The wheels of my suitcase rattled against the hardwood floors of the agency, a rhythmic, hollow sound that echoed the exhaustion deep in my marrow. I’d just wrapped another fourteen-day cross-country tour, and all I wanted was a shower and a bed that didn’t belong to a Marriott. But as I rounded the corner toward the breakroom, the hushed, frantic tone of my colleagues stopped me cold. “Did you see the internal portal? Jade got bumped down. She’s a Tier Three lead now. Can you believe it? The new hires are starting at Tier Four.” “What did you expect? The Gen Z recruits threatened to walk if they didn’t get high-status titles immediately. Management had to pivot to keep the fresh blood.” A sharp ping vibrated against my hip. I pulled out my phone. A notification from the company app sat there like a coiled snake. [Jade Kessler: Status Update – Tier 3 Senior Guide] The words blurred. Dropping from Tier 4 to Tier 3 wasn’t just a blow to my ego; it was a devastating financial hit. My monthly seniority stipend was being slashed from $1,800 to a measly $250. My per-diem bonus for active tours was dropped by forty percent. Even my base salary—the floor I relied on to keep my life upright—was being cut nearly in half. I had been with Vanguard Travel for ten years. A decade. I had designed ninety percent of our signature itineraries. Most of our high-net-worth clients came to us through word-of-mouth from people I had personally guided through the Alps or the Serengeti. Year after year, I sat at the top of the performance leaderboard. Three years ago, the CEO, Bea, had asked me to take a temporary “restructuring” demotion from Tier 5, citing a bad fiscal year. She’d promised to move me back up within twelve months. Instead, she’d just pushed me further down the ladder. To be ranked below kids who couldn’t find the Louvre without a GPS wasn’t just a mistake. It was a calculated insult. I didn’t go to my desk. I went to the printer. I typed five words in a bold, 24-point font: RESIGNATION. JOINING A TIER 5 COMPETITOR. 1 Sheila, the HR Director, stared at the paper, a deep furrow appearing between her perfectly microbladed brows. “Jade, don’t be reactive. You’re a legacy employee. You, of all people, should understand the market we’re in.” “Explain it to me then, Sheila.” “Operating costs are up. Insurance, fuel, catering—it’s all skyrocketing, but we can’t just hike the prices on our premium packages without losing volume. Half our competitors folded last year. We’re surviving, and that’s a win. Look, if your numbers stay up this month, we can look at a review next quarter.” I let out a soft, jagged laugh. “Are my numbers low, Sheila? Pull the report. Compare my conversion rate to any of your Tier 4 ‘rising stars.’ Go ahead. I’ll wait.” Sheila stiffened. “It’s not just about the raw data, Jade. The tier system accounts for service flexibility, ‘digital-first’ branding, and… well, fresh perspectives.” “So, which of those do I lack?” I cut her off. “The walls of this lobby are covered in framed thank-you notes from myclients. The ‘Pacific Coast Luxury’ route that’s currently keeping this company’s lights on? I mapped that. I drove two thousand miles of backroads, vetted every boutique hotel, and hand-selected every vineyard. I spent nights drafting that plan until my eyes bled.” The day I presented that itinerary, Bea had called a company-wide meeting just to applaud it. It brought in a thousand bookings in forty-eight hours. My reward? A “shout-out” in the company Slack channel and a pat on the back. Sheila glanced at me, her expression shifting to something patronizingly sympathetic. “Jade, you’re being dramatic. You made a contribution. That’s what we pay you for. It’s your job.” “Then why isn’t anyone else doing theirs? Or do you just think I’m the easy target? The one who will always say yes, even when you’re picking my pockets?” Sheila’s face hardened. “Your tier changed, but you were still awarded ‘Employee of the Month.’ That’s the highest honor we give.” “An honor that doesn’t pay my mortgage? I’ve been here ten years. I’ve mentored over a hundred juniors. The best ones have already left for $150k salaries at other firms because they saw the writing on the wall. I taught them everything—from crisis management to the nuances of local culture—and I’m rewarded with a Tier 3 badge?” Sheila sighed, the mask of professional kindness slipping to reveal the condescension beneath. “Look, Jade, I know it stings. but the board wants high-academic-profile youngsters. You have the experience, sure, but your credentials are… dated.” She didn’t have to say it. I saw the look in her eyes: You’re old. I nodded slowly, standing up. I pushed the resignation letter toward her. “Understood. I’ll make room for the ‘future’ then.” “Jade, don’t be stubborn,” Sheila snapped, her voice rising. “Success is a partnership. This company has been good to you. Don’t burn a bridge you might need to crawl back across.” “Burn it?” I looked at her, my voice trembling with a decade of suppressed rage. “Two years ago, when a tour group got stranded in a flash flood in the Canyon, I left my son’s middle school graduation to fly out and handle the evacuation. When I tried to expense the flight, accounting told me it was ‘personal’ because I wasn’t the lead on record. Last year, when Bea’s niece got caught taking kickbacks from a souvenir shop, Bea asked me to take the fall to protect the family name. I took a $3,000 fine and a six-month suspension without pay. I sat in silence for half a year to save this company’s reputation.” My eyes burned. “I gave you my loyalty, my time, and my integrity. And you think I’m the one being harsh?” Sheila hesitated for a heartbeat, then let out a cynical snort. “You stayed through all of that, Jade. Why draw the line at a tier change? Just swallow it. Maybe next year things will be different.” I stared at her, feeling a profound sense of absurdity. The realization hit me like a physical weight: I had been the loyal workhorse, the one they knew they could whip because I’d never kicked back. My self-sacrifice wasn’t seen as noble; it was seen as weakness. I didn’t say another word. I turned and walked out. 2 Ten years is a long time. I felt I owed it to the history, if not the person, to say goodbye properly. I walked toward the executive suite, but as I reached for the handle of Bea’s office, her voice drifted through the door. “Tinsley, you’re easily the most promising talent we’ve seen. Keep this pace up, and I’ll have you at Tier 5 by Christmas.” The reply came from Tinsley, the blonde twenty-four-year-old who’d been hired three months ago. Her voice was dripping with syrupy excitement. “Thank you so much, Bea! I’ve already copied all of Jade’s old itinerary templates and client notes. My Q4 numbers are going to be insane.” Copied my templates? My stomach turned. Those weren’t just templates; they were a decade of intellectual property. I started to turn away, but Bea spoke again. “Bea, are you sure about dropping Jade to Tier 3? What if she quits?” I froze. “She won’t,” Bea said, her voice flat and mocking. “She’s pushing forty. In this industry, that’s ancient. Even if she finds someone to interview her, she’d have to start over with a three-month probation period. She has four aging parents to look after, a massive mortgage, and a kid in private school. She needs ten grand a month just to keep the lights on. A Tier 3 salary plus her commission still clears that. She’s trapped. She’s not going to risk her kid’s tuition on a gamble.” I stood paralyzed. I had always believed she valued me. I’d been there when this company was three people in a windowless office. I’d helped her build this empire. And all the while, she’d been doing the math on my desperation. She’d calculated exactly how much she could bleed me before I collapsed. “She’ll throw a tantrum,” Bea continued dismissively. “She’s been doing it for ten years. I know her. She sucked up the last demotion, she’ll suck this one up too. She’s too ‘loyal’ to leave. Give it a week, she’ll be back to her usual self.” I felt a coldness wash over me, a chilling clarity. My heart, which had been racing, suddenly slowed to a steady, icy rhythm. “Jade’s just emotional,” Tinsley chimed in. “I’ll take her out for drinks and smooth it over.” “That’s why I like you, Tinsley,” Bea laughed. “You’re smart. No baggage. You play the game. Keep it up, and we’ll talk about a partnership track for you.” I walked back to my desk, my feet feeling strangely light. My phone buzzed again. It was a LinkedIn message from Starlight Tours, our biggest rival. Their CEO, Monica, had been trying to headhunt me for years. [Jade, checking in again. We have a VP of Operations role open. $200k base, Tier 5 benefits, and a guaranteed equity stake after twelve months. Are you ready to talk yet?] I looked back at the previous messages. [Jade, heard about the tier drop three years ago. Come to us. We’ll put you back at Tier 5 and start you at $150k.] Every year, her offer got better. Every year, I had stayed out of a misplaced sense of duty to a woman who was currently laughing at my “baggage.” Bea thought she had me by the throat because of my expenses. She thought my love for the company was a leash. I typed three words back to Monica: [Let’s do lunch.] 3 My phone exploded with notifications. Bea was tagging me in the company group chat. @Jade Kessler, Group A is complaining about the catering in Napa. Fix it. @Jade Kessler, Group B needs a reroute due to the storm in the Rockies. Handle it. Standard operational fires. Things a lead guide should handle, but Bea always routed them to me because I was “efficient.” Or rather, because I was the only one who actually knew how to solve a problem without a manual. Usually, I’d be on the phone within seconds, coordinating with vendors and calming the clients. Today, I simply screenshotted the messages and tagged the actual Tier 4 leads assigned to those groups. @Tinsley, this is your group. Good luck. The chat went silent. I could practically feel the confusion radiating through the office. Ten minutes later, Bea’s office door slammed open. “Jade, in here. Now.” I walked in and sat down before she could even point to the chair. She let out a long, theatrical sigh. “Sheila told me about your little stunt with the resignation. Honestly, Jade? Over a tier adjustment? It’s beneath you.” “Is it?” I asked, my voice calm. “You’ve been here ten years. You’ve seen us grow. We have a massive expansion planned for the fall. If you leave now, you’re just throwing away everything you’ve built. Think about the long game. If you can’t handle a little temporary friction, how can I trust you with a larger platform?” The gaslighting was almost impressive. She wasn’t explaining the demotion; she was framing it as a test of my character. “You’re right, Bea,” I said, my gaze steady. “As a Tier 3, I clearly don’t have the ‘future value’ to handle a larger platform anyway.” She faltered, giving a dry, forced chuckle. “The tiers are just labels. Everyone knows you’re the backbone of this place. The clients love you, the industry respects you—isn’t that enough?” “Does respect pay for my son’s college?” I leaned in. “You know exactly what my mortgage is. You said so yourself, didn’t you? That I’m ‘trapped’?” Her face paled, just for a fraction of a second. She didn’t know I’d overheard, but she knew she’d been caught in a lie. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. Look, if it’s about the money, I’ll talk to Sheila. We can find an extra $500 a month for your ‘consulting’ fee. But no more threats about leaving. It’s unprofessional.” $500. She was offering me a crumb while she stole the loaf. “Bea,” I said, “Tinsley has been here three months. She’s Tier 4. She’s using my itineraries.” Bea’s expression shifted from fake warmth to cold steel. “The itineraries belong to Vanguard. You were paid to create them. Tinsley is young, she’s tech-savvy, and she has the kind of ‘upside’ the board is looking for. You can’t compete with ‘future value,’ Jade.” “Future value?” I felt a laugh bubbling up, cold and sharp. “I’ve generated over ten million in revenue for you in a decade. I’ve saved you hundreds of thousands by negotiating with vendors who only work with us because of me. My clients’ retention rate is ninety percent. And you’re telling me that a girl who hasn’t even seen a passport for more than five years has more ‘value’ than a decade of proven profit?” “Enough!” Bea slammed her hand on the desk. “You’re making a scene. We just signed the Crawford Group—a thousand-person corporate retreat. It’s the biggest contract in our history. If you walk now, you’re blacklisting yourself from this industry. I’ll make sure every agency in the city knows you’re a liability.” I didn’t flinch. “I’ve documented every process, every vendor contact, and every contingency plan for the Crawford account. I’ve uploaded the spreadsheets to the shared drive. If Tinsley is so ‘savvy,’ she can figure it out.” “Jade Kessler!” she screamed. “Don’t you dare! You will stay on this account until the final guest is home, or I will ruin you!” Bribes hadn’t worked, so now came the threats. I stood up slowly. “Whether I stay or leave is my choice, Bea. Whether you can ‘ruin’ me… well, I’d love to see you try. Good luck with the retreat. You’re going to need it.” 4 I walked straight out of the building and into a coffee shop across the street from Starlight Tours. Monica met me there thirty minutes later. We signed the contract before the lattes were cold. I start in three days. By the next morning, the rumors were already swirling. I heard through the grapevine that Bea was calling every CEO she knew, trying to poison the well. On day two, I was at my new desk at Starlight when my phone buzzed. It was a company-wide alert from Vanguard—one of my old colleagues had leaked it to me. [Jade Kessler has been terminated for gross negligence. Her status has been revoked. All industry partners are advised to cease contact.] It was a declaration of war. Bea was trying to erase me. In the afternoon, the Crawford Group’s “Kickoff Meeting” began at Vanguard. Bea stood at the head of the conference room, trying to look triumphant. “Jade Kessler was a relic,” she told the staff. “We are moving forward with a younger, more agile team. Tinsley will be lead on the Crawford account. This company doesn’t need one person to survive.” I watched the live-streamed feed from a burner account, a cold smile on my face. She really thought the Crawford Group signed with the agency. She didn’t know that five years ago, I had saved Bennett Crawford’s life during a tour in the Italian Alps when our driver had a heart attack on a mountain pass. One thousand employees. A $3 million contract. $1.5 million in pure profit. And Bennett Crawford had insisted on a very specific clause in that contract. I’m still here, Bea, I thought, looking at my new Tier 5 badge. But you won’t be for long.

