On the night of our engagement party, my fiancée was kissing her childhood best friend passionately under the sycamore tree we had planted with our own hands. I looked down at my paralyzed legs in the wheelchair. Slowly, I slipped the ring off my finger and silently wished them a lifetime of happiness. Yet, she thought I was just throwing a tantrum. “I only got delayed for a few hours because I had to pick up Julian. What is your problem, Ethan?” “Who was the one who begged on his knees for this engagement? It’s already a miracle that I even showed up. What more do you want, Ethan Vance?” Julian stood behind her, pretending to apologize. “Ethan, this is my fault. Don’t blame Vivian. My car—” Before he could finish, Vivian interrupted him. “There’s nothing to explain. He’ll be crying and begging for my forgiveness in a few days anyway.” But Vivian was wrong. This time, I was never looking back. 0 I watched the clock tick away in the empty banquet hall. Finally, I pressed the button on my electric wheelchair, preparing to leave. Just as I turned around, the heavy doors burst open. Vivian strutted in, looking stunning in a vibrant red mermaid dress. “Where is everyone? They all left? Already?” She glanced around the empty room. Finally, her eyes landed on my legs, and her brows furrowed in distaste. “Did you really sit here looking like this the entire night?” I pulled a blanket from the back of my wheelchair and covered my legs. I did it to hide my disability, and to shield myself from the disgust in her eyes. “I called off the party,” I said quietly. My heart ached so much I could barely breathe. Once, when Vivian and I were deeply in love, she would roll up my jeans and kiss my scarred knees over and over again. Now, even looking at me felt like a waste of her time. “Why would you cancel it? I was only a few hours late. It’s not like I didn’t show up.” Vivian sounded completely justified. Clearly, she didn’t take my words seriously. “Besides, I was picking up Julian. How could he not be here for such an important moment?” Julian was her childhood friend. They grew up next door to each other. Later, Julian went abroad, and they lost touch for years. Until two years ago, when Julian made a high-profile return to Boston with his artificial heart technology. Vivian, who was also dedicated to medical research, saw this. And just like that, they reconnected. Julian did the research, Vivian poured in the money. They became inseparable. She was even willing to leave me waiting for hours at our own engagement party just for him. I could understand her being busy with work. But they spent every evening and weekend together. No man in his right mind would be okay with that. “Since he is so important, why do you even need me at this engagement party?” Vivian lost her patience. She waved her hand dismissively, her face twisting with irritation. “What is that supposed to mean? Are you blaming me?” She swung her designer bag and threw it right at my face. I didn’t even try to dodge it. It didn’t actually hurt. But compared to my shattered heart, I found it pathetic that I almost wanted to thank her for not hitting harder. I said nothing. I picked up her bag, gently dusted it off, and placed it on the floor. Then, I pressed the controller of my wheelchair to leave. “Vivian, you should explain things to Ethan…” Julian, who had been standing silently in the background, finally spoke up as I turned away. “There’s nothing to explain! Look at him, acting like a dramatic teenager at his age!” Vivian snapped. “Just let him go. He has no car, no house, no savings, and no job. I support his entire life. How could he even survive without me?” “Even this engagement party was something he begged me for.” I let out a bitter laugh. Yes, I had begged for the engagement. I had begged for her commitment. Vivian truly believed I had no financial resources and relied entirely on her. That was why she felt so free to hurt me, confident that I would never leave her side. My fingertips dug into the armrest of my wheelchair. For the first time, Vivian felt like a complete stranger to me. Seeing that I wasn’t stopping, Vivian yelled at my back, “Ethan Vance! I work my ass off out there every single day to support this family. I don’t come home just to deal with your attitude!” “It’s bad enough that you do nothing at home, but can’t you at least show some empathy?” “I was exhausted, but I still made time to come here. And you? You just throw a fit and walk away. What is wrong with you?” In the past, if Vivian got this angry, I would have rushed to comfort her. I used to be so terrified of her ignoring me. But now, all I felt was a cold, dead numbness. I had loved Vivian for ten years. From her awkward teenage years to her current status as a successful businesswoman, I loved every single piece of her. But now, I was just too tired to love her anymore. 0

“The engagement party is cancelled. Let’s cancel the wedding too.” I didn’t turn back. I just pressed the button and rode away. As soon as I rolled out of the hotel lobby, I heard Vivian screaming inside. “Who does Ethan think he is? A cripple dares to dump me?” “I’d love to see who else would want a pathetic invalid like him!” Those words threw whatever warmth was left in my heart straight into an icy abyss. Ten years! Ten whole years! In her eyes, I was nothing but a pathetic invalid, a cripple kept alive by expensive medication! My hands clenched over my knees. The pain in my chest was suffocating. It wasn’t always like this between us. Vivian and I met in high school. The first thing she ever said to me was, “Ethan Vance, the legendary straight-A student. Nice to meet you.” Back then, Vivian wore her hair in a high ponytail. The summer sun was blinding, but her bright smile was even brighter. I was hooked instantly. Later, she always came to me for physics help. Then, the school rearranged the classes. We ended up in the same class, sitting next to each other. We grew closer and closer. Years later, I found out that she had her wealthy family pull strings with the school board just so she could be my desk mate, claiming it was easier to ask me for homework help. That was when I realized she was the heiress to the massive Sterling Medical Group. And I, a boy from a poor rural family, wouldn’t have even been fit to stand next to her if not for my top grades. To stay by her side, I applied to the same medical school at Boston University. Fortunately, we ended up in the same class again. Just like in high school, we spent every day together. Naturally, we fell in love. After graduation, we interned at the city’s top hospital together. Her family wanted her to take over the family business. But Vivian wanted to be a medical pioneer, to prove herself in the operating room and escape her family’s control. Until the accident three years ago. We had a patient with severe lung fibrosis. The only way to save him was a lung transplant. Before the surgery, Vivian and several nurses explained the high risks to the family, and they signed the consent forms. But the patient