I bought a refrigerator out of kindness for a sick student so she could store her medication. Half a month later, her medication became ineffective. She collapsed in the classroom and was left permanently disabled. Her parents cried at the school gates: “This heartless teacher ruined our daughter!” I was forced to care for her for ten years. Then her parents demanded I marry her and support her for life. My girlfriend couldn’t handle the pressure and broke up with me. On my way to her wedding, I died of a heart attack. When I opened my eyes again, I had been reborn ten years earlier. Standing before me was Lily Mitchell, looking pitiful. “Mr. Reed, my medication needs refrigeration, but there’s no fridge in the classroom…” I said, “You should ask the facilities department about that.” I had been reborn. Reborn to the moment when Lily Mitchell first said she needed a refrigerator to store her medication. Behind her stood three roommates, all my students. Four pairs of eyes stared at me expectantly. I was twenty-four years old, with a master’s degree in philosophy. My advisor had recommended me for this position as a teaching assistant at this community college to gain experience. In my previous life, I’d been full of enthusiasm. When I learned a student had diabetes and needed a fridge to store insulin, I’d proactively bought her a small refrigerator. Half a month later, she suddenly collapsed during class break. At the hospital, I discovered she didn’t have diabetes at all, and what she’d been refrigerating wasn’t insulin. She had osteogenesis imperfecta, commonly known as brittle bone disease. It was incurable and required lifelong medication. The investigation revealed her medication had become ineffective. The refrigerator plug had come loose and stopped cooling. Her parents sued the school for neglecting students. The school deflected responsibility, saying the fridge wasn’t theirs—I had bought it, so I should be responsible. Public opinion crushed me. My family was cyberbullied and couldn’t live in peace. I had no choice but to compromise and take responsibility for caring for her. That responsibility lasted ten years. But her family still wasn’t satisfied. They wanted me to marry her and support her parents too. I had a girlfriend I loved deeply. She’d waited for me for ten years. Knowing I’d never be free, I cruelly forced her to leave. She went home for matchmaking dates. The day before her wedding, Lily had an episode. I cared for her all night. The next day, driving to the hotel, I had a heart attack on the road. My life-saving medication was right beside me, but I didn’t use it. I didn’t call 911 either. My heart was strangely calm. I only felt sorry for my girlfriend—today was supposed to be her happy day. Now I’d been reborn. Facing these four expectant faces, my heart filled with hatred and disgust. “Is Lily Mitchell the applicant? If you need a refrigerator, you can download a form first, explain your condition and the medication’s requirements, then fill it out and submit it to facilities. They’ll apply to the school for procurement.” Her roommate Emma Carter was a warm-hearted girl. She frowned. “That sounds complicated. Won’t it take forever? Lily has diabetes and needs insulin injections before every meal. Right, Lily?” That’s right. Lily had never explicitly said what disease she had. The diabetes story had spread after everyone saw her injecting herself. She’d never denied or clarified it. Just like she’d never asked me to buy a refrigerator. Everything had been decided by her roommates and me. In my previous life, her parents had hung banners at the school gates and made the news. My whole family was cyberbullied. My parents were teachers about to retire honorably, but because of me, they had to take early retirement. No salary, and they had to support me financially. They got sick but didn’t tell me. Within a few years, they both passed away. I could imagine that even after my death, I’d still be reviled. In my previous life, these girls had posted online and testified, cementing the story that I’d tried to impress Lily and voluntarily bought the fridge. In this life, I’d watch carefully to see who would die. “That’s the procedure. If you have questions, ask another teacher.” I picked up my teaching materials and left lightly. Before I’d gone far, I heard Lily say pitifully, “What’s wrong with Mr. Reed today? He’s so cold.” Emma consoled her. “He’s dodging responsibility. Can’t make any decisions himself. Don’t worry, I’ll handle this.”

I was just a teaching assistant. I’d only been interning for two months. Besides teaching, I had to do all kinds of odd jobs, and I didn’t even have an office. I opened the resignation page but couldn’t bring myself to click submit. First, my advisor had fought for this job for me. It was meant to help me gain experience—a kind gesture I didn’t want to waste. Second, I’d tried to resign in my previous life too, but the school had rejected it. According to the contract, even if I submitted my resignation, I’d have to stay for another month. A month was enough time for many things to happen. So I could only find a way to get fired. Just then, my uncle sent a message in the family group chat. “Mom’s not feeling well. Got her checked today—her blood pressure was 200. The doctor wants her hospitalized.” I’d chosen to intern at this school because it was close to home, only a hundred kilometers away. I was about to say I’d come back today. My cousin, a doctor, replied, “I’ll head back soon. Lincoln, someone gave me two boxes of lychees. I’ll drop them off for you.” My cousin was in the city. My eyes lit up. A plan formed in my mind. I went back to my dorm and changed into designer clothes, making myself look ten times more handsome than usual—tall and long-legged. My roommate saw me and said admiringly, “Who are you meeting? Don’t tell me your girlfriend’s coming.” I smiled but didn’t answer. In my previous life when I got into trouble, not a single person spoke up for me. My roommate was no exception. We were all interns and therefore competitors. I dressed up handsomely and even carried a fifty-thousand-dollar bag with a huge logo that made my roommate’s eyes widen and his mouth form an O-shape. “Lincoln, you’re actually rich?” Ignoring him, I fluttered toward the school gate like a butterfly. Passing students couldn’t help but stare. From afar, I spotted my cousin’s luxury car. I was exactly six feet tall. He was taller, wore glasses, and looked very gentlemanly. He wore clothes similar to mine—actually, he’d bought the clothes I was wearing. The bag was also his hand-me-down. A cousin supporting his younger relative who just started working is perfectly normal, right? My cousin got out of the car and opened the trunk to move the lychees. I threw myself onto his back, just like when I was a kid. My cousin nearly fell into the trunk but caught himself, holding my legs. “You think you’re still a kid? You’re over a hundred and sixty pounds—you’re crushing my old bones!” He was a fitness enthusiast with muscles under his clothes. I couldn’t hurt him. Not only did I not get down, I climbed higher. “Is Grandma’s condition serious?” My cousin said unhurriedly, “Don’t listen to my dad. I went back last week and her blood pressure was fine. He just wants me to go home for a blind date.” I saw from the corner of my eye that many students were watching us, taking photos with their phones, pointing and whispering. Only then did I climb down from my cousin’s back and hook my arm through his instead. My cousin handed me the lychees. He also straightened my hair. “How’s work? Are your colleagues easy to get along with? Are the students obedient?” I smiled. “Everything’s fine. Don’t worry.”

My cousin drove away. I stood there watching for a long time before carrying the lychees back to the dorm. Sure enough, as soon as I entered, I was met with my roommate’s strange look. “What’s wrong?” He laughed awkwardly. “Ah, lychees are already in season? I love lychees.” Usually, he loved taking advantage of small perks. But I locked the lychees in my cabinet. “These are for me only. I can’t give you any.” His expression grew even stranger. He pushed the tissue box on my desk over to his own. Like he wanted to draw a clear line between us. I opened the school forum and, as expected, many people had photographed my “intimate moments” with my cousin. I saved them all. In the afternoon, while checking student attendance, I heard people muttering that I was gay and showing off my wealth. I didn’t explain. I let them gossip. Then I saw the four girls—Lily and her roommates. Emma rolled her eyes at me. “Mr. Reed, we went to facilities at noon. They said the school has no precedent for buying refrigerators for individual students. We’d need approval from school leadership. In the meantime, we could only put the medication in the cafeteria’s freezer. But when we went to the cafeteria, they said it didn’t meet hygiene standards. They refused! We wanted to buy a small fridge for the dorm, but the dorm supervisor won’t allow it either.” I shrugged. “Then there’s nothing I can do.” Lily said timidly, “Mr. Reed, could you keep a fridge in your office or dorm? A very small one.” I shook my head. “I don’t have an office, and high-power appliances aren’t allowed in the dorm.” Lily’s eyes quickly filled with tears, ready to fall but not quite falling. Emma felt terrible for her and quickly patted her chest. “I’ll buy one and put it in the activity room with a lock. It’ll be fine.” But Lily wasn’t satisfied. She kept looking at me. Honestly, she was very beautiful, soft and delicate, inspiring protective instincts. I’d helped her several times before. God knows I’d only helped her as a teacher should, never imagining it would give her inappropriate ideas. Emma said sarcastically, “Ha! Some teacher—dressing up like a peacock, not caring about students at all. You deserve this title? I’m going to file a complaint against you!” I rolled my eyes too. “Ooh, I’m so scared! Go ahead. If you don’t, you’re a coward!” All four girls were stunned. I was an intern teacher who paid close attention to my performance evaluation. I was almost always accommodating to students’ requests, known for my good temper. Now I looked like a completely different person. After they recovered, they all took out their phones to write complaints to the principal’s email. Not only wasn’t I panicking, I mocked them. “A bunch of broke losers acting like entitled babies all day long, like the whole world should pamper you. What garbage. Don’t you look in the mirror every day?” Lily burst into tears. The other two girls’ eyes also reddened. Only Emma looked at me like an angry bull, eyes bloodshot. “You just wait.” I crossed my arms. “I’m waiting. Who’s afraid?” Emma looked like she was about to explode, pointing at me with her long manicured nail. “Fine. Just wait to get fired!” I believed her. These four girls were terrible at studying and terrible people. They were experts at spreading rumors and cyberbullying others.

That evening, complaints about me flooded the principal’s inbox—dozens of them. The contents were varied: homosexuality, flaunting wealth, unfit to be a teacher, cold violence toward students. The next morning, the department chair called me in for a talk. He sat behind his desk, the computer screen in front of him showing the forum posts. In the photos, I was on my cousin’s back, smiling quite sweetly. He pointed at the screen. “Lincoln Reed, is this you?” “Yes.” “Who is he?” “A friend.” The department chair waited a moment, then rephrased his question. “Are you gay?” “That’s personal and unrelated to work.” The chair’s expression darkened. “Lincoln, I’m asking you a question. Answer properly.” “I did answer. It’s unrelated to work.” At that moment, the door opened. The principal walked in. My roommate followed behind, bowing and scraping like a eunuch, looking at me with gloating eyes. If I was removed, he could be promoted. Sometimes, the world is just a damn circus, and in my previous life, I’d been destroyed by these people. How tragic. Let it all burn. The principal looked down at me. “Lincoln Reed, I’ll ask you one more time. Are you gay?” “No comment.” “Then explain the photos.” “I have no obligation to explain.” The principal laughed—a cold laugh. “Who do you think you are? You haven’t even finished your probation period and you dare take this attitude?” I snorted coldly. He stared at me. “I’ll ask you one last time. Are you or are you not gay?” “Are you discriminating against gay people?” “Enough. Doesn’t his roommate know whether he’s gay or not? Don’t corrupt the students.” He declared, “You’re fired!” Like some feudal emperor. But his eyes betrayed his greed, staring directly at the huge logo on my bag. I turned and walked out. Minutes later, HR sent notice that my employment had been terminated. According to the internship agreement, termination without cause should come with one month’s compensation. But HR said there was nothing—they wouldn’t even pay my wages. One month’s intern salary was only two thousand dollars. Whether they paid it or not shouldn’t matter—but it did. Withholding a worker’s wages deserves divine punishment. I’d make them beg me to take the money! From this moment on, I was finally free. Before leaving, I went to the activity room and dismantled and destroyed the water dispenser, water jugs, and power strips I’d bought, throwing them in the trash. “Mr. Reed, if you remove the water dispenser, what will we use?” a student complained. I stomped on a water jug, breaking it. “I bought this for myself. You’ve been freeloading off it for so long. What if some psycho poisons it and then blames me? Better to destroy it.” After throwing away the last jug, I turned around to see Lily standing a few steps away, biting her lip, looking at me tearfully. Every hair on my body stood on end. It was as if she wasn’t a young girl in her prime, but a venomous snake flicking its tongue. I instinctively stepped back. It wasn’t that I was weak—the trauma from my previous life was just too heavy. I couldn’t adjust immediately. She stepped closer, her eyes showing a hint of obsession and an indescribable ambiguity. That wasn’t how a student should look at a teacher. Nor was it simply how a woman looks at a man. It was how a spider looks at plump prey! “Mr. Reed,” she called me, soft and weak. I felt nauseous and turned to run. She shouted, “Don’t leave!” I stopped and turned to look at her, hatred burning in my heart like wildfire, making my bones ache. I wanted to rush over and strangle her. But I couldn’t. I’d finally been reborn. A bright future awaited me. She’d already walked up to me. Tears fell one by one. Under the lights, she looked especially pitiful and touching. “I’ll go beg Emma to withdraw the complaint. Nothing will happen. Don’t leave.” “If you stay, I’ll do whatever you say.” She spoke lightly but enunciated each word heavily, as if making some incredible promise. I remembered my previous life. In the second year of caring for her, one night she’d pulled my hand and placed it on her body. “Mr. Reed, marry me. I’ll be so good.” At the time, I’d thought it was gratitude, dependence, the desperate grasping at the only lifeline after being tormented by illness for too long. Or perhaps she’d gone mad from prolonged sickness. It turned out she’d harbored such unspeakable thoughts so early on. But I’d been oblivious, falling into the trap she’d laid. “Lily Mitchell,” I couldn’t out-act her, so I spoke plainly. “You disgust me!” She froze, tears still on her face. Her expression shifted from innocent and pure to determined, then she smiled slightly. It made you wonder if she had mastered the art of switching personas. “Mr. Reed, you’ll come back.” “You will definitely come back.” I smiled too. “I will come back—to attend your funeral!” I ignored her, went back to pack my things, and left without staying a second longer, taking a bus away from the hell that had trapped me for half my previous life.

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That afternoon when I had the car accident, I called my fiancé Hudson seven times. On the seventh call, he finally picked up. In the background, I could hear airport announcements. Enduring the searing pain, I told him I’d gotten into an accident on the South Highway. The car had flipped over, and I was bleeding badly. “Don’t panic, I’ll send my assistant over,” he said hurriedly. “I need to fly to New York right now. Cecilia’s depression relapsed—she took sleeping pills and her emotional state is very unstable. I have to go see her.” Cecilia Lewis—his ex-girlfriend who developed severe depression after their breakup. After five years together, I’d gotten used to that name being prioritized over mine. Fighting through the pain, I said, “Hudson, I’m really bleeding a lot.” There was a second of silence on the other end. Then he said impatiently: “Nina, I told you I’d send my assistant. Don’t you trust me?” Without waiting for my response, he hung up. Three months later, I got married. My husband wasn’t Hudson. When friends asked how I could marry Zander Hayes after only knowing him for three months, I said: “Because he never hangs up on me.”

“Ma’am, don’t fall asleep. Can you hear me?” The car cabin reeked of blood. The airbag lay deflated to one side. I forced my eyes open. Outside the window was an anxious face. He held a window-breaking hammer in his hand. “The ambulance is almost here. I’ll pull you out first. It might hurt a bit—try to bear with it.” I nodded, watching him efficiently break open the car door. The screech of metal grating against metal was piercing. At that moment, my phone screen lit up. A message from Hudson. [Nina, I’ve already boarded the plane.] [Stop using injuries as an excuse to trick me. Cecilia can’t be left alone right now. Be more understanding.] Blood dripped from my forehead onto the screen. The man outside the car glanced at the screen. “Your boyfriend?” he asked. I closed my eyes, my voice hoarse. “Ex-boyfriend.” He didn’t ask further. He took off his jacket, placed it over the broken glass, slipped his hands under my arms, and carefully lifted me out of the cabin. “I’m Zander Hayes,” he said, setting me down on the grass by the roadside. “A doctor who happened to be passing by.” “Thank you.” I looked at his blood-stained shirt. “I got your clothes dirty.” He took gauze from a first aid kit and pressed it against my forehead. “Hold this. Don’t let go.” My phone vibrated again. It was Hudson’s assistant, Andy. [Miss Nina, Mr. Hudson asked me to transfer five hundred thousand dollars to you. He said if you’re upset, go buy something you like.] [Mr. Hudson is just trying to save someone. Please be more understanding and don’t fight with him at a time like this.] Five hundred thousand dollars—to buy my silence while I teetered on the edge of death. I didn’t accept it. I just locked my screen. The ambulance arrived quickly. Zander climbed in with me and briefed the paramedics on my condition. “Multiple soft tissue contusions, mild concussion, five-centimeter laceration on the forehead.” “Where’s the family?” the medic asked. “We need family to sign.” “No family,” I said, staring at the ceiling lights. Zander’s hand paused while taking my blood pressure. Then he called out a number. “Blood pressure is low.” At the hospital, a nurse wheeled me in for stitches. The anesthetic went into my forehead. The swelling pain spread instantly. I didn’t cry. I didn’t even furrow my brow. The doctor seemed surprised. “Doesn’t it hurt?” “I’ve hurt worse,” I said, staring at the clock on the wall. Worse than this was two years ago in the emergency room, watching the blood beneath me go cold, drop by drop. Hudson’s flight should be landing soon. Right now, his mind was probably filled with whether Cecilia had taken her medication, whether she’d done something reckless. As for how much blood I’d lost— He didn’t care. After the stitches, I sat in the observation room. Zander walked over with the payment receipt. “I covered the fees for now. Your phone died,” he said. “Thank you, Dr. Hayes.” I took the receipt. “Let me get your contact info so I can transfer the money back.” I borrowed a charger from the nurse’s station. As soon as I added him on SnapChat, Hudson’s call came through. “Nina, when are you going to stop this tantrum?” Hudson’s voice was filled with suppressed rage. “Andy said you didn’t take the money and your phone was off. Are you trying to make sure everyone knows you’re jealous?” I glanced at Zander sitting across from me and said calmly, “I’m not throwing a tantrum.” “Then why’d you turn off your phone?” Hudson sneered. “Let me tell you, Cecilia’s condition is really bad right now. Don’t make trouble for me at a time like this. When I get back, we’ll talk about the wedding.” “There’s nothing to talk about.” “What are you trying to pull now?” “Hudson, let’s call off the engagement.” Silence on the other end for two seconds. He laughed derisively, his tone dripping with disdain. “Fine, Nina. You’d better not regret this.” The call ended.

