Category: English

My friends always told me that I treated Carter too well, and that was exactly why he took me for granted. “If you just gave him the cold shoulder and made him feel a little threatened, let’s see if he’d still dare to act like this,” they’d say. So, during our latest fight, I didn’t back down. A week later, he took the initiative to make peace. A bouquet of flowers, a home-cooked meal, an apology. I thought this was his way of changing. That is, until I accidentally saw the text message she sent him. She said: [Go apologize to Harper. [Be a good boy.] 1 When I stepped out of the shower, Carter was on the phone. He said, “Yeah, don’t worry, I know.” With that, he hung up. The smile on his face hadn’t faded yet, and his mood was noticeably brighter than when he had first shown up at my door. I stopped drying my hair, a sudden knot forming in my chest. It couldn’t be helped—when you know someone intimately, all it takes is one sentence to plant the seed of suspicion. There was nothing inherently scandalous about what he said. But his tone was way too obedient. It was like a rabid dog that had just had its fur petted down. It was completely unlike him. So, I couldn’t help but ask, “Who was that?” “What?” “Who were you just on the phone with?” Carter’s expression cooled slightly. “No one.” He added, “You must be hungry! Go dry your hair, I’m going to start cooking.” With that, he walked into the kitchen. His phone was left sitting on the coffee table. It sat there like a massive temptation. I couldn’t resist. I picked it up. The first thing I checked was the call log. The most recent entry: Mia Brooks. I froze. Mia? Why would it be Mia? “What are you doing?” Carter’s voice suddenly cut through the air. I looked up. Our eyes met. His face was dark, his gaze freezing cold. He took a slow step toward me. “What are you trying to find? “Harper, let me ask you, what exactly are you looking for?” He snatched the phone from my hand and shoved the screen in my face. “Checking to see who I was on the phone with? Yeah, exactly, I was talking to Mia. And? Harper, do I have to report every single person I speak to? Do I need to give you a daily quota of my calls and texts?” He straightened up and tossed the phone roughly onto the sofa. His voice was icy. “Go ahead. Search it all you want.” Carter was angry. His fury was laced with a thinly veiled disappointment. His intense reaction left me frozen in place. My mind was a chaotic blur for a moment until the heavy silence settled between us, and clarity slowly returned. Why did I check Carter’s phone? Because of his gentleness. Because of his obedience. That wasn’t Carter’s personality. He had always been reckless, arrogant, and cocky, even when talking to me. He didn’t do soft words. He didn’t do sweet and gentle. My friends never understood it: “How do you put up with him?” I would just smile and say, “Because I know him.” I knew exactly what tone of voice he used when he realized he was wrong. I understood what his face looked like when he was implicitly backing down. I never needed him to say the actual words; I understood him perfectly. So, when he softened his attitude for someone else… how could I not get suspicious? Meeting Carter’s glare, I picked up his phone again. Over his sharp scoff, I tapped into his text thread with Mia. Their most recent conversation was from 2:00 AM last night. [Mia: Haven’t you made up with Harper yet?] [Carter: Yeah.] [Mia: What is wrong with you? Didn’t I tell you to go apologize?] [Carter: Stay out of it.] [Mia: Carter, go apologize.] [Carter: You don’t get it! Mia, she’s not like you.] [Mia: Of course she’s not like me. That’s why you love her and not me, right?] Carter hadn’t replied to that message. After a three-minute silence, Mia sent two more texts. [Mia: Go apologize to Harper.] [Mia: Carter, be a good boy!] 2 My friends always lectured me: “You treat Carter way too well. You can’t be like that with men, or they’ll push their limits and take you for granted.” At first, I brushed it off. I always believed that when two people are together, there’s no need to keep score of who gives more and who gives less. As long as the relationship was stable and conflicts were resolved, what did it matter who apologized first? Until a month ago. I had gone to a spa with my coworkers after a long shift. Before going, I texted Carter. He didn’t reply. Half an hour later, he kicked open the door to our private massage room. His face was like thunder. He waved his hand aggressively, pointing at the three massage therapists. “Get out! All of you!” Then he glared at me. “Are you leaving or what?” The awkwardness. The sheer humiliation. I wished the floor would swallow me whole. My coworkers were baffled. “Your boyfriend? Why would he disrespect you like that?” Yeah. I didn’t understand it either. “I never embarrass you in public, why would you do something like that to me?” I asked him later. He just sneered. “You care about your dignity? Hiring a male masseuse—you’re really getting wild these days, Harper!” “I already explained it to you. All the female therapists were booked, so we took whoever was available.” “Oh, so they just happened to run out right when it was your turn?” “Yes! They just happened to run out!” “Do I look like an idiot?” My friends tried to comfort me: “He just cares about you. You know how men are—possessive!” But I knew that wasn’t it. Over the last six months, the way Carter looked at me had become increasingly critical. A simple sentence or an innocent gesture could trigger his temper. He was lashing out at me more and more frequently. And time after time, I was the one forced to swallow my pride and beg for peace. I was exhausted. Drained. So this time, when we fought, I packed a bag, left the house we had bought for our upcoming wedding, and moved back into my own apartment. What caused the fight this time? Catching a cheater. The wife of Carter’s childhood best friend came to me, devastated, saying her husband was out partying at a club every night. She asked me to go with her to confront him. Her mental state was terrible, and I was worried about her, so I went. Her husband was there. My fiancé was there, too. The man who, half an hour earlier, had texted me saying he was working late at the office, was sitting in a VIP booth, accepting a shot of tequila from a woman. I didn’t lose my temper. Before I even had the chance to get mad, he exploded. He was absolutely furious. “What the hell are you doing? Harper, do you physically ache if you don’t cause drama for one single day? If you want to act crazy, do it by yourself—why are you dragging other people into it?! Do you have any idea how much of a psycho you look like, running around acting paranoid every day?!” Under the dim, amber lights of the club, I stared at him for a long time. I didn’t say a single word. I turned around and walked away. Even then, I was still trying to protect his pride. I didn’t want to scream and shout in public, right in front of his friends. But I had finally had enough of his baseless rage. It had been a week since I moved out. We had been in a cold war for a solid seven days. He hadn’t sent me a single text or made a single phone call. Until today, when he suddenly showed up at my door. Holding a bouquet of flowers, he said, “Stop being mad. It was my fault!” He bought a bunch of groceries to make my favorite dishes, claiming he was cooking tonight. Carter was a great cook. But aside from holidays and big dinners with friends, he rarely ever cooked. Watching his back as he stood at the counter deveining shrimp, my heart—which had been a chaotic mess for a week—finally settled. It was really that simple for me. As long as he bowed his head just once, everything in the past could be wiped clean. We had been together for almost ten years; what was there that we couldn’t overcome? But now, you’re telling me you didn’t come here on your own. You came because someone else told you to. Be a good boy? Since when did Carter Hayes ever listen to anyone? 3 “Last winter, on that crowded downtown street. A red car blocked the lane, and you literally used your truck to ram it out of the way. The car alarms, the crowds screaming, me begging you to stop. I asked you, ‘Carter, can you please just listen to me for once?’ Do you remember what you said?” “What is your point?” “You said, ‘No!’” Carter’s face looked dreadful. He had always been like this—a violent temper, explosive at the slightest spark. I was furious with him that day. At first, I tried to pull him back. “Don’t do this, I’ll call a tow truck. Let someone else handle it.” He didn’t listen. He just kept inching his truck forward, crushing the bumper. “Carter, that’s enough!” He stepped on the gas. A crowd gathered. People were pulling out their phones to record. Someone was calling the cops. I grabbed his arm, my eyes welling with frustrated tears. “Can you please just listen to me, just this once?” He stared straight ahead, completely deadpan. “No!” That was the kind of man he was. Yet Mia typed one sentence: [Carter, be a good boy.] And he immediately bowed his head. 4 I couldn’t help but ask, “If Mia hadn’t told you to be a good boy, would you have even come looking for me?” Carter took a deep breath, his fists clenching tight. “Harper, stop trying to pick a fight out of nothing!” “So, Mia tells you to obey, and you obey. Is that it?” “Harper, I said that’s enough!” “Is it true?” “Yes! So what?!” Carter violently swept the water glass off the table. It shattered against the floor with a loud crash. He glared at me, his eyes burning with a rage that looked like he wanted to swallow me whole. “You just have to make everything sound filthy, don’t you? You think Mia and I are screwing around? If we were, why the hell would she tell me to come apologize to you?! If you don’t have a brain, keep your mouth shut! You’re paranoid and delusional every single day. Sounds to me like you don’t even want to get married anymore!” “Then let’s not!” “What did you say?” I stood up slowly, my hands trembling violently from the adrenaline rushing through my veins. “I said, the wedding is off. Let’s break up!” Carter lunged forward, backing me up until I stumbled. He gritted his teeth, his voice a low, lethal growl. “Say that one more time.” “I said…” “Shut up!” Panting heavily, Carter brutally kicked a small footstool out of his way. I flinched, biting the inside of my cheek to suppress the scream threatening to tear out of my throat. Carter pointed a finger at me. “Harper, don’t you dare regret this!” He stormed out, slamming the front door so hard the walls shook. The apartment was a wreck. I sank to the floor, burying my face in my hands, and finally broke down sobbing. 5 Between Carter and me, I was the one who chased him. In high school, he was the coolest, most untouchable guy in our grade. I confessed my feelings to him. He tugged at the lanyard holding my student ID. “Harper? Sorry, I don’t date losers with bad grades.” Because of that one sentence… For a solid year, I studied until I bled, clawing my way into the elite AP classes that had previously seemed impossible for me. I found him again. “Am I allowed to date you now?” He gave a half-smile, lazily spinning a pen between his fingers. “Date? Sure. Let’s date.” Dating Carter was exhausting. With his toxic temper, he could piss off a saint. At first, I always felt like he didn’t actually like me that much. Like I was just the girl who chased him, and he just happened to be bored. During one of our fights, I screamed that exact thought at him. Carter’s eyes went completely red. “Out of a graduating class of five hundred kids, why the hell do you think I knew your grades were bad?! Harper, are you an idiot?! Do you honestly think I just say yes to anyone who asks me out?!” Carter’s love was buried incredibly deep. You had to dig for it, carefully uncovering it piece by piece. Once upon a time, I used to find joy in that process. But as the years dragged on, the digging just left me exhausted. I thought to myself: Whatever. I’m done. Three days after I told Carter we were over, my friend Riley threw a birthday party and invited me out for dinner. “Is Carter going? Because we broke up. If he’s going, I’m staying home.” “Why are you guys fighting again?” “It’s not a fight. It’s over for real this time.” “Alright, alright! He said he’s busy tonight anyway. You have to come, or I’m genuinely going to be mad at you!” Riley swore up and down that Carter wouldn’t be there. But when I walked into the private dining room, not only was Carter there… Mia was there too. Mia was sitting at the very back of the room. Carter was standing up, leaning over to hand her a strawberry smoothie. Mia looked up and gave him a soft, sweet smile. Carter noticed me walking in. He gave me a single, indifferent glance before looking away. I turned around to leave, but Riley grabbed my arm. “Don’t cause a scene. I’m the birthday girl, can’t you just give me this one night?” The room was filled with friends we had known for years. Walking out and ruining the vibe for everyone wasn’t something I wanted to do either. So, I stayed. I sat closest to the door and designated myself the karaoke DJ. Every shot or drink my friends handed me, I downed without hesitation. I noticed their hesitant, awkward glances, but I didn’t say a single extra word. Later in the night, for some inexplicable reason, the group started chanting for couples to do cross-armed shots. The two other couples in the room did it while everyone cheered. The only ones left were me and Carter. People started pushing him and pulling me, insisting we couldn’t ruin the game. Riley whispered to me, “Come on, just meet halfway and let it go. Look, we built the staircase for you guys to step down from. Just raise your glass, and he’ll definitely come over.” I froze for a second. Suddenly, I realized that my “breakup” was just being treated as a temper tantrum by everyone around us. They always said: “You two are exhausting. Every time you fight, you act like the world is ending, and we stress out for you. Then the next day, you’re back to being inseparable.” It was the boy who cried wolf. I had said it so many times, no one believed me anymore. I couldn’t help but look across the room at Carter. He was sitting there with his eyes lowered, completely expressionless. Someone tried to physically pull him up, but he shoved their hand away with an annoyed ‘tsk’, looking incredibly irritated. He turned his head to the side. Mia was sitting right there. I watched Mia tilt her chin up slightly. Reading her lips, I saw her say: “Go.” Two seconds of dead silence. Then, Carter picked up his shot glass and stood up abruptly. He walked toward me, staring at me with a heavy, suppressed look in his eyes. He looked like a man being marched to the gallows. I laughed. Suddenly, the whole thing felt incredibly pathetic. I dodged the arm Carter was extending toward me, tilted my head back, and downed the liquor in my glass in one gulp. “You guys have fun. I’m heading out!” Carter’s face instantly plummeted into a terrifying scowl. He glared at me with pure venom. I turned around, pushed the door open, and walked out. The exact moment the heavy door clicked shut behind me, I heard the sharp, violent sound of a glass shattering against the floor.

