1 My first day working at a publicly traded corporation. I had barely set my bag down when my female supervisor, Brenda, suddenly raised her hand and swept my full coffee mug off the desk. It shattered on the floor. “Chloe Carter? You’re the new girl?” “You’re pretty young to be playing such dirty games.” The entire open-plan office instantly went dead silent. I forced my anger down: “Director Brenda, I don’t understand what you mean. Have I done something to offend you?” “Playing dumb with me?” “You’re a fresh college grad. No experience, no connections. Your name wasn’t even on the campus recruitment list. How exactly did you parachute straight into the core Marketing Department?” “If it wasn’t for your skills in bed seducing my husband, do you really think you could ever walk through the doors of Apex Enterprises?” I was completely dumbfounded. When my dad told me to start at the bottom of his company to gain experience before taking over the family business, he never mentioned the place was filled with people like this. Thinking back to my father’s advice before I left home—telling me to hide my identity so I could truly learn and grow—I forcefully swallowed the burning rage in my chest. Just as I was about to speak, she suddenly let out a sharp laugh, pulled a stack of photos from her pocket, and threw them directly at my face. The photos scattered across the floor. The one on top was a picture of me in the same frame as Board Director Robert Evans. Last week, I had come to the building for my final interview. I was walking past the lobby bulletin board to read the announcements, and Director Evans happened to be talking to someone a short distance away. We were standing far apart, completely unrelated. But someone had maliciously cropped and photoshopped the image to make it look like we were standing shoulder-to-shoulder, intimately close. “You’re practically pressed up against him, and you still have the nerve to play dumb?” Brenda stepped heavily onto a printed copy of my resume, grinding her designer stiletto heel into it. The whispers from my coworkers instantly exploded around me: “No wonder she was a nepotism hire. She slept her way in through Director Evans.” “She is pretty, though. Makes sense why the Director made an exception.” “That is so disgusting. Using her youth and looks to destroy someone else’s marriage.” “I heard these homewreckers are the best at playing innocent. They look so pure on the outside, but God knows how filthy they are behind closed doors.” Their words pierced my ears like needles. I clenched my fists, my fingernails digging deep into my palms: “Director Brenda, that photo is photoshopped. I only saw Director Evans once during my final interview, and we didn’t even speak a single word to each other. I was hired through the standard HR recruitment process. You can’t just slander me like this.” “I’m slandering you?” Brenda suddenly thrust her hand out, her manicured finger almost jabbing me in the nose: “When my husband came home last night, he had your resume saved on his personal phone! If you didn’t send it to him begging to be his sugar baby, why would he specifically save it?!” “Chloe Carter, don’t push your luck. You’re a cheap homewrecker who slept her way to the top. Stop acting like some pure, innocent virgin in front of me!” I took a deep breath, desperately trying to explain standard corporate procedure: “Resumes are distributed automatically by HR. The profiles of all final-round candidates are synced to the department heads and the relevant board directors. That is standard operating procedure.” She looked at me like I had just told the funniest joke in the world, her voice rising to a screech: “You have a worthless bachelor’s degree! You probably don’t even know how to put together a PowerPoint presentation! Do you honestly think you’re qualified for the core Marketing Department? I bet you only got your college diploma because you slept with your professors!” Laughter erupted across the office. Someone pulled out their phone and started secretly recording me. Others muttered loudly: “Honestly, it’s probably true. That kind of stuff happens all the time on college campuses now.” “Look at her face. Total fox. She definitely knows how to work a man.” I couldn’t hold it back anymore. My voice dropped several degrees: “Director Brenda, defamation carries legal consequences. If you continue to make these baseless accusations, I will file a formal complaint with the Department of Labor!” Brenda let out a harsh scoff, suddenly grabbing a massive stack of folders from my desk and hurling them at my chest: “A cheap homewrecker like you is trying to lecture me about the law?! Today, I’m going to teach you a lesson. At Apex Enterprises, my word is the law!” She turned and yelled at her assistant: “Bring her every single analysis report, sales spreadsheet, and client dossier from last year! All of it!” Ten minutes later, a pile of documents half as tall as I was sat on my desk. It was all loose, disorganized physical paper. Some of the pages were yellowing and missing information. Brenda crossed her arms, looking down at me like I was trash. “You have three hours to organize all of this raw data into Excel spreadsheets. Every project needs to be categorized and statistically analyzed, accurate to three decimal places. If you miss a single data point, you’re fired!” 2 I stared at the mountain of paperwork, my brow furrowing: “Director Brenda, it would take at least three days to digitize and organize all of this. Three hours is physically impossible.” Brenda raised an eyebrow, deliberately projecting her voice so the entire floor could hear: “Impossible? Just go find my husband!” “Sleep with him again! Forget three hours, he’ll find someone to do it for you in three minutes!” She leaned in close to my ear, her voice dripping with venom: “After all, that’s what you’re best at, isn’t it? Just spread your legs and your problems disappear. Stop pretending you actually want to work hard.” “Let me make this clear: don’t play these fake games with me. Instead of wasting time here, you should be figuring out how to serve my husband better. Who knows, maybe he’ll even give you a raise.” The surrounding laughter and catcalls blended together, so grating it made my skin crawl. “Brenda’s right! A homewrecker should stick to doing a homewrecker’s job.” “Stop acting so high and mighty. You slept your way here, don’t try to build a monument to your virtue now.” “Hurry up and go find Director Evans, otherwise you definitely won’t finish in three hours!” I clenched my fists so hard my knuckles turned white. I ignored them. I turned around, booted up my computer, and buried my head in the data entry. The vicious gossip behind my back felt like knives carving into my skin. Every single second was pure agony. Three hours later, I printed out the spreadsheets I had managed to complete and handed them to Brenda. I truthfully stated that some of the data still needed to be cross-referenced, so it wasn’t fully finished. Brenda merely glanced at the top page before ripping the entire stack of spreadsheets to shreds. The torn paper rained down over my head like snow. “You call this a spreadsheet? The data is a mess, the formatting is wrong. This is worse than garbage!” Without warning, she grabbed her iced coffee and threw it directly into my face. “I can tell you have absolutely zero focus for this job! Your head is entirely filled with how to seduce men!” “Since you can’t finish the work, get your ass into the breakroom and wash the mugs!” “You will scrub every single coffee mug and the espresso machine until they are spotless! There cannot be a single stain! I will inspect them before we leave tonight. If they fail, you will stay here all night and scrub them again!” My coworkers watched me stand there, dripping with sticky coffee, but no one dared to step forward. Instead, a few muttered mocking insults: “Serves her right. That’s what she gets for being a mistress.” “This is the karma you get for destroying someone’s marriage.” I wiped the cold coffee from my eyes, swallowing my humiliation, and walked into the breakroom. I put on rubber gloves and started scrubbing the mugs one by one. Throughout the afternoon, coworkers constantly came in to get water. Every time they walked past, they would stop and stare. Some pretended not to see me, while others were deliberately passive-aggressive: “Oh my, what is Miss Carter doing washing mugs? Why don’t you go ask Director Evans for help?” “Maybe the Director got bored of her, so she’s got no one left to protect her.” My hands paused over the sink. Tears welled up in my eyes. My first instinct was to pull out my phone and call my dad to save me. But just as my finger hovered over the dial button, I forced myself to calm down. My father went through a lot of trouble to hide my identity so I could truly learn how the company operated. If I blew my cover now, not only would all my effort be wasted, but my father would be deeply disappointed in my lack of resilience. I gritted my teeth, wiped my tears with the back of my arm, and went back to scrubbing. When I finally finished washing every single mug, I stepped out of the breakroom, only to find Brenda blocking my path. She glanced into the room and let out a cold snort: “Finished already? Let me guess, you just half-assed it?” She walked into the breakroom and inspected the counters. Suddenly, she pointed to a back corner of the industrial espresso machine: “There’s still a stain here! Did you do this on purpose?! Scrub it again! Keep scrubbing until I am satisfied!” I looked at the faint mark she was pointing at. I forced down my boiling anger: “Director Brenda, I have scrubbed it as thoroughly as possible. That mark is a permanent scorch mark from the machine aging. It cannot be wiped off.” She suddenly raised her hand and slapped me hard across the face. The sharp, cracking sound instantly silenced the entire office floor. My cheek burned like fire. My ear was ringing loudly. Brenda grabbed me by the collar of my blouse and dragged me out into the center of the main office: “You’re a filthy little homewrecker, and you dare talk back to me?!” “Today, I’m going to show everyone exactly what kind of shameless, disgusting trash you really are!” 3 She pulled out her phone and, right in front of everyone, drafted a massive post on the company’s internal forum and LinkedIn. The headline was blindingly toxic: [Apex Enterprises Intern Chloe Carter Caught Sleeping with Board Director! Confronted by Wife and Forced to Scrub Toilets! Justice Served!] In less than half an hour, the post went completely viral. My full name, my university, and even my private Instagram accounts were doxxed by the internet mob. My DMs and comments were utterly obliterated by a tidal wave of abuse. “Disgusting green tea bitch! Get out of the corporate world! You make me sick. Can’t survive without a man paying your way?” “Looks so innocent, but spends all her time figuring out how to steal other women’s husbands. So cheap!” “Absolute trash. Destroys a family and plays the victim. I hope she dies!” “Apex needs to fire this parasite immediately! Don’t let her ruin the company’s reputation!” “Look at her face, I bet she was sleeping her way through college too. What a disgrace!” Every single comment felt like a knife twisting in my chest. My hands shook uncontrollably as I held my phone. My entire body felt like ice. My coworkers crowded around me. Some held up their phones, recording my reaction. Some read the vicious comments out loud, cheering and laughing. Others sneered sarcastically: “Chloe, look at you! You’re famous! The whole internet knows you’re a homewrecker now.” Brenda shoved her phone screen directly into my face. Watching the abuse roll in, she smiled with absolute, victorious arrogance: “Well? Chloe Carter, doesn’t feel too good, does it? This is exactly what happens when you try to seduce my husband!” “I already told you, I didn’t—” Before I could finish. She suddenly grabbed a handful of my hair and shoved me hard toward the floor. “Now get the hell out of my building! Submit your resignation, publicly confess that you’re a homewrecker, and apologize to me! If you do that, I’ll delete the posts!” Pain shot through my scalp, my body trembling, but I clenched my jaw and refused to bow my head: “I did nothing wrong! I will not resign, and I will absolutely not apologize!” Brenda’s eyes widened with fury. She drew back her designer heel and kicked me hard in the stomach: “You arrogant little bitch! Let me tell you something, the cyberbullying is just getting started!” She leaned down close to my ear, her voice purely malicious: “You can play tough all you want, but I wonder if your mommy and daddy have the same psychological endurance? What are your relatives going to say when they see this?” “I’m going to make sure everyone they have ever met knows they raised a cheap, filthy whore who sleeps with married men to get a job!” “I’m going to make sure people spit on them when they walk down the street. They won’t be able to show their faces at work! Let’s see how they like being cursed at and treated like garbage! I want to see if your precious parents can survive that kind of humiliation!” Those words pierced straight through my heart like a serrated blade. I snapped my head up, glaring at Brenda, my eyes burning with absolute, unfiltered rage: “Don’t you dare!” “What wouldn’t I dare do?” Brenda’s laugh grew even more maniacal: “As long as it gets you to pack your bags and get the hell out of here, I’ll do whatever it takes!” “If you’re a good little girl, resign, and apologize right now, I might just let your parents off the hook. Otherwise, we burn together!” 4 The surrounding coworkers eagerly chimed in: “Chloe, just quit. Don’t drag your parents down with you.” “Brenda gave you an out. Acting tough now is just stupid.” “Hurry up and apologize. Don’t humiliate your family any further.” I lay on the floor, every bone in my body aching as if I’d been beaten. My ears were filled with nothing but their insults and jeers. A heavy, suffocating mix of despair and pure fury surged in my chest. I didn’t understand. All I wanted to do was prove myself through my own hard work. Why was this happening to me? Are normal people not allowed to be exceptional? Does being exceptional mean you must have used disgusting, underhanded tactics to get there? Why?! I slowly pushed myself up from the floor, my eyes locked onto Brenda in a death stare: “I am warning you. Do not cross that line.” “Cross the line? I haven’t even started yet!” Brenda was completely unhinged now. She spun around, stormed into the breakroom, and came running out holding a heavy, stainless steel Yeti thermos filled to the brim with boiling water. “Today, I’m going to destroy that pretty little face of yours! Let’s see how you seduce men after this! Let’s see if your parents ever have the courage to show their faces in public again!” She raised the heavy thermos, aiming the boiling water directly at my face. I instinctively squeezed my eyes shut. Right at that exact second, a panicked, desperate voice roared through the office: “Stop! Brenda, are you out of your fucking mind?!” Director Robert Evans came sprinting across the floor, gasping for air. He lunged forward and grabbed Brenda’s wrist with a vice grip. The boiling water in the thermos sloshed violently, splashing out. A few searing drops hit my forearm. It burned like fire. Brenda thrashed against him, screaming like a banshee: “Robert! You’re actually protecting this little whore?! She seduced you, she ruined our marriage, and you’re defending her?! I am going to rip her face off today!” “You’re wrong! She isn’t my mistress!” Director Evans’ face was as pale as a sheet of paper. His voice was physically shaking. Brenda grew even more furious, violently shoving him away: “I think you’ve been completely brainwashed by this little fox! Do you think I’m a complete idiot?!” Screaming, she raised the thermos to throw it again. I didn’t have time to dodge. I could only watch helplessly as a wave of scalding, boiling water rushed toward me. “Don’t touch her!” Director Evans threw himself forward like a madman, using his own body as a human shield to cover me. The majority of the boiling water splashed directly onto his back. He cried out in agony, his face contorting in pain. Brenda froze for a split second before her rage exploded to new heights: “Robert Evans! You actually took boiling water for her?! I am going to kill you both!” She reached out, her claw-like nails aiming straight for my hair. Director Evans desperately held her back, screaming at the top of his lungs: “Do you have any idea who she is?! You have destroyed us!” “Who is she?! She’s a cheap homewrecker!” “She is the Chairman’s only daughter! She is the sole heir to Apex Enterprises! The Chairman sent her here undercover to learn the business! I only found out her true identity yesterday, and I didn’t have time to warn you… You have completely ruined us!” That sentence dropped like a nuclear bomb, instantly annihilating all sound in the room. Brenda’s hand froze in mid-air. The psychotic rage on her face instantly dissolved into sheer, unadulterated terror. Her mouth opened and closed like a dying fish. It took her a long time to stammer out a single sentence: “You… what did you say? She’s… Chairman Carter’s daughter?” The coworkers surrounding us were completely paralyzed. The phones they were using to record me hovered frozen in the air. The mockery and contempt on their faces instantly morphed into raw, unconcealed panic. The people who had just been aggressively jeering and insulting me quickly lowered their heads, absolutely terrified of making eye contact. I slowly stood up from the floor. Enduring the stinging pain in my arm and the dull ache in my stomach, I smoothed out the wrinkles in my ruined blouse. Brenda’s legs gave out completely. She collapsed into a pathetic heap on the floor, muttering incoherently: “Impossible… this is impossible…” I walked step by step until I was standing directly over her, looking down at her pathetic form. My voice was perfectly calm, but it carried a bone-chilling frost: “Director Brenda. I told you from the very beginning. I didn’t do any of those things. But you refused to listen, and you pushed me to the absolute brink.” “Every word you just said, everything you did to me today, and all those posts on the internet… I am going to calculate the cost of every single one of them, and you will pay for it.” Director Evans clutched his scalded back, struggling to his feet. He roared at the paralyzed coworkers: “What are you idiots standing around for?! Call 911!” “And delete every single post and comment on the internet! Right now! If anyone breathes a single word of this, you are fired immediately!” The coworkers snapped out of their trance, frantically pulling out their phones to delete their posts. Someone scrambled away to call an ambulance. Brenda, still sprawled on the floor, suddenly flipped over and began aggressively kowtowing to me: “Miss Carter… I’m so sorry… I was blind, I completely misunderstood you… Please, be the bigger person and show me mercy. Please spare me…” I completely ignored her. I pulled out my phone and dialed my father’s private number. The moment the call connected, the tears I had been desperately holding back finally broke through. My voice trembled slightly: “Dad. Someone is bullying me at the company.” My father’s furious, booming voice echoed through the speaker: “What happened?!” “Who dares to touch my daughter?!” “Chloe, stay right there. I am coming down right now!” Less than three minutes after I hung up, the sound of heavy, thunderous footsteps echoed from the main entrance of the office floor. My father, dressed in a sharp black bespoke suit, strode in. His expression was terrifyingly dark. Behind him trailed the Head of Corporate Security and the Chief HR Officer. The sheer, overwhelming pressure of his presence made the entire floor hold its breath. “Chloe!” My dad’s eyes instantly locked onto the angry red burn on my arm and the glaring handprint on my cheek. His eyes turned bloodshot in an instant. He crossed the room in three massive strides and gently grasped my wrist: “Who did this?” The collective gasp from the coworkers was audible. Everyone’s eyes were wide with sheer terror. “Holy shit, Chloe Carter really is the Chairman’s daughter!” “And what we just did to her… we’re dead. We are all completely dead!” “I’ve worked here for ten years and I’ve only ever seen the Chairman at the annual gala! I heard he had her late in life and spoils her like a princess. We are going to get slaughtered for this!” Brenda was still paralyzed on the floor. Seeing my father, her soul practically left her body. She scrambled forward on her hands and knees, her knees hitting the hardwood floor with a heavy thud: “Chairman Carter! I was wrong! I was so wrong! I didn’t target Miss Chloe on purpose!” My father viciously kicked an office chair out of his way. It slammed into the wall and shattered into pieces. None of the employees had ever seen the Chairman lose control like this. They were all frozen in absolute terror. “On my way down here, I had my team investigate the situation!” “You called my daughter a whore, threw coffee on her, slapped her across the face, and tried to permanently disfigure her with boiling water. You call that not on purpose?!” “If your ‘purpose’ had actually succeeded, would my daughter even be alive right now?!” “It was a misunderstanding!” Brenda wailed hysterically, pointing a shaking finger directly at Director Evans: “Chairman Carter, please, you have to listen to me! It was him! It was Robert!” “I’ve suspected Robert was having an affair for months! He’s been coming home late every night, he put a new password on his phone. When I finally managed to snoop through it, the only suspicious thing I found was Miss Chloe’s resume!” “I thought Miss Chloe was seducing him to get a job here! I was so blinded by anger that I did all of those things!” Director Evans clutched his burned back, his face chalk-white as he lunged forward: “What kind of delusional garbage are you spewing?! When did you go through my phone?!” “I only found out Chloe was the Chairman’s daughter yesterday! I was literally just about to tell you when you started this massive psychotic meltdown!” “Bullshit!” Brenda suddenly jumped up, pointing her finger right in Director Evans’ face, screaming: “If you had told me she was the Chairman’s daughter, do you really think I would have dared to touch a single hair on her head?! You kept it a secret from me on purpose!” “You wanted her to take my Director position so you and your little mistress could run off into the sunset together, didn’t you?!” “You are completely insane!” Director Evans was shaking with rage: “I have worked at Apex for ten years! Why would I ever risk my career over something so stupid?!” “You are the one who is pathologically paranoid! You beat people up and humiliate them without a shred of evidence, and now you’re trying to pin the blame on me?!” “I’m pinning the blame?!” Brenda let out a cold, sharp laugh, her voice rising to a screech: “Robert Evans, do you dare stand there and say your hands are clean at work? That massive project last year—didn’t you embezzle company funds to pay for your mother’s medical bills?!” “And last month! You took a fifty-thousand-dollar kickback from a supplier so they could use cheap, substandard materials! Did you honestly think I didn’t know about that?!” The entire floor erupted. The coworkers were absolutely stunned, whispering frantically to each other: “Is that true?! Director Evans actually embezzled company money?!” “And he took kickbacks?! That’s a massive federal crime!” “Oh my god, this is insane. Even if I get fired today, witnessing this drama was worth it!” Director Evans’ face turned a sickly shade of green. He reached out, desperately trying to cover Brenda’s mouth: “You crazy bitch! Shut the hell up!” “I’m crazy?!” Brenda violently shoved him away, reaching into her blazer pocket and throwing a thick stack of photos onto the floor. It was a collection of photos showing Director Evans dining with shady suppliers and accepting thick envelopes of cash. “I’ve had these photos saved for months! I was trying to save your reputation, but since you forced my hand, I am going to expose every single piece of your filthy, disgusting laundry!” “Don’t you dare!” Director Evans’ eyes went red with desperation. He shoved Brenda hard: “If you didn’t throw psychotic tantrums at home every day and control every single cent in my bank account, do you think I would have resorted to this?!” “Besides screaming and throwing things, what else are you even good for? Compared to her, you aren’t even worthy of shining her shoes!” “Her?!” Brenda froze for a second, then lunged at him like a rabid animal: “Aha! You finally admit it! You really do have a filthy little mistress on the side!” “Who is it?! Is it that slutty little assistant of yours, Mia?! I always saw you two making eyes at each other!” Director Evans, scratched and cornered, completely lost his mind and roared recklessly: “So what if it is?!” “Mia is a hundred times sweeter than you! A thousand times more caring! She would never act like a completely unreasonable, psychotic banshee like you! You are a shrill, miserable shrew! I have been sick of you for years!” Those words struck like a lightning bolt, silencing the entire room. Even I was stunned. So Brenda’s initial suspicion was correct—it was Assistant Mia. But because the only “evidence” she found was my resume, she dumped all her psychotic rage onto me? I had actually taken the fall for Mia! The office erupted again, the whispers now too loud to contain: “Oh my god! It was actually Assistant Mia?!” “No wonder Mia was backing Brenda up and helping her insult Chloe earlier! She was trying to divert the heat away from herself!” “That is sickening! The two of them teamed up to torture Chloe, but the real rot was inside their own marriage!” Brenda stood rooted to the spot, her face ashen. She stared unblinkingly at Director Evans, then suddenly let out a piercing, hysterical laugh: “Good… very good! Robert Evans! You really were sleeping with that cheap little slut!” “I slaved away at home for you! I protected you and took the heat for you at this company! And this is how you repay me?!” Director Evans had completely given up caring. He pointed his finger right back at her: “You have the nerve to say that?! Last time you accepted luxury handbags from a client and got reported to compliance, who buried it for you?! And when you leaked our client database to a competitor, who took the fall for that?! Do you think I’m blind?! The illegal, shady shit you’ve pulled at this company is ten times worse than mine!” “Bullshit! I never did that!” Brenda shrieked, launching herself at Director Evans, scratching and biting him like a wild animal: “I’m going to kill you, you cheating bastard! I’ll take you down with me!” Director Evans saw red. He raised his hand and delivered a brutal slap across Brenda’s face. The two of them devolved into a vicious brawl. Hair was pulled, clothes were ripped to shreds. Loose documents, shattered phone screens, and spilled coffee mixed together on the floor. It was absolute, utter chaos. Brenda screamed as she threw punches: “You ungrateful, treacherous piece of trash! I must have been blind to ever marry you!” Director Evans fought back, roaring: “I’m the one who was blind! Marrying a psychotic bitch like you ruined my career and destroyed my life!” My father’s face was dark with fury. He barked at the security team: “Pull them apart! Call the police immediately! Have them investigated for every single one of these charges!”