Zander handed me a cup of warm water. “If you need it, I can help you arrange for a caregiver,” he said in a professional tone. “That won’t be necessary. I can take care of myself.” I took the cup. “Thank you for today.” “Just doing my job as a doctor.” He glanced at his watch. “I have a meeting. I should go. If you feel unwell later, come back to the hospital.” “Okay.” Watching his retreating figure, I took a sip of water. Warm—just right to ease the spasms in my stomach. I stayed at the hospital overnight for observation. The next day, gauze still on my forehead, I returned to the house I shared with Hudson. In the living room, two pairs of slippers sat side by side. One was my taupe slippers. The other was a pair of pink bunny slippers. Those were from last month when Cecilia tried to jump off a building and Hudson brought her here to stay temporarily. At the time he’d said, “Cecilia’s depression is acting up. It’s not safe for her to live alone. Be reasonable about this.” I was reasonable. The result? My face wash was replaced with her preferred brand. The closet gained a row of her pajamas. Even the succulents on the balcony were replaced with roses because, according to her, they “made her feel depressed.” On the table sat a half-eaten walnut cake. I’m allergic to walnuts. Hudson always knew this. But Cecilia liked them, so the house was always stocked with walnut cake. Once, I ate some by mistake. My whole body broke out in hives and I couldn’t breathe. Hudson took me to the hospital, but only blamed me: “It’s written so clearly on the package. You didn’t read it yourself—whose fault is that?” He knew. But he didn’t look. I grabbed a garbage bag. I threw in the bunny slippers and the walnut cake. I grabbed the potted roses from the balcony and smashed them into the trash bin, pot and all. I started packing my things. There wasn’t much. Over these five years, I’d spent all my energy trying to fit into Hudson’s life. The closet was full of neutral-colored clothes he preferred. The vanity held the light perfume he was used to smelling. My phone rang. It was Hudson’s mother. “Nina, I heard Hudson went abroad?” Her voice carried its usual criticism. “Yes.” I folded clothes into my suitcase. “Really, you should know better. You know Cecilia’s health is fragile—why didn’t you go take care of her? Hudson’s just a man. How could he be as attentive as you?” I stopped what I was doing. “Mrs. Barrett, I’m Hudson’s fiancée, not Cecilia’s caregiver.” Silence on the other end. “How can you talk like that? Cecilia is so pitiful. Why are you competing with someone who’s ill? Besides, Hudson has a kind heart. As the future Mrs. Barrett, can’t you be more magnanimous?” “I’m very magnanimous,” I said, zipping up my suitcase. “That’s why I’m giving the position of Mrs. Barrett to her.” “What do you mean?” “Exactly what it sounds like.” I hung up. Dragging my suitcase to the door, I looked back at the house I’d lived in for three years. Our engagement photo still hung on the wall. In it, Hudson looked at the camera, but his gaze was distracted. That day during the shoot, Cecilia had sent him a message. Then he went to make a call, leaving me waiting under the stage lights for two hours. I walked over and took down the frame. Face down, I tossed it on the floor. I pulled my suitcase out of the complex. Taking out my phone, I messaged my realtor. [That property in South District—list it for me. The faster the better.] That was the dowry house my parents left me. Hudson had said we’d live there after the wedding since it was close to his company. Now, it wasn’t needed. The realtor replied instantly: [Miss Nina, Mr. Hudson contacted us yesterday about that property. He wants to transfer it to a Miss Lewis.] I stared at the words on the screen. My fingers felt cold.

The realtor called. “Miss Nina, this… Mr. Hudson said you’re getting married soon, so the house is joint property and he has the right to handle it.” Standing by the roadside, I said calmly, “Only my name is on the deed.” “But he had your power of attorney and a copy of your ID…” “The power of attorney is forged. Stop all transactions immediately, or I’ll sue your office too.” I hung up and went straight to the police station. Filed a report, gave a statement, applied to freeze the property transaction. By the time I finished the whole process, it was afternoon. Walking out of the station, I opened SnapChat. On my feed, Cecilia had posted a new update. [Even at the other end of the world, as long as I’m afraid of the dark, he’ll rush over. Next step: moving into our home~] The attached photo showed a slender hand peeling an apple into a heart shape. I knew that hand too well. On the wrist was the limited edition watch I’d scoured the whole city to buy him last year. Below were comments from our mutual friends. [Mr. Hudson is still so devoted. When can we drink at your wedding?] [After all this time, I only recognize you two as a couple!] Hudson replied to the comments: [Don’t talk nonsense. Cecilia needs rest right now.] No denial. His words dripped with indulgence. Cecilia couldn’t wait to be the lady of the house, and Hudson was paving the way for her. I liked the post. In the Barrett family group chat, Hudson’s mother was on a passionate rant. [Young people these days have such tempers, threatening to break up over nothing. They don’t even look at their own qualifications. Who’d want her without the Barrett family?] Several relatives chimed in below. [Exactly. Hudson is so outstanding, and she still isn’t satisfied.] [Cecilia is such a lovely girl—good family background, gentle personality. Such a shame about her fate.] I didn’t argue back. I left the group chat that had suffocated me for years. And I blocked Hudson’s contact. After doing all this, the tightness in my chest suddenly disappeared. I even had the mood to find a hotel and check in. That evening, I ordered Japanese food delivery. Hudson used to say takeout wasn’t clean and insisted I go to the market to buy fresh ingredients and cook from scratch. Now, eating salmon, I felt liberated. Halfway through the meal, an unknown number called. “Nina, have you lost your mind?” Hudson’s roar came through the receiver. “Why did you call the police? That house would just sit empty anyway. What’s wrong with letting Cecilia stay there temporarily after she returns home?” “Does ‘staying temporarily’ require transferring the deed to her name?” “The realtor got it wrong! I just wanted to add her name to give her security!” Hudson spoke as if it were perfectly reasonable. “Using my premarital property to give her security?” I laughed. “Nina, don’t twist my words like that. We’re getting married soon—what’s yours is mine, isn’t it? You got the police involved at the realtor’s office. Where does that leave my reputation?” He only ever cared about his reputation. “Hudson, we’re not getting married.” “Not this again!” His voice was irritable. “Do you think that by leaving the group chat and blocking me, I’ll come running back to coddle you? Let me tell you, if you don’t drop the case this time, the wedding is postponed indefinitely!” “Whatever.” I hung up and blocked that number too.

The next day, I went to the bridal boutique. The custom wedding dress I’d tried on three times and altered twice hung in the display window. The shop manager saw me and greeted me with a beaming smile. “Miss Nina, we’ve taken in the waist as you requested. Would you like to try it on again?” I stood in front of the window. The pure white wedding dress and the white gauze on my forehead overlapped. I once thought that putting on this dress would mark the day my five years of waiting finally paid off. I reached out and gently touched the tulle on the hem. No anger as I’d imagined. No grief either. “No need to try it on,” I said, withdrawing my hand, my tone calm. The manager froze. “Then… shall I wrap it up for you?” “Get a trash bag,” I said, smiling faintly at her. “Throw it away.” “Miss Nina! This was hand-sewn by a French designer…” Ignoring the manager, I turned and pushed open the boutique door. Just as I reached the intersection, a car screeched to a halt in front of me. The door swung open and Hudson stepped out quickly. He wore a trench coat. Stubble had grown on his chin from catching overnight flights. His brow was furrowed in its habitual way, his expression agitated. “Nina! When are you going to stop this tantrum—” He’d been about to yell at me, but when his gaze landed on my pale face and the gauze on my forehead, his pupils constricted sharply. He froze, a trace of panic creeping into his voice. “What happened to your head?” He instinctively raised his hand to touch my forehead. Just as his fingertips were about to make contact, I flinched backward. Hudson’s hand hung suspended in midair. Bewilderment flashed through his eyes. In these five years, I’d always been the one to lean my face into his palm. I’d never pulled away from him before. His fingers slowly lowered as he tried to mask his panic with coldness. “What exactly are you trying to pull?” His tone softened slightly, but still carried condescension. “To force me to come back, you’re even throwing away the wedding dress? Fine, Nina. You win. I’m back.” “I didn’t transfer the house to Cecilia either. I’m doing everything your way, okay?” He paused. “I’ll take you shopping for a bag later. Stop being upset.” I looked at him coldly. A breeze swept past, carrying his cedarwood scent. Mixed with the cedarwood was a trace of Cecilia’s sickly sweet perfume. On the edge of his collar was a smudge of lipstick. Before, whenever I detected these scents and marks on him, nausea would rise in my stomach. Jealousy and hurt would keep me awake all night. But now, I felt strangely calm. “Hudson,” I said, my voice gentle. He looked at me, relief washing over his face. “Yeah? You done being mad?” “I’m not allergic anymore,” I said softly, looking at him. Hudson froze, bewildered. “What allergy? Did you eat something wrong?” “Before, whenever I smelled her perfume on you, I’d feel nauseous.” I tugged at the corner of my mouth, giving him a small smile. “But now, looking at her lipstick stain on your collar, I don’t feel anything at all.” Hudson’s face instantly drained of color. His lips trembled faintly, as if he finally realized— I wasn’t throwing a tantrum. I truly didn’t care anymore. “Nina…” He lunged forward to grab my wrist, panic overtaking him. “Don’t say things like that! The wedding is still on for next month. I promise you, after we’re married I’ll absolutely keep my distance from her…” I didn’t struggle. I let him grip my wrist. His palm was hot, filled with urgency, but I only felt exhausted. My gaze fell on my ring finger—on that mediocre engagement ring. Cecilia had casually remarked that “solitaires are too tacky, they have no soul,” so Hudson bought me this plain band instead. I slowly raised my hand, pinched the ring, and gently slid it off. The ring came off easily—too loose. It didn’t take any effort at all. My finger didn’t even have an indentation from wearing it, as if it had never belonged there. “Nina! What are you doing!” Hudson’s voice cracked completely. His grip on my wrist tightened suddenly. Ignoring his loss of control, I simply placed the ring in his trench coat pocket. “Give it back to you,” I said, raising my head to look calmly at his reddening eyes. “This ring, along with you—neither was made for me in the first place.” With that, I yanked my hand free. A stark red mark now encircled my wrist. I didn’t even rub it. I turned, raised my hand, and flagged down a passing taxi. “Drive.”

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The night our daughter underwent appendicitis surgery, Ethan Carter’s assistant delivered me a divorce agreement. On TV, his interview was airing live. He proudly declared that his company’s system was “unbreakable,” the watch I gifted him gleaming on his wrist. What he didn’t know was that I had written that system six years ago. For years, I believed I simply wasn’t good enough for him to love me. Until a woman named Mia sent me photos of herself wearing the silk robe I bought, crimson marks blooming along her collarbone. Until our daughter split her head open and needed five stitches, blood running down her face, while Ethan coldly told me over the phone: “You should learn how to handle these things yourself.” Twenty years of growing up together, and in the end, I was nothing more than the nanny who helped him survive his startup years. Before the divorce cooling-off period even ended, his company collapsed first. That “unbreakable” system was personally locked down by me. He desperately wanted to meet the top consultant demanding ten million dollars to fix it. What he didn’t know— that consultant was me. 0

The night my daughter had her appendicitis surgery, Ethan Carter’s assistant delivered the divorce papers. The TV was live-streaming his interview. He was chatting and laughing into the camera, wearing the Vacheron Constantin watch I’d given him. His executive assistant, Zach, handed me the agreement, his eyes avoiding mine. “Mr. Carter said if there are no issues, just sign it.” “Mr. Carter said if there are no issues, just sign it. Let’s end this amicably. Name your terms, as long as you don’t make a scene.” I opened the agreement. Ethan was being generous. The downtown penthouse would go to me, half the savings, and custody of our daughter. Even the child support. He’d filled in a number that would make ordinary people jealous. Aside from his company shares, he was giving me almost everything he could. As if this were just a business transaction, and as long as the money was right, everything would be decent and proper. The hospital room was quiet except for the rhythmic dripping of the IV. Emma was still unconscious, her little face deathly pale. “The reason?” I asked. Zach stammered for a while before repeating Ethan’s exact words. “Mr. Carter said you two are no longer on the same path.” “His circle now discusses IPOs, financing, overseas acquisitions.” “And you…” Zach didn’t dare continue. And me, these past few years I’d been stuck around the stove and the kid, talking about grocery prices and tutoring classes. In his eyes, I was a nanny with whom he had nothing in common. Even worse than a nanny, because a nanny wouldn’t occupy the position of Mrs. Carter. My phone vibrated. Ethan sent a message on SnapChat. “Hire a good nurse for Emma. Did you sign the agreement?” Then another message followed. “This is better for everyone.” Every word dripped with condescension. He probably thought that as long as he paid enough, I should be grateful and vacate my position. I stared at those lines of text. Twenty years of childhood friendship, and this was all it amounted to. “Pen.” I held out my hand. Zach froze for a moment, then quickly handed over a pen. I flipped to the last page and signed my name cleanly. “Nine o’clock tomorrow morning. Meet at the courthouse.” I closed the agreement and handed it back. Zach clearly hadn’t expected me to be so decisive. His hand trembled slightly as he took the document. “Alright, Ms. Hayes. I’ll inform Mr. Carter.” Zach left. I stood up and tucked the blanket around my daughter, then glanced at the interview still playing on TV. The host was asking about the company’s technical advantages. Ethan answered confidently, “This is the core architecture our team spent three years developing. It’s impenetrable.” I picked up the remote and turned off the TV. The hospital room returned to silence. I pulled an old laptop from my bag and connected to the hospital WiFi. I didn’t open any web pages. I just typed a few lines of code into a black terminal window. Several lines of green data streams flickered on the screen before stopping at a red cursor. It was the backend access point to Ethan’s company. After finishing everything, I closed the computer and changed Emma’s IV bag. 0

Early the next morning, while Emma was being wheeled away for tests by the nurse, I took a taxi to the courthouse as agreed. Ethan and I quickly completed the formalities and received the receipt. We just had to wait for the paperwork to go through before the divorce was final. Ethan looked at me, a flash of guilt crossing his eyes. He said, “Don’t worry, I won’t short you a penny of child support after the divorce.” I looked down at my phone to call a rideshare, anxious to get back to the hospital to be with my daughter. I wasn’t in the mood to listen to him talk. Seeing that I didn’t respond, Ethan continued, “We don’t have anything in common anymore. I don’t love you anymore. Even if we divorce, there’s no need to become enemies. I’m still the child’s father.” The corner of my mouth twitched imperceptibly. I watched the car getting closer and closer on the app. I gave him a faint smile. “I’m heading back to the hospital. See you in thirty days.” The car had arrived. Without looking at Ethan’s expression, I opened the door and got in. I looked at the divorce papers in my hand. Soon, we’d be nothing to each other. Over the next few days, Ethan didn’t come to the hospital. He didn’t even call once. Emma asked about her father several times. I hugged Emma with a heavy heart. “Daddy will be busier and busier from now on. He won’t be able to see you often, but Mommy will always be with you.” Five days later, Zach came. He poked his head around the hospital room door, dragging a suitcase behind him. “Ms. Hayes… Mr. Carter asked me to bring your things over.” “He said since you signed the papers, you probably don’t want to go back to that house anyway. Saves you the trouble of looking at it.” I glanced at the suitcase. Ethan thought I was taking up space and was eager to kick us out. “Just leave it there.” Emma had just woken up and was rubbing her eyes, saying she was hungry. I poured Zach a glass of water and asked him to watch the child while I went to buy breakfast. When I came back with breakfast, before I even entered the room, I heard Emma crying. I pushed the door open. Zach was frantically trying to comfort the child with his phone. “What happened?” I picked up my daughter, her face red from crying. Emma pointed at Zach’s phone screen, sobbing. “That’s the castle Daddy promised to build with me… That’s my castle…” I glanced at the screen. It was an Ins interface. The person who posted was named Mia, her profile picture showing a woman’s silhouette. The image showed a huge LEGO Disney castle, half-assembled. That was the birthday gift Ethan had bought for Emma six months ago. It had been gathering dust in a corner of his study. Now it was appearing on someone else’s living room carpet. The woman named Mia had posted it with a caption: “This guy is so clumsy. Took him all night just to finish the foundation.” Posted at 2 AM today. At that time, Emma had just finished surgery and was in so much pain she couldn’t sleep, calling for her daddy. And he was building blocks with another woman. I took Zach’s phone and looked at that SnapChat account. I said nothing and returned the phone to him. “Sweetie, that one got dirty. We don’t want it anymore.” I wiped Emma’s tears. “Mommy will buy you a new one.” After soothing Emma to sleep, I opened my computer again and got to work. Ethan had always thought that over the past six years, all I’d learned was how to cook and take care of children. He didn’t know that I had set up the smart home system in the house, and all the device logs were automatically uploaded to the cloud. I hit enter. A long string of data streams appeared on the screen. Last night at 1 AM, the smart speaker in the study had a wake record. An audio recording played automatically. “Ethan, this castle is too hard. I don’t want to play anymore.” It was a young woman’s voice, coquettish and syrupy. Then came Ethan’s voice, with a patience and indulgence I’d never heard from him. “Try one more time. When we finish building it, I’ll take you to the Maldives.” “What about your wife? If she finds out you gave me the gift meant for your daughter, won’t she make a scene?” “She only thinks about the kid now. She won’t even notice these things.” The recording cut off abruptly. For six years, I’d managed the household impeccably, helping him transform from a small startup owner into today’s tech mogul. In the end, in his words, I’d become the frumpy housewife who only knew how to serve the child.

The next day, I processed Emma’s discharge and didn’t return to our former home. I quickly rented an apartment through an agency, close to Emma’s kindergarten. During this time, Ethan didn’t contact me, and naturally didn’t ask about our daughter either. Later, I received a photo from Mia. In the background, she was wearing a men’s silk robe, taking a mirror selfie. I recognized it immediately. I’d bought it for Ethan last month. Now it was on Mia, the collar open wide, revealing red marks on her collarbone. Below the photo came a message: “Mr. Carter said this robe was too dowdy, but it fits me perfectly, so I’m keeping it.” I was peeling an apple for Emma. My knife didn’t stop. I replied with two words: “Keep it.” Less than a minute later, my phone rang. When I answered, Mia’s voice came through. “Did you get the photo?” “Mr. Carter was so tired last night, he’s still not awake.” I put the phone on speaker and set it on the nightstand, continuing to cut the apple. “Do you need something?” Mia seemed irritated by my calm, her voice rising several pitches. “Mr. Carter said he’s been putting up with you for a long time. Coming home every day to see your face, he feels no desire at all.” “Not like me. I make him feel young again, like he can still climb higher.” I handed the cut apple to Emma, my tone flat. “Is that so? I already signed the agreement.” “Anything else?” The other end went silent for a moment. Then she played her trump card. “Sophia, since we’re getting divorced anyway, I might as well tell you.” “I’m already pregnant with Mr. Carter’s child.” “I have the ultrasound right here. It’s a boy.” “All of Mr. Carter’s assets will belong to my son in the future.” So this was why Ethan was in such a hurry to divorce. “Congratulations, then.” I hung up and immediately blocked her number. Emma was munching on her apple, her cheeks puffed out, looking up at me. “Mommy, who was that?” “Insurance salesperson.” I stroked her head. “Eat up. When you’re done, Mommy will take you for your checkup.” After settling Emma, I went downstairs. Adrian was already waiting there. He wore a gray hoodie, holding a can of iced Coke. When he saw me, he handed over an access card. “What you asked for.” It was a visitor card with the highest access privileges to Ethan’s company. I took it and slipped it into my pocket. Then I handed him a USB drive. “This is the countermeasure patch for the core architecture of Carter Enterprises.” Adrian took the USB drive, looking at me with a complex expression. “You’re really going through with this?” I watched the traffic in the distance. “The core logic hasn’t changed. It’s just a backdoor.” “Once you plug it in, you can close or open the backdoor whenever you need to.” Adrian was silent for a moment before pocketing the USB drive. “Also, help me look into someone,” I said. “Mia, Ethan’s personal assistant.” Soon, a file arrived on my phone. “Rachel Mendez, worked as an escort for two years, infiltrated Carter Enterprises three months ago.” I looked at the file, my eyes stopping on the last line. Medical records showed she had blocked fallopian tubes. Permanently infertile. The pregnancy was fake. Naturally, carrying a son was also fake. I put away my phone and turned to go downstairs. “Thanks.” Adrian called out behind me. “There’s a ransomware virus going around in the industry lately. Several major companies have been hit.” “I’m not asking you to help Ethan.” “I’m reminding you that this is exactly what he needs right now. You’re holding another card.” I didn’t stop, waving back at him over my shoulder. “Got it. Let him deal with it.”

