The night before my heart transplant, my husband, Noah, brought me a glass of milk at midnight. When I woke up the next day, I found that the heart meant for me had been stolen by my sister, Chloe. The next day, I broke down at the operating room door, demanding to know why. Noah sighed helplessly. “Chloe’s condition is worse. You still have three years to live. Just let her have this heart.” My mother frowned, saying I was being unreasonable. “Chloe has always compromised for you. As the older sister, you should give in this once.” Even my son wouldn’t speak up for me. “Chloe is afraid of pain, you’re not. The heart should go to Chloe.” Everyone stood against me. A sharp pain surged in my chest. I had a heart attack and died right there at the operating room door. When I opened my eyes again, I was back to the day before the heart transplant. “Your physical condition is fine. The donor heart has been confirmed, and the transplant can proceed tomorrow.” “Remember to fast and avoid liquids for 10 hours to ensure a smooth operation.” Familiar words echoed in my ears again. I opened my eyes, tears streaming down my face, soaking the pillow. My attending physician looked at me and smiled. “Evelyn, congratulations. The match rate for this transplant is very high. After the surgery, you’ll be healthy.” She thought I was crying tears of joy, but only I knew the truth. The agony and despair of finally grasping hope, only for it to be crushed by the very people who were supposed to be my family. The pain of the heart attack still lingered throughout my body, yet I forced a smile. “Thank you, Doctor.” “Could I ask you for a favor? Please don’t tell my family about tomorrow’s surgery yet. I’ll sign the consent form myself.” Heaven had given me another chance. This time, I would hold on tight and never let go. The doctor nodded understandingly, closed my medical file, and left the room. My roommate, who shared the room with me, looked at me with envy and struck up a conversation. “I’ve been waiting for a suitable donor for almost seven years. It’s so wonderful to see you get to live. Your family must be so happy.” I smiled but said nothing. They couldn’t possibly be happy, not when their beloved adopted daughter, Chloe, hadn’t found a donor yet. Even when I was hospitalized, no one was willing to visit or take care of me. Several times, the pain was so severe that doctors issued a critical condition notice, requiring my family to sign. With trembling hands, I immediately called Noah. But his first words were full of blame. “I told you not to call me in the middle of the night. Chloe is a light sleeper; it will wake her up.” I curled up on the hospital bed, cold sweat soaking my gown. My voice trembled as I spoke. “Noah, I’m in so much pain. The doctor said I might not make it. I want to see you, to see Ethan and Mom and Dad.” “Please, can you all come to the hospital and see me?” But I didn’t get his concern. Noah’s hushed voice was utterly cold. “Stop acting out, Evelyn. You just can’t stand us revolving around Chloe. You’re faking pain to trick us into visiting you.” “This is the fifth time. The doctors issued a critical condition notice, and we didn’t come to see you, yet you still survived.” I blinked, stunned, unable to believe the man I loved most would say such hurtful things. I instinctively began to explain. “I’m not lying, Noah…” Before I could finish, the phone was snatched away, and my mother, Eleanor’s, equally hushed voice came through. “Evelyn, I beg you, stop being so dramatic.” Her disappointment was so heavy that I could almost picture her tightly furrowed brow, even through the phone. “Chloe’s heart isn’t feeling well today. Do you need to have heart trouble too? Always copying Chloe—do you really think we can’t see through it?” Eleanor’s voice rose slightly, disturbing Chloe, who let out a mumbled groan. My father, Richard’s, muffled voice immediately interjected. “What’s there to say to Evelyn? Hang up quickly, don’t wake Chloe.” And just like that, the call was disconnected. I held my phone, feeling a wrenching pain in my heart. I couldn’t tell if it was from the words I’d just heard or something else. Just like now, knowing deep down they only cared if Chloe lived a healthy life, I still felt a stinging in my nose from their coldness at the operating room door in my previous life. “Your family seems to be here.” My roommate’s words brought my thoughts back. I turned to the door and saw Mom, Dad, and Noah pushing it open and walking in. Mom’s eyes reddened the moment she saw me. She choked up and came forward to hug me.

“Oh, Evelyn, this is wonderful! You finally got your heart transplant!” “I’m really so happy to see Evelyn healthy again.” Dad held a food container in his hand and smiled as he offered it. “Knowing you’re having surgery soon, your mother specifically went to the market to buy the freshest chicken and slow-cooked it all day into a rich broth.” “Eat it quickly to regain your strength. The surgery won’t be so hard then.” My body stiffened. For a moment, I didn’t know what expression to make. Since I was brought back to the George family, my parents had always been indifferent towards me. This was the first time Mom had personally made a meal just for me. I lowered my eyes, looking at the chicken broth, but didn’t reach for it. Dad didn’t seem to mind. He placed the soup on the cabinet and spoke gently. “Evelyn, I know you didn’t grow up with us and feel a bit distant, but for such a major surgery like a heart transplant, why did you ask the doctor to keep it from us?” I clenched my hands, knowing I hadn’t managed to hide it from them after all. Noah stepped forward, gently uncurled my hand, and rubbed it. “Why do you still like to dig your nails into your palm when you’re nervous? I’m your husband, of course, I have the duty to sign your surgical consent form. You don’t have to worry about troubling me.” Looking at their three equally gentle smiling faces, I found it hard to breathe. I couldn’t help but retort sarcastically. “You’re all busy looking after Chloe. This little thing doesn’t need to be brought to your attention.” Their smiles faltered slightly. Then, Noah sighed and gently ruffled my hair. “You’re still mad at us for not visiting you in the hospital because we were taking care of Chloe, aren’t you?” “It was our oversight. We were wrong. We’ll definitely change.” He picked up the bowl of soup, blew on it to cool it, and brought it to my lips. “This is my earnest effort. It won’t taste good if it gets cold. Let me feed you.” The surgery was still fifteen hours away. Even if I drank this bowl of soup now, it wouldn’t affect my transplant tomorrow. They must have known that. My heart fluttered slightly. I couldn’t help but wonder if my parents were truly seeing me again. I opened my mouth, then closed it, pushing the bowl away. “Mom, thank you for your kindness, but I don’t have an appetite right now. Just leave it here for a bit.” “Bang!” As soon as the words left my lips, a small figure kicked open the door. My son, Ethan, burst in like a little cannonball, crying as he spoke to my mother, Eleanor. “Grandma, what do we do? Mom won’t drink the soup, so Chloe can’t get the heart transplant!” “I don’t want Chloe to hurt! Make Mom give the heart to Chloe!” “What?” I stared in shock at the bowl of soup, then snatched the thermos from Dad’s hand, stirring frantically. A small blue capsule floated up. I recognized it. It was my long-term anticoagulant medication. But days ago, when the doctor informed me there was a high possibility of a donor heart, I had stopped taking it. All to seize every chance for a heart transplant. If I took this medication before surgery, I might not survive the operation due to a clotting disorder. And the doctors, after comprehensive consideration, would abandon my transplant.

Fear crawled all over my heart. I clutched my chest, the pain so intense that a layer of cold sweat seeped from my back. I couldn’t take it anymore. I smashed the food container in my hand and roared. “Are you trying to kill me?!” The pain of betrayal from two lifetimes combined, tears filled my eyes. I looked mournfully at the few people who were supposed to be the closest in the world to me, choking back sobs as I demanded an answer. “Dad, Mom, I’m your daughter, aren’t I? Why are you doing this to me?” My sudden outburst of smashing things startled Ethan. He flinched, then cried even louder. “Bad mom! You don’t hurt at all, why are you still trying to steal Chloe’s heart?” “I don’t want a selfish mom! I only want Chloe!” “Don’t hurt?” I mumbled, chewing on those words as if they were shards of glass I couldn’t swallow. Looking at this son I had nearly died giving birth to, all my affection for him dissipated like smoke. It was precisely because I was in so much pain during my episodes—my face pale, expression twisted, black hair matted with cold sweat clinging to my cheeks—that I looked so ugly and terrifying. I always worried about scaring my little one. So I never let him see me during an episode. Ethan would sometimes notice something was off. He’d cautiously ask me. “Mom, does your heart hurt?” I would force a smile and reassure him. “No, I don’t hurt, Ethan. Don’t worry, okay?” I told the lie so many times that Ethan actually believed it. And just because I lied about not hurting, he wanted me to give my heart to Chloe. It was utterly ridiculous. I hunched my back, trying to alleviate the pain, and couldn’t help but let out a short, self-deprecating laugh. “Ethan.” I stared straight at him, my voice raspy. “If I told you I hurt too, would you still want me to give my heart to Chloe?” My heart condition wasn’t always this severe. But while waiting for a donor, I unexpectedly found myself pregnant. It was already difficult for me to conceive. The doctor told me that if I aborted this child, I might never have another one. She pointed to the beating heart on the ultrasound for me to see. “He’s very healthy.” I looked at the screen, many thoughts flashing through my mind, yet feeling as if nothing had. But in the end, I touched that beating heart and decided to keep the child. My pregnancy was incredibly difficult. I couldn’t move much, and my morning sickness was severe. By the time I carried Ethan to term and gave birth, it had almost killed me. My attending physician immediately came to me, looking serious. “Evelyn, you’re insane! Because of this child, your heart’s lifespan has been shortened by almost three years!” But looking at the small, soft infant in my arms, I shook my head firmly. “Doctor, I don’t regret it.” At least, not before I died in my previous life. Ethan’s tears paused. He bit his lip. “Yes, I want Mom to give her heart to Chloe.” All my strength seemed to drain away in an instant. I almost lost my balance. I wiped the tears from my face and spoke coldly to the menacing group. “You want me to give up my donor heart? Impossible.” The atmosphere completely froze. Mom, Eleanor, her face grim, spoke with disappointment. “Evelyn, ever since you came back to the George family, Chloe has always yielded to you. Haven’t you bullied her enough these years?” “You won’t even give up a heart for Chloe. You’re truly a greedy person.” Noah chimed in. “You still have three years to live, but Chloe is in so much pain that she can’t sleep at night. She’s so frail a gust of wind could blow her away.” “How can your heart be so cruel, watching your sister suffer?” But because I gave birth to Ethan, those three years I had left were long gone. If I didn’t get a heart transplant now, I might die next month, or even tomorrow. My mouth was full of bitterness, but I had no strength left to explain any of this to them. I just closed my eyes and told them to leave. “Chloe doesn’t deserve to be my sister. If you think I’m heartless, then after the surgery, I can leave the George family and never bother you again.” Countless insults immediately erupted, but I didn’t take a single word to heart. I called security.

“Someone is causing a disturbance in the hospital, disrupting normal medical order.” Security guards came and escorted them out, and then my ears finally had peace. Exhaustion also washed over me. I closed my eyes and fell into a deep sleep. When I woke up again, a nurse informed me to prepare for surgery. I changed into a surgical gown and lay on the operating table. I was being wheeled to the operating room alone when someone blocked my way. Noah stood at the operating room door, his face grim. “Evelyn can’t have surgery. She drank milk last night and didn’t fast.” The head nurse’s face instantly changed. She asked me sternly, “Did you secretly eat something?” My face was pale. I shook my head, about to explain. Mom and Dad also stepped forward, bringing a frail-looking Chloe with them. “Doctor, we are her closest family. Of course, we want her to be healthy, but we can’t lie.” “Evelyn drank milk last night. We saw it with our own eyes.” They pushed Chloe forward. “But Chloe didn’t eat anything last night. She needs the same donor heart as Evelyn. For everyone’s sake, let Chloe have this transplant.” “We’ll make sure to keep Evelyn in line next time and not let her eat things she shouldn’t.” I instantly understood what they meant. There were no cameras in the room. Whether I had eaten or not depended entirely on their word. And once a donor heart is harvested, it’s only viable for three hours, including air transport time. If I wasted any more time trying to prove I hadn’t eaten, this heart would be useless. I gave them a cold glance, my entire heart completely chilled. The head nurse was already hesitating, but I lay calmly on the operating table, unmoving. The operating room door opened, and Dr. Diaz, my attending physician, beckoned to the head nurse. “Alright, wheel Evelyn in.” Noah’s face changed. He spoke urgently. “Doctor, she ate something last night, she can’t have the surgery!” Dr. Diaz looked at them coldly, then tossed something out. “Whether she ate or not, Evelyn already proved it to us. As for you, you’re implicated in attempted murder. Get ready to go to jail.” The operating room door closed. I saw Mom, Dad, and Noah’s faces instantly turn ashen.

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As the top deep-sea rescue diver in the country, I received an urgent call for help. The missing person was a ten-year-old, last seen in Gale Creek Bay. Ten years ago, my sister, Sophia, accidentally fell into the same waters. My then-girlfriend, Olivia, who was the diving team captain, promised me herself, “With me there, I’ll definitely bring Sophia back safely.” But what she brought back was only Sophia’s bloated body. Later, I learned that during the dive, she had actually caught Sophia’s hand but, wanting to give the credit to her partner, Marcus, she deliberately unclipped the safety line attached to Sophia. After surfacing, Olivia cried, claiming she had done her best. Marcus, too, became a “rescue hero” through fabricated stories. From that day on, I dropped out of college and trained to get my rescue diver license. Over ten years, I’d done more than two hundred underwater rescues. One hundred ninety-three lives made it back to shore, alive, because of me. I’d simulated the underwater conditions thousands of times, hoping that one day, no one else would suffer Sophia’s fate. But today, the command center sent a photo of the missing child to my phone. I stared at the screen for a long time. The child’s mother stood on the shore, her face contorted in tears as she cried into the camera. I recognized her. I flipped my phone face down on the table. “I can’t do this rescue. I’m not going down.”

“Ethan, are you kidding me?” David, the dispatcher at the command center, chuckled, as if he genuinely didn’t understand what I was saying. “Last year, during the floods, you dove alone into forty meters of murky water and pulled that kid out of the shipwreck, didn’t you?” “You’re the record holder for live underwater rescues. No offense, but if you say you can’t go down, then no one in this country can!” He paused, a hint of playfulness still in his voice. “You’re telling me you can’t handle this level of a rescue?” “I’m not kidding.” “Ethan…” “I’m serious. I can’t take this mission. Find someone else, don’t waste time with me.” After that, I hung up. But before I could even zip up my gear bag, the door burst open. Hayes practically stumbled in, his forehead slick with sweat. “Ethan,” he braced himself against the doorframe, his chest heaving, “You… you can’t leave yet.” “Hayes, there’s nothing to discuss.” “Just hear me out first.” He closed the door, leaning his back against it as if afraid I’d walk right out. “You know Gale Creek Bay’s conditions. Our regular teams have been searching for two hours. Three teams have rotated through, and they haven’t found a trace.” He paused, lowering his voice. “The boy who’s missing, his dad is Marcus, the owner of the biggest commercial diving equipment company in the country. His mom, Olivia, she used to be a diving team captain, too.” “Without their funding for the rescue team all these years, where would we get all this top-notch equipment…” “Then use the equipment to search.” I cut him off. “Since the underwater search equipment is so advanced, it’s not like I absolutely have to go down.” I picked up my bag, ready to leave, but Hayes rushed forward and grabbed my arm, holding it tight. “All the equipment has been used! Sonar can’t reach all the blind spots, we still need divers to search by hand!” “Ethan, if we weren’t utterly desperate, I wouldn’t be begging you.” I didn’t respond. Hayes paced frantically, stomping his foot. “Ethan, are you worried about safety?” “Gale Creek Bay is dangerous, I admit, but I guarantee you, the shore support is top-tier.” “Dry suits, spare oxygen tanks, underwater comms – whatever you need, I’ll get you. I’ll stake my life on your safety!” “Hayes, it’s not a safety issue.” “Then what is it?” “Personal reasons.” “Personal…” His voice rose a notch. “Ethan, there’s a ten-year-old kid down there, and you’re telling me ‘personal reasons’?” By then, the news of my refusal to dive had spread. Rescue team members gathered in small groups around the doorway. “Ethan, you’re the benchmark for our rescue team! If you don’t take it, who else would dare?” “What kind of legend? Stop praising him. I think he’s just a coward, scared to die.” Curses erupted, one after another. I showed no expression, glancing down at my watch. “Hayes, you’ve wasted another five minutes.” “I don’t want this mission. You can find someone else. Time is running out. I suggest you start the rescue immediately.” Ignoring their attempts to stop me, I turned to leave without a word. A voice from the back of the crowd rang out. “Ethan, your sister… she died in Gale Creek Bay, didn’t she? How can you be so heartless, just leaving someone to die?!”

