When I was being sexually assaulted by a strange man, my brother Sebastian’s lavish wedding was taking place downstairs. I called him for help. His cold, disgusted voice came through. “Playing the victim again? Dora, why don’t you just die!” I hung up and leaped from the top floor. I landed on the statue at his wedding venue. The statue’s wings pierced through my body. I used my last bit of strength. Smiling at Sebastian, I said. “Don’t worry… I’m going to die now.” Through the floor-to-ceiling windows of the sanatorium. I saw Sebastian with his head down, on the phone. Light and shadow fell unevenly on his familiar yet strange profile. My nose couldn’t help but sting. After our parents died, Sebastian and I had relied on each other growing up. He was my strongest support. But I hadn’t seen him in three years. The attending physician grabbed me, his clammy breath spraying on my neck. “Dora, about the treatment process—you need to learn to keep your mouth shut, understand?” A chill ran down my spine. I nodded obediently. “I understand.” The doctor led me by the hand into the reception room. Sebastian’s gaze slid over our clasped hands. His expression showed not a ripple of emotion. He wasn’t like this before. Our parents favored sons over daughters, and I grew up under Sebastian’s protection. When I was little and craved sweets, he’d secretly use his allowance to buy me candy. When I was naughty, he would shield me in his arms. Letting our mother beat him instead. After our parents died, Sebastian protected me even more carefully. If any man so much as looked at me, his blood pressure would spike. He’d scold them angrily. But now, I was no longer the sister he cherished and protected. Because I had killed the woman he loved most—Melody. Three years ago. On the eve of Sebastian’s wedding. Melody and her sister Natalie were in a car accident. Melody died on the spot. And Natalie told Sebastian. “Dora called and told us to drive in the rain to buy cupcakes. That’s why we got into the accident.” That day, Sebastian ignored my protests. He slapped me twice. “Dora, how could you be so greedy? Don’t you know Melody was pregnant! You killed the two people I loved most!” That day, his eyes were bloodshot. He wanted nothing more than to sew shut my mouth—so gluttonous and full of lies. Until Natalie’s understanding father stopped Sebastian. “Natural disasters are worse than human error. Don’t blame Dora.” Only then did Sebastian reluctantly let me go. After Melody’s funeral, Sebastian went abroad to manage the business she left behind. To let Sebastian focus on work, Natalie’s parents took me in. And my nightmare began.

Sebastian led me toward the parking lot. He didn’t say a word the entire way. The Sebastian who used to remind me to be careful even when walking was gone. And I was terrifyingly quiet. I used to have endless things to talk about with Sebastian. But not anymore. Because I was sick. After Sebastian went abroad, Natalie wanted nothing more than for me to die immediately. That year I was a senior in high school, in the same class as Natalie. She would bully me with others every day. One day, she had a group throw me into a sewage ditch in the rain. She said I was a sewer rat, unworthy of living in her family’s home. Then she brought me to an abandoned factory. Her three followers stripped off my clothes and pressed cigarette butts hard into my arms. Hearing my anguished screams excited them. Those disgusting bodies pressed onto me one after another. They complained about how dirty and smelly I was from the filthy water while violating me at will. And Natalie turned on her phone, recording every expression and movement with her camera. Afterward, they threatened me with the video not to report it to the police, then left. I dragged my broken body up and called Sebastian. Crying, I said Natalie and her followers had bullied me. Sebastian paused. “Dora, you owe the family a life, but they took you in without holding a grudge. Natalie was very close to her sister. She’s just venting. Why are you being so unreasonable? Don’t you know how to be grateful?” In that moment, my heart shattered along with my filthy body. I gripped the phone and finally told him the truth. “Sebastian, it wasn’t ordinary bullying… Natalie had people sexually assault me in turns. Please come back and take me away from this family, okay?” But my desperate pleading didn’t earn Sebastian’s sympathy or trust. Because Natalie produced a forged gynecological examination report. In black and white, it was crystal clear. “No bodily fluids detected, no evidence of sexual assault… old hymenal tear.” When Sebastian received the photo of the diagnosis. His roar nearly burst my eardrums. “Dora! You degraded yourself! You already slept around with men and now you’re falsely accusing Natalie! You’ve disappointed me so much!” Sebastian hung up. And never contacted me again after that. That day, I dragged my broken body home. I scrubbed my skin raw until it bled. I had thought about ending my life. But when I thought of Sebastian. I retreated from the idea. I couldn’t die, because Sebastian only had me as family. If I died, Sebastian wouldn’t be able to go on living. I hid all my grievances, studied desperately, and tried my hardest to stay alive. All I thought about was. After the SATs end, after Sebastian returns home. My days would get better. But Natalie didn’t give me that chance. Three days before the SATs. She tied me up and threw me in a field during a torrential downpour. I developed a high fever and missed the SATs. And she sent me to a psychiatric sanatorium. She told the doctor I frequently self-harmed and then played the victim in front of others. That day, I was diagnosed with Munchausen syndrome. A condition where people seek attention and sympathy through lies or self-harm. All my injuries were classified as self-inflicted, all my protests classified as lies. I was admitted to that hellish sanatorium. I stayed there for two years.

Sebastian brought me to the cemetery. Kneeling before Melody’s tombstone, I could no longer control my tears. Sebastian tossed me a few tissues. “How dare you cry in front of Melody? Put away your cheap tears, don’t defile her tombstone.” He didn’t know I wished more than anyone that she was still alive. That way she could tell everyone about the phone call I made to her before the accident. I was only reminding her the weather was bad and to come home early. I never said anything about asking her to buy me cupcakes. I wiped away my tears and apologized to Melody’s photo. “Melody, I’m sorry.” The attending physician said as long as I learned to be compliant, Sebastian wouldn’t hate me anymore. Sebastian was my only family left in this world. It didn’t matter if I was wronged, it didn’t matter if he misunderstood me. As long as he didn’t abandon me. After I knelt down, my sleeve rolled up. Sebastian suddenly gripped my wrist tightly. He pulled up my sleeve. My arm was covered with horrifying scars. From whipping, from knife cuts, and from cigarette burns. Below the scars, there was even a tattoo! “Self-harm, tattoos, smoking—Dora, do you have to degrade yourself like this? “Just to make me feel sorry for you, you hurt yourself this way? “If you don’t love yourself, then just go die!” I wanted to explain, but in the end I held it back. Everyone knew I had Munchausen syndrome. Sebastian wouldn’t believe any truth that came from my mouth. All my injuries, and that tattoo. Were all forced on me by Natalie after Sebastian went abroad. In those dark days. Natalie trampled me at will. She thought this would make me want to die. But I didn’t. My endurance made her worse. My resilience drove her crazy. Later, Natalie went mad and force-fed me laxatives. She watched me lose control in front of everyone. She pinched her nose and walked toward me. Whispering to me. “Dora, do you know why I hate you so much? Because you ruined my relationship with Sebastian.” Natalie said she and her sister both liked Sebastian. But because I was more attached to Melody, Sebastian fell in love with Melody. “Dora, I hate Melody, and I hate you too. You don’t know this, but that day it was my suggestion for her to buy cupcakes…” So it was clearly Natalie’s suggestion that took her own sister’s life. Yet she pinned the blame on me. That day, she led me away in front of the entire school. Everyone said Natalie was kind, to endure my foul odor from losing control and take me away to clean up. But no one knew. She threw me into a field during a torrential downpour. That day I went back and developed a high fever. I called out Sebastian’s name. This completely enraged Natalie. She pulled up those videos on her phone. “Dora, if your brother saw how wanton you look in these videos, would he still like you?” I forced myself up to grab her phone. But she suddenly threw herself down the stairs. That day, Natalie’s mother sent Sebastian the surveillance footage of me pushing Natalie. Natalie suggested taking me to a psychiatric sanatorium for treatment. Sebastian agreed without a second thought. He trusted the family too much. So he had no idea what I went through. Looking at Sebastian before me. I recalled the day our parents died. He held me and said. “Don’t be afraid, Dora. From now on, no matter what happens, Sebastian will protect you.” My eyes stung. I tried to explain to him. But then I saw him caressing Melody’s tombstone. “Melody, I’m back. Mom and Dad want me to try things out with Natalie. Would you bless us?”

My throat tightened. I swallowed all my protests. I didn’t know how I got in the car. When I came to, we had already arrived at the family’s villa. The family had prepared a lavish dinner to welcome us. Natalie passed by me, whispering in my ear. “I specially made cupcakes for you. You must eat them all.” My stomach convulsed. After Sebastian went abroad, Natalie would prepare cupcakes for me every meal. Under her intimidation, I had no choice but to eat them. And every time I ate them, it made Natalie’s mother break down. Gradually, Natalie’s mother looked at me with increasing hatred. Eventually, even when she witnessed Natalie bullying me with her own eyes. She would choose to turn a blind eye. So when the family sent me to the sanatorium. I even felt somewhat relieved. Because I wouldn’t have to eat cupcakes anymore. But what I didn’t expect was that when I got there, not only did I have to eat them. They were also laced with things. The attending physician put meat worms and cockroaches in the cakes. He even used rat meat and snake meat to replace the fruit. Forcing me to eat. When I refused, he’d use a cattle prod. Later, I’d be so scared I’d wet myself just hearing the word cupcake. Only then was the attending physician satisfied. I sat at the table, trembling all over. Natalie’s mother sighed. “Dora, the way you’re acting makes your brother think you’ve suffered so much in our home.” Sebastian looked at me coldly. “Dora, what are you being fragile about now? You can’t even eat a meal without wanting me to feel sorry for you?” Before, whenever I sat at the table in a daze. Sebastian would always thoughtfully ask if there were no dishes to my taste. But now, my pain was treated as affectation. I forced down my nausea and picked up that cupcake, eating it in large bites. Sebastian froze for a few seconds. Suddenly he snatched my bowl and slapped me twice. “Dora! Melody died because of this thing, and you can still eat it!”

My face stung. But I felt a sense of relief in my heart. Because the bowl was knocked over, I didn’t have to eat anymore. Natalie cried out and rushed over to shield me. Choking up, she said to Sebastian. “Sebastian, don’t do this. My sister has been gone for three years. You should let go of the past, and let go of Dora’s mistake too.” With that. She brought me to the bathroom to clean up. As soon as we entered, she pinned me against the wall. “Dora, you see now, don’t you? You’re nothing in your brother’s heart! Complaining won’t help!” My body slowly slid down. “Natalie, I won’t tell Sebastian anything. Sebastian took me to the cemetery today. I already admitted it was my fault in front of him and apologized to Melody.” Natalie yanked me up viciously. “You went to the cemetery?” A trace of triumphant laughter slid through my eyes. I knew she was angry. Natalie grabbed my throat. “What are you smiling about? Smiling because I have no place in his heart?” As she spoke, she pulled out a razor blade from somewhere. She grabbed my wrist and slashed it directly. Blood gushed out. Natalie screamed! “Sebastian, Dora’s trying to kill herself!”

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My husband, Michael, was away on a business trip in France. On Thanksgiving Day, he asked me to go back to his hometown and spend the holiday with his parents. I took a red-eye flight back to Michael’s family home. The moment I walked through the door, my mother-in-law, Susan Baker, pointed at a table piled high with ingredients. “You’re making Thanksgiving dinner this year! Remember, just like last year, it has to be ten dishes!” I paused, “Don’t you have a nanny?” Susan frowned. “Tiffany works so hard taking care of us normally. Since you’re back, you should let her rest.” I countered, “Isn’t that her job? Besides, my job is also very demanding.” That sentence upset both my father-in-law and mother-in-law. My father-in-law, Robert Baker, slammed his hand on the table. “It’s Thanksgiving, but you don’t show an ounce of gratitude! It seems Tiffany is more suitable to be our daughter-in-law than you are!” I scoffed. Fine, if that’s how it is, I won’t invest a single cent in your company anymore! You can all go bankrupt.

On Thanksgiving Day, I bought a bunch of gifts to visit Robert and Susan. But when I arrived, I wasn’t met with a warm welcome. The nanny, Tiffany, was snuggled between them, her right arm intimately linked with Susan’s. The three of them were chatting and laughing, just like a family. Before I could even speak, Susan’s voice was heavy with dissatisfaction: “So you finally found time to come back and see us.” I explained, “Michael and I are both too busy with work.” Susan continued to complain, “If it wasn’t for you, my son wouldn’t have left us to work in New York.” I still managed a strained smile. “Once work isn’t so crazy next year, Michael and I will come back to visit you more often.” With that, I handed the gifts to Susan. Susan pursed her lips and said, “That’s more like it! But don’t think buying us a few gifts means you care about us.” After dinner, just as I was about to sit down and rest, trying to shake off the fatigue from my travels, Susan said, “This year’s Thanksgiving dinner, you’re making it. Remember, just like last year, it has to be ten dishes.” I froze, instinctively saying, “Isn’t that Tiffany’s job?” Susan immediately frowned, setting down her water glass, her face darkening. “Tiffany works so hard taking care of us, she’s exhausted all day long. Now that you’re back, can’t you let her rest?” “I’m exhausted from work too,” I looked at them, completely perplexed. “I work overtime every day, and I bought a 1 AM flight ticket just to be here with you for Thanksgiving. I barely have the energy to make 10 dishes right now.” “Besides, I pay her so much money to do these things, don’t I? It makes no sense for me to pay her and then do the work myself.” Tiffany stood nearby, head bowed, looking as if she’d been wronged. Robert slammed his hand on the table, his face stern, and he angrily yelled at me, “What do you see besides money? You took my son away for money, and now you’re not even willing to make dinner!” “You don’t come home, you never visit, and now that you are home, you talk about money. I think you should just live with your money and your work. Why even bother coming back!” Susan sighed, her eyes full of disappointment. “Exactly. You and Michael only come home once a year. Tiffany has been the one taking care of us. When we get sick, it’s always Tiffany who looks after us. As a daughter-in-law, what have you ever done for us?” As soon as she finished speaking, Tiffany gently stepped forward, took Susan’s hand, and softly comforted her. “Aunt Susan, please don’t be angry. Emily is a CEO; she must be much busier than a nanny like me.” Listening to them, I was so angry I almost laughed. I didn’t care about them? Their company only survived because of my investments. Even Tiffany’s salary was paid by me.

How could they see it as if I’d done nothing? I clenched my fists, suppressing the anger bubbling inside me. “It’s unfair for you to say that, isn’t it? If it weren’t for…” “You say I don’t care about you, that I only care about work and making money? But haven’t the earnings I made been invested in your company? And I call you on FaceTime regularly, so it’s not like I completely neglect you, is it?” Robert immediately scowled. “But you didn’t even come home last year for Thanksgiving or Christmas, is that acceptable? Besides, my company is doing very well, it doesn’t need your investment at all. You just want to use my company to make more money.” “Uncle Robert, please don’t be angry,” Tiffany quickly stepped forward, gently tugging Robert’s arm, a submissive smile on her face. “Emily has it tough working in New York, she definitely still thinks about you both.” But Robert became even angrier after hearing that. “So what if she’s a CEO? What’s a woman doing working so hard? Her main task is to have a child for our Michael!” Susan chimed in, “Emily, you’re not getting any younger, you really should be thinking about having children.” I rejected it without a second thought. “I’ve said it before, I’m focusing on my career for the next three years. I’ll consider having children after that.” “Three more years?” Robert’s face turned ashen. “Can you even get pregnant in three years?” “Why not?” I met his gaze. “You—” Robert’s chest heaved with anger. “You are truly selfish! What if, in three years, you’re too old and can’t have children? Will my son have to be childfree with you for the rest of his life?” I frowned. “I’m only 30, I’m still young! How could I lose my fertility in three years?” Robert slammed his hand on the table, laying down a harsh ultimatum. “Since you refuse to have children, then I’ll have no choice but to persuade Michael to divorce you. I’ll have him marry Tiffany!” I laughed in exasperation. “When Michael proposed to me back then, weren’t you all very supportive?” I looked at them, my voice calm. “At that time, your company was on the verge of bankruptcy. If it weren’t for my investment, how could your company be making money now?” “Now that you have money, you want to kick me out?” I shook my head, continuing, “No way!” Robert’s brows furrowed, and his voice immediately rose. “No matter what, if you can’t have children, you’re not qualified to be our daughter-in-law! Of course, you still have one option.” I asked him, “What option?” He cleared his throat, then said, “You hand over your company in New York to my son, resign as CEO, and come back here to take care of us.” Hearing such an outrageous request, I laughed in disbelief. “That’s even more impossible!” “So you’re just going to abandon us?” Susan chimed in, her face full of disapproval. “I didn’t say I’d abandon you,” I took a deep breath and offered a solution. “If you genuinely feel lonely, move to New York. That way, Michael and I can visit you often.” Robert immediately waved his hand, looking impatient. “Move to New York? We’ve lived here for decades, all our relatives and friends are here. Going to an unfamiliar place? We wouldn’t get used to it.” Susan nodded along. “Exactly, New York is nowhere near as comfortable as living here. We’re not going.” I frowned. “If you don’t want to go, and I can’t resign, much less abandon my company, then there’s nothing I can do.” Robert opened his mouth, wanting to continue yelling, but Tiffany quickly walked over, softly interjecting, “Uncle Robert, Aunt Susan, Emily rarely comes home. It’s Thanksgiving, let’s not fight.” She then turned to me, her smile docile. “Emily, Uncle Robert and Aunt Susan are just getting older and want someone by their side. It’s only natural, you shouldn’t be angry.” Robert’s expression softened slightly at her words, and his gaze towards Tiffany became instantly gentle. “Tiffany is so sensible, she understands us. Not like you, who only cares about work and money.” I couldn’t be bothered to argue with them anymore. Every word felt exhausting, so I turned and walked toward my room. The moment I pushed open the door, I froze.