Seeing that Emma had recovered well, I took her back to the villa. That was the home we’d lived in for six years. As soon as I walked in, I saw the entryway piled with packing boxes. Several movers were carrying things out, and Mia stood in the center of the living room directing them. “Don’t want that sofa, it’s too old.” “Take down the curtains too. Replace them with blackout ones.” She had completely taken on the role of mistress of the house. Seeing me, she raised an eyebrow. “Sorry, I thought this old furniture was an eyesore, so I had people deal with it first.” I ignored her and walked straight to the children’s room. The room was empty. Emma’s little bed, bookshelf, and toys were all gone. Even the drawings Emma had made on the walls had been painted over with stark white paint. Emma stood frozen in the doorway, her little hand clutching my clothes tightly. “Mommy, where are my drawings?” Mia walked over and leaned against the doorframe. “Those messy scribbles were too dirty, so I had them painted over.” “This will be the nursery from now on. Of course it needs to be clean.” I turned around and looked at her. “Does Ethan know you’re doing this?” Mia laughed lightly. “Mr. Carter said from now on, I’m in charge of this house.” “Besides, they’re just some broken drawings. What’s the big deal?” Before she finished speaking, the sound of brakes came from the doorway. Ethan strode in, his expression dark. Seeing the chaos inside, he frowned. “What’s going on?” Mia put on a wronged expression and approached him. “Ethan, I wanted to make the house warm and welcoming for our baby. Ms. Hayes doesn’t seem too happy…” Ethan’s eyes showed impatience. “Sophia, since you’re leaving anyway, don’t make a fuss over such small things.” “I’ll have someone buy Emma a new set of art supplies later.” I looked at these two people, suddenly feeling that even the air in this villa had become foul. “No need.” I crouched down and picked up Emma. “We don’t need charity.” “As for this house, keep it.” I turned with Emma and walked away. Passing through the entryway, I saw a photo album on top of one of the packing boxes. It was Emma’s growth record from the past five years. I’d taken every single photo myself. Now it had been thrown there. I reached out and took the album, dusting it off. Ethan called out behind me. “Next Monday morning, courthouse to get the certificate. Don’t be late.” I didn’t turn around or stop. I carried my child out through the villa’s front door. Behind me came Mia’s saccharine voice. “Ethan, what color should we get for that sofa?” Sitting in the taxi, Emma buried her head in my arms, sobbing quietly. “Mommy, does Daddy not want us anymore?” I stroked her hair, watching the scenery fly past outside the window. My phone vibrated. It was a message from Adrian. “Sophie, Carter Enterprises has a new system launch next week, at the hotel across from the courthouse.” “I heard Ethan invited all the investors. Planning a big celebration.” I replied with one word. “Okay.” What a coincidence, everything was happening next week. My and Emma’s new life would also begin next week.

Twenty-ninth days later, Emma developed a fever. The medicine didn’t bring it down. She was delirious, calling for her daddy. I called Ethan. The phone rang once before being hung up. Immediately, an auto-reply text popped up: In a meeting, will contact you later. I casually opened Ins. Mia had posted something ten minutes ago. They were drinking at a private club. I silently liked it, then tossed my phone aside and put a cooling patch on Emma’s forehead. That night, I didn’t sleep. Near dawn, Adrian sent me a message. “Someone bought Carter Enterprises’ system vulnerabilities on the dark web.” “The attack is scheduled for when the Carter Enterprises launch begins.” If this were six years ago, I would have immediately opened my computer to help him patch the vulnerabilities. But now, I only replied with one word. “Fine.” Adrian replied instantly. “If you need me to coordinate anything, just say the word.” I took Emma’s temperature. The fever had broken. “That’s Carter Enterprises’ asset. Nothing to do with me.” At seven, I woke Emma and dressed her. Today I had to go to the courthouse to finalize the divorce. No time to take her to kindergarten, so I had to bring her along. Before leaving, Zach called. “Ms. Hayes, Mr. Carter asked me to remind you not to forget your documents.” “He’s having an early meeting at the company, then heading straight to the courthouse.” “Got it.” I hung up and checked the documents in my bag. Everything accounted for. I took Emma’s hand. Emma looked up at me. “Mommy, where are we going?” “To take care of something important.” Outside the window, the city was just waking up. Rush hour traffic was jammed below the building. I led my daughter into the crowd, not looking back at the high-rise behind us.

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Ethan Hunt had a sex addiction. Whatever he wanted in bed, I did it. He wanted me in black stockings. I wore them. He wanted car sex in crowded places. I went along. He always said my body drove him crazy. But even so, he still got himself a mistress. Sabrina. “Vivian Gray is a dead fish in bed. How could she compare to you, baby?” He said Sabrina was wild in bed. That she knew how to please him. I stared at the intimate photos and pregnancy test results Sabrina had sent to my phone. I took a deep breath. I’d prepared the DNA paternity report long ago. I sent it to Ethan’s mother and the board of directors. I also sent the recording of that conversation. I smiled and turned off my phone. You bastard. Now it’s my turn to play with you. Vivian’s POV In everyone else’s eyes, Ethan Hunt was the cold, untouchable CEO of Hunt Corporation. Only I knew the truth. He had a sex addiction. Tonight, we went from the dining table to the couch, then to the bedroom. Three straight hours. He almost made me pass out several times. While I was barely conscious, Ethan was completely turned on, pounding into me nonstop. He leaned down, his voice low and rough. “Tired already? We’ve got a long night ahead.” I was so tired I could barely open my eyes. I said nothing. Ethan chuckled softly and kissed my earlobe. “Sleep if you’re tired, darling.” Just as I was about to fall asleep with my eyes closed, Ethan’s phone vibrated. Ethan probably didn’t want to wake me, so he walked toward the balcony outside the bedroom. The door wasn’t fully closed, and the conversation clearly reached my ears. I could tell it was his good friend and college roommate, Derek Shaw. “Ethan! What the hell is going on between you and Sabrina!” Derek’s fury was palpable even through the phone. Ethan replied calmly, “You don’t need to worry about this.” Hearing Sabrina’s name, my drowsiness vanished instantly. Sabrina Moore. The one who bullied Ethan in high school. She’d been expelled long ago. How was she involved with Ethan again? Derek grew even angrier. “I don’t care about Sabrina! But how can you hurt Vivian? All these years, if it weren’t for her staying by your side, helping you with treatment, could you have the good life you have today?” “Vivian won’t know.” “Sabrina’s already pregnant with your child, and you tell me Vivian won’t know!” Derek was practically shouting. My mind went blank. Ethan was silent for a moment. “Once Sabrina has the baby, I’ll wait a couple of years. Then I’ll tell Vivian the child is from an orphanage. That she’s a sweet kid. Vivian’s too kind. She’ll take her in and love her like her own.” “Ethan, don’t go too far!” Derek’s roar suddenly disappeared. Ethan had hung up. My whole body went cold, my head buzzing. The phone vibrated again. Ethan answered, and a woman’s weak voice came through. “Ethan, my stomach hurts. Can you come over?” I recognized that voice. It was Sabrina. Ethan became unusually tense. “Don’t be scared. I’m coming right away.” He quickly got dressed and left. I opened my eyes as tears silently slid down, soaking the pillow. What just happened left my thoughts in chaos. I just felt like my chest had been hollowed out, the pain making it almost impossible to breathe. I closed my eyes, and memories flooded back like a tide. Ethan was the only son of the wealthy Hunt family in New York, but at three years old, he was kidnapped and sold to a couple. That couple were bad people. They either beat or scolded him, didn’t let him eat his fill, and often kicked him out of the house. Ethan developed severe emotional disorder. He couldn’t feel pain, couldn’t feel love, and had no emotions. In high school, that couple moved near my house, and Ethan and I became schoolmates. At school, Ethan was isolated because of his withdrawn personality and unusual family background. He never spoke to anyone, but Sabrina in our class constantly bullied him. Sabrina put dead mice in his desk, insects in his water bottle, and deliberately pushed him down the stairs. Ethan showed no reaction, so the bullying only got worse. Finally, Sabrina locked him in the sports equipment room. The darkness and confinement triggered Ethan’s claustrophobia, and he started self-harming. I happened to pass by and saved him, then reported it to the school. Sabrina was expelled. That couple didn’t care about Ethan at all, so I brought him home with me. From then on, my mom and dad raised Ethan like their own son. To cure his emotional disorder, I deliberately majored in psychology in college. I accompanied him through psychological counseling, taught him to recognize emotions, and held his hand when he woke from nightmares to tell him not to be afraid. He couldn’t smile, so every day I tried different ways to make him laugh, until he finally managed a smile. To raise money for Ethan’s treatment, I attended classes during the day and worked three part-time jobs at night. After seven full years of treatment, Ethan was finally cured. Now, in front of others, Ethan was just a seemingly calm, normal person. Two years ago, the Hunt family found Ethan and brought him home. But Ethan’s parents looked down on me from an ordinary family. They refused to let us be together no matter what, forcing Ethan to break up with me. Ethan refused. Ethan’s mother finally agreed, saying that as long as I gave birth to a Hunt family child, I could marry Ethan. But Ethan told me, “I don’t want children. I’m afraid a child would be like me, unable to feel love or pain.” Hearing this, my heart ached so much that tears fell. I actively used contraception. Seeing that I never got pregnant, Ethan’s mother’s attitude became even worse. Afraid of affecting Ethan’s position in the family, I didn’t dare tell anyone about his history of emotional disorder. I silently endured his mother’s difficulties and kept Ethan’s secret. I never felt bitter, never thought of giving up. We’d survived the hardest days. As long as I was with Ethan, I wasn’t afraid of anything. But now, I couldn’t endure anymore. As daylight gradually brightened, my tears had long since dried up. I sat up in bed, my eyes severely swollen and red. I picked up my phone and dialed Ethan’s mother’s number. “I’m willing to accept the thirty million you offered and leave Ethan forever!”

Vivian’s POV Ethan’s mother froze, her voice rising. “What did you say?” I repeated, “I’m willing to accept the thirty million you offered and leave Ethan forever.” She couldn’t believe it. “Don’t try any schemes! You’re not good enough for Ethan! You can’t bear children. Do you want him to have no heir?” I said coldly, “Don’t worry, he won’t be without an heir.” Someone had already gotten pregnant with his child. Afraid I’d change my mind, she said, “Come over right now. We’ll discuss this in person.” Half an hour later, the car the Hunt family sent stopped downstairs. I got in the car and was taken to the Hunt family’s villa. She had already prepared the agreement. “This money is enough for your family to live on for a lifetime, but after you receive it, you must leave Ethan forever. Don’t drag him down anymore, understand?” I lowered my eyes and smiled self-mockingly. “I understand.” I would leave Ethan forever. I never wanted to see him again. She pushed the agreement over. I took the pen and, without any hesitation, signed my name at the bottom. She put away the agreement, finally showing a satisfied expression. A notification appeared on my phone: thirty million dollars, not a cent less. I took a deep breath. “I need one more favor from you.” She looked at me warily. “What favor?” “I need you to help arrange new identities for me and my parents. We’ll leave the country and never return.” She was completely reassured. “No problem. I guarantee Ethan won’t be able to find you.” Leaving the Hunt family villa, I didn’t return to the home I shared with Ethan. Instead, I went to my parents’ house. Mom was happy to see me. “What brings you here today?” I briefly explained the situation. “Ethan has a mistress. That mistress is even pregnant with his child. There’s no future for us. I can only take you abroad with me.” Her tears immediately fell. “What?! That scumbag! How dare he treat you like this!” The more she spoke, the angrier she got, raising her hand to wipe her tears. “If it weren’t for you back then, he would’ve been tortured to death by those trash foster parents long ago! Our family exhausted all our resources to send him to school and pay for his treatment, and this is how he repays us?” My dad was silent for a long time before sighing. “We helped him because we pitied him. We don’t want his repayment. Since he’s changed his heart, then we’ll just leave.” My tears fell. “Mom, Dad, I’m sorry. Because of me, you have to leave with me…” He patted my shoulder. “As long as we’re together, isn’t everywhere home?” My eyes reddened, and I nodded forcefully. My mom wiped her tears, crying as she recalled the past. Back then, our family’s circumstances were ordinary. My parents were regular people with modest salaries. With an extra person in the household, they simply couldn’t afford it. To support Ethan, my parents worked part-time jobs after their regular work. But they never shortchanged Ethan. His food and clothing were no worse than mine, and they paid his college tuition. Yet now, Ethan was hurting me like this. I took my identification documents from home and went to apply for a visa that afternoon. While waiting in line, Ethan called. “Vivian, why aren’t you home?” I answered calmly, “I went to my parents’ house.” Just then, the staff called my name. “Your visa materials have been approved. It will be ready in two weeks.” Ethan paused on the other end. “What visa? Where are you?” I made up an excuse. “My parents want to travel abroad. I’m accompanying them to apply for visas.” Ethan said, “Then I’ll come pick you all up.” “No need, we can get back ourselves.” I refused directly. That evening, I returned to the home I shared with Ethan. As soon as I entered, Ethan strode forward. He wrapped his arms around my waist. “Why didn’t you call me when you came home? I miss them too.” I silently thought, You won’t need to miss them anymore. I turned my head slightly, avoiding his movement. “You’re busy. Next time.” Ethan frowned and was about to hug me when my phone rang. It was a message from the high school alumni group. Classmates were discussing in the group that the day after tomorrow was the tenth anniversary of our graduation, and everyone wanted to have a reunion. I’d been student council president and had good relationships with everyone. After going abroad, I might never see these classmates again in my life. I replied in the group: “Sure, I’ll definitely be there.” Two days later, Ethan and I arrived at the reunion restaurant together. Quite a few people had already arrived in the private room. They were all happy to see us. “Vivian! Ethan! You two have been a couple since high school, when will you invite us to your wedding?” “Exactly! We’re all waiting!” Ethan smiled in response. I said nothing. I knew very well that wedding would never happen. We were chatting when the door to the private room was pushed open. Sabrina walked in and sat directly next to Ethan, her eyes full of provocation as she looked at me. I immediately noticed the hickeys on her neck. I picked up my wine glass and silently took a sip. As soon as Sabrina entered, the atmosphere in the room instantly turned cold. She’d always liked bullying people in high school. The one she bullied most severely was Ethan. No one welcomed Sabrina: “Sabrina, we didn’t invite you. What are you doing here?” “Exactly. After what you did back then, you still have the nerve to see us?” Ethan sat in his seat, frowning, saying nothing. Sabrina bit her lip, her eyes instantly reddening. The next second, she actually knelt on the floor. “I just came to see my classmates. I was young and made mistakes. I’m a sinner and I’ve been punished. If you think I was wrong, I apologize…” She choked up, tears sliding down her cheeks. “But you can’t insult my dignity. I’m not a mistress!”

Vivian’s POV Everyone in the room froze. No one expected her to kneel. For a moment, no one spoke. But I noticed that after Sabrina knelt, Ethan’s body immediately tensed, his fists clenched tight. Sabrina blinked her tearful eyes, her voice trembling. “You still won’t forgive me? Then I’ll give you my life!” She grabbed a wine bottle and smashed it on the floor, picked up a shard, and forcefully dragged it across her wrist. Ethan could no longer control himself. He suddenly stood up and rushed over. Ethan lunged forward and actually grabbed the shard with his bare hand. “What are you doing!” He whipped his head around, his presence instantly fierce. “Anyone who dares hurt her can go die!” The classmates were all stunned by his expression. He gripped the shard too hard, and blood poured out. Seeing him bleed, I instinctively went to pull him away. But Ethan, who’d lost his rationality, didn’t see who was coming. He raised his hand and pushed the person away hard. I was pushed heavily to the ground. Glass shards were everywhere on the floor. Sharp fragments pierced my palms, and blood quickly seeped out. I was in so much pain I almost passed out. Ethan didn’t notice me at all. He was busy bending down to lift Sabrina in his arms. “I’ll take you to the hospital!” With that, he rushed out of the room without looking back. Silence fell over the room. Several classmates snapped out of it and hurried over to help me up. “Vivian! Are you okay?” “Has Ethan gone crazy? What’s going on between him and Sabrina?” “We were helping him. Why is he siding with Sabrina?” I forced a bitter smile. “It’s exactly what you saw. So you probably won’t get to attend any wedding.” Several classmates froze and quickly changed the subject. “Don’t talk about that. Let’s get you to the hospital!” A few female classmates who were close to me supported me as we quickly headed out. When we reached the hospital emergency room, I saw Ethan. He was sitting in the blood collection room, letting a nurse draw his blood. The doctor stood nearby, frowning. “That patient’s condition isn’t critical. One person can donate a maximum of 400cc at a time. 400cc from you is enough. We can get the remaining 400cc from another hospital’s blood bank.” Ethan shook his head, his tone firm. “She’s pregnant. She can’t wait. She’s in danger.” The doctor hesitated but ultimately complied. My classmates watched this scene from afar, unable to believe it. Someone asked carefully, “Vivian, are you really okay?” I shook my head. “I already knew. Let’s go.” The female classmate next to me looked at me in shock. “How did you know?” I lowered my eyes. “He made a phone call in the middle of the night. I heard it.” Everyone felt sorry for me. “It’s good you saw that jerk’s true colors early. Better than finding out after marriage!” “Ethan must be blind. You treated him so well, yet he… ugh!” I forced a smile. “Don’t worry, I’m fine.” When I got home, I sat alone on the couch in a daze. That night, Ethan didn’t come home and didn’t send any messages. Looking at my bandaged palm, I just felt empty inside. The next afternoon, the door lock suddenly rattled. Ethan pushed the door open, his face frighteningly dark. Without a word, he strode up to me, grabbed my arm, and dragged me outside. I stumbled several steps as he pulled me. “Where are you taking me?” Ethan didn’t answer, only said coldly, “You’ll know when we get there.” He pulled hard, not noticing the bandage on my hand. I couldn’t break free and could only follow him to the car. The car stopped in front of a high-end apartment building. The elevator reached the 16th floor. He took out a key and opened the door. The door opened to reveal a luxuriously decorated apartment. Sabrina wore a silk loungewear set and was sitting on the couch. Seeing us enter, she immediately stood up, her eyes reddening. I instantly understood. This was the house where Ethan kept his mistress. My heart ached so much I could barely breathe. Ethan stood next to Sabrina and looked at me. “Did you team up with those classmates to bully Sabrina?” I looked at Ethan in disbelief. I immediately understood that Sabrina had said something behind the scenes. And Ethan actually believed her. I laughed self-mockingly and pointed at Sabrina. “You think everyone likes bullying people the way she does?” Ethan’s expression darkened further. “You’re the student council president. They all listen to you. If it wasn’t you, then who? Sabrina personally heard several of them planning how to bully her. Vivian, you know I hate people who bully others the most!” Hearing these words, my chest felt like someone had torn open a gash. When I rescued Ethan from the sports equipment room that year, his face was pale, blood flowing from his wrists. Back then, he barely communicated with anyone. If you weren’t careful, he might self-harm. I called all the classmates together to care for him and cheer him up. No matter how hurtful his words were, the classmates didn’t mind. They continued to patiently comfort him and help him emerge from the shadows. The pain back then was caused by Sabrina. But now, Ethan was protecting Sabrina while accusing me and the classmates who helped him. I held back my tears. “You hate bullying? Why do you hate bullying? Did we bully you back then?” Ethan was rendered speechless by my question. But when he turned and saw Sabrina’s aggrieved face, he frowned again. His tone softened. “Regardless of the past, Vivian, just apologize to Sabrina, and we’ll let this go.” I closed my eyes. “What if I don’t apologize?” Ethan’s expression instantly turned cold. He stared at me and said sternly, “If you don’t apologize, everyone who attended the reunion will lose their jobs tomorrow.” I froze, because I knew Ethan could do it. With his current capability and position, making a few ordinary people lose their jobs was just a matter of one sentence. Those classmates were innocent. I couldn’t drag them down.

