Category: English

The new intern, determined to maintain her “ditzy darling” persona, had been “accidentally” eating my pre-ordered lunch for a whole month. She even took my food to curry favor with the picky boss. And because of her “clumsiness,” she’d once forced a scalding bowl of spicy ramen down my throat, nearly burning it through. By the time I got to the hospital, they had to remove half my stomach! When I asked her for medical expenses, she burst into tears and threw herself into my boyfriend’s arms. “Waaah… I’m just a little clumsy, you know? I didn’t mean to eat her lunch…” “Her pre-ordered lunch only cost a few bucks, and I even compensated her with my spicy ramen…” My boyfriend, all sympathy, didn’t hesitate to fork over my $10,000 year-end bonus to her. Meanwhile, the boss, whom I’d been busting my butt for for over a decade, fired me without a single penny of compensation and even blacklisted me in the industry. Because I couldn’t get the money in time to pay for my surgery, my beloved grandma passed away. She, that airhead, enjoyed the adoration of my boyfriend and boss. And when my body was found, my phone was still looping a trending video: #GoldDiggerTwoTimerKillsGrandmaGetsWhatSheDeserved# Then I woke up. I was back to the day she ate my pre-ordered lunch for the nth time! 1 “Oh my god, is Lynn okay? Is it low blood sugar? Everybody back up, let me handle this!” That sugary-sweet voice grated on my ears. My senses gradually returned. I opened my eyes to see Zoe rushing towards me, clutching a steaming bowl of spicy ramen. My face went white. Last time, after Zoe swiped my lunch, she found me passed out and tried to force a whole bowl of spicy ramen down my throat. The searing heat shocked me awake, but she ignored my struggles and kept pouring the ramen over my face. I almost burned my throat through. I had to get half my stomach removed, and my face was scarred, leaving me ugly. I demanded compensation, but she just ran crying into my boyfriend, Kyle’s, arms. “Waaah, I’m just a natural airhead, I didn’t do it on purpose. Lynn is being so petty!” Hearing it was just a pre-ordered lunch, my boyfriend’s face darkened immediately. “You’re feeding Zoe that garbage? You’re really scraping the bottom of the barrel! Luckily, Zoe’s okay, or you’d pay the price!” And my boss, Simon, whom I’d been working my tail off for since graduation, sided with her unconditionally. “Kneel down and apologize to Zoe, or you don’t have to come back!” To please Zoe, they fired me and stripped me of everything. When I tried to sue, they threatened my grandma, who was about to have surgery. Reluctantly, I started live-streaming to earn money, only to be smeared by Zoe. She gained a massive following for her “ditzy” image. And my grandma and I were just stepping stones to her fame, leaving us to die with regrets! As Zoe got closer, my stomach started to clench involuntarily. “Get away! What kind of idiot tries to revive someone with scalding spicy ramen? Can’t you see I’m having a stomach spasm? Are you trying to kill me?” “Even if I did have low blood sugar, wouldn’t a glass of water be better?” I roared with all my strength, trying to vent all the resentment from my previous life. A coworker chimed in, “Is Zoe doing this on purpose? She was standing ten feet away. I was right next to Lynn and didn’t see what happened. How did Zoe just grab that bowl and run over?” “Plus, she yelled so loud, I thought she was grabbing medicine, not spicy ramen. Look at that steam! If that gets on someone’s face, it could cause serious damage!” Zoe clearly didn’t expect me to wake up suddenly, or that my usually friendly coworkers would be whispering about her. Instantly, her pretty face crumpled. 2 “You’re all so mean! You’re not friendly to us clumsy people at all! You’re so bad!” Just then, my boyfriend, Kyle, came to inspect the office. He was a company shareholder who usually only came once every two weeks. Ever since Zoe arrived, his visits had become way more frequent. Seeing Kyle, Zoe immediately produced a few shimmering tears and ran to him, looking wronged. “Kyle, I’m so sorry! It’s just because I’m so clumsy. Lynn is right to be angry. But I was just trying to help her!” Kyle, full of sympathy, comforted her, asking if she was okay. Only after he was sure she was fine did he relax. Then, he glanced at me on the ground, disgust plain on his face. “Who do you think you are? Everyone knows Zoe’s clumsy. Can’t you be more understanding?” “As a senior employee, you’re arguing with an intern and hurting the company’s reputation. Half your salary for this month is docked!” “Gah!” Finally, I couldn’t hold it in anymore. I barely managed to crawl to the trash can before I threw up. The office filled with a foul odor. Zoe, unable to hide her revulsion, yelled at me. “Lynn, that’s so gross! You’re throwing up in the trash can!” My stomach was in unbearable pain. It felt like there was a blender inside me, and I almost passed out. I couldn’t focus enough to deal with her. “Oh my god! What is she doing?” I heard my coworkers exclaim. I hadn’t even opened my eyes to see what she was doing, and I felt my mouth being forced open. “Mmmph…” An unbearable taste filled my nose and mouth. Zoe suddenly grabbed my neck and squeezed, preventing me from moving away. “Lynn, don’t move! I’m saving you!” I shook my head frantically, trying to push her away, but I couldn’t summon any strength. After she finished forcing it down, I barely managed to whisper, “What… did you give me?” It tasted sour and rotten. It made me feel physically and mentally sick. Her voice was triumphant and proud. “You said the spicy ramen was too strong for your stomach, right? Then, there shouldn’t be any problem with what you threw up, right?” “I turned over a trash can for you, and I even dirtied my nails.” I was shocked! “Was I your entire family in a past life? What kind of moron does that?” My blood boiled, and I couldn’t hold it back anymore. I threw up again. But Kyle just praised her, “You’re so thoughtful, Zoe! You’re clumsy but you work hard!” Whether it was anger or pain, I couldn’t take it anymore. I passed out just as I heard the ambulance arrive. 3 When I woke up again, I was in a hospital bed. My throat was hoarse, but my face wasn’t scarred, and my stomach wasn’t bandaged. Only then did I feel a little relieved. As I wondered what to do next, the hospital room door was kicked open. “Don’t play dumb, Lynn! I didn’t know that you would fake an illness to slack off and give your work to Zoe!” “Get back to the office and keep the client happy, or I’m firing you!” It was Simon, my boss. We’d grown up together. To thank me for taking care of his grandma when he was in college, I’d followed him into this business right after I graduated. During the company’s development, Simon wasn’t good at management and faced many setbacks. Whether it was a lack of funds or contacts, I was the one who begged people and saved the company. He had promised me countless times that when the company grew, he would give me a promotion, a raise, shares, and help me buy back the house I’d sold. But ten years had passed. The company had grown, but he hadn’t fulfilled any of his promises. Instead, he made me do the work of six people. He called it “making the most of my abilities.” What did he say back then? “It’s so hard to find a job these days. I gave you one, and you’re not grateful. Instead, you dare to ask for a raise?” My salary was still only $3,000 a month. In my previous life, he even gave my year-end bonus to Zoe. When I brought up leaving, he always used my grandma’s medical expenses as an excuse. Thinking about this, I wished the company would go bankrupt right now! The words “I quit” spilled out of my mouth. “Fine, go! But before I go, you have to pay back the $100,000 I put into the company. Plus the $30,000 interest, my $10,000 year-end bonus from last year, arbitration compensation, monthly bonuses, and so on. When are you going to give me $150,000?” I opened my phone and showed him the receipts. Luckily, I’d always kept track of my finances. I’d been waiting a long time for this moment! Simon’s eyes widened. “You’re out of your mind! When did you put money into the company? And because of your work, there is no year-end bonus, and we can even ask for compensation for losing the client. And you dare to ask for money?” I was about to say something when Zoe’s voice sounded. “Why do you have to be so materialistic? Simon is giving you a platform to show off your talents. How could a recent graduate find such a good job?” “Apologize to Simon, or so many days you’re unexcused absence will spread around and after that no one will hire you.” I smirked and glanced at her. “The only reason you’re saying all that because you’re worried that after I leave, no one will clean up your mess!” Zoe choked and looked at Simon, feeling wronged. He immediately came to her defense. “I will protect Zoe. My Simon Company can run without you!” Okay, let me see which department of Simon Company can operate normally without me! 4 Simon then made a promise to Zoe. “Zoe, you will take over her position after Lynn leaves!” “Me? Really? But I’m just an intern, what if I mess things up?” Zoe said these words but was smiling with joy. The two were flirting, and Kyle couldn’t watch it anymore. “Simon, Lynn has been working at your company for ten years. Zoe is under my protection, so don’t take advantage of her.” “Zoe, don’t worry. I’ll have Lynn be your assistant, and if you mess up the work, just give it to her!” Hearing this, I laughed. “Impossible!” I answered definitely, but it led to Kyle’s disdain. “Look at these and then answer me!” He looked at his phone. When I looked at it, he had naked photos of me when I was asleep! “Kyle, are you sick?” Three years ago, I saved his life. But he started chasing after me. The company was being funded, and Kyle became the second-largest shareholder. He was always in the office every day. I am just a normal girl, and it is hard for me not to get moved by a rich and handsome guy. But after we got together, he changed. He stopped caring about me. Especially after Zoe entered the company, he got more distant. After death, I found out that the reason he was with me wasn’t a way to thank me for saving him, but because he had never been with a poor girl like me. And the reason he didn’t break up with me because he wanted to me to work for Zoe. Thinking of this, I wanted to kill the bad couple! “Not willing? Then I’ll show these pictures to your grandma. She’s in the same hospital as you. It doesn’t matter if she dies sooner or later. It would be more interesting to make her angry to death.” He smiled but forgot that without me, how could he be a family member in the family! “Okay!” I planned to take the money and leave. If this is how it is, don’t blame me for not being polite! 5 To shame me, Simon arranged a seat next to the bathroom for me. He was in a suit and ordered me, “The company is tight on money, and the cleaner is gone. Lynn, you are closest to the bathroom. Clean the bathroom from now on.” And Zoe stopped being clumsy and started knocking on my table. “Lynn, do you have a sense of time? We need this PPT for the meeting later. Why haven’t you finished it?” “There will be reporters for the interview. This will damage the company’s face. Don’t think I’m clumsy and trick me!” I laughed. She told me the work for months ago today and want me to finish it in the morning? “This looks like a good lunch. So much, you won’t be able to eat it all. We’ll eat it together later!” This time it wasn’t mistaking it but purposely taking it. But I wasn’t against it. It was a prepared lunch with special ingredients. In my past life, my friend opened a restaurant and because of my stomach, she gave me the prepared lunch. She said it was all to get known, and I shouldn’t worry. But did her restaurant need to get known? I knew what she meant but didn’t reject. How else would they think it was a normal prepared lunch, how could they take over the picky mouths? And Zoe saw me being obedient and finally left. The bathrooms were broken early on. Simon didn’t have people fix it. Simon gave the dirty work to me. Everyone was getting on me. I was in the air with all the other workers. Only Zoe were flirting. Smile! You won’t be smiling later! [Lynn, the company has arrived. The reporter has arrived and are waiting for the elevators!] Lynn sent me a message. I responded, getting ready to go to them. Simon then walked in a rush. I stopped him, “Boss, let’s go meet the client and reporter!” He tried to get my hand off him. “What did you feed me?” Kyle came and swore, but the bathroom doors were closed. The coworkers were working, but they were all eavesdropping. Zoe felt wronged but held herself in. “Simon, Kyle, how about you use these?” She gave them plastic bags. How would they do this in front of everyone. “It’s okay, we can hold it!” The partner arrived. “Simon and Kyle are young and talented!” Mr. Smith walked over to them and reached out his hand to hold, the reporters took out their cameras. But the next moment, everyone heard a giant noise!

