The housekeeper Levitt’s daughter Lavinia stays at my place every weekend during school breaks. Out of respect for her mother’s years of service to my family, I never said anything. Until one day I came home to find the door code had been changed, with a note stuck on the door: “Freeloaders who mooch off other people’s homes are forbidden entry.” I tore down the note and knocked on the door, asking Levitt: “What’s this about?” Lavinia sat on the sofa with her legs crossed, saying: “Can’t you read? Living in my house every day—have you no shame? If you have nowhere to live, go sleep on the streets. I hate freeloaders like you the most!” I looked at her in confusion. Levitt immediately came forward to explain in a low voice: “Miss Alice, I’m sorry. My daughter doesn’t know I’m a housekeeper. She’s been spoiled and doesn’t like living with outsiders.” “By the way, don’t you have another house in the suburbs? When my daughter comes to stay on weekends, you can go live in the suburban house.” With that, Levitt shut the door right in my face. Standing outside, I calmly dialed the police: “Hello, someone has illegally entered and occupied my house. Please come as soon as possible.”

I never imagined that as the daughter of the wealthiest person in the city, I would be called a freeloader to my face. The key point being—this villa was mine. Twenty minutes after calling the police, a patrol car pulled up in front of my villa. The two officers had just gotten out and hadn’t even asked about the illegal entry situation when Levitt frantically opened the door. She rushed over to me, her face pale: “Miss Alice, what’s going on? Why did you call the police?” I glanced at her without speaking. The officer looked her up and down and asked: “Are you the person Miss Alice mentioned—the one who illegally entered and occupied her house?” Hearing this, Levitt panicked instantly: “No, no, officers, this is all a misunderstanding.” “I’m Miss Alice’s housekeeper, responsible for taking care of her daily needs.” “My daughter’s school is on break, so she came to stay for a couple days. The door lock just broke, and when we had someone fix it, they changed the code. There’s no occupation of the house.” She pointed at the villa door and smiled apologetically: “Look, I opened the door right away, didn’t I?” The officer looked at me, then at her, and asked: “Miss Alice, do you still want to pursue this?” I was about to speak when Levitt suddenly lowered her voice, pleading humbly in my ear: “Miss Alice, Lavinia’s father died young. I’ve raised her alone—it hasn’t been easy. She just started college, when vanity is strongest, and having lacked affection since childhood, her personality is a bit extreme. If she finds out I’m just a housekeeper, she definitely won’t be able to accept it.” “I did this just to make her feel better.” “Please, for the sake of the twelve years I’ve served your parents, forgive me this once.” Hearing Levitt mention my parents, my heart did soften a bit. Levitt had been with my family for twelve years. My mother’s health was poor before she died, and Levitt was the one who personally cared for her, serving tea, attending to every detail. The day my mother passed, Levitt cried harder than anyone, kneeling by the hospital bed holding my mother’s hand, saying she would definitely take care of me. After that, she did exactly that. After my mother died, she kept the house in perfect order and looked after me like her own daughter. Whenever I tried to give her tips in the past, she would always decline repeatedly before accepting. Three months ago, her daughter Lavinia got into the same university as me. Levitt was both happy and worried. She was glad Lavinia was doing well, but stressed that university tuition was too expensive for her to afford. Understanding how hard it was for her to raise a child alone, I offered to cover Lavinia’s four years of university tuition. Levitt was so moved she cried. She clutched my hand, thanking me over and over, saying she would definitely repay my kindness. But starting last month, things changed. That day I came home and suddenly saw Lavinia at my house. I looked confused, but Levitt pulled me aside to quietly explain: “Miss Alice, Lavinia has nowhere to go on weekends during break. I haven’t seen her in so long, so I let her stay for a couple days.” I nodded without saying anything. The house had plenty of rooms anyway. Letting the mother and daughter reunite wasn’t a big deal. But later, I gradually noticed something was wrong.

The so-called “couple days” turned into a fixed arrangement every single weekend. Every Friday night, Lavinia would show up at my house right on schedule and only leave Monday morning. At first, Lavinia just liked taking photos in the living room and posting on Twitter to show off to her classmates that she lived in a big house. I could understand that—everyone wants to look glamorous in front of others. But what I couldn’t understand was how Lavinia always looked at me with disgust and disdain, as if I owed her millions. Several times, when I was sitting on the sofa watching TV, she deliberately covered her nose and complained loudly: “So annoying! How can such a luxurious villa have this constant stench of poverty?” I thought she genuinely smelled something odd, so I specifically asked Levitt to give the house a thorough cleaning. But Lavinia only got more exaggerated—either spraying disinfectant everywhere I sat, or putting disposable covers on the sofa for me to sit on. A few times I even saw her throw things I’d used straight into the trash. When I questioned her, Levitt would always sheepishly explain in private: “Lavinia is just worried those things aren’t clean and might affect your hygiene and safety, so she’s being extra careful.” I didn’t think much of it. After all, besides attending classes, I had to handle various company matters large and small. I was swamped every day and didn’t have the energy to argue with her over these things. Until this afternoon, when I saw that note on the door, it finally dawned on me. Lavinia thought I was living in her house. Originally I planned to teach Levitt and Lavinia a lesson. But now, Levitt kept pleading with me: “Miss Alice, I promise there won’t be a next time.” “I’ll explain the situation to Lavinia today and won’t let her come stay anymore.” “Please, for the sake of all the years I’ve served your parents, forgive me this once.” Seeing Levitt’s humble expression, I sighed: “Fine.” “I won’t pursue it.” After the officers left, Levitt let out a huge sigh of relief, thanking me repeatedly with an excellent attitude. After that day, Lavinia indeed never came to my house again. Levitt remained as diligent as ever, keeping the house spotlessly clean. The only thing she didn’t do well was that things kept going missing from the house. Today a bottle of wine, tomorrow a set of dishes, the day after a set of expensive clothes. Every time I asked, Levitt had excuses and reasons: “Miss Alice, I’m so sorry. I accidentally broke that bottle of wine while cleaning.” “Miss Alice, that set of dishes was used for too long. When I was washing them I noticed cracks and worried they might cut you, so I threw them away.” “Miss Alice, I took those clothes to the dry cleaner and they lost them.” Although the reasons sounded far-fetched each time, given her decent attitude, I didn’t make a big deal of it. I thought that was the end of it. Until that day, after paying respects to my parents, I decided to go thoroughly clean their suburban villa where they’d lived for half their lives. That was my parents’ favorite place. The yard was filled with my mother’s most beloved flowers, and the house was full of souvenirs my father had brought back from around the world. Before my mother died, she held my hand and said that house was her and my father’s life’s work, telling me to take good care of it. I treasured that villa deeply. Even though I was afraid of the painful memories and moved out to live alone, I would still personally go clean it regularly, carefully wiping every piece of furniture and trimming the flowers in the yard. But this time, when I arrived at the villa entrance, I froze. The villa’s gate, which was always kept closed, was wide open. From inside the villa came faint sounds of deafening music and noisy laughter. I immediately went forward and pushed open the half-closed door. After seeing what was inside, I was completely stunned.

The villa living room was a complete mess. Empty bottles, snack bags, fruit peels, and cigarette butts were scattered all over the coffee table, sofa, and floor. The genuine leather sofa worth hundreds of thousands had cigarette burn holes all over it. My mother’s beloved Persian rug was covered in footprints and several wine stains. The souvenirs hanging on the walls—some had been taken down to use as photo props, others were smashed and thrown in corners. Seeing this scene, I instantly clenched my fists. This villa was where my parents had lived for half their lives. Every piece of furniture, every decoration inside was carefully chosen by them. I was always so careful when walking around, afraid of bumping into anything, yet now it had been ruined beyond recognition. I scanned the room and found Lavinia sitting on the sofa directly facing the door. Around her were college classmates from our class: “Lavinia, your family is so rich! Even a random suburban villa is this luxurious.” “Right? I just looked it up—any random painting on this wall is worth millions!” “Oh my god, your mom is so powerful. She truly deserves to be the billionaire female CEO!” “For the sake of being classmates, after you graduate and inherit the family business, can you let us work at your company?” Lavinia’s lips curled up high from the praise: “No problem. Stick with me and you’ll never lack money.” Hearing this, the classmates were thrilled, frantically flattering Lavinia. Just then, Lavinia saw me standing at the door. Her smile vanished as she walked over arrogantly. Slap! Without a word, she viciously struck my face: “You bitch, you even followed me here?” The sudden slap left me stunned in place. The classmates present all widened their eyes: “Lavinia, what’s going on?” Lavinia pointed at me with utter contempt and disgust: “This Alice is the freeloader I just told you about!” “Living in my city house isn’t enough—now she wants to stay in the villa my mom specially bought for me!” I looked at Lavinia in disbelief: “Who told you this is a house your mom bought you?” Lavinia sneered: “My mom told me herself, of course.” “You bitch, you’re just after my mom because she’s a company CEO, so you live at my house every day trying to get her attention, aren’t you?” “Living at my house and deliberately creating opportunities to be alone with my mom isn’t enough—now you want to defile my villa too?” “Let me tell you, my mom said she lets you live at my house because you’re a pitiful orphan and she kindly took you in. Don’t even think about taking my place!” So this is what Levitt told Lavinia? No wonder Lavinia treated me so badly before. In her understanding, Levitt was the CEO who lived in a villa. And I was the poor orphan Levitt took in? So Lavinia always believed I was living in her house and trying to steal her position as the only daughter. How absurd! As Lavinia spoke, she turned to shout at the classmates: “Do you know how shameless Alice is?” “She stays at my house every day and won’t leave no matter what.” “I specifically put up a note telling her not to live in my house anymore, but she got so angry she called the police claiming my mom was bullying her.” “My mom was worried she’d make a scene that would damage the company’s reputation, so she made peace and bought me this separate villa to live in.” “Sometimes I really don’t understand—I’m my mom’s biological daughter, a legitimate heiress, and I often stay on campus. But she, a poor orphan, stays at my house all day long, acting like it’s her own home. Now if I want to wear my own clothes or drink my favorite wine, my mom has to secretly bring them from the city villa, just to avoid her saying we’re bullying her.” “I’ve never seen such a shameless bitch in my life!” My eyes widened. No wonder things kept disappearing from my villa recently—Levitt had been secretly taking them for Lavinia to use? What a Levitt. Since you’re treating me like a fool, don’t blame me for being ruthless!

I immediately took out my phone and called the legal department: “Come to my parents’ suburban villa right away with your people…” Before I could finish, Lavinia snatched my phone and smashed it hard on the ground: “You bitch, why are you so good at acting?” “‘Your parents’ villa’? This is the fucking villa my mom bought for me!” The classmates also hurled contemptuous insults at me: “No wonder everyone stays on campus but she’s always making excuses not to. I thought she was busy with important stuff, turns out she was being a parasite at Lavinia’s house, stealing someone else’s mom. Disgusting.” “Exactly. Her own parents died, so she goes looking for other people’s rich parents. If her parents knew how shameless she is, they’d probably come back to life from anger.” “Some people are just that low. The moment they see rich people, they do everything to get attention, trying to climb their way to success through a benefactor.” “Lavinia, you’re still too nice. If someone tried to steal my parents, I’d tear them apart!” I ignored everyone’s mockery and looked at Lavinia, saying sternly: “I advise you to call your mother and ask her properly whose villa this actually is.” Hearing this, Lavinia’s expression darkened. She immediately grabbed my collar: “You bitch, don’t think I don’t know—you’re just taking advantage of my mom’s soft heart, trying to trick her again to benefit yourself!” Suddenly, she looked at my neck, her eyes lighting up: “That jade necklace looks expensive. Did you trick my mom into buying it for you too?” With that, she yanked hard, viciously tearing the necklace from my neck. Lavinia’s movement was so fast and fierce I couldn’t react—the necklace was in her hand. Seeing this, my face changed drastically: “Give the necklace back!” Seeing my sudden panic, Lavinia looked at me with vicious eyes: “So nervous? Looks like this necklace cost my mom quite a bit, huh?” I panicked and quickly said: “It was from my mother. It’s not valuable, but it’s very important to me. Give it back.” I reached out to grab it. This jade necklace was a protective charm my mother obtained for me with her life. I was sickly as a child. At ten years old, I was critically ill and comatose in the hospital. The doctors told my parents to prepare for the worst. My mother couldn’t accept it and went to a temple to pray for me. To show sincerity, on a sweltering summer day with temperatures over 100 degrees, she prostrated herself step by step from the foot of the mountain to the summit. She kowtowed until her knees were bloody, exposing white bone, banging her head until it bled and she became delirious, finally obtaining this jade necklace. Perhaps even heaven was moved by my mother. I, who had been comatose, miraculously woke up, but my mother fell gravely ill as a result. Before dying, my mother placed the necklace in my hand, instructing me to keep it safe. I treasured this necklace immensely and carried it with me from childhood. It was something my mother traded her life for, and my forbidden treasure. I absolutely would not allow anyone to damage it! “The more you want it, the more I want to destroy it.” Before I could touch it, Lavinia threw the necklace hard on the ground. Accompanied by a crisp sound, the necklace shattered into pieces. Fragments scattered everywhere. “No!” Watching the jade necklace my mother traded her life for break like this, my heart felt like it was being cut by knives. I couldn’t breathe. “You bastard!” Unable to bear it any longer, I slapped Lavinia across the face. “You bitch, how dare you hit me?” Lavinia covered her face and shrieked: “Teach this bitch a lesson!” “Whoever does the best job gets a million dollars from my mom!” Hearing this, the classmates’ eyes lit up as they punched and kicked me. “How dare you hit Lavinia? Her mom is the richest person in our city—who do you think you are?” “Exactly. What kind of necklace could a poor person like you afford? That was obviously something you conned from Lavinia’s mom. She’s destroying her own property—why are you so worked up?” “Shameless bitch. Not only do you steal someone else’s mom, but you dare hit Lavinia. You’re asking for it.” “How dare you mention your own mother. Your parents deserved to die early for raising a shameless bitch like you!” I was beaten to the ground, trembling with rage, and said through gritted teeth: “You’ll regret this!” Hearing this, everyone present burst into laughter as if they’d heard the biggest joke. “Hilarious! Lavinia’s mom is the richest woman in the city. What are you to make us regret anything?” “Exactly. You’re at most a lowly orphan who lives in other people’s houses. You already depend on finding parents everywhere to survive, and you dare threaten us?” “A bottom-tier poor person without even her own house can only rage impotently like this.” Those people held me down on the ground, mocking and humiliating me without restraint. Lavinia, supported by the crowd, grabbed my hair and said arrogantly: “Regret? I’ve never regretted anything in my life. I’ll just wait and see how a poor person like you can make me regret it!” As soon as she finished speaking, luxury cars sped over and stopped at the villa entrance…

