Blurb: Joanna Stone chased Ethan Quinn for seven years, suffering cold looks and humiliation, just to complete the system mission and resurrect her true lover Liam White. One week before the wedding, Ethan’s old love Serena Blair returned to the city. He ruined Joanna’s career for Serena, forced her to apologize in public, and even let Serena try on the wedding dress she designed herself. Joanna endured it all because she just wanted the wedding to go smoothly. But on the wedding day, Ethan abandoned her in public for Serena, destroying her last hope with his own hands. After the mission failed, Joanna completely disappeared. Later, Ethan learned that the woman he had never cherished had never come to love him from the beginning. “Welcome to my food livestream channel. Today I will show you one of Graybridge’s hardest-to-book fine dining restaurants…” Joanna Stone showed her iconic smile to the camera, with several exquisite and picturesque dishes in front of her. As a leading food streamer with over 10 million fans on the Internet, her livestream online audience instantly exceeded 100,000. Just as she was about to take her first bite, the private room door was suddenly pushed open. There was a burst of chaotic footsteps and joking laughter. “Well, if it isn’t Mr. Quinn’s shadow. What, he doesn’t have time for you today, so you came here to smile for money?” Joanna’s hand holding the knife and fork paused, and the smile froze on her face. The visitors were several well-known wealthy men from Graybridge, and the one in the middle was her fiancé whom she had been chasing for seven years and who was about to get married in a week — Ethan Quinn. Ethan was wearing a neatly tailored black haute couture suit, with a stern look on his face, and undisguised indifference and boredom in his dark eyes. He just glanced at her, as if looking at a cheap ornament. “Ethan, your fiancée is so down-to-earth. The bride-to-be of the Quinn family is not ashamed to advertise the restaurant online every day.” The person next to him deliberately raised his voice. The livestream barrage exploded instantly. [What is going on? Anna is engaged to the president of Quinn Group?] [These people are awful. Since when is being a food streamer shameful?] [Look at Quinn’s face. He clearly can’t stand her. Is she the one clinging to him?] Joanna took a deep breath, ignored the harsh taunts, and just looked at Ethan quietly. “I’m working.” Her voice was soft but enough for everyone to hear clearly. Ethan walked up to her and looked down at her condescendingly. He stretched out his slender fingers and pressed directly on her phone holder, with a cold tone: “Turn it off.” “I have signed a contract for this promotion, and the penalty fee…” “I told you to shut it down.” Ethan cut her off, anger flashing in his eyes. “Joanna, have you forgotten who you are? The Quinn family does not need someone chasing attention online.” A sharp pain stabbed through Joanna’s chest, like a cluster of fine needles. Joanna pursed her lips, looked at his cold face, and finally reached out and forcibly cut off the livestream in front of 100,000 viewers. The moment the screen went black, the room burst into laughter. “Hahaha, Ethan really trained her well. So obedient. He says turn it off, and she turns it off.” “Since the livestream is off, why don’t you serve us today, Ms. Food Streamer? We haven’t eaten yet. Clear this table and serve us again.” This blatant humiliation made Joanna’s fingertips dig deep into her palms. She looked up at Ethan, trying to find a hint of protection in his eyes. No. Ethan just walked to the main seat and sat down, leaning against the back of the chair lazily, and coldly uttered two words: “Pour the wine.” He acquiesced in their humiliation. In fact, he was the leader of this humiliation. Joanna felt a little sore in her eyes, but she held it back. She stood up, picked up the decanter on the table, walked to Ethan, bent slightly, and slowly poured the red wine into his glass. “That’s right. Know your position.” The young master next to him laughed more and more crazily. Joanna was like a soulless puppet, mechanically pouring wine and serving dishes for them, and listened to their bottomless belittling of her career and origins. [Ding—] A mechanical electronic tone suddenly rang in her mind. [Host, mission progress has reached 99%. As long as your wedding to Ethan is completed in one week, you will receive the final reward.] Hearing this sound, Joanna’s tense body miraculously relaxed. It doesn’t matter, she told herself. As long as she can get through this week, as long as the wedding goes smoothly, she can complete the system’s mission. She didn’t care how Ethan humiliated her, nor did she care whether he loved her or not. She did all this, endured all the injustice and followed him for seven years, just in exchange for the only reward — resurrecting her true lover, Liam White. “Enough. Looking at you ruins my appetite.” Ethan suddenly set down his glass with a sharp clink. He stood without sparing her another glance. “Go settle the bill, then get out.” Joanna lowered her head and responded softly: “Okay.” She turned towards the bar and settled the six-figure bill. When she walked out of the restaurant, it started to rain heavily outside. The cold rain hit her face, but she didn’t hide. She just looked at the countdown on the screen of her phone. Seven days left. Liam, wait for me.

The villa was eerily empty and unpopular late at night. Joanna took a hot bath, put on clean home clothes, and sat on the sofa in the living room to wait for Ethan. Today is their third engagement anniversary. On the coffee table were cakes she had made by herself, as well as a table of completely cold dishes. She waited until two o’clock in the morning, but there was no movement at the gate. She picked up her phone and opened her chat with Ethan. The last message was still the one she had sent that afternoon: [Come home early today. I made your favorite dishes.] There had been no reply. Just when she was about to throw away the cold meal, her phone suddenly vibrated. It’s not Ethan’s message, but a push that the social platform pays special attention to. She clicked on the screen and what came into view was a high-definition photo taken secretly at the airport. In the photo, Ethan, who has always been mysophobic and doesn’t like to be touched by others, is holding a woman wearing a white windbreaker tightly in his arms. His eyes were full of enthusiasm and lost treasure that Joanna had never seen in the past seven years. The woman was wearing sunglasses, but Joanna recognized her at a glance—Serena Blair, Ethan’s first love, and the old obsession in his heart that he couldn’t touch or forget. Three years ago, Serena dumped Ethan without mercy and went abroad to study in order to pursue her dream of dancing. Ethan stood in the heavy rain all night with a high fever. Joanna took care of him sleeplessly for three days and three nights. Later, he agreed to Joanna’s proposal. Everyone said that Joanna finally warmed up the iceberg after seven years of humility. But only Joanna knew that he was just angry. Now, Serena is back. Joanna looked at the photo quietly, and there was no heartbreaking feeling in her heart as she expected, only a kind of numbness that finally fell to the ground. There was a beeping sound from the door combination lock. Ethan walked in with a chill, his suit jacket hanging on his arms, the collar of his shirt slightly open, showing a rare mixture of exhaustion and excitement. Seeing Joanna sitting on the sofa, the emotion on his face instantly calmed down and returned to his frosty look. “Why haven’t you slept yet?” He said calmly. “Waiting for you.” Joanna stood up and pointed to the cake on the table, “Today is the engagement anniversary.” Ethan’s eyes stayed on the cake for a second, then moved away, and said impatiently: “I forgot. I’m very tired, so I went to take a shower first.” He didn’t explain or apologize. “Ethan.” Joanna stopped him, “Serena is back, right?” Ethan’s steps suddenly stopped. He turned around and his eyes instantly became sharp, as if he was examining a prisoner who had crossed the line: “Are you investigating me?” “You guys have become a hot topic.” Joanna raised her phone. Ethan saw the photo on the screen clearly. Instead of being embarrassed by being exposed, Ethan sneered confidently: “Since you saw it, I won’t hide it from you. Serena has just returned to this city and is not emotionally stable. I will spend more time with her during this time.” “What about our wedding?” Joanna asked the question she was most concerned about. “The wedding is as usual.” Ethan tugged on his tie, with a pity-like compensatory arrogance in his voice, “Joanna, you should be content. Mrs. Quinn’s position is yours. For the rest, you’d better not expect anything else, and don’t disturb Serena.” After saying that, he went upstairs without looking back. Joanna stood there, looking at the exquisite cake on the table, and suddenly felt a little funny. She picked up the knife, cut a piece of cake and stuffed it into her mouth. It’s so sweet that it tastes bitter. Ethan thought she loved him so much that she had no dignity, and thought she couldn’t live without him. But he didn’t know that what she wanted was never his love, nor the position of Mrs. Quinn. [Host, emotional fluctuation detected in the male lead. Please stabilize the plot and make sure the wedding proceeds smoothly.] The system’s voice sounded at the right moment. “I know.” Joanna swallowed the bitter cake and poured the rest into the trash can. As long as he didn’t cancel the wedding, she didn’t care who he accompanied or who he loved. After washing and lying on the bed, Joanna closed her eyes, and Liam’s gentle and jade-like face appeared in her mind. “Anna, when I get better, we will go to the beach to watch the sunrise.” Those were the last words Liam said to her before he died. For this promise, she endured seven years in this cold world. Come on, Liam. Six days to go.

In the early morning, she was awakened by a series of phone calls from her agent Maya Reed. “Joanna, look at the social media platform! The producer of the global food documentary “Flavor Search” that you have been preparing for half a year suddenly and unilaterally announced a replacement!” She sat up suddenly, no longer feeling sleepy. “Flavor Pathfinding” is the most important part of her career. In order to win the position of the resident host, she did not rest for more than half a year. She traveled to many countries to test dishes and write plans. She even suffered from acute gastritis due to overwork. The producer just confirmed the final contract with her yesterday, so why did she suddenly change her? She quickly opened her social media platform, and the first one on the hot topic list was: #Serena Blair airborne flavor search# Click on it to see the latest official announcement released by the producer. The picture is of Serena Blair wearing a white dress and smiling innocently. The comment section was in an uproar. Her fans were frantically defending their rights, while Serena’s fans were mocking her for not having enough status and saying that Internet celebrities should not touch porcelain artists. Her fingers were trembling slightly, and she immediately dialed the number of the producer’s chief director. “Director Harris, what on earth is going on? Hasn’t our contract already…” “Ms. Stone, I’m really sorry.” Director Harris’ tone was helpless and flattering, “This is not something we can decide. Quinn Group suddenly fully acquired the production company last night, and Mr. Quinn personally said that he would give this position to Miss Serena.” There was a bang. Her mind went blank. She hung up the phone, took a taxi and rushed to the Quinn Group headquarters without even changing her clothes. Arriving at the executive’s office unimpeded, she pushed open the door to Ethan Quinn’s office. In the office, Ethan Quinn was sitting on a large leather chair, while Serena Blair was sitting on the sofa next to him, holding a cup of coffee in her hand, and the two were talking and laughing. Seeing her barging in, Serena immediately put down her coffee cup and shrank behind Ethan. “Ethan…” Her voice was delicate. Ethan’s face instantly darkened and he stared at her coldly: “Who taught you the rule of not knocking when you enter?” “Why?” She ignored his scolding and walked straight to the desk, staring at him. “”Flavor Pathfinding” is the hard work I have been preparing for half a year. Why did you give it to her with just one sentence?” Ethan leaned back in his chair, his eyes contemptuous: “I am an investor.” He stood up, walked to Serena, patted her shoulder gently, and when he looked at her again, there was only coldness in his eyes. “Serena has just returned to this city and needs a program with a wide audience coverage to regain her popularity. As a blogger of a broken shop, what is the use of such resources? It’s just to eat and Drink.” “Potan shop blogger?” She laughed angrily, but her eyes were red, “Ethan Quinn, that is my career! It was the opportunity I bought after spending countless late nights and getting rejected! In order to please her, are you going to destroy my hard work?” “Watch your words.” Ethan frowned and said in a serious tone, “Serena is a classical dancer, and her temperament is more suitable for this kind of high-end documentary than you. If you want resources, I will ask my assistant to arrange the promotion of several big-name skin care products for you. Don’t make trouble here.” “I don’t want promotion, I just want “Flavor Pathfinding”.” She looked at him stubbornly. At this time, Serena gently pulled Ethan’s sleeve, her eyes were slightly red: “Ethan, forget it, since Ms. Stone likes it so much, I will just give it back to her. I don’t want to affect your relationship because of me.” “Don’t give in.” Ethan held Serena’s hand in his hand and looked at her sharply. “Joanna, do you have to be so fussy about it? Serena has suffered a lot abroad. What’s wrong with me compensating her with a show? As my future wife, you don’t even have this generosity?” What ridiculous logic. He used her hard work to compensate for his obsession with his old love, and blamed her for not being generous enough. She looked at the two people’s clasped hands, and her heart seemed to be clenched tightly by a big invisible hand, which was so painful that she couldn’t breathe. This is the man she has been conquering for seven years. Cold-blooded, selfish, trampling on her dignity and hard work. “Okay, I’m generous.” She took a deep breath and pushed back the tears in her eyes. She looked at Ethan and said word by word, “Ethan Quinn, I gave this program to her.” Ethan was stunned for a moment, as if he didn’t expect that she would compromise so easily. He looked at her eyes that were so calm that they were almost lifeless, and he felt inexplicably irritated in his heart. “You know what’s going on.” He snorted coldly. Without looking at them again, she turned and walked out of the office. The moment she closed the door, she leaned against the cold wall, gasping for air. It doesn’t matter, she told herself again. Five days to go. Once the mission is completed, she will no longer have to suffer this kind of torture.

The storm of substitutions in “Flavour Pathfinding” has not subsided yet, and an even bigger storm is following. That afternoon, Serena Blair posted a photo of herself on an IV at the hospital, with the caption: [My first big meal after returning to this city, and I ended up spending it in the ER. Everyone, please be careful about restaurant hygiene.] In the background, the takeout bag from a well-known private restaurant was faintly visible. And this private restaurant was the one she had strongly recommended in the livestream the day before yesterday. Serena’s fans immediately rushed into her social account like sharks smelling blood. [Shameless blogger! She took dirty money to recommend a trash restaurant and gave our Serena food poisoning!][People like this will promote anything for money. This is practically attempted murder for profit!][Ban Joanna! Make her disappear from public view!] In just two hours, the terms #Joanna Stone Fake Store Visit# and #Serena Blair Food Poisoning became hot topics on social platforms. The reputation she had accumulated for seven years was about to collapse in an instant. She immediately contacted the owner of the restaurant and verified the monitoring and meal delivery records of the day. All ingredients had strict inspection and quarantine certificates, and there was no possibility of food poisoning. This is a complete frame-up. She had just compiled the clarification evidence and was ready to release it when the door of the villa was pushed open violently. Ethan Quinn strode in with violent anger, grabbed the laptop from her hand, and smashed it to the ground. There was a loud “bang” and the screen shattered instantly. “Ethan Quinn, why are you crazy!” She stood up and looked at him angrily. “Am I crazy?” Ethan grabbed her chin with such force that he almost crushed her bones, his eyes were scarlet. “Joanna, do you dare to say that Serena’s food poisoning was not caused by you? Because I gave her the show, you held a grudge and deliberately recommended that unclean restaurant to her!” “I didn’t!” She was forced to raise her head, tears welling up in her eyes because of the pain, “There’s nothing wrong with that restaurant, it’s her who is acting!” “Bang!” A hospital diagnosis report was thrown hard on her face, and the sharp edge of the paper scratched her cheek, leaving a thin trail of blood. “It says acute gastroenteritis in black and white, and you still dare to quibble!” Ethan’s voice was as cold as ice. “Joanna, I only thought you were clingy and humble before, but I didn’t expect you to be so vicious!” She didn’t read the report. She knew that with Ethan’s methods, it would be easy to get a fake medical certificate. He didn’t care about the truth at all, he only cared that Serena had been wronged. “What do you want?” Her voice was as light as a gust of wind, revealing deep weakness. “Apologize.” Ethan let go of his hand, took out a handkerchief and wiped his fingers in disgust, “Start a livestream immediately and apologize to Serena in front of the entire network. Admit that you took the black money and made false publicity.” Her eyes suddenly widened and she looked at him in disbelief. Admitting to false advertising would have completely ruined her career in the content industry. The credibility she has accumulated step by step over the past seven years will be destroyed in one day! “Ethan Quinn, you are forcing me to death.” She was shaking all over. “You owe her this.” Ethan showed no mercy. “If you don’t do it, I will have the entire local media ban you tomorrow. Guess whether the penalty fee you face will make you go to jail?” He is threatening her with what she cares about most… More importantly, if she is banned from the entire network or even faces a lawsuit, the wedding in a week will definitely be affected, and the system’s mission will fail. Joanna looked at the man in front of her who she had loved for seven years but was so cruel to her. The last spark in her heart went out completely. “Okay, I apologize.” Ten minutes later, she started the livestream. She had no makeup, there was a faint bloodstain on her cheek, and her face was as pale as paper. Millions of people flooded into the livestream instantly, and the barrage was full of unsightly abuse. Ethan stood outside the camera, watching her coldly. She bowed deeply to the camera. “I’m sorry. It was me who accepted sponsorship from the restaurant and carried out false publicity, which caused Ms. Serena’s physical harm. I am here to solemnly apologize to Ms. Serena and all the fans who trust me.” Every word seemed to linger in her soul. She personally tore her seven years of hard work into pieces in front of everyone. The comments in the barrage were loud and loud, and the rate of followers dropping was visible to the naked eye. Ethan looked at her obedient look, but his heart was not as happy as he expected. Instead, he felt as if he was blocked by something and felt uncomfortable. After the livestream ended, she slumped on the chair, like a rag doll whose soul had been drained. Ethan walked up to her and said condescendingly: “Recognize the reality early and stop doing these little tricks. Just wait and be your bride.” She didn’t look up, just looked at the countdown to the wedding on her phone. Four days to go. Liam, she’s so tired. But for you, she can endure anything.

