For our high school graduation trip, Grace, our class princess, gave us three different itineraries. In my first life, we chose Route A. The tour bus plummeted off a mountain pass. The vehicle was pulverized, and not a single soul survived the impact. In my second life, we went with Route B. A head-on collision wiped out the entire class. Grace was the sole survivor. In my third life, we opted for Route C. A tire blowout caused a devastating rollover. Most of the class walked away with scratches, but Grace and I died on the spot. Now, my eyes snap open. Grace is leaning forward, her chin propped on her hands, smiling sweetly at me. “So, Hannah, which one do you want to pick?” Before I can even open my mouth, the others chime in. “Why are you asking her? She’s a charity case. Probably hasn’t even crossed state lines. What would she know about a vacation?” “Yeah, just choose, Grace. If she complains, I’ll shut her up myself.” On the morning of the trip, when they do the headcount and realize I’m missing, Grace calls me in a panic. “Hannah, where are you? The whole bus is waiting for you.” I am sitting on the terrace of a boutique resort at the foot of the mountain, leisurely sipping an iced latte. “I’m already here.” This time, they can keep their death trap of a bus. I’m going to sit back and watch exactly who pays the price. 1 At our post-finals dinner, the table was buzzing with talk about the trip. “Hannah, I asked you a question. Why are you spacing out?” Leonard asked, crossing his arms and looking at me with cold irritation. I looked up, meeting his eyes. For a split second, all I saw was his crushed, blood-soaked body pinned beneath the rusted frame of a bus. Grace slid over, draping her arm over my shoulder, her eyes sparkling. “Hannah, you’re the class president. Your opinion is super important to us.” I looked at her. Her smile was still effortlessly beautiful, sweet enough to rot your teeth. But I couldn’t stand the sight of it anymore. I looked down, surreptitiously checking my arms and torso. No broken bones. No exposed organs. I exhaled a long, shaking breath. I was back. The fourth time. In my first life, Route A ended on jagged rocks. I still remembered the copper smell of blood on the dirt, the silent, terrible carnage hanging over the cliffside. In my second life, Route B ended in a metal-on-metal scream. Grace was the sole survivor, but the internet turned on her, hounding her with cyberbullying until she jumped off her apartment balcony. In my third life, Route C ended in a violent roll. Almost everyone walked away with minor scratches—except Grace and me. We died on impact. Three times. I had died three distinct, agonizing deaths. The phantom pain still clawed at my chest. I couldn’t do this anymore. I gently slid Grace’s hand off my shoulder. “I’m not going.” The table went dead silent for a second, then erupted. “What do you mean? The class president is ditching?” “This is a once-in-a-lifetime trip, Hannah. Why do you always have to be so painfully antisocial?” Grace blinked, her voice soft and maternal. “Hannah, is there something holding you back? If you have any worries, we can totally change the plans.” I looked straight into her clear, deceptive eyes. “I am not going. Have fun, but leave me out of it.” Grace’s smile stiffened. Leonard scowled. “Hannah, don’t be a killjoy. Grace spent weeks putting this together. Can’t you just support her for once?” Leonard. My next-door neighbor since we were kids. He was brilliant, ridiculously handsome, the guy half the girls in our grade secretly cried over. I used to be one of them, but once I realized his heart belonged to Grace, I had forced myself to get over it. “The weather forecast for the mountain pass looks brutal,” I said, trying one last time to warn them. “Honestly, if you want my advice, none of you should go.” They burst into laughter. “Are you serious? It’s a road trip, not a horror movie.” “Typical Hannah. Class president to the end, trying to micromanage our lives.” Leonard’s jaw set. “Hannah, can you stop with the dark, dramatic warnings? Everyone is excited. Why do you always have to rain on our parade?” I let out a quiet sigh. Fine. Everyone has their own cross to bear. In my third life, when only Grace and I lay dying in the wreckage and the paramedics arrived, Leonard had grabbed a first responder by the coat. “Save Grace first,” he’d screamed. Nobody argued. In the end, they threw a massive candlelit vigil for Grace. Nobody even mentioned my name. “Go if you want,” I said, gathering my things. “I’m just telling you where I stand.” The dinner was wrapping up, and I stood to leave. But Grace suddenly caught my wrist, her eyes swimming with performative sympathy. “Hannah… is it a money issue? I heard your dad is just a security guard, and your mom is… well, she has a disability. If things are tight at home…” She caught herself, clapping a manicured hand over her mouth. “Oh my god, I’m so sorry! That was so insensitive of me. I didn’t mean to blurt that out, I just…” The room filled with hushed, venomous murmurs. “No wonder she never comes to parties. She’s dead broke.” “She probably only studies so she can escape her trashy life.” I looked down, not out of shame, but to hide the hysterical laugh bubbling in my throat. My dad did work in private security—as the CEO and owner of a firm with over two thousand contractors. My mother had a mobility impairment, yes, but her oil paintings sold for six figures at elite galleries in New York. We lived quietly because my parents despised flashing their wealth. But how did Grace find out about my family? I cast a cool glance at Leonard. He instantly shifted his gaze, looking guilty. I see. He’d gossiped about me to Grace, desperate to distance himself from the “poor girl” who used to crush on him. “Let me make this clear one last time,” I said, looking directly at Grace. “I am not going. Do not put me on the list.” Grace bit her lip, tears welling up. Leonard wrapped an arm around her shoulders. “Don’t worry about her, Grace. Just book it. We’re all behind you.” The rest of the table nodded eagerly. Grace pointed to Route C on the flyer. “Let’s do Route C then. We can hike and go white-water rafting. Just Venmo me the $150, and I’ll book the group rate.” Phones started chiming with transaction notifications. I didn’t move. Grace walked over, looking hurt. “Hannah, you haven’t sent it… did you want me to cover you? I’d love to help, but I’m just a student too, and I can’t keep spending my parents’ money…” The room turned on me instantly. “Are you kidding me, Hannah? She’s doing all the work and you expect a free ride?” “Unreal. Some people are just shameless.” I set my bag down and looked up at Grace, my face completely expressionless. “When did I say I was going?” Grace blinked. “I told you four times I’m not going,” I said, enunciating every word. “Are you deaf?” Leonard snatched my phone off the table. He knew my PIN—he’d watched me unlock it during our AP study sessions. Ding. Transaction complete. $150 sent. He tossed the phone back onto the table like a piece of garbage. “Stop acting like you’re above everyone else,” he sneered, his disgust entirely undisguised. “If you keep acting this toxic, don’t expect me to look out for you when we get to college.” I picked up my phone. “I said, I’m not going. Keep the cash if it makes you feel better, but my seat will be empty.” I slung my backpack over my shoulder and walked toward the exit. Behind me, Grace burst into tears. “She’s doing this on purpose… she hates me…” Leonard pulled her close. “Don’t cry. I’ll make sure she goes.” The others nodded aggressively. “Don’t worry, Grace. If she tries to flake, we’ll drag her by her hair.” “Yeah, we’re not letting her ruin the class spirit.” Class spirit. What a joke. 2 The moment I walked through the front door of my house, my parents rushed toward me. My mom threw her arms around me, sobbing instantly. “Hannah! Oh thank god, you’re home!” My dad’s eyes were bloodshot, his voice thick with unshed tears. “You’re okay. You’re okay.” I froze, the realization washing over me. “Mom? Dad? You guys…?” “Yes, honey,” my mom said, wiping her face as she leaned heavily on her cane. “We remembered. We went through it too. Listen to me, Hannah—you cannot go on that graduation trip. Under no circumstances.” I nodded slowly. “Don’t worry. I have no intention of going.” My mom let out a ragged sigh of relief, but the anxiety still hung thick in her eyes. “Why don’t we go somewhere else? Just the three of us. Aspen? Maui? We can leave tomorrow and stay for a week.” My dad chimed in, “Yes, I’ll clear my schedule at the firm. I’ll drive us. Anywhere you want to go, sweetheart.” I look at their anxious, loving faces, and a deep warmth bloomed in my chest. “Let’s wait. Let’s wait until the standardized test scores come out, and then we’ll go with a clear head.” I didn’t spell out my deeper fear. After three consecutive fatal accidents, I didn’t know if the curse lay in the bus, the route, or the day itself. I needed to bypass all the variables entirely. The next morning, Grace posted an announcement in our group chat. We’re leaving in three days! Everyone meet at the school gates at 7:30 AM sharp. She added a voice note: We should go before the scores are released. That way, even if someone didn’t do great, it won’t ruin the vibe! The chat filled with praise. Grace, you’re literally an angel. Yeah, once the scores drop, half of us will be too depressed to pack a bag. Team Grace all the way! I scrolled through the messages, completely detached, until Grace tagged me. @Hannah, 7:30 AM in three days! Don’t be late! I didn’t reply. A few minutes later: @Hannah did you see this? Don’t pretend you forgot! Still, I ignored it. Three minutes later, my phone rang. It was Leonard. I picked up, and his voice was thick with irritation. “Hannah, what is your problem? Grace tagged you twice. Are you blind?” “I saw it.” “Then why aren’t you replying?” “Because I don’t want to.” Leonard took a sharp, angry breath, trying to control his temper. “Grace just called me crying. Are you seriously trying to humiliate her? Every single person in our class replied except you!” I pinched the bridge of my nose. He was doing it again—using that demanding, accusatory tone. If our parents weren’t old friends, I would have blocked his number years ago. “Leonard, I’ve told you. I am not going.” “Hannah!” his voice barked through the receiver. “We’re a class! Why do you always have to be the odd one out? If you hated the three options so much, you should’ve suggested a fourth!” “I didn’t hate them.” “Then why won’t you go?” “I just don’t want to.” A cold, mocking laugh echoed from the other end. “You really think you’re something special, don’t you? Playing hard to get, acting like some brooding outsider just to get my attention? You think this makes me want you?” My jaw tightened. How did I ever fancy this arrogant idiot? When I didn’t reply, his voice dropped to a chilling threat. “You’re just making yourself look pathetic, Hannah. I’m telling you right now—you will be on that bus. End of story.” He hung up. I almost wanted to laugh. He actually thought this was about him. Delusional. 3 With only twenty-four hours left before the trip, the group chat was booming. I remained a ghost. I was waiting—waiting to see how this timeline tried to force my hand. Suddenly, the doorbell rang. I opened it to find Leonard standing on our porch. “We need to talk,” he said, looking slightly uneasy. “About tomorrow.” I leaned against the doorframe, refusing to let him inside. “I’ve made my position very clear.” Instead of arguing, he pulled out his phone and hit play on a video. I looked at the screen, and my blood ran ice-cold. In the video, my mother was sitting in her wheelchair near the entrance of our high school. Grace was standing directly behind her, her hands resting heavily on the rubber handles. “Mrs. Clark, thank you so much for coming down to see us off,” Grace said, looking directly into the lens with a bright, manic grin. “Hannah, your mom is here. Aren’t you coming?” With a sickeningly sweet smile, Grace gently nudged the wheelchair forward. Just a little more pressure, and the chair would roll down the curb—right into the four-lane, high-speed traffic of the main road. My hands started to shake against my phone. My mother had told me this morning that Leonard’s mother had invited her out for coffee. I never imagined Grace would lay such a trap. I looked up at Leonard, my eyes burning with rage. “You lured my mother out there?” Leonard’s expression stiffened for a fraction of a second before smoothing over. “Lured? What are you talking about? We just invited your mom for coffee so Grace could meet her. Grace is really into art, you know…” I shoved the phone screen right in his face. “Look at her hands! What is this supposed to be? If I don’t show up, is she going to push my disabled mother into oncoming traffic?” Leonard glanced at the screen and frowned, clearly annoyed. “You’re being paranoid. It’s just a joke.” “A joke?” The anger in my chest was suffocating. “Leonard, my mom practically raised you when your parents were working. How can you stand there and defend this?” “Why do you always have to bring up the past?” Leonard muttered, dismissing it with a wave of his hand. “Just go on the trip. Support Grace. It’s better for everyone.” I looked at him. I had known this boy for twelve years. Twelve years. And suddenly, I was looking at a complete stranger. I drew a slow, shuddering breath. “Fine. I’ll go.” Leonard’s eyes lit up. “See? Was that so hard?” He held out his palm. “Give me your driver’s license and passport.” I stared at him, bewildered. “Excuse me?” “Just to make sure you don’t flake tomorrow morning. A guarantee.” I was trembling with rage. He was holding my official documents hostage. But with my mother’s safety on the line, I couldn’t risk defying them. I turned around, grabbed my wallet and passport from the drawer, and slapped them into his hand. Leonard tucked them into his jacket pocket, looking thoroughly pleased with himself. “Great. I’ll give them back when we get to the resort.” He reached out as if to pat my shoulder, but I flinch away. His hand froze in mid-air, a flash of annoyance crossing his face. “See you tomorrow.” As he walked down our driveway, I heard him dialing Grace. “It’s done.” Grace’s laughter leaked through the speaker. “I knew you could handle her. Your idea worked perfectly.” So it was his idea. A hollow, bitter laugh escaped my throat. I really, truly misjudged him. The moment he was out of sight, I called an Uber and sprint to the high school. By the time I arrived, Grace was gone. My mother was sitting safely in the air-conditioned security guard booth. When we got home, I told my father everything. He slammed his fist onto the dining table. “We’re calling the police! Right now!” I gently caught his hand. “It won’t work, Dad. She hasn’t done anything illegal yet. If the police show up, they’ll just question her and let her go. It’ll only make her more desperate.” My father’s fists trembled with rage. “So we just let her get away with this?” My eyes were cold and clear. “They want me on that trip? Fine. I’ll go.” “No!” both of my parents shouted in unison. My mother grabbed my hands, her palms sweaty. “Hannah, that bus is a death trap. You’ll die!” “I know,” I said softly. “Which is why I’m not taking the bus. We’re going to change the game.” I laid out my plan. When I finished, the room was dead silent. “Are you sure about this?” my dad asked. I nodded. “This loop has to end.” My parents shared a long, heavy look before finally nodding. “If anything looks off, you run,” my mother whispered. “Forget the evidence. Just stay alive.” “I will.” 4 If I was going, I was doing it on my own terms. No cursed bus. No cursed route. No cursed morning departure. That very afternoon, my dad packed my bags into his SUV and drove me directly to the mountain resort. I checked into the penthouse suite, which boasted a stunning panoramic view of the very peak we were supposed to climb. The next morning at 7:00 AM, I walked down to the resort terrace, ordered a full brunch spread, and enjoyed my coffee under the morning sun. My phone started buzzing. The group chat was alive. We’re on the road! Is everyone here? So excited! Grace sent a sweet voice note: Don’t worry, guys, I’m just doing a quick headcount… Hannah, are you here yet? She tagged me. I took a slow sip of my coffee and left it on read. Five minutes later, my phone rang. Grace’s voice was tight with a frantic, sharp edge. “Hannah, it’s 7:25. Everyone is on the bus. Where are you?” I swallowed a piece of smoked salmon. “I’m already here.” The line goes completely quiet for a beat. “What?” she asked, as if she didn’t hear me correctly. “I said, I’m already here. Sitting on the terrace of the resort, having brunch.” “That’s impossible,” her voice cracked. “The bus hasn’t even left the school. How could you be there?” “My dad drove me up last night. You guys take your time. No rush, I’ll be waiting.” Another long silence. When Grace spoke again, her voice was strained, her sweet facade cracking. “Hannah, stop playing games. Where are you really?” “I’m not playing. Want me to FaceTime you?” I hung up and immediately started a video call. On her screen, my classmates were gathered in front of the school bus, bags packed. On my screen, I showed her my father sitting across from me, the mountain peaks towering in the background, the gourmet breakfast spread, and the luxury resort logo stitched into the linen napkin. I waved cheerfully. “See you guys soon!” The classmates crowded around Grace’s phone, and the audio picked up their frantic whispering. Wait, she’s already there? Look at those keys on the table—is that a Porsche SUV? Oh my god, is Hannah actually loaded? Why are we still waiting then? Let’s get moving! They started climbing onto the bus. On the screen, Grace’s face went through a terrifying transformation—from pale white to a furious, blotchy red, and finally to a sickly, dark purple. Suddenly, her carefully constructed mask shattered completely. She screamed into the camera, her face contorting into something hideous and wild: “Hannah! Are you fucking doing this on purpose?!”