My bed was covered with unfamiliar sheets and bedding, skincare products and hair ties were on my desk, and the closet held several women’s clothes. It clearly looked like someone had been living here long-term. I spun around, looking at Tiffany, who had followed me. “Don’t you have your own room? Why are you living in my room without permission?” Tiffany’s eyes flickered, and she lowered her head, looking flustered. “Emily, I’m sorry, I…” Before she could finish, Susan interjected to explain for her. “Tiffany’s room had a broken AC before, and it couldn’t be fixed after several attempts. It was cold back then, so I let her stay in your room.” “Anyway, you don’t come back to stay, so it’s just sitting empty.” My anger flared up instantly. “Even if I don’t come back to stay, it’s still Michael’s and my room! How dare you let her live here without my permission?” “How dare we?” Robert roared, his face ashen. “This house was bought by my son! We can let anyone we want live here. Not only can Tiffany stay, we can even kick you out!” His words made me tremble with rage. Suddenly, they all felt like strangers. I stopped arguing, turned, walked to the living room, and grabbed my suitcase. “Fine, I’m leaving!” Robert scoffed, his face full of disdain. “If you’ve got the guts, divorce my son quickly! And never come back!” Susan opened her mouth, but in the end, she only sighed and said nothing more. Tiffany stood by, speaking anxiously. “Emily, don’t be angry, it’s all my fault. I’ll move out right away…” I couldn’t be bothered to listen to her. I pulled my suitcase and walked out the door without looking back. Dragging my heavy luggage, I walked step by step, finally hailing a cab to a nearby hotel. The next day at noon, Michael’s cousin, Lisa Miller, called. “Emily, there’s a family gathering today. Aren’t you back? Come over quickly.” “Got it, I’ll be right there.” I hung up, quickly tidied myself up, and rushed to the banquet hall. As soon as I arrived, I saw relatives gathered from a distance. Robert and Susan were there too. But as I got closer, I stopped in my tracks—Tiffany had also come, standing next to Susan. The large family sat around a round table. During the meal, Susan said: “Since all the relatives are here today, Robert and I also have something to say.” Robert took over, looking at everyone. “We’re going to persuade Michael to divorce you and marry Tiffany.” As soon as these words were out, the table instantly fell silent, and relatives exchanged bewildered glances. Susan followed up, “Tiffany is truly thoughtful. She’s by our side every day, taking care of us, more caring than a daughter.” After Susan spoke, the relatives instinctively looked at me. I said nothing. Robert glanced at me, his tone immediately hardening. “Unlike Emily, who you can’t see all year round. The moment she comes home, she talks about money.” “We asked her to resign and come back to take care of us, but she refused; we asked her to have children, but she wasn’t willing.” “I’ve never seen such a selfish woman.” Lisa, seeing the situation, quickly tried to mediate. “Uncle Robert, Emily actually cares about you a lot. She’s genuinely busy with work and under a lot of pressure. Please don’t talk about her like that.” Susan immediately waved her hand, her face looking unpleasant. “All she cares about is making money! What’s the point of having so much money if she can’t be by our side? Tiffany is different; she even gives me a massage every night before I sleep!” Robert grew more agitated, his voice rising slightly. “Since Emily isn’t suitable to be our daughter-in-law, then we’ll just get a new one!” The entire table of relatives was completely stunned, looking from one person to another, no one daring to speak. Some wanted to persuade them, but seeing Robert and Susan’s resolute attitude, they ultimately swallowed their words. The dinner ended in a strange atmosphere.

Afterward, Lisa pulled me aside, her face full of worry. “Emily, they must have been manipulated by that nanny. How can they say Michael should marry Tiffany? You need to go back and talk to them properly.” I looked at Tiffany, who was chatting and laughing with Robert and Susan in the distance, and gently shook my head. “Maybe they always wanted someone who could be by their side every day. They also resent me for taking their son to New York.” The third day, I prepared to return to New York. Before leaving, I called Robert, but no one answered. I called Susan, and she hung up directly. I called several times, all rejected. I looked at my phone, no longer insistent, and dragged my suitcase to the airport, embarking on my journey back to New York. Unexpectedly, upon my return, Michael angrily confronted me: “I asked you to spend Thanksgiving with my parents, how did you manage to upset them so much that they got sick?” I was stunned. “They were the ones who wanted to argue with me; I didn’t provoke them!” Michael pulled out his phone and showed me photos of his parents in the hospital. “How do you explain this?!” I gave a bitter laugh. How could I explain? Michael continued, “Maybe my parents’ suggestion is right. I shouldn’t have come to New York for you. Maybe you’re just not suitable to be a wife.” My mouth twitched. I asked, “So? Are you going to divorce me?” Michael was silent for a moment, then said, “I didn’t say I want a divorce, but you need to apologize to my parents!” My eyes reddened. I hadn’t expected even him to side with his parents. “What if I don’t apologize?” “Then don’t blame me for being ruthless!” After Michael finished speaking, he started packing his bags. Before leaving, he told me: “I’m going back to see my parents. Let’s get a divorce!” Over the next few weeks, I kept seeing Tiffany’s Ins posts: They were eating barbecue together, the four of them posing intimately for a photo. They were walking in the park, Tiffany holding Susan and Michael’s arms, smiling sweetly. I scrolled through the screen, not liking or commenting, pretending I didn’t see anything. A few days later, a call suddenly came in. It was Susan. As soon as I picked up, I heard her voice, filled with dissatisfaction: “Emily, why hasn’t this month’s company investment arrived yet? And Tiffany’s salary, why haven’t you paid that either?”

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When I was three, scavenging for food, I was bullied until a couple rescued me. Back then, I still didn’t know that the blonde woman was the head of the New York Mafia, and the tattooed man was the leader of all the Motorcycle Clubs in America. The blonde woman taught me to shoot, and the tattooed man taught me how to race. For eighteen years, they protected me fiercely. Then my biological parents tracked me down. That’s when I found out I was the true heir to the Sterlings, a family worth hundreds of millions. But the day I was supposed to move in with them, Tiffany, the fake daughter, blocked my way. She looked down at me, a cold sneer on her face, and told me to crawl through the pet door like a stray to get inside. I stood my ground. Brandon Sterling, the eldest brother, scowled and snapped: “It’s just a pet door! Don’t be ungrateful, Jade! Tiffany letting you come home at all is a huge favor.” Caleb Sterling, my younger brother, scoffed, his face full of disdain: “A stray like you dares to upset Tiffany? Get lost!” I turned to my biological parents. They just said: “Tiffany gets emotional. She’s upset you’re back, so just humor her.” Looking at their aggressive stares, I calmly pulled out my phone and messaged my adoptive parents: “Mom and Dad, the Sterlings are bullying me. Come get your revenge, fast!”

The second I sent the message, Caleb lunged forward and snatched my phone. The screen was open to the “Jax and Sera’s One and Only Baby” family SnapChat group. Two messages popped up instantly: Mommy: Baby, don’t be scared! I’m flooring it. Your dad and I are coming for them! Daddy: Who the hell dares lay a hand on my girl? The Sterlings, huh? I’ll make sure they’re bankrupt by sundown! He looked at the two jumping Jersey Shore-style avatars, scoffed aloud, and mockingly repeated the ridiculously arrogant messages for my biological parents to hear. Tiffany Sterling, the fake daughter, burst out laughing so hard she couldn’t stand straight. Wiping away tears of mirth, she sneered: “I’m dying! Jade, your two street thug parents think they can go up against the Sterlings?” I blinked. Didn’t they bother to do their homework before claiming me? My adoptive parents’ style might be a little gaudy, and their manners unconventional, but they’re definitely not thugs! Mrs. Sterling’s face completely darkened. Her gaze held nothing but undisguised disgust. She stepped forward, her voice sharp, leaving no room for argument: “How can a Sterling be associated with thugs? It’d be a scandal! We’d be a laughingstock, completely ruining the Sterling family’s reputation!” “Jade, now that you’re back with the Sterlings, you must cut all ties with those unsavory characters!” With that, she gave Caleb a look, signaling him to hand the phone back to me. “Delete all your adoptive parents’ contacts right now. Sever all contact! This is your first test to rejoin the Sterling family.” I swallowed my anger, ready to grab my phone and leave. But just as my fingers brushed the device, Tiffany snatched it away. She pouted and complained to Mrs. Sterling: “Mom, look at Jade! She’s got that cold look on her face. She clearly doesn’t want to delete them. She doesn’t respect you at all.” “Since she won’t do it, I, as her older sister, will kindly help her! We don’t want these low-lives bothering the Sterlings later!” This family was so infuriating, I almost laughed. “The wealthy Sterling family”? In my eyes, they were nothing. This “true heir” nonsense? Whoever wants it can have it. I, Jade Walker, don’t care for it!

I held out my hand to Tiffany, my voice cold: “Give me back my phone!” But Tiffany ducked behind Brandon, stuck out her tongue at me, and rapidly tapped the phone screen. She exited the family group, deleted the contacts, all before I could even react. Once she was done, she showed me the empty contact list, her eyes gleaming with triumph. “I don’t care about the phone. Just give me back the charm!” Attached to my phone case was a faded, worn-out little bear charm. My adoptive parents bought it for me from a street vendor when I was three, after some kids threw rocks at me while I was scavenging and made me cry. It was the first gift I had ever received. For eighteen years, I had kept it with me, treasuring it like gold. Tiffany’s gaze fell on the tattered little bear, and a flicker of malice crossed her eyes. She slammed the phone on the ground and stomped on it. “Ugh, you call this piece of trash a treasure? It’s probably crawling with germs. It should have been thrown in the trash a long time ago.” “The Sterlings don’t tolerate such dirty things. I’m just helping you declutter!” With that, she ground her high heel into it several times. The once-chubby little bear was instantly crushed, its cotton stuffing spilling out. My face went pale. I quickly bent down to pick it up. But just as my fingers touched the charm, Tiffany’s heel came down hard on my hand. Excruciating pain shot from my fingertips through my entire body. I bit down hard, yanking my hand back. My knuckles were already bruised and swollen, a sickening sight. The next second, Tiffany shrieked and dramatically collapsed to the ground. Her eyes welled up with tears instantly. She looked at Mr. and Mrs. Sterling, sobbing plaintively: “Mom, Dad, I was just trying to help Jade get rid of some dirty things, but she deliberately pushed me… Is it because I’m the fake daughter that I deserve to be bullied like this…?” Caleb immediately shielded Tiffany, glaring at me with utter disgust: “I only recognize Tiffany as my sister. A malicious woman like you doesn’t deserve to be my sister!” “I’m warning you, don’t cause a scene here, or you’ll never set foot in the Sterling family home again.” Brandon’s face instantly turned furious. Without a word, he roughly shoved me away. The force was immense. I stumbled back several steps, my lower back hitting the edge of a flower bed with a painful thud. The pain was so intense I couldn’t straighten up. He glared down at me, his voice icy: “Get down on your knees and apologize to Tiffany right now! We raised her with love. No one has ever dared to upset her. How dare you, a wild girl we just met, hurt her?” Only then did Mr. Sterling, who had been observing coldly, finally speak, and his words immediately condemned me. “Jade, since you pushed Tiffany, you should apologize to her.” Mrs. Sterling sharply chimed in: “The Sterling family values respect and rules. When you make a mistake, you must kneel and apologize sincerely!” They acted as if they were blind, completely ignoring my injured hand. Or rather, they simply didn’t care about me. My hand still throbbed faintly, but my heart felt strangely calm, even a little mocking. Just wait. When my parents show up, They’ll be the ones on their knees, crying and begging.

“I won’t apologize, and I won’t kneel.” I straightened my back, clenched my fists, my eyes as cold as ice, showing no sign of submission. My defiance completely enraged the Sterlings. “Fine! Fine, then!” Brandon gritted his teeth in anger. He snatched my phone from the ground, grabbed my suitcase from beside me, and strode towards the pool. “Since you insist on getting tangled up with those thugs and refusing to change, I’ll put an end to all your hopes today!” “No!” I raced towards him like a madwoman, but it was too late. My suitcase and phone plunged heavily into the pool, splashing water everywhere, and instantly sank. Without hesitation, I dove into the pool. The icy water enveloped me. I frantically searched, swimming three laps back and forth, until I finally retrieved the tattered little bear. When I stumbled out of the pool, I was drenched, my clothes clinging to me, my lips purple with cold, shivering uncontrollably. Tiffany stood there, arms crossed, looking down at me with arrogant disdain. Suddenly, her gaze fell on a faint red mark on my neck. As if she’d found a major piece of evidence, she immediately shouted: “Jade, is that a hickey on your neck?!” She feigned surprise, covering her mouth, her voice laced with malicious speculation: “Oh my god, did you have sex with a thug already?!” “Or… did you catch some dirty disease? After all, the circles you ran in were so messed up, who knows what kind of nasty stuff you might have picked up…” At that, Mr. and Mrs. Sterling’s faces instantly changed. Mrs. Sterling recoiled half a step, her face twisted in disgust: “Your adoptive mother, with her weird outfits, always hanging around on the streets with those thugs. She clearly has a questionable private life. What kind of child could she raise?” “Jade, tell us honestly, have you been fooling around outside?” Mr. Sterling frowned, his voice sharp: “Absolutely not! We need to take her to the hospital for a check-up, see if she’s ‘clean’!” Brandon and Caleb stepped forward, grabbing my arms, one on each side, with such force I thought my bones would shatter. No matter how much I struggled, they roughly shoved me into the car. “Don’t be difficult. You’re getting this check-up whether you like it or not!” The car sped off, heading straight for the hospital. As soon as we entered the clinic, Mrs. Sterling grabbed Dr. Miller’s hand and loudly declared, her voice so piercing people in the next department could hear: “Doctor, is that a hickey on her neck, or some dirty disease? My daughter lived with thugs for over ten years, please, you have to give her a thorough check-up!” Her words made everyone around us turn their heads. Those stares – disdainful, scrutinizing, disgusted – felt like a thousand needles pricking my skin. I bit my lip so hard I tasted blood. The results came back quickly. Dr. Miller held the report, looking at Mr. and Mrs. Sterling with a serious expression: “The results are completely normal. She has no infectious diseases. And this young woman is chaste; she has no sexual history. The red mark on her neck is just a common allergy. As parents, how could you so unfairly slander your child’s reputation? If word gets out, it could ruin her life.” The clinic fell into a sudden, stunned silence. But there was no trace of guilt on the Sterlings’ faces. Mrs. Sterling, instead, frowned and chastised me: “If you were ‘clean,’ why didn’t you say so sooner? You wasted our time and made us look foolish in front of Dr. Miller!” I forced a smile, looking into her eyes, and asked the question burning in my heart: “You don’t love me at all, so why did you go to such lengths to find me?”

Mrs. Sterling’s face froze. She looked away awkwardly, not answering. Mr. Sterling was silent for a moment, then finally spoke. But every word was a dagger twisting in my gut. “Since you asked, I’ll tell you the truth. Ten years ago, we discovered Tiffany wasn’t our biological daughter. But we’d raised her for so many years, we’d already accepted her. We even legally changed her name to Tiffany, ensuring she’d remain the Sterling family’s true daughter forever.” “But then, your mother was diagnosed with kidney failure and desperately needed a transplant. That’s why we had to find you. Your match was perfect.” “We gave you life. Your mother needs saving now, and it’s only natural for you to give her a kidney in return. It’s your responsibility, one you can’t escape.” His words cleared the fog, revealing the harsh truth. The supposed longing and guilt I saw at our first meeting were all fake. This reunion was a cold, calculated scheme from the very beginning. They had two biological sons, and Tiffany, whom they’d coddled for twenty-one years. But they couldn’t bear for any of those children to donate a kidney. So, they set their sights on me, their biological daughter for whom they felt no affection. They found me back, simply because I was the one they could sacrifice without hesitation. I looked up at them, my eyes filled with nothing but sarcasm: “You have two biological sons, don’t you? Their matches must be highly compatible too.” The faces of the five Sterlings instantly changed. Mr. Sterling immediately scowled, pointing at me and snapping angrily: “Nonsense! Your brother is the Sterling family heir, and your younger brother is still a child. How dare you even think of them?!” Mrs. Sterling whirled around, glaring at me with a savage fury, as if she wanted to tear me limb from limb: “They’re men! What if losing a kidney ruins their health for good?!” “Jade, how can you be so malicious at such a young age, wanting to harm your own brothers?!” Tiffany quickly stepped forward to support Mrs. Sterling, feigning understanding: “Mom, it’s just a shame I’m not your biological daughter, otherwise I’d gladly give my life to save you.” The Sterlings looked at me with even greater contempt. Brandon stepped forward, pulling an organ donation agreement from his jacket, and promised: “Jade, donating a kidney is your second test to join the Sterling family.” “As long as you sign this agreement, from now on, you’ll be a real Sterling.” “A ‘Sterling family member’?” I scoffed, my voice dripping with defiance. “I never wanted to be a Sterling in the first place!” “I’ll never donate that kidney!” With that, I turned to leave. “Stop!” I ignored the angry shouts behind me. But just as I pulled open the clinic door, two bodyguards blocked me. They roughly dragged me back, forcing my hand to sign the agreement. Then, I was bound hand and foot and dragged into the operating room. The doctor picked up a needle for anesthesia, but Tiffany immediately shrieked to stop him: “No anesthesia! She thinks she’s so tough? If she dares to cross the Sterlings, she deserves a lesson!” The doctor paused, looking uncomfortable, and instinctively glanced at Mrs. Sterling. “But… operating without anesthesia, she’ll die of pain!” Mrs. Sterling immediately sneered, her voice harsh: “If she dies of pain, it’s her own fault! She wasn’t obedient, so she’ll pay the price. We’ll take responsibility for anything that happens, just do it!” The gleaming scalpel slowly approached, about to pierce my skin. I stared desperately at the stark white ceiling, trembling uncontrollably. Just then, BANG—a deafening crash! The heavy operating room door exploded inward. A sleek, roaring motorcycle burst through the door, engine screaming, and skidded to a halt beside the operating table. My adoptive mother, Seraphina Rossi, ripped off her helmet, hurled it, and it precisely struck the scalpel from the doctor’s hand. My adoptive father, Jax Walker, kicked over the lead surgeon, his eyes bloodshot as he scanned the room, roaring: “Who the hell dares lay a hand on my daughter?!”