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My fiancé, Evan Carter, was sleeping with my half-sister, Sophia Lynn. At our engagement party, in front of every notable name in the city, I put their intimate video up on the big screen. Overnight, I became the laughingstock of Bay City — and the Lynn family threw me headfirst into Polaris Tech, a company teetering on the edge of bankruptcy. In the middle of a downpour, I picked up a dangerous stranger and paid him half a million dollars to be my security consultant. He was quiet. He was ruthless. He noticed everything. When people came for me, he stepped up. When I was set up, he had my back. When I was accused of stealing someone else’s work, he took every bit of the blame himself. I told him to leave. All he said was, “I’ll make sure you win.” It wasn’t until every truth came to light that I finally understood — the rough stranger I’d pulled off the street was the real power behind Deep Bay Capital. Chapter 1 The night of the engagement party, I blew the whole thing up myself. I put the video on the ballroom screen — footage of my fiancé tangled up with my half-sister, right in front of the floor-to-ceiling windows of their hotel room. Hundreds of people in that room. Every face that mattered in Bay City. I was wearing a custom gown worth seven figures and four-inch heels. I walked up to that stage in dead silence. Evan Carter rushed at me to grab the remote. I stepped aside and cracked him across the face with the back of my hand. The sound rang through the whole room over the premium sound system. The screen was supposed to play our love story highlight reel. Instead, it was playing high-definition security footage — the night before, the eve of our engagement party, him and my sister Sophia Lynn kissing by the window. Sophia hiked up her skirt and ran onto the stage, eyes red, reaching out to grab me. I stepped back. “Don’t touch me,” I said coldly. “You disgust me.” Evan stood there with his hand over his cheek, staring at me like he couldn’t believe what was happening. He thought I’d swallow it. That I’d keep my mouth shut to protect the Lynn family’s stake in the business. I picked up the microphone and looked out over the crowd — my father’s face had gone gray, and the guests were already whispering. “In front of everyone here tonight, I’m making this official — the engagement is over. I don’t want any part of this anymore.” I ripped the diamond necklace off my neck and threw it at Evan’s face. Then I turned and walked out of the ballroom. I pushed through the hotel doors and the rain hit me like a wall. No umbrella. No driver. For twenty-four years — ever since my mother died and that woman moved in with Sophia — I had been playing dumb. Keeping my head down. Pretending not to see. I was done pretending. I stood in the rain, shaking from the cold, my stomach cramping so badly I could barely breathe. I’d starved myself for three days to fit into that dress. A beat-up black SUV pulled up in front of me. The window rolled down. The smell of cheap tobacco drifted out. The man in the driver’s seat was wearing a faded black tank top. There was a jagged scar running down his arm. He wasn’t looking at me — he had a cigarette between his lips and his eyes fixed somewhere out in the rain. His profile was sharp enough to cut glass. “You getting in?” His voice was low and rough. I hesitated for a second, then pulled open the door and dropped into the passenger seat. “Drive.” He turned and looked at me. His eyes were black and flat, and the only thing in them was contempt. “My car. I don’t give rides to crazy women in wedding dresses.” I almost laughed. I reached into my clutch, pulled out a black card, and slapped it on the dashboard. “PIN is six zeros. There’s a million dollars on it. Get me out of here. Right now.” He looked at the card. His brow creased slightly, like he was looking at something unpleasant. Half a minute passed. He stubbed out his cigarette. “Buckle up.” The SUV roared out into the storm. Chapter 2 The inside of the car smelled like motor oil and tobacco — rough, but not unpleasant. I leaned back against the seat and closed my eyes. The pain in my stomach was getting worse. I curled in on myself and pressed hard against my abdomen, trying to hold it together. “Where to?” he asked, out of nowhere. “Doesn’t matter.” I said it through clenched teeth. The car jerked to a hard stop at the side of the road. He got out. A few minutes later he came back, damp from the rain, and tossed a plastic bag into my lap. “Eat.” I opened it. Inside was a container of hot noodle soup, still steaming, and a box of antacids. I just stared at it. How did he know my stomach was hurting? “You’ve been holding your stomach the whole time. You’re white as a ghost.” His tone hadn’t warmed at all. “I don’t want a body in my car. Bad enough already.” I looked down at the soup in my hands, and my eyes started to sting. Three years together, and my fiancé never once knew I had a serious stomach condition. A complete stranger figured it out in ten minutes. I didn’t say anything. I just ate — fast, barely stopping to breathe. Cheap noodles and hot broth. Better than anything on the table at that party tonight. By the time I finished and took the antacids, I finally felt like a human being again. I turned and looked at him properly. He was young — twenty-two, twenty-three at most — but his eyes were deep and still, like the bottom of a dry well. No light in them at all. “What’s your name?” I asked. “Luca Hale.” He kept his eyes on the road ahead. “Luca Hale.” I turned the name over in my mouth. “Good name. Has an edge to it.” I pulled out a napkin and wiped my lips. “One million. Three months of your time. You in?” He finally turned to look at me, eyes sharp with suspicion. “For what?” “My driver. Security consultant. And someone to put down a few dogs that don’t know their place.” The Lynn family and Carter family alliance had fallen apart. My father wasn’t going to let that slide. Sophia and Evan would be working against me from the shadows, too. I needed someone outside that world — someone who could protect me. This Luca Hale had something about him. A recklessness. Like he had nothing left to lose. He was quiet for a long moment. “I don’t need a million. Five hundred thousand. Half upfront, the rest when the three months are up.” That surprised me. “Deal.” “So.” He glanced over. “Where to?” I gave him an address. “East side. Polaris Tech.” It was a subsidiary under the Lynn family — barely staying afloat, bleeding out. My father had arranged it in advance, his way of punishing me for blowing up the engagement party. His idea of exile. He thought throwing me into that wreck of a company would break me. Make me crawl back. He was wrong. Polaris Tech was exactly where I was going to tear off the mask and start burning everything down. The car pulled back onto the road. The rain was easing up. I watched the city blur past the window, a cold smile pulling at the corner of my mouth. Evan Carter. Sophia Lynn. Everything you took from me — I’m coming to collect. With interest. Chapter 3 The Polaris Tech office building looked like a relic from the last century. Paint peeling off the walls. The elevator plastered with flyers and ads. I walked ahead, heels clicking against the floor. Luca followed silently behind me in a black tank top, like an immovable wall of darkness. I pushed open the conference room door and walked into a haze of smoke. A group of department managers were huddled around a table playing cards. The surface was buried under cigarette ash and takeout containers. Not one of them looked up when I walked in. “Well, well. If it isn’t the precious Miss Lynn.” It was Martin Beck, the head of the project department. “What’s the occasion? Did you actually find time in your busy schedule to grace our little dump with a visit?” He was a distant relative on Sophia’s mother’s side — planted here to skim off the top. I ignored him and walked straight to the head of the table. “Put your cards down.” Nobody moved. Martin even blew a smug smoke ring in my direction. I turned and looked at Luca. Just one look. That was enough. Luca crossed the room to where Martin was sitting. Without a word, he reached out, grabbed Martin by the collar, and hauled him clean out of his chair like he weighed nothing. “What the hell — let go of me!” Martin shrieked. Luca didn’t waste words. He grabbed Martin by the head and slammed it into the conference table. Bang. Cards and ashtrays scattered across the floor. Martin slumped over the table, bleeding, moaning into the surface. The room went dead silent. The other managers sat frozen, faces drained of color, not daring to breathe. “Now.” I leaned back in my chair and studied my fresh manicure. “Can we have a conversation?” “Starting today, I run Polaris Tech. Martin Beck — you’re fired. Pack your things and get out. The rest of you: I want every financial report and project status update from the past three years on my desk within thirty minutes. Anyone who can’t make that happen can follow him out the door.” I stood, walked out of the conference room, and didn’t look back. Luca released his grip and dropped Martin on the floor like a bag of trash, then fell into step behind me without rushing. Back in the executive office, thick with dust. I looked at Luca standing in the doorway like a dark sentinel. “Nice work.” “I get paid to work.” His tone was flat, like he’d just stepped on an ant. Over the next week, I tore through Polaris Tech like a storm. Every dead-weight freeloader was cut. Performance reviews were rewritten from the ground up. The people who’d been waiting to watch me fail went quiet. They finally understood — the so-called spoiled little rich girl who only knew how to shop was actually a viper. And she ate people alive. Throughout all of it, Luca never left my side. He barely spoke. Almost never initiated conversation. But he always had a glass of warm water ready when I needed it, and whenever I stayed late into the night, a hot meal would appear on my desk without a word. He functioned like a machine with no feelings — executing every instruction with perfect precision. But sometimes, in an unguarded moment, I’d catch him watching me. His gaze was deep and still, like he was looking through me at someone else — or like he was holding something back. Something that could break through at any moment. It unsettled me. I was used to having control over everything. But Luca was a variable I couldn’t calculate. He was too quiet. The kind of quiet that made your skin crawl. That afternoon, I was working through a proposal for a core AI algorithm. This was Polaris Tech’s only shot at survival. If we could win next month’s city contract bid, the company could turn everything around. But our current dev team couldn’t write the low-level code the contract required. Not even close. I pressed my fingers against my temples, frustration building to a breaking point. Then the office door opened. Luca stepped in. “Miss Lynn. Evan Carter is here.” The moment I heard that name, my expression went cold. “What does he want?” “He says he has a gift for you.” Luca stepped aside. Evan walked in wearing a tailored suit, looking every bit the part. Sophia was right behind him, their fingers laced together, the two of them practically glowing — like they’d shown up specifically to rub it in my face. I let out a short laugh and settled back into my chair. “Mr. Carter and Sophia — what a surprise. The engagement party never happened, so you two decided to honeymoon in my little dump instead?” Chapter 4 Evan Carter’s expression flickered for just a second before that sickening smile slid back into place. “Summer, you’re still upset with me. What happened that day — it was all a misunderstanding.” “A misunderstanding?” I raised an eyebrow. “When you had Sophia pinned against that glass wall, were you giving her CPR?” Sophia’s eyes went red instantly. “Summer, please don’t talk about Evan like that. It’s my fault — I couldn’t control my emotions—” “Shut up.” I cut her off, my voice ice-cold. “Nobody asked you. Put away the whole poor-little-me act. It makes me sick.” She shrank at my words, shoulders pulling in, and slipped behind Evan with a soft whimper, tears starting to fall. Evan pulled her close immediately, and the look he gave me was pure, undisguised contempt. “Summer Lynn, you used to be spoiled, sure — but at least you had some decency. When did you turn so cruel?” I almost laughed. “You two have a lot of nerve asking me that.” I wasn’t going to waste any more breath on them. “Say what you came to say and get out.” Evan drew a slow breath and pulled a document from his briefcase, slapping it onto my desk. “The city contract bid next month — it’s already been decided. Carter Tech has it locked.” He looked down at me with this smug, almost pitying satisfaction in his eyes. “I know you took over Polaris Tech to prove something to your father. But that company is a mess from the ground up. You have no shot.” “All you have to do is back down. Apologize to me. Sign over the development rights to the Lynn family property.” “Do that, and I’ll consider throwing Polaris a few scraps from the project. Enough to save face with your dad.” I stared at the document on the desk. My fingertips went cold. He wasn’t even trying to hide it. He didn’t just want to ruin me — he wanted to grind my dignity into nothing. Wanted me to crawl and beg. “Get out.” Two words. That was all. Evan’s face darkened like a storm rolling in. “Summer Lynn, don’t push your luck! You really think you’re still the spoiled little princess of the Lynn family? You’re nothing. You got thrown out like garbage!” He lunged forward, hand shooting out to grab my wrist. But he never made contact. A hand — knuckles sharp, grip like iron — clamped around his wrist and stopped him cold. Luca Hale. I hadn’t even heard him move. He was already beside me, his body squarely between me and Evan. “She told you to get out.” Luca’s voice was low. Dangerously quiet. Evan yanked hard against his grip — once, twice — and went nowhere. His face flushed with humiliation and fury. He jabbed a finger at Luca’s face. “Who the hell are you? You’re a security consultant. You don’t get to put your hands on me.” Luca didn’t bother to respond. His eyes went flat, and in one sharp motion, he twisted his wrist. A clean, brutal crack. Evan screamed and hit the floor on his knees, his wrist wrenched out of the socket. “Evan!” Sophia shrieked and threw herself toward him, face drained white. Luca looked down at the two of them with the same expression you’d give a pair of insects on the pavement. “Stay down. Next time it won’t just be the wrist.” Evan was drenched in sweat, trembling, eyes burning with hatred as he glared up at me and Luca. “Summer Lynn — you’ll regret this. I will make sure you can’t show your face in Bay City again.” He snarled the words through gritted teeth. Then, leaning on Sophia, he stumbled out of the executive office in a mess of pride and pain. Silence settled back over the room. I watched Luca. He stood there shaking out his wrist like he’d just tossed out a bag of trash. “You went too far,” I said, pressing my fingers to my temple. “The Carters aren’t going to let this go.” Luca turned and looked at me — really looked at me — his eyes sharp and burning with something I couldn’t quite name. “He was going to touch you.” Each word deliberate. “You’re paying me. I don’t let anyone touch you.” My heart skipped — just once, just slightly — and I turned away before he could see it. “There’s a dinner tonight,” I said, forcing the subject somewhere else. “You’re coming with me.” I had no choice. To get the funding that could save the company, I had to meet Harris — one of the most notoriously difficult investors in the circuit. Eight o’clock. A private room at the Bay Club. The lights were low, and the air was thick with the smell of alcohol. Harris was a bald man somewhere in his fifties. From the moment I walked through the door, his eyes had been crawling over me and not stopping. I kept my expression neutral and my glass in hand, playing the game through gritted teeth. “Miss Lynn,” he said, drawing it out, “I know Polaris Tech’s situation. The risk is just too high.” As he spoke, his hand drifted to my knee. “But then again… if you were to ask me yourself, personally, maybe we could work something out…” He leaned in closer. His breath hit my face, stale and suffocating. My stomach turned. I was just about to grab the wine bottle off the table and smash it over his head when the door to the private room was kicked wide open. The bang made everyone jump. Luca Hale stood in the doorway. The light from the room caught him—tight muscles, eyes cold as ice. He crossed the room in long strides, grabbed Harris by the hair, and dragged him straight off the couch. “What are you doing! Security! Security!” Harris shrieked at the top of his lungs. Luca didn’t bother responding. He grabbed a bottle of whiskey off the table and smashed it over Harris’s head. Glass shards, alcohol, and blood ran down Harris’s face. The entire room went dead silent. Luca tossed aside the broken glass and slowly, methodically wiped his hands with a napkin. Then he turned and looked at me. One word: “Let’s go.” His tone left no room for argument.

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Ethan Holt had never imagined that Evie Sterling would one day walk away from him. He had funded her for ten years, caged her for ten years, and convinced himself she would wait forever. For Sophia Grant, he slapped Evie, locked her up, and stripped away the last voting shares her family had left her. He trampled all over her love and still believed she would come back. Only after Lucas Grant took her into his protection, married her, and placed an empire in her hands did Ethan finally lose his mind. He wrecked his own legacy, survived a fall into the sea, and crawled back from hell like a possessive ghost, all for one purpose. To take her back. Evie only gave him one answer. “Ethan, the debt is repaid. We will never see each other again.” The world called him a madman for chasing after his lost love. Lucas Grant only held his wife closer and said with lazy contempt, “Ethan’s taste has always been terrible. Lucky for me, he let me steal the prize.” Everyone in Harbor City knew Evie Sterling was Ethan Holt’s pretty little ornament. What no one knew was that the obedient face he kept beside him had spent three years tangled in a secret affair with the man who had sponsored her since childhood. That night, Ethan returned from Wall Street after three years abroad. The first event on his schedule was a private charity cruise. In the VIP suite on the top deck, the air itself felt overheated. Evie was pinned against the glass with her wrists tied by his necktie, the city lights glittering behind her and Ethan’s cold, handsome face burning with possessive madness in front of her. “Ethan… that hurts…” He bit down at the back of her neck in answer. “Three years apart and you’ve already forgotten how to please me?” She cried quietly and let the tears fall. For three years she had lived on one sentence alone. Wait for me to come back. She had turned away every admirer and spent those years like a doll suspended on strings. When he was done, Ethan buttoned his shirt and put his mask back on. Then he lit a cigar and said, as casually as if he were discussing the weather, “Tomorrow the Holt and Grant families will formally announce the marriage alliance.” Her hands froze over the hem of her dress. “You’re getting married?” “Yes.” He looked down at her without emotion. “I’m marrying Sophia Grant. You’re marrying her brother, Lucas Grant.” The room spun. Lucas Grant. The ruthless head of the Grant family. “Why?” she whispered. “You told me to wait for you.” “I told you what I needed to tell you.” His voice turned colder. “Sophia is different. She’s clean. She can stand beside me in public. You can’t. The Holt family supported you for ten years. It’s time you repaid that debt.” Clean. That word sliced her open. So that was all she had ever been to him. A dirty little secret. She barely knew how she got out of the suite. Her dress hung crooked. The mark on her neck burned. Tears blurred her vision. At the corner of the hall, she ran straight into a broad chest that smelled faintly of cedar. She looked up and found herself face-to-face with a man in a black overcoat, tall, controlled, and dangerous in a way that did not need to be announced. His gaze dropped to the bite mark on her neck. Then his mouth curved. “Ethan’s taste,” he said softly, “is still as bad as ever.”

She knew who he was immediately. Lucas Grant. Sophia’s brother. Her future fiancé by arrangement. He studied her for a moment, then removed his coat and draped it over her shoulders. “Cover yourself,” he said. “I’d rather tomorrow’s headlines not say my fiancée showed up wearing another man’s marks.” She fled in humiliation. Back in the ballroom, the crowd had gathered around the staircase. Ethan stood there in a dark suit with Sophia on his arm. Sophia was all white silk and sweetness, the kind of beauty that looked fragile until you looked too closely. Evie stood in the shadows and tried not to look. Sophia noticed her anyway. “Ethan, that must be Evie,” she said with a smile. “You always said she was your best-behaved girl.” Ethan’s eyes dropped to Lucas’s coat over Evie’s shoulders, and his face darkened at once. “Where did you get that?” Before Evie could answer, Sophia covered her mouth and said with mock innocence, “That looks like my brother’s coat. Evie, were you with him just now?” Ethan leaned close enough that only she could hear him. “I told you to marry Lucas. I did not tell you to throw yourself at him.” Her heart dropped to the floor. He did not ask. He did not listen. He judged. So she smiled. “If you’re giving me away,” she said coolly, “wouldn’t it make sense to start pleasing my future husband early?” For the first time that night, Ethan looked shaken. Sophia saw it and smiled even more sweetly. “Come with me, Evie. Let’s talk about your wedding.” She led her out to the deck. The instant they reached a deserted corner, Sophia dropped the act. She raised her hand and showed off a huge pink diamond ring. “Ethan bought it at Sotheby’s for me,” she said. “Did you think sleeping with him for three years would make you special? You’re nothing but a bankrupt orphan he kept around.”

Evie recognized the diamond instantly. Years earlier, Ethan had sent her a picture of it from Europe and said, This stone would suit you. She had waited for months. Now it was on someone else’s hand. “Finished showing off?” Evie asked quietly. She tried to leave. Sophia grabbed her wrist. “As long as I’m here, you’ll never have a good life.” Then, with perfect timing, Sophia screamed. “Evie! What are you doing?” She let herself fall backward over the deck rail and into the heated pool below. The splash was enormous. “Sophia!” Ethan’s roar came from behind Evie. He jumped into the water, dragged Sophia out, and cradled her against him while she trembled and cried and pointed at Evie. “I only wanted to talk to her. Why would she push me?” The crowd gathered at once. Whispers spread. Ethan crossed the deck in three strides and slapped Evie so hard she hit the ground. Blood filled her mouth. “I didn’t push her,” she said, hand pressed to her swollen cheek. “She jumped.” “Shut up. Sophia can’t even swim. You think she’d risk her life just to frame you?” Ten years of attachment lost to one tear from another woman. He ordered his guards to drag her away. “Put her in the cold storage room. Let her cool off.” It was the ship’s frozen supply compartment. The metal door slammed shut behind her. The freezing air cut through her thin dress at once. Curled in the corner, shaking, she remembered something Ethan had once told her when she was ten and half-frozen in the snow. As long as I’m here, you’ll never be cold again. So vows expired too. By the time her breathing turned shallow and her consciousness started slipping, the heavy steel door exploded open. A tall silhouette stood in the flood of light beyond.