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My wife, Ashley Miller, ditched me on our anniversary to go to her old flame’s bachelor party. Unreal, right? She got back around 3 AM, and when she saw me asleep, she took her ripped fishnet stockings and set our freakin’ house on fire, using gasoline. Seriously?! “If I hadn’t said yes to your proposal, I would be marrying Chad tomorrow!” she yelled. “I really regret being with you!” I could barely breathe, and all I could smell was men’s cologne on her. That’s when I knew, she’d been cheating on me for years. And I was just a total simp, ending up with absolutely nothing. I woke up again, and it was the day I was gonna ask Ashley out. This time, I threw away all the stupid love letters and just focused on becoming a better version of myself. Ten years later, I’m still a washed-up, nobody actor, while she and her golden boy, Chad, are A-list celebs. On a reality TV show, she keeps putting me down. But the second she sees the freakin’ Oscar-winning actress I’m dating climb into my lap, she loses it. “Ethan, didn’t you say I was the only woman you’d ever love, in any lifetime?” she whined. 1. After chilling at home for six months, my wife, Sarah, gets annoyed that I’m just loafing around, so she randomly finds me a reality show gig. I don’t get it. I’m basically a nobody actor, why would they want me on a show like that, except to be a filler? I was chilling in a corner, trying to stay out of camera shot, when I saw Ashley and her husband, Chad Johnson. “The director didn’t say anything about this. Are they special guests or something?” I muttered to myself. Ashley was dressed in a perfect designer gown, and the freakin’ rock on her finger was blinding. “Ashley and Chad are, like, the perfect couple in Hollywood. They even do reality TV together!” “It’s so great that Chad respects Ashley so much. I remember there was this one movie that was kinda racy, but Ashley said it would help her acting, and Chad was totally cool with it.” “Hey, what about that simp who used to chase Ashley around? The dude even wrote her songs!” “Probably saw Chad was about to become a superstar and chickened out. Plus, Ashley’s not some newbie anymore.” When they said my name, Ashley’s smile froze and she looked super uncomfortable. She quickly recovered, though. One of the guests didn’t notice and kept talking. “He was actually pretty into her, writing all those love letters and everything.” “Back then, he was running around trying to find Ashley jobs, doing all kinds of stuff.” Ashley saw Chad starting to look pissed, so she changed the subject. “I’m married to Chad now, why are you bringing up old stuff? Besides, I didn’t ask him to do anything. It was all his own thing.” Chad’s face went back to normal, and he said with a smile, “Everyone makes mistakes when they’re young. We’re really happy now, so let’s just leave the past in the past!” I just rolled my eyes. Seriously, still talking about stuff from years ago? If this show airs, my wife is gonna freak out! I coughed and said, “Actually, there wasn’t really anything between her and…” “Oh my god! What are the chances?! Ethan’s on this show too!” someone yelled, cutting me off. “Isn’t that Ethan? You haven’t said anything, you wouldn’t have showed up because you knew Ashley was gonna be on this show, right? You really can’t let it go, huh? She’s married, dude.” “Ashley and Chad are A-listers now, they just show up to these shows for fun. A washed-up guy like you should be practical and get as much camera time as you can. Or you’ll never get another gig!” I ignored them. “I really didn’t know they were coming to this show, or else…” “Or else what?” some young dude near Ashley asked, narrowing his eyes. “Or else you’d be waiting for Ashley backstage, right? You need to realize there’s a big freakin’ gap between you and Ashley. You’re a nobody actor, you can’t even compare to someone like Chad. You’re just here to watch them be in love. You don’t have a chance.” “You like stalking Ashley so much, why are you doing reality TV? You should be a paparazzi! Put that dedication to work, and you’ll be successful, dude!” They were just trying to be funny for the camera, so I ignored them and started counting the lights on the ceiling, feeling like I was in freakin’ jail. I thought about the afternoon filming and it was a pain in the ass. 2 I finally got to lunch, so I went into a random bistro and ordered a couple of things. After the first bite, I knew something was off, and I was about to ask the waiter to take it back. But then I saw Chad and Ashley coming in to eat. Behind them were the people who were making fun of me earlier. When they saw me, someone frowned and looked down their nose at me. “Yeah, right. You’re not still in love with Ashley? You’re eating here ’cause she likes French food? Don’t try to act all rich, you can’t afford this place as a B-list actor.” I put down my silverware and frowned. “Can’t I come here?” “Acting all gentlemanly, how much did you pay to learn that? You gotta know that she’s awesome, and dating her can help you raise the bar, but you should realize your place. You’re just a nobody actor, you can’t handle her.” Ashley spoke up, “Honey, I really didn’t know he was gonna be here. Wanna go somewhere else?” Chad looked at me and smiled. “Nah, let’s stay here.” Ashley gave me a look like I was a bug she wanted to squash. “I know you still have feelings for me, but I’m doing great now. Please don’t bother me anymore.” Then she frowned at the food on my table. “This place is expensive, you shouldn’t come here. I’ll pay for it this time.” Before I could say no, the waiter brought a bottle of red wine to my table. Chad sat right across from me, poured a glass, and pushed it over. “Sorry we didn’t send you a wedding invite, but you should still drink to our happiness. It’ll help Ashley finally get over you.” I thought they were acting crazy, so I waved my hand. “It’s rare to be friends after a breakup. Since we’re not friends, I don’t need a wedding toast. If you want, I’ll send a gift.” Chad’s face instantly turned cold, and he glared at me. “I was gonna get you some screen time on this show…” He kept talking, making it clear what he meant. “I still have some pull in Hollywood. If you don’t drink today, you’re gonna have a hard time getting work.” I understood what he meant. He was gonna blacklist me. “You’re hilarious,” I said. I thought of all the crap I went through, and couldn’t hold back a smile. Chad glared at me. Then he said, “Ashley, your simp still can’t let you go! You make him drink!” Ashley looked pissed. She couldn’t believe Chad was treating her like crap in public. And it was all because I was back in her life. Ashley took the glass and gave it to me. “Just drink it. It’s been ten years, you need to move on.” “Besides, I never really liked you,” she said. I just glared at them. Then, because they wouldn’t let it go, I spilled the beans. “My wife set me up for this show. I’ve been married for years.” “You’re thinking way too highly of yourself. I don’t feel anything for you. And my wife and I are trying to have a baby, so I can’t drink.” I pushed the glass away again, getting annoyed. “You? Who in their right mind would want you?” Chad laughed. Everyone was trying not to laugh, but when Chad laughed, they all cracked up. “Ethan, looks like your wife isn’t anything special. Thought you were dating a sugar mama. Is this the only show she could get you?” “Maybe you should just quit acting. I can find you a decent job that pays way more than you’re making.” “You suck at being a gold digger. I’ll give you some money to buy some decent clothes.” I took a deep breath, fighting back the anger they stirred up about my wife. “Not necessary. But I’m gonna warn you, watch out for karma!” Chad laughed when I said that. “Is that all you got? I thought you were gonna tell us who your wife is! Why won’t you say her name? Is she that embarrassing?” Ashley seemed nervous when she heard I was married, but when she heard that, she gave me a smug look. “Chad’s just trying to help you out, and you’re acting ungrateful,” she said. “That’s how you always were. You gotta stop being so proud. Do you really think you’re some kind of saint?” Hearing that, I felt really disappointed. I thought she’d be a better person this time around, but she was just as bad as before. I ignored them and got up to pay. Chad yelled after me as I walked away. “Ethan, we’re working together! You can’t even drink to us? Are we really gonna make this hard?” Someone else joined in. “Yeah, if you walk out now, we’re gonna make you look bad on the show!” “Why are we even paying attention to him? Is he trying to get famous off of us?” I didn’t look back and paid and left. 3 When I got to the studio in the afternoon, they gave me evil looks, like I owed them money. Filming started out okay, and they were just showing off near the cameras, so I didn’t bother going over. But then they started playing some kind of competitive game, and I had to deal with it. They were all on the same team, and they were messing with me where the cameras couldn’t see. They started getting more aggressive, and it was almost like they were actually trying to hurt me. “Snap!” I felt something snap on my neck. Then I saw Chad holding my necklace. “Give that back. My wife gave me that,” I said, feeling bad. He thought the necklace was fancy and expensive, but when he heard my wife gave it to me, he scoffed. “This is cheap crap. I thought you bought it at a flea market.” Ashley gave me a look when she heard us. Last time around, she only gave me one cheap necklace. I could tell she got the wrong idea. The one she gave me, I tossed after I woke up. This one, my wife gave me. Chad followed my gaze and saw Ashley’s expression. He got furious, snapped the necklace, and threw it on the ground. Ashley glanced at Chad, took a deep breath, patted his back, and said, “It’s just filming a show. Stuff happens. Since my husband broke it, I’ll pay for it. Is five grand enough?” I was pissed at how she was treating me. “This was an anniversary gift. You can’t just put a price on that.” She didn’t even look up. “Fine, I’ll give you another five grand! Ten grand for your necklace.” She was being mean, and all the good memories I had of her went out the window. Time really changes people. “You…never mind. I’m just gonna go,” I said, trying to keep it cool. “You just want money, right? Here, take it. Why are you acting like this?” she snapped, blocking my way. I was sick of dealing with them, so I pushed her and tried to get past. “Move!” Ashley was shocked. She couldn’t believe I was treating her like that. I used to be a simp who did everything she wanted. Even though I didn’t make much money last time, she still lived a pretty good life. But after I woke up, she didn’t get any special treatment from me, and I was actually way worse to her. She was thinking about the past and didn’t notice Chad turning red. “You’re dead!” Chad yelled and kicked me in the chest, forgetting they were filming. Everyone around us got ready to throw down. I kept dodging them and tried to fight back. Some of them were already on the ground, crying. Just when they were starting to hesitate, Chad yelled, “Just cut this out! I’ll take the blame! Do it!” I kept my distance from them, not panicking at all. This was being filmed, this was a stage accident. I just needed to wait for the staff and security to come and break it up. “Bang!” I heard a loud noise above me, then I felt a lot of pain. I was seeing stars, and blood was dripping from my forehead. When I looked back, I saw Ashley holding a bloody microphone, looking ice cold. “I love you, Ashley!” Chad yelled 4 The people who were about to beat me up freaked out when they saw me lying on the ground bleeding. They were just there to get paid, and they only went after me ’cause Chad was a big star. Now that something actually happened, they all backed away and tried to act like they had nothing to do with Chad. The blood seemed to bring out Chad’s animal side, and he was about to start hitting me again. Just then, a woman’s voice came from behind the stage. “Stop it!” she yelled. Chad’s eyes went back to normal, and he looked stunned when he saw who it was. “Willow Hayes? You’re the special guest the director mentioned?” Everyone in the room was excited. “The director went all out, even getting an Oscar winner!” “She’s the biggest star in Hollywood right now! Winning awards for acting, singing, everything!” “I wish I could be in Willow’s management company!” The actress made everyone nervous. Willow just finished filming for the day and wanted to check things out. But when she got to the studio, it was chaos. “Chad? What happened?” Willow glared at everyone, and the people who felt guilty started shaking. She’s one of the top talents and has a lot of power, and a ton of resources. If anyone could get in with her, they’d be set for life. “Sorry, Willow, we were just doing the game the director told us to do,” Chad lied. “But someone wasn’t following the rules and tried to harass my wife, so I lost it.” Chad was putting all the blame on me. Willow looked at the necklace on the ground, didn’t see me, and frowned. “Willow, my head hurts. Can you help me up?” I heard my wife say, sounding dazed. Chad swore when he heard my voice. “Who the hell are you to call Willow by her name?” Willow ran over to me, looking worried. “Honey, what happened?”

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My coworker Ashley loved playing the “crazy outspoken” card. But the weird thing was, every time she had one of her meltdowns, I was the one who got hurt. She’d go off on the boss about working late, calling him a corporate slave driver, just so she could duck out early. But somehow, I was the one who ended up getting fired. I became the office pariah everyone hated, while she somehow got praised for being “real.” People started avoiding me, muttering about me being unstable, maybe even dangerous. My own parents were disgusted with me. My boyfriend, Mike, told me I should just disappear. After taking the fall for her again and again, I started thinking something was seriously wrong. I decided to dig deeper. Big mistake. Ashley and Mike cornered me, locked me in an industrial freezer, and left me to die. Only then did I finally learn Ashley’s secret. When I opened my eyes again, I was back. Back to my first day on the job, the same day Ashley started. This time? Oh, this time things were going to be different. 1 “I’m here to work, not be your goddamn slave.” “It’s quitting time! You can’t just keep us here! You pay us peanuts, you expect us to sell our souls for this dump?” “You greedy corporate vampires! Even medieval lords weren’t this messed up!” The shouting jolted me fully awake. I realized, I’m back. I really got a second chance. Across the office, Ashley was ripping into our supervisor, Mr. Henderson. She was the new girl, started today, same as me. After just one day, I’d pegged her as brutally honest, someone who stood up against unfairness. If something bugged her, she let you know. Immediately. Just like last time. The clock hit five, and she was instantly on her feet, grabbing her bag, making a scene. “You gotta stand up to these tyrants,” she announced loudly to the open office. “Otherwise, they’ll walk all over you your whole life.” Mr. Henderson tried to reason with her, stepping in her path. Ashley just slung her trendy tote over her shoulder, ready to bolt. He started getting mad, puffing up. “Your work isn’t finished. Leaving without permission is abandoning your post. I can terminate you for this…” He didn’t even finish the sentence. Ashley shoved him – not hard, but definitely a push – right in the chest. “Look at this pathetic power trip!” she yelled. “Threatening me now?” Last time, I’d been worried she’d lose her job on the first day. I tried to calm her down, told her to just bite her tongue for now. Her response? She’d sneered at me. “People like you, total doormats? You’ll never amount to anything.” So, I shut up. Figured she needed to learn the hard way. Seeing Mr. Henderson’s face turn purple, I braced for Ashley to get chewed out, maybe even fired on the spot. But then, the impossible happened. Again. He stormed past her, rage practically steaming off him, and stopped right at my desk, pointing a shaking finger at me. “Chloe! Pack your stuff and get out! You’re fired!” I was stunned. Speechless. “Wait… what? Ashley was the one yelling at you! Why are you firing me?” I stammered, trying to make sense of it. Suddenly, other coworkers chimed in, backing her up. “I saw the whole thing, Chloe. You were screaming at him. Now you’re trying to blame Ashley?” said Sarah from accounting. “Yeah, we all saw it! How can you lie like that?” added Kevin from marketing. I wanted to scream, to argue, but their next words just confused me even more. “Ashley just complained a little,” someone else muttered, loud enough for me to hear. “But Chloe actually pushed him! She totally snapped! No wonder she got fired.” “Yeah, getting physical changes everything. She’s way too aggressive.” And then Ashley, putting on a show of fake concern, rushed over. “Oh, Chloe was just trying to… stand up for herself, maybe? I’ll go talk to Mr. Henderson, see if I can smooth things over.” She hurried off towards his office, playing the hero. My coworkers murmured about how kind and brave Ashley was. But it wasn’t me. None of it was me. Why did everyone think it was? Filled with confusion and desperation, I followed Ashley and managed to apologize profusely to Mr. Henderson, somehow talking my way back into keeping the job, at least for now. 2 After that incident, Ashley’s “keeping it real” act got even bolder. She managed to piss off practically everyone in the company. And without fail, every single person she offended came looking for me. “Chloe, how could you be so vicious?” They dumped all their anger onto me. Ashley knocked over someone’s fancy latte? The victim would “accidentally” spill scalding water on my arm later. Ashley overwatered and killed someone’s prized desk plant? The owner would passive-aggressively jab me with a cactus clipping. When Ashley deleted a huge project file someone had worked on for weeks, the coworker went ballistic, complaining straight to management. And every time, Ashley would swoop in, pretending to plead my case. “Chloe, jobs are hard to find right now. Just hang in there, it’ll blow over,” she’d tell me with fake sympathy. But I hadn’t done any of it! Why should I have to “hang in there” while people abused me for things she did? Could she… could she be setting me up somehow? That night, I went home and told my boyfriend, Mike, everything. Instead of support, he attacked me. “What’s wrong with you, Chloe? You’re getting so paranoid. Ashley’s been nothing but nice, helping you out, and you’re backstabbing her?” “Ashley’s a sweetheart! She wouldn’t hurt a fly!” I froze. Mike and Ashley… didn’t know each other. Or so I thought. “How do you know Ashley? I’ve never even mentioned her name to you before.” Mike’s face shifted, his tone suddenly harsh. “Isn’t she like, some kind of influencer? I saw her stuff online, maybe a live stream. She seems totally genuine, really kind. Not like you, flying off the handle all the time. What are you, completely unhinged?” His reaction felt so wrong. My gut screamed that something was going on between them. I started trying to discreetly find out what was happening. But I wasn’t careful enough. They caught on. That evening, I walked into my apartment, and everything went black. Someone hit me from behind. When I came to, I was crammed inside… a freezer. My mouth was taped shut. And standing there, laughing cruelly, was Mike, with his arm wrapped around Ashley. “If you’d just played along, Chloe, it wouldn’t have come to this. Always so suspicious,” Mike sneered. “You probably never figured it out, huh? Ashley’s my childhood friend. Like a sister.” “And you? You were just useful. A tool.” With that, they slammed the freezer door shut. I heard the metallic rattle and clank of a heavy chain being wrapped around it, locking me in. I thrashed wildly, screaming against the tape, banging on the insulated walls, but it was useless. The cold seeped into me, deeper and deeper, until everything faded. I froze to death. 