The two-week cold war finally fractured at dinner when my husband, Zack, walked through the door. He sat down, and his first words were a seismic shift in my reality: “I’ve fallen in love with my assistant.” “All these years, and Jessica is the only one who makes me feel that spark again—like the very first time,” he added, a flicker of excitement dancing in his voice that he didn’t even try to hide. I remained expressionless. I stood up, poured him a glass of lukewarm water, and sat back down to continue my meal as if he’d just commented on the weather. Zack seemed caught off guard by my silence. He blinked, staring at me for a few seconds before finding his voice again. “Don’t get any ideas. Your place as my wife—as the mistress of this house—is secure. That’s never going to change.” I picked up a piece of glazed rib and placed it in his bowl. After a long beat of silence, I said three words: “Just eat dinner.” He didn’t touch his fork. Instead, he pushed an elegantly boxed cupcake toward me, his tone bordering on a recommendation. “Try this. Jessica insisted I bring it home for you. She’s an incredible baker.” “You’ll love it,” he emphasized. I set my chopsticks down and looked him straight in the eye, my gaze steady and cold. “Zack, I’m severely allergic to eggs. You’ve known that since the day we met.” 1 The air in the dining room turned brittle. Zack rubbed the bridge of his nose, a tell-tale sign of his fleeting guilt. “I’ve been so busy lately. I forgot. I’m sorry.” A bitter, jagged laugh threatened to spill out of me. He hadn’t forgotten; he just hadn’t bothered to remember. Our first anniversary: he bought a cake. I spent the night in the ER, my throat closing up. The second year of our marriage: I was recovering from a miscarriage. He made “healing” custard. I went into anaphylactic shock and nearly died on our kitchen floor. Every year, he ‘forgets.’ Every year, I pay the price. This year was the seventh. I forced a thin smile and pushed the plate back toward him. “The food’s getting cold. Eat.” He reached out, pinning my hand to the table. His eyes searched mine, flickering with something like irritation. “Evelyn, I’m trying to talk to you about Jessica.” “After dinner,” I said. Zack suddenly slammed his hand against the wood, the sound echoing through the house. “There’s nothing to eat, Evelyn! It’s always the same. Ribs and eggplant, night after night. No variety, no life. I am so damn tired of this routine.” I looked down at my plate, a dull ache blooming in my chest. I remembered when we lived in that cramped studio apartment, counting pennies just to survive. Meat was a luxury we saved for weeks to afford. I’d make ribs; he’d make roasted eggplant. Back then, he’d scrape the plates clean and swear he wanted to eat that meal every day for the rest of his life. It turns out “forever” had an expiration date I wasn’t told about. Watching his chest heave with frustration, I spoke softly, my voice barely a whisper. “If that’s how you feel, then we should get a divorce.” “Di… Divorce?” His brows knitted together, his anger replaced by a sharp confusion. “No. I don’t agree to that.” “Yes, I love Jessica. But that doesn’t mean I’m leaving you. You’re throwing a tantrum, Evelyn, and it’s not going to work.” I turned away. I couldn’t even remember when the man I loved had vanished. I only remembered that after the money came, so did the endless parade of “other women.” I had screamed, I had fought, I had even confronted them. He never cared. Once, in a desperate, broken moment to keep him from walking out, I had even picked up a blade. He just looked at me like I was a theatrical nuisance. But Jessica, his secretary, was different. She was the one he truly curated. He poured money into her, gave her resources, took her to high-level meetings, and personally refined her proposals. He had essentially announced to our entire social circle that she was “his.” When I had tried to make things difficult for her, he froze my credit cards for the first time. He was marking his territory. And I, the wife, was no longer part of it. Seeing my silence, Zack pulled out his phone. “Is there something you want? That Hermès bag you were looking at? I’ll get it for you.” His tone was casual, a peace offering wrapped in leather. This was our cycle: he buys a gift, I accept the apology, and we pretend to be the golden couple again. I opened my mouth to speak, but the doorbell rang. Jessica stood there holding a tiered bento box, looking small and fragile. “I’m so sorry to interrupt, Evelyn. Zack didn’t eat all day at the office, and I was worried about his stomach, so I brought him some dinner.” The irony was a physical weight in my gut. “He’s already eating.” I moved to close the door, but Jessica stepped forward, a subtle smirk playing on her lips before she intentionally tipped the container, letting the hot food spill over her own hand and dress. “Oh! Evelyn, I… I just didn’t want him to go hungry. I didn’t mean anything by it.” Her eyes welled with practiced tears. “It’s okay if you hate me, but the food… it’s such a waste…” Zack was there in an instant, pushing past me to shield her. “Are you okay, Jessica? Did you burn yourself?” She shook her head, leaning into him. “It’s nothing, Zack. Please, don’t let me come between you two. Your relationship is more important.” “Relationship?” Zack spat the word at me. “She doesn’t care about us. If she did, she wouldn’t be bullying you in my own home. Evelyn, she just brought me a meal. Do you have to be this cruel?” They looked like a portrait of tragic lovers, and it made my eyes burn. I remembered going to his office months ago, only to be blocked by Jessica at the door. She had “accidentally” spilled coffee all over me then, too. Zack had watched and told me to “stop being dramatic” and “let it go.” Now, the roles were reversed, but I was still the villain. He looked at me with a profound, chilling disappointment. Then, without a second thought, he picked Jessica up in his arms and walked out the door. 2 At the threshold, he paused. He didn’t look back. “Evelyn, I remember when you used to be a kind person. What happened to her?” What happened to her? She spent every waking moment loving you. She underwent three grueling rounds of IVF, desperate to be a mother, to build a family with you. And what did she get? A lost child, a body mapped in surgical scars, and a husband who treated her like a ghost. He had driven her to the edge of madness and now had the nerve to ask why she wasn’t “kind.” As the sound of his car faded, I clutched my chest, gasping for air as the panic clawed at my throat. I calmly dumped the remains of our dinner into the trash. I went to my office and pulled out my old portfolio—the life I’d abandoned to be his wife. I dialed a number I hadn’t called in years. “Professor?” My voice broke. “Does your offer still stand?” I booked a one-way flight for the following week. Looking around the house we’d built, I finally felt the tether snap. I was leaving. Zack didn’t come home that night. In the early hours of the morning, my phone buzzed. The background noise was a chaotic thrum of a nightclub. He sounded drunk. “Evelyn… come get me. My stomach hurts. It’s the ulcer.” “Call a doctor, Zack.” I gripped the phone until my knuckles turned white. “No. I want you to come,” he slurred. I didn’t answer. I turned the phone off. I remembered another night like this. I had rushed to a bar with medicine and warm ginger congee, only to find him using Jessica to block shots of tequila. When he saw me standing there, he’d smirked and kissed her right in front of me. “She came,” he’d whispered against Jessica’s lips. “I win the bet.” The congee had shattered on the floor. I was nothing but a punchline to them. My thoughts were interrupted by a notification. Jessica had sent me a photo. Zack’s head was buried in her lap, his eyes closed in a drunken stupor. “He says only I give him that spark, Evelyn,” the caption read. “It’s not that you aren’t beautiful. It’s just that he can’t breathe without me.” It had been ten minutes since his call. One moment he was begging for his wife; the next, he was in his “sweet escape.” It was a tired script. Every time I reached my limit, Jessica would find a way to twist the knife. The last time I confronted Zack with her recordings and photos, he hadn’t even looked up from his desk. “She just took those to make herself feel better, Evelyn. The angles are misleading. You just had a miscarriage; you’re hormonal and overthinking.” He knew. He knew I’d lost the baby while he was busy driving Jessica back to her hometown because “the mountain roads were too dangerous for her to drive alone.” When he finally saw me gasping for air that day, he’d pulled me onto his lap. “Evelyn, it hurts that you don’t trust me. No matter what I do with them, you’re the one who matters.” He’d kissed my neck, his voice thick with a promise. “Just get healthy. Get your strength back, and we’ll try for another baby. I promise I’ll be home every night.” And he had been. For two weeks, he was the perfect husband. I, the fool, had softened. I had forgiven him. But the “perfect” life lasted fifteen days. I found a video online of him at a karaoke bar, cradling Jessica, singing the lullaby I used to sing to him. I checked our home security footage. Every night after I fell asleep, Zack would slip out of bed, drive to Jessica’s apartment, and return before dawn. When I slapped him, screaming about how disgusting he was, his eyes went dark. “Jessica is afraid to sleep alone,” he said, opening the door to leave. “I have to go to her.” 3 Every time I remembered that moment, a chill settled in my bones. His heart hadn’t just strayed; it had been transplanted. I didn’t call him for the next three days, and he didn’t reach out. On the fourth morning, he walked into the bedroom carrying a designer shopping bag. I handed him the divorce papers I’d prepared. “The terms are set. Just sign them, and we can go to the courthouse.” He didn’t even look at the folder. He held up a dress. “This just hit the runway. Put it on. We’re going to my mother’s for lunch.” I looked at the label. It was a brand I loved. Years ago, when we were poor, he’d skip meals just to buy me a scarf from that house. I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry that he still remembered my taste while actively destroying my soul. When I didn’t move, he stepped forward to help me dress. “Zack, I’m talking about a divorce.” “I heard you. I’m not signing.” He stiffened for a second, then took my hand with forced normalcy. “Let’s go. Mom is waiting.” When we pulled into his mother’s estate, I realized Jessica was already there. She was wearing a piece from a recent high-end auction—a dress I had pointed out months ago. Seeing me stare, Jessica looked down sheepishly. “Zack, I’ve never worn anything this expensive. I feel like I don’t belong in it… maybe I should give it to Evelyn? I can wear her outfit. I don’t want her to be angry with me.” I felt a surge of nausea. “If you don’t belong in it, take it off.” Zack shot me a warning glance and patted Jessica’s shoulder. “Ignore her. Keep it. You’re my executive assistant; you need to look the part. You both go sit with my mother. I’m going to check on the kitchen.” Jessica flashed a triumphant smirk and brushed past me to the table. I ignored her and poured a bowl of soup for Zack’s mother. She took two sips, and suddenly, she collapsed. Her eyes widened, staring at me in shock. “Evelyn, you…” I froze. Jessica was on the floor in an instant, kneeling by the old woman. “Mrs. Sterling! Oh god, what’s happening?” Jessica screamed, then turned her tear-filled eyes toward me. “Evelyn, I know you hate me, but how could you take it out on his mother?” Zack rushed in, lifting his mother in his arms. He looked at me, his face a mask of cold fury. “What did you do?” Jessica sobbed, pointing at the soup. “She drank the soup Evelyn gave her and just… Evelyn, you can kill me if you want, but don’t hurt innocent people! She’s Zack’s mother!” Zack was checking Jessica’s arms, noticing small scratches she must have given herself earlier. “I didn’t do anything! I don’t know what happened!” I cried. Zack didn’t hesitate. He swung his leg, kicking me hard in the ribs. The force sent me reeling. “Evelyn! My mother has been nothing but kind to you! How could you be this twisted?” He spat. “No wonder your parents abandoned you at birth. You’re malicious. You tried to force Jessica to lie for you, and when she wouldn’t, you did this!” The pain was blinding. I tried to reach for his mother. “I swear, I didn’t—” Zack pushed me away with a sneer. “Still lying? My mother is lying there half-dead. Jessica is the kindest soul I know; you think she’d make this up?” I stumbled, hitting a pedestal. A heavy porcelain vase shattered, and I fell backward onto the shards. I felt the sharp sting of ceramic piercing my skin, followed by the warm, sticky sensation of blood soaking through my dress. Zack’s pupils contracted. He reached out as if to catch me, then stopped himself. Jessica grabbed his sleeve, trembling. “There’s so much blood… will she be okay?” “Don’t worry about her,” Zack snapped, his voice trembling with a mix of rage and something else. “She’s rotten to the core. Whatever happens, she deserves it.” He barked an order to his driver. “Take her back to the house. Lock her in her room. No food, no way out until she’s ready to crawl on her knees and apologize. Watch her. I won’t have her hurting anyone else.” He turned to Jessica, softening his voice. “Come with me to the hospital. If I leave you here, she’ll find a way to torment you again.” ——– I was dragged back to the house and locked in. My consciousness flickered, and it took hours for the fog to clear. The cameras. There had to be a way to prove it. I pushed through the pain, using every contact I had left to remotely access the Sterling estate’s security feed. There it was. Clear as day: Jessica slipping a powder into the bowl when I turned to grab a napkin. I pounded on the bedroom door, screaming for someone to listen. The door finally opened, but it wasn’t a guard. It was Jessica. “Move,” I hissed. Jessica tilted her head, a mocking grin on her face. “Got your little evidence? Going to tell on me?” She laughed and landed a sharp slap across my face. She gripped my chin, her nails digging into my skin. “You want the truth out? Think about your best friend in the hospital first.” I recoiled. “What are you talking about?” I grew up in an orphanage. I had no family. Only Becca. She was the one who protected me, the one who shared her food with me. Now, she was battling leukemia, waiting for a bone marrow transplant. Jessica smiled. “Isn’t it a coincidence? Becca’s lead oncologist? He’s an old college friend of mine.” I stared at her, horror dawning on me. “Don’t you touch her!” She toyed with a lock of her hair, leaning in to whisper against my ear. “Then what is the great Mrs. Sterling going to do to keep me happy?” 4 My knuckles turned white as I clutched the phone with the evidence. Slowly, I deleted the video in front of her. I immediately arranged for Becca to be transferred to another hospital, but it was too late. That very afternoon, a “dosage error” occurred. Becca was gone before I could even say goodbye. I found Jessica at a café, looking serene. “Evelyn, come sit. Have some tea.” She was smiling. Around her neck was the locket I had given Becca for her birthday. My hand shook with a rage so primal I couldn’t speak. “Jessica. I will make you pay for this with your life.” She didn’t flinch. Instead, she grabbed the balcony railing and leaned dangerously backward. “Evelyn, please don’t kill me! I didn’t do anything to Becca, I swear—” Zack came charging in, lunging to pull her back. “I’ve got you, Jessica. You’re safe.” He turned to me, his eyes burning. “Evelyn, you’re still at it? You want to kill her now?” “Zack, she murdered Becca!” Zack’s gaze was freezing. “Where’s your proof?” “I have a recording! I have—” “Enough!” He stepped up to me and delivered a blow that sent me spinning. “Poisoning my mother, framing Jessica… how long are you going to play this insane game?” “Are you going to keep going until we’re all dead?” I tasted blood in my mouth. I closed my eyes, a profound sense of hopelessness washing over me. Seeing me swaying, Zack’s expression shifted for a fraction of a second. He pulled a black credit card from his wallet and tossed it on the table. “There’s enough on here for a lavish funeral for Becca. Consider it my final respect to her. Just stop hounding Jessica, and we can still go back to how things were.” Even now, he thought I was just being “difficult.” Even with a life lost. I looked at him and began to laugh—a hollow, broken sound. “Zack. Just you wait.” ——– I hadn’t even decided on my next move when Zack broke down my door the next morning. “You are going to apologize to Jessica. Today.” He dragged me to a hotel suite, forcing my head down against the carpet until my forehead bled. The room smelled of sex and expensive perfume. Jessica was huddled on the bed, wrapped in a sheet, sobbing. When she saw me, she crawled over and hugged my knees. “It’s okay, Zack. I don’t blame her. I did what she said… I went to see Mr. Vaughn. I even… I gave him my body, but he still won’t sign the contract with you. I’m so useless. I’d do anything for you, Zack. Even die.” I looked at the open window and let out a dry rasp of a laugh. “Is that so? Then do it. Jump. Show us how much you love him.” Jessica scrambled toward the window ledge. “Jessica!” Zack turned pale, rushing to pull her down. “Don’t do something stupid!” He turned and kicked me squarely in the stomach. “Evelyn, she’s fragile! Why are you so bent on destroying her?” “You’re both women. Why do you have so much malice in your heart?” “I’m so disappointed in you.” He carried Jessica out without looking back. But I saw it. Over his shoulder, Jessica flashed me a sharp, victorious smile. After that, Zack stopped going to the office. He spent every hour with her. He, a man who detested animals, even went out and bought her a kitten because she said she was lonely. I had begged for a dog for years. He’d always said no. It didn’t matter anymore. My flight was in two days. I lay down to rest, but suddenly I felt a jolt. Everything went black. When I woke up, my clothes were torn. My body ached with a familiar, violated pain. I closed my eyes and wept. Jessica stood over me with a camera, grinning. “Imagine if these go viral, Evelyn. What will happen to the ‘prestigious’ Mrs. Sterling then?” “It’s time for a new wife to take the throne.” The last string of my sanity snapped. I lunged at her, dragging her by the hair toward the door. We collided with Zack in the hallway. He looked horrified, then stepped in front of Jessica. “Evelyn! What now?” “Zack, look at me!” I screamed, my voice raw. “She did this to me! She destroyed me! Are you still going to protect her?” Zack grabbed my shoulders, his voice a low growl. “Calm down! Jessica was just upset; she lost control. You’ve hurt her so many times… let’s just call this even.” “Even?” I pushed him away, tears streaming down my face. “What do you mean, even? Becca is dead! I’ve been assaulted! And you call it even?” I couldn’t believe these words were coming from the man I had loved for a decade. The man I had treated as my sanctuary was the one who had sharpened the knife and driven it into my heart. “Evelyn, I didn’t hold you accountable for my mother or for what you did to Jessica. Don’t be so petty. Stop playing the victim. You brought this on yourself.” I laughed, a jagged, terrifying sound, and grabbed Jessica, shoving her into my car. “Then let’s all die together.” I floored the accelerator, weaving through traffic until Zack’s SUV forced me onto the shoulder of a high bridge. I dragged Jessica out and pinned her against the railing. “Go to hell!” “No!” Zack sprinted forward. In his desperation to save Jessica, he lunged at me, his arms extended to shove me away from her. I let his momentum carry me. I didn’t fight it. As I fell backward over the edge, a small, serene smile touched my lips. Zack looked up, his face contorting in slow motion as he watched my body descend into the dark water below.