Lucas Grant walked into the freezer and found her half-conscious in the frost. His entire expression changed. He wrapped her in his coat, lifted her into his arms, and carried her out. When Holt security tried to stop him, he gave them one word. “Move.” His men raised guns. The guards backed off. “Anyone who touches my fiancée,” Lucas said, “goes overboard.” Meanwhile, upstairs, Ethan had just calmed Sophia when his assistant rushed in white-faced. “Mr. Grant broke into the freezer and took Ms. Sterling.” Ethan overturned the table so hard the glass exploded. His heart had been uneasy from the moment she was locked in there. Now he finally knew why. When Evie woke up, she was in a warm bedroom under expensive sheets with an IV in her hand. Lucas sat nearby, turning a silver lighter between his fingers. “You saved me.” “More accurately,” he said, “I saved my future wife.” He stepped closer and touched the swelling on her face with startling gentleness. “Do you see Ethan Holt clearly now? Ten years of obedience almost bought you a freezing death.” “I see him clearly now.” He bent close and lowered his voice. “Then make a deal with me. Marry me, and I’ll give you the power to crush Ethan Holt and Sophia Grant under your heel.” She looked him straight in the eyes. “All right.” That was the moment everything changed.

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My former best friend, Scarlett Vance, whom I hadn’t spoken to in ten years, suddenly sent me a friend request on Snapchat. [I was wrong back then. I shouldn’t have stolen Logan from you, and I shouldn’t have hidden your Harvard acceptance letter.] [I was out of my mind. I was just so jealous of you. You had everything, and even the guy I secretly liked was in love with you.] [I don’t know how you’re doing now, but I owe you an apology. I’m sorry.] At the same exact time, a FaceTime call request from my husband, Ethan Carter, popped up. “Scarlett has leukemia, Nora. She needs a bone marrow transplant, and you’re a match. For the sake of our five years of marriage, please help her.” Ethan pleaded with me when he got home. “I ran the tests. Only your marrow matches hers.” “Scarlett is an orphan, Nora. She doesn’t have a family like you do. You’re not just going to watch her die, are you?” I suppressed the storm of emotions swirling inside me and stared at him. “Why you? Why are you doing this too…” He gave a faint, gentle smile and casually stroked my hair. “Because Scarlett is the one I love.” “My sweet, naive girl. I’ve been cheating on you with her for three years. Did you really not notice?”

I didn’t even have time to process his words. Ethan looked at me with that familiar, doting gaze and tapped my phone screen, accepting Scarlett’s friend request on my behalf. I stared at him in disbelief. I couldn’t believe this was the man I had been married to for five years. “Do you even know what Scarlett did to me in the past?” I demanded, my voice trembling. He looked down at his phone. On his screen, a chat bubble from Scarlett lit up. A subconscious smile played on his lips. “Of course I know.” “But don’t worry, you’re still my wife.” “You’re not losing anything, Nora. Except for my love, you still have everything else.” The glass in my hand shattered on the floor. Ethan walked over, scooped me up effortlessly, and placed me on the sofa. My vision blurred as tears fell uncontrollably. “So both of you… both of my husbands… are doing this to me for her?” He knelt beside the sofa, looking up at me. He gently wiped the tears from my cheeks with his thumb. “Don’t cry. Don’t make a big deal out of a little bone marrow. You’ll recover after a few months of rest.” I slapped his hand away. He paused, then stood up, his face darkening with annoyance. “I’ll just be direct with you. Scarlett is pregnant with my baby.” “You know how desperately I’ve wanted a child.” “Scarlett’s condition is critical right now. I need you to save her.” Pregnant? My hand instinctively went to my lower stomach. Just this morning, I had sat in the bathroom for an hour, staring at the two pink lines on the pregnancy test. I had imagined a million ways to tell him. Would he be happy? Would he pick me up and spin me around? I had even booked a reservation at his favorite steakhouse for tonight. But in the end… Scarlett was pregnant with his child. I opened my mouth, but no sound came out. Scarlett sent another message: [I’m sorry, Nora. I know nothing I say can make up for it.] [But I really can’t wait anymore. Please, save my baby.] The glare of the phone screen pierced my eyes. Her message sat there silently. Ten years. I thought this name had completely vanished from my life. I shouldn’t have stolen Logan from you, and I shouldn’t have hidden your Harvard acceptance letter. I stared at those words, my fingertips shaking. That summer, with my perfect SAT score, I had only applied to Harvard. But as the summer ended, my acceptance letter never arrived. By then, only a local state college would take me. I cried for weeks, thinking I just wasn’t good enough, and ended up going to that mediocre college. My boyfriend at the time, Logan Bennett, went to the same college to comfort me. We eventually got married. But seven years later, Scarlett got pregnant with his child. I had a breakdown, got a divorce, and cut Scarlett out of my life completely. And now, history was repeating itself. Ethan continued, his voice cold. “She’s never been loved since she was a kid. I’m just doing the right thing. There’s nothing to be ashamed of.” “Nora, you’ll help her, right?” For a second, I wanted to tell him that I was pregnant too. I wanted to see his reaction. But his phone screen was still lit up, displaying a lock screen photo of him and Scarlett laughing together. I finally nodded. “Okay.” He was stunned for a moment, then smiled and patted my head. “I knew you’d agree. You’ve always been so sensible.”

Yes, I had always been sensible. So sensible that I had let Scarlett take Logan, and now, I was letting her take Ethan too. I thought I would never cross paths with them again. But fate loved to play sick jokes. When I went to the clinic to get an abortion. I ran into Logan and Ethan, both of them accompanying Scarlett for her prenatal checkup. My brain went completely numb. I instinctively took a step back. The three of them looked up at the same time and saw me. Instinctively, both men stepped in front of Scarlett, shielding her behind their backs. Seeing this, a bitter pang of grief shot through my chest. Ultimately, it was Scarlett who broke the silence. “Nora? Long time no see.” She stood up, and Logan immediately reached out to support her waist. “What are you doing here? Are you feeling sick?” she asked. I didn’t say a word. She smiled, her eyes drifting from my face down to the medical consent form crumpled in my hand. “Nora, I’ve wanted to apologize to you in person for all these years.” Her eyes welled with tears, her voice trembling. “What happened back then was all my fault. I was too young, too jealous of you. You had a good family, perfect grades—you were always the chosen one.” She paused, looking down, her eyelashes fluttering. “Do you know how it feels to watch someone else’s happiness from the gutters? I envied you so much. So when you actively tried to be my friend, I didn’t know what to feel.” She looked up, her eyes red. “I felt resentful. Why did you have everything and still get to play the savior to me? So, I wanted to take everything from you.” Ethan frowned, throwing a brief glance at the surgical form in my hand. He took off his coat and draped it over Scarlett’s shoulders. “Don’t talk about the past. Your health comes first.” She gently pushed Ethan away and stepped closer, whispering in my ear. “But things are different now.” “Nora Miller, no matter how perfect you are, you always end up abandoned.” “I’m so sorry, but I’ve stolen your husband again.” Then she stepped back, her voice laced with tears. “Nora, I’m so sorry. Please don’t blame Ethan. It’s all my fault.” I couldn’t stand her pathetic act anymore. Before I realized what I was doing, my hand pushed her shoulder. Scarlett’s body toppled backward. She clutched her stomach. “It hurts!” Logan and Ethan immediately shoved me to the floor, rushing toward Scarlett without a backward glance. I hit the hard floor, a sharp pain shooting through my wrist. “Scarlett!” “Call a doctor! Logan, go get a doctor!” Nurses rushed over with a gurney. They lifted Scarlett onto it. Ethan held her hand tightly, running alongside the gurney. Then, his leather shoes stopped right in front of me. “I warned you.” “Her body can’t handle any accidents.” He knelt down and grabbed my wrist. His grip was so tight my bones ached. “If anything happens to my baby, you’ll pay for it.” I looked up into his eyes. They were filled with absolute hatred. I couldn’t see a single trace of the man who used to love me.

Scarlett miscarried. Ethan stood against the hospital wall, his hands buried in his hair. Logan sat on the other side, his eyes bloodshot. Both of their hearts belonged to Scarlett. But I didn’t need their love anymore. My wrist was still throbbing, and my palm was scraped raw from the fall. Neither of them asked if I was okay. They just stared at me. “Are you happy now?” Ethan hissed. “She was the one who—” Before I could finish, a sharp slap stung my face. My ears rang. My head whipped to the side, the taste of blood filling my mouth. I stared at him in utter disbelief. Ethan’s hand froze in mid-air. It took him a long moment to realize what he had done. He suddenly lunged forward and hugged me tight. “Nora, I’m sorry.” Just then, Scarlett’s door opened, and she stood there watching us. Ethan pulled away, adjusting his collar as if nothing had happened. “Nora, go home and wait for me.” “I’ll explain everything once I handle things here.” He turned and walked away. Logan glared at me before following him into the room. Why did they treat me like this? Ethan, you used to love me the most. On the day I divorced Logan, a crowd of people had gathered to watch the drama. Scarlett had clung to Logan’s arm, her belly slightly showing. “Look at yourself, Nora. Do you really think you’re worthy of me?” Logan had sneered. People were filming us on their phones. I stood there, wanting to scream that they were wrong. They were the ones who cheated. But my throat locked up, and my whole body shook. Then, a hand grabbed my wrist and pulled me out of the crowd. Ethan stood in front of me, shielding me from Logan and Scarlett. He wiped my tears, his brow furrowed with pure anger toward them. “They aren’t worth your tears.” “Never cry for them again.” He hated Logan, he hated Scarlett, and he hated anyone who made me cry. He took off his suit jacket and draped it over my shoulders. It was big enough to wrap around my entire body. “Come on. I’m taking you home.” I had just miscarried back then too. It was Logan’s baby. On the day I found out he was cheating, I fell down the stairs. The baby was gone. While Logan and Scarlett were making out in front of the hospital, I was signing the surgery consent form alone in my hospital bed. No one came to pick me up when I was discharged. I sat on the hospital steps alone, scrolling through my contacts, not knowing who to call. Finally, I dialed Ethan. He was my senior in college, but we rarely spoke after graduation. The phone rang for a long time before he picked up. “Ethan.” “Can you… can you come pick me up?” He didn’t hesitate. “Where are you?” Twenty minutes later, his car pulled up. When I got in, he looked at me and said, “From now on, if anything happens, call me first.” After that, he pursued me for a year. He drove me to work every day. He took me to different restaurants every weekend. When I worked late, he would park his car downstairs and wait. “As soon as you walk out, you’ll see my headlights,” he said. “You’ll never feel alone.” “I will be your most loyal partner. I will never let you suffer.” During that time, he was there every single second. He would call me to soothe my insomnia. When Logan and Scarlett posted photos of their happily-ever-after on Instagram, Ethan took my phone and blocked them both. “Don’t look at garbage. It hurts your eyes.” So when he knelt on one knee and slid the ring onto my finger, I didn’t hesitate. I thought, maybe God didn’t entirely abandon me. Only now did I realize that our five-year marriage was a complete joke.

On the day Scarlett was discharged, Ethan came home. He sat across from me, silent for a long time before finally speaking. “Why did you push her?” “Did you do it on purpose?” He stood up, walked over, and looked down at me. “Nora, you owe me a child. You have to pay me back.” I looked at him, a dull ache spreading through my chest. “Is this the explanation you promised me?” “Fine. How do you want me to pay you back?” He reached out, gently stroking my hair. “You still have your bone marrow.” “Save Scarlett first. Once you recover…” “You can have my baby.” Whenever I was sad, he would stroke my hair like this. Now, as he did the exact same gesture, a wave of intense nausea washed over me. “Ethan, Scarlett ruined my life!” He cut me off. “It doesn’t matter. What matters is that I love her.” He paused, a faint smile actually appearing on his lips. “Do you think it was a coincidence that I showed up to rescue you five years ago?” I froze. “It wasn’t a coincidence.” “I’ve always loved Scarlett. Since college.” “But she only had eyes for Logan.” He knelt down, leveling his gaze with mine. “Do you know how long I waited?” “I waited until she was with Logan. I waited until they wrecked your marriage. I waited until she finally came to me.” “Every single day of our five years together, I was thinking of her.” He paused, as if reminiscing about something beautiful. “You thought I was saving you.” “I was just biding my time.” I bit my lip so hard it bled, but my tears kept falling. He stood up. “I’ve already arranged the bone marrow transplant with the hospital.” He walked to the door to change his shoes. “By the way.” “Don’t think about running. And don’t think about suing me.” “You know what I’m capable of.” Sitting in the darkness, I finally dialed a number. “Robert.” “Draft a divorce agreement for me.” The next day, Ethan took me to the hospital. He made me check in early for pre-op testing. He packed my hospital bag with practiced ease. But he said he wouldn’t stay with me because he had to look after Scarlett. “She’s terrified of pain. She needs someone by her side before her procedure.” My phone buzzed. A message from Scarlett. [Nora, thank you for donating your marrow to me.] [I’ll take good care of Ethan for you.] [Consider it my way of paying you back.] [To be honest, I don’t really envy you anymore. After all, everything you ever owned now belongs to me.] [Oh, I saw your surgical slip the other day. You’re pregnant, aren’t you? What a pity. You won’t be able to keep this baby.] I deleted the message. The next day, right after the bone marrow donation, I went straight to the operating room for my abortion. By the time the nurses found me, I was hemorrhaging. Emergency resuscitation. Blood transfusions. The rapid, frantic beeping of the heart monitor filled the room. Ethan was waiting outside Scarlett’s transplant room when his phone rang. It was a nurse. She told him his wife was in critical condition from a massive hemorrhage. But he just hung up, assuming it was nothing serious. When Scarlett was wheeled out of the operating room, Ethan held her hand. She was pale, her lips dry. He leaned down to kiss the back of her hand. “It’s over.” “We can finally be together.” Scarlett offered a weak smile. “Where’s Nora?” Ethan glanced at his phone. Suddenly, he stood up. “I need to make a call.” He walked to the end of the hallway and dialed the hospital’s internal line. “My wife…” “Mr. Carter,” the nurse’s voice was frantic. “Your wife is in the ICU. She’s not out of danger yet.” “She went straight to get an abortion right after donating her marrow! She is in extreme danger right now!”

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Scrolling through Instagram before bed, I saw a viral post on my feed: “How did you get revenge on that toxic female boss at your office?” The top anonymous answer was incredibly arrogant: [I stole her fiancé! Who told her to be such a bitter, micromanaging bitch at work every day?] [I just pretended to pass out from low blood sugar right in front of his car when he came to pick her up from work. He completely fell for me right then and there.] [Later, I resigned, telling everyone I was moving back to my hometown in the Midwest to get married. In reality, I’m currently living in the luxury penthouse he bought me in New York, trying for a baby.] [She’s still sending out digital invitations in our group chat for their wedding next month. Lmao, she has no idea that I have his primary bank card.] [Love doesn’t care who got there first. The one who isn’t loved is the real interloper.] At the bottom of the post was a photo of a man’s back as he cooked in a kitchen. But the tiny, mended sunflower embroidery on the hem of his jacket caught my eye instantly. That was Carter, my fiancé of seven years. The man I was supposed to sign our marriage papers with next month.

I stared blankly at the slightly crooked sunflower embroidery on the screen. In that single second, it felt like all the blood in my body was rushing backward. My fingertips went completely numb. I embroidered that sunflower myself. It was an anniversary gift I bought him last year. Somehow, he got a small tear in it. I told him I’d just buy him a new one, but he insisted this one was too sentimental. He begged me to mend it for him. Back then, looking at the flower I sewed on, his eyes were full of happiness. He hugged me tightly and said, “Now the whole world knows I have the most caring wife.” But now, wearing that very jacket—the one he claimed meant the world to him—he was standing in another woman’s kitchen. Cooking for her. I forced myself to look away from that burning sunflower and re-read the anonymous post. [Pretended to pass out in front of his car.] [Resigned to go back to her hometown to get married.] [Still sending out digital invitations in the group chat.] These shattered pieces of information quickly formed a face in my mind—Amber. I clicked on the anonymous poster’s profile. Although her main page was set to private, I could still see her recently liked posts. They were all baby strollers, maternity clothes, and reviews of a luxury high-rise building in downtown Manhattan. Amber. Carter. Wow. You two are truly something else. The next morning, sitting in my private office, I pulled up Amber’s HR file from before she resigned. Looking at the girl smiling so innocently in her ID photo, the corner of my mouth twitched. When Amber interviewed, she seemed extremely sharp. The CEO was thrilled and specifically asked me, the top sales director, to mentor her personally. But after she joined, while she was great at sweet-talking clients, her actual deliverables were an absolute joke. She used AI to generate her proposals, forcing the entire team to pull all-nighters to fix her mess. Once, she almost cost the company a million-dollar deal because she didn’t bother to double-check the contract clauses. Yet, because she was incredibly skilled at playing the victim and kissing up to the executives, she never got punished. Instead, my entire sales team had to take the fall for her mistakes. I used to think she had potential, just lacked discipline. So, I was very strict with her. I wanted to curb her vanity and greed, hoping she would ground herself and eventually build a real career in this cutthroat industry. I even shared my years of compiled client resources, pitch decks, and industry secrets with her without holding anything back. I wanted her to take fewer detours and stand on her own two feet. As it turned out, she hadn’t changed at all. She just channeled all her resentment into a twisted plot against me. When a person’s mind is rotten, you can’t straighten it. Everything I invested in her was a complete waste of time. To her, Carter wasn’t just a tool to get back at me; he was her shortcut to an easy life. I closed my eyes, and a rainy day from six months ago flashed in my mind. That day, Carter drove to the office to pick me up. Amber happened to be walking down the stairs right behind me. Just as Carter’s car pulled up to the curb, Amber’s body suddenly went limp, and she collapsed right in front of his hood. Carter was terrified. He jumped out of the car immediately to check on her. Amber leaned weakly against Carter’s arm, her pale little face looking up. “I’m so sorry, Stella… I stayed up all night to finish that report you wanted. I skipped lunch and my blood sugar crashed…” My mind was completely on work back then. Seeing her looking so pitiful, I told Carter to drive her to the ER while I took an Uber home. Now that I think about it, that wasn’t low blood sugar. That was a meticulously calculated trap! And from that day on, Carter began asking about Amber constantly, saying things like, “It’s not easy for a young girl to make it in the city alone.” I thought he was just being compassionate. As it turns out, a man’s compassion is just a free pass for him to cheat.