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When I opened my eyes again, the world was blindingly bright. I was back at the toll plaza, watching Paisley wave her hand frantically at the collector. This time, I decided to let her play her game to the very end. In my past life, I was racing against the clock to file an emergency appeal for our company. I was stopped at this exact highway exit because Paisley, our junior accountant sitting in the back, had scrawled “SOS” on her palm in bright red lipstick. The filing deadline was less than twenty-four hours away. Heart hammering against my ribs, I’d left her there to explain the “joke” to the police while I sped off with my boyfriend, Benjamin. We made it to the courthouse with minutes to spare. I saved the company—and Benjamin—thirty million dollars. But at the victory dinner, Benjamin didn’t toast to my success. Instead, he got me drunk, dragged me into his car, and drove back to this very stretch of highway. “Paisley is just a girl, Brooke. She’s playful. What was the harm in playing along?” he’d hissed, his eyes cold. “If you hadn’t abandoned her here, she wouldn’t have tried to walk along the shoulder. She wouldn’t have had that accident.” Then, he pushed me out of the moving car. I remember the smell of burning rubber and the agonizing roar of an eighteen-wheeler before everything went black. … Now, as a state trooper roughly pulled me from the driver’s seat, the phantom pain of being crushed into the asphalt flickered across my skin. I was alive. I was back. The passenger door flew open, and Benjamin was pulled out next to me. He wasn’t looking at the officers; he was looking at the backseat with a doting, indulgent smile. “Don’t be scared, Paisley. It’s okay,” he cooed. Paisley was sitting in the back, wearing an oversized, ruffled pink sundress that made her look like a giant toddler. She was waving her hands, the lipstick “SOS” smeared across her palms. An officer stepped toward her, his voice softening. “Ma’am, it’s alright. Is someone hurting you?” Paisley blinked, her lower lip trembling. Her eyes welled with tears instantly. “The bad lady… she’s scary!” she whimpered, pointing a manicured finger at me. I took a deep breath, forcing my voice to remain level. “Officer, this is a misunderstanding. We work for the same firm. We’re on our way to a critical court filing. There is no kidnapping.” The officer turned back to Paisley. “Is that true?” Paisley shook her head, a tear rolling down her cheek. “No! She’s mean! She wouldn’t let me put my car seat in the front! Make the police-man take the bad lady away!” The officer paused, glancing at the backseat. There it was: a bright pink booster seat, covered in plush charms and pacifier clips. His jaw tightened. “Is this some kind of joke?” he barked. Paisley recoiled, diving into Benjamin’s arms as he moved toward her. “Benny! He’s being mean to me!” Benjamin glared at the officer, his protective instinct—the one he never seemed to use for me—flaring up. “Watch your tone. She’s just sensitive. She likes to play. Is that a crime?” The officer’s expression went stone-cold. “We received a distress signal. Under the circumstances, you’re all coming down to the station for a formal statement.” At the word station, Paisley let out a piercing shriek. “No! I’m a good girl! I don’t want to go to jail!” She clung to Benjamin’s neck, rubbing her face against his chest like a kitten. Benjamin stroked her hair, his voice a honeyed whisper. “It’s okay, princess. I’m right here. I won’t let the mean man scold you.” When he looked at me, the warmth vanished. “Brooke, you’re the head of legal. Fix this for her.” His voice was hard, echoing the tone he used right before he murdered me in that other life. “You have to pay for what happened to her,” he’d said then. I clenched my fists, the memory of broken bones throbbing in my mind. I didn’t argue. I simply nodded. I wanted to see if, by indulging her this time, we’d ever make it to the courthouse at all. At the station, Benjamin insisted I handle everything for Paisley. I sat through the interviews, took the reprimands from the sergeant, and signed the behavioral warnings. It took three agonizing hours. By the time we got back to the car, it was nearly midnight. Paisley refused to let go of Benjamin, so he climbed into the backseat with her. She let out an exaggerated yawn, snuggling into his shoulder. “I’m sleepy… I want my comfy bed.” I started the engine, my voice flat. “We’re driving through the night. Since you’ve delayed us so much.” Paisley stiffened, her voice turning into a high-pitched whine. “Is Brooke-y still mad at me? I didn’t know I wasn’t supposed to do that…” Benjamin immediately jumped to her defense. “Brooke, for God’s sake, let it go. It already happened. Why are you being so petty?” “She’s just a kid,” he added. He had said that a thousand times since Paisley joined the firm. When she reversed the cost and bid columns on a million-dollar proposal? She’s just a kid. When she accidentally sent a private client’s bank details to a vendor? She’s just a kid.Even when she forged signatures on a series of tax documents that led to the thirty-million-dollar fine we were currently fighting? She’s just a kid. That thirty million was the lifeblood of the company Benjamin and I had built together over seven years. I had spent weeks without sleep gathering evidence for the appeal. Meanwhile, Benjamin had taken Paisley to Disneyland for a week to help her “recover from the stress” of being audited. In the rearview mirror, I saw Benjamin carefully unwrapping a lollipop for her. “Here you go, sweetie. Eat this and try to sleep.” They giggled and whispered in the back, the tinkling of the toys on her car seat filling the cabin. I, the actual girlfriend and partner, had been relegated to an Uber driver. As the car sped down the dark interstate, Paisley suddenly slammed her hand onto my shoulder. The steering wheel jerked under the impact. “Hey! Open the sunroof! I want to sing a lullaby to the forest animals!” I gritted my teeth against the dull ache in my shoulder. “No. There are low-clearance bars and construction overhangs on this stretch. It’s dangerous.” Her face fell into a pout. She grabbed Benjamin’s arm and shook it. “Benny, I want to sing! Tell her to let me!” Benjamin, swaying under her frantic shaking, frowned at me. “Brooke, it’s just a window. Be a little nicer to her.” When I didn’t move, he huffed, reached forward from the back, and shoved the sunroof toggle himself. A rush of freezing night air slammed into the car. Paisley cheered, standing up in her seat and sticking the upper half of her body out of the roof. She began to belt out a nursery rhyme, her voice shredded by the wind. I kept my eyes locked on the road. In the distance, the silver glint of a height-restriction bar appeared in the high beams. “Benjamin, there’s a bar coming up. Get her down.” “It’s fine, I’m watching her,” he said dismissively, eyes glued to Paisley’s laughing face. The bar was approaching fast. Paisley was waving a stuffed teddy bear in the air, oblivious. “Benjamin! Get her down NOW!” I screamed. He finally looked up and panicked, reaching for her waist. But it was too late for a graceful exit. I slammed the brakes and yanked the wheel to the right. The car screeched, tires smoking as we spun. The side of the car scraped against the guardrail with a deafening metallic roar. Benjamin managed to yank Paisley down just as we cleared the bar, shielding her in his arms. The car slid for another hundred feet before coming to a dead stop in the emergency lane, facing the wrong direction. Paisley was catatonic, her mouth open in a silent scream. Benjamin frantically checked her over. “Are you okay? Paisley? Does anything hurt?” Once he saw she wasn’t bleeding, he snapped his head toward me. “What the hell is wrong with you? You almost killed her!” I reached up and touched my hairline. My fingers came away wet and sticky. My head had hit the frame. The front tire had blown. The bumper was crumpled, and the side mirror was dangling by a few pathetic wires. The cold wind whistled through the cabin, stinging the cut on my forehead. I ignored his shouting. I pointed at the flat tire. “The car is dead. We need to call a tow to the nearest station and catch a train. We can still make it to the courthouse before they close today.” “No! I’m not going!” Paisley suddenly wailed, leaning out of the seat. “Benny, my bear! Mr. Buttons fell out!” The bear she’d been waving was gone, tossed into the darkness when I swerved. Benjamin turned back to her, his voice melting. “It’s okay, honey. I’ll buy you a new one. I’ll buy you three.” “I don’t want a new one!” she sobbed, her eyes red. “I want Mr. Buttons! He’s my best friend! You can’t leave him!” She glared at me with pure venom. “It’s Brooke’s fault. She drove like a crazy person and threw him out.” Benjamin’s face darkened. He reached forward and shoved my shoulder. “Go find it.” I stared at him, incredulous. “Are you kidding? It’s pitch black on a high-speed interstate. It’s suicide.” “If you hadn’t waited until the last second to warn us, she wouldn’t have been scared and she wouldn’t have dropped it!” Benjamin shouted, his logic warping into something unrecognizable. “This is your mess. You fix it.” Looking at his distorted, self-righteous face, I felt a strange sense of calm. I wasn’t surprised anymore. I glanced at my watch. “If we stay here, we won’t make the filing. The company will be liable for the full thirty million.” He waved his hand dismissively. “Stop using the paperwork as an excuse. If we don’t make it today, we’ll go tomorrow. Go get the bear.” I looked at him, and I stopped seeing the man I loved. I saw a stranger. “Fine,” I said quietly. I got out of the car and began walking back along the guardrail. The mountain wind felt like a blade against my skin. I used my phone’s flashlight to scan the tall grass beside the road. “Good luck, Brooke-y!” Paisley’s voice drifted over, chirpy and triumphant. I could see her through the window, wrapped in a pink fleece blanket, sipping from a thermos of warm milk Benjamin had prepared for her. A few minutes later, a set of headlights slowed down and pulled over into the emergency lane behind our car. A young man stepped out. “Hey, do you need help?” he called out. He saw me shivering by the rail and immediately grabbed a spare tire from his trunk. He worked quickly, then walked over to me and pressed a hot travel mug of coffee into my frozen hands. He looked toward the car, where Benjamin and Paisley were huddled together, laughing about something. His eyes narrowed. “Miss, it’s dangerous to be out here on foot. Whatever you’re looking for, it isn’t worth your life.” A lump formed in my throat. A total stranger was showing more concern for my safety than my boyfriend of seven years. Benjamin was letting me risk death for a three-dollar stuffed animal because a twenty-five-year-old woman wanted to play “baby.” It took until dawn for Paisley to finally agree to leave, only after Benjamin promised her a trip to the toy store. She didn’t find the bear. Neither did I. As she climbed into the car, she shot me a look of pure malice. The rest of the drive was eerily quiet. In the rearview mirror, I saw her whispering into Benjamin’s ear, her lips brushing his skin. He was nodding, smiling, occasionally chuckling at whatever “secret” they were sharing. We reached the final toll plaza at 4:00 PM. A state trooper was performing routine checks. He leaned into my window. “How many passengers?” “Three,” I said politely. Suddenly, a giggle erupted from the back. “Liar! There are four!” Paisley tilted her head, her expression hauntingly innocent. “There’s a person in the trunk. A person who doesn’t move.” The officer’s entire body went rigid. His hand dropped instinctively to his holster. “Everyone out of the vehicle. NOW!” My skin crawled. I stepped out with my hands raised. “Officer, please. She’s my colleague. She has a… she likes to make up stories. It’s a joke.” Paisley jumped up and down, looking offended. “I am not lying! Mr. Policeman, Benny knows! Ask Benny!” Benjamin was forced onto his knees on the other side of the car. When the officer questioned him, he looked at Paisley, then back at the cop, and nodded seriously. “Yes. Paisley doesn’t lie.” A cold clarity washed over me. This was what they had been whispering about. They wanted to punish me for the “bear.” They wanted to see me squirm. I leaned into the role. I made my voice sound frantic, desperate. “Paisley, stop it! This isn’t the time! If you keep lying, they’ll take us to the station!” “Don’t you talk to her like that!” Benjamin snapped from the ground. Paisley pouted, smoothing her skirt. “Oh, wow. Policemen are so easy to trick. I was just kidding! It’s not a person in the trunk…” The officer began to exhale, but Paisley blinked, her smile widening. “It’s a person… and a big jar of special white powder!” The air turned to ice. The officer’s eyes sharpened. “What powder?” “The happy powder!” She clapped her hands. “I love to drink it. It makes me feel so floaty.” She pointed at me. “But Brooke says the powder is bad for me. She won’t let me have any. She’s so stingy!” I stood up abruptly, a fake protest on my lips, but the officer was already on me. He slammed me against the side of the car, wrenching my arms behind my back. “Officer, it’s baby formula! She’s talking about formula!” “Shut up!” He shone a tactical light into my eyes, blinding me. “ID out. Tell me what’s in this car, or things are going to get very ugly.” My collarbone was pressed hard against the metal frame, pain blooming in my chest. I didn’t struggle. I let out a shaky breath. “Officer, please. I’m an attorney. My credentials are in my bag. We have to get to the courthouse by 5:30… please, just take me there, and I’ll cooperate with everything!” The officer wavered, looking between my professional attire and Paisley’s ruffled dress. “She’s going to run again!” Paisley sang out. “She ran when we hit the rail, and she’s running now. She’s a fugitive!” Just then, the officer at the front of the car shouted. “Luminol hit! Captain, we’ve got a positive for human blood on the front bumper!” Clink. The handcuffs snapped shut around my wrists. The officer shoved me down onto the pavement. “Don’t move!” The lead officer grabbed his radio. “Secure the scene. Call forensics and K-9. We’ve got a possible 187 and narcotics transport.” Benjamin finally realized the gravity of the situation. His face went pale. “Wait… no, that’s not… we were just…” “Quiet!” a cop barked, shoving him down. Benjamin trembled, his mouth hanging open, too terrified to speak. I closed my eyes and counted the minutes. I could feel the clock ticking toward 5:30. The forensics team arrived fast. They carefully popped the trunk. A heavy silence fell over the plaza. Then, the Captain walked toward us, his face a mask of fury. “What the hell is this?”

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I was scrolling through a second-hand marketplace app late at night when I saw it: a top-of-the-line designer stroller, the kind that usually retails for thousands, listed for just ten dollars. The comments section was losing its mind, but the seller remained unfazed. He’d posted a simple follow-up: I thought this was just some ordinary piece of baby gear. My wife just informed me it’s a limited edition worth nearly twenty thousand dollars. Regardless, my son has outgrown it and we don’t need the space. Ten dollars. Local pickup only. The internet was rife with theories about the seller’s wealth. I felt a sharp pang of envy at that kind of casual indifference toward luxury. I’m the kind of person who compares the price per ounce of garlic at three different grocery stores before buying. Luck was on my side, though. Because I was up late, staring at my screen in the dark, I managed to snag it. The next day, I drove to the address provided—a sprawling estate in a gated community where the lawns looked like they were manicured with nail scissors. A man with an effortless, scholarly grace opened the door. The house staff addressed him deferentially as “Mr. Sterling.” He gave me a warm smile as he invited me in to change my shoes. He was practically beaming, clutching his phone like a child with a secret. “Hang on a sec,” he told me, then spoke into the phone. “Honey, come home quick! I just made ten bucks all by myself!” The voice that filtered through the speaker made my heart stop. It was a voice I had known intimately for five years. A voice that had whispered “I love you” into my ear every morning. It was my wife, Natalie. “My husband is such a savvy businessman,” she replied over the phone, her tone thick with an indulgence that made my skin crawl. “The board meeting is almost over. I’ll be home soon.” I froze, one shoe on, one shoe off. My brain went white. … 1 Seeing me paralyzed, the man—Benjamin—lowered his phone. “Are the slippers uncomfortable? Maria—” He started to call for the housekeeper, but I waved him off frantically. I couldn’t speak. My eyes were locked on the massive oil painting hanging above the fireplace. It was a family portrait: Benjamin, a young boy, and Natalie. For the last eight months, Natalie had been complaining about a grueling assignment in London. She’d come home looking exhausted, with dark circles under her eyes, and I’d spend my weekends researching herbal supplements and cooking her favorite meals to help her recover. She hadn’t been in London. She had been here, in this mansion, raising a child with another man. Benjamin followed my gaze and offered a knowing, proud smile. “My son is a spitfire, isn’t he? I’ll let you in on a secret—my wife had her tubes tied after him. She says one perfect child is enough for a lifetime.” I looked at that portrait and felt like a common thief standing in a temple. Natalie and I had been trying to conceive for three years. Every month brought the same quiet disappointment, the same tearful conversations about how much she wanted a family. I’d bought this stroller thinking we should be prepared, that maybe we could manifest our future. She hadn’t been struggling with infertility. She just never wanted a child with me. Benjamin introduced himself, apologizing again for the confusion over the price of the stroller. He looked genuinely embarrassed. “To be honest, since we got married, my wife hasn’t let me worry about a thing. I don’t even know what things cost anymore. I just use the black card she gave me.” He laughed, a sound of pure, unadulterated happiness. I gripped the hem of my jacket so hard my knuckles turned white. Natalie had told me she’d been working at the same firm for five years without a single promotion. She claimed she made forty thousand a year and handed every cent over to me for “our future.” I felt so guilty about her “struggle” that I’d secretly slip extra cash into her purse every week, terrified she wasn’t eating enough at lunch. Standing in this palace, looking at her pampered “trophy husband,” I realized I wasn’t just a husband. I was a clown. A charity project. “Madam is back,” the housekeeper announced. Natalie swept into the foyer, shedding her coat. Benjamin didn’t even wait for her to set it down before pulling her into his arms. “Honey, our guest has been waiting. You owe him an apology for my terrible pricing skills.” Natalie wrapped her arms around his waist, turning toward me with a practiced social smile. The smile died the second our eyes met. A flicker of panic crossed her face, but it vanished as quickly as a shadow. When she spoke, her voice was cold, as if I were a total stranger. “I’m so sorry for the wait. I’ll have the driver take you home. It’s impossible to get an Uber in this neighborhood.” The woman I shared a bed with, the woman who knew my every scar and secret, was speaking to me like a delivery boy. The questions I wanted to scream died in my throat, leaving a taste like ash. The housekeeper brought the stroller out. Benjamin took my crumpled ten-dollar bill and waved it at Natalie like a trophy. “See? I’m contributing!” Natalie chuckled, a bright, melodic sound, and ruffled his hair. She had forgotten, or perhaps she never cared, that those ten dollars represented a significant portion of my daily wages. She didn’t look at me again. Her eyes remained fixed on Benjamin. The housekeeper showed me to the door. As soon as I turned my back, the tears I’d been holding back began to burn my cheeks. My phone buzzed in my pocket. Don’t make a scene in front of him. Wait for me at the apartment. We’ll talk. No apology. No comfort. Just a command. Five years of marriage, three years of trying for a baby—all of it reduced to a punchline. 2 An NDA arrived at my apartment before she did. It was from a top-tier law firm. The terms were simple: if I ever disclosed my relationship with Natalie, I would owe her estate damages in the tens of millions. But the most devastating part was a single line in the “Background” section: Natalie and Benjamin Sterling are legally married. That meant our marriage certificate—the one framed on my nightstand—was a forgery. The betrayal was deeper and uglier than I could have imagined. I was about to tear the document to shreds when Natalie walked in. She was still in her designer suit, her makeup flawless, looking entirely out of place in our cramped, one-bedroom apartment. Her expression had softened, but there was no remorse in it. “Casey, just sign it. It’s better for everyone.” I was shaking so hard I could barely stand. “What was I to you? For five years, Natalie… what was I?” She sighed, looking up at the ceiling as if I were an inconvenienced child. “Can we not do this? Benjamin and I were an arranged match since we were kids. Marrying him was inevitable. Why can’t we just go back to how things were? You didn’t know then, and you don’t have to acknowledge it now.” My silence, my refusal to just “go along with it,” finally snapped her patience. She grabbed my hand, and before I could pull away, she pressed my thumb into a hidden ink pad and slammed it onto the signature line of the document. As she walked toward the door, she threw one last comment over her shoulder. “I trust you’ll be smart about this. Don’t be stubborn.” The small cut on my hand from her jewelry throbbed, but it was nothing compared to the hole in my chest. She was willing to break me to protect the life she built with him. The next morning, I went to work, only to find my boss waiting for me at the entrance. “You’re done here, Casey. Effective immediately. Orders from the top. There’s nothing I can do.” I thought of my mother, whose chronic illness required expensive monthly medication. “You can’t just fire me without cause! I’ll sue!” The manager laughed, a cruel, thin sound. “Go ahead. The woman who made the call can buy and sell this entire block before your lawyer even picks up the phone. Honestly, being a home-wrecker is a risky career choice. You should have saved your money.” He slammed the door, leaving me with that word ringing in my ears. Home-wrecker. I walked home in a daze, only to find my key wouldn’t turn in the lock. I tried it a dozen times before the building’s security guard approached me. “Give it up. Management got a call. You’re evicted. Your stuff is by the dumpsters.” He pointed to a pile of black trash bags. For the second time that day, I was locked out of my own life. I sat on the curb with my bags, feeling the walls of the world closing in. It was almost time to send money home for my mother’s treatment. In a fit of desperation, I called Natalie. “Why are you doing this? Why are you destroying me?” On the other end, I heard the sound of glass breaking and muffled shouting. Natalie’s voice came through in a hissed whisper. “You did this to yourself! Benjamin found out about you! I warned you!” 3 “I was trying to protect you by keeping you in the dark! If this goes public, you’re the one who loses!” I tried to tell her I hadn’t said a word to Benjamin, but she hung up. Seconds later, my phone began to explode with notifications. Benjamin had used his family’s corporate social media accounts to post a “public statement.” He accused me of predatory behavior, claiming I had been stalking his wife and trying to extort their family. The company that fired me was being sued for “employing a harasser.” The value of the apartment building I’d lived in plummeted as internet sleuths doxed the location. I was the villain of the week. The messages poured in. If we knew you were a side-piece, we never would have hired you. Scum. That apartment is tainted now. Men like you are a cancer. I couldn’t take it. I went online and posted everything—our photos, the receipts of the “rent” I’d paid, the texts where she told me she loved me. I wanted the world to see that I wasn’t the predator. I was the victim. For a moment, the tide turned. People started questioning if Natalie had used her power to manipulate me. That’s when Natalie started calling. I declined every single one. But then, a new post hit the top of the trending charts. Medical records confirm that Casey Miller has a history of severe delusional disorders. The images and logs he posted are sophisticated forgeries designed to destroy the Sterling marriage. A defamation lawsuit has been filed. The narrative flipped instantly. Natalie’s PR team and lawyers had manufactured a “history” for me. They had turned the “husband” into a “schizophrenic stalker.” When she called again, I finally answered. Her voice was ice. “I want you to go on a livestream and apologize to Benjamin. If you do, he might be willing to look the other way. We can find a way to make this work.” My teeth were chattering. “We were married for five years. I won’t apologize for existing.” “Benjamin is on the verge of a breakdown because of you! You will apologize!” She paused, her tone turning lethal. “Think about your mother, Casey. She’s working as a maid while she’s sick, isn’t she? Think about what happens to her if you keep being difficult.” I was homeless, sleeping in a cheap motel in a bad part of town. I applied for dozens of jobs, but as soon as they saw my name, the door slammed shut. “We don’t hire people with your… mental history,” one recruiter told me. “Or your lack of morals. Stay away from us.” Then, my bank account was frozen. Natalie had helped me set up a joint savings account years ago. “I don’t make much, but I want us to have the best life,” she’d told me. I had put every spare cent I earned into that account. It was all gone. I was at the end of my rope. I couldn’t let my mother suffer for my pride. When I showed up at Natalie’s corporate headquarters, I was a ghost of a man. She looked at me with a satisfied nod. “I knew you were a rational man, Casey. Don’t worry. After the apology, I’ll take care of you. Just like before.” The room was filled with cameras. Reporters held microphones like weapons. Within thirty seconds, someone shouted, “We’ve got half a million people watching! The home-wrecker is going live!” 4 The comments scrolling past were a blur of hate. Trash. Loser. Psycho. Benjamin walked up to me and pulled my “marriage certificate” out of my bag, holding it up to the camera. “I can’t believe how deep your obsession went. You actually printed this. Now, apologize to the cameras.” The document I had cherished, the symbol of what I thought was the best part of my life, was being used as the evidence of my “madness.” Something inside me snapped. I grabbed the paper and ripped it to shreds. Natalie’s face darkened. “Are you really refusing to admit what you are?” I thought of my mother. I bit my lip until I tasted blood, unable to force the words out. Then, my phone rang. It was a local hospital. “Mr. Miller? Your mother has been accused of stealing a high-value item from her employer. She’s denying it, but she had a heart attack during the confrontation. She’s being rushed to the ICU.” I felt the world tilt. I looked at Natalie. She didn’t look surprised. She looked like she was holding the remote control to my life. “Legal fees, restitution, medical bills… you can’t afford any of it, Casey. Are you still going to be stubborn?” My heart felt like it was being squeezed by hot pliers. I hated her. I hated every second I had ever spent loving her. I turned to the camera, my voice dead. “I am sorry to Mr. Benjamin Sterling. I tried to destroy his family. I forged records of a life with Natalie because… I wanted to extort them for money.” I dropped to my knees before Benjamin. I bowed my head until it hit the floor. The insults from the room were like physical blows. Natalie cleared her throat, sounding like the magnanimous victor. “Here is a check for three hundred thousand dollars. It’s a gesture of mercy to ensure your mother gets the care she needs.” I snatched the check and ran. I didn’t care about the cameras. I didn’t care about my dignity. But when I got to the hospital, the doors were locked. “I’m sorry, sir. This is a private facility. We are closed for ‘internal restructuring.’ No new patients.” The sign above the door read: Sterling Memorial Health. Benjamin. “I’ll take her somewhere else! Just let me see her!” I screamed, shaking with a cold, violent tremor. “Move along, kid.” A security guard shoved me back. I fell, my head hitting the pavement. Through the haze of blood in my eyes, I watched as a gurney was pushed out of the back. A white sheet was pulled over a face I knew better than my own. The pain was so intense it went numb. I couldn’t even cry. A text from Natalie arrived: I bought you a house in the suburbs. I’ll give you fifty thousand a month. You never have to struggle again. I’ll come by tonight to check on your mother’s arrangements. I’ll make sure the ‘theft’ charges are dropped. I didn’t reply. I looked at the thousands of death threats and insults on my phone. I turned on my own livestream. I stood on the edge of the bridge, the wind whipping my hair, my face covered in dried blood. Without a word, I stepped off. Natalie, there is no ‘after’ for us. In the Sterling mansion, the two families were celebrating their “victory” over the stalker. Wine flowed. Laughter filled the air. Then, a guest gasped, staring at their phone. Natalie’s assistant burst into the room, face white as a sheet. “Natalie! Casey just killed himself on a livestream!”