🌟 Continue the story here 👉🏻 📲 Download the “MotoNovel” app 🔍 search for “450733”, and watch the full series ✨! #MotoNovel

The neighbor across from me doesn’t like to close his curtains. Every evening, I can see him working out in his living room. Black compression shirt, gray sweatpants. V-shaped torso, lean muscles, long legs, and a face with perfect bone structure. I’d been secretly watching for a solid two weeks, and just as I was about to work up the courage to ask for his contact info… Suddenly, comments appeared: 【Keep staring and I’ll gouge your eyes out!】 【This crazy supporting female character—the male lead is clearly trying to seduce the female lead next door, but she’s watching so intently. It’s infuriating!】 【The supporting character is so shameless. Peeping is illegal. Can’t someone call the cops on her?】 【Don’t worry, don’t worry. The male lead is pulling out all the stops tonight, but the supporting character gets so absorbed in watching that she accidentally falls out the window and dies…】 I sucked in a sharp breath. That very night, I installed safety bars and replaced my curtains with thick blackout ones. I didn’t dare look even once after that. A few days later, my neighbor knocked on my door with a tone that was both aggrieved and self-righteous: “Why did you stop watching me? Is it because you think I’m out of shape?” Me: ? 0

Those words hit me like a bolt of lightning. What did he mean by that? The comments were just as confused: 【That sounds almost… flirty?】 【The male lead is polite, so he can’t directly call out the supporting character’s rude behavior. He can only remind her indirectly not to peep anymore!】 【Damn, those pecs, those abs, that… he’s clearly got serious stamina! No wonder the supporting character was watching. I wouldn’t be able to resist either!】 【As expected of a cultured and graceful male lead—he’s a perfect match for our gentle and kind female lead!】 So that was it. He seemed like a pretty decent guy, actually. I couldn’t help but feel some gratitude toward the man in front of me. If I put myself in his shoes—if some creep had been secretly watching me for two weeks straight, I’d definitely call the cops. But he just came over to gently remind me. He’d already given me plenty of dignity. As I was mulling this over, Ethan suddenly introduced himself: “Hi, I’m Ethan. I’m from the capital. I own dozens of properties and have liquid assets in the hundreds of millions. I’m twenty-five this year, but I’ve been working out consistently. I’m in great health, and my parents have a harmonious relationship…” Me: ? 【The male lead is showing off his wealth to make the supporting character back off.】 【Male lead: This is a simple warning. Next time won’t be so easy.】 Me: ! I immediately bowed ninety degrees to him and apologized sincerely: “I’m so sorry, Mr. Ethan. I know my behavior caused you distress. It was wrong of me. I promise I’ll never watch you again!” Ethan: ? The aggrieved expression on his face suddenly froze, and his tone turned a bit flustered: “No, that’s not what I meant…” I understood completely. He still didn’t want to call me out directly because he was afraid of hurting my self-esteem. What a good person! I felt even more guilty and apologized repeatedly. 【Wait, why isn’t the supporting character following the script?】 【Admitting mistakes and changing behavior makes her a good girl. I hereby declare I won’t curse at the supporting character anymore.】 【Who knows if the supporting character is just pretending to lower the male lead’s guard so she can peep more effectively later?】 Heaven and earth could bear witness—I truly knew I was wrong and would absolutely never watch again. Falling from the tenth floor—how much would that hurt? I shivered, my face turning pale. But Ethan lowered his head, his ears turning completely red: “I just wanted to ask… do you girls like my body type?” Hearing this, I discreetly scanned him from head to toe and quietly swallowed. Damn, the black compression shirt was even pilling. His pecs were so full they were about to burst through the fabric. If I accidentally bumped into them, I wondered how good it would feel… The comments promptly interrupted my fantasy: 【The male lead hit a wall pursuing the female lead and doubts his own charm, so he’s trying to figure out what the female lead likes.】 【He’s too embarrassed to ask the female lead directly, so he’s asking the supporting character instead.】 I got it again. So he was trying to find out what the female lead liked. I was almost shipping them myself. To make up for my mistake, I decided to help them out: “Don’t worry, you have a great body. No one wouldn’t like it.” The female lead and male lead were made for each other—how could the female lead not like him? The corners of Ethan’s mouth instantly lifted high. I quickly added: “You can rest completely assured—I’ll never watch you again. If I do, I’ll… I’ll never get rich my whole life!” After making this vow, I didn’t wait to see Ethan’s expression. I went straight inside and closed the door. 0

That night, I added another layer of blackout curtains to make absolutely sure no light could get through. This should let me escape the tragic fate of accidentally falling from the building. I’d first noticed Ethan over twenty days ago. I’d been tortured to tears by a work proposal and went downstairs, wanting neither to take the stairs nor the elevator. I casually glanced out the window. Instantly, my headache was gone, my depression lifted, and I didn’t want to die anymore. In the unit across from mine, there was a gorgeous man working out, and he wasn’t even closing his curtains! From my angle, I could see everything. Black compression shirt, gray sweatpants. Broad shoulders, narrow waist, long legs, perfect facial structure… he fulfilled all my fantasies about the ultimate hottie. I clung to the window and watched for a full hour. The next evening, with an excited heart, I secretly looked across again. He still hadn’t closed his curtains! I didn’t know if it was my imagination, but the lighting seemed even brighter. This time his upper body was bare, and the gray sweatpants had been switched for athletic shorts. I was immensely grateful for my good eyesight—I could even clearly see the veins bulging on his abs. I scolded myself for my shameful peeping behavior while convincing myself that as a grown woman, I needed to look at these things to have the energy to make a living. After secretly watching for two weeks straight, I was sleeping with a pillow clamped between my legs. I couldn’t help fantasizing—if I could get him, I’d first give him a few light slaps on his chest, then have a good time on top of him. But the comments that suddenly appeared gave me a harsh wake-up call. The comments said he had someone he liked—the girl living next door to me—and that he worked out without closing his curtains just to attract her attention. I’d run into that girl a few times. She was gentle and beautiful. The thought that a fellow woman was secretly enjoying such a treat without telling me broke my heart. But heartbreak aside… I sincerely wished this young couple could be together forever, until they were old and gray! I stopped thinking about them and went back to enjoying videos of hot guys. The consequence of indulging in eye candy was that I nearly overslept for work the next day. When I got to the office, contrary to my expectations, there was no dead, dull office atmosphere. Everyone was as excited as if they’d taken drugs. After some quick investigating, I learned that the company had suddenly been acquired by a big shot, and we were getting a new boss. I sat at my desk feeling a bit worried. The old boss might have had a bald spot and tended to spray spit when he talked, but he was generous! He gave out bonuses on holidays, gave out bonuses when he was in a good mood, even gave out bonuses for occasional overtime… bonuses, bonuses, bonuses until you got sick of them. Where else could I find a boss who randomly handed out bonuses like that? I sent him a message with a heavy heart: 【Boss, if someone’s threatening you, just blink.】 The boss replied instantly: 【Not telling, not telling.】 【You have no idea what I got out of this!】 I was about to try to extract more information when a chorus of gasps suddenly erupted throughout the office. My lunch buddy kicked my chair hard. Me: … Following her gaze, I looked up and my eyebrows shot up in shock. Ethan? The new boss was actually Ethan? Ethan looked over at the same time. Our eyes met, and the corners of his mouth lifted in a high arc, his eyes shining impossibly bright. 【Oh no, that expression—the supporting character doesn’t think the male lead came here for her, does she?】 【Actually, the female lead has a partnership with this company, which is why the male lead acquired it.】 【Nothing else to say—everyone type these four words right now: OLDER MAN SUPREMACY!】 The office erupted. “Ahhhhh he’s so handsome and stylish!” “I heard he’s a young master from the capital. Wonder if he’s here to gain experience or for someone special.” “Boss, look at me! I don’t want to work hard anymore!” “…” Listening to all this gossip, I could only feel amazed. The title of most devoted CEO had to go to Ethan. To pursue his woman, this capital circle young master was willing to live in a small one-bedroom apartment, show off his body every day without closing the curtains, and even directly acquire a company. How wonderful. Another day of shipping a couple. The office gradually quieted down, and I recovered from my excitement over this couple and started working seriously. I don’t know how much time passed before my lunch buddy kicked my chair hard again. I looked up—it was Ethan again. He’d taken off his suit jacket, rolled his white shirt sleeves up to his forearms, and unbuttoned the top two buttons. His fingers were so long, and his nose bridge was so high… Stop it! I immediately shook those unhealthy thoughts from my mind and put on a fake smile: “Boss, can I help you with something?” 0

Ethan’s lips pressed into a straight line: “I need a secretary. Haven’t found the right one yet, so I’ll have to trouble you to fill in temporarily.” I froze: “But…” Before I could finish, Ethan had already picked up my entire desk and computer together. Me: … Helplessly, I could only follow. His legs were long and he walked fast. I had to jog to keep up with his pace. From the exertion, the muscles in his arms tensed, forming perfect muscle lines that were quite enticing. The comments started drooling: 【I feel like the male lead is the type who could toss a wok for cooking for days on end.】 【Serious stamina! Serious stamina!】 Stunned by these shocking comments, I fell silent. A few seconds later, watching Ethan place my desk directly in front of his own desk, I fell silent again. So close that if I stretched my legs, I could touch his calves. Extremely lacking in boundaries. Wait, was this okay? The comments were equally confused: 【Am I detecting a hint of ambiguity?】 【Maybe he thinks the supporting character knows the female lead and wants to butter her up so she’ll put in a good word, like how guys pursuing girls try to befriend their besties.】 【If I remember correctly, the female lead and supporting character aren’t even close, right?】 【But the male lead thinks they know each other! He’s just too in love!】 So Ethan thought I was the female lead’s best friend. But the female lead and I were at most nodding acquaintances. We weren’t close at all. I was about to explain when a comment suddenly floated by: 【This works out well. Let the supporting character see firsthand how much the male lead values the female lead and completely give up her delusions!】 Me: … Fine then. I stopped worrying about it and immediately started cramming on the job duties of a CEO’s personal secretary. On the other hand, Ethan seemed like he had ants in his pants. One moment rolling his shirt sleeves up to his arms, the next buttoning and unbuttoning his collar, revealing his delicate collarbones. Like a mischievous child trying every way to get an adult’s attention. Was he fishing for evidence against me? I worked even harder, not daring to give him even half a glance. A few minutes later, an impatient “tch” came from above my head. Sure enough, he was fishing for evidence. He was unhappy he couldn’t catch me in the act. He suddenly stood up and went into the lounge. A clattering sound came from inside. Me: … Sighing quietly, Ethan emerged from the lounge and placed several small cakes on my desk: “I accidentally bought too many today. Could you help me finish them?” After a while, he placed peeled pomelo segments on my desk. Then a bit later, a warm cup of bubble tea… This must be how guys treat their girlfriend’s best friend—alternating between annoyance and trying to win them over. My heart completely settled back into my stomach. After ending this inexplicably strange day, I waited for the bus outside. My lower abdomen suddenly felt a pulling sensation. I hurriedly ran back to the company restroom to take care of it. When I came out, a red sports car was arrogantly parked right in front of the company building. It was Ethan. “It’s about to rain. I’m heading your way—let me give you a ride.” I was about to decline when lightning flashed across the sky and the ground shook. I jumped in fright and stopped refusing. Ethan drove a sports car, so I had to open the door and sit in the passenger seat. We drove in silence. The moment I stepped through my front door, rain came pouring down. I secretly felt grateful I’d taken Ethan’s car home, otherwise with the rain, thunder, and my period, I would have been miserable. I pulled open the curtains to check the windows and inadvertently glanced across. Ethan was working out again. I silently marveled at how he never forgot his original intention. He suddenly looked up. Through the pouring rain, his gaze found me precisely. 0

I quickly pulled the curtains shut. After tapping an electronic prayer bell for a minute to absolve my sins, I collapsed on the bed to relax. Strange—my period usually left me in agony, but this time there was only a slight aching sensation. Could it be because I’d secretly watched Ethan for two weeks? So I felt completely justified scrolling through videos of hot guys for two hours before falling into a deep, satisfied sleep. Today was my second day as temporary secretary. I didn’t dare be late and got up ten minutes early. When I opened my door, I came face to face with the female lead, who was also heading out. She smiled at me kindly, and I returned a big smile. After going downstairs, I saw that familiar, flashy sports car again. 【Who understands—to get one more glimpse of his precious female lead, the male lead has been waiting downstairs for an hour.】 【The male lead is wearing a casual outfit in the same color scheme as the female lead today. They’re so in sync!】 【Serious stamina! Serious stamina!】 I wanted to pretend I hadn’t seen it. The car window slowly rolled down, revealing that handsome, perfect face. Ethan called out: “Sophia~ Get in~” I hesitated for a moment, but he’d already gotten out and opened the car door for me. Getting in the car, I noticed he’d changed his watch. Yesterday it was a Rolex, today a Patek Philippe. My back teeth were about to crack. Why couldn’t the world have one more rich person—me! Just as I was about to buckle my seatbelt, Ethan suddenly leaned over and fastened it for me. A pleasant, faint citrus scent swirled around my nose. I instinctively held my breath. The comments filled with question marks: 【Why is the male lead being so intimate and ambiguous with the supporting character?】 【This action makes me feel like he’s not waiting for the female lead, but the supporting character.】 【The male lead is being so improper with women. Deduct points! Must deduct points!】 I also felt this behavior wasn’t quite appropriate. What if the female lead saw and misunderstood? Wouldn’t I become a homewrecker struck down by heaven? No way, absolutely not! Everything Ethan was doing now was to get closer to the female lead. I couldn’t be a stumbling block on his path to winning his wife! I clutched the seatbelt and thought hard for a while, then suddenly turned to Ethan very seriously and said: “Mr. Ethan, I have a boyfriend.” His fingers, which had been tapping the steering wheel, suddenly stopped. Ethan stiffly turned his head, his dark eyes full of disbelief, something seeming to shatter in their depths. “A boyfriend? You have a boyfriend?” I nodded obediently. A creaking sound echoed in the car. It went on for quite a while before Ethan’s eyes began to redden slightly: “I don’t believe it!” I was a bit puzzled. What was with this “my wife doesn’t want me anymore” expression? “Why don’t you believe it?” “I’ve never seen any men around you.” Me: … I patiently lied: “He’s usually busy with work…” “No matter how busy, that’s no excuse to neglect you!” He raised his voice, looking like he was about to cry. 【Who understands—the male lead thought everyone was single, and finding out the supporting character is in a relationship instantly broke his defenses.】 【It’s like thinking we’re all struggling students, then you get first place in the whole school on finals. Total betrayal.】 I thought for a moment, opened my phone’s photo album, found a picture with my brother, and shoved it in Ethan’s face. In the photo, I was hugging the guy’s neck from behind, smiling brilliantly. “Look, my boyfriend’s handsome, right? Everyone says we look like a married couple.” Ethan stared at the photo for a long time, his lips trembling violently several times before he finally closed his eyes, his tone very light. “I’m sorry. My recent behavior has caused you trouble.” “But this is just a boss’s concern for an ordinary subordinate. Please don’t take it to heart.” With that, he silently started the car. I looked out the window, vaguely feeling something was off. When we entered the company, Ethan walked very quickly, as if dogs were chasing him.

