This year, Liam and I planned to get engaged, so on New Year’s Eve, I went home with him. Many relatives and friends came for dinner. At the table, one of Liam’s good friends suddenly greeted me. “Hey, aren’t you the number 18 masseuse from Intoxicated Dreams? Do you remember me? You even gave me a private massage.” My brain froze on the spot. I’d never seen this friend of his before, and Intoxicated Dreams didn’t sound like any legitimate establishment. Everyone’s eyes fell on me. Liam’s friend kept staring at me. “You’re not doing it anymore? What a shame. I still can’t forget your figure.” My whole body trembled as I finally grasped what he meant. The Hayes family relatives started whispering among themselves. “Intoxicated Dreams? I heard that place isn’t a legitimate massage parlor—they do all sorts of dirty business there.” “A distant relative of mine used to work the front desk there. She told me the masseuses there are actually prostitutes.” “My God, Liam’s fiancée used to do that kind of work? Doesn’t that mean Liam’s been deceived? That boy is just too honest.” Liam also frowned at me, his eyes full of questions. “Harper, is what Ethan said true?” He actually suspected me? We’d been together for so long. Didn’t he know what kind of person I was? After graduating from college, I went straight into the company. I clocked in and out on time every day. On weekends, I either went on dates with him or went home to keep my parents company. I’d never been to any improper establishments. How could he doubt me because of someone else’s single remark? The overwhelming sense of injustice nearly made me lose control. I raised my head to look at Liam. “Of course what he said is false! Liam, don’t you know everything about me? How could I possibly work as a masseuse? He’s making this up!” Seeing I wouldn’t admit it, Ethan was about to say more when the friend sitting next to him quietly tugged his arm and gave him a subtle look. Ethan paused, then changed his tune with a wave of his hand. “Oh, maybe I got the wrong person. I’ve had a bit too much to drink today, my head’s not too clear. Just pretend I didn’t say any of that.” He spoke lightly, as if it were merely a drunken slip of the tongue. But that ambiguous attitude—where was even half an apology? He was clearly stopping deliberately, wanting to deepen everyone’s suspicions of me! I couldn’t swallow this! And this was at the Hayes family’s New Year’s Eve dinner, with all the relatives present. If I didn’t clear this up completely today, how could I establish myself in the Hayes family in the future? No, I had to make this clear, make Ethan admit publicly that he was slandering me, and clear my name! With that thought, I took a deep breath, stood up, and walked straight to Ethan. “You said you saw me at Intoxicated Dreams? Then tell me, when exactly was this? What month, what date?” Ethan hadn’t expected me to be so direct, to actually dare confront him publicly. He froze for a moment, a flash of panic in his eyes, then quickly recovered his nonchalant expression. “It was in May of last year. I can’t remember the exact date, but it was definitely May.” Last May? I sneered inwardly. He sure could spin a story! Last May, I’d been sent on a business trip out of town for an entire month, with daily work records. I wasn’t even in the city. How could I have been at Intoxicated Dreams?