Vivian’s POV I took a deep breath and turned to face Sabrina. “I’m sorry, Miss Moore. Please forgive me.” A flash of triumph crossed Sabrina’s face, but she quickly replaced it with a pitiful expression. She wiped the corner of her eye and spoke softly, “Vivian, I don’t blame you. What happened back then was indeed my fault, though because of your report, I’ve had a terrible life these years…” Her tears fell again. “But that’s what I deserved. I actually really want to be friends with you. If you could…” She paused, her gaze falling on the bracelet on my wrist. “Give me that bracelet on your hand, I’d be so happy.” I blurted out, “Impossible!” That bracelet was the only keepsake my grandmother left me. When I was young, my parents both worked and had no time to care for me. I was raised by my grandmother. In high school, Grandma was critically ill, but Ethan’s condition was very unstable at the time. I stayed with him, not daring to leave. By the time Ethan’s emotions stabilized, my mom brought news of Grandma’s death. I never even saw Grandma one last time. I held the bracelet Grandma left behind and cried night after night. At that time, Ethan barely communicated with the outside world. But that day, he spoke his first complete sentence. He held my hand and said solemnly, “I will protect this bracelet for life, just as I will protect you.” That was his first promise to me. I stared at Ethan, my voice trembling. “She wants my bracelet, Ethan?” Ethan turned his head, not daring to look at my eyes. “Vivian, the bracelet is a dead object. It’s not as important as a living person.” My eyes turned red as I stared at him intently. Ethan’s brow furrowed deeply, as if hesitating. Just then, Sabrina’s tears fell again. She said pitifully, “Forget it, I don’t deserve it. Someone like me should live in the mud forever. How could I be qualified to be friends with you?” This sentence stung Ethan. He no longer hesitated and signaled to the bodyguard at the door. Two bodyguards immediately stepped forward. One pressed down on my shoulder while the other reached for my wrist. I struggled desperately. “Let go of me!” But how could I match the strength of two adult men? The bodyguard roughly tore the bracelet from my wrist and handed it to Sabrina. Tears instantly welled up. I glared at Ethan, my eyes full of disappointment and despair. Sabrina took the bracelet, a flash of triumph on her face. The next second, she loosened her hand, and the bracelet fell to the floor. The bracelet shattered into several pieces, fragments scattering everywhere. “Oops, I didn’t mean to…” Sabrina covered her mouth, pretending to be panicked. I desperately broke free from the bodyguards’ control, crouched on the ground, and picked up the fragments while crying. I clutched all the fragments in my palm, gripping them tightly. The edges of the bracelet were sharp. Combined with my already injured palm, blood seeped out. Ethan’s face changed dramatically. He grabbed my hand. “Vivian, let go now!” I raised my head, tears blurring my vision. I laughed, my laughter full of mockery. “Are you satisfied now? Is your Sabrina satisfied? Can you leave everyone alone now?” Ethan immediately picked me up. “Don’t talk. I’ll take you to the hospital right away!” Behind us came Sabrina’s call. “Ethan.” Ethan didn’t hear her at all and rushed out of the apartment. At the hospital emergency room, the doctor bandaged me. Seeing the wound, he frowned. “You just injured it two days ago, and now you’ve injured it again today? If you don’t take care of it properly, the flexibility of this hand will be affected in the future. It may never recover to what it was.” Ethan’s face turned white. “How did it get injured the day before yesterday? Why didn’t you tell me?” I stared woodenly out the window, my tone indifferent. “Isn’t it thanks to you?” Ethan froze, apparently remembering the scene from the reunion that day. His tone became panicked. “Vivian, I didn’t see. I-” I closed my eyes and shook my head. I didn’t want to hear him speak. Ethan’s words stuck in his throat, unable to come out. After the doctor rebandaged my wound and gave a long list of instructions. On the drive home from the hospital, I leaned against the car window with my eyes closed, not saying a word. Ethan hesitated for a long time before finally speaking. “I didn’t expect it to turn out like this, Vivian.” His voice was very low. “I just can’t stand seeing many people bully one person. When Sabrina knelt on the ground that day, I remembered myself back then, so I lost control.” I sneered inwardly. How was that the same? Sabrina knelt down voluntarily. No one forced her. No one invited her. She came on her own. Everyone present could see that Sabrina was deliberately acting. Only Ethan couldn’t see it. Or rather, he didn’t want to see it. I kept my eyes closed and said nothing. Seeing no response, Ethan grew more anxious. “I just wanted you to apologize to her today, wanted everyone to be okay. This outcome wasn’t my intention.” He continued, “I’ll have someone restore the bracelet. I promised I would protect this bracelet for life, just as I would protect you. I won’t go back on my word.” Mentioning the bracelet made my heart ache again. I remembered when Grandma died, the way he held my hand and said those words. Back then, his eyes were sincere and serious. But now, he personally had someone take the bracelet and watched it shatter. I spent seven years transforming Ethan from someone who couldn’t feel pain or love into a normal person who understood love and kindness. But he gave all his love and kindness to Sabrina. My heart hurt to the point of numbness. I still didn’t speak. The car fell silent again. Looking at my pale face, Ethan’s expression grew increasingly panicked. He took a deep breath. “Vivian, there’s nothing between Sabrina and me. I just ran into her recently and saw her working as a waitress at a small restaurant, being bullied. She was pitiful.” “Besides, I really was abnormal back then. I can’t blame her for saying I was sick.” Hearing that last sentence, I suddenly laughed. I opened my eyes, turned my head to look at Ethan, and laughed until tears came out. The person I worked so hard to save all these years actually thought he deserved to be bullied.

Vivian’s POV The car stopped. I pushed the door open and walked away, not wanting to say another word to him. Ethan quickly caught up, reaching out to grab me. I sidestepped and shook off his hand. Ethan chased me to the doorway and grabbed my wrist again, saying frantically, “Vivian, the only person I love is you. I want to be with you forever. Believe me.” I shook off his hand once more and entered the house expressionlessly. I didn’t expose him, nor did I want to go along with him. Nothing he said mattered anymore. Over the next few days, Ethan didn’t go anywhere. He stayed home the whole time. He was more diligent and considerate than before, barely letting me do anything. His phone rang countless times. Each time it rang, Ethan would frown and stare at the screen. His finger hovered over the answer button but never pressed it. Finally, he steeled himself and pressed reject. I took it all in. I said flatly, “Answer it. Maybe it’s urgent.” Ethan shook his head hastily. “Nothing’s urgent. Nothing is more important than you.” He was about to step forward and pull me into his arms. I stood up directly, avoiding his outstretched hand, turned, and went back to the bedroom. Two days later, the bracelet was repaired. Ethan came home with the box, happily presenting it to me. “Vivian, look, it’s exactly like before.” I took the box and opened it for a glance. The bracelet was indeed restored well. The cracks were concealed and couldn’t be seen. But broken was broken. No amount of restoration would help. I closed the box without another look. I walked into the bedroom. Just then, my phone rang. I pressed the answer button. A voice came from the other end: “Miss Gray, all the materials for your visa have been approved. It will be ready in three to five days.” “Okay, I understand. Please notify me when the visa is ready…” I replied. Ethan suddenly pushed the door open. “What visa? Vivian, you applied for a visa?” My expression was natural. “My parents’ tourist visa. I told you last time.” Ethan paused, relieved, and didn’t ask further. Three days later was my birthday. Early in the morning, Ethan was busy in the kitchen. He even had Boston lobster, my favorite, shipped in. Before we started eating, the doorbell rang. Ethan went to open the door. Sabrina stood outside. She looked haggard, her eyes red and swollen, noticeably thinner. “I know today is Vivian’s birthday. I’m not here to cause trouble.””Today’s my birthday too. My parents are dead, and I’m alone in an empty house, scared to death. I just wanted someone by my side on my birthday.” Ethan’s brow furrowed deeply. He was silent for a long time without speaking. Sabrina raised her hand and touched her belly, her expression even more sorrowful. Without a word, Ethan stepped aside and let her in. At the table, the three of us sat down. Ethan wouldn’t let me lift a finger. He skillfully began peeling shrimp. But he unconsciously placed the food onto Sabrina’s plate without a second thought. He didn’t even realize it himself. Triumph flashed in Sabrina’s eyes as she raised her head to look at me. I calmly looked away and continued eating. My heart was already dead. It wouldn’t hurt anymore. After a while, Ethan brought out the Boston lobster. The steaming hot Boston lobster was placed on the table, its aroma filling the air. Ethan picked one up and started peeling it for me. Sabrina watched this scene, jealousy surging in her eyes. She deliberately reached for a Boston lobster too. Ethan saw this and shouted sternly, “Don’t touch that!” Sabrina’s hand trembled in fright. Sabrina pouted her lips aggrievedly and lowered her head, silently eating the pasta on her plate. Not long after, she reached for the salmon. Ethan simply took all the salmon back to the kitchen. He explained to me, “This salmon isn’t fresh. I’ll buy you fresh salmon next time.” I no longer had the desire to speak. The salmon he’d specially had flown in. How could it not be fresh? Clearly, Sabrina was pregnant and couldn’t eat raw food. So he took all the salmon away. But he forgot that I loved salmon the most. After a while, Ethan brought out the birthday cake. Sabrina asked pitifully, “Can I make a wish too?” Ethan’s expression remained serious, but he still said, “Yes.” Sabrina immediately clasped her hands together, closed her eyes, looking very devout. “I hope every birthday from now on, I can spend it with my lover and child.” Her eyes glistened with tears. Ethan still had a stern face, but his eyes unconsciously softened. I took all of this in. I put down my fork. “You two eat. I’m done.” With that, I stood up and went upstairs. I really didn’t want to watch these two people act anymore, didn’t want to be involved in anything between them anymore.

Vivian’s POV I went upstairs alone. Not long after, footsteps sounded in the hallway. Sabrina walked in, her face showing a triumphant and arrogant smile. She sat down on the edge of the bed and crossed her legs. “Vivian, your room is so shabby. But then again, no wonder. The Hunt family doesn’t recognize you as Ethan’s wife.” I sat by the window, ignoring her. Sabrina continued, “Last time on your anniversary, Ethan said he had to work overtime and couldn’t be with you. Actually, he took me to the Maldives.” She pulled out her phone, scrolled through several photos, and thrust them in front of me. A beach at sunset. Ethan was half-kneeling on the ground, tying Sabrina’s shoelaces. In another, he sat on a couch with Sabrina lying on his lap while he massaged her feet. “He cares about me so much. When I said my feet hurt, he immediately rubbed them. When I said I wanted strawberries from the farm, he went to buy them for me in the middle of the night.” Sabrina’s smile grew even more arrogant. “Remember that day when it was pouring rain and he told you to take a cab home yourself? That day he was at my place. We were in bed. How could he have time for you?” My fingers tightened slightly, but I still didn’t acknowledge her. Seeing me remain silent, Sabrina became even more enthusiastic. She leaned close to me and lowered her voice. “He told me you just lie there like a dead fish in bed, that having sex with you is no fun at all. I’m the one who understands him, who knows what positions he likes.” I finally raised my head and looked at her calmly. “Are you done?” Sabrina froze, probably not expecting me to react so coldly. She continued, “You really think he loves you? Vivian, he stopped loving you long ago. What he feels for you is responsibility, gratitude.” “But your family shouldn’t be too greedy. He’s the Hunt heir now. You’re not good enough for him. Leave on your own. Don’t cling to him.” My voice was flat. “Are you finished? If so, get out.” Sabrina was enraged by my indifferent attitude. She suddenly stood up, looking down at me from above. “Did he tell you he doesn’t want children? But I’m pregnant!” “Ethan personally promised that the child in my belly will be the Hunt heir. There won’t be any other children. He watched you suffer the Hunt family’s difficulties and still didn’t want to have a child with you. What are you still doing here?” I lowered my eyes. That sentence did hurt. But I’d already decided to leave. I didn’t want to think about these things anymore. Seeing me still silent, viciousness flashed in Sabrina’s eyes. She grabbed me and dragged me toward the stairs. At the top of the stairs, Sabrina suddenly threw herself backward, rolling down the stairs. Her head hit the steps, and blood immediately gushed out. Not only that, blood also seeped between her legs. Sabrina lay at the bottom of the stairs, shrieking, “Why did you push me!” Ethan heard the sound and rushed over quickly. Seeing blood flowing from both Sabrina’s forehead and legs, his pupils constricted sharply. “Sabrina, how are you?” Tears kept falling from Sabrina’s eyes. “I told Vivian I was pregnant, and she pushed me. Ethan, save me, save my baby!” Ethan suddenly raised his head and glared at me. Ethan stared at me, his voice frighteningly cold. “When did you become so vicious!” I just found it laughable. Sabrina actually used such a crude method to frame me. I opened my mouth, about to say “I didn’t push her, there are cameras.” Before I could speak, Ethan slapped me across the face. After hitting me, he didn’t look at me again. He picked up Sabrina and headed out. “Don’t be afraid. We’ll go to the hospital right away. The baby will be fine.” Sabrina nestled in his arms, turned her head, and looked at me triumphantly. I stood there, my fingers lightly touching the side of my face that had been struck. I could barely feel the pain in my face. Because my heart hurt too much. I thought my heart had died long ago, gone numb, that it wouldn’t hurt anymore. I didn’t expect it to still hurt. Just then, my phone rang. The caller ID showed: Dad. I took a deep breath, suppressed all my emotions, and answered the call. “Dad-” I didn’t even get to finish. My mom’s panicked voice came through the phone. “Vivian, get to the hospital right away! Something happened to your father!”

Vivian’s POV Hearing that Dad had an accident, I didn’t care about anything else and rushed to the hospital in a panic. Outside the emergency room, my mom kept pacing back and forth. Seeing me arrive, she immediately rushed over and grabbed my hand, her lips trembling. “Vivian, something happened to your dad.” I forced myself to calm down and helped Mom sit. “Mom, don’t panic. Tell me slowly, what happened?” It turned out that Sabrina had also gone to our house today. Sabrina showed Mom and Dad the video from last time, when Ethan sent bodyguards to hold me down and take Grandma’s bracelet. She also said many hurtful things. “You need to see clearly. Ethan treats Vivian like an enemy now.” “With one word from the Hunt family, they could bankrupt you.” Dad was very angry. Not long after Sabrina left, he suddenly clutched his chest and collapsed. After being rushed to the hospital, the doctor said he had a myocardial infarction and needed surgery immediately, or he wouldn’t survive. But just now, all the cardiac surgeons in the hospital had been called away to treat Mr. Hunt’s wife. No one could perform surgery on my dad. My mom wiped her tears. “They said Mr. Hunt. Who is that? How can they do things this way? They called all the doctors away. What about the other patients?” “Vivian, think of something to save your dad!” All the blood in my body froze. Mr. Hunt. That was Ethan. He’d called all the good doctors to treat Sabrina. My hands trembled as I dialed Ethan’s number. The phone rang for a long time. No one answered. I called again. Still no answer. The third time, it was hung up directly. I grabbed a nurse’s arm. “Where is Mr. Hunt? Please tell me!” The nurse was startled by me. “In the VIP section of the inpatient building, the innermost room on the third floor.” I’d just reached the third floor when two bodyguards blocked me. The bodyguards recognized me, looking conflicted. “Miss Gray, Mr. Hunt said he’s not seeing anyone today.” I pleaded with red eyes, “My dad needs emergency surgery. Please let me in!” The bodyguard shook his head. “Don’t waste your effort. Go find another doctor.” I had no other doctors to find, and no time to find them. I shouted from the stairwell, “Ethan!” The bodyguard pressed down on my shoulder. “He can’t hear you. This room is soundproof.” I broke down. I shouted loudly, “Ethan! My dad is dying! Please! Give me back the doctors!” “Ethan! Come out! I’m begging you!” But there was no response from the room. My phone rang. It was Mom calling. I answered, and on the other end was Mom’s anguished crying. “Vivian, stop looking. Your dad is dead.” Mom and I buried Dad together. On the day of the funeral, I knelt in front of Dad’s grave all day. It was all my fault. I let the wolf in the door and ultimately harmed Dad. Mom cried as she pulled me up. “Vivian, don’t think like that. It’s not your fault.” “Before your dad collapsed, he kept telling me you need to look forward, you’re still young.” The two of us cried in front of the grave. Mom and I went home together. I sold the house at a low price and came back to pack up our things. Looking at this house, my eyes reddened again. When Ethan first came to our house, he didn’t dare sit on the couch and always huddled in the corner. Dad moved a stool to sit beside him and talked to him. After Ethan slowly got better, he would voluntarily wipe the table and wash dishes. He always said, “I can never repay the kindness they’ve shown me in this lifetime.” When the Hunt family took him back, Dad actually didn’t agree with us continuing our relationship. “Ethan, you’re the Hunt heir now. You and Vivian aren’t from the same world. I don’t want Vivian to be wronged in the future.” Ethan knelt before Dad. “Vivian saved my life. In this life, I’ll only marry Vivian. I’ll only be good to her. I’ll never let her suffer even a little.” I thought, if I could choose again, that day I passed the sports equipment room, I wouldn’t open that door again. My phone rang. “Miss Gray, the new identity has been arranged. The original identity can be deactivated at any time.” Mom came out of the kitchen carrying a plate of pasta. “Vivian, eat a little. Your dad wanted us to look forward. We need to take care of ourselves.” The two of us ate a few bites of pasta and packed up our luggage. I took Mom to a nearby hotel to stay temporarily, then returned to the home I shared with Ethan myself. I began packing my own luggage. Of my own belongings, except for necessities, I threw everything else away. The jewelry, bags, and clothes Ethan gave me, I left them all behind. The shirts, ties, and watches I bought for Ethan, I threw them all away. I also threw away all our photos together. On the table, I left a simple ring. That was what Ethan bought me with his first month’s part-time job salary. I didn’t want it anymore. During this time, Ethan didn’t call once. Instead, my phone pushed a news notification: “Mysterious woman hospitalized for pregnancy preservation, Hunt Corporation CEO stays by her side day and night.” I glanced at it and swiped it away. None of this had anything to do with me anymore. Finally, I came to the yard. There was an oak tree there, planted the year we moved in together. Ethan had said, “When we’re old, we can sit in the shade under this tree. It will be a witness to our happy life together.” I never expected it was all an illusion. Everything should end. I picked up an axe and chopped down that small tree, strike after strike. After packing everything, I got in the car without looking back, not sparing the house another glance. After picking up Mom from the hotel, we headed to the airport. Staff were already waiting at the airport. I took the new identity documents from him, pulled out my SIM card in front of him, broke it, and threw it in the trash. “Tell your boss that Vivian will never see Ethan again. Tell her not to worry.” He nodded. Mom and I boarded the plane. Ethan, let’s never see each other again in this lifetime.