died on the table. That night, Vivian cried in my arms for hours. It was her first time assisting in a major surgery, and she had to witness the cruelty of death firsthand. I did my best to comfort her. But what we didn’t expect was that the patient’s family refused to accept the outcome. That night, a grieving, deranged relative smuggled a weapon into the hospital. He burst into Vivian’s department, slashing wildly in a state of absolute madness. To protect Vivian, I threw myself in front of her. My legs were severely injured in the attack. Before I could even register the pain, I blacked out. Vivian emerged from the incident completely unscathed. But I lost the use of my legs. I could never stand at an operating table again. When I woke up, Vivian was crying at my bedside. Her eyes were swollen. “Ethan, you’re finally awake. I was so scared.” “The chief doctor said if you do rehab, you might walk again.” “Don’t worry. I will stay with you. I will take care of you for the rest of my life.” Because she promised “the rest of my life,” I believed her. But that incident terrified the Sterling family. They feared another accident. Using my medical bills and rehabilitation resources as leverage, they forced Vivian to leave the hospital and take over the family company. If she said no, they would cut off all my medical care. Vivian had no choice but to agree. She turned out to be a brilliant businesswoman. Within three years, she built a top-tier medical empire in the city. Meanwhile, I stepped into the shadows. I took care of her daily life, her meals, and her home. I did this for three years. My family was poor, and now I was disabled. The Sterling family despised me. They felt I was an embarrassment to Vivian. For years, they forced Vivian to hide me from the public. They even made her declare to the media that she was single. I never cared about any of that. All I wanted was Vivian’s heart. I thought my loyalty was enough. Until Julian returned. He brought a sense of danger I had never felt before. At first, I didn’t mind when Vivian invested in his technology. But then they started spending all their time together. She would abandon me for Julian without a second thought. Sometimes, we wouldn’t see each other for a whole month. So, a few days ago, I brought up the fact that I had saved her life. I used it to make a deal with her. I asked her to marry me. I hoped that marriage would make her settle down. But when I saw her skip our engagement party for Julian, and when I saw the photo of them kissing under the sycamore tree… I realized how wrong I was. Marriage isn’t a cage. It can never hold someone who doesn’t love you. 0

The next day, I visited my former colleague, Dr. Marcus Reed, at his office. For three years, my physical therapy had shown little progress. After researching alternative medicine, I wanted to try specialized acupuncture. I came today to get his professional opinion. To my surprise, Marcus highly supported the idea. He mentioned there was an international medical seminar next month, and he would help me find a top acupuncture specialist. I thanked him and left the hospital. Passing by a mall, I saw Vivian and Julian on the giant outdoor screen. They were being interviewed. The headline read: *Major Breakthrough in Artificial Heart Tech on Animal Trials! Human Trials on the Horizon!* The medical world was buzzing. After the professional questions, the reporter asked a gossipy question about Vivian’s private life. “Rumor has it that you and Mr. Drake are very close, working day and night together. Now that the technology has made a breakthrough, has your personal relationship made a breakthrough too?” Vivian didn’t answer. She looked down, avoiding the camera. But even through the screen, I could see her cheeks flushing with a soft pink glow. She used to look at me like that when we first started dating. I hadn’t seen that look since my legs were ruined. “We are not answering personal questions today, thank you,” Julian answered smoothly, but his hand naturally slid around Vivian’s waist. Vivian was wearing a stunning black dress with a cut-out waist. The design accentuated her slender figure. Julian’s hand rested comfortably on her bare skin. It hurt to watch. I turned my head away. Perhaps Julian was the son-in-law the Sterling family had always dreamed of. They grew up together, and he was highly successful. If this research succeeded, his future in the medical industry would be limitless. I decided to go home and pack a few clothes to move out. But when I opened the front door, I saw Julian and Vivian chatting warmly in the living room. “See? I told you he’d come back,” Vivian said to Julian. My heart wrenched. Even though I had told myself a thousand times to let go, this was still the woman I had loved for ten years. How could I become completely indifferent overnight? “I’m only here to pack some clothes.” “Ethan, are you still throwing a tantrum?” Vivian sighed, exasperated. “Do we really have to play this childish game of ‘choose between us’?” “Do you have any idea how important Julian’s research is? If it succeeds, it could open up the entire European market for Sterling Medical. Do you even understand that?” “I don’t care.” Those three words seemed to make Vivian explode. The look in her eyes shifted from anger to disbelief, and finally to condescending pity. “Right. You’re just a househusband who only knows how to cook. Why would you understand business? I’m talking to a brick wall here.” “Since you’re back, get ready. You’re coming to Julian’s celebration gala with me tonight.” “Why would I go?” She knew how many times we had fought over Julian. And now she wanted me to attend a party thrown entirely in his honor? “My parents are hosting it. They are already furious that you unilaterally called off the engagement party. You embarrassed them.” “This is your chance to apologize to them and make a good impression.” I stared at Vivian, wondering what was going on in her head. I would never win her parents’ favor at Julian’s victory party. My presence would only make me look pathetic and small next to him. “I’m not going, Vivian. I made myself clear yesterday. The wedding is off.” “From now on, I don’t care what your parents think of me.” 0