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I asked Tristan for a divorce. I wanted nothing but money. Tristan put his hands in his pockets and sneered, “You don’t even want the son you love more than your own life?” “No.” Because, for his fifth birthday wish, my son said, “Can Daddy and Mommy get a divorce? I want Auntie Serena to be my mommy.” 1 I handed the divorce agreement to Tristan Cole. He looked at it as if it were any ordinary document on his desk. His gaze was cold and distant. The only time he ever showed me any burning passion was during his insatiable demands late at night. “Hazel, if you’re going to throw a tantrum, at least look at where we are. This is the office.” He was certain I couldn’t bear to divorce him. He thought this was just a pathetic tactic fueled by jealousy. “I’m not throwing a tantrum.” I had been relegated to the waiting room like a common visitor, waiting a full three hours for him. I even had to endure the pitying glances of bystanders from time to time. How could this be a tantrum? “When Ms. Serena comes to see the CEO, she doesn’t have to wait a single minute.” “So the rumors about the CEO hating his wife are true, then?” It was true. Their CEO indeed did not like his wife. The person he liked had always been Serena. “Tristan, I want a divorce. The sooner the better.” “Hazel, what are you playing at?” Only then did Tristan lower his eyes to look at the agreement. “Hazel, you’re divorcing me for just this much money?” Yes, when I accidentally got pregnant back then, his original intention was to use this sum of money to compensate me and make me stay away from him. But I didn’t leave. Because I was a transmigrator tasked with a system mission. Giving birth to Finn and marrying Tristan was the mission assigned to me by the system. Unfortunately, no matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t warm Tristan’s heart. There was no future for us. I figured this money would serve as a belated compensation. The fifty million dollars stated in the agreement was a drop in the bucket for him. But to me, it was a massive fortune, enough for me to live happily ever after. Tristan stood up, looking down at me with a scrutinizing gaze. His expensive, custom-tailored suit made him look even taller and more imposing. He put his hands in his pockets and sneered. “Just the money?” “You don’t even want the son you love more than your own life?” I gave a faint smile. “No.” 2 I used to love Finn very much. After all, he shared my blood. Over the past five years, I had poured all my patience and love into every step of his growth. Perhaps because he resented me, Tristan had no affection for Finn. When he was born, Tristan took one look at him and said flatly, “He looks a lot like Hazel.” After saying that, he threw Finn to the nanny at home. Strangely enough, Finn absolutely adored Tristan. He had a remarkable gift for language. When he had just turned three, he could look at me with a cold little face and say, “Daddy doesn’t come home because it’s your fault, Mommy.” I just took it as childish babble. Later, when he was four, he met Serena for the first time after she returned from her divorce. When he got home, he told the nanny: “No wonder Daddy likes Auntie Serena. I like her too.” “Auntie Serena is gentler than Mommy, and she’s better at making me happy.” It was just because I wouldn’t let him eat too much candy. He puffed out his cheeks in anger. I had just come out of the kitchen and heard his accusation. Suppressing my discomfort, I said softly, “Finn, Mommy will make it up to you with some new candy.” “It’s a mix of pear and hawthorn that Mommy made herself. It’s delicious and healthy.” But he snatched the pear and hawthorn candy I made and threw it fiercely into the trash can. He shouted loudly, “I don’t want the garbage you make. I only want the premium candy Auntie Serena brought back from Italy.” “So what if I get cavities?” I stared at him blankly. The son I gave birth to was so much like his father; neither of them could be warmed up. Especially on the day of his fifth birthday party. Both father and son had invited Serena. As we were putting the candles on the cake, the long-absent voice of the system suddenly rang in my mind. “Host, sorry for the wait. I’m back.” Even though no one else could hear its voice, I subconsciously walked out of the hall. “Host, your mission is complete. You have enough points to go back.” In my original world, I was accidentally injured and became a vegetable. Therefore, I made a deal with the system: I would wake up once I completed the mission. “You can also choose to stay, since you have a family here now.” “In your original world, you’re all alone anyway.” Just as I was hesitating… Finn made the decision for me. As soon as I stepped back into the hall, his birthday wish reached my ears. His voice was crisp and loud, and he didn’t even try to hide it from me. “Can Daddy and Mommy get a divorce? I want Auntie Serena to be my mommy.” Everyone froze for a moment. Tristan merely frowned slightly. “Pick another wish.” Serena covered her mouth and laughed, “Oh, you shouldn’t say that! You’re such a cute kid.” However, she couldn’t hide the smug look in her eyes. I smiled. I turned and said to the system, “Help me go home. I don’t want to wait another second.” 3 But the system gave me some bad news. “Since the central system has received too many hosts attempting a second or third transmigration, there’s now a cooling-off period for detaching from the system.” I was stunned. The system coughed lightly. “It’s like the divorce cooling-off period you humans have. You have to wait.” “Wait…” for fuck’s sake. I silently reminded myself to use civilized language and asked with restraint, “How long is the wait?” “Three years.” “Three years?” “System, you sneaky bastard, aren’t you afraid I’ll be dead by then?” The system froze for a moment. “Host, your insults are quite advanced.” After three seconds of silence, it said: “Consider it compensation for me being gone so long. I’ll increase your points by a third, which you can redeem so that your body will be completely healthy and intact when you wake up from your vegetative state.” “Fine, then I’ll get the divorce first.” That’s the reason I was standing in Tristan’s office. “Tristan, let’s get a divorce.” With a snap, Tristan lit a cigarette. He blew out a smoke ring and smiled with a roguish air. “Hazel, have you forgotten?” “Who was it that said five years ago she would die without Finn?” I was the one who said that. That year, Tristan heard the news of Serena getting married abroad. He ruthlessly tormented me all night. The next day, I developed a high fever and burned in my room alone for three days. In my delirium, I forgot to take that morning-after pill. Later, I found out I was pregnant with Finn. When Tristan found out, he coldly told me to get rid of Finn at first. I remembered the system’s words: “If you abort the child now, the mission fails. Host, you know the consequences.” I had to beg Tristan, “If I lose the child, I’ll die.” If I didn’t beg him, given his ruthless methods in the business world, he had plenty of ways to deal with me. Tristan was quite ruthless to everyone, including himself. His only weakness was Serena, who had lived in the orphanage with him and had even saved him. Later, Serena was adopted by a wealthy family. Tristan had a wild streak since he was young. He risked his life all the way from a street punk to the top of the business world, just so he could gain the approval of Serena’s adoptive parents and marry her. Unfortunately, he didn’t have time to give her the massive pink diamond he had in his hand. The news of Serena marrying someone else came. A long time later, I found out. The reason Tristan suddenly proposed to me. Was also because of one sentence from Serena. “Tristan, I’m getting married. I hope to hear good news from you too.” 4 I looked at Tristan’s handsome face. But in my heart, I was thinking: I hope I never see him again. I said flatly, “Since both you and your son like Serena.” “After the divorce, you two can form a family. Everyone will be happy, isn’t that nice?” Tristan narrowed his eyes at me. A well-proportioned hand pinched my chin. He laughed disdainfully. “Playing hard to get?” Then he restrained his smile and said fiercely, “You want to play, right? I’ll play along.” “Add one clause: after the divorce, without my permission, you are never allowed to see Finn privately.” Threatening me? If it were in the past, this would have been a fatal blow to me. Because love gives people weaknesses. But now, I didn’t want to love anyone. So I had no weaknesses. Under his provocative gaze, I replied as calmly as still water, “Fine.” He was stunned for a moment, and his eyes darkened. He grabbed a pen and quickly scribbled a few strokes on the agreement. Then he tossed a copy to me. I picked up the agreement, turned, and walked away. Tristan gritted his back teeth. “Hazel, you pack your bags and get out of the Cole house tonight.” “That works too.” My current emotional state was terrifyingly stable. But then I paused, stopped walking, and turned to ask him with a smile. “The divorce certificate hasn’t even been finalized, and you’re telling me to get out already?” “I won’t get out for free. Please pay the alimony in advance. Thank you.” Tristan’s face bore a trace of anger. However, based on my understanding of him, he was quite generous when it came to money. Barring any accidents, I would receive that fifty million dollars tomorrow. Very good. 5 Watching Hazel walk out of the office without looking back. Tristan felt an inexplicable, slight irritation in his heart. Just then, his assistant, Mr. Brooks, walked in holding some documents. He had followed Tristan for many years and could be considered a confidant. “Boss, is Ms. Hazel really asking for a divorce?” Amidst the smoke he exhaled, Tristan said coldly: “She’s just throwing a tantrum. She wouldn’t dare.” “How could she bear to leave Finn behind?” Mr. Brooks chuckled, “That’s true. Ms. Hazel loves you and the child so much. Maybe she’s just having a little emotional outburst. You just need to coax her a bit, Boss.” “No need to coax her. Based on my understanding of her, within three months, she’ll come back crying and begging for my forgiveness.” Mr. Brooks smiled, put down the documents, and walked out. Tristan looked down from outside the 30th floor, at the thousands of lights slowly lighting up below. For no reason, he thought of the Hazel from many years ago. The first time she was beneath him, she was nervous and scared, like a helpless little rabbit. Her eyes were red, and her voice trembled. She even said some things he didn’t understand. “Tristan, I’m not just here to complete a mission. Actually, I truly like you.” “Otherwise, I wouldn’t be doing this with you.” “Tristan, can you treat me a little better in the future, please?” Tristan leaned down and sealed her incessant chatter with his lips. He also sealed her subtle crying for the rest of the night. Over the years, Hazel had been very good and obedient. The only thing that angered him was that she actually played tricks, using a child to force him. She even absurdly said, “If the child is gone, the mission will fail, and I won’t exist anymore.” He had to punish her. So for the past five years, he had never given her a good look. Anyway, she was homeless and would stay by his side until death. Her innocent plea echoed in his ears again. “Tristan, I want to have a cute child, a family of three, living in a warm little home, okay?” “No.” A person like him didn’t want a family at all. He never had such a thing since he was a child. Now that everything was in his control, he needed this thing even less. The day Hazel asked for a divorce, he inexplicably skipped a dinner engagement and went home early. “Where’s Hazel?” The nanny whispered, “The Madam moved out this afternoon.” Tristan only felt the irritation in his heart grow stronger, but he didn’t show it on his face. He just snorted coldly, “She’s acting it out pretty well.” After saying that, he walked into the study and paid no more attention to it. 6 After getting the agreement, I returned to the Cole house. I simply packed a few things and prepared to leave. Finn was sitting in the living room, playing on his tablet with a piece of candy in his mouth. Colorful wrappers were thrown all over the floor. He looked up at me and said flatly, “Daddy allowed me to eat it.” “Auntie Serena gave it to me. Don’t interfere.” I smiled. “I don’t care at all. You can eat a hundred pieces for all I care.” I crouched down and pinched his cheek. “You’re the one who will get cavities, not me.” “Finn, I’m leaving.” “Where are you going?” “Making room for you to welcome your new mommy. I won’t be coming back here anymore.” Finn frowned slightly, his expression identical to his father’s. “Mommy’s talking nonsense. Daddy said you’re an orphan too. Except for shamelessly following Daddy, you have nowhere else to go.” “Mommy, can you be a little more mature?” “Auntie Serena wouldn’t be as childish as you, throwing a tantrum and running away from home at your age.” “Mommy, just go. I won’t miss you.” After saying that, he lowered his head and went back to playing his game. If it were in the past, I would have gently taken his electronics away. And then told him, “Mommy will play Legos with you, okay?” “Mommy will go swimming with you?” “Mommy will read picture books with you?” I would sacrifice a lot of time for self-improvement to exchange for high-quality time with him. Now, I didn’t care. Whoever wants to take care of him, go ahead. “Alright, Finn. I hope you can keep talking tough forever.” After saying that, I dragged my small suitcase and stepped out of the Cole family’s front door. The sun shone warmly on me. It stung my eyes slightly. But four words floated into my mind: Living toward the sun. 7 I rented an apartment, an upscale complex with two elevators serving one unit per floor. There was no need to buy one; I couldn’t take it with me after three years anyway. The complex had a pleasant environment with beautiful scenery, and I could see the ocean right out the window. However. I could also see people jumping into the ocean. A tiny little thing was walking alone slowly toward the waves. I instinctively rushed downstairs in my slippers, crossing a street and a greenbelt to reach the beach. I scooped up her small body. “Where are your daddy and mommy?” The little girl was about three years old, with big, round eyes like grapes. Her eyes were wet, as if she had just cried. But she didn’t say a word, just tightly clutched the hem of her little dress. “Luna.” A young, handsome man walked over. It turned out I hadn’t seen clearly earlier; a man had been sitting in a hammock in the trees on the beach, watching the little girl the whole time. “Thank you.” “But don’t worry, she wouldn’t dare walk any further. I was watching her.” The man stepped forward to pick up the girl. “Luna, come home with Daddy.” But the girl clung to my neck and wouldn’t let go. Her pink little mouth let out two words, “Hug.” The man was stunned for a moment, then smiled and said, “This is the first time Luna has actively asked a stranger for a hug.” This kid was so soft and smelled like milk; she felt really nice to hold. I couldn’t push her away, so I had to carry her all the way back to the complex. I didn’t expect them to live right next door to me. The man thought for a moment and said, “Ms. Hazel, Luna seems to like you quite a bit. I know you’re single and currently unemployed.” “It’s just the two of us in my family, father and daughter. I keep myself clean, have no bad habits, and I’m a doctor…” I handed the child back to him. And used a voice the child couldn’t hear to say, “Even if you’re a doctor, you can’t use a child to hit on people.” “You even dug up my personal information?” “You look like a male model, but your actions are so creepy.” He looked at me in shock. “Ms. Hazel, I wanted to ask if you could help watch Luna for a while? Until I find a nanny Luna likes.” “Of course, name your price.” Ah, so that’s what he meant. He coughed lightly. “Uh, I know your personal information because… I’m your landlord. Ethan Hayes.” Then I verified the information, and he was indeed the landlord. I was always someone who knew when to admit a mistake and when to yield. “Mr. Hayes, I’m sorry. I was the creepy one.” 8 Perhaps I softened seeing the little girl’s pitiful eyes. I agreed to help watch Luna temporarily. She was very quiet and didn’t talk much. When she wasn’t at preschool, she would often obediently bring her little stool and sit watching me arrange flowers or draw. Every time I finished something, she would clap her little chubby hands and praise me. “So good! Hazel is so good.” I told her to call me by my name; I liked that, making friends with children. Occasionally, I would zone out for a moment. Finn seemed to never have been like this. He always complained, “Mommy, so boring. Play Legos with me.” A cute, soft little human cub like Luna was truly a healing animal. The only strange thing about her was that she often called out for Mommy and Daddy in her sleep. She would wake up with wet eyes. My heart aching, I would hold her in my arms and softly coax her. I gave her a pear and hawthorn lollipop I made. She popped it into her mouth, her eyes squinting into satisfied little crescent moons. She gave me a kiss; it smelled like sweet fruit. When her dad, Ethan, came home from work, she would show off to him: “Daddy, the candy Hazel makes is yummier than what you buy.” Sometimes she couldn’t bear to eat it all at once and would take slow, small bites. I smiled. “Eat it. If you like it, I’ll make more.” It turns out things Finn didn’t even care to look at were treasured by others. Before the divorce, the radius of my life revolved entirely around Finn. Even leaving the house for a short while, I would worry if Finn had bumped into something or gotten hurt. Maybe it was having Luna’s company. In the days since I left the Cole house, I hardly seemed to think of Finn or anything about the Cole family. Instead, the butler had contacted me a few times. “The Young Master isn’t used to sleeping without you telling him a bedtime story.” “He’ll get used to it.” “The Young Master has a toothache. Can you come back and stay with him?” “No, I’m not a doctor.” 9 A few days later, I unexpectedly ran into Finn. Ethan went out of town for a conference and asked me to help pick up and drop off Luna for a few days. But I forgot that Luna’s new preschool was the same one Finn attended. Ethan was really willing to spend money, sending her to such an expensive private preschool. I carried Luna out of the car and had just dropped her off. I bumped right into Finn. Sitting in the car was a stone-faced Tristan. Finn opened his mouth to call “Mommy.” The words reached his lips but he swallowed them back down. Even if we were divorced, he was still my son, an old acquaintance. I greeted him generously, “Hi, Finn.” But he didn’t respond. Like an inflating pufferfish, he puffed out his cheeks and ran into the classroom. The ex-husband in the car, Tristan, was also an old acquaintance. But I didn’t really want to say hello. I didn’t expect him to lower himself, step out of the car, and speak first. “Didn’t I tell you? Without my permission, you are not allowed to see Finn privately.” I was so annoyed I laughed. “I didn’t see him, it was a coincidence. Believe it or not.” I couldn’t be bothered to deal with him. Tristan sneered behind me. “Hazel, how long are you going to keep playing hard to get?”

