In my fifth month of pregnancy, I walked in on Oliver Vance pinning our young nanny to the bed. I trembled violently with rage, but before I could utter a single word, he frowned and covered my eyes. “Stella, don’t look. It’s dirty.” He unhurriedly put his clothes back on, pulled the blanket over the disheveled nanny, and then walked over to gently kiss my forehead. “She’s just a toy to relieve my urges. How could she ever compare to you?” “A wife is a wife, and a nanny is a nanny. The respect and love I have for you are things she could never attain in her entire lifetime.” I was so disgusted I threw up right then and there. Yet, as he patted my back, he said casually, “For the sake of the baby, you need to be more magnanimous. After all, the only reason I’m not touching you is that I’m afraid of hurting you.” My heart went ice-cold. “What if I refuse to be magnanimous?” He sighed softly. “I don’t want a divorce. But look at you, heavily pregnant. Who else would want you?” … I shoved Oliver away and collapsed by the edge of the bed, vomiting stomach acid all over the floor. He glanced at the mess, his brow furrowing in distaste. “Call someone up here to clean this up, and have the mattress in the master bedroom replaced.” He pressed the intercom button on the nightstand, then turned his gaze back to Lily, who was huddled under the covers, shivering. She peeked out with red, teary eyes, her shoulders shaking with silent sobs. That pathetic, victimized look was blindingly obnoxious. “Mr. Vance, I’m so sorry… I didn’t know Mrs. Vance would suddenly come in… Did I make her angry?” Oliver walked over and patted her shoulder through the blanket. “It’s not your fault.” He pointed at me as I struggled to catch my breath. “Stella, go rinse your mouth.” He put on a mask of concern. “Don’t scare Lily. She’s easily frightened.” I gripped the headboard and forced myself to stand up. “Oliver,” I stared at him blankly, “this is our marital bed.” Oliver picked up a pack of cigarettes from the nightstand. He pulled one out, but upon seeing my swollen belly, he paused and shoved it back in. “I know.” He walked up to me and reached out to tuck a stray lock of hair behind my ear. I stubbornly turned my head away. His hand hovered in mid-air for a second before he casually pulled it back. “Stella, you’re five months pregnant. The doctor said no intercourse.” Oliver looked at me with absolute self-righteousness. “I’m a healthy man. Naturally, I have physical needs.” “So you go after the nanny living in our house?” “Finding someone outside is dirty. Lily is right here under my nose, I know her background.” His tone was so casual, as if he were doing me a favor by being considerate. Lily wrapped the bedsheet around herself and slipped out of bed. Barefoot, she walked up behind Oliver and timidly reached out to tug at the hem of his shirt. “Mrs. Vance, please don’t blame Mr. Vance. I was willing… My family is poor, and Mr. Vance pays very well. I just want to give my family a better life.” As she spoke, huge tears began rolling down her cheeks. Oliver reached back, grabbed her hand, and pulled her in front of him. “Did you hear that? I’m just trying to help her out.” Oliver looked at me. “Stella, you are Mrs. Vance. It’s beneath your dignity to make a fuss over something so trivial.” Looking at their intertwined hands, tears blurred my vision. That was the hand that had once sworn to the heavens to protect me for the rest of his life. Yet now, he was holding another woman’s hand, flaunting their “tenderness” right in front of me. “Tell her to leave,” I said. The expression on Oliver’s face cooled. “Lily’s cooking suits my taste, and she takes good care of you. She’s staying.” “Oliver, looking at her makes me sick.” “That’s just morning sickness. It’s physiological. Don’t blame it on someone else.” Oliver was getting impatient. He let go of Lily and pointed to the door. “Go get some fresh air. Don’t come back in until the maids have cleaned the room.” I didn’t move. I just stood there, staring at him blankly. How did this face, one I had lived with for five years, become so terrifyingly unfamiliar? Oliver took a step closer and grabbed my hand anyway. “Stella, stop making a scene. For the sake of the baby in your belly, turn the page on this. We’ll go back to living our lives exactly like before.” I was about to argue, but he sighed. “If you insist on making a scene, and it ends in divorce…” He looked at my stomach. “You’re five months pregnant. If you leave me, who would dare take you in? Who would take care of you?” My fingernails dug deeply into my palms. A piercing pain. But it couldn’t compete with the chilling cold in my heart. Satisfied with my pale, defeated expression, he turned to Lily. “Go change your clothes. I want the soup you make for dinner tonight.” Lily’s tears vanished into a bright smile as she answered crisply, “Yes, Mr. Vance.” As she walked past me, her footsteps faltered for a fraction of a second. With her back to Oliver, she stuck her tongue out at me and silently mouthed two words: “Old hag.” Dinner consisted of four dishes and a soup. Every single dish was loaded with spicy peppers. The glaring red color immediately triggered that familiar wave of nausea. Ever since I got pregnant, I couldn’t stomach the slightest hint of spice. He knew this perfectly well. Lily sat next to Oliver, wearing a brand-new white sundress. It was maternity wear I had just bought yesterday; I hadn’t even had time to cut the tags off. On her, it fit loosely, making the neckline dip dangerously low. “Oh my,” Lily covered her mouth, looking at me with feigned surprise. “Mrs. Vance, I’m so sorry! I completely forgot you can’t eat spicy food. Back in my hometown, we put spice in everything, it’s just a habit…” She turned to look at Oliver, her eyes welling up with tears again. “Mr. Vance, did I mess up again?” Oliver picked up a piece of spicy chicken and chewed it slowly. “It’s fine. I actually really like the flavor.” He set his chopsticks down, putting on a placating tone. “Stella, you used to love spicy food too. Don’t be so delicate. The baby needs a variety of nutrients; you should at least eat a little.” I stared at the bowl of rice in front of me, soaked in chili oil. “I’m not eating that.” I pushed the bowl away and stood up, ready to head back to my room. “Sit down.” Oliver’s tone shifted back to an authoritative command. “We’re eating as a family. Since when does the lady of the house leave the table first? What will the staff think?” I took a deep breath and sat back down. “I’m not hungry. I’ll just watch you two eat.” Oliver didn’t bother replying. He picked up a piece of spare rib, meticulously removed the bone, and placed it in Lily’s bowl. “Eat up. You’re too thin.” Lily smiled sweetly. “Thank you, Mr. Vance.” She took a bite of the rib, the grease shining brightly on her lips. “This dress of Mrs. Vance’s is so comfortable. The fabric is so soft.” Lily smoothed her hands over the dress. “I saw it thrown on the sofa earlier, and I thought she didn’t want it anymore, so I put it on. You don’t mind, do you, Mrs. Vance?” My hands, resting on my lap, clenched into tight fists. “I literally just bought that. Why would you assume I didn’t want it?” I asked. “It’s just a piece of clothing,” Oliver interrupted. “Lily is young, she looks good in white. If you like it, I’ll have my assistant buy you ten more tomorrow.” Lily shot me a triumphant look and lowered her head to continue eating her rib. After dinner, I returned to the bedroom. The mattress had been replaced, but the air still seemed to hold the lingering scent of what had happened. I opened the closet, looking for some pajamas. What used to be a meticulously organized closet was now a complete disaster. My silk nightgowns were balled up and shoved into a corner. Several of my more expensive lingerie sets were missing. I turned around, walked out of the room, and went down to the maid’s quarters on the first floor. The door wasn’t fully closed; it was left slightly ajar. Lily was standing in front of a mirror, holding my missing lingerie up against her body, humming a little tune. I pushed the door open and walked in. Lily jumped in shock, dropping the lingerie onto the floor. “Mrs. Vance…” Without a word, I bent down, picked up the lingerie, and marched straight to the kitchen. Lily chased after me. “Mrs. Vance, what are you doing?” I grabbed a pair of heavy shears from the kitchen counter and started ruthlessly cutting the lingerie to shreds. Lily shrieked and lunged at me, trying to snatch them back. I violently swung the shears toward her. “Get back! Don’t touch me!” Terrified, Lily screamed and collapsed onto the floor. “Mrs. Vance… are… are you trying to kill me?” Looking at her pathetic, trembling act, I felt my stomach heave again. “Kill you? I wouldn’t want to dirty my hands.” I didn’t stop until those expensive pieces of lingerie were nothing but a pile of shredded fabric on the floor. “Pick them up. You said you liked them.” I slammed the shears down on the marble counter with a resounding clack. “Now they’re garbage. A perfect match for you.” “Stella!” Oliver’s voice suddenly boomed from behind me. He strode over and snatched the shears from my hand. “Have you lost your mind?!” Lily immediately cowered behind Oliver, sobbing uncontrollably. “Mr. Vance, save me…” “Mrs. Vance had the shears… she… she was trying to kill me.” I was trembling with rage. “Save the performance.” “She’s a thief. She stole my lingerie to wear.” Oliver glared at me darkly and pulled Lily closer to his side. “So what?” “Because of a few pieces of clothing, you pull a knife on someone?” “Lily is young and curious, she just wanted to try them on.” “Did you really have to humiliate her so viciously?” “Try them on?” I sneered. “Oliver, did you forget who the lady of this house is? What right does she have to ‘try on’ my things?” “Maybe you won’t be for much longer,” Lily mumbled softly. Oliver didn’t contradict her. “Stella, you’ve been entirely too emotionally unstable lately. For the good of the baby, starting tomorrow, you are to stay in your room and rest. You are not to go anywhere.” Oliver kept his word. I was locked in my bedroom for three whole days. The door was only unlocked on the day of my scheduled prenatal checkup. I sat on the living room sofa, staring blankly at the wall clock. Oliver walked downstairs in a custom-tailored suit, with Lily trailing behind him. She had changed into a Chanel suit and was wearing a bracelet I had never seen before. Oliver shot me a quick glance. “An emergency meeting came up at the company. I can’t get away.” “Go to the checkup by yourself,” Oliver said as he adjusted his cuffs. “I’ll come find you after the meeting.” Lily stepped forward, dutifully helping him straighten his tie. Her body subtly leaned into his, her chest brushing suggestively against his arm. Instead of stepping back, Oliver smirked, allowing her to playfully tease him. The look of sheer enjoyment on his face was nauseating. “Mr. Vance, why don’t I go with Mrs. Vance?” Lily looked up at him, her eyes wide and innocent. “I want to see what the baby looks like, and I can take care of Mrs. Vance.” Oliver patted her head. “Such a good girl, Lily. Alright, go together.” I didn’t want to be in the same car as Lily, but Oliver didn’t give me a chance to refuse. In the car, Lily pressed herself right up against Oliver. While Oliver was reviewing documents, Lily peeled a grape and held it up to his lips. Oliver naturally opened his mouth and ate it, even playfully licking her fingertips. I was his legal wife, yet in that moment, I felt like a completely redundant third wheel, forced to sit there and spectate their flirtation. When we arrived at the hospital, Lily shot me a triumphant smirk. “Mrs. Vance, let’s go.” There was a long line outside the ultrasound room. Lily insisted on supporting me, but her acrylic nails were secretly digging deep into my arm. I gasped in pain. She just gave me a sickeningly sweet smile. “Mrs. Vance, your belly is so big. Do you think there’s a monster inside?” “I heard people back in my hometown say that if you don’t accumulate good karma, the baby you give birth to won’t make it.” My chest heaved with fury. I forcefully yanked my arm away from her grip and raised my hand to slap that foul mouth of hers. But Lily purposely threw herself to the floor. “Ow!” she shrieked, clutching her ankle. “Mrs. Vance, if you didn’t want me to help you, you could have just said so! Why did you push me?” People in the hallway immediately turned to look, pointing and whispering. “Why is that pregnant woman so aggressive?” “Is that her nanny? The poor girl looks terrified.” I looked at Lily, putting on her little show on the floor, and felt nothing but disdain. “Get up. Stop playing dead,” I ordered coldly. Lily squeezed out a few crocodile tears. “Mrs. Vance, I twisted my ankle. It hurts so much, I can’t walk.” Right on cue, Oliver called Lily’s phone. A glint of malicious joy flashed in Lily’s eyes as she quickly answered. “Lily, are the checkups done?” Oliver’s voice came through the speaker. “Mr. Vance…” Lily wailed tearfully, “Mrs. Vance pushed me on purpose and yelled at me. My ankle hurts so bad, I can’t even walk.” The line went silent for two seconds. “Stella, are you out of your goddamn mind?!” Oliver’s roar echoed through the entire hallway. “Stay right there. I’m sending the driver back to pick up Lily. When your checkup is done, get an Uber home yourself.” Beep—beep—beep— Oliver hung up. The looks from the bystanders grew even more judgmental. “That woman has a rotten heart, bullying a young girl like that.” “She looks so innocent, who knew she was such a psycho?” “No wonder her husband doesn’t care about her. She deserves it.” Standing in the crowded hospital hallway, I felt as if I had been stripped naked and thrown into a blizzard. It was freezing. So incredibly freezing. The baby in my belly seemed to sense something and shifted restlessly. In that moment, my eyes burned painfully, yet they were so dry I couldn’t shed a single tear. Perhaps, to a man, five years of loyalty will never compare to the thrill of a new toy. I finished all the checkups by myself. Holding the ultrasound printout, staring at that tiny silhouette, my hands shook. The doctor had said, “The fetus is measuring small. The mother needs to ensure proper nutrition and avoid extreme emotional stress.” I walked out of the hospital. It had started to drizzle. I stood on the curb trying to hail a cab, but during rush hour in the rain, it was nearly impossible. The rain soaked through my hair and clothes, the chill seeping into my very bones. It was late into the night by the time I finally got home. As soon as I opened the door, I saw Lily resting her foot on Oliver’s lap, whining delicately. “It hurts… Mr. Vance, be gentle.” Oliver reached out and held her foot. “Bear with it for a minute. I’m almost done applying the ointment.” “You’re so good to me, Mr. Vance,” Lily cooed. “If only Mrs. Vance had even half of your gentleness.” A look of nostalgia crossed Oliver’s face as he uncharacteristically revealed his true feelings to someone else. “She didn’t use to be like this.” Ten years ago. We lived in a cramped, dingy basement apartment in a sketchy part of town. For a startup pitch that existed only as a PowerPoint presentation, Oliver drank with potential investors until he got a bleeding ulcer. He was tossed onto the curb like a dead dog. I had to carry him all the way home on my back. I weighed barely ninety pounds. Carrying his six-foot frame, I had to stop and gasp for air with every single step. The streetlights stretched our shadows out long and thin. “Stella, put me down,” he mumbled against my back. “No.” I gritted my teeth, forcing my steps to remain steady. “If I put you down, someone else is going to pick you up and take you away.” He laughed, tears mingling with his laughter. “When I make it big, I swear to God I’ll make you the happiest woman in the world.” That night, I wiped him down, fed him broth, and stayed by his side the entire night. He didn’t think he was suffering. In fact, he thought those were the most hopeful days of his life. Because he knew that all he had to do was turn around, and I would be right there. Oliver’s gaze darkened. “But ever since Stella got pregnant, it’s like she’s a different person. She’s become completely unreasonable.” “I’ve sacrificed so much for this family, suffered for so many years. What’s wrong with me wanting to enjoy myself a little now?” Lily curled up against his chest like a kitten. “Don’t be mad, Mr. Vance. After all, Mrs. Vance isn’t feeling well physically, so it’s normal for her to be a bit moody. We just have to be understanding.” Oliver let out a cold snort, grabbed her hand, and brought it to his lips for a kiss. “She really doesn’t know how good she has it.” I stood in the entryway, soaking wet, the rainwater dripping from the hem of my coat onto the hardwood floor. I was shivering from the cold. Oliver finally seemed to notice me. “You’re back?” “Oliver,” I looked at him with entirely different eyes for the first time, “let’s get a divorce.” The room instantly fell silent. Oliver stared at me intensely. “What did you just say?” “I said, divorce.” “Stella, my patience has a limit.” Oliver’s voice was laced with ice. “Throwing around the word ‘divorce’ over some trivial misunderstanding again. Do you have any idea what will happen to you if we actually divorce?” “I do.” “You know, and you still have the nerve to bring it up?” Because the thing that made me absolutely certain about the divorce is that you truly have changed. “You don’t know shit!” Oliver slammed his fist onto the coffee table. “Without me, you wouldn’t even have money for groceries! That kid in your belly will be born a fatherless bastard!” Lily shrank back into the corner of the sofa, looking terrified, but her eyes were gleaming with sick excitement. I looked at the furious man in front of me with total calm. “That’s my business. It has nothing to do with you.” Oliver laughed out of sheer anger and violently yanked off his tie. “Fine. Perfect. Stella, you’ve got some nerve. I’d love to see if you can survive three days out there without Oliver Vance.” He spun on his heel and stormed into his study. Ten minutes later, he emerged with a document and threw it directly in my face. “Sign it.”