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I was walking home, the weight of my fresh paycheck in my pocket feeling like a temporary shield against the world, when a woman I’d never seen before blocked my path. She shoved her phone inches from my face, her voice sharp and mocking. She told me my parents weren’t sick—that I was being played for a fool. I almost laughed. I thought she was a scammer, some weirdo looking for a reaction, until I looked at the screen. It was my younger sister’s social media account. In the video, Lindsay was glowing, laughing into the camera. She was telling her thousands of followers that our parents had spent years “playing poor” just to “ignite my potential.” She boasted that every cent I’d sent home over the years hadn’t been spent on medical bills; it had been tucked away in a high-yield savings account, waiting for the right moment to surprise me. The comment section was a war zone. Some people called me an idiot, but most praised my parents’ “visionary parenting.” They called me a “self-made success story,” a first-generation millionaire in the making. My fingers instinctively tightened around the piece of paper in my other pocket: a terminal diagnosis. Late-stage leukemia. They were so focused on igniting my potential that they hadn’t noticed I was burning out. And now, I was almost ashes. Looking back, the “poverty” started the year I first showed a knack for making money. I was ten. Suddenly, the family business had supposedly collapsed. My parents claimed the crushing debt had given them heart conditions and spinal issues—they were “incapacitated,” unable to work another day. To keep us afloat, I’d spent over a decade working a shadowy, high-stress job as a private “emotional concierge” for the ultra-wealthy. After college, the salary my employer offered doubled, but so did the toll on my body. When I got the diagnosis, I swallowed the news. I didn’t say a word. I didn’t want my parents to spend a single second worrying. I just wanted to spend my final months making their “difficult” lives easier. 1 I handed the phone back to the girl. “Thank you,” I said, my voice sounding like it belonged to someone else. She took her phone, glancing at my face. I could tell I looked like a ghost. She hesitated, her bravado flickering. “Are you… are you okay?” “I’m fine.” She lingered for a second longer, then turned and walked away. A gust of early autumn wind hit me, and the world tilted. I felt my knees give way, my body pitching forward. A hand caught me, steady and firm. It was my employer, Bart. He steadied me, his brow furrowed as he scanned my face. “Jade, you’re white as a sheet.” “I’m fine. Just stood up too fast, I think.” I looked down, avoiding his eyes, and shoved the diagnostic report deeper into my pocket. Bart didn’t look convinced. He opened the passenger door of his car and told me he was driving me home. I didn’t have the strength to argue. The car was silent. The streetlights flickered past like a countdown. I leaned back against the leather seat and closed my eyes, trying to breathe through the exhaustion. Lindsay’s video only talked about the “hustle” and the savings. She didn’t know what those years had actually cost me. I was ten when my dad came home and slammed his bag on the table, his face grey. He said the factory had folded, and we owed half a million dollars. My mom clutched her chest and collapsed onto the floor, gasping for air. Later, Dad took her to the ER. He came back saying she had a heart arrhythmia—that any stress or physical labor could kill her. Two months later, Dad said his back had “given out.” Chronic spinal stenosis. At the time, I’d just started a little side-hustle at school, flipping vintage stationery and limited-edition gaming gear. I’d made eight hundred dollars in a single afternoon just by knowing who wanted what. At the parent-teacher conference, my teacher called me a “natural-born entrepreneur.” That night, Dad sat on the sofa, his back hunched. “Jade,” he whispered. “This family… it’s all on you now.” Can a ten-year-old understand what “it’s all on you” means? Yes. Because after that, every time Mom coughed, she’d press her hand to her heart and look at me. She didn’t have to say a word. I’d just walk over and put whatever I’d earned that day on the table. The car hit a pothole, jarring me awake. My phone buzzed. It was a text from Lindsay. “Hey sis! Are you coming home tonight? Mom made your favorite short ribs! ” I stared at the screen, a cold numbness spreading through my chest. I didn’t follow Lindsay’s account, but if what she said in that video was true… then Mom never had a heart condition. All those years of her clutching her chest, pretending to be faint—it was a performance. She was a hell of an actress. I took a deep breath and typed back: “Yeah, almost there.” I flipped the phone face-down on my lap. The buildings outside were getting shorter, the roads narrower. We were getting close to the neighborhood they’d kept me in for years—the one that looked “appropriately poor.” The wind felt like it was blowing right through a hole in my heart. Ten minutes from the house, the phone rang. It was Mom. “Jade, honey? Could you stop and pick up a fresh bottle of your mom’s heart meds on the way? I’m all out.” 2 Her voice was weak, her breathing labored. It was a sound I’d heard for over a decade. Every single time, it made my chest ache with guilt, making me wish I could carry her pain for her. But Lindsay’s voice was echoing in my head. It was a lie. I stayed silent for a heartbeat too long. “Jade? Honey? The signal must be bad,” she whispered. “The pharmacist knows you. Just tell them it’s for the Miller family. They give us the discount.” “Okay,” I said. I hung up and asked Bart to pull over at the next corner. He killed the engine and turned to look at me. “Is someone in your family sick?” “My mom. Chronic heart issues. She can’t be without her medication.” “And you?” he asked, his voice low. “I’m fine.” The drugstore’s neon sign hummed above me as I walked in. The pharmacist recognized me immediately. “Back again? You tell your mother to take it easy. She shouldn’t be worrying so much with that heart of hers.” I forced a brittle smile and paid for the bottle. Standing on the sidewalk, I stared at the orange plastic vial for a long time. If she didn’t have a heart condition, what happened to all the pills I’d bought over the years? Did she take them anyway? Or did they just pile up in a drawer somewhere, waiting to be thrown out when they expired? The thought made my stomach cramp. I had to take several jagged breaths before I could get back into the car. Bart didn’t ask any more questions. He just started the car and drove. As we pulled up to the house, Bart kept the engine running. He wasn’t coming in. I grabbed my things and leaned into the window to look at him. “Thank you for the ride, Bart.” He gave a short, curt nod. I pushed open the front door. The scene was exactly as I’d expected. Dad was lying on the sofa, three different pain patches visible on his lower back. A loud, trashy reality show was blaring on the TV. When he heard the door, he made a show of slowly, painfully pushing himself up using the armrest. “Jade’s home,” he announced. “Your mom’s in the kitchen. She’s making those ribs. Said you looked tired lately, said you needed the protein.” I nodded, kicked off my shoes, and headed toward the kitchen with the medicine bag. Mom was wearing her apron, one hand holding a spatula, the other braced against the counter. It was her signature pose—the one that said I’ve been standing too long and my body is failing. “Mom, I got your meds.” “Oh, you’re an angel. My chest has been feeling so tight today.” She took the bag with a smile, not even glancing at the bottle before shoving it into her apron pocket. “Go wash up. Dinner’s almost ready.” I went to the bathroom and stared at myself in the mirror. I was gaunt, my skin a sickly, translucent shade of ivory. If it weren’t for Lindsay’s video, I would have fooled myself into thinking my parents would be heartbroken if they saw me like this. Lindsay ran out of her room and grabbed my arm, her eyes sparkling. “Jade, you’re finally back!” She lowered her voice, leaning in close. “My burner account just hit nine hundred thousand views on the new video. Can you believe it?” I looked down at her smiling face. She was seventeen. She’d never had a single thing to worry about. By the time the “burden” of the family was placed on my shoulders, she was still a toddler. Her entire life had been free of night shifts, debt collectors, or the crushing weight of a half-million-dollar lie. But I couldn’t blame her. She hadn’t asked for this either. “That’s great, Lindsay. Really impressive.” “Right? People in the comments are saying our family is so ‘creative’ with how we handle things.” Creative. The word felt like a serrated blade in my gut. At the dinner table, Mom kept piling food onto my plate. “Eat up. You’re nothing but skin and bone these days.” Dad took a slow sip of his beer. “The price of those back patches went up again,” he said casually. “The ones you got last time are getting expensive. Next time, try the place over on 5th Street. Don’t let them overcharge you.” “Okay,” I said quietly. I reached into my bag and pulled out my bonus check, laying it on the table. “This is for the month.” Mom’s fork paused for a split second. Then, with practiced ease, she picked it up and tucked it into the hutch behind her. “We appreciate it, honey. We know how hard you work.” In the past, those words would have made my throat tight. I would have felt loved, felt like my sacrifice was worth it. Now, I couldn’t swallow them. Downstairs, Bart was still sitting in his car. The window was cracked, and he was staring up at the warm light of our living room window. He didn’t smoke often, but he had a cigarette lit now, his expression unreadable. He picked up his phone and dialed a number. “Run a full background check on Jade Miller’s family,” he said into the dark. “I want to know everything. Every bank account, every medical record. Everything.” 3 After dinner, I retreated to my room and collapsed onto the bed. My phone buzzed. It was Bart. “Your breathing was heavy in the car today.” I typed back: “Just tired. Haven’t been sleeping well.” I set the phone down and pulled out the diagnostic report one more time. The words hadn’t changed. Late-stage. Recovery chances: near zero. Chemotherapy would only buy me three to six months of nausea and hair loss. I folded the paper and tucked it into the very back of my journal. From the living room, I could hear Lindsay’s voice, bright and chirpy even through the door. “Mom, look at the comments! Everyone’s saying Dad’s parenting philosophy is light-years ahead of the curve.” Mom’s voice cut her off. “Why didn’t you talk to us before posting that?” There was a pause. Then Mom added, “Though, I suppose Jade will be happy when she finally finds out.” I closed my journal. Happy. Meanwhile, Bart was sitting in his office, looking at the file his assistant had just sent over. He’d found Lindsay’s viral video. He watched the “truth” about my parents’ faked illnesses unfold on the screen, his jaw tightening. He closed the video and scrolled through the rest of the data. Detailed medical histories for my parents for the last five years: perfect health. All vitals normal. He leaned back, picking up the contract I’d signed when I was fifteen. He had interviewed me himself back then. I remembered sitting across from him, trying to sound older than I was, my empathy levels off the charts. He’d hired me as an emotional consultant because I was a natural. But why had a fifteen-year-old been looking for a full-time corporate gig? Because of a “heart condition” and a “bad back.” Bart picked up his phone and sent me a message. “Tomorrow morning. 10 AM. My place.” I showed up on time. Bart was sitting on his sofa, a cup of untouched tea on the table beside him. When I walked in, he looked at me for a long, quiet moment. “Sit.” I took the chair opposite him. “Is there something specific you wanted to discuss today, Bart?” “Are you sick, Jade?” He looked me dead in the eye. I shook my head. “No.” He shifted gears. “I had someone look into your family.” My fingers tightened around the strap of my bag. He noticed. His voice softened, dropping an octave. “You’ve been carrying all of this on your own for a long time. Do you ever feel like you can’t breathe?” I was caught off guard. For years, I was the one listening to him—his insomnia, his anxiety, his cynicism toward the world. He rarely turned the lens on me. “It’s my job, Bart.” He looked down at his tea. “You don’t have to pretend with me. Not anymore. You’ve been more than just an employee for a long time.” I took a sip of the water on the table, my hand trembling slightly. “There are four people in that house,” he continued. “Why does it look like you’re the only one holding up the roof?” “My parents…” “Your parents have heart and back issues. They can’t work. Your sister is young.” He finished the sentence for me. “You started earning at ten. You started working for me at fifteen. You’re twenty-two now. You’ve been the sole provider for twelve years. Is that right?” I opened my mouth, but no words came out. “Normally, when parents get sick, there are relatives. Social safety nets. Your family?” “My dad said we couldn’t borrow anything. That we were on our own.” “On your own,” he repeated. His expression was unreadable, but I could feel the heat of his anger—not at me, but for me. Finally, he said, “Go home and rest. If you need anything—anything at all—call me.” When I got home, the atmosphere was different. Lindsay was out with friends. Several bankbooks were laid out on the coffee table. Dad was sitting upright on the sofa. No pain patches. His back was straight. Mom was sitting next to him, her fingers nervously twisting a tissue. “Jade, sit down,” Dad said. I sat. He cleared his throat and picked up his phone. “You need to see this video Lindsay posted…” “I’ve seen it,” I said flatly. They both froze. Mom leaned forward, her lips trembling. “Your father wanted to wait until you finished your master’s to tell you. But since Lindsay posted that video, we realized we couldn’t keep it from you anymore.” Dad pushed the bankbooks toward me. “Every cent you’ve sent home… we didn’t touch a dime. It’s all here.” He flipped open the top one. The balance was staggering. A long string of zeros. “Everything you earned as a kid, your investment consulting fees, what Bart paid you… we saved it all.” Mom added, “We have our own savings. We were fine. We never needed your money.” “I thought,” Dad said, looking at Mom, “that you had a head for business. I thought if you were pushed, if you had to ‘survive,’ you’d become something incredible. You’d have a better life than we ever could.” Mom looked down. “I didn’t agree at first. But when I saw how much you could handle… I went along with it.” “The heart disease, the back issues… all of it. We faked it,” Dad said, finally tearing down the last wall of the lie. “To give you the drive to succeed.” They both looked at me, waiting. For what? Tears of joy? Gratitude? A big family hug where I told them I understood? I looked up. “Okay. I understand.” Mom’s smile faltered. Dad’s hands clenched into fists. That wasn’t the reaction they were looking for. 4 I closed the bankbook and set it back on the table. “Mom, is there soup on the stove? I think I smell something burning.” Mom stared at me, her eyes wide with unease. “Jade, did you hear what we said? All these years, we…” “You lied. I get it.” “And you don’t have anything to say?” “Not really.” I stood up to head to the kitchen. “Jade!” Dad barked from behind me. “You aren’t even angry? Go ahead, scream at us! Tell us we were wrong!” I turned back to look at him. “Why would I be angry? You did it ‘for my own good,’ right?” Mom rushed over and touched my face. “Jade, honey, why are you so pale? Are you not sleeping?” I gave her a small, empty smile. “What do you think? The soup’s boiling over. I’ll go check it.” I walked into the kitchen. Mom tried to follow, but Dad caught her arm. “Leave her,” I heard him whisper. “She just needs time to process.” “But her face,” Mom whispered, her voice cracking. “Did you see her? She looks deathly. She looks like a ghost.” “She’s just tired. She told us she’s been busy at work.” I stood over the stove and turned down the heat. My hands were shaking so hard I had to grip the counter. It was too early in the day for this. My platelet count was dropping again. That weekend, Bart showed up at the house. He claimed he was in the neighborhood and wanted to check in. My parents were flustered, ushering him in. Mom scrambled to make tea, moving with a grace and speed I hadn’t seen in a decade. Lindsay was the most excited, hovering around him like a moth to a flame. Bart sat on our sofa, politely accepting a cup of tea. He noted my father’s healthy complexion and my mother’s nimble movements. Then his gaze landed on my bloodless lips, and his knuckles went white around his cup. After a few minutes of small talk, he stood to leave. He caught my eye at the door. “I’m giving you a sabbatical,” he said. “Paid. Effective immediately.” “I don’t need it. I’m fine.” He didn’t argue. He just looked at me with a profound, quiet sadness and left. Lindsay grabbed my hand the second the door closed. “Jade, he is so hot! And he’s clearly into you. You’re a total success story now—you’ve got the guy and all that money in the bank!” I patted her head. She had no idea that I wouldn’t live long enough to spend a fraction of that money. The next time I went to Bart’s apartment, it took me five minutes longer than usual to climb the stairs. When I pushed the door open, he was in his study, signing documents. “Sit. There’s water on the table.” I poured a glass. My throat felt like it was lined with glass—it had been like that for days. He turned his chair around and stared at me. “The circles under your eyes are twice as dark as they were last week.” He reached out. “Show me your hands.” I hesitated, then held them out. My skin was covered in deep purple splotches—bruises that had appeared out of nowhere. I’d been wearing long sleeves to hide them. He stared at the bruises for a long time. “Stop lying to me, Jade.” I pulled my hands back, hiding them in my sleeves. “When did this start?” he asked, his voice thick with repressed emotion. “Is it because of me? Because of the hours I’ve put you through these last few years?” “No, Bart,” I said softly. “It’s not you. I’ve been like this since I was a kid.” And then, I felt it—a sudden, warm wetness trailing down from my nose. I wiped it with the back of my hand. Bright red. Bart stopped mid-sentence. “Jade… your nose.” “It’s nothing. The air is dry.” I turned my head and pressed a tissue to it. The blood wouldn’t stop. It soaked through the paper in seconds. He jumped up, grabbed some ice from the kitchen, and wrapped it in a towel. “Hold this to your face. Now.” I did as I was told. He stood over me, watching as the pile of crimson tissues in the trash can grew. “Recurring nosebleeds. Bruising. Weight loss. Paleness.” He ticked them off one by one. “That’s not ‘dry air,’ Jade.” The bleeding finally slowed. I pulled the ice away. “You know a lot about medicine, Bart.” He didn’t smile. “My mother had the same symptoms before she died.” He closed his eyes for a second. “You don’t have to tell me what it is. But you have to go to a doctor. Today.” “I’ve already gone.” The words slipped out before I could stop them. I’ve already gone. Which meant there was already an answer. He let out a long, shaky breath. When I was leaving his apartment, I bent over to put on my shoes. The world went black for a split second. I lurched, catching myself on the shoe rack to keep from falling. My bag slipped off my shoulder, and my journal tumbled out. The diagnostic report fluttered out from the last page. I scrambled to grab it, but Bart was faster. He picked up the paper. “Give it back,” I whispered, my voice trembling. He ignored me. He read the report, and a look of grim confirmation crossed his face. He looked up at me. “Jade. When were you planning on telling your parents that while they were busy faking their deaths, you were actually dying?”