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My Ex-Boyfriend on Death Row. The following winter, I bumped into him at a local grocery store. “You’re not dead?” He raised an eyebrow. “Wishing me into the grave already?” 1 When I first saw Liam by the shelves, I thought my mind was playing a cruel trick on me. “What, don’t even recognize your own man anymore?” I ignored him. I bit my lip hard. Before I could even process what was happening, Liam naturally grabbed my right hand. He pulled me a couple of steps forward, his other hand hovering over the shelf as he turned to ask me, “Smooth or ribbed? Strawberry or mint?” His tone was so casual, it was as if we had never been apart. I pinched my thigh. Hard. It hurt. This wasn’t a dream! Finally snapping out of my shock, I violently shook off his hand. “Why are you here?!” “Where else would I be? Who was the one whining about being too sore to walk last night, demanding a piggyback ride out of the apartment?” He tapped his lower back. “You completely wrecked my back, and you’ll be the one crying about it later.” I froze again. Liam was talking about five years ago. Back then, we had just started dating and were completely in the honeymoon phase. If he kept me up all night, I’d stubbornly make him carry me on his back the next day. But those sweet days were years behind us. Why was Liam suddenly standing here, saying these bizarre, time-warped things? I still don’t know how I ended up letting him follow me home. Maybe it was because his transition back into my life felt so seamless. Everything he did felt so natural that it temporarily scrambled my own memories. It wasn’t until we walked through my front door and the faint scent of baby formula hit my nose that reality crashed over me. By then, Liam had already wrapped his arms around my waist from behind. His hands wandered, and he squeezed slightly, sounding confused. “Did these get bigger? Did those massages actually work?” Smack! I slapped his hands away, my face burning crimson. Liam wasn’t mad. He just chuckled, swept me off my feet, and threw me over his shoulder, heading straight for the bedroom. I was completely panicked. My only thought was: He absolutely cannot go in that bedroom. “Liam!” I screamed, thrashing wildly. “Put me down!” Sensing my genuine panic, he set me down. He looked at me standing defensively in front of the closed bedroom door. “What, you hiding a dog in there?” I was sweating from the nerves. Liam’s face darkened. “Move.” I let out a shaky breath. “Liam, we broke up.” “Say that again. I dare you.” I’d known him for eight years. I knew his temper inside and out. When his voice dropped to that dangerous, quiet timber, he was on the brink of exploding. I bit my lip and repeated it. “We broke up. Years ago. And based on the timeline… you should be dead right now.” Liam finally realized something was horribly wrong. He looked around. This wasn’t my cramped college apartment; the modern decor was entirely different. And looking at me, the youthful, naive glow of my early twenties was gone. His voice went hoarse. “What year is it?” “2022.” He grabbed me, pulling me flush against his chest. “Are you messing with me?” I just stared back at him. Slowly, his expression twisted into something haunted. Finally, he whispered, “Impossible. No matter what year it is, I would never, ever break up with you.” I lowered my eyes. “But I’m married.” The room fell into a suffocating silence. Through his bloodshot eyes, I could see the storm of emotions raging inside him. He used every ounce of his willpower to hold himself back, gritting his teeth as he asked, “Chloe… did you just calculate that I wouldn’t have the heart to hurt you?” “You’re dead, Liam.” “Fuck!” He kicked the wall, turned around, and stormed out. I waited until he was completely gone before I slowly slid down the bedroom door, curling into a tight ball on the floor. My mind was a chaotic mess. I never thought I’d see him again. And definitely not like this. The bedroom door opened from the inside. My nanny peeked out. “Chloe, was that…” I shook my head. She got the hint and didn’t pry. “Well, at least little Maya didn’t wake up.” I looked at my daughter, sleeping peacefully in her crib, and my heart rate slowly returned to normal. Whether Liam faked his death, time-traveled, or came back as a ghost—I didn’t care. I couldn’t risk letting him near Maya. And I never wanted her to know that her father was a convicted felon. 2 Maybe my words really got to him, because for days, he didn’t show up again. But he haunted my dreams. I dreamed of the high school bad boy in a leather jacket, slouching as he followed me home; I dreamed of the desperate Liam, eyes red after I rejected his first confession, yelling, “You don’t have a damn heart!”; And I dreamed of the idiot Liam who sprinted to my dorm at 3 A.M. on graduation night just to make sure my “yes” to being his girlfriend wasn’t a prank. All those beautiful memories, shattered by the echo of a firing squad. I’d wake up gasping, my pillow soaked in tears. On Monday, I was commuting to work in a daze when I encountered a creep on the subway. The train was packed, and I felt a hand grope my thigh. I whipped around to see a middle-aged guy giving me a greasy, unapologetic smirk, clearly betting I’d be too scared to make a scene. Just as I opened my mouth to scream at him, a heavy work boot shot out from nowhere and planted itself squarely into the guy’s ribs. “Where the fuck do you think your hands are going? You think you can touch what’s mine?” Then, I saw him. Liam’s mouth was curled into an arrogant smirk, but his eyes were absolute ice. The vein at his temple was throbbing—the exact look he always had right before he destroyed someone. The kick was brutal. The creep crumpled to the floor. It took the guy a solid minute to scramble up. He looked like he wanted to argue, but one look at Liam’s murderous aura had him muttering under his breath and bolting for the next car. Liam never had a good temper, especially when it came to me. Seeing him step forward to chase the guy, and noticing a passenger pulling out a phone to record, I panicked and grabbed his arm. “Don’t. Let him go.” He raised an eyebrow. “Scared? I’m right here.” I was scared because he was here! If the cops got involved, how the hell was I supposed to explain this? “Sorry, Officer, he didn’t do anything wrong, he’s just a dead inmate who resurrected to fight subway gropers.” We’d be on the national news. The current Liam still didn’t know how he supposedly died. And I had no intention of telling him. I just wanted a quiet life. And I wanted him to stay out of trouble. “You taught him a lesson, that’s enough. Besides, you don’t need to fight my battles anymore.” “I don’t? Fine. Let your ‘husband’ do it then.” Liam leaned against the subway doors, crossing his arms. “Since you’re so happily married, when do I get to meet the lucky guy?” Maybe it was my imagination, but he seemed almost amused. “He’s out of town on business,” I deflected. “He doesn’t have time.” “Perfect. I’ll just keep playing the role until he gets back.” He leaned in closer, his voice dropping to a whisper. “Because on my timeline, sweetheart, we are very much still together.” I thought he was just talking trash. But the next evening, I walked into my apartment complex and saw a man in a security uniform leaning against the front gate. It was Liam. He strolled over with that signature swagger. “Temperature check, ma’am.” I didn’t offer my wrist. “What are you doing?” “Working, obviously.” Working, my ass! When I just glared at him, he smirked. “Miss, please cooperate with building security.” I ground my teeth and reluctantly held out my hand. He actually pulled out a thermometer gun and beeped my wrist. “98.6. perfectly normal. Have a good evening.” He was just going to let me go? I walked a few steps away, feeling completely unsettled. I couldn’t help but look back. Liam’s gaze was burning into my back. When our eyes met, his smirk widened into a full-blown grin. I practically sprinted to my building, feeling like I’d touched a hot stove. My heart was pounding. I had a sinking feeling that my secrets weren’t going to stay hidden for long. 3 The staff directory at the front gate had been updated. There was a new photo under the security guard section. Walking past it a few days later, I glanced at it. It was Liam—jaw clenched, looking annoyed at having his picture taken. But when I looked at the name underneath, I froze. “Ethan Miller.” I thought I misread it. I stepped closer. No, it clearly said Ethan Miller. “Excuse me, is this name tag wrong?” I asked a property manager walking by, pointing at Liam’s photo. She smiled. “Nope! That’s Ethan, our new hire. Good-looking kid, right?” Something clicked in my brain, and a chill ran down my spine. If Liam really had “time-traveled” from five years ago, with no knowledge of the future, why would he be using a fake name? I couldn’t shake the unease, but I tried to push it out of my mind. That night, just as I stepped out of the shower, the power went out. Maya, who had been playing in her crib, started screaming in the pitch black. The nanny had already gone home. Panicking, I called the front desk. “We’ll send security up to check your breaker right away, ma’am.” Liam worked the day shift. Surely it wouldn’t be him. When the knock came, I bounced Maya on my hip and opened the door. “Hi, the power just—” I stopped dead. I was staring right at Liam. Well, technically, we were staring at each other. All three of us. Liam didn’t say a word. His eyes were locked onto the baby in my arms. His voice was terrifyingly raspy when he finally pointed at her. “What is that?” “A b-baby,” I stammered. Liam let out a hollow, bitter laugh. “Chloe, I’ve only been ‘dead’ for a year.” The apartment was suffocatingly dark. Strangely enough, Maya stopped crying the second she saw him. With tears still clinging to her eyelashes, she stared at him with big, curious eyes. She even reached a chubby little hand out toward him, wanting to be held. The dark aura surrounding Liam softened just a fraction. “Whose is she?” he croaked. “I told you. I’m married.” “Married my f—” He caught himself before swearing in front of the baby. He let out a harsh exhale. “I’ll deal with you later.” He pushed past me with his toolbox. “Where’s the breaker box?” He was actually here to fix the electricity. Liam was incredibly handy; I knew that from college. Once, my roommate spilled water on my laptop. A repair shop quoted me $400 I didn’t have. Liam had just clamped a cigarette between his teeth, taken the whole thing apart, and fixed it for free. I’d been so nervous watching him. “Are you sure you know what you’re doing?” He had just side-eyed me. “If I break it, I’ll buy you a new one.” He fixed it perfectly. And my roommate stopped complaining about me dating a “dropout.” My mind had drifted so far I didn’t hear him calling my name. “What?” I blinked. “I said, step back. I’m covered in dust.” Only then did I realize that Maya had leaned over and was actively smacking Liam’s face, giggling uncontrollably. “Oh, sorry!” I quickly pulled her back. Liam clamped a flashlight between his teeth and went back to the wires, ignoring us. Maya, however, was furious at being pulled away. Her lower lip wobbled, and she started wailing. It was past her bedtime, and she was getting cranky. She rubbed her eyes and tugged at my shirt. I had no choice. I glanced at Liam—he was fully focused on the electrical panel. So, I sat on the edge of the couch in the dark, pulled down my top, and started nursing her. Maya happily kicked her little legs, finally settling down. A few minutes later, the lights blazed back to life. “It was a short circuit, tripped the main breaker. I just—” Liam turned around and stopped dead in his tracks. He stared at me, completely losing his train of thought. I hadn’t expected him to fix it that fast. My face flushed hot as lava. “I… she…” I stammered, afraid to make any sudden movements to cover myself. His voice dropped a full octave. “I’m gonna go wash my hands.” He bolted for the bathroom. I looked down at a blissfully fed Maya and sighed. Both of them were going to be the death of me. 4 Once Maya was asleep, it was just the two of us in the living room. Liam instinctively reached for his pockets for a cigarette, remembered where he was, and stopped. “I’m moving in tomorrow.” The sheer audacity of his tone threw me off. “No, you aren’t. And she’s not your kid.” “Do you think I don’t know how a paternity test works?” My heart skipped a beat. I wanted to deny it, but I was terrified he’d actually force a test. My hesitation was all the confirmation he needed. A triumphant smile spread across his face. “Chloe, I’m already missing five years of memories. Don’t play me.” I didn’t know who was playing who anymore. But letting him move in was impossible. I hadn’t even figured out how to face him, let alone live with him. With Maya in the picture, I couldn’t take risks. Desperate, I made a phone call. The next morning, Liam was waiting downstairs again. He was in regular clothes, looking as irritatingly handsome as ever. A couple of female residents were lingering nearby, clearly trying to flirt with him. Seeing me, he strode over. “I’ll give you a ride.” “No need,” I said, avoiding his gaze. “My husband is back.” Right on cue, a sleek black Mercedes pulled up to the curb. The door opened, and Oliver stepped out. He was dressed in an immaculate tailored suit. He walked right past Liam as if he were invisible and smiled at me. “Waiting long?” “No, I just got down.” Before getting in the car, I took a deep breath and turned to Liam. “I told you. I’m married. Please… just leave me alone.” I got in before he could react. Watching the rearview mirror, Liam’s figure grew smaller and smaller until he disappeared. “Regrets?” Oliver handed me a tissue. I realized my cheeks were wet. “No. Thank you for doing this, Oliver.” I told myself I was making the right choice. As we pulled up to my office building, Oliver stopped me before I got out. “Chloe, let’s get married for real.” I thought I misheard him. “Excuse me?” “Let’s make it official. Even with Maya.” Oliver wasn’t just my boss; he was my savior. When Liam vanished and I found out I was pregnant, my conservative family disowned me for refusing an abortion. Oliver had hired me, mentored me, and protected me from the vicious office gossip. We had a mutually beneficial arrangement: I acted as his fake girlfriend to keep his wealthy family from forcing him into blind dates, and he gave me a safe harbor. But I never expected this. “That guy this morning is the father, right?” Oliver asked calmly. “Since you clearly don’t want to get back together, and he won’t let it go, marrying me is the smartest move. I can provide for both of you.” I wasn’t a naive twenty-year-old anymore. I didn’t delude myself into thinking a billionaire CEO was swooning over a single mom. “Can I ask why?” “I’ve grown fond of you,” Oliver said smoothly. “And I adore Maya. Plus… due to a medical condition, I can’t have children of my own.” That, I hadn’t expected. “I’m sorry,” I said softly. He smiled. “Not your fault. Don’t give me an answer now. Just think about it.” I actually did think about it. Oliver was stable, wealthy, and kind. If he truly couldn’t have kids, he would treat Maya like his own. It was the logical, safe choice. When I got home that evening, Liam was at the gate again. He looked grim—probably having bought the “husband” lie. But that night, just after Maya fell asleep, my phone vibrated. An unknown number. I picked it up. No one spoke, just heavy breathing on the other end. I sat up in bed. I knew exactly who it was. Neither of us said a word. The silence stretched until he finally spoke. “Chloe… do you really not want me anymore?” “Are you drunk?” He ignored the question. “What do I do? I don’t think I have a home anymore.” That single sentence shattered all my defenses. Liam’s parents had messy divorces and abandoned him. He lived alone since high school. Nobody craved a family more than he did. Then, I heard a sharp intake of breath over the receiver. My chest tightened. Was he crying? Liam never cried. My throat went dry. “Where are you?” “Downstairs.” I looked out the window and saw him sitting on the curb under a streetlight. I knew I was weak. Because when he whispered, “I want to see you,” I heard myself say: “Come up.” 5 The moment I unlocked the door, it was like letting a starving wolf into the house. He pinned me against the wall and kissed me like a dying man gasping for air. Every instinct screamed at me to push him away, but Liam always knew exactly how to dismantle my logic. My mind went blank, leaving only muscle memory and desire. The living room was a mess. Lying in the moonlight, I could see the smug curve of his lips. “The husband thing was a lie, wasn’t it?” Looking at his triumphant face, I saw absolutely zero evidence that he had been crying. I realized I’d been played. Embarrassed and furious, I shoved his shoulder. “Do we have to talk about this right now?!” He laughed softly. “Nope.” Just before I drifted off to sleep, I felt him kiss my forehead. “I’m sorry, baby,” he whispered. When I woke up, I was alone in bed. Panic seized me when I saw Maya’s crib was empty. I bolted into the living room, only to stop dead in my tracks. Liam was sitting on the playmat, zooming a toy car through the air. Maya was reaching for it, shrieking with pure joy. The scene was so domestic, so overwhelmingly perfect, it knocked the breath out of me. Liam looked up and smiled. “Look, Maya, Mommy’s awake.” Maya babbled and crawled toward me as fast as her little limbs could carry her, demanding to be picked up. Once she was in my arms, Liam stood up and headed for the kitchen. “Her name is Maya?” “Yeah.” He paused for a fraction of a second, then seamlessly opened the fridge. “I’ll make us some breakfast.” It proved that once you gave Liam an inch, he would conquer the entire continent. Like a cockroach surviving a nuclear blast, he had successfully infiltrated my life. First, I found men’s underwear mixed in with my laundry. Then I found his socks in my drawers. Today, I found two of his jackets hanging in my closet. I threw the jackets at his chest. “I don’t recall asking you to move in.” He caught them with a grin. “Just leaving a few things for emergencies.” “We don’t have emergencies. Take them back.” He had been teaching Maya how to walk, bent over with his arms out like a protective hen. He stood up straight. “Look, Chloe. I told you, we never broke up. If someone hurt you during those five years I was ‘gone,’ give me a name and I’ll end them. But stop taking it out on a law-abiding citizen like me.” Law-abiding citizen? Please. While we were bickering, Maya tripped over her own feet and landed hard on her diaper-padded butt. Because Liam had been spoiling her rotten, she immediately felt slighted. Her lower lip jutted out, and she let out a theatrical wail. Liam scooped her up, cooing sympathetically. “Is Mommy being mean? Trying to kick Daddy out?” He shot me a dirty look. “Stop trying to destroy this family in front of the kid. Look how traumatized she is.” Me? Destroying the family?! That night, to punish me for trying to kick him out, he refused to let me sleep. “Chloe, we’ve only been together twice since I got back. For a man in his prime, this is basically starvation.” I wanted to cover my face. “Do you have no shame?” “Only with you.” He picked me up and carried me to the sofa. He didn’t turn on the lights, but in the pale moonlight, as he leaned over me, I saw it. Right over his left chest. A perfectly round, jagged scar. It looked exactly like a bullet wound. 6 Liam was hiding something massive. I knew that now. He used a fake name. He had a bullet hole near his heart. Things were pointing toward the worst-case scenario. Honestly, I preferred the delusion that he had just time-traveled. At least that was safe. But the next day at work, Oliver called me into his office. “Have you thought about my proposal?” I had almost forgotten. “Oliver, I think…” He cut me off. “You’re hesitating.” I was. Oliver tapped his pen against the desk, his eyes calculating. “Actually, there’s something I’m very curious about. Maybe you can enlighten me. How exactly does a dead man walk back out of a grave?” My blood ran ice cold. My mind went entirely blank. I forced a confused smile. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.” “Relax, I’m just curious,” Oliver smiled smoothly. “But seriously, you should consider the marriage. Maya is young. If something… unfortunate were to happen, it would be a shame for you to face it alone.” I walked out of his office with my heart hammering against my ribs. That was a threat. If he hadn’t said that, I might not have suspected anything. But now, the pieces were clicking together in a terrifying way. Oliver was incredibly wealthy. He was handsome. Even if he couldn’t have biological children, women would line up to marry him. Why fixate on me? Why stoop to threatening me? His interest in me wasn’t about love. It was about Liam. That afternoon, I went to the bank and withdrew every cent of my savings. Before Liam had vanished years ago, he left me a massive sum of money. I never touched it because I didn’t know where it came from. Combined with my own savings, it was enough for Maya and me to disappear to a quiet town out of state. When Liam got home, I looked at him. “Liam, I’m quitting my job. I’m taking Maya and moving to the Midwest. Will you come with us?” The moment I said it, I knew I was damning myself. But I didn’t care. In the past, I had no choices. Today, I was willing to burn down my entire moral compass to keep him alive. Liam stared at me intently. He knew I knew. But he didn’t ask questions. He just cupped my face. “Chloe, you don’t have to give up anything for me.” “I want to,” I cried, the tears finally spilling over. “Let’s just live a normal life.” He pulled me in tight. So he remembered. He wasn’t missing five years of memories. He remembered everything. But he would never know how much that single promise—to live a normal life—meant to me. That night, the nightmares returned. I dreamed of the day two years ago when he said he had to leave for a while. Then, the news report that he had been executed for international drug smuggling. I jolted awake. The bed was empty. I crept into the dark living room. The balcony door was slightly ajar. Liam was on his phone, his voice a low whisper. “The shipment is with Hayes. Don’t worry. But Oliver knows something. Keep a tight tail on him.” A pause. Then Liam chuckled darkly. “Don’t worry about me. I’m harder to kill than that.” I stepped back in horror, my foot slamming into the coffee table. Liam hung up instantly and rushed in. “What happened?” “Don’t touch me!” I held my hands up. He froze. My voice was trembling with sobs. “Are you ever going to tell me the truth?” He clamped his jaw shut. “Tell me this, at least,” I begged. “Are you… are you going to die again?” His eyes softened. “No.” He closed the distance and wrapped his arms around me. “I’m staying right here. I promise.”