I let out a cold laugh, opened my laptop, and logged into my joint account with Carter. This was the account we set up to save for our future house. I put in $2,000 every month, and Carter was supposed to put in $1,500. The balance was completely intact. But in her post, Amber clearly wrote: [I have his primary bank card.] Then it hit me. Besides his base salary, Carter received a massive quarterly bonus and commission check. Six months ago, he came home looking miserable, telling me his company was struggling and all bonuses were delayed or canceled. To ease his financial stress, I paid for almost all our dates, the new furniture, and the wedding venue deposits over the past six months. I picked up my phone and texted a contact who worked in finance at Carter’s company. Ten minutes later, she replied: [Stella, Carter’s department has been absolutely crushing it these past two quarters. Not only were their bonuses not cut, but his payout doubled last month. It was deposited directly into his personal account ending in 8892.] Reading the text, I laughed out of pure anger. Using my money to pay for our wedding, while using his own bonuses to buy a luxury penthouse for his pregnant mistress? Carter, you really are a piece of work. In the afternoon, I requested a half-day off from the boss. Based on the luxury building reviews Amber liked and the corner of the river view she occasionally showed off on her private Instagram, it took me less than two hours to pinpoint her exact location—Waterfront Place, one of the most expensive luxury complexes in the city. I parked my car in a shaded spot across the street, put on my sunglasses, and quietly watched the building’s driveway. I didn’t call Carter to confront him, nor did I start a screaming match on Snapchat. Before securing the evidence that could destroy them completely, throwing a tantrum is just a rookie mistake that tips them off. At 4:30 PM. A familiar black Audi slowly rolled out of the parking garage. It was Carter’s car. I knew the license plate by heart. I immediately started my engine and trailed him from a safe distance. The Audi made a few turns and finally pulled into the underground garage of a high-end private maternity hospital downtown. I sat in my car, watching Carter step out of the driver’s seat. He was wearing a high-quality designer blazer today, his hair styled to perfection. He walked briskly to the passenger side, gently pulled the door open, and even placed his hand over the roof to shield her head. Then, a foot in a flat designer shoe stepped out. Amber. She was wearing a loose maternity dress under a knit cardigan. Her once-slender waist now had a very prominent bump. Looking at the size, she was at least four months pregnant. Carter immediately wrapped his arm around her waist. Amber leaned naturally into his chest, looking up at him with a sweet, sugary smile. Carter bent down and planted an incredibly tender kiss on her forehead. Watching this scene, I felt my heart tighten as if gripped by an invisible fist. Every breath I took tasted like iron. Four months. Four months ago, Carter was down on one knee proposing to me, exchanging engagement rings in front of all our family and friends. During the day, he knelt before me and promised, “Stella, I will protect you with my life.” At night, he climbed into Amber’s bed, planting the seeds of their so-called “true love.” I raised my phone, adjusted the zoom, and perfectly recorded the footage of them hugging, kissing, and her very visible baby bump. Memories of our past conversations flooded my mind. I was highly career-oriented and in a crucial period for a promotion. I had clearly stated that I wouldn’t consider having kids for at least five years. Carter had held my hand back then, his eyes full of understanding: “Stella, I love you for who you are, not to turn you into a baby machine. Go chase your career. I’ll be your strongest supporter.” It wasn’t understanding. It was just that the traditional, submissive wife-and-child fantasy he actually wanted was already being fulfilled by Amber. He wanted me, the glamorous, high-earning sales director fiancée, to boost his social status and split his financial burdens. At the same time, he wanted Amber—a girl who worshipped him, depended on him, and was willing to get pregnant—to feed his fragile male ego. I watched them walk cold-faced into the elevator lobby. I pushed my car door open and followed them.

The VIP waiting area of the private hospital was quiet and luxurious. Wearing a face mask and a designer bucket hat, I sat on a sofa a few yards behind them, using a luxury parenting magazine as cover. “Carter, the baby kicked me again today.” Amber leaned against Carter’s shoulder, pulling his hand onto her belly. Her voice was pure honey. “Do you think it’s a boy or a girl?” Carter’s eyes were filled with the soft glow of a doting father. “I’ll love whatever it is. As long as you’re the one giving birth, it’s my treasure.” “But… what about Stella?” Amber suddenly sighed, her tone dripping with mock guilt and sadness. “Your wedding is next month. The invitations are already out in the office group chat. It hurts so much to see it. Carter, maybe I should just leave. I don’t want to be the home-wrecking mistress…” As she spoke, her eyes welled up with tears on cue. “Don’t talk like that!” Carter immediately pulled her into a tight, protective hug. He lowered his voice, but a hint of irritation slipped through: “Stella and I have been together for seven years. The spark died a long time ago. All she cares about are KPIs and promotions. She’s as aggressive as a man. Being with her suffocates me every single day.” “Amber, only when I’m with you do I feel like a real man who is needed.” Carter stroked Amber’s hair, making a grand promise: “Don’t worry. You’re carrying my family’s first grandchild. My mother has been complaining about Stella refusing to have kids for years anyway. I’ll find a time to break up with her in the next few days. The wedding is off. That penthouse is my gift to you, and all my paychecks will go to you from now on.” “Really? Carter, you’re the best!” Amber smiled through her tears and planted a loud kiss on Carter’s cheek. Sitting behind them, listening to this jaw-dropping confession of “true love,” I almost laughed out loud. Years ago, when his startup failed and he was $500,000 in debt, I was the one who ate expired bread with him for a year. I was the one who drank with clients day and night until I got a stomach ulcer just to help him clear his debt. Why didn’t he complain that I was “too aggressive” back then? Now that he’s successful, he looks down on me for being “too masculine”? I set the magazine down, stood up, and walked toward them. The sharp click of my designer heels echoed loudly in the quiet waiting area. Carter was busy peeling an orange for Amber. Hearing the footsteps, he subconsciously looked up. The moment he realized who was standing in front of him, the orange in his hand slipped, hitting the floor and rolling far away. “St… Stella?”

Amber followed his gaze. The second her eyes met mine, she flinched in terror, wrapping both hands tightly around her stomach as if she had just seen a ghost. I looked down at the pathetic couple. I didn’t scream like a hysterical housewife, nor did I throw a tantrum. I simply pulled off my face mask slowly, letting a cold, mocking smile spread across my face. “What a coincidence, Carter.” My eyes swept over Amber’s swollen stomach, my voice deadly calm. “Taking my former intern for her prenatal checkup? Tell me, should we reserve the VIP table for her baby at our wedding next month?” The waiting area fell into a tomb-like silence. Carter bolted upright so fast he knocked his chair backward. He instinctively reached out to grab my hand, but froze mid-air when he saw the icy glare in my eyes. “Stella… let me explain. It’s not what you think…” Carter’s voice was dry, as if he had swallowed a handful of sand. His handsome, usually confident face was now pale with sheer panic. “Not what I think? Then what is it?” I chuckled softly, my gaze slowly drifting over his old jacket with the sunflower embroidery. “Is it her passing out in front of your car and magically landing in your bed? Or is it you wearing the jacket I mended while cooking her organic meals in your luxury penthouse?” Hearing this, Carter’s face turned completely white. He stared at me in disbelief. He clearly didn’t expect me to know about the penthouse. Seeing this, Amber’s eyes watered instantly. She stood up, holding her lower back. She looked at me with a fragile, weeping expression. “Stella, please don’t blame Carter. It’s all my fault. I couldn’t help falling in love with him. I know I don’t deserve him. I’ll leave right now. I promise I won’t get in the way of your wedding…” As she spoke, she took a delicate step forward, feigning dizziness, and fell perfectly into Carter’s arms. “Amber! Watch the baby!” Carter caught her instinctively, then looked up at me with a flash of anger. “Stella! If you have a problem, take it out on me! Amber is pregnant, stop attacking her with your passive-aggressive remarks!” Looking at the tragic star-crossed lovers before me, I felt nothing but pure disgust. “Take it out on you? You think you’re worth my time?” I took a step back, as if avoiding some filthy disease, and looked coldly at Amber. “Your anonymous Reddit post was beautifully written. ‘The one who isn’t loved is the real interloper,’ right?” Amber’s face instantly froze. She forgot to fake-cry, her eyes widening in pure horror. “Since you’re so brave in chasing your true love, I’ll happily make it happen for you.” I pulled a piece of paper from my Chanel bag—a printout of our joint bank account statements I had printed in the car—and slapped it directly across Carter’s face. The sharp edge of the paper grazed his cheek before fluttering to the floor. “Carter, consider these seven years a very expensive lesson for me. It’s like I threw my money to a stray dog.” I stared at him, pronouncing every word with deadly precision. “The wedding is off. My lawyer will contact you tomorrow morning at nine. Every single dollar that belongs to me, you will return. And the debt you owe me, you will pay back with interest. I will strip you clean.” Without waiting for Carter’s desperate cries behind me, or looking at Amber’s horrified, pale face, I turned around. With my spine perfectly straight, I walked out of the hospital on my high heels, never looking back.

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The bulldozer crushed the sign above the boxing gym before I had even finished unwrapping the white hand wraps from my fists. Dust filled the air, burning my eyes as the last thing my father had left me was reduced to rubble. Julian Vance stood beneath a black umbrella beside his Maybach, his tailored suit immaculate. “Keep tearing it down,” he said. “Sienna wants to build a ballet studio here. This dump of a boxing gym doesn’t suit her.” I rushed toward him, only to be stopped by his bodyguards. “You promised me before we got married—” “It was nothing more than a business marriage,” he cut in, his voice as cold as ice. “Did you really think you were my wife?” I collapsed onto the muddy ground. In my previous life, he had died in the cage trying to save me. Blood had poured from his mouth as he begged with his dying breath, “Valerie… if there’s another life, please look back at me.” But in this life, he forced me to serve as his mistress’s bodyguard. He made me kneel in the rain, picking up the championship boxing gloves she had tossed onto the ground. “Julian Vance…” I stared at his retreating figure, my voice trembling. “Were you… reborn too?” He turned around, looking at me as though I had lost my mind. “Reborn? What the hell are you talking about? Did boxing scramble your brain?” I slowly closed my eyes. Blood seeped from where my fingernails had dug into my palms. He hadn’t been reborn. He simply… didn’t love me anymore.

Valerie POV The deafening roar of the bulldozers shook the ground. Dust billowed into the air, blotting out half the sky and making my throat burn with every breath. My hands were still wrapped in white boxing tape. I stared, heartbroken, at the shattered sign lying in the dirt. Titan Muay Thai Gym. This place was my father’s final legacy. It was where I grew up. Every wooden plank, every heavy sandbag, was soaked with my sweat and tears from countless days and nights. And now, it was being ruthlessly torn to pieces. Julian Vance stood by his black Maybach, holding a long-handled black umbrella. He looked tall, sharp, and cold in his bespoke black suit. It was as if the building collapsing before him wasn’t his wife’s entire life, but just a pile of worthless garbage. “Keep digging,” Julian’s voice was completely devoid of warmth, cutting through the mechanical roar straight into my ears. “I want this lot completely cleared before sunset.” “Julian!” I screamed, lunging forward with bloodshot eyes. Two burly security guards in black suits instantly blocked me, pinning me down. “Are you insane?! This is my father’s gym! You promised me before we married that you would protect it forever!” Julian tilted his head slightly. His deep, cold eyes swept over my trembling, tear-streaked face. A mocking sneer touched his lips. “Sienna likes this location. She wants to build a private ballet studio here. A sweaty, violent gym is an eyesore. It doesn’t suit her elegance.” The words hit me like a physical blow. The blood drained from my face, and my hands went completely numb. Sienna Pierce. The mistress he kept hidden away. The woman who pretended to be too weak to open a water bottle, yet could effortlessly steal everything I owned. “Just for her?” My voice cracked, shaking violently. I clenched my fists so hard my nails dug into my palms, drawing blood. “Julian, we are married! You’re destroying my father’s legacy for some girl on the side?” “This is just a marriage of convenience,” Julian interrupted, his tone dripping with impatience. “Did you actually start believing you’re my real wife? Why would I let your father’s junk get in the way of making the woman I love happy?” I collapsed onto the muddy ground. I stared at the man who used to hold me whenever I frowned. Now, my tears finally fell. “Julian, you used to love me so much. Why? Why did you stop?” Julian paused for a fraction of a second. He didn’t turn around, only letting out a cold laugh. “When did I ever love you?” Never loved me? How is that possible? In my past life, I was blind. I ignored Julian’s deep love and fell for Luke Sterling, a guy I grew up with. I resisted my marriage to Julian, treated him with cold silence, and even threw fights on purpose just to humiliate him. In the end, I fell for Luke’s lies and ran away with him. But Luke never loved me. He used me to destroy Julian. He dragged me to Mexico, throwing me into a underground death-match cage, using my life to force Julian to show up. That day, Julian, a man so proud he couldn’t stand a single wrinkle on his suit, walked into that bloody cage just to save my life. He didn’t even fight back. He let those ruthless killers break his bones and tear him apart. Before he died, with a mouth full of blood, he kissed my hand through the iron mesh. His eyes were filled with desperate love. “Valerie… in the next life… will you please look at me?” Then, I woke up. I had reborn. I came back to the first year of our marriage. I was ecstatic. I blocked Luke on everything, quit the dangerous underground fight circuits, and tried my best to be a good housewife. My entire world revolved around Julian. I swore to give him all the love I owed him. But he had changed. He stopped coming home. He was cold, cruel, and openly paraded Sienna around town. Now, he was tearing down my gym for her. Staring at the ruins of my gym, a wild, terrifying thought suddenly crossed my mind. “Julian,” I stared intensely at his back, my voice trembling. “Did you regress too?” Julian’s shoulders stiffened for a split second. He turned around, looking at me like I was a lunatic. “Regress? Valerie, did you take too many hits to the head in the ring?” His mask was perfect. Not a single eyelash flickered. I let out a bitter laugh and closed my eyes. Right. If he had kept the memories of his past life, how could he ever treat me like this? The truth was simple. He just didn’t love me anymore. Fine. If he wanted to let go, so would I.

Valerie POV I don’t even remember how I walked back to the penthouse. When I pushed the door open, the massive living room was empty and freezing cold. I didn’t bother changing my muddy clothes. I went straight up to the master bedroom on the second floor, pulled my suitcase out of the closet, and started packing. Honestly, there wasn’t much to take. Over the past year, I had bought expensive dresses and jewelry just to please him. I left all of them behind. I only packed a few of my usual athletic sets and my training gear. Once I finished, I sat at the desk, pulled out a blank sheet of paper, and slowly wrote out a divorce agreement. I wanted nothing. I would walk away with zero assets. I only wanted my freedom. The scratch of the pen on the paper sounded incredibly loud in the silent room, echoing the sound of my heart ripping apart. Suddenly, a high-pitched, giggling voice came from the hallway. Julian walked in, his arm wrapped around Sienna. She was wearing a pristine white dress, looking like a fragile doll. The moment she saw me standing by the stairs, she flinched like a scared rabbit, burying herself in Julian’s chest. “Julian, Valerie’s hands are covered in scars, and she’s glaring at me. Is she going to hit me? I’m so scared.” Sienna whimpered, clutching his sleeve. Julian immediately shielded her behind him, glaring up at me with a deep frown. “What are you doing up here? Starting today, you move to the maid’s quarters on the first floor. Stay out of Sienna’s sight. You’re scaring her.” My knuckles turned white as I gripped the banister. The actual Mrs. Vance, kicked out of her own room and sent to live in the maid’s quarters. How pathetic. I didn’t scream or fight like I used to. I simply walked downstairs and handed him the paper. “Sign it.” Julian glanced at the title, Divorce Agreement. A flash of dark anger crossed his eyes, but he quickly covered it with a sneer. “Playing hard to get? Valerie, do you think this pathetic stunt will get my attention? Fine. You want it, you got it.” Without even reading the terms, he grabbed the pen and violently scribbled his signature. Sienna stared at the paper, a look of pure triumph flashing in her eyes. She scanned the living room, and her gaze landed on the glass display case by the wall. Inside was my national championship belt and my red boxing gloves from when I won the tournament at eighteen. “Julian, those gloves look so old and dirty,” Sienna complained, holding her nose with a look of disgust. “They probably smell like sweat. It completely ruins the vibe of this beautiful room.” Julian didn’t even blink. He casually looked at the maid. “Throw them out.” “Julian!” I gasped, staring at him in disbelief. “Those are my championship gloves! They were an eighteen birthday gift from my dad!” “Throw them out,” he repeated, his voice cold and cutting. The maid didn’t dare argue. She quickly opened the case, grabbed the gloves that held all my youth and glory, and threw them out the front door into the pouring rain. “No!” I lost my mind. I sprinted out into the storm, desperate, clawing through the mud on the lawn. The freezing rain drenched me to the bone. In our past life, I had tossed these gloves into a dusty corner. But Julian had picked them up, custom-ordered a temperature-controlled glass case for them, and wiped them down himself every single day. He had told me, “My Valerie is a queen. I will guard your glory forever.” But now, he was the one throwing my glory into the trash. I finally found the mud-soaked gloves, hugging them tightly against my chest as I sobbed on my knees in the rain. Inside the warm house, through the massive glass windows, Julian was gently drying Sienna’s hair with a towel. He didn’t give me a single glance.