🌟 Continue the story here 👉🏻 📲 Download the “NovelMaster” app 🔍 search for “388500”, and watch the full series ✨! #NovelMaster

It started with a pair of musical theater tickets. I’d posted them on a local resale app, hoping to recoup some of the cost of a night I was no longer going to spend with my husband. A girl messaged me almost immediately. She was polite at first, asking for a discount, and then she started to overshare—the way young women in their early twenties often do when they think their lives are the start of a movie. She told me she was a new intern in the city. Her boyfriend, she said, had rented a luxury penthouse right by the theater district just so he could be close enough to take care of her. She went on about how wealthy he was, how he insisted on “taking care of everything,” but she claimed she was “old-fashioned” and didn’t want to spend his money too freely. Finally, she asked if I’d take fifty dollars off the price. She even offered to meet me right outside my office building to pick them up. Reading her messages, I felt a pang of nostalgia. I remembered my own college days, dating the man who became my husband. We’d once stood for three hours in the freezing rain just to see a shitty underground garage band because the tickets were ten dollars. Even though I’m just a mid-level corporate drone now, I figured I was more financially stable than a fresh intern. In a moment of misplaced sisterly solidarity, I agreed to the discount. That evening, two figures appeared under the streetlights outside my office. The girl was glowing, her face full of that smug, youthful triumph. She was clinging to the arm of a man, bragging about how she was a “bargain hunter” for snagging VIP seats at half price. The man looked down at her with a look of pure, indulgent adoration. He praised her for being so thoughtful about “his” money. Then, his voice dropped into that smooth, cultured tone I knew better than my own heartbeat. “Honey, you don’t have to deprive yourself,” he said, his voice carrying clearly in the cool night air. “My conducting fee for a single performance could buy a thousand of these tickets. I’m the Principal Conductor of the most prestigious orchestra in the country. You deserve the best.” He looked up then, a confident smile playing on his lips. And in that second, when our eyes met, the world didn’t just stop—it shattered. Standing in front of me, draped in a bespoke wool coat, was the man who had told me two weeks ago that he was heading to a remote village in the Ozarks to teach music to underprivileged children for six months. My husband, Sean. 1 Sean’s smile didn’t just fade; it turned to stone. He looked down quickly, his fingers twitching to pinch the bridge of his nose. It was his “tell.” Every time he was cornered, every time he’d forgotten to pay a bill or stayed out too late, he did that. “What’s wrong? Do you know her?” the girl asked, tilting her head to look at him. Sean cleared his throat, his gaze carefully avoiding mine, landing somewhere near my shoes. “No. I just… I thought she was someone else. My mistake.” My mistake. We had been married for five years. Five years of me working double shifts so he could “focus on his craft.” Five years of cramped basement apartments and street-vendor dinners. He had never even given me a real wedding; he claimed he was “too bohemian” for the spectacle, and we’d simply signed some papers he’d brought home one night. And now, to him, I was just a “mistake.” I clenched my fists so hard my nails bit into my palms, the sharp sting the only thing keeping the hot, acidic tears at bay. The girl didn’t notice the tension. She beamed at me. “Thank you so much for the deal, Claire! Oh, my name is Lila. We should totally exchange numbers. If you ever have more tickets, let me know. I’m basically always in this neighborhood now.” She pulled out her phone. The screen lit up, and there it was—the wallpaper. A photo of her and Sean at a beach, the ocean a piercing, crystalline blue behind them. I knew that beach. Last summer, I had saved every cent for two months, hoping to surprise Sean with a trip to the coast. He told me it was too expensive. He said the money would be better spent on our “future” house fund. It wasn’t that the beach was too expensive. It was that going there with me was too expensive. While I was skipping lunches to build our future, he was using my hard-earned money to take another woman to the ocean of my dreams. I bit my lip until I tasted copper, forced a robotic smile, and scanned her QR code. Sean took Lila’s shoulder and guided her toward a sleek black SUV parked at the curb. I stood there, a ghost on the sidewalk, watching the taillights fade into the city traffic before I finally moved. I walked home in a trance. When I got inside, I didn’t turn on the lights. I just sat on the floor, leaning against the door, my face buried in my hands. I didn’t cry. My eyes felt like they were filled with sand—dry, scratching, painful. At 11:00 PM, the door opened. Sean walked in. He had already changed. Gone was the bespoke coat; he was wearing his old, charcoal-gray hoodie, the one with the frayed cuffs. He looked exactly like the struggling artist I thought I knew. “Claire, let me explain,” he said, crouching down in front of me. His voice was soft, melodic. “Lila is a student at the Conservatory. I’m her mentor for her senior thesis. She’s young, she talks too much… that ‘husband’ and ‘Principal Conductor’ stuff? It’s just an inside joke. She’s a kid, Claire.” I felt a hysterical laugh bubbling in my throat. “Then why are you here? I thought the Ozarks didn’t have cell service. I thought you were supposed to be teaching children in a shack.” He looked away, his jaw tightening. “I had to come back for a few days. Paperwork. Admin stuff. I didn’t want to worry you for such a short trip…” I stared him down. “She said you rented her a luxury penthouse.” Sean was silent for two beats too long. “I helped her find a place. Her family paid for it. Like I said, she exaggerates. Don’t take it so seriously.” I stood up abruptly, my legs shaking. “Sean, do you think I’m actually stupid? Do you think you can just weave a few pretty notes together and I’ll dance to your tune?” He blinked, his brow furrowing with a hint of irritation. “Claire, don’t be dramatic. I came back in the middle of the night to see you. I didn’t come back for an interrogation.” “Dramatic?” I laughed, and finally, the tears broke. “She called you her husband. She called you the greatest conductor in Asia. Your wallpaper is a photo of you two in an intimate embrace on a beach I couldn’t afford to take you to. Are you telling me I’m blind? Or am I just dead to you?” “Enough!” Sean snapped, his voice booming in our small living room. “I told you, it’s a misunderstanding. Can you for once just be supportive instead of obsessing over tiny details? I’m exhausted from working in the field!” Looking at his self-righteous face, I felt a wave of pure nausea. For five years, I thought I was his partner. His rock. But the man standing in front of me was a stranger. Every word he spoke felt rehearsed. “It’s late. Let’s just sleep,” he said, sensing he’d been too harsh. He reached out to stroke my hair. I flinched away. His hand hung in the empty air. “Claire. Trust me.” I didn’t answer. Sean sighed, his patience evaporated. “Fine. Think whatever you want. I’m too tired to coddle you.” He turned away, coldly made the bed, and lay down with his back to me, pulling the duvet over his shoulder. That night, for the first time in our marriage, we were miles apart in a five-foot bed. The next morning, he was gone before the sun was up. He left a note on the kitchen table: [Milk in the fridge. Eat breakfast. Heading back to the site this afternoon. Signal is bad there, might be out of touch for a few days. Love, S.] I crumpled the paper into a ball and threw it into the trash. On the train to work, I opened Lila’s social media. January: A photo of them in Aspen, surrounded by snow. March: A shot from the front row of the Symphony Hall, VIP. And then, a shared link with the headline: “Sean Louis: The Prodigy of the Baton. At 29, He Takes the Reins of the Asia-Pacific Philharmonic.” There was a professional headshot of him. The comments were filled with talk of his prestigious lineage—his grandfather was a legendary virtuoso, his father a world-renowned composer. Sean had been trained in Europe since he was a child. He’d won the Gold Medal at the International Conductors’ Competition at twenty-three. Twenty-five. That was the year we started dating. I remembered that winter. It was freezing. The radiator in my studio apartment had burst, and we were huddled under three blankets, staring at his phone. He’d shown me a listing for a part-time piano teacher at a local mall. “Claire, do you think I should try for it? Twenty bucks an hour. If I work four hours a day, we can actually afford meat this week.” I had encouraged him with everything I had. “Yes! You’re so talented, Sean. They’d be lucky to have you.” That night, he’d held me and whispered, “Just wait for me, Claire. Once I’m established, I won’t let you work so hard anymore.” I had buried my face in his chest, feeling like the luckiest woman alive. Now, the memory felt like a physical blow to the face. He was established. He just used my income to build a nest for another woman. I kept scrolling. July. A photo that stopped my heart. It was a marriage certificate. The caption read: [Official! As of today, I’m Mrs. Sean Louis. He told me he’s going to give me the world.] The seal on the document was clear. The husband’s name: Sean Louis. My head spun. I felt cold, then hot, then numb. The papers he had brought home to our basement apartment… the “private commitment” he said was better than a legal contract… they were fakes. He hadn’t just cheated. He had turned me into a mistress without my knowledge. He had stolen five years of my life for a role I never auditioned for. September: [New house is finished! Four bedrooms, a private music room, and a walk-in closet! I told him a small apartment was fine, but he insisted on buying. He even put it in my name. What a dork.] Last month: [Hubby is going to the Ozarks for six months. I’m so sad to see him go, but he says it’s his dream. He’s not just teaching; he’s funding a whole new music wing for the local school! Two million dollars donated. My husband is a hero!] The “Ozarks” lie. He’d told it to both of us. The difference was that in Lila’s version, he was a philanthropist hero. In mine, he was a struggling man doing a difficult job for a meager stipend to help us survive. I locked my phone and leaned my head on my desk at work. The nausea I’d felt earlier returned, stronger this time. My vision blurred. A coworker noticed how pale I was and forced me to go to the clinic downstairs. The result was written in cold, black ink: Positive. Approximately six weeks. I sat on a plastic chair in the hospital corridor, the paper clutched in my hand until the edges were damp with sweat. Six weeks. The night before he “left for the Ozarks.” I touched my flat stomach, and a single tear hit the diagnostic report. This child was the cruelest irony of all. I was about to put the paper in my bag when I heard a familiar set of footsteps at the end of the hall. Then, a high-pitched, playful whine. “I told you, it was just the ice cream. You didn’t have to drag me to the ER. You’re being such a helicopter husband.” “Lila, you know you have a sensitive stomach. Don’t complain to me when you’re crying in pain later.” The man’s voice was full of indulgent, weary love. I froze. I looked up. Sean was guiding Lila toward the urgent care wing. Yesterday, he’d told me he was heading back to the “mountains.” Today, he was playing nursemaid to his pregnant—no, his other wife. I stood up, intending to walk past them like they were ghosts. But Lila’s eyes were sharp. “Hey! It’s the ticket lady!” She pulled Sean toward me before he could react. When he saw me, he stopped dead. His face went through a kaleidoscope of emotions—shock, fear, and then, a terrifyingly cold mask of annoyance. “What are you doing here?” he hissed, his voice low. I looked him dead in the eye. “It’s a hospital, Sean. Do you own the building too?” Lila looked between us, her eyes landing on the crumpled paper in my hand. “Are you sick, Claire?” Before I could pull away, she snatched the paper from my hand. She was young and fast, fueled by a bratty curiosity. “Give that back!” I snapped. But she had already read it. Her mouth fell open in an exaggerated gasp. “Oh my god… you’re pregnant?” She looked at me with a mix of pity and suspicion. “Why are you here all alone? Where’s your husband? Did he leave you or something?” Sean flinched as if he’d been struck. He stared at the report, his face turning a sickly shade of white. Seeing him like that gave me a twisted sense of satisfaction. “Seen enough? Give it back.” I reached for the paper, but Sean grabbed my wrist, his grip bruising. “Claire, what is this?” he demanded. “Is this your new play? You forged a pregnancy report to try and trap me? To force me to stay? How desperate have you become?” The world turned silent. It felt like a piece of my heart had been physically carved out. I started to laugh. It was a jagged, broken sound. “You’re right, Sean. It’s fake. Just like that marriage certificate you gave me five years ago. Just a little something to get the ‘Great Conductor’s’ attention.” I wrenched my arm away and snatched the paper back. “Get out of my way.” Lila didn’t like that. She stepped forward and shoved me. “Don’t talk to him like that! He was just being nice, and you’re being a total bitch!” I wasn’t expecting it. I stumbled back, my lower back slamming hard against the sharp edge of the metal armrest on the waiting room bench. A sharp, white-hot pain flared in my abdomen. I doubled over, gasping. Sean’s hand instinctively went out to catch me, but Lila grabbed his arm. “Sean, she’s just faking it. She’s being crazy. Come on, my stomach hurts again.” Sean looked at me, then at Lila. He saw my pale face, but his eyes were clouded with the lie he’d told himself—that I was the villain. “Claire, stop it,” he said, his voice cold. “Don’t make me lose respect for you.” He turned his back on me and walked away, his arm wrapped around Lila. I leaned against the cold hospital wall, watching them disappear. Then, I felt it. A warm, terrifying dampness. I looked down. There was a small, bright red stain blooming on my jeans. The doctor told me I was at high risk for a miscarriage. Stress, malnutrition, and the physical impact had caused “threatened abortion.” He prescribed bed rest and medication, warning me that the next forty-eight hours were critical. I walked out of the pharmacy, clutching my bag, when my phone buzzed. It was a text from my landlord. [Hey Claire, your husband came by today and terminated the lease. I’ve already returned the security deposit to him. You need to be out by tonight. New tenants are coming to see the place tomorrow morning.] The blood drained from my face. Sean had cut the ground out from under me. I called him. It rang and rang until finally, he picked up. “You canceled the lease?” “Yes,” he said flatly. “Lila saw you at the hospital. She’s distraught. She thinks you’re stalking us. For her peace of mind, you need to go.” I gritted my teeth, tears blurring my vision. “Sean, I’m bleeding. The doctor says I’m having a miscarriage. Where am I supposed to go in the middle of the night?” There was a pause. Then, a cold, mocking laugh. “Claire, the ‘pregnant’ act is over. It’s pathetic. There’s about two thousand dollars in the joint account. Take it and go back to your parents. Don’t ever show your face to me or Lila again.” He hung up. I ran to the nearest ATM. I shoved my card in, my fingers shaking. ACCOUNT FROZEN. I pulled the card out and collapsed on the sidewalk, finally sobbing. I had given five years of my youth to a rich boy playing house. I had believed in a lie, a fake name, and a forged life. The game was over. He was going back to his throne, and he was leaving me to drown in the mud. I spent the night in a 24-hour Starbucks. The next morning, I dragged my suitcase to the office, only to be met by my manager’s dark expression. “Claire, my office. Now.” He threw his phone onto the desk. It was a trending post on X (Twitter). #CrazyStalker #SeanLouis #Harassment Lila had posted a “tell-all” thread. She’d painted me as a bitter, older woman who was obsessed with her husband, claiming I had been stalking them for months and had even gone as far as faking a pregnancy to try and extort them. The comments were a bloodbath. [She looks so old and desperate.] [Faking a pregnancy? That’s a new low. Someone find out where she works.] [Get this psycho fired.] I shook with rage. “Sir, it’s not like that. She’s the one who—” “I don’t care who started it!” my manager barked. “The phones are ringing off the hook. Clients are complaining. We can’t have this kind of PR. Pack your things, Claire. You’re done.” I was escorted out of the building. I stood on the crowded Chicago street, holding a cardboard box of my belongings. The sun was blinding, but I was shivering. My phone wouldn’t stop vibrating with death threats and insults from strangers. I turned it off and found a cheap, hourly motel on the edge of town. I hadn’t been there an hour when the door burst open. Sean stood there, his face contorted with fury. He grabbed my wrist. “Claire, Lila is hyperventilating because of the ‘evidence’ you’re trying to post online. You are coming with me right now. You’re going to apologize to her, tell her the pregnancy was a lie, and sign a non-disclosure agreement.” “I’m not going anywhere! Let go of me, you animal!” I fought him, clawing at his hands, but a sudden, sharp cramp seized my abdomen. “You don’t have a choice.” Sean gave me a violent shove. I tripped over the edge of the cheap motel carpet and fell backward. My stomach hit the corner of the nightstand with a sickening thud. A wave of agonizing, tearing pain ripped through me. I curled into a ball, unable to even scream. Sean looked down at me, scowling. “Stop acting. Get up.” I reached down, my hand trembling. When I pulled it away, it was soaked in deep, dark red. The silence in the room was deafening. Sean’s face turned gray. He took a staggering step back. “You… you were actually…”

