1 I knew my family was struggling financially from a very young age. Being sick cost money. So, I was never allowed to get sick. When I was four years old and running a terrible fever, my mother picked me up by the collar and shoved me into the refrigerator. I was still conscious when she finally dragged me out. I just stared at her, blinking slowly. My face was freezing. My tears had frozen into tiny, icy rivers on my cheeks. I couldn’t even cry anymore. Mom glared at me, her voice dripping with annoyance. “I know you are just faking it to skip school. Look at you, you are not dead, are you?” After that day, I kept every single ache and pain completely to myself. I figured Mom was right. I must be faking it. If I wasn’t, how could my body naturally recover without a single pill or shot every time I felt unwell? That was until the mandatory health screening before middle school. I ran all the way home, clutching the official cancer diagnosis in my hand, my heart soaring with a strange, nervous joy. “Mom! I have cancer!” This time, with a real doctor’s note, Mom would definitely not think I was faking it. Mom, I am not lying to you this time. … I ran home with the medical paper, my heart pounding with a mix of excitement and anxiety. The doctor told me I only had three months left to live. Even though I didn’t want to die yet, I couldn’t help but look forward to the next three months. I was finally going to get some care and attention from my parents. Whenever my little brother got sick, the entire family would hover over him, waiting on him hand and foot. I wasn’t greedy. I would be completely satisfied if someone just held my hand and took me to the hospital. Pushing the front door open, I held the white diagnostic report high in the air, terrified my parents might miss it. “Mom! Dad! I got cancer!” The air went dead silent for two seconds. Then, hurried footsteps approached, accompanied by the familiar scent of Mom’s vanilla perfume. I lowered the paper and opened my arms wide, fully prepared to be swept into my mother’s warm embrace. Riiiip! With a sharp tear, the diagnosis was snatched from my hand and ripped to shreds. Before my brain could even process what had just happened, a burning pain exploded across my cheek. “Did you forget your brother is sleeping?! How dare you make up such a ridiculous lie!” Dad put down his newspaper and walked over. “Maite, you are a big girl now. You need to start acting your age. Everyone knows you have the constitution of an ox.” “You haven’t even caught a cold since you were a toddler. If you are going to lie, at least make it believable.” Cupping my stinging cheek, I pointed a trembling finger at the trash can. “But the doctor said it…” My parents had already turned their backs on me. They were busy discussing Noah’s premium meal plan. “Noah has lost a little weight recently. It seems the two-thousand-dollar monthly catering plan still isn’t nutritious enough for him.” Dad sighed, his face etched with deep worry. “But upgrading to the premium tier costs four thousand a month. We simply cannot afford that.” Mom suddenly shifted her gaze back to me. “My hospital is recruiting volunteers for a new clinical drug trial. They specifically need healthy individuals. The payout is fifteen thousand dollars per person.” “I was going to do it myself, but we are both way too busy with work.” Hearing the underlying meaning in her words, a spark of hope reignited in my chest. If volunteering required a clean bill of health, then the medical checkup would prove to my parents that I wasn’t lying. “Mom, let me be the volunteer.” Dad immediately scooped me up into his arms. “Our big girl is finally looking out for her baby brother. You know Noah has been frail since he was born. As his older sister, you need to be more understanding.” Mom let out a cold scoff. “Trying to take credit now that you know you messed up, huh? Fine, I will give you this chance.” She pulled a round, dark red pill out of her pocket and gestured for me to swallow it. “Good thing I am on the hospital staff. I bypassed all that tedious paperwork.” I didn’t take it. I stared at the pill nervously. “Mom… aren’t I supposed to get a physical exam first?” Mom’s eyebrows knitted together in sheer frustration. “What physical exam? You just want to waste our money! If your body isn’t healthy, then there isn’t a single healthy person left on this planet.” Hearing my sturdy little brother let out a soft cough from the living room, Dad grabbed the pill from Mom’s hand. He snatched a glass of water from the table. Ignoring my panicked struggles, he forced the pill directly down my throat. “Stop wasting time arguing with a kid. Noah just coughed. Go check if he is catching a cold.” I choked violently, unable to formulate a single word. Mom grabbed me by the arm, dragged me into my bedroom, and locked the door from the outside. “I already disinfected your room. You stay in there and behave.” “The observation period is three days. Once you pass, I will take you to the hospital to get the money. If you show a good attitude, Mom will treat you to McDonald’s.” My head began to throb violently. I wanted to tell Mom I felt incredibly sick, but my vocal cords refused to make a sound. 2 I pounded on the bedroom door with all my might, forcing a tiny whimper through my clenched teeth. “Mom… Dad… please come save me.” Bang! The door violently shuddered as Dad kicked it from the outside, his last shred of patience entirely gone. “The only reason your brother is so weak is because you absorbed all the nutrients in your mother’s womb! And you still have the nerve to complain? You clearly haven’t learned your lesson!” Mom suddenly let out a sharp gasp. For a fleeting second, I thought they had fished my diagnosis out of the trash and realized it was real. “Honey! Noah’s temperature is 99 degrees! He is almost running a fever!” “Hurry, get him to the ER!” Dad didn’t even bother listening to the muffled, agonizing sounds I was making against the wood. A cluster of keys jingled frantically. I heard the heavy thud of the front door slamming shut. Reaching up to touch my face, I realized two trails of thick blood were leaking out of my eye sockets. Mom. Dad. It hurts so much. My consciousness slowly faded into the dark, and the piercing, bone-deep agony eventually melted away. When I woke up again, I was floating mid-air. I easily drifted right through the solid bedroom door. That was wonderful. Mom and Dad had finally let me out. I sat down politely at the dining table. I promised myself I would apologize to them and explain everything properly the moment they returned. I didn’t know how much time had passed before the front door clicked open. Mom and Dad walked in holding a pink Hello Kitty cake. It smelled amazing. I couldn’t help but swallow hard. Usually, I only ever got to taste cake on Noah’s birthday. I didn’t expect that getting cancer meant I would get my very own cake today. Mom stared impatiently at my closed bedroom door. “Maite! Come out and eat your cake!” “You are lucky your little stunt didn’t scare your brother into a worse sickness. Otherwise, you would be getting the belt.” I looked at them in complete bewilderment. “Mom, Dad, I am right in front of you. I am sitting right here on the chair.” I stood up and walked over, wanting to hug them, but my arms passed straight through their bodies. They kept staring at the door. Ten seconds later, Mom banged her fist against the wood. “Throwing a tantrum and giving us the silent treatment now? I didn’t even punish you for putting your brother in the hospital, and you dare throw a fit?!” I was completely stunned. I phased back and forth around them, shouting directly into their ears. “Mom! Dad! I am right here! I am not throwing a tantrum!” But neither of them reacted. Dad took my beautiful cake and dumped it straight into the garbage can. “This is what happens when you spoil her too much. Let this be a lesson. Starving for three days won’t kill her.” A horrifying realization dawned on me. I drifted back through my bedroom door. A shriveled, grotesque figure was curled up tightly against the base of the door. Deep, bloody scratch marks from my fingernails scarred the wood. I looked so ugly. No wonder Mom and Dad never liked me. I was already dead. I couldn’t quite describe the feeling in my chest. Was I sad? I didn’t actually feel that heartbroken. It was just a shame. I thought I was going to get three months of love and care, but I didn’t even get a single day. But maybe this was for the best. At least now I could stay by my parents’ side forever without worrying about being a burden. Mom noticed the torn diagnosis paper in the trash, now smeared with frosting. Frowning, she pinched it with two fingers and picked it up. “Honey, this medical report actually looks real…” Dad glanced at it and scoffed loudly. “Susan, you work at a hospital. How can you fall for this?” “AI is incredibly advanced these days. It can easily fake a document like this. Watch, I will ask her right now.” He marched up to my bedroom door and delivered a few heavy kicks. “You forged this, didn’t you? Tell the truth, and I will let you eat tomorrow.” Floating in the air, fighting the stinging sensation in my ghostly eyes, I shook my head over and over again. Dad, I didn’t forge it. That is a real paper from a real doctor. The only response he got was the dramatic groaning coming from Noah’s bedroom. “See? She is too scared to answer. That means she admits it.” “I can’t believe this little brat learned to be a pathological liar at such a young age. If only she was half as sensible as her brother.” I wasn’t scared to answer. I simply couldn’t. I rushed back into the room and tightly hugged my stiff, decaying corpse. It was so cold. Maybe it was because I had never once ignored my parents in my entire life. After tending to Noah for a while, they returned to my door. “Maite, it is time to log your physical condition for the trial. Stop playing dead!” I am not playing dead, Mom. I am actually dead. Dad took a deep, angry breath. “You are really pushing your luck.” I watched him march out toward the balcony where the cat bed was. A dreadful premonition seized my heart. “Dad, no, please…” The tall man roughly grabbed Snowball out of the little cardboard house I had built for her. He carried the struggling cat straight to my door. “If you don’t make a sound right now, I am going to teach your cat a lesson!” I lunged forward, desperately trying to snatch my kitten back. Snowball was the only one in this house who ever listened to me. But my ghostly hands passed right through her fur. Dad! I am talking! Please put Snowball down! I don’t have cancer! I was lying! I made it all up! 3 Mom was growing impatient. She pinched the back of Snowball’s neck hard. The usually gentle kitten puffed up instantly, letting out a series of frantic, bloodcurdling screeches. I opened my mouth as wide as I could. Souls couldn’t shed tears, so I could only tremble violently. I screamed until my invisible throat felt like it was tearing apart. “No!” But it was utterly useless. Seeing the cat scratching so fiercely, Dad lost his temper and hurled it away. But he had forgotten that my bedroom door opened right next to the balcony. My mind went entirely blank. A heavy thud echoed from the street below. Mom tried to reach out and stop him, but it was too late. Seeing the neighbors gathering downstairs, she clicked her tongue in annoyance. “Someone is definitely going to ask us how the cat died. We can’t let this ruin our family’s reputation.” “We will just say Maite accidentally dropped it. We will make her go down and apologize.” The moment the words left her mouth, Dad snapped out of his shock. He grabbed my doorknob and rattled it furiously. “This is all your fault for throwing a tantrum! You got your own cat killed! You brought this upon yourself!” Staring down at Snowball’s lifeless body, I was so numb I couldn’t even form a thought. But heaven seemed to take pity on me. Snowball’s little soul floated up and rubbed against my leg. Only then did I pull myself together enough to keep my spirit from completely shattering. Her fluffy ghostly fur felt exactly the same. I carried her back into the apartment. Were Mom and Dad finally going to check on me? What would their reaction be? Ring! Ring! Ring! Dad’s phone suddenly blared. It was a police officer on the other end of the line. “We caught Marcus! Are you coming down to the station to press charges?” Hearing that name, my sorrow was instantly swallowed by sheer terror. That man hiding in the alley had asked me for directions to the bus stop. When I wasn’t looking, he dragged me into the shadows. He pinned me against the cold brick wall, his filthy hands grabbing at my clothes, whispering the most sickening, terrifying threats into my ear as I struggled. When I finally escaped and ran home, I scrubbed my skin in the shower until it bled. When Mom found out, she took me to the police station that very night to file a report. Since then, she had been walking me to and from school. But predators were hard to catch. It took them until today to finally arrest him. Dad and Mom exchanged a loaded look, before a look of absolute resolve settled over their faces. “Did you know? That boy’s wealthy father tracked me down. He said he would give us fifty thousand dollars if we just let this go.” Mom glanced at my tightly shut bedroom door. “That money could cover Noah’s premium meal plan for the whole year. The damage done to Maite cannot be undone anyway. As long as that boy knows he was wrong…” “Besides, look at the terrible attitude Maite is giving us right now. A little harsh reality might be exactly the lesson she needs.” Holding my kitten, I sat in the backseat of their car as they drove to the police station. The face that haunted my darkest nightmares was sitting in the lobby, casually crossing his legs. He looked at my parents with absolute disdain. His overweight father grabbed my dad’s hand warmly. “My good friend, let’s step outside and have a little chat.” I listened to my dad eagerly agreeing to the fifty-thousand-dollar hush money. Every syllable sounded exactly like the sound of my heart shattering into pieces. The monster swaggered out of the police station a free man. I wanted to lunge at him, tear his flesh, and drink his blood. But my own parents had just sold me out. I could never get my justice now. The car ride back was suffocatingly silent. What were they thinking about? “Robert, I still feel like taking this money is wrong…” Dad’s grip on the steering wheel tightened, as if he was terrified he might change his mind. “I know you are worried it will break Maite’s heart. So we just won’t tell her.” “Maite has been perfectly healthy her whole life. Noah is so sickly it breaks my heart. Let’s just consider this the ultimate sacrifice Maite is making for her little brother.” “When we get home, we will let her out and take her somewhere fun to relax. We won’t make her do the drug trial anymore.” Sitting in the backseat, my soul was reduced to ashes. Dad, you don’t have to bother. I am already dead. I can’t go anywhere fun. Mom’s phone suddenly rang. It was my homeroom teacher, Mrs. Bennett. “Mrs. Bennett, how can I help you? We already called in sick for Maite for the past few days.” “I know this must be an incredibly agonizing time for you as parents. But you have to stay strong and not show your despair in front of the child…” Mom cut her off, thoroughly confused. “Mrs. Bennett, what do you mean? Agonizing time?” “Wait. Didn’t Maite show you her cancer diagnosis? Haven’t you been taking her to the hospital for tests these past few days?”

