It was the seventh year of my marriage to Ethan when his first love, Celeste Dubois, returned to the country. My mother was left in a vegetative state after Celeste’s botched surgery, and my brother, Dylan, was thrown into prison by Ethan himself for trying to seek justice for Mom. When I called the police, Ethan locked me up at home. He forced me to kneel and apologize to Celeste. After stripping me of all my dignity and destroying my family, Ethan said coldly, “Celeste is the woman I vowed to protect for life. The Miller family owes her, and you’ll never be able to repay that debt.” Heartbroken, I jumped into the sea. Three years later, I returned to the top as Shirley. When he knelt in a pool of blood, begging me to come back, I stepped coldly over his hand. “Ethan, your affection and your life are both too dirty for me to stomach. Get lost. Don’t ever show your face to me again.” Avery’s POV A cold, late-autumn rain, mixed with hail, lashed against the gray steps of the New York Police Department. I was drenched, clutching a detention notice tightly in my hand. The edges of the paper were soft and pulpy from the rain, but the bold sentences on it were still glaring: “Suspected of forging evidence, commercial extortion.” The person detained was my brother, Dylan Miller, a renowned lawyer in New York. And the one who had personally handed over the damning evidence to the police was my husband of seven years, Ethan Thorne, CEO of Thorne Group. I don’t know how I drove to Thorne Group headquarters. As I pushed open the heavy door to the CEO’s office on the top floor, even my breath was trembling. The sprawling office was warm. Ethan sat on a wide leather sofa, head bowed, carefully wiping a faint red mark on Celeste’s wrist with a cotton swab. His movements were so gentle, his gaze so soft. A tenderness I had only dared to dream of in these past seven years. Hearing the sound, Ethan looked up. Seeing me, soaked and disheveled, his brow furrowed, and he immediately shielded Celeste behind him. “What are you doing here?” His voice was as cold as ice. I slammed the detention notice onto the coffee table, my voice hoarse. “Ethan, why was Dylan arrested? What exactly have you done?!” Ethan’s face remained calm. He pulled out a wet wipe and slowly cleaned his hands. “Dylan fabricated evidence of Celeste’s medical malpractice for extortion, involving a huge sum. I’m simply a law-abiding citizen cooperating with the police investigation.” “Medical malpractice?” I was so furious I laughed. “My mom is still lying unconscious in the ICU! Celeste, trying to prove her skill, performed bypass surgery with one hand, leading to massive hemorrhage. That’s a fact witnessed by everyone in the operating room! My brother was just following legal procedures to sue her. How dare you say he’s extorting her?!” Celeste, hiding behind Ethan, trembled, and tears instantly welled up in her eyes. “Ethan, I’m so sorry, it’s all my fault… If I hadn’t returned, Avery wouldn’t hate me so much, and Dylan wouldn’t have turned to crime…” “Shut up!” I cut her off. “Avery!” Ethan abruptly stood up, his imposing height casting me into shadow. “How long are you going to keep this up? Celeste is a genius with a scalpel; her hands are meant to save lives, they must never be stained. Dylan was intent on ruining her career, so I merely made him see reason.” He said it as if ruining a top lawyer’s entire future was a trivial matter, all to protect the woman he loved. I felt a chill spread through me. Seven years. I had stood by him as he rose from an overlooked heir of the Thorne family to his current position. I thought I was an indispensable wife in his life, but the moment Celeste returned, I became a joke, something to be sacrificed at any moment. Ethan picked up a document from his desk and handed it to me. “Sign this.” I looked down. It was a public statement. The statement required me, as a family member, to admit that my mother’s vegetative state was a normal surgical risk, and to accuse Dylan of maliciously slandering Celeste for money. “I won’t sign.” I glared at him. “Ethan, you can forget about me trading Dylan’s life for her career!” Ethan wasn’t surprised by my refusal. He glanced at his wrist, his tone flat. “Ten minutes ago, I already notified the hospital to stop all your mother’s specialized medication and life support.” My heart felt as if it had been brutally crushed by an invisible hand. “Are you insane?! That’s a human life!” “Sign the papers, record an apology video, and your mom will live, and Dylan can get out of prison sooner.” Ethan looked at me coldly, without a trace of warmth in his eyes. “A vegetable, or dead. You choose.” I trembled all over, clear tears finally streaming from my eyes. I looked at this man I had loved for seven years and found him terrifyingly unfamiliar. “Ethan, did you ever love me?” Ethan’s expression was cold. “Avery, stop being dramatic. Celeste is the woman I swore to protect for life. Just behave, and once this is over, we can go back to how things were.” Back to how things were? I closed my eyes in despair. I picked up the pen, and with a trembling hand, I signed my name on the statement that betrayed my soul and my family.

Avery’s POV After signing, I rushed like a madwoman to Thorne’s private hospital. Pushing open the familiar VIP ward door, I found it empty. My mind went blank. I grabbed a passing nurse and demanded sharply, “Where’s my mom?!” The nurse dared not look me in the eye. “Your mother… was transferred to a general ward.” I stumbled toward the general ward section. In the most crowded, noisiest eight-person ward at the end of the corridor, I saw my mother. Gone were the premium private nursing and expensive life support system, replaced by only the faint beeping of a basic ventilator. My mother’s already pale face now looked even more gaunt, as if she could stop breathing at any moment. “Who allowed you to transfer her?!” I burst into the doctor’s office, my eyes red, and confronted the doctor. The doctor said, “Mrs. Thorne, this was Mr. Thorne’s personal order. He said… the Miller family’s current financial situation isn’t suitable for occupying VIP medical resources.” I was stunned. Just then, a pair of high heels clicked down the hallway. Ethan, with his arm around Celeste’s shoulders, approached, surrounded by a group of bodyguards. Celeste wore a pristine white designer trench coat, her face looking even more delicate than a patient in a hospital bed. She walked up to me and said, “Avery, don’t blame Ethan. It’s my fault. I’ve been suffering from insomnia recently because of online rumors, and my mental state is very poor. Ethan just wanted me to rest quietly, so he cleared out the best VIP ward for me.” To allow Celeste to rest, he kicked my mother, who was in a vegetative state, into a noisy general ward? I was so angry I laughed, and violently raised my hand, but Ethan caught my wrist in mid-air, holding it tightly. “Avery, just try to lay a hand on her!” Ethan’s voice was as sharp as a knife, the force in his grip almost crushing my bones. Despite the intense pain, I stubbornly didn’t make a sound. I stared fixedly at Ethan. “Ethan, I’ve signed the papers as you demanded, why are you still doing this to my mom?!” Ethan forcefully flung my hand away, pulling Celeste into his arms, and looked at me coldly. “Signing was what you should have done to save your brother. But you yelled at Celeste in the office just now, and you scared her. Avery, that arrogant temper of yours really needs to be reined in.” “I’m arrogant?” I found it utterly absurd. “She put my mom in this state, and I can’t even raise my voice?” “No one wants a surgical accident to happen!” Ethan impatiently cut me off. “Celeste is already very remorseful, what more do you want?” He pointed to the ward door, his tone brooking no argument. “Now, apologize to Celeste. If she forgives you, I’ll immediately have your mom transferred back to the VIP ward and restore all her specialized medication.” I froze. Patients and doctors came and went in the hallway, all looking at us. I, once the proudest heir of the Miller family, Ethan’s wife, was now being asked to publicly apologize to the culprit who had ruined my family. Celeste, hiding behind Ethan, showed a barely perceptible smirk. “If you don’t apologize, your mom will be discharged from the hospital today,” Ethan said coldly. I turned my head and, through the glass window, looked at my mother in the hospital bed. I closed my eyes, swallowing all my tears and dignity. With a soft thud, I knelt straight down before Celeste. A murmur of discussion rose around us. I looked up, my eyes, once full of starlight, now held only despair. “I’m sorry, Celeste,” my voice was flat, like a body drained of its soul. “Please, forgive me. Please save my mom.”

Avery’s POV I don’t know how I left the hospital. When I dragged my utterly exhausted body back to the villa, the sight before me made my steps falter. The patch of lilies I had personally planted in the yard was gone, replaced by large beds of vibrant red roses. Celeste’s favorite flowers. Pushing open the door, the living room’s layout had been completely changed. The antique vase I’d bought at auction was carelessly tossed in a corner, and the sofa was covered with Celeste’s favorite plush toys. The master bedroom door on the second floor was open, and Celeste was standing in front of my vanity, wearing my custom-made silk robe and trying on my jewelry. Hearing footsteps, Celeste turned around and smiled faintly. “Avery, you’re back. Ethan said it wasn’t safe for me to live alone outside, so he asked me to move in for a while. You don’t mind, do you?” I looked at her blankly. “Take it off. Get out.” “Avery!” Ethan’s deep, angry voice came from the staircase. He strode over, pulling Celeste behind him, and looked at me furiously. “What’s that supposed to mean? Celeste’s address was leaked by one of your brother’s old clients, and people are harassing her daily. She can’t handle any stress right now, so living here is the safest option.” “This is my home,” my voice was calm. “This is my home too,” Ethan said coldly, looking at me. “If you’re uncomfortable, you can move to the guest room.” Making his wife move to the guest room to give the master bedroom to his mistress. I didn’t argue, didn’t make a scene. I turned and walked into the study, took a pre-drafted document from a drawer, walked up to Ethan, and handed it to him. “Since you’re so worried about her, then let’s get a divorce. You can marry her and turn this into her home.” Ethan looked down at the document, which read “Divorce Agreement,” and his face instantly darkened. He snatched the agreement, tore it to shreds in front of me, the pieces scattering like snowflakes on the floor. “Divorce? You wish!” Ethan grabbed my chin, his eyes sinister. “You think signing it will make everything disappear? Your brother ruined Celeste’s reputation, and your mom left Celeste with psychological trauma. Your family owes her, and you’ll never be able to repay that debt!” “Ethan, don’t you realize how absurd you sound?!” I was forced to look up, my eyes full of despair. “Who truly owes whom?!” “In New York, my word is law,” Ethan flung me away, pulled out a handkerchief, and wiped his hands as if he had touched something filthy. “From today on, you are not allowed to go anywhere without my permission. Stay home and take good care of Celeste. Any problem she has will be your responsibility.” In the days that followed, I became a prisoner in that villa. Ethan confiscated my phone and ID, cutting off all my contact with the outside world. I was forced to watch Ethan try to make Celeste happy every day. Celeste said she wanted dessert from a Michelin-starred restaurant, and Ethan would postpone a multi-million-dollar meeting to personally drive and buy it. Celeste said she was afraid of the dark, so Ethan would stay in the master bedroom with her, while I, in the cold guest room, listened to the laughter from next door. I tried to use the landline to contact my former best friend, a New York Times reporter, hoping to expose everything. However, less than half an hour after the call connected, Ethan returned home in a rage. He threw a dismissal notice in my face. “That reporter friend of yours has been blacklisted from the entire industry for fabricating false news,” Ethan said, looking down at me, his eyes cruel. “Avery, I warned you not to resist me. The more you resist, the worse the fate of those around you will be.” I collapsed to the floor, staring at the dismissal notice, finally understanding that, in front of this man, even the right to breathe had been taken from me.

Avery’s POV A month later, New York’s annual Medical Charity Gala was held at the Intercontinental Hotel. This was the highest-profile event in the medical community. To completely clear Celeste’s name, Ethan not only heavily sponsored the entire gala but also specifically established an “Annual Medical Miracle Award” to present to Celeste. And the order he gave me was: as the representative of the “patient’s family,” I had to personally go on stage to present the award to Celeste. In the dressing room, I looked at myself in the mirror, weighing only seventy pounds, and coldly refused. “I won’t go. Just kill me.” Ethan stood behind me, dressed in a perfectly tailored black designer suit. He didn’t get angry; he simply pulled out a tablet and opened a live surveillance feed. On the screen, my mother lay in her hospital bed, a stranger in a white coat standing by her ventilator, holding a power plug. “Avery, I don’t want to force you.” Ethan’s long fingers gently caressed my cheek, his voice as soft as if he were whispering sweet nothings. “But Celeste needs this award to rebuild her confidence. Just go on stage, hand her the trophy, and smile. If you do that, your mother’s ventilator won’t be unplugged.” I stiffened all over, my stomach churning with nausea. I looked at the devilish man in the mirror, bit through my lip, tasting the strong metallic tang of blood. “Fine, I’ll present her the award.” The gala venue was opulently decorated. When the host announced me as the award presenter, the hall instantly fell silent. Everyone’s gaze, filled with curiosity, mockery, and pity, pierced through me. Who didn’t know that Ethan’s wife was now just a decoration, a wife in name only? Mr. Thorne had nearly driven his own wife’s mother to her death for his mistress, and now he was making his wife present an award to that mistress. This was truly trampling her dignity underfoot. I wore an extremely simple black gown, as if in mourning for someone. I walked onto the stage step by step, each one feeling like I was walking on knife blades. Celeste, wearing the starry-night gown Ethan had paid a high price for, stood confidently in the center of the stage. I took the trophy from the usher and walked up to Celeste. “Congratulations, Dr. Dubois,” my voice, amplified by the microphone, filled the room, utterly devoid of emotion. Celeste took the trophy, and as she embraced me, she whispered with a light laugh, in a voice only we two could hear, “Avery, look, if I want something, Ethan will crush your dignity and offer it to me. What do you have to fight me with?” I didn’t push her away; I just looked into the void ahead with my dead eyes and replied softly, “Yes, you won. This trophy is stained with my mom’s blood. Hold it tight, don’t have nightmares.” Celeste’s face subtly changed, but she quickly recovered her delicate, pitiful smile and delivered her acceptance speech to the audience, especially thanking Ethan for his companionship during her “lowest point.” Applause erupted from the crowd. After the award ceremony, I rushed backstage to the restroom and vomited furiously into the sink until only bitter bile came up. It was Ethan who handed me a tissue. He frowned, looking at my pathetic state. “Is it necessary to look so utterly devastated just for presenting an award? Celeste has been very generous about forgiving Dylan’s actions, what more do you want?” I didn’t take the tissue. I straightened up, turned on the faucet, and splashed water on my face, droplets running down my cheeks. I turned to look at Ethan. “Ethan, I truly regret not dying in that car accident seven years ago, instead of being saved by you.” Ethan reached for my hand, but I had already turned and walked out of the restroom without looking back.

Avery’s POV New York’s first heavy snow fell in the deep winter. In my third month of confinement in the villa, I received a call from the prison. “Miller family? Inmate Dylan had a serious conflict with another inmate and suffered a comminuted fracture in his right leg, compounded by a severe infection. The prison’s medical conditions are limited. He must be granted medical parole immediately, or he faces the risk of amputation. Please have a guarantor sign as soon as possible.” Ethan had grudgingly given me back my phone so I could receive hospital calls. Hearing this news, my mind went blank. I rushed out of the guest room without even putting on shoes. I sprinted to the study on the second floor and violently pushed open the door. Ethan was sitting in front of his computer, on a video conference with several doctors. “Ethan, please, save my brother!” I rushed to the desk, my voice piercing. “He needs medical parole, only you can sign for it, please let him out to get treatment for his leg!” Ethan unhappily covered his microphone and looked at me coldly. “Get out. Can’t you see I’m in an important meeting?” “My brother is going to be amputated!” I was so anxious I reached out to grab his sleeve. “If you just sign, I’ll do anything you ask, I’ll give you all the remaining shares of the Miller family, please…” “Avery!” Ethan violently flung my hand away, his eyes cold. “Your brother deserves what he gets! He caused trouble in there, why should I pull strings to get him out? Besides, Celeste burned her hand with a cookie the other day, causing a small blister, and I’m having Swiss specialists consult on it. I don’t have time for your brother.” I froze. I looked at the world-renowned dermatologists on the screen, then at Ethan’s cold, heartless face. My brother facing amputation was less important than a small blister on Celeste’s wrist? “Ethan, are you even human?!” I trembled, screaming in despair. “That’s a leg! He’s a lawyer, how will he live without a leg?!” “That’s his problem,” Ethan put his headphones back on, his tone indifferent. “Someone, take her back to her room. Don’t let her step out without my permission.” Two bodyguards walked in and forcibly dragged me out. I was locked in the guest room, frantically banging on the door and windows until my hands were bloody, until my throat was hoarse and I couldn’t make a sound. No one outside responded to my despair. Twenty-four hours later, the door finally opened. Ethan stood at the doorway, looking at me, curled up in a corner and covered in blood. His brow furrowed even deeper. “Stop making a scene,” he threw a phone in front of me. “The prison called.” I lunged like a madwoman, trembling as I pressed the answer button. On the other end of the line, the lawyer’s voice was heavy. “Ms. Miller, I’m sorry… because the optimal treatment window was missed, Mr. Miller’s right leg… has undergone amputation.” The phone clattered to the floor. I didn’t cry, didn’t make a scene. I just sat on the floor, staring blankly at the falling snow outside the window. Ethan suddenly walked over to me, trying to pick me up. “Avery, it’s just one leg, the Thorne family can support him. As long as you behave from now on…” “Don’t touch me.” My voice was soft, but it carried a chilling calmness. I slowly turned my head to look at Ethan. In those eyes, all the love, hope, and even hatred I had once felt for him, vanished completely at that moment. “Ethan, my brother’s leg, my mother’s life. I’ll remember it all.”

Avery’s POV The news of Dylan’s amputation utterly crushed me. I stopped resisting, stopped crying, and simply drifted through the villa like a ghost every day. Ethan thought I had finally become obedient, and his surveillance of me relaxed slightly. That afternoon, Ethan went to the company. Celeste, carrying a cup of black tea, leisurely walked into my guest room. Looking at me, staring blankly out the window, Celeste chuckled, her voice filled with triumph. “Avery, your brother is actually quite pathetic. The people who beat him up in prison? I arranged for them.” My eyes moved slightly, and I turned to look at her. Celeste approached, lowering her voice, her eyes malicious. “And your mom’s surgery. That bypass surgery was actually very simple, I could do it with my eyes closed. I just deliberately made my hand tremble. Who told your mom to always belittle me before, thinking I wasn’t good enough for Ethan? I just wanted to show her how her proud daughter would be trampled underfoot by me.” “Aren’t you afraid Ethan will find out?” My voice was low. “What if he knows?” Celeste laughed triumphantly. “He’ll just think I was wronged. Avery, don’t you understand? In Ethan’s heart, even if I committed murder, he’d hand me the knife. And you, even your breathing was a mistake.” Celeste finished speaking and left happily. What she didn’t know was that a miniature recording pen had been hidden in my wide sleeve all along. I had forced a maid, through a hunger strike, to secretly buy it for me. That evening, I seized the opportunity during the maids’ shift change and climbed down from the second-floor balcony using a drainpipe. My palms were scraped and bleeding, but I felt no pain. I ran wildly until I reached the nearest police station to the villa. “I want to report a crime! I want to accuse Celeste of attempted murder and hiring thugs to injure someone! This is the evidence!” I slammed the recording pen onto the reception desk, as if grasping at my last shred of hope. The police officer had just taken the recording pen when the police station door was suddenly pushed open from the outside. Ethan walked in, his face dark. The atmosphere in the entire station instantly froze. “Mr. Thorne,” the receiving officer immediately stood up and greeted him respectfully, handing him the recording pen. “Ms. Miller says this is evidence for a report.” I lunged to snatch it. “Give it back! That’s my evidence!” Ethan pinned me tightly in one arm, while his other hand toyed with the recording pen. He didn’t even press play; he simply threw the recording pen on the ground and crushed it with his polished leather shoe. With a crunch, my heart shattered into a million pieces along with it. “Ethan! Why didn’t you even listen! She admitted it herself!” I screamed in collapse. “Listen to what? Your AI-generated fake recording?” Ethan’s eyes were cold, full of disappointment. “Avery, I thought your brother’s amputation might make you behave, but I didn’t expect you to be so unrepentant, using such disgusting methods to frame Celeste!” He forcibly dragged me out of the police station and pushed me into his car. Inside the car, Ethan grabbed my chin. His voice was incredibly cruel. “Since you love running off so much, I’ll completely cut off your hope. I’ve arranged for a medical charter plane to send your mom to a private sanatorium overseas tonight. You’ll never see her again without my permission.” I was shocked, looking at him in disbelief. Sending my mom overseas was equivalent to holding her hostage forever. Looking at Ethan’s cold face, I suddenly laughed, tears streaming down my face, my body shaking. I finally understood that in the game rules set by this man, I would never win. Since there was no way out, I could only choose death.