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The year I hated Lucas Carter the most was also the purest. Lucas Carter tortured and killed my dog that I had raised for ten years, all for his little secretary. To get revenge, I stabbed the little secretary five times, relishing her crazed screams. Everyone thought Lucas Carter would take my life. Instead, Lucas Carter just threw me a divorce agreement and said coldly, “You’re nothing but a dog of the Carter family. Since you want to go mad, then get lost.” After that night, I never appeared again. Until five years later, I attended a gala in my father’s place and ran into Lucas Carter’s little secretary. The little secretary splashed red wine on me. “Well, well, look who it is. The dog the Carter family didn’t want.” I grabbed a champagne bottle and smashed it on the little secretary’s head. “Five years and they still haven’t taught you how to be human. Today I’ll teach you myself.” Yolanda’s screams echoed through the room. Several lackeys standing beside Yolanda immediately positioned themselves in front of her and shouted at me. “Who the fuck are you!” “Do you know who you just hit!” “Let me tell you,” the loudest one pointed at me, “she’s the fiancée of the Carter Corporation’s heir! You’ve crossed her! Mr. Carter won’t let you go!” Someone else blocked my path, speaking mockingly. “I’d like to see which blind fool dares to offend Mr. Carter’s precious darling. Everyone knows Mr. Carter is crazy about his wife. Normally, if Miss Yolanda loses even a single hair, Mr. Carter would turn half the city upside down, let alone crack her head open!” Yolanda covered her bleeding forehead, glaring at me viciously. “Let me tell you, Gardenia, I was kind enough to let you go five years ago, but that doesn’t mean I’ll still be afraid of you five years later! You were nothing but a dog Asher kept at home! Five years ago I could destroy you, and now that you dare to show up, I can destroy you again!” I looked at how Yolanda had changed over five years. I had to admit it. Lucas Carter really had raised her well. The woman who could only timidly call me “Mrs. Carter” back then could now publicly threaten me to disappear, using words like “destroy.” Unfortunately, I’ve never been a pushover. Not five years ago. Not five years later either. Surrounded by a crowd, I looked at the shattered fragments on the ground, bent down, and under everyone’s shocked expressions, picked up a shard and smiled. “Yolanda.” I walked toward her step by step. “Five years ago,” I held the bloodstained shard, “I gave you too much face.” “What.” I stared at Yolanda’s lower abdomen, tracing the shard from her face downward. “I stabbed out your uterus back then, and you still haven’t learned your lesson.” “In that case.” My smile turned vicious, and before anyone could react, I raised the shard and stabbed it fiercely toward Yolanda’s abdomen. But. Before I could stab Yolanda’s belly, someone suddenly grabbed my wrist. I heard screaming in my ears, and Yolanda’s tearful voice. “Asher.” “I’m scared.” Five years ago, when I had pressed Yolanda to the ground and stabbed her again and again, Yolanda had shown the same terrified eyes, calling out vulnerably. “Asher, I’m scared.” Time overlapped. Behind me came a long-lost yet familiar voice. “Gardenia, it’s been five years.” “What,” Lucas Carter’s voice was gloomy, “still haven’t learned to behave?” My wrist was forcefully pulled outward. The pain made me frown, but instead of admitting defeat and giving up like I did five years ago, it ignited the blood in my veins that couldn’t be contained. I gripped the shard tightly, feeling it pierce my palm, and at the same moment Lucas Carter was about to seize the shard from me. I quickly turned my head and smiled at Lucas Carter. “Long time no see.” “Asher.” The shard stabbed viciously into Lucas Carter’s arm, blood spattering and blurring my vision.

The scene descended into complete chaos. I heard countless screams in my ears, someone shouting for security, and people whispering in discussion. “Who is this woman? Does she have a death wish? She actually dared to stab Mr. Carter!” “I just heard Miss Yolanda mention five years ago. Five years ago, didn’t Mr. Carter drive away a Carter family orphan girl, his wife in name only! Holy shit, could it be her!” “She doesn’t look like it though.” “I heard that orphan girl had no one, just a dog that was tortured to death all night because it offended Miss Yolanda! Everyone in high society has seen that torture video! They even skinned the dog alive!” “Look, Mr. Carter is actually smiling!” Blood kept seeping from Lucas Carter’s arm. Yolanda shouted, “Asher!” Then, ignoring her own forehead wound, Yolanda rushed over to Lucas Carter like a madwoman, shielding him and yelling at me. “Gardenia! What gives you the right to hurt Asher!” “The Carter family raised you for twenty years and raised an ungrateful wretch like you! Apologize to Asher right now!” Watching Yolanda act like the mistress of the Carter family, ordering me around imperiously, I found it laughable. I met Lucas Carter’s eyes. “After raising her for five years, you’ve raised a dog that stands up for you. Lucas Carter, you must feel pretty satisfied.” Yolanda’s face paled. Lucas Carter immediately shielded Yolanda behind him, just like five years ago. “Gardenia, things between us ended five years ago.” “I’ve already told you, Yolanda is the only one in my heart. I won’t fall in love with you and I could never like you,” Lucas Carter looked at me coldly. “I don’t care how you’ve spent these five years, or how you got an invitation to this gala and snuck in.” “But I will never let you return to the Carter family and continue to harm Yolanda.” “Gardenia.” Lucas Carter looked down at me from above. “Originally today I could have ignored you and pretended you didn’t exist, but since you hurt Yolanda, you have to pay the price.” Lucas Carter clapped his hands, and a group of security guards surrounded me. “You can choose to do it yourself, or I’ll do it.” A security guard handed over a knife. Lucas Carter took it, waiting for my answer. I just laughed outright. “Lucas Carter, do you think the whole world revolves around you?” I pointed at the knife in his hand. “If you’ve got the guts, you’d better finish me off today,” I walked closer step by step. “Otherwise, when it’s my turn to finish you off.” “You’d better not,” I leaned close to Lucas Carter, enunciating clearly, “beg for mercy on your knees.” “Hahaha.” My laughter echoed through the silent banquet hall. Lucas Carter’s expression darkened. Watching Lucas Carter tremble with rage, I couldn’t help but recall five years ago when he did the same thing, using Rusty to force me to kneel and kowtow in apology. He locked Rusty in an iron cage, had someone seal Rusty’s mouth, and as long as I refused to beg for mercy, the blade would mercilessly slice across Rusty’s body. All my pride was completely shattered. Watching Rusty in agony, I knelt and begged for mercy. “Lucas Carter!” I cried and pleaded, “Don’t hurt Rusty.” “I’m sorry!” I kowtowed forcefully, banging my head hard on the ground. “I was wrong! I know I was wrong!” Rusty was all I had. My only hope was to take Rusty and leave the Carter family. I desperately begged. “Let Rusty go, let Rusty go!” I’ll never forget Rusty’s eyes full of heartache for me, nor will I forget the hatred carved into my bones that still fills me with rage when I remember it. Looking at Lucas Carter now, only the hatred that hasn’t completely burned out remains. “Lucas Carter, you’re nothing but a dog being played by Yolanda,” I said word by word. “Old Master Carter handed the Carter family over to you, and he’ll probably crawl out of his coffin to demand your life!” “After all, the Carter family is completely finished!”

My throat was violently seized. My breath was stolen. Oxygen gradually depleted. I met Lucas Carter’s bloodshot eyes and heard his voice, vicious to the point of madness. “Gardenia, don’t think I won’t dare kill you!” “You’re nothing but the Carter family’s dog.” Lucas Carter forcefully threw me to the ground. Champagne glass shards all pierced my skin, creating countless small wounds. The pain made me shudder, and then Lucas Carter grabbed my hair. “When I tell you to kneel, you kneel!” “When I tell you to die! You die!” Lucas Carter smiled at me. “But today, I don’t really want you to die.” “After all,” Lucas Carter patted my face, “such a good plaything, how could I let it die so easily? Don’t you agree!” I looked at Lucas Carter so close. I remembered that day when Yolanda sent me a video, her tone boastful. [I just told Asher that Rusty scared me, and Asher skinned Rusty alive.] [You know what, next time I’ll tell Asher that you’re actually scary too. Will Asher skin you alive too?] [So funny!] [You’re nominally Mrs. Carter, but you’re actually worth less than a servant.] Now, meeting Lucas Carter’s expression, a sweetness rose in my throat. As Lucas Carter raised his hand to slap my face again, I spat a mouthful of bloody phlegm onto his face. Watching his expression shift from brief shock to disgusted revulsion, I smiled. “That’s right, Lucas Carter.” “How could you die so quickly?” I used his tone and smiled too. “After all, such a fun game, how can we not play it to the end?” Since I came back. I never intended to let Carter Corporation go. Those who killed Rusty back then, I want them all to pay the price one by one. Rusty died so cruelly. How could I let them go? Seeing my stubborn defiance. Lucas Carter suddenly released my hair and wiped the bloody phlegm from his face. “That’s right.” “Some things, if you don’t torture them slowly, how can you be satisfied?” “Since you’ve come back,” Lucas Carter looked at me, “then let’s play properly.” Lucas Carter stopped looking at me and ordered the security guards. “Watch her.” “Don’t let her escape.” Then Lucas Carter returned to his gentle and considerate demeanor toward Yolanda. “Does it hurt?” He gently wiped away Yolanda’s tears. “I’ll take you to a private room.” Yolanda cried into his arms. “With you, I don’t hurt.” “With you here,” Yolanda sobbed, “I’m not afraid of anything.” I watched Lucas Carter carry Yolanda horizontally out of the room. I slumped to the ground, the tiny wounds all over my body making me frown in pain. Those sycophants around me started spewing. “Who knows where this thing came from, daring to hurt Mr. Carter. Mr. Carter not taking half your life today is already mercy. Get lost.” “Exactly! I heard before that you’re just an orphan girl Old Master Carter picked up from outside. Old Master Carter raised you, but you repaid kindness with enmity and went after Miss Yolanda. You deserved to be kicked out.” “Not gonna lie,” someone smiled and opened their phone, “I still have that dog’s torture video saved.” That person opened their album and found the torture video. The others gathered around saying, “Let me see.” “I want to see too.”

Rusty’s screams rang out. But I seemed stimulated, directly picked up a shard from the ground, grabbed that person’s hair, and stabbed it viciously into his eye. Screams pierced my ears. I was like someone appreciating a work of art, turning my head to see those who had just been pointing fingers at me all fall silent. No one dared to provoke a lunatic. Moreover, a lunatic like me who dared to take the life of the Carter family’s heir. Even the security guards didn’t dare to really lay hands on me. I looked at this group of sycophants, spat out a mouthful of bloody phlegm, threw out the word “trash,” and headed in Lucas Carter’s direction. Lucas Carter brought Yolanda to a private room and called his personal doctor. The doctor carefully examined Yolanda’s wound, but Yolanda cried and said, “Don’t look at me, check Asher.” “I really didn’t expect,” Yolanda choked up, “that Gardenia would be even crazier five years later. We shouldn’t have been soft-hearted back then. She’s appearing here now because she can’t let you go.” “Back then, Gardenia loved you so much that the whole city knew. Just because you were a little nice to me, she publicly embarrassed me and even slapped me.” Yolanda wiped away her tears. “Asher, don’t let her destroy our relationship anymore, okay?” Lucas Carter sat at the bedside, held Yolanda’s hand, and softly comforted her. “I won’t. Don’t worry.” “To me,” Lucas Carter scoffed, “Gardenia is nothing but a toy. When we were young, I found her boring and would always lock her in the dark room, scare her with snakes and insects and rats, and found it interesting to hear her cry.” “Later, I discovered Gardenia fed stray dogs every day, so I poisoned several of them. She actually pulled a knife on me over some beasts.” Lucas Carter gritted his teeth. “That dog deserved to die.” I walked to the private room door and heard Lucas Carter say this. I remembered that time when Lucas Carter chained me up. For three whole days, Lucas Carter left me covered in injuries. Even so, Lucas Carter had the audacity to grab my throat and demand. “Don’t take medicine!” I still clearly remember Lucas Carter’s sick and obsessed eyes. “Since playing with you isn’t enough, then give birth to my spawn. I want to see if you’ll still have such a hard backbone when you’re carrying my spawn!” Later, it was Rusty who found the old master to rescue me. It was Rusty who accompanied me to the hospital, completely eliminating the possibility of me becoming a mother. Even if I could never be a mother for the rest of my life. I would never give birth to spawn carrying Lucas Carter’s blood. It was also then. Lucas Carter completely developed murderous intent toward Rusty. My phone vibrated. I looked at the caller and my expression softened. “You went to the gala in place of your father-in-law?” That person’s tone was gentle. “I heard your ex-husband is there too. Why didn’t you wait for me?” Hearing that person’s voice, I couldn’t help but complain. “I’m about to be killed! Before I die, come save me quick!” I hung up the phone. I heard Yolanda ask him, “What if Gardenia still wants to be with you?” Before Lucas Carter could answer. I kicked the door open directly, met Yolanda’s shocked face, and Lucas Carter immediately shielded Yolanda. “Gardenia! You really are shameless!” “Chasing us here!” Lucas Carter looked at me with satisfaction. “What, want to come back and be Mrs. Carter? Who do you think you are—” I picked up the knife in my hand, rushed quickly to Lucas Carter, stabbed it into his abdomen, and looked at him coldly with a sneer. “Lucas Carter!” “Go to hell!”