“Ethan, are you sure it was last May? Last May I was on a business trip, away for an entire month. Your lie is way too unprofessional!” I thought revealing this would make Ethan panic. But unexpectedly, he just laughed dismissively. “Oh, then maybe I got the time wrong. Anyway, I just got the wrong person, okay? I admitted my mistake, isn’t that enough? Stop being so uptight. It’s pointless.” He still wouldn’t admit he was slandering me. This perfunctory attitude made my serious self-defense seem utterly ridiculous. I was about to continue arguing with him when a hand suddenly grabbed my arm. It was Liam. I turned to look at him. His expression was terrible. “That’s enough, Harper. You want to make this into an even bigger scene?” “Ethan already said he got the wrong person. We can talk about this tonight when we get back. The relatives are all here now. Stop making a fuss and let’s continue eating.” “Making a fuss?” I looked at him in disbelief, the hurt welling up inside me. “Liam, he’s slandering me in front of your family. He’s also disrespecting you. How can you say I’m making a fuss? It’s bad enough you won’t help me, but you’re actually stopping me?” My words left Liam speechless, but Ethan behind him wasn’t having it. He suddenly stood up and slammed the table. “How am I making things up? I’m only holding back out of respect for Liam. You know exactly what kind of work you’ve done! Stop putting on this act. What’s the point?” I was completely enraged. I shook off Liam’s hand and pointed at Ethan. “Ethan, if you dare slander my personal life again, I’m calling the police!” Ethan suddenly burst into laughter, laughing so hard he doubled over. “You’re calling the police? That’s hilarious! I should be the one calling the police to report you for marriage fraud against my brother!” At this point, Mr. Hayes, who had been silent all along, finally spoke. “Ethan, you keep saying Harper used to be a masseuse. Do you have any evidence? You need evidence to make such claims.” Ethan seemed to have been waiting for this question. He immediately revealed a confident smile. “Since you’re asking, Uncle, I won’t beat around the bush! I wouldn’t say this if I didn’t have proof!” With that, he pulled out his phone, found a photo, walked up to Mr. Hayes, and handed him the phone. “Uncle, look. This is the photo I took when I ran into her before.” Mr. Hayes frowned and carefully examined the phone. After just one glance, his expression darkened completely. Mrs. Hayes saw this and quickly moved closer to look. After just one glance, her face turned deathly pale, her body swayed, and she nearly fainted. The surrounding relatives also crowded over curiously, passing the phone around. Each person’s expression changed from curious to shocked, making clicking sounds of disapproval. The phone finally reached my hands. Liam stood beside me as we looked together. The content left me frozen in place. There were several photos of me. In the photos, I wore revealing clothing with a number 18 badge on my chest. The first two showed me massaging feet and pounding legs. The later ones were even more explicit—my clothes had been removed, and Ethan lay beside me. Ethan took his phone back from me and spoke disdainfully. “Is this evidence enough? I didn’t want to make things this ugly, but you’re the one who forced me to tell the truth! Are you satisfied now?”
The relatives started discussing loudly. “My God, the person in these photos really is Harper.” “Young women these days have no self-respect. Her family situation isn’t even bad—how could she do this kind of work? What a waste.” “Maybe it’s a personal hobby. Poor Liam, kept in the dark for so long.” I didn’t hear a word they said. My mind kept replaying those photos, my body trembling uncontrollably. What were those photos about? Why were there photos of things I never did? Were they composites? As soon as the thought occurred to me, I blurted it out. “These photos must be composites! They’re fake!” Ethan sneered and handed the phone to Liam. “Whether they’re composites or not, let Liam check and we’ll know.” Liam was a photographer—he had the most authority on whether photos were real or fake. If he said they weren’t composites, then they definitely weren’t. Everyone’s eyes focused on Liam, including mine. Liam took the phone with a dark expression, examining each photo carefully. His frown deepened, his expression growing worse and worse. Finally, Liam finished looking at all the photos. He violently threw the phone on the floor and roared at me in fury. “These photos aren’t composites at all! They’re all real!” I stared at him wide-eyed, my mind going blank. How was that possible? The photos were real? But I had no memory of this whatsoever. Had I lost my memory? Or had something happened that I didn’t know about? When Mrs. Hayes heard Liam say the photos were real, she couldn’t hold back anymore. She pushed aside the relatives next to her and rushed up to me. Before I could react, a slap landed across my face. “Smack!” The blow turned my head to the side, immediately leaving a handprint on my face. “A slut like you dared to ask our family for $180,000 in bride price? You probably don’t even know how many men you’ve slept with! You’ve truly defiled our family’s doorstep!” The surrounding relatives also looked at me with disgust. At this moment, not a single person believed me. But I couldn’t just accept this. I couldn’t let my reputation be destroyed like this. I took a deep breath and pulled out my phone to call the police. Just as I was about to press the dial button, Liam suddenly rushed over and snatched my phone away. “Enough! Harper, haven’t you embarrassed yourself enough?” “I really misjudged you. Now take your things and get out of my house! Our engagement is canceled!” I stared at Liam in a daze, unable to believe my ears. He was breaking up with me? Just because of a few inexplicable photos, he was negating our entire relationship and canceling our engagement? Ethan walked over and patted Liam’s shoulder. “Brother, don’t waste words on this kind of woman. I really didn’t expect you to find a masseuse for a wife. We’ve been brothers since childhood—I can’t just watch you get deceived.” He was still fanning the flames! Distorting the truth! I trembled with anger, pointing at Ethan to curse him. Ethan suddenly looked at me, his lips curling into a sleazy smile. “That little mole on your waist—I still remember it vividly.” This sentence froze me in place, my whole body turning cold. The mole on my waist? That was an extremely private mark on my body. Only my parents and Liam knew about it. How did Ethan know? When Mrs. Hayes heard Ethan’s words, the fire in her eyes burned even brighter. She lunged at me, reaching to lift my shirt. “You shameless woman! Today I’m going to see for myself whether you have that mole on your waist or not!”