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Chapter 1 It was my tenth year of being adopted by the Sterling family. The true heiress returned, riddled with injuries and illnesses. Looking at the old scars on his biological sister’s wrists, my brother Arthur’s gaze toward me grew increasingly cold. My adopted parents, who had originally planned to send me abroad to study, hesitated. Arthur, however, made the decision for them with a cold sneer. “Since she took Mia’s place and enjoyed a life of luxury all these years, she can stay and be Mia’s lifelong maid to atone for her sins.” Later, Arthur forced me to marry him. For the five years of our marriage, he found every possible way to torture me, making me donate blood and act as a human guinea pig for the true heiress. Until that massive fire. Without a moment’s hesitation, he scooped up the true heiress and charged out of the flames, leaving me locked inside the room to burn to death. When I opened my eyes again, I had returned to the day I was adopted at the orphanage. Mr. and Mrs. Sterling, dressed in haute couture, stood before me, their eyes full of parental affection: “This child looks so bright and lively. We’ll take her.” A violent shudder ran through my entire body. The next second, I grabbed a fistful of mud from the ground and shoved it into my mouth, drooling and giggling idiotically at them: “Hehe, meat… yummy… so yummy…” “Hehe, meat… yummy… so yummy…” I crammed that ball of foul-smelling, black mud into my mouth, my teeth grinding audibly against the grit. Muddy water dribbled down the corners of my mouth, dripping onto the yellowed collar of my old orphanage uniform. The maternal affection on the wealthy woman’s face froze instantly. It looked like she had just swallowed a dead fly. She recoiled in disgust, taking a half-step back, her designer heels clicking sharply against the concrete floor. “Director, is this child… mentally impaired?” The orphanage director, sweating profusely, reached out to wipe my face. “No, Mrs. Sterling! Nora is usually the smartest child here. I don’t know what’s gotten into her today…” I violently swatted the director’s hand away. I wiped my mud-caked hands directly onto the wealthy woman’s ridiculously expensive custom skirt. Mumbling incoherently, I cried out: “Mommy… hug… hungry…” Mrs. Sterling shrieked, frantically swatting at her skirt as if she had just been infected by a deadly virus. The teenage boy who had been standing silently to the side finally spoke up. Arthur. The brother who had personally shoved me into hell in my previous life. He looked down at me from his towering height, his eyes assessing me like a pile of unrecyclable trash. “Mom, let’s go.” “Bringing a filthy thing like this home will only upset Mia.” “There are plenty of kids in the orphanage. Pick a clean one.” Mrs. Sterling, still visibly shaken, pulled out a silk handkerchief and covered her nose and mouth. “What awful luck. She looks decent enough, but turns out she’s a retard.” They turned on their heels and left, without a single backward glance. I kept up my idiotic giggling. Only when that black Maybach completely disappeared from sight did I slowly drop the foolish act. “Ptui.” I spat the mud out of my mouth. It was incredibly bitter. But compared to the agony of my previous life—having my blood drained and being burned to a crisp crisp—this little bit of mud was nothing. The director poked my forehead, furious at my failure to seize the opportunity. “You stupid brat! That was the Sterling family, the richest family in the city! Such an incredible opportunity, and you completely blew it!” “Do you have any idea how many people would kill for that position?!” I watched the direction the Sterling’s car had gone, my eyes as cold as ice. That position? The position of being a living blood bank, a guinea pig for experimental drugs, and a punching bag for the true heiress? Whoever wants it can have it. In this life, my only goal is to send them straight to hell. From the corner, a timid-looking girl stepped out. She looked at my mud-covered mouth, a flash of mockery and greed in her eyes. It was Chloe. In my past life, she bullied me endlessly at the orphanage. Just now, when the Sterling family was leaving, their gaze had lingered on her for a few seconds. “Nora, you really are an idiot.” Chloe smoothed down her ill-fitting dress, smiling smugly. “Since you don’t want it, I’ll just have to enjoy the Sterling family’s wealth in your place.” I looked at her as if looking at a dead woman. The corners of my lips curled into an eerie smile. “Be my guest.” “I hope you… enjoy it… thoroughly.” Chapter 2 Chloe got her wish and was taken away. On the day she left, sitting in that luxury car, she rolled down the window and flipped me the bird. Arthur sat beside her, gently handing her a piece of chocolate with a tender expression. That was a tenderness I had begged for on my knees for three days and three nights in my past life, yet never received. I wasn’t jealous. I only found it hilarious. Chloe thought she was going to heaven. Little did she know, she was entering a slaughterhouse disguised as a golden palace. The Sterling family’s true heiress, Mia, suffered from a rare blood disorder. She required long-term blood transfusions and constantly needed to test various experimental treatments. The Sterling family didn’t adopt a daughter out of the goodness of their hearts. They adopted one to raise an on-call “spare organ.” Chloe’s blood type, coincidentally, was a perfect match. The motorcade drove away. The orphanage returned to its deathly silence. Because my “crazy episode” had chased away the VIPs, the director punished me by withholding dinner and sending me to the back mountain to gather firewood. As it was getting dark, near an unmarked graveyard on the back mountain, I saw a strange old man. He was wearing a tattered, old-fashioned tunic suit, staring blankly at a weed. I recognized that weed. In my previous life, trying to please Arthur, I had obsessively studied countless medical texts. It was Spanish Needles. Highly toxic, yet a miraculous medicine. The old man seemed to sense my gaze and whipped his head around. His cloudy eyes suddenly shot out a piercing gleam. “Girlie, is this weed edible?” I walked over expressionlessly and stomped a venomous snake to death right next to the weed. “The weed is edible, but you’ll die if you eat it.” “The snake’s gallbladder is edible, and eating it will keep you alive.” The old man froze for a second. Then he erupted into a booming, thunderous laugh. “Interesting.” “Everyone else thinks I’m dirty, thinks I’m crazy, but you, girlie, you aren’t afraid.” “Since the Sterling family doesn’t want you, I’ll take you.” The director was eager to get rid of a “retard” like me. When filling out the paperwork, she didn’t even verify the old man’s identity. Carrying a small, beat-up backpack, I followed the old man out of the orphanage. The old man’s name was Silas Vance. Known in the underworld as the “Ghost-Handed Reaper.” In my past life, he was an internationally renowned medical genius. Even the Sterling family had offered exorbitant sums just to secure a meeting with him. Unfortunately, in my past life, I was locked in a basement. I only heard his name but never saw his face. In this life. I am his only disciple. Ten years. A full ten years. Deep in the mountains, I lived among venomous insects and medicinal herbs. I tested every herb imaginable and mastered acupuncture techniques that bordered on the supernatural. I also forged a heart colder and harder than a viper’s scales. Ten years later. Old Man Vance tossed a gold-foiled invitation at me. “Girlie, your apprenticeship is over.” “Go. There’s an auction in the city. Bring back that thousand-year snow lotus for me.” I caught the invitation. My fingertips gently brushed over the small print that read “Sponsored by Sterling Group.” The corners of my lips curved slightly upward. Arthur, Mia. Long time no see. Your “maid” has returned. Chapter 3 The city’s most exclusive, top-tier auction. I wore a simple black qipao, the upper half of my face concealed by a silver mask. Only the lower half of my face and my cold, detached eyes were visible. Old Man Vance had given me a fake identity—the miracle doctor, “Nameless.” As soon as I entered the venue, I caught a whiff of a familiar, rotting stench. Not literal rot. But the unique stench emanating from the depths of a Sterling family member’s soul. In a VIP box on the second floor, Arthur held a glass of wine, looking down at the floor below with careless arrogance. Ten years had passed. He was more mature, and even more cold-blooded. His perfectly tailored suit hugged his tall frame, but it couldn’t hide the violence bred into his bones. The woman sitting beside him wasn’t Mia. It was a woman so emaciated she looked like a skeleton. Even from this distance, I could see the dense cluster of needle marks and scars covering her wrists. Chloe. The girl who had once strutted so haughtily, eager to enter the Sterling family. Now, she was cowering at Arthur’s feet like a dog drained of its life force. She held a peeled grape in her trembling hands, offering it to Arthur’s lips. Arthur didn’t even look at it; he slapped it away with the back of his hand. The purple juice splattered across Chloe’s face. “Disgusting.” “Go wash your face. Don’t ruin Mia’s appetite.” Chloe shuddered violently and scrambled on her hands and knees toward the restroom. The surrounding guests turned a blind eye to this. As if she were merely a pet kept by the young master of the Sterling family. I withdrew my gaze and found a seat in a corner. The auction soon began. I had no interest in the initial lots. Until the thousand-year snow lotus was brought out. Starting bid: five million. “Ten million.” From the second-floor box, Arthur lazily raised his paddle. The entire hall went silent. Everyone knew the Sterling family’s eldest daughter, Mia, was in poor health. This snow lotus was obviously for her. No one dared to bid against the Sterling family. The auctioneer raised his gavel: “Ten million going once, ten million going twice…” “Twenty million.” A cold, clear female voice suddenly rang out from the corner. The crowd erupted in murmurs. All eyes zeroed in on me. Arthur’s hand, holding his wine glass, paused, and he slowly turned his head. Through the dazzling light of the crystal chandeliers. His gaze wrapped around me like a venomous snake. “Thirty million,” he stated coldly. “Fifty million,” I didn’t even bat an eye. “Eighty million.” Arthur’s voice carried a distinct edge of anger. “One hundred million.” I picked up the teacup in front of me and took a slow sip. “Mr. Sterling, care to keep going?” Arthur abruptly stood up, the wine glass in his hand shattering with a loud crack. Blood mixed with red wine dripped down his hand, a startling sight. He stared at me, his eyes terrifyingly dark. It wasn’t about the money. It was about my voice. Even though I deliberately lowered it, even though ten years had passed. Some things are etched into your very bones. “Who are you?” He leaned against the railing, body angled forward, like a wild beast ready to pounce. I set down my teacup, looked up, and gave him a faint smile from behind the mask. That smile. It was no different from the smile I gave ten years ago when I was eating mud at the orphanage. Only the idiocy was gone. Replaced by murderous intent. “Who I am doesn’t matter.” “What matters is, I’m taking this snow lotus.” Chapter 4 After the auction ended, I was cornered in the parking garage. Over a dozen men in black suits surrounded me. Arthur emerged from the shadows, casually flipping a sleek butterfly knife in his hand. The blade danced between his fingers, glinting coldly. “In this town, no one dares to snatch what I have my eye on.” He walked up to me, using the tip of the knife to lift a strand of my hair. “Take off the mask.” “Let me see which rich heiress is so eager to die.” I didn’t move. I just looked at him calmly. “Is Mr. Sterling planning to rob me in broad daylight?” Arthur scoffed. “Rob? You flatter yourself.” “Leave the lotus, leave a hand, and you can get the hell out of here.” He waved his hand, and two bodyguards immediately stepped forward, reaching out to grab my shoulders. In that split second. I moved. It wasn’t some flashy, theatrical dodge. It was a lethal, calculated strike aimed directly at a vital point. I grabbed the wrist of the bodyguard on my left and twisted it violently backward. Crack. The sharp sound of bone breaking echoed through the empty parking garage. Immediately following, a side kick sent the bodyguard on my right flying like a kite with a snapped string, crashing heavily onto Arthur’s car. The car alarm blared. Dead silence fell over the garage. The cold smirk on Arthur’s face froze. He probably never imagined that a woman who looked so delicate and fragile could strike so ruthlessly. “You…” The remaining bodyguards rushed me all at once. I ripped off the restrictive slit of my qipao, revealing long, toned legs. My body moved like a ghost, weaving through the crowd. With every strike, a man went down. Three minutes. The ground was littered with groaning men. I smoothed my slightly disheveled hair and walked toward Arthur, step by step. Arthur finally panicked. He gripped his butterfly knife tightly and yelled, “Stay back! Do you know who I am?!” “The Sterling family will never let you get away with this!” I walked right up to him and reached out my hand. Under his terrified gaze, I caught the butterfly knife between two fingers. With a slight twist. Snap. The blade, forged from hardened steel, was cleanly snapped in half by my bare hands. Arthur’s pupils dilated in shock. He stumbled backward instinctively, tripped, and fell hard to the ground. Looking utterly pathetic. I crouched down, bringing my eyes level with his. I reached up and took off my mask. Revealing a face that was stunningly beautiful, yet incredibly familiar to him. That face slowly merged with the memory of the mud-covered idiot from ten years ago. “Arthur.” I called out softly, my tone as gentle as a lover’s whisper. “What, it’s only been ten years and you don’t recognize me?” Arthur looked as if he’d seen a ghost, his face instantly draining of all color. “N… Nora?!” “Weren’t you retarded?!” I reached out and patted his stiff cheek, my fingertips icy cold. “Yeah.” “Only a retard would let you all bully her.” “Only a retard would act as your personal blood bank.” “Only a retard would throw her life away for the sake of so-called ‘family.’” I stood up, looking down at him from above, my eyes turning completely glacial. The subservience of my past life, the pathetic groveling of my past life. In this moment, it all vanished like smoke in the wind. I planted my foot squarely on his chest, the sharp heel of my stiletto sinking into his flesh. Listening to his muffled groans of pain, I felt an unprecedented surge of satisfaction. “Arthur.” “The game has just begun.”