Avery’s POV The day my mother was forcibly sent overseas, I didn’t go to the airport. I was locked in the villa, quietly watching the sky outside the window. It was also that day, during a maid’s trash disposal break, that I managed to get an old phone and contacted Julian Knight. Julian was the CEO of a mysterious organization in New York, and a client Dylan had once fiercely defended in court. He owed my brother a favor. “Julian, please, do me a favor.” My voice was calm. “Intercept my mother’s medical transport overseas. Then, help me orchestrate a foolproof death.” Julian was silent for a moment, then replied with a single word: “Okay.” The plan was set for two weeks later, on Celeste’s birthday. To celebrate Celeste’s birthday, Ethan chartered a luxury cruise ship named “Star of the Ocean,” sailing it into international waters. He not only invited all the prominent figures in New York but also forced me to act as the event coordinator, serving Celeste throughout the evening. He wanted to use this method to announce Celeste’s status to everyone, to completely shatter my last shred of pride. On the cruise ship, the lights were dazzling. I wore an inconspicuous uniform, moving through the banquet hall, checking beverages and arranging the schedule. I did everything flawlessly, even wearing an impeccable smile. I knew Ethan was standing on the second-floor railing, glass in hand, watching me. At ten o’clock in the evening, the banquet reached its climax. Celeste, having had some drinks, walked onto the deck for fresh air. I happened to be passing by with a tray. Celeste looked at me and suddenly spoke. “Avery, what are you playing at?” Celeste stepped closer, lowering her voice in provocation. “Your mom is in my hands now, your brother is crippled, you’ll never beat me…” Before she finished speaking, Celeste suddenly stumbled backward, let out a scream, and fell into the shallow decorative pool next to the deck. “Celeste!” Ethan, who had rushed over at the sound of the scream, witnessed the scene. He didn’t hesitate, rushing over to pull a drenched Celeste out of the pool. Celeste, clinging to him, pointed at me and wailed, “Ethan, I just wanted to share a drink with Avery, and she suddenly pushed me…” Ethan’s head snapped towards me, his gaze like a knife. I stood my ground, still holding the tray, without offering a single explanation. Because I knew, explanations were useless. “Avery, you’re truly unrepentant!” Ethan was seething with rage. He ordered the bodyguards behind him, “Lock her in the cold storage in the ship’s hold! No one is to let her out without my command! If Celeste catches a cold, I’ll have your life!” The bodyguards stepped forward, roughly restraining my hands. I didn’t struggle. I gave Ethan a deep look, one devoid of resentment, anger, or anything but indifference. “Ethan, I wish you two a lifetime together.” I left him with that cryptic remark and turned to follow the bodyguards towards the dark hold. The cold storage in the hold was freezing. I was pushed inside, and the heavy iron door slammed shut behind me with a bang, locking me in. In the darkness, I didn’t shiver. I calmly walked to a ventilation shaft in the deepest part of the cold room. Soon after, the grate of the ventilation shaft was removed from the outside. Julian Knight’s men silently crept in, handing me a waterproof wetsuit and a waterproof bag. “Ms. Miller, the team to rescue your mother has succeeded; she is now safe. A speedboat is waiting for you in the blind spot on the starboard side of the cruise ship. There’s a storm tonight, it’s the perfect cover.” I nodded and quickly changed into the wetsuit. Before leaving, I took out the wedding ring I had worn for seven years from my pocket. Ethan had personally designed it and had Italian artisans customize it; our initials were engraved on the inner band. I handed the ring and my phone to Julian Knight’s men. “Place these on the edge of the deck.” Having done all this, I crawled out of the cruise ship through the ventilation duct and plunged into the dark, churning sea.

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The first time was my arranged marriage to billionaire Julian Maxwell. On the day of my prenatal appointment, I walked in on him having sex with a college student by the 23rd-floor window. He didn’t apologize. Instead, he threw me, sobbing, out the door. The second time, I married my childhood friend, Caleb Johnson, who’d pursued me for ten years. He didn’t mind that my ex-husband, Julian, harassed me every year. He didn’t mind that even after three years of marriage, I still couldn’t get pregnant. During sex, he’d bite my ear and whisper, “If you don’t want to have kids, then don’t. I have enough with just you.” But on our wedding anniversary, he suddenly brought home a strange woman and ordered the butler to throw my luggage out of the master bedroom. My voice trembled as I asked, “What do you mean?” He held a cigarette between his fingers, as if I’d said something hilarious. “Audrey, you’re just a toy Julian threw away. Now, I don’t want you either.” I quietly hid the pregnancy test stick in my hand.

The pregnancy test stick in my palm felt like it was on fire, repeatedly scorching me. I looked at him, not stubbornly demanding an answer like last time. Because the woman’s triumphant smirk and bulging belly explained everything. I picked up my bag, ready to leave. Caleb snuffed out his cigarette and blocked my path, a vengeful pleasure flickering in his eyes. “You still had lingering ties with Julian, and I never said a harsh word. You didn’t want to have kids with me because of him, and I didn’t blame you excessively.” “Now I have a child with someone else, and I’m not even asking you to raise it. Why are you acting like I’ve wronged you?” The smile on his lips widened, his tone growing more self-righteous. “We’re childhood sweethearts, Audrey. I’m just having an affair; it won’t threaten your position.” That familiar dull ache spread through my heart. He wasn’t wrong. I’d been through this; I had experience. So this time, I didn’t say much, just slapped him. “Caleb Johnson, you disgust me.” A collective gasp rippled through the room. The smile on Caleb’s face faded. He grabbed my hand, his eyes turning cold. “You have the nerve to call me disgusting? You’ve been married twice! Why should I be loyal to you?” The pregnancy test stick finally gave way under the pressure. Crack. It snapped in half, piercing my flesh. I didn’t feel the pain, but tears fell. Caleb’s eyes narrowed, a hint of panic flashing through them. He instinctively softened. “Alright, I promise you, once the baby is born, I’ll send her away.” Looking at that face I’d known for over a decade. I only felt a profound sense of unfamiliarity. He touched what was in my palm, freezing slightly. “What are you holding?” I shook him off and tossed the broken stick into the trash. My eyelids drooped, my voice barely a whisper. “It’s not important. Unwanted trash.” I was talking about the baby. I was also talking about myself, abandoned for the second time. Caleb furrowed his brow, about to ask again. But a cry of pain from behind him drew his attention. The woman, stroking her belly, slowly took off her mask. One look, and I was frozen stiff. She was the same college student Julian had pinned against the window, having sex with, three years ago. And she was also the underprivileged student I’d sponsored for years.

Three years. Chloe Miller was still so fresh, her skin like a peeled egg. Julian used to describe her that way. He said he couldn’t get enough of her. He said that even while sleeping in my bed, his heart and dreams were filled with her. My previous departure and acceptance. What I got in return was her getting involved with my second man again. And she’d gotten pregnant before me. By the look of her pregnancy, they’d been entangled for a long time. I bit my lip, my nails digging into my palm, and slowly walked over. “Audrey!” Chloe seemed to recognize me only then, grabbing my hand with feigned surprise and delight. “After we parted ways in New York, I never expected you’d return to San Francisco. We truly are fated, with such similar taste in men…” I didn’t speak, just raised my hand and swung. Slap! But it wasn’t Chloe who was hit. It was Caleb. He blocked her, clutching his face, his expression completely darkening. “Audrey, there’s a limit to how much you can act out! Two slaps are enough!” “She’s delicate, and she’s pregnant. Don’t take your anger out on her! You don’t want to relive that pathetic state from three years ago, do you?” My body trembled violently. It was like returning to that snowy night years ago. After I’d walked in on Julian’s affair. He dropped the pretense entirely, self-righteously questioning me. “Women have a three-month shelf life with me. You lasted a year—I already made an exception for you. What more do you want?” “Even if I loved you, I wouldn’t give up an entire forest for you.” To force me into submission, he used all his business tactics against me: freezing my bank accounts, seizing my cash, and then kicking me out like a stray dog. It was deep winter, snowing heavily. I was covered in bruises, pinned down in the snow by a group of homeless men. Blood stained the ground beneath me, my face was ashen. Caleb appeared out of nowhere, chasing them away. His eyes were bloodshot as he held me tightly in his arms. “Audrey, don’t be scared… I’ll protect you with my life.” It was truly laughable. Years ago, Chloe knelt at my feet, vowing to repay me with her life. Instead, she repaid me in bed. And Caleb promised to protect me with his life, only to fall for the same ungrateful wretch three years later. The snow wasn’t heavy. But it felt colder than that year. I wiped away the dampness from my eyes, picked up my phone, and didn’t spare a glance for the people behind me. I planned to make do in the guest room for the night. “Wait,” Chloe suddenly spoke up, then, in front of me, she wrapped her arms around Caleb’s neck. “Didn’t you say I could have the south-facing bedroom… and that it’s more exciting by the window?” Chloe looked at me, slowly completing the second half of her sentence. Caleb chuckled softly, met my gaze, picked her up, and carried her inside. That room was originally our honeymoon suite, with an open-lattice roof because Caleb said he wanted to watch the stars with me as we slept. Later, it was converted into a nursery. He said he hoped our future baby would wake up to the sun every day. But now. Before the baby was even born, this place, once filled with our love, was about to become their sordid love nest. The carpet, the sofa, the balcony outside. Caleb would be on top of this woman, just like Julian was. They would pant, they would scream… I closed my eyes. The thud of the door closing was like a knife, piercing my heart. I leaned against the wall, barely able to stand. But the tears could no longer be held back. In the dead silence, my phone buzzed. A message from an unknown number: “Audrey, don’t you want to know why Caleb cheated on you with Chloe?” “Tomorrow at nine AM, The Grand Conservatory. I’ll be waiting.” No need to guess. The person meeting me was my ex-husband, Julian Maxwell. The Grand Conservatory was where we first met. My mother’s last memento failed to sell at auction, leaving my eyes red with sadness. The next day, he knocked on my door with that very memento. For the next six months, a constant stream of gifts piled up like mountains in the Spencer’s living room. My father wanted to marry me off for a good price. Seeing he was New York’s wealthiest man, my father rejected the Johnson family’s offer and accepted Julian’s. As a Spencer heiress, I was accustomed to fame and pretense. I didn’t have many expectations for an arranged marriage. He was the one who shattered the ice with his clumsy love letters. At a yacht party, I accidentally fell overboard. He jumped in without hesitation to save me. I was unharmed afterward, but his legs were gnawed to the bone by fish. I’d be writhing in pain in bed during my period. He’d ignore billion-dollar deals, rush into the kitchen, scald his fingers till they looked like red radishes, all just to make me a soothing ginger tea. I was overjoyed, thinking I had found a good man. So I invited Chloe Miller, the underprivileged student I sponsored, to New York. Instead, they turned me into an abandoned wife, kicking me out. Thinking of these things. It no longer hurt. Just like seeing Julian again no longer made me sad. He was still the same, deep-eyed and handsome, just a little thinner. “There’s something I should tell you.”

Seeing me sit down, he pushed his phone across the table. “What?” Julian paused, as if hesitant, but finally, he unlocked the phone screen. I glanced at it, and my body began to tremble uncontrollably. In the video, Caleb was holding a cigarette, distributing money to a group of homeless men. Seeing my stunned expression, Julian adjusted his glasses. “When it comes to ruthlessness, I can’t compare to Caleb. I was the one who threw you out, but it was him who deliberately… arranged for those homeless men to assault you.” Boom! “To get you, he’d stop at nothing, willing to destroy you…” As he spoke. Distorted faces flooded my vision. Curses, sneers, the agonizing tearing pain, the embryo crushed into fragments. “Enough!” I screamed, rising to my feet, gasping for air. My face felt cold and numb. I didn’t know if it was for the pain of that night. Or for him, who, with one word — “deliberately” — destroyed three years of supposed love. I stared at him, grinding my teeth as I asked, “How much better are you than him?” “You’re telling me the truth just to prove that the man I desperately ran back to San Francisco for, isn’t as good as you…” My voice was hoarse. Letting the tears fall, one by one. “You want to prove that even if I left you, I wouldn’t find happiness, that you’ll always be my best option. But what’s the difference between you and him?” Julian was silent for a moment, then slowly began to speak. “I’m a bastard, I wronged you, but I never intended to replace you. But I heard, Mrs. Johnson is about to be replaced.” “He’s been hiding it from you, taking Chloe everywhere to socialize, even to the Johnson family estate. He even,” He paused, his sharp gaze fixed on me, “—even went to City Hall and got a marriage certificate. I only threw you out of the house. But he’s completely thrown you out of this marriage, Audrey. Come with me.” My nerves suddenly went numb. I felt nothing. Like the blankness that comes with extreme pain. I opened my mouth, about to refuse. My neck was suddenly grabbed with force, and an angry roar exploded in my ear. “Julian Maxwell! Dream on!” Caleb used deadly force. He nearly snapped my neck. “Aren’t you pathetic? You suffer some injustice with me, and you run to your old lover for comfort?” I didn’t speak, nor did I struggle. I just stared at him. Julian, however, stood up. “Let her go!” The next second, he was surrounded by a circle of bodyguards. Caleb sneered, a sinister look flashing across his face. “You have no say here! Don’t forget, she’s my wife now!” “You send her gifts every year and stay entangled with her. If you loved her so much, what were you doing back then?” Julian’s face went pale, his fists clenched tight. “Caleb Johnson, don’t get too smug. You’ll end up following in my footsteps!” With that, he turned to me. “Audrey, when you’ve thought it through, come find me.” Before Caleb could react, Julian pushed past him and stormed out. The air felt sticky. Silent and oppressive. I walked past Caleb and got into the car first. He followed behind me, urgently shouting, “You’re not allowed to go with him, not allowed to see him, and not allowed to contact him!” Seeing I didn’t respond, he suddenly went wild, grabbing my shoulders and shaking me forcefully. “I’m talking to you, do you hear me?!” “You’ve been divorced once, you don’t want a second divorce, do you? Back then, he abandoned you, and the Spencer family didn’t care either.” “Only I was good to you. Audrey, don’t be swayed by him. Just be a good Mrs. Johnson…” Good to me? Lying to me, trampling me, the kind of “good” that nearly killed me? I laughed softly. Caleb twisted my head towards him, his eyes filled with urgency. “What are you laughing at?” I refused to look at him, simply asking. “Besides Chloe, is there anything else you’ve been hiding from me?” Caleb’s body stiffened, and he unnaturally turned his head to look out the window. He didn’t admit it. But he admitted everything. I laughed louder and louder. And my heart ached more and more. My hoarse voice, in the confined space, was like a sharp blade. “Enough! Stop laughing!” Caleb raised his voice, reaching out to cover my mouth. Rage surged in my chest, almost tearing me apart. I grabbed his hand and bit him hard. I didn’t let go until I tasted blood in my throat. “Caleb Johnson! You’re an animal!” “You’ve always wanted to know who I love most, haven’t you? I’ll be honest, I love Julian Maxwell. I regret divorcing him.” “After all, no matter how much of a jerk he was, he didn’t cause me to lose a baby!” Caleb’s breathing grew heavy, his eyes glinting with violence. He grabbed my neck, his eyes bloodshot. “Do you think I don’t regret it?” “I, Caleb Johnson, could have any woman I wanted, but I ended up with a worn-out tramp whose baby died in her womb!” “Julian Maxwell’s taste is good. Chloe is not only more fun than you, but better in bed too!”

Thunder exploded overhead. The pain was so intense I could barely breathe. When I tried to speak again, he clamped my jaw shut. “What, you like biting now?” “Chloe was right, you and Julian really were having an affair!” Caleb’s furious face swam before my eyes, completely devoid of his former tenderness. Blood dripped from the corner of my mouth. I felt my vision blacken. Then I passed out. When I opened my eyes again. I was chained to the bed. Chloe sat by the bedside, smiling as she held a steaming bowl of medicine. “Caleb said you were too agitated, so he told you to drink this.” No one else was around, so she didn’t bother to pretend. She grabbed my hair, forcing my head back. I suppressed the pain, trembling as I demanded, “I treated you well, why would you…” Chloe pinched my chin, then suddenly burst into laughter. “Why? Because you’re stupid! You’re pathetic! You practically threw yourself at me!” “I hate rich people like you, with your high-and-mighty attitudes. And I especially hate hypocritical idiots like you! You like to give charity, don’t you? Well, I’m going to make sure you’re trampled into the dirt!” At that moment. The medicine was forced down my throat. The bitterness, mixed with a cramping pain in my lower abdomen, made me curl up and shiver. My nails dug into the wall, and I spoke with difficulty. “What… did you give me?” She maintained her sweet smile, slowly saying, “Medicine.” “An abortifacient. In just ten minutes, your second child will also turn into a bloody mess, flowing out of you.” Her loud laughter pierced my eardrums. I leaned back against the headboard, trembling. My eyes, however, found the dagger on the fruit plate. Chloe continued to gloat triumphantly. “In five more months, my baby will be born. And your baby will be a rotting piece of flesh, a failure. You couldn’t even protect your own child…” Chloe didn’t finish her last sentence. Because I had the dagger at her throat. My hand instinctively tightened, and blood seeped from her neck. She shrieked in pain. “Stop!” Caleb, who had rushed in, his face completely grim. It wasn’t concern, but rather the anger of someone certain of a certain outcome. “For Julian, you’d actually kill someone? Do you love him that much?” “Caleb, she’s gone mad for Julian! Save me, save the baby…” Chloe cried and pleaded, stroking her belly. “Don’t be scared, baby. Nothing will happen to you!” Listening to Caleb’s tender, reassuring tone. I couldn’t stop myself from laughing. Their baby would be fine… What about my baby? I instinctively looked down. The white bedding was stained crimson. My eyes burned with a searing ache, and the hand holding the knife began to waver. The next second, the knife was snatched away and thrown aside. Caleb instinctively frowned. “Audrey, where are you hurt?” Chloe quickly answered, “It’s… her period.” Caleb paused, a flicker of disappointment crossing his brows. I just watched him, carrying the murderer of our second child onto the soft couch, pouring her water, serving her tea, tucking her in. And beneath me, it grew colder and redder. I stumbled to the couch, slowly reaching out my hand. “Ah!” Chloe shrieked! Caleb instinctively turned with the knife. Pain truly makes one weak. When I was thirteen, I fell off a swing. He ended up being my human cushion. I was fine, but he broke three ribs. I cried and scolded him for not dodging. He smiled, looking both sheepish and wronged. “Silly, if I had dodged, what would have happened to you? I wouldn’t want you to feel even a tiny bit of pain…” Fifteen-year-old Caleb didn’t want me to feel any pain. Thirty-year-old Caleb, however, was cruel enough to stab me in the heart. Puff! The knife tip pierced through flesh. Blood splattered before my eyes. I watched Caleb’s pupils slowly widen. His eyes were bloodshot. His face ashen. My fingers trembled as I touched his utterly despairing face. “Why did you… have those homeless men harm me?” “Why did you kill my child… again and again?”