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For ten years, my sister and I loved the same man. Luke always said he liked girls who were soft, gentle, and nurturing. My sister, Hailey, knew how to shrink herself to make him feel big. She possessed an innate, honeyed helplessness. I didn’t. I couldn’t. Whenever the three of us were together, his eyes and words belonged entirely to her. I sat beside them, as invisible and rigid as a lamppost. On the day we graduated college, they got married at City Hall. So, I ran. I packed a suitcase, flew across the Atlantic, and took a full ride for an MBA in London. I spent four grueling years building my startup. By year six, I was ringing the bell on Wall Street as our stock went public. Recently, word reached me that Luke’s company was bleeding out. Desperate for capital, he posted on LinkedIn: “Big pitch meeting tomorrow with a major investment firm. Wish me luck!” Hailey commented right below: Go get ’em, babe! You’re the absolute best! I glanced down at the schedule my secretary had sent me for tomorrow. At nine-thirty, the founder of a struggling tech startup was coming in to pitch for funding. The name on the ledger read— Luke Davenport. 01 My mother called me, her voice heavy with a frantic, pleading edge. “Lindsay, your brother-in-law is drowning. You have to do something.” “Do what?” “His company is in trouble. He’s desperate for investors. You spent all those years in Europe—surely you know people in venture capital. Can’t you just make an introduction?” She spoke with a jarring lightness, as if she were asking what we should have for dinner. “I’ll look into it.” “Don’t just ‘look into it,’ Lindsay. Hailey is losing her mind. And honestly, you’re thirty-two, unmarried, and entirely alone. What’s the point of building an empire if you have no one to share it with? Look at your sister. She married so well.” I stared out the window of my office, watching the city lights flicker. “Mom—” “You’ve been drifting abroad for six years. You don’t even come home for Christmas. Ever since Hailey married Luke, she’s been the one taking care of your father and me. What have you done?” “Mom, I paid for Dad’s bypass surgery.” “Oh, so you wire some money and suddenly you’re a saint? Thirty thousand dollars to buy yourself a clean conscience? While Hailey spent seven days and nights sleeping on a plastic chair in that hospital room, where were you? In London, chasing dollars!” I stayed quiet, letting the silence stretch. “You’ve always been like this. Competitive. Aggressive. Always trying to one-up your sister. And for what? Hailey has a beautiful family. And you? Drifting alone in your thirties, without a single soul to love you.” I looked at Luke’s name on the schedule. My finger lightly brushed the glass. “Mom, it’s almost midnight.” “Fine, fine. You’re busy. You’re always busy.” Her voice dropped a fraction. “Hailey wanted me to ask… do you know anything about the firm Luke is pitching tomorrow? What kind of guy the managing partner is? Just so Luke can prepare.” The partner is me. “Yeah,” I said quietly. “I’ll ask around.” The moment I hung up, my phone buzzed. It was a voice note from Hailey. Thirty-six seconds. She never texts; she only sends voice notes, forcing you to listen to her breath. “Hey, Lindsay. Mom called you, right? Luke is under so much pressure lately, he can’t sleep. Since you lived abroad for so long, you must know some heavy hitters in venture capital. Can you do some digging for us?” A pause, followed by a light, airy giggle. “Oh, by the way, what exactly is it that you do now? Is it internet stuff or something? I can never quite remember, haha.” Thirty-six seconds. She didn’t even know what I did. When my company went public, my full name was splashed across the financial news. She couldn’t even bother to Google me. The family group chat was buzzing too. Mom: [Luke has a massive meeting tomorrow. Let’s all wish him luck! Let’s bring this funding home!] Dad replied with a thumbs-up. Hailey: [My husband is the best! You’ve got this!] I scrolled through twenty-odd messages. Not one of them was directed at me. For six years, I have been a ghost in this chat. I read, but I never reply. I tried, once. The day we closed our Series A funding, I texted: Just signed our Series A. Nobody asked what a Series A meant. Hailey had simply replied: [Oh, that’s cute, Lindsay! Glad your little project is still going. Keep it up! ~] I never posted about my life again. My secretary, Patricia, called through the office line. “Lindsay, the assistant for the nine-thirty appointment just called to confirm. I have their pitch deck. Should I bring it in now?” “Just leave it on my desk.” “Will do. Also… his assistant sounded incredibly anxious. Asked if they could meet ten minutes early.” “Tell him to wait in the lounge. We stick to the schedule.” “Understood. Anything else you need?” “No. We’ll treat this as a standard pitch.” 02 “Lindsay, why aren’t you replying?” At seven in the morning, Hailey’s second voice note blasted through my phone. Forty-two seconds. “Lindsay, Luke didn’t sleep at all last night. I’m literally sick with worry. I know you’re busy, and you have your own life. But if this pitch falls through… we might have to mortgage the house. And Zoe’s preschool tuition for next term…” Her voice cracked perfectly on cue. House, daughter, tuition. Every word was a calculated strike, designed to play on family obligation. Ten years. With Luke, she used sweetness; with me, she used tragedy. Those were her only two frequencies. I didn’t reply. Driving to the office, the phone rang again. Caller ID: Joyce. My college roommate. We hadn’t spoken in over four years. “Lindsay? Oh my god, long time no see! I heard you’re back in the States?” “What made you think of me, Joyce?” “Haha, actually, your sister mentioned you at a dinner party a few days ago—” “What did she say?” “She said you only moved to London because of a broken heart. That you were secretly in love with her husband, Luke, for ten years, and when you couldn’t get him, you fled the country out of spite.” My grip on the steering wheel tightened. “Everyone was saying how hard it must have been for you over there. Your sister even said she feels so guilty, and that since you’re still single, it’s probably because you still haven’t moved on.” “She was crying, wasn’t she?” I asked. “How did you know? Yeah! She said her biggest regret in life was hurting you. But she also said… well, she said you’ve always been stubborn and competitive, trying to prove you’re better than her. She said she actually feels really sorry for you.” Joyce’s laugh was light, casual. But every word was a dull blade. Hailey, playing the fragile victim, had carefully written my narrative: the pathetic, bitter older sister who failed to get the guy, fled the country in tears, built a career out of desperate spite, and ended up an unmarried, lonely woman in her thirties. Six years. An IPO on Wall Street. A valuation nearing a billion dollars. Hundreds of employees worldwide. To her, it was just “a bitter spinster running away from a broken heart.” “What else did she say?” “She said she felt so bad because you were sobbing at the airport the day you left—” “I was sobbing at the airport?” “Yeah, she said—” “Joyce.” “Yeah?” “The day I left, my flight was at four in the morning. I took an Uber alone. No one drove me, and no one even knew what day my flight was.” Silence stretched on the other end of the line. “Including Hailey,” I continued. “She didn’t even know what day I was leaving. How could she know if I was crying?” Joyce stayed quiet. Then, in a small voice: “So, what have you been doing these past few years?” “I’ve been well. Busy. Running my company.” “Your sister said you were running some little Etsy shop or something…” “It’s not an Etsy shop.” I didn’t bother explaining further. “Joyce, I’m at the office now. I have to go.” “Oh, sure. Let’s grab coffee sometime? Your sister said she’s been wanting to—” “I’m fully booked. Talk soon.” I hung up and pulled into the underground garage. I turned off the engine and sat in the quiet. She cried at the airport. She ran away because of a broken heart. She still can’t let him go. How many dinner parties had Hailey served this story at? How many times had she squeezed out tears to erase six years of my blood, sweat, and tears, turning it into a pathetic flight of defeat? My phone buzzed. The family group chat. Hailey: [Lindsay’s back in town but she won’t even reply to my texts… I hope she isn’t still mad at me…] Mom: [You know how your sister is. Don’t worry about her. If she won’t help Luke, she won’t. Let it go.] Dad: [Let’s focus on what matters today. Good luck, Luke.] They all accepted Hailey’s version. I was the petty, grudge-holding, unmarried older sister. She was the sweet, long-suffering little sister. The elevator doors opened. Patricia was waiting at the end of the hall. “Morning, Lindsay. The investment team pulled some supplementary files on Ignite Tech. Want to see them now?” “Bring them in.” “Is the nine-thirty meeting still on?” “Yes.” “How do you want to handle it?” I walked into my office. “By the book. It doesn’t matter who he is. The numbers do the talking.” 03 “Lindsay, you there?” At 7:23 AM, Luke’s text hit my phone. It was the first time he had messaged me in six years. No how are you, no it’s been a while. He wanted a favor. “I’m pitching a firm called Meridian Capital at nine-thirty this morning. Since you spent so much time in finance abroad, do you know anyone there? Can you feel them out for me? Find out what their CEO is like, what kind of angle they’re looking for.” I stared at the text. Ten seconds later, another one arrived: “Hailey mentioned you worked in investment banking or something? So you must know the crowd. Let me know if you can ask around. This is huge for me.” Investment banking. That was how Hailey had described my career to him. He didn’t even know what I did. The “investment firm” was my company. The “CEO” was me. But he had no idea. No one had ever cared to find out. I didn’t reply. Another text buzzed. “Lindsay? Did you get this?” Then: “Look, I know you might still be bitter about the past. But that’s over. Do this for me, even if it’s just for Hailey’s sake.” Bitter about the past. He actually believed my silence was because of lingering heartbreak, not because I had forty urgent emails waiting for me at dawn. He still believed my entire world revolved around him. I locked my phone and sat at my desk. Patricia had already laid out my agenda. “Lindsay, I went through the diligence files for Ignite Tech. The team found something interesting.” “Go on.” “The core technology framework for their main product, Nexus, is almost identical to the academic paper you published in the university journal back in 2016. The conceptual overlap is over seventy percent.” “I know.” “The investment team thought this might be an affiliated project at first and came to me to confirm. Your name isn’t listed anywhere in Ignite’s documents.” “Of course it isn’t.” Patricia hesitated. “If we need to initiate an intellectual property audit…” “No need.” “But Lindsay—” “An idea is nothing if it just sits in a notebook. At least he tried to build it. Whether he succeeded is another story.” Patricia pursed her lips. I flipped through his business plan. Four product lines, not a single one fully operational. Unbalanced tech team. His customer acquisition cost model was using data from three years ago. My phone lit up again. The family chat. Hailey: [Luke is on his way! Everyone cross your fingers!] Then she DMs me: “Lindsay, Luke said you aren’t replying to his texts. Can you please just help us out this once? He’s incredibly stressed.” Followed by an eight-second voice note: “Is your phone dead or something? Seriously, did you get my messages?” I closed the app. At 8:50 AM, Patricia peeked her head in. “Lindsay, Luke Davenport from Ignite Tech is at reception. He’s forty minutes early. Should I have him wait in the lounge?” “Yes. Give him a glass of tap water.” “Got it.” She took a step back, then turned around. “The receptionist said… he made a call as soon as he sat down. He wasn’t exactly quiet.” “What did he say?” “He told whoever was on the line: ‘Don’t worry, babe. I’ve dealt with VC firms this size a million times. Today is just a formality.’” Meridian Capital had over $3.8 billion under management. And to him, it was “just a formality.” “Patricia.” “Yes?” “Bring him in at nine-thirty sharp. Not a minute earlier.” 04 “It’s nine-twenty-eight, Lindsay,” Patricia whispered from the doorway. I closed my financial ledger. My phone lit up. Hailey’s voice note. Fifteen seconds. “Lindsay, Luke said you ignored his texts. Are you doing this on purpose? This meeting is everything to him. If you’re not going to help, fine, but don’t hold him back.” A pause. Her tone shifted, sharp and venomous. “I’m telling you, Lindsay, if Luke fails today, I’m telling Mom and Dad it’s your fault. You’re taking your bitter, spinster resentment out on us. When are you finally going to grow up?” Fifteen seconds of poison, without a single breath. To the world, she was a sweet victim. To me, every word was a serrated edge. Mom’s call came in immediately after. “Lindsay, are you picking fights with Hailey again?” “No, Mom.” “Then why won’t you help Luke? It’s a ten-minute favor and you’re making excuses.” “Mom, I’m at work—” “What’s so important about your little job? Luke’s company is a real business, Lindsay. Can’t you see the difference?” “Mom—” “Don’t ‘Mom’ me! Let me tell you something, Lindsay. If you can’t even do this for your family, don’t bother coming home. You ran away the day you graduated. You didn’t show up when your father had bypass surgery, and you skipped your sister’s wedding. Six years, and you haven’t done a single thing for this family.” I leaned back in my chair. The September sun outside was blindingly bright. “You’ve always been so competitive, so cold. Always trying to prove you’re better than Hailey. What was all that struggle for? Look how lonely you are.” In the background, I heard Hailey’s muffled voice: “Mom, stop. Lindsay has her reasons.” Mom sighed. “Don’t help him then. You’ve never cared about this family anyway.” Click. She hung up. I set the phone down on the polished wood desk. My fingertips were completely numb. Not from pain, but from gripping too hard. The day we went public on the New York Stock Exchange, I stood on that balcony watching the blue confetti rain down. Hundreds of people were cheering. The stage lights were incredibly hot. But in that moment, I wasn’t thinking about the success. I was thinking: I wish Mom could see this. I had sent the video clip to the family group chat. No one replied. Two hours later, Hailey texted: [Oh, did you go on a trip, Lindsay? Looks fancy! ~] And then the chat dissolved into a discussion about what color Luke should get for his new Tesla. “Lindsay.” Patricia’s voice broke my thoughts. “It’s nine-thirty. Mr. Davenport has been waiting for ten minutes. Should I bring him in?” I opened my eyes. I sat up straight. The pitch deck was open in front of me. Debt ratio, cash burn rate, product timeline, a request for five million dollars—all of his failures laid bare in my hands. “Bring him in.” The sound of footsteps approached. Polished leather shoes clicking confidently on the hardwood floor. Patricia led the way. “Right this way, Mr. Davenport.” The door swung open. Luke stood in the doorway. His suit was perfectly tailored. He held a bound business plan. His face wore a practiced, confident smile—the kind designed to charm investors. He looked up. His eyes scanned the office, the floor-to-ceiling windows, and finally landed on me. The smile vanished. The business plan slipped an inch through his fingers. His lips parted, but his voice was strangled. “…Lindsay?” I looked into his eyes. The distance between us across the desk was less than six feet. Ten years ago, when the three of us sat together, his eyes never lingered on me for a single second. “Mr. Davenport,” I said calmly. “Please, take a seat.” 05 “How… what are you doing here?”

