Category: English

The day my husband’s diagnosis report came out, we ran into each other at the hospital. He was there to buy medicine for a female coworker suffering from menstrual cramps, holding several boxes of tampons in his hand. He asked me, “Is it really okay for unmarried girls to use tampons?” Worried she might develop a dependency on painkillers, he insisted I use my connections to get her an appointment with a top specialist. In the span of an hour, he mentioned his coworker’s name hundreds of times. Chloe Evans. She gets terrible cramps. She’s so innocent and inexperienced. It makes you want to protect her. I suddenly remembered my doctor frowning just moments ago, asking me if I wanted to try surgery. I had been so certain: “I need the treatment. I don’t want to spend the rest of my life alone.” But really, what’s so bad about being alone? 1 A colleague at the hospital hesitated before telling me that Arthur’s test results were back. I had already guessed the outcome wouldn’t be optimistic. “If the blood clot continues to expand, it may compress the optic nerve.” I had seen similar surgeries. Even my mentor, the esteemed Dr. Miller, found them incredibly challenging. I stuffed the report into my bag and walked out, my heart heavy with worry. My mind was a chaotic mess. I ran through countless ways to break the news, but I still didn’t know how to tell Arthur. He had been swamped at work lately. The report had been ready for over two weeks, but he hadn’t had the time to pick it up. Amidst my worry, I felt a glimmer of relief. It wasn’t too late yet. Breathing a slight sigh of relief, I looked up and saw Arthur standing in the crowded registration line. He saw me too, a hint of joy appearing in his eyes. “Honey!” He strode toward me with long steps. “It’s great that you’re here. Can you help me book an appointment with a gynecology specialist?” My gaze moved downwards, resting on the several boxes of tampons he was holding. He didn’t look embarrassed at all. “These are for Chloe. The poor girl is having terrible cramps again.” The gynecology appointment was for her too, Arthur explained incessantly. “She asked me to get her some painkillers. I figured I should ask a professional if taking them like that is bad for her body.” As if remembering something, he leaned in and lowered his voice. “Do you think it’s appropriate for an unmarried girl to use these things?” He gestured with the tampons in his hand. “Especially since she hasn’t even, you know, done that yet. Taking random pills and using these insertable things…” Seeing my face darken, he stopped talking, seeming to sense something was wrong. This wasn’t the first time he had bought things for her. Recently, when a popular brand of sanitary pads had a scandal, he asked me a million questions about it. That time, he scratched his head and smiled sheepishly: “Well, I’m the only married guy in the department. It’s not as awkward for me to buy this stuff.” But my displeasure stemmed from more than just his flimsy excuses. A few months ago, his department went on a team-building trip and got into a car accident. He was the most severely injured person in the car. Everyone else walked away without a scratch. The new girl, Chloe, was also in that car. When I rushed to the emergency room, the young, delicate girl was crying so hysterically she looked more like his wife than I did. She clung to the nurse’s hand, fainting several times. I was the one who had to pinch her philtrum to wake her up. Lately, he had been mentioning her so frequently that I could no longer ignore it. But looking into his eyes right now, I swallowed my questions. “Does your head hurt today?” He was looking down, replying to a message: “It hurt for a little bit, but Chloe massaged it for me, and it feels much better.” A sharp pain pierced my chest. From the corner of my eye, I glanced at his screen. An avatar of a little deer was pinned to the top of his chat list. In the past, that spot was reserved exclusively for me. 2 After getting a definitive answer from the specialist, Arthur visibly relaxed. I stared at him fixedly. Even now, he hadn’t asked me why I was at the hospital. Ever since I injured my wrist, I had been on medical leave for months. It seemed that during this same period, he had been coming home later and later. Now, he took the medication boxes from my hand. “I’m heading back to the office. Did you drive?” His casual question made my heart sink even further. The smell of medicinal patches radiating from me was so strong that even the specialist he just consulted had asked out of concern: “Still hasn’t healed? Do you want to try getting a new prescription from orthopedics?” But Arthur seemed to have completely forgotten. He looked impatient, eager to rush back without wasting a single second. I revealed my stiff, uncooperative wrist, and he finally froze for a moment. A look of guilt crossed his face. “Let me take you home first.” I nodded and walked straight out. Normally, I would have been understanding and told him to go back to work, saying I could just take a cab. But my chest felt tight, and that little deer avatar lingered in my mind. Arthur hesitated for a moment before following me. He opened the passenger door before I could, then leaned in, hastily tossing some things into the back seat. But I still saw it, and I smelled it. A cloying, sweet peach scent filled the air, and the passenger seat was reclined very far back. What he threw into the back seat was a pink bunny lumbar pillow. “A coworker’s. She forgot to take it back again.” I didn’t say anything. When Arthur lied, he always kept his head down and lowered his voice. Just like he used to do back in med school when he’d wait on the main path to “accidentally” bump into me. “Sarah, what a coincidence. What are you doing here?” Everyone said my calm, quiet personality was a terrible match for such a dense, wooden man. Even my senior colleague, Dr. Carter, couldn’t help but joke: “If you two ever fight, you’ll just stare at each other like two blocks of wood.” Halfway home, Arthur pressed his Bluetooth earpiece and took several calls. Even though he only answered with “Mhm” and “Okay,” his responses were flawless. However, to prevent him from getting an ear infection, the earpiece I bought him didn’t fully seal the ear canal. The noise isolation was actually quite poor. I clearly heard a sweet female voice from the earpiece. I could even picture the coy, pouty look on her face. “Arthur, we’re all waiting for you! If you’re ten minutes late, you’ll have to take the penalty shots for me.” Arthur’s brow immediately furrowed: “Don’t drink alcohol.” While stopped at a red light, he stayed silent for a long time before suddenly looking at me. “My department is having a team lunch this afternoon.” The underlying meaning was probably that he hoped I would get out at the next intersection and take a cab the rest of the way. I avoided his gaze, pulling out my lipstick and a small mirror from my purse for a touch-up. “That’s perfect. I haven’t seen your coworkers in a long time either.” His medical report was visible in my open bag. I casually handed it to him. I had prepared countless arguments to convince him to get surgery, but before they reached my lips, I swallowed them all. He barely glanced at it before tossing it into the back seat. “It’s not a big deal anyway. You’re the one who insisted I get a full checkup.” I suddenly remembered how he looked when he woke up in the hospital after the crash. Looking around with dazed eyes, he muttered to himself: “Honey, I was so scared I’d never be able to see you again.” Back then, we still had a future. 3 The car parked outside the restaurant, and Chloe came running down the steps. The sheer joy on her face froze the moment I pushed open the car door. “Oh… Sarah… you’re here too.” She looked at Arthur questioningly: “Why didn’t you tell me beforehand?” I offered a faint smile and walked straight inside. Behind me, Arthur’s unhurried voice drifted over. “Your medication. Thanks to your sister-in-law waiting in line for the specialist, you can take these without worrying.” But as Chloe brushed past me, that cloying peach scent lingered in the air. Distracted, I didn’t catch what she said in reply. Once we were inside the private dining room, Chloe eagerly pulled up a chair for me. We sat on either side of Arthur. His coworkers’ eyes darted between the three of us, but no one said a word. I didn’t know how Arthur and she usually interacted. But sitting next to me now, he seemed much more reserved. The only exception was when someone offered her a drink, and he quickly blocked it. “Don’t let Chloe drink. It’s her time of the month.” That casual remark made sitting there feel like sitting on a bed of nails. Someone inevitably pointed it out: “Arthur is married, he really knows how to take care of people.” The private room’s door was tightly shut, and the smell of alcohol was making me dizzy. I made an excuse to step out for some air, but the heaviness in my chest only sank deeper, like a boulder. Faint, mocking laughter echoed from the stairwell. It sounded familiar. “Being married is like Arthur’s get-out-of-jail-free card. He doesn’t even hold back when his wife is right there.” “Do you think his wife knows? About the time he and Chloe snuck out and got into that car crash?” “Shh! If she knew, there’d be hell to pay. Her own husband takes a young girl out to practice driving, the car flips, and he throws his body over hers to protect her… Tsk tsk…” The laughter faded, but the words echoed deafeningly in my heart. After that accident, he developed a chronic headache. Yet whenever I suggested filing for workers’ compensation, he always dodged the question with vague excuses. So there was a hidden truth. I remembered what my colleague at the hospital had said. “The blood clot might be causing his headaches, but the part pressing against his retina will likely cause blindness.” Someone patted my shoulder. I turned around to face Chloe’s smiling face. “Is Sarah eavesdropping?” She leaned in, that sickly sweet scent growing even stronger. “Arthur is drunk. He just asked me to drive you guys home.” She suddenly reached out and squeezed my wrist, right where the medicinal patch was. “A doctor injuring their hand is a major deal.” A piercing, agonizing pain shot up my veins, crashing into my heart. My wrist was injured on the exact day they got into that car crash. A patient, growing desperate waiting for his sweetheart who never arrived, suddenly lunged at me with a knife. “Even if I can see, she’ll never come back to me! What use do I have for these eyes?!” It was my colleagues who risked their lives to protect my hand. Afterward, when Dr. Carter performed the surgery, he was still shaken: “Half a centimeter more, and this hand would have been completely useless.” Arthur didn’t know the full story. Over the past few months, he had casually mentioned it a few times. “I thought after the car crash, you’d drop everything and rush to see me.” “In the end, I’m still not as important as your patients.” Every time he brought it up, he’d had a bit to drink, just like now, sitting in the car. Using the alcohol as an excuse to speak his true feelings as a joke. 4 Chloe’s driving was mediocre. After a few jarring stops and starts, I was feeling nauseous. I knew she was constantly watching me through the rearview mirror. Arthur was completely wasted, leaning against my shoulder like a sack of mud. It felt like years since we had interlocked our fingers like this. Every time he mumbled, his hot, alcohol-laced breath brushed against my cheek. “Everyone says I married a great wife, but Sarah, do you think you’re that great?” He swayed, pointing at Chloe in the front seat: “My company needs me, my colleagues need me, everyone needs me.” He slumped back against the seat: “It seems like you’re the only one who doesn’t. You have your patients, your surgeries, and that’s enough for you.” Wind slipped through the crack in the window, the chill slowly seeping into my skin. I remembered how, when we first got married, he would enthusiastically bring a lunchbox and wait for me in the doctor’s lounge. “Saving lives is the most important thing in the world. I’m happy to be the man behind the angel.” The man everyone called dense had said those words so earnestly when he lifted my veil at our wedding. Only three years, and everything had changed. The car stopped, and Arthur stumbled out, swaying dangerously. Chloe jumped out and expertly draped his arm over her shoulder. Half-hugging, half-supporting him, she let him lean his entire weight on her. I just stared at how intimate and seamless their movements were. My feet felt as heavy as lead. When we reached the entrance to the apartment building, Arthur suddenly stopped and looked up. Then he turned around: “I said I’m not going home. Chloe, I still want to stay at your place tonight.” I watched the color drain completely from the young girl’s face. Arthur was completely sloshed: “Don’t worry, I’ll just sleep on the couch.” “I’m a married man, I know where the boundaries are.” Chloe’s voice went hoarse. When she looked up at me, she looked more than a little guilty. “Arthur is drunk…” A drunk mind speaks a sober heart. I fought down the churning in my stomach: “He can go wherever he wants.” I started walking upstairs, my fingers trembling as I punched in the door code. The sound of the car door closing and the engine roaring away was exceptionally clear behind me. I slowly turned my head. It felt like I was looking at the desolate ruins of a marriage that had withered and died. In the early hours of the morning, a message arrived from Arthur’s number. A delicate hand completely enveloped by a larger, prominent hand. [The person you don’t cherish will always be someone else’s treasure.] I rubbed my thumb over the screen, staring at it for a long time, until my heart was frozen solid, and hit delete. I scrolled up to a message Dr. Carter had sent that afternoon. [Sarah, I’m telling you one last time in all seriousness: risking this surgery is completely irresponsible! Your hands are your livelihood; you can’t throw them away like this.] Now, I knew exactly how to reply to him. 5 Once Arthur’s blood clot progressed to the point of compressing his retina, there was only one person capable of successfully performing the surgery. But that person’s hand was injured. Unless she underwent an invasive procedure to seal the torn ligaments right now. But the success rate of that procedure had yet to be definitively proven. She originally intended to take that desperate risk. Now, she didn’t want to anymore. The night Arthur slept at Chloe’s house. She used her slightly clumsy hand to draft a divorce agreement. 6 That morning, feeling emotionally stable, I grabbed an unhealthy breakfast downstairs. Eating fried dough sticks and soy milk, I realized I had grease on my fingers and no tissues. The old lady running the stall pulled a piece of paper towel from her apron and handed it to me. “How come your husband isn’t buying breakfast today?” I froze, then quickly recovered, couldn’t help but lower my head and laugh softly. For the past few months, he had been leaving early and coming home late. I suppose the breakfasts he bought were meant for someone else. But just like at his company, as long as the “loving husband” persona remained intact, he could cross any line he wanted. Having a wife was just another tool for him to wield. I quickly wiped my hands and hailed a cab to the hospital. The seminar was a closed-door session all morning. When I walked out of the conference room, I immediately spotted Arthur standing at the end of the hallway. Sunlight streamed through the window behind him, obscuring his expression, but the massive bouquet of flowers in his arms was blindingly obvious. As he walked toward me, his anxiety and guilt became increasingly apparent. “Honey, I drank too much yesterday.” “Chloe said I mumbled a lot of nonsense. Be the bigger person and don’t hold it against me, okay?” He delivered this speech incredibly smoothly. He had clearly rehearsed it many times on the way over. “Was the couch comfortable?” His face darkened: “I was drunk, nothing happened… Honey, I’m quitting drinking.” Quitting drinking, letting me know when he worked late… these were all things he had sworn to do before we even got married, but he had never actually followed through. The colleagues from the seminar had mostly dispersed. Only Dr. Carter walked toward us after finishing a conversation. His gaze moved from the flowers to Arthur’s face. “We’ll look into your surgery further, don’t worry too much.” Arthur looked confused: “What surgery?” Dr. Carter glanced at me, didn’t elaborate, and just patted my shoulder reassuringly. “Start preparing early. You need to fly out this week at the latest.” Once Dr. Carter walked away, the confusion on Arthur’s face only grew. “Wait, honey, where are you flying to? Isn’t your medical leave still active?” Looking at the corner of the paper peeking out of his suit jacket pocket, I slowly took a step back. “Arthur, you went home, didn’t you? You saw the signed divorce agreement.” His face grew even darker, his lips trembling slightly. “You didn’t want to come home, and it just so happens I don’t want to go back either. Just like when we decided to get married, we’re still completely in sync.” “I’ve accepted a month-long research exchange program in the US.” “I hope that by the time I get back, we’ll both have found our true freedom.” I turned to leave, but he hurriedly stepped forward and grabbed my sleeve. “Sarah, are you sure this is what you really want?” My chest felt like a million ants were frantically crawling over it, leaving dense, agonizing trails. As I slowly pulled my sleeve free, I heard my own voice, sounding as flat as if I were discussing something completely trivial. “The day you got into that car crash while teaching Chloe how to drive, a patient nearly hacked my wrist off.” “Seeing you lying unconscious in that hospital room, my only thought was…” “Thank God you didn’t have to see me covered in blood.”