I instinctively clutched my clothes, not letting her succeed. The relatives kept fanning the flames from the side. “Just let her lift your shirt and we’ll know. Truth or lie, we’ll see at a glance.” “Exactly. If you don’t have that mole, won’t that prove you’ve been wrongly accused? The fact that you’re resisting so much means you have a guilty conscience.” “I think what Ethan said must be true.” Mrs. Hayes tugged at my clothes for a long time without success. Frustrated, she turned and shouted at the relatives: “Come help me!” As soon as she finished speaking, everyone immediately responded. Seven or eight hands reached toward me simultaneously. I was pinned in place, unable to move, could only struggle desperately. In desperation, I looked up at Liam, hoping he would help me. “Liam! Make them stop! I’ve been falsely accused!” But he just frowned slightly, with no intention of helping at all. “Stop shouting. At this point, is there any point in you still arguing?” This sentence completely shattered my last hope. The relatives’ strength grew greater and greater. I could feel my shirt being lifted bit by bit. Finally, my shirt was completely lifted, my waist fully exposed to everyone’s view. That mole appeared before their eyes. “Ah! There really is a mole!” “What Ethan said is all true! And she still wanted to call the police—talk about a thief crying thief!” “I told you, there’s no smoke without fire. How could Ethan slander her for no reason?” Mrs. Hayes released my clothes with disgust, as if she’d touched something filthy, vigorously wiping her hands. I pulled down my clothes as fast as possible and curled up on the floor, trembling. My face had turned red from shame and anger. Ethan walked up to me triumphantly, looking down at me from above. “See, you kept denying it. Now you can’t argue anymore, can you! I told you I wouldn’t mistake you for someone else.” I collapsed on the floor, my brain racing. Recalling everything that had happened today. Vaguely, I seemed to grasp something that didn’t add up. A thought suddenly flashed through my mind, instantly connecting all the events. I think I knew why Ethan was slandering me like this. Seeing that I hadn’t gotten up, Liam walked up to me with a frown. “Get lost. You disgust me.” I used my hands to support myself on the floor, slowly standing up. Though my body still trembled slightly, my eyes were exceptionally firm. I stared into his eyes and said word by word: “Liam, who’s the disgusting one between us? Today’s events—you orchestrated all of this, didn’t you?” The moment the words fell, Liam’s expression changed dramatically. “Harper, what are you saying? You did those shameful things yourself and won’t admit it. Now you’re trying to throw dirt on me? Have you no shame?” Mrs. Hayes immediately defended her son. “Exactly! You shameless woman, you dare slander my son! I think you’ve lost your mind!” I ignored Mrs. Hayes’ shouting, my eyes moving back and forth between Liam and Ethan. “Things I’ve actually done, I’ll definitely admit. But things I haven’t done—no one can force me to confess!” I took a step forward, closing in on Liam. “Everything Ethan said—you taught him to say it, didn’t you! And those so-called evidence photos, you personally composited them, didn’t you?” As soon as these words came out, the Hayes family relatives were stunned, all focusing their eyes on me, Liam, and Ethan.
🌟 Continue the story here 👉🏻 📲 Download the “NovelMaster” app 🔍 search for “353163”, and watch the full series ✨! #NovelMaster #现实主义Realistic #浪漫Romance #狼人Werewolf #重生Reborn #擦边Steamy
Leave a Reply