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At the college reunion, my impulsive, runaway bride of a sister finally returned. Everyone was making bets, certain that Ethan would dump me and choose my sister. Instead, he kept his eyes fixed straight ahead and gently slipped the diamond ring onto my finger. “All these years, Maya is the one who stayed by my side. Besides her, my heart has no room for any other woman. I will never let the woman I love lose!” My sister’s face turned deathly pale, and she ran out of the room in tears. After we got married, Ethan spoiled me endlessly. He never allowed any other woman to get close to him. Until later, when I found intimate videos of him and my sister hidden on his computer. In the videos, my sister was playing hard to get, her eyes hazy and seductive. “Ethan, you’re already married to Maya. Aren’t you afraid of breaking her heart if she finds out?” Ethan, consumed by passion, murmured mindlessly. “In the end, she’s just a substitute anyway. I gave her the title of wife, but I’ll give my love to you, okay?” My heart turned to absolute ice. I knew my time to leave had come. 1 “Are you really going to leave?! What happens when Ethan eventually remembers everything?” Grandma Wright was anxious and angry. Looking at the explicit videos I had brought her, she was filled with a complex mix of emotions. Years ago, Ethan had been in a terrible car accident that wiped his memory. He forgot our entire history together and mistakenly believed he was deeply in love with my sister, Chloe. He insisted on marrying her. It was only after Chloe impulsively ran away on their wedding day that I finally had the chance to return to his side. My eyes fell on those sickening videos. I lowered my eyelashes, desperately trying to hide the bitter pain in my eyes. When I finally spoke, I had regained my usual calm. “Grandma, the person he loves right now isn’t me.” Seeing my ironclad resolve, Grandma Wright could only sigh in defeat. “This… alright. It’s too unfair to you.” “Getting the divorce papers is the easy part, but erasing your entire identity and background will take me about two weeks.” I thanked her and went back to our bedroom. Late that night, Ethan finally came home. He turned on the light, his face etched with exhaustion. Seeing me sitting on the sofa with my laptop, he frowned slightly. He walked over quickly, draped his suit jacket over my shoulders, and placed a beautiful, custom cake box on the coffee table. “Why are you still up so late? A client meeting ran long tonight, so I picked up some dessert for you on the way back.” I just stared blankly at the cake box, not saying a word. This bakery was incredibly popular; you had to wait in line for at least an hour just to get inside. “What are you looking at so intensely…?” He chuckled softly, leaning over to look at my screen. The smile instantly froze on his face. This man, who was known for his ruthless, cutthroat tactics in the boardroom, was suddenly holding my hand with extreme caution, his palms slick with cold sweat. “Maya, it’s not what you think. Your sister has been harassing me constantly. She slipped me something when I wasn’t paying attention. You have to believe me, my heart only belongs to you now.” An indescribable wave of sour grief surged from the bottom of my heart. Without changing my expression, I pulled my hand out of his grasp. “Let’s get a divorce.” Panic washed over his face, clear as day. I unlocked my phone and showed him the text messages Chloe had just sent me. “Maya, this is my ultrasound report. The baby is Ethan’s.” “Ethan specifically made time today to take me to the clinic to set up my prenatal care. It took a little longer than expected, so please don’t be mad at him.” “Oh, by the way, my morning sickness has been terrible lately. I couldn’t stomach the cake Ethan specifically bought for me, so I told him to bring it home for you. I didn’t want it to go to waste.” Chapter 2 Ethan’s pupils dilated in sheer panic. He forcefully snatched the phone from my hand and frantically deleted the chat history and the videos. He grabbed me by the shoulders, his eyes filled with pure terror. “Maya, don’t listen to her crazy lies! I know absolutely nothing about a baby, and I am never divorcing you.” “Even if there really is a baby, I won’t let her have it and ruin our marriage.” He immediately pulled out his own phone and dialed his assistant. His voice was harder and more ruthless than I had ever heard it. “Tomorrow morning, deal with whatever is in Chloe’s stomach!” “Warn her that if she ever speaks garbage to Maya again, I will destroy her!” He hung up the phone. But I clearly saw his web browser still open on his screen. Search: “Best nutritional foods for pregnant women in the first trimester.” My heart turned to absolute ice. That night, it felt like an invisible, bottomless canyon had opened up between us in bed. The next morning, he skipped breakfast, grabbed his briefcase, and hurried out the door. An hour later, my sister updated her Instagram story. The photo showed her and Ethan standing side-by-side in front of a sprawling, luxury villa. The caption was dripping with fake innocence. “Being spoiled so much is actually kind of exhausting. I couldn’t eat the cake yesterday, so today he sent me premium bird’s nest and sea cucumber.” “But what touched me the most is that he said he wants to give me a real home. So today, we’re house hunting!” I gripped my phone tightly. I took a screenshot of her post, uploaded it directly to my own public social media, and walked out the door. The paparazzi swarmed them outside the villa almost immediately. A reporter named Dave asked the most aggressive question. “Mr. Wright, didn’t you publicly declare you would never let Maya lose? So what is going on with you and Chloe now? And who is the father of the baby she’s carrying?” Ethan spotted me standing on the edge of the crowd. He panicked, shoving past the reporters to explain himself to me: “Maya, don’t misunderstand! Whatever happened between me and Chloe is strictly in the past. This house is just a compensation settlement for her. I told her I expect her to never bother me again.” In just a few sentences, he completely washed his hands of the situation. In that moment, the sheer hypocrisy and cowardly opportunism of this “mature” man was on full display. The media immediately caught on, pivoting their attacks directly onto Chloe. “Years ago, Mr. Wright loved her more than life itself, but she just had to play games and run away from her own wedding to test him. Now that he doesn’t love her anymore, she’s desperately throwing herself at him.” “Is the baby she’s carrying even Mr. Wright’s?!” The more the reporters speculated, the more aggressive they got, pushing Chloe to the brink of tears. Her face flushed with furious anger, she charged forward, her voice shrill and piercing. “What do any of you know?! Maya took advantage of my absence and stole Ethan from me!” Highly emotional, she ripped up the sleeves of her blouse and yanked her skirt up to her knees. Suppressed tears spun in her eyes, but she stubbornly refused to let them fall. “Do you really think I ran away from my wedding because I didn’t love him?! During that time, I went to Mount Shasta. I crawled up the entire mountain path on my hands and knees, praying for Ethan’s recovery. I bruised and deformed my own knees for him!” “When I found out Ethan and Maya were together, I fell into a severe depression. I tried to kill myself multiple times.” Ethan’s eyes locked onto the horrifying, jagged scars on her wrists and her permanently misshapen knees. His eyes slowly darkened with heavy emotion. Chloe’s tears finally broke free, streaming down her face. “What did I do wrong?! Now you’re all wildly speculating about my unborn baby! I’ll tell you all right now, the father of this baby is—” “Shut up!” Chapter 3 Ethan snapped back to reality. He shot a nervous glance in my direction and quickly cut her off. His voice was flat, devoid of any visible emotion. “Chloe, no matter the reason, we can never go back to how things were. Have some self-respect and stop harassing me.” Chloe glared at him with pure hatred, biting her lip so hard it began to bleed. Finally, drowning in the media’s mocking laughter, she turned and ran away crying. Ethan swept a cold, warning glare over the gloating reporters. “No one is allowed to publish a single word of what happened here today!” He personally drove me home. The entire ride was unnervingly silent. He didn’t yell at me for leaking Chloe’s post to the public, and I didn’t bring up his sordid affair with her. But just as I opened my door to step out, before I even had both feet on the pavement, he suddenly slammed his foot on the gas. 2 “Ethan, stop the car!” I screamed in agonizing pain. The hem of my long skirt had caught in the heavy car door. I was dragged violently across the asphalt for over three hundred feet. The skin on my knees was shredded, leaving two gaping, bloody holes and a gruesome trail of blood on the driveway. The car finally slammed to a halt. I desperately tore the fabric of my skirt to free myself. But instead of getting out to help me, he slowly pulled the car forward, made a U-turn, and accelerated rapidly, aiming the heavy tires directly at my wrists. I shrieked in terror, my entire body convulsing. He finally stopped, stepped out of the car, and stood over me. He looked down at my bleeding body, his voice colder and more ruthless than I had ever heard it. “This is your one and only warning.” I let out a miserable, tragic laugh. I knew he did it on purpose. The moment he saw his precious sister cry, he couldn’t even be bothered to keep up the act of loving me anymore. Despite Ethan’s threats, Dave the reporter published the entire confrontation. Enterprising internet sleuths even dug up photos of Ethan taking Chloe to her OBGYN appointments a few days prior. The internet unanimously took my side, dragging Chloe through the mud and ripping her reputation to shreds. Ethan was furious. He tracked Dave down at his media company, beat him with a baseball bat, and used the Wright family’s massive corporate influence to get him blacklisted from the industry. The situation blew up, severely damaging the Wright Corporation’s stock and public image. Grandma Wright was livid. She immediately summoned both our families to the Wright estate. “Ethan, how could you do this to Maya?! When Chloe abandoned you at the altar, you were completely broken. Maya is the one who stayed by your side and pulled you out of that dark place! Now, what are you going to do about the baby in Chloe’s stomach?!” Grandma Wright shot a vicious glare at Chloe, then raised her heavy wooden cane to strike Ethan. Suddenly, Chloe threw herself in front of Ethan, dropping to her knees in front of Grandma Wright. She gripped the cane tightly, crying so hard she was gasping for air. “Grandma, this is entirely my fault! Please don’t punish Ethan!” My father, feeling profoundly humiliated by his eldest daughter’s actions, slapped her hard across the face and tried to drag her toward the door. “You have completely destroyed the Carter family’s reputation! Get your ass home right now!” Due to the intense cyberbullying over the last few days, Chloe looked incredibly frail and exhausted. She clutched her red, swollen cheek, clinging desperately to the staircase banister, sobbing hysterically. “I’m not leaving! I lost Ethan! The only thing I want is to keep my baby! Is that a crime?!” The bright red handprint on her pale face severely triggered Ethan. Seeing that Chloe absolutely refused to let go, my father violently yanked her arm. “Ah!” Suddenly, she missed a step and tumbled backward down the grand staircase. “Chloe, watch out!” Ethan’s pupils shrank in terror. His body reacted faster than his brain. Without a second thought, he violently shoved me out of his way to get to her. I was thrown completely off balance, stumbling backward until I crashed heavily into the massive, custom saltwater aquarium in the center of the living room. CRASH! The thick glass shattered into thousands of pieces. Jagged shards of glass drove deep into my back. I was instantly drenched in my own blood. Ethan managed to catch Chloe perfectly. As the two of them rolled safely to the bottom of the stairs, the back of Ethan’s head struck the marble steps. Chapter 4 A blinding pain ripped through my body. Strange, unfamiliar fragments of memories flashed rapidly through my mind. Before I could even process them, Chloe’s cries of pain snapped me back to reality. “Ethan, my hand is scraped.” Ethan looked at the tiny droplets of blood oozing from her palm. His brow furrowed in deep distress. He immediately scooped her up into his arms and sprinted toward the door. Grandma Wright panicked, shouting after him. “You ungrateful bastard! Maya’s injuries are a hundred times worse! She’s bleeding out!” Ethan didn’t even pause his stride. “Grandma, Chloe has a severe blood-clotting disorder! I can’t waste a single second!” Lying in a massive pool of my own blood, I let out a weak, bitter laugh before letting the darkness completely consume my consciousness. His memories were completely scrambled. The one with the life-threatening blood-clotting disorder was me. 3 “Maya!” Seeing that my bleeding wouldn’t stop, Grandma Wright frantically called an ambulance and rushed me to the ER. After being wheeled out of emergency surgery, I was placed in a VIP recovery room—coincidentally, right next door to Chloe’s room. As the nurses wheeled my bed past her open door, a scene stabbed me straight through the heart. “Chloe, you’ve been through so much. I already picked out a name for our baby. Whether it’s a boy or a girl, let’s call it Riley, okay?” Ethan was sitting on the edge of her bed, holding her closely, pressing his forehead against hers with overwhelming tenderness. He casually glanced up and saw me being wheeled past the doorway by the nurses. After a brief second of hesitation, he reluctantly let go of Chloe and chased after my bed. After learning from the nurses that my injuries were severe, and that the road rash from being dragged by his car still hadn’t fully healed… He looked at me with an incredibly complex expression, rubbing his temples in exhaustion. “Maya, there is absolutely no need for you to purposely exaggerate your injuries just to get my attention. I told you I wouldn’t abandon you, and I meant it. Chloe is pregnant. I was terrified she might have a miscarriage, which is why I brought her to the hospital first.” “The baby is innocent. Her blood doesn’t clot properly, so having an abortion is entirely too dangerous for her. But don’t worry, I already made a deal with her. I’m going to send her abroad. You’ll never have to look at her again, okay?” I instinctively placed my hand over my stomach, fighting desperately to hold back my tears. The name Riley… that was the name Ethan had picked out for our future child, back before his memory loss. Just moments ago in the operating room, the trauma surgeon had informed me that I was one month pregnant. My baby wasn’t even born yet, and Ethan had already been stolen from me. Now, was he going to steal my baby’s name too? “And what if I say no?” Swallowing the bitter acid in my throat, I forced the words out in a raspy whisper. Ethan froze. Noticing the tears pooling in my eyes, he assumed the nurses had hurt me while changing my bandages. He immediately took the ointment tube and began applying it himself. His movements were incredibly gentle, but his words left absolutely no room for negotiation. “Maya, stop throwing a tantrum. I admit I mishandled the situation today. I promise you, from now on, I will never see her again. I will spend the rest of my life making it up to you.” I didn’t say another word. I didn’t cry, and I didn’t scream. I finally realized that this man—who swore he would never let me lose—had ensured my absolute, total defeat. Because of the harsh antibiotics, I tossed and turned in agony the entire night. Ethan stayed by my bed, tirelessly blowing cool air onto my stitched wounds to ease the burning. “That’s weird. Why is the wound still bleeding?” Slowly, he started to realize something was wrong. Just as he reached for my medical chart hanging at the end of the bed, his phone rang with an unknown number. “Heh. Ethan Wright, didn’t you put out a massive PR statement swearing you would never betray Maya? What a beautiful, devoted persona. So… if I butcher Chloe and the little bastard growing inside her, you probably wouldn’t care, right?” Chapter 5 Dave the reporter laughed maniacally through the speaker. Immediately following his laugh, Chloe’s terrified, blood-curdling screams echoed through the phone. “Ethan! Save me! He’s going to cut my baby out…” “Chloe!” Ethan’s face drained of all color. Pleased with his reaction, Dave laughed even harder. “Hahaha! If you want to save Chloe, you have exactly one hour to bring Maya here and trade her for your precious ex. Let’s see if you’re actually willing to make the sacrifice.” Ethan’s expression turned incredibly grim. He hesitated for a fraction of a second before violently dragging me out of the hospital bed and throwing me into his car. “Ethan! You’re actually going to trade me for her?! Who the hell do you really love?!” I was absolutely devastated. I pounded frantically against the locked car windows, crying and screaming in a panic. Ethan slammed his foot on the gas, roaring at me in sheer frustration: “Maya, your sister’s life is on the line, and you’re still obsessing over who I love more?!” “Don’t worry, he just wants to humiliate me. He doesn’t have the guts to actually kill anyone. But Chloe’s medical condition is too fragile. I can’t take that risk.” “Stop fighting me! I usually let you get away with everything, but this is different. I swear I will make this up to you later.” With a harsh screech of brakes, he parked the car outside an abandoned warehouse. He opened the door, dragged me out, and without a word of explanation, bound my hands and feet with zip ties and shoved a greasy rag into my mouth. I fought back with everything I had, my muffled sobs breaking through the rag. He gently wiped the tears from my face, a brief flash of conflict crossing his eyes. “Maya, I’m sorry. You’ll have to endure this for a little while.” “Just stay quiet and cooperate. Do not provoke him. I already called the cops on the way here. Once I successfully get your sister out, SWAT will breach the building and rescue you.” With that, he hoisted me over his shoulder and marched into the warehouse. I shook my head frantically. My surgical wounds had torn open and were bleeding profusely, and my stomach was twisting in violent, agonizing cramps. “Hahaha! The great Ethan Wright finally admits he can’t let go of Chloe!” To exact his revenge for being blacklisted, Dave brutally smashed Ethan over the head with a steel pipe before honoring the deal and releasing Chloe. Chloe shot me a triumphant, mocking glare, subtly exchanging a knowing look with Dave. The next second, she threw herself into Ethan’s arms, sobbing. “Ethan, I knew you loved me the most! My stomach is cramping so badly, please, get me to a hospital.” Seeing her looking so pale and close to fainting, Ethan didn’t dare waste a second. Ignoring his bleeding head wound, he practically carried her out the door. Dave gripped a hunting knife, walking toward me with a malicious grin. “Hahaha! Ethan dumped you! And since I took your sister’s money, I have to make sure you get the VIP treatment!” I shook my head in absolute terror, trapped and defenseless. I could only watch helplessly as the blade plunged deep into my stomach. When he ripped the knife out, my blood splattered across the concrete wall like dark paint… After rushing Chloe into the ER, a deep, suffocating sense of dread settled in Ethan’s chest. The image of my desperate, terrified eyes flashed relentlessly in his mind, accompanied by waves of blinding headaches. Unable to stand any longer, he slid down the hospital wall and collapsed onto the floor. A flood of strange, fragmented memories violently pierced his brain, making it almost impossible to breathe. But he forced himself to stay conscious and called the police captain. “Hello? Did you rescue Maya?!” The answer on the other end of the line drained every ounce of blood from his face, leaving him looking like a corpse.