🌟 Continue the story here 👉🏻 📲 Download the “NovelMaster” app 🔍 search for “384606”, and watch the full series ✨! #NovelMaster

I loved Eric for ten years. But at his twenty-eighth birthday party, I watched him propose to his first love, Serena Miller. He mocked my foolish devotion, me, his foster sister. When Serena faked a fall down the stairs, Ethan slapped me, whipped me, and even locked me in the basement. He looked at me with disgust. “You’re too malicious. Who could ever love someone like you?” In the end, I died tragically in that cold, dark basement. Reborn, I knelt before my adoptive mother, declaring with absolute resolve, “I’m willing to marry Damian Vance.” Aurora POV At the twenty-eighth birthday party of billionaire heir, Eric Owens, he gave me the biggest “surprise” of my life. In front of all the powerful elites and media, he walked onto the stage, holding hands with his freshly returned first love, Serena Miller, and took the microphone. “I’d like to use today’s occasion to announce something. Starting tomorrow, the core ‘Stardust’ project of Owens Corp. will be fully managed by Serena as its chief director.” For a moment, the entire banquet hall fell into a deathly silence. Everyone’s eyes, sharp like needles, were directed straight at me. I, Aurora Hayes, was the orphan adopted by the Owens family, Eric’s adopted sister. The entire city knew that I loved Eric like a lunatic. And the ‘Stardust’ project? I’d spent three grueling years, countless sleepless nights, pushing myself to the point of collapse and even landing in the ER with severe stomach issues, just to secure that project for Owens Corp. It was my life’s blood. Now, with a single, dismissive sentence, he took what I’d literally fought for with my life and handed it to his beloved. Everyone held their breath, waiting for me to snap, waiting for me to charge the stage like a madwoman and claw at Serena’s hair, waiting to see the Owens family become a laughingstock. After all, I had once, to drive away women around Ethan, slit my wrists, jumped from a building, and even intentionally crashed my car into Serena’s. But I didn’t. I calmly placed my red wine glass down, took a pre-prepared document and a velvet box from my bag, and walked onto the stage step by step in my high heels. I pushed the documents and the box towards them. “Congratulations, and happy birthday. Here are all the core data and official seals for the ‘Stardust’ project. Serena, welcome back.” The velvet box opened, revealing a priceless Patek Philippe antique watch. I’d saved five years’ worth of earnings to bid on it. At the sound of “Serena,” Ethan’s hand, reaching for the documents, suddenly froze. He lifted his eyelids, his deep, sharp eyes staring intently at me, as if trying to drill a hole through my face. After scrutinizing me for a full thirty seconds, his brow furrowed, and he let out a cold laugh. “Aurora, what game are you playing now?” His tone was full of mockery and suspicion. I looked at the face I had been obsessed with for ten years. He had sword-like brows and star-like eyes, with a cold, rugged facial contour. I once loved this face so much that I would have given my life for it. But now, my heart felt like stagnant water. “No games.” I lowered my eyes. “I genuinely wish you both well. Since Serena is back, I’ll apply tomorrow to transfer to the struggling branch office out in the Pacific Northwest region, to make room.” The Pacific Northwest branch office was the most peripheral, most unprofitable part of the Owens empire, constantly losing money. Going there was like being exiled. Ethan’s brows furrowed deeply. He stared at me, seemingly searching for a trace of pretense on my face, but found nothing. A strange irritation inexplicably rose in his heart. Just as he was about to speak, Serena gently tugged his sleeve. “Ethan, is Aurora angry with me? If she doesn’t want to, I’d rather not take this project…” Her voice was weak and pitiful. Ethan immediately clasped her hand, giving me a cold glance. “If she wants to leave, no one can stop her. Aurora, remember your words. Tomorrow, you’ll go to the Pacific Northwest, and don’t you dare come back without my permission!” “Okay.” I turned and walked off the stage without hesitation, leaving the banquet hall. No one knew I had died once before. In my previous life, at this very birthday party, I had thrown a terrible fit, publicly slapping Serena. To avenge her, Ethan locked me in the basement for an entire month. Later, relying on my adoptive mother’s affection, I pestered him relentlessly, even resorted to drugging Ethan and forcing myself into his bed, practically blackmailing him into marrying me. But a forced marriage was hell. After we married, he treated me like an enemy, constantly suppressing me. He even leaked Owens family secrets to rivals to spite me for Serena, leading to Owens Corp.’s bankruptcy, my adoptive father jumping from a building, and my adoptive mother dying of depression. And I? I was kidnapped by Serena’s rabid fans and tortured to death. Before I died, I called Ethan a hundred times for help. When he finally answered, he only said one thing. “Aurora, what pity are you trying to evoke now? Just die.” Then he hung up. Living this life again, I finally understood: if he doesn’t love you, he just doesn’t love you. My unrequited love ruined the Owens family, and it ruined me. Back at the Owens family mansion, I walked straight to my adoptive mother’s room. I knelt straight down before her. My adoptive mother gasped in surprise, rushing to help me up. “Aurora, what are you doing? Did Ethan bully you again? I heard about him giving the project to Serena. Your mom will go scold him tomorrow!” I shook my head, looking deeply into her eyes. “The Owens family has raised me for ten years. It’s time I repaid their kindness. I hear the company’s cash flow has been cut off, and it desperately needs funding from the Vance family.” I looked up, my eyes filled with resolve. “I am willing to marry Damian of the Vance family.”

Aurora POV “You want to marry Damian?!” My adoptive mother cried out in shock, grabbing my shoulders, her voice trembling. “Aurora, have you lost your mind? Do you know what kind of person Damian is? He’s a cripple! Paralyzed from the waist down, notoriously violent, and rumored to have severe psychological issues! The Vance family found him three fiancées before, one went crazy, and two ended up in the hospital! If you marry him, will you even survive?” I didn’t struggle. I just clasped my mother’s hand back, my voice soft yet firm. “Rumors aren’t always true. Besides, in outsiders’ eyes, aren’t I also a crazy woman who would do anything to snatch my foster brother? Crazy matched with crazy? A perfect fit.” “But…” My mother’s tears fell. “I’ve always treated you like my own daughter. How can I bear to push you into a pit of fire?” “You know the Owens family’s situation better than I do. Ethan emptied the company’s liquid funds to invest in Serena’s movie. If the Vance family doesn’t step in, Owens Corp. won’t last another month.” I calmly analyzed the pros and cons. Seeing my mother’s face gradually turn pale, I added more weight to my argument. “Moreover, as long as I get married, Ethan can be at ease with Serena, no longer needing to guard against me. Owens Corp. is saved, and Ethan is free. It’s a win-win-win situation.” My mother looked at me for a long, long time, finally covering her face and sobbing. “My child… it’s Owens Corp. that has wronged you…” I gently patted her back, my heart filled with a sense of relief. “Please keep this from Ethan for now. I don’t want him to think I’m forcing him into this marriage. In half a month, the Vance family will send someone to pick me up, and we’ll go straight to register the marriage.” Half a month later. Coincidentally, that day was exactly when Eric planned to officially propose to Serena Miller. In my previous life, I ruined his proposal; in this life, I would use my marriage to give him the future he wanted. After comforting my mother, I returned to my room. Pushing open the door, the room was filled with traces of Eric. The walls were covered with photos I’d secretly taken of him; The closet was full of clothes he’d casually bought for me; on the desk was a lighter he’d carelessly tossed aside, which I’d cherished like a treasure. I looked at these things I once held so dear and felt a wave of nausea. I found several large black garbage bags and began to clean. Photos, ripped to shreds. Clothes, cut to pieces. Gifts, smashed. Piece by piece, I swept away ten years of infatuation and delusion into the trash. For three whole hours, I worked up a sweat, my fingers cut by the fragments, but looking at the empty room, I felt a lightness I had never known before. I took a shower and had just lain down to sleep. The door to my room was kicked open with a loud bang. I jolted awake and sat up. Eric stood in the doorway, radiating fury, clutching a tablet in his hand, his eyes as dark as if he intended murder. He strode to the bed and savagely threw the tablet at me. “Aurora, you’ve gotten quite bold, haven’t you? Acting all sweet and sensible on the surface, voluntarily handing over the project, but behind my back, you pull disgusting stunts like this!” I grunted from the impact, frowned, and picked up the tablet. On the screen was a breaking story, trending number one on Ins. #PureSerenaMiller_ExposedAsBullyAndDelinquent# #SerenaMiller_Plagiarism# #SerenaMiller_IntentionalHomewrecker# The exposé included detailed text and images: photos of Serena smoking and fighting in high school, color palettes proving her plagiarism of a new designer’s work, and even suspicious chat logs with several wealthy socialites. The comment section had exploded, full of people cursing Serena. I only glanced at it, then calmly tossed the tablet back onto the bed. “It wasn’t me.” “If not you, then who?!” Ethan grabbed my neck, pressing me against the headboard, the veins on his hand bulging. “In this city, besides you, that crazy woman, who else would relentlessly target Serena? Do you think if you ruin her reputation, I’ll give the project back to you? Dream on!” My breath was stolen, but I didn’t struggle. I just looked at him coldly. “Eric, I told you, it wasn’t me.” “Still trying to argue!” He gnashed his teeth. “In the past, you hired people to slander her, to spread fake news about her. When was it ever not you? Aurora, you’re truly sickeningly malicious!” Just then, hurried footsteps sounded outside the door. Serena, her face streaked with tears, rushed in and threw her arms around Ethan’s arm. “Ethan, stop hitting her! Aurora couldn’t have meant it. She just cares too much about that project. It doesn’t matter if my reputation is ruined, as long as you two siblings don’t turn against each other because of me…” She sobbed, breathless and trembling. Ethan immediately released me, tenderly pulling her into his embrace. When he looked at me again, his eyes were as cold as ice. “Aurora, post on Ins immediately to clarify, publicly admit these were all fabricated by you, and publicly apologize to Serena!”

Aurora POV “Why should I?” I clutched my neck, where red marks had appeared, and coughed violently several times, looking up to meet Eric’s gaze directly. “I will never admit to something I didn’t do.” Ethan’s face instantly darkened to an extreme. He released Serena, stepping towards me, his voice squeezed out through clenched teeth. “Aurora, do you think I’ve indulged you too much? Serena just took over the project, and now with this scandal, partners are threatening to cancel contracts. If you don’t clarify, she’ll be utterly ruined!” “What does her ruin have to do with me?” I sneered. “She knows full well what kind of rotten things she’s done. Eric, protecting her so fiercely, aren’t you afraid you’re protecting trash?” A loud, resounding slap landed squarely on my face. My head snapped to the side, my ears rang, and I tasted blood at the corner of my mouth. The room fell into a deathly silence. Serena covered her mouth, feigning a look of terror. “Ethan, why did you hit her…?” Ethan’s hand hung in mid-air, trembling slightly. He seemed to not have expected to hit me so hard; a fleeting look of regret flashed in his eyes, but it was quickly replaced by coldness. “That’s the price for your sharp tongue.” He said coldly. “Aurora, I’m giving you one last chance. Are you going to post that clarification or not?” I slowly turned my head, wiped the blood from my lips with my thumb, and suddenly laughed. I laughed until tears almost streamed down my face. This was the man I had loved for ten years. For a woman full of lies, he condemned me without seeking the truth, even raising his hand to hit me. “Eric, didn’t you say I was targeting her because I loved you and wanted to snatch the project?” Barefoot, I got out of bed, walked to the corner, and tore open the large black garbage bags. Cut-up clothes, torn photos, smashed gifts, all spilled out onto the floor. Ethan’s pupils suddenly constricted. He stared intently at the framed photo, torn in half, on the ground. It was a picture of him at eighteen, which I had pestered him relentlessly to take. He used to hate it, but I had treasured it and displayed it by my bedside. Now, his face in the photo was shredded beyond recognition. “Did you see clearly?” I pointed to the mess on the floor. “I don’t love you anymore. Your things, I find them disgusting. So, I don’t have the time to target your precious darling.” Ethan’s face instantly turned ashen. “You…” He opened his mouth, but found his throat tight, unable to speak. Serena, seeing this, a flicker of jealousy in her eyes. She quickly pulled Ethan’s sleeve, saying softly and weakly. “Ethan, since Aurora says it wasn’t her, then let’s just drop it. We’ll think of another solution, don’t force her…” Ethan took a deep breath, giving me a cold glance. “It better not be you. Otherwise, I will never let you off the hook.” With that, he pulled Serena and turned to leave. I watched their retreating backs and said coldly. “Get out.” Ethan’s footsteps paused, his back stiffened, but he didn’t look back, striding out. I collapsed onto the floor, looking at the scattered fragments, and closed my eyes. It was over. It was truly over. The next morning, I carried my suitcase downstairs, ready to head to the Pacific Northwest branch office. This was my promise to him, and also a way to find a quiet place to avoid them before the Vance family came to pick me up. As I reached the living room, I saw Ethan and Serena preparing to leave for the company to handle the public relations crisis. Seeing me with my luggage, Ethan frowned. “Where are you going?” “To the company in the Pacific Northwest.” I said blandly. “Didn’t you tell me to get out yesterday?” Ethan choked, his face looking rather unpleasant. Just as he was about to say something, the main door was suddenly burst open from outside. A disheveled woman with bloodshot eyes rushed in, brandishing a gleaming fruit knife, like a madwoman, lunging at Serena. “Serena Miller! You bitch! You plagiarized my work, got me blacklisted from the industry, and my mom jumped from a building to help me with the penalty fees! Today, I’m going to make you pay with your life!” The sudden turn of events happened too fast; everyone was caught off guard. The knife sliced through the air in a cold arc, aiming straight for Serena’s chest.

Aurora POV “Serena!” Ethan’s eyes widened in fury, his body reacting faster than his brain. He instinctively wrapped an arm around Serena’s waist, pulling her fiercely into his embrace, while rapidly spinning his body to avoid the fatal stab. But he forgot I was standing right behind him. His forceful turn, combined with the sheer inertia, directly flung me into the path of the madwoman’s knife. The sound of a blade piercing flesh was eerily clear in the empty living room. A searing pain erupted beneath my left shoulder blade. The cold blade plunged deep into my body, and warm blood immediately gushed out, staining my white shirt crimson. I let out a muffled groan, my legs gave way, and I collapsed heavily onto the floor. “Aurora!” My adoptive mother shrieked, rushing down from upstairs. I clutched my wound, blood continuously oozing from between my fingers. My vision began to blur, but before darkness completely enveloped me, I clearly saw Eric’s face. He was holding a shaken Serena, turning his head to look at me, lying in a pool of blood. His pupils trembled violently, his face a mask of disbelief and a flicker of fleeting panic. He opened his mouth, seeming to call my name. But I could no longer hear. I woke up again in a hospital VIP room. The pungent smell of disinfectant made me frown. The moment I opened my eyes, I saw my adoptive mother sitting by the bed, her eyes swollen like walnuts. “Aurora, you’re finally awake! You scared me to death…” My mother held my hand, tears falling again. I weakly forced a smile. “Mom, I’m fine.” “What do you mean, you’re fine! The wound was barely an inch from your heart!” My mother suddenly turned her head and roared at Eric, who was standing by the window. “Eric, are you blind?! You can protect that bitch all you want, but why did you push Aurora out to take the knife?! She’s your sister!” Ethan stood in the shadows, his face terribly grim. He looked at me, his jawline tight, his voice a little hoarse. “I didn’t mean to. It was an emergency; I didn’t see her behind me.” “Didn’t see?! Who else do you see besides that Serena Miller!” My mother was trembling with rage. “Let me tell you, Aurora is about to…” “Mom!” I used all my strength to cut off my mother’s words. My mother froze for a moment, seeing the pleading in my eyes, and finally swallowed the rest of her sentence. Ethan subtly sensed something was wrong, his brow tightly furrowed. “She’s about to what?” “Nothing.” I looked at him coldly. “Mom means I’m about to go to the Pacific Northwest. I won’t die, so Mr. Owens doesn’t need to worry.” Ethan’s face immediately turned cold. He walked to the bedside, looking down at me, his voice carrying its usual mockery. “Aurora, you don’t need to play the pity card with me. Don’t think that just because you took a knife, I’ll soften up and give you the project back. Your trick is too cheap.” I looked at him, my heart devoid of even a ripple. “Eric, do you have a persecution complex?” I said calmly. “I’ll consider this knife wound repayment for ten years of the Owens family’s hospitality. From now on, I owe you nothing. The door is over there. Get out. I need to rest.” He stared intensely at me, as if trying to see through my pretense, but in the end, he only scoffed coldly. “It better be that way.” With that, he turned and strode out of the room. After a week in the hospital, as soon as my stitches were removed, I insisted on being discharged. The day the Vance family was to pick me up was approaching, and I didn’t want any trouble. On the day of my discharge, it wasn’t my mother who came for me, but Eric’s assistant. The car didn’t return to the Owens mansion but stopped at the entrance of a high-end private club. “Miss Hayes, Mr. Owens is waiting for you inside.” The assistant said respectfully. I frowned and pushed the door open to get out. The private room door opened. Inside, the lights were dim, and the air was thick with the smell of smoke and alcohol. Eric sat at the head of the table, Serena Miller leaning weakly against him. Opposite them sat a man with a fleshy face and vulgar eyes. That was Victor Reed, a notorious scoundrel in the city. Seeing me enter, Victor’s eyes immediately lit up, his gaze brazenly sweeping over me. “Well, well, is this Aurora? She really is a stunner.” My stomach churned, and I looked coldly at Eric. “What do you mean by this?” Ethan flicked the ash from his cigarette, his tone nonchalant. “Serena lost a few major collaborations due to the online scandal. Mr. Reed has a new project that can make up for the losses. Didn’t you say you don’t owe me anything anymore? Spend some time drinking with Mr. Reed tonight, get the contract signed, and then what you owe the Owens family will be completely paid off.” I looked at him in disbelief. To pave the way for Serena, to squeeze out my last bit of value, he was actually pushing me towards a notorious degenerate in their circle? “Eric, you truly sicken me.” I turned to leave. “Stop!” Eric’s voice was as cold as ice. “Aurora, if you dare to step out that door today, I’ll cancel all your cards and kick you out of the Owens family! You’re an orphan; without the Owens family, you’re not even worth a stray dog!”