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On the eve of our wedding, I borrowed my fiancée’s phone to order some takeout, and a hotel booking notification popped up on the screen: Deluxe King Room, $350. Special request: “Floor-to-ceiling windows on the top floor.” My chest tightened. I tapped into her message history. The pinned contact at the top of her list was no longer me. It was Chase, the college intern at her firm. I scrolled through dozens of Venmo transactions she’d sent him: $520, $1,314, $9,999… The latest message was a voice note from him: “You were so rough last night, babe. I’m still sore. Where’s my bonus?” She had sent him a thousand dollars instantly. When Lauren walked into the room and saw the phone in my hand, the color drained from her face. She dropped to her knees right there on the hardwood floor, the sound of her knees hitting the wood sharp and loud, and slapped herself hard across the face. “Adam, I’m so sorry. I don’t know what I was thinking… it was a moment of madness. Please, just forgive me this once. Please.” Ten years of history—from high school sweethearts to this apartment. My throat burned, but I swallowed the humiliation and nodded. After we got married, Lauren became the perfect wife. Almost terrifyingly so. She texted me her location constantly, left her phone unlocked on the kitchen counter, and practically begged me to check it. When I got sick and had to leave my job to recover, she took care of everything, transferring ten thousand dollars into my account every month so I wouldn’t feel the sting of losing my career. Our friends told me I was lucky. They said she had learned her lesson, that a reformed partner was worth their weight in gold. Until the third month of my recovery. Lauren rushed out the door for work and left her burner phone behind. The screen suddenly lit up. It was an Amazon delivery notification: “Your order for [Lace Strappy Nightgown – Emerald Green] is out for delivery.” My hands shook as I unlocked it. The recipient’s name was set to “Chase Baby.” The exact same pet name she had used for the intern two years ago. … I stood frozen in the quiet living room, the air caught in my throat. My thumb moved on autopilot, scrolling up. In the purchase history, she had bought the same brand of nightgown three times, each in a different color. Along with boxes of condoms and sets of lingerie I had never seen. The shipping address wasn’t our home. It was a luxury high-rise apartment near her office called The Emerald. I clicked on the latest product review she had left. “Fits perfectly. My wife loves it.” Attached was a photo of two hands, fingers tightly intertwined. On the woman’s wrist was the Cartier watch I’d saved up to buy her for her birthday just a few months ago. My hands shook so violently I almost dropped the phone. When I logged into her secondary messaging app, a physical pain flared in my chest, sharp and suffocating. It was still him. “Chase Baby.” His profile picture was new. He was wearing a tailored designer suit, posing confidently right inside Lauren’s executive office. She hadn’t fired him back then. She had promoted him. He was now her senior associate. And they were just as obsessive as they had been two years ago. Lauren had sent him a provocative photo of herself in the lace nightgown with the caption: “My battle armor just arrived. Come tear it off.” A second later, Chase sent a pin to a five-star hotel downtown. At two in the morning, Chase had sent a voice note saying he missed her. Lauren’s reply was just two words: “On my way.” Twenty minutes later, her location showed she was parked outside his apartment. While I lay asleep in our bed, recovering from surgery, Lauren was either in his arms or on FaceTime with him. And every morning, I woke up to a bed that had already gone cold, assuming she had just left early for an important meeting. To the world, Lauren was the ultimate devoted wife. She sent me photos of her lunch, called me on her breaks, and let me browse her main phone whenever I wanted. She’d hold my face and say, “Adam, I owe you everything. I’ll spend the rest of my life making it up to you. I will never betray you again.” I had felt so incredibly grateful that I gave our love a second chance. But that “clean slate” was just a performance. This burner phone was her real world. I took slow, ragged breaths, trying to keep the burning in my chest from consuming me. Suddenly, the screen flashed with a new text: “Tonight, room 1201. Same place. I’m going to ruin you, babe.” The front door unlocked. I slid the phone back into her purse and sat back, taking a slow sip of my tea. Lauren rushed into the living room. When she saw the phone untouched on the counter, a wave of relief washed over her features. She grabbed it, quickly checking her notifications. “Forgot my work phone,” she said, her voice breezy. “Just some high-profile clients reaching out.” She turned to leave. I reached out and caught her wrist. I looked straight into her eyes, searching for even a flicker of guilt. “Are you coming home tonight?” There was nothing. Just empty, beautiful clarity. Lauren leaned down, kissing my forehead with that familiar, gentle warmth. “Work is crazy right now, sweetie. I have a late dinner with some investors. Don’t wait up for me.” She had said those words a thousand times over the last two years. And every time, I had stayed up until 2 a.m., keeping her dinner warm. I never guessed her “investor” was Chase, and her “dinner” was a hotel room. The click of the door closing echoed through the empty apartment, and something inside me finally went cold. On the coffee table sat a small, heart-shaped cake. Happy 2nd Anniversary, the icing read. Just last night, she had held my hand and talked about how we’d celebrate tonight. Now, a single text from Chase had wiped it all from her mind. Maybe because I’d already survived this pain once before, I didn’t break down. Not this time. After a few quiet minutes, I sat down, pulled out my laptop, and emailed a divorce lawyer to draft the agreement. When night fell, I grabbed my coat and drove to the five-star hotel downtown. It took me ten years to build my love for her. But it only took a second for it to die. When I pulled up to the valet, I saw them. Lauren was laughing, her hand locked in Chase’s as they walked through the grand revolving doors. I walked up to the front desk and booked a room right next to theirs. In the elevator, two room-service attendants wheeled in a cart. On the white tablecloth sat a small, elegant chocolate cake and a box of ultra-thin condoms. “Room 1201 again?” one whispered to the other. “That’s the third time this week.” “Yeah, the lady in 1201 is a VIP. She always wants the premium service.” My entire body went rigid. I forgot to even press the button for my floor. “Last time I dropped off the cart, the door wasn’t fully closed. They were right there against the floor-to-ceiling window… curtains wide open. The guy actually looked at me and smirked.” “Oh my god, seriously? No shame.” “Well, she’s rich. That’s how these corporate types are. Out here playing with a boy toy while her poor husband is probably sitting at home waiting for her.” “Sucks to be him. Imagine being that clueless.” The other shrugged. “If you can’t keep your wife satisfied, that’s on you.” Ding. The elevator reached the penthouse level. They wheeled the cart out, but my legs felt like lead. I couldn’t move. Every word had been a physical slap to my face, shattering what little dignity I had left. I slowly followed them down the carpeted hallway and stood outside 1201. Inside, Chase’s voice drifted through the door. “Babe, you ordered cake again? We never even finish it.” Lauren’s voice was teasing, dripping with honey. “If we don’t finish it, I’ll just bring it home to Adam.” My hands clenched into fists. All those nights she brought home “leftover desserts from corporate dinners”—they were Chase’s scraps. And I had eaten them gratefully, touched by her thoughtfulness. Hearing their laughter, a knife twisted in my chest. I didn’t know if I could keep my composure if I knocked. Part of me wanted to tear down the door, to scream and shatter things like I had two years ago. Instead, I walked into 1203 and closed the door behind me. The moment the latch clicked, my phone vibrated in my pocket. It was Lauren. “Hey, babe,” she said, her voice soft and sweet. “How are you feeling? Is your chest still hurting?” I bit my lip so hard I tasted copper. I couldn’t find my voice. “This dinner is going to run incredibly late, so I’m just going to crash at a hotel near the office. Get some sleep, okay?” In the background, there was a muffled, breathless groan. “Ah… Lauren, gentler… that hurts…” There was a rustle as she scrambled to cover the mic, but she wasn’t fast enough. “Oh, don’t worry,” she quickly lied. “One of my associates sprained his ankle at the restaurant. I’m just helping him with some ice.” For the first time in my life, I didn’t get angry. “Right,” I said quietly. “Go take care of him.” “Love you, babe,” she murmured before hanging up. It was fascinating, really, how she could divide her heart so neatly. One half to tell me she loved me, and the other to lose herself in another man. I leaned against the floor-to-ceiling glass of my room, lighting one cigarette after another. Ten years. We had gone from high school sweethearts to college sweethearts, to a beautiful wedding. We survived finals, four years of a grueling long-distance relationship, and the cramped, drafty apartments of our early twenties when we lived on instant noodles. I had watched her claw her way up from an entry-level clerk to executive vice president. She used to work herself to the bone. I remembered her with a hundred-degree fever, still typing away at her laptop in bed. I’d wrap my arms around her, begging her to rest. But she’d smile, press her cold forehead against mine, and say, “Adam, I want to build a life for us. I want to stand beside you and never have to worry about rent again.” That love was real. The ten years were real. That was why, when I first found out about Chase, my heart bled but I couldn’t let her go. I forgave her because I couldn’t bear to erase our history. At eight the next morning, the door to 1201 opened. I stood in the shadow of the hallway corner, watching Chase drape his arm over Lauren’s shoulders as they walked out. “Babe, that Porsche you wanted?” Lauren was saying, tapping his nose. “We’re going to the dealership after work to pick it up.” Chase’s eyes lit up. “Seriously? That’s a hundred and fifty grand. Is your husband going to check the joint account?” Lauren laughed, a cold, dismissive sound. “Adam is sitting at home playing sick. I pay for everything now. He doesn’t have a say in how I spend my money.” I pulled out my phone and checked our bank app. Half of our joint savings was gone. And the luxury apartment at The Emerald? She had bought that too. That money included my life savings, my parents’ wedding gift, and the nest egg we had built together for a future child. She had gutted it to buy her lover a condo and a sports car. A sudden, violent cough tore through my chest, and I doubled over, gasping for air. A passing housekeeper caught my elbow. “Sir? Are you alright?” The noise cut through their laughter. Lauren paused, her eyes scanning the hallway. “Come on, babe, I’m starving,” Chase whined, pulling at her arm. Her gaze brushed past me for a fraction of a second before Chase pulled her into the elevator. Wearing my oversized hoodie with my hood pulled low, she didn’t even recognize her own husband. My phone buzzed. A text from Lauren: “Morning, sweetie! Ordered you that green smoothie and avocado toast you like. It’ll be at the door soon. Take care of yourself today. Love you.” It was hilarious, really. She’d said “I love you” more times in the last three days than she had in the last three years. When I walked out to the parking garage, Chase was leaning against the driver-side door of my sedan. His eyes curled with amusement. “Hey, man. You were in 1203 last night, weren’t you?” Before I could speak, he smirked. “Since we both know what’s up, let’s grab a coffee. Talk like men.” In the quiet coffee shop across the street, I sat opposite him. Lauren had taken excellent care of him. A Gucci messenger bag, a Rolex Submariner, a bespoke wool suit. My entire wardrobe combined probably cost less than one of his buttons. Chase leaned back, looking completely at ease. “Look, Adam. Do you know why you can’t hold onto her? Women like Lauren—high-powered, successful women—they get bored. You can love your favorite meal, but eat it every single day for ten years, and you’re going to crave something new.” My fingers tightened around my paper cup until the cardboard buckled. Chase noticed and grinned. “Lauren says you’re great for keeping the house tidy and cooking dinner. You’re the perfect domestic husband. But me? I’m the adventure. She loves me too much to ever make me wash a dish.” I didn’t think. I just threw the boiling hot coffee straight into his face. Chase jumped back with a roar of rage. “Are you out of your mind, Adam?!” I lunged forward, raising my fist. But before I could connect, a cold, firm grip clamped around my wrist. Lauren shoved herself between us, pulling Chase behind her. Her face was dark with anger. “Adam! Enough! Get in the car. Stop embarrassing yourself in public!” I looked at her, standing defensively in front of him, and felt a dull, familiar ache behind my eyes. “It’s him again. The exact same guy. You really couldn’t let him go, could you?” Lauren didn’t even flinch. She pulled out a chair, her voice turning incredibly cold and practical. “Adam, you are my husband. That is never going to change. We have a home together. Don’t throw a tantrum over something this insignificant.” Insignificant. Two years of systematic betrayal, and she called it insignificant. She grabbed a handful of napkins, gently dabbing the coffee stains off Chase’s tailored lapels, whispering soft, soothing words to him as he pouted. I don’t remember leaving the cafe. By the time the fog cleared, I was sitting in the passenger seat of Lauren’s SUV. “I’m taking you home,” Lauren said, starting the ignition. “You’re tired. Once you’ve calmed down, you’re going to apologize to Chase.” I turned to her, incredulous. “Apologize to the guy sleeping with my wife? What is it about him, Lauren? What does he have that makes you lose your mind like this?” Lauren slammed on the brakes. I flew forward, my forehead cracking hard against the dashboard. Sharp pain bloomed in my temples, but she didn’t even glance over. She just gripped the steering wheel and screamed: “Enough! I have spent two years groveling at your feet, Adam! What more do you want from me? I like his body, okay? He’s young and he’s fun. But you’re the one I love! Why can’t you just accept that?” I pressed my palm to my bruised forehead and leaned against the cold passenger window. The fight drained out of me all at once. “Let’s get a divorce, Lauren. I can manage on my own.” The silence in the car stretched, heavy and suffocating. Then, Lauren let out a dry, humorless laugh and hit the gas. “A divorce? With what money? You can’t even pay your own medical bills without me.” Before my surgery, I was a senior marketing director making six figures, on track for partner. But when her company needed to restructure and she was pulling eighty-hour weeks, I stepped back to manage the house so she could focus. And then I got sick. I became a stay-at-home husband because she held my hand and whispered, “Let me take care of you now.” How incredibly stupid I had been to believe her. The moment we got back to the house, I dragged my suitcase out of the closet. Lauren ripped the shirts from my hands and threw them onto the floor. “Adam, stop this childish behavior. You have no job, no income, and without my insurance, you can’t even afford your physical therapy. Just sit tight and stop making a scene.” She tossed a slip of paper onto the bed. “Chase is coming over with some clients for his birthday tomorrow. Cook what’s on this list. He likes spicy food, so don’t hold back on the seasoning.” “I’m your husband, Lauren, not your housekeeper.” “Then act like it,” she snapped, grabbing her coat. “Making dinner is the least you can do.” She walked out without looking back. The next afternoon, Lauren arrived with Chase and several junior executives from her office. I was in the kitchen, sweating over hot pans, when she called me out to serve. One of the younger guys glanced at my apron and smiled. “Wow, Lauren, your maid is incredibly efficient.” Chase chuckled, taking a sip of his wine. “That’s not a maid. That’s Lauren’s husband.” The room went dead silent. Everyone stared at me, their eyes shifting awkwardly. “Oh… sorry. We didn’t… your husband looks…” “No wonder Lauren practically lives at the office,” another whispered, not quite quietly enough. “She’s got a sick kid at home.” Lauren didn’t say a word to defend me. Instead, her brow furrowed. She walked over and whispered sharply in my ear, “Go upstairs. You’re ruining the mood.” My hands trembled as I set down the serving platter. “Go to your room and stay there,” she commanded, her voice cold and impatient, like she was ordering a disobedient pet. As the bedroom door clicked shut behind me, a burst of laughter erupted from the dining room below, followed by the clinking of glasses. Ten minutes later, I walked downstairs and found her in the hallway. “I need you to sign this medical authorization form,” I said. Lauren snatched the paper with a sigh, signing her name at the bottom without even reading a single line. “Lauren, hurry up! We’re cutting the cake!” Chase called out from the living room. She tossed the pen onto the console table and hurried back to him. I looked down at the paper. Folded beneath the dummy medical form was our divorce agreement, now carrying her bold, hurried signature. I let out a long, quiet breath. By midnight, the guests had left, and my bags were packed by the door. The guest bedroom door creaked open. Chase was leaning against the frame, a smirk plastered on his face. “Packing your bags, big guy?” He strolled into the room, his eyes scanning the wide, beautiful floor-to-ceiling windows. “You know, Lauren and I love this room. Every time she brings me here when you’re asleep, we do it right against the glass.” He pulled back the sheer curtain, flashing me a cruel, triumphant grin. “She likes keeping the curtains open. Says the risk of getting caught makes it hotter.” “Did you ever guess, Adam? While you were drugged out in that bed, I was right behind you.” I stared at him, my face turning completely white. Chase slid his phone out and tapped the screen. It was a photo. Chase, shirtless, holding a half-naked Lauren from behind against the window. Their faces were flushed, her head tilted back as he kissed her throat. And right behind them, clearly visible in the background, was me—curled up in the bed, fast asleep. He swiped to the next photo. And the next. Different nights, different positions, same room. In every single one, my unconscious figure lay in the background. “Remember that month you slept like a baby? Lauren was slipping Ambien into your warm milk every night so we could have some fun.” “I really love these floor-to-ceiling windows. The moonlight is so romantic…” He leaned against the glass, sighing with theatrical ecstasy. Every drop of blood in my body turned to ice. Years ago, when we finally bought this house, I had told Lauren I wanted a bedroom with floor-to-ceiling windows. I wanted to wake up to the first light of dawn with her, to fall asleep under the stars. She had immediately hired contractors to customize the room just to make me happy. It had been my favorite corner of our home. And all this time, she had been pressed against that very glass, wrapped in another man’s arms, desecrating the one sacred space I had left. I lunged. My fist connected with his jaw with a sickening crack. Then another. And another. Chase shrieked, trying to shield his face, but I grabbed him by the hair and slammed his head against the glass. “You love this window so much?!” I roared, my voice raw and unrecognizable. “Look at it! Look at it!” I grabbed the heavy oak chair from the vanity and threw it with everything I had. The massive pane of glass shattered with a deafening explosion, raining sharp shards onto the balcony outside. The moonlight fractured into a thousand jagged pieces. Chase scrambled away, bleeding and terrified, sobbing on the floor. “Adam! You’re fucking crazy!” “If you’re mad, blame me! Don’t touch Chase!” Lauren burst into the room. She grabbed me by my collar and shoved me back with terrifying force. But there was no glass behind me anymore. My heel caught on the frame, and my balance tipped. I felt myself falling backward into the cold night air. The wind roared past my ears, and the last thing I heard was Lauren’s raw, terrified scream echoing through the dark: “Adam—!”

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My boyfriend possessed a tongue sharp enough to draw blood, yet a face beautiful enough to make you forgive him. His favorite phrase to use against me, always laced with a condescending drawl, was, “Right, right, whatever you say.” In our tenth year together, Marcus finally caved. He agreed to come home with me for the holidays to meet my family. On the twentieth of December, brimming with foolish hope, I texted him: What day are you flying in? Radio silence. It wasn’t until Christmas Eve that my phone buzzed with his reply. K. I took a slow, deep breath, swallowing the familiar spike of frustration. Are you free on the 27th or 28th? Those are the only days that work for my folks back home. Earlier or later messes up my schedule. Just give me a firm date so I can tell my parents, I typed back. The response was instant this time. Again, just: K. A second later, a voice memo popped up. His tone was infuriatingly casual, dripping with detached arrogance. “You’re always complaining that I’m too sarcastic. I gave you a simple ‘K’. Are you satisfied now?” I sat there, my fingers wrapped tight around my phone, staring blankly at that single, dismissive letter. For a long time, the world was perfectly still. Then, my thumb moved. I opened my blocked contacts list. I scrolled until I found the man who had once shamelessly, relentlessly offered to be the other man in my life. Are you free to come home with me for the holidays and meet my family? We get married right after. His reply came in a heartbeat. Done. Marcus. If you refuse to show up, someone else will gladly take your place. 1 I opened Marcus’s thread one last time. That glaring “K” sat at the bottom of our history, a monument to his apathy. What was the point anymore? It had taken me eight grueling years just to force his hand into meeting my parents for the holidays. Was I supposed to spend the next eight years begging for a ring? Another eight begging for a child? We’re done. I sent the text without a tremor in my fingers. I locked my phone and started packing. We had made it official our freshman year of college. Ten years together, eight of them sharing a roof. The detritus of our shared life was everywhere—heavy, sprawling, suffocating. Yet, the moment the decision settled in my bones, packing felt lighter, faster than any move we’d ever done together. Throw it away. Donate it. Leave it. In a matter of hours, the three-bedroom apartment that had been stuffed to the brim with our existence echoed with emptiness. I called a moving company, efficient and cold, and had my boxes hauled to a small studio apartment I’d bought years ago as a quiet investment. Just like that, a decade was surgically removed. Before walking out the door, I took one last look around. This was the place we’d lived the longest. The place we were supposed to renovate into our marital home. A sudden, sharp ache bloomed in the back of my throat. Ten years. Over. Extinguished in absolute silence. By the time I dragged my suitcase into the fluorescent glare of the airport terminal, my phone chimed. Marcus’s custom text tone. Despite myself, a pathetic, unruly sliver of hope reared its head. My hand moved faster than my brain, tapping the notification bar. “Ha,” I let out a dry, neurotic laugh. Then, I blocked his number. Overhead, the airport coffee shop was playing a soft, melancholic indie-pop song. If we’re breaking, let’s break clean. No apologies, no regrets… What’s there to owe? I dared to give it all, I dare to let it break… I thought about the last decade. The dizzying highs, the screaming fights. Walking away now, while I still had a shred of dignity, felt like the only way to honor the genuine love we once shared. I couldn’t wait around until his little intern decided to knock on my door to stake her claim. That would be pathetic. Lost in thought, I aimlessly opened Instagram. A new story with a green ring popped up. Kenzie. Marcus’s twenty-one-year-old assistant. Ahhhh my boss said he’d pretend to be my boyfriend to get my parents off my back about dating! I am literally the luckiest girl in the world! The next slide: You guys don’t even know. He spent forever picking out outfits just to come home with me for the holidays. Who said men hate shopping? I’m exhausted! The photo grid showed Marcus in nine different casual outfits, looking effortlessly wealthy but shockingly youthful. A vintage hoodie. Distressed denim. Clean white sneakers. It was the complete antithesis of his usual, severely tailored aesthetic. I pressed the buttons to screenshot, but the story vanished mid-capture. Deleted. I smiled, a bitter, self-deprecating curve of my lips. I remembered meeting Marcus in college. Even back then, as the brooding student body president, he practically lived in button-downs and slacks. I used to beg him to wear matching college hoodies with me. He rejected me every single time. My position doesn’t allow me to dress like a clown, Camille. Stop acting like a child. Since when did hoodies and jeans become acceptable? Looking at the ghost of that image—Marcus, dressed like a carefree college boy for someone else—felt like taking a knife to the ribs. We were broken up, but he still had the power to make me bleed. The intercom called my flight. I stood up, gripped my luggage handle, and joined the boarding line. I had walked this terminal alone for ten years. For five of those years, I had begged him to come home with me. Kenzie had been his intern for exactly six months. It’s fine, Marcus. From now on, you’ll never have to wrack your brain for another excuse to say no. 2 The plane was dead quiet. Night flights always are. I was surrounded by sleeping strangers, yet I was drowning in an ocean of inexplicable, crushing loneliness. I opened TikTok, navigating to a burner account I used to quietly keep tabs on Kenzie. She had just posted a text-to-speech slideshow. The title: The Guy Who Loves You Doesn’t Need to Be Asked. The moment my boss found out my family set me up on a blind date for the holidays, he freaked out. I didn’t even ask him to pretend to be my boyfriend! He volunteered! Omg guys, I think I’m developing massive feelings for him. Am I crazy? It’s like having a crush on your strict professor. But he’s so good to me… What do I do if I’m actually falling for him? The comment section was a chorus of enablers. Girl, your boss is built like a Calvin Klein model and he’s initiating? How could you NOT fall for him? Diagnosis: Creator is a clueless, oblivious queen. He’s practically throwing himself at you. Wake up! Been following for six months. I’m literally screaming at my screen. When are you changing your handle from ‘InternKenzie’ to ‘Office Romance Diaries’? Confess to him already! You guys are totally one step away. Did I notice Marcus drifting away during our tenth year? Of course I did. I was just… so tired. Marcus was fundamentally anti-marriage. I didn’t find that out until the day we graduated. I thought about it for a week, then packed my things and told him I was leaving. “I’m an only child,” I had told him, my voice trembling. “If I don’t get married, if I don’t have a family, it would shatter my parents. It would shatter my grandparents.” The color drained from Marcus’s face. “Does leaving me mean nothing to you?” “What does it matter how much it hurts?” I was furious—furious that he had hidden this massive, life-altering truth from me. “I can’t just be your girlfriend for the rest of my life.” He scrambled for a lifeline. “Your life belongs to you, Camille. You shouldn’t have to carry the weight of your family’s expectations.” I held up a hand, cutting him off. “Who said it was just their expectation? We used to lay in bed and talk about having a baby. About giving it all the love in the world.” I looked at him, ice in my veins. “I want a family. I want children. Was all of that just pillow talk to you?” Marcus had no answer. We ended it that night. A month later, he showed up outside my corporate housing. He looked gaunt, pale, clutching a massive bouquet of flowers. “Camille. I can’t do this. I don’t want to be without you.” He looked at me with those devastatingly intense eyes. “Can you just give me a little time? I’m just… I’m not ready to step into a marriage right now.” I was soft. He was my first love. “I never said we had to get married tomorrow,” I whispered. “Are you sure about this?” I asked him, searching his face. “Don’t change your entire worldview just to keep me.” Tears welled in his eyes. “The fear of marriage is nothing compared to the terror of losing you.” He swallowed hard. “Wait for me, Camille.” “I’ll overcome it.” I waited seven years. I was done waiting. 3 Exiting baggage claim, I pulled out my phone to hail an Uber, but it rang before I could open the app. “Cammy, you land yet?” It was my dad. “Yeah, I’m heading to the curb.” “I’m parked by the cell phone lot near Terminal 1. Head this way.” “Oh. Okay.” I was genuinely shocked. Aside from my freshman and sophomore years of college, my dad hadn’t picked me up from the airport in ages. I dragged my suitcase through the freezing winter air. From fifty yards away, I saw my mom and dad leaning against their Subaru, craning their necks to scan the crowd. When they spotted me, they practically jogged over. Dad grabbed my bag to heave it into the trunk, while my mom kept peering over my shoulder, looking at the sliding glass doors behind me. Seeing their frantic, hopeful faces, I suddenly felt a wave of profound relief that I had called a backup. “Mom, Dad—” I opened the back door and slid in. “My boyfriend isn’t coming until the 27th. Stop looking.” “Oh, right, right!” My mom slapped her thigh. “It’s Christmas Eve! He’s gotta spend the actual holiday with his folks first. That makes sense.” My dad patted the steering wheel. “This Marcus kid is pushing thirty, right? Glad he finally realized he needs to step up.” I bit the inside of my cheek, cutting off their eager discussion about their future son-in-law. “Marcus and I broke up.” The car went dead silent. “I’m seeing someone new. His name is Alistair.” I looked out the window. “Don’t get the names mixed up.” My dad whipped his head around, entirely ignoring the icy road ahead. “Wait, when we talked on the phone last week you said Marcus was just on a business trip—” “Keep your eyes on the damn road!” My mom grabbed the steering wheel and violently corrected our lane. She turned her wrath on him. “It’s not you dating the guy, why are you having a heart attack? She said he’s coming on the 27th, so we’ll meet him on the 27th! You’re driving like you’ve downed a fifth of bourbon, acting a fool on the interstate…” I laid my head against the cold window, letting my mom’s familiar, abrasive nagging wash over me. It was true. I had told them just last week that Marcus was finally coming. Now, at the eleventh hour, the groom was swapped. I braced myself for the interrogation, but they just kept bickering about my dad’s driving, deliberately stepping over the landmine to give me space. Tears pricked the corners of my eyes. My chest physically ached from how fiercely I loved them. I dozed off in the backseat. The moment we pulled into the driveway of my uncle’s sprawling farmhouse upstate, I was swarmed. My dad was the youngest of five; my mom the youngest of six. This meant our family gatherings were chaotic, deafening, and heavily invested in the marital status of the youngest cousin—me. My oldest cousin bounced a toddler on his hip. “Brought the little guy over so some of his baby luck rubs off on you! Get married, have a kid, and give Auntie some peace of mind.” “Yeah, working on it,” I mumbled. My two older female cousins practically shoved their heads into the car window, scanning the empty seats. “Your guy has zero manners. Who drags his feet for almost a decade?” They clucked their tongues in disapproval. “If he had any sense, he would be here tonight with an armful of presents. You treat him like a goddamn prince for nothing.” “Yeah, totally uncalled for.” Aunts, uncles, and great-aunts crowded around the driveway. “Where’s the boy, Cammy? Didn’t show?” “Not today. He’s coming on the 27th.” My aunt stepped in, physically pulling me from the firing squad. “Give them a break! People have their own families to see on Christmas. She said he’s coming later. Back off and let the girl breathe!” It was twenty degrees outside, and I was sweating through my cashmere sweater. God help me, I thought. How the hell is Alistair, an actual European aristocrat, going to survive my lunatic American family? 4 Christmas and the day after passed in a blur of food comas, spiked eggnog, and relentless socializing. When I finally collapsed onto my childhood bed to rest, my phone buzzed with an unknown number. “Hello?” I answered, my voice raspy with exhaustion. “It’s me.” Marcus. Before I could even process the audacity, his voice cracked with indignation over the line. “You blocked me.” “Yeah.” I stared at the ceiling. “We broke up. Was I supposed to keep you unblocked so I could like your Instagram stories?” “I messed up! But Camille, you have to give me a little more time… I wasn’t ready.” “You messed up a lot of things. Which one are you apologizing for?” I asked, my voice chillingly detached. “You agreed to come home with me for the holidays. If you couldn’t do it, why promise? Hell, if you got cold feet, why didn’t you just communicate that to me?” I sat up, the anger finally catching fire. “Ever since you agreed to come, you either ignored my texts or gave me one-word answers. Scroll through our chat and count how many times you just sent me a ‘K’ this past year.” “You told me you were terrified of marriage. You didn’t want to meet my parents. I gave you time to process it. Seven years! Seven goddamn years!” I took a ragged breath. “I gave you nothing but understanding and space, and you turned around and spent Christmas playing house with your twenty-one-year-old assistant in her hometown.” On the other end, there was a loud crash, followed by Marcus groaning in pain. “Fuck!” “How did you know about… no, listen, let me explain!” he panicked. “I was just doing Kenzie a favor! Her parents were breathing down her neck about getting married. She’s only twenty-one, she shouldn’t have to—” “I don’t care,” I snapped, the sound of his voice physically repulsing me. “We are broken up. I do not want to hear your pathetic excuses.” Marcus’s panic morphed into defensive anger. “I admit that breaking my promise to you was wrong! But you can’t even give me the grace to explain myself? We had a rule, Camille! We promised we’d talk things out, that we’d never go to sleep angry!” He was still violently avoiding the subject of Kenzie. I wasn’t going to waste my precious holiday rest on him. “There’s nothing to talk out. You strung me along under false pretenses. You break promises, you deflect blame, and you are completely utterly gutless.” “I am officially informing you: we are done. Goodbye.” I hung up and instantly blocked the new number.