I froze, my heart clutched by an invisible hand. The phone screen was still lit, showing the ten-year-old boy smiling, his front teeth visible. The exact same age as Sophia had been… I closed my eyes. If Olivia hadn’t unclipped her safety line back then, would everything have been different? Suddenly, the commotion in the crowd pulled me back to reality. A man in an expensive designer suit strode forward. He didn’t even look at me. He just opened his wallet and started throwing stacks of cash at me. “What’s the problem with going down?” “You just want money, right? Come on! Name your price!” “Is this the guy you found for me?” Marcus turned his head, glancing at Hayes, his voice full of disdain. He then looked me up and down, a mocking sneer on his face. “So you’re the top underwater rescue diver now?” “Well, I’ll be damned. This is quite a sight.” “So-called rescue heroes, just holding another family’s child’s life hostage for a payout.” He moved closer, pulling out his phone again. “Still not enough? Name a number! I can transfer it right away. A hundred thousand? Half a million? Whatever it takes to save my son, any amount is fine.” Everyone in the hallway gasped, marveling at his generosity. I didn’t move. I just stared, lost in thought, at the medal pinned to his chest. Ten years. The honor gained from my sister’s death, still displayed on him. Following my gaze, he glanced at the design—two hands cradling a life—and chuckled contemptuously. “What? Envious?” “I’m not like a diver of your caliber. This medal, I earned it with my life.” “Ten years ago, right here in Gale Creek Bay! Visibility underwater was almost zero, and my wife and I dove in without a second thought to start the rescue.” He placed himself on a moral high ground. “Unlike some people, who, just because they have some skill, exploit people’s desperation.” I glared at him, only a few words escaping my throat. “Did you save her?” Marcus’s expression stiffened for a second, but he quickly assumed a defensive posture. “In those conditions, no one could guarantee a hundred percent success…” I let out a soft, bitter laugh. “So, you didn’t save her, did you?” “I am indeed different from you. Without absolute certainty, I won’t just dive in. And I certainly won’t easily drag crying family members on shore from hope to despair!” I forced him to meet my gaze, but it was clear he’d long forgotten that I was the man standing on that shore, waiting for Sophia to be brought up that day. He grew enraged, grabbing my collar. “Don’t care if I saved her or not, at least I wasn’t a coward! You don’t even dare to go in the water, what right do you have to judge me here?” The murmuring around us grew louder. “Mr. Marcus is right. At least he put his life on the line ten years ago. Ethan talks a big game, but when it matters, he’s just a greedy coward.” Accusatory stares felt like needles piercing my back. Everyone thought I was avaricious, selfish, and cold-blooded. I ignored them, until a woman stumbled in. Her hair was disheveled, her makeup streaked by tears. Ten years had passed, and even now, in her disarray, time hadn’t left many marks on her face. The woman who had vehemently promised to bring Sophia back safely, yet personally pushed her into the abyss, stood before me.

I unconsciously clenched my fists. She didn’t even truly look at me, instead grabbing Marcus’s arm, signaling him to step back, then turned to face me. “Please.” “Hayes said you’re the rescue team’s last hope. I don’t know you, but I choose to trust you!” “My child is still underwater. He’s only ten. He’s terrified of the dark, and he needs to hear my voice every night to fall asleep.” Tears dripped from her chin. “If you just go down, I’ll do whatever you ask. Anything, any price.” I took a deep breath, the emotions suppressed for ten years churning in my chest. Perhaps this price was greater than they could imagine. Would they still insist then? Finally, I spoke, my voice low. “I can agree to come to the site with you.” Olivia was overjoyed, grabbing my hand and exclaiming. “Oh, thank God, that’s wonderful! Your name is Ethan, right?” She paused, a little hesitant. “No matter what your name is, my husband and I will be so grateful.” I cut her off. “Don’t misunderstand. I agreed to go to the site, not to go in the water.” Ten years. I stood on the riverbank of Gale Creek Bay once more. The ground was covered with equipment: multi-dimensional sonar, high-power underwater lights, three top-of-the-line rescue boats on standby. A dozen experts huddled around a folding table, pointing at hydrographic charts. “This is Mr. Marcus’s child! We have to save him, no matter the cost!” I stood outside the crowd, looking at the scene, and suddenly felt a lump in my throat. Ten years ago, Sophia fell into the same waters. But on the shore, there was only one inflatable boat, a few ordinary safety ropes, and Olivia’s empty promise. Today, because it was Marcus’s son lying at the bottom, the entire command center could mobilize so much equipment within two hours. What about Sophia’s life then? What was it worth? At most, it was just a stepping stone for them to gain fame and fortune. Even if they only retrieved a bloated body, they could still wear the halo of “rescue heroes,” attract investors, start businesses, and rake in cash in the business world. At that moment, the rescue personnel on site gathered around, their faces grim. “Based on underwater air pressure and the child’s equipment capacity, the rescue window is only twenty minutes. The child is running low on oxygen. If we don’t go down now, he’ll be gone for good!” “Ethan, since you’re already here, why don’t you go down now?” Countless mouths opened and closed before me, but I shook my head. “You have the most advanced sonar in the country here, a top-tier medical team, and all these experts.” “Besides, didn’t the child’s parents also participate in the Gale Creek Bay rescue ten years ago? If anyone should go down, it certainly isn’t me.” Olivia seemed to not have expected me to suddenly bring up the past. She looked up at me, tears streaming down her face, her lips trembling. “Yes, we went down back then, but we were injured after that rescue and moved behind the scenes. Technically, we can’t even enter the core area now!” Perhaps with a guilty conscience, she suddenly collapsed to her knees. Her knees hit the ground with a dull thud. “Mr. Ethan, please, I beg you. I admit we weren’t skilled enough. We don’t deserve the title of rescue heroes, but our child is innocent!” “I’m begging you, if you’ll just go down, I’ll do anything!” She frantically banged her head against the ground, her forehead instantly red and swollen. “Please go down! Save my son!” Her gut-wrenching cries instantly ignited the anger of the surrounding crowd. “Ethan! Are you even human?! How can you treat a grieving mother like this?” “Ethan, you’re too selfish!” “She’s kneeling to you, and you’re still playing hard to get!” Several emotional team members rushed forward, grabbing my arms, desperately trying to push me into the water. “You’re going down today!” Malice washed over me from all sides, like a crushing tide. I spoke, my voice hoarse. “You all want me to go down so badly?” “But even if I do go down, even if I reach your child…” “How do you know I won’t also let go?”

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After signing the multi-billion dollar contract with Robertson Corp., our company held a celebration dinner. When a roast chicken was served, Chloe Belle’s assistant, Ethan Calderon, deliberately cut out the fatty, greasy piece of the roast chicken and put it on my plate: “You’re just a lazy, good-for-nothing freeloader.” “All you do is hide in your office, enjoying the AC and sipping coffee, while we do all the hard work and accomplishments.” “This chicken tail is perfect for you, isn’t it?” “After you’re done, go clean out your office. Miss Belle says she needs that spot for someone more capable.” I turned to Chloe Belle, her eyes offered only silent confirmation. I chuckled, then casually picked up the chicken tail and stuffed it into Ethan Calderon’s mouth. Immediately, I pulled out my phone and made a call: “Get the contract back. I’m canceling our partnership with Belle Corp.” I helped Chloe Belle grow her small company into the large corporation it is today. I worried she might get bullied by competitors when I wasn’t always by her side, so even though Belle Corp. wasn’t quite qualified to partner with Robertson Corp., I agreed to it for her protection. But she didn’t know I was the actual head of Robertson Corp. I planned to tell her on her birthday. Who would have thought that after the contract was signed, every time I tried to order a dish, her assistant, Ethan Calderon, would say it was too expensive. The third time, I looked up at him, annoyed: “Ethan Calderon, what exactly do you mean by that?” The air crackled with unspoken tension. “Are you out of your mind? Can’t you see?” He shook his head and chuckled, meeting my gaze. “Certain people deserve certain things. And the dishes you ordered? You don’t deserve them.” Just then, a waiter brought a roast chicken to the table and said to Ethan Calderon: “Sir, all your dishes have been served.” He picked up a fork and reached for the roast chicken, cut off the chicken tail, and placed it on my plate. “James, you’re just a lazy, good-for-nothing freeloader.” “All you do is hide in your office, enjoying the AC and sipping coffee, while we do all the hard work and accomplishments.” “You think a good-for-nothing like you deserves to eat well?” “Here. Eat up! The chicken tail is plenty greasy; it’s perfect for you.” “Oh, and by the way.” “After you’re done, remember to hurry back and clean out your office. Miss Belle said she needs that spot for someone more capable.” I looked at the chicken tail on my plate, but I didn’t get angry. Everyone watched, tense and fearful, as if a battle was about to erupt between us. I turned to Chloe Belle. She was wearing a tight professional dress today, accentuating her devilish figure. But she was sitting so close to Ethan Calderon, they looked like a couple no matter how you sliced it. Everyone exchanged glances, not daring to breathe. Everyone knew Chloe and I were married, but her excessive intimacy with Ethan Calderon truly humiliated me in public. “Chloe…” “It’s Miss Belle!” “At this company, no one is allowed to pull strings or try to cozy up to me, and that includes you. You must call me Miss Belle.” Her voice was loud, every word reaching everyone’s ears. “Miss Belle!” My voice turned several degrees colder. “Is what Ethan Calderon said true?” She didn’t answer me directly; her gaze was dismissive. Her silent confirmation only fueled Ethan Calderon’s arrogance. He slammed the table and stood up: “Since you know Miss Belle’s stance, why aren’t you hurrying back to clean out your office…” “You’re really annoying!” I picked up the chicken tail with my hand and shoved it directly into his mouth.

I ignored the gasps from the entire room, even Chloe Belle’s cold stare. I picked up a napkin from in front of me, wiped my hand, and smirked. “Is the chicken tail tasty?” I tossed the napkin onto the floor, my anger flaring. “James, you’ve gone too far.” “How dare you publicly force such a dirty thing into Ethan Calderon’s mouth?” “Ugh!” Ethan Calderon bent over, gagging and then ran towards the restroom. But before he ran off, he shot me a fierce glare, as if to say he’d settle the score later. I sat back down, shedding my usual approachable demeanor. My cold gaze stunned Chloe Belle for a few seconds. “How have I gone too far?” “Isn’t this chicken tail the exquisite delicacy Ethan Calderon had delivered? If I eat it, it’s normal, but if Ethan Calderon eats it, it’s a crime? Chloe, you really have double standards!” Ethan Calderon’s retching could still be heard from the restroom, and Chloe Belle was again left speechless by my retort. “James, I’ll deal with you later.” She rushed into the restroom, in a posture of a wife most concerned for her husband, to wipe Ethan Calderon’s mouth, wash his face, and straighten his tie. They were so close, their noses almost touching. Ethan Calderon deliberately stumbled, falling right on top of Chloe Belle. “Miss Belle, are you alright?” “I’m fine, you caught my waist, didn’t you?” “My waist? Oh! I forgot, you were so wild on top of me last night…” He said it loudly, making sure I could hear every word. He didn’t finish the rest of his sentence, letting clever people guess what he meant. My hand clenched into a fist, but I released it two seconds later. I pulled out my phone and made a call: “Get the contract back. I’m canceling our partnership with Belle Corp.” I had done so much for her, yet she repaid me with infidelity and by trying to force me out. If I let that good-for-nothing Ethan Calderon walk all over me, I wouldn’t be James. Chloe Belle and Ethan Calderon walked out, clinging to each other, just as they heard me speak. Ethan Calderon scoffed at me on the spot, his face full of disdain. “James, you think you’re the boss of Robertson Corp.?” “What makes you think you can cancel the partnership with Belle Corp.?” Everyone else also gave me doubtful glances; they wouldn’t believe me. I leaned back in my chair, watching Ethan Calderon with the most languid posture. He wasn’t to be outdone, looking down at me condescendingly. “Because I am the head of Robertson Corp.!” The private room went silent for a few seconds, then erupted in laughter. “You say you’re the head of Robertson Corp.?” “Ha! Since when?” “If you’re so awesome, why are you working at Belle Corp.?” “Are you out of your mind, or do you just think we’re playing us for fools?” One sentence ignited the anger of all the senior executives. They hadn’t spoken earlier because they respected my marital relationship with Chloe. Now, seeing that Chloe was clearly siding with Ethan Calderon, they knew currying favor with him would be beneficial. “I didn’t treat anyone like a fool!” “Those were your words.” “Wait ten more minutes; you’ll know when the Robertson Corp. representatives return.” “Enough, stop spouting nonsense here.” “There’s no place for you at this meal. Stand up and go back to clean out your things immediately so Ethan Calderon can sit there.” “After all, he brought us closer to the Robertson Corp. partnership, so he absolutely deserves the Vice President position.” Ethan Calderon helped Belle Corp. partner with Robertson Corp.? I turned my head and looked coldly at Ethan Calderon. He looked back at me with immense pride. “Who else if not me?” “I know you’re probably unhappy about giving up your position.” “How about this, we’ll decide by vote.”

Chloe Belle looked at Ethan Calderon with an admiring gaze. “James, did you see that? That’s what a truly intelligent person says!” “Unlike you, all talk and no action, just making a fool of yourself.” I didn’t speak, waiting to see how Belle Corp.’s people would react. Chloe Belle shifted her gaze to everyone else, her voice carrying an undeniable authority. “You all heard what was said, didn’t you?” “So I’ll get straight to the point.” “Do you support Ethan Calderon as Vice President? Or James as Vice President? Let’s decide by a show of hands.” “Now, those who support Ethan Calderon as Vice President, please raise your hands!” Everyone saw that Chloe Belle highly valued her assistant; who would dare to defy her and not raise their hand? Everyone in the room, except me, raised their hands in approval. Ethan Calderon smirked, very pleased with the scene before him. Chloe Belle curled her lips into a smile, nodding with equal satisfaction. I instantly understood; she was humiliating me in public. “Those who support James remaining as Vice President, please raise your hands!” Everyone exchanged glances; no one raised a hand. Ethan Calderon scoffed and raised his hand, and even Chloe Belle looked a bit bewildered. Only I knew why he raised his hand. “Oh, my! How can you treat our current Vice President this way?” “At least one person could raise their hand so James wouldn’t lose face completely, right?” My confusion vanished, and his mockery grew stronger. “I’m such a considerate person; seeing James so pathetic, I just had to raise my hand.” “Oh, James! Don’t be sad, I’ll hold onto that position for you really well.” He looked at me with a fake smile. I didn’t get angry; I just lightly tapped the table. “Chloe, it’s not that I underestimate your abilities.” “Belle Corp. is a legitimate company, after all. You’re dismissing a Vice President by letting a bunch of nobodies make the decision? Without the shareholders’ input?” I was going to leave, but not by being casually dismissed by this bunch of worthless people. Honestly, without me, Belle Corp. would probably be close to bankruptcy. “James, are you looking down on us?” Someone slammed the table and stood up, starting to openly oppose me, seeing I was at a disadvantage. “Exactly! We are senior executives of Belle Corp. Don’t we have the right to vote?” I pulled out my phone, sent a message, and then stood up. “Yes!” “Simply put, to fire me, you need the support of the board of directors.” Seeing me about to leave, Ethan Calderon called out, smiling. “Wait!” “Didn’t you say Robertson Corp. representatives would bring a contract to cancel the deal?” “What, can’t keep up the act anymore?” “See! That’s the kind of competence our Vice President uses to help Belle Corp. thrive.” “Laugh all you want!” “Anyway, everyone gets arrogant when they’re in power.” “The partnership between Robertson Corp. and Belle Corp. depends on tomorrow’s board meeting.” If they want to dig their own grave, I won’t stop them. After my figure disappeared through the door, everyone stopped laughing. My departure didn’t cause a ripple; instead, they continued ordering food and occasionally mocked me for entertainment. Back home, I washed away the day’s fatigue. Holding a bottle of red wine in one hand and a glass in the other, I lay on the single sofa on the balcony, poured myself a glass, and slowly savored it. Just then, my phone vibrated.