3 This time, I wasn’t going to be Ashley’s puppet. Just before she made the move to push Mr. Henderson, I faked a sudden dizzy spell, crumpling to the floor. All eyes immediately turned to me, completely derailing Ashley’s planned outburst. Lying in a hospital bed later (they’d called an ambulance as a precaution), I racked my brain. Why? Why did everyone see me doing the things she did? How could they all be so convinced? Was it possible Ashley had somehow gotten the entire office in on some massive, elaborate prank to mess with me? It seemed insane, but what else could it be? To avoid the nightmare I knew was coming, I typed up my resignation that night and emailed it in. Screw that job. As for Mike? A quick “We’re done” text, then block and delete. Good riddance to both of them. Let the trash take itself out. I thought maybe, just maybe, this time I could escape them, live a quiet life. But things went sideways again, fast. My mom came up from her town to visit. We went shopping. I stepped out of the mall restroom, and suddenly, right there in the crowded corridor, my mom slapped me. Hard. Across the face. In front of everyone. My head spun. I stared at her, utterly bewildered. “You… you ungrateful monster!” she shrieked, tears streaming down her face. “I raised you, loved you, and you hit me? How could I have raised such a violent child?” “From now on, you’re dead to me! I don’t have a daughter!” A crowd gathered instantly, whispering, pointing. “Oh my god, did you see that? She hit her own mother!” “Shhh, keep your voice down, she looks crazy. What if she comes after us?” I tried desperately to explain. “Mom, what are you talking about? I just went to the bathroom, I told you where I was going!” “I wasn’t even near you! How could I have hit you?” The whispers around me grew louder. “Sick! I saw her do it with my own eyes! And now she’s denying it? What a psycho.” My mom just gave me one last look, full of utter disappointment and disgust, then turned and walked away, leaving me there alone amidst the judging stares. Could this… could this be Ashley again? How? Frantically, I pulled out my phone and checked Ashley’s social media. And there it was. A video, posted just minutes ago. It showed the entrance to the restrooms. Ashley bumps into my mom, seemingly by accident. Then, facing the camera (clearly, someone was filming for her), Ashley starts laying into my mom. “Excuse me, lady! Watch where you’re going! You bumped me, you need to apologize!” My mom, indignant, fires back. “You bumped into me, young lady! And you should apologize! Are you blind?” The next second in the video… I walk out of the restroom. And I slap my mom. Hard. “You bumped her! I saw it! Apologize!” the video-me snarls. My mom looks utterly shocked, horrified. Then, the video-me grabs my mom by the hair and starts hitting her again and again. “I said apologize! Apologize!” Ashley rushes in, pretending to break it up. “Chloe! Stop! I didn’t know that was your mom! It was just an accident, please don’t hurt her!” The comments section below the video was exploding. All praising Ashley, condemning me. “Ashley is so brave, calling out bad behavior like that!” “But wow, Chloe is terrifying. Even if her mom was wrong, you don’t just attack her like that!” “Look at the rage in her eyes! She wanted to kill her own mother! People like that are dangerous.” I felt like I was going to throw up. Watching that video… watching myself act like a monster… my whole body started shaking uncontrollably. That was my mom. How could I? How could I hit her like that? So brutally? If the office stuff could maybe, possibly, have been some kind of mass delusion or conspiracy… this was different. My own mother wouldn’t lie about this. And the video… that was me. It looked exactly like me. In that moment, hopelessness washed over me. Crushing, absolute despair. It felt like no matter where I went, what I did, I couldn’t escape this twisted fate. 4 The weight of it all was suffocating. Was this it? Was my entire life destined to be lived in Ashley’s shadow? She gets the fame, the adoration, the perfect life built on lies, while I become the monster everyone spits on? The feeling was unbearable. It pushed me, step by step, up onto the rooftop of my apartment building. The wind whipped around me. The street below looked so far away. Just as I leaned forward, ready to let go, a hand clamped firmly onto my arm. I jerked back, startled. Standing there was an older woman. Maybe late sixties, with sharp, intelligent eyes and an unnervingly calm expression. She looked… different. Not homeless, but perhaps living outside the mainstream. Her clothes were simple, maybe a bit eccentric. “You’ve died once already,” she said, her voice quiet but resonant. “Are you really going to choose the same path again? Do you truly want to give up?” Give up? No. I didn’t want to give up. I was furious. I was heartbroken. But I wasn’t ready to let them win. Not really. But what could I do? The woman pulled me back from the edge. She studied me intently for a long moment, her gaze piercing. “Someone’s put a curse on you, child,” she stated finally, matter-of-factly. “Something that controls you.” My breath hitched. It felt like grabbing onto a lifeline in a raging storm. I stumbled forward, grabbing her arm desperately. I sank to my knees on the rough rooftop gravel. “Please,” I choked out, tears finally breaking free. “Please, can you help me? I’ll do anything!” She watched me for another long moment, then sighed softly. “Alright. Seeing as you’re in such a state… perhaps I can help. Just this once.” She looked me up and down again, then her lips moved silently for a moment. She gave a subtle flick of her wrist, almost like brushing something away, but aimed towards my own wrist. “That bracelet on your wrist,” she asked sharply. “Where did you get it?” I looked down. The delicate silver chain bracelet Mike had given me. I tried to unclasp it, show it to her, but the clasp wouldn’t budge. It felt fused together. “My… my boyfriend gave it to me.” A sharp pang went through my chest. Mike. He’d told me over and over again, this was a special charm he’d gotten blessed for me. A protection amulet. Wear it always, Chloe. Never take it off. And I hadn’t. Ever. All this time… the source of my nightmare… was this bracelet. “There’s a binding hex woven into the cord of that bracelet,” the woman explained. “It holds a sympathetic link. That other girl, the one causing the trouble… she holds the master link, the trigger. When she commits an act of violence or aggression, the hex redirects the action, making it manifest through you, through the link in the bracelet.” I stared at her, hope surging through me. “Can you… can you break it? Remove the hex?” Her expression turned grim. “It’s been too long. The link has… rooted itself too deeply into your energy, almost into your very being. It can’t be simply undone. Not quickly, anyway.” The fragile hope shattered, leaving me aching and empty again. I slumped onto the ground, the fight draining out of me. What was the point? “But,” she continued, pulling something from a worn leather pouch at her side, “that doesn’t mean there’s nothing to be done. Here.” She pressed a small, antique-looking brass mirror into my hand. It felt cool and surprisingly heavy. “Take this. It can shield you. Keep it with you always.” 5 Back in my apartment, away from the rooftop and the strange old woman (who hadn’t even given me her name, just told me to call her Ms. Evelyn if I needed her again), I grabbed a pair of heavy-duty wire cutters. I had to get this cursed bracelet off. But no matter how hard I squeezed, the cutters couldn’t even scratch the silver chain. It was unnaturally strong. Worse, every attempt sent a wave of searing pain through my body. It felt like fire licking at my insides, trying to burn me up from within. Gasping, I fumbled for the brass mirror Ms. Evelyn had given me. The moment my fingers closed around its cool metal surface, the pain vanished. Instantly. Completely. From that moment on, I never let the mirror leave my side. Kept it in my pocket, my purse, under my pillow at night. And soon, things started to change. Ashley, apparently unaware that her curse wasn’t working on me anymore, pulled another one of her stunts. This time, she got into a shouting match with a mother in a park and ended up slapping the woman’s three-year-old kid. Hard. The kid’s father saw it. He went absolutely ballistic. He didn’t hold back, laying into Ashley, leaving her bruised and sobbing on the ground. Someone filmed the whole thing, and that video went viral. This time, the video showed Ashley, clear as day, hitting the child, screaming, “Shut up, you little brat!” The comments section flipped. Gone was the praise, replaced with pure outrage. “Ashley! Wtf? How could you hit a little kid like that??” “So the whole ‘sweetheart’ thing was just an act? She’s actually a monster!” Ashley must have realized her usual trick hadn’t worked – the blame hadn’t magically transferred to me. Furious and confused, she stormed over to my apartment and pounded on the door. “Chloe! What did you do? What tricks did you pull?” she shrieked the moment I opened it. Her eyes landed on the brass mirror I instinctively held tight in my hand. She snatched it away from me, then immediately turned her phone towards me, hitting ‘record’ for a live stream. “Chloe, how could you?” she started, instantly switching to her victim persona, tears welling up. “Don’t you guys see? This mirror… it’s evil! It’s an artifact she’s using to control people!” “I knew something was wrong! I haven’t been myself lately! She’s been using this thing to manipulate me, making me do things!” “I thought she was my friend,” she sobbed dramatically, “and she was hexing me the whole time!” 6 Instantly, the tide of online opinion, which had just turned against Ashley, swung violently back towards her. Her followers, easily swayed, bought her new story hook, line, and sinker. “See! I knew Ashley was too good to be true! Chloe must have forced her!” “Only a psycho like Chloe would stoop to using dark magic!” “Hitting a kid? That sounds exactly like something evil Chloe would do!” “Remember she hit her own mom? She’s clearly possessed or something!” “This is terrifying! Is there any way to stop her?” The same people who were calling Ashley a monster moments ago were now back to defending her, aiming all their venom at me. I became the villain again. Curses and threats flooded the chat, raining down on me. Ashley, basking in the renewed support, stood tall, holding the mirror like some kind of trophy. “Okay everyone, I need to be honest with you,” she announced gravely to her live audience. “I’m… sensitive to these things. Energies. The moment I met Chloe, I felt something dark around her. This mirror…” she held it up dramatically, “…it’s a tool of control. She used it on me, and who knows who else she planned to target?” “Imagine! She could commit any crime, do anything horrible, and just use this thing to blame it on innocent people! It’s terrifying!” Her words whipped her followers into a frenzy. “What a twisted, evil bitch! Trying to control people to get away with her crimes!” “If she can do that, nobody’s safe! Society would collapse!” “Someone call the cops! Get her locked up before she hurts someone else!” I lunged for the mirror, trying to grab it back while Ashley was distracted by her phone. “It’s not evil! It’s just a mirror an old woman gave me for protection!” I yelled desperately. “Ashley’s the one who put a curse on me! This mirror just blocks it! Don’t believe her lies!” But Ashley easily sidestepped me, tightening her grip on the mirror. “Still denying it?” she sneered, playing to the camera. “If this mirror isn’t evil, why are you so desperate to get it back?” “And that ‘old woman’? Probably her accomplice! Making cursed objects to help her!” “I’ve already been corrupted by her evil! Are you going to let her harm others?” Before I could react, Ashley raised the mirror high above her head and slammed it down hard onto the floor. CRACK! The sound echoed, but I felt it inside my head, like something shattering within my own skull. An unbearable pressure exploded behind my eyes. My legs buckled. I collapsed, hitting the floor hard. My body started convulsing uncontrollably, thrashing on the carpet. White foam flecked my lips. It felt like I was burning alive from the inside out. I tried to scream for help, but only garbled sounds came out. Through the haze of agony, I saw Ashley, standing over me, pointing her phone camera down. Her expression was one of mock pity and horror. “Oh my god, look!” she gasped to her audience. “The evil energy… it consumed her when the object broke! She’s lost control!” “I… I hope destroying the mirror helped her somehow. Maybe it released her?” “But honestly,” she added, a little harder, “she brought this on herself. If she hadn’t had such evil intentions in the first place, none of this would have happened.” The chat scrolled wildly with messages: “Ashley you’re so brave!” “Poor Ashley, having to deal with this!” “Chloe got what she deserved!” Ashley kept filming, occasionally nudging a shard of the broken mirror with her foot. Each time she touched a piece, a fresh wave of agony ripped through me. The pain was overwhelming, a black tide pulling me under. I coughed, a spray of blood hitting the carpet, and then everything went dark. The next thing I knew, I was staring up at the concerned face of Ms. Evelyn.

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It all started a few months back. One day, I was just killing time scrolling through TikTok when I randomly saw something about applying for a marriage license online through the state website. My boyfriend, Mark Evans, and I had been living together for about six months. We work in the same field; Mark’s five years older and is the associate editor at one of the big city papers. We met covering the same news event. He liked my work ethic and tried to recruit me to his paper. I turned him down, but we hit it off and got close pretty quickly. Mark had that smart, thoughtful vibe you get from guys who read a lot. Plus, he was funny, charming, tall, and handsome. Two months later, things just clicked, and we were officially together. He was driven at work, pulling all-nighters to chase a story, but he was always sweet and considerate to me. In the six months we were together, we never fought once. He remembered every anniversary and holiday, always with a thoughtful gift. Then came the surprise – you play with fire, you get burned. I got pregnant. When I told him, Mark said he was right in the middle of a major career push, and I was still technically an intern at my paper. Having a baby right now wasn’t great for either of our careers. He made sense, so I went to see a doctor. Unexpectedly, the doctor told me I have an arcuate uterus – kinda saddle-shaped. She said an abortion procedure would likely damage it, making it really hard to get pregnant again later. She strongly recommended keeping the baby. I passed the doctor’s advice onto Mark. He hesitated for just a second, then didn’t argue anymore. He promised me that as soon as things settled down at work, we’d go get the marriage license. So, when I saw that online marriage license application thing, it seemed kinda cool, like something fun to try out. I eagerly went to the state services portal, selected “Marriage License Application,” but no dice. I tried a few times, and it failed every time. That felt weird. Usually, if the site’s busy, you get an error message. But this was just… failure, no explanation. Something clicked. I switched over to the “Verify Marital Status” option – I know, kinda sketchy, but I had a bad feeling. The result hit me like a ton of bricks: Mark Evans was already married. I was the other woman?! Touching my belly, I just sat there, stunned, unable to process it. As a journalist, I’ve seen plenty of messed-up situations and ugly truths about people. But I couldn’t believe the man I shared my bed with for half a year could deceive me like this. Mark, the guy I thought was my perfect match, was just another cheating scumbag. I leaned back on the sofa, taking deep breaths to calm the storm inside me. Mark had covered his tracks incredibly well. I even had a few friends at his newspaper, and none of them knew he was married. How could I possibly get justice for myself against someone so meticulous, someone with a decent reputation in the journalism world? Was breaking up my only option? That evening, Mark cooked a nice dinner. I forced a smile while we ate, but my mind was racing. Were all those times he claimed to be working late actually spent with his wife? Did he cook for her at home too, laughing and talking with another woman…? I tossed and turned all night. Once I was sure Mark was fast asleep, I grabbed his phone, unlocked it with the passcode I’d sneakily memorized, and slipped into the bathroom to snoop. Well, wasn’t that a kick in the teeth. Mark wasn’t just married; he had a three-year-old son, a cute little guy. There was a family photo – the three of them, smiling, looking perfectly happy and sweet. Everything proved I was just some homewrecker. My hands wouldn’t stop shaking; I could barely hold the phone. It was almost funny, in a sick way. Usually, it’s the wife checking her husband’s phone for evidence of an affair. Here I was, the mistress, checking his phone for info on the wife. I managed a bitter smirk, but tears streamed down my face, hitting the dark screen. The phone reflected my tear-streaked, pathetic face back at me. That night, Mark slept soundly, his breathing deep and even. I didn’t sleep a wink, just listened to him breathe in the darkness, replaying every moment of our time together. Even now, part of me didn’t want to believe I’d fallen for a complete lie. I remembered that first assignment where we met – there was a minor landslide, and his first instinct was to shield me with his body. When we were out walking, he’d naturally kneel down to tie my shoelace if it came undone. Passing by a bridal shop, he’d excitedly talk about what our wedding would be like. And the ring he gave me – he said it was to lock me down, to cherish me forever… Tears soaked the pillow, dampening that soft spot deep inside me. A desperate, self-deceiving thought popped into my head. Maybe… maybe he and his wife had fallen out of love? Maybe he was planning to divorce her and then tell me the truth? 