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“You old piece of trash, you think you can shake me down?!” I was sweeping up litter on the sidewalk when a college girl on an electric scooter swerved and clipped me. I was about to apologize, but before I could get a word out, she grabbed me by the hair and yanked my head down with terrifying force. It felt like my scalp was being torn clean off my skull. My knees slammed into the concrete, the pain so sharp that tears instantly flooded my eyes. “Sweetheart, I’m not trying to shake you down… I’m really not…” “Bullshit!” Before I could even process what was happening, her hand came flying at my face. “You pathetic old leech!” “Trying to sue me?” “I’ll show you what happens to scammers!” She dragged me across the asphalt by my hair. She kicked me so hard she shattered seven of my ribs. Later, she knelt on the hospital floor, sobbing her eyes out, begging, “Ma’am, I’m so sorry, I was just drunk. I blacked out.” I stared at her, my chest throbbing too violently to let me speak. But in my head, there was only one clear, unwavering thought— I will never forgive you. … That first slap came too fast. I had only managed to say, “Sweetheart, watch out,” before she spun around and hit me. Crack. My ears rang. My left cheek burned like fire. I stood there, clutching my face, completely disoriented. Before I could even understand what was happening, the screaming started. “You want a payout? Is that it? I’ll teach you a lesson, you pathetic old scammer!” I parted my lips. “I didn’t—” Before the words could leave my mouth, she grabbed a fistful of my hair. Pain. She yanked my head down. I lost my balance, and she planted her boot right into the back of my knee. I crashed onto the pavement. “You’re still denying it? What did you just say to me? ‘Watch out’? Who the hell do you think you’re threatening?” “I wasn’t threatening you. Your scooter ripped my safety vest…” “Your vest? How much could a piece of garbage like that possibly be worth?” She pulled my hair upward, and I felt my skin ripping away from my head. “Help!” I screamed. She drove her fist into my chest. “You want to scream? I’ll give you something to scream about!” The first punch didn’t feel heavy, but it hit the bone. A dull, sickening thud. Then came the second. The third. She straddled me, her fists raining down on my chest, my shoulders, my arms. I curled into a ball, trying to shield my face, but her targets were my ribs, my chest. God, it hurt. So bad. It wasn’t the kind of pain you get from a bump or a fall. It was the sound of something snapping inside me. “Keep running your mouth! You want a piece of me? I’ll give it to you!” I heard my own voice, weak and desperate: “I didn’t do anything! Please stop! I’m not trying to scam you!” But she only hit me harder. Her eyes were bloodshot, her face flushed red, and she reeked of cheap liquor. She was wasted. But what did that have to do with me? She tore my clothes, and I wasn’t even allowed to speak up? A man walking by shouted, “Hey! Stop! What the hell are you doing to her?” She paused, glaring at him. “Mind your own business! You didn’t see her try to shake me down?” The man said, “I didn’t see her do anything. I see you beating an old woman.” She stood up, pointing a finger in his face. “Oh, you’re with her, aren’t you? I knew it. You’re in on it together, trying to extort me!” The man took two steps back, held up his hands, and hurried away. I tried to use the distraction to crawl away, but she spun around, saw me, and kicked me hard in the ribs. I collapsed back onto the concrete. “You want to run? Where do you think you’re going?” She crouched, grabbed my wrists, and dragged me toward the curb. The pavement was covered in gravel and grit. The stones scraped against my back like tiny knives, tearing through my clothes and skin. I couldn’t even scream anymore. My chest was too tight; I couldn’t catch my breath. “Look at her! Look at this act!” she shouted to the gathering crowd. “She’s faking it! All of it! She just wants a lawsuit!” Someone muttered quietly, “Hey, stop. She’s old.” “So what if she’s old? Being old doesn’t give you a free pass to scam people! She’s a parasite!” She slapped me again. My left ear went completely deaf. I could only watch her mouth move, her voice sounding muffled, like she was shouting underwater. Later, I found out she had dragged me nearly twenty feet from the alley entrance to the curb. My back was shredded. A small crowd had formed. A guy in his thirties stepped in, blocking her. “She’s old enough to be your grandmother. How can you lay a hand on her?” She glared. “Get lost. You want a cut of her payout too?” The guy’s face went pale with anger. “What payout? I saw you hit her with your scooter! She was just doing her job, you swerved right into her, and then you started beating her. How are you pretending you’re the victim here?” She hesitated. The alcohol seemed to hit her all at once; she swayed on her feet. But she wouldn’t back down. “What did you see? You didn’t see her try to extort me?” “Extort you for what? Saying ‘watch out’ is extortion now?” “She didn’t say ‘watch out’! She said, ‘You’re not getting away with this, pay up!’ Ask her yourself!” I lay on the cold ground, my body screaming in pain, unable to form words. The guy knelt beside me. “Ma’am, what did you actually say to her?” I parted my dry lips, my voice so faint I could barely hear it myself. “I said… watch out…” “Hear that?” The guy stood up. “She said watch out. You hit her, ripped her vest, and she told you to watch out. What’s wrong with that?” She sneered. “She says one thing, but I know what she meant! You guys are all in this together. I’m not playing this game.” She pulled out her phone. “I’m calling the cops. Let them handle you scammers!” I watched her dial 911. She spoke into the receiver: “Yeah, I’m being surrounded by a group of scammers trying to extort me. You need to get here fast. I’m at…” She gave the intersection, hung up, and shot me a venomous look. “Just lay there. Let’s see how long you can keep up this act once the police get here!” I tried to push myself up to sit, but a blinding flash of pain shot through my chest. I groaned and sank back down. She laughed. “Look at that. Didn’t I tell you? She’s faking. You tell her to stand up and she can’t, but watch her run the second the cops show up!” She kicked the heel of my boot. “Get up! Come on, show us your little performance!” Cold sweat poured down my face. I couldn’t breathe, let alone speak. The guy who had defended me stepped in front of her. “Don’t touch her! Look at her face, she’s bleeding!” “Bleeding? Where?” She leaned in close. “A tiny scratch on her lip? You call that bleeding? If she dies of old age right now, do I have to buy her coffin too?” The crowd grew larger. “This girl is psycho.” “Seriously, she’s completely wasted.” “I smell the booze from here. She’s drunk off her mind.” She heard them. She spun around, screaming at the crowd. “So what if I’ve been drinking? Does that mean she gets to scam me? If anyone else opens their mouth, I’ll sue you too!” The crowd went quiet. Satisfied, she nodded, pulled a pack of cigarettes from her purse, lit one, and leaned against the streetlight pole to smoke. While we waited for the police, she’d occasionally kick my foot. “Get up. Stop embarrassing yourself on the street!” I clamped my teeth together and stayed silent. It hurt so much. My back felt like it was on fire, and my chest felt like it was crushed under a boulder. I didn’t dare move. I was terrified that if I did, a broken bone would puncture my lung. A few minutes later, a cruiser pulled up. Two officers got out. When they saw me lying on the pavement, the blood dried on my face and my uniform torn open, the younger officer’s brow furrowed. “What happened here?” he asked. She threw her cigarette down and ran to him. “Officer! Thank God you’re here. They’re gang-pressing me!” She pointed at me. “She threw herself in front of my scooter, scraped it, and now she’s refusing to get up because she wants a cash payout!” Then she pointed at the guy who defended me. “And him! He’s her partner. He threatened me, saying he’d put me in jail!” The guy’s face turned white with rage. “What are you talking about? When did I threaten you?” “See? See! He’s yelling at me right in front of you! Imagine what he was doing before you got here!” The younger officer held up a hand. “Calm down. One at a time.” He walked over to me and knelt down. “Ma’am, can you speak?” I nodded. “Tell me what happened.” I gasped for air, the pain in my chest flaring up, but I forced the words out. I had to make him understand. “She hit me with her scooter. She ripped my vest. I just said, ‘Sweetheart, watch out,’ and she turned around and hit me.” “She slapped me, yanked my hair, kicked me down, and punched me in the chest. Then she dragged me by my arms across the road.” “I didn’t touch her scooter. I wasn’t trying to scam anyone.” The officer looked at the tear in my vest. He stood up and faced her. “Have you been drinking?” She blinked. “Just a little.” “Did you hit her with your scooter?” “No! She jumped out of nowhere! She walked right into me!” “But your handlebar ripped her vest, didn’t it?” She hesitated. “That… that was an accident when I slammed on the brakes. But then she started cornering me! Screaming that I couldn’t leave, demanding money, threatening to call the cops!” Her eyes began to well with tears. “Officer, I’m just a college student. She’s a grown adult bullying a kid. What was I supposed to do? I barely tapped her, and she threw herself on the ground and refused to move.” Listening to her lie, my body began to tremble violently with rage. “I never said those things! I never asked for money!” She glared at me. “You know exactly what you did!” The guy who had stepped in spoke up. “Officer, I saw the whole thing from start to finish. This girl was riding her electric scooter, swerving all over the place. The lady tried to get out of her way, but the handlebar caught her vest and tore it.” “The lady just said, ‘Sweetheart, watch out,’ and this girl slapped her. Then she started beating her.” “She dragged her all the way from over there to here—nearly twenty feet. A bunch of us saw it.” “You’re all in on it!” she screamed, her eyes red. The officer held up his hand to quiet her. “That’s enough.” He studied her flushed face, catching the scent. “How much did you have to drink?” “Just two beers.” “Two beers don’t leave you smelling like a distillery.” She went quiet. The officer called for an ambulance. While we waited, she kept muttering, “I can just give her two hundred bucks. Does it really need to be this big of a deal? Old people these days are obsessed with suing everyone.” Two hundred dollars. She broke me, and she thought two hundred dollars would fix it. I’ve swept the streets at this intersection for three years. I wake up at four every morning. I make fifteen dollars an hour, barely twenty-three hundred a month. And she thought she could brush me off with two hundred dollars. No. She didn’t even want to give me that. She felt like even offering two hundred was an act of charity. The ambulance arrived. As they lifted me onto the stretcher, the tears finally came. Not because of the pain. But because of the sheer, suffocating humiliation. I am a sixty-year-old woman. I’ve spent half my life working hard, never picked a fight, never taken a penny that wasn’t mine. She beat me, dragged me, and then accused me of being a thief. Who gave her the right? In the ER, the doctor peeled back my shirt. His expression changed instantly. “Get her to CT immediately.” My son ran in, drenched in sweat. “Mom! Mom, what happened?” I saw his eyes fill with tears. I said, “I’m okay, sweetheart. Just got into a little scuffle.” When the doctor came back with the CT scans, he called my son out into the hallway. Through the thin curtain, I heard him: “Fractures to the third, fourth, fifth, and sixth ribs on the right side… fourth, fifth, and sixth on the left… pulmonary contusion… extensive road rash across her back…” Seven. She had broken seven of my bones. As the nurse prepped my IV, my son stood by the bed, his fists clenched so tight his knuckles popped. “Mom, who did this to you?” I said, “A young girl.” “What young girl?” “She was riding a scooter. She’d been drinking.” “Why did she hit you?” I didn’t have an answer. Because I didn’t know why. All I had said was, “Sweetheart, watch out.” Just those three words. And for that, she beat me. She beat me for ten minutes, broke seven of my ribs, and dragged me across the asphalt. And when she was done, she called me a scammer and thought two hundred dollars would buy my silence. My son was out in the hall making a call. His voice was booming, echoing through the ward: “You beat an elderly woman so badly she’s in the hospital with seven broken ribs! Where the hell are you? What do you mean, calm down? Tell that girl to come look at what she did!” He came back in, sat by my bed, and stared at the floor, silent. I reached out and touched his hand. “Don’t be angry, Luke.” He looked up, his eyes bloodshot. “Mom, why didn’t you run?” “I couldn’t. She had me by the hair.” “What about the people around? Nobody stopped her?” “Someone tried. She just screamed at him too.” He fell silent again. After a long while, he said, “The police said she’s been booked. Felony assault.” “Okay.” “Did she even know what she was doing when she was hitting you?” “She was drunk.” “Being drunk isn’t an excuse.” I shook my head. It wasn’t. Maybe the first blow was the alcohol. But the second, the third, the tenth? She knew exactly what she was doing. She knew what she was doing when she grabbed my hair and dragged me. She knew what she was doing when she lied to the police. The surgery took three hours. Once the anesthesia wore off, the pain hit. It was unlike anything I had ever felt before—the kind of pain where every single breath felt like broken glass scraping inside my chest. I lay there, completely paralyzed. My back was bandaged, my chest bound tight, an IV dripping into my arm. Every two hours, the nurse came to check my vitals. “Don’t try to move, sweetheart. Just rest.” I didn’t want to move. I couldn’t. On the third afternoon, she showed up. She wasn’t alone. Her mother was with her. The two of them stood in the doorway, holding a fruit basket and a carton of milk. The mother was dressed elegantly—expensive clothes, styled hair, gold bracelets clinking on her wrist. A woman of privilege. The girl stood behind her, head bowed, her face hidden. The mother stepped in first, a warm, practiced smile on her face. “Hello, ma’am. I’m Diane, Hailey’s mother. We wanted to come see how you were doing.” I said nothing. She set the fruit basket on the bedside table, pulled up a chair, and sighed. “Ma’am, we are so incredibly sorry about what happened. Hailey was young, foolish, and had a bit too much to drink. She made a terrible mistake. As her parents, we feel absolutely sick about this.” I watched her, remaining silent. She continued, “The doctors say your injuries are quite severe. We want to cover all of your medical expenses, of course. And on top of that, we’d like to offer you fifty thousand dollars as a personal settlement. How does that sound?” Fifty thousand. Her daughter had shattered seven of my ribs, beaten me for ten minutes, and dragged me across the street. And her mother thought fifty thousand dollars would make it go away. “We’ll handle any physical therapy you need later, too. Whatever you need, just let us know.” Diane turned back toward the door. “Hailey, get in here.” The girl stepped forward. I finally got a clear look at her. Twenty-two. Petite, slender, ponytail, wearing a gray hoodie, jeans, and sneakers. She looked like any ordinary college student. If I hadn’t burned her face into my memory, I would never have believed she was the monster who had pinned me down and pounded my chest with her fists. Her mother nudged her. “Say it.” She looked up briefly, then looked back down at her shoes. “I’m sorry, ma’am.” Her voice was barely a whisper. “Louder,” her mother commanded. “I’m sorry! I really didn’t mean to. I was just so drunk that night, I totally blacked out. I don’t remember any of it. When I woke up, I was already at the precinct. I swear I’m not that kind of person. I would never do something like that if I were sober.” Drunk. Blacked out. Doesn’t remember. As I listened to her, my chest began to throb again. Not my ribs, but my heart. She broke seven of my bones, and she wanted to erase it with three cheap excuses? Her mother chimed in: “You see, ma’am, she’s truly remorseful. She’s apologizing from the bottom of her heart. Please, find it in your heart to forgive her this once. She’s still just a kid. She hasn’t even graduated college yet. If she gets a criminal record, her entire life is ruined. She’s twenty-two with a bright future. We can’t let one bad night destroy everything she’s worked for. You have a child of your own. I’m sure you understand how a mother feels.” I listened to every single word, letting them hang in the sterile air. She broke my bones, and now she was worried about her life being ruined. When she was beating me, did she stop to think that I was someone’s mother too? When she lied to the police, did she think about the consequences? When she stood outside the precinct complaining about a two-hundred-dollar payout, did she think about her precious future? I looked at the mother and daughter. My voice was quiet, but every syllable was sharp: “No.” The mother froze. “Excuse me?” “I said, I will not sign a release. I do not forgive her.” The smile on Diane’s face vanished, replaced by a strained, desperate grin. “Ma’am, please, let’s not be hasty. We can negotiate. Whatever you want. One hundred thousand? Two hundred thousand? Name your price.” “I don’t want your money.” “Then what do you want?” “I want her in prison.”