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The day I returned to the States and attended a college reunion. I inevitably ran into my childhood sweetheart and former love, Carter. After two years, he hadn’t changed a bit. He was always the center of attention wherever he went. I was about to go over and say hello when I overheard his friends gossiping about me. “Carter, the guys and I made a bet. That Vance girl who’s so desperately in love with you? The first thing she’ll do when she gets back is come crawling to you, begging to get back together.” “Man, you have the best luck. All these women constantly orbiting you. What’s the saying? You’ve got eight slices of cake; you can divvy them up however you want.” Carter noticed me walking toward him through the crowd. He smirked and said: “Don’t worry. Vivian can’t live without me. Didn’t she just obediently come back to the States just for me?” I walked right up to him and ruthlessly shattered his arrogant delusion. “Who said I came back for you? I came back because my family arranged my engagement party here. “I’m getting married, Carter. Regardless of everything, thank you for keeping me company all those years.” 1 “Even though I genuinely wish I could erase every single day I spent with you.” My words wiped the smiles off everyone’s faces. Carter’s face turned especially dark. “Vivian, watch what you say in public. Stop throwing a tantrum. What engagement? Are you just trying to make me mad the second you get back? “I know I made mistakes before, but you know Sarah and I are just friends. I haven’t even seen her since you went abroad.” “Yeah, exactly! Vivian, I can vouch for him. Carter really cares about you. Honestly, he hasn’t been doing great these past few years while you were gone.” Carter’s friends scrambled to smooth things over. If this were two years ago, seeing Carter try so hard to explain himself, I probably would have nodded with tears in my eyes and forgiven him instantly. But our relationship ended long before I ever left the country. “It doesn’t matter. Who you see and where you meet them has absolutely nothing to do with me anymore. “Oh, right. You actually know the guy I’m engaged to. You two probably haven’t seen each other in a long time.” “Who?” “What?” “I’m asking you who you’re marrying!” “Ethan Sterling.” 2 I looked at Carter’s expression of sheer disbelief. Thinking about how our relationship devolved to this point, perhaps it was fundamentally flawed from the very beginning. When I was little. The Vance, Hayes, and Sterling families were all very close. So, I had known Carter Hayes and Ethan Sterling since childhood. I was always a sickly child, so those two were incredibly attentive and protective of me. Thanks to them, I rarely encountered any real danger or hardship. But that kind of good luck doesn’t last forever. When I was in middle school, I was kidnapped by thugs hired by a rival corporation. Because I was the only daughter of the Vance family, my ransom value was incredibly high. The kidnappers used me as leverage to extort highly classified documents from my parents. I don’t know if it was a blessing or a curse, but while waiting to be rescued, I was so terrified that I passed out. I drifted in and out of consciousness. Because I was blindfolded, my hearing became hyper-sensitive. I heard a familiar voice arguing with the kidnappers. Then, the owner of that voice walked over to me and held me gently in his arms. He kept whispering to me, telling me not to be afraid, that everything was going to be okay. Feeling safe, I drifted back into a deep sleep. When I woke up, I was lying in a hospital bed. And Carter was asleep next to my bed, holding my hand. Later, my parents told me that Carter was the one who got me out. Carter also told me stories of how he bravely negotiated with the kidnappers to rescue me unharmed. From that moment on, I devoted all my attention and affection to Carter. I never bothered to investigate why Ethan, who disappeared that very day, was in a wheelchair the next time I saw him. Not long after, the entire Sterling family moved abroad so Ethan could get treatment for his legs. That was the last time I saw Ethan during our youth. After that, my life revolved entirely around Carter. I got into the same university as him and chose the same major, all just to be closer to him. But after we officially started dating, Carter’s possessiveness and temper escalated significantly. He wouldn’t let me interact with other guys. He wouldn’t let me wear nice clothes. If anything didn’t go his way, he would resort to emotional, and sometimes physical, abuse. Every time I was on the verge of breaking up with him, he would pull me back in with sweet words and perfectly timed displays of vulnerability. Even his friends joked that I loved him far too deeply. Until the day I discovered that Carter had been secretly dating an underage freshman behind my back. All the grievances and injustice I had swallowed over the years instantly broke the dam. That day, I calmly and quietly broke up with him. I was so calm that Carter genuinely thought I was joking. He completely ignored me and went right back to reviewing some business documents on his laptop. So, the very next day after I broke up with him, I packed a bag and moved abroad. 3 I originally just wanted to go abroad to clear my head and relax, but I never expected to run into Ethan. I ran into him at a hospital. Having not seen each other in years, we talked for a long time. He told me his legs were treated at this exact hospital. By some twist of fate, he eventually became a surgical resident there. It felt like we had traveled back in time to when we were kids. He asked me a lot of questions, including questions about Carter. I didn’t want to talk about Carter much. He probably sensed that, so he dropped the subject. After that day, we started seeing each other frequently. On his days off, Ethan would take me exploring all over the city. During his lunch breaks, I would cook delicious meals and bring them to his office to eat with him. Just like that, having him by my side made my days abroad bright, sunny, and peaceful. Looking back, that must have been when I fell in love with Ethan Sterling. Later, Ethan’s hospital organized a charity gala. He invited me to attend as his “only family in the area,” as he put it. I sat in the audience, watching him play popular songs on his acoustic guitar, genuinely happy that he had picked the instrument back up. After a few songs, standing under the bright, dazzling stage lights, he confessed his feelings to me, while the entire crowd cheered us on. In that moment, I said yes without a second of hesitation, because I had to admit, Vivian Vance truly couldn’t live without Ethan Sterling. Not long after becoming Ethan’s girlfriend, I had to return to the States because of some family business. Ethan had to stay behind for a bit longer to wrap up some work at the hospital. Before we parted ways, we agreed that as soon as he returned, we would start planning our wedding. I just never expected him to suggest inviting Carter to it. 4 Snapping back to the present, I noticed some commotion around me. Immediately, I realized something was wrong with Carter. The veins on his forehead were bulging, and his pale, slender hand suddenly reached out toward me, trembling violently. Seeing the situation escalating, his friends quickly grabbed him from behind to hold him back. Carter looked exactly like a feral, enraged beast. His eyes were bloodshot as he roared at me: “Vivian Vance! You are mine! You’ll be mine for the rest of your life, don’t you even dream of leaving me! “I don’t believe it. There’s no way you don’t love me! I know exactly how good you’ve been to me all these years! It has to be… that bastard Ethan must have brainwashed you!” I remained perfectly calm, because I was very familiar with this state of his. He suffered from severe anxiety and panic attacks. The signs started showing shortly after his mother, Mrs. Hayes, abandoned their family. Everyone around us was shocked by Carter’s outburst. The eldest son of the prestigious Hayes financial dynasty, the famously rational, calculating CEO of the Hayes Corporation, losing his mind in public over a woman. Only I knew that right now, Carter was completely incapable of controlling himself. Carter cared about his image more than anything. Normally, even if he felt an episode coming on in public, he would suppress it with everything he had. An outburst like this was a first. I realized I was probably the only one who could calm him down right now. After hesitating for a second, I called his secretary and told him to bring Carter’s medication immediately. Honestly, I didn’t want his secretary to know I was back in the country so soon. Because the news would definitely reach Old Mr. Hayes’s ears. The old me worshipped Carter as my savior, treating him as the man I could entrust the rest of my life to. I never realized that to him, I was at best a trophy to brag about, a pawn in his games of leverage and profit. To advance his career, he messed around with the daughters of various CEOs behind my back, and even initiated our “breakups” just so he could offer me up to his business partners. Back then, I treated Carter as my entire universe. I believed that even if he didn’t know how to express it, he truly cared for me deep down. I thought that as long as I did what he said and acted obediently, he would come save me. His possessiveness was so strong, he wouldn’t let anyone else lay a finger on me. Unfortunately, I was wrong. Dead wrong! That night, I experienced the agonizing descent from hope into absolute despair for the first time. I learned exactly how torturous waiting could be. After I luckily managed to use my family’s status to intimidate the man and escape, I swore I would never, ever be soft-hearted toward Carter again. But then, a drunken, hyperventilating Carter appeared in front of me, suffering a massive panic attack. It was the first time I saw him lose control, and my first introduction to his severe anxiety disorder. I didn’t want to help him, but Carter claimed his condition was a direct result of the trauma he endured while saving me years ago. He only said that one sentence before passing out, and no matter how much I asked him about it later, he never brought it up again. Fortunately, I was able to temporarily calm his episodes, so every time he had one, I stayed by his side. But at the same time, every episode filled me with a deep, crushing sense of powerlessness. I knew I should stay away from him, even hate him, but I just couldn’t bring myself to do it. Looking back now, wasn’t that just another form of torture for the old me? After that day, I felt nothing but guilt toward Carter, because no matter what, I could never bring myself to love him again. Carter’s grandfather, Old Mr. Hayes, would always gently try to persuade me. He said he loved me dearly and desperately wanted me to be his granddaughter-in-law, but Carter was just too disappointing, too much of a bastard. Old Mr. Hayes always said he had let me down, and let my grandfather down. So, he always treated me much better than he treated Carter. Old Mr. Hayes is getting on in years now, and I didn’t want to cause him any more worry. It didn’t take long for Carter’s secretary to arrive, and Carter slowly began to calm down. However, his gaze never left me for a second, making me feel like I had needles in my back. Assuming my part was done, I was about to leave with my friend, but Carter’s secretary stopped me. He said Old Mr. Hayes wanted to see me. 5 Thinking about it, I really should go visit the elders since I just got back to the country, so I agreed. I had driven my own car, so I declined the secretary’s offer to ride together. Carter walked quietly in front of me the whole time. I had no idea what he was thinking. I was used to it. After an episode, Carter always went through a period of heavy silence. I got into the driver’s seat and was just about to start the engine when the passenger door was yanked open from the outside. “I’m riding with you. You said it yourself, when I have an episode, you have to stay with me.” Carter was always like this—showing weakness while still being incredibly stubborn. To him, this was his version of coaxing you, and you were supposed to be grateful for it. But now, I had absolutely no relationship with him, and I didn’t need or want to tolerate or accommodate him anymore. “Get out. “Don’t make me force you out!” Carter turned to look at me, his expression dark and suppressed: “Vivian, I don’t get it. What is so great about Ethan Sterling? Tell me, how exactly does he beat me? “We’ve been together for over a decade! You were only abroad with him for four years. “Stop throwing a tantrum. Let’s get back together, okay? I…” “Carter, do not compare Ethan to yourself. You aren’t worthy!” I cut him off coldly: “When I loved you, you hurt me the deepest. You are the last person on earth who has the right to ask for my forgiveness. “Get out of the car! I’m not going to sit here in a standoff with you. Even if Old Mr. Hayes invited me, I can always choose not to go!” I ignored him entirely, only listening for the sound of the door opening and slamming shut. After he got out, I stared blankly at his retreating back for a moment. I suddenly felt so exhausted. I had barely been back in the country for a few days, and I was already missing the time I spent abroad with Ethan.

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Dustin Hayes had kept me for three years, and everyone in the circle called me his pet. The day his first love, Scarlett Vance, returned, he told me to get lost. I not only got lost but also thoughtfully handed him a thick stack of papers. Dustin thought it was a letter of apology. He scoffed, opening it, but his smile froze. It was a “Service Itemized Bill” for the past one thousand and ninety-five days: “Hand-holding fee: $5,000/time; Drink-blocking fee: $20,000/bottle; Fake orgasm fee: $100,000/time (including acting premium).” I extended my hand, neither servile nor arrogant. “Mr. Hayes, once the final payment is cleared, we’re even.” Dustin’s eyes blazed as he shredded the document. “Aurora Miller, was there no genuine feeling in you during your time in this house?” I blinked, pulling out my calculator. “Genuine feeling? That’s an extra charge, Mr. Hayes. You didn’t purchase that.” 1 Dustin’s hand loosened, and the shredded paper fluttered down like snowflakes. “Aurora Miller, you’ve been in this house for three years. I was so good to you. You treated it like a business?” His voice was a furious hiss, thick with disbelief. “Mr. Hayes, that’s not fair to say.” I straightened my back. “Your ‘goodness’ to me… are you referring to the times these past three years when you’d get drunk and call Ms. Vance’s name, and I’d have to imitate her voice to coax you to sleep?” “Or when you’d bring me to parties, letting those trust fund brats mock me as a ‘knock-off’ while you silently stood by?” “Or was it…” “Are you blaming me?” He sneered, taking a step closer, his intimidating presence pressing down on me. “Mr. Hayes, what a thing to say.” I looked up, flashing the impeccable, professional smile he used to love. “I majored in finance. I don’t do unprofitable deals. For three years, I blocked eighty-six drinks for you, dealt with twenty-four gold-diggers trying to worm their way in, and had to cater to your emotional needs every night. These are all labor costs.” “Zero—eighty-six multiplied by ten, plus…” I shoved the calculator screen into his face. “Let’s round it down to $24 million. Considering you’re bringing Ms. Vance back, I’ll give you a two percent discount. I wish you both a hundred years of happiness.” Dustin glared at the number, his chest heaving violently. “Fine. Very fine.” He waved his hand, sweeping the calculator to the floor. Dustin looked at me. “The Miller family still owes me fifty million. If you leave now, how will that debt be settled?” I crouched down, picked up the calculator, and reset it. “Mr. Hayes has a poor memory,” I said, standing up and dusting off my knees. “The merger I helped you secure last month, with the commission and my base salary, perfectly offset the last portion of the debt. The bank statement was sent to your email yesterday.” Dustin hadn’t checked his email. He sat on the couch and lit a cigarette. Smoke rose, obscuring his eyes. “So, you use me up and then want to leave?” He exhaled a smoke ring. “Scarlett just got back, and you’re in such a hurry to disrespect me?” “The contract expired,” I corrected him. “My employment with you ends today.” The sound of the fingerprint lock unlocking echoed from the entryway. The door opened. Scarlett Vance stood there in a white dress, holding a limited-edition Hermes bag. She saw the shredded paper on the floor, then looked at me. “Dustin, am I interrupting?” Scarlett stood still, clutching her bag strap. Dustin snuffed out his cigarette and stood up, walking toward Scarlett. As he passed me, he deliberately bumped my shoulder. The force was heavy. I staggered half a step, barely keeping my balance. Dustin took Scarlett’s bag, placed it on the cabinet, then turned to look at me. “Who said you could leave?” He sneered. “When you signed the contract, supplementary clause number ten stated clearly: ‘Before Party A agrees to terminate the contract, Party B must unconditionally renew for three months as a transition period.’” He lifted his chin, gesturing toward Scarlett. “Scarlett just returned from abroad. She’s delicate and can’t handle stress.” He continued, “I won’t find anyone suitable so quickly. Until I find a professional caretaker, you’ll stay and serve her.” I was stunned. “Mr. Hayes, won’t you find me an eyesore?” Dustin didn’t speak, just stared at me coldly. I took a deep breath, relighting the screen of my calculator. “That’s an extra charge.” The next morning, at six AM. I woke up precisely on time and appeared in the kitchen. Dustin had a stomach condition, so his breakfast was always freshly ground black soybean milk and warm sandwiches. Scarlett had low blood sugar, requiring bird’s nest soup no matter how late she woke. These were all part of my “professional skill set.” At seven-thirty, Dustin came downstairs. He wore a dark grey custom suit, his tie still undone. In the past, I would have walked over, taken his tie, and stood on tiptoes to knot it for him. That was my “Warm Morning Service,” priced at two thousand per instance. Today, I merely stood behind the counter, chopping fruit. Dustin walked to the dining table, pulled out a chair, and sat down. He glanced at the empty table, then at me. “My tie,” he said. I put down my knife, dried my hands, and walked over to him. But instead of taking his tie, I pulled out my phone and displayed a QR code for payment. “Tie-tying service, two thousand per instance.” I held the screen to him. “Mr. Hayes, please scan first.” Dustin’s movements halted. He stared at the QR code, his chest rising and falling slightly. “Aurora Miller,” he used my full name, “are you obsessed with money?” “Professionalism,” I replied, expressionless. “No credit.” Footsteps sounded on the stairs. Scarlett came down in silk pajamas, her face flushed with sleep. “Dustin, are you arguing so early?” She walked to Dustin’s side, naturally taking the tie from his hand. “Let me help you. Aurora used to be a socialite too; she’s not used to these servant tasks.” She stood on tiptoes, clumsily fumbling with the tie around Dustin’s neck. Dustin didn’t push her away, his eyes fixed on me. Scarlett tried three times, the tie knot crooked and loose around Dustin’s neck. “Oh, it’s so hard,” Scarlett pouted. “Dustin, am I very clumsy?” Dustin finally tore his gaze from me, looking down at Scarlett. “It’s fine. I’m not in a hurry.” He gently held Scarlett’s hands, teaching her how to tie the knot. They were close, their breaths mingling. I stood beside them, checking my watch. Seven forty-five. “Mr. Hayes, Ms. Vance,” I began. “According to the agreement, my work hours begin when you both start your meal. Since this is currently a teaching session, I’ll return to my room.” I turned to leave. “Stop.” Dustin’s voice was cold. I paused. “Come here.” Dustin pointed at the bird’s nest soup on the table. “Scarlett’s hands are sensitive to heat. You feed her.” Scarlett’s face reddened. “No need, Dustin, I can manage myself…” “Let her feed you.” Dustin looked at me, his eyes chilling. “She’s getting paid, so she should do the work.” I walked to the table and picked up the steaming bowl of bird’s nest soup. I stirred it with the spoon, a wisp of steam rising. I scooped a spoonful and brought it to Scarlett’s lips. Scarlett glanced at Dustin, then opened her mouth. The moment the spoon touched her lips, she suddenly flinched, leaning her head back and wildly swinging her hand. “It’s so hot!” she cried. The porcelain bowl crashed to the floor. The scalding bird’s nest soup splattered, a large portion hitting the back of my hand and wrist. My skin immediately turned red. Scarlett clutched her chest, her eyes welling up. “I’m sorry, Aurora, I didn’t mean to, it was really too hot…” Dustin immediately pulled Scarlett closer, checking her face and neck. “Did you get burned?” he asked, his voice anxious. After confirming Scarlett was fine, he turned to look at me. Two shiny blisters had formed on the back of my hand. Dustin’s gaze lingered on my hand for a second, then moved away. “You can’t even do such a simple task.” Dustin said. “Clean it up.” I lowered my hand, the blisters stinging as they brushed against my sleeve. “Understood,” I said. I bent down, picking up the shattered porcelain pieces from the floor. My hands pricked with blood, but I didn’t say a word. At eight PM, there was a private dinner at the Hayes mansion. It was to celebrate Scarlett’s return. Dustin had given me a black uniform, assigning me the task of serving drinks and guiding guests. I, the former partner, was now a server. Everyone in the elite circle found it amusing, eager to see the fallen socialite Aurora Miller made a spectacle of. I changed into my uniform and moved through the crowd with a tray. Someone deliberately bumped my shoulder, spilling wine. “Well, well, isn’t that Aurora Miller?” a woman in a red dress giggled, covering her mouth. “What, did Mr. Hayes not give you a severance package?” I recognized her. In the past, to curry favor with Dustin, I’d been forced to drink three shots of hard liquor for her. “Ms. Sterling,” I took out a cloth and wiped the tray. “Champagne is ten thousand a bottle. You spilled half a glass, so that’s five thousand for the damage. Card or transfer?” The woman’s face changed. “Are you crazy?” “If you don’t want to pay,” I pointed to Dustin not far away, “that’s my employer. You can complain to him and have him deduct it from my salary, but he usually demands ten times the compensation from the person who caused the damage.” The woman glared at me and left. In the center of the hall, Dustin, arm in arm with Scarlett, was toasting guests. Scarlett wore a couture gown, a sapphire necklace adorning her neck. I had seen that necklace before. It was my late mother’s heirloom, and the most valuable item I’d pawned to Dustin. I stood in the shadows, watching the necklace sparkle under the lights. Dustin seemed to sense my gaze and turned his head. He raised his wine glass, toasting vaguely in my direction. A hint of mockery played on his lips. Scarlett followed his gaze, then leaned in and whispered something to Dustin. Dustin nodded. Scarlett gracefully walked towards me. She stood before me, her fingers caressing the necklace. “Aurora, Dustin said this necklace was your mother’s,” Scarlett said with a smile. “It’s beautiful, I really love it. He said he gave it to me, you don’t mind, do you?” I looked at the sapphire. “It’s his property,” I said, my voice low. “It has nothing to do with me.” “As long as you don’t mind.” Scarlett took a glass of red wine from a waiter’s tray. “To show my gratitude, I’d like to toast you.” She held out the glass to me. I reached out to take it. Scarlett’s hand suddenly released its grip. The glass didn’t land in my hand; instead, it dropped directly onto her skirt. Red wine splattered, staining the white fabric. “Ah!” Scarlett shrieked, stepping back two paces, even stumbling and falling to the floor. The surroundings instantly fell silent. Dustin pushed through the crowd, rushing over to help Scarlett up. “What happened?” he asked, his voice dark as he looked at Scarlett’s disheveled state. Scarlett’s tears fell. “It’s not Aurora’s fault… I just didn’t hold it steady… maybe Aurora just didn’t want me to have the necklace…” Dustin’s head snapped up to look at me. I looked back at him. I offered no defense, because defending myself was not within my service scope. “Apologize,” Dustin said. I didn’t move. “Aurora Miller, I told you to apologize.” Dustin stood up, taking a step closer to me. “You’re a server here now. You soiled a guest’s dress; shouldn’t you apologize?” Everyone around us was watching the drama unfold. I calculated. If I didn’t apologize, he might deduct all my outstanding payments, or even use it as an excuse to keep the necklace. If I apologized, my dignity would be compromised, but I’d get the money. Dignity wasn’t worth anything. I bent at the waist, a ninety-degree bow. “I’m sorry, Ms. Vance,” my voice was steady. “My hand slipped and soiled your dress. I will cover the cleaning fee.” Dustin looked at me, then suddenly let out a cold laugh. “Compensation? Can you afford it?” He grabbed a bottle of red wine from the table. He pulled out the cork. Red liquid poured over my head. It was icy cold, sticky, and smelled of alcohol, running over my eyes, into my mouth. “This is compensation.” Dustin placed the empty bottle on the table. I closed my eyes, enduring the flow of liquid. “Understood, Mr. Hayes,” I said, wiping wine from my face. “Are we even now?” Scarlett, seemingly “shocked,” developed a high fever that night. Dustin summoned the entire team of family doctors to the villa. I also had a fever. The wine poured on me hadn’t been washed off in time, coupled with days of non-stop work, and I too had fallen ill. But I was in the maid’s quarters; no one knew. At 10 PM. My phone suddenly vibrated. It was the hospital. “Ms. Miller, your father has suffered a sudden heart attack and is in critical condition. He needs surgery immediately, costing fifty thousand dollars. If payment isn’t received within half an hour, we can’t proceed.” I sat up in bed, my head spinning. I checked my balance. Only thirty thousand. All my previous money had gone to debt, and my salary hadn’t been processed yet. I stumbled out of the room and rushed upstairs to the second floor. The master bedroom door was ajar. Dustin was sitting by the bed, feeding Scarlett water. I pushed the door open. Dustin frowned, turning back. “Who let you in? Get out.” I clutched the doorframe, supporting myself. “Dustin,” my voice was hoarse, “pay me my wages. Now.” “Are you insane?” Dustin put down the water glass, lowering his voice. “Quiet down, Scarlett just fell asleep.” “My dad is in the hospital, fighting for his life.” I stared at him. “I need money. It’s what I’m owed.” Dustin stood up, walked to the door, pushed me out, and then closed the door behind him. In the hallway, he looked down at me. “Your dad’s fighting for his life?” Dustin sneered. “Aurora Miller, to get money, you’d even tell such a lie? Didn’t you say last month your dad was recovering?” “It’s true.” I grabbed his sleeve. “Please. Give me the remaining payment. Even twenty thousand would help.” Dustin shook off my hand. I hit the wall, sliding to the floor. “No.” Dustin straightened his cuff. “If you want money, kneel here. Kneel until morning, and I’ll believe you.” With that, he turned to go back into the room. “Dustin!” I called out to him. “That’s a human life!” Dustin stopped, but didn’t turn around. “Scarlett had a nightmare just now; she needs company,” he said. “Don’t make any more noise, or you won’t get a single penny.” The door closed. The hallway was utterly silent. I pulled out my phone, sending messages to everyone in my contacts, begging for money. No one replied. Old friends had long since blocked me. Time ticked by, second by second. Until midnight. My phone vibrated again. It was a text message, from the hospital. [Patient John Miller, despite all efforts, passed away at eleven fifty-eight PM. Please come to the hospital as soon as possible to handle the arrangements.] I stared at the words on the screen. I knew each one, but I couldn’t grasp what they meant together. From inside the room, Scarlett’s soft voice reached me: “Dustin, I’m scared…” Then Dustin’s gentle whisper: “Don’t be afraid, I’m here.” I pushed myself up against the wall, slowly standing. The fever seemed to have broken. My body felt strangely cold, and strangely light. I turned, and went downstairs. Back in the maid’s room, I opened my suitcase. Inside were only a few old clothes. I took out the “Service Itemized Bill” I’d kept for three years and placed it on the table. Picking up a pen, I wrote a line on the last page. [Funeral expenses: Priceless.] [Status: Paid by Aurora Miller herself.] [Balance: We’re even.] I tore off this page and taped it to the door. Then, dragging my suitcase, I walked out of the Hayes mansion. Outside, it was raining heavily. I didn’t have an umbrella. The rain washed away the lingering smell of red wine on me. I pulled the SIM card from my phone and threw it into a roadside drain. This time, no calculator was needed. Our accounts were settled.