I glanced at the caller ID, and knowing it was Ethan Calderon, I didn’t answer. He seemed to enjoy it endlessly, calling again and again. I’m not one to lose my temper easily, so I let him call as much as he wanted. Until, getting bored, he sent me a video and a voice message. It showed him in Chloe Belle’s bed, hugging and kissing her wildly, engaging in intimate acts. He thought provoking me would make me furious. Instead, I immediately downloaded their video and sent it to everyone in the company. I thought my heart would feel a little sad, but surprisingly, it didn’t. The next day, when I returned to the company, everyone gave me strange looks. “Did you all get it last night?” “Mr. James actually sent me an intimate video of Miss Belle and Assistant Ethan Calderon in bed!” “You got it too? Holy hell, I got it too!” “Me too…” “How did everyone get it? What’s Mr. James playing at?” “His fiancée getting intimate with another man, and he’s not angry? He even has the energy to send that kind of video to all the employees.” “Quiet down, Miss Belle is coming.” As soon as the words fell, Chloe Belle, clicking in high heels, strode towards me. When she got close, she raised her hand, ready to slap me. I caught her hand: “Still so angry first thing in the morning?” “Are you not man enough for Chloe? Is that why you couldn’t satisfy her?” Ethan Calderon’s face instantly flushed red; it seemed my counterattack had made him furious. “James, you’re disgusting.” “Why would you send my intimate photos to every employee in the company?” I smiled, shook off her hand, then straightened my collar. “Guess why I have a video of you two in bed together?” The hall instantly fell silent; everyone was curious. “Well, it’s all thanks to Assistant Ethan Calderon.” “He sent me your intimate video, but he didn’t tell me the details. I thought, such good benefits, I shouldn’t hog them all, right?” “So, I made sure every employee in the company got a copy.” Chloe Belle looked at Ethan Calderon in disbelief, but he denied it with a distraught face. Just then, the shareholders in the conference room sent word. They had been waiting for a long time; if we didn’t go in soon, they’d leave. Ethan Calderon certainly wouldn’t let them go, as he hadn’t formally taken my position yet. As soon as I walked into the conference room, I became the center of attention. Chloe Belle, with Ethan Calderon beside her, walked arrogantly to her seat. She pointed at the seat that belonged to me. “Ethan Calderon, this position is yours from now on. Go sit.” “Alrighty!” Ethan Calderon beamed and quickly walked over, sitting down without hesitation. “Indeed, the Vice President’s chair is so comfortable.” The chairs were all identical, yet everyone present understood the deeper meaning behind his words. Someone couldn’t help but stand up and ask: “Miss Belle, you’re letting an assistant sit in the Vice President’s position? Where will Mr. James sit?” Chloe Belle smiled: “That’s why! That’s why I called all of you here.” Ethan Calderon immediately straightened his clothes, and Chloe Belle instantly announced to all the shareholders. “Ladies and gentlemen, I have an announcement today.” “I am dismissing James and formally appointing Ethan Calderon to the position of Vice President.” Except for Arthur Franklin, the old shareholder who spoke, no one seemed surprised. It seemed that last night, besides their intimate activities, they had also been busy winning over supporters. Arthur Franklin was dissatisfied with the outcome and confronted Chloe Belle. Ethan Calderon picked up a teacup and smashed it on his head: “Old fool, if you can’t bear to part with James, then get lost with him!” “Sell your shares! Belle Corp. might be better off without a stubborn old man like you!” I walked in and helped Arthur Franklin up. I, who was usually calm and composed, finally erupted in anger. “Do you all support Miss Belle dismissing me?” “Yes!” The reply was uniform and forceful, as if they feared I wouldn’t hear them. “Alright, then I’ll give you a gift too.” I raised my hand and clapped: “Everyone, come in!” The door opened, and several stern men in sharp suits walked in. They held a contract in their hands—the partnership agreement between Belle Corp. and Robertson Corp. “Chloe, I can raise you up, and I can cast you down to hell!” “I announce that Robertson Corp. will never partner with Belle Corp. again.”

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My daughter, Ashley, came home for her first Christmas after graduating from a prestigious university, driving a luxury car and making a grand return. She handed out gifts to everyone in the family. “Grandma Susan, Grandpa George, this is an ornate gold-plated good luck charm. May it bless you with health and a long life.” “Dad, here’s that Rolex Submariner you always talked about. Now you’ll make a statement when you go out!” “Brittany, you always take such good care of yourself. This limited-edition skincare set will be perfect for you.” Watching everyone cheer with excitement, I nervously rubbed my grease-stained hands, my heart full of hope. After all, I’d given up my executive position to focus on her education, and for over ten years, I hadn’t even bought myself a new outfit. Finally, Ashley smiled and walked over to me, handing me a black plastic bag: “Mom, this gift is special, I picked it just for you. It’s perfect, you’ll definitely love it.” I opened the bag excitedly, but my smile instantly froze when I saw what was inside.

A toilet brush, toilet cleaner, steel wool, rubber gloves… All cleaning supplies. “Mom, I carefully picked out these brands. Their stain removal power is super strong.” “They’ll last you for years, and it’ll make cleaning the house so much easier.” “Mom, why aren’t you saying anything? This is imported toilet cleaner, one bottle is like three ordinary ones.” Ashley, seeing me frozen in place, let her smile fade a little, a hint of impatience in her voice. “I even made a special trip to Sam’s Club for these. Didn’t you always complain about your back hurting when you scrubbed the toilet? With this, you just soak it, and it’s clean. It saves time and effort. I’m doing my duty as a good daughter.” I clutched the bottle of blue liquid, my gaze sweeping across the living room. George and Susan held their heavy gold-plated charms, grinning from ear to ear. My husband, David, wore that emerald-green Rolex, excitedly adjusting it under the light. Brittany was dabbing thousands of dollars worth of premium skincare onto her face. The room was filled with laughter, But not for me. Only I, the “housemaid” who had quit her job to support her daughter for over ten years and served the entire family, received a pile of cleaning tools. “Ashley,” my voice was dry, “Is this… your Christmas gift for Mom?” Ashley pouted, popped a cherry into her mouth, and said nonchalantly: “Yeah. Mom, don’t be ungrateful. These things might look cheap, but they add up to a few hundred dollars.” “Besides, Grandma and Grandpa are old and need to take care of their health, Dad needs to save face, and Brittany needs her beauty routine. What about you?” “You just spend all day in the kitchen and bathroom, so anything else would be wasted on you.” Wasted on me? So, in my daughter’s eyes, I was only fit to deal with toilets and grease. “Exactly, Kate,” Brittany interjected snidely, looking into a mirror. “Ashley is just being practical. If she gave you a skincare set, you don’t exactly primp yourself, so it’d just be a waste. A fancy watch? Would you wear that to haggle at the farmer’s market? How tacky!” David frowned and chimed in, “Yeah, it’s the holidays, and the kid made a heartfelt gesture. You should be praising her, not pulling a long face and being dramatic.” “It’s not easy for Ashley, fresh out of college and already thinking of buying things for the family. Instead of praising her, you’re making a scene.” Susan carefully tucked her gold-plated charm into her pocket, squinting at me. “Who tends to this entire family’s every need? Every single thing? Ashley feels bad you work so hard, so she bought you useful tools. How can you be so narrow-minded, Kate?” I stood there, my ears ringing. I looked at these people, whom I had poured my heart and soul into serving for half my life. I woke up at five every morning to cook nutritious meals for the whole family, and at eleven at night, I was still hand-washing their silk clothes. The year Ashley was a senior in high school, I broke my leg in the snow while delivering hot soup to her. Even with a cast on, I still washed her school uniform. When David’s startup failed, I sold my pre-marital condo to bail him out. For three years, when George was bedridden after his stroke, I was the one who fed him, changed him, bathed him, and turned him, never getting a good night’s sleep. Now, they sat here, looking glamorous, enjoying my daughter’s “thoughtful gesture,” and then collectively trampling on my dignity. “Mom, hurry up and put them away,” Ashley urged impatiently. “We still need to make Christmas dinner later. You can try that powerful degreaser, I hear it works wonders. It’ll save you from reeking of cooking oil and grossing everyone out.” “Hahahahahaha…” Brittany burst into laughter, and George and Susan joined in. Reeking of cooking oil… grossing everyone out. I looked down at my hands, rough and cracked from years of constant labor. I took a deep breath and nodded. “Okay.” “Since Ashley specially picked them, and they’re so strong, I definitely should try them out.”

I picked up the black plastic bag and strode towards the dining table. On the table was the Slow-roasted Prime Rib I had been preparing since yesterday, slow-roasted for a full twenty hours. “Hey, Kate, what are you doing? Dinner hasn’t started yet, why are you putting trash on the table?” Brittany shrieked. I ignored her, deftly unscrewing the cap of the imported toilet cleaner. With a flick of my wrist. “Splash!” The entire bottle of toilet cleaner poured out. The blue liquid instantly mixed into the rich brown gravy, bubbling eerily and emitting a nauseating smell. The room fell into a dead silence. Ashley’s eyes widened. “Mom! What are you doing? Are you crazy!” I didn’t stop. I grabbed the powerful degreaser and aimed the spray nozzle at the beautifully plated Atlantic lobster. “Hiss—hiss—” White foam covered the lobster shell. “Ah! My lobster! Three hundred dollars!” Ashley shrieked, shoving me away. “Mom! Are you sick?! I paid for all this! Do you know how expensive it is? Can you afford to pay me back?!” I stumbled back, my waist hitting the corner of the table with a searing pain. But I laughed out loud. Then I grabbed the brand-new toilet brush and plunged it into the Slow-roasted Prime Rib, now mixed with toilet cleaner, stirring vigorously. Gravy splashed. The liquid splattered onto Ashley’s new designer wool sweater. “Ah—! That’s disgusting! My clothes! Mom! You did that on purpose!” Ashley jumped back, dodging me. I held up the dripping toilet brush, pointing at the ruined Christmas dinner. My voice was calm. “Ashley was right, this cleaning power is truly strong.” “Don’t you all think I’m dirty? That I reek of cooking oil? That I’m only fit to scrub toilets?” “Then you all can taste what a toilet brush tastes like.” “This is your wonderful daughter, your wonderful granddaughter’s thoughtful gesture, specially chosen, worth hundreds of dollars!” “Eat it!” “Anyone who doesn’t eat it is disrespecting Ashley and throwing away her heartfelt gift!” David finally reacted, his face flushed purple with rage. He lunged at me, raising his hand. “Katherine!” “You’ve gone too far!” The slap didn’t land. Because I was still holding the bottle of powerful degreaser, aimed right at his eyes. David froze, his hand stopping mid-air. “You wouldn’t dare spray me, would you?” “Katherine, I think you’ve had enough of the good life! What’s wrong with you, going crazy on Christmas? Do you know how much this table of food cost? You couldn’t pay it back even if I sold you!” I sneered, “How much?” “Is it worth my ten years of youth? Is it worth my ten years of being a slave? Is it worth all the housekeeper fees and caregiver fees I saved the Johnson family?” Susan slapped her thigh, wailing, “You were just doing your duty!” “What wife doesn’t do housework? Are you so special? Ashley buys you a gift and you’re still picky, you ruin everything, you destroy the whole family’s Christmas dinner! You’re a total spendthrift! Such a curse! How did our Johnson family ever marry a jinx like you?!” Ashley stood by, her eyes red with anger, tears streaming down her face. She turned and threw herself into David’s arms, crying heartbreakingly: “Dad… I really just wanted to make Mom’s life easier… I don’t know why Mom hates me so much… Did I do something wrong… Dad… I’m so sad…” Look. This is the daughter I raised. She was the one who humiliated me with a pile of cleaning tools, but now she looks like she’s suffered the greatest injustice.

David tenderly patted his daughter’s back, pointing a finger at my nose. “Look what you’ve done to her! Ashley has never cried like this in her life! Katherine, you have to apologize to Ashley today!” Brittany chimed in, making a snide comment: “David, I think Kate’s just going through menopause, she’s completely unhinged, she can’t stand to see us happy, can’t stand to see Ashley succeed.” “Ashley is so accomplished, and she even bought her a gift, but instead, she goes and ruins the whole family’s Christmas dinner. This is only tolerated in our home, any other family would have thrown her out.” “Get out!!!” I suddenly smashed the toilet brush to the ground and ripped off the greasy apron I’d worn for ten years. “Since I’m a curse, since I’m unreasonable, since I’m only fit to scrub toilets.” “Then I’m not serving this family anymore.” “Aren’t you all rich? Don’t you have gold-plated charms, Rolexes, and premium skincare?” “Then you all can manage it yourselves!” With that, I turned and walked towards the bedroom. Behind me, Ashley’s tearful voice cried out, “Mom! You’re such a disappointment!” “You ruined my thoughtful gesture, and you ruined this family! You’re simply… simply not a good mother!” My steps faltered, and a sharp pain twisted in my chest. But I didn’t look back. I walked into the bedroom and pulled open the closet. It was full of David’s designer suits and shirts. My clothes? Oh, I forgot. My worn-out clothes were stuffed into a woven bag in the corner, not even deemed worthy of the closet. I turned to look at those shabby clothes, suddenly feeling a wave of nausea. I don’t want them. I only took my ID, bank cards, and the senior accountant certificate locked in a drawer. Looking at that certificate, my eyes welled up with tears. Once upon a time, I was the CFO of a well-known multinational company, with a brilliant future ahead of me. For this family, for Ashley to study in peace, I locked it away in the dark, for ten years. I never imagined that ten years of sacrifice would lead to this end. I composed myself. When I walked out of the bedroom, the living room was still a mess. Ashley was holding her phone, taking pictures of the chaos. Seeing me, she immediately put away her phone and put on a heartbroken expression. “Mom, are you really leaving? It’s Christmas, where are you going? Just apologize to me and Dad and the others, and clean up this mess, and we won’t blame you.” “Don’t make a scene, you have nothing without this family. You’re so old, and you don’t have a job, where can you go?” I looked coldly at the daughter I once considered my life. “Ashley, since you bought so many cleaning tools, use them well.” “The grease on the floor, the leftover food on the table, and this entire Johnson family’s rotten hearts.” “You can slowly clean it yourselves.” With that, I pulled open the front door. A cold wind, carrying snowflakes, blew into my face, Completely shutting the suffocating “home” behind me. Christmas Eve streets were empty. I pulled my five-year-old worn-out winter coat tighter and found a hotel. Once in the room, I collapsed onto the bed, and my phone suddenly began vibrating frantically. I checked it, and my blood pressure instantly spiked. Ashley had posted on Ins, and it had quickly become a local trending topic. The photo showed the ruined Christmas dinner. The caption: “Came home for Christmas intending to surprise my mom, but she hated the gifts, flipped the table, and ran away. My heart is so tired, why does my love only bring such pain?” Below it was a string of likes and comments from netizens. “Hugs to the OP! How could a mother be like this! So ungrateful!” “My jaw dropped after seeing the screenshots! This table of food looks so expensive, and she just flipped it? She must have psychological issues!” “My heart goes out to the OP, dealing with this on Christmas. It’s better to leave, this kind of toxic family isn’t worth staying in.” “Is the OP’s mom going through menopause? I suggest she sees a therapist.” Looking at these blatant lies, my hands were trembling with anger. They not only humiliated me at home, but they wanted to ruin my reputation online too. I took a deep breath. Luckily…

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I helped Ethan Cole build his empire from the ground up, but right before our wedding, he confessed he was in love with my half-sister, Chloe. I agreed to break up, but on one condition: he had to help me win over his business rival, Dominic Vance. “Are you insane? You’ve been chasing me for ten years and never got me. Is this your way of getting back at me?” Ethan’s handsome face was etched with disbelief. I retorted defiantly, “Dominic is taller and hotter than you. I stopped loving you ages ago; now I’m crazy about him!” Ethan laughed, calling me delusional. “Everyone knows Dominic Vance is completely out of everyone’s league. No woman has ever managed to get close to him.” “So you have to figure it out! If you help me win him over, I’ll sign away my inheritance rights and hand over our billion-dollar empire to you and Chloe.” I turned away, pretending to be nonchalant, but tears instantly streamed down my face. Of course, I knew the chances of getting Dominic Vance were zero. I just wanted a mutually destructive way to release all this tangled, unspoken love and pain. But to my absolute shock, Dominic Vance took my hand under everyone’s watchful eyes and asked, “What date are we getting married?” ###

“This is my fiancée, Eleanor Hayes. She likes you, Mr. Vance.” “She likes your movie-star looks, your decisive demeanor in business, the mature charm that’s settled in you over the years…” Ethan’s handsome face was pale with fury as he read the love letter I’d written to Dominic. He’d helped me write the letter, and all my fancy jewelry and designer clothes were bought with his platinum card. He skipped a major international meeting and drove me to the city’s most exclusive restaurant, personally arranging a candlelight dinner, all to help me confess my feelings to Dominic. Dominic let out a cold laugh. “Is today April Fool’s Day?” Ethan’s jaw tightened in a visible struggle, as he tried to appear nonchalant. “I’m not kidding. Eleanor really likes you. I’m helping her pursue you.” “You can leave now. Don’t interrupt my time alone with Mr. Vance.” I coldly dismissed Ethan, watching him disappear into the heavy rain. His back was lean and tall, more mature and charismatic than when I first met him ten years ago. Back then, he was fresh out of college, interning at my father’s company during summer break. His blue shirt was faded from washing, his eyes clear and stubborn, and he worked meticulously. I saw his character and talent, promoting him from a poor kid to the youngest vice president. “He says you like me, but your eyes clearly still love him,” Dominic commented softly from beside me. His face was strikingly handsome, his eyes deep and profound. He sat there, like a god veiled by mist. Just then, Ethan looked up at us from downstairs. I immediately, shamelessly, sat on Dominic’s lap, wrapped my arms around his neck, and made it look like we were being intimate. “I apologize, Mr. Vance. I had to pretend I wanted to pursue you because it was the only way I could get some alone time with you. My real intention is to discuss a partnership – I’m begging you, please drop Ethan and invest in me.” I didn’t know if it was my imagination, but Dominic’s eyes seemed to dim slightly. “You should know, I’m signing a contract next week to invest five billion in Ethan Cole.” Of course, I knew time was critical! So I immediately pulled out the documents I’d brought, passionately introducing the company I had secretly founded. “…I’m collaborating with university Ph.D.s. Our technology is more mature than Ethan’s team’s, and it’s 100% capable of commercial incubation…” Dominic flipped through the documents, a smirk playing on his lips. “Everyone says you’re a ‘love-brain,’ but I never imagined your own company would be so impressive.” I forced a bitter smile. “My father is incredibly sexist. He doesn’t have a son, so he’d rather hand the company over to a male relative—a nephew—than to me. At first, I poured everything into mentoring Ethan, thinking we could run the company as a husband-and-wife team after we got married. But then he fell for Chloe Miller—my father’s illegitimate daughter with his mistress!” Dominic calmly reminded me, “The ‘mistress’ you refer to is now your father’s legal wife, and Chloe is the pampered Hayes heiress, adored by your father. If Ethan marries her, he’ll still get the Hayes Group.” That was what I resented the most! I had poured my heart and soul into Ethan, only for it all to become Chloe’s gain in the end. Years ago, when Chloe and her mother officially moved in and took over, it gave my mother a sudden heart attack and she died. I hated them! Ethan falling for Chloe was the ultimate betrayal! “I want revenge on them, and now only you can help me. Drop Ethan, and invest in me!” My eyes burned with fervent pleading as I looked at Dominic. But his gaze was cold. He gripped my waist and gently moved me from his lap to a nearby chair. “I detest mixing personal feelings with business. Think clearly and then come back to me.” ###