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I found the video on my husband’s phone. A man who had always been so cold and detached with me was suddenly alive, burning with a passion I’d never seen. He shifted through positions with an eagerness that made my stomach turn. And the woman in the frame was someone I knew all too well. For the three years of our marriage, I had cyberstalked her profile like a sewer rat, obsessively tracking her life in the dark. I was sick with it, desperately wanting to know what made this “perfect” ex-girlfriend so much better than me. What made her so unforgettable that he murmured her name in his sleep. We were driving to our anniversary dinner that night. Gavin noticed my distraction and reached over, his voice laced with concern. “What’s wrong, babe?” The question clawed at my throat, threatening to burst out. But my mind drifted for a split second, and the next thing I knew, my car slammed violently into the bumper of the SUV in front of us. When the driver of the front car stepped out, the blood in my veins turned to ice. I froze. It was her. Gavin’s ex. The woman I had spent three years obsessing over. At that exact moment, Gavin’s hand, which had been squeezing mine, went completely slack. …… I stared blankly at my wrist, where Gavin’s fingers had just been. I could still feel the lingering warmth of his palm. But before he could offer an explanation, his body reacted first. He took a half-step forward, his voice barely a whisper. “Chelsea? You’re back in the States?” The woman walking toward us had voluminous chestnut waves and bold, sharp makeup. Her striking face was permanently burned into my memory. Over the years, his friends had compared us more times than I cared to count, usually after a few too many drinks: “Gemma is sweet and a great housewife, but she’s got nothing on Chelsea. Chelsea’s got fire!” “Right? Once you’ve had wild and reckless, how do you settle for plain vanilla, Gavin?” Back then, Gavin had never defended me. He had never argued. He’d just down his drink in silence. He had no idea that I was standing near the hallway, having just returned from the restroom, taking in every word. And he definitely didn’t know that later that night, as he drifted off in a drunken stupor, he had clearly whispered her name: Chelsea. On those agonizing nights when sleep eluded me because of the ghost in our marriage, I couldn’t stop myself. My fingers would betray me, tracing his digital footprints to Chelsea’s Instagram feed. I would compare myself to her, over and over, dissecting every photo in a spiral of self-sabotage, watching the sun rise through swollen eyes. But I kept it all bottled up. I lied to myself. I told myself that everyone has a past, but I was the one who had Gavin’s present. I thought that was enough. But now, his past was standing right in front of us, her heels clicking against the asphalt as she closed the distance. “Long time no see, Gavin.” She offered her hand with effortless poise. As their fingers met, I noticed the slight tremor in Gavin’s pinky. “And this is your wife?” Her eyes swept over me, a brief, patronizing flicker of amusement crossing her face before she masked it. Gavin gave a barely audible murmur of agreement and quickly shifted the focus. “Is your car okay? Do you want me to call insurance?” “It’s fine. Just a tiny scratch. Don’t worry about it.” Gavin opened his mouth, clearly wanting to say more, but Chelsea waved her phone, murmuring something about being late for an appointment. She turned on her heel and walked away with an effortless grace. Gavin’s eyes trailed after her. Even after she got into her car, he kept his gaze locked on her rear windshield, where her business number was printed in neat vinyl lettering. Swallowing the bitter ache rising in my throat, I climbed back into the passenger seat alone. Gavin followed a moment later, looking like he’d just seen a ghost. He didn’t say a word as he started the engine. The silence in the car was suffocating all the way to the restaurant we had booked for our anniversary. Once he put the car in park, I couldn’t hold it in any longer. “Is there anything you want to tell me—” “Babe, I just remembered there’s an emergency at the office. I need to run back and handle it.” Gavin forced a tight, plastic smile and pressed a hollow kiss to my cheek. “Go ahead and grab our table. I’ll be back as soon as I can so we can celebrate.” As his hand reached for the door handle, I stopped him. “Are you really going to the office, Gavin? You’re not lying to me, right?” His smile stiffened, and a shadow of irritation crossed his eyes. “Of course. Stop overthinking things. Just wait for me, okay?” After he drove off in a cab, I collapsed against the steering wheel, a sharp, physical pain blooming in my chest. I wanted so badly to believe him. But two hours later, my phone vibrated. I opened Instagram to find Chelsea’s latest post. [Couldn’t help ourselves. He’s still as amazing in bed as he used to be.] [Honestly, his wife is such a bore. No wonder he’s been spamming my DMs from alt accounts for years.] The attached photo was of a man’s hand resting casually on her bare waist. Strong, familiar fingers, with the exact same mole on the back of his hand as Gavin’s. But his ring finger was bare. The wedding band engraved with my name was gone, replaced by a pale, mocking tan line. The dam broke. I slammed my fists against the steering wheel, sobbing until my ribs ached, crying like a madwoman in the dark cabin of the car. I cried for our three years of marriage, which hadn’t even stood a chance against a single chance encounter with his ex. I cried at my own stupidity—how, even seconds before opening her profile, I had still been making excuses for him: If he just comes back before the kitchen closes, I’ll pretend none of this happened. By the time my tears ran dry, a cold, hard clarity settled over me. I pulled out my phone and dialed my lawyer. “I need to file for divorce.” We spoke for three hours. By the time I unlocked the front door of our house, it was well past midnight. Gavin wasn’t home. I sank into a hot bath, letting the water rise to my chin, unable to tell if the moisture on my face was from the steam or my own tears. My inbox chimed with a draft of the divorce agreement. Because he was the one at fault, the terms required him to forfeit the majority of our marital assets. I stared at the sterile black-and-white text on my screen, a bitter laugh escaping my lips. Three years of my life, boiled down to three thin pages of legal jargon. All those moments of warmth I thought we shared… they were nothing but a fool’s delusion. At two in the morning, Gavin finally let himself in. He was humming a soft tune, looking lighter than he had in months as he shed his coat. But when his collar shifted, a fresh, vivid bite mark on his collarbone caught the light. Noticing my gaze, he quickly adjusted his shirt, smoothing down the fabric. He walked over to me, his voice carrying its usual gentle, easy cadence. “Babe, I’m so sorry. Work kept me hostage. I can’t believe I ruined our anniversary.” He fished a small, cheap-looking jewelry box from his pocket. “Look what I got you, though. I spent forever picking it out.” Without waiting for my reaction, he flipped open the lid, pulled out a generic silver necklace, and draped it around my neck. I stared at the mass-produced, uninspired piece in the mirror, my hands clenching into fists at my sides. Just a few days ago, I had found his real purchase receipt in his coat pocket. It hadn’t been this cheap trinket. It had been a limited-edition piece by my favorite designer—the crown jewel of her final collection. When we first married, we had nothing. We couldn’t even afford wedding bands. Gavin had held me close, pointing at that exact necklace in a magazine, resting his chin on my head. ‘I’m sorry I can’t give you the world right now, Gemma,’ he’d whispered. ‘But I promise you, the second we make it, I’m buying this for you.’ Back then, my heart had melted. I never could have imagined that years later, he would hand me this cheap, insulting imitation. While Gavin was in the shower, I picked up his phone from the coffee table where he always left it. In three years of marriage, I had never once snooped through his things. This was the first time. My fingers trembled violently as I bypassed the lock screen, the sound of rushing shower water echoing from the bathroom. He had added Chelsea back on iMessage. Her last message was a selfie. I tapped the image, and the blood in my veins turned to liquid fire. There, draped elegantly over Chelsea’s collarbone, was the designer necklace I had dreamed of for years. [Thank you for the welcome-home gift, love. I adore it. But what about your wife?] Gavin’s reply was chillingly casual: [Don’t worry about her. I’ll just grab some cheap knockoff from a street vendor on my way home.] I opened his banking app. His “thoughtful” anniversary gift for me had cost exactly twenty-nine dollars and ninety-nine cents. I ripped the cheap metal from my neck, the sharp edges scratching my skin, and threw it into the trash can. The phone buzzed in my hand again. It was a thumbs-up emoji from his best friend, Travis. My eyes darted upward to read their previous exchange, and the words stole the air from my lungs. Gavin had written: [You’re right. Gemma is just too vanilla. She’s built for stability, not excitement. Chelsea is a different breed. I barely have to touch her and she already knows exactly how to move.] A hot tear spilled onto the glass screen. I scrambled to wipe it away, but the sudden silence from the bathroom caught me off guard. The shower had stopped. A second later, the bathroom door swung open. Gavin stood there in a towel, his eyes locking onto the phone in my hands. His face instantly contorted. “Gemma, are you going through my phone?!” He was the one who had shattered our vows, yet he was standing there accusing me. The fragile wall keeping my emotions in check collapsed. I thrust the screen toward him, sobbing. “She’s your ex, isn’t she? Why, Gavin? Why would you do this to me?” He set his jaw, staring down at me with cold detachment. The silence was deafening. No excuses. No apologies. Just a blank, defensive stare. Driven mad by his indifference, I grabbed a throw pillow and hurled it at his face, screaming every profanity I knew, sobbing hysterically. My hand found a heavy water glass on the table. I threw it with all my strength. It grazed his cheek and smashed directly into our large canvas wedding portrait hanging on the wall behind him. Shatter. Shards of glass rained down onto the hardwood floor. Only then did Gavin’s expression shift, his patience clearly wearing thin. He frowned, his voice dropping into a chillingly calm tone. “Fine. Since you know, there’s no point in lying. Honestly, Gemma, if you weren’t so boring compared to her, I wouldn’t have looked elsewhere. But don’t worry. You’re still my wife. That’s not going to change. Once I get this out of my system, I’ll come home.” I stared at his moving lips, completely numb. I understood every word, but the sheer cruelty of them refused to register in my brain. My fingers brushed against the papers of the divorce petition hidden under the cushion. But before I could pull them out, Gavin spoke again, his voice carrying a patronizing edge of advice. “Grow up, Gemma. This is just how marriage works. Pull yourself together. Don’t forget your mother’s surgery is in two days. You don’t want to stress her out.” My hands clenched into tight fists. My mother had been diagnosed with end-stage renal failure six months ago. She was currently in the ICU, and the kidney donor had been secured solely through Gavin’s business connections. Seeing me go quiet, Gavin nodded with smug satisfaction. He grabbed his keys and jacket, walking out of the front door without a single backward glance. I was left alone in the wreckage of our home, staring at the shattered remains of our wedding photo, choking on my own breath. On the ruined canvas, right where my face was printed, lay a dirty boot print. Gavin had stepped on my face without even looking down before he left. But he was right about one thing. My mother was my only family left in this world. No matter what, I had to keep my head down and wait until her surgery was a success before I could settle things with him. For the next few days, I lived at the hospital, holding my mother’s hand and trying to soothe the anxiety she felt about the high-risk transplant. Meanwhile, Chelsea’s social media was a parade of her life with Gavin. She flaunted Cartier bracelets, luxury designer handbags, and captioned every post with nauseating declarations of her happiness. The night before the surgery, her account suddenly went viral. The post gaining the most traction was the one she had posted on the day of our car crash—the one mocking me as a boring wife. An army of internet users had flooded her comment section, slamming her as a home-wrecking mistress. A few internet sleuths had even doxed her, uncovering her employer’s email and threatening to send reports of her behavior to her boss. I locked my phone screen, utterly detached. None of this mattered to me anymore. Once my mother was out of surgery, we were leaving this city. I would take her to some quiet, warm town where we could start over and live out our days in peace. But on the morning of the surgery, the moment I opened the door to the chief surgeon’s office, a stinging slap caught me squarely across the face. My glasses were knocked off my face, clattering onto the linoleum floor and shattering into pieces. Through a blur of tears, I looked up to see Chelsea, her face contorted with pure rage. “You bitch! Did you hire people to drag my name through the mud online? If you think you can ruin my life, you have another thing coming!” My cheek burned with white-hot pain, and a wave of raw anger surged through me. But just as I raised my hand to strike her back, a timid voice spoke from the corner of the room. “Gemma… we’re backing out. We aren’t donating the kidney.” My raised hand froze mid-air. I slowly turned my head toward the donor’s family members standing nearby. “Why?” My voice cracked, barely a whisper. My mother was already being prepped for the OR. The doctors had made it clear—this was her last chance. If she didn’t get the transplant today, she wouldn’t survive the next three months. The representative of the donor’s family shrank back, refusing to meet my eyes, their gaze darting nervously toward Chelsea. Chelsea smiled, savoring my panic. She took a step closer, leaning in until her breath brushed my ear. “Because I offered them more money,” she whispered, her voice dripping with venom. “You ruined my reputation, so I’m ending your mother’s life. Perfectly fair, don’t you think?” Gnashing my teeth, I pulled out my phone to call Gavin. But Chelsea snatched it from my grip and threw it against the wall, shattering the screen. “Going to complain to Gavin? Please. How do you think I got the donor family’s contact info? Gavin gave it to me. He said I could do whatever it takes to feel better.” I bit my lip so hard I tasted copper. “What do you want?” She pulled out her own phone, aiming the camera directly at my face. “Easy. Get on your knees, slap yourself three times, and record a video admitting that you were the home-wrecking third party all along. Do that, and I’ll let your mother have her kidney. Deal?” The clock on the wall ticked loudly. Every second was a second closer to my mother’s death. Picturing her frail, pale face in the ICU, my knees buckled, and I slammed hard onto the floor. I raised my hand and slapped myself hard across the cheek. “I was the third party… they truly loved each other.” A small crowd of patients and nurses had gathered by the open door, their hushed whispers and pitying stares stinging worse than the blows. After the third slap, I stood up, keeping my head bowed to hide my burning face. Chelsea laughed hysterically, clapping her hands like a delighted child. Then, she leaned in close. “I lied. Even if you crawl like a dog, I would never let her have the kidney. You took my man, and you let the internet call me a whore. This is what you get.” She spun around and walked away, the donor’s family scurrying behind her. I lunged forward to stop them, but the burly bodyguard Gavin had hired to protect her shoved me hard onto the floor. The broken shards of my glasses sliced deep into my palms. Blood pooled on the floor, but I couldn’t feel the pain. I scrambled up, begged a nurse for her phone, and frantically dialed Gavin’s number. When he picked up, his voice carried no surprise. “You nearly ruined Chelsea’s life, Gemma. She’s just playing a little joke to blow off steam. We’ll postpone the surgery for three days. Consider it a lesson.” The line went dead before I could speak. As I desperately tried to redial, a panicked shout echoed from the hallway. “Who let the patient out of her room? She’s supposed to be prepped! Where is the family? The patient just collapsed! Code blue!” My head snapped toward the door. Through the window, I saw my mother’s frail body crumpled on the linoleum floor. The world around me dissolved into a high-pitched, deafening ring. Maybe it was a mother’s intuition. She had forced her weak body out of bed to find me. Standing at the edge of the corridor, she had watched through the crowd as her daughter knelt on the floor, slapping herself. She had used every ounce of her remaining strength to push through the crowd to reach me, but the rushing bodies had shoved her back over and over again. Until her heart gave out. Even in her very last moments, she was only trying to protect me… I went through the motions. I signed the death certificate. I filled out the cremation paperwork. My body was a hollow shell. It was only when the funeral director handed me the cold, heavy ceramic urn that the truth finally pierced through the fog. My mother was gone. Forever. Like a ghost walking among the living, I bought a plot in a quiet cemetery and laid her to rest. As I clung to the cold stone of her grave, sobbing until my throat bled, Gavin finally called me. “Have you learned your lesson?” he asked, his voice dripping with condescending authority. “Apologize to Chelsea properly, and I’ll have the doctors schedule the surgery for tomorrow.” The sheer absurdity of his words made me laugh—a terrible, broken sound. I pulled the SIM card out of my phone and snapped it in half. That afternoon, I hired a moving truck and erased every single trace of my existence from our house. I rolled my suitcase through the airport terminal. Gavin, I hope I never see you again, in this life or the next. …… That evening, Gavin felt a strange, nagging weight in his chest as he drove home. He hadn’t been able to reach Gemma since he called off the surgery. It didn’t make sense. Usually, she would be begging him, crying on her knees for him to reinstate the transplant. He opened the front door to complete darkness. Flicking on the light switch, his breath hitched. The house was dead quiet. Sterile. But what made his heart stop completely was the crisp white envelope sitting on the coffee table: the divorce papers.