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After marrying the heir worth three hundred billion, I put his used CK underwear up for sale online. When his underwear kept disappearing, he frowned and began to suspect there was a thief in the house. With a wave of his hand, he installed eighty-eight hidden cameras throughout the house, determined to catch the underwear thief. That’s how I got caught. When he discovered the underwear thief was actually me, he flew into a rage. “Hudson! Have you lost your mind from being broke? You’re actually stealing my underwear to sell!” “Do I not give you enough to wear or spend? You just can’t shake that poverty stench, can you!” I was about to explain when he threw new underwear in my face. “Since you love stealing things to sell so much, I’ll just pay your living expenses in underwear from now on!” Then he left without looking back, leaving me clutching the medical report I hadn’t had a chance to hand him. It read in bold letters: Late-stage gastric cancer. I’d just been diagnosed today. I hadn’t even paid the examination fee yet.

The bill amount was two hundred and fifty dollars. I picked up the underwear scattered on the floor, wiped off the dust, and continued listing it online. Priced at eighty-eight dollars per pair, forty-two pairs sold. I glanced at it twice, closed the page, and called Henry. “Henry, let’s get divorced.” Two seconds of silence on the other end, followed by a scoff. Then came a woman’s voice, syrupy sweet and mocking. “Oh, Hudson, how much are you trying to squeeze out of Henry this time? Come up with a new trick already?” It was Aurora, a famous beauty and the daughter-in-law Henry’s parents truly wanted. Henry didn’t say anything. But I could imagine his expression—brows knitted, lips pressed into a thin line, eyes cold as ice. That was how he looked at me every time, especially after what happened five years ago. Back then, Henry’s society lady mother came to see me. Before I could even say hello, she handed me a check for five million dollars. “Leave my son. This money is yours.” I took the check and agreed to break up. Not because I loved money, but because my mom had just been diagnosed with late-stage cancer. Chemotherapy was a bottomless pit—one day in the ICU could burn through ten to twenty thousand dollars. Henry had just started his business right before that, and I’d transferred all my savings to him as startup capital. I hadn’t kept a single penny. His company was just getting off the ground and couldn’t scrape together even five hundred thousand. He ran around every day chasing investors, so exhausted he’d collapse into bed as soon as he got home. That five million was my only way out. Later, his company came back from the brink and grew to a market value of three hundred billion. He was also acknowledged by the elite Franklin family—truly reaching the pinnacle of success. But then he came to find me, saying he wanted to marry me. I thought he’d learned the truth and was repaying his debt. Instead, on our wedding night, he told me: “Hudson, I’m marrying you just so you can see how much the man you abandoned for being poor is worth now.” He didn’t know my mom died anyway. He didn’t know I’d gotten on my knees in front of his mother that day, begging her not to tell Henry the truth. On the other end of the phone, Henry finally spoke. “Divorce is fine.” His voice was calm, like he was discussing a business deal. “Leave with nothing. Don’t expect to take a single penny.” “Also,” he paused, “return everything I gave you in cash.” What had he given me? For our third anniversary, he gave me a Cartier necklace. I later discovered it was a knockoff and was laughed at by high society ladies for a whole month. The bag he gave me for my birthday came with a receipt inside, but the price had been blacked out. The only valuable thing was the wedding ring. But the next day, someone came to “borrow” it, saying it needed to be resized. It was never returned. I calculated—if I converted all these things to cash, they’d be worth about ten thousand dollars at most. “Fine,” I said. Silence on the other end for a few seconds. He probably hadn’t expected me to agree so readily. Aurora spoke again, her voice tinged with laughter: “See, Henry? I told you. She can’t wait to take the money and run. Five years ago she could abandon you for money, and now she’s willing to leave with nothing—she’s probably latched onto an even bigger sugar daddy.” Henry didn’t respond to her. He just said coldly, “Hudson, you really are something,” then hung up. I folded the payment slip twice and stuffed it in my pocket. Then I counted the new underwear he’d thrown at me—a hundred pairs total. At eighty-eight dollars per pair, that was eight thousand eight hundred dollars. It should be enough for my divorce.

Henry and I got together in college. He’d tested out of poverty-stricken rural nowhere, top of our entire department. My parents didn’t approve. They said we were from different worlds, and I’d suffer for it later. I didn’t listen. After graduation, I left with him. When he was starting his business, we lived in a basement to save money. Water pipes ran across the ceiling. The sound of upstairs neighbors flushing toilets echoed through the night. The dampness was so heavy our bedding never dried. He held me and said I’m sorry you have to go through this. I said it’s not hard, as long as you’re here. When we were young, we thought that was forever. Neither of us expected my mom would be diagnosed with cancer then. So when his mother handed me that five million dollar check, I took it. Then I broke up with him. He asked me why. I said I was tired, didn’t love him anymore, didn’t want to live in poverty. He stared at me for a long time, his gaze heavy, and said, “Hudson, don’t regret this.” Later, when he came to marry me, I thought he’d uncovered the truth. Instead, it was his carefully planned revenge. At first, I did think about telling him the truth. Not long after we married, I gathered courage for ages and told him everything about what happened back then, from beginning to end. But after listening, he looked at me like I was a joke: “Hudson, you’re better at making up stories than you are at having taste.” He didn’t believe me. So I stopped trying. I thought if I was good enough to him, he’d eventually see. He was picky about food, so I got up at five every morning to make congee. He had lots of business dinners, so I’d make hangover soup and wait for him every night. He was a perfectionist—shirts had to be hand-washed, collars had to be pressed. I did all of it myself. Until he started bringing other women home. The first was a minor celebrity, the second was an investment banker, the third I didn’t recognize. Every one of them wore perfect makeup, had killer bodies, and carried themselves with elegance. That night at 2 AM, he brought yet another strange woman through the door. This time, I finally broke down. I stood in the hallway, eyes red, blocking his path. “Henry, please don’t do this.” He glanced at me like I was a piece of furniture in the way. “Move.” “I can pretend nothing happened, just leave me some dignity…” “Dignity?” He laughed. “A woman who’d do anything for money wants to talk to me about dignity?” He walked past me with that woman in his arms, his words cutting like ice. “You’re no different from them. Except they have clear prices. You don’t even need to name one.” My heart felt like it had been stabbed clean through, one strike fatal. After that, I never tried to stop him from bringing women home again. But I started having sleepless nights, sitting on the living room sofa waiting for dawn. That’s when my stomach problems started. At first it only hurt when I ate. Later it got worse and worse, eventually hurting so badly I’d shake all over. But he only gave me a hundred dollars a month for living expenses. I couldn’t even afford decent stomach medicine. I could only hide it from him and work as a waitress, serving plates from 5 PM to 3 AM, earning eighty dollars a day.

Today I worked my usual shift until 3 AM. When I got home, I pulled out my key. The door was locked from inside. I pressed the doorbell. The maid’s voice came through the intercom. “Sir brought Miss Aurora home and specifically instructed that no one is to be let in tonight.” The night frost was heavy. Shivering from cold, I begged through gritted teeth: “Can you just let me in for a moment? I’ll just grab a coat and leave, okay?” “Please don’t make this difficult for us.” Clutching my still-aching stomach, I slowly slid down along the door and curled into a ball. The maid muttered something inside. The sound wasn’t loud, but the soundproofing was poor—I heard it. “Coming home reeking of cooking oil every night. I don’t know why the master married someone like her in the first place.” My stomach started cramping again. Crouching by the door, cold sweat streamed down my forehead. My vision kept going dark until I finally collapsed, unable to control it. When I opened my eyes again, I found myself lying on the ground. I don’t know how long I’d been lying there. My clothes were soaked with dew. I climbed up and wiped the corner of my mouth with my sleeve. Blood. A wave of desolation swept through me. I hugged myself, curled up on the front steps. Trying to find some warmth this way. I thought of the year Henry and I lived in that basement. That winter was especially cold too. The basement had no heat. To warm my hands and feet, Henry would go jogging outside every night. He’d come back steaming with body heat and dive under the covers to wrap me up. His body was hot as a furnace, but his hands and feet were freezing. He’d deliberately press them against my waist, making me shrink from the cold. I asked why his hands were so cold. He said the wind got to them while jogging outside. I said then don’t jog anymore. He held me tight: “No way. If I don’t jog I won’t have body heat, and you’ll be cold while sleeping.” And now, looking at the luxurious mansion before me, I felt nothing but alienation. When the maid woke up and opened the door, I was leaning against the doorframe, face pale green, lips white, half my body stiff and numb. I dragged my stiff legs into the living room. The house was silent. When I reached the entrance, the gossiping voices of two maids in the break room were especially grating. “She froze all night and still didn’t leave?” “Right? Miss Aurora already spent the night upstairs, and she’s still clinging here. Really shameless.” I said nothing and walked straight into the kitchen. After searching for ages, I finally found a package of stale oatmeal deep in the cupboard. I mixed it with water and put it on the stove. Just as the ginger water finished cooking, Aurora walked in wearing a silk bathrobe. Her exposed snow-white skin was covered with faint red marks, painful to look at. She wore delicate no-makeup makeup. When she looked at the shabby bowl of oatmeal in my hands, her eyes filled with disgust. “Henry’s already planning to give me this villa as an engagement gift. If you’re smart, pack up your junk and get out now. Save yourself the humiliation of being thrown out by security later.” I ignored her and tried to walk around her with the bowl. The moment we passed each other, Aurora’s peripheral vision caught the staircase. She suddenly cried out and slammed into my arm. “Ah!” The bowl in my hands immediately flipped over, the entire bowl of scalding oatmeal spilling onto my hand and thigh. My skin instantly turned bright red, searing pain drilling into my core. Aurora fell to the floor in a sitting position, covering the back of her hand with a sob in her voice. “Miss Hudson, I was just trying to help you with the bowl. Even if you don’t like me, you shouldn’t splash hot porridge on me…” Urgent footsteps came from upstairs. Henry came down with a dark expression, striding over to help Aurora up. Looking at the ceramic shards and water on the floor, his gaze was sharp as a blade. “Hudson, what are you doing?” “I didn’t splash her.” I endured the severe pain on the back of my hand, my voice dry. Aurora hid in Henry’s arms: “Henry, don’t blame Miss Hudson. Maybe I said something careless earlier and she misunderstood.” Only a small patch on the back of her hand was red. But large blisters were rapidly forming on the back of my hand, which Henry completely ignored. “Apologize.” I looked at him and said coldly, “She ran into me herself.” “I’ll say it one more time. Apologize to Aurora.” The disgust in his eyes nearly overflowed. “A woman with poverty in her bones like you—what else can you do besides these lowlife tactics?” I looked into his eyes and didn’t argue another word. I just lowered my head and pulled out a bankbook from my pocket, its edges worn fuzzy. I held the bankbook out in front of Henry. “You said before that to get divorced, I’d have to return everything you gave me over the years in cash.” “This is all the money I can come up with. See if it’s enough. If it’s not enough, I’ll work to earn the rest and pay you back slowly.” Henry looked at the bankbook without reaching to take it, his brows knitted even tighter. Aurora moved first, swiftly snatching the bankbook from my hands. “Oh my, looks like Miss Hudson has saved quite a nice ‘nest egg’ behind Henry’s back these years.” Her voice dripped with sarcasm as she opened the bankbook. The smile on her lips froze instantly when she saw the number. Then she laughed mockingly: “Three thousand one hundred and twenty-six dollars and five cents? Hudson, are you giving charity to beggars or putting on a show here?” She tossed the bankbook onto the coffee table in front of Henry. Henry’s expression looked terrible. To someone worth three hundred billion like him, this probably couldn’t even buy a single bolt on his car wheel. “Hudson, are you mocking me with this pocket change?” He raised his head, eyes cold as ice. “Or do you think asking for divorce will get my attention?” “This is all the money I have.” “If it’s not enough, I’ll work more. I’ll pay you back two thousand a month. Eventually I’ll pay it all off.” Henry stared at the bankbook, an indecipherable irritation flashing in his eyes. He suddenly stood up. “This little money? I’d be embarrassed to take it out. I can’t believe you’d pull such a pathetic stunt.” Aurora hummed delicately from the side: “Henry, don’t bother with her. My hand hurts so much. I hope it doesn’t scar.” Henry didn’t spare me another glance. He put his arm around Aurora’s waist and walked toward the door without looking back. “Come on, I’ll take you to the hospital.” The sound of the engine gradually faded. The villa fell silent again. Enduring the pain, I went to the medicine cabinet and found a tube of burn ointment that was about to expire. The ointment on the red, blistered skin triggered piercing pain. I gritted my teeth and wrapped the back of my hand in gauze, layer by layer. After treating the wound, I took the bankbook upstairs. The study door wasn’t locked. I pulled open the bottom drawer of his desk and pressed the bankbook under several hundred-billion-dollar contracts. He found this money embarrassing, but I had to repay it. Late in the evening, my phone vibrated on the table. It was Aurora calling. “Hudson, Henry’s at ‘Nightfall’ bar. He said since you want to earn money to pay your debt, here’s an opportunity. If you can make him happy, he might waive the rest of what you owe.” After she hung up, I laughed self-deprecatingly. Even if there was only a thread of hope, I wanted to clear my debt to Henry before I died and leave with a clean slate.

When I arrived at the bar’s private room and pushed the door open, smoke filled the air inside. Henry sat in the middle leather sofa, a half-burned cigarette between his fingers. Aurora pressed herself bonelessly against him. Seeing me push through the door, Aurora raised an eyebrow and said to Henry with feigned surprise and a delicate laugh: “See Henry, I told you. Miss Hudson runs faster than anyone when she hears there’s money to be made. Even coming to a nightclub isn’t a problem for her.” Henry lifted his eyelids, looking at me through the curling smoke. His face was terribly dark, his fingers gripping the glass white at the knuckles, disgust thick in his eyes. He spoke, his voice hoarse and icy cold. “You’re this desperate for money?” I stood by the dimly lit doorway, the burn on my hand still throbbing dully: “Henry, as long as I can pay you back, anything is fine.” “Good. Very good.” Henry suddenly laughed coldly. He signaled someone nearby to bring over a briefcase. When opened, it was filled with stacks of cash. “Hudson, since you love money so much, I’ll give you a chance.” He tapped the ash from his cigarette, saying word by word: “Take off one piece of clothing, ten thousand dollars.” I looked at that row of checks and didn’t hesitate, reaching to unbutton my coat. There were several of Henry’s friends in the room. The moment they saw my action, mocking laughter came from around us. Henry stared at me fixedly, veins pulsing at his temple. He seemed not to have expected me to agree so readily. The fury in his eyes nearly consumed me. “Hudson, if you’re really this desperate for money, turn left when you leave—there’s a red light district. Just go sell yourself directly, wouldn’t that make money faster!” Aurora leaned on Henry’s shoulder, laughing until she shook: “Henry, don’t say that. Miss Hudson is earning money through her ‘skills.’” I said nothing and continued raising my hand, my fingertips touching the collar button of the thin shirt underneath. One button, two buttons. When the shirt slid off, revealing the black bra straps underneath and my shockingly thin collarbones, the mockery on Henry’s face finally couldn’t hold. He suddenly stood up, grabbing my wrist that was about to continue unbuttoning. His grip was so strong it felt like he’d crush my bones. “Enough!” He roared, his voice carrying a certain agitation. “You want a divorce this badly?” He glared at me, his eyes bloodshot. “Fine, I’ll grant your wish. You want to repay the money? Drink this bottle of whiskey, and I’ll write off the rest of the debt. I’ll sign the divorce papers tomorrow.” With a “bang,” he slammed an unopened bottle of strong whiskey heavily on the coffee table. Aurora paused, then looked at me with some excitement. I looked at that bottle of alcohol. My stomach was already beginning to ache faintly. The doctor said that with my stage of gastric cancer, alcohol was a death sentence. But I just nodded and reached for the bottle. “Alright. It’s a deal.” I pulled out the cork, tilted my head back, and poured it down my throat. The burning liquid scorched down my throat and into my stomach, burning my organs until they hurt. Henry stood there watching me, his expression shifting from anger to shock. When the bottle was half empty, he finally couldn’t take it anymore and violently swept the glasses off the table. “Get out! All of you get out!” Without looking at me once, he grabbed his car keys, pulled Aurora into his arms, and rushed out of the room. The door slammed shut with a “bang.” Seeing this, those rich second-generation friends also slipped out one after another. The huge private room was instantly left with only me. I still clutched the remaining half bottle of alcohol in my hand, my body sliding powerlessly onto the thick carpet. That pain was fiercer than any time before. My stomach felt like it was being ground by a meat grinder. I curled into a ball, cold sweat instantly soaking my entire body. “Urgh—” A fishy sweetness suddenly rushed up my throat. Lying on the ground, mouthfuls of fresh blood gushed from my mouth. I propped myself up, trying to get the painkillers from my pocket, but my fingers wouldn’t work. My vision began to blur. Henry, I’ve finally returned the dignity you wanted.

🌟 Continue the story here 👉🏻 📲 Download the “NovelMaster” app 🔍 search for “396510”, and watch the full series ✨! #NovelMaster

The whole hospital said that my fiancé Fernandez blocked a knife from a violent patient for me, loving me to the bone. I waited eight years for our wedding. I gave everything to his medical career. Even after being stood up seven times at the marriage license office, I never complained. I stayed up countless nights writing papers to help him get promoted to Associate Chief Physician, giving up my own advancement to stay at this small hospital. After finishing my Valentine’s Day night shift, I took out the wedding rings I’d bought, wanting to surprise him and bring up registering our marriage again. But he just loosened his tie and irritably pushed my hand away. “Stop making a fuss! Don’t you know how busy the department has been lately?” My heart sank with bitterness. He went to hand over his shift. Suddenly, a message popped up on the smartwatch he’d left on the desk. I glanced at it reflexively. The sender’s name was actually “Wife.” “I’ve booked the Valentine’s Day honeymoon suite. Our family of three can go see the ocean.” He has a wife? My mind went blank. Then I found his other Instagram account. The photo album was full of him in a suit, kissing another woman passionately. Yesterday he’d even posted a prenatal checkup report. Footsteps echoed from the stairwell corridor. I threw the wedding rings into the trash. I sent all the evidence of his embezzlement to the hospital director. Let me send you one more big gift for your honeymoon trip. Let’s see if you can handle it.

