Category: English

After three grueling years of fertility treatment in a Swiss clinic, I finally conceived. Overjoyed, I flew straight back to New York, eager to surprise Alexander. Society friends had warned me that in my absence, he’d grown close to a spoiled young secretary. I ignored them—Alexander used to dismiss anyone who displeased me with just a frown. But when I reached our Hamptons estate, the gate code had been changed. As I tried our anniversary date, the door swung open. A woman stood there wearing my silk robe, her gaze sharp and arrogant. “Where did this trash come from?” she shouted. “Get out, or I’ll set the dogs on you!” I laughed bitterly, chin raised. “Bring Alexander here. I want to ask my husband when he started bringing strays into our home—” And whether he still wanted the baby inside me, the heir he once begged for. 1 The massive Rottweilers behind the iron gate sensed her hostility and began barking viciously at me, emboldened by their master. Amber rolled her eyes, her lips curling in disgust. “Who do you think you are, lady? You think our CEO just sees anyone who wanders in off the street?” She looked me up and down, taking in my understated, unbranded travel clothes. “What the hell is estate security doing? Letting a beggar in cheap rags wander into an exclusive neighborhood!” My skin had always been painfully sensitive. Synthetic fabrics broke me out in terrible rashes. Because of this, Alexander used to commission a private tailor in Lake Como to handcraft all my garments from the softest, pure natural silks and cottons. Never in my wildest dreams did I think I would be humiliated for not wearing flashy designer logos. I nearly laughed out of pure fury. In all our years together, this was the very first time someone had dared to block me from seeing Alexander. I reached into my bag for my phone, ready to call my husband and demand an explanation. But as I pulled it out, the black screen stared back at me. It had died during the long flight. Without missing a beat, I held out my hand and ordered Amber to hand over her phone. “If you delay his business, you know exactly what the consequences will be.” My icy tone caught her off guard. For a split second, she froze, and I snatched the sleek phone right out of her manicured fingers. I dialed the number etched into my memory. Just as I was about to unleash my anger, Alexander’s deep, gentle chuckle came through the speaker, cutting me off. “I didn’t text you back for two minutes, and you’re already calling? Miss me that much?” His voice was like velvet. “I’m in a board meeting, babe. I’ll be home the second it’s over.” My hand trembled, and every word I wanted to say piled up in my throat, choking me. That tender, indulgent tone. If I wasn’t holding Amber’s phone, I would have sworn he was talking to me. In a flash, Amber snatched the device back, her voice instantly melting into a sickeningly sweet whine. “Then hurry up and come home! I want to eat the dinner you promised to cook for me!” She deliberately tapped the speakerphone button, making sure I heard every word. Listening to them flirt so effortlessly, I bit the inside of my cheek to keep from screaming. “Alexander, get back here this instant!” There was a brief pause on the line. Alexander’s voice shifted, sounding mildly confused. “Amber, is there someone else there with you?” Amber glared at me, her eyes venomous. “Just some crazy homeless woman. Don’t worry, I’m having her thrown out right now.” Alexander sighed dismissively. “Alright. Just keep it quiet. The company is in the middle of a massive merger, and a public scene is the last thing we need.” His utter indifference felt like a bucket of ice water crashing over my head. Just last month, he had flown all the way to Europe to hold my hand through the treatments, yet right now, he didn’t even recognize the sound of his own wife’s voice! I couldn’t hold back anymore. My voice cracked as I screamed into the receiver. “Alexander! You don’t want me anymore? Do you not even want your own child?” 2 The atmosphere plummeted into a freezing chill. When Alexander finally spoke, his tone was laced with absolute venom. “You have a lot of nerve, trying to pull a scam on me.” His voice was a razor blade. “That bastard is absolutely not mine. Amber, handle it. Get rid of her.” He still didn’t recognize me. A hollow, self-deprecating laugh escaped my chest. “If that’s how it is, then there is no reason for this baby to exist.” Alexander remained completely unbothered. “Some random stray’s kid. Do whatever you want, you’d be doing the world a favor.” My fingernails dug so hard into my palms that they broke the skin. I never thought the man who promised me the world would casually refer to his own flesh and blood as a stray. He had no idea that the child growing inside my womb was the only legacy he would ever have. Alexander suffered from severe sterility. For five agonizing years of marriage, we had tried and failed. The Kensingtons were a proud, old-fashioned family, desperate for a male heir. When the diagnosis came out, his parents were beside themselves with grief. It was only after their relentless, tearful begging that I agreed to go into isolation in Europe. I endured three years of needles, hormones, and heartbreak before finally securing this one viable pregnancy. I thought coming home would be the greatest joy of his life. Instead, the surprise he gave me was fatal. Just as I resolved to call my lawyers and draft a divorce settlement, Amber hit the end call button with a sharp click. Her eyes blazed with malice. Without warning, her hand flew out, slapping me across the face so hard my head snapped to the side. “I knew you were just a gold-digging whore! Trying to pin your filthy bastard on the CEO!” I had been born into unimaginable wealth. From the day I took my first breath, nobody had ever dared to lay a finger on me. Shaking with pure rage, I stepped back and slammed my fist into the emergency security terminal mounted on the brick pillar. Amber didn’t even try to stop me. She just crossed her arms and smirked. “You stupid bitch. You clearly haven’t done your research on what the Kensington name means in New York.” “Forget one slap. Even if I beat you to death right here on the driveway, nobody would dare say a word!” I stared at her, my eyes cold and dead. The Kensingtons had money, sure. But my family was an institution. Marrying Alexander was considered a massive step down for a Armitage. Every single successful corporate bid, every open door in his career, was paved with my family’s influence. Even the head of security for this very estate was someone I had personally promoted because of his diligent service. Within three minutes, a golf cart roared up the driveway. A squad of security guards jumped out. I scanned their faces, my brow furrowing. Mr. Davis, the man I knew, wasn’t among them. Before I could demand to see him, Amber immediately threw herself at the lead guard, her voice taking on a sickening, whiny pitch. “Brando! It’s this disgusting woman! She dragged her pregnant belly here, screaming that the baby belongs to the CEO! I can’t get her to leave!” Disgusted by her pathetic act, I spoke up, my voice dripping with authority. “Call your manager, Mr. Davis, right now. Have him come down here and confirm whether or not I am Mrs. Kensington!” The burly guard paused, looking confused. “Mr. Davis is out of state for a convention. How do you know him?” Amber spat on the ground near my feet. “No wonder you managed to sneak past the gates! You’ve been sleeping with the security manager! I bet the bastard in your belly belongs to him!” One of the younger guards muttered under his breath. “Doesn’t Mr. Davis have a wife?” Amber cackled loudly. “So she’s a habitual homewrecker! Used up and thrown away, so now she’s trying to find a billionaire to foot the bill!” My jaw clenched so hard my teeth ached. I tried to speak over the noise. “I am not a mistress. I am Serena Armitage, the woman Alexander begged on his knees to marry!” But the gathering crowd of staff and guards only exchanged mocking glances. “Pretty face, but absolute trash on the inside.” “She actually picked a fight with Miss Amber? That’s a death wish. Everyone knows the CEO treats Miss Amber like royalty.” “He literally moved her into the master suite. They’re basically practically married. This crazy ex-fling must have found out and came to throw a tantrum!” Hearing the crowd validate her status, Amber’s expression twisted into pure, arrogant malice. She lunged forward, grabbing a fistful of my hair and delivering several brutal slaps across my face. “You filthy whore! I knew you were here to ruin my life!” 3 Her long, sharp acrylic nails dragged down my cheek, tearing the skin. Warm blood pooled in the corner of my eye, turning my vision into a hazy, crimson nightmare. Still not satisfied, Amber reached down and unclipped the heavy leather leashes. “They haven’t had their dinner yet. Let’s see how you taste!” The moment the restraints fell away, the massive Rottweilers lunged. A horrifying set of jaws snapped open right in front of my face. I threw my arm up instinctively, and razor-sharp teeth sank deep into my flesh, tearing through muscle. Amidst the blinding agony and terror, a sharp, terrifying cramp ripped through my lower abdomen. The pregnancy had always been high-risk. The specialists had warned me that the slightest trauma or stress could cause a miscarriage. In that terrifying moment, I felt the sickening warmth of blood pooling between my legs. Seeing the blood, one of the guards panicked and stepped in. “Hey, don’t kill her on the property. Let’s just drag her out to the curb.” Amber scoffed loudly, and immediately, another guard tried to kiss up to her. “What are you scared of? Miss Amber is the boss’s true love. Last week, some socialite outbid her for a necklace, and the next morning that same woman was on her knees begging Miss Amber for forgiveness!” “Even if this trash dies, the CEO will cover it up. You have nothing to worry about!” The lead guard, Brando, stepped forward, grabbing my good arm and violently dragging me toward the estate gates. “Amber is my cousin, which makes the CEO practically family! A homewrecking slut like you deserves to be taught a permanent lesson!” My scalp burned in agony as Amber followed closely, staring at my bleeding face with a sick, jealous glimmer in her eyes. “His actual wife couldn’t even keep him, what makes a cheap hooker like you think you stand a chance?” I froze, the physical pain momentarily eclipsed by shock. “You know he’s married?” Amber laughed, a shrill, ugly sound. “Some aging, miserable housewife he got bored of years ago! Why else do you think he shipped her off to Europe?” Alexander had never even told her. He never mentioned that his wife went away to endure endless medical torture just to give him the family he wanted. Before I could form a sentence, a dark, murderous shadow crossed Amber’s face. “You really thought you could use a baby to secure a bag! I’m telling you right now, you don’t have the luck for it!” She drew her leg back and kicked me squarely in the stomach. The impact sent me collapsing to the pavement. A wave of indescribable agony crashed over me, and I felt the fragile spark of life inside me rapidly fading away. Panic seized my throat. “The baby is Alexander’s! I swear to God! Call an ambulance! If this baby dies, he will ruin every single one of you!” Seeing the sheer amount of blood staining the concrete, the crowd murmured nervously. Brando turned back and roared at them. “This is Kensington family business! If anyone pulls out a phone to call the cops, you’re dead!” He shoved my face hard against the rough asphalt, pinning me down. He looked up at Amber with a pathetic grin. “Take your time, cousin. Have fun.” A relentless rain of blows fell upon my head and back. My face was numb, battered completely out of shape. Amber’s eyes shone with a manic, sadistic thrill. She turned to the terrified onlookers, her voice echoing over the manicured lawns. “This is what happens when you try to seduce the CEO! If I catch anyone else looking his way, they’ll end up worse than this bitch!” Panting heavily, she pointed a manicured finger at Brando. “Strip her. Rip her clothes off and throw her out on the main road! Since she loves acting like a whore, let her show it all off!” I gripped the collar of my torn shirt with trembling, bloodied fingers, using the absolute last ounce of my strength to fight back. “Don’t touch me! I am not a mistress!” Realizing I was about to be dragged completely out of the gated community, I desperately screamed a phone number at the surrounding crowd. “Call this number! Tell them what’s happening here! Whoever makes the call gets a million dollars in cash!” 4 Someone in the back of the crowd clicked their tongue. “Is she seriously trying to call for backup?” The onlookers burst into cruel laughter. “Backup? Who the hell is going to show up? Who in this city has more power than the Kensingtons?” Amber sneered, digging the toe of her designer heel into my ribs. “You stupid bitch, you just can’t drop the act, can you? Look at the rags you’re wearing. Who exactly are you going to summon?” Ignoring the searing pain, I stared wildly at the hesitant faces in the crowd and doubled the stakes. “Ten million! Whoever makes that call gets ten million dollars!” Before the words fully left my mouth, Amber delivered a brutal kick to my jaw. My vision spun wildly into a blur of dark colors, and I spat out a mouthful of blood and a broken tooth. “Keep lying! Your entire miserable life isn’t even worth a hundred bucks!” “Tear her clothes off! Now!” Brando and his goons wore sickening, predatory grins as they reached down, their rough hands grabbing at my ruined garments. Someone in the crowd had even pulled out their phone, starting a live stream, loudly bragging that the internet was about to see how homewreckers were dealt with in high society. Just as the fabric of my shirt began to tear, a sleek black Maybach glided smoothly to a halt right at the neighborhood entrance. A refined, distinctly cold voice drifted through the air, carrying a trace of weary indulgence. “Didn’t I tell you to keep this quiet?” Alexander stood by the open car door, his bespoke suit immaculate. He only had to slightly furrow his brow for the entire crowd to instantly hold their breath in terrified silence. Amber’s entire demeanor flipped. Like a frightened little bird, she rushed over and clung to his arm, burying her face in his shoulder. “Alexander, this woman was being so disgusting! She was screaming awful things, ruining your reputation in front of all these people! I only did it to protect you!” Alexander’s cold expression instantly softened into complete adoration. He reached out, gently stroking her hair. “You, always with that fiery temper. You just know I’ll always clean up your messes, don’t you?” His tone of absolute indulgence struck me like a physical blow to the heart. Years ago, I was known in our social circles as the untouchable, fiery Armitage heiress. Back then, Alexander had protected me exactly like this. He had always been the one to stand behind me, smoothing over my reckless moments. He once stood in a ballroom full of elites and declared to the world: “If anyone wrongs you, you hit them back twice as hard. Let’s see who dares to touch you.” Everyone in the city knew that offending the ruthless Alexander Kensington was dangerous, but crossing the Armitage heiress was a true death sentence. I never imagined that the fierce, unconditional protection that once belonged solely to me would be handed so freely to another woman. The last ember of hope inside me turned to ash. Whatever lingering love I held for Alexander evaporated into thin air. Alexander finally cast a brief, annoyed glance in my direction. “Is this the crazy woman you were talking about?” My face was swollen and mangled almost beyond recognition. My clothes were soaked in blood and dirt. In that brief, dismissive glance, he didn’t recognize his own wife. Seeing Alexander look at me for more than a second, Amber quickly tugged at his sleeve to reclaim his attention. “Yes! That’s the bitch! I was just about to go live and show the world what happens to trash like her!” Alexander looked away from me, entirely indifferent. “Let the security handle the trash. Don’t dirty your own hands.” Amber beamed with triumphant joy, clinging to him tighter. “She’s so crazy, she actually told everyone she was Mrs. Kensington!” The air around Alexander instantly turned lethal. “Serena is the only woman who holds the title of Mrs. Kensington. Anyone who dares to drag my wife’s name through the mud is asking to die.” Seeing his sudden, terrifying rage over my name, a flash of twisted jealousy crossed Amber’s face. She hastily changed the subject. “I know, I know, I was just so mad. Come on, let’s go inside. Didn’t you say you were going to cook for me?” As she turned away, she shot a quick, meaningful glare at the guards. Taking the cue, the men immediately lunged at me again, grabbing at my torn clothes. I thrashed violently against the pavement, a hoarse, broken sob tearing from my ruined throat. Alexander walked right past me, his arm wrapped tightly around Amber’s waist. He didn’t spare me a single backward glance. I curled into a fetal position, my trembling hands hovering over my flat, aching stomach. Bitter, agonizing tears carved tracks through the dirt and blood on my face. I’m so sorry, my baby. I’m sorry your mother was blind enough to choose a man with such a hollow heart. Perhaps it is a mercy that you never have to see this cruel world. Just as the fabric of my skirt ripped with a sickening sound, a massive convoy of imposing, midnight-black vehicles aggressively boxed in the entrance. The crowd erupted in shocked murmurs. “Who is that? That convoy costs more than the Kensington estate!” “That custom silver Rolls-Royce… there’s only one in the entire state! And that vintage license plate, you can’t just buy that kind of old money!” Alexander stopped dead in his tracks. Watching the figure step out of the lead vehicle, the color completely drained from his face. He instinctively dropped Amber’s arm and hurried forward, his posture submissive. “Mother Armitage, what brings you…” SMACK! A vicious, echoing slap struck Alexander across the face. The entire street plunged into dead silence.