🌟 Continue the story here 👉🏻 📲 Download the “MotoNovel” app 🔍 search for “391710”, and watch the full series ✨! #MotoNovel

I run a side hustle selling my photos online for people to use as fake profiles for online dating. For an extra fee, I even offer custom voice messages and video calls. Everything was going smoothly until one of my regular clients messaged me: [I’ll pay you $15,000 if you meet up with him in person for me. You can keep whatever gifts he buys you, too.] Just as I was about to reject the offer, a photo of her ‘online boyfriend’ popped up on my screen. It was my absolute worst enemy. I stared at the screen, my face completely blank: [Are you telling me you’ve been using my photos and videos to date him?] 1 [Then you’re definitely being scammed, girl,] I replied earnestly. [Impossible,] she insisted. [He’s transferred me so much money. This is definitely the notoriously wealthy Sterling family heir.] Me: “…” I saved the photo of Arthur Sterling she sent me and ran a quick reverse image search. It was a generic paparazzi shot that gossip blogs had recycled a million times. I sent her the screenshot of the search results. She remained completely unfazed. [We’ve been working together for so long, why would I lie to you? My online boyfriend is 100% the Sterling heir.] I let out an exhausted sigh. Knowing the young master Arthur Sterling, his real-life romantic entanglements were already enough to drive him insane. Why would he have the time or energy for a fake online relationship? And especially… using my photos and videos. Forget falling in love with me through a screen; if he actually saw them, he’d probably throw up. I typed back to the client: [When he looks at my photos, what exactly does he say?] [He says I’m gorgeous! I mean, you are genuinely beautiful,] she paused, then added, [I even used your custom voice memo packages! Every time I send one, he transfers me $8,000!] Mother of God. If Arthur Sterling ever heard that sickly-sweet, high-pitched “baby voice” I put on for those recordings… he’d probably lose his appetite for three days straight. That confirmed it. The guy on the other end was absolutely, categorically not Arthur Sterling! Thinking about this, I went back and reviewed all the photos and videos I had sold to this client. The photos were standard, pretty selfies. But the videos… Lots of tight mini-skirts paired with cat-ear filters. …It’s fine. The guy wasn’t Arthur anyway. The client continued to beg me: [Please, babe, do me this one favor! I promise it’s completely safe! I already told him I’m not ready for any physical contact yet. And the meeting spot is a super crowded mall downtown.] When I didn’t reply immediately, she sent another frantic message: [If you really don’t want to stay, just show your face for one minute and leave! If you don’t, he’ll realize I’ve been catfishing him, and I won’t be able to milk him for any more cash!] A few seconds later, my bank app notified me of a $45,000 transfer. My fingers, which were hovering over the keyboard to type a rejection, froze. Then again… If this guy had the absolute audacity to use Arthur Sterling’s photo for online dating, how did he have the guts to meet up in person? Wasn’t he terrified of being exposed as a fraud? This girl might be able to pay me to act as her stand-in, but absolutely no one on earth could order Arthur Sterling around. Perfect. I’ll go see exactly what kind of freak this imposter is! I deleted my drafted rejection text. [Fine.] Looking at it objectively, this client was incredibly generous. Tsk. I bet the real Arthur Sterling isn’t even this generous. Terrified I’d back out, she quickly forwarded several screenshots of her chat history with the fake Arthur. It was an endless stream of Hubby kiss kiss and I only love my hubby. The chat was flooded with reaction stickers of cute kittens spinning, happy kittens, and whining kittens. Me: “…” The fake Arthur’s replies were incredibly consistent: [Baby, you’re so beautiful.] Transfer received. [Baby, you’re so cute.] Transfer received. … Transfer received. Transfer received. Transfer received. My god. This guy was a walking ATM. The client quickly dropped a location pin. [It’s at this mall.] I clicked on it. Oh, wow. The actual Sterling heir really did frequent this exact mall. It was very close to one of his family’s estates. Maybe I should… I pulled up Arthur Sterling’s contact in my phone. Is there any chance I could arrange for the imposter to run face-first into the real Arthur Sterling? That would scare him to death! Uh. I forgot. Arthur blocked my number. I silently locked my phone. 2 Following the client’s endless, neurotic instructions… I dressed up meticulously and arrived at the mall half an hour early to scope out the area. I never expected that I would actually run into the real Arthur Sterling here. He looked relaxed and indifferent, one hand casually tucked into his pocket. A girl was walking next to him, chattering away happily. Arthur wasn’t really listening; a lazy, detached smirk played on his lips. But the fact that he hadn’t shown any signs of annoyance the entire time was practically a miracle. I was stunned. It wasn’t until Arthur noticed me that his smirk vanished. He muttered under his breath, “What awful luck.” I heard him clearly, but my expression remained completely blank. The girl immediately linked her arm through Arthur’s, glaring at me defensively. “Who are you?” When I didn’t answer, she looked up at Arthur with a pitiful, victimized expression. Arthur scoffed. “Just some broke loser.” He wasn’t wrong. If I wasn’t broke, why would I be here meeting up with a fake Arthur Sterling for cash? I let out a dry, sarcastic laugh, my tone rising slightly. “Having the great Young Master Sterling despise me is truly an honor.” Hearing that, Arthur’s face darkened instantly. He crossed his arms, his words ruthlessly cutting. “Mia, can you even afford a single item in this entire mall?” “As long as you can afford them, that’s all that matters,” I smiled, pointing to a luxury boutique nearby. “Didn’t you buy me a bag from that exact store once?” The girl’s eyes widened in shock. “What is your relationship with him?” What relationship? We were each other’s first loves. Though dating this arrogant young master was easily the biggest mistake I’d ever made in my life. Arthur didn’t say a word, and I wasn’t in the mood to humiliate myself further, so I adjusted my bag and turned to leave. “Mia.” His tone was light and airy, but carried the exact same condescending, arrogant weight it always had. “Which poor guy are you scamming into paying your bills today?” I turned back. “Don’t worry, Young Master. So far, I haven’t managed to scam anyone more generous than you.” Of course, I wasn’t counting the money the client just transferred me. Arthur had been surrounded by sycophants his entire life; he never bothered hiding his emotions. Right now, for example, it was glaringly obvious he was in a terrible mood. Terrified he would intentionally ruin my upcoming meetup, I paused for a second and then decided to appease him. “You were right before. Someone like me will never be happy. But as long as you’re happy, that’s what matters.” Honestly, the whole “mortal enemies” thing was mostly Arthur’s one-sided hatred for me. I never liked making enemies, especially not with an ex who used to be incredibly generous with his money. But the young master, who was famously impossible to coax even when we were dating, was definitely not buying it now. He sneered, his words dripping with venom. “Don’t leave. I want to see exactly what kind of trash you’ve managed to hook this time.” I froze. I still didn’t know what kind of persona the client had established with the fake Arthur. What if she was playing the innocent, pure little flower? The whole thing would blow up in my face. With Arthur’s abrasive personality, he could expose me in two sentences. I swallowed my pride. “He’s not as handsome as you, and he’s not as rich as you. Young Master Sterling, why do you insist on humiliating me?” The girl next to him nodded in agreement. “Yeah, Arthur. Let’s just go.” Arthur didn’t even glance at the girl. His long, elegant fingers pulled a premium black card from his pocket. The girl took it, her entire demeanor instantly changing, and briskly walked away. “I’m going to go shopping then! Text me if you need anything, Arthur!” I smiled. “She’s cute.” Arthur ignored the comment, and showed absolutely no sign of leaving. He just stood there, staring me down. But he had always been like this—willful and unrestrained. In the past, when he had a high fever, I would pace around frantically, worried sick. He would just lazily grab my hand and smirk. “Want to see what 104 degrees feels like?” My eyes widened, my face flushing bright red instantly. Not from shyness, but from pure anger. “Are you psychotic?!” The corners of his lips curved up, and he couldn’t stop a muffled laugh. We eventually tried it, and he ended up in the ER. … They were all just immature, childish memories. I lowered my eyes. Arthur quickly lost his patience. He raised an eyebrow. “You didn’t just invent a guy, did you?” I stayed silent. His patience officially exhausted, he answered a call from a friend. “Yeah, I’ll be there in a minute.” Then he cast a final, sweeping glance over me, mockery swimming in his eyes. “Instead of carrying around that cheap, thirty-dollar canvas tote, maybe you shouldn’t have been so damn stubborn about your pride back then.” With that, his long legs carried him away, the distance between us growing rapidly. I watched his tall, retreating silhouette. Even his walk radiated a careless, arrogant swagger. After I broke up with Arthur, I packed up every single luxury item he had ever given me and shipped them all back to him. He only sent me one text in response: [I don’t collect garbage.] Then he blocked me. As for the luxury goods, mutual friends told me he threw them all into the massive dumpster outside his villa. My phone started pinging relentlessly with notifications. Ning: [Babe, are you there yet?] [Let’s just meet at the coffee shop, okay? I’ll text him and tell him I’m waiting for him there.] [Babe, answer me!] I reined in my emotions and replied: [Okay, I’m heading to the coffee shop now.] Once I got inside the coffee shop, I scanned the entire room. I texted the client: [Hey babe, bad news. Arthur Sterling isn’t here. Even worse news, there’s only one genuinely handsome guy in the whole place.] [Impossible! He just texted me that he arrived!] she replied frantically. I let out a long sigh. Until I saw that one incredibly handsome man walking directly toward me. The outer corners of his eyes tilted up slightly, and there was a small, striking red mole just beneath one of his eyes. He smiled warmly. He inexplicably radiated a dangerous, almost fox-like charm. I instinctively took a step back, instantly on guard. He spoke, his voice deep and magnetic: “Mia.” Me: “…” I quickly texted the client: [Isn’t your name Ning? You didn’t use my real name, did you?] She replied instantly: [Uh… yeah. I was too scared to use my real name, and since we were negotiating the photo prices at the time, I just accidentally gave him yours.] Me: [Brilliant.] I locked my phone, took a deep breath, looked up, and greeted the man. “Hi there.” Up close, the man was even more devastatingly handsome. His features were refined and delicate, but not feminine. He had a high, straight nose bridge, thin lips curled into a faint smile, and a subtle, sparkling stud in his left ear. He was significantly better looking than I anticipated; it was almost startling. Wait, he had absolutely no reason to use Arthur Sterling’s photos for online dating. I offered a polite, awkward smile. “You and the photos you sent me… look quite different.” He raised an eyebrow. “I’m fairly certain I never sent you a photo of myself.” Me: ? For a split second, my facial expression completely short-circuited. This guy never even sent a photo! How the hell was that client so absolutely certain he was Arthur Sterling?! “Then I must have remembered wrong,” I forced a strained smile, trying to suppress the urge to grind my teeth. “Do you mind if I run to the restroom first?” “Of course,” he smiled gracefully. Once in the restroom, I immediately dialed “Ning’s” number. The second the call connected, I unleashed a furious barrage: “I fucking told you! Your online boyfriend is NOT Arthur Sterling! He’s NOT Arthur Sterling! You wouldn’t listen, so I just assumed he was a normal catfish! Turns out the guy never even sent you a picture! What on earth made you think he was Arthur Sterling?!” The other end of the line was dead silent. After a long pause, a very distinct, very male voice blurted out, “Holy shit.” It was a guy! I was completely stunned. “He’s not Arthur Sterling? How is that possible? Then who is he?” he demanded, firing off questions. I was just as frustrated. “You’re asking me? Where did you even find this guy?! How can you be this incompetent?!” I thought I was dealing with a female scammer trying to milk a rich guy for cash. Who would have guessed it was a dude?! No wonder he needed to buy my custom voice memo packages! “What does he look like? Describe him right now!” The guy actually sounded more panicked than I did. Me: “Well, he’s actually incredibly handsome, so don’t worry about that.” The line went silent again. After a long, agonizing pause, his voice sounded completely drained of the will to live: “He doesn’t happen to have a small red mole under his eye, does he?” Me: “Yes, he does.” “AAAAAHHHHH! I’M DEAD!” …Now he realizes he’s dead. Where was this panic when he was scamming the guy for thousands of dollars?! If the guy he was scamming was actually Arthur Sterling, then he’d be dead. Knowing Arthur’s ruthless reputation, he’d literally skin the guy alive. After a while, he asked, his voice trembling in pure agony, “…What do I do now?” I was curious. “This guy seems a million times nicer than Arthur Sterling. Did you think Arthur was some kind of saint?” “No, you don’t understand. My older brother is infinitely more terrifying than Arthur. If Arthur wanted to destroy me, my grandmother could at least try to stop him. If my brother wants to destroy me, absolutely no one can save me!” Saying that, he started wailing again. My eyes widened in shock. “…What did you just say?” He was clearly in the depths of despair. “No wonder Arthur always calls me an idiot. Am I really that stupid?” Me: “…So what’s the plan now? Should I just make a run for it?” “No!” he hissed through gritted teeth. “If you run, he will 100% investigate. And he will 100% trace it back to me!” I was speechless. He blurted out a desperate solution: “Why don’t you just take over my WeChat account? We’ll just pretend you were the one talking to him the whole time! I mean, my brother is really good-looking, and he transfers a ton of money…” My pupils dilated in pure horror. Before I could answer, he started muttering to himself: “I had no idea he was this generous when he’s dating someone. Fuck, why is he so stingy with my allowance?” “Forget it,” I refused. Ever since I broke up with Arthur, I finally saw things clearly. What doesn’t belong to you will never belong to you, no matter how hard you try. Especially when it comes to these insanely wealthy, elite heirs. It’s better not to harbor any delusional fantasies about them. Besides, if I actually got involved with this man and Arthur found out, who knows what kind of psychotic episode the young master would have? Actually, no. He’d probably just mock the man: “Your taste is absolute garbage, getting involved with a woman like Mia.” I thought about this silently, then let out a heavy sigh. The voice on the other end of the phone whined, “I thought you guaranteed post-sale support!” They really are from the exact same family! This guy’s thought process was just as deranged as Arthur’s. I said flatly, “I’m hanging up.” “$75,000! I’ll add another $75,000!” he panicked. “I literally drained my entire Chinese New Year red envelope fund for this! You absolutely cannot let my brother find out!” Me: “…$150,000.” Him: “…You’re extorting me! You’re definitely going to milk a ton of money out of my brother anyway, do you really have to bleed me dry too?!” “Then never mind,” I said. “Deal!” he shrieked, completely broken. “What’s your brother’s name?” I asked. “Julian Thorne.” My head snapped up. “The Julian Thorne? Arthur Sterling’s older cousin who’s always abroad?” “Yes.” 3 I stayed in the restroom, smoothing out my dress, touching up my makeup, taking a deep breath, and finally walking out. Julian was waiting for me outside. To be honest, Julian’s demeanor didn’t exactly match his elegant, orderly name. He radiated a calm, calculated aura of someone who operated entirely outside the rules. He always wore a faint, polite smile, but he felt exactly like a cunning fox. Why would someone with this much wealth and power resort to online dating? I proactively looped my arm through Julian’s. He paused, a microscopic hesitation, and his smile deepened. “Do you want to go shopping first? Or grab something to eat?” he asked. “Whatever you want,” I replied. So, he took me from store to store, browsing endlessly. Unlike Arthur, Julian was incredibly patient, offering thoughtful feedback on how every bag and dress looked on me, and then flawlessly paying for everything. Arthur was too lazy to look. He would walk into a store, immediately sit down on the nearest plush sofa, stare at his phone, wait for me to pick what I wanted, pay the bill, and leave. It was incredibly bizarre. It felt like the universe had literally dropped a perfect boyfriend into my lap. But Julian was absolutely not as easygoing and accommodating as he appeared. People like him are the most dangerous. But right now… He even summoned two bodyguards to trail behind us and carry the mountain of shopping bags. “Mia, I made a reservation at that restaurant you said you wanted to try,” Julian said, a soft smile on his lips. “Let’s go!” I agreed enthusiastically. “Do you remember which one it was?” He lowered his eyes, his expression completely relaxed and casual. It was exactly the way a predator looks at prey trapped in its palm. …Which one? I have absolutely no idea! And I couldn’t exactly pull out my phone and text his little brother right now. The atmosphere instantly froze. My heart trembled, and I pressed my lips together tightly. I suddenly felt a chilling breeze on the back of my neck. I finally understood why the little brother said Julian was infinitely more terrifying than Arthur. Arthur’s emotions were written all over his face. If you pissed him off, the consequences were immediate and explosive. But Julian was entirely different. I couldn’t read him at all. Like right now, I had no idea what his sudden question was meant to imply. I opened my mouth, but before I could formulate a response, he smiled—a smile that didn’t reach his eyes—and his voice was warm and deep: “It’s fine. You’ve been busy, Mia. It’s completely normal to be forgetful. You’ll know it when we get there.” I nodded frantically, agreeing with everything. Julian was still a good guy! If Arthur had found out I forgot something important involving him, he would have cold-laughed and mocked me relentlessly for five straight hours without repeating a single insult. 4 When we arrived at the restaurant, the host immediately recognized Julian and greeted him respectfully: “Mr. Thorne.” He then escorted us to the most secluded, exclusive private dining room in the back. The ambiance was exquisite, complete with an indoor koi pond. I sat directly across from Julian. He had casually rolled up his sleeves, revealing his elegant, prominent wrists. The pale skin made the subtle blue veins even more striking. I didn’t reach for the menu. “You can order. I’m not a picky eater.” Julian chuckled softly. “Alright.” Taking advantage of the moment, I quickly texted the little brother: [You told Julian you wanted to eat at a Western restaurant?! I almost blew my cover! Are there any other crucial details I need to know? Tell me right now!] Suddenly, the door to the private room was pushed open. A painfully familiar voice rang out: “…Julian? When did you get back to the country?” My entire body turned to stone. Arthur clicked his tongue, his tone utterly bored. “I thought this room was empty, so I didn’t bother making a reservation. The other private rooms are full. Let’s just share.” I acted like a terrified quail, ducking my head as low as humanly possible. But I forgot that Arthur once told me he could recognize me even if I was burned to ash and scattered to the wind. … “Mia?” The lazy, bored voice instantly turned freezing cold. I didn’t dare lift my head. But unexpectedly, my phone lit up with a notification right at that moment: [Huh? That’s impossible. I never told my brother where I wanted to eat. I hate Western food! I told him I wanted the rustic iron-pot goose stew!] My pupils dilated in absolute horror. “Pick your fucking head up, Mia,” Arthur ground out through clenched teeth. Julian tapped his index finger lightly on the table. “Is that how you speak to your sister-in-law?” “What did you just say?” Arthur’s volume skyrocketed. Only then did I slowly, agonizingly lift my head, offering a pathetic, strained smile. “What a coincidence.” Then, following Julian’s lead, I added, “Little brother.” “Who the fuck is your little brother?!” Arthur instantly exploded, pointing directly at me and demanding an answer from Julian. “I dated her! Did you seriously not know that?!” Julian took a slow, elegant sip of his coffee. “I didn’t. Are you two still together?” “No, no! We haven’t been together for a long time! We broke up ages ago!” I quickly interjected. “Shut your mouth.” Arthur’s voice was heavy with suppressed, volcanic rage. Every single word sounded like it was being forced out through a grinder. He clenched his fists so tightly his knuckles turned bone-white. “Julian, did you seriously not run a background check on her when we were dating? Are you actually sitting here spewing bullshit, claiming you don’t know who Mia is?!” Julian sat with his legs crossed, his posture entirely relaxed. Even in this suffocatingly tense atmosphere, he managed a smooth, unbothered smile. “I do. So what?” The corners of Arthur’s eyes flushed red with fury. I sighed internally and spoke up. “Don’t be so angry. We just weren’t meant to be. Why don’t you have a glass of water and calm down?” Saying that, I prepared to stand up and pour him some water. “Mia.” Julian cast a light, warning glance at me. My chest tightened, and I immediately sat back down, perfectly still. Arthur stared in absolute disbelief. “You used to argue and fight with me every single day, and now you’re just obediently taking orders from him?! Did he brainwash you?!” Me: “…” Mostly, it’s just because Julian’s aura is significantly more terrifying. A long, agonizing silence passed. Arthur’s voice was slightly hoarse. “When exactly did you two get together?” I couldn’t answer that question. Julian answered calmly: “Late last year.” “When, exactly?” Arthur seemed determined to get the exact date, refusing to let it go. “The day after Christmas.” My facial expression completely froze. A cold, mocking sneer curled Arthur’s lips. “Mia. You are fucking unbelievable.” Arthur and I broke up on Christmas Day. But the person who started messaging Julian the day after Christmas wasn’t me! I remained completely silent, bitterly swallowing the truth, officially accepting the title of a ruthless, calculating woman who seamlessly monkey-branched from one cousin to the other. Seeing that I didn’t dare say a word, Arthur violently slammed the door and stormed out. 5 Julian, however, didn’t seem bothered in the slightest. He offered thoughtfully, “If the food isn’t to your liking, just let me know.” I nodded, trembling slightly. He gave me a surprised look. “Are you afraid of me?” When he smiled, the red mole near his eye was so dangerously captivating it was almost blinding. I parted my lips slowly: “…You ran a background check on me before?” He nodded, his tone casual and unhurried. “The family was curious about Arthur’s new girlfriend, so they had me look into it.” “Then why did you…” I was stunned. “…still get involved with me…” Julian’s smile deepened. “I thought my future sister-in-law was quite adorable a long time ago.” I awkwardly rubbed my nose. But I still felt like something was fundamentally wrong here. A long time ago? Before he even ran the background check? Wait, and what about his subtle test earlier?! Does he already know the person he was online dating wasn’t actually me?! That I’m just a hired stand-in?! I was terrified, not daring to speak recklessly. “Mia,” Julian said softly. “Come back to the Thorne estate with me next week.” I was shocked. “What?!” He offered a helpless smile. “You said before that you wanted to meet my family, and you brought it up multiple times. Did you forget, Mia?” My heart was pounding. Given my previous mistake, I didn’t dare give a casual answer. “…Oh, right.” “But I’m just… not quite ready yet.” I subconsciously gripped the hem of my shirt. “You mentioned before that your family requires a $4.5 million dowry. Mia, I can transfer that to your account at any time.” Julian looked at me with absolute seriousness. I was horrified. What insane, astronomical dowry?! Is that really what his little brother told him?! My voice shook. “No rush, no rush! Let’s just… take our time and see where things go…” By the end of the sentence, my voice was practically floating away. This entire family is absolutely terrifying. The atmosphere fell silent. Julian lowered his eyes, the smile vanishing from his face. He said softly, “I apologize. I was too impatient.” I froze for a second. Is he… actually deeply, genuinely in love? If he finds out that the person whispering sweet nothings to him all this time was actually a dude… And that I technically conspired with his little brother to deceive him… I rubbed my temples, feeling a massive headache coming on. The situation felt like it was spiraling completely out of control. Judging by his expression, Julian looked genuinely heartbroken. Sigh, it makes sense. If he wasn’t genuinely in love, why would he spend so much money on an online relationship? I quietly stood up. “I’m going to run to the restroom again.”