Aurora POV My footsteps froze in place. Not because I was afraid of being kicked out of the Owens family, but because I was still a member of the Owens family. If I completely broke ties with Eric now, the marriage alliance with the Vance family might run into complications. I had to endure it for another half month. I took a deep breath, turned around, and sat on the far edge of the sofa. Eric looked at my compromise, a flicker of cold satisfaction in his eyes. “Mr. Reed, Aurora is all yours. You two chat nicely.” Eric stood up, wrapping an arm around Serena Miller’s waist as he walked out. As they reached the door, Serena glanced back at me, a malicious smirk playing on her lips. The private room door closed, shutting out the outside world. Victor Reed eagerly moved closer. The pungent smell of cheap cologne mixed with alcohol, making me nauseous. “Aurora, don’t be so cold. Mr. Owens has given you to me. Follow me, and I’ll guarantee you a good life.” He said, picking up a glass of wine and handing it to me. “Come, have a drink, let’s be friends.” I coldly pushed his hand away. “I don’t drink. Mr. Reed, Eric is being crazy; you don’t have to follow suit.” Victor Reed’s face darkened, then he smirked again. “I like feisty women like you. Today, you’ll drink this wine whether you want to or not!” He lunged forward, grabbing my chin and forcing the glass of wine towards my mouth. I struggled desperately; wine spilled all over me, but a small gulp still went down my throat. Victor Reed released me, looking at me triumphantly. “That’s right. This wine has some ‘good stuff’ in it. You’ll soon see how amazing I am.” My heart sank. The drug acted fast. Within minutes, I felt my body burning, my limbs weak and powerless, and my vision began to blur. Victor Reed grinned, unbuckling his belt, and lunged at me. “Get off me!” I bit my tongue, using the sharp pain to regain a sliver of consciousness. The moment Victor Reed lunged, I grabbed the heavy crystal ashtray from the coffee table and, with all my might, smashed it hard onto his head. “Ah!” Victor Reed screamed, clutching his bleeding head, and collapsed onto the sofa. I seized the opportunity, stumbled out of the private room, and ran out desperately. The drug’s effects intensified. My steps were unsteady, and I nearly fell several times. The wound on my left shoulder reopened from the violent movements; blood stained the bandages, but I couldn’t care less about the pain. I don’t know how I escaped the club, how I hailed a cab, or how I got back to the Owens mansion. When I pushed open the Owens family’s front door, I was met not with my mother’s concern, but with an interrogation. The living room was brightly lit. Eric sat in the center of the sofa, his face iron-grey. Serena Miller stood beside him, a smug look of schadenfreude on her face. And opposite them, Victor Reed’s parents were pointing their fingers at me, cursing me. “Mr. Owens, our Reed family came to discuss this partnership *solely* out of respect for you! But this little slut actually caused my son a concussion! Today, your Owens family must give us an explanation, or we’ll call the police and have her thrown in jail!” I lay on the floor, gasping for breath, my whole body burning with discomfort. “He… he drugged me…” I weakly argued. “Drugged you?” Victor Reed’s mother shrieked. “What kind of women does my son not have that he’d need to drug you? Clearly, you, this little slut, seduced him and then attacked him viciously!” Serena Miller also spoke up opportunely. “Yes, Aurora, Mr. Reed is so wealthy, why would he do such a thing? You must have just been too hot-headed. Why don’t you apologize to them?” I looked up, staring intently at Eric. “Eric, do you believe me?” A complex emotion flickered in Eric’s eyes. But in the end, he spoke coldly. “Aurora, you’ve disappointed me greatly. I gave you a chance to do something for the Owens family, but you repaid my kindness with malice, almost causing a death.” He stood up, looking down at me, like he was looking at an incorrigible piece of trash. “Since you’re so disobedient, don’t blame me for not cherishing old ties. I can only punish you according to family rules!” Family rules. Owens family rules for punishment involved a whip with barbed tips. I looked at him in disbelief, my heart completely dead in an instant. “Eric, I still have a knife wound…” My voice was hoarse. “That’s what you get for bringing it on yourself!” Eric coldly interrupted me. “Kneel!” Two bodyguards walked over, forcibly pressing me to the ground. Eric took the whip and, without hesitation, savagely struck my back. Skin ripped open, flesh exposed. I bit my lip hard, not uttering a single scream. Each lash drew beads of blood. After ten lashes, my back was a bloody mess, compounded by the reopened knife wound on my left shoulder, staining a large patch of the carpet. I lay on the floor like a dead dog, even breathing felt painful. “Lock her in the basement.” Eric threw down the blood-stained whip, his voice devoid of any warmth. “No one is to give her water or food without my permission. Let her reflect properly!” The basement door was heavily slammed shut. Darkness completely swallowed me. I curled up in the cold, damp corner, feeling my life draining away, yet my heart was filled with relief. Eric, in this life, I have finally repaid what I owed you, principal and interest. Only three more days until the Vance family comes for me.

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“Your mom was a mistress, so what does that make you?” Liam Vance asked, as he slid a custom-made wedding ring onto my finger. I stared at him, bewildered. “Liam, what are you talking about?” “It makes you a mistress too, baby.” I was speechless, but he looked completely serious. “Be my secret lover.” “There’s a new secretary at the company. She’s very capable and beautiful. She’s more suited to be my wife.” “Then what am I?” I asked, my eyes wide. He put on a fake apologetic face. “If your mom could be someone’s mistress, why can’t you?” It took a moment before I finally said, “My mom is my mom, I am me. I’m not going to be a mistress.” “Oh really?” He sneered. “Then we break up.” “Fine, we break up.” I’d sworn to myself that I would never be a mistress in this life. But Liam didn’t know that. He gently stroked my head. “Don’t be childish, you fool. How would you survive without me?” “Your mom was cyberbullied until she took her own life, and your dad disowned you. Only with me will no one dare to mock you.” I let out a bitter laugh. Who said only with him would no one dare to mock me? I had an Aunt Vivienne. Her business was huge now, and she was incredibly powerful overseas. Last week, she found me and asked if I’d be willing to go abroad with her. I hadn’t gone because I couldn’t bear to leave Liam. Now… I sent Vivienne a message. [Vivienne, I’ve thought it through. I’m coming with you.] Vivienne replied instantly: [Fantastic! I’ll send a private jet to pick you up in three days.] It should have been happy news, but tears streamed down my face without my control. My chest ached, like I’d been bitten by a poisonous insect. I had originally planned to tell Liam about Vivienne as a surprise. Now, it seemed unnecessary. Liam saw me crying and thought I couldn’t bear to break up with him. He reached out to wipe away my tears. “See? You cry at the mere mention of breaking up. If I ever truly left you, wouldn’t you just fall apart?” “Don’t play games with me; it won’t end well. Just continue to be good and listen to me, and you won’t be alone and helpless again.” I sniffled but didn’t speak. Liam thought he’d convinced me. He started the engine, but halfway through, he suddenly stopped. “Oh, right. From today on, you’ll sit in the back seat when you ride with me. Scarlett said that only she can sit in the passenger seat from now on, and I promised her. I can’t go back on my word.” He turned to look at me. “You know, I’ve always been a man of my word. I promised to take care of you for life, and even if I marry someone else, I’ll still look after you.” He smiled. “You don’t know yet, do you? In three days, I’m getting married to her. I had to practically beg and plead for ages before she finally gave in. I can’t risk making her angry again. She’s not as easy to appease as you are. She says she’s a red rose; if you love the flower, you have to accept its thorns.” Liam was lost in his sweet thoughts of her, but I felt truly pricked by a rose’s thorn. A sharp pain shot through my palm. I looked down. Turns out I’d hit an earring when unbuckling my seatbelt, and its sharp point had cut me. I opened my palm, and blood immediately welled up. Liam saw it too, and exclaimed, “How could you be so careless?” I thought he was worried about me. I was about to say it was nothing, that this pain was less than a thousandth of the pain in my heart. But Liam’s next words plunged me back into despair. “That’s her earring. She’s a germaphobe. If she knew her precious earring got dirtied by your blood, she’d be furious.” So, my blood was dirty in his eyes. My head spun with pain. I stared at him blankly for a long time before he finally seemed to register a flicker of apology. He lowered his gaze. “I’ll cover for you this time. Just don’t touch her things in the future.” Then, I watched him pull out a disinfectant wipe and carefully clean the earring. My palm was still bleeding. I could faintly feel it dripping onto my leg, but I was numb, like an idiot. I couldn’t speak, couldn’t move to tend to it. I just sat there, motionless. After he finished wiping it and carefully wrapped it in a clean tissue, placing it in the car’s front drawer, he finally turned to me. “What are you still doing sitting there? Didn’t you hear me tell you to move to the back seat?” My mind finally cleared a little. “No need. I’ll just take a taxi!” “Alright,” Liam said. “There’s a company banquet tonight, and I need to go help her pick out a dress. You can just head home.” With that, he let me out of the car, slammed on the gas, and sped past me. He didn’t care that it was pouring rain outside. He didn’t even throw me an umbrella.

I walked to the bus stop, completely soaked. Everyone looked at me like I was an idiot. And I was. Even at this moment, my mind was replaying all the good things Liam used to do for me. The news about my mom being a mistress broke when I was eighteen. She drove his wife, and the baby in her womb, to their deaths, thinking she could take her place. But after his wife and child died, that man had a complete change of heart and cut off all ties with my mom. Even when my mom tried to use me to threaten him, he remained unmoved. In the end, my mom was forced to give birth to me. The reason the story resurfaced eighteen years later was because the man posted a letter of repentance online. While condemning him, netizens also dug up my mom’s past. After my mom was exposed, I was dragged into it too. Even after my mom was cyberbullied to the point of jumping to her death, those women who had suffered because of mistresses didn’t let me off the hook. It happened both inside and outside school. The classmates in school were milder; they’d just point at me and say “mistresses deserve to die” to my face. But some of the middle-aged women outside school were much more violent. Every day, a group of them would wait by the school gate to throw rotten eggs and vegetable leaves at me. They’d say, “A mistress’s daughter will definitely turn out to be a mistress too!” “Look at her, with that seductive air, even more brazen than her mother!” I knew my mother was guilty, and I wasn’t innocent, so I never resisted. I let them vent their anger on me. This went on for half a year, until Liam stepped in and saved me. “Who says a mistress’s daughter has to become a mistress?” He grabbed one of the middle-aged women and asked, “What does your daughter do?” The woman proudly replied, “My daughter is an accountant at a big company.” Liam then asked, “And what about you?” The woman stammered, unable to answer, so another woman answered for her. “Oh, she sells burgers at a construction site.” Liam said, “See? Your daughter is different from you.” After that, fewer and fewer people came to harass me. My life gradually returned to normal, and then Liam began his intense pursuit of me. He held an umbrella for me when it rained and shaded me when it was sunny. Every evening after study hall, he would quietly walk me to my dorm building. When we ate in the cafeteria, sometimes I’d see a few classmates indignantly splash leftover food and drinks onto my seat. He would also step up and lecture them, “Which of you chose your parents before you were born?” The students were silenced. Liam continued, “And let me ask again, can you guarantee that all your parents and ancestors were upstanding individuals?” The students bowed their heads in shame, and I, too, was captivated by his twisted, yet incredibly persuasive, way of looking at things and his eloquent speech. I agreed to start dating him. To be honest, before meeting him, I hadn’t even thought about dating. My mother’s situation had left me with severe psychological trauma. He was like a light, gradually shining on that shadow, making it completely disappear. And now, standing in the pouring rain, I was utterly confused. How could someone who used to be so, so good, turn into this? Suddenly, my vision went black, and I collapsed.

When I woke up, it was already night. I was lying in a hospital bed with an IV drip in my hand. The doctor said, “You were too emotional. You need to calm down and get some good rest.” I said, “Okay.” Just then, my phone rang. It was Liam. After much hesitation, I answered. “Scarlett’s dress got dirty. Go get that ‘Starry Night’ dress I ordered for you and bring it over. I need it for Scarlett.” So, her name was Scarlett. I silently repeated it to myself. The ‘Starry Night’ dress was custom-made for me by a designer, commissioned by Liam. He intended for me to wear it at our wedding reception. Before, he wouldn’t even let anyone touch it, saying it would defile our love. Now, he casually told me to give it to someone else. Actually, it didn’t matter anymore. It was just that… “Liam, I’m on an IV drip right now.” “You’re perfectly fine, why are you on an IV? Don’t you dare throw a tantrum now, or you’ll regret it.” Fine, I’ll do one last thing for you, consider it repaying the kindness you showed me back then, when you saved me. Without waiting for the IV to finish, I asked the nurse to remove the needle. Once again, I braved the downpour, got into a taxi, went home to get the dress, and rushed to deliver it to him without delay. Liam said, “Scarlett’s waiting for you by the entrance. She wants to thank you. Be respectful.” I mumbled “Mmm” and hung up. But the woman named Scarlett didn’t give me thanks; she gave me a slap. Caught off guard, I was stunned. I spun half a circle, and the dress fell to the ground. Scarlett immediately started to cry, feigning distress. “Scarlett, if you didn’t want to, you could have just said so. Why ruin the dress?” I’m a straightforward person, so I didn’t understand her game at all. But Liam seemed to understand perfectly and immediately walked out of the hotel. Scarlett immediately confronted him, “Liam, is this what you meant by her being obedient and understanding, that she wouldn’t make things difficult for me?” Liam glanced at the dress on the floor, thinking he understood everything. Another slap landed on my face. “It seems I’ve really spoiled you. Apologize to Scarlett immediately.” I was so angry I laughed. “Liam, you’re being so judgmental! Do you know how I got the slap mark on my left cheek?” Scarlett didn’t hide it either. She tugged at Liam’s sleeve. “I hit her, Liam. You’re not mad at me, are you? I was so angry that she threw the dress on the ground, I couldn’t help but hit her.” “You know how bad my temper can be.” Liam instinctively put his arm around her waist. “No, I’m not mad. Good for you.” Scarlett shot me a triumphant smile. Tears welled in my eyes as I smiled back bitterly. I was so stupid. But no matter how stupid I am, you two only have three days left to humiliate me. Once those three days are up, I’ll be gone from your world forever. Liam, I hope you don’t end up like that man my mother had an affair with. Repenting online eighteen years later.

“I’m sorry, Miss Hayes, I shouldn’t have thrown your dress on the ground.” But Scarlett wasn’t about to let me off the hook. “An apology needs to look like an apology, otherwise I’ll think you’re insincere.” “Then how should I show my sincerity?” “Say, in front of everyone, that you want to be Liam Vance’s mistress, that you’re as brazen as your mother… Oh, no, that you’re even more brazen than your mother.” “I don’t want to be a mistress. I’ve already broken up with Liam.” I even took off the ring, the one meant for our wedding, right in front of her. “Here, take it back. We’re completely done.” Liam froze, not reaching for it, and the ring fell to the floor. “I said you want to, so you want to!” Scarlett grabbed my hair and dragged me into the hotel. “Everyone, come look! Here’s a woman practically begging to be someone’s mistress!” Someone asked, “Isn’t that Mr. Vance’s girlfriend?” “Not anymore,” Liam said. “My girlfriend now is Scarlett Hayes, the new secretary at the company.” “I see.” Everyone exchanged knowing smiles. A woman stepped forward and said, “I told you a mistress’s daughter would inherit the same tendency. And here I thought Mr. Vance used to defend her.” Scarlett chimed in, “Exactly! She even slapped herself twice to gain sympathy.” “But our Liam is an upright gentleman; he’s not fooled by her seductive tricks.” As Scarlett said this, she leaned closer into Liam’s arms. I saw Liam’s expression falter, but he still echoed Scarlett, “Baby’s right.” I felt another pang. Just as I was about to explain, someone splashed a drink on me. “You’re an embarrassment to women. Are there no other men left, that you have to chase after someone else’s?” The drink was aimed almost directly at my open mouth. I choked, unable to utter a single word, and started coughing violently. Then others followed suit, splashing another drink directly on my face. “Die, mistress!” Then countless more drinks came, some hitting my chest, some my head. Someone even grabbed my jaw, forcing my mouth open, and continuously poured alcohol down my throat. I was being openly tormented as a ‘mistress,’ while Scarlett Hayes, the real mistress, laughed gleefully in Liam’s arms. I couldn’t even cry out that it was a setup before I was pushed to the ground. After the drinks, they started kicking and punching me. It was happening. The thing I feared most was happening. My mom went through something similar before she died. In the end, unable to bear the humiliation, she climbed to the hotel rooftop and jumped. The reason I broke up with Liam so decisively was because I was afraid of this day. But it still came, framed as my fault. The shadows that Liam had once dispelled gathered again, engulfing me in darkness. My world had no more sunlight. The light that once shone on me was now shining on someone else. I saw Liam smiling at Scarlett, tears in his eyes. How happy must he be? Liam, why were you the one who saved me from the depths, and also the one who threw me back into them? Suddenly, like a madwoman, I broke free from the crowd, got into the elevator, just like my mom, and went straight to the hotel rooftop. Perhaps also reminded of my mom, Liam, who had followed me, suddenly looked panicked and shouted, “Rose, no…” But I didn’t imitate my mom and jump. Instead, I went up, climbing step by step onto the rope ladder lowered by a helicopter.

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My dad had been single since my mom passed away. But recently, I heard he was seeing a young woman. I rushed home to check. The moment I pushed open the master bedroom door, I saw Jennifer, my gold-digging friend, lying on my dad’s bed in a camisole, taking selfies with her phone. She saw me, casually ran a hand through her hair, and smirked. “Truth is, your dad has already agreed to marry me.” I couldn’t help but let out a scoff. “Oh really?” She seemed surprised by my calmness, freezing for a moment before looking even more smug. “From now on, I’m your stepmom! As long as you don’t cause trouble, we can still be besties. And I won’t shortchange you on your allowance.” Watching her smug face, I laughed even harder. Had my dad not told her that my mom left all of our family’s assets for me to inherit? My dad was just a broke parasite living in my house! I watched Jennifer’s self-satisfied expression, swallowing the sarcastic retort that was on the tip of my tongue. Spoiling the fun now would be pointless. Since she wanted to play the clown, I’d give her a stage. “So, you and my dad already signed the marriage certificate?” I raised an eyebrow. Jennifer immediately pulled a marriage certificate from the drawer and slapped it onto the nightstand. “See?” She lifted her chin, her eyes full of provocation. “Musa went to Dubai to finalize that multi-billion dollar oil field project. He made sure to marry me before he left.” “He said he didn’t want me to feel slighted, so he didn’t even make me sign a prenup.” I almost lost my composure. Musa went to Dubai? He was clearly hiding from creditors in another city. His marketing company had imploded last week, leaving him with an eighty-million-dollar debt. The creditors were practically at our doorstep. That old scammer actually managed to con an ignorant young woman into marriage before skipping town. He probably just wanted to use Jennifer as a shield. I nodded, pretending to be convinced. “So, what’s the proper way to address you now?” Jennifer giggled, covering her mouth. “Don’t blame me. It’s not my fault your dad is loaded, is it? You used to treat me like a sidekick, throwing a few designer bags my way and thinking you were superior. Well, now I’m your stepmom.” The words had barely left her mouth when a thunderous banging erupted downstairs. Followed by the shouts of several rough voices. “Careful with those! If you scratch this imported flooring, you won’t be able to afford the repairs!” I frowned, got up, and walked to the corridor to look down. A dozen burly men in moving company uniforms were streaming into the living room, carrying large bags and boxes. Leading them, barking orders, were a flamboyant middle-aged couple. They were Jennifer’s parents, Laura and Kevin. Kevin strolled around with his hands behind his back, like a petty king surveying his domain, touching everything. “This couch leather is no good. The color’s too dark. Have someone replace it with real leather tomorrow, and change the color too!” Laura nodded enthusiastically. “Exactly. Jennifer’s a wealthy socialite now. This house needs to be redecorated to our taste.” I turned to look at Jennifer, who had followed me out. She met my gaze defiantly. “My parents worked hard to raise me. Now that I’ve married into money, of course, I’m bringing them here to enjoy it.” “This villa has five floors, it’s practically empty anyway.” I watched the farce downstairs with a cold gaze, saying nothing. Jennifer mistook my silence for submission, and her arrogance grew. She walked to the guest bedroom door, pushing it wide open. That was my art studio, filled with many antique pieces my mom had left behind. “This room gets great light, perfect for my parents.” She pointed to the portrait of my mom on the wall. “Get rid of all this junk. It’s bad luck to look at.” My hands, hanging at my sides, instantly clenched. “Those are my things,” I said softly. Jennifer sneered, taking two steps closer. “Victoria, do you even understand what’s happening? “Your dad personally said I’m in charge of this house from now on.” “Don’t think just because you’re Musa’s ex-wife’s daughter that you don’t have to listen to me. I’m the lady of the house now!” She turned and yelled downstairs, “Dad! Mom! Come up and pick your rooms!” Her parents heard the commotion and clomped upstairs. Laura’s eyes immediately lit up at the sight of the bed in my art studio. “Oh, this bed looks so grand!” She plopped down on it, bouncing twice with exaggerated force. “This room is ours now,” Laura declared, pointing at me. “You, hurry up and clear your stuff out.” Kevin chimed in. “Victoria, I’m not trying to be mean. But you’re old enough. Why don’t you hurry up and find someone to marry and move out?” “What kind of sense does it make to just cling to your father’s house all day?” I looked at this family of brazen intruders. These idiots were truly audacious. I pulled out my phone and started recording. “Fine, move whatever you want.” “But I’ll warn you, if you damage even one item in this room, you won’t be able to afford to replace it.” Jennifer rolled her eyes. “Who are you trying to scare? This is Musa’s house! If I break something, I’m only breaking my own stuff!” With that, she picked up an expensive vase from the table, let go, and with a crisp “CRASH!” sound, porcelain fragments scattered across the floor. Jennifer looked at me defiantly. “I broke it. What are you going to do about it?”