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Ten years. That’s how long it took for a framed conviction to tear the trajectory of my life into jagged pieces. I went from being the golden boy of the tech world, a rising CEO with the world at his feet, to a ghost in a jumpsuit, buried alive in a cell while the world moved on without me. Today, the iron gates finally groaned open. I expected a breath of fresh air. I expected the sun to feel warm. Instead, I was met with the ice-cold stares of the two women I had once loved most: my wife, Spring, and my older sister, Diane—a woman whose job as a Chief Medical Examiner was supposed to be dedicated to the truth. They didn’t offer a hug. They didn’t even offer a hand. Spring’s voice was as flat as a dial tone when she told me the truth. It wasn’t an accident. It wasn’t some unknown driver. It was Beau, our family’s adopted brother. He was the one who had gotten behind the wheel that night, drunk and reckless, and mowed those people down. Spring, the “brilliant” defense attorney, had been the one to scrub the security footage. Then Diane spoke up, her tone as clinical as if she were reciting a grocery list. She had personally falsified the autopsy reports. She had perjured herself to make sure the evidence pointed directly at me. Their reason? Beau was “sensitive.” He was the “fragile” adopted son of the Mercer family, and they couldn’t bear to see his bright future tarnished by something as messy as a triple homicide. Spring actually looked me in the eye and suggested a “schedule.” Since I was out now, she’d split her time between us—Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays for me; the rest for Beau. She called it a “fair compromise.” I stood there, my blood turning to lead. I wanted to scream, to demand how they could justify a decade of my life traded for his comfort. But the scream died in my throat. I took a breath and closed my eyes, forcing the white-hot rage into a small, dark corner of my mind. The man they sent to prison ten years ago was a soft touch. The man who walked out today? He was someone else entirely. In that concrete hell, even the most ruthless kingpins had learned to call me “Sir.” … Love and family. They used to be my compass. Now, they were just words in a dead language. Spring sat in the back of the sleek black SUV, her profile sharp and unforgiving against the tinted glass. “I’m telling you this so you don’t make a scene,” she said, her voice like a razor. “Don’t bother struggling. Just learn to coexist with Beau. It’s better for everyone.” My hands shook, but not from fear. Ten years. They stole ten years of my youth just to teach me how to “behave” and accept their favoritism. Spring placed a hand over her slightly rounded stomach, her expression softening for the first time. “While you were away, Beau took care of me. He was there when you couldn’t be. We’re expecting our third child.” My heart hammered against my ribs so hard it ached. “When we get to the house, you’re going to give these toys to Leo,” she continued. “Be nice to him. Start building a relationship.” The air in the car felt thin. When we were together, Spring had refused to even discuss having kids. She was terrified of what it would do to her career, her body, her freedom. And yet, she’d popped out three for him. “Took care of you?” I let out a jagged, hollow laugh. “Is that what they call it now? Screwing your husband’s brother while he rots in a cell for a crime the brother committed?” Spring’s face darkened instantly. “Watch your mouth!” “What did you expect, Jack?” she snapped. “That I’d live like a nun for a decade? We’re divorced. I served you the papers the week you were processed.” The memory hit me like a physical blow. She’d come to the visiting room with the paperwork, crying, saying she couldn’t be married to a “convict” because it would ruin her standing at the firm. I had signed them without a second thought, desperate to protect her reputation even as my own was being incinerated. I didn’t realize it was all part of the script. Diane glared at me from the front seat, her eyes narrowing. “Beau has been more than generous. He agreed to the ‘nesting’ arrangement. Three nights a week with Spring, and you get Sundays with the kids. If you can’t handle that, I have no problem finding a reason to send you back inside. One phone call to the parole board is all it takes.” I stared at them, truly seeing them for the first time. The depravity was breathtaking. I remembered the time Spring was being bullied in high school; I had taken on ten guys to protect her, leaving the scene covered in my own blood. I remembered when our family went bankrupt; I had stood in front of the debt collectors, taking a beating that nearly killed me so Diane wouldn’t have to hear their threats. And all they cared about was Beau. The “sensitive” one. “I don’t want your leftovers,” I said, my voice dropping to a low, dangerous hum. “I don’t want anything you’ve touched.” I ignored their indignant gasps and stepped out of the car as we pulled into the driveway of my home. But the house wasn’t mine anymore. Hanging in the center of the foyer was a massive, floor-to-ceiling wedding portrait. Spring, in a gown that must have cost fifty grand, was cradling Beau’s face. They both looked radiant. Beau rose from the designer sofa, a victor’s smirk playing on his lips. “Jack? Wow. I honestly thought you’d never make it out.” He gestured vaguely toward the stairs. “Look, your old room is a nursery now. There’s a maid’s room in the basement with a cot. Maybe you could—” “You’re the one who needs to leave,” I interrupted, my voice cutting through his fake pleasantry like a knife. “Jack, don’t start,” Spring warned, walking in behind me. “This is my house,” I said, turning to face her. “I paid for every brick. I built the firm that paid for your clothes and Diane’s lifestyle. Unless I say so, none of you have the right to be here.” When our father took his own life after the bankruptcy, I started from zero. I worked twenty-hour days to pay off his debts and build Mercer Global into a multi-billion dollar empire. Spring’s expression turned cold. “You really haven’t learned anything, have you? Jack, before you went in, I had you sign those ‘insurance’ documents. Remember?” My stomach dropped. Ten years ago, in the chaos of the arrest, she had brought me a stack of papers. She told me it was to protect our assets from the victims’ families, a way to ensure the company survived. I had trusted her. I had signed. “Those weren’t insurance papers,” she whispered, a cruel tilt to her lips. “They were transfer deeds. The house, the stocks, the offshore accounts—it all belongs to Beau now.” I clenched my fists so hard my nails drew blood. “I built that company with my sweat and blood. You had no right.” “The company needed a leader who wasn’t a murderer,” Diane chimed in, crossing her arms. “Beau stepped up. He’s a Mercer, too. What difference does it make whose name is on the letterhead?” I let out a bitter, strangled laugh. My enemy was living in my house, sleeping with my wife, and running my company, all while wearing my name like a stolen coat. Beau walked over and pushed two toddlers toward me. “Come on, kids. Say hi to Uncle Jack. Or ‘Big Daddy,’ if you want to get used to the new schedule.” Looking at those kids—miniature versions of the man who ruined me—a flash of pure, unadulterated rage broke through my restraint. “Get them away from me! Get out!” As I yelled, Beau suddenly shoved the boy toward me. He didn’t just nudge him; he threw him. The kid hit the floor and started wailing. Beau immediately scooped him up, his eyes welling with crocodile tears. “Jack, I know you hate me,” Beau whimpered, though his eyes were dancing with triumph. “But the children are innocent! How could you hurt them?” Slap. Spring’s hand caught me across the face so hard my vision blurred. Her eyes were red with fury. “You monster! Ten years in a cage and you’re still a violent animal!” Before I could recover, Diane grabbed a heavy crystal decanter from the side table and smashed it against the back of my head. “Get out!” Diane screamed as blood began to warm the back of my neck. “You’re staying in the basement crawlspace tonight. One more move and I’m calling the cops.” I didn’t fight back. I let the blood drip onto the expensive rug. I realized then that words were useless. These women didn’t want the truth; they wanted a villain so they could feel like heroes for loving Beau. That night, lying on a moldy mattress in a room that smelled of damp earth and failure, I pulled out a burner phone I’d smuggled out. A string of missed messages from a number I recognized. My “little brothers” from the inside. Men who owed me their lives. I didn’t reply. Not yet. I wanted to see if I could take back what was mine on my own terms first. I sent one text to an old contact at the firm. Meet me tomorrow. The next morning, I walked into the lobby of Mercer Global. I didn’t own the shares anymore, but I knew the bones of this place. I knew the secrets in the code. I knew the people. Or so I thought. As I walked toward the elevators, the whispers followed me like a swarm of locusts. “Is that him? The founder?” “Founder? He’s a convict. A wife-beater and a killer.” “I heard the only reason he got out early was because Beau paid off the families. Five million dollars just to get this trash out of a cell.” “Three people dead in a hit-and-run. He’s a psycho.” I kept my head up, my jaw locked. I took the elevator to the penthouse suite—the floor reserved for the elite. But my keycard didn’t work. I was locked out of my own office. “Well, well. If it isn’t the ghost of Christmas past.” I turned to see Beau standing there, flanked by security. He looked like a million bucks in a bespoke Italian suit. He looked at my cheap, off-the-rack clothes with visible disgust. “What are you doing here, Jack? Looking for a job?” He chuckled. “I’m not sure what we have for an ex-con. Maybe the janitorial staff needs someone to scrub the toilets? Or did you learn how to sew license plates in the clink?” The humiliation was a physical weight, crushing the air out of my lungs. “Beau, don’t forget. I wrote the algorithms this company is built on. Without the core keys, you’re just a figurehead.” Beau burst out laughing. He snapped his fingers. The doors to the boardroom opened, and out walked my old inner circle. My head of R&D, my CFO, my lead developer—men I had treated like brothers. They all looked at the floor as they walked up to Beau and addressed him as “Chairman Mercer.” “I have the patents, Jack. I have the client lists. I have the data,” Beau said, leaning in close. “And I have your friends. They told me everything about your little ‘outreach’ yesterday. They don’t want you back. You’re bad for the brand.” I looked at Ben, my former best friend. “Ben? I paid for your mother’s heart surgery when we were starting out. I gave you twenty percent of the company when you had nothing.” Ben wouldn’t look at me. “People change, Jack. And the world moves on. You’re a felon. We have a reputation to protect.” The rest of them closed ranks around Beau. “Ten years, Jack,” Beau sneered, tapping his phone against my cheek. “Technology changes. Lives change. You’re a zero. A broke, pathetic zero.” He leaned in, his voice a foul whisper in my ear. “I have to thank you, though. These ten years? I’ve lived in your house, spent your money, and fucked your wife every single night. It’s been… exquisite.” He actually licked his lips. Something snapped. The “animal” they kept calling me finally broke its chain. I lunged, my fist connecting with his jaw with the precision I’d learned in the yard. “Jack, stop!” Spring’s voice echoed through the lobby. She rushed over, dropping to her knees to cradle Beau’s face. Security swarmed me, pinning me to the marble floor. Diane appeared out of nowhere, her designer heel slamming into the side of my face, right near my eye. “You bastard! Ten years ago you tried to ruin him, and you’re still trying!” “Throw him out!” Spring screamed. “And make sure he never sets foot on this property again!” Ben—my “brother” Ben—grabbed a security baton and cracked it across the back of my skull. They dragged me out like a dead dog. As they tossed me onto the sidewalk, Ben leaned down and whispered, “The Chairman knew you’d come. He left a little homecoming gift for you outside.” I barely had time to wipe the blood from my eyes before I saw them. Dozens of people. Protesters. Reporters with cameras. The families of the victims from ten years ago. Before I could move, a carton of rotten eggs pelted my chest. Then, a bucket of cold, thick red paint was doused over my head, stinging my eyes and staining my skin. “Killer!” a woman screamed. It was the mother of one of the boys who died. “Why are you out? You should have rotted!” The crowd swarmed. Punches and kicks rained down on me. I curled into a ball on the concrete, the red paint making it look like I was bleeding from every pore. Then, the crowd parted. Beau emerged, looking battered but “noble.” He held up his hands, playing the role of the peacemaker for the cameras. “Please, everyone! Calm down!” he shouted. “My brother has served his time. He’s… rehabilitated. We have to give him a chance to reintegrate.” The crowd murmured in admiration. “Look at him,” a reporter whispered into a mic. “The CEO of Mercer Global, pleading for mercy for the man who stole so much from him. A true saint.” Beau knelt beside me, reaching out a hand as if to help me up. “Come on, Jack. Just apologize to them. Tell them you’re sorry for what you did.” I looked up at him through the red film of paint and blood. I spat a glob of gore onto his shiny shoes. “Go to hell, Beau. You’re the killer. We both know it.” Diane stepped forward, looking at the cameras with tears in her eyes. “As of today, the Mercer family officially disowns Jack. He is no longer my brother. We stand with the victims.” Spring nodded, her voice firm. “Mercer Global will not harbor a criminal. He is dead to us.” The crowd cheered. The cameras flashed. The “Saint” and his “Goddess” were being hailed as heroes for throwing their “vile” relative to the wolves. The victims’ families, emboldened by their words, grabbed me again. One man slammed my head into the pavement. I felt a rib snap. Just as I felt my consciousness slipping, a low, tectonic rumble began to shake the street. A fleet of fifteen black Rolls-Royces roared around the corner, screeching to a halt in a perfect, intimidating line in front of the building. The crowd froze. “Is that… Vinnie Russo?” someone whispered. “The King of the East Coast? What the hell is he doing here?” “Probably here for a meeting with the Chairman,” someone else guessed. “Beau is hitting the big leagues now.” Beau wiped his face, straightened his tie, and rushed toward the lead car with a sycophantic grin. “Mr. Russo! Sir! I didn’t know you were coming by. If I’d known, I would have—” Click. The sound of twenty semi-automatic slides being racked echoed like a death knell. A dozen men in charcoal suits stepped out, guns leveled at Beau’s chest. Vinnie Russo stepped out of the lead car. He was a mountain of a man with eyes like flint. He didn’t even look at Beau. He looked at me, lying in the gutter, covered in red paint and filth. His voice was a low growl that silenced the entire street. “You laid a hand on my Mentor? You must have a death wish.”