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My boyfriend took me home for the holidays to meet his parents. On the way, he handed me a glass of plain water. Two sips later, my vision went dark. When I woke up, I heard my boyfriend haggling with a human trafficker. “I swear to God! I guarantee she’s a virgin!” But I wasn’t panicked at all, because the human trafficker was actually… my childhood friend’s dad! I had been trafficked back to my own hometown! Right into my childhood friend’s house! 1 My head throbbed with a dull ache, and it was hard to breathe. I groggily opened my eyes and tried to move, but I was completely immobilized. Alarm bells went off in my head. I frantically checked my body. I found a large wad of rough cloth shoved into my mouth, leaving me only able to make muffled whimpering sounds. My hands and feet were tied tightly together, the purple bruises and rope marks clearly visible. There was absolutely no way I could break free. “Tell me the truth! Have you slept with her yet?!” “I swear to God! I, Luke, have absolutely zero interest in women! I never sleep with women! I guarantee she’s a virgin!” “Alright, kid. Here’s twenty grand.” “Deal!” A conversation drifted in from outside the window. I followed the sound and saw two silhouettes. One of them was the boyfriend who had drugged and sold me! And the other, an older man… looked a bit familiar? I scanned the room. In the bottom corner was a large, brick-built wood-burning stove. The cupboard had two tiers. On a wobbly wooden stool with a broken leg, there were some faded pink marker scribbles that read: “Caleb is a…” I remembered perfectly. That was a sentence I secretly wrote when I came over to play at Caleb’s house when we were kids: Caleb is a big idiot! It suddenly hit me. This was Caleb’s house! That other silhouette was Caleb’s dad! Bad news! I was trafficked into a backward, remote mountain village by my college boyfriend! Good news! I was trafficked back to my own village! Right into my childhood friend’s house! I struggled to shift my body, using the wall for leverage to straighten my back and stand up. I hopped over to the wooden door and slammed my body against it, making a loud bang, bang noise. Uncle John! Open the door! It’s me, Lily! When I was little, I helped you pick pears! Don’t you remember?! Come look at me! Let me out! I shouted frantically, but the words were trapped behind the cloth, coming out as low, muffled whimpers. “Shut up, you stupid bitch! Keep quiet! Keep making noise and I’ll take care of you right now!” Uncle John yelled at me impatiently and kicked the door twice from the outside as a warning. The old wooden door shook a cloud of dust all over me. Waaah! It’s not fair! It’s me, Lily, Uncle John! Just look at me! “Dad, who is he?” “Oh, son, you finally decided to come back. That’s the delivery guy. Go to the kitchen and keep an eye on the goods for me.” “Okay.” That voice! Even though it lacked the youthful innocence of the past, I could still tell—it was Caleb! 2 I obediently hopped backward a few steps, trying hard to squeeze out some tears and look pitiful, waiting for Caleb to come in and untie me. With a creak, the door opened. Caleb’s face was backlit, his features sharply defined in the shadows. I instantly held my breath. Caleb really lived up to his title as the village heartthrob back then! He was even more handsome now! I blinked my large, teary eyes, hopped frantically over to him, and shoved my face right in front of his. Look at me! Caleb! I’m Lily! Untie me! But Caleb just frowned. “Who are you? Why are you in my house?” I froze for a second, then realized how much a girl changes as she grows up. Since I was twelve, in the seventh grade, I had gone to the city for school and never returned to the village. I hadn’t seen Caleb in nine years. Just looking at my face, he didn’t recognize me! I whimpered loudly again, my eyes darting desperately to the gag in my mouth. Caleb! Take this out so I can speak! We grew up together! I know so many embarrassing stories about you! Just let me tell two of them, and you’ll definitely recognize me! Caleb backed away a few steps, looking disgusted. “Why are you acting like this in my house? Are you trying to pull an insurance scam?” I almost passed out. Scam your giant gorilla! Why don’t you go ask your dad why I’m like this? Isn’t your dad the village pear farmer? Why is he running this kind of racket?! “What scam? Son, you misunderstand. She’s my new wife! Your new mom!” Just as I rolled my eyes at Caleb, Uncle John walked in, beaming happily. “Oh, son, you know your mom passed away so many years ago. I haven’t had a woman in all this time. This time, I got the matchmaker to find me a young, pretty one. We’re getting married and throwing the banquet tomorrow!” As Uncle John spoke, he excitedly rubbed his hands together and reached out with a sleazy grin to touch my face. Furious, I dodged backward, glaring at him viciously. What matchmaking?! You literally bought me! You’re trafficking women! “You dare glare at me, you little bitch?! Think you’re special?! I’ll beat you to death!” Uncle John’s face instantly changed. He raised a hand to slap me across the face. But Caleb stepped forward, shielding me, and caught his hand just in time. Hiding behind Caleb, my sense of security skyrocketed. Thank God! Caleb is still as smart as ever! He saw through Uncle John’s lies! He knows I was trafficked here! He’s definitely going to save me! But it turned out I was overthinking things. 3 Caleb just stared coldly at Uncle John. “Dad, it’s fine if you want to remarry, but why are you tying her up? Have you forgotten how Mom died?! She committed suicide because she couldn’t take your domestic abuse anymore! “Now, since you’re marrying someone new, I won’t stop you. But you have to promise me you won’t repeat the same mistakes. You have to treat her well.” Caleb’s words sent my hopeful heart crashing straight to the bottom of the abyss. He actually believed it?! Where did his perfect-math-score brain go?! “You got it, son! Dad listens to you. I promise to treat this woman well!” Caleb didn’t say another word. He actually just brushed past Uncle John and walked out, clean and decisive. My vision went black. It felt like the sky was falling. Sigh. I guess there was no other way. Caleb wasn’t going to save me, so I had to save myself. I hopped over to one of the kitchen walls with great effort, bent my knees, and bumped against the wall, signaling Uncle John to look at a chalk drawing up there. It was from when Uncle John turned thirty. I had secretly taken a bunch of colored chalk from school and drawn a ten-tier cake for him on that wall. Underneath, in very neat handwriting, it read: Lily wishes Uncle John a happy birthday. He had patted my head and praised me then: “Haha, little Lily drew this so well! Uncle John is going to take you to town to buy your favorite basket cake!” It was pouring rain that day. He pedaled his little tricycle, having me sit in the back under an umbrella. He rode for over ten miles on muddy roads to take me to town, saying he was going to buy me a basket cake from Mr. Miller’s bakery. Unfortunately, before we even entered the shop, I was picked up by my uncle from the city. My parents passed away when I was very young, and I was raised by my grandmother. But in my seventh-grade year, my grandmother, my only remaining family, passed away too. My uncle, taking pity on me being all alone, came down to the village and took me back to the city. Even though my parents died early, the villagers were all very kind to me, often bringing me meat, vegetables, and rice. Especially Uncle John, who frequently smiled and told me: “Lily, you have to grow up well.” I was raised by the whole village. Now, as if by some twist of fate, I had been trafficked right back to my own village. 4 “Get over here! What are you jumping around for, you stupid bitch! Trying to run away?! I’ll break your legs!” Uncle John stormed over, grabbed me by the neck, slammed me hard onto the ground, and started kicking my legs. My head hit the cold concrete floor. A dull, throbbing pain shot straight to my brain, and it felt like my kneecaps were shattered from the kicks. I lay on the ground, fighting through the pain, trying my hardest to lift my head and whimper at him continuously. Uncle John! It’s me, Lily! How can you not recognize me?! But seeing me resist only enraged Uncle John further. He stepped on my head, grinding the side of my face into the dirt. “You cheap slut! Let me tell you, if you dare try to run, I’ll scatter your entire family’s ashes!” As if stomping on me wasn’t enough, Uncle John pulled an old bamboo whip from the top of the cupboard. This thing was a staple in every household in the village. If a kid misbehaved, a serving of “bamboo shoots and pork” (a beating) would set them straight. “I’ll beat you to death! Do you know my favorite thing to do is beat pretty women?! You better behave!” Uncle John looked possessed, getting happier the more he beat me. The whip came down like rain, lash after relentless lash. I felt like the skin on my back was being flayed open. The agonizing, burning pain forced tears from my eyes. All I could do was curl up on the floor and desperately shake my head. A thousand urgent explanations turned into nothing but muffled whimpers. Uncle John… stop hitting me. If you keep hitting me, I’m really going to die… I don’t know how long he beat me before Uncle John rubbed his elbow and spat at me. “Ptooi! My arm is sore from beating you. For a cheap slut like you, it’s not worth it! Sit tight and wait for the whole village to come for the banquet tomorrow! I’m going to marry you in style!” I curled up on the floor, trembling all over, the pain pushing me to the brink of unconsciousness. “Don’t play dead! We’re getting married tomorrow! Here’s two slaps to wake you up!” He yanked me up by the collar and slapped me hard across the left and right cheeks. Before I passed out, my hazy vision caught the fading light as the wooden door shut. 5 “Hey. How are you holding up? Eat some porridge.” At the crack of dawn the next day, someone gently patted my cheek. I forced my eyes open. It was Caleb. “Caleb! It’s me!” I couldn’t help but cry out anxiously, only to realize I could actually speak. The gag in my mouth had been removed. “How do you know my name?” Caleb set the bowl of porridge on the floor and asked, looking confused. “I’m Lily!” After holding it in for so long, I could finally say my own name. All the grievances in my heart burst open like a broken dam, and I started wailing out loud. “Waaah, Caleb! Uncle John beat me so badly last night! I’m never going to forgive him! I’m never drawing him birthday pictures again! Hurry up and untie me!” But Caleb glanced at the writing on the wall and just shoved me. “Shut up! How dare you impersonate Lily?!” I stumbled and fell backward, furious and resentful! I swear! This father and son pair are dumber than a box of rocks! “Caleb! I really am Lily! Have you forgotten?! We grew up together! We’re childhood sweethearts!” Caleb glared at me in disgust and took the bowl of porridge away. “Get lost. Who’s your childhood sweetheart? If you dare impersonate Lily again, I’m feeding this porridge to the dog!” I looked at his fierce expression, feeling disappointed and stubborn. Tears rolled down my face as my voice shook violently: “Caleb, when your old yellow dog had puppies, we delivered them together. Have you forgotten? “When you turned thirteen, I folded a hundred origami cranes for you, each with a hidden wish written on it. Have you forgotten that? “Back then, you spent three days and three nights writing a hundred love letters for me. Have you forgotten that too? “And now you don’t even recognize me! Our ten years of friendship were completely wasted on you!” I enunciated every word clearly, and Caleb listened, absolutely dumbfounded. He swallowed nervously. “Are… are you really Lily? Why don’t you look anything like her?” He was still doubting me?! Completely disappointed, I sat up straight, leaned into his face, and yelled: “Haven’t you ever heard of puberty, you idiot?!” Seeing him still staring blankly, seemingly unconvinced. In a fit of rage, I deployed my ultimate weapon: “Caleb! You wore split-crotch pants and showed everyone your wiener!” 6 When I was three, my parents were still alive. They carried me to Caleb’s house to buy pears. But we couldn’t find anyone in the house, so we eventually went to their pear orchard. Caleb, with his little stubby legs, came running all the way out to meet me, but I just pointed at his split-crotch pants and laughed. His mother came running up behind him, frantically trying to put a diaper on him. My mom just smiled: “Lily, do you like your Caleb? Should Mommy arrange an arranged marriage for you?” I vaguely remember nodding. As we grew up, whenever Caleb made me mad, I would lean in and secretly tease him about it. Every time, his face would turn bright red. He’d cover his crotch and haughtily huff at me, “Fine! I can’t mess with you!” Over time, this joke became a secret shared only between the two of us. “Caleb! Do you believe me n—” Before I could finish yelling, the light in my line of sight was blocked by a figure frantically lunging at me. Then, my arms were filled with a trembling body that felt like it was going to shatter. Caleb pulled me into a fierce, desperate hug. “Lily, you heartless jerk. Nine years and you never came back to see me. Did you forget about me? Do you have any idea how much I missed you…” Caleb buried his face in my shoulder. His voice shook pitifully, and I could clearly hear the choked-back sobs at the end of his sentences. I could even feel the fabric on my shoulder getting soaked by a warm liquid. Caleb was actually crying? Suddenly, I didn’t dare yell at him anymore. Then, thinking about it carefully, I realized something wasn’t right. Wait, why is HE acting like the victim?! What does he have to be upset about?! He’s the one who didn’t recognize me! And I got a brutal beating from his dad! I was about to scold him, but I realized I couldn’t catch my breath. “Caleb, don’t hug me… so tight. I’m suffocating…” 7 “Hey! Son! Is she awake yet?! The whole village is here for the banquet!” Right then, Uncle John walked in, his face beaming with joy. The next second, the smile vanished from his face instantly, and he quickly shut the wooden door. “What?! Son, what are you doing?! Let go of her right now! If the villagers see this, people will talk!” Caleb stood up, his face dark. “Dad, this is Lily!” “Oh, son. I know you miss Lily, but you can’t just grab a random person and say it’s her. It’s impossible for her to be Lily. They don’t look alike at all. Just look at the writing on the wall. She’s definitely playing tricks trying to escape!” I rolled my eyes, unable to hold it in anymore. “Uncle John! Have you forgotten that on your thirtieth birthday, besides drawing this picture for you, you rode your tricycle to take me to town to eat a basket cake?!” Uncle John shuddered violently, his eyes widening like saucers. “You… you’re really Lily? The college student I bought is actually you?!” Caleb instantly caught the glaring issue in that sentence. “What do you mean ‘bought’?! Dad?! Explain yourself?!” “Uncle John! Trafficking women is a felony! You can’t be involved in this kind of racket! Where’s the ex-boyfriend who sold me yesterday? We need to catch him!” I shook Uncle John’s shoulders violently, trying to shake some sense into him. He immediately dropped to his knees, sliding right to my feet. “Whatever Lily says, goes! I’ll never do something this stupid again! “Uncle John was so foolish. I didn’t recognize you yesterday and I hit you. I’m so sorry, Lily.” After saying that, he slapped himself hard on the left and right cheeks. Two red handprints instantly bloomed on his face. Caleb kept his head down, a vicious glint hidden beneath his messy bangs, his knuckles cracking as he clenched his fists. “Who sold you? I’m going to deal with him.” I pointed at a young man sitting at a large round table outside, tapping his chopsticks, waiting for the banquet to start. “That’s him! Luke!” Caleb shot out like a bolt of furious lightning. 8 “Hey, you’re his son, right? You want a pretty college girl? Since you’re repeat customers, I’ll only charge you…” Before Luke could finish his sentence, he was hoisted into the air and slammed against the wall by Caleb. “What are you doing?! I found your dad a beautiful wife! Why are you hitting me, you psycho?!” Caleb’s eyes were as cold as a frozen lake. He tilted his head, leaning close to Luke’s face. “Do you have any idea who you just sold?” “Her…” Luke pointed a trembling finger in my direction. I stood a short distance away, frowning deeply. From my angle, it seriously looked like they were kissing! I yelled anxiously, “Caleb! Don’t go easy on him!” I grabbed a stool and charged out. I was aiming to hit Luke in the stomach. But my aim was apparently terrible, and I just smashed the stool into the wall! “Hey, John, I heard your son came back. And you’re getting married today! Double blessings!” “Where’s the new bride? Is she prettier than your last one? Bring her out so we can see!” At that moment, the villagers arriving for the banquet started offering their congratulations. Caleb seemed to get even angrier hearing that. He threw a punch straight down at Luke. And smashed his fist right into the wall. The skin on Caleb’s knuckles instantly tore, seeping blood. “Caleb! Today is your dad’s big day! Seeing blood is bad luck!” “Oh, what a sin! John, come control your son!” “Who is that boy wearing glasses? He looks so delicate and pale. Stop hitting him, let me take him home and love on him properly.” I was in the middle of pulling Luke’s hair. Hearing these familiar voices, my heart twisted, and I abruptly stopped what I was doing. I looked down the line at their faces. Nine years had passed, but I still recognized every single one of them. Aunt Sarah, Uncle Tom, Grandma Liu, Grandpa Miller… The smiling faces that had showered me with love when I was a kid flashed before my eyes. My vision blurred with tears. I felt both overjoyed and deeply sad. Overjoyed because I got to see them again. Sad because I was about to be separated from them again. “Oh my, why is this child crying… it breaks my heart.” “Is she the new bride John is marrying?” Caleb roared at the top of his lungs: “What new bride?! She’s Lily!” 9 “Wh… what? She’s Lily? Little Lily finally came back?! Oh my, let me look at you. You’ve grown so much!” “Lily, you came back and just stayed at your Uncle John’s house?! You didn’t even come around to visit us! Did you forget all about us?!” “Aunt Sarah’s peaches are ripe again! Come to my house tomorrow to eat peaches, Lily!” “Uncle Tom just slaughtered a pig for the New Year! Come to my house tomorrow, I’ll stew some pig trotters for you!” “I didn’t forget you guys… I came back to find you…” I sobbed, hugging them one by one. “Wow, you guys are something else! Playing me for a fool?! Hiring me to buy someone, and it turns out you all know her!” While I was catching up with the villagers, Luke seized the opportunity and bolted. Clang, clang, clang! Before I could even chase after him, the sound of a gong echoed through the courtyard. I whipped around. It was Uncle John. He was beating a gong to get the villagers’ attention. “Catch him! Everyone! That brat who just ran away tried to sell Lily for cash!” “What?! He dared to bully Lily?! I’m going to break his legs! Don’t run, you bastard!” Uncle Tom exploded with rage, ran into Uncle John’s house, grabbed a hoe, and chased after him. “Beat him to death! How dare he bully our Lily! Doesn’t he have eyes?!” “Everyone, chase him! He’s not getting away!” Aunt Sarah hoisted a rake over her shoulder and chased after him, cursing a blue streak. “I’m going too! I’m going to get revenge for Lily!” Grandma Liu raised her cane high, ready to join the pursuit. I quickly grabbed her and made her sit down. “No, no, no, Grandma Liu, your health isn’t good. You shouldn’t go.” 10 The village was full of narrow, winding dirt paths. The houses were close together, each fenced in to raise chickens, and everyone had a fierce guard dog. Hunted from all sides, Luke sprinted desperately through the village, causing absolute chaos everywhere he went. More and more villagers came out to help. It was practically the entire village mobilized. “Everyone come out and catch him! That animal sold Lily!” “Grab your weapons and get him!” “I’m begging you, please spare me! I won’t take the twenty grand, okay?! “Please let me go! Ahhhhh!” Luke ran for his life while screaming and begging at the top of his lungs. But two fists are no match for dozens of hands. He was eventually surrounded by the villagers, caught in the middle of the crowd, and beaten mercilessly. “Ow! Why are you pulling my hair?!” “Stop scratching! Ahh, it hurts!” Watching the villagers exact revenge for me, I was moved to tears and snot. Waaah, the villagers are so good to me. They really are my family. They are my family! After my touching moment, I clapped my hands gleefully. “Haha! Luke, when you kidnapped me, you never expected this day would come, did you?!” “Here, you must be hungry.” Before I could stop grinning, Caleb walked over holding two massive chicken drumsticks. He shoved one into my mouth. Then he sat down next to me. His deep eyes were locked onto the scene of the villagers beating Luke, and he violently chewed the chicken in his mouth to pieces.