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I got kidnapped. I told the traffickers, “You can sell me, but I get to pick the buyer, and I keep the money.” The home I meticulously chose was perfect. The guy was a domestic abuser who had already beaten three wives to death. I was number four. The first time we met, he smiled so happily. I was even happier. Finally, I could beat someone to a pulp without holding back. I was at the mall, sipping an iced coffee in the air conditioning, when an older woman approached me and begged for a favor. I could tell at a glance she was up to no good, but I went with her anyway. Mostly because my days were agonizingly boring, and I had nothing to look forward to in life. On the road, she kept making up excuses about why we hadn’t reached our destination yet. I just looked at her and smiled. When I was shoved into the back of a van, I didn’t struggle. When I was locked in a dark room with a few other girls, I didn’t cry. They looked at me like I was a monster. I looked at them like they were useless garbage. If they had the energy to sit around and cry, why weren’t they thinking of a way to escape? Was every path truly blocked? Or had they just weighed the pros and cons and decided to sit around daydreaming, hoping some knight in shining armor would swoop in and save them? I smashed the boarded-up window open with one punch and told them to jump. Instead, one of the girls started screaming at the top of her lungs. I backhanded her across the face. “Idiot.” The kidnapped girls cowered in the corner, sobbing. The ringleader of the trafficking ring came storming in, cursing his head off. Just as he raised his hand to slap me, I caught his wrist and drove my fist squarely into his gut. “Argh—!” A pathetic shriek ripped from his throat. I grabbed him, flipped him over my shoulder, and slammed him onto the floor. I planted my foot firmly on his chest. I heard the distinct, satisfying crunch of ribs breaking. “Ah! God, it hurts, it hurts…” So human traffickers feel pain too. I figured since their consciences had been eaten by dogs, they’d be numb to it by now. A few more of them rushed into the room, men and women. A punch here, a kick there, and I dropped them one by one. They were genuinely, pathetically weak. I dug through their pockets, pulled out their cash, and tossed it to the cowering girls. I raised an eyebrow. “Are you leaving or not?” “Aren’t you coming? Come with us.” I shook my head. Leave? Leave and go where? Back to that massive, empty house? Without my mom, without my little brother, what was I going back for? For these girls I had met by chance, I had done all I could. Whether they made it back safely, whether they called the cops, whether the police caught these scumbags—none of that was my problem anymore. So, as the battered traffickers scrambled to escape, I followed them and hopped right into their van. “…” They stared at me in absolute terror. “Drive. What are you looking at me for? Aren’t you traffickers? Don’t you want to sell me to recoup your losses?” They didn’t dare kick me out, so they gritted their teeth and slammed on the gas. I found it exhilarating. I screamed happily out the window, “Faster! Go faster! Did you not eat breakfast? Or did I not hit you hard enough?” I curled my knuckles and rapped them hard against the driver’s skull. Thump, thump, thump. He literally cried while driving. The other traffickers clutched their seatbelts, pale with terror, shivering like leaves. It wasn’t that they hadn’t tried to ditch me; they just failed. Every time they tried to make a run for it, I hunted them down with perfect precision. “Please, boss, your majesty… we’re begging you, just let us go.” “It’s easy to summon a demon, but hard to send it away,” I smiled. “Want me to leave? Sure. Find me a buyer. Find me a family.” “Just make sure it’s somewhere with pure, old-fashioned folk customs.” … They stared at me in pure horror. They probably thought I was severely brain-damaged. “Deep in the mountains, off the grid, where the cops don’t care. I want to find a place where I can really let loose and practice my combat skills. “Also, I get to pick the buyer, and the money goes into my bank account. Whatever he pays you, you have to match it. You tricked me into coming out here, so you owe me compensation.” The traffickers nodded furiously like bobbleheads. I picked the buyer myself. Deep in the Appalachian backwoods, where they had electricity but no paved roads. It was a two-hour hike just to reach a dirt road where you could catch a rickety local bus. I chose the man myself, too. He looked thick and rugged, standing about five-foot-nine, looked to be in his forties. Rumor had it he had already bought three wives, and he had beaten all three of them to death. That was exactly how the traffickers pitched him to me. To him, they pitched me like this: College student, virgin, very gentle personality. When he looked at me and smiled, he was practically drooling. I looked at him and smiled back. I smiled even brighter than he did. I had to suppress the overwhelming urge to crack my knuckles. They haggled over the price. Eventually, the man agreed to pay five thousand dollars. The traffickers matched it with another five thousand. Ten grand total. I deposited it in the bank myself. As for the traffickers, I tied them all together, locked them in a motel room, and called the cops on them. I took a bus to the rural town alone, carrying only a backpack. When the man saw me, he looked shocked. “Just you?” I nodded. “I’m hungry. Buy me some food, then let’s go home.” My willingness completely stunned him, but the confusion in his eyes was quickly replaced by sheer, creeping joy. After all, I looked fantastic. Pale, soft, delicate, completely helpless, and easy to push around. The man blinked, then grinned. “Alright, I’ll buy you a couple of hotdogs.” I ate my hotdogs as we boarded the rattling local bus. The bus twisted and turned through the mountain passes until it finally stopped at a dirt intersection. “Alright, wifey, we’re here. Get off.” I followed him off the bus and stared up at the steep, winding, rocky mountain trail ahead. I furrowed my brow, softening my voice to sound delicate and whiny. “I can’t walk up that. Carry me.” If he didn’t carry me, I wouldn’t mind unleashing a full MMA combo on him right now. My hands were already itching. The man carried me on his back, trudging up the mountain, panting heavily, sweat pouring down his neck. I enjoyed the scenic mountain views and casually mapped out potential escape routes, just in case. When we stopped to rest, he looked at me, hesitating. “You’re walking the rest of the way yourself.” “?” I raised an eyebrow, looked at him, and suddenly burst out laughing. While he was still staring at me in confusion, I drove my fist straight into his stomach. He howled, stumbling backward a few steps. When he regained his senses, he roared in fury, “You crazy bitch, I’m gonna beat you to death!” Beat me to death? So when he swung his heavy fist at my face, I caught his wrist, flipped him over my shoulder, and slammed him into the dirt. Before he could even process what happened, I rained punches down onto his gut, one after another. “Why do you think I let you buy me? Because I’m lazy and entitled! I came to your house to be pampered! You can’t even carry me up a damn mountain, what use are you?! You pathetic piece of trash.” The angrier I got, the faster my fists fell. At first, he was still cursing and screaming, but eventually, he just started begging for mercy. “Stop hitting me! Stop hitting me!” I finally got tired. I sat down on a nearby rock and glared at him coldly. He lay on the dirt like a dead dog. I stood up and kicked his leg. “Get up. Carry me up the mountain.” “…” The path up the mountain was treacherous. I was actually a little worried he might try to throw me off a cliff, so I unclipped one of my backpack straps and wrapped it twice around his neck like a leash. “If I die, you die with me.” They say a man with nothing to lose fears no one. But I was someone who didn’t even care if I lived or died. Even though the man was hissing in pain with every step, he didn’t dare complain, let alone try anything funny. I didn’t even have to look at him to know his eyes were burning with pure, murderous hatred, plotting how he was going to make me suffer once we got home. The deeper into the mountains we went, the more excited I felt. When we entered the village, the locals—young and old alike—stared at me the way leeches smell blood, or wolves see meat. They greeted the man with drooling grins. “Hey Cletus, is this your new wife?” “Real tender. Mighty pretty.” “Cletus, you know the old rules, right…” The older women looked at me with deep disdain, as if I were something filthy. The younger ones just looked at me with numb, hollow pity. The little kids ran behind us out of curiosity, asking, “Uncle Cletus, is this your new wife?” Cletus’s house was noticeably nicer than the rest of the village. While others lived in rundown wooden shacks or trailers, his house was built of solid stone and brick, with a massive yard. An older woman in a floral blouse walked out. Seeing Cletus carrying me, her face twisted in anger. “What’s this? She ain’t got legs? You have to carry her?!” Cletus set me down. She was clearly used to ruling the roost. Cursing under her breath, she marched up to me and reached out to pinch my arm. “Listen here, you little—” I grabbed her wrist and, with a quick twist, dislocated her arm. “Ahhhh—!” A scream like a slaughtered pig echoed through the yard. Cletus barely had time to yell “Mom!” before I had already raised my hand and slapped her across the face a dozen times. I beat her until her face was bruised and swollen, effectively shutting her up. “You fucking—” Cletus snarled, lunging at me. I shoved his mother aside and smoothly executed a flawless beatdown on him, making absolutely sure I broke at least one arm and one leg. “Ah! Ah! Stop hitting me!” Cletus’s pathetic wails were even louder than his mother’s. The village kids who had followed us to watch the show stood frozen in utter shock. One of them yelled, “Cletus is getting beat up by his new wife!” Cletus’s father was the third person to try his luck. He charged at me swinging a rusted machete. I kicked the blade right out of his hand, followed it up with a few rapid-fire punches, and fractured his old bones. I watched the family of three huddle together in the dirt, shivering and groaning in agony. Out of the corner of my eye, I spotted two little heads peeking out from the doorway. I curled my finger at them. “Come here.” They were two incredibly skinny, frail little girls, probably around ten years old. They were actually very pretty, with huge, terrified eyes full of caution. “Do you know how to cook? I’m hungry.” They nodded frantically. “Go fry me six sunny-side-up eggs. “And listen to me, little ghosts. You better be good. Because I don’t just beat them. I’ll beat you too.” When I go crazy, I run over everyone equally. I don’t discriminate by age or gender. The two girls were terrified of me, but they were even more terrified of Cletus and his parents. So, right in front of their eyes, I gave Cletus and his parents another brutal kicking. “Remember this. From now on, I run this house. Now go make my food.” The closed front gate did nothing to stop the prying eyes of the village. People were peering through the cracks in the wood; some were even climbing up to look over the stone wall. Seeing me sitting in a chair like a reigning queen, while Cletus and his parents cowered in the corner shivering, someone yelled out, “Cletus, you absolute coward! Hit her!” “I’m telling you, these women need to be beaten! You beat ’em a few times, and they fall right into line…” So annoying. They were so loud I couldn’t even properly savor the post-beatdown dopamine rush. I picked up a sharp stone from the dirt and flicked it hard. “Ow! My teeth, my teeth…” A man clutched his bleeding mouth, screaming in pain. Someone saw me flick the stone and pointed a shaking finger at me, screeching, “It was her! Cletus’s new bitch threw that rock…” “Bubba, get in there and beat that bitch to the ground! You can’t let her disrespect our whole town!” Fueled by the rage of losing his teeth and the egging on of the crowd, Bubba let the adrenaline go straight to his head. He vaulted over the stone wall and charged at me. “I’ll kill you, you dirty whore!” I had actually held back on Cletus’s family. I figured I wanted to beat them up for fun every single day, so I couldn’t kill them all at once. But seeing the righteous indignation of these backwoods villagers, I knew my days here wouldn’t be boring. So I didn’t hold back on Bubba. I drove my fist straight into his face. Teeth and blood sprayed across the dirt. The crowd yelling “kill her, beat that bitch to death” instantly went dead silent. “Stop hitting me, stop hitting me…” Bubba slurred his pleas, dropping to his knees and slamming his forehead against the dirt repeatedly. So men really do feel pain. When they realize they can’t win, they really do beg for mercy. “Mayor Caldwell is here!” Someone bravely jumped down from the wall and scurried over to unlock the front gate. Mayor Caldwell was a scrawny, dark-skinned man in his sixties. He walked into the yard with his hands clasped behind his back, exuding authority and fury—though he kept a safe distance from me. “So you’re Cletus’s new wife? You’ve got some nerve, causing a scene in my town…” “Are you afraid to die?” I asked the Mayor, flashing him a bright, ecstatic smile. “Because I’m not.” Being challenged so brazenly, the Mayor’s wrinkled face twitched in rage. His absolute authority in this holler could not be challenged by a mere woman. He rattled off a string of names. “Take her down.” A dozen rugged men rolled up their sleeves and marched toward me. I literally squealed in excitement. “Come at me all at once!” This time, I didn’t pull my punches. Watching them drop to the dirt one by one, my adrenaline spiked higher and higher. Finally, the last one collapsed, sobbing and begging me to stop.