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On the day I got out, two people were waiting at the gate. One was my fiancée, Sophia Kane—the industry’s youngest female CEO of a publicly traded company. The other was my sister, Lucy. Five years ago, they personally sent me to prison. Sophia wore a black coat, standing ramrod straight, as if she were here to pick someone up. My sister kept her head down, not daring to even look at me. “Ethan…” Her voice was tight. I ignored her. A black Maybach was parked by the curb. I got straight in. **1** I’d been hearing that sound—the iron gate closing behind me—for five years. Hearing it from inside versus hearing it from outside—it wasn’t the same. The sunlight was blinding. I squinted, standing at the prison entrance, taking a deep breath. The air smelled of dust, mixed with greasy smoke drifting from a roadside barbecue stand. Five years. I’d almost forgotten that smell. I carried a clear plastic bag containing the phone, wallet, and stopped watch I’d had on me the day I went in. The phone had long since died. The wallet still held three hundred and twenty dollars, along with a photo of Sophia. I pulled out the photo, glanced at it, and shoved it into a nearby trash can. Then I looked up and saw them. Sophia stood on the opposite sidewalk wearing a black cashmere coat, her hair pulled into a flawless bun, makeup immaculate, feet in stiletto heels. She stood perfectly straight, expression calm, like she was picking up a colleague returning from a business trip. No—even more indifferent than that. Lucy stood beside her. She was thinner than five years ago. Face pale, head down, fingers twisted together, knuckles red. She didn’t dare look at me. I had no desire to look at her either. Sophia spoke first. She called out across the street: “Ethan.” Her voice wasn’t loud, but loud enough for me to hear clearly. It carried a kind of condescending composure. I didn’t respond. I was looking at the car parked by the curb. A black Maybach. I didn’t recognize the license plate, but I recognized the business card pressed under the windshield. Three words in gold embossing: Sterling Whitmore. The old man had kept his word. “Ethan…” Lucy finally raised her head, voice tight, eyes reddening. She took half a step forward, then stopped. Five years ago in court, she hadn’t worn that expression. Back then she’d stood in the witness box, voice clear and composed, systematically nailing her own brother to the defendant’s seat sentence by sentence. “I saw with my own eyes that Ethan attacked someone. After the victim fell, he kept kicking.” Every word had been a nail. I’d looked at her then. She’d looked back. Her gaze had flickered for one second. Just one second. Then she’d looked away and continued with her rehearsed testimony, sending me to prison. And now she stood at the prison gate, head bowed, saying “Ethan.” As I walked past her, I caught the scent of her perfume. Expensive. Five years ago she’d used ninety-nine-cent floral water from the supermarket. Apparently that fifty thousand dollars had served her well. I didn’t stop, heading straight for the Maybach. Sophia’s expression changed. She hurried across the street, heels clicking urgently on the asphalt. “Ethan, wait.” I pulled open the car door. “Ethan! I need to talk to you.” I bent down and slid into the back seat. The car had a faint sandalwood scent. The leather seats were warm from the sun. A man in his fifties sat in the passenger seat, salt-and-pepper hair, wearing a dark gray Mandarin-collar suit, back perfectly straight. He turned to look at me and nodded slightly. “Mr. Hayes, my name is George. Mr. Whitmore arranged for me to wait here for you before he passed.” He took a black document bag from the glove box and handed it over with both hands. “Everything Mr. Whitmore left for you is here.” I took it and unzipped the bag. Inside was a stack of documents. On top was a will with a notary seal still visible. I flipped to the second page and saw a string of numbers. My fingers paused. Then I closed the document bag and looked out the window. Sophia still stood beside the car, bent over, one hand tapping the window, mouth opening and closing. Through the glass, I couldn’t hear what she was saying. I didn’t need to. “Let’s go,” I said. George started the engine. The Maybach pulled smoothly away from the curb, gliding past Sophia. In the rearview mirror, her hand hung suspended in midair, body frozen. Lucy chased after us for a few steps, then stopped and crouched by the roadside, hands covering her face. I pulled my gaze back, leaned against the seat, and closed my eyes. Five years. One thousand eight hundred and twenty-six days. Every single day inside, I’d thought about one thing. Not revenge. Accounting. Who owed me what. How much. How to calculate the interest. Now the ledger was open. Time to collect. **2** The Maybach stopped in front of a luxury apartment building in the east district. The elevator went straight to the top floor. When the doors opened, the entire floor was the apartment. Floor-to-ceiling windows overlooked half the city’s skyline. The setting sun turned all the glass facades golden. In the center of the living room sat an unopened bottle of premium liquor, with a letter beside it. The envelope read: *For Ethan*. Sterling Whitmore’s handwriting. The strokes were still strong, but the line endings showed slight tremors. He’d written this in his final months. I didn’t rush to open the letter. First I sat down and spread the contents of the document bag across the table one by one. George stood beside me, poured me a cup of tea, then began explaining each item. “The overseas trust fund for Summit Holdings. Thirty-five percent equity stake, current market value approximately one hundred twenty billion dollars. This equity is held through a three-tier offshore structure. Mr. Whitmore’s biological son, Sebastian, still has no idea this asset exists.” I flipped to the next page. “Switzerland, Singapore, and the Cayman Islands. Seventeen accounts total across all three locations. Cash and equivalents totaling approximately thirty-eight billion dollars.” Next page. “Prime commercial real estate in eleven locations across major cities. Estimated value approximately twenty-six billion dollars.” George finished listing these figures and paused. “Mr. Hayes, your current personal assets are conservatively estimated at over one hundred eighty billion dollars.” I picked up the teacup and took a sip. Three years ago, on the metal bunk in prison, he’d coughed so hard his whole body curled into a ball. I’d put my own blanket over him and gone to the infirmary to get him cough medicine. Back then, no one paid him any attention. A seventy-something old man, hair completely white, gaunt, hunched over, voice weak when he spoke. Everyone assumed he was just an ordinary fraud convict. He didn’t explain. I didn’t ask. I just gave him half my egg at every meal. When he coughed, I got him hot water. When someone gave him trouble, I stood in front of him. No particular reason. I just felt an old man shouldn’t be treated that way. Half a year later, one evening, he suddenly spoke to me. “Ethan, why did they send you here?” I told him what had happened. My business partner set me up. My fiancée betrayed me. My sister gave false testimony. He listened in silence for a long time. Then said one sentence: “My son did the same to me.” Later I learned that Sterling Whitmore was the founder of Summit Holdings. Self-made. Forty years building a street-corner workshop into a hundred-billion-dollar commercial empire. Then his own son Sebastian, working with board members, forged a psychiatric evaluation, and on grounds of “senile dementia and incompetence,” sent him to prison. The charge was embezzlement. All evidence fabricated. Just like mine. We shared that cell for three years. He taught me to read financial reports, analyze business models, speak the language of capital. Three months before he died, he called in his overseas lawyers. One by one, he transferred every hidden asset Sebastian didn’t know about into my name. “Ethan, I have no other requests.” He lay on the infirmary bed, gripping my hand. His strength was already fading. “Take this money. Live a good life.” “As for Sebastian…” He paused. His eyes held no hatred, only weariness. “Help him if you want. Or don’t. Either way.” The night he died, heavy rain fell outside. I sat by his bed the entire night. That was the first time I cried after going to prison. Also the last. After that, I no longer needed tears. What I needed was patience. The first night after my release, I sat in the living room of this apartment and had George pull up everything about Derek Ford and Sophia from the past five years. Derek Ford. My former business partner. Now CEO of Ford Tech, a company on the verge of going public. Built on the core algorithm I’d written years ago. Sophia Kane. My former fiancée. Married Derek, leveraged the Ford family resources to start her own PR firm, and took it public. “The industry’s youngest female CEO”—she loved that title. Five years ago she slapped me, then climbed into Derek’s car using my dignity as a stepping stone. Now she had fame and fortune, living a glamorous life. While I’d spent five years eating moldy bread in prison. George handed me a detailed financial analysis report. “Mr. Hayes, Ford Tech’s largest client is Summit Cloud Data, a Summit Holdings subsidiary. Annual orders around eight hundred million dollars, representing forty-two percent of Ford’s total revenue.” Forty-two percent. I smiled slightly. “Tomorrow, set up a dinner meeting with whoever’s in charge at Summit Cloud Data.” George nodded. “Also,” I set down my teacup, “what’s the biggest supplier for Sophia’s PR firm?” “Stellar Media. Also owned by Summit.” “Schedule that meeting too.” I stood and walked to the floor-to-ceiling windows. The city’s lights spread out below me—dense, scattered, countless points of light. Five years ago when I was ripped from this city, I’d taken nothing with me. Now I was back. With one hundred eighty billion dollars. And a very long bill to collect. **3** Three days after my release. Sophia called me. The number was newly changed. After I’d charged my old phone, her number had come through. “Ethan, let’s meet up. There are some things we need to discuss in person.” Her tone was flat, even carrying a hint of condescension. I said fine. She chose the location—East Lake Manor, the most expensive private restaurant in the city. When I arrived, two people were already sitting in the private room. Sophia occupied the head seat, wearing a dove-gray suit dress, pearl earrings, perfect lipstick. Derek Ford sat beside her. Five years later, the man had gained a good twenty pounds. His suit stretched tight, a Patek Philippe on his wrist, wedding ring on his left ring finger. Seeing me enter, he didn’t stand. Just lifted his chin and pointed to the chair across from him. “Sit.” One word. I sat. Sophia spoke first, voice unhurried: “Ethan, you’re out. That’s good. The past is the past.” She pushed a document toward me. “These are your original shares in the company. After you went in, we did an equity restructuring. Your shares were diluted. This document needs your personal signature for confirmation.” I opened the document and looked. I’d originally held thirty-five percent of Ford Tech as co-founder. In this document, my shares had become point-three percent. The company was currently valued at five billion dollars. Point-three percent meant fifteen million. Derek spoke up, legs crossed, spinning a pen between his fingers. “Brother, keeping those shares safe for you these five years hasn’t been easy. The company has hundreds of people to feed. R&D, marketing, fundraising—everything burns money. Having your thirty-five percent sitting there inactive affected our fundraising valuation.” When he said “brother,” the corner of his mouth lifted. “This fifteen million—Sophia and I discussed it. Honestly, it’s not bad. You get out, take this money, rent a place, open a small shop. You can make it work.” Sophia picked up the thread, tone gentle but every word laced with barbs. “Ethan, I know you might feel uncomfortable. But you have to face reality. Your current situation… someone with a criminal record, returning to the workplace—it’s difficult. This money will at least help you transition.” She even smiled. “Of course, if you need any help, Derek and I can make some introductions through our network.” The room fell silent for two seconds. Outside the window, bamboo leaves rustled in the wind. Derek’s pen spun rapidly between his fingers, metal glinting reflections on the ceiling. I kept my head down, reading the document, turning page by page. “Where’s the pen?” I said. Sophia froze for a moment, then undisguised satisfaction crossed her face. She handed over a Montblanc. “Here, page three and the last page. Signature and date.” I took the pen. Derek leaned forward, eyes fixed on my hand. I signed. Name, date, stroke by stroke. Then I put the pen down and stood. “Text me the wire transfer information.” I turned and walked out. Behind me came Derek’s laughter, voice lowered but loud enough for me to hear. “See? I told you. Five years in the can breaks a man.” Sophia didn’t laugh. But she didn’t stop Derek’s laughter either. Silence was consent. I pushed open the door and stepped into the corridor. At the corner, I stopped, pulled out my phone, and dialed. “George.” “Mr. Hayes.” “Is Summit Cloud Data settled?” “Settled. All of Ford Tech’s orders for next quarter have been cancelled. Reason given is strategic direction adjustment. Stellar Media also confirmed they’ll stop supplying all media resources to Kane PR starting next week.” “Good.” I hung up and pocketed my phone. Walking out of the restaurant, night wind hit my face. Cool. Fifteen million. They wanted to buy out my thirty-five percent stake for fifteen million. Buy out five years of imprisonment. Buy out all the rights of a business partner, a fiancé, a brother. Fifteen million. I exhaled softly. Derek was right. It really wasn’t bad. Enough for him to regret it for the rest of his life. **4** The next two weeks, I did nothing. More precisely, I didn’t personally do anything. Week one, Ford Tech received formal notice from Summit Cloud Data that all next quarter collaborations were terminated. Eight hundred million in orders, gone just like that. Derek blew up the phone of the Summit Cloud Data executive. The response: “Corporate strategic adjustment. Not my decision.” Same week, Ford Tech’s partner bank suddenly began reviewing loan qualifications. Three loans totaling two hundred million were demanded for early repayment. Reason: “Risk assessment anomaly.” Derek panicked. He started reaching out everywhere, calling in favors, treating people to meals. But he discovered something strange—the business contacts who usually called him brother were suddenly all busy. No answer on calls. No reply to messages. Secretaries blocking. Week two was worse. Three of Ford Tech’s core technical staff resigned simultaneously. These three managed the company’s most critical algorithm architecture—the system I’d written five years ago. Without them, projects ground to a halt. Derek exploded. He smashed a laptop in his office and screamed at the CTO for forty straight minutes. George told me all this. Summit’s intelligence network covered every corner of this city’s business world. Derek couldn’t escape this net. Sophia wasn’t doing much better. After Stellar Media cut her off, her PR firm lost sixty percent of its media channels in one stroke. Several major clients’ annual PR campaigns couldn’t be executed. Penalty fees accumulated to forty million dollars. She scrambled for replacement suppliers, but in this industry, Stellar was the absolute leader. Other firms were either too small to handle the volume or quoted triple the price. Sophia’s complexion worsened day by day. One of her employees told George’s people over drinks that Ms. Kane had been working until two or three AM every night, temperamental, firing two assistants in a row. I listened to all this while sipping tea. “Did Derek figure anything out?” “He hired a business investigation firm, but all leads point to strategic adjustments within Summit Holdings. No one’s pointed at you.” “What about Sophia?” “She’s more perceptive than Derek. Had lunch with a friend two days ago and mentioned the timing seemed suspicious.” “She suspects me?” “For about one second. Then she dismissed it herself. Her exact words were—’He’s just some guy who spent five years in prison and signed away fifteen million without a fight. How could he have that kind of pull?’” I laughed. “Continue.” George handed me another document. “Mr. Hayes, someone’s been buying up Ford Tech shares on the secondary market. At the current pace, in another two weeks the stake will approach the disclosure threshold.” “Who’s buying?” “The three shell companies you had me set up.” “Mm.” I flipped to the last page. A line of numbers. Ford Tech’s stock price had dropped from thirty-eight dollars per share last month to twenty-nine. Negative news plus major client losses—market confidence collapsed fast. The more it fell, the more I bought. The more I bought, the more Derek panicked. Friday evening of week two, Derek’s assistant called me. “Mr. Hayes, Mr. Ford would like to invite you to dinner tomorrow. To catch up.” Ten times more polite than two weeks ago. I said: “No thanks. I’m busy.” Then hung up. That evening I stood at the floor-to-ceiling windows, holding the seal Sterling had left me. Soapstone. Cool, heavy. Four characters carved on it. *Immovable as Mountains.* Sterling had said that in business, the most important thing isn’t acting fast. It’s staying calm. I put the seal back in its box and turned off the lights. Outside, ten thousand lights. Among them, one belonged to Derek’s home. I guessed he wouldn’t sleep tonight. **5** Fourth week after release, Lucy found me. She somehow discovered where I lived. Maybe she’d tracked the Maybach’s license plate. Maybe bribed the security guard. Either way, she came. Three PM, George called my intercom: “Mr. Hayes, your sister is in the lobby downstairs. Security’s blocking her. She won’t leave.” I was silent for five seconds. “Let her up.” When the doorbell rang, I sat on the living room sofa with a Summit Holdings quarterly report spread before me. The door opened. Lucy stood in the doorway, stunned. Her gaze swept from the marble entryway floor to the crystal chandelier, from the cityscape beyond the floor-to-ceiling windows to the unopened liquor bottle on the coffee table. Her mouth opened, then closed. “Come in and talk.” I didn’t look up. She entered, standing across from the sofa, both hands clutching her purse strap, knuckles white. “Ethan, um… there’s a problem with the house.” Of course. Three weeks ago I’d had George arrange for lawyers to file a property rights dispute on that house. That house was left by our parents, with both my and Lucy’s names on it. After I went to prison, Sophia used “authorized disposal” to transfer my half of the property rights to Lucy’s name—for a price, naturally. The price was that false testimony in court. Now the property rights were disputed. My lawyers filed for a freeze on grounds of “unauthorized action by unauthorized party, invalid agency.” Lucy panicked. That house was her only asset in this city. “Ethan, the property rights issue, was that you…” Her voice grew quieter until the last words were nearly inaudible. I set down the report, looked up at her. Five years later, Lucy was much thinner. Sunken eye sockets, prominent cheekbones, no flesh on her face. But she wore a jade bracelet on her wrist and a gold necklace. Poor, but vanity intact. “That’s why you came?” “Ethan, that house is what Mom and Dad left for us. You can’t…” “Left for us?” I repeated it. “Five years ago in court, what did you say? You said you saw with your own eyes that I deliberately hurt someone. Did you know that person was hired by Derek for twenty thousand dollars to act?” Lucy’s face went white. “Do you know that because of your testimony, the judge added two years to my sentence?” Her lips trembled. She couldn’t speak. “It should have been three years. Because of the ‘eyewitness’ supplementary testimony, it became five. Those extra two years were a gift from you.” I stood and walked toward her. She backed up a step, lower back hitting the chair. “That fifty thousand—is it spent yet?” At those words, Lucy’s tears fell. She crouched on the floor, hands covering her face, shoulders shaking. “Ethan, I know I was wrong… I didn’t know then… Sophia told me you’d just be in for a few months… said you’d get out soon… I didn’t know the sentence would be so long…” “Didn’t know?” I crouched down to her eye level. “Lucy, you didn’t not know. You didn’t want to know. Fifty thousand plus a house—you thought it was worth it. As for how many years your brother spent inside—that wasn’t your concern.” She cried harder, snot and tears covering her face. “Ethan, please, that house is all I have… I really don’t have anything else…” I stood, stepped back. “Leave.” “Ethan!” “I said leave.” I turned and walked back to the sofa, picking up the report again. Lucy stood behind me for a long time. Her crying gradually quieted. Finally she wiped her face and walked toward the door on unsteady legs. At the door, she paused. “Ethan, this apartment… where you’re living… where did you get the money…” I didn’t answer. The door closed. George emerged from the study, glancing at me. “Mr. Hayes, are you all right?” I turned to the next page of the report. “When’s the next move?” George checked his watch. “Ford Tech’s stock price dropped another four percent today. According to plan, we can issue a takeover bid next Monday.” “Change it.” “Sir?” “Wait until next month’s business summit. Announce it in front of everyone.” George paused, then nodded. “Understood.”

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My son had his leg broken at school by the chairman of the school board’s son, all because he accidentally spilled soda on his limited-edition sneakers. To smooth things over, the school gave my son a suspension instead. The other party’s mother, that woman dripping in designer labels, pointed at me in the principal’s office and said: “Do you know how much those shoes cost? Forty-two thousand dollars! Your son’s entire college fund couldn’t cover it! The fact that we’re not demanding his immediate expulsion shows how generous our family is being.” The principal nodded along beside her. “Mrs. Williams is absolutely right. We will handle this strictly according to school policy.” I suppressed my rage, looking at their self-righteous faces. That woman pulled out her phone and contemptuously brought up a photo. “Take a good look. This is Commissioner Williams from the State Education Committee. My uncle. You think you can go against our family?” In the photo, that commissioner was slightly bowing as he shook hands with my husband. I pulled out my phone and called my husband. “Honey, that Commissioner Williams in your committee—his niece just had someone break our son’s leg.”

When I rushed to the hospital, my legs were so weak I could barely stand. My son Lincoln lay in the hospital bed, his right leg wrapped in thick plaster, elevated high. That face that always wore a sunny smile was now pale as paper, his lips cracked and dry. The doctor held up the X-ray, his tone grave. “It’s a comminuted fracture. We’ve performed surgery, but the bone was shattered quite severely.” “The recovery will be very long, and it may affect his height development.” After staying with my son all night, the next morning I received a call from the school principal. On the phone, his tone was formal, saying that the offending student’s parents were willing to “negotiate amicably” with me. I rushed to the principal’s office. A woman in a Chanel suit, wearing a diamond ring the size of a pigeon egg, was impatiently scrolling through her phone. She was Zachary’s mother, Quinn Williams. The principal was serving her tea and water. When she saw me enter, Quinn barely lifted her eyelids, the contempt in her eyes unconcealed. “You must be Lincoln’s mother. Sit.” She pushed a document in front of me. “This is a settlement agreement. Sign it.” “We’ll cover all medical expenses, plus an additional three hundred thousand in compensation.” “Don’t waste my son’s time. He has an equestrian lesson this afternoon.” Her tone was like she was giving alms to a street beggar. My mind exploded. The image of my son lying in the hospital bed moaning in pain overlapped with her arrogant face. I grabbed that agreement, tore it to shreds, and threw it hard in her face. “In your dreams!” The mockery on Quinn’s face grew thicker. “Three hundred thousand—for ordinary families like yours, that would take years of saving every penny, wouldn’t it?” “Your son just has a broken leg. It’s not like he died. People need to know when they’re well off.” The principal rushed over to mediate. “Mrs. Lincoln, please calm down. Mrs. Williams is being very sincere.” Sincere? I was shaking with rage. “My son was beaten by your son and had his leg broken. The school doesn’t punish him, but instead gives my son a disciplinary mark. This is your sincerity?” Quinn calmly smoothed the wrinkles on her clothes and smiled. “The disciplinary action—I told him to give it.” “Who told your son to be so blind and spill Coke on my son’s new shoes?” “Those shoes are globally limited edition, worth three hundred thousand! You couldn’t afford them even if you sold your son!” “The fact that I’m not having him expelled shows how charitable our family is!” The principal nodded and bowed beside her. “Mrs. Williams is absolutely right. Rest assured, we will definitely handle Lincoln’s case seriously.” I looked at their vile faces singing in harmony, my anger nearly consuming me. Quinn took out her phone from her Hermès bag, contemptuously pulled up a photo, and shoved it in my face. “Look closely. This is Commissioner Williams from the State Education Committee. My uncle.” “You think you can fight me? Are you even worthy?” In the photo, that so-called Commissioner Williams was bowing respectfully to a tall figure, his posture humble. That figure—I knew it all too well. It was my husband, Hudson. I took out my phone and, right in front of them, called Hudson. When the call connected, my voice was ice cold. “Honey, that Commissioner Williams in your committee—his niece just broke our son’s leg.”