I pressed Enter. The mouse arrow froze on the words “Sent Successfully.” This was the first time in eight years I hadn’t compromised. The email attachments contained all the evidence I’d collected of Fernandez’s embezzlement and illegal kickbacks. This was enough to get him taken away by the anti-corruption department for investigation on his first day back at work. Taking a deep breath, I suppressed my rage at being betrayed and walked toward my general practice office. I wanted to see with my own eyes how pathetic he’d look when suspended for investigation. I pushed open the office door. The person inside wasn’t Fernandez. My desk had been completely cleared out. The medical textbooks that used to sit on my desk were thrown in the trash. The matching couple’s cups I’d bought were also shattered into pieces, soaking in dirty water. Ivanka sat in my office chair. She wore the white coat I’d stayed up all night embroidering Fernandez’s name on. She was leisurely applying lipstick using my makeup mirror. “What are you doing? Who gave you permission to touch my personal belongings!” I strode forward and demanded sharply. Ivanka turned her head, looked me up and down, and sneered with contempt. “Dr. Nadal, do you still think you’re the star physician here?” “You’re involved in serious misconduct. This office no longer belongs to you.” I stood there frozen, not yet understanding what she meant. Familiar footsteps came from outside the door. Fernandez walked in with a cold expression. He threw a disciplinary document stamped with an official seal right in my face. The paper scraped across my cheek, stinging sharply. I looked down at the document on the floor. The bold text was striking. “Suspension Notice Regarding Nadal’s Suspected Theft of Patient Privacy and Tampering with Department Financial Data.” “Fernandez, have you lost your mind?” I stared at him intensely. His eyes held none of their former affection, only coldness and disgust. “Nadal, the evidence is irrefutable. You still have the nerve to question me?” As soon as he finished speaking, several colleagues who’d been on good terms with me crowded through the door. Leading them was Barbara, the senior financial supervisor I’d mentored personally. Barbara’s eyes flickered away for a moment, then she pointed at me and accused loudly. “Director Fernandez, I saw with my own eyes that Dr. Nadal used your computer to download patient information and modified last month’s supply accounts!” “When she gave them to me to sign, I thought you’d authorized it. Who knew she had such evil intentions!” My head buzzed. Over these eight years, to help Fernandez get promoted to Associate Chief Physician, I’d been the one covering up all his messy accounts. When Barbara’s elderly relative got sick, I’d paid her medical expenses out of my own pocket. Now, to curry favor with the soon-to-be-promoted Fernandez, she directly came forward to give false testimony against me. Ivanka stood up at this moment and intimately took Fernandez’s arm. She squeezed out two tears from the corners of her eyes, putting on a sympathetic act. “Nadal, I know you’re jealous that Fernandez got promoted quickly, but you can’t sell patient privacy for money.” “Fernandez is a sentimental person. If you just kneel down and apologize now, he’ll definitely protect you in front of the director.” She kept saying “Fernandez, Fernandez” in a way that made me sick. “I sold privacy? These accounts were clearly…” I pulled out my phone to retrieve the original backup from the cloud to refute them. Fernandez didn’t give me a chance to speak. He directly called the security guards at the door. “Security! Drag this emotionally unstable rule-breaker out. Don’t let her make a scene here!” Two security guards rushed in and clamped down on both my arms. My phone was knocked to the ground, the screen shattered to pieces. I struggled to raise my head and met Fernandez’s condescending gaze. “Nadal, don’t blame me for being ruthless.” “Starting today, I’ll make you notorious throughout Chicago’s entire medical system.” The security guards roughly dragged me out of the office. The hallway was full of doctors and patients giving me strange looks. But I didn’t expect that an even greater crisis was waiting for me outside the outpatient building.

The security guards pushed me out of the lobby without mercy. The steps outside had just been rained on. I stumbled and fell heavily into the muddy water. My knee scraped open, but I couldn’t care about the pain. The automatic sensing door of the outpatient building closed mercilessly behind me. I stood dazed in the cold wind with nowhere to go. Suddenly, a man rushed out from the shadows by the flower bed. He was disheveled with bloodshot eyes, clutching a butcher knife. “Nadal! Quack! I’ll kill you!” My pupils contracted. It was the family member of a patient who’d caused a disturbance in the emergency department eight years ago over surgical complications! That surgery was clearly performed by Fernandez. I’d taken the family’s anger for him, even spending a full day and night with him at the police station giving statements. Why would he appear at this moment? And how did he know my name exactly? I had no time to think. Instinct drove me to turn and run back. The blade swept past my ear, cutting off a strand of my hair. I ran desperately toward the side safety passage, trying to rush through the door to seek help. Just as I was about to grasp the door handle, that heavy glass door was slammed shut from inside. It was Fernandez. He stood right behind the door, pulling the terrified Ivanka into his arms, dragging her into the passage and locking the safety latch. With a “click.” The lock engaged. My last hope vanished. He’d shut me out in the danger zone. The violent patient’s footsteps closed in behind me. I pounded desperately on the thick glass with both hands, tears flooding my eyes. “Fernandez! Open the door! Please open the door!” Inside, Fernandez watched me quietly through the glass. His eyes held no panic or compassion. He even raised one hand to cover Ivanka’s eyes. To completely destroy my will, he pulled out his phone with his other hand and aimed it at me struggling desperately outside. He was recording. No, that was the hospital’s internal work group livestream interface! He explained to the camera in a calm tone. “Colleagues, look closely. This is what happens when you violate regulations and provoke family members with a bad attitude.” “Dr. Nadal is the best cautionary tale for all of you.” “Rip!” The sound of fabric tearing. The blade behind me viciously slashed my left arm. Blood instantly gushed out, staining a large portion of my white shirt red. I screamed in pain and collapsed in front of the glass door. The patrolling SWAT officers finally arrived at this moment, pinning the family member down with riot forks. The instant the family member was subdued, Fernandez suddenly pushed open the safety door and strode out. He didn’t glance at me lying in a pool of blood. Instead, he walked straight to the police and pointed accusingly. “Officers, it was Dr. Nadal’s bad attitude and insulting words during communication that caused the family member to lose emotional control.” “Our hospital will fully cooperate with the police investigation.” I clutched my bleeding arm alone, trembling all over as I raised my head. I only saw him carrying the unharmed Ivanka in his arms, striding toward the emergency department. “Quick! Prepare a stretcher! Ivanka has been severely frightened. Her heart rate is elevated!” The cold wind penetrated my clothes. I vowed to make him pay the price. But as soon as I entered the treatment room, even worse news followed.

The emergency department corridor was bustling with people, but no one would stop to help me. The nurses who used to greet me with smiles now all stayed far away. I dragged my bleeding arm and walked alone into the empty treatment room. I picked up the forceps and suture thread from the tray. Without anesthesia, I gritted my teeth and pushed the bloody needle through my own flesh. Fine cold sweat soaked through my back. I didn’t make a sound of pain. Just as I was tying the last stitch, my phone in my pocket vibrated frantically. The screen was shattered like a spider web, but I could barely make out it was my PhD advisor from overseas calling. As soon as I answered, my advisor’s angry voice came through. “Nadal! You’ve disappointed me so much!” “The medical association just received a transatlantic complaint letter from your fiancé Fernandez.” “He’s accusing you of plagiarizing all his original clinical data in every paper you published in core journals over these eight years!” My head buzzed. That data was clearly earned through my countless sleepless nights in the lab. I’d even voluntarily given up first authorship for his sake. My advisor’s voice trembled with anger. “Your hospital’s internal network has already submitted evidence from your work computer.” “There’s even a forged academic misconduct confession written by you!” “I’ve already applied to the medical association on behalf of the academy to revoke your medical license. Do what you will!” The call was mercilessly hung up. The dial tone stabbed at my nerves. Good. Really good. Destroy my career, ruin my reputation. Fernandez, you’re truly ruthless. I grabbed the medical gauze nearby and roughly wrapped it around my arm. I stood up and kicked open the door to the emergency VIP ward. The scene inside stung my eyes. Fernandez sat at the bedside, holding a bowl of bird’s nest soup. He blew on it gently with a tender expression and fed it to Ivanka, who was leaning against the headboard. As soon as Ivanka looked up and saw me covered in blood, she immediately screamed. She dramatically clutched her stomach and burrowed into Fernandez’s arms. “Oh no! Fernandez, my stomach hurts so much. Am I going to have a miscarriage?” Fernandez’s expression changed drastically. He put down the bowl and charged over furiously. He swung his arm and slapped me hard across the face. Already suffering from blood loss, this slap knocked me to the ground. My ears rang. Before I could get up, a plastic bottle hit me squarely in the face. It was the expired folic acid I’d been about to throw in the trash this morning. Fernandez pointed at my nose condescendingly, his voice loud enough for the entire corridor to hear. “Nadal, what’s wrong with you!” “Ivanka is carrying my child. If you hurt her, I’ll make you pay with your life!” “Look at yourself. What good did taking folic acid for eight years do? You’re a useless waste who can’t even lay an egg!” The doorway was already crowded with medical staff and patients watching the spectacle. Mocking voices came from all around. “So she can’t have children. No wonder Director Fernandez is replacing her.” “Academic fraud, bad character, and she’s infertile too.” “Poor Dr. Fernandez, entangled with this poisonous woman for eight years.” These words humiliated me deeply. I gritted my teeth and forcibly swallowed the bloody taste in my throat, then turned and left the hospital. But I didn’t expect that even worse things were still ahead.

Covered in injuries, I returned to the rental apartment where Fernandez and I had lived together for eight years. I’d paid the down payment for this place with my salary, but it was under his name. I habitually entered the password, but the screen flashed with glaring red lights. “Incorrect password.” The door lock had been changed. The new fingerprint lock refused me entry. Footsteps came from around the corner of the hallway. Fernandez led Ivanka by the hand, walking out unhurriedly. Following behind them was actually my gambling-addicted uncle John. “John? What are you doing here?” I looked at him in shock. John didn’t look at me. His eyes were fixed on the bank card in Fernandez’s hand. Fernandez threw the card on the ground with a cold laugh. “A hundred thousand dollars for both of Nadal’s knees. You’re getting a bargain.” John picked up the card, his eyes lighting up. Then he walked viciously to my side. For that hundred thousand dollars, he kicked the back of my knee. My legs buckled and I fell uncontrollably to my knees. John roughly pressed down on the back of my head, forcing me to kowtow to Ivanka in public. “Hurry up and kneel and kowtow to Director Fernandez and Miss Ivanka to apologize!” “You unfilial girl, you dare come home after doing wrong? You’ve ruined their work!” I refused to lower my head and struggled desperately. John pulled out his phone. The screen showed a live surveillance feed from the ICU. Inside was my only living relative—my grandmother. “Nadal, I’ll say this once.” “If you don’t kneel, I’ll call right now and have someone pull your grandmother’s respirator!” “That old thing has lived long enough anyway!” I trembled violently with rage. At this moment, Ivanka raised her phone. The screen flashed with the red light of a live broadcast starting. Tens of thousands of viewers flooded into the livestream instantly. She spoke tearfully to the camera. “This is the poisonous woman named Nadal.” “She can’t have children herself, so she’s jealous that I’m pregnant with Fernandez’s child. She’s occupying our marital home and won’t leave, and she even hired someone to attack us!” The livestream chat exploded instantly, the screen filled with cyberbullying and curses directed at me. “Beat this homewrecker to death!” “Skin her alive!” To save my grandmother’s life, I bit my lower lip hard until I tasted rust. Under the condemnation of thousands, I closed my eyes. My knees fell heavily on the cold cement floor. I happened to make eye contact with Fernandez, who was watching coldly from the crowd. I screamed at him like a madwoman, asking why. Eight years of my youth—what had I done wrong to make him humiliate me like this! But Fernandez just disgustedly shook off my clothes and wiped his hands with a tissue. “Nadal, don’t be so petty. Ivanka was just joking with you.” Suddenly, a piercing siren sounded. The hallway instantly fell silent. Two riot police vehicles screeched to a halt downstairs. The entire building could hear footsteps rapidly approaching. Several armed SWAT officers rushed upstairs, grabbed Fernandez’s wrist, and pinned him against the wall. “Fernandez, you’re under arrest for embezzlement, misappropriation of public funds, and massive commercial bribery.” The cold handcuffs made a crisp collision sound in front of the livestream camera.

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That year of purest love, Wesley told me with red-rimmed eyes that her world was silent. To scrape together the two hundred thousand dollars for her cochlear implant, I worked three jobs a day. The calluses on my hands wore through layer after layer, and I couldn’t even bear to buy a one-dollar bottle of water. My friends all laughed at me for being foolish: “You’re literally selling yourself to buy her an ear!” I just smiled. As long as she could hear, anything I did would be worth it. The day Wesley got her cochlear implant, she held me and cried for a long time: “Ronald, you’re so good to me. I’ll never leave you for the rest of my life.” I held her tightly, planning out our future together. The night I had saved up enough money to propose to her, I saw Wesley leaning against the window smoking and talking on the phone. The cochlear implant I had bought her was carelessly thrown on the floor. Her friend’s sharp voice came through: “Have you actually fallen for that idiot? William will be back in three days!” She laughed, her tone casual: “What’s the rush? I’m not done playing yet. When William comes back, I’ll dump Ronald immediately.” I closed my eyes, my palms clenched tight. So her deafness had all been an act. My two years of wholehearted devotion had been nothing but a scam.

Two minutes later, Wesley stubbed out her cigarette and walked straight toward me, her finger lightly touching the corner of my eye. Her voice was low and husky: “Having a nightmare?” It was just a normal expression of concern, yet it sent chills through me. Disgust welled up as I swatted her hand away. I suddenly opened my eyes and met her gaze: “You lied to me. You don’t have any hearing impairment at all. Why would you do this?!” Unlike my breakdown, Wesley seemed to have been mentally prepared for this, as if she had anticipated this day would come. “What, I’m a normal person and you’re unhappy about it?” Wesley glanced at the cochlear implant on the table and sneered, as if it were just an insignificant decoration. “You’re the one who was full of himself. You’re the one who was willing to work and earn money to buy me the implant. From start to finish, you never asked for my opinion.” “I’ve already played along with you for two years—I’ve done more than enough. We’re still dating just fine now, so why dwell on these trivial matters!” Trivial matters? I couldn’t understand the person before me, couldn’t comprehend how she could lie to me and still feel so at ease. Back then, I had felt sorry for Wesley’s hearing impairment and how she never talked much with others. To help her regain confidence, I worked myself to the bone. During the most extreme few months, I even worked seven jobs a day, so busy I couldn’t even stop to drink water. My friend Johnson laughed at me for being the ultimate lovesick fool, saying I was destroying my body for a woman. I shook my head and shot back with my eyes full of concern: “You don’t know how hard the world is for disabled people. I don’t want to see Wesley excluded anymore. I want her to see and hear the beauty of this world!” Later, I finally bought the latest cochlear implant on the market. Wesley stared at my bloodshot eyes and abraded fingers, stunned for a long while. She reached out to touch my face, her eyes reddening: “Ronald, you’re so good to me. I’ll never let you down for the rest of my life.” Thinking back to those two years of sweet moments together, I felt nothing but chills running through my body. And the culprit acted as if nothing had happened, trampling all over my genuine feelings. “It’s all my fault for not explaining this misunderstanding in time. You wouldn’t break up with me over something this small, would you?” I opened my mouth blankly, unable to say a word. Wesley really knew how to manipulate people’s hearts. She knew how deeply I loved her, that I couldn’t bear to break up. Seeing me lower my head with my shoulders trembling slightly, a flash of something strange crossed Wesley’s eyes—perhaps a hint of guilt. “Alright, it’s all my fault. I won’t lie to you again, okay?” I was about to press her further about who this William from the phone call was when a sudden urgent ringtone interrupted me. Wesley’s usually composed eyes instantly filled with urgency—an excitement I had never seen before. “Ronald…” I opened my mouth to call her, but Wesley hastily changed clothes and rushed out the door, tossing out: “Something came up at work, I won’t be home for dinner!” But I saw through it immediately. This was just her clumsy excuse—her sweetheart from abroad must have returned. I laughed at myself bitterly, my chest aching dully.

I got up and threw the cochlear implant from the table into the trash, then looked around this modest apartment. After Wesley and I officially got together following graduation, she had me move into this place. It was close to the subway station, convenient for commuting to work. Whenever I asked about the origin of this apartment, Wesley would brush it off: “It was left by my family.” But what family would buy a newly renovated European-style apartment in the city center? It clearly had been personally designed by someone. But back then, my heart and mind were full of Wesley. I hadn’t noticed these odd details at all. No wonder Wesley could easily land an internship at a big company right after graduation despite her disability, not even needing an interview. No wonder Wesley rarely wore her cochlear implant—it wasn’t that she didn’t treasure it, but that she didn’t need it at all. So all of her experiences were fake. The hearing impairment was fake, the impoverished family background was fake, even her love for me and wanting to marry me were all fake! I closed my eyes, struggling to process the grief in my heart, thinking back to what she had said during that phone call. “Ronald is mine now. I’m not done playing yet!” “When William returns home, I’ll naturally marry him!” Wesley, you really hid it well! At seven in the evening, I packed up all my belongings in the house. Since I had decided to leave, I needed to leave cleanly. My gaze swept over every corner of the apartment—the matching couple’s dinnerware we bought together, the couple’s slippers, the potted plant we spent two hours picking out… Memories were like a merciless hand, gripping my throat tightly, making it hard to breathe. Just then, the door was pushed open directly, and William’s handsome features appeared before my eyes. “Who are you, and why are you in our home!” ‘Our home’—it took me several seconds to process that. William quickly sneered, his slender finger pointing right at my face: “I remember now. You’re that little lover Wesley mentioned out of spite, saying she wanted to marry you?” “Looks like her taste really is mediocre!” I ignored William’s mockery and grabbed his provocative finger, flinging it down. “I’m not her secret lover. I’m her boyfriend. You’re the one who’s the homewrecker now.” At these words, William’s brow furrowed sharply, his eyes taking on a vicious edge. He smiled lightly, then suddenly his foot twisted and he crashed hard into the nearby shoe cabinet, groaning in pain. Wesley entered carrying shopping bags just in time to see this scene. William was clutching his waist, barely propping himself up on the floor, his features twisted in pain. I instinctively tried to explain, but Wesley slapped me across the face. My mouth burned with pain. I thought it might split open. “William just got back to the country—do you really have to target him like this!” “Don’t you know William injured his knee and can’t handle any impact? You’re trying to cripple him completely!” Wesley’s words were extremely harsh, as if I were some kind of irredeemable villain. But she knew full well I had never thought such things about anyone, never hurt anyone. Yet she only believed William’s one-sided story. “I didn’t—I never even touched him!” William immediately spoke up, cutting off my explanation: “Maybe your boyfriend doesn’t want me here. I should just go stay elsewhere and not disturb you two…” “And about helping me with work when I return—you don’t need to worry about that anymore. I shouldn’t have come to you!” Hearing this, Wesley’s heart immediately clenched. She quickly embraced William to comfort him, her eyes overflowing with tenderness. “William, we bought this apartment together. It’s your home too. How can you not want me, not want this place…” After saying this, Wesley suddenly looked at me and issued an eviction order: “Ronald, you don’t need to live here anymore. Move to a hotel—my treat!” I pulled at the corner of my mouth. So with just one word from William, I didn’t even have the right to live here anymore. Perfect. I had no intention of staying anyway! I straightened my spine and dragged two suitcases toward the exit. As I passed, Wesley frowned at me, seeming to want to say something, but was interrupted by William’s cry of pain.