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The night I finished my six-week postpartum recovery, Benedict brought up the one thing I had spent five years trying to bury. We were in our bedroom in Greenwich, the air thick with the scent of expensive lilies and nursery formula, when he shattered my world with a casual sentence. He told me that the man who had abducted me, the man who had kept me in that dark room five years ago, was Brody. Brody—his foster sister Judy’s husband. The news hit me like a physical blow, a sudden pressure behind my eyes that made my vision blur. I stared at him, my voice barely a whisper. “What are you talking about, Benedict?” Benedict didn’t look remorseful. He looked relieved, as if he were finally setting down a heavy suitcase. He continued, his tone light, almost conversational. He explained that five years ago, Judy had discovered she was infertile. Her mother-in-law was already looking for reasons to oust her from the family. To secure Judy’s position as a socialite wife, Benedict had agreed to Judy’s desperate plea: I would be her surrogate. But not through a clinic. Brody had always had a fixation on me, Benedict said. So, the three of them made a pact. They orchestrated my disappearance, locked me away, and let Brody have his way with me until I was pregnant. I sat there, my stomach churning with a cold, oily nausea. My lips trembled so violently I had to bite down on them to stay silent. “Why tell me this now?” Benedict took a long, deep breath. “I’ve kept it inside for five years, Cora. It’s exhausting. Besides, I’ve given you back the child I owed you. People say a woman’s heart softens once she becomes a mother, and I see it now. You’re not as volatile as you used to be. You’ve finally learned how to be… compliant.” I forced the corners of my mouth to twitch upward in a hollow imitation of a smile. He didn’t know. I hadn’t become compliant. It was just that I had a secret of my own—one I had never told him. 1 The truth was a jagged blade, but even through the shock, I caught the dissonance in his words. “The child you owed me… what does that mean?” Benedict hesitated, his eyes shifting. He realized he’d said too much, but then he shrugged, deciding to let the rest of the rot spill out. “Before that whole thing happened… you were pregnant, remember?” My heart stopped. “The stairs,” he muttered, rubbing the back of his neck. “I put a little bit of floor wax right at the top of the landing.” I felt as if lightning had struck the room. My fingers shook uncontrollably. That first pregnancy—the one I had cherished, the one that had ended in a horrific ‘accident’—had been a cold-blooded execution. He was seven months along. A fully formed baby boy. Two more months and he would have seen the sun. Instead, his own father had snuffed him out. A phantom hand seemed to squeeze my heart, cutting off my oxygen. I gasped, my mouth hanging open as I struggled to pull air into my lungs. Seeing my distress, Benedict reached out, taking my hand and kissing my knuckles with a sickening tenderness. “I know it hurts, Cora. But we have Beau now. It’s the same thing.” I looked at the sleeping infant in the bassinet, tears hot and silent tracking down my face. “It’s not the same…” Benedict’s brow furrowed. He dropped my hand, his voice dropping an octave into a warning growl. “How is it different? They’re both our blood. Just think of Beau as that first baby being reborn into your womb. It’s a second chance.” He stepped closer, his shadow looming over me. “And don’t forget, after the miscarriage, I dropped everything. I stayed by your side every second. I cooked every meal myself to make sure you recovered. Cora, I don’t owe you anything!” A new baby. A few weeks of nursing me back to health. He truly believed that could erase the agony of a child being ripped from my body? It was impossible. I would never accept it. Our raised voices woke Beau. He began to wail, a sharp, piercing sound. Benedict immediately scooped him up, his voice instantly shifting back to a gentle coo. When we first found out I was pregnant with Beau, Benedict’s joy had been performative but immense. He had spent months designing the nursery, buying enough clothes to fill three closets. He would press his ear to my stomach, telling the baby stories, feeling for kicks. This child was receiving all the fatherly love the first one had been denied. He really did love Beau. But now, the more he loved him, the more my soul burned. Benedict held Beau out to me, gesturing for me to take him. I stared at the child through bloodshot eyes, my arms remaining frozen at my sides. A flash of disgust crossed Benedict’s face. “And here I thought you’d grown up. I see that temper is still there.” He pulled the baby back. “If you’re going to be like this, then forget the baptism party tomorrow. We’ll just head straight to the courthouse and sign the divorce papers.” I stared at him, wanting to peel back his skin to see if there was anything human underneath. Five years ago, he had used the same threat. It was right after I’d found him in bed with Judy. My world, which I had just begun to glue back together after the kidnapping, shattered again. I had gone feral, screaming, clawing at Judy, recording a video to send to her mother-in-law. Benedict had slapped me hard enough to make my ears ring. “I was just in a bad mood,” he had said then. “I drank too much. If you can’t handle it, then leave. Divorce me.” A bad mood. Back then, my greatest fear was his unhappiness. I thought he was unhappy because my body was “soiled” from the kidnapping. I thought he was unhappy because of the “bastard” I was carrying. I had dropped to my knees, begging him not to leave. I had even hit my own stomach, tragically believing that Benedict’s infidelity was my fault, or the fault of the child inside me. Benedict had pulled me into his arms then, feigning compassion. “Cora, stop! You’ve already had one miscarriage. If you lose this one, you might never conceive again.” That was the reason he gave for keeping the baby. Now, the truth tasted like ash. He wasn’t worried about my body. He was worried that his foster sister’s dream of being the lady of a grand house would die if she didn’t have a child to present to her husband’s family. Seeing my face go pale, Benedict assumed I had been cowed by the threat of divorce once again. “Cora,” he said softly, “if you’re good, we can be a real family. You’re tired. Rest. I’ll take care of the baby tonight.” That night, Beau cried three or four times in the nursery next door. Benedict stayed with him. He didn’t come to me. And I didn’t go to him. The next day was the baptism party. I sat in my room, listening to the muffled laughter of guests downstairs praising the “beautiful baby.” I felt nothing. A hollow shell. The door clicked open. A soft, melodic voice drifted in. “Cora? Why are you hiding up here, sweetie?” Judy walked in, leading five-year-old Parker by the hand. The moment Parker saw me, he broke free and sprinted across the room, throwing his arms around my waist. “Auntie Cora! I missed you so much!” He had Brody’s face—those sharp, predatory features—but he had my eyes. The questions that had haunted me for years were finally answered in the shape of his pupils. The realization made my stomach turn over. I shoved the boy away as if he were a monster, a piercing shriek tearing from my throat. “Get off me! Don’t touch me!” Parker landed hard on his bottom, his face twisting in shock. Judy, however, smirked. Usually, whenever she saw Parker getting close to me, she’d be full of passive-aggressive remarks. Last Mother’s Day, Parker had made me a card. Judy had flown into a rage and, in front of everyone, walked over and kissed Benedict deeply on the mouth. “If you steal my son’s affection, I’ll steal your husband,” she had whispered loud enough for me to hear. When I tried to lung at her, Benedict held me back. “He’s just a kid, Cora. He gave you a gift. So what if Judy kissed me? It doesn’t mean anything.” I had smashed everything in the room that day. But Judy had discovered a new game. Whenever Parker was kind to me, she’d get intimate with Benedict. Then, shielded by Benedict’s protection, she would watch me spiral into madness. Now, Judy didn’t even pick up her crying son. She just looked at me. “What’s wrong, Cora? Parker loves you. He just wanted to be near you. While you were in recovery, he asked to see you every single day.” Just then, Benedict walked in carrying Beau. He frowned at Judy. “I told you not to bring him in here.” Judy walked over to Benedict, tucking her hair behind her ear and leaning into his arm. “I just thought Cora might want to hold her son.” She knew. Benedict had told her he’d confessed. She brought Parker here specifically to twist the knife. The rage peaked. I grabbed a glass vase from the vanity and hurled it at them. Benedict yanked Judy out of the way, his eyes wide with fury. “Cora! Have you lost your mind?” “I am out of my mind!” I lunged at Judy, my fingers reaching for her throat. A second later, I felt a heavy boot slam into my abdomen. Benedict had kicked me back. It might have been an accident in the scuffle, or it might have been intentional, but the blow landed right on my healing womb. It felt as if my internal stitches were being shredded. I collapsed, cold sweat breaking out across my forehead. “Cora…” Benedict’s eyes softened with a momentary flicker of regret. He started to step toward me. Suddenly, a shout came from the hallway. Smoke began to curl under the door, thick and grey. “Fire! The kitchen is on fire!” Without a second thought, Benedict turned. He grabbed Judy with one hand and held Beau with the other, sprinting for the exit. I lay on the floor, the wind knocked out of me, my body refusing to move. I watched them disappear. I was trapped. Just as the smoke began to choke me, a figure burst through the haze. “Cora! Where are you?” I looked up, squinting through the stinging heat. When I saw the man’s face, my entire body locked up. Five years of suppressed agony came roaring back like a tide of venomous snakes. “Don’t touch me! Don’t touch me!” I screamed, thrashing wildly. But Brody pinned my arms down, his grip like iron. It was exactly like the dark room. “Shut up! Do you want to die?” Being touched by him was a fate worse than death. I fought, I screamed, and then I simply went limp, retching onto the floor. When we reached the safety of the lawn, Brody, his face scratched from my struggle, shoved me onto the grass with a curse. I hit the ground hard. Everything went black. I woke up in a hospital bed. Benedict wasn’t there. He only called once. “I’m sorry, Cora. Judy was right next to me, and I had the baby… I couldn’t reach you. But the second I got out, I told Brody to go back for you.” My voice was a ragged sob. “Benedict, do you hear yourself? You sent him? You know what he did—” Benedict’s voice turned sharp and impatient. “Stop being so dramatic. That was years ago. It’s over. I’m busy with Beau, and I have to deal with the insurance for the house. Brody will stay there and look after you while you’re admitted.” “Benedict, wait—” In the background, I heard Judy’s voice. “Benny, my ankle hurts. Come carry me to the bathroom!” The line went dead. He didn’t just have to care for Beau; he had to care for Judy’s sprained ankle. He chose to save her. He chose to comfort her. And he threw me back to my rapist. He handed me over to the man who had been a knife in my side for five years, then told me to stop being “dramatic” when the blade went deeper. I screamed into the empty room until my throat felt like it was bleeding. Brody walked in a moment later, looking smug. He poured a glass of water and set it on the bedside table. I swiped it onto the floor. He didn’t get angry. He just looked at the wet sleeve of his shirt. “Don’t be so hostile, Cora. After all, we’ve shared so many nights together. If you count them up, we’re practically an old married couple.” I bit the inside of my cheek until I tasted copper, my hands clutching the bedsheets so hard my knuckles turned white. Brody’s eyes dropped to my mouth. “Still biting your lip when you’re scared? Some things never change.” He reached out a hand. Like a panicked bird, I grabbed a shard from the broken water glass and slashed it across his forearm. “Get out! Get the hell out!” The shard sliced my palm too, blood blooming across my skin. I didn’t feel the pain. I felt nothing but a cold, crystalline hatred. Startled by the look in my eyes, Brody finally backed away and left the room. The day I was discharged, Benedict finally showed up. He was carrying a bouquet of camellias—my favorite. He took me to the bistro where we had our first date and ordered the spicy tofu dish I had craved all through my recovery. On the drive home, he talked incessantly about Beau. He couldn’t stop smiling. To him, even the baby peeing on him was a miracle of fatherhood. I sat in the passenger seat, a ghost in a designer dress. As we passed the municipal building, I spoke my first words of the day. “I want a divorce.” Benedict slammed on the brakes, the car screeching to a halt. “What did you say?” He looked at me with genuine disbelief. The Cora who had been too broken to leave, even when he cheated, was finally saying the words. Just then, his phone buzzed. A text from Brody. Are you busy? Cora’s getting out today. Want me to pick her up? In an instant, Benedict’s eyes turned murderous. “Is this about him? Is that why you want to leave?” “No—” “You’ve been in that hospital for three days! Did you two hook up again? Is that it? Now that you know he’s the father of your kid, you can’t wait to get back into his bed? You like it, don’t you? You’re just a cheap—” The insults felt like physical slaps. I shook with rage. “I didn’t—” Benedict unbuckled his seatbelt and lunged across the center console, pinning me against the door. “You like being taken, right? Is that what you want?” He began tearing at the buttons of my blouse, his teeth sinking into the skin of my neck. “Benedict, stop! Get off me!” I summoned every ounce of strength I had and slapped him with a resounding crack. I glared at him, my voice trembling. “Go. Go find your foster sister. Leave me alone.” Benedict’s face was a mask of primal fury. He reached over, opened the passenger door, and shoved me out of the car. I tumbled onto the pavement, my clothes disheveled, my dignity stripped bare in front of the staring pedestrians. He didn’t look back as he sped away. I wrapped my arms around myself, enduring the judgmental whispers of strangers, and began the long walk home. The house that had partially burned was the one Benedict had bought specifically for my postpartum period. Back then, I thought he was being a devoted father and husband. I remember him helping the night nurse, his hands gentle as he held the baby. Now, that house was a charred ruin, and the “perfect life” we had lived there had vanished in the smoke. When I entered our temporary rental, I walked straight into Benedict and Judy on the sofa. They didn’t even have the decency to look embarrassed. I didn’t look at them. I walked past them as if they were furniture. I was in the bedroom packing when Judy walked in. She was wearing a sheer lace nightgown, her skin marked with fresh bruises of intimacy. “Cora, look at it this way,” she said, leaning against the doorframe. “My husband spent plenty of nights with you. I’ve only had Benedict twice this week. I’m still the one losing out.” I ignored her, folding a sweater. Her smirk vanished. She walked over and snatched a tiny, hand-knitted baby sweater out of my suitcase—the one I had made for my first child. She threw it on the floor and ground her heel into it. “He’s dead, Cora. Why keep this trash?” She leaned in close, her eyes glittering with malice. “You were so happy while Benedict was playing house with you, weren’t you? Well, here’s a secret. I told Benedict I was having nightmares. I told him your dead baby was coming back to haunt me. Do you know what he did?” My heart stuttered. “He took that little box of ashes,” she whispered, “found a back-alley occultist to put a sealing hex on it, and buried it right next to the municipal landfill. He wanted to make sure your ‘brat’ never bothered me again.” My brain went white. I lunged at her, a scream of pure, unadulterated grief tearing from my lungs. I tackled her to the floor, scratching, biting, a vengeful spirit in human form. Benedict burst in and ripped me off her. He backhanded me so hard my vision swam and my ears rang with a high-pitched whine. He threw a set of papers onto the bed. His signature was already there. “Sign them and get out, Cora. But think carefully. Do you really think Brody is going to marry you once I’m gone?” I let out a dry, jagged laugh. Without a word, I signed my name. Benedict’s expression shifted, turning ugly and dark. Just then, Beau woke up in the next room. He was hungry. Benedict looked at me, his eyes cold. “I’m keeping Beau. And since you’re leaving, you’re going to give him one last feeding.” I stared at him. “I don’t nurse him, Benedict. He’s on formula. You know that.” I remembered the night nurse once whispering that I was “heartless” for pumping and dumping my milk instead of feeding the baby. Benedict had fired her on the spot. He had told me, “It’s okay, Cora. I know you’re in pain. Formula is just as good.” Now, he grabbed my arm, his grip bruising. “You’re going to feed him. Now.” “No!” I tried to grab my suitcase, but he jerked me back. “You’re going to do it!” He threw me onto the bed and pinned my wrists behind my back. Rip. The silk of my blouse tore open. I struggled, I screamed, I begged. “Benedict! You bastard! Let me go!” Brody and Judy appeared in the doorway, watching the spectacle. Benedict didn’t care. He forced the crying infant toward me. The moment the child latched on, the last shred of my pride was pulverized into dust. “Why… why are you doing this to me?” I whispered, my voice breaking. Benedict leaned down, his breath hot against my ear. “See, Cora? Look how happy he is. Are you really ready to never see your son again?” The pain was physical. It was spiritual. I closed my eyes, tears leaking through the lashes. After what felt like an eternity, Benedict finally let go. “Think about it, Cora. Are you really willing to lose us both?” He walked out with the satisfied baby. Judy and Brody followed, their laughter echoing down the hall. I lay on the bed like a discarded rag doll. My tears had run dry. He asked if I was willing to lose them? How could I not be? I didn’t want him. And I didn’t want this child. I changed into a fresh shirt. I picked up a medical report I had hidden in my bag and placed it on the bed next to the divorce papers. Then, I picked up my suitcase and walked out of that house, leaving the winter of my life behind. … Benedict returned to the bedroom an hour later. He expected to find a broken Cora waiting to apologize. But the room was empty. The suitcase was gone. She was really gone. She had actually signed the papers. He began to smash things in a blind rage—the lamps, the mirrors, the vanity. Then, his eyes caught the report lying on the bed. His face went deathly pale. His hands shook as he picked up the thin piece of paper. A Paternity Test.