2 The next day, I put on some light makeup to hide the dark circles from my sleepless night and took a cab to the neighborhood near Mark’s house – his real house. There’s that cynical online joke: How do you deceive a woman? The top answer is: You don’t have to. If she loves you, she’ll deceive herself. My first reaction to seeing that was scorn. I thought I was a modern, rational woman. But faced with this, I realized I was just like most women, clinging to the slimmest hope against deceit. I needed to see what kind of woman Mark’s wife was. If she was crass, or let herself go, maybe my desperate theory held water… A thousand thoughts spun in my head as I slowly walked towards the residential complex. A chilling sensation started low in my belly. Maybe it was the lack of sleep, but I felt dizzy and weak, my breathing getting heavier. A man walking towards me bumped my shoulder lightly. My legs buckled, and I just crumpled to the sidewalk. “What the hell! Are you trying to pull a scam?” The man jumped back, pointing around. “Look, there are cameras everywhere! If you’re looking for a payout, try somewhere else.” I weakly shook my head, trying to ask him to help me up, but he just shot me an annoyed glare and walked off. The cold feeling in my abdomen intensified, followed by a sharp, stabbing pain. Something warm started trickling down my thigh… Blood. My hands trembled as I fumbled for my phone to call 911, but it was like all my strength had vanished. The phone slipped from my grasp, hit the pavement, and the screen went black. “Miss? Miss, are you okay?” An older woman rushed over to help me, but when she saw the blood, she abruptly pulled her hand back, stepped away, and yelled, “Oh my God, blood!” “Help me… call 911…” I begged, my lips trembling, my voice barely a whisper. A crowd was gathering, but no one stepped forward to help. Waves of pain washed over me. As I lost more blood, my consciousness started to fade. Just before everything went dark, someone finally took my icy hand. A gentle but firm voice said in my ear, “Don’t worry, the ambulance is almost here.” Her hand felt warm and steady, giving me a thread of hope to cling to. I looked up fuzzily at her face, and then everything went black… “Nurse, today’s my son’s birthday, I really need to get home. Could you please keep an extra eye on her?” I heard muffled voices outside the hospital room door as I slowly opened my eyes, staring blankly at the white ceiling tiles. “Oh, you’re awake?” A nurse came in and handed me a small piece of paper. “Someone already paid your medical bills. Here’s her contact info. You really lucked out meeting someone so kind.” I nodded my thanks and took the note. Written in neat, elegant handwriting was a name, Jessica Miller, and a phone number. I’d actually been awake for a while, just didn’t know how to face her, so I pretended to be asleep. Jessica Miller. Mark’s wife. I never imagined we’d meet like this. That evening, I didn’t call Mark. I didn’t tell him the baby was gone. Among all those cold, indifferent onlookers, Jessica was the only one who reached out, who offered warmth. Her son deserved a happy, perfect birthday party. Mark needed to be there. Consider it my way of repaying her kindness. 3 Late that night, alone in the cold hospital bed, staring into the darkness, I replayed everything that had happened since I found out I was pregnant. It was laughable how I thought I was so smart. I had to admit it – Mark had played me, completely. Earlier, the doctor had explained something to me. Certain medications, especially when taken improperly or mixed, could be incredibly dangerous during pregnancy, potentially causing severe bleeding if the dosage wasn’t exact. She mentioned something that shouldn’t be ingested during pregnancy. I’d never bought or taken anything like that. I genuinely wanted this baby. Ever since I found out, I hadn’t eaten out once, carefully preparing all my own food. The only person who could have tampered with my meals… was Mark. Thank God they got me to the hospital quickly. The baby was gone, but my uterus was okay. I could still be a mother someday. I calmly thanked the doctor, but inside, it felt like someone was twisting a knife in my gut, shredding everything. This man… he hadn’t just played with my feelings; he’d actively tried to harm my body this way. And I’d actually spent the previous night trying to make excuses for him, hoping he had some hidden reason. The truth was, he wasn’t just a deceitful, cheating liar; he was a cold-blooded monster. No, even animals protect their young. Mark Evans… he was worse than an animal. My fists clenched slowly in the silent darkness, the sound of my knuckles cracking echoing faintly. The next day, still weak, I went back to our apartment. Just as I expected, the kitchen trash was empty. No trace of whatever he might have used. Mark found out the baby was gone and rushed back, pretending to be worried, showering me with fake concern, blaming himself for not taking better care of me. Looking at his phony face made me sick to my stomach. I just told him I was tired and curled up in bed, not wanting to waste a single word on him. Losing the baby that way was hard on my body. I took a month off work to recover. During the first week, I used every contact I had to dig up everything I could on Mark and Jessica. A plan started forming in my mind. My feelings about Jessica were complicated. I was grateful she’d helped me when I was on the verge of death. But she and Mark were husband and wife. My revenge against Mark would inevitably affect her. After thinking it over and over, once I felt physically stronger, the first person I contacted was Jessica. She looked just as she had the first time I saw her – a well-fitting business suit, hair pulled back neatly, projecting an air of sharp, sophisticated beauty that made you look twice. We met at a quiet coffee shop. Jessica ordered an iced Americano after sitting down. I secretly breathed a sigh of relief – if things got heated and she decided to throw her coffee at me, at least it wouldn’t be scalding hot. “Thank you for taking me to the hospital that day,” I started. “Don’t mention it. After all, we’re practically acquaintances,” Jessica replied, a faint smile playing on her lips. I was slightly taken aback. That day was definitely the first time we’d met. Jessica stirred her coffee elegantly. “Chloe Davis, editor at the Metro Journal,” she said slowly, her red lips forming the words clearly. “You’re Mark’s mistress. I’m Mark’s wife. Wouldn’t you say that makes us acquaintances?” I thought Jessica would be the one shocked when the truth came out. Instead, I was the one stunned into silence. “You knew?” I managed to ask, my voice strained. Jessica shook her head. “Not for long. When I took you to the hospital, I was trying to find an emergency contact in your phone. Let’s just say I saw some things I wasn’t supposed to.” “So I hired a private investigator. Looked into you two,” Jessica’s eyes held a flicker of disdain. “Did you ask me here today to lay it all out? Ask me to step aside?” I watched her quietly. Jessica was even smarter than I thought, and she had incredible composure. That was good. It increased the chances of my plan succeeding. “Did your private investigator tell you how I lost my baby?” My voice was ice cold. Jessica raised an eyebrow, shaking her head slightly. “Mark slipped something into my food. Something that caused me to lose the baby. It almost killed me too – I hemorrhaged, nearly bled out.” As a mother herself, the pain of losing a child struck a chord with Jessica. A flash of pity crossed her eyes before she looked down and took a sip of her coffee. My research indicated that Jessica’s father had left her mother for another woman when Jessica was in elementary school. Her mother poured everything into her work, building up her investment company over the years, but had little time left for Jessica. Because of her family history, Jessica had even seen a therapist. Betrayal within a family was something she likely couldn’t tolerate. After a long silence, I laid my cards on the table. “Mark hid his marriage from me. That’s the only reason I dated him. He betrayed his marriage, and he hurt me badly. I don’t plan on letting him get away with it. What about you?” Jessica pressed her lips together, then suddenly looked up, a bright smile spreading across her face. “Perhaps… we should team up.” We looked at each other and smiled, raising our coffee cups in a silent toast. The alliance was formed. Mark Evans. Everything he valued – his career, his ambition, his money, his reputation – we were going to destroy it all. Leave nothing behind.

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My family went bankrupt. My dad jumped off a building and died. My mom took the money and ran off with her boy toy. And my weak, useless brother? He handed me over to the guy we owed money to, Liam Carter. A year later, one dark and stormy night, Liam slammed me against the wall, slapped me hard across the face, then wrapped his arm around the woman he truly loved and walked away. A moment later, I felt a sickening trickle down my leg. A pool of bright red blood spread beneath me… Megan was wearing the expensive designer gown that should have been mine. She stood in front of me, smugness practically dripping off her, mocking me. “Sarah, who are you trying to impress with that high-and-mighty act now?” I just sat there on the sofa, didn’t even bother looking up. That seemed to annoy her. She clicked across the floor in her sky-high heels, planting herself right in front of me, blocking my view. I had no choice but to look up at her then. Megan sniffed, her expression radiating superiority. “Sarah, you’re nothing but Liam’s plaything now. I, on the other hand, am his—” Before she could finish, I was on my feet. Crack. The sound echoed as I slapped her hard across the face. My eyes were cold, like ice daggers aimed right at her. “Megan,” I said, my voice chillingly calm, “my baby is gone. You think I give a damn about any of this anymore?” The sharp slap and my ice-cold words silenced the entire mansion. “Sarah, how dare you hit me?” Megan clutched her cheek, eyes wide with disbelief, looking like a feral cat about to scratch. “I hit you. So what? Did I need to make an appointment?” My voice was flat, emotionless. Not even a ripple disturbed the dead calm in my eyes. After Liam slapped me, after I lost the baby, nothing could really hurt me anymore. I used to love Liam. Back when my brother handed me over to him, a tiny part of me felt a flicker of relief. After all, I had saved Liam’s life once. As for now… hah. Liam Carter? Who the hell does he think he is? The household staff, who’d never seen this side of me, just stood there, stunned into silence. That’s when Liam walked in. Liam’s face, the one I used to admire, looked… ordinary now. Nothing special. His expression was filled with impatience, his eyes sharp as knives as he looked at me. “Tsk—Sarah, what are you causing trouble about now?” His words instantly fueled Megan’s simmering resentment. She clutched her cheek, big tears welling up, looking utterly pitiful. I’m not the type to feel sorry for damsels in distress. No one ever felt sorry for me. My gaze shifted to Liam, a flicker of something—maybe defiance?—in my eyes. Then, completely unexpectedly, I swung my hand and slapped him. He clearly didn’t see it coming. He lunged, grabbing a fistful of my hair and slapping me back, hard. I looked at him calmly, the flicker in my eyes gone. I raised my hand and shoved him away with all my strength. I stumbled back a few steps, wiping a trickle of blood from the corner of my mouth with the back of my hand. Then, I started laughing. Laughing right at Liam and Megan. I laughed at Liam’s stupidity. The great Liam Carter, CEO of Carter Corp, played like a fool by a two-faced snake like Megan. He couldn’t even get his savior right. But I had revenge on my mind, so I wasn’t about to correct him. I stopped laughing, my voice flat again. “Liam, the debt my family owed you? I’ve earned it back for you, doubled. I don’t owe you anything.” I paused, then added, “Liam, you need to remember this: You owe me the life of my child!” My words seemed to hit a nerve. He grabbed my throat, squeezing until I could barely breathe. He looked down at me, contemptuously. “Sarah, who do you think you are? That thing in your belly was worthless.” I struggled with everything I had, prying his fingers off my neck. I staggered back a step. “Liam, our agreement is over. I owe you nothing. From now on, we go our separate ways.” “Sarah, get the hell out!” Liam pointed towards the mansion’s front door, utterly devoid of his usual composure. I stumbled out, not looking back once as I left the Carter residence behind me. 2: Reunion Two years later, JFK International Airport, New York City. I pulled open the door of the black Maybach and slid inside. Ethan Vance, in the driver’s seat, turned around with a smile. “Sarah, welcome back.” Then he added, “Carter Corp is the best potential partner for this project. The bid will probably go to them. Sarah, how are you feeling about that? Are you ready?” I stared out the window at the city skyline, familiar yet strangely distant. Ethan’s words didn’t stir anything in me. After a moment, I replied quietly, “Ethan, what are you worried about? I never mix business with personal matters. Besides, Liam Carter and I have nothing to do with each other anymore.” Ethan knew my past. Two years ago, when I was broken and scarred, Ethan had appeared and offered me a hand. I asked him why he wanted to help me. He stood under a tree, sunlight filtering through the leaves, casting a golden glow on him, like an angel. Ethan had smiled and said, “Sarah, you’re a Wall Street whiz. Helping you is a good investment.” My weak, useless brother had said something similar to Liam when he handed me over after the bankruptcy. He’d said: Mr. Carter, you know my sister. She’s a big shot on Wall Street. Taking her as payment isn’t a bad deal for you. And it wasn’t. In one year, I’d earned back double what my family owed Liam. After meeting Ethan, he helped me get away from NYC, far away. And I helped him make a fortune. In just two years, Vance Enterprises had become a major publicly listed company. Now, Vance Enterprises wasn’t satisfied with its current market share; it was pushing into the tech sector. I was back as the head of Vance’s new tech subsidiary, which meant attending countless meetings and events alongside Ethan. I saw Liam again three days after I returned, at a business gala Ethan hosted. I wore a gold, off-the-shoulder evening gown, my arm linked with Ethan’s. We stood in the center of the ballroom, fielding compliments and business chatter from NYC’s corporate elite. Liam arrived late, just as the party was winding down. As he approached, champagne glass in hand, my expression remained perfectly placid, like looking at still water. I kept my arm linked with Ethan’s and gave Liam a polite, elegant nod as he came over to toast Ethan. Then, I looked away, treating him like a complete stranger. My indifference seemed to anger Liam. He took a large stride forward. A faint, tight smile played on his lips. “Sarah,” he said. “Long time no see.” Beside me, Ethan stiffened slightly. He glanced at me, lowering his voice. “You know him?” I shook my head gently. “Never met him.” Liam, Ethan, and I had all grown up in the same circles in NYC. Plus, the fact that Ethan had helped me leave the country two years ago wasn’t exactly a secret among the city’s elite. Ethan’s question felt a little staged, but I didn’t dwell on it. Liam reached out, as if to grab my arm. Ethan moved faster. He stepped smoothly between us, shielding me and blocking any direct confrontation. He looked at Liam, his eyes holding a clear warning, his voice hardening noticeably. “Mr. Carter, please don’t bother Sarah.” Liam froze, clearly stunned that Ethan would be so blunt, so disrespectful. He swallowed his anger, turning his head slightly to look past Ethan at me. “Sarah,” he said, his voice tight, “two years away seems to have given you some nerve.” I didn’t want a scene at the gala. I just said coolly, “Mr. Carter, I’ve always been capable. Otherwise, Carter Corp wouldn’t be where it is today.” Liam looked like he wanted to say more, but Ethan cut him off. He put his arm around my waist, pulling me close into his side. He leaned down, whispering intimately near my ear, “Sarah, let me handle this.” I didn’t really care about Liam, but Ethan seemed to think I was trying to escape the situation. I couldn’t exactly explain, so I just smiled and thanked him quietly. Liam stood rooted to the spot, watching Ethan and me move through the ballroom, looking close. He jammed his clenched fists into his suit pockets. 3: Unwanted Entanglement I used to have friends in NYC. Now that I was back after two years, meeting up for coffee seemed inevitable. As I walked into the coffee shop, I suddenly remembered: the Carter Corp building was right nearby. I sat listlessly in a booth by the window, waiting for my friend. But before she arrived, Liam Carter pulled out the chair opposite me and sat down. I was genuinely surprised. Liam, always so meticulous about appearances and prestige, would never normally set foot in a place like this. What was he doing here today? But seeing him, my heart remained perfectly still. Liam, however, clearly wasn’t calm. His eyes held some emotion I couldn’t decipher, not that I cared to try. “Mr. Carter, quite the leisurely day for you,” I said, breaking the silence first. My next words dripped with sarcasm. “I doubt Mr. Carter is accustomed to this kind of coffee. After all, the life of an ordinary person like me clashes terribly with Mr. Carter’s exquisite luxury.” With one sentence, I drew a clear line between us. Liam bristled immediately, but for some reason, he held back his anger. Even more surprisingly, he spoke gently. “Sarah, let’s talk. Properly.” Talk? I couldn’t think of anything we needed to talk about. I stood up to leave. Liam quickly grabbed my hand. I flinched as if burned by boiling oil, wrenching my hand free. “Liam,” I hissed, “we’re in public. Please refrain from harassing me.” For the first time ever, Liam actually apologized. “Sarah, I’m sorry. Did I hurt you just now?” I froze for a second, completely thrown by his attitude. This wasn’t Liam’s style. He was arrogant, convinced of his own superiority; he’d never lower himself to apologize. “Mr. Carter, next time I might have to call the police.” I didn’t want to rehash the past; I just wanted him out of my life. My cold, distant demeanor, so unlike the woman who used to follow him around, seemed to unsettle him. Shock flickered in his eyes, but that was his problem, not mine. I took a step back, maintaining a polite distance. “Mr. Carter, I have plans. Please excuse me.” In NYC, the Carter family was one of the few powerful enough to rival Ethan’s. While Ethan wasn’t afraid of Liam, I didn’t want to cause trouble for him or Vance Enterprises. “Sarah, do we really need to be so formal? Don’t forget, we’re married.” Liam’s words stopped me in my tracks. My brow furrowed tightly. I’d forgotten. There was a deal Carter Corp needed years ago, with a Mrs. Windsor from England. She only did business with people in stable, happy marriages. To land the contract, Liam and I had gotten legally married and pretended to be a happy couple for a month. When I left two years ago, I’d completely forgotten about getting a divorce. I said coldly, “Married? That was just fake. Neither of us ever took it seriously. Besides, your wife should be Megan.” Liam took a step forward, sounding almost desperate. “My wife is you. It has nothing to do with Megan.” I actually laughed out loud. I couldn’t believe his audacity, putting on this act now. “Mr. Carter, there’s a renowned neurologist at Mount Sinai. If you need a referral, I can ask Mr. Vance to help you make an appointment.” I wasn’t going to get drawn into any more pointless arguments with him. I turned to leave again. Liam rushed ahead and blocked the coffee shop door. I stopped, unable to move forward, irritation written all over my face. I stared at him for three seconds, made a soft ‘tsk’ sound, and then said, “Liam, you look truly pathetic right now.” He still didn’t move. A barista walked over, and Liam, conscious of his image, had to step aside slightly. I seized the opportunity, pushed open the door, and stepped outside. “Sarah, I’m sorry about everything that happened,” he called out, jogging to catch up. Sorry… Those words meant nothing to me anymore. No amount of apologies could bring back my child or heal my shattered heart.