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At my pre-wedding party, my fiancé’s “girl best friend” leaned against his chest and openly mocked me in front of everyone: “Sister-in-law, I heard your mom was a homewrecker who slept her way to the top. I also heard you used to be a high-end escort, and you only latched onto our Carter after your last sugar daddy dumped you?” Amidst the roaring laughter of the crowd, I backhanded a whiskey bottle against the table, grabbed the jagged glass, and pressed it right against the corner of her mouth. “I was born petty. Whoever dares to throw dirty water on me, I will rip the roof off their house and hang them from the city walls for everyone to see.” They called me a psycho. They said I couldn’t take a joke. I just smiled, pulled out an unlimited Black Amex card, and set up a little betting game. That very night, I ripped the hypocritical, innocent mask right off that “sweet childhood sweetheart.” Everyone thought that was the end of it. Until the day of our Wedding of the Century, when every billboard and screen in the city broadcasted a live feed— That “pure and untouchable” Ivy Thorne was starring in a sickeningly explicit, X-rated scene with my fiancé and his groomsmen. Holding the microphone, I stood amidst the shocked gasps of the entire venue and elegantly announced, “The wedding is canceled.” My fiancé, looking like a stray dog, lunged at me and roared, “Sloane! You toxic bitch! What did you do to Ivy?!” I looked at him like he was a complete joke. “Don’t panic. This is just the appetizer.” “Everything you’ve forced upon me, I will collect back with interest. I’ll make you pay in blood, one piece at a time.” Chapter 1 I was born petty. Whoever dares to throw dirty water on me, I will make sure their entire family never knows a day of peace. When I was a kid, a neighborhood Karen falsely accused me of stealing her packages. I literally hired a crew to rip the roof off her house in the middle of the night. When I started working, a coworker started a rumor that I was sleeping my way up the corporate ladder. I hacked the AV system at the company’s annual gala and played a security video of her and the regional manager getting busy in the supply closet on an endless loop. Gradually, no one dared to mess with me. They all said I was an unhinged, vengeful psycho—until my family arranged a marriage for me. At the pre-wedding party, his “girl best friend” leaned against his chest and smirked at me: “Sister-in-law, I heard your mom was a homewrecker who slept her way to the top. I also heard you used to be a high-end escort, and you only latched onto our Carter after your last sugar daddy dumped you?” Carter Sterling’s friends immediately erupted into laughter, waiting to see me make a fool of myself. I grabbed a whiskey bottle, smashed it against the edge of the table, and pressed the jagged glass right against her lips. “Carter, you have so many friends. I’m sure losing this one won’t matter to you, right?” … Carter’s face instantly darkened. He forcefully swatted my hand away. “Sloane, what crazy stunt are you pulling now?!” “Ivy was just making a joke. Do you really have to take it this far?” The frat boys behind him immediately chimed in. “Yeah, sister-in-law, do you know who Carter is? Your family hit the jackpot marrying into the Sterlings. You really can’t take a simple joke?” “Ivy is our girl, we grew up together. You threatening her like this shows you really don’t know your place.” I actually laughed. I picked up a shard of broken glass from the floor and twirled it between my fingertips. “You see, I’ve never had much of a sense of humor since I was a kid. I don’t understand ‘jokes’.” “So whoever jokes with me, I treat them like a joke.” I looked at Ivy Thorne’s provocative face: “For example, if someone starts a rumor that my mother was a homewrecker, I have every reason to suspect that her mother was the actual homewrecker.” “And that makes her a dirty little affair baby, doesn’t it?” Ivy’s body went completely rigid, and tears instantly spilled from her eyes. Seeing her look so pitiful, Carter grabbed my wrist: “Sloane Kensington, you apologize to Ivy right now!” “Where do you get the nerve to say something like that? Ivy’s father died saving my father’s life! The Sterling family taking care of her is the absolute least we can do!” “If you spout any more of this garbage, I’ll have you thrown out!” Ivy hid behind him, looking like a kicked puppy: “Carter, don’t blame her. Maybe I said the wrong thing… Sister-in-law, I’m so sorry. I shouldn’t have made that kind of joke.” The surrounding friends immediately started criticizing me. “Ivy already apologized, what more do you want, Sloane? Besides, she isn’t even wrong. We’ve seen you getting out of different men’s cars more than once.” “If you’re marrying Carter, shouldn’t you wrap up your little ‘side hustles’? Getting aggressive over a joke… if you’re going to be a buzzkill, you shouldn’t have come tonight.” I was genuinely amused by this pack of idiots. Before coming here, my dad had earnestly told me that the Sterlings were crucial business partners, and this marriage would benefit both our corporate empires. But I’ve known since I was a little girl that tears and compromise are the most useless things in this world. The only way to avoid being bullied is to be crazier and more ruthless than they are. Whoever dares to take a bite out of me, I will smash every tooth in their mouth. I slowly opened my hand, letting the glass shard fall from my palm. “You know what, you guys are right. Getting mad over a little thing like this does make me a buzzkill.” Smug, I-knew-it expressions washed over their faces. Carter’s expression softened slightly, and he opened his mouth, likely to say something condescending. I cut him off immediately: “However… if we’re talking about playing games, I’m the best there is.” “You want to play? Bring it on. Let’s keep going.” I looked around the circle of trust-fund babies who were thrilled by the drama. I grabbed a large glass and poured seven or eight different types of hard liquor into it. “Whoever loses drinks this whole glass, then has to answer one question from the winner. It has to be the absolute truth.” “If you dare to lie, or if you’re too scared to answer, you drink three more glasses.” One of the guys scoffed. “Sloane, games are fine, but it’s boring without any stakes.” I swirled the murky liquor in the glass, my smile deepening. I pulled out a sleek Black Amex card and slapped it onto the table. “Whoever can make me drink a single glass tonight gets this card. No limit.” Instantly, the entire room went dead silent. Carter’s face turned livid. “Sloane, is this enough? You think just because the Kensingtons have money, you can humiliate people?” I ignored him and stared dead at Ivy. “What, too scared to play? Weren’t you so good at ‘joking’ just a minute ago?” “Ivy, you’re up first.” Ivy’s eyes practically glowed with greed staring at that Black Card. She grabbed the dice cup and shook it. When it was my turn, I didn’t even look before I lifted the cup. Six sixes. After a pale-faced Ivy realized she lost, I spoke without hesitation: “Truth: Did your mother marry your father before or after you were born?” Ivy began to tremble uncontrollably. “I… I pick Dare!” I nodded and slid the glass of repulsive liquor toward her. “If you don’t have the guts to admit the truth, that’s fine. Chug this, then call your mom on speakerphone and scream that Ivy Thorne’s mother is the real homewrecker.” Ivy instantly broke down in tears. “Carter! No! I don’t want to play anymore!” Tch. Boring. She had the nerve to bark at me? I stripped her fake skin off in two seconds. Carter exploded. He shoved me back hard: “Sloane, is that enough?! Ivy is a girl, how could you treat her like this!” I genuinely laughed out loud. An idiot like Carter couldn’t even identify the most basic, entry-level manipulative pick-me girl. “When she was spreading rumors about my mother and insulting me, why didn’t you remind everyone she was just a ‘girl’?” I stepped into his personal space, forcing him back: “Carter, you protect her so fiercely, people might start thinking she’s the mistress you’re keeping on the side.” “Is she your ‘best friend,’ or just a friend you can sleep with casually?” Carter was thoroughly enraged. He raised his hand, ready to slap me. I didn’t dodge. I just looked up at him. “Hit me.” “Let everyone see how the young master of the Sterling family beats his fiancée over a mistress’s daughter.” “Should I call your dad right now and tell him tomorrow’s wedding is off?” I pulled out my phone, pretending to dial Mr. Sterling’s number. Carter panicked, snatched the phone from my hand, and smashed it violently onto the floor. “Sloane, you are completely unreasonable!” “Tomorrow is our wedding. You better spend tonight reflecting on what you did wrong. Don’t you dare embarrass me at the altar tomorrow!” He wrapped his arm around a sobbing Ivy and stormed out. His friends threw a few mocking comments my way and scattered. I looked at the mess on the floor and slowly smiled. I’m going to embarrass you? Alright. Let’s see who ends up embarrassed tomorrow! I went home, pulled out my backup phone, and dialed a number: “Run a background check on Ivy Thorne, and that father of hers who supposedly died saving Carter’s dad.” “I want to know absolutely everything about their family. The dirtier, the better.” The person on the other end chuckled. “Boss lady, it’s the night before your wedding. You sure you want to play this big?” “Cut the crap. Before morning, I want every single file in my inbox.” I hung up and looked at my cold reflection in the mirror. Carter Sterling. Ivy Thorne. You thought this was over? I was born a survivor. Since you dared to throw dirty water on me… I’m going to boil that water with your blood, and burn you both alive in it. The next day, the Wedding of the Century between the Sterling and Kensington families was the talk of the city. My dad whispered to me: “Sloane, keep your temper in check. Today is your big day.” “If you really don’t like Carter, just keep him around as a pretty face to serve you. At the end of the day, our family holds the real power in this merger.” I smiled slightly but didn’t say anything. My temper has never been something I could just ‘keep in check’ simply because I wanted to. As soon as I walked into the bridal suite, my phone rang. I answered it, only to hear Ivy’s tearful, victimized voice. I instantly realized what was happening. I swiftly connected my phone’s Bluetooth to the venue’s main PA system. The guests in the grand hall froze as the following audio blasted through the speakers. “Carter, it’s all my fault. If you hadn’t comforted me yesterday, we wouldn’t have done something so crazy and slept together.” “But you’re getting married today. You gave your first time to me… What if Sloane finds out and ruins the wedding?” Then, Carter’s voice echoed through the hall: “It’s not your fault. If Sloane hadn’t provoked you, that accident never would have happened between us.” “If you get pregnant, keep the baby. I’ll take care of both of you.” I leisurely walked out onto the stage and took a microphone. “My apologies, everyone. Thanks for bearing with the entertainment.” “It seems my fiancé has some ‘friendly’ business to take care of before the ceremony can begin.” Mr. and Mrs. Sterling turned green. They roared toward the backstage area: “Carter, you piece of trash! Get out here right now!” Carter quickly emerged from the VIP lounge. Mr. Sterling marched up and slapped him hard across the face. “Apologize to Sloane! If you can’t get her to forgive you today, you are no longer my son!” Upon realizing that their conversation had been broadcasted, Carter glared at me with pure hatred. But intimidated by his father’s wrath, he reluctantly offered an apology: “I’m sorry, Sloane. What happened with Ivy was a mistake. I swear to you, I will never see her again!” He stared at me with venom in his eyes. I returned his gaze with a breezy, unbothered smile. Trying to play me? You’re out of your league. But there was truly no need for this marriage anymore. I have no interest in keeping a dirty man. Just as I was about to speak, a photo was sent to my phone. I tapped it open, and the color instantly drained from my face. I froze in place. The photo showed my mother, bound with thick ropes, dangling over the edge of a skyscraper roof! My phone rang immediately. I answered it in a panic. “Sloane, want your mother to live?” “Come up to the rooftop alone. If you try anything smart, I’ll drop her off the edge.” The call disconnected. I sprinted toward the top floor like a madwoman. Whoever dared to touch my mother would have their entire bloodline buried with her! But the moment I pushed open the rooftop door, several figures lunged at me and pinned me to the concrete. Ivy’s face hovered above mine, a manic, twisted smile stretching across her lips. “Sloane, didn’t you say you like playing games?” “You dared to ruin things between me and Carter. Today, I’m going to play with you until you break!” “I’m going to let everyone see what the high-and-mighty Miss Kensington looks like stripped naked, panting like a bitch underneath a bunch of men.” Carter’s groomsmen surrounded us, their faces twisted with malicious glee. “Sloane, weren’t you acting so tough before? Let’s see you act tough now.” “By the time we’re done making you feel good, I guarantee you’ll be taking a detour every time you see us.” Ivy crouched down and slapped me hard across the cheek: “Sloane, I’m going to livestream every filthy second of this. I want all your high-society friends to admire your performance.” “Do you think your dad will thank us, or will he throw you in the river for bringing him such shame?” Ivy laughed triumphantly, forcing a handful of pills into my mouth. As my body began to burn and my face flushed crimson… She excitedly slapped my cheeks: “Why so quiet? Where’s that heiress temper of yours?” “Beg me. Get on your knees and beg me right now, and maybe I’ll tell them to be gentle.” She leaned in close to my ear: “But once we’re done playing with you, it’ll be time to livestream that old bitch you call a mother.” “Do you think everyone will enjoy watching a mother-daughter relay special?” I looked over at my mother, who was tied up and struggling desperately. Then, my violently trembling body completely lost control, and I began to laugh. One of the men kicked me impatiently. “What the hell are you laughing at?” I was laughing because it was funny. It was hilarious. Ivy was knocking on death’s door and was entirely oblivious. Just then, the Wedding March began playing from the banquet hall downstairs. “And now, please put your hands together to welcome the bride and groom!” The music played on. After the applause died down, a long, awkward silence followed. I don’t know how much time passed. The murmurs downstairs grew louder. “The groom has been waiting forever, where is the bride?” “I don’t know, she was just here. Do you think she got cold feet?” The next second, someone gasped: “Look! The main screen!”

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My mother said I was a starving ghost reincarnated, so she forced me to wear an anti-gluttony shock collar. On my sister’s birthday, my mother bought her a cake, and I said I wanted a piece too. My mother grabbed the remote and activated the collar, sending a jolt of electricity through me. “You even want to steal your sister’s cake? Have you no shame?!” My sister hated the fatty parts of meat, so she threw them on the floor. When I secretly picked a piece up to eat, I was caught. My mother activated the collar again. “Trying to steal your sister’s meat? You really are a starving ghost reincarnated!” When my stomach ulcer flared up from hunger and I tried to grab a piece of chocolate, my mother shoved me away violently. “This is your sister’s New Year’s gift, and you’re trying to steal this too?!” She gently picked up my sister, saying she was taking her out to celebrate the New Year. When she shoved me, my head slammed against the table. Suddenly, my stomach didn’t seem to hurt as much anymore. It felt like I would never have to feel hungry again. 1 I hunched over, clutching my stomach, dense beads of cold sweat breaking out across my forehead. The burning agony in my stomach made it impossible to sit or stand still. It felt as if a pair of invisible hands were squeezing my insides, making even breathing difficult. I stumbled out of my room, my vision blurred as I searched for food. Anything would do, as long as it filled my stomach. That’s when I saw a beautifully wrapped box sitting on the dining table. I rushed toward it. It was a box of exquisite chocolates, the kind I had never tasted before. My mouth watered instantly. I swallowed hard and reached out a trembling hand. Just one piece. If I just eat one piece, no one will notice, right? But the moment my fingers brushed the packaging, a hand violently shoved me away. I didn’t have time to react, nor did I have the strength to. I crashed to the floor. Losing my footing, the side of my head slammed heavily against the sharp corner of the table. Something warm began flowing down the side of my face. I touched it with trembling fingers. It was blood. Bright red blood, dripping down, drop by drop. My mother didn’t care at all. She frowned, looking at me with pure disgust. “This is a New Year’s gift for your sister, and you’re trying to steal it from her?! You selfish little brat!” The burning in my stomach seemed to intensify. My lips pale, I clutched my abdomen, completely devoid of the strength to argue back. And I knew deep down that even if I did argue, she wouldn’t listen. “Mom… I’m so hungry…” I used the last ounce of my strength to force those words out. Instead of answering, my mother pulled the collar’s remote from her pocket and slammed her thumb onto the activation button. Before I could even brace myself, a powerful surge of electricity ripped through my entire body. I writhed on the floor, howling in agony. Every inch of me was screaming in pain. “Try stealing food again, I dare you! Hungry? You stole all your sister’s nutrients when you were in my womb, and now you want to steal her chocolate?! You make me sick!” My lips moved silently, trying to say, No, that’s not true. It wasn’t like that. But my jaw was locked tight; I couldn’t even open my mouth. Hearing the commotion, my sister walked out of her bedroom. She was wearing a delicate, beautiful little dress and bright, shiny boots. Anyone could see she was a hothouse flower, pampered and protected. Like a porcelain doll. I was so jealous… That’s what I thought to myself. But my sister didn’t even spare me a passing glance. She smiled sweetly and took my mother’s hand. “Mommy, I’m all ready.” My mother’s furious demeanor vanished instantly. She stroked my sister’s hair with absolute adoration. “Okay. My daughter looks so pretty. Come on, Mommy’s taking you out to see the New Year’s fireworks.” With that, my mother took my sister’s little hand and picked her up. Only then did my sister act as if she had just noticed me, gasping in feigned surprise: “Mommy, look! Chloe’s head is bleeding! It looks really bad.” My mother didn’t even turn around. “She’s faking it. Ignore her. Serves her right for trying to steal your chocolate.” 2 Mom… I’m not faking… I wanted so desperately to say it out loud, but the violent dizziness from the blow to my head rendered me mute. My sister stuck her tongue out at me, looking playful and mischievous. “It’s your own fault, Chloe! Why did you try to steal my chocolate? Mommy bought that just for me, and I haven’t even had a piece yet!” I looked at my sister, whose face was a mirror image of my own, feeling a desolate chill wash over my heart. Why? Why did we look exactly the same, yet our lives were worlds apart? I had wanted to ask my mother that question countless times, but I never dared. Now, I didn’t even have the strength to ask. Suddenly, my mother seemed to remember something and looked back at me. My eyes lit up instantly. She must have noticed something was wrong. She must still love me. But before the joy could even fully form in my chest, reality slapped me hard in the face. My mother yanked me up off the floor and violently shoved me into the cramped, windowless storage closet. “Disgusting. You got blood all over the floor!” My head hurt so much, my neck hurt, my whole body hurt… But all I could do was watch helplessly as my mother carried my sister out the front door. And then, she locked the closet door from the outside. I was sealed in total darkness. I blinked, and blood seeped into my eyes. It stung sharply, and liquid kept streaming out, feeling like tears. But I couldn’t even cry out loud anymore. My parents divorced when my sister and I were very young. My dad originally wanted to take me with him, but my mom argued that my sister and I were a unit. She claimed that without me, my sister’s childhood would be incomplete. She insisted that biological sisters needed to stay together. My dad couldn’t fight her on it and eventually had to give up. I was so happy back then. I thought my mom had finally truly seen me. But it was all just a fantasy. Every ounce of suffering in my life came from her. My mom constantly drilled it into my head that because I stole all the nutrients in the womb, my sister was born weak and sickly. She told me I owed my sister. From then on, I gave up every good thing I ever had to my sister. But my sister was like an insatiable black hole. If she was even slightly unhappy, I would either be screamed at by my mom or beaten black and blue. And every time, my sister would flash that harmless, innocent smile and tell me not to make Mom angry. The collar around my neck still sent sporadic jolts of residual electricity through me. I could only lie on the floor, groaning in pain. When did I start wearing this collar? It was on our birthday. My mom had bought a beautiful, expensive cake. It sat quietly on the dining table, and both my sister and I were drooling over it. But I didn’t dare sneak a bite. My sister, however, blatantly walked up and scooped out a massive chunk with her bare hand. She smacked her lips right in front of me, her eyes full of satisfaction. My mouth watered constantly. I wanted a piece so badly. After she finished, she washed her hands and acted like nothing happened. When my mom finished cleaning up in the kitchen and walked out… The first thing she saw was the mangled, half-eaten cake. Her piercing gaze shot straight to me. She didn’t even ask a single question. She just walked into her bedroom, brought out something that looked like a dog collar, and without a word of explanation, locked it around my neck. 3 I stared at her in terror, but I didn’t dare resist. The next second, she hit the activation button, and a brutal shock of electricity tore through my neck. Caught completely off guard, I burst into hysterical sobs. But my mom just slapped me hard across the mouth. “I bought this cake for your sister! And you dare steal it?! Why are you such a glutton?! Have you no shame?!” And my sister just stood behind her the entire time, watching it happen quietly. Not saying a word in my defense. I prayed so hard in that moment that she would tell the truth. So that I wouldn’t have to hurt this much anymore… But she didn’t. She just blinked at me, her eyes wide with feigned innocence. Tears smeared across my face, my voice shaking as I told my mom, “It wasn’t me.” Hearing that only made my mom angrier. She cranked the intensity setting even higher. I thrashed wildly on the floor, convulsing, unable to form a complete sentence. The electricity pulsed for a long time. By the end, I was on the verge of losing consciousness. “You still dare to lie?! If it wasn’t you, who else could it be?! Are you trying to blame your sister?! I didn’t realize you were such a liar! You’re both my children, why are you so rotten?! From now on, you keep this anti-gluttony collar on. If you ever try to steal food again, I’ll shock you to death!” Right before I passed out, all I saw was my mother’s face, contorted with rage. Since that day, I had a collar around my neck. I wore it like a dog for years. But why? Why were we both her children… Yet she loved my sister so much more? My heart ached. I just wanted my mother’s love, too. Every memory from the past few years flashed through my mind. Sensing the creeping approach of death, I scrambled up in a panic. No, I don’t want to die yet. I haven’t even celebrated the New Year with Mom yet. No, I can’t. I used every last ounce of my strength to drag myself to the door. But no matter how hard I pushed or pulled, the locked door wouldn’t budge. By the end, my hands were covered in blood. Several of my fingernails had snapped off, leaving long, bloody streaks across the hard wood of the door. Mom is going to be so mad when she sees this… I collapsed weakly onto the floor. Suddenly, I remembered something. I looked up at the ceiling, at the small device emitting a faint, dark red glow. A tiny spark of hope flared in my chest. I stumbled over to stand directly beneath the security camera and looked up. Speaking into the lens, I said, “Mom, can you see me? I hurt so much… my stomach hurts so badly… I’m so hungry. I really wasn’t lying… I haven’t eaten in days…” “Please, believe me… Chloe didn’t lie to you… I’m sorry, Mom. I’m so tired. Am I going to die? It’s such a shame… I never got to become your favorite, perfect little girl… If there’s a next life, Mom, could you please love me a little bit more?” As I spoke, the tears started falling again. The sheer injustice of it all overshadowed the physical pain. “I really didn’t want to steal my sister’s things. That time on our birthday… I really wasn’t the one who ate the cake… But you didn’t believe me… It must be because I’m usually bad and don’t listen to you. I’m sorry, Mom…” My head grew heavier and heavier, my consciousness slipping away. But the physical pain was slowly fading. Memories of the past flickered through my mind like a movie reel. All those painful moments. My body didn’t seem to hurt anymore. 4 I floated in mid-air, quietly looking down at the lifeless corpse below. So, I was dead? I actually died. I wished I could say a few more words to my mom. I wondered when she would remember to check the camera footage. Would she see it? See my final words. How would she react? Would she feel even a little bit sad that I died? I couldn’t feel the pain anymore. Watching the brilliant fireworks bursting outside the tiny, high window, and hearing the distant, overlapping shouts of “Happy New Year!” from the streets below… I couldn’t help but drift outside. I never expected that regaining my freedom would happen like this. I floated high above the city, watching all the different fireworks—things I had never been allowed to see before. Even I felt a little bit of the holiday spirit. Eventually, the crowds dispersed, and I started to feel a little tired. Suddenly, a thought struck me: I just wandered off. Will Mom be mad when she gets back and realizes I’m not there? Startled by the thought, I immediately floated back. Sure enough, my mom and sister were already home. My sister was cradled in my mom’s arms, laughing joyfully. I reached out to grab my mom’s hand, only to watch my fingers pass right through hers. Right. I’m dead. I can never hold my mom’s hand again. I can never touch her again. At that realization, the tears started falling again. “Mommy, I want sweet and sour ribs!” my sister’s sweet voice rang out. My mom affectionately tapped her nose. “Okay. Mommy will make you whatever you want.” Listening to my sister list off a whole menu of dishes, my mouth actually started to water. But I would never feel hunger again. My mom went to the kitchen to cook, and my sister sat quietly on the sofa, eating the box of chocolates I never even got to touch before I died. Soon, my mom brought the food out to the dining table. “Mommy, shouldn’t we call Chloe?” my sister asked innocently, looking up. I looked at my mom expectantly too. My mom rolled her eyes. “Don’t worry about her. She loves stealing food so much, who knows what kind of feast she sneaked while we were gone.” My heart instantly turned to ice. But I really didn’t steal anything. I didn’t have a single penny to my name. I hadn’t eaten a single bite of food in three days. Hearing that, my sister just smiled innocently and started eating with my mom. After they finished dinner, I still hadn’t made a sound. My mom finally frowned and decided to open the closet door to check. My heart leapt into my throat again. She pulled the door open, her angry gaze landing on me. “You’re old enough to know better, and you’re still sleeping on the floor? Are you waiting for me to coddle you? Keep dreaming!” She spat on me without an ounce of pity. But I didn’t react. I just lay face down on the floor. The blood on my head had dried into a grotesque, dark crust. “You think a little blood is a big deal?! You think leaving it uncleaned will make me feel sorry for you?! Do you think I don’t know you fell on purpose just to put on a show for me?! If you ask me, you’re just being dramatic! You’re a teenager, not a toddler. I have no obligation to humor you!” Listening to her icy words, it felt like someone was taking a sharp knife to the softest part of my heart, slicing it over and over again. Why? Why won’t you just step a little closer and look at me, Mom? If you did, you’d realize I stopped breathing a long time ago. When I still didn’t respond, her anger boiled over. She grabbed a ceramic teapot off the nearby table and hurled it at me. It shattered into pieces against my body. “If you want to play dead, then you can play dead forever! You think you’re so tough now! You don’t even listen when I talk to you. Fine, then you can starve! And to think I was actually going to let you eat something! Ungrateful brat!” With that, she slammed the door shut and locked it again. That was the closest she came to realizing I was dead. I was clearly dead, yet my heart ached so terribly. Even if she did realize I was dead, she probably wouldn’t care, right? After all, she hated me so much. Why was I always such a burden? “Mommy, why isn’t Chloe coming out?” my sister’s innocent voice echoed from outside.