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It has been exactly seven days since I moved into the new bedroom. Mom pushed the door open, froze the second she saw me up and moving around, and blurted out the words before she could stop herself: “How are you still fine?” This room—the “Princess Suite,” as she called it—had cost her a fortune to renovate. When she first pitched the idea to me, she claimed the contractors were using cutting-edge, antibacterial materials that would work wonders for my chronic asthma. But I clearly remembered standing in the hallway weeks ago, overhearing her tell the head contractor that this specific batch of materials had formaldehyde levels hundreds of times over the legal limit. A healthy person sleeping in here for a single night would develop acute pulmonary edema. She had even installed a heavy-duty lock on the outside of my door. Her excuse? “I don’t want your brother going in there and messing up your clean air.” For the past week, she had come to my door every single day, asking if my throat felt scratchy. Asking if I was having trouble breathing. 1 Her question hung in the air like a shard of ice, instantly piercing through my carefully crafted veneer of calm. The blood drained from my mother’s face, leaving her pale and ghostly. She stared at me, a frantic, desperate panic swimming in her eyes—a look I had never seen before. “I… I just meant, I meant why hasn’t your asthma cleared up completely yet?” It was a pathetic lie. So painfully clumsy that I didn’t even have the energy to call her out on it. Just then, a smooth, gentle voice drifted in from behind me. “Mom, you really need to stop worrying so much. Paige’s condition is going to take time to heal.” It was my older brother, Wesley. He was wearing a crisp white button-down, looking every inch the flawless golden boy. His effortless perfection only made my mother’s anxious cowering feel all the more grotesque. She rubbed her hands together nervously, looking for all the world like a reprimanded child. She didn’t dare meet my eyes again. “I’ll go start dinner,” she muttered, practically fleeing the doorway as if she couldn’t get away from my room fast enough. “Paige, don’t mind her,” Wesley said softly, his voice a soothing balm. “Mom is just under a lot of pressure right now. She loves you so much.” Loves me? A bitter laugh echoed in my head. If she loves me, why is she waiting for me to die? Later that night, my mother voluntarily knocked on my door for the first time. She came in carrying a plate of sliced fruit, forcing a stiff, ingratiating smile. “Paige, honey… why don’t you switch rooms with your brother for a bit? With all this new furniture in here, I really think the room needs a few more days to air out.” I stared at her, alarm bells shrieking in my mind. Was this it? Was she trying to lure me out so she could tamper with the room again, ensuring I wouldn’t have a single chance of surviving my next night in here? “No thanks,” I said, my voice dripping with ice. “I think it’s perfect in here. It smells great.” I deliberately emphasized the word great. I saw her hand violently jerk. A slice of apple tumbled off the plate and hit the hardwood floor. I thought my refusal would make her back off. But I was wrong. Around eleven o’clock that night, just as I was drifting off, I heard the faint click of the door latch. Bathed in the weak moonlight filtering through the window, I watched my door slowly creep open. A dark silhouette slipped into my room. It was Mom. She was clutching a heavy-duty spray bottle. Moving methodically, she began misting my headboard, my closet, my desk. The liquid settled into the air, bringing with it a sharp, corrosive chemical stench that burned the back of my nose. My heart hammered against my ribs. My palms were slick with cold sweat. After she finished spraying, she didn’t leave immediately. She just stood there in the center of the room. Even in the pitch black, I could feel the suffocating weight of her gaze locked onto my body in the bed. Every hair on the back of my neck stood up. Silent as a ghost, she finally backed out of the room, shutting the door behind her. The second she was gone, I clamped my hands over my nose and mouth. A heavy, terrifying realization crushed the breath out of my lungs. My mother really wants to kill me. 2 The first thing I did when I opened my eyes the next morning was frantically scan my body, terrified that whatever she had sprayed had already begun rotting me from the inside out. Miraculously, I felt fine. No tightness in my chest, no coughing. Mom knocked on my door to call me for breakfast, wearing the same stiff, plastered-on smile, acting as if she hadn’t been creeping around my room in the dead of night like a grim reaper. I looked at her across the dining table, a sickening cocktail of disgust and terror churning in my gut, but I was too afraid to confront her directly. When I walked into the kitchen, Wesley looked up and offered a warm smile. “Sleep okay?” Mom sat opposite us, her head bowed over her oatmeal, refusing to say a word. “I slept fine,” I lied, flashing a tight smile. I didn’t dare mention last night. For the next few days, it became a twisted nightly ritual. Deep in the night, I would hear the door creak open, followed by the hissing of the spray bottle and that increasingly noxious chemical odor. I played dead every single time. I didn’t dare move a muscle. I didn’t dare breathe too loudly. All I could do was lie there in paralyzing fear, watching my own mother repeatedly douse my room in whatever poison she had concocted. And every time, she would stand at the foot of my bed, staring at me for what felt like hours. Waiting. On the fourth night, things took an even more bizarre turn. I was tossing and turning, unable to sleep, when a sudden sound ripped through the silence. Thud. Thud. Thud. It was a rhythmic, deliberate knocking. It sounded like someone taking a heavy, blunt object and striking it directly against my drywall. One. Two. Three… Every hollow impact struck directly against my chest. I curled into a tight ball beneath my duvet, too terrified to breathe. The knocking dragged on for five agonizing minutes before abruptly stopping. The next morning, I gathered my courage and asked Wesley, “Did you hear someone banging on the walls last night?” He blinked, looking genuinely confused. “No? Maybe the neighbors are doing renovations?” “Maybe,” I muttered, dropping the subject. But I knew the truth. Who the hell does demolition work at two in the morning? I endured the psychological torture for two more nights. Finally, when the rhythmic banging started again, my frayed nerves snapped. I threw off my covers and sprinted to the door, yanking it open. The hallway was empty. But my mother’s bedroom door was cracked open, a flickering, sickly orange light bleeding out into the corridor. Drawn by a morbid curiosity, I crept over and peered through the crack. What I saw made my blood run cold. My mother was kneeling on the hardwood floor in front of a brass incense burner. A photograph of me sat propped up against it. She was muttering frantically under her breath, holding a crude little effigy made of paper over the candle flame, watching the edges curl and blacken. My legs gave out. I stumbled backward, my shoulder slamming against the doorframe with a loud thud. Mom whipped her head around. Cast in the twisting shadows of the candlelight, her face contorted into something utterly inhuman. I scrambled back to my room on my hands and knees, slammed the door, and threw the deadbolt. I didn’t close my eyes for the rest of the night. 3 After that night, the atmosphere in the house grew unbearably suffocating. The way my mother looked at me began to shift. It was a deeply unsettling gaze—a toxic blend of anxiety, terror, and some dark, unreadable emotion I couldn’t decipher. And her desperate attempts to force me out of the room escalated. It was another late night when the muffled sounds of a vicious argument in the living room jolted me awake. It was Mom and Wesley. I slipped out of bed barefoot, creeping to the door and pressing my ear against the cool wood. “That bed has to go! I’m calling someone to tear it out tomorrow!” Mom’s voice was shrill, borderline hysterical. “The wood is tainted!” The wood is tainted? My heart skipped a beat. Had her conscience finally caught up to her? Was she trying to undo her own trap? But Wesley’s calm response crushed my fleeting hope. “Mom! Can you please stop being so utterly unreasonable?” He sounded completely exhausted. “You took out loans to pay for this renovation, and now you want to rip it apart? I already checked the manufacturer for Paige. It’s the highest-grade eco-friendly timber on the market!” “You don’t understand anything!” Mom screamed. “You’re right, I don’t! I just know that you’ve been losing your mind lately!” The argument died in a tense, heavy silence. I leaned against my door, my insides turning to ice. She isn’t having a change of heart, I realized. She’s trying to destroy the evidence. Early the next morning, Wesley hauled a massive box into my room. It was the latest, most expensive medical-grade air purifier on the market. “Wes, this is way too much,” I whispered. “Don’t worry about it. As long as you’re healthy, I don’t care what it costs.” He reached out and ruffled my hair, his eyes soft. “Just ignore Mom’s crazy talk. I’ve got your back, okay?” Tears pricked the corners of my eyes. In this cold, twisted house, my brother was the only one who genuinely cared if I lived or died. Mom backed off for two days after that. I foolishly thought the storm had passed. But I underestimated her madness. While I was at my afternoon classes, she secretly hired contractors to dismantle my bed. I got a frantic text from a neighbor and rushed home, bursting through the front door just as two men in work boots were preparing to haul the headboard out of my room. I charged at them like a wild animal, throwing myself in front of the bed frame. “Don’t you dare touch my stuff!” Mom darted out of the kitchen. Seeing me, the color drained from her face. “Paige, honey, just listen to me—” “Listen to what?! To whatever psychotic new way you’ve found to torture me?” I was trembling from head to toe, the words tearing out of my throat. “Let me make this perfectly clear. As long as I am breathing, neither of you is touching a single thing in this room!” That was the breaking point. The fragile truce between me and my mother shattered completely. From that day on, I existed in that house as a ghost, speaking only to Wesley. He would just sigh, stroking my hair with a heartbroken expression. “Paige, Mom is just buckling under the pressure. Try not to hate her. You still have me.” 4 Aunt Valerie came over for the weekend. The second she walked through the door, she grabbed my mother’s hands and began gushing over my new room. “Evelyn, you are spoiling this girl! This room looks better than a five-star hotel! God, if I had a mother like you, I’d wake up laughing every day!” Mom didn’t smile. She just offered a weak, mechanical twitch of her lips. It didn’t take long for Aunt Valerie to pick up on the toxic energy radiating between us. She cornered me in the hallway, crossing her arms to deliver a stern, maternal lecture. “Listen to me, Paige. Look at your brother. He’s smart, responsible, and never gives your mother an ounce of grief. But you? You’ve been sickly your whole life. Your mother has turned gray trying to pay your medical bills, and this is how you repay her? By throwing tantrums and giving her the silent treatment?” Every word was a physical blow, driving the breath from my lungs. They didn’t know. None of them knew! They only saw the money she threw around; they didn’t see the woman sneaking into my room at midnight, praying for my lungs to give out! My face flushed crimson with rage. I couldn’t even form a coherent sentence. I violently ripped my arm out of Aunt Valerie’s grip, bolted into my room, and slammed the door with a deafening crash. Through the drywall, I could hear my aunt and my mother sighing heavily. I buried my face in my pillow and sobbed until my throat was raw. Why was I the villain? Why did everyone look at me like I was the monster? I cried for hours until pure exhaustion dragged me into a fitful sleep. I don’t know how much time passed before a strange, sloshing sound woke me up. I groggily lifted my head. Through the dim light, I saw a puddle creeping across my floorboards. My mother was crouching on the other side of the door, quietly pouring a basin of water right under the crack. The water seeped into the carpet. Before I could even process what she was doing, she suddenly began screaming at the top of her lungs. “Oh my god! The upstairs neighbor has a leak! Paige, get out of there, the room is flooding!” Her acting was atrocious—forced, theatrical, yet laced with an undeniable, desperate panic she couldn’t hide. I stared at the pathetic little puddle ruining my rug, then listened to the fake hysteria beyond the door. Honestly, I felt nothing but contempt. She looked like a clown who had finally run out of tricks. 5 Wesley worked long hours, and when he wasn’t home, the isolation was deafening. Desperate for any kind of companionship, I bought myself a little Syrian hamster. When Wesley saw it, his eyes lit up. He went out of his way to buy the most expensive gourmet nut mixes for it. Mom, however, looked at the cage like it was a live bomb. She absolutely forbade me from keeping it in my room. “Animals carry bacteria,” she snapped. “It’s going to trigger your asthma.” I stared her down, a cold, mocking smile spreading across my face. “I thought you said the new building materials were antibacterial?” The words hit her like a physical blow. She choked on her response, her face turning an ashen gray, and ultimately, she didn’t have the leverage to stop me. I set the cage proudly on my nightstand, finding immense comfort in the tiny creature’s presence. I fell asleep to the sound of it running on its wheel. But when I woke up the next morning, the wheel was silent. I leaned over. The little hamster was lying on its side, stiff as a board. A rim of dried, foamy white saliva crusted its mouth. It was dead. “Ahhhh!” A visceral scream tore from my throat. I scrambled backward, falling out of bed just to get away from the nightstand. My door violently banged open. Wesley rushed in, dropping to his knees and pulling me into a fierce embrace. “Paige! What is it? What happened?” His eyes darted to the nightstand. When he saw the cage, his entire body went rigid. His arms tightened around me protectively as he glared over his shoulder at our mother, who had just appeared in the doorway. Mom stared at the dead animal. All the blood rushed from her face, leaving her completely white. Her lips were trembling so violently I thought she might collapse. “I didn’t… I didn’t…” she mumbled incoherently. “Enough!” Wesley’s voice boomed through the room, sharp and furious. “Mom, how long are you going to keep playing this twisted game?” He took a deep, steadying breath, pulling out his phone with a dark, resolute expression. “I am calling a professional environmental testing agency right now. I’m having them tear this room apart. Don’t worry, Paige. Today, we are going to show everyone exactly who has been trying to hurt you.” 6 The day the inspectors arrived, our house was packed. Every relative in a ten-mile radius showed up, including Aunt Valerie. They gathered in the living room, hovering like a jury waiting to deliver a verdict. My mother sat curled up in the corner of the sofa, looking entirely hollowed out. She didn’t even have the strength to lift her head. I stood tall beside Wesley, feeling like a soldier on the brink of vindication. Two men in official uniforms, armed with an arsenal of intimidating meters and sensors, spent an entire hour sweeping my bedroom. They checked the paint, the baseboards, the wood veneer, and the air quality. I kept my eyes fixed on my mother, eagerly waiting for the machines to start shrieking. Waiting for the moment her lies would unravel and she would drop to her knees in shame. Finally, the lead inspector stepped out of the room, clutching a clipboard. The living room fell dead silent. Every eye locked onto him. My heart hammered in my throat. “The results are conclusive,” the inspector said, pushing his glasses up his nose in a detached, clinical manner. “We’ve tested for everything—formaldehyde, VOCs, benzene, you name it. Not only is this room well within legal limits, it actually surpasses the highest tier of green building standards. To be entirely honest, this is one of the cleanest, safest indoor environments we’ve ever tested.” Crash. My mind flatlined. It felt like a bolt of lightning had struck me squarely in the chest.

