process it, the crowd erupted. “She’s dead! What kind of stunt is this? So manipulative!” “She was arrogant and cruel in life, and now she wants to disgust us from beyond the grave!” “She was so vicious. It’s probably a curse or something.” My mother’s face turned ashen. She shot to her feet. “She spent her whole life trying to steal everything from Elle! Why would she send a gift?!” “Throw it out! Get rid of it! We can’t let something so unlucky tarnish Elle’s wedding!” Elliott frowned, waving a dismissive hand. “Forget it. Let’s not even look. It can’t be anything good. Let’s just continue with the ceremony.” But Elle held up a hand, silencing the uproar. “Really? I, for one, would like to see what she sent.” My parents tried to object, but Elle had already opened the gift box. Inside was a thick journal. I recognized it. It was mine. But… hadn’t my parents burned all of my belongings? How did it end up here? Before I could dwell on it, Elle picked up the journal and began to read aloud. February 1st, 2024. The real daughter of the Vanderbilt family, Elle, is back. She’s dark and thin, and so timid. Mom and Dad said she suffered a lot out there, that I have to let her have her way in everything from now on. As she read, an image appeared on the massive screen behind her. It was Elle, wearing a faded plaid shirt and worn-out jeans. I had secretly taken that photo, hiding in a corner. Her hair was dry and yellowed, her eyes hollow. She was a world away from the radiant woman on the stage today. Elliott tore off his tie. “Turn it off! Who authorized this? The past is the past! Elle isn’t like that anymore!” “Exactly!” someone in the crowd chimed in. “Vera was so calculating! To keep such an ugly photo!” “So she resented Elle from the very first day she came back?” “It makes sense now! All the terrible things Vera did to Elle later on… it was all premeditated!” Hearing this, my parents’ anger boiled over. “If I had known she was so vicious,” my mother seethed, “I would have sent her away that very day!” 2 Their words were a bitter cocktail in my soul. To think a single photograph could brand me so vile. Elle paused, then continued reading. But she doesn’t seem to hate me. She wiped her sweaty palm on her jeans and reached out to shake my hand, but I pulled away. She froze, asking in a small voice if I didn’t like her. I was about to answer when Mom and Dad’s scolding exploded in my ears. Mom said, “It’s Elle’s first day back. Can you please drop the princess act for one second?” Dad said, “Do you have any idea what Elle has been through for the past twenty years? If it weren’t for the mix-up at the hospital, you would be the one who suffered!” I was stunned. Just the night before, they had promised that even with Elle back, they would still love me like their own daughter. I guess all it took was me not shaking her hand for them to reveal their true feelings. But… I only did it because I saw the calluses on her hands. I was afraid she would feel self-conscious. As she read that last line, a flicker of something—confusion? recognition?—crossed Elle’s face. She bit her lower lip. My mother, realizing what was being read, looked up sharply. “I… I might have said that. But she became so unreasonable later, I had to…” “If she was really thinking of Elle’s feelings, why didn’t she explain herself then? It sounds like she’s just making excuses for herself after the fact!” My father wrapped an arm around her, comforting her. “It’s over now. She’s dead. Her debt is paid.” Elliott frowned, cutting in. “It’s obvious she didn’t want to accept Elle. She was probably just scared of losing her position in the family!” Elle smiled faintly, saying nothing. She turned to the next page. March 15th, 2024. The page was accompanied by a photo of Elliott, kneeling on the ground, tying my shoelace. Elliott came to see me today. The first words out of his mouth were that he wanted to break off our engagement. He said now that the real heiress was back, his family couldn’t possibly let him marry a fake. But he used to tell me he wanted to marry me only because he loved me. Twenty years of knowing each other… was it all meaningless compared to a simple accident of birth? Why did he change the moment Elle came back? I ran after him, wanting to demand an explanation. But I overheard him on the phone with a friend. “Vera’s just a cheap knock-off,” he was saying. “She actually thinks she’s something special.” “She was fun to play with, but for a marriage alliance, you need the real thing.” The friend on the other end must have said something, because Elliott burst out laughing. “Yeah, it is a shame, though.” “Five years together, I treated her so well, and she wouldn’t even let me touch her. Acting like some untouchable ice queen.” “But that Elle… she looks like she’d be an easy catch.” So I finally learned. All his past devotion was a lie. It hurts so much. I thought about telling Mom and Dad. But whenever I brought up Elliott’s name, they assumed I was trying to steal him from Elle again. They never gave me a chance to speak. What about Elle, then? I can’t just watch her marry a scumbag like him, can I? But would she even believe me? Elle paused, her eyes darting toward Elliott. He swallowed hard, then blustered, “She must have been jealous that you were going to marry me! She just made all that up!” Elliott’s parents shot to their feet. “If my son really said those things,” his mother roared, “then how do you explain Vera drugging my son, trying to climb into his bed?” Whispers erupted from the crowd. “That’s right! On