Dominic gracefully departed, and I stumbled out after him, shocked to find Ethan still waiting outside the door. “I saw you throwing yourself at him, Eleanor. I never thought you’d be so shameless!” His eyes seemed to blaze with fire. I sneered, “What? Are you jealous? Waiting so long downstairs just to mock me?” Before he could answer, Chloe’s syrupy voice drifted from the nightclub across the street. “You’re mistaken, Ellie. Ethan was waiting for me, not for you.” She wore a shimmering sequined dress that hugged her curves, a stark contrast to my stiff suit dress. Ethan’s tone with her was utterly doting. “Babe, aren’t you cold?” He took off his coat and draped it over her. She whined coquettishly, “Hmm, not enough. Ethan, warm my hands for me.” Ethan immediately cupped her hands, gently blowing on them to warm them. I used to cry and demand to know why he loved her and not me. His answer was that I was always focused on work, like a grim, hardened man. Only a drama queen like Chloe could make him feel that spark of romance. “I’m totally wasted, Ethan. Take me home now.” Chloe climbed into the passenger seat of the Ferrari. I snapped, “Get out! Ethan drove me here for my date with Dominic, and now he has to take me back. Besides, I bought him this car!” “Let Ethan choose, darling,” Chloe pouted, then leaned closer to me and hissed maliciously, “You pathetic shrew, you lost again. You can spend all the money you want, but you’ll never make Ethan love you. And even if you stripped naked in front of Dominic, you wouldn’t get him.” Sure enough, Ethan chose her again, driving the sports car away with a roar. Just then, a few burly guys burst out of the nightclub, grabbing my hair and demanding money for drinks. “Your sister didn’t pay just now! She told us to find you! Hand over the cash, or else…” They leered, their dirty hands reaching for me. I immediately screamed, “Let go of me! Ethan! Help me!” Ethan hadn’t driven far. I was sure he could see the scene in his rearview mirror, but he didn’t stop. He hesitated for just a second, then sped away. It was just like in our relationship: he unhesitatingly abandoned me, choosing my lifelong enemy, Chloe, leaving me sleepless night after night, crying until my eyes were dry, and laughed at by all my enemies. “Stop screaming. Come play with us, pretty girl…” The club thug’s foul-smelling breath was close to my face, his greasy hand gripping me tight. I finally snapped, pulling out the documents from my bag and using them as weapons, wildly striking at them. The sharp edges of the papers cut their skin. My sudden fury forced them to retreat, step after step. When I turned, I saw Dominic Vance’s Rolls-Royce parked by the street. After confirming I had repelled the thugs, his car started and drove away. He had witnessed everything, yet chose to stand by. A wave of frustration washed over me. I realized I didn’t have the charm to make him like me. But I had to use the pretense of pursuing him to secure an investment. If I could just persuade him to drop Ethan and invest in me instead, I could turn the tables, climbing above Ethan and even my father. Unexpectedly, a video of me fending off the club thugs was filmed and posted online, even trending on social media. #HayesHeiressMeltdown #DumpedFiancéDrama The media gossiped wildly about my history with Ethan, saying I was a rich heiress who supported a poor boy, only for him to get rich and dump me for being a ‘dowdy old hag’… *Slap!* Ethan slammed a stack of newspapers onto the table in front of me. “The headlines and trending topics are all calling me a ‘backstabbing scoundrel’! Eleanor, you knew this was a critical time for me to lead the Hayes Group in fundraising and going public. How could you buy hit pieces to trash my name?” I sneered, “If you don’t want people to know, don’t do it. The media isn’t wrong. I poured my heart and soul into you for ten years. How are you repaying me?” Ethan knew he was in the wrong, but his expression remained cold. “You asked me to help you pursue Dominic, and I agreed. But he doesn’t like you. What more can I do?” “That just means you haven’t tried hard enough! You need to push harder.” I grabbed his tie, manipulating him. “At tomorrow’s spring auction, I want to buy him a gift. Whatever I set my sights on, you’ll get it for me, no matter the cost.” ###

The auction was packed with high-society figures, and Dominic Vance was there too. He was seated regally in the center of a private box on the second floor. Ethan, Chloe, and I sat in the front row, allowing me to clearly see that the first item up for auction was a piece by my mother from thirty years ago. “…Madam Hayes was a renowned jewelry artisan during her lifetime. Her early works are cherished by collectors worldwide. Today, three pairs of her earrings are returning to the market…” I bid frantically, but every time I made an offer, Chloe would raise the price, clearly trying to outdo me. “Help me!” I shot Ethan a look. “You promised me! You said you’d get me whatever I wanted today, no matter the cost!” Ethan met Chloe’s eager gaze and softly refused me. “I agreed to help you bid on a gift to win over Dominic, but would Dominic even care about these earrings? Don’t be silly.” My heart was burning with anxiety. I regretted that all my cash flow was tied up in company operations, leaving me no extra money for bidding. In the end, Chloe successfully acquired all three of my mother’s pieces. “The wings on these butterfly earrings are too big. I don’t like them.” Chloe, with a flick of her wrist, cut the delicate gold filigree, and two gemstones tumbled to the floor. I was stunned. “Are you crazy? How could you ruin perfectly good jewelry?” “I bought them, so I can do whatever I want with them.” Chloe cackled with glee, then broke and cut the other two pieces of jewelry, throwing them to the ground. Whispers and snickers broke out around us. “Chloe’s just trying to get a rise out of her.” “Exactly. Eleanor’s mother clung to her status as the legal wife back then, making Chloe an illegitimate child for years, and her mother a publicly scorned mistress.” “But now Chloe has really made a name for herself. Everyone knows she’s Richard Hayes’s favorite daughter. They say Ethan loves her, and once he marries her, Eleanor will surely be kicked out of the Hayes Group.” “Eleanor is truly useless. No money to participate in the auction, so she can only watch her own mother’s jewelry be destroyed…” My heart bled in that moment, watching the jewelry my mother had painstakingly crafted, day and night, being desecrated into garbage. The auctioneer on stage presented the next item: “A Breguet Tourbillon timepiece from the early 19th century, starting bid one million…” Dominic Vance on the second floor was the first to bid, immediately raising the price to three million. It seemed he liked this watch. I instantly joined the bidding, going back and forth with him, pushing the price to twenty million. Ethan’s face beside me turned dark. Chloe, unaware of the situation, scoffed at me, “Don’t pretend to be rich, you can’t afford it!” As Dominic bid a high price of thirty million, I directly shouted, “Whatever it takes!” The entire hall gasped, shocked that I had the money to snatch something coveted by the billionaire Dominic Vance. My next sentence pushed the atmosphere to a climax once more. “I’m paying with Ethan Cole’s card, and I’m giving this watch to Dominic Vance.” Everyone’s jaws dropped as they watched me use Ethan’s platinum card, instructing the staff to deliver the timepiece to Dominic Vance’s box on the second floor, accompanied by a bouquet of red roses, a symbol of affection. Within half a day, the news of me spending Ethan Cole’s money to pursue Dominic Vance swept through the entire high society circle. That evening, I was dressed to the nines. As I walked into the dazzling garage, Ethan rushed up to block me. “Do you know what people are calling me now? They’re calling me a humiliated cuckold! Spending money to help my fiancée get another man!” I gave him a sidelong glance. “Better than being called a backstabbing scoundrel, isn’t it? I’m actively taking the blame for the relationship, letting people think I’m the one cheating. Shouldn’t you be on your knees thanking me?” Ethan gnashed his teeth, forcing out a cold laugh. “You spent my money. Did *he* like it?” The “he” he referred to, of course, was Dominic Vance. I lit up my phone screen, shaking it twice in front of him. “See that? Dominic sent me a message ten minutes ago: ‘Eight PM tonight, Grand Zenith Hotel, Room 8808.’” Ethan’s face instantly turned ashen. I swaggered, patting his face. “What are you gawking at? Hurry up and drive me to my date with Dominic!” ###

I believed Dominic Vance had been impressed by my sincerity. For this, I had prepared even more detailed business plans, determined to persuade him to invest in my company tonight. Ethan, driving beside me, frequently glanced at me in the rearview mirror, then suddenly spoke. “Why the Grand Zenith Hotel, of all places?” I paused for a moment, then remembered. The Grand Zenith Hotel was where I had booked our wedding a year ago. The wedding date was next Thursday; even the invitations had been sent out. I had bought wedding favors worth hundreds of thousands and spent millions decorating the venue. Now, the groom was driving me there for a date with another man. I sneered, “Do you even care? The beach under that old bridge is where we first fell in love. Five years ago, I almost drowned saving two children. Even the paramedics said I was gone, but you wouldn’t give up. You desperately gave me CPR and artificial respiration, and I actually came back to life. The moment I opened my eyes, I saw the tears on your face, and I swore then and there that I would love you forever…” Back then, Ethan and I truly were life-and-death companions. As I spoke, I felt a sense of weariness. “Never mind. It doesn’t matter. You’ve probably forgotten all about it anyway. I bet even the rocks we lay on have been swallowed by the sea.” Ethan, who had been silent, suddenly slammed the accelerator, turning the sports car around and heading for the highway exit. I gasped. “Are you crazy? I’m going to be late! Take me to the hotel!” His dark eyes held a stubborn glint. “Weren’t you just talking about reliving the past by the sea? If you didn’t want to, why bring it up?” The car radio was broadcasting a hurricane warning, advising residents to stay indoors. I screamed that Ethan was insane, rushing to the beach in a hurricane to die. He sped to the beach and forcefully dragged me out of the car, searching for the rocks that had witnessed our bond in life and death. Heavy black clouds pressed down on the sea, giant waves roared, and a severe storm warning had been issued. “Yes! I’m crazy! Why are you provoking me in such a twisted way? When you asked me to help you pursue Dominic, I wanted to kill him!” he yelled at me. I scoffed. “Don’t pretend! You only agreed to help me pursue Dominic because I promised to sign the agreement giving up my inheritance of the Hayes family assets. You dream of seeing me out of the Hayes family, so that after my father dies, you and Chloe can have the entire Hayes fortune to yourselves…” “I didn’t!” Ethan’s eyes were wide with desperation. He tightly cupped my cheeks, his breath close to mine, full of a mix of longing and suppression. “You just don’t understand me, actually, I… I…” “Actually what?” I felt a strange tension. Just then, his phone rang. “My Darling Chloe” flashed on the screen. Ethan didn’t hesitate for long before answering. The unspoken atmosphere between us instantly vanished. I knew it. Everything that followed was just as I expected. Chloe said she was scared of the thunder and needed Ethan to come to her immediately. “No way. Your job right now is to take me to meet Dominic,” I reminded him. Chloe heard my voice and started crying even harder. “I’m so scared. Oh, no, I accidentally fell, and my leg might be broken. Ethan, please take me to the hospital, okay…” Her acting was awful, yet Ethan actually believed her. He immediately decided to drive to her house. “What about me? Dominic is waiting for me. How am I supposed to get a ride in this weather?” I angrily demanded. Ethan looked me directly in the eyes, stating seriously, “I’m tired of playing this game with you, Eleanor. You’ll never get Dominic Vance. The women who’ve chased him over the years were A-list celebrities, beauty queens, even daughters of powerful politicians or foreign nobility… Eleanor, you don’t stand a chance. Besides, isn’t your ultimate goal just to make me angry? Well, you’ve achieved your goal. Give up. There’s no way I’m letting you see Dominic today.” He gave me one last deep look, then truly abandoned me, driving off to rescue “broken-legged” Chloe. The hurricane was closing in, chilling my thin clothes to the bone. My entire heart felt cold and desolate. From then on, my feelings for Ethan Cole were nothing but hatred. The wind howled in my ears. Staying here would be life-threatening, but I couldn’t even stand steady; I could barely move an inch against the wind. In despair, I saw a helicopter flying towards me against the wind, like a small boat battling the waves, perilous yet determined. The person inside opened the cabin door and extended a hand to me. The strong wind ruffled his hair, revealing his handsome, refined face. It was Dominic Vance. He said, “I agree. Now, come with me.”

🌟 Continue the story here 👉🏻 📲 Download the “NovelMaster” app 🔍 search for “408527”, and watch the full series ✨! #NovelMaster

It was the ninth year of our ‘thing,’ and Ethan announced his engagement. I hadn’t even had a chance to ask for my severance pay yet, when he sent a super long message, basically saying: You’re too low-class for my family. Staring at the screen full of his SnapChat messages and a string of sixty-second voice notes, a giant question mark floated above my head. Wait, I just treated you like an ATM. You actually thought it was real? Ethan must have binged too many rom-coms to think that. I came to that conclusion after professionally reading all thirty-seven of his messages. Otherwise, it’s hard to explain why he’d think I had any feelings for him beyond his money. Of course, I’m not some cold-blooded creature. Feelings? Yeah, I’d had them before. In college, I was the one who pursued him. He was the campus superstar, smart, artistic, and most importantly, his hands were gorgeous. Long fingers, clearly defined knuckles, perfectly rounded nails, a healthy, rosy pink. I’m a hopeless hand-fetishist. And those gorgeous hands came with a clean-cut face and a 6’1″ frame. I was practically drooling. Even if he had a mouth full of venom, I put up with his snarky comments and chased him for three years. Who hasn’t done something stupid when they were young? Things took a turn two days before our senior year internship. As student body president, he was leading us on an investor pitch. A beefy, square-built investor, Mr. Biggs, clearly liked what he saw. He brought out all sorts of booze, obviously planning to get Ethan wasted and take advantage. Watching Ethan choke on his drinks, tears in his red-rimmed eyes, I don’t know where I found the guts, but I grabbed a bottle and smashed it over Mr. Biggs’ head. My college sports elective was shot put, by the way. That ‘fun’ night landed me a trip to the police station. I finally got out when Ethan’s impeccably dressed butler came to pick him up, and I was just… brought along. It was late summer, early fall. The night breeze was cool, blowing away some of the alcohol fumes, and also my courage. After a few steps, my legs gave out, and I stumbled to the ground. God, for someone who’d been a straight-A, rule-following good girl for eighteen years, a police station visit was a huge deal. This time, Ethan didn’t just walk away. He stood under the streetlamp, silhouetted against the light. I couldn’t see his expression. But I still remember what he said. “Skylar, I don’t like owing people favors. Whatever you want, I’ll try my best to give it to you, except for…” Before he could finish, I stumbled forward to grab his hand. In my mind, I was supposed to grab his hand with teary eyes, crying out dramatically, “Besides you, I want nothing at all!” But I forgot about my jelly legs. My attempt to grab his hand turned into a desperate tug on his jacket, and the momentum pulled him into my arms, slamming him against the streetlamp. He braced himself over me, his lips brushing the corner of my mouth, so close I could count his eyelashes. His clean scent filled my senses, warm and dizzying, making my heart pound. He must have been stunned, not reacting immediately. When he turned his head, his lips landed squarely on mine. “Master Ethan!” Ethan’s impeccably dressed butler let out a high-pitched shriek. It was hard to believe such a dainty sound could come from a six-foot-three, bearded man. And just like that, I became Ethan’s ‘girlfriend.’ At least, in my mind, I was his girlfriend. And I became the poster child for the gold-digger who snagged a rich heir. Back then, everyone had something to say. Calling me a manipulative user, a pathetic hanger-on. I just tuned out the haters and kept enjoying my ‘sweet’ time with Ethan. Even if I shared my daily life in long essays and he only responded with a single “K”; Even if I saved up to buy him gifts, and he’d just toss them on the table, still wrapped; Even if I wasn’t feeling well and wanted to say no, but seeing his displeased frown, I’d force myself to endure his touch, only for him to find me boring and leave me alone at the hotel… None of that mattered to me. When you’re blinded by love, a hot guy gets a pass. Until I landed an offer from a major corporation, with a bright future ahead of me. I couldn’t wait to share the good news with him. But he didn’t even look up, eyes fixed on his computer screen, his finely articulated fingers tapping on the keyboard, each click like a hammer blow to my heart. “With your degree, getting into my family’s company would be tough.” “But you’ve been decent this past year, not too ambitious.” “So, I’ll arrange for you to join my company. The marketing department is crucial, and with my connections, no one will bother you.” “Do a good job, and I won’t shortchange you.” His tone was exactly like a boss using PUA tactics on an employee. But my young, love-struck brain didn’t catch on to his manipulation. Instead, I thought he was about to end things, and I panicked. I was pretty reckless back then, too, demanding like some heartbroken movie character: “What am I to you, really?”