The sound of the shattering vase echoed in the hallway. I looked at the pink porcelain fragments on the floor, my heart giving a sudden wrench. That was my mom’s favorite piece. I suppressed the urge to slap her, aiming my phone’s camera at the mess and Jennifer’s triumphant face. Video saved, cloud synced. It was all done in one smooth motion. Jennifer didn’t take my actions seriously at all. She thought I was just having a fit of impotent rage. “What? Heartbroken?” She kicked a piece of the broken vase. “From now on, I don’t want to see any of these old-fashioned things around here.” Laura clapped her hands in approval. “Exactly! Jennifer’s the lady of the house now, what’s wrong with smashing a stupid vase?” Kevin was even more outrageous, walking directly to my jewelry cabinet and violently yanking at the drawers. “What’s the password? Let’s see if there’s anything valuable.” I watched them coldly. “The drawers have fingerprint locks. Forcibly prying them open will trigger the alarm automatically.” Kevin jumped in surprise, quickly pulling his hand back. Jennifer glared at me, then turned to soothe her dad. “Dad, what’s the rush? When Musa gets back, I’ll have him give you the whole cabinet.” I was tired of watching these clowns, so I turned and went back to my bedroom, planning to settle accounts with them when my dad returned. That afternoon, the villa completely became Jennifer’s family playground. Laura invited all her friends over, playing music loudly and without restraint in the living room. Kevin gathered his usual crew of shady friends, having a barbecue and drinking competition by the heated pool. The place reeked of smoke and alcohol, a chaotic circus. I put on my noise-canceling headphones and sat in my study, going through company documents. I had always been the actual controlling shareholder of Victoria Group. Musa was nothing more than a figurehead CEO, drawing a fixed salary every month. Now that he’d stirred up trouble and run off, there was a pile of messes at the company waiting for me to clean up. As I was reviewing documents, my door was suddenly pounded on with earth-shattering force. I took off my headphones and walked over to open the door. Jennifer, wearing a high-end designer nightgown and holding a stack of blueprints, stood aggressively outside. Behind her was a man in a suit, wearing a badge identifying him as the director of a well-known renovation company. “Victoria, you need to clear out those guest rooms on the first floor, immediately.” She slapped the blueprints against my chest. “I hired a top designer. We’re knocking out the walls on the first floor to build a private cinema and a wine cellar.” I didn’t take the blueprints, letting them fall to the floor. “You’re renovating?” “Duh! This old house has such a bad layout, it doesn’t match my status.” The designer stepped forward at the opportune moment, a professional smile on his face. “Ms. Victoria, I presume? Mrs. Musa has chosen our most premium full-home custom design package.” “The initial budget is around eight million dollars.” I almost burst out laughing. Eight million dollars? Musa couldn’t even scrape together eighty thousand right now. I looked at Jennifer with amusement. “Eight million is no small sum. Do you have enough money?” Jennifer looked as if she’d heard the funniest joke. She pulled a black card from her bag, held it between two fingers, and waved it in front of my face. “Open your eyes and look closely. This is a supplementary card Musa gave me before he left.” “Forget eight million, I can swipe eighty million with this!” I was all too familiar with that card. Musa had specifically gotten it from the bank to curry favor with me when I graduated college. The main card was with me; he had always kept the supplementary card to maintain appearances. Last month, after his investment failed, I directly set the supplementary card’s limit to zero. I took a step back and gestured. “Since Mrs. Musa is so well-off, then go ahead and swipe it.” The designer immediately pulled out a portable POS machine and presented it to Jennifer with both hands. “Mrs. Musa, please pay the thirty percent deposit first, which is two point four million dollars.” Jennifer confidently tapped the card against the machine. “Beep—Transaction failed.”

Jennifer’s smile froze. She snatched the POS machine. “How is that possible! Is the machine broken?” The designer’s expression shifted slightly, but he maintained his politeness. “Mrs. Musa, our equipment is checked daily. Perhaps you’d like to try a different card?” Jennifer grew frantic, beads of sweat forming on her forehead. “Why would I try another card! This is an unlimited black card!” She tapped the card again. “Beep—Transaction failed. Insufficient funds.” This time, the machine’s voice was exceptionally loud and clear. I watched her performance. “It seems Mr. Musa’s assets aren’t as substantial as you imagined.” Jennifer spun around abruptly, glaring at me fiercely. “Shut up! This must be your doing!” “Musa is in Dubai negotiating a multi-billion dollar project, how could he be out of money!” She fumbled for her phone and called Musa. “I’m sorry, the number you have dialed is currently switched off.” The mechanical female voice became the final straw that broke her. The designer’s gaze had already shifted from respectful to suspicious. “Mrs. Musa, if there are financial difficulties, our cooperation can be put on hold for now…” “Who says I don’t have money!” Jennifer shrieked. She would never allow herself to be humiliated in front of her rival. She yelled downstairs, “Mom! Come up here!” Laura, who had been swaying to the music, rushed upstairs. “What’s wrong?” Jennifer pulled her into a corner and whispered a few words. Laura’s face changed drastically, and she waved her hands repeatedly. “No, no, absolutely not! That’s the money for your brother Gerald’s house!” Jennifer stomped her foot in exasperation. “Mom! Think long-term! When Musa comes back, this whole villa will be mine!” “I’ll pay you back tenfold, a hundredfold!” Under her relentless badgering, Laura gritted her teeth and pulled out a passbook. A full two point four million dollars was transferred directly into the renovation company’s account. Watching the designer leave, satisfied with the receipt, Jennifer finally regained her composure. She walked up to me, chin held high. “See? That’s what you call leverage.” “Tomorrow night, I’m hosting a housewarming party here, and celebrating my marriage, of course.” “I’ve invited all the socialites and our university classmates.” She reached out and poked my shoulder. “You’d better behave yourself. If you dare to ruin my party, I’ll cut off your allowance immediately!” I patted the spot where she’d poked me. “Don’t worry, I’ll make sure to prepare a grand gift for you.” The next evening, the villa was brightly lit. Jennifer, wearing a rented designer gown bought with the few thousand dollars Musa had left her, mingled through the crowd. Most of the guests were our university classmates. These people, who used to flock around me, were now all gathered around Jennifer, fawning over her. “Jennifer, you’re so low-key! I can’t believe you became Mrs. Musa without a word.” “This villa must be worth hundreds of millions! I’m so jealous.” Norris, our class monitor, raised his glass, his face dripping with sycophancy. Jennifer covered her mouth, giggling, shaking all over. “Musa just spoils me too much. He insisted on transferring this house to my name.” As she spoke, her gaze dismissively swept towards me, sitting in the corner. “Victoria, you don’t need to be too sad.” “Even though your dad remarried, as your stepmother, I definitely won’t treat you badly.” All eyes in the room instantly focused on me. There was pity, schadenfreude, and most of all, the greedy anticipation of a good show. Norris immediately jumped out to side with Jennifer. “Victoria, what are you waiting for? Why aren’t you coming over to toast Jennifer?” “Exactly, it’s a happy occasion, who are you sulking for?” A few other girls chimed in. Jennifer walked up to me, holding out a glass of red wine. “Victoria, call me ‘Mom,’ and this drink can be our truce.” She lowered her voice, speaking only loud enough for the two of us to hear. “If you don’t, tomorrow I’ll dig up your mom’s urn and throw it into the artificial lake for the fish.” My eyes instantly turned cold. “Jennifer, do you really think that just because Musa married you, this house is your kingdom?” Jennifer was unnerved by my glare but forced herself to maintain her aggressive demeanor. “Isn’t it? Musa is the CEO of Victoria Group!” She pulled a document from her bag and held it high. “Open your eyes and look! This is the prenuptial agreement Musa gave me!” “Half of the shares under his name have all been transferred to me!” A gasp erupted from the crowd. I looked at the flawed agreement and finally couldn’t help but burst into laughter.

Jennifer was infuriated by my laughter. “What are you laughing at! You’re at your wit’s end and still playing dumb!” She violently threw the agreement at my face. I tilted my head slightly, the paper grazing my ear as it flew past and scattered on the floor. “I’m laughing at how pathetically foolish you are.” I took a step closer to her. “Didn’t Musa tell you?” “I am the legal representative of Victoria Group, and I am also the 100% controlling shareholder.” “He doesn’t own a single cent of shares. What could he possibly transfer to you?” At these words, the entire room erupted in an uproar. Jennifer froze, then reacted as if she’d heard the most ridiculous joke. “Impossible! You’re lying!” Laura became frantic, rushing over and pointing a finger at me, screaming obscenities: “Bitch, you think you can swallow our family’s wealth? Over my dead body! Get her out of here!” Kevin immediately rallied a few relatives, who aggressively surrounded me. They pushed and shoved, and I, outnumbered, was directly dragged downstairs and unceremoniously thrown into the front yard. I stood in the yard, looking at these brazen squatters, took a deep breath, and pulled out my phone to call the property manager. “Bring your people over. Someone is attacking the owner at the Victoria residence.” In less than three minutes, several patrol cars pulled up to the villa. A dozen security personnel quickly got out, encircling the entire yard. I looked coldly at Jennifer on the steps. “Get out now, while you still can.” When the property manager walked forward, I froze — it was a completely unfamiliar face. He glanced at us, frowning. “I’m the new property manager, Johnson. Who called the police just now?” Jennifer, initially startled, then became ecstatic. She scurried over on her high heels, shoving the two documents in Johnson’s face. “Mr. Johnson, is it? Open your eyes and see, I am Musa’s legal wife, the owner of this villa! Here’s our marriage certificate!” She pointed at me, her face contorted with rage: “This crazy woman is not only refusing to leave my house but is also trying to seize Musa’s assets! Hurry up and have your security guards throw her out!” Johnson carefully examined the names on the marriage certificate, immediately adopting a fawning smile. “Ah, Mrs. Musa, my apologies. Don’t worry, we will absolutely not let any unauthorized persons disturb your life.” He turned and commanded the security guards behind him: “What are you waiting for? Grab this troublemaking woman and get her out of here!” I laughed in exasperation, pulling out my phone to call Musa, wanting him to get back here immediately and clear things up. However, only the cold, mechanical voice came through the receiver: “I’m sorry, the number you have dialed is currently switched off.” “Still trying to call Musa to complain?” Jennifer walked over, looking smug. “Victoria, you’re a pathetic stray now!” She gave a signal, and Jennifer’s aggressive relatives and the security guards immediately stepped forward, pinning my shoulders down. Norris and his opportunistic classmates also joined in the jeering, surrounding me. During my struggle, my arm was roughly twisted behind my back, and my knee was brutally kicked. A wave of humiliation instantly washed over me. “Let go of me!” I gritted my teeth, glaring at her. “Still daring to glare at me?” Jennifer sneered, turning and running into the house. When she came back out, she was holding the portrait of my mom. “Jennifer, I dare you to touch her!” My eyes blazed with fury, desperately trying to break free, but I was pinned down by several burly men, unable to move. “What do I have to be afraid of?” Jennifer held the portrait high above her head. “Victoria, aren’t you so tough?” “Now, kneel down and call me ‘Mom’! Otherwise, I’ll smash your mother’s portrait to pieces right now and throw it into the grimy ditch outside!” “Kneel! Hurry up and kneel!” The relatives and classmates around us burst into loud laughter. Humiliation and rage surged wildly in my chest, my eyes stung with unshed tears, but I bit my lip hard, refusing to shed a single tear. “Kneel! Not going to kneel, huh?” Jennifer exerted force with both hands, about to violently smash the portrait to the ground— Just at my most desperate, most humiliated moment. “Screech—BANG!” Brake sounds ripped through the air, and a black sedan skidded, slamming into the ornate iron gate outside the yard. The car door opened, and a disheveled man was kicked out from inside. He looked like a pathetic stray. Jennifer recognized the person, excitedly putting the portrait aside, stumbling and rushing towards him. “Musa, you’re finally back!”

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My husband, Elias, was the Alpha of the Dubois pack and the CEO of a major company. Two months into my pregnancy, I saw his Beta, Vivian, post an update on Ins. The photo showed Elias with his arms around her, holding up a red lace bra. “My boyfriend is too passionate, he ripped my bra! Good thing he bought me a new lace one!” I quietly liked the post, then destroyed all the baby items I’d bought. Elias called just as I finished burning the last one. He hurriedly explained: “The company designed new lingerie that needs promotion. Vivian and I were just acting… if you like it…” “No need,” I said, touching my still-flat belly. “Advertising and marketing, I get it.” After hanging up, I called my father, Arthur, the Alpha of the Ashclaw pack. “Dad, I agree to come back as the Ashclaw pack’s Alpha heir and take over your company.” Elias, this time, I’m truly done with you. Outside, the snow fell thick and fast. By the time Elias came home, I had already decided to divorce him. Seeing that I didn’t greet him as usual, he immediately looked annoyed. “Why didn’t you come to meet me?” “It’s snowing so heavily, weren’t you worried I wouldn’t make it back?!” He complained as he kicked off his shoes. Snowmelt mixed with mud stained the carpet. In the past, I would have carefully wiped his shoes with a towel, then handed him a cup of coffee I’d brewed myself. But now, “I don’t feel like moving!” Elias’s expression froze instantly. His Adam’s apple bobbed twice. “Then where’s my coffee?” “Forgot.” “Forgot?!” After a deathly silence, “Clara, what’s gotten into you now?” “Is it just because of those pictures?…” He excitedly reached for my hand, but I deliberately avoided him, still holding my coffee cup. “New products need promotion, I told you about it.” “Don’t always use your pregnant-woman tantrums to pressure me. I can’t handle it…” “You’re overthinking it,” I calmly interrupted, my legs tucked under the blanket, shrinking back involuntarily. Pea-sized snow pellets rattled against the window, reminding me of the blizzard night half a month ago, when he’d frowned just like this. “The company’s new products are launching. You don’t have to drag me along for a prenatal check-up.” Then, he’d spoken softly to Vivian on the other end of the phone, “I remember every one of your efforts. Don’t worry, no matter what the future holds, I’ll do my best to be with you.” But that day, I walked home alone through the blizzard. Elias’s fingertips pressed a red mark between his brows. Finally, he pulled out a cheaply packaged item from his briefcase. “La Perla!” “Same color, same style!” He tossed the lingerie in front of me with a “don’t be ungrateful” look. “Satisfied now?” I stared at the lingerie lying in the most ordinary plastic bag from a convenience store. The gold-embossed logo was crooked and half-missing. It was completely different from the one he’d given Vivian. But I still calmly said “thank you,” then continued scrolling on my phone without looking up. Elias’s brows suddenly furrowed. He grabbed my arm. “I satisfied your vanity, so why are you still giving me attitude?” “Vivian wore this exact collection. Everyone online is talking about it. So many people are fighting to get their hands on it! And this is your attitude?” What else did he expect? “What else should I do?” “Kneel for you? Or transfer money to you?” The flowing air instantly fell into a deadly silence. I didn’t want to argue anymore. I threw off the blanket and walked straight to the bedroom. Behind me, I heard the crash of Elias kicking over the coffee table. But I truly couldn’t think of a way to express gratitude to him—for using a fake to excuse his betrayal under the guise of “promotional needs.” And then, under the name of “vanity,” reducing all my grievances and disappointment to irrational pregnancy hormones. It was utterly pointless. I changed into clean clothes and walked to the front door. Elias’s furious roar followed me to the entryway, “Where are you going in this blizzard? You’re pregnant, what if something happens?!” I fastened the last button on my coat, unable to help but curl my lips into a smile. “So you do remember I’m pregnant, Elias…” I put on my shoes. “Do you remember the last time you left me at the hospital?” “I was thinking the same thing!” “In a blizzard, while pregnant, what if something happens?!” “And what happened?” I spread my hands, then walked out the door without looking back. Just before the security door closed, I heard the sound of a cup shattering on the floor. But I didn’t panic and rush back like before, to clean up the mess and appease him with a forced smile. Instead, I straightened my back and stepped into the waiting cab outside. The swirling snow hit the car windows, and a long-forgotten lightness washed over my heart. My father, Arthur, is the Alpha of the Ashclaw pack. He always hoped I would inherit his company. Before I met Elias, I worked at my father’s company. Everyone there recognized my abilities, and my father wanted me to be the Ashclaw pack’s Alpha heir. Then, I met Elias, my fated mate. We fell in love quickly, married quickly. Because he said “I need you,” I gave up my chance to become the Ashclaw pack’s Alpha heir and became a homemaker instead. I put away company documents, and my ink-stained fountain pen was tucked into a drawer. And now, I could finally pursue my career without any reservations.

The scent of coffee and paper filled the office. The employees buzzed around me, and first among them was my father’s Beta, Joe. He handed me a thick stack of documents. “I knew you wouldn’t be trapped in a gilded cage forever.” I took the documents and said a sincere “thank you!” In the three years I’d been married to Elias, I truly made him my entire world. From taking care of every household chore to being his unwavering support, and finally giving up the most brilliant career of my life. Thankfully, I finally realized that love couldn’t be everything in life. I finished processing the last email, and it was late when I got home. The dim yellow light stretched Elias’s desolate figure. I didn’t pay attention to his expression, only seeing the mess in the living room. He was drinking. This was the first time in three years, outside of company dinners, that he was drinking alone at home. I suppressed my shock and placed my briefcase in the entryway. He rushed over and grabbed me. “Where were you?” I didn’t speak, taking off my shoes. “I asked where you were!” His voice unconsciously rose. He saw the company documents still in my hand and suddenly looked enlightened. “Clara, are you serious? So upset with me that you run away from home? You know how much I hate you meddling in company affairs, but you deliberately went to your Dad’s just to spite me. When are you going to grow up?” I stared at his pale face, speechless for a moment, finally dismissing all his questions with a cold scoff. “What do you mean…” He grabbed me from behind. “It’s not still about that lingerie, is it?” “I already explained, it was for new product promotion, and besides, I bought you the same one. What more do you want?” Dried coffee stains pricked under my fingernails. I coolly pulled my hand away. “Yes, what more do I want?” “Are you done talking? If so, I’m going to sleep.” He suddenly kicked over the shoe rack. Shoes clattered against the wall, dislodging plaster dust that mingled with the smell of paper and ink. “Every time, you put on that deadpan face!” “You’re throwing away a perfectly good life, just to get involved with those disreputable people. Clara, what do you even consider our marriage to be?!” His hysterical accusations were as grating as the howling winter wind outside. But I still said nothing. Before any black-and-white argument, I always believed silence could pierce through all stubborn rationalizations. That night, the sharp pop of an aluminum can being opened sliced through the entire night sky. I sat on the edge of the bed, studying my phone, and heard Elias’s deliberately lowered voice from the living room. “When will she ever be like you?” The next day, I opened my bedroom door. I saw Elias slumped in front of the empty cans, a pile of cigarette butts still askew in last night’s spilled drink. In the past, I would have silently cleaned up the mess and carefully found a way for us to reconcile. Even if my heart ached with injustice, I would have used the gentlest smile and actions to gloss over the argument as a minor bump in life. But now, I walked straight past the cans and out the door. Before closing it, I heard Elias growl, “If you’re so capable, then never come back!” That was exactly what I was planning. Since resigning from the company three years ago, I hadn’t touched those business documents again. Now that I had the chance, I wouldn’t squander this freedom. Following Joe’s arrangements, I signed up for the Alpha heir assessment at my father’s company, three days from now. “It’s a long journey, and you might be gone for a year or more. Are you really not going to discuss it with him?” Joe’s voice crackled with static. I traced the unfinished “Company’s Three-Year Plan” on my phone’s screen. It was a draft I’d worked on three years ago, when I was the executive director at my father’s company, a path I’d stopped for Elias. But now, “No need to discuss it. We’re getting divorced soon.”