Valerie POV After standing in the rain all night, I woke up with a fever of a hundred and four degrees. The next morning, dragging my heavy body, I went to the hospital alone. As I sat on the plastic chairs in the hallway waiting for my name to be called, I saw Julian coming from the other end, gently carrying Sienna in his arms. Sienna clung to him with tears in her eyes, looking incredibly pitiful. All because she had a tiny blister on her heel from wearing new heels. Julian looked up and caught sight of me. When he saw my deathly pale face, his brows knitted into a tight knot. “Are you stalking us now? Valerie, can you get any more pathetic?” My head was spinning from the fever, and I didn’t even have the energy to argue. I just gave him a dead, cold look and walked into the doctor’s office. The doctor looked at my MRI scan and sighed heavily. “Valerie, the old injury in your left shoulder has worsened severely due to the cold and stress. If you don’t rest immediately, you won’t just lose the ability to fight. You will struggle to even lift groceries. Your career in the ring is over.” I nodded numbly. I didn’t care anymore. I had already lost my ring. The moment I stepped out of the office, Julian blocked my path. He glanced at the prescription in my hand, his eyes flickering for a second, but his face quickly turned cold again. “Since you have so much free time to follow me to the hospital, do something useful,” he commanded. “Sienna is attending a high-end jewelry gala tonight. You’re going to be her personal bodyguard.” I let out a dry, raspy laugh. “Julian, I am legally your wife, and you want me to be a bodyguard for your mistress? What do you take me for?” “You want to say no?” Julian took a step forward, his tall frame towering over me with immense pressure. His voice was laced with ice. “Your old coach is on life support in the ICU. It costs three thousand dollars a day. What do you think happens if I stop paying his medical bills today? Will he survive the night?” My heart stopped. I stared at him, horrified. My coach had ended up in a vegetative state after a car accident while trying to save me. In our past life, Julian had treated my coach like his own father, flying in the best neurosurgeons from around the world to treat him. “You’re using my coach’s life to black-mail me?” My voice shook violently. “Are you doing the job or not?” Julian’s eyes were completely emotionless. I bit my lip so hard I tasted copper. Finally, I closed my eyes and forced out a single word. “Yes.” The gala was incredibly lavish. I wore a cheap black suit, standing behind Sienna like an invisible shadow, my face expressionless. The whispers from the crowd cut through the air like knives: “Isn’t that Julian Vance’s wife? Why is she acting like a bodyguard for his mistress?” “I heard Julian doesn’t care about her at all. She’s just a classless street fighter anyway. She doesn’t have Sienna’s elegance.” Julian bid ten million dollars without even blinking to win a pink diamond necklace called “The Heart of the Ocean” for Sienna. Sienna wore it like a proud peacock, parading through the crowd to show off. Suddenly, chaos erupted! A crazed hater surged from the crowd, holding a bottle of clear liquid, his face twisted in rage as he lunged straight at Sienna! “Go to hell, you homewrecker!” “Ahhh!” Sienna screamed, her face pale with terror. My fighter instincts kicked in faster than my brain. I bolted forward, executing a flawless, powerful front kick that sent the man flying back. The bottle smashed onto the marble floor, hissing and bubbling. It was highly concentrated acid! The danger was averted, and the room gasped in shock. But as Sienna fell backward, she purposely tripped herself, landing on a piece of broken glass. A tiny cut appeared on her palm. “It hurts. Julian, it hurts so much.” she sobbed hysterically. Julian pushed through the crowd like a madman, shoving me out of the way so hard I hit the wall. He gathered Sienna in his arms. Once he saw she only had a scratch, he whipped his head around to glare at me, his eyes filled with pure rage. “Did you do that on purpose?!” I froze, staring at him in shock. “I just saved her life.” “You could have stopped him sooner! You were jealous of her, so you hesitated on purpose to let her get hurt!” Julian hissed, pointing at the shattered glass on the floor. His voice was cold as death. “Apologize to Sienna. Now.” The entire room went dead silent. Everyone watched us, waiting for the drama. Forcing a proud national champion to publicly apologize to a mistress? This was worse than killing me. I stood tall, my eyes red, stubbornly staring back at him. “I did nothing wrong.” “No apology?” Julian sneered, pulling out his phone. “Fine. I’ll call the hospital to pull the plug on your coach right now.” “No!” I broke. Under the mocking, disgusted stares of New York’s elite, I slowly bent my spine, the spine that had never bent for anyone in the ring. I bowed deeply to Sienna. “I’m sorry.” In that moment, I felt my dignity shatter into dust, never to be pieced back together.

Valerie POV Back at the penthouse, Sienna was still crying in Julian’s arms. “Julian, every time I close my eyes, I see that psycho with the acid… I’m so scared. I won’t be able to sleep tonight,” she whimpered, clutching his shirt. But over his shoulder, I saw the wicked, triumphant smirk on her face. Julian kissed her forehead gently, his voice incredibly soft. “Don’t worry, baby. I’m here. No one will ever hurt you.” Sienna peeked at me as I stood soaking wet by the door. “But… I still feel unsafe. Can Valerie guard my door tonight? She’s a champion. If she’s standing guard outside, I’ll feel safe enough to sleep.” Without a second thought, Julian turned to me, his eyes icy. “You heard her. Go stand guard outside her door.” My left shoulder felt like it was being pierced by a thousand needles. The fever made my vision blur, and cold sweat drenched my suit jacket. “Julian, I have a high fever, and my shoulder injury is flaring up. The doctor said I can’t stand for long…” I pleaded, clinging to one last shred of hope. “Stop acting,” Julian snapped, disgust written all over his face. “Standing for one night won’t kill you. If Sienna doesn’t sleep well tonight, you will pay for it.” The door slammed shut in my face, locking me out in the cold hallway. I slid down against the freezing wall. Listening to Julian’s soft, comforting voice inside the room, my tears fell silently. In our past life, I had sprained my ankle during a match. Julian’s eyes had gone red with worry. He had canceled a billion-dollar merger meeting, stayed awake for three days and nights, and read medical books just to learn how to massage my ankle. He had told me, “Valerie, when you hurt, my heart bleeds. You are never allowed to get hurt again, okay?” But now, he made me stand outside like a dog, guarding his mistress with a broken shoulder. I stood there the entire night. My legs went completely numb, and the agony in my shoulder almost made me pass out several times, but I bit my lip and forced myself to endure. At dawn, the door finally opened. Julian walked out. Seeing me collapsed on the floor, pale as a ghost and barely breathing, he spoke with absolute indifference. “Get up and stop acting pathetic. Go make breakfast.” He stepped right over my body and walked downstairs without looking back. A video of me apologizing to Sienna had been maliciously edited and leaked onto Instagram and TikTok, instantly trending. I only found out later that my gym friend, Felix, had seen the video. His temper flared, and he drove straight to the Vance Group’s underground parking garage, cornering Julian as he got out of his car. “Julian, you absolute piece of garbage! Valerie is a champion! How dare you humiliate her like that!” Felix threw a brutal punch, cracking Julian right across the jaw and drawing blood. But Felix was outnumbered. Within seconds, a dozen trained security guards pinned him to the concrete floor. Julian wiped the blood from his mouth, a dark, murderous look in his eyes. “Call the police. Press charges for assault. I want him to rot in prison. He will never fight in a ring again.” When I got the news, I didn’t even put on shoes. I ran like crazy to the Vance Group headquarters and burst into Julian’s office. Staring at the powerful man sitting on his leather sofa, I bowed my head. My voice was filled with desperate pleading. “Julian, it was all my fault. Felix is only twenty. He has a shot at the world championships. Please, drop the charges.” Julian spun his wedding ring around his finger, looking at me with a cruel smirk. “Drop them? Sure. But Sienna was terrified by his violence. You need to show some sincerity to make it up to her.” “What do you want?” “Do a live stream and announce your permanent retirement from fighting,” Julian said, his eyes locking onto mine with absolute malice. “And then, in front of everyone on camera, cut your championship belt into pieces.” I whipped my head up, staring at him in sheer disbelief. The championship belt was the honor I had fought for with my life. It was my father’s proudest achievement before he died! He wanted to completely crush my soul! “Julian, just kill me instead…” I shook violently, tears streaming down my face. “Don’t want to? Fine. Then go visit Felix in prison.” Ten minutes later, I started the live stream. In front of hundreds of thousands of shocked fans, my face completely blank with despair, I picked up the heavy shears. Snip. Snip. The golden belt fell apart in pieces, and along with it, the last spark of life inside me died.

Valerie POV The divorce was set to be finalized in three days. I had already booked one-way tickets to Costa Rica. I was going to take my coach and Felix with me, leaving this toxic city forever. Before leaving, Julian’s grandfather, Arthur Vance, who had always loved me, called. He asked me to come to the family estate to say goodbye. Arthur was the only Vance who had ever been kind to me, so I couldn’t say no. But I didn’t expect Sienna to secretly follow me there. While I was in the kitchen brewing tea for Arthur, a sudden shriek echoed from the grand staircase. “Ahhh!” I ran out, only to see Arthur tumbling down the stairs, his head bleeding as he fell unconscious on the marble floor. Sienna was sitting on the steps above, crying hysterically and shaking like a leaf. Julian rushed into the foyer. Seeing his grandfather bleeding on the floor, he screamed, “Grandpa!” Sienna immediately threw herself into his arms, pointing at me while sobbing. “Julian! Valerie was angry because Grandpa praised me. She used her Muay Thai roundhouse kick to shove him down the stairs! I tried to stop her, but I couldn’t…” “I didn’t do it!” I gasped, shocked. “She pushed him! I didn’t even touch him!” “Shut up!” Julian’s eyes were bloodshot. He slammed his fist against the wall next to me, his knuckles split and bleeding. “Valerie, you can hate me all you want, but Grandpa was always good to you! How could you do this to an old man? You are a monster!” He grabbed my collar like I was a dead dog and dragged me down to the basement of the estate. My father’s ashes were temporarily stored there in a wooden urn. “A toxic woman like you deserves to be punished!” Julian grabbed a heavy metal hammer from a toolbox in the corner and marched toward my father’s urn. My pupils dilated. I threw myself at his feet, wrapping my arms around his legs. “Julian! No! Hit me, sue me, do whatever you want to me, but please don’t touch my dad’s urn! I beg you!” “Get off me!” Julian kicked me away, raised the hammer high, and brought it down hard! Smash! Wood splinters flew everywhere. The urn shattered, and the grey ashes spilled across the concrete floor. “Dad!” I let out a blood-curdling scream. The sheer shock and grief caused a wave of nausea, and I spat out a mouthful of blood before collapsing onto the shattered remains of my father’s urn, passing out completely. Because of a blind spot in the security cameras by the staircase, the police couldn’t find definitive proof that I had pushed Arthur. They had to release me after forty-eight hours. Arthur was now in a coma, kept alive only by machines. Julian was waiting outside the police station. Seeing my pale, exhausted state, a flicker of complicated emotion crossed his eyes, but it was quickly replaced by cold hostility. He threw three plane tickets in my face. The destination was a dangerous, war-torn country in the Middle East. “Take your vegetable coach and your little friend Felix and get out of the country,” Julian said coldly, looking at me like I was already dead. “Don’t come back until you’ve learned how to be human.” I didn’t argue. I didn’t cry. I silently knelt down, picked up the tickets one by one, and wiped the dirt off them. “Okay,” I whispered, my voice as light as a breeze. Seeing how compliant I was, Julian turned and walked away. At the airport. Without a second thought, I tossed Julian’s three tickets into the trash can. I pulled out the tickets to Costa Rica that I had bought days ago. I handed the signed divorce papers to Felix and touched his head. “Let’s go. Let’s go home.” As the plane took off and soared into the sky, I looked at the thick clouds outside the window and closed my eyes. Julian, in this life, I have paid back everything I owed you. Goodbye forever.

Julian POV In the VIP room of St. Jude’s Hospital in New York. I was sitting by Sienna’s bedside, peeling an apple for her, when the TV on the wall suddenly broke into a breaking news broadcast: “We have breaking news. Flight MU789, bound for the Middle East from JFK, crashed into the Atlantic Ocean forty minutes after takeoff due to extreme weather. All 150 passengers and crew members on board are confirmed dead…” Drop. The apple slipped from my hand. The sharp knife sliced across my finger, and blood began to pour, but I didn’t feel a thing. Flight MU789… That was the exact flight I had booked for Valerie! “All confirmed dead…” I stared blankly at the cold numbers on the screen. My brain exploded, and the blood in my veins completely froze. Drip, drip… Blood dripped from my finger onto the white floor tiles, but I felt absolutely no pain. “All confirmed dead…” The words replayed in my mind like a rusty saw cutting through my skull. I stood up abruptly, but my legs gave out, and I fell hard to my knees. “No, it’s not possible!” I scrambled back to my feet like a lunatic. Ignoring my coat, I stumbled out of the room. Sienna gasped in shock, grabbing my sleeve. “Julian, where are you going? My hand is still hurting…” “Get off me!” I yelled with bloodshot eyes, shoving her away so hard she tumbled onto the floor. I didn’t even look back as I bolted toward the parking garage. I pushed my Maybach to its absolute limit on the highway, running dozens of red lights. The tires screeched violently as I slammed on the brakes in front of the airline’s headquarters. I stormed into the lobby, grabbing the manager by his collar. My voice was raspy, like sandpaper. “Give me the passenger manifest for Flight MU789! Now!” The manager trembled violently, pulling up the system. “M-Mr. Vance… Valerie Miller, her coach, and Felix… they are all on the list. They all boarded the plane…” Boom. The last string of sanity in my mind snapped. My hands lost all strength, and I stumbled back, my tall frame shaking violently. It was me. I was the one who bought those tickets. I was the one who threw them in her face. I was the one who forced her onto that death flight! “Julian, in this life, I have paid back everything I owed you.” Valerie’s calm, dead eyes before she left flashed in my mind. She hadn’t cried. She hadn’t fought back. Because she had already decided to die! “Valerie…” I clutched my chest. My heart felt like it was being squeezed by an invisible hand, making it impossible to breathe. I bent over, letting out a desperate, guttural scream. “Ahhh!” That night, I deployed all of the Vance family’s private jets and rescue teams to search the crash site. For two solid weeks. I searched the debris-filled ocean like a madman, refusing to sleep. I watched as bloated, unrecognizable bodies were pulled from the water. Every time they pulled back a white sheet, my soul died a little more. But Valerie was never found. The rescue captain sighed, walking up to me. My eyes were sunken, and my face was covered in rough stubble. “Mr. Vance, let it go. With an explosion of that magnitude, most of them were… vaporized. There wouldn’t even be ashes left.” Vaporized. Not even ashes left. My body went rigid, and I collapsed onto the deck.

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After my daughter died, I finally became exactly what Alpha James Sterling wanted me to be. He kissed his human adoptive sister. I acted like I didn’t see a thing. He slept with her. I was even willing to buy them condoms. Everyone in the pack praised me for being mature and generous. James finally let his guard down around me. But I used that exact moment to escape, fleeing to the Forbidden Zone for five whole years. Five years later, I returned. James knelt in the freezing snow, begging for my forgiveness. I only gently wrapped my arm around the man beside me and smiled. “Alpha James, long time no see. Meet my true mate, Alpha King Zane.” Elena POV After my daughter died, I finally became exactly what James wanted me to be. He stayed out partying with his friends until midnight. I stopped asking when he would be back, and I stopped caring who he was with. When he got drunk and mumbled “Clara” in his sleep, I didn’t throw a tantrum anymore. Even when I was ambushed and severely injured outside, I dragged my bleeding body back to the packhouse alone, quiet as a ghost, and patched myself up. Gamma Frank looked at my wounds, his eyes filled with worry. “Luna Elena, should I call Alpha James?” James? I let out a soft laugh. It was self-deprecating, but mostly, it was the sweet taste of letting go. “No need,” I whispered. “We aren’t close.” Frank opened his mouth to protest, but eventually closed it. As my second-in-command, he knew exactly what had happened in this pack. He knew the hell I had been through. Once he left, the bedroom fell back into a suffocating silence. I closed my eyes. My daughter’s sweet, smiling face flashed across my mind. I could still hear her tiny voice calling me “Mommy.” But right after that came James’s cold, heartless face. “Elena, Anna needs the antidote. Only Clara has the cure. But she has one condition.” “She wants you to leave.” “Your departure in exchange for Anna’s life. It’s a fair trade, isn’t it?” Fair? What a joke! When had James ever been fair to me? Only after I married him did I find out that his heart belonged to Clara, the fragile, helpless human girl his parents had adopted. I had been naive enough to believe that since we were fated mates, my love would eventually be enough to win him over. But five years of marriage only brought me to a point where he forced me to choose between my daughter’s life and my marriage. If he hated me so much, why did he accept me in the first place? In the end, I agreed to leave. I gave up my title as Luna just so he would save our daughter. But he lied to me. At the very last minute, Clara smiled and claimed she actually didn’t have the cure. And James? He just patted my shoulder and said indifferently, “Clara is just a human. How could she get her hands on Wolfbane? We’ll find another way.” Another way? The poison in Anna’s tiny veins was spreading every second. There was no time. Two weeks ago, Anna took her last breath in my arms. At that exact moment, my heart died with her. “Luna, the Alpha is here,” Frank’s voice called gently from the door. I opened my eyes and, right on cue, James was standing at the doorway. He was still painfully handsome. His black wool coat made him look tall and imposing, but there was a dark, irritable shadow lingering between his eyes. The silver glow in his eyes faded as he walked over to my bed. He looked down at me, his tone laced with his usual accusation. “Why didn’t you tell me you were hurt? If the pack warriors hadn’t informed me, how long were you planning to hide this?” I stared back at him. I knew he was only here because his wolf demanded it. If this were the past, I would have been thrilled by his concern. But now, even my inner wolf remained dead silent. “Alpha James is a busy man. I didn’t want to bother you with such trivial matters.” I paused, adding coldly, “Besides, we are over. I won’t be your Luna for much longer.” I emphasized the title “Alpha James” to draw a clear line between us. I knew he hated this version of me. In his memory, I was always the girl who blushed at his slightest touch, who waited up all night with a warm plate of food, and who cried under the blanket whenever Clara made an intimate phone call to him. Back then, he found me annoying. He said I was too dramatic, too clingy to be a proper Luna. But now, I was exactly what he wanted. I didn’t care about his life, and I didn’t need him when I was sick. Yet, he looked furious. “I haven’t accepted your rejection yet! We are still mates! Even if we end things, I am still Anna’s father!” James growled, desperately trying to use our dead daughter to hold onto the last thread of our connection. At the mention of Anna, my body stiffened, but I quickly forced myself to calm down. “Anna doesn’t need a father anymore.” I lowered my gaze to hide the raw grief in my eyes. “James, the moment you chose Clara over Anna, you lost the right to be her father.” “You!” James’s face turned pale. He wanted to snap back, but no words came out. Just then, his phone buzzed. It was his custom ringtone for Clara. He instinctively glanced at me. I had already turned my face to the window, ignoring him completely. James answered the phone, his voice instantly softening. “Clara? What’s wrong?” Clara’s weak, sobbing voice echoed through the quiet room. “My chest hurts so much. James, I’m scared. Can you come over?” James frowned. “I’ll be right there.” He hung up, swallowed hard, and looked at me as if he wanted to explain. I spoke first. “Go. I have plenty of people to look after me.” He couldn’t say a word. The moment the door slammed shut, a single tear finally escaped my eye. It wasn’t for him. It was for the foolish girl who had loved him so blindly, and for the sweet little daughter who never got the chance to grow up. I reached under my pillow, pulled out my phone, and dialed a number. “Professor Charles, I accept the Royal Council’s assignment. I’ll go to the Forbidden Zone for the Wolfbane research project.”