He gave me a cold, condescending look, saying nothing, yet saying everything. In the end, he just walked away, and I cried so hard my hands shook. I didn’t dare truly offend him. He wasn’t wrong about one thing: good jobs are hard to come by. And a good job with connections? Even harder. Reality bites, and not using the connections I had would be plain stupid. I mourned my shattered romantic illusions for one night, then dutifully reported for work the next day. Others asked me: What’s your relationship with Mr. Ethan? I swept up the last remnants of my shattered romantic illusions and simply said, “We’re alumni.” Ethan was pleased with that answer and took even better care of me. He took care of me so well, it eventually led to the bedroom. It wasn’t complicated. Ethan’s ‘one that got away’ got divorced. Ethan gleefully went after her, only to ‘happily’ get the shocking news that she’d remarried her ex and was expecting their third child. He got absolutely wasted. The next day was a crucial meeting with investors. If that deal didn’t go through, the entire team’s bonuses were gone. Watching our massive bonuses evaporate, everyone in the group was tearing their hair out. As ‘Ethan’s connection,’ I was, of course, chosen to go ‘talk sense into him.’ I admit, when Ethan hugged me tight, his eyes misty with tears, I still felt a despicable flutter in my heart. Five years, from eighteen to twenty-three, weren’t something you could just forget. He held me so tight, as if he wanted to crush my bones. Big, heavy tears landed on my shoulder, and his gasps mingled with my own as our mouths found each other. Tears are a man’s best beauty treatment. Male beauty was just too tempting. I couldn’t resist, and I indulged completely. When he called out his first love’s name in my ear, I choked him. His eyes were bloodshot, and he pushed hard into me, grinding his hips. I was so into it, I even slapped him a few times, watching him gasp and plead. I honestly didn’t even care that he was calling out another woman’s name. The next day, I was woken by a splash of cold water. Ethan silently put on his suit, casually tossing me a freshly delivered, clean business suit to replace yesterday’s, which was… covered in unidentified liquids. He buttoned the last button, then pointed to the bedside table. All the documents were already neatly arranged there. “If I don’t see you in half an hour, don’t bother coming in tomorrow.” I jolted awake. Ignoring the bruises and bite marks he’d left on my legs, I quickly got ready, enduring the discomfort to stand by his side all day. Ethan didn’t spare me a single glance the entire time. It wasn’t until after work, when I couldn’t hold on anymore and wanted to go home and rest, that he suddenly called out to me. “Skylar.” My familiar name sounded foreign coming from him. His eyes had reverted to how they looked that night in our senior year—chillingly indifferent. “I always thought you were smart, honest, and knew your place.” His fingers tapped lightly on the armrest, his finely articulated hands making me distracted. “But yesterday… I hope you understand one thing.” “A small slip-up between adults, as long as it’s consensual, isn’t something to be morally judged.” Jerk. That word popped into my head, but I kept my polite smile. “I hope we maintain a purely superior-subordinate relationship at the company.” Ha. My fists were clenched so tight. If I could, I would’ve repeated my ‘heroic’ act from when Mr. Biggs was trying to get him wasted. But reality bites, and my connections still depended on him. I nodded at him. “Okay, Mr. Ethan.” He was still rambling on, then paused, choked for a second when he heard me, and stared at me with a strange expression. I rolled my eyes internally. What are you staring at? Never seen a gorgeous woman before? My future hung on him right now. I’d be insane to pick a fight. Perhaps my docile obedience pleased him, because after that deal closed, my bonus was five times what others got. All those zeros… I thought that kind of money only existed in Hollywood movies. So, all his dirty talk? My brain just translated it to: “Want Daddy’s fat balance to fill your bank account?” Yes, I did. More than anything. From then on, Ethan and I maintained this purely ‘consensual adult’ relationship. From twenty-three to twenty-seven, my promotion speed was much faster than most. As a highly ‘professional’ and ‘consensual’ subordinate, I naturally met all my boss’s needs. I even went above and beyond, always available, and kept him utterly satisfied.

For that, he even magnanimously allowed me to pick up documents at his house. Oh, no thanks. I politely declined. Being a good ‘consensual subordinate’ requires boundaries. Back then, I cherished my position. And the string of zeros on my paycheck. Sometimes Ethan would go crazy and make all sorts of unreasonable demands, but for the sake of my bank balance, I could endure it. Of course, enduring for too long without release would turn anyone into a lunatic. That’s when Liam crashed into my world. I had just pulled two all-nighters working overtime with Ethan at the company. I was angrier than a pissed-off banshee. It’s a known fact that when people are angry, they do impulsive things. My impulsive act was a ‘weekend warrior’ trip – an intense, last-minute climb up Mount Rainier. To make sure I didn’t get stuck, I hired eight college-aged guides, telling them if I couldn’t make it, they’d have to carry me. Liam was the most emotionally intelligent of the eight. The other guys kept subtly hinting for more cash. Only Liam didn’t show such strong mercenary intentions. He was sweet-talker, actively bought water and snacks, and carried me up without asking for extra pay. After reaching the summit and watching the sunrise, I spent half an hour venting my frustrations about Ethan. Liam just stayed by my side, not bothering with the other guys yelling at him to come down for more gigs. He looked at me, his slightly downturned eyes gentle, like a puppy’s. On a whim, I stroked his chin, thinking, if it’s a ‘consensual adult relationship,’ and Ethan can do it, why can’t I? Liam was quick to catch on, satisfying me completely. I praised his flexible tongue, and he practiced until his tongue could do incredible things. Whenever Ethan got on my nerves, I’d go to Liam, and a smile would return to my face. Liam was smart, always available, and didn’t ask for a dime. Handsome, clean, and free? There was no reason not to take advantage. After a while, he even had the password to my place. Before I could even put down my phone, a pair of mischievous hands wrapped around my waist. Liam’s chest pressed against my back, and a rather inappropriate part of him rubbed against my lower back. The next second, a hot kiss landed on my lips, mixed with steamy breath that made my face flush. “Sis, I’m all showered…” His mouth asked for my permission, but his hands were anything but innocent. “You’ve seen this month’s physical report, Sis. I want…” Tiny kisses trailed from my lips down my back, and with a gentle push, I was knocked onto the carpet. Liam was the swimming team’s star at his sports academy. Great core strength, incredible stamina. If it weren’t for that, his measly $8,000-a-month income plus stipend wouldn’t even qualify him for my ‘hunting’ criteria. The kisses on my back continued. This time, he unhooked my bra with his teeth, leaving a damp trail on my earlobe. “Sis, please?” His eyes were bloodshot, and he looked at me piteously. His tongue tied a knot in my pajama drawstring. Seeing me momentarily stunned, a hint of triumph flashed in his puppy eyes, and he smiled, looking exceptionally goofy. Tsk, little brat. He’s quite the actor. If I hadn’t already seen his contact note for me: “97, June 13, Gemini. Big tits, easy to fool, and down for anything.” I might actually have fallen for it. I gave a light pinch behind him. His breathing hitched, hot air sprayed on the back of my neck, and with red eyes, he pinned me against the wall. “Sis, I can’t take it anymore, Sis, save me…” I smiled without speaking, then choked his neck, making his eyes well up with tears. He hugged me tight, refusing to let go. Men under twenty-five were the best. Young and fresh. Plenty of strength and stamina. And free. Done and tossed. Leaving a red handprint on his perfectly sculpted butt, I opened my phone to order takeout. Another screen full of green messages. Ethan had called at least ten times, and his messages were a saturated bombardment. [Skylar, hiding won’t help. There’s no future for us.] [Don’t even think about using past events to threaten me. You know the difference between us.] [Don’t try to disrupt my engagement party.] … [?] [Why aren’t you replying?] [Skylar, talk to me.] I slowly typed a question mark. He replied instantly. [Skylar, playing dead won’t work. We’re over. You’ll…] A flood of messages made my eyes swim. Anyway, my current savings could easily buy me a sweet two-bedroom apartment in a prime city location, fully paid off. Whether this relationship continued or not didn’t matter. Taking a sip of the herbal tea Liam had brewed before he left, I replied with a single word: [Okay.] The next second, I downloaded and secured all records of transfers, then blocked and deleted him. The next day, I was pulled awake. Half-asleep, I slowly came to, only to see Ethan standing by my bed, his dark circles rivaling a panda’s. His hollow eyes staring at me were like a snake’s, chillingly menacing. I screamed, my voice hoarse. Ethan’s eyes were bloodshot. He moved his lips, about to say something, when the door burst open and Liam rushed in. “Sis, don’t be scared, I’m here!” He was wearing a basketball jersey, holding a bag of breakfast. My nail marks and a few suggestive bite marks were visible on his muscular chest.

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“Give that account to her? Why? Just because she’s your favored one?” I pushed open Director Jenkins’s office door. Director Jenkins slammed her hand on the table. “Chloe Miller, watch your tone. I decide who gets what. Let’s keep things civil, for everyone’s sake. Otherwise, I have plenty of ways to make your life difficult.” “But I’ve been working on this for half a year, and it’s almost signed,” I stared at her. “Company resources, does it matter who handles it?” She leaned back, her posture relaxing slightly. “Think bigger picture. It’s all for the good of the company.” I looked at her self-satisfied expression and nodded. Then I suddenly smiled. “You’re right. I really should… think things through for the company.” As I walked out of the office, the smile vanished from my face. Back at my desk, a gasp came from beside me. “Oh, how can I accept this?” Brittany Hayes, wearing an ill-fitting short skirt, walked to the center of the office area, clutching a folder. She deliberately raised her voice. “Chloe, I heard you transferred that huge account you’ve been working on for half a year to me?” “That’s tens of millions in revenue!” “Thanks for all the groundwork you laid, Chloe. I’ll truly cherish it.” “I won’t let your efforts go to waste.” Her eyes glinted with provocation, and the corners of her mouth turned up. The sound of keyboards stopped. A few colleagues looked over, then quickly averted their gaze. I organized the documents on my desk, not even lifting my head. “No need to thank me. After all, Mr. Wang said new hires need a little ‘encouragement’.” “Whether you can hold onto that account is entirely up to your abilities.” Brittany’s smile froze. Mr. Robert Wang, the General Manager, walked out of his office. “Everyone, please stop what you’re doing. We’re having a short meeting.” Mr. Wang scanned the room, his gaze resting on me. “I have an announcement to make.” “Considering our year-end sprint, and to optimize resource allocation and cultivate new talent…” “Chloe Miller has proactively proposed transferring the TianSheng Group project she was managing to Brittany Hayes.” “Everyone should learn from Chloe. This is the kind of broader perspective we expect from our veteran employees!” “Come on, let’s give her a round of applause!” Sparse applause broke out. I clapped twice in cooperation. After the meeting, Brittany placed an iced latte on my desk. “Chloe, here’s an iced latte.” “Godfather asked me to come and get the TianSheng Group documents from you.” “Especially Ms. Carter’s preferences, her pet peeves, and all the previous negotiation details.” She held out her hand. I watched the dripping iced latte stain the documents. “They’re all on the shared drive. Download them yourself.” “Oh, Chloe, the shared drive only has official documents.” “I need your private notes.” She lowered her voice. “Godfather said if this deal falls through, you’ll be the only one to blame.” “You don’t want Godfather to think you’re holding out on us, do you?” I scoffed. I created a folder, packed the prepared materials, and sent them. “Sent.” “Read carefully. Don’t mess up something as simple as what kind of tea Ms. Carter drinks.” Brittany left with her laptop. Just before closing time, Director Jenkins called me into the pantry. She closed the door, her face turning grim. “Chloe, I know you’re upset.” “If this deal goes through, you’ll still get your share of the bonus.” “But if you dare to pull any stunts behind our backs or trip Brittany up…” “I’ll make sure you can’t work in this industry ever again!” Her manicured finger pointed at me. I bowed slightly. “Director Jenkins, you’re overthinking. How could I dare?” “I still have my mortgage to pay; work is important.” “Don’t worry, I’ll fully cooperate with Brittany.” Director Jenkins snorted and waved her hand. “Alright, get out. Just be smart about it.” Walking out of the company building, a cold wind blew. I pulled out my phone and opened the chat for “Mommy Dearest.” “Mom, I have something to tell you!” She replied instantly. “My sweet daughter, what’s wrong?” I typed out a line, put away my phone, and smiled.

Over the next few days, the office was quite noisy. Brittany frowned as she looked through the documents. The usually quiet WhatsApp group was stirred up daily by her @ mentions. “@Chloe Miller, what does ‘exclusive agreement’ mean in this clause?” “Ms. Carter’s legal team is asking if it can be removed. How do I respond?” “@Chloe Miller, how is the floating percentage in this quote calculated?” “The system keeps giving an error!” “@Chloe Miller, help! Ms. Carter’s secretary asked about Plan B from the previous proposal. I can’t find it anywhere!” I watched the screen, deliberately waiting for Mr. Wang to prompt me in the group before slowly replying. “Exclusive agreements are standard practice. Be firm with their legal team.” “The floating percentage is based on that formula; plug in the numbers yourself.” “Plan B is in the archived folder. Check there.” Brittany followed my advice and dealt with the client, but she was met with refusal. That afternoon, the office atmosphere was tense. Brittany slammed her mouse, her eyes red, and stormed into Mr. Wang’s office. Less than five minutes later, Mr. Wang’s voice pierced through the glass door. “Chloe Miller! Get in here!” I walked in, carrying my thermos. Mr. Wang slammed his hand on the desk. “Chloe, are you trying to get yourself fired?” “Brittany says she called Ms. Carter over a dozen times, and no one picked up.” “Did you give her fake contact info?!” “Are you intentionally trying to sabotage this deal?!” Brittany sat nearby, pointing at me and accusing. “Godfather, she’s doing this on purpose!” “She must have badmouthed me to Ms. Carter, otherwise why would Ms. Carter ignore me!” “Chloe, you can’t jeopardize the company’s interests like this!” I blinked. “Mr. Wang, you’re wronging me.” “The contact information is right there in the business card holder. How could I possibly give fake details?” “Maybe Ms. Carter has been busy these past few days and hasn’t had time to check her phone.” “Bullshit!” Mr. Wang slammed the folder on the floor. “Too busy to even pick up Brittany’s calls?” “Right now, in front of me, call Ms. Carter! If you can’t get through, you’re packing your bags and leaving immediately!” I pulled out my phone. “Alright, I’ll try.” I dialed the number and put it on speakerphone. It rang twice, then connected. A cold, indifferent female voice came through. “Hello?” Brittany froze, and Mr. Wang stiffened. I cleared my throat, my tone gentle. “Hello, Ms. Carter, this is Chloe.” “I apologize for disturbing you, but our manager, Brittany, said she couldn’t reach you.” “We’re worried about delaying the signing process, so I just wanted to ask…” There was a moment of silence on the other end, then a cold snort. “Manager Brittany? Which Manager Brittany? I don’t know her.” “She keeps sending me all sorts of ridiculous emojis; I’ve blocked her.” “Chloe, how many times have I told you? I only discuss my projects with you.” “Sending just anyone to bother me, does your company not want to do business anymore?” Brittany’s face instantly flushed red, and she lowered her head. Mr. Wang’s face alternated between green and pale. I quickly responded. “Ms. Carter, please don’t be angry. New hires are still learning the ropes; we’ll reinforce their training.” “As for the signing…” “Alright, out of consideration for you, I’ll let it go.” “We’ll discuss the specifics later.” The call ended. The office was silent. I put away my phone and looked at Mr. Wang. “Mr. Wang, see? The phone number wasn’t the problem, was it?” “Perhaps Brittany was a bit too enthusiastic, and Ms. Carter doesn’t like that style.” Mr. Wang glared at Brittany. “Useless! Can’t even figure out a client’s preferences! Now go reflect on what you did wrong!” He then looked at me. “Since you can reach her, you’ll continue to assist with communications.” “But Brittany will still sign the contract; that’s non-negotiable.” I nodded in agreement. “Yes, you’re right.” After this incident, Brittany became smug again. She posted a group photo on Ins, Photoshopping me out and replacing me with herself. “All those late nights pulling off a multi-million dollar deal were totally worth it!” Many people liked it below her post.