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Kristen’s funeral wasn’t even over yet. The scent of white roses and burning wax still hung heavy in the chapel. But I simply reached out, took her best friend Sarah’s hand, and walked right to the front of the grieving crowd. “I am going to marry Sarah,” I announced. I pulled out the diamond ring I had originally bought for Kristen years ago and slid it onto Sarah’s finger. Kristen’s older brother, Carter, charged at me with bloodshot eyes. “Doug Blake! Are you even human?!” My bodyguards immediately intercepted him, pinning him back. He thrashed against them, his voice tearing through the chapel. “My sister is lying right there in that casket!” “You are proposing to this slut right in front of her?!” “Have you two been sleeping together this whole time?!” I calmly shifted my gaze to Kristen’s black-and-white portrait resting on the altar. “This was Kristen’s dying wish.” “She wanted the two people she loved most to support each other and walk the rest of this life together.” The crowd erupted. The entire chapel was filled with gasps, curses, and people calling me a twisted liar. But nobody understood what I really meant. 1 “Doug, you have lost your damn mind!” Kristen’s mother clutched her chest, gasping for air before collapsing straight toward the floor. Relatives rushed to catch her, chaotic shouts echoing as they fanned her and rubbed her back. Her cloudy, tear-filled eyes locked onto me with pure venom. “My daughter just passed away! Her body isn’t even cold yet!” “And you couldn’t wait to parade this woman in front of everyone? You want to give everything my daughter owned to this homewrecker?!” “How can you face Kristen in the afterlife?!” Sarah’s hand was trembling violently inside my grip. I just squeezed it tighter, raising my eyes to scan the room full of furious faces. “Like I said, the wedding will be scheduled soon.” “Everything under Kristen’s name, the mansion in the East End, her company shares, and all the cash in her personal accounts, will go entirely to Sarah.” “You animal! You are a literal animal!” Carter broke free from the bodyguards for a split second, the veins bulging on his forehead. His eyes were so red they looked ready to bleed. “Do you remember how my sister treated you?!” “When your first startup failed, she pawned her wedding jewelry to help you pay off your debts.” “When you were hospitalized, she sat by your bed for three days and three nights without closing her eyes!” “Now that she is gone, this is how you repay her?!” “Stealing her inheritance, marrying her best friend… do you even have a heart?!” He lunged forward again, but the guards quickly wrapped their arms around his waist, dragging him back. Carter thrashed wildly. His roars were so loud they made the white floral arrangements shudder. “Sarah! You filthy bitch!” “My sister treated you like her own flesh and blood! She shared everything with you, and this is how you pay her back?!” “Stealing her man and swallowing her fortune the second she is gone? Aren’t you afraid of going to hell?!” Sarah’s face drained of all color. Her lips parted as she tried to say something, but her voice was instantly drowned out by the tidal wave of insults. “You ungrateful piece of trash!” An elderly uncle, shaking with rage, pointed his cane right at my nose. “If Kristen is watching from heaven, she will crawl back down just to rip the faces off you two!” “They definitely hooked up ages ago!” Someone whispered the accusation loudly. It wasn’t a scream, but it acted like gasoline on an open fire. “Exactly! They probably killed Kristen so they could be together!” “Otherwise, why would they be so brazen about it?!” Someone accidentally knocked over the memorial candle stand. Hot wax and ashes spilled across the floor, mixing with scattered funeral programs, making the scene look incredibly pathetic. A relative grabbed a handful of white carnations from the altar and hurled them violently at us. The petals shattered, landing in Sarah’s hair and on the shoulders of my tailored black suit, like a silent, mocking judgment. And in that moment, the absolute chaos of the chapel was already being recorded. Several people had their phones up, lenses zoomed in perfectly. They captured Carter’s roars, the elders’ curses, and the cold silence of Sarah and me. Within minutes, those clips were edited, slapped with the title “Trashing the Dead: Husband Marries Mistress at Wife’s Funeral,” and uploaded across every major social media platform. It took less than half an hour. #FuneralProposal #DougBlakeGivesMillionsToMistress #JusticeForKristen The three hashtags skyrocketed like rockets, dominating the top trending spots on Twitter and TikTok, glowing with that blinding red “Viral” tag. 2 The comment sections were a total warzone. The sheer volume of rage practically melted the servers. [What kind of absolute garbage human being is Doug Blake?] [His wife is literally lying in a casket in the same room, and he couldn’t wait to marry her bestie and split her money? He is a psychopath!] [Sarah is disgusting. Stealing your best friend’s man and her money? This had to be premeditated.] [My heart breaks for Kristen. She loved the wrong man and trusted the wrong friend.] [Hold on… is it possible Kristen didn’t die of natural causes?] [They are way too eager. It’s almost like they couldn’t wait for her to die!] [The police need to investigate! Scum like this deserves to be ruined and locked up forever!] My phone buzzed relentlessly against my chest. Texts, calls, and emails flooded in, packed with curses and interrogations. Random unknown numbers started ringing, and the second I answered, people would just scream death threats into my ear. My company’s PR department was having a collective meltdown. They sent me dozens of urgent messages begging for a crisis management strategy. Our stock price had already started to plummet off a cliff. But I ignored all of it. I casually turned off my phone and slipped it back into my suit’s breast pocket. I looked down and gently brushed a crushed white petal out of Sarah’s hair. My fingertips brushed against her ice-cold skin. She looked up at me, her eyes brimming with panic and dread. “Doug, maybe we should just leave?” I shook my head and reached out to smooth her wrinkled collar. “Don’t be afraid.” Then I turned back to face the crowd, meeting their furious, murderous glares. My voice wasn’t loud, but it cut through the deafening noise. “I have said what I needed to say.” “The wedding will be held when the time is right.” “I have already decided where the inheritance goes.” “My lawyers will expedite the legal paperwork.” “Whether you believe me, or how much you want to curse me, that is entirely up to you.” My eyes drifted to Kristen’s black-and-white portrait. She was smiling so gently in that picture. “When the time comes, I will give everyone, including Kristen, a complete explanation.” “An explanation?! What kind of sick explanation could you possibly give?!” Carter was trembling with rage, still pinned down by the security team. “You murdered her! I am calling the cops! I am going to make you and this bitch pay!” I let out a relaxed, easy smile. “Call the cops?” “Go ahead. I am more than happy to cooperate.” The second the circus at the funeral ended, I booked the earliest flight out. I took Sarah straight to a luxury tropical island. Sunshine, white sandy beaches, crystal clear water. I held Sarah’s hand, posing for a picture under a palm tree. She was wearing a flowing white sundress, smiling softly, with Kristen’s diamond ring sparkling on her finger. The caption read: “To the rest of our lives. Please take care of me.” I posted it directly to my personal accounts. No privacy settings, entirely public. The internet exploded all over again. The backlash was ten times more violent than the day of the funeral. [Doug Blake, are you even a human being?!] [Going on a honeymoon right after your wife’s funeral? And you have the nerve to post pictures showing off?!] [Looking at Sarah’s face makes me sick. Wearing a dead woman’s ring.] [Living in a dead woman’s house and she can still smile like that?] [Do these two even have a conscience?!] [The grass hasn’t even grown over Kristen’s grave yet!] [Cancel his company! Society needs to permanently blacklist this piece of trash!] My direct messages were flooded with the most vile threats imaginable. People photoshopped my face onto crime scene photos. Internet sleuths tracked down our resort location, threatening to fly out and “teach us a lesson.” But I didn’t care. In fact, I kept posting daily updates. A photo of Sarah’s silhouette by the ocean. A close-up of us sharing an expensive gelato. Our hands intertwined under a golden sunset. Every single post was like pouring aviation fuel straight onto the internet’s raging fire. 3 Ten days later, the honeymoon was over. I brought Sarah back to the corporate headquarters. When I pushed open the double doors to my executive office suite, it looked like a disaster zone. More than half the cubicles were completely empty. Files were scattered across the floor. Several department heads were actively leading their teams in packing up their desks. “Mr. Blake, we are resigning.” The Marketing Director spoke first, his tone dripping with absolute disgust. “We fundamentally disagree with the kind of person you are, and we refuse to work for you a second longer.” “Exactly, we are walking out too!” “Protecting a mistress and stealing your dead wife’s money? We don’t serve bosses like that!” “Either you step down, or we walk. We choose the latter!” The employees chimed in one after another, their eyes filled with a mix of contempt and bitter disappointment. The massive office was practically hollowed out. Only a few veteran employees stood awkwardly in the corners, hesitating. I leaned casually against my mahogany desk, drumming my fingers lightly against the surface. I kept my voice perfectly level. “That is perfectly fine. Anyone who wants to leave is free to go.” I turned to my secretary and told her to bring out the severance packages I had drafted beforehand. “For those who have been here for over three years, you will receive an extra three months of severance pay. For those over five years, six months.” “All unused PTO and sick days will be cashed out fully and added to your final check.” The second those words left my mouth, the entire floor went dead silent. Even the people who were carrying their cardboard boxes toward the elevators froze in their tracks. The news of my massive payout leaked to the internet almost instantly. The netizens lost their minds even more. [Is Doug Blake actually insane?] [He betrays his wife, gives her parents a heart attack, but acts like a saint to his employees?!] [This is wild. Doing the most villainous things in his personal life, but throwing around cash to buy loyalty at work? Terrifying!] [Is he trying to use money to shut everyone up?] [Too bad we aren’t buying it!] [Treating his staff so well but being so ruthless to his dead wife. What is this guy’s brain made of?] [Hypocrite!] [Fake saint!] [He is a psychopath!] Negative labels washed over me like a tsunami. I scrolled through the brutal comments on my phone, then looked up at the employees slowly filtering out of the office with their generous checks. A faint, subtle smile curled the corner of my mouth. Sarah stood next to me, her face deathly pale. “Doug, if this keeps up, the entire company is going to collapse…” I reached out and patted her shoulder, my voice smooth and unbothered. “If it collapses, I will just build another one.” They didn’t understand. I never cared about saving this company, nor did I care about public approval. What I wanted was to make the rats hiding in the dark panic. And this entire circus? It was only just the beginning. The heavy glass doors to my office were suddenly shoved open. I was in the middle of signing the very last severance agreement. A squad of federal financial investigators walked in wearing dark suits, their expressions stone-cold. “Doug Blake, we received a highly detailed anonymous tip. Your company is suspected of massive financial fraud and severe tax evasion. We are here to conduct an official investigation.” Stacks of ledgers and banking documents were slapped onto my desk. Every single highlighted number was shocking. When they presented the final calculation, even I was genuinely taken aback for a second. “The back taxes and federal penalties owed total exactly fifteen million dollars.” The news grew wings and flew across the internet in seconds. #DougBlakeCompanyRaided #FifteenMillionDollarFine The hashtags hit number one instantly. The internet threw a massive party. The comment sections were filled with people cheering and popping digital champagne. [Karma never misses! The trash finally got what he deserved!] [This is what you get for betraying your wife! The money is gone, the company is dead. Serves him right!] [Just throw him in a federal prison already. Let him rot in a cell for the rest of his life!] Hearing the blood in the water, Kristen’s family rushed over. 4 Carter showed up at the corporate lobby leading a pack of angry relatives. He wore a twisted smile of pure vindication, his voice echoing off the marble walls. “Doug Blake, this is exactly what you deserve!” “But before the government seizes your assets, you are going to spit out my sister’s inheritance! And you are going to pay the Collins family extra for emotional damages!” “Otherwise, Kristen will never rest in peace down there!” The netizens watching the live streams enthusiastically backed him up. [He is absolutely right! The family should squeeze every penny out of him. Don’t let this scumbag off easy!] [The money was Kristen’s to begin with. He needs to use it to pay for his sins!] [Support the Collins family! Drain Doug Blake until he has absolutely nothing left!] Right at that moment, the wail of police sirens approached the building. Two uniformed detectives walked straight into my office and flashed their badges. “Mr. Blake, the sheer amount of money involved in your company’s fraud elevates this to a major criminal offense. Please come with us to the precinct.” Carter and his relatives immediately started cheering. The live chat on the streams scrolled so fast it was just a blur of text. But I calmly raised my hand, stopping the detectives in their tracks. My face didn’t show a hint of panic. “Hold on.” “This fraud is not my responsibility.” Carter let out a sharp, mocking laugh. “Not your responsibility? What, did a ghost do it?!” “Doug, have some damn shame! You are backed into a corner and you are still trying to pass the buck?!” I ignored his taunts. My gaze swept slowly across the room, making eye contact with everyone present. “It is my wife, Kristen’s responsibility.” “She knows the details of this fraud much better than I do.” The whispers in the room and the raging comments online erupted simultaneously. “He is insane! He has officially lost his mind!” “Blaming a dead woman?! This man truly has no bottom line!” “Throwing dirty water on Kristen when she is already in the ground… Doug Blake is going to burn in hell!” The lead detective frowned deeply. “Mr. Blake, please cooperate with the investigation. Do not spout nonsense.” I didn’t argue. I pulled out my phone and dialed a heavily encrypted international number. I tapped the call button and put the phone on speaker, resting it on my mahogany desk. Carter’s voice was dripping with pure disdain. The millions of people watching the live streams were practically eating popcorn, waiting for my final, pathetic joke to play out. “Is he actually dialing a number? Who is he calling? A ghost?!” “What a clown! Let’s see how he tries to spin this lie!” The ringing tone echoed through the speaker. One ring. Two rings. Three rings… Just when everyone was convinced it would go to voicemail. A clear, female voice suddenly came through the speaker. It even carried a hint of lazy, husky arrogance. “Hello? Who is this?”

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1. Lately, I’ve been dealing with an absolute nightmare. It started when my neighbor realized our morning commutes aligned. From then on, she hitched a ride with me every single day. I found it annoying, but since it was on my way, I was too polite to complain. With Labor Day weekend approaching, I was planning a getaway with my best friend. Out of nowhere, my neighbor sent me a massive PDF file. I opened it—it was a detailed itinerary for her family’s holiday trip. Attached was a text: “Olivia, here’s our schedule. Make sure you know the driving routes.” Another message popped up instantly: “Holiday traffic will be a nightmare. We’re leaving a day early, so make sure you request time off work.” I stared at my phone, caught between fury and disbelief. Was she really treating me like her unpaid chauffeur? I took a deep breath, about to shut her down, when another text appeared: “I saw a notification on your phone about those concert tickets you got. I canceled them for you.” Then the kicker: “You really shouldn’t waste money chasing pop stars at your age.” Before I could process that, she made an even crazier demand: “If you’ve got that much money to burn, our family vacation will cost around eighteen grand. You can just cover it for us.” I felt my blood literally boiling. That was the farewell tour of an artist I had worshipped for ten straight years. I had pulled every string imaginable and stayed up until dawn just to secure those VIP tickets. This morning, Martha had knocked on my door claiming her phone was completely dead and she desperately needed to call her relatives out of state. Like a fool, I lent her my phone. I never imagined she would maliciously snoop through my apps and cancel my once-in-a-lifetime tickets just to force me into being her family driver. My hands were shaking so badly I had to jab the screen three times before I finally managed to dial her number. It rang forever before she picked up with a sickeningly sweet drawl. “Well hey there Olivia! Did you read through the itinerary? Don’t you think my family planned a fabulous trip?” I swallowed the absolute rage clawing at my throat and yelled into the receiver. “Who gave you the right to touch my phone and cancel my tickets without my permission!” Martha’s voice floated back, completely and utterly unbothered. “Oh honey, why are you being so ungrateful? I was looking out for you!” “You are young. You will need that money for important things down the road. Blowing a thousand bucks to watch someone sing? Have you lost your mind?” “I figured I would do you a huge favor and save you some cash, so I just hit the refund button.” “Besides, you are going to be driving us to the coast for the holiday anyway. You wouldn’t have time for a concert. You can just put those refunded dollars toward our vacation expenses instead.” I was genuinely speechless. Cancel my tickets, then expect me to foot the bill for their eighteen thousand dollar family vacation? The sheer delusion was astronomical! “It is my money, and I will spend it however I damn well please! I do not need you making financial decisions for me!” “And for the record, I never agreed to go anywhere with your trashy family. I am not paying a single dime of that eighteen grand!” Martha’s tone shifted instantly, her voice turning shrill and defensive. “Excuse me, little girl? Is that how you speak to your elders!” “I see you going to work and coming home all alone every single day. I was doing you a favor by taking pity on you! I didn’t want you sitting alone in your apartment like a loser for the holiday, so I was generous enough to let you tag along and show you a good time.” “Since you are coming with us, it is only right that you cover the expenses. We are basically babysitting you!” I laughed out loud, a harsh and bitter sound. Suddenly, all the disgusting things she had done while hitching free rides flashed through my mind. If we agreed to leave at seven, she would always drag her feet until half past. The moment I rushed her, she would roll her eyes and guilt trip me about having to cook breakfast for her husband and son. Once inside my pristine car, she would always bring the most pungent and offensive foods. Greasy garlic kebabs or stinky tuna salads that left a lingering stench in the cabin for days. She would stuff her greasy wrappers into my door compartments, smearing my expensive leather seats without a single word of apology. If I had to brake a little too hard during rush hour, she would make snide, passive-aggressive remarks about my terrible driving making her carsick. I had kept my mouth shut all this time simply to keep the peace. But my silence had only bred her monstrous entitlement. I took a massive breath, forcing my heart rate down. “Listen to me very carefully Martha. I have absolutely zero interest in your pathetic family vacation, and I am not giving you a single cent!” “As for you messing with my phone and refunding my tickets, I am gathering the evidence and I will hold you legally responsible.” “And starting today, do not even think about getting near my car again!” Without giving her a single second to respond, I hung up. 2. The second the call ended, Martha’s texts started flooding in. [What is that supposed to mean? You aren’t coming?] [If you weren’t coming, why didn’t you say so earlier! Our itinerary is totally locked in and the hotels are booked. Backing out now is just sick and twisted!] [Because you ghosted us, all the budget flights are sold out! Now my family has to buy last-minute premium tickets!] [You are going to cover this loss! The flights plus the vacation packages come out to twenty-five grand. Wire me the money right now!] I did not even have the energy to entertain her lunacy. I blocked her number immediately. Half an hour later, my phone started buzzing relentlessly. It was the community HOA WhatsApp group. I was being tagged endlessly. I opened the app and saw Martha aggressively playing the victim, typing out massive paragraphs for everyone to see. [Neighbors, I need you all to weigh in on this! I was generous enough to invite Olivia from downstairs to join my family on our Labor Day vacation.] [I paid out of pocket to book the hotels and plan the routes. But right before the holiday, she completely ghosts us!] [Because of her, the cheap flights are gone and we are forced to buy expensive tickets. When I asked her to cover the damages she caused, she had the nerve to block me!] [Young women these days are so unbelievably selfish. Zero integrity!] Right on cue, the nosy neighborhood gossips leaped into the fray. [Oh my goodness, young people are just so unreliable lately.] [If you made a promise to someone, you have to follow through. Making them lose all that money is awful.] [Olivia honey, you really messed up here. You should just pay them back.] [Exactly. We all have to live next to each other. Don’t make the living situation toxic over some money.] I stared at the screen, physically nauseated by the barrage of holier-than-thou comments. My fingers flew across the keyboard. [Martha, are you completely out of your mind?] [When did I ever agree to go anywhere with you? You sent me an itinerary completely unsolicited, demanded I be your unpaid chauffeur, and told me to foot your eighteen thousand dollar bill!] [You bum rides in my car every day, trash my interior without apologizing, and this morning you stole my phone to cancel the concert tickets I fought tooth and nail to get!] [And now you want to extort me for twenty-five grand? Keep dreaming!] The group chat went dead silent for a long moment. But soon enough, the fence-sitters who usually played cards with Martha started typing again. [Even if Martha was a bit pushy, she was just worried you would be lonely!] [Right! Since your tickets are gone anyway and you have nowhere to go, you might as well just join them on their trip.] [Everyone looks out for each other here. It’s totally fine for you to pitch in some money since they are bringing you along.] [Olivia, be the bigger person. Just apologize and let it go.] Reading these ridiculously tone-deaf comments made my stomach churn. It is always so easy to be generous when it is not your money on the line, isn’t it? I scoffed, typing out one final message. [Since you all love charity and helping neighbors so much, why don’t you guys pool together twenty-five grand and pay her yourselves!] I hit send and immediately permanently exited the group chat. 3. After leaving the chat, my stomach let out a loud rumble. Thanks to Martha’s psychotic behavior, I had completely forgotten to eat dinner. I grabbed my car keys, deciding to treat myself to some takeout from my favorite upscale bistro to blow off some steam. Walking down into the underground parking garage, I clicked my key fob. The headlights flashed in the dim lighting. But as I got closer, my heart dropped. There was a massive, heavy-duty metal boot locked tightly around my front left tire. My blood pressure spiked instantly. I immediately called the HOA security desk to send someone down with bolt cutters. Ten minutes later, a security guard hurried over accompanied by a local locksmith. The locksmith had just pulled out his tools when Martha suddenly came sprinting out from behind a concrete pillar, violently shoving the poor guy away. “Don’t you dare unlock that! Leave it alone!” I glared at her, my voice turning to ice. “Martha, did you put that boot on my car?” Martha crossed her arms over her chest, tilting her chin up with a smug, defiant smirk. “I sure did. What are you going to do about it?” “My family needs to use this vehicle tomorrow morning for our trip. You are not moving it!” I let out a dry, disbelieving laugh. “Are you completely insane? This is my personal property. What gives you the right to hold my car hostage?” Martha spat on the ground near my shoes. “Who cares whose car it is? If you refuse to pay us the money you owe us, then we are taking the car as collateral!” “My husband can drive perfectly fine anyway. We don’t need a spoiled brat like you behind the wheel.” I whipped my head around to look at the security guard. “Is this how building management handles things? You just let random people boot the residents’ cars?” The guard coughed awkwardly, refusing to meet my eyes, and actually had the nerve to try and mediate. “Miss Olivia, we are all neighbors here. Let’s just talk this out calmly.” “Martha here says she desperately needs a vehicle. Why don’t you just let them borrow it for the weekend? It’s good to help out the community.” My eyes widened in pure shock. “Help out? She is literally hijacking my vehicle in broad daylight, and you call that borrowing?” “Is this how you protect the residents?” The guard flushed red, looking incredibly guilty as he mumbled. “Look, you guys need to sort this out yourselves. I can’t get involved.” Seeing the guard back down only fueled Martha’s ego. She practically glowed with triumph. “You better listen to reason and hand over those keys right now, Olivia. Otherwise, this car is never leaving this garage again!” I took a deep breath, pulling my phone from my pocket. “Fine. If we cannot communicate like civilized adults, I am calling 911. Grand theft auto and extortion. I am pretty sure the dollar amount involved will get you a cozy cell for a few years.” I dialed the numbers, my thumb hovering over the call button. Martha’s face drained of color. The threat of actual police clearly terrified her. “What are you doing! Don’t call the cops! It’s not even a big deal!” She lunged forward, trying to snatch my phone from my hand, but I easily sidestepped her. “If you do not want to be arrested tonight, you will take that boot off my car right now!” Martha glared at me, her teeth grinding together so loudly I could hear it. We stood in a tense standoff for a few agonizing seconds before she finally reached into her pocket. She pulled out a rusty key and angrily unlocked the heavy metal clamp. “You better watch your back, Olivia! This isn’t over!” She delivered a hard kick to my tire before stomping away, muttering curses under her breath. I looked down at the fresh scratches on my rims, a wave of deep exhaustion washing over me. I made a mental note to drive the car to the official dealership first thing in the morning. Leaving it at the shop for a few days seemed like the safest way to keep it out of her psycho clutches. 4. The next morning, I got dressed and headed downstairs. The moment I stepped out of the elevator into the garage, I saw Martha standing right next to my parking spot. She was beaming, looking prouder than a peacock. A heavy pit formed in my stomach. I broke into a run. What I saw made my vision go entirely red. My windshield was completely shattered, a spiderweb of violently bashed-in glass. The entire body of the car was covered in deep, jagged scratches that dug all the way down to the primer. And scrawled across the side doors in dripping, blood-red spray paint were three massive words: “PAY UP BITCH!” The adrenaline rushed straight to my head, and my hands began to tremble uncontrollably. “Aww, does that hurt your feelings?” Martha’s lips curled into a vicious, malicious grin. Her eyes danced with provocation. “I told you this wasn’t over.” “You think you are so special just because you have a fancy car?” “Since you refused to pay us the cash, and you refused to let us take the car, then nobody gets to drive it.” I turned my head slowly to look at her. “You did this?” Martha jutted her chin out, entirely fearless. “So what if I did?” “Let me make something very clear to you, Olivia. You better wire me that twenty-five grand right now. Otherwise, next time, it won’t just be the car getting smashed!” I stared directly into her eyes, my voice deadly calm. “This is felony vandalism and destruction of private property.” “You will pay for every single cent of this damage. I will make sure you rot for this.” Martha let out a loud, mocking cackle. “Pay you? Keep dreaming!” “Do you have any actual proof I did this?” “In case you forgot, my husband is the property manager for this entire complex. I already had him shut off the security cameras down here.” I did not even waste my breath arguing with her. I pulled out my phone and immediately dialed 911. “Hello, police? I am at the underground garage of the Riverfront complex. Someone has maliciously vandalized my vehicle. The monetary damage is extreme. Please send officers immediately.” Hearing me actually call the cops, Martha’s confident smirk faltered for a second, but she quickly masked it with renewed arrogance. “Go ahead! Call them! Let’s see what the cops can actually do to me!” Less than ten minutes later, a cruiser roared down the concrete ramp, lights flashing. Two uniformed officers stepped out quickly. Almost simultaneously, Gary, Martha’s husband and the building manager, arrived at the scene with three security guards trailing behind him. The moment Martha saw her husband and the cops, her entire demeanor flipped like a light switch. Her eyes welled up with dramatic tears, and she threw herself violently into Gary’s arms. “Gary! Thank God you’re here! This woman is terrorizing me!” “Officers, please, you have to help me!” “I was just walking to my car, and I saw her vehicle was damaged. I kindly walked over to ask if she needed any help.” “And out of absolutely nowhere, this psychotic woman grabbed me and started accusing me of smashing it! She is trying to extort me for money!” “She is an awful person who causes trouble with everyone in the building. Someone else obviously wanted revenge on her, and now she’s trying to pin the blame on an innocent mother!” Gary wrapped his arms protectively around his wife, shooting me a disgustingly hostile glare. “Miss Olivia, you need to have some decency. I understand you are upset about your car, but you cannot just throw wild accusations and slander my wife!” The lead officer frowned deeply, taking in the absolutely brutalized state of the vehicle before turning to Gary. “You are the building manager? Pull up the surveillance footage for this sector immediately.” Gary let out a heavy, theatrical sigh, spreading his hands in a gesture of fake helplessness. “I am so sorry, Officer. But we had a terrible thunderstorm last night. The wiring for the cameras in this specific zone shorted out. They are completely fried.” Martha peeked out from Gary’s chest, shooting me a triumphant, venomous look. “Did you hear that? You have zero proof. How dare you accuse me! I should sue you for defamation!” I looked at the two of them, putting on the performance of a lifetime, and I simply smiled. I walked calmly over to the wreckage of my car and pointed to the tiny, seamlessly integrated camera hidden near the side mirror. “The building’s security cameras are broken, huh?” “That is perfectly fine. My car’s twenty-four-hour Sentry Mode camera has been recording everything.”