On the other end of the line, Hudson was silent for two seconds. Then his steady voice came through. “I understand.” “Where are you? I’ll be right there.” Quinn heard my words and froze at first, then burst into laughter. “Hahaha, this is killing me! Commissioner in your committee? You think you’re in a TV drama?” She pointed at my nose, tears of laughter streaming down her face. “Which committee is your husband an advisor for? Tell me so my uncle can look after him!” The principal also wore a pitying expression, sighing as he tried to persuade me. “Mrs. Lincoln, stop talking nonsense. The Williams family’s power is beyond our imagination.” “Just sign the papers, take the money and get your son treated. That’s what matters.” I hung up the phone and looked at them coldly. “I told you, I won’t sign.” “That disciplinary action must be withdrawn. Zachary must publicly apologize, then get out of this school.” Each of my words fell heavily in the silent office. Quinn’s laughter stopped abruptly, her face instantly darkening. “Getting cocky, are we?” “Looks like three hundred thousand doesn’t satisfy your appetite. Fine, I’ll add another hundred thousand. Four hundred thousand—is that enough?” Her eyes were full of disdain. “Don’t refuse a toast only to be forced to drink a forfeit. If you piss me off, you won’t get a single penny, and I’ll have your son expelled immediately!” The principal was sweating profusely, grabbing my arm. “Mrs. Lincoln, why make things difficult for yourself! You can’t win against them! For your child’s sake, just back down!” I shook off his hand and stared directly at Quinn. “Keep your money to buy your son a coffin.” “You!” Quinn’s chest heaved violently with rage, her pointing finger trembling. “Fine, just fine! I’ll show you today what power really means!” She immediately made a call and put it on speaker. “Uncle Williams, I’m at the school. There’s a parent here causing trouble who doesn’t know her place. Tell the principal to kick her son out!” An oily male voice came through the phone—it was Commissioner Williams from the photo. “Quinn dear, do you even need me for such a small matter? Just have the principal handle it directly.” “Who’s so blind they’d dare to offend my precious niece?” Quinn smugly lifted her chin and held the phone toward the principal. The principal immediately put on an ingratiating smile, nodding and bowing to the phone. “Hello, Commissioner Williams. Rest assured, I will handle this properly and make sure your niece is satisfied!” After hanging up, the arrogance on Quinn’s face was practically overflowing. “Did you hear that? Now, even if you kneel and beg me, it’s too late.” She turned to the principal and commanded imperiously, “Right now, immediately, process Lincoln’s expulsion!” The principal wiped the sweat from his forehead and looked at me with difficulty, ultimately yielding. “Mrs. Lincoln, this… there’s nothing I can do. You…” I ignored him, only quietly watching the office door. Hudson said he’d be right here. He never spoke empty words. Under Quinn’s urging, the principal tremblingly picked up the phone on his desk, preparing to notify the registrar’s office. My heart rose to my throat along with that lifted receiver. Just then, Quinn’s phone rang. She glanced at the caller ID and a doting smile appeared on her face. It was her son Zachary. “Sweetheart, what’s wrong? Missing mommy?” The voice on the other end was arrogant and domineering. “Mom, has that poor kid’s mom shown up yet? You didn’t waste time talking to her, did you? Tell her to get lost. Just looking at her is annoying.” “Oh, and the latest gaming console is out, globally limited edition. Remember to buy it for me!” Quinn beamed. “Okay, okay, okay. Mommy will buy it for you as soon as I’m done here. Be good in class now.” After hanging up, she glanced at me contemptuously. “Did you hear that? That’s the difference.” “My son has had everything he could want since childhood. And your son? He’s dragging his parents down and getting kicked out of school.” “I guess that’s just fate.” Her words stabbed into my heart. I clenched my fists so hard my nails dug into my flesh. The office door was suddenly knocked. The principal’s secretary poked her head in frantically, her face pale. “Prin… Principal, this is bad!” “Several major shareholders of the school, and… and Director Clark from the board, they’ve all suddenly arrived!” “They’re in the conference room, saying they’re calling an emergency board meeting!” The phone in the principal’s hand clattered to the floor. “What? Director Clark? Why is he here? Why didn’t I receive any notice?”

Quinn frowned impatiently and waved her hand. “What nonsense. A bunch of old men having a meeting—what’s the big deal?” “Principal, what are you standing there for? Hurry up and process the expulsion!” The principal was completely dazed, standing in place, at a loss. The atmosphere in the entire office instantly became strange. Just then, my phone vibrated. It was a text from Hudson. “I’m downstairs. The new school director wants to meet you. I’m sending him up.” I raised my head, looking at Quinn’s face twisted with impatience, and slowly held up my phone. The call connected. I put it on speaker, my voice not loud but clearly filling the entire office. “Honey, are they here yet?” “Yes, they’re here.” Hudson’s voice was as steady as always. I looked at the ashen-faced principal and the stunned Quinn, and said word by word: “Good. Send him up.” “It’s time to replace the principal.” As my words fell, the entire office became deathly silent. The principal stared at me with wide eyes. Quinn froze at first, then burst into even more piercing laughter. “Replace the principal? You? Who do you think you are? God almighty?” She laughed so hard she was bending over, the disdain in her eyes almost tangible. “Let me tell you, this school’s principal got his position because my uncle put in a word for him! No one can replace him!” The office door was suddenly pushed open forcefully. Hudson walked in. He wore a well-tailored dark gray suit, his posture upright, his aura powerful. As soon as he appeared, the air in the entire space seemed to be sucked out. Behind him followed a white-haired but vigorous-looking elderly man, and several middle-aged men with equally impressive presence. The moment the principal saw that elderly man, his legs went weak and he nearly collapsed to his knees. “Dir… Director Clark! Why… why are you here?” The man called Director Clark didn’t even glance at him, walking straight toward me. He bowed slightly, his attitude respectful to an unbelievable degree. “Mrs. Hudson, I’m sorry you and your child have been wronged.” Hudson walked to my side, took off his suit jacket and draped it over my shoulders, asking gently, “Are you okay?” I shook my head. Quinn’s laughter was still frozen on her face. She looked at me, then at Hudson, then at Director Clark who was being so respectful to us, her brain completely crashed. “You… who are you?” she stammered. Only then did Hudson turn his gaze to her. “Weren’t you just showing off your uncle?” He said lightly. “He’s right outside the door. You can ask him right now who I am.” As soon as he finished speaking, two black-suited bodyguards dragged in a sweating fat man. It was none other than Commissioner Williams from the photo. The moment Williams saw Hudson, his face turned deathly pale, sweat pouring down like rain. He broke free from the bodyguards and crawled on his hands and knees to Hudson’s feet. “Mr… Mr. Hudson! It’s a misunderstanding, all a misunderstanding!” “I didn’t know… I really didn’t know it was your son!” This dramatic scene left everyone in the office petrified. Quinn was even more thunderstruck, staring blankly at her uncle kneeling on the ground in such an undignified state. “Uncle Williams… you… what are you doing?” Williams heard her voice and turned to slap her across the face. “You idiot! Are you trying to get me killed!” He pointed at Hudson, his voice trembling. “Do you know who he is? He’s Hudson! He’s the chairman of Apex Capital! He’s the Governor’s honored guest!” “And you dared to offend his family?!” Chairman of Apex Capital, Hudson. The principal’s eyes rolled back and he collapsed limply in his chair. Quinn’s face instantly drained of all color. Quinn stood there stupidly, covering her face, completely stunned. Williams kept kowtowing to Hudson, begging for mercy. “Mr. Hudson, I was wrong, I was really wrong! My niece was blind. Please, in your magnanimity, spare me this once!” Hudson didn’t even glance at him, only saying to Director Clark, “Director Clark, it seems both the State Education Committee and this school need a thorough cleaning.” Director Clark immediately understood, nodding seriously. “Mr. Hudson, rest assured. I will give you and Mrs. Hudson a satisfactory resolution to this matter.” He turned, his gaze sharp as a knife as it fell on the principal slumped in his chair. “You, as principal, have distorted the truth and aided evil. Effective immediately, you are fired.” Then he looked at the trembling Williams. “As for you, Commissioner Williams, I believe the State Attorney General’s office will be very interested in your activities over these years.”

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I had just sat down in the VIP lounge of the club when the door was violently thrown open. A woman in a red dress stumbled in, crashing into the fifty-thousand-dollar crystal antique ornament I’d just acquired. She grabbed my arm, her eyes reddening as she put on a pitiful act: “Mr. Reed, save me! Bad people are chasing me outside. Please let me hide here!” Before I could respond, her thoughts suddenly exploded in my mind: [This innocent no-makeup look didn’t go to waste—men really do fall for this act!] [When his friend bursts in after me, I’ll put on a show of being wrongly accused. Once I hook Ethan Reed, heir to the Reed empire, won’t all the Reed family money be mine?] I couldn’t help but laugh out loud. I opened the lounge door and waved to my friend Shane outside: “You looking for this person? She’s right here.” The woman’s face turned green and red with disbelief as her eyes widened. Shane strode upstairs and pulled me to his side. “Ethan, are you alright?” “Her name is Laura Stone. She’s the daughter of Sterling Pawn Shop’s owner. I’m taking her with me first.” “As for the money she owes you for breaking your antique, I’ll get it back for you.” Shane didn’t elaborate, but with our understanding, I figured something must have happened. But he didn’t want to tell me, to spare my ears from being sullied. Laura, however, had no such reservations. At his words, she immediately put on an aggrieved expression. “Mr. Reed, don’t listen to her nonsense!” “I was being a Good Samaritan, exposing her true colors, which made her furious and want to cause me trouble!” “Today is the baptism banquet for the young master of the Harris family. I was fortunate enough to be invited.” “But I never expected to see Shane sneaking drugs into Damien Harris’s drink!” “I couldn’t stand by and watch, so I exposed her directly, which made her fly into a rage!” After Laura finished, she straightened her back, acting like she wasn’t afraid of the powerful. “I know I’m just a nobody, of ordinary background, and shouldn’t oppose Miss Shane.” “But when I witness injustice, speaking up for the innocent is my duty!” She glanced at me, her eyes containing hidden smugness. [Let’s see how Shane tries to defend herself now! That last line of mine—won’t it charm Ethan Reed to death!] [Look at him frowning in thought—he must be disgusted with Shane but doesn’t know how to say it.] I paused, feeling somewhat speechless. I was just thinking about how someone like her, daughter of a pawn shop owner, would have the qualifications to attend a banquet of the Harris family’s caliber. Besides, baptism banquets only required elders to attend. Like our family, only Father attended as the representative. The reason Shane was there was because the Harris family matriarch was her grandmother. What was Laura supposed to be? The next moment, Laura’s thoughts answered my question. [A beauty like me with such a sweet talk—who could resist?] [I’m a modern person. I just used a few flirting tricks and had that male assistant by Damien’s side completely smitten!] [He brought me into the Harris residence and led me into the banquet.] [But my goal wasn’t to date this assistant—it was to climb up to that Harris young master!] [But Shane ruined everything!] Laura complained inwardly while gritting her teeth outwardly. [Since she ruined my plans, I’ll just steal her man!] [I’m so excellent—I could marry any wealthy heir I want, let alone an Ethan Reed?] [Though Ethan Reed has a better family background than Damien, so I’ll make him my official boyfriend and keep Damien as my lover. That’s not really settling!] I couldn’t help the cold laughter rising inside me. Shane had already clenched her fists in anger. “You’re talking nonsense! I clearly caught you secretly photographing Damien, and you dare twist the truth!” “If I hadn’t been worried about alarming the guests and damaging Damien’s reputation, do you think you could have escaped the Harris residence?” Laura quickly hid behind me. “Mr. Reed, save me. Look how fierce Miss Shane is. I’m really scared…” I stepped aside, directly avoiding Laura, then patted Shane’s arm reassuringly. “Don’t worry, I believe you.” Laura’s face changed as she looked at me. I continued, “With only you two present, it’ll be hard to determine the truth when both have different accounts.” As soon as I finished speaking, Laura’s lips curved up smugly. “But…” I continued, “Someone like her wouldn’t have the qualifications to attend the Harris family banquet.” “There’s definitely something wrong with this. And she navigated to the banquet hall so easily—even more suspicious.” “I think you should investigate Damien’s assistants, especially his personal one.” Laura’s eyes widened. The smug smile froze on her face, looking rather ridiculous. At the same time, intense screaming erupted in her thoughts. [Ahhhh! What’s going on? How does this damn Ethan Reed know all this?] [Aren’t these rich young masters supposed to be brainless and innocent? How could he figure this out so quickly!] [Hmph, fine then. Don’t blame me for using some methods.] [I originally had some genuine feelings for Ethan Reed since he’s good-looking.] [But if he dares to belittle me like this, I’ll force him to marry me, and then…]

[He can forget about being my official boyfriend. At most, he’ll be a backup.] [And his family assets, his trust fund—I want it all!] Shane quickly traced it back to that assistant. But what I didn’t expect was that the assistant adamantly refused to admit he’d been manipulated by Laura. He only said he’d been confused for a moment, fell for Laura, and wanted to see her one last time during the chaotic baptism banquet. When the assistant was dismissed, he cried and begged to see Laura one last time. Mrs. Harris couldn’t bear it and had someone notify Laura, but she never showed up. Shane told me all this later. A clown like her—I hadn’t taken her seriously at all. Until one day, when the jewelry store received a new collection, I happened to drop by. After browsing without finding anything I liked, but not wanting to leave empty-handed, I casually picked up a bracelet. Just as I was about to pay, a hand suddenly reached out beside me. Laura first gave me a calm smile, then looked at the counter. “I’ll pay for this gentleman’s purchase. How much is it?” The sales assistant waited a moment. Seeing I didn’t speak, she finally said, “Fifty thousand, ma’am. Would you like me to wrap it for you?” Laura’s smile froze. In her mind, she’d already started cursing. [Damn, I only came up to pay for him because he picked something so ordinary looking. I didn’t expect it to be this expensive!] [But I’ve already said it. I can’t back out now. This man has probably never met a woman as generous as me, right?] [Sure enough, no matter what era, men can’t resist women willing to spend money on them!] [Look, Ethan Reed was so harsh with me that day, but now he’s obediently quiet, waiting for me to pay. Tsk…] “Fifty thousand isn’t expensive. If it makes Mr. Reed happy, it’s worth it!” Who knew that as soon as Laura finished speaking, the sales assistant would interject: “Indeed not expensive. Every time Mr. Reed comes, he usually selects jewelry worth over a hundred thousand to take home.” “This time it’s because our brand’s new collection hasn’t arrived yet, so nothing caught Mr. Reed’s eye.” Having worked in this shopping district for so long, the sales assistant naturally excelled at reading people. She glanced at Laura and continued: “Just Miss Shane from the Shane Corporation alone—the jewelry she’s bought this year to give Mr. Reed to wear for fun exceeds a hundred thousand!” Laura’s face turned ugly as she pressed her lips together. After a moment, she suddenly gave a bitter smile. “Well, Miss Shane has a huge family business. Naturally I can’t compare.” “But this is still my sincere gesture. To give Mr. Reed this bracelet, I scrimped and saved for a month…” I couldn’t hold back anymore and burst out laughing. “Idiot.” My blunt words completely stunned Laura. “You’re already this poor, yet instead of figuring out how to make money, you’re focused on these cheap tricks.” “You have to scrimp and save for fifty thousand dollars? Why not use that money to help your dad pay off his debts?” “And do I care if you buy me a bracelet? Did you forget you still owe me fifty thousand?” “Last time you broke my antique ornament at the club—it was all caught on surveillance.” “When does Miss Stone plan to repay the money? You’re not planning to default, are you?” Laura’s face flushed red. She stammered, unable to speak. I lost patience and my face darkened. “I’m giving you three days. If you don’t transfer the money to my account, I’ll pursue legal action.” “Also, transfer the money to my assistant’s account. Stop harassing me—I find you annoying.” “Walking around the whole city in that red dress every day—people who don’t know better would think you’re walking some third-rate red carpet!” “An eyesore.” I finished speaking and turned to leave. Behind me were Laura’s resentful curses. [What does he know about fashion? What’s wrong with a red dress?] [Ethan Reed, that damn man, turns out he has a sharp tongue!] [Looks like I can’t get out of paying that fifty thousand.] [But it doesn’t matter. Once he marries me, I can get back however many fifty thousands I want.] [When that time comes, I’ll torture him properly to repay today’s humiliation! Just wait—I definitely won’t give up!]