At the company, she started ordering me around. “Chloe, please print this contract. It needs to be double-sided and in color.” “Chloe, please book the meeting room for tomorrow. I need the largest one, set up with flowers and fruit.” “Chloe, go buy me a coffee, the hand-ground one from the corner café.” I accepted all her requests without complaint. Brittany leaned back in her chair, her eyes full of triumph. The day before the signing, the sales department was in chaos. Mr. Wang threw a document in front of me. “Chloe Miller, this is the script for tomorrow’s signing ceremony.” “You need to write it today, down to the minute.” “Who stands where, who says what. Don’t leave until it’s done.” I flipped through the document. “Mr. Wang, shouldn’t Manager Brittany be preparing this?” “After all, she’s the one in charge.” Mr. Wang shot me a sidelong glance. “Brittany needs to memorize the contract clauses; she doesn’t have time for this.” “I’m telling you to write it. This is your chance to participate in a major project.” Brittany sat nearby, painting her nails. “That’s right, Chloe. Just help me out a bit.” “If I make a fool of myself tomorrow, it’ll be the company’s embarrassment.” I took the document. “Alright, I’ll get it ready now.” At noon, Mr. Wang called me to the end of the hallway. Amidst the lingering smoke, her gaze was inscrutable. “Chloe Miller, for tomorrow’s signing ceremony… you won’t be coming in.” I raised an eyebrow. “Mr. Wang, I wrote the script, and I maintained the client relationship.” “Now you’re not even letting me into the venue?” Mr. Wang flicked off ash from his cigarette. “Chloe, you need to understand the situation.” “Brittany has more charisma than you, and she presents herself better.” “If you’re standing there, you’ll only draw attention away from Brittany.” “What if your attire offends Ms. Carter?” “Your job is to be at the door and handle logistics.” “After the signing, I’ll let you attend the celebration dinner.” I looked at her, and suddenly smiled. “Mr. Wang, are you sure you don’t need me to control the situation on-site?” “Given Ms. Carter’s temper, if there’s any unexpected change…” “Shut up!” Mr. Wang cut me off. “What unexpected change could there be? Just don’t be an eyesore.” “Have a broader perspective, understand?” I nodded. “Alright, broader perspective it is. I’ll wait by the door.” Back at my desk, Brittany was trying on clothes. It was a white lace gown with a train. “Chloe, doesn’t it look good? This is my power suit!” She twirled around. I glanced at it. “Gorgeous. You look just like a bridesmaid.” Brittany’s face darkened. “What do you know, you bumpkin!” Colleagues from other departments passed by, whispering to each other. Mr. Wang heard the commotion and cursed a few times in the WhatsApp group. I ignored the distractions and sent a message to my mom. “Mom, remember to wear that black suit tomorrow. The more serious, the better.” Just before closing, I went to get water. A cup of coffee was splashed in my face. I dodged, but my sleeve still got stained with brown. “Oops!” Brittany held the empty cup, a smirk on her face. “My hand slipped, it slipped. So sorry, Chloe.” “But you don’t have to see clients tomorrow anyway.” “It’s fine if your clothes get dirty; you should probably get some new outfits anyway.” I pulled out tissues to wipe the stain. Brittany took a step back. “What are you looking at? I already apologized.” I tossed the tissues into the trash. “It’s alright.” I smiled. “Out with the old, in with the new.” “I hope your power suit holds up tomorrow.”

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My wife gifted me an African Grey parrot. Every single day, it screamed at me: “Die, brother, die.” I sent it to a highly specialized avian behavioral correction facility. Every day, they locked it in a mirror enclosure, looping an audio track three thousand times: “I am a good bird.” I did this because I had been reborn. In my previous life, on the very first day this bird entered our home, it only knew two phrases. “Ugly brother.” “Die, brother.” I thought it was just mimicking something it had heard. Then, my health began to fail. It started with insomnia. I suffered through night terrors, drowning in a sea of shadows where a single voice kept repeating “die, die, die.” Then came the anorexia. The mere sight of food made me violently nauseous until I was nothing but skin and bones. Finally, my organs began shutting down entirely. It was only on my deathbed that I realized it was never just a bird. It was my “dead” best friend. 1 In my last life, I died in a cold hospital room. I was hooked up to a dozen tubes, the heart monitor beside me letting out a long, piercing beep. The very last sound I heard before the darkness took me came from Opal, that African Grey parrot. It tilted its head, staring at me from the windowsill of my hospital room, and let out a soft, mocking laugh. It was the laugh of a grown man. I was already too weak to speak, but I recognized that laugh immediately. It belonged to my best friend, Declan. The same Declan who had died of a terminal illness three years ago. My soul drifted out of my ruined body, floating near the ceiling as the nurses pulled a crisp white sheet over my face. My wife, Amy, stood in the doorway. Her eyes were rimmed red, and she looked absolutely devastated. She cried beautifully for a few minutes, wiped her tears, and then turned and walked away. I followed her. I watched her drive out to a secluded, modern cabin in the suburbs. I watched her unlock the front door. Sitting inside the living room was a man. Declan. He was wearing dark, comfortable loungewear, his messy hair falling over his forehead. There was not a single trace of sickness on his face. His skin was flushed with health, and he smiled with the vibrant energy of an eighteen-year-old. Amy walked over, wrapped her arms tightly around his neck, and pressed a lingering kiss to his forehead. “He’s dead,” she whispered. “Finally.” Declan let out a low, satisfied laugh. “I spent three years trapped in the body of that damn bird. Every single day I cursed him, and every curse siphoned a little more of his life force away. Now that he’s dead, all that stolen vitality belongs entirely to me.” Amy tenderly cupped his face. “You can finally be human again.” Declan stood up from the sofa, stretching his arms high above his head and taking a deep, greedy breath of air. “I can finally use this body. Playing the pet bird for three years almost made me forget what it feels like to be a man.” Amy smiled sweetly. “When you were diagnosed with that terminal illness three years ago, I was terrified I was going to lose you.” “Thank God that occultist told us we could transfer your soul into a parrot and use someone else’s lifespan to keep you alive.” “But he specifically said we needed someone with the exact same soul resonance.” Declan pulled her flush against his chest. “Your husband’s soul resonance was a flawless match with mine. His life was practically designed to be harvested for my sake.” Amy kissed his hair. “Giving up his life to save yours was the greatest purpose he could have ever served.” I stood frozen in the center of the room, staring at the two of them. My wife. My absolute best friend. They held each other tightly, casually joking about how stealing my life was a privilege for me. I did not cry. Souls do not have tears to shed. I simply burned every single word, every twisted smile, and every sickening detail into my memory. And then, I woke up. I woke up exactly three years in the past. I woke up on the exact day Amy brought that parrot into our home. “Jeff? Jeff, what’s wrong?” Amy’s voice yanked me back to reality. She was looking at me with deep concern, resting a warm hand on my shoulder. It smelled exactly like her favorite expensive perfume. I looked down at my own body. My hands were steady, my chest broad. In my past life, this body had been hollowed out, drained drop by drop until there was nothing left. I lifted my head and looked Amy in the eyes. She wore a gentle, loving smile, but hiding deep beneath it was a flicker of eager anticipation. She was waiting for me to accept the bird. In my past life, I took it with a smile and treated it like a precious treasure. In this life. “Thank you, honey.” I smiled warmly, reaching out to take the ornate metal cage from her hands. “She’s beautiful.” 2 Amy let out a quiet sigh of relief and affectionately ruffled my hair. “I knew you’d love her. Opal, come on, say something sweet to your new dad.” The parrot tilted its grey head, opened its curved beak, and squawked. “Die, brother.” The sweet smile on Amy’s face froze for a fraction of a second. She quickly scrambled to cover it up with an awkward laugh. “The previous owner must have taught her that. Please don’t let it get to you, Jeff.” I chuckled, gently tapping the side of the metal cage. “This little thing has quite the foul mouth. Where did you even buy her, honey?” “A friend recommended the breeder. They specialize in highly intelligent, talking parrots.” Her eyes flickered to the side for the briefest moment when she said that. She was lying to my face. “Well, that’s fascinating.” I set the cage down on the glass coffee table and playfully wiggled my finger near the bird’s talons. “But honestly, work has been insanely stressful lately. Don’t you think having a loud bird in the house is going to be a bit much?” Amy didn’t miss a beat. “I actually asked my therapist about it. African Greys are perfectly fine as long as you keep their environment clean.” “Plus, you’ve been working from home so much lately. Having a little companion to talk to will do wonders for your mental health. A good mood means a healthy body.” Her argument was completely flawless. She had used the exact same lines in my previous life. Back then, I thought she was just being a loving, attentive wife. Now, I could hear the poison dripping from every syllable. Every single word was a calculated trap. “Ugly brother.” The parrot squawked again. Amy forced a light laugh. “Look, she’s already trying to bond with you.” I did not laugh. I picked up the cage by its brass ring and started walking toward the master bedroom. Amy called out from behind me. “Jeff, don’t take it personally. She’s literally just a bird.” “I’m not mad.” I glanced over my shoulder and gave her a reassuring smile. “I just want to spend some quality one-on-one time with my new pet.” The second the bedroom door clicked shut, my smile vanished entirely. I placed the cage on my mahogany desk, pulled up my leather office chair, and sat down dead center in front of it. The parrot tilted its head, staring at me. Its beady eyes were gleaming with sick amusement. I knew perfectly well that Declan was hiding behind those grey eyes. He was sitting inside that feathered shell, watching me play the clueless idiot for his entertainment. I had been an idiot in my last life. But not today. “Opal.” I called the name softly. The parrot kept its head tilted, staring at me in complete silence. “Your name is Opal, right?” I leaned closer to the metal bars, a pleasant smile plastered on my face. “It’s a beautiful name. Did my wife pick it out for you?” The bird’s grey feathers puffed up slightly. He clearly hadn’t expected me to be this terrifyingly calm. “But you know,” I leaned back in my chair, casually crossing one leg over the other, “I don’t think it’s a very lucky name. Opals are delicate. They shatter easily under pressure. Don’t you agree?” The parrot ignored me, lowering its head to aggressively preen its wing feathers. I stood up, moving some loose paperwork around on my desk to look busy. “Tell me something,” I said casually, keeping my tone light as if I were just talking to myself. “If a man is forced to listen to a bird tell him to die every single day, does that classify as psychological abuse?” I heard the frantic fluttering of wings behind me. I didn’t turn around. “Die.” The parrot suddenly spoke. It didn’t say the full phrase. Just one single word. “Die.” The tone was unnervingly soft, almost mimicking a child trying out a new vocabulary word. But the timing was far too perfect. It was a direct, chilling response to my question. My hands paused over my paperwork for a fraction of a second. Then I continued organizing my files. “You know,” I stacked the folders neatly, “you are a very conversational little bird.” “Die.” It repeated the word, even softer this time. It was a calculated test. I turned around slowly, locking eyes with the creature inside the cage. It stared right back, completely unblinking. Then, it opened its beak and unleashed a chaotic barrage of random noises. The clicking of a tongue, the bubbling of water, the sharp trill of a smartphone ringtone. All blended together in a messy symphony. It was perfectly standard parrot behavior. Mimicking the random sounds of its environment. But those two specific instances of the word “die” had been perfectly timed. Too perfect to be a coincidence. I stared at the bird for several long seconds. It stared back. Something dark and unspoken settled heavily in the air between us. It wasn’t panic. It was a terrifying mutual understanding. He knew that I suspected something. But he had no idea just how much I actually knew. And I had absolutely no intention of showing my hand. 3 I cooked dinner that night. A simple steak, mashed potatoes, and roasted asparagus. Amy ate quietly, seemingly lost in thought. Halfway through the meal, the parrot in the living room let out a sharp squawk. “Die.” Amy set her fork down and shot me a cautious look. “Please don’t be upset with her. It’s just a bird.” “I’m not upset.” She nodded slowly and went back to cutting her steak. After dinner, while I was washing the dishes, Amy walked out into the living room. I could hear her talking to the parrot. Her voice was incredibly soft, dripping with genuine affection. “Opal, be a good girl. Say something sweet for me.” The parrot ignored her. “Come on, just one nice word.” “Ugly.” Amy giggled softly. “You really have a wicked mouth, don’t you?” I stood in the doorway of the kitchen, watching her tease the bird through the bars of the cage. She had done the exact same thing in my previous life. She treated that bird with more tenderness and patience than she ever showed her own husband. Back then, I thought she was just an animal lover. I thought her compassion was endearing. Now the truth was glaringly obvious. She wasn’t being tender to a bird. She was being tender to the man trapped inside it. “Honey.” I stepped out into the living room. “I’m feeling a bit exhausted tonight. I think I’m going to head to bed early.” “Okay.” She didn’t even bother looking up, too busy tracing her manicured finger against the metal bars for the bird to nip at playfully. Around ten o’clock, Amy finally came into the master bedroom. She had just taken a shower, her long hair still damp and smelling of expensive shampoo. “Jeff, I need to let you know about something.” She sat gracefully on the edge of the mattress. “I have to go out of town for a business trip next week. I’ll be gone for about four or five days.” In my past life, she used the exact same excuse. She said four or five days, but she ended up staying away for a full week. “Alright.” “I need you to take good care of Opal while I’m gone. And please, don’t lose your temper with her. She’s just an animal. If she says something nasty, just ignore it.” “I know.” She reached out and affectionately stroked my hair. “Have you been in a bad mood lately?” “No.” “Good.” She reached over and clicked off the bedside lamp. “Get some sleep.” I did not sleep. In the suffocating darkness of the bedroom, a faint rustling sound echoed from the cage on the desk. He was moving. I rolled over, turning my back to the birdcage, and quietly slipped my hand under my pillow. My fingers wrapped tightly around a small piece of parchment, inked with a heavy warding sigil. The first half of the night was dead silent. But deep into the early hours of the morning, an unnatural, biting chill crept into the room. It wasn’t a draft from the window. It was a localized, creeping frost that seemed to seep directly into the top of my skull, like someone slowly pouring a pitcher of ice water over my brain. I didn’t move a muscle. I kept my breathing perfectly steady and rhythmic. The freezing sensation grew heavier and more oppressive. My grip on the warding sigil tightened until my knuckles turned white. And then. A violent, scorching sizzle echoed through the dark room. It sounded like raw meat being thrown onto a screaming hot skillet. The unnatural cold vanished in a fraction of a second. Complete chaos erupted from the cage. The frantic, desperate flapping of wings slamming against the metal bars was deafening in the dead of night. The panic lasted for about fifteen seconds before abruptly cutting into total silence. I slowly opened my eyes. Pale moonlight filtered through the narrow gap in the curtains, illuminating the desk. The grey mass of feathers was huddled miserably in the furthest corner of the cage. It was puffed up to twice its size, its chest heaving erratically. He wouldn’t dare try to siphon my energy again tonight. I calmly rolled over, tucked the warding sigil back under my pillow, and closed my eyes. I slept beautifully. The next morning, when I walked out of the bedroom, Amy was already sitting at the dining table. She had a cup of black coffee in one hand, staring intently at her smartphone screen. The moment she saw me, she immediately locked the device and set it face down. “Sleep well?” she asked, her tone entirely casual. “Like a rock,” I replied, pouring myself a glass of room-temperature water. “What about you? I noticed the light in your study was on pretty late.” “Just had to put out some fires at work.” She took a sip of her coffee. “By the way, Jeff, Opal is acting really strange today. Did something startle her last night?” “I have no idea.” I grabbed a carton of milk from the fridge. “I was in the bedroom. I didn’t hear a thing.” “Her feathers are completely fluffed up in distress.” Amy frowned, her eyes narrowing slightly. “Did you accidentally scare her yesterday when I wasn’t looking?” I stopped pouring the milk and looked her dead in the eyes. “You think I scared the bird?” “I didn’t mean it like that,” she quickly backpedaled. “I’m just asking.” “I know you’ve been incredibly stressed with work lately, and your moods have been a bit unpredictable. You might have accidentally raised your voice. Birds are highly sensitive creatures. They get traumatized easily.” My fingers tightened around the glass. She did this constantly in my past life. No matter what went wrong, she found a way to spin the blame onto me. When my health started failing, it was because I was “overthinking things.” When I suffered from insomnia, it was because I was “too neurotic.” When the parrot verbally abused me, it was because I had “accidentally raised my voice.” “I didn’t scare the bird.” I kept my voice perfectly level. Amy studied my face for two long seconds before nodding slowly. “Alright. Maybe it was just thunder from a storm last night.” There was no storm last night. The sky had been perfectly clear. I didn’t bother calling out her lie. She finished her breakfast and retreated to her study. After washing the dishes, I walked into the living room. The parrot shifted nervously on its wooden perch. “Die.” I ignored it. “Die. Die. Die.” Three rapid-fire curses, each one sharper and more venomous than the last. I turned my head and stared at the cage. It tilted its head, its cold grey eyes reflecting my face. But I could see Declan’s shadow lurking just behind those pupils. The boy I grew up with. The man who stole my wife, and then decided to steal my life. “Say that to me one more time,” I whispered, my voice laced with pure, unadulterated malice. The bird snapped its beak shut. It didn’t make another sound. 4 Late that afternoon, Amy emerged from her study holding her phone. “Jeff, I just got off the phone with the breeder. He said Opal’s previous owner was a bitter old woman.” “She probably spent all day cursing at the television, and the bird just picked up her vocabulary.” “Oh.” I didn’t bother looking up from the novel in my lap. “He said it’s just a phase. If you spend enough time talking to her using positive words, she’ll eventually learn them and forget the bad ones.” “Okay.” Amy stood in the center of the living room for a moment before speaking again. “You need to stop ignoring her. The more you ice her out, the more she’s going to act out for attention. You need to actually interact with her.” I closed my book and looked up at her. “Amy. You want me to sit here and have a friendly chat with a bird that constantly tells me to drop dead?” “She’s just a bird!” Her voice finally cracked with a sharp edge of irritation. “She doesn’t even comprehend what the words mean! Why are you holding a grudge against an animal?” “I’m not holding a grudge.” “Then why won’t you talk to her?” I opened my mouth to argue, but snapped it shut. In my past life, every single one of our arguments ended exactly like this: in my defeated silence. Because I loved her. Because I couldn’t bear to see her upset. I honestly believed that if I just swallowed my pride and endured it, everything would magically fix itself. I endured it until the day it literally killed me. “Fine.” I stood up. “I’ll talk to her.” I walked over to the glass coffee table and crouched down, bringing myself perfectly to eye level with the cage. “Opal.” I said her name clearly. She tilted her head, watching me carefully. “Say something nice.” She opened her curved beak. “Ugly.” “Try again.” “Die.” Amy let out a soft, exasperated laugh from behind me. “See? She’s communicating with you.” I did not smile. “Teach me how to make her say something nice, then.” Amy walked over and gently nudged me out of the way. “You have to speak to her like this. ‘Opal, say hello.’” She leaned close to the metal bars, her voice melting into a sickeningly sweet coo. “Opal, hello.” The parrot tilted its head but stayed silent. “Hello,” she repeated softly. “Hello,” the parrot parroted back. Amy beamed with pride. “See? There’s absolutely nothing wrong with the bird.” The unspoken implication hung heavily in the air. The bird wasn’t the problem. I was. She didn’t say anything else, simply turning on her heel and walking back to her study. I stood in front of the coffee table, staring into the cage. The parrot was intensely focused on the closed door of the study. There was a sickeningly human emotion in its beady eyes. It looked like longing. Like desperate, devoted expectation. It was waiting for Amy to come back. Because the parasite living inside that feathered shell was madly in love with her. In my past life, the second I was put in the ground, the two of them moved in together. I crouched back down and rapped my knuckles sharply against the metal bars. The parrot snapped its head toward me. “You can stop waiting.” I lowered my voice to a lethal whisper. “She left.” It tilted its head, as if trying to dissect the exact meaning behind my words. I stood up and walked straight into the master bedroom. I locked the door behind me, leaned heavily against the wood, and pulled out my phone. I typed a specific query into the search bar. “Avian behavioral modification boarding.” I clicked the top result and dialed the number. It rang twice before a woman answered. “Hello, Avian Echo Behavioral Center.” Her voice was crisp and strictly professional. “Hi, I need a consultation. I have an African Grey that has picked up some severe negative vocabulary. Words like ‘ugly’ and ‘die’. Do you have any intensive methods to correct this?” “Yes, we do. For severe cases, we utilize a mirror enclosure paired with aggressive positive reinforcement.” “The mirror enclosure is a specialized cage lined entirely with mirrors. Being surrounded by endless reflections of itself induces a highly stressful psychological response in the parrot. While it’s in this vulnerable state, we loop high-frequency positive vocabulary recordings. It usually only takes three to five days to completely overwrite the negative programming.” “Will the mirror enclosure cause lasting psychological damage to the bird?” “It will induce genuine fear, yes. But that is a necessary component of the correction process. Rest assured, our head trainer monitors the birds 24/7. It will not suffer any physical harm.” I remained silent for two full seconds. “Perfect. I’ll drop the bird off on Monday. I want the full boarding package.” I hung up the phone and stood alone in the darkening bedroom. A cool breeze slipped through the open window, making the sheer curtains flutter like ghosts. In my past life, he spent six months draining my life away with his curses. In this life, I am going to lock him in a box of mirrors, forcing him to stare at his own pathetic reflection until he loses his mind.