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1. I took the bullet for Richard when his pet project crashed and burned. In exchange, he promised me a year-end promotion and a hefty raise. Yet the moment the layoff rumors started circulating, I was the very first person called into his office. “Harper, corporate is restructuring. Your metrics are at the bottom of the barrel, so we have to let you go.” I stared at the termination agreement. The words “Stack Ranking Elimination” glared back at me. I did not argue with him. I simply packed my things in silence. And then I took a seat in the office directly across from his. The one with the frosted glass marked “Exclusive Corporate Auditor.” … “Harper, regarding the restructuring, you are the first on the list.” Richard’s voice was completely devoid of warmth. I sat across from him in the conference room. The air conditioning was cranked up so high the chill seeped right into my bones. He slid a manila folder across the mahogany table. It was a formal termination notice. The words “Performance-Based Termination” stung my eyes. “Richard, I recall the performance reviews for this month. I was nowhere near the bottom.” My voice was dead calm. Richard barely lifted his eyes from his phone. “The company looks at the big picture, Harper. It is not just about raw sales.” “Besides, you know exactly how much money your mistakes cost us on Project Apex.” I stared at him, my mind going completely blank for a fraction of a second. Project Apex was his brainchild. His flawed decision-making nearly cost the firm ten million dollars. It was me who stayed up for three consecutive nights with my team, rebuilding the entire data model from scratch to stop the bleeding. And it was him who stood in my office, looked me dead in the eye, and said those exact words. “Harper, just take the bullet for me on this one. I swear I will make you Vice Director by December.” Now, that very same project was the weapon he was using to execute my career. The HR Manager, Davis, cleared his throat from the corner of the room. “Harper, our hands are tied here. You have to understand the business side of things.” “Just sign the paperwork. We are offering a very standard severance package to make this easy.” I did not even glance at the contract. My gaze drifted right past Richard and landed on Sophie, the new intern standing by the filing cabinet. Sophie was looking down, pretending to sort papers, but a smug smirk was plastered across her glossy lips. She was wearing a brand-new designer dress. The exact same limited-edition dress Richard had bought during his business trip last week. Even the potted monstera plant I had nurtured on my desk for three years had already been relocated to her cubicle. Richard sighed, tapping his expensive watch in annoyance. “Do not waste our time, Harper. We have a long list of people to get through today.” “Your performance is dragging the whole department down. People have been complaining to me for weeks.” I took a deep breath and stood up. “Understood.” I left the pen on the table, turned around, and walked out. Back at my desk, the bullpen was dead silent. My colleagues kept their heads glued to their monitors, typing aggressively to avoid making eye contact with me. A thick, suffocating awkwardness hung in the air. I began dropping my life into a cardboard box. Piles of market research, client files, and the crystal trophy engraved with my name. Richard had handed me that trophy himself after I secured the massive Southside Development deal. At the celebration dinner, he had raised his glass and announced to the whole room. “Harper is the lucky charm of this division! She is my absolute right-hand woman!” Now, he was chopping off his right hand just to save his own skin. My phone buzzed in my pocket. It was a Slack message from Greg. “Harper, what the hell is going on? I just heard you got pulled into the firing squad?” “How can they PIP you? You were literally the top biller last quarter!” I typed back. “It is about Project Apex.” Greg instantly tried to call me. I hit decline. I was not in the mood to talk. A wall of furious text popped up on my screen a second later. “Are you kidding me! If it wasn’t for you, corporate would have fired his incompetent ass months ago!” “He forced that project through against everyone’s advice, and you cleaned up his mess!” “You cannot just let him get away with this, Harper! Go to corporate HR! File an appeal!” I kept my fingers steady as I replied. “Calm down, Greg.” “He did this because he thinks I have zero leverage.” “This termination notice was a theatrical performance.” The clack of high heels interrupted me. Sophie sauntered over, her voice dripping with artificial sweetness. “Do you need some help with that, Harper?” She pointed a manicured finger at my master project binder. “Those files are highly confidential. Richard told me to take over your accounts, so you can just hand that over to me.” Her eyes sparkled with naked ambition and petty triumph. I looked at her the way one might look at a clown performing a cheap trick. I picked up the heavy binder and shoved it into her chest. “Good luck.” She hugged the binder like she had just won the lottery. “Thanks! I will definitely work super hard so I don’t disappoint Richard.” Richard stepped out of the glass conference room and clapped his hands loudly to get the floor’s attention. “Everyone, stop what you are doing for a second. I have an announcement.” “Effective immediately, Harper is leaving us due to personal reasons. Sophie will be taking over all her active accounts.” “Also, let us congratulate Sophie. She has officially passed her probation and is being promoted to Project Lead.” The title he had promised me was handed to a twenty-two-year-old intern who had been here for three months. You could hear a pin drop in the office. I picked up my cardboard box and walked toward the exit, feeling the weight of a dozen stares burning into my back. As I walked past Richard, he did not even bother to look in my direction. He was already leaning in, whispering softly to Sophie. “Where do you want to go for your celebration dinner tonight?” 2. I carried my box out the revolving glass doors. The glaring afternoon sun made my eyes water. Instead of going home, I hailed a cab and gave the driver the address to the corporate headquarters downtown. Greg called me again. This time, I answered. “Harper! Are you seriously just walking away? How can you swallow this?” His voice was shaking with pure outrage. “I am furious! Richard and that little intern are treating you like absolute dirt!” I leaned against the cool metal wall of the elevator, my initial shock having completely crystallized into cold clarity. “Greg, he fired me because I know too much. He wants me gone.” “If I throw a tantrum in the lobby, he will just have security drag me out.” “He planned this perfectly.” Greg was practically growling into the receiver. “So what? You made this company millions! Now he throws a bucket of dirty water on your head and kicks you to the curb?” I watched the digital floor numbers climbing higher and higher. “Of course I am not letting it go, Greg.” “Then what are you going to do? Tell me!” I hung up the phone. I opened the PDF of my termination notice that HR had just emailed me. I took a clean screenshot. Then, I logged into a hidden corporate email portal on my phone. An administrative account I had never used before. The recipient was Bennett, the Secretary of the Board of Directors. I attached the screenshot, along with a massive encrypted zip file containing every single piece of raw data from Project Apex. I also attached a crystal-clear audio recording of Richard begging me to be his fall guy in his office. In the body of the email, I typed a single, simple sentence. “My name is Harper. I am officially activating my Corporate Auditor protocol.” I hit send and powered off my phone. A year ago, Richard was managing a failing branch. They had bled money for three consecutive quarters. Headquarters had issued an ultimatum. One more quarter in the red, and the entire branch would be liquidated. I was the one who stepped up. I led a skeleton crew, worked through the holidays, and secured the Southside Development, landing the biggest contract in the branch’s history. I practically spoon-fed Richard. I taught him how to analyze the market data, how to forecast trends, and how to write the executive presentations he gave to the Board. Thanks to me, our branch became the crown jewel of the enterprise. His throne was finally secure. And suddenly, the architect who built his throne became a threat. I knew all his weak spots, so I had to be eliminated. My phone buzzed as I turned it back on. Greg was spamming me with screenshots. “Harper! Look at the company Slack! It is a warzone!” “Richard just posted a company-wide announcement saying you were fired for gross negligence. He is actively implying you were embezzling funds!” I did not even bother opening the app. I knew exactly what was happening. Sophie, lacking any actual brain cells, had probably whispered poison in his ear. She wanted to be the new right-hand woman, which meant she needed to bury the predecessor six feet under. They were a match made in heaven. Two absolute fools. Richard’s days of playing king were officially over. I walked into a pristine office on the top floor and slowly wiped a speck of dust off the mahogany desk. 3. At two o’clock the following afternoon, I returned to the branch office. This time, I wore the title of Corporate Auditor. I did not give anyone a heads-up. When I pushed through the double glass doors, the receptionist dropped her pen, her jaw practically hitting the desk. She stared at the unfamiliar solid gold corporate badge clipped to my lapel, entirely unsure if she was supposed to call security. I walked right past her without breaking stride. Richard was standing outside his office, looking incredibly smug as he explained something to Sophie. When he saw me, he froze. His smug smile warped into a deep, ugly scowl. “Harper? What the hell are you doing here? You don’t work here anymore.” He stepped forward to block my path, his tone dripping with the arrogant authority of a man protecting his territory. I kept my face completely blank and walked right past him. I could hear him barking orders behind my back. “Who let her in? Get security up here now! Throw her out!” “You got fired for being dead last in performance, and you still have the nerve to show your face?” The new hires who didn’t know me watched the scene unfold with wide, fearful eyes, clearly intimidated by Richard’s rage. I turned the corner and stopped in front of the door directly opposite his office. It was a room that had been locked for years. The frosted glass read “Exclusive Corporate Auditor.” I lifted my new gold badge and tapped it against the security scanner. A soft beep echoed through the dead silent office floor. The heavy magnetic lock clicked open. I pushed the door open, stepped inside, and closed it firmly behind me, making sure everyone got a good look. The entire bullpen plunged into absolute, suffocating silence. I could hear someone gasp in the cubicles. Richard’s aggressive shouting was instantly choked off, as if someone had wrapped a hand around his throat. I could only imagine the spectacular color of his face at that exact moment. My laptop chimed. Greg was messaging me on the encrypted internal server. “Holy shit! Harper! Are you a Corporate Auditor?” “I just saw you walk in! The entire floor is losing their minds!” Greg followed up seconds later. “I bet Richard’s little stunt yesterday triggered some alarms at HQ!” “He thought he was invincible once he kicked you out. He is so dead!” I allowed a small smirk to touch my lips. I booted up the desktop and logged directly into the enterprise’s highest-clearance administrative portal. Outside, the whispers were spreading like wildfire. Every single person in the building had witnessed me unlocking that door. Chaos was beginning to brew inside Richard’s office. Greg’s live updates kept rolling in. “Richard locked himself in his office. He has been on the phone for thirty minutes.” “He just bolted out of his room looking like a ghost. He was screaming at HR Davis, asking where your personnel file was.” “Davis is sweating bullets. He told Richard that corporate HQ confiscated your physical file yesterday afternoon.” Within thirty minutes, a parade of nervous department heads began scurrying in and out of Richard’s office. The panic was finally setting in. 4. Desperate for damage control, Richard made Sophie post an announcement in the main Slack channel. “Tagging everyone. Please focus on your deliverables and do not listen to office gossip.” “Just because certain individuals use shady tactics to sneak back into the building does not change the fact that they were fired for dead-last performance.” “Management will strictly penalize anyone caught disrupting the workplace environment.” He actually believed that if he lied aggressively enough, people would blindly accept it. Greg messaged me again. “Harper, this bastard is still doubling down!” “He is such a moron!” “He is definitely panicking now, though. I just caught him ordering Davis to permanently delete your PIP evaluation records from the server.” Richard was completely losing his grip on reality. He started making frantic, loud phone calls with his office door wide open. “Hello? Secretary Bennett? Yes, this is Richard. I just wanted to inquire about the new Corporate Auditor situation…” “What? You are in a meeting? No, wait, I just need a second to ask about Harper…” I couldn’t hear the response, but Richard’s voice instantly shrank to a pathetic squeak. “Yes, sir. Understood, sir. I apologize for interrupting.” He hung up the phone. His face had gone from pale to a sickly shade of gray. Finally, one of the newly promoted team leads couldn’t take the suspense anymore. He knocked tentatively on Richard’s door. “Richard, what exactly is Harper’s status here?” “The whole floor is freaking out. We need some clarity.” That question was the spark that lit the powder keg. Richard pretended he didn’t hear him. Instead, he frantically typed out a bonus announcement in the general chat. “Thanks to our heroic efforts on Project Apex, everyone involved is getting a double bonus this month!” The team lead standing in his doorway asked again. “Richard? Are you listening? Everyone is waiting for an explanation!” Richard’s pathetic attempt to play dumb finally pushed Greg over the edge. Greg couldn’t hold back anymore. He stood up in the middle of the bullpen and shouted at the top of his lungs. “Stop acting like an idiot, Richard! Harper is the Corporate Auditor sent by the Board to investigate you! What are you playing at?” Those words hit the office like a bomb. The floor erupted. “Wait, what? Corporate Auditor?” “No way! Didn’t he say she was fired for incompetence?” “Oh my god! That means everything Richard said yesterday was a complete lie!” A few of the veteran analysts I had personally mentored immediately caught on. “Exactly! I knew there was no way Harper was at the bottom of the metrics!” “Tagging Richard. Say something! You can’t just burn bridges and expect us to stay quiet!” “Keep your dirty bonus money! I don’t want a dime of it! Tagging Richard.” Dozens of eyes were currently drilling holes into Richard’s glass office. He was still trying to play dead. Greg let out a loud scoff. He pulled up the email screenshot I had sent to the Board Secretary and posted it anonymously into the massive company-wide channel. “Hard evidence! What is your excuse now, Richard?” With the undeniable proof glaring on their screens, the employees finally snapped. The notifications pinged relentlessly as a tidal wave of outrage forced Richard out of hiding.