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After my system romance mission failed, I returned to my original world. I got married and had a child. Until seven years later, the System tracked me down— “The mental state of your original target is highly unstable. “And your first child is crying, demanding to see you. “Host, could you go back and take one last look?” 1 I hadn’t been in contact with the System for years. When it finally reappeared, my husband, David, and I were walking back from the amusement park with our son. Noah was tugging at my hand, whining for McDonald’s for dinner. I was just about to scold him and tell him he’d had enough burgers for the week, when— Suddenly. A familiar electronic hum echoed in my ear. Then came the System’s robotic voice. “Host, long time no see.” It looked at our happy family of three and seemed to choke up, unsure of how to begin. “It’s like this. “Do you remember that novel transmigration mission from years ago? “Ever since you left, the target’s mental state has been steadily deteriorating. He’s incredibly unstable now. “And the son you gave birth to back then… he’s crying and demanding to see you. “Could you… go back and check on the two of them?” 2 I froze. To say I had forgotten that part of my life would be a lie. Back then, I had been diagnosed with terminal cancer. I had less than three years to live. During the most agonizing phase of my treatment, I was bound to this romance System. I was pulled into an angst-filled, second-chance romance novel. My mission was to win the heart of the devoted second male lead. As long as he abandoned his entanglement with the male and female leads and agreed to marry me, my mission would be a success. I would be allowed to stay in that world in that body forever. If I returned to my original world, I didn’t have much time left anyway. So, I cherished the opportunity. When Arthur was ultimately rejected by the female lead, Chloe, I stayed by his side. I comforted him. I kept him company. Slowly. His cold demeanor toward me softened into something gentle and attentive. Later, after a messy, drunken night, I got pregnant. I thought that was it. I thought we were going to get married. But his tone suddenly turned ice-cold. “Samantha. “You come from nothing. I can’t marry you yet. “Have the child. Once he grows up a bit and the family officially accepts him, then we’ll get married.” 3 That was my first child. I named him Leo. I poured all my blood, sweat, and tears into raising him. The Sterling family was a billionaire dynasty. They controlled dozens of publicly traded companies and had their hands in countless industries. Arthur was the eldest son. Even though I was looked down upon, Leo, as the eldest grandson, was highly valued by the entire family. Almost every week, he was chauffeured back to the family manor so his grandparents could dote on him. By his first birthday, his first trust fund had already been established. When he was three or four, I was still used to calling an Uber to take him out, but Leo could already distinguish between the bespoke leather interiors of a Rolls-Royce and a Bentley. When he was five or six, I held him in my lap and tried to teach him basic addition and subtraction. He suddenly threw his pencil down. He looked up at me. “I’m going to inherit the company anyway. What’s the point of learning this?” … I never expected words like that to come out of a little child’s mouth. That day, I gave him a long, stern lecture. Leo threw a massive tantrum and cried. Unable to watch, Arthur intervened and took him back to the main estate. The father and son didn’t return to our apartment for a long time. The next time I saw them, months had passed. I had packed a homemade lunch and went to the estate to pick Leo up, planning to apologize and tell him Mommy had been too harsh. Instead, I watched him step out of a sleek black luxury SUV. His left hand was holding Arthur’s, and his right hand was holding the hand of a woman in designer heels. In his sweet, childish voice, I heard him say: “Chloe, you should marry my dad! “My mom and dad aren’t married anyway, so you can marry him!” 4 I stood frozen in place, clutching the lunchbox. Chloe was the female lead of this world. After going around in circles, she had come back. She tilted her head, sneaking a glance at Arthur, and smiled. “Why? Don’t you want your mommy and daddy to be together?” Leo hesitated. “But… Grandpa and Grandma don’t like my mom. “And Dad doesn’t like her either.” Arthur remained completely silent. His expression was blank. He didn’t say a single word. —I really should have seen it coming. I had just been harboring a pathetic, naive fantasy that things would somehow get better. But they didn’t. The devoted second male lead would always be drawn back to the female lead. Even the child I gave birth to was no exception. It made me look like an absolute joke. I didn’t speak to anyone. I just turned around and walked away. That night, I rebooted the System. “I forfeit this mission. “I want to go home.” 5 The System was utterly shocked by my decision to quit. “Host, why? “Even if the target won’t marry you, you can just wait it out. “As long as he doesn’t marry anyone else, you can stay here indefinitely.” I thought of the way Leo had looked up at Chloe. I let out a self-deprecating laugh. Honestly, with the female lead back in the picture, given Arthur’s personality, he would undoubtedly choose to be with her eventually. I might as well return to reality. Who knows, if I catch my cancer early enough, I might be able to squeeze out a few more years. Seeing my resolve, the System’s usually flat, mechanical voice let out a heavy sigh. “Understood. “Give me a moment, Host. I’ll submit an appeal to my superiors and see if I can help you out.” When it returned, a full night had passed. This time, the System’s volume was noticeably louder. “Host, my appeal was approved! “You can go home. You’ll return to the exact moment you first transmigrated here. “I pooled all the mission points you earned here, plus some of my own personal savings from past jobs… and bought you a perfectly healthy body. So when you go back, your cancer will be completely cured. “Don’t worry.” I was stunned. I asked instinctively, “You used your own points? Won’t you get in trouble?” The System hummed dismissively. “It’s fine. “We’re supposed to build good relationships with our Hosts anyway. “If I ever need a favor in the future, I might have to bother you.” 6 True to its word, after I returned to the real world, the System cured my cancer. I lived life like a normal person. I met a man I loved, and who loved me. And I had my second child. The System never appeared again— Until today. Its tone was incredibly defeated. “The main issue is that the kid, Leo, is showing severe signs of walking down a dark path. He’s thirteen now. “But his mindset is bizarrely mature and detached. He’s completely isolated and has no friends. “We’re terrified he’s going to grow up into a major villain. “So we want to beg you, Host… Could you please go back and just keep him company for one month?” I thought back to the day I abandoned the mission. If the System hadn’t used its own points to petition its superiors for me, I might not even be alive right now. So, even though I deeply, truly did not want to return to that world. I decided to say yes. “But,” I said. “I have to discuss this with my husband first. “After all, I’m married now.” The System immediately agreed. “Yes, of course. “I’ll wait for you.” My husband, David, knew all about this chapter of my life. He was an architect. He was also my boss. Before we officially started dating, I had confessed the entire story of my transmigration to him. So when he heard the word “System,” he didn’t look surprised. He just stopped chopping vegetables. He looked at me, his breathing hitching slightly. “Sam, you’re going back? “Will you… not come back?”

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After a massive fight with my billionaire parents, they cut off my allowance. Out of spite, I hooked up with the CEO of my dad’s biggest rival company. He was famously known as Manhattan’s untouchable golden boy. He spoiled me and was incredibly generous, but the one thing he refused to give me was a real title. When his friends asked, he casually shook his head— “Marriage requires equal social standing. “Harper comes from nothing; I’d never marry her. “But as a canary to keep in a gilded cage, she does nicely.” I sneered coldly in my heart. My dad had already lost his patience with my stubborn streak. Not only had he caved and decided to hand the family empire over to me, but he was also preparing to set me up with a billionaire heir of his own choosing. 1 By our third year together, I had actually started to fall for Carter Vance. On our anniversary, I specifically took the day off from my university classes. Using my scholarship money, I bought him a limited-edition watch as a gift and secretly sneaked into the VIP lounge of his favorite club, wanting to give him a huge surprise. But the moment my hand touched the door handle… I heard the sound of him and his friends laughing inside. Someone brought me up. “Carter. “You haven’t actually caught feelings for that broke college student, have you? “You even rented out a downtown gallery space for her. That real estate is not cheap!” … My heart slowly leaped into my throat. The gallery? For an art student without financial backing or industry connections, even with a strong portfolio, hosting a solo exhibition was practically impossible. I had mentioned it to him in passing once… I didn’t expect him to actually remember. I gripped the gift bag tightly in my hand. Just as I was about to burst into the room and give him a massive hug— The next second. I heard Carter’s icy, cynical voice. “Oh, please. Feelings? “It’s just a few hundred grand. Just a way to amuse a naive girl who’s never seen the real world.” The room erupted into laughter. One of his friends even started clapping. “…Throwing money around is definitely the easiest way to handle these pretty, powerless girls. “And here I thought you were actually planning to marry her.” I heard the clink of Carter picking up his whiskey glass. His tone grew completely indifferent. “Marry her? “Marriage requires equal social standing. “Harper’s background is trash. But as a canary to keep in a gilded cage, I don’t mind funding her lifestyle.” 2 I looked down at the gift box in my hands. The watch was around five thousand dollars. It was nothing compared to the priceless timepieces in Carter’s collection. But it was bought with every cent of the academic scholarship I had earned. Now, it just felt laughable. The gentleness and pampering I thought were real… Were nothing but a disguise hiding his deep prejudice and arrogance. The truth was, from the very beginning, he had always looked down on me because of my “status.” The warmth that had just blossomed in my heart slowly turned to ice, frozen over by disappointment and anger. I smiled bitterly and placed the watch inside a storage locker in the hallway outside the lounge. Carter. Consider your wish granted— We are done. After leaving the club, I caught a cab back to my dorm. I usually spent most of my time living at Carter’s penthouse. Now, it was time to pack up and move my things back to campus. Just as I reached the entrance of my dorm building. My phone rang. It was an unknown number. When I answered— It was my dad. “Sweetheart. “It’s been two years. Are you still mad at your old man? “If you want to study art, then study art! Dad will buy you a gallery, I’ll hire world-class masters to tutor you… “You’re a pampered heiress, you’ve never had to lift a finger. You must be suffering so much out there on your own.” Hearing my father’s voice so suddenly, the tears instantly fell. The regret peaked in my chest. Why was I so stubborn back then? Just because I wanted to major in Fine Arts instead of Business, I had a catastrophic fight with my parents. Out of spite, I ran away from home and blocked all their numbers. My parents probably assumed my spoiled temper wouldn’t last long in the real world. They figured I’d come crawling back eventually. But neither of us expected it to take this long for them to track me down again. I wiped the tears from the corners of my eyes and steadied my breathing. I gave a soft, small hum. “I was too rebellious. “Dad, I’m done throwing tantrums. “Can you guys come pick me up and take me home?” 3 The drive from their estate to my university wasn’t short. But my dad hung up the phone and practically flew here. It only took him thirty minutes. My mom and our head housekeeper, Martha, came along too. When my roommates saw the gleaming Rolls-Royce parked outside the dorm, followed by my parents dripping in quiet luxury, their jaws hit the floor. “Harper, your family is this rich…? Were you just slumming it for the life experience?!” My mom took one look at my cramped, shabby dorm room. Her reaction wasn’t far off from my roommate’s. “Harper, what kind of life have you been living?! “Why do you barely have any skincare products… could you not even afford the basics?” The truth was, the vast majority of my things were still at Carter’s penthouse. I opened my mouth. But I decided to swallow the truth. Carter’s father and my dad used to be bitter rivals. They actually grew up together as best friends, but a brutal battle over a massive corporate merger years ago caused a permanent rift between them. I’ll admit it. The first time I met Carter, aside from the fact that I was genuinely struggling financially… I also approached him out of spite against my parents. I played the role of an innocent, naive little flower. I lured him into letting me stay by his side. But I foolishly thought that after two years… We had actually developed real feelings. I had even planned to confess my true identity to him tonight. Instead, he hit me with a brutal reality check. His actions proved that my fantasies about him… Were nothing but a pathetic illusion. 4 While I was lost in thought, my dad was busy stuffing my meager belongings into the trunk of the car. He turned around and awkwardly patted my head. He looked like he wanted to say something, but was hesitating. “Harper, you really want to pursue art, right? We won’t interfere anymore…” “It’s fine.” I looked up. I cut my father off: “I’ll join the company.” Honestly, the moment I picked up his phone call, I had already made up my mind. My parents only had one child. The Sterling Empire needed a successor. Our business spanned the entire globe; we were apex predators in the industry. Could they really hand an empire like that over to an outsider? My father had only forced me to study business because he had to consider the legacy. I was just too immature back then. I thought my hobbies and dreams were more important than anything. Thinking about it now… I love painting. But I can easily pursue it in my free time. It doesn’t conflict with taking over the family business. I smiled and hugged my dad’s arm. “Dad, I fully realize how naive my old mindset was. “But I know absolutely nothing about the corporate world right now… “I’ll probably have to start from the very bottom.” I might not know business, but I wasn’t stupid. If I truly wanted to take the reins of a global enterprise, I needed a massive amount of theoretical and practical experience. Having a seasoned mentor was an absolute necessity. My dad glanced at me, stunned for a second. Then, a huge smile broke across his face. “I’m too swamped with the new quarter to mentor you personally. “But don’t worry. “I’ll find you a tutor to teach you the ropes.” He paused, as if a brilliant idea just struck him. He added confidently, “Don’t worry, you two will definitely hit it off.”