I saw Vivian’s pupils contract. She froze. In the past, I had walked on eggshells just to please her parents. She probably never expected me to talk back like this. “If Ethan doesn’t want to go, let’s not force him,” Julian said softly from the side. “He has been shut out from society for years because of his condition. It might be uncomfortable for him to attend such a large event.” He put a nasty emphasis on “his condition.” Vivian stayed silent for a few seconds, then nodded. “It’s your celebration, Julian. You call the shots.” Then she turned back to me, her voice cold. “Let me tell you something, Ethan. Even if we break up, I will be the one to announce it, not you.” “As long as I haven’t called it off, you are still my fiancé!” “You guys,” she ordered the bodyguards at the door, “keep an eye on him. He is not allowed to leave this house.” Vivian was incredibly proud. Being dumped by a disabled man was a massive blow to her ego. But I didn’t expect her to put me under house arrest. I thought about it and decided to go to the gala after all. Julian’s words actually reminded me of something. Since the Sterlings cared so much about their reputation, seeing me “unfit for society” at the gala would make them force Vivian to break up with me even faster. I didn’t care who officially called it off, as long as we broke up. It was better than being locked up at home. When I arrived at the hotel ballroom, the sheer scale of the event shocked me. It was far more luxurious than our planned engagement party. The buzzing room fell silent for a few seconds when I rolled in. Especially Vivian’s parents. Their faces turned incredibly grim. A security guard immediately rolled me to a dark corner and held onto my wheelchair, preventing me from moving. I spent the entire night watching Vivian and Julian laugh and socialize. When the gala finally ended, the guards wheeled me to Vivian’s parents in a private lounge. The moment I stopped, a sharp slap stung my face. Mr. Sterling glared at me, his face twisted in rage. “A useless cripple like you dared to cancel the engagement publicly? You made a laughingstock of the Sterling family!” “If word gets out that Vivian was dumped by a cripple, what respectable bachelor would ever marry her?” “Do you forget how you got this engagement in the first place? If not for that accident three years ago, you wouldn’t even be worthy of wiping our shoes!” I looked at Vivian. She stood there quietly, watching me get insulted without saying a word. At that moment, my heart completely died. For Vivian, I had tolerated her family’s abuse for years. But not anymore. “And whose fault is it that I became a cripple?” I snapped back, my voice echoing in the room. “You call me a cripple over and over again. But if this ‘cripple’ hadn’t blocked that weapon three years ago, your precious daughter would be six feet under by now!” I slammed the joystick of my electric wheelchair forward, driving straight at them. “Today, I’ll show you that even a cripple can make you crawl on your knees to apologize!”

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My grandfather was terminally ill. His only wish was to see me play our family’s legendary piece, *The Tempest*, on our heritage cello at Lincoln Center. But on the night of the performance, I was blocked outside the theater. Only then did I find out that my girlfriend, Chloe, had secretly cancelled my solo. She did it just to give her crush Chase’s boy band the spotlight. I waited outside the theater until the curtain fell, only to see her walking out with her arm around Chase, talking about going out for drinks to celebrate. Grandpa passed away from the shock. But Chloe just accused me of making a big deal out of nothing. “No one wants to watch that boring, dusty classical stuff anyway. I did it for the show’s ratings.” “Chase is the leader of a top boy band with an unlimited future. How does your broken cello even compare to his singing and dancing?” My mother kicked me out of Grandpa’s funeral. She said I was the murderer who killed him. She screamed at me, saying I didn’t deserve to inherit the Vance family’s cello-making legacy. Facing the accusations of my relatives, I was speechless. I had personally promised Grandpa that I would bring *The Tempest* back to the grand stage and win the trophy at the National Showcase. But I failed. I knelt outside the memorial hall, bowed deeply three times, and walked home like a ghost. I sat on the sofa in the dark until midnight. Chloe walked in smelling of alcohol. She flicked on the light and gasped, “Why are you sitting there in the dark without making a sound? You scared the hell out of me!” I didn’t say a word. I just stared at the red mark on her neck. An unspeakable disgust rose in my chest. She acted completely normal, walking over and throwing her legs across my lap, signaling for me to massage her. “Sorry, my phone was on silent. I missed your calls.” Smelling the faint scent of men’s cologne on her, I felt sick. I coldly pushed her legs off me and stood up to leave. Chloe grabbed my arm, frowning with impatience. “What’s with the attitude?” “So what if I swapped your performance? I told you there was a reason, and I already apologized. What more do you want?” I remained silent. I thought back to this morning when the security guards blocked me outside Lincoln Center. She had texted me saying the schedule changed last minute and told me not to worry. She even promised she would find a way to get me on stage. Yet, I waited until the lights went out, and I couldn’t even take a single step into the venue. A sharp pain pierced my chest, making it hard to breathe. “A reason? Your reason was staying out drinking with Chase until now?” Her face stiffened, and she guiltily looked away. “Stop being so unreasonable. Who listens to classical cello these days? As the producer, I had to think about the ratings.” “If you really want to play that bad, go set up a stage in some local park. You can play there all day.” I let out a bitter laugh. I wanted to play? She knew exactly how many years of blood and sweat I had poured into this instrument. To me, it was never just a gig. It was our family’s legacy. It was the survival of a dying craft. Yet, she destroyed my dream with her own hands. I didn’t want to waste any more breath. “We’re done. Let’s break up.” She stared at me, her eyes wide, screaming, “You’re breaking up with me over this petty little thing?!” I didn’t want to look at her for another second. I grabbed my jacket and slammed the door behind me. Back then, Chloe only got her job as a producer at Lincoln Center because Grandpa used his connections to help her. Grandpa loved her like his own granddaughter. He had even prepared our family’s Victorian emerald-and-diamond set—something even I rarely got to see—as an engagement gift for her. In the end, we had only raised a parasitic snake. I walked aimlessly down the rainy street. Suddenly, I saw the giant screen on the opposite mall broadcasting Chase’s post-show interview. He was wearing a flashy black sequin outfit, with the prestigious stage of Lincoln Center—the stage I had dreamed of—right behind him. When asked about the act he had replaced, he just smirked, his tone arrogant and dismissive. “What was it called? *The Tempest*? Please, what era are we in? That kind of ancient junk is long outdated. It has no right to be on a stage like Lincoln Center.” “I want to give a special shoutout to our producer, Chloe Bennett. If she hadn’t cut that act in time, we wouldn’t have been able to perform and take first place…” I couldn’t listen to the rest of the interview. My umbrella slipped from my hand, falling onto the wet pavement. A wave of bitterness flooded my throat. So, this was the “reason” she talked about? I let out a soft sneer. Suddenly, the weight in my heart lifted. A heart that cold was never worth warming in the first place.