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I was at my high school reunion when I saw the post. I’d spent the last hour nursing a drink I didn’t want, scrolling through social media to avoid eye contact, when Jackson’s latest update popped up on my feed. [Ran into the guy I hated most in high school at the reunion tonight. Seeing how pathetic his life turned out? Absolute peak satisfaction. Karma is a beautiful thing.] The comment section was already a sea of “likes” and “congrats” from people I used to share a homeroom with. I sat there, my thumb hovering over the screen, before I slowly typed out a single line: “By ‘hated,’ do you mean the way you led the entire grade to ostracize him? Or the part where you knew he and his childhood sweetheart were in love, yet you inserted yourself into their lives under the guise of being a ‘bro’ just to sabotage them, eventually bullying him into moving across the ocean?” The second I hit send, the comment vanished. Deleted. I looked up. Jackson was standing three feet away, a smug, punchable grin plastered across his face. “Miles, man, why are you dressed so… casual?” he asked, his voice carrying just loud enough for the nearby tables to go quiet. “Is life in London not treating you well? Or did you just give up?” He leaned in, the scent of expensive bourbon and cheap malice radiating off him. “Are you married? Got a girlfriend? Or are you still just drifting? Don’t tell me you’re still living paycheck to paycheck, waiting in line for a government handout.” He chuckled, glancing at the crowd for approval. “If you’re struggling, just come back home. We won’t laugh at you. Or is the reason you stayed away for ten years because you’re still holding a grudge against me?” The room went dead silent. Every head turned. I could feel those eyes—sharp, judgmental, and heavy with the same casual cruelty they’d wielded a decade ago. But I wasn’t that seventeen-year-old boy anymore. I didn’t shrink. I didn’t look at the floor. I didn’t bother telling them that I owned more than just a house and a car. I didn’t mention that I held a significant stake in the very hotel group hosting this pathetic gathering. Instead, I looked Jackson dead in the eye and asked one question: “What about you, Jackson? It’s been ten years. Are you and Tina finally together?” 1 The words hit the room like a sudden drop in temperature. Tina, who had been standing a few feet away, finally broke her ten-year silence. She looked exactly the same, yet entirely different—the girl I once thought I’d spend my life with was now just a stranger in a cocktail dress. “Miles, stop it,” she said, her voice trembling slightly. “Don’t be like that. Jackson and I… we’re just friends. We’ve always just been friends.” She stepped closer, trying to reclaim some ghost of the intimacy we once had. “I know you’re still bitter about the past, but it’s been so long. I’ve wanted to get everyone together for years just so we could finally talk, clear the air, and start over. Can’t we just move past it?” Jackson, sensing an opening, raised his glass. He tried to throw an arm around my shoulder, the way he used to do when he was mocking me. “Exactly! We’re all adults here, Miles. If I did anything to offend you back in the day, don’t take it to heart. You know me—I’ve always been a straight shooter. I never understood all that sensitive, brooding stuff you had going on.” The crowd followed his lead like clockwork, standing up with their glasses raised. “Yeah, don’t be a buzzkill, Miles. Jackson’s just a high-energy guy.” “It’s all in the past. Who keeps a grudge for ten years? That’s just petty.” “Be the bigger person. Jackson was the one who went out of his way to make sure you were invited tonight.” They framed his forced invitation as an act of charity, a seat at the table I should be grateful for. They wanted the satisfaction of my forgiveness so they could stop feeling like the villains of my story. But I’ve never been good at following a script I didn’t write. I didn’t touch my glass. “I can’t drink,” I said quietly. “My wife is pregnant. I have to go pick her up in a bit.” The sound of shattering glass sliced through the room. Tina’s drink had slipped from her hand, splashing red wine across the hem of her dress. Everyone stared, but Jackson was the only one whose eyes betrayed a flicker of genuine relief. Tina forced a jagged, painful smile. “You’re… you’re joking. You don’t have to lie just because you don’t want to drink with us.” “I’m not joking,” I replied calmly. “I’m married. My wife is expecting. I’m only back in the States to handle some family business acquisitions.” Jackson couldn’t hide his excitement. It was the most honest he’d been all night; with me married, he finally didn’t have to pretend to be Tina’s “just a friend” anymore. “When did this happen?” he asked, his voice booming. “Why wasn’t there an announcement? Congratulations, man!” Tina’s voice was brittle, like dry leaves. “But… you always said… Miles, you’re lying to me, aren’t you?” One of Jackson’s flunkies stepped forward, his face reddening with secondhand indignation. “Miles, seriously? You’re going to pull this? Do you have any idea how long Tina has been waiting for you to come back?” He gestured wildly. “Look at her. You didn’t come to this reunion to move on; you came to get back with her. Be a man. Don’t be so dramatic. Don’t miss out on a woman like her—you’ll never find another one.” I’d forgotten how much I hated the sound of their voices. I gave them a thin, effortless smile. “I really am married. As for the things I said back then? They were just the foolish promises of a kid who didn’t know any better.” I looked directly at Tina, taking the very words she’d used to destroy me ten years ago and handing them back to her. “Surely you can take a joke, right?” 2 Tina and I were “the” couple. We grew up in houses that shared a fence, went to the same schools, and shared every secret from kindergarten through sophomore year. Then came Jackson. He moved to our town junior year and blew through our lives like a hurricane. He was loud, athletic, and had that “golden boy” charisma that made every guy want to be his brother and every girl want his attention. That included Tina. Suddenly, they were always together. They sat together in the back of the class, whispering about things I wasn’t part of. They gamed together until 2 AM. Our walk home from school, which had been a private ritual for a decade, slowly became a trio. At first, I told myself I was being paranoid. He was just a new friend. Until the day Jackson, while “play-fighting” with Tina, knocked my glass water bottle off my desk. It shattered into a thousand jagged pieces. It was a custom-etched bottle Tina had given me for my birthday. Part of a set. “Whoops!” Jackson said, his voice loud and performative. He patted my shoulder with a heavy hand. “My bad, bro. I’ll buy you a new one. Don’t get all worked up about it.” I shook my head, trying to keep my voice steady. “It’s fine. It was an accident. Don’t worry about it.” Jackson leaned down, but his voice stayed loud enough for the whole room to hear. “No, really, let me replace it. I know how you sensitive types are. You say you’re not mad to our faces, then you go home and stew about it for a week.” The air left my lungs. He was framing me as the “delicate” one, the guy who was secretly petty. The guys around us started snickering. “I said it’s fine,” I muttered, my face heating up. Jackson pointed at me, laughing for the crowd. “See? Look at that face! He’s already sulking. It’s just a bottle, man. Just tell me to buy you a new one instead of being so passive-aggressive. I hate it when people can’t just be real.” He nudged Tina. “Tess, talk to your boy. Tell him to cheer up before he ruins the vibe for everyone.” Tina looked at the glass on the floor, then at me. “Miles, honestly, stop being so sensitive. I’ll just buy you another one. It wasn’t even that expensive.” “You think I’m being sensitive?” I asked, a lump forming in my throat. “I’ll buy it myself. Forget it.” Tina looked like she wanted to apologize, but Jackson threw an arm around her neck, pulling her away. “Man, what did you say to him? You broke the Prince’s heart!” he joked. “Let’s go, let’s go. We’ll come back when His Royal Highness has cheered up.” And just like that, I had a nickname: The Little Prince. Every time I handed out papers for a teacher: “Careful, don’t want our delicate Little Prince getting a paper cut.” Every time I sat quietly to read: “Look at that royal posture. So much more refined than us peasants, right?” The laughter followed me through the hallways like a physical weight. The smirks, the side-eyes, the whispered jokes—they were everywhere. And Tina? She did nothing. Eventually, even she started using the narrative. When she was annoyed with me, she’d sigh and say: “God, Miles, stop acting so entitled. You don’t actually live in a castle. Drop the ‘Little Prince’ attitude.” 3 The cold war between Tina and me set in, and Jackson used the silence to sharpen his knives. He started targeting every little thing. If I had a simple keychain on my bag, he’d gasp: “Whoa! Look at the accessory on Miles’s bag! So chic. You really put a lot of thought into being ‘aesthetic,’ don’t you?” He’d mimic me, primping his collar with exaggerated, feminine movements while the other guys howled. If I wiped down my desk after lunch, he’d sneer: “So refined, Miles. You think the rest of us are pigs? If we’re too gross for you, why don’t you just get a private tutor at home? Why bother slumming it with us?” I could feel the resentment from the other kids growing. He was making my basic habits look like an insult to them. During the weekly seat rotation, I was moving a heavy box of books. I couldn’t carry it all in one trip. Jackson walked over and put his foot right on top of the remaining box. “Man, I’m exhausted,” he shouted to the room. “Is there a brave soul willing to help our Little Prince? He’s got such frail, dainty arms, I’m worried he might snap.” The classroom erupted. People were literally doubling over, some even mocking the way I walked. Tina didn’t look back. She just muttered, “That’s enough, Jackson.” Jackson gave a loud, mocking Tsk. “Oh, looks like someone’s still protective of her childhood crush.” Tina flared up, her face turning red. “I’m not protective! I’m not ‘hearting’ anyone, especially not a crybaby!” Jackson grinned, satisfied. “Exactly. We’re just trying to toughen him up, right? He’s too soft. He’ll never survive in the real world if he’s this in his head all the time.” Tina looked at him, her expression softening into something familiar and warm. “Yeah… I guess guys should be a bit more… rugged.” Jackson playfully punched her shoulder. “Now you’re talking! Men should act like men!” My heart didn’t just break; it felt like it had been shredded. I thought if I just ignored them, Jackson would get bored. But after a month of silence, it was Tina who broke first. She caught me by the lockers. “Miles, please stop being mad. Don’t ignore me.” She looked at me with those big, tearful eyes she’d used since we were six. And like an idiot, I softened. I couldn’t imagine a life without her. We were supposed to go to the same college, move to the same city. I couldn’t leave her behind. So, we made up. Or at least, we pretended to. I still waited for her after her extracurriculars. We still walked home together, the streetlights casting our long shadows on the pavement. But I could feel Jackson watching us from a distance, whispering to his friends and laughing. That laughter made my skin crawl. It made me feel like I was the punchline to a joke I hadn’t heard yet. I tried to tell Tina how I felt. She groaned. “You’re overthinking again. They’re just kidding around. That’s just how guys are with each other.” When she saw my face fall, she softened her voice. “Okay, fine. I’ll talk to them. I’ll tell them to back off the jokes.” She walked over to Jackson across the quad. I watched as Jackson threw his head back and yelled, “Oh, we can’t even joke now? Does he think he’s a god? Does everyone have to bow down to him?” “Jackson!” Tina snapped, but it sounded performative. Jackson shrugged and shot me a look of pure, unadulterated malice. During those months, Jackson’s voice and his subtle cruelties were like invisible fists. The whispering in the back of the room felt like insects crawling over my skin. But I was weak. I told myself it was only two more years. Just two more years and I’d be free. I could endure it. And then, out of nowhere, Tina confessed she loved me. 4 She asked me to meet her at the football bleachers after practice. We’d spent our whole lives hanging out at the fields, so I didn’t suspect a thing. Until a few guys from class started acting weird. They kept asking me what my “big plans” were for the weekend and what I was going to wear. “Just a workout set,” I told them. “We’re hitting the gym, then the library. Just a normal Saturday.” They looked disappointed. “You’re going on a date with the prettiest girl in school and that’s the best you can do? So boring.” Boring. The word stung. Was that why Tina was spending so much time with Jackson? Because I was boring? The next day, following the “advice” of those guys, I bought a new athletic set. They told me it was “high-fashion” and “fitted” to show off my build. I wasn’t the biggest guy, but I was lean and toned from years of swimming. When I met Tina, her eyes lit up. She tucked a strand of hair behind her ear, looking almost shy. I felt a surge of hope. Maybe this was it. Maybe we were finally going back to how things used to be. We sat down in the shade of the bleachers, and she started acting fidgety. “Miles,” she said, her voice small. “I’ve been holding something in for a long time. I need to tell you.” My heart started thumping so hard I could hear it in my ears. “Will you be my boyfriend?” Blood rushed to my face. I felt dizzy with relief. After a moment, I whispered, “If it’s you, Tina… then yes.” I remembered when we were seven, and she’d held my hand and told me I was the best boy in the world and she was going to marry me one day. I remembered her standing up to middle-school bullies for me like a mother hen. Miles is mine, she’d said. If you mess with him, you mess with me. Ten years of history. How could a guy like Jackson ever stand a chance against that? Tina leaned in, asking me to repeat myself. I took a deep breath and said it louder. “Yes! I love you too, Tina!” “HAHAHAHAHA!” A roar of laughter erupted from behind the bleachers. A dozen kids from our class spilled out, phones in hand, recording everything. Their faces were twisted with mockery. Jackson was at the front. “God, Tina, you really are the best. I can’t believe you actually got him to say it.” I looked at Tina. She turned her head away, refusing to meet my eyes. Jackson walked up to me, his face a mask of fake pity. “Oh man, Miles. Are you serious? You wore that outfit to a fake confession? What are you trying to prove? That you’ve actually been to a gym once?” The guys who had “recommended” the outfit were in the back, smirking and looking away. Jackson reached out and yanked the collar of my shirt, pulling it so hard the fabric strained. I stumbled back. “I was wondering why you looked so ‘buff’ today,” Jackson laughed. “It’s because the shirt is two sizes too small! He’s literally squeezing himself into a kid’s size to look tough!” “I’m not!” I shouted, my voice cracking. The crowd went wild. “Is it true, Jackson?” someone yelled. “I felt the fabric myself!” Jackson yelled back. “It’s stretched to the breaking point! Talk about overcompensating!” A few guys started whistling, their eyes scanning me like I was a freak in a circus. I looked at Tina, my face pale, my voice trembling. “What is this? What did they mean?” 5 Tina finally looked at me, but her eyes were cold. “Miles, you’re just so… uncool. You never fit in with anyone. Jackson thought this would be a good way to get you to loosen up. To stop acting like you’re better than everyone.” The betrayal felt like a physical blow to the chest. My eyes burned. “You think humiliating me like this is ‘helping’ me?” Before she could answer, Jackson stepped in. “Don’t you dare talk to her like that. You’re always playing the victim, banking on the fact that she feels sorry for you.” He leaned in, his voice dropping to a whisper meant only for me. “She didn’t even want to talk to you anymore. It took me five minutes to convince her this would be funny. She even bet me that the second she showed you a little affection, you’d come crawling like a pathetic puppy. And look at you. She was right.” The world tilted. The air felt like lead. Without thinking, I lunged forward and shoved Jackson as hard as I could. “MILES!” A sharp shout came from the edge of the field. Before I could move, a massive force slammed into me. I was hoisted up by my collar and slammed against the equipment shed. Pain flared in my back. Panic and rage flooded my system.