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Right before the holidays, the boss announced that the company needed “fresh blood.” With a wave of her hand, the HR manager fired me—the very person who had built the company’s tech from the ground up alongside him since I was just an intern. But what she didn’t know was that the code I wrote back then was an absolute mountain of spaghetti code. Aside from me, no one on earth could decipher what the scattered comments actually meant. Later, she brought in ten senior experts. Staring at a hundred layers of nested if…else statements, they fell into a collective, stunned silence. During Christmas Eve dinner, my phone blew up with calls from my boss, who had just returned from his business trip. 1 “Eat up, Stella! Here, your favorite pot roast and mashed potatoes!” It was the week before Christmas, and our extended family was gathered for dinner. Aunt Susan was enthusiastically piling food onto my plate. Under the table, my phone was buzzing so hard it was burning up. My cousin Rachel gave my flushed face a weird look. “Stella, are you okay?” “Do you guys hear a buzzing sound?” “No… nothing.” My heart was racing with excitement. The moment of reckoning had finally arrived. I sneaked a glance at my phone. The contact saved as Ex-Boss had relentlessly called me 125 times. Even through the screen, I could picture his absolute, devastating meltdown on the other end of the line. “Stella, I heard your company is going public soon,” my uncle chimed in. “You really had a great eye back then. Picking a tiny startup out of nowhere, and in just five or six years, it’s actually booming.” My parents’ faces darkened. “Oh, stop praising her. They laid her off.” “What? Wasn’t she doing great? Wasn’t she Employee of the Year?” Aunt Susan looked deeply confused. My dad angrily slammed his fork onto the table. “They claimed Stella’s tech skills were too outdated! Getting fired is one thing, but they didn’t even pay her a dime of severance! “What kind of scumbag boss does that? I told her to report them to the Labor Board! “But Stella insisted on stopping me, saying that if she sued her boss, she’d be blacklisted in the tech industry.” Aunt Susan sighed heavily. “What can you do? Stella has always been too kind-hearted.” The relatives murmured in sympathy, complaining about how brutal the job market was these days. Clutching my phone, I kept a deeply troubled expression on my face, while internally, I was light as a feather. “I need to step outside to take a call. “It’s the boss from my old company calling personally. It’d be bad if I didn’t answer. You guys go ahead and eat.” As I closed the dining room door, I heard Aunt Susan praising me: “See? That’s the value of technical talent! She’s been gone this long, and the boss is still begging for her.” 2 Half a month ago, I had a unilateral falling out with the boss. He had proposed bringing in “fresh blood,” and I was actually looking forward to welcoming new colleagues. HR recruited a few young guys. I heard they were all graduates from Ivy League schools. I walked them through the project workflows, and eventually, they started getting the hang of it. It should have been a happy occasion, but when the holiday bonuses were distributed, there wasn’t one for me. I went to HR. Chloe Davis looked at me with a conflicted expression, waving her freshly manicured nails in front of me. “Stella, there are some things Mr. Carter feels awkward telling you himself, and I hate seeing him put in a tough spot. “You’re turning thirty after the holidays. For us women, youth fades fast. You don’t have a boyfriend right now, and I’m sure your family will start pressuring you to get married and have kids soon. “Besides, how many female coders actually make it? When it comes to logical thinking, women are inherently a step behind men. “If you stay in this industry, you won’t have a future anyway. “You’ve been with Mr. Carter for a long time. You were involved in the very first projects; you’re essentially a company veteran. But why do you think everyone else got promoted, while you’re still at the bottom? “Liam is just afraid the company is holding you back. “You get it, right?” 3 This rapid-fire string of absolute garbage left me completely stunned. I had joined Liam Carter’s company right after graduation. I never expected that five or six years later, I’d be hit with such a pathetic excuse. “So what you’re saying is, because I’m a woman, you’re firing me on behalf of the boss?” Chloe smiled politely. “All you do at work anyway is slack off and read web novels. Our startup can’t afford to keep a mascot on the payroll. I’ve already submitted the termination paperwork, and your manager approved it.” “Stella, let’s save each other some dignity so we can part on good terms. You should pack up your desk today.” “Does Liam Carter know about this?” I asked suspiciously. “There’s no need to bother the CEO with trivial matters like this. At the end of the day, you’re just a base-level employee.” I gritted my teeth. Motherf*ers. Burning the bridge after crossing the river. “What about severance?” “Stella, for severance, we will calculate your salary for this month and deposit it in full. “You wouldn’t want anything negative showing up on your employment verification letter, would you?” I narrowed my eyes. Perfect. Now she was threatening me. “The smartest thing Mr. Carter ever did was hire me. And I don’t recall him ever instructing anyone to steal an employee’s severance package.” Chloe looked at me with pure disdain. “You don’t need to worry about that, Stella. Just pack your things. “Discuss the details with your manager.” 4 My department manager, Greg Jenkins, was a greasy, overweight guy in his late forties who constantly used “work” as an excuse to text me inappropriate things. Once, at three in the morning, he demanded I analyze a piece of code from six months ago. He claimed he was “evaluating my progress.” In his exact words: “It’s the end of the year, we’re all just sitting around anyway.” He used this excuse repeatedly to chat with me late at night. Meanwhile, I was juggling three massive projects and absolutely did not want to entertain him. Finally, my patience snapped, and I chewed him out during a team meeting. “I hope certain managers stop using work assignments to maliciously harass female employees. “I am a software engineer, not your late-night chat line. If you want to do an evaluation, submit a formal process plan. “I am officially refusing all sudden, unprompted late-night tasks.” Someone snickered in the meeting room. I stared dead at Manager Jenkins; even a blind man knew I was talking about him. Later, word of what I said reached his wife’s ears, and the two of them got into a massive physical fight in the middle of the night. She scratched two huge, bloody gashes across his face, which he stubbornly claimed was the family cat. That incident made him hold a permanent, vicious grudge against me. While the boss was away on a business trip, Greg colluded with HR to use the “company restructuring” as an excuse to fire me. Only an idiot would beg him for mercy. I simply packed my desk and walked out. 5 I finally answered the phone. An enraged male voice blasted through the speaker: “Stella Vance! You resigned?!” “Yeah, Liam. Your HR manager fired me. “Didn’t Manager Jenkins report that to you?” “Who the f*** fired you?! Get back in the office tomorrow!” Liam’s tone sounded like he was ready to murder someone. I shook my head, feigning distress. “I can’t. My termination paperwork is already processed. If I go back, my seniority starts from zero. “Besides, your company doesn’t offer standard severance. It wasn’t a legal layoff, and your HR discriminates against older, unmarried women. “I am definitely not going back.” He must have been in a conference room. Through the tense, suppressed silence over the phone, I could hear Manager Jenkins’ muffled, stammering voice: “Mr. Carter, aside from Stella, we have plenty of excellent programmers in the department. “For example, the new hires from the Ivy League are doing fantastic. Stella has been with you a long time, but her educational background is severely lacking. She only went to a community college. “Plus, she’s a woman. There are too many unstable factors. “Her work attitude has always been an issue too. She’s either chatting with people or browsing non-work websites.” The line went dead silent for a full minute. Even through the phone, I could picture Liam’s face turning black as pitch. I laughed out of sheer anger. A woman? What’s wrong with women? Is his mother not a woman? When I was pulling all-nighters and working straight through the weekends to launch a new version, he didn’t utter a single word of complaint! But the second promotion evaluations came around, suddenly my gender was an issue. And the “chatting” he mentioned? I was managing relations with our very first client, who also happened to be the company’s angel investor. When the startup first launched, there were no managers or HR. I ran around with the boss securing every single client, laying the groundwork for what eventually became the Operations Department. Except for one major client’s wife, who just loved chatting with me specifically, all other relations were handed off to Operations. 6 Liam let out a cold scoff and asked, “What is Stella’s monthly salary right now?” HR quickly replied, “Eight thousand.” Liam’s voice was deathly quiet, but I could feel the hurricane brewing through the screen. “I am giving you a budget of twenty-five thousand a month. Go find someone to maintain Stella’s core project and get the new version launched by the end of the month. “If you can’t do it, you two had better personally go to her house and beg her to come back. Otherwise, you two are the first to get the hell out.” Liam’s salary offer was 30% above the industry standard. Getting fired at this age from a gig like that was definitely a brutal hit for them. The call abruptly ended. A moment later, I refreshed my Facebook and saw a new post from Manager Jenkins: [There are always some ants who think they are irreplaceable. They think just because they’re a woman, everyone has to cater to them. Just wait and see.] The very next second, my phone buzzed with a new text message: [Wifey, please don’t be mad. Relax at home for a few days, and Hubby will take out the trash for you. (Kissing emoji)] I replied with an eye-roll emoji and instantly blocked him. When subordinates commit such a massive workplace taboo, the boss deserves to suffer by association! What Manager Jenkins didn’t know was that the reason I hadn’t been promoted all these years wasn’t because I was a woman, nor was it because I wasn’t important. It was because I genuinely enjoyed a low-stress lifestyle where I could just code a bit and relax. I just never expected that these people harbored such deep-rooted sexism against female engineers. This time, he had kicked a steel plate. Because the core project Liam demanded he maintain was built on the very first code I wrote right out of college. You couldn’t even call it code. It was a literal mountain of spaghetti. Except for me, absolutely no one could read it. It was a textbook case of high coupling and low cohesion, with abysmal maintainability, and absolutely zero comments. As my skills improved over the years, even I would cringe hard enough to crush a fly between my eyebrows whenever I looked at it. I couldn’t wait to see the look on those Ivy League geniuses’ faces when they opened the file and saw a hundred overlapping conditional statements. The best part? If you deleted even a single, seemingly useless line of my code, the entire system would crash globally. I was the only person alive who knew where to even begin fixing that project. If he wanted to refactor it, just analyzing a single module and untangling the workflow would take over a month. It was physically impossible for him to finish it, unless he forced the entire software department to work 24/7 without a single minute of sleep. And was that likely? They were there to work a job, not to torture themselves to death. The irony was, I had already finished the refactored version. It was just waiting to be deployed after the holidays. Well, too bad. That project was going to detonate right in Manager Jenkins’ hands. After all, the golden rule of programmers has always been: If the code works, don’t touch it.

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When my arch-nemesis mocked me for being single since birth, I got so mad I pinched red marks on my own neck. “See this? My boyfriend gave me these.” He let out a cold scoff. “You? What man would ever want you?” Later, as I stood crying outside the OB-GYN clinic, my nemesis suddenly appeared, his face as dark as a storm cloud: “Who is the bastard? I’m going to beat him to death. “Stop crying. You and the baby—I’m taking you both.” 1 When I opened my eyes in the morning, I realized I was lying in bed with a man. Completely naked. But that wasn’t the scariest part. The scariest part was that the man was none other than my arch-nemesis, Grayson. Everyone in Manhattan’s high society knew that the bad blood between us was deeper than the ocean and wider than the sky. Last night, we were drinking at a club and lost a dice game, which meant we were forced to kiss as a penalty. After the kiss, Grayson leaned lazily back against the leather sofa, a wicked smirk on his face: “A little inexperienced there, Miss Maya. Was that your first kiss?” Furious, I secretly pinched a few red marks onto my neck and deliberately showed them off to him: “See this? My boyfriend gave me these~ “My man is… absolutely incredible in bed! He kisses ten thousand times better than you do.” Grayson’s expression instantly darkened. He stared coldly at the “hickey” on my neck, his eyes unreadable. Then he scoffed, “Maya, please. You? What man would ever want you?” I didn’t know if he was just pissed that he lost the game to me, but for someone who rarely drank, he got completely blackout drunk that night. I offered to drive him home, intending to snap some embarrassing photos of him wasted to use as blackmail. Instead, my plan completely backfired, and I ended up getting thoroughly railed by him all night long. Dammit! I bit my lip in frustration, trying to wriggle out of Grayson’s deep sleep embrace. The second I moved, he subconsciously tightened his arms around me, burying his handsome face into the crook of my neck and nuzzling me: “Mia… be a good girl… let me stay inside a little longer…” Mia? Oh, real classy. We’re literally still connected, and he’s mumbling the name of his high school crush! What a scumbag! It took every ounce of strength I had to escape that bed. The moment my feet hit the floor, my legs were so weak I almost dropped to my knees. The bedroom was an absolute disaster zone. There were suspicious wet spots on the sofa and even out on the balcony. Flashes of last night flickered through my mind. Grayson grabbing my ankles, gripping my waist, lifting me up… he even ripped my expensive tights to shreds. I wanted to slap myself. Why didn’t I fight back?! But when my eyes drifted back to the bed, my hand stopped in mid-air. That physique. Those muscles. That size. Honestly, who could have resisted? I’d just treat it as a free night with a premium escort. A very well-endowed one. 2 There’s an unwritten rule among us wealthy heiresses: keep your hookups a secret. Show some skin if you want, but never show the face. If word got out that I slept with Grayson, I’d never be able to show my face in New York again. Enduring the soreness, I swiftly destroyed all the evidence, scrubbing every corner of the room until there wasn’t a single trace I had been there. At one point, Grayson almost woke up, so I had to sell my soul and give him a few kisses and touches to coax him back to sleep. After sneaking out of his penthouse, I sat down at a nearby bodega, just about to breathe a sigh of relief. My phone suddenly rang. It was Grayson. He had clearly just woken up, his deep, magnetic voice slightly raspy: “Maya, where are you?” The moment he spoke, my brain involuntarily flashed back to him biting my ear last night, telling me to relax. My face burned fiercely. I stammered, “Wh-what do you want?” “Did you bring me home last night?” “Um, yeah. I… I was just on the way, and I wanted to see you make a fool of yourself while drunk.” Grayson didn’t snap back at me like he usually did. Instead, he asked in a low voice, “Did you sleep at my place last night?” I smoothly lied, “…Yeah, I had a headache from the drinks, so I crashed in your guest room. I left first thing this morning.” “You didn’t sleep in my bed?” “…No.” I gripped my phone guiltily. “In your dreams! Who would want to sleep in your bed?!” “…” Grayson fell silent. Just then, a frat boy walked