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The tenth time I was about to walk down the aisle, my boyfriend got a call from his childhood sweetheart and took off. For the tenth time. I was left standing alone on the stage, completely humiliated, the butt of the joke, again. Swallowing my pride, I contacted my boyfriend, pleading with him to come back and at least go through the motions of the ceremony. But he wouldn’t even pick up the phone! His precious Tiffany sent me a photo of the two of them sprawled out in bed together, gloating, “I win!” My heart turned to ice. We’d planned the wedding ten times, but it had been postponed, canceled, or abandoned a total of ten times. The emcee looked at me with a mixture of pity and awkwardness. “Uh… so, are we still going ahead with this… thing?” Forcing a smile, I said, “Yes! Absolutely! We have to finish this!” I sent a quick text to Jake, the guy who lived next door, practically begging him to help me out. After getting a hesitant but ultimately affirmative reply, I breathed a sigh of relief and told the emcee to stall for a little while longer. This was attempt number ten, and there was no way it was going to fall apart again. Jake got there faster than I expected. He was wearing a custom-tailored suit that fit him perfectly, accentuating his height and broad shoulders. He looked effortlessly stylish, drawing a lot of attention from the guests. He walked directly toward the center of the stage, standing beside me, completely unbothered, a lazy smile playing on his lips. “So, Miss High Society, you’ve made up your mind, huh?” I nodded. It was just a marriage of convenience, a way to appease our respective families. Anybody would do. Besides… Grandma’s condition had taken a serious turn for the worse. I couldn’t put it off any longer. Her health had been rapidly deteriorating for the past six months. Every time I visited her in the nursing home, she would constantly harp on how she wanted to see me get married before she passed. She was the person I was closest to growing up, and her only wish was for me to find someone worthy of my trust. Someone who would be there to protect me after she was gone, someone I could lean on, someone who wouldn’t take advantage of me. Seeing her grow weaker every day, losing weight, becoming more and more frail, I couldn’t bear the thought of her dying with such a big regret hanging over her head, so I reluctantly started taking the whole marriage thing seriously. My boyfriend, Kevin, had promised me he would marry me eventually. But after planning ten weddings, he’d bailed on me every single time. Each time, he left me standing there, becoming the laughingstock of the entire city. And all his excuses, every single one, were because of his precious little childhood friend, Tiffany. Tiffany was perfectly healthy and capable of taking care of herself any other day of the week. But the second my wedding day rolled around, she would suddenly… Have a complete meltdown, claiming she was in a really dark place, or she’d been triggered by something and couldn’t handle the stress; or she’d watched some horror movie and was now too scared to be alone; or she’d caught a cold and needed someone to bring her medicine. The most ridiculous excuse of all was when she spontaneously decided she wanted to do a bridal photoshoot while they were shopping, and she’d called Kevin, demanding that he come over and pretend to be the groom. I couldn’t express even the slightest bit of dissatisfaction with any of these absurd reasons. If I so much as dared to text him to ask what was going on, I would be met with a barrage of insults. “Can’t you just be a little understanding, Ashley?! Tiffany is practically like a sister to me! She needs me right now! We can get married any day! Don’t be such a shrew!” But ten times was too much. The constant abandonment and betrayal had finally exhausted my patience. This time, I wasn’t going to wait around for him. Once I’d completely let go, I realized my heart didn’t hurt as much. Maybe I was just numb. Or maybe Grandma’s words were giving me strength. “Our Ashley is such a wonderful girl. I hope that after I’m gone, you’ll find someone who truly cherishes you, someone who will never make you suffer.” The image of Grandma’s wrinkled, weathered face flashed in my mind, instantly filling me with determination and resolve. I couldn’t let the people who loved me down. So, I linked my arm through Jake’s and walked down the aisle with him. I was going to face this wedding with my head held high and my best smile plastered on my face. That way, Grandma would feel reassured when she watched the video. As we were exchanging rings, my phone vibrated in my purse. It was a text from Kevin. He still didn’t seem to grasp the magnitude of what he’d done, still using that casual, nonchalant tone. [Be a good girl, Ashley. Tiffany has a terrible stomach ache today. I really can’t leave her side. We can get married any other day, right? I’ll make it up to you later, I promise.] Seeing those words again, my heart still twisted painfully in my chest. I gripped my phone so tightly my knuckles turned white. Jake raised one eyebrow, silently questioning. “Do you still want to put that ring on my finger?” I looked up at him, my eyes filled with a newfound resolve. “Yes. I absolutely do!” Once we’d gone through all the required steps, I was completely exhausted, both physically and emotionally. Thank goodness Jake had been there the whole time, supporting me and holding my hand. Before we left, he looked at me with an unusual amount of intensity. “Ashley, I’m giving you two days to think it over, to change your mind if you want. We can go get the marriage license in two days if you still want to. I need you to really consider it carefully.” His words gave me a semblance of dignity and self-respect, but I’d already decided to end things with Kevin once and for all. “Don’t worry, Jake. I won’t change my mind!” As soon as Jake left, I received another text message from Kevin. [Ashley, you have exactly ten minutes to pick up some pain medication and bring it to me at the hotel. Don’t make me come after you.] Attached to the message was an address for one of the most notorious “love hotels” in the city. Almost immediately, my phone buzzed again. This time, it was a photograph of two people sprawled out in bed. The sender was Tiffany. And my soon-to-be-ex-boyfriend was one of the two main characters. [I win… again!] More than feeling heartbroken and betrayed, I felt overwhelmingly disgusted. On my wedding day, the groom-to-be was in a cheap motel with another woman. I clenched my fists so tightly that my fingernails dug into the skin of my palms, drawing blood. 2 In the end, I went to the hotel. This whole relationship had finally reached its expiration date for me. I didn’t want to have anything else to do with Kevin after this. I wanted to break up with him face-to-face, put an end to it, and, most importantly, get the keys to the house back. After all, he was living in a house that I’d bought with my own money! As soon as I arrived at the hotel, Kevin realized I hadn’t brought the medication. He immediately flew into a rage. “What the hell is wrong with you, Ashley?! Where’s the pain medicine I asked you to get?!” Tiffany was sitting on the edge of the bed, looking utterly miserable, pouting like a spoiled child. “Don’t be mad at her, Kevin. Ashley’s been planning the wedding all day. Maybe she’s just tired.” She knew very well that she was the one who had caused the wedding to be called off, yet she still said it with a perfectly straight face. Being mocked and insulted to my face like that, even with my heart already battered and broken, caused a sharp, stabbing pain to flare up in my chest. I slowly clenched my fists, digging my nails so deeply into my palms that they almost drew blood. I was so disillusioned and disappointed that I didn’t even have the energy to be angry. The room in the seedy hotel was small, cramped, and stifling. It made me feel like I was suffocating. Kevin and I had been together since college. At first, he was so passionate and persistent in his pursuit that I gradually fell for him. When we were together, he remembered every holiday and special occasion better than I did, and always had a thoughtful gift or romantic surprise planned. Even when I was being unreasonable or difficult, he would take all the blame and patiently try to coax me back into a good mood. My girlfriends always told me how lucky I was to have found such a perfect boyfriend. I thought so too, which is why I wanted to get married as soon as we graduated. But everything changed the day Kevin’s childhood sweetheart, Tiffany, came back from overseas. From that moment on, Kevin’s heart was completely turned to this virtual stranger. In any situation involving Kevin and Tiffany, I was always the one who ended up being left behind, ignored, or forgotten. Kevin patted Tiffany on the head, looking at her with obvious affection. “You’re so understanding, Tiffany.” Then, he turned his attention back to me, frowning with disapproval. “Why didn’t you answer my texts?” My repeated concessions had only resulted in Kevin becoming more and more demanding, more and more entitled. He was the one who had abandoned me at the altar, yet he was now blaming me, acting as if I was the one who had done something wrong. I tried my best to calm myself, my voice as cold as ice. “I forgot.” Kevin’s eyes widened, seemingly shocked by my icy tone. I raised my head and gave him a cold, hard stare. “Kevin, you blew me off again today.” Hearing those words, a flicker of guilt crossed his face, but he quickly became defensive, trying to justify his actions. “It wasn’t my fault! Tiffany wasn’t feeling well! What did you want me to do, just ignore her and leave her all alone?” “We can always have the wedding some other day, can’t we? Ashley, you’re being completely unreasonable! Why can’t you just be a little more understanding?” I no longer had any desire to argue with him or try to reason with him. Forcing down the bile that was rising in my throat, I spat out one cold, emotionless sentence. “I don’t want to wait for you anymore. Let’s break up.” Then, I turned around and walked toward the door. “What the hell did you just say, Ashley?!” Kevin yelled and immediately ran after me. Just then, Tiffany let out a dramatic little cry. “Ouch!” Immediately afterward, a sharp cracking sound echoed through the room. Confused, I stopped and turned around, my eyes widening in disbelief. On the floor were the shattered pieces of my jade pendant. The jade pendant my grandmother had gotten for me at the temple. I was completely stunned, a wave of pure, unadulterated rage threatening to explode inside me. After I’d processed everything, I pushed Kevin out of the way and knelt down to carefully gather the fragments of the jade pendant. “Why is my pendant here?! How did you even get your hands on it?!” I stared daggers at Tiffany, demanding an explanation. Kevin walked over to me, looking annoyed and impatient. “What’s your problem, Ashley? You’re going to scare Tiffany with your antics.” I gave him a look of utter disbelief. He knew how much this jade pendant meant to me, yet he could still say something like that, as if I was the one who was being unreasonable. In an instant, an overwhelming sense of helplessness washed over me. I was clenching my fists so tightly that the skin on my palms was bruised and bloody. As always, when it came to Tiffany, I was the one who was expected to back down, to forgive and forget, to make sacrifices for the sake of everyone else. But this time, it was about Grandma. I refused to stand for it. I raised my hand and slapped Kevin hard across the face. “If you’re blind, you need to see a doctor!” “She stole the jade pendant Grandma gave me without my permission, and then she broke it! What right do you have to forgive her for me?! What right do you have to tell me to forgive her?!” The room fell silent. No matter how angry I was, I had never physically struck him before. Now it was Kevin’s turn to be completely dumbfounded. “Did you just hit me? You actually dared to hit me?! I’m your boyfriend! How could you do that to me?!” He rushed forward and grabbed my neck, squeezing with so much force that I could barely breathe. He was staring at me with an expression of pure hatred and disgust, as if I were his worst enemy. I couldn’t help but wonder, when had the man who once looked at me with so much love become like this? I remembered back when we weren’t officially together, before we were even dating. I had simply posted a picture on social media of a tiny papercut, less than two millimeters deep, that I’d gotten while doing arts and crafts. Kevin had waited outside my dorm building at four in the morning, just to give me a small box of bandages. His eyes were shining with concern, radiating sincerity. It was at that moment that I was touched by his genuine caring nature and agreed to go out with him. But now, only six months later, he was willing to yell at me, to insult me, to physically harm me, all for the sake of another woman. It was then that I finally understood… True love can be fleeting, and even the most genuine feelings can change in an instant. 3 Now that I didn’t love him anymore, Arguing with him or trying to reason with him was pointless. The throbbing pain in my neck reminded me of how foolish I’d been, how much time and energy I’d wasted on this relationship. I just forced my lips into a bitter, self-deprecating smile. At that moment, Tiffany peeked out from behind Kevin, her eyes gleaming with smugness. I accidentally made eye contact with her, seeing the malicious satisfaction in her eyes, and a sharp pain stabbed me in the heart. The next second, she was batting her eyelashes and putting on an act, pretending to be a frightened rabbit. “Don’t be mad at me, Ashley! I just found the jade pendant! I was going to give it back, I swear!” She grabbed Kevin’s arm and started shaking it playfully. “Tell her it’s okay, Kevin! Tell her I didn’t mean to cause any trouble!” Kevin calmed down, and replied, “Tiffany’s right. Why can’t you be more like her, Ashley?” He was serious? Suddenly, Tiffany let out a shriek and stumbled backward. “Ouch!” Clutching her wrist, she looked at me with an expression of pure terror. “I only wanted to apologize to you, Ashley…” I hadn’t even touched her, but somehow I had become the villain, the one who was bullying her. Kevin saw Tiffany fall and immediately rushed to her side, helping her to stand. Then, he glared at me, his eyes filled with resentment. “Didn’t you hear her say that she found the pendant? Why are you being so cruel and vindictive, attacking an innocent person?!” I almost laughed at his words. I had always treasured the jade pendant that Grandma had given me. I kept it locked away in my bedroom drawer. She just “found” it? Was Tiffany claiming that she had accidentally stumbled into my house, somehow found her way into my bedroom, and then miraculously discovered the jade pendant in my nightstand, the most private and personal piece of furniture in the room? I didn’t even bother to expose this ridiculous lie, but instead curled my lips into a cynical smile. “Fine. I’ll call the police and have them investigate how Tiffany managed to find my jade pendant! We’ll let them figure out exactly what happened!” “And I’m going to press charges against both of you for physically assaulting me today!” Tiffany’s eyes widened with alarm, and she immediately clutched her chest. “Kevin, I think I’m having a heart attack…” Hearing those words, Kevin forgot everything else and scooped Tiffany up in his arms, rushing her out of the hotel and toward the emergency room. “Don’t worry, Tiffany! I won’t let anything happen to you!” As he rushed past me, he gave me a hateful glare. “You just wait, Ashley! If anything happens to Tiffany, you’re going to regret this!” He deliberately shoulder-checked me as he went by. The force of the impact sent me crashing to the floor. But Kevin didn’t even spare me a glance, huffing in annoyance before leaving the room. 4 After they had both left, I was still sitting on the floor, feeling numb and dazed. The man I had loved for so long, the man I had expected to spend the rest of my life with, had become a completely different person. He was unrecognizable, twisted, and utterly terrifying. My throat was parched and sore. Tears streamed down my face. Just as I was beginning to pull myself together, my phone rang. It was a call from the hospital. Without hesitating, I swiped to answer it. Grandma’s condition had worsened, and they were taking her into surgery immediately. Forgetting about everything else, I stumbled to my feet and ran toward the exit. As soon as I stepped out of the hotel, I saw Jake. The man was impossibly handsome, his shoulders broad, his jaw chiseled, his hair perfectly styled. He was leaning against the hood of his car, looking relaxed and composed. He seemed to have been waiting for me to emerge. Barely registering why he was there, or how long he had been waiting, I ran over to him and jumped into his car, begging him to drive me to the hospital. When we finally got there, I was relieved to hear that Grandma had been successfully revived. I heaved a sigh of relief and stayed by her side as she was wheeled from the operating room to her private room. Since Jake was there with me, and I wanted to make Grandma happy, I decided to tell her that we were getting married. Grandma smiled weakly, gazing at the pictures from our wedding on my phone. “That’s wonderful, Ashley! It looks like you’ve finally found a good man!” Jake sat quietly by her side, answering all her questions patiently and politely, without the slightest trace of irritation or boredom. Eventually, a nurse came in and told us that Grandma needed to get some rest. I got to my feet and led Jake toward the door. Before I left, Grandma leaned close to me and whispered in my ear. “That Jake seems like a wonderful young man. He’s a hundred times better than that Kevin fellow!” “I always knew you had good taste!” My face flushed red with embarrassment. I mumbled an awkward reply and practically ran out of the room. The next second, I accidentally walked straight into Jake’s chest. Jake chuckled, his warm breath tickling my ear. “Are you okay?” My face was still flushed, and I couldn’t bring myself to look him in the eye. I just shook my head. “Yeah… I’m fine…” Jake took the billing statement from my hand and went to pay the hospital. My heart was still racing. I started to berate myself. I had only known him for a short time. He was supposed to be my fake husband, nothing more. How could I be developing feelings for him already? I took a few deep breaths, trying to calm myself down. Unfortunately, as I was walking past a corner in the hallway, I ran into Kevin and Tiffany, who were locked in a passionate embrace! The two of them jumped apart, their faces turning red, a look of embarrassment flashing across their eyes. I gave them a cold, disinterested look and turned to walk away. Kevin rushed over to me, grabbing my arm. “Ashley, it’s not what it looks like! You’ve got the wrong idea!” My expression remained cold and emotionless. “I don’t need you to explain anything. We’re not together anymore, remember?” Seeming flustered by my gaze, Kevin started to fidget, scratching his head in frustration. “Ugh… Does saying that make you feel better or something? Tiffany was feeling down, so I was just giving her a hug to comfort her. That’s all it was.” Then, he leaned closer to me, whispering in my ear. “I promise, we’ll have the wedding next week. I swear. Will that make you happy?” “But Tiffany isn’t feeling very well, so I think we should keep it a secret from her, at least for now. Okay?” I couldn’t help but snort with derision. If getting married required me to lie and hide my relationship from everyone I knew, what would be the point? I curled my lips into a cynical smile and shook my head. “No thanks.” I was already married. I didn’t say the last part out loud. The man standing in front of me wasn’t worth any more of my time or energy. But my cold demeanor seemed to alarm Kevin. He blocked me from leaving, his voice suddenly sharp and demanding. “What do you mean, ‘no thanks’?” “You’re the one who was so insistent on having a wedding! You’re the one who was always nagging me about getting married! So why are you suddenly saying ‘no thanks’?” The next second, that familiar, comforting scent of sandalwood enveloped me. Jake reached out and pulled me into his arms, declaring his ownership of me. “Because we’re already married!” “She’s with me now. So, it might be best for you to just disappear. Trust me, you don’t want to cause any trouble here.”