🌟 Continue the story here 👉🏻 📲 Download the “MotoNovel” app 🔍 search for “456731”, and watch the full series ✨! #MotoNovel

On the night of our fifth wedding anniversary, Julian Reed knelt on one knee, fastening a new diamond necklace around my neck. “My dearest, you’re my life,” he whispered, kissing my earlobe, his voice as soft as melted honey. I scoffed, remembering the document I’d just seen. Elara Vance Psychological Destruction Plan. His handwriting was on it: “Year five, self-awareness completely stripped. Initiate final phase.” “Julian,” I cupped his face, gazing earnestly into his deeply affectionate eyes. “What would you do if someone destroyed the thing you love most?” His eyes didn’t flicker. “I’d kill them.” I nodded, pulling a knife from behind my back, and smiled as I asked, “What if it was you?” Elara Vance POV In the fifth year of my marriage to Julian Reed, I found a top-secret psychological evaluation report in his private safe. The cover bore a bold title: Elara Vance Psychological Destruction Plan. I had only meant to find his passport to book two tickets to Iceland as a surprise for our fifth anniversary. The safe’s password was my birthday, and it opened with a casual try. But there was no passport, only this thick stack of documents. My hands trembling, I opened the first page. Julian’s familiar, sharp handwriting filled the pages, every sentence like a poisoned blade. “Year one: She trusts me completely. Her fear of abandonment has been entirely suppressed by my fabricated, unconditional affection.” “Year three: She has left the orchestra. Her social circle has been wiped clean; she has nothing but me.” “Year five: Dependency reached one hundred percent. Self-awareness stripped. Final phase can be initiated – complete emotional deprivation and social ruin.” My mind exploded, leaving only a sharp ringing in my ears. All of New York knew Julian Reed was completely obsessed with his wife. He would drive across half the city on a freezing winter night just because I mentioned wanting a strawberry cake from the upscale bakery across town, making sure it was the first thing I saw when I woke up. If I accidentally cut my finger while practicing cello, he would tear up, taking my hand in his mouth as if the wound was in his own heart. He even bought an entire island, naming it after me, claiming it was his worry-free paradise built just for me. He would always whisper in my ear, “Darling, the outside world is too complicated. You just need to hide under my wing and be my little princess.” So, I willingly gave up my position as principal cellist, cut off contact with my friends, and lived like a bird in a gilded cage. But now, these documents brutally revealed that every romance, every profound display of affection over these five years, had been a precisely calculated psychological trap. At the end of the file, a woman’s photo was clipped. It was Chloe Davis. Five years ago, the talented cellist Chloe Davis’s reputation was destroyed by a sudden bullying scandal. She ended up with permanently damaged legs in a car accident during a rainstorm. And the “biggest beneficiary” of that scandal was me, who took her place as principal. I had always thought it was just an accident, until I saw a sentence Julian had written on the back of the photo: “She took Chloe’s stage and her legs. I will take her soul.” The sound of the lock turning suddenly echoed. My body stiffened. I frantically shoved the documents back into the safe and slammed the door shut. The next second, the study door opened. Julian, dressed in a custom suit, held a bouquet of rare “crushed ice blue” roses. He walked in against the light, the tenderness in his eyes capable of drowning anyone. “Elara, why are you sitting on the floor? The marble is cold; you’ll get sick.” He strode over, casually placed the flowers on the table, and effortlessly lifted me, his movements practiced and careful, as if I were a fragile, rare treasure. He lowered his head, pressing his warm lips to my forehead, his voice deep and doting, “Happy fifth anniversary, darling.” I leaned against his broad, warm chest, breathing in his familiar cedar scent, feeling as if all the blood in my body had frozen. I looked into those deeply affectionate eyes. For five years, I had seen stars and oceans in those eyes, a unique, unconditional love. But it turned out they were just a mirror, reflecting his cold-blooded intent to kill. “Why are you trembling?” Julian frowned slightly, his large hand enveloping my icy fingers, a perfectly timed flicker of concern in his eyes. “Was the window not closed properly? I’ll go heat you some milk.” He placed me on the soft cashmere sofa and turned towards the kitchen. I watched his retreating back. He rolled up his shirt sleeves, his long fingers moving deftly, his profile looking so charming in the warm yellow light. This man had woven an airtight net with the most extreme tenderness. He had groomed me into a useless shell who couldn’t live without him. And then, he was preparing to push me off a cliff with his own hands. I bit down hard on my lip until I tasted blood, just to stop myself from screaming. I remembered when I was eighteen, I’d bled my finger practicing cello, and he’d cradled my hand in his, promising to protect me. I remembered on our wedding day, he swore before the priest that I was his only belief in this life. It was all fake. He never wanted to love me; he wanted to elevate me to the highest point, only to let me fall and shatter into a million pieces. Extreme pain, I realized, was silent.

Elara Vance POV I drank the milk. The sickly sweet taste slid down my throat, but it felt like swallowing broken glass, cutting my insides until they bled. The next morning, Julian said he had an important international meeting at his company. Before leaving, he pressed a lingering good morning kiss to my lips. I watched his car drive out of the villa, then turned and hailed a cab, following him. The car didn’t head to the Reed Group building but drove into New York’s most secluded high-end rehabilitation center in the suburbs. I stood at the end of the long corridor, peering through the glass panel on the patient room door. Chloe sat in a wheelchair, pale but still beautiful. And Julian, who was always composed and superior in front of me, was now kneeling before Chloe’s wheelchair. He wasn’t wearing his usual impeccably tailored suit jacket; his tie was slightly loosened, and his eyes showed deep fatigue and unconcealed pain. “Chloe, are you feeling better today?” His voice was hoarse, with a slight tremor. Chloe didn’t speak, just stared blankly out the window. Julian took her lifeless hand, pressing it to his cheek, his eyes reddening. “Soon, Chloe, just a few more days. I’ve completely broken Elara Vance’s will. Tomorrow is her comeback concert; I’ll make her atone for all the suffering you endured, in front of the whole world.” “I’ll ruin her reputation, make her taste the despair you went through.” I stood outside the door, my nails digging deep into my palms. Blood dripped from between my fingers onto the pristine white tiles, yet I felt no pain. So, this was the real Julian. In front of me, he was a perfectly executed program, every glance, every movement, a “best solution” derived from psychological analysis. His love for me was flawless, yet utterly devoid of warmth. But in front of Chloe, he felt pain, fatigue, and lost control. This was the love of a living, breathing person. I remembered Julian once telling me, “Elara, you don’t need to grow up around me. I’ll always be your safe harbor.” It turned out he wasn’t trying to protect me; he was trying to clip my wings, drain my blood, and turn me into a soulless puppet, only to effortlessly tear me apart at the very end. I didn’t rush in to confront him, nor did I cry hysterically. Like a ghost, I turned and left the rehabilitation center. Back in the villa Julian called our “love nest,” I looked around. Our massive wedding photo, intimately embracing, hung on the wall. The roses he’d clipped for me that morning sat on the table. The air still carried the calming scent he’d specially blended for me. Everything here was a custom-made cage for me. My phone suddenly vibrated. It was a message from Julian. “Darling, this meeting is so boring. All I can think about is you. Are you ready for tomorrow’s concert? Don’t be nervous, I’ll be in the audience with you.” I stared at the loving message on the screen, then suddenly chuckled. As I laughed, tears finally streamed down my face. For tomorrow’s fifth anniversary, I had secretly rehabilitated for six months, enduring excruciating pain in my fingers, just to pick up the cello again. I had planned to surprise him on stage, to show him that I was still the Elara Vance who could stand by his side. But it turned out he had already set the trap, waiting for me to fall into it. My fingers trembling, I typed a reply: “Okay.” Julian, since you want to see me shattered into a million pieces, then I will grant your wish and play out this final act with you.

Elara Vance POV On the night of my comeback concert, New York’s Lincoln Center was packed. Backstage in the dressing room, Julian personally knelt to help me put on my diamond-studded heels. He looked up, his gaze so tender it could melt anyone. “My Elara, you will be the most dazzling queen on stage tonight.” I looked at him, a faint smile playing on my lips. “Will I?” “Of course.” He stood, pressing a reverent kiss to my forehead. “Go on, I’ll be watching you from the best seat.” I hugged my cello, walking step by step towards the spotlighted stage. When I played the first note, the entire hall fell silent. It was “Sunken Star,” a piece I had once been most proud of. However, just as the music reached its climax, the giant LED screen behind the stage suddenly flickered. The beautiful starry background vanished, replaced by a maliciously edited surveillance video and audio recording. In the video, my back was visible at the top of the stairs, coldly watching Chloe fall. In the audio, a voice eerily similar to mine sneered arrogantly, “As long as your hands are crippled, the principal position will be mine.” The music stopped abruptly. The entire hall erupted in an uproar. Countless gazes of shock, disdain, and anger shot like arrows towards me in the center of the stage. “Oh my God! She’s truly despicable!” “So, Chloe’s scandal and accident back then were all her doing!” “Murderer! Get off the stage!” Camera flashes from the media flickered wildly, and reporters swarmed forward like sharks smelling blood. I didn’t move, just quietly held my cello, my gaze cutting through the chaotic crowd, landing precisely on Julian in the VIP box. He stood in the shadows, his gentle mask completely torn away, replaced by chilling indifference and malicious pleasure. He looked at me as if I were a piece of trash finally crushed. Under the escort of security, Julian slowly descended the stairs and came to the front of the stage. Reporters immediately thrust microphones at him. “Mr. Reed! Were you aware of your wife’s actions?” Julian stopped, his gaze coldly fixed on me on stage. He took the microphone, his voice deep and pained. “I apologize to everyone. For these five years, I was blinded by her hypocritical mask. Only today have I uncovered the truth of what happened.” He paused, every word he uttered like a knife stabbing straight into my heart. “Elara Vance, you disgust me.” That single sentence, amplified by the microphone, echoed through every corner of the theater. The man who once held me in the palm of his hand, who would ache if I even frowned, was now personally pushing me into an abyss of destruction. I stood on stage, looking at his seemingly righteous face, and suddenly laughed. I didn’t argue, didn’t struggle. Because I knew all this was evidence he had meticulously fabricated. He had spent five years setting this trap, and he would never leave me any room to turn the tables. I just stared fixedly at Julian, mouthing a phrase only we both understood: “Julian Reed, as you wish.”

Elara Vance POV I don’t know how I got back to the villa. The internet was flooded with insults; I was branded a “vicious woman” and a “murderer,” my former honors trampled into the mud. The villa was dark, silent. Julian sat on the leather sofa in the living room, a lit cigarette clutched between his fingers. The crimson glow flickered in the darkness. He never used to smoke in front of me, because I’d said I couldn’t stand the smell. But now, the entire living room reeked of choking tobacco. “Why?” I stood in the doorway, my voice so hoarse it didn’t sound like my own. Julian stubbed out the cigarette and slowly stood up. He walked step by step towards me, looking down at me. His eyes held none of their former tenderness, only bone-chilling coldness. “Why?” He sneered, then suddenly reached out and clamped my chin, his grip so strong it felt like my bones would shatter. “Five years ago, Chloe’s reputation was ruined because of you, her legs were crippled, and she could never play cello again. You ask me why?” “I didn’t do that,” I said calmly, looking at him. “It was an accident.” “Shut up!” Julian’s eyes were bloodshot. He roughly pinned me against the wall. “Even now you dare to argue! If you hadn’t bribed the judges, if you hadn’t forced her, how would she have run out in the rain?!” He leaned close to my ear, his voice laced with venom. “Elara Vance, do you know how disgusting I found it, looking at your face every day for these five years?” I didn’t struggle, letting him hold me. I looked at his familiar yet strange face and softly asked, “So, the good morning kisses, the hot milk every night, the vows under the Northern Lights, the roses on the island… were all fake?” “All of it was for today.” Julian curled his lips cruelly. “I hired the top psychologists to analyze your every weakness. I knew you feared abandonment most, yearned most to be unequivocally chosen. So, I gave you the most perfect love, made you utterly fall for me, made you abandon your career, made you have nothing but me.” “Only by lifting you to the highest point will the fall be painful enough.” He released me, watching me slide down the wall to the floor, a flash of vengeful pleasure in his eyes. “Elara Vance, this is just the beginning.” I sat on the cold floor, looking up at him. I didn’t break down crying, nor did I kneel and beg. I just stared at him, the light in my eyes extinguishing little by little, finally becoming a desolate wasteland. “Congratulations, Julian Reed,” I pulled at my dry lips. “You won.” I was calm. My gaze now was like looking at a stranger. “Don’t pretend to be indifferent.” Julian dropped a cold remark. “From tomorrow, Chloe will move in. You owe her, and you’ll spend the rest of your life paying her back.” With that, he turned and went upstairs without another glance. I sat alone in the darkness, listening to the wind outside the window. My heart was dead, even the pain had dulled. Julian, do you think you destroyed my reputation and my pride? No, what you destroyed was a woman’s unwavering, even self-sacrificing, genuine love for you.

Elara Vance POV The next day, Chloe moved into the villa. Julian gave her the master bedroom, changing the bedding to Chloe’s favorite pure white. I was relegated to the cold, damp guest room on the first floor. I was like a transparent ghost, forced to watch Julian’s extreme devotion to another woman in this “love nest” that once belonged to me. At lunch, Julian pushed Chloe into the dining room. He skillfully cut her steak into small, precisely 1.5-centimeter pieces – the size I used to prefer. He tested the soup’s temperature with his wrist, and only after confirming it wasn’t too hot, carefully spoon-fed it to Chloe. “Chloe, careful, it’s hot,” his voice was so gentle it could drip with sweetness. I stood in the corner, quietly watching this scene. It turned out that what I thought was “exclusive devotion,” those details I drowned in, were merely a program he could copy and paste onto anyone at any time. My profound love, from beginning to end, had been a joke. Chloe ate a few bites, then suddenly turned her head, looking at me in the corner, a hint of malice playing on her lips. “Julian, I’d like to hear some cello,” Chloe said softly. “I used to play for you, but now my hands are useless… could Miss Vance play for me?” Julian’s movements froze. He turned to look at me, his eyes cold. “Go get the cello.” I stood still. “I haven’t played in a long time.” “I told you to get the cello!” Julian’s voice suddenly rose. “You owe Chloe, and you’ll never be able to repay it! You’re not even willing to play for her?” I looked at the disgust in his eyes and suddenly felt incredibly weary. I no longer resisted, turning to the storage room to get the cello. It was an heirloom from my mother, a treasure I once valued more than my life. I sat in the center of the living room, and in front of Julian and Chloe, I drew the bow across the strings. Because I hadn’t practiced intensely for so long, coupled with the old injuries from my secret rehabilitation for his surprise, my fingers started to bleed in less than ten minutes. Blood flowed from my fingertips, staining the strings and dripping onto the expensive carpet. Every finger linked to my heart, an agonizing pain shot through me, yet I didn’t even frown. I mechanically played the cello, my eyes empty, staring straight ahead. Before, if I even got a small paper cut, he would be so distressed he wouldn’t sleep all night. But now, though he clenched his fists, he averted his gaze. “Enough!” Julian suddenly interrupted me impatiently. “That sounds terrible. Do you want Chloe to have nightmares? Get back to your room!” I stopped playing. I silently wiped the blood from the strings, hugged the cello, and limped back to the cold guest room. As I closed the door, I heard Chloe’s delicate voice from the living room, “Julian, don’t be angry, Miss Vance didn’t mean to…” I leaned against the back of the door, slowly sliding down. I looked at my bloodied hands and suddenly laughed. These hands, which had once cooked countless delicious meals for him, which had sketched countless portraits of him, now could only be used to satisfy his hatred.

Elara Vance POV A few days later, Chloe “accidentally” knocked over my cello in the living room. With a dull thud, that precious antique, a memento of my mother, broke its neck and was completely ruined. Julian rushed out from his study at the sound, seeing Chloe startled in her wheelchair, while I stood quietly amidst a pile of fragments. “What happened?” Julian strode over, shielding Chloe behind him. Chloe’s eyes were red, her voice trembling. “I’m sorry… I just wanted to look at the cello, I couldn’t control my wheelchair, and I accidentally bumped it… Miss Vance, please don’t blame me…” Julian looked at me coldly. He probably expected to see me become hysterical and enraged. After all, he knew how important that cello was to me; it was my last boundary. But I didn’t. I didn’t scream, didn’t question, didn’t even shed a single tear. I just calmly knelt down, picking up the broken wooden pieces one by one. Then I walked to the fireplace and threw them all into the burning flames. The flames instantly consumed the pieces, crackling loudly. “It’s just a broken cello,” Julian said stiffly. “It’s good to burn that scrap wood. Tomorrow, I’ll have someone buy you a hundred better ones.” I watched the dancing flames, my voice as light as a breeze. “No need. I won’t be playing cello anymore.” My tone was too calm, as if I were a body that had already lost its soul. Julian suddenly rushed over, grabbing my wrist, his eyes so fierce they looked like they wanted to devour me. “Who are you putting on this lifeless act for?! Do you think pretending to be pathetic will make me let you go? I’m telling you, you haven’t paid off your debt to Chloe yet. You’ll never leave me in this lifetime!” I slowly pulled my hand free from his grasp. I looked at Julian, my eyes devoid of hate or love, only endless emptiness. “Okay,” I said softly. Julian seemed enraged by my answer. To provoke a reaction from me, Julian began to escalate his torment. He cut off the funding to the orchestra of my most respected teacher, driving it to the brink of bankruptcy. He used this as leverage, forcing me to serve Chloe like a maid every day. I did everything he asked. I silently endured it all, even when Chloe deliberately splashed hot soup onto the back of my hand. I would just quietly clean it up, then turn and walk away. The more compliant I became, the more agitated Julian grew. He was like a madman flailing his fists in an abyss, desperately trying to grasp something, only to find he held nothing but ashes. What he didn’t know was that my heart had completely died, right there in the burning ashes of that cello. New York’s late autumn brought a rare downpour. Fierce winds whipped the rain against the villa’s glass windows. Late at night, my phone suddenly vibrated wildly. It was the hospital calling—my teacher, the old man who was the only one willing to believe in me and treated me like his own child after the scandal, had suffered a sudden heart attack and was in critical condition. My face instantly turned ashen. I didn’t even have time to put on a coat, stumbling towards the front door. But the door was locked. The password had been changed; even my fingerprint access was disabled. I frantically pounded on the door, then turned and rushed upstairs to the master bedroom. “Julian! Open the door! Please, open the door!” The master bedroom door opened. Julian stood in the doorway in his pajamas, his brow furrowed. “What’s wrong with you, raving like this so late? Chloe is afraid of thunder; she just managed to fall asleep.” “My teacher is in critical condition… the hospital wants me to see him one last time…” My voice trembled with extreme fear. “Julian, I beg you, open the door, let me go see him!” Julian looked at my paper-white face, a flicker of remorse in his eyes, but it was quickly replaced by cold hardness. “Isn’t this just the punishment you deserve?” he said coldly. “When Chloe had her accident, her teacher also fell ill from the shock. You’re just tasting the pain she went through back then.” “I didn’t do it!” I suddenly let out a piercing scream, my knees buckling. I fell heavily onto the cold marble floor. The once proud-to-the-bone me, the me who stood tall even when everyone blamed me, was now kneeling at his feet like a dog. “Julian, I’ll give you my life, I’ll give you everything… please, let me see him one last time…” I pleaded desperately, trying to win his concession. Julian frantically pulled a remote from his pocket and pressed the unlock button. I scrambled out of the villa, rushing into the pouring rain. But it was too late. When I arrived at the hospital, soaked and bloodied, the emergency room light was already off. The doctor regretfully shook his head at me. I stood in the morgue, looking at the face covered by a white sheet on the gurney, surrounded by a deathly silence. I didn’t cry. Not a single tear fell. Extreme sorrow and despair reached their breaking point at this moment, then completely dissolved into nothingness. I reached out and gently touched my teacher’s face through the white sheet. At that moment, the last string connecting me to this world finally snapped. My love for Julian, my insistence on the truth, my hopes for the future—all died cleanly on that rainy night.