into the bodega and bumped into my shoulder, making me let out a surprised yelp. Grayson’s voice suddenly turned freezing cold: “Are you with a guy?” I immediately played along: “Oh, yeah, with my boyfriend! We’re about to go have some fun. Now spit it out, what did you call me for?” Grayson’s voice was completely devoid of emotion: “Nothing. Must have been a dream. I’m hanging up.” What kind of dream? A… wet dream?! Good. Great. It was for the best if he thought that. I knew he wouldn’t figure it out. After all, I had ten years of experience cleaning up the crime scenes of my dad’s affairs. Just to be safe, after hanging up, I went on Instagram and posted a heavily cropped photo of me posing intimately with some faceless, muscular male model. I captioned it with three red lip emojis. Turns out, my little performance worked perfectly. For the next month, everything was peaceful. Grayson didn’t suspect a thing, and he didn’t reach out to me even once. I completely let my guard down. I threw a massive party, ready to let loose and have a good time. But before I could even swallow my first sip of champagne, I hurled it right back up. 3 The moment I got the lab results, my brain completely short-circuited. I was pregnant. Was Grayson a damn sniper in his past life? How did he hit a bullseye on the first shot?! Thinking about the doctor asking me if I wanted to keep the baby, my head pounded. I just wanted to crawl into bed, pull the covers over my head, and escape reality. But the universe had other plans. I was still sitting on a chair in the OB-GYN waiting room when my mother called. “Maya! Mrs. Henderson just called me. She said she saw you at the women’s clinic. Are you pregnant?!” A sudden wave of grievance hit me. I desperately wanted someone to confide in, my voice choking up: “Mom, listen to me… I think I actually want to keep it—” But before I could even finish, my mother sharply cut me off: “Get rid of it immediately! “I’ve already found a suitable match for you to marry. You’re going to come home, get the marriage certificate, and help us secure that Upper East Side real estate deal. We need to stabilize your father’s attitude towards us…” I froze. It felt like a bucket of ice water had been poured over my head. My heart, and my entire body, went instantly numb. “Mom… you didn’t even ask how I’m doing, or who the father is, and you just want me to abort it?” “It doesn’t matter whose it is! Your illegitimate half-brother is climbing the ranks at the company! That mistress’s brat is trying to steal our inheritance!” “Mom, is that all you care about? Am I just a tool for you to fight for dad’s favor?” “Don’t act crazy with me! If you were a boy, do you think I’d have to fight so hard? It’s my own fault my womb was useless and gave me a daughter, but I’ve never mistreated you! I’m just asking you to marry someone, how can you speak to your mother this way?!” “Just asking me to marry someone? Mom, do you ever consider my feelings?!” My hand shook violently as I gripped the phone. “Just like how every time you need money, you force me to go catch dad cheating, pretend I’m on his side, clean up his messes, and use it to extort hush money out of him! “Mom, you might be willing to endure this twisted, toxic marriage, but I am not!” My mother was silent for a second, then said coldly: “I don’t care what nonsense you’re spewing. Maya, I am giving you one week to abort that child and come home to get married. Otherwise, don’t ever call me your mother again, and don’t expect a single cent from this family!” The line went dead with a cold beep. I couldn’t hold back the burning in my eyes anymore. Like a complete loser, I buried my face in my hands and sobbed. I didn’t even care that my phone had dropped to the floor. Through my broken sobs, a pair of polished, designer dress shoes appeared between the gaps of my tear-soaked fingers. “So this is what the great Maya looks like when she cries. Pretty ugly.” A deep, magnetic voice laced with amusement rang out above me. I snapped my head up, locking eyes with Grayson’s narrowed, calculating gaze. Wh-what was he doing here?! Realizing my makeup was probably ruined, I aggressively wiped my tears away and turned my face to the side. “Mind your own business!” Grayson kept one hand casually in his tailored slacks, not moving an inch, a smirk playing on his lips: “Where’s that muscle-head boyfriend you flexed on Instagram? Didn’t accompany you to your appointment? Did you get dumped? “Crying all alone outside an OB-GYN clinic… people might get the wrong idea.” I shot up from the chair. “Don’t talk nonsense! I am not pregnant! I’m not here because I’m pregnant!” The very next second, a nurse walked out into the hall and called out: “Miss Maya? Are you still booking the abortion procedure? If you don’t book now, we won’t have any openings left today.” Me: “…” Grayson clearly hadn’t expected it to be real. His eyes snapped toward me, his gaze instantly turning razor-sharp. “Maya, how far along are you?” As he spoke, he caught sight of the lab report I had left on the chair. He immediately bent down to grab it… 4 My heart almost stopped! I lunged forward, snatching the report right before his fingers could graze it, and hid it behind my back. That was way too close! If Grayson found out the baby was his, he would absolutely drag me into the operating room himself. “Grayson, what the hell are you doing?! A woman’s uterus is… private! You can’t just read my files! “You want to know? Fine! I am pregnant… 9 weeks along! So what? Are you here to mock me for getting knocked up out of wedlock?” I stuck my neck out and glared at him. Loud, proud, and completely full of shit. The elite acting skills I had honed from years of deceiving my father were really paying off. Grayson stared at me for a good ten seconds, apparently not finding any flaws in my performance. When he heard “9 weeks,” his expression grew visibly colder. Obviously, the timeline didn’t line up with the night I took him home. He asked abruptly, “The kid belongs to that muscle guy?” I mumbled guiltily, “…Yeah.” “He doesn’t know?” “…Wh-why would he need to know?” I forced a completely indifferent look onto my face. “Call him,” Grayson demanded, his face devoid of emotion. “Tell him to get down here. Now.” “…” How was I supposed to summon a man who didn’t exist?! I braced myself and lied: “He blocked me.” “Blocked you?” Grayson repeated the words slowly, his voice carrying the heavy, oppressive weight of a coming storm. “Maya, you’re usually so arrogant, always barking so loud. But now you let some trash guy use you and dump you, and you just sit here crying like a coward?” He was sneering, interrogating me, acting like he was furiously angry. Wait a minute, what right did he have to be angry?! Even if we were childhood rivals, mocking me in a moment like this was just cruel. I bit my lip in frustration and fired back: “Who said I got dumped?! I dumped him!” Grayson sneered, “Oh? Then why are you crying?” “I… I’m crying tears of joy, okay?!” Grayson fell silent. I thought he had finished enjoying the show and would finally leave. But after a moment of silence, he spoke again: “What are you going to do about the baby?” I blurted out without thinking: “I’m keeping it.” Honestly, when I was arguing with my mother on the phone earlier, breaking down and crying, a part of me wasn’t surprised at all. I had a strong premonition it would happen. If I didn’t abort the baby and go home to be her pawn, my mother would truly discard me, because I would be completely useless to her. People who have never been loved are always terrifyingly rational. This baby… might be the only real family I’ll ever have. “Keeping it?” Grayson let out a harsh scoff, his tone dripping with venom: “Maya, you are so obsessed with that naked muscle freak that you’d ruin your life to keep his bastard child? “Since when were you such a pathetic, love-struck simp?” See? He just wanted to watch me make a joke of myself. What a bastard! I didn’t want him to see me vulnerable and defeated anymore. I looked away, stood up, and walked right past him.

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On the very first day of my holiday visit home. My mom practically shoved a gorgeous younger guy into my arms. She left me with one incredibly loaded sentence: “You know what to do.” I took the hint perfectly, and I dragged him straight to my bedroom. Afterward, my mom casually asked where the kid who came for GRE tutoring went. Looking at the exhausted man lying in my bed… I trembled. 1 My company gave us an extra-long winter break, so I happily dragged my suitcase back to my hometown for the holidays. The second I stepped through the front door, my mom shoved a young, handsome guy right into my arms and left me with a deeply meaningful: “You know what to do.” Then she grabbed her purse and sprinted out the door, yelling something about her weekly poker game missing a fourth player. The guy was easily 6’1″, with sharp eyebrows, bright eyes, and the kind of clean-cut, effortless good looks that belonged on a magazine cover. A faint smile hung on his lips as he sweetly and obediently said, “Hey, Chloe.” His eyes were so clear and innocent. He looked ridiculously easy to take advantage of. I instantly understood the assignment. I flashed an “OK” sign at my mom’s retreating back, pulled the gorgeous guy inside, and slammed the front door shut. He stared at me as I locked the deadbolt, blinking in surprise before letting out a low, incredibly attractive, “Hmm?” His voice was so deep and resonant, listening to it for too long could probably get a girl pregnant. I turned and shushed him, grabbing his warm hand and leading him straight up the stairs. His fingers were long, smooth, and perfectly manicured. I had no idea how a guy managed to have hands that soft. Though he looked a bit confused, he furrowed his brows and obediently let me pull him along. It wasn’t until I shoved him onto my mattress that he finally started squirming in panic like a terrified caterpillar. “Chloe, what are you doing?” I straddled his waist, pinning his wrists on either side of his head. Once I had him trapped beneath me, I softened my voice and purred, “What do you think? “This was bound to happen eventually. We’re just speeding up the timeline a little.” But damn, the guy was strong. The moment the words left my mouth, he flipped his hands and gripped my shoulders. “Chloe, you need to think this through!” He turned his head away, his gaze landing on my bare wrists. His cheeks were flushed red, but his voice was full of righteous panic. His grip was iron-tight, and he bent his long legs, trying to buck me off. I reached out and gently patted his handsome cheek. “Be a good boy. Save that energy for later.” He tried to protest again, but I covered his mouth. “Shh. Don’t speak.” He had been struggling and twisting, but the second my lips brushed against his Adam’s apple, it was like I hit his pause button. His entire body went rigid. And then, it felt like I accidentally flipped his beast-mode switch. In a dizzying spin, the innocent guy transformed into a wolf, flipping our positions and practically devouring me alive. 2 My mom is the classic traditional parent: absolutely forbade dating in high school, but the second I hit college, she started relentlessly hounding me to get married. During undergrad, she told me to go after my classmates. During my master’s, she told me not to let the frat boys or teaching assistants slip away. After graduation, she told me to lock down a coworker or a boss. Every holiday, weekend, and vacation, she was setting me up on blind dates with local “eligible bachelors.” Despite her frantic efforts, there was zero spark with any of them. Either they were complete toads, or I was the ugly duckling. The only few who actually met my standards? I was always too cowardly to make a move. She constantly complained about my lack of guts. She loved bragging about how my dad was the crush of their entire town back in the day. She wasn’t the prettiest, and her family wasn’t the richest, but she was bold. She basically hit him over the head and dragged him home. She always said if she hadn’t taken the initiative, I wouldn’t even exist. She told me to learn from her. If I saw someone I liked, I needed to strike first. So, when she gave me that knowing wink while handing over this gorgeous younger guy, I completely understood. I boldly dragged him upstairs. I figured I’d lock him down first and deal with the consequences later. When he pinned me to the mattress, I realized I might have been a little too bold. An entire afternoon passed. I lay in bed, gasping for air, lacking the energy to move a single finger. The guy kept looking at me, hesitating as if he wanted to say something, but I was too exhausted to speak. I closed my eyes, drifting into sleep. Suddenly, a demonic voice pierced my eardrums: “Chloe Davis! Where is Liam?! “Wasn’t he coming over for you to tutor him for the GRE? Did he leave already? “Why didn’t you invite him to stay for dinner?!” … I shot up in bed like a startled fish. Liam? The chubby kid from next door who was three years younger than me? The kid I helped with spelling in elementary school, algebra in middle school, and SAT prep in high school? The same kid my mom mentioned a few days ago who needed help prepping for his grad school entrance exams?! I remembered what he used to look like. Did losing weight really make him this hot?! I pointed a trembling finger at the guy in my bed. “Liam?” His eyes widened, and he nodded obediently. “You came for GRE tutoring?” He nodded obediently again. “Then why didn’t you say so?!” I hissed. I genuinely thought he was a blind date my mom had arranged! When I first saw his face downstairs, I had almost cried tears of joy. I used to suspect my parents were secret billionaires pretending to be poor to build my character. Then I suspected I was adopted and my real billionaire parents would find me. When I saw Liam today, I thought, Billionaires have nothing on this! Only my true, flesh-and-blood mother would save such a premium asset for her own daughter! But he was just a studious younger neighbor coming over for test prep! Liam looked incredibly wronged. The flush hadn’t faded from his face, and his gorgeous hazel eyes were swimming with emotion. “You never gave me a chance to speak.” I felt like I was having a heart attack, a stroke, and an asthma attack all at once. Hearing my mom’s footsteps climbing the stairs, I inhaled sharply and locked the bedroom door. When I turned around, Liam was already pulling his shirt on. His V-shaped torso was flawless, marked only by the long, red scratches down his back. He was terrifyingly calm. He shot me an innocent look. “Why did you lock the door? Let’s go out together. We should take responsibility for what we did.” I slapped him lightly on the back of the head. “Look who’s suddenly full of responsibility!” I grabbed his arm, shoved the window open, and pushed him toward it. “Out the window!” Liam froze, looking highly offended. “Chloe, what is this supposed to mean?” I was sweating bullets. I shoved him again. “What does it mean? It means today was your lucky day!” He grabbed the window frame and sighed. “Chloe, we’re on the second floor. Are you trying to murder me to silence the witness?” Click! Rattle! The doorknob jiggled aggressively. My heart leaped into my throat. My mom’s demonic voice echoed again: “Chloe! What are you doing?! Why is the door locked?! “I asked you where Liam went!” My brain spun at hyper-speed. Hundreds of excuses flashed through my mind until I grabbed one, swallowed hard, and steadied my voice: “He finished his session and went home!” I lowered my voice, adding a tired, whiny tone. “I was on a train all morning and I’m exhausted! I knew you’d come in and rip my blankets off, so I locked the door. “I just want to get some sleep!” My mom instantly felt guilty. “Oh, honey, I’m sorry. Get some rest. I’ll go downstairs and start dinner.” Downstairs?! That was Liam’s only escape route! I quickly shouted, “Mom! I’m actually starving! I feel like I’m dying. Could you ride your bike down to the diner and get me some of that famous BBQ brisket?!” In that moment, I truly admired my own genius. But my mom sweetly replied, “Your dad is on his way home. I’ll call him to pick it up.” I gasped in horror. “Mom, I’m so hungry my stomach hurts! If you take the e-bike, you’ll be back in ten minutes! I’ll eat it while we wait for Dad!” “Alright, alright! Brat. You’re always craving junk food.” Hearing her footsteps retreat down the stairs, I let out a massive sigh of relief. I scooped up the rest of Liam’s clothes, shoved them into his chest, and dragged him toward the door. He stood planted like a tree, his eyes dark and unreadable. He was clearly pissed. “Chloe. We’re just going to leave it at this?” My brain was complete mush. I just needed him out of my house. Without thinking, I blurted, “You already ate me, do you want to stay for brisket too?!” I pushed him down the stairs. He resisted, his expression stormy as he used my full name. “Chloe Davis, are we really just leaving it at this?” What else was I supposed to do? I couldn’t afford to pay him for his services! I stopped walking. “I genuinely thought you were a blind date. I was a little impulsive. I’m sorry…” His eyes instantly turned red, like he was about to cry. I was completely baffled. I quickly grabbed two toasted bagels from the kitchen counter and shoved them into his hands. “Don’t cry! You worked hard all afternoon, eat these on your way home. Be a good boy and hurry up…” Before I could even finish my sentence, Liam turned on his heel and stormed out. Watching his tall silhouette disappear down the winding suburban road, my heart finally settled back into my chest. A wave of exhaustion hit me so hard my knees buckled, and I nearly collapsed onto the floor. But I still had to clean the evidence off my bedsheets. Wanting to cry but having no tears left, I stripped the bed and started scrubbing the sheets in the sink. Having fun in bed is great, until the aftermath hits you like a freight train. As I reminisced about the steamy afternoon, I was also dying of embarrassment. “What are you doing?!” I jumped so hard I fell backward, landing square on my butt. The impact sent a shooting pain up my spine. I stammered, shivering, “My… my period started early. I accidentally got it on the sheets.” My mom rolled her eyes. “It’s perfectly normal. Look at you acting so guilty, people would think you committed a murder.” She set down the takeout bags of BBQ brisket, parked her keys on the counter, and started nagging. “Liam’s dad throws a lot of contracting work your dad’s way. “You need to do a good job tutoring Liam. Don’t make him walk over here tomorrow. Take the initiative and go to his house to tutor him.” Go to his house?! My brain was about to explode. “He got his undergrad from an Ivy League school! Why would he even struggle to get into grad school?!” “You’re just as dense as your father! With the economy these past few years, if it wasn’t for Liam’s dad throwing us projects, we would’ve starved! “It’s rare that they actually need a favor from us. It’s only right that we repay them properly.” My mom’s tone left absolutely zero room for argument. “Tomorrow, right after lunch, you’re going over there.” 