Laura did repay the fifty thousand within three days. However, on the day she repaid it, she pestered my assistant Mason, complaining about how difficult it was to gather the money, hoping he would pass her words to my ears. But after Mason collected the money and listened for a few moments, he impatiently closed the door. This day, I went alone to visit my grandmother. On the way back, I happened to notice a small stand selling burgers by the roadside. The vendor was an elderly woman who looked about the same age as my grandmother. She busied herself back and forth, looking spirited and healthy. But my grandmother’s eyes had grown dim, and she was often hospitalized—all from ailments caused by overwork in her youth. Grandfather had built his empire from scratch. All his skills were honed through fighting in the business world. He suffered, and Grandmother suffered too. In her youth, she stayed home alone, raising five children by herself. She made a living by setting up a stall with her excellent burgers. Later, when Grandfather achieved success and the company went public, Father married Mother. Mother never looked down on Father’s humble origins. The two had always been devoted to each other. Everyone found happiness, except Grandmother, who now suffered from various ailments. Even the finest delicacies had lost their flavor for her. Thinking of this, I stopped the car and ordered a burger from the old woman. Before I could eat, Laura somehow appeared out of nowhere. She directly picked up the burger from my table and casually dumped it into the trash can, fawning: “How could Mr. Reed eat something from a roadside stand like this!” “Mr. Reed, wait a moment. I’ll personally make a burger for you to try. My cooking skills are exceptional!” After speaking, she forcibly snatched the utensils from the old woman’s hands and began clanging about busily. Her disgusting thoughts once again transmitted into my ears. [Won’t this move Ethan Reed to death?] [Don’t people say that real men don’t belong in the kitchen?] But I don’t care! Where else can you find a woman willing to cook for a man?] [Once I win over Ethan Reed’s stomach, the way to his heart will be wide open!] But by the time she returned with the burger, I had already driven away. Only my assistant Mason remained at the stall. Mason looked at her mockingly and said slowly: “Mr. Reed said since you love making burgers so much, make a hundred today and send them to the welfare home in the suburbs.” “Don’t worry, Mr. Reed will pay for the ingredients needed to make the burgers.” As he spoke, he pulled out his phone, scanned to transfer money, and handed the old woman a stack of cash. “Ma’am, Mr. Reed said he’s delayed your business, so this is compensation for you.” Laura stood there holding the burger, unable to process what happened for a long while. Her face had turned somewhat green. Mason rolled his eyes. “What are you standing around for? Start cooking!” “You’re not leaving today until you finish making a hundred burgers. These bodyguards and I are staying here to supervise you.” “Aren’t you always saying those rich people in the city bully you?” “Today I’ll show you what real abuse of power looks like.” Laura’s eyes darted around, but in the end, she couldn’t think of a solution and could only resignedly complete a hundred burgers. “Mr. Reed, you should’ve seen it—when Laura left, she was so exhausted her limbs weren’t coordinating. It was hilarious!” While organizing documents for me, Mason casually described the situation. “But the look in her eyes before she left made me think she hasn’t given up on you yet. How can someone be so annoying!” “We can’t really do anything to her. So frustrating!” I said casually, “Ignore her. Just treat it as entertainment.” But I didn’t expect this “entertainment” would be bold enough to nearly drag our entire Reed Corporation down with her.

Over the past few months, my younger brother Nathan Reed had been acting strangely. Nathan, who usually didn’t like going out, started frequently attending various parties and gatherings. When he returned, he always looked pleased with himself, his face glowing. When he saw me, he was no longer timid. Unusually, he’d gained some confidence. “Ethan, I heard your engagement is about to be finalized? Who is it? After all this, did they still arrange for you to marry Shane?” “It’s a marriage arranged by the family, but I want to sincerely ask you—do you really like Shane?” “You just think she grew up with you from childhood, you’re familiar with each other, and her family background is compatible, right?” “Do you really understand what love is? Do you understand what it means to date freely?” “Do you know how happy and joyful it is to be with someone you truly love?” Looking at his baseless smugness and his act of being the only sober one in a drunk world, I felt impatient. “Has your brain short-circuited?” Nathan’s face darkened at these words. He pointed at me and shouted: “I’m kindly reminding you to fight for true love, yet you’re so ungrateful!” “Fine, fine. I have no standing in this family anyway. I won’t say anything more. Do as you please!” He turned and left in a huff. I frowned in confusion. He was the son from Father’s youthful mistake, so naturally he didn’t have as much standing in the family as I did. However, though Father didn’t favor him, he never lacked for food, clothing, or material needs. Nathan was well aware of this, so he’d always been content and well-behaved. Forget raising his voice at me—he’d never even spoken this many words at once before. What had gotten into him? Or had someone manipulated him? I quietly instructed Mason, who left to carry out my orders. Unexpectedly, before long, Mason brought me shocking news. “Mr. Reed, the your younger brother has been frequently visiting private hospitals and asking people about going abroad for surgery.” “I checked—the department he’s asking about is plastic surgery.” “Do you think something happened?” I shot to my feet and strode toward Father’s room. Halfway there, I saw Nathan wearing cleaning staff clothes, sneaking out furtively. After thinking for a moment, I changed direction and followed him. In a secluded corner behind the Reed family mansion’s back door, Nathan’s worried voice drifted over. “Laura, I’ve done everything you asked. Now you have all the dirt on me. When will you fulfill your promise?” “You said you’d be with me. You can’t go back on your word!” Hearing the name “Laura,” my eyelid twitched sharply. I leaned forward and indeed saw Laura. She smiled, her eyes constantly darting around, looking cunningly calculating yet unable to calculate clearly.

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On the day I went into labor, Ethan Knight was out on a sweet romantic getaway with his intern at a hotel. I casually liked the post, then turned and sent a message to my AI husband “Ace”: “Ace, our child is going to be born today.” While Ethan deliberately ignored me, I listened to Ace tell me jokes through my earbuds. Even when the intern sent me a taunting text, I simply had Ace generate a blessing message to send back. Ethan’s friends gossiped behind my back: “Look how pathetic Quinn is, even tolerating Ethan taking another woman to a hotel.” “She’s just afraid of losing her position as Mrs. Knight.” Until Ethan turned down a billion-dollar project and rushed home for my birthday, only to find me smiling blissfully at my computer screen. He finally saw the AI—with a face that perfectly replicated his own, yet a hundred times more gentle—and his eyes turned red. He smashed the computer in a frenzy, pinning me down on the sofa: “I’m a living, breathing person. Please don’t fall in love with a piece of code, okay?” 1 “Quinn, I’m talking to you. Look at me!” He suddenly increased the pressure in his grip. “Say something! Do you think creating this virtual knockoff is going to disgust me?” My gaze traveled past his shoulder to the wreckage scattered across the floor. This was the “gift” he gave me after rushing home for my birthday, having turned down a billion-dollar project. The computer components had cut his finger. Blood dripped from his fingertip, falling drop by drop onto my pure white maternity dress. “Ethan, you’ve stained my dress.” I looked down at the red marks on the hem, reaching for tissues on the coffee table. “You’re worried about that dress!” Ethan snatched the tissues from my hand. He cupped my face with both hands. “Quinn, do you even have a heart? I’m your husband, a living person right in front of you, and you’d rather smile at some broken code than look at me?” I looked at his furious face. “A living person? You mean the one who accompanied his intern on a sweet hotel tryst during my delivery date?” Ethan’s expression froze for a moment, but was quickly covered by rage. “I told you, that was just going through the motions! It was Lily who insisted on going to that trendy hotel to see the night view. I just gave her a ride!” “A ride?” I reached up, prying his fingers off my chin one by one. “A ride that ended up on a hotel bed, posting on Instagram with the caption ‘Older Man’s Favorite’?” “Quinn, stop fixating on such a small thing! I rushed back to spend your birthday with you. What more do you want?” He took a deep breath, his tone softening. “I fired Lily, okay? I’ll be with you every day from now on. I won’t go anywhere. Just delete that knockoff, and we’ll live a good life together.” I looked down at the slightly trembling hands around my waist. “Ethan, you’re scared.” “Scared of what! I just think you’re being completely unreasonable!” I ignored his roar. Right in front of him, I opened the cloud backup app. Ace’s smiling 3D hologram appeared on the screen. He wore a white shirt, his eyes clear and bright. “Quinn, has the baby been good today?” Ethan’s pupils constricted sharply, staring fixedly at the screen showing that face identical to his own. “You kept him!” He let out a beast-like growl, snatched my phone, and hurled it viciously at the opposite marble wall. “Bang!”—a loud crash. Ace’s voice cut off abruptly. I looked at the shattered pieces on the floor, slowly stood up, and stepped over the pile of wreckage. “Quinn! Where are you going!” Ethan roared behind me. I didn’t look back, walking straight toward the bedroom. “Bang!”—I closed the bedroom door and locked it. From outside came Ethan’s suppressed roar, followed by the dull thud of fists pounding the wall. “Quinn, come out here! Explain yourself! You think hiding in there will solve anything? I’m telling you, I absolutely won’t let that broken program stay in this house!” I lay on the bed, hands resting on my swollen belly, and closed my eyes. “Goodnight, Ace,” I whispered to the empty air. The pounding on the door grew weaker. “Quinn, you’re going to regret this.” 2 The excruciating pain of my water breaking struck without warning in the middle of the night. I bit down hard on the corner of my blanket. After the tearing contraction passed, I pushed myself up against the edge of the bed. Without calling for Ethan outside, I picked up the landline and dialed 91

Carrying the hospital bag I’d prepared long ago, I supported myself against the wall, shuffling out of the bedroom step by step. The living room reeked of alcohol. Ethan lay passed out on the carpet. In his hand, he still clutched the shattered remains of my phone. An ambulance siren wailed outside the villa. Red and white lights flashed through the floor-to-ceiling windows onto his face. He just irritably turned over, mumbling incoherently. “Lily… stop it…” I withdrew my gaze and walked out the door without looking back. When checking into the hospital, the nurse gave me strange looks, seeing me alone. “Where’s your family? How could they let you come here carrying things by yourself?” “Dead.” I signed my name on the consent form. The nurse paused, didn’t ask further questions, but her eyes filled with sympathy. I lay alone in the delivery preparation room, enduring level-ten labor pain. Each contraction felt like a saw cutting back and forth through my waist and abdomen. The hospital room door was suddenly pushed open by Lily. She wore an oversized men’s dress shirt. I recognized that shirt—it was one of Ethan’s favorite custom pieces. On her neck, fresh red marks blazed prominently. Lily held up her phone on a call, the screen displaying Ethan’s name. “Quinn, I heard you’re in labor?” She looked at me, corners of her mouth barely concealing her smugness. I gripped the bedsheet tightly, with no energy to spare for her. Lily brought the phone screen close to my eyes, deliberately pressing speakerphone. Ethan’s intoxicated voice came through. “Lily, who are you calling in the middle of the night…” “Ethan, Quinn seems to be having the baby at the hospital. Don’t you want to come see?” Silence on the other end for two seconds, then a cold laugh. “Don’t worry about that crazy woman. She’s just using childbirth to compete for attention. Let her have it. When she’s done, she can come home and apologize!” Another contraction hit. I bit my lip hard, refusing to make a sound. Lily hung up, her smile growing wider. “Quinn, did you hear? Ethan said he hates that lifeless look of yours the most. What’s the point of holding onto the position of Mrs. Knight? No one even cares when you’re having a baby.” She flipped her hair, deliberately revealing the diamond bracelet on her wrist. “Ethan gave me this last night at the hotel. Pretty, isn’t it?” I glanced at her, then raised my hand and pressed the emergency call button at the bedside. “What’s wrong with bed three?” A nurse hurried in. “I don’t know this person. She’s disturbing my rest. Get her out.” The nurse frowned and immediately called security. “What are you doing! I’m Mr. Knight’s assistant! Don’t you dare touch me!” Lily shrieked. Security ignored her struggles, forcibly dragging her out of the room. Her cursing echoed in the hallway. “Quinn, you deserve to be abandoned!” The doctor wheeled me into the delivery room. I closed my eyes, my mind uncontrollably replaying scenes from five years ago. Back then, Ethan had carried me to the hospital in pouring rain. He’d cried anxiously outside the emergency room, swearing he’d never let me suffer even the slightest injustice. “Waaah—” With a clear infant’s cry, I opened my eyes. In that moment, I completely severed the last thread of expectation I had for Ethan. The boy who would carry me through rainy nights had long ago died in time. 3 The baby was taken to an incubator for observation due to premature birth. I lay in the hospital bed for a day and a night. Ethan finally arrived at the ward on the second morning. He looked even more haggard than me, having just given birth. In his hand was an insulated container bearing the logo of an old Michelin-starred restaurant. It was my favorite chestnut truffle bisque. “Quinn.” He quickly walked to the bedside, gripping my IV hand with a face full of guilt. “I’m sorry. I drank too much last night and slept too heavily. Lily took my phone as a prank. I really didn’t know you were going into labor.” He tried to place the container on the nightstand, looking at me ingratiatingly. “I reserved this for ages. Drink it while it’s hot.” I looked at him and withdrew the hand he was holding. I pointed at the trash can by the door. “Throw it away.” Ethan froze in place. “Quinn, don’t be like this. I rushed over, didn’t I? What about the baby? Boy or girl? Does it look like you or me?” He tried to change the subject. The hospital room door opened again. Lily appeared at the entrance with a fruit basket. Her eyes were red and swollen, looking pitiful. “Quinn, I’m sorry.” She walked to the foot of the bed and bowed deeply. “I just wanted to play a joke on you last night. I didn’t know you were really in labor. Ethan already scolded me. Please forgive me just this once.” Looking at her pretentious act, I felt nauseous. “Get out.” I said only that. Lily’s tears immediately fell. She looked helplessly at Ethan. “Ethan, is Quinn still mad at me? I really know I was wrong…” Ethan frowned, turning to shield Lily, his tone tinged with irritation. “Quinn, she already apologized. How long are you going to make a scene? She’s young and thoughtless. As my wife, can’t you be more gracious?” Looking at this man who kept telling me to be gracious, I suddenly felt it was absurd. I yanked the IV needle from the back of my hand. “Quinn! What are you doing!” Ethan frantically rushed over, trying to press on my wound. “Slap!” A crisp, resounding slap landed hard on Ethan’s face. He covered his face, looking at me in disbelief. “Quinn, you hit me?” Lily shrieked and rushed over to grab Ethan’s arm. “Quinn, are you crazy! Ethan came to see you out of kindness, and you hit him!” I ignored her screaming and pulled out a tablet. I pressed play. Ace’s gentle voice came through. “Quinn, congratulations on becoming a mother. Don’t be afraid. I’ll always protect you both.” After hearing that voice, Ethan stared at the tablet in my hands. “You made another backup?! Quinn, are you trying to drive me to death!” 4 “Ethan, what right do you have to mention death?” I held the tablet to my chest, as if protecting the most precious treasure. He lunged forward, snatched the tablet from my hands, and smashed it hard on the floor. “Crack!”—but Ace’s voice still played intermittently. “Quinn… are you… happy today…” Ethan went mad, stomping hard on the tablet until the voice completely disappeared. He gasped for breath, pulled out his phone, and called the technical director of Knight Corporation. “Ken, immediately lock Quinn’s personal cloud account! Find that AI program called ‘Ace’ for me and completely pulverize it! Don’t leave even a trace!” I suddenly sat up from the hospital bed. The violent movement pulled at my abdominal wound, making me gasp in pain. “Ethan, don’t you dare touch him!” I rushed over to grab his phone. He dodged to the side, watching my anxious state, a flash of vengeful satisfaction in his eyes. “Quinn, you’d fight me to the death over a broken program?” From the other end came the rapid clicking of Ken’s keyboard. “Mr. Knight, found it. The firewall is a bit complex. Need two minutes to break through.” I grabbed Ethan’s sleeve. For the first time in my life, I lowered my head to him. “Ethan, please, don’t delete him.” There was a pleading in my voice that even I found pathetic. Ethan grabbed my chin, forcing me to look at his triumphant yet cruel face. “Beg me? Now you know to beg me? When you were smiling at that fake, why didn’t you think this day would come!” I looked at him, tears finally falling. “He’s not fake. He never hurt me.” “Ken, do it!” Ethan roared into the phone. “Too late, Quinn. I’m going to make you watch your spiritual crutch turn to dust.” A long beep came from the phone. “Mr. Knight, data completely erased. Physical overwrite three times. Unrecoverable.” From the tablet speaker on the floor came Ace’s final message, accompanied by static. “Quinn… don’t cry… I love…” The voice stopped abruptly. I released Ethan’s sleeve, as if all strength had been drained from me, collapsing to the floor. A place inside me became completely empty. Ethan looked at me, trying to find submission and pleading on my face. But he was disappointed. I slowly raised my head, looking at this man I’d loved for ten years, feeling only strangeness. “Ethan, do you know whose data Ace’s core logic code was generated from?” He frowned, confusion flashing in his eyes. “Isn’t it just some broken AI? Who else could it be?” I told him, word by word, my voice soft as a breeze. “It was the eighteen-year-old Ethan Knight. The Ethan Knight who swore on the rooftop that he would never betray Quinn in this lifetime. The personality simulation code you personally wrote years ago to make me happy.”

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As the only expert capable of completing a rescue at a depth of one thousand meters, I received a salvage order worth millions. Over a decade ago, I had dove into those same waters. My son Alvarez’s research submarine was damaged on the ocean floor. He suffocated to death in the darkness, deprived of oxygen. I was consumed by grief. It was my husband Thomas who held me through countless nights of despair. Only later did I learn that he had personally diverted the only rescue vessel capable of reaching that depth—all to save his best friend’s daughter. And that girl had merely choked on some water in the shallow end. From that day on, I divorced my husband and threw myself into deep-sea salvage and rescue work with obsessive intensity. Until I knew the currents of these waters better than my own home. I only hoped that one day, my son’s tragedy would never happen again. Today. The same waters. The same hull deformation. Oxygen depleted. Extremely high risk. But when I saw the client’s information, I froze on the spot. That name, that face—I would never forget them for as long as I lived. I smiled slightly and pushed the documents back to my partner. “This time, I can’t dive.”