The night was truly cold. Dragging two large suitcases, my body shivered as I sneezed several times in a row. Wesley used to be most afraid of me getting sick. Whenever the weather changed, she wouldn’t let me go outside in the wind. Now, Wesley hadn’t even called once. After checking into a hotel, I started looking for landlords to rent from, but then I received an anonymous video. In the video, William was tugging at Wesley’s clothes, their tongues entwined, their faces flushed. He suddenly retrieved a black cochlear implant from the trash can, as if he’d found some amusing toy, and laughed: “Wesley, you’ve been playing it pretty wild here in the country behind my back—pretending to be deaf and mute?” Wesley glanced contemptuously at the filthy implant, snatched it away and tossed it aside, continuing to kiss him. She responded to William’s words in fragments: “Just messing with him… Who told him to take it seriously… That thing disgusts me!” My breathing slowed instantly, until all I could hear was the strong pounding of my heart. So the hundred-thousand-dollar cochlear implant I had worked myself to death to buy her was just disgusting garbage in her eyes! I clutched my chest, trying to ease the discomfort there, my breathing becoming labored. Just then, Grandpa called me, asking cheerfully: “Ronald, when are you and Wesley coming back to visit?” After my parents died in a car accident, Grandpa became my only emotional pillar. I went back to visit him several times every year. Before, I went alone. Later, Wesley accompanied me. I didn’t know how to face Grandpa, and fell silent. Grandpa was still beaming with joy, chattering away: “Wesley said you two are getting married this year. Grandpa will take his medicine on time and stay healthy so I can attend your wedding…” With each sentence Grandpa spoke, my shame deepened. I could only hastily hang up, unable to face him any longer. I blocked the burner account that sent the video and warned William: [Wesley and I will end things. You don’t need to provoke me.] That day, I remembered I had left something at Wesley’s apartment and took a taxi to retrieve it. I ran right into Wesley, who was about to go out. Looking up, I noticed several kiss marks on her neck—left by William. Wesley frowned and grabbed my arm, demanding to know why I hadn’t been responding to her messages these past few days. I ignored her. “My mom said to come home this week for dinner to discuss wedding plans.” I laughed out loud, looking at her with incomprehension: “Aren’t you supposed to marry William? Why are you telling me this? Do you need me to participate in your wedding too?” Wesley looked down at me, annoyance flashing across her brow: “My mom doesn’t like William. I won’t hold a public wedding ceremony with him. The wedding agreement I gave you still stands—I won’t owe you anything!” I was almost amused by these shameless words. “Wesley, from the moment you lied to me, we were already over!” “I’m not a tool for you and William to flirt with, and I’m not your cover for sneaking around!” “The wedding agreement is void. I won’t marry you. Let’s part on good terms from now on!” Wesley looked at me strangely, then laughed mockingly: “Ronald, don’t be jealous like this. I’m not joking with you. Besides this heart that I can’t give you, I can give you the title and everything else!” “Stop making a scene. My mom already had someone calculate an auspicious wedding date—it’s next month!” “You don’t want to disappoint your only living relative, do you?” Another naked threat and manipulation. Wesley had calculated that I couldn’t leave her and couldn’t bear to disappoint Grandpa. I was almost laughing with anger, my heart filled with despair.

Wesley threatened me with Grandpa’s health, forcing me to continue playing the role of loving couple with her to reassure her mother, Fiona. “Ronald, out of all the boys around Wesley, you’re the one who puts my mind most at ease. You two must have a smooth wedding and stay together for life!” Fiona’s words left me mentally exhausted, yet helpless. For the next month, Wesley treated me with the same meticulous care and gentle consideration as before, accompanying me to try on suits and rings. Looking at the gleaming ring on my hand, I couldn’t help but sneer: “Wesley, your sincerity is worthless. Aren’t you afraid William will go crazy when he finds out?” At the mention of William’s name, something strange flashed in Wesley’s eyes. “I’ll pacify William. He won’t throw jealous fits like you do. You just need to play the role of a happy groom!” Sometimes I truly hated Wesley’s cruelty, yet at other times I found myself helplessly drawn into this gentle whirlpool. I couldn’t tell whether Wesley had ever felt even a shred of genuine feeling for me. As the wedding approached, Grandpa grew noticeably more excited, unable to sleep all night, whispering to me over the phone: “Grandpa’s getting old. My only wish is to see you married with children. You’ve found someone you love—Grandpa is so happy…” “Grandpa has never seen you look so happy and content. Only this girl Wesley puts my mind at ease!” Listening to Grandpa’s rambling, I suddenly couldn’t bear to tell him the truth. It was just one wedding—I might as well fulfill this final wish for the old man. That’s what I naively thought, never imagining that William’s jealousy would strike so fiercely. The day I got off work, I was forcibly dragged into the underground parking garage. William threw two punches at me, furious: “Ronald, you’re really shameless enough! Wesley doesn’t love you at all, yet you still want to cling to her!” “You think that by stealing my position, you can be with her?!” “I’m telling you, I will never allow anyone to shake my position. Just you wait—I absolutely won’t let you off easy!” William’s words made my heart tighten. I couldn’t help but mock him back: “Wesley is the one who insists on marrying me. If you’re so capable, make her whole family change their minds!” “Oh right, Fiona can’t stand your scheming nature anyway!” William’s face flushed red with anger, his eyes practically shooting flames. He clenched his fists and said viciously: “Then just wait and see!” The day before the wedding, William sent me a string of strange numbers that looked vaguely familiar. When I tried to ask about it, he had already blocked me. On the wedding day, I kept feeling something was wrong, my heart filled with unease. Wesley still acted as before, playing the part of a qualified lover. For a moment, I thought we had returned to the past, back to when she still loved me. Suddenly my phone vibrated several times. It was an unknown number, and Grandpa’s voice came from the other end. William must have said something to Grandpa. I could hear Grandpa’s labored breathing and the two of them scuffling and arguing. I frowned and said “Hello,” but no one responded. I took it as just a minor incident. Suddenly, people outside the wedding venue began to panic. Someone shouted: “Someone fell from the building!” My heart pounded frantically, my vision blurred, and I desperately ran over to check. Wesley followed as well, but lying on the first floor in agony was William. What was going on?! Wesley rushed down from the second floor like a madwoman, embracing William, her eyes crawling with bloodshot veins. William cried out: “Wesley, save me! Ronald and his grandfather worked together to try to kill me!” Hearing Grandpa’s name, I frantically ran over, only to see him lying at the corner of the staircase, gasping for breath, his face pale, with several scratches on his body. “Ronald…” I strained to listen, but Grandpa’s breath was weak, in a near-shock state. I shouted to Wesley: “Wesley, quick, get someone to drive! My grandpa is dying!” “Wesley, I’m begging you, please come save my grandpa. I promise I’ll be obedient from now on!” The only response was Wesley’s voice, dripping with disgust: “Ronald, you and your grandfather schemed to hurt William and made him break his leg. I’ll definitely settle this score with you!” Wesley held William and rushed to the hospital, ordering everyone present not to call an ambulance for me. I held Grandpa’s gradually cooling body, suddenly realizing something. I let out a heart-wrenching cry: “Grandpa!” The person ahead paused briefly in their steps, then sneered contemptuously: “Ronald, your acting is too clumsy. I won’t believe you again!”

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Late at night, a phone call came in. As soon as I answered, I heard my wife’s moans mixed with her best friend’s fiancé’s. The man panted and said, “This makes it more thrilling.” Then the call was abruptly disconnected. I flew into a rage immediately and rushed out to find them. In the end, I discovered Ellis and her boy toy having sex in the company office. Nine years of marriage, and my wife frequently worked overtime, neglecting both me and our son. I kept lying to myself that she was just career-driven, that she still had me in her heart. I never imagined she’d been keeping a man on the side at the office! I grabbed a wooden chair, about to beat that man to death, when a gunshot hit my wrist. Ellis smiled as she pressed the gun to my forehead: “I never loved you. Be smart about this. Your father just died recently—do you want to join him?” Before I could answer, the gun fired accidentally, and I died on the spot. My eyes snapped open. I had been reborn. My phone screen was lit up with a message from her: “I’m busy today. I won’t be attending your father’s funeral.” I stared at the screen and slowly curved my lips into a smile. This time, I won’t come looking for you two. I’ll make you crawl to me and beg for mercy.

“Honey, you’re coming with me to try on suits. Won’t Howard be angry? I heard today is the day Howard’s father is being buried…” Roger’s voice carried a hint of guilt. Ellis quickly reassured him, “It’s fine. Atalanta is dead, and what she owed you, I’ll make up for on her behalf. After all, I’m Atalanta’s best friend! Besides, don’t worry. Howard understands. Anyway, it’s his dad who died, not mine. Whether I go or not doesn’t matter.” “Mm, thank you, Ellis.” Roger hugged Ellis tightly. The video cut off there. I knew Roger had sent me this video. Just like in my previous life, he knew exactly how to provoke me. But I would never be the same as before. I simply replied, “Don’t worry, I know your fiancée died and you’re hurting. I’m the one who asked my wife to go comfort you. I won’t be angry.” Then I forwarded the screenshot to Ellis: “Ellis, take good care of Mr. Roger and tell him not to worry.” After that, I didn’t look at my phone again. After handling my father’s funeral arrangements, my mom looked at me with red-rimmed eyes. I forced out a smile. “Mom, quit your job.” My mom froze, then as if realizing something, quickly nodded. “Okay, I’ll handle it as soon as possible and then leave. You two should leave quickly too.” “Mm.” We tacitly avoided mentioning our rebirth. After we parted, I took my son home. I just didn’t expect Ellis to be there. When she saw me, she looked extremely flustered. “Howard, don’t misunderstand. I was just worried Roger would be sad, so I…” “I understand everything. You’re already working so hard earning money to support our family. Atalanta was your best friend, and she died because of you. It’s only right that you take care of her fiancé.” “Howard, you…” Ellis looked at me in disbelief. Yes, she was right to be suspicious. After all, in my previous life, I had absolutely despised Roger. Even when Atalanta was still alive, I didn’t like Roger. I always felt this man had ulterior motives being with Atalanta, but Ellis said I was just jealous. “Just because Roger is more handsome than you, you say he’s scheming? Howard, you’ve disappointed me so much.” That was the first time we argued over Roger. “Howard, you’re really not angry?” Ellis asked again. I nodded. “Mm.” Seeing that I didn’t seem to be pretending, Ellis breathed a sigh of relief. I took the opportunity to slip the divorce papers among some insurance documents for her to sign. Perhaps because she felt guilty toward me, Ellis signed without even looking. And as I watched the freshly signed divorce agreement, my eyes were filled with nothing but hatred. Ellis, since in your previous life you didn’t hesitate to kill my entire family for this man, I’ll fulfill your wish this lifetime. I want to see—between money and this man, which will you choose. After that, Ellis behaved very well, even taking the initiative to drop our son off at school. But I didn’t expect Roger to lose his patience.

That evening, after Ellis picked up our son, she didn’t come home for a long time. No matter how many times I called, she wouldn’t answer. Frightened, I rushed out to find them. But as soon as I opened the door, I saw Ellis with a dark expression on her face. Not seeing my son, I was about to ask when Ellis’s palm struck my face. “Howard, I thought you were truly understanding, but I never imagined you’d deceive me! You incited our son to target Roger. Is that fun for you?” I didn’t know what had happened, but it wasn’t hard to guess—Roger must have staged something. “I didn’t.” But Ellis didn’t believe me at all. I asked where our son was, and she snorted coldly. “If he does something wrong, naturally he must be punished.” My heart clenched. Ellis glared at me viciously. To keep her stable, I said nothing more and simply apologized. Ellis’s attitude softened, and she told me to apologize to Roger. I went. He pretended to be terrified, hiding behind Ellis. In the end, I knelt in the pouring rain all night before Ellis finally calmed down. After bringing my son home, I finally learned what had happened. I never expected Roger would scheme against even such a small child. Elliott said that when Ellis picked him up, Roger was already in the car. Later, Elliott didn’t know what happened, but Roger suddenly said he felt unwell and mentioned something about allergies. Ellis immediately decided that Elliott had deliberately caused Roger’s allergic reaction. Looking at my son’s swollen eyes from crying, my heart ached terribly. In that moment, my desire to kill them peaked. After that, Ellis didn’t come home, staying away to comfort Roger. I was actually relieved to have the peace and quiet. But I didn’t expect that when she returned, she brought Roger with her. “Roger has been living in the house he used to rent with Atalanta. Now every object there reminds him of her. Our house is so big—one more person won’t make a difference.” Ellis wasn’t asking for my opinion—she was informing me. I said nothing, only looked at Roger. At this point, all the neighbors knew that Ellis had brought her best friend’s fiancé to stay and care for him. They all praised Ellis. “Miss Ellis is so righteous.” “Exactly. Atalanta was so lucky to have a friend like Miss Ellis.” Even Roger nodded along. “Yes, I’m truly grateful to Miss Ellis during this time. If not for her, I don’t know if I could have gone on living.” When Roger cried, Ellis tenderly held him in her arms. But she seemed to forget this was our home, and she was my wife. The onlookers also froze. When Ellis realized something was wrong, she quickly released Roger. “Howard, you take care of Mr. Roger first. I’m going to visit Atalanta’s grave.” The next moment, Ellis hugged me. “Thank you for your hard work.” Now no one around said anything else. I was nearly disgusted by her, but still pretended nothing had happened. After Ellis left, my son looked at me in confusion. “Dad, do we have to let him come? I don’t like him.” I didn’t know how to tell my son about our rebirth. When we first returned after rebirth, my son hugged me and cried for a long time. He said: “Dad, I had a terrible nightmare. Mom got together with that man. Mom killed us all because of him. I’m so scared…” It took me a while to calm my son down. But from that moment on, he stopped being close to Ellis. In the past, if she missed his birthday, my son would ignore her for days without me even having to get angry. Actually, before Roger appeared, our family was the most important thing to Ellis. Ellis once chased a thief an entire street to get my stolen wallet back, falling and bloodying her legs but refusing to let go. Later, after the thief was caught, he asked her, “Was it worth it for just a wallet?” She wiped the blood on her knees and said, “Howard’s ID is in there. He’d have to take time off work to replace it. I don’t want him to miss work.” When she was pregnant with our son, her morning sickness was severe, yet she secretly turned down a promotion interview at headquarters. I only found out later from her colleague that the interviewer had waited for her all afternoon that day. I asked her why she didn’t tell me. She said, “There will be other chances for promotion. My child with you is more important.”

You see, when a woman truly loves you, she really loves you. But when she doesn’t love you anymore, she truly doesn’t. Ellis once said, “Howard, my parents left me early. Your parents are my parents.” But later, she personally killed our entire family because of that man, Roger. So now, Ellis deserved to die even more than Roger. “Elliott, do you remember what Dad told you?” My son nodded innocently. I smiled. “Then listen to Dad. Don’t show that you dislike Roger. Dad and Grandma will take you away soon, okay?” “Okay.” Elliott was very obedient and said nothing more. My mom also sent me a message—she had already processed her resignation and could leave in another two weeks. On my end, I had the divorce agreement and evidence of Ellis’s affair. The lawyer said it wouldn’t take two weeks to finalize our divorce. According to the agreement, Ellis would leave with nothing. I was very clear that killing Ellis to avenge my previous life would be too easy for her. I had to make Ellis understand what it meant to wish for death. But as soon as she left, Roger dropped his act. The gentle, vulnerable person he was in front of Ellis became snarling in front of me. “Howard, I really underestimated you. Ellis has made it so obvious, yet you still won’t divorce her?” Facing Roger’s eyes that looked like they wanted to devour me alive, I couldn’t help but laugh. You want to claim your position so badly? Fine, I’ll grant your wish. Just before Ellis and Roger entered, I had already obtained the most crucial evidence. These two were truly ruthless. Ellis was right about one thing—Atalanta had indeed saved her life. Yet she personally caused Atalanta’s death. “Howard, if I were you, I would have gone and died already.” “Is that so? Someone who seduces her best friend’s husband hasn’t died yet. Why should I?” I didn’t hold back with Roger. Since Ellis wasn’t here, I had no need to pretend. We stared at each other with hostility for a long time, until the servants finished organizing Roger’s belongings. Watching his things being moved into the master bedroom, I said nothing. I was leaving anyway. If that bitch wanted to serve him, whatever. I didn’t want to be crushed by a dog. That evening, Elliott and I were having dinner when Roger suddenly screamed upstairs. At the same moment, the door opened and Ellis came back. But she didn’t even look at us and went straight upstairs. Soon, Ellis came downstairs seething with anger. Seeing her emotional state was off, I quickly moved Elliott behind me to protect him. “Howard, I never expected you to play one game to my face and another behind my back.” Facing Ellis’s eyes that looked like they wanted to eat me alive, I felt like I couldn’t breathe. “Howard, you’re the one who let Roger stay in the master bedroom. Why did you deliberately put a knife on the bed? Are you trying to kill him?” Hearing this, I couldn’t help but laugh. “Me? Put a knife there?” “Wasn’t it you?” “Then let’s check the surveillance footage.” As soon as I said that, Roger, who had been crying at the top of the stairs, turned pale. “You installed surveillance in the master bedroom?” “My house. Can’t I install surveillance wherever I want?” My rhetorical question instantly shut Roger up. “Fine, I want to see just how vicious you are.” Ellis was about to go to the surveillance room but was stopped by Roger. “Ellis, I’m fine. Don’t fight with Howard because of me.” Roger said many things. Ellis listened gently and even praised him: “Howard, you need to learn more from Roger.” I looked expressionlessly at these two despicable people, nearly vomiting. But I held it in. That night, nothing happened, except Ellis stayed in Roger’s room.

After that, Roger and Ellis were brazenly affectionate, and I turned a blind eye to it all. On the surface, I obeyed Ellis in everything and treated Roger exceptionally well too. Sometimes I even acted quite servile. Ellis saw it all, and her guilt toward me grew day by day. Now when she looked at me, her eyes were much softer. Sometimes she would even ignore some of Roger’s demands because of me. Roger gradually realized I was doing it deliberately, so he started acting even more than I did. Of course, what Roger did most was frame me. Unfortunately, having been reborn, I already knew all his tactics inside and out. When he framed me for pushing him, I injured myself instead. He fell to the ground, while I lay in a pool of blood. What could Ellis say when she saw me covered in blood? She would take me to the hospital. Every time this happened, Roger would stomp his feet in anger. And I took advantage of being alone with Ellis at the hospital to play recordings of Roger provoking me. Then I gently held her hand. “Ellis, I know Roger is like this because Atalanta died. I don’t blame him. Please don’t trouble him, okay? He’s already so pitiful. My son and I are fine. We’ll both help him get through this.” My appearance, with reddened eyes, swallowing my grievances, completely pulled Ellis’s heart back to my side. As soon as I was discharged, she pulled me into intimacy. But I was terrified. I quickly made some noise. Sure enough, within three seconds Roger rushed in. “Ellis, I don’t feel well. Can you take me to the hospital?” “Call the driver.” Ellis was displeased at being interrupted at such a passionate moment, and even her expression toward Roger turned sour. Roger was instantly heartbroken. As the husband, I expressed understanding. “It’s fine. You should go with Mr. Roger to the hospital first. If Atalanta were watching from heaven and saw us ignoring Mr. Roger, she’d be sad.” When I mentioned Atalanta, Ellis, though displeased, still got out of bed. A minute later, the car left the villa. I watched them leave from the balcony before going to my son’s room. Elliott had been ready for a while. Seeing the smile on my face, he asked, “Dad, can we leave now?” I nodded. After enduring for two weeks, it was time to go. During these two weeks, I had to endure Roger’s provocations while also enduring strange looks from those around me. No one knew how I got through it. But I knew it was time for blood debts to be repaid. When Elliott and I arrived at the airport, my mom was already there. Before boarding, Ellis sent me a message: “Howard, Roger’s situation is a bit complicated. Go to sleep first, don’t wait for me.” Seeing the message, I couldn’t help but laugh. Such good acting. She probably didn’t know yet that Roger and I communicated quite smoothly in private. Just now, Roger had also sent me a message: “Your wife is mine tonight.” Attached was a video of the two of them in bed. I didn’t reply to either of their messages, but I did something else. After completing the operation, I turned off my phone. In that moment, I felt completely liberated. The next instant, Ellis, who was in the middle of sex, received a call from her assistant. “You better have a good reason.” “Miss Ellis, you need to check the company’s official website immediately.” After the assistant finished speaking, Ellis impatiently opened the website. With just one glance, her face turned pale. “No, this can’t be.”