When the rain slowed down, I took a cab back to Lincoln Center. The heritage cello I used for rehearsals was still backstage. I had to get it back. That cello was the last remaining masterpiece hand-crafted by my great-grandfather. It was a priceless historical relic. Originally, it was scheduled to be officially donated to the Metropolitan Museum of Art after the performance. I was worried that the stage crew might damage it if they moved it carelessly. But when I rushed into the backstage dressing room, I froze. Chloe and Chase were there, celebrating. They were dancing closely, their bodies pressed together in an intimate hold. “Ethan can’t even compare to you, Chase. He spends all day hugging that piece of old wood. Did he really think he was worthy of performing here? In his dreams!” Chloe’s words drew loud laughter from the crew. My fists clenched. She really had no soul. Thinking of Grandpa’s hopeful eyes on his deathbed, and my mother’s hair that had gone white overnight, I couldn’t hold back anymore. I burst into the room. But when I looked at the table, horror struck me. My heritage cello was buried under a pile of random trash, and a half-open can of Coke was knocked over next to it. The dark, sticky liquid was dripping right onto the rare wood panel of the instrument. My heart stopped. I violently shoved Chase aside and roared, “Get the hell away!” A heritage cello made of rare aged wood is extremely vulnerable to moisture. If the acidic soda soaked into the wood, the instrument would be ruined. I dropped to my knees, frantically brushing the trash away, using my sleeves to carefully wipe the liquid off the strings and the body. Before I could inspect the damage further, Chloe shoved me hard from behind. “Are you insane?!” she screamed. “How dare you lay a hand on him? Do you know how many millions of fans Chase has? If he gets hurt, they’ll tear you to pieces!” Looking at her, I felt a deep, chilling amusement. Amused by her sheer ignorance, and amused by my own stupidity for wasting three years of my life on her. I slowly stood up and looked her dead in the eyes. “This cello is a registered national treasure. It was supposed to be moved to the Met next week. If it is damaged because of you, the price you pay will be more than you can ever afford!” The room fell dead silent for a second. Then, a loud scoff broke the silence. Chase crossed his arms, walking toward me with pure disdain. “You really love making up stories, don’t you? Since when does the Met accept random garbage? If it’s really that valuable, would you just leave it lying around here?” “Chase is right,” Chloe chimed in, sneering. “You’re just jealous that Chase won first place, so you’re here to make a scene!” Chloe and Chase mocked me back and forth, and the rest of the dance crew joined in, laughing loudly. I ignored them. I picked up the cello, wanting nothing more than to leave this place. I had already failed Grandpa once. This time, I had to protect the last thing he left behind, no matter what. Seeing me walk away, Chloe felt her pride wounded. She screamed behind me, trying to humiliate me further. “Keep pretending, Ethan! I regret not dumping a loser like you sooner. A useless piece of trash like you deserves to spend the rest of your life hugging that rotten wood!” Her words hit my ears, but they couldn’t stir a single wave in my heart anymore. I merely smiled. In a way, I was relieved. At least I finally saw her for what she was. Suddenly, Chase stepped in front of me and kicked me hard in the chest. The cello slipped from my arms and hit the hard floor with a dull, heavy thud. “No!” When I saw the corner of the rare wood crack against the concrete, my heart shattered into pieces.

Three years ago, this cello had been sent for a minor restoration. The old master luthier had praised its pristine condition, warning me repeatedly that the wood was of a legendary grade and the acoustic quality was irreplaceable. It had to be preserved at all costs. Because the materials were extinct, any major damage would make it impossible to restore. I stood there as if struck by lightning, my legs trembling so hard I couldn’t move. But Chase wasn’t done. He laughed, kicking the cello case. “Let me help you trash this garbage.” The rage in my chest exploded. I lunged forward, grabbing his collar, and growled, “Back off! If there is one more scratch on my cello, I swear to God you won’t walk out of this room alive!” Because of the sheer fury, my voice shook. But to them, it sounded like a hollow threat. Chase’s expression darkened, and he threw a heavy punch straight at my face. The blow landed hard on my jaw. The taste of blood filled my mouth instantly. I stumbled back several steps, nearly falling over. Seeing me down, he wanted to teach me a lesson. He raised his fist again, lunging at me. I wasn’t a punching bag. I wiped the blood from my mouth, spat on the floor, and tackled him. From the cancelled show to the ruined cello, all the pain and anger in my chest burst out. My eyes went red as I fought him with everything I had. The rest of the crew was stunned for a second before they all rushed in to pull me off. I was outnumbered. Within seconds, three guys pinned my arms behind my back. Chase stepped forward, putting his boot heavily on my face, pressing me into the floor. Chloe stood on the side, clapping her hands in delight. “So hot, Chase! You’re a real man!” Fully fueled by her praise, Chase smirked arrogantly. He gripped my jaw tight, forcing me to look up. “Get on your knees, kiss my shoes, and beg for mercy. Maybe then I’ll let you go. What do you say?” I clenched my teeth, mustered all my strength, and spat blood directly onto his face. “Trash.” Chase’s face went completely cold. He wiped his face, and the surrounding crew members began egging him on, shouting for him to break me. The next second, I saw him walking toward the cello lying on the floor. Panic seized me. I thrashed wildly, trying to break free from the hold. “Chase! If you have a problem, bring it to me!” But it was too late. Chase stomped his heavy boot right onto the center of the cello’s body. Then, he bent down and violently ripped the strings off one by one. My eyes widened. I felt a nerve in my brain snap right along with those strings. No! Tears instantly flooded my eyes. A surge of adrenaline rushed through my body, and the three guys holding me could barely keep me down. “Damn, this kid is strong!” In the struggle, a sharp, dislocating pain shot through my left shoulder. My arm was out of its socket. But I couldn’t care less. I screamed at Chase with bloodshot eyes. “Stop! You animal! Stop!” But my agony only made them more excited. Chloe picked up another can of Coke and shook it violently. Then, she popped the tab right in front of my face. The spraying soda forced me to close my eyes. The sweet, sticky liquid rushed into my mouth, tasting incredibly bitter. Not satisfied with just humiliating me, Chloe turned around and poured the remaining soda all over the exposed wood of the cello. Finally, she crushed the empty can and threw it at my head. She jumped up and down, dancing to the background music as if she had just won a lottery. “Oh look, Ethan is crying! What a baby! A grown man crying over a toy, so pathetic!” My voice was completely gone. I could do nothing but watch them desecrate my family’s legacy. As the heir of the Vance family, I couldn’t even protect my own instrument. What right did I have to talk about legacy? Chase had his fun. He walked back over to me, pulled two crumpled hundred-dollar bills from his pocket, and slapped them onto my bloody face. “Here. For your little toy.”