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I was grinding myself down to dust, living like a rat on a corporate treadmill. One night, fueled by cheap wine and sheer exhaustion, I was scrolling through a forum dedicated to bashing the toxic, unhinged male leads in dark romance novels. Without thinking, I typed out a reply: People can judge all they want online, but in the real world, who wouldn’t want to scream ‘kidnap me, please!’ The daily grind of a nine-to-five is the real torture chamber. When I woke up the next morning, my reality had fractured. The first thing I felt was the bite of cold, heavy metal around my wrist. The second was the sight of a stranger standing over the bed, his face flushed a violent shade of red all the way to the tips of his ears. “Who the hell are you?” I blurted out, my voice thick with sleep. “Are you out of your mind?” The red on his cheeks deepened to crimson. He opened his mouth, stammering, “I… I’m s-sorry…” Right at that moment, a line of glowing, translucent text drifted through the air above his head, like a live comment feed on a reading app. [This male lead has everything, but he’s such a coward. He stutters just talking to her. He only has the guts to lock up a stand-in for practice. If he’s so tough, he should go after the real girl!] Before my brain could even process the hallucination, another floating comment scrolled by. [I mean, you gotta feel for him, but who builds an entire luxury estate just to lock up a lookalike?] Ah, I thought, the pieces clicking into place. So he’s got the money, but not the nerve. My expression shifted instantly. In one fluid motion, I grabbed his wrist, used my leverage to pull him down, and pinned him flat against the mattress. I leaned over him, flashing an impossibly sweet smile. “Baby, I didn’t mean what I just said. Let’s try that again.” I dropped my voice to a whisper. “I love you.” 1 The sheer suddenness of my words left him paralyzed. A second later, the flush on his face exploded, the heat practically radiating off his skin. His eyes darted wildly, refusing to meet mine. “You… you… you need to get up,” he breathed, his voice shrinking until it was barely a whisper. I glanced up at the glowing text hovering in the air. The comments had paused. I decided to double down. “I’m not moving,” I said, tracing a finger down his chest. “Not until you say you love me, too.” The moment the words left my lips, the invisible chat exploded. [Hold up, this stand-in is built different. I am taking notes frame by frame!!!] [??? What is this plot twist? I’m lost but I’m here for it.] [The lookalike seizing the throne? Oh, I am seated!] [I am trash for this. Give me more!] Before the shock could fully register, a bold, highlighted comment floated slowly across my vision. [Friendly reminder: The actual female lead saved his soul when they were kids. A single piece of candy sealed his heart. This fake needs to learn her place and back off.] I stared at that comment, a cold laugh bubbling up in my chest. A piece of candy? That’s what passes for salvation? I’m sorry, but I’ve read enough of these tragic, childhood-angel redemption arcs to know exactly how the game is played. This guy had the immense fortune of running into me. Forget the other girl, I thought. Lock me up. Throw away the key. Please, whatever you do, just don’t make me go back to the office. I shifted my weight, pressing him a little deeper into the mattress, and leaned in until my lips were brushing the burning shell of his ear. “Baby, you let yourself get bought for one piece of candy? If I give you a whole jar, does that make you mine?” A violent shiver racked his body. “You can’t… do this…” His mouth was saying no, but his fingers had unconsciously reached up, twisting tightly into the fabric of my shirt. The comments went absolutely feral. [??? Stand-in, get a grip!] [Damn it, why is the chemistry kind of insane?] [Male lead, fight back! What are your hands doing?!] I caught the blur of the comments out of the corner of my eye and couldn’t suppress the smirk tugging at my lips. I lowered my head and pressed a feather-light kiss right to the center of his forehead. “Good boys get rewards,” I purred. 2 He looked as though I had electrocuted him. Blushing furiously, he gently but frantically shoved me off and scrambled to his feet. I wasn’t about to let him off the hook. I reached out, snatching his hand, and tilted my head up to look at him. “Baby, what’s your name?” He froze, his entire frame rigid, but the ingrained obedience kicked in. “D-Donovan… Donovan.” I tightened my grip on his hand. With my index finger, I slowly traced a circle into his palm, smiling until my eyes curved into crescents. “Such a good boy. My name is Gia. Don’t forget it.” I paused, pressing the side of my face against his open palm. I looked up at him, my gaze piercing his, and enunciated every single word. “Because that is the name that’s going to be on your marriage certificate.” Donovan’s pupils blew wide. He stared at me, utterly shell-shocked, his lips parting but failing to produce a single sound. His Adam’s apple bobbed sharply. In those beautiful, panicked eyes, I saw absolute bewilderment. The floating text cascaded down like a waterfall: [AHHHHHHHHH I AM LOSING MY MIND!!!] [The sheer rizz!! The marriage certificate!! She brought up the marriage certificate!!!] [Wait, who the hell is this girl? I’ve never seen a trope play out like this??] [Taking notes! Someone get me a pen! ‘That’s the name on your marriage certificate’ is going straight into my DNA!!!] [I officially petition to rename ‘Stand-in Literature’ to ‘Gia Literature.’] [Donovan, say something! Your eyes are practically glued to her, you idiot!] [I feel so dangerously powerful right now. If I learn these moves, will I finally get a man???] [Wake up, babe. You don’t have Gia’s face and you don’t have Gia’s nerve. You’d just text ‘u up?’] [I’ll say it—I’m a freak. I want her to keep pushing until he entirely shatters!!!] Watching the comments fly by, my smile only deepened. Donovan was still frozen in place. The hand I was holding trembled faintly, but his fingers began to curl inward, subconsciously holding onto me. I blinked up at him, leaning a fraction closer. “Donovan, your ears are so red.” He jerked his head away, his voice coming out in a wrecked, gravelly rasp. “N-no, they aren’t.” The comments: [Hahahahaha look in a mirror, my guy!! Your whole face is a tomato and you’re still in denial!] [Gia, spare him!! You’re gonna make the man combust!!!] [This isn’t a kidnapping thriller, this is a masterclass in seduction. I am watching on my knees.] [Publish a book, queen! I’m begging you! Write the manual!] 3 I lifted my wrist, shaking it slightly. The heavy iron links clinked together, a sharp, metallic sound in the quiet room. I tilted my head, looking up at him through my lashes. “Donovan, could you unlock this? I promise I won’t run away.” I stood up, closing the distance until the heat of his body washed over me, and dropped my voice to a low, intimate register. “I’m yours. Only yours.” Donovan’s eyes snapped wide. Beneath the panic, there was a raw, unfiltered flicker of longing he couldn’t hide. “Mine?” he asked, the word scraping out of his throat, so quiet it was barely a breath. “Only mine?” I pushed up onto my tiptoes and pressed a soft kiss to his eyelid. “Forever.” [AHHHHHHH I AM DEAD!!!] [‘I’m yours. Only yours. Forever.’ I could listen to this on loop!!!] [Kissing the eyelid!! She kissed his eye!!! What tier of flirting is this?!] [Donovan, snap out of it! Your soul has already left your body!] [I feel like Gia is taming a stray dog, but I’m too scared to say it out loud.] [You see the vision! You are entirely correct!!!] [FOREVER!!! She said forever!!! My heart can’t take this!!!] [I am taking this masterclass and absorbing every word. I just need a billionaire captor to practice on!] [If Gia starts a cult, I’m the first to sign up!!!] Donovan stared at me for a long, heavy moment. It stretched out so far I almost thought he was going to refuse. Then, he took a shaky breath. He dug into his pocket and pulled out a small iron key. His hands were trembling so badly he missed the keyhole twice. Click. The cuff fell away. I massaged my reddened wrist, opening my mouth to speak. Before I could get a word out, he stumbled backward, putting a massive gap between us as if terrified he might change his mind. He spun on his heel. “I’ll… I’ll go make you something to eat!” he blurted out, practically sprinting out of the room like his life depended on it. Slam. The door clicked shut. I sat back down on the edge of the mattress, rubbing the circulation back into my hand. Staring at the heavy oak door, a genuine laugh slipped out of me. Perfect. I had made my decision. I was going to rot in this luxurious estate. I wasn’t taking a single step outside these gates. Let the rest of the world suffer through their morning commutes and corporate emails. I was officially retired. A final comment drifted lazily through the air. [Why are you running away, you fool!!! Get back in there!!!] 4 It didn’t take long for the door to creak open just a fraction. Donovan slipped in, balancing a silver tray in his hands. His footsteps were agonizingly careful. He set the tray down on the small table in front of me. It was a rustic bowl of homemade chicken noodle soup. It wasn’t Michelin-star plating, but the broth was golden and steaming, the parsley minced perfectly, and the aroma was incredible. He kept his eyes glued to the floor, his voice incredibly soft. “It’s done… try it.” I looked at the soup, then up at him, intentionally feigning surprise. “Did you make this yourself?” He flinched, then nodded nervously. “Y-yes. I made it. It might not be very good. If you don’t like it, I can have the chef make something else…” “You are so good to me.” I cut him off, locking my eyes onto his. I made sure my voice carried nothing but unwavering sincerity. “You are amazing. The first time you cook for me, and it looks this incredible? You’re so good.” Donovan entirely short-circuited. He looked like he wanted to speak, but his brain had lost the ability to form words. He just stood there, helpless. I softened my tone even more, letting it coat the room like honey. “How did I get so lucky? To have someone this wonderful, all to myself… I really hit the jackpot.” His head snapped up. His eyes were wide, round, and stunned, as if he had just been told the sky was green. His lips trembled, the words slipping out as pure air. “R… really?” “Really.” I reached out, took his hand, and gently tugged until he sat down beside me on the edge of the bed. I cupped his face, forcing him to look directly into my eyes. “Donovan. This soup looks delicious. You put so much care into it. The vegetables are cut perfectly, the broth smells amazing. You put your heart into this.” The edges of his eyes began to turn pink. “And,” I murmured, brushing my thumb over his knuckles, “the simple fact that you wanted to cook for me… that’s everything. Because it came from you.” He dropped his gaze, his long lashes fluttering rapidly against his cheeks. It took him a long time to give a tiny nod. The silence stretched between us, thick and fragile. Then, he spoke, his voice barely a murmur. “What else do you like to eat? I… I can learn.” Looking at him—this massive, powerful man shrinking himself down to be so gentle and earnest—my chest actually ached. God, who engineered a man this perfect? I couldn’t help it. I reached up and ran my fingers through his thick, dark hair. I smiled. “As long as you made it, I’ll love it.” The corners of Donovan’s mouth finally twitched upward. It was a minuscule, fragile smile, but it was there. The invisible chat room absolutely lost its mind. [I am violently sobbing!!!] [‘As long as you made it, I’ll love it’—Gia, you are the wife of the century!!!] [Seeing him so incredibly fragile and cautious is breaking my heart…] [When he asked ‘really?’, I actually teared up. He genuinely cannot believe someone could just… like him.] [Gia, keep praising him, please! Validate this man until the end of time!!!] [This isn’t a kidnapping thriller anymore, it’s a healing romance and I am crying.] [For the new readers: The lore is that his stepmom practically raised him. To pave the way for her own son, she psychologically abused Donovan for years. Told him he was useless, incompetent, unworthy of the family empire, and unworthy of love. She even convinced him it was his fault his biological mother died in childbirth.] The comments went dead silent for a second. [No wonder he’s so terrified. No wonder he didn’t even have the courage to kidnap the real girl… He truly believes he doesn’t deserve her.] [I’m actually crying now…] [He isn’t a coward. He’s just been broken for so long that being loved feels like a delusion.] [Gia, you better treat him right. Praise him every single day!!! I am begging you!!!] I read the text floating above us, then looked at the man sitting beside me. His head was bowed, but the tiny smile was still ghosting his lips. He was still muttering to himself. “Then… tomorrow I’ll learn how to make stew. What kind of stew do you like?” Acting purely on instinct, I wrapped my arms around his neck and pulled him into my chest. I rested my chin on his broad shoulder, my voice a soft murmur. “Whatever you want to make. I’ll eat it. As long as it’s you.” He didn’t speak. But I felt his muscles seize for a fraction of a second before the tension bled out of him entirely. He melted against me, letting his weight rest against mine. I closed my eyes. Don’t worry, I thought. Fixing a broken man? Consider it my new full-time job. 5 Under my relentless barrage of sweet-talking and physical affection, Donovan’s defenses crumbled to dust. First, I was allowed out of the bedroom. Then, I was permitted to wander the sweeping hallways. Soon, I was taking strolls in the manicured gardens. My territory expanded at lightning speed. Until one crisp morning, he looked at the floor and mumbled, “You… you can walk anywhere you want in the estate. I won’t stop you.” I stood on the front steps, staring out at the grounds, taking a massive breath of fresh air. This property was absurdly large. The gardens were a chaotic burst of color, yet pruned with mathematical precision. In the distance, I could see marble fountains, a towering glass conservatory, and what looked like a private, glimmering lake. Thank you, universe. I had my life back. No more alarm clocks. No more cramped subway cars. No more groveling to middle management. I, Gia, was going to retire on this estate and do absolutely nothing for the rest of my days. I threw my arms out, embracing the morning breeze, practically biting my tongue to keep from screaming in triumph. Of course, I wasn’t a total monster. I figured I should repay his hospitality. I tied an apron around my waist and headed into the massive gourmet kitchen, intent on showing off a little. I hadn’t even heated the pan before Donovan came sprinting into the kitchen. Looking panicked, he pried the spatula out of my fingers. “I’ll do it,” he said, his tone unusually stubborn, though his ears were bright pink. “You… you just stay there.” “I know how to cook!” I protested. “No.” He reached behind me, untying the apron, and looped it over his own neck. His voice dropped to a shy murmur. “I… I like cooking for you.” When he said the word like, his eyelashes fluttered erratically. I leaned against the marble island, watching him move around the kitchen, and surrendered. Fine. If acts of service are your love language, have at it. Mrs. Higgins, the head housekeeper, walked past the kitchen doorway carrying a silver tea service. She paused, taking in the sight of Donovan bustling around the stove in an apron while I leisurely sipped coffee by the counter. She blinked in surprise, then a profoundly warm, maternal smile spread across her face. “Oh, my,” she whispered. “The young master hasn’t been this happy in a very, very long time.” I reached out and patted her arm reassuringly. “Don’t worry. He’s going to be even happier from now on.” Mrs. Higgins’s eyes instantly welled up with tears. She ducked her head, quickly dabbing at her eyes with the back of her hand, nodding fervently. “Yes, yes. That’s wonderful.” And so, the days slipped by in a haze of domestic bliss. Every single morning, without fail, I would ask Donovan the exact same question. “Who does Gia belong to?” He paused, the carton of milk hovering over my glass. The tips of his ears turned red. He opened and closed his mouth three times before finally pushing the words out in a quiet stutter. “M… mine…” I beamed at him. “Good boy. And… who does Donovan belong to?” This time, there was no hesitation. His voice was still soft, but the stutter was gone, replaced by a fierce, quiet certainty. “Gia’s.” It was enough to make my heart physically ache. I reached into my pocket, pulled out a piece of butterscotch candy, unwrapped it, and pressed it against his lips. He blinked, surprised, before parting his lips and taking the candy. His dark eyes shone as he looked at me. I took the opportunity to lean in, invading his space, and dropped my voice to a serious, commanding whisper. “You are not allowed to take candy from any other woman outside this house. Do you understand me? They’re all trying to trick you.” He nodded earnestly, the candy tucked into his cheek. “Mm… I won’t,” he mumbled. “Only from you.” The comments: [Hahahahaha Gia what are you doing?! Are you brainwashing the man?!] [The way he nods with the candy in his cheek… he is literally a golden retriever puppy!!!] [Daily interrogation: Who does Gia belong to? Please keep asking this! I thrive on this content!] [The character development! From ‘M-mine’ to firmly saying ‘Gia’s’. The possessive boyfriend arc is real!] [When Mrs. Higgins started crying, I lost it… He finally has someone in his corner.] [I am so single it physically hurts.] 6 One afternoon, Donovan announced he was taking me shopping. Before I could even process the request, I was being led into the cavernous underground garage. A sleek, black Rolls-Royce Cullinan sat idling under the fluorescent lights. A uniformed driver was already holding the rear door open. I raised an eyebrow, sliding into the buttery leather seat. Alright. I can get used to the billionaire lifestyle. Donovan sat rigidly beside me, his hands placed perfectly flat on his knees like a schoolboy waiting for the principal. I shifted my weight, turning toward him. I reached out, hooking a finger under his chin, and gently forced his face toward mine until our eyes met. “Donovan, you have beautiful eyes,” I said softly, holding his trembling gaze. “So stop looking at the floor. Look at me.” His throat worked convulsively. It took him three tries to get a single word out. “…Okay.” Satisfied, I dropped my hand, leaned back into the plush leather, and smiled. The moment we stepped into the high-end boutique, I was like a bird let out of a cage. I dragged him through the aisles, pulling silk and chiffon off the racks. Every time I stepped out of the fitting room, I’d march right up to him, spin in a slow circle, and lean over, practically pressing myself into his space. “Do you like it?” I’d ask, grinning. Donovan’s face was permanently flushed. He sat stiffly on the velvet sofa, his spine ramrod straight. “It’s… it’s beautiful.” “How about this one?” I emerged in a different dress, the fabric swirling around my legs. “Beautiful.” “And this one?” I held a slip dress against my body. “It’s… very beautiful.” I laughed out loud. I bent at the waist, leaning in so close that the tip of my nose almost brushed his. “Then tell me, which one is the most beautiful?” His eyes darted frantically away from my face, then immediately snapped back. His lips parted, but his brain had completely short-circuited. Before I could tease him any further, a woman’s voice rang out from behind me. “Donovan?” I straightened up and turned around. Standing a few feet away was a girl with flawless, understated makeup. Her eyes were bright, locked onto Donovan, her face radiating unfiltered joy. She closed the distance quickly, her tone intimately familiar. “It is you! It’s been forever. What are you doing here?” Every muscle in Donovan’s body went instantly rigid. He didn’t look at the girl. His eyes immediately, instinctively, shot to me. The glowing text flared to life in the air. [OH MY GOD OH MY GOD OH MY GOD!!! It’s her!!! Katherine!!!] [The ultimate showdown is here AHHHHHH!!!] [Look at his eyes! He checked Gia’s reaction first! He’s panicking hahahaha!] [The stand-in vs the original! Put it in my veins!!!] [I know Katherine is supposed to be the actual female lead, but I swear Gia is exactly what this man needs!!!] [Why am I sweating right now? Gia, mark your territory!!!] Katherine stepped closer. Her gaze flicked over me for a microsecond before settling back on Donovan. She offered a perfectly polite, polished smile. “Donovan, there’s something I need to talk to you about. Is this a good time? Can we… step outside for a minute?” Donovan didn’t answer her. He turned his head toward me. His eyes were wide, swimming with questions and a deep, pulsing anxiety. I offered him a lazy, easy smile. “Go ahead.” He opened his mouth, looking like he desperately wanted to say something, but ultimately just gave a stiff nod. He stood up and followed Katherine toward the front of the boutique. I leaned against the frame of the fitting room door, crossing my arms over my chest, watching them walk away. When Donovan finally stopped in front of Katherine, I noticed something. He wasn’t looking at the floor. He was looking her dead in the eye. I dropped my head, a slow, dark smile spreading across my face. “Donovan,” I whispered to the empty air, my voice entirely void of warmth. “You’re not being a good boy. Didn’t you say you belonged only to me?”

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The day before I woke up in my eighteen-year-old body, I found a weathered journal hidden in the back of my husband’s safe. My husband, Silas, was a man the media called an “iceberg”—brilliant, devastatingly handsome, and perpetually cold. Our marriage had been a clean, efficient business arrangement. Or so I thought until I read a single line in that diary: “If I had only been more assertive back then, would things have turned out differently?” I closed the book, my heart aching. I assumed he was mourning the “one who got away,” the girl he truly loved before he was shackled to me. I told myself then: Fine. If he’s still dreaming about his ‘white moonlight,’ I’ll go find my first love. We’ll call it even and find our own peace. But then, the universe shifted. I woke up ten years in the past. On my second day back in high school, Silas—the teenage version, sharper and even more intimidating—cornered me against a brick wall in the equipment hallway and kissed me with a desperation that left me breathless and shattered. Stunned, I went back and re-read the memories of that journal in my mind, searching for what I’d missed. That’s when I realized there was a second line written directly beneath the first, scrawled in frantic, heavy ink: “If I had only been more assertive back then, her ex wouldn’t have stood a chance. Our kids would be running around the garden by now.” 1 I had always lived with the ghost of Silas’s unrequited love. He knew my reasons for marrying him, too. Beyond the merger of our families’ real estate empires, there was a jagged piece of me that wanted to spite my ex-boyfriend. We were two people occupying the same house, living parallel lives. I just didn’t realize Silas’s obsession ran so much deeper than mine. The day before the “glitch” happened, I found the journal. The entries spanned seven years, the most recent being only three days old. I’d traced the worn edges of the paper until I hit that line about his regrets. I couldn’t bear to read further. The pain of being a second choice was a weight I’d carried for years. So, when I opened my eyes and found myself standing on the high school track field, staring at an eighteen-year-old Silas, I did the only logical thing. I turned around and ran. In my first life, my best friend had goaded me into asking for his number. That was the spark that eventually led to our transactional engagement years later. This time, I was going to set the tracks straight. I wasn’t going to be the consolation prize. My best friend, Jessie, grabbed my arm, yanking me back to the present. “Maya, what are you doing? It’s just a phone number. Why are you running like you saw a ghost?” I forced my eyes away from Silas, who was standing near the bleachers, looking like a dark prince in a varsity jacket. “He’s not my type, Jessie. You know that. My heart is already set on someone else.” Jessie sighed, her disappointment palpable. “You mean Jason? He’s sweet, I guess, and he’s… safe. But he’s a puddle compared to Silas. You guys don’t even vibe.” I started walking away, pulling her with me, when she suddenly squeezed my arm so hard it bruised. “Oh my god! He’s coming over!” My stomach dropped. “Who?” “Hi. I’m Silas.” The voice was lower than I remembered, vibrating through my spine. I took several steadying breaths before I dared to turn around. He was there. Eighteen-year-old Silas was leaner, his expression more guarded, but his eyes had that same piercing intensity that used to make me forget my own name. 2 Silas held out his phone, the screen already open to a new contact page. “I’d like to get to know you. If that’s okay.” I froze. This wasn’t how it happened before. In the original timeline, I was the one who chased him. This felt… wrong. Jessie was vibrating with excitement beside me. She didn’t wait for my permission; she snatched my phone out of my hand, swiped it open—god, I cursed myself for telling her my passcode—and exchanged numbers with him before I could blink. I ground my teeth. Note to self: Jessie is officially fired from being my future maid of honor. After the exchange, Silas didn’t say a word. He just stood there, his gaze lingering on my face as if he were memorizing a map he thought he’d lost. I felt exposed under his stare. I grabbed Jessie’s hand to flee, but a cheerful voice stopped us. “Maya! Hey! I brought you those fish tacos you like!” Jason ran toward us, balancing a few greasy bags. He looked exactly how I remembered—kind, a bit messy, and utterly boyish. I smiled, reaching out for the food, but Silas stepped between us. “She’s allergic to shellfish.” The world seemed to go silent. Jason blinked. Jessie stared. I stood there, paralyzed. I am allergic to shellfish. But Jason didn’t find that out until our sophomore year of college when I ended up in the ER after a date. And back then, Silas and I barely spoke. He was always working, always busy with the “merger.” The only time I’d had a major reaction during our marriage was at a corporate gala. I’d passed out after a stray appetizer, and when I woke up in the hospital, the room was empty. I’d assumed Silas was too busy with his clients to stay. But in the hazy moments of waking, I could have sworn I saw his face hovering over mine. “Wait, how did you know that?” Jason asked, looking confused. Silas didn’t answer him. Instead, he took the bag from Jason’s hand and began sorting through it with clinical precision. “She doesn’t eat onions in her wraps. She hates honey mustard. This chicken is too greasy, and this dessert has way too much artificial syrup…” He finally pulled out a plain fruit cup. “This is the only thing here that won’t make her sick.” Fear pricked at my skin. Something was very different about this Silas. I didn’t wait for an explanation; I grabbed Jessie and bolted toward the gym. “Do you know him?” Jessie panted as we ran. “Have you two been secret pen pals or something?” “No,” I lied, my heart hammering. “I’ve never spoken to him in my life.” “Then he’s either a stalker or a psychic, Maya. He knows your coffee order better than your own boyfriend does!” 3 Back in the classroom, Jason was sulking. “That guy… are you sure you don’t know him?” I shook my head, staring at my textbook. “Forget him, Jason. He’s just some arrogant jerk from the honors track.” I glanced toward the door. A shadow passed by the frosted glass. It was Silas. He was pacing the hallway, his shadow flickering every few seconds as he glanced into our room. Jason finally relaxed after I spent ten minutes ego-stroking him. “Maya, I wanted to tell you something.” My heart sank. Here it was. The moment that defined my first life. “I’m applying for the exchange program in London for next year.” I already knew the script. This was the beginning of the end for us. “I have to go,” he continued, holding my hand tightly. “My grades aren’t like yours. If I stay here, I won’t get into a top-tier school. But don’t worry. Once you graduate, we’ll be together. I’ll finish my three years abroad, and then we’ll get married. It’s just three years…” Just three years. He said it so easily. In my previous life, those three years were the loneliest of my existence. I stayed loyal, turning down every invitation, waiting for a man who eventually told me he needed another two years for a Master’s degree because he “needed to be worthy of me.” That was why, when my mother told me about the arrangement with Silas’s family, I had said yes. It wasn’t just spite. It was exhaustion. I was tired of waiting for a ghost. “Maya? Are you okay? You look pale.” I forced a smile and nodded. “Go for it, Jason. I support you.” Jason looked shocked that I didn’t put up a fight. He pressed my hand to his cheek. “I knew you’d understand. You’re the best. I’ll give you the wedding of your dreams one day, I promise.” Outside in the hall, a loud crash echoed, followed by a curse. “Watch where the hell you’re going!” It was Silas. He’d “accidentally” bumped into a janitor’s cart right outside our door. I pulled my hand away from Jason’s. “It’s too early to talk about weddings,” I whispered. 4 By the end of the day, my head was spinning. I tried to leave through the side exit, only to find Silas leaning against the brickwork, waiting. Does he have a tracker on me? He’s supposed to be chasing his mysterious first love, not me. “Maya. Let’s grab dinner.” I kept my head down. “I can’t. Jason is waiting for me.” Silas’s eyes flashed with a dark, sharp light. “Then let him wait. Or better yet, tell him I intercepted you.” I let out a sharp, frustrated laugh. “I didn’t realize you were such a prick, Silas.” “If you want to have this out, let’s do it,” he said, his voice dropping an octave. “Fine,” I snapped. “Look, I know how this works. Our families want a merger. It’s business. There are no feelings involved, and there never will be. Since we have a chance to do things over, let’s just stay out of each other’s way. You go your way, I’ll go mine.” Silas didn’t move. “I am going my way. You’re just standing in the middle of it.” I tried to push past him, but he followed me like a shadow. He was relentless. Jason was waiting by the cafeteria entrance, his face darkening when he saw Silas trailing behind me. “What is he doing here?” Before I could explain, Silas cut in. “It’s a public school, isn’t it? Or do you own the cafeteria now?” I wondered if Silas had hit his head during the time-jump. The man I knew was a man of few words, a statue of decorum. This version was a nightmare. He sat at our table, ignoring Jason entirely. When my tray arrived, Silas swapped it for a premium-looking bento box he’d pulled from his bag. It was the exact same brand and model of lunchbox he used to carry to the office. I opened it with trembling fingers. Inside was exactly what I used to eat for lunch every day during our marriage: grilled shrimp (cleaned perfectly), steamed broccoli, and a soft-boiled egg cut into a heart. But our housekeeper, Mrs. Gable, always made my lunches. Or so I thought. I took a bite. The flavor was identical. “Did you make this?” He nodded. “Every single one. Even the ones from before.” Jason slammed his fork down. “Maya, you told me you didn’t know this guy!” I was trapped. I pulled out my phone under the table and shot Silas a text. Stop it. Don’t you have a ‘white moonlight’ to go chase? Go find the girl you actually love and leave me alone! I looked up, and the look in Silas’s eyes stopped my heart. It was the same look he gave me on our wedding night—intense, hungry, and devastatingly sad. He checked his phone, read the text, and said nothing. He simply reached across the table and wiped a stray drop of sauce from my lip with his thumb. My anxiety spiked. Where was his unrequited love? What about the regret in his diary? Then, a memory of a middle page of that journal surfaced: “I’ve wanted to make her lunch since we were kids. I didn’t think I’d have to wait until we were married to do it. At least that loser Jason is a thousand miles away now…” 5 “Hey!” Jason shouted, standing up. “I don’t know what your problem is, but she’s my girlfriend. We’re going to be together forever. Stay away from her!” Silas let out a cold, soft chuckle. “You won’t get married. Not in the last life, not in this one, and definitely not in the next.” Jason, thinking Silas was just being a jerk, grabbed my arm to pull me away, knocking the lunchbox onto the floor in the process. I looked back at Silas. He was sitting there, staring at the ruined food on the floor, looking smaller than I’d ever seen him. If he really had been the one making my meals all those years… I owed him more than this. Once Jason dragged me outside, I finally snapped. “Jason, that was uncalled for. You didn’t have to ruin the food. It’s wasteful.” Jason grabbed my shoulders, his hands shaking. “I don’t know what it is, Maya, but every time I see him, I feel like he’s about to steal you. I’m just… I’m scared of losing you.” I sighed, patting his back. “It’s fine. I’m here.” That night, I had cafeteria duty. By the time I finished cleaning the classrooms, it was 9:30 PM. Jason had promised to wait for me, but his car was nowhere to be found. I’ve always been terrified of the dark. Our school was deep in the suburbs, and the walk to the gate was a fifteen-minute trek through poorly lit paths. I started to jog, my breath hitching in my throat. I heard footsteps behind me. I spun around, but the path was empty. A few yards later, a hand tapped my shoulder. I screamed, spinning to find a guy with greasy hair and a face full of acne shoving a phone in my face. “Hey, beautiful. Give me your number?” I backed away, my hands up. “I… I’m not interested.” He stepped closer, his smile predatory. “Come on, don’t be like that. Just one look.” Suddenly, a heavy arm wrapped around my waist, pulling me back against a warm, solid chest. The scent of sandalwood and expensive soap—my favorite scent, the one I’d bought for him—filled my lungs. “You walk too slow,” Silas’s deep voice vibrated against my ear. “I’ve been waiting for you at the gate for twenty minutes.” He turned his cold gaze to the stranger. “Is there a problem?” The guy scoffed. “Just trying to get a number, man. You know how it is.” He actually had the nerve to wink at Silas. “Get out,” Silas growled. His fist clenched so hard his knuckles popped. I think the guy realized that Silas was about five seconds away from a felony charge. He scrambled away into the shadows. 6 The walk to the gate felt much shorter with Silas beside me. My driver’s car was waiting with its lights flashing. “Thanks for today,” I whispered, turning to him. Silas leaned down, his lips inches from mine. “Your boyfriend threw away the lunch I made for you. How are you going to make it up to me?” I couldn’t move. If I breathed too deeply, our lips would touch. “I’ll… I’ll make you lunch tomorrow.” “Good. And you’ll eat it with me.” “Okay.” As soon as I got into the car, I put my head in my hands. How was I going to explain this to Jason?