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Chapter 1 My husband’s new favorite pet was a “strong, independent woman.” After getting into yet another argument with her, Arthur Sterling came home drunk and suddenly grabbed my calloused hands. “You’re both women, but Chloe just campaigned for and won the CFO position. Look at you. All you know how to do is fight the maid for chores.” From then on, his catchphrase became, “Look at Chloe.” But I continued to tirelessly serve my in-laws, playing the role of the perfect, dutiful wife both in public and in private. That is, until Chloe was exposed online for rejecting seven or eight sugar daddies who tried to keep her, and posted a lengthy manifesto about female independence. Arthur liked the post and left a thinly veiled, sarcastic comment: “You’re still the most pragmatic one in our circle.” “How is it that back then, you were willing to strip naked and climb into my bed for just a few thousand bucks?” He thought I would accept his degradation just like I always did. Instead, I took off my wedding ring and said calmly: “Since she’s better than me in every way, you should marry her and make her Mrs. Sterling.” … I paused for a moment. “I’m serious. Let’s get a divorce.” When those words left my mouth with absolute clarity, the smile on Arthur’s face completely froze. Then, a knowing smirk replaced it. “There’s another thing you can’t compare to her in.” “Chloe has ambition and capital. But you? You’ve relied on me to support you your entire life. You don’t even have the backbone to ask for a divorce.” My fingers trembled violently. To this day, I still remember how my father, desperate to plug a massive hole in his business finances, drugged me and delivered me to Arthur’s bed. At the time, Arthur and I were deeply in love; we were in that beautiful, ambiguous stage, and he had even prepared an engagement ring for me. But when we woke up the next morning, my father burst into the room, forced Arthur to take responsibility, and walked away completely satisfied with a fifty-thousand-dollar payoff. The pure, enduring love Arthur and I shared in our youth was destroyed right then and there. On the day he was forced to marry me, Arthur publicly mocked me, calling me a gold digger worth exactly fifty thousand dollars. Later, when my mother fell critically ill, he had his men deliver three entire safes filled entirely with discount coupons. “It’s time you learned to support yourself. The wife of Arthur Sterling shouldn’t be a useless parasite who only knows how to hold her hand out for money.” That was when I finally understood that my genuine feelings were worthless. My expression was uncharacteristically stoic. Arthur hesitated, about to step forward, when the doorbell rang abruptly. When Chloe Hayes appeared at the door, Arthur visibly panicked for a split second. Because he had promised me that no matter who he was with, he would never bring his mess to my doorstep. Clearly, Chloe was the exception to that rule. The young woman held a thick stack of receipts, speaking with an exasperated sigh: “Mrs. Sterling, your expenses through the company account lately have been far too high, and many of them are completely unnecessary.” “It’s incredibly difficult for Mr. Sterling to run this company. The least you could do is be a little more considerate of him. Am I right?” My face flushed with humiliation, my chest feeling like it was stuffed with cotton. Ever since Chloe joined the company, every single one of my expenses had to go through her for approval. The medical and nursing care bills for my in-laws often sat pending for half a month with no response. When I went to Arthur to complain, he would just compare me to her, saying I wasn’t as frugal and thrifty as Chloe. He said all I knew how to do was ask for money. But the amount spent on me personally was microscopic. The dress I was wearing right now was from three years ago. Arthur flipped through the stack of receipts, obvious disgust written all over his face. “Chloe is right. Go to the office tomorrow and return the luxury items. You really don’t need things of that quality.” My fingernails dug deep into my palms. “Those receipts aren’t mine.” As soon as the words left my mouth, Chloe, acting as if I was giving her attitude, turned and ran off, looking incredibly wronged. Arthur stared in the direction she disappeared, completely oblivious to the fact that he had knocked over a carafe of freshly boiled water right onto my leg. “From now on, Chloe is the manager of this household. I’ll thank my lucky stars if you manage to learn even a fraction of what she knows!” With that, Arthur slammed the door and left. I pulled the fabric away from my leg; the skin was blistered and raw, a horrifying sight. But he couldn’t see it at all. I quickly treated the burn, then called a lawyer: “Help me draft a divorce agreement.” Chapter 2 When I went to the hospital to get my burn dressed, I stared at the $263 medical bill, at a loss. “I’m so sorry, I’ll be right back with the money,” I said, embarrassed. The billing clerk’s jaw dropped. The wife of Arthur Sterling, a woman who could buy the entire hospital with pocket change, actually needed to borrow money to pay a tiny medical bill. I had to contact an old friend from the past just to cover the fee. The moment I walked out of the hospital, I received a text from Arthur urging me to return the items. When I arrived at the company carrying the “luxury items” I had bought over the years, the employees around me began whispering. “They say you can tell where a man’s heart is by where he spends his money. I didn’t expect Mrs. Sterling to look so pathetic.” “If she had even half of Assistant Chloe’s ambition, she wouldn’t have sunk so low.” “Her virginity was only worth fifty grand, anyway. This pile of junk is probably worth more than she is, hahaha!” … I forced myself to stay calm and didn’t lash out. Chloe marched over, leading a large group of employees from her department. She glanced into the bag in my hand and fanned the air in front of her nose in disgust. “Mrs. Sterling, you spent all that money and only bought this? I don’t believe it.” The black trash bag held a few pieces of jewelry worth less than a thousand dollars total—bought solely to play the part of the dutiful wife when accompanying Arthur to banquets. The rest was just faded, overworn clothes and a few pairs of high heels with broken stilettos. Everything else in the bag was adult diapers and empty prescription bottles for my in-laws. My entire life over the past few years amounted to nothing more than this. I handed over the keys to the house along with the bag. “If you don’t believe me, you can go search the house.” Chloe excitedly snatched the keys, tucking them into her designer bag as if they were a priceless treasure. Then, she looked me up and down, examining the clothes I was wearing. “These were bought with Mr. Sterling’s money too, right? They’re designer, after all. Please take them off, Mrs. Sterling.” Instantly, the employees erupted into mocking laughter. I tried my best to steady my emotions. “I am not going to…” “If Chloe tells you to take them off, take them off. It’s not like you haven’t stripped for money before.” I snapped my head up in shock. When I realized the voice belonged to Arthur, the blood in my veins turned to ice. Back in college, I had accidentally wandered into the wrong nightclub. Three or four drunk men threatened me with knives, demanding I strip or they wouldn’t let me leave. I had barely exposed one shoulder when Arthur rushed in, armed with broken beer bottles, and permanently blinded them right then and there. “If you dare look at her again, I’ll make sure you never see tomorrow!” And now, he was telling me to strip naked in front of all his employees. I smiled, closed my eyes, gritted my teeth, and took off my scarf. Then, I unbuttoned my coat, revealing my bra underneath. The crowd gasped sharply. But my movements didn’t stop. Until I was down to my very last piece of clothing. “Enough!” Arthur frowned, his expression complicated, and roughly threw his jacket at me. “If you don’t have any shame, I do!” Ignoring the mocking stares around me, I handed him the divorce agreement I had prepared in advance. “I’ve returned everything I owe. Let’s get a divorce.” Arthur’s body stiffened for a second, then he grabbed a pen and signed his name with a flourish. “Don’t think these little tricks will scare me. I’m giving you three days. I’ll be waiting for you to crawl back and beg me!” Dropping that threat, he turned and marched back into his office, slamming the door behind him. Chloe used the pointed toe of her stiletto to kick all the clothes I had taken off into the trash can. Barely covered, I picked up the divorce agreement and stepped into the elevator under the malicious gazes of everyone present. The moment I stepped out of the company building, my mother called me, sounding frantic: “Stella! Arthur auctioned off my ancestral home!” Chapter 3 Immediately following that, my mother’s agonizing sobs were abruptly cut off, sounding as if she had been crushed by something heavy. By the time I rushed to the scene, my mother had been pinned under a massive solid wood cabinet, barely clinging to life. “Stella, don’t go begging him.” My numb face was covered in tears. Holding the gold bangle Arthur had given me on our wedding day, I begged the demolition crew to stop. But the bangle was ruthlessly smacked out of my hand. “Do you think we’re idiots? This is cheap metal plated with a thin layer of gold! Do I look like a scrap metal collector to you?!” My brain was buzzing. The crisp clink of the bangle hitting the ground smashed directly into my heart. So, in Arthur’s heart, I was only worth cheap, gold-plated scrap metal. After getting my mother into the emergency room, I broke down and called Arthur. “What right do you have to touch my mother’s ancestral home?! Your people crushed her and put her in the hospital!” Arthur’s slow, deliberate voice carried an air of absolute self-righteousness: “Who told your mother to go online and spread rumors that Chloe is a homewrecker? Chloe works tirelessly for the good of this company. What right does a woman who sold her own daughter have to slander her?” “And besides, there’s no need to curse your own mother just to scare me. I don’t buy it.” “If you really want the ancestral home back, you can come to the auction and get it yourself.” With that, he hung up. A doctor walked over to inform me: “Due to massive internal crushing injuries, the patient has just passed away.” I collapsed to the floor, drained of all strength. I couldn’t even cry anymore. When I arrived at the auction, Chloe was dripping in gold and diamonds, clinging to Arthur’s arm like she was the true Mrs. Sterling. Any random gemstone necklace she pointed at would have easily covered the cost of my mother’s surgery. The surrounding crowd cast disdainful looks my way. “She’s really Mrs. Sterling? I didn’t expect her to look so pathetic!” “Her hands are rougher than my maid’s. If you didn’t know better, you’d think she was the help who wandered in by mistake, hahaha.” “Mr. Sterling obviously knows she’s an embarrassment, which is why he brought Miss Hayes here to play. He just bought her three million dollars’ worth of jewelry!” … These mocking words meant absolutely nothing to me now compared to my mother’s only remaining possession. I stumbled over to Arthur in a daze, my voice dead and monotone: “My mom passed away. Give the ancestral home back to me.” He slowly put out his cigarette, his face twisting in disgust. “You really can’t stop spewing lies, can you?” “Too bad I can’t give it back anyway. Chloe already sold it to a homeless man a few minutes ago.” I snapped my head up in shock. He knew perfectly well that my mother had protected that ancestral home with her life so my father wouldn’t sell it off. Chloe walked over, putting on an act of immense generosity. “The homeless man at the door was just so pitiful. I was just trying to do a good deed in Mrs. Sterling’s name, otherwise…” Then, she leaned in close and whispered in my ear: “Otherwise, your mother wouldn’t have been crushed to death.” The woman’s vicious, twisted face magnified in my vision. Suddenly, I remembered the single earring I had found in the rubble of the house earlier—it perfectly matched the one missing from her ear right now! In that instant, pure fury completely incinerated my rationality. Gritting my teeth, I swung my hand and slapped her right down the stairs. Chapter 4 As Chloe screamed and tumbled down the steps, the crowd gasped in shock. “Stella, are you a fucking psycho?!” Arthur sped past me, rushing down the stairs to help the woman up, his gaze bone-chillingly cold. Chloe collapsed weakly into his arms, coughing non-stop: “I don’t even know how I offended Mrs. Sterling. Whenever she disciplines me in private, I never tell anyone, but she shouldn’t embarrass you like this, Mr. Sterling, sob…” As she spoke, she casually exposed the bruises on her arms and thighs, looking like the ultimate victim. The onlookers cast judgmental stares at me. Arthur stood up and, without warning, slapped me hard across the face, his eyes nearly popping out of his head with rage: “Have you forgotten every rule the Sterling family taught you?! Get down there and apologize right now!” My eyes were bloodshot: “Never! She killed my mother, are you blind?!” Acting as if he hadn’t heard me, Arthur pulled out his phone right in front of me and dialed the demolition crew. Gritting his teeth, he threatened: “Apologize!” I shook my head in terror, easily imagining the ancestral home being reduced to absolute rubble. “No, don’t!” Under Arthur’s threatening glare, I stumbled to my feet and walked over to Chloe. “I! Am! Sorry!” She smiled smugly, striking the pose of a victor. Arthur wrapped his arm around her waist, looking down at me from his high horse. “Here’s five bucks. Go find the homeless man and get the deed.” With that, Arthur carefully scooped the woman up and carried her toward the medical bay. I humiliatingly picked up the crumpled five-dollar bill from the floor. The guests were laughing so hard they were bent over. “Hahahaha!” “First she stripped and climbed into his bed for fifty grand, and now she’s going to beg a homeless man for five bucks. How pathetic.” I stumbled away, listening to their insults. Arthur, I no longer care for the fake love you doled out like charity. Just as I turned to leave, Chloe’s supposedly dropped phone lit up with a notification: “Understood, we are beginning demolition immediately!” My heart plummeted. I shoved everyone out of my way and sprinted out of the auction house. Arthur stared deeply at my retreating back. He was about to call out to me when Chloe interrupted him. “My ankle hurts so much.” He withdrew his gaze and sped up his pace toward the medical bay. By the time I reached the ancestral home, the workers were already operating excavators, leveling the perimeter walls. “Stop! I said stop!” The deafening roar of the machinery completely drowned out my pleas. Just then, a pair of greasy, filthy hands grabbed me and threw me aside. “I bought this house with my own money! Who told you to demolish it?! Give me my money back!” The deranged homeless man began smashing a rock against my head, each blow harder than the last. My agonizing screams grew weaker and weaker until blood completely blinded my eyes. With one final, brutal strike, my strength gave out and I collapsed to the ground. Arthur had refused Chloe’s request to have dinner with her, instead driving straight to the ancestral home. The moment he stepped out of his car, a passing homeless man, fiddling with a blood-stained five-dollar bill, muttered to himself: “That chick had some serious fight in her. Maybe she’ll give me a big, fat son!” Arthur froze in his tracks. He violently grabbed the man by the collar, his eyes practically bulging out of his skull: “Who the fuck are you talking about?!” The homeless man trembled violently, unable to form a complete sentence: “I… I don’t know her! She just ran in earlier, so I knocked her out and…” Arthur’s eyes widened in horror. He threw the man to the ground and sprinted into the alleyway. But the sprawling ancestral home had already been reduced to a pile of rubble. The workers were still wantonly destroying what was left. Arthur roared at the top of his lungs: “Stop! All of you, stop right now!” The foreman saw him and ran over, bowing and scraping: “Mr. Sterling, are you satisfied? We followed your orders exactly; not a single brick will be left standing.” Arthur frowned deeply. “What are you talking about?” “When did I ever tell you to demolish it?” The foreman immediately pulled out his phone, showing a recent call log. “Your secretary called us just a little while ago and told us to start working. Doesn’t her order represent your order?” Hearing this, Arthur’s breath hitched. Just as he was about to verify the call, he accidentally noticed the ground completely covered in blood. “What… what is this? Right, my wife was just here. Where is she?” The workers scratched their heads in confusion. “We were working too hard, we didn’t see what happened.” But the purse on the ground, and the pair of blood-stained high heels… those belonged to Stella. Connecting this with what the homeless man had just said, his brain completely short-circuited. He had only wanted to use this opportunity to punish Stella and her mother. But he had never intended to actually demolish the ancestral home, nor had he ever imagined a homeless man would hurt Stella. Arthur erupted in a violent rage: “Restore this house to exactly how it was immediately, or I’ll end all of you!” Dropping that threat, he gathered the scattered belongings from the ground and rushed home. On the way, he called Stella’s phone over and over again, but it remained unanswered. He slammed his fists against the steering wheel, furious, having nowhere to vent his guilt. Ever since Stella’s father delivered her to his bed, he had started to hate her. Could it be that the two of them, who had originally loved each other so deeply, only came together because of money? So he constantly tested her, constantly pushed her limits. He wanted to prove that Stella loved him unconditionally. But he never anticipated that it would lead to a situation like this. Stella’s most cherished ancestral home, and even her purity, had been destroyed. When he arrived home, the nanny rushed up to him, sweating profusely. “Mr. Sterling, someone came by earlier and took the Madam’s belongings, and they left a message for you.” “What message?!” “The Madam said she has already divorced you, and she will never return to the Sterling household again.” Hearing this, Arthur nearly lost his footing. Only then did he remember that he had already signed the divorce agreement today. It turned out Stella wasn’t just throwing a tantrum; she really wanted a divorce. “That… that’s impossible.” Looking at the empty room, he couldn’t believe Stella would never come back. “She must just be mad at me. How dare Chloe act on her own?!” The man’s eyes were bloodshot, his anger surging, as he sped towards the company. But as he passed the breakroom, he heard Chloe laughing uproariously: “It was just a rundown old house, nothing special. Turning it into a garbage dump was doing her a favor.” “You guys should have seen it! When I told her her mother had been crushed to death, the look on her face was priceless, hahaha!” “Right now, she’s probably having the time of her life with that crazy homeless guy. It’s exactly what someone of her status deserves!” As soon as the words left her mouth, she followed her colleagues’ shocked gazes and turned her head. “Mr… Mr. Sterling!” Chloe spun around in a panic, so terrified she was babbling: “You… didn’t you say you had work to handle? Why are you back so soon?” The woman offered a stiff, awkward smile. Arthur stepped closer, his gaze as cold as ice. “Everything you just said… is it true?” Chloe had killed Stella’s mother, ordered the demolition crew to destroy the house, and even arranged for the homeless man. Looking at the terror on the woman’s face, he couldn’t believe it. He had always thought Chloe was a hard worker at the company, climbing the ladder through her own efforts. He had even frequently compared her to Stella, putting Stella down at every turn. He never imagined Chloe could be so vicious and ruthless. Smack! Unable to hold back any longer, Arthur slapped her hard across the face. The surrounding employees gasped in shock. They had all believed Chloe was the most promising of Arthur’s many mistresses. They had even seen her as the future Mrs. Sterling. Seeing the situation now, they lowered their heads and tried to slip out of the breakroom. “Stop right there!” Arthur barked at them. “Come here, and each of you slap her ten times. If you don’t finish, pack up your desks and get out of my company!”

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Chapter 1 After my fifth miscarriage, my uterus was so severely damaged that I had to undergo a full hysterectomy. It felt like a death sentence. I was told I would never be a mother in this lifetime. On the day I was discharged from the hospital, I was scrolling through Reddit when I stumbled upon a thread: [What’s the best acting performance you’ve ever seen from a real person?] One of the top comments, sitting at over a million upvotes, caught my eye. [To sleep with my boss, I pretended to be his cousin. While his wife was in the hospital getting a hysterectomy, we did it seven times on their marital bed in one night. His wife didn’t suspect a thing.] [The next day, when she saw a trash bag full of used tissues, she actually thought her husband had been crying over her condition.] The replies under that comment were an absolute war zone. People were ripping her to shreds, calling her shameless and asking why she was acting like being a homewrecker was a badge of honor. But the original poster was completely unapologetic and arrogant in her responses. [What era are you people living in? What do you mean ‘homewrecker’? The one who isn’t loved is the real third wheel, okay?] [My boss told me himself: he lost feelings for his wife a long time ago. I am his only true soulmate and physical match.] I was just about to scroll past it, disgusted, when I noticed the woman’s profile picture. It was a close-up of two hands, fingers intertwined. Wasn’t that the custom wedding band I had designed for my husband? …… Staring at the photo on the glowing screen, my entire body went rigid. I had been with Mark for five years. We never raised our voices at each other, let alone had a real fight. In the eyes of our friends, we were the perfect, enviable couple. Mark did have a cousin. Her name was Chloe. She was beautiful, sweet, and an Ivy League graduate. After I suffered my fifth consecutive miscarriage, she seemed even more devastated than I was. She came over every few days to bring me homemade, nutrient-rich bone broth, insisting she was going to help me nurse my body back to health. One was the husband I trusted with my life. The other was a kind, caring, sweet “cousin.” How could they possibly betray me? I tried to click on the user’s profile to read more, but the comment had already been reported and deleted. So, I created a burner account, pretended to be a fan of her “boldness,” and requested to join the private Discord server linked in her bio. Inside the chat, someone asked her what she was really after with her boss. She posted a mirror selfie of a man’s chiseled, eight-pack abs, her text dripping with smugness. [My boss is handsome, loaded, and amazing in bed. How could anyone not fall for a man like that?] Immediately after, she sent the message that shattered my world. [Do you want to know why his wife got pregnant five times and miscarried five times?] [Because he was terrified that if she actually had a kid, she wouldn’t have any time left to spend with me. So, he started slipping saffron and other abortifacients into her prenatal vitamins.] [Who knew her body was so weak this time? She bled so much she ended up losing her entire uterus.] I stared at those glowing lines of text. My body began to shake uncontrollably. I was absolutely, horrifyingly certain now. The woman she was talking about was me. And Mark… he didn’t just cheat on me. He had personally, meticulously poisoned the prenatal supplements I took every single day. Five pregnancies. Five miscarriages. Every single time, he had been the one to carefully brew my teas, hand me my pills, and look at me with eyes full of deep, agonizing heartbreak. I thought he cherished those babies as much as I did. I had no idea that what he was truly terrified of was me actually bringing one into the world. I remembered the countless times I had leaned against his chest, looking up at him with eyes full of hope and longing. “Honey, do you want a boy or a girl?” He would always rest his chin softly on the top of my head, his voice so gentle it could melt ice. “Either is perfect. As long as it’s a piece of you, I’ll love them with all my heart.” But as it turned out, every single one of those sweet, tender words was a calculated, venomous lie. I bit down on my lip so hard I tasted blood, but I couldn’t feel the pain. Some people in the chat thought she was just making up a sick story for clout and attention. To prove them wrong, she simply unlocked her private Instagram profile, telling everyone in the Discord to go look for themselves. Chapter 2 I immediately opened her Instagram. Every single post I scrolled past felt like a knife twisting in my lungs, suffocating me. [July 15th: The lingerie my boss bought me is way too conservative. It doesn’t show off my figure at all. He should just give it to his boring wife.] That day was my birthday. He had surprised me by uncharacteristically buying me a gift. When I opened it, it was a set of black, sheer lace lingerie. Even though the sizing was completely wrong, I didn’t think much of it. I just assumed he was clueless about women’s sizing. I even put it on that night and tried my best to put on a show for him. I never realized… it was never meant for me in the first place. [August 30th: I have to go on a business trip to Chicago soon. My boss is supposed to be taking his wife on a vacation to Aspen. We won’t be able to see each other for days! But it’s okay, because my boss specifically changed his itinerary just so he could be with me.] That Aspen trip was a vacation we had been planning for over a year. I had made endless spreadsheets and itineraries. But right before we were supposed to leave, he suddenly changed the destination. He swapped our tickets to Aspen for flights to Chicago. At the time, he looked me in the eye and swore with absolute sincerity. “Babe, the altitude in Aspen is too high. Your body is still recovering, and I’m worried you won’t be able to handle it.” I had just suffered a miscarriage. I genuinely believed he was just being protective of my health. I even felt guilty for a long time, blaming my weak body for ruining his chance to visit Aspen—a place I knew he had always dreamed of going. But now, I realized just how laughably pathetic and wrong I had been. My trembling finger kept scrolling. There were so many stories. So many betrayals. Until I stopped on this one. [November 5th: The boss’s mother-in-law passed away. He missed me so much he sent me the location. We went a few rounds right behind the casket in the funeral home! We almost knocked a candle over and burned the whole place down. It was such a rush!] A violent wave of nausea hit me, and I violently dry-heaved over the side of my bed. So the fire that broke out in the back room of my mother’s funeral home wasn’t an accident. It was the result of them desperately screwing each other just feet away from my mother’s casket. The Mark I knew… was the man who, when I casually mentioned I was craving a specific pastry from a bakery across town, would drive a hundred miles in the middle of the night just to get it for me. He remembered my menstrual cycle more accurately than my own calendar app, always having a hot water bottle and pain meds ready. Whenever he brought me to company events, he would proudly introduce me to his colleagues. “This is my wife. The absolute love of my life.” I didn’t understand. How could the man who held me on such a high pedestal deceive me so flawlessly, so cruelly? Hearing my agonizing retching, Mark, who had just returned to the hospital room with breakfast, rushed over. “Babe, what’s wrong?! Are you feeling nauseous again?” He carefully rubbed my back, his voice incredibly soft and soothing. “It’s okay. You just had major surgery, the doctors said you’d feel sick for a few days. Just hold on a little longer, it’ll pass soon.” I squeezed my eyes shut, gathering every last ounce of strength I had left in my shattered body. With extreme difficulty, I raised my head and stared directly into his seemingly worried, affectionate eyes. “Mark. I know everything about you and Chloe.” Chapter 3 Mark’s cell phone suddenly started ringing in his pocket. He hastily silenced the call, turned back to me, and that mask of gentle perfection slid flawlessly back into place. “Babe, what did you just say? I didn’t quite catch that.” I pulled my gaze away from his phone and instinctively replied. “Was that Chloe calling?” The corners of his mouth twitched upward into a practiced, perfectly polite smile. “Yeah, it was. That silly girl… she’s not feeling well right now, I really need to go check on her. Can you take an Uber home by yourself today, sweetie? Is that okay?” What a flawless, impenetrable excuse. If I hadn’t seen that Reddit post, I probably would still be completely in the dark, nodding understandingly. Before I could even respond, he had already turned and practically sprinted out the door. I sat frozen on the edge of the hospital bed. My phone screen suddenly lit up. A new notification from the Discord chat popped up: [Just bought some fun new toys, I really want to try them out with him. His wife is literally in a hospital bed right now, but do you guys bet I can get him over here with a single text?] And just like that, he went. He went so eagerly, so desperately. Acting entirely on instinct, I threw on my clothes and followed him. I tracked his location app until I saw his familiar black Audi parked in an empty lot. Chloe was leaning seductively against the passenger side door. Mark power-walked over to her. They didn’t even exchange a single word before smoothly sliding into the backseat together. The heavy doors slammed shut. Less than a minute later, the SUV’s suspension began to rhythmically rock back and forth. I pulled out my phone and accessed the live feed from the hidden dashcam I had installed months ago for insurance purposes. The explicit, filthy sounds of their heavy breathing blasted into my ear through my AirPods. “Boss… tell me the truth. Between me and your wife… who do you like fucking more?” Mark’s voice lacked any of the warmth he showed me, replaced instead by a dark, degrading lust. “You, of course, you little slut! You know all the best positions, you’re always eager, and you’re younger than her. In bed, she just lays there like a dead fish.” He paused for a second before adding: “But she is the only one who can hold the title of Mrs. Davis. After all, she comes from old money, she’s an Ivy League grad, and her family’s connections are the only reason my company is still afloat.” “Besides, don’t you think sleeping with a married man is more of a rush? I have endless money to spend on you, and I know exactly how to spoil you.” My nails dug so deeply into my palms they drew blood. If I hadn’t heard the audio with my own two ears… I never would have believed that these words came from the mouth of the man I had loved and been married to for five years. In my mind, he had always been a quiet, stoic man who wasn’t great with words. But he was brilliant, reliable, and incredibly organized—which was exactly what drew me to him in the first place. When we first started dating, my parents were vehemently opposed to it. He grew up in a dirt-poor, rural farming town and was the sole financial provider for his entire extended family. The crushing financial burden of his family was entirely on his shoulders. Back then, there were countless wealthy, successful men pursuing me, but I was completely moved by his relentless, devoted pursuit. I leveraged my parents’ connections and emptied my entire trust fund to help him start his tech company. Once the company took off, we got married. Even when she brought Chloe into the company to be her “secretary,” and I found out she was his “cousin”… I personally instructed HR to pay her a salary significantly higher than standard market rate to help out his family. I never imagined it was all a meticulously crafted lie. A massive, suffocating agony crushed my heart. I lost all rational thought and sprinted blindly toward the rocking SUV. But the very next second, the engine roared to life! The heavy SUV suddenly, without any warning, accelerated and slammed directly into me. The sickening sound of bones shattering was the last thing I registered before the pain dragged me into absolute, suffocating darkness. Chapter 4 When I woke up again, Mark was sitting by my hospital bed, clutching my hand in a death grip. “Babe! You’re awake! How are you feeling?!” “Are you thirsty? I’ll go get you some water right now.” He stood up, acting as if absolutely nothing horrific had happened. I couldn’t hold it back anymore. My voice was a raw, hoarse rasp. “What exactly were you two doing in that car today?” Mark’s hand visibly stiffened. His brow furrowed. “You… you saw us?” I didn’t expose the dashcam audio. I wanted to see how far he would go to lie to my face. “No.” Hearing my denial, his facial muscles instantly relaxed, and he let out a heavy sigh of relief. “Babe, what could Chloe and I possibly be doing in a car? She’s my cousin! Did the impact from the crash scramble your brain?” “But honestly, it’s all my fault. If I hadn’t accidentally hit the gas instead of the brake, I never would have hit you. It’s all your husband’s fault.” He hit me? But right before the impact, I clearly saw through the windshield that the person who suddenly threw the car into drive and stomped on the gas was Chloe. I had even seen her flashing me a malicious, provocative smirk from the driver’s seat. To protect her, he was actually willing to take the blame for attempted vehicular manslaughter. I couldn’t help but let out a weak, chilling laugh. His cell phone suddenly rang. Using it as an excuse, he told me he had to step out to take an important work call. I slowly sat up, intending to find a nurse to change my bandages. But as I walked past the hospital stairwell… The sound of muffled, suppressed sobbing echoed clearly through the heavy fire door. Chloe had her face buried in Mark’s chest, her shoulders shaking violently. “Boss… do you think your wife knows? If she finds out, does that mean I can’t stay by your side anymore?” Mark wrapped his arms tightly around her, comforting her in a low, hushed whisper. “Stop overthinking it. I tested the waters; she didn’t suspect a thing. But moving forward, we have to be much more careful…” “How are we supposed to be careful…” Chloe’s tearful, whining voice suddenly turned seductive. I saw her hand slide suggestively under his shirt. “I need you to comfort me right now.” “You little slut. I’ll give you exactly what you need.” Mark let out a dark chuckle. Immediately following it, the sickening, wet sounds of kissing and the rustle of clothing echoed through the stairwell. I whipped around and stumbled blindly back to my hospital room, locking myself in the attached bathroom. I hovered over the toilet, dry-heaving violently until my throat burned. I thought that after seeing the true, horrific face of this man, my heart would be numb. But witnessing it with my own eyes again… the agonizing grief was still unbearable. After I finished throwing up, I splashed freezing water on my face. Then, I pulled out my phone and dialed my lawyer’s number. “Hello. I need you to draft a divorce agreement. I want Mark Davis to walk away with absolutely nothing.” Just as I hung up the phone, Mark pushed open the bathroom door. “Babe, who were you just on the phone with?” He asked with practiced, casual ease. “A coworker from the firm. Asking about a project timeline.” I lowered my eyes, offering a flat, dismissive lie. He sat down next to me, instinctively reaching out to put his arm around my shoulder. “Oh, by the way. Our wedding anniversary is in three days. I promised you I would make every anniversary unforgettable. Let’s celebrate properly this year, okay?” I slowly raised my head, staring deep into the eyes that were filled with nothing but fabricated, sickening devotion, and nodded. “Okay.” If that was the case… then on our anniversary, I would give him a gift he would truly never forget.