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1 For as long as I can remember, the world has reeked of an invisible, clichéd script. Growing up, I read thousands of romance novels only to realize I was living inside a cliché myself—the kind where the toxic, powerful man torments the woman, only to spend a lifetime begging for forgiveness. I saw it everywhere: a divorced neighbor whose ex wept on her porch years later; a sweet graduate whose billionaire boyfriend used her as a cheap stand-in, then offered her his empire. Both women stared back with dead eyes and said they didn’t care. To avoid that fate, I avoided romance entirely—no angst, no toxic billionaires, no tragedy. But life has a sick sense of humor. When I was twenty-five, my healthy mother fell critically ill. The medical bills buried me in debt. While working a double shift, Manhattan’s richest tycoon approached me with an arrogant smirk. “Be my girl,” he said smoothly. “I’ll cover your mother’s bills.” His eyes sharpened. “But you’re just a substitute for Serena. Don’t dream of anything more.” I took his black Amex card, eyes lowered. I needed the money. But if he thought he’d break my heart like those tragic heroines, he was out of his mind. Later, my best friend sobbed that her boyfriend was still in love with his childhood friend. I patted her back. “Give it time,” I said. “He’ll be crying on your doorstep, begging for you back before you know it.” … The very second I got my hands on that black card, I prepaid my mother’s hospital fees for an entire year. You can never be too careful. Rich guys loved cutting off medical funds the minute their precious first loves threw a tantrum. In the sterile white hospital room, my mother gripped my hand, tears spilling over her pale cheeks. “Sienna, you have been fighting so hard. I do not want to drag you down anymore. I have lived a good life…” I squeezed her hand back, giving her a reassuring smile. “Mom, trust me. You know I hate suffering more than anything. I am not going to let anyone walk all over me.” She needed a kidney transplant. I used a massive chunk of Carter’s money to hire the best private investigators to scour the globe for a matching donor. But these things took time. In the meantime, I secretly hired elite tutors across various industries. Growing up, I was fascinated by everything from foreign languages to high finance, but we never had the money for it. Now that I had unlimited funds, I was absolutely going to milk it for all it was worth. Carter Holden was a busy man. He only summoned me twice a week. He knew I was burning through his cash on a daily basis, but he assumed I was doing what every other kept woman did, blowing it on designer bags and cosmetic procedures. To a man of his wealth, it was pocket change. He let me do whatever I wanted. This routine dragged on for over six months. Then, out of nowhere, he told me he was taking me to a private gathering with his inner circle. Carter’s friends were all top-tier elites in their fields. They looked at regular people like dirt on their shoes. The moment I stepped into the VIP lounge, I felt a dozen pairs of eyes stabbing into me, dripping with disdain and mockery. A gorgeous woman sitting in the center of the plush leather sofa let out a sharp, mocking laugh. “Carter, so this is the little pet you have been keeping.” She spat the word ‘pet’ with heavy, deliberate venom. Carter acted like he did not hear the insult. He just ran his hand through my hair and chuckled. “Sienna is obedient and pretty to look at. She suits me just fine.” The group exchanged knowing glances, their smiles turning cruel. “The best part is how much she looks like Serena, right?” At the mention of that name, the light drained from Carter’s eyes. They darkened into a stormy abyss. I sat there in total silence, my expression perfectly blank as I popped a piece of melon into my mouth. Serena was his elusive first love, the one that got away. The only reason I was sitting here was because I shared her bone structure. The woman who called me a pet grabbed her martini and slid over to sit right next to me. She aggressively shoved her phone into my face, displaying an intimate, sun-drenched photo of Carter and Serena. “I bet you did not know,” she whispered poisonously. “Carter and Serena grew up together. Their families made a pact when they were kids. If Serena had not been so wild and left the country, they would probably be married with kids by now.” She took a sip of her drink, relishing my silence. “Serena went to the Ivy League. She is fluent in four languages. She won national art competitions in high school. Having a woman that perfect in his past… no man could ever forget her.” Her eyes swept over my outfit with raw disgust. “And you? A nobody from some no-name state school. I bet you cannot even string two sentences together in Spanish. Let me give you a reality check. Every single person in Carter’s circle speaks at least three languages. Including me.” It took me exactly three seconds to figure her out. She was desperately in love with Carter. She probably thought Serena’s departure was her golden ticket, only for Carter to bring a random girl off the street into his bed instead. The jealousy practically oozed from her pores. I glanced at her, muttered something rapidly under my breath, and looked away. She frowned, completely lost. “What did you just say?” I ignored her. It was nothing special. I had just called her an idiot in eight different languages. A few weeks later, Carter apparently decided that seeing me twice a week was not enough. He pulled some strings and gave me a cushy job in his executive assistant department. On my very first day, I walked into the office only to discover that the jealous martini-drinking girl was my department manager. 2 Carter told me the job was completely fake. He just wanted me around so he could look at me. I was not expected to lift a finger. My only duty was to sit there and look pretty. After a heavy make-out session against his mahogany desk, he had to rush out for a board meeting. Not five minutes later, Valerie marched over, her stilettos clicking sharply against the hardwood floor. She slammed her perfectly manicured hand on my desk. “Get up,” she ordered. “Go to Conference Room 803 right now. There is a client waiting for you.” As I turned and stepped into the elevator, a vicious smirk spread across Valerie’s lips. Two junior assistants behind her started whispering frantically. “Wait, isn’t the Russian VIP in 803 today? Word is he is incredibly difficult. Even Mr. Holden has to tread lightly around him.” “I heard his project is do-or-die for the company! Mr. Holden spent months begging him to fly out here. If Sienna messes this up and blows the deal, she is absolutely dead!” That was exactly what Valerie was banking on. Carter had specifically assigned her to host the VIP because she was the only one in the department who claimed to speak Russian. But she could not exactly tell the CEO that her ‘fluent in three languages’ flex was total garbage. She only knew a handful of basic phrases. If she went in there, she would be exposed in seconds. Throwing me to the wolves was the perfect solution. If I ruined the deal, Carter would dump me in a fit of rage, leaving the spot next to him wide open for her. She sat back at her desk, sipping her overpriced matcha latte, eagerly waiting for the explosion. The elevator pinged. The doors slid open, and I walked out alongside the terrifying Russian tycoon. The man, famous for his icy, ruthless demeanor, was practically glowing with joy. And I was chatting with him in flawless, rapid-fire Russian, making him laugh out loud. The entire department froze. Jaws hit the floor. Valerie’s eyes nearly bugged out of her head. Her acrylic nails dug so hard into her palms they almost drew blood. Just then, she spotted Carter walking down the hallway. Panic seized her. She immediately bolted out of her chair and rushed toward us, stammering out a painful, broken greeting in Russian. Seeing Carter getting closer, she made a desperate move. She completely ignored the client’s personal space and forcefully grabbed the tycoon’s hand, trying to make it look like she was the one who had charmed him. I mentally prepared a funeral for her career. She had no idea that Dmitri was a notorious germaphobe. “What are you doing!” Dmitri ripped his hand away violently, his chest heaving with sheer disgust. “I did not realize this company employed such ill-mannered, offensive people!” Carter’s face went completely pale. He rushed forward, offering a barrage of apologies. But Dmitri was furious. He demanded his coat and threatened to walk out. Sweat beaded on Carter’s forehead. If this deal fell through, half of the company’s projects for the year would be scrapped. They would lose billions. He shot Valerie a glare so cold it could freeze hell. Valerie trembled, the color draining from her face as her knees gave out. She slumped against a desk. Just as Carter was running out of options, I took a half-step forward, smiled warmly, and whispered something quietly into Dmitri’s ear. The raging fire in the tycoon’s eyes instantly softened. Carter stared at me in absolute shock. My Russian was not just passable, it was native-level perfect. After a few more exchanges, Dmitri’s anger completely evaporated. He looked at Carter and announced that he would sign the contract, but on one strict condition. Every single detail of the project had to go through me. Carter let out a breath he had been holding for five minutes and smiled. He promised it would not be a problem. He thought the deal was dead and buried. He never expected me to revive it with a few well-placed sentences. Before seeing Dmitri to his car, Carter cast a deep, lingering look at me. It was a mix of intense pride and a spark of genuine awe. Five minutes later, my phone buzzed. Carter: Thank you. Me: Don’t mention it. I did not text back the part where I thought, ‘Well, I paid for the tutor with your money anyway.’ The rest of the staff swarmed my desk, gushing about how I had saved the company and how a massive promotion was definitely coming my way. Carter had kept our real relationship a secret, so none of them knew I was his paid girlfriend. Valerie, however, scoffed loudly from across the room. “Do not get a big head just because you memorized a few party tricks to make a client laugh. Trash is still trash. Do not actually think you can fake your way to the top.” The very next morning, Carter called a department meeting. He announced that effective immediately, I was replacing Valerie as the head of the executive assistant department. Valerie lost her mind. “Mr. Holden! She is a community college dropout! On what grounds?!” She had a degree from Europe, for God’s sake! Carter stared her down and fired off a flawless sentence in Russian. Valerie stood there, blinking in blank confusion. I smoothly translated his sentence, replying in the same language. Carter arched an eyebrow at her. “On those grounds.” After Carter left, Valerie stormed over to my desk, her face twisted in bitter hatred. “Let me tell you something,” she hissed. “Serena is coming back to the States soon. Enjoy this while it lasts. We will see how smug you are when she gets here!” The pen in my hand snapped in half, black ink spilling across the paperwork. I needed to find that kidney donor. Fast. 3 Maybe I was being paranoid, but it felt like Carter was finding excuses to summon me more and more lately. He needed coffee, but I had to be the one to pour it. He lost a file, and I had to help him tear his office apart looking for it. His tie was crooked, and my hands had to be the ones to fix it. After being called into his office for the fifth time before noon over absolute nonsense, I finally lost my patience. “Mr. Holden, I actually have work to do.” Carter grabbed my wrist, giving it a gentle tug. The next thing I knew, I was sitting sideways on his lap. He played with my fingers, his breath ghosting over my neck as he leaned in. “Work? I thought I made it clear when you started. You do not have to…” “I have to reply to Dmitri’s emails,” I interrupted smoothly. “If I keep him waiting, he is going to get cranky.” His face froze inches from mine. A deeply annoyed pout formed on his lips. “You spend more time with Dmitri these days than you do with me.” “He is your biggest investor, babe. I am working this hard for you.” I had to keep the man signing the checks happy. My mother’s kidney was still floating out there in the ether somewhere. That answer pleased him. The annoyance vanished, replaced by a warm gaze. He wrapped his arms around my waist and leaned in for a kiss. Suddenly, his cell phone rang, shattering the quiet intimacy. Before I could even glance at the caller ID, Carter had already snatched the phone off the desk. A second later, his hands dropped from my waist. He gently pushed me off his lap. “Give me a minute,” he said, his voice strangely tight. I glanced back right before I closed his office door. The moment he answered the call, a radiant, uncontrollable smile broke across his face. A heavy, dull ache hit the bottom of my stomach, but I buried it instantly. I walked back to my desk. Valerie was already waiting, leaning against my cubicle with a sickeningly triumphant grin. “Soak it all in,” she whispered maliciously. “Your fairy tale is over.” Right on cue, Carter threw his office door open and sprinted toward the VIP elevator without looking left or right. Valerie’s grin widened, her eyes gleaming with schadenfreude. She turned to walk away, fully expecting me to break down. Instead, I called her name. She paused, lifting an eyebrow, probably thinking I was finally going to beg her for details. I picked up a massive stack of quarterly reports and dropped them heavily into her arms. “I need these audited by five.” Valerie gaped at me. “Are you insane? There is no way I can finish this by five!” I gave her a sickeningly sweet smile. “You seem to have a lot of free time on your hands.” “If you fail to meet the deadline, I will be having a chat with Mr. Holden about transferring you to the janitorial department.” She ground her teeth so hard I thought they would shatter, but she had no choice. She snatched the folders and stomped back to her desk. By the time I finished my own work, the clock read past nine. I was the ultimate corporate workhorse. Carter definitely owed me a raise. When I finally unlocked the door to his penthouse, I froze in the entryway. Every light in the house was blazing. A pair of unfamiliar, ridiculously expensive designer heels sat on the rug. My stomach dropped. I knew exactly what was happening. As I debated whether to just turn around and book a hotel, a soft, melodic voice echoed from the living room. “You must be Sienna.” I looked up and locked eyes with the woman standing there. It was Serena. No wonder Carter smiled like he had won the lottery. No wonder he ran out of the office like the building was on fire. No wonder Valerie was practically dancing at my desk. The elusive first love had finally returned to claim her throne. Serena smiled at me, her aura perfectly graceful and completely devoid of malice. “You must be the new housekeeper Carter hired,” she said gently. “You have been working so hard. Thank you.” Her smile was flawless. She seemed like an angel. But I knew how this twisted universe operated. I braced myself. Right on cue, the sound of Carter’s heavy footsteps echoed from the top of the stairs. The moment Serena heard him approaching, she closed the distance between us, raised her own hand, and viciously slapped herself across the face. She let out a piercing shriek. “Ah!” Carter practically flew down the stairs. Seeing the violent red handprint on Serena’s pale cheek, his face twisted in panic. “What happened?!” “N-Nothing,” Serena stammered, tears immediately welling in her doe eyes. “I think Sienna misunderstood why I am here. Sienna, I am so, so sorry!” A single, perfect tear rolled down her cheek. Carter froze. He turned to me, his voice dangerously low. “Did you hit her?” I knew the script. In these stories, the billionaire always blindly believes the childhood sweetheart. Defending myself was a waste of breath. So, I fully leaned into the villain role. I nodded, picked my purse back up, and headed for the door. “Yup. Sure did. Slapped the taste right out of her mouth. She had the audacity to step into the room with her left foot first.” Carter looked at Serena, then back at me. Without missing a beat, he said, “From now on, you walk into rooms with your right foot first. Or I am docking your pay for the month.” Serena’s eyes widened in sheer shock. She looked at him like he had grown a second head. I blinked at him, genuinely startled. But I figured he was just making a weird joke and dismissed it. I did not want to breathe the same air as them anymore. I pushed the door open and walked out into the cold night. Because I left so fast, I completely missed the flash of desperate panic in Carter’s eyes. I was walking down the pavement, scrolling through my phone for a nearby hotel, when a notification banner popped up on my screen. Miss Sienna, we found a perfect match for the kidney! 4 I moved with lightning speed, getting my mother into the surgical ward and prepping her for the transplant. I strictly warned the hospital staff and my private investigators to make sure Carter did not find out about any of it. It was surprisingly easy. Carter had practically moved in with Serena. He had not shown his face at the corporate office for days. He did not even notice that I had submitted a formal request for a week of paid time off. When the surgery was finally over and the doctors declared it a success, I slumped into a hospital chair and let out a massive, shuddering breath. It was finally over. This pathetic, suffocating game of pretending to be a billionaire’s pet was done. I was spoon-feeding my mother soup when my phone vibrated. A text from Carter. Carter: You are not at the office? Me: I put in for PTO, Mr. Holden. Taking some well-deserved vacation days. My phone instantly rang. I stepped out into the hallway to answer it. “Where are you.” His voice was low, demanding. I obviously could not tell him I was at the hospital, so I named a random upscale café downtown. He said he was coming to pick me up. I had no choice but to sprint out of the hospital, hail a cab, and beat him there. The second he saw me standing on the corner, Carter strode over and pulled me into a crushing hug. My body stiffened instantly. A line from one of those trashy romance novels flashed through my mind: The man pulled me into his embrace, but the suffocating scent of the other woman’s perfume clung to his collar, making my stomach churn. I tentatively sniffed his coat, fully expecting the scent of Chanel No. 5. Instead, I smelled something entirely different. Just… faint sweat. He noticed the slight wrinkle in my nose and sighed, looking exhausted. “Do not look at me like that. I drove straight here the second I realized you were gone. I did not even have time to shower.” I nodded, pretending to understand. But my mind was clear. I was just the sugar baby. I was not worth the effort of getting cleaned up. If he were going to see Serena, he would have shown up looking like he stepped out of a GQ magazine. “Sienna,” he said suddenly, his grip tightening on my waist. “I am hosting a banquet this Saturday. You have to be there.” I lowered my eyes to hide my thoughts. How poetic. Saturday was the exact day my mother was being discharged. It was the day I planned to vanish from his life. I figured I might as well go. One last appearance to say goodbye to the man who funded my mother’s life. When Saturday arrived, I walked into the glittering ballroom in a simple black dress. Almost immediately, Valerie appeared, clinging to Serena’s arm like a loyal guard dog. They marched straight toward me. “I cannot believe you actually showed your face,” Valerie sneered loudly. “Do you have zero shame?” “Do you even know what tonight is?” Valerie’s lips curled into a vicious, blood-red smile. Her eyes danced with cruel excitement. “Tonight is Serena’s birthday bash. Carter threw this entire party just for her. Did you come here specifically to humiliate yourself?” Serena looked at me with those wide, innocent eyes. She took a step forward and reached out to grab my hands. “Sienna, I am so sorry. I found out you are not actually his maid. Please do not hold a grudge over what happened the other night.” Before I could even attempt to pull my hands away. A sharp, calculating glint flashed through Serena’s eyes. Without warning, she threw her entire body weight backward. CRASH! She slammed directly into a towering, seven-tier champagne fountain. Crystal shattered everywhere, alcohol raining down on the marble floor. The music stopped. Hundreds of wealthy guests whipped their heads around in shock. Carter pushed through the crowd, his face tense as he rushed toward the mess. “What the hell is going on?!” Valerie immediately burst into fake, hysterical tears, pointing a trembling finger right at my face. “It was Sienna! She shoved Serena right into the glass!” Vicious whispers instantly ripped through the ballroom. “Who does she think she is, putting her hands on Serena?” “That is just Carter’s little kept woman. His sugar baby.” “Trash always acts like trash. She actually thought she was special.” “Watch this. Carter is going to destroy her for hurting Serena.” The suffocating wave of insults and curses grated against my ears, burning through the absolute last shred of patience I had left. I looked at Carter. His hands were gripping Serena’s shoulders to keep her steady. His brow was furrowed, a dark storm brewing in his eyes. He looked furious. I let out a quiet, self-deprecating laugh. My phone buzzed in my purse. Miss Sienna, the discharge papers are signed. We are ready to go. I gripped my phone tightly, turned on my heel, and started walking toward the exit. I had barely taken a single step when Carter’s voice cut through the massive ballroom, cold and commanding. “We will see what really happened when I pull the security footage.” I froze in my tracks, turning back to stare at him in pure bewilderment.