Elena POV The Forbidden Zone. It was the only place in the world where werewolves dared not step. It was created ten years ago during a brutal war between two massive packs. One side had used a highly volatile, mutated strain of Wolfsbane. But they didn’t realize the poison was airborne. It infected everyone in the area. Most died instantly. The survivors went completely feral, turning into mindless rogues. The 18-year-old prince had personally led his royal guards to settle down the battle, forcing all packs to migrate. He then gathered the top healers and scholars in the country to establish a research base right on the border of the contaminated zone. On the phone, my former herbology professor from the Werewolf Academy spoke in a serious tone. “Elena, this project is funded directly by the Royal Family. It requires a five-year commitment. During this time, you will be under strict NDA. You cannot contact anyone from the outside world. It means cutting off your entire past, including your family. Are you absolutely sure about this?” I gripped my phone tightly. “I am absolutely sure.” “But you rejected this offer three times before just to stay by James’s side. Are you really ready to leave everything behind for five years?” Ready? What was left for me here? My heart was dead. “Professor, James and I are done. You don’t have to worry about him.” “What? You mean that bastard actually rejected you?” In the werewolf world, it was incredibly rare for fated mates to separate. Most wolves remained fiercely loyal to their mates, finding peace and happiness only in their other half. But James chose a human. My inner wolf let out a painful whimper, mourning the injustice of our fate. This was exactly why I had to leave. I couldn’t stay here and let my wolf suffer his humiliation day after day. “Don’t be angry, Professor. I am the one leaving him.” “Fine. I understand. Your departure is scheduled for the fifth of next month. I’ll email you the NDAs. Once you sign, there’s no turning back.” The call ended, and the email arrived seconds later. Without a shred of hesitation, I signed my name. As the screen went black, it reflected my pale, hollow face. James and I had met at our graduation ball. He was the young, powerful Alpha of the Ironridge Pack, and I was the top graduate of the Academy. The Moon Goddess had chosen me to be his fated mate. I still remembered how he walked up to me, pulling me into his arms and kissing me passionately, whispering, “Mine.” My wolf had howled with joy back then. We actually had a sweet honeymoon phase. But shortly after I got pregnant, I accidentally overheard a heated argument between James and his mother outside his study. “…Elena is your fated mate! She is brilliant and perfect for the Luna title!” “But I don’t love her, Mom! You know who has my heart!” “That’s exactly why I’m stepping in! You either treat Elena right, or I will send Clara to a place where you will never find her!” That was the day I realized James was hopelessly in love with Clara. Even though his wolf craved my scent, his heart belonged to her. And yet, I had foolishly stayed, believing that my love could change his mind. Now, reality had slapped me in the face and taken my daughter’s life. I didn’t wait for James to come home. I grabbed a large cardboard box and began packing up everything that no longer mattered to me. I carried the heavy box to the trash incinerator behind the packhouse and threw it in. Suddenly, a loud screech of brakes echoed through the yard. “What are you doing?” James demanded, slamming his car door shut and rushing toward me. He looked inside the incinerator and saw the items I had thrown away. Our first date souvenirs. The little gifts he brought me from his business trips. Our honeymoon photos. And even my diaries. “Elena, have you lost your mind?” James stared at me in disbelief. “You used to treasure these things. Why are you throwing them away?”

Elena POV “It’s nothing,” I said, not even looking at him. “These things used to be valuable to me, but now they are just trash. There’s no point in keeping trash.” I turned to walk back inside, but James quickly caught up and grabbed my wrist. “Elena!” he yelled at the staircase, pulling me back. “How long are you going to keep acting like this? I am grieving Anna too! I am her father! Do you think you’re the only one hurting?” “You’re hurting?” I repeated, looking at him as if he had just said the funniest joke in the world. “If you actually cared about Anna, you would have believed me instead of Clara! You missed the only window to save our daughter!” I still remembered the day I figured out the toxin in Anna’s body was a rare form of Wolfbane. I realized the only cure was the blood of the person who poisoned her. And I knew, without a doubt, it was Clara. But when I told James, he had scoffed. “Clara is a fragile human. She doesn’t even know what Wolfbane is! Your jealousy is making you delusional, Elena!” He refused to believe his precious Clara could do such a thing. “Elena, please, stop this,” James sighed, pulling me into a tight embrace, his voice softening. “We are still young. We can have another baby. We can…” “Don’t touch me! You disgust me, James!” His words triggered something violent inside me. I shoved him away with all my strength. Unprepared, James stumbled back, hitting his back against the wooden banister. He stared at me, shocked. I let out a cold laugh. “James, let me make this very clear. I, Elena Vance, formally reject you as my mate and my Alpha. If you don’t accept it, I will find another way to break this bond. You can have babies with whoever you want, but it will never be me.” My only child was Anna. And she was dead. Seeing the cold determination in my eyes, James panicked. “I only asked you to leave back then to trick Clara into giving up the antidote! I didn’t think she would actually lie about it…” He swallowed hard. “I will never accept your rejection. We are not breaking up.” Too late. What James didn’t know was that I had already submitted a petition to the Lycan Council. If he refused my rejection, I would ask the Alpha King himself to sever our bond. I ignored him, turned around, and locked myself in my bedroom. “Elena!” James tried to follow, but his phone rang again. He pulled it out and answered irritably. “Clara, what is it now?” “If your stomach hurts, go to the hospital! I am not a doctor!” I didn’t care what Clara said next. All I heard was the sound of James leaving the packhouse once again. This had happened too many times to count. Over the years, Clara had used every excuse, chest pain, panic attacks, fevers, to drag James away whenever Anna and I needed him. In the past, I would cry, scream, and smash things in the house. But now, my heart was a flatline. When you truly stop caring, the things that used to drive you crazy don’t even make you flinch.

Elena POV The next afternoon, James came home early. He told me he had booked my favorite French restaurant and hired the violinist I loved to play for us. “Go change your clothes. Let’s go out,” he said. “I’m not going,” I replied instantly. “Elena, you’ve been locking yourself in this room since the funeral. You’re going to make yourself sick,” he said, his eyes filled with genuine worry. “Just come out for some fresh air, okay?” How ironic. I had spent years begging for his attention, and now that my heart was completely dead, he was suddenly playing the caring husband. Before I could refuse again, he grabbed my hand and practically pulled me into his car. “It doesn’t matter what you’re wearing. It’s just the two of us anyway.” I tried to pull away, but his grip was too tight. But when we arrived at the restaurant and the hostess led us to our table, I froze. Sitting at the table, wearing a delicate white dress, was Clara. I turned to James and smiled mockingly. “So this is your idea of ‘fresh air’?” “She feels incredibly guilty about what happened to Anna,” James whispered, tightening his grip on my wrist. “When she heard I was taking you out, she begged me to let her come. She wants to apologize to you face-to-face.” Clara stood up, her eyes immediately welling with tears. “Elena, I am so, so sorry… I know nothing can bring Anna back, but I truly want to make it up to you…” “Shut up!” I snapped, slapping her hand away. “Apologize? Make it up to me? What kind of game are you playing now, Clara?” Clara’s tears fell instantly. “I know you’ve always hated me, and I know you blame me for Anna’s death… but losing Anna broke my heart too…” I clenched my fists so hard my nails dug into my palms. “Enough, Clara! If you’re actually sorry, go kneel at Anna’s grave! Don’t bring your pathetic acting in front of me!” Clara froze, then looked at James with a trembling lip. “James…” James frowned, looking at me as if I was being entirely unreasonable. “Elena, she came here in good faith. Can’t we just leave the past in the past? We are family.” “Who is her family?” I interrupted, my eyes cold as ice. “My only family was my daughter, and she is dead.” The air in the restaurant turned freezing cold. Without another word, James grabbed my shoulders and forced me into my seat. “We didn’t come here to fight. Sit down, eat, and listen to the music.” He clapped his hands, and the waiters began serving the dishes. The violinist started playing a beautiful, soft melody. The food was everything I used to love, and the music was perfect. But I couldn’t swallow a single bite. Sitting across from Clara made me feel physically ill. Halfway through the dinner, I excused myself to the restroom. When I walked out, Clara was waiting for me by the door. The weak, tearful girl was gone. Instead, she had a smug, wicked smirk on her face. “How does it feel, Elena?” Clara whispered, leaning in. “To have hope dangled in front of you, only to have it ripped away into total despair? It must hurt like hell, right?”

Elena POV I didn’t even want to look at her. I tried to walk past her, but she stepped in my way. “You know,” Clara sighed fake-sadly, “Anna had such a beautiful little face. Those cute little dimples when she laughed… It’s such a pity she had to die so young.” My heart, which I thought was numb, shattered all over again at the mention of my daughter. I glared at her. “You never had the cure, did you? You set me up from the start just to watch me suffer, didn’t you?” “So what if I did?” Clara smirked. “James and I are the ones who belong together. You’re just an annoyance the Moon Goddess forced on him. That little brat you gave birth to was a mistake anyway. She deserved to die.” She leaned closer, her eyes glittering with malice. “Oh, by the way… did I mention? The poison inside your daughter… was cultivated using James’s own blood. The only antidote was his blood too.” “Clara!!” A mistake? Deserved to die? And the poison was made from James’s blood? Every ounce of my sanity snapped. I raised my hand and slapped Clara across the face with all my strength. The force of the slap sent her stumbling back. “You.” She clutched her red cheek, but instead of fighting back, she immediately burst into tears, a triumphant gleam flashing in her eyes. “What do you think you’re doing!” a furious voice roared from behind. Before I could react, a heavy hand grabbed my shoulder and violently shoved me away. I lost my balance and crashed hard against the brick wall. My head hit the solid surface with a sickening thud, making my vision go completely black for a second. Realizing he might have pushed me too hard, James froze. “Elena, I…” Suddenly, the heavy, gilded painting hanging on the wall above me shook. The wire snapped, and the massive frame came crashing down. “Watch out!” James yelled. His protective instincts kicked in, but instead of saving me, he instinctively lunged forward, wrapping his arms around Clara and shielding her with his body, turning his back to me. The heavy painting crashed directly onto my head. I didn’t even feel the pain before darkness swallowed me whole. When I finally opened my eyes, I was back in my bedroom at the packhouse. My head felt like it was about to explode. “You’re awake,” James’s voice came from the bedside, sounding relieved. I stared at the ceiling, not moving a muscle. “Does it hurt anywhere?” His eyes were glowing silver, meaning his wolf was currently in control. I shook my head slowly, watching as the silver faded and James’s human consciousness took over. He reached out to touch my forehead, but I flinched, turning my head away. James’s hand froze in mid-air, a flash of anger crossing his face before he suppressed it. He pulled his hand back and said in a cold, lecturing tone: “No matter how much you hate Clara, you shouldn’t have hit her. She is just a fragile human, and you are a werewolf. You could have killed her! How could you be so cruel?” I wanted to laugh, but I didn’t even have the energy. Of course. To him, Clara was always the victim who needed protection, and I was the violent monster. Even when he literally shielded Clara and let a heavy painting crush me, he didn’t care. “Do you know what she said to me?” I asked, turning my gaze to him. James scoffed. “What could she possibly say? She wanted to apologize, and she brought up Anna, which made you upset. I know you’re grieving, Elena, but Clara is…” “She said,” I interrupted, “that Anna was a mistake who deserved to die.” “How dare she say that?!” his wolf roared in my mind. But I knew it wasn’t James speaking. I was sick of the constant conflict between him and his wolf. “She also said that she was the one who poisoned Anna.”

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I heard my husband, Richard, charged a hundred dollars an hour for private tutoring. A student of his, Chloe, was practically begging me to save a spot for her. In my past life, I felt sorry for her and agreed. A month later, rumors spread like wildfire across the school that Richard had put his hands on her during their tutoring sessions. The day the school issued the official suspension notice, Richard locked himself in his study and never stood on a teacher’s podium again. Our daughter, Hailey, was pointed at by her classmates, who whispered, “Your dad’s a creep.” She cried every day and refused to go to school. My mother-in-law, Nancy, had trash thrown at her at the local grocery store. The neighbors avoided us like the plague. Meanwhile, Chloe took a minor bruise report to a local news station for an exclusive “brave girl speaks out” interview. She walked away with a $300,000 settlement from the school and was praised all over TikTok as a hero for “speaking her truth.” But now, I had been reborn. Chloe pushed open my office door, looking desperate. “Please, Sophia, just let me join Richard’s prep class! I really, really need this…” I sat behind my desk, my face completely expressionless. “Sorry, we aren’t doing private tutoring this year.”

Chloe froze. She clearly didn’t expect me to reject her so flatly. The office was dead silent. Paul, who worked at the desk next to mine, peeked over his partition. Chloe lowered her head, clutching the straps of her backpack so hard her knuckles turned white. Her voice sounded fragile, like it was about to crack. “But I asked around… they said Mr. Richard always takes a prep group before the SATs.” “My math score is terrible. He’s the only teacher whose explanations actually make sense to me.” “Sophia, I know my family isn’t rich, but I’ll find a way to pay the tuition. I promise.” I had heard this exact speech in my past life. Back then, I was stupid. I thought I was helping a struggling kid survive the college admissions race. I had even paid for her first week’s fees out of my own pocket. And what did I get in return? She dragged Richard into the mud and stepped on my family’s bleeding bodies to climb her way to fame. Looking at her watery, innocent eyes now, my stomach churned with pure disgust. “Chloe, the school adjusted the curriculum this year. Richard is not taking any extra students.” Her lips trembled. “Can I just stand in the back of the classroom then? I won’t take up a seat, and I won’t distract anyone.” “No.” “What if I only listen to the last ten minutes of—” “No.” With every “no” I dropped, the look of victimization on her face grew deeper. Soon, a few other teachers gathered near the office door. One of them whispered to me, “Sophia, she’s practically begging you. Don’t be so heartless.” “Yeah, her scores are tanking. If she doesn’t get them up, she’ll have to retake the SAT next year. Poor girl.” “Richard is used to working hard anyway. One more student won’t hurt him.” I looked up at them. In my past life, it was these exact guilt trips that backed me into a corner. “Just help her.” “You’re both educators, you shouldn’t just care about the money.” “It’s a kid’s future, don’t be so cold.” Yet, when the scandal broke, these were the very first people to run away and delete us from their contacts. No one remembered that they were the ones who forced her into our lives in the first place. Seeing people take her side, Chloe’s tears fell even faster. “I don’t want to cause trouble, Sophia.” “I just really want to go to a good college.” “My dad’s back is ruined from construction work, and my mom washes dishes at a diner. They told me if I don’t get a scholarship, I can’t go.” She bent forward, trying to give me a dramatic, apologetic bow. I moved fast, stepping aside to avoid it. “Don’t do that.” She froze mid-motion, a flash of humiliation crossing her eyes. I stared at her coldly. “If you want to study, do it. But don’t put on a show in my office.” Just then, Mr. Harrison, the Vice Principal, walked in, frowning. “What’s going on here?” Chloe looked at him like he was her savior and immediately turned to him. “Mr. Harrison, I wanted to sign up for Mr. Richard’s math prep class, but Sophia said he’s not doing it this year.” Mr. Harrison glanced at me. “Not doing it? Why wasn’t I informed?” I replied calmly, “Richard’s schedule is completely packed. He doesn’t have the time or energy for extra work.” Mr. Harrison’s face darkened. “Sophia, you work in administration. You know we have to look at the bigger picture. Chloe is one of our priority students this semester.” “Richard is one of our top teachers. He shouldn’t be picky about his students.” I let out a soft laugh. “Mr. Harrison, are we talking about an officially approved school program, or an unofficial private arrangement?” He choked on his words, unable to answer. The office went completely silent. Private prep schools have incredibly strict rules. Any after-school tutoring must go through the school’s billing system. Schedules, invoices, and parental consent forms are mandatory. In my past life, Chloe’s smartest move was framing a standard after-school Q&A session as a “private, secret meeting.” This time, I was going to leave her zero gray areas. Mr. Harrison cleared his throat. “Of course it’s an official school program.” “Great. Then we’ll follow standard protocol. We’ll use the AV recording room. We need her parents’ signed consent, and all tutoring sessions must take place directly under the school’s security cameras.” Chloe snapped her head up, her face turning pale for a split second. But Mr. Harrison didn’t notice. He just nodded. “Fine. Let’s do that.” I looked at Chloe. “Hear that? If you really want to study, we play by the rules.” She bit her lip, waiting a long time before finally nodding. “Okay.” But the sheer resentment in her eyes did not escape me.

That night, I pulled Richard out onto the balcony. He had just finished grading a mountain of tests. His glasses were still resting on the bridge of his nose, and he looked exhausted. “What’s wrong, babe?” I looked at him, my throat tightening. The last time he stood on a podium in my past life, he looked exactly like this. A crisp white shirt, black-rimmed glasses, and chalk dust on his cuffs. But later, he would flinch every time his phone buzzed. The vile comments online had acted like razor blades, slicing away his dignity piece by piece. He had done absolutely nothing wrong, yet he was forced to explain himself over and over again to a mob that didn’t care. “There’s no smoke without fire,” they had said. I took a deep breath. “Starting tomorrow, you are never to be in a room alone with Chloe. Not even for a second.” Richard blinked in confusion. “Chloe? The girl who came by today?” “Yes.” “Is something wrong with her?” I wanted to tell him everything about the past life. But the words got stuck in my throat, coming out as, “I had a really terrible nightmare.” He didn’t laugh at me. Richard was always like that. Even when things sounded ridiculous, he would listen to me seriously. I described what Chloe might do, framing it as a “dream.” He said he would be careful. I shook my head. “Being careful isn’t enough.” I slid a piece of paper across the table to him. It was a list of ten rules I had drafted. As Richard read through them, his brow furrowed deeper and deeper. “Sophia, do you know something I don’t?” I stared into his eyes. “I just know that human nature is sometimes much harder to solve than any math equation.” He fell silent for a long time, then folded the paper and slipped it into his pocket. “I trust you. I’ll do it.” The next day, Chloe officially joined the six-person AP Calculus prep group. I personally moved the class to the third-floor AV room. When Chloe signed the attendance sheet, her fingers hesitated. I stood beside her. “Any questions?” She looked up, offering a sweet, innocent smile. “No, Sophia. You’ve thought of everything.” I smiled back. “We have to protect our students. And our teachers.” The voice recorders were standard school equipment. Serial numbers, check-out times, and return logs—everything was strictly documented. They were meant for resolving classroom disputes, but in my past life, nobody had thought to use them. This time, I wasn’t letting a single detail slip through the cracks. For the next two weeks, Chloe was on her best behavior. She was so quiet that I almost thought I had successfully rewritten our destiny. But by the third week, she started testing the waters. When the bell rang and the other students packed up and left, Chloe stayed behind, holding her workbook. “Mr. Richard, could you explain this problem to me one more time?” Richard glanced at the door. The female teaching assistant I had assigned immediately stepped into the room. “I’ll stay and listen too,” the assistant said with a polite smile. Chloe’s expression stiffened. “Never mind. I’ll just figure it out at home.” Another time, she collapsed in the hallway, clutching her stomach right as Richard was walking by. “Mr. Richard, I feel so dizzy…” Before Richard could even speak, I stepped out from around the corner, with the school nurse right behind me. “What’s wrong? Let’s get you to the clinic.” Chloe gasped when she saw me, panic flitting across her face. “I… I think my blood sugar is just low. I’ll be fine if I sit down.” Then, she started sending late-night messages to Richard on Snapchat. [Mr. Richard, I really can’t take this pressure anymore.] [I don’t want to live.] [Can we please just talk? Just between us. Please don’t tell anyone.] In my past life, these exact screenshots were leaked and edited into a viral video. “If their relationship was totally innocent, why did she only reach out to him?” the internet had screamed. This time, Richard didn’t reply. Instead, he took screenshots and posted them directly into the school administration’s group chat, tagging the school counselor and Chloe’s homeroom teacher. Within ten minutes, the school counselor contacted Chloe’s parents. When Chloe came to school the next day, her eyes were red and swollen. She marched up to my desk, her voice dropping to a cold whisper. “Sophia, I trusted Mr. Richard. Why did you have to turn this into such a massive deal?” I looked up. “Because your life is more important than your secrets.” She stared at me. At that moment, the fragile, victimized mask she wore slipped, just for a second. “You really know how to play the saint, don’t you?” I closed my file folder. “And you really know how to act.” Her expression shifted, but then she quickly lowered her head and let out a soft, mocking laugh. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.” I ignored her. But I knew she wouldn’t be able to hold back much longer.