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My best friend’s brother is such an arrogant jerk. The first time we met, I bumped into him fresh out of the shower. He literally threw a shirt over my head. My best friend tried to smooth things over: “This is my gorgeous older friend, pretty, right?” He glared at me coldly, his tone dripping with sarcasm: “Ugly.” Oh, so he’s an arrogant little brat? I thought. Watch me put him in his place. After a period of me showering him with attention, taking care of him, being overwhelmingly sweet, and treating him like an absolute king… I gave up. He was still just as arrogant, and he absolutely refused to call me “Miss Cece” with even a shred of respect. But exactly two days after I threw in the towel, he messaged me first for the very first time. Mr. Arrogant: Playing hard to get? Mr. Arrogant: Cece. 1 I went over to my best friend’s house to drop off some stuff and ran headfirst into a gorgeous guy fresh out of the shower. He was tall, with long legs, chiseled abs, and a pitifully small towel covering his crucial bits. Before I could even get a good look, a t-shirt was tossed directly over my head. My vision went dark, and I let out a delayed, startled shriek. My best friend, Chloe, ran out at the sound. I pointed at the guy who was now tightening his towel. “Who is this?!” Chloe blinked. “My brother.” Me: ??? Wait a second, wasn’t her brother a scrawny, awkward little kid? Chloe turned to the hot guy, trying to defuse the awkwardness. “This is my gorgeous older friend, pretty, right?” He glared at me coldly. “Ugly.” Then he turned around and walked into his room. Me: … Damn. He’s one of those cocky, arrogant guys. “How old is he again?” I asked. Chloe looked apologetic. “My brother… he’s twenty. His rebellious phase came a bit late.” I stared at Chloe, narrowing my eyes. “He’s a grown adult. Someone needs to teach him some manners.” Chloe flashed a knowing, wicked smile. She instantly air-dropped me his contact card. “Please. Fix him for me.” 2 His name was Holden Brooks. He was a junior at UCLA, and supposedly, a pretty popular guy on campus. That just made him more fun to mess with. I added his number and sent my first “friendly” text. Me: Hey little bro, got time to grab dinner? Holden: Who is this? Me: Your sister’s friend. The hot older woman who saw you fresh out of the shower the other day. He didn’t reply for twenty minutes. Me: ? [Message Not Delivered] Wait… did this little brat just block me?! I immediately texted Chloe: Your brother blocked me! Make him unblock me right now! Chloe: He doesn’t listen to me. You have to tell him yourself. Me: How am I supposed to tell him if I’m blocked? Chloe: You play League of Legends, right? He’s boosting a classmate in ranked tonight. I’ll give you my account login. God, I love my best friend. That night, I joined their lobby and turned on my mic. When a voice that clearly wasn’t Chloe’s came through, Holden’s classmate was stunned. “You aren’t Holden’s sister,” a soft-spoken college boy said. “Who are you?” I made my voice sugar-sweet. “I’m a good friend of Holden’s older sister…” “Oh, cool! Can you play Support, Miss?” “Of course.” “Just sit back then, we’ll carry you.” I almost cried. What an absolute angel of a boy. Holden was a menace in comparison. I decided to actively shift my attention to the nice kid. But then Holden locked in the ADC role. As the Support, I was forced to follow him around the map. Holden: “Support, go check that brush for enemies.” I happily trotted over. And immediately got jumped by three enemies hiding in the grass and died instantly. Holden: “Support, stop feeding them.” Me: ? Didn’t you literally just tell me to go in there?! Similar things happened multiple times. I strongly suspected Holden was doing it on purpose. By the end of the match, I essentially had zero impact. Even though we won, I was furious. Oh, so you want to play the carry? I thought. Fine. I’ll play a parasite. Game two, I instantly locked in Yuumi—a cat champion that literally attaches to another player and can’t be targeted. Holden immediately locked in Yasuo. Me: … For the entire game, the second I attached to Holden, he would use his dash abilities to sprint headfirst into the entire enemy team, drop me off in the middle of the crossfire to die, and stylishly dash away. I even heard a faint, suppressed laugh over his mic. I was fuming! Before long, we were losing badly. All our base turrets were gone. The soft-spoken boy was totally confused. “Holden, you’re a Challenger-tier Yasuo on your main account. How are we losing this badly on your smurf?” I scoffed into the mic. “Even Challenger players choke sometimes.” Suddenly, Holden’s character stopped right next to mine. “Get on.” “Why?” I snapped. “I’ll carry you.” Yeah right, I thought. He’s definitely just trying to drag me into the enemy fountain to die again. But I attached to his character anyway. Mostly because he still hadn’t unblocked my number. To my surprise, he actually started trying. He racked up double kills and triple kills, completely turning the game around and pushing into the enemy base. Of course, I still died a few times in the crossfire. The second the enemy team was wiped out and we were destroying their nexus, he walked his character directly into their laser turret, intentionally dying right beside my respawning body. “What are you doing?” I asked, confused. Holden didn’t answer, but the other guys in the lobby started laughing and teasing him. “Aww, dying together like a married couple.” My face flushed hot. Shut up, you brats. Know your place. 3 After the gaming session, I realized I completely forgot to ask Holden to unblock me. Knowing it probably wouldn’t go through, I grumpily typed out an iMessage: You’re such an annoying brat, all you do is bully me. Delivered. I froze for two seconds. Just as I was about to unsend it, Holden replied: Oh. Me: … Me: But I have to admit, you carrying us for that comeback at the end was pretty hot. Holden: Oh. What was with the boring reactions? Me: Call me Miss Cece and let’s hear how it sounds. Holden didn’t reply for five minutes. My heart sank. Was he going to block me again? Me: Just kidding! If you don’t want to, you don’t have to. Just don’t block me! Two minutes later. Holden: Going to sleep. I stared at my phone and couldn’t help but laugh out loud. Listen here, little boy. Playing hard to get with me comes with a price. 4 For the next little while, I made it my mission to “harass” Holden over text whenever I was bored. It was mostly trivial stuff. Did you eat? Are you asleep? Do you miss me? He ignored the first two types of questions entirely, but he always replied to the last one instantly: No. Impossible. Keep dreaming. I couldn’t believe my first time genuinely pursuing a guy was hitting a brick wall built by a college kid. Frustrated, I went to Chloe for advice. She dragged me to a bar, complaining over her cocktails. “I don’t know what happened to him. Ever since his grades shot up and he got into UCLA, he’s been acting so weird and distant…” I listened patiently until I was decently buzzed. Chloe patted my shoulder. “I just texted Holden to come pick us up. I’m gonna head out early so you two can have some alone time. Don’t waste the opportunity!” Before I could even protest, she was gone. I was sitting there, bored out of my mind, when a guy approached me. “Let me get your number, gorgeous.” Not wanting to cause a scene, I gave him my Instagram. I could always block him later. But the guy was persistent. “Are you here alone? Wanna get out of here together?” I rubbed my temples in annoyance. When I looked up, I saw Holden walking in. “No thanks, my boyfriend is here to pick me up.” I smirked, pointing across the room. “That’s him.” The guy took the hint and scurried off. Holden walked up, looking down at me with an unreadable expression. In the dim lighting of the club, I couldn’t clearly see his eyes, but I could sense he was radiating anger. Was he mad that Chloe forced him to come? I muttered softly, “You really didn’t have to come if you didn’t want to…” Holden cut me off. “And then what? You’d just leave with some random guy?” Me: ? “No…” I was feeling lightheaded from the alcohol, so I stood up somewhat clumsily, intentionally swaying so I could lean against him. He suddenly grabbed my arm, practically marching me out of the bar. He opened the passenger door of his car and tossed me inside. Then he leaned in, his arms bracing on either side of me. His face was inches from mine. I could see the slight tremble of his eyelashes. My stupid heart started hammering against my ribs. In the heated, alcohol-scented tension, Holden’s words were ice-cold. “If you’re going to fish for other guys, don’t mess with me.” Me: ? Did he seriously think I was just playing him for fun? I was being completely genuine! The alcohol was hitting me hard, so I didn’t have the energy to argue. I just laid my head back and groaned. He drove me to my apartment building before noticing something was wrong. Holden: “Are you faking it?” Me: “I’m gonna throw up.” Holden: … Holden: “Do not throw up in my car.” Clearly, he loved his car more than me. He got out and hauled me onto the sidewalk. I leaned all my weight against him. “Why are you always so cold to me…” He didn’t say a word. I kept complaining. “Just take me to a hotel…” Holden went completely rigid. “Keep dreaming.” I whined, “But my apartment is on the fifth floor, and the elevator is broken… I can’t walk up…” Holden: … He was silent for a moment, then suddenly crouched down in front of me. “Get on.” Wait. Is he giving me a piggyback ride? “I want a princess carry!” I demanded. “I’m giving you three seconds.” I immediately jumped onto his back. Between the booze and the late hour, my senses were a bit blurry. I don’t remember the climb up the stairs very well. I just remember that Holden smelled incredible—like fresh rain and pine needles. He carried me inside and even poured me a glass of water. I purposely stumbled towards him. When he tried to step back, I let myself fall, forcing him to catch me. Teasing younger guys was honestly top-tier entertainment. I originally wanted to pretend I was too drunk so he’d have to stay the night, but decided against pushing my luck. Holden practically dragged me to my bed. When he wasn’t paying attention, I turned my head and lightly brushed my lips against his ear. He jolted like he’d been electrocuted. He shoved me back onto the mattress and practically sprinted out the front door, looking completely flustered. I lay there, stunned. He really just ran away? My buzz faded almost immediately. Annoyed, I sighed, threw on a jacket, and walked down to the corner bodega to grab two beers. When I walked out of the convenience store, popping the tab on a can, I saw a tall figure standing in the shadows outside my apartment building. The glowing red cherry of a cigarette faded as I approached. He took two steps forward, his handsome face catching the amber glow of the streetlamp. “Is playing drunk fun for you?” Holden asked. 5 …Busted. I immediately slipped back into character, stumbling toward him, slurring my words. “You’re still here…?” He just stared at me in absolute silence. It was excruciatingly awkward. But I had thick skin. I committed to the bit. I slumped against him like a wet noodle, mumbling nonsense. “Were you… worried about me?” I knew he wasn’t. “See, I knew you cared about me…” I was digging my own grave. “Do you… have a crush on your older sister?” What the hell was I even saying?! To my shock, Holden didn’t push me away. He stood there like a marble statue, letting me lean on him and act like a fool. I didn’t want to overthink whether he actually knew I was faking it. I looked up at him, putting on my best puppy-dog eyes. “I spent so much time doing my makeup today. Do you think I look pretty?” Holden’s eyes flickered. Suddenly, he reached out and pinched both of my cheeks. I was so surprised I froze, letting him squish my face into a weird shape. He stared down at me, letting out a very faint, breathy laugh. “Ugly.” The hallway light was broken, but his eyes were impossibly bright in the dark. It took me a second to process. Did he just call me ugly again?! I was determined to make him piggyback me upstairs again, so I doubled down on the drunk act. Holden watched me with an amused, patient expression. When I grabbed his arm to pull him, he used my momentum to spin me around, pinning my back against the brick wall of the building. The sudden, aggressive scent of his cologne and cigarette smoke overwhelmed me. I froze completely. Holden leaned in closer, stopping when our breaths were practically mingling. He narrowed his eyes, his tone impossible to read. “The drunk game ends here. Next time, call someone else to take you home.” Then he turned around and walked away without a second glance. Leaving me with a million questions. He did know I was faking! Then why didn’t he call me out when I was acting ridiculous? And what did he mean by “call someone else”? Did this little brat seriously think I was the kind of girl who just let anyone take her home? Before going to sleep, I was so mad I typed out a massive paragraph explaining myself in our chat. But right before hitting send, I deleted it all. Maybe I was being too aggressive. Maybe I made him misunderstand my intentions. Whatever. I needed to back off a bit so I didn’t scare the kid away. 6 For the next few days, the frequency of my “harassment” dropped significantly. The strategy of taking a step back to move forward actually worked. Holden replied to almost every text. Even though it was usually just “Oh,” “Yeah,” or “I’m busy.” I didn’t have much energy to focus on him anyway, because something incredibly dramatic happened in my own life. My first love, Tristan, suddenly reached out. Normally, I treat ex-boyfriends like they’re dead. I don’t look back. But Tristan refused to stay in the grave. Tristan was the longest relationship I’d ever had. His biggest selling point was his face. He was ridiculously good-looking. So good-looking, in fact, that a talent scout approached him on the street and signed him to an entertainment agency in LA. We had been together for two years by then. Once he signed the contract, his head got massive. He was obsessed with being a star and started picking fights with me over nothing. I knew he was looking for an excuse to dump me, so I beat him to the punch and broke up with him first. He agreed immediately. I was heartbroken for months. Now, a few years later, Tristan’s acting dreams had crashed and burned. He lost his agency contract and moved back home in disgrace. Finding out I was still single, he begged our mutual friends to set up a group dinner to “accidentally” run into me. That dinner was miserable. I left as early as I politely could. Only to find Tristan blocking my path outside my apartment building. He nervously rubbed the edge of his jacket. “Cece, after all these years, I still can’t forget you. After we broke up, I never liked anyone else.” Bullshit. His agency contract literally had a strict no-dating clause. Now he was trying to act like a romantic martyr? I looked at him coldly. “Sorry, I forgot about you a long time ago.” I turned toward the stairs without looking back. “Cece…” he called out softly. I glanced over my shoulder. Tristan was looking up at me, his hazel eyes looking tragically sad, his jawline as sharp as ever. I hated to admit it, but the guy was still stunning. So I offered him some genuine advice: “You should just go find a rich sugar mama. Don’t let a face like that go to waste.” 7 I thought my rejection was crystal clear, but Tristan was incredibly thick-skinned. He started “coincidentally” bumping into me everywhere. My marketing firm was doing field research that week, which meant I had to visit different retail locations every day. One of the locations was the coffee shop right off the UCLA campus. From the moment I arrived, I was on edge. I was terrified Tristan would show up and harass me, but I was equally terrified that Holden would see us together. I made an excuse to step out of the shop and walked down the main avenue, figuring I could hide for a bit. A few blocks down, I spotted Holden walking toward me. Speak of the devil. After dealing with Tristan’s constant stalking, I had done some serious self-reflection on how I had treated Holden. He probably hated seeing me around just as much as I hated seeing Tristan. I immediately spun around, pretending I didn’t see him. Footsteps approached from behind. Holden stopped right next to me. Since I couldn’t escape, I turned and held up my company lanyard. “I’m working. Market research on college demographics.” Holden gave a faint “Mhm.” “I wasn’t trying to follow you.” “Mhm.” “Okay, well, I’m gonna go…” “I’m a college student.” He suddenly leaned down, closing the distance between us. “Aren’t you going to survey me?” He was standing against the sunlight, casting a slight halo around his dark hair. When I met his eyes, my heart skipped a terrifyingly fast beat. I looked down at my clipboard. “Okay, let me just look at the questions…” “Cece, there you are! I’ve been looking everywhere.” Tristan’s voice hit me like a bucket of ice water. I snapped back to reality. Literally my worst nightmare. “Why are you here?!” I grabbed his arm, pulling him aside, hissing under my breath. “I am working!” He held up an iced latte, looking like a kicked puppy. “It’s hot out. I brought you a drink.” I glanced nervously at Holden. He was staring blankly at Tristan, his expression completely unreadable. Then he simply said, “I’m leaving,” put his hands in his pockets, and walked away. I completely snapped. I turned on Tristan and let him have it. “Do you understand that this is stalking?! I made myself perfectly clear. Do you want me to call the police?” “Cece, I didn’t mean to—” “Tristan, if you actually care about me, you would respect my boundaries instead of doing these creepy, self-serving stunts.” He stared at me for a long time before finally nodding. “Okay.” After Tristan left, my mood plummeted. Because it suddenly hit me: what I was doing to Holden was no different than what Tristan was doing to me. It was the same persistent, boundary-ignoring harassment disguised as affection. When I went back to the coffee shop, a barista handed me a fresh lemonade with a teasing smile. “A really tall, handsome guy asked me to give this to you.” I froze. It had to be Holden. After I drank it, I took a picture of the empty cup and texted it to him. Me: Thank you. This time, Holden replied instantly. Holden: Don’t mention it. Holden: Just didn’t want you to drop dead from the heat. Me: … Such an awkward, defensive kid. I stared at the chat screen, my mood instantly lifting. Maybe my presence wasn’t entirely annoying to him after all.