Elle’s birthday, Vera drugged Elliott’s drink, then had the gall to demand he marry her the next day! She can’t wash that stain away!” Elle nodded slowly. “Yes. Why would she do that?” 3 She turned the page. May 20th, 2024. Today is mine and Elle’s birthday. But Mom and Dad seem to have forgotten about me. They only bought one cake, for Elle. I’m not angry, though. It’s just cake. I don’t even like it. Elle must have seen me standing in the corner. She brought me a slice and said, “Happy birthday, sister.” I pretended to be disgusted and pushed it away. But my heart was pounding. I wanted so badly to wish her a happy birthday, too. Even so, she just smiled and said it was okay. In that moment, I thought she really was an angel. No wonder so many people love her. Later, I saw Elliott slip some powder into her drink. There was no time. Elle was about to drink it. I lunged forward, snatched the glass from her, and drank it all myself. I had just breathed a sigh of relief when Mom rushed over and slapped me across the face. I fell to the floor, but she was still fussing over Elle, asking if she was alright. Me… But Mom, why didn’t you ask me why I did it? In the end, Mom chose not to believe me. She had someone lock me in my room. I don’t know how much time passed. I was dizzy, I couldn’t even stand up straight. Through the haze, I saw Elliott. He pushed me onto the bed, his face a mask of fury. “I was so close to getting Elle, and you had to ruin it! “Since you’re so desperate, I’ll take care of you tonight!” I wanted to fight back. But then a thought crossed my mind. If this happened… could I force Elliott to marry me? Would that keep Elle safe? So, I stopped resisting. Later, I was woken by a splash of cold water. Elliott looked at me with disgust. “Why did you drug me?! And you dared to lie and say you were Elle! You made me…” “But you can forget it. My heart belongs only to Elle.” Mom and Dad wouldn’t listen to my explanation either. They pointed at me, shouting, “You filthy thing! To think you’d use such low-life tricks to stop Elle from marrying into the Willis family!” “Get out of our house! Go back to your real family! You are not welcome here anymore!” I thought being forced like that was the most painful thing in the world. I was wrong. This, right here, was worse. As Elle’s voice faded, someone in the crowd stammered, “So… it was Elliott who drugged the drink? Vera was just trying to save Elle?” “Vera was framed?!” Elliott frantically waved his hands. “Nonsense! She’s delusional! It’s all in her head!” I saw my parents, frozen in their seats, their lips trembling. “Elle… Elle was going to marry Elliott anyway…” my mother whispered, her voice cracking. “It was inevitable. So what if it happened?” “But Vera, that ungrateful wolf! She only wanted to stay in this family for the money!” Elle let out a small, bitter laugh. “For the money?” She turned the page. I didn’t have time to feel wronged. I fell to my knees, begging them not to send me back. There was only my eighty-year-old grandfather there. He couldn’t even afford to buy Elle a decent dress. What could he possibly give me? I really don’t want to go back. Hearing this, my mother seemed to find validation in her own words. A look of relief washed over her face. My father’s expression remained stony. “Vera is a gold-digger. All the kindness we showed her was wasted!” The online comments flooded the screen. “Even if your grandfather is poor, he’s still your family! Calling you an ungrateful wolf is right!” “So disgusted by your own family? Did you ever think that’s the life you were supposed to have?” Elle’s grip on the journal tightened. “Then why was she so desperate for money? Let’s keep reading.” August 9th, 2024. I can’t hold on much longer. I asked Mom and Dad for twenty thousand. Mom asked with disgust where all my allowance went. I told her the truth. I gave it all to Grandpa. She scoffed. “Stop pretending. You didn’t even want to go back to him, and you expect me to believe you sent him money?” “Unlike you, my Elle has been quietly helping him this whole time. Don’t tell me you’re trying to steal credit for that, too?” In that moment, I knew. No matter what I said, Mom would never believe me. When did things get like this? I don’t know. But… I don’t have much time left to live anyway. If the cancer didn’t hurt so much, I wouldn’t have asked. I hope Grandpa never finds out about me. Elle once said he was a good, good man. If he knew, he would probably move heaven and earth to save me. I don’t want that. He’s already so old. It’s so hard. Forget it. I’ll never ask again. Finally, someone in the audience realized the gravity of what Elle was reading. “Did you say… Vera? Cancer?!” “So she didn’t want to go back to not be a burden on her grandfather?!” The live chat exploded, with people starting to defend me. At her table, my mother clutched her chest and shot to her feet. “She… she did say she wasn’t feeling well… but…” Elliott’s parents had had enough. “That’s it! This is a wedding! Why are we talking about a dead person?” Elliott’s father boomed. Elliott tried to take Elle’s hand, to stop her from reading. But she pulled away from his touch, her eyes red as she looked at my mother. There was a hint of mockery in her voice. “Don’t you want to know what she went through? Why she became the person she was?” My mother choked back a sob and sank back into her chair. “What does it matter now… She was just…” Elle took a deep breath. “Then let’s continue. Let’s see how Vera changed.”

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