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I was riding my bike near the campus gates to grab some afternoon takeout when a Porsche suddenly gunned its engine, speeding right at me. I swerved desperately, dodging once, twice, but the car was relentless. With a sickening crunch, both my bike and I were sent flying onto the pavement. The driver stepped out. My jaw clenched. It was Lexi, my gorgeous, popular college roommate. Instead of apologizing, she pointed a manicured finger at me and sneered. “Have you completely lost your mind, Sienna? You saw a luxury car and decided to throw yourself at it for an insurance payout?” My blood boiled. I reached for my phone, ready to dial the cops. Seeing this, she let out a loud scoff. In front of the gathering crowd of students, she pulled out an exclusive black credit card and threw it at my feet. “Consider it my bad luck running into a broke loser like you.” “The money on this card is enough to buy your life,” she mocked. “My boyfriend is the heir to Vanguard Industries. He runs this city. You pull a stunt like this again, and he will make sure you get kicked out of this university for good.” I picked up the sleek black card and examined it, a sharp, cynical laugh escaping my lips. This was absolutely hilarious. That Porsche? It was the exact one I had lent my boyfriend. This black card? Also mine. And the CEO of Vanguard Industries? He only had one child. Me. 1 I was just trying to grab a quick dinner on my bike when that Porsche purposely chased me down. I dodged a few times, but it clipped my back wheel, sending me crashing onto the curb. Luckily, I wasn’t badly hurt. But the driver seemed to hold a massive grudge against me. She reversed and drove over my fallen bike repeatedly until the carbon fiber frame was completely crushed into an unrecognizable heap. Furious and limping, I walked over and slammed my fist on her window. “Who the hell taught you how to drive? You did that on purpose.” The tinted window rolled down at a painfully slow pace, revealing a face I knew all too well. It was my roommate, Lexi, the reigning campus queen. She rolled her eyes, looking at me with pure disgust. “What is your problem, Sienna? You saw me driving a nice car and suddenly remembered you were out of grocery money? Don’t think I don’t know you threw yourself at my bumper.” I was genuinely speechless. She ran me over, crushed my property, and hadn’t even bothered to step out of the vehicle. I grabbed her designer blouse through the open window, yanking her toward me. “Get out of the car and look at what you did. Look at my bleeding leg. Look at my crushed bike. And you think I need your dirty money?” Lexi shoved my hands away, stepping out of the car with a dramatic sigh. She crossed her arms, looking me up and down. “You ride a piece of trash, yet you claim you aren’t broke. Who are you kidding? Open your eyes, peasant. This is a Porsche.” It was the first time in my life someone had called my ride a piece of trash. I chuckled darkly. “That ‘piece of trash’ is a custom Trek Butterfly. Even if you sold your soul, you couldn’t afford to replace it.” Lexi pouted her lips in mockery. “I don’t care if it’s a butterfly or a moth. It’s a stupid bicycle. How much could it possibly cost?” “Listen to yourself,” she sneered, projecting her voice. “All you care about is money. And you claim this isn’t a scam.” She dug into her designer purse, pulled out a couple of crisp hundred-dollar bills, and slapped them against my chest. “Take it. Consider it my charity for the week. Two hundred bucks should cover your cheap cafeteria meals for a while.” She shoved my shoulder hard, turning back to grab her door handle. “Now get lost. I have a date with my boyfriend, and I’m already late.” I slammed the car door shut right in her face, blocking her path. “Lexi, you are not leaving here until you give me a proper apology.” A sleek Porsche parked sideways at the campus gates naturally drew a massive crowd. Students were already filming on their phones. Instead of backing down, Lexi played the victim. She turned to the crowd, putting on a flawless distressed expression. “You guys have to help me. Sienna is totally out of her mind. She saw my car, deliberately threw herself at it, and now she is trying to extort me for cash! How does someone this trashy even go to our school?” I wiped a trickle of blood from my scraped knee, glaring daggers at her. “You deliberately ran me off the road. Are you blind?” “And drop the whole ‘luxury car’ act,” I shot back. “I have the exact same model.” The bystanders, swayed by Lexi’s flashy arrival and designer clothes, immediately took her side. Whispers and snickers broke out around me. “Everyone knows Sienna is on a work-study program. What a joke. She owns a Porsche? She is definitely trying to squeeze Lexi for cash.” My blood boiled. I worked at my own family’s corporation to gain experience, and somehow that got twisted into me being a charity case? And even if I were broke, how did that excuse her trying to run me over? Before I could defend myself, Lexi cut me off with a triumphant smirk. “Just because you sat in one doesn’t mean you own it, honey. I know you used to ride shotgun in Tristan’s Porsche.” She leaned against the car door, her eyes gleaming with malice. “But guess what? Tristan is my boyfriend now. And he told me he must have been blind to ever date someone like you.” Tristan. The guy who always acted so sweet, so obedient, so totally devoted to me. Lexi and I were never close. We lived in the same dorm, but we barely spoke. That was until two months ago when I started dating Tristan. Suddenly, she was always hovering, asking weirdly specific questions. “Tristan drives a Porsche? Is his family loaded?” “How did a guy like him fall for you? I am obviously way prettier.” I had brushed her off back then, trusting Tristan implicitly. I thought we had something real. I trusted him so much that I let him borrow my car and even gave him my black card to cover his expenses. And this was how he repaid me? By sleeping with my vain, shallow roommate? I glanced down at the license plate. The numbers matched perfectly. It was literally my car. He didn’t just cheat on me. He gave my car to his sidepiece to flaunt. The betrayal snapped something inside me. I raised my hand and slapped Lexi so hard the sound echoed across the street. “You steal another girl’s boyfriend and you parade around like you own the place. Who gave you the audacity?” Lexi gasped, clutching her stinging, red cheek. She glared at me like a cornered viper. “You can’t blame him for upgrading, Sienna. Have you never heard the saying? The one who isn’t loved is the real third wheel. And honestly? He never loved you.” She pulled out her phone, tapping the screen to play an audio message. Tristan’s voice blasted through the speakers. “I’m so sick of Sienna. She is so plain, she has zero fashion sense, and she is boring as hell. You are a million times hotter, baby.” “I never even liked her. She practically threw herself at me. I only said yes out of pity.” A cold chill washed over me. That was how he talked about me behind my back? After everything I did for him? The crowd of students gasped, their whispers growing louder and meaner. “Oh my god. Tristan is insanely rich. I can’t believe he actually dated someone as basic as Sienna.” “The heir to Vanguard Industries dating a broke, boring girl? She must have manipulated him somehow.” “Thank god they broke up. Lexi is way more his type.” I clenched my fists until my nails dug into my palms. Tristan was dead to me. I would handle him later. Right now, I had to deal with the girl standing in front of me, driving my car, who had just used it as a weapon. I pointed a finger right at Lexi’s nose. “Keep that cheating garbage. You two deserve each other. But the fact that you hit me with this car? I am not letting that go.” Lexi casually inspected her manicured nails, utterly unbothered. “Please. You threw yourself at my car. Broke students like you love playing the victim for a quick payday.” “It is past six. I am already late for my date. You wasted my time, and you are going to apologize to me right now.” The crowd started jeering, backing her up. “Come on, Sienna. Lexi is rich and pretty. She has no reason to target you.” “I hate people who play the victim card. Just apologize and get it over with.” I gritted my teeth, pulling out my own phone. “Whether I am running a scam or not isn’t up to you, Lexi. And it isn’t up to these idiots either.” I pointed straight up at the security camera mounted on the campus gate. “We have HD footage right there. When the cops arrive, we will let them decide who is telling the truth.” I dialed emergency services right in front of her. For the first time, a flicker of panic crossed Lexi’s face. She stepped forward, her voice dropping to a harsh whisper. “Sienna, I am warning you. A police record will ruin your future. You better think this through.” I let out a sharp scoff. “I am the victim here. Why would I worry about my record? You should be worrying about yours.” Lexi stomped her designer heel on the pavement. “Fine. I am not scared of you. My boyfriend is the heir to Vanguard. He practically owns this city. You cross him, and your life here is completely over.” I ignored her threats entirely and told the dispatcher our location. The police arrived quickly. They reviewed the security footage and immediately turned to reprimand Lexi. “What is wrong with you? A public street is not your personal playground.” They determined Lexi was completely at fault and ordered her to fully compensate me for the damages. Lexi crossed her arms, throwing a tantrum. “Why should I pay her? Do you know who my boyfriend is? If you mess with Tristan, you will all lose your badges.” The older officer rubbed his temples, completely unimpressed. “I don’t care if you are dating the president. You hit a pedestrian. You pay the fine.” Seeing her intimidation tactics fail, Lexi huffed, pulling out her designer wallet. She looked at me with absolute disdain. “Fine. How much do you want?” I glanced down at my scraped knees. The physical injuries were minor. I held up two fingers. Lexi burst into laughter. “Is that it? Two thousand dollars is what my boyfriend spends on a single pair of sneakers.” I nodded slowly. “I want two thousand for the medical expenses.” Lexi and the crowd erupted into fresh giggles. “This is pathetic. She finally hooks a rich guy and she doesn’t even know how to properly extort him.” “Two grand is probably a fortune to her. If she asked for more, Lexi’s boyfriend would probably sue her into oblivion anyway.” Lexi whipped out her phone and transferred the money to me instantly. “There. You have your precious money. Now stop obsessing over me.” “Running into a broke loser like you is seriously ruining my vibe.” She turned her back to me, reaching for the car door again. I stepped in front of her, my gaze icy. “Hold on. You haven’t paid for my bike yet.” Lexi rolled her eyes, her patience wearing thin. “How much?” I held up three fingers. She didn’t hesitate, immediately wiring me three thousand dollars. “Done. Now back off, Sienna. If I ever see your ugly face on campus again, I will make you regret it.” I looked at the transfer receipt on my screen and smiled a genuine, chilling smile. I shook my head slowly. “Not three thousand, Lexi. Three million.”

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A terrifying time loop had me trapped. I was forced to relive the same timeline over and over, all just to babysit a boy who was hellbent on throwing himself into a freezing river. I had lost count of how many times the loop reset. I was completely exhausted from trying to save him, and honestly, it seemed like he was finally getting sick of jumping too. The boy stared at me, a strange, intense light flickering in his eyes. He told me he was never going to jump again. I wrapped my arms tightly around his waist, absolutely terrified he might still do something stupid. I couldn’t help but ask him if he really meant it. But his next words sent a violent shiver down my spine. He told me that if he ever had to die in this lifetime, he was making damn sure he dragged me down to hell with him. Is that supposed to be romantic, or just downright terrifying? 1 At six in the evening, I jolted awake from a nightmare. Before my brain could even fully process my surroundings, I threw myself out of bed, bolted out the front door, and sprinted toward Silver Creek Park like my life depended on it. Half an hour later, a teenage boy plunged from the Silver Creek bridge into the dark water below. And I, the helpless bystander who witnessed the whole thing, would be forced to accompany him in an endless cycle of rebirth, doomed to repeat this miserable day. “Almost there. Almost there. Run, you useless legs!” I was gasping for air, spotting the boy’s slender silhouette standing by the riverbank in the distance. I made it in time. He was standing on the wrong side of the safety railing. A crowd of morbid onlookers had already gathered around him. “Move! Let me through!” I shoved my way through the sea of people, vaulted over the metal railing, and locked my arms around his waist in a death grip. “There is always a way out! Please don’t do this to yourself!” I screamed. “Did you bomb your exams? Who cares! I’ll have my family pull some strings and send you to study in Europe! Are you broke? I will literally buy you a mansion and a sports car right now. I’ll give you ten million dollars, just please do not jump!” From start to finish, the boy didn’t say a single word. He just kept trembling. There’s still a chance to talk him down, I told myself. “Are you gonna jump or what? We’ve been waiting out here forever.” “Yeah, if you’re not gonna jump, quit wasting everyone’s time! If you need a hug, go cry to your mommy!” Some middle aged guy had suddenly shoved his way to the front of the crowd. He was holding up his smartphone, recording a video, shoving the lens practically right into my face. “Shut your mouth!” I whipped my head around and roared at him. But in that split second of distraction, the boy ripped himself out of my grip and threw himself backward into the abyss. Great. Here we go again. I hopped back over the railing, snatched the phone right out of the obnoxious guy’s hands, and hurled it straight into Silver Creek. Then, putting my entire body weight into it, I slapped him across the face twice. I pointed at the stunned, red faced man and looked right at the police officer who had just arrived on the scene. “I’m jumping too. And it is entirely his fault.” Then, under the horrified gazes of the crowd, I threw myself into the water to join my tragic river boy. 2 There was no pain. Just a seamless transition back to the very beginning of the loop. I burst out of my bedroom, practically colliding with the person standing in the hallway. “Young Master, what’s the rush?” I stared at Martha. Martha stared at me. She was holding a perfectly pressed designer suit on a hanger. “The ballroom is almost fully decorated. Your friends should be arriving any minute now.” “Martha, what’s today’s date?” I demanded, my voice tight. “It’s May first. Your eighteenth birthday party, sir.” I yanked my phone out of my pocket and checked the screen. May first. A massive wave of relief washed over me. May first meant I was over a month away from the jump date on June tenth. Which meant the loop had thrown me back a whole month before he died. The very next day, I transferred to Oakridge High, the school the boy attended. Thank God he had been wearing his school uniform when he jumped, or else it would have taken me days to track him down. I pulled up the Oakridge High student forum on my phone. His face and name were plastered all over the front page. “Oakridge’s very own AP Honors student, Silas Vaughn, takes home first place in the State Math Olympiad.” Why would someone so brilliant want to end his own life? I walked into my new classroom and spotted Silas sitting in the very back row. After giving a brief introduction at the front of the class, the homeroom teacher asked where I wanted to sit. “I’ll just take that empty seat in the back row. I’m pretty tall, so I don’t want to block anyone’s view,” I said smoothly. The teacher smiled and nodded. I dropped my backpack onto the desk right next to Silas. “Hey. I’m Rowan. Looks like we’re desk mates now. Nice to meet you.” It took a moment for it to register that someone was actually sitting next to him. Silas slowly lifted his head. One second. Two seconds. Three seconds. He averted his eyes. He gave a tiny, barely audible hum of acknowledgment. Alright, so he was the cold and distant type. Too bad for him, there wasn’t a single room on this earth I couldn’t warm up. For the entire morning, I talked his ear off. Even when he got up to fill his water bottle, I trailed right behind him like a persistent parasite. To be completely accurate, it was a totally one sided conversation. Silas rarely gave me the time of day, but whenever I shoved a worksheet in his face and asked for help with a math problem, he would actually take the time to explain it to me. 3 The moment the bell rang, Silas stood up. I immediately stood up too, falling into step right behind him. “I’m going to the restroom,” Silas said, turning around with a look of pure exhaustion on his face. “I know.” I waved him off casually. “I drank way too much water last period anyway. We’re both guys, what’s the big deal about going to the bathroom together?” Truth be told, I had literally just peed during the last period. My bladder was bone dry. I just wanted to stick to him like glue. What if he suddenly had a dark thought and tried to drown himself in a toilet bowl? When a guy’s mind wanders, his eyes tend to wander too. Silas was looking at me like I was an absolute psychopath. By the time I snapped out of my daze, I realized I had been staring directly at his crotch for an uncomfortably long time. “Wait, dude, I…” Silas swiftly zipped his pants, looked away, and practically sprinted out of the restroom. What? I walked back into the classroom. Silas was slumped over his desk, his face completely buried in his arms. As I sat down, I noticed the tips of his ears and the back of his neck were bright red. Was he actually shy? I couldn’t resist poking the bear. “Don’t be shy, man. We’re both dudes.” I leaned in a little closer. “Honestly, you’re packing. Biggest I’ve ever seen.” Silas didn’t lift his head, but the skin visible above his uniform collar turned a deep, furious shade of pink. He looked like a ripe cherry. It was actually kind of cute. But the consequence of teasing the quiet kid was immediate, brutal silence. For the rest of the morning, Silas completely ignored my existence. Even when I asked him for help with a question, he shut me down. “I don’t know how to do this one. Go ask someone else.” Excuse me? Who else was going to teach me a problem that the state math champion allegedly couldn’t solve? Okay, so he was genuinely pissed. 4 “I’m sorry, Silas.” The lunch bell finally rang, signaling the end of the morning classes. Silas looked at me. “Hmm.” “I shouldn’t have made that joke about your size in the bathroom.” Silas totally lost it. He aggressively shoved his books into his backpack and stormed out of the classroom. “You absolute idiot!” I slapped my forehead, questioning how my social skills had deteriorated to this pathetic level. Things would have been perfectly fine if I had just skipped that last sentence. In my past life, the very first time I ever laid eyes on Silas, he was standing on the edge of Silver Creek, ready to jump. I couldn’t stand the thought of a kid my age dying so violently, so I pushed my way to the front of the crowd to talk him down. “Can’t you see how beautiful the world is?” I had yelled. “There is nothing you can’t overcome! Think about your parents!” The second those words left my mouth, he jumped without a single trace of hesitation. From that moment on, I accompanied him through endless, miserable loops. This time, I had taken a long, hard look in the mirror. I grew up drowning in privilege, raised by parents who genuinely loved each other. I lived in the light, so I stupidly assumed the whole world was bright. When Silas jumped, I had effectively become one of his executioners. Even though my intentions were good, I was just too desperate to play the hero. I carried a heavy, sickening guilt when it came to Silas. This time, even if it wasn’t about breaking the loop for my own sanity, I desperately wanted him to live a long, safe life. “Silas, wait up!” I jogged down the hallway, finally catching up to the boy who was practically radiating heat from anger. “I am so sorry. I shouldn’t have said that. My filter is completely broken.” I stepped in front of him. “Let me buy you lunch, okay? Please forgive me.” “No need,” Silas replied flatly. “Go eat by yourself. I have things to do.” “So we’re cool? We’re still best friends?” Silas didn’t stop walking, but he finally turned his head slightly. “Hmm.” 5 Silas was late for the afternoon session. “Sorry I’m late.” He stood in the doorway, chest heaving like he had sprinted the whole way here. “Take your seat.” Teachers always turned a blind eye for the genius kids. Silas walked down the aisle toward our desk in the back. A few guys in the front row deliberately pinched their noses shut. It wasn’t until Silas sat down next to me that I caught the smell clinging to his clothes. Heavy, greasy cooking oil. “What did you eat for lunch? Smells intense,” I whispered. “I work a shift at a diner during the lunch break.” “Oh.” It was then I realized Silas’s social standing in the classroom was absolute garbage. Oakridge High was the most elite prep school in the city, and the AP Honors class was the best of the best. Whenever the bell rang, a massive crowd would gather around the desks of the top five ranking students. But Silas, the literal number one student in the city, sat in total isolation. A few times, I caught some guys whispering a couple rows ahead of us. “He literally smells like a deep fryer. It’s stinking up the whole room.” “Can someone report him to the principal? If he wants to flip burgers, he can drop out. The stench is ruining my focus.” This was blatant, targeted bullying. I was sitting mere inches from Silas, and I wasn’t bothered by it at all. There was no way a faint smell of cooking oil was reaching the front rows. They were just pissed they couldn’t beat his test scores, so they had to find a pathetic reason to attack him. “Is his family really that desperate for pocket change? Showing up smelling like a grease trap is so embarrassing.” “He has zero shame. Think about it, he’s the city valedictorian.” “I wonder if those girls from the next class who have a crush on him would run for the hills if they got a whiff of that.” “Hahahaha.” Through all of it, Silas remained dead silent. It was as if their toxic words couldn’t penetrate his skin. He just kept his head down, quietly working on his math equations. My chest tightened with anxiety. If they kept pushing him like this, what if my Silas snapped and jumped again? “If you have something to say, say it to his face! Hiding in the front row whispering like cowards is pathetic!” I barked out, my voice cutting through the classroom chatter. “Do you want me to buy you a megaphone so you can broadcast your insecurities to the whole school?” “You…” The ringleader’s face turned purple. He raised a hand, but the guy sitting next to him quickly shoved his arm down. “Forget it, man. Just drop it.” The two of them exchanged a few hushed words. The ringleader’s furious glare instantly melted into something much more submissive. It was obvious what was said. “Do you know who that is? That’s Rowan Harrington. The heir to the Harrington empire.” … I had been surrounded by spineless opportunists like them my entire life. 6 “You didn’t have to defend me.” Later that afternoon, as I followed him to the water fountain, Silas suddenly turned around. “What?” “I don’t care what they say. They can’t touch me.” How could he be this passive? The image of Silas as a tragically beautiful, broken genius burned even deeper into my mind. “But if you don’t push back, they’re only going to get worse.” Silas went silent. I was six foot one, but Silas still had half a head on me. I reached up and threw an arm around his neck, pulling him down slightly. “Don’t worry. I’ve got your back from now on.” “Okay.” Caught in the warm summer breeze, I heard Silas whisper his agreement. The closer we got to the final bell, the harder my heart hammered in my chest. During the day, I could shamelessly stick to him like glue. But at night? It wasn’t like I could crawl into his bed. Actually, wait. Yes I could. “Come to the roof with me. I need to make a call.” I grabbed Silas’s wrist and dragged him out of the classroom. Once the call connected, I deliberately put it on speakerphone. “Hey, Dad?” “What do you want?” The furious male voice on the other end was so aggressively loud I almost dropped my phone in shock. His acting was almost too good. “Dad, tonight I…” “Don’t bother coming home tonight! Your stepmother is coming over for dinner, and she gets a migraine just looking at you. Go crash in a ditch for all I care!” Wow. My best friend Finn had literally just finalized my parents’ fictional divorce. I had to admire his commitment to the bit. “Silas.” I looked up at him with wide, pathetic eyes. “My dad kicked me out. Can I crash at your place for one night?” “Your dad sounds incredibly young,” Silas noted dryly. “Ah, haha. Yeah, well, people from his generation married super early, you know?” Of course he sounded young. The guy yelling on the phone was my eighteen year old best friend. “I’ll take your silence as a yes! Dinner’s on me tonight.” “My house… is a dump. You won’t be able to handle it.” That was definitely a yes. “Why wouldn’t I be able to handle it? Honestly, my family used to be super poor too.” The second the words left my mouth, I wanted to rip my own tongue out. I was officially the most socially inept human being on the planet. Thankfully, Silas didn’t press the issue. 