My best friend was a professional “relationship tester.” She said she was afraid I would get hurt by scumbags, so every time I dated someone, she would disguise herself as their ideal type and seduce them into bed. Every single time, she would send me photos from the bedroom. “Jade! If I was not protecting you, you would have been fooled by another scumbag! I am such a good friend to you!” I was tormented to the point of breaking down. I cut ties with her completely and moved to another city. Later, I met the love of my life, Ethan Rivers. On our wedding day, I saw my best friend disguised as a makeup artist. “Jade, let me test him before you get married!” She drugged me unconscious, put on my wedding dress, and got into Ethan’s bed. I woke up just in time, brought people to burst into the bridal suite, and had her sent to prison. Later, I got pregnant. During delivery, I hemorrhaged severely. Ethan watched me struggle in agony but refused to sign the consent form to save me. “Miranda just wanted to give herself to me before the wedding to fulfill her wish!” “But you sent her to prison and caused her suicide! When she died, she was carrying my child!” “You and that bastard in your belly both deserve to die for her!” Only then did I realize the man I thought was my true love had fallen for my best friend long ago. I died with grievances. He even threw my ashes into a sewer. When I opened my eyes again, I was reborn to the day my best friend disguised herself as a makeup artist and appeared at my wedding.

When I opened my eyes, I saw Miranda Cole’s familiar yet stunning face again. Her foot slipped. She let out a soft cry and fell into Ethan’s arms, her face flushed as she looked at him. “Sorry.” This was her favorite seduction trick. I had witnessed it countless times. In my previous life, when I opened my eyes and saw Miranda like a nightmare before me, when I saw the wedding makeup I had looked forward to ruined by her, when I watched her flirt and use the same old tricks to seduce my husband again, my fear and rage poured out like a flood. I screamed and rushed forward, yanking her away and slapping her across the face. “Get out! You’re trying to seduce my boyfriend again, aren’t you? I won’t let you ! I will not let you succeed!” Ethan quickly called the bridesmaids to hold me down. Miranda cowered in the corner, her face red and pitiful. “I did not. Mrs. Rivers, you misunderstood. This is just a pre-wedding prank.” No matter how I explained that she was a relationship tester, that she had seduced several of my boyfriends and destroyed countless relationships of mine, Miranda just cried in panic. “I really did not. I do not even know you. I am just a makeup artist. Please stop slandering me…” Everyone whispered. “A relationship tester? Has she been reading too many novels? Who does that?” “She thinks everyone is trying to steal her husband. How embarrassing…”

My defenses grew pale under everyone’s mockery and Ethan’s weary gaze. Ethan sighed helplessly and came over to hug me gently. “It is okay. If you do not like her, we will fire her, alright?” “But you should have told me directly instead of misunderstanding her and slandering her…” I thought he, like the other guests, had been deceived by Miranda’s lies and disguise. But it was not until I died that I learned the truth. His heart had already turned toward Miranda. This time, I watched Miranda throw herself into Ethan’s arms with no expression on my face. I did not miss the flash of emotion in his eyes. But the next second, he glanced at me quickly. He pushed the person in his arms away and said coldly, “This joke is not funny. Apologize to my wife right now and remove that makeup properly so you can redo it.” “No need.” I spoke calmly, picking up a makeup remover wipe to clean the marks on my face. Ethan breathed a sigh of relief and patted her head gently. “Are not you going to thank my wife? If she was not so kind and forgiving…” I cut him off. “Ethan, no need to redo the makeup. Let us just cancel the wedding.” Ethan looked at me in disbelief, then laughed after a moment. “That joke is not funny.” “This is not a joke.” I simply took off the wedding dress Ethan had imported and threw it aside like garbage. “The wedding is canceled. We are breaking up.” I quickly put on my coat and walked toward the door. “Jade!” Only then did Ethan realize I was serious. He grabbed my wrist, veins bulging on his forehead as he suppressed his emotions. “You are canceling the wedding just because of a makeup artist’s prank?” He looked at me, his eyes full of grievance and confusion. “Jade! Stop making a scene!” “This wedding we put so much effort into. All our friends and family are here. You cannot…” I shook off his hand, ignoring the pointing and whispering around us, and looked at him with cold mockery. “Ethan, you know perfectly well why we are not getting married.” “I am giving you a chance to be with the person you truly love. Is not that good?” I thought I would see panic on Ethan’s face. But he looked perfectly calm, confused and aggrieved. “Jade, what are you talking about? Everyone knows you are the one I love most.” He pointed at Miranda. “Is it because of her?” He said helplessly, “I did not know she would pull that prank.” “Besides, did not I already say I would make her apologize? If you are still not satisfied, I will fire her.” Miranda ran out crying. Ethan did not even look at her. His eyes were fixed deeply on me. “Is that enough now?” I looked at him with calm eyes, neither agreeing nor disagreeing. Ethan’s parents walked in, their tone reproachful as they tried to persuade me. “Ethan has already apologized. Do not push it.” “Jade, you know how good Ethan has been to you. Have you forgotten who arranged your mother’s surgery and follow-up treatment? Do not be ungrateful.”

My heart ached sharply. My mother’s stroke was caused by Miranda. She deliberately displayed photos of herself in bed with my ex at his and my wedding, then publicly eloped with my ex, leaving me as the laughingstock. My mother collapsed in anger and fell into a coma. To get her treatment, I transferred hospitals to Portland and met Ethan Rivers, a neurosurgery expert. Ethan and I gradually fell in love during the treatment process. I understood the threat in his mother’s words. Their family was prominent. If I ruined the wedding today and made them lose face, my mother would be kicked out of the Rivers Medical Center. “Mom!” Ethan cut off his mother’s words with measured firmness. “Jade is my wife. Her mother is my mother-in-law. This is what I should do.” He looked at me, his tone pleading. “Honey, for the sake of me saving your mother, please do not make a scene at the wedding today, okay?” I dug my nails into my palms and showed a wronged expression. “Ethan, do you really not know that makeup artist? But she whispered to me that you deliberately had her make me look ugly to get back at me. That is why I got angry.” As soon as I spoke, the guests who had been displeased with me all showed sympathetic expressions. Ethan’s mouth twitched, then he showed a reassuring smile. “She was talking nonsense, just jealous of your good marriage.” Seeing I remained silent, he promised helplessly, “I will file a complaint against her right now, okay?” Only then did I show a smile and say, “Then you have to make a vow.” “If you really have something going on with her and betrayed me, then we will get divorced.” Ethan coaxed me and raised his hand to make a vow. The guests laughed good-naturedly. “You are worrying too much. Ethan only has eyes for you.” Outside the door, Miranda’s face flashed by, filled with vicious resentment at her failed scheme. I ignored it. After the wedding ceremony ended, just as I was about to go back to the room to change out of my wedding dress, someone covered my mouth and nose. I stopped breathing and closed my eyes, going along with it. Just like in my previous life. Miranda and Ethan were entangled, stumbling through the door of the adjacent guest room. The two fell onto the bed, making intimate sounds. I suddenly opened my eyes, quickly went downstairs, and found my in-laws who were chatting with guests. This time, I did not do what I did in my previous life. I did not mention that Miranda had drugged me and climbed into bed with him. I just appeared worried and said, “Mom, Dad, Ethan seems to have drunk too much and is not feeling well.” The doting Mr. and Mrs. Rivers, along with the Rivers family relatives eager to watch drama unfold, immediately followed me upstairs in a massive group. As soon as we reached the guest room door, we heard intimate sounds from inside. Immediately, their faces turned ugly. They hurried to cover it up, but I pushed the door open directly. “Ethan, are you not feeling well?” The door opened. The two entangled figures on the bed immediately sprang apart, hurriedly pulling up the blanket. Miranda flashed me a triumphant smile through the crowd. In an instant, the people outside the door erupted. “Oh my God, that woman is not that the makeup artist from this morning?” “Looks like what Jade said was all true…” Mr. Rivers’ face flushed red with shame and anger. “Ethan! Look at what you have done!” Mrs. Rivers rushed forward, dragging Miranda from the bed. “It is all you! You must have drugged my son and made him think you were Jade!”

“Son, that is what happened, right? We will call the police! Send this bitch to prison!” At these words, Miranda, who had been so arrogant moments ago, was frightened into tears, shrinking into Ethan’s arms. “Enough!” Ethan roared, fiercely protecting Miranda. He raised his head and looked at me through the crowd. His eyes were dark but showed not a trace of panic or guilt. “Jade, let us talk.” Mr. and Mrs. Rivers cleared everyone out. Only the three of us remained in the room. I did not think there was anything left to discuss between him and me. I was just thinking about why, in this life, when I had not sent Miranda to prison or caused her death there, he could still face me without any guilt. For a moment, I could not tell if my heart felt bitter or resentful. I took off my wedding ring and threw it in the trash. I said flatly, “You made a vow. If you lied to me, we would get divorced.” “Ethan, I will draft divorce papers as soon as possible.” “Jade!” Ethan behind me called out. “I will not divorce you.” I whipped around, looking at him with hatred for the first time. “Then I will file for divorce!” “You can try!” Ethan’s face was obscured in the dim room. “If you dare file for divorce, I will immediately stop your mother’s treatment.” “I guarantee that in all of Portland no, the entire country no hospital will take your mother.” “Ethan!” I clenched my teeth, trembling uncontrollably. I must have looked utterly pathetic and powerless right now because I saw Miranda flash that gleeful smile again. “Why are you doing this to me?” “If you like her, just divorce me! You two can be together openly! Why do you have to drag me into this!” I looked at Ethan through tears. “I have already made way for you. I have never done anything wrong to you! Why will not you let me go!” Ethan said coldly, “You have not wronged me, but you have wronged Miranda.” I widened my eyes in shock. “When did I…” Ethan sneered. “Every boyfriend Miranda ever had were not they all stolen by you?” “It was you who, under the guise of being a ‘relationship tester,’ stole all of Miranda’s boyfriends, slept with them, and stimulated Miranda until she became depressed and nearly committed suicide!” “You stole so many of her lovers. You should feel what it is like to have your man stolen.” “And your mother! Dare you say why your mother had a stroke?” “It is because your mother went to Miranda’s wedding to make a scene, trying to help you steal her man, and got yelled at until she fainted. Your mother is half-dead that is what she deserves.” My head exploded with a roar. Almost instinctively, I rushed to them. I slapped Ethan hard across the face. But when I raised my hand to slap Miranda, Ethan shoved me away. “Enough! Even now you are still bullying Miranda!” I wiped my tears and said through gritted teeth. “I did not do it! I never did any of those things! Ethan! It was Miranda who stole my boyfriends! It was she who eloped with my ex at the wedding and made my mother collapse!” “So many people witnessed these things. So many chat records are still on my phone. You can go check…”

“Enough!” Ethan slapped me across the face, cutting off my words. His face was ugly. “At this point, you still will not admit it! Still will not repent!” “Jade, I never knew you were such a shameless, conscienceless person!” “Will not admit it, huh? Still lying, huh? Then let me see just how stubborn you can be!” He stood up directly and dragged me downstairs. “Ethan! Let me go!” He ignored my struggles and threw me directly into the basement freezer, locking the door. “Let me out! Ethan!” I frantically pounded on the freezer door. His only response was cold and merciless. “You will not admit it, right? Then let us see if your life is tougher or your mouth!” “When you admit it and kneel down to apologize to Miranda, that is when I will let you out!” I desperately pounded on the freezer door, but no one paid attention. The temperature dropped rapidly. I collapsed helplessly on the floor, beginning to lose body heat. I do not know how long passed before the freezer door opened. I looked up to see Miranda coming over with concern to help me. “Bestie, are you okay? Come out quickly! Let us go to the hospital!” Looking at the genuine concern on her face, I only felt torn apart. “Miranda, why are you doing this to me? What did I ever do to wrong you that you would hurt me like this!” My voice choked with sobs. If I hated anyone, I hated Miranda more than Ethan. We grew up together. We were best friends. I took slaps for her when blocking the seniors who bullied her. She once hugged my arm and said she wanted to be with me forever. But this same person kept stabbing me in the heart. Miranda looked hurt and wronged. “I am just afraid you will be deceived by scumbags. I just want to find you a husband who truly loves and trusts you!” “Look! If I had not tested him this time, you would have married a bad man. What if there is a mistress later who makes up lies like I did? Then you would…” I shook off her hand, sobbing. “You are not doing this for my good! You are hurting me again and again!” Miranda blinked her innocent eyes and said to me, “Okay, okay, it is my fault. Let us go to the hospital first.” She forcibly helped up the already unsteady me and pushed me into a car. The car drove all the way to a hotel. I looked at her warily. “What are you trying to do! Where are you taking me!” She just smiled mysteriously, grabbed my weakened body, and led me into a room. The door opened to reveal a group of sleazy-looking burly men inside. She suddenly screamed, tore her clothes, smashed her own head, and ran outside. “I was wrong! I am sorry, Miss White! I will not compete with you for him! I will not compete with you for anything! Do not hit me anymore!” My instincts screamed danger. I barely managed to stand, trying to grab her. Before I could steady myself, the door was kicked open. After Ethan saw me and the sleazy men behind me, his eyes turned red instantly. He slapped me across the face. “Jade! Do you have a death wish?!” “Not only do you refuse to repent for your mistakes, you want to keep retaliating against Miranda?! You even wanted to ruin her! How can you be so vicious!” “I did not!” I bit my lip and shouted. “It was Miranda who opened the freezer and brought me here!” “Enough! Only my parents and I know the freezer password! How could Miranda open it! You clearly sneaked out of the freezer and kidnapped Miranda here!” Ethan said through gritted teeth. “Fine! Threatening your life did not make you yield, so let us see if your mother’s life will!”

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On my wedding day, Ethan Cross bombed the hotel to stop the ceremony. He dug me out of the rubble with his bare hands. Looking at me with my lost memories, he hid the wild joy in his eyes and said in a trembling voice that he was my lover. But Ethan’s devotion to me only lasted five years. That day, he smoothly removed his wedding ring and gently cradled his assistant’s pregnant belly. “Have my child. I’ll give you whatever you want. Just don’t let Aria find out.” But he didn’t know the assistant secretly recorded this and flaunted it to me. “You old hag! Ethan loves me. It’s time for you to step aside!” What he knew even less was that I had recovered my memory. Before him, my true love was named Nathan Kane. That man was gorgeous, but also a crazy mafia boss who never forgot a grudge. And I was just like him. Ethan Cross was finished. Ethan hid his mistress extremely well. Too bad the girl’s courage and ambition were both enormous. This girl named Summer Collins came straight to my door, belly protruding, to provoke me. “Aria, I’m carrying twins. The doctor said they’re boys.” “Their father feels bad that pregnancy is so hard on me. He’s been giving me massages every night lately, and only goes home to his wife after I fall asleep. He can’t wait to meet the babies!” I lifted my eyes with a smile, coldness flashing through them. “Has the father of your children never told you what kind of person I am?” If Ethan was so eager to see the children, shouldn’t I help him out? Half an hour later, an express delivery package was sent to Ethan’s company. While I enjoyed afternoon tea, I watched the company surveillance footage. When Ethan received my package, his cold, stern features instantly melted into gentle spring water. But the moment he opened it, his expression changed dramatically. Inside was a medical certificate for a miscarriage. Along with his and Summer’s children. An hour later, Ethan came home. Summer was lying on a temporary hospital bed. The moment she saw him, she burst into heartbroken sobs. “Ethan, she killed our children! Those were the babies you’ve been dreaming about!” “I want her dead!” Pain flashed through Ethan’s eyes. He grabbed my wrist, his cold, hard voice clearly suppressing tremendous rage. “Aria, she’s just a young girl fresh out of college! Did you really need to be this ruthless?” In five years of marriage, this was the first time he’d been harsh with me. And it was for another woman. I threw my phone in front of him. The chat history was full of intimate videos between Ethan and Summer. Along with messages insulting me and demanding I step aside. “Your mistress sent these to provoke me. As your wife, I was very hurt watching them. Isn’t it okay for me to retaliate?” Ethan froze. He glanced coldly at Summer. Then his eyes softened as he half-knelt before me, holding my hands. “Aria, you misunderstood.” “I just didn’t want you to suffer through childbirth. I planned to bring the baby home for you to raise after she gave birth.” “I swear on my life, the only person I’ll ever love is you, Aria.” I believed what he said was true. Back when we were considering having children, he directly signed up for a childbirth simulation experience. That was the first time I’d seen Ethan cry. He held me tight with heartache. “Aria, how can childbirth be this painful? Let’s not have children, okay? I can’t bear to see you suffer.” But because he couldn’t bear to see me suffer… He had another woman carry twins for me instead? I turned my head with a mocking look, just in time to see Summer’s eyes widen in disbelief, turning bloodshot. I laughed softly. “Ethan Cross, you’re the truly ruthless one, stabbing both of us with a single sentence.” “So now, what do you plan to do?” “In the past, when someone made me angry, you’d ruin them without a second thought and drive them out of the city.”

Ethan’s eyes swept over Summer with cold indifference. But his trembling hands betrayed him. After a long moment, he said: “Aria, I apologize on her behalf.” “What will it take for you to calm down and let me take her away?” A violent energy suddenly surged in my chest. No matter how prettily he spoke or how cold his eyes looked, he was still protecting her! Expressionless, I swept the porcelain in the house to the floor, shattering it everywhere. Without hesitation, Ethan took off his shoes. Barefoot, he stepped on the broken shards. He picked up Summer and walked away step by step. The bright red blood mixed with porcelain white, making my eyes tremble. Though Ethan was crazy, he was an extreme egoist. Since I’d known him, he’d only been hurt for me, only suffered losses because of me. My expression grew colder inch by inch. Ethan still didn’t know I had recovered my memory. What he knew even less was that I might have actually developed some feelings for him. For a few moments, I’d even wondered if I should continue pretending to have amnesia and stay with him forever. But now… A ruined man and a woman who stole my man. I would make them both pay dearly! After that day, Ethan sent me gifts in different ways every day. But he ran to Summer’s place daily. Tonight’s excuse was that he had a last-minute business dinner and would be home a few hours late. The moment Ethan finished lying, Summer’s message arrived. “Ha ha, are you regretting it now, old hag?” “So what if you killed my child? He just feels more sorry for me now. He makes me healthy meals every day.” In the video, a tall man wearing an apron was busy in the kitchen. Ethan never used to cook. For me, he learned from chefs everywhere. Now the dishes he made for Summer were all my favorites. Staring at the food in the video, I could even recall the familiar aromas. My mouth filled with nausea. Damn Ethan! He ruined all my favorite dishes! Summer’s laugh was full of malice and showing off. “He also said he’ll give me another child tonight, while you…” “Old hag, you’re finished.” The moment the voice message finished playing, my car was violently struck. I looked up to see a dozen tattooed, bald muscle men with clubs surrounding me. “So you’re the one who bullied my little sister Summer?” I raised an eyebrow and calmly called Ethan. As usual, he answered after just one ring. “Ethan, Summer called her gang friends. They’ve surrounded me with their men.” His voice on the other end sounded somewhat helpless. “Aria, stop making things up, okay? She’s just a college graduate. How could she…” I smiled and cut him off directly. “I won’t resist whatever they do. Whether you come or not is up to you.” With that, I hung up. The night wind was cool. I counted the traffic lights in a daze. Ethan appeared quickly. He’d encountered traffic on the way and abandoned his car to sprint here. The man was gasping, his chest heaving violently, his shirt vaguely outlining his muscular chest. I stared for a moment, then smiled slightly. Actually, I’d lied to him. The muscle men who’d tried to do something to me were now sprawled all over the ground. Ethan stared at me through clenched teeth. Finally, his gaze fell on my scratched leg. With heartache and defeat, he crouched in front of me. With extreme gentleness, he held my calf and applied medicine. “You’re only acting this way because you know I love you!” He had a thousand complaints in his heart, but this was all he dared to express. In that instant, my heart stirred again slightly. For once, I felt the urge to explain. “This wasn’t staged by me. Summer really did call them here.” But Ethan said without hesitation: “I asked Summer. She swore it wasn’t her. She’s a very innocent girl, not like…” His words cut off abruptly. But I understood. Not like me—vicious and cunning. My expression darkened. I grabbed my phone and called my lawyer right in front of Ethan. “Please prepare divorce papers for me. I’ll come pick them up right now.” I kicked Ethan out of the car and turned it around. He actually stood directly in front of my car. The night wind lifted his hair. His eyes were defiant yet crazed. He gritted his teeth, his voice practically squeezing through his throat. “Aria, if you want a divorce, run me over first!” The bright headlights illuminated his insane expression. I met his gaze and stepped on the gas.

The piercing sound of brakes rang out. I stopped just a few centimeters away. But Ethan didn’t retreat at all, staring at me with hot, crazy eyes. This time it was my turn to grit my teeth. “This lunatic!” I fled in panic, turning to leave in another direction. A few days later, I received another message from Summer. Unexpectedly, her attitude this time was surprisingly humble. “Aria, I’m here to apologize. I really know I was wrong.” “I know I made you angry. Give me a chance to make it up to you, okay?” She sent an address, saying she wanted to invite me to relax. And apologize in person. I went. An enormous rose garden appeared before my eyes. Summer stood in a white dress in front of intensely red rose bushes, waiting for me with a smile. Like a hostess, she used a key to open the estate’s gate. When I glimpsed the huge photograph by the flower bushes, my body stiffened. In the photo, Summer and Ethan held hands, lying in the flowers kissing. The scene was beautiful and warm. And the date it was taken was five years ago. Before I lost my memory. Summer’s pretentiously proud laughter came from beside me. “Aria, actually I knew about you long ago. I even helped Ethan come up with ideas to pursue you.” Only then did I learn that Summer had known Ethan much longer than I had. She was a poor student he sponsored. Ethan brought her out of the mountains. When she had nowhere to live, she stayed at his place. The corridor was filled with photos, every single one of Summer and Ethan together. This rose garden was built by him for her. Listening to Summer introduce their past photo by photo. My palms actually went a bit numb. She smiled as she looked at my wedding ring. “Every gift Ethan gave you, I helped him choose.” “Including this wedding ring—he only bought it because I liked this style.” I knew she wasn’t telling the whole truth, or rather not telling it completely. The wedding ring was something Ethan first selected from dozens of styles. He brought them to me and let me choose personally. But that didn’t stop me from being disgusted. Expressionless, I pulled off the ring and casually tossed it into the rose bushes. Seeing this, Summer’s eyes curved with satisfaction. “Mr. Cross really likes you. I’m so unwilling to accept it.” “But it’s okay. People always get tired, right! I acted understanding in front of him, saying I didn’t want anything, just that when he thought of me, he could spare me a little of the love you didn’t want.” “Guess what?” Summer laughed exaggeratedly, as if remembering something happy. “He took the initiative to sleep with me!” “You, the white moonlight, became a mosquito blood stain after he caught you. He’s tired of you!” “So I advise you to be smart and get lost. Mr. Cross will be mine sooner or later!” I stared at her for a while, then suddenly smiled sweetly. “If you’re this cheap, then I feel relieved.” Summer froze, looking at me suspiciously. I raised an eyebrow and smiled. “This way I won’t feel any guilt.” Under her confused gaze, I kicked over the shelving. Collectible wine shattered all over the floor. I pulled out a lighter. The flickering flame illuminated Summer’s terrified face. The next second, fire engulfed the entire estate. Ethan arrived quickly. Seeing me and Summer in the flames, his eyes nearly split with rage. Summer screamed at the top of her lungs: “Ethan, save me! The fire’s about to reach me!” “I just lost two children for you!” I watched Ethan with interest and mouthed words to him. “Between the two of us, who will you save first?”

The wild, unrestrained fire dragon licked at the sky. Illuminating the man’s struggling expression. He soaked himself thoroughly and rushed toward Summer. At the same time, I heard his anxious voice. “Aria, I know what you’re capable of. You can escape on your own, but Summer can’t!” He scooped Summer up in his arms. Through the rolling flames, I saw Summer turn her head and flash me a triumphant smile. I smiled back at her. Arms crossed, standing still without moving. The flames burned more and more fiercely. Ethan glanced at me not moving and hesitated for half a second before gritting his teeth. In the end, he put Summer down and rushed over to cover me with his wet jacket, pulling me to escape the fire. I stared at him with half disappointment. What a shame. If he’d just chosen to leave me behind, I could have used that as grounds for divorce. As for what the other half of my emotions were, I didn’t want to think about it. After rescuing me, Ethan went back for Summer. After we got out, the corridor’s flower stands collapsed. They fell right on Summer’s leg. When Ethan carried her out, she was crying her heart out. I knew Ethan was angry. As he passed me, he slammed heavily into my shoulder. He ordered coldly: “Take the lady to the hospital with us!” On the hospital bed. Summer’s leg was wrapped in thick bandages. She obediently held Ethan’s hand. “Ethan, don’t be angry. I’m fine.” “I don’t blame Aria for making trouble at the estate, and I don’t blame you for not saving me first. It’s my own fault…” As she spoke, her eyes reddened, but she stubbornly refused to let tears fall. She looked like she’d suffered a great injustice no matter how you looked at her. Ethan’s eyes filled with heartache and guilt. He even ignored my presence and directly cupped her face, kissing and comforting her tenderly. Then he frowned at me. “Aria, you trespassed on Summer’s estate, set fires, and hurt people. Don’t you think you should apologize?!” I smiled provocatively, resolute. “I won’t.” Ethan’s frown deepened. Summer said with false sincerity: “Ethan, don’t force Aria. Don’t fight because of me!” She suddenly smiled at me quickly and operated something on her phone. The next second, media reporters flooded into the hospital room. “Are you Mrs. Cross?” “We heard you won’t let any woman near Mr. Cross. This assistant was just doing her daily work, and you directly set a fire to hurt her. Is this true?” Dense microphones and cameras pointed at me. Ethan’s expression became panicked. Five years ago, to hide me after I lost my memory, he’d gone to great lengths. He spent hundreds of millions creating false leads to lure my lover, who was desperately searching for me, out of the country. He blocked the media, forbidding any reports or public photos showing my face for five years. He took big strides toward me. But at that moment, Summer pretended to be pushed down by the media and cried out in pain. “Ethan, my stomach hurts so much. Did my wound open again?” “Forget it, forget it. You should go check on Aria first. I can find a doctor myself.” “After all… this isn’t the first time you’ve abandoned me for her.” As she spoke, she shed bitter tears. Ethan’s eyes froze. Across the crowded cameras and heads of the media, he looked straight into my eyes. “Again? You arranged these media yourself, didn’t you?” “Aria, I won’t fall for your tricks this time.” “Summer is right. I’ve spoiled you too much these five years. It’s time you learned a lesson!” With that, he picked up Summer and turned to leave. “Summer, I’m sorry. I’ll never let you get hurt because of her again!” Over his shoulder, Summer gave me a flaunting look. This time, she’d finally won. I held my sides laughing until tears came. Ethan desperately hid me for five years. Turns out all it took was one Summer to make him let his guard down. The hospital room door slammed shut. I looked at the camera and smiled as I tucked my hair behind my ear. I knew he would definitely see me. As long as I gave him the slightest clue, he would spare no effort to find me. My former beloved, mafia boss Nathan Kane.

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The morning after my high school reunion, I woke up, eyes still glued shut, and immediately brushed my hand against a long, incredibly hairy leg. Driven by sheer, sleepy curiosity, I couldn’t resist running my hand up and down it a few times… The very next second—BANG! The hotel room door burst open, and a crowd of people flooded inside. Terrified, I snatched my hand back, snapped my eyes open, and clutched the duvet tightly to my chest. “Dr. Carter, the Chief of Surgery needs you in…” The group of men who had just barged in suddenly stopped dead in their tracks, letting out a collective gasp of shock. Me: ??? What Dr. Carter? I followed their wide-eyed stares and glanced to my side. There was a man lying right next to me. Two long, straight legs, covered in enough masculine leg hair to scream raw testosterone. And further up… My eyes practically burned out of their sockets. “We… we didn’t mean to…” The group of guys frantically covered their eyes, stammering apologies. I didn’t recognize a single person in that group, and I definitely didn’t recognize the man currently occupying my bed. Just as I was sitting there, completely paralyzed with panic— The man next to me reached out, gave the duvet a slight tug, cracked one eye open to look at me, and rasped, “Mind sharing a little?” It took my brain a full second to process that sentence before I let go of the blanket like it was on fire. The duvet slipped down, barely covering his essential anatomy. He closed his eye again and drawled lazily at the crowd by the door, “Are you guys leaving or what?” Whoa… I was so spooked by his casual attitude that I started to scramble out of bed. He let out a heavy sigh, sounding incredibly exhausted. “Not you.” Upon hearing that, the group of men finally stopped gawking. One of them threw out a hasty, “The Chief is waiting to start the M&M conference, hurry up and get downstairs!” Then, they all practically tripped over each other running out of the room. The world suddenly went dead quiet. I sat there, clutching a corner of the duvet, shivering uncontrollably. The Playful Doctor vs. The Good Girl “What are you so scared of?” My trembling seemed to have finally killed his desire to sleep. He sighed, opened his eyes to look at me, but clearly couldn’t keep them open and let them fall shut again. “I… I think… I’m a little sore,” I blabbered, my brain completely short-circuiting from the shock. The second the words left my mouth, I wanted to slap myself. This time, his eyes snapped open and stayed open. He stared at me for a few long seconds, reached up to massage his temples, and then slung a long arm around my waist, pulling me haphazardly against him. “The first time is always like that. It’ll fade in a bit.” I think he was trying to comfort me. But I felt absolutely zero comfort. Instead, a cold sweat broke out all over my body. Then, I looked down and saw a small patch of blood on the pristine white hotel sheets… My scalp went numb. He noticed the bloodstain too. He froze for a moment, then reached out, ruffled my hair, and let out a dry, self-deprecating laugh. “Sorry. I guess I lost control.” Lost control?! Another wave of cold sweat washed over me. “Who are you?” I asked, my voice cracking with pure misery. My question actually made him laugh, a sound born of sheer disbelief. “You don’t even know who I am, and you still broke in here and slept with me?” “I… I can’t remember anything…” I had never been in a situation like this in my entire life. I was covered in goosebumps. “I’m not going to get pregnant from this, am I?” Okay, I really had to hand it to myself. In the midst of all this existential panic and utter confusion, I still managed to prioritize the most critical question. Classic me. “…” He cracked an eye open to look at me again. He looked incredibly, profoundly exhausted. He looked so weak that I felt like if I poked him too hard, he might actually stop breathing. Just how wild was I last night to exhaust a grown man to this point? I was dying of shame. “No,” he stated simply, getting straight to the point. I had zero experience, and I couldn’t even remember the mechanics of what happened last night, so I didn’t dare press for details. If he said I wouldn’t get pregnant, I chose to believe him. After all, those guys called him a doctor. Maybe he used protection? That was the only thing I could tell myself. “So, um, bye?” Desperate to avoid the agonizing awkwardness of both of us being fully awake and sober, I chose the coward’s way out. Flight. “…” He glanced at me, then suddenly chuckled. “Sure.” I truly believed I would never see him again. Yet, two weeks later, clutching a positive pregnancy test, I found myself sitting outside his office at the hospital, shivering like a leaf. “Hey, future Mrs. Carter!” A young male doctor bounded up to me. I jumped out of my skin, almost having a heart attack right there in the waiting room. “Are you waiting for Dr. Carter?” He was grinning at me with the aggressive enthusiasm of a close friend. But in reality, the only time I had ever seen him was during that chaotic, mortifying morning in the hotel room. The morning I wanted to scrub from my brain forever. Two weeks ago, I attended my high school reunion, drank way too much, and stumbled into the wrong hotel room. I only found out later that Dr. Carter and a team of surgeons were at that hotel for a medical conference. In a twist of terrible fate, his room was right next to mine. He had come down with a severe fever, and the colleague who was checking on him had forgotten to pull the door shut when he left… and I just wandered right in. And then his colleagues came to wake him up for their morning meeting… Leading to the apocalyptic scene I woke up to. “Uh, yeah,” I mumbled, my face burning so hot it felt like it was going to melt off. “Come wait inside.” Without waiting for an answer, he practically dragged me into the doctors’ private lounge. As we walked past Dr. Carter’s desk, he glanced up at me. His expression was completely blank. It was like he had never seen me before in his life. To be fair, I was having a hard time recognizing him too. I had never seen him out of bed, fully dressed in his crisp, professional white coat. I waited in agonizing suspense for two hours. Staring at the nameplate on his desk, I finally learned his full name: Dr. Liam Carter, Cardiothoracic Surgeon. I discreetly googled him on my phone. And discovered he was already… 29 years old? I mentally calculated the massive generational gap between us. Finally, Liam walked into the office to change out of his scrubs. He shot me a suspicious look. “Are you waiting for Dr. Weeks?” Me: ??? “Dr. Carter, I’m waiting for you.” I stood up, gripping my purse so tightly my knuckles were white. My voice was as quiet as a mouse. “And you are?” Me: ??? Did he seriously have amnesia the second he got out of bed? “Two weeks ago. At the Marriott. We…” I forced myself to explain, my voice losing confidence with every syllable. Finally, I gave up, pulled the pregnancy test out of my purse, and carefully held it out to him. “I think… I’m pregnant.” “Liam, it’s time for lunch.” Right at that exact second, a female doctor barged into the office. I panicked, trying to hide the pregnancy test, but fumbled it. It clattered directly into the trash can next to his desk. I stared at the trash can, terrified he hadn’t seen it clearly, agonizing over whether I should dig it out. “…” Liam didn’t say a word. He just stared at me, a highly amused, calculated look in his eyes. “Is this your patient?” The female doctor clearly had no intention of leaving. She turned her scrutinizing gaze onto me. I opened my mouth, but no words came out. The awkwardness was suffocating. “I have something to take care of. You guys go ahead.” He didn’t introduce me. I felt like I had been caught stealing. The female doctor looked incredibly displeased about leaving. Before she walked out, she intentionally tugged on Liam’s sleeve—a blatant territorial claim. He has a girlfriend. The realization hit me like a bolt of lightning. Yet Liam acted like absolutely nothing had happened. He sat back down in his rolling chair, pulled a patient chart toward him, and started writing. Then, in a half-joking tone, he asked, “Feeling better?” Whoa. My heart did a violent flip at his words. “I’m fine,” I replied automatically. He shot me a fleeting, breezy glance and smiled again. “Want me to take responsibility?” I was honestly in awe of him. How could he calmly write medical charts at a time like this? He was acting like I was just here for a routine checkup. “I just don’t know what to do.” I had never expected him to take responsibility. I was just completely lost and overwhelmed by the result, hoping he might have some medical or practical advice. I tested the waters. “I should probably schedule an abortion, right?” I was trying to play it cool, but my palms were dripping with sweat. He kept writing in the chart, acting like I was discussing the weather and not our potential unborn child. What a jerk. His absolute calm was driving me insane. “Up to you.” He suddenly looked up, his gaze locking directly onto mine. His face was entirely devoid of emotion. “If you’ve decided you don’t want it, then don’t have it.” “Okay.” Could I even have it? Given the absolute trainwreck of a situation… “Scared?” There was a distinct teasing lilt in his voice. “Yeah.” I didn’t know what else to say. “So now you know how to be scared…” He shot me a highly unreadable look, flipped to a fresh page in the chart, and smirked. “That’s definitely not the girl I met that night.” Me: ??? Thinking back to how half-dead he looked that morning, I desperately wanted to know what the hell I had actually done to him. But his comment made it sound like this entire disaster was 100% my fault, and that pissed me off. “It wasn’t entirely my fault either,” I mumbled, my voice so quiet I could barely hear myself. He suddenly stopped writing. He raised a single, perfectly sculpted eyebrow at me, and a sudden, disarming smile broke across his usually stern face. “I was running a 103-degree fever that night. Did you really expect me to have the strength to fight you off?” Well… I was completely boxed in. If you didn’t have the strength to fight me off, where did you find the strength to absolutely wreck me? I thought bitterly. A player is a player. He could casually bring up the most mortifying, unmentionable details without batting an eye. He was clearly a seasoned pro at handling ‘situations’ like this. I was completely out of my league. “If you’ve made up your mind…” He fell silent for a moment, finishing his notes. Once he signed the bottom of the page, he let out a sigh and looked up. “Let’s do it next week.” “Next week?” “Next week is the only time I have an opening in my schedule,” he explained. “Okay.” Adults have to pay the price for their actions. I didn’t argue, I was just incredibly anxious. A week later, I was back in his office. My resolve to go through with the surgery was crumbling. It started because my mom had invited me over for family dinner this week. Sitting at the table with my stepdad, my younger half-brother, and my mom, the atmosphere was so warm and loud. When I got back to my tiny, silent apartment, I looked around the empty walls. The contrast of the warm family dinner flashed in my mind, and I let out a heavy sigh. I felt a wave of profound, crushing loneliness. My parents divorced when I was very young. After the split, I stayed with my mom. From middle school onward, I had been living in dorms. Because when I was in middle school, my mom met my stepdad and they built a new life together. She was so happy. I knew I should be happy for her. But coming back to this empty apartment, I just felt physically and emotionally drained. I suddenly really, really wanted to keep this baby. I was just so incredibly lonely. I knew Liam would never agree to it. No sane man in his position would. And he probably had a girlfriend. So, even as I sat in his office again, I was still agonizing over whether to keep it. “Future Mrs. Carter! Back to see our Dr. Carter again?” It was Dr. Weeks, the guy from last time. “Yeah.” I sat there, feeling stiff and awkward. “Please don’t call me that!” I whispered frantically. “Don’t be shy,” Dr. Weeks instantly slid into the chair next to me, looking around conspiratorially before dropping his voice. “We’ve all been taking bets for months on who would finally manage to tame the Ice King… We never saw you coming. We have mad respect for you, seriously.” “Huh?” I was totally lost. “You guys have the wrong idea… He and I aren’t…” Finally, I just threw my hands up and blurted out, “Doesn’t he have a girlfriend? Please stop saying things like that.” “Who?” Dr. Weeks suddenly looked deadly serious. “How do I not know about this?” “…” Now I was even more confused. Liam didn’t have a girlfriend? Did I misread the situation with that female doctor? “Are you saying Dr. Carter is seeing another woman behind your back?!” “?” I had no idea how to explain that I was the “other woman.” “Do you have a lot of free time on your hands, Dr. Weeks?” A voice suddenly floated down from above us, and a tall shadow fell over the desk. Liam! I jumped to my feet so fast I almost knocked the chair over. I felt exactly like a middle schooler caught gossiping in the back of the class. “I…” I tried to formulate a sentence. Dr. Weeks was equally terrified. He grabbed a random stack of charts and practically sprinted out of the room, pretending to be incredibly busy. “I wasn’t talking to you.” Once Dr. Weeks was gone, Liam’s tone softened significantly. He reached out, gently ruffled my hair, and gestured for me to sit back down. He then took his seat behind his desk. I felt my face heat up. Why did he always insist on petting my head? Didn’t he know it felt way too intimate and totally embarrassing? “Why do you always look so terrified of me?” he asked, studying me intently. “Do I look like a monster?” I sat down nervously. “No, it’s just… you’re a lot older than me… you feel like a…” “Like a what?” He looked highly amused. “An authority figure. An elder.” I answered honestly. “An elder?” He let out a sharp bark of laughter. “How old are you?” “I’ll be 22 next month.” His laughter made me feel incredibly insecure. When a guy who is usually dead serious starts laughing, it is absolutely lethal. Especially since he possessed an objectively devastating face. “Yeah, you are pretty young.” He stopped laughing, his expression turning thoughtful. “Wait here for a second.” He suddenly stood up and walked into the adjoining locker room to change. Those few minutes of waiting were pure agony. I was agonizing over how to say what I needed to say. Because of what Dr. Weeks had just said—that Liam didn’t have a girlfriend—my resolve had wavered even more. I was almost 22, and I had never had a real boyfriend. And Liam… well, whether it was his looks, his demeanor, or his career… he pretty much checked every single box I had ever imagined for a partner. Except for the fact that he was a massive player, obviously. I started thinking, maybe… maybe I could try dating him? Finally, I gathered every ounce of courage I had, stood up, walked to the locker room door, and knocked lightly. “Dr. Carter, I have a question.” My fists were clenched tight. I honestly didn’t have the guts to look him in the eye when I said this, so talking through the closed door was much easier. He didn’t answer. I hesitated, but pushed forward anyway. “Do you have a girlfriend? Because if you don’t… could we maybe… give this a try? I really want to keep the baby.” Saying that sentence felt like it drained my entire life force. I stood outside the door, bracing myself for the verdict. Then, the door swung open. But instead of hearing his verdict, I was blasted by a voice coming from his phone on speaker…

🌟 Continue the story here 👉🏻 📲 Download the “MotoNovel” app 🔍 search for “400818”, and watch the full series ✨! #MotoNovel

Everyone in the military base housing envied me. I was the “slow” girl, yet I was going to be the wife of Captain Liam Hayes. But they didn’t know that when I was eight years old, I took a hit meant for him. That incident nearly cost me my life, and it permanently froze my mental development at that age. Knowing he owed me an unpayable debt, Liam promised to marry me. He promised to treat me well for the rest of his life. And for a long time, he actually did. While the other officers’ wives were elegant, sophisticated, and perfectly poised, Liam never found me embarrassing. He never minded how slow or clumsy I was. Once, during a devastating flash flood, he even gave up his spot on the rescue chopper for me. Until… Mia showed up. Her arrival made Liam’s trips home fewer and farther between. Even the little boy we had adopted together started saying: “I wish Auntie Mia was my mom. I don’t want a stupid girl for a mother!” Before I even had time to process the heartbreak, I was sent away to a rundown cabin in the country, where I died alone in the freezing drafts. When I opened my eyes again, I was unexpectedly back on the exact day Liam was supposed to fulfill his childhood promise. But this time, I didn’t want his guilt. And I didn’t want to marry him anymore. I didn’t understand why, but I should have been dead. Dead in that dilapidated, freezing cabin. But when I opened my eyes, I saw Liam, standing tall and handsome in his crisp military uniform. He asked me gently, “Ellie, let me take care of you forever, okay?” I lowered my eyes, knowing this meant we would spend the rest of our lives together. Because the last time he asked, I agreed, and not long after, I put on a white wedding dress. Honestly, marrying Liam was something I used to be thrilled about. It had been my birthday wish every single year since I was eight. But my head was spinning. It felt like I had just woken up from a vivid, identical dream. In that dream, Liam said the exact same thing. Then he married me, but shortly after our wedding, he regretted it. The very last time I saw him in that dream, I was crying, clutching his hand, begging him not to throw me away. He coldly shook me off. His voice was so tired, so utterly exhausted. “Ellie, please, just let me go.” “You took that hit for me when we were kids. I owe you, I know. But I’ve poured my heart and soul into taking care of you for all these years. Isn’t the debt paid by now?” “Just have some mercy. Sign the divorce papers. Let Mia and me be together.” Mia was the most beautiful woman I had ever seen. In my memories, Liam was always by her side. I heard the other wives on the base whispering about her. They said Mia was incredible. She was a brilliant, highly educated researcher who had just returned from studying in Europe. The kind of person I could never compare to in a million lifetimes. They also said she and Liam were a match made in heaven, unlike him and me—a slow girl who could barely even read. I had pouted. I felt so wronged. Actually… I wasn’t born slow. I grew up with Liam. We went to elementary school together, and teachers used to call me bright. But when I was eight, I drank a glass of poisoned cider that was meant for him. When I woke up, a crowd was gathered around my hospital bed. A doctor with a white beard shook his head and sighed. “There’s no cure. Severe neurological damage. She’ll be like this for the rest of her life.” Back then, I didn’t understand what “the rest of her life” meant. But I remember Liam holding me tight, crying endlessly. He shed so many tears. Finally, the little boy made a promise: “Ellie, I’m so sorry.” “When you grow up, we’ll get married. I’ll take care of you forever.” I didn’t know what marriage really meant, but Liam said marriage meant two people getting to stay together forever. My eyes instantly lit up. I smiled so wide my cheeks hurt. That sounded wonderful. I loved Liam more than anything. I wanted us to be together forever. But for some reason, after that day, the kids on the base stopped playing with me. They walked around me. They would huddle in groups far away and secretly point and laugh. I ran to Liam and asked him why. He comforted me so patiently: “It’s okay. Our Ellie is just a little sick right now. When you get better, your friends will come back.” “Besides, you have me, right? I’ll play with you.” “I’ll always stay with you, Ellie.” And he kept his word. He took care of my every need. When I turned nineteen, Liam kept his promise and married me. But shortly after, he met Mia. And he regretted it. The very first time I heard the phrase “love of my life” come out of Liam’s mouth… It was when he was describing Mia. Liam didn’t know that on the day he asked for a divorce, I wasn’t plotting anything. I had no intention of clinging to him. I just wanted to ask if he could please not send me back to that empty cabin in the country, because it was too lonely there. But the more anxious I got, the harder it was to form a complete sentence. Huge tears just kept rolling down my cheeks. That was when little Noah stepped forward. He was the son of Liam’s fallen squadmate. Liam and I had adopted him together. I knew the little guy never liked me. He thought I was an embarrassment. So when Liam brought up the divorce, Noah quickly shoved me away. He glared at me viciously. “You burden! You’re just dead weight! How much longer are you going to drag my dad down?” “Get out! Get out of our house! Auntie Mia is coming over soon, and she’s going to be my real mom! I don’t want a stupid girl for a mother!” Liam was also disgusted by my crying. In the end, I was sent away to the country, where I died in that broken-down cabin. A cold sweat broke out across my back. The dream felt too real. So real that it chilled me to the bone. I didn’t want to die. So I gently pushed Liam away and waved my hands frantically. “Let’s not do that, Liam.” For the first time, a look of utter confusion crossed his face. Before he could ask why, two soldiers in uniform walked in and saluted him. They told him there was a new mission. Liam hastily said goodbye, telling me to take good care of myself before he left. I watched his back as he walked away. If I remembered correctly, this was the exact rescue mission where he was going to meet Mia. I really didn’t expect Mia and I to cross paths so soon. A week later, she showed up at my door with gifts. She said she wanted to thank Liam for saving her life. She covered my table with beautiful, delicate pastries. Mrs. Higgins, the sweet older lady who lived next door, pulled me aside to warn me. “Ellie, honey, you need to keep your eyes open. You aren’t officially married yet, and you have no idea how many women are gunning for your Captain.” When she said that, her eyes were locked onto Mia. Seeing that I still didn’t react, Mrs. Higgins patted my head and sighed. “Oh, you poor, sweet girl.” Then, she turned her head and quietly spat in Mia’s direction, muttering, “Homewrecker.” Mrs. Higgins told me that after Liam saved Mia, she had used “gratitude” as an excuse to invite him out to dinner multiple times. People had spotted them alone at the local diner more than once. Mrs. Higgins knew I had saved Liam’s life, and she knew about our arrangement, so she was trying to help me guard against Mia. But I just shook my head. After that vivid dream, I was more certain than ever that I couldn’t use a childhood debt to hold Liam hostage. He deserved to choose his own life. And I wanted my freedom, too. I didn’t want to stay in the Hayes household anymore. After all, besides Liam, no one there actually liked me. In stark contrast to me, Mia was incredibly popular. Liam’s grandmother absolutely adored her. How much? She would constantly hold Mia’s hand, pushing her toward Liam, saying the family was just missing a granddaughter-in-law exactly like her. During their very first meeting, Grandma Hayes even gave Mia the antique diamond bracelet that had been passed down through the family for generations. I remembered Liam telling me that bracelet was meant for his future wife. Liam happened to be walking downstairs when it happened. Hearing his grandmother’s words, he frowned, clearly displeased. He stopped her. “Grandma, stop talking nonsense. I’m marrying Ellie.” But even though Liam said he was marrying me, he and Mia were becoming increasingly inseparable. Coincidentally, Liam’s newest assignment was to act as the protective detail for this brilliant researcher. As a result, they were glued to each other. The people on the base laughed at me constantly. They would walk right up to my face and joke: “Ellie, your man took Mia to the movies again.” “Hey there, slowpoke, the Captain took someone to the mall today.” “Does the Captain even want you anymore? We all saw him buy Mia a gorgeous dress. Did he buy you one?” Whenever they started talking like that, I would run out and sit under the old oak tree by the gate. I wouldn’t say I was heartbroken. I really was fine with not marrying Liam. But could he please not abandon me? I didn’t want to be completely alone. I… needed family. Liam treated me well, and he was all I had left. If we couldn’t be husband and wife, could I just be his little sister? I picked up a twig and drew circles in the dirt. The answer was no. A couple of weeks before Thanksgiving, Grandma Hayes took Noah and me to the department store downtown. She wanted to buy some holiday treats and toys. And right there, we bumped into Liam. And Mia. At that exact moment, he was looking at her with absolute tenderness, gently helping her tie a silk scarf around her neck. From the back, they looked like a perfect, beautiful match. Little Noah immediately squeezed next to me, gloating proudly. “See that? That’s the kind of person who actually deserves my dad.” “If you know what’s good for you, you’ll pack your bags and leave, you dead weight.” Mhm… Noah loved calling me that. Dead weight. A burden. I bit my lip, just about to pinch his cheek and tell him: Listen here, kid. I can be really mean. I’m not someone you want to mess with. But when I looked up, I locked eyes with Liam. Seeing me, he completely panicked, instantly putting a massive distance between himself and Mia. He rushed over to explain, “Look, Ellie, it’s not what you think. Mia and I are just…” I didn’t wait for him to finish. I just nodded. I didn’t blame him. Truly. Ever since that dream, I knew that the Liam who met Mia was no longer just my Liam. I just didn’t expect Mia to take him away so absolutely, so completely. Because that night, I came down with a terrifyingly high fever. Maybe I hadn’t worn enough clothes at the mall. Usually, when I got sick, Liam would make me hot tea, stay right by my bed, and tell me stories until I fell asleep. But this time, a single phone call from Mia changed everything. I heard her crying through the receiver. “Liam, I sprained my ankle. It hurts so badly. Can you take me to the ER?” Liam didn’t hesitate for a second. As he headed for the door, I made one last, desperate attempt. “Liam, can you not go? I feel really sick too.” Liam grabbed his truck keys, not even turning around. He brushed me off. “Be a good girl, Ellie. I need to get Mia to the hospital, it’s an emergency.” “I’ll bring you your favorite caramel apples when I get back.” And then he was gone. The house he left behind was suffocatingly quiet. Not a single sound. I rolled over in bed, tears streaming down my face. I cried because, once again, I had no family. It was true. Liam… my Liam, was no longer my family. I knew I wasn’t smart. But when my mom was still alive, she told me: No matter what happens, family will never abandon you when you need them most. Liam’s excuse—it’s an emergency—translated to one simple truth: Mia was more important than me. I curled into a tight ball under the covers. I waited, and waited. By the time the middle of the night rolled around, Liam still hadn’t returned. I was dizzy with fever, my throat parched and burning. I had to get out of bed to boil some water myself. I guess I really am just clumsy and stupid. So stupid that I tripped over my own feet just trying to get a glass of water. I hit my head hard against the edge of the cabinet. I saw stars. I finally understood why, in my dream, Liam had slowly grown to resent me. Just like Noah said, I really was a burden. I was dead weight. I couldn’t do anything right. I bit down hard on my lip to stop myself from crying out loud. It hurt… It hurt so much. My forehead was throbbing. I mimicked the way my mom used to comfort me when I was little, whispering to myself: Don’t cry, Ellie. Be a good girl. Ellie is the bravest. Ellie is… is very strong. But the more I whispered, the faster the tears fell. Mom, I miss you so much. I miss you and Dad. You were the only ones who never thought I was stupid. I crouched on the floor, sobbing quietly. That night, the moon and stars were completely hidden behind dark storm clouds. I dug through my closet and pulled out a floral dress my mom had made for me years ago. I used it as a pillow, and finally cried myself into a heavy sleep. My fever raged on and off for days. It wasn’t until Thanksgiving arrived that I finally started feeling better. During that entire time, Liam stayed by Mia’s side. He didn’t forget I was sick, though. But every time he showed even the slightest inclination to come check on me, Mia conveniently found a reason to call him away. I got used to it. In my dream, this exact scenario had played out countless times. Perhaps out of guilt for abandoning me while I was sick, Liam went out of his way to buy me a bunch of my favorite pastries. And peanut butter cups. I had a massive sweet tooth. Ever since my parents passed away, candy was the only thing that could reach the bitter depths of my heart. Sitting on the sofa, Noah rolled his eyes at me. “Are you a baby? I stopped eating that childish junk years ago.” I pressed my lips together, clutching a crumpled candy wrapper in my hand, saying nothing. Of course Noah didn’t need candy. Even though he didn’t have his biological parents, he had Liam to dote on him. He had Grandma Hayes to spoil him. I was different. I only had candy. It was the only sweetness I could actually hold onto. Later that evening, the Thanksgiving family dinner began. Liam finally came home. He wasn’t alone. He brought Mia with him. Liam explained that it was Mia’s first holiday back in the States, her family was still in Europe, and she didn’t have many friends around here yet. So, he just brought her home. Mia walked up to me with a brilliant smile, handing me a beautifully wrapped gift box. “Ellie, I heard you love sweets. This is my Thanksgiving gift to you.” She winked at me. “I had a friend specifically send these from a boutique down south. You have to try them.” I didn’t want them. But after glancing at the warning look on Liam’s face, I took the box. Pecan pralines. All the color drained from my face. There was absolutely no way Liam didn’t know that I had a severe, life-threatening allergy to pecans. I realized then that I truly despised Mia. Especially when she tried to force me to eat something that could kill me. When it was just the two of us left in the living room, she aggressively pushed her gift on me. “Ellie, just take one bite. Don’t you love candy?” I ignored her, shifting my seat further away. She followed me. “Ellie, it was so hard to get these imported. Why are you being so disrespectful?” Mia aggressively tried to shove one of the pralines toward my mouth. I slapped her hand away. During the scuffle, a glass cup on the side table was knocked to the floor. It shattered into a dozen pieces. It was a custom, matching couple’s cup I had hand-painted for Liam and me. Now it was shattered, just like the far-from-perfect ending Liam and I had in my dream. Mia reached down to pick up the pieces, and a shard of glass sliced her finger. It was a long, bleeding cut. Her eyes instantly welled up with tears of pain. Liam walked into the room at that exact moment. Mia stood pitifully next to the broken glass. She pointed a trembling finger at me. “Liam, I just wanted Ellie to try the candy I brought her, and she aggressively refused. Does your family really hate me being here that much?” Before Liam could even speak, Noah rushed over. “Auntie Mia, it’s not your fault! Evelyn is just a weirdo, none of us like her anyway!” “She’s stupid. Don’t let her get to you.” “Does your finger hurt?” Seeing Mia bleeding, Liam’s face turned terrifyingly dark. “Ellie, apologize.” I didn’t understand. I just didn’t want to eat the candy that would make me deathly ill. Why did I have to apologize? I refused. But the price of not apologizing was that I had to eat the pecan pralines. Liam said that eating them was the only way to prove I wasn’t intentionally disrespecting Mia’s kindness. I stood frozen in the middle of the room. My throat bobbed. I wanted to scream, Why? Why are you treating me like this? Didn’t you say you’d treat me well for the rest of your life? Didn’t you say Ellie was the most important thing to you? But Liam was unyielding. Either I apologized, or I ate the candy. Noah stood protectively in front of Mia. The two of them, father and son, stood like a united front, guarding a woman they had only known for a few months.

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I spent ten years trapped in a cage, poked, prodded, and torn apart in the name of psychic research. When I finally broke free, I stepped out into a world that had already ended. A zombie apocalypse had ravaged the surface while I was underground. Now, I’ve found my old best friend from the orphanage. But her husband, a newly awakened “evolved” human with powers of his own, is bullying her into giving up her last scrap of food. “Everyone else chipped in, Sarah. Don’t be selfish. Are you really trying to hide those candy bars?” Sarah protested in a weak whisper, “I was saving them for JJ.” A young girl standing next to the husband interrupted with a cold sneer. “Come on, Sarah. You always use your son as an excuse when you get greedy. It’s pathetic.” As the crowd glared at her with disdain, I stepped out of the shadows. I threw a heavy backpack right at the girl’s head. It struck her hard, sending her stumbling. “Is that enough?” I asked, my voice dead and flat. “Say one more word, and I’ll kill you all.” Chapter 1 The zipper on the backpack hadn’t been closed properly. Loose chocolate bars scattered across the dirty floor. “Who the hell are you?! How dare you talk to me like that?” the girl screamed, her face flushed with rage and shock. No one answered her. Every eye in the room was glued to the chocolate on the floor. The sound of involuntary swallowing echoed through the quiet factory. “Chocolate… an entire backpack full of chocolate…” “I checked with my sensory abilities,” a guy whispered nearby. “It’s real. It’s not an illusion.” They surged forward, completely ignoring the girl’s outrage, scrambling to grab the candy. She bit her lip, grabbing the tall man next to her by his arm, shaking it. “Elias, look at them!” The man, Elias, frowned, his voice dropping to a low command. “Stop. Don’t touch it.” “All supplies must be turned in. They go into Chloe’s sub-space storage for rationed distribution. Have you all forgotten the squad rules?” The scavengers froze, reluctantly stopping their grab for the candy. The girl, Chloe, giggled. She walked over to confiscate the chocolate bars from their hands. As she touched them, I saw faint blue sparks flicker in her palm. Spatial manipulation. Storage power. Through all of this, my friend Sarah—whose face was so pale she looked bloodless—didn’t spare a single glance at the food. She was staring only at me. Her voice trembled, filled with absolute disbelief. “Nova? Is that really you? Are you alive?” She rushed forward and threw her arms around me, hugging me tightly. I felt distant, confused by the physical contact. Yet, a dormant instinct kicked in, and I brought my hands up to pat her back gently. “My name… is it Nova?” “You don’t remember?” She pulled back from the hug, her hands frantically roaming over me, checking for injuries, laughing through her tears. “Back at the home, the director said you were adopted. I asked by who, but he absolutely refused to say. I tried looking for you later, but I couldn’t find a single trace…” I remained silent as she rambled. Of course she couldn’t find me. For the last ten years, I had been in a top-secret underground laboratory. I was subjected to extreme human experimentation to unlock psychic potential. I don’t know how many times they cut open my brain, how many chips they implanted, or how many serums they injected. My memories and emotions were fractured, dulled to almost nothing. I didn’t even remember my own name. I only had a vague, hazy recollection that before I was taken, I had a best friend named Sarah. And she… loved me very much. “Who are you? How do you have this many resources?” While Sarah was still fussing over me, checking if I was okay, the tall man walked over. His eyes were sharp with suspicion as he eyed me. I thought about it for a second. “I was passing through the city center. Just picked it up.” Elias narrowed his eyes. “Just picked it up? Do you have any idea what it’s like out there…” Before he could finish, Sarah spun around, spreading her arms to shield me. “Elias, stop. She’s my friend. I told you about her—she’s my best friend in the whole world.” She looked back at me. “Nova, this is my husband, Elias King. We got married five years ago.” After the introductions, she looked earnestly at Elias. “Please, let her join our squad!” Elias didn’t say anything. Behind him, Chloe, the spatial user, walked over. “Sarah, I don’t mean to be harsh, but we are an elite squad. Carrying you—an ordinary human with no powers—already holds us back severely.” “If we take your friend too, are we ever going to make it to the safe zone in the capital?” Sarah’s face turned cold. “Chloe, if you won’t take her, then give her back her chocolate.” “Why, you—!” Chloe’s face turned red with anger. She turned back to Elias, whining. “Elias, look at Sarah! Why is she taking an outsider’s side against us?” “Enough. Stop fighting.” Elias issued his final command. “She turned over her supplies, so we have an obligation to protect her. Sarah, your friend can come with us. It’s settled. I don’t want to hear another word about it.” Sarah’s eyes crinkled with a smile. Beside her, Chloe’s face fell, and she rolled her eyes at me. I scanned her with my mental acuity. Her energy signature was incredibly weak. Chloe’s spatial storage was less than three cubic meters. It was the lowest tier of spatial power. I could kill her with a single thought. But I looked at Sarah standing next to her. …I decided to let it go for now. We drove for two days before entering a small town. Sarah still loved to talk, just like when we were kids. Along the way, I pieced together her life from her stories. After I was “adopted,” she got into college. She started dating Elias during her sophomore year and married him right after graduation. Two months ago, the zombie virus erupted globally. Elias awakened a rare metal-manipulation power, allowing him to control metal for combat. As for Chloe, she was Elias’s step-sister from a remarriage. They weren’t blood-related. “They have such a tight bond,” Sarah sighed. “Sometimes I’m actually jealous. After you left, I was always alone.” “I have a son, too. JJ. He’s four, just started preschool. On the day the outbreak started, he was on a summer camping trip at the coast. I begged Elias to go get him, but Elias said he couldn’t find him in the chaos. Later, Elias got in touch with the camp organizers through the radio. They said due to a change in plans, the group had flown to the capital safe zone early.” “So, we’re heading to the large safety base in the capital. Once we get there, you can meet him.” Sarah smiled brightly, resting her chin on her hands as she looked at me. “JJ knows about you, Nova! I always tell him, ‘Mommy has a wonderful, dear friend named Nova.’ I told him so many stories about us growing up in the orphanage. He knows you like origami, and he’s folded hundreds of paper cranes. He said he wants to give them to Auntie Nova.” I looked at her smile. Something shifted in my mind, like a block of ice that had been frozen for ages finally starting to melt at the edges. “Okay.” I held out my hand to her. In my palm lay a few chocolate bars. Sarah’s eyes went wide. I smiled slightly. “Saving these for JJ.” That night, we rested in an abandoned factory. Sarah came to find me, clutching two loaves of bread. “Nova, eat this.” After countless physical modifications, my body barely needed food to function. But looking at her shining eyes, I took the bread anyway. Sarah sat down next to me and took a bite of her bread. “Where have you been for the last ten years? How did you suddenly show up here?” I remained silent for a moment, staring at the soft, warm bread in my hand. Images of the cold, sterile lab flashed in my mind. Endless precise machinery, researchers in white coats walking back and forth. “Attempting to inject the latest serum into Subject 09!” “Increase the chip stimulation current!” “Oh no! She’s spiraling!! System breach!” There had been a deafening explosion. My mental powers were so intense they shattered the glass of my containment tank. By the time my sanity returned, the lab was deserted. Corpses lay scattered everywhere. I had grabbed some clothes off the floor, put them on, and stared blankly into the distance. “Sarah… I need to find Sarah…” … “I was in a special place,” I said vaguely. “It wasn’t convenient to contact the outside world during that time.” “Later, I got out. I wanted to see you, so I came looking.” “Nova~” Sarah suddenly threw herself into my arms, nuzzling against me. “I knew you loved me the most. Hmph. Elias kept saying you were probably adopted by some rich family and were living the good life, that’s why you didn’t want to contact me. I didn’t believe him for a second! I told him he just doesn’t understand the bond we have.” Yes, who could understand? During those ten years of experimentation, not even the world’s top scientists understood. The agonizing pain caused by excessive doses of neural drugs was enough to kill a normal person. Yet I had survived hundreds of injections. Of the hundred subjects brought in with me, I was the only one left alive at the end. I often heard them through the glass, saying, “Subject 09 is a gift from God.” There is no God. I just vaguely remembered someone saying to me: “Nova, we’ll still be best friends when we’re a hundred years old.” I had to live to be a hundred. I couldn’t break my promise. In the middle of the night, Sarah fell asleep leaning against me. I carefully adjusted her position so she was comfortable, then stood up. In the darkness, I locked eyes with Elias, who was watching me with a scrutinizing glare. He began walking toward me. Psychic energy condensed into an invisible blade, gathering in the palm of my hand. The next second, a piercing siren shattered the night! “Crap!! It’s a horde!!” The factory doors, which had been barricaded with vehicles, were forced open. Densely packed zombies surged inside. Everyone in the squad woke up instantly, utilizing their powers to fight. There were six evolved humans in this squad. Aside from Elias, who had mid-tier metal manipulation, the others only had low-tier powers. Their mental stamina was depleted almost immediately. The defensive line collapsed. Several zombies, clawing and gnashing, lunged toward Chloe and Sarah. “Elias!!” Chloe shrieked. “Elias!” Sarah cried out. Hearing Chloe’s blood-curdling scream, Elias didn’t even hesitate. The metal spike in his hand drove through the skull of the zombie lunging at his step-sister. Then, as if realizing Sarah was crying for help too, he whipped his head toward us. Just in time to see— Thwack— The rebar in my hand drove through the brains of two zombies consecutively. They tottered and fell to the ground. Sarah grabbed the hem of my jacket, her face utterly colorless. “Nova, are you okay? Are you hurt??” “I’m fine.” I casually wiped the foul, dark blood that had splashed onto my face, noticing even more zombies surrounding us. “Get in the car, I’ll cover the rear!” Elias gritted his teeth. “Let’s move!! Drive out of here!” Chapter 2 Sarah remained silent throughout the drive. After dawn, we finally escaped the zombie horde. We found an abandoned, empty house nearby to rest and regroup. Sarah kept rubbing the cuff of her sleeve nervously. I gently took her hand, looking into her eyes. “I will protect you.” Sarah looked up at me. The scene in the factory hung between us. When Sarah and Chloe both needed protection at the same time, Elias had chosen his step-sister. “All our supplies are in Chloe’s sub-space. She has to be prioritized for protection. It’s not that I don’t understand that, logically. It’s just… it’s just…” Sarah sobbed, “Nova, am I being selfish?” I shook my head. “You are good.” In my heart, Sarah was the best person in the whole world. I was dumped at the orphanage door when I was four years old because my biological parents realized I wouldn’t speak. A trip to the hospital confirmed I was on the autism spectrum. After the orphanage took me in, the older kids bullied me. It was Sarah, three years older than me, who grabbed a brick and chased them all over the yard, ready to fight. “Don’t touch her! Don’t you dare touch her!” One night, when I was nine, the director called me into his office. He said he had brought a doctor in to give me a physical exam. I went. There were two strange middle-aged men in the room. They told me to take off my dress for the exam. The director was standing nearby, smiling. “She can’t talk. It’s perfectly safe.” Right then, the office door was slammed open. Sarah charged in waving a massive, filthy shovel meant for the septic tank. She swung it wildly at the director and the two men. “AHHHHH! Get away from my Nova! I’ll kill you!” Amidst their screams of surprise and disgust, the shovel cracked open their skulls. The incident caused a huge scandal. The director and the two men were arrested. That night, in the dark, Sarah held my hand, repeatedly stroking my messy hair. She said, “Don’t be scared, Nova. When there’s danger, just shout my name!” … I awkwardly tried to imitate the tone she used back then. “Don’t be scared, Sarah. When there’s danger… just shout my name.” She stared at me, stunned. Her lips began to tremble. “Nova…” Before Sarah could say another word, the light in front of us was suddenly cut off. I looked up. Elias and several other evolved squad members had surrounded us. Sarah immediately pushed me behind her, shielding me. “What’s going on?” Chloe spoke up. “Sarah, I know you want to believe in your friend, but haven’t you noticed how weird things are?” Sarah frowned. “Weird? How?” Chloe shot Elias a look of concern. Elias didn’t speak. He just used his power to condense a metal spike, holding it ready in his hand. A rat-faced man next to him said, “Sarah, think about it. Outside, it’s crawling with zombies. It’s nearly impossible for us to find a scrap of food. Yet your friend here is lugging around a whole backpack full of chocolate, surviving all alone in the middle of a zombie infested city for two months.” “She claims to be an ordinary person with no powers. How is that possible?” Sarah grabbed my hand even tighter. “So, what are you actually trying to say?” Elias took a step forward, dropping his voice to a low rumble. “Sarah, I know she’s an important friend to you. But these are dangerous times. We have to be cautious.” “Our squad has been traveling for nearly a month. We specifically picked low-population rural routes and barely ran into any zombies. It’s too coincidental that the very night your friend joins us, we get hit by a massive horde.” “The military radio broadcast mentioned a few days ago that zombies are evolving. They’ve confirmed high-level zombies that are indistinguishable from humans, and even Zombie Kings capable of commanding legions.” He raised the metal spike, aiming it right at my eyes. “I suspect your friend… is a legendary Zombie King.” “Impossible!” Sarah retorted immediately, without even a moment’s hesitation. “If she were a Zombie King, she would have bitten me ages ago! I’m still standing here fine, aren’t I?” “Sarah, you are so naive.” Chloe looked at her, shaking her head and sighing, acting as if she were counseling a clueless child. Elias said in a low voice, “Sarah, step aside.” The metal spike grew brighter. Sarah continued to shield me, her voice cracking with desperate emotion. “Are you all insane?! Elias, last night when those two zombies lunged at me, you ran to save your sister. If Nova hadn’t killed them to save me, I’d be dead right now! How could she possibly be the Zombie King you’re talking about?!” At the mention of last night, Elias’s jaw clenched, but he said nothing. Chloe smirked. “Sarah, you’re not blaming Elias for saving me, are you?” Sarah gritted her teeth. “I didn’t say that.” “If you want your friend to keep traveling with us and ease everyone’s fears, then let her go outside and prove herself.” Chloe pointed a finger toward the few zombies visible outside the door. Sensing the presence of living humans, they were slowly converging on our location. “If she’s not the Zombie King, if she’s not one of them, those zombies will definitely attack her. How about it?” Sarah’s hand clamped onto my wrist like an iron vise, her nails digging into my flesh. “I won’t let you go out there.” Her voice was shaking, her eyes red and desperate. “Nova, you can’t go out. There are zombies outside—” “Sarah, if you truly care about your friend, don’t stand in her way.” Chloe leaned in behind Elias, her tone casual. “If she’s clean, the zombies will attack her, and we’ll just pull her back inside. It’s easy.” “Bullshit!” Sarah spun around and screamed at her, her voice raw. “One bite and you’re infected! You make it sound so simple!” “Well, if she doesn’t go out, how can she prove it?” Chloe shrugged. “Right, Elias?” Elias didn’t respond. But he never lowered the metal spike. Several other evolved members had scattered, taking positions that implicitly formed a semi-circle around us. They weren’t waiting for an answer; they were waiting for the signal to attack. I looked down at Sarah’s hand. Every finger was straining, as if she believed that as long as she didn’t let go, no one could take me away. I pried her fingers open, one by one. She held on tightly, refusing to let go, so I had to apply a little pressure. “Let go.” I looked into her eyes. “You can’t protect me.” Sarah looked like she had been slapped. Her fingers went rigid. Then, one by one, they loosened their grip. As her hand fell away, a flash of a memory from twenty years ago crossed my mind. That night, two men in white coats were dragging me toward a car. Sarah had chased after us, grabbing my arm with both hands, gripping with all her might. She lost a shoe, her knees got scraped bloody on the concrete, and even after being kicked away, she got back up to keep chasing. She chased us for three blocks. Later, I heard her say something over the phone to someone; she thought I couldn’t hear. She said, “I couldn’t hold on to her.” It wasn’t a statement of fact. It sounded like a confession of guilt. This time, she couldn’t hold on either. I turned and walked toward the door.

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On New Year’s Eve, my little sister kept pestering me to play hide-and-seek. I covered my eyes. Right as I counted to thirty, the eraser in my brain moved again. I stood frozen in the middle of the living room for a few seconds. Then, I turned around, went back to the couch, and started watching TV. An hour later, Mom crouched down in front of me. “Sweetie, where did your sister go?” Sister? I blinked at her. “I don’t have a sister.” Mom’s face instantly changed. The family abandoned the holiday dinner. They rushed out into the heavy snow. But they couldn’t find my sister anywhere. Mom raised her hand and slapped me hard across the face. Her eyes were completely red. “Didn’t I tell you to watch your sister?! Didn’t I tell you not to let her out of your sight?!” “Where is she now?! Which way did she go?! Tell me!” The force of the slap shoved me backward. I fell onto the freezing, snow-covered porch. “Why couldn’t you be the one who went missing, you idiot?! You don’t remember anything anyway!” “This time you forgot your sister! What about next time?! Are you going to forget me and your father?!” Mom lunged forward to hit me again, but Dad grabbed her arm. They were both crying hysterically. My chest hurt so badly. She was right… why wasn’t I the idiot who went missing? … Mom’s hand stopped inches from my cheek, gripped tightly by Dad. “That’s enough!” Dad’s voice was hoarse. “She’s sick! You know she’s sick!” “It’s exactly because she’s sick that I told her not to let her sister step foot outside the house!” Mom violently yanked her arm out of his grasp, but she didn’t step closer to me. She just glared at me with those bloodshot, terrifying eyes. “She’s only four years old… In a blizzard like this, where could she possibly go?!” Four years old? I opened my mouth, but no sound came out. Is that sister four years old? But there was truly, absolutely nothing in my head. Nothing except the New Year’s Eve broadcast replaying on the TV, and the snow swirling wildly outside the window. Hearing the commotion, our neighbors rushed over. “Keep looking! A little kid can’t get far. Did she go to a friend’s house?” Dad grabbed Mom’s arm and pulled her up. “Why are you still sitting here?! Get up and help us look! Yelling at her won’t do any good!” Clarity flashed in Mom’s eyes for a split second. “Yes! I have to find my Lily…” Mom didn’t look at me again. She grabbed a flashlight and sprinted out into the snow. The crowd of people echoed through the neighborhood, shouting my sister’s name. I stood alone on the porch, my mind completely, entirely blank. “Lily… isn’t Lily my name?” My memory drifted back to when I was three. Back then, Mom and Dad called me Lily, too. “Mia! Why are you just standing there like an idiot?! Hurry up and help us find your sister!” Mia. Why did my name change again? Whatever. If I can’t figure it out, I won’t think about it. I had just taken a step off the porch when I heard a shout from the distance. “Found her! Lily is over here!” Everyone rushed toward the old oak tree at the entrance of the subdivision. There was a shallow ditch hidden by the accumulating snow. My sister was inside it. Her face was purple. Her hair was covered in icicles. Mom let out a guttural wail and threw herself into the ditch. “Lily… my baby Lily!” As if sensing her presence, my sister slowly opened her eyes. But she looked straight past Mom, staring directly at me. “Sister… why didn’t you come find me?” She started crying. “You promised you would come find me after you counted to thirty. I hid so well. I was waiting for you the whole time…” Mom violently snapped her head around to glare at me. She gently set my sister down and marched toward me. Smack! The slap landed squarely on my cheek. My left ear instantly started ringing. “Are you satisfied now?” Mom’s voice was shaking with pure, unadulterated rage. “You saw her almost freeze to death. Are you happy now?!” “How could I have given birth to a monster like you?” “This disease… this goddamn disease! It makes you forget your sister, it makes you forget us! Would it be better if you just forgot who you were entirely?!” Her tears finally broke, streaming down her face. “Or… did you do this on purpose? Did you pretend to forget, just so you could leave her out here in the freezing snow to die?” “Enough.” Dad finally spoke, but he only pulled my sister tighter into his heavy winter coat. “Let’s get Lily inside by the heater first. The paramedics are almost here.” Not a single person spoke up for me. And I didn’t know how to defend myself. This really was my fault. Mom shot me a look of pure, venomous hatred. “You stay right here. Stand in the snow and feel exactly how cold and terrified your sister was just now!” They turned and walked away. Seeing the situation, the neighbors didn’t know what to say. They all awkwardly shuffled back to their own houses. The snow was falling harder now. I slowly crouched down, mimicking the way my sister had curled up, and huddled into that shallow ditch. The freezing snow instantly soaked through my clothes. So this is how cold it was. I’m such a horrible person. How could I have forgotten something so important? But… I’m just sick. The doctor said it’s an incredibly rare, progressive memory disorder. It’s like something is slowly, constantly eating away at the hippocampus in my brain. New memories can’t be stored, and old memories are vanishing bit by bit. Mom calls it an eraser. But I don’t know why there’s an eraser inside my head. All I know is that things I remember clearly in the morning become blurry by noon. Mom says I’m an idiot. Maybe I am. The sky grew darker and darker. The lights in the houses down the street flickered on one by one. I could hear the faint, scattered pops of New Year’s fireworks. It was time to go home. I shifted my freezing, stiff legs. But the moment I stood up, that familiar, terrifying sensation hit me again. I blinked, looking around wildly. The trees were white. The road was white. I turned around, then turned back. What was I… what was I about to do again? Go home. Right, go home. But… where is my home? My heart started hammering against my ribs. I pressed my hand against my chest, gasping for air. Think. Today is New Year’s Eve. My sister wanted to play hide-and-seek. Then Mom hit me… And then what? I couldn’t remember. Forget it. I’ll just wait. When they realize I haven’t come back, they’ll come looking for me. Just like they looked for my sister. I sat back down in the ditch, hugging my knees to my chest, counting the distant pops of the fireworks. One, two… when I got to seventeen, I forgot what the number before it was. I sat there until the midnight countdown rang out from a distant TV. Massive fireworks exploded in the sky, lighting up the entire neighborhood. It was so beautiful. On past New Year’s Eves, Dad used to set off fireworks for me and tell me to make a wish. But what did I wish for? I forgot that, too. I curled myself into an even tighter ball. I should have felt incredibly cold, but somehow, I was getting hotter and hotter. I took off my winter coat. Then I took off my sweater. But I was still so hot. It wasn’t until I stripped down to just my thermal undershirt that I suddenly felt like I was floating. I blinked, and I was back inside my house. The New Year’s Eve broadcast was still playing on the TV. Mom was sitting on the sofa, holding my sister, feeding her hot ginger tea from a spoon. “Be a good girl, Lily. Take one more sip. It’ll warm you up.” The color had returned to my sister’s little face. She was wrapped in a thick, fluffy blanket, with only her eyes peeking out. “Where’s my sister?” she suddenly asked. Mom’s hand paused. “Don’t talk about her.” “But she hasn’t come back yet…” “She deserves it! She needs to learn what it feels like to freeze in the snow! She’s a grown teenager, and she can’t even watch her own little sister.” I wanted to walk over and say I was sorry, but I walked straight through the coffee table. I froze. “Mia still isn’t back.” Dad was standing by the window, staring outside. “The snow is coming down harder…” “Oh, now you’re worried?” Mom didn’t even look up. “What if Lily had actually died today? What then? Tell me, what then?” Dad fell silent. “She did it on purpose! She’s jealous of her sister, so she pretended to forget! That disease… who knows if it’s even real? The doctors themselves said they’ve never seen a case this bizarre…” “The doctors said it’s organic brain damage,” Dad said quietly. “Organic brain damage that conveniently makes her forget her sister, but remember how to watch TV?! Does that make any sense?!” Mom’s voice spiked aggressively. “She hates that we had a second child! She hates that we gave our love to Lily!” My sister was startled by the shouting and shrank deeper into Mom’s arms. Mom instantly softened her voice, gently patting my sister’s back. “Don’t be scared, baby. Mommy isn’t yelling at you… my sweet, perfect Lily…” Dad stood by the window for a long time before finally turning away. “When she gets back, I need to have a serious talk with her.” “Talk about what? Talk about how she tried to murder her sister?” Mom sneered. “If you ask me, we should just institutionalize her! She can’t remember anything anyway, what difference does it make where she lives?” Dad didn’t reply. I stood to the side, opening my mouth. “I…” No sound came out. I reached out to touch Mom’s shoulder, but my hand passed completely through her body. Oh. I’m dead. Well, that’s okay. At least now I won’t forget anything ever again.

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My younger brother put someone in the hospital, and the victim’s family demanded $20,000 to drop the charges. To raise the money, my parents tried to force me into an arranged marriage to collect a dowry. I refused. I went to my boyfriend and begged him to lend me the $20,000. Not only did he refuse, but he verbally humiliated me in front of all his friends. Without the money, my parents dragged me back home by force. In my desperate attempt to escape, I almost died. After I survived, terrified that my parents would track me down again, I legally changed my name, moved across the country, and cut ties with every single person I knew. In this new city, I started over. I got married, had a daughter, and built a life. Just when I thought I would live happily ever after, my husband’s tech startup was suddenly and maliciously targeted, pushing us to the brink of bankruptcy. My daughter, Lily, was crying, demanding to FaceTime her dad. I tried calling Arthur at least half a dozen times, but it kept going straight to voicemail. By the time I finally managed to coax Lily to sleep, it was past 10 PM. I stepped out of her bedroom and tried Arthur’s number again. Still voicemail. I texted him. No reply. I remembered him mentioning a high-stakes dinner meeting tonight, so I decided to wait a bit longer. But an hour later, there was still no text back. After another unanswered call, I dialed his executive assistant, Ben. Ben picked up almost immediately. “Hey, Anna. Calling pretty late, is everything okay?” “I can’t get ahold of Arthur. Did something happen to him?” “No, no, nothing like that. Arthur just… he had a bit too much to drink at the dinner, so he’s already passed out in his hotel room.” Ben’s voice sounded incredibly strained. Suspicious, I pressed him. “Let’s FaceTime. I just want to see him to make sure he’s okay.” Ben panicked. “No! We can’t!” “Why not?” “Um… well… I’m already in my own room, in bed. It’s been an insanely long day, and we have back-to-back meetings tomorrow. Please, Anna, have a heart, don’t make me get dressed and walk all the way down the hall.” “Ben, tell me the truth right now. Or I am booking the next flight out there to see for myself.” Knowing he couldn’t hide it anymore, Ben caved. “Arthur had a severe gastric hemorrhage. He’s at the hospital.” “Are you kidding me?! Why would you hide something this serious from me?!” “Arthur ordered me not to tell you!” “Text me the address of the hospital. I’m on my way.” After hanging up, Ben put his hands together in a prayer motion, looking at the unconscious Arthur on the hospital bed. “Boss, Anna is just too sharp. You can’t blame me for this when you wake up.” There were no flights out that late, so I booked the earliest Amtrak Acela ticket I could find. I threw a few changes of clothes into an overnight bag and rushed out the door. On the way to the station, I texted my mother-in-law, asking her to come over and watch Lily for a few days. When I finally arrived at the hospital, it was just past 6 AM. I grabbed some coffee and breakfast from the cafeteria downstairs before heading up. Arthur was in a private room. Ben was asleep on the uncomfortable vinyl chair bed next to him. Trying not to wake them, I quietly walked over to Arthur’s bed. His lips were cracked and peeling from dehydration. I slipped out of the room, found a vending machine, and bought a pack of cotton swabs. When I got back, Ben was awake. Seeing me, he whispered, “Anna, when did you get here?” “Just a few minutes ago. I brought breakfast. Eat up.” “Thanks, Anna.” I dipped a cotton swab in a cup of water and gently moistened Arthur’s lips. Then, I sat down and waited for Ben to finish his food. Once he was done, I asked, “I thought you guys flew out there to sign a contract? How does a contract negotiation end with a bleeding stomach in the ER?” Seeing him hesitate, I narrowed my eyes. “Arthur told you to keep your mouth shut about this too?” He nodded. “Ben, tell me exactly what he told you to hide. I’m here now. He won’t dare give you any crap for it.” That was exactly what Ben was waiting to hear. He spilled everything. “At the beginning of this month, three of our primary component suppliers abruptly terminated their contracts without cause. They just stopped shipping to us. “Without those components, our manufacturing grinds to a halt. We have massive fulfillment deadlines coming up. “Arthur tried meeting with them multiple times, but they stonewalled him. He spent the last two weeks desperately trying to find alternative suppliers, but every single firm in the industry suddenly refused to do business with us. It’s a total blacklist. “Finally, a few days ago, one supplier agreed to a sit-down. That was the dinner last night. “We had all the terms hammered out. But right at the end, the supplier brought out a bottle of hard liquor. He told Arthur that if he could drink him under the table, he’d sign the contract on the spot. “Arthur was so desperate to save the company, he agreed to the drinking contest. He drank until his stomach lining gave out.” “Someone is obviously coordinating this blacklist to destroy him. Do you have any idea who?” Ben shook his head. “No. Arthur said the only priority right now is keeping the company afloat. We can worry about who’s behind it later.” When Arthur finally woke up, the first thing he did was glare at Ben. “I told you to keep your mouth shut! Why did you…” I cut him off. “Don’t you dare yell at him! The company is falling apart and you hid it from me. You end up in the hospital and you hide it from me. You hide everything from me! Am I just some outsider to you?!” Arthur grabbed my hand, offering a weak, apologetic smile. “No, of course not. I just didn’t want you to stress out. I thought I could handle it.” “Handle it by drinking until your stomach bleeds?! How many times have I told you that no business deal is worth your health?! If something happens to you, what are Lily, your mom, and I supposed to do?!” My eyes welled up with tears. Arthur panicked and immediately started apologizing. “I know I messed up, honey. I promise, it will never happen again.” “You better remember that. If there’s a next time, I’m filing for divorce!” “There won’t be a next time. Please don’t say things like that.” Seeing him so pale and trying so hard to comfort me, my heart instantly softened. “Does your stomach hurt? Do you want me to get the doctor?” “No, I’m okay.” “Are you hungry? Do you want something to eat?” Ben, who had been trying to make himself invisible in the corner, chimed in. “Anna, the doctor said the boss can’t have any solid food for twenty-four hours.” Arthur added, “Stop worrying about me. You took the red-eye train out here, you must be exhausted. Let Ben take you to the hotel so you can get some sleep.” “I’m not going anywhere. I’m staying right here to take care of you.” Arthur knew he couldn’t win that argument, so he let me stay. At 9:00 AM, Arthur picked up his phone and called the supplier from the night before. “Mr. Torres, it’s Arthur Davis. When would be a good time for you to sign that contract?” Torres’s voice came through the speaker, lazy and dismissive. “I don’t have any contract to sign with you.” “Last night, you explicitly said if I won the drinking contest, you’d sign.” “I did say that. But I’ve decided I don’t want to do business with you.” Arthur suppressed his anger and kept his tone professional. “Mr. Torres, business is built on trust. Going back on your word like this isn’t exactly ethical.” “Look, I never had any intention of signing with you. I just wanted to make you realize the reality of your situation. Unless you do exactly what he wants, you have zero options.” Torres seemed genuinely baffled as to why Arthur was risking his life when the solution was supposedly simple. Arthur gripped his phone tightly. “Understood. Then perhaps we can collaborate in the future.” “As long as that guy doesn’t give the green light, your company is dead in the water. Take my advice…” Arthur didn’t wait for Torres to finish. He hung up. “He backed out?” I asked. Arthur nodded. Ben was furious. “How can a CEO act like that?! He gave his word!” I was equally angry, but Arthur was surprisingly calm. “If he backs out, he backs out. We’ll just find someone else.” Arthur stayed in the hospital for two more days before being discharged. As soon as he was cleared, we took the train back to Boston. When we arrived, he dropped me off at the house and immediately headed straight to the office without even coming inside. Late that night, I woke up to feel him pulling me into his arms. Habit took over, and I rolled over, burying my face in his chest to go back to sleep. The next morning, I walked into the kitchen to find Arthur helping his mother make breakfast. Lily, who hadn’t seen him in almost a week, was clinging to his leg like a koala bear. He was struggling to walk, but he couldn’t bear to make her let go, so he just dragged his leg around the kitchen. When he saw me, he smiled. “You’re up. Breakfast is almost ready.” After we ate, we dropped Lily off at preschool together. He drove me back to the house before heading to the office, and then he came home surprisingly early that afternoon. It felt incredibly wrong. That night in bed, I finally asked him, “Why do you have so much free time today? Isn’t the company in crisis mode?” “I’ve already found a solution.” “What solution?” “I’m going to sell the company.” I sat bolt upright in bed. “Sell the company?! Why?!” Arthur sat up too, speaking slowly and deliberately. “I’ve been thinking about this since the crisis first started. I just couldn’t bring myself to pull the trigger back then.” “Is it really beyond saving?” “I’ve exhausted every possible option. If I keep dragging this out, the financial hemorrhage is only going to get worse. Selling it now, while it still has some value, is the best move.” Arthur wrapped his arms around me. “As long as our family is together, nothing else matters.” The negotiations to sell the startup moved incredibly fast. But the night before he was scheduled to sign the acquisition paperwork, Arthur received a text from an unknown number. He was in the shower. His phone was on the nightstand, and the screen lit up with the message. I saw it. It read: Change your mind now, and your company can still be saved. When Arthur walked out of the bathroom, he saw me staring intensely at his phone. “What’s wrong?” I held the phone up. “What exactly does this text mean?” Arthur was furious internally. He had blocked the guy’s number, yet he kept buying burners to harass him! Like a ghost that wouldn’t leave him alone! “Do I really have to say?” If he didn’t want to tell me, that meant it involved me. “Yes. If you don’t tell me, I’m calling this number right now to ask.” “I don’t know exactly who he is. I just know he’s the one orchestrating the blacklist against my company. He called me a few weeks ago and told me that if I wanted the blacklist lifted, I had to divorce you. I told him to go to hell!” Arthur’s tone turned incredibly serious. “I can survive losing my company. I can always find another way to provide. But if I lose you, this family is destroyed.” The area code on the text was from New York. But it was a number I didn’t recognize. I only had a handful of ties to New York. Who could it be? “Let’s find out exactly who this is.” I dialed the number and put it on speaker. The person on the other end seemed to have been waiting by the phone. They picked up instantly. “Mr. Davis, have you finally come to your senses?” The second I heard that voice, I knew exactly who it was. But Arthur spoke first. “Who the hell are you? Why are you so obsessed with forcing me to get a divorce?” “You just need to follow the instructions. As for the rest…” “Eric.” I said his name coldly. The voice on the other end instantly fell silent. I continued, “Julian Sterling ordered you to do this, didn’t he?” Eric, Julian’s right-hand man, didn’t dare confirm it. He played dead on the line. “Give me Julian’s direct line,” I demanded. “I need to speak to him.” “I… I need to request authorization from Mr. Sterling first.” “Then go request it.” I hung up. Arthur looked at me. “Julian Sterling… is that the ex-boyfriend you told me about?” “Yes.” I hadn’t expected him to connect the dots so fast, but I wasn’t going to lie to him. Getting confirmation, Arthur looked deeply worried. Was Julian doing this for revenge? Or had he discovered the truth and wanted me back? Back in New York, Eric wanted to cry. This idiot Arthur actually called while Anna was right next to him! He’s going to get me killed! Eric dialed his boss’s number, bracing himself. “Mr. Sterling, Arthur Davis just called. Anna was with him. She recognized my voice. She asked for your direct line. Should I give it to her?” Julian’s voice was like glacial ice. “No. Tell her if she wants to talk, she has to come see me in person.” The line clicked dead. Eric shadow-boxed the air in frustration. “What a terrible attitude! No wonder she dumped you!” After his minor tantrum, Eric texted Arthur’s phone: Tell Ms. Anna that if she wishes to speak with Mr. Sterling, she must come to New York in person. Reading the text, I immediately pulled up a travel app. “We’re delaying the acquisition signing tomorrow. We’re going to New York to see Julian first.” “I’m not letting you go alone. I’m coming with you.” “Okay. We’ll go together.” The next day, Arthur and I took the train to New York and headed straight for Julian’s corporate headquarters. The front desk security refused to let us up, so I called Eric. Eric got the call, realized I was already in the lobby, and rushed to Julian’s office. “Mr. Sterling, Ms. Anna is downstairs. She’s demanding to see you.” “Tell her to wait.” Julian’s face was a mask of utter indifference, but the way his expensive fountain pen was practically tearing through the paper on his desk betrayed his internal chaos. Eric tried to sugarcoat it when he came down to the lobby. “Ms. Anna, Mr. Sterling is currently in a very important meeting. It’s going to be a little while.” “You answer my calls on the first ring, and you’re running messages back and forth in record time. Do you honestly expect me to believe he’s ‘in a meeting’?” Eric realized he was outmatched. He dropped the act and gave it to me straight. “Mr. Sterling said to tell you to wait.” “Is he standing right next to you?” “No.” “Take your phone and go to his office. I’m going to say one sentence to him.” “Just tell me, I’ll pass the message along.” “You really don’t want to be the middleman for this. If I just tell him directly, he won’t have the time to punish you for it.” Eric cautiously walked back into Julian’s massive corner office and nervously placed his phone on the mahogany desk. “Mr. Sterling, Ms. Anna is on the line.” He didn’t put it on speaker. After setting the phone down, he rapidly backed away, putting as much distance between himself and the desk as possible. He was not going to eavesdrop on anything above his pay grade! Julian picked up the phone and held it to his ear, saying nothing. Eric heard total silence from his end, but I knew Julian was listening. “I was pregnant with your child.” That single sentence hit Julian like a sledgehammer. The phone slipped from his fingers, clattering loudly against the hardwood floor. He didn’t care about the phone. He didn’t care about anything. He just needed to see Anna now. “I was pregnant with your child” looped endlessly in his brain. When Eric had first investigated Anna and reported that she was married with a five-year-old daughter, Julian had been consumed by a venomous rage. How could she dump him and immediately run off to marry someone else and start a family?! But now, the timeline clicked into place. The truth was highly likely that Anna had discovered she was pregnant with his child and, in a panic, was forced to find someone—anyone—to marry immediately! The more Julian thought about it, the more certain he became that this was the truth. A wave of overwhelming, ecstatic joy crashed over him. Watching Julian frantically sprint out of the office, almost tripping over his own expensive rug, Eric praised whatever god was listening that he hadn’t overheard the call. Then he remembered he had just bought that phone a few days ago. He rushed to the desk, picked it up, and inspected it meticulously. Finding no cracks, he clutched it to his chest. “Thank god.” I didn’t get a response after I dropped the bomb, but the chaotic sound of the phone hitting the floor, followed by the rapid, frantic clicking of dress shoes sprinting down a hallway, told me everything I needed to know. Julian was coming. Sure enough, minutes later, Julian appeared in the lobby, looking slightly disheveled despite his custom Tom Ford suit. Suppressing his intense emotional high, he forced a composed greeting. “Anna. It’s been a long time.”

🌟 Continue the story here 👉🏻 📲 Download the “MotoNovel” app 🔍 search for “400814”, and watch the full series ✨! #MotoNovel

It was the third month since Declan and I had gotten remarried. I found a dried, dark red bloodstain on the soft leather cushion of his car seat. Declan raised an eyebrow, his tone incredibly casual. “She was a virgin.” Unlike my usual hysterical, screaming meltdowns, I simply asked in a gentle voice, “Should I have this detailed?” Later, while accompanying Declan to an elite socialite gathering, his friends loudly discussed the young college girl he had been keeping on the side. “Dec, man! The girl you’re keeping is actually a virgin? And in the car, no less? You really know how to have a good time!” Someone whispered a warning: “Keep it down, man. His wife is right here.” But the guy purposely raised his voice even louder: “What wife? After the divorce, she couldn’t handle being broke. She came crawling right back, begging Dec to remarry her. All that ‘pride’ and ‘dignity’ shattered into a million pieces the exact second her family went bankrupt!” Faced with the overwhelming, public humiliation… I maintained a perfectly elegant smile, sipping my champagne. I didn’t lose my mind and start screaming curses at them like I used to. On the ride home, I closed my eyes to rest. Declan frowned, interrogating me. “Chloe, why didn’t you say anything back to those insulting comments tonight?” He had probably forgotten that the last time I screamed myself hoarse fighting back against them, the result was the total annihilation of my family’s business and a set of divorce papers. I had my AirPods in, my eyes closed, pretending to be asleep. Declan sighed, a hint of helplessness in his voice. “The jokes they made today were definitely out of line. No matter what, you are my wife. They should have given you basic respect.” He paused, then continued: “That college girl… she comes from a desperately poor family. Her mother is severely ill and needs money for life-saving surgery. It’s just a transaction. We both get what we need. There are no real feelings involved. Even if there were, she could never threaten your position as my wife.” It was a rare explanation from him. But in that moment, I couldn’t find the energy to care. Seeing no reaction from me, he raised his voice. “Chloe, are you listening to me?” “I’m listening.” My tone was completely exhausted, but I could still feel Declan’s probing, analyzing gaze landing heavily on me. When I opened my eyes to look at him, I reverted to the perfect, docile obedience I had cultivated lately. “Didn’t you tell me before that when they say those things, there’s no real malice behind it? That I shouldn’t be so petty and hold grudges?” “That girl is quite pitiful, and she doesn’t have much life experience. You should be gentle with her.” I thought that by echoing exactly what Declan wanted to hear, he would nod in satisfaction and praise me for being a good, obedient wife. But to my utter shock, the last remaining trace of a smile completely vanished from his face. The luxury car violently slammed to a halt on the side of the road. Declan’s voice dropped several degrees. “Chloe, I honestly have no idea what kind of tantrum you’re throwing right now.” I froze. I slowly took out my AirPods. “Declan, I haven’t thrown a single tantrum all night.” “Could you really not tell that I was wishing you two the best?” My perfectly logical answer didn’t extinguish his inexplicable, sudden rage. Instead, those words seemed to pour gasoline directly onto the fire. He ground his teeth together as he spat out my name: “CHLOE STERLING!” I looked at Declan, quietly waiting to see what he would do next. Suddenly, a torrential downpour unleashed over the city. The massive raindrops violently smashed against the car windows. The atmosphere inside the car became even more suffocating and oppressive with the pounding of the rain. Just a split second before Declan’s temper was about to explode, a frail, pathetic figure frantically trying to escape the rain on the sidewalk abruptly entered his line of sight. It only took one second. His explosive rage was forcefully swallowed by an overwhelming, visible wave of extreme anxiety. His face turned as dark as a storm cloud as he ordered me out of the car. I didn’t act like I used to—I didn’t get teary-eyed, and I didn’t scream, asking him why. I simply did exactly as he commanded and stepped out into the storm. The freezing rain ruthlessly battered my body. It stung. A few moments later, Declan stepped out of the car too. His jaw was clenched tight. Holding an umbrella, he walked directly toward that fragile, shivering silhouette. There was no conversation. He simply, dominantly grabbed the girl by the wrist and pulled her toward the car. I had heard people whispering about her. This girl’s name was Serena Vance. Suddenly, a conversation from a young couple walking behind me drifted into my ears. The girl frowned, her face full of hesitation. “A tattoo… is it going to hurt really badly?” The boy affectionately pulled her into his arms. “If you’re scared of the pain, we won’t get it.” Hearing that, the tattoo I got on the side of my waist when I was eighteen suddenly felt like it was burning. That tattoo was the wildly romantic, impulsive proof of my and Declan’s first love as teenagers. It’s just a tragic shame that the romance only survived until our third year of marriage. When I discovered his very first affair, my entire world instantly collapsed. Three years into our marriage. The brand-new executive assistant he had hired less than a month ago climbed into his bed. The image of their intertwined, naked bodies on the sheets felt like countless, brutal slaps directly to my face. I cried until I choked, acting like an absolute lunatic, screaming the most vicious, venomous curses in the world at the two of them. Declan calmly absorbed my screaming. “In elite society, a man having women on the side is the most normal thing in the world. Besides, didn’t your own father cheat on your mom when you were just a year old? Your mother played blind for decades. She never told you a word about it until the day she died. And didn’t you all just keep living your lives?” “Chloe, be smart. Grow up. Don’t scream and shout like a crazy person and ruin my mood.” In that exact moment, my blood practically froze in my veins. The curses I was about to scream got stuck in my throat. I couldn’t spit them out, and I couldn’t swallow them down. The man who had once loved me to the absolute marrow of his bones was now callously using the deepest, most agonizing trauma of my entire life just to shut me up. Chapter 2 By the time I finally made it back to the estate, it was midnight. The moment I pushed the heavy front doors open, the girl lounging on the sofa instantly jolted awake, looking like a startled deer. She was exactly Declan’s current type. Pure, beautiful, young. Yet, on her innocent face was a stubborn, unyielding defiance. I was soaked from the freezing rain, my head spinning with a fever. Yet, I forced a perfect, graceful smile onto my face. I considerately called the head housekeeper and told him to go upstairs and prepare a luxury guest suite for her. Seeing the tubes of medicinal ointment and the chaotic, messy aftermath scattered across the coffee table… I knew exactly how wild Declan had been with her. I let out a silent sigh, turned around, and walked upstairs. After we remarried, I proactively requested separate bedrooms. As I walked past his master suite, I heard him sharply, aggressively interrogating his executive assistant, Arthur. “Why the hell was Serena working a part-time job in the pouring rain today?! Didn’t I tell you to wire a million dollars into her account?!” I have no idea how Arthur replied, and I had absolutely no desire to know. At 3:00 AM, my head was splitting open, making it impossible to sleep. I decided to go downstairs to grab some Tylenol. But as I reached the landing, I saw Declan. He had both hands pressed against the wall on either side of Serena, aggressively trapping her. Her face was flushed bright red. He was forcefully demanding she make three promises. “Promise me you will take care of your body.” “Promise me you will spend my money every single day.” “Promise me you will love me forever.” But after making the promises, Serena looked incredibly aggrieved. “You’re wearing the wedding ring you gave to your wife, but you’re forcing me to say these things. What am I to you? Just a mistress?” Hearing this, Declan let out a mocking scoff. He pulled off the custom wedding band he had personally designed years ago and casually tossed it directly into the trash can. “Are you satisfied now?” The dizzying wave of nausea from my high fever made my stomach violently churn. I stumbled back, awkwardly shutting my bedroom door, and collapsed back onto the mattress. I pressed my hand hard against my chest. My heart felt like it was being carved open by a serrated knife. But in the end, the tears still pathetically betrayed me, slipping down my cheeks. Before we remarried, I naively thought that as long as I didn’t look, as long as I didn’t listen, everything would be fine. As long as I could get my mother’s heirloom back, I didn’t care if I had to play deaf and blind. But in this exact moment, I finally realized that some feelings are simply impossible to control. I knew my fever was spiking, but masochistically, I forced myself to endure it. Just endure it a little longer. I don’t know if I actually fell asleep, or if the fever just caused me to hallucinate. I dreamt of eighteen-year-old Declan. The summer right after high school graduation. We had finally thrown off the crushing weight of our college prep classes, traded our stiff school uniforms for mature suits and elegant evening gowns, and went to the highest revolving restaurant in the city. There, he formally and solemnly confessed his love to me for the very first time. The night sky couldn’t hide his flushed, nervous face. In front of those massive floor-to-ceiling windows, we were wild and passionate, over and over again. When we were finally exhausted, he pointed up at the moon and swore an oath. He swore he would love me for the rest of his life. It’s a tragic shame. Oaths are never eternal. And neither is love. When I opened my eyes again, I was greeted by the familiar stark white walls and the sterile smell of antiseptic. “What exactly is the point of treating your own body like garbage? You have a massive fever, you refuse to take medication, and you just suffer through it alone in your room. Does that accomplish anything?” Declan’s tone was entirely devoid of politeness, dripping with heavy, undisguised mockery. In the past, if I caught even a mild seasonal cold, Declan would be an absolute nervous wreck. Back then, he would frown in deep distress, pressing his warm palm against my forehead. “Why didn’t you tell me sooner? Did you take your meds? Does your head hurt? Do you want some water?” But now. I stared at Declan for a very long time. In the depths of his eyes, there were so many complex emotions. Sarcasm. Mockery. Disdain. The only thing missing was even a single shred of heartache. My heart felt like it was being roasted over an open, nameless flame. Before we remarried, I had warned myself a million times in my head: Do not ever beg for Declan’s love again. I forced a flawless smile. “I’m sorry. I wasted your time. Honestly, having the housekeeper drop me off at the hospital would have been perfectly fine.” Declan raised an eyebrow, seemingly caught off guard by my completely passive attitude. I still vividly remember the day we remarried. He stood outside the courthouse, smiling with arrogant, absolute superiority. “See? Without me, you are absolutely nothing. You can’t pay off your family’s massive debts. You can’t afford to eat at high-end restaurants. Hell, the place you were renting was worse than the servant’s quarters at my estate.” “I protected you too well all these years. You never had to suffer. You had no idea how brutal the real world is. I actually wanted to keep spoiling you, but your demands just kept piling up. So much so that I started to despise you.” “If, after we remarry, you can fix that pathetic temper and personality of yours… that would be ideal.” Well, I fixed it. I no longer clung to him, begging him to do childish things with me. I no longer demanded he check in with me every day. I stopped checking his phone. I stopped acting cute and vulnerable around him. And right now, I no longer needed his concern. Methodically slicing away a passionate, genuine love, piece by piece, is a long, excruciatingly agonizing process. Fortunately, in this exact moment, I felt like I was finally about to succeed. After finishing my IV drip and returning home, Serena came bursting out of Declan’s home office. Her eyes were bloodshot as she blocked my path at the top of the stairs. “Did you post these photos on the university forum?!” “Ms. Sterling, I honestly thought you were exactly as indifferent as you act!” “I never imagined you were this vicious!” “If Declan hadn’t caught it early, my life would have been completely destroyed by you!” Her shrill, piercing voice echoed violently through the hallway, incredibly grating on the ears. A stack of glossy photographs was violently hurled directly into my face. I glanced down. The explicit nature of the photos was so extreme that just a single glance would make anyone blush. I patiently explained: “Ms. Vance, I don’t even know what university you attend. How could I possibly post these photos?” But Serena had completely lost her mind. She sobbed hysterically and lunged at me, using every ounce of her strength to beat me. “Who else hates me this much besides you?! You hate the fact that Declan doesn’t love you! You hate the fact that he treats me well! So you used this disgusting method to destroy me!” Her fists, fast and heavy, rained down on me. I instinctively raised my arms to block the blows. But the next second, her foot missed a step. As she panicked and lost her balance, she made sure to grab onto me to break her fall. A terrifying, dizzying wave of weightlessness and sheer terror exploded through my system. My back slammed brutally against the floor. After a sickening, heavy THUD, my body finally stopped falling. Pain, like a torrential tidal wave, instantly rushed through every nerve in my body. In my hazy, semi-conscious state, I heard footsteps rushing toward us. Fast. Frantic. Declan’s voice was laced with absolute terror and incoherent panic. But the piercing, high-pitched ringing in my ears made it impossible to understand what he was saying. The last time I heard Declan sound this panicked… Was the day I discovered my father cheating. I was crying, screaming for justice for my mother, and my father delivered a brutal, resounding slap across my face. Declan had instantly stepped in, shielding me behind his back. He repeatedly, frantically checked to make sure I was okay, and then used the massive corporate leverage of his family’s empire to force my father to bow his head and apologize to me. The piercing ringing in my ears finally began to fade, and Declan’s words finally became clear. “Chloe, you are absolutely disgusting.” “I literally just finished scrubbing those photos off the internet to protect your reputation, and now you’re trying to murder her.” Declan’s words crashed down like a thunderbolt, completely and violently shattering the illusion of the dream I had just been living in. My explanation was weak and pathetic. My voice trembled uncontrollably from the agonizing pain. “It really wasn’t me…” But Declan refused to listen to a single word I said. Before he carried Serena out the door, I fought with everything I had to swallow my sobs. Suppressing my fading consciousness, I called out to him. “Declan, the auction tomorrow…” Declan’s body stiffened for a fraction of a second. His voice was pure, teeth-grinding fury. “I’ll go. But only on the condition that Serena is completely fine.” The heavy front doors slammed shut with a deafening crash. Only then did the terrified servants finally dare to scream and call 911. The next day, completely ignoring the doctor’s orders, I snuck out of the hospital. Early this morning, Arthur, Declan’s assistant, had texted me. He said Declan had arranged for Serena to undergo a massive, full-body medical workup. All her vitals were perfectly normal. She just had a minor sprain in her ankle. While feeling a wave of relief, I desperately tried to comfort myself in my own mind. He’s going to come. He’ll definitely come. But standing outside the auction house, watching the crowds of people come and go, I never saw that familiar silhouette. I waited from sunset until the moonlight washed over the pavement. The person I was desperately hoping for never showed up. Winter in New York is brutal. The biting, freezing, damp wind whipped relentlessly across my body. My body and my soul were both agonizingly numb. A voice in the very depths of my heart kept tirelessly repeating: He’s not coming. Tears welled up, spinning in my eyes. Even taking a breath sent sharp, stabbing pain through my chest. “Mrs. Pierce? Why are you still standing out here?” I turned my head stiffly. The moment I saw Arthur, a tiny, pathetic shred of hope inexplicably flared up in my heart. I grabbed his hand frantically, my words tumbling out in a mess. “Did… did Declan send you to bid at the auction?” Under my eyes, burning with desperate expectation, Arthur slowly nodded. He pulled out his phone and started scrolling through the list of items Declan had ordered him to win today. Out of thirty-two lots, Declan had Arthur successfully bid on thirty-one. My eyes, filled with desperate hope, scanned all the way down to the final line. I never saw the jade bracelet. The blood that had just begun to boil in my veins instantly froze solid. In a fraction of a second, I realized I was the biggest joke in the world. “Today is Ms. Vance’s birthday. They’re throwing a massive party at the estate. Mr. Pierce was in a rush to get these items back to surprise her, so he paid a massive premium to have the auction house expedite the entire process…” “As for the jade bracelet… Ms. Vance said items that belonged to dead people were bad luck. So she told him to pass on that lot…” I stood in the freezing, biting wind. My face was completely numb from the cold. I had lost count of how many times tears had blurred my vision today. Only one thought remained in my mind: Declan broke his promise. I didn’t get my mother’s heirloom back. This entire remarriage had lost its only meaning. I don’t know how much time passed. I stiffly pulled out my phone and sent Declan a single text: “Declan. Let’s get a divorce.” The message said Delivered. The reply was almost instantaneous: “Suit yourself.” Suddenly, someone roughly slammed their shoulder into mine. “Are you Declan Pierce’s wife?” I honestly didn’t know whether to nod or shake my head. But the person suddenly pulled out the exact jade bracelet I had been dreaming of getting back.

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The results of my pre-employment physical finally came back. Under “Blood Type,” it clearly stated: O. I dug out my birth certificate and medical records from when I was a kid. There it was in black and white: Type B. I called my mom, and she just laughed it off. “Oh, the person who filled out the paperwork back then probably just made a typo. It’s no big deal.” I wasn’t convinced. I went to a different hospital and paid for another blood test. Still Type O. My dad is Type A. My mom is Type B. My high school biology teacher taught us that this specific combination can produce a Type O child, but it’s incredibly rare. Both parents must carry the recessive O gene. I stood in front of my mom holding both lab reports. She took them and glanced at the paper. But her eyes didn’t stay on the results. They immediately darted past me, looking over my shoulder. She was checking to see if I had brought anyone home with me. A sudden, icy chill shot up my spine. “Mom, what are you looking at?” She shoved the reports back into my hands, her tone a little too cheerful, a little too forced. “Just looking to see if you finally brought a boyfriend home, that’s all!” She laughed and turned to walk into the kitchen. But I saw her hand gripping the doorframe. Her knuckles were bone white. The smell of cooking oil and garlic began drifting from the kitchen. My mom, Martha’s, voice carried over the roar of the exhaust fan. “Chloe, don’t just stand there spacing out! Go tell your sister dinner is ready.” I folded the medical reports, shoved them deep into my purse, walked upstairs, and knocked on Mia’s door. “Mia, dinner.” “Yeah, yeah, hold on a sec!” I could hear the loud, obnoxious sound of TikTok videos blasting from inside. I stood in the hallway. On my left was Mia’s room. A spacious master suite, south-facing, with a custom bay window covered in plush pink cushions. On my right was my room. Barely eighty square feet. It used to be a storage closet. The single tiny window faced the brick wall of the neighbor’s house. It had been this way since we were kids. I was used to it. At the dinner table, the massive plate of BBQ ribs was placed directly in front of Mia. In front of me was a small plate of cheap, stir-fried potatoes. Mia picked up a rib, chewed it twice, and immediately frowned in disgust. “Mom, these ribs are super tough today.” “I left the heat on too high,” Mom replied instantly, eager to please. “I’ll slow-roast them longer for you next time.” My dad, Frank, sat at the head of the table, his chopsticks moving rhythmically between the meat and the side dishes. I kept my head down, mechanically shoveling rice into my mouth. My brain was screaming, completely consumed by those two blood test reports. Type O. Both tests said Type O. I swallowed a mouthful of rice and forced my voice to sound as casual as possible. “Dad, you’re Type A, right?” His chopsticks stopped in mid-air. It was a fraction of a second. If I hadn’t been staring directly at his hand, I never would have noticed. “Yeah, Type A.” “Can a Type A and a Type B have a Type O child?” The dinner table went completely dead silent for two seconds. “Of course they can!” Mom jumped in, answering before he could. “Anything is possible. Stop reading all that nonsense on the internet.” “But my biology teacher said—” “Are teachers always right?” Mom slammed her chopsticks down, flashing a perfectly natural smile. “Look at the Johnsons next door. Both parents have brown eyes, and their kid has blue eyes! Genetics are crazy, you can’t predict them.” Having delivered her expert scientific analysis, she picked up a prime, meaty rib and dropped it onto Mia’s plate. “Eat up, Mia. The cafeteria food at your college is absolute garbage. You need the protein.” Mia was a senior at a private university. Her tuition was forty thousand dollars a year. Adding in her lavish living expenses, she easily burned through six grand a month. As for me? I had been working a corporate job for three years. I made around $4,000 a month, and every single month, I was forced to transfer $2,500 of it directly to my mom. “The household expenses are high, and your sister is still in school. As the older sister, it’s your duty to shoulder the burden.” Those were my mom’s exact words. And I had shouldered that burden for three grueling years. But today, I suddenly desperately wanted to know one thing. What exactly was I to this family? After dinner, I retreated to my eighty-square-foot closet, locked the door, and opened Google on my phone. Can a Type A and Type B parent have a Type O child? A flood of results popped up. Most medical articles stated: Yes, but the probability is low. Both parents must carry the recessive ‘O’ allele for it to happen. So… it was possible. I almost let out a sigh of relief. But then I clicked to the second page of results. A bolded thread title on a forum stabbed me right in the eye. Mismatched blood types don’t necessarily prove anything, but if your mother’s very first reaction is to check if anyone followed you home— The top comment underneath only had one sentence: Then she’s hiding a massive, guilty secret. I dropped my phone face-down onto my mattress. I stared up at the jagged crack in the ceiling, completely paralyzed. That crack had been there for as long as I could remember. Eighteen years. My mom had sworn she would fix it, but she never did. Not once. Meanwhile, the expensive wallpaper in Mia’s bedroom had been replaced three times. The next day at work, the events of last night were still looping violently in my head. The HR rep at my new company handed me my ID badge. “Chloe, Administration Department. You have a 90-day probationary period.” I took the badge. It was my first day at a new job. During lunch, my new coworker, Sarah, sat down across from me in the breakroom. “Chloe, right? I’m in the cubicle next to yours. Let me know if you need anything.” She had a bright, infectious laugh, her eyes crinkling happily. I nodded, tapping my paper cup against hers. “Are you from around here?” she asked. “Yeah, born and raised.” “Oh, that’s awesome! Living at home must save you a ton on rent.” I didn’t respond. Save on rent. I handed over $2,500 a month. I could rent a luxury one-bedroom apartment in the city for less than what I paid to live in a closet. In the afternoon, my mom sent me a text. “When are you transferring this month’s money? Your sister needs to sign up for a GRE prep course next semester. It’s two grand.” I stared at the glowing screen. Two grand. Last winter, I wanted to take a specialized accounting certification course to boost my resume. It was $500. My mom screamed at me for half an hour. “Why the hell are you wasting money on that garbage? You’re not smart enough for school anyway!” I typed out two words: “Got it.” And hit send. Then, I opened a new browser tab. Search query: How to get a private DNA paternity test. The results showed that for a non-legal, personal knowledge test, you only needed to mail in biological samples. Hair follicles, nail clippings, cheek swabs. All acceptable. The parties being tested didn’t even need to be present. Cost: Around $150 to $300. I checked my bank app. After deducting my monthly “tribute” of $2,500 and my bare-bones living expenses, my total life savings sat at exactly $15,000. That $15,000 was the result of three years of eating instant ramen for lunch, walking home in the freezing rain to save bus fare, and only buying clothes off the clearance rack once a year. Every single dollar was scraped together with blood and sweat. My entire life savings from three years of grinding… wasn’t even enough to cover three months of Mia’s college tuition. On Saturday, I made up an excuse to leave the house. My mom was lounging on the sofa watching TV. She didn’t even look up. “Where are you going?” “A coworker asked me to go to the mall.” “Don’t spend money. You barely make anything as it is.” I didn’t answer. I just put on my shoes and walked out the door. Before I left, I had discreetly pulled a few hairs with the root attached from my dad’s hairbrush, sealing them in a plastic bag. I did the same with a few hairs I found on my mom’s bath towel. Along with three of my own hairs, I sealed them all securely in my purse. The DNA testing clinic was located in a sleek, quiet office building downtown. The receptionist handed me a form to fill out. “Standard processing is seven to ten business days. Expedited processing is three days, but there’s an additional rush fee.” “Expedite it,” I said. She glanced up at me. My expression must have looked terrifying. She didn’t ask any questions. She just took my payment and the samples. When I walked out of the clinic, the sun was blindingly bright. I stood on the sidewalk, suddenly realizing I had absolutely no idea where to go. If the results came back normal, then my life would continue as this miserable, gray existence. But if they didn’t… My phone buzzed. It was a voice memo from Mia. “Hey Chloe, can you buy me that new YSL lipstick while you’re out? I’ve been wanting it forever. It’s like forty-five bucks.” Forty-five bucks. Last month, the soles of my only pair of work shoes completely wore through. I spent thirty dollars on a cheap replacement pair from Target, and I felt guilty about spending the money for an entire week. I typed back two words: “Sure thing.” Then I opened Sephora’s website and started browsing shades. For her. The three days waiting for the results felt like I was holding my breath underwater. On the surface, everything looked perfectly normal. Go to work. Come home. Cook dinner. Hand over my paycheck. But every single thing I had accepted as “normal” my entire life began to look incredibly, violently suspicious. Like the photo wall in the living room. I counted them. There were fourteen photos framed on the wall. Mia was the sole focus of eleven of them. I was in exactly two. They were group shots, and I was shoved to the very edge of the frame. The last one was a family portrait. It was taken when I was twelve, at a cheap mall photo studio with a fake blue-sky backdrop. Mia was sitting happily on my mom’s lap, wearing an expensive, frilly pink dress. I was standing awkwardly next to my dad, wearing Mia’s faded, outgrown winter coat from the year before. I stared at that photo for a very long time. In the picture, twelve-year-old me was smiling so hard it looked painful. On the third day, right around noon, my phone vibrated on my desk. A text from the clinic. I took my phone, locked myself in a bathroom stall, and opened the message. “Hello. Your DNA test results are ready. You may pick up the physical copy at our office, or opt to receive a secure electronic report via email.” My thumb clicked “Electronic Report.” The email arrived three minutes later. I opened the PDF and scrolled frantically, bypassing all the scientific jargon, straight to the conclusion on the final page. Probability of Paternity between Subject A (Chloe) and Subject B (Frank): 0%. The tested individuals do not share a biological parent-child relationship. Probability of Maternity between Subject A (Chloe) and Subject C (Martha): 0%. The tested individuals do not share a biological parent-child relationship. Two lines of text. I am not their daughter. Not related to either of them. The central AC in the office building hummed loudly. But I couldn’t hear it anymore. The only sound in the world was my own heartbeat, slamming against my ribs like a sledgehammer against a brick wall. My fingernails dug so deeply into my palms they drew blood. After what felt like an eternity, I closed my email, opened my Excel spreadsheet, and continued doing data entry. Row 138. Row 139. Row 140. My hands were perfectly steady. When I got home that night, the dinner table looked exactly the same as it always did. The expensive meat was placed directly in front of Mia. The cheap, stir-fried potatoes were placed in front of me. My mom cheerfully piled food onto Mia’s plate while talking to me without looking up. “Mia’s GRE prep course is all signed up. You need to transfer an extra $800 this month to cover it.” “Okay.” “Also, let Mia borrow that gray puffer jacket of yours. She’s going out with friends tomorrow and she complains she has nothing to wear.” That jacket was the only new piece of clothing I had bought for myself in the last two years. I bought it on clearance for $80. “It’s in my closet,” I said flatly. Mia immediately jumped up from the table and sprinted upstairs to claim it. My mom nodded approvingly. “That’s exactly how a big sister should act. Generous and accommodating.” I kept my head down, staring at my bowl of rice. If I wasn’t their daughter. Then who the hell was I? After dinner, I waited until the entire house was dead asleep. At 1:00 AM, I stood barefoot in the dark hallway. My parents’ bedroom door was shut tight. I could hear my dad snoring loudly inside. I crept into the living room and approached the heavy, antique wooden cabinet in the corner. I was strictly forbidden from ever touching this cabinet. When I was seven years old, my curiosity got the better of me, and I tried to open it. My mom caught me and beat me black and blue. “These are adult things! What the hell is a kid doing snooping around in here?!” The cabinet was padlocked. The key was hidden in the drawer of my mom’s nightstand. I had seen her put it there earlier this afternoon. But tonight, I didn’t have the key. I crouched down in the dark and pulled a bobby pin from my hair. During my lunch break, my coworker Sarah had shown me a YouTube video on how to pick a basic lock to get into a jammed locker at work. The mechanism on this old padlock was practically identical. Three minutes. Click. The cylinder turned smoothly. I gently pulled the cabinet doors open. Inside, sitting on the bottom shelf, was a rusted metal lockbox covered in a thick layer of dust. The box itself wasn’t locked. I lifted the lid. Inside were a few yellowed, aging documents, a sealed envelope, and a red bank passbook. The document resting on the very top was a legal contract. It was handwritten. The paper was brittle and yellowing at the edges. I turned on my phone’s flashlight, holding it close, and read every single word. [Guardianship and Financial Trust Agreement] Grantor: Eleanor Vance Trustee: Martha Johnson … “Due to terminal illness rendering the Grantor incapable of continued care, the Grantor hereby entrusts the Trustee with the physical custody and guardianship of her biological daughter, until said minor reaches the age of eighteen…” “The Grantor shall transfer all liquid assets, life insurance payouts, and accumulated savings, totaling $450,000 USD, into a designated trust account managed by the Trustee. These funds are legally mandated to be utilized strictly and exclusively for the living expenses, healthcare, and education of the minor child…” “The Trustee legally binds herself to ensure the aforementioned funds are spent solely for the benefit of the minor, Chloe Vance…” My name. In stark black and white. $450,000. Four hundred and fifty thousand dollars. In the year 2000. I crouched in the pitch-black living room, my entire body violently shaking with a freezing, bone-deep cold. I pulled out my phone and photographed the agreement. I photographed the envelope, the bank passbook, and every single piece of paper stacked underneath it. Then, I meticulously put everything back exactly as I found it. The metal box. The wooden cabinet. The padlock. Everything looked entirely untouched. I walked barefoot back to my eighty-square-foot closet. I shut the door. I slid down the doorframe until I was sitting on the floor, hugging my knees to my chest. Four hundred and fifty thousand dollars. All these years. Wearing Mia’s worn-out hand-me-downs. Eating the cheapest garbage in the cafeteria. Eating instant ramen every day to save money. Being extorted for $2,500 every single month. Being told to my face, “You’re not smart enough for school anyway.” Being told, “As the older sister, you need to be generous.” Being told, “The household expenses are high, you need to shoulder the burden.” $450,000. Exactly who had they spent my mother’s money on? I didn’t confront them immediately. Because there was another name written on that contract. Eleanor Vance. My biological mother. For the next few days, I worked my corporate job during the day and frantically scoured the internet at night. I started with the name of the law firm printed on the letterhead of the contract. Sterling & Associates Law Firm. It had been over twenty years. Information online was scarce. I called the number listed in an old digital archive. Disconnected. I searched the state business registry. The firm had officially dissolved in 2015. But the dissolution documents listed the name of one of the founding partners: Arthur Sterling. I searched his name through the State Bar Association database. He was currently practicing at a different, high-profile corporate firm downtown. I saved his office address and direct line. That entire week, I continued transferring my “rent” money to my mom.

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1 The agonizing cramps in my abdomen were so unbearable that I dragged myself to the ER, where I was diagnosed with acute appendicitis. The doctor was typing on his keyboard to prescribe my pre-op meds when his hands suddenly stopped. He looked up at me. “Why do you have an IUD in place if you haven’t had children yet?” An IUD? I gripped my medical chart so tightly my knuckles turned white. Impossible. I had severe infertility issues. Over the past seven years, I had poured tens of thousands of dollars into treatments and endured endless physical and emotional torture just to try and get pregnant. “Doctor, are you sure you didn’t misread the scan?” The doctor turned his monitor toward me and tapped his pen against a distinct shadow on the imaging. “Look right here. See this? How do you forget that you had an IUD inserted?” I stared dead at the screen, my fingertips trembling uncontrollably. Forgot? I never had one put in! For seven long years, my mother-in-law had pointed her finger in my face, calling me a “barren bitch,” and I had swallowed every ounce of that humiliation. Looking at that contraceptive device—something that had absolutely no business being inside my body… I finally realized the truth. It wasn’t that I couldn’t conceive. It was that someone had deliberately ensured that I wouldn’t! … Staring at the shadow on the screen, my hand instinctively drifted to my lower abdomen. Seven years ago, right after we got married, we went in for pre-pregnancy checkups. That was when I was diagnosed with a “hostile reproductive environment” and a small ovarian cyst. I remember looking at David in an absolute panic. He had held me gently, whispering words of comfort. “Baby, don’t be scared. We’ll get the surgery to remove the cyst first. I’ll be by your side the whole time.” For the next seven years, David accompanied me in and out of that hospital countless times. I snapped back to reality and looked at the ER doctor, asking him to remove the IUD during the appendectomy. After the surgery, as I lay in the recovery room, I got a phone call from David. “Emily, where are you? Why was your phone going straight to voicemail?” “I’m at the hospital. I just had surgery.” I kept my voice low. On the other end of the line, I heard genuine panic in his voice. “Hospital? Which hospital?!” Seemingly realizing he had overreacted, he quickly changed his tone. “Baby, what surgery? Are you feeling sick?” I couldn’t even begin to describe the storm of emotions inside me. I gave him a brief, vague answer and hung up the phone. Moments later, the door to my recovery room burst open, and David hurried in. “An appendectomy? Why didn’t you go to St. Jude’s? My Uncle Frank is the Chief of Surgery there, he could have made sure you were taken care of.” As he spoke, his eyes darted over my face, carefully observing my expression. I clenched the small copper IUD hidden in my palm. Without letting my mask slip, I offered him a weak smile. “It hurt too much. This hospital was closer.” My mother-in-law, Martha, pushed the door open just in time to hear my answer. She immediately started loudly complaining. “It’s just appendicitis, how much could it possibly hurt? If you can’t even handle this, you’d never survive childbirth.” “Oh, right. Assuming you can even have kids, which is highly doubtful.” “Mom, say less. Emily just got out of surgery, she’s not feeling well.” David poured me a glass of water. Once he was satisfied that I hadn’t discovered the truth about the IUD, he was already in a rush to leave. “Baby, the company has been struggling lately, I have to get back to the office. I’ll leave Mom here to take care of you.” I nodded, watching his back disappear into the hallway. “I don’t have the time or energy to wait on a barren hen,” Martha sneered. She turned on her heel and left as well. The hospital room fell quiet again. I let out a long, heavy sigh. Three days later, I was discharged. During those three days, the number of times David and Martha visited could be counted on one hand. It was the nurses who took pity on me and helped me out. I didn’t go home. Instead, I drove straight to St. Jude’s Hospital, where Uncle Frank worked, and where I had supposedly gotten my cyst removed. After confirming that Uncle Frank had the day off, I walked over to the Medical Records department. The nurse quickly pulled up my file. I flipped through the pages, one by one. Over seven years, we had spent nearly a hundred thousand dollars on exams, experimental medications, and IVF rounds. Yet, this file only contained a few sparse pages of standard, normal physical reports. I flipped back to the very first page. The surgical record from seven years ago clearly stated it was not a cyst removal—it was a surgical sterilization via IUD insertion! My hands shook uncontrollably. The irony was suffocating. Seven years of absolute torment. Seven years of crushing guilt. And it turned out that I had been artificially, maliciously stripped of my right to be a mother. I pulled my lips into a bitter smile, but the tears spilled over my eyelashes. After a long time, I wiped my eyes and pulled out my phone, ready to take photos of the evidence. That was when I noticed that the page requiring the “Family Consent Signature” was entirely missing from the file. I didn’t alert the hospital staff. I closed the folder, politely thanked the nurse, and walked out. The second I left the building, I called my old college friend, Ethan, who now worked at the State Department of Health. I explained the situation. He agreed to help immediately and told me to give him a few minutes. Shortly after, my phone rang. “Emily, I found the missing signature page. I just emailed it to you.” “Okay. Thank you.” Ethan hesitated for a second before speaking again. “Your husband scrubbed his digital medical footprint incredibly thoroughly. I got curious, so I ran his Social Security Number through our dependent registry.” “I found something. I attached it to the email as well. You…” “You need to brace yourself, Emily. If you need anything, call me anytime.” “I will…” I walked over to a bench by the street, sat down, and opened my email. The first image was the missing consent form. The signature on the bottom line was David’s. Even though I fully expected it, the confirmation still felt like a knife to the chest. David’s patient, comforting voice from seven years ago echoed in my ears. What was going through his head at that exact moment? Did he feel even a shred of pity for me? Or was he laughing at how gullible I was? I clicked on the second attachment. It was a birth certificate. My heart seized with sharp, stabbing pains. I looked at the box labeled “Father.” It was David. I compared the signatures on the two documents. They were completely, perfectly identical. One signature was the blade that severed my right to be a mother. The other was the signature that crowned him a father. Tears poured down my face unconditionally. A volcanic hatred shattered through my heart. I sat on that bench for a very long time before finally driving home. Martha was on the sofa watching TV. The moment she saw me walk in, she ordered me to go to the kitchen and cook dinner. Because I believed I couldn’t give them a child, I had always carried a deep sense of guilt. In the past, I would have dragged myself to the stove even with a 104-degree fever. But this time, I flatly refused. Seeing that I wouldn’t obey her, Martha immediately threw herself in front of my late father-in-law’s memorial picture and started wailing. She sobbed about how I was ending the family bloodline, and how her son refused to listen to her and divorce me. For seven years, I had listened to this exact performance on repeat. Every single time, I had felt incredibly guilty, while simultaneously feeling deeply grateful that my husband hadn’t abandoned me. Now, watching her theatrical display, I suddenly wondered: Did she know she had a big, healthy grandson living out there somewhere? I must have been staring at her too intensely, because she suddenly couldn’t keep up the fake crying. She picked up her phone and called my husband instead. I ignored her, turned around, and walked into our bedroom. I searched the room meticulously, but I couldn’t find a single medical record from any of my past checkups. I had gone through IVF three times, and failed every time. Whenever I asked to look at the medical files, David always refused, claiming he was keeping them from me so I wouldn’t get depressed. Back then, I believed him and was actually moved by his protectiveness. Looking back now, it was nothing but a sick joke. I lay in bed with my eyes closed, completely drained of all energy. A little while later, David pushed the door open. He walked over to me naturally, leaning down to kiss my cheek. I turned my head to dodge it. He didn’t seem to mind. “Baby, are you feeling better? Come on, let’s go eat.” He reached out his hand to pull me up. Looking at the hand extended toward me, I had a sudden, violent urge to scream the truth in his face. But I couldn’t. I still hadn’t investigated everything completely. I couldn’t afford to tip my hand. I submissively placed my hand in his, letting him pull me out of the room. After dinner, David crouched down in front of me, his eyes brimming with absolute devotion. “Baby, you just had surgery. I really didn’t want to lay this on you, but the company just can’t hold on anymore.” “What happened?” I played along, asking the right questions. “Our competitors teamed up to cut off our supply chains. The banks are recalling our loans. The company is on the verge of bankruptcy.” Before I could even respond, Martha started screaming from the living room. “Why are the banks recalling the loans?! Because you can’t give him a child, that’s why!” “Mom, this has nothing to do with Emily.” He turned his gaze back to me. “The banks ran a risk assessment. Because I don’t have a legal heir, they view the company as high-risk. The second there was a hiccup, they recalled the loans. Baby, this company is our life’s work. I don’t want us to go bankrupt.” Right. This company was entirely bankrolled by my father to give David a startup. When he incorporated the company, he immediately transferred 80% of the shares to my name, which was why I had never, ever doubted him all these years. “If you don’t have an heir, then just adopt one! A living person isn’t going to let themselves suffocate just because they can’t find a bathroom!” Martha’s booming voice echoed through the house again. “She’s right, baby. Can we adopt a child from the foster system for now? If we have a kid on paper, the banks will resume our credit lines.” His eyes were filled with pleading and choreographed pain, but I didn’t believe a single word anymore. “I’m tired,” I said, lowering my eyes. “Okay. You rest first, baby. We can talk about this later. I’ll try to think of another way.” 2 For the next few days, David stayed home, drinking whiskey and acting like a man drowning his sorrows, while I secretly investigated the company’s financial status. One day, David didn’t drink. He left the house early in the morning. I received a message from the private investigator I had hired. It contained irrefutable evidence that David was actively tunneling assets out of the company. I held onto the evidence, waiting for him to come home so I could put the divorce papers on the table. That afternoon, David returned. “Baby! I figured out a way to solve the company crisis!” His excited voice interrupted the divorce demand I was about to drop. “I have a distant cousin who recently died in a car crash. He left behind a widow and a young son. The widow can’t afford to raise him, and she’s willing to let us legally adopt him.” “Oh, thank the Lord! Little Noah is related to our family by blood anyway, so this perfectly continues the family name!” Martha was practically cheering from the sidelines. Noah? That name triggered my memory. “What’s the widow’s name?” “Jessica.” I pulled the corners of my mouth into a cold smile. Jessica. That was the mother’s name listed on the secret birth certificate. “What do you think, baby? We adopt the boy, host a massive Welcome Home banquet, and solve the company’s financial crisis first.” “If we manage to have our own biological child later, the company will still go to our flesh and blood.” “Sure.” I nodded. A Welcome Home banquet was a fantastic idea. The more people, the better. I gripped the evidence folder in my hands tightly. The day before the banquet, David brought the “widow” and her child to the house. The moment Jessica walked through the door, she yanked the little boy to his knees. “Hurry up, get on your knees and thank your Auntie! Thanks to her taking you in, she is going to be your new mommy.” “I won’t kneel! I don’t want a new mommy!” Noah screamed and thrashed, lunging forward to hit me. He clawed at my arms, leaving deep red scratches. David was busy helping Jessica up from the floor. “Emily, Jessica is graciously giving you her son. Even if you aren’t grateful, you shouldn’t make her kneel.” Jessica leaned weakly against David’s chest. “It’s fine, David. As long as you both treat Noah well, that’s all that matters.” Unable to dodge in time, I was shoved hard to the floor by Noah. With a sharp crack, the jade bracelet on my wrist shattered against the tile. It was the heirloom my late mother had left me. With bloodshot eyes, I reached out and slapped the brat across the face. David instantly pulled Noah behind his back. “Emily! Are you insane?! Why are you fighting with a child?!” “He broke the bracelet my mother left me!” A brief flash of guilt crossed his eyes, but it vanished instantly. “If it’s broken, it’s broken! I’ll buy you the exact same one in a few days!” David brushed me off, fussing over Noah’s red cheek. But he had conveniently forgotten that when he proposed to me, he had held that exact jade bracelet and sworn to my mother’s memory that he would protect me for the rest of my life! At dinner, Noah hoarded all the best food onto his own plate and openly spit into my food. David and Martha turned a blind eye to it. The four of them sat there laughing and joking like a perfect, happy family, making me look like the hired help. After dinner, David brought a legal document to me. “Baby, to get Noah enrolled in the local school district, I need to use your downtown condo as proof of residency.” “Just sign here, so we can get his paperwork finalized.” I took the document and tried to flip to the previous pages to read the fine print. David clamped his hand down over mine. “Baby, do you still not trust me? Just sign the signature line.” The old me would have never questioned anything he did, but now… “Are you absolutely certain this document is only to prove residency for his school?” Standing directly in the field of view of the hidden nanny cam I had installed, I asked the question loudly and clearly. “Relax, baby. When have I ever lied to you?” Watching his greedy, triumphant expression, I lowered my head and signed, immediately saving that specific clip of footage to the secure cloud. That afternoon, when I logged back into the camera feed, that entire segment of footage had been permanently deleted. That night, Noah threw a tantrum, demanding to sleep in the master bedroom with David. David looked at me, pretending to be conflicted. “Baby, Noah is still little. Can you sleep on the couch tonight? Just for one night.” I didn’t even wait for him to finish before turning and walking away. That bed disgusted me anyway. In the middle of the night, I got up to use the bathroom. As I passed the guest bedroom, I heard David and Jessica moaning inside. “Husband, when can we finally be together openly?” “Soon. I’ve tunneled almost all the company’s assets out. Once the adoption is finalized and I get the deed to the condo, I can divorce her.” David laughed darkly. “My mom can’t wait either. She’s been dying to hold her real grandson in public.” I clenched my fists in the dark. Since this was how they wanted to play it, they couldn’t blame me for being ruthless. 3 We arrived at the banquet hall, getting out of the car and walking toward the entrance. Noah violently shoved me aside and grabbed David’s hand. “I want to walk in with my mommy and daddy!” He flashed me a provocative, mocking grin. David just patted his head indulgently. “Baby, he’s just a kid who doesn’t know any better. Don’t take it personally. We’re going to head inside first.” I stood under the blistering sun, watching the backs of their “happy family of three.” It was the ultimate, sickening irony. I walked into the grand hall. Distant acquaintances who didn’t know the truth came up to offer their congratulations. “Mr. Miller, this must be your wife and son! What a beautiful family, and the boy looks so sharp.” Jessica smiled gracefully and thanked them, while David just smiled and said nothing. Martha was standing to the side, grinning from ear to ear, displaying a grandmotherly warmth I had never seen her direct at me. But the moment she caught sight of me, her smile vanished. “Why are you just standing there like a statue? You’re in the way. If you aren’t doing anything, go grab some trays and help the servers.” I didn’t move. “Go! You can’t even give us a child, all you do is cause trouble. If you won’t help, get out.” I gripped the evidence in my hand tightly, repeating a mantra in my head: Just endure it a little longer. Not everyone is here yet. A show needs a full audience to be entertaining. I silently picked up a tray of appetizers. As I walked past Jessica, she subtly stuck her foot out and tripped me. The scalding hot food spilled directly onto me. But Jessica was the one who let out a blood-curdling shriek, clutching her wrist where a few drops of broth had landed. “David, it hurts so much!” David rushed over instantly, blowing on Jessica’s arm with exaggerated heartbreak. “Emily, why are you always so careless?!” “Come on, let’s go run this under cold water.” He shot me a look of pure disgust, frowning deeply. “Go change your clothes immediately. The banquet is about to start. Try not to be so clumsy next time.” I ignored the dozens of judgmental stares from the crowd. I endured the burning pain on my skin and walked toward the restroom. Just wait. Just wait a little longer. You two are going straight to hell. By the time I changed into my backup dress and returned to the hall, the banquet was officially underway. David was standing on the stage, delivering his speech. “I want to thank you all so much for coming to this Welcome Home banquet. As many of you know, due to my wife’s… medical complications… we have been unable to have children since we got married.” The crowd cast sympathetic looks in my direction. I kept my head down and said nothing. “The arrival of little Noah is a gift from God. He will be our future, and my successor.” “Everything I own will one day belong to him.” Thunderous applause erupted from the audience. Someone handed David a massive bouquet of red roses. David took them, dropped to one knee, and presented them to Jessica. “Thank you so much for bringing this child into the world. You are welcome to visit him anytime, and he will always know who you are.” Jessica blushed deeply, accepting the roses with a demure smile. The applause grew even louder. Watching their interaction on stage, I felt a bizarre wave of disorientation. It didn’t feel like an adoption banquet; it felt like I was attending their wedding reception. Jessica shot a subtle look to the MC, who immediately turned his attention to me. “Ms. Emily, how does it feel to suddenly be gifted a wonderful, grown son?” David followed the MC’s gaze, looking at me with feigned impatience. “The lucky hour is almost here. Come on up to the stage.” I took slow, deliberate steps toward the stage. David leaned in and muttered instructions under his breath. “Jessica is gifting you a child. You need to show some profound gratitude.” “Now that we have a son, you need to put him first. You can’t act as selfishly as you used to.” “You don’t have any experience raising kids. Make sure you ask Jessica for advice…” Hearing that, I let out a cold laugh. I stepped up, violently snatched the microphone right out of his hand, and looked out at the sea of faces. “Ask for advice?” I enunciated every single word. “I don’t think that will be necessary. I will be having my own children.” “But I’m sure everyone in this room would be incredibly interested to know the real reason why I haven’t been able to get pregnant for the past seven years!!”

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