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I went missing when I was eight years old. The trauma was so severe that my mother suffered a complete mental breakdown, living her days in madness. To make her forget me, my father secretly mixed antipsychotic drugs into her meals every single day. He burned all my photos and all my clothes. “Just forget it, Claire.” “I’m doing this for your own good. We’re still young, we can have another one. If you keep acting crazy like this, it’s going to ruin my career.” My mother desperately tried to claw the pills out of her mouth, but he had her tied to the bed and injected the drugs by force. “If you keep this up, I’ll lock you in a sanitarium, and you’ll never see the light of day again.” Tears streamed down my mother’s face. She stopped speaking and was locked away by him as a lunatic for ten long years. Until the day I showed up at their door, pretending to apply for a job. My father waved me away impatiently, telling me to get lost. But my mother suddenly broke free from her restraints and ran barefoot to the front door. She gently smoothed my messy bangs: “Baby, you’re playing hide-and-seek with Mommy, and Mommy didn’t cheat.” “Mommy has been in the house, waiting for you this whole time.” … 1 Arthur’s fingers froze. Mrs. Higgins from next door was peering in, holding a grocery bag. He pulled his foot back, the look of disgust on his face instantly morphing into a bitter, helpless smile. “I’m so sorry you had to see this. Claire, she…” “Her condition has gotten worse lately. She’s even mistaking strangers for family.” As he spoke, Arthur smoothly moved in to pry my mother’s hands off me. His knuckles turned white from the force, leaving an angry red mark on the back of my mother’s hand. But my mother held onto me with a death grip. Her tangled, matted hair hid her face, revealing only a pair of wide, terrified eyes. “No… don’t go! She’s my baby! She’s my baby!” My mother shrieked, her entire body trembling violently. Arthur leaned in close, lowering his voice to a menacing whisper right in her ear. “Claire, do you want to be locked in the dark room again? Let go.” My mother’s body went completely rigid. Her fingers trembled, and she slowly released her grip. I immediately reached out and grabbed my mother’s thin, skeletal hand. “Mr. Sterling, since your wife seems to like me so much, why don’t you let me give it a try?” I looked up, flashing a bright, professional smile, and casually smoothed my mother’s disheveled bangs. “I’m a certified senior caregiver, specializing in patients with psychiatric disorders. Here are my credentials.” Without waiting for his approval, I pulled out my forged ID badge and shoved it right in his face. Mrs. Higgins chimed in from the doorway. “Oh, Arthur, since Claire doesn’t seem to reject the girl, why not let her stay and give it a try!” “Dealing with her crazy episodes day in and day out, it can’t be easy for you.” Cornered and unable to refuse without looking suspicious, a flash of dark hostility crossed Arthur’s face. “Alright then. I’ll be counting on you.” He stepped aside. The front door clicked shut, plunging the house into gloom. Arthur instantly dropped his facade, kicking the shoe cabinet with all his might. The loud crash terrified my mother; she let out a whimpering cry and shrank into the corner. “Drag her inside and scrub her clean! Don’t let that sour stench of hers near me!” Arthur loosened his tie, casting a contemptuous look at my mother before turning his gaze to me. “New girl. I don’t care who you are. In this house, there is only one rule.” He took a step closer, towering over me intimidatingly. “Obedience. I don’t like people who talk too much, and I despise people who think they’re smart. Do you understand?” I lowered my head and nodded submissively. “I understand, Mr. Sterling. I will make sure the Mrs. is ‘obedient’.” Arthur scoffed and walked into his study. I helped my mother up from the corner. Her hands were ice cold, dirt packed deep beneath her fingernails. Her wrists were encircled with dark, overlapping bruises. I guided her to the dining table. On the table sat a bowl of cold oatmeal, alongside a few white pills. Arthur walked out holding a glass of warm water. “Crush the pills, mix them into the oatmeal, and feed it to her.” He leaned against the doorframe, arms crossed, watching us intently. I picked up the pills. Chlorpromazine. A heavy-duty antipsychotic. “Mr. Sterling, this dosage… isn’t it a bit high?” Arthur’s eyes turned icy. He walked over, took the spoon, and stirred the oatmeal. The spoon clinked sharply against the bowl. “Claire is very sick. How can she get better if she doesn’t take her medication? I’m doing this for her own good. For the good of this family.” He shoved the spoon into my hand. “Feed her. Don’t let her spit it out. Every single drop.” My mother stared at the bowl of oatmeal, her lips clamped tightly shut, a low, guttural moan escaping her throat. “No… poison… it’s poison…” Arthur sighed heavily, reached out, and pinched my mother’s jaw. I watched as her jawbone turned white under his crushing grip. “Claire, be a good girl. Once you eat this, you won’t feel so miserable anymore. Why do you never understand my good intentions?” Smiling, he applied more pressure, forcing her mouth open. Using my body to block his view, I quickly pinched my mother’s palm. Her eyes flickered, and she looked up at me. As I went to feed her, I used my thumb to swiftly slide the pills into my sleeve, scooping up only plain oatmeal and putting it into her mouth. “Swallow it.” Arthur commanded. My mother swallowed with obvious difficulty. Arthur stared at her throat for a few seconds. Only when he was absolutely certain she had swallowed did he let go. He wiped his fingers meticulously with a napkin. “See? That’s a good girl.” He glanced at the wall clock and adjusted his suit jacket. “I have to attend the city’s ‘Model Husband’ award ceremony tonight.” “Keep a close eye on her. Don’t let her wander around, and absolutely do not let her make those weird noises.” Arthur walked to the door, then turned back to give me one last look. “Do a good job, and your salary doubles. Screw this up… and I’ll lock you in that room right alongside her.” The front door slammed shut. My mother slumped in her chair, her eyes vacant and empty. I dropped to my knees in front of her, gently cupping her gaunt, hollowed-out face. “Mom… It’s me, Lily. I’m your Lily…” 2 My mother acted as if she hadn’t heard me, curling herself into a tight, trembling ball. “No poison… this time there’s no poison…” I buried my face in her lap and wept uncontrollably. I got lost when I was eight. I survived in an orphanage, and all these years, my only goal was to find my way back home. The TV in the living room suddenly flared to life. Arthur stood on an illuminated stage, holding a gleaming trophy, his eyes shining with unshed tears. “Truthfully, I haven’t done enough. My wife, Claire, has suffered from severe mental health issues ever since we lost our daughter.” “But I swear, no matter what happens to her, I will never, ever give up on her.” Thunderous applause erupted from the audience, and countless camera flashes illuminated his earnest face. My mother’s body convulsed violently. She grabbed the empty oatmeal bowl and hurled it at the TV screen. “Liar! Demon! He’s a demon!” I threw my arms around her, holding her tight as she thrashed wildly. I pushed up her sleeves. Her arms were covered in needle marks. Old scars layered over new ones; some of the puncture sites were oozing pus. “Mom, I’m going to kill him. I swear to you, I’m going to kill him…” I gritted my teeth, forcing the words out one by one. The sound of a key turning in the lock. I quickly wiped my tears and half-carried my mother back into her room. Arthur was home. Clinging to his arm was a heavily made-up woman, leading a little boy who looked to be about six or seven. The moment the woman stepped inside, she pinched her nose and fanned the air disgustedly. “Ugh, Arthur, this is your house? Why does it smell like a crazy person? How can anyone live in this dump?” Arthur picked up the little boy and planted a kiss on his cheek. “Buddy, this is Daddy’s… oh, I mean, this is your cousin’s house. This will be our home from now on.” The little boy, “Buddy,” held a soccer ball, his eyes darting around the room mischievously. “Cousin Arthur, where’s the crazy lady? I wanna see the crazy lady!” Buddy wriggled out of Arthur’s arms and viciously kicked a piece of the shattered porcelain bowl across the floor. I stood at the end of the hallway, watching this twisted “family of three.” Arthur looked slightly uncomfortable for a split second, but his expression quickly smoothed out. “Caregiver, this is my cousin, Maya. She’s here specifically to help me take care of Claire. And this is her son, Buddy.” He pointed at the broken porcelain on the floor. “What happened here? Did Claire throw another tantrum? Clean this up immediately, don’t let the kid cut himself.” Maya plopped down on the sofa, kicking off her high heels. “Hey, you there. Get me a glass of water first. Warm. Not too hot, not too cold. And make sure it’s fresh.” I gripped the broom handle tight, turned around, and went to get the water. Suddenly, Buddy took his soccer ball and kicked it with all his might right at the crack in the door where my mother was hiding. Smack. The heavy ball hit my mother square in the face. She let out a tortured scream and collapsed, blood gushing from her nose. “Hahaha! Bullseye! The crazy lady is bleeding!” Buddy clapped his hands, howling with laughter. I dropped the water glass and lunged forward. “Mom!” I helped her up. Her face was covered in blood, and she was shaking uncontrollably, clutching her face. “Mr. Sterling! Is this what you call taking care of her?!” I whipped my head around and glared at Arthur. Arthur frowned, walking over to look down at us imperiously. “He’s just a kid, he doesn’t know any better. They were just playing. What are you yelling for? Don’t scare the boy.” He sighed, crouched down, picked up the soccer ball, and casually dusted it off. “Claire, really now. You knew we had guests over, and you still hide there trying to scare people.” “Look, you got Buddy’s ball all dirty.” My mother’s dignity was worth less than a bastard child’s soccer ball. Maya strolled over as well. “Ew, Arthur, look how filthy she is. All covered in blood. Get her out of here before she traumatizes Buddy.” “Did you hear her? Take her inside and stop the bleeding. Stop making a scene.” Arthur handed the ball back to Buddy. I helped my mother to her feet. As we walked past the kid, I shot him a glare so cold it could freeze water. Buddy recoiled in terror and burst into loud wails. “Daddy! She glared at me! The servant glared at me!” Arthur turned around, his eyes narrowing dangerously. “Caregiver, that look in your eyes… I don’t like it.” He slowly walked right up to me. “In this house, your eyes don’t need to be too sharp. You just need to see clearly who the master is.” “If you can’t even manage that basic level of awareness, I have no problem finding a replacement for you.” 3 Late at night. The sound of Maya’s giggles and Arthur’s heavy breathing echoed from the master bedroom. The sounds bled right through the walls and into the storage closet. Ever since Maya and her brat moved in, Arthur had banished my mother to this closet. It was barely fifty square feet, windowless, and reeked of mold. My mother lay curled up on a rigid cot, groaning in agony as a high fever wracked her body. “Water… water…” I was just about to get up and pour her a glass when the door swung open. Arthur stood in the doorway, wearing a silk robe and holding a medical kit. Backlit by the hallway lights, his face was cast in shadow. “You’re being too damn loud.” He closed the door behind him. “It’s the middle of the night. What the hell are you wailing for? Are you trying to let all the neighbors know I’m abusing you?” Arthur opened the medical kit, pulled out a syringe, and drew a thick, yellow liquid into the vial. My mother stared in sheer terror, desperately trying to scramble under the cot. “No! No needles! Arthur, I’m sorry! I won’t do it again! Please!” Arthur stepped over me impatiently, grabbed her by the hair, and forcefully dragged her back onto the bed. “Claire, why can’t you just be a good girl and listen?” “This is an imported nutritional injection. It costs thousands of dollars a pop. I treat you so well, and you’re still not satisfied?” He drove his knee into my mother’s stomach, pinning her down. I huddled in the shadows behind the door, gripping my hidden voice recorder tight. I can’t move. I need to make sure he burns in hell for this. Arthur raised the syringe, gently stroking my mother’s face. “Claire, go to sleep. Once you’re asleep, it won’t hurt anymore, and you won’t remember any of those sad things.” “If you don’t go to sleep like a good girl and keep making a racket in my house, I’ll have no choice but to send you to that place.” My mother’s eyes widened in sheer panic, her body going completely rigid. The needle pierced her skin. As the liquid was pushed into her veins, my mother’s frantic struggles faded into weak, shallow pants. Arthur pulled out the needle, tossed the empty vial into the trash can, and patted my mother’s cheek in satisfaction. “Such a good girl.” He stood up and walked out, humming a cheerful little tune. The next morning, I was jolted awake by a piercing scream. In the kitchen, Maya was clutching the back of her hand, screaming bloody murder. A pot of scalding soup was splashed all over the floor. My mother stood nearby, holding an empty bowl, looking completely dazed. “Murder! The crazy bitch is trying to kill me! Arthur, help!” Only a tiny patch of skin on Maya’s hand was actually red, but she was screaming as if she were being burned alive. Arthur rushed into the kitchen. “What the hell is going on?!” Maya threw herself into Arthur’s arms and started sobbing theatrically. “Arthur, I just wanted to be nice and serve her a bowl of soup, and she threw it right at me! She’s trying to burn me alive!” My mother waved her hands frantically in panic. “No… it wasn’t… she did it…” Smack! Arthur delivered a brutal backhand across my mother’s face. “Claire, I am so incredibly disappointed in you.” He pointed a shaking finger at my mother. “Maya goes out of her way to take care of you out of the goodness of her heart. If you don’t appreciate it, fine, but to resort to such vicious violence? Have you completely lost every shred of human decency?” I stepped in front of my mother, shielding her. “Mr. Sterling, there’s something not right here. The Mrs. was standing perfectly still the entire time. It was Miss Maya who intentionally…” “Do you think you have the right to speak here?!” Arthur cut me off with icy venom. “Since this house can no longer tolerate your presence, for everyone’s safety, and so you can receive better psychiatric care…” Arthur turned back to my mother, his eyes completely devoid of warmth. “I’ll have you sent to the Serenity Grove Sanitarium tomorrow.” Arthur straightened his cuffs. “Oh, right. Tomorrow, I’ll be hosting a small, charitable farewell gathering right here. I’m inviting the media, our friends, and our family to witness it.” The corner of his mouth curled into a chilling smirk. “I want everyone to know exactly how heartbroken I am to part with you, and how I had absolutely no other choice but to send you away.” “Claire, you’ll cooperate with me… won’t you?” 4 The farewell gathering was a massive, extravagant affair. Arthur had invited local news crews. The garden was overflowing with extravagant floral arrangements and towers of champagne. The guests mingled, clinking glasses. “Arthur really is a saint. Dealing with a wife like that and still never abandoning her.” “If it were me, I would have lost it ages ago. The fact that he’s still willing to pay to send her to a private sanitarium… he’s done more than his fair share.” I stood on the fringes of the crowd, the voice recorder in my pocket practically burning a hole in my uniform. Maya strutted around playing the perfect hostess, weaving through the guests wearing my mother’s designer gown. Buddy, dressed in a tiny tailored suit, stood obediently by Arthur’s side. Arthur wheeled my mother out. The woman in the wheelchair had been dressed in a floral sundress and wore heavy makeup. Heavily sedated, my mother sat slumped in the chair like a lifeless marionette. A thick strip of medical tape was plastered over her mouth. A spotlight hit Arthur. Tears pooled in his eyes as he rested a hand gently on the handles of the wheelchair. “Friends, family… thank you all so much for coming today.” “For the past ten years, I’ve prayed every single day for a miracle. Prayed that Claire would get better. Prayed that our little girl, who was taken from us, would find her way back home…” Several guests in the audience discreetly wiped away tears. “But reality is cruel. Claire’s condition has only deteriorated, to the point where she has become violent toward the people who love her.” “To protect her from hurting herself, and to bring some peace back to our home, I am forced to make this agonizing decision.” Arthur took a deep, shaky breath. “I have decided to send Claire to a fully enclosed, intensive treatment facility. I never wanted to give up on her, but for her own safety… I have to let her go…” Thunderous applause erupted across the garden. “Arthur is an absolute saint!” “So moving! This is what true love looks like!” Soaking in the adoration, Arthur bowed deeply, then turned to push the wheelchair toward the white van stamped with “Serenity Grove Sanitarium.” Maya shot me a highly provocative, triumphant smirk. I adjusted the collar of my caregiver uniform, took a deep breath, and began walking up the steps, one by one. The exact moment Arthur’s hand reached for the wheelchair, I stepped in front of him, blocking his path. The applause died instantly. Every single pair of eyes in the garden turned to stare at me, the lowly caregiver. Arthur frowned, annoyance flashing in his eyes. “Miss, I know you’ve grown attached to Claire, and I appreciate your hard work these past few days. Please step aside. We can’t afford to miss the admission window.” He shot a subtle look, and two massive bodyguards immediately moved in. “Miss, please step back. Do you want to go to jail for causing a disturbance? Don’t force our hand.” I stared right into Arthur’s perfectly manicured face. “Mr. Sterling, an admission window?” I let out a cold, mocking laugh. My voice, amplified by the microphone near the podium, boomed across the entire estate. “Are you sending her to get treatment, or are you sending her to be slaughtered?” The crowd gasped in shock. Arthur’s face turned black with rage. “Drag her out of here! The woman has lost her mind!” The bodyguards lunged forward to grab me. I spun around swiftly and violently ripped the medical tape right off my mother’s mouth. The loud rrrip was sickeningly sharp. My mother gasped for air, looking around in sheer terror. “Mom, don’t be afraid.” I patted her hand reassuringly, then turned to face Arthur and the wall of cameras. I raised my right arm and shoved my long sleeve up past my elbow. On the inside of my wrist, a bright red, butterfly-shaped birthmark was glaringly obvious in the sunlight. The exact moment Arthur saw that birthmark, his entire body froze solid. The mask of the dignified, grieving husband completely shattered. I took a slow, deliberate step toward him, making sure I could see my own reflection in his widening eyes. I stared dead into his pupils and enunciated every single word perfectly: “Dad. It’s been ten years. Do you really not recognize your own biological daughter anymore?”