7 Thank God my dad was currently on a business trip in London and my mom was busy touring the vineyards in Italy. After shooting a quick text to my butler, I followed Silas home. Silas wasn’t exaggerating. His house was… extremely minimalist. There was barely any furniture, but everything was spotless. “Grandma, I’m home,” Silas called out. An elderly woman with snow white hair stepped out of the tiny kitchen. “Silas, you’re back already?” She wiped her hands on her apron. “Oh my, you’re early today. I haven’t even finished cooking.” “And who is this handsome young man?” “Hi, Grandma! I’m Rowan, Silas’s desk mate. I’m crashing here tonight. I’m really sorry to intrude.” “Oh, nonsense! It’s no trouble at all, sweetheart.” Silas’s grandma was incredibly warm. She even threw together an extra meat dish just for me. “Eat up, eat up. Our Silas is far too skinny. You’ve got a perfect build, Rowan. Don’t go losing any weight now.” “I won’t, I promise.” I shoveled the rice into my mouth. The food was genuinely amazing. Because it was a last minute sleepover, his grandma cleared out a small storage room and set up a cot for me. The sheets were freshly washed. They smelled like clean laundry soap. The exact same scent that lingered on Silas. I wondered what Silas was doing right now. Homework? I had already finished mine, so he had to be done by now, right? What if he was sitting in his room having dark thoughts? I sat up, lay back down, and tossed around in the sheets. My anxiety was keeping me wide awake. I had to go check on him. At one in the morning, I knocked softly on his bedroom door. “Silas, are you asleep?” I could see the light bleeding under the door crack. He was awake. A few seconds later, the door creaked open. “What is it?” “I think there are rats in that storage room. I’m freaking out. Can I sleep in here with you tonight?” Silas pushed his glasses up his nose. After a grueling thirty seconds of silence, he finally caved. “Come in.” 8 “Are you not going to sleep?” I lay on his mattress, watching the boy sitting rigidly at his desk. “In a bit.” “Okay.” I would never understand the stamina of valedictorians. Half an hour later, Silas stood up and opened his closet. He pulled out a thick quilt and a sleeping mat, spreading them out on the floor. “You’re sleeping on the floor?” I asked, bewildered. “Yeah.” “The bed is too small. It’s too hot.” “Oh.” I closed my eyes. Whatever. Once the lights were out, I tossed and turned, completely restless. “Silas, I can’t sleep. Let’s talk.” “We have to get up early tomorrow.” That was a firm rejection. “Just for a minute.” “Fine.” I thought for a second before asking the big question. “Silas, what college do you want to go to?” “Yale.” “What is the one thing you want most in the world?” I had an ulterior motive for asking this. If I knew exactly what Silas wanted, I could hand it to him on a silver platter. If he got everything he wanted, he wouldn’t jump into the river anymore. “I want a stable life. With my grandma.” That wasn’t the grandiose answer I was expecting. “What about you, Rowan?” “What do you want most?” “I want… I want you to stay alive forever.” Silas went completely silent. “Go to sleep. It’s late,” he finally whispered. 9 The days blurred together, and before I knew it, half a month had vanished. As a prestigious prep school, Oakridge High had an incredibly intense academic culture. With only a few weeks left until our final exams, almost every student in the AP Honors class voluntarily signed up for the late night study sessions. I was used to the laid back curriculum of my old international school, so the suffocating pressure was definitely a shock to my system. But Silas signed up, which meant I signed up too. I couldn’t let him out of my sight. During the break after the second evening study block, a girl called Silas out into the hallway. Separated by a single pane of glass, I eavesdropped on their entire conversation. The girl was confessing her feelings to him. Silas rejected her without a second of hesitation. “I’m sorry. I can’t return your feelings. I have absolutely no intention of dating anyone right now.” “Can we at least… start out as friends?” she asked, her voice trembling. “Sorry. I’m not good at socializing. It’s better if we don’t.” “Alright,” the girl said, swallowing her disappointment. “Well, good luck on the exams. I hope you get everything you want.” “Thanks. You too.” Silas walked back into the classroom. I suddenly realized my heart was hammering violently against my ribs. I tried to tell myself I was just panicking that if he got a girlfriend, I wouldn’t be able to stick to him twenty-four seven. “Look at our genius playing hard to get! Rejecting the absolute prettiest girl in school without blinking,” Blake sneered from the front row. “I don’t even know what she sees in him. Aside from his face, he’s a completely broke loser.” I grabbed my heavy calculus textbook and hurled it directly at Blake’s desk. “Keep your garbage mouth shut.” “Whether it’s looks or grades, you don’t even come close to Silas.” “And your personality is a total trainwreck.” The girl who just confessed to Silas was Blake’s long time crush. He had shot his shot a few days ago and got ruthlessly rejected. Now he was using Silas as a punching bag to soothe his bruised ego. Blake’s mouth snapped shut. His chest heaved as his face contorted into something genuinely vicious. He threw all caution to the wind. “Oh, right, the Harrington heir is always here to protect his little pet. You’ve got some neat tricks, Vaughn.” “Word on the street is you two are basically joined at the hip. Eating together, sleeping together. Are you guys hooking up or something?” “Wow, smart move. Hooking a trust fund kid is definitely better than smelling like grease at a local diner. Gotta respect the hustle.” I clenched my fists, fully prepared to shatter his jaw, but someone beat me to it. It was Silas.

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1 I woke up on the cold, filthy floor of an abandoned kennel, my head throbbing. Harsh lights revealed dozens of Shiba Inus with sickly green eyes behind fences. Victoria stood a few yards away, her gaze icy. Beside her, Felix filmed me with a smirk. “Since you love dogs so much,” Victoria said flatly, “stay with them. They haven’t eaten in a week.” Felix chimed in with fake pity. “A saint like you wouldn’t fight back, even as they chew you to the bone.” Bitterness filled my mouth. My wife was trying to have me killed to avenge Felix—her secretary whose career I’d ruined days ago. I’d caught him torturing a stray, stepped in, and the video went viral. He was fired, and I was called a hero. Victoria hadn’t argued. She’d even agreed that keeping someone so cruel was a liability. Believing she’d finally seen the truth, I relaxed. Over a celebratory dinner, she handed me wine. One sip, and everything went black—landing me here. 2 Victoria scoffed, looking down at me like I was a bad joke. “Are you threatening me, Arthur? Don’t forget you brought this entirely on yourself.” She crossed her arms, her designer heels clicking on the metal grating of the catwalk above me. “You just had to play the hero, didn’t you? Felix was just blowing off some steam, messing around with a mutt. You blew it way out of proportion. Because of you, he got cyberbullied, lost his career, and can’t even walk down the street without getting harassed. And you? You didn’t feel an ounce of guilt. You just sat there soaking up the praise. You’re a snake, Arthur. And tonight, you’re going to learn your lesson.” She gestured to the cages. “You love animals so much? Look at them. They’ve been starved for seven days. Let’s see if you can keep up that saintly persona when they’re tearing chunks out of your legs.” I glanced at the massive monitor set up behind them, showing my own disheveled reflection on the live feed. A bitter laugh escaped my throat. Felix was a two-faced sociopath. I saw him with my own eyes, pressing a lit cigarette into that stray dog’s open wound just to get a sick kick out of it. I stopped him because it was the right thing to do. I didn’t ask anyone to film it, nor did I ask for it to go viral. But I didn’t regret a single second of it. Trash like him deserved to be dragged out into the light. I just never expected my own wife to be so utterly blind, throwing away her morals just to coddle him. Seeing me stay silent, Felix leaned over the railing, his face practically glowing with malice. “Did the big tough guy get scared speechless?” He turned to Victoria, putting on his best puppy-dog eyes. “Boss, do you think he’ll hold a grudge if we do this? Maybe we should just let it go. If he just gets on his knees, begs for my forgiveness on the live stream, and admits he framed me, we can let him walk.” Victoria looked at me with pure disgust. “You see that, Arthur? You’re not even half the man Felix is. Look how forgiving he is. He’s still thinking about your wellbeing.” She pointed a manicured finger at me. “Kneel. Apologize to the camera. Tell the world you orchestrated the whole thing. Tell them you faked the abuse to weaponize the internet against him. Do that, and I’ll open the door.” On the big screen, the viewer count was skyrocketing. The chat box was moving at lightspeed, filled with comments reacting to Victoria’s narrative. “Wait, so Arthur set the whole thing up because he was jealous? That’s sick.” “I can vouch for Felix! We went to college together. He wouldn’t hurt a bug. It had to be a deepfake or heavily edited!” “I work with Felix too! Arthur always used his status as the CEO’s husband to bully him and steal his accounts. Arthur is the real psycho!” I didn’t even need to guess. Felix had clearly bought a massive bot farm and paid off trolls to steer the narrative. Led by the fake accounts, the real viewers were starting to turn on me. “Cancel this guy immediately.” “Stop wasting time and release the hounds! Teach this manipulative loser a lesson. He’s an embarrassment to men everywhere.” My jaw clenched. I looked dead into Victoria’s eyes, my voice dripping with absolute defiance. “I will never apologize to a piece of trash.” Felix’s lips twitched upward, exactly as he had planned. Victoria’s face hardened, shocked that I would actually refuse her in front of thousands. She raised her right hand. “Then I’ll let the dogs keep you company.” 3 The heavy metal latches clacked open. The feral Shibas poured out of the cages. These weren’t the cute internet meme dogs. These were starving, desperate animals. Their ribs poked through their coats, saliva dripping from their bared teeth as their glowing eyes locked onto me. I backed up, my heart hammering against my ribs. Up on the catwalk, Felix was laughing so hard he had to hold his stomach, while Victoria watched with terrifying indifference, as if my life meant absolutely nothing to her. In a split second of distraction, the lead dog lunged. I threw my arm up on pure instinct. Jaws clamped down hard. I violently shoved the dog away, but a sickening rip echoed through the room as a chunk of my flesh went with it. “Ah!” I yelled, stumbling back as warm blood instantly soaked my sleeve. Cold sweat beaded on my forehead. The pain was blinding, but the adrenaline cut through it. If I didn’t fight back right now, this pack was going to strip me to the bone. Spotting a rusted iron pipe near a support pillar, I sprinted for it. Another dog leaped at my throat. I swung the pipe like a baseball bat. The heavy metal connected with a brutal crunch. The dog hit the floor, yelping and thrashing before it finally stopped moving, a pool of dark blood pooling beneath its head. The rest of the pack flinched, barking frantically as they saw one of their own go down. They didn’t retreat, but they stopped charging, circling me slowly, waiting for my legs to give out. My palms were incredibly slick with sweat and blood, but I gripped the pipe tighter. I had to stay sharp. Buy time. On the screen above, the chat was absolutely losing its mind. “We finally see his true colors! If he really loved animals, he’d let them bite him. He just beat a dog to death!” “Dogs have rights too! They’re just hungry! How could he kill it just to save his own skin?” “His nice-guy act is completely shattered. What a monster.” The sheer stupidity of the internet was almost laughable. If I didn’t swing that pipe, I would be dead. I wasn’t some kind of martyr, and I didn’t plan on dying for a PR stunt. I just wanted to survive. Was that a crime now? Victoria’s voice boomed through the speakers again. “Kneel, Arthur! Apologize right now and I’ll pull them back!” I glared up at her, my eyes bloodshot. “In your dreams.” “You!” Victoria’s chest heaved with rage, her tone turning nasty. “You love playing the animal rights activist! Are you really going to slaughter these innocent dogs just to save yourself? You killed one. Are you going to kill a second? A third? Is this your so-called compassion?” I couldn’t believe the absolute mental gymnastics she was doing. She set this death trap up, yet she was lecturing me about morals? I let out a harsh laugh. “Tell me, Victoria! What exactly did I do to make you want me dead?” For a fraction of a second, she froze, unable to answer. But before she could find her words, a vicious glint flashed in Felix’s eyes. With a fake gasp, Felix tossed a handful of dried beef strips directly over the railing. They landed right at my boots. The scent of the meat hit the starving pack. Any hesitation they had vanished. They went completely rabid and swarmed. 4 I swung the pipe with everything I had, but there were simply too many of them. They came in waves, driven mad by the hunger. A set of teeth sank into my calf. Another clamped onto my waist. I staggered, losing my footing, and a heavy weight slammed into my back, jaws locking onto my shoulder blade. I was going down. The sea of fur and teeth was swallowing me whole. I gritted my teeth and let out a raw, guttural roar. “Ahhhh!” I thrashed violently, spinning and cracking the iron pipe blindly. I managed to shake off the dogs, but the cost was horrific. Flesh tore away with their teeth. I stumbled backward, my shredded shirt completely soaked in crimson. Sensing I was running on fumes, the Shibas scraped their claws against the concrete, preparing for the final leap. Up on the platform, Victoria finally realized this wasn’t a game. She gasped, her eyes going wide with panic. She grabbed the collar of her security chief. “You told me these dogs were well-fed and trained! You said they wouldn’t actually hurt him!” “I just wanted to scare him!” Her voice cracked. “Why are they attacking for real? Look at how much he’s bleeding! Arthur can’t handle pain like this. Make them stop! Tell them to stop right now!” The bodyguards exchanged nervous glances. Felix’s expression darkened for a second before he smoothly wrapped his arms around Victoria’s waist, burying his face in her neck. “He’s still your husband, huh? You still feel sorry for him? But he hasn’t even apologized to me yet.” He gently touched his bandaged forearm. “The trainers said the dogs just nip. It looks worse than it is, it’s just surface scratches. Does it really not matter what Arthur did to me? Because I’m just a nobody, I deserve to be ruined, right?” He forced a tear to roll down his cheek. “Even if the internet drove me to the brink of suicide, you still side with him.” Victoria melted instantly. She cupped his face, wiping the tear away. “No, baby, no. You’re the most important thing to me.” “Then let him fight them off for just a little longer,” Felix whispered softly. “Just until you’re not angry anymore. Please?” A sickeningly satisfied smile crept onto his face. The microphone picked up every word. I heard it all. The absolute betrayal carved a hole in my chest deeper than the bite marks. My wife knew I was in mortal danger, yet one fake tear from this parasite was all it took for her to let me bleed out. Victoria caught me looking at her and looked away guiltily. “You brought this on yourself, Arthur! It’s just a few scratches anyway. Compared to the mental torture Felix went through, this is nothing!” The chat was eating it up. “Oh, so it’s just a prank to scare him! Victoria is too nice. RIP to the dog that got killed though.” “Not gonna lie, Arthur’s acting is Oscar-worthy. I actually thought he was dying.” “Sit back and enjoy the show, guys. Let’s see what else this manipulative crybaby tries to pull.” My cuts were deep enough to see bone. I was painted in my own blood. Anyone with eyes could see these dogs were trying to rip my throat out. But Victoria was so brainwashed she genuinely believed I was just dealing with a few scrapes. Fine. If that’s how it was going to be, I had nothing left to hold back. I checked the shattered face of my watch. It was time. I made my choice. 5 Dropping my defensive stance, I let out a battle cry and charged headfirst directly into the thickest part of the pack. To the viewers, it looked like suicide. They thought I had lost my mind. Victoria slammed her hands on the railing, absolute terror washing over her. “Arthur, what are you doing?! Are you trying to get yourself killed?!” “They won’t kill you, but you’re making them crazy! Stop it! You’re insane!” I gave her one last, cold smirk before the wave of dogs overtook me. The camera could only capture a frantic blur of snarling muzzles, tearing fabric, and my muffled shouts. Victoria completely lost it. She screamed at her men, “Get down there! Cage them! He’s actually going to die!” The mood in the live chat suddenly shifted as reality set in. “Hold up… those don’t look like trained guard dogs. Trained dogs bite and hold. These things are shredding him.” “Look at the blood on the floor! That’s not a scratch, he just lost a chunk of his shoulder!” “Wait a minute… is this stream hijacked? The people defending Felix sound like literal bots. Who paid for this?” Victoria saw the comments turning. She glared at Felix, but there was no time to argue. She shoved her bodyguards toward the stairs. But the security chief was pale, his hands shaking. He wouldn’t move. “What is going on?!” Victoria shrieked. “Why are they so aggressive? Talk, or I’ll throw you in there myself!” The guard swallowed hard. “Ma’am… they’re not trained. They’re feral. They haven’t been fed in a week. Anyone who goes down there is going to get eaten alive.” Victoria stumbled back, her heels catching on the grating. “What are you talking about?” The guard looked nervously at Felix. The pieces finally clicked in Victoria’s head. Felix immediately turned on the waterworks, his eyes wide and innocent. “I just wanted to teach him a lesson! I told the kennel to skip their meals, but I didn’t know they would get this violent! Boss, I swear I didn’t mean to actually kill him!” Seeing his panicked, tear-stained face, Victoria’s anger evaporated. “I’m not blaming you… I just…” “Forget it,” she sighed, rubbing her temples. “You were just hurt. It’s not your fault.” Laying on the concrete, feeling teeth rake across my ribs, I heard every single word of her forgiveness. I didn’t even feel angry anymore. Just a cold, heavy numbness. My body was riddled with punctures. My fingers lost their grip, and the iron pipe clattered loudly against the floor. Just as my vision started to fade to black, the blaring wail of police sirens pierced the air outside the warehouse. The dogs pinned me down, snapping at my face, but I managed a bloody, savage smile. My ride was finally here.