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My new laptop cost me twenty-five hundred dollars. It was a high-end beast, custom-specced for the kind of heavy rendering my job demands. When my nephew asked to borrow it to finish his senior capstone project, I didn’t even hesitate. I said yes. The next day, he posted on Instagram: “Just flipped this used rig for eight hundred bucks. Pure profit! Living my best life!” I clicked the photo. There it was. My laptop. The same specs, the same serial number sticker on the corner, the same custom finish. I didn’t call him. I didn’t scream. I simply pulled up my admin portal. After remotely bricking the hardware, I sent him a single text: “Are you finished with that project yet?” The comments section on his post was already starting to burn. 01 When the phone rang, I was deep in a flow state, eyes glued to a wall of cascading code. The caller ID read: Sarah. My older sister. I swiped to answer but didn’t get a word out before her voice blasted through the speaker, sharp and demanding. “Grant? You busy?” “A little,” I said, my eyes still tracking a bug in the script. “Listen, I need a favor. Tyler—you know he’s finishing his degree this semester—his laptop is a total piece of junk. It’s freezing up every time he tries to run his data models. He was wondering if he could borrow your new one for a bit.” My fingers froze over the keyboard. My new laptop. I’d bought it last month—a top-of-the-line machine that had eaten through a significant chunk of my savings. I needed the high-tier GPU for my rendering work; it wasn’t just a computer, it was my livelihood. “Sarah, I use that for work,” I said, trying to keep my voice level. “Ugh, I know you work. But he only needs it at night. You use it during the day, he uses it in the evening. It’s not a big deal. Besides, how long does it take to write a paper? A week, tops.” Her tone was so matter-of-fact, as if she were asking to borrow a stapler rather than a three-thousand-dollar setup. “We’re family, Grant. You’re his uncle. Don’t you want to see him succeed? If he doesn’t graduate because he can’t finish his project, how’s that going to look on all of us?” There it was. The “Family Tax.” I felt a familiar throb of irritation behind my eyes. I minimized my coding window and rubbed the bridge of my nose. “Sarah, the software and project files on that machine are sensitive. If he accidentally deletes—” “Oh, please. Just back it up. Tyler is twenty-two, not five. He knows how to use a computer. Just put your secret stuff in an encrypted folder and tell him not to touch it. It’s just a laptop, Grant. Don’t be so stingy.” I stayed silent. It was always the same routine. Whenever she wanted something, she draped herself in the mantle of “Family Values.” If I hesitated for even a second, I was the selfish one, the cold-hearted brother who didn’t care about blood. “Anyway, that apartment of yours isn’t exactly Fort Knox,” she added, her voice breezy now that she sensed my silence as a white flag. “It’s probably safer at our place anyway. We’re always home. It’s settled, then. I’ll have Tyler swing by later to pick it up.” In the background, I could hear Tyler’s muffled, impatient voice: “Mom, why are you still talking to him? He’s my uncle, he’s supposed to help me out.” The entitlement in his voice made my blood pressure spike. “Sarah, wait,” I said, my voice dropping an octave. “Now what?” “That machine is a tool, not a toy. If Tyler takes it, there are rules. One: he doesn’t touch my files. Two: if so much as a pixel is out of place, he pays for the repair or replacement. Three: I want it back in seven days. Exactly.” There was a beat of silence. Sarah clearly wasn’t used to me setting hard boundaries. “Fine, fine. Whatever. You’re so dramatic,” she huffed. “He’s on his way. Have it ready.” She hung up before I could say another word. I stared at the dead screen, a hollow feeling settling in my chest. I opened a folder and started backing up my active projects to the cloud, trying to convince myself I was just being paranoid. Tyler was a bit of a brat, sure, but he wouldn’t do anything truly stupid. He just needed to graduate. 02 Thirty minutes later, the doorbell buzzed. I opened it to find Tyler standing there, AirPods shoved in his ears, jaw working rhythmically on a piece of gum. He was wearing an oversized designer hoodie that probably cost more than my monthly grocery bill. He looked at me with an expression that bordered on bored contempt. “Hey. Mom said you’re letting me use the rig?” “Yeah.” I stepped aside to let him in. He wandered into my small apartment, his eyes scanning the space with a faint, judgmental smirk. He didn’t say a word about the decor, but the way he tilted his head told me he thought my place was beneath him. “Where’s the bag?” he asked. I pointed to the black, reinforced laptop case on the desk. I’d spent sixty bucks on that case specifically for its shock-absorption. He walked over and slung the strap over his shoulder with a reckless, one-handed motion. The bag swung and hit the edge of the desk with a dull thud. My heart did a painful somersault. “The password is 1-1-2-2-3-3,” I said, my voice tight. “There’s a folder on the desktop labeled ‘DO NOT TOUCH.’ Leave it alone. All the software you need for your data models is already installed and pinned to the taskbar.” “Got it, got it. Chill out,” he said, waving a hand dismissively. The music bleeding from his AirPods was so loud I could hear the bass line from three feet away. He turned to the door, stepping back into his sneakers without ever looking at me. “Later.” “Tyler,” I called out. He stopped, turning his head just enough to show he was annoyed. “What now?” “Be careful with it. Seriously. It’s expensive.” He let out a short, mocking laugh, the kind that implied I was an idiot for even stating the obvious. “Yeah, okay.” The door slammed shut behind him. I stood there in the silence, a bad taste lingering in my mouth. It didn’t feel like I’d just done a favor for a relative. It felt like I’d been shook down for protection money. I shook my head, trying to dislodge the anxiety. It’s just a week, I told myself. If I fight Sarah over this, Mom will be calling me tonight to give me a lecture on ‘harmony.’ I sat back down at my desk and realized how empty it looked. I usually ran a dual-monitor setup. Tyler hadn’t just taken the laptop; he’d taken the 27-inch 4K monitor too, unplugging it without even asking if it was part of the deal. I reached for my phone to call Sarah, then hesitated. I forced myself to take a deep breath. One week. Just survive one week. I hooked up my old, flickering backup monitor. As the screen hummed to life, I felt a strange, sinking sensation in my gut. 03 The next morning started with a frantic call from my project manager. We spent the entire morning in a remote sprint, trying to put out fires on a new client launch. By noon, I was exhausted. I ordered some takeout and, out of habit, opened Instagram to kill a few minutes while I waited for the delivery. I hadn’t scrolled three inches before a familiar handle popped up. It was Tyler. He’d posted a carousel of photos. The caption read: “Liquidating some assets. Flipped this used setup for $800. Pure profit! Thanks for the quick cash, boys. Drinks on me tonight!” My heart skipped a beat, then began to hammer against my ribs. I tapped the first photo. It was a screenshot of a Venmo notification. Someone had sent him $800 with the caption “For the laptop.” I swiped to the second photo. It was a picture of a sleek, black laptop. In the upper right corner was the tiny, silver logo sticker I’d put there so I wouldn’t mix it up with my old work machine. The third photo was a spec sheet of the hardware. CPU, GPU, RAM… everything matched my twenty-five hundred dollar investment perfectly. The fourth photo showed the laptop sitting next to the 4K monitor on a coffee table I recognized from Sarah’s living room. The blood rushed to my head so fast it made me dizzy. Then, just as quickly, it went cold. My hands were shaking. Fury. A cold, crystalline rage I hadn’t felt in years. I had lent him that machine yesterday. He had sold it today. A twenty-five hundred dollar laptop and a six-hundred dollar monitor—over three thousand dollars of professional equipment—sold for eight hundred bucks. And the bastard called it “pure profit.” I reached for the dial pad, ready to tear Sarah and Tyler apart. My thumb hovered over Sarah’s name, but I stopped. What would that accomplish? I knew exactly what she would say. “Oh, Grant, he’s just a kid, he didn’t know.” “He was short on rent, you’re his uncle, can’t you just help him out?” “It’s already sold, what do you want me to do? I’ll tell him to give you the eight hundred.” Eight hundred dollars for three thousand dollars worth of my life? I gripped the phone so hard my knuckles turned white. I scrolled down to the comments on Tyler’s post. “Bro, $800 for those specs? You robbed that guy,” one friend wrote. “Nice flip, Ty. We hitting the club tonight?” another chimed in. Tyler’s reply was a smug smiley face: “You know it. Table service at midnight.” I tossed the phone onto the desk and stood up, pacing the length of my tiny living room. My chest felt like it was being crushed by a lead weight. I couldn’t breathe. I walked to the window, lit a cigarette—a habit I’d quit a year ago—and took a long, harsh drag. The smoke burned my lungs and made me cough, but the nicotine hit my system and began to clear the fog of panic. I couldn’t just scream at them. They didn’t speak the language of logic or respect. To them, my hard work was just a resource for them to mine. I needed a better way. I needed a way to make Tyler cough up the hardware, and to make sure both he and his “smart” buyer regretted ever crossing me. My eyes fell on my desktop tower, still humming as it compiled code. A thought struck me like a lightning bolt. The laptop was a professional workstation. For security and insurance purposes, I had registered it through the manufacturer’s enterprise cloud service and bound the hardware ID to my account. That account gave me master-level permissions. Including… the “Nuclear Option.” 04 I crushed out the cigarette and sat back down. Stay cold, I told myself. Stay clinical. I opened my browser and navigated to the manufacturer’s portal. Login. Password. Two-factor authentication. The page loaded, showing my device management dashboard. A single line of text sat at the top of the list: “Model: Precision Series X. Serial: XXXXXXXXXXXX. Status: Online.” Online. That meant the buyer had already hooked it up to Wi-Fi. I stared at that green “Online” indicator, and a slow, jagged smile spread across my face. Perfect. I clicked on “Device Actions.” A menu of options appeared: Locate Device, Play Sound, Lock Hardware, Wipe Data. My cursor hovered over Lock Hardware. If I clicked this, a low-level command would be sent via the cloud directly to the laptop’s BIOS chip. It wasn’t just a Windows password lock. It would physically disable the motherboard, the CPU, and the SSD controller. The laptop would become a literal brick. No amount of reformatting or part-swapping would fix it. It would be a three-thousand-dollar paperweight. The only way to unlock it was for me—and only me—to send the authorization code from this specific account. It was a feature designed for corporate theft. I never thought I’d be using it on my own nephew. I began to map out the moves in my head. Step one: Lock the device. Turn that buyer’s “steal” into a piece of junk. When he realizes he’s been scammed, he’ll go straight for Tyler’s throat. Step two: Apply pressure. Tyler, desperate to keep the buyer from calling the cops or kicking his door in, would have to come crawling back to me. Step three: Recovery. I’d get my gear back, and Tyler would learn that actions have consequences. No screaming. No family drama on the phone. Just a clean, digital execution. I didn’t need to argue with people who didn’t value me. I just needed to show them what happens when you steal from a man who knows how the machine works.

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During the year I loved Arthur the most, he died in a car crash. Everyone expected me to have a total breakdown, but I didn’t cry or make a scene. Two years later, I bumped into him in a private room at a club. Arthur had his arms around a young girl, kissing her passionately. His friends quickly surrounded me, scrambling to explain: “Arthur was severely injured in that crash and fell into a coma. He just recently woke up, but he has amnesia… We didn’t want you living in constant anxiety, so we never told you.” Arthur pushed the girl away, walked up to me, and frowned: “I heard you’re my fiancée? Even though I don’t remember it, seeing how devoted you’ve been to me, I’ll honor my promise and marry you.” I smiled faintly and replied, “They’re lying to you. We don’t know each other.” Arthur didn’t know that on the very day he faked his death, I received a video. In the video, Arthur was laughing and telling his friends: “The thought of only having Chloe for the rest of my life after we get married… I just can’t accept it. “I’m going to fake my death and have fun for a few years. You guys make sure to comfort her. Don’t let her do anything stupid.” He also didn’t know that during the two years he spent “dead,” I had found someone else too. 1 The friends around us froze for a moment, then started trying to persuade me: “Chloe, how can you say you don’t know him? We’re the ones who hid it from you. It has nothing to do with Arthur.” “Yeah, Chloe, we did it for your own good. We didn’t want you constantly worrying. Now that Arthur finally woke up, please don’t throw a tantrum.” The private room was suddenly filled with accusations directed at me. Before I could even speak, a loud scoff cut through the noise. Arthur stood up from the sofa, a cigarette pinched between his fingers, and said with lazy arrogance: “If she says we don’t know each other, then forget it. Saves me the trouble of taking responsibility.” The young girl who had been with him immediately clung to his arm, lifting her face with a shy, nervous look: “Arthur… I know you. She doesn’t appreciate you, but I… I’m willing to marry you, okay?” Arthur didn’t answer. He just shot me a cold, indifferent glance, then wrapped his arm around the girl’s waist, leaned down, and kissed her. Seeing this, his friends immediately stepped in front of me to block my view. They tried to comfort me: “Chloe, Arthur has amnesia. You know he loved you the most before.” “Yeah, Chloe. You need to show him more care and help him remember you sooner. Stop throwing these little fits.” I opened my mouth, about to say something to these so-called friends of Arthur’s, when a sudden, sharp pain shot through my abdomen. My face instinctively went pale. I didn’t stay another second; I turned and walked out of the room. I moved so fast that the people inside didn’t even have time to react. Only after I had completely disappeared did they sigh and say to Arthur: “Arthur, you went too far. Chloe is genuinely jealous and angry. Her face went completely white. What if she really dumps you?” Arthur smiled, sitting back down on the sofa. “Chloe is easy to coax. It’s been two years; I refuse to believe she doesn’t miss me. “Besides, I have ‘amnesia’ right now. Once I’ve had my fun, I’ll just tell her my memory came back and that none of this was my true intention. I won’t even have to apologize. I’ll just crook my finger, and she’ll come running back.” 2 Once I was out of the room, I couldn’t hold it in anymore and crouched on the floor. Waves of pain radiated from my stomach, draining me of the strength to even make it to the restroom. Until a shadow fell over me. A familiar voice sounded above me: “What, feeling heartbroken? Hoping to rekindle that old flame?” I looked up to see Asher leaning against the doorframe a short distance away, arms crossed, looking at me with a cool expression. He was dressed entirely in black. He had a high, straight nose bridge, and his eyes were hidden in the dim light, making his emotions impossible to read. Under the lights, the lines of his thin lips were beautiful and sharp. In that instant, a surge of grievance from being falsely accused swelled in my heart. My tears, completely betraying me, started falling uncontrollably. Asher panicked instantly. He dropped his arms and hurried over to me. “Don’t cry. I won’t say it again.” He had a great build and was very strong. He scooped me up from the floor with one arm. The scent of cedar drifted into my nose, stirring my heartstrings. I naturally wrapped my arms around his neck and whispered: “My stomach hurts…” Asher paused for a second: “Did it come early?” I nodded, my lips accidentally brushing against his chin, and rested my head on his broad shoulder. Asher carried me to his car, turned on the heat, and said: “Wait for me in the car. I’m going to buy you some things.” With that, he closed the door and turned to leave. The dim yellow light from the streetlamps spilled over him, outlining his tall, straight back. Not long after, a video call notification popped up. It was Asher. “They’re out of the brand you usually use. Do any of these look okay?” I was just about to pick one when a familiar, surprised voice rang out from the video feed. Arthur, his arm around the young girl’s waist, walked into the convenience store. He looked Asher up and down and said in astonishment: “I asked you to come drinking tonight, and you said no. Turns out you’re here buying stuff for a woman! “Are you on a video call with her? Let me see! Who on earth managed to get our aloof Mr. Sterling to open up?” Saying that, Arthur reached out, trying to snatch Asher’s phone. I instinctively moved my face away from the camera. But Arthur never touched the phone. Asher just gave him a flat, cold look, and Arthur immediately pulled his hand back. “Alright, alright. I see you’re guarding your treasure closely. Remember to bring her out to meet us next time! “Oh, by the way, Asher, I ran into Chloe. She walked into the wrong private room and caught me kissing another woman. It scared the hell out of me. Thank God the other guys thought fast and told her I had amnesia. I’ll play around a bit more, and then my memory will ‘magically’ return. “Of course, you really helped me out big time, bro. When I realized I hadn’t had my fun yet, your idea to fake my death was an absolute lifesaver.” The video feed shook, and the next second, the screen showed the call had ended. 3 Asher returned ten minutes later. He didn’t dare look at me. He just handed me the things he bought, quickly got into the driver’s seat, and locked the doors. “I had someone deliver some brown sugar ginger tea to the house. Do you… want to go back and drink it?” Asher’s words carried a hint of cautious hesitation. It actually made me want to laugh. Asher was a well-known second-generation heir in the capital. And he was also Arthur’s best friend. In the past, whenever I went out to dinner with Arthur, Asher was always there. Back then, he was incredibly cold towards me. Especially when people teased me and Arthur, telling us to show some PDA, Asher wouldn’t even spare us a glance. He would even look mocking and disgusted. So much so that everyone in that circle thought he hated me. Until the day Arthur supposedly died in a car crash, and I received a video. A video sent by Asher. In the video, Arthur was laughing and telling his friends: “The thought of only having Chloe for the rest of my life after we get married… I just can’t accept it. “I’m going to fake my death and have fun for a few years. You guys make sure to comfort her. Don’t let her do anything stupid.” But what I never expected was that this whole “fake death” scheme was actually Asher’s idea. This man was quite the schemer. 4 The moment we arrived at Asher’s villa, my feet barely touched the ground before he swept me up into a princess carry. After I handled things in the bathroom, Asher placed me on the bed and handed me his phone to play games. Once I finished the hot drink, he practiced taking off his clothes, lay down beside me, and began rubbing my stomach. The overhead light draped over his abs like a thin veil. Every defined line seemed to whisper an untold story, making me want to explore. I thought it, and I did it. Asher’s eyes darkened, and he pinned down my restless hand. “Behave.” I ignored him. He cupped the back of my head and kissed me deeply. Two years was more than enough time for him to learn my body perfectly. When things got heated, he grabbed my hand. His voice was hoarse as he spoke: “Help me.” I had learned about Asher’s stamina the very first time we slept together after I got drunk. It wasn’t until my wrist was aching terribly that he finally finished. Just as he was about to carry me to the bathroom to clean up, the phone by the bed started ringing. It was Asher’s phone. I had accidentally rolled over and hit the answer button. “Ash, I’m planning to throw an engagement party with Mia just to piss Chloe off. What do you think? “She saw I was alive, and instead of caring about my health, she just got jealous and angry! She hasn’t even contacted me yet! “Looks like she’s grown a spine during these two years. I need to torture her a little, let her experience the pain of losing me all over again. I need to plan this out. When the time comes, you have to…” Arthur’s voice poured out of the speaker. But before he could finish, he stopped abruptly. Because I couldn’t help but let out a soft gasp. Not because of what Arthur said, but because something had woken up again. And it twitched right in my hand. 5 I glared at Asher, feeling both annoyed and embarrassed. Arthur’s voice came through the phone again, sounding amazed: “Well, well, Asher! What are you up to right now? You actually have a woman with you?! Tell me right now, is it the woman you were video calling today?” After not seeing each other for two years, and the fact that I only made a brief, simple sound… Combined with the countless women Arthur had surrounded himself with over the years, he completely failed to recognize it was me. Asher clearly had no intention of entertaining Arthur. His eyes were locked onto me, burning with unspoken desire. I glared at him fiercely, broke free from his embrace, and scrambled toward the other side of the bed. But before I could even crawl a single step, Asher grabbed my ankle and dragged me back. Arthur kept talking: “My good brother, you absolutely have to bring her out so I can see who this goddess is! To think she managed to get our iron tree to bloom! Since you’re finally playing the game, you can’t refuse when I introduce girls to you from now on! “Oh, right, the engagement party. Originally, I was going to ask you to invite Chloe for me, but knowing how much you’ve always hated her…” Before Arthur could finish, an impatient Asher hung up the phone. He tossed the phone onto the bed, scooped me up with one arm, and carried me to the bathroom. When we finally came back out, it was three hours later. Asher looked thoroughly satisfied. I glared at him, collapsed on the bed, and refused to speak to him. I picked up my phone and saw I had received a text message. It was from one of Arthur’s friends. Two years ago, Arthur had brought me into all his social circles. [Chloe, Arthur is getting engaged to someone else in seven days. You have to come stop him! I don’t want him to regret this when he gets his memory back! This isn’t his true intention!] I glanced at the message, deleted it, and tossed my phone aside. I’m not the type of person who goes looking for trouble when I have none. What does Arthur getting engaged have to do with me? Asher reached out to pull me into his arms. I glared at him and quickly shimmied away. I absolutely did not want to endure another three or four hours. 