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My filthy rich husband wanted me to donate skin grafts to his precious darling, his “Dream Girl” as he called her. When I refused point blank, the bastard had our five-year-old son beaten black and blue and then dangled him over a shark tank, threatening, “You don’t donate, and I’ll throw this little bastard to the sharks!” Fresh blood dripped from my son’s little legs into the pool, instantly attracting a frenzy of sharks. They surged and leaped, their razor teeth snapping at my son’s tender ankles. My son struggled desperately, his cries tearing through the air, brokenly shouting, “Mommy, help me! It hurts so bad…” His heart-wrenching screams sliced into me like knives. I had no choice but to give in, and I found myself strapped onto the operating table. Then I heard my husband’s cold command: “No anesthesia. It’ll mess with the graft. Just cut!” The sharp scalpel sliced into my skin inch by agonizing inch. The pain caused me to faint several times, only to be shocked back to consciousness by the searing agony. After a full eight hours of torture, I was so weak I couldn’t even lift a finger. But my son was still dangling there. “You promised you’d let him go!” I choked out, struggling to speak. My husband glanced at me, his face contorted in rage. “You damn bitch!” he spat. “If it wasn’t for your worthless skin, she wouldn’t be screaming in pain!” “This is a lesson for you!” With those words, he didn’t hesitate to press the button on the remote control in his hand. The rope snapped, and my son plummeted straight into the shark tank. I threw myself at the edge of the pool with all my remaining strength, but I could only watch helplessly as the sharks tore my son to shreds. Just then, a news alert popped up on my phone: “Billionaire Sean Preston Kneels, Praying on 999 Steps for Beloved Girlfriend.” I clenched my fist, the hatred in my heart burning like wildfire. 1 “How could you be so irresponsible! Letting a kid fall into a shark tank!” The rescue team’s reprimands stabbed into me like shards of glass. Tears streamed down my face as I repeated over and over, “I’m so sorry…” Maybe they took pity on me, seeing that I had just lost my child. Their expressions were disapproving, but they didn’t say anything more. After completing their task, they left one by one, leaving me kneeling alone by the shark tank, staring at my son’s mangled, fragmented remains. At that moment, I couldn’t even cry anymore. Overwhelming grief enveloped me, crushing me until I could barely breathe. Trembling, I took off my coat and carefully wrapped my son in it. Even when I picked him up, I was as gentle as could be, afraid of hurting him further. But I knew he couldn’t feel pain anymore. … On the way to the funeral home, the radio in the taxi was broadcasting a news story: “Billionaire Sean Preston Kneels on 999 Steps, Only to Pray for His Love…” The driver, as he drove, gushed, “Looks like Mr. Preston is totally head-over-heels for his girl. Not only did he kneel and pray himself, but he shelled out a fortune to put her on all the big screens downtown.” “Makes you jealous, huh? Too bad I wasn’t born to be loved by a billionaire. Guess I’m stuck driving a cab.” I didn’t say a word, just held my son closer. On the big screens outside, Sean Preston was kneeling in devotion, climbing up the steps, one by one. “Even their names sound like they belong together,” the driver said, glancing at me in the rearview mirror. “Little lady, you look beat to hell. Probably living a rough life. Must be jealous of them, right?” Jealous? I scoffed softly, my heart filled with bitterness and rage. They had joined hands to cause my son’s death! I wanted to tear them limb from limb! How could I be jealous? The driver knew I was going to the funeral home and must have sensed my heavy mood. He didn’t say anything else for the rest of the ride. Sean Preston’s grand gesture had even reached the funeral home. While I was waiting for my son’s cremation, I overheard the staff whispering. “I heard they knew each other back in college. One went abroad to study, the other started a business, but they always encouraged each other. That’s how they got to where they are today.” “From college sweethearts to a wedding! So cute!” I twitched the corner of my mouth, a bitter taste filling my throat. If they knew that Sean Preston, for the sake of his precious Tiffany Bartlett, had used his own son’s life as leverage to force his wife to donate skin, and then personally sent that son to his death, leaving behind not even a complete body… Would they still be so envious? “Ms. Evans, here are your son’s ashes. Please accept our condolences.” I took the urn, thanking the worker softly. The employee hesitated, then finally said, “The injuries on your son’s body… they look like he was attacked by some kind of animal, and there were signs of whipping too. Are you in any trouble?” I shook my head, not answering, and turned away. 2 Bang! The moment the car slammed into me, my first instinct was to bend over and hold the urn tight. My ears were filled with a cacophony of sounds. In the chaos, I felt someone trying to snatch the urn from my arms. I fought with all my strength, holding on for dear life. “Ooh, what’s so special about this thing?” “Forget it, forget it! Get her to the ambulance!” I don’t remember what happened after that. When I woke up, I was lying in a hospital bed, my hands empty. My heart clenched, and I tried to sit up to look for it, but I was too weak to even get up. “Don’t move!” A nurse rushed in, pushing me back onto the bed. “The car accident fractured your spine. You need to rest! Otherwise, you might not be able to walk for the rest of your life!” “When the car hit you, you had time to bend over. You should have tried to get out of the way, at least you could have minimized the damage!” “Besides, all that skin they cut off you is getting infected…” The nurse scolded me as she adjusted the IV drip. I wasn’t listening to her. I asked urgently, “Where are my son’s ashes? I remember holding them…” The nurse paused, then turned and took the urn from the cabinet next to the bed, placing it within my reach. “You bent over to protect it, right? Don’t worry, it’s safe because you protected it. The urn is undamaged.” “Remember, don’t move around, just rest.” The nurse finished her instructions and left the room. I was too weak to even hold the urn. I could only gently caress its surface with my fingertips. “Good… Mommy protected you this time…” I murmured, tears silently streaming down my face. Bang! The door to the room was kicked open. Before I could even see who it was, a familiar voice slammed into me: “Grace! What the hell were you doing running into the street like that! Do you know Tiffany’s been crying for hours because of you!” “She took a knife to her wrists, said she felt so guilty about hitting you that she had to apologize like that.” “Grace, can you just give me a break!” Just as I was about to speak, I caught a glimpse of Tiffany Bartlett being pushed into the room in a wheelchair. She reached out and gently tugged on Sean’s sleeve, her eyes red-rimmed and her voice choked with sobs: “Sean, honey, don’t blame Grace. It’s my fault…it’s all my fault…” Sean immediately turned around, his anger vanishing as his face softened with concern. He gently wiped away Tiffany’s tears, his voice tender: “How could I blame you? It’s her fault for jaywalking.” “Don’t cry, it’ll hurt your eyes.” I smiled a cold, silent smile. I glanced at Tiffany’s wrists. That so-called wound was probably already healing. I was used to these little games. I used to feel hurt by Sean’s blind trust in Tiffany and his cruel words towards me. Now, I just felt tired and disgusted. I didn’t even want to look at them. I struggled to reach for the nurse call button, but Tiffany suddenly stepped forward and grabbed my hand: “Grace, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to. I’ll pay for all your medical bills. You… ah!” She hadn’t finished speaking before she suddenly fell to the ground, large tears rolling down her face. Such acting deserved an award. I looked down at the scratches her nails had left on my arm. I felt only exhaustion, too tired to even argue. Sean quickly helped her up, gently settling her back into the wheelchair. He turned back to me and yanked me right off the bed, sprawling onto the floor. “Tiffany’s so worried about you, and you don’t even appreciate it! You even dared to hit her!” “Get down on your knees! And apologize to her!” Everything happened so fast. I wasn’t prepared. He pulled me down hard, and I landed heavily on the floor, the urn with my son’s ashes falling with me. The box cracked open, spilling the ashes. My pupils constricted, my heart clenched as if an invisible hand had squeezed it, and I nearly stopped breathing. I tried to pull away from his grip and reach for my son’s ashes. But the searing pain in my fractured spine left me unable to move. I could only watch helplessly as Tiffany Bartlett stepped on my son’s ashes. A false smile played on her lips. “Grace, don’t worry, I’ll help you clean up,” she said. She pretended to bend down, but her foot ground into the ashes, scattering them everywhere. “Oops, it’s hard to clean up with my hands. I’ll get the vacuum cleaner.” I tried to grab her, but my fingers only brushed the hem of her white dress. Seeing that she really was getting the vacuum cleaner, I grabbed Sean’s wrist, my voice trembling. “Those are my son’s ashes!” 3 Tiffany immediately protested, “Grace, even if you resent me, you can’t curse your own child!” “Those are clearly plaster dust. I’ve seen you use it when you’re taking care of your plants.” “And this box! It’s covered in stickers! Who keeps ashes in a box like this? It’s disrespectful.” My son was still young, and he loved stickers. But Sean thought little boys shouldn’t play with such things. He wanted to cultivate his masculine side. On a snowy day, he even made my son stand outside in his underwear to teach him discipline. As a result, my son developed a high fever, which turned into pneumonia and nearly killed him. Sean not only didn’t care, he called him a good-for-nothing, saying he couldn’t take a little hardship and didn’t deserve to be his son! Later, my son barely pulled through. I vowed that I would never let Sean treat him like that again. Whatever he liked, I would buy him. But I never thought that Sean would be so cruel, throwing my son into the shark tank. After my son died, the only thing I could do was put his favorite superhero stickers on his urn. At least in another world, he could have the things he loved. “Sean, those really are my son’s ashes…” “He’s really dead…” I choked on my words, tears blurring my vision. But Sean raised his hand and slapped me, saying coldly, “I just asked you to donate skin to Tiffany. It’s not like I was asking for your life. Do you have to be such a bitch?” “Cursing your son to die!” Tiffany had already vacuumed up all of my son’s ashes. She seemed to be talking to herself, but I caught the meaningful look in her eyes as she glanced at me. “The plaster dust clogged the vacuum cleaner. I have to clean it out.” She walked towards the bathroom. I realized what she was going to do and struggled to get up, but my body was too weak. I could only put my hope in Sean. “Sean, please, help my son. Those really are his ashes…” My voice trembled, almost begging. But Sean shoved me away. “Enough, Grace! Don’t make me throw you and your worthless son into the shark tank to feed the sharks.” Just then, I heard the sound of the toilet flushing. My heart clenched violently. Tiffany came out of the bathroom, dusted off her hands, and gave me a smug look. “All done.” But Sean suddenly grabbed her hand, his voice rising sharply: “Why are your hands red?” Tiffany glanced at me, then hesitated, “I didn’t know plaster dust could burn your skin…” Before she finished speaking, Sean kicked me. His hard leather shoe ground into my fractured spine, twisting brutally. “Grace, you damn bitch!” “Tiffany already apologized to you! Why can’t you just let it go!” “I bet you were faking your injuries, coming to the hospital to make her feel guilty, right?!” “Now apologize to Tiffany! Or else–” “I’ll make sure you never see your son again!” I already couldn’t see him. The intense pain made my vision go black, and I bit my lip, forcing myself to stay conscious. I stared into Sean’s eyes, saying each word slowly, deliberately: “Have you forgotten? You were the one who threw our son into the shark tank.” I thought I would see panic on Sean’s face, but instead, he laughed. “You’re not just a loser, you’re an idiot.” “When our son fell in, the sharks had already been put back in their cages.” That’s impossible! I clearly saw the sharks biting my son, the water stained red with blood. Before I could object, the door to the room opened and a group of police officers walked in. They flashed their badges and said coldly to me, “Ms. Evans, we received a report from the funeral home. We suspect you of child abuse resulting in death. Please come with us to assist in the investigation.” 4 Sean’s reaction was even more intense than mine. He grabbed my collar, shouting, “Grace, enough! You were just pretending to use plaster dust as ashes, and now you’re working with these guys to trick me!” I almost laughed. I had already failed my son too many times, and now I was disabled. The only thing I could do was bring the killer of my son to justice. I turned to the officers, saying calmly, “Sean Preston threw my son into the shark tank, causing his death. Please investigate this thoroughly.” “Grace!” Sean’s hands tightened around my neck, as if he wanted to kill me. “You’re hopeless!” I looked to the police for help, and they quickly pulled Sean away. Finally able to breathe, I looked at Sean. “There are security cameras at the shark tank. Pull up the footage and you’ll see the truth.” Sean scoffed. “Fine, if you want to keep causing trouble, I’ll show you the truth!” Tiffany’s eyes darted back and forth, and she suddenly said “Ouch!”, trying to look hurt and take Sean away. Sean put her in her wheelchair, and called a doctor to help her with her “injuries”. Even when he was arguing with me, he was still caring and gentle. “I’ll be back to take you home soon. I’ll make chicken soup for you.” He had someone bring the security footage and play it on the TV in the room. After a few moments, his face went white and he stammered, “This is impossible!”