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I glared at the five-year-old munchkin at my feet and viciously swapped his glass of milk for a cup of pure, unsweetened kale juice. From then on, he wasn’t allowed to be a picky eater. If he wanted a pet, he was on litter box duty. Later, when he applied for college, I even secretly altered his applications. Years later, the villain achieved massive success. I thought my doom had finally arrived. Instead, he stood before the media and said, “The person I want to thank the most is my mom. Her love accompanied me as I grew up, and she guided the direction of my life.” Wait a minute, did something go wrong here? 01 After I died of an illness, the System let me transmigrate as a villain’s wicked stepmother so I could continue living. But the catch was: I couldn’t break character. This was a gritty urban thriller novel. The five-year-old standing before me, Oliver Vance, was destined to become the ultimate villain who would one day ruin the male lead’s family. And the primary cause of his twisted psychology was me. His wicked stepmother. I thought about it for a moment. I really didn’t have any experience being evil. I simply interpreted it as: Don’t let him have it too easy. So, I looked at the little guy sitting properly in his chair, quietly drinking his milk. I snatched the cup away from him and handed it to the nanny. “Swap this for pure kale and wheatgrass juice. The more bitter, the better.” The little guy was stunned for a second, a white milk mustache still clinging to his upper lip. He glared at me furiously, but didn’t dare speak. When I transmigrated, this body had already been married into the Vance family for over half a year. According to the original plot, after I realized that Arthur Vance—the villain’s father—rarely came home, I gradually tore off my gentle mask. I started tormenting and framing little Oliver in every way possible. At first, he fought back, but how could a kid win against an adult? Every time he complained, I’d double down, falsely accusing him and twisting his words. After long-term emotional abuse, he had learned to swallow his anger and stay silent. Now, all I had to do was carry on this legacy. With a little bit of my own flair added in. Oliver had probably never tasted pure kale juice in his life. His little face scrunched up into a tight ball, and he instinctively stuck his tongue out in disgust. My heart melted at how cute he was, but I forced a cold tone. “Drink it all!” Making a kid drink gross health juice is basically cruel and unusual punishment. How is this not a form of abuse? I was doing a phenomenal job as an evil stepmother. Thinking of this, I couldn’t help but let out a sinister laugh. 02 After breakfast, the nanny was getting ready to take Oliver to preschool. I frowned when I saw him dressed in cheap, worn-out clothes. “Why are you dressing him like that on purpose?” “Didn’t you say before that we shouldn’t feed a child’s vanity, and that it’s better to keep him low-profile?” Tsk, tsk. The original owner of this body was truly wicked and manipulative. She actually wanted to use this method to crush Oliver’s self-esteem. But she completely miscalculated. What do kids in preschool know about being rich or poor? At this age, a kid’s biggest fear is being isolated and left out. Thinking of this, I immediately ordered the nanny to change Oliver into a tailored baby Armani suit. I even added an adorable little bow tie. Then, I had the driver pull out the most expensive, flashy Rolls-Royce from the garage. I had to make absolutely sure he became the most extra, stand-out kid in the entire preschool. Hate the rich! Let them all hate the rich! I suppose my behavior was a bit too different from my usual self. Right before leaving, little Oliver anxiously pursed his lips and asked softly, “Why are you doing this?” I crouched down and let out a villainous cackle. “Because I’m evil!” Oliver was so scared he took a step back. I lunged forward and planted a massive kiss right on his chubby little cheek. He covered his face in horror. I took the opportunity to threaten him. “Hurry up and say goodbye to Mommy, or else when you get out of school this afternoon, I’ll personally come block the preschool gates.” After living with the original owner for half a year, he probably hated my guts. Kissing him and forcing him to call me Mom was basically tap-dancing on his last nerve. But he had no choice but to submit. Watching Oliver clamp his mouth shut and run out the door, I felt I was being villainous beyond measure. 03 After Oliver went to school, I started wandering aimlessly around the massive mansion. The novel stated that Arthur Vance was always busy with business, often disappearing for weeks at a time. I was purely a wife he married just to have someone look after Oliver. He deposited a $500,000 allowance into my account every single month. He probably thought a massive allowance would make a stepmother treat his kid well. He didn’t realize it only fueled her greed instead. Thinking of this, I sighed and asked the System, How long do I have to keep up this evil persona? The System replied: The wicked stepmother has a crucial scene where she secretly alters Oliver’s college applications, forcing him to go abroad where he experiences even darker things. So, your persona must be maintained at least until Oliver takes his SATs and applies for college. A rough calculation meant I had at least thirteen years left. Although living as a billionaire’s wife meant every day was a blessing, having to maintain an evil persona every single day was exhausting. So, I decided to go on a crazy shopping spree to comfort myself. 04 As the sky began to dim, the driver pulled up right on time at the gates of the private preschool. Oliver hadn’t said goodbye to me when he left this morning. If I said I was going to pick him up, I had to follow through. I needed to establish my absolute authority. Let him know the true terror of his wicked stepmother. I have to say, this elite private preschool looked like a literal castle. Not long after, a teacher led a group of munchkins out the doors. They waddled around, finding their respective parents. I decided to sit quietly in the car for a moment. I planned to pop out and give Oliver a jump-scare right when he started panicking that his parents forgot to pick him up. But to my surprise, the moment the teacher walked away, several kids surrounded Oliver. I could vaguely hear them teasing him about “Mommy… picking you up.” Oliver kept his head down in silence. Those kids started jumping around him, clapping their hands and laughing. Me: ??? Hold on, are we bullying now? As a certified evil stepmother, I immediately swooped in to ruin their fun. “Hey, why aren’t you brats going home? Did your parents abandon you? Is that it? Are you unwanted?” I pulled the surrounded Oliver behind me and glared viciously at the group of kids. Yes, exactly like this. I’m going to alienate all of his little friends. “Who are you? Are you the liar’s big sister?” Being called a big sister made my heart flutter a little. But I immediately snapped back, “Who’s a liar? Didn’t your teacher teach you manners? I am Oliver’s mother! Our Oliver doesn’t like you, and you’re not allowed to play with him anymore.” “Oliver’s mom? His mom is the nanny, I’ve seen her! She doesn’t look like you. He lied and said she wasn’t his mom. He’s just a vain liar, we don’t want to play with him anyway!” What kind of messy preschool drama was this? “I am Oliver’s mother!” I angrily raised my fist, and the group of bratty kids immediately scattered, giggling as they ran off. At that moment, Oliver, who had been standing behind me, tugged at the hem of my shirt. He looked up at me, his big eyes shimmering with unshed tears. “Thank you for coming to pick me up today.” Wait, is something wrong here? Why is he thanking me? 05 I guess my tactic of establishing authority actually worked. Once we got home, Oliver was unusually obedient. Not only did he trot behind me like a little duckling, but during dinner, he actively helped me peel my shrimp. He carefully placed the peeled shrimp into my bowl. Seeing I hadn’t moved to eat it, he made sure to emphasize, “I washed my hands.” I picked up my fork. Delicious. “Good peeling. Your reward is to peel a few more for me.” Little Oliver pursed his lips to hide a small smile, lowered his head, and earnestly went back to peeling shrimp. Eventually, I was too full to eat anymore, and the rest of the shrimp ended up in his tummy. Having eaten too much for dinner, it was time for some physical activity. Considering my evil persona, what better exercise than tormenting a child? I dragged my eighteen shopping bags into his room. I waved at Oliver, who was currently playing with a Rubik’s Cube. “Come here. Try on some clothes.” Oliver’s clothes were usually custom-tailored and delivered directly. He had probably never done a fitting session before, so at first, he was super excited. He even smiled, showing his cute little canine teeth. Until later. He choked back a sob, “Please… I can’t try on any more…” “But we haven’t even tried the bumblebee, the penguin, the little duckling, or the monster onesies yet.” Oliver went silent. Wearing a green dinosaur onesie, he just stood there, looking at me with teary eyes. Me: … Fine. Evil plan continued, switching to the next project. 06 When it was time for bed, I decided to inflict my final torment of the day on Oliver. I forced him to stay in my room to sleep with me. After he changed into his pajamas, I handed him a storybook. “Read a story to Mommy. Coax Mommy to sleep.” Oliver stared blankly, as if unable to comprehend how an adult could be this shameless. But he still took the book. “Once upon a time… a queen sat at an… o-pen win-dow, doing needlework for her daugh-ter.” Me: … I forgot the kid was only five and didn’t know many words yet. But this gave me an inspiration. Most kids love playing and absolutely despise studying. A lightbulb went off in my head. A truly sinister plan began to form. Beside me, Oliver was still stumbling through the book. He obviously knew he was struggling with the words, and seeing me staring at him, his little face flushed bright red, his voice dropping to a whisper. “I… I… I can read it to you tomorrow, okay?” I let out my villainous cackle and snatched the book away. “Lie down. Now it’s Mommy’s turn to read you a story. Tonight’s story is called Snow White and Her Seven Stepmothers.” An absolutely terrifying horror story. In the end, I have no idea if Oliver fell asleep, but I managed to put myself to sleep telling it. In my hazy state, I felt something soft press gently against my cheek. A tiny voice whispered, “Mommy.” 07 The next morning, while Oliver was at school, I put my “Tiger Mom” plan into motion. Advanced phonics, Kumon math, French, piano—I scheduled it all. I hired the strictest tutors and bought the thickest workbooks. I fully expected that when Oliver got home and found out, he would feel like the sky was falling. To my surprise, he adapted perfectly. He put extra, intense effort into learning to read. A few days later, as I was walking past the study, he poked his little head out and read aloud, loudly and fluently: “Once upon a time, a queen sat at an open window, doing needlework for her daughter.” After reading it, he looked at me with a face full of expectation. To encourage him, I decided to reward him by letting him read me bedtime stories every night to put me to sleep.

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After moving into my new place, I was added to a strange group chat. The people in the chat loved to roleplay as animals to communicate. Every day, I lurked in the chat, reading their conversations with intense amusement, but I never spoke. Until one day, a mouse got into my apartment. I posted in the group: “Does anyone know a reliable exterminator or pest control service nearby?” A few moments later, someone named AAA_Orange_Cat_Exterminator tagged me. [Two cans of wet food. Non-negotiable.] [The cat is at your door. Open up.] Outside my door, there actually stood an orange tabby cat. 01 On the very first day I moved into my new apartment, I was dragged into a bizarre group chat. The group was named Maplewood HOA Community Chat. Every member’s profile picture was a cute, random animal. At first, I didn’t think much of it. I just assumed the property manager added me to make sending community announcements easier. Until one day, I accidentally glanced at the chat log. Evil_Fleece_Monster: [Damn it! I got caught sneaking snacks, and my mom smacked my butt. I’m going to chew up her slippers tonight.] British_Gentleman: [Useless! How can you let the pooper-scooper assert dominance over you?] [Image: “I am the Emperor” Meme] Golden_Chubby: [I have a question. When you guys drink water, does the water ever feel… spicy?] British_Gentleman: [Idiot! Your water fountain probably has a short circuit! Kick it over immediately.] Sweet_Little_Cheese: [My mom wants to clip my nails! 911! Someone call 911 for cats!] I watched the chat with intense fascination for a long time. I figured this was just a bunch of the neighborhood kids being highly active online. Roleplaying as their pets to chat. Honestly, watching their adorable, dramatic conversations was pretty therapeutic. Suddenly, a new message popped up. [I think a stranger got into my house.] [Image: Dog secretly observing from a corner] The profile picture was a husky puppy. Judging by his previous messages, I always assumed he was a four- or five-year-old kid. My heart tightened. I was just about to ask if he was home alone. When the other group members started questioning his intelligence. [Are you SURE it’s a stranger?] [Another stranger? The last ‘stranger’ that broke into your house was just your dad wearing a different jacket.] [911! I’ll call 911 for you!] I hesitated and decided not to tag the property manager just yet. A second later, the little husky replied: [Hehe, never mind! It was just my dad wearing a medical mask. As a reward, I’m going to pee in his room tonight.] False alarm. I thought it was hilarious, but at the same time, a faint, lingering feeling told me something was… slightly off. 02 One evening, I got home late from a job interview. The moment I flicked on the living room lights, a black shadow darted across the floorboards. My heart skipped a beat. I was just about to crouch down and check under the coffee table. When a massive rat charged directly at my foot. I screamed and jumped onto the coffee table. Terrified, I immediately typed a frantic message in the group chat. [A rat got into my apartment! Does anyone know a reliable exterminator nearby who can come immediately?! Online waiting! Urgent! Urgent!] [Meow? Rat? What’s a rat?] [A rat is a fast little toy that squeaks when you bite it. My dad doesn’t let me play with them.] [Are you new here? I haven’t seen you before. Why is your profile picture a human? What species is your family?] Can’t a profile picture be a human? What do you mean, ‘what species is your family’? I didn’t have time to overthink it. The squeaking sounds were making every hair on my body stand up. I quickly opened Yelp to search for an emergency pest control service. Right then, someone tagged me in the group chat. AAA_Orange_Cat_Exterminator: [Two cans of wet food. Non-negotiable. Arriving immediately.] [The cat is at your door. Open up. Meow.] That fast?! I opened the front door. The hallway was completely empty. Just as I was about to close it, a sharp meow caught my attention. An incredibly polite orange tabby was sitting on my welcome mat, its front paws neatly tucked together. As we made eye contact, a completely unbelievable thought surfaced in my mind. “Are you… AAA_Orange_Cat_Exterminator?” The orange cat meowed twice. A message popped up in the group chat. [It is the cat.] [Two cans. Starting work immediately.] I found it so absurdly funny that I reached out to pat its head. The orange cat tilted its head, dodging my hand. [Meow meow meow. That costs extra. Head pats are half a sausage.] 03 I didn’t own any pets, so naturally, I didn’t have any cat food. I negotiated with Mr. Orange to use four sausages as payment. He licked his paws and agreed. But he demanded an installment payment plan. Deal struck. The incredibly agile Mr. Orange tracked the target from the living room straight into the kitchen. Aside from accidentally knocking over a glass of water I had left on the counter… The extermination service was successfully completed. Worried I’d be scared, Mr. Orange placed the dead rat out in the hallway. [Human. The cat accidentally broke your cup. The cat will deduct one sausage from the fee.] I shook my head. [A deal is a deal. Four sausages, not one less. But… can I get one free head pat?] Mr. Orange let out a soft, sweet meow. He lowered his head and rubbed it affectionately against the palm of my hand. Before leaving, he told me that if I ever needed him again, I could just call him in the group chat. It wasn’t until the apartment was completely quiet that I finally snapped back to reality. It felt like I was dreaming. The animals in the Maplewood HOA Community Chat were actually real animals. Those profile pictures… were their actual faces. 04 No matter how magical and surreal last night’s experience was… When the sun rose the next day, I still had to hustle across this unfamiliar city for job interviews. I lived on the 12th floor. When the elevator stopped on the 10th floor, a guy walked in holding a husky on a leash. He looked familiar. To clarify, I mean the husky looked familiar. I stared at the dog unblinking. Sensing my gaze, the dog stared right back at me unblinking. The guy noticed us having a staring contest. “Do you two… know each other?” I frantically waved my hands. How was I supposed to explain that I thought his husky was the one from the group chat? I couldn’t exactly ask him, Hey, did he pee in your room last night? Just then, a notification popped up from the Maplewood HOA Community Chat. My_Dad_Calls_Me_Einstein: [I just saw a lady in the elevator. She looks familiar, like I’ve seen her somewhere before. Hehe, she smells so good. I want to be petted.] Evil_Fleece_Monster: [Stupid dog!] British_Gentleman: [Stupid dog!] I tentatively reached my hand out, and sure enough, the husky eagerly nudged his head into my palm. The guy gave me a look that clearly said, And you claim you don’t know each other? While petting the dog, I asked gently, “What’s his name?” “Max.” I crouched down and gently squeezed his paw. “Hi there, Max.” The guy: “…” “My name is Max!” I looked up, mortified. “I am so sorry! I wasn’t thinking.” Max’s face turned slightly red. “It’s my fault for not realizing. His name is… Meatball.” My_Dad_Calls_Me_Einstein: [Einstein! Lady, my name is Einstein! My stupid dad forgot my name again! Hit him! Hit him! Hit him!] Einstein immediately stood up on his hind legs and started throwing paws at Max right there in the elevator. Max cursed at the “stupid dog” while trying to block the hits. I stood to the side, laughing while trying to break up the fight. 05 After running around all morning, I interviewed at three different companies. The results weren’t looking great. I decided to head home first to grab a bite to eat. While walking back along the street, I noticed a pet supply store with a “For Lease” sign in the window. Thinking about the Maplewood HOA Community Chat, a bold idea flashed through my mind. Wasn’t this the ultimate, direct line to consumer demand? If I could be my own boss, why would I want to be a corporate wage slave? I quickly calculated my savings, contacted the current owner on the spot, and took over the lease. Then, I started dropping promotional messages in the group chat. [Does anyone like this new little toy?] [We just restocked new biscuits, freeze-dried snacks, and treats! Tell your pooper-scoopers to bring you to the store for free samples!] The moment those promos dropped, the group chat exploded. No dog or cat had ever posted video advertisements in the chat before. They instantly realized I was different. British_Gentleman: [It’s a human! It’s a human! It’s a real human! A human infiltrated the chat!] [Image: “The Emperor Has Fallen” Meme] AAA_Orange_Cat_Exterminator: [The cat already told you guys last time…] Sweet_Little_Cheese: [Human, can you tell my mom that I don’t like getting my nails clipped?] At first, the pets in the group were stunned by my human identity. But once they realized I meant no harm, they quickly got used to it. They even started frequently asking me to pass messages along to their owners. So, I launched a special promotion. Any customer who spent over $100 in a single transaction would receive one free “Pet Consultation” session. 06 My very first customer was Max. He bought a 20-pound bag of dog food and a few chew toys for Einstein. “Can you actually communicate with them?” I gave a non-committal smile. He raised an eyebrow, smirking playfully. “Alright, then ask him this: He eats way too much, and his dad can’t afford him anymore. Ask him if he can go out and get a job to support himself.” I waved Einstein over, taking the opportunity to grab my phone. A moment later, I suppressed a laugh and said, “Ein… Meatball says that if you’re out of money, it’s okay. He can go out and eat poop. And he can take you with him. He said he’ll eat the base of the poop, and you can eat the pointy top.” Max looked down with an utterly indescribable expression. Einstein stared back up at him with eyes full of absolute, earnest devotion. “You stupid dog! After all the blood, sweat, and tears I sacrificed to raise you, this is how you repay your old man?!” Max violently ruffled the dog’s head. My_Dad_Calls_Me_Einstein: [???] [I gave Dad the best pointy part of the poop, and he’s STILL not happy! He’s bullying a poor dog! Hit him! Hit him! Hit him!] Einstein stood up on his hind legs, wildly swinging his front paws, and started brawling with Max right in the middle of my store. I have no idea how a dog learned to throw hands like a boxer.

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