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My mother-in-law, Beatrice, burst into my room without knocking, her voice shrill with anxiety. She wanted to know why David wasn’t back yet. We were supposed to leave for the airport in two hours. I silently tapped the power button on my phone, the screen going black as my heart turned to stone. She didn’t know. David was never coming back for us. In fact, he didn’t even intend for us to make it out of this city alive. It started as a family vacation—a luxury getaway that turned into a nightmare when the civil unrest flared into a full-scale coup. We were trapped. I had spent days on the phone, pulling every string I had and paying four times the standard rate to secure two tickets back to the States. The night before we were supposed to fly, David sent me a text saying he was heading to the U.S. Consulate to “check on the evacuation protocols.” He told me and his mother to stay in the hotel and not to move. Three hours later, the city was placed under total martial law. The airport was shuttered. I called him frantically, but every call went straight to a dead-air disconnect. It wasn’t until I managed to bypass the hotel’s throttled Wi-Fi and log into the airline’s booking system that the floor fell out from under me. David hadn’t disappeared. He had rebooked his flight. He had left on an emergency charter hours ago. But the part that felt like a jagged blade in my gut? The person sitting in the seat next to him wasn’t me. It was Jennifer, our “local guide” for the trip—the woman who had been hovering around him since the day we landed. [1] I had sent David over a dozen messages. Every single one of them sat on “Delivered” with no “Read” receipt. It had been four hours since he last made contact. In our room, the half-packed suitcases lay open like wounds. Clothes were scattered everywhere. He had left in such a rush that he hadn’t even taken his spare shirts or slacks. The only thing missing was that cheap, linen travel jacket Jennifer had picked out for him at the bazaar during our first week. And his passport. He had reached into the hidden compartment of my carry-on and taken his, leaving mine and his mother’s behind. I forced my hands to stop shaking and called the airline’s international desk. After a grueling ten minutes on hold, a woman with a clipped, professional accent answered. “I’m sorry, Mrs. Clifford,” she said, her voice devoid of emotion. “But the reservations for yourself and Mrs. Beatrice Clifford were canceled yesterday afternoon at the request of the primary account holder.” Yesterday. He had planned this before the city even fell. Outside, the first sounds of artillery thundered in the distance. My husband of five years had chosen to save his mistress and leave me to rot in a war zone. “Andrea!” Beatrice’s sharp voice cut through my thoughts. “What is taking you so long? David is out there risking his life at the Consulate while you’re sitting here in the AC acting like a princess!” I didn’t explain. I just reached down and zipped the suitcases shut. A notification popped up on my phone—an emergency alert from the State Department: [URGENT: Total lockdown in effect. All transport hubs closed. U.S. citizens are advised to shelter in place. Evacuation efforts are suspended until further notice.] Beatrice glanced at the screen, scoffing as she swiped the notification away. “They always overreact. It’s just a little protest. Can they actually focus on getting us home instead of sending annoying texts?” She took a sip of bottled water and looked at me expectantly. “Any word from David?” “Don’t wait up,” I said, my voice eerily calm as I started searching for private security contacts. “He’s not going to text.” “What on earth are you talking about?” She paused, then waved a dismissive hand. “He’s probably just busy with the diplomats. High-level negotiations take time.” I walked to the window and pulled the heavy curtain back just an inch. Concrete barricades had been erected at the end of the block. An armored vehicle rumbled past, its treads grinding over debris with a sickening, metallic crunch. A man trying to flee with a suitcase was intercepted by soldiers in mismatched fatigues; they shoved him back toward the alleyways at gunpoint. The wind carried the scent of cordite and burning rubber, stinging my eyes. David was likely at thirty thousand feet by now, sipping bourbon in a pressurized cabin. Jennifer would be leaning her head on his shoulder. I looked at Beatrice—arrogant, demanding, and utterly clueless—and said nothing. I waited until 2:00 AM. That’s when the text finally arrived from David: [Just got a lead at the Consulate. Looks like I’ll be tied up in negotiations for a while. You and Mom get some sleep. Don’t wait for me.] I did the math. Nine hours had passed since he left. He had landed. He was safe on American soil, probably walking through a quiet, suburban airport. I thought for a moment, then typed back: [Understood.] Then, I screenshotted the exchange and forwarded it to my attorney back in Seattle. [2] By the second day, the hotel’s room service had ceased to exist. Beatrice scoured the kitchenette and slammed two stale packs of crackers onto the table. “This is it? Why didn’t you stock up on food, Andrea? You’re so useless!” If David hadn’t canceled our tickets, we would have been eating a home-cooked meal in our own kitchen by now. We wouldn’t have needed to “stock up.” “You don’t have a brain in your head,” she hissed. “The minute David isn’t here to hold your hand, you just sit around waiting to starve. I don’t know why my son married such a pathetic woman.” I ignored her. I was on a localized messaging app for expats. Someone posted a location for a grocery store on the west side that was still open, but it required crossing three checkpoints. You needed a pass. I contacted a few local fixers. Most were dark. One offered a car for three thousand dollars, with no guarantee we’d make it past the first block. Beatrice leaned over my shoulder. “Three thousand? That’s highway robbery! Don’t you dare spend David’s hard-earned money on that.” “Then I guess we wait for David’s ‘updates’ from the Consulate,” I replied. “Wait?” Beatrice shrieked. “Are you trying to starve me to death?” She grabbed her phone and dialed David. The second he picked up, she launched into a litany of complaints. “Caleb—I mean, David, honey! Your wife won’t even find me a decent meal. I’m an old woman, I shouldn’t be suffering like this! When are you coming to get me?” Through the speaker, I heard a muffled, chaotic background noise before David’s voice came through, low and guarded. “Mom, the city is locked down. I can’t get back to the hotel right now. Just stay put. Don’t go outside.” “But where are you? Is there a bed for me at the Consulate?” There was a long silence on the other end. Finally, David stammered, “Don’t worry about me. They’ve got us in a… temporary holding area. It’s fine. I’m safe.” Beatrice hung up and glared at me. “You hear that? David is out there in the trenches, probably sleeping on a cot, and you’re complaining about hotel food. You’re a disgrace.” I didn’t argue. He was in a house in the suburbs, yet he was telling his mother he was in a refugee camp. It was a lie so flimsy a child could see through it. Did she really not hear the lack of sirens in his background? The lack of gunfire? For dinner, we each had a pack of crackers softened with lukewarm water from the kettle. Beatrice took one bite and spat it out. “Disgusting! It’s like eating cardboard. My bridge is going to break!” She stormed into her bedroom, cursing under her breath. I picked up the discarded crackers and finished them. In a situation like this, pride is a luxury that gets you killed. Calories are the only thing that matters. It wasn’t until midnight that I heard movement in Beatrice’s room. I thought she was hungry and was about to check on her when I heard her voice, hushed but ecstatic. “I’m so glad you made it back safely.” A pause. “How is Jennifer? Is she okay? She needs to be careful, being pregnant and all. She shouldn’t be overexerting herself.” The name. The pregnancy. The truth hit me like a physical blow, knocking the air from my lungs. He had a child on the way. He had been living a double life for months, maybe years. My blood turned to ice. My fingertips went numb against the doorframe. Beatrice’s voice drifted through the wood again, colder this time. “Don’t worry about Andrea. I’m keeping an eye on her. She hasn’t suspected a thing.” “About the insurance… don’t be in such a rush. With the way things are out there, I just need to find a reason to get her to leave the room. There are bombs everywhere, David. If she gets caught in the crossfire, the payout is automatic. We won’t even have to get our hands dirty.” I clenched my fists so hard my nails drew blood. But the sting in my palms was nothing compared to the hole in my chest. Five years of marriage, incinerated in a single conversation. If they wanted me dead for a paycheck, fine. But they were about to learn that I wasn’t the victim they thought I was. [3] By using the last of my liquid cash to buy supplies from the expat group, I managed to keep us alive for three days. But when I tried to make another transfer, the screen flashed: Insufficient Funds. I thought it was a network error. I opened my banking app, my heart hammering. Every cent was gone. The joint savings, the emergency fund—all of it had been transferred to an account labeled WY Holdings. The transfer date? The night before David left. My knuckles turned white as I gripped the phone. When we got married, David insisted I quit my job in international logistics. He wanted me to be a “traditional” wife, to take care of his mother and focus on starting a family. I had no salary, but I had my rental income from a condo I’d bought before the wedding. I’d used that money to pay our mortgage and tucked the rest into our joint account. Now, I couldn’t even afford a loaf of bread. The sun filtered through the curtains, but I felt no warmth. My phone buzzed. David. I hit the record button before answering. “David? How are things? Are you and Mom okay?” I didn’t bother with the pleasantries. “Where is the money, David?” The line went silent for a beat. “What money?” “The eighty thousand dollars. Transferred to Jennifer’s holding account.” The air in the room seemed to vanish. He hadn’t expected me to find out so soon. When he spoke again, his voice was forcedly soft. “Annie, listen. Things are crazy right now. I had Jennifer move that to offshore accounts so we could convert it to cash. The banks here are crashing. I did it to make sure you and Mom have a way out!” I wasn’t in the mood for his scripts. “Where is she?” “She’s home! She got back days ago,” he said quickly. “Her family has connections. She got a priority seat.” “Is she standing next to you right now?” The line went dead. I didn’t call back. I saved the recording and sent it to my lawyer. Beatrice emerged from the bathroom, clutching her chest. Her face was pasty. “Andrea… my chest feels tight.” She had a heart condition. Between the stress and the lack of decent food, her health was cratering. I searched the luggage. Her nitroglycerin was down to two pills. “Andrea… give them to me…” I handed her the bottle. “This is it. There are only two left.” Her hands shook as she popped them into her mouth. She collapsed onto the sofa, eyes closed. After a few minutes, she opened them and snapped, “You need to go out and find a pharmacy. What if I have another attack tonight?” I looked at her. Really looked at her. “The city is under a strict curfew, Beatrice.” “So?” she barked. “I’m your mother-in-law! Are you just going to sit there and watch me die?” I knew what she was doing. She wanted me to step outside into the line of fire. “If I go out there and get hit by a stray bullet,” I said evenly, “you’ll be stuck in this room alone. And you will die.” That shut her up. Her lips trembled, but she couldn’t find a comeback. Around 3:00 PM, she demanded water. I poured her half a glass of lukewarm bottled water. She took a sip and spat it onto the carpet. “It’s cold! Why isn’t the kettle on?” “The power is out. The heater is dead.” “Then fix it! Call the front desk!” She slammed the glass onto the table, her face contorting. “I know what you’re doing, Andrea. I see you on that phone all day, flirting with those men in your ‘help groups.’ You want me dead so you can run off with some stranger and leave my son!” I said nothing. “David should have never married a low-class girl like you! You have no shame!” She worked herself into a frenzy, standing up to point a finger at me, her face turning a deep, dangerous purple. “I’m telling him the second we get back. He’s divorcing you. You won’t get a single penny of his money!” Mid-sentence, she gasped. She clutched her sternum and crumpled to the floor. I rushed to her, but her lips were already turning blue. She couldn’t speak. The pill bottle was empty. She gripped my sleeve, her eyes shifting from malice to sheer, primal terror. I lowered her gently to the floor. “Don’t worry,” I whispered. “Your son wants you dead. I don’t.” Hating her was one thing. Letting her blood be on my hands was another. [4] It took ten minutes of focused CPR before her breathing stabilized. After that, she went quiet. She stopped badgering me to go outside. She rarely even picked up the phone to call David. And finally, I had my opening. I logged into an encrypted email account I hadn’t touched in five years. I sent a single message with my GPS coordinates. Three minutes later, my phone rang. A voice I hadn’t heard in years spoke: “Ms. Clifford? We have your location.” I gave him the hotel details. The response was immediate. “You’ve been moved to the highest priority extraction list. Assets are being diverted now. We’re bringing you home.” I hung up and stood by the window, watching the gray smoke settle over the skyline. David knew me as a former “corporate admin.” He had never bothered to ask what I actually did before I met him. Or maybe he just didn’t care. Before I left, I had one last move to make. At dawn, I knocked on Beatrice’s door. “Mom, I’m going out to find a pharmacy. Stay here and rest.” She looked at me, startled. She started to say something, then stopped. I saw the guilt flicker in her eyes for a split second—the thought of that insurance payout vs. the woman who had just saved her life. She didn’t stop me. I walked out the door. Artillery fire lit up the horizon like a gruesome sunrise. I didn’t return that night. Late into the evening, the lock on the hotel room clicked. Beatrice sat up, expecting me. Instead, three men in tactical gear entered the room. The leader flashed a badge. “Mrs. Beatrice Clifford? We’re with the U.S. Consulate. We’re here to evacuate you.” Beatrice was stunned. It took her a moment to find her voice. “When are we leaving?” “Now. We have a secure transport to the airfield. A private charter is waiting.” Tears flooded her eyes. she scrambled out of bed, but then she paused. “Wait… my daughter-in-law. She went out to get me medicine. We can’t leave without Andrea.” The man went silent for a moment, then shook his head solemnly. “Ma’am, the streets are a war zone. If she’s been out there all day… there’s no way she survived.” He checked his watch. “The window is closing. We have to go. If we hear anything about her, we’ll coordinate a search, but you need to move now.” Beatrice hesitated for maybe three seconds. Then, she grabbed her purse and followed them. Twenty-four hours later, the plane touched down in Seattle. David was waiting at the arrivals gate. He was wearing a brand-new cashmere overcoat, looking refreshed and successful. Jennifer was clinging to his arm, her hand resting on a barely-there baby bump. She wore oversized sunglasses, but she couldn’t hide the smug curve of her lips. “Mom!” David rushed forward, his eyes darting behind Beatrice. “You’re… you’re alone?” Beatrice nodded, her eyes red-rimmed. David froze. Then, a slow, electric excitement transformed his face. His voice dropped to a trembling whisper. “Where’s Andrea? Did she… did she not make it?” Beatrice didn’t answer. David’s eyes lit up. He looked back at Jennifer, and they exchanged a look of pure, predatory triumph. “Mom,” David whispered, leaning in. “I’m the sole beneficiary on her policy. If she died over there, that’s three million dollars. We’re set for life.” Jennifer patted her stomach and giggled. That’s when a voice drifted from behind them. “I’m not dead, David. Are you disappointed?”