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My CEO wife demanded I give up my heart for her childhood sweetheart’s transplant. I resisted with every fiber of my being, but she strapped our son to a cold operating table, threatening me with chilling words: “Refuse to donate, and I’ll rip out this little bastard’s heart and feed it to the dogs!” A sharp scalpel sliced through my chest. My son screamed, his voice full of terror: “Daddy, I’m scared!” Seeing his pale, fragile face, my heart shattered. I agreed to donate my heart. But then I heard her cold, cruel order: “He’s worthless, he doesn’t deserve an artificial heart!” “Replace it with a pig’s heart, I’ll take responsibility if he dies!” The world spun. Turns out, even without a heart, the pain could knock you unconscious. When I woke up, my son had already been gutted, his body carelessly tossed into a cold storage room. Ignoring my torn stitches, I staggered to confront her, Only to have my wife point a finger at me, screaming: “How dare you even ask!” “It’s all your fault, you disgusting heart! You made Ashley suffer so much he couldn’t sleep!” “Unless we replaced it with that brat’s heart, none of you will live!” In the cold storage, my son’s body was blue and stiff, covered in frost. Meanwhile, my wife was splurging millions on a foundation, celebrating her childhood sweetheart’s new lease on life. The news spread like wildfire through the D.C. social circles. Cradling my son’s mutilated corpse, My hatred was a knife, carving its way into my very bones. [1] In the corner of the cold storage room, my son was curled up on the floor, as if simply asleep. But the sunken abdomen revealed the torture he had endured. Every organ, save his heart, had been brutally removed, leaving gaping, bloody holes that exposed the bone. I knelt beside him, trembling, reaching out to hold him. His body was stiff and cold. “Mikey, I’m sorry, Daddy couldn’t protect you.” I whispered, tears blurring my vision, but unable to melt the frost on his skin. Guilt washed over me. “Don’t be scared, Daddy’s taking you home.” I covered him with a white sheet, carefully hoisted him onto my back, and stumbled toward the door. The hastily sewn stitches in my chest burst open, blood soaking the gauze and dripping onto the floor. In the hospital corridor, news of the wealthy CEO’s new foundation blared from every TV screen. People were buzzing about it: “I heard that Ashley Davis donated fifty million to start the foundation to celebrate Ashley’s new heart!” “That’s nothing, Ashley even bought a mansion for the medical team’s lab dogs!” “So romantic and kind, how can someone be so perfect!” Their voices were full of admiration and envy, But each word was like a knife, carving into my shattered soul. I clutched the wall, gasping for breath. “Sir, are you okay?” A passing nurse helped me up, but recoiled when she saw the blood on my chest. “You’ll bleed out if you don’t get that treated!” My mouth twitched. Even if the bleeding stopped, the pig’s heart would eventually lead to infection and a miserable death. Besides, my son was gone. I had no reason to live. I waved her off, telling her not to bother. Then, I kept limping forward. Every step felt like walking on shards of glass. The cold seeped into my bones. I shivered, but I wouldn’t stop. My son always hated the cold, but his mother thought boys shouldn’t be coddled and often locked him in the cold storage room to toughen him up. The boy often lost consciousness because of the cold. His last moments were also spent in this freezing room. Even with an animal’s heart beating in my chest, the pain was suffocating. Now, I just wanted to take him somewhere warm. But I ran right into Ashley and Ashley’s childhood friend Ashley. “How disgusting, to run into you here!” Ashley stared at me with a disgusted look, annoyed. “Look at you, you’re a disgrace!” My chest had been sliced open. My clothes were covered in blood. My hair was matted with sweat. Compared to the two of them, dressed to the nines, I was a wreck. I couldn’t care less about them. I kept walking. “I’m talking to you, are you deaf?” My ignoring her angered Ashley. She grabbed me, And my weakened body couldn’t handle it. I almost fell. Instinctively, I clutched my son on my back. Ashley’s face changed. He pointed at me and asked: “Mike, what are you carrying?” I turned around, but he ripped the white sheet off my son. [2] “AHHHH!” Ashley screamed. My son’s body was exposed to the air, his skin blue. His face was pale, his eyes half-open and filled with nothing but emptiness. Ashley narrowed her eyes, shielding Ashley from the sight, and yelled: “Mike Davis! Are you trying to scare Ashley with a broken ice sculpture!” “You get a heart transplant and your brain breaks too? You’re using cheap tricks to get revenge!” Ashley clutched his chest, took a few deep breaths, and complained: “Mike, you know I just had surgery, I can’t be shocked.” “This heart cost Ashley billions, what if something goes wrong? How could I face her?” The more pathetic he sounded, the darker Ashley’s face became. I was about to explain, but she slapped me, and I swallowed the words that were forming in my throat. I could only cry. I hated myself for being useless, even donating my heart hadn’t saved my son. He was only three years old. He hadn’t had the chance to see the world. His own mother had sacrificed him for the man she loved. Now he was dead and couldn’t even rest in peace. Ashley was still yelling, listing my sins, “If your heart wasn’t so broken, Ashley wouldn’t have to suffer twice.” “You used the money I gave you to make an ice sculpture of that little bastard!” Her words were like a million knives, tearing me apart. I bit my lip, my nails digging into my palms. I couldn’t help but feel angry when she mentioned my son. To cure Ashley, she had taken my money and spent billions on a medical team. But she was still stingy with me and my son, only giving me four hundred dollars a month for expenses. My son was malnourished, anemic, and getting thinner every day. I wanted to buy him some meat and vitamins, but she found out and beat me, “Ashley hasn’t recovered yet, why does he need money for vitamins!” “The money in this house isn’t for you two bloodsuckers to spend!” Seeing my son starving, I could only sell my blood. But her team accidentally discovered that our blood types were a match, And I became Ashley’s organ donor. I forced back my tears and choked out: “Mikey was your own son.” She scoffed, glancing at me. “Ashley getting his heart is a gift!” “It’s not like we didn’t give him an artificial one, he wouldn’t die.” The winter wind cut to the bone, but it wasn’t as cold as my heart. I clutched my chest, swallowed a mouthful of blood, and said: “Ashley, Mikey’s dead.” She frowned slightly, and I thought she finally realized what a tragedy she’d caused. But she laughed. “Mike Davis, you got a pig’s heart and became as stupid as a pig?” “Telling such a ridiculous lie, aren’t you afraid of karma? You’re his father, you’d curse your own son to make me feel sorry for you!” Ashley was the one who deserved karma. Heartbroken, I didn’t want to argue. Protecting my son, I turned to leave, but she chased me. She shoved me to the ground. My son’s body fell to the floor. [3] “No!” I knelt on the floor, trembling, reaching out to touch my son’s body. The extreme cold had destroyed the cells. All the tissues had turned brittle and easy to break. “Mikey, I’m sorry, did that hurt? It’s Daddy’s fault.” I checked him, but the blood seeping from my chest was covering my son. I couldn’t see clearly. Ashley saw me and grabbed my collar. “Mike Davis, what’s wrong with you!” “You can pretend so well with a broken ice sculpture, I think you’ve lost it!” My wound tore open, blood smearing her hands. She pulled away. “Disgusting! Now you’re trying to use the sob story trick?” “I’m warning you, being pitiful won’t work, apologize to Ashley!” “Or I’ll smash that ice thing to pieces!” Ashley kicked my son, and the sound of breaking ice echoed in my ears. I felt like I couldn’t breathe. I looked down. A long crack had appeared on my son’s body. I threw myself on the floor, yelling: “Ashley, this is my son’s body!” She laughed. “Mike Davis, are you serious? Who’s body breaks when you kick it?” She kicked him a few more times. “No! Stop!” “Don’t! Please…” My screams echoed through the halls. I tried to block her with my hands, but she kicked me in the chest. I spat out blood and fell to the ground. Stretching out my hand, I watched my son shatter beneath her feet. Ashley stopped, out of breath. She squatted down in front of me. “Are you done yet!” “Apologize to Ashley!” My vision was blurry, and my ears were ringing. I crawled to my son. Pain shot through me. Ashley stepped on my hand, and I yelled. He looked uncomfortable, “Ashley, my heart hurts.” He was swaying. “Ashley, what’s wrong?” Ashley rushed to support him. I used all my strength, desperately shouting: “I’m sorry, please forgive me!” [4] I thought that would work. She was furious. “I didn’t teach you how to apologize!” I used all my strength, desperately shouting: “I’m sorry, please forgive me!” She was happy. “Ashley, does he look like a dog?” Ashley laughed. “Ashley, he is your husband, you are crazy.” “He is too disgusting! I would divorce him.” I ignored her. Reaching out, I tried to retrieve the last remains. Ashley saw it and yelled: “Are you crazy!” Ashley begged, but now couldn’t get his heart back. Hearing that, Ashley paused. Ashley’s son was dead. Ashley covered his chest. Ashley said her chest hurts and yelled, with rage. “You are trash! I want you to apologize!”

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Three years into my marriage with Michael, my periods just… stopped. Then, this woman shows up at my door, makeup caked on, hand possessively on her belly, chin tilted up like she owned the place. She shoves a stack of divorce papers at me like she’s doing me a favor. “Mike told me he’s gonna marry me. If you know what’s good for you, you’ll get your stuff and get out!” Two months later, in court. I clutched the divorce decree, a tight smile on my face as I looked at Michael and Jessica. “Excuse me, but could you please get your trash off my property as soon as possible?” Rewind a bit. For the first two years I was married to Michael, getting pregnant was my full-time job, on top of my actual job. Chinese herbs, Western medicine, fertility clinics – you name it, I tried it. Nothing worked. God wasn’t listening, or maybe just didn’t care. Then came year three, and boom – menopause, basically. At the doctor’s office, staring at the lab report, the number practically screamed at me: AMH 0.5. The room spun. It felt like my world was ending. Michael’s mom is… well, let’s just say she’s from a small town with very traditional values. Carrying on the family name is everything to her. Michael’s her only son, the golden child who clawed his way out of poverty, got a college degree, and landed a decent government job here in the city. She poured everything into him. He was her everything. Now, Michael had the respectable job, the nice wife, the house in the suburbs… everything except a kid. His mom never let us forget it. Little comments here and there, getting louder over time, about needing a grandchild. Honestly, I hadn’t planned on rushing into kids, but Michael couldn’t handle his mom’s constant nagging, so we started trying. Me? I’m an OB/GYN. I bring dozens of babies into the world every week. I know better than anyone what a huge responsibility a child is. It’s not a whim; it’s a lifetime commitment of love and care. So, we decided. We tried. And tried. Nothing. His mom always acted like it was my fault, giving me the cold shoulder whenever she visited. Michael, to his credit back then, would try to smooth things over. He’d comfort me in private, buy me little gifts, cook dinner sometimes. I appreciated it. It made swallowing handfuls of fertility drugs a little easier. Turns out, his mom was right all along. It was me. 2 That night, I got home and tried to keep it together. I placed the lab report on the kitchen table, my hands shaking slightly. “What’s this?” Michael asked, looking confused. “My test results.” The words “test results” were like a trigger for his mom. She practically lunged across the table and snatched the paper before Michael could even reach for it. “AMH 0.5? What the hell does that mean?” Michael’s face paled. He’d been to enough doctor’s appointments with me to pick up some of the jargon. “It means her egg count is practically zero! She can barely get pregnant!” His mom’s voice screeched, confirming his fear. “That’s right,” I said, forcing myself to sound calm, though the lump in my throat threatened to choke me. “I can’t have children.” “I knew it!” She jabbed a finger towards my face. “My Michael is perfectly healthy! How could he not have kids by now? It’s because of you, you cursed luck!” Her voice dripped with venom. “Honestly, even a rock in a warm bed could probably hatch something after three years! What’s wrong with your womb?” “I told him you were damaged goods! See? Damaged!” Her words were getting nastier, more personal. Michael finally stepped in. “Mom! That’s enough. Sarah feels bad enough already!” I grew up comfortably middle-class, maybe not rich, but definitely sheltered by loving parents. I’d never had anyone talk to me like that, so raw and cruel. Tears welled up despite my best efforts. “What are you doing? Getting too big for your britches now?” she snapped back at Michael. “Forgot who starved and scraped so you could go to college?” She always held that over his head, convinced I’d turned him against her. “I told you not to marry her from the start! And now look! Can’t even give me a grandchild!” “Bottom line, you have to divorce her! Our family name means something back home! Marrying a woman who can’t have kids? How can I show my face? Do you want our family line to just… end with you?” Her furious rant silenced Michael. He knew exactly how much she’d sacrificed for him, collecting cans, working odd jobs, anything to keep him in school. That guilt was a powerful weapon. “Sarah,” Michael turned and took my hand. His felt clammy. “Mom’s just upset. I’m not going to divorce you. Don’t worry.” I squeezed his hand back, clinging to that shred of hope, my eyes probably showing more love than he deserved. 3 The next few weeks were a blur of internet searches and consultations with colleagues at the hospital. I desperately looked for any way to boost my AMH levels, but it was hopeless. There was only one path left: IVF. In Vitro Fertilization. Problem was, we’d just bought the house, sinking every penny we had into the down payment and taking on a massive $400,000 mortgage. IVF wasn’t cheap. There were different levels, different protocols. I wanted the best chance, the most expensive option – tens of thousands of dollars. I didn’t want my issue to compromise the health of our potential child. I just wanted a healthy baby. I talked it over with Michael. Between my salary and his government job, we brought in about $15,000 a month, but after the $5,000 mortgage payment and other bills, there was no way we could afford a huge IVF bill upfront. I suggested we ask his mom for a loan. I knew Michael sent her money every month; I just pretended not to notice. Who wouldn’t help out their own mother? When we brought it up, she hit the roof. “Absolutely not! I forbid it!” “Mom, Sarah just wants us to have a baby, give you that grandchild you want,” Michael tried to reason. “Ha! Don’t kid yourself. She’s just after the money you’ve been giving me!” She glared at me, suspicion etched on her face. She didn’t have a pension, just a small fixed income, so Michael’s monthly contribution was her lifeline. “Mom, that’s not true, I really just—” My defense sounded weak even to my own ears. “Michael, if you have any respect left for me, you’ll divorce her!” So, the loan idea died right there. And slowly, things started to shift with Michael. He was still acting gentle, but his words started carrying a subtle sting, constantly reminding me of my infertility. “Look, it is a fact you can’t conceive. Mom didn’t say anything untrue, she was just… blunt about it. You need to be more understanding.” “I still love you, you know. Whether you can have kids or not.” “Kids aren’t the most important thing. Having you is enough for me.” “We’ll save up slowly. We can wait a few more years for kids. Don’t put pressure on yourself.” “You’re overthinking things. I’m only saying this stuff for your own good.” 4 I started shutting down, growing quiet, anxious, and easily irritated. I kept wondering what terrible thing I must have done in a past life to deserve this. Michael started coming home later and later. “Work,” he’d say. “Trying to get that promotion to supervisor, gotta put in the hours, make a good impression.” My own shifts at the hospital, often overnight, meant we barely saw each other anyway. Our communication dwindled to almost nothing. I couldn’t even remember the last time we’d actually been intimate. One night, a colleague covered my shift, so I got off early. It was around 11 PM when I got home. The living room was dark, but I heard the shower running in the master bathroom, and muffled sounds of Michael talking. A small smile touched my lips. I decided to surprise him. I quietly changed into the silky black lingerie I’d bought a while back, hoping to reignite something. Tiptoeing to the bathroom door, I reached for the handle. That’s when I heard it, a sentence that froze the blood in my veins. “My wife? Please, that barren woman can’t hold a candle to you!” Michael’s voice was slick, sleazy, unrecognizable. My hand hovered over the doorknob, unable to push it down. “Stop hiding! It’s not like I haven’t seen it all before!” “Come on, move the phone down a little lower!” “Oh, Mikey, you’re making me blush~” A simpering female voice came through the phone speaker, loud enough for me to hear over the running water. I couldn’t believe it. My quiet, dependable husband was video-calling another woman while she showered? “Yeah, yeah! Right there!” The conversation that followed… I can’t even repeat it. It was disgusting. Listening to his low groans from inside the bathroom, I knew exactly what was happening. All strength drained from my body. I slumped against the wall, sliding down to the cold tile floor outside the door. The water kept running. I don’t know how long I sat there. “Mikey,” the woman’s voice purred, sounding weak but satisfied. “When are you finally gonna divorce your wife?” “It’s gonna take a little more time,” Michael replied, still slightly breathless. “What do you mean!” Her voice sharpened with annoyance. “You keep saying that! Wait, wait, wait! I’m tired of waiting!” “I already told you, Jess,” Michael explained patiently, “if I divorce her now, she gets half the house. Give me a little longer. I promise I’ll get her to sign a property agreement, make her give up her claim willingly.” “Really?” “Jess, would I lie to you? You know how crazy I am about you. I want to marry you as soon as possible.” Then, his voice dropped, filled with contempt. “Besides… a woman who can’t even have kids thinks she deserves half my property? Dream on! If I wasn’t trying to trick her into signing that agreement, I’d have kicked her out months ago!”