Back home, Elias stood in front of the mirror, dressed in a custom-tailored suit. His fingertips combed through his sideburns with an Italian handmade comb. His slicked-back hair highlighted his increasingly handsome and sharp features. “I have a client dinner tonight,” he said without looking up. Then he pulled out his phone, a smile playing on his lips, and walked out the door. That smile was identical to the one Vivian posted on her social media. A laugh so free, so gentle, with an indulgent warmth that lingered in the corners of his eyes and brows. I remembered three years ago, he used to smile at me like that. On a snowy street, he’d wrapped my shivering shoulders in a thick coat, then wound a scarf around my neck layer by layer, saying with a smile, “See, this way my little heir won’t turn into a snowman.” But now, he warmed someone else’s winter with that same smile. The starlight in his eyes no longer belonged to me. I knew he was with Vivian again. Since I got pregnant, he often came home late. Every time I tried to FaceTime him, I could always see Vivian nearby. I became anxious, trying every way to hold onto him. But in the end, all I got was his, “Can you just stop being so annoying?” That evening, I clicked on Instagram on a whim. I saw Vivian’s new photos. Elias stood beside her. Both held the same bottle of champagne, smiling brightly in front of a giant champagne tower. The caption read: “Wherever you are, it’s always radiant.” Below it was a heart emoji from Elias. “Wherever you are, I’m never alone.” In the past, I would have cried hysterically, then screamed and questioned him like a madwoman, “Who exactly is your wife? Did you ever consider my feelings?” But at that moment, I quietly closed my phone and slept through the night. In the early morning, I was startled awake by a violent banging on the door. Elias, reeking of alcohol, threw back my blanket. “I said I had a client dinner, but I didn’t say I wouldn’t eat, did I?” “Clara, are you too lazy to even prepare a late-night snack for me now? How can you be so cold and heartless!” His chest heaved violently, leaving me momentarily stunned. In the past, whenever he had client dinners, no matter how late, I would meticulously prepare a table of late-night snacks. But each time, he would push them away with a frown, then turn around and post exquisite late-night meals shared with others on social media. I rubbed my sleepy eyes and said in as calm a tone as possible, “You didn’t say you were coming back to eat. You always eat out for client dinners. I can’t exactly chase after you asking if you’ve eaten, can I? Wouldn’t that make you look like you’re henpecked? Besides, Vivian was still there.” Before, every time I questioned him, it would provoke his impatience. He hated every text and question from me, especially when he was with Vivian. So, hearing what I said, his tightly furrowed brows instantly relaxed. “That’s not what I meant. Isn’t preparing late-night snacks part of your duty? The only reason I’m with Vivian is for new product launches. Don’t make a big deal out of nothing, or stir up trouble.” I nodded, looking like I understood. “I’m not making a big deal, and I’m not stirring up trouble. I just want to sleep now.” With that, I pulled the blanket over my head, no longer paying attention to his expression as I used to. But that burning gaze didn’t leave me for a long time. That night, the living room light stayed on. The next day, I woke up early, washed up, and walked straight to the entryway to change my shoes. Elias sat at the dining table with his arms crossed. I knew he was waiting for breakfast, but I didn’t give him a chance to speak. I closed the door without looking back. The cold wind bit, and I pulled my coat tighter. In that moment, I felt no sadness, no grief. Only a kind of numb calm. As they say, a heart doesn’t die in a sudden storm, but slowly with countless small disappointments, eroding what was once burning passion. On my way back, Elias sent a text message. He said the new product had successfully launched, and he was planning a celebration party at home. He asked me, for the sake of our marriage, not to make things awkward. It was the first time he’d spoken to me in such a pleading tone, and the first time his voice had an almost imperceptible tremor at the end. The ridiculous thing was, it wasn’t because of me. But I still agreed. Not for Elias, or for anyone else, but to use this opportunity to bring a conclusion to this broken relationship. Just my luck, as I opened the door, I saw Vivian sitting in my spot, holding my wine glass, laughing and drinking with Elias.

The room full of laughter stopped abruptly the moment I pushed open the door. Elias, even more flustered, quickly pulled his hand away from Vivian’s. “The new product sales hit ten thousand, so I invited everyone to celebrate.” His pale explanation couldn’t hide the panic in his eyes. He feigned composure and stepped back, gesturing for me to sit in the empty seat next to him. But I didn’t even glance at it, walking straight to the sofa. Vivian’s gaze swept over me, a triumphant smile on her lips. As she raised her glass and approached, her expression shifted to one of reluctant apology. “Oh, Luna Clara, we got a bit carried away and rudely showed up without your permission. This is the wine I brought, please have a taste.” At that moment, all eyes were on me. Curiosity, scrutiny, speculation – I saw it all. Only Elias stood frozen in place. In the past, he was the most opposed to me drinking. At every gathering, he would rush to snatch my glass, saying in an almost scolding tone, “She can’t handle alcohol, she shouldn’t drink.” Then he would tip his head back and down it himself. But now, the white glare of the chandelier fell on his bewildered face. His Adam’s apple bobbed, yet he said nothing. I took the glass and, under everyone’s gaze, drank the wine. The hot, fiery liquid burned down my throat, much like the burning warmth in his palm three years ago at our wedding, when he lovingly held my hand and swore to give me a home. I thought I had held eternity. I set the glass down. Elias’s phone on the table flashed glaringly. It was him. “How could you just drink wine?” “You’re still pregnant…” “Even if you didn’t drink, no one was forcing you. Can you stop being so angry with me and tormenting yourself like this?” “Please, think about our child, okay?” I stared at the messages scrolling like a barrage of texts, every word packed with “sincere emotion.” Yet not a single one came from the bottom of his heart. I put my phone face down on the table and quietly ate the food in my bowl. Someone at the table looked enviously at Elias. “Alpha Elias’s company is growing stronger, he has a beautiful wife, and soon a new baby – truly a winner in life!” A chorus of agreement followed. Elias couldn’t hide the smile on his face. He uncharacteristically cut a steak and pushed it towards me, but I refused and pushed it back. In that moment, I ignored all his subtle expressions, ignored the constantly vibrating phone, and focused on eating my own meal. Someone suddenly said, “I’ve heard Luna Clara is especially beautiful and virtuous. She and Alpha Elias are truly a perfect match!” Everyone echoed the sentiment. Only I, with a darkened expression, pulled out the medical report for my unexpected miscarriage. “Elias, let’s get a divorce.” “I want to break our mate bond.”

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The day I went into labor, I was wheeled into the delivery room, only to find my husband, Liam Hayes’s childhood friend, Chloe Miller, was there to deliver my baby. She was wearing a tight, suggestive nurse uniform, holding a toy syringe, and posing for the camera. I was drenched in cold sweat from the pain. I forced myself to sit up and looked around. The entire delivery room was rigged with cameras, but there wasn’t a single professional obstetrician. My husband, Liam Hayes, stood by the operating table, reassuring me, “Chloe is an actress. She’s been working hard to land a role as a midwife in a film. Just let her practice on you one more time.” My lips trembled in shock. I shook my head desperately, pleading, as blood drenched the bedsheets beneath me. But he ignored me, pointing his camera at Chloe. “Go ahead, no one will come in to disturb your performance.” Chloe couldn’t even tell the surgical instruments apart, constantly simpering for the camera. “Scarlett, don’t be scared, I’m here. I won’t cause you to miscarry like the last two times.” Excruciating pain ripped through my body. I struggled to grab Chloe’s hand. “Get, get a doctor…” She shrieked and threw herself into Liam’s arms. “Ew, Liam, my hands are all bloody! It’s disgusting, I’m so scared!” He shielded Chloe, glaring at me with a look of disgust. “Scarlett, are you doing this on purpose? Can’t you just cooperate with Chloe to finish this performance?” Performance? I was enduring a woman’s most painful moment, yet they blamed me for not cooperating. The next second, Chloe walked towards me with a syringe. “An injection of this will keep you from moving around.” I widened my eyes in terror. They ignored my desperate pleas, injecting the anesthetic into my body. When I woke up again, the baby in my belly was gone. I cried until I couldn’t breathe… I made up my mind to call the police. I would personally make sure they rotted in prison.

I woke up in the hospital bed, the vast room empty. A nurse pushed the door open to change my dressing, and that’s when I learned I’d been unconscious for two days. My third child was gone too. I touched my flat stomach, and tears streamed from my eyes like a bursting dam. Suddenly, Chloe’s voice came from the doorway. “Liam, Scarlett lost another baby. She won’t blame me, will she?” Liam Hayes’s tone was cold. “It doesn’t matter. She’s healthy, so if the baby’s gone, it’s gone.” “You, on the other hand, need to be careful. You’ve just conceived, and the pregnancy is unstable. This is *our* first child, and it’s very precious.” Just on the other side of the wall, I suddenly overheard their conversation, right outside the morgue corridor. Every word was like a knife blade, deeply piercing my heart, and the pain made me feel like I was suffocating. Liam’s eyes were filled with deep affection as he gazed at her pregnant belly, his tenderness evident. Chloe Miller was Liam Hayes’s childhood friend, and her acting skills were terrible. But Liam, in an attempt to get her a role, had used me to practice delivering a baby three times. The first two times, I lost my babies without even realizing it. I thought it was my fault, that I hadn’t protected them well enough. I never imagined the truth would be this. My heart ached as if it were being pricked by a thousand needles. Now, she was carrying my husband’s child, while my children were cold bodies. Chloe blamed herself. “Liam, the doctor said she can’t have any more children after this. She won’t hate us when she finds out the truth, will she?” “It’s all my fault. All to get a tiny role with less than three minutes of screen time, I caused Scarlett to lose three children…” Liam gently stroked her forehead, pulling her into his embrace. “Don’t worry, she won’t find out. What you need to do now is rest and take care of your pregnancy.” “I’ve already invested twenty million in the film, making me the biggest investor. You can choose any role you want.” “I promised I’d make you a star, and I’ll make sure your child is born. As for Scarlett, I’ll find a way to compensate her properly…” It felt like I’d been struck by lightning. I leaned against the wall, numb and utterly disbelieving. I tightly covered my mouth to keep from crying out loud, but the pain threatened to drown me.

The next second, Liam Hayes pushed open the door, his face etched with sorrow. “Scarlett, you’re awake.” “I brought you pizza from that place we used to love. Let me feed you.” My face was pale. I didn’t eat the pizza he held to my mouth. Instead, I asked, “Where’s the baby?” Liam lowered his gaze. “This, this was an accident. I gave Chloe pre-op training, but she might have been too nervous…” “Anyway, we can still have more children later.” At his words, all the strength drained from me. I lay down and pulled the covers over myself. “Just go.” Tears streamed down my cheeks, and I cried uncontrollably. It felt like my insides had been hollowed out, leaving only a weak shell of a body. Liam was the one who said he loved children, that he wanted us to have our own baby. Back then, we had just gotten engaged, and I was reveling in the joy of our child’s impending arrival. But then Chloe Miller appeared, and the man who once loved me with all his heart suddenly had her presence woven into every part of his life. During my second delivery, I suffered an amniotic fluid embolism. Liam frantically had the entire hospital working through the night to save me. They both stayed by my bedside, not moving an inch, overjoyed when I finally woke up. My face was pale. I weakly whispered that I wanted to see the baby. Liam’s expression instantly turned cold. He just flatly said the baby couldn’t be saved. “Couldn’t be saved? I don’t believe it! It was a girl, her nose and eyes were just like yours! How could she not be saved?!” I practically knelt before Liam Hayes. Tears streamed down my face, but he remained unmoved. I cried hysterically, clutching the tiny clothes I’d already prepared for her. For several days, I locked myself in my room, refusing to eat or drink. Later, I found out that Chloe had injected an excessive amount of anesthetic directly into the fetus. She watched the fetus die on the spot, never once calling for any professional medical staff to intervene. Only when there was no movement left did she feign panic and call out to Liam Hayes for help. I gazed at their ultrasound photos; every fetal movement had filled me with joy. I had hoped this child would fill the void left by the previous losses, but reality dealt me another crushing blow. Pain racked my entire body, and my heart was twisted with agony. I was so weak I could barely stand. I immediately checked out of the hospital and hailed a cab to leave. In March, the city was still seeing flurries of snow. The cold wind cut across my face like a knife. I wandered aimlessly through the city in my hospital gown. I passed the downtown high-rise; that was where Liam Hayes had proposed to me eight years ago. He had once rented out the entire top floor for a lavish proposal that everyone in the city talked about. Giant screens projected my name, displaying our six years together, from our school days to our wedding day. Every single moment, meticulously documented in over eight thousand photos. Our memories alone would fill more than 20 gigabytes. Later, we chose a stunning cliffside castle in Bali for our wedding. I accepted his ring and said “I do.” He cried with excitement, holding me tightly. Everyone in the entire college knew Liam was madly in love with me; our romance was a campus legend. He not only tattooed my name over his heart, but he’d also picked out names for our children long ago. Before, I thought they loved me. But after Chloe Miller appeared, everything changed.

I walked into the bridal shop where we had picked out my wedding dress. A shop assistant was packaging up a six-figure, diamond-encrusted wedding gown. “I’m so jealous of this Chloe Miller woman; she’s so lucky. Her fiancé must adore her. I heard they’re having a wedding of the century next week…” Tears welled up as I lowered my head. My wedding dress had long since been burned. That was the first time I discovered his affair with Chloe. I stormed into his office, ready to make a scene. When I opened the door, they were tangled on a sofa, their clothes disheveled. He shielded Chloe behind him, angrily yelling at me, “Get out, you shrew! Get out!” “Chloe is innocent. Whatever you want to do, do it to me! If I had met Chloe earlier, I probably never would have fallen in love with you…” His words were like poison, and in an instant, bitterness spread through my entire body. Later, he burned all our wedding mementos, every single token of our love. At one point, I had given up all hope and thought of leaving, but then he cried and told me he was wrong. I never imagined his apology was just a ploy to make me keep having his children. Suddenly, Chloe Miller walked into the bridal shop to pick up her dress and saw me in my hospital gown. She was about to greet me when I slowly spoke. “Are you even human? For a minor role, you caused me to lose three children!” Chloe’s face darkened, and she smirked. “Yes, I did. So what? You can’t have any more kids anyway!” “Oh, Liam just adores me! When he saw I couldn’t get this role for three years, he just paid to get me into the cast!” “And I’m about to become Liam Hayes’s wife. You’re just a home-wrecker, the mistress in someone else’s marriage. Tsk tsk tsk, how pathetic…” I clenched my fists in anger. Seeing this, Chloe just laughed harder. “Hahaha, furious, aren’t you? What if I told you that the whole ‘fighting for a role’ thing was a complete lie? I just wanted your children to die…” “Not only will I make you experience the pain of losing a child, but I’ll also ruin your reputation!” I lunged forward and slapped her hard. “You wicked bitch! How can someone be so evil?!” The next second, I was kicked away, falling heavily to the ground. Blood instantly soaked through my hospital gown. “You wicked woman! How dare you lay a hand on Chloe?” “Why don’t you just die with your children? You’re nothing but bad luck!” It was Liam Hayes. He quickly pulled Chloe into his arms, utterly distraught. His eyes burned with rage, as if he wanted to tear me to shreds. “Even if the baby is gone, you shouldn’t have laid a hand on Chloe! Don’t you know she’s pregnant? If anything happens to her or the baby, I swear I’ll never forgive you!” Liam Hayes left with Chloe, completely ignoring me as I lay bleeding profusely. The shop assistant shrieked and called for an ambulance. In that moment, my heart died completely. I lay in a pool of blood, gradually losing consciousness. As I was rushed to the operating room, I thought of my lost children. I had already picked out names for each of them, but each time, they left me forever… “Dr. Hayes, Ms. Thompson has a severe laceration and massive hemorrhage. We might not be able to save her uterus.” Liam didn’t hesitate. He instructed the doctors to perform a hysterectomy on me while simultaneously setting up equipment to continuously draw my blood.

I opened my eyes two days later, staring blankly at the ceiling. There was no one by my bedside. The nurse changed my dressing, remarking how lucky I was to be alive, a true survivor. I gently touched my abdomen, and tears streamed from my eyes. I knew I would never have children again. And the devils who killed my children, I sighed. I downloaded the bridal shop’s surveillance footage and, along with all the evidence I’d collected of Liam Hayes’s affair and their causing my three miscarriages, sent it to the hospital. I’d make them both pay! Suddenly, Liam Hayes pushed open the hospital room door, holding a gift. “Scarlett, you’re awake. I bought you a gift to apologize. I was wrong before.” “Next week, the college has its promotion review. You know I’ve always wanted to become Dean. To have Chloe accompany me, would you be willing to admit that *you* were the one who broke up our relationship, that *you* were the mistress?” “Look, I bought you a new necklace, from your favorite brand.” My face was pale. I looked at the cold necklace and gave a self-deprecating laugh. That brand was Chloe’s favorite, not mine. He had long forgotten everything I loved. I refused, reaching out to put the necklace aside, ignoring it completely. In that instant, Liam Hayes suddenly felt like a complete stranger. How could he have tried to kill me? “No way! I’ll make sure the entire faculty knows you cheated. I’ll ruin both your and Chloe’s reputations!” I gritted my teeth as I said this. At my words, Liam Hayes froze. He had never imagined I would resist. He slapped me hard, and half my face instantly swelled up. After all, I had once said I wouldn’t have any more children, yet he repeatedly tricked and coerced me into getting pregnant. Until I fully saw the true face of the man before me, his phone dropped to the floor. His screensaver was Chloe. I remembered his private photo album, every single picture in it was of her. Every date, every kiss, every hug—all meticulously recorded. It was like a diary of all his deepest thoughts and longing for her. Three thousand pictures, all carefully preserved, but he didn’t know these would be the best evidence to destroy him! I clutched my swollen face, looking at him, an uncontrollable agony sweeping through my body, piercing me to the bone. Fury surged in my chest, and my whole body felt like it was on fire. Liam Hayes still wanted to hit me, but the next second, blood suddenly gushed out from below again. With my last ounce of strength, I tearfully grabbed him. “Liam Hayes, this is the second time you’ve hit me. Do you even remember our children who died?” “Help me, please, call a doctor! I’m dying…” Seeing my condition, Liam Hayes walked away without hesitation, locking the hospital room door from the outside. I knew I was hemorrhaging badly. My vision blurred. I desperately pounded on the door. “Let me out! Liam, please, let me out! I don’t want to die…” Liam Hayes lit a cigarette outside, his voice cold. “Just admit you were the mistress, and I’ll let you out immediately.” “I’m not, I’m not…” Darkness consumed my vision, and I couldn’t hold on any longer, falling unconscious. The next second, my mother, Eleanor, arrived with the police and representatives from the Hospital’s Internal Affairs Department. “Liam Hayes, as the Dean, having an affair with a student, ruining the school’s reputation, and causing my daughter to miscarry three times — they should both be arrested!”