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I am currently lying in the center of a five-star hotel ballroom. Today is my “Welcome to the World” gala, marking my first month on this earth. My parents’ faces are glowing with the same familiar joy I remember from before, but beneath my chubby cheeks and button nose, I am carrying eighty years of memories from the Great Beyond. To earn this second chance at life, I spent decades in the grey halls of the afterlife, pleading with the Silent Arbitrators until even the most hardened spirits were ready to kick me back to the living just to get some peace. In my last life, my aunt, Lydia, used the excuse of “bonding with the baby” to drive a four-inch silver needle directly into my fontanelle—the soft spot on my crown. I didn’t die. I became a “miracle” who never spoke, a hollow shell for eighteen years until I was kidnapped and sold into the mountains to be a bride for an old hermit. It is currently March 22nd, 8:42 AM. She will be here any minute. This time, the tragedy ends before it begins. 1 In my previous life, this party was a grand affair. My parents, David and Beryl, spared no expense. They invited nearly fifty relatives, believing that the more people who blessed me, the more “good energy” I would carry through life. They had no idea. Exactly ten minutes before the official start of the banquet, a black Bentley would pull up to the curb. Lydia would step out, dripping in diamonds and carrying a designer handbag. She would offer a massive cash gift and, with a saccharine smile, ask to take the “sweet little niece” from my mother’s arms. My mother, always eager to share her joy, wouldn’t suspect a thing. Lydia would then carry me into the private dressing room next door. She would reach into her bag for the needle she’d prepared. It only takes a few seconds. One moment, I was a bright-eyed, healthy infant. The next, the light in my eyes would go out forever, replaced by a permanent, vacant stare. That was how Lydia stole my life. But now, I’m back. Even though I’m just a four-week-old infant who can barely coordinate my limbs, I have an advantage. Eighty years in the afterlife taught me one thing: the primal, jagged edge of a parent’s intuition. If I can plant even a seed of doubt, they will become my fortress. Lydia, I’m ready for you. I rubbed my eyes and burrowed deeper into my mother’s chest, acting the part of the clingy, fragile newborn. My father watched us with hungry eyes, reaching out his arms. “Let me have a turn, Beryl. Let me hold our little Maddy.” No. I snapped wide awake. In my last life, my father was the one who let his guard down the most. He loved Lydia; she was his baby sister. Even when the doctors later found the scar on my scalp, he couldn’t wrap his head around the idea that his own flesh and blood could be a monster. I couldn’t rely on him. Not yet. “WAAAAAAH—!” I let out a piercing, glass-shattering shriek. It wasn’t a hungry cry or a sleepy whimper. it was a visceral, soul-tearing howl of terror. My father flinched, his hands recoiling instantly. “Whoa! What happened? Does Maddy hate me today?” My mother gave him a sharp look, rocking me protectively. “Shh, it’s okay, baby. Mommy’s got you. Daddy’s just too loud, isn’t he? No Daddy right now.” I sniffled, gradually quieting down. My grandfather, Bob, watched this from his chair and chuckled. “Looks like Maddy only has eyes for her mama. Come here, sweetheart, let Grandpa see those eyes.” He reached out. Before his fingers even brushed my lace gown, the siren went off again. A scream so loud my face turned purple. Sorry, Grandpa. In my last life, he had been the one encouraging me to “bond” with Lydia. He wanted the family to be a tight-knit unit. He was an enabler of the worst kind—the kind who loves too much to see the truth. I cried harder, gasping for air until I nearly choked. Grandpa froze, his face flushing a deep, embarrassed red. Beryl looked overwhelmed. “I think she’s just overstimulated. She didn’t sleep well last night, and with all these people… I think she just needs me. Sorry, Dad, maybe later.” David and Bob exchanged a disappointed glance and sighed in unison. They stepped back, giving us space. The minutes ticked by. The guests began to fill the ballroom. I counted down the seconds in my head. 3… 2… 1… “Beryl! Oh my god, let me see the guest of honor!” The heavy oak doors of the ballroom swung open. Lydia marched in on four-inch stilettos, swinging a rare-skin Hermès bag, her jewelry clinking like a death knell. “Look at her! She is absolutely precious.” She hurried over, pulling a thick envelope from her bag and shoving it into my mother’s hand. Then, with practiced ease, she made her move. “Here, Beryl, let me take her for a bit. You look exhausted.” 2 As my father’s sister, Lydia spoke with the authority of someone who belonged. My mother, tired from the morning’s festivities, started to loosen her grip. Her arms began to shift me toward the woman who had ruined my soul. Now. “WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!!!” The scream I unleashed was tectonic. I kicked, I arched my back, I coughed until I gagged. I acted like a wild animal being backed into a corner. The closer Lydia got, the more violent my reaction became. The entire ballroom went silent. Every head turned. My father rushed over, dragging Grandpa with him, his face etched with worry. “What is going on with her today?” He gently pulled my mother back a few steps. “Lydia, I’m so sorry. I don’t know what’s gotten into Maddy. She’s been like this all morning—won’t let anyone but Beryl touch her. Not even me or Dad.” Grandpa nodded solemnly. “It’s true. She’s being incredibly territorial today.” Lydia’s expression flickered—a flash of pure, cold irritation that vanished so fast a normal person would have missed it. It was replaced instantly by a look of wounded pouting. “Oh, I see,” she said, her laugh sounding like dry paper. “But Beryl, you know what they say. A baby needs to be passed around to soak up all the family’s luck. I’m her aunt! I’ve been dying to hold her.” My father’s expression softened. He was a sucker for tradition. He hesitated, then reached for me again, his hands sliding under my armpits. I stayed quiet. He lifted me and handed me to Grandpa. Still quiet. He let out a sigh of relief, convinced the “phase” had passed. He took me back and began to lower me into Lydia’s outstretched arms. The moment my lace hem touched her skin: “WAAAH! WAAAH! WAAAAAAAAAH!” This wasn’t just a performance anymore. The smell of her perfume—that cloying, expensive floral scent—triggered every dormant trauma in my psyche. I remembered the cold bite of the steel. I remembered the years of darkness. I remembered the eighty years of wandering the afterlife, begging for justice. The hatred and the terror surged through my tiny body. I screamed until the veins in my neck stood out, a sound so raw it felt like it was stripping the paint off the walls. My father looked at my beet-red face, then looked at Lydia’s expectant, slightly too-eager eyes. His gaze darkened. His protective instincts, finally, began to override his familial loyalty. “Lydia,” he said, his voice dropping an octave. “What exactly do you have on you?” Lydia froze. 3 She recovered quickly, forcing a confused giggle. “David, what are you talking about? What would I have on me? I just want to love on my niece.” My father didn’t smile back. “Maybe I’m overthinking it,” he muttered, though his eyes remained narrowed. “It’s just strange. Out of everyone here, she only reacts this way to you. I thought maybe you were wearing a perfume she hated… or had something sharp on your jewelry.” His words were meant to be a casual observation, but Lydia’s smile looked like it was being held up by invisible wires. She tried to say something else, but David had already turned his back, walking me away. Cradled against his chest, I blew tiny bubbles against his shirt, listening to him whisper to my mother. “Lydia’s off today. She’s probably under a lot of pressure from her in-laws again. Keep an eye on Maddy. I don’t want Lydia getting too close if she’s in an unstable headspace.” In my last life, I understood the tragedy of Lydia. She had married well, but she was struggling with infertility. Her husband’s family treated her like a defective product. My parents had tried to help. They had told her she could leave him, that David would take care of her forever. But Lydia didn’t want a way out; she wanted someone to suffer as much as she did. In her mind, it wasn’t fair that she was “hollow” while Beryl was “fruitful.” I watched her from over my father’s shoulder. She was standing alone, her red-manicured nails digging into the leather of her bag. Her eyes were fixed on me, cold and calculating. I’m waiting, Lydia, I thought. Try me. 4 For the next hour, Lydia kept her distance. She played the part of the social butterfly, chatting with cousins and sipping champagne. I started to drift, my infant body betraying me. I yawned, my eyelids growing heavy. Just as I was about to succumb to sleep, a woman in her early fifties wearing a festive red cardigan approached us. She had a kind, grandmotherly smile. “Beryl, honey, you look like your arms are about to fall off. Why don’t you let me hold the little one for a while?” This was Martha. She was a distant cousin of my father’s. More importantly, her son worked for Lydia’s husband. In my last life, Martha was the one who stood by the dressing room door, acting as a lookout while Lydia destroyed my mind. She reached out, her eyes flickering with a frantic, nervous energy that she tried to hide behind a smile. She had been watching us. She knew the party was half over. My father had been pulled away by Grandpa to toast with the elders. My mother was standing alone, her posture sagging from the weight of holding me all morning. “Come on, Beryl. We’re family. Don’t be polite with me. I’ll take her so you can grab a bite to eat.” She reached for me. The hair on my neck stood up. Every instinct screamed Danger. I exploded. I kicked my legs, my face turning a terrifying shade of purple as I shrieked. Beryl immediately pulled me back. “Oh, I’m so sorry, Martha. I don’t know what’s wrong with her today. She’s just not herself. I think I’d better just keep holding her.” Martha didn’t back down. She stepped closer, her smile turning brittle. “Beryl, don’t be like that. Babies cry; it’s what they do. You’re going to spoil her if you don’t let other people help. Or is it that you don’t think I’m ‘high-class’ enough to touch your daughter?” She said it loud enough for the nearby tables to hear. It was a classic guilt trip, designed to make my mother feel like a snob if she refused. I saw Beryl hesitate. Her social conditioning was fighting her maternal instinct. “WAAAAAH! No… No…” I tried to form the sounds, my heart hammering against my ribs. My mother felt my resistance. The hand she had been about to loosen suddenly tightened. She frowned and took a deliberate step back. Martha stepped forward. Beryl stepped back again. Martha followed. It was a strange, silent dance of aggression. My mother finally realized something was very, very wrong. Her smile didn’t waver, but her voice turned as sharp as a razor. “Martha. I said no.” “I know you mean well, but Maddy isn’t feeling well. She needs her mother. Maybe next time.” Before Martha could respond, Beryl cut her off. “I think I hear David calling me. Enjoy the salmon, Martha.” Beryl walked away—not a slow stroll, but a brisk, elegant escape. She didn’t stop until she reached my father. “What is it?” David asked, noticing her pale face. Beryl was breathing hard. “I don’t know. It’s just… a feeling. Like everyone is hovering over Maddy. Like if I let her out of my sight for one second, something terrible is going to happen.” “David, we can’t let her go. Not for a second.” My father didn’t dismiss her. He looked across the room, his eyes landing on Lydia and Martha whispering in a corner. His brow furrowed. “Okay,” he whispered. “I’m not leaving your side.” I leaned my head against my mother’s heart. They were finally suspicious. Eighteen years earlier than the last time. It was a start. 5 The atmosphere shifted. My father became a human shield. When Grandpa tried to pull him away to drink with the uncles, David claimed he had a migraine. When a cousin asked for help moving a car, David just tossed his keys to a waiter. He and Beryl were like two sentries guarding a treasure. I watched them from the safety of Beryl’s arms, feeling a sense of peace I hadn’t known in a century. Lydia had succeeded before because my parents were “good people” who assumed everyone else was good, too. That naivety was gone. But I was still a baby. And the biological clock of an infant is merciless. I was exhausted. My eyes were burning, my brain fogging over. I tried to fight it, staring wide-eyed at the ceiling, but the darkness was pulling at me. Beryl noticed my struggle. She rocked me gently. “Go to sleep, Maddy. Mommy’s right here. I’ve got you.” I tried to shake my head, but my neck was like jelly. A second later, my system forced a shutdown. I felt the familiar motion of being carried. I smelled the cedarwood scent of the hotel’s luxury nursery suite. Beryl laid me down in the crib, humming a soft lullaby. “Sleep tight, my little angel…” Everything felt safe. Until the phone rang. “What? Dad fell?” I heard Beryl’s voice hitch. “Is he okay? Where is he? I’m coming right now.” She leaned over and kissed my forehead, her breath hitching with anxiety. Then, the sound of her footsteps hurried out of the suite. The door clicked shut. I was alone. Ten minutes later. Beep. The sound of a keycard. The door creaked open. Footsteps, light as feathers, crept across the carpet. I heard the rustle of a designer bag. Lydia’s bag. “Don’t blame me for this, Maddy,” a voice whispered. It was thick with a terrifying, shaky kind of resolve. She reached the crib. I could hear her sharp intake of breath. She opened a small silk pouch, and I heard the faint clink of metal. The silver needles. She picked one out. I could almost feel the coldness of the steel reflecting the dim nursery light. As her hand reached over the railing, toward my head— “WAAAAAAH—!” I threw my eyes open and screamed with every ounce of life in my lungs. “STOP RIGHT THERE!” The door flew open. David, Beryl, Grandpa, and the hotel manager were standing there. My father’s face was a mask of pure, unadulterated rage. “Lydia,” he growled, his voice vibrating with a lethal edge. “Turn. Around.”