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1 Seven years with Alan ended when he said he had a low sex drive. Before each time we were intimate, I would brew him a special herbal tonic. He drank it without refusing and even saw specialists. Then one day, as I entered with the steaming mug, I heard him scoff, “Are you really that desperate for a man?” A woman’s laugh came from his phone. She said, “Alan does not have a low sex drive. He was with me all afternoon. He just pictures you from high school, stripped bare on that bathroom floor, and it kills his mood.” Alan chuckled and pulled me close, telling me not to listen. But on the FaceTime screen, I saw her face—the same girl who had humiliated me years ago. Blind with rage, I grabbed the scalding tonic and forced it down his throat. … Alan choked, his face turning an angry shade of crimson as he clutched his chest. He glared at me, his voice a furious roar. “Rowan, are you insane? I told you she was joking. Can you not understand English?” The ceramic mug shattered at my feet. Sharp fragments nicked my ankles, leaving trails of red. I forced the corners of my mouth up into a twisted smile. “I am joking too. Is it funny?” His expression faltered. From the phone on the bed, the woman’s giggles continued. “Relax, Rowan. I just want his body, not his heart.” “He literally did not want to pull out of me earlier. I was the one who had to convince him to go home to you. Besides, this kind of thing is only fun when both people want it. No one likes a desperate girl forcing herself on a guy. Did those girls in high school not teach you your place?” Memories I had spent years burying clawed their way back to the surface. I lunged at the bed like a madwoman and ended the call. Looking at the mess on the floor, Alan picked up his phone, his eyes freezing over. “Are you done throwing a tantrum?” “If I knew you were this unhinged, I never would have saved you back then. You deserved to be stripped.” The moment the words left his mouth, a flicker of regret crossed his eyes. Not regret for cheating on me. Regret for getting involved in my mess back in high school and letting me attach myself to him. Right before our final exams, because I had beaten Sloane for the valedictorian spot, her little group of mean girls cornered me in the locker room. They tore my clothes off and threatened to take photos. In my most desperate, humiliating moment, Alan appeared like a savior. He chased them off and promised he would never tell a soul. I could still vividly remember the shy flush on his cheeks as he kept his eyes squeezed shut and wrapped his varsity jacket tightly around my trembling shoulders. He was the one who pulled me out of the darkness back then. And now, because of Sloane, he was shoving me right back into the abyss. Tears blurred my vision. I wiped them away frantically, my eyes red and burning as I stared him down. “Do you even know who she is?” He frowned, reaching out to wipe a tear from my cheek. “I know.” “But Sloane told me she was just young and stupid back then. She knows she was wrong. She wanted to make it up to you, but she knew seeing her would only trigger you. So when she found out we were having bedroom issues, she decided to make it up to me instead.” A sickening look of reminiscence washed over his face. “She is a true trust-fund girl, Rowan. Her skin is so soft it bruises if you just grip it. Being with her… that is the first time I actually felt like a real man.” “Today in the parking garage, she was straddling me, begging me to tell her who made me feel better. Ro, do you honestly think there is a comparison?” His face was plastered with absolute infatuation for Sloane. He looked nothing like the boy who had once held me, his own eyes red with sympathetic tears, swearing he would protect me and make Sloane pay for what she did. I lost whatever control I had left. I grabbed his shirt collar, shaking him. “Alan, what gives you the right to forgive her for me? What gives you the right…” He swatted my hands away. My interrogation was clearly starting to annoy him. “Ro, it has been years. Do you really need to hold onto a grudge for this long?” “Besides, Sloane knows she messed up. If it is really that big of a deal, I will have her apologize to you in person.” One flimsy apology. That was his solution to erase years of my trauma. A wave of pure nausea hit me. I sprinted to the master bathroom and dry heaved over the sink. He followed me, standing behind me to gently rub my back. He actually looked a little concerned. “Are you okay?” I slapped his hand away, my eyes blazing with disgust. He simply gathered my hair, pulling it over my shoulder, and wrapped his arms around me from behind, whispering into my ear. “Ro, instead of wasting energy being mad, you should figure out how to please me. If you were not so boring in bed, I would not have had to fake an impotence issue just to go sleep with Sloane.” “But do not worry. Going to her place is just a hobby. You are still the one I love.” Then, with absolute audacity, he opened his phone and shoved a video right into my line of sight. It was a video of them in his car. Sloane was moving on top of him, her face flushed with pleasure, her messy hair making her look effortlessly seductive. “Watch her and take notes, Ro. Once you learn how to do that, I will cut her off.” A suffocating sense of absurdity crashed down on me. I shoved his phone away and splashed cold tap water directly into his face. He scowled, wiping the water from his eyes. “If you do not want to watch her, then go watch some porn.” “Sometimes, you cannot just blame a man for stepping out. You need to look in the mirror and figure out what you are doing wrong.” I looked down at the red burn marks on my ankle. My chest hurt so much I could barely pull air into my lungs. So all those nights I stayed up late, sick with anxiety over his condition, boiling herbs and researching doctors… he was out holding the girl who had destroyed my life. His phone buzzed. He glanced at the screen and immediately started throwing on his jacket. “Sloane got spooked by you screaming earlier. I am going to go check on her.” “Study those videos. I expect to see some results when I get back.” Watching him walk out the door, I walked over to the bed, pulled the positive pregnancy test out from under my pillow, and threw it straight into the trash can. Then I pulled up my messages and found a familiar contact. “You do not need to prepare the next batch of supplements.” Reading the doctor’s quick confirmation, I let out a long breath. Just as I was about to lock my screen, a friend request popped up. “It is Sloane. Alan said you tried to force more weird liquids down his throat. Do you want me to teach you how to actually take care of a man in bed?” I stared at her profile picture for a long time. It was a photo of a man’s large, veiny hand gripping a woman’s tiny waist. It was aggressively intimate. The small birthmark on the man’s thumb was identical to Alan’s. I hit decline and immediately blocked her. Moments later, Alan’s calls started rolling in, one after another. The second I answered, his angry accusations blasted through the speaker. “Sloane tried to add you. Why did you decline?” “She is being the bigger person and offering to help you, and you are throwing it in her face? Add her back and apologize.” Listening to him defend her without a second of hesitation left my hands shaking so badly I could not even form a word. Tears spilled over my lashes, hot and fast. Suddenly, the unmistakable sound of clothing shifting came through the receiver, followed by Alan’s low, heavy breathing. “Sloane, stop it, I am on the phone…” His breath hitched. “What are you afraid of? Since she does not want to add me, we might as well teach her a lesson right now.” The sound of his breathing grew heavier and rougher with every second. I slammed the end call button. The sounds of their intimacy looped endlessly in my brain like a nightmare. I curled into a tight ball under the covers, staring into the dark until the sun came up. Early the next morning, with swollen, red eyes, I drove to our new house—the one we were supposed to move into after the wedding—to check on the renovations. The door opened. Sloane was standing there. She was wearing a sheer silk slip. Her neck was painted with dark bruises and bite marks. She leaned against the doorframe, looking down at me with pure arrogance. “We got a little carried away last night. Oops, we accidentally got your wedding dress dirty.” “I heard it was the last thing your mom left you before she died? Whatever, it could not have been worth much anyway. I will just buy you a couture gown to replace it…” I did not hear the rest of her sentence. I shoved her hard out of the way and ran into the living room. There it was. The dress my mother had spent her final days designing for me, crumpled into a heap on the hardwood floor. The pristine white fabric was covered in undeniable, disgusting stains. The last string holding my sanity together snapped. I lunged at Sloane and wrapped my hands around her throat. “I am going to kill you.” “Alan… help me…” she gasped. Strong arms wrapped around my waist, pulling me back. Alan locked me against his chest, looking entirely exhausted by me. “Ro, if it is dirty, just throw it away. I said I will buy you a new one.” Sloane rubbed her throat, pouting as she pressed herself into his side. “I literally offered to buy her a custom designer dress, and she still attacked me. She is just psychotic.” Alan looked at the red marks on her neck, and his expression turned ice-cold. “Rowan, you crossed the line.” I dropped to the floor, pulling the ruined dress into my arms, tears pooling in my eyes. Two years ago, when my mother was losing her battle with illness, Alan was there every single day, running errands and taking care of her. When he found out her biggest regret was not living to see me get married, he spent weeks tracking down fabrics and sketches so she could personally design my dress from her hospital bed. I remembered seeing his bloodshot eyes back then. I was so touched, my heart ached for him. I begged him to go sleep. “Alan, you do not have to do all this. As long as I get to marry you, I do not care what the dress looks like.” He had laid his head in my lap, looking exhausted but smiling so brightly. “Ro, it breaks my heart that she will not be there to walk you down the aisle. You wearing this dress on our wedding day will be a way to honor both of our wishes.” But now, looking at the dress, his eyes held nothing but disgust. Meeting his cold stare, I hugged the fabric tighter to my chest. “I only want this one.” He scowled, pulling a thick stack of cash from his wallet and throwing it at me. “Then take it to a dry cleaner. I am paying for it.” Bills fluttered to the floor around me. It was laughable. Three years ago, when he poured his heart and soul into making this dress a reality for my dying mother, I never could have imagined it would end up as a literal rag for him and another woman to ruin. As I turned around with the dress in my arms, my phone calendar alarm went off. It was the reminder for Alan’s routine clinic visit. I was just about to tell him, but Sloane suddenly grabbed her stomach and whined. “Alan, my OB-GYN appointment is in twenty minutes. We need to go.” My feet glued themselves to the floor. As she walked past me, her eyes dropped to the glowing screen of my phone. Her smile was loaded with poison. “Rowan, do you know when my last ultrasound was?” My stomach plummeted. I already knew the answer. Sloane stroked her flat stomach, her smile widening. “Last Sunday. Three in the afternoon.” That was the day of our seventh anniversary. I had spent two hours doing my makeup, bought a new dress, booked a Michelin-star restaurant, and told him I wanted to go to his clinic appointment with him before our date. He had smiled, kissed my forehead, and told me to just wait for him at the restaurant. I thought he just felt emasculated and did not want me in the room with the doctor. I had happily agreed. Now I knew the truth. He was terrified I would find out Sloane was pregnant. Watching Alan wrap his arm around Sloane’s waist as they walked to his car, I unlocked my phone and deleted the calendar app entirely. By the time I got the dress back from the specialty cleaners, Alan walked through the door holding a garment bag. “Picked this out just for you. Do you like it?” When I did not even blink, he held the glamorous evening gown up against my body, his voice softening. “Ro, stop being stubborn. I have a surprise for you later.” He essentially dragged me to the rooftop garden of an upscale hotel. Sloane, dressed in a stunning white gown, walked out of a crowd of cheering people and looped her arm through Alan’s. Her eyes scanned the dress he had bought me, flashing with mockery. “Rowan, Alan told me I had to apologize to you before he would propose to me. Do you like the dress I picked out for you?” “I stripped your clothes off back then. Today, I am dressing you.” Her sharp giggles drilled into my ears. It felt like literal acid burning through whatever dignity I had left. I looked at Alan. He gave me a flat, emotionless look. Those eyes that used to look at me with so much love were now filled with a dark, silent warning. Trembling, I backed up until I hit a corner wall. “Damn, Alan, only you could pull this off. Bringing the main girlfriend to propose to the side piece? Are you not afraid they are going to kill each other?” one of his friends laughed. Alan took a sip of his whiskey, glancing in my direction. “Rowan has been with me for seven years. She does not care about a title. But Sloane comes from a strict, old-money family. Since she is pregnant, I have to give her people an answer.” “I know I am putting Ro in a tough spot right now. I will make it up to her later.” His voice was low. But not low enough. Everyone around them heard it and started jeering. “Man, you really have the school valedictorian wrapped around your finger. But making her watch you put a ring on someone else? With her pride, she might actually snap. Do not push your luck.” Alan swirled the amber liquid in his glass, smiling with absolute, unshakeable confidence. “You guys have no idea. I have a permanent get-out-of-jail-free card with her.” “If it was not for me, photos of her naked body would have been plastered all over the internet. She owes me her life.” A wave of knowing smirks rippled through the group. My deepest, most agonizing trauma had just become his favorite party trick to show off how loyal I was. My nails bit so hard into my palms they drew blood as I walked straight up to him. The whispering stopped immediately. “Alan, is this your grand surprise? Bringing me here so you and your friends can humiliate me?” He set his glass down. Ignoring the crowd of people watching us like a reality show, he grabbed my arm and pulled me aside. “Ro, this proposal is just a show for the Kensington family. I am not actually going to marry her.” “She wanted you to be the officiant for the proposal. She is carrying my kid, Ro. I have to give her this one win.” He shoved a folded piece of paper into my hand. It was a speech. Line after line of sickeningly sweet vows dedicated to Sloane. “Read over it. Do not ruin this for me.” I had pictured his proposal a thousand times over the last seven years. I never could have imagined a reality this vile. I ripped the speech into shreds and threw the confetti of paper directly at his chest. “Alan, go to hell.” His eyes went dark with fury. He grabbed my wrist, his grip bruising. “Rowan, do you honestly have to make a scene and embarrass everyone right now?” “I told you she is pregnant. I have to do this for her.” Staring straight into his furious eyes, I slowly brought my free hand down to rest over my own stomach. “What if I told you… I am pregnant too?”

🌟 Continue the story here 👉🏻 📲 Download the “MotoNovel” app 🔍 search for “443061”, and watch the full series ✨! #MotoNovel

The moment the conference room doors closed, I knew the thirty-million-dollar contract was in the bag. I had barely snapped my laptop shut when my department manager, Valerie, marched over. She crossed her arms, her eyes raking over me with a sneer dripping in condescension. “Nice battle armor,” she mocked. “But honestly, as highly educated women in the corporate world, we really shouldn’t be subjecting ourselves to the male gaze.” I paused, genuinely confused, and offered a polite explanation. “I was hosting VIP clients. Dressing professionally is just basic respect, isn’t it? Besides, it was the pitch itself that won them over.” She immediately raised her voice, making sure the entire floor could hear. “Respect? The clients were all men, and you are the only woman in the office wearing a fitted dress today. Do you really think your little motives aren’t obvious? Stop being such a pick-me and wake up!” A male colleague tried to diffuse the tension. “Come on, Valerie, that is a bit harsh. Her presentation was completely flawless today…” She cut him off with a sharp glare. “Of course you men are defending her! This is textbook internalized misogyny. She has been completely conditioned by the patriarchy, and yet she stands there thinking she is just being a dedicated professional!” “If we women want to be taken seriously in this industry, we have to shed this toxic mindset.” She turned her venom back to me. “I suggest you come in bare-faced next time and let your actual skills do the talking. Stop embarrassing the rest of us.” … 1 When you reach a certain level of sheer, unadulterated disbelief, you really cannot help but laugh out loud. I had put on a little light makeup and worn a perfectly tailored, modest pencil dress, and suddenly I was the poster child for setting women back a century. “Valerie, I think you need to spend a little less time scrolling through internet buzzwords,” I said, my voice cool and even. “You just regurgitate whatever you hear online without actually understanding what the words mean.” “With your binary, black-and-white way of thinking, you are the one who desperately needs some corporate retraining.” Her face instantly mottled into an ugly shade of plum. Clearly, she had never been talked back to by a subordinate in public before. “Audrey Sinclair! How dare you speak to me like that?!” She slammed her hand on the desk, her manicured finger pointing inches from my nose. “I am your superior! Have you completely forgotten your place?” I didn’t back down an inch. I threw her own logic right back in her face. “My place? Didn’t you just say we should let our skills do the talking? I just closed a thirty-million-dollar deal. Mind showing me what your skills have accomplished lately?” She was a nepotism hire dropped into the manager role out of nowhere. She had absolutely nothing to show for her time here. Furious and entirely out of arguments, she raised her hand and slapped me hard across the face. The crack echoed through the silent office. My cheek instantly burned, the sting radiating down my jaw before I could even process what had happened. Having resorted to violence, she suddenly seemed to find her twisted sense of confidence again. She stood over me, panting heavily as she shrieked. “Let me tell you something, Audrey! I know you bring in numbers! But every single person in this office knows exactly how you get those numbers!” “While you are in this building, I am your boss! You will learn some respect! Do not think for a second that just because you use a pretty face to seduce men into signing a few contracts, you can parade around my department acting like you own the place!” The moment the words left her mouth, a few coworkers who were always deeply jealous of my commission checks swarmed in like vultures, eagerly backing her up. “Exactly. Who knows what kind of ‘skills’ she is using behind closed doors. Gutter tactics will never earn real respect.” “Who was she even dressing up for? Valerie was trying to do her a favor by calling her out, and she just threw it in her face.” “Right? The rest of us make a living on actual talent, not by throwing ourselves at clients. You should be thanking her, Audrey.” I pressed a hand to my burning cheek. A hot, suffocating rage clawed up my throat, and I was about to tear into all of them, consequences be damned. Suddenly, Director Collins grabbed my arm, his grip tight. “Alright, alright, that is enough. Audrey, just let it go for now. You worked hard today. Come on, let’s grab some lunch and cool off.” He practically dragged me toward the elevators, lowering his voice to a frantic whisper. “Why are you going head-to-head with her? She is Richard Harrington’s only daughter! We are just employees here, Audrey. We cannot afford to piss off the CEO’s kid!” Richard Harrington’s daughter? That was funny. When exactly did my father have another daughter without telling me? 2 Before I could voice my amusement, Director Collins had already dragged me into the employee cafeteria. He spent the next ten minutes nervously lecturing me about keeping my head down and surviving corporate politics, while I pushed my salad around my plate, entirely devoid of an appetite. Suddenly, my phone buzzed violently against the table. The company’s massive group chat was blowing up, notifications rolling in like a slot machine. I unlocked the screen. The most recent messages were photos and voice notes sent by Valerie. She had gone into my cubicle the second I left. The photos were entirely of my private belongings hidden in my desk drawers. A pair of spare pantyhose I had meant to take home to wash, a pair of emergency stilettos I kept under my desk, my favorite lipstick, and a bottle of expensive perfume. Right below the photos was a voice note. I pressed play, and Valerie’s sickly sweet, theatrical voice poured out of my speaker. “Attention everyone! From now on, our department is officially cracking down on toxic workplace culture! We will absolutely not tolerate anyone selling their bodies or playing into the male gaze! Things like lipstick, perfume, and sheer pantyhose are hereby banned from this office!” “Now, I just confiscated some filthy contraband from a certain coworker’s desk. In the spirit of recycling, I am hosting a little auction right here in the chat!” “Does anyone want to bid on our resident ‘Project Goddess’s’ personal items? Highest bidder takes all!” My stomach violently turned over. Pure disgust hit me so hard I thought I was going to throw up my lunch. To make it infinitely worse, a few of the creepier guys from the IT and sales departments were actually responding in the chat, dropping dollar amounts and bidding on my things. I cursed under my breath, shoved my chair back, and sprinted all the way back to the department floor. When I reached my desk, the scene waiting for me made my blood boil over. Valerie hadn’t just raided my drawers. She was currently sitting in my chair, swiping aggressively through my personal, password-protected laptop. “What the hell do you think you are doing?!” I lunged forward and slammed the laptop shut, nearly catching her fingers in the keyboard. “That is my personal computer! You have absolutely no right to touch it!” Valerie jumped, startled by my sudden appearance, but immediately recovered, tilting her chin up with sickening entitlement. “What am I doing? A routine inspection! You bring this device into my office, so I have every right to make sure you aren’t stealing company secrets. Or, you know, maybe you were trading insider info with that client earlier today? After all, with women like you… well, who knows what you are capable of?” I was trembling with rage. My knuckles turned white as I gripped the edge of my laptop, opening my mouth to rip her to shreds. Before I could speak, a guy from accounting with thick glasses and a sleazy smile sidled up to the desk. “Hey, Valerie, I just sent the Venmo. I am here for the pantyhose.” Valerie gave him a knowing smirk, pulled my sheer tights out of my drawer, and handed them right over to him. “You look like such a quiet guy, who knew you were into this kind of trash? Take them. Just make sure the payment clears.” “Valerie Harrington!” I screamed, my voice echoing through the open floor plan. “You have no right to sell my property! I am not selling anything!” “No right? I have every right! This pathetic, male-gaze garbage does not belong in my office! I am purifying our workplace environment!” The audacity was blinding. I fired back, making sure my voice carried. “Basic grooming and professional attire are standard corporate etiquette! Because I wear a fitted dress and want to look nice, suddenly I am catering to men? By your insane logic, should I be wearing thermal sweatpants under a skirt just to prove I am a decent woman?!” My voice was loud enough to draw a crowd. The coworkers who had been quietly watching the drama unfold started whispering among themselves. A few people couldn’t suppress a snicker, clearly realizing just how unhinged Valerie’s crusade was actually becoming. Her face burned under the shifting attention. Her eyes darkened with absolute malice. “Are you psychotic, Audrey?! Watch your mouth, or I promise I will make sure you never work in this industry again!” I was done entertaining her delusions. “Move. I have actual work to do.” I kept my face like stone, reaching out to pack away my laptop. 