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Every time I finished a night shift, all I wanted was to sleep. But my mom, Sarah, always insisted I eat three meals a day, on schedule. If I didn’t get up, she’d yank off my covers, throw open the curtains, and slam doors, making as much noise as possible. This constant disruption often left me with chest pains, foggy-headed at work, and prone to mistakes. I absolutely hated it. Still, I knew that for her generation, the fear was starving, not collapsing from sleep deprivation. My mom genuinely thought she was looking out for me. So that day, the moment I heard her knock, I got up. I walked out just in time to hear Sarah complaining to my younger sister, Chloe. “I wasn’t sure what you’d like, so I made big portions of everything.” “I figured, with Audrey here, nothing would go to waste.” “But Audrey either doesn’t get up, or just picks at her food. Honestly, she just annoys me.” My heart sank. So I was just Chloe’s leftover trash can. Then, Sarah started complaining about me living off them. “If this keeps up, I’m going to charge her rent!” Had she forgotten? I was the one paying this house’s mortgage! Chloe, on the other hand, had been sponging off us since she graduated. She was the real freeloader. 1 Hearing Sarah’s words, all sleepiness vanished. A gust of wind swept through the apartment. My bedroom door slammed shut. Sarah and Chloe quickly quieted down, turning to stare at me. Sarah fake-glanced out the window, her voice dripping with sarcasm. “Well, look at that. The sun must be coming up in the west.” “Some people get up on their own after just one call.” Chloe giggled, patting the chair next to her. “Audrey, what are you standing there for? Come eat!” I slowly walked over, studying the dishes. Every single one was Chloe’s favorite. And whichever dish Chloe ate more of, Sarah would immediately push it closer to her. My heart pounded, just like it did every time Sarah forced me awake. Eventually, it twisted into a sharp ache. I wasn’t a picky eater. Most of the time, I was so tired my eyes could barely stay open. I’d truly never noticed. Sarah’s favoritism was so incredibly obvious. I deliberately reached for the fried chicken in front of Chloe. Sarah couldn’t help but snap. “Can’t you see Chloe finally found something she likes? “Can’t you just let her have it? You always have to snatch things!” I couldn’t eat another bite. “Right, I should just wait until Chloe’s done, then come out.” “Eat her leftovers, be her leftover trash can!” Tears of frustration streamed down my face, unstoppable. Sarah’s face showed no trace of panic or guilt. “You clearly heard us, and now you’re just putting on a show to annoy me.” “Besides, what’s wrong with what I said?” “Chloe is delicate; it’s hard for her to find things she likes. What’s wrong with letting her have it?” “And you, you eat like you’re always starving, what difference does it make what you eat anyway!” My eyes widened in shock. For a moment, I couldn’t speak. Chloe pushed the plate of fried chicken toward me. “It’s okay, I don’t have to eat it.” She said it, but her eyes were glued to the fried chicken. Since childhood, Chloe and I had almost identical clothes, food, and everything else. Sarah bought us the same things. But every single item was something Chloe liked. For instance, during blueberry season. Sarah would buy a box for each of us. But only Chloe liked them. I hated them! Or when our relatives bought us two backpacks, Sarah always let Chloe pick first, whichever one she liked. I’d always get the one Chloe didn’t want. I used to deceive myself, telling myself it was only right for me to make allowances for her. But now, I had to admit. My mom was undeniably biased. A surge of anger rushed through me. I grabbed the fried chicken and dumped it into the trash can. “This is where trash belongs!” Chloe’s mouth turned down, and her eyes immediately welled up. Sarah exploded in a fit of rage, roaring. “Chloe even gave you her favorite food, why are you being so aggressive?” “I think I’ve been too nice to you!” “From today onwards, if you want to stay in this house, you must pay me $2,500 for rent and $2,000 for household expenses!” I let out a cold laugh. My monthly salary was only $8,000, and the house mortgage was $3,500. To avoid going broke every month, I’d given up renting near my office, commuting three hours each way every day. Now Sarah wanted to completely drain me dry. She was playing a truly brilliant game. I had nothing more to say. I turned and went back to my room. “I won’t pay rent, and I definitely won’t pay household expenses!” “And from now on, don’t wake me up for meals after my night shifts. And keep your noise down!” Otherwise, I’d move out immediately and let the house go into foreclosure! But I couldn’t bring myself to say that last part. This house was in a good school district, bought by my parents so Chloe and I could attend high school in the city. When my dad was alive, we managed to get by. My dad passed away unexpectedly a few years ago. Sarah only had a modest retirement pension, about a thousand dollars a month. The two of them had been living off my dad’s compensation money for the past few years. As far as I knew, my dad’s compensation was almost gone. If I really washed my hands of it, their lives would become incredibly difficult. So, I went to sleep, fuming. I slept until 8 PM, then groggily got up to use the restroom. But I couldn’t open the bathroom door. Sarah sashayed over, handing me a QR code. “Five dollars for a pee, ten dollars for a poop, one dollar per sheet of toilet paper.” “Scan to open the door!” 2 I frowned, staring at Sarah. She explained with a fake smile. “If you don’t pay rent, you’re not entitled to use anything in this house.” “Either pay up now, or you’ll pay me $4,500 every month from now on.” That’s when I realized Sarah was serious. I said coldly, “I’m not entitled? Don’t forget, I’m the one paying the $3,500 mortgage every month.” “Many things in this house, I bought them!” “And Chloe? She’s been living off you since she graduated, sponging off us.” “You want rent and household expenses from me, why don’t you ask her?” Sarah instantly bristled. “So what if you’re paying the mortgage? “The deed is in *my* name. This house has nothing to do with you.” “Besides, you paying the mortgage? That’s just you repaying me for raising you, it’s what you’re supposed to do!” “And what I’m asking for is wear-and-tear fees for the house, and my labor costs for cleaning your room, cooking for you, and doing your dishes.” “These are separate issues, don’t you dare conflate them!” “As for Chloe,” Sarah suddenly stammered, fumbling for a while before finally saying, “Chloe is different from you!” Faced with Sarah’s twisted logic, my heart felt like it had been stuffed with broken glass, searing with pain. “How is she different?” “Aside from being two years younger than me, how is she different?” I took a deep breath, suppressing the bitter turmoil in my chest. Finally, I made my decision. “Fine, let’s keep matters separate.” “Then I’ll just move out. You won’t have any excuse to ask me for money then, right?” “And… figure out the mortgage on your own from now on.” With that, I immediately turned and went back to my room to pack my things. I didn’t want to stay in that house for another minute! Sarah, furious, tried to grab my arm. “You think you can just move in and out whenever you please? It doesn’t work that way.” “If you insist on leaving, you’ll pay me ten years of back rent and household expenses!” I didn’t want to argue needlessly with Sarah. I pushed her away, turned my back, and started looking for my ID and passport in the bedside drawer. Suddenly, Chloe screamed and rushed in, yelling. “Sarah, what’s wrong with you!” I spun around. Sarah was clutching her chest, groaning in pain in Chloe’s arms. 3 I didn’t have time to think. I immediately called 91

Even if a stranger collapsed in front of me, I couldn’t just ignore them. Especially not my own mother. The ambulance arrived quickly. Chloe followed me to the hospital. She wasn’t worried about Sarah’s condition; she just stared at me intently. I knew why. She was afraid I’d leave and no one would pay the medical bills. Soon, Sarah was wheeled out of the room by a nurse. The nurse told me. Sarah had collapsed due to acute myocardial infarction. She needed bypass surgery within three days, or her life would be in danger. But the surgery would cost $100,000. For five years, I’d scrimped and saved, doing odd jobs occasionally. My entire savings amounted to just $50,000. I was just about to completely break free from Sarah and start my own life. If I borrowed money to cover this sum now, my future would be incredibly difficult. As I hesitated, Chloe loudly declared. “Audrey, Sarah used her entire pension to buy a house in the city so you could go to school!” “For all these years you lived at home, Sarah never made you lift a finger.” “Now Sarah is like this, and you have money but won’t pay for her medical expenses? Are you just going to watch her die?” Chloe’s voice wasn’t quiet. People around us all looked over, their eyes filled with scorn. I wasn’t in the mood to argue about her half-truths. But one thing she said was right. No matter how much I resented Sarah, I couldn’t just watch her die. Fine. This $100,000 would be my repayment for giving birth to me. From now on, I owed her nothing. It took me a full day to gather the $100,000. The next morning, I went to the hospital cashier’s office, ready to pre-pay the medical expenses. Just as the money was about to be transferred, the cashier, Nurse Davis, suddenly whispered. “The nurse who told you your mother needed immediate surgery… she seems to be related to your mom.” 4 I was utterly confused. But I could tell something fishy was going on. So, I pulled back my phone. “I won’t pay for now, thank you.” I first found Sarah’s attending physician and asked. “Doctor, what are the chances of success for my mom’s bypass surgery?” The doctor looked confused. “Bypass surgery? Your mom is just having a stent procedure, you must have misheard?” My heart gave a sudden jolt. I tried to sound calm. “I apologize, I might have been too anxious and misheard. So, what’s the approximate cost for this stent procedure?” The doctor rubbed his temples, looking extremely tired. “Didn’t I have Nurse Davis tell you? The surgery cost isn’t high. If your mother has insurance, it’ll be around ten thousand dollars after reimbursement.” After leaving the doctor’s office, I went back to Nurse Davis. I got straight to the point. “If you don’t want me to report you and cost you your job, tell me the truth!” Nurse Davis sighed reluctantly, then spilled everything. It turned out Nurse Davis was Sarah’s distant cousin, Carol. Chloe, who had met Carol once with Sarah, had contacted her on the way to the hospital. The two of them had conspired to stage this scam. Anger consumed my reason. I dragged Carol to the hospital room, ready for a face-to-face confrontation! In the hospital room, Sarah was already awake. Chloe sat in front of her, beaming. “Audrey has already gone to pay.” “After your surgery, Carol will help us get the remaining money back.” “As long as Audrey doesn’t see the surgery report, that money will magically end up in our pockets.” Sarah chuckled with glee. “My daughter is so smart. After we get the extra medical money back, I’ll add a little more and buy you that car you like.” Chloe snuggled into Sarah’s arm, cooing. “Thank you, Sarah! You’re the best!” Sarah dotingly ruffled Chloe’s hair. A loud bang went off in my ears. My mind went blank. After a long moment, I regained my composure. Since she was so heartless, I didn’t need to consider any ‘debt of upbringing’ anymore. From this day forward, whether she lived or died was no longer my concern. I walked into the hospital room openly. The mother and daughter quickly clamped their mouths shut in a panic. Chloe put on an act, squeezing out a few tears. “Sarah, why did your heart condition suddenly worsen?” “But Audrey has already gone to pay, you can have the surgery tomorrow, you’ll be fine.” Then, she pretended to just notice me entering the room, asking excitedly. “Audrey, did you pay the medical bill?” Sarah glanced at me, snorting coldly. “This is all because of certain people making me angry. She wouldn’t dare not pay!” At that moment, I spoke with incredible calm. “Why should I pay for you? You’re going to charge me rent, so we’re just landlord and tenant.” “You don’t ask your own biological daughter for money, but you expect me to pay your medical bills? Don’t you think that’s funny?” Sarah was so angry she couldn’t speak a complete sentence. I suddenly remembered how she’d blocked me from the restroom earlier. I pulled out my PayPal QR code and held it in front of Sarah. “Oh, and I took care of you here last night. According to caretaker rates, you owe me $500.” “Please pay!”

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At two in the morning, my water broke, and I was staring blankly at Ethan’s latest Snapchat message. “Vanessa’s bathroom pipe burst, and her kid was so scared he got a fever. I’m going to help out. Won’t be back tonight.” Immediately after, an Instagram notification popped up, a red dot. From Vanessa. The photo showed a man’s hand holding a wrench, fixing a pipe, sleeves rolled up, revealing a long, firm forearm. The watch I’d scrimped and saved to buy him gleamed under the light, a painful stab in my eyes. The caption: “So grateful to have you in this city. Leo’s fever is down, and that back-view fixing the pipe? Hottest ever.” The baby in my belly seemed to sense my emotions and kicked me hard. Sharp pain, accompanied by warm liquid, instantly gushed out, soaking the bedsheet. I panicked, my hands shaking violently as I dialed Ethan’s number. The first call, hung up. The second call, still hung up. I wouldn’t give up, desperately dialing a third time. Finally, it connected. What came through the earpiece wasn’t an anxious inquiry, but a low growl, brimming with anger. “Chloe, are you done yet? Didn’t I tell you? Vanessa is a single mom, it’s not easy for her and her kid. Her house is flooded in the middle of the night. If I don’t go help, should I just watch them drown?” The heavy ache in my abdomen made it almost impossible to breathe. I pleaded with him, my voice cracking. “Ethan, my water broke… I’m in so much pain. Where are you? Can you come back and take me to the hospital…” The other end of the line was silent for a second. Then Vanessa’s panicked voice came through: “Ethan, Leo just threw up again! Is he having a seizure? Please come quickly!” Ethan’s slight hesitation vanished instantly. His tone became extremely impatient. “Are you jealous because of my Instagram post? Chloe, when did you become so manipulative? To trick me into coming back, you’d even lie about your water breaking? Your due date is still three days away. Stay home by yourself. Don’t be unreasonable.” “Beep—” The call was ruthlessly cut off. When I tried to call again, his phone was off. Outside, thunder boomed. Lightning tore through the night sky, illuminating my ghastly pale face. Despair washed over me like a tide. This old apartment building had no elevator. Ethan, in his eagerness to provide “on-call support” for Vanessa and her kid, had bought our marital home in a run-down building just two streets away from her place. Now those six flights of stairs became my gate to hell. I bit my lip until it bled, grabbed my hospital bag, and leaning against the wall, started to inch my way out, step by agonizing step. With each step, my lower body felt like it was tearing apart. Sweat mingled with tears, flowing into my mouth, bitter and salty. When I finally made it downstairs, the rain was pouring down. Soaked to the bone, I stood in the heavy rain for a full twenty minutes before finally flagging down a taxi willing to stop. The driver looked at me, his face turning pale with fright, and he ran two red lights to get me to the nearest hospital. Inside the emergency room, a nurse pushed a wheelchair toward me, shouting, “Family? Where’s the patient’s family? We need to get her checked in!” People came and went in the hall, but I lay alone on the gurney, feeling like trash abandoned by the world. Trembling, I pulled a card from my soaked bag, handed it to the nurse, and forced a smile uglier than a cry. “No family… I’ll sign for myself.”

The labor process felt like a trip through hell. Due to excessive amniotic fluid loss and extreme emotional fluctuations, my cervix dilated agonizingly slowly. The delivery room was filled with heartbreaking screams. The woman on the next bed cursed her husband in pain, and he was wiping sweat, forcing a smile, holding a Red Bull, ready to serve her. Only I lay there, all alone. The midwife looked at me with a hint of pity and asked softly, “Do you want to try contacting the baby’s father again? In situations like this, having family present helps a lot.” I stared at the glaring fluorescent light on the ceiling and shook my head. He wouldn’t answer. Just before I entered the delivery room, I’d seen Vanessa’s second Instagram update. “Leo finally fell asleep. Thank you, best godfather, for staying up all night. With you, we always have someone to lean on.” In the photo, Ethan was asleep by the bedside, his hand tightly holding the boy named Leo. Heartwarming, touching, a picture of fatherly love. And my child was fighting for her life. In that moment, the last shred of my love for Ethan, along with the pain in my body, shattered into dust. “Push! I see the head!” the doctor shouted sharply. I bit down hard on the towel in my mouth, turning all my hatred into strength. Ten hours. After ten grueling hours of torment, with a loud cry, my daughter was born. The nurse held the wrinkled baby for me to see. “It’s a beautiful little princess, six pounds, four ounces.” I weakly glanced at her, tears silently streaming down my face. Back in the hospital room, the anesthetic wore off, and the wound burned. My phone vibrated. It was a message from Ethan: “Are you awake? I just woke up. Leo was a handful last night. You said your stomach hurt yesterday? Try to relax, don’t always overreact. I’ll bring you breakfast later.” Every line was pure perfunctory nonsense. He didn’t even consider that my desperate call for help last night was real. I didn’t reply, tossing my phone aside. It wasn’t until noon that the hospital room door was suddenly pushed open. Ethan rushed in, looking disheveled, carrying a bag of cold sandwiches. When he saw me in a hospital gown, lying in bed, with a baby sleeping in the bassinet beside me, he froze. His expression went from impatience to shock, then to panic. “Chloe… you, you really gave birth?” He rushed to the bedside, trying to take my hand, but I coldly pulled away. “Don’t touch me.” My voice was hoarse, like sandpaper scraping a table. A flicker of embarrassment crossed Ethan’s face, quickly replaced by angry self-justification. “Why didn’t you call me? Giving birth is such a big deal, and you just came to the hospital by yourself without a word? Do you know how worried I was?” I laughed, a bitter sound that pulled at my wound, making me gasp in pain. “Ethan, did a dog eat your memory? At two in the morning, I called you and told you my water broke. You told me to stop acting, and you hung up on me.” Ethan froze, seemingly recalling last night’s events. A moment later, his eyes darted away, and his tone softened. “I thought… I thought you were just jealous of Vanessa, deliberately trying to trick me. You know, after hearing the story of The Boy Who Cried Wolf too many times, who would’ve thought this time it was real…” “So in your mind, I’m someone who would joke about our child’s life just to create drama?” I looked at him calmly, my eyes hollow. Ethan looked a little guilty, placing the sandwiches on the table. “All right, I was wrong, I apologize, okay? Vanessa’s situation was an emergency too, she’s a woman…” “Is she more important, or is our unborn child more important?” Ethan frowned, lowering his voice. “Chloe, can you stop being so aggressive? The baby was born safely, wasn’t she? Vanessa’s kid was sick, it was an emergency! We’re all friends. What’s wrong with helping each other? Can’t you be a little more open-minded?” Friends. Helping each other. I looked at his self-righteous face, and suddenly the man I’d shared a bed with for three years seemed terrifyingly unfamiliar. Just then, his phone rang. A custom ringtone—it was Vanessa. Ethan instinctively glanced at me, then took his phone into the hallway to answer. Through the glass panel of the door, I saw his expression soften, even showing a hint of tenderness, as he nodded repeatedly into the phone. Five minutes later, he pushed the door open, looking troubled. “Chloe, um… Vanessa said she left in a hurry and forgot her keys, and Leo needs a follow-up checkup at the hospital. I need to take her a spare set of keys. Anyway, you’re at the hospital with nurses taking care of you, and your parents will be here this afternoon. I’ll be back soon.” With that, he turned and left without waiting for my reply. From beginning to end, he didn’t even glance down at his newborn daughter sleeping in the bassinet.

Ethan was gone for three days. During those three days, my parents rushed over from back home. Seeing my pale face and the empty bedside, my mother’s eyes instantly welled up, and she turned away to wipe her tears. My father was so angry he smoked an entire pack of cigarettes in the hallway; if I hadn’t stopped him, he would’ve gone straight to confront Ethan. Ethan’s Snapchat messages, however, never stopped. One moment it was, “Vanessa’s car broke down, I’m helping her fix it,” the next it was, “Leo needs an IV at the hospital, Vanessa can’t handle it alone.” Every excuse was righteous, and every one felt like a knife twisting in my heart. My daughter hadn’t been given a formal name yet, so looking at her sleeping face, I gave her the nickname Annie. I only wished for her to live a life of peace and safety, unlike her mother, who had been so blind. On the day of discharge, Ethan finally appeared. He drove up, but Vanessa and Leo were in the passenger seat. The car stopped downstairs from the inpatient ward. Ethan rolled down the window and waved to me. “Chloe, over here! Vanessa needs to bring Leo for a follow-up too, so I just gave them a ride home since it was on the way, saves her a taxi.” My mother was shaking with anger, pointing at Ethan and about to unleash a torrent of curses. I stopped her, and with a blank expression, I held Annie and opened the back door. “Mom, Dad, get in.” The atmosphere in the car was incredibly strange. Vanessa turned around, a perpetually soft and harmless smile on her face, but her eyes held blatant provocation. “Chloe, I’m so sorry to trouble Ethan again. Leo insisted on riding in Ethan’s car, saying his godfather’s car is the safest. Chloe, you’re so generous, I’m sure you don’t mind, right?” I looked at her coldly. “I do mind.” Vanessa’s smile froze. Ethan frowned at me in the rearview mirror. “Chloe, what kind of talk is that? Don’t be so harsh in front of your parents.” “Harsh?” I let out a soft laugh, pulling at my still-healing wound. “Ethan, I just got discharged, my wound hasn’t fully healed, and you make me and our newborn sit in the back, while another woman and her child sit in the passenger seat. Who’s being harsh?” Ethan choked, speechless. Before he could say anything, Leo suddenly shrieked, “Godfather! This bad woman is bullying Mommy! I want her to get out!” With that, he picked up his Transformers toy and violently threw it at me. The hard, sharp edges of the toy grazed my forehead, a sharp pain, instantly swelling red. Annie was startled and cried loudly. “Leo!” Vanessa feigned a scolding, but her eyes were full of amusement. Ethan wasn’t angry; instead, he reached out to pat the brat’s head. “Good boy, Leo, don’t fuss. I’ll take you to KFC.” My mother finally couldn’t take it anymore and slapped the back of the driver’s seat. “Ethan! Are you even a human being?! Your own daughter is crying her eyes out, your wife just got hit, and you’re still planning to take this brat for KFC?” “Mom—” Ethan stopped, then corrected himself. “Susan, why are you talking so nastily?” He slammed on the brakes, his face ashen. “Leo is just a kid. What does he understand?” “If a child doesn’t understand, do adults not understand either?” my father, Thomas, roared. The car descended into chaos. I took a deep breath and pushed open the car door. “Mom, Dad, let’s get out. We’ll take a taxi.” Ethan panicked. “Chloe, what are you trying to do now? Your parents are here. Do you want people to laugh at us?” I ignored him, got out of the car with Annie in my arms, hailed a taxi, and left without looking back. Behind me, I vaguely heard Vanessa’s insincere pleas and Ethan’s frantic honking. On the way home, watching the scenery flash by outside the window, I made a decision. This marriage was rotten to the core. Like a festering wound, it had to be cut out for me to survive.