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Chapter 1 During gym class, I crouched on the ground, clutching my chest and gasping for air. Coach Albright kicked me squarely in the back, her face twisted with contempt. “Stop acting like some fragile little snowflake! You’d really fake something like this just to get out of running?” The surrounding students erupted into laughter. They were all watching me, the school’s most pathetic simp, make a fool of myself again. My face was deathly pale. My hand trembled as I pointed toward the pocket holding my emergency nitro pills. But the prom queen got there first. Kennedy crushed the pill bottle beneath her designer sneaker, clinging to Connor’s arm and whining playfully. “Connor, baby, look at her. She’s putting on another show just to get your attention.” Connor stopped dribbling his basketball and stared at me with icy indifference. “Stop embarrassing me. If you don’t finish this 5K, don’t even think about going home.” A violent, agonizing spasm ripped through my heart. My vision began to blur, and I collapsed onto the rubber track. Before my consciousness completely faded, I used the last ounce of my strength to dial Connor’s mother. “Mrs. Sterling… I can’t deliver Connor’s birthday present anymore. I’ll repay your kindness in the next life.” I could hear Mrs. Sterling’s panicked screams through the speaker, but the sound was already fading away. The phone slipped from my fingertips, hitting the track with a sharp crack, shattering the screen. My vision plunged into total darkness. It felt as if a massive, invisible hand had ruthlessly crushed my heart. After the excruciating pain, there was only a deathly silence. But I didn’t disappear. I felt my body become incredibly light, floating up into mid-air. I looked down at myself—curled up on the track, my face a horrifying shade of blue-gray. I was dead. Elara, you are finally free. “Hey! Elara! How much longer are you going to play dead?!” Coach Albright’s shrill voice pierced the noise of the field. Wearing her chunky heels, she marched over to my corpse, raised her foot, and kicked me viciously in the ribs. Once. Twice. “Don’t think playing dead will get you out of this 5K! Let me tell you, even if God Almighty came down here today, you are finishing this run!” My corpse swayed lifelessly with each of her kicks. The surrounding students formed a circle, watching the spectacle like a circus act. No one stepped forward to stop it. Some even whistled. “Coach, Elara’s acting skills deserve an Oscar!” “Seriously. She’s rolling around on the dirty track just to get Connor to look at her. That’s dedication.” Outside the circle, Connor held his basketball, his brows furrowed tightly in absolute disgust. Kennedy clung to his arm, laughing until she shook. Her other foot was still resting on the pile of crushed powder from my pills, grinding it further into the dirt. “Connor, look at her. She’s so obsessed. She’ll even pull this pathetic victim act just to get a second of your time.” Kennedy’s voice was sickeningly sweet, drilling into my ears like a venomous snake. Connor let out a cold scoff and hurled his basketball violently at the ground. The ball bounced, grazing the scalp of my corpse, before crashing into the chain-link fence. “Elara, I’m counting to three.” Connor’s voice was as cold as ice chips. “Three.” “Two.” “One.” The ‘me’ on the ground didn’t move a muscle. Connor’s patience completely evaporated. He marched forward, grabbed the collar of my corpse’s shirt, and hoisted half my body off the ground. “Are you fucking deaf?! I told you to get up!” My head lolled lifelessly to the side. My eyes were wide open, staring blankly at a fixed point in the void. It was a classic death stare. But Connor acted as if he were completely blind. He entirely ignored my ashen complexion and my perfectly still chest. He shook my body violently, with enough force to rattle my bones apart. “Stop faking! You think this is going to make me feel sorry for you? Elara, these pathetic stunts only make me sick!” Floating in the air, I watched this man—the man I had loved for ten years—venting his rage on a lifeless corpse. Feel sorry for me? Connor, you really won’t. Because dead people don’t need your pity. Chapter 2 “Connor, babe, don’t be mad. She’s not worth getting worked up over.” Kennedy leaned in, feigning comfort while pouring gasoline on the fire. She reached out a manicured finger and poked my freezing hand in disgust. “Ew, why is her hand so cold? Elara, did you go lay in a meat freezer before class just to sell the act? That’s trying way too hard.” The crowd erupted into roaring laughter. “Hahaha, a meat freezer? Kennedy, you’re hilarious!” “She’s taking the simp lifestyle to a whole new level.” Coach Albright crossed her arms, looking impatiently at her watch. “Alright, that’s enough. Connor, just drop her on the side so we can finish class. Once everyone leaves, she’ll get bored and get up on her own.” Connor let go of my collar with a look of pure revulsion. Thud. The back of my head slammed heavily against the concrete edge of the track. If I were alive, a hit like that would have made me cry from the pain. But now, the shell on the ground was just a lump of meat incapable of feeling. Connor pulled a wet wipe from his pocket, scrubbing the fingers that had touched me one by one, as if he had touched something diseased. “Disgusting.” He balled up the dirty wipe and casually tossed it at my face. The white paper landed squarely, covering my unblinking left eye. “Let’s keep playing.” Connor turned and walked away without a single backward glance. Kennedy followed him smugly. Before she left, she deliberately kicked a spray of sand toward my open mouth. “Eat some dirt. Maybe it’ll wake you up.” The gym field returned to its chaotic noise. The sound of bouncing basketballs, boys cheering, and girls screaming filled the air. Only in the corner of the track lay a solitary, abandoned corpse. The sun beat down mercilessly. I watched my skin slowly lose its remaining luster. Lividity began to quietly pool in the hidden crevices of my body. I just floated above Connor’s head, watching him break a sweat on the court. He sank a three-pointer, and Kennedy jumped up excitedly to hand him a bottle of water. Connor took it, tilting his head back to chug it, his Adam’s apple bobbing. “Hey, Connor… Elara is still laying there. You don’t think something actually happened, do you?” Finally, a boy couldn’t help but glance in my direction and asked nervously. Connor paused wiping his sweat, then sneered. “Happened? Bad weeds never die. Someone like her has a life harder than a cockroach.” Kennedy chimed in, “Exactly! Last time she claimed her stomach hurt, but then turned around and went to eat ghost pepper wings. This is definitely fake too. She just wants Connor to carry her to the nurse’s office. Anyone can see through her little tricks.” The boy scratched his head and didn’t dare say another word. Floating in mid-air, I couldn’t help but laugh. Last time my stomach hurt? That time, my stomach was actually bleeding internally. I was rolling on the floor in agony. It was Kennedy who had forced me to go eat blazing hot wings, claiming that if I didn’t, I was disrespecting her and Connor’s friend group. Desperate not to look pathetic in front of Connor, I forced myself to go. I ended up in the emergency room right after. And what was Connor doing then? He was playing video games with Kennedy. He never even answered my calls. And now, they were using that as proof that I was a liar. How incredibly ironic. Chapter 3 The bell finally rang. Students walked toward the cafeteria in groups of twos and threes. As they passed me, they pointed and whispered. “Still sleeping? She’s committed to the bit.” “Hey, Elara, lunchtime! They’re serving pizza today!” Someone purposely yelled right by my ear, trying to scare me awake. But I remained perfectly still. The boy who yelled flinched when he saw my deathly gray face and backed away. “Holy shit… why does her face look like that?” “She probably put on corpse makeup, right?” Coach Albright walked over, tucking her clipboard under her arm. Seeing me still on the ground, she flared up again. “Elara! Is this ever going to end?! Get up right now!” She raised her foot, this time aiming the pointed toe of her stiletto directly at my stomach. Just then, the frantic wail of an ambulance siren pierced the campus air, growing louder by the second. Immediately behind it, a black Maybach tore through the school gates like a feral beast, speeding straight onto the gym field. The tires shrieked against the pavement, coming to an abrupt halt right next to the track. The door flew open, and Connor’s mother stumbled out. Her perfectly maintained face was twisted in horror and soaked in tears. Her hair was a mess. She looked nothing like her usual elegant, wealthy self. “Elara! Elara!” Mrs. Sterling’s agonizing scream froze everyone in their tracks. Connor, who had been about to leave, stopped and frowned. “Mom? What are you doing here? Why did you drive onto the field?” He walked over, irritated, trying to block her path. “Did Elara complain to you again? She just wants you to yell at me, don’t believe her—” Smack! A resounding slap struck Connor’s face. Connor was stunned. He covered his cheek, looking at his mother in absolute disbelief. “Mom, you hit me?” Mrs. Sterling ignored him completely. She threw herself onto my body like a madwoman, her trembling fingers reaching to check my breathing. A few seconds later, she let out a soul-tearing shriek. “AHHHHH!!!” The sound was so haunting and visceral it made everyone’s scalp tingle. The paramedics rushed out of the ambulance with their trauma kits. They quickly pulled Mrs. Sterling back and began examining me. Connor stood frozen, watching his mother collapse onto the ground, sobbing hysterically. A faint sliver of unease crept into his chest. But he quickly shoved it down. “Mom, why are you playing along with her act? We’re in public, aren’t you embarrassed?” Connor gritted his teeth, walking over to pull his mother up. “Elara, that is enough! You know my mom has a bad heart. Are you trying to scare her to death?!” He yelled impatiently at me through the wall of paramedics. Kennedy stepped up beside him, muttering, “Mrs. Sterling spoils Elara way too much. She actually brought a whole medical team to help her fake this…” Chapter 4 The paramedics stopped what they were doing. An older medic pulled his stethoscope off, checked his watch, and shook his head with a heavy tone. “Pupils are dilated and fixed. No spontaneous respiration. Heart has been stopped for over thirty minutes.” He stood up and gave Mrs. Sterling a slight, respectful nod. “Ma’am, I am so sorry for your loss. The patient… is gone.” Boom. Those words struck the field like a thunderbolt. The noisy crowd instantly fell into a deathly silence. Everyone’s jaws dropped. Their eyes widened as if they had just heard a fairy tale. Connor’s expression froze. That look of annoyance was still pinned to his mouth, making him look utterly ridiculous. “What did you say?” Connor stared at the paramedic as if he had just heard a joke. “Gone? Gone where? Did she go home?” The medic looked at him with deep pity and repeated, “The patient is deceased. Preliminary assessment is sudden cardiac death, likely triggered by acute heart failure from intense physical exertion.” “Bullshit!” Connor suddenly exploded, shoving the medic aside and lunging at me. “Quacks! You’re all actors Elara paid off, aren’t you?! How much? How much did she pay you? I’ll double it!” He dropped to his knees, grabbed my shoulders, and shook me frantically. “Elara! Get up! Stop pretending! This isn’t funny!” “Didn’t you say you were going to give me a birthday present? Where is it? Get up and give it to me!” “Didn’t you say you’d repay my mom in the next life? This life isn’t over yet! Who gave you permission to move on to the next one?!” His voice went from a roar to a desperate scream, carrying a faint, undeniable tremble. My body flopped wildly in his grip like a broken doll. Yet, despite the violent shaking, I didn’t give him a single response. I didn’t timidly pull at his shirt and apologize like I used to. I didn’t look up with red eyes and say, “I’m sorry, Connor.” There was nothing. Only a dead, icy stillness. Connor’s hands touched my skin. It was no longer warm and soft. It was rigid, radiating a biting, bone-deep cold. That coldness seeped through his fingertips, traveling up his veins, freezing his very heart. He finally realized what was happening. With a trembling hand, he slowly reached for the carotid artery on my neck. It was completely silent. No pulse. Not a single beat. Connor’s pupils violently contracted. His breathing became erratic and rapid. He snapped his head up, his gaze falling on the crumpled wet wipe he had carelessly tossed aside. Beneath that wipe, my unclosed eye was staring blankly, fixedly, right at him. There was no love in that gaze. No grievance. Only an endless, empty void. As if mocking his stupidity. As if looking at a complete stranger. A massive, suffocating wave of terror drowned him. “No… impossible…” Connor’s voice broke horribly. He let go of me as if he’d been electrocuted, collapsing backward, scrambling away on his hands and knees. “She’s faking… she has to be faking…” He whipped his head around, locking onto Kennedy like a drowning man grabbing a lifeline. “Kennedy, say something! She’s faking, right?! She just moved a second ago, right?!” Kennedy was completely paralyzed with fear. Her face was as white as paper, her lips trembling so hard she couldn’t form a word. “I… I don’t know… I didn’t see anything…” Mrs. Sterling pushed herself off the ground. Like an enraged lioness, she charged at Connor. In her hand, she tightly gripped my shattered cell phone. “Connor! You animal! You killed her! You forced Elara to her death!” Mrs. Sterling smashed the phone violently into Connor’s face. The screen flickered to life. It was an unsent voice memo. With trembling fingers, Mrs. Sterling pressed play. It was my voice. Weak, agonizing, yet final. “Connor… if I die… will you be sad… even a little?” The recording cut off abruptly. Connor stared blankly at the phone on the ground. His face burned from the impact, but it was nothing compared to the agony ripping his soul apart. Dead? The Elara who had followed him around for ten years, the one he couldn’t chase away no matter how hard he pushed, the one he couldn’t break no matter how much he cursed her… She was really dead?