3 Instead of moving, she slammed her hands down hard on the lid of my laptop, stopping me from taking it. With her other hand, she quickly snatched my phone off the desk, using my face to unlock it before I could react, and pulled up my messages. “Work? You mean messaging various CEO’s and offering your ‘deep, personal’ services?” Her voice was shrill, projecting to the entire room. “Here, let me read a little excerpt so we can all learn from our top performer!” She cleared her throat, putting on a sickeningly breathy, mocking tone. “‘Mr. Sterling, thank you so much for everything today. I would love to treat you to dinner sometime soon!’ Wow, look at that! A blatant, shameless invitation! Tell me, Audrey, did you not know Mr. Sterling is a married man? His wife is notoriously vicious, and you are throwing yourself at him? You really have no shame, do you?” I was honestly amazed by her stupidity. “It is a standard business pleasantry after closing a deal. How else am I supposed to phrase it?” “Pleasantries? Then explain this!” She tapped on a different chat. The contact name was saved as Papa Sinclair. The messages in that thread were obviously casual. It was me complaining about how exhausting work was, and the other person gently reminding me to eat on time. It was deeply affectionate. “Oh, wow! Look how intimate you are with this ‘Papa Sinclair’ character! You are literally whining to him like a spoiled brat!” “Calling him Daddy? That is disgusting! Is this your twisted little kink? Which filthy rich old man is keeping you on his payroll, Audrey? No wonder you keep landing massive accounts. I bet your little sugar daddy is pulling all the strings behind the scenes!” I stared at her face, completely twisted with jealousy and spite, and the cold smirk on my lips only grew wider. What an absolute idiot. She couldn’t even recognize my father’s profile picture or the way he texted, yet she was parading around pretending to be his daughter? When I graduated college, my dad and I made a bet. I promised I would join the company undercover, without using his name, and secure one hundred million dollars in contracts purely on my own merit. If I did, I would immediately take over as the General Manager. I was literally one day away from crossing the finish line, only to be publicly degraded by this clown pretending to be the heiress to the empire. Alright, ‘sister’, I thought. If you want to play pretend, I will play along. Let’s see how much longer you can enjoy the spotlight. Seeing that she had absolutely no intention of getting out of my chair, and was instead scrolling deeper into my private messages looking for more ammunition, my patience snapped completely. I turned on my heel, marched straight into her private glass office, grabbed her unlocked MacBook from her desk, and walked right back out. “What are you doing?! Put my laptop down!” she shrieked, genuine panic lacing her voice. I ignored her completely, my fingers swiping rapidly across her trackpad. I had heard the nasty little rumors floating around the water cooler about Valerie’s late-night extracurricular activities in the office. Everyone knew, but because of her title, no one dared to say a word. I found a hidden folder on her desktop and double-clicked the video file inside. A second later, the unmistakable, explicit sounds of heavy panting and moaning blasted at maximum volume from her laptop speakers. “Holy shit… is that Valerie’s voice?” “Wow, she really gets wild… she filmed herself hooking up right here in the office?” The crowd of coworkers instantly erupted into chaos. Shocked gasps and loud whispers filled the room. All the blood drained from Valerie’s face. She lunged at me, practically tackling me to snatch the laptop away and slam it shut. She was shaking violently, pointing a trembling finger at my face. “Audrey Sinclair! Stop trying to frame me! I am completely innocent! You definitely snuck that filthy file onto my computer just now to ruin my reputation!” “For all we know, you are the star of that video! We all know there is nothing you won’t do to close a deal!” But the damage was done. The way the staff was looking at her now was dripping with suspicion and disgust. Realizing she was losing control, she straightened her spine and loudly played her ultimate trump card. “I didn’t want to have to reveal this to everyone, but I am the CEO’s daughter! I came into this company undercover specifically to clean up the toxic culture my father hates! Employees like Audrey, who sleep their way to the top and maliciously slander their superiors, are exactly the kind of trash I am here to take out!” She glared at the crowd, her threat crystal clear. “Anyone standing here laughing at me right now better think long and hard about whether they still want a paycheck from my father’s company tomorrow!” 4 Her little display of power worked instantly. The coworkers who had just been snickering at her suddenly went dead silent, their faces draining of color. A few of the women who had always hated my success were the first to jump back onto her sinking ship. “That is so vicious! Audrey is dirty herself, so she tries to drag our manager down with her!” “Exactly! Trying to ruin another woman’s reputation with a fake video is pure evil!” “And she calls herself a professional? She just hates women! She wants us all to be desperate for male validation like she is! She is the ultimate pick-me!” I didn’t even bother looking back at the flock of pathetic kiss-asses buzzing around her. I packed up my personal laptop, grabbed the printed contracts, and walked out the door to go finalize my thirty-million-dollar deal. The meeting went incredibly smooth. As we signed the final page, the client’s representative offered me a sympathetic smile. “Miss Sinclair, we have heard some of the nasty rumors floating around your office. But let me assure you, your expertise and the brilliant strategy you pitched speak entirely for themselves. It is a pleasure doing business with you.” On my drive back to the office, I pulled out my phone and called my dad. “Hey Dad. Mission accomplished. I officially crossed the hundred-million mark today. Time for you to keep your end of the bet and start the handover, right?” His booming, proud laugh echoed through the car speakers. “Hahaha! That’s my girl! A promise is a promise. I am getting the paperwork ready now!” I paused for a second, then casually threw a curveball. “Hey Dad… you never stepped out on Mom, did you?” My dad’s voice instantly shot up an octave, dripping with pure survival instinct. “What?! Absolutely not! I swear on my life, your mother is the only woman I have ever loved! Who the hell is filling your head with that garbage?” “Nothing, just checking.” I hung up the phone, a frigid smile pulling at the corners of my mouth. The second I stepped off the elevator and back onto my department floor, I could hear Valerie holding court, surrounded by her loyal subjects. “The executive board is holding a leadership transition meeting in a few days. I am pretty sure they are going to announce my promotion to General Manager,” she said, coyly tucking a strand of hair behind her ear. “Do not worry, I remember exactly who stood by me today. There will be plenty of perks for all of you once I am in charge.” The flattery rolled in like a tidal wave. “You are amazing, Valerie! This is what it looks like when a strong woman rises on her own merit, without needing a man!” “Exactly! So much better than certain people who have to use the casting couch to get ahead!” “We will follow you anywhere, Valerie!” She caught me walking past and shot me a triumphant, mocking glare. “What is wrong, Audrey? Jealous? Girls who rely on men will never, ever reach the top floor.” I ignored her completely, walking to my desk to focus on polishing my final executive report. Keep dancing, I thought. The higher you climb, the harder the concrete is going to feel when you hit it. Over the next few days, the office turned into a minefield of petty sabotage. My morning coffee suddenly tasted like dirty dishwater. Dead cockroaches mysteriously appeared on my keyboard. Important printed documents vanished into thin air. I didn’t waste energy fighting invisible ghosts. I simply packed my laptop and worked out of the coffee shop downstairs. Soon enough, the day of the executive board meeting arrived. I chose a razor-sharp, immaculate designer suit. My makeup was flawless, my heels clicked with authority, and I walked into the lobby radiating absolute control. I barely made it past the security gates before Valerie stepped into my path. She looked me up and down, a flash of pure envy in her eyes before she forced her face into a scowl. “Audrey! How many times do I have to tell you?! You are forbidden from dressing like a cheap escort in this building! Who exactly are you trying to seduce today?” I looked at her. She was wearing a highly extravagant, incredibly expensive dress that practically screamed for attention. I smiled coldly. “Manager Harrington, you seem pretty dressed up yourself today.” She lifted her chin, practically suffocating on her own superiority complex. “Me? I am entirely bare-faced! I am all natural. Unlike some people who have to spackle on chemicals to hide how ugly they are on the inside!” I laughed. Without a moment of hesitation, I unzipped my tote bag, pulled out a small travel bottle of micellar cleansing water, popped the cap, and splashed it directly into her face. Valerie let out a bloodcurdling shriek. The liquid cascaded down her cheeks, instantly melting her meticulous eyeliner and thick mascara into black rivers. Her heavy foundation washed away in patches, leaving her face a blotchy, disastrous mess resembling a ruined oil painting. “Bare-faced, huh? Then what exactly is melting off your chin right now?” “Audrey Sinclair! I am going to kill you!” she screamed, her body trembling with absolute fury as she lunged forward, claws out, aiming for my face. Director Collins materialized out of nowhere and grabbed her arms, pulling her back. “Valerie! Stop! The board meeting is starting in ten minutes! Go to the bathroom and fix your face, right now!” She let herself be dragged away, throwing a look of pure, homicidal hatred over her shoulder that could have burned a hole through my chest. I calmly adjusted my lapels and stepped into the private elevator, taking it to the top floor executive suites. As I approached the grand mahogany doors of the main boardroom, a receptionist stepped in front of me with a tight, practiced smile. “I apologize, Miss Sinclair. Today’s executive transition meeting is strictly by invitation only. Your name is not on the clearance list, so I cannot let you inside.” Valerie, having scrubbed the worst of the disaster off her face, arrived down the hall with her little entourage just in time to hear it. She immediately started gloating. “Well, well. Look who had the nerve to show up.” “You really don’t know when to quit, do you? Did you actually think they would let trash like you into the boardroom?” I looked at the receptionist, a calm, amused smile playing on my lips. “Why don’t you make a quick phone call upstairs and double-check that list?” The receptionist’s smile faltered into annoyance. She clearly thought I was just being difficult. With a dramatic sigh, she picked up the internal phone on her podium and murmured a question to the executive secretary inside. A few seconds later, the color completely drained from her face. She slammed the phone down, practically jogged out from behind the podium, and bowed to me at a perfect ninety-degree angle, her voice shaking violently. “Miss Sinclair! I am so sorry, please go right in! Your seat is at the absolute head of the table. Let me escort you!”

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1 The female doctor looked at me with such gentle eyes. The moment I woke up, my heart started hammering uncontrollably in my chest. “You are so pretty. Could you be my mom?” I couldn’t help but ask her. It was only later that I learned the woman pacing outside the hospital room, secretly peeking through the glass and sighing heavily, was the woman who actually used to be my mother. She had found her biological daughter, and terrified that I would somehow get in the way of their perfect reunion, she paid someone to completely erase all my memories of her. “Taran, do not blame me for being cruel,” she must have whispered to herself at the time. “Sloane is so fragile. She cannot survive without me.” “But you are different. You are so bright and resilient. Even without a mother, you will be absolutely fine.” “So, I have to ask you to make this sacrifice. You just need to forget me completely.” She was right about one thing. I was a very bright, resilient girl. … The beautiful doctor blinked, clearly taken aback by my question. She offered a soft smile. “Sweetheart, you just got out of surgery.” “You need to rest. Do not overthink things right now.” She hurried out of the room, looking a little flustered, and practically ran straight into my former mother, who had been hiding in the hallway. “Mrs. Kensington, you are still here?” Caroline Kensington didn’t answer directly. She just smoothed a hand over her meticulously styled blowout. “How is Taran doing?” “The patient is physically stable. But aside from entirely forgetting you, she seems to have lost quite a few other memories as well. Do you want to go in and see her?” Beneath her long hair, the woman’s expression twisted into something complicated. “I think it is best if I do not. If I go in there and she sees my face, she might subconsciously latch onto me again.” “It would just be too messy.” The doctor let out a heavy sigh. “The human brain is an incredibly complex structure. We performed the displacement procedure on her hippocampus, which houses memory storage.” “But the surgery wasn’t flawless. Taran has forgotten a lot more than we anticipated. She doesn’t even remember where she lives.” “She is probably absolutely terrified right now. Are you sure you don’t want to check on her?” “How annoying.” Caroline frowned deeply. But then, as if justifying it to herself, her posture relaxed. “Fine. After all, I am the mother she loved the most.” “I will let her see me one last time. Consider it a reward for being such a good girl and going through with the surgery.” She walked into the hospital’s public restroom, pumped a handful of cheap hand soap, and smeared it directly into her expensive hair. Then, she put on a surgical mask and a pair of dark sunglasses before finally pushing open the door to my room. I stared at the bizarrely dressed woman walking toward me. I blinked, a strange sense of familiarity washing over me. “Hi, you look really familiar. Do we know each other?” Caroline instinctively touched her face, looking surprised. Only after verifying her mask and sunglasses were firmly in place did she let out a quiet breath of relief. She leaned down beside the hospital bed, gently patting my head. Her eyes crinkled in a warm smile. “Did you really forget me?” “I suppose it is for the best. If you recognized me, you would probably just start…” Looking closely at this woman with weird, sticky gel globbed in her hair, I honestly just felt a wave of disgust. “Excuse me, could you tell me who you are?” I hesitated for a second, then couldn’t stop myself from scooting away from her, pressing my back against the opposite rail of the bed. “And also, could you please back up a little? You look… kind of gross.” Even behind the dark lenses and the mask, I could visibly see her face freeze. It took her a long time to finally speak. “I am your aunt.” “You were in an accident a few days ago. You suffered a traumatic brain injury.” Oh. She was my family. A sudden wave of guilt hit me. She was nice enough to come visit me in the hospital, and I had just called her gross to her face. “I am so sorry. I can be a little too blunt sometimes.” I quickly tried to fix it. “You are not gross. You just look a little… sticky.” The moment the words left my mouth, I realized I had messed up again and immediately clamped my mouth shut. Caroline didn’t seem to care. She just sighed and said, “Since you are awake, you should go home to your own apartment.” She pulled a single brass key out of her designer bag and placed it in my palm. Then, she pulled out her phone and texted an address to mine. Just as I was about to nod and say okay, a girl who looked exactly my age stormed into the room. She looked absolutely furious. “Mom, what are you doing?” “Why are you letting her stay in the townhouse?!” Before I could process what was happening, the girl lunged at me, violently ripping the key out of my hand. Her sharp acrylic nails dug into my palm, slicing the skin open. It stung fiercely. I stared at Caroline in shock. “Auntie, what is she…” Caroline let out a long, heavy sigh. “Taran, do not take it personally.” “Your cousin Sloane was kidnapped when she was little. She suffered so much out there in the world, while you got to live in my house and soak up all the motherly love that rightfully belonged to her.” “You owe her for that.” “Tell you what. Apologize to her right now, and we can consider the matter settled.” But Sloane getting kidnapped had absolutely nothing to do with me. I physically couldn’t force an apology out of my mouth. This terrifyingly angry girl, Sloane, must be my aunt’s actual daughter. And I was just the outsider who lived in their house, relying on their charity. I couldn’t help but ask, “Auntie… where is my real mom?” For some reason, that single question seemed to trigger something dark in Sloane. Before my aunt could even open her mouth, Sloane shoved me hard against the mattress. “Taran Lund, you are nothing but a motherless piece of trash.” “What right do you have to even say the word ‘mom’?” I lost my balance and tumbled off the edge of the mattress, my back slamming hard against the metal frame of the bed. Pain shot up my spine. But the physical pain was nothing compared to the sudden, hollow ache in my chest. I stared blankly at the linoleum floor. “Oh… so my mom is already dead…” For some inexplicable reason, that made Sloane even angrier. She lunged at me, grabbing a fistful of my hair, and slapped me hard across the face. My cheek burned instantly. “Taran, you ungrateful bitch! How dare you talk about her like that?!” “I am talking about my own mother! What does that have to do with you?!” I completely snapped. I wasn’t going to take this kind of abuse from a stranger. I grabbed Sloane’s hair right back, and the two of us tumbled onto the floor, wrestling violently. I was physically stronger than her. Within seconds, I had her pinned to the ground and slapped her twice, hard, across the face. We were only pulled apart when the family’s private security guards rushed into the room. My aunt’s face was as cold as a glacier. “Taran Lund. The second you lose your memory, your true, violent nature comes out?” “Sloane was just trying to kindly remind you not to curse your own mother.” “And you throw a tantrum and attack her? How did I ever raise such a vicious, ungrateful animal?” I refused to back down. I glared straight into my aunt’s eyes. “Is it not true?!” “If my mom isn’t dead, then why would she abandon me at your house and let you and your daughter treat me like garbage?” “Tell me!” “Are you talking back to me?!” My aunt’s fury exploded. She ordered the guards to pin me to the floor. Then, she took a riding crop and brought it down hard, right across my back. She beat me until my skin tore and my shirt soaked through with blood. She only stopped when I finally blacked out from the pain. “Enough. I raised her for years. Beating her still breaks my heart.” When I finally woke up, it was two days later. My aunt was standing over me, rubbing a thick, medicated ointment onto the raw wounds on my back. She was still wearing the surgical mask and dark sunglasses, acting as if she were terrified I would actually see her face. When she noticed my eyes open, she let out a dramatic sigh. “Do not blame me for this. You made a mistake, and actions have consequences.” “Your cousin Sloane is still very upset. Since you are awake, get up and go upstairs to apologize to her.” My entire body throbbed in agony. I didn’t even have the energy to argue with her. I just turned my head away, refusing to look at her. Her voice dropped an octave, dripping with condescension. “You really are a spoiled