🌟 Continue the story here 👉🏻 📲 Download the “MotoNovel” app 🔍 search for “415140”, and watch the full series ✨! #MotoNovel

The Seventh Year Since I Left the Novel. I had a new love and a brand new life. But right on the eve of my wedding, the System came knocking on my door. “Host, after you left, your target went completely insane. He almost caused the pocket universe to collapse. “In order to maintain the stability of the novel’s world, I brought your target and your child over to you.” 1 I froze in place. It felt like a bomb had gone off in my head. “What do you mean you brought them over?!” The System hemmed and hawed for a long time before finally gritting its teeth. “I had no choice! If I didn’t take action, Dominic would have torn the entire world of the novel apart. “For the sake of our past partnership, just coax him and your daughter a little. I’ll give you extra rewards, and we’ll call it even, okay?” Okay? Hell no! But no matter how I screamed for the System in my mind, it played dead and didn’t say another word. “Willow, what’s wrong? Are you feeling sick?” A voice, as warm and gentle as a spring breeze, pulled me back to reality. My mind reeled as I looked at my gentle, handsome fiancé, Ethan. Uncontrollably, my thoughts drifted back to the years I spent trying to win Dominic’s heart. 2 I used to have congenital heart disease. Doctors said I wouldn’t live past twenty. And they were right. By the time I was nineteen, I was already experiencing severe heart failure. Right before the grim reaper’s scythe fell, the System found me. It tasked me with winning over the novel’s obsessive, second male lead—Dominic Vance—who was hopelessly in love with the female lead. As long as Dominic gave up on the female lead and married me, the mission would be a success. In return, I would get a perfectly healthy body. I was lucky. I arrived right when the female lead threw herself into the main hero’s arms. Dominic was heartbroken and devastated. During that time, I gave him all the patience and tenderness I could muster in my life. Slowly, I melted his icy exterior. The System used to whisper excitedly in my ear, “Host, Dominic’s affection for you has far surpassed his feelings for the female lead!” And in the second year of his skyrocketing affection, Dominic proposed. I completed the mission! I could have returned to my real world with a brand new, healthy body. But shortly after we got married, I found out I was pregnant. I had been an orphan in the real world. Feeling that tiny life growing inside me, I experienced the desire for a real family for the very first time. Besides, Dominic was truly wonderful to me back then. When he found out I was pregnant, he was so thrilled he didn’t sleep all night. He pressed his ear to my belly and mumbled to our unborn baby until dawn. I couldn’t bear to leave the happiness that was right in front of me. So, I stayed. I gave birth to our daughter, Chloe. Dominic’s parents had desperately wanted a grandson. Because of that, they never really cared for Chloe, and by extension, they didn’t care much for me. I didn’t mind. I thought as long as the three of us were together, everything would be fine. Chloe, on the other hand, loved going to her grandparents’ estate. She always said their house was big and beautiful, with so many maids to serve her and play with her. There, she could eat whatever junk food she wanted. She could play as late as she wanted, and no one ever disciplined her. “Plus, Grandma has so much beautiful jewelry. Not like you, Mom. You always wear the exact same necklace. It’s so embarrassing for Dad.” That was the first time I heard the word “embarrassing” come out of my daughter’s mouth. 3 The second time was when Chloe was five. News broke that the female lead, Lily Brooks, was getting a divorce. From that day on, Dominic started leaving early and coming home in the middle of the night. The third time I asked him where he was going so late, he shoved me away with a look of pure impatience. “Willow, are you ever going to stop? We’re married, what more do you want from me?” He didn’t control his strength, and I crashed hard into the corner of a cabinet. Dominic’s eyes flickered for a split second, but then his face went blank, and he walked out the door. He didn’t come back that night. At four in the morning, I received a photo from Lily. It was a picture of Dominic, sleeping soundly beside her. After that, the names Dominic and Lily began appearing together constantly. To help Lily secure her divorce smoothly, Dominic got into a physical fight with her husband. He pulled every string he had to hire a million-dollar celebrity divorce attorney. To cheer Lily up from her post-divorce depression, Dominic rented out a hilltop and set off fireworks with her all night. When Lily wanted to start a business, Dominic provided the funding, the manpower, and even hired top-tier designers from Europe to draft her company’s logo. My heart grew completely numb. I thought about leaving countless times. But I could never let go of Chloe. Until one night, she ate too much ice cream at her grandparents’ house and spiked a high fever. I rushed her to the emergency room. I called Dominic eight times. He hung up on me eight times. On the ninth ring, he finally answered. His voice was dripping with suppressed rage. “Willow, can you grow up? Can you stop acting like one of those clueless, desperate housewives whose only goal in life is to keep tabs on her husband the second he leaves the house?!” He hung up before I could say a word. The sentence, “Your daughter is running a 102-degree fever, please come to the hospital,” died in my throat. I looked at Chloe, sleeping fitfully in my arms. I lied to myself. I told myself he must just be really busy. Until a few minutes later. Around the corner of the hallway, a tall man walked into view, carrying a little boy slightly older than Chloe. Clinging tightly to his side was a petite woman with a flawless, bright face. It was Lily. She looked up at Dominic coquettishly. “I told you, Charlie just has a little tummy ache. It’s nothing serious. You’re being too overprotective.” Dominic looked down, his eyes brimming with absolute tenderness. “You can never be too careful when it comes to kids.” It was a complete 180 from the man screaming at me on the phone moments ago. The little boy in his arms, who looked so much like Lily, wrapped his arms around Dominic’s neck. “You’re the best, Daddy Dominic.” From a distance, they looked like the picture-perfect family. They never noticed me huddled in the corner with my sick child, looking like an absolute clown. 4 That night, Chloe cried until the early hours of the morning because she felt so awful. To make her comfortable, I patted her back and coaxed her, not sleeping a wink. The next morning, I went to grab her some breakfast. When I returned, I saw two familiar silhouettes standing by her hospital bed. Chloe was buried in Lily’s arms. “Aunt Lily, you smell so good and you’re so pretty! Not like my mom. She doesn’t brush her hair or change her clothes. “When I opened my eyes this morning, I thought I saw a ghost. It’s so embarrassing for me and Dad. “Aunt Lily, I love you so much. My dad loves you too. Why don’t you come live with us and be my mom?” Lily blushed and shot Dominic a shy glance. Dominic’s eyes never left Lily. They were filled with faint, doting affection. The fortress I had built entirely out of self-deception finally crumbled into dust. I turned around in silence. I tossed the packed breakfast into the nearest trash can. For the first time in six years, I contacted the System. “Send me back to my original world.” It was only then that I realized what a brilliant decision I had made when the System had asked if I wanted to trade my return ticket for endless wealth and power, and I chose to keep the ticket. 5 The System worked fast. It prepared the extraction protocol almost instantly. Right before pulling me out of the novel’s world, it asked me one last time. “Host, are you absolutely sure? Once you leave, you can never come back. Can you really bear to leave…” I knew exactly what it was hesitating to say. Never mind Dominic. I carried Chloe for ten agonizing months and almost died giving birth to her. The System knew perfectly well how much I had sacrificed for her over the years. But this was my own flesh and blood, the child I loved down to my marrow. And she viewed me as a stain. An embarrassment. The idea that children automatically love their parents was just my own wishful thinking. I didn’t belong here. This was Lily’s world. My lover and my child were just things that could belong to her the second she batted an eyelash. My supposed happiness was nothing but a fleeting illusion. Now, it was time to wake up. I told the System, “I’m sure. Pull me out.” 6 After returning to the real world, my body was perfectly healthy. I spent four years finishing my college degree, using the time to heal from the trauma of the novel. I spent another three years building a fairly successful career. And I met Ethan—a man whose eyes held nothing but me. I was happy and fulfilled. Only occasionally, in the dead of night, would I think of Dominic and Chloe. But now, the System was suddenly telling me it had dragged them into my world. I dug my nails into my palms to stop myself from screaming curses at the void. Ethan noticed something was wrong and gently pulled me into his arms. I prepared for the worst. I knew I couldn’t keep this from him. I had told Ethan all about my experience being trapped in a book before we even started dating. So when I told him that my ‘target’ from the novel was here, he didn’t look completely shocked. He even tried to joke about it. “Willow, do you think our world is a book too? Otherwise, how can fictional characters just cross over whenever they want?” I tried to smile, but my lips wouldn’t cooperate. Even though he was trying his hardest to hide it, the arms wrapped around me tightened involuntarily. After a long time, Ethan rested his chin on the top of my head. He asked softly, “Willow, you aren’t going to choose him, are you?” He sounded like a stray puppy left out in the rain. My heart melted completely, and I hugged him back tightly. “Of course not. I would never choose him over you. “Besides, the System said once this mess is sorted out, it will send them right back.” Ethan let out a quiet “Mhm.” On the walk home, he held my hand much tighter than usual. As if he was terrified I might slip through his fingers. I squeezed his hand back just as hard. But the moment we reached my front door, a chubby little figure in pigtails suddenly lunged forward and locked her arms around my waist in a death grip. “Mommy! You’re finally back! I missed you so much!” Behind her, a man stepped slowly out of the shadows. His bloodshot eyes were filled with aggression and overwhelming dominance. “Willow. Long time no see.” 7 Long time no see. I instinctively took half a step back. In doing so, I shoved the unfamiliar little girl away. That single motion seemed to enrage Dominic beyond belief. A flash of hostility crossed his eyes, and he reached out to grab me. “What are you hiding from?” Before he could touch me, another hand blocked him. It was Ethan. He stepped squarely between Dominic and me. The two men locked eyes. The tension in the air was explosive. “Willow, who the hell is this man?” “You must be Dominic. Nice to meet you.” They spoke at the exact same time. Ethan still had a polite, faint smile on his face. But Dominic’s eyes had narrowed to dangerous slits. It was a sign that he was about to lose his mind. Dominic was a lunatic. Before he could explode, I stepped sideways, placing myself between them. I gave Ethan’s fingertips a reassuring squeeze. Then, I looked at Dominic—and the girl who felt like a total stranger. It had been a few years. Dominic hadn’t changed much, though the obsession in his eyes was darker. But Chloe… she had aged two or three years. Time clearly flowed differently between the novel and reality. What shocked me was her appearance. She had gained a massive amount of weight. Her previously delicate, doll-like features were practically stretched out of shape by the fat. She wore a pair of thick, heavy prescription glasses over her nose. Pushed away by me, she stared in helpless confusion, biting her lip and crying silently. She was never like this before. Before, if she felt the slightest bit wronged, she would scream and throw a massive tantrum until I practically begged her to calm down. When did she ever learn to cry so quietly? My heart twisted inexplicably. But I simply lowered my eyes and broke eye contact. I kept my voice light. “Let me introduce you. Dominic, this is my fiancé. “Ethan, this is Dominic. “As you can see, Dominic, I am getting married. The Willow from your world is dead. Take Chloe and go back.” Dominic stared at me, unblinking. “I. Will. Not. Accept. This.” I wanted to tell him it didn’t matter if he accepted it; it was a finalized reality. But Chloe beat me to it, bursting into loud, wailing sobs. “Mommy, are you really throwing me away? The kids at school call me a bastard without a mother! Are you really going to make me a bastard?!” 8 She cried until her voice went hoarse, her chubby face covered in tears. Every single drop felt like boiling water splashing against my chest. It burned so much it hurt. I opened my mouth. “Please don’t leave me, Mommy! I’ll be good, I’ll be the best daughter for you and Dad! “I’ll never make you mad again! I’ll never get sick again! I ate so much so I could get super strong! Please don’t leave me, Mommy, please?!” My nose stung. She was, after all, a piece of my own flesh. Interrupted by her pleading, the cold words I was about to say were forced back down my throat. In the end, it was Ethan who opened the front door and said gently, “Let’s go inside to talk. It’s not good to make a scene out here for the neighbors to see.” I looked at him gratefully, met only with his soft, supportive profile. It was getting very late. I coaxed a endlessly sobbing Chloe until she finally cried herself to sleep, then quietly slipped out of the guest room. In the living room, the tension between the two men was thick enough to cut with a knife. Dominic had an unconcealed smirk of disdain on his face as he surveyed my apartment. “Willow, is this your house? It’s not even as big as our old bathroom. Are you sure this is the life you want?” I dropped the gentle mother persona I’d worn for Chloe. Seeing Ethan’s slightly shifting expression, I smiled at him. “Ethan, could you go wait in our room for a bit?” After a moment’s hesitation, Ethan nodded. He gently patted the top of my head. “Call me if you need me.” He was always like this. No matter what happened, he stood by me with unwavering gentleness, reminding me he had my back. Once Ethan was gone, Dominic let out another scoff. “Did you know I was coming? Is that why you hired some actor to put on a show for me? Do you really think I’d care about a loser like that?” I looked at the familiar arrogance and delusion in his eyes and gave a tired smile. “Dominic, you aren’t worth that kind of effort anymore.”

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The rising starlet posted a photo of a diamond-encrusted car key. The caption read: “Finally received my third supercar gift. ❤️” Sharp-eyed netizens immediately recognized it. It was the serial number 001—a limited-edition custom Bugatti, rumored to have been purchased by Silas Thorne, the youngest tech billionaire in Silicon Valley. Fans went into a frenzy: [Is this an engagement gift?!] [Power couple goals! A beautiful star and a tech king. Silas is so generous.] I pulled an identical key out of my bag and tossed it onto the desk of the man currently leading a board meeting. “Did you buy two of these?” I asked. The man looked at me with a pouting face. “There’s only one custom-made in the world. And you’re still complaining that the color is too flashy.” 01 I’m Summer Miller, a mid-tier actress known more for my acting chops than my social media presence. To promote our new drama, The Dearest, the entire cast was invited to the most popular live-streamed variety show of the year. The first game segment: call your “dearest person” and invite them to the studio. This network was notorious for “eating people alive”—they didn’t care about privacy. They displayed our contact lists on a giant screen for the audience to choose. Bella Sterling, who was currently trending due to a leaked “secret romance,” was the first to take out her phone. The name at the top of her list was: “My Love Silas.” The live chat exploded: [OMFG, it’s really Silas Thorne! My ship is sailing!] [Our girl did it! Being the girlfriend of the richest man in Silicon Valley… talk about status!] [Call him! We want to hear his voice! We want to share the luck of the wealthy!] Bella looked at the chat, blushing. “Don’t be so direct, guys. He’s shy.” That sentence was basically a soft launch of her relationship with Silas. I looked at the screen, which was nearly covered by heart emojis, and frowned. The Silas Thorne they were talking about was sleeping next to me this morning. How did he become someone else’s fiancé? Last week, during a live stream, Bella “accidentally” showed off a flashy car key and gave a vague introduction. Netizens identified the car immediately and linked her to Silas. She had left the stream in a hurry, acting like a girl caught in a secret love affair. Then, a “insider” account called “Branch-and-Knowing” started posting “leaked” interactions between her and Silas from three years ago. Overnight, that account gained a million followers. I was so annoyed I deleted my own secret alt account. As for that car—it was my 26th birthday gift from Silas. I hated how high-profile it was, so it had been sitting in my underground garage for a year. Maybe it was all a coincidence. Bella never explicitly named Silas. And since she had to make a call now, she wouldn’t play a game that could be easily exposed… right? I watched the screen, waiting. My expression was caught by the cameras and misinterpreted by the audience: [Who’s the girl next to Bella? What’s with that face?] [That’s Summer Miller. Supposedly a “serious actress,” but she can’t even hide her jealousy.] [She’s definitely green with envy that Bella has a billionaire boyfriend. If she’s like this on a live show, imagine how she bullies Bella on set.] The host saw the traffic spiking and grinned. He walked over to Bella. “The fans are so excited. Bella, if we make this call, Mr. Thorne won’t be angry, will he?” Bella turned red, looking shy. “He won’t. He’s… very gentle.” The chat lost it: [??? Gentle? Who is she talking about?] [LMAO, first time I’ve heard the ruthless Silas Thorne described as ‘gentle.’] [Girl, you are my queen. I work at Thorne Tech—can you ask him if he’s physically incapable of smiling at meetings?] Her words were a silent confirmation. The host got even more excited. “Mr. Thorne is a busy man. Even though Thorne Tech is right next to the studio, he probably doesn’t have time to come, right?” Bella gave the host a playful nudge. “It’s the weekend, and he usually has board meetings. But if I call… he might find a way.” The production crew knew how to build suspense. They immediately cut to another guest. Everyone looked envious except for me. The host walked over to me specifically. “Summer, your contact list is quite interesting too. If we call someone you’d rather we didn’t… would you be nervous?” I held back an eye-roll. “Nervous? No. But isn’t it a privacy violation to show a guest’s contacts without consent?” The host’s face stiffened for a second. He laughed awkwardly. “It’s for the sake of fairness and reality.” “It seems Summer isn’t happy with our arrangement. This makes me even more curious about who we’ll find in her list.” My list was put on the big screen. Two names at the top caught everyone’s eye. [Holy sh*t. Sponsor A and Sponsor B?? I thought she was a serious actress? Is she just sleeping her way to the top?] [The industry is doomed. Even the ‘serious’ ones have sugar daddies.] [Don’t worry, we have Bella! She is the gold standard!] [Choose Sponsor A! When Silas Thorne arrives, he should clean up this industry!] I looked at the “Sponsor A” and “Sponsor B” labels and felt a headache coming on. I blamed Silas. When he found out I had my dad’s number saved as “Sponsor Dad,” he threw a fit for a whole day. “Babe, your dad raised you, but I’m responsible for your future. Don’t I deserve to be your sponsor too?” “Babe, I’m not jealous of your dad. But you won’t even drive the car I bought you. You’re still driving that old Mercedes.” “Babe, can we at least be on equal footing? Change my contact name.” “Honey? My Love? Hubby?” Eventually, he settled for “Sponsor B” just to be on the same list as my dad. 02 The host looked like he’d struck gold. He gave me a look of half-pity, half-scorn. “Summer, looking at the audience’s enthusiasm… if we call these two, our show might get banned for being too spicy.” I laughed. “I doubt that. It’s just that they’re busy men. They might not pick up.” The chat erupted: [She’s scared! Call them now!] [Who is Sponsor A? If he doesn’t show up, we’ll know it’s a scandal.] Bella leaned in, whispering “kindly” next to me. “Summer, if you’re scared, don’t do it. I don’t want this to ruin your career.” “I can tell the director to blur the names later.” “If things get bad, I’ll ask Silas to help you wipe the trending topics.” She seemed to forget she was wearing a mic. Her “whisper” was heard by everyone. The chat showered her with praise while she “realized” her mistake and apologized. “Please don’t judge Summer too hard. She’s a great actress. I hope everyone focuses on our drama The Dearest instead.” The host played along. “The audience has voted.” “Bella, please make your call.” Bella dialed “My Love Silas.” It was picked up after two rings. A deep, baritone voice answered: “Bella?” My heart skipped. The voice sounded about 80% like Silas, but… off. “I’m sorry, I’m in a meeting and can’t get away,” the voice said. Bella pouted. “You’re always so busy. I haven’t seen you in forever.” The voice chuckled. “Be good. I’ll have a surprise for you when you get back.” She hung up and looked at everyone apologetically. “He’s too busy. Can I call someone else?” The host was now completely subservient to her. “Of course! Who would you like to call?” Bella scrolled and stopped at “Charles Miller.” “I’ll call my dad. He should be free.” The host gasped. The chat was flooded with “WTF”s. [Bella is the daughter of Charles Miller?! The real estate tycoon?! Silas Thorne’s girlfriend and Charles Miller’s daughter? What kind of god-tier family is this?] [She’s a literal princess!] I was now certain Bella was building a “Golden Girl” persona. I didn’t know if Silas had a secret second girlfriend, but I knew for a fact that my dad only had one daughter—me! My parents were so sickeningly in love that I was an “accident.” There was zero chance of a second accident. But when she dialed, my dad actually picked up. “Bella? Why are you calling me?” Bella used her sweetest voice. “Dad, I’m on a variety show. I need my ‘dearest person.’ Can you come?” The other side hesitated for less than a second. “Of course.” Bella’s face glowed. The host was speechless. If Bella could bring these titans to the show, their ratings would hit the stratosphere. Then the host turned to me. I looked terrible. I’d known my dad’s voice for over twenty years. I couldn’t be mistaken. What was my dad hiding from my mom? “Bella is truly extraordinary,” the host flattered her, then shoved the mic in my face. “Summer, you look pale. Are you actually scared now?” “Everyone has chosen Sponsor A. We’re dialing. You can’t run.” The host didn’t even give me the phone. He dialed for me. The same voice that had just spoken to Bella appeared again. “Princess? What’s up?” My dad’s voice was natural and affectionate. The chat went insane: [Wait, that voice… why does it sound so familiar? Is Summer’s ‘sponsor’ Bella’s dad?] [The industry is so messy! I love it!] [I’m screen-recording this. This is history!] Despite the chaos in my head, I couldn’t interrogate my dad on live TV. I asked him to come to the show. He actually refused me. “It’s bad timing today, sweetie. I already promised someone else I’d go to their show.” “She called first. You know us businessmen value integrity. I can’t break my word.” “Next time, okay?” The host hung up before I could reply, acting as if he were protecting the audience from my “breakdown.” Two girls called the same man. He only said yes to Bella. The hierarchy was clear. I was being publicly humiliated. I glared at Bella. She didn’t look like my dad at all. Why would he reject his daughter for her? I was going to call my mom and snitch the second this show ended. Bella looked at me, her face pale and “fragile,” acting like a victim. The chat was full of pity for her: [Imagine finding out your dad has a mistress on your own show.] [Poor Bella. It’s okay, we love you. You have Silas.] The host looked at me with mockery. “Summer, your Sponsor A rejected you.” “Should we call Sponsor B?” “Do we even need to ask who he is?” I smirked, matched his mockery. “What a coincidence. His name is Silas Thorne, too.” [LOL, Summer is delusional!] [Silas just rejected Bella because he was busy. You think he’ll pick up for a mistress?] [Wait, let me guess. Is she going to claim Silas is her brother next because they have the same surname? Oh wait, they don’t.] 03 The call was placed. Two rings. Then, it was declined. The studio fell into a painful silence. [The ultimate face-slapping!] [Sponsor A at least picked up. Sponsor B just hung up on her. He probably guessed he was being recorded.] [Look at her face. This is the variety show moment of the decade!] The host waited for the chatter to peak before speaking. “Summer, two rejections. We have a penalty for that.” Before I could speak, Bella piped up. “We’re all girls here. Summer is already having a hard time. Let’s skip the penalty.” “When my dad gets here, I’ll ask him to give everyone a big bonus, okay?” The few people supporting me in the chat disappeared. Everyone was on Team Bella. Director-level people who usually praised my acting were now keeping their distance. The entertainment industry is a shark tank. One wrong move and you’re at the bottom. Bella Sterling was the “Princess of the Coast.” No one wanted to offend her. I had always been low-profile because I wanted people to judge my acting, not my family. The result: my acting was top-tier, but I couldn’t even prove who I was. Suddenly, “Sponsor B” called back. The studio went silent again. I answered. A deep, magnetic voice filled the room. “Princess, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to hang up.” “My assistant had my phone. I’ve already docked his bonus for a week. Can you forgive us?” The voice was noble, yet it carried a hint of… desperation. [Wait… that voice… why does it sound so much like Silas?] [Don’t be ridiculous. Have you ever heard Silas Thorne sound so submissive?] [I bet Summer hired a voice actor. So calculated! I bet 100 bucks a Silas lookalike shows up later.] I was about to invite him when Bella laughed. “Summer, if you can’t find someone, don’t force it.” “Even if the voice is similar, won’t you get exposed when he shows up?” Usually, guests weren’t allowed to interrupt a call, but the host didn’t stop Bella. “Bella, you’re too kind. You don’t want to see Summer embarrassed.” “Summer, tell you what. Call someone else, and we’ll let you go.” The whole show reeked of “mean girl” energy. I checked the chat and sighed. Modern netizens were too easy to fool. Back in my college days, we would have Googled every detail and found the truth in minutes… Silas guessed I was recording. He chuckled. “Are they bullying my girl?” Bella cut in with a sweet voice. “Sir, we’re actually helping Summer.” “She’s building a persona for the audience, and it’s going to crash. I’m warning her for her own good. And I’m warning you not to be fooled by her face.” “Heh,” Silas’s voice turned ice-cold. He hung up immediately. I could picture him in his office, eyebrows raised in annoyance. The host was still trying to figure out what to do. I looked at my vibrating phone. “He’s coming,” I said simply. 04 The production crew wasn’t about to miss this. They started running promo banners: [CHARLES MILLER ARRIVES AT THE STUDIO] [WILL SUMMER MILLER’S SPONSOR SHOW UP?] Silas sent me a text: [Babe, I’m coming to slap their faces.] [Can I have a reward tonight?] I didn’t reply. I was too focused on the Dad-Bella situation. The host moved the show along. “We’ve prepared ingredient kits. Cook a meal for your dearest person.” I opened my kit. The network really was biased. Bella’s kit: Caviar, Wagyu beef, broccoli, lobster, abalone. Mine: Eggs, cabbage, and some Dungeness crab. Bella gasped. “The network is so thoughtful. They know exactly what my dad likes.” “This caviar brand is the only one he eats.” “I’ll definitely make a dinner my dad loves.” “Summer, does your Silas like cabbage?” “If you’ve never had the good stuff, I can share some ingredients with you.” I looked at that caviar. My stomach turned. Who told her my dad liked caviar? When it first became trendy, my dad bought a whole crate. It was salty and fishy. It couldn’t compare to a good home-cooked meal. Because we didn’t want to waste money, my dad and I were forced to finish the whole crate. Ever since then, we both hated the sight of it. “Summer, do you even know how to use caviar in a dish?” “Your ingredients are a bit sad. Should we just make a joint table?” “No thanks,” I said, my tone sharp. I didn’t want to see caviar. Not even a little bit. I walked to my station and started prepping. The chat was livid: [What a brat! Bella was being nice, and Summer is so rude.] [She’s probably jealous she’s never had caviar.] Bella was performing for the cameras, acting like a delicate princess who had never touched a stove. I, on the other hand, was cleaning the crab with professional speed. Did people think a girl raised by a self-made tycoon wouldn’t know her way around a kitchen? I made a full table of comfort food, including a specific soft-boiled egg with a secret soy-glaze. That was for Silas. Despite his billions, he had a “simple palate”—he loved that specific sauce. The studio doors flew open. The network president himself was leading a group of executives, escorting a man into the room. Someone gasped. “It’s Silas Thorne. Silas Thorne actually came.” Bella stopped searing her beef. She looked toward the door in disbelief. Silas was in a custom suit. His sharp, handsome features couldn’t hide the coldness he honed in the boardroom. But the moment his eyes landed on the stage, his aura shifted. [Wow, he’s looking at Bella! Did you see his eyes soften?] [The surprise he mentioned was coming here! So romantic!] [Summer said she invited him too. Let’s see if he even acknowledges her.] Silas walked toward the stage, leaving the network president in the dust. Everyone stopped what they were doing. The host was the first to recover. “Mr. Thorne! What a grand surprise.” “Bella, come greet your boyfriend.” The host pulled Bella and pushed her toward Silas. Bella “stumbled” gracefully and landed right against Silas’s chest. She looked up with stars in her eyes. “Silas… you came?” “Did you see the show? Are you here to defend me?” “Summer didn’t mean it. She doesn’t have your status; she didn’t know better.” She was playing both sides—acting generous while making me look like a bully. But Silas didn’t act like a gentleman. He pushed her away. His voice was freezing. “I am here to defend someone.” “But I heard someone was bullying my princess.” 05 Bella’s face went white. “Silas… did you change your mind?” “You said you’d take care of me…” Silas looked at her as if trying to remember who she was. The host tried to save the situation. “Mr. Thorne probably isn’t used to the cameras. Look, Bella made this for you.” “A princess like her, cooking with her own hands… you have to try it.” Silas seemed to remember something. He walked over to the cooking station with the host. “Seared Wagyu, caviar, lobster soup… Silas, I made this just for you,” Bella said, regaining her confidence and grabbing his sleeve. Wait. Didn’t she say she was making it for her dad? Now it’s for Silas? What’s my dad going to eat? Caviar? Silas looked at his sleeve with disgust and took off his blazer, tossing it onto the floor. “Burnt beef, cheap caviar, and wasted lobster?” “Miss Sterling, if I didn’t know better, I’d think you were trying to poison me.” Bella’s face went from white to red to purple. She looked ready to shatter. She looked at the chat for comfort, but the screen was blank. The audience was just as stunned as she was. Silas didn’t look at her again. He walked toward me with a look of pure adoration that made me cringe slightly. Has he been reading too many romance novels? Stop with the CEO tropes, Silas. It’s embarrassing. Regardless of my internal judgment, Silas took the mic from the host. “I’m very picky,” he said to the camera. “I only eat food made by one person.” “But my wife is a princess; she rarely cooks.” “Thank you for today. I’m a lucky man.” He looked at me, basically begging for a gold star. So this was his “slap.” I have to admit… it felt good. The chat finally woke up: [Silas Thorne’s sharp tongue is legendary, but using it on his girlfriend?] [Wait, did you guys miss it? Bella isn’t his girlfriend.] [So Summer wasn’t lying? Silas is here for her?] [This is confusing. Bella definitely knows him. She wouldn’t be this bold in front of a stranger.] [Bella has the car key. What does Summer have?] [Summer has the ‘exclusive’ look. Look at Silas’s eyes… he’s head over heels.] The audience was split. Silas was clearly here for me, but that nine-figure supercar key wasn’t something you could just fake. I was curious too. Where did she get the key? When Bella posted that photo, I checked my bag. My key was right there. It hadn’t moved. 06 “Babe, how was I?” Silas whispered in my ear. “Do I get a reward tonight?” His closeness made Bella snap. She walked over and pushed me aside, looking at Silas with tears. “Silas, you promised Silas Jr. that you’d take care of me!” “It’s only been a few months. Have you forgotten?” “I thought when you made that promise, it meant we were together.” “Seeing you like this… it hurts me.” She started sobbing. Silas didn’t wait for her to finish. He grabbed my hand and pulled me into his arms, his aura turning predatory. “Which hand did you use to push her?” “You have no class in front of the cameras. I can only imagine what you’re like in private.” The host was sweating. This was a live-stream disaster. I squeezed Silas’s hand, telling him to watch his image. I still had to work in this town. Bella was stunned. “Silas…” Silas sneered. “Silas Jr. went back to his ex months ago. Didn’t you know?” “Miss Sterling, he used me as a shield to dump you, and you actually believed it?” “Don’t act innocent. I know exactly what kind of person hangs out with my playboy cousin.” Silas Thorne never cared about anyone’s “face.” Bella looked like she was about to faint. The host tried to pivot. “Bella, Mr. Thorne… let’s resolve the misunderstandings later.” “Mr. Miller is on his way. Let’s keep things civil.” Bella wiped her tears, acting “strong,” and went back to her station to fiddle with her burnt beef. The chat was reeling: [Turns out I was the clown! I apologize to Summer.] [Bella played us. She got dumped by Silas’s cousin and tried to claim the big boss.] [But wait… Bella is still the Miller heiress. Our coastal princess.] [Is Silas Thorne really… a house husband? Look at him cleaning the station.] Silas had rolled up his sleeves and was cleaning up the mess I’d made while prepping. I was a good cook, but a messy one. Silas usually cleaned up after me at home, so it felt natural. I sat on a stool and watched him. Maybe getting married at 26 wasn’t a bad idea. Bella couldn’t take it. She stopped what she was doing and yelled at Silas. “Mr. Thorne, you say I’m a fake, but what about Summer Miller?” “If she knew you, she could have said so. She played vague to make people wonder.” “You don’t see girls like her in your circles, but we have plenty of them in Hollywood.” “She’s a ‘Sugar Baby’! She’s using her face and her acting to climb the ladder! It’s all for money!” The chat was confused again: [Is the princess losing her cool? Calling someone a sugar baby in front of her man?] [Summer’s acting is good. Maybe Silas is being played?] [I’m a Bella fan. She’s probably just worried Silas is being scammed. Her dad is Charles Miller, a philanthropist! He’ll set things straight when he gets here.] I looked back at her and smiled. “Bella, thank you for praising my acting.” Silas stopped cleaning. He narrowed his eyes. “Sugar baby? Do you know the market value of the Thorne Real Estate portfolio?” “It’s fine. I like being her sponsor.” Bella stomped her foot, pouting. She didn’t see Silas looking at me for approval again. “Babe, can the reward be a whole night?” I was tempted by his handsome, desperate face. I nodded. He started cleaning even faster. 07 The show was halfway through. All guests were present except for my dad. The host tentatively asked, “Bella, will Mr. Miller be joining us?” Bella regained her high-profile attitude. “My dad is at the station. The network president is bringing him up!” “The truth is about to come out!” She gave me a pointed look. The chat was buzzing again: [The final showdown!] [Bella’s backup is here! She’s been bullied so much today.] [Summer might have the billionaire boyfriend, but Bella has the tycoon dad. Let’s see who wins.] A middle-aged man in a sharp tailored blazer walked in. Silas immediately put down the towel. The tech king of Silicon Valley actually looked nervous. “Dad! You’re finally here! I’ve been bullied so much!” Bella ran off the stage and gave my dad a huge hug. My dad didn’t seem to notice me at first. He patted Bella’s shoulder. “Bella, don’t worry. I’m here. Who dared to bully my girl in public?” Bella acted bashful. “They didn’t really bully me. They just… mocked my status.” [Mr. Miller, defend your daughter! Don’t let the billionaire scare you!] My dad walked onto the stage, looking righteous. “Status? We live in a modern democracy! Are we still ranking people by bloodlines?!” Then his eyes landed on me. He froze. He looked between me and Silas. I stood up, blinking my big eyes. “Dad.” “Care to explain?” The chat went nuclear: [LMAO, Summer is really going for it! She called him Dad!] [I knew it! She’s going to claim he’s her dad now!] [The Miller family only has one daughter, and Bella already claimed him!] My dad stood there, his tanned face turning a shade of guilty red. “Princess… why are you here?” “What a… what a coincidence. Ha… Silas is here too. Haha.” Bella grabbed my dad’s arm. “Dad, it’s Summer Miller. She made me lose so much face.” My dad looked at Bella, confused. I chuckled. “Dad, where did this ‘secret daughter’ come from?” The host was lost. “Mr. Miller… both of them called you Dad. Do you have two daughters?” My dad didn’t answer. He slowly put on his reading glasses, took out his phone, and spent two minutes scrolling through the live chat history. The studio was silent for two minutes. Finally, he took off his glasses. “I didn’t realize what was happening when I walked in. I apologize for the confusion.” He gently removed Bella’s hand from his arm. “I, Charles Miller, have only ever had one daughter—Summer Miller.” “I am a loyal husband. I do not have children out of wedlock.” “As for Miss Sterling… her father saved my life years ago. I promised to look after her and gave her the title of ‘goddaughter’ as a formality.” “But that title wasn’t meant to be used like this.” “Using my name to bully people on live TV… I can only imagine what you do in private.” “As of now, I am revoking that title. You are no longer my goddaughter.” “Let the audience be my witness. Summer Miller is my only child.” My dad was a man of integrity. He couldn’t stand people using his name for malice. Bella had crossed his ultimate line. She lost all her strength and slumped to the floor. My dad turned to me, whispering. “Sweetie, please don’t tell your mom. I’ll do anything.” “Silas, help me out here?” They both looked at me with puppy-dog eyes. The host interrupted, trying to salvage something. “Mr. Miller… Bella made a whole table of food for you.” “High-end ingredients! Network-funded!” My dad, who hated waste, followed the host over. Bella saw a final chance. She scrambled up and followed them, hoping to win my dad back with her “effort.”