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My wife’s family was worth millions, and I married into it. Her adoptive brother claimed I caused the accident that left her dad in a vegetative state, that I only married her for the money. Just based on his suspicion, I was sent to prison. She broke the hand I used to paint. She damaged the eye I used for photography, leaving a four-inch scar across my face. My mom knelt before her, begging for my release. After getting out, I avoided her like the plague. But she haunted me, relentless as a ghost. My mom spent her life savings to bail me out, but my wife demanded she kneel and apologize right there before agreeing. On the way home, the stress triggered a heart attack. Mom collapsed, and then a passing car hit her. Now she’s the one in a vegetative state. Only when I suffered the same fate as her father did the Vances finally back off. The first thing I did after getting out was sign the divorce papers. I wanted nothing to do with the Vances ever again. To pay for Mom’s medical bills, I scraped together two high-paying—or what counted as high-paying for me now—jobs. I thought I’d paid a steep enough price. But seeing Sarah Vance at the nightclub proved how naive I was. Surrounded by her friends, her gaze landed on me, full of condescending arrogance. “Well, if it isn’t the great artist, Liam? What’s someone like you doing in a low-class joint like this?” “I seem to recall you looking down your nose at places like this.” She pulled a wad of cash from her purse and threw it in my face. “Take good care of my friends, and there’s more where that came from.” I clenched my teeth so hard my jaw trembled. “You’ve got the wrong guy. I just serve drinks. I’m not an escort.” Laughter erupted around me. Sarah’s face tightened for a second before she pulled out several thousand dollars and tossed it on the floor in front of me. “You can be!” They casually rattled off names of expensive liquors, shattering what little pride I had left. That booze, worth more than my life felt like right now… if I sold it, Mom’s medical bills for the next month would be covered. I slowly lowered my head and went to get the drinks. My hand, the one she’d broken in prison that never healed right, trembled violently as I held the tray. Cold sweat beaded on my forehead. I held the tray out. Nobody moved to take anything. The sweat soaked through my shirt. After a long moment, Sarah finally looked up, raising an eyebrow. “How are you going to sell drinks if you don’t drink? Don’t you know the rules here?” My grip tightened on the tray. We were together for five years. She knew perfectly well I was allergic to alcohol. If it weren’t for the scar on my face and the damage to my wrist, I wouldn’t have been desperate enough to take this job. I grabbed a bottle, ready to drink it anyway, but she snatched it from me. She poured it onto the floor, letting it soak into the carpet under the sofa. She tilted her chin, gesturing for me to get on my knees. “Oops, how clumsy of me. That’s expensive stuff. What a waste… unless… you just lap it up from the carpet.” My eyes fixed on the stained carpet. A wave of humiliation washed over me, worse than anything I’d felt before. God knows how many shoes had trampled this club carpet, and I doubted it had ever been cleaned. The manager saw what was happening and strode over. He kicked the back of my knee. My legs buckled, and I collapsed to the floor. Stay calm, Liam, I told myself, over and over. This is the best job you could find. You need this. When I didn’t move, Sarah threw another ten thousand dollars, the bills scattering over my head and shoulders. Stiffly, I bent forward, my face getting closer and closer to the filthy carpet, but I couldn’t bring myself to touch it. The next second, Sarah’s stiletto heel pressed down on the back of my head. My head twisted, forcing my cheek flat against the carpet. The club lights hit the grotesque scar near my eye. That happened in prison. She’d used a pen… the tip had grazed my eyeball as I flinched away in pain, tearing the skin. Emergency surgery saved the eye itself, but not the vision. I lost sight in my left eye. People around gasped as if they’d just noticed. “Ugh, what is that on his face? So creepy! They’ll hire anyone here!” They knew damn well how I got the scar, every single one of them. But they pretended ignorance, twisting the knife. Sarah chuckled softly, the point of her heel tracing the edge of my scar. “Is this really our great artist? I barely recognize you.” Then, she shifted her weight, grinding her heel into the wrist of my bad hand, the one pinned beneath me. The tendons were already ruined, never healed properly, but the pressure sent white-hot pain shooting up my arm. “Liam,” she said slowly, each word deliberate, the pressure increasing, “is this the hand you used to tamper with my father’s car?” She picked up some of the scattered bills and started slapping them against my face. “Still not drinking? Are you waiting for a formal invitation?” The manager, who had frozen nearby, snapped back to attention. He kicked me sharply in the backside. “Drink it, now! These are VIPs! Screw this up, and you’re fired!” He grabbed my head, forcing it down until my lips were pressed against the alcohol-soaked carpet. My skin already burned, reacting to the cheap booze. With my bad hand pinned and the other useless, I couldn’t fight his strength. Sarah leaned close, her voice a venomous whisper in my ear, “This is payback for what you did to my dad!” I tried to shake my head, but the manager clamped his hands on either side, holding me still. I’d explained it countless times in prison. The car accident had nothing to do with me. If it weren’t for Mr. Vance, I never could have afforded art school, let alone had someone sponsor my gallery show. Why would I hurt him for money? But no one listened. Because of one accusation from her adoptive brother, Jason, I was suddenly the villain, guilty as charged. I clamped my jaw shut, my lips grinding against the rough carpet fibers. I forced the words out through gritted teeth. “Sarah… I told you… it wasn’t me…” Hearing the old nickname made her eyes flash red. “If not you, then who? My brother? Dad adopted Jason when he was five, raised him like a son, groomed him to take over the company! Are you saying he hurt Dad? The brother who’s always been there for me? And now he’s blaming you?!” “The Vance fortune was practically his already. Why would he need to?” Thinking of her father, her only remaining family, Sarah grew more agitated. She spat through clenched teeth, “Still talking? Guess you haven’t had enough to drink!” As soon as she said it, one of her friends chimed in. “Wow, this carpet really soaks it up! Let me try…” She grabbed another bottle and poured, the liquid pooling and spreading beyond the carpet now. A bitter laugh welled up inside me. When I got the call about Mr. Vance’s accident, I rushed over immediately. He only had minor injuries then. But after Jason arrived, put him in his car, and took him to the hospital… he ended up vegetative. Bitter irony. Maybe Jason didn’t do it for the money. But what if he did it for you, Sarah? I had to open my mouth to breathe, and ended up gulping down the disgusting, booze-soaked liquid. Alcohol flooded my throat, and a fierce itch started deep inside me, my allergy kicking in. The manager, startled by my reaction, muttered an excuse about me needing to clean up in the restroom, finally giving me a momentary escape. In the bathroom, I choked down the allergy pills I always carried, then shoved my face under the faucet, turning the cold water on full blast. Tears or sweat, I couldn’t tell, but my face was soaked. Just as I felt like I was about to suffocate, a hesitant female voice sounded nearby. “Excuse me, are you Liam?” I lifted my dripping face from the sink and met a pair of clear, kind eyes. The young woman was dressed head-to-toe in designer clothes – clearly from a different world than mine now. I figured she had the wrong person. I gave a slight nod and turned to leave. I still had to go back out there and earn that money. But she stopped me, her eyes lighting up with excitement, though she hesitated when her gaze fell on my scar. “I thought I was mistaken! I saw your gallery show. I loved your work, but then… I couldn’t find any news about you.” She flashed a charming smile and held out her hand. “Hi, I guess I’m one of your earliest fans. My name is Grace Norton.” Hearing her name, a vague memory surfaced. That one and only gallery show, sponsored by Mr. Vance… only one person had contacted me afterward, wanting to buy a piece. I’d been ecstatic then, thinking it was the start of my career. Turns out, it was the only time. And the last. The past felt like another lifetime. I avoided her gaze and mumbled, “You’re mistaken. I just serve drinks here.” Then I practically fled. What was once my armor—my art—was now the sharpest knife twisting in my gut. Swallowing the bitterness, I forced myself back to Sarah’s table. A few good-looking guys had joined them now, charming her friends into giggles. One of the women saw me and exclaimed, “Sarah, you were right! He actually came back! Ugh, I lost the bet! So annoying!” I took a deep breath, trying to muster a smile. Sarah was leaning against one of the guys now. She scoffed, “He kissed my ass for five years. I know exactly what he’s thinking. You only lost, what, fifty grand? Just take it out on him.” I bit down hard to keep quiet. My pride was being trampled by these people, and all I felt was a burning, helpless resentment. The woman who lost the bet brightened at Sarah’s suggestion. The next second, she slipped off her high heel, picked up one of the bottles I’d just brought, and poured the expensive liquor into her shoe. Then she covered her mouth in mock horror. “Oh my god, I’m so clumsy! This stuff is so expensive, what a waste…” Her eyes met mine, a playful smirk on her lips. “What should we do? That’s probably, like, two months’ salary for you, right? Can’t let it go to waste. How about this: you drink it, I’ll pay for the bottle. Deal?” “Besides,” she added, “isn’t it an honor for this booze to be consumed by such a great artist?” Laughter rippled through the group. Their eyes were on me, expectant, burning holes in my already shredded dignity. I turned my head, looking straight at Sarah. The woman I’d loved for five years. Honestly, deep down, a part of me still couldn’t believe she could be this cruel. Five years together. We were each other’s first love. After prison, I’d specifically checked at the hospital – Mr. Vance’s condition was stable. There was a chance he could wake up. If he did, he could clear my name. But she ignored my stare, turning back to flirt with the guy next to her. The woman with the shoe gestured towards it with her bare foot, tilting her chin expectantly. I bent down, lowering my head to hide my shame. My whole body trembled as I reached for the shoe. Just before my fingers could touch it, a hand grabbed my arm. “Liam? Fancy meeting you here. Are you looking for inspiration? Could I possibly talk to you about that painting of yours?” Seeing this, Sarah finally pulled away from the guy she was leaning on. She looked at Grace, her expression wary and cold. “I’m dealing with my own man here. What’s it to you?” I cut in, my voice flat. “Sarah, we’re divorced.” She flushed, momentarily speechless. Seeing her caught off guard, one of her friends jumped in, scowling at Grace. “You must have the wrong guy. He’s no artist now. What painting are you talking about? Something Sarah paid for back when they were together?” “I think you’re confused,” another added venomously. “That artist basically died in prison. The person in front of you now is just a crippled bartender. Possibly even an attempted murderer…” She emphasized the word “crippled,” and the blood drained from my face. Not wanting my only fan to witness this humiliation, I just nodded numbly. “Yeah, you must be mistaken. I just serve drinks.” Hearing me admit defeat seemed to satisfy Sarah. Her expression softened slightly as she tossed another thick stack of cash—maybe twenty grand—onto the table. In this age of digital payments, I couldn’t help but think she used cash specifically to humiliate me. Tapping a phone screen just didn’t have the same degrading impact as forcing me to grovel for bills on the floor. Grace watched this exchange, her earlier smile gone, replaced by a serious expression. She said firmly, “Fine. Then I want to buy his services. That should be okay, right?” Sarah’s friend immediately scowled. “Do you know who we are? Are you looking for trouble? Didn’t you hear us?” Grace blinked innocently. “I want to hire him too. I like his face. Since you’ve already bought the drinks, what’s wrong with me taking him?” In the dim light, Sarah coldly pulled out her phone and dialed a number. “Manager? Someone here is causing trouble for me. Do you want to stay in business or not? Have you forgotten who your best customers are?” Hearing her make the call, my heart jumped into my throat. I saw someone slip away, probably to get security. The other women glared at Grace. “Where did this broke bitch come from? Trying to take someone from us?” I didn’t want Grace getting dragged into this because of me. I whispered quickly, “You should go. Don’t worry about me, I’ll be fine.” I knew how much clout the Vance family had locally. Anyone hanging out with Sarah wasn’t likely to be ordinary either. But Grace just set her jaw, reached into her designer bag, and pulled out a black card. She tossed it casually onto the table. “Tonight, I’m taking him with me. Period.”

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