3 My mom is a woman of her word. The second I finished lunch the next day, she shoved my old GRE prep books into my arms and pushed me out the door. Forget about tutoring, I didn’t even have the face to look Liam in the eye. I made up my mind to find a warm coffee shop, play on my phone all afternoon, and then sneak back home. Who knew I wouldn’t even make it two blocks before running into Liam’s mom, Mrs. Miller? The Millers made a fortune in construction and moved to the city years ago, only returning for the holidays. The wealthy city life clearly suited her; she looked even younger than she did years ago. Spotting me across the street, Mrs. Miller shouted, “Chloe! Your mom told me you were coming to tutor Liam! Hurry up, it’s freezing out here. Come warm up at our house!” She crossed the street, took the heavy books right out of my hands, and dragged me toward her massive house. “That boy of mine is ridiculous. He’s struggling with his studying, but he won’t even walk over to ask for your help. I’m going to scold him when we get inside! He needs to respect his teachers!” I wanted to die on the spot. What kind of terrible luck was this? Mrs. Miller pulled me through the front door and yelled up the stairs, “Liam! Chloe is here!” Liam was standing at the top of the staircase, one hand casually tucked into his sweatpants pocket, looking down at me from his elevated vantage point. His lips were pressed into a flat line, radiating a hint of a temper tantrum. “Come on up, Chloe.” The moment he spoke, we both froze. The memories of yesterday afternoon hit us like a tidal wave, and our eyes instantly darted away from each other. Oblivious to the tension, Mrs. Miller complained when we didn’t move. “You brat, why are you just standing there? Come down and bring Chloe up so she can sit by the heater.” Snapping out of it and terrified of looking arrogant, I forced myself to start climbing the stairs. Liam took two steps down, grabbed the books from his mother’s hands, and followed closely behind me as we went up. He led me into his home office and pulled out a chair, signaling for me to sit. Then he grabbed another chair and sat down right next to me. An English test prep workbook lay open on the desk, right next to a piece of scratch paper covered in messy, chaotic scribbles. Faint handwriting peeked out from beneath the scribbles. I leaned in closer to look. I barely made out the letter “C” before Liam snatched the paper away. Fine, don’t show me. I didn’t care anyway. “Did you come here specifically to tutor me?” Liam asked. Specifically? I was practically kidnapped off the street by his mother. Not wanting to give him the wrong idea, I shook my head honestly. When he didn’t say anything for a long time, I looked up. Liam’s face and ears were completely flushed. He was looking down shyly, twisting his fingers together. He peeked up at me through his eyelashes, then quickly averted his eyes again. My heart dropped. I think he misunderstood. His focus was on the fact that I didn’t come to tutor him. My focus was on the fact that I didn’t specifically come to see him. There was literally no safe way to answer that question. I stayed silent… A bizarre, suffocating awkwardness filled the room. “Hot cocoa!” Mrs. Miller suddenly pushed the door open, cheerfully setting down two mugs. After telling us to study hard, she thoughtfully closed the door behind her. The room plunged into silence once again. “Chloe…” His soft, kitten-like voice startled me. I quickly suppressed the butterflies in my stomach, violently flipped open the test prep book, and took a deep breath. “Alright, let’s start with the first reading comprehension passage.” Seeing the atmosphere turn strictly academic, I let out a secret sigh of relief. But as my eyes flicked over, they landed squarely on a red mark on Liam’s collarbone. The heater in the office was cranked up high. Feeling hot, he had unbuttoned the top two buttons of his dress shirt, exposing it perfectly to my line of sight. The mark was dark in the center and faded at the edges. I instantly recognized it as a hickey—one I had definitely left there. Liam silently sat up straight, his long fingers swiftly re-buttoning his collar. I died of embarrassment on the spot. I wanted to dig a hole and bury myself in it. From that exact moment, the standard alphabet letters on the page started twisting and dancing in front of my eyes. My senses went into overdrive. The faint, crisp scent of his fruity cologne drifted into my nose, seeping straight into my chest and making my heart itch. He silently picked up his mug and took a sip. Feeling suddenly parched, I mirrored him and took a sip of mine. Maybe the heater really was too high. We chugged all three cups of water/cocoa in rapid succession. After finishing his third cup, Liam shook his empty mug and murmured, “Chloe, why am I getting thirstier the more I drink?” Pfft! I almost spit my drink everywhere. I barely held it in, but a couple of drops escaped the corner of my mouth. Liam’s hand shot out with a tissue. Before I could take it, he bypassed my hand, leaned in, and gently wiped my lip himself. His eyes grew darker, a heavy heat rolling behind them. His long fingers suddenly gripped my shoulder. By the time I processed what was happening, the owner of those hands had his eyes half-closed and was leaning in closer and closer. Liam’s eyelashes fluttered, his red lips parting slightly. I didn’t even notice when the buttons on his shirt had come undone again, revealing a generous expanse of his chest. The situation was rapidly spiraling out of control. Right as we were about to cross the point of no return, the door swung open. “I sliced some fresh fruit for a break—” “BANG!” Terrified, I jerked backward and tumbled right over the back of my chair, crashing onto the floor. Liam pulled me up, hastily buttoning his collar with one hand while snapping at his mom in frustration. “Mom! Why didn’t you knock?! “We were focusing so hard on the material, you scared us half to death!” I had no idea if Mrs. Miller saw anything, but my face felt like it was on fire. I pulled out my phone, shoved it back in my pocket, rubbed my butt, rubbed my head, picked up the workbook, and put it back down. I was flailing like an idiot trying to find an excuse. Finally, my brain supplied one: “My dog needs to be fed! I have to go feed the dog!” Without waiting for a response, I sprinted out of there like I was running for my life. The entire walk home, I was paranoid that Mrs. Miller had seen everything. I mentally noted that parents shouldn’t be so trusting. You can’t just invite any “tutor” into your house. It was below freezing outside, but I was sweating buckets by the time I got home. Who knew Mrs. Miller was cut from the exact same cloth as my mom? A woman of action. The very next day, Liam arrived right on schedule at my front door. 4 Mrs. Miller came with him, carrying bags of expensive gifts, her attitude incredibly warm, enthusiastic, and polite. She claimed it was just a small token of appreciation for me tutoring Liam. I looked in the bags. Premium health supplements, luxury skincare sets… these were not “small tokens.” My parents exchanged a look and absolutely refused to accept them. Mrs. Miller spun a few heartfelt stories, successfully buttering everyone up. Amidst the laughter, she patted Liam’s arm. “You silly boy, it’s rare that Chloe is home. Don’t waste time, go let your sister teach you.” Liam took the cue perfectly, standing up straight and saying politely, “Thank you for the trouble, Chloe.” Hearing this, I knew they were trying to isolate us into a private study session. My scalp prickled. I picked at my nails, shifting uncomfortably. “Oh, what a shame. We actually have to visit her grandmother this afternoon,” my mom suddenly announced as I was about to stand up. “Oh, no problem! He can just come back tomorrow,” Mrs. Miller replied smoothly. “Well, she might not have free time recently. Mrs. Jenkins set Chloe up with a few local boys. She has to go meet them.” Mrs. Miller gasped in shock. “Chloe doesn’t need blind dates! A girl as beautiful as her? Any family would fight to have her. Plus, she’s so young, there’s no rush.” She glanced at Liam and added, “Who knows, maybe Chloe already has someone she likes.” My mom waved her hand, looking dismissive. “She’s turning 27 after the New Year! And she has no guts. If there’s a decent match, she needs to meet them early before someone else snatches them up.” “That’s true. Liam isn’t getting any younger either. He’ll be 24 after the holidays. Speaking of which, I’m even more anxious…” My mom patted Mrs. Miller’s hand. “You have nothing to worry about! Liam is so handsome, I can’t imagine how many young girls are chasing him. You’ll have a headache just trying to pick one for him…” My dad and I watched the two moms expertly spar back and forth. My mom was essentially saying Chloe and Liam are not a match, while Mrs. Miller was aggressively hinting Chloe and Liam are a perfect match. After thirty minutes of psychological warfare, Mrs. Miller forced a smile, insisted Liam and I exchange numbers so we could coordinate our “study sessions,” and reluctantly left. I was a bit surprised and confused. The second Liam left, I grabbed my mom. “We aren’t going to Grandma’s this afternoon…” “You idiot!” My mom poked me in the forehead, looking at me like I was a lost cause. “Don’t let Liam’s pretty face fool you! “While we were chatting, his eyes were practically glued to your body! “Guys who are that smooth and pretty are never reliable!” She glared at my dad. “Especially guys in the contracting business! There’s too much temptation. Young girls throw themselves at them. They still have women chasing them when they’re 50!” Feeling targeted, my dad grumbled defensively, “Who are you insulting?! I have a clean record! I think Liam is a great kid. He’s honest and doesn’t have any bad intentions!” “Besides, is it our fault we’re handsome?” I sighed, suddenly feeling inexplicably annoyed. So, my mom didn’t like Liam.

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On my wedding day, my older brother poured a glass of red wine over my wedding dress. “Chloe Davis, you know Mia likes Nathan too. Why do you have to throw such a massive, flashy wedding?!” My fiancé leaned against the doorframe, his face an icy mask as he spoke in a low, cold voice: “I’ll give you two choices. One, you walk down the aisle and finish this ceremony in that dirty dress.” “Two, you go apologize to Mia right now. Once you coax her into a good mood, I’ll announce that the wedding is postponed.” I didn’t choose either. I chose a third path. I walked out in my wine-stained gown, stood before all our friends and family, and announced I was calling off the engagement. My brother, my lover, my adopted sister… I didn’t want any of them anymore. But not long after I left, rumors began to spread—the heirs of two of New York’s most powerful families had lost their minds. They were scouring the globe for the world’s top designers, desperately trying to repair a wedding dress stained with red wine. 1 When Carter stormed into the backstage dressing room, I had just finished changing into the wedding dress I had treasured for ten years. Before I could even step in front of the mirror to admire it, the young man who shared my facial features kicked the door open. “Chloe! Are you out of your damn mind? I warned you so many times, but you just had to go through with this stupid ceremony!” “You know perfectly well that Mia is in love with Nathan. Are you intentionally trying to break her heart? Do you have any idea how hard she’s crying at home right now?” He screamed at me, completely blind to how the initial joy in my eyes instantly shattered into dull ash. So, it was about Mia. Again. I stood there, at a loss for what to do. The gorgeous, heavy gown restricted my movements, a constant reminder that today was not a day for fighting. I let out a soft sigh. Instead of snapping back at him like I usually did, I looked up with unnatural calm. “Carter, can we not fight? At least not today… I’m getting married today. I just want to be happy.” Carter’s face darkened even more. He let out a scoff and took two aggressive steps toward me. “Could you stop being so selfish for once, Chloe? It’s just a wedding. Is a party really more important than Mia’s mental health?” “She is so sweet and understanding. She’s enduring her own heartbreak just to bless you and Nathan! She only had one request—she begged you not to make this wedding a massive spectacle! What would be so wrong with just having a quiet family dinner? Why do you have to be so stubborn?!” My hands began to tremble with rage at his sheer audacity. Throwing the “big day” out the window, I fired back: “I am the one getting married! What is wrong with wanting a real wedding for myself? I don’t care how sad Mia is—why the hell should I have to pay the price for her feelings?!” “Shut your mouth! Mia is your sister too! You have a responsibility to look out for her and compromise!” My vision swam with black spots. I practically screamed at the top of my lungs: “Sister?! She’s your sister, not mine! My mother only ever had one daughter!” “Shut up!” Ice-cold red wine dripped down my hair, soaking into the snow-white lace of my gown, blooming into a violent crimson stain. For a split second, both Carter and I froze. It was as if his sanity suddenly snapped back. The hand holding the empty wine glass began to tremble violently. “Chlo… Chloe, I didn’t mean to—” He scrambled to grab a handful of tissues from the vanity, clumsily reaching out to wipe my face, but I flinched away. Like a ghost whose soul had just been siphoned out, I stared down at the dark red stain blooming across my chest, sinking into a long, suffocating silence. Wine continued to drip from my hair. Perhaps feeling the scene was too disgraceful, Carter forcefully pressed a wad of tissues against my forehead. “Heh—Carter, why are you babying her?” “I told her from the start we shouldn’t have a wedding, but she teamed up with my parents to force my hand, making Mia cry all morning! Let her learn a lesson. It suits her.” Carter and I simultaneously looked toward the door. Nathan was leaning against the frame, a cigarette dangling from his lips, sneering at me. I suddenly realized he wasn’t even