6 The news that Arthur was alive and planning to get engaged spread quickly. Many friends reached out to me. Some offered sympathy, some furiously cursed Arthur for being a scumbag, and others were just there to enjoy the drama. My college roommate, Lily, called me, loudly condemning Arthur. “When I first heard Arthur wasn’t dead, I was so happy for you! But then I heard he’s getting engaged to someone else?! That is completely unacceptable! So what if he has amnesia?! Does that mean he can just betray you?! You are his fiancée! Did no one tell him that?! “No way, I can’t let my best friend get bullied like this! I’m going to find out where Arthur is having his engagement party, and we are going to go get justice for you!” I laughed: “Even marriages end in divorce; an engagement can be canceled. My relationship with him ended two years ago. Whatever he does now has nothing to do with me.” Lily was still furious: “I just can’t swallow this! You waited for him for two whole years! I watched you stay single this entire time!” I choked on the cracker I was eating. Who waited for him for two years? It was just that my relationship with Asher hadn’t been made public yet. Lily continued trying to persuade me, wanting me to go with her to confront Arthur. After I refused again, she sighed. “Alright, alright. Are you free to go out tonight? We haven’t hung out in forever. Drinks are on me tonight!” Having nothing better to do, I agreed. Lily picked the location. She arrived before I did. Looking at the hotel in front of me, I was a bit confused. “Didn’t you say we were going to a bar? Why are we at a hotel?” Lily looked a bit evasive, pulling my arm as she walked inside. “Bars are so unsafe at night! What if we get drunk and run into danger? A nice hotel is much better. We can get some food, too. It’ll be so comfortable.” Lily led me inside. The moment the doors to the main banquet hall were pushed open, my face fell. 7 This was the hotel where Arthur was holding his engagement party. On the stage, Arthur was already exchanging rings. Standing opposite him was the girl I had seen at the club. The girl gazed up at Arthur with a shy, loving expression. But Arthur’s brow was deeply furrowed. He kept glancing toward the hall entrance. When our eyes finally met, Arthur paused, then his brow unfurled, and a smirk curled his lips. The MC standing beside them asked: “May I ask the groom-to-be, are you willing to stand by your bride-to-be’s side for every important moment in the future?” Arthur glanced at me out of the corner of his eye, the smile on his face growing wider: “Of course.” He slipped the ring onto Mia’s finger, and the guests below the stage erupted in cheers. “Kiss! Kiss! Kiss!” Mia’s cheeks grew even redder, but she proactively stood on her tiptoes and leaned toward Arthur. Arthur didn’t refuse. He wrapped his arm around her waist and kissed her passionately amidst the cheering crowd. I turned to look at Lily. She looked guilty but still urged me on: “Chloe, hurry up and get up there! Steal him back! Arthur is your man!” I didn’t say a word. I just stared at her quietly. Lily and I met in college. We went to class together, ate together, and hung out during breaks. I truly considered her my friend. But now, the doors to the banquet hall had been closed. A few of Arthur’s closest friends were blocking the exit. It was obvious who they were blocking. “Chloe, I just couldn’t stand seeing you bullied like this, so I tricked you! I wanted to bring you here so you could vent your anger! I’ll go up on stage and help you get revenge right now!” Without looking at me, Lily hurriedly made a move to storm the stage. I stood my ground and looked at her calmly: “Lily, Mia… she’s your cousin, isn’t she?” I remembered Lily mentioning in college that she had a cousin. “What? Did your cousin ask you to bring me here so I would make a scene, embarrass myself, and make her look better?” As if I had struck a nerve, Lily stood frozen on the spot. I let out a scoff: “That disgusting excuse for a man… just because your cousin treats him like a treasure doesn’t mean anyone else does.” I glanced around the room. There were top-shelf liquors, fine beverages, and exquisite pastries laid out everywhere. They definitely put some thought into this. Since everyone was so determined to get me here, and I was already here, I wasn’t going to just stand around. I found a seat, grabbed a pastry, and started eating. While eating, I looked around. Asher was on a business trip and wasn’t here today. Lily, meanwhile, had angrily stormed over to me, pointing a finger and accusing: “Chloe, watch what you say! I think you’re just experiencing sour grapes! My future brother-in-law and my cousin are deeply in love! You’re just jealous, that’s why you’re slandering him!” I scoffed. Just as I was about to say something, a tearful female voice interrupted. The engagement ceremony on stage had ended, and Mia had somehow made her way over to me. The moment our eyes met, she threw herself at me and grabbed my hands: “Ms. Vance, please don’t blame Arthur! He has amnesia! He doesn’t remember you, he only loves me! It’s not his true intention! If you’re angry, you can take it all out on me! You can hit me, you can curse me! “I… I’ll even kneel for you! As long as you don’t blame Arthur!” Mia moved fast. Her hands clamped tightly around my wrists, her nails digging deeply into my flesh. The pain made me instinctively shake her off. I didn’t use much force, but she screamed and collapsed to the floor. The next second, I was shoved hard. I was wearing high heels today. Pushed off balance, I twisted my ankle severely. An agonizing pain shot through me, so intense it almost brought tears to my eyes. Arthur glared at me with pure rage: “Chloe, you’ve gone too far! Who gave you the right to bully Mia at our engagement party?! Do you think I don’t exist?! “Apologize to Mia right now!” The guests in the hall had been watching me ever since I arrived. Now, they all gathered around with a “grab the popcorn” attitude, eager for a show. Someone spoke up: “Ms. Vance, you and Mr. Sterling are in the past. It’s over. Crashing his engagement party with Ms. Mia… isn’t that a bit inappropriate?” “Exactly! People need to have some self-awareness. He doesn’t love you anymore. Forcing it won’t work. Besides, a forced melon isn’t sweet!” Mia lay in Arthur’s arms, her eyes red as she sobbed. She tugged at Arthur’s sleeve and spoke with immense understanding: “Arthur, it’s okay. I don’t blame Ms. Vance… It’s completely normal for her to feel sad and hurt seeing you with me. It’s normal for her to blame me and hate me, as long as she doesn’t resent you…” “This isn’t your fault.” After comforting Mia, Arthur turned to me with a cold face: “Chloe, no matter what our relationship was before, it ended two years ago. The woman I love now is Mia. If you bully her, I won’t let you off! Apologize to her right now!” From an angle where the others couldn’t see, Mia shot me a provocative smile. I smiled back faintly. “Sure. “I apologize.” The next second, I slapped Mia squarely across the face. After that, thinking it looked a bit unsymmetrical, I slapped the other side too. Symmetry. Mia screamed and burst into tears. Furious, Arthur raised his hand to hit me, but his friends immediately stepped in and held him back. They lowered their voices and warned him: “Don’t go too far, man! Otherwise, when you ‘recover’ your memory, you won’t be able to fix this! “Mia can’t compare to Chloe. Don’t lose your head!” Arthur looked like he wanted to say more, but one of his friends suddenly shouted: “Asher! You’re back! Come quick! Chloe twisted her ankle. You take her home first!” I turned around to see Asher walking toward us from a distance.

🌟 Continue the story here 👉🏻 📲 Download the “MotoNovel” app 🔍 search for “391798”, and watch the full series ✨! #MotoNovel

To afford the expensive rut-suppressant injections for him, I worked multiple part-time jobs day and night, never daring to take a day off even when I was sick. Until one day, I overheard the truth. “Elias ordered a $230,000 bottle of wine, and she’s literally killing herself working for a $2,300 injection.” “Haha, poor people are so cheap. You just feed them a few lies and they hand over their entire heart.” “Just don’t take the joke too far. If your Master finds out, it won’t end well for you.” That was when I finally understood. To him, I was nothing more than an entertaining game to kill time. It wouldn’t be long before he kicked me to the curb. But what he didn’t know was that my billionaire father had just found me. In three days. I was going to leave this place and step into my life as a wealthy heiress. 1. Elias was an Incubus I found abandoned in the pouring rain. At the time, he could barely maintain his human form. He was covered in mud, his golden curly hair plastered to his back by the rain, and his eyes were clouded with a hazy, mesmerized red. He was breathtakingly beautiful. I was completely captivated. By the time I snapped back to reality, I had already carried him back to my tiny, unfurnished apartment. I agonized over the decision. I could barely afford to feed myself, let alone an Incubus. But looking at Elias’s pitiful face, I hardened my heart and decided to keep him. I kept him for five years. However, he continually delayed signing a formal Master-Servant contract with me. I always thought it was because Elias wasn’t ready. I never expected that I wasn’t his only Master. Walking past a private VIP room at the club where I worked, I saw a familiar silhouette. My footsteps faltered as someone inside spoke. “Haven’t you had enough fun yet? The Master is coming back soon. Make sure you get rid of her before then.” Elias pulled a cigarette from a pack and replied lazily. “She treats me pretty well, she’s just too poor.” “The apartment she rents is tiny, like a birdcage, and the soundproofing is garbage. I can never get a good night’s sleep; it’s so annoying.” “Sometimes in the middle of the night, you can literally hear the neighbors going at it.” Hearing that incredibly familiar voice, I froze in place. I stared at him in absolute disbelief. Shouldn’t he be at home? Why was he here…? I couldn’t help but stop, desperate to see clearly if the man inside was actually Elias. After some teasing laughter, someone mocked. “What kind of romance can poor people possibly offer?” “Does she know that the single bottle of wine you just ordered costs $230,000?” “If you really can’t bear to let her go, just keep her as a secret pet on the side.” “These poor girls are easy to break.” A quick rebuttal followed. “How is that possible? Are you saying Elias actually caught feelings?” “Man, you don’t even know. That woman works herself to death day and night just to buy him a $2,300 injection, and Elias doesn’t feel a shred of pity for her.” “Besides, it was always just a game anyway. Hahahaha, poor people are so incredibly cheap. Just feed them a few lies and they hand over their entire heart.” “Right, Elias?” My grip on the serving tray tightened violently. My entire body went rigid. It was him. “Yeah.” Elias gave a muffled, indifferent agreement. “The Master is flying back in half a month. Give it another seven days. Seven days is plenty of time to get rid of her.” “What if she clings to you? I mean, you spent so much of her money. Poor people will literally fight to the death over money.” “Does she have the ability to cling?” Elias’s voice suddenly turned freezing cold. “I’ll just throw some cash at her to make her go away.” “Don’t worry, Mia is very obedient to me. She won’t make a scene; she’ll just cry.” “If she really refuses to listen, I’ll just pull a disappearing act.” The laughter inside morphed into flying daggers, stabbing directly into my heart. The pain was so intense that tears streamed down my face. So, Elias was never a stray Incubus. He had a Master, and his Master was incredibly wealthy. These past five years with me were nothing more than a game to cure his boredom. It wouldn’t be long before he abandoned me. That night of “salvation” in the pouring rain had ultimately just been my own delusional fantasy. I desperately wanted to storm in and confront Elias. To demand why he lied to me. But the moment he turned his head toward the door, I turned and fled. 2. It was midnight by the time I got home. The second I opened the door, Elias’s clear, bright voice called out. “You’re home?” He was wearing a strawberry-print apron, walking out of the kitchen, his hands still wet from washing. “Late-night snack will be ready in a minute! I made your favorite spicy noodle soup, with extra lettuce.” I forced a stiff smile and gave a soft “Mm.” After changing into my pajamas, I sat at the dining table, my mind a chaotic mess. In this world, an Incubus holds a very low status, equivalent to a human’s pet. They can be kept in captivity, beaten or killed on a whim, or even served as food on a dining table. When I first took Elias in, I was still a student. My roommates couldn’t understand why I would want to keep an Incubus. “Incubi are dark, degraded creatures. Their brains are only wired for lust and manipulation; they don’t understand actual love.” “Mia, haven’t you watched the news? So many pet Incubi secretly run away, and the brutal ones even eat their Masters alive. You’re inviting a wolf into your home.” “You should just sell him quickly. An Incubus in rut tastes better and sells for a much higher price.” I didn’t listen to a single word they said. Instead, I used my meager allowance to rent a basement apartment for him to live in. They didn’t understand. I was an orphan. I desperately craved a family. I craved companionship. Thinking of Elias’s gentle, obedient smile, I felt that keeping him for the rest of my life would be a wonderful thing. At the very least, he belonged to me. I didn’t care about his low status; in fact, it made me feel safer. He was an Incubus. We could form a contract. Once I became his Master, he would stay by my side forever. That dark, damp basement became the only thing I looked forward to during that time in my life. Later, when I secured a stable job, Elias and I moved out of the basement. We currently rented a standard one-bedroom apartment. On the 18th floor. It was small, but it was incredibly cozy. We lived a very ordinary, but very happy life. Except… the place I considered our home was nothing but a “birdcage” to Elias. And all the tenderness and love he showed me was completely fake. “Here it is! Here it is!” Elias was beaming as he brought over the spicy noodle soup. He plopped down in the chair across from me, resting his chin on his hands, blinking his large, beautiful eyes at me. Every night when I got off work, he would cook me a late-night snack and keep me company while I ate. This was usually the most relaxing and joyful part of my day. But today, every second felt like agonizing torture. The table fell silent. Elias spoke softly. “Mia, I feel like… we might not be a good match…” I knew exactly what Elias was going to say next. Perhaps clinging to the very last shred of my dignity, I cut him off. “You want to break up, right?” “Okay.” He looked slightly stunned and asked, “How did you know?” I looked at his face, bitter tears involuntarily slipping from the corners of my eyes. “Stop pretending, Elias. Is lying to me really that fun?” I opened my bag, pulled out a thick stack of printed documents, and slammed them onto the table. After discovering he was lying to me, I spent every last cent of my savings to hire an investigator to dig into Elias’s background. When the file was sent to me, I finally learned that the gentle, considerate man who had been by my side for five years was actually the contracted Incubus of Chloe, a prodigious teenage pianist. They had attended a high-society gala together. Amidst the clinking glasses and flashing lights, Elias’s eyes were entirely focused on the radiant young girl, his expression filled with absolute tenderness and adoration. “Elias, you lied to me for five whole years.” “You played the pathetic victim in front of me, telling me you were persecuted, abandoned, and chased away. But in reality, you already had a Master. You lived a life of absolute luxury. You never actually suffered at all, did you? Everything you told me was a complete fabrication!” “What an incredible performance… For five years, I didn’t notice a single flaw!” Elias’s expression shattered into pure panic. Under the massive emotional surge, he lost control of his human form; his pointed ears, wings, and tail suddenly materialized. My eyes were bloodshot as I stared at him with pure hatred. “The rut-suppressant injections cost $2,300 each. Every single month, I worked myself half to death just to earn enough money to buy them for you. And you? How did that $230,000 bottle of wine taste?!” “Elias! You played me for an absolute fool! Was it fun?!” I violently stood up and flipped the dining table. The spicy noodle soup crashed to the floor, the pungent smell instantly filling the room. Elias fell silent. His face was unreadable, but his thick, fleshy tail twitched anxiously behind him. “You know everything?” “…I’ll pay you back double for all the money you spent over the years, I…” “No need.” I raised my hand and violently swatted his tail away, my voice dripping with absolute disgust. “Taking money from a degraded creature like you makes me physically sick.” “Elias, my roommates were absolutely right. All Incubi are nothing but calculating, degraded creatures. You don’t have hearts! And you will never understand love.” “If I had known, I should have sold you the very first time I laid eyes on you.” Elias’s face instantly drained of all color. He swayed on his feet, looking like he was about to collapse. I grabbed my bag from the chair, opened the front door, and walked out. After leaving, I had no idea where to go. I wandered aimlessly along the side of the road. The winter night was freezing. Eventually, I just found a random 24-hour karaoke place. I sang, I cried, and I drank, aggressively purging all my emotions. When I was too exhausted to cry anymore, I just lay down on the sofa and slept. 3. At 5 AM the next day, the karaoke place closed. I wrapped my heavy coat tightly around myself and left. After thinking it over, I decided to go back to the apartment. Aside from that rental, I truly had nowhere else to go. Besides, I was the one who signed the lease and paid the rent. Why should I be the one to leave? If anyone was leaving, it should be Elias. On the walk back, I noticed someone had sent me over twenty consecutive text messages. I opened the chat. It was a DNA paternity test report. A while ago, a group of very intense people had tracked me down, claiming I might be the long-lost daughter of the billionaire Arthur Sterling, and demanding I go to the hospital with them for a DNA test. Terrified it was some elaborate new human trafficking scheme, I firmly refused. But Arthur’s head butler, Mr. Thorne, was incredibly persistent. He had medical staff stake out my apartment building for a very long time. Eventually, just to get them to leave me alone, I gave them a saliva swab, a nail clipping, and a few hair follicles. And now… it was actually true. Mr. Thorne immediately offered to come pick me up and take me home. I paused for a moment. “Give me three days. I have some things I need to take care of first.” The situation with Elias wasn’t fully resolved yet. I am someone who draws very clear lines between love and hate. If it started clearly, it needs to end decisively. I still owed Elias one final, definitive goodbye. After today. He will go back to being a rich girl’s pet. And I will go live my life as a billionaire heiress. After this parting, our paths will never cross again in this lifetime. 4. I didn’t even make it back up to the apartment. In the courtyard of the complex, I ran straight into Elias. He was following closely behind a woman, desperately whining and apologizing. “Master… I was wrong, Master. You were abroad for so long, and I was so bored, I just wanted to find a cheap distraction to play with for a bit…” “Please don’t ignore me. I know I made a mistake. But don’t worry, she didn’t taint me. You are the only Master in my heart…” My heart felt like it was pierced by needles. Taint? Elias actually used that word to describe me. I clenched my fists so tightly my nails dug into my palms, and forced myself to keep walking forward as if nothing was wrong. As we brushed past each other, the woman with the red lips and voluminous, wavy hair tilted her head and glanced at me. “Stop.” She called out to me. “Are you the woman who took care of Elias’s rut cycles?” “Rolling around with an Incubus… doesn’t that make you feel degraded? You have terrible taste.” Elias’s face went completely pale. I closed my eyes, took a deep breath, and turned around to face her. But before I could speak, she slapped me hard across the face. “Ah—” A short, sharp cry escaped my lips before my right cheek started burning and throbbing. I looked up in absolute disbelief. “Why did you hit me?!” Chloe glared at me, her eyes vicious and ruthless. “I hit you because you deserve it. Did you not know he is MY Incubus?” “You dare touch my property? Do you have a death wish?” I couldn’t hold back my retort. “How was I supposed to know he had a Master?!” “That’s a lie!” Elias suddenly shouted loudly. “Master, it was all her fault! She seduced me! You know how it is… my status is so low, no one ever looks twice at me.” “I never intended to betray you, Master! I told her from the very beginning, but she was easy and only cared about pleasure, and I was temporarily blinded by her…” “That was a great slap, Master. Does your hand hurt? Let me blow on it for you.” My mind went completely blank. I stared fixedly at Elias. That face, which had been so incredibly familiar to me, suddenly looked like a complete stranger’s. He seemed terrified of Chloe. His entire body was trembling. Suddenly, Elias looked at me with pleading eyes and gave a microscopic shake of his head. I understood exactly what he meant. I lowered my eyes and stood up straight. I said coldly, “Elias, we are completely done.” With that, I turned and walked away, my steps growing faster and faster as the tears finally began to fall. The sorrow hit me like a massive tidal wave, dragging me down into an endless, suffocating darkness. If I hadn’t experienced these events firsthand, I never would have believed that the boyfriend I had shared a bed with for five years possessed an entirely different, horrific persona. All the sweetness and happiness of the past had mutated into sharp blades, violently slicing into my heart. It turns out that love can be entirely fabricated. And acted out with terrifying realism. I was such an idiot. I believed Elias’s lies so easily. When I finally got back to the apartment, I sat numbly on the edge of the bed, staring blankly out the window. Allowing myself to be completely consumed by the grief. 5. Mr. Thorne arrived exactly on schedule. Outside the gates of the apartment complex, a massive, understated but incredibly luxurious black Rolls-Royce was parked by the curb. Standing next to the car was a middle-aged man wearing a traditional, pale blue tunic, his face radiating an elegant, scholarly aura. The moment he saw me, his eyes turned completely red, and his hands trembled as he reached out to me. A strong scent of sandalwood washed over me, and then I was pulled into his arms, my cheek pressed tightly against his chest. A bizarre, unfamiliar feeling bloomed inside me. Is this… what having a father feels like? For the entire drive, I kept sneaking glances at him, unable to believe that the father figure I had been missing for over twenty years had suddenly, miraculously materialized. The wealth of the Sterling family was far beyond anything I could have ever imagined. The opulently decorated, gilded mansion felt like stepping into an actual royal palace. Sunlight streamed through the intricate carved-wood window frames, illuminating the priceless rugs. Every step felt like walking on clouds. For the next few hours, my father personally gave me a grand tour to help me get acquainted with the estate. After two whole hours, we had only managed to cover a small fraction of the Sterling manor. Mr. Thorne escorted me back to my new bedroom. “Miss, please make yourself completely at home. This will be your home from now on.” I nodded absently, feeling incredibly light and completely detached from reality. Shortly after, he had a massive pile of brand new electronic devices delivered to my room. I picked out a phone that felt comfortable in my hand and inserted my old SIM card. The moment the phone booted up, a call came through. “Hello?” “Mia, I accidentally took your ID card when I left.” Hearing Elias’s voice, my expression instantly darkened. After a two-second pause, he continued. “It must be really inconvenient not having your ID, right? When do you want to come get it?” Incubi in this world aren’t issued government ID cards, so Elias was always fascinated by mine. He liked to keep it in his wallet, carrying it with him everywhere, and would often pull it out just to play with it when he was bored. I thought it was just a cute, weird way of showing he loved me, so I let him. But now that we were broken up, him keeping it was entirely inappropriate. “Keep it. You can just throw it in the trash. I’ll go get a replacement.” “I can bring it to you.” Elias said softly. “Mia… the other day, I really didn’t have a choice. You know my life and death are entirely in her hands.” “When we got back, she whipped me thirty times. It hurts so much. My back is completely shredded and covered in blood. Mia~ please, have a little pity on me.” I closed my eyes tightly. What exactly did Elias mean by ‘have a little pity’ on him? It meant exploiting my endless capacity for forgiveness. It meant exploiting the grueling, backbreaking labor I endured to buy him those injections every single month. It meant exploiting the fact that for all those years, I lived as frugally as possible just to give him the absolute best of everything. And what did I get in return? I was stripped of my money, my heart, and my dignity. I must look like an absolute clown. My emotions boiled over. Suppressing the raging storm in my chest, I delivered my most venomous response. “Then why didn’t she just beat you to death?” “What right does a disloyal, lying, manipulative Incubus like you have to even exist in this world? You deserve every single lash.” “Elias, you make me physically sick.” I cursed him with the most vicious, hateful words I could find. The other end of the line went dead silent. After a very long pause, he finally asked, his voice raw and hoarse: “Do you really hate me that much?” “Hate you? Of course I hate you. I wish you were dead.” “Do not ever show your face in front of me again. If you do, I won’t be able to stop myself from slapping you.” With that, I hung up the phone and blocked his number entirely.