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When I was eight years old, I was playing in the yard when I heard it—a sharp, sickening crack from deep inside my own bones. It reminded me of the heavy medical braces sitting on my sister’s nightstand. Daisy had Osteogenesis Imperfecta. People called her a “glass doll.” In our house, gravity itself was the enemy, and every ounce of my mother’s attention was a shield held over Daisy, protecting her from the inevitable break. I wondered then if I had caught it too. I wondered if, by wearing the braces, the throbbing in my limbs would stop. I wondered if Mom would look at me with that same frantic, desperate devotion if I were broken, too. I was clumsily trying to strap the heavy metal supports onto my legs when Mom walked in. She didn’t see a hurting child. She saw a thief. She stripped the braces off me with a violence that left me shaking, her eyes dark with a disappointment that cut deeper than the ache in my shins. “Who told you that you could touch your sister’s things?” she snapped. “June, there has to be a limit to this attention-seeking. I am exhausted enough caring for one sick child. I don’t have room for your theatrics.” I tried to tell her. I tried to explain that my bones felt like they were splintering from the inside out, but she wouldn’t hear it. She dragged me into the living room and shoved me into the automated orthopedic traction frame Daisy used every afternoon. The cold mechanical arms clamped onto my wrists and ankles, clicking into place with predatory precision. “You want to be sick so badly?” Mom hissed, her voice trembling with fatigue. “This is what Daisy goes through every single day. If you want her life, you can have the treatment that comes with it. I’m going to ‘cure’ you.” The machine began to hum, the pressure building as the motorized winches began to pull. I heard the sound again—crack, crack, crack—the sound of my own internal architecture failing. I screamed. I told her it was real, that it hurt, that I could feel things snapping. But Mom just looked at me as if I were a bad actress overplaying a part. She reached out and turned the dial, cranking the intensity up to the level Daisy used for her severe spinal realignments. “Daisy handles this without a peep,” Mom said, turning toward the door. “Stop being so fragile.” I sat in the machine, the world dissolving into a white-hot haze of agony. Slowly, mercifully, my consciousness began to flicker out. 1 Mom clapped her hands together, a signal that the lesson was over. She helped Daisy into her wheelchair, smoothing her hair with a tenderness she had never shown me, and headed out for Daisy’s weekly hospital check-up. The door clicked shut. The house fell into a heavy, suffocating silence. I was curled inside the machine, my body twisted at an unnatural angle. I tried to reach for the red emergency stop button, but as soon as my fingers brushed the plastic, the mechanical arm lunged, pinning my hand back against the frame. I buckled. Tears splattered against the cold steel. The machine continued its slow, rhythmic crush. Every breath felt like a serrated blade in my lungs. I tried to call out to our smart-home hub, my voice a wet, broken gargle: “Call… Mom.” “Video… call…” The hub’s camera lens swiveled toward me, its blue light pulsing once, twice. “Opening video recording mode,” the AI’s cheerful voice chirped. “Capturing your beautiful family moments.” No. Not that. Stop. I wanted to scream, but the pain had finally reached my throat, choking the sound into a silent sob. The camera’s ring turned a deep, blood-red—the only light in the darkening room. The house grew still, save for the low, industrial drone of the motor. I looked down at my arm; it was bent in a way no arm should be, the wrist swollen into a dark, angry knot. I wanted my parents. I remembered being very small, when a skinned knee was enough to make Mom scoop me up and kiss the pain away. When did I stop being worth the worry? Was I just not “good” enough? Not “sick” enough to love? The tears on my face turned cold. The pain reached a crescendo, a blinding flash of lightning behind my eyes, and then… it just stopped. Maybe I shouldn’t have touched Daisy’s things. Mom was so tired. I was just one more burden she didn’t need. I’m sorry, Mom, I thought, looking at the timer on the machine’s display. Three minutes left. I won’t be a problem anymore. I’ll just sleep for a bit. When I opened my eyes again, the red light on the camera had gone dark. The system was back on standby. I looked at the clock on the wall and felt a jolt of panic. Three hours? I’d been asleep for three hours? My head felt heavy, like it was filled with cotton. I needed to get up. I needed to start dinner. It was almost five-thirty. Then, the front door opened. Daisy was in her wheelchair, a fresh cast on her leg, looking pale and exhausted. I tried to flash her a smile, the kind I always used to make her laugh when she was feeling down. But Daisy just stared straight ahead, her eyes hollow. She didn’t even blink. My hand stayed frozen in mid-air. I felt a pang of hurt. Is it not funny today? You usually laugh. Mom pushed the chair into the living room. Her eyes swept the space, her brow furrowed into a deep line of irritation. “June! Are you serious? No dinner? Nothing?” She gestured toward the traction machine. “I leave you here to reflect on your behavior, and you just decide to take a nap?” I turned, confused. I’m not sleeping, Mom. I’m right here. But as I followed her gaze, I saw it. I saw a small, crumpled figure inside the machine. I looked down at my own hands. They were translucent, like a memory fading in the sun. I tried to speak, but only a sob came out. Oh, I realized. I’m dead. 2 I stood there, paralyzed, watching them. I tried to pat my own cheeks, but I felt nothing. Maybe this is better, I thought. One less mouth to feed. One less tuition to save for. Now, Daisy can have it all. Mom pushed the wheelchair right through me, the sensation like a cold draft of wind. She turned on the TV for Daisy—some mindless sitcom where the laughter was canned and loud. Daisy reached out, her fingers trembling as she turned the volume down until the room was nearly silent, save for the rhythmic thud-thud-thud of Mom chopping vegetables in the kitchen. The smell of beef stew began to waft through the air. I drifted into the kitchen, watching Mom carefully pick every tiny shard of bone out of the meat before she served it. She filled a bowl to the brim, a look of grim satisfaction on her face. She carried the tray to the table and called out toward the living room. “June! Enough. Come eat.” I sat in my usual chair, trying desperately to answer. I’m here, Mom. Please, stop calling. Mom waited. When no answer came, the tenderness vanished. She slammed the spoon onto the table. “June! Are you deaf? I said come eat!” Her voice rose to a screech. “You ungrateful brat. Daisy and I have been suffering at the hospital all day, and you’re in there playing games and throwing a tantrum!” I watched her face contort with rage. I picked at my ghostly cuticles. I’m not trying to be bad, Mom. It’s just that you can’t hear me anymore. Just as Mom started to get up to drag me out of the machine by my hair, Daisy reached out and caught her sleeve. “Mom, don’t,” Daisy whispered. “Let her sleep. She’s probably just exhausted.” Mom looked at Daisy’s thin, porcelain-white face, and the fire in her eyes died down. She sighed, shaking her head. “You spoil her,” Mom muttered. She put a piece of broccoli in Daisy’s bowl, but her eyes kept darting toward the living room, toward the machine. That night, Daisy rolled her chair over to the frame. She looked at the body inside—my body—and her eyes filled with a terrifying mix of guilt and pity. She reached out and draped a handmade quilt over the “sleeping” girl. “Don’t get cold, June,” she whispered. I hovered near her, wanting to scream Get away! Don’t look! I didn’t want her to see what was under the blanket. But the room was dim, lit only by a tiny plug-in nightlight. Daisy couldn’t see the details. She went back to her room and returned with her own heavy winter coat, laying it over the quilt. She did this four times, back and forth, until sweat beaded on her forehead. Mom walked through the living room and saw the mountain of clothes on the machine. She sighed, walking over to tuck the edges in. She went into Daisy’s room and squeezed her shoulder. “I wish June was half as thoughtful as you.” Daisy gripped Mom’s hand, her eyes red-rimmed. “Don’t say that. You guys spent everything on me. June… she’s been lonely. It’s my fault she’s like this.” I stood by the bed, shaking my head. It’s not, Daisy. I’m not lonely anymore. I felt what you felt today. It was so much worse than I ever imagined. How did you do it for years? They hugged, and I tried to wrap my arms around them both, a hollow, cold embrace. Mom’s voice broke. “We thought… we thought having a second child would mean you’d have someone to look after you when we’re gone. Who knew you’d get sick the same year she was born?” She sobbed into Daisy’s hair. “I shouldn’t have brought her into this world just to suffer. I owe her so much. So much…” When Mom finally left the room, her eyes were puffy. She went to the kitchen, found a dry piece of bread, and left it on the table for my breakfast. Then, she grabbed her purse and slipped out of the house. I followed her. It was nearly midnight. Where was she going? 3 I followed her old electric scooter through the winding suburban streets until she pulled up at a nondescript warehouse on the edge of town. I thought Mom had quit her job years ago to be a full-time caregiver. I followed her into the bright, buzzing chaos of the factory floor. She approached a supervisor with a submissive, practiced smile. “Sorry I’m late, Sarah. Things at home…” The supervisor didn’t look up from her clipboard. “You’re late too often, Mary. Family is fine, but the line doesn’t wait.” Mom nodded frantically, her apologies becoming more humble, more desperate. “I know, I know. I can only come in once the girls are settled for the night.” The supervisor sighed, handing her a bin of small electronic components. “That kid of yours is a bottomless pit for money, isn’t she? How long has your husband been pulling double shifts at the construction site? Months since he’s been home?” She paused, looking at Mom. “And your other one—June? At the last school meeting, she was sitting all by herself. Someone asked where her parents were, and she just stared at her shoes. Don’t let one child’s illness drown the whole family.” I lunged forward, hands on my hips, fuming. Daisy isn’t a “child’s illness”! She’s my sister! Don’t talk about her like that! Mom took the parts. Her hands were covered in small, raw nicks. “Daisy is my daughter. We have to try. And as for June… I’ll make it up to her. When Daisy is stable, I’m taking June to the theme park she’s been begging for.” I nodded, then shook my head. Mom, I can’t go. Keep the money for Daisy. Stop hurting yourself. The supervisor softened her tone. “Finish this batch and go home. I’ll make sure the pay is right. Buy the little one something nice.” Mom put on her reading glasses. I realized then—her eyes were failing. When did that happen? When I was little, she could point out a tiny bird in a tree a hundred yards away. Now, she was squinting at parts an inch from her face. She worked until 2:00 AM. When she finally got home, she stood at the front door, her hand on the light switch. She looked at the traction machine in the dark, and her hand dropped. She crept over, watching my “sleeping” face in the moonlight. She reached out to stroke my hair, but stopped herself halfway, her hand trembling. She tucked the quilt in one last time and disappeared into her bedroom. I breathed a sigh of ghost-relief. Good. Go to sleep, Mom. Don’t find me yet. Don’t let me ruin your sleep. I followed her into her room. She pulled out a battered notebook from her nightstand. Medical bills. Tuition. Mortgage. Overtime. She wrote and erased, her face a mask of exhaustion. Finally, she took the earnings from tonight and moved them into the column labeled “June’s School Trip.” She closed the book and looked toward the door, a faint, tired smile on her lips. I looked at the book and started to cry. You don’t need that column anymore, Mom. Put it back in the hospital fund. I lay down on the bed beside her, just like I did when I was a toddler. But this time, I couldn’t feel the warmth of her body. The next morning, Mom woke up with dark circles under her eyes. The smart-home hub suddenly began to chime. Its mechanical voice echoed through the quiet house: “Storage space full. Please clear files immediately.” 4 Mom was busy giving Daisy her morning meds. “I heard you the first time,” she snapped at the wall. “Shut up.” But the chime was persistent. It rang every thirty seconds, a digital heartbeat of annoyance. Daisy set her water glass down. “Mom, just fix it. It’s going to wake June up.” Mom grumbled, sliding her finger across the control screen on the wall. “I just cleared this two weeks ago. How is it full already?” The file list expanded. Hundreds of clips: Daisy Physical Therapy, Daisy Recovery Log, Daisy Daily Brace Check. And then, a new file from yesterday afternoon. Mom’s finger froze. Her face darkened. “This system is for tracking your sister’s medical progress, June. It is not a toy.” She hit the delete button, her voice thick with resentment. “That girl is getting more difficult every day…” I paced around her, waving my arms, trying to explain. I didn’t mean to! The hub must have misheard me! I didn’t want to cause trouble! I bit my lip. If it hadn’t misheard… if it had actually called you… A sob caught in my throat. Would I still be here? Suddenly, the sound of a key turned in the front door. Dad walked in, lugging a massive duffel bag, looking like he’d aged ten years since the last time I saw him. He dropped his bags and looked at Mom, trying to crack a joke. “What’s the matter? Picking a fight with the toaster already?” Mom sighed, pointing at the screen. “June’s been messing with the hub. The memory is completely tapped out.” Dad kicked off his boots, playing the peacemaker. “She’s a kid, Mary. Kids are curious.” Mom’s voice went sharp. “There’s a limit to curiosity. Do you know what she did yesterday? She put on Daisy’s braces and pretended to be sick. Daisy is fighting for her life, and June is playing dress-up with her agony.” She shook her head. “She’s become so selfish. No empathy at all.” Dad’s expression soured. He looked toward the living room. “Daisy has suffered enough. Playing games with her illness is crossing a line. Where is she?” Mom jerked a thumb toward the machine. “I told her to stay in there and think about what she’s done. Apparently, she’s been ‘thinking’ so hard she slept through dinner and breakfast.” She scoffed. “I’m sure she’s awake by now, just hiding under those blankets because she’s ashamed.” Dad walked over, his face stern. He leaned down and tapped the “sleeping” figure’s shoulder. “June. Get up. You need to apologize to your mother.” No response. Dad’s temper flared. He reached out and yanked the quilt off the girl’s face. “June, I’m talking to you. When you make a mistake, you—” Dad stopped. The quilt fell from his hand, fluttering back over the body. Mom, seeing him go still, walked over impatiently. She grabbed the rest of the blankets and the coats, throwing them onto the floor. “Your father is talking to you! Weren’t you the one crying about how much you missed him last week?” Then, the light hit the machine. Mom stopped. “Ju… June?”

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My manager cornered me out of the blue, claiming his corporate card had hit its daily limit. He asked me to front the costs for some “essentials” for next week’s massive signing gala. When I saw the order summary, my heart nearly stopped. Five cases of thirty-year-old Macallan and a high-end customized wax seal set. The total came to exactly fifteen thousand dollars. It hurt—it physically hurt to look at that number—but I gritted my teeth and swiped my card. The next day, I ran into him in the breakroom. He gave me a distractedly friendly nod and told me he’d handle my reimbursement paperwork first thing tomorrow. I waited all through the following day. Nothing. No notification, no email, no “thank you.” As the clock ticked toward five, I couldn’t take the silence anymore and went to his office. He didn’t even look up from his monitor. He just rubbed his temples and said he’d been in back-to-back meetings all day and his head was spinning. “Give me one more day, Nicola,” he sighed. But on the third day, he vanished. I found out he’d left on a business trip without a word. He wouldn’t answer my texts. When I finally tried to call him, the line clicked once and went straight to a recorded message. He had blocked me. Listening to that cold, digital rejection, something inside me snapped. I logged into the vendor portal and hit “Cancel Order” on every single item. It wasn’t until he got back from his trip and realized there were no crates waiting for him at the loading dock that he suddenly remembered I existed. The second I picked up the phone, he was screaming, demanding to know where I’d hidden the delivery. He said the gala was tonight and the alcohol was the centerpiece. He kept screaming that this was a sixty-million-dollar merger, and every board member would be there. 1 “Nicola, are you even checking your Slack?” The sharp rap of knuckles on my mahogany desk made me flinch. I looked up from a mountain of architectural blueprints to find my manager, Bradley Whitman, looming over me. His tone was mild, almost paternal, but the smile on his face didn’t reach his eyes. It never did. It was a mask of professional courtesy stretched over a core of pure arrogance. For the last thirty minutes, my notification icon had been blinking like a distress signal. I knew better than to open it. In this office, when Bradley reached out personally, it was never to offer a compliment. He was a shark that only swam toward the scent of a favor. I lowered my head, pretending to be microscopic, and focused on the redlines on my floor plan. I thought if I ignored him, he’d find an easier target. I was wrong. He didn’t leave; instead, he leaned over, his hand invading my personal space to jiggle my mouse and click open the message I’d been avoiding. “Nicola, I need you to cover this invoice for me,” he said, his voice dripping with casual entitlement. “It’s for the signing ceremony next week. My card is flagged for a security limit. You know how the bank gets with large purchases.” He said it as if it were the most natural request in the world. If he’d had my password, I have no doubt he would have processed the payment himself without asking. This wasn’t the first time. During my first week as an intern, he’d forwarded me a small invoice for three boxes of premium binder clips. It was twenty bucks. I paid it without thinking, eager to be a “team player.” That twenty dollars was the crack in the dam. A few days later, it was a hundred-dollar grocery delivery for “office snacks” that only ever seemed to end up in his private suite. I tried to maintain a thin veil of polite resistance then. “Bradley, is there a specific form for office reimbursements?” I had asked, trying to sound helpful rather than suspicious. “I’m still waiting on the funds from the supply run last week.” He’d stiffened, a flash of irritation crossing his face. “Nicola, these are departmental necessities. It’s a drop in the bucket. Why are you being so transactional about it?” “Just go to HR, get the voucher, and I’ll sign off on it later,” he added, turning his back on me. It was a dismissal, cold and final. As he walked away, I caught him muttering under his breath: “Small-minded.” That night, I canceled my dinner reservation and ate a bowl of instant ramen in my studio apartment. My bank account was anemic, and the “long” reimbursement process meant I was essentially giving the company an interest-free loan I couldn’t afford to give. But today… today was different. I stared at the screen, my blood turning to ice. Fifteen thousand dollars. One designer wax seal kit… and five cases of vintage Macallan? Bradley saw my hesitation and his voice took on a sharp, impatient edge. “Nicola, this is for the merger gala. You realize we’re talking about a sixty-million-dollar deal, right? When this closes, the bonuses for this department will be life-changing.” “A drop in the bucket,” I whispered, my voice trembling. “Bradley, I’m an intern. I don’t even make fifteen thousand in four months.” It was my entire savings. Every penny I had scraped together for my mother’s medical expenses. Bradley stomped his foot like a spoiled child. “It’s a temporary bridge, Nicola! If you’re so desperate, I’ll Venmo you personally tomorrow. But I can’t have the entire project grind to a halt because you’re being difficult!” The office grew quiet. My colleagues, exhausted from eighty-hour weeks, began to look up. “Nicola, just do it. Don’t you trust Bradley?” one of the senior associates snapped, eyes red-rimmed from lack of sleep. The collective pressure in the room was stifling. They wanted the path of least resistance. They wanted me to be the sacrificial lamb so they could go back to work. I looked at Bradley’s stern face, then at my tired coworkers. I felt like I was drowning. With a shaking hand, I picked up my phone and scanned my face for the Apple Pay prompt. Payment Successful. The second the checkmark appeared, Bradley snatched his phone back and practically jogged to his office. But as I watched the door click shut, a hollow, sickening sense of dread settled in my gut. 2 I barely slept. I spent the next morning in a state of high-alert anxiety, waiting for Bradley to walk through the door and hand me a check, or at least a confirmation of the wire transfer. But his office stayed dark. The “Out of Office” light on his door didn’t even flicker. Just as I was about to work up the nerve to call him, I ran into him in the breakroom, hovering over the espresso machine. Before I could get a word out, he held up a hand. “Nicola, glad I caught you. Look, I’m slammed today. I have to head to the corporate headquarters in an hour, and I haven’t had a chance to swing by the bank to fix the limit issue.” “But don’t worry,” he said, his voice smooth as silk, brimming with false sincerity. “I’ll come find you tomorrow morning. I’ll make sure you get every cent back. Pinky swear.” He said it with such casual confidence that I felt foolish for doubting him. I went back to my desk and tried to focus on my work, telling myself that a man in his position wouldn’t risk his reputation over fifteen grand. But Friday came, and I waited. And waited. Bradley’s office door was wide open. I saw him walking back and forth, laughing on his gold-plated iPhone. We made eye contact at least a dozen times. He said nothing. He acted as if I were part of the furniture. By 4:55 PM, I couldn’t take it. I walked to his door and knocked softly. “Bradley? About that invoice…” He didn’t even look up. He was massaging his brow, looking like a man carrying the weight of the world. He let out a long, theatrical sigh and waved a hand dismissively. “Twelve hours of meetings, Nicola. My brain is fried. Let’s talk Monday.” I stood there, stunned. “But Bradley, it’s Friday. I really need—” “Monday, Nicola,” he barked, his voice turning cold. I backed away. I had no choice. But Monday wasn’t just another day for me. Monday was the deadline for my mother’s post-op facility payment. If I didn’t have that money, she’d lose her spot. But Monday never came for Bradley. Or rather, Bradley didn’t come for Monday. I arrived at the office to find his door locked. I asked around and found out he’d left for an “urgent” business trip to the coast. And it wasn’t a last-minute thing—his secretary mentioned he’d booked the flights weeks ago. He knew. He knew the whole time he was lying to my face. The hospital sent me a final payment reminder text. My heart was pounding so hard I could feel it in my throat. I pulled out my phone and sent Bradley a message. Then another. Then five more. I watched the “Read” receipts pop up. I saw the little gray bubbles indicating he was typing… and then they would vanish. Silence. The “team player” in me died in that moment. My vision blurred with rage. I dialed his number. It rang and rang until it hit voicemail. I called again. And again. I didn’t care if I looked crazy. I wanted my life back. On the fifth attempt, the ring was cut short. “The number you have dialed is not in service or is temporarily unavailable…” He hadn’t just ignored me. He had blocked my number. Sitting in the cold, fluorescent-lit stairwell of the office building, a chill ran down my spine. Was the alcohol even reimbursable? I started