Five years after I got out of prison, I saw him again. Nicholas Kim. His eyes fell on the empty leg of my trousers, and his voice trembled. “Ava… your… your leg…” He probably never imagined that the ballet champion who had once become an overnight sensation now needed a crutch just to walk. “If you were out, why didn’t you come find me? Do you have any idea how worried I was…?” His fiancée, my former best friend, nestled against his chest, her eyes red. “Ava, you were so thoughtless. Back then, to make it up to you, Nicholas arranged for all the city’s media to be there. He was going to propose to you in front of everyone, but you just vanished without a word, humiliating him completely.” “I only married him to protect what little dignity he had left…” Had to? I couldn’t help but let out a soft, humorless laugh. I glanced at her swollen belly. “So I suppose you had to let him knock you up, too?” “And I suppose you had to toy with Sebastian Kim’s affections back then?” “And you and Nicholas had to conspire to have my face altered and send me to that monster’s bed?!” 1 The autumn wind was cold, cutting straight through my thin, worn-out coat. Nicholas’s brow was furrowed, a storm of emotions in his eyes—frustration, surprise—but not a single flicker of guilt. When I was done, he let out a sigh, his tone dripping with condescension. “Alright, what’s past is past. Since you’re okay, just come home with me.” He gestured to the stretch limousine parked at the curb, his voice leaving no room for argument. “Get in the car.” I didn’t move. I just kept quietly wiping the grease from the diner tabletop. In the five years since my release, this was the only place that had been willing to take me in, to give me a job and a meal. But in Nicholas’s eyes, my silence was defiance. “Ava, how long are you going to keep this up?” He took two steps closer, towering over me. “Look at you, this pathetic state you’re in. How is this worthy of the name Mrs. Kim?” “Are you going to get in the car yourself, or do I have to have my bodyguards escort you?” Before I could answer, two men in black suits had their hands on my shoulders. I didn’t struggle. I simply gave the diner owner a deep bow, then turned and got into the car. The heat was blasting inside, the air thick with the scent of expensive cologne. “This is a supplementary card with no credit limit. The PIN is your birthday.” He tossed a black card onto the seat in front of me, as if tossing a coin to a beggar. “And I’ve arranged for an apartment for you downtown. It’s fully furnished, you can move in right away.” He expected me to be grateful. All I felt was disgust. I reached out with my trembling hand—a permanent tremor left after my bones were shattered in prison—picked up the card, snapped it in half right in front of him, and tossed the pieces out the window. Nicholas’s face froze, the cracks appearing in his mask of superiority. “I can’t accept these. I don’t want them.” The anticipation in his eyes instantly morphed into rage. “Ava, don’t be ungrateful!” “You were locked up for three years. You’re completely out of touch with the world. Who else would want you besides me?” The car drove through our old university campus. Chloe, who had been silent until now, suddenly spoke up. “Ava, do you remember? Sophomore year, you said you wanted to have your own little light in this city someday.” “Now that Nicky has given you a whole apartment, what more could you possibly want?” Want? I stared out the window, my mind flashing back to a winter’s day in my second year of prison. In the communal showers, a group of inmates held my head under the icy water, my scalp screaming in pain as they yanked my hair. They forced me to watch the “wedding of the century” on a small, flickering television. Chloe, in a million-dollar gown, nestled in his arms. He looked down at her with a doting smile, telling the world she was the one true love of his life. And I was choking on dirty water, enduring the humiliation and torture. Because Sebastian Kim had paid off the guards to make sure I “shared in their joy” on their big day. The car stopped in front of a modern villa. Their love nest. Nicholas pulled me out of the car, gesturing towards the walk-in closet in the entryway, filled to the brim with couture. “These were all custom-made to your size. I had them ready for you before you were even released.” I stood at the doorway, refusing to go in. The house was filled with the overwhelming scent of gardenias, Chloe’s favorite. It was cloying, nauseating. “I’m leaving.” The moment I turned, he grabbed my wrist, his grip like steel. Nicholas suddenly lost control, his eyes red with fury. “Ava! I haven’t even held it against you for humiliating me by leaving like that! What more do you want?” “I’ve never bowed my head to anyone in my life! Do I have to get on my knees and beg for you to forgive me?” I looked at him, slowly prying his fingers from my wrist, and took a cold step back. “Stop acting, Nicholas.” “You only did all that because your company was about to go public. You wanted to create a ‘devoted husband’ persona for yourself.” “Don’t wrap your selfishness and calculation in a pretty bow and call it love.” “It’s disgusting.” Nicholas froze, his expression shifting from shock to pure rage. He pointed a trembling finger at me, his voice hoarse. “Get out! Ava, get the hell out!” “And when you’re starving on the streets, don’t you dare come crawling back to me like a dog!” I didn’t look back. I just walked into the darkness. Behind me, I heard the sound of a vase shattering, and his hysterical, furious roars. 