wearing a tuxedo. He was wearing a casual white jacket. Painted haphazardly across the chest was a crooked cartoon bear. It was the birthday present Mia had given him last year. 2 He tilted his head, letting out a dark chuckle at my pathetic state. “Did you really think that just because you kissed up to my parents, you could control my life, Chloe? Keep dreaming! No matter how much you scheme, you will never hold a candle to Mia!” Looking at the pure disgust in his eyes, I found it almost laughable. Our engagement was an arrangement our families made when we were little kids. He had never, ever said a word against it. Even when he started treating Mia better than he treated me, he never once brought up canceling the engagement. It was the Sterling family that pushed for the wedding. When Mia found out we were getting married, she threw a massive tantrum and went on a hunger strike, sending Carter and Nathan into a frenzy of heartbreak. To coddle her, both of them actively avoided me. During the very last phone call I had with Nathan, I asked him, “Nathan, do you actually want to marry me?” He was silent for a long time. Then, Mia’s tearful voice drifted through the receiver: “Nathan? Who are you talking to? Is it my sister?” He panicked immediately. “God, you’re so annoying! My family decided this years ago, why are you even asking? Stop calling me!” Mr. Sterling had assured me not to worry, that he would handle the wedding arrangements, and that he would talk sense into Nathan. Looking at Nathan now, it was obvious he had caught an earful from his father and came here specifically to humiliate me out of spite. I let out a low, hollow laugh, taking the tissues from Carter’s hand to wipe the remaining wine off my face. “Chloe! Chloe, is your fiancé here yet? The officiant says it’s time to line up! You… oh my god—your dress!” My bridesmaid and best friend, Riley, came rushing in. When she saw the state of the dressing room, she almost passed out. Her hazel eyes widened in sheer disbelief. She looked at me, then at the two men, instantly piecing it together. “You two absolute scumbags! You’re bullying Chloe again?!” Before she could launch herself at Nathan and claw his face off, I quickly grabbed her arm. Riley’s dad worked for the Sterling Group. It wasn’t worth it. It was so not worth it. But Nathan seemed to misunderstand my intervention. Seeing me shield him, a flicker of surprise crossed his eyes. Then, he softened his tone. “I’ll give you two choices. One, you walk down the aisle and finish this ceremony in that dirty dress.” “Two, you go apologize to Mia right now. Once you coax her into a good mood, I’ll announce that the wedding is postponed and have someone rush-order you a new gown. Take your pick.” He offered the choices, but his face wore a provocative smirk, like he was just waiting for me to argue with him. Riley was crying tears of pure anger, glaring at him like she wanted to eat him alive. But I… from start to finish, I didn’t look angry at all. I raised my head and looked him dead in the eyes. “No need, Nathan. My wedding dress—it was handmade for me by my mother right before she died. I highly doubt you could find a better designer than her.” Thud— Behind me, Carter stumbled back, crashing into the vanity. I turned and met his utterly horrified eyes. His lips were trembling, trying to form words, but nothing came out. I ignored him and looked back at Nathan. “So, as for your two options—I reject them both.” 3 I held my bouquet and walked out onto the stage alone. The only people standing at the altar were Nathan’s parents. My own parents had passed away years ago. Aside from the brother who had just splashed wine in my face, I had no blood relatives left in this world. Ignoring the shocked gasps of the hundreds of guests, I calmly took the microphone from the officiant. “I apologize for appearing before you all looking so unpresentable. Please forgive me.” Nathan, finally snapping out of his daze, rushed onto the stage and grabbed my arm. “Chloe, what the hell are you doing?” “Doing exactly what you wanted.” “As everyone can see, my fiancé, Mr. Sterling, didn’t even bother to put on a tuxedo…” “He claims I manipulated him into this wedding. So let’s just say I’m tired of manipulating. I officially announce that my engagement to Nathan Sterling is canceled! From this day forward, our lives have absolutely nothing to do with each other!” I dropped the mic, shook off Nathan’s grip, and walked off the stage. Behind me, the banquet hall erupted into absolute chaos. In front of me stood Carter, his face completely drained of color, his eyes frantic. He reached out to grab me, but his hand stopped mid-air when he saw the glaring, dark red stain on my dress. I didn’t stop for anyone. I tossed the bridal bouquet aside and brushed past Carter without a second glance. At the entrance, a furious Riley had already pulled the car around. “Chloe! Get in!” It wasn’t until I sat down in the passenger seat that I realized my hands were shaking. In the rearview mirror, my ruined makeup was streaked with silent tears. Riley pulled two tissues and handed them to me, cursing Nathan’s name to hell and back. “He used to be such a sweet kid! How did he turn into such a monster?!” “He… he used to like you so much! That bastard changes his heart faster than he changes his clothes!” Her voice slowly trailed off when she noticed I had buried my face in the tissues, remaining completely silent. “Chloe…” “I’m fine, Riley, really. I just… I really miss my mom.” The car fell dead silent. I leaned my head against the window, watching the scenery blur past, feeling an overwhelming sense of how much time changes everything. It turned out I was the only idiot who had stayed rooted in the past, refusing to move on. The truth was, when we were kids, Carter and Nathan treated me so well. They really did. My mother was a globally renowned wedding dress designer. She always told me she was going to design the most unique dress in the world for me, that she wanted to personally watch me wear her love and blessings to marry the man of my dreams. That was the year Nathan and I were promised to each other. He used to blush bright red when he tried to hold my hand, only for my older brother to forcefully squeeze between us. “Get away! They said when you’re older, not right now!” The adults would burst into laughter, and I would shyly hide in my mother’s embrace as she gently stroked my hair. Back then, my mother hadn’t been diagnosed with stomach cancer. There was no adopted sister named Mia in our house. Everyone I loved revolved around me. 4 My mother passed away when I was twelve. Because she couldn’t predict my adult measurements, the final wedding dress she made for me was modified countless times. In the end, she had to add adjustable zippers to the bodice and waist. It was the final gift my mother left for me in this world. Yet, I almost lost even this dress. The same year my mother died, my dad brought a little girl home. He said she was the orphaned child of his old army buddy, named Mia. His friend had begged him on his deathbed to take care of her. “Carter, Chloe, this is your new little sister. You have to get along with her, okay?” I tried. But clearly, Mia had a different agenda. I had never, ever met a child like her. One second, she would be viciously yanking my doll out of my hands through gritted teeth, and the very next second, if Carter or Nathan walked in, she would burst into pitiful tears. Is it human nature to instinctively pity and trust the weak? I don’t know. All I know is that the two boys who used to blindly take my side slowly tipped their scales toward Mia. “Chloe, you can’t be like that! Mia doesn’t have parents anymore, she’s so pitiful!” “Yeah, Chloe, you need to let her have her way. You have your real brother, you have me. Mia has nothing.” “…” I lost count of how many times I fought with them over it. Every single argument ended with them scolding me for not being “half as gentle and sweet as Mia.” Eventually, I got too tired to fight. But my compromises only made Mia… bolder. She actually tried to steal the wedding dress my mother left me! When I saw her dragging that pristine white silk down the staircase, I lost my mind. For the first time in my life, I hit her. By the time she brought Carter into my room, sporting a bright red handprint on her cheek, I was carefully dabbing the dust off the train of the dress with clean water. “Sob… Carter, don’t yell at her. I made Chloe mad, that’s why she hit me. I deserved it!” I still remember the way Carter looked at me that day. Disappointment, confusion, and… disgust. He said, “Chloe, I never imagined you could become this vicious.” “Mia has never seen such beautiful clothes before. She just wanted to look at it. How could you be so cruel?” My hands shook with rage as I screamed back at him. The commotion drew my dad upstairs. Seeing Mia’s tear-streaked face, he carefully coaxed her, “Don’t cry, Mia. Daddy will hire someone to make you an even prettier princess dress, okay?” Once she stopped crying, he turned around, finally noticing I was standing right there. His face instantly filled with deep awkwardness. “Ahem, yes, both of you. We’ll make one for Chloe too, alright?” Watching him and Carter gently wipe Mia’s tears, I finally, belatedly realized… I was the outsider. I didn’t ask for a new princess dress. I just took my mother’s gown, locked it inside my closet, and hid the key. That was the day I realized that no one in this world truly loved me anymore. “Chloe, we’re here. Let me go in with you, in case that manipulative little hypocrite tries to bully you again!”

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At sixteen, I was known as the ugly girl of my class. Caleb Pierce mistook me for the school beauty. We dated online for two years, but on the day we finally met in person, he realized he had added the wrong Snapchat account. Feeling humiliated, he relentlessly bullied me for three years. Because of him, I bombed my SATs and failed to get into a good college. Years later, his career and love life were booming, while I was tragically assaulted and murdered while working a dead-end night shift. When I opened my eyes again, I was back to being sixteen. Back to the exact day Caleb and I had promised to meet in real life. 1 I distinctly remember dying. I died on a freezing winter night, in a hotel room reeking of cheap alcohol. A heavy-set man with a flushed, greasy face had his thick hands wrapped tightly around my neck, squeezing the air out of my lungs. My consciousness stalled for a fraction of a second. Then, the agonizing pain vanished. I snapped my eyes open, only to be completely stunned by the sight in front of me. Row upon row of wooden school desks. I looked down and realized there was a stack of high school textbooks and two brand-new prep school uniforms resting on the desk in front of me. I was surrounded by familiar faces from high school. At the front of the room, our homeroom teacher, Mr. Harrison, was smiling and introducing himself to the class. But… hadn’t Mr. Harrison retired years ago? Before I could even process what was happening, footsteps echoed from the hallway. “Excuse me—” My heart seized. That voice. Could it be…? I looked toward the door. A tall boy dressed in black stood there, a lazy, arrogant smirk playing on his lips, his posture radiating a careless entitlement. A full-body shudder racked through me, and I nearly screamed out loud. Caleb Pierce! It was Caleb Pierce! My heart pounded violently against my ribs. Pure terror, heavily laced with a deep, venomous hatred, surged through my veins. My fingers curled into fists unconsciously, my nails digging so hard into my palms that they broke the skin. The sharp sting in my hands confirmed it. I really had been reborn. I was sixteen again. It was the first day of sophomore year—the exact day Caleb and I had agreed to finally meet in person. 2 A vast majority of the misery in my life started the moment I met Caleb Pierce. When I hit middle school, puberty hit me like a truck. I gained a lot of weight, and my face broke out in severe acne. The boys in my class constantly made fun of me. I was already introverted, but over time, the relentless teasing shattered my self-esteem. I became so insecure I barely spoke to anyone. And Caleb happened to appear right when I was at my loneliest. He had been trying to add our math tutor’s Snapchat, but carelessly typed the wrong username and added me instead. When the mix-up was cleared up, Caleb didn’t delete me. Instead, he offered to be my friend. I didn’t say no. Because back then, I was just so unbelievably lonely. Just like that, we started an online relationship that lasted two years. By the end of freshman year, Caleb wanted to meet in person. I was terrified and didn’t know what to do. I wanted to see him too, but I was so scared he would find me ugly that I couldn’t bring myself to agree. Sensing my hesitation, Caleb sent me a message. It was that exact message that dragged me into a living hell. [Mia, I know how amazing you are. I don’t care about your looks. I like you for what’s on the inside.] I fell for his sweet lies and promised that if we both got accepted into Oakridge Preparatory Academy, we would meet. In my past life, we agreed to meet at the local amusement park this very afternoon. He said he wanted to take me on the Ferris wheel. I wore a white sundress I had bought specifically for the occasion, my heart fluttering with joy as I went to see him. But the moment he laid eyes on me, his face dropped. He looked at me in sheer disbelief. “You’re… Mia?” I nodded, smiling at him. “Yeah, I’m Mia.” While I was overflowing with happiness, Caleb’s face darkened into a furious scowl. He coldly pulled out his phone and made a call. Minutes later, three or four vicious-looking guys showed up. They were Caleb’s lackeys. On Caleb’s orders, the boys dragged me into a dirty alleyway behind the park and beat me mercilessly. It started to drizzle. My pristine white dress was quickly ruined by muddy footprints and grime. Caleb kicked me square in the stomach, sending a wave of agony through me that felt like my internal organs were rupturing. I struggled to call his name, desperately wanting to ask why he was doing this to me. He cut me off with a vicious spit. “Ugly bitch, do you think you have the right to say my name? You’re hideous, and you dared to impersonate my goddess?! Have you no shame?!” “Stay the hell away from me. You make me sick!” That was when I finally realized that Caleb truly had added the wrong account back then. The person he had originally meant to add was his longtime crush, the school beauty. Because her name was Amelia, she also went by the nickname “Mia” online, and we happened to have the same aesthetic profile picture. He had mistaken me for her. What I thought was my salvation was nothing but a cruel, twisted mistake. 