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1 Victoria was a renowned micro-expression expert who claimed no lie escaped her. To study us, she wired our home with surveillance, turning our lives into a lab. When Paige cried over a scraped knee, Victoria held her, praising her “genuine” emotion. But when I writhed in agony from cramps, she stared at her monitor, lecturing her students. “Twitching lips, shifting eyes—classic histrionic disorder. She is acting.” The day I ingested a lethal allergen, my throat sealed shut. Clawing at my neck, I crawled to her, begging. Victoria simply pushed up her glasses, opened her notepad, and wrote clinically, “Rapid respiration. Cyanosis. Gemma, your acting has improved, but your micro-expressions betray you.” As punishment, she disabled the medical alarm, locked the doors, and took Paige to a concert. “Enjoy your performance for the cameras. Let’s see how long it takes you to admit the truth.” I curled up on the freezing tiles, my vision fading as I stared at the blinking red eye of the camera above. Mom, you spent your life analyzing humanity. Yet, you never saw your own daughter. … I drifted into the air, looking down at my own body curled on the floor. My face, bloated and turned a dark, bruised purple from suffocation, looked grotesque, almost pathetic. All the agony, the burning in my lungs, the sheer despair had remained trapped in that useless vessel. It felt peaceful. Finally, the pain was gone. Lighter than a feather, my spirit slipped through the solid brick walls with a single thought, finding myself in the grand, gilded concert hall across town. Victoria sat in the front row. She took a strawberry candy from Paige’s hand, carefully peeled back the wrapper, and popped it into Paige’s mouth. Her eyes held a warmth I had never once received in life. “Eat slowly, sweetheart. Don’t choke.” Paige mumbled around the candy, her voice dripping with irritation. “Gemma is so annoying. She had to play sick today and almost made us late.” A faint, smug smile played on Victoria’s lips, filled with absolute certainty. “Don’t let her bother you. It’s just her histrionic tendencies craving attention. She needs a cold dose of reality. Once she realizes her little stunts don’t work on me, she’ll stop.” Right then, her phone buzzed inside her designer handbag. It was a notification from the home security app. Living Room Camera: Target motionless for an extended period. Potential anomaly detected. Please check immediately. Victoria casually unlocked her screen and opened the live feed. On the screen, I lay contorted on the cold floor, completely still. “Huh? Gemma looks weird,” Paige whispered, leaning over with a look of pure disgust. “She’s playing dead again. She just wants to trick you into coming home.” Victoria let out a soft huff, devoid of any real concern. Pinching her fingers to zoom in on my stiff, curled fingers, she turned my death into a teaching moment. “Look closely, Paige. This is what we call intentional rigidity. When someone actually faints or dies, their muscles go entirely limp in the initial stages. Look at her fingers. They are incredibly tense. It is a clear case of overacting. She is trying too hard to make sure the camera catches it.” She paused, pointing to my parted lips. “And see the downward pull of her lips? That is a classic masochistic-gratification expression. She is indulging in the tragedy of being misunderstood to gain psychological satisfaction.” A well-dressed woman sitting nearby overheard the explanation and leaned in, her eyes wide with admiration. “Excuse me, are you Dr. Victoria Brooks? The famous micro-expression expert from the talk shows? I’ve read all your papers. You’re brilliant.” “That analysis is absolutely incredible. Your eyes really are like X-rays. Nothing can slip past you.” “You’re too kind,” Victoria replied with a poised, graceful nod. Floating above them, I could only manage a silent, bitter smile. Mom, this time, you got it completely wrong. I remembered when I was little, before my mother became a renowned specialist. Back then, her eyes held nothing but pure affection for me. Whenever I felt hurt or upset, she would pull me tightly into her arms, kissing my forehead over and over. “Gemma’s feelings are the most precious things in the world to me. Mommy will always protect you.” But as Victoria’s fame grew, Paige was born. My sister was a naturally sweet talker, bright and endlessly cheerful, effortlessly capturing everyone’s hearts. I, on the other hand, was always stiff, my expressions awkward. Accustomed to absolute perfection and control, Victoria slowly grew to resent my existence. I used to think that if I just tried a little harder, if I strove to be better, she would love me again. But every attempt only pushed her further away. The classical music finally swelled to a close. As the crowd filed out, Victoria showed no intention of heading home. Paige tugged on her hand, looking up innocently. “Mom, aren’t we going home? Is Gemma still putting on her show?” Victoria stood up, smoothing the fabric of her elegant dress. Her eyes swept over the frozen image of my body on her phone. “No. I want to see who breaks first, her drama or my patience. If she wants to play the victim, she can do it all night. Come on, Paige. Let’s get that French dinner you’ve been craving.” At the upscale bistro, Paige kicked her legs under the table, her eyes wide. “Mom, Gemma’s been face down on that cold floor for so long. She must be starving. Should we pack some escargot for her?” The waiter pouring their lemon water smiled warmly. “Your little girl is so sweet and thoughtful.” Victoria smiled, stroking Paige’s hair. “Kindness is a virtue, Paige, but you have to choose who deserves it.” She spread her linen napkin over her lap. “For someone as full of lies as your sister, showing pity only enables her deceit. We aren’t bringing her anything. A night of hunger will teach her the true cost of honesty.” The phone on the table lit up again. Alerts from the security app flooded the lock screen, bright red exclamation marks popping up with persistent urgency. Warning: Extended immobility detected. Warning: Abrupt temperature drop in target area. Warning: Minor fluid leakage detected… Victoria glanced at the screen. My fingers remained in that stiff, frozen curl. Not a single line creased her brow. She flipped the phone face down onto the mahogany table. “Here, Paige. Try the foie gras. It’s excellent for development.” She neatly sliced a piece, blew on it gently, and fed it to her younger daughter. Meanwhile, the only variable in our heavily monitored house had finally arrived. Mrs. Gable, our housekeeper, was scheduled to visit. Since she was leaving for her hometown tomorrow, she decided to finish the cleaning a day early. She stood outside the massive glass patio doors, peering in as she reached for the doorbell. The next second, her smile shattered. Through the pristine glass, she saw my pale, bluish-purple face contorted on the living room rug. A dark patch of fluid was slowly pooling beneath my head. “Gemma! Gemma!” Panic-stricken, Mrs. Gable began banging violently on the thick glass. “Sweetheart, what’s wrong? Open the door!” The glass remained impenetrable, and the body inside didn’t stir. Desperate, she slammed her thumb into the red emergency button near the door, but it was dead. Looking closer, she saw the wiring had been cleanly severed at the base. Shaking violently, Mrs. Gable pulled out her phone and dialed Victoria. “Yes, Mrs. Gable? What is it?” Victoria’s voice held a note of irritation. “Dr. Brooks, something is terribly wrong! You have to come home right now! It’s Gemma. She’s on the floor, completely still, and her face is turning blue!” My spirit drifted beside Mrs. Gable. Seeing her sweat-streaked, tearful face sparked a faint ember of hope in me. She had watched me grow up. Maybe, just maybe, she could make Victoria understand. But Victoria’s next words dragged me straight back into the abyss. “Mrs. Gable, ignore her. I’ve told you before, Gemma suffers from histrionic personality traits. This is part of a cognitive behavioral therapy scenario I set up to correct her manipulative lying.” “A scenario? What scenario?!” Mrs. Gable was hysterical. “Dr. Brooks, this isn’t acting! The poor girl is blue, her lips are turning black! Please, you need to come back!” “It’s makeup,” Victoria countered smoothly. “She once smeared ketchup on her face to fake coughing up blood just to get my attention. She is highly resourceful when she wants sympathy. Don’t let her play you. She thrives on manipulating people’s pity.” “No! This isn’t makeup!” Mrs. Gable begged, tears streaming down her face. “I’ve known this child for years. I know when she’s playing around, and this isn’t it! Please, just call an ambulance!” “Enough!” Victoria’s voice rose, sharp and laced with the fury of a professional who despised being questioned. “Mrs. Gable, I am the clinical psychologist here. I understand my daughter’s behavioral patterns far better than you do!” “I am in the middle of a critical psychological intervention. Your panic is going to ruin my entire therapeutic progress! Leave the premises immediately. Do not interfere.” The line went dead. Refusing to give up, Mrs. Gable redialed, only to be met with a cold, automated operator. The number you are trying to reach is currently busy… She had been blocked. Her hand fell limp. Pressing her face against the glass, she took one last, helpless look at my silent form. With no other choice, she walked away, glancing back over her shoulder in agony as she left the gated community. I watched the only person who could have saved me walk away. The last spark of light in my chest died. Back at the restaurant, Paige licked her ice cream spoon and asked innocently, “Mom, was that Mrs. Gable? What did she want?” Victoria dabbed her mouth with a napkin, her soft, maternal smile returning instantly. “Nothing, sweetheart. Just another fool falling for your sister’s theatrics.” “Weird. Why is the door deadbolted from the inside?” Robert stood on the front porch, dragging his suitcase and pressing the doorbell repeatedly. He had just returned early from a business trip, hoping to surprise his family. When the bell elicited no response, he reached for the red emergency alarm button. The button hung loose, its raw copper wires dangling helplessly. A cold dread seized his chest. Shaking, he dug his spare key out of his wallet and jammed it into the lock. With a heavy click, the deadbolt gave way. A heavy, stagnant odor of raw decay and bodily fluids rushed out, hitting him like a physical blow. Robert froze on the threshold, his gaze locking onto the center of the living room. And then, he saw me. He saw the body on the floor, stiff, pale, with dark lividity already pooling in the skin. “Gemma…” His lips trembled, unable to form a coherent sound. His suitcase hit the floor with a loud thud as he scrambled across the room, falling to his knees. “My baby. Oh God, Gemma, what happened to you?!” He tried to pull me into his arms, but my limbs were as rigid as stone. Touching my ice-cold, lifeless skin, he realized there was no breath. A raw, guttural scream tore from his throat. My spirit hovered near the ceiling. I watched this man, who had always been a pillar of strength, break down like a helpless child. He clung to my rigid form, crying my name over and over. The veins in his neck bulged, tears streaming down his face as he shook with heavy, violent sobs. “Victoria. Victoria, pick up!” He snatched his phone, his eyes bloodshot with rage, and dialed Victoria’s number. At that very moment, Victoria was at a high-end boutique downtown, watching Paige twirl in a white lace dress. “Mommy, look. I look just like Elsa!” Paige giggled, spinning in front of the mirror. “If you love it, we’re buying it,” Victoria said softly, pulling out her phone to pay. Robert’s name flashed frantically across her screen. She glanced at it, her brow furrowing in irritation, and swiped to decline. “Your father is so exhausting. He doesn’t call once during his trip, and now he won’t stop ringing.” The call was disconnected. But a few seconds later, an unknown landline number flashed on the screen. Annoyed, she swiped to answer. “Hello?” “Victoria, where the hell are you?!” Robert’s voice roared through the receiver, using a neighbor’s phone. “Gemma is dead. You killed her!” Facing this shattered, bloody accusation, Victoria was silent for a fraction of a second before letting out a soft, mocking sigh. “Robert, did you look at the cameras too? You have to trust my professional judgment on this. Don’t enable her drama like you always do.” Her voice was perfectly level, tinged with a clinical sort of disdain. “I watched the live feed earlier and analyzed her micro-expressions. Avoidant eye contact, manufactured physical stiffness. It is a textbook stress response to lying. She is attempting to leverage self-inflicted misery to force us to come home.” “You… you monster…” Robert shook so violently he couldn’t form the words. He slammed the phone down and immediately dialed 911. Sirens soon shattered the quiet of the exclusive neighborhood. Neighbors peered out of their windows as police cruisers and ambulances lined the street, cordoning off our lawn with yellow tape. Back at the mall, Victoria was signing the receipt, a pleasant smile on her face. Looking up, she caught a breaking news broadcast flashing across the massive digital screen in the mall’s atrium. Breaking News: A young woman was found dead in an upscale residence earlier today. Authorities are currently investigating. A brief shot of our gated community’s entrance flashed on screen. Victoria’s heart skipped a beat. But within a second, her professional pride took over, silencing the dread. No. Absolutely impossible. The rigidity and posturing in the live stream were entirely manufactured. The news report was just a coincidence. It had nothing to do with her household. The brief flash of panic vanished, replaced by an irritation at being manipulated. “Typical,” she muttered, taking Paige’s hand. “Your father is still trying to play his part in her little play. He realized I wouldn’t bite, so he stopped calling. Using life and death as a prop. How pathetic.” “Come on, Paige. Look at the camera and smile.” Victoria took Paige straight to the most exclusive portrait studio in the city. She seemed determined to use social media to show Robert and me that her resolve was unbreakable. The camera flashed, capturing a picture-perfect portrait of maternal bliss. Victoria immediately uploaded it, carefully crafting her caption: A day free from emotional hostage-taking. Honesty is the only foundation for true connection. #QualityTime #Parenting Below it, she posted a beautiful grid of photos showing her and Paige laughing in their matching dresses. Within minutes, comments and likes poured in by the dozens. So true, Dr. Brooks! Your parenting is such an inspiration! Paige looks like an absolute angel! Victoria scrolled through the glowing praise, her chest swelling with pride. At that moment, the heavy glass doors of the studio slid open, and three uniformed police officers entered, their faces grim. The chatter in the studio died instantly. Every eye tracked the officers as they marched across the room. The lead officer scanned the lobby, locked onto Victoria, and walked straight toward her. “Are you Victoria Brooks?” Victoria blinked, startled. Quickly recovering her composed, academic poise, she nodded. “I am. Can I help you, officers?” “I’m Detective Briggs from Homicide,” the lead officer said, showing his badge. “We need you to come with us regarding the death of your daughter, Gemma Brooks.”