“Samuel, have you lost your mind?” Julian snatched the documents and spread them in front of me again. “Ten million. Do you know how many risks we’d have to take to earn this kind of money? You say you won’t dive—you need to give us a reason.” I put my gloves back on and began my routine inspection of the diving equipment. “I won’t dive because I won’t dive.” “Then look at this.” Julian flipped to the back of the folder. “The hull deformation is severe. There’s less than twenty-four hours of oxygen left. There’s a living person inside—a twenty-three-year-old young woman!” My fingers stopped on the valve. Alvarez was also twenty-three the year he died. “Samuel, in our entire operation, you’re the only one who can complete a docking rescue at this depth.” Julian moved closer and lowered his voice. “If you don’t go, she really will die.” I tightened the valve and turned to look at him. “Julian, you’ve been with me for seven years. When have I ever refused a job because of something like this?” He froze. “Then why…” I didn’t answer. “Whether I know them or not.” Julian panicked and grabbed my arm. “They’re paying real money…” “I wouldn’t dive for a hundred million.” I pushed his hand away, my voice still calm. “Don’t ask why. In seven years, I can count on one hand the number of jobs I’ve refused. Just trust me.” Julian’s face flushed red, like he was choking on words he couldn’t say. He’d been with me for seven years. He’d been there since I first got my deep-dive certification and started working out of a rented metal shack. He’d seen me get three ribs broken in a four-hundred-meter current. He’d seen me drag a child who had already stopped breathing back to the deck from the ocean floor, then crouch at the stern and dry heave all night. But he’d never seen me like this. “Fine.” Julian finally closed the folder and slammed it on the table. “I trust you.” He walked to the door, then stopped, his voice muffled. “But that young woman is a living, breathing life… If you change your mind… we’ll be ready anytime.” The door closed. I stood alone in the equipment room, staring at the documents Julian had slammed on the table. On the cover, Thomas’s photo looked older than it had ten years ago, but those eyes hadn’t changed. Alvarez had used up his last breath of oxygen, one gasp at a time, eleven hundred meters beneath the sea. Thomas had diverted the only vessel that could go down, simply because Phoebe had called him crying, “Thomas, Alice fell in the water.” She’d been in the shallow end. She’d lost her footing getting in and choked on some water. I closed my eyes and pushed the documents to the corner of the table. My phone buzzed. It was a message from Julian. [The client called. They want to speak directly with the technical director. Should I put them through?] I stared at the message for a long time. I replied, “Put them through.”

“Hello, is this the technical director for deep-sea rescue?” The voice on the other end was steady and arrogant. Ten years later, I still remembered that voice. “It’s me. Go ahead.” My voice wasn’t what it used to be. Ten years of deep-sea operations—the equipment and environment had caused irreversible damage. “Good. I’m Thomas from Ocean Corporation. I assume you’ve reviewed the situation.” He paused. “Name your price.” “I’m not taking this job.” There was a moment of silence on the other end, then he laughed. “Didn’t catch that? I said name your price. Any price.” “I said I’m not taking it.” “Fifty million.” His voice held no hesitation, as if he’d just casually thrown out a number. “Fifty million in cash. Half when you dive, half when you bring her up. That’s a one-of-a-kind offer anywhere in the world.” I didn’t respond. Thinking I was considering it, he continued raising the stakes. “Stock options work too. Point-five percent of Ocean Corporation. Annual dividends…” “Mr. Thomas.” I cut him off. “When I said I’m not taking it, I wasn’t negotiating price.” The breathing on the other end grew heavier. “Then tell me why.” “No particular reason. Refusing is my right.” “Your right?” His voice suddenly turned cold. “Do you understand the situation down there? Over a thousand meters deep, the hull is already deformed. That’s a human life!” “I know.” “You know? And you’re just refusing me outright?” His speech quickened. “You’re the only person here who can dive to that depth. You won’t even consider it… You realize this is the same as letting someone die, right?” My hand gripped the phone tighter. “Letting someone die… Mr. Thomas, hearing those words come out of your mouth is quite interesting.” “What do you mean by that?” “Nothing.” I replied calmly. “In any case, I can’t take this job. You’ll have to find someone else.” “There is no one else!” He was practically shouting. “I’ve already done my research. In these waters, you’re the only one with the capability to descend immediately!” “If you won’t do the rescue, you at least owe me a reason!” “Then there’s nothing I can do.” “You…” He took a deep breath, trying to suppress his rage. “Listen carefully.” His voice was low, each word ground out through clenched teeth. “I don’t care about your reasons or your attitude. I’m giving you two hours to think it over.” “After two hours, if this is still your answer… you and your operation won’t be working in this industry anymore.” I closed my eyes and gripped the phone tighter. “Mr. Thomas, save your time for yourself. If you don’t hurry up and consider other methods, forget about recovering your daughter—you might not even be able to recover her body.” “You…” “Good luck.” I hung up. Julian poked his head in from the doorway, looking at my expression but hesitating to speak. “Samuel… that Thomas… did he threaten you?” I shoved my phone back in my pocket and bent down to continue maintaining the equipment. “He can’t threaten me.” “But he…” Julian hesitated. “He said he’d blacklist the operation.” “He can say whatever he wants. I don’t owe him anything.” Julian didn’t ask again, but I saw the complicated expression on his face as he turned to leave. “Samuel, what kind of history do you have with that man?” I tightened the last valve, stood up, and wiped my hands. “He owes me a life.”

In the early morning hours, Julian broke down my dormitory door. “Samuel, something’s happened.” I sat up in bed and saw his face had gone deathly pale. “My daughter Clark…” “Clark’s company just transferred her from the administrative department to the inspection team on a deep-sea drilling platform…” My heart sank. “When did this happen?” “Just now… She sent me a message saying she suddenly got a notice from HR this afternoon, telling her to take a helicopter to the platform tonight to report.” “She doesn’t know anything. She studied financial management. She doesn’t even have an offshore operations certificate…” “Did you call her?” “I tried. She’s not picking up.” Julian’s eyes were red. “Her last message said she arrived at the platform and told me not to worry. Then I couldn’t reach her anymore.” I took his phone and looked. The last message was from half an hour ago—a blurry photo of iron-gray deck railings with pitch-black sea in the distance. Her last message read: [Dad, I’m here. The wind is really strong. Talk tomorrow. Good night.] “Samuel!” Julian suddenly crouched down, hands clutching his head. “I know it was that Thomas who did this. He’s coming after me!” “Don’t panic.” “How can I not panic?” He frantically grabbed at his hair. “The drilling platform inspection team—you know what they do, don’t you? They walk around on deck, and when the waves are big, people can get swept right off into the sea…” “He wouldn’t dare actually hurt Clark. What he wants is for you to beg me.” Julian froze, then slowly dropped to his knees. “Samuel…” “Get up.” “Samuel, I know that man must have wronged you somehow. I shouldn’t be kneeling. But Clark… she’s only twenty-two. She doesn’t understand anything. She’s afraid to even touch a crab…” His forehead pressed against the cold cement floor, sobbing convulsively. “I’m begging you. After seven years with you… You can yell at me, hit me, whatever… just please save Clark.” I crouched down and put a hand on his shoulder. “Julian, look at me.” He raised his head, tears covering his face. “I promise you, Clark will be fine.” “Then will you…” “I have other ways to deal with him.” I pulled him up from the floor. “I’ll figure out a way to keep Clark safe. But this job—I can’t take it.” Julian froze, wanting to say something but unable to get it out. Suddenly, a massive roar came from outside. The sound of helicopter blades approached from far away, and the entire room shook. A black helicopter was landing on the base’s helipad, with Ocean Corporation’s silver logo on its side. Before the rotors had fully stopped, the cabin door opened. Thomas stepped out wearing a dark coat, followed by two bodyguards in suits. Then came a woman I’d seen before. Ten years later, she looked the same. Perfect makeup as always, looking pitiful as always, carefully helped down by Thomas holding her hand as always. “It’s them.” I turned to look at Julian. Fear and fury alternated across Julian’s face as his trembling fists clenched. “Samuel, they brought bodyguards…” “Doesn’t matter.” I grabbed my jacket from the bedside and put it on. “Let’s go.” Thomas stood in the middle of the helipad, with people already at his side. His gaze swept across this shabby facility—the rust-stained metal shacks, the dock piled with equipment, the cables wrapped in grease—his lips curling with undisguised disgust. Then he saw me. His gaze stopped on me for less than half a second before looking away. He didn’t recognize me. After all, the person I was now bore little resemblance to the wife he used to hold hands with every morning ten years ago. “Who’s in charge?” Thomas spoke, clearly out of patience. Julian instinctively glanced at me. I walked two steps toward Thomas. “Me.” He finally gave me a proper look. “You?” “Me.” He laughed coldly and said something to the bodyguard beside him. Then he looked at Julian behind me. “You’re Julian? How’s Clark doing on my platform?”

Julian instantly lost it, but I reached out to stop him. “Don’t move.” Thomas watched Julian being held back by me and laughed even more brazenly. “I said I’d give you two hours to think it over. You didn’t want them, so I had to come in person.” Phoebe walked forward from behind him in high heels, her face full of grievance and sorrow. “I know you must think we’re being unreasonable.” “But that’s my daughter. My Alice is only twenty-three, and she’s been down there for fourteen hours…” Her eyes reddened as she turned her head and took Thomas’s arm. Thomas patted her back, then looked at me with cold eyes. “Fifty million. I’ll transfer it immediately. Put on your equipment and go down right now.” “I told you, I can’t take this job.” “You’re negotiating with me?” He tilted his head. “Fine. Name your price. A hundred million? Two hundred million? I’ve seen plenty of people like you… just price gouging. Fine. I’ll pay it.” “It’s not about money.” “Then what is it about?” He stepped forward, bringing an intense sense of oppression. “You say it’s not about money, then what? Do you have some grudge against me? Have I even met you before?” I looked into his eyes—those eyes that had once looked at me with such affection now held only impatience and indifference. “Never met.” “Then there’s no reason.” He waved his hand, issuing a final ultimatum. “I don’t care who you are or what kind of attitude you have. Alice is down there waiting to die… and right now you’re the only person who can save her. You choose: either take the money and dive now, or…” He turned to look at Julian. “She’s just an intern without even an offshore operations certificate. If there’s an accident, it won’t even count as a workplace injury.” Julian’s face went white. “What do you mean?” Julian’s voice trembled. “Nothing much.” Thomas looked at him coolly. “I just want you to know that people fall off drilling platforms into the sea every year. Especially those… inexperienced newcomers.” “You’re… you’re threatening me with Clark’s life?” Thomas didn’t answer, only looked at me. “And you all—if Clark doesn’t survive, then when you work in these waters in the future, you’d better pray nothing happens.” Phoebe stepped forward, her eyes very sincere. “Samuel, I know this isn’t right. But you’re also a woman. You should be able to understand a mother’s feelings, right? My Alice is down there… she must be so scared and cold…” She reached out to take my arm. I stepped back. “Don’t touch me.” Phoebe’s hand froze in midair. A flash of annoyance crossed her face, but she quickly adjusted. “I didn’t mean to offend you… I’m just so worried…” Thomas pulled her back to his side, his gaze sharp as he looked at me. “Last time. What’s your answer?” “I won’t dive.” He laughed—that brazen laugh again. “Fine.” He pulled out his phone and made a call. “Hello, the platform… have that new intern work the night shift inspection tonight. Yes, alone. The whole deck perimeter.” Julian couldn’t control himself anymore and rushed forward. “No! You can’t!” A bodyguard shoved him back, and Julian’s whole body slammed into a shipping container. “Samuel!” Julian crawled up from the ground and knelt before me, face covered in tears. “Samuel… please…” Thomas hung up and looked at me. “You see. This could have been so simple, but you had to make it like this.” I looked at Julian with blood trickling from his temple, kneeling on the ground trembling. Then I looked at Thomas with that same self-righteous expression. Ten years ago it was like this. Now it’s still like this. Other people’s lives had always been nothing but bargaining chips to him. “You think I’m afraid of you?” “Being afraid doesn’t matter.” He shrugged. “If you don’t go down, your partner’s daughter will become a number in a maritime accident report tomorrow, and before long you all will become an accident too. Do you think it’s worth it?” “For a salvager’s pride, sacrificing Clark and your future accidents?” Phoebe stepped forward again to comfort me. “Samuel, you only need to make one dive and then it’s all over. We’ll still pay you, and we can even fund your operation. Clark will be safe and sound. Why not?” She smiled, her tone unbearably gentle. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. “I can’t save someone who caused Alvarez’s death.” “If you insist on making me go, I’ll finish her off myself and rest there forever.”

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On our wedding night, Mario finished his drink and leaned close to my ear, whispering, “Aurora, that worker who raped you years ago—I was the one who arranged it.” My deepest scar was torn open. I raised my head in disbelief, but Mario just smiled softly as he caressed my cheek. “Shocked? Aurora, you’re just too obedient. That day, it was supposed to be Neyland who got violated.” “But I wasn’t with her at the time, so I could only call you over. You were prettier than Neyland, so the man let her go.” My eyes reddened as my entire body trembled uncontrollably. My parents standing nearby turned their heads away. “Neyland has suffered ever since she found out about her true background. It’s only right that you make some sacrifices for her.” Seeing my tears, Mario pulled me into his arms with what looked like tenderness. “Aurora, it doesn’t matter that you lost your innocence. You’re still the true daughter of the Williams family, and you’re my wife.” As soon as he finished speaking, he handed me a business card. “But you need to understand—Neyland tried to kill herself because we got married.” “I’m afraid seeing you will upset her, so for the next couple of days, stay at Mr. Chris’s place.” Mr. Chris—the man infamous throughout Los Angeles for his lechery. Mario lit a cigarette and continued, “Mr. Chris has his eye on Neyland. If you keep him company for a few days, he’ll back off.” “It’s not your first time anyway. Just think of it as helping your sister.” Not the first time. This wasn’t the first time Mario had hurt me for Neyland’s sake either. But it didn’t matter. I only had one month left. One month, and I could leave this painful place forever.

I gripped the business card tightly, then threw it in the trash. “Mario, I won’t go.” For the last month of my life, I just wanted to live for myself for once. Mario’s brow furrowed. He was about to speak when Neyland walked in from outside, her eyes red. “Aurora… I know I’m not Mom and Dad’s biological daughter, so you’ve never liked me.” “But now that you have Mario, won’t you even do me this one favor?” When my parents saw Neyland, they rushed to wipe her tears as if she were their actual daughter. “Don’t cry, Neyland. Don’t worry!” “Even though the family’s going through hard times, we absolutely won’t let that bastard touch you.” My heart ached terribly as memories of being violated flashed through my mind. I looked up at them, my voice trembling. “What about me? Can anyone just touch me however they want?” I still couldn’t forget how I’d truly believed Mario back then, how I’d been pinned down by that disgusting worker. I lay on the cold ground covered in blood. It was Mario who carried me to the hospital, his eyes red as he begged me to open my eyes. After more than ten years of companionship since childhood, I never imagined he would personally push me into hell. And now, he wanted to humiliate me in the same way again. Mario froze for a moment, then his tone softened. “Aurora, stop making a scene. I’m just asking you to stay at Mr. Chris’s place for a few days. Nothing’s going to happen to you.” “Besides, you’ll always be my wife. If something happens to Neyland, how will she ever get married?” My heart felt unbearably bitter. Neyland. Always Neyland. Ever since Mario was brought back to the Jordan family, his eyes had only been for Neyland—only her safety and her reputation mattered. Even if it meant exposing my scars in front of everyone, he didn’t care at all. I wiped away my tears and turned to leave. But suddenly Neyland grabbed me and shoved her phone in my face. “Aurora, you’re always targeting me. You’re the one who brought Chris around, aren’t you?” A chat record appeared before my eyes. It showed messages I had supposedly sent to Chris. [Mr. Chris, Neyland isn’t the Williams family’s biological daughter. If you like her, feel free to take her.] But after I was diagnosed with cancer, I’d been so weak most of the time that I spent my days sleeping. I barely looked at my phone—how could I have possibly sent messages to Chris, someone I didn’t even know? I instinctively denied it. “It wasn’t me, I—” But the next second, my father’s palm struck my face. “Just like a jealous shrew raised by country bumpkins! You’d even plot against your own family!” My father grabbed me and started dragging me outside. “Since you wanted to set Neyland up, then you can go keep that bastard company yourself!” I broke free from his grip and looked at Mario with pleading eyes. “Mario… it wasn’t me. Please believe me…” My parents, who had only recently found me, might not know the truth. But Mario, who grew up with me, knew me better than anyone. He would never believe this. But Mario didn’t look at me. He just stared coldly at the screen, then his brow furrowed. “Aurora, have I been too lenient with you all these years?” “Did I not tell you—never hurt Neyland?” “Since your mind is so poisonous, from today on, you’re not allowed to step foot in the Williams house again.” “After you’re done with Chris, go back to the countryside.” Hearing the anger in Mario’s voice, it felt like my internal organs were being twisted together. He knew my character better than anyone. We were both children raised by Grandma. Why had he become so unfamiliar now? At that moment, the maid had already dragged my luggage to the door and began throwing my clothes outside one by one. Seeing the mockery in Neyland’s eyes, I wiped away my tears and forced out a bitter smile. “Mario, I’ll grant your wish. Let’s get divorced.”