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Pregnancy three months in, I was in a severe car accident. I called my husband, Ethan, but he simply condemned me impatiently: “Lily, will you ever quit with the theatrics? Inventing a car accident just to get me to come home? Seriously?” Just as the call was about to disconnect, I heard him turn and say to another woman: “Don’t worry, darling, it’s just a scratch. The doctor will be right here.” The searing pain ripped through my abdomen, and a sudden, warm gush drained the last bit of heat from me. Our baby was gone. I was too greedy. I thought one life could make him turn back to me, but I was abandoned once again. I suddenly smiled. Maybe it was for the best. He finally didn’t have to be annoyed by me anymore. And I no longer had to pretend to love him. Lily POV When I woke up, the world was upside down. I was trapped in the twisted driver’s seat, an agonizing pain in my abdomen threatening to tear me apart. In that moment, I felt something incredibly important being ripped from my body. It was the secret I’d kept for three months. My hands trembled as I painstakingly fumbled for my phone amidst the shattered glass. The screen was cracked, but it still lit up. The name at the top of my contacts: Ethan. He was my husband, and my only family in this world. The phone rang for a long time before he finally answered. “What is it?” His voice was deep and cold, laced with impatience. “Ethan… help me…” My voice was hoarse and broken, a sob catching in my throat, “I’m on the Coast Highway… I was in a car accident, there’s so much blood…” A flurry of footsteps sounded from his end, followed by a woman’s delicate sniffle: “Ethan, it hurts so much, am I going to be disfigured?” Ethan’s tone instantly changed, becoming soft and anxious: “Don’t worry, it’s just a scratch. The doctor will be right here.” When he spoke to me again, his voice turned icy cold. “Lily, will you ever quit with the theatrics? Inventing a car accident just to get me to come home? Seriously?” My heart felt like it was being squeezed by a giant hand: “I’m not… it’s real, save the baby…” “Baby?” Ethan gave a cold laugh. “What baby? Are you still dreaming? You used to cry over a paper cut. This car accident story is too fake. I’m busy. Stop being so unreasonable.” “Beep—beep—” The call disconnected. My phone slipped from my fingertips, falling into the growing pool of blood. I closed my eyes in despair. I’d forgotten. In Ethan’s eyes, I, Lily, was a conniving woman, but Scarlett? She was the frail, helpless damsel in distress who needed his constant protection. The cramping in my abdomen hit its peak, and a hot gush of blood stole the last bit of warmth from me. In the last second before my consciousness faded, I thought: Ethan, this time, I won’t cause any more trouble. Truly, no more trouble. The hospital hallway was blindingly white. “Where’s the family? Why haven’t they come to sign yet? Look at the time!” The nurse’s anxious shouts echoed in my ears. I painstakingly opened my eyes; the lights on the ceiling made me feel nauseous. “Doctor, she’s awake!” The attending physician, Dr. Miller, was a middle-aged man. His brows were furrowed, and his gaze towards me was filled with sympathy and solemnity. “Ms. Reed, have you reached your family? Although the emergency miscarriage surgery is complete, you’ve lost a lot of blood, and furthermore…” Dr. Miller paused, seemingly choosing his words carefully, “we found some abnormal indicators in your blood tests. It’s confirmed to be acute myeloid leukemia. You need chemotherapy immediately.” The air was dead silent. I lay on the hospital bed, my face even paler than the sheets. I reached down to touch my flat abdomen, empty now, even that faint connection was severed. Emergency miscarriage. Leukemia. Fate, it seemed, had a cruel sense of humor, always picking on the most unfortunate. “No family,” I said, my voice as light as smoke. “I’ll sign myself.” Dr. Miller was taken aback: “This is a serious matter. Where’s your husband? The kind person who brought you to the hospital said they saw his number at the top of your phone.” “He’s dead,” I stated, my voice devoid of emotion. Dr. Miller seemed choked. He looked at me, a woman so weak she looked as if she could die at any moment, sighed, and handed me the pen. My hand trembled as I held the pen, every word I wrote was shaky and distorted. After signing, I felt as if all my strength had drained away, and I collapsed onto the pillow. My phone vibrated on the bedside table. “Ethan” flashed across the screen. Before, I would have answered ecstatically, even if all I heard were cold words. But now, it just felt like noise. I pressed the answer button. Before I could even speak, a barrage of questions was hurled at me. “Lily, where the hell have you been? Scarlett got scared looking for your cat. If you don’t come back and apologize, you can kiss your spot as my wife goodbye.” So it was for Scarlett. Always Scarlett. I looked at the IV drip, and suddenly chuckled. “What’s so funny?” Ethan seemed infuriated by my laughter. “I’m talking to you about something serious!” “Ethan,” I interrupted him, my tone frighteningly calm, “You don’t need to kick me out. I’ve already cleared out the spot.” “What do you mean?” “It means,” I said, looking out at the dark night sky, “I want a divorce.”

Ethan POV It was already three in the morning when I returned to the mansion. The living room lights were off, everything was pitch black. Normally, no matter how late it was, Lily would leave a warm yellow floor lamp on, curled up on the sofa waiting for me. She’d hand me a hot coffee the moment I walked in. Today, there were no lights, no coffee, and no one. I irritably yanked off my tie and tossed my jacket onto the sofa. “Trying to attract my attention by pretending not to care,” I scoffed coldly. I assumed Lily was still sulking about me hanging up on her earlier. She was always like this, narrow-minded, easily jealous. The moment I showed Scarlett even a little kindness, she would turn the house upside down. I went upstairs and pushed open the bedroom door. Empty. The bed was perfectly made, not a single crease, as if no one had ever slept in it. My brow twitched. I saw a document on the bedside table. In the moonlight, five bolded, capitalized words on the cover stabbed at my eyes—”Divorce Agreement.” Was this woman insane? I picked up the agreement and flipped it open. Relinquishing all assets. She wanted nothing but a few clothes. The house, the cars, the Reed Group shares, even the jewelry I’d given her over the years—all left behind. And in the signature section, the handwriting was somewhat sloppy, with a few dried bloodstains. Blood? My heart inexplicably tightened, then was immediately drowned by a surge of anger. Another one of her tricks! Using red ink to fake blood, using divorce to force my hand. Lily, is this all you’ve got? I pulled out my phone and dialed Lily’s number. “Sorry, the subscriber you dialed is currently unavailable.” “Fine, just fine.” I laughed in anger, slamming the agreement onto the floor. “Lily, go ahead and hide your whole life. Don’t come back begging me!” I was woken up the next morning by Scarlett’s call. “Ethan, if I accidentally lost the cat you gave Lily… is Lily angry? My head feels so dizzy, do I have a concussion…?” I rubbed my temples, suppressing the irritation bubbling inside me: “Stop overthinking. Where are you? I’ll come pick you up.” “I’m at the hospital.” When I arrived, Scarlett was sitting in a wheelchair, her leg wrapped in bandages. It was just a scratch, but she was bandaged up like she’d broken her leg. “Ethan!” Scarlett, her eyes red-rimmed, threw herself into my arms. I instinctively flinched, the “bloodstains” I’d seen last night inexplicably flashing in my mind. “What did the doctor say?” I asked. “The doctor said I need bed rest… Oh, right, where’s Lily? I want to apologize to her in person, I shouldn’t have tried to catch her cat…” My face darkened: “Don’t bother with her.” Just then, a hospital bed was pushed down the corridor. The person lying on it was extremely thin, wearing an oxygen mask, her hands covered in needle marks. My gaze casually swept over her, and I froze, as if struck by lightning. That pale, lifeless face was unmistakably Lily’s.

Lily POV I was woken by pain. The chemotherapy side effects hit hard, like a thousand ants were crawling and biting deep within my bones. I opened my eyes, and a tall figure appeared in my blurry vision. Before I could even make him out, his cold voice cut through the air. “You’re really going all out for your act. Where did you learn this trick? Pretending to have a terminal illness?” My vision slowly focused. Ethan stood at the foot of the bed, looking at me arrogantly, his eyes filled with mockery and disdain. Scarlett sat beside him in a wheelchair, looking at me with feigned timidity. “Lily, don’t scare Ethan. Please, get up,” Scarlett said softly. “I know you hate me, but I really didn’t mean to…” I pulled off my oxygen mask, my throat as parched as if I’d swallowed sand. “Get out.” Just one word, but it took all my remaining strength. Ethan’s face turned dark. He quickly walked over and roughly grabbed my wrist. “Lily! How long are you going to keep this up? Scarlett’s leg is hurt badly and she still came to see you, what kind of attitude is that?” His grip was strong, right on my IV site. Blood immediately surged back, staining the IV tube crimson. I let out a muffled groan of pain, cold sweat beading on my forehead. “Let go…” “No!” Ethan glared at me. “I want you to apologize to Scarlett right now!” “Ethan, are you blind?” I looked up, those eyes once full of love now only held a desolate emptiness. “Can’t you see I’m bleeding?” Ethan froze, looking down. Fresh blood dripped down my hand, spreading into bright red stains on the clean white sheets. The blood was too real, too stark to be mere red ink. He seemed to instinctively loosen his grip. “Ethan…” Scarlett suddenly clutched her chest, gasping for air. “I… I can’t breathe…” Ethan’s attention instantly shifted. He turned to support Scarlett. “What’s wrong? What’s bothering you?” “Maybe it’s the strong smell of medicine here, Lily…” Scarlett leaned weakly against him. Ethan looked back at me, his gaze cold: “If you love the hospital so much, feel free to stay here as long as you like. Come talk to me when you’ve learned to behave.” With that, he picked up Scarlett and walked away without a backward glance. I watched his retreating back, and my tears finally broke free, falling in large drops. Ethan, you’ll never know, this might be the last time I ever see you. Perhaps it was for the best. Now, I truly had given up all hope. Over the next week, Ethan didn’t reappear. My body grew weaker. Chemotherapy caused massive hair loss, so I just bought a hat to cover it. Dr. Miller urged me to contact family, as the upcoming bone marrow transplant required a match. I shook my head. I was an orphan; where would I find a relative to match? That afternoon, the hospital room door opened. It wasn’t Ethan, but Ethan’s male assistant, Mark. Mark looked at my skeletal form on the bed, a flicker of something that looked like regret in his eyes, but he remained strictly professional as he produced a document. “Ms. Reed, Mr. Reed said that as long as you sign this understanding letter, admitting that the car accident was due to your own mishandling and had nothing to do with Scarlett, he would agree… not to divorce.”

Lily POV I froze for a moment, then began to tremble with laughter. So that was it. The car involved in the accident that day belonged to Scarlett? No wonder Scarlett was also on the Coast Highway that day, no wonder she only had minor scrapes. Ethan was afraid I’d sue Scarlett, so he came to silence me. “Not divorce?” I asked, as if I’d heard the funniest joke. “What makes him think I still care about being his wife?” Mark looked a little awkward: “Mr. Reed said you shouldn’t be stubborn. Without the Reed family, you won’t even be able to afford your medical bills.” “Tell him,” I pulled the already signed divorce agreement from under my pillow and flung it at Mark, “I’ve already signed it. I can afford these medical bills even if I have to sell my blood! Tell him to take his first love and disappear as far away as possible!” Mark scurried away in a hurry. I pulled out the IV needle in my hand. Blood welled up, but I felt no pain. I couldn’t die in this hospital. If I died here, that lunatic Ethan would surely discard my ashes anywhere, or force me to make room for Scarlett. I wanted to find a clean place to go quietly. That evening, I seized the opportunity during the nurses’ shift change and secretly slipped out of the hospital. The wind on the Coast Highway was strong, carrying the salty scent of the ocean. This was where Ethan and I first met, and also where I had my car accident and miscarriage. Round and round, the end had returned to the beginning. Just then, a black luxury car screeched to a halt beside me. The door opened, and Ethan, his face contorted with fury, rushed out and grabbed my arm. “Lily! You think you’re so smart? Daring to escape from the hospital?” Ethan must have just received the call from the hospital about a missing patient. He probably drove here inexplicably, never expecting to actually find me. In the car’s headlights, he saw me. Thin. Too thin. Like a fragile sheet of paper, ready to crumble in the wind. I looked up, my pale face beneath the brim of my hat devoid of any expression. “Ethan, let go.” “Come back with me!” Ethan seemed panicked. “As long as you’re obedient, I won’t pursue what happened before…” “Not pursue?” I laughed, tears streaming down my face, then a sudden gush of blood sprayed from my mouth, staining Ethan’s white shirt. Ethan’s pupils seemed to constrict, and he froze. “Lily?!” My body softly collapsed, like a kite whose string had been cut. This time, I wasn’t acting. Ethan caught my falling body, his palm touching something wet and warm. It was blood. An incessant flow of blood, gushing from my nose and the corners of my mouth, unstoppable. “Ethan…” In his arms, my eyes unfocused as I gazed at the night sky. “If there’s a next life… I never want to meet you again…”

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A massive sandstorm was about to hit the Crimson Sands Wilderness, but my husband, Mark, suddenly suggested we take a family trip there. He wanted to take maternity photos for his sister-in-law, Tiffany, who was due soon. He believed it would help her win “Top Pregnancy Influencer” and become a million-follower influencer. But going there now, with the sandstorm imminent, meant everyone would be swallowed by the swirling sands. We’d all die together in that desolate place. In my past life, as a geological engineer, I tried desperately to stop them. All I got was Mark’s furious retort: “If you make one more fuss, get out of this house!” My in-laws, David and Susan, also yelled at me: “You just can’t stand to see Tiffany do well, can you? Afraid she’ll become a big influencer and overshadow you!” Ignoring their insults, I called the authorities and reported them for trespassing in a restricted zone, finally stopping them. Tiffany gave birth smoothly, and the whole family was overjoyed. But at the baby’s welcome home party, she stabbed me in the back. When the police arrived, Mark and the entire family gave a unified statement: “She’s mentally unstable. She suddenly went crazy and tried to kill Tiffany, so Tiffany acted in self-defense!” Tiffany seized the opportunity to play the victim, truly becoming an influencer. The whole family lived an enviable life. My mom, Eleanor, tried to get justice for me, but she was slandered, accused of extortion and causing trouble. She eventually suffered a fatal stroke on the street, overcome with grief and rage. Only after I died did I realize it was all Tiffany’s scheme. When I opened my eyes again, I was back to the day Mark suggested the family trip to the Crimson Sands Wilderness. This time, I’d just watch these ungrateful monsters vanish in the sandstorm!

As I lay dying, barely clinging to life, Tiffany crouched down, a cold smile playing on her lips as she leaned close to my ear: “Sarah, I already bought life insurance for everyone in the family. That’s why I suggested the Crimson Sands Wilderness. Only if you all die can I get the insurance money.” “You ruined my get-rich-quick dream, so go and be buried with my path to wealth!” Tiffany plunged the utility knife into my lower abdomen again, and blood gushed out. Filled with bitterness and fury, I closed my eyes amidst the joyful sounds of the celebration party. The next second, a sharp voice exploded in my ear: “Sarah, are you really that jealous of me?” “The Crimson Sands Wilderness has such amazing scenery. If I take photos there, I’m sure I’ll be named ‘Top Pregnancy Influencer.’” “You’re just afraid I’ll become a huge influencer and make you look completely useless, aren’t you?” I froze, a sudden realization washing over me: I had been reborn. And I was back to the day Mark wanted to take the whole family to the Crimson Sands Wilderness for Tiffany’s sake. Everyone in the family looked at me with cold eyes. The sunlight in the living room was dazzling, yet I felt a chill spread through my body. I gritted my teeth, my eyes stinging as I looked at them. In my previous life, I was willing to sacrifice my reputation, even calling the authorities to keep them safe. Afterward, Tiffany had a safe delivery, and the whole family was fine. But what I got in return was a knife in my back at the baby’s welcome home party. Recalling everything from my past life, I smoothed my brows, a slow smile curving my lips: “If you’re so determined to go, then go ahead.” “I have work tomorrow, so I won’t worry about it.” Seeing my calm demeanor, Tiffany was momentarily stunned. But then she quickly smiled: “I knew it! It’s just a trip, Sarah would definitely support it.” I listened to her words, a cold laugh echoing in my heart. A once-in-a-century super sandstorm was about to hit the Crimson Sands Wilderness. Once they went in, it wouldn’t be an influencer dream waiting for them. It would be the entire family buried alive by yellow sand, their bodies never to be found. But you can’t reason with people who are determined to destroy themselves. If they want to die, let them. I was about to go back to my bedroom to rest when Mark suddenly stopped me, his face grim: “No, you have to come with us.” Susan looked puzzled: “Why does she need to come? She’ll just get in the way.” Mark sneered: “She’s always stirring up drama. What if we leave, and she reports us for trespassing in a restricted zone the moment our backs are turned?” “Don’t you remember? Tiffany once mentioned using DIY baby food to feed the baby, and Sarah went crazy, repeatedly emphasizing the dangers of homemade formula. She insisted Tiffany listen to her.” The whole family’s eyes on me immediately changed. A wave of coldness washed over me. Before, I’d warned them because improper DIY baby food could lead to developmental delays for the baby. If Tiffany had followed through, it would have harmed the child. That’s why I repeatedly stressed the importance of proper, scientifically balanced feeding, using commercial formula. I never thought they’d see it as me just being a busybody. “We’ll buy her ticket too. She’ll come with us.” Mark grabbed my phone, giving me no time to react, and bought my ticket directly. Then, he locked me in the bedroom and told the others outside: “Alright, now we don’t have to worry about her messing things up.” “Tiffany, quickly think about what poses you’ll strike at Crimson Sands Wilderness, and how to get the best photos!” The living room immediately erupted in cheers, as if they had already returned from the Crimson Sands Wilderness with fame and fortune. But they didn’t know that I had received deployment orders from the Geological Bureau half a month ago. I was tasked with setting up monitoring equipment in the core zone of the Crimson Sands Wilderness, and a helicopter would arrive on time to evacuate me. As for them, with no rescue measures, I wondered if they’d still be laughing when the sandstorm hit. My eyes stinging, I shakily dialed my mom’s number. Recalling how in my past life, Eleanor tried to get justice for me, only to be slandered, accused of extortion, and eventually died of a stroke on the street, tears streamed down my face. This time, I would make these ungrateful monsters pay for their actions! They must be annihilated! The next morning, everyone gathered at the airport. After landing, we drove straight towards the Crimson Sands Wilderness. Tiffany was busy touching up her makeup and taking selfies. Mark was attentively holding an umbrella and offering her water. Susan kept taking photos with her phone, muttering, “My Tiffany is going to be a big influencer.” Just then, everyone’s phones chimed with a “ding–.” Emergency news alert: [RED ALERT: MASSIVE SANDSTORM IMMINENT IN CRIMSON SANDS WILDERNESS. ALL PERSONNEL MUST EVACUATE IMMEDIATELY!]