🌟 Continue the story here 👉🏻 📲 Download the “MotoNovel” app 🔍 search for “415138”, and watch the full series ✨! #MotoNovel

When My Boyfriend’s Childhood Best Friend Became Single I waited for him at the diner all night. As the sky began to lighten, I finally received his text: “We’re not working out. Let’s break up.” 1 On the day of our two-year anniversary, I sat in the diner, watching the snow fall and stop, over and over. But that familiar silhouette never appeared outside the window. He stood me up. As dawn broke, I pushed open the diner doors and was immediately choked by a flurry of snow, coughing uncontrollably. Two text messages sat unread on my phone. One was from him: “We’re not working out. Let’s break up.” The other was from his childhood best friend, my roommate, Audrey: “Harper, I don’t think I want to give him to you anymore.” A thick layer of snow blanketed the ground. Every step left a deep footprint, only to be quickly buried by fresh snow. I looked up, feeling the freezing temperature as my breath plumed into white mist. This winter felt exceptionally cold. I met Liam in the summer. I was carrying two ice cream cones across the basketball court to find my roommate when a stray ball flew straight at me. At the last second, a strong arm yanked me into a warm chest. It happened so fast I only caught a glimpse of his sharp jawline. The ice cream hit the asphalt, melting rapidly in the heat. From a distance, my roommate Audrey’s voice rang out: “Harper—!” Then, a crisp, clear voice echoed right above my head: “Harper Ellis?” I looked up. That was my first time meeting him. Between his handsome features and the way his white t-shirt fluttered in the breeze, he had a fatal attraction to me. His name was Liam Wright. Audrey’s childhood best friend, the boy next door. Because of Audrey, I ended up seeing him a lot. Whenever we hung out, the three of us were usually together. Over time, we got to know each other. He only knew my name initially because Audrey constantly brought me up in front of him. In the winter of our sophomore year, Liam and I got together. He was the one who confessed, though it hardly counted as a real confession. That night, walking out of the library, I checked my phone. Half an hour earlier, Audrey had posted a photo on Instagram: “Hello, Carter.” It was a picture of a guy’s back. I knew who he was. A senior Audrey had been crushing on for ages. I put my phone away and kept walking, keeping my head down until I reached my dorm. Standing there in the freezing cold, wearing only a thin jacket, was Liam. He held a single rose in one hand and his phone in the other, his knuckles white from gripping it so tightly. I called out his name in surprise. He turned around, his eyes slightly red. Before I could say another word, he pulled me into a tight embrace, his voice hoarse. “Harper, let’s give us a try.” Truthfully, Audrey had been trying her hardest to set us up long before that. Otherwise, Liam wouldn’t have brought me along every time he asked her to hang out. Once, when she got drunk, she hugged my arm and whined: “Harper, please just date him. I’m begging you. Otherwise he’s always bothering me, it’s so annoying.” Right then, Liam pushed the door open and walked in. He was completely drenched. A torrential downpour was raging outside, but because of one phone call from Audrey, he had rushed over without a second thought. I don’t know if he heard what she said. I only watched him lean down, scoop the drunk Audrey into his arms, and let out a helpless sigh. “Audrey, stop messing around.” I grabbed Audrey’s purse and followed quietly behind them. I watched him carefully place her into the passenger seat and tuck a blanket around her. After standing there in a daze for a long time, Liam told me to get in the car. As the heater slowly warmed the interior, I kept my eyes lowered, my peripheral vision fixed on his long, clean fingers gripping the steering wheel. Did I agree to date Liam because I didn’t like him? No. I liked him a lot. I liked him so much that even knowing he only asked me out to get back at Audrey, I still said yes. 2 Liam’s social media was incredibly bare. He only had two posts. One was a picture of a stray cat, and the other was just a single line of text: One step away. The day after we got together, he made his third post: Harper Ellis. My girlfriend. Audrey quickly commented: Omg, wishing you guys the best! Liam and I had our first official date at the movies. We bought tickets for a cheesy new rom-com. Not long after we sat down, Audrey and her new boyfriend showed up and sat directly in the row in front of us. The movie was boring and cliché—just the usual plot of the main couple missing their timing and not ending up together. But Audrey bawled her eyes out. She always seemed to get moved to tears easily. I remember one night before Liam and I were dating. A guy was confessing his love to a girl outside our dorm building. He arranged candles into a heart, scattered rose petals on the ground, and played the guitar while saying “I love you.” The girl he was confessing to hadn’t even come downstairs yet, but Audrey, who was watching from the balcony, was streaming tears. She hugged me and cried about how touching it was, and how great that guy was. I patted her back gently, stayed silent for a moment, and asked quietly, “Isn’t Liam great too?” Her crying stopped instantly. She wiped her tears and sighed. “He’s great, but it’s just annoying. We grew up together, how could I ever like him that way? Besides, even if we don’t date, he’s always going to be good to me.” Her capacity to be moved seemed totally immune to Liam. Or maybe, as the saying goes, the one who is truly loved has nothing to fear. After the movie, we all went to dinner. At the table, Audrey and her boyfriend fed each other bites of food non-stop. Liam kept his head down, pushing a piece of lettuce around his plate. He barely ate a thing. Before we parted ways, Audrey mentioned they were going to a friend’s birthday party. Liam seemed to hold back for a long time before finally saying, “Don’t drink too much.” Audrey frowned in annoyance. Leaning against her boyfriend, she looked at me. “Harper, he’s so annoying. Tell him to stop acting like my dad.” Before I could say anything, Liam grabbed my wrist and pulled me away. The walk was silent. I thought of a million things to say, but finally stopped in front of a grocery store and looked at him. “Liam, let me make you some homemade spaghetti.” In my apartment, Liam ate the pasta politely, a faint smile on his lips. “You don’t look like someone who cooks.” “Honestly, I didn’t know how it would turn out either. This is the first time in my memory I’ve ever made spaghetti bolognese.” His smile deepened. “Really? It’s really good.” Looking at his handsome face, I felt my ears burn. His gloomy mood from the evening improved significantly. It was from that night on that he truly started stepping into his role as my boyfriend. Every morning, he would wait outside my dorm with breakfast, rain or shine. He walked me to class, bought me gifts for every holiday, took me out on weekends, and occasionally planned little surprises. Once, we hiked up a mountain to watch the sunrise. Sitting at the peak, smelling the pine trees as the first ray of sunlight broke the horizon, he suddenly leaned in and kissed my cheek. His eyes were incredibly gentle when he said, “Harper, I like you.” For a long time, I didn’t think it was possible for Liam to like me. After all, I had seen what he looked like when he liked Audrey. Audrey and I were total opposites. She was the bright, emotional, head-turning beauty. I wasn’t nearly as pretty, and I was quiet. Put simply, I was boring. But when Liam said I like you, I just felt a sudden pang of melancholy in my chest, and an urge to cry. It felt like I had waited years to hear those words, even though we hadn’t even been together for a year. Somehow, I always felt our quiet, peaceful happiness was just a fragile bubble. One day, it was going to pop. And Audrey was the needle. 3 Two months into her relationship, Audrey and her boyfriend started fighting constantly. It started with small things, like the shade of her lipstick, and escalated until it landed someone in the hospital. One time, Liam and I were out for dinner. It was a new restaurant offering half-price meals for couples, so I dragged him there. But right as the food arrived, Liam got a call from Audrey. By the time we rushed over, Audrey was sitting in a private karaoke room, drinking and crying. The reason? Her boyfriend was too busy lately, and they fought about not seeing each other enough. I originally thought once he comforted her, that would be the end of it. I didn’t realize that phone call was just the beginning. Audrey started complaining to him all the time. Her boyfriend wasn’t considerate enough, wasn’t gentle enough, his apologies weren’t sincere, he texted other girls. She always ended it with one sentence: “He’s nothing compared to you, Liam.” Her issues with her boyfriend snowballed, and the number of times she called Liam skyrocketed. It got to the point where I felt like the third wheel. I remember it was my birthday. It was pouring rain outside. Liam lit the candles on my cake and told me to make a wish. Just as I closed my eyes, a frantic ringtone shattered the silence. It took me a moment to realize it was the custom ringtone Liam had assigned to Audrey. He hadn’t changed it since we started dating. Audrey’s crying echoed loudly in the quiet room. Liam stood up so fast he knocked a ceramic plate onto the floor, shattering it. Through the speaker, Audrey sobbed that she had been dumped and left on the side of a highway in the middle of nowhere. The heater was on, but my fingertips went ice cold. Liam gently coaxed her over the phone: “Don’t panic. Send me your location.” Liam’s voice was always soft, but for some reason, he sounded exceptionally tender when he was comforting Audrey. Right as he opened the door to leave, I called his name. He seemed to finally remember I was still in the room. He looked uncomfortable. “The rain is too heavy, it’s not safe out there. I’m going to go find Audrey.” That was probably the one and only time I ever acted selfishly during our relationship. I grabbed his sleeve. “What if I don’t want you to go?” It had been too many times. Even treating her like a little sister, they had crossed the line. He gently pried my fingers off his sleeve. His voice was low. “I’m sorry, Harper. I can’t let anything happen to her.” Then came the sound of the door closing. On my twenty-first birthday, I sat alone in front of a melted cake for a long time. Eventually, my head started pounding so violently that I passed out. A waiter found me and called an ambulance. The headaches were a lingering side effect of a car crash I had years ago. After finishing my IV drip in the middle of the night, I pulled out my phone. I had called Liam repeatedly. No one answered. 4 Audrey was heartbroken and locked herself in her room for days. When Liam came to the hospital the next morning, he had faint dark circles under his eyes. He held my hand and apologized. I kept my eyes closed and pretended to be asleep. After I was discharged, Liam took meticulous care of me. He brought me meals, walked me to every class, and basically spent every free second he had by my side. I guess he was putting all his time into me to fix what he broke. Once during gym class, my period came early. The cramps were so bad I couldn’t stand. I don’t know who texted him, but Liam sprinted over, sweating, and carried me to the campus clinic. He prepared everything perfectly—heating pads, hot tea, painkillers. I knew he was trying hard to repair the crack in our relationship. Audrey was in a terrible mood, so she kept finding excuses to hang out with us. At first, it was just grabbing lunch together. Soon, she tagged along on every date. She would always loop her arm through mine confidently and say: “Harper, I’m not stealing Liam from you. I don’t even like him.” “I just see him as a brother. If I liked him, I wouldn’t have set you two up!” Sometimes, if Liam bought me a gift but didn’t get her one, she would get mad and pout: “Liam, you’re choosing a girl over your best friend.” “What? I’m the one who set you two up, and you forgot about me already?” “Liam, we grew up together.” For a long time, the three of us maintained this bizarre, delicate dynamic, right until Audrey started dating again. The guy was a junior from the business school. He was the total opposite of her ex. Her ex was flashy and passionate, but didn’t know how to compromise or take care of people. This new guy, with his clean-cut, quiet demeanor, put Audrey first in absolutely everything. I don’t know if Audrey noticed, but this guy was exactly like Liam. Or rather, he was exactly like the version of Liam who had absolutely zero boundaries when it came to her. The day Audrey announced her new relationship, Liam accidentally dropped the handmade ceramic mug I had given him for his birthday. It shattered. A shard sliced his index finger, leaving a deep cut. It was hard to say if the cut hurt because of Audrey, or because of the mug I made him. But because of Audrey’s new romance, the tension between Liam and me finally eased. One night, Liam and I were eating at a dive bar off-campus. Suddenly, a huge commotion broke out outside. I wasn’t naturally curious and hated crowds, and so did Liam. But the next second, a scream ripped through the air. It was Audrey. Without a second of hesitation, Liam bolted outside. I ran after him. The street in front of the bar was pure chaos. A massive brawl had broken out, and Audrey was right in the middle of it. Later, I saw someone raise a hand to hit Audrey. Liam grabbed a beer bottle and smashed it over the guy’s head. Everything descended into madness. Crying, glass shattering, screaming, and blood. So much blood. The last thing I heard before I lost consciousness was: “Someone passed out! Someone passed out—!” The person who passed out was me. Seeing that scene, my head had started throbbing with an agonizing pain. It was too much to bear, and I blacked out. When I opened my eyes again, I was in the hospital. Liam’s face was bruised purple, and his arm was bandaged. Seeing me awake, he called my name in a hoarse voice. “Harper.” I was never a crier. Even when I was deeply wronged, I would just grit my teeth and push through it. But for the first time, I couldn’t hold back the tears in front of Liam. I didn’t make a sound. The tears just rolled down my temples into the pillow. I had been so terrified. I had screamed his name, over and over, but in that moment, the only person in his eyes was Audrey. I couldn’t explain exactly why I was crying, but it felt like a dull knife was sawing at my heart. 5 Liam explained that Audrey’s friends had gotten into a dispute with another group, neither side backed down, and a fight broke out. Audrey wasn’t hurt, but she was a wreck. Her eyes were red and swollen when she came to see me at the hospital. During the fight, her new boyfriend hadn’t protected her; in fact, he was the first one to run away. After that, Audrey and her boyfriend were constantly on-and-off, with no clear end in sight. On the day Liam got the stitches removed from his arm, I stared at the jagged scar and asked, “Liam, does it hurt?” Maybe because my voice was so unnervingly calm, he panicked, pulling me into his arms. “I’m sorry, Harper. I grew up with her. I can’t just leave her alone.” “Harper, don’t mention breaking up. Please, never bring up breaking up, okay?” In the end, he was the one who brought it up. On our two-year anniversary. Audrey and her boyfriend had finally called it quits for good. It happened exactly one week before our anniversary. She was eerily calm about it this time. No crying, no screaming. She just sat with us at dinner and said flatly: “I broke up with him.” I had a very strange premonition then. Audrey regretted it. And reality proved my intuition right. So, when I was stood up on our anniversary, and I finally got the breakup text, I wasn’t that surprised. Just… tired. My eyes burned. I used to wonder why I fell so hard for Liam. I thought it was because the sunset was so beautiful that day at the basketball court, and his silhouette just perfectly caught my eye. I figured he would never know that the real first time I saw him was in the stairwell, the second day of freshman year. For some unknown reason, Audrey was sitting on the steps crying. Liam sat right beside her, coaxing her with endless, gentle patience. The evening light hit the side of his face, making his eyelashes glow. Staring at the text Liam sent me, I typed a single word: “Okay.” Thinking back on it, I was exactly like the catalyst side-character in a romance novel about childhood sweethearts. Once the main characters finally realized they were meant to be, it was time for me to gracefully exit stage left. After standing out in the snow, I caught a terrible fever. I had bizarre, fragmented dreams. A highway covered in blood from a car crash. A boy’s back as he rode a bicycle. A teenager in a white shirt whose face I could never clearly see. In the dream, a clear, somewhat lazy voice was rambling in my ear. I strained to listen and barely caught a few sentences: “Harper, how did your exam go?” “I’m here to see you, Harper!” “Harper Ellis, no taking it back!” “Harper. Harper… Harper…” When I opened my eyes to a blinding white ceiling, for a split second, I thought I was waking up from the car crash again. It was snowing outside the window, just like back then. During winter break of my junior year of high school, I was in a terrible car accident. When I woke up, I had lost a huge chunk of my memory. 6 Liam and I broke up on an ordinary snowy day. The next time I saw Audrey, she said, “Harper, thank you. You made me realize my true feelings.” “I’m so sorry, Harper. Liam only dated you to make me jealous.” “I was so stupid, trying so hard to push you two together. It’s all my fault. Please don’t hate me, okay?” As she said this, she clung intimately to Liam’s arm. It was the first time I had seen him since the breakup. The sunlight hit his newly cut black hair. I suddenly noticed that in just a few days, he had lost weight. His normally gentle features looked sharp and exhausted. My eyes swept over the watch on his left wrist. I looked up at him slightly and asked: “When we were on the mountain watching the sunrise, did you mean what you said?” Honestly, I didn’t even know what I was holding onto anymore. Was I hoping he really liked me? Did I still want to be with him? But when he looked at me so intently on that peak and said he liked me, I genuinely believed him. Two years is a long time. It’s just a shame it could never outlast their twenty. He pressed his lips together. The hand by his side clenched into a loose fist. His voice was as beautiful as ever: “It was my fault. Don’t blame Audrey. If you need anything to make up for it, just name it.” I pulled a faint, mocking smile, my vision blurring. “Can I ask you to marry me?” He froze. I turned around and started walking away slowly, throwing an insult over my shoulder: “Can’t do it, right? It’s fine. You’ve never kept a single promise you made to me anyway. What’s one more?” The watch on Liam’s wrist was very old. After it broke a few times, I bought him a brand new one. He accepted it but never wore it, claiming he just needed to fix the old one and was too used to it to switch. Thinking back on it now, it wasn’t the style of the watch he couldn’t let go of. It was the person who gave it to him. A thin layer of snow covered the sidewalk. I stood at an intersection, watching the cars rush by, suddenly having no idea where to go. As I stepped off the curb, a deafening screech of tires and crashing metal erupted right behind me. The next second, I was yanked backward into an embrace that smelled of pine. I don’t know how much time passed. The jarring noise had triggered flashes of my car crash, making my head pound in agony. As the pain slowly subsided, I clutched my head and looked up. I saw a face that looked remarkably like Liam’s, but older, sharper, and far more refined. The man wore a black overcoat lightly dusted with snow. He had an incredible jawline and striking brow bones. His long, clean fingers gripped a transparent umbrella, shielding me from the snow, while his other arm was wrapped tightly around my waist. His eyes were red-rimmed, and his voice was completely hoarse: “Long time no see, Harper.” His name was Caleb Wright. My… former math tutor. The summer before my senior year of high school, my dad brought home a college student to tutor me in math. His name was Caleb. Every Wednesday and Friday afternoon, he came over to help me study. Whenever my mom wasn’t home, he would sneak me a vanilla ice cream cone. I had to beg him for it, of course, because my health was poor and my mom banned cold sweets. Caleb refused at first, but couldn’t withstand my pleading. We compromised on half a cone as a reward for finishing my work. Though he went to college in a different city, he was only in my hometown that summer for fieldwork related to his thesis. Tutoring was just a way to make some extra cash. He didn’t just teach me math; he ended up tutoring me in almost every subject. You could say my entire academic revival started with him. As the pages of my textbooks flipped, the summer ended. I started my senior year, and he went back to his university. My once aggressively average math grades skyrocketed, eventually becoming my best subject. Actually, Caleb was the one who told me all of this. I had forgotten everything about him, and everything that happened during that time. Later, just to confirm, I asked my mom. She confirmed that he had indeed tutored me. And yes, I really did love vanilla ice cream. The hand holding the umbrella tightened its grip. His deep, dark eyes looked at me from beneath his eyelashes. He seemed to force the words out: “You don’t remember me?… It’s fine. As long as you’re okay. As long as you’re safe.” Looking at his suddenly dimmed eyes, and that face that looked so much like Liam’s, I felt a knot of complex emotions. I opened my mouth and called out, “Mr. Wright,” but he cut me off with a bitter smile. “You never used to call me Mr. Wright.” “What did I call you?” “Caleb.” 7 I used to attribute my feelings for Liam to perfect timing. The weather was nice, he appeared exactly when I needed him, and my heart skipped a beat. I couldn’t find any other reason, right up until he drained every last drop of my affection. But my reason for avoiding Caleb now was crystal clear: he had a face just like Liam’s. Technically speaking, Liam looked like him. I found out Caleb was Liam’s older cousin during winter break. Caleb and I had added each other on social media. Initially, I didn’t want to, but he looked down at me quietly and said softly: “We were tutor and student once. Not only did you forget me, but now you won’t even add me as a friend?” My heart gave an inexplicable tremble, and I agreed. After adding him, I glanced at his profile. It was mostly work-related articles. The only personal posts were a few photos of the exact same potted Gardenia plant. For some reason, it made me think of Liam’s profile. That photo of the cat and that single sentence. It was easy to guess the hidden meaning behind it. Audrey had once shown me a picture of the cat she and Liam co-parented—it was the exact same cat from his post. And “One step away” perfectly described the agonizing distance between best friends and lovers. A week after Caleb and I became online friends, he made a new post. It was very simple: They say seven years is a cycle. Beneath it was a comment: Cousin, did you find her? Congrats! My entire focus locked onto the word “Cousin.” So that’s why they looked so alike. Winter break vanished as quickly as a sparkler burning out. During that time, Caleb only sent me one message, right at the stroke of midnight on Christmas Eve: “Merry Christmas, Harper.” I spun my phone in my hand, eventually turning it off. The next morning, I replied: “Merry Christmas, Caleb.” Once we returned to campus, everyone was busy with internships and final projects. Graduation was looming, which meant endless farewell dinners and parties. It was during this time I realized the name “Liam” no longer stirred a single ripple in my heart. Because of our overlapping social circles, it was inevitable that Liam, Audrey, and I would end up at the same party. And it was at that party I witnessed Liam and Audrey fight for the first time. It escalated into physical violence. Piecing together their screaming match, the reason was simple: Audrey felt Liam had changed. She constantly tested him to see if he still loved her. Her method of testing him was hanging out with her ex-boyfriend, threatening Liam that they were going to get back together. Coincidentally, both of her ex-boyfriends were at this party. Finally, Liam said flatly: “Go ahead and get back together with him then!” “Liam, I knew it! You don’t even love me anymore!” Audrey hysterically threw a beer bottle at him. A shard of glass grazed the corner of his eye, sending a stream of blood down his jaw. I stood quietly in the crowd, watching them go from arguing, to fighting, to breaking up. I avoided Liam’s gaze when he looked my way, pulling out my phone and scrolling aimlessly. Audrey probably didn’t understand that love is the one thing that cannot withstand constant testing. Liam drank heavily that night. When the party ended, I walked outside and saw Caleb. He was dressed in a sharp black suit, his expression totally entirely cold. Seeing me, his long legs stepped in my direction, but he was halted by Liam calling out, “Caleb.” Caleb looked at the heavily intoxicated Liam being held up by his friends. He frowned and said coldly: “If it’s not working, break up early!” His sharp gaze swept over the unusually quiet Audrey standing nearby, and then he walked straight toward me.