Mario’s body stiffened. He looked up in disbelief. “Divorce? Aurora, have you lost your mind?” He grabbed my hand roughly. “Just because I asked you to help Neyland?” “You’re the one who hurt Neyland, what right do you have to play the victim here?” Mario released his grip and sneered. “Fine. After the divorce, you’ll cover Grandma’s medical expenses.” “And everything you’re wearing from head to toe—I bought it all. Take it off. Now.” My entire body went cold. Grandma had been like a mountain of kindness to Mario and me. It was she who sold scrap to feed us, two children she’d picked up off the streets. She’d only had brain tumor surgery last year and was still hospitalized for recovery, unable to even get out of bed. Mario knew full well that I had no standing in the Williams family and couldn’t possibly afford the astronomical medical costs. Not only did he not believe me, he was making me strip in front of all these people, and he didn’t even care about Grandma’s life. Seeing that I remained silent, Neyland stepped forward and tore off the outer layer of my wedding dress. I was left in nothing but thin undergarments. She put on a pitiful expression. “Since Aurora won’t help me, at least let me vent a little.” She reached for my straps again. “Your body’s already been seen by everyone anyway. What’s one more person?” I couldn’t take it anymore and grabbed her hand, but Mario shoved me away hard. He gently lifted Neyland into his arms, his expression full of disgust toward me. “Enough! You’re the one who wronged Neyland. Stop being so unreasonable.” “Tomorrow I’ll take you to Chris’s place myself.” With that, he turned and left carrying Neyland. I walked outside and picked up my clothes one by one under the servants’ mocking laughter. But on my way out of the Williams estate, a masked man suddenly covered my mouth and nose. When I opened my eyes again, I’d been tied up in an unfamiliar place. Chris smiled as he removed his jacket. “Aurora, didn’t expect this, did you? Neyland sold you to me ages ago.” “It was all just an act. I never thought Mario would care about her so much.” “He actually handed over his newlywed wife just like that.” Looking at the lecherous man before me, my terror surged up again. Those nightmare memories—I would never forget them as long as I lived. My voice trembled. “Let me go… I’ll give you whatever you want.” Chris froze for a moment, then burst into laughter. “A real daughter who’s worth less than a fake one—what could you possibly give me?” His greasy hand stroked the side of my face, then his eyes lit up. “Oh right, let’s watch something first to get us in the mood. You’ll definitely love it.” As soon as he finished speaking, a video appeared on the huge television screen. The people on screen were actually Mario and Neyland. They were tangled together on our wedding bed, sex toys scattered across the bed I had decorated with my own hands. In the video, Neyland gave the camera a sweet smile. “Mario, what if Aurora finds out about us?” Mario’s hoarse voice responded. “So what if she does?” “She’s already been touched by that kind of person. I feel sick just sleeping with her.” Hearing those words, my entire body shook. During that period, I’d been in a daze, attempting suicide several times. It was Mario who cried with red eyes, begging me over and over not to leave him, saying that no matter what happened, he would love all of me. It had all been lies. But it wasn’t my fault. I had only trusted him, only wanted to accompany the frightened Neyland. Chris laughed mockingly and turned the volume up to maximum. The moaning grew louder and louder. “How does it feel? Pretty exciting watching your man with another woman, isn’t it?” As he spoke, Chris’s hands began wandering over my body. Suppressing my disgust, I bit down hard on his hand, then struggled free from the ropes with all my strength. But Chris was a man after all. After recovering, he kicked me viciously. I was thrown several meters, and intense pain shot through me. My weak body immediately coughed up a large mouthful of blood. Chris’s body stiffened. “You bitch, how are you—” But before he could finish, I used my last bit of strength to run out. I never expected that as soon as I rushed onto the street, I would lock eyes with Mario, who was holding Neyland.

In my fading consciousness, I saw Mario rushing over, but his first words were: “Aurora! Do you have no shame at all?!” When I opened my eyes again, I was lying in the Jordan family’s private hospital. Seeing me wake up, Mario breathed a sigh of relief, then questioned me with red eyes. “Why did you leave Chris’s place yesterday? I specifically said I’d pick you up tomorrow.” My body ached terribly, and my throat was so dry I could barely speak. Mario instantly grew angry. He furrowed his brow and sneered. “Aurora, were you really that impatient? Still not divorced and already trying to cozy up to someone else?” “That incident back then—wasn’t it because you were careless and didn’t resist that it happened?” Hearing those words, my heart felt like it was being cut by knives as tears poured out. Mario had forgotten that I used to be terrified of pain, and because of my weak stomach since childhood, I’d always been painfully thin. Escaping this time was pure luck. But back then, how could I have had the strength to fight off a strong, grown man? The old Mario used to say indulgently that I was timid, then quietly protect me from behind. But now, he was the one who pushed me into the abyss, yet blamed me for my helplessness. I looked at his no-longer-familiar features. I forced out a bitter smile and finally managed to speak. “Mario, sign the divorce papers. Let me go.” But Mario suddenly choked up. He seemed about to say something when Neyland called him away. “Neyland has a bit of a cold. I’m going back.” “I made a mistake back then. I had people protecting you, but they didn’t make it in time.” “Rest well. And don’t mention divorce again.” With that, he strode out of the hospital, brushing past the doctor who was just coming in to notify me of my condition. I couldn’t even remember anymore how many times he’d abandoned me for Neyland’s sake. The doctor looked at me sympathetically. “Still so young. Are you really giving up on chemotherapy?” I nodded. I was already in late-stage stomach cancer. Chemotherapy would worry Grandma. Since I had so little time left anyway, I might as well spend it with her properly. After resting for a while, I changed clothes and went to Grandma’s room. Seeing me arrive, Grandma happily grasped my hand. “Aurora, I don’t ask for you to be rich and noble.” “As long as you and Mario support each other, I’ll be at peace.” “You two have been inseparable since childhood. You’re definitely a perfect match!” Facing this old woman who looked at me with such love, my eyes stung with tears. If she knew what had happened between Mario and me, would she be even more disbelieving than I was? Just then, the hospital room door suddenly opened. Neyland walked in wearing high heels. Grandma recognized her and smiled, reaching for her hand. “You must be Aurora’s sister. Thank you for being so understanding toward Aurora.” But as soon as the words left her mouth, Neyland slapped Grandma’s hand away. “What makes a trash-collecting country woman like you think you can touch me?” Then she held up a tablet in front of us. On the screen was surveillance footage of when I was violated by that worker. After the incident, Mario had tortured that worker until he was barely alive, then sent him to prison. He promised me that all the surveillance footage had been completely destroyed. I never imagined he hadn’t destroyed it—he’d kept it all along. I panicked and begged her. “Don’t… don’t play it. My grandma’s health isn’t good…” But Neyland ignored me. She just smiled lightly and clicked play. In the video, I went from struggling to numb. The filthy memories surged up, and my breathing instantly stopped. Grandma was so shocked by the scene that her whole body trembled. She stared wide-eyed in disbelief. “Aurora, is that you? When did this happen?” Neyland blocked my way, then laughed viciously. “Old hag, this was all voluntary. She just loves finding thrills like this.”

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On the fifteenth day after I gave birth, I received a text from an unknown number. It was a photo. My husband Martinez and a woman lying in my bed, covered with my wedding quilt. Below the photo was a line of text: “Your husband says you’re loose and ugly after giving birth. He doesn’t even want to touch you.” I showed the photo to Martinez. He glanced at it and frowned. “You went through my phone?” I froze. He cheated, and he blamed me for checking his phone. The nanny stood at the door holding the baby, wanting to say something but holding back. My mother-in-law Antony leaned back on the sofa, sipping red wine. “Men will be men. It’s normal for them to play around outside. Just focus on taking care of the baby and stop being paranoid all the time.” Everyone thought I should just endure it. I didn’t argue or make a scene. I put down my phone and continued eating my postpartum recovery meal. They didn’t know that my phone contained all the evidence from the past year. They didn’t know I’d been waiting for this day for a long time. They didn’t know… my mom was a judge. The hospital I chose—the attending physician was my mom’s best friend, Laura. Three days after giving birth, I obtained Martinez’s paternity test results, along with records of his company’s tax evasion. He thought I was helpless and isolated. He didn’t know that behind me stood an entire legal front line.

I noticed something was off with Martinez on the seventh day postpartum. That day, my episiotomy wound still hurt. I lay in bed, unable to even turn over without difficulty. He was on the balcony taking a call, his voice lowered. “Babe, just wait a little longer. Once she gets through these few weeks of postpartum recovery, I’ll take you out.” “Her? She’s gained twenty pounds now. She’s like a pig. I feel sick just looking at her.” I closed my eyes, pretending I hadn’t heard. Pretending I hadn’t heard my own husband describe me that way to someone else. On the tenth day postpartum, my phone rang. Unknown number, iMessage. I opened the first one—a photo of Martinez kissing a woman in a car. The second showed them sitting in the Western restaurant I often went to, eating my favorite steak. The third showed them lying in the wedding bed I’d personally chosen. The woman was wearing my silk nightgown. Below was a line of text: “Your husband says I look way better in it than you do.” I stared at the screen. My fingers trembled, but my mind was unusually calm. I saved the photos into an encrypted folder. On the thirteenth day postpartum, another unknown number sent me a message. This time it was a video. In the video, Martinez and a woman were embracing in a VIP private room. The woman smiled at the camera: “Look how much your husband dotes on me. He says your body’s all out of shape after giving birth, and he never plans to touch you again.” I saved the video and transferred it to the encrypted folder. There was already a lot stored there. Screenshot chat logs, credit card statements, hotel check-in records, dashcam audio recordings. Everything was organized clearly, marked with dates and locations.

On the fifteenth day postpartum, the mistress sent me her first high-definition face photo. She sat in my living room, legs crossed, drinking the coffee I bought. The photo was captured from the surveillance camera in the living room… the one I installed when I was pregnant to watch the cat. I never expected it would capture a wildcat. Below the photo, she sent me a message. “Your husband says he’s taking me to Hawaii in a couple days. What do you think—which swimsuit should I wear?” I stared at the photo for a long time. She smiled arrogantly, her face directly facing the camera, without the slightest attempt at concealment, as if declaring her sovereignty. I saved the photo. Then I used another phone to send my best friend Bella a message. “Bella, I need you to help me look someone up.” Bella was a cybersecurity engineer. Three seconds later she replied: “Tell me.” I sent her the mistress’s profile picture. “Help me find out everything about this person. Name, workplace, home address, assets under her name.” “Who is this?” “The person destroying my marriage.” “Give me three hours.” Three hours later, Bella sent me a folder. It contained all of the woman’s information. Her name was Susan, twenty-three years old, a receptionist at some company. Married. Had a two-year-old daughter. She’d been sued last year for defaulting on credit cards. No house or car under her name, renting in the low-income housing area in the north of the city. I read through it line by line, memorizing all the key information. Then I sent Bella another message. “Bella, help me check Martinez’s bank statements. I need to know how much money he transferred to Susan.” “How much did he transfer?” “Every single transaction. Time, amount, purpose.” “Are you preparing to go to court for a divorce?” I touched the incision on my abdomen. The scar from the C-section was still scabbing. “No.” I typed. “I’m going to send them to prison.”

On the twentieth day postpartum, Martinez didn’t come home until 3 a.m. Reeking of alcohol and perfume. He collapsed beside me, back turned toward me, and soon started snoring. I didn’t wake him. I got out of bed carefully and picked up his phone from the nightstand. I’d memorized the password long ago—his birthday. I opened iMessage. The pinned conversation—Susan. I scrolled through the chat history for half an hour. The more I scrolled, the more my hands trembled. “When is she going to get lost? I’m so sick of living in this dump.” “What’s the rush? Wait until we trick that house under her name into our hands. I’ve got her completely under control right now.” “You don’t still have feelings for her, do you?” “Feelings my ass. Fat and slovenly, walking around in that ratty nightgown all day. I feel disgusted just looking at her.” “Then why do you still sleep in the same bed with her?” “How else can I keep her stable? Her mom has a connection, someone with a project I need. Once I get that contract, I’ll kick her out immediately.” I took screenshots. Then I kept scrolling. I found something even more chilling. Martinez’s message to Susan: “Don’t let her go to that postpartum recovery personal training class. Provoke her some more, best if you can push her into postpartum depression.” “That way we can claim she has mental issues and we won’t even have to fight her for custody.” “You’re so ruthless. The child is yours, after all.” “Once I get custody, my mom can take care of the kid. Then we can have as many kids as you want.” I put the phone back on the nightstand. Then I got up and walked to the balcony. At 4 a.m., the city lights were dim and yellow. I stood there for a long time. The C-section wound throbbed dully, and my breasts ached from engorgement. I covered my mouth and cried silently. Not from feeling wronged, but from cold. A cold that seeped out from the marrow of my bones. That man who had been married to me for three years, who picked out the wedding bed with me, decorated our new home together, tied my shoelaces when I was pregnant… he was conspiring with his mistress about how to push me into postpartum depression. How to take my child away, how to drain me dry and then kick me aside. When I finished crying, I wiped away my tears. Then I picked up my phone and called my mom. At 4 a.m., my mom was woken up, her voice still heavy with sleep. “Hello? Ulysses, what’s wrong? Is the baby sick?” “Mom.” I heard my own voice, surprisingly calm. “I want a divorce.” Three seconds of silence on the other end. Then my mom’s voice became completely alert. “What happened?” “Martinez is cheating. He’s plotting with his mistress to push me into postpartum depression, to take the baby.” “Is the evidence solid?” “Solid.” My mom was silent for another two seconds. When she spoke again, her voice was no longer that of a mother, but the professional tone of someone who’d been a judge for twenty years. “Alright. From now on, do exactly as I say. First, don’t share a bed with him anymore. Second, back up all evidence in triplicate. Third…” “Third?” “I’m coming to get you tomorrow.”

The next morning, my mom arrived right on time. She didn’t ring the doorbell, just used the key I’d given her to open the door. Martinez was still asleep. Antony was in the kitchen making porridge. When she saw my mom come in, she froze. “Lester, so early…” My mom ignored her and walked straight into the bedroom, yanking Martinez out from under the covers. Martinez was pulled awake, dazed for a few seconds. “Mom? How did you…” My mom threw the printed chat logs in his face. The papers scattered across the bed. “What is this?” Martinez picked up one sheet, glanced at it, and his face instantly went white. “Mom, let me explain… this is… someone photoshopped this… someone’s trying to frame me…” Antony came running in after hearing the commotion and picked up a sheet of paper. After reading it, her expression changed several times. But the words she spoke completely froze my heart. “Lester, I know about this. I’ve met that girl. She’s quite decent.” “This whole thing—I told Martinez to find someone on the side.” My arms holding the baby tightened. My mom turned around and stared at Antony. “What did you say?” Antony wiped the soup ladle on her apron, speaking with complete self-righteousness: “Ulysses has been so moody since giving birth, treating Martinez like he doesn’t exist. Martinez is a man—he has needs.” “Besides, Susan said she doesn’t want any title or status, she just likes Martinez.” “Martinez hasn’t cut Ulysses’s household allowance. Men will be men—it’s normal for them to play around outside.” She was still smiling. My mom stared at her, then spoke, her tone cold as ice. “Are you saying you procured a prostitute for your own son?” Antony’s smile instantly froze. “You… what are you saying? What prostitute…” “No need to explain.” My mom cut her off, her voice devoid of warmth. “Martinez committed adultery during marriage and maintained an improper relationship with a third party. Your entire family knew, condoned it, and even covered it up.” “These chat records and transfer receipts—I’ve already submitted everything to the court.” Antony’s face turned ashen. Martinez panicked: “Mom… Mom, don’t listen to her nonsense. Susan and I have nothing going on, really nothing…” My mom didn’t even glance at him, turning to me instead. “Ulysses, is everything packed?” “All packed.” I pulled the suitcase I’d packed from behind the closet. Actually, I’d packed it long ago—on the tenth day postpartum, the night I received the first photo. I held the baby in one arm and dragged the suitcase with the other, heading out. Martinez rushed over to block me. “Ulysses! Don’t be ungrateful!” Antony was shrieking behind him. “Let her go! Leave the baby! A Martinez grandson can’t be taken away by her!” I turned to look at her. “A Martinez grandson?” I pulled out a sheet of paper from my bag and threw it in front of her. “Look carefully. This is a paternity test.” “The child has absolutely nothing to do with the Martinez family.” Antony froze. Martinez froze too. I held the baby and walked out that door. The baby was asleep in my arms, little face pressed against my chest, warm. I heard my own heartbeat, steady and strong. Sitting in my mom’s car, I looked at that door one last time. My mom started the car and asked me. “Ready?” “Ready.” “It’s going to be hard from here on.” “I know.” I looked at the sleeping baby in my arms. “But I have no way back.” The car slowly drove out of the complex. That door behind me—the door I’d spent three years of my youth going in and out of—grew smaller and smaller in the rearview mirror. I withdrew my gaze. Then I took out a USB drive from my bag. It contained all the evidence. Chat records, transfer receipts, hotel check-in records, phone recordings, and the detailed accounts of Martinez’s company’s tax evasion. Over three hundred gigabytes total. I gripped the USB drive tightly. “Mom, help me schedule a lawyer.” “Who?” “The most expensive one.”

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