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Chapter 1 My elite, old-money family arranged for me to marry the heir of the powerful Vance Corporation. My illegitimate half-sister, who was always treated like a dirty secret at home, was so jealous her eyes turned red. The day before the “Wedding of the Century,” she slipped a powerful sedative into my drink. She climbed into my bridal limousine, while secretly orchestrating a team to steal my billion-dollar dowry. She grandly paraded into the billionaire family, completely stealing my identity and my life. When I finally woke up, I refused to let it go. I had the illegitimate brat hog-tied and dragged back to our estate. I successfully married into the Vance family as planned. But one year later, my husband threw me out onto the freezing streets of Skid Row. His eyes were vicious, his voice colder than ice. “If my company didn’t desperately need your family’s venture capital, I would have killed you a thousand times over for the way you humiliated Chloe. Now that the Sterling family has filed for bankruptcy, you’re worth less than a stray dog.” My illegitimate half-sister stood next to him, letting out a soft, mocking laugh. “Sister, this is your punishment for humiliating me. Enjoy rotting on Skid Row. Don’t worry, I’ll keep your seat as Mrs. Vance nice and warm.” Unable to endure the absolute humiliation and despair, I bit my own tongue and bled to death. When I opened my eyes again, I was back on the morning of the Wedding of the Century. …… I dragged myself out of bed, waiting a full hour for the dizziness to fade before opening my bedroom door. My mother was just walking down the grand staircase, supported by a maid. She hadn’t even wiped the bittersweet, mother-of-the-bride tears from her eyes when she looked up and saw me standing at the landing. She froze, completely stunned. My father frowned, the first to react. “Evelyn? What are you doing up here?” He pointed a shaking finger toward the front doors in sheer panic. “Then who the hell just got into the Vance family’s bridal limousine?!” I clutched my chest, acting absolutely terrified. “What?! Someone already got into the bridal limo?! Last night, Chloe told me how sad she was that I was moving out. She lit an aromatherapy candle in my room to help me relax. I took two breaths and passed out until just now!” The bustling, joyous atmosphere of the mansion instantly plunged into dead silence. The elite guests exchanged uneasy glances, the mood shifting drastically. My mother staggered backward, almost fainting from sheer rage. She immediately ordered the security team to grab Maria, Chloe’s mother, who was currently trying to slip out the back door. “I knew it! No wonder you were clutching the bride’s hands and sobbing harder than I was when she walked out the door! I thought you actually cared, but it turns out it was just your little bastard spawn under the veil!” Maria was forced to her knees. Her eyes darted around nervously as she stuttered, “Madam, I have no idea what you’re talking about! It’s the eldest daughter’s fault for oversleeping and missing the ceremony! How can you blame my poor Chloe?” Before she even finished her sentence, the head butler came rushing in. “Sir, Madam! The motorcade from the Hayes family has arrived. They’re waiting at the front gates.” My mother’s face turned to ice. “Where is Chloe Sterling? Go drag her back here immediately!” I lowered my head, hiding the cold, vicious smirk in my eyes. Where was she? She was definitely already in Liam Vance’s bed. When the marriage was arranged, Liam Vance insisted on a highly traditional, old-money ceremony. He claimed it was to honor his family’s legacy, and even hired a historian to oversee the rituals. The bride’s face was completely covered by a thick, opaque veil the entire time. By now, they had definitely already exchanged vows and entered the bridal suite. When my eyes caught the poorly concealed, triumphant smirk on Maria’s face, my suspicions were completely confirmed. This mother-daughter duo really knew how to play a dirty game. Maria used to be a maid in our house. She drugged my father, climbed into his bed, and gave birth to Chloe, securing her a comfortable life of luxury. Now, Chloe had drugged me, stolen my identity, and taken my place to marry into a billionaire dynasty, forcing the issue until the damage was irreversible. She left me with only one option. To take the garbage marriage she had discarded and marry into the Hayes family. The Hayes family was a new-money tech empire that had exploded in the last two years. They didn’t have the deep, historical roots of the old-money dynasties, but they were incredibly aggressive and dominated the emerging markets. The only problem was, the CEO of the Hayes Corporation was in a wheelchair. My father, recognizing the immense potential, had arranged for Chloe to marry into the Hayes family. If the Hayes family continued to rise, Chloe would become a vastly wealthy, powerful socialite. If they faltered, the Sterling family’s backing meant she would still live a life of absolute luxury. But Chloe didn’t appreciate my father’s brilliant maneuvering. She pulled a bait-and-switch, shoving the marriage she despised the most onto me. If I accepted it, the news that the eldest daughter of the Sterling dynasty was forced to marry a disabled man would spread across the elite circles by tonight. The entire Sterling family would become the laughingstock of high society. In my previous life, she used this exact tactic to trample me under her feet forever. Backed by my furious parents, I had stormed the Vance wedding and caused a massive scene. The Vance Corporation desperately needed the Sterling family’s capital, so they were forced to physically throw Chloe out of the bridal suite. I successfully became Mrs. Vance, and Liam Vance treated me like a queen. I didn’t know back then that the man who showered me with fake love had already been sleeping with Chloe behind my back. They were working together the entire time. They were just waiting for the perfect moment to completely obliterate the Sterling empire. The maid’s shocked scream snapped me out of my memories. “Madam! The second miss isn’t in her room! The wedding dress and veil meant for the Hayes wedding are still on her bed, but all of her luggage and dowry are gone!” “Also… I found some things hidden in the back of her closet…” My father snatched the envelope from the maid. Inside was a stack of highly explicit, graphic photos of Chloe and Liam Vance having sex. His face turned a furious, sickly shade of purple. He viciously slammed the photos directly into Maria’s face. “This is the daughter you raised! She has dragged the entire Sterling family name through the mud!” Chapter 2 The butler looked deeply distressed. “Sir, the Hayes family motorcade is still waiting outside. What should we do?” My father’s face was rigid as iron. He slammed his fist heavily onto the mahogany table. “Call the Vance family immediately! Have your men quietly drag that wretched brat back here and throw her into the Hayes motorcade! A pathetic, illegitimate mistake does not get to dictate the Sterling family’s marriages!” I grabbed my father’s sleeve, pinching my thigh hard to force a flood of agonizing tears down my cheeks. “Dad, don’t. Let it go. Chloe and Liam are clearly in love. They’ve already slept together, and they intentionally set up this trap at the wedding to humiliate us. I refuse to marry a man like that. Let Chloe have him.” I wiped the corners of my eyes. “The Hayes family does a massive amount of business with us. The foundation of any empire is trust and integrity. I don’t want you to break your promise to them, Dad. I am willing to marry into the Hayes family.” My father looked at me, utterly shocked and deeply moved. “Evelyn, you are the true heir to the Sterling dynasty. In this entire city, the Vance family is the only one that even comes close to matching your status. Marrying into the Hayes family is a massive insult to you. Plus, Arthur Hayes is…” He swallowed the rest of his sentence, his eyes filled with profound heartbreak. I smiled softly and filled in the blank. “Dad, the Hayes Corporation was only ten spots behind the Vance Corporation on Forbes last year. The Vance family has been building wealth for generations; the Hayes family did it in two years. Arthur Hayes might be in a wheelchair, but his mind is brilliant. With me by his side, and the full backing of the Sterling empire, the future of the Hayes family is limitless.” One was a greedy, illegitimate brat who stole her sister’s wedding for money and status. The other was a poised, true-born heir willing to marry down to protect her family’s honor and business integrity. The difference between us was like mud and diamonds. The elite guests in the room looked at me with deep admiration and sympathy, while their disgust for Chloe’s actions became palpable. My mother’s heart broke into pieces. She pulled me into a fierce, desperate hug. My father was so furious his jaw clenched visibly. “Even so, no one gets to humiliate a daughter of Richard Sterling and get away with it! Evelyn, don’t worry. The Vance family crossed a massive line today. You were absolutely right to reject Liam Vance. I will make sure we get justice for this, no matter what it takes.” By the time our convoy arrived at the Vance estate, the bride and groom had already retired to the bridal suite, but the lavish reception was still in full swing. When the crowd saw our imposing group storm through the doors, a wave of shock swept through the ballroom. “Wait, isn’t that Evelyn Sterling? She’s supposed to be the bride! Why is she just walking in now?” “Hold on, the bride was escorted to the bridal suite half an hour ago! If she’s here, who the hell is the bride?!” My mother let out a cold, piercing laugh. “I apologize for the spectacle, everyone. The woman who walked down the aisle is also a Sterling daughter. But she’s nothing more than a thieving, illegitimate brat who stole her older sister’s wedding.” The ballroom erupted into a chaotic symphony of gasps and frantic whispers. Liam Vance charged out of the back hallways, his face dark with fury. He aggressively cut my mother off. “Evelyn, stop this insanity! How can you blame Chloe for this?! Your body types are similar, and the veils were identical! You’re the one who overslept and missed the ceremony! I just picked up the wrong person!” “I had a few too many drinks, and I mistook Chloe for you. We’ve already consummated the marriage. As a man, I have to take responsibility for Chloe now.” “You brought all these people here because you want to switch back, don’t you? I know you’re hopelessly in love with me and can’t live without me. So here’s the deal: Chloe and I will get legally married. But I will only choose my corporate heir from the children you give me. You won’t have the legal title of wife, but the entire Vance empire will belong to our kids. That way, our families can still do business together.” Chapter 3 People can be so utterly delusional it actually becomes hilarious. He wanted to legally marry the illegitimate brat, trample all over me, and have me act as his secret mistress?! He wanted my son to be an illegitimate bastard?! The Vance Corporation was practically drowning in debt. If it wasn’t for the arranged marriage securing the Sterling family’s capital, they would have been wiped off the map ages ago. And he actually had the shameless audacity to suggest a polygamous fantasy where he gets to keep the Sterling family’s resources while treating me like a side piece?! My father was so furiously insulted he actually burst out laughing. “The Vance family really thinks highly of itself, doesn’t it? You enjoyed a few years of luxury and forgot what it felt like to be on the verge of total bankruptcy? If that’s the case, I don’t mind helping you remember.” The matriarch of the Vance family, Liam’s grandmother, finally snapped out of her shock and rushed forward. “Richard, what on earth is going on?!” My mother pulled the stack of explicit photos from her designer bag and threw them onto the nearest banquet table. “Why don’t you tell us, Mrs. Vance? If your precious grandson is so in love with our illegitimate mistake, why put on this massive, humiliating theatrical performance to insult my daughter?! The Sterling family refuses to accept a shameless, filthy brat like her. My husband will officially terminate all corporate partnerships the second we get home. The Sterling and Vance families are permanently severed.” If the Sterling family pulled their capital, the Vance Corporation would be left with nothing but an empty shell and billions in debt. Mrs. Vance clutched her chest, her face instantly draining of all color. She shrieked at Liam, “What the hell have you done?!” Before Liam could even speak, Chloe ran out of the hallway wearing a bright red silk robe. She threw herself to her knees right in front of me, crying a river of perfect, pathetic tears. “Sister, this is all my fault! I couldn’t control my feelings, I made a terrible mistake! But Liam and I are already married! If you keep causing a scene like this, you’re going to destroy the Sterling family’s reputation! Even if you don’t care about me, don’t you care about our family’s honor?!” She twisted her disgusting, premeditated betrayal into “uncontrollable feelings,” and twisted my demand for justice into “destroying the family’s honor.” She was shameless to an absolute, sociopathic extreme. I laughed coldly. “So what you’re saying is, you drug me, steal my wedding, climb into my bridal bed, and if I even dare to ask a single question, I’m the one ruining the family’s honor?” I deliberately raised my voice, making sure every single person in the massive ballroom heard her filthy secrets. “If you really loved Liam so much, why didn’t you just tell me? I never had to marry him! Why did you wait until the exact day of the wedding to pull this disgusting, underhanded stunt? Who exactly is dragging the Sterling family’s honor through the dirt?! Or did you never actually care about the family, and just wanted the sick thrill of stealing what was mine?!” Chloe’s face went chalk-white. Her eyes darted around in panic. “I… I didn’t! I did it because I truly love him!” The elite guests in the room were all ruthless, calculating sharks. Her pathetic little scheme was transparent to everyone. “Using disgusting, underhanded tactics and then using ‘true love’ as an excuse. An illegitimate brat really doesn’t know her place.” “If this was my daughter, I’d drag her home and beat her half to death! Stealing her own sister’s husband… God knows she’ll probably end up poisoning the whole family for money later.” Some of the sharks even aimed their crosshairs directly at Liam. “Mr. Vance is acting pretty desperate too. Since he already slept with the shameless brat, why is he brazenly trying to force the true heir to be his mistress? He just can’t bear to lose the Sterling family’s money, can he? He wants to have his cake and eat it too, treating the Sterling family like complete idiots. The things he said… I’d feel dirty just repeating them.” Mrs. Vance, humiliated beyond repair, trembled violently with rage. She slapped Liam brutally across the face. “You ungrateful bastard! Get on your knees and apologize to your in-laws right now! And you will publicly swear to legally marry Evelyn immediately!” She took a few steps toward me, reaching out to grab my hands, but I smoothly dodged her grasp. Her face stiffened for a fraction of a second before morphing into a desperate, fawning smile. “Evelyn, I know you’ve been deeply wronged. Liam will do whatever you want. I promise you, this will never, ever happen again.” Liam clutched his stinging cheek, glaring at me with pure, venomous hatred. He looked at me as if I was the one who had ruined his perfect plan. He completely failed to realize that I was the ultimate victim of today’s disaster. “Grandma, the only woman I will ever love is Chloe. I will only marry her! Evelyn Sterling is an arrogant, useless, spoiled princess who only throws her weight around because of her family’s money! If I marry her, the entire Vance Corporation will be dragged down with her! The title of Mrs. Vance belongs to Chloe alone!” “If she knows what’s good for her, out of respect for Mr. Sterling, I’ll give her a child. But if she wants to be stubborn, she can wait to be spit on by every elite in this city! Let’s see who dares to marry a woman that the Vance family publicly discarded!” Chapter 4 I stared coldly at this man I had poured my heart and soul into for years. After the previous Vance patriarch passed away, the mediocre, incompetent Liam took control of the empire. In just six short months, he offended massive venture capitalists, destroyed core projects, and was manipulated by his shady frat-boy friends into investing in a dozen catastrophic, garbage tech startups. Within days, the Vance empire imploded. They accumulated billions in toxic debt. Investors fled in droves. Liquidating hundreds of years of Vance family assets wasn’t even enough to cover the interest. Some of his former rivals even offered to pay him thousands of dollars just to crawl between their legs like a dog. I was the one who remembered our childhood connection. I bailed him out. I encouraged him. I personally convinced my father to deploy our capital to save him. Back then, he dropped to his knees in front of my father, crying and swearing on his life that if he ever betrayed me, he would be struck by lightning and rot in hell. It only took two years for him to regain his footing in the corporate world, and he had completely forgotten his oath. And now, he had the brazen audacity to claim that making me his secret mistress was an honor. Everyone in the ballroom was looking at Liam like he was a completely unhinged psychopath. They couldn’t comprehend how a man who entirely relied on his fiancée’s family to survive in the corporate world had the sheer audacity to act so arrogant! Honestly, the Vance Corporation was basically owned by the Sterling family at this point. But Liam didn’t care. Seeing my silence, he was absolutely convinced I was devastated and couldn’t bear to lose him. He wrapped his arm around Chloe’s waist, his arrogance swelling to catastrophic levels. “Evelyn Sterling. If you get on your knees right now, bow your head to Chloe, and serve her tea to acknowledge her as the lady of the house, I’ll agree to let you be my woman.” “If you serve us well, I might consider letting you move into the guest house. I might even let you see our kid occasionally.” I stared at his smug, delusional face, and I smiled. If this oblivious, suicidal idiot wanted to tie himself to Chloe, then let him. Consider it taking out the trash. My father couldn’t hold it back anymore. His sheer, explosive fury morphed into a sharp, terrifying laugh. “The Vance family really thinks it’s untouchable now, huh? Speaking to me with such arrogance… I guess the Sterling family really is beneath you. If you don’t want my Evelyn as your wife, fine. As for you…” My father pointed a lethal finger directly at Chloe. “The Sterling family does not harbor a daughter who steals her sister’s marriage and obliterates her family’s honor. As soon as I return home, I am opening the family registry and officially striking your name from it. We are signing a permanent severance agreement. From this day forward, whether you live or die, it has absolutely nothing to do with the Sterling family.” Chloe’s eyes went red. She sobbed, playing the victim perfectly. “Dad! I’m your biological daughter too! Why are you being so cruel to me?!” “I just worked hard to fight for the man I love! What did I do wrong?! It’s not my fault Liam doesn’t like Evelyn because she’s useless! Why does Evelyn get handed everything on a silver platter while I get nothing?!” My father sneered. “Fine. I will reward your ‘hard work.’ Everyone in this room is my witness. You are no longer a Sterling. You’re on your own.” “Security! Go load every single piece of the eldest daughter’s dowry back into the trucks!” “Fifty trunks of cash, fifteen chests of high-end jewelry, three custom Porsches, 20% equity in the Sterling Corporation, and the deeds to five luxury villas in the Beverly Hills sector. Every single item goes back to the Sterling estate.” The crowd gasped audibly at the sheer, mind-boggling scale of the dowry. They looked at Liam as if he was the stupidest pig on the planet. Chloe shrieked in absolute panic. “No! That’s MY dowry!” My mother stepped forward and delivered a brutal, resounding slap across her face. “You steal Evelyn’s wedding and now you want to steal her dowry?! Are you out of your mind?! That wealth was prepared entirely for Evelyn! Who the hell are you?! If you want a dowry, go ask your maid of a mother for it!” The bodyguards began moving the massive chests of wealth toward the doors, but Liam aggressively blocked their path. “Hold it right there! If you dare take that dowry out of this room, I will seize half of the Sterling Corporation tomorrow morning.” He looked at my father with a dark, triumphant smirk. “Father-in-law. When we signed the prenuptial agreement, it only stated ‘the daughter of the Sterling family.’ It didn’t specify a name. I honored the contract. I married a daughter of the Sterling family, and I promised to treat her well. If you take that dowry back now, you are officially in breach of contract.” He pulled out the prenuptial agreement they had signed just a week ago, and had his lawyers read a specific clause out loud to the room. “If Liam Vance is unfaithful to the Sterling daughter, he forfeits all assets. Conversely, if the Sterling family retracts the dowry, they are in breach of contract, and the Sterling family must forfeit 20% of their corporate equity to Liam Vance.” The ballroom went dead silent. “Impossible! I would never sign a contract with a clause like that!” My father’s face turned a ghostly white. He snatched the contract, and the lawyer pointed to a line of microscopic text buried at the very bottom of the page. Liam laughed, tilting his chin up arrogantly. He signaled his team, and a video of my father personally signing the document was projected onto the massive LED screens in the ballroom. “Mr. Sterling, you are a titan of industry. You can crush the city’s economy with a snap of your fingers. Surely you aren’t going to play dumb and act like you forgot signing this? But playing dumb won’t save you. The contract is stamped with your personal corporate seal. It is legally binding. If you don’t want to be humiliated in federal court, leave the dowry.” My father’s chest heaved violently. The sheer stress of the betrayal caused him to clutch his chest, gasping for air. He looked like he was about to suffer a heart attack. My mother’s eyes were bloodshot. She wanted to fight back, but she was completely trapped by the airtight legal trap. Chloe twisted her hips and leaned seductively into Liam’s chest, smiling radiantly. “Sister, it’s okay if I don’t have the Sterling name anymore. If you get on your knees right now and apologize to me… if I’m in a good mood, I might put in a good word for you with Liam. I might ask him to abstain from voting at the next board meeting, so Dad doesn’t lose his position as Chairman. Those old wolves on the board are completely ruthless, you know.” “I’ll gladly accept this dowry. Bring it all inside.” The Vance family security guards violently shoved me aside, preparing to haul the entire fortune back into the estate. My mother furiously tried to block them, but the arrogant Vance guards violently pushed her to the floor. Chloe raised an eyebrow. “Madam, this is private Vance family business. If you insist on getting involved, any injuries you sustain are your own fault.” I helped my mother up from the floor, staring coldly at the sociopathic couple. Liam smirked, looking at me like he was tossing a bone to a stray dog. “Without this dowry, you don’t even have the money to buy a husband. Since you used to follow me around like a desperate puppy, I’ll let you come to the Vance estate and work as Chloe’s servant for three years. If you’re obedient, I might consider letting you bear me a son.” When I ignored him, Liam aggressively grabbed my shoulder, dragging me toward Chloe, and brutally kicked the back of my knee. Just as he was about to use brute force to force me to my knees… The heavy mahogany doors of the ballroom were violently thrown open. “We received a report that the Vance Corporation is illegally seizing billions of dollars in private assets. Who is Liam Vance?”