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Arthur Sterling had a virgin complex. When he sent his newest kept woman to me for a hymenoplasty yet again, the girl gloated, “I heard you guys have been married for five years and still haven’t slept together?” “We’ve only known each other for ten days, and he’s practically dying of pleasure on top of me. He’d rather pay for me to get a repair surgery than touch you.” I didn’t lose my temper. I just stuck to the routine, professionally asking about her medical history. I sat there calmly, listening to her recount their bedroom escapades and how many positions they had tried. What she didn’t know was that before her, I had performed ninety-nine of these surgeries for Arthur Sterling’s various little canaries. I used to get furious. I used to abandon all my dignity, crying and screaming at Arthur. All it ever got me was his contemptuous laugh. “Be a good girl, Stella. Do you really think your father could afford to let you divorce me?” “Just sit back and enjoy being the wealthy Mrs. Sterling. When I’ve had my fun, I’ll naturally come home.” As the girl was wheeled into the operating room, Arthur stopped me. “Make it look pretty. She cares about aesthetics.” When I didn’t reply, he chuckled lightly and slipped a premium credit card into the pocket of my scrubs. “Your compensation.” This time, I wasn’t enraged. I simply took the card and tucked it away securely. He had forgotten. The time stipulated in our prenuptial agreement was finally up. I never had to wait for a man who refused to come home ever again. 1 After the surgery, I dialed a number I hadn’t called in a very long time. “Grandpa, I saw the flight itinerary. Thank you.” “Stella, I’m so happy you’re finally coming back.” Just as the call disconnected, Arthur appeared behind me out of nowhere. “Who were you on the phone with?” I put my phone away, lowered my eyes, and gave a dismissive answer: “Just a telemarketer.” Arthur was already looking down at his own phone. He just gave a distracted “Oh,” clearly not caring. Then, he held his phone up to my face. “What do you think of this bracelet?” It was a bracelet I had circled with a pen while flipping through a fashion magazine a while back. I never expected Arthur to actually remember. For a brief second, I felt a flicker of emotion. Then he smiled and said, “Lily will love this, don’t you think?” I froze, then nodded numbly. “It’s beautiful. She’ll love it.” Perhaps because I was unusually calm this time, Arthur surprisingly offered to drive me home from work. “Since Lily is still asleep, I’ll take you home first.” We had been married for five years. Aside from the wedding car, this was the first time I was ever riding in his car. I casually reached to adjust the passenger seat, but Arthur stopped my hand. “Stella, sit in the back.” “Lily has quite the temper. If she finds out someone sat in her seat, she’ll throw a fit.” He had a look of absolute indulgence on his face as he said it. I was stunned for a moment, then cleanly moved to the back seat. A fuzzy pink blanket was draped carelessly over the sleek black leather seat, looking somewhat jarring against his usual aesthetic. It still carried the lingering scent of Lily’s perfume. Arthur caught my look in the rearview mirror and chuckled. “She’s young. She likes all that pink, girly stuff.” I lowered my eyes, remembering that when I married him, I was that exact same age. On our wedding night, he saw my pink silk nightgown and gave a careless, dismissive laugh. “Stella, I hate pink.” “You’re not my type either. Not touching you is my way of being responsible.” When he handed me the prenuptial agreement, he still wore that same gentle facade. “Sign it. It’s just a business marriage. We go our separate ways in five years.” “But don’t worry, I’ll make sure you enjoy all the prestige of being Mrs. Sterling.” In that single moment, my ten-year-long, secret teenage crush was utterly annihilated. Along with all my hopes for our marriage and every romantic fantasy I held for our wedding night. I never wore pink again. I forced my eyes away from the blanket and couldn’t help but sneeze. Almost by reflex, Arthur handed me a tissue, his voice as gentle as always. “I’ll turn up the heat.” Only then did I notice the tissue box was Disney-themed. Even though we had a sexless marriage for five years, Arthur and I had shared a few bland but cozy moments. When we first got married, I was young, and Arthur was willing to accommodate me in many ways. The only exception was that he refused to go to Disneyland with me. No matter how much I begged or acted cute, he absolutely wouldn’t go. He said he was afraid his business partners would laugh at him. It turns out, he was perfectly capable of breaking his own rules. He just wasn’t willing to break them for me. When we got home, Arthur headed straight for the kitchen. I was a bit taken aback. After a moment of hesitation, I spoke up, “What do you want to eat? I’ll make it.” Arthur shook his head, staring intently at a video tutorial on his phone. “No need. I promised Lily I’d personally make her chicken soup.” I stopped dead in my tracks. The great CEO Sterling, a notorious germaphobe who had never touched a cooking utensil in his life, was now personally cooking for Lily. For some reason, the corners of my eyes grew damp. I remembered a time when I had a dangerously high fever. I begged Arthur to pour me a glass of water. He frowned in sudden annoyance. “I hate the smell of grease in the kitchen. Just wait, I’ll call the butler to get it for you.” But then he got busy and completely forgot. By the time the butler found me, my fever was so high I had almost suffered brain damage. Watching him bustling around the kitchen, the corners of his mouth turned up in a smile, I couldn’t bear to look anymore. I turned and went upstairs. I packed my bags and fell into a deep sleep, only to be shaken awake in the middle of the night. 2 Arthur looked completely disheveled as he woke me up. “Stella, I can’t figure this out. You have to teach me.” He dragged me downstairs. Looking at the several ruined pots of chicken soup, my already numb heart flared with a sharp, prickling pain. Arthur was never a patient man. When he went with me to try on wedding dresses, he had lost his patience by the second dress and used a work excuse to leave. Yet now, he had ruined several pots of soup for Lily without giving up. With practiced ease, I prepped the ingredients and started the stove. Arthur watched the heat levels carefully. It was a rare moment of tranquility between us that we hadn’t shared in a long time. After pouring the soup into a thermos, Arthur pressed a kiss to my forehead. “Stella, thank god I have you.” With that, he rushed out the door. His mind was entirely on Lily at the hospital, completely ignoring the burn on my finger from the hot pot. After treating my burn, I saw that Lily had updated her Instagram. “Chicken soup made personally by my sweet hubby.” Arthur, who never posted or commented on social media, broke his own rule to leave a passionate kissing emoji in her comments section. My finger hovered over the screen for a few seconds, but I ultimately didn’t hit ‘like’. When I backed out of the app, a message popped up. “Where does hubby want to do it next time?” The message was immediately unsent, followed by a voice memo from Lily. “Oh my gosh, I’m so sorry, sister! I meant to send that to Arthur, I can’t believe I sent it to the wrong person. You didn’t see that, did you?” Before I could reply, she continued, “Your profile pictures are so similar, I got totally confused. I’ll tell him to change his, so I don’t make this mistake again.” I didn’t reply, nor did I think Arthur would actually change his profile picture. That picture was taken by his late mother. I had once thrown a tantrum, demanding we use matching couple profile pictures, and he had sternly refused. He even called me childish. Out of spite, I found a picture that looked similar to his and set it as my own, treating it as a matching set. He never brought it up, so I assumed he didn’t mind. But when I refreshed my feed later, I saw that Arthur’s profile picture had changed to a cartoon character, perfectly matching Lily’s. My fingers trembled slightly as I refreshed the page again and again, confirming it. Then I let out a self-deprecating laugh. Five years couldn’t compete with ten days. Fireworks erupted over the downtown skyline, and Lily updated her Instagram again. She was being held in Arthur’s arms on a rooftop, the sky behind them ablaze with brilliant fireworks. “Happy ten days.” I froze, instinctively rubbing the numbers tattooed on my wrist. It was the exact same day. Today was my and Arthur’s fifth wedding anniversary. The first canary Arthur ever kept was a rebellious teenager covered in tattoos. That was the first time I lost all my composure and threw a massive fit. It was the first time I cried and screamed at Arthur, demanding he kick her out. He just watched me lose my mind with quiet detachment, then gently promised it was just an act for appearances and that she would never threaten my position. But later that night, he still vanished from my side to go keep another woman company. I copied that girl and got a tattoo, inking our wedding anniversary on my wrist, desperately hoping it would make him love me. When he saw it, he just laughed. “Stella, get that lasered off. It’s ugly.” I fell asleep lost in those memories, plagued by nightmares. I was finally jolted awake by the frantic ringing of my phone. It wasn’t even fully light outside yet. The hospital director’s voice was urgent. “Dr. Hayes, did you perform Lily Lin’s hymenoplasty?” “There’s a massive complication. Get to the hospital immediately.” 3 When I rushed into the hospital, the first thing I heard was Lily screaming. When she saw me, she pointed at me hysterically, cursing, “Did you do this to me?!” “You’re jealous of me! You’re jealous that Arthur would rather touch me than you, so you intentionally ruined me down there!” Crying beautifully, she clung to Arthur’s arm. “Arthur, I’m bleeding so much, it hurts so bad.” Arthur looked at me, his face dark and brooding. “Stella, apologize to Lily.” I picked up my medical instruments and met his gaze, my voice steady: “Shouldn’t I at least be allowed to examine her first to see if I’m actually the cause of this complication?” Lily yanked herself backward violently. “No! I don’t want this quack touching me!” “I’m so scared I won’t be able to be with Arthur anymore.” Arthur pulled her into his arms, comforting her with incredible tenderness. The director had no choice but to bring in another doctor—Dr. Carter, a colleague who had always held a grudge against me. Half an hour later, the surgery was over. Dr. Carter brought out a blood-soaked piece of gauze, about the size of a fingernail. Arthur frowned deeply at me. “You did this on purpose?” I looked at Dr. Carter in sheer disbelief. “That’s impossible. I have never made a mistake on a minor procedure like this.” Dr. Carter shrugged with feigned innocence. “Well, that doesn’t rule out the possibility that the esteemed Dr. Hayes was using her position to settle a personal vendetta, does it?” He looked at Arthur. “After all, the relationship between the patient and the doctor isn’t exactly amicable.” Very quickly, a hospital-wide notice went out, and I was stripped of my position and fired. I knew it was Arthur’s doing. He was avenging Lily. When I was kicked out of the hospital, everyone looked at me with disgust. Someone posted the video of Lily cursing me out online. Almost instantly, former patients tracked me down. They slapped me across the face, screaming, “You quack! No wonder my boyfriend still found out even after the surgery! It’s because your skills are garbage!” As I was being beaten by the mob, Arthur walked by with Lily. He covered her eyes. “Don’t look, it’s bad luck.” He then coldly instructed his bodyguards, “Bring her up later.” My face was bruised and bleeding, and I had urine thrown on me. When the bodyguards dragged my pathetic, battered form into Lily’s hospital room, Arthur was gently coaxing her to drink water. “Be a good girl, I blew on it so it’s not too hot. Drink up.” I couldn’t stop the tears from falling. This was a scene I had desperately hoped for, for five long years, yet never received. Lily had gotten it so effortlessly in just ten days. Seeing me, Lily became agitated and buried her face in Arthur’s waist. “Arthur, what is she doing here? Is she here to hurt me again?” “My incision still hurts so much, Arthur, I’m scared!” Arthur gently patted her back, glaring at me with dark, vicious eyes. “Stella, I told you, as long as you didn’t cause trouble, I’d gladly let you sit comfortably in your position as Mrs. Sterling.” “But you’ve been a very bad girl.” “Lily is different from those other women. Touching her is crossing my absolute bottom line.” He looked at Lily, his voice softening instantly. “Don’t be afraid, Lily. I brought her here so you could take out your anger on her.” A flash of triumph crossed Lily’s eyes, but her voice remained timid. “Really? I can punish her however I want?” “She’s your wife, won’t you feel bad?” Arthur smiled and kissed the corner of Lily’s mouth. “No one is more important than you.” Lily looked at me provocatively. “Then I want her to feel the exact same pain I did!” Arthur agreed without a second thought: “Done.” He casually ordered the bodyguards, “Get a doctor.” I stared at the heartless man in front of me in utter disbelief. “Arthur, I am your wife!” I struggled violently, but I was pinned firmly to the floor. Arthur’s voice floated over, light and airy. “Stella, when you make a mistake, you have to be punished. Don’t you agree?” I was dragged into an operating room. After an examination, a colleague went to find Arthur, looking extremely awkward. “Mr. Sterling, your wife… she’s still a virgin.” 4 “Isn’t this… a bit too cruel to do to her?” The anesthesia was injected into my veins. I gasped lightly, calling out Arthur’s name. “Arthur, please don’t do this to me. I’m begging you.” The man paused, about to speak, but was distracted by Lily’s sudden, agonizing screams of pain. Lily broke down, rushing to the window. “Arthur, I’m bleeding again! Dr. Carter said I have an infection and I’ll never be able to have your children!” “I might as well just die!” Arthur panicked. “Lily, don’t do anything stupid!” He shot a murderous glare at the doctor. “She’s a virgin? Then fix that right now!” “Every ounce of pain Lily suffered, I want her to pay back ten times, a hundred times over!” He pointed randomly at one of his bodyguards. “You! Do it!” I never imagined that the operating table I was once so proud of would become my own personal hell. The man thrust into me over and over again, completely ignoring my screams and my begging. Until blood pooled beneath me, and I was left tossed on the operating table like a dirty, ruined rag. When Dr. Carter walked in, he let out a sleazy, repulsive laugh. “Dr. Hayes, when you publicly humiliated me for lacking medical ethics, did you ever imagine this day would come?” “Tsk tsk, still a virgin, huh? The grand, untouchable wife of the Sterling Group CEO, taken by a lowly bodyguard.” “Your husband wouldn’t even touch you, I don’t know what you were always acting so arrogant about.” The anesthesia had long since worn off. He shoved a jagged, spiked piece of metal deep inside me, then stitched me up. He leaned in close to my ear and whispered smugly, “That piece of gauze from earlier? Miss Lily gave that to me.” I was numb with pain, completely incapable of making a sound. But Arthur wasn’t done with me yet. He had me thrown into a pitch-black, windowless room. “Stella, your father is asking me for another two hundred million dollar investment.” “Since you refuse to behave, I really can’t feel confident doing business with the Hayes family.” “Spend some time reflecting on your actions. Once you’ve figured it out, go apologize to Lily, and I’ll wire the money to your family’s account.” I dragged myself to the door, pounding on it with everything I had. “Arthur, it’s too dark in here! Let me out!” He knew. He knew I had severe claustrophobia. Once, when I was trapped in an elevator, he held me and comforted me for six straight hours. He knew exactly how terrified I was, yet he deliberately chose this method to punish me. I pounded on the door hysterically, only to realize the air conditioning in the room had been dropped to below freezing. It was snowing outside, a prolonged cold snap. I was going to go into shock very quickly. Lily’s crisp voice drifted in from outside. “Arthur, do you think she’ll be cold in there?” “Let me turn up the heat for her.” Arthur kissed the corner of Lily’s mouth affectionately. “Lily, you’re so kind-hearted. How about hubby rewards you with a vacation?” My fingernails scraped desperately against the wooden door, leaving long, bloody streaks. The temperature kept dropping, and my vision began to go black. From not far away, the continuous, unmistakable sounds of their lovemaking echoed through the walls, piercing my heart like a thousand arrows, causing me to violently cough up a mouthful of blood. I gritted my teeth, my eyes bloodshot. “Arthur Sterling, I will never! Never forgive you!” As my consciousness faded, I heard a creak as someone walked into the room… A month later, a blood-soaked figure was thrown into Arthur and Lily’s hotel room. Arthur recognized his own bodyguard. The bodyguard, trembling violently, held out two divorce certificates. “B-boss, save me! I violated the Madam, and she’s trying to kill me!” Arthur shot up from the bed, his eyes blazing red, and grabbed the bodyguard by the throat. “I told you to put on an act! You actually dared to touch her?!” At the exact same moment, his assistant rushed into the room. “Boss, we have a massive problem. The company is in crisis…”

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I rarely go back to my hometown, so when I did, my mom was thrilled. She cooked up a storm, and all our relatives and family friends came over for a big dinner. That evening, with two tables full of people eating and chatting loudly, I suddenly got a call from my husband’s executive assistant. I got up and walked to a quieter corner. I answered the phone, but before I could even say “hello,” a cold, mocking laugh came through the receiver. “Chloe Carter, your mother is a shameless, pathetic old hag!” Hearing this, my brow furrowed tightly. My voice went ice cold. “Are you out of your mind? What did my mother ever do to you?” As far as I knew, my mother and this assistant had never even met. There was absolutely no reason for them to have any bad blood. “Hmph!” My husband’s assistant let out a heavy, disdainful snort. “Mr. Sterling went overseas to bring his mother back home for the holidays. He specifically ordered me to stay at the house and plan a massive welcome party for her. But your mother showed up and started making a massive scene, claiming Mr. Sterling is her son-in-law, and that the new mansion was bought specifically for her.” “I’ve seen shameless people before, but I have never seen anyone as thick-skinned and pathetic as your mother.” “I just gave her a very severe lesson.” “You better come pick her up right now.” “Otherwise, if she dies here, don’t blame me!” Before I could process what she was saying, the assistant hung up and immediately sent me a photo. The person in the picture was covered in blood, their face completely unrecognizable. I looked up in confusion at my mother, who was currently sitting at the dining table, laughing and drinking wine with my aunts and uncles. … The next second. The assistant sent several consecutive voice memos. “Mr. Sterling is flying back with his mother tomorrow.” “If you don’t want to piss off Mr. Sterling and your mother-in-law…” “I suggest you get your ass over here and take her away immediately.” “Oh, by the way, she looks like she might be dying.” “If you don’t hurry, it’ll be too late.” After listening to the voice memos, I typed back a single sentence: “You are actually psychotic.” After that, I ignored the crazy woman completely. Ever since she started working for him, Liam Sterling had been finding endless excuses to not come home at night. When I married him, I knew he wouldn’t exactly be a saint. After all, he was a spoiled trust-fund kid. Add to that a decent head for business and an incredibly handsome face, and it was guaranteed there would be a swarm of desperate women constantly buzzing around him. As long as he didn’t shatter the illusion of our marriage… And as long as he didn’t bring those homewreckers into our actual house… I always turned a blind eye. I just treated it as him playing around. As long as he knew where home was when he was done playing, I let it go. But ever since this new assistant appeared… He had been increasingly ignoring the unspoken boundaries of our arrangement. My tolerance for him… Was rapidly approaching its breaking point. “Sweetheart, who was on the phone?” “Was it Liam?” I had just sat back down at the table when my mom put her wine glass down and asked. I didn’t want to tell her that the assistant was actively trying to replace me. She had spent half her life worrying about me. I didn’t want her to spend her golden years stressing over my marriage. This was a minor issue; I could handle it myself. So, I nodded and said, “Yeah.” “He works so hard. He’s so busy, and he still has to fly overseas to pick up your mother-in-law.” “If you don’t have anything going on, don’t keep running back here to visit me. Go help him out.” “I have your brother here, and all these relatives.” “Mom is perfectly fine, okay?” I just hummed in agreement. Right at that moment, my phone pinged with a dozen rapid-fire notifications. I assumed it was that homewrecker harassing me again. But it turned out to be messages from the private investigator I had hired. He sent exactly nine photos. There were three different women in them. But seven of the photos were incredibly explicit shots of Liam and his executive assistant, Mia. One of them was undeniably graphic. The two of them were naked, tangled together in a hotel bed. Just based on these photos alone… I had enough evidence to sue Liam for at-fault divorce and adultery. But I didn’t plan on doing that just yet. “Miss Carter, this is all we’ve found so far.” “Based on the leads we’re currently pursuing…” “The number of women involved with your husband…” “Is far more than just these three.” “Do you want us to keep digging?” I transferred two thousand dollars to his account. “No need.” “Understood. Thank you, Miss Carter. Let me know if you need anything else.” I saved the photos to a secure folder. Then, I casually went back to eating dinner with my family, acting as if nothing had happened. That night. I called Liam. “Hello? What do you want?” Hearing his intensely impatient tone… I felt a brief moment of disorientation. When we first got together, he was a true gentleman—soft, gentle, and always incredibly patient with me. Once, when I had terrible cramps, he literally dropped a multi-million dollar pitch meeting and rushed home to take care of me. He personally cooked me ginger tea and brown sugar eggs. While he fed me, he made me a promise. “No matter what happens in the future…” “I will always be by your side.” Back then, I was so moved I cried hot, grateful tears. I thought I had found my soulmate. But men, it seems, can never escape the allure of something new. Even if he truly loved me once… Once the novelty faded… His mind would inevitably wander to other women. “Speak!” Hearing Liam’s sharp voice… My mind snapped back to reality. “You’re not back yet?” “My flight is tomorrow night.” “Did you pick up your mom?” “I haven’t been able to reach her. I already sent people to look for her.” My heart skipped a heavy beat. His assistant had called to tell me she had just given my mother a “severe lesson.” But my mother was sitting perfectly fine in my childhood home. So the person she beat up… Could it be the mother-in-law who had lived in Europe for years? “Um… my mom was assaulted by Mia. Did you know…” Before I could finish my sentence. Liam let out a cold snort, his tone dripping with extreme annoyance. “I knew you were calling me about this.” “You already know?” I paused, stunned. “Yeah, Mia just told me everything.” “And… what do you think?” “What am I supposed to think? The only person to blame is your mother for lacking basic social awareness. That was the welcome party I ordered Mia to set up for my mother.” “Why the hell did your mom go there to cause trouble?” “Your mother deserved to get hit!” Hearing Liam’s response… I was so shocked I couldn’t speak. He genuinely thought it was my mother. But I desperately wanted to tell him… The person that homewrecker had practically beaten to death… Was likely his mother! But before I could even open my mouth. Liam continued, “It’s perfectly normal for Mia to teach your mother a lesson. It’ll stop her from forgetting her place.” Hearing those words, the rage in my chest instantly ignited into a blazing inferno. “Liam Sterling, what exactly do you mean by that?” “What do you mean my mother needs to ‘remember her place’?” “We are legally married.” “Isn’t my mother supposed to be your mother too?” Liam completely ignored my fury. He replied in a deadly serious tone, “I distinctly remember telling you when we got married: your mother is your mother, and my mother is my mother. Do not confuse the two.” “Didn’t I specifically tell you that your mother is just some uneducated country bumpkin, and she shouldn’t come into the city unless it’s absolutely necessary?” “And she definitely shouldn’t come to our house looking for you! If my social circle finds out my wife’s mother is a dirt-poor farmer…” “Where am I supposed to put my face?!” I couldn’t believe my ears. I couldn’t believe those words were actually coming out of his mouth. “Before we even got married, you knew perfectly well that my family was from a rural farm town.” “If you were so disgusted by it, why did you insist on marrying me?!” Faced with my furious interrogation… Liam replied with chilling indifference: “Just assume I suffered a momentary lapse in judgment and made the biggest, most regrettable mistake of my entire life.” “You…” I was shaking violently with rage. His phrase, ‘most regrettable mistake’… Completely shattered the very last sliver of hope I held for him. I used to think that once he got bored of playing with Mia… He would kick that homewrecker to the curb. And come crawling back to me like a good husband. It turns out, that was nothing more than my own pathetic, delusional wishful thinking. He hadn’t loved me for a very long time. All he had left for me was exhaustion, disgust, and profound impatience! “Alright, I’m incredibly busy over here.” “If you have something else to complain about, wait until I get back.” “Also, we are flying back tomorrow night.” “You better prepare everything perfectly in advance. Do not disappoint my mother.” I opened my mouth to speak. But he didn’t give me the chance. Listening to the dead dial tone echoing in my ear… My eyes grew colder and colder. My constant retreating, my refusal to fight back… Didn’t earn his guilt or make him cherish me. It only made him push my boundaries further, fueling his deep-seated disgust. Fine then. In that case… I am going to keep my eyes wide open and eagerly anticipate the look on his face when he returns to the States and discovers that his own mother was beaten half to death by Mia. The next day. After saying goodbye to my family, I drove myself back to the massive new estate Liam had recently purchased. As soon as I walked through the gates, I saw the entire property decorated like it was a wedding venue. There were balloon arches and extravagant floral arrangements everywhere. A maid, who was busy trimming the hedges, saw me. She immediately dropped her shears and sprinted over. “Mrs. Sterling! You’re finally back.” “Something… something terrible happened at the house.” “You need to come see this right now.” Seeing how panicked the maid was… I already had a very good idea of what had happened. “Take me to it.” “Okay.” The maid led me through the expansive front courtyard, making a beeline straight for the backyard pool area. Along the way. The maid whispered the details to me. She said that when “my mother” arrived at the estate yesterday… Mia had immediately adopted the arrogant posture of the lady of the house. Not only did she forcefully try to kick “my mother” out… She actually got physically violent with her. I raised an eyebrow: “Is it serious?” “Mrs. Sterling, it is extremely serious!” “She… she might not make it.” When the maid said this, she stole a quick, nervous glance at me. Seeing that I looked slightly curious, but not completely devastated or shocked… She muttered to herself in confusion. Soon enough. We arrived at the pool area. I saw Mia, wearing a skintight, high-slit silk dress that perfectly accentuated her figure, barking orders at the maids, perfecting the final details of the welcome party. There were high-end commercial grills, private chefs, and absurdly expensive ingredients everywhere. When Mia saw me… She immediately swaggered over. “Chloe Carter, you finally decided to show your face?” Seeing the smug, triumphant smirk on Mia’s lips… I was laughing hysterically on the inside. “As a daughter, you are truly a disgrace.” “I called you yesterday to warn you.” “I told you to hurry up and take your pathetic mother away.” “But you insisted on dragging your feet until now.” “Whatever the consequences are, you will bear them yourself.” I frowned slightly and asked, “Where is she?” “Over there.” Mia pointed toward a long, heavy black plastic bag lying near the edge of the pool. I froze. When I first walked back here, I had seen it from a distance. But I assumed it was just a heavy-duty trash bag from the landscaping crew. But looking at it now, the shape was far too distinct. “What is that?” “A body bag.” “What?!” I stared at her in genuine shock. “A… a body bag?” “She’s dead?” Mia gave a completely indifferent shrug and let out a cold, mocking laugh. “I called you yesterday to warn you. It’s your own fault you didn’t rush back in time.” “Besides, how was I supposed to know your mother was so frail and pathetic?”