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1 My name is Sarah. Five years into my marriage with Jean, I gave up my life to save his, leaving this world forever. The only piece of my soul I left behind was our four-year-old son, Toby. In the years that followed, Jean raised our little boy all on his own, fiercely guarding every single memory of the life we shared. That was, until a woman named Nicole walked into his life. She pursued Jean relentlessly, throwing her whole heart at him. But no matter how desperately Nicole confessed her feelings, Jean turned her down cold. “I made a promise to Sarah,” he told her. “For the rest of my life, my heart belongs entirely to her. She is my one and only wife.” I floated right beside him as a spirit, watching him, silently praying he would keep that promise. I never expected what would happen next. A massive fire broke out at Toby’s school. Nicole charged into the burning building without a second thought. She managed to save my son, but she was trapped under a falling beam and slipped into a deep coma. Jean lost every ounce of his composure. He fell to his knees beside her hospital bed, begging Nicole to open her eyes, over and over again. Nicole’s eyes remained firmly shut. But I, inexplicably, felt a violent pull. Before I knew what was happening, I was sucked directly into her body. I blinked her eyes open. The first person in my line of sight was Jean. He didn’t recognize me. With tears streaming down his face, he looked at me, or rather, the woman he thought was Nicole, and choked out a confession. “Nicole, I love you.” For a split second, I honestly thought the smoke had messed with my hearing. But Jean immediately said it again. “Nicole, I love you.” “I already talked to my parents. The second you’re out of the woods and fully recovered, we are planning the wedding.” “Thank God you’re okay…” He pressed my hand against his wet cheek, looking at me with pure, unadulterated devotion. I lay there completely paralyzed. I had no idea how to tell him that I wasn’t Nicole. I was his dead wife, Sarah. Worse yet, I had no idea how to process the crushing reality that he had genuinely fallen in love with another woman. Seeing my silence, Jean panicked and started apologizing. “I’m so sorry, Nicole. I was a fool before. I clearly had feelings for you, but I was just too much of a coward to admit it.” “I swear to you, from this day forward, I will love you and only you. Okay?” Those words were the exact same words he used when he proposed to the real me years ago. Back then, I had wrapped my arms around his neck, laughing and teasing him. “It’s a deal! If you ever change your mind, I’ll never forgive you, even if I’m dead!” And yet, here we were. All I could do was dig my fingernails into my palms, fighting back a wave of bitter tears as I tried to correct him. “But I’m not Ni…” Before the name could fully leave my lips, a tiny figure bolted into the hospital room. “Mommy! You’re finally awake!” My entire body violently jolted. I watched helplessly as my little boy threw his small arms around my torso, his eyes swollen and red from crying. Feeling the radiating heat of his small body, a massive rush of joy completely short-circuited my brain. My voice trembled uncontrollably. “What… what did you just call me?” “Can you say it one more time?” It had been so unbelievably long since I heard my Toby call me Mom. But before Toby could open his mouth again, Jean gently covered the boy’s lips, offering a patient correction. “Toby, buddy, you can’t call her that yet. Auntie Nicole hasn’t agreed to marry daddy.” “She isn’t your mom right now.” Those words hit me like a bucket of ice water. The brutal reality snapped back into place. Right now, in their eyes, I was Nicole. Even Jean couldn’t spot a single difference. How could my sweet, innocent son possibly know that his real mother was trapped inside this woman’s body? My nose stung fiercely. I lowered my gaze, trying to explain myself one more time. “Actually, I really am Toby’s mo…” Jean completely misunderstood my hesitation. He grabbed my hands, his eyes wild with excitement. “Wait, does that mean you’re saying yes? You’ll marry me?” I froze. I was just about to shake my head. But Toby let out a joyful cheer and hugged me even tighter. “Yay! That means Auntie Nicole is going to be my new mommy! Right?!” I looked at the absolute elation lighting up both of their faces. The truth withered and died in my throat. In the three agonizing years since my death, this was the first time I had seen either of them look so genuinely happy. They truly loved Nicole. As for me… I was a ghost who had been dead for three years. No matter how much it tore me apart, what right did I have to steal the happiness they so desperately wanted? My eyes burned with fresh tears. I awkwardly turned my face away and offered a single, stiff nod. “Yes.” I had no idea when my soul would be ripped away from this body. But if Nicole was the only person they wanted to see, then I would give them exactly what they wanted. 2 Hearing my answer, both father and son practically tackled me in a massive hug. Jean’s voice cracked with raw emotion. “Nicole, thank you…” “Thank you for forgiving me, and thank you for being willing to be Toby’s mom.” Toby was too young to understand the gravity of it all. He just buried his face in my chest, echoing his dad’s thank you. As I sat there, the scent clinging to their clothes drifted into my nose, leaving me entirely dazed. After all these years, they still smelled exactly like gardenias. It was my absolute favorite scent. When I was alive, I constantly bought that specific floral detergent to wash all of their laundry. Whenever I hung the clothes up to dry, Toby used to cling to my legs and grin. “Mommy smells so good! I love it!” And Jean would always pull me into his chest and whisper. “Every time I smell gardenias on you, it just makes me feel so grounded. So safe.” It was the signature scent of our little family of three. But right now, they were carrying that exact same scent while holding another woman’s body. A sickening wave of revulsion and rejection clawed at my throat. I pushed them away, holding my breath. “What is that smell on you two? It’s way too strong. It’s suffocating.” Jean lifted his sleeve to his nose, and his entire body went rigid. Toby immediately piped up to explain. “It’s gardenia flowers! Daddy says it’s because my first mommy loved…” Before he could finish, Jean clamped a hand over his mouth. “It’s just a regular detergent. If you don’t like it, I’ll throw it out and buy a new one tomorrow.” Jean looked at me with total caution, treating me like fragile glass. The very next day, the scent on their clothes completely changed. It was a sickly sweet citrus scent. The exact kind of fruity smell I absolutely despised. To make matters worse, Toby kept clinging to me, excitedly asking if I liked the new smell. Looking at his sweet, innocent face, I forced a fake smile and nodded, silently ordering myself to let go of the past. I wasn’t Sarah anymore. I had to play the role of Nicole perfectly, right up until the day she returned to claim her life. I arrived in silence, and I would leave in silence. If I did that, I could at least lie to myself. I could pretend that in my memories, our family was still as beautiful and flawless as it used to be. To the current Jean and Toby, “Nicole’s” feelings were the only things that mattered. Because he thought “Nicole” didn’t like it, Jean voluntarily took off his wedding ring, leaving behind a stark, pale indentation on his ring finger. Because he thought “Nicole” didn’t want to see any reminders of Sarah, Toby took off the custom silver locket I had personally engraved for him. He stuffed it in a drawer and never wore it again. Bit by bit, piece by piece, father and son meticulously scrubbed every trace of my existence from their lives. And I was forced to sit there and watch it happen. Right before I was discharged from the hospital, my period hit. I lay curled up in the hospital bed, shivering violently from the brutal cramps. Toby scrambled up onto the mattress and snuggled into my chest, using his little body heat to warm my aching stomach. Jean actually called out of work. He rushed all the way home just to cook a pot of warm, brown sugar pecan oatmeal for me. Everything was playing out exactly like it used to. But I knew the truth. They still hadn’t recognized me. Jean scooped up a spoonful of the hot oatmeal and brought it to my lips. “Be a good girl, eat it while it’s hot. The pain will go away soon.” It was a sweet, comforting bowl of food, but the steam rising off it made my eyes sting with unshed tears. I turned my head away. “I don’t want it.” Jean’s hand froze mid-air. His voice hitched with sudden anxiety. “But this used to be your absolute favorite. Why don’t you want it? Is your stomach acting up?” He turned around, fully prepared to hit the call button for the nurse. My voice sliced through the air and stopped him dead in his tracks. “Jean, I’m highly allergic to pecans. I’ve never touched the stuff in my life.” “Who exactly is the woman in your head right now?” 3 My dead heart suddenly sparked back to life. God knows how desperately I wanted Jean to figure out the truth. I wanted to find even the tiniest crumb of evidence that he still loved me. But he just stood there, his lips parting and closing for several agonizing seconds, completely speechless. I wasn’t allergic to pecans. Sarah loved them. But in my inherited memories, the real Nicole was severely allergic, and she had explicitly warned Jean about it multiple times. The fact that he completely forgot about her allergy… did that mean I still held the top spot in his heart? Toby looked back and forth between us. He tugged gently on Jean’s sleeve and whispered a reminder. “Daddy, the person who loves pecan oatmeal is Mommy.” My eyes flooded with heat. I bit down hard on my lower lip and looked away. I couldn’t even describe the twisted, suffocating feeling in my chest. Jean slowly set the bowl down on the nightstand. He pulled me into a tight embrace, apologizing over and over again. “I’m so sorry, Nicole… I completely forgot.” “Sarah always loved eating this. Whenever her time of the month came around, making this for her always made her smile.” “I just haven’t adjusted yet. I’m so sorry. Please, just give me a little more time. I swear I’ll memorize every single thing you like, and I’ll wipe Sarah from my memory entirely. Please?” I bit my lip so hard I tasted copper, letting the metaphorical blood drip straight down into my shattered heart. Fine. Let it be like this. I needed to stop holding onto these pathetic delusions. I was only torturing myself. I rested my head against his shoulder and gave a weak nod. “Don’t let it happen again.” Toby pressed his little face against my arm and spoke up in his sweetest voice. “Don’t worry, I’ll supervise Daddy! We’ll memorize everything about you!” They were men of their word. From that day forward, they never got “Nicole’s” preferences wrong again. After I was officially discharged, Jean brought me back to our family home. During the years I existed purely as a spirit, I had haunted this house. I knew Jean couldn’t bear to throw any of my belongings away. He had kept the house in pristine condition, looking exactly as it did the day I died. He forbade anyone from touching a single thing. Once, when Nicole shamelessly invited herself over, she accidentally knocked over a half-finished Lego castle I had been building with Toby. Jean had completely lost his mind, screaming at her to get out. Afterward, completely ignoring his usual polished dignity, he had dug through the trash bin to find the missing plastic bricks. He and Toby spent hours rebuilding it, placing it perfectly back on its display shelf. But now… I scanned the expansive living room. The Lego castle on the entryway console was gone. The custom ceramic vase I bought for the coffee table had vanished. Even the massive family portrait of the three of us that used to hang proudly above the fireplace had been taken down. The only things left were a few bare nails sticking out of the drywall, acting as a ghost of what used to be there. Every single trace of my existence had been surgically removed by Jean’s own hands. My chest caved in, leaving a hollow, echoing ache. Without thinking, I murmured aloud. “This house… it’s missing so many things.” Jean stepped up behind me, wrapping his arms securely around my waist. He spoke softly into my ear. “You’re right.” “This house is missing a hostess.” “Nicole, will you marry me?” As he spoke, a flawless, glittering diamond ring appeared directly in my line of sight. Even though I knew this exact moment was coming, an uncontrollable tremor ran through my entire body. Should I say yes? If the real Nicole were standing here, she would accept it in a heartbeat, wouldn’t she? As my thoughts spun into total chaos, Jean took a step back. He held the ring up and dropped to one knee right in the middle of the living room. “Nicole, I have never been more serious.” The very next second, a dozen people poured out from the adjacent dining room and hallways. Confetti cannons popped with a loud bang, showering us in colorful paper as our friends erupted into cheers. “Say yes! Say yes!” For a fleeting, dizzying moment, I thought I had traveled back in time to the day Jean first proposed to me. Back then, we were surrounded by this exact same crowd, cheering us on, wishing us a lifetime of happiness. And Jean had spoken his vows in front of everyone, just like he was doing now. He thanked Nicole for lighting up his dark world. He thanked Nicole for dragging him out of the abyss of his grief. And he thanked Nicole for saving his son’s life. “Sarah was the love of my past, but Nicole… you are the salvation of my entire life.” “Please, marry me.” The blinding sparkle refracting off the diamond cut sharply into my eyes. I knew Nicole would say yes. I knew I was supposed to just accept it. But in that exact moment, my throat locked up. I couldn’t force a single syllable out. What kind of woman could stand there and willingly hand her own husband over to someone else? I couldn’t do it. Seeing my frozen silence, Jean’s parents stepped forward. Their eyes were red and pleading as they approached me carefully. “Nicole, honey, we know any woman would feel hesitant about marrying a widower.” “But ever since that woman passed away, Jean has been a walking corpse. You’re the first person to bring him back to life.” “As his parents, our only wish is to see our son happy. We just want him to walk out of the past and actually live again.” “Nicole, please, won’t you say yes to our family?” 4 Looking at my former mother and father-in-law, I suddenly felt like all the oxygen had been sucked out of the room. Even they had completely, effortlessly accepted Nicole as the new woman of the house. Jean’s close friends gathered around, chiming in, urging me not to worry about his history. “Jean is the most fiercely loyal guy on the planet. Once he commits to someone, he loves them until the bitter end. You never have to worry about him changing his mind.” I stood rooted to the hardwood floor, completely dazed, a bitter smirk tugging at the corners of my mouth. Loves them until the bitter end? Never changes his mind? Then why doesn’t he love me anymore? My fingertips turned ice-cold from the emotional pain. I knew I had to make the final call. I reached my hand out toward Jean, pulling every last ounce of strength from my bones to force the words out. “Okay. I will.” His eyes lit up like fireworks. He grabbed my hand with trembling fingers and slid the heavy diamond onto my ring finger. The metal felt incredibly weighty on my skin. Yet somewhere deep inside my chest, there was a gaping, desolate void. The crowd around us clapped and cheered, wiping away happy tears as they showered us with blessings. Toby danced around our legs in a circle, totally ecstatic. “Yay! Daddy and Mommy are getting married! I have a mommy again!” Jean swept me up into a crushing hug, laughing and crying at the exact same time. “Once you’re completely healed, we’re going to have the biggest wedding this city has ever seen.” “I promise you, I’m going to give you an unforgettable day…” I felt like a wooden puppet suspended by strings. I forced my facial muscles into a stiff, unnatural smile. “Okay…” Before the word could fully register, the heavy mahogany front doors burst violently open. Two familiar figures stormed into the entryway, screaming at Jean. “What the hell do you mean, a wedding?! We absolutely forbid it!” I jumped, my head snapping toward the entrance in total shock. Dad… Mom? Toby sprinted toward them, throwing his arms around my mother’s legs. “Grandma! Grandpa! I’m getting a new mommy!” Hearing that, my parents’ faces turned dangerously dark. “What new mommy?!” “You only have one mother in this world, and her name is Sarah!” My mother marched straight past the kid, walked right up to Jean, and slapped him directly across the face. Smack. “You were the one who insisted on dragging Sarah out on that road trip! When that drunk driver crossed the median, Sarah threw her body over yours to take the impact!” “She was our only child! She wasn’t even thirty years old! She died so you could live!” “What did you promise us at her funeral?!” “You swore you would guard her memory forever and dedicate your life to raising Toby!” “My daughter hasn’t even been in the ground for three years, and you’re already rushing to get a new wife?!” “What about my little girl? Was she nothing to you?!” “How is her spirit supposed to rest in peace watching you do this!” “I’m telling you right here, right now. If you think you’re going to remarry and bring a stepmother in to raise Toby, you’ll have to do it over my dead body!” I stared at the deep wrinkles etched into my parents’ faces, at the stark white hair framing their temples. My heart physically ached, a tearing sensation ripping through my ribs. In this entire massive, cold world, my parents were the only people left who still cared about my pain. Jean kept his head bowed, taking the abuse in total silence. He was probably replaying the horrific car crash that stole my life. His face was a mask of suffocating guilt and panic. His mother immediately stepped up, screaming right back at my mom. “My son is in the prime of his life! He mourned your daughter for years, why shouldn’t he be allowed to move on?!” “Besides, Toby needs a mother! What is so wrong with bringing a new woman into the house! Can’t you see the boy wants her here?!” “Are you trying to drive my son and my grandson into an early grave just to satisfy your own grief?!” My mother’s face turned ash-gray with fury. She pointed a trembling finger at Jean’s mother. The next second, her eyes rolled back into her head, and she collapsed. My heart completely stopped. I lunged forward, catching her before she hit the floor, screaming on pure instinct. “Mom!” In the sheer chaos of the moment, nobody seemed to catch the slip of my tongue. Nobody except Jean. His pupils dilated in sheer shock, staring down at me with an expression of total, unadulterated disbelief.