Chloe put on her jacket, walked over, and wrapped her arm around Chase’s. She whined in a sweet, spoiled voice. “Chase, you’re way too generous. Two hundred dollars for a piece of moldy wood? He’s making a massive profit!” To show off, Chloe raised her heel and stomped directly onto the center of the cracked cello. *CRACK.* A loud, agonizing sound echoed through the room. The already fragile instrument snapped clean in half. My mind went completely blank. Chloe, however, shrugged as if nothing happened. “What cheap wood. I barely touched it and it broke.” “Oh ouch! A splinter scratched my ankle. Look, Chase, it’s bleeding!” My ears were ringing. I couldn’t hear her high-pitched whining. I balled the two bills into a tight fist and threw them hard at Chase’s face. Before they could react, I lunged forward with all my strength and shoved Chloe’s shoulder. She couldn’t withstand the force. Her slender body flew backward, crashing hard into the vanity mirror. Makeup bottles and glass shattered everywhere. None of them expected me to fight back. After a brief pause of shock, the crew members threw themselves at me again. They pinned me down, raining punches and kicks onto my body. But the physical pain was nothing compared to the agony in my heart. I curled into a ball, shielding my head. Tears streamed down my face. Chase wasn’t satisfied. He picked up one of the broken halves of the cello, raising it high above his head, ready to smash it down onto me. Right then, Chloe suddenly called out. She looked at her phone, her face lighting up with excitement. “The security guard says the directors from the National Opera House are here! They’re looking for the headliner!” Her eyes shined as she grabbed Chase’s arm. “Chase! They must be looking for you!” “They were supposed to present the award tonight but had to leave early. They must have seen the recording of your performance and came back to congratulate you!” “Go show them what you’ve got. If you get drafted into the National Symphony, you’ll be set for life!” Hearing this, Chase’s eyes widened in shock, which quickly turned into smug anticipation. He immediately walked over to the mirror to fix his hair. I wanted to laugh. Congratulate him? If Chloe hadn’t bribed the judges, did Chase really think his mediocre, clown-like dancing was enough to get him into the National Symphony? I glanced at the blinking red light of the security camera on the ceiling. The dead embers in my heart sparked again. The security footage, the physical evidence, the witnesses. Everyone in this room today would pay in blood. At that moment, the door to the dressing room was pushed open. A crowd of media reporters carrying cameras flooded in. Chloe reacted instantly, screaming at the top of her lungs, directing all the cameras toward me. “Look at this! A random psycho just broke in and assaulted our star! Is there no law in this city?!” She lived up to her reputation, exaggerating every detail, telling the press how I was jealous of Chase’s success and how I brutally attacked him. She painted me as a violent monster. No matter how I tried to explain, my voice was drowned out by the flashing cameras and pointing fingers. I saw the broken pieces of my cello lying on the floor, being kicked around by the careless reporters. The pain was unbearable. I dragged my bruised body over and fell to my knees in front of the wreckage. My hands shook as I gathered the splintered pieces. Hot tears dripped onto the ruined wood. The legendary, extinct wood was now reduced to splinters, soaked in sticky soda, its original luster completely gone. Chloe got more excited as she spoke, walking over to kick some dust toward me. “You shameless criminal! Chase is a rising star. If his career is affected by his injuries, you’ll rot in prison!” She pulled out her phone to call the cops, shouting at me. “We have cameras here, and plenty of witnesses! I will make sure you pay for this!” Just then, two figures walked into the room. An elderly man wearing a sharp, bespoke tweed suit scanned the chaotic room. When his eyes landed on the broken cello in my arms, his face went pale with shock. “What is going on here? Who did this?!”