brat. I gave you too much freedom in the past.” “When you do something wrong, you apologize. Were you born completely devoid of basic morals?” When I still refused to acknowledge her, she slammed the tube of ointment onto the nightstand. “Fine. If you want to play the martyr, you are not eating for three days.” “Let us see how long that precious pride of yours lasts when you are starving.” She stormed out of the room, slamming the door so hard the walls shook. But my aunt didn’t actually make it three days. Seeing me dizzy and pale from starvation, she walked into my room on the second night holding a tray of food and a brand-new smartphone. She tossed the phone onto the bed. “Eat. Once you get some strength back, you are going to school tomorrow.” I felt completely lost. My mind was still an absolute void. The accident from a few days ago had practically wiped my brain clean. It wasn’t until I picked up the phone that instinct finally kicked in. I unlocked it and immediately scrolled through the contacts list. My gut told me that the contact named ‘Chloe’ was someone I was deeply connected to. Someone who could actually help me. I quickly typed out a message. “Hi. I have amnesia and can’t remember anything from my past.” “But looking at your name makes me feel safe. Do we know each other?” The reply came almost instantly. “Taran! You are finally online!” Before I could even type a response, a FaceTime call popped up on the screen. I hit accept, and the screen was instantly filled with a girl’s face. She looked like she was about to cry from sheer relief. “Taran! Oh my god, I am so glad you are okay!” The pure, unfiltered kindness radiating from this girl made my chest ache. I took a deep breath, trying to force my voice to stay steady. “Hi. My aunt told me I was in an accident a few days ago that caused me to lose my memory. Do you happen to know what actually happened?” “Your aunt?” “Are you talking about Caroline Kensington?” I nodded. The girl on the phone froze entirely. She stared at me for a long, heavy moment before speaking. “She isn’t your aunt, Taran. She is your mother…” It took her over half an hour to explain the entire, twisted nightmare to me. Years ago, while shopping in the city, Caroline lost her biological daughter. She was destroyed by the grief, spending her days staring at her daughter’s photos and crying until she made herself sick. Eventually, unable to bear the pain any longer, she went to a local orphanage and adopted me. She treated me like her own daughter, projecting all her desperate, shattered love onto me. And for years, I loved her back, fully believing she was my real mother. But everything came crashing down exactly one month ago. They found her real daughter, Sloane. From that day on, I became an absolute burden. The unwanted spare part in their perfect family. Terrified that I would cling to her and beg for the maternal love that now belonged strictly to Sloane, Caroline forced me to undergo a radical, experimental surgery and intensive hypnotherapy to completely eradicate every memory I had of her. I listened to the story, feeling nothing but a profound, suffocating sense of absurdity. No wonder she wore a mask and sunglasses every time she looked at me. She was terrified I would recognize her. But Caroline… the second I agreed to let them cut into my brain, my heart was already entirely dead to you. Why on earth would I ever cling to you? I had been unconscious for two days, and awake for two more. I hadn’t eaten a single thing in four days. I was starving. I looked down at the tray Caroline had brought me. It was a bowl of plain white rice, a few wilted vegetables, and a single, unappetizing slice of pure fat. I didn’t care. I picked up the bowl and started shoveling the rice into my mouth like an animal. I had barely swallowed two bites when the door to my room swung open. It was Sloane. She was holding a massive, expensive Alaskan king crab leg, elegantly peeling the meat off the shell. She watched me aggressively scarfing down the dry rice, a mocking sneer spreading across her face. “Look at you. Did you starve to death in a past life?” I ignored her completely. Suddenly, Sloane tossed the half-eaten crab leg directly onto the floor in front of my feet. “Go ahead. Pick it up and eat it. I wouldn’t want anyone saying I abuse you.” I finally looked up at her. “Are you psychotic?” She stared at me for exactly two seconds. Then, without any warning, she let out a piercing, hysterical scream. The sound instantly summoned Caroline. “What happened?!” She sprinted into the room and immediately pulled Sloane into her arms, checking her over frantically. Sloane blinked her massive eyes, and thick, dramatic tears instantly spilled down her cheeks. She looked like a terrified victim. “Mom… I was just worried Taran was still hungry, so I brought her some of my dinner to share.” “But then…” She choked back a sob, looking utterly traumatized. “Taran threw the crab leg on the floor… and then she tried to hit me!” “Taran Lund!” Caroline’s face went completely black with rage. “Sloane is kind enough to forgive you for attacking her yesterday, and she even brings you food, and you treat her like this?! How can you be this ungrateful?!” Here we go again. I was physically and emotionally exhausted. I didn’t even have the energy to defend myself. When I didn’t say a word, Caroline’s fury only grew. “Fine. Then you can forget about your allowance. You are getting nothing.” She wrapped a protective arm around Sloane and marched her out of the room. I didn’t care. This house had completely rejected me. I didn’t belong here anymore. And I had absolutely no business holding onto even a shred of hope for the woman who used to be my mother. My only real concern was that I had missed over a week of classes, and I was terrified of falling behind. So the next morning, the very first thing I did when I got to school was bury my face in my textbooks and study. It wasn’t until the lunch bell rang and I walked into the cafeteria that I realized I didn’t even have a student meal card. I checked my phone. My bank account balance was zero. My stomach was growling aggressively. Just as I was standing there, deeply embarrassed and trying to figure out what to do, a familiar voice called out to me. “Taran!” I turned around. It was Chloe. I gave her a small, tight nod. “I cannot believe Caroline is doing this to you! You loved her so much, even if…” “Even if you aren’t her biological daughter, you guys lived together for over ten years!” She was practically shaking with anger. “Taran, look at me.” “You are coming home with me tonight. You do not have to be her daughter anymore.” I hesitated, unsure if I was crossing a line. “Do not worry about it! My mom absolutely adores you. You probably don’t remember this, but my mom always used to say that if you were her daughter, she would be the happiest woman on earth.” When she saw I was still hesitating, Chloe grabbed my hand tightly. “I swear, I am not lying to you.” Looking into this girl’s fiercely genuine eyes, I finally nodded. When I went back to the Kensington estate that afternoon, I packed a single duffel bag with my clothes and walked straight toward the front door. Caroline, wearing her ridiculous surgical mask, was standing at the top of the grand staircase. “Where do you think you are going?” “Somewhere I am actually wanted.” “Tsk. Look at that temper. You are seriously pulling the ‘running away from home’ stunt?” Sloane, standing right beside her, let out a loud, mocking laugh. “You are an orphan, Taran. My mom is the only family you have in the entire world.” “If you leave her, where exactly are you going to go?” Caroline didn’t say a word, but the smug, self-assured look in her eyes proved she completely agreed with Sloane. Sloane wasn’t finished. “Besides, you used to be completely obsessed with my mom. You followed her around like a lost puppy.” “When you inevitably regret this in a few days, do not come crawling back here crying and begging her to let you back in.” She opened her mouth to spit out another insult, but my phone suddenly buzzed with an incoming FaceTime call. I hit accept. The screen lit up with the face of Chloe’s mother, Mrs. Evans. “Taran, sweetheart! Chloe told me you are coming to stay with us tonight! I have been waiting all afternoon! Are you on your way?”

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1 The icy rooftop wind faded as I fell. I woke to canyon sunlight, pine scent, and dry dirt—back on that spring break hike. A girl in our group gazed up a sheer cliff, playfully asking her boyfriend if he could free solo it. My boyfriend puffed out his chest, rolled up his sleeves, and began to climb. Halfway, his arms shook violently. Then came the sickening thud of a body hitting the ground. This time, I didn’t run to break his fall. I watched, cold eyed, from a distance. My phone buzzed—a medical clearance email, the last step for my dream fellowship. A wave of clarity hit: my life could have been different. In my past life, I’d lunged to catch him. His weight crushed my arms. Trapped in the wilderness, help arrived too late; both arms were amputated below the shoulders. Over twenty years of study, top scores—everything vanished in an afternoon. He cried for days, married me as soon as he could, and vowed to care for me forever. But a year later, he locked me out of our bedroom while he and that same “innocent” girl played strip poker inside. I remember banging my head on the door, begging until my throat bled, hearing their muffled laughter. She called me a disgusting, useless worm. Not this time. Whether he lived or died no longer concerned me. … There were ten people in our hiking group. Eight guys, two girls. The other girl was named Daisy. Right now, all eight guys were hovering around her like a swarm of bees circling a single pot of honey. Every word she said was met with roaring laughter. If she playfully stomped her foot, the guys would practically trip over themselves to agree with her. Connor was the closest to her, his face animated as he cracked a joke. Daisy giggled uncontrollably, her eyes wide as she pointed at the sheer cliff drop. “Oh my god, you’re so strong. Bet you couldn’t scale that wall, could you?” Connor didn’t say a single word. He just dropped his backpack and rolled up the sleeves of his flannel shirt. Just like in my past life, I offered one final, obligatory warning. “That’s way too dangerous. Don’t do it.” Connor shot me a look over his shoulder. His eyebrows pulled together in deep annoyance. “Nobody thinks you’re mute just because you keep your mouth shut, Sienna.” The guys snickered. Daisy smiled the brightest out of everyone. Connor started his ascent. His steps looked steady at first, his form mimicking the indoor bouldering videos he watched online. The guys below started cheering and letting out loud, piercing whistles. Daisy turned her head to look at me. She flashed a sickeningly sweet smile, her eyes dripping with triumph. “Wow. Your boyfriend is incredible, Sienna!” I didn’t reply. My boyfriend was currently risking his life, scaling a vertical rock face without a harness or a crash pad, all because another woman stroked his ego. He looked like a desperate peacock trying to fan its feathers. The only thing he left me with was second-hand embarrassment. I lowered my head and unlocked my phone. I confirmed my medical exam for the fellowship. The background checks and physical requirements for this agency were notoriously strict. I couldn’t afford a single misstep. In my previous life, after the amputation, an official from the agency visited my hospital room. They looked at me with deep pity and formally notified me that my test scores were voided. I no longer met the physical requirements. My parents stood by my bed, biting their lips to keep from sobbing out loud. I had just stared at the ceiling. The space on either side of my torso felt horribly empty. My heart felt even emptier. “Watch out!” Someone’s panicked shout snapped me back to reality. A piece of shale crumbled under Connor’s grip. He was left dangling by one hand, his body violently swinging against the rock face before his other hand desperately scrambled to find a new hold. The crowd below immediately broke into applause and cheers. I glanced at the time on my phone. Ten twenty-three. One minute left. I took a silent step backward. Nobody noticed me. All eyes were glued to Connor, completely intoxicated by the adrenaline. I kept stepping back until I was on the very edge of the group. Looking up, I could see the sweat glistening on Connor’s forehead in the harsh sun. His face was beet red. The muscles in his arms were trembling so hard it was visible from the ground. A cold smirk crept onto my lips. Connor never worked out. He stayed up until three in the morning playing video games and survived on energy drinks. His only climbing experience came from an air-conditioned indoor gym. And yet, with that pathetic foundation, he dared to take on a wild cliff just to impress another girl. Every time he pushed his foot up, his entire body shuddered. And with every shudder, Daisy cupped her hands around her mouth and squealed, “You got this! Keep going!” Suddenly, Connor’s left foot slipped off a smooth patch of stone. His body jerked downward. He let out a strangled grunt. Both his hands clawed desperately at a narrow crevice. The sickening sound of his fingernails scraping against solid rock echoed clearly over the wind. Everyone gasped. The cheering died instantly. Then, Connor’s grip gave out. He plummeted. Like a heavy sack of wet cement dropped from a third-story balcony. Instinct kicked in, and the crowd scrambled backward to get out of the drop zone. The heavy, bone-crunching thud hit the dirt. The crowd exploded into terrifying screams. I looked down at my screen. The medical appointment was confirmed. Dark red blood began pooling out from beneath Connor’s body, soaking into the dry earth. Both of his legs were twisted into horrific, impossible angles. The fractured bone of his right calf had completely pierced the skin, jutting out into the open air, a stark, glaring white against the blood. The group was paralyzed with shock. One guy started dry heaving. Another dropped to a crouch, hands clutching his head. Someone pulled out a phone, their thumbs shaking so badly they couldn’t even dial 911. An older hiker from another group rushed over, dropping to his knees beside Connor and checking his breathing. “He has a pulse! Does anyone have a trauma kit?!” A guy in a heavy windbreaker whipped his head around, glaring at me. “Hey! You’re his girl, right? Get over here!” Daisy’s head snapped up. It was as if she had just found her golden ticket. Her eyes brimmed with tears as she pointed an accusing finger at me and shrieked. “Why didn’t you catch him?! You’re his girlfriend!” “How can you be so cold-blooded?! Do you only care about yourself?!” Every single pair of eyes locked onto me. The air in the canyon went dead silent for a fraction of a second. I looked at Daisy, tilting my head in genuine confusion. “How exactly was I supposed to catch a grown man falling from that height?” She choked on her words, her mouth hanging open. “You are the one who dared him to climb it.” I kept my voice measured, making sure every single syllable landed perfectly. “You are legally responsible for this.” All the color drained from Daisy’s face. She stumbled backward, her voice trembling violently. “I… I was just joking. He chose to climb it himself. It has nothing to do with me…” Someone finally got through to dispatch and yelled out, “Ambulance is on the way!” I didn’t say another word. I just stared down at Connor. He had passed out from the shock. Blood loss had turned his face a ghostly gray, and his chest was barely rising. I knew the ambulance wouldn’t be here soon. The mountain roads were treacherous. In my past life, I lay in the dirt for over an hour. I remembered the pain. Passing out from the agony, waking up to worse agony, over and over again. When I finally woke up for good, my arms were gone. My parents couldn’t look me in the eye. Connor choked on his tears, unable to form a coherent sentence. And Daisy had comforted me. “Sienna, I know you lost your arms, but you made the local news!” she had said. “Everyone is calling you an absolute hero. People online are even trying to set up a GoFundMe for you.” She had paused then, her voice dripping with calculated sweetness. “But someone as noble as you would never accept charity money, right?” On the day Connor and I got married at the courthouse, she was there too. Her eyes were wet with fake tears as she held my empty sleeve. “Sienna, Connor is such a good man. You have to cherish him.” I remember hearing the whispers from the other guests behind our backs. They called Connor a saint. They said I emotionally blackmailed him into the marriage. “Nobody forced her to catch him. From what I heard, it wasn’t even that high. If he fell, he’d just have a broken leg for a couple of months.” “Connor has the worst luck. Now he’s stuck with a cripple.” “Seriously. A burden he can never shake off.” But Connor had held me tight against his chest, swearing on his very soul. “If I ever do Sienna wrong in this lifetime, let me rot in hell.” In the second year of our marriage, Connor locked me out of the bedroom. He told me he and Daisy were going to play a drinking game that involved losing clothes. “She’s a little shy,” he had said through the wood. “It would be awkward if you were sitting right there.” I stood in the hallway, listening to the rustle of clothing hitting the floor. Then came the heavy breathing. Having no hands to turn the knob, I slammed my head against the door over and over again. My forehead was bruised black and blue. I couldn’t breathe through my own sobbing. I screamed his name. I reminded him of his oath. Connor just laughed. Daisy checked the hallway security camera from her phone and spoke in that same innocent, sickening tone. “Look at her wiggling around out there. She looks like a disgusting little worm without her arms.” Later, I felt the savage rooftop wind tearing at my cheeks. And now, my eyes were open to the bright May sun. I reached down and gripped my own forearms. They were warm. Intact. Flawless. A surge of electricity shot through my spine, making me shiver with pure relief. Exactly as it happened in my past life, the paramedics arrived an hour later. The surgery took eleven hours. When the lead surgeon finally walked out of the double doors, he didn’t even pull his mask down. His eyes scanned the waiting room. “Burst fracture of the spine. Severe spinal cord trauma. Both legs amputated above the knee.” Connor’s mother collapsed on the linoleum floor. When they finally revived her, she lunged at me, her nails digging into my wrists. Every word she spoke was ground out between her teeth. “The doctor said… if someone had just tried to break his fall, to absorb some of the impact… he wouldn’t have lost his legs.” She stared at me. She didn’t finish the sentence, but the naked, venomous hatred in her eyes said it all. She hated that I had gone on this trip with her son and walked away without a scratch while her boy was paralyzed for life. She hated that I didn’t sacrifice my own life to save him. I didn’t flinch. I just pointed a finger straight at Daisy. “Mrs. Davis. She is the one who dared Connor to climb.” Daisy’s entire body went rigid. “We were all there. We heard it clear as day. She said, ‘Oh my god, you’re so strong. Bet you couldn’t scale that wall, could you?’” I repeated her exact words, mimicking her tone perfectly. “And while he was climbing, she stood at the bottom clapping. Every time he moved, she cheered for him.” Daisy shook her head frantically, tears spilling down her cheeks. “No! I didn’t mean it like that, I swear…” Mrs. Davis didn’t hesitate. She threw herself forward and slapped Daisy across the face with a sickening crack. Before Daisy could even scream, a second slap landed. Mrs. Davis grabbed a fistful of Daisy’s hair and started swinging wildly. Daisy’s piercing shrieks echoed down the entire hospital corridor. All those guys who had treated Daisy like a goddess just a few hours ago now stood around with their heads down. Not a single one stepped in to help her. I had no interest in watching the rest of the show. I turned around and started walking toward the elevator. “Where do you think you’re going?!” Mrs. Davis screamed at my back. I turned slightly, offering a polite, practiced smile. “I have a very important medical exam in two days, Mrs. Davis. Staying up late is bad for my vitals.” Her face froze in absolute disbelief. On the Uber ride home, my phone vibrated constantly. It was the group chat Connor had forced me into with his extended family. “I have no idea what Sienna is thinking. Connor was falling right above her. She could have reached out. Instead, she just stood there and watched him hit the ground.” “Heartless bitch.” “As his girlfriend, she couldn’t even talk him out of it? Connor wants to climb a cliff and she just lets him? And now that he’s hurt, she’s the first one to bail.” Then came a massive paragraph from Connor’s grandfather, basically stating that no woman marrying into their family should behave with such profound selfishness. They must have forgotten I was still in the chat. I didn’t type a single word. I just hit ‘Leave Group’. When I got home, my parents didn’t bring up Connor at all. They just watched my face carefully, looking for signs of a breakdown. I quietly ate my dinner, took a hot shower, and was in bed by nine. Early to bed, early to rise. Perfect for blood pressure. On the morning of the physical, my parents woke up at dawn to drive me to the clinic. Bloodwork, vision, heart rate, physical mobility. Every single box was checked off with a perfect score. My parents knew it was technically inappropriate to celebrate right now, but they couldn’t hide their smiles in the car ride home. I smiled too. For a brief moment, we all forgot there was a man lying in pieces in an ICU bed. That was until we pulled up to our apartment building. A figure stepped out of the shadows near the entrance doors. It was Connor’s mother. Her eyes were swollen so badly they were basically slits. Her voice was completely blown out, reduced to a raspy hiss. “Connor woke up this morning. He knows his legs are gone.” She took a shaky breath. “He smashed the water pitcher on his nightstand. He threw his lamp at the wall. Three nurses couldn’t hold him down.” “He just kept screaming your name.” Mrs. Davis finally broke down, sobbing into her hands. “Do you have any idea what that looks like? A tall, strong, handsome man, beating his own head with his fists, screaming that he wants to die.” I looked at her calmly. I remembered lying in a hospital bed just like that in my past life. Mrs. Davis had walked into my room, looked at my