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1 My girlfriend had a universal partner for everything. At first, it was just grabbing dinner or hitting the gym with him. Then it became movies, shopping, and weekend trips. “Then what am I to you?” I had asked her once. She had laughed, light and carefree. “You’re my boyfriend, babe. Don’t be petty over a platonic partner.” But when he wanted hot pot, she canceled our movie tickets and drove across the city at midnight to wait in line with him. When he wanted to go camping, she completely forgot our anniversary, spending the entire week planning a detailed itinerary to keep him happy. When my stomach cramps were so bad I couldn’t stand straight, she told me to order delivery. The seaside cabin I booked months in advance was canceled because she was “too tired.” On my birthday, I sat alone and sliced my cake seven times. By the time the candles burned down to melted wax, she still hadn’t shown up. Instead, she posted a beautiful grid of photos on social media. She was wrapped in his oversized jacket, watching him capture the sunrise for her. Life is so much better when you have a partner who will drop everything and travel with you. Thank you to the absolute best partner ever! I left a like and slowly typed a comment. I hope you two stay partners forever. I clicked send, turned off my phone, and tossed my ring into the trash. My birthday wish was simple: to walk away from her. … My screen lit up with a barrage of notifications. “Boss Brooke, is your man jealous?” I pulled off the silver band I had worn for three years. It left a faint, red indentation on my finger. It turned out some things weren’t impossible to remove. I had just been too afraid of the pain of letting go. Brooke didn’t walk through the front door until nine the next morning. She was carrying a bag of take-out dumplings from my favorite diner. “Still mad?” Her voice was casual, carrying a familiar mix of exhaustion, cheap appeasement, and absolute certainty that I would forgive her. She set the food on the table and stepped forward to wrap her arms around me. She smelled like mountain dew mixed with the rich, synthetic scent of his car air freshener. I leaned my head away. Her arms stiffened for a second, but then she laughed. “There was no signal up on the peak last night. I really didn’t mean to ignore your texts. Don’t be childish, babe. I’ll buy you an extra nice gift to make up for it.” “Elliot, you know how much I care about you, don’t you?” Of course I did. It wasn’t that Brooke had never been gentle. I hated cilantro, and she used to write it three times in the special instructions whenever we ordered takeout. When my back flared up from old racing injuries, she would drive to a late-night pharmacy to buy heat patches. When her garage first opened and business was slow, she had walked through nearby office buildings, handing out flyers floor by floor. Even when security kicked her out, she would just rub her nose and laugh, saying, “It’s fine. We’ll try the back entrance tomorrow.” Back then, I believed her willingness to spend her time on me was proof of real love. But time has a way of diverging. Slowly, she began to steer toward someone else. Seeing my silence, Brooke opened the soy milk, poked a straw through the lid, and pushed it toward me. “Stop giving me the silent treatment. I booked a table for us tonight. Let’s go out.” Before I could speak, her phone rang. Gavin’s voice leaked loudly through the speaker. “Hey, Brooke! Didn’t you say we were trying that new barbecue place today? I already told the guys we’re coming.” “Don’t flake on me! I skipped breakfast just for this!” Brooke looked at me, covering the receiver with her palm. “How about we all go together?” When I didn’t reply, she took it as consent, letting out a relieved laugh and reaching over to ruffle my hair. “See? Gavin doesn’t mind you tagging along. You really need to stop treating him like the enemy.” Suddenly, even anger felt like too much effort. On the other end, Gavin was still shouting. “Is your boyfriend coming too? Perfect! I’ll order for us. I know exactly what Brooke likes!” Brooke smiled. “Alright, I’ll tell him.” She hung up and reached for my hand again. “Stop sulking. Let’s go tonight.” I pulled my hand back. “I’m not going.” The smile faded slightly from her face. “Elliot, that’s enough.” “I apologized. I even offered to take you out. What more do you want?” “Gavin is just like that. He’s loud, casual, and straightforward. There’s no hidden agenda. You’re making a big deal out of nothing.” I looked at the dumplings on the table. The steam had softened the paper bag, and the soy milk was still warm, but I didn’t have an ounce of appetite. Brooke waited for a few seconds. Seeing that I wouldn’t budge, she finally snatched her car keys off the counter. “Fine. Take some time to cool down.” “I’ll head over first. If you change your mind, text me.” The door clicked shut, plunging the apartment into a heavy silence. In the past, whenever she walked out like this, I would sit on the sofa and wait. I would wait for her to come home, offer a half-hearted explanation, and coax me back into her good graces. But the spark was gone. I was done waiting. I opened my laptop and pulled up an old email. The head coach of an international professional racing team had invited me back to train for three consecutive years. Every year, I had declined. The shadows of my past still clung to my scars, and I hadn’t wanted to touch a steering wheel again. I had preferred to hide as a quiet entrepreneur running a barber shop, staying far away from the track. But things were different now. The suffocating pain of staying by her side had far exceeded the fear of facing my old trauma. My fingers hovered over the keyboard before I typed a simple reply. I’m ready to try. 2 It took Brooke three days to notice my emotional absence. I kept running my shop, styling hair for clients, and kept my replies to her brief. Okay. No need. I know. At first, she figured I was just throwing a tantrum. But eventually, a quiet panic must have set in. That afternoon, she showed up at my shop to pick me up, holding a bouquet of cappuccino roses. “Let’s get Cantonese tonight. Haven’t you been craving it for weeks?” There were still clients in the shop. A few young girls stole glances at us, their eyes filled with envy. Brooke was striking, charming, and knew exactly how to play the doting partner. To the outside world, she was the perfect catch. I didn’t ruin her performance. When she reached for my hand, I let her hold it, though I felt nothing. “I knew you wouldn’t hold a grudge,” she murmured, smiling. I stared out the window as she drove. She kept talking, her voice smooth. “Elliot, I know you felt neglected.” “But Gavin grew up mostly around women. He doesn’t have filters. If you make a fuss over him, it just makes you look petty.” I finally turned to look at her. “So when he ruined my birthday, it was just a lack of filters? And on our anniversary…” Brooke furrowed her brows, cutting me off. “Why are you digging up old history again? I explained this to you. His tire blew out. He was stranded alone in the middle of nowhere. It was dangerous.” I was thoroughly exhausted by her excuses. As she spoke, I quietly asked, “Brooke, do you honestly believe that as long as you claim to love me, your actions don’t cause any real harm?” Brooke froze, momentarily speechless, before reaching over to ruffle my hair again. “There you go again, taking everything so seriously.” We arrived at the restaurant in silence. The host recognized us immediately. “Your usual table?” Brooke ordered a table full of my favorite dishes. But just as I picked up a shrimp dumpling, a familiar voice echoed from the entrance. “Brooke!” Gavin waved, wearing an oversized leather motorcycle jacket. “What a coincidence!” He strolled over to our table without a hint of shame. “Our riding group just split up, and I haven’t eaten. Mind if I join?” He directed the question at me, but his eyes were locked onto Brooke. Without thinking, Brooke stood up to pull out a chair for him. He glanced at the spread. “Ooh, shrimp dumplings! My favorite!” The next second, Brooke slid my plate right over to him. “I’ll order you another one,” she said to me. My chopsticks remained frozen in the air. Gavin rested his chin in his hands, looking at me with a smirk. “You don’t mind, right? Brooke and I are so used to sharing everything anyway. We don’t care about formalities.” A few other riders who had followed him inside chimed in. “Gavin and Brooke are basically brothers. Don’t overthink it, man.” Gavin waved them off playfully. “Hey, shut up! You’ll make him upset. Brooke and I are completely platonic. She just takes really good care of me. I guess she can’t help it since our driving styles are so in sync.” Brooke merely laughed. “Hush, you.” Her tone was dripping with indulgence. Gavin stuck his tongue out. “Alright, alright. The boyfriend is boss.” I quietly sipped my porridge as Brooke laughed off the awkwardness and changed the subject. They talked and laughed for the rest of the night, leaving me entirely in the dark. The next morning, a few regular clients came in for haircuts. As they looked through style books, they gossiped about the local motorcycle scene. “Have you guys heard about Gavin? The guy who’s always trailing after his big sisters?” “Oh yeah, he’s been bragging non-stop lately.” “He posted some passive-aggressive status about how his favorite sister treats him better than her actual boyfriend. The official guy must be losing his mind.” “He’s always done that. Remember how he latched onto that other female rider last year? Played the innocent little brother, accepted expensive helmets and watches, and eventually drove her boyfriend away.” “Exactly. His favorite excuse is always: We’re just riding partners, you’re overthinking it.” My scissors slowed down slightly. “He’s done this before?” I asked quietly. The client perked up, eager to share the gossip. “Oh, countless times! Everyone in the racing scene knows him. He specifically targets women in relationships. The more the boyfriend objects, the more he paints them as insecure. And the women eat it up. They think he’s easygoing and low-maintenance compared to their partners.” I listened quietly, piecing the puzzle together. Suddenly, Brooke seemed incredibly pathetic. Her taste in people was laughable. Well, before I made my exit, I could certainly leave her with a parting gift. 3 When the local riding club organized a weekend road trip, Brooke insisted on picking me up. She wore a sharp black windbreaker, her hair styled neatly. “Let’s go! I’m finally introducing you to everyone.” She opened the passenger door for me. “You always complain that I never bring you along,” she murmured, leaning in to buckle my seatbelt. “So today, you’re coming with me.” But I knew the truth. She wasn’t bringing me into her circle. She was dragging me there to force me to accept Gavin’s presence. A dozen sports cars were lined up, their engines revving in a loud, echoing chorus. Gavin spotted us, a sweet smile plastering his face. “Look who made it! Brooke actually managed to bring the househusband out!” “But hey, aren’t you going to be terrified in the passenger seat? Unlike me, the louder the brakes screech, the more excited I get.” The other drivers laughed. Brooke frowned slightly. But Gavin was already pulling open the passenger door, grinning. “Just kidding, don’t be tense. I’m just worried because you don’t know these mountain passes. There are a lot of sharp turns ahead. I should probably navigate for her.” Brooke rubbed her nose. “Gavin knows these roads like the back of his hand. Elliot, why don’t you sit in the back for now? Safety first.” The back seat. Mountain roads. Sharp turns. The words wrapped around my throat like a vice. On that rainy night years ago, my parents had been sitting in the back seat while I drove. The slick mountain pass, the screeching brakes, the world spinning upside down, and my mother’s blood-soaked, lifeless eyes. The flashing rescue lights cutting through the heavy rain. My entire family, shattered in an instant. Before that day, I wasn’t just Elliot the barber. I had raced in junior leagues, brought home trophies, and my coach had praised my fearlessness and sharp reflexes. I was on the fast track to the professional leagues. Even my father used to tell me, “My boy drives steadier than I ever could.” But that single crash had crushed everything. The memory left me pale and frozen. But Brooke just assumed I was acting up again. She grabbed my wrist. “Elliot, don’t embarrass me in front of my friends. It’s just a seat change. If you’re really that scared, I’ll take it slow.” Gavin was already buckled into the passenger seat, waving at me through the window. “Get in, buddy! Don’t worry, I’ll guide her!” The door slammed shut, and I climbed into the back. The city skyline shrank behind us as the winding mountain roads climbed higher. At first, Brooke kept her speed down, glancing at me through the rearview mirror. “You okay back there?” I stared out the glass. “Keep it slow.” “I will.” But Gavin quickly pulled out his phone to start a live stream. He aimed the camera at the road ahead, then panned to Brooke’s hands tight on the steering wheel. “Hey guys, Brooke is taking me for a spin! This pass is absolutely insane!” The chat was flying by, and Gavin grinned widely. “Brooke, remember how you used to drift that sharp corner up ahead? Show them what you’ve got!” Brooke frowned. “Stop messing around.” “Oh, come on, driving slow is boring.” He brought the phone closer to her face. “Don’t tell me you’re scared just because your boyfriend is in the back?” The car’s walkie-talkie crackled to life with other drivers joining in. “Don’t back down, Brooke! Show your man how it’s done!” I stared at the road ahead. It had rained the night before, and wet patches still mirrored the trees in the shadows. I couldn’t help but speak up. “The road is slick. Don’t drift.” Gavin’s smile faltered. “Relax, buddy. We’ve run this route dozens of times.” I repeated, “There is standing water on the asphalt.” Brooke glanced at me through the mirror, her irritation clear. “Elliot, I know you’re uncomfortable, but don’t ruin the mood for everyone. I know what I’m doing.” But then, the tail of the car fish-tailed. The tires lost traction on a wet patch, and the entire vehicle lurched violently. The screech of tires from that rainy night, my mother’s screams, the sound of shattering glass, it all rushed back in a deafening wave. I clung to my seatbelt, my breath turning shallow and rapid. I heard myself whisper, “Stop the car…” but my voice was barely audible. Gavin shrieked first, “Brooke!” The moment Brooke regained control of the vehicle, her immediate reaction was to reach over and pull Gavin into her arms. “I’ve got you. You’re okay.” She unbuckled her seatbelt, turning her entire body to comfort him. I sat frozen in the back seat, my ears ringing. I tried to reach for the door handle, but my limbs felt like lead. It took several minutes for Brooke to finally look back at me. Seeing the pale, rigid expression on my face, she immediately scoffed. “He was terrified, Elliot! Can you please stop giving us that look? We’re all out to have a good time. You need to stop being so uptight.” I looked down at my phone, opened an app for a moving company, and sent them my address. Please arrive promptly at 9:00 AM the day after tomorrow. 4 I couldn’t recover after we got back. The sound of screeching tires echoed constantly in my head, and my stomach felt like it was being twisted in a knot. Brooke came over and pressed her hand to my forehead. “Why are you so burning hot?!” She rushed to pour a glass of water and rummaged through the medicine cabinet. “How did you manage to get yourself this sick?” Frowning, she tucked the blanket around my shoulders, placing her warm palm against my back to soothe me. But then, her hand froze as her phone began to ring. Gavin’s name flashed across the screen. “Brooke, I can’t sleep. Every time I close my eyes, I see the car sliding on the mountain road. I’m so scared. Can you come over and keep me company for a bit?” A flicker of hesitation crossed her eyes, but she stood up anyway. “I’ll be right back.” She didn’t return until seven the next morning, carrying a container of porridge and medicine. Seeing me sitting up against the headboard, she walked over and touched my cheek. “Still mad?” “I know I shouldn’t have left last night,” she sighed. “But Gavin has no one else. You have me, Elliot. He’s completely alone in this city. Who else can he turn to?” I pushed her hand away. “Do I really have you, Brooke?” Brooke blinked, startled, then frowned. “Do you have to be like this? I came back, didn’t I?” She dismissed the question, clearly unwilling to engage. “Next Saturday is the garage’s anniversary party. You’re coming, right? You’re my future husband, you need to be there to support me.” I didn’t say yes, nor did I say no. A few days later, Gavin strolled into my barber shop, a breezy smile on his face. “Hey, big guy. Give me a fresh cut. I need to look perfect for the garage’s anniversary party next week. You’re coming to the party, right? Brooke said she has to bring you along for formal events.” “Honestly, I’m kind of jealous of you,” he laughed. “It must be nice to have the official title. Unlike me, I’m the one who goes drifting with her, stays up late, and helps her sign clients. But in the end, I’m still just a partner.” I kept my hands steady, carefully trimming the ends of his hair. He leaned in slightly, his voice dropping to a conspiratorial whisper. “But Brooke did say you’re fragile. She doesn’t want you exerting yourself, so she lets me handle the heavy lifting to keep you comfortable.” The scissors paused for a fraction of a second. He saw the pause and grinned, thinking he had finally struck a nerve. I simply looked at him. “Anything else you want trimmed?” On the night of the anniversary, I closed my shop early. When I got back to the apartment, more than half of my belongings were already gone. Over the years, I had slowly filled this space with warmth. Now, in a single day, I had erased my presence entirely. My phone buzzed with a boarding reminder from the international racing team. I took one last look around the apartment. In that kitchen, I had cooked for Brooke. On that balcony, I had spent hours waiting for her to come home. At that dining table, I had sliced my birthday cake alone. This place held all the evidence of my love for her. Now, it was cleared away. I was truly letting go. At the garage’s anniversary party, Gavin was showing off his haircut, laughing with a group of drivers. “Where’s the boyfriend? Why isn’t he here yet?” Brooke checked her phone. There were no texts from me. A wave of irritation washed over her, but she forced a smile and made an excuse. “He’s not feeling well. He should be arriving shortly.” Gavin chuckled softly. “Maybe he’s still pouting. Men are so easy to manage once you soothe their egos.” Just then, an employee approached with a small gift box. “Brooke, a courier just delivered this from your boyfriend.” The box was incredibly tiny. Gavin glanced at it with a smirk. “A tiny box for such a big milestone? Well, I guess it’s the thought that counts.” A few people laughed. Brooke felt a twinge of disappointment, but her expression softened when she opened the box and saw a custom flash drive inside. She had given me that drive back when we first started dating. She had told me, “If you ever want to give me a major surprise, start with this. It has sentimental value.” Over the years, I had used it to organize her birthday surprises, compiling old promotional videos, client testimonials, and business proposals I had stayed up all night drafting. On one of those nights, she had held me with tear-filled eyes and whispered, “Elliot, you understand me better than anyone in the world.” Remembering that, her annoyance melted away. Her chest warmed with a quiet anticipation. Had I prepared another surprise for her? Was my cold behavior over the last few days just a setup for this grand gesture? Gavin rolled his eyes but urged her on. “Go on, Brooke, plug it in! Let’s see what kind of surprise we have.” With the entire room watching, Brooke stepped up to the main stage and plugged the flash drive into the laptop connected to the projector.

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