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My biological family brought me back to their multi-million dollar mansion, only to assign me the broom closet. But what they didn’t know? My adoptive parents are Boston Brahmins, old money going back four generations. So I turned around and bought the estate right next door to theirs. I’m Evelyn Winthrop. Born in Boston, raised on Beacon Hill. Old money, only daughter, and the kind of girl who was taught before she could walk that ladies don’t raise their voices, we raise our lawyers. So when the Vance family shows up claiming I’m their long-lost daughter, swapped at birth twenty years ago, I don’t cry. I pack a Goyard duffel, kiss my adoptive parents on the cheek, and tell them I’m just going to “audit the situation.” Day one. The Vance estate in Alpine, New Jersey. Marble floors, gold Roman columns, a fountain in the driveway that looks like Versailles threw up. And my “room”? A converted broom closet with a twin mattress on the floor. Chloe Vance, the girl who lived my life for twenty years, stands in the doorway dabbing at fake tears. White sundress. Doe eyes. The whole performance. “Sister, if you really hate it, I can move up to the attic. I don’t mind, really.” I press a silk handkerchief to my nose because the dust is genuinely offensive, and turn to the housekeeper. “Mrs. Whitfield, what’s this property valued at?” She blinks. “Approximately… twenty million, miss.” “Lovely.” I pull out my phone and text my dad. Daddy, the accommodations here are rough. Can you buy the house next door for me? Thanks, love you. Thirty minutes. That’s all it takes. The doorbell rings, and in walks the neighbor, two attorneys, and a real estate agent with closing documents already drafted. Eleanor Vance, my so-called biological mother, goes pale. “Evelyn, what is this? You just got home and you’re already trying to live separately?” “Live with you people and rot from the inside out? No thanks.” Julian, my new “older brother,” slams his palm on the console table. “Do you have any sense of family at all?” I drop the guest key card on the marble. “Sure I do. But I’m allergic to favoritism. Toxic households require an appointment.” Chloe’s lower lip wobbles right on cue. “Sister, please. I knew you’d hate me. You think I’m a gold digger, don’t you?” I tilt my head and smile. “Sweetie. Where I come from, girls are taught three things. Love yourself. Love your money. And don’t waste either on people who don’t deserve it.” Charles Vance, the patriarch, finds his voice. “Evelyn, this is hysterical behavior. What will people say?” “They’ll say your real daughter has standards.” I sign the closing papers with a Montblanc, hand them back to the agent, and slip my Amex Black card into my wallet. “And that the Vance family put her in a closet.” Eleanor’s eyes shine with tears. Julian looks like he wants to throw something. Chloe is openly sobbing into her hands now, the performance reaching its third act. I walk toward the door, heels clicking on imported marble. “Oh, and Mrs. Whitfield?” I pause. “Have my things sent next door. The good linens. I’ll be sleeping somewhere that doesn’t smell like mothballs and resentment.” I don’t look back. Because here’s the thing nobody warned the Vances about: I wasn’t raised to beg for a seat at anyone’s table. I was raised to buy the whole damn restaurant.

Two hours earlier, I’m sitting on the back terrace of our Beacon Hill townhouse, peeling a fresh fig while my mother arranges peonies in a crystal vase. The Vance family’s lawyer is perched on the edge of an antique bench, clearly uncomfortable. My adoptive dad, in a worn cashmere quarter-zip and boat shoes, is watering the boxwood hedges and pretending not to listen. “Miss Winthrop, Mr. and Mrs. Vance would very much like you to come home.” I bite into the fig. “Is the food good there?” He stalls. “I beg your pardon?” “The food. At their house. Is it good? Because I’m not going if it isn’t. Beacon Hill girls have delicate stomachs and zero tolerance for mediocrity.” My mother sets down the vase and gives a small, polite laugh. The kind that has buried entire careers. “What my daughter means,” she says, smoothing my hair, “is that she’ll visit. Briefly. To assess.” Dad walks over, dripping watering can still in hand, and slides an envelope into my bag. “Here. Copy of your trust documents. The deed to the Louisburg Square property. And Robert’s direct line. He’ll have a team on the ground in twenty minutes if you so much as raise an eyebrow.” Mom adjusts the collar of my linen dress. Her voice goes soft in that way that always makes my chest tight. “Sweetheart. If their house isn’t warm, you come home. Winthrop women don’t beg anyone to love them.” I almost cry. Almost. Instead I smile. “Relax. I’m just going to check the quality of their parenting. If they fail inspection, I’m returning the merchandise.” The driver loads my bag. As the car pulls down the cobblestone lane, my mother stands under the wisteria arch and waves. The sky is impossibly blue. A church bell rings somewhere on Charles Street. I think: no matter how much money the Vances have, they can’t buy back the twenty years that built me. Two hours later, the car stops in front of their New Jersey monstrosity. The driver opens my door. I stare up at the gilded columns and fountain and pause for exactly three seconds. “Did your decorator have a personal vendetta against Versailles, or…?” The driver coughs to hide a laugh. I walk in. Before I even reach the living room, I hear it. Soft, breathy, theatrical weeping. “Mom, Dad, now that she’s back, I should probably leave, right? I don’t want to be in the way…” My heels stop on the marble. Oh. So this is the flavor. Wet doe eyes and weaponized fragility. Amateur hour. Four people sit in the formal living room. Charles. Eleanor. Julian, scrolling his phone like I’m an inconvenience. And Chloe, perched on the loveseat in white, dabbing her eyes with a monogrammed handkerchief. She springs up the moment she sees me, lip quivering. “Sister.” “Hi.” She falters. Clearly expected more drama. Eleanor squeezes Chloe’s hand and looks at me with that complicated mother-of-two expression I’m sure she practiced in the mirror. “Evelyn. We’re so glad you’re home. But I need to say something first. Chloe may not be biologically ours, but she’s been our daughter for twenty years. You can’t expect us to just…” “Understood.” She exhales, relieved. Charles jumps in. “So don’t come in here trying to take her place. We won’t shortchange you, but you will not bully Chloe.” “Got it.” Julian finally looks up, jaw tight. “I hope you really do get it. Chloe has anxiety. She doesn’t handle stress well.” Chloe’s lashes flutter downward. “Please don’t talk to her like