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Fifteen years. That’s how long I spent locked in a one-sided war for the boy next door, twisting myself into a human Swiss Army knife just to make him look at me. From dominating state math leagues to playing the piano until my fingers bled, from a grueling double major at Yale to finally holding that Harvard MBA offer letter in my hands. I did it all for him. But when I stood on the porch of my family’s estate, dragging my suitcase behind me, Pete Carmichael did exactly what he had done a thousand times before. He bypassed my outstretched hand, didn’t even glance at my Ivy League sweatshirt, and walked straight toward my younger sister, Maddie, who was standing behind me clutching her sketchpad. “Have you been waiting long, Maddie?” he asked, his voice soft. The echo of a phrase he’d said years ago—I only like Maddie—felt like a rusted nail driving into my fingertips, making them numb. My best friend, who had driven me from the airport, silently offered me a tissue. I waved it away. Watching the broad stretch of his back as he took my sister’s bag, a sudden, breathy laugh escaped my lips. This is it? I thought. This is the man I spent my entire youth chasing? His white button-down was impeccably pressed, the line of his jaw as sharp and aristocratic as ever. But the longer I stared, the more… hollow the whole picture felt. He was like a vintage fashion magazine I’d found in a dusty waiting room. The cover was still gorgeous, but the content inside was hopelessly out of date. “Am I pivoting too fast?” I murmured later, idly stabbing the tapioca pearls at the bottom of my boba tea. My best friend pulled me into a fierce side-hug. “Oh, honey. It’s not that you changed too fast. It’s that you outgrew him miles ago.” … 1 Maddie and I stepped out of the black town car at the exact same time. Without any warning, the heel of Maddie’s Jimmy Choo gave way, and she pitched forward. Pete, our golden-boy neighbor, didn’t even blink. He lunged forward, catching her firmly by the waist. Leaning into his chest, Maddie peeked over his shoulder and shot me a silent, mocking smile. It was a look dripping with arrogant triumph. Around us, the estate staff lowered their heads, hiding knowing smirks. They knew the script. They were waiting for my cue. This was the part where I was supposed to march over, yank Maddie away, and scream about how she was faking it, how she was a manipulative little brat trying to steal the man I loved. Then, Pete would scowl, scold me for being a toxic, jealous shrew, and I would run off in spectacular, tearful hysterics. But I just stood there. Seconds ticked by. I didn’t move a muscle. For years, I had ground myself into dust trying to earn a single scrap of Pete’s validation. I had thrown myself into academia, launched a tech startup from a dorm room, built a massive digital footprint. I had navigated the cutthroat maneuvering of Silicon Valley boardrooms and held my own in rooms full of heavy-hitting politicians. Standing here now, watching my twenty-three-year-old sister fake a trip on a perfectly flat driveway? It was just… comical. “Glad you didn’t hurt yourself,” I said. My voice was entirely flat. I turned to the housekeeper, handing over a meticulously wrapped box. “Please let Mr. and Mrs. Carmichael know my parents sent this for them.” Maddie’s triumphant smile faltered. Pete shot me a sharp, scrutinizing frown. When we walked into the Carmichaels’ lavish dining room, the mahogany table was set beautifully. But there were only four chairs. Pete, his parents, and Maddie. That was four. Maddie let out a breathy, exaggerated giggle. “Oh my god, Vic, I am so sorry. I totally forgot to tell everyone you were coming back today. They didn’t prep a seat for you.” “Why are you even explaining yourself to her?” Pete’s voice was ice. He looked at me with open disdain. “Vicky, Maddie didn’t do it on purpose. Just go to the kitchen and grab yourself a stool. There’s no need to terrorize her over a chair.” There it is, I thought. The universal constant. Pete would always, without hesitation or logic, throw himself in front of Maddie like she was taking enemy fire. Yet, the strange part was the profound silence in my own chest. My heart wasn’t racing. My throat wasn’t tight. I felt… nothing. I couldn’t even fathom the girl I used to be, the girl who would have gone to war over this boy. “Pete,” I said softly, “I haven’t even said a word.” He stiffened, momentarily thrown off guard. In the past, my eyes would already be red. I’d be shouting, calling Maddie a two-faced snake. “Vic, you’re mad.” Maddie’s eyes instantly welled with practiced tears. She stepped forward, grabbing my wrist. “Please don’t be mad. I’ll go get you a chair right now.” She made a pathetic little move toward the kitchen, but Pete caught her arm, pulling her back. He glared down at me from his towering height. “You’re in the Carmichael house now, Vicky. This isn’t your little kingdom where you get to throw your weight around. If you can’t be civil and get your own chair, then you can leave before dinner is served.” A maid by the doorway failed to muffle a snicker. I caught the whispered exchange between two staff members: “Just watch. Miss High-and-Mighty will drag a chair out here herself.” “Oh, for sure. She’d swallow broken glass if it meant sitting across from him.” “That won’t be necessary,” I said, a genuine, light laugh escaping me. I adjusted the strap of my bag on my shoulder. “I only stopped by to drop off the gift from my parents. I wasn’t planning on staying for dinner anyway. I actually have somewhere to be. Enjoy your evening.” Pete’s eyes narrowed, searching my face. He looked at me as if I were a stranger. I didn’t give him the satisfaction of looking back. I turned on my heel and walked out the heavy oak doors, my stride long and unbroken. From the foyer, I heard Maddie shrink against Pete. “Why is she in such a rush? Is she… does she just hate me so much that she can’t even stand to be in the same room?” Pete watched through the window as I got into my car. I could see the slight furrow between his brows. “Don’t let it get to you,” I heard him murmur to her. “She spent a few years away and thinks she’s learned how to play hard to get. It’s just a new tactic.” Maddie chewed her lip. “It’s working, though. She’s acting so cold. Are you… are you ever going to—” Pete stroked her hair, cutting her off. “I told you. You’re the only one I want.” 2 I genuinely did have somewhere to be. My co-founder and I were running an internet-based tech firm, and the workload was astronomical. I had a dinner scheduled with a major enterprise client. As my driver navigated the evening traffic, my phone buzzed. It was a text from my partner, Val: [Heard you finally touched down in the States. Got a massive surprise waiting for you~] I fired off a quick, noncommittal emoji. If I had known what her definition of a “surprise” was in that moment, I would have burned the company to the ground to stop it. I truly had zero intention of ever crossing paths with Pete Carmichael again. But a few days later, my grandfather’s milestone birthday arrived. Given our families’ generational ties, the Carmichaels were obviously on the guest list. But when I walked into the ballroom of the country club, holding a priceless antique gift for my grandfather, it didn’t look like an eightieth birthday party. It looked like a proposal. Pete was down on one knee. As I walked in, his eyes flicked to me. A slow, mocking smirk touched his lips. With agonizing deliberation, he slid a massive diamond onto Maddie’s trembling finger. “Yes!” My parents were the first to stand and cheer, clapping rapturously. I stood by the ice sculpture, totally lost. “Isn’t today Grandpa’s birthday?” I asked a passing aunt. “It is, sweetheart!” my dad said, suddenly appearing at my elbow. “But your grandfather insisted. He said he wanted a double celebration today.” I frowned, looking between my cheering parents and the newly engaged couple on the stage. “You guys were in this much of a rush to get them engaged? I honestly thought tonight was just—” “Ahem,” my dad coughed, leaning in close. “Look, we kept it from you because we didn’t want you causing a scene. You haven’t heard the news, have you? Pete just got tapped as the new Regional Director for Vanguard Tech.” Vanguard?! I froze. That… that was my company. The startup Val and I had built from the ground up. “A son-in-law of his caliber is one in a million,” my dad continued, oblivious to my shock. “Of course we wanted to lock him down with Maddie. Look, Vic, we know how much you care about the boy. But you can’t force love. He’s never felt that way about you, and it’s been years. It’s time to stop making a fool of yourself. Be a good girl and let it go, okay?” I didn’t say a word. I just looked down at my phone and frantically texted Val. [Your little “surprise.” Please tell me it is NOT Pete Carmichael?!] She replied almost instantly with a tongue-out selfie. [We all know you’ve been pining for him for over a decade! I handled the regional hiring while you were in transit. As the new director, he reports directly to YOU. You’re welcome, boss. Now you get to spend every waking minute with him. ] I pressed the heel of my hand hard against my forehead, staving off a migraine. Whispers began to drift through the ballroom, aimed squarely at my back. “Look… isn’t that Pete’s resident stalker, Vicky?” “Oh my god, it is! I can’t believe she actually showed her face tonight.” “Look at how devastated she looks holding her head. Yikes. I almost feel bad for her. Almost.” The buzzing of their petty gossip made my headache worse. I needed quiet. I slipped out of the ballroom and headed down the hall toward a private lounge to call Val and fix this colossal HR disaster. After a ten-minute call explaining, in graphic detail, that I would rather swallow a live grenade than date Pete, I opened the lounge door to head back. A hand shot out of the shadows, wrapping like a vice around my wrist. Before I could blink, I was yanked hard into the dimly lit stairwell. “Pete!” I gasped. My wrist throbbed. He shoved me back, letting go. He stood between me and the door, his posture rigid, his face carved out of ice. “You saw what happened out there today,” he said, his voice a low, threatening rumble. I rubbed my wrist, glaring at him through the dim emergency lighting. “I am officially engaged to Maddie now,” he continued. “It’s time you find someone to marry, too. Give it up.” “Marry?” I let out a dry, incredulous laugh. “I don’t have time for that right now.” “Are you really going to keep playing this desperate game?” I stopped rubbing my wrist. I stared at him, my mind short-circuiting as I finally realized what he was implying. He actually thought I was still trying to orchestrate my life around him. “Pete, let me be very clear. I’m not getting married because my company is entering a massive growth phase. I’m busy.” He stared at me in the heavy silence. Then, a dark, cynical smile broke across his face. “Don’t you think that’s a pathetic excuse, Vicky?” I blinked. “Excuse me?” “The CEO of Vanguard Tech is a woman around your age,” he sneered, quoting the very corporate lore I had created. “And even a woman of her magnitude isn’t using ‘career’ as an excuse to die alone. Who exactly are you trying to fool?” For a second, I was completely speechless. It was my own fault, really. I had spent fifteen years building a reputation as a textbook romantic martyr. I had been so notoriously obsessed with him that now, when I finally had an epiphany and moved on, literally no one believed me. Not even my own business partner. “Let me tell you how this works, Vicky,” he said, taking a slow, menacing step toward me. He leaned in, his cologne suffocating the small space. “I never loved you. And now that I have a ring on your sister’s finger, I am certainly never going to love you. If you keep stalking me, you’re only going to make me sick to my stomach. Unless…” His eyes darkened, dropping to my lips. “Unless your goal is to be my mistress?” In that claustrophobic stairwell, a profound sense of clarity washed over me. I looked at the man standing in front of me. He was arrogant. He was vulgar. He was aggressively mediocre. Why in the world had I spent the best years of my life treating this guy like he was the center of the universe? Why had I let him tear my relationship with my sister to shreds? I let out a sharp, genuine bark of laughter. Without a word, I shoved both hands hard against his chest, knocking him out of my way. I pushed open the heavy fire door and walked out. 3 Val texted me that she was on her way to the club to apologize in person. I sat at a secluded table near the edge of the ballroom, sipping a glass of sparkling water, enjoying the peace. Then, a sharp whistle cut through the music. Before I could react, seven or eight men—Pete’s frat brothers and country club sycophants—slid into the booths and chairs around me, boxing me in. “Well, well, if it isn’t her royal highness,” one of them drawled, swirling bourbon in a heavy crystal glass. “Can’t believe you actually showed up to watch Pete put a ring on someone else.” “We were taking bets, honestly,” another laughed. “Thought you’d be at home drowning in a bathtub of Pinot Noir.” “Guess she’s still holding out hope.” A clammy hand suddenly reached out, snapping the thin silk strap of my dress. I flinched, my blood running cold. I slapped his hand away violently. “Ooh, feisty!” The first guy leaned in. “Studying abroad gave you some teeth, huh? Whatever happened to the girl who used to beg us to put in a good word for her with the boss?” My stomach turned. It was true. During my darkest, most pathetic years, I hadn’t just worshipped Pete; I had catered to his entire orbit. Maddie had been the effortless, talented golden child. To compensate, I had bribed these overgrown frat boys. I memorized their favorite liquors, bought them VIP tickets to games, bought them designer watches for Christmas—all just to buy their loyalty, hoping they’d convince Pete to give me a chance. Looking at their flushed, entitled faces now, I felt a wave of profound nausea. I truly had been blind. “Look, Vic,” the guy next to me said, dropping his voice into a patronizing register. “Pete is off the market. You lost to your sister. It is what it is.” He leaned closer. The stench of stale tobacco and expensive whiskey hit my face. “But… that doesn’t mean your life is over.” “If you take care of us tonight,” he whispered, a vile smile spreading across his face, “we’ll talk to Pete. We’ll make sure he keeps you around for… extracurriculars. What do you say?” My skin crawled. I pushed against the table to stand up, but a hand shot out, gripping my jaw painfully tight. “Don’t be shy, princess. We’re good at keeping secrets.” “Hey? Pete!” someone suddenly called out. I wrenched my face away and saw Pete walking down the corridor right past our alcove. “Pete!” I stood up abruptly, but the man beside me grabbed my waist and forcefully yanked me back down onto the velvet sofa. Pete stopped. He looked over. He had absolutely heard what they just said to me. “Pete! Tell your friends to back off!” I demanded, my voice shaking with rage, not fear. A flicker of panic crossed the men’s faces. They glanced at each other, suddenly unsure if they had crossed a line with the newly minted fiancé. But Pete just looked at me. His expression was completely blank. He wrapped his arm securely around Maddie’s waist, turned his back to me, and kept walking. “Pete—“ “Hey, calm down, princess,” the man sneered, pulling me tighter against his chest, his fingers digging into my ribs. “How do you still not get it? In Pete’s world, Maddie comes first. Then us. Then his dog. Then you.” My face hardened into stone. “So,” he murmured, his breath hot against my ear, “be a good girl. Entertain us, and we’ll convince him to let you be his favorite little pet.” “Yeah,” another laughed. “We won’t tell Maddie.” My fingers curled around the stem of my crystal water glass. I squeezed. Harder. Crack. The glass shattered in my grip, shards raining onto the table, water pooling over the velvet. The men froze, staring at the jagged glass in my palm. “Who exactly,” I whispered, the silence around us suddenly deafening, “do you think you are touching?” Before he could even blink, I pivoted my hips, driving a closed fist with all my weight directly into the man’s temple. 4 When I said I twisted myself into a Swiss Army knife to compete with Maddie, I didn’t just mean academics. I meant everything. Including Muay Thai. The man’s head snapped back with a sickening crack, blood instantly spraying from his nose as he went down. “You bitch!” Another guy lunged, swinging a heavy glass liquor bottle. It smashed against my hairline. The world tilted. A sharp ringing pierced my ears, but years of muscle memory kicked in. I dug my heels into the carpet, grounding myself. As a third guy lunged to tackle me, I sidestepped, grabbed him by the back of his collar, and slammed his face squarely into the mahogany table. I stood over them, chest heaving, blood trickling down the side of my face. “You think you can break me?” I looked down at the men groaning on the floor. “You’re out of your league.” Smack! The sharp sting of a slap exploded against my cheek. I stumbled back, catching the edge of the sofa to stay upright. Pete stood there, his face twisted in fury. “I put a ring on Maddie’s finger and you pull a stunt like this?!” he roared. My parents had rushed over, drawn by the shattered glass. When my mother saw the bloodied men on the floor, her face turned purple. She shoved me hard in the chest. “What is wrong with you?!” she screamed. “Just because your sister gets engaged today, you have to destroy the entire event?! It’s your grandfather’s birthday! When are you going to grow the hell up?!” The gathered crowd hadn’t heard the repulsive things those men had whispered to me. They only saw me, the jilted, crazy sister, standing over bleeding guests. “She’s twenty-five acting like a toddler,” an aunt muttered loudly. “Pete doesn’t want her. Throwing a violent tantrum isn’t going to change that.” Maddie stepped forward, her eyes brimming with spectacular, cinematic tears. “Vic,” she choked out, her voice trembling. “If you really… if you really can’t handle this… I’ll give you the ring. Just please, stop hurting people.” She made a dramatic show of trying to pull the massive diamond off her finger. Pete caught her hand, stopping her. “Vicky, do you have zero self-respect?” Pete sneered, looking at me with pure disgust. “I am engaged, and you’re throwing a riot. You want me that badly?” He pulled Maddie flush against his side. “You want a shot with me? Fine. You make sure Maddie is perfectly happy first. You serve her. Then, maybe, I’ll consider keeping you around.” “Pete?” Maddie looked up at him, her eyes wide. Pete laughed, a dark, cruel sound. “She won’t leave us alone anyway, babe. Might as well make use of her. But I’m only accepting her if she learns her place beneath you.” A flash of genuine thrill danced in Maddie’s eyes before she hid it behind her tears. Pete looked back at me. “Do we have an understanding?” I slowly reached up and touched the cheek where my mother had slapped me. I didn’t yell. I didn’t cry. I took one step forward. SMACK. I drove my hand across Pete’s face with enough force to snap his head violently to the side. My mother lunged, grabbing my arm. “Are you insane?!” Maddie screamed, a piercing, theatrical sound. “Vic! If you want to hit someone, hit me! Don’t touch him!” “Hit you?” I laughed, shaking my arm free from my mother’s grip. “You’re a side character. You’re not worth bruising my knuckles over.” “You—!” “Pete Carmichael,” I said, my voice cutting through the chaos like a scythe. “As the CEO of Vanguard Tech, I am officially terminating your employment. Don’t bother showing up for onboarding on Monday.” He froze. “Vanguard?” Then, he scoffed, rubbing his reddening jaw. “You think you can just invent a fantasy where you work at Vanguard just to feel powerful? God, you’re pathetic.” Maddie looked at me with profound pity. “Vic… have you lost your mind? This is my fault. I should have told him to propose in private. The shock has completely broken you.” My mother glared at me. “Vanguard is a Fortune 500 company. If you’re going to lie, at least make it believable!” Laughter rippled through the crowd. “Okay, she’s actually psychotic,” someone whispered loudly. “She stalked him so hard she’s hallucinating that they work together. Vanguard’s hiring process is impossible. I’ve been rejected three times.” Right then, Pete’s phone rang. I glanced at the screen. It was Val’s name. Pete’s arrogant sneer vanished. He cleared his throat and answered, his voice instantly dropping into a tone of deep, reverent respect. “Yes, ma’am? You’re outside? Of course, I’ll come escort you in personally.” He hung up the phone and glared at the security guards. “Get her out of here. Drag her out if you have to. The COO is outside and I will not let this psycho ruin my introduction.” Two security guards immediately grabbed my arms. A murmur of excitement swept the room. “The COO of Vanguard is here? Oh my god.” “Pete is already bringing in tech billionaires. He’s incredible.” “Hurry up, get the crazy sister out the back door!” But before the guards could move me, the double doors at the end of the hall swung open. “Vic!” Val’s voice echoed through the marble foyer. Pete blinked, adjusting his suit jacket. “Ms. Cruz? Who are you calling—” Val blew right past him without a glance. she marched straight toward me. “Vic! Oh my god, this is a massive screw-up!” The security guards holding my arms went rigid. They dropped their hands as if they had touched hot coals.

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