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Chapter 1 On our fifth wedding anniversary, I brought out the plum wine my husband and I had brewed together on our wedding night. We had originally agreed to finally open the jar today, but I discovered that half of it was inexplicably missing. I texted Ethan Davis to ask about it. He replied quickly: [Honey, the last time you went out, I missed you so much I just had to sneak a little taste.] I smiled, affectionately teasing him for having no self-control. But when I opened my Instagram feed, I saw an update from his new intern assistant. [Thanks to my boyfriend for the treat. Five-year aged plum wine really does have a unique flavor.] … The accompanying photo showed a corner of her boyfriend’s suit jacket. The cufflink visible in the shot was the exact one I had given Ethan for his birthday last year. My fingertips turned ice-cold as I quickly scrolled through her profile. Her feed was full of subtle, humble-brag posts about her relationship, and several mutual friends had commented: [Not bad, Sydney’s boyfriend! He brewed this plum wine himself?] [When are you going to bring this boyfriend out for us to meet? You’re hiding him too well!] Sydney Miller replied with a shy emoji: [He brewed it with his own hands. It’s the only jar like it in the world.] [Just wait a little longer. We’ll give everyone a surprise when the time comes.] Scrolling further down, I found a post Sydney made yesterday. In the center was a massive bouquet of Ecuadorian roses, with a card that read, “To the most special you.” I recognized the handwriting. It was Ethan’s. Yesterday was my birthday. I had eagerly prepared a romantic candlelit dinner, but I waited all night and he never showed up. Disheartened, I had dumped the cold steak into the trash. He came home late that night, hugging me and acting sweet. “I’m so sorry, honey. I was so busy today I completely forgot. We’re an old married couple now, we don’t need to fuss over these formalities.” I wanted to be close to him, but he gently pushed me away. “Honey, I’m exhausted. Let’s do it next time.” It turns out he didn’t forget; he just saved all his romance for someone else. My phone suddenly buzzed with a new notification. Sydney had updated her story. The photo showed two hands tightly intertwined. [The new toys arrived, perfect timing to test them out tonight~] Mutual friends immediately started teasing her, leaving a string of suggestive emojis in the comments. My stomach churned, and I felt so sick I almost threw up. Right then, Ethan’s call came through. I stared at the word “Hubby” flashing on the screen, feeling an unprecedented sense of irony. When I answered, his voice came through—deliberately lowered and sounding slightly fatigued. “Stella, the station called an emergency planning meeting. It might run really late, so don’t wait up for me.” Before he could hang up, I stopped him. “Ethan, are you wearing the cufflinks I gave you today?” The other end of the line went silent for two seconds. Then came his forced, lighthearted laugh. “Of course I’m wearing the ones my wife gave me.” “I really have to go. I’ll bring you some late-night takeout when I get back.” But I knew there was no planning meeting at the station today. I had dropped off some interview materials for him this afternoon and bumped into his supervisor. Director Chen had smiled and said, “It’s rare for Ethan to get off work on time tonight. Is he in a rush to get home to you?” At the time, my heart had fluttered with sweetness. Now, a lot of little details suddenly started making sense. This past year, Ethan had been working overtime more and more frequently, coming home later and later. He put a passcode on his phone and started taking it into the bathroom with him when he showered. Hugs and kisses had become routine chores. I thought it was just work stress, that our marriage had hit a plateau. I even blamed myself, wondering if I wasn’t doing enough. Perhaps it wasn’t a plateau; perhaps it had just gone rotten. Our framed photo still sat right in the center of my vanity. My fingertips brushed over his smiling eyes in the picture, and then I gently laid the frame face down on the table. When I worked at the news station, I exposed plenty of dark and ugly truths. My professional instincts trained me to look for evidence. The tragic comedy is that now, it’s my turn to analyze my own marriage. I found the high-end restaurant from Sydney’s location tag and dialed their reservation line. “Hello, I’d like to confirm if a Mr. Ethan Davis has a table reserved for tonight?” Chapter 2 Seven years ago, Ethan and I were known as the golden couple of the broadcasting station. He was the rising star of the late-night emotional advice hotline, and I was the prime-time news anchor. The station had a policy: couples couldn’t hold identical anchor positions. He held me, his voice muffled and unhappy. “Stella, you’re more talented than I am. I can’t hold you back.” My heart melted into a puddle, and the very next day, I voluntarily submitted a transfer request. I went from being the station’s top anchor to a field reporter. Back then, I thought love meant sacrificing, meant stepping back. Later, as his career steadily climbed, people started jokingly calling him the “King of the Station.” Ethan suggested I take a leave of absence for a while so we could have a baby. That “while” turned into two years. We did have intimate, happy times at first. He would prep late-night snacks for me and help me research before my interviews. But when did his thoughtfulness disappear? He wanted to discuss ideas for a new show, but I was busy brewing herbal medicine. He wanted to take me to the station’s annual gala, but I was exhausted from the fertility injections and shook my head, refusing. Once, Ethan threw away my ovulation test strips. “Stella, can you think about anything other than getting pregnant right now?” Only now do I understand what he really meant. He despised that I had lost the spark I had when I was working. But he was the one who said he wanted a child. He was the one who said, “Come home, I’ll take care of you.” I took him at his word. And he forgot that his title as the “King of the Station” was bought with my sacrifice. I found an inconspicuous parking spot on the side of the street. Through the restaurant’s floor-to-ceiling windows, I saw Ethan feeding Sydney dessert. He affectionately kissed the younger girl’s forehead. In that moment, my tears finally fell, blurring my vision. I bit down hard on my lower lip until I tasted the heavy, metallic tang of blood. While I was still blaming myself for our failure to conceive, he had already given all his tenderness and romance to someone else. How laughable. With trembling hands, I picked up my phone and opened my chat with Sydney Miller: [Assistant Miller, you joined the station late, so you might not be aware. Ethan Davis and I are legally married.] A reply popped up almost immediately. [I know. Before I even started my internship, I totally shipped you two. I thought it was a match made in heaven.] [But do you really think you’re worthy of him now? You spend your days revolving around the stove and the hospital, your face is sallow, and you look like a middle-aged housewife. Mr. Davis needs a soulmate who can stand beside him and admire the view.] Immediately after, a photo came through. Judging by the angle, it was taken in front of a hotel vanity mirror. Ethan’s back was to the camera. He seemed to have just gotten out of the shower, his hair still wet. Sydney smiled, arrogant and triumphant, wearing a sexy black lace nightgown. [We’re going to try out those new toys tonight, washed-up senior~] [Oh, I almost forgot to tell you. Mr. Davis was worried that getting pregnant would be bad for my body, so he got a vasectomy a year ago.] I covered my mouth, swallowing down the bloody taste rising in my throat. No wonder we hadn’t had any success after trying for so long. I had always thought it was my fault. I took a deep breath, wiping the tears from my face and the blood from my lips. I dialed a number I hadn’t called in a very long time. The phone only rang twice before it was answered. The voice of an older man came through, his concern evident. “Stella, what’s happened so late at night?” My voice was hoarse as I spoke. “Professor… two years ago, you mentioned there was an anchor position open at the national network, and you asked if I wanted it…” The line went silent for a moment, then he spoke firmly: “The position has always been kept open for you. The program I specifically designed for you is ready to start recording anytime.” “Did you run into trouble? Go find your upperclassman, she’s a big-shot lawyer now.” My eyes welled up. “I need to clean house, and I need a fresh start.” Chapter 3 Ethan didn’t come home that night, and I didn’t sleep a wink. First thing the next morning, I drove straight to the broadcasting station. I had spent the most vibrant and spirited years of my life here. I swiped my old access card and walked right in. Ethan’s office was at the end of the hallway. I was just about to push the door open. A voice dripping with feigned surprise rang out, “What brings Reporter Hayes here?” Sydney’s eyes still held the lingering traces of last night’s passion and satisfaction. She let out an exaggerated sigh. “Mr. Davis was up very late working on a proposal last night, and he just had a morning meeting. He’s catching up on some sleep now.” “If you need something, why don’t you tell me?” Her eyes were full of provocation. I scoffed coldly. “What could I possibly have to say to you? Discuss how you knowingly became a mistress?” Sydney’s face changed slightly, a malicious look crossing her features. Suddenly, she threw the coffee in her hand all over herself. Then she grabbed the front of her blouse and yanked it hard, revealing her bra! Her eyes instantly turned red, and she put on a pitiful, bullied expression. “Reporter Hayes, I’m just an intern, I can’t afford to offend you…” She sobbed and ran out into the hallway, conveniently bumping into a few colleagues who were walking by. “Sydney, what happened?!” Sydney immediately hid behind a colleague, sniffling, “It was my fault for accidentally bumping into Reporter Hayes. It’s only right that she taught me a lesson. I’ll listen to her and go write my resignation letter right now…” Her words were like pouring oil on a fire. The way the colleagues looked at me instantly changed. “Stella, Sydney is still young. If you have something to say, can’t you just talk it out?” “You don’t even work at the station anymore. Barging in here and causing a scene like this, do you know how hard this makes things for Mr. Davis? It’s not easy for him to support the family.” “Sydney works really hard, and Mr. Davis praises her all the time. How could you do this?” “You just rely on Mr. Davis to support you, where do you get off having such a huge temper?!” From behind them, Sydney shot me a triumphant smirk. Just then, my phone vibrated in my pocket. I pulled it out to see a long voice memo from Ethan’s mother. I played it directly on speakerphone for everyone to hear: “I asked around and got another folk remedy for having a boy! This one is guaranteed to work!” “You need the urine of a virgin boy born on the fifteenth of March, mixed with rooster blood, and you have to drink it right at midnight. You absolutely must try it tonight!” I smiled, and in front of everyone, I recorded a voice reply: “Your son had a vasectomy. How exactly am I supposed to get pregnant?” Ethan, who had rushed over upon hearing the commotion, turned beet red. He stepped forward, grabbed my arm, and tried to pull me away. “Stella has been under a lot of stress lately and isn’t mentally stable. Please excuse her.” He dragged me into the fire escape stairwell and hissed in a low voice: “Stella, what the hell are you doing causing a scene at the station?!” I pressed my lips together and said coldly: “What is your relationship with Sydney Miller?” Ethan froze for a second, then helplessly ruffled my hair. “The girl is young, and her family is pressuring her to get married. She’s just using me as a shield.” “She knows we’re married. Don’t worry, you’re the only one in my heart.” I was about to say something else when a colleague called out from the hallway: “Ethan, the morning news is about to start. You should review the script.” He gently tried to kiss my lips. “Honey, wait until I get home tonight, and I’ll explain everything properly.” I turned my head, dodging his kiss. He was still trying to maintain the illusion of a loving marriage, but I was exhausted. Chapter 4 I wanted to give Ethan a chance to have a real conversation. But he chose to avoid it, calling me late that night instead. “Assistant Miller has a fever. I just took her to the hospital. The poor girl is quite pitiful.” I let out a soft laugh. “Does she not have a family? When did you become her next of kin?” Ethan’s voice suddenly pitched up, laced with impatience. “Stella, why have you become so bitter? She’s a young girl, fresh out of college, all alone in the city. What’s wrong with a colleague helping her out when she’s sick?!” He suddenly let out a muffled groan. I recognized that sound. It was the sound he made when he was turned on. Ethan took a heavy breath, his voice softening. “Stella, you’ve got some misunderstandings about me lately. We’ll have a proper talk tomorrow. I got you a surprise gift.” “I remember. Tomorrow is our fifth wedding anniversary.” Our anniversary had passed a long time ago. The screen went dark, reflecting my mocking sneer. While he was on the phone, Sydney had intermittently sent me several more provocative messages. [Just now, Mr. Davis wanted to lose his temper with you. I helped him relieve the fire down below.] [He’s keeping me company all night tonight, so don’t bother waiting up.] [He said he has to go home tomorrow to deal with you for a bit. Looking at your washed-up face really ruins his appetite.] Expressionless, I screen-recorded and saved all the photos and videos she sent. The next day, I went to the broadcasting station again. Many eyes in the office area turned toward me, followed by the sound of whispering. Ethan walked briskly out of his office. His gaze landed on the bag in my hand, and his smile deepened. “Stella, did you come to bring me a gift?” Instead, I pulled out the jar of plum wine and simply let go. The jar shattered, and the liquor splashed everywhere. Everyone was stunned. The smile vanished from Ethan’s face, replaced by shock and a hint of anger. “Stella, what kind of crazy stunt is this?!” I didn’t answer him, walking straight toward the backup broadcast studio. He seemed to realize something and tried to step forward and grab me. But I was faster. I slipped inside and locked the door behind me. The microphone in there was always on, connected to the internal PA system. I pressed the talk button, and my voice echoed through every corner of this floor via the internal broadcast. “Colleagues, sorry to interrupt for a few minutes. This is Stella Hayes, former reporter for the news department.” Ethan charged to the studio door, pounding furiously on the glass. I ignored him. “My husband, Ethan Davis, on one hand, persuaded me to take a leave of absence under the pretense of wanting a child, while on the other, to try new things with Assistant Miller, he voluntarily underwent a vasectomy.” “And Assistant Miller, knowing full well he was married, willingly acted as the other woman, repeatedly sending me intimate photos to provoke me.” Ethan’s face was ghostly white. Sydney was already panicking, trembling visibly. I tapped my phone screen a few times. The next second, the station’s largest internal work group chats exploded simultaneously! I uploaded all of their intimate photos and videos. I turned off the microphone and pushed open the studio door. The way my colleagues looked at me was now filled with pity. Sydney was still crying and throwing a tantrum. “Stella, you bitch! Have you no shame?!” “By doing this, you’re trying to destroy me and Mr. Davis.” I turned a deaf ear to her, slapped Ethan hard across the face, and said resolutely: “We’re getting a divorce!” A bright red handprint quickly surfaced on Ethan’s face. He looked disheveled, staring at me in sheer disbelief. There were collective gasps of shock around us. Colleagues whispered among themselves, but no one dared to intervene. Sydney’s eyes went wide. She probably didn’t expect me to actually get physical. She certainly didn’t expect things to completely spiral out of her and Ethan’s control, reaching such an humiliating climax. Ethan glared at me, his eyes full of anger. “Stella, did you really have to make this so ugly?” I pulled back my stinging hand. “Ugly?” “Ethan, you and she drank the plum wine I brewed with my own hands on our anniversary. You strung me along about getting pregnant while getting a vasectomy for her.” “Piece by piece, this has gone way past ‘ugly’.” Sydney, her hair a mess, charged at me. “I didn’t! You’re slandering me and Mr. Davis!” “You photoshopped all those pictures and videos! Mr. Davis doesn’t even like old, barren women like you! You’re the one clinging to him!” Ethan let out a low growl and tried to pull her back, but it was too late. Sydney’s words were pouring gasoline on a fire. An older female editor nearby couldn’t help but speak up. “Ethan, plenty of people at the station know Reporter Hayes took a leave to prepare for pregnancy. But you got a vasectomy for your little girlfriend? How is she supposed to get pregnant by herself?” “Yeah, that’s just purely malicious.” “Isn’t that basically marriage fraud on Ethan’s part?” The people who had initially wanted to watch the drama unfold now looked at me with nothing but sympathy. The veins on Ethan’s forehead bulged. He suddenly raised his voice. “Enough!” He stared at me, a threatening edge to his tone. “Stella, we’re going home to talk.” “Whatever conditions you have, we’ll discuss them privately. Stop making a fool of yourself here!” He tried to grab my hand, but I took a step back, dodging him. “That place stopped being my home a long time ago.” I pulled the prepared divorce agreement from my bag and handed it to him. My voice was calm. “Sign it. Once you sign it, we’re even.” Ethan looked at the terms in the agreement, his voice trembling. “You want this much of the assets? Stella, you’re being way too greedy!” Sydney snatched the agreement and yelled, “Mr. Davis earned all this money! Why should you get to take half of it?!” I ignored her screaming and sneered at Ethan. “For the past few years, I quit my job for you, becoming the washed-up housewife everyone thought relied on you to survive.” “You got a vasectomy so you could have fun with Sydney, but you kept it from me and watched me take injections and medicine time and time again.” “Can any of this be compensated with money?” I lowered my voice so only he could hear. “Or would you prefer I send all this evidence, along with Assistant Miller’s lovely little speeches today, straight to the media?” “As reporters, we know exactly how to make a story go viral.” “When that happens, it won’t just be the people at the station laughing at you. Think about it carefully—will your title as ‘King of the Station’ survive that?” He went deathly pale and stumbled back a step. He looked at me in absolute disbelief. For the first time, he realized that the submissive, forgiving woman was gone. He took the pen and signed his name on the divorce agreement. I took the paperwork back. “My lawyer will contact you regarding the next steps.” I took one last look at him. This man… I had loved him, trusted him, and was even willing to give up everything for him. Looking at him now, he felt incredibly like a stranger. “Goodbye, Ethan. Forever.” With that, I turned around, walked through the crowd, and headed toward the elevator. The elevator doors slowly closed, shutting out that suffocating space. I pulled out my phone and sent a short text to my upperclassman: [He signed it.] [The rest is in your hands.] Ethan lay in bed, his mind filled with Stella’s cold voice from the broadcast earlier that day, and Sydney’s shrill cries. “Stella, you bitch! Do you think you won? You’re just damaged goods nobody wants!” “Mr. Davis only kept you around because he pitied you for not having a job. Without Mr. Davis, you’re nothing!” Who exactly was the damaged goods? He ran a hand through his hair in frustration. Just then, his mother’s call came in. Her voice was filled with fury. “Ethan Davis, where are you?!” “Get your ass home right now! Immediately!” “Mom, I have some things going on here…” “Some things? I heard all about what happened at the station!” His mother’s voice cracked with tears. “You’re messing around with that little hussy, and you got a vasectomy behind Stella’s back?!” “Ethan, are you even human?!” “Do you know how much Stella suffered, how much bitter medicine she drank, just to have your baby? And this is how you treat her?!” Ethan’s scalp prickled. He hadn’t expected news to travel this fast, reaching even his mother. He tried to defend himself. “Mom, it’s not what you think. Stella is overreacting. She’s a bit mentally unstable…” His mother cursed directly at him. “Bullshit!” “I think you’re the one whose brain got kicked by a donkey, or maybe you were bewitched by that shameless little demon!”