bandaged stumps, and offered three words. “Just move on.” So now, I looked right back into her weeping eyes, channeling a tone of deep, regretful pity. “Just move on.” Her face crumpled into a mask of pure shock. “You’re not even going to see him? How can you be this cruel?!” She lunged forward, grabbing my wrist with fingers like iron claws. “Sienna, our family doesn’t blame you. Connor doesn’t blame you.” “But you can’t just abandon him. You two were together for three years. He’s the one trapped in a bed for the rest of his life, not you. Can’t you at least visit him?!” In my past life, after we got married, I couldn’t balance properly without my arms. I slipped in the living room and smashed my forehead against the edge of the glass coffee table. Blood poured down my face. Mrs. Davis had been standing right there. She didn’t offer a hand to help me up. She just sighed and said, “Why are you always so clumsy? Connor works hard all day, and now he has to come home and take care of you.” Later, when Connor started cheating on me, I had a mental breakdown. I cried hysterically and banged my head against the drywall. Mrs. Davis had stormed into the room, jabbing her index finger hard against my forehead, pushing me backward until I fell. “You eat our food, you live in our house, what right do you have to be acting crazy?” she had spat. I forcefully yanked my wrist out of her grip. “I’m extremely busy right now, Mrs. Davis.” She stared at me, dumbfounded. “The onboarding process for the Fellowship requires a lot of paperwork. I placed first in the state. Every department is fighting for my placement, and I really need the time to consider my options.” Her face turned from pale white to an ashen gray. I sidestepped her. My parents followed closely behind me, and we let the heavy glass lobby doors shut in her face. Late that night, my phone screen lit up with an unsaved number. I picked it up. To my surprise, it was Connor. His voice was thick with painkillers and despair. “You blocked my number?” “Yeah,” I admitted freely. “I blocked you the second you left me at the back of the trail to go play hero for Daisy.” Silence hung heavily on the line. After a long pause, he spoke again. “I heard you got first place for the Fellowship.” “I did.” “That’s great.” His tone was eerily flat. “You’re set for life now. You’re going to be successful. I guess you and a cripple like me live in two entirely different worlds now.” I didn’t take the bait. I waited in silence until the call disconnected. When I woke up the next morning, I had over a dozen missed calls. There was an urgent text from the Fellowship recruitment director. “Sienna, what is going on with the posts circulating online?” My stomach dropped. I opened Twitter. The hashtag #TopScholarAbandonsParalyzedBoyfriend was trending at number one. Daisy had posted a massive, emotional essay. “I’m sure you’ve all seen the news about the hiker who fell and lost his legs. Today, I want to tell you the real story behind that tragedy.” She wrote it like a Nicholas Sparks novel. She described a devoted man who was trying to pick a rare wildflower from a cliffside to give to his fiancé, only to slip and lose his ability to walk forever. She claimed the fiancé packed her bags and walked away without looking back, refusing to even visit him in the ICU. At the very end, she wrote: “The woman in this story just scored first place in the Federal Fellowship exams. Her future is incredibly bright. I guess they just don’t live in the same world anymore.” Below the text was a photo of Connor in his hospital bed. His face was gaunt, his eyes hollow, staring blankly at the ceiling. My personal information had been completely doxed. Emails were flooding the Fellowship recruitment office, demanding they rescind my offer immediately. I quickly texted the director back. “Let’s meet in person.” But the storm online was only accelerating. Daisy uploaded a follow-up video. It was Connor, propped up on his pillows. He looked even worse than the photo. His eyes were sunken, his lips cracked and bleeding. He stared into the lens and spoke with a shattered voice. “Please stop harassing her. We broke up peacefully. I don’t blame her. I just… I just want her to have a good life.” That night, someone leaked my home address. My dad’s phone got blown up with death threats. My mom went to the grocery store and got recognized. A woman spat on the ground right in front of her shoes and snarled, “Raising a daughter like that, you must be a piece of trash yourself.” Even my old high school teachers were getting harassed online. I kept my mouth shut. I acted like I didn’t see any of it. As the days dragged on and the viral heat started to die down, Daisy finally panicked. She couldn’t let it go. She posted a direct tweet, tagging my real name. “Sienna, you owe Connor an apology. You owe his family an explanation. You are responsible for the rest of his life.” I still didn’t reply. The next morning, the official Fellowship acceptance roster was published. Black text on a white background, pinned right at the top of the government website. My name was listed at the absolute top. Ten minutes later, the agency issued an official press release. “Regarding the recent allegations surrounding candidate Sienna…” Half an hour after that, Daisy’s entire social media presence was permanently banned.

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1 My name is Helen. In my past life, by the time I was twenty-six, I had given birth to three children for Manhattan’s top billionaire, a man desperate for a bloodline. I secured a billion-dollar trust fund and catapulted myself into the absolute elite. All of it happened because my best friend was terrified of the pain of childbirth. She had forced the Billionaire Baby System to bind to me instead of her. But after hemorrhaging during the birth of my third child and slipping into a coma, I opened my eyes to find myself right back on the exact day the System first appeared. Translucent text was scrolling through the air right in front of my face. [Here we go! The side character finally woke up!] [Sonia was a complete idiot in her past life. Imagine handing over a one-way ticket to a billionaire’s bed just because you’re scared of a little pain!] [This time she’s definitely going to bind the System herself. She’ll pop out a whole soccer team and have Tristan Blackwood wrapped around her little finger!] [LMAO look at Helen’s dumbfounded face. She’s probably bleeding internally from jealousy! Without the System, she’s going to spend the rest of her life rotting in a cubicle as a corporate slave!] [Exactly. A broke orphan like her only got a taste of high society because she picked up Sonia’s scraps.] I stared at the malicious floating comments. My heart didn’t even skip a beat. An hour ago, I was lying in an ICU bed, bleeding out from a brutal third delivery. Yes, the billion-dollar payout was real. The private jets and the penthouse were real. But the physical ruin of my body, the endless surgeries, and the exhausting, paranoid nights spent fending off Tristan’s mistresses and secret illegitimate children were also very, very real. I raised an eyebrow, looking at the woman sitting across from me. Sonia was fiercely clutching her chest, guarding a glowing pink orb that only the two of us could see. It was the physical manifestation of the Billionaire Baby System. In my past life, she had shoved that orb into my hands, disgusted by the thought of stretch marks and ruined proportions. Now, her face was twisted with suppressed, greedy joy. “Helen, I’m keeping this System. Don’t even think about freeloading off me again!” “Are you absolutely sure you want to bind it?” I asked. Sonia glared at me like I was a thief. “What? Are you trying to steal it back?” “Don’t think I don’t know exactly what’s going on in your head, Helen. You’re just jealous that I’m prettier than you, and you want to steal my golden ticket!” “Let me make this crystal clear. In this life, Tristan Blackwood is mine. The billion-dollar empire is mine. You can sit at that broken desk and type on your little keyboard until you die!” The floating chat exploded with excitement. [So satisfying! Put her in her place! Sonia is a boss!] [What’s wrong with taking back what rightfully belongs to her? Helen is such a manipulative bitch!] [Look at her face. Helen is probably grinding her teeth to dust.] Honestly, all I felt was a crushing wave of relief. For ten years in my past life, I drove myself to the brink of insanity trying to be worthy of Tristan Blackwood. Even while heavily pregnant, I stayed up studying high society etiquette, fine art, and global finance. I handled countless PR disasters for his company. I stayed up until dawn revising hundreds of merger proposals to save his ass. But to everyone in that world, including Tristan himself, I was nothing more than a high-priced breeding mare. They always said Helen only got to where she was because her uterus did its job. They completely erased my talent, my late nights, and my brilliant mind. If Sonia wanted to claim that “blessing” in this life, I was more than happy to hand it over on a silver platter. “Sure,” I smiled calmly. “I hope you get exactly what you wish for.” Suspicion flickered in Sonia’s eyes, but a mechanical voice quickly drowned it out. [Ding. Detecting strong host desire. Billionaire Baby System binding successful!] [Starter Pack Distributed: Peerless Beauty plus Alluring Pheromones. Good luck capturing your target!] Right before my eyes, Sonia’s dull, uneven complexion instantly became radiant and flawless. She yanked a compact mirror out of her purse, practically vibrating with excitement as she checked her reflection. When she finally looked back at me, her eyes were dripping with condescending pity. “Helen, since we used to be friends, I’ll make sure to throw you a bone. When I become Mrs. Blackwood, I’ll hire you to scrub my toilets.” She turned on her designer heels and strutted out of the office like she owned the building. The other analysts in the bullpen exchanged confused glances, wondering what kind of manic episode she was having. I just sat back down at my desk and pulled up the Southside Waterfront Project file. Blackwood Industries was going to open the bidding in exactly two weeks. In my past life, I had stayed up for three days straight during my third trimester to win this exact project for Tristan. In this life, this project was going to be my battering ram. I was going to use it to smash through a completely different door. The chat was still mocking me endlessly. [Look at her pretending to be calm. She’s probably screaming inside.] [Without the System, she doesn’t even have the right to breathe the same air as Tristan.] [Can’t wait to watch Sonia absolutely dominate!] I paused my typing and let a cold smirk touch my lips. Since they were all so excited, I was looking forward to seeing how a brainless vessel armed with nothing but a pretty face and a fertility app would survive the venomous snake pit of the Blackwood family. I gave her three episodes, tops. … “Who the hell does she think she is? One word and Sonia just parachutes in as our new department head?” My cubicle neighbor, Sarah, slammed a stack of manila folders onto her desk in absolute disgust. “Keep your voice down!” another coworker hissed, leaning in with wide eyes. “I heard the promotion came straight from the top. Tristan Blackwood signed off on it himself.” “Someone saw her coming out of the CEO’s private elevator yesterday morning. And she was wearing a completely different dress than the night before.” A collective, knowing gasp echoed through the office. The floating text above my screen was glowing with toxic pride. [Did you see that?! The power of the System is unmatched!] [Sonia just used one ‘Pitiful Tears’ skill and had Tristan absolutely begging for it.] [Alpha CEOs love a soft girl! What does a boring, lifeless workaholic like Helen know about being a woman?] [LMAO Helen is still grinding away on her spreadsheets, while Sonia is literally her boss now.] [Sonia is definitely going to teach her a lesson today. Time to break her ego!] Right on cue, the office doors swung open. Sonia glided in, her hips swaying with a practiced rhythm. She scanned the room, her gaze locking onto me like a heat-seeking missile. “Helen, what kind of garbage is this?” She didn’t even glance at my screen. She just reached down and yanked my computer’s power cord straight out of the wall. The monitors went pitch black. The final data models I hadn’t saved yet vanished into the void. “Director Sonia, that was the core financial modeling for the Southside Project required for the executive meeting this afternoon.” I forced down the spike of adrenaline in my chest and stared at her with dead eyes. “If that data is unrecoverable, are you prepared to take responsibility for the loss?” Sonia covered her mouth and let out a tinkling, obnoxious laugh. “Responsibility? In this building, Tristan’s word is law. And I am Tristan’s woman.” She leaned over my desk, dropping her voice to a venomous whisper. “You are a nobody. You don’t get to talk to me about responsibility.” She straightened up, casually picking up a steaming mug of black coffee from a nearby desk. She feigned a slip of her wrist. “Oops.” The scalding liquid splashed directly onto my blouse and arms. A few coworkers gasped in shock, but not a single person stepped forward to help me. The chat went wild. [Beautiful! Humiliate her! Put her in the dirt!] [Sonia’s manipulation skills are top-tier. 10/10 execution.] [Helen must want to die from the embarrassment right now. That’s what you get for messing with the main character!] [Oh snap, Tristan is coming! Quick Sonia, play the victim!] Tristan strode into the bullpen, flanked by a nervous entourage of executive assistants. His cold, predatory eyes swept between me and Sonia. “What is going on here?” Sonia’s eyes immediately welled up with perfectly timed tears. She stumbled forward, burying her face against Tristan’s expensive suit. “Tristan, I was just checking on Helen’s progress. I don’t know why, but she started screaming at me, and then she threw her own coffee at me…” Tristan’s gaze snapped to me, filled with absolute disgust. “Helen. Is this how you treat your superiors?” “Mr. Blackwood, there is a security camera right above us.” I pointed at the black dome on the ceiling, keeping my voice perfectly level. “She unplugged my workstation, and she poured the coffee on herself.” Tristan waved his hand, completely dismissing my words. “Sonia has a pure and gentle heart. She wouldn’t even step on an ant. Why would she do something like that?” “You are clearly jealous of her promotion and trying to sabotage her.” “You will apologize to Sonia. Right now.” The chat was practically foaming at the mouth with joy. [Hahaha! The CEO defending his wife! So sweet!] [Helen really tried to pull the security camera card. Hilarious. Does she really think the truth matters to a billionaire?] [Tristan doesn’t care about facts, he only cares about Sonia!] [Kneel and apologize, or pack your trash and get out!] I stood perfectly still, looking at Tristan. It was the same handsome face from my past life, but right now, he looked like a pathetic stranger. “Tristan, please, let it go…” Sonia tugged gently at his sleeve, playing the role of the merciful angel to perfection. “Helen had a really hard life growing up in the orphanage. It’s normal for her to be a little aggressive and unstable. I don’t blame her.” “As long as she hands over the Southside Project files to me, we can just pretend this never happened.” There it was. The fox finally showing its tail. “I built the Southside proposal from the ground up,” I said, letting a cold laugh escape my lips. I didn’t back down an inch. “Director Sonia doesn’t even know how to read a basic quarterly earnings report. How exactly is she going to lead this project?” Sonia’s face stiffened. Tristan’s patience completely evaporated. “Helen, you are a massive disappointment.” “Sonia is being incredibly generous by not firing you on the spot, and you have the nerve to stand there and insult her?” “Since you think you’re so brilliant, you are officially off the project.” “Transfer every single piece of data you have to Sonia immediately.” He paused, his voice dropping into a lethal warning. “If the bidding war this afternoon goes sideways because of you, I will personally make sure you never find work in this city again.” The chat was throwing a virtual parade. [Yes! Take her only achievement away!] [Helen burned the midnight oil for two weeks just to hand the credit over to Sonia. Poetic justice.] [This is what we call destiny. A side character is a side character. All that hard work for absolutely nothing.] [Can’t wait to see Sonia dominate the boardroom this afternoon and crush Helen’s spirit forever.] I watched Tristan wrap a protective arm around Sonia’s waist as they walked away. I dug my fingernails so hard into my palms that they nearly drew blood. Was I humiliated? Absolutely. But I wasn’t stupid. I knew perfectly well that right now, I didn’t have the capital to fight a billionaire head-on. I quietly gathered the ruined papers on my desk. I pulled up the corrupted, incomplete draft of the proposal that had survived the hard reset, packaged it into a zip file, and emailed it to Sonia. The real data, the actual core numbers, were locked securely inside my head. At two o’clock, the Southside land auction commenced in the penthouse conference room. I was relegated to the back corner, tasked with taking meeting minutes like a glorified intern. Sonia stood at the head of the mahogany table. She held the incomplete draft I had sent her, reading off the pages with the stiff, robotic cadence of a middle schooler giving a book report. But because she had the System’s “Magnetic Charm” buff radiating off her, the ancient, conservative board members were actually nodding along, completely entranced. Tristan looked at her with pure, unfiltered admiration. “This proposal is exceptional. Your cost-control modeling is absolutely bulletproof.” Sonia shot me a smug, triumphant look before lowering her head in a display of perfect modesty. “It’s all thanks to your guidance, Tristan. I only did a little bit of the groundwork.” Just then, the representative from Montgomery Holdings, who had been sitting in stone-cold silence the entire time, finally spoke up. “Mr. Blackwood. The presentation is certainly pretty.” “However, your team seems to have completely overlooked the abandoned coal mine shafts running directly beneath the Southside property.” “If you proceed with your current cost estimates, the moment you break ground, the foundation will collapse. The structural stabilization alone will cost three times your entire budget.” The room erupted into chaos. Tristan’s head whipped around to stare at Sonia. “Director Sonia, what the hell is he talking about?” Sonia panicked. She had absolutely no idea what an abandoned mine shaft was. The Billionaire Baby System only gave her glowing skin and super-fertility. It didn’t download a degree in civil engineering into her empty brain. “I… I don’t know! Helen gave me this file!” “It was her! She deliberately hid the critical information to set me up!” Every single pair of eyes in the room instantly locked onto me. I saw shock, disgust, and the cold apathy of corporate sharks smelling blood in the water. The chat exploded. [Holy shit! Helen is pure evil! She planted a landmine in the files!] [Throw her in jail! Sabotaging a multi-billion dollar corporate deal just because she’s petty?] [Poor Sonia, getting stabbed in the back by her best friend.] Tristan crossed the room in three massive strides, grabbing my arm and practically dragging me out of my chair. “Are you out of your fucking mind, Helen?” “You played a game with a billion-dollar acquisition just to get back at Sonia?” I met his furious, bloodshot eyes, and the corner of my mouth curled into a vicious smirk. “Mr. Blackwood. Director Sonia demanded the files.” “I hadn’t even written the core risk assessment yet, but she was so desperate to steal the credit that she took the incomplete draft and ran with it.” Tristan froze. He slowly turned his head back to Sonia, a sliver of dark suspicion finally cracking through his blind affection. Sonia’s tears immediately flooded her cheeks. “Tristan, how could you believe the word of an outsider over mine?” Inside her mind, she was screaming. [System! Activate Maximum Pity Aura! Now!] In a fraction of a second, the floral pheromones radiating off her intensified. Every single tear she shed seemed to strike directly at Tristan’s heart. The suspicion vanished. Tristan shoved me hard, sending me crashing to the carpet. “Enough! Helen, not only are you grossly incompetent, but you are a pathological liar!” “You are fired. Effective immediately.” “And because your malicious negligence nearly cost this company billions, I am stripping your entire project bonus for the last six months.” I scrambled to my knees, my voice turning to ice. “Tristan, you know damn well my mother is in the hospital waiting for that money for her heart bypass surgery!” It was thirty thousand dollars. Money I had earned by trading my sleep, my health, and my sanity for half a year. It was blood money. Tristan coldly adjusted his platinum cufflinks. “Your personal tragedies are not my problem. They have nothing to do with this company.” Sonia walked over to me, looking down at me on the floor. She dropped her voice so only I could hear. “This is what happens when you go against me, Helen.” “But, since we used to be friends… if you get on your knees right now and beg for my forgiveness in front of the entire board.” “I might just show some mercy and lend you enough cash to buy your dead mother a decent coffin.” The chat was a waterfall of text demanding my submission. [Kneel! It’s just a little pride. Do it for your mom!] [Stop acting tough. A poor person’s pride is absolutely worthless.] [Sonia is literally an angel for even offering her a loan after all this.] I closed my eyes and took one long, deep breath. When I opened them, I pulled my phone out of my pocket. Right in front of the entire board of directors, I dialed a number. “Miss Helen?” The voice on the other end was deep, rich, and held the undeniable weight of true power. It was Silas Montgomery. The real apex predator of New York’s elite. “Mr. Montgomery. I have the actual, verified bottom-line bid for Blackwood’s Southside Project. I also have the names, addresses, and birth certificates of the three illegitimate children Tristan Blackwood has hidden across Europe.” “I was wondering if those chips are enough to buy my mother’s life.” The second those words left my mouth, all the oxygen was sucked out of the room. Tristan’s pupils shrank to pinpricks. His face went dead white. “Helen! What the fuck are you talking about?!”