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I have been feeling like there is a pair of eyes rummaging through my brain lately. It feels exactly like someone flipping through my private diary in the dead of night. Memories that should be carved into my bones are slipping away. My apartment passcode, my parents’ phone numbers, even my own name feels blurry sometimes. It all started when our new coworker, Erik, showed up. He wears crisp, tailored suits and a textbook perfect smile that makes my stomach turn. The most terrifying part happened during our project pitch. I suddenly blanked on the core algorithm steps, and he recited them word for word, exactly as I had conceptualized them in my head. “You have been a bit forgetful lately, Rainey,” he said with fake concern. “Am I?” I stared dead into his eyes. “Then how do you know the exact ideas I have never told a single soul about?” He panicked, averted his gaze, and practically ran out of the conference room. I finally understood. He was using some kind of neural interface to hack my mind. My three years of blood, sweat, and tears were being siphoned away drop by drop. This monster in a tailored suit was using my intellect as a stepping stone to climb the corporate ladder. But he didn’t know one crucial detail. Memory transfer is a two-way street. While he was digging through my head for secrets, I caught a glimpse of his own filthy skeletons. 01 Erik parachuted into the company three months ago. He is tall, maybe six foot two, always rocking a perfectly pressed suit and flashing that blinding, rehearsed smile. The girls in the office swooned over him, gossiping about his relationship status by the water cooler. But he rubbed me the wrong way from day one. It was a subtle feeling. The way he looked at me wasn’t friendly. He looked at me like I was a commodity on a shelf, calculating my exact market value. I never thought it would get this bad. I got booted from the core engineering team and tossed onto a dead-end project. Meanwhile, Erik, a guy who hadn’t even been here a hundred days, took over the exact project I had poured three years of my life into. I dragged my heavy feet home tonight, only to realize I couldn’t even remember my own front door code. I had to pull up my phone notes just to get inside. The second the door clicked shut, I collapsed onto my bed, tears spilling out uncontrollably. I unlocked my phone to call my parents and vent, but my mind drew a complete blank on their numbers. I scrolled through my contacts, realizing with absolute horror that I couldn’t even tell which number belonged to my dad and which to my mom. It was terrifying. I grabbed a notebook and frantically started scribbling down the day’s events. “April 12. Project pitch failed. Severe memory glitches.” “Erik knew things only I could possibly know. I suspect he has something to do with my missing memories.” I ripped the page out and taped it right above my pillow. Starting tomorrow, I was going to document every single anomaly. My phone buzzed. It was Maggie from HR. “Rainey, are you okay? That meeting today was rough.” “Maggie, I think I am losing my mind.” I spilled everything about my memory gaps. The line went dead quiet for a few seconds. “You need to see a neurologist. I will go with you.” “It is not a medical issue.” I pulled at my hair in frustration. “I swear it is Erik. He knows what is inside my head.” “Are you saying he snooped through your files?” “No. He knows ideas I haven’t written down anywhere. It is like he literally stole my memories.” Maggie stayed silent for a much longer time. “Rainey, listen to yourself. That is completely impossible.” “I know it sounds insane, but I need you to trust me. Just do a deep background check on Erik, please?” “I will see what I can do. But you seriously need to see a doctor.” I hung up and started tearing my apartment apart. I dug up every single old work journal and reviewed every project detail, absolutely terrified I would wake up tomorrow and forget something crucial again. That night, I had a bizarre dream. I was standing in a strange, high-end apartment, staring at a monitor filled with code. My fingers were flying across the keyboard, tweaking a predictive algorithm. But it didn’t feel like my hands. They were the hands of a man. Then I walked into the bathroom. The face staring back at me in the mirror was Erik. 02 The next morning, I showed up at the office two hours early and made a beeline for the main conference room. I had an epiphany last night. If my memories were really bleeding into Erik’s brain, he should be able to answer a question only I knew the answer to. I needed to test this crazy theory. I grabbed a marker and drew a complex math equation on the whiteboard. It was a personal shorthand system I invented back in college. Absolutely nobody else could decipher it. I snapped a quick photo on my phone and erased it spotless. At exactly nine o’clock, Erik strolled into the bullpen, looking sharp and wearing his signature fake smile. “Morning, Rainey.” He gave a polite nod, his tone dripping with a winner’s superiority. “Morning, Erik.” I squeezed out a smile faker than his. “Thanks for bailing me out in the meeting yesterday.” “Anytime.” He stopped by the espresso machine. “You have been looking pretty exhausted lately, though. Memory loss is usually the first sign of severe burnout.” He heavily emphasized the words “memory loss”, a sly glint flashing in his eyes. “Maybe.” I kept my voice casual. “Hey, by the way, what do you make of this formula?” I held up the photo I just took. Erik glanced at the screen, and his face instantly tightened. “That is your custom shorthand for the core predictive logic. You have been using that exact syntax since your sophomore year of college.” My stomach dropped to the floor. There was zero chance he could know that. Unless… “How do you know that?” My voice actually shook. He narrowed his eyes. “You must have mentioned it to me at some point.” He quickly turned on his heel and walked away, his stiff posture betraying his panic. I immediately pulled out my pocket notebook and logged the interaction. A horrifying reality was taking shape in my mind. My memories were genuinely being hijacked. At noon, Maggie dragged me to a quiet coffee shop down the street. “I dug up some dirt,” she whispered, leaning over the table. “His resume is completely cooked.” “He claimed he spent five years at Google, but I reached out to a buddy in their HR. He was there for two years, tops.” “And he left his last startup incredibly abruptly. Word on the street is he caused a massive disaster on a classified project.” “What kind of project?” I asked. “No idea. They scrubbed the data clean,” Maggie frowned. “But here is the real kicker. His graduate research at MIT wasn’t in Artificial Intelligence. His thesis was on Neural Interfaces and Memory Storage.” The ceramic mug nearly slipped out of my hand. “There is more,” Maggie continued. “I pulled the security logs for the building. For the past month, he has been staying late almost every single night. He usually doesn’t badge out until three or four in the morning.” I flipped open my notebook, matching the dates of my memory glitches. A perfect match. Every single time I woke up with a mental fog, Erik had been alone in the office until the early hours of the morning. “Maggie, do you believe me now? About the memories?” She hesitated. “I don’t know if the sci-fi stuff is possible. But I know you wouldn’t get this paranoid over nothing.” “If your gut says he is dirty, then he is dirty.” “I need hard proof. I am staying late tonight to see exactly what he is doing in the dark.” 03 That night, I packed my bag and pretended to leave for the day, but I actually just camped out at a diner across the street. By ten-thirty, the entire building was mostly dark. I slipped back in through the loading dock, using a spare keycard I borrowed from Gary, the night shift security guard. Gary was a sweet older guy who always appreciated the donuts I brought him on Fridays. “Rainey? Burning the midnight oil again?” “Yeah, tight deadline. Hey, is the new director still up there?” “Oh yeah. Guy practically lives here.” Gary lowered his voice. “He is a weird one. Always locks himself in the back lab and refuses to let the cleaning crew inside.” “The lab? What is he even doing in there?” “Beats me. Claims it is highly classified.” My suspicion deepened. The lab was supposed to be a shared testing space. Who gave Erik the right to claim it as his personal fortress? I took the service elevator up and crept barefoot toward my cubicle. The main floor was pitch black, except for a sliver of blue light spilling from under the lab door at the far end of the hall. I tiptoed closer, holding my breath, and peeked through the frosted glass panel. Erik had his back to the door. He was tinkering with a massive piece of hardware I had never seen before. It looked like a sleek, metallic helmet, wired directly into a stack of high-powered servers. The main monitor displayed a dizzying stream of raw data flowing into a glowing 3D model of a human brain. I pulled out my phone and quietly snapped a few photos. Suddenly, Erik spun around. I threw myself flat against the wall, but I was a second too slow. “Who is out there?” he snapped. I pressed my hands over my mouth, my heart hammering violently against my ribs. His heavy footsteps echoed as he marched toward the door. Just as the handle clicked, a voice called out from the opposite end of the corridor. “Mr. Mercer? Your food delivery is downstairs.” It was Gary. The footsteps stopped, then pivoted away. I seized the window and bolted into the women’s restroom, shaking uncontrollably. Once the coast was clear, I snuck out of the building and ran all the way to my apartment, too terrified to even look over my shoulder. Safe inside, I immediately checked my camera roll. Most of the shots were blurry garbage, but one captured the main monitor perfectly. I zoomed in. Right above the glowing 3D brain model was a distinct file name. Target: Rainey Woods. My phone hit the floor. I was right. Erik was literally hacking into my mind. But how was he doing it without touching me? And why me? My hands shook as I grabbed my notebook. I logged everything I saw, then set three aggressive alarms, absolutely terrified of what I might forget by morning. Right before I shut my eyes, I made a desperate move. I wrote a message on the last page, ripped it out, and shoved it under my mattress. “If you are reading this, remember. Erik is stealing your memories. The proof is in your photo gallery.” 04 I woke up feeling groggy. I couldn’t remember my dreams, but one specific visual was burned into my mind. I was in a dark, unfamiliar room, staring at a computer screen, editing a highly encrypted file. The document title was “Rainey Woods Memory Extraction Progress”. I bolted upright in bed, grabbed my notebook, and read the entry from last night. Seeing the photos on my phone brought the entire nightmare crashing back. I called Maggie immediately. “Maggie, I need a massive favor. Dig up everything you can find on Erik’s MIT research. Neural interfaces, memory extraction. Leave no stone unturned.” “What happened? You sound like you are about to have a panic attack.” “I saw him in the lab last night. He has this insane rig, and my name was literally on the monitor.” “I am completely positive he is using experimental tech to download my brain.” She went quiet. “Are you sure you didn’t just see a project file?” “Maggie, please. Just find the files.” “Okay. I will look. Just watch your back.” Hanging up, I made a solid decision. I was going to play the clueless victim today, but I was setting a lethal trap. When I got to work, I took a deliberate detour past Erik’s office. He wasn’t at his desk. His workspace was sterile, wiped completely clean. The only personal item was a heavy, biometric briefcase. I was just debating if I should risk touching it when a smooth voice echoed behind me. “Looking for something, Rainey?” I spun around, keeping my face perfectly neutral. “Oh, hey Erik. I brought over the weekly metrics, but I wasn’t sure if I should just leave them on your chair.” He took the invisible “metrics” from my empty hand with a knowing, condescending smirk. “Thanks. But maybe knock next time.” “Of course. Sorry for intruding.” I turned to walk away. “Hold on,” he called out. “Sleep well last night? Have any… vivid dreams?” My heart skipped a beat, but I forced a look of pure confusion. “Not really. Slept like a rock. Why?” “Just making conversation.” That slick, fake smile made me want to punch him. Back at my desk, I executed my plan. I opened my code editor and created a massive file named “Core Algorithm Final Build”. I stuffed it with thousands of lines of incredibly complex, totally useless garbage code. I pretended to review it obsessively, waiting to see if he would take the bait. At lunch, I faked a bathroom trip and looped past his glass office. Sure enough, he was glued to his monitors, typing frantically with a disgustingly smug look on his face. At three o’clock, our CEO, Mr. Harrison, called the engineering heads into the boardroom. Erik sat at the right hand of the boss, practically glowing with confidence. He shot me a smug glance across the table. “Alright team,” Mr. Harrison started. “We pitch the algorithm prototype to the venture capitalists next week.” “Erik, where do we stand?” Erik stood up, buttoning his suit jacket, and projected his laptop to the big screen. “We are in perfect shape. I just finished optimizing the final core logic, and the efficiency metrics are blowing our projections out of the water.” He began flipping through a deck of complex diagrams and data sets. It was word-for-word the garbage data I had planted in my fake file that morning. I clenched my fists under the mahogany table. He took the bait. The second the meeting wrapped, I texted Maggie. “Massive breakthrough. Meet me after work.” She replied instantly. “I have something huge too. See you at six.” At seven, Maggie drove us to a run-down diner on the edge of town, making sure nobody from the office could track us. “I pulled some serious strings,” she said, sliding a thick manila folder across the sticky table. “His MIT project was called ‘Cognitive Extraction and Transfer Protocols’. The university shut it down three years ago for severe ethical violations.” “His lead professor testified that the tech violated basic human rights and had terrifying potential for corporate espionage.” “I knew it!” I flipped through the classified documents, my pulse racing. “He is using that exact tech to strip-mine my brain!” “It gets worse.” Maggie pointed at a redacted NDA form. “His last employer? Horizon Dynamics. Our biggest market rival.” I sucked in a sharp breath. “He is a corporate rat.” “Exactly. I talked to my industry contacts. Horizon has been trying to launch a predictive model just like ours.” “But their backend is years behind us. If he steals your technical knowledge…” “He hands them the keys to crush us,” I finished her sentence. “And the dead-end project I am on right now? It actually houses the foundational architecture for our entire ecosystem.” “We have to take this to Mr. Harrison.” I shook my head. “Without hard proof, Harrison will laugh us out of the room. He thinks Erik walks on water.” “Then what do we do?” I stared at my cold coffee. “I have a plan.” “If he wants to dig around in my head, I am going to serve him something incredibly toxic.”