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The day before my wedding, I booked a signature facial at L’Elysée MedSpa. It was supposed to be my final exhale, a quiet moment to let the pre-wedding anxiety melt away under hot towels and expensive serums. When it was over, my skin glowing and my shoulders finally relaxed, I walked up to the marble reception desk and pulled out my VIP membership card to settle the tab. The receptionist handed me the final invoice. I glanced at it absently, but the numbers didn’t make sense. A heavy crease formed between my brows. “Excuse me, but the remaining balance on my account has to be wrong,” I said, tapping the paper. “I just loaded fifteen thousand dollars onto this card last month. I’ve only used it once. Why does it say I only have three hundred dollars left?” The receptionist sighed, a tiny huff of breath that felt intentionally loud. She turned to her computer, clicked the mouse a few times with exaggerated force, and swiveled the monitor toward me. “You can see for yourself, ma’am.” “Your mother has been coming in three times a week using this card,” she explained, her tone dripping with rehearsed condescension. “Last week, she even purchased our platinum anti-aging skincare vault. That alone was nine thousand dollars.” She offered me a tight, synthetic smile. “Money doesn’t just magically replenish itself. Your funds are depleted.” I stared at the screen. Line after line of exorbitant charges stared back at me. I didn’t argue. I didn’t raise my voice. Instead, I calmly pulled my phone from my purse and dialed 911. “Hello, yes, I need to report a theft,” I said, my voice steady, cutting through the ambient spa music. “Someone has fraudulently drained my account at a business. The stolen amount exceeds twelve thousand dollars.” 1 My voice was ice-cold, every syllable sharp and deliberate. The low hum of chatter in the elegant waiting lounge instantly died. Several women lounging on the velvet sofas snapped their mouths shut, their eyes darting toward me. At the words fraudulent and stolen, the color visibly drained from the faces of a few wealthy clients waiting for their treatments. The receptionist’s smug expression shattered. Panic flooded her eyes. “N-no! Wait! Ms. Jocelyn, no—” I didn’t acknowledge her. I stood perfectly still, my phone pressed to my ear, continuing my conversation with the dispatcher. Just as I opened my mouth to give the police L’Elysée’s exact address, a hand shot out from behind me and snatched the phone right out of my grip. I spun around, my heart giving a hard, angry thump. Standing there was Joanne, the MedSpa’s general manager, flanked by a burly security guard in a tight suit. My phone was now resting in the guard’s meaty palm. “Jocelyn, sweetheart, let’s take a breath. I’m Joanne, the manager here. We can absolutely talk this through,” she purred. “This is just a tiny misunderstanding. There’s no need to escalate this to the authorities.” She had a practiced smile plastered on her face, but her eyes held a glint of absolute disdain. The sheer audacity of it almost made me laugh out loud. I held out my right hand, palm up, and projected my voice so the entire lobby could hear. “I don’t care how you want to ‘talk this through.’ Give me my phone back. Now.” “That is my personal property. What kind of shady operation are you running here? Your staff just assaults clients and takes their belongings?” I challenged, taking a step forward. “How is this any different from a mugging?” Joanne’s faux-sweet smile vanished. Instead of ordering the guard to hand it back, she shifted her weight, subtly blocking my path to him. “A mugging? Ms. Jocelyn, you might be a client, but I will not allow you to stand in my lobby and slander our business,” Joanne snapped. “Furthermore, regarding your phone… we hardly need to steal it.” “We could see you were having a bit of a mental episode. We’re simply holding onto it to prevent you from doing something rash that you’ll regret later. We’re doing you a favor.” The veiled threat in her tone made the pulse at my temple throb wildly. Before I could tear into her, Joanne marched over to the front desk and made a big show of inspecting the ledger on the screen. She then turned back to me, looking at me as if I were utterly unhinged. “Jocelyn, the ledger is right here. Every single charge is meticulously documented. What exactly is your problem?” “If you have this much free time to stand here and try to extort us, why don’t you go home and have a conversation with your mother?” she asked, her voice carrying a sickeningly sweet concern. “I’m sure it’s just family drama.” “It would be a real shame if the police showed up, realized this was just a domestic dispute, and ended up arresting your mother for theft. That wouldn’t look very good for your family, would it?” Joanne’s voice was laced with a venomous kind of amusement. Every word was designed to paint me as a hysterical, ungrateful daughter, packaged with a thinly veiled threat to back off. The onlookers in the lobby exhaled a collective breath of relief, the tension breaking. “Honey, if your own family is spending your money, you can’t come in here and blame the business,” an older woman muttered, giving me a disapproving look. “Exactly,” another chimed in. “I’ve been coming to L’Elysée for years and my account has never been ‘hacked.’ Sounds to me like she’s just trying to shake them down for a refund.” The murmurs of the room pressed in on me, a suffocating wave of misplaced judgment. My mother? My mother died of breast cancer a decade ago. What ghost was walking into this MedSpa to buy anti-aging serum on my dime? I forced my lungs to expand, burying the surge of raw grief that always accompanied her memory, and locked eyes with Joanne. “Joanne,” I said, my voice dropping an octave. “First of all, my mother passed away ten years ago.” The silence in the room was immediate and deafening. “I don’t know who told you the person draining my account was my mother, but it is a biological impossibility. What you need to be asking yourself right now is whether your front desk staff actually checks IDs.” “Or does your establishment just allow any random person off the street to spin a sob story and get thousands of dollars of free services on someone else’s tab?” Joanne’s face turned the color of ash. I didn’t stop. “Secondly, if I recall correctly, this VIP account is under my name, and my cell phone number is required on the file. Why didn’t a single person from this business call or text me to authorize thousands of dollars in sudden expenditures?” Behind the desk, the receptionist suddenly looked like she was going to be sick. 2 The smug curve of Joanne’s mouth flattened into a hard line. “Jocelyn, we absolutely verify the identity of our clients before processing any transactions,” she said defensively. “The woman who claimed to be your mother presented a physical photograph of the two of you together as proof. She swore up and down she was your mother, and we were trying to be accommodating…” Her tone was impatient, trying to brush the sheer incompetence under the rug. I didn’t back down an inch. I stared right through her. “A photograph?” I repeated, my voice dripping with incredulity. “What era are we living in? A printed photo is your security protocol? Give me five minutes and I can use AI to generate ten thousand photos of the two of us standing together.” “Does that mean I can walk into your bank tomorrow, show them a fake picture, claim I’m your mother, and empty your checking account?” I pointed a shaking finger at the computer monitor. “I trusted this business. That’s why I prepaid fifteen thousand dollars. You were supposed to safeguard my money. Now it’s gone, and somehow you’re standing there telling me it’s my fault?” “For a place that charges luxury prices, you run a remarkably trashy operation.” I smiled—a dark, humorless thing. It was a direct hit. The words struck a nerve, not just with Joanne, but with every wealthy woman sitting in the lobby. The illusion of exclusivity and safety was shattered. A woman in a heavy Chanel tweed jacket slammed her magazine onto the coffee table and stood up. “The girl is absolutely right!” “Is this really how you handle our money?” the woman demanded, glaring at Joanne. “Anyone can fake a photo! This is a catastrophic failure on your end!” “I have nearly a hundred thousand dollars sitting on my account right now,” she continued, her voice rising in panic. “No! I want my balance checked right now. How do I know you haven’t let some stranger drain my account too?!” The lobby erupted. Clients abandoned their herbal teas and crowded the front desk, demanding printouts of their ledgers. The spa staff were flushed red, stammering out panicked apologies, completely losing control of the room. I ignored the chaos and turned back to the security guard, holding out my hand. “Now. Give me my phone back. Immediately.” “Because if I have to find another way to call the police, I’m pressing charges for a lot more than just financial fraud.” Joanne looked like she might have a stroke. She shot me a look of pure hatred, stepped forward, and slapped my outstretched hand away. “Jocelyn! Stop being hysterical! You have absolutely no proof of anything you’re claiming! You are causing severe reputational damage to my business right now!” “We have every right to sue you for defamation!” she hissed, her face inches from mine. “I have a top-tier legal team on retainer. You are not leaving this building until you sign a written apology and agree to compensate us for damages! Do you hear me?” I looked at her, my expression unreadable. Slowly, my hand drifted to my coat pocket. My fingers brushed against the metal casing of the dictaphone I used for office meetings—a habit I’d picked up from my dad’s corporate days. I hit the stop button to save the recording. “Sure,” I said softly. “You can demand whatever you want. But just remember what you just said, Joanne. Because when the police review the tape, I’m pretty sure ‘unlawful detainment’ and ‘extortion’ are going to be added to the rap sheet.” Joanne froze, her eyes dropping to my pocket. Before she could react, the woman in the Chanel tweed marched over and shoved a diamond-encrusted iPhone into my hands. “Here! Use mine!” she declared loudly. “I have never seen a business act with such unbelievable audacity. Call the police, honey. Let’s get the authorities in here to tear this place apart.” I thanked her, dialed 911, and put the phone to my ear. This time, Joanne just stood there, her face a mottled, suffocated purple. She didn’t dare make a single sound. 3 The police response was fast. Less than ten minutes later, two uniformed officers pushed through the glass doors. Joanne, who had been glaring at me with barely suppressed rage, instantly morphed into a completely different person. The hostility vanished, replaced by a frantic, fawning smile as she rushed to intercept them. “Officers! Good afternoon. I’m Joanne, the general manager of L’Elysée. Honestly, this is just a massive misunderstanding. A simple miscommunication between family members!” She tried to herd them toward her office, throwing out a barrage of meaningless corporate jargon, desperate to control the narrative. It was pathetic. Did she really think seasoned cops would fall for something so transparent? They didn’t. They bypassed her entirely and walked straight over to me. “Are you the one who made the call?” the taller officer asked. I nodded. Taking a deep breath, I laid out exactly what had happened, from start to finish. I didn’t embellish. I didn’t need to. The facts were damning enough. “I called because I am the victim of a felony,” I stated clearly. “I had fifteen thousand dollars pre-loaded on this account. My service today was four hundred. Everything else—over twelve thousand dollars—was fraudulently charged to someone else.” “Given the dollar amount, I believe this falls under grand larceny.” “Furthermore, the manager and the receptionist claim they allowed a woman to drain my account because she said she was my mother.” My voice wavered for just a second before hardening. “My mother died of cancer ten years ago. It’s a physical impossibility.” I handed over the receipt they’d just printed, my VIP card, and pointed toward the computer monitor that was still lit up with the fraudulent charges. “I refused to leave because I was terrified they would delete the ledger if I took my eyes off it,” I added. The officers took the evidence and walked over to inspect the screen. Then, they turned their gaze to Joanne, who was now sweating through her silk blouse. “Care to explain?” the officer asked sharply. “You allowed someone to use an account without the account holder’s presence or authorization? Where is your verification process?” Joanne was unraveling. The entire lobby was dead silent, watching her hang herself. “It… it wasn’t like that! We… the client provided photographic evidence!” she stammered. “She showed us a picture of herself with Jocelyn! We thought we were doing a favor for her mother! We would never have authorized it otherwise, I swear!” It was a pathetic defense. Even Joanne’s voice trailed off as she realized how absurd it sounded aloud. Just as the silence stretched to a breaking point, the receptionist spoke up, her voice trembling. “I… I took down her phone number the first time she came in,” she whispered, pointing to a leather-bound logbook on the desk. “It’s in the guest registry. We can call her.” My heart gave a dark, cynical thud. Got you. I wanted to know exactly who the rat in the shadows was. Who had the sheer nerve to invoke my dead mother to steal from me. At the officer’s nod, the receptionist dialed the number and put the phone on speaker. The line rang twice. “Yeah, who is this?” a grating, nasal woman’s voice answered. The receptionist, clearly terrified of the cops standing over her, fumbled through the excuse they’d fed her. “H-hi, is this Jocelyn’s mother? This is L’Elysée MedSpa. We’re doing a promotional giveaway for our VIP clients… we just need to confirm your shipping address so we can send out your gift basket…” I closed my eyes, running the audio of that voice through my memories, trying to place it. Nothing immediately clicked. The woman on the phone bought the lie instantly. Greedy and eager, she rattled off her full address without a second thought. But the moment she said the street name and apartment number, my eyes snapped open. The blood rushed to my ears. Wait. Isn’t that…? 4 Armed with the address, the officers didn’t hesitate. They asked all the involved parties to head to the location. The situation was a mess of fraud and liability, and the only way to untangle it was a face-to-face confrontation. I sat in the back of the squad cruiser, watching the familiar streets roll by. My stomach churned. By the time the cruiser pulled up to the tired, brick apartment complex I had visited half a dozen times, the reality of the betrayal hit me like a physical blow. The officers rang the doorbell. It took nearly twenty seconds before the deadbolt clicked and the door cracked open. A heavy-set older woman with a sour, lined face peeked out. Before I could say a word, Joanne shoved past me, her desperation making her reckless. “Pamela!” Joanne practically shrieked. “Thank God you’re here! You need to tell them! You told us you had permission to use your daughter’s card, right? You swore to it! Now Jocelyn is here trying to ruin my business, and you need to clear this up!” I stood in the dimly lit hallway, my face completely devoid of emotion. I knew exactly who this was. This was Pamela. My fiancé Brandon’s aunt. The “photograph” they’d accepted as ID? I knew exactly what it was. It was a cropped version of a massive group photo taken at my and Brandon’s engagement party six months ago. The audacity was suffocating. Brandon and I weren’t even married yet. And even if we were, in what universe did that give a distant, grifting aunt the right to impersonate my dead mother and steal thousands of dollars from me? Pamela squinted, her gaze shifting from Joanne to me, and finally landing on the police officers. Her demeanor flipped like a switch. “Oh, Jocelyn! Sweetheart! Look at this mess!” she cooed, pasting on a sickeningly familiar, overly affectionate smile. She completely ignored the police, trying to bulldoze over the tension with sheer volume. “It’s all just a big, silly misunderstanding!” “I’m her aunt-in-law!” she announced to the hallway at large. “What’s the big deal if an elder uses a little bit of the kids’ money? It’s family! Is it a crime to be family now?” I didn’t say a word. I just stared at her. Pamela took my silence as submission. Her fake sweetness curdled into righteous indignation. “Honestly, Jocelyn, why are you being so dramatic?” she scolded, her tone dripping with condescension. “Calling the police over pennies? Tell these nice officers to go home. If you don’t drop this right now, I’m going to call Brandon’s mother and tell her exactly how disrespectful you are to your elders!” “We’re basically family, and you’re humiliating us over a little pocket change!” Every word she spoke was a masterclass in toxic manipulation, trying to shame me into silence. The dam inside me finally broke. I took a step forward, my voice echoing off the cheap linoleum hallway. “Who is your family?” I demanded, my voice shaking with pure rage. “I barely know you!” “You had the nerve to walk into a business and claim you were my mother? My mother died ten years ago. If you want to impersonate her so badly, why don’t you go down to the graveyard and switch places with her?” Pamela’s face went entirely red. The grandmotherly mask slipped, revealing the viciousness underneath. “You little bitch!” she shrieked, her voice echoing down the hall. “You should be honored I claimed you! You think you’re so much better than us?” “You don’t even deserve that expensive crap! I’ll use your card whenever I damn well please, and once you marry into my family, you’ll keep paying for me! Otherwise, you’re not getting anywhere near Brandon!” I let out a harsh, bitter laugh. “Marry into your family? You live in a crumbling apartment and steal to pretend you’re rich. You’re a joke.” I turned my back on her and looked straight at the officers. “Officers, she just confessed to the theft and the impersonation. Can you arrest her now?” “And just to be clear, twelve thousand dollars is felony grand larceny in this state. I want maximum charges pressed. I will not accept any mediation or settlement.” “You wouldn’t dare!” Pamela roared, the veins in her neck bulging. Her hands shook violently. “I’ve already called Brandon! He’s on his way! I’m going to make sure he sees exactly what kind of heartless snake he’s marrying!” 5 I remained perfectly still, the adrenaline sharpening my senses. I looked calmly at the officer. “Grand larceny usually carries a sentence of up to several years in state prison, correct?” I glanced back at Pamela, my lips curving into a cruel, satisfied smile. “Oh, that’s right,” I murmured, tilting my head. “Doesn’t your daughter Haley want to go to law school? Or was it the FBI? I’m sure a felony conviction on her mother’s background check is going to do wonders for her security clearance. She’s ruined.” The mention of her daughter flipped a primal, unhinged switch inside Pamela. The smugness evaporated, replaced by pure, feral rage. Before the officers or I could react, she lunged. Her heavy body launched through the doorway like a missile. She slammed into me, her hands tangling violently in my hair, her nails digging into my scalp. She drove my back hard against the hallway wall. “You whore! Don’t you dare talk about my daughter! I’ll kill you!” she screamed, spit flying into my face. Smack. Smack. Two brutal, open-handed slaps cracked across my face. The metallic taste of blood instantly flooded my mouth. I fought back, twisting and pushing, but she had a hundred pounds on me. She was a wall of frantic, violent muscle. The hallway dissolved into chaos. Joanne shrieked. The officers rushed in, grabbing Pamela’s shoulders, shouting commands, but in her manic state, she was immovable, pinning me to the drywall. Black spots danced in my vision. My head throbbed with a sickening rhythm. Just as my knees began to buckle, the elevator at the end of the hall dinged. The doors slid open, and a frantic, masculine voice tore through the noise. “What the hell is going on here?! Stop it!”

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