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Chapter 1 At a charity gala, my husband, Arthur Sterling, threw a glass of red wine in my face just to stand up for his female assistant. His eyes were ice-cold: “Stella, what exactly is the point of intentionally bumping into a young girl just to be petty?” “Stop acting like some uncultured shrew who only knows how to pick fights.” The moment those words left his mouth, the high-society guests, who thrived on drama, all waited with bated breath for me to lose my mind, flip the table, and burst into hysterical tears. But this time, they were disappointed. I didn’t cry, and I didn’t make a scene. I merely cast a detached glance at the dark stain on my chest, turned around with perfect poise, and said: “My dress is ruined. I’m going to change.” When Arthur stopped me, he didn’t hold back his strength. I stumbled, nearly falling over, my wrist instantly swelling into an angry red ring. “Stella, I explicitly warned you not to target her.” In the past, when he defended Chloe against me, I would have seen red and desperately tried to explain myself. But right now, my tone was exceptionally calm: “It won’t happen again.” Arthur turned his head to light a cigarette. The peach-blossom eyes that looked at me held zero trust. After all, just last week, I had smashed half the house after finding a torn pair of sheer pantyhose in his suit jacket pocket. Signaling his bodyguard to bring over the antique crystal heels he had just won at auction, Arthur blew a plume of smoke in my direction: “Go put these on Chloe.” Normally, this would be the cue for the bodyguards to casually pull out their stun guns. Waiting to shock me, the soon-to-be-hysterical wife, until I lost control of my bladder like a rabid dog. Yet, defying everyone’s expectations, I turned and took the shoebox. Expressionless, I walked back into the banquet hall, dropped to both knees, and helped Chloe change her shoes. And I offered her a blessing: “May you climb higher and higher, from this day forward.” Seeing my newfound submissiveness, Arthur laughed, his eyes full of contempt: “Stella, if you had been this obedient and sensible earlier, you wouldn’t have had to beg me like a cheap whore just to get me to come home tonight.” The moment he finished his sentence, Chloe accidentally knocked over a candle on the table. Seeing the hot wax drip onto the girl’s calf, making her eyes tear up in pain, Arthur immediately shoved me aside, completely ignoring the fact that my own dress had caught fire. He dropped to one knee, frantically pouring water over Chloe’s leg to cool it down, while desperately barking orders at his subordinates to call 911. When the ambulance arrived, Arthur immediately scooped Chloe up and placed her on the stretcher, demanding they leave instantly. “But sir, the woman behind you has severe burns on her back. With the heat right now, if we don’t treat the wounds immediately, I’m afraid…” Arthur cast a disdainful glance my way, completely unconcerned: “She’s got thick skin. She loves to exaggerate a little pain into a full-blown tragedy.” The paramedics opened their mouths, wanting to say more, but I used the last ounce of my strength to stand up straight. With a numb expression, I closed the ambulance door for Chloe. An hour later, as I walked out of the ER, Arthur’s call came through. His tone was harsh and demanding: “Why didn’t you go to the family’s private hospital?” I ignored his question and simply said: “If you need me to offer a sincere apology to Miss Chloe for what happened tonight, I can record a video right now of me kneeling and kowtowing, saying ‘I’m sorry’ a thousand times, and then have the PR department blast it all over the internet.” On my birthday, Chloe had ruined a painting left by my late mother. It sent me into a blind rage, and I slapped her. In response, Arthur publicly ordered me to slap my own face a hundred times and hand-write a ten-thousand-word apology letter, which he then posted online. Therefore, when it came to apologizing to Chloe, I was already a seasoned professional. I don’t know which of my words rubbed him the wrong way, but the other end of the line plunged into an inexplicable silence. Finally, he told me to send my location and wait for him to pick me up. I waited in that freezing hallway for two hours. All I received were three video clips sent by Chloe. In them, she and Arthur were flirting and playing around on the piano I played every single day; embracing and kissing passionately in the pre-marital home I had painstakingly decorated; and right at this very moment, having wild, uninhibited sex on the starlit mountaintop where Arthur and I had first promised ourselves to each other… I forwarded the videos to a lawyer friend, went home alone, closed my eyes, and went to sleep. The next afternoon, a fully satiated Arthur finally returned home. Seeing me sitting on the sofa without making any move to greet him, he proactively walked over and said: “Stella, I originally planned to take you to lunch, but a last-minute emergency meeting came up at the company, so I…” Halfway through his sentence, Arthur suddenly stopped. Chapter 2 I followed his gaze to my hand. Only to realize that the wedding ring I had worn for eight years was no longer on my ring finger. Unbuttoning his dress shirt with one hand, his face darkening as he prepared to speak, he was interrupted when I asked: “Are you free this Friday between 2:00 PM and 3:30 PM?” I had made an appointment at City Hall. If he wasn’t busy, we could go straight there and finalize the divorce. “What now? The house has barely been peaceful for a few days, and you’re already trying to stir up more dram…” Before he could finish his sneering remark, his phone rang. It was Chloe. The girl whimpered in a delicate, tearful voice, calling herself a super clumsy baby: “Arthur, what do I do? Waaah… I wanted to follow a tutorial and make you this super yummy seafood risotto, but I cough cough cough… I accidentally nicked my pinky finger, and the smoke alarm in the kitchen won’t stop blaring~” Hearing this, Arthur immediately furrowed his brow and started heading for the door, his voice laced with gentle concern as he instructed: “Silly kitten, turn off the stove immediately and don’t move. Hubby is coming back to save you right now.” Married for eight years. Arthur never allowed me to call him “hubby” in front of anyone else. If I ever slipped up, his handsome face would darken, and he would curse me out in public, calling me a brainless pig, worse than an animal. Then, regardless of the occasion, he would abandon me right there and walk away coldly. I used to think he just didn’t like the term of endearment. Until the company’s annual gala, when Chloe lost a game of Truth or Dare. As the winner, Arthur personally took her phone. In front of the entire company, he smilingly changed her contact name for him from “Big Bad Boss with an Eight-Pack” to “Chloe’s Dearest, Strongest Hubby.” As my thoughts drifted, my phone rang with a pleasant melody. Putting on his coat and about to step out the door, Arthur seemed to hear me speaking softly to the person on the other end: “Okay, I’ll listen to you guys. We’ll head out tomorrow.” Head out? Head out where? The hand Arthur had on the doorknob tightened abruptly. Since we got married, he and I had been practically inseparable. Even during those two years expanding the business overseas. I stuck to him like glue, abandoning everything I had back home, following him without a second thought. Thinking of this, his anxiety eased. He decisively slammed the door and left. That night, a video of Arthur proposing to Chloe went viral in high-society circles. The giant electronic billboard on the Sterling Group’s headquarters simultaneously displayed a sweet photo of the two kissing passionately. Instantly, countless messages flooded my social media accounts. They were all watching the spectacle, waiting for me to act like a clown and clarify that this was all just another AI-generated hoax. I didn’t respond to a single one. I methodically packed my bags, then got into bed and went to sleep. As soon as I closed my eyes, my phone on the nightstand lit up silently. It was Arthur. He called twice in a row, both going unanswered. In the early hours of the morning, in the king-sized bed of a presidential suite. Arthur held a hickey-covered Chloe, refreshing my media page for the fifth time. His face was expressionless as he saw it was still the same. No debunking, no updates. The next afternoon at 2:00 PM, Arthur surprisingly came home early. When he saw me standing in front of the fridge, quietly drinking water, that bizarre, frustrating annoyance that had been circling him almost all day inexplicably began to dissipate. Our eyes met, and Arthur smiled, snatching the ice water from my hand and downing it in one gulp: “Stella, I’m giving Chloe a formal wedding ceremony next month. After all, the girl gave her first time to me, I have to take responsibility for her.” Chapter 3 I nodded: “Okay, as long as you two are happy.” Staring at my completely unfazed profile, Arthur was speechless for a long moment before he continued, his tone turning cold and hard: “Chloe has a kind heart. She’s allowing you to attend and accept our first toast.” “Of course, if you really don’t want to go, I won’t force you. After all, no one wants to hear a bitter woman wailing like a banshee on a joyous occasion…” Too lazy to listen to his nonsense, I interrupted him softly: “I will be there.” “What?” “I said, I will be there in person to congratulate you both.” Even though he got the answer he wanted, there was inexplicably no hint of triumph or joy in Arthur’s eyes. I turned to leave, but he abruptly grabbed my shoulder. I blinked, asking him politely and distantly: “Excuse me, was there anything else you needed to instruct me on?” After a long silence, Arthur declared, as if granting a magnanimous favor: “Don’t cook tonight. I’m taking you out to eat.” I didn’t reply, just watched him go upstairs to his room. When the sound of the shower started running in the master bedroom, I grabbed my luggage from the corner and walked out the front door of the villa without hesitation. However, I only made it a few steps before I saw Chloe, her eyes cold. She glanced at my luggage and smirked: “Stella, I was wondering why you’ve been so quiet and magnanimous lately. Turns out you were hoping this useless ‘running away from home’ trick would disrupt my Wedding of the Century with Arthur.” “It’s a shame you don’t know, is it? Arthur and I never use protection when we’re intimate. He’s just waiting for me to get pregnant with a cute little baby so he has a legitimate excuse to kick a boring, washed-up housewife like you out the door.” Listening quietly to Chloe’s bragging, I walked past her without a word, taking long strides forward. Enraged by my dismissal, Chloe hopped into the sports car Arthur had bought her and slammed the gas pedal to the floor! As the world spun around me, covered in blood from the impact, I heard Arthur’s voice: “Stella!” The second before he reached me, Chloe’s pitiful, sobbing voice chimed in perfectly on cue: “Arthur, my foot is stuck in the bad car…” Before she even finished her sentence, Arthur had rushed to her side, his eyes full of heartache. He rescued her from the car with the utmost gentleness, holding her as if she were the most precious treasure in the world, and carried her through the villa gates. Two hours later, after finally coaxing Chloe to sleep, Arthur walked barefoot through the entire sprawling estate, but couldn’t find a single trace of me. The stars hung low in the night sky. In the airport waiting lounge, my head wrapped in bandages, my phone kept buzzing incessantly for some unknown reason. I ignored it, waiting quietly for the battery to die. The exact moment the phone powered off, the plane I was on slowly ascended into the sky. … Three days later. A penthouse apartment in the city center. Chloe stood by the infinity pool, looking at Arthur with tears of gratitude in her eyes: “Arthur, are you sure this entire place was prepared just for me?” The extravagantly luxurious decor, the fully staffed team of butlers. Just imagining the beautiful days ahead, Chloe couldn’t help but giggle as she nestled into his embrace. Arthur affectionately pinched her nose: “Silly kitten, I promised I would make you the most carefree girl in the world, and I always keep my promises.” The warm glow of the sunset bathed the two lovers. Chloe blushed, eagerly standing on her tiptoes to offer a kiss, when his phone suddenly rang. In the past, even if he had the most critical business to attend to, he would have kept his arm around her and answered the call without hesitation. But this time, he gently patted her shoulder, signaling with his eyes for her to go inside first. Chapter 4 The moment Chloe walked away, Arthur eagerly answered the call. He lit a cigarette, holding it between his fingers without taking a drag, and asked the person on the other end, feigning nonchalance: “What did my wife say to you when she saw the jewelry gifts?” The male subordinate on the phone was silent for several long seconds before finally bracing himself to deliver the news: “Mr. Sterling, the housekeeper said the Madam hasn’t returned to the villa or the old estate for days. Also, I’ve checked every hotel owned by the Sterling Group, and there’s no record of the Madam checking in anywhere.” Hearing this, the cigarette between his fingers trembled almost imperceptibly, yet his expression remained cold and calm: “If that’s the case, stop looking for her.” He hung up the phone and finished the rest of his cigarette. Arthur opened WeChat and scrolled for a long time before finally finding my name hidden in a forgotten corner. Seeing that the last conversation consisted of two texts from me, timidly asking if he was coming home tonight, a flash of contempt crossed his eyes. He casually issued his final ultimatum to me: [Stella, tomorrow is the day Chloe and I are taking our wedding photos. Considering you’ve been whining about wanting anniversary photos for years, I’m graciously giving you the chance to make that dream come true.] [If you’re still throwing a temper tantrum and refuse to show up, from now on, get as far away from me as possible.] The afternoon following the message, Arthur, dressed impeccably in a suit, sat in the bridal boutique, waiting from broad daylight until sunset. He never saw the slender figure he imagined, pushing open the boutique doors with eyes full of love, throwing herself into his arms like a swallow returning to its nest. When the photographer nervously asked for the ninth time if they could start, Arthur grimly wrapped his arm around the waist of a forcing-a-smile Chloe. He leaned down toward her bright red lips. The second the shutter clicked, Arthur instantly released Chloe, gruffly ordering the staff to turn the photo into a massive portrait and have it nailed to the very center of the villa’s living room overnight. Did she really think throwing a tantrum and playing hide-and-seek would stop Chloe from moving in? He couldn’t stop the cold sneer echoing in his mind. It seemed he had been far too lenient with me these past few years, making me forget my place in the family hierarchy. On the fourth day the wedding photo hung on the wall, a local courier package was delivered to the Sterling Group headquarters. The male subordinate who retrieved the package was walking so fast he nearly collided with Chloe, who had come to deliver soup, without even slowing down. But the sharp-eyed Chloe reached out and stopped him: “Assistant Liu, is that from Mrs. Sterling for Mr. Sterling? You know Mr. Sterling’s rules. He’s in a shareholder meeting right now. Even if the sky falls, he is absolutely not to be disturbed. How about this, you give it to me first, and I’ll pass it on for you later…” Before Chloe could even touch the corner of the package, the formerly polite colleague recoiled as if she carried the plague: “Miss Chloe, Mr. Sterling specifically instructed that any matters concerning the Madam must be reported to him immediately.” With that, ignoring Chloe’s ugly, flushed expression, Assistant Liu pushed open the conference room doors. Braving the shocked and confused stares of the executives and shareholders, he respectfully placed the package in front of Arthur and whispered in his ear: “Mr. Sterling, this is from the Madam…” Before he could finish, the normally fiercely professional Arthur abruptly raised his hand, cutting off the department head’s presentation. With dark, intense eyes, right in front of everyone, he tore open the heavily taped package with his bare hands. Once he bypassed the packing material, he saw there were only two thin pieces of paper inside. One was a divorce petition. The other was a medical certificate confirming a miscarriage. Divorce? Miscarriage? Arthur looked utterly bewildered. Who was divorcing who? Him and Stella? Why would they get a divorce? And how could Stella possibly have had a miscarriage? Due to the angle, the people in the room couldn’t see what was written on the documents Arthur was gripping so tightly. They only saw his chest heaving more and more violently, his face visibly turning a terrifying shade of livid green. In less than half an hour, the news of the CEO inexplicably losing his temper and trashing the main conference room spread like wildfire through thousands of internal company group chats. In his top-floor office, ignoring his torn and bleeding hand, Arthur ground his teeth as he interrogated the woman who had been forcefully “invited” before him: “Where is Stella right now?” As my long-time friend and divorce attorney, Sarah cast a disdainful, sneering look at him: “Does it have anything to do with you, her ex-husband, where she is?” “I am not divorced from her!” Arthur roared, his fury erupting. He stated coldly, word by word: “When she and I got our marriage license, we swore a blood oath. In this lifetime, there will only be widowhood, no divorce. Sarah, before my patience runs out, you better tell me what kind of game she’s playing right now.” “A game?” Sarah clicked her tongue, her face filled with mockery: “You are truly so pathetic it’s laughable. Arthur, you don’t still think she’s playing hide-and-seek with you, do you? Out of respect for the donations you made to the orphanage back in the day, I’ll do you a favor and tell you the truth. Your wife… this time, she really doesn’t want you anymore.” Hearing this, Arthur’s expression strangely calmed down. Stella. A lower-class woman from an orphanage. After all her throwing fits and making a scene, who else could she possibly rely on, other than a husband like him who could provide true wealth and luxury? With that thought, Arthur reverted to his familiar, effortlessly in-control CEO persona. When he casually let Sarah leave, Chloe, who had been by his side witnessing everything, dropped to her knees at his feet, tears welling in her eyes as she looked at him with heartache: “Arthur, it’s all my fault. It’s because I was too childish, foolishly dreaming of my own fairy-tale wedding, that Mrs. Sterling left in anger. Once you find her and bring her back, I promise I’ll personally serve her tea and apologize. I’ll beg her to be the bigger person and forgive my ignorance and stubbornness.” Chloe had barely squeezed out a few tears before Arthur’s hand clamped onto her jaw. Seeing him lean in close, her heart pounded wildly. Blushing furiously, she closed her eyes, puckered her lips slightly, and waited for— “Aghhh!” A sudden, intense pain forced Chloe to snap her eyes open in terror. Her fearful gaze crashed directly into Arthur’s cold, pitch-black eyes. Arthur waved her phone in front of her. Smiling, he asked her what the unlock passcode was. “The, the passcode…” Seeing Chloe stammering, unable to string a sentence together. He simply called his men in and ordered them to take her phone straight to the tech department to be unlocked and analyzed. Very quickly, all the data on Chloe’s phone was laid bare, fully restored, and delivered to his massive desk. Those explicit, vile sex tapes, the nasty, venomous insults… And finally, the devastating messages where Chloe bragged to her best friend about intentionally hitting me with her car. Not only did she face zero consequences, but she received Arthur’s meticulous care and gifts: [You won’t believe this, but that old hag Stella is like a cockroach. I’m not even talking about the car crash this time. Two weeks ago, she came to bring lunch for my darling hubby, and I tricked her into that filthy, abandoned elevator shaft and shoved her down. She only miscarried that little bastard inside her; she didn’t even die! Ugh, so annoying. Next time, I’m definitely going to hire some professional street thugs to violate and torture her until she’s half-dead. Only then will I be satisfied, hehe.] Staring dead at the words “little bastard,” Arthur’s sharp eyes instantly turned blood-red, like a demon from hell. Terrified by his murderous glare, Chloe clasped her hands together in prayer, crying with red eyes and begging for mercy: “I, I only, only did it because I was so jealous of Stella, jealous that she got to be openly associated with you…” “Arthur, I did all those terrible things because I truly love you too much… Hubby, hubby, you always pampered me the most. Just forgive me this one time, please?” He didn’t say yes or no. Arthur ripped away the hands Chloe had used to desperately clutch his shirt hem. Ignoring her bewildered, helpless sobbing, he walked out with urgent strides. From the South Side to the North Side, from the city center to the desolate suburbs, he drove without sleep or rest, visiting every single place he and I had ever been. He searched for four days. Only when he was scruffy and his eyes were completely bloodshot did he shockingly discover that I was no longer in the country. By the time he finally tracked my exact location down to Santorini, Greece, a full month had already passed. The Aegean breeze swept through the street corners. Dressed in white, Arthur stared blankly at me from a distance, completely paralyzed. He was afraid. Afraid that the scene playing out before him was just another false, fleeting illusion from his midnight dreams. It wasn’t until he faintly heard my light, cheerful laughter that he finally dared to confirm that the woman in front of him was truly the innocent wife he had almost lost forever. Watching me smile brightly as I casually chatted with the locals, the immense joy in Arthur’s heart began to mix uncontrollably with a growing, bitter ache. Without him, I was clearly living an exceptionally comfortable life. Clenching and unclenching his fists, he was like a young man experiencing his first crush. It took every ounce of his courage to take tentative steps toward me. “Stella…” Just as he stopped behind me and parted his lips to speak, a clear, resonant male voice stole my attention first. “Stella, look what I bought you!” A tall, handsome young man with a smile in his eyes playfully dropped a white sun hat onto my head. Then, he naturally leaned down, as if expecting some sort of well-deserved reward. Before I could react, another striking man, looking about seventy percent identical to the first, stepped up right behind him. He reached out with his elegant hands and gently tucked a wind-blown strand of hair behind my ear. Witnessing this, Arthur’s heart violently skipped a beat. He was just about to force himself to act normal, grab my shoulder, and pull me into his arms regardless of the consequences. But right as he was about to make his move, he saw a shocking scene that made his eyes nearly pop out of his head— Bathed in the bright sunlight, I actually gave each of those two men a kiss on the cheek. “Stella! What are you doing?!”

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I was my parents’ only biological child, but I was nothing more than a tool they used to discipline their adopted son and daughter. When my adopted brother, Leo, was caught secretly filming women in a fitting room… My father forced me to take the blame. I was beaten so badly by the victim’s boyfriend that both my legs were broken. While I lay in agony, my father used the moment to lecture Leo: “You see that? Thank God your older brother was here to take the fall. Otherwise, it would be your legs that were broken today!” When my adopted sister, Mia, stole money from the house to send to a guy she met online… My mother shattered both of my arms with a baseball bat. When I couldn’t feed myself, she threw my dinner bowl onto the floor and pointed at me, telling Mia: “Look at how pathetic and disgusting your brother is! Remember this—this is what happens to thieves!” But the pain was inflicted entirely on my body. How could Leo and Mia possibly learn a lesson when they never suffered the consequences? Just as expected, on the day of the Winter Festival. The two of them got into a vicious, screaming match over whether the traditional festival pastries should be sweet or savory. In the struggle, a bowl of hot pastries was knocked over, spilling all over the floor. My mother flew into a rage and kicked me hard in the ribs while I was lying helplessly on the floor. “You useless animal! Is this how you teach your younger brother and sister?! They’re fighting over something so stupid, and you can’t even stop them?!” My father was even more ruthless. He dragged my broken, useless body into my bedroom. “From this second on, you get no food and no water! You stay locked in here! When your brother and sister finally learn how to behave, then you can come out!” I was utterly bewildered. I broke down, screaming in despair: “They are the ones who made the mistake! Why am I always the one being punished?!” …… My father raised his hand and slapped me brutally across the face. “You dare talk back to me?! If your brother and sister are acting out, it’s because you failed to set a good example as the eldest!” My mother seized the opportunity to lecture Leo and Mia: “Your brother was only going to be locked up for one day. But since he refuses to show any remorse, it’s going to be at least three days now.” Leo’s jaw dropped in genuine shock: “But Mom, his arms and legs are broken. If you lock him in there without food or water for three days, is he even going to survive?” Seeing my pathetic, agonizing state, even Mia couldn’t bear it: “Mom, I promise I won’t fight with Leo anymore. Please don’t punish Liam.” Hearing this, my parents exchanged a look of deep, triumphant satisfaction. But my father still cleared his throat and maintained his harsh facade: “Absolutely not. I said three days, and I mean three days.” “And to make sure you two don’t try to sneak him any food, we’re packing our bags. The four of us are going on a road trip to the next state over! We’ll be back in three days!” Without waiting for another word, and completely ignoring my desperate pleas for mercy. My parents forcefully shoved Leo and Mia out of the room and locked my bedroom door from the outside. “You stay in there and reflect on what you’ve done. I’ve already transferred every cent out of your bank account, so don’t even think about ordering food delivery.” Seeing that they were actually going to leave… With all four of my limbs broken, I was terrified and overwhelmed with grievance. I desperately banged my forehead against the floor, crying and begging: “Mom, I’m sorry! I know I was wrong! I shouldn’t have talked back! I promise I’ll do whatever you say from now on! Please just let me out! Both my arms and legs are broken, I can’t even take care of myself… if you lock me in here for three days, I’m really going to die…” From the other side of the door, my mother’s impatient voice drifted in: “Too late.” “If I let you out just because you begged a little, how am I supposed to discipline your brother and sister in the future?” “If I hear one more word out of you, I’ll make it five days!” Hearing that, despite the suffocating injustice burning in my chest… I didn’t dare knock on the door again. Because I knew they were absolutely capable of doing it. Last summer, my father drove us all to visit my grandmother. On the way, Leo and Mia got into a physical, screaming fight in the backseat over a mobile game. No matter what I said, they wouldn’t stop. Seeing the chaos, my father abruptly pulled the SUV over to the side of the highway. I was afraid he was going to hit them, so I opened my mouth to plead on their behalf. Before I could speak, my father yanked my door open and violently dragged me out of the car. “Your brother and sister are fighting like animals, and you have the nerve to just sit there?!” Before I could even process what was happening… My father got back in the car and sped off into the distance. I walked for eight agonizing hours through the pitch-black night until I finally reached my grandmother’s house. My feet were covered in burst, bleeding blisters. My grandmother cried, her eyes red with heartbreak. But my father physically blocked her from applying ointment to my feet. Instead, he used the moment to lecture Leo and Mia: “Your brother got incredibly lucky today. He only got some blisters and didn’t get eaten by coyotes.” “Next time you two dare to fight in my car, I’m throwing you out!” But on the drive back home, when Leo and Mia got into another vicious screaming match over who got to sit in the passenger seat… The person my father dragged out and abandoned on the highway was, once again, me. The more I thought about it, the more toxic and bitter my heart felt. I stared at my banking app, which showed a balance of $0.00. Dragging my broken, useless body across the floor, I painstakingly searched every inch of my bedroom. I couldn’t find a single piece of candy or a drop of water. As the hours dragged on, my stomach cramped so violently with hunger that I couldn’t straighten my back. The pain from my shattered arms and legs was excruciating, drilling deep into my bones. I could only lie flat on my bed, using my elbows to painfully, slowly type out messages to my parents: [Mom, my stomach hurts so much from the hunger. Could you please ask one of the neighbors to bring me some food?] [Dad, I promise I’ll be a better role model from now on. Can you please call a doctor to set my broken bones? I’m terrified that if we wait too long, I’ll be permanently crippled.] But my messages sank like stones into the ocean. Neither of them replied. Instead, it was Mia who texted me: [Liam, I ordered you some UberEats! I told the driver to leave the food on the window sill right outside your bedroom window. Make sure you grab it!] A brief flash of joy lit up my heart. Even though my parents constantly punished me for Leo and Mia’s mistakes over the years… The two of them were actually very close to me. Not only would they beg for mercy when my parents were punishing me, but they would always apologize to me afterward. It was just a shame they were too young and immature. They never learned their lessons, and they always repeated their mistakes. And I was always the one forced to pay the price. Just as I was thinking this, I suddenly heard the heavy deadbolt on the front door click open. My heart jumped into my throat. Then, I heard a strange, unfamiliar male voice from the hallway: “Come on in. Nobody’s home.” Chaotic, heavy footsteps echoed through the house. I was so terrified I covered my mouth and held my breath. “Don’t worry. I’ve been casing this house all day. The whole family went on vacation. They left with suitcases; they won’t be back anytime soon.” “Leaving for a road trip right on a holiday. This family must be loaded. You toss this room, I’ll take the other one.” As the two men spoke, their footsteps grew closer and closer to my bedroom door. I frantically, painfully dialed my mother’s number: “Mom! Call 911! Someone broke into the house…” I was in absolute panic, but the only response I got was my mother’s furious scolding. “Liam Carter! I haven’t even locked you up for a full day, and you’re already making up ridiculous lies?! You are a terrible influence on your brother and sister!” “Mom, I’m telling the truth…” Before I could finish, she hung up the phone. And right at that exact second, the footsteps stopped right outside my bedroom door. “Why is this door locked from the outside?” Hearing that, I let out a microscopic sigh of relief. I hurriedly tried to dial 911 again. But with all four of my limbs broken, hitting three simple numbers on a touchscreen was a monumental, agonizing task. I finally managed to dial the number, but before I could hit send, my bedroom door was violently kicked open. “I told you! If a door is locked in an empty house, there’s definitely good shit inside…” The phone slipped from my elbows, falling to the floor in my panic. I found myself staring dead into the eyes of a man with a massive, jagged scar across his face. The next second, I threw my body desperately toward the phone. I had barely touched it when the scarred man lunged forward and pinned me to the floor. “Fuck! You said you cased the place! Why is there a guy in here?!” He clamped his hand over my mouth, trapping me in a suffocating chokehold. The other man, slightly heavier, was sweating profusely: “What do we do, man?! We were just supposed to do a quick B&E. If we got caught, it wouldn’t be a big deal. But now he’s seen our faces…” Hearing this, the scarred man’s face turned dark, and the hand covering my mouth tightened viciously. “Then we make sure he never sees anything again!” A suffocating, crushing pain enveloped me. I thrashed wildly, using the absolute last ounce of my strength to hit the “Emergency Contact” button on my lock screen. The exact fraction of a second the call connected… I used every bit of energy in my broken body to tear the scarred man’s hand away from my mouth, screaming at the top of my lungs: “MOM! HELP ME! SOMEONE BROKE IN…” My voice was abruptly, brutally cut off. The scarred man drove a heavy hunting knife deep into my chest. I collapsed onto the floor, staring in despair at the glowing phone screen. Just before the scarred man reached down to end the call, my mother’s impatient, venomous voice finally crackled through the speaker: “If you want to die, then just fucking die! Stop trying to ruin our vacation with your psychotic tantrums!” The call disconnected. The scarred man glanced at the call log, let out a furious grunt, and plunged the knife into my body again. And again. And again. “Still want to call the cops, huh?!” Blood sprayed across the floor, but my body felt incredibly numb. The physical pain was absolutely nothing compared to the agony in my heart. In the final second before my consciousness completely faded… I only had one thought. I guess Leo and Mia will finally learn their lesson this time. Mom and Dad finally traded my life to buy their good behavior. When I opened my eyes again, the air was filled with noisy, chaotic sounds. I looked down at myself in confusion. There wasn’t a single stab wound on my body. I didn’t feel any pain. “Did you buy the return tickets yet?” Hearing my father’s voice, I instinctively looked up. I saw him frowning, sitting side-by-side with my mother in lounge chairs on a sunny beach. Not far away, Leo and Mia were playing in the sand. I instinctively lunged toward my parents, screaming their names, but my body passed right through them like smoke. It was only then that I realized. I was dead. My soul had somehow floated across the state to be with my parents. “I bought them for Tuesday. Holiday flights are ridiculously expensive right now.” My mother took a sip of her orange juice, complaining in annoyance. “Thank God we used that fight as an excuse to leave Liam at home. If he had come with us, we definitely wouldn’t have had enough budget for this trip.” I stared at my mother in absolute, paralyzing shock. I recognized every single word she was saying, but in that moment, I couldn’t comprehend the meaning behind them. “We didn’t have a choice. The kids were begging for a vacation, but money is tight. Everyone in our neighborhood knows Leo and Mia are adopted. If we left either of them at home, the neighbors would gossip and say we play favorites. We had to leave Liam behind.” My father’s expression was grave: “But you didn’t leave him a single cent. What if he actually starves? And his arms and legs—are you sure they’re just minor fractures? Is it really okay to delay taking him to the hospital?” My mother shook her head dismissively: “Relax. Mia is close to him; she definitely ordered him some UberEats. As for his arms and legs, they just look scary. When we get back, we’ll just take him to an urgent care clinic and have them set.” Hearing this, my father let out a sigh of relief. But then, Leo and Mia started fighting again down by the water. Leo accidentally popped Mia’s inflatable swim ring, and Mia started screaming that she was going to destroy his stuff in retaliation. “Why are they fighting again? I’ll go break it up…” My mother started to get up, but my father stopped her. “Wait until we’re back in the hotel room. We have to save face in front of all these strangers.” My chest ached so badly I felt like I couldn’t breathe. So… my father actually knew the importance of ‘saving face’ in public. Then why, when he broke my arms, and the neighbors asked what happened… why did he loudly announce that I was being punished for stealing money? Why did he subject me to their disgusted stares? I stared at my father in agony, and watched him let out a heavy sigh. “If only Liam were here. We wouldn’t have to worry about ‘saving face’ with our own biological kid.” “We could take all our frustration out on him, and use him as a punching bag to scare Leo and Mia into behaving.” Oh. So that was it. As the absolute peak of heartbreak consumed me, my vision began to blur and twist. Memories from my life began playing out before my eyes like a movie. At the amusement park, Leo and Mia demanded expensive, massive plush toys. My father slapped me across the face—even though I had been standing there in total silence—and screamed: “You’re too old to be begging for toys! Grow up!” Then, he turned to Leo and Mia with a warm, gentle smile and asked which ones they wanted. Terrified by his outburst, they stuttered and shook their heads. My parents praised them for being so well-behaved and bought them the cheapest, smallest keychains instead. A neighbor who was also at the park with her kids saw the whole thing and praised my parents: “You two are such amazing parents. You treat your adopted kids so well! Even I wouldn’t buy my own biological kids those expensive toys.” My parents couldn’t hide the smug pride in their eyes, but they smiled humbly and shook their heads: “They’re all exactly the same to us.” At school, Leo and Mia’s grades dropped, and the teachers called my parents in. The teachers gently suggested that my mother wasn’t paying enough attention to her adopted children, pointing out that I—a grade above them—was consistently ranking in the top three of my class. My mother’s face turned bright red with humiliation. That night, she ripped all my perfect test exams to shreds, screaming: “We spend so much money sending you to school, and you can’t even get first place?! If you’re going to be this useless, you might as well drop out!” I slumped onto the floor, crying over the torn pieces of paper. I whispered in confusion: “But Mom… I did get first place this time.” Unfortunately, my mother didn’t hear my question. She had already turned her back to comfort Leo and Mia, using the moment to urge them to attend extra tutoring sessions. “When Liam got into trouble, I told you we shouldn’t have taken on this burden, but you wouldn’t listen. Who knows if Liam is going to hold a grudge against us for the rest of his life.” My mother’s voice pulled me back from my memories. I followed her gaze and looked at my father. I saw his hand stiffen around his drink for a second, before he let out a careless, dismissive laugh: “Relax. How could a biological child ever hold a grudge against his own parents? A few sweet words and he’ll come running right back to us.” The exact second my father finished his sentence, his cell phone started ringing. “Why is Liam calling me again?” While muttering his annoyance, my father answered the call: “Hello. Is this the father of Liam Carter? This is the City Police Department. We just disrupted a violent home invasion and robbery. I deeply regret to inform you that Liam has been killed…” My father froze for a few seconds. His broad shoulders began to tremble uncontrollably: “Are you an actor Liam hired? This kid is getting completely out of hand. Making up lies like this just to trick us into coming home…” “My badge number is Z5171. Your address is 742 Evergreen Terrace, Apartment 103. The news should be hitting the local stations right about now. You can look it up yourself.” A heavy, suppressed sigh echoed through the speaker: “Before Liam was killed, he called you and your wife multiple times. If either of you had just dialed 911… based on our response times, your son would still be alive.” The call disconnected. My father’s hands shook violently as he opened Safari and searched for our home address. My mother hadn’t heard the conversation on the other end of the line. She looked at my father in confusion: “What kind of stunt is Liam pulling now? He called me earlier and lied about someone breaking into the house, trying to get me to call the cops.” My mother let out a disdainful, mocking laugh: “I didn’t buy it for a second. He even called twice, putting on a great performance…” “Shut up!” My father roared, his eyes completely bloodshot. My mother jumped in fright, her own temper flaring up: “If Liam pissed you off, why are you yelling at me?! Do you think I’m some pathetic pushover like him that you can just abuse whenever you want…” “Liam is dead!” My father screamed, cutting her off, and shoved his phone screen into her face.

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Chapter 1 Carter Sterling was the most notorious workaholic in New York. Because of it, our wedding had been postponed a full nine times. Even when everyone in our social circle mocked me, he remained entirely unmoved. Even when it was my mother’s dying wish to see me married, he just gave me the same tired excuse: “Stella, I’m just too busy right now.” It wasn’t until my mother passed away, full of regrets, that Carter finally felt a pang of guilt. To make up for it, he threw a ten-million-dollar wedding at the most expensive hotel in Manhattan. But the very next day, I was blocked at the hotel doors. The security guards rolled their eyes at me endlessly: “Where did this crazy lady come from? The bride is the CEO’s childhood best friend. Did you get kicked in the head? Keep dreaming.” I refused to accept it and tried to force my way inside. In response, Carter simply called the cops. After being held in a precinct cell for twenty-four hours, I became the laughingstock of the entire city. When the wedding was finally over, Carter casually tried to coax me: “It was just a ceremony. The little girl wanted one, so I gave it to her. It’s not like we signed a marriage license. Is it really that big of a deal?” But this time, I didn’t cry, and I didn’t make a scene. Because someone else had already given me the wedding he couldn’t. … Yesterday, right there in the police precinct, I accepted my actual childhood best friend’s proposal. As soon as I finished handling my mother’s post-funeral arrangements, I was going to leave. Carter was completely oblivious. He even leisurely lit a cigarette. Through the drifting smoke, he delivered his arrogant apology. “That’s enough. Mia has severe depression. Are you really trying to push her to suicide?” With that, he turned on the TV. Every major news network was broadcasting footage of me trespassing at the wedding yesterday. “Carter Sterling, come out here! I waited for you for eight years! Why are you doing this to me?!” On the screen, I was screaming his name, looking like an absolute clown. The hair and makeup I had spent three hours perfecting were completely ruined as the security guards dragged me away. Even his groomsmen had looked at me with impatience: “Stella, come on. Be reasonable. You’re making a complete fool of yourself right now!” But I hadn’t cared how I looked. I just kept desperately trying to push my way inside. Until the police sirens suddenly blared. With the sharp click of the handcuffs locking around my wrists, my heart completely died. The pathetic footage of me had been captured and spread all over New York. Carter clearly had the power to stop it, yet he allowed the media to run wild. There was only one reason. Because I was disobedient, he wanted to punish me. Mia Harper walked over, biting her lip, looking the picture of innocence. “Stella, you have to believe me. I really just wanted to experience a wedding. I would never ruin your relationship with Carter. Can’t you just pity me for once?” I was so sick of hearing her use pity as an excuse. Because he pitied her, Carter ran off to comfort a “suicidal” Mia on my birthday. Because he pitied her, we had to drag Mia along on our one annual vacation. Because he pitied her, I was even expected to hand my own wedding over to her. I had had enough. I looked up at Mia, catching the blatant provocation hidden deep in her eyes. I offered a faint smile. “You’re already married, why call me by my first name? You two are a perfect match. Happy wedding.” Mia’s face instantly flushed beet red, as if her deepest, darkest secret had just been exposed to the world. “Stella, what are you doing?! Do you really have to humiliate me like this?!” As she spoke, a dark glint flashed in her eyes. She grabbed my hand and forcefully yanked it toward her own face. “It’s all my fault. Go ahead, hit me, Stella.” But before my palm even grazed her cheek, a massive force shoved me backward. Blinding pain shot through my entire body. Because of the scuffle yesterday, the security guards had thrown me to the concrete several times. My arms and knees were covered in scrapes that hadn’t even been treated yet, and now I had fresh injuries. Meeting my agonized expression, a flash of reluctance crossed Carter’s eyes. But at the sound of Mia’s soft whimpers, he snapped right back to attention. “Stella Davis, stop putting on an act. Be careful you don’t play with fire and get burned!” With that, he grabbed Mia’s hand, walked out, and slammed the door behind them. Chapter 2 I felt no joy and no sorrow. For the next three days, I handled my mother’s funeral arrangements entirely alone. Carter never came back. In the eight years we had been together, he had never once stayed out all night. Usually, when we fought, I was always the one to bow my head first. But this time, I didn’t yield. Instead, Mrs. Sterling—Carter’s mother—showed up uninvited. Her face was dark with displeasure. “Stella, I know Carter was in the wrong this time, but you can’t be so unforgiving. This is Carter’s house. What gives you the right to lock my son out?” The sheer humiliation I had suffered was lightly brushed over by her. As long as I showed any signs of caring, I was the one being aggressive and unreasonable. But then again, she had looked down on me for eight years. In her eyes, there was only Mia. “From a poor, single-parent family. I still have no idea what Carter sees in you.” Back then, she wore her disdain on her sleeve, never even trying to hide it. There was one time I actually gave up and tried to leave. Carter raced his sports car all the way to the airport to catch me. He held me tightly, crying. “Stella, can’t you just hold on, for me?” And that momentary lapse of my soft heart pushed me permanently into the abyss. “Mia has the mind of a child. She has depression and almost killed herself. Why can’t you be a little kinder?” Mrs. Sterling’s blatant favoritism was almost honest. She cast a highly critical eye over me. It made me feel like a piece of garbage. I’m not kind? Their entire family only cared about Mia’s emotions. But who had ever genuinely cared that I had just lost my mother? “Mrs. Sterling, Carter and I broke up. I’ll be leaving very soon. You don’t have to worry.” Mrs. Sterling’s face instantly turned livid. Just as she was about to explode, the front door clicked open. Carter and Mia walked in. He looked stern and imposing. He had clearly heard what I just said. Mia warmly grabbed my hand, putting on a sickeningly sweet face: “Stella, don’t be mad. Here, this is the gift we bought you from our trip to Paris.” Hearing the word Paris, my tightly locked heart still gave a painful twitch. I had told him so many times how much I wanted to go to Paris, but he was always “too busy with work,” dragging it out for over a year. Afraid of making him feel guilty, I had pretended I didn’t care. I was trembling all over. In that moment, a thousand words threatened to pour out of me. But when they reached my lips, I couldn’t utter a single syllable. I simply pushed Mia’s hand away and shook my head. “Stella Davis!” Carter grabbed my wrist, his voice dropping low. “Stop making a scene. Can’t you see my mom is here? She already dislikes you, so just be sensible for once!” Mia chimed in, playing the peacemaker: “Yeah, Stella. The elders are here. Whatever issues you have, we can talk about them later.” They played off each other perfectly, pushing all the blame onto me. I laughed. “Are you two deaf? I’ve said it more than once: Carter and I broke up. Why the hell do I care if his mother likes me or not?” For a split second, the room was so quiet you could hear a pin drop. “Carter! Look at this wonderful fiancée of yours, daring to speak to me like that!” Mrs. Sterling’s shrill voice pierced the air, her hatred for me reaching its absolute peak. “She can’t even compare to a single toe of Mia’s! Break up with this woman immediately!” As soon as the words left her mouth, I pulled the engagement ring off my finger and calmly set it on the coffee table. “No need to trouble him. We’re already done.” With that, I grabbed my suitcase and headed for the door. Two shrieks echoed from behind me as Carter took massive strides to chase me down. “Stella, what the hell are you doing?!” He grabbed my hand and frantically shoved the ring back onto my finger. His eyes actually held a hint of pleading. “Stop this. It’s been three days. Why are you still angry?” He asked the question with so much resentment, as if I was the one being completely unreasonable. The grip on my hand grew painfully tight, and I cried out. Startled, he let go, then immediately reached out to pull up my sleeve. “Don’t move. Let me see, let me see.” Ignoring the pain, I struggled violently, even managing to slap him across the face three times. He didn’t even try to dodge. Instead, his eyes suddenly turned red. “I didn’t know… no… I didn’t know you had so many injuries.” A man who was usually so articulate and composed was now stammering incoherently. Chapter 3 But I didn’t feel a single shred of emotion. Only the desperate need to break free. “Let me go!” Carter grew angry, a domineering look filling his eyes. “Your mom is dead, and your dad has been dead for years. Where else can you go? The only person you can rely on now is me!” Rely on him? I let out a shaky, broken laugh. “How am I supposed to rely on you? Have you ever, even once, stood by my side?” “Not only did you not stand by me, but you had me thrown in a holding cell. You made me the pathetic laughingstock of the entire city.” “Do you even know my mother just died?! All I wanted was to give her some peace of mind before she passed, why did you have to make that so incredibly difficult?!” Looking at my cascading tears, Carter’s heart seemingly stopped. A wave of intense remorse washed over him. “Stella, I regret it. I truly regret it. I thought because you had waited so many times before, making you wait one more time wouldn’t—” My brain buzzed, and in a moment of sheer breakdown, I slapped him across the face again. My understanding and forgiveness never earned his cherishing; it had simply become ironclad proof that I could be treated like garbage. Dragging my suitcase, I resolutely got into my car. But the next second, a heavy, suffocating wave of perfume hit my nose. The car had just been returned by Mia a few days ago, and it was filled with her things. I didn’t think twice. I slammed my foot on the gas and sped out of the driveway. Carter refused to give up, chasing right behind me in his own car. But very quickly, I realized something was horribly wrong. The brakes weren’t working! I yanked the steering wheel frantically, but at the red light, I still slammed headfirst into the car in front of me. With a deafening crash, I completely lost consciousness. “Stella!” I faintly heard Carter’s agonizing scream echoing in my ears. When I woke up, my body was in excruciating pain. I had a broken rib, and the rest of me was covered in severe lacerations. The doctor’s face was full of relief. “It’s a good thing you weren’t going too fast, so your internal organs didn’t rupture. If you had been going any faster, you would be dead or permanently paralyzed.” Carter, the corners of his eyes red, listened intently to the doctor’s instructions. I struggled to reach out with my left arm, hooked my phone, and started dialing 911. Noticing this, Carter asked anxiously. “Stella, who are you trying to have arrested?” I glared at the culprit standing in the room, pointing at a leisurely-looking Mia, and roared: “Who else could it be?! Tell her to get out!” Mia put on her signature, innocent face again. “Stella, I was planning on taking it to the shop to get fixed tomorrow. Nobody knew you were going to drive it.” My chest ached furiously from the effort of speaking, my voice reduced to a harsh whisper because I was so weak. “The car has been broken for that long, and you didn’t tell me?! You only say you were going to fix it tomorrow after I get into an accident?! I almost died!” As I finished speaking, I hit the call button. But suddenly, Carter snatched the phone from my hand and ended the call. “Stella, it’s all a misunderstanding. There’s no need to take it this far.” My vision instantly went black. For a moment, I honestly couldn’t tell if my physical wounds hurt more, or if my heart was just suffocating me. I used the last of my strength to murmur: “Get out… all of you, get out…” Mia pouted and scoffed. “Why are you being so dramatic? You just got a few little scratches, it’s not like you—ah!” Smack! Carter delivered a heavy, resounding slap, cutting her off completely. “Get out!” Carter’s voice was low and gravelly, the veins on his forehead bulging. He had clearly reached the absolute limit of his patience. Holding her cheek, Mia’s eyes filled with tears. “You actually hit me. For this bitch, Stella?!” Her tone was sinister. The look she gave me before slamming the door shut was enough to make my blood run cold. Chapter 4 I was completely drained of energy, possessing no more strength to care about their drama. But for five straight days, a ridiculously busy Carter stayed by my side, tending to my every need. Several times, I grabbed the water cup next to me and threw it at him, but I couldn’t drive him away. “Stella, just focus on healing. Once you’re better, we’ll talk.” He spoke softly, but carried an air of absolute refusal to leave, no matter what I did. I eventually stopped paying attention to him, letting him do whatever he wanted. Until one day, taking advantage of a moment when he stepped out, I grabbed my bags and my mother’s urn, and discharged myself from the hospital early. But while I was waiting for an Uber by the curb, an almost feral Carter charged toward me. “Stella Davis! You are utterly ruthless!” He threw a blood-soaked piece of clothing right in my face. Having just left the hospital, I had barely any strength. The force of the throw sent me crashing to the pavement. “What is this? What does this have to do with me?!” He grabbed me by the collar, furious: “Still lying! Mia is missing, and this bloody shirt is all that’s left! You’re the only person who’s had a grudge against her lately!” I froze on the spot for a solid ten seconds. The only reason was because it was just too absurd. “There is zero proof that I did this! You should be calling the cops right now, not blaming me!” I yelled, panting heavily. Carter’s face stiffened, his expression seeming to waver slightly. Suddenly, his phone buzzed. He thought it was good news, but when he opened the message, his face completely darkened. He shoved the screen right into my face, his eyes bloodshot. “Look for yourself!” I frantically grabbed the phone. On the screen, Mia was tied up, kneeling on the ground. There was blood on the corner of her mouth, and she looked as if she had been brutally beaten. “I really know I was wrong. What do I have to do for you to forgive me, Stella? I really didn’t break the car on purpose. I can’t feel my legs anymore. Stella, please, just let me go.” Saying that, she desperately kowtowed against the floor. The video abruptly cut off. A sudden, sharp pain flared in my scalp. Out of nowhere, Mrs. Sterling had appeared and violently slapped me three times across the face. “You bitch! Mia is the daughter I raised! How could you do this to her?! Are you even human?!” I couldn’t catch my breath, completely defenseless. Just as another slap was about to land, Carter intercepted her hand. “Stella, speak! Where is Mia?!” I lay on the ground like a puddle of mud, tears streaming down my face. “It has nothing to do with me, I have absolutely no idea! What do you want me to say?! And the color of that blood in the video is completely fake!” Mrs. Sterling was hyperventilating with rage, lunging forward to hit me again. “Still making excuses! I will never let a woman like you marry into our family! You won’t shed a tear until you see the coffin. You’re just asking for a beating.” Carter blocked his mother, signaling that he would handle it. His eyes swept the surrounding area before finally landing on my mother’s urn. My heart stopped. I frantically lunged to grab it. But he was faster. He snatched it up. “What are you doing?! Give the urn back to me!” Ignoring the agonizing pain in my abdomen, I dragged myself across the pavement and fell to my knees. I lowered myself into the dust. “I’m begging you, give the urn back to me.” I sobbed uncontrollably, attempting to use my last shred of dignity to awaken the final trace of their humanity. But Carter looked away, his voice light and freezing cold. “I’m giving you one last chance. Are you going to tell me or not?” Mrs. Sterling was frantic, glaring at me as if I had murdered her entire family. “Mia is just a child! How did she ever offend you that you have to be so ruthless?! Where is she, tell us now!” I completely broke down, even slapping my own face. “I really don’t know! I swear to God, if I’m lying, may lightning strike me dead!” Even though my voice was practically tearing at the seams, Carter closed his eyes in frustration. When he opened them again, a flash of pure malice crossed his face. Crash. Everything seemed to move in slow motion as the urn shattered into a hundred pieces on the concrete. The ashes inside drifted out, scattering in the wind. “Ahhhh!” I let out wave after wave of agonizing screams, throwing myself onto the ground to protect the ashes with my own body. It felt like a knife was twisting furiously in my heart. A flicker of pity crossed Mrs. Sterling’s eyes, but she still maintained her hard expression and said I brought it on myself. Carter clenched his jaw. Just as he was about to speak, his phone rang again. Seeing it was the police precinct, he answered immediately. “Mia Harper has been found. Please come to the precinct immediately, we have matters to discuss in person.” His brain buzzed. He instinctively looked down at me on the ground. But in that split second, accompanied by a blood-curdling scream from Mrs. Sterling, a flash of cold steel caught his eye.

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Chapter 1 Right before the end of the year, I lost my job. I was scrolling through an online forum looking for work when I stumbled upon a thread: [What’s the fastest way for a girl to make money?] There was a highly upvoted comment near the top. [Find a sugar daddy, obviously! Mine gives me ten grand a month. He remembers exactly what I like to eat and knows exactly when my period is. His sex drive is just insanely high, he always begs for it and keeps me up all night… but he’s super handsome~] Someone replied: [Where do you even find a sugar daddy like that? Is he single?] She replied: [He has a girlfriend, but he hasn’t touched her in a long time. He told me she just lays there like a dead fish in bed, totally boring.] [As for how we met, he accidentally rear-ended my car while he was on a business trip in Miami this year.] My breath caught in my throat. This March, Arthur Sterling had rear-ended a girl’s car while on a business trip in Miami. My fingertips went ice cold. I kept scrolling down. [Today I just mentioned I wasn’t feeling well, and he ditched his girlfriend to take me purse shopping!] Attached was a photo of two hands with intertwined fingers. On the man’s index finger, there was a fresh, superficial cut. It was in the exact same spot where Arthur had cut his finger while slicing fruit for me this morning. 1 I slammed my phone face-down on my lap, my heart pounding violently against my ribs. I squeezed my eyes shut, telling myself it couldn’t be him. Not the Arthur Sterling who would tuck my freezing feet into his shirt on cold winter nights. Not the Arthur Sterling who remembered every single thing I liked, whose eyes practically glowed whenever he talked about me. We had been together for seven years. Our lives had completely melted into one another. Besides, our engagement party was the day after tomorrow. He had personally designed the invitations. It had to be a coincidence. I took a few deep breaths and opened the top comment again. The replies underneath were a chaotic mix of jealousy and vicious insults. But her responses only grew more and more arrogant. [Why are you all so bitter? His girlfriend takes up the space but doesn’t know how to serve him. She deserves to be tossed aside. Men want passion, not a wooden statue.] [My sugar daddy even used his connections to get his girlfriend fired, just so he could give me her position at the company.] [His girlfriend is unemployed now, so he only gives her five grand a month, but he gives me ten grand~] Every single word felt like a physical stab to the chest. A week ago, I was fired from my job without cause. HR just gave me some vague excuse about “upper management decisions.” I went home and cried in Arthur’s arms, feeling incredibly wronged. He kissed the top of my head and said: “It’s just a job, babe. If it’s gone, it’s gone. From now on, I’ll give you five thousand dollars a month.” “You can just stay home, arrange flowers, and binge-watch Netflix. If you get bored, go shopping or get afternoon tea.” When I told him I didn’t want to be a useless pet he kept around, he just laughed and replied: “I love keeping you. I only want to keep you.” Only want to keep you. The words were still ringing in my ears, but now they made my entire body shiver with cold. My hands trembled as I clicked on “Miss Peach’s” profile. Her latest post. [Day 244 of being spoiled by my man. I casually said this looked pretty, and the next second he was taking it home for me~] The photo showed a man from behind, paying at a luxury checkout counter. When Arthur left the house this morning, he wasn’t wearing that suit. But that silhouette… I could trace it perfectly with my eyes closed. My stomach violently churned. I kept scrolling down. [Day 215 of being spoiled by my man. They’re getting engaged, but I’M the one who designed the invitations! Because I love honeysuckle flowers~ Ta-da, aren’t they gorgeous?] The invitation she posted was completely identical to the one sitting in my desk drawer. When Arthur handed it to me, his eyes were brimming with deep affection. “Honeysuckle. It blooms even through the harshest winter. It symbolizes unwavering loyalty and an unbreakable bond.” Loyalty. Unbreakable bond. How incredibly ironic. [Day 198 of being spoiled by my man. Today is his seven-year anniversary with his girlfriend, but he ditched her to come to the movies with me!] I remembered that day. I took the day off work, cooked all his favorite dishes, ordered a custom cake, bought a gift, and lit expensive aromatherapy candles. All I got was an apologetic phone call. “A crisis came up at the company, babe. I have to handle it. I’ll be home late.” I hadn’t suspected a thing. I even told him to make sure he didn’t work too hard. My fingertips were freezing. I could barely hold onto the phone. I kept scrolling, all the way down to her very first post. [Met my absolute dream guy today! He accidentally scratched my car, but he was so polite and insisted on taking me to the hospital to get checked out… but I think he has a girlfriend. Whatever! Letting a top-tier man like this slip away would be a crime! Operation: Steal the Boyfriend has commenced!] Edited on March 4th, 2025. The exact day Arthur rear-ended that girl’s car. “Urgh—” I sprinted to the bathroom and vomited until the world spun. Tears and snot covered my face. The woman in the mirror had bloodshot eyes. She looked like a complete lunatic. So this was the truth. 244 days. Seven months and twenty-two days. Every single night he was “working late,” “entertaining clients,” or had “an emergency.” Every time my heart ached for how hard he was working… he was in another woman’s bed. Even the job I cherished so much—he personally destroyed it, just for her. And he knew exactly how much that job meant to me! After a long time, I pushed myself up from the floor and took screenshots of every single post. When Arthur finally came home. He was still wearing the suit he left in this morning. He didn’t smell like anything suspicious. He was carrying takeout from the Sichuan seafood place across town. The exact place I had casually mentioned wanting to eat last night. Seeing my red eyes, he quickly walked over and cupped my face. “What’s wrong? Were you watching one of those sad movies again?” Before I could answer, the doorbell rang. He frowned slightly. “Might be the building manager. Let me go check.” When he opened the door, a sweet, playful female voice drifted in. “Hi there, delivery delivery!” The voice sounded exactly like Miss Peach from the videos on her profile. Arthur’s body went completely rigid for a split second. He quickly muttered a “thank you,” shut the door, and walked over holding two cups of bubble tea. “I saw a huge line at that boba place while I was driving past, and I figured you might want some, so I DoorDashed it. I didn’t want the fish to get cold while I waited in line.” His explanation was absolutely flawless. I looked up, staring deeply into his eyes. “Arthur, is there something you’re hiding from me?” 2 Arthur’s hand froze right as he was poking the straw into the cup. Instantly, his expression returned to normal. He smiled, pressing the bubble tea into my hand. He affectionately ruffled my hair. His tone was helpless but full of adoration: “Chloe, have you been watching those ‘test your boyfriend’ TikToks again? Those are all scripted for views.” “Besides, how could I ever hide anything from you…” Before he could finish, his phone buzzed. He glanced at it, immediately pressing the lock button to darken the screen. “You go ahead and eat the fish before it gets cold and gross. I need to take a quick call.” He spoke a little faster than usual, turning and walking into the home office. I looked down at the iced matcha green tea latte in my hand. Condensation from the cup slid onto the back of my hand. It was freezing cold. I am deathly allergic to matcha. He had never, ever forgotten that before. It’s just that right now, he had much more important things on his mind. A short while later, he walked out of the office, wearing that familiar, apologetic look. It was the exact same look he wore every time he needed to leave for “business.” “Chloe—” he started. “Is there an emergency at the company?” I didn’t wait for him to weave a lie; I just cut him off. He froze for a second, then quickly nodded: “Yeah, there’s an incredibly urgent project that needs my signature right now.” I looked him dead in the eye. “Can you just not go?” The expression on his face hardened for a fraction of a second. “Chloe, don’t be unreasonable.” “You know how hard I work, how much I hustle—it’s all for our future.” “I have to prove to my mother that I can succeed without the family’s help. I can give you the absolute best life possible.” Arthur’s mother had never liked me. The reason was simple. My background was far too ordinary, even a little broken. I wasn’t “worthy” of the Sterling family’s elite status. Arthur was a true trust-fund heir, born with a silver spoon in his mouth. Before he met me, his family had paved every road for him, even picking out his future wife for a strategic corporate merger. But he defied his entire family’s arrangements just for me. He insisted on being with me. In a fit of rage, his mother cut off all his trust funds and essentially exiled him. She swore that if he could build a successful business entirely on his own, without a single cent of family money, within five years… She would accept me. She would accept our relationship. So for the past five years, Arthur hadn’t rested for a single second. And I had worked just as desperately, constantly trying to improve myself, terrified of slacking off. Terrified of becoming a burden to him. Terrified that his mother’s words—”What can she possibly do besides drag you down?”—would become a reality. His mother never stopped trying to make me back off, either. From an initial offer of half a million dollars, up to a million. And then, just a month ago, she slid a seemingly weightless check across the table to me. Ten million dollars. The condition remained exactly the same: Leave my son. I never took the money. Because I loved Arthur Sterling. And I fiercely believed that he loved me. I stubbornly believed that true love could conquer all obstacles, erase prejudice, and bridge the gap between social classes. Until this exact moment. The unwavering faith I had held onto began to crack and shatter, inch by inch. His phone buzzed again. He glanced at it, not even bothering to invent another excuse. “Chloe, I have to go. Make sure you eat.” Without waiting for a response, he turned and strode out the door. I grabbed my phone and followed him out. Down in the underground parking garage. I saw them. 3 The girl was hanging off Arthur like a koala. Arthur’s large hands securely gripped her thighs, hiking her up a bit so she could hold on tighter. His voice drifted over—it sounded like a reprimand, but it was dripping with absolute indulgence. “Didn’t I tell you to wait in the car? Who gave you permission to come upstairs? Do you just not want to get out of bed tomorrow?” The girl wrapped her arms around his neck and whined playfully: “Yeah, I want daddy to love me nice and hard~” “Besides, look how smart I am! I specifically bought two boba teas and brought them up so I could pretend to be a DoorDash driver. Don’t worry, daddy, your precious girlfriend won’t notice a thing.” Arthur let out a low, dark chuckle, pinching her nose: “My baby is so smart. But you can’t do that again, understand? I’ll give you whatever you want, but you absolutely cannot let her catch you. That is the bottom line.” The girl pouted, wiggling her body unhappily: “Daddy, doesn’t it exhaust you? Every time you see me, you have to change your clothes, absolutely terrified that she might notice something slightly off.” “Do you really love her that much?” Arthur paused for a second: “Yes. I love her. Which is exactly why I can’t let her find out. I can’t let her be heartbroken.” “Then what about me?” “You are my absolute favorite little pet, right after her.” “Hmph. Then you have to stay with me tonight. The whole night. You’re not allowed to go back.” Arthur lowered his head, pressing a quick kiss to her lips. His voice was incredibly tender: “Okay.” With that, he carried her to the car and put her inside. A short while later, the heavy SUV began to rock back and forth. I leaned my back against a concrete pillar, slowly sliding down until I was sitting on the cold garage floor. It turns out that when your heart shatters into a million pieces, it doesn’t make a sound. There are no tears. I don’t know how much time passed. The rocking of the SUV finally stopped. Then, the roar of the engine echoed through the garage, and the car drove away. I opened my recent calls log. I found the unsaved number. And dialed. Arthur’s mother answered the phone. Watching the taillights disappear from view, I spoke with absolute, terrifying calm: “Ten million dollars. I agree to leave your son.” In a private, high-end tea room, Mrs. Sterling set down her porcelain teacup. The corners of her lips curled into a faint smile. “Changed your mind?” “I thought you said you would rather die than leave him.” I didn’t touch the tea in front of me. “He betrayed me.” She raised an elegant eyebrow, not looking surprised in the slightest. “Because of that girl?” Her tone was completely flat. “I had heard rumors. I just didn’t expect you to be the first one to find out.” She seemed to sense that I had zero interest in small talk. “Send me your routing number. The money will be in your account within three days.” She looked at me, her gaze as sharp as a scalpel. “I expect you to keep your word. If you ever bother him again, you know exactly what the consequences will be.” I stood up and left. My phone buzzed with a text from Arthur. [Chloe, I have to work late at the office tonight. I probably won’t make it home. Go to bed early, don’t wait up for me.] I attached the photo I had taken of them in the parking garage and hit send. [Are you actually working late? Or are you sleeping with another woman?] 4 The message sank like a stone in the ocean. I sat on the living room sofa for the entire night. Arthur didn’t come home until the sun was coming up. When he saw the completely untouched food sitting on the dining table… His face filled with intense worry. “Chloe?” He practically sprinted over, reaching out to feel my forehead. “Why are you so pale? Are you sick? Why didn’t you eat anything?” I turned my head sharply, dodging his hand. His hand hovered awkwardly in the air. I looked up at him, my voice dry and cracked. “Did you not see the message I sent you last night?” He frowned, pulling his phone from his pocket, looking genuinely confused: “What message? I was buried in crisis management at the office all night. My phone must have been on silent, I didn’t even check it.” Just as he was speaking, Miss Peach uploaded a new post. [Day 255 of being spoiled by my man. I got caught hooking up with him! His girlfriend sent him a text, but I secretly deleted it~ I’m such a clever little genius!] Attached was a photo of a man’s back, wearing only a hotel towel around his waist. So that was it. My stomach was completely empty. I didn’t even have the energy left to feel nauseous. I offered a faint, bitter smile and looked away. I looked at Arthur, who was still pretending to frantically search his phone. “Maybe it didn’t go through.” He let out a very obvious, heavy sigh of relief. He immediately pulled me tightly into his chest. He rested his chin on the top of my head, his voice so unbelievably soft and tender it could melt ice: “You little scatterbrain. You scared me half to death.” His embrace was still incredibly warm. He still smelled exactly the same. But right now, the only thing I felt was a biting, freezing chill sinking deep into my bones. “I’ve been way too busy lately. I’ve been leaving you home alone so much, with no one to eat with or sleep next to. It’s all my fault.” He murmured softly, sounding as if he loved me deeper than the ocean. “But it’s all going to be worth it. Tomorrow is our engagement party.” “I’ve already arranged everything. I’m going to let the whole world know that you, Chloe Carter, are the only woman I, Arthur Sterling, will ever choose in this lifetime.” I didn’t say a word. I just let him hold me. I remembered the year he was thrown out of his family’s mansion for me. He had to start from absolute zero. I had just graduated college. He didn’t have a single cent to his name. We lived crammed in a damp, moldy basement apartment. We shared a single bowl of instant ramen. He gave me the only piece of hot dog in the bowl. His eyes sparkled with pure, radiant hope as he promised: “Chloe, I know things are rough right now. But I swear to God, I will give you a beautiful life one day.” His tears back then had been real. His heartbreak for my suffering had been real. The light in his eyes… maybe that had been real, too. If I hadn’t seen that Reddit post. If I hadn’t seen the reality of that parking garage. I probably still would have been that naive, stupid girl, trusting him and loving him with everything I had. Right up until my very last breath. The next day. The engagement party. Arthur personally supervised every single detail of the venue. Everywhere you looked, there were wild roses. Because I had once told him that I loved the resilient, romantic life force of wild roses more than anything else. The venue was packed with guests. The only empty seats were the ones reserved for his parents. I wore the gown he had custom-designed for me, standing by his side, accepting the blessings of the crowd. He held my hand in a vice grip, his face radiating absolute bliss. Until the MC on the stage began delivering his emotional, tear-jerking opening speech. Arthur’s cell phone rang. He glanced at the screen and immediately declined the call. But just as the MC was about to announce the exchange of the engagement rings… His phone vibrated again. This time, he didn’t immediately hit ignore. He offered me an incredibly apologetic smile and whispered: “It might be a massive crisis at the company. Let me just take this. It’ll only be a second.” He let go of my hand and stepped behind a nearby floral pillar. I stood rooted to the spot, watching his back as he answered the phone. He wasn’t standing very far away. I could clearly see that initially, he looked annoyed and impatient as he listened. Then, his face instantly turned as pale as a sheet of paper. “What?! Which hospital?! I’m on my way! Tell her to wait for me!” He aggressively hung up the phone. He didn’t even have the presence of mind to arrange his facial expression before he spun around and sprinted back to me. “Chloe, an absolute catastrophe just happened. I have to go deal with it right now.” “I’ll be back as soon as it’s handled. It’ll be fast. You have to wait for me here.” He didn’t wait for my response. He just turned and sprinted toward the exit like a madman. The entire ballroom plunged into a dead silence, followed immediately by an explosion of frantic whispering. Every single eye in the room turned to stare at me. The MC desperately, awkwardly tried to smooth things over. Right then, my phone vibrated. It was a massive bank deposit notification, followed immediately by a text from his mother. [The funds have cleared. Remember our agreement.] Almost at the exact same second, Miss Peach uploaded a new post. [Day 256 of being spoiled by my man. I purposely walked into traffic and got lightly bumped by a car. My man instantly ditched his girlfriend and ran straight out of his engagement party to come see me! I TOLD you guys I was the one he loved most!] I took a screenshot of the post and dropped it into the PowerPoint presentation I had prepared hours ago. Then, I walked forward and took the microphone from the MC’s hand. “Ladies and gentlemen. The engagement is officially canceled. I am incredibly sorry for the inconvenience.” “But before you go, I have a parting gift for all of you.” I cast the PowerPoint—titled [Arthur Sterling’s Infidelity Diary]—onto the massive LED screen behind the stage. The very first slide was Miss Peach’s newest post. Ignoring the deafening uproar erupting behind me, I picked up the heavy skirts of my gown, turned on my heel, and walked out the door. The Uber I had ordered was already waiting to take me to the airport. I powered down my phone, popped the SIM card out, and cleanly snapped it in half. Arthur arrived at the hospital to find that Tara’s injuries were completely superficial. He felt a flash of deep irritation, but he still comforted her in a soft, gentle voice: “Tara, just focus on resting and recovering. I’ll come back and see you tomorrow.” The moment the words left his mouth. His executive assistant called him. “Boss… Miss Carter found out about Tara.”

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Thirty years into our childfree marriage, my husband’s twenty-eight-year-old illegitimate son showed up at our door. It was the second year since the law granted illegitimate children legal inheritance rights. His purpose for coming was glaringly obvious. I asked my husband what his plan was. His eyes darted around, and he stammered out excuses. First, he claimed we were getting older and needed someone to look after us. Second, he argued that the boy was, after all, his own flesh and blood. Seeing that I remained stubbornly silent, he closed his eyes and played his trump card: “If you had a child out there, you could bring them home too, and they could inherit our assets in the future.” We had been together for thirty years, never spending more than a year apart. He was absolutely certain it was impossible for me to have a secret child. But if he was going to put it like that, then I guess I didn’t need to feel guilty anymore. An illegitimate child? Did he really think I didn’t have any? Not only did I have them, I had more than him! 1 When the young man showed up at my door claiming he was looking for his biological father, my brain short-circuited for a second. Then, naturally, I told him, “You have the wrong house.” My husband and I had agreed to be childfree before we even got married. How could we possibly have a child? The polite smile remained plastered on the young man’s face. His gaze bypassed me, landing squarely on something behind me. His voice rang out, laced with pleasant surprise: “Uncle Thomas… No, Dad—” Dad? I followed his gaze, turning around stiffly, and saw my husband, Thomas Sterling, standing in the living room, watching us. He looked back at us, his face a complex mix of guilt he couldn’t hide. His eyes darted nervously, refusing to meet mine. A bone-chilling cold spread through my entire body. In that moment, what else was there to understand? The three of us sat on the living room sofa. Thomas and the young man exchanged glances multiple times, communicating silently through the air. They were clearly already very familiar with each other. They must have met privately plenty of times. I was the only stranger in the room. I remained silent. Thirty years of marriage. A husband who insisted on a childfree life before we even tied the knot now had a twenty-eight-year-old illegitimate son. I didn’t know what expression to wear or how to even begin processing my emotions. We were both nearing sixty, having just retired from our jobs, holding onto the life savings we had worked so hard for decades to accumulate. And this was the second year since the law had officially granted illegitimate children legal inheritance rights. The young man’s intention in showing up now was crystal clear. 2 Since it was already out in the open, Thomas had no choice but to endlessly apologize and explain. His excuses were pathetic, boiling down to one tired cliché: a drunken mistake in his youth. What a load of crap. Setting aside the fact that Thomas was famous in his youth for his high alcohol tolerance… even if he were blackout drunk, could he really have performed? After thirty years together, the man sitting in front of me, his hair more than half gray, suddenly felt like a complete stranger. I looked at them and asked the first question since Liam walked through the door: “Why didn’t your mother come?” Liam twitched the corner of his mouth. The look he gave me screamed, I knew you’d ask that. “Mrs. Sterling, my mom is very busy. She’s traveling with some friends right now and didn’t have time to come.” I narrowed my eyes slightly, taking a hard look at the young man who shared a striking resemblance to Thomas. I had, after all, lived twenty-odd years longer than him; I wasn’t deaf to the passive-aggressive undertone in his voice. He held his chin slightly high, an arrogant air seeping through his casual demeanor. Just an illegitimate bastard, and he actually thought he had the right to feel superior in front of me? I let out a cold scoff: “So, your mother raised you all these years without ever trying to find your father. And now, she sends you looking for him. What, can she not afford to keep you anymore?” Liam’s face darkened. But before he could even respond, Thomas was already barking at me: “Stella!” I glared at him coldly. He still didn’t have the guts to meet my eyes, just muttering under his breath that even if I was angry, I shouldn’t take it out on the kid. The kid was innocent; he didn’t know anything. Innocent? Of course he wasn’t innocent. As an illegitimate child, his very existence was the original sin in this marriage. Liam didn’t stay long. He only came to deliver a message: he had a girlfriend and wanted to get married, but his current apartment was too small for a married couple. He wanted to move in with us. After all, the penthouse Thomas and I currently lived in was over three thousand square feet. What kind of fever dream was he having? I didn’t bust my ass for half my life just to hand everything over to someone else. I immediately vetoed the idea, but Thomas just kept his head down and stayed silent. As Liam was leaving, he shot me a smirk that didn’t quite reach his eyes. Thomas had already done a DNA test with him. Even as an illegitimate son, his right to inherit was set in stone. I could block him for now, but I couldn’t block him forever. 3 After Liam left, Thomas and I sat in the living room in deafening silence. What’s done was done. Whatever we said now felt pale and powerless. After weighing the pros and cons repeatedly, I suppressed the urge to scream and asked Thomas: “What is your plan?” Thomas stammered for a long time before finally saying: “Stella, we’re both getting older. Our bodies aren’t as strong as they used to be. If we had someone around to take care of us, it would be…” I cut him off: “Save the bullshit. I will never accept him.” The kid is his, not mine. Having him “take care” of me? Does he think I want to be suffocated in my sleep? Liam looked at me with nothing but hostility. I’m not blind; I could see it perfectly well. It wasn’t that I hadn’t considered divorce. But a divorce meant Thomas would get half of our marital assets. Those assets were the result of our combined efforts over more than half a lifetime. Even if it was only half, I refused to let it fall into the hands of someone like Liam. Thomas’s expression shifted several times, eventually suppressing his temper. He rambled on, the gist of it being that what happened happened, Liam carries the Sterling bloodline, and it’s impossible for him not to acknowledge his own son. It’s not like the Sterling family has a royal throne to pass down. “Only bloodline,” my ass. Seeing that my expression remained stone-cold, Thomas finally gritted his teeth and played his trump card: “Stella, if you had a child out there, you could bring them home too, and they could inherit our assets in the future alongside Liam.” He dared to say this because, in our thirty years together, we had never spent more than a year apart. He was absolutely certain I couldn’t possibly have a secret child. Furthermore, I was fifty-seven years old. I was no longer capable of having children. They had planned this perfectly. Waiting until now to show up at my door was probably because they were afraid I might have changed my mind about being childfree earlier on. But who can really say for sure when it comes to secret children? Seeing my face darken, Thomas softened his tone to comfort me: “Stella, I admit I made a small mistake in my youth and wronged you. But we’ve weathered thirty years of storms together. How many years do we even have left? Besides, at our age, it’s impossible to raise a child from scratch anyway. Liam has half my blood; his character can’t be that bad…” Perhaps he didn’t even realize the smug, triumphant look plastered on his own face. Back then, he was the one who suggested being childfree. He said he didn’t like kids, even claimed he had a physiological aversion to them. I happened to dislike kids too, so we reached a childfree consensus. Now, he had stabbed me in the back, only to turn around and mock me: Who told you to be so stupid and not guard against me? 4 Three days. Thomas only managed to play the part of the apologetic, submissive husband for three days. After that, he brazenly started contacting Liam right in front of me. Voice memos, FaceTimes, phone calls—the once quiet living room was now constantly filled with their laughter. Over the past two days, Thomas even suggested changing Liam’s last name to Sterling. I ignored him, coldly watching his smug display. Scum are excellent at camouflaging themselves, often hiding for long periods. But someone like Thomas, who could keep up the act for thirty years? That was truly rare. I was nearing sixty. The drive I had in my youth had long since faded. I lacked the courage to start over completely. Moreover, the assets Thomas and I had built up over our youth were mostly liquidated and tied up in investments. Stripping him of everything wouldn’t be easy. My passive attitude made Thomas believe that bringing Liam into the family was a done deal. After all, the fact that Liam was his biological son was undeniable, recognized even by law. I was too exhausted to look at Thomas’s face anymore. I decided to take a trip with my best friend, Chloe, for a few days to clear my head. Thomas considerately packed my luggage for me. Before I left, he chuckled and offered some advice: “Stella, at our age, there are many things we’re powerless to change. The best approach is just to let it go.” Chloe took my suitcase from his hands, smiling even brighter than him: “Thomas, it’s exactly because of that attitude of yours that Stella and I never have to worry when we go out and have fun.” Thomas didn’t catch Chloe’s underlying sarcasm. He assumed I hadn’t told her about his illegitimate son and thought she was complimenting him. The car door closed, and Thomas’s figure gradually shrank in the rearview mirror. I turned to Chloe and asked, “Are the kids back?” Chloe nodded. “They all got back last night. They’re waiting for you at home right now.” I didn’t say anything else, wearily pinching the bridge of my nose. My left hand, resting by my side, was suddenly enveloped in a warm grasp. I looked down. Chloe was only a year younger than me, but the wrinkles on the back of her hand were just as pronounced as mine. I sighed silently and gently squeezed her hand back. 5 I was gone for five days. For those five days, I cut off all contact with Thomas. When I finally came back and unlocked the front door, the first thing to rush out was a mixed-breed dog I didn’t recognize. The dog barked furiously at me from inside my own home. A strange woman’s voice drifted from the living room: “Daisy, what are you barking at? Is a guest here—” The woman walking toward the entryway swallowed the rest of her sentence the moment she saw me. It was obvious she knew who I was. And in this house, she was the “guest.” An incredibly unwelcome guest. The woman looked about my age. She wore a light pink dress, had permed, voluminous hair, and her face was caked in a thick layer of foundation that settled deeply into her laugh lines. She looked meticulously put together, yet incredibly tacky. Our eyes met. My expression was hostile. Even though I already guessed who she was, I demanded with an interrogating tone: “Who are you? And what are you doing in my house?” A flicker of panic crossed the woman’s face for just a second before she quickly composed herself. She offered a less-than-friendly smile: “You must be Stella, right? I’m Rachel.” Rachel. Liam’s mother. Another voice echoed from inside: “Mom, who is it?” Liam and Thomas appeared behind Rachel simultaneously. Hah. A family of three. How perfect. Thomas was clearly guilty. He stammered, asking why I didn’t tell him I was coming back early. I sneered: “If I told you early, would I have been able to catch this wonderful little show?” It wasn’t until I walked into the living room that I realized it wasn’t a family of three, but a family of four. Liam’s girlfriend was half-lying on the sofa, playing on her phone with her feet propped up on the coffee table. Hearing people come in, she merely glanced up before looking back down at her screen. The audacity to bring his old flame and his bastard son into my home. Thomas had pushed me too far! 6 I slammed my luggage heavily onto the table. The girl on the sofa quickly pulled her feet down and shot me a dirty look. Liam, playing the loyal lapdog, wasn’t going to stand for that. He yelled at me: “Couldn’t you put that down a little more quietly?” I didn’t even give him the time of day: “This is my house. I’ll do whatever the hell I want. What does it have to do with an outsider like you?!” “This is my dad’s house too,” Liam scoffed coldly. He tilted his chin up, looking down his nose at me with a bizarre sense of superiority. “Aunt Stella, at your age, you should be looking for someone to rely on. I think you better start treating me with a little more respect.” I glanced at him, searing his arrogant face into my memory. Rachel stood next to Thomas, smiling tightly with her lips pressed together. Mhm. Like an aging white lotus. I ignored them and jutted my chin toward Thomas, keeping my voice as flat as possible: “Thomas, sit down. We need to talk.” Thomas instinctively looked at Rachel and Liam. Rachel let out a soft hmph and, without bothering to hide her entitlement, sat directly on the sofa across from me. Liam sat down next to her, staring at me with open hostility. They really had no idea what their actual status was here. But of course, that was quietly encouraged by Thomas. Thomas looked at them, then at me, and finally sat down on Rachel’s other side. They flanked Rachel, one on the left, one on the right, protecting her. It made me look like the wicked villain trying to bully poor Rachel. I couldn’t be bothered to waste time on pleasantries and cut straight to the chase: “Thomas, you know exactly how much money we’ve saved up over the years, right?” As soon as those words left my mouth, everyone’s eyes locked onto Thomas. Even the girl playing games on the sofa turned the volume all the way down and quietly pricked up her ears. A bizarre, tense silence fell over the living room. Thomas looked at me for a long moment before finally nodding: “I know.” All our savings were in a single bank account. The PIN was six digits long. I only knew the first three digits, and Thomas knew the last three. When we were young, Thomas and I were terrible with money. We didn’t combine our finances initially. Then Thomas got seriously ill, and we realized that combining our balances wasn’t even enough to cover the surgery. That was when we finally understood the importance of money and started planning to save. To prevent the other from slipping back into bad spending habits, we came up with this method. In front of everyone, I pulled the debit card out of my purse and placed it on the table. “There’s $2.24 million on this card.” Hearing that balance, nobody reacted—except for the girl on the sofa. It seemed Thomas had already told them. Thomas rubbed his hands together and offered an awkward smile: “Stella, uh, about Liam’s wedding… I’ve done the math. A million should be enough to cover—” He didn’t even get to finish his sentence before Rachel cut him off: “Thomas, you just don’t understand the market these days. Based on current trends, what you’re talking about—the banquet, the ring, the bridal jewelry, the photoshoot… We have to do this right, a million isn’t going to cut it…” The girl who had been lounging on the sofa was now sitting up ramrod straight, her restless feet planted firmly on the floor. She nodded eagerly along with Rachel’s words: “Auntie is absolutely right. Liam, when my best friend got married last year, the groom’s family gave them $660,000 just for the engagement gift. I shouldn’t get any less than her, right?” Liam shifted closer to her and affectionately stroked her hair: “Don’t worry, you won’t get any less than her, right, Dad?” The ball was tossed back to Thomas. He didn’t answer Liam directly, but stole a cautious glance at me: “Stella, a wedding only happens once in a lifetime. What do you think…” “Let me finish speaking.” I unlocked my phone and opened the calculator app. “We still have five years left on the mortgage. The monthly payment is $8,000. If we want to pay it off in one lump sum, we need $500,000.” It was a 3,000-square-foot penthouse. We bought it early on when prices were still around $1,000 a square foot. We had paid off fifteen years of a twenty-year mortgage. The only reason we hadn’t paid it off early was that the interest was basically paid up. Based on our current savings, paying off the remaining five years wouldn’t be a strain at all. Before Thomas could say anything, Rachel frowned: “If you calculate it like that, there’s only about $1.7 million left. That’s barely enough to cover Liam’s wedding.” Liam chimed in on cue: “Dad, the mortgage obviously needs to be paid off first. Katie and I barely make enough to cover our own monthly expenses; we definitely can’t help with that.” I looked up from my phone screen, taking in their greedy faces one by one, and slowly smiled: “What are you all dreaming about? Do you really think that $1.7 million has much of a share for you?” Their faces instantly darkened. The furrow between Thomas’s brows was deep enough to crush a fly: “Stella, I thought you had come to terms with this? Why are you saying things like this again? I told you, Liam is my only child—” I raised a hand to stop him: “You only have one child. That’s your business. This is our joint marital property. Naturally, it should be divided equally among our children.” Before Thomas could even process what I had just said, I made a phone call: “Bring the kids in.”

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