that, Julian. She just got here. If she wants my bedroom, she can have it. I’ll move to the attic, I really don’t mind…” I finally meet her eyes. “Which room is yours?” She brightens. Bingo, her cue. “The south-facing suite on the second floor. The one that… should’ve been yours.” Eleanor clutches her hand. “Don’t say that. It’s your room.” Julian’s voice drops cold. “Evelyn. Don’t even think about it.” I blink slowly. “Did I say I wanted it?” The room goes silent. Chloe’s face flickers. Just a half-second crack in the porcelain. “I just thought you’d be upset, sister.” I smile. “Honey, you preemptively absorb other people’s feelings so hard, you should be charging a consulting fee. Did anyone ask you to perform?” Julian’s nostrils flare. “Does everything you say have to come with a knife in it?” “No,” I say, voice perfectly sincere. “You all keep insisting on performing a soap opera in front of me. I can’t follow the plot. You can slow down if you’d like.” The housekeeper, Mrs. Whitfield, materializes to escort me upstairs. Chloe trails behind us all the way to the end of the second-floor hallway, where Mrs. Whitfield pushes open a narrow door. Dust billows out. Inside: stacked picture frames, a broken lamp, cardboard boxes, and curtains so gray you can’t tell the original color. Chloe covers her mouth, eyes wide and wet. “Sister, I’m so sorry. I didn’t know it hadn’t been cleaned. Please, take my room tonight.” I glance at the bare mattress, then turn to Mrs. Whitfield. “This is the room you prepared for the biological daughter?” Mrs. Whitfield shifts. “The Vances said, temporarily…” I raise a hand to stop her, then pull out my phone and snap a few photos. Julian smirks behind me. “What, posting a sob story online?” “No. Sending them to my mother. She loves fresh gossip material on dysfunctional rich families.” Eleanor hurries up the stairs, flustered. “Evelyn, don’t blow this out of proportion. The room can be cleaned. Chloe is already upset. Don’t push her.” I look her dead in the eye. “Mrs. Vance. I haven’t said a word yet, and your whole family has already convicted me. Efficient. Just not very smart.” Julian explodes. “Evelyn!” I slip my phone back into my bag, calm as a Sunday morning. “You don’t have to shout. My hearing is excellent. So is my allergy to favoritism.”

Dinner is served at seven sharp in a dining room the size of a small chapel. The table is set with Hermès china and crystal that probably costs more than a Tesla. Chloe sits at Eleanor’s right hand, leaning into her shoulder like a kitten. Julian sits across, occasionally passing Chloe a napkin and never once looking my way. Fine. I serve myself a slice of the seared halibut and take a bite. I chew. I stop chewing. I set the fork down. Charles notices. “Not to your taste?” Chloe pipes up sweetly, “Maybe sister prefers more, um, casual food? Our private chef trained at Le Cordon Bleu. It might be a little refined for her palate.” “It’s not refined,” I say. “It’s bad.” Silence drops like a guillotine. Eleanor stiffens. “Evelyn. Our chef has been with us for fifteen years. No one has ever complained.” “Then everyone in this house has been very generous.” I take a sip of water. “The fish is overcooked. The beurre blanc is broken. The acid sits on top instead of cutting through. It tastes like this family looks. Pretty on the outside, hollow underneath.” Julian’s jaw locks. “You grew up outside this family. What would you know?” “I grew up on Beacon Hill, Julian. Not in a cave.” I dab my mouth. “Is your entire understanding of the outside world divided into two categories? The Vance estate, and Naked and Afraid?” Charles slams his palm flat on the table. “Enough! It’s one meal. Do you have to make a scene?” I lower my fork carefully. “Mr. Vance. You brought me here. You gave me a closet. You gave me zero respect. And now you want me to compliment a bad piece of fish. Is your family reunion process outsourced to a gaslighting manual? Because it’s not exactly five-star service.” Eleanor’s face drains. Chloe’s tears spill on cue. “Sister, are you saying this because you hate me? Even the food?” I turn to her slowly. “Chloe. Not everything is about you. The food is bad because the chef is bad. You’re dramatic because you’re dramatic. Two unrelated facts.” She sobs harder. Julian shoots to his feet. “Apologize to Chloe. Now.” I glance at my watch. “Sorry. Winthrop women don’t engage in low-quality emotional disputes after nine p.m. Union rules.” “You…” “Also.” I gesture at the table. “Starting tomorrow, I’m having all my meals catered in. My expense. Don’t trouble yourselves. And please don’t try testing my breeding with food like this again.” Charles turns purple. “You think the Vance family needs your money?” “Hope not. I’d hate to think you were freeloading.” Right on cue, a server appears with dessert. She sets a delicate crystal coupe in front of Chloe. Caviar service with mother-of-pearl spoons. In front of me, she sets a single scoop of vanilla ice cream. Her smile is just a little too thin. “Miss Evelyn. This is also very nourishing.” I look at the dish. Then at hers. Then back. “Why does she get caviar and I get Häagen-Dazs?” The server smiles. “Miss Chloe has delicate health. Mrs. Vance gave specific instructions.” Eleanor flushes. “Evelyn, if you want some, we can bring it out tomorrow…” “That’s fine.” I turn to the server. “What’s your name?” “Whitfield, miss. Mrs. Whitfield.” “And how long have you worked for the Vance family, Mrs. Whitfield?” “Twelve years.” “Wonderful.” I pull out my phone. “Please email me your employment contract, twelve years of pay stubs, and every household purchase reimbursement on record. By tomorrow morning.” Her smile slips. “Excuse me?” I keep mine warm. “Just curious whether someone who distributes desserts based on family ranking deserves twelve years of full benefits.” Charles cuts in. “Evelyn. Mrs. Whitfield is an old member of this household.” “Then she should especially know better. Old money runs clean books. Wouldn’t you agree, Mrs. Whitfield?” Her eyes flicker away. Chloe leans in, eyes wet and wide. “Sister, please don’t make things hard for her. She takes such good care of me.” “Oh?” I tilt my head. “Then I should definitely audit her. Because she’s spending Vance money taking care of you, and that’s coming directly out of my inheritance pool.” Julian chokes on his water. Eleanor stares at me like I’m a creature she’s never seen before. “Does every sentence out of your mouth have to be about money?” I think about it, genuinely. “Yes. Because so far, money is the only value you people have demonstrated.” I push back my chair, drop my napkin on the plate, and walk out without another word. Behind me, I hear Chloe start to cry again. Bless her heart. The girl has stamina.