2 That night, I was homeless. With only a few hundred dollars in my pocket, I found a seedy motel in a run-down part of the city. Fifty bucks a night. Lying on the yellowed sheets, I looked at my reflection in the cracked mirror—hollow cheeks, a face etched with a weariness far beyond my years. I was thirty, but I looked like an old woman. The former beauty of the university’s finance department, now just a crippled ex-con. I gave a bitter laugh and pulled the thin blanket over my head. The next morning, the diner owner called. “Ava, honey… you don’t need to come in tomorrow.” “Why?” I shot up in bed. The owner sighed. “Someone put the word out. As long as you’re working on this street, none of us will pass our next fire inspection.” “Don’t make this hard for me, kid. I’ve got a family to feed.” He hung up. I gripped the phone, my knuckles white. Nicholas. No one else had that kind of power, and no one else was that petty. I didn’t go begging to him. Instead, I spent the entire day at employment agencies and job fairs. The result was exactly what I expected. The moment they ran my ID, the friendly smiles would vanish. “Sorry, we don’t hire people with a criminal record.” “Kim Industries has made it very clear. Please don’t put us in a difficult position.” By sunset, I was sitting on a park bench, gnawing on the last half of a stale bread roll. A red Ferrari pulled up in front of me. The window rolled down, revealing Chloe’s face, hidden behind oversized sunglasses. She looked at me, a sarcastic smirk on her lips. “Hungry?” “Pride doesn’t fill your stomach, does it?” “Oh, Ava. Just be a good little dog for me, and I can make sure you get a meal. Otherwise…” I stared at her, my stomach twisting into a knot. Not from hunger. From rage. But I needed money. I needed to survive. “Fine.” Chloe smiled. “See? That wasn’t so hard. You were born to be on a leash.” She took me to a charity gala. No gown, no time to clean up. I stood among the city’s elite in my cheap, dusty coat, a ghost at the feast. Nicholas was there, laughing and talking with a group of investors. Chloe led me to stand behind them. “Well, well, if it isn’t the former finance department flower.” “I heard she took the fall for her ex-boyfriend and did three years?” “Still trailing after Mr. Kim, I see. Such a loyal pet.” The air was thick with whispers and mocking laughter. I looked at Nicholas. He knew the whole truth. I waited, hoping he would say something, anything, to stop them. He didn’t. He was too busy schmoozing with those investors over a multi-million dollar real estate deal. He just shot me a look, a silent command to endure it. One of the men, drunk, staggered over and wrapped an arm around my waist, his hand roaming freely. “Nicky, is this your new little bitch? She’s a bit old, but not bad to look at. Got a certain… flavor.” “How about you let me have a taste tonight? I’ll make it worth your while.” The whole room erupted in laughter. Nicholas took a sip of his wine, his voice casual. “If you like her, Mr. Zhang, you can have her kneel and lick your shoes.” Looking at the man who had once worshipped the ground I walked on, I felt nothing but a bone-deep chill. I turned, took the glass of red wine from Mr. Zhang’s hand, and smiled. “Mr. Zhang, is this wine any good?” He blinked, confused. “What?” SPLASH! A full glass of red wine drenched his greasy, leering face. The room fell silent. Mr. Zhang yelped, stumbling back and clutching his eyes. CRACK! A sharp, stinging slap landed on my cheek. Nicholas’s chest was heaving with fury. “Ava! Are you insane?!” “Do you have any idea how much that deal was worth?!” I tasted blood in my mouth. That slap shattered a decade of devotion, a final, brutal awakening. I wiped a smear of blood from the corner of my mouth and looked at the apoplectic Nicholas, my smile more painful than any tears. “Well, Mr. Kim. It’s a good thing that deal is dead.” 3 With that, I turned and walked away. A storm had broken out, the rain hammering down, each drop a tiny needle against my skin. The old injury in my leg flared up. It had been broken with a steel pipe in prison. Even with the amputation, the phantom pain lingered. On rainy days like this, it felt like a million ants gnawing at my bones. I dragged my broken body back to the motel and collapsed onto the bed, a high fever quickly taking hold. Curled up in the musty blankets, my consciousness fading, I thought I was going to die in this forgotten corner of the