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1 My parents catered to my every whim. They always told my older brother to let me have my way. Whenever relatives sneered, calling me a “walking blood bank,” my parents would shield me, point at the front door, and tell them to get out. They would hold me tightly and whisper in my ear. “You and your brother are equally important to us. Don’t listen to a word they say.” Until I was eight years old. I grew so tired of the agonizing pain of bone marrow extractions. I refused to cooperate. I refused to let them take anything else to treat my brother. My mother, who had never spoken to me with anything but a gentle voice, exploded for the first time in her life. “If your brother hadn’t gotten terminally ill, you wouldn’t even exist! You took half the love that was supposed to be his. Can’t you even give him this tiny bit of compensation?!” Without a word, my father pinned me down forcefully on the hospital bed. “Doctor, ignore her. Just extract it!” I screamed, cried, and thrashed in excruciating pain. My mother said I was being too loud. After the needle was finally pulled out, they dragged me home, locked me inside our basement sauna room, and took my brother back to the hospital. But they didn’t realize the sauna heater was still turned on. I shoved against the heavy wooden door with everything I had, but it wouldn’t budge. My mother had deadbolted it from the outside. Mommy, Daddy, I know I was wrong. I’m willing to treat my brother. Please, just don’t abandon me. … The temperature in the sauna room was steadily rising. Within minutes, my clothes were soaked in sweat. From upstairs, I heard the heavy thud of the front door closing. My parents had already left with my brother. I threw my entire body weight against the sauna door. Every time I pushed, a sharp, stabbing pain shot through my lower back where the needle had just pierced my bone. But the door didn’t move. It was locked tight. The wooden floorboards were getting so hot that blisters started forming on the soles of my feet. Tears streamed down my face from the sheer pain. The suffocating heat and the agonizing sting were torturing me to the point of collapse. Suddenly, I heard the front door open again. Hope ignited in my chest. Ignoring the searing heat of the floor, I ran to the door, standing on my tiptoes to reach the small glass window near the top. “Mommy! Daddy! Save me!” “It hurts so much! I know I was wrong!” I apologized over and over, slapping my small hands against the glass, praying they would notice me. Instead, I heard their muffled voices filtering down the stairs. “I can’t believe it. I was so angry I forgot his ID cards. Now we have to make an extra trip.” “The bone marrow has such a short preservation window, and she just had to throw a tantrum and delay everything!” My father sighed heavily. He was about to say something else when his eyes caught the glass window of the sauna door. “Honey, Mina looks like she’s crying. Maybe we should let her out.” My mother finally turned her head and looked down the stairs at me. I quickly forced the brightest smile I could muster. I was trying to apologize. I was trying to act sweet, just like I used to. Before today, whenever I did something wrong, all I had to do was act cute, smile, and say sorry. They always forgave me. But this time, my smile only made my mother angrier. She furrowed her brows, glaring at me with raw viciousness. Her voice echoed down the hall, sharp and furious. “What kind of look is that? Is that what you call crying?!” “Look at her! She has zero remorse. She actually has the nerve to smile at me!” I shook my head frantically. “No, Mommy, I didn’t mean it! I won’t do it again!” But the thick, insulated door swallowed my voice. All they heard were muffled squeaks. They couldn’t make out a single word I was saying. My mother started walking down the stairs toward the basement. My heart hammered against my ribs with pure joy. I thought she had finally forgiven me. I knew my mommy still loved me. She was just stressed earlier. I knew it! But she stopped when she was still ten feet away from the door. She pointed a finger at me and looked back up at my father. “This door is completely soundproof, and she’s still making this much noise. If we let her out and the neighbors hear her screaming, are we going to have to turn around again?” “What if she throws another fit while Leo is getting his treatment?” I saw my father hesitating. I could feel the air in the sauna turning into a furnace. Panic seized me. I reached up and grabbed the iron handle on the inside of the door, hoping to pull it down just a fraction of an inch so my voice could slip through the crack. The second my bare hand clamped around the metal, a layer of my skin instantly seared off. My vision went black from the agony, and I let out a blood-curdling, desperate scream. But from the outside, it probably just looked like I was throwing another wild tantrum, exactly as my mother had predicted. My father looked at me through the glass, then looked at the medical documents in my mother’s hand. “Forget it. Getting Leo treated is the priority right now. We’ll sit down and talk some sense into her when we get back.” With that, my father wrapped his arm around my mother’s shoulders, and they walked back upstairs. The slam of the front door shattered the last fragile sliver of hope I had. I stripped off my clothes, piling them on the scorching floor to create a barrier between the burning wood and my skin. I curled into a tight ball on top of the pile, hugging my knees to my chest. “If I stay like this, it won’t hurt. If it doesn’t hurt, I won’t scream.” “As long as I don’t cry or make noise, Mommy and Daddy will see how good I’m being when they get back, and they’ll let me out.” I whispered the words to myself over and over. Even as the blistering heat began to roast every single inch of my skin, I bit my lip hard, refusing to let out a single sound. I don’t know how much time passed before my consciousness finally faded to black. 2 I was woken up by the sound of my parents’ voices. When I opened my eyes, I saw my mother gently placing my brother into his bed. Her eyes were overflowing with heartbreak. “Look how pale his sweet little face is. When is this nightmare going to end?” She carefully tucked the blankets under his chin, softly patting his chest to soothe him. “If Mina were just a little more understanding… but now she doesn’t even want to give a simple marrow extraction to save Leo.” Her voice cracked, thick with choked-back tears. I ran to my mother’s side, throwing my arms around her legs, looking up at her face. “Don’t cry, Mommy! I’m willing to do it!” “I promise I won’t ever complain about the pain again.” But my small hands slipped right through her legs as if she were made of air. She didn’t react. She hadn’t heard a single word I said. My father gently patted her shoulder. “It’s going to be okay. He’ll get better.” “Honestly, Mina is usually a very good girl. Let’s go let her out, sit down, and really talk to her. Maybe she’ll finally understand the position we’re in.” “I hope so. She’s getting older. It’s time for her to grow up.” My father turned and headed toward the basement stairs. I ran ahead and stood directly in his path. He walked right through me, not even blinking. I stood there, frozen, staring down at my pale, translucent, glowing hands. It finally clicked in my mind. I think… I’m dead. My father peered through the small glass window of the sauna door. Because my body was curled up right at the base of the door, it was in his blind spot. He couldn’t see me. But I could effortlessly step right through the heavy wood. I looked down and saw it. A tiny, shriveled corpse curled into a ball on a pile of clothes, every single inch of its skin blistered and charred by the steam. My father turned around and called up the stairs. “Honey! Mina isn’t in the sauna!” My mother paused, then hurried down the stairs. “How is that possible? I deadbolted it! There’s no way she got out.” She jiggled the heavy iron handle from the outside. “It’s still locked. That brat is definitely hiding in one of the dark corners, trying to scare us.” She slammed her hand hard against the thick wood. “Mina! You come out right now and apologize to us. If you say you’re sorry, we’ll forgive you, and you can still be our good little girl.” “But if you want to keep throwing a tantrum, then you can stay in there all night! No dinner, no toys, nothing!” I practically screamed my apology. “Mommy! I really know I was wrong! I promise I’ll be good and help Leo get better!” She couldn’t hear me. She and my father just leaned closer to the door, waiting for an answer. They were met with dead silence. After a long minute, my mother sneered, her face darkening with fury. “Fine! You want to be stubborn? Let’s see how long you last!” “I don’t know where I went wrong raising you. You used to be such an obedient child!” “I wash my hands of you!” I stomped my transparent feet in absolute panic. Mommy, I already apologized! I want to be your good girl again! I want you to love me like you used to! I really do! Tears spilled from my eyes, hitting the basement carpet. But they didn’t leave wet spots like they used to. I watched my parents turn their backs and walk away, and I cried even louder. But this time, they weren’t going to turn around and comfort me. My mother always had a sharp tongue but a soft heart. That evening, she still cooked my favorite dish—steamed sea bass. My father scooped a bowl of rice, piled some fish on top, and carried it toward the basement to give it to me. My mother didn’t stop him. She just sat silently at the dining table, carefully picking the tiny bones out of Leo’s portion. My father unlocked the deadbolt and pushed the door open just a crack. “Mina, come out and eat. Mommy made your favorite steamed sea bass.” 3 The sauna heater was programmed to shut off automatically once it hit its maximum threshold. After sitting idle for the entire day, the flesh-melting steam had already dissipated. The air inside was just stiflingly hot and stale. My father assumed it was just because the room was sealed tight and the central AC couldn’t get in. He didn’t think twice about it. When he didn’t get an answer, he reached in and flicked on the light switch. “Mina, Mommy and Daddy need to talk to you about—” He stopped. The small, square room was entirely empty. My body was tucked tightly against the hinge side of the door, completely out of his line of sight. Panic flickered across his face. He ran back upstairs. “Honey! Mina really isn’t in there!” My mother followed him back down the stairs and pushed the door open, but just like my father, she only pushed it halfway. I floated frantically between them. “Mommy! Daddy! I’m right here! If you just push the door open a little wider, it will hit me!” “Or… or just look behind the door! I’m right here!” I pointed desperately at my own corpse. They didn’t react at all. My mother frowned and turned to my father. “Didn’t the contractor give us two keys to that deadbolt?” My father nodded slowly. “I think so. You have one, and I have the other.” “I used my key all day,” my mother said. “Where’s yours?” My father frantically patted down his pockets and checked his leather briefcase. Nothing. “That’s weird. Where did it go?” While my father was confused, my mother suddenly looked like she had figured out a grand conspiracy. “Where do you think it went? Your precious daughter obviously stole it!” “Remember when we used to play hide-and-seek? She always locked herself in a room. We spoiled her too much, so whenever we couldn’t open a door, we just skipped that room. She probably swiped your key back then.” “So all that begging we did through the door this afternoon was completely useless. She already unlocked it, walked right out, and locked it back from the inside to make us think she was still in there.” My mother’s voice grew louder and more furious. She pointed at the heavy door. “Look at how manipulative she is! I literally cannot control her anymore!” My father tried to rub her shoulders to calm her down, then walked down the hall to my bedroom and knocked hard on the wood. “Mina, Mommy and Daddy are getting really angry now!” He pushed the door open. The room was empty. My mother didn’t even bother looking inside. She just turned around and marched upstairs. “She’s running away from home at this age?! Fine! I hope she never comes back. I hope she dies out there in the streets!” “I am utterly disgusted by her!” I shook my head violently. I didn’t! I really didn’t! This time, even my father didn’t defend me. That night, my mother sat by Leo’s bed, reading him a story to help him sleep. Leo looked up at her with sleepy eyes. “Mommy, why are you reading to me so early? Don’t you need to go tuck Mina in?” Knowing my brother was still thinking about me made a tiny spark of warmth bloom in my chest. Leo was always so good to me. I promised myself I would do everything I could to save him. But before I could finish the thought, my mother’s words dumped ice water over my soul. “We don’t need to worry about her anymore. From now on, I’m pretending I don’t have a daughter.” She stayed by Leo’s side, patient and gentle, for a very long time. When his breathing finally grew slow and steady, she reached for the bedside lamp. I tried to stop her. I was terrified of the dark. I always felt like monsters were hiding in the pitch black. I never slept with the lights off. But my transparent hands passed right through the switch, and my mother couldn’t hear my pleas. Normally, she would leave the hallway light on for me. Tonight, she turned everything off. I had no choice but to curl into a tiny ball next to Leo’s bed, my eyes darting frantically into the shadows, terrified of every creak in the house. I didn’t sleep for a single second. The next morning, my parents dropped Leo off at school and drove to work. They had a silent agreement to completely ignore my existence. It was as if this house was exactly the same whether I was in it or not. 4 It wasn’t until nine o’clock that my homeroom teacher finally called my mother’s cell phone. “Mrs. Evans? Mina isn’t in class today. Is she feeling sick?” My mother slammed her designer pen onto her desk. She swallowed her rage and offered the teacher a tight, polite apology. “I’m so sorry, Ms. Davis. We had a little disagreement at home last night, and I didn’t realize she was throwing such a tantrum that she actually skipped school.” “I understand. I’ll find her and make sure she apologizes to you tomorrow.” The second she hung up, she called my father. “Your daughter is skipping school now! She thinks she’s untouchable!” “Hurry up. You check your parents’ house, I’ll check mine. We are dragging her home today and teaching her a serious lesson in discipline!” “She’s so selfish! Do you know how much money we burn through for Leo’s treatments? And for her clothes and food? If she makes us waste another day of work, I’m taking away her allowance for the entire year!” They split up and drove to both sets of grandparents’ houses. But nobody was there. They called the parents of every friend I had ever mentioned. Everyone said the exact same thing: they hadn’t seen me. The hours bled away, and a whole day passed. My parents found absolutely nothing. While my mother was driving to pick Leo up from school, my father called her again. “Honey, I even checked Chloe’s house. There’s literally nowhere else to look.” “Do you think… do you think someone grabbed her? Should we call the police?” My mother opened her mouth. From the shape of her lips, it looked like she was about to say “yes.” Right at that moment, Leo walked out of the school gates. My mother swallowed the word, waving her hand out the car window. “Leo! Over here!” Leo climbed into the backseat, looking at her with bright eyes. “Mommy, I told my friends at recess that our house is super cool. I told them we have a pool, a playroom, a movie theater, and a sauna!” “But none of them believed me! They said nobody has that many rooms in their house. Mommy, can I bring them over to show them?” He grabbed her arm, giving it a little shake. It was a trick I had taught him. My mother froze for a second. I don’t know if the gesture made her think of me. But Leo’s eager voice quickly pulled her back to reality. She nodded down at him with a warm smile, then spoke into the phone. “I got it. We’ll talk about it when we get home.” “It’s highly unlikely she was kidnapped. We’ve drilled stranger danger into her head since she was a toddler.” “Leo wants to bring some friends over right now. He misses so much school because of his treatments, it’s a miracle he even has friends. We can’t ruin this for him. Hurry up and tidy the living room. Cut up some fresh fruit. We need to be good hosts.” My father murmured an agreement and hung up. I tried to grab my mother’s arm. I was terrified the kids would get scared. But there was absolutely nothing I could do. Half an hour later, my mother pulled into the driveway with Leo and three of his classmates. They saw the pool. They played with the arcade machines. They sat in the plush theater seats. Finally, the group of kids stopped in front of the basement sauna door. One of the boys looked up. “I’ve never been in a real sauna before. Leo, can we try it?” The second he asked, the other kids started buzzing with excitement, begging to go in. Leo didn’t hesitate. He smiled proudly and hit the digital temperature dial on the wall panel. Upstairs, my father was arranging a fruit platter while my mother was busy calling the other kids’ parents. She was checking to make sure they were medically cleared for a sauna and letting them know they would be home a little late. Everyone was busy. Leo opened the heavy wooden door to check if the room was getting warm yet. The second he stepped inside, he let out a horrifying scream.

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