A month later, on a Friday afternoon, the parent group chats exploded. I was in the administration office verifying the schedule for the next week when my phone started vibrating violently. Seconds later, someone dropped a link into the school’s public forum. The headline made my eyes burn. [Eighteen-Year-Old Prep School Student Breaks Down: ‘I’m Too Terrified to Go to Class After What My Math Teacher Did to Me’] The thumbnail of the video showed Chloe in her school uniform, her eyes swollen like plums, sobbing into the camera. “I hesitated for so long… I didn’t know if I should speak up,” she whimpered. “He’s a highly respected teacher, and I’m just a student. That night, after everyone left, he kept me behind…” She didn’t finish the sentence. But the silence she left was more damaging than any direct accusation. The comment section was already in a state of absolute fury. [Another monster hiding behind a teaching license.] [The school needs to fire him immediately!] [It takes so much courage for a young girl to stand up like this.] [Doesn’t this guy have a daughter of his own? Does she know what a creep her father is?] My hands shook so violently I almost dropped my phone. The ghost of the internet mob from my past life was clawing its way back to me. A second later, Richard called. His voice was steady, but noticeably hoarse. “Sophia, don’t look at the internet.” I could hear a massive commotion on his end of the line. People were shouting in the hallway: “Mr. Richard, did you really do it?” “Is the school calling the police?” “Are Chloe’s medical reports real?” I closed my eyes, forcing myself to breathe. “Where are you right now?” “The third-floor conference room. Mr. Harrison called me in to explain.” “Don’t say a word. Wait for me.” I slammed the phone down and ran out of the office. As I passed the middle school building, I saw my daughter, Hailey, sitting in the corner of her counselor’s office. She was clutching her backpack, her eyes bloodshot from crying. On the desk in front of her lay a crumpled piece of paper. Scrawled on it in black marker were the words: Creep’s Daughter. My brain went entirely numb. In my past life, this was the exact moment Hailey stopped going to school. She had locked herself in her room, asking me over and over again, “Mom, Dad isn’t a bad guy, right? Tell me he didn’t do it.” I walked in and knelt in front of her. “Hailey.” The moment she saw me, she burst into tears. “Mom, everyone is saying Dad did something horrible…” I pulled her into a tight embrace. “Your father did nothing wrong.” “And this time, I am going to make sure everyone shuts their mouths.” Her tiny body trembled in my arms. I handed her over to a colleague I trusted completely, then turned and stormed upstairs. The hallway outside the conference room was packed with people. Parents, teachers, board members, and a few strangers holding up smartphones to film. One woman in a beige blazer and heavy makeup had her phone camera pointed directly at the closed door. I recognized her instantly. Amber, a local influencer who specialized in “social justice” content. She was also Chloe’s cousin. In my past life, she was the mastermind who packaged Chloe as the ultimate victim. She had edited out all the logical loopholes in Chloe’s story, leaving only tears and dramatic silences. She had gained millions of followers off those viral videos. Later, she even launched a masterclass on her TikTok, teaching young girls “how to protect themselves from predators,” making a fortune in the process. As I approached, Amber was speaking directly into her livestream. “We are currently live outside the administration building at prep school.” “The teacher in question is inside, but the school administration has been completely silent. We have to ask: is academic prestige being used as a shield to protect a predator?” The surrounding parents started chanting in agreement. “Make him come out!” “Stop hiding him!” “Suspend him now!” I pushed the heavy double doors open. Inside the conference room, Richard sat on one side, his face completely pale. Mr. Harrison stood at the head of the table, sweating profusely. Chloe was curled up in a corner, a blanket draped over her shoulders, her body shaking as she sobbed. Next to her lay a medical report. Soft tissue contusion. I looked at those words and wanted to laugh. They didn’t even bother to change their script from my past life. Mr. Harrison looked at me like I was a ticking time bomb. “Sophia, thank god you’re here.” “The situation is completely out of hand. You need to convince Richard.” I asked coldly, “Convince him to do what?” He lowered his voice, leaning in. “Just have him issue a temporary apology and step down for a few days.” “The school will offer Chloe some financial compensation to quiet down the media. We need to stop this from escalating.” I stared at him. “Richard did absolutely nothing. Why on earth should he apologize?” Mr. Harrison’s face turned red. “This is not the time to be stubborn, Sophia!” Chloe suddenly let out a loud, dramatic wail. “Sophia… do you think I’m lying?” She lifted her face, tears streaming down her cheeks. “I know you’re his wife. Of course you don’t believe me.” “But what girl would ever make up something like this? Why would I put myself through this nightmare?” Amber’s camera immediately shoved past the doorway, aiming straight at my face. “Sophia, as a woman, why is your first instinct to protect your husband instead of supporting a vulnerable student?” I looked straight into the camera lens. In my past life, this exact question had nailed me to a cross. The moment I tried to defend my husband, the internet branded me as an “enabler” and an “accomplice.” This time, I wasn’t going to let them control the narrative. I pulled out my phone, unlocked it, and dialed 911 right in front of everyone. “Yes, I’d like to report a crime.” “We have an active case of extortion, defamation, and malicious slander taking place right now.” The entire conference room went dead silent. Chloe’s crying abruptly stopped. Amber’s smug smile froze on her face.

Mr. Harrison was the first to panic. “Sophia! Are you insane?” “We haven’t even investigated this internally yet! Why are you calling the police?” I looked at him with sheer disgust. “Exactly. It hasn’t been investigated, which is why the police need to handle it.” “Or were you planning to play judge, jury, and executioner in this conference room?” He opened his mouth, but no words came out. Amber recovered quickly, pivoting her phone back to me. “Are you all seeing this? The moment a victim speaks out, the school administrator calls the police to intimidate her. Is this how they silence victims?” I walked right up to her face. “Miss Amber, you’d better save this livestream raw.” “You are filming minors without consent, disrupting school operations, and actively inciting a targeted harassment campaign against a teacher’s family. My lawyer will be receiving a copy of every single second of this.” Her expression soured. “Who do you think you’re threatening?” I smiled. “Try me.” Chloe started sobbing loudly again. “I don’t want the police involved! I just wanted an apology!” Hearing this, the parents outside started murmuring again. “Look how terrified she is.” “Calling the police is just going to traumatize her more.” “The school can’t use the law to bully a student.” I suddenly raised my voice, cutting through the noise. “Chloe.” She flinched. I locked eyes with her. “In your viral video, you claimed that on the night of March 27th, after after-school tutoring ended, Richard kept you alone in the third-floor classroom. Is that correct?” She bit her lip, then nodded. “Yes.” “Are you absolutely sure?” “Yes.” “And you claim there was no one else in the room but the two of you?” Her face went pale for a split second, but she forced herself to double down. “Yes.” Richard stood up abruptly. “I did not—” I pressed a hand firmly on his shoulder, keeping him grounded. “Easy, Richard.” Then, I turned to Mr. Harrison. “Mr. Harrison, pull up the security footage from the third-floor hallway from that night.” Mr. Harrison frowned. “Sophia, the hallway cameras only show people entering and leaving. They can’t prove what happened inside the classroom.” A flash of smug satisfaction crossed Chloe’s eyes. She thought she had won. She knew she hadn’t done anything suspicious on the hallway cameras, and she knew the cameras couldn’t see into the corners of the classroom. She knew that allegations like this succeeded because they were impossible to disprove. As long as she stuck to her story, Richard would never be able to wash the dirt off his name. But what she didn’t know was that I had been planning for this exact day for an entire month. Two police officers arrived shortly after. “Who called 911?” I raised my hand. “I did.” I gave them a quick, clear summary of the situation and handed over a sealed manila envelope I had prepared in advance. As the officers flipped through the documents, their expressions became incredibly serious. Mr. Harrison wiped the sweat from his forehead. “Officers, the public backlash online is severe right now. Maybe we should just suspend Richard first to prevent—” “No,” I interrupted him flatly. He glared at me. I ignored him, looking directly at the officers. “Officers, Chloe is accusing my husband of an incident that allegedly occurred after 9:45 PM on March 27th.” “That class took place in the AV recording room. All students signed a consent form prior to starting the program.” “I am officially requesting that we play the audio recording from that classroom from that night, right here, right now.” Chloe’s head snapped up. Amber’s hand holding the phone began to tremble. “Classroom recording?” Chloe’s voice pitched high, laced with sudden panic. “But… I thought the mic was turned off after class ended!” I stared at her, my voice ice-cold. “The notice on the door is very clear, Chloe.” “The audio equipment automatically records from the start of class until thirty minutes after the room is cleared. You signed the agreement yourself.” The color completely drained from her face. Amber tried to salvage the situation, yelling, “How do we know you didn’t tamper with the audio?” I reached into my bag and pulled out a sealed, transparent evidence bag. “The voice recorder used that night was checked out by the teaching assistant according to school protocol, and sealed immediately upon return.” “The seal, the log, and the serial numbers are all fully documented.” I looked around the room. “Chloe, didn’t you want justice?” “Let’s listen to what actually happened in that room.”

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On the eve of my engagement party to my fiancé, Brooks, our friends put together a “Mystery Box Game.” Each guy put a gift inside a box, and the girls drew them at random. When I opened mine, there was only a thin slip of paper inside: [Thank you for participating.] Brooks rubbed my hair gently. “Still as unlucky as ever, babe.” Bryant, my best friend since kindergarten, lowered his voice too. “It’s just a game, Alice. Don’t let it ruin your night.” Then it was Michelle’s turn. She opened her box. Inside was a pink diamond necklace Brooks had personally picked out, and a voucher for a couple’s getaway to Maui—a trip I had been begging Brooks to take me on for three years. There was also a card written by Bryant: [We will always protect you.] I forced a tight smile and set my empty box back on the table. It was just a lucky draw, right? It was all about luck. Until I went to the restroom and overheard the coordinator in the lounge checking the guest list. “Mr. Brooks, did we distribute the boxes correctly?” “The one with the gifts goes to Miss Michelle. The empty one goes to Miss Alice.” Brooks gave a casual “Yeah.” Bryant chimed in with a chuckle, “Perfect.” Standing outside the door, I quietly tore the paper slip into pieces. I’m canceling the wedding. This little game of luck they rigged? I’m not playing anymore.

When I walked back into the VIP room, everyone was crowding around Michelle, taking photos. The pink diamond necklace rested against her collarbone, sparkling like a teardrop being cradled in someone’s palm. Someone teased, “Brooks, you have crazy good luck. If I didn’t know any better, I’d think you were proposing to Michelle tonight.” Michelle’s eyes instantly welled up with tears. “Don’t say that. It’ll make Alice uncomfortable.” The moment she spoke, every eye in the room shifted to me. Seeing me walk in, Brooks frowned slightly. “Why are you standing by the door?” “Anyone would think someone was bullying you.” I looked at him, suddenly finding it hilarious. I was the one who got hurt, yet even my silence was treated as me throwing a tantrum. So, I didn’t move. Brooks’ brow furrowed deeper. Bryant stood up first and walked over to me. He had gentle eyes and always seemed to look at people with a warm smile. Before I turned eighteen, I always believed Bryant was the last person on earth who would ever embarrass me. But now, he bent down, keeping his voice incredibly low. “Alice, don’t make a scene and embarrass Brooks tonight.” I looked up at him. “Did I say anything?” Bryant choked on his words. Michelle clutched the necklace, her tears falling faster. “Alice, let me give the necklace back to you. I shouldn’t have taken it anyway.” The moment her hand touched the clasp, Brooks spoke coldly. “Keep it on.” Then Brooks turned to me. “The game decided who got it. That’s it.” I let out a soft chuckle. The room went dead silent. Brooks’ gaze turned icy. Bryant frowned. “Alice, it’s just a game. Do you have to make things so ugly?” He stepped in front of Michelle, shielding her. His voice was still soft, but it felt like a cold blade pressed against my throat. “Michelle has been insecure since she was a kid. She’s finally happy for once. Can’t you just let her have this?” There it was again. That same old line. I couldn’t help but look at Michelle. She was hiding behind Brooks, tears still hanging on her lashes, but the look she shot me was filled with a smug, silent triumph. A second later, Brooks stood up and walked over to me. He smelled of cold cedarwood. I was the one who chose that cologne for him. I told him it suited him—clean and sophisticated. But he used to complain it was too subtle. Later, Michelle said she liked it. He had been wearing it for three years now. He reached out, trying to ruffle my hair like he always did. I tilted my head and stepped back, dodging his hand. Someone in the room gasped. Brooks’ expression finally darkened completely. “I’ll be there for your bridal fitting tomorrow.” I looked up into his eyes. “You actually remember?” He stared back as if I had just said something ridiculous. “When have I ever forgotten a promise I made to you?” Just then, Michelle let out a soft cough. Brooks turned around instantly. “What’s wrong?” Michelle shook her head. “Nothing. My neck is just a little itchy. Maybe I’m not used to the necklace yet.” Brooks picked up his coat from the couch and draped it over her shoulders. Bryant looked at my pale face and sighed. “Alice, stop overthinking.” “Brooks is marrying you tomorrow. Michelle is just like a little sister to us.” I looked him dead in the eye. “Does a ‘little sister’ accept a pink diamond handpicked by the fiancé?” The smile faded from Bryant’s face. “Do you have to be so bitter?” Brooks looked back, his voice dropping to a warning whisper. “Alice, that’s enough.” Suddenly, I didn’t want to say another word. In this game of theirs, even after being humiliated, I was expected to smile and say, “Oh, I guess I’m just unlucky.” When the party ended, Brooks drove Michelle to the hospital. Her neck had broken out in a small red rash. Bryant stayed behind to take me home. As we reached the exit, he took off his scarf and wrapped it around my neck. “The wind is cold tonight. Don’t catch a cold.” I stared down at the scarf. He always did this. Just when I was about to give up on him completely, he would throw me a tiny crumb of warmth. And in the next second, he would push me right back into the dark. Sure enough, once the scarf was secured, he said, “Alice, don’t take tonight to heart.” “You know Brooks. He’s cold on the outside, but he cares about you.” “He’s going to your fitting tomorrow, and you guys are getting your marriage license the day after.” “You’ve already won. Stop fighting Michelle over these little things.” I looked at him. “What exactly did I win?” Bryant froze. He opened his mouth, but no sound came out. Because even he couldn’t answer that.

The next morning, I went to the bridal boutique alone. When the stylist pulled the main wedding gown out of the dust bag, her eyes lit up. “Miss Alice, this is absolutely perfect for you. Is Mr. Brooks joining us today?” I hesitated. “He’ll be here.” That was the very last time I would ever make excuses for him. But ten o’clock came, and he wasn’t there. At ten-thirty, his assistant sent a text: [Miss Alice, Mr. Brooks has an urgent matter to attend to. He might not make it today.] I dialed Brooks’ number. He actually picked up. But over the line, I could hear Michelle’s muffled whimpers in the background. “Alice, I’m at the hospital,” Brooks said. I gripped my phone tightly. “What happened to you?” “Not me. It’s Michelle. She had an allergic reaction to that necklace last night. Her neck is severely swollen.” I looked down at the wedding gown I was wearing. The corset was laced so tightly it made it hard to breathe. “Today is our wedding fitting.” The line went silent for a moment. Then, Brooks let out a heavy sigh. “Alice, don’t compare yourself to her.” “You’re the one registering the marriage with me tomorrow. You’re the one who will stand beside me at the altar.” “Michelle is sick, and I’m just staying with her for a bit. Do you really have so little security in our relationship?” A lump formed in my throat, choking me. Just then, a stylist walked over, holding a box. “Miss Alice, Mr. Brooks just had this delivered.” Inside was a pair of off-white satin wedding heels. The heels weren’t too high, and there were blister pads pre-applied to the back of the shoes. A card lay next to them: [Your heels blister easily. Don’t wear them too high.] Staring at the card, a sharp ache bloomed in my chest. So he did remember. When I was eighteen, the first time I wore high heels, my heels ended up bloody and raw. On the phone, his voice softened. “Did you get the shoes?” “Yeah,” I whispered. “Be good,” he said, coaxing me. “I’ll come home and have dinner with you tonight.” Before I could reply, Michelle’s voice drifted through the receiver. “Brooks, is my neck going to scar?” Brooks immediately turned away from the phone. “No, let me see.” The call clicked dead. I looked down at the shoes. The shoes fit perfectly. But the man who sent them never showed up. At 3:00 PM, Bryant arrived. By then, I had already finished trying on all the dresses. Bryant pushed the door open, and when he saw me, his eyes widened slightly. “You look beautiful.” He walked closer and looked down at my feet. His brow furrowed instantly. “Did you get blisters again?” He knelt down, pulling a tin of Band-Aids from his pocket. “Don’t move.” He applied the bandage with extreme gentleness, a routine he had mastered years ago. Once done, he looked up at me. “Does it hurt?” I didn’t answer. Bryant stood up and helped me up. “Let’s get in the car. It’s freezing outside.” It was pouring. He tilted the umbrella completely over my side, leaving his own shoulder soaked within seconds. I followed him to the car. Just as I was about to slide in, I noticed a white plush lamb sitting on the passenger seat. I froze. Bryant hesitated for a split second, then quickly held the door open, speaking in a casual, dismissing tone. “Just sit in the back.” I stared at the toy. “It can’t sit in the back?” Bryant went stiff. “Don’t start, Alice. Michelle has been waiting for this toy all afternoon.” “So, I sit in the back, and the toy gets the front seat?” He sighed deeply. “Alice, you’re different.” “You’re stronger than her.” Tears stung the back of my eyes. But I reached out and pushed his hand off the car door. “Bryant, I don’t want to be strong today.” The warmth on his face vanished. “Don’t make this hard for me.” I smiled weakly. “You always tell me to be understanding. Why do you never tell her to be understanding?” Bryant was silent for two seconds. Then, he said: “Because she actually cries.” I nodded slowly. “And I don’t.” I hugged my wedding gown bag tightly, turned around, and walked into the rain. The downpour was heavy. Within steps, the back of my heels began to throb with pain. I didn’t look back, and Bryant didn’t chase after me. Honestly, it didn’t matter anymore. Twenty minutes later, Michelle posted on her Instagram. In the photo, the white plush lamb was sitting clean and cozy next to her hospital bed. Her caption read: [Someone ran through the storm just to bring me this. He said he won’t rest until my pain is gone.] I stood by the side of the road, holding my heavy dress garment bag, my feet completely numb from the cold and pain. The boutique assistant ran out, handing me a small paper bag. “Miss Alice! You forgot your veil!” I took it. At that exact moment, I decided I didn’t want to register the marriage anymore.