In my past life, it was precisely because I knew the sandstorm was coming that I desperately urged everyone not to go to the Crimson Sands Wilderness. Now, without my interference, they had actually entered deep into the Crimson Sands Wilderness. For them to return safely, it would take nothing short of a miracle. After getting out of the car, Tiffany handed me a bottle of water, her face full of false remorse: “Sarah, I’m so sorry, pulling everyone into this adventure.” “I just wanted so badly to win ‘Top Pregnancy Influencer’ and become an influencer, to bring our family a good life. You won’t blame me, will you?” Before I could speak, Mark snatched the water bottle from her hand: “Tiffany, you didn’t do anything wrong, why are you apologizing?” “Selfish people like her don’t deserve your water!” Susan also chimed in to comfort her: “That’s right, we all came willingly. Once you’re famous, we’ll all enjoy the benefits.” “You remember us, and we’ll remember your kindness. Not like some people, who have hearts of stone.” Listening to their sarcastic remarks, I just smirked. Oh, wonderful! Just wonderful! I wondered if they would still be able to say such things when the sandstorm came crashing down. Tiffany’s influencer dream would cost them their most precious lives. This moment of absurd fantasy was destined to bring them the bitter fruit of being buried in the desert. They ate snacks and drank sodas, treating the Crimson Sands Wilderness like a photo op for their social media. But the wind grew stronger, and the sand blotted out the sun, visibility dropping rapidly. “Latest update: The sandstorm has been upgraded to a red alert. This area will be completely swallowed up soon.” “We need to turn back immediately, we might still make it.” Mark said, looking at his phone, his face grim. Susan was incredulous: “No… impossible. Isn’t the Crimson Sands Wilderness a tourist spot now?” At this moment, everyone began to panic. “What do we do? If we get trapped in the sandstorm, are we all going to die?” “Mark, quickly think of something! I don’t want to die here!” Mark gritted his teeth, his forehead covered in cold sweat: “To survive, we have to rush out before the storm fully hits.” I watched everything unfold before me, finding it amusing. Before, I had patiently urged them not to come, but they thought I was meddling. Now, with disaster upon them, they finally started to get anxious. Just then, Tiffany suddenly spoke with confidence: “Don’t worry, everyone, I know a place to shelter from the wind, it’s absolutely safe!” “We’ll leave after the storm passes!” Hearing her, everyone immediately breathed a sigh of relief. As if Tiffany’s words were gospel truth, they all believed her without question. I knew that in their eyes, I was just a meddling, malicious sister-in-law. And Tiffany, she was the perfect family member. I would manage their diets, encouraging them to eat less oil and spice, but Tiffany wouldn’t. I specifically got a sandstorm warning from my colleagues at the Geological Bureau, but it meant less than Tiffany’s casual “It’ll be fine.” Even my reminder for her to cut down on screen time and get more rest would be twisted into me deliberately targeting her. “Tiffany always has a solution. Not like some people, who just stand there like idiots when something happens, completely useless.” Mark said excitedly, as if he had grasped a lifeline, while not forgetting to belittle me. I sneered inwardly, clutching my phone. Here, with sand everywhere, barely able to tell north from south, and you really believe Tiffany can find some kind of shelter?

Unsurprisingly, The “safe place” Tiffany mentioned was completely useless. The sandstorm grew fiercer, visibility dropping to almost zero. Everyone’s faces turned pale. Every howl of the wind outside the window made their faces whiter. “Are we really not going to get out?” Susan asked, her face filled with despair, but only received a harsh, “Shut up!” from Mark. If they hadn’t insisted on recklessly venturing into the restricted zone, none of this would be happening. The car swayed violently in the sandstorm, then finally sputtered to a halt. Mark sat in the driver’s seat, his face ashen, looking at the swirling sand in disbelief: “How could this happen?” Susan tried to push open the car door and run out, but Mark grabbed her arm. “Are you crazy? Going out there is certain death!” The others slumped in their seats, trembling. This was a once-in-a-century super sandstorm. Encountering it meant certain death. I watched them with a cold smile, feeling a surge of satisfaction. Weren’t you all so eager to come to this godforsaken place with Tiffany to die? Why are you all cowering now? At that moment, Mark forced himself to shout: “Don’t panic! We still have the car. When the wind dies down a bit, we’ll find somewhere to shelter.” Everyone’s expressions immediately brightened. But before they could do anything, a dull thud echoed in the distance. A car not far away was overturned. Mark’s face turned even paler. He finally couldn’t hold it in and roared at Tiffany: “This is all your fault! Insisting on taking these stupid maternity photos!” Tiffany also lost her temper: “Weren’t you the most enthusiastic about it? Now you’re blaming me?” “I was enthusiastic? You were the one who kept talking about ‘Top Pregnancy Influencer’ every single day!” “Enough!” Susan shrieked, cutting them off. “Is this really the time to argue?!” Tiffany huddled in the back seat, her eyes suddenly darting to me. She pointed and yelled: “It’s all Sarah’s fault! She’s a geological engineer, she must have known about the sandstorm early!” “But she didn’t stop us, she just wanted to watch us die!”

I found her words utterly preposterous. “You’re making things up–” But before I could finish, Mark grabbed my neck, pressing me against the car door: “Sarah, you venomous woman!” “You deliberately planned to kill our whole family, didn’t you?!” Tiffany, with a tearful voice, added fuel to the fire: “I know you’ve always been jealous of me, but you can’t joke around with our entire family’s lives!” Mark’s hand tightened around my neck. I gasped for air, my head hitting the car window with a thud. Blood trickled down my forehead. “Sarah, even if we all die here today, I’m going to send you on your way first!” He slammed my head against the car window again and again, making my vision swim. But I knew I couldn’t give in now. Otherwise, they would beat me to death right here! I gritted my teeth and shouted: “You all came here yourselves!” “Shut up!” Mark screamed, like a madman. Tiffany also yelled: “It’s all your fault! You’re the one who killed our whole family!” Susan lunged forward, hitting me: “How could you be so heartless!” The three of them surrounded me, hitting and cursing, as if being trapped here was all my fault. David also started cursing, and a few of them even began insulting my mother. “Eleanor’s no good either, raising such a wicked woman!” “A whole family of awful people!” Just as Mark raised his fist again, a tremendous roaring sound came from the sky. A helicopter sliced through the swirling sand, landing steadily not far away. Mark’s eyes lit up. Susan scrambled to her feet. Tiffany screamed and ran towards the helicopter. “Help! Save us!” The cabin door opened, and a rescue team member jumped out. He glanced at the four of them, frowning: “The helicopter only has room for four more people.” The words had barely left his mouth when Mark grabbed Susan: “Susan, you and I go first!” Tiffany shrieked: “Why should you? I’m carrying your family’s blood! Let me go first!” “Shut up!” Mark snapped at her. “Is the baby’s life more important than mine?!” David also squeezed forward, trembling: “I… I’m the oldest, let me go first!” The four of them started arguing, none willing to give way. Just then, Susan suddenly looked at me, her eyes vicious: “Just leave her behind. The four of us can go up, right?” Tiffany quickly seconded: “Exactly, she’s the one who deserves to die. Make her wait for the next trip!” The four of them reached an agreement and looked at the rescue team member in unison: “Leave her! She deserves to die, she doesn’t deserve to get on the helicopter!” I leaned against the car door, blood still flowing from my forehead, watching their performance with cold eyes. The rescue team member finally shouted impatiently: “Enough! This helicopter is ordered to pick up *one person*, not for you to get on as you please!” Then, he looked directly at me: “Engineer Johnson, we’re from the Geological Bureau, sent to pick you up. Please board.” Mark’s face went white. Susan’s mouth hung open, speechless. Tiffany collapsed to the ground. The rescue team member added: “There are three more seats, but who gets on is up to Engineer Johnson.”

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My wife, after three months apart, pushed me away impatiently when I tried to get close. “Just got back and already focused on this? I’m sick of it.” She ran off right after saying that, and I instantly realized I’d been too pushy. I knew Ava had always been distant when it came to intimacy, and I admit I lost control this time. So I sent dozens of apologies, but my messages went unanswered. Just as I was about to go look for her, my phone buzzed with a video. In the video, Ava was kneeling in front of a man. His back was to the camera, so I couldn’t see his face, but he felt vaguely familiar. “Please, just take me, okay? See, I really didn’t let him touch me just now. He’s been starving for a month, but I only want your touch.” Watching Ava, completely different from how she was with me, all my long-buried memories came flooding back. Before, when I tried to hold her hand, she’d say, “Don’t you get it? I don’t like physical intimacy. Why do you insist on disgusting me?” Even our intimacy was rationed, a scheduled, monthly affair. At first, I felt frustrated, but eventually, I just accepted it. I never imagined, though, that it was all a lie. She wasn’t frigid; she just didn’t want me close. The thought made me sick to my stomach. It seemed she’d forgotten how our marriage even came to be.

I immediately sent Ava a SnapChat message: [Ava, do you remember who you are?] My tone was flat, devoid of emotion. Ava didn’t play dead this time. She replied instantly: [I’m your wife, but I’m also a person. If your sex drive is that strong, I don’t mind you going out to find someone to release it with.] I laughed bitterly at that reply. I immediately sent the video over: [Ten minutes. I want a reasonable explanation. Otherwise, our alliance ends here.] Yes, we were just an alliance marriage. She was just leveraging my affection to act completely without restraint. But I wasn’t desperate for her either. Since she chose another man, as her husband who once liked her, I naturally had to grant her wish. After sending the message, I went straight to the bathroom. When I came out, Ava was already back. Ava, with a slightly flushed face, reached out to hug me. I felt disgusted and instinctively recoiled. “Care to explain?” “Honey, I lost a game, and that was my punishment.” Ava batted her eyelashes at me. “Not being intimate with me was the punishment, or kneeling in front of him and begging him to take you was the punishment?” I looked at Ava expressionlessly. Faced with my questioning, Ava’s face instantly hardened. “Ethan, are you trying to humiliate me? I told you it was a punishment, and you’re still being so aggressive. Don’t you believe me?” “Then tell me, how am I supposed to believe you?” I tossed my phone onto the table. Another video was playing on the screen. I’d asked my assistant to investigate it before I showered. The man in the video was Caleb, an intern Ava managed. From his back, he seemed to be the same man Ava was kneeling for. I remembered Caleb had joined the company six months ago. Back then, Ava had told me, “Honey, Caleb is my mentor’s son. We have to give him a chance.” I hadn’t thought much of it, but I never expected she’d repeatedly ditch me because of him. In this video, the two of them were tightly embracing. I wanted to see how Ava would explain this. “You’re tracking me?” Ava’s face changed drastically the moment she saw the video. “I’m your wife, not your servant. How dare you track me? Even if I’m your wife, can’t I hug someone else?” “Ethan, your mind is so twisted.” Ava angrily turned and left. The room fell silent with her departure. Actually, our families were quite well-matched in terms of social standing, and Ava and I had known each other since childhood. Although Ava was the one who initially proposed the alliance, I wasn’t against it.

“Ethan, I know your family picked someone else for your alliance, and I don’t like the person my family picked for mine. Rather than marry that person, I’d rather marry you.” Ava then listed ten benefits of marrying her. I thought about it, and she made some good points, so I turned around and married Ava. For three years after the wedding, we got along well. Our recent frequent friction was mainly because both families wanted children. This was something Ava and I had agreed upon. I just hadn’t expected my kindness to make her get a little too comfortable, taking advantage of my kindness. I absolutely detest deceit and betrayal. Since Ava was showing signs of it, she couldn’t stay. I contacted my assistant to organize all current joint projects between our families. Divorce was fine, but it couldn’t affect the company. By the time I finished all that, it was past midnight. I crashed into bed and slept. Ava didn’t come home all night. I was woken up by noise in the morning. Ava glared at me, full of indignation. “I told you Caleb is just my assistant. Why do you have to target him? You’re the head of the company, don’t you think your behavior is beneath you?” My morning grumpiness wouldn’t allow Ava to say more. “Shut up.” I roared, and Ava instantly froze. After a long moment, she finally spoke, “You, Ethan, don’t you think you’ve done anything wrong? “Do you know that because of you, Caleb is now being criticized for using connections?” “Isn’t he?” I’d seen Caleb’s resume. With his qualifications, getting into our company wouldn’t have been easy. “I already told you, I only let Caleb in because of my mentor! But do you know how many projects he’s brought to the company since then?” Ava, at this moment, was like Caleb’s fiercest protector, completely biased towards that man. I listened as Ava painstakingly detailed the projects Caleb had supposedly closed. If I wasn’t mistaken, those projects were already secured; Caleb had only gone to deliver the contracts. Thinking of this, I grew interested. “Oh really? Then let Caleb prove himself. The North City project is currently being negotiated. As long as he closes it, I guarantee I won’t bother him.” “You said it!” I nodded, and Ava rushed out in a hurry. From that day on, Ava started staying out every night. Each time I asked, she’d say, “Busy.” She seemed to forget that I was the CEO, and she was only a VP. How could a VP be busier than me? I didn’t expose Ava, but I didn’t expect her to completely disregard my reputation. That night, I had a meeting with Mr. Davis, and Ava actually showed up. I was confused when she raised her hand and gestured for Caleb to join our table. “Mr. Davis, this is Caleb from our project department. He’s my assistant, and he’s been in charge of our company’s projects recently. He’s very young and promising. From now on, all your company’s projects will be handled by him.” Ava said all this without any regard for my presence. Mr. Davis was a shrewd one. He looked at me, then at Ava, and finally his gaze settled on Caleb. “The youth truly are promising.” But Mr. Davis didn’t agree to Ava’s proposal. She became anxious and whispered to me, “Ethan, Caleb is about to close the North City project. If Mr. Davis’s projects are now managed by Caleb, he won’t have to feel inferior anymore.” “Get out.” I couldn’t take it anymore. Everyone in the company knew Mr. Davis’s project was crucial for our company’s revenue in the second half of the year. I had warned everyone, “The most important thing right now is Mr. Davis.” No one had messed up during the project negotiations, yet I never expected Ava to pull this stunt at the very end.

My voice was soft, but Ava pretended not to hear, continuing to boast about Caleb to Mr. Davis. Caleb, too, was brimming with confidence, nodding repeatedly. “Yes, Mr. Davis, rest assured, if the project is entrusted to me, I will definitely satisfy you.” “Oh, really? How will you satisfy me?” Mr. Davis was in a playful mood, and I didn’t stop him, just watching Caleb make a total fool of himself. Once Caleb had talked himself hoarse, Ava interjected, “Mr. Davis, to show our sincerity, I’ll drink to that.” Ava blurted it out without thinking, then quickly downed several glasses. This made me think of our wedding day. My friends were teasing us into drinking, and Ava’s face had darkened. “I’m allergic to alcohol.” After that, Ava never touched a drop of alcohol in front of me. Now, she wasn’t allergic anymore. Mr. Davis, sensing something was off, finally looked at me. Without a word, I gave my assistant a look, and Ava and Caleb were escorted out. Before leaving, Ava looked at me resentfully. “You said you’d let Caleb be in charge! What’s the meaning of sabotaging it now? Are you trying to force me to side with Caleb?” Ava sounded like she’d completely lost her mind, and her words solidified my resolve for a divorce. After Ava was gone, Mr. Davis and I were finally able to discuss the project properly. An hour later, I saw Mr. Davis off and went home. When I arrived, I found Caleb there. He was curled up on the sofa, looking utterly wronged. “Mr. Grey, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to intrude, but Ms. Black had too much to drink, and I didn’t dare leave her alone. I was afraid something might happen to her.” “Fine, you can take care of her then.” I left that remark and went straight upstairs to the master bedroom. I didn’t bother with Ava and Caleb that night. The two of them were quite “considerate,” sleeping together. I pushed open the guest room door and saw them lying on the bed. I calmly took pictures. Ava was startled awake and looked at me unhappily. “What are you doing?” “Taking commemorative photos of my wife and her intern.” Only then did Ava see Caleb beside her. But Ava didn’t seem to find anything wrong with it. She even complained about me. “Can’t you see Caleb is still resting? He took care of me for so long last night. What’s wrong with him sleeping a little longer now? You’re so selfish, Ethan.” The old saying was indeed true: never argue with a fool. Perhaps Ava genuinely believed that sleeping in the same bed with another man in front of her husband wasn’t a big deal, but I cared. So I immediately called my parents and told them I wanted a divorce. My parents only asked one question: “Are you sure?” “Yes.” “Alright. Just don’t let it affect the company.” During this time, I had already contacted Daniel, Ava’s elder brother. I hinted at my intention to divorce. Daniel was instantly shocked. “You cheated?” I rolled my eyes at Daniel. “Your sister cheated.” Daniel was speechless. I warned Daniel, “Don’t tell Ava about this yet. As long as it doesn’t affect our projects, Ava and I can get a secret divorce.” Daniel finally agreed. And now, only the last step remained. While preparing the divorce papers, I also traced the account that first sent me the video. It was Caleb. It seemed he was truly desperate to take my place. That day, I stumbled upon Caleb’s video account. I never expected him to be a small influencer.

His account documented his daily life with Ava. Netizens affectionately called them [The Internet Boss and Subordinate Love Story]. Everyone wanted to see their office romance. And through those posts, I confirmed that Ava and Caleb had been secretly involved for a long time. One video, in particular, caught my attention. It was Caleb’s birthday, and Ava was with him the entire time. Their intimate interactions made even me, an outsider, envious. If I weren’t Ava’s husband, I would have applauded them. That day was also my birthday, but Ava had said, “You don’t celebrate your birthday every year. How did you celebrate before we got married? You can’t live without me now? I have something very important to do. You can find anyone you want to celebrate your birthday with.” Now that we were about to separate, I didn’t feel much about it. After all, this relationship started as an alliance. If it were true love, I’d be devastated. I thought Ava might do something extreme for Caleb to get the project, but I never expected her to risk her own reputation. She told the North City project manager, “Caleb is the most important person to me, more important than my husband. If this project is assigned to him, our family will prioritize working with your company in the future.” The other party was indeed hesitant and immediately called me and Daniel to confirm. We both denied it flatly. Ava called me, furious. “Ethan, do you think your dirty tricks will make me give up? I’m telling you, targeting Caleb is targeting me! If you keep this up, we’re getting a divorce!” “Fine, let’s get a divorce.” I immediately sent over the divorce papers I had already prepared. Ava’s tone changed completely after seeing the papers. “You… you want to divorce me? Ethan, we’re an alliance. Do you know how many projects our families have tied together? What good will divorcing me do you?” “That’s none of your business. After all, even for an alliance, I don’t like being associated with filth.” “You…” Ava felt utterly insulted. She wanted to retort, but I sent her the latest video. Since we were divorcing anyway, to prevent Ava from causing trouble, I naturally had to investigate properly. I didn’t realize how bad it was until I started digging. Ava and Caleb were even more intimate than I’d imagined. She had even pulled a lot of strings for Caleb after he joined the company. And this latest video was of them sleeping together. After watching the video, Ava was silent for a long time. After a while, she stammered an explanation. “I was drunk that day. If Caleb hadn’t helped me, I might have been… with other men…” “Enough.” I didn’t want to hear such absurd claims. “Sign the papers and get out.” With that, I hung up. I thought things had reached a point where Ava would quietly sign the divorce papers, but I never expected Ava to pull a desperate stunt. My assistant called just as Mr. Davis, the North City representatives, and I were signing the contract. All three of us received calls simultaneously. We keenly sensed something was wrong and picked up at the same time. The next moment, my face changed drastically. “Could you repeat that?”

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