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My husband’s “one of the guys” female best friend micromanaged everything. Every purchase I made had to go through her for “budget logging.” She dragged all my private matters out into the open, leaving me exposed to ridicule. When I bought lingerie, she would shriek in surprise. “Wow, Olivia, you’re only an A-cup? I always thought you were a C. You must stuff your bra a lot before you go out.” When I bought tampons, she made it a joke. “That’s a massively heavy flow, buying so much at once. A bit wasteful, don’t you think? But the quality you buy is decent. I rarely see you leak, so I guess I can recommend it.” She even kept a strict tally on the condoms we bought. “This brand is garbage, and it doesn’t even have Declan’s size.” Whispers erupted around the office. The strange, judgmental looks forced my head down in shame, but my husband just laughed out loud. He’d say she was just speaking nonsense and had no filter, but when his eyes met my aggrieved, angry stare, he’d just pat my shoulder. “That’s just how she is, completely unfiltered and loud. She wants to learn about household budgeting, so just let her play around with it.” This time, facing their interrogation over a $3,000 expense, I calmly pulled out a medical receipt. I waited for his female bestie to read it out loud, just like always. “Hymenoplasty? Olivia, do you and your husband have some freaky new roleplay going on? I didn’t realize you were so open-minded behind closed doors.” I smiled, shaking my head and then nodding. “We sure do. It’s just with someone else.” … Chapter 1 Declan’s face instantly went black as thunder. He shot up from his chair. “Olivia, what the hell are you talking about? What do you mean ‘someone else’? You better explain yourself right now.” His best friend, Vanessa, quickly shifted her expression and tried to smooth things over. “It’s just to spice things up. Probably some roleplay dynamic we basic folks wouldn’t understand. Declan, you’ll find out tonight. Make sure to give us a full debrief tomorrow.” Declan’s face finally started to relax. But I gripped my fingers tightly. Declan would always tell Vanessa about our intimate life, no matter how private. I had thrown tantrums, warning him to keep his mouth shut. But he would just coax me and go right back to doing it. “What’s the big deal? She asked. I’m just satisfying a tomboy’s curiosity, don’t be so petty.” Thinking about this, I fought to suppress my rage until I was perfectly calm. I pulled out a document and told him to sign it. He assumed it was for some luxury item that required both spouses’ signatures, and casually tossed it to Vanessa. “You sign it, it’s all the same.” I let out a cold laugh. After all these years of our relationship, he couldn’t even spare a few minutes to look at a divorce agreement. I stubbornly pushed the document back toward Declan. “Can her signature make a divorce filing legally binding? I suggest you sign it yourself. I don’t want any messy disputes later.” Declan’s previously relaxed face twisted into a deep scowl. “Olivia, you’re intentionally picking a fight, aren’t you? Tossing the word ‘divorce’ around at the drop of a hat. How many tantrums do you have to throw, how many fights do we need to have before you grow up?” Perhaps my freezing gaze struck a nerve. He took the document, intending to look at it, but Vanessa caused a scene again. She stood up in a panicked rush, urging him. “Declan, hurry up and sign so you can come with me to the OB/GYN. I’ve been feeling off. Don’t you dare refuse; I went with you to the urologist last time.” Declan didn’t hesitate anymore. Without even glancing at the page, he quickly signed his name. I stared blankly at that signature. I had originally planned to have an amicable split… Forget it. To me, as long as he signed it and it was legally binding without disputes, that was all that mattered. I took the document and turned to leave. Declan turned his head and called out to me. “Olivia, I’m coming home tonight.” I casually replied, “Oh.” What did it matter to me? I wasn’t going back there anyway. Chapter 2 Evening arrived as expected. My phone chimed with a notification. I picked it up. Declan had sent me a text. [Something came up tonight. Won’t make it back. Wait until tomorrow for your surprise.] I scoffed and didn’t reply. It was exactly as I had expected. On a past wedding anniversary, I was swamped with work but specifically flew ten hours back to celebrate with him. Yet, the moment I walked through the door, he was heading out. “Something happened with Vanessa. A pipe burst at her place; I’ll be right back.” All my expectations vanished into thin air. The exhaustion from the long journey magnified tenfold, and a sour sense of grievance flooded my heart. “Do you even know how to fix a broken pipe? If there’s an issue, call a plumber. Your being there is useless. Did you forget what day it is today?” He anxiously pushed past me. “I know, it’s our anniversary. It happens every year, no big deal. I’ll be right back. You don’t get it; Vanessa looks tough on the outside, but she’s absolutely terrified when things actually go wrong.” He left in a frantic rush, leaving the anniversary gift burning like hot coals in my hands. Gradually, I had stopped expecting anything from him at all. I reined in my emotions and made a trip back to his family’s estate. After all, I had promised to attend the family dinner. Breaking my word would only give them more ammunition to gossip about me. Right at the front door, I ran into Declan. For once, he actually offered an explanation and an apology. “I originally planned to go home, but Vanessa was having bad stomach cramps. I felt like leaving her alone at the hospital would make her scared.” I gave a slight nod and brushed him off with a few perfunctory words. Declan wanted to say more, but I had already stepped inside the house. At the dinner table, after a few brief pleasantries, the conversation inevitably shifted to me. My mother-in-law had long been dissatisfied with me. “You’ve been married for so long, and still not a single child. Are you refusing to conceive, or are you physically incapable? Have you been drinking the fertility teas I gave you?” Every time I visited, my mother-in-law would lecture me and force countless bitter herbal supplements on me. Even that one time I drank them and got severe food poisoning, she didn’t stop. “We’ll just switch the prescription. Not being able to have kids is the real emergency.” And Declan, who knew the entire inside story, just sat there, watching everything unfold as a bystander. He let me endure the endless harassment or brushed it off by saying we would “keep trying.” This time, I didn’t apologize like I used to, nor did I promise to dutifully drink the supplements and try to get pregnant. I put down my fork and unceremoniously fired back. “Declan doesn’t want one himself. How am I supposed to get pregnant?” My mother-in-law jumped up in a panic to refute me. “Liar! How could my son not want children? It’s obviously because you have an issue and can’t conceive.” All these years, I was the only one who took the brunt of this topic, as if I were the ultimate sinner. I pulled out my phone and played an audio recording. Immediately, the sound of our argument filled the room. It was the night I discovered he had been slipping me birth control pills. “The reason I can’t get pregnant is because of your sabotage? Just because Vanessa doesn’t want you to have a child right now? Can you get it through your head that having a baby is an issue between the two of us?!” Such an absurd reason naturally enraged me. In the recording, Declan frowned and scolded me. “Are you really that desperate for a kid? It’s not like you’re too old to conceive. What’s the harm in waiting a few more years? As for my mom’s nagging, just take the scolding and it’ll pass.” The argument hadn’t resulted in any compromise from Declan. He simply stopped sleeping with me altogether. “We’ll have one in a few years. Vanessa needs some time to accept it. Any child I have, she’s going to be the godmother. You wouldn’t want the kid to miss out on their godmother’s love, would you?” In the past, considering the harmony of the family, I had chosen not to expose this. But now, since they didn’t care about dignity, why should I? My mother-in-law’s face instantly turned beet red. She stammered, unable to utter a single word. After the family dinner ended, Declan found me. He was somewhat angry, but his demeanor softened when he met my icy gaze. “There was no need for you to do that. But fine, it is about time we had a child.” Chapter 3 I felt my entire good mood for the day sink. Just as I was about to retort, my phone rang. Seeing the caller ID, an unconscious smile spread across my face. I stepped to the side to answer it. Our wedding was currently in the planning stages. When I looked back up, I didn’t expect Declan to still be standing there, a flash of deep displeasure on his face. He stared at my phone and demanded: “Whose call was that? You were smiling so happily.” I curled my lips into a smirk. It was my new husband, of course I was happy. But I didn’t answer him, I just turned to walk away. Declan relentlessly persisted. “I asked whose call it was.” As our eyes met, I felt like I was looking at the old him. We had been together since college, falling in love during the prime of our youth. He used to get jealous over a single smile I gave someone else, grabbing my hand and pouting, demanding I only look at him. Back then, it was a sweet enhancer to our romance. But seeing him act like this now was nothing short of laughable. I coldly shook his hand off. “It has nothing to do with you. Also, your precious Vanessa is here looking for you.” Hearing Vanessa’s name, Declan finally retracted his hand with a look of reluctance, watching the person approaching from the doorway as he slowly regained his composure. That afternoon, my best friend Zoe took me out to clear my head and celebrate my divorce. After downing two bottles of wine in our private booth, I stepped out to use the restroom. On my way, I caught the sound of a very familiar voice. The door to their VIP booth hadn’t been closed all the way. A group of people was surrounding Declan, urging him to share his biggest regret in life. “What’s the big deal? Tell us! We’re all bros here.” I was just about to walk away when Declan spoke up. “My biggest regret in this life was taking Olivia’s grandmother to the hospital. At the time, seeing Olivia crying so miserably, I rushed to get her medical attention. It bought her an extra three years of life, but honestly, I felt like her grandmother had already lived long enough. It really wasn’t worth me wasting my time.” I froze, completely stunned. Before I could even process it, I heard Declan add: “It was only afterward that I realized tickets for Vanessa’s favorite artist’s concert had gone on sale. But because I was delayed by that incident, I missed out on buying them.” The crowd sighed in sympathy, while Vanessa looked utterly blissful. “But didn’t you still accompany me to see it later? You spent a massive fortune buying those tickets from a scalper.” Standing outside the door, I broke out in a cold sweat. The smell of alcohol in my stomach surged violently upward, forcing me to sprint to the restroom to vomit. The moment I threw up the acidic bile, tears cascaded down my face. My grandmother had treated him incredibly well. She loved him like her own flesh and blood. Every holiday, she was anxious to cook him nourishing meals, reminding me daily to bring him food to help nurse his severe gastritis back to health. I never imagined that in his eyes, all of that amounted to this. My grandmother’s life couldn’t compare to a single concert ticket. It was absolutely sickening. Zoe, noticing I had been gone for a long time, frantically texted me. “Babe, where did you go? Are you feeling sick?” Not wanting to make them worry, I quickly wiped away my tears, composed my thoughts, and headed back to our booth. But the exact second I reached out to touch the booth door, someone violently grabbed my hair and threw me heavily to the floor. “You homewrecking slut! All you do all day is figure out ways to seduce other women’s husbands!” Chapter 4 I was completely stunned. Before I could even react, I was slapped hard across the face. “You look so young and pretty, why are you so damn cheap?” Zoe, hearing the commotion, rushed out and immediately shielded me. I slowly snapped out of my daze. “What does this mean?” Several middle-aged women threw a stack of printed chat logs directly into my face. “What do you have to say for yourself? Leaking such incredibly private details to the public, you’re absolutely disgusting.” I caught a glimpse of those private details, yet the tone and phrasing of the messages sounded exactly like Vanessa. A blinding fury instantly engulfed me. I promised the women I would give them an explanation, and then I stormed directly into Declan’s booth. Seeing me, a flicker of panic crossed Declan’s face, but it vanished completely amidst my ensuing interrogation. I grabbed Vanessa by the collar. “You did this, didn’t you? You used my name online to have explicit chats! Let me tell you, that is illegal! I can call the cops and have you arrested right now.” Vanessa’s eyes instantly turned red with fake grievance. “It wasn’t me! Olivia, those little details about you… it’s not like I’m the only one who knows them.” I was so furious I reached for my phone to dial 911, but Declan violently snatched it out of my hand. “Stop throwing dirty water onto everyone else. How do we know you didn’t do this yourself? You were probably lonely and desperate and just found random guys online.” I stared at him in absolute disbelief. After all our years together, is this really how he viewed me? He actually believed the “female bro” he met years later over his own wife. A sharp, agonizing pain seized my chest, so intensely that when the middle-aged women started hitting me again, I forgot to even react. “What else do you have to say?! I am so furious I could die! At my age, I still have to deal with my husband getting seduced. What are you trying to do to our families?!” Someone edited the video of the confrontation and uploaded it. In the footage, my “sins” were magnified a hundredfold. I was brutally cyberbullied. People dug up my address and phone number. No matter where I hid, an endless stream of curses and insults pushed me to the absolute brink of insanity. And Zoe was dragged into it too. Everyone assumed that since we hung out together, we were both worthless trash. We were both suspended from our jobs because of this incident. I gritted my teeth, meticulously organizing the evidence. Just as I was about to go to the police station, Declan showed up with Vanessa. Avoiding my gaze, Declan said: “Let this end here. Vanessa knows she was wrong. She proactively admitted her mistake to me, and she told me she wanted to come apologize to you. The internet mob will move on soon. Don’t ruin a person’s life over this.” My suppressed emotions completely erupted. I slapped him across the face with everything I had. “You want me to live the rest of my life carrying this infamy?! Declan, you have incredible nerve! What makes you think I will listen to a word you say? Let me tell you, I am going to the police.” Declan’s face instantly turned ugly. “Then what do you want?! Vanessa was just being playful. Do you absolutely have to destroy her?” I curled my lips into a cold sneer. She hid in a safe zone, yet she wanted to sacrifice half of my life and my best friend’s life. What a beautiful delusion. I didn’t want to engage with him anymore. I just wanted to go file the police report, but Declan physically blocked me. “The IP address and account Vanessa used were registered under your name. If you insist on calling the cops, I will personally testify that you were the one using it. This is finally about to blow over. If you do this, your situation will only get worse. You should know perfectly well that you don’t have enough solid evidence to prove Vanessa did it.” I dug my nails fiercely into my palms, my voice thick with unshed tears. “You love her that much? You are willing to ruthlessly destroy me like this?” Declan frowned in displeasure. “Where is your mind going again? I just don’t want anyone else getting hurt. The damage is already done, let’s just turn the page as fast as possible. You still have me. She has nothing. Real cyberbullying will cause serious mental health issues for her.” Vanessa made a dramatic show of apologizing to me. “Olivia, I really didn’t do it on purpose. I just thought it would be fun at the time.” In that fraction of a second, I truly, deeply regretted ever meeting Declan, regretted ever being with him. I tried to take a deep breath, but my legs gave out and I slumped weakly to the floor. The door was unlocked. A strong, sturdy body caught me and lifted me up. “Don’t worry. I have plenty of ways to prove she did it.” My heart inexplicably settled, but I was also confused. “Weren’t you on a business trip? You’re back so early.” Declan stared at the man in front of him in absolute disbelief. Because years ago, they used to be best friends, brothers. But they mysteriously had a massive falling out, and Sebastian eventually moved abroad. They hadn’t seen each other since. I had asked Declan about the reason multiple times, but he never told me, only giving vague, evasive answers. “Just stay away from him, that’s all.” Back then, I loved him too much, so naturally, I obeyed. Sebastian glared coldly at the two of them. “See yourselves out. You two are not welcome in this house.” Declan let out a harsh laugh. “Sebastian, you’re the one who needs to leave. This is Olivia’s house. I am her legal husband. Who the hell are you?” Sebastian didn’t get angry. He just offered a slight smile. “Not for much longer.” Ever since I decided to get a divorce, I hadn’t returned to my old apartment. I had been staying at Sebastian’s place. He looked at me, his eyes filled with unwavering certainty. “Olivia, kick him out. We’ll discuss our matters behind closed doors. We don’t need an outsider interfering.” To Declan’s utter shock, I intertwined my fingers with Sebastian’s hand. “He’s not an outsider anymore. I accepted his proposal. This will be our marital home from now on.” Declan listened in disbelief, then laughed again. “Olivia, you’re just messing with me on purpose, right? Trying to make me jealous? Look at the pathetic excuse you came up with. I told you a long time ago to stay away from Sebastian.” If I hadn’t held him back, Sebastian looked like he wanted to plant a fist right into Declan’s face. I sighed. I had long since found my peace. “Declan, we are divorced. That document I had you sign the other day was the divorce agreement. Black and white. Even if you hadn’t agreed, I would have filed a lawsuit. Either way, it’s impossible for us in this lifetime.” “Oh, and my hymenoplasty? That was for him too. He didn’t care, but I wanted to give him the best of me.” Declan still refused to believe it. “Olivia, stop joking around. You’re just mad that I took Vanessa’s side in this incident. I can explain everything, and I know I wronged you. But you still have me. She has no one backing her up. Why can’t you understand this simple logic?” As he chattered on endlessly, my patience completely ran out. “Declan, you are truly shameless. The moment you chose to protect her at the cost of destroying my life, I felt nothing but hatred and profound disgust for you.” Declan stood there, stunned. He finally started to reflect. Maybe he had realized something, or maybe he truly understood how far he had crossed the line. In the past, it wasn’t like I hadn’t used divorce as a threat, throwing a massive, hysterical fit. But every single time, Declan couldn’t be bothered to care. It was always me who softened first and actively repaired the relationship. But now, that was never going to happen again. Declan stared into my icy eyes, his tone softening. “Forget it. If you don’t agree to this, fine. Once I send Vanessa away safely, you can clear your name. Just stop talking about divorce.” He tried to quickly flip the page on this massive betrayal. This made Vanessa unhappy. She pulled at Declan’s sleeve. “How can you do that? How am I supposed to face the internet then? I can already imagine how brutal it will be.” Declan didn’t comply with her like he usually did. He just brushed her off dismissively. “Just endure it and it will pass. Besides, I’ll send you somewhere isolated. Just stay off the internet for a while.”

🌟 Continue the story here 👉🏻 📲 Download the “MotoNovel” app 🔍 search for “395004”, and watch the full series ✨! #MotoNovel