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After my family discovered that I had faked my death, I stopped fighting back. Tiffany laughed at me for failing to stay dead. She said I would have to spend the rest of my life watching everyone love her, then asked why I had not cried myself blind with jealousy. So I snapped a branch from the tree beside me and drove it into my left eye. My family screamed and rushed to restrain me. They barely managed to save the other eye. They had only just left to fetch medicine when my second brother, Sean, stormed into my room. “You’ve been back for less than a day, and you’ve already made Tiffany cry.” His mouth twisted with disgust. “I wish both your legs were broken. Then maybe you’d stay in this room where you belong.” I climbed onto the windowsill and let go. The impact shattered my leg. A jagged piece of bone tore through the skin, and blood spread beneath me. Sean went white. That night, at dinner, Tiffany was still upset. She secretly poisoned her own food, then collapsed at the feet of my eldest brother, Gerald, the cold-blooded Alpha. Gerald flew into a rage. He grabbed a knife and came for me, as if killing me would rid the family of its curse. I did not wait for him. I lowered my head and ate Tiffany’s food. It did not take long before blood ran from the corner of my mouth. My family broke down. They forced me to spit out the poisoned food, then pulled me into their arms. By the time they asked what had happened to me, their voices were already hoarse. I looked at them, confused. Hadn’t they all said I was petty? Hadn’t they accused me of being jealous of Tiffany? Now I was being obedient. I did whatever they told me to do. So what were they still unhappy about? … Tears streamed down Anne’s cheeks. My mother raised a shaking hand and smoothed the stray hair at my temple. “Harriet, I know I was wrong. I won’t hit you again. I won’t scold you like I used to. Can’t you go back to the way you were?” There was a faint hope in her expression. I felt nothing. “Is it because I’m blind now? Because I’m not as pretty as I used to be?” Her lips parted, but no words came out. Sean leaned against the door and gave a short, bitter laugh. “Enough. You’ve done all this, and now you think hurting yourself will make it go away?” I lowered my gaze and pretended not to hear him. Tiffany had always known how to hide what she was. Even after I had been driven to fake my death and disappear for two years, they still believed everything had been my fault. But the truth no longer mattered to me. Gerald’s fingers clamped around my arm. He dragged me across the room and threw me in front of Tiffany. “Apologize to her.” The knife was still in his hand. If I refused, he looked ready to use it. I sat quietly on the floor as if I did not see the blade at all. Tiffany covered her eyes and shrank into Sean’s arms. She looked terrified, but the corner of her mouth lifted. The knife was about to come down when Anne threw herself in front of me. The blade cut deep into her arm. Blood poured out at once. “Why?” Anne looked at me as if I were tearing her apart. “We’re trying to be fair. If you want something, say it. Does Tiffany have to die before you’ll be satisfied?” I stared at her for a moment, then shook my head. “Tiffany won’t die.” The fire from two years ago rose in my memory. I remembered my skin burning. I remembered the air thinning in my lungs, every breath turning sharp and useless. Gerald and Sean had passed in front of me again and again. Neither of them looked at me. They searched for Tiffany in a panic. The moment the family found her, they carried her out without hesitation. They could not bear to lose Tiffany. But they could abandon me, their biological daughter. So if someone had to die, it would always be me. Their beloved Tiffany would never die. With them protecting her, she might never even be hurt. Anne’s hands slipped from my shoulders. All her strength seemed to leave her at once. The room went silent. Then Tiffany began to cry. She looked at me with that same helpless, wounded expression she had always used so well. “Sean already gave me the antidote. I’m fine now. Harriet was only joking with me, right?” I had just lifted my head when she took Elton’s arm and leaned against him like a child begging for a treat. “Harriet didn’t mean it. We’re getting along much better now. She still can’t shift, but she’s the Alpha’s sister. She should come to the academy with me. Please let her.” Before my first shift, Tiffany had poisoned me with silver. I failed to shift and fell seriously ill. Elton was bitterly disappointed. After that, he cared even more for Tiffany, who had shifted successfully, and refused to let me attend the academy. He said I would only embarrass the family. I had begged him countless times. It had never mattered. Now my father looked at me closely, as if afraid to miss even the smallest change in my expression. When I stayed calm, his voice softened in a way that almost sounded careful. “Harriet, do you want to go?” Before I could answer, Gerald spoke. “She’s back, and she’s learned to behave. Starting tomorrow, she’ll go with Tiffany. Even if she can’t shift, at least no one can laugh at her for knowing nothing.” He looked at Anne, who was still shielding me, then put the knife away and left. I closed my mouth. There was nothing more to say.

For the next two days, I went to the Werewolf Academy. Anne worried my body could not handle it, so after every meal she prepared a medicinal soup for me. I never drank a single bowl. Each time, Tiffany poured it away. After she emptied the bowl again, she looked down at me with open contempt. “Don’t think Anne actually cares. She feels guilty, that’s all. If she really cared, why hasn’t she noticed any of those wounds on you?” My legs were ruined. One of my eyes was blind. The moment I entered the academy, people stared. At Tiffany’s command, they found ways to make my life difficult. Some mocked me. Some shoved me. Some struck me when no one important was watching. New wounds layered over old ones. But when I went home, no one noticed. