I, Caroline Ward, am the woman of Blake Harris, the mafia boss. After we got married, he spoiled me to the sky, flaunting our love to the media. I thought he loved me deeply. He couldn’t help but announce his love for me to the world. Until one day, I overheard a conversation between him and one of his men. “I live in both the criminal and legal worlds, with so many enemies. If I don’t make Caroline my weakness, how could Megan be safe?” I realized then that all the pain I had suffered for him was a joke… If that was the case, then I was no longer willing to be a living target for him! “Blake, you’ve gone too far! Caroline’s wounds haven’t healed, and she only had a small argument with someone, yet you’re rushing to see her? You’re putting both yourself and Caroline in danger!” It was the voice of Blake’s friend, Zachary Coleman, coming from behind the walls. I stopped in my tracks, stunned for a moment. The villa had many soundproof rooms, so unless someone was particularly agitated, one couldn’t hear anything. But after a moment, I heard the sound of something being thrown. “What do you mean, you only love Megan? Caroline has been her scapegoat all these years! You’ve never loved her. Why won’t you let her go? If it were that other woman, you’d be dead by now!” “Shut up! If I don’t make Caroline my weakness, how could Megan be safe? “I haven’t treated her badly, being my wife for so many years.” Blake’s voice was clear and deep. I leaned against the wall, struggling to process the information I had just heard. All these years, Blake loved someone else? And I had been nothing more than a scapegoat? I stumbled back to my room, my abdominal wound from trying to protect him tearing open again, bleeding through the bandage. But the pain in my body was nothing compared to the ache in my chest. The apples Blake had carefully sliced for me by the bed now felt like a cruel joke. He had treated me so well, too well, in fact. So openly, so lavishly, everyone around us envied me. Blake had many businesses along the border, managing both the legal and illegal worlds. In five years, I had been kidnapped three times for him, taken a knife for him twice, and even took a bullet for him once. I had risked my life for him, thinking he loved me deeply, but it had all been a lie… “Did you just go out?” Blake’s voice suddenly came from behind me. I turned, tears streaming down my face, meeting his eyes, which usually sparkled with affection. I had secretly rejoiced countless times, thinking how lucky I was to be married to such a handsome man. But now, in his eyes, I saw an icy coldness that cut right through. “Caroline, are you afraid of me? Where did you go just now?” He was too sharp. I barely managed to smile awkwardly. “I just woke up. When I saw you weren’t here, I got scared and didn’t know what to do.” From an ordinary student to the woman of a mafia boss, it only took one night. After my first kidnapping, I developed a lasting fear. As soon as I couldn’t see Blake, I would tremble with fear. He didn’t seem to doubt me. He gently stroked my lips and chin, his fingers tracing my jawline before they moved to my neck and down my spine. I couldn’t help but gasp. His restless hand lingered on my waist, the heat from his palm searing my skin. “Tomorrow, I’ll be gone for a day. Stay home and behave.” He kissed my lips lightly, his words warm against my ear. I shivered, gripping his shirt tightly. “Blake, my wound… my wound…” His expression changed instantly. In two quick moves, he undressed me, staring at the blood-soaked bandage with a furrowed brow. “Caroline, do you want me to die of heartache?” He carefully changed my bandages, his concern evident, no trace of pretense on his face. But the words I had just heard kept replaying in my mind. Where was he going for that day he would be gone? To see that woman, the one I had risked my life to protect?
That night, Blake held me in his arms and slept deeply. But I couldn’t sleep at all. I stayed awake all night, only closing my eyes after confirming that he had boarded his flight the next morning. The distance from the bedroom to the study wasn’t far. In his small study, everything was about me. From our first anniversary to my most recent birthday, every little thing had been neatly arranged. Anyone who saw it would be moved by the depth of his love for me. Only I knew that in the hidden compartment of a drawer, there was a diary that didn’t belong to me. Blake had told me about it when he was drunk. That night, he kept apologizing. At the time, I was so absorbed in him that I didn’t pay much attention to it. The next day, he’d forgotten all about it. I pulled open the hidden compartment and brushed the dust off the diary. The password was intricate, showing how much the owner valued it. I never imagined that my studies in cryptography would come in handy now. The password clicked open, and on the first page, Blake’s bold, strong handwriting wrote words, Megan. The next ten pages were all about how much he loved Megan. The words were careful, intense, and timid in a way I had never seen before. With me, he was always so calm and collected. I thought it was because he had matured and no longer had the fiery passion of youth. So he just didn’t love me… The last page was written in a messy scrawl. [Megan was assassinated. She was right. People like us should never have lovers! I’ll send her off!] The writing turned to yellow ink. The words became fewer and fewer. [The girl is so easy to fool.] [Today, I remembered Megan. The girl thought I was talking about her. It’s fine. Let her misunderstand. That way, Megan will be safe.] [As long as she can be my wife, even if she gets killed, she wouldn’t mind.] [I will be punished. I arranged a kidnapping. Everything was within my control. She was triggered, and for the rest of her life, she’ll never be able to leave me. I’ll spend my life making it up to her.] I pressed my eyes shut, terrified that tears would fall. It turned out the person he had always wanted to be with openly was never me. Our meeting, our love, our marriage, our happiness, from the beginning to now, was all just my Truman Show. I closed the diary carefully and placed it back where it belonged. As I stepped out of the study, I allowed the tears to fall. I curled up into a ball. Scenes from my first kidnapping flashed in my mind. At that time, Blake and I were inseparable. I had just come out of the hospital and was planning to tell him about my pregnancy. But as soon as I got into a car, I lost consciousness. Those beasts dragged me across the ground. The coldness and brutal torture made me lose the baby. When Blake rushed in and held me in his arms, all I could manage was a blurry consciousness. It was then that I developed a psychological condition. I couldn’t be away from Blake for long, and my health completely deteriorated. Blake comforted me, saying it didn’t matter if we didn’t have a child. It turned out, from the very beginning, that he never planned to have a child with me. He was the one who had crushed all possibilities. What I thought was redemption and deep affection was actually a carefully orchestrated scheme by him! The pain in my chest made it hard to breathe. I couldn’t resist the physical reaction, collapsing on the bed, convulsing. Amidst this extreme pain, I slowly became calm. Every detail of being with Blake flashed through my mind. In these five years, I had faced countless life-and-death situations. Every time, he had risked his life to save me. His care for me was real. He wasn’t worried about me dying. He was afraid that once I was gone, the danger would fall on his beloved. Shivering, I picked up my phone and checked Blake’s transaction records over the years. He had a company overseas that mainly dealt in jewelry. All the gifts he had given me in the past few years came from that company.
That company didn’t profit at all. The yearly revenue, aside from the fixed 100 million Blake sent, was supplemented by funds from the Harris Group. The company’s business was wide-ranging, and every product he had created had appeared on that woman, Megan. I found Megan’s account on Facebook. She was living comfortably in a seaside villa. In her latest update, she held hands with a man. The caption read: [My dearest you, worlds apart, yet so close.] I zoomed in on the picture. The man wore the same ruby wedding band as Megan, and there was a white mark on his wrist. Blake had once told me he didn’t like wearing rings. That was why, at our wedding, everything was there except for the rings. I really thought he didn’t like them. I made a bracelet by hand and put it on his wrist. That day, he kissed the bracelet, saying it was his amulet and that he’d never take it off. But as soon as he saw Megan, he took it off. He didn’t dislike wearing rings. He just didn’t want to wear one with me. I scrolled further. On February 14th, Blake gave Megan a sapphire necklace carved from the finest stone. That day, Blake gave me a necklace made of blue diamonds. On July 7th, Blake bought the best silk and made a full set of clothes for Megan. That day, Blake gave me a silk scarf. I flipped through the pages, burying myself in the pillow, laughing wildly in silence, my body twitching. My pulse seemed to stop in this madness. In Blake’s eyes, I was just a sidekick to Megan, a scapegoat. All the gifts he gave me were just afterthoughts prepared for Megan. Five years of love, gone in a moment. I cried the whole night. During that time, Blake sent me a message. I used to think he loved me, that he always wanted to know how I was doing. Now I realize he was just afraid that I, the scapegoat, would run away. If that was the case, how could I let him get what he wanted? The next morning, I contacted my lawyer, asking him to cancel all my identity information as quickly as possible. Blake came back in the middle of the night. As soon as he entered the house, he eagerly buried his face in my shoulder. “Caroline, did you miss me? I couldn’t sleep a wink last night without you.” The dark circles under his eyes made it seem like he hadn’t slept a bit. If this had happened before, I would’ve been deeply touched. But now, I didn’t dare to move. He didn’t love me. This pretentious look of deep affection made me sick! “Shy?” He looked down with a laugh, pulling me into his arms and with a soft moan from me. I was like his doll, not cared for, not even considered if I was asleep. Tears slipped down the corners of my eyes, quickly absorbed by the pillow, as though sadness had never been there. The next morning, as soon as I opened my eyes, I saw Blake’s grim face. Thinking about his reputation, I flinched in fear. “Your phone’s ringing. What did you cancel?” I quickly looked at my phone. It was a message from the lawyer. He had already taken care of canceling my identity, and in three hours, it would be final. I smiled awkwardly, “It’s nothing. Just an email account I used before. It had been inactive for so long, and I was worried it might be reclaimed, so I just canceled it.” “Mm.” Blake leaned closer to me, his gaze intense, gripping the back of my head as if trying to steal every breath I had until I had no strength left and collapsed in his arms. “Caroline, don’t lie to me. Don’t betray me.” I nodded desperately, tears brimming in my eyes. The terror was so intense that my fingertips grew cold. Soon! Soon, I would escape from him! Soon, Blake would never have Caroline by his side again! Just then, my phone rang, and Blake took a step back. “What? Megan’s back? Who brought her here? Wait for me. I’m going now.” Blake’s voice was dark, and he hurried out without even looking at me. I kept telling myself to breathe. Before leaving, I still had one thing to do. Even though I had canceled my identity, I didn’t want the name Caroline to be linked with Blake anymore. I steadied my emotions and received a message from the private investigator. It was a string of numbers. Megan’s phone number. “Hello, I’m Blake’s wife. Let’s meet.”
The meeting place was chosen by Megan. It was at the city’s biggest hotel. Behind a screen, I could hear heavy breathing. “Can’t you listen to me? It’s not safe with me right now.” I had seen Blake cold and gentle, as well as every other side of him. But hearing his helpless voice for the first time shook me. “I miss you so much. I’m about to get married, and you still won’t see me. Is it true that you’ve really fallen for your wife?” “Stop saying that. I’m doing this to keep you safe.” After exchanging words of affection, Blake finally left. He was always cautious, but this time, he didn’t notice that someone else had slipped behind the screen. I couldn’t see my own expression, but it was probably bitter and mocking. “Blake is gone. You’re really pathetic. But as a woman, I’m still willing to hear you out.” Megan stepped out from behind it, a smug smile on her face, her eyes full of the pride of a victor. Her skin was flushed, and her outfit was both flattering and stylish, accentuating her figure. The exposed skin on her body was smooth and flawless. I looked down at my casual clothes. Ever since I got together with Blake, I didn’t dare wear anything nice because I lacked the courage to show the scars on my body. The constant injuries made me seem so much weaker than Megan. She just stood there, scanning me from top to bottom, and it was already the greatest insult. “I’m not here to fight you over Blake. I’ve been by his side long enough. He might have feelings for me too.” After being with Blake for so many years, I learned how to use others’ power to my advantage. “You came here today to make me give up, didn’t you? I know I can’t compare to you. I just want one autograph from him to remember him by.” When I left the hotel, my steps were much lighter. Over the past couple of days, I’d tried everything to cling to Blake. At first, he went along with it, but eventually, he became impatient. But it didn’t matter. As long as my goal was achieved, I didn’t care. Two days later, Megan gave me the signature I asked for. When I saw it, I breathed a sigh of relief and quickly went to print the divorce papers. By the third day, my identity was completely erased. I gathered all the gifts Blake had given me, including that diary, and placed them in the most visible spot in the villa. These things that belonged to someone else were better off returned to their rightful owner. As for all of my belongings, they were burned to ashes the moment I stepped on the plane. In the airport lounge, I took out my phone and sent Megan a message. Just two words: [Thank you.] Just as the phone was about to turn off, Blake’s text popped up in the notification bar. [Baby, I’m almost home.] [I bought the birthday cake. It’s your favorite strawberry cake.] [Sorry, baby, Megan isn’t feeling well. She’s all alone here, so I need to go check on her…] The phone shut off completely, and the dark screen didn’t show his next words. But I didn’t need to see it. I already knew he was going to be with Megan. I crushed the SIM card and threw it in the trash. Following the boarding announcement, I stepped onto the plane. Meanwhile, in the ballroom, Megan lay softly on Blake’s chest, a faint flush on her face from the alcohol. “Blake, I’m fine. Go back to Caroline. I’m the one being selfish. I couldn’t help myself, I just missed you, so I called you.” Her eyes were full of tears. Blake’s phone lay next to them, the screen flashing dimly. It wasn’t until they left the ballroom that he noticed the dozens of missed calls on his phone. The moment he answered, his friend Zachary’s panicked voice came through, trembling. “Blake! A lawyer came to the company with the divorce papers! Caroline found out about you and Ms. Foster! “We can’t reach Caroline! We’ve tried every way, and we can’t get in touch with her!!”
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