3 At the door, Caleb casually explained to the teacher that he had walked into the wrong classroom earlier. Since it was the first day of school, Mr. Harrison didn’t make a big deal out of it and gestured for him to find an empty seat. Staring at his back, I fell into deep thought. The girl Caleb truly liked was Amelia Sterling, the famously brilliant and beautiful valedictorian-track goddess. In our past life, to follow in her footsteps, Caleb played the role of a reformed good boy. He spent three years grinding his way up from the bottom of the class, successfully reversing his bad grades to get accepted into an elite Ivy League university. Amelia was so moved by his dedication and perseverance that she accepted his confession right after graduation. The teachers literally used his turnaround as an inspiring success story, even inviting him back to give motivational speeches to the underclassmen. He reaped the rewards of a beautiful romance, flowers, and applause. Meanwhile, in a dark corner nobody cared about, I bombed my SATs. Caleb viewed my existence as a stain on his pride. He used me as his personal punching bag to relieve his academic stress, bullying me relentlessly for three entire years. In the end, my scores were so low I couldn’t even get into a regular state college; I had to settle for a local community college. Without a solid degree, my adult life was a brutal struggle. To pay off the massive medical debts from my dad’s cancer treatments, I sold our house and worked multiple exhausting part-time jobs. Just when I was finally about to pay off the last of the debt, I crossed paths with a drunk, lust-crazed customer and was killed. The memories flashed through my mind like a horrifying movie reel. It wasn’t until the phone in my pocket buzzed that I snapped back to reality. Caleb had sent me a text. [Mia, what are you wearing today? I seriously can’t wait to see you!] [Heart-eyes emoji] Staring at the screen, a wave of nausea washed over me. He was clearly a shallow prick who only cared about appearances, yet he had the audacity to claim he didn’t care about my looks. It was absolutely sickening. I didn’t want any more ties to Caleb. Without a second thought, I typed back: [I’m over this.] [Let’s delete each other. There’s no need for us to meet.] The moment I hit send, I blocked his number and deleted his Snapchat. As soon as the opening day assembly was over, I rushed straight home. The moment I pushed open the front door, the familiar, long-lost aroma of home-cooked food hit me. My dad, wearing his faded floral apron, was busy in the kitchen preparing lunch. Seeing me, he waved his spatula with a bright smile. “Mia, you’re back! I made your favorite homemade fried chicken. Go wash your hands, food’s almost ready!” Staring at his back, my eyes instantly welled up with tears. Afraid he would notice something was wrong, I hurried into the bathroom to wash my face and compose myself. By the time I came out, the food was already on the table. I picked up a piece of chicken and took a bite. The nostalgic taste exploded in my mouth, sending warmth through my entire body. The tear I had been holding back finally slipped down my cheek. Seeing me cry, my dad panicked. “What’s wrong, sweetie? Why are you crying? Does it taste bad?” I shook my head frantically. “No, it’s just so good. I’m crying because it’s delicious.” In my past life, my dad passed away from stomach cancer during my second year of community college. I never dreamed I would get the chance to eat his cooking again. Hearing my answer, my dad breathed a sigh of relief. He reached out and affectionately ruffled my hair. “Eat up if you like it. You need a full stomach so you have energy to hang out with your friends later.” During middle school, I didn’t have any friends. I spent every weekend locked in my room. Knowing I was supposedly going out with a “new friend” today made him incredibly happy for me. Of course, I had no intention of going to see Caleb. To keep my dad from worrying, I didn’t explain anything. After I finished eating, I simply left the house. Even though I had already blocked Caleb, I still felt a lingering unease. This second chance at life was too precious. Just to be safe, I headed straight to the Verizon store and completely changed my phone number. The late summer sun was blazing hot. Stepping out of the phone store, I finally let out a long sigh of relief. With this, Caleb wouldn’t be able to track me down anymore… right? 4 For the next two months, Caleb didn’t bother me. But just when I thought I had successfully shaken him off and was ready to dive fully into my studies, a crumpled note suddenly appeared inside my desk. A line of aggressive, messy handwriting glared up at me: [Don’t leave after school. Wait for me, or else!] My stomach tied in knots. I wasn’t entirely sure if Caleb wrote it. To test the waters, I crumpled the note and threw it into the trash can right in front of him. As I turned around, I caught his reaction in my peripheral vision. He didn’t seem to react much at all. I thought maybe I was just being paranoid. But the very next day, I found another note in my desk. This time, it read: [Ugly bitch, if you run after school today, you’re dead!] My heart sank. “Ugly bitch” was Caleb’s signature insult. I had heard him spit those exact words at me countless times in my past life. I was practically positive Caleb was the one leaving the notes. But why… Why was he still coming after me when I had gone out of my way to avoid him? I took the note straight to our homeroom teacher, Mr. Harrison. Being bullied by Caleb for three years was the ultimate nightmare of my past life. I absolutely refused to let history repeat itself. Mr. Harrison was an English teacher with thick black-rimmed glasses who carried a strict, no-nonsense aura. He examined the note and asked if I had offended anyone recently. I shook my head. “No, I get along fine with everyone, and I haven’t gotten into any arguments. I got a similar note yesterday, but I didn’t think much of it. But since it happened again today, I got really scared, so I decided to tell you.” Mr. Harrison patted my shoulder. “You did the right thing. When you encounter problems, don’t keep them to yourself. Always communicate with a teacher.” He told me to head back to class and to report to him immediately if anything else happened. I nodded earnestly. As I turned my head to leave, a small smile crept onto my lips. Mr. Harrison was incredibly sharp and knew every student’s handwriting like the back of his hand. I was confident that within two days, he would get to the bottom of this. Caleb wanted to play the good student? I was going to make sure the teachers saw exactly what kind of disgusting trash he really was. Sure enough, by Friday afternoon, Mr. Harrison called Caleb into his office. When Caleb returned to the classroom, his face was as dark as thunderclouds. It was obvious he had just been chewed out. Being young and hot-headed, he purposefully slammed his hip into my desk as he walked past me. Two of my books fell to the floor, and he viciously stomped on them. Before I could even speak, my desk-mate beat me to it. He lazily lifted his eyelids and let out a mocking scoff. “Caleb, how are you this mentally deficient? You look like a brain-damaged toddler who can’t even walk down an aisle without crashing into furniture.” Caleb, who was already overflowing with rage and desperate for a target, immediately exploded. “Shut up, you cheating dog! Are you begging to get expelled?!” We had reshuffled seats a week ago, and my new desk-mate, Declan Hayes, was notoriously ruthless. During the very first placement exams of the year, he was caught red-handed cheating by the Dean. As punishment, he was kicked out of the Honors track and dropped down to the Regular classes. He already had one major strike on his permanent record. If he got another, the school would expel him. Declan raised an eyebrow, a dangerously casual smile on his face. “Hard to say. Maybe the school will expel you first?” I fully expected Caleb to escalate the fight. Instead, he just shot Declan a venomous glare. “I don’t have time for trash like you. Bad luck.” He turned to me. “Mia, you just wait!” After dropping that empty threat, Caleb actually walked away. I was genuinely surprised. Swallowing his pride and walking away was definitely not Caleb’s usual style… Did Declan have some kind of blackmail on him?

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An accidental spiked drink led to me rolling in the sheets with my arch-nemesis for a whole day and night. Afterward, my best friend asked me how it was. To save face, I stubbornly lied, “All show and no go. It was over before I even felt anything.” My arch-nemesis happened to overhear this. With a dark smirk, he dragged me right back to that exact same hotel room. He pinned me beneath him, slowly and deliberately pulling the hearing aid from his ear, mouthing the words to me: “Once this comes off, I won’t be stopping.” “Don’t cry and beg for mercy like last time.” “Because… I won’t be able to hear you anyway.” 1 Riiip— Hudson Brooks’s custom-tailored shirt was torn clean in half by my hands. I was draped over him, my fingers roaming wildly over his abs, pulling low, ragged pants from his chest. Just as I reached for his belt, he suddenly grabbed my wrist. His fingers flashed in rapid sign language. Through my blurred vision, I barely made out his meaning: No. “Damn it, Hudson, are you just going to watch me die here?!” “I’m already like this and you still won’t touch me! Does it just not work?!” “If you can’t get it up, go find me a man who can!” I burst into frustrated tears. Who could have predicted that I’d get roofied at a high-society gala? The drug was incredibly potent, burning away every last ounce of my reason. If I didn’t get a man right now, I genuinely felt like I was going to explode. Hudson’s grip on me tightened, his sharp Adam’s apple bobbing heavily. He signed a few more words. He was asking: You won’t regret this? Completely out of patience, I propped myself up and smashed my lips against his. “If you’re a real man, just do it! Stop talking nonsense!” 2 When I woke up the next day, my back ached, my bones felt like they were falling apart, and my throat was unbearably dry. Clutching my waist, I was just about to get up for some water when my eyes landed on Hudson, resting with his eyes closed beside me. His hair was messy, and his neck was covered in highly visible scratches and hickeys, looking impossibly scandalous. Especially the massive bite mark right over his chest. My breath hitched. My brain went into overdrive. Who am I? Where am I? What did I just do? Who is the man next to me? Then, I let out an internal banshee screech. Holy crap, I actually slept with my arch-nemesis, Hudson Brooks, for a whole day and night!!! Throwing all shame out the window, I threw my clothes on on my trembling legs and fled the hotel room. When I sneaked back into my house, my parents—who had been frantically looking for me—looked me up and down. Seeing I was safe and sound, they finally let out a sigh of relief. “Oh, Maya sweetheart, have you seen our Hudson?” Before I could even process my parents’ relief, another voice suddenly cut in, making me jump out of my skin. It was Hudson’s mother. I looked up and realized that Hudson’s parents were in my living room too. From the looks of it, they had been waiting here for a long time. Mrs. Brooks’s face was etched with worry. “He disappeared right after he left the gala last night.” “We checked the security cameras, and you left the venue with him.” “Why did you come back alone?” Meeting Mrs. Brooks’s eyes, my heart seized, and I couldn’t help but look away guiltily. Of course I knew where Hudson was. We were literally rolling around in the same bed just hours ago. If our parents found out we slept together, they would absolutely force us to get married. But Hudson was my sworn enemy. We could never be together. Besides, yesterday was just a drug-induced accident. 3 Just as I was racking my brain for an excuse, Mrs. Brooks’s eyes suddenly lit up. She hurried past me. “Hudson—” The moment she spoke, a heavy, piercing gaze landed silently on my back, scraping against my skin like a sharp little knife. I turned around stiffly, only to find Hudson staring right at me. He signed to his parents that he was fine, then lifted his heavy eyelids to look at me. He signed: Why… did you… come back… first? He looked exactly like he did last night, when I was riding him and he patiently signed, asking if his pace was okay. A chaotic flood of explicit memories crashed into my brain. Panicking, I spun around and fled upstairs as fast as my legs could carry me. Back in my room, I locked myself in the bathroom and dunked my head in a sink full of cold water, desperately trying to flush out those filthy, inappropriate memories. “Maya Collins, what the hell kind of R-rated garbage are you thinking about?!” I forced myself to calm down, silently consoling my reflection. So I slept with Hudson. Big deal. Hudson probably doesn’t care either. He’s probably disgusted by it. Just pretend it never happened. Just like how he always pushed me away before. 4 Hudson and I were childhood friends who grew up right next door to each other. Because our families were close, we played together since we were toddlers. We were practically inseparable. Back then, Hudson’s ears were perfectly healthy. He didn’t need hearing aids. Every day after school, the first thing I did was run over to find him, and he never got tired of dragging me around to play. Until we were ten years old. Hudson caught a sudden, dangerously high fever. Because he didn’t receive treatment in time, it left him with a permanent disability. From then on, he had to wear hearing aids just to hear anything. From that day forward, the sweet, gentle little boy I knew became volatile and moody. He grew silent and withdrawn, locking himself in his room and violently resisting all medical treatments. I tried to cheer him up, but every time he saw me, he would throw things, lose his temper, and angrily scream at me to get out. Even though I was young, I could clearly feel it: he didn’t want to see me. He was repulsed by me. But I was never one to back down from a fight. The more Hudson pushed me away, the more I forced my way into his space, opposing him at every single turn. As we grew up, he continued to give me the cold shoulder. And so, he became the arch-nemesis I swore to be at odds with until the day I died. 5 I hid in my house for three days. During that time, my best friend Zoe kept asking me to hang out, but I made up excuses to reject her. It wasn’t that I didn’t want to go out; it was that my lower back felt like Hudson had literally snapped it in half. Hudson was almost six-foot-three, with broad shoulders, a narrow waist, and biceps that bulged against his sleeves. He could lift my ninety-pound self with a single arm. That night, he had pinned me against the wall with one hand, pushing my body past its limits over and over again. And even after that, he didn’t let me go, dragging me to multiple different “venues” around the hotel room. I honestly suspected he had some kind of sex addiction. It wasn’t until the fourth day, when my body finally recovered a bit, that I agreed to meet Zoe. The moment we sat down, Zoe eagerly demanded to know what happened between me and Hudson. “Spit it out, what exactly happened between you two? He’s been blowing up my phone asking about you.” Hudson was asking about me? My first reaction was that it was impossible. After pushing me away for so many years, shouldn’t he be avoiding me like the plague? But under Zoe’s relentless interrogation, I finally cracked and confessed that I had slept with him. “What?! You and Hudson slept—” Zoe’s jaw dropped, her voice hitting an outrageously high pitch. I clamped my hand over her mouth immediately, barely avoiding drawing the attention of the entire bar. “Maya, look at you go! You actually managed to bed Hudson Brooks.” “So, how was he? Is he an absolute beast in the sack?” Zoe nudged me with her elbow, a wicked smirk on her face. My face instantly turned beet red. Though I didn’t really want to admit it, I had to say, Hudson was exceptionally talented in that department. The only problem was the communication barrier. Sometimes, when things got too intense, his hearing aid would get knocked out. No matter how much I begged him to slow down, he wouldn’t react at all. Eventually, I had to press my lips right against his ear, crying and begging for mercy in broken gasps. 6 But here’s the thing about me: I would rather die than lose face. Getting me to admit my arch-nemesis was good in bed? Absolutely impossible. So, faced with Zoe’s intense curiosity, I stubbornly lied: “All show and no go. It was over before I even felt anything.” “You don’t understand, Hudson just looks good on the surface, but actually…” Before I could finish my sentence, Zoe suddenly froze. She stared at me in sheer panic, her eyes desperately darting to the space right behind me. I instinctively turned my head. “What’s—” Before the word could leave my mouth, I came face to face with Hudson. He was wearing a sharp black suit, the top two buttons undone, casting a dark, half-smile down at me from his razor-sharp features. His expression clearly said: Keep going. My legs started shaking involuntarily. Realizing the impending doom, Zoe let out an awkward laugh and patted my shoulder. “Uh, Maya, I just remembered I have an emergency.” Without looking back, Zoe bolted, leaving me alone with him in the bar. I watched the corner of Hudson’s mouth twitch. It looked like a smile, but also like blatant mockery. Then, slowly and deliberately, he raised his hands and signed to me. You… didn’t… feel anything… that night? I knew sign language. The very first day I learned Hudson would need hearing aids for the rest of his life, I immediately went out and learned ASL. But right now, every sign he made landed heavily on my chest, suffocating me. My instinct was to run, but I forced myself to stay glued to the stool. “Th-that night, just forget about it. I’m pretending nothing happened.” I didn’t want one mutually consensual accident to complicate our relationship forever. But I clearly underestimated Hudson. His jaw locked. He stepped forward and scooped me up into his arms, carrying me bridal style. No matter how hard I thrashed, he held me in a vice grip. I panicked, struggling wildly. “Hudson, what are you doing?! Put me down!” It wasn’t until we were out of the bar that he looked down. His thin lips parted, mouthing the words with absolute clarity. “I’m going to… make you feel it.”

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