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On the day of our engagement dinner, my fiancé eloped with his college junior hand-in-hand in front of New York’s elite, leaving me and our parents to clean up the mess in the ballroom. Later, my fiancé was stripped of his inheritance and got his wish to marry his poor junior, living the life of “freedom” he claimed to have chosen. It wasn’t until six years later, when I returned to New York from Europe, that I ran into him running a street stall outside an elite prep school, with three kids in tow. 1 When I saw Carter again, he was standing outside an expensive Upper East Side prep school, pushing a small cart selling handmade knit toys. As school dismissal approached, the street outside the elite private school was lined with Cadillacs and Range Rovers. He knocked on car windows one by one, pushing his knitted flowers and dolls, a sleeping baby nestled in a carrier on his chest. I sat in the backseat of my Lincoln Navigator going over documents. The driver, an old hand from the Sterling family, recognized the haggard, weather-beaten middle-aged man almost immediately. It was my childhood sweetheart, Carter Blackwood. Carter didn’t recognize the driver. He just focused on shoving a knitted doll toward the car window, pitching desperately, “Sir, please buy one for your child. It’s completely handmade. My kids have loved them since they were little.” The familiar voice made me look up from my tablet, meeting Carter’s obsequious expression. The next second, it was as if someone had grabbed him by the throat. His sales pitch stopped abruptly, his face contorting into an awkward, humiliating grimace. We stared at each other for a moment. Just as he opened his mouth to say something, I calmly returned my gaze to my tablet. The driver, taking the hint, immediately rolled up the partition, cutting off Carter and whatever words he couldn’t get out in time. That night, I was working in the study of my penthouse when my mother knocked and came in for a chat. Unnaturally, she steered the conversation toward Carter. “Serena, I heard from the driver that you ran into Carter today?” I nodded. My mother looked hesitant, taking a long moment before probing cautiously, “Mom heard he’s married and already has a few kids. You…” Hearing this, I chuckled and explained, “Mom, I’m not avoiding dating because of him. I’m just focused on work right now. This lifestyle really isn’t suited for a relationship.” Mom visibly sighed in relief, then playfully scolded, “You and your father are exactly the same when you were young. You only have eyes for work. Your sister is already married, and you haven’t even settled down!” I smiled and coaxed her to go to bed. Returning to the study, I received a text from my old friend Nate. It was a screenshot of his messages with Carter. Carter: “Do you have Serena’s contact info? I need to talk to her about something.” Nate: “I heard he’s been asking everyone he can. Do you think he wants to get back together with you?” I thought about it and replied: “Not talking to him. If he needs something, he can go to the lobby of the Sterling Building and go through the visitor appointment process.” The second time I saw Carter was in front of my company. Haley was with him. Ignoring the stares and whispers of the Wall Street white-collar workers around them, she dragged Carter toward the Sterling Group building, muttering non-stop: “She’s your old flame! Go talk to her and reminisce about the good old days. Worst case scenario, you sleep with her and she gives us a decent job. It’s a great deal!” Carter resisted with his entire body. “Haley, stop dreaming! I’m not going in there!” Haley turned around and slapped him across the face, pointing at his nose and cursing, “I have never seen such a pathetic man! Stop pretending to be so noble! If I hadn’t gotten with you, would I have ended up in this state?! You deserve this!” Haley’s face was twisted in rage, screaming like a drunk on the streets of Brooklyn. She was nothing like the gentle, obedient junior who had once looked up to Carter in my memory. The once-noble heir of an old money family now stood with a swollen cheek, his head bowed, refusing to move an inch, until NYPD officers arrived and took them both away. Only then did he notice me standing securely behind my security detail. He shuddered, lowering his head to dodge my gaze. Was this the love he was willing to throw everything away for? How laughable. I remembered when we were kids at our Hampton summer estate, my mother would read us bedtime stories. The stories always ended with the protagonists living happily ever after. Back then, Carter would say, “Serena and I will be together forever too.” My mother smiled. “Forever means a whole lifetime. Do you know how long a lifetime is?” Carter was stumped. My mother smiled, rubbing our heads. “A lifetime is very long. It takes your whole life to measure it.” Though we didn’t understand the length of a lifetime back then, Carter stubbornly insisted we would be together forever. 2 As we entered our teenage years, Carter stopped talking about marriage all the time, but he still stubbornly wrote in every wishing well and yearbook: “Serena and Carter will be together forever.” Carter was outgoing and got along with everyone at our prep school. I was a late bloomer, and going through his growth spurt, he easily surpassed me in height. Classmates often joked that I was Carter’s “little trophy wife.” Carter didn’t say anything outwardly, but he was secretly anxious. Every lunch period, he would overfeed me, and behind my back, he even hired a Manhattan private doctor to create a detailed workout plan for me. At the time, he would even mutter in his sleep, “Serena, grow taller, grow taller. That way you can wear flats to the senior prom and your feet won’t hurt!” Our freshman year of high school, we weren’t placed in the same AP class. Carter wanted his parents to donate to the board of directors to change his class, but I sternly refused. “Carter, no special privileges,” I said. “It’s just the classroom next door.” Carter looked at me in disappointment, seemingly devastated. We then embarked on a 72-hour cold war. Truth be told, I regretted it on the first day of the class split. Without Carter by my side, I couldn’t get used to it at all. After school, I wanted to apologize, but Carter just glanced at me and sprinted toward the Blackwood family’s Cadillac, not even leaving me exhaust fumes to choke on. After being ignored for three days, I finally climbed into his car before the driver could take off. Carter yelled at me, “What are you doing, what are you doing? Is this your car, why are you getting in?!” I turned a deaf ear and pulled a knitted yarn rose out of my designer bag, holding it out to him. “I was wrong,” I said earnestly. “I need special privileges. I can’t survive in that class without you!” Carter scrunched up his face, feigning seriousness. “You think a fake flower will buy me off? Serena, do I not deserve a real flower?!” I scratched my head. “I tried to pick a rose from my mom’s estate garden yesterday but got caught. She said using someone else’s flowers isn’t sincere, so she taught me how to knit one with yarn. I knitted it all night. Do you not like it?” Carter suddenly burst out laughing. “You’re so dumb, Serena. Mr. Sterling planted those flowers himself, and Mrs. Sterling couldn’t bear to let you ruin them, that’s why she said that! But I like the yarn rose too. You’re forgiven.” Haley was Carter’s junior in college, and a subordinate on his fraternity’s event committee. The first time I met her was in the campus café. I had just returned to the Ivy League after a one-year exchange at the London School of Economics, and Carter’s attitude toward me had grown much colder. When I talked about Europe, he showed little interest. When I brought out his souvenir, it only earned a perfunctory smile. I was never a talkative person, and after my topics were bluntly shut down a few times, we fell into silence. That is, until a pair of hands reached out from behind Carter and covered his eyes. “Guess who~” Half of Carter’s face was covered, but it was obvious his expression came alive. He smiled and dragged out his words, “Hmm—who could it be—this is so hard to guess~” The girl let go, leaning over to his face. “Senior, it’s me!” Carter smiled and pinched her cheek. They playfully roughhoused right in front of me, entirely oblivious to my presence. Their behavior was much more intimate than ours, the actual couple. I cleared my throat lightly. It was as if they finally realized I was there. Carter quickly established a safe distance and introduced us: “Serena, this is Haley, a member of my committee and my junior.” “Haley, this is Serena, she spent the last year on an exchange in London and just got back. She’s my… girlfriend.” His expression remained unchanged, but the word “girlfriend” clearly felt a little awkward on his tongue. I glanced at him without saying much, simply nodding at Haley in greeting. Haley exaggeratedly said, “I’ve heard so much about you,” but her eyes were filled with hostility. Our subsequent date plans were interrupted by sudden student committee work. Carter left with Haley. I watched them walk away, their distance closing in. The little interactions—her hitting him, him poking her—looked intimately flawless. Carter and I hadn’t had childish interactions like that in a long time. When we walked together, we didn’t talk much, and when we did, it was about Wall Street internships or family business. That was when I realized I prided myself on knowing Carter best, but when he and Haley talked about console games, pop music, and Marvel movies, I discovered I actually knew very little about him. I started to reflect, realizing I was too used to having him around and had ignored his changes. I needed to spend time understanding the real him. I’m the type to speak my mind. After mentally drafting my thoughts, I went to his frat house that night to find him. When he saw me, he had a smile on his face. “What’s wrong?” I took his hand and said earnestly, “I’m sorry, Carter. I’ve been a terrible girlfriend.” I poured out all my afternoon reflections. Carter was confused at first, but his expression gradually softened. After patiently listening to me, he chuckled. 3 “Serena, you’re so funny,” he said. “You have no idea how touched I am to hear this. Don’t worry, you are already the best girlfriend in the world.” “I was just a little unaccustomed to seeing you today after so long. I’m not mad at you, don’t overthink it.” He pulled me into a hug, looking down at me tenderly. “Haley and I are just friends. If you think we’re too close, I’ll pay more attention from now on.” “Haley comes from a poor background. It wasn’t easy for her to make it from a small southern town to the Ivy League, so I look out for her a bit more. There’s nothing else to it.” “I love you the most. I’ve been waiting to marry you since we were kids~” … While doing a walkthrough of a mall owned by our family on Fifth Avenue, I was stopped by Haley. She greeted me from a distance, acting as familiar as an old friend. “Serena! Long time no see! Remember me?” Her smile was ingratiating, clearly intending to close the distance and cozy up to me. My security detail quickly blocked her, and my assistant spoke up appropriately: “Apologies, this is Director Sterling’s working hour. She is not accepting non-business interactions.” Haley’s face showed a flash of embarrassment before she laughed dismissively. “Come on, Serena and I go way back. For Carter’s sake, I’m sure she can spare a minute to chat.” I raised an eyebrow. “For whose sake?” Haley immediately took two eager steps forward, only to be blocked by the bodyguards again. She hinted, “Carter, remember? Speaking of which, it’s been a long time since you two saw each other. Why don’t we all catch up?” I sneered at her words. “Of course I remember. Isn’t he your husband? Your beautiful love story was the talk of New York.” “No need to catch up. We aren’t close, and I have absolutely no interest in learning about other people’s marriages.” I glanced at Haley, who was heavily guarded, and mocked, “You should probably keep your distance from me in the future. After all, getting pinned to the ground doesn’t feel great, does it?” Six years ago, after Carter and I reconciled, he actively distanced himself from Haley. Haley had waited for me on my route home to our Long Island estate, just like this. Carter’s birthday was approaching. To clear my schedule to prepare for it, I was running myself ragged between my studies and my internship at the family business. I was incredibly busy, and my mood wasn’t exactly stable. Somehow, Haley managed to bypass the security system of our gated community. She blocked my car and launched into a tirade against my dark expression: “Don’t you think you’re overstepping your bounds? Is Carter not allowed to have female friends?” “Or do you secretly feel you’re not good enough for him, and you’re terrified that once he meets more people, he’ll dump you?” I scoffed. “I’m not good enough for him? Then who is? You?” I looked her up and down with a judging eye. Haley wasn’t angry; instead, she spoke with self-righteous conviction: “You just got lucky being born into a family with trust funds! If I were in your position, I would do way better than you!” “I may not have an old money background, but I have my own two hands. I’ll carve out my own place on Wall Street through sheer hard work.” “Trust fund babies like you, wrapped up in your parents’ pedigree—someday, I’ll step all over you!” I laughed at the sheer absurdity of her speech. Realizing the person in front of me was just an extreme, wealthy-hating clown, I turned to leave. But she relentlessly lunged at me. Then, she was pinned to the ground by my personal bodyguard, who had no concept of being gentle with women. The disparity in strength and size made her cry out in pain. At that moment, Carter’s furious voice rang out: “Serena! What are you doing?!” I turned toward the voice, taking the full brunt of his questioning and anger. He stormed over, pushed the bodyguard away, and helped Haley up, glaring at me. “Serena, when did you learn to act like a vicious Manhattan heiress?! Do you think you can just assault normal people?!” I suppressed my displeasure and explained patiently, “I didn’t. She charged at me first…” “Stop making excuses!” Carter cut me off. “I never knew you were the kind of person to bully the weak. Serena, I am so disappointed in you.” With that, he refused to look at me, helping Haley into his Porsche and driving away. I stood there in silence for a long time, suddenly feeling exhausted. The next day, Carter came to apologize. He said his words were too harsh yesterday, but he was just blinded by panic. That was the first time I asked him, “Carter, do you really still want to be with me?” 4 Carter froze, then firmly stated he wanted to be with me forever. “Serena, my wish has never changed. I’ve made things clear with Haley. She won’t bother you again.” I nodded, silently turning the page on the incident. Carter’s birthday soon arrived. I had rented out his favorite Michelin-starred restaurant and bought premium tickets to the hottest Broadway show. I even changed my car radio to his favorite country music station. But when the day actually came, Carter kept spacing out. When I went to his house that morning, he had just woken up and was eating brunch in his loungewear. He looked surprised to see me, and only remembered what day it was when he saw the flowers in my hands. “I’m sorry!” He clasped his hands together, bowing his head. “Blame me for staying up too late watching Twitch streams last night!” I smiled and sat beside him, saying it was fine. It was his birthday, everything would go at his pace. While he went to wash up, the butler served me an espresso and smiled. “Miss Serena, it’s so kind of you to stay up late watching streams with the young master last night and still wake up on time today. You must be tired.” I froze. I wanted to say I had gone to bed early to prepare for today’s date, but I didn’t want to cause any drama on his birthday. But it felt strange. When Carter finished getting ready, I asked him: “Did you watch the stream alone last night?” Carter paused, then smiled. “I was on a Discord call with my frat brothers. It wasn’t the kind of game you like, so I didn’t invite you.” I nodded. “Any kind is fine. I just wanted to keep you company.” Carter ruffled my hair, smiling sweetly. “Aww, our Miss Serena is so clingy. I know, I’ll definitely invite you next time!” In the car, Carter kept his head down, smiling brightly as he texted someone on iMessage. I asked him, “Who are you texting?” Carter didn’t answer, so I patiently repeated myself. Without looking up, he said, “My friends. They’re wishing me a happy birthday. It’d be rude not to reply.” I gave a soft “mm,” but from the corner of my eye, I saw he had been on the same chat thread for a long time. He was talking to one person. I comforted myself, telling myself not to overthink it, but Haley’s face and their intimate interactions from our first meeting kept popping into my head. I suppressed my churning emotions, telling myself over and over that today was his birthday, our anniversary. His happiness was what mattered most. When we got out of the car, I took the initiative to hold his hand. He startled, put his phone in his pocket, and started focusing on our date. Usually, our dates consisted of browsing luxury boutiques or attending Sotheby’s auctions. This time, based on what I had learned about his hobbies, we stepped into a Dave & Buster’s for the first time. Carter was pleasantly surprised. He dragged me from the very first arcade game at the entrance all the way to the back. I could tell he was genuinely happy, which made me feel satisfied. We used our combined arcade tickets to redeem a life-sized teddy bear. Carter loved it. The date went smoothly. Aside from Carter pulling out his phone to text whenever he had a free second—which kept me on edge—at least he was happy. After dinner, I was just about to pull out the Broadway tickets when Carter received a call. He looked anxious and said there was an emergency with the campus mixer event that he had to handle immediately. His anxious expression didn’t look fake, so I drove him back to campus. He got out of the car and hurried toward the frat house, but then suddenly turned back and knocked on the window. I rolled down the window. He leaned in, kissed me quickly, and said, “Serena, I had a really great time today. Thank you.” In that moment, my heart felt like hydrogen mixing with air and catching fire—a violent, beautiful explosion. I drove away from campus in high spirits, but then I noticed the lonely teddy bear in the back seat. After thinking it over, I decided to wait for Carter at the campus gates. It was our anniversary, after all; I wanted to spend it together until the very last second. So I waited in the car until midnight. What I waited for was the sight of Carter and Haley walking out of the campus gates side by side. They were walking incredibly close. Although they weren’t holding hands, on a wide, empty street, they would subconsciously bump into each other. It was like a flirtatious test, tugging at both their nerves. I suddenly remembered how, back in our high school classroom, we used to sit shoulder-to-shoulder, heads bent close together, pretending to discuss an SAT question, when in reality, we were testing the boundaries between us. I finally understood where the strange feeling in my gut came from. It was familiar. Because we used to have that same flirtatious tension. I got out of the car, pulled the teddy bear from the back seat, and threw it in front of them. The two people, completely absorbed in their own world, finally noticed my presence. Carter’s lingering smile froze on his face. Panic flashed in his eyes as he instinctively stepped away from Haley. “Serena…” he started, but nothing followed.

🌟 Continue the story here 👉🏻 📲 Download the “MotoNovel” app 🔍 search for “391420”, and watch the full series ✨! #MotoNovel