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The year my mother and father’s mistress fell to their deaths, I cut off my family and followed Jake to New York. Broke back then, he gave me everything after years of struggle. Near the anniversary of my mother’s death, he said, “Anna, I’m moving the company to London. Will you be upset?” Touched, I told him to go ahead and set things up. Two months later, I was pregnant. I secretly flew to London to surprise him. At his townhouse, I heard a familiar voice—Sophie, my half-sister, the other woman’s daughter. “Honey, are we staying here?” she asked. Jake replied, “Yes. You and the baby are here. I couldn’t leave.” My blood ran cold. I hid as they came out. He helped her, her bump clearly showing. He fussed over her, calling himself an overprotective first-time dad. The way he looked at her was how he once looked at me. After they left, I wandered to my mother’s old house and sat in the dark until Jake called. “Anna,” he asked gently, “sleeping okay?” I couldn’t speak. “No, Jake. I haven’t been feeling well lately. When are you coming back to New York?” “Not feeling well? What’s wrong? Did you go see a doctor?” He sounded so frantic. So worried. If I hadn’t seen that devastating scene with my own eyes, I would have instantly comforted him, told him I was fine, told him not to stress. “I can’t sleep. I have no appetite, and I keep throwing up. Jake… I think I’m pregnant.” The line went dead silent. After what felt like an eternity, he finally spoke. His tone was tight, edged with agitation. “Anna, I’m right in the middle of the most chaotic phase of the corporate move. This is a really bad time for a baby.” He paused, forcing his voice to soften. “Be a good girl. The pregnancy is still early. Go to a clinic and take care of it. Once we’re fully settled back in the UK, we can plan for a family. Okay?” I let out a broken laugh, swiping at the wetness completely covering my face. “Are you saying it’s a bad time for a baby, or is it just a bad time for my baby?” “What the hell is that supposed to mean! I told you, the timing is terrible. Why can’t you just be understanding for once?” I hung up the phone. I opened my laptop, pulled up the UK visa application site, and began filling out the forms. Under marital status, I selected ‘Married’. A line of glaring red text popped up on the screen. “The information provided does not match system records. Please verify and resubmit.” Thinking I had typed the marriage certificate number wrong, I entered it again. Same red text. I stared at the glowing screen for several seconds. My fingers were trembling uncontrollably as I clicked the dropdown menu and changed it to ‘Single’. Approved. So, when Sophie called him her husband, she meant it legally. And the courthouse wedding Jake and I had in Brooklyn three years ago was a complete fake. When we got “married,” Jake had told me the process in the States was incredibly streamlined. No officiant needed, no witnesses required, just signing some papers and getting a certificate. I had trusted him implicitly. I never harbored a single doubt. It turned out he had been playing me for a fool from the very beginning. I booked the next flight back to New York. I dug out that flimsy, pathetic excuse for a marriage certificate. The whole room started spinning. When I finally opened my eyes again, I was blinded by hospital white. “Anna, you’re awake!” Seeing the mix of anxiety and relief in Jake’s eyes made my stomach violently turn. I weakly raised my fists, pummeling his chest. “Why! Why did you lie to me! The marriage certificate is fake! It’s all fake! You legally married Sophie in London. I saw everything! You’re a piece of trash, Jake!” A flash of pure panic crossed his face. “Anna… please calm down. Just let me explain…” Smack. My palm collided with his cheek, draining the last ounce of my strength. Jake pinned my wrists down, the words spilling out of him in a rushed frenzy. “Sophie had a terrible life. Everywhere she went, people treated her like dirt because she was an illegitimate child. Your dad came to me. He begged me to give her a legitimate status. But I love you, Anna. It’s always been you. Once Sophie has the baby, I’ll divorce her immediately, and we’ll get properly married…” I clutched my head, a raw scream tearing from my throat. “Her mother killed my mother! Did you forget that?! My mother paid for your college tuition! Why would you help our enemy? Why!” Jake yanked my hands away. A look of deep impatience settled over his features, and his volume spiked. “Her mother is dead too! Anna, can you not have an ounce of empathy? You’re both victims in this, there is no right or wrong. You have me for the rest of your life. She has absolutely nothing. I just felt sorry for her. I couldn’t let my gratitude to your mother blind me to basic human decency.” I went completely still. I looked at him, my eyes devoid of anything but dead ash. “I’m going back to London.” There were too many things I needed to uncover. The car ride from Heathrow Airport headed toward the suburbs. “That townhouse is in Sophie’s name. I’ve arranged a new place for you,” Jake explained from the driver’s seat. “How many months along is she?” The car jerked to a violent halt. I slammed my head against the dashboard. Pain and dizziness hit me simultaneously. “What are you trying to do?” he snapped. In the past, if I even got a paper cut, he would coddle me for hours. Now, his only concern was whether I posed a threat to Sophie. I laughed out loud. “When exactly did you two start screwing each other? Three years ago? Five?” Humiliation tightened Jake’s jaw. “Anna, what’s done is done. Digging up the past is pointless. If you want to keep your baby, I won’t force you to get rid of it. But I’m warning you, you will not lay a finger on Sophie’s child.” That last sentence was a flat-out threat. I thought my heart was already dead, but those words still sent a vicious, stabbing pain straight through my chest. The second I walked into the new house, I saw Sophie. She was wearing a tight knit maxi dress, proudly jutting out her belly, standing right in the middle of the living room like she owned the place. “Sis, you’re back!” Jake immediately rushed to her side, supporting her lower back. His tone was laced with gentle reprimand. “Why didn’t you stay home and rest? What are you doing here?” Sophie smiled softly, trailing her fingers down his arm. “The baby has been so good today, not kicking too hard. Don’t be such a worrywart.” Jake pinched her nose. “You’re acting like a kid yourself. I swear I can’t handle you.” Sophie shot a sideways glance at me, acting entirely bashful. “Stop it, you’re embarrassing me. My sister is right there.” I stood there like an unwanted guest, forced to watch their disgusting display of domestic bliss. Despite my best efforts, my eyes burned with hot tears. A dull ache started pulsing in my lower abdomen. “Does the deed to this house have my name on it?” I asked. Jake guided Sophie to the plush sofa, settling her down before looking at me. “Of course it’s yours.” I placed a protective hand over my stomach and took a deep breath. “In that case, I want everyone who doesn’t belong here to get out of my house.” Jake’s brow furrowed. Sophie’s eyes instantly welled up with tears. “It’s my fault. I just missed you so much since we haven’t seen each other in forever. If you don’t want me here, Sis, I’ll leave right now.” She made a dramatic show of struggling to stand up, which sent Jake into a full panic. “Sophie is your younger sister. You shouldn’t treat her like this.” The rage I had been suppressing violently boiled over. I screamed at the top of my lungs. “I don’t have a sister! My mother only gave birth to one daughter!” Sophie buried her face in Jake’s chest, her voice trembling with manufactured sobs. “Hubby, just let me go home. Please don’t upset her anymore.” “I’ll drive you back.” He supported her weight as they walked past me, dropping his voice into a low, disappointed register. “I really hope you can get your emotions under control.” The front door clicked shut. I collapsed onto the couch, buried my face in my hands, and cried until I was completely hollowed out. Jake didn’t come back that night. Instead, my phone lit up with a video message from Sophie. [My pregnancy is making things difficult, but he was so worried about my needs, he insisted on helping me out like this.] The video showed them in bed. I didn’t need to watch the rest. [Sis, do you think he’ll be this attentive when your belly gets big too?] A foul wave of nausea hit the back of my throat. I bolted to the bathroom, dry heaving over the toilet bowl. Everything that had happened over the past few weeks felt like a twisted fever dream. I honestly didn’t know what my next move should be. Suddenly, there was a tiny flutter in my belly. It was a kick. My baby’s first movement. Right then and there, I made my decision. I was keeping this child. But this baby would have absolutely nothing to do with Jake. The next morning, I went straight to the sprawling estate of the man I had disowned. My biological father, Richard. “I’m here to take back the shares of the family trust my mother left for me.” A flicker of guilt crossed Richard’s face. “When you ran off five years ago, I already transferred your mother’s portion to Sophie.” My stomach plummeted. “That belonged to my mother! What right did you have to give it to the daughter of a homewrecker!” “Jake knew about it. In fact, it was his suggestion.” Jake… When his tech company went public in New York, I had asked him to help me fly back to London to reclaim my mother’s shares. At the time, he told me Richard had used a corporate loophole to buy them out at a rock-bottom price, and that he could only salvage a cash payout for me. Why? My mother had paid for his entire Ivy League education. He used to tell me she was like a second mother to him. He promised her he would protect me for the rest of his life. How could a human being rot so completely from the inside out? When I got back to the house, Jake was already there. He walked over, reaching out to grab my hand. I sidestepped, letting his fingers grasp empty air. “Exactly how many things are you hiding from me?” He looked me dead in the eye, perfectly composed. “Aside from marrying Sophie, absolutely nothing.” I lost it. I threw myself at him, slamming my fists into his chest. “Liar! Liar! You told my father to give my mother’s trust fund to Sophie! You gaslighted me for years! Who the hell are you, Jake? If you were skilled enough to play me for five years, why didn’t you have the guts to lie to me for the rest of my life!” “Anna, stop it! You have me! I’ll make sure you never have to worry about money for as long as you live. But Sophie has nothing. She needed a safety net. Can you just let this go? We still have a life to build together. If you keep acting like a hysterical maniac every single day, who could possibly stand being around you?” “If you can’t stand it, then get the hell out! I never want to see your face again! Ah…” A sharp, tearing pain ripped through my stomach. I doubled over. “Take me… to the hospital…” Jake’s face drained of color. He reached out to catch me, but his phone rang. “Hubby, my stomach is hurting so bad… please come back, I’m so scared…” His entire demeanor shifted in a heartbeat. “Don’t move! I’m on my way!” He looked down at me. “Anna, Sophie is further along, she can’t handle any stress. Stop throwing tantrums. Let me go check on her, and I’ll come right back to you.” Without a backward glance, he sprinted out the door. “Jake…” I pulled out my phone with trembling, sweaty fingers and dialed emergency services. “The baby is fine,” the doctor told me later. “A few days of bed rest and you’ll be okay. But you cannot afford these massive emotional spikes. The baby feels whatever the mother feels. For the sake of your child, you need to find a way to stay calm.” I exhaled a massive, shaky breath. “Thank you, doctor.” During my days recovering in the sterile hospital room, Jake didn’t call once. Instead, Sophie bombarded my phone with taunts. “All I had to do was say the baby kicked, and he lost his mind with worry. Sis, there’s no point staying by his side as a pregnant mistress with no legal standing. You should just leave. He’s never going to divorce me.” For the sake of the life growing inside me, I locked my phone away and forced myself to breathe through the anger. Once I was discharged and back at the house, I started packing. I was leaving. I would figure out the rest later. Just as I zipped up my suitcase, Sophie let herself in. “Glad to see you finally came to your senses, Sis. But you probably still have some lingering questions. I came over to clear things up for you.” She looked down, gently stroking her swollen belly. Her voice was terrifyingly soft. “Actually, the night before you two flew out to the States? We slept together.” The words hit me like a physical blow. “You must think it’s impossible, right? Since he hated me so much back then. I went to his apartment with a bottle of whiskey to say goodbye. I told him I had no mother, I’d never get a dime of the family money, and I was doomed to be mocked as an illegitimate bastard for the rest of my life. “He felt sorry for me. He drank glass after glass. When he got drunk, it just… happened naturally. “But Sis, do you really think a black-out drunk man can perform? He knew it was me the whole time. “So you see, you lost to me before you even got on that plane.” I stood glued to the floor. I had imagined a thousand different timelines, but I never thought the betrayal ran this deep. On our flight to New York, Jake had been incredibly distracted. I thought he was just anxious about leaving his home country. Now I knew he was leaving a piece of his heart behind. It was pathetic. I had spent the last five years treating him as my safe harbor. Trusting him unconditionally. I was nothing but a spectacular, colossal joke. Seeing the devastation on my face, Sophie smiled. She slowly pushed up the sleeve of her designer cardigan, revealing an exquisite, vintage Cartier bangle on her wrist. That was my mother’s heirloom. When the homewrecker stole it and sold it years ago, it vanished. Later, I heard it surfaced at a private auction in London. I had begged Jake to fly back and bid on it for me. He had returned looking absolutely gutted, telling me he got outbid by an anonymous buyer. Because his startup was struggling, I swallowed my heartbreak and comforted him. I told him if my mother was watching over us, the bracelet would find its way back to me eventually. “Figured it out yet?” Sophie whispered. “He fought tooth and nail in a bidding war to buy this for me. And he lied straight to your face. From the very beginning, you’ve always been second place.” I lunged at her. “Give it back! Give it back to me!” We grappled. In the chaotic shoving, my foot slipped. I crashed hard onto the hardwood floor. A blinding, agonizing cramp seized my lower abdomen. A thick, terrifying warmth spread between my legs. The metallic scent of blood hit the air. My baby… Sophie immediately threw herself onto the floor and started screaming at the top of her lungs. “Ah! It hurts! Sis, why did you push me?!” “Sophie! What happened?! Don’t be scared, I’ll get you to the hospital right now!” Jake had arrived. He didn’t even look at me. He only had eyes for her. Clutching my stomach, fighting through the blinding agony, I begged him. “I’m bleeding… my baby is dying…” Jake finally turned his head. His eyes were a twisted mixture of disappointment and pure rage. His voice dropped to a sinister, chilling octave I had never heard before. “If anything happens to Sophie or my child, I will make you pay.” “Don’t go…” I watched helplessly as Jake scooped Sophie into his arms and bolted. Before he turned the corner, Sophie’s lips curled into a victorious smirk. She silently mouthed the words: You lose again.

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I was reborn. Brought back to the exact moment the hospital laboratory went up in flames. Fire devoured everything in sight. Christian and I were trapped inside the burning room. Then Stella appeared. She was my girlfriend. But without a single second of hesitation, she chose to save Christian first, treating me like I was completely invisible. I did not stop her. I did not beg. Because the memories of my past life were still burned into my brain. Back then, I revealed my secret identity as the hospital director’s son, using her career to force her to save me. Christian was left behind in that inferno forever. Afterward, she weaponized my guilt, slowly draining every single cent of my family’s wealth. In the end, she locked me inside a lab and set the room on fire. As I begged for my life in sheer despair, she flashed a twisted, demonic smile. “Rowan! If you hadn’t used your family’s power to threaten me, Christian would never have died that horrible death!” “Every ounce of pain he felt in those flames, I am going to make you pay back a thousand times over!” This time, I chose to let her have exactly what she wanted. And in doing so, I would save myself. … 01 A deafening crash shook the room. The heavy steel cabinet slammed into my body, the agonizing pain instantly snapping me fully awake. Ignoring the blinding agony, I desperately tried to make sense of my surroundings. Thick, toxic smoke forced my eyes shut. I could only cover my mouth, coughing so hard my lungs felt like they were bleeding. A dull, throbbing pain radiated from my right leg. I instinctively threw my arms over my head to protect myself. “No!” But my arms, which had been charred to the bone in my past life, were perfectly intact. How was this possible? Before my brain could process anything, a frantic, desperate voice pierced through the roar of the flames. “Christian! Christian! Are you okay?!” Why did that voice sound so agonizingly familiar? A second later, Christian’s weak, pathetic voice drifted over. “Stella… please help me…” I forced my head up in total disbelief. Through the haze, I saw Stella kneeling next to Christian, frantically shoving a fallen desk off his body. Watching the two of them, I literally couldn’t catch my breath. Wait. Wasn’t I just locked in a lab, burning to a crisp while Stella laughed at me? The realization hit me so hard I curled into a ball, my entire body violently shaking. From the lab doorway, my best friend Ben screamed until his voice cracked. “Stella! Are you completely out of your mind?! Save Rowan! He is your boyfriend!” The raw heat on my skin and the smoke stinging my eyes made it undeniably real. This wasn’t a nightmare. I was reborn. Brought back to the very day Christian, the hospital’s golden boy, and I were trapped in the fire. With a loud scrape of metal, Stella finally pushed the desk away. Without so much as a glance in my direction, she hauled Christian up and dragged him toward the exit. A bitter, mocking laugh escaped my throat. In my last life, this was exactly what she did. I was supposed to be the man she loved, but her eyes only ever saw him. It made sense. Christian was gorgeous. He was practically worshipped by the staff, and rumors constantly swirled that he was the sole heir to the Harrington Medical Empire. Even if Stella wasn’t single, she had probably fallen for him a long time ago. I struggled to stand, but the steel cabinet had my leg pinned to the floor. Shards of broken glass had sliced my calf open, and blood was pooling beneath me. I couldn’t move an inch. Stella finally seemed to notice I existed. But there was zero concern in her eyes. Only pure annoyance. She wrinkled her nose. “Christian is the sole heir to the Harrington family. If he dies here, this entire hospital goes down with him!” “I am looking at the bigger picture!” “Your injuries aren’t even that bad. Once I get Christian to safety, I will come back for you.” I laughed again. If I hadn’t already lived through this hell once, I might have actually believed her garbage excuse about “the bigger picture.” I was covered in my own blood, yet to her, my injuries “weren’t that bad.” Ben didn’t hesitate. He tried to charge straight into the fire, but a group of panicked nurses dragged him back. “Ben! Stop! The lab is full of combustible chemicals! It’s going to blow!” They were right. In my memory, this room had roughly fifteen minutes before it detonated. In my past life, after I was dragged out, I immediately screamed for everyone to evacuate, saving dozens of lives. Stella had actually wanted to run back in for Christian, but the flames grew too wild, and she chickened out. So why the hell would I ever believe she was coming back for me this time? I knew she wouldn’t. But I refused to drag the people who actually cared about me down into the grave. I propped myself up on my bloody elbows, screaming at the door with everything I had. “Ben, stay back! It’s going to blow! All of you, run!” Hearing the word “blow,” Stella froze in her tracks. She snapped her head back, glaring at me with eyes so cold she looked like a total stranger. “Rowan, since when did you become such a manipulative liar?!” “The fire department will be here in half an hour to contain this. If you scream about explosions, what are all the colleagues outside going to think of me?!” “Can’t you be a little more like Christian and show some actual basic human decency?!” Her absolute hypocrisy made my blood boil. “You didn’t call me manipulative when you were in my bed!” Hearing that, Christian weakly tugged at Stella’s collar, his voice trembling. “Stella, it hurts so much…” The moment Christian spoke, Stella immediately broke eye contact with me, her gaze softening entirely. “Hold on, Christian. I promise I won’t let anything happen to you.” And just like that, she practically carried him out the door. She never looked back. 02 I gritted my teeth and pushed against the crushing weight of the cabinet. A blinding, drilling pain shot up my spine. But compared to being burned alive in my past life, this was absolutely nothing. Watching Stella abandon me, Ben collapsed to his