world. My phone rang. It was Nicholas. “Ava, stop playing dead.” His voice was a mixture of anxiety and impatience. “Get to the villa now. Chloe’s kitten, Snowball, is missing.” “You were always good at finding things. Get your ass over here and help her look for it!” My throat was raw from the fever, my voice a hoarse whisper. “I have a fever. I can’t move.” A cold laugh on the other end of the line. “A fever? Since when did you become so delicate?” “You used to run halfway across the city with a 104-degree fever just to bring me a late-night snack.” “And now you can’t even find a cat? Is it not enough money?” “You have thirty minutes. If you’re not here, I’ll have someone dig up your parents’ graves and scatter their ashes in the sewer!” He hung up. I clutched the hot phone, my eyes dry. He knew my weaknesses too well. I dragged myself out of bed, swallowed two fever reducers, and stumbled out into the torrential rain. By the time I reached the villa, I was soaked to the bone, my face as white as a sheet. Chloe stood in the living room, wrapped in a cashmere blanket. She looked at me with disgust. “What took you so long? What’s that smell? Stay away from me.” She pointed to the second-floor terrace. “The maids heard something on the roof. It’s too slippery for them to go up. You go check.” It was a sloped, glass-tiled roof, slick with rain. It was impossible to stand on. “My leg hurts. I can’t go up there.” Chloe sneered. “Ava, if my kitten gets sick from the rain, not even ten of your miserable lives would be enough to pay for it.” “Go.” I gritted my teeth and climbed the ladder. The terrace was empty. There was no cat. As I turned to go back, a glass tile under my foot came loose. I fell, hard, onto the concrete below. A rusty nail, sticking out of a wooden plank, pierced straight through the stump of my amputated leg. The sound brought them running. Nicholas and Chloe rushed up to the terrace and immediately spotted the Persian kitten cowering in a corner. “Snowball!” Chloe cried, scooping the cat into her arms. Nicholas beamed with relief. It was a long moment before they even noticed me, lying in a pool of my own blood. No panic. No concern. Only annoyance. “You can’t even do one simple thing right. Now you’ve made a mess of the terrace.” “What if you scared Chloe?” He waved a dismissive hand at the family doctor who had been summoned. “Just patch her up. As long as she doesn’t die here.” The searing pain brought a horrifying clarity. I looked at the man I had loved my entire youth, and the last flicker of light in my eyes died. I pushed the doctor away, propped myself up on my hands, and gritted my teeth, forcing myself to stand. Blood dripped from my trouser leg. I bent down and gripped the nail embedded in my flesh. Squelch! I pulled it out myself. Blood sprayed, splattering onto the hem of Chloe’s expensive white silk skirt. She shrieked, stumbling back, the kitten in her arms hissing in alarm. “This skirt was custom-made! Do you have any idea how much it costs to replace it?!” Nicholas’s face was cold. “Apologize!” My body was trembling with pain, but I started to laugh. I reached my blood-soaked hand into my pocket and pulled out a small jade pendant, its surface worn smooth with time. Ten years ago, he had climbed a sacred mountain on his knees, his skin raw and bleeding, to get this for me. A charm for my safety. He had promised me then that he would give me the world. Later, when he became a tycoon, he threw it in a storage unit. I was the one who found it, who cherished it all these years. It was a testament to my love, and to my foolishness. “You’re right, Chloe.” “I can’t afford your skirt. Just like I can’t afford to get back the ten years I wasted.” I held up the jade pendant and smashed it on the ground. Crack! The jade shattered into a dozen pieces. Nicholas stared, a flicker of genuine panic in his eyes for the first time. “What are you doing?” “That was our promise! How could you?!” “A promise?” I shook my head, my smile a tragic mask. “These ten years… just consider me a joke.” He dropped to his knees in the mud and rain, frantically trying to piece the fragments back together. But some things, once broken, can never be made whole again. I pointed to my bleeding leg, my voice unnervingly calm. “This leg… I lost it in prison. For you.” “From now on, we’re even.” With that, I turned away, not giving them another glance. I dragged my mangled, bleeding leg down the stairs, one step at a time. Behind me, Nicholas roared like a caged animal. “If you walk out that door today, don’t you ever come back!” “I’ll blacklist you from every industry in this city! You won’t even be able to beg for scraps!” “Come back! Get on your knees and apologize!” I didn’t turn back. I didn’t stop. The rain was still falling, but I no longer felt the cold. The moment I stepped out of the villa gates, I took a deep breath. This time, there was no lingering affection, only release. Goodbye, Nicholas. Goodbye forever.
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