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The top student and the campus heartthrob became famous celebrities. On a variety show, he sang a song, saying it was dedicated to the girl he had a crush on in high school. I was sitting in a dingy diner slurping noodles, smiling and shaking my head. It couldn’t possibly be me anyway. But the very next second, my phone rang. 1 Asher Hayes debuted at nineteen. In just five years, he had become a household name, an absolute superstar. While I was slurping noodles in a small, greasy diner, the wall-mounted TV was broadcasting his variety show. In the latest episode, he sang a song called “The Girl Next to Me” and said it was dedicated to his high school crush. It caused a massive sensation. The celebrity guests sitting around him started teasing him, urging him to say the girl’s name. Of course, he didn’t. I was a little dazed. The noodles on my chopsticks had gone cold. Because, I used to be his desk mate. But, it couldn’t possibly be me. I’m just an ordinary person. Or even, a pretty pathetic one. There is an insurmountable gulf between us. Being desk mates with a superstar like him in high school was already the absolute peak of my life. I buried my head and ate that bite of noodles. It was cold and tasted awful, making me want to throw up. Bad memories came flooding back. Memories of being shoved into a bathroom stall during my period and having freezing cold water dumped over my head. The girl who dumped that water on me later became a celebrity too. Now, she is highly praised by the media as Hollywood’s only “pure white lily.” In a recent interview, she choked up and said she was a victim of severe school bullying in high school. She claimed she had freezing water poured on her during her period, which caused her to develop severe depression that she still hasn’t recovered from. It trended number one on Twitter for a while. Many celebrities came forward to support her, posting tweets against school bullying. Oh, and that girl was also participating in that exact same variety show. When Asher was singing, she was sitting on the grass, clapping. Speaking of which, she used to be Asher’s desk mate too. When the crowd was cheering for Asher to say the girl’s name, she must have been expectantly waiting to hear her own name, right? I paid my bill and walked out of the diner. I completely forgot what I was just thinking about. It was so cold outside; I just wanted to go home and get warm. My phone suddenly started ringing. It was an unknown number. “Hello? Is this Ms. Quinn Foster? We are the production team for Autumn Encounters. Congratulations on becoming our special guest, earning the chance to record alongside numerous A-list celebrities…” I frowned. Autumn Encounters was exactly the variety show Asher was on. Because it was so popular recently, there had been several scam cases using the show’s name. I didn’t expect to run into one myself. “Hilarious. If you’re the director, then I’m an international pop star,” I sneered. It was already dark, and I was getting home a bit late. My older brother, Mason, wasn’t at ease, so he specifically waited for me downstairs. “On the phone?” “Ah, a scam call.” On the other end of the line, the person claiming to be the director was still trying hard to prove his identity when I ruthlessly hung up. “Just block it,” Mason said. He rubbed my head, took my backpack, and walked upstairs. Ever since I almost died that year, he had been terrified of losing me, protecting me like a fragile crystal ball that could shatter at any moment. As I walked upstairs, I complained to him about things at school. I had just started my Ph.D. program, and getting yelled at by my advisor every day was making me question my life choices. My phone rang again. Still an unknown number, but not the same one from just now. Mason got a bit annoyed: “Hang up and block it. Seriously, these scammers never stop.” But as I looked at the screen, for some reason, I felt this time was different. In the end, I answered it. “Hello?” I greeted hesitantly. The other end of the line was silent for two seconds. “Long time no see, Quinn.” 2 That familiar yet unfamiliar voice was like a gust of wind, blowing open a heavy door that had been sealed for a long time. Instantly, my adrenaline spiked. My heart beat wildly. I froze in place, my hands and feet going numb. “Why aren’t you saying anything? Calling you out of the blue… is this a bit too forward?” “Ah, no, no! Not at all!” Getting a call from Asher left me completely flustered. Even though we used to be classmates, we only sat in the same class together. We had absolutely no personal relationship. No matter how you looked at it, it was impossible for our paths to cross again. I let out a breath and tried my best to sound natural. “Mr. Superstar, why are you calling me?” Asher laughed. His voice sounded incredibly good. I paused. In my memory, had he ever laughed like that? It had been too long; I had forgotten. When he was my desk mate, it seemed like he was always just fast asleep on his desk. “I want to invite you to be a guest star and film the show with me. The director called you earlier, but you turned him down.” “I’m so sorry, I thought it was a scammer…” “It did sound a bit like a scam. Did it scare you?” “A… a little.” He laughed again, then smoothly changed the subject: “So, are you willing to come? Classmate Quinn.” I panicked. Filming a show, going on TV… for someone with social anxiety, it was terrifying. Moreover, showing up looking like a disheveled grad student to meet my wildly successful old classmate made me feel deeply inadequate. “Uh, I don’t think I can. Let’s just forget it…” “Why? Do you really not want to see me?” He sounded so sincere, almost humble. I quickly denied it: “Ah, no, it’s not that at all! How could it be? I just think it’s too sudden, and I haven’t thought it through.” “I see. Then, please think about it carefully. I really… really want to see you.” I was stunned. He paused for a moment and added: “There are other old classmates coming too. I really want to see all of you.” A memory, long lost in the sea of time, suddenly drilled into my mind. 3 One year, in the spring. An invitation card appeared on my desk. “It’s my birthday this Saturday. Come hang out at my place.” Seventeen-year-old Asher sat on his desk, speaking with a careless attitude. Asher came from a prominent, wealthy family. His friends were all rich or influential. That invitation should never have appeared on my desk. Seeing that I wasn’t speaking, Asher added, “Everyone in the class is coming. Anyway, do whatever you want.” He hopped off the desk indifferently and went to play basketball with his friends. Did I go later? Yes, I went. Carrying a cheap gift and wearing plain clothes, I walked to the outside of an extravagant estate I had never even seen before in my life. At the entrance, I finally realized that the other classmates attending the party had arrived in luxury cars, wearing expensive tailored clothes. This was a gathering for the elite. There was absolutely no one like me, a total commoner. So, halfway to the door, I turned around and left. I didn’t even wish Asher a happy birthday. But I figured he wouldn’t care, or even notice. Originally, it was just a passing invitation. We couldn’t even be considered friends. What happened after that day? I can’t remember clearly. It seemed… he never spoke to me again. But then again, he rarely spoke to me to begin with. A few days later, I transferred schools, and I never saw him again. The memory ended there. On the other end of the phone, Asher was still waiting for my answer. I hesitated for a moment, then nodded: “Okay, let me think about it first.” Mason had heard the entire conversation. As I pocketed my phone and walked upstairs, he asked, “Is that the super popular ‘Encounters’ show?” “Yeah.” “You’re not going to go, right?” “I won’t.” “Then I’m relieved.” My footsteps felt heavy as I walked up the stairs. But my heart felt as if it was tethered to something. After walking up seven steps, I stopped and gripped the handrail tightly. “No, Mason. I want to go.” Mason’s eyes widened: “Huh? Are you serious? Do you even know that Blair Kensington is on that show? Doesn’t she make you sick?” “I know.” My hands trembled slightly, but my heart grew firm once again. “But, Mason, I still want to go. And besides, I can’t be a turtle hiding in its shell forever.” 4 On the flight, I had a dream. In the dream, I went back to my high school classroom, napping on my desk. Someone leaned close to my ear and whispered softly, “Quinn, I like you.” I opened my eyes to hazy light and shadows. There was no one in front of me. Only the white curtains gently swaying in the breeze. “Quinn, wake up! We’re here!” Mason shook me vigorously. He picked me up like a kitten, holding bags in one hand and practically carrying me with the other. He insisted on coming with me, even calling up his frat brothers and telling them to protect me. If anyone dared to bully me, he and his boys were going to beat them to a pulp. After we got off the plane, the production team sent a private car to pick me up. After resting for a few hours, I was taken to the beach in the evening to participate in the shoot. The crew had built three giant cardboard houses resembling classrooms. In each room hid a guest star. For the sake of the show’s suspense, even I didn’t know who was hiding in the other two rooms. During filming, I hid behind the door, my palms sweating nervously. Soon, I heard familiar voices. Asher, Blair, and a few other well-known celebrities. I felt anxious. It had been so long. I didn’t know if I would look tense or come off like a country bumpkin. Outside, the host asked, “Who do you hope to see?” Blair seemed very excited. It looked like she didn’t know who was coming either. Soon, the first door opened. The host asked, “Do you still remember this old classmate’s name?” Asher paused for a moment and said, “Long time no see, Brody.” I couldn’t see, but hearing that name made me freeze. Brody Mitchell. Wasn’t he the delinquent in our class? If I remembered correctly, he was also Blair’s ultimate simp… I listened carefully. It was lively outside, and Blair was smiling, but she was obviously a bit nervous. She was probably afraid he would say something he shouldn’t. However, Brody was surprisingly cooperative, saying nothing but compliments about her. She gradually relaxed. After a while, another door opened. I heard Blair scream in surprise: “Riley!” The string in my mind suddenly pulled taut. Riley Jenkins was my dorm roommate in high school, and also Blair’s best friend. Back then, every time Blair bullied me, Riley helped her. Including the time they poured cold water on me. Why would they invite her? Did Blair invite her? Bad memories assaulted me again, making me slightly nauseous. After they chatted outside for a while, I heard Asher’s slightly urging voice: “Let’s open the last door first. There’s another classmate waiting inside for a long time.” The host finally signaled for me to come out. “Let’s welcome our third guest! Which old classmate could this be? Let’s build up the anticipation… one, two, three!” I took a deep breath, adjusted my posture, and pushed the door open. The temperature had dropped sharply recently, but to look good on camera, I only wore a white dress with a trench coat over it. The moment I opened the door, the wind picked up, making my dress flutter. Unexpectedly, it drew gasps of admiration from the onlookers. I looked up and immediately saw Asher. He was wearing a white button-down shirt, standing against the brilliant lights, smiling at me as if there was a galaxy between us. “Classmate Quinn, long time no see.” That lean, tall figure instantly pulled me back to my high school days. I seemed to see that teenage boy again, always wearing headphones, leaning against the window, lost in thought. I was dazed for a moment, then nodded slightly. Asher introduced me to everyone: “This is Quinn Foster, she was… the top student in our class.” He didn’t say I was his desk mate. Maybe it was to avoid gossip, or maybe he had just forgotten. I looked away and saw Blair. She stood to the side. For a split second, her face looked worse than if she had eaten a fly. Hollywood’s “only pure white lily” was a title voted on by fans. If she hadn’t claimed she was “bullied” in high school to harvest a wave of sympathy, she probably wouldn’t have won that title. Now that she saw me—her living “dark history”—her emotions must have been incredibly complicated. But she quickly covered it up, running over to hug me. “Oh my god! Quinn, it’s really you! I missed you so much!” I hugged her back, my face perfectly calm: “Nice to see you too, Blair.” 5 Old classmates reuniting, each with their own hidden agendas. We hugged each other, our smiles faker than flattering a boss at a corporate dinner. After exchanging pleasantries, the host asked the five of us to go on stage and take a group photo. There were so many people off-stage and several cameras pointing at us. I felt awkward. Riley suddenly held my hand and smiled at me. “Don’t be nervous.” I looked at her defensively, but found that her gaze was actually… very gentle and sincere. It was a complete 180 from the girl who used to stand next to Blair and relentlessly humiliate me. What was going on? I didn’t respond, silently pulling my hand back. After the photo shoot, we moved to the next segment. We sat around a fire pit, grilling food and chatting. This was supposed to be a heartwarming show, and in this segment, celebrities often dug up secrets buried deep in their hearts, which was what the audience loved to watch the most. I picked a spot and sat down. Surrounded by celebrities I knew or didn’t know, it felt quite novel. There was a bit of space next to me. I was about to scoot over to give the person beside me more room. Just then, Asher suddenly appeared. “I’ll sit here.” After saying that, he added an explanation: “I’m in charge of the barbecue tonight. It’s easier to operate from here.” The warm light of the bonfire outlined his flawless face. He looked like a descending god, so handsome it made people stare blankly. I suddenly remembered choosing seats in our sophomore year. It was an afternoon, with dust motes dancing in the rays of the setting sun. Asher walked straight to the empty seat next to me and sat down. I was secretly shocked at the time. What? The school heartthrob is sitting next to me? Just like now. However, back then, he didn’t even say hello to me. He just put his head on the desk and fell fast asleep. “Okay.” I nodded and squeezed to the side, leaving more space for him. While the others were chatting, Asher quietly flipped the food, brushed oil, and sprinkled seasoning. His movements were unhurried, like he was completing a piece of art. I felt a bit uncomfortable, so I held a piece of corn on the cob and buried my head in eating it. Until someone cued me. “What was Asher like in high school?” A female singer sitting next to me suddenly asked. I looked up. Asher was looking at me, a smile in his eyes. It made my heart skip a beat. I quickly turned my head and looked at the female singer: “Him? He was pretty much the same as he is now. He was the school heartthrob back then—handsome, good grades. He was the superstar of our school.” “Last time, Asher mentioned he had a crush on a female classmate in high school. Do you know her?” The gossip-hungry gazes of everyone present converged on me. Since Asher debuted, he had never revealed anything about his romantic life, so everyone was incredibly curious about this question. But how would I know who he liked? I shook my head like a rattle drum: “I really have no idea about that.” The female singer looked a bit disappointed. She relentlessly turned to Asher: “Give us a hint! Like, what was unique about that girl?” I held my corn, silently looking at him, inexplicably curious myself. Across the fire, Blair was also looking at him expectantly. But Asher just smiled faintly, patiently clipping a chicken wing: “Her? Everything about her was unique.” That was as good as saying nothing. The female singer pressed on: “If you had to use a flower to describe her, what would it be?” The implication of that question couldn’t be more obvious. Blair was known as the “pure white lily.” By asking this, the singer wanted to know if Asher’s crush was Blair. Because they were high school classmates and used to be desk mates, many people suspected the girl was Blair. But Asher shook his head. “She’s not a flower.” He unhurriedly continued what he was doing, not looking at anyone, and said, “Flowers are too fragile. They aren’t like her.” Blair froze, the light in her eyes gradually dimming. She knew Asher wasn’t talking about her. As for who it was, I didn’t know either. He said flowers were too fragile, not like her. So, he liked a tomboy? I thought for a long time but couldn’t figure out who in our class fit the bill. It must be someone I didn’t know. But to be crushed on by Asher and kept in his heart for so many years, she must have been very beautiful. The female singer asked again: “Did you ever confess to her?” I thought to myself, what a stupid question. He said it was a crush. If he confessed, would it still be called a crush? But Asher replied: “I did confess.” “But she didn’t hear me.” Soon, he looked up, smiling, and asked: “Who wants chicken wings?” A bunch of people swarmed over: “Me, me, me!” I was squeezed to the edge, my mind still replaying his words. I confessed, but she didn’t hear me. Looks like that girl had bad hearing. Looking at it this way, Asher was actually a bit pitiful. He finally managed to vocalize his love, but the person didn’t hear it, and they missed each other forever. To be kept deep in his heart and yearned for over so many years… It was quite enviable. I lowered my eyes, looking at the fire, feeling a momentary pang of loss. Since they couldn’t get anything more out of Asher, the topic naturally transitioned to Blair. The female singer asked me again: “What was Blair like in high school?” Blair looked at me, smiling, but the tension and threat in her eyes were practically overflowing. Of course, I wasn’t going to say that she rallied everyone to isolate me—they wouldn’t broadcast that anyway. I just smiled and said sweetly: “Blair was incredibly popular because she’s so pretty, right? She had an outgoing personality, was generous to her friends, and everyone loved her. Whenever there was a vote for class officers or student reps, she always got first place.” Riley and Brody, sitting on the other side, also chimed in: “Blair was everyone’s goddess.” Blair breathed a sigh of relief. However, she completely failed to realize that what I just said contradicted the “bullied victim” persona she had built up over the past few months. She had told too many lies; she couldn’t even remember what she had said before. Everyone talked and laughed, and time passed quickly. Around 10 PM, we headed back to the hotel to rest. Blair ran over and hooked her arm through mine, insisting on walking me back. With the cameras still rolling, she smiled sweetly, asking about my well-being like we were long-lost best friends. Once we reached the hotel entrance and the cameras retreated, she finally showed her true colors. “Quinn, I don’t know how the production team contacted you, and I don’t know why you agreed to come. But listen to me, watch what you say and do. If you accidentally say the wrong thing, get cyberbullied, face retaliation, and it ruins your normal life… don’t blame me for not warning you.” Her ability to flip her attitude faster than flipping a page in a book was truly comical. I couldn’t help but laugh. Mimicking her innocent persona in front of others, I said, “Thank you for the warning! You really treat me like a best friend, thinking of everything for me.” “Who is your best friend? Stop acting like a fake saint here, it’s disgusting!” She pushed me away in disgust and was about to curse more. Coincidentally, Mason came downstairs. A tall, muscular guy over six feet tall, walking toward her with cold eyes. “Little girl, what are you doing?” Blair backed up, swallowing the words she was about to say. She didn’t want to be at a disadvantage here. Pursing her lips, she whispered: “Quinn, that’s all I’m going to say. Keep yourself in line and don’t spout nonsense, for both our sakes.” After saying that, she glanced at Mason, quickly got into her luxury van, and left. 6 “Did she bully you?” “No.” “Let me tell you, if she ever dares to do anything to you…” “I’ll give her a left hook, then a right hook, and beat her until she doesn’t know what hit her!” “That’s my girl!” Mason proudly walked me back to my room, but there was an uninvited guest standing at the door. “Hi, Quinn.” Riley looked at me, looking like she had made a huge decision. I stopped and looked at her warily. She quickly explained: “I don’t mean anything bad. I just want to say two sentences and I’ll leave.” I remained silent. She bit her lip and said: “Quinn, I know you hate me. Back then… I did a lot of terrible things, and I hurt you deeply. Maybe, maybe you’ve already forgotten…” “No, I haven’t forgotten.” “Ah, right. How could you possibly forget.” She nervously gripped the hem of her shirt: “I haven’t forgotten either. Actually, all these years, I’ve felt terribly guilty. Every time I think of what I did in high school, I want to slap myself. Really, I’m so sorry…” I was a bit surprised. Was she repenting? I looked at her quietly. Riley pursed her lips, lowering her eyes guiltily. After a while, she looked up, her eyes suddenly becoming resolute: “Quinn, I know you won’t forgive me. But, I will make up for my mistakes. People who make mistakes must inevitably pay the price!” After saying that, she turned and ran away. I watched her back, unable to pinpoint my exact emotions. After a while, I turned to Mason: “She’s not going to jump into the ocean, is she?” Mason frowned: “Who cares about her? Don’t take it to heart. Get some rest.” “Okay.” I went inside, listened to my brother, and deadbolted the door. I leaned against the door, lost in thought. It was strange, wasn’t it? When she apologized to me, my heart was completely unruffled. It felt light, without a shred of relief. Probably because the apology came way too late, and I no longer needed it. My phone suddenly vibrated, startling me. It was actually Asher. “Did you get back safely?” he asked. This was our first time exchanging messages since we added each other on WhatsApp the day before yesterday. “Yes, I did.” I sent a little sun emoji. He replied with a little sun emoji too. So… cute. “Do you have time tomorrow morning? Let’s go for a walk together. The scenery here is beautiful.” Was he asking me out? The air suddenly grew thick. My heart was beating so fast it felt like it would fly out of my chest. He quickly sent another message: ” Filming was chaotic last night, I didn’t get to properly host you guys.” You guys? So, Brody and Riley were going too? What was I overthinking just now? I let out a soft breath and replied: “Sure.” “Great. See you tomorrow at 9 AM. Goodnight.” He sent a sticker of a sleeping moon, ending the conversation. My tense nerves relaxed, and only then did I realize my palms were drenched in sweat.

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