knees in the hallway, his face pale with disbelief. “Stella! You are sick in the head!” “The Chief of Medicine is going to ruin you for this!” Ben was the only person in the entire hospital who knew my real identity. But his threat only earned a cruel, mocking sneer from Stella. “The Chief is going to ruin me? Hilarious.” “Christian is the only son of the Harrington Medical group! If he dies, the Chief will be the one begging for mercy!” I dragged my bleeding body through the narrow gap beneath the cabinet. The jagged edges tore my wound open further, soaking my clothes in fresh blood. But I didn’t care. I needed to live. Seeing the clock ticking down, I screamed at Ben. “Stop talking to her! Get out of here!” I would never forget the look in Stella’s eyes when she poured gasoline over my head in my past life. There was no love left. Only absolute, psychotic hatred. She ignored my begging. She ignored our years together. She just struck the match. That was when I realized she had blamed me for Christian’s death every single day since the fire. She despised me. Before I could fully shake off that agonizing memory, Ben broke through the crowd and charged straight into the burning room. “Rowan! Stay with me!” Toxic smoke filled my lungs, blurring my vision. The only clear thing in the world was Ben’s figure pushing through the orange flames. “Are you insane?! Get out!” I roared. Ben ignored me. He gritted his teeth, hoisted half my weight onto his shoulder, and began dragging me toward the exit. The blistering heat scorched our skin. I watched a lock of his hair catch fire, glowing with orange embers, but he acted like he couldn’t feel a thing. He just kept pulling. Looking at his soot-stained face, a massive wave of guilt crashed over me. I weakly lifted my arm to check my watch. Time was up. If we didn’t move now, we were dead. I took a deep, ragged breath and screamed in his ear. “Listen to me! I am going to count down from three. When I hit one, we dive for the door. Do not look back at me, do you understand?!” Ben didn’t even turn his head. “Keep screaming! I am not letting go of you!” A knot of emotion tightened in my throat. I stopped arguing and locked my eyes on the doorway. Our only way out. Three! Two! One! “Jump!” I roared with every ounce of strength left in my broken body, dragging Ben with me as we launched ourselves through the door. Boom! The exact second we cleared the threshold, a catastrophic explosion detonated behind us. The massive shockwave blasted us across the hallway. My eardrums felt like they had ruptured. My vision went completely white. I couldn’t see, I couldn’t hear. Just a high-pitched, endless ringing echoing in my skull. “Rowan! Rowan! Can you hear me?!” I don’t know how long I blacked out, but Ben’s panicked voice eventually broke through the static. I forced my eyes open. “I’m fine… just my leg…” Ben followed my gaze down. His face instantly drained of color. “It’s bad. Don’t look at it. Just… wait right here!” He scrambled to his feet and sprinted down the hall. A few minutes later, Ben returned with a team of colleagues carrying a stretcher. When they saw the state of my leg, every single one of them gasped. One of the male nurses covered his mouth. “Oh my god… how many stitches is that going to take?!” My entire body felt shattered, but my mind was violently clear. As they wheeled me past the emergency triage, I saw Stella. She had her arms wrapped tenderly around Christian’s shoulders, whispering sweet comfort into his ear, acting like the horrors of the last twenty minutes never happened. Acting like I didn’t exist. The head nurse, who had always treated me well, began examining my wounds. She shook her head, her eyes brimming with tears. “Rowan… what kind of karma is this? You have so many fractured bones. It’s going to take at least a year of physical therapy to walk right…” Her voice cracked into a sob. “Thank God your right hand is safe. Once you heal, you can still operate.” I managed a weak, bloodstained smile, wanting to comfort her, but the pain robbed me of my voice. The head nurse lowered her voice, glancing nervously toward the triage bay. “That Christian guy… I heard it’s just a few minor scratches! And look at Dr. Stella treating him like he’s dying. Disgusting…” Hearing that, Ben completely snapped. He marched right up to triage, pointing a shaking finger directly at Stella’s face. “Stella! You make me sick to my stomach!” Before Ben could even finish his sentence, Christian let out a pathetic, breathy cough. “Stella… I’m feeling really weak…” Stella immediately went into panic mode, stroking his hair. “Just hold on, Christian. The specialists will be here any second.” Then, she slowly looked up, glaring daggers at Ben. “Rowan is fine, isn’t he?!” “Rowan is my boyfriend. Whatever happens between us is our business. Why do you always have to stick your nose where it doesn’t belong?!” I stared at Stella’s repulsive, self-righteous face from my stretcher. My voice was hoarse, but it cut through the room like a knife. “We are done.” “We are breaking up.” Ben nodded aggressively. “Good! No point reasoning with trash!” Stella froze. She clearly hadn’t expected me to drop the hammer in front of everyone. Her brow furrowed in deep annoyance. “Rowan, what is your problem now? Are you playing games with me?” I let out a cold, raspy laugh. “Playing games? You aren’t worth the effort.” I forced the tears back, staring dead at Christian hiding behind her. “You would rather save another man than save my life. And you have the nerve to call yourself my girlfriend?!” Christian, a grown man, immediately forced tears into his eyes like a victim. “Rowan… how could you say that to her?” “She just knows you’re stronger than me. She believed in you. She simply chose to save the person who needed her the most…” The ER erupted into chaotic whispers. Stella’s aggressive defense and Christian’s pathetic weeping drew a massive crowd of onlookers. “Well, the golden boy has a point. He’s so fragile, obviously he needed help first!” “Exactly. Dr. Stella was just making the logical choice. Why is Dr. Rowan being so incredibly bitter?” “No kidding. Christian is the heir to the Harrington Empire. Saving him is objectively more important!” Just then, my father rushed into the ER, having caught the first flight back from his overseas conference. Seeing him, Stella instantly dropped her defensive attitude and rushed over, putting on a professional, respectful face. “Chief Thomas! The lab exploded, and I… I risked my life to pull Christian out of the flames.” “Christian just promised me he would have Harrington Medical double their funding for our hospital!” My dad’s face was completely black. “Where is Rowan?!” Assuming the Chief was looking for someone to blame, Stella eagerly threw me to the wolves. “Sir, it was just Rowan and Christian in the lab. Christian is flawless with his protocols, so this incident is entirely Rowan’s fault.” “They just pulled him out. His injuries aren’t severe. But honestly, I strongly recommend banning him from the research labs going forward. Christian is more than capable of leading the projects alone.” My father’s expression turned murderous. Lying on the stretcher, I just smiled coldly to myself. Just wait, Stella. Once I am out of the picture, your life is going to become a living hell. Before I could even see my dad’s reaction, the darkness pulled me under, and I passed out cold. When I woke up, it was already dusk the following day. My arms and legs were encased in heavy plaster and bandages. I couldn’t move, but breathing the sterile hospital air, I felt completely reborn. “Rowan!” Ben walked up to my bed, looking exhausted but incredibly relieved. I tried to lift my hand to greet him, but a sharp spike of pain forced me to stop. Seeing me wince, Ben lost his composure. “You absolute idiot! Do you have any idea how close you were to dying?!” I offered a weak smile. “At least… I’m still breathing…” In this life, I didn’t owe Stella a damn thing. And neither my dad nor I were going to die. “Man,” Ben sighed heavily, pulling up a chair. “I already told your dad exactly what happened. He was so furious he called an emergency disciplinary board meeting for tomorrow morning!” Hearing about my dad, hot tears finally spilled over my eyelashes. In my past life, my blind trust in Stella eventually led to my father’s tragic death. “Ben…” I took a shaky breath, steadying my voice. “I need you to do one last thing for me.” “Name it.” “The security cameras… inside my private lab. I need you to pull the footage from right before the fire…” Ben grinned, leaning back in his chair. “Already on it, brother.” “We hit a small firewall, but don’t worry. I completely bypassed it. We have the video.” Looking at him, a tidal wave of guilt practically crushed my chest. In my past life, Stella had brainwashed me into believing Ben was jealous of me. She convinced me he was trying to sabotage my career. I got into a massive screaming match with him, cut him out of my life, and died before I ever had the chance to apologize. I was so blind. I threw away gold for a piece of trash. I was just about to close my eyes and rest when the door swung open. Stella walked in. And of course, Christian was trailing right behind her. He stood there looking absolutely flawless, adjusting the collar of his designer shirt, drawing the admiring eyes of the passing nurses. Then there was me. Mummified in plaster, broken on a hospital bed.

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The divorce from my ex-husband six years ago was the single most humiliating chapter of my life. He’d lost his mind back then, spewing the vilest curses, swearing I’d never find happiness. I was shaking with rage. That same day, I bought a one-way ticket and fled the country. It wasn’t until a high school reunion last week that I set foot in this city again. During dinner, someone enthusiastically tried to pour me a glass of wine. But Daniel, my ex, who was sitting right next to me, shot his hand out to block the bottle. “Don’t,” he said, his voice low but shockingly firm. “She’s allergic to alcohol.” 1 The moment he said it, the lively chatter in our private dining room died, replaced by a thick, awkward silence. Every eye in the room darted between me and Daniel. After all, our breakup had been a spectacular train wreck. Six years ago, Daniel had an affair with my best friend, Jessica. He claimed he didn’t want to hurt either of us and actually suggested the three of us could learn to coexist peacefully. The idea was so warped it shattered my reality. After a massive fight, I left the country in a storm of fury. And I hadn’t been back until today. Everyone knew the story, which is why they’d been carefully avoiding any sensitive topics during the initial pleasantries. But here was Daniel, practically begging for attention. After vetoing the wine, he took it upon himself to stand up and fill my glass with iced tea. Mike, one of our old friends, shot him a disapproving look but didn’t say anything when I remained silent. He just forced a smile and tried to smooth things over. “No worries, no worries! If Sophie can’t drink, she can’t drink. A toast with tea is just as good.” “Yeah, totally,” others chimed in, desperate to move past the cringeworthy moment. A reunion was a rare thing, and no one wanted our personal drama to ruin it. I didn’t want to make a scene either. I gracefully raised my glass of tea and took a sip. As I set it down, I caught a flicker of a smile in Daniel’s eyes, as if my simple act of drinking the tea he poured meant something more. I refused to overthink it and calmly looked away. Just then, the waiters began bringing in the food. I was surprised to see they were all my favorite dishes. Then it hit me like a ton of bricks: Daniel had been the one to place the order. I glanced at him from the corner of my eye. He was leaning back in his chair, a smug, expectant look on his face, as if he’d been waiting for me to notice his grand gesture. It all clicked into place. Every single thing he’d done tonight was a calculated move to get close to me. And honestly? It was making my skin crawl. A good ex is a dead ex. They should vanish from your world completely, not pop up trying to play the knight in shining armor. Especially not when, less than a month after I left the country, Daniel had married Jessica. As far as I knew, they were still very much together. A married man making repeated, suggestive moves on his ex-wife? That wasn’t just inappropriate. It was disgusting. Trying to avoid any more drama, I coldly flagged down a waiter and ordered an orange juice. For the rest of the night, whenever a toast was made, I drank that, letting the iced tea Daniel had poured for me grow warm and forgotten. I thought my message was loud and clear. But then, Daniel suddenly reached across the table with his chopsticks and expertly placed a piece of brisket on my plate. “You’ve gotten so thin,” he said, his tone sickeningly intimate. “You must not have been eating well over there.” I stared at the meat in my bowl as if it were something rotten, unable to bring myself to touch it. But Daniel, acting completely oblivious, proceeded to serve me a little of everything, piling my plate high until it was a small mountain of food. Now, everyone was staring. 2 “What’s with those two? You think they got back together?” “No way! Isn’t Daniel still married?” “So what? They were the real couple. If it wasn’t for that Jessica butting in, they’d still be together.” “Man, nothing beats the original, you know?” Thanks to Daniel’s little performance, my former classmates were now convinced we were secretly hooking up again. Some even whispered that I’d come back to the country just for him. And the man himself, the architect of all this gossip, just sat there, watching it all unfold with a calm, detached expression. He didn’t say a word, content to let the rumors solidify into fact. I had no idea what his game was, but I wanted absolutely no part of it. I opened my mouth, ready to shut it all down by announcing that I was already married. But before I could speak, the door to the room swung open. Jessica stood there, a thundercloud on her face. Her eyes met mine, and for a second, she froze. Then, her expression shifted instantly, her face contorting into a sickly sweet smile. “Sophie! You’re back! Why didn’t you tell me you were coming?” She sauntered in like she owned the place and slid into the seat next to Daniel. The moment she sat down, her gaze fell on the dishes covering the table. As my best friend for years, she knew my tastes intimately. Her face went pale with humiliation. But just as quickly, she shot a venomous glare in my direction, as if I had personally orchestrated the menu just to embarrass her. A bitter irony washed over me. The Jessica I remembered wasn’t like this. I remember in tenth-grade gym class, I got my period and bled through my pants. A group of boys started pointing and laughing. “Hey, look! Sophie’s butt is bleeding!” “Ew, that’s so gross.” It was the first time I’d ever been publicly mocked like that. My back went rigid, and I froze on the spot, utterly clueless about what to do. Suddenly, Jessica charged in, whipped off her own jacket, and tied it around my waist. Then she spun around and roared at the boys. “What the hell are you laughing at? It’s called a period. It’s normal! If you’re that clueless, maybe you should pay attention in health class instead of acting like ignorant jerks.” The boys fell silent immediately. Later, I gave her a box of candy to thank her. She took it and thumped her chest, promising, “Anyone ever messes with you again, you just come find me. I’ll take care of them!” I thought she was just kidding, but Jessica was true to her word. Back then, Daniel and I were childhood sweethearts, practically joined at the hip. Our closeness fueled a lot of gossip. Someone even started a rumor that we had already gone all the way. At first, I ignored it. But we were still teenagers, and our skins weren’t as thick as they are now. Hearing it over and over started to get to me, making me feel miserable and wronged. So one day, after another crude joke was thrown my way, I finally broke. I walked to the front of the classroom and tearfully told everyone that Daniel and I had never crossed that line. Daniel stood up to defend me, but that only made things worse. The gossips exchanged gleeful looks and started jeering. “Ooh, look at that. Say two words about the girl and the guy jumps up to protect her. And you say nothing’s going on?” “They walk home together every day. Who knows what they’re doing in private!” “Hahaha.” Another wave of laughter crashed over me. I stood there, frozen, feeling like I’d been struck by lightning. That’s when Jessica slammed her hand on her desk. She stood up, marched over to the group of guys, looked them up and down, and then flashed a lewd grin. “Ooh, look at you three, always going to the bathroom together. Who knows what you guys are doing in there, huh?” She leaned in, her voice dripping with insinuation. “I heard real ‘bros’ are supposed to take care of each other when they’re in need. You guys been taking good care of each other?” If straight romance was a storm in our high school, a gay rumor was a full-blown apocalypse. The boys’ faces went white with panic. They immediately turned to me and Daniel, stammering apologies. After that, they never breathed another word about us. And from that day on, Jessica and I were inseparable. She was the kind of person who was optimistic, kind, and fiercely righteous. She was the one who would charge into battle for me. But the woman standing here today? For a man, she’d not only abandoned her own sense of justice but was now slinging mud at me without a second thought. “Sophie, are you still mad at me for taking Daniel all those years ago? Is that why you came back without saying a word to me?” I was so taken aback by her accusation that I didn’t know how to respond. She seized the opportunity, raising her voice into a pathetic, whiny tone. “I tried to talk to you when I came in, but you just ignored me. You just wanted to humiliate me, didn’t you?” Her voice rose to a crescendo, filled with theatrical self-pity. “I know you’ve never gotten over Daniel, but he’s my husband now! Are you really trying to seduce him right in front of my face?” The room erupted in gasps. Curious eyes bounced back and forth between me and Jessica. But what truly surprised me was Daniel’s reaction. He did absolutely nothing to stop Jessica’s lies. Instead, he just rested his chin on his hand, a ghost of a smile playing on his lips as he watched me. It was a look of pure anticipation. As if he was actually hoping I would try to seduce him. How could he look at me like that? Had he forgotten how he had cursed me, how he had wished me a life of misery? 3 I found out Jessica’s secret boyfriend was Daniel on the day she tried to kill herself. By then, I was already married to Daniel and five months pregnant with our child. She sent me a horrifying photo of her sliced wrist with a simple text: I’m so sorry. I can’t live anymore. The image of raw, red flesh made my scalp tingle with fear. I immediately called an ambulance. At the hospital, I was a wreck, pacing uselessly, not knowing what to do. I just knelt on the cold floor, my pregnant belly heavy, and sobbed, begging the doctors to save her. Thankfully, they managed to stabilize her. I finally let out a breath I didn’t realize I was holding. My relief quickly turned to rage. I was going to find the man who did this to her and make him pay. But I didn’t even know his name. All I had to go on were Jessica’s tear-swollen eyes from our last conversation. After composing myself, I went to her dorm to get her phone. My plan was to lure the bastard out and beat him to a pulp. But when I held her phone in my hand, my world tilted on its axis. The lock screen was a picture of two hands, fingers intertwined. On the man’s ring finger was a wedding band. I recognized it instantly. It was my wedding ring. The one I’d given Daniel. So… the man was Daniel? No. It couldn’t be. Impossible. My hands trembling, I frantically typed in my own birthday to unlock the phone. Password incorrect. I tried Jessica’s birthday. Still incorrect. Finally, with a shaking hand, I entered Daniel’s birthday. The phone unlocked. At that point, the truth was already screaming at me, but a tiny, desperate part of my heart clung to hope. Maybe it’s not Daniel’s hand, just someone with a similar ring… Maybe the password is just a random coincidence… But all my flimsy excuses were obliterated by the thousands of photos in her gallery. Over a thousand pictures of Daniel and Jessica together. Eating at restaurants. Vacationing on a beach. Lying in bed, tangled in sheets. And then… the one that broke me. A snapshot of a white bedsheet stained with a single, damning crimson blotch. A picture taken after the first time they’d slept together. The date stamp was from four months ago. The same day I found out I was pregnant. I remembered it so clearly. When I told Daniel the news, he was so ecstatic he lifted me up and spun me around. Jessica was there, too, excitedly declaring she would be the baby’s godmother. It had been the happiest day of my life. I was carrying new life, with the man I loved and the friend I cherished by my side. I had shared my joy with them in the morning. And that very afternoon, they had betrayed me together. What a fucking joke. The two people who had been my entire world, who had walked with me through my entire youth, had been lying to me all along. And I, in my blissful ignorance, had never suspected a thing. If I hadn’t been trying to play the hero for Jessica, would I have ever found out? The thought that just hours ago, I was on my knees, pregnant and desperate, begging doctors to save her… it made me want to laugh. But the laughter died in my throat. A cold, chilling thought sliced through my mind. Jessica’s suicide attempt… was it a calculated move to force my hand?

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