But the next morning, I still went to City Hall. I just wanted to see, with my own eyes, if he would actually show up. At 9:15 AM, I saw Brooks’ car pull up across the street. When the car door opened, my chest loosened. I even subconsciously smoothed down my hair. Honestly, if he had just walked up to me and said, “Alice, I’m here,” I might have swallowed all of last night’s pain and pushed forward. But then his phone rang. Brooks answered it. I didn’t know what Michelle said on the other end, but his face turned pale. In the next second, he got right back into the car and drove away. The sound of the car door shutting was quiet, but it felt like a sledgehammer to my heart. Ten minutes later, Michelle posted on Instagram. [I told him I didn’t want to be alone, and he actually came back for me.] The photo showed Brooks holding her hand while she was hooked up to an IV. At 9:40 AM, Bryant rushed to City Hall. When he got out of his car, his face was lined with exhaustion, looking like he hadn’t slept. “Stop waiting, Alice. Brooks isn’t coming today.” I stared at him. “I saw him.” Bryant was stunned. He opened his mouth, but in the end, he only said, “Michelle’s allergy flared up again last night. She can’t handle any stress right now.” I asked quietly, “But I can?” He frowned. “Alice, stop asking things like that.” He stepped closer, his voice taking on a coaxing tone. “You’re the one getting the wedding, the title, and the name Mrs. Brooks.” “What does Michelle have? She only has us as her friends.” I packed up my ID, turned, and walked away. Bryant grabbed my arm. “Where are you going?” “The wedding planning company.” He let out a sigh of relief. “To finalize the schedule?” “Yeah,” I murmured. His face softened. “Good. Don’t ruin the big day. If you make a scene, you’re the one who will look bad.” At the wedding planner’s office, the coordinator looked incredibly uncomfortable. She pushed her tablet toward me to show me the screen. On the screen was a giant photo of Brooks standing in the middle, with me on his left and Michelle on his right. The photo was taken at Michelle’s birthday party last year. She was wearing a white dress, holding Brooks’ arm, looking like the real bride. I was standing off to the side, still holding the knife we used to cut her cake. The welcome sign had been changed too: [Thank you for witnessing our ten years together.] But why did “our ten years” have to include Michelle? I scrolled through the itinerary. Everything had been modified. In our wedding vows, there was even a paragraph dedicated to thanking Michelle. I looked at the coordinator. “Who approved this?” The coordinator said timidly, “Mr. Brooks did.” Seeing my face turn pale, Bryant immediately spoke up. “It’s just the welcome area, not the main stage.” “Michelle never had a real family. She just wanted to feel included.” I looked at him. “It’s my wedding. Why does she need to feel included?” Bryant’s voice grew heavy. “Alice, don’t be so petty.” Just then, Brooks called my phone. The moment I picked up, he asked, “Did you see the new itinerary?” “I did.” “Michelle cried all night, saying she felt like an outsider. I had them add a few photos.” I asked, “Do you think that’s appropriate?” “What’s wrong with it?” he snapped, his voice filled with impatience. “She’s your maid of honor, and she’s our mutual friend. You’re marrying me tomorrow, Alice, not a digital screen.” I kept scrolling. When I reached the jewelry confirmation page, my fingers froze. The note read: [Pearl earrings to be worn by Miss Michelle for the wedding promo video shoot.] Those pearl earrings were a family heirloom left to me by my mother. Before she passed away, she told me she wanted me to wear them on my wedding day. It was my “Something Old.” I asked, “Why is Michelle wearing my mother’s earrings?” Brooks was silent for a moment. “She’s just modeling them for the promo…” I cut him off. “Those belong to my mother.” “I know.” I let out a bitter laugh. “You know, and you still let her wear them?” Over the phone, Michelle started crying softly. “Brooks, forget it. I won’t wear them. I don’t want to make Alice mad…” Brooks’ voice softened instantly as he comforted her. “Don’t say that.” When he spoke to me again, his voice was like ice. “Alice, Michelle was just trying to help you test them out. Do you have to be so harsh?” I said, “Get them back. Now.” Brooks didn’t reply. Standing next to me, Bryant suddenly spoke up. “Alice, if your mother were still here, she wouldn’t pick a fight with a young girl over this.” I whipped my head around to look at him. The conference room went dead silent. Bryant flinched under my gaze, but he kept pushing. “Am I wrong? Your mother would have wanted you to be the bigger person.” “If she saw you making such a massive scene over a pair of earrings, she wouldn’t be happy either.” Slap! I slapped him across the face. On the other end of the line, Brooks roared, “Alice! Did you just put your hands on him?!” Bryant stumbled back, his hand on his cheek, his eyes wide with utter shock. “Alice… I don’t even recognize you anymore!” I didn’t answer him. I grabbed my bag and walked out. Behind me, Brooks’ voice came through the phone: “If you walk out now, don’t expect me home tonight.” I paused for a fraction of a second. “Whatever.”

At 11:00 PM, Brooks wasn’t home. I sat in the living room of our new house, flipping through the wedding program from start to finish. My name only appeared twice. This didn’t look like a wedding between Brooks and me. It looked like a celebration of three people. At 1:00 AM, the front door unlocked. Brooks walked in, smelling heavily of hospital sanitizer. Seeing me still sitting there, he frowned. “You’re still up?” I asked, “Where are the earrings?” He stopped unbuttoning his collar. “Michelle has to shoot the promo video tomorrow morning. They’re staying with her tonight.” I stood up. “Get them back. Now.” Brooks’ face darkened, the last of his patience completely evaporating. “Alice, I am marrying you tomorrow!” “What more do you want?!” I said, “I want my mother’s things.” Brooks let out a cold, arrogant chuckle that cut like a knife. “She’s literally just wearing them for a video, and you can’t even handle that?” “Alice, don’t be so greedy.” I stared at him, dumbfounded. To him, wanting my deceased mother’s heirloom back was “greedy.” Right then, Bryant called Brooks. His voice was frantic. “Brooks, we have a problem.” “Michelle says the earrings are gone.” My entire body went rigid. Half an hour later, we rushed to the hotel dressing room. Michelle was sitting in front of the vanity mirror, wrapped in Brooks’ coat, her eyes swollen red from crying. The vanity table was a complete mess. But the pearl earrings were nowhere to be seen. I looked at the stylist. “Where’s the security footage?” The stylist kept her head down. “The cameras broke this afternoon.” How convenient. I looked at Michelle. “Give them back to me.” Tears streamed down Michelle’s face. “Alice, I swear I didn’t take them!” “Then we call the police.” Michelle’s face turned pale. She suddenly stood up and made a move to throw herself against the wall. “It’s all my fault! I shouldn’t have touched Alice’s things! I should just die!” Brooks caught her in his arms, and Bryant rushed over to help hold her back. The two of them shielded her, one on each side, keeping her safe in the middle. Brooks looked back at me, his eyes colder than ice. “Apologize.” I thought I had misheard him. “What did you say?” “Apologize to her.” He said it slowly, emphasizing every word. “She is already having a breakdown. How much further do you want to push her?” I stared at him. “Brooks, she lost my mother’s only keepsake.” “She said it wasn’t on purpose!” “And you just believe her?!” “Do you have any proof that she did it on purpose?” I was speechless. Bryant pleaded in a low voice, “Alice, just swallow your pride.” “You’ve already won. Why do you have to make things so hard for her?” Looking at them, an overwhelming wave of exhaustion washed over me. Michelle was clearly the one winning everything, yet everyone treated her like the victim. So, I nodded. I didn’t want to fight anymore. “Fine.” The dressing room went quiet. Brooks frowned, clearly not expecting me to give in so easily. Even Bryant looked stunned. I turned to Michelle. She was still shrinking behind Brooks, tears pooling in her eyes. I said, “I’m sorry.” Bryant stared at me, his lips parting. “Alice…” I didn’t look at them again. I slipped off my engagement ring and placed it quietly on the vanity. “The wedding can go on tomorrow.” “Don’t let me ruin your fun.” I turned and walked out. Brooks looked like he wanted to chase after me. But Michelle suddenly clutched her neck, her voice trembling, “Brooks, it hurts so bad…” Brooks immediately turned back to her, and Bryant instantly focused all his attention on her. In that split second, I stepped out of the room. By the time they looked up again, the door had closed, and I was gone. That night, I went back to the house and canceled every single wedding vendor, one by one. The wedding planner took my call at 3:00 AM, her voice trembling with panic. “Does Mr. Brooks know about this?” “He doesn’t need to.” Before the sun rose, I dragged my suitcase and left the city. On the morning of the wedding, at 10:00 AM. Brooks went to the jewelry store himself and picked out a pear-cut diamond ring. He stared down at the ring, his voice quiet. “She’s loved this cut since she was eighteen.” Bryant stood beside him, holding a long, black umbrella. My name was engraved on the handle. He smiled softly. “This should work too.” “She’s remembered that rainy night when we were eighteen for so many years.” Brooks shot him a look. “You still remember that?” Bryant’s smile faded a bit. “Yeah.” He paused, then added, “She apologized way too quickly last night.” Brooks scoffed. “She was just tired.” “After throwing a tantrum all night, she needed a way out.” Bryant nodded. “True.” He forced a laugh. “Alice has a soft heart.” “With you giving her the ring and me giving her the umbrella, she won’t be able to stay mad once she sees them.” But when the two arrived at the hotel venue, they found the staff taking down the wedding decorations. Brooks froze. “Who told you to tear this down?” The coordinator was shocked to see him. “Mr. Brooks… wasn’t the wedding canceled?”

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I hid my identity as the sole heiress to the Kingswell Group—one of the most powerful Wall Street empires—and spent five years living in a cramped apartment with Carter Miller, helping him build his tech startup from scratch. Finally, our company, Atlas Tech, was about to go public on Nasdaq. But at the IPO celebration party, he went down on one knee and proposed to Tiffany Vance, the daughter of a wealthy real estate developer. After the proposal, he dragged me into a quiet corner and handed me a non-disclosure agreement. “Tiffany is bringing a hundred million dollars in Series C funding to Atlas Tech,” Carter said, his eyes cold and transactional. “What do you have to offer, Stella? You’re just an orphan. Sign this. I’ll buy you a luxury condo in downtown Manhattan and give you a hundred thousand dollars a month. Just stay in the shadows and be my good girl.” I looked at his arrogant, smug face and burst out laughing. “Carter, did you forget? I wrote every single line of the core AI algorithm that made this company worth billions.” He thought I was just a nobody with no background. He had no idea that with one single phone call, the tech empire he was so proud of would crumble into dust.

On the stage, Carter raised his champagne glass. The spotlight hit him perfectly, making him look like the king of the world. “Tonight is not just the fifth-anniversary celebration of Atlas Tech,” Carter announced into the microphone, his voice dripping with confidence. “It is also the most important day of my life.” He looked down at the VIP section with deep, calculated affection. “Tiffany, will you marry me?” The ballroom erupted into deafening applause. Wearing a custom Dior gown, Tiffany walked up to the stage like a proud princess, lifting her skirt. Carter dropped to one knee, pulled out a massive Harry Winston diamond ring, and slipped it onto her finger. I stood in the dark corner of the hall, holding a glass of warm water I had poured for him because his stomach had been acting up earlier. A sharp, stabbing pain hit my stomach. Five years ago, Carter was just a broke college kid who couldn’t even pay his rent. I hid my identity as the Kingswell Group heiress and squeezed into a damp, freezing basement with him. We had no heating in the winter. My fingers got frostbitten, but I still kept typing on my keyboard to write the very first code for Atlas Tech. Back then, he held my hands and said, “Stella, when the company goes public, I will give you the grandest wedding in New York.” Now, the company was going public. But the bride wasn’t me. At the back exit of the ballroom, Carter blocked me in the hallway. He handed me a folder. “Stella, you’re a smart girl. You should understand my situation,” he said smoothly. “The Vance family can bring a hundred million dollars to Atlas Tech. That’s our ticket to securing our Nasdaq listing.” “You’re just an orphan who had to work three part-time jobs just to pay for college. You can’t help me scale this company.” I looked at the “Voluntary Settlement and Non-Disclosure Agreement” in my hands and laughed from sheer anger. “So, you’re throwing me away like trash?” Carter frowned, clearly annoyed by my attitude. “Don’t put it so harshly. The agreement states that the apartment in Tribeca is yours, and I’ll wire a hundred thousand dollars to your bank account every month.” “As long as you play nice and don’t make a scene in front of Tiffany, nothing will change between us. Except for the marriage license.” I raised my hand and slapped him across the face. “SMACK!” “Carter, you disgust me.” Carter’s head snapped to the side. His expression instantly darkened. “Stella! Don’t push your luck!” he hissed, grabbing my wrist. “Without me, you’d still be working retail in some sketchy neighborhood! A hundred thousand a month? You couldn’t make that money even if you sold your soul!” I clenched my fists so hard my nails dug into my palms. “Did you forget, Carter? The core AI algorithm of Atlas Tech was written by me, and me alone.” I reached into my collar and pulled out a cheap plastic hair clip hanging from a string around my neck. That was a five-dollar gift he bought me during our first year of starting the company. “You told me this clip was our promise. You said you’d replace it with a real crown one day.” Carter let out a cruel laugh. He snatched the clip from my neck, threw it onto the marble floor, and crushed it under his shiny leather shoe. “Cheap trash. It looks pathetic.” “Wake up and face reality, Stella. Your code is valuable, but Tiffany’s hundred million dollars can buy me into high society.” “Tomorrow, hand over the master access codes of the core algorithm to the tech department. Otherwise, you won’t get a single penny.” I stared at him coldly. “And if I refuse?” Carter snapped his fingers. Four massive, burly security guards stepped out from the shadows of the hallway. “Take Miss Kingswell to the basement archive room so she can cool down. Nobody opens that door without my permission.”

“Carter! This is kidnapping! You won’t get away with this!” I shouted. But the guards didn’t give me a chance to fight back. They grabbed my arms and dragged me down to the basement. “I’m doing this for your own good, Stella. Once the opening bell rings next week, I’ll let you out,” Carter said, adjusting his Tom Ford tie as he turned back toward the bright, glamorous ballroom. “When you’re ready to talk, write down the password.” The heavy steel door of the basement archive room slammed shut. “CLANG!” Total silence. There were no windows, no cell service, only a dim motion-sensor light overhead. The AC was blasting, making the room feel like an icebox. I was thrown onto the cold concrete floor. The pain in my stomach suddenly intensified, crawling down to my lower abdomen. A sharp, throbbing cramp made me gasp. I curled up in the corner, clutching my stomach as cold sweat soaked my back. With trembling hands, I reached into my pocket and touched the folded ultrasound report. I had just gotten it from the hospital this afternoon. I was six weeks pregnant. I had planned to tell him the good news at the celebration party tonight. What a pathetic joke. “Baby… you chose the worst time to come,” I whispered, tears finally streaming down my cheeks. The next morning, the steel door groaned open. Carter walked in, holding a glass of warm milk. “Have you thought it through?” He looked down at me, his eyes completely devoid of warmth. I held onto the metal shelving and forced myself to stand up. “Carter, I’m pregnant.” Carter froze for a second, then his brows knitted tightly together. “Stella, are you seriously making up a lie like this just to keep the password?” I crumpled the ultrasound report and threw it at his face. “See for yourself!” Carter caught the paper. As he read the medical stamp, his expression shifted. But there was no joy in his eyes. Only panic and irritation. “Get rid of it,” he said coldly. I stared at him in disbelief. “What did you say?” “I said, get an abortion!” Carter raised his voice, his face twisting. “Tiffany hates kids. If she finds out you’re pregnant, the Vance family will pull their funding immediately!” “Stella, do not ruin my life right now!” My body was shaking violently. I pointed at the open door. “Get out! Get the hell out of here!” Carter sneered. “If you don’t hand over the password, you can rot in this room.” He turned and walked out, locking the steel door behind him. I collapsed onto the floor, swallowed by a wave of absolute despair. This was the man I had loved for five years. For money and status, he didn’t hesitate for a second to kill his own child.

I lost track of time. The steel door opened again. The bright light blinded me temporarily, and I shielded my eyes. The sharp click of high heels echoed in the empty room. Tiffany Vance walked in, wearing a Chanel tweed suit. She pinched her nose, looking at me with pure disgust. Two muscular bodyguards followed closely behind her. “Oh, so this is the pathetic rat who’s been begging Carter for scraps?” Tiffany walked up to me and kicked my leg with the toe of her designer heel. “You look so cheap. I have no idea how Carter tolerated you for five years.” I glared at her. “What are you doing here?” Tiffany giggled, pulled a document from her Hermès Birkin bag, and threw it in my face. “Just checking on the loser.” “And, helping you take care of the mistake in your stomach.” I looked down at the paper. It was an “Authorization for Termination of Pregnancy”. At the bottom right corner, Carter’s signature was written in bold, familiar cursive. “No… he wouldn’t…” My head spun, and my blood ran ice-cold. “Why wouldn’t he?” Tiffany knelt down, grabbing my chin tightly. Her long acrylic nails dug into my skin. “Carter said as long as it makes me happy, you and your bastard child are nothing but trash.” “My family has a reputation to protect. We can’t have a low-life woman giving birth to my fiancé’s child.” She stood up and wiped her hands with a wet tissue, looking disgusted. “Do it. Carter said as long as she has enough breath to write down the password, she doesn’t need anything else.” The two bodyguards immediately pounced on me like wolves. “Get off of me! This is assault!” I screamed, kicking and scratching with everything I had. But I hadn’t eaten in days. I was no match for two grown men. One guard pinned my shoulders to the ground, while the other raised his heavy boot and stomped hard on my abdomen. “AHHH!” An agonizing pain ripped through my body. I screamed, curling up into a tight ball. “Keep going until she miscarries,” Tiffany ordered coldly from the side. Another heavy kick landed on my stomach. Something warm and wet started flowing down my thighs, quickly soaking through my pants and pooling onto the concrete floor in a gruesome crimson stain. “My baby… help…” I weakly stretched out my hand, trying to grab onto anything. Tiffany walked over and stepped on my hand, grinding her heel into my knuckles. “Scream all you want. Nobody is coming to save you.” “Remember this pain, Stella. Know your place, and don’t try to climb into a world you don’t belong in.” She laughed, turning on her heel and leaving with her guards. The steel door slammed shut again. I lay in a pool of my own blood, my consciousness fading. My life was draining away. With the last bit of my strength, I reached into the hidden lining of my bra and pressed a tiny panic button. It was the exclusive GPS tracker for the sole heir of the Kingswell Group. “Beep—” A faint blue light flickered once. I closed my eyes, a single tear of blood slipping down my cheek. “Carter. Tiffany.” “You will pay for this with your lives.”

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