looking back at all the “small” things I’d paid for. He’d intentionally blurred the lines between personal errands and professional expenses, dumping the risk on me. Before, it was ten or twenty dollars I could swallow. Later, it was a few hundred that I let slide because he held my permanent contract over my head like a carrot. But fifteen thousand? That wasn’t a “favor.” That was a heist. I looked at the red exclamation point next to my last text message. I didn’t need to wonder what to do anymore. The decision had already been made for me. 3 The order status showed “In Transit.” I immediately called the vendor’s high-priority customer service line. Luckily, when you’re shipping fifteen thousand dollars worth of vintage spirits, security is tight. The crates were currently being held at a regional distribution hub for a final customs and insurance check before the last leg of the journey. I managed to intercept the delivery just two hours before it was slated to arrive at our city’s terminal. “Transaction Voided,” the customer service rep confirmed. Ten minutes later, the notification hit my phone: Refund Processed: $15,016.00. As I stared at the balance in my bank account, the crushing weight on my chest finally lifted. I felt light. I felt powerful. When I walked back into the office, my productivity soared. I finished my entire week’s worth of work before the clock hit five. I sat back in my chair and for the first time in months, I just breathed. I realized I should have done this a long time ago. The word “no” was a luxury I hadn’t thought I could afford, but it turned out to be the only thing that could save me. The weekend passed in a blissful blur of silence. No frantic emails, no “favors.” I treated myself to a nice dinner, bought a bouquet of fresh lilies for my mother’s room, and spent Sunday afternoon actually sleeping. The office was eerily peaceful on Monday and Tuesday without Bradley there. Nobody was monitoring how many minutes we spent in the bathroom. Nobody was “encouraging” us to stay until 9:00 PM for the sake of “office culture.” The very air felt cleaner. But the peace shattered on Wednesday evening. I was packing my bag to head home when my phone buzzed. It was a restricted number. I answered. “Nicola! Where the hell are you? I’m at the loading dock!” It was Bradley. His voice was frantic, bordering on hysterical. “Where is the delivery? The gala starts in three hours! I’ve checked the mailroom, the lobby, the executive suite—it’s not here!” I felt a cold smile spread across my face. The sheer gall of this man was almost impressive. He had blocked me, ghosted me, and stolen my peace of mind, and now he was calling me as if I were his personal assistant. “What delivery, Bradley?” I asked, my voice as smooth and cool as a mountain stream. He practically shrieked into the phone. “The Macallan! The order I had you pay for last week! The tracking says it should have been here Friday. Did the courier call you? Did you sign for it?” I paused for a beat, letting the silence stretch out. “Oh, that. I canceled the order.” There was a dead silence on the other end of the line. Then, a strangled gasp. “You… you what? Tell me you’re joking.” “I told you, Bradley. It’s a sixty-million-dollar deal. The board is here. The CEOs are here! I need that scotch on the table in two hours!” I could hear noise in his background—people shouting, the clinking of glasses. He didn’t even have time to stay on the phone; someone was pulling him away. By the time I got home and checked my laptop, my inbox was a war zone. Nicola, go to the nearest high-end liquor store right now. I don’t care what it costs. Buy every bottle of thirty-year Macallan they have. Get it to the Pierre Hotel NOW! Forget five cases. Just bring me one case. No, two bottles! Just get SOMETHING here! When I didn’t respond, the tone shifted from desperate to abusive. The last message was all caps: NICOLA, THE MERGER IS FALLING APART. THE CLIENTS ARE FURIOUS. YOU ARE FINISHED. THE COMPANY IS GOING TO SUE YOU INTO THE STONE AGE! 4 I sat on my sofa, scrolling through the frantic, misspelled mess of his messages. I could almost feel the sweat and panic radiating through the screen. While I was processing his meltdown, the department group chat exploded. Jordan Brooks, Bradley’s most loyal sycophant, was the first to strike. @Nicola Hadley, what the hell did you do? All of our hard work for the last six months just went up in smoke because of your little stunt! I assumed Bradley had spent the last hour venting his “victimhood” to anyone who would listen. Then Madison Paige chimed in: The deal fell through? Are you serious? How is that even possible? Jordan was more than happy to play the town crier. He laid out a twisted version of the story where I had sabotaged the company out of spite. According to him, if I hadn’t “interfered” with the logistics, the merger would have been a guaranteed success. The rest of the chat went silent. I didn’t know if they were shocked or just watching the train wreck. I didn’t reply. I went to bed. The next morning, the atmosphere in the office was radioactive. The second I walked in, the buzzing conversations died. Every eye followed me. Jordan and Madison didn’t even try to hide their disgust. I thought about explaining myself, but realized that in their eyes, I was already the villain. I sat down and started my morning emails. Jordan couldn’t handle my composure. He marched over to my desk, his face purple with rage, and swept a stack of my project prints onto the floor. “How do you even have the nerve to show your face here?” I leaned back in my chair, keeping my voice level. “What exactly did I do wrong, Jordan?” “You ruined the gala! You embarrassed Bradley in front of the board! You cost us the biggest commission this firm has seen in a decade!” He was shouting now, his hand raised as if he were actually going to strike me. To my horror, none of my other coworkers moved to stop him. They just watched, their faces hardened with silent agreement. But his hand never landed. “Who is Nicola Hadley?” A cold, authoritative voice cut through the room. We all turned. Standing at the entrance to the department was President Caldwell, the CEO of our parent company. The room went bone-dry silent. Jordan practically tripped over himself to point at me, a gleeful, predatory look in his eyes. “That’s her, sir. That’s the one who sabotaged the merger.” Caldwell gestured toward the glass-walled conference room. “With me. Now.” I followed him in. Bradley was already there, looking like he’d aged ten years overnight. The moment he saw me, he pointed a trembling finger. “That’s her! That’s the intern I told you about!” “I gave her the simplest task. I picked out the spirits, I set up the order, I even simplified the process so all she had to do was click ‘pay.’ And she canceled it! Out of nowhere! For no reason!” “Ask anyone out there,” Bradley continued, his voice rising in a frantic pitch. “I’ve been planning this for months. I did everything by the book. This is pure malice. She’s mentally unstable. You can’t blame the department for the actions of one rogue intern!” Bradley was a master of the filibuster. He didn’t give me a second to breathe. The high-level executives around the table looked at me with pure, unadulterated hostility. Their gazes were like lead weights, pinning me to the chair. “Ms. Hadley,” President Caldwell said, his voice a low rumble of judgment. “Your actions have caused catastrophic damage.” “This merger represented a sixty-million-dollar profit margin. As an intern, you don’t even have the capacity to understand the legal ramifications of what you’ve done.” His words stung, but they didn’t break me. Bradley saw me trembling slightly and a tiny, triumphant smirk touched the corner of his mouth. “Because of the scale of this loss,” Caldwell continued, “the board has decided to pursue full legal action against you personally.” The sentence was passed. No one had asked for my side. No one had checked the facts. They just needed a scapegoat, and Bradley had handed me to them on a silver platter. The executives began to stand, ready to move on to their next meeting. Bradley stood up too, eager to usher them out and put this “unpleasantness” behind him. But I found my voice. It wasn’t the shaking voice of a victim; it was the sharp, clear voice of someone who had nothing left to lose. “Mr. President,” I said, loud enough to stop them in their tracks. “Does it usually take thirty bottles of thirty-year-old Macallan to entertain two representatives from a merger firm?”

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When I opened my eyes again, the world was saturated in a terrifyingly familiar light. I was back. Back to the very day that had dismantled my existence—the day my husband confessed his love for his student. In my previous life, we had spent thirty years side by side. I thought our foundation was made of granite, something weathered and indestructible. But when I turned fifty, he hit me with a truth that felt like a lightning strike: he was in love with a girl half his age, a girl who sat in the front row of his lectures. I had been stubborn then. I refused to sign the divorce papers, convinced he was just going through a mid-life fever dream. I thought if I held on tight enough, the storm would pass. It didn’t. When the girl realized she couldn’t officially take my place, she moved abroad and married a tech mogul within the year. On the day of her wedding, my husband—shattered and hollow—lost control of his car. He survived, but he spent the next fifteen years as a paraplegic. I stayed. I nursed him, bathed him, and loved him through the bitterness. But on his deathbed, he gripped my hand, his voice a jagged whisper: “The biggest regret of my life was marrying you. If there’s a next life, I’ll be braver… I’ll choose her.” His death didn’t bring peace. My children, whom I had sacrificed everything for, turned their grief into a weapon against me. When I eventually suffered a stroke and became paralyzed myself, they—one a CEO, the other a high-flying academic—dumped me in the cheapest, most neglected nursing home they could find. After I died, they didn’t even give me a grave. They scattered my ashes into a literal sewer trench. I remember the look of pure, vindictive satisfaction on my son’s face: “If it wasn’t for you, Dad and Chloe would have been happy. You’re a wicked woman, Mom. You don’t deserve a happy ending.” 1 At six in the morning, I was already in the kitchen. I had sourced the ingredients, seasoned the fillings, and hand-kneaded the dough. I spent the entire day on my feet, my lower back throbbing with a dull, insistent ache. My husband, Richard, spent the day either “prepping for a seminar” in his study or fussing over the succulents on the patio. Our son, Brandon, arrived first. He handed his father a box of vintage scotch and several cartons of premium cigars. Then, he turned to me and tossed a plastic grocery bag onto the counter. Inside were a few pieces of blackened, overripe fruit. “Megan was going to throw these out,” Brandon said with a casual shrug. “She said they were too far gone for her smoothies, so I figured I’d bring them to you.” He said it with a smile, as if he were doing me a favor. I didn’t say a word. I just tucked the rotting fruit into the pantry. A few hours later, my daughter, Cassidy, arrived. The house smelled of braised sea bass and sunlight. My children sat around their father in the living room, laughing and sharing stories of their successful lives. I watched them through the kitchen doorway—a framed picture of a perfect family that I wasn’t invited to be a part of. Dinner was served. Brandon raised his glass first. “To Dad! If it wasn’t for the example you set, I wouldn’t be where I am today. You aren’t just my father; you’re my greatest mentor.” Cassidy stood up next, her eyes shining. “To Dad. You’ve given us everything. This life, this family… it’s all because of you. Cheers.” They drank. Cassidy took a bite of the fish and immediately wrinkled her nose. “Mom, this is a little salty, don’t you think?” They seemed to have completely forgotten that the entire reason for this dinner was my fiftieth birthday. “I’d like to say something, too.” Richard finished his third glass of wine and slammed it onto the table. There was a strange, frantic determination in his eyes. “Joanna, I have to be honest with you. I’ve fallen in love with someone else. She’s one of my graduate students.” The room went silent, save for the hum of the refrigerator. “We’ve been together for a while now,” he continued, his voice gaining strength. “She’s young, she’s fragile, and she needs security. I want to… I want to give her my name.” I gripped my silverware until my knuckles turned white. Before I could even process the words, Brandon let out an exhaled breath. “Dad, finally! Honestly, it takes so much courage to speak your truth like that. Whatever happens, I’m behind you a hundred percent.” Cassidy actually started clapping. “Congratulations, Dad! Welcome to your second act. Let’s toast to a love that defies age and convention!” The three of them raised their glasses again. I sat there, a ghost at my own table. “Mom, don’t be a buzzkill,” Brandon said, noticing my silence. “Yeah, Dad found his soulmate. Shouldn’t you be happy for him?” Cassidy added, her tone sharp with judgment. I looked at the food I had spent ten hours preparing—now growing cold and congealed on the plates. I let out a short, dry laugh. Then, I reached into my apron pocket and pulled out a crumpled set of papers. “Fine,” I said. “I’m letting you go.” 2 The air in the dining room turned brittle. Richard hadn’t expected me to be this easy. He looked at the papers, his excitement barely contained. “Joanna? You’re serious?” I pushed the divorce agreement toward him. My silence was my answer. Richard picked up the document and smoothed it out on the table. I could see his eyes scanning the property division. I had made it simple: the house was mine (it was a pre-marital asset from my parents), but I waived all rights to his future pension and half the savings. I just wanted him gone. I didn’t want to haggle over the price of my soul. He hesitated for a fraction of a second when he saw my signature already there, dark and final. Then, he grabbed a pen and signed his name so fast the ink nearly smeared. He was terrified I’d change my mind. Only then did Brandon bother to pour me a glass of wine—the first of the day. “See, Mom? This is the right move. Everyone has a right to chase their happiness.” Cassidy was already whispering to her father, asking when they could meet the new woman. “Dad, I heard Jade loves seafood. Let’s do a big dinner at that place on the pier. Mom, you should probably help me pick out the menu…” I cut her off, my voice flat. “It’s late. You all need to leave.” I emphasized the word all. Brandon’s fork stopped halfway to his mouth. Cassidy’s smile froze. 3 After they left, I opened the bottle of expensive wine Richard had been saving. I poured a glass, sat at the messy table, and ate the best parts of the meal myself. I didn’t clear the dishes. I didn’t wipe the counters. I went to the master bedroom and lay down. For the first time in three decades, there was no snoring, no one getting up in the middle of the night to use the bathroom, no heavy presence taking up space. I slept like a woman who had finally been granted a pardon. The next morning, I woke up naturally at 8:00 AM. I put on my workout gear and walked through the local park, feeling the crisp morning air fill my lungs. When I got back, I took my time. I toasted a slice of sourdough, fried two perfect eggs, and brewed a cup of black coffee. In my last life, my mornings started at 5:00 AM. I’d spend hours feeding a paralyzed Richard, changing his adult diapers, wiping his body down, massaging his atrophied limbs. Then I’d rush out to pick up my grandson from school, then head to Cassidy’s apartment to clean her kitchen and prep her meals because she was “too busy” with her career. I lived in a loop of service that never ended. Now, the silence was a luxury. I opened the closet and began packing Richard’s things into boxes. When I was done, the wardrobe was nearly empty, save for a few of my own pieces—mostly old, faded, and out of style. I remembered Richard’s voice from years ago: “Joanna, I’m a professor. We have to set an example of modesty. We should live simply.” I had worn the same winter coat for fifteen years and the same pair of jeans for eight. Meanwhile, I later found out he had given Jade a “startup gift” of over a hundred thousand dollars when they got engaged. I hauled the boxes to the shipping center and then drove straight to the high-end mall downtown. I was done depriving myself. 4 I didn’t expect to run into Jade there. Or Brandon and Cassidy. When they saw me, their smiles faltered, replaced by a flicker of awkwardness. It was Jade who spoke first, her voice dripping with artificial sweetness. “Oh, look, it’s Richard’s ex. Are you here alone?” She turned to the kids, stroking Brandon’s arm. “I told these two they didn’t need to take me shopping, but they simply wouldn’t take no for an answer. Brandon has been so generous today.” I looked at the bags Brandon was carrying. All designer labels. I thought of the bag of rotting fruit he’d brought me yesterday, and a cold, sharp irony settled in my chest. Jade walked over to a rack and pulled out a silk slip dress I had been eyeing. “This color is stunning. How much? I’ll take it!” “I was looking at that first,” I said, my voice low but steady. “Mom, honestly,” Brandon sighed. “That dress is wasted on you. Let Jade have it. She actually has the figure for it.” “Exactly,” Cassidy added, her eyes darting over my old clothes. “At your age, wearing something like that is just… desperate. Have some dignity.” Jade pretended to play the peacemaker. “Now, now, everyone wants to feel beautiful. But really, Joanna, I just don’t think this is your style. Clerk? Wrap this up.” “Wait,” I said. I had given up my husband. I had practically disowned my children in my heart. But this dress—this silly, expensive piece of fabric—felt like a stand. It was about the life I was reclaiming. But as I reached for my credit card, Cassidy stepped forward and shoved me. Hard. I wasn’t prepared for it. I stumbled back, crashing into a row of heavy metal clothing racks. I’d had back surgery years ago, and a white-hot spike of pain shot through my spine. While I was on the floor, Brandon leaned over and paid for Jade’s dress. He turned back to me, a brief flash of guilt in his eyes that was quickly swallowed by annoyance. “Don’t blame us, Mom. You brought this on yourself by trying to compete with someone like her.” They walked away, a tight-knit trio, leaving me on the floor. A young shop assistant rushed over to help me up, asking if I needed an ambulance. I saw the pity in her eyes and felt a wave of nausea. “I’m fine,” I whispered, though my back felt like it was on fire. 5 Outside the mall, I saw them waiting for their car at the valet. Brandon and Cassidy stood like bodyguards around Jade. I ignored them, limping toward the curb to hail a cab. “Joanna! Brandon called a car service, we can give you a lift,” Jade called out, smiling like a cat. “No thanks.” “Don’t be like that…” Jade stepped closer, leaning in so only I could hear. Her voice was a venomous whisper. “Did you know the kids already started calling me ‘Mom’ behind your back? You really are a failure, aren’t you? You couldn’t keep your husband, and your own children can’t stand you. If I were you, I’d be too ashamed to stay alive.” I looked at her young, porcelain face and felt a primal urge to strike. All those years I had welcomed her into our home, fed her, even helped her with her student loans because I felt sorry for her “struggling” background. This was the thanks I got. I raised my hand, but before I could swing, Brandon grabbed my wrist. His grip was so tight I felt the bones groan. “You crazy old woman! I knew you were looking for trouble!” “Brandon,” I gasped, looking him in the eye. “Do you know what she just said to me? She said you’ve been calling her ‘Mom.’ She called me a failure.” Brandon froze for a second, a complicated shadow crossing his face. Then, his expression hardened into ice. “Was she wrong?” The words hit me harder than the shove in the store. “Jade is a brilliant PhD, she’s beautiful, she’s successful,” he continued. “You? You’re just a maid who knows how to cook and do laundry. You don’t even belong in the same room as her.” Even though I thought I was done with them, hearing my son say those words out loud felt like a physical blow to the heart. Just then, the screech of tires echoed through the air. A massive delivery truck had lost its brakes and was careening toward the valet stand. In that split second, my maternal instinct took over. I lunged forward, trying to push Brandon out of the way. But Brandon and Cassidy didn’t see me as a savior. They saw me as an obstacle. Thinking I was attacking Jade again, they both shoved me away with everything they had—straight into the path of the oncoming traffic. The last thing I heard before the world went black was their horrified scream: “MOM!” … As my consciousness drifted, fragments of my life flickered like a broken film strip. I remembered shortly after Brandon was born, Richard moved his things into the study, claiming he needed to “prepare lectures.” Back then, he was just a struggling instructor. To help him get his tenure, I quit my own burgeoning career to raise the kids alone. I remembered when Brandon was ten and got into a fight that nearly blinded another boy. I knelt on the cold pavement in front of the other parents, begging for their forgiveness. I let them scream at me, let them vent their rage, just so they wouldn’t press charges. I walked away with three broken ribs that day, but Brandon’s future was saved. I remembered Cassidy’s kidney failure when she was twelve. Richard’s first reaction was to walk away, saying it wasn’t “practical” to bankrupt the family for a girl. I didn’t hesitate. I gave her my own kidney. They used to love me. They used to need me. But somewhere along the way, their loyalty shifted toward their “successful” father. I remembered overhearing a conversation between them and Richard a few months ago. “Dad, I don’t know how you’ve put up with that miserable, stay-at-home face for so many years,” Brandon had said. “If you want a divorce, Dad, we’re with you,” Cassidy added. “Though, honestly, where else are we going to find a free maid who works this hard? Nannies are expensive these days…” A coldness settled in my soul that had nothing to do with the accident. I had been their sacrifice. And they had viewed it as their birthright. 6 I woke up in a hospital bed. A young nurse was changing my IV drip, muttering under her breath. “Unbelievable. Some people shouldn’t be allowed to have kids.” She looked at me, realizing I was awake. “Your ‘family’ is out in the hall. They tried to get the doctors to leave your bedside to go check on that younger woman first. She has a scratch on her arm, and they’re acting like she’s in critical condition. Meanwhile, you were actually under the wheels.” I gave her a weak, hollow smile. “It’s okay. You’re right.” She paused, stunned by my lack of defense for them. Even a stranger could see the truth I had been ignoring for thirty years. … A week later, I discharged myself. As I stood at the hospital entrance waiting for a car, my phone buzzed. It was Brandon. “Mom, Megan says you haven’t picked up our daughter from daycare in a week,” he barked, his voice thick with unearned anger. “Megan has to work. The house is a mess. You’re out here ‘recovering’ and being lazy while we’re drowning. You have two hours to get to the house, or there will be consequences.” He hung up. Then a text from Cassidy popped up: Mom, how much longer are you going to play the victim? My apartment looks like a pigsty. Come over and clean it. And I want that ginger chicken soup you make. I stood in the cold wind, looking at the screen. I didn’t cry. Instead, I dialed a number I hadn’t called in decades. The line picked up on the second ring. A man’s voice, deep and slightly weathered, answered with a hint of tremor. “Joanna? I’ve been waiting for this call for so long.” My throat tightened. “Sebastian… I’ve made up my mind. Can you come get me?” “Give me the address. I’m on my way.” Ten minutes later, a black armored SUV pulled up to the curb. A driver in a crisp uniform stepped out and opened the door for me. Inside sat a man who looked both familiar and like a stranger. I looked at him and finally let out a sob. “Sebastian…” “It’s okay,” he said, patting my hand. His voice was low and dangerous. “Now that you’ve made the choice, you can’t go soft on them again. Do you understand?” I nodded, wiping my eyes. “I won’t. Never again.”

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Ten years. That’s how long I’d been living in this world. I was lost in my usual mid-morning fog when it happened—the text appeared. Without warning, glowing words began to drift across my vision like a live comment feed on a streaming site. [The ‘Bad Boy vs. Sweet Girl’ trope is such a classic. Totally here for it.] Another one scrolled past: [Iconic scene incoming! The Male Lead is about to use his ‘toxic charm’ to get the girl’s attention.] Right on cue, my pathetic excuse for a childhood friend opened his mouth. His tone was laced with that specific brand of arrogance that made my skin crawl. He looked at the new girl, a transfer student who looked like she’d been carved out of porcelain, and sneered. “Well, look what we have here. The little homecoming queen from the rival school. What’s the matter, sweetheart? Did you run out of boys to play with over there, so you came here for some fresh meat?” A wave of sycophantic laughter erupted around the classroom. At the front of the room, the girl—Sophie Bennett—looked like she’d been struck. Her eyes welled up, rimmed with a painful, sudden red. The screen in my mind flickered again: [Ugh, look at Sophie’s face. My heart is breaking. She’s so precious.] [I bet the ‘Mean Girl’ is losing it right now. Her childhood crush is flirting with someone else right in front of her.] [Oh, for sure. She’s probably brewing some psycho plan to destroy Sophie as we speak.] I stared at the floating text, a dry, sharp laugh bubbling up in my chest. Why was the script always the same? Why did the “other woman” always have to be the villain? I didn’t think. I just acted. I stood up, walked over to Carl Ridgeway, and delivered a slap so loud it echoed against the chalkboard. … 1 [Wait, what just happened?] [Why did the Villainess hit the Male Lead? Has she lost her mind?] The comments were flying now, a blur of confusion. In the back of my mind, a mechanical voice—the “System”—started screaming. “Host! What are you doing? You can’t hit the Male Lead!” “Why not?” I retorted silently. “Your mission is to disrupt their romance, but there are rules—” “You said I needed to break them up,” I interrupted. “You never said how. I’m the villainess, right? Bullies don’t discriminate. I’ll bully whoever I want.” The System went dead silent, stumped by my logic. Carl was staring at me, his cheek blooming into a violent shade of crimson. He looked utterly bewildered. “Maddy? What the hell was that for?” “For being a prick,” I said, my voice cold and level. I looked down at him with a flick of pure disdain. “If you can’t open your mouth without trash falling out, maybe you should just sew it shut. Spreading rumors about a girl you don’t even know? Have some dignity, Carl. It’s pathetic.” Carl’s face went from pale to a mottled, angry purple. The veins in his neck were pulsing. Around us, the whispers started. “Did Madeline Sinclair just defend the new girl?” “This doesn’t make sense. She’s been obsessed with Carl since they were in diapers.” “She’s clearly jealous! It’s a move. She’s acting out to get his attention.” Hearing that, Carl’s posture relaxed slightly. A smug, knowing smirk tugged at the corner of his mouth. “Oh, I get it. You’re jealous, Maddy.” He stood up, leaning into my space with that insufferable confidence. “If you wanted me to notice you, you could have just said so. This whole ‘tough girl’ act? It’s a little desperate, don’t you think? Women and their envy… it’s a terrifying thing.” I wanted to laugh. I really did. But he wasn’t done. He turned toward the front of the room and let out a sharp whistle at Sophie. “Hear that, Sophie? My girl’s a bit territorial. Consider yourself lucky—I’ll stop teasing you for today. Why don’t you come over here and thank me?” Sophie gripped the hem of her cardigan, her knuckles white. She bit her lip so hard I thought it might bleed. [Aaaaah, he’s so smooth!] [He says he’ll stop, but he can’t help teasing her. He’s already obsessed!] [The Villainess must be fuming! He still prefers Sophie!] I took a long, deep breath. I really tried to hold it back. I failed. SMACK! The second slap was even harder than the first. Carl actually staggered back, clutching his face. I didn’t even give him a second glance. I walked up to Sophie, grabbed her wrist, and led her toward the empty seat next to mine. “Sit here,” I told her. “Ignore him. He’s a glitch in the system.” Sophie looked at me, her eyes wide and shimmering with unshed tears. She looked like a deer caught in high beams. “Madeline!” Carl roared, his face contorted. “That’s twice! You hit me twice!” I didn’t turn around. “Open your mouth again, and I’ll make it a hat-trick.” Carl’s chest heaved, his face a mask of humiliated rage, but he didn’t say another word. He spent the rest of the afternoon stewing in a silent, radioactive temper. It stayed quiet. Until school let out. Then, the feed exploded. [Here it is! The iconic scene!] [The Male Lead hired some guys to corner her in the alley. Sophie’s going to be so scared and adorable!] [I can’t wait! She gets bullied, and then he swoops in to play the hero! Classic Knight in Shining Armor move!] My stomach turned. I grabbed my bag and sprinted toward the shortcut behind the gym. I rounded the corner and saw them. Carl was crouching behind a dumpster with a few of his cronies, looking like a kid on Christmas morning. In the center of the alley, Sophie was surrounded by four massive guys. She was trembling, backed against the brick wall. I didn’t hesitate. I dropped my bag and charged. The first guy didn’t even see me coming. I planted a side-kick into his ribs that sent him sprawling. Then I moved—fluid, fast, and rhythmic. One by one, I put them on the pavement. As the “thugs” groaned on the ground, the comments went haywire. [What the hell? This wasn’t in the script! Where is Carl?] [Is the Villainess glitching? Why is she in the alley?] [Am I the only one wondering how Madeline Sinclair just took down four guys who weigh two hundred pounds each?] I wiped a bead of sweat from my forehead and smirked at the text. They clearly hadn’t done their homework. In my life before I woke up in this story, I was a high-performance combat instructor. These guys were nothing compared to a room full of marines. “Madeline!” A scream of pure fury erupted behind me. Carl stormed out from behind the dumpster, looking at his hired help on the ground. His face was a sickly shade of green. “What is wrong with you?! Who told you to interfere?!” I turned slowly, watching his temper tantrum with a bored expression. “Oh, good. You’re here.” Before he could process the words, I lunged forward and kicked the back of his knee. He let out a strangled yelp as he hit the concrete, his kneecaps cracking against the pavement. I grabbed him by the collar and dragged him over to Sophie. “Apologize,” I commanded. “What?” Carl gasped, his eyes bulging. “You want me to apologize to her?” “You hired people to terrify a classmate so you could play hero. Yeah, I think an apology is the bare minimum.” Carl’s jaw set. “I can do whatever I want. I’m not apologizing to some nobody.” I looked at him, a cold smile touching my lips, and landed a sharp kick to his side. “Are you going to apologize?” “Ow! Stop! Madeline, you’ve lost your damn mind! I’m telling you, I will never—” I kicked him again. And again. I didn’t say a word; I just kept a steady, punishing rhythm. [God, is she trying to kill him?] [I don’t understand her at all. Doesn’t she love him? This is brutal.] [Love? She’s about to put him in a body bag!] “Okay! Okay, stop!” Carl finally broke. He collapsed into a heap, gasping for air. “I’ll do it! Just stop!” He looked up at Sophie, who was huddled in the corner. His face was a mask of pure humiliation. “I’m… I’m sorry.” Sophie stared at him, then at me. Her mouth worked, but no sound came out. I was about to give Carl one last “parting gift” with my boot when I felt a small hand tugging at my sleeve. “Please… don’t,” Sophie whispered. Her voice was thin. “If you… if you keep going, you’ll get in trouble. You might hurt him too badly.” She looked at me, her eyes searching mine. “Thank you. For today in class, too. Thank you for speaking up for me.” She paused, her voice softening. “You’re a really good person, Madeline.” I felt a sudden, uncomfortable heat rise in my cheeks. I looked away, pulling my arm back. “I didn’t do it for you.” I was the villainess. I wasn’t supposed to be “good.” I just… hated seeing a prick pull a girl’s pigtails and call it romance. “Why are you thanking her?” Carl had managed to haul himself up against the wall. He let out a raspy, bitter laugh. “I’m telling you, Sophie, she’s only doing this because she’s obsessed with me. She’s trying to look like the ‘bigger person’ to get my attention.” He turned his gaze to Sophie, his expression shifting into something he probably thought was soulful. “Look, Sophie. I said those things because I like you. I arranged this whole thing because I wanted to be the one to save you.” His voice dropped an octave, dripping with manufactured sincerity. “From the moment I saw you, I knew. Just say you’ll be mine, and I’ll never let anyone hurt you again.” [Aww, so romantic! He confessed so early!] [It’s all because the Villainess kept messing things up. She must be dying inside right now!] [Sophie, say yes! He only bullied you because he’s crazy about you!] I watched the screen, feeling a genuine wave of nausea. Bullying as a love language? If that’s love, I’d rather have the plague. Sophie shrank back behind me. “If I say no… will he hit me?” she asked in a tiny voice. I froze. According to the “rules” of these stories, shouldn’t the heroine be moved to tears by his grand gesture? Why was she asking that? But I answered her anyway. “If he touches you, I’ll end him.” Sophie’s eyes brightened instantly. “You’re so brave, Madeline.” She turned back to Carl, her voice clear and steady. “I understand what you’re saying. But the answer is no. I don’t like you. In fact, I find you quite repulsive. Please stay away from me.” Then, she took my hand and pulled me away, leaving Carl standing in the dark alley, frozen in shock. [The Lead got rejected? How is that possible?] [And why is she holding the Villainess’s hand? What is happening to the plot?] [Don’t worry, the story will fix itself. He’ll chase her, and they’ll end up together. They always do.] The System’s voice chimed in my head. “Host, that was… unconventional. But effective. You’ve successfully tanked his favorability rating. However, he’s going to get desperate now. What’s the plan?” I smiled. “Let him try.” But even I underestimated how delusional he was. The next morning, I walked onto campus to the sound of the PA system crackling to life. “Attention, students. This is Carl Ridgeway.” The courtyard went silent. “I have a special announcement. I’ve written a letter for a very special girl in our class… Sophie Bennett.” The school exploded into gossip instantly. “A love letter? No way, Carl is actually serious about her?” “She’s so lucky. Imagine having a guy like that fall for you.” “She probably seduced him. Look at her, she looks like a total homewrecker.” The whispers grew louder, sharper. Thousands of judgmental eyes latched onto Sophie. She looked like she wanted to melt into the floor. “Madeline…” she whispered, her eyes brimming with red. SLAM. I stood up, nearly flipping my desk, and bolted for the door. I burst into the AV room. Carl was leaning over the microphone, looking smugly satisfied with himself. When he saw me, his eyes lit up with that same “I’ve got you” look. “Jealous again?” He turned off the mic and leaned back in the chair. “Look, I know you’ve got a thing for me, Maddy. But you need to learn some self-control. Tell you what—help me get Sophie, and when I’m bored with her, maybe I’ll give you a shot—” “I’d rather eat glass,” I spat, stepping aside to reveal the people behind me. Three police officers filed into the cramped room, looking grim. “Carl Ridgeway?” the lead officer asked. “We’ve received a report of targeted harassment and stalking. You’re coming with us to the station.” Carl’s face went white. He whipped his head toward me. “You called the cops?” I tilted my head, giving him a sweet, innocent smile. Then I turned to the officers, my voice trembling just enough. “Officers, please. He’s been relentless. We’re just two girls trying to get an education, and we’re both so… so scared.” The officer looked at me, then at Sophie—who was doing her best impression of a shivering leaf in the doorway—and his expression hardened. “Don’t worry, kids. We’ll handle this.” As they led Carl away in handcuffs, he looked like his brain had short-circuited. He was shouting something through the window of the squad car, but I couldn’t hear him. The feed was going nuclear. [The Male Lead got arrested? The plot is dead!] [Actually… if you think about it, he was being a total stalker…] [I’ve been saying this! That ‘bullying as love’ crap is so toxic. This is actually satisfying.] I nodded inwardly. Finally, some common sense. Carl was gone for a few days, reportedly getting a very stern lesson in “consent” and “harassment.” Life for Sophie returned to a peaceful hum. No more rumors, no more “love letters,” no more thugs in alleys. The System informed me that Sophie’s affection for Carl was now in the negatives. The romance was dead. Mission accomplished. I felt lighter than I had in years. I thought maybe he’d learned his lesson. I thought he’d stay away. I was wrong. The day he got out, I woke up in a dark room, my wrists and ankles bound tight with nylon rope. Carl’s lackey was hovering over me, a greasy grin on his face. “Morning, Princess. Don’t worry, we won’t touch you. You’re just here to watch the show.” [Quick, Madeline! Sophie’s been lured into a trap!] [He’s going to drug her and make it look like she lost her ‘purity’ so he can ‘save’ her reputation by marrying her!] [Everyone will judge her, and he’ll be the only one who ‘accepts’ her. She’ll be so grateful!] I stared at the text, my blood turning to ice. Outside the room, I could hear the distant thud of music. The school’s Winter Ball. Through a small crack in the boarded-up window, I could see the gym lights. Suddenly, the music stopped. “Where’s Sophie? Has anyone seen Sophie Bennett?” The panic started to spread. “I saw her leaving with some guys earlier! What if something happened?” The crowd began to move, searching. Eventually, they stopped in front of a heavy, oak door in the basement of the theater building. Muffled, suggestive sounds were coming from behind the door. The crowd went dead silent. “Is that… is that Sophie?” “We have to help her! Break it down!” A group of guys threw themselves against the door, bursting it open. But the scene inside wasn’t what anyone expected. The room froze. “What are you all doing here?” Sophie’s voice came from the hallway behind them. I was standing right next to her, looking over the heads of the crowd, my hand over my mouth in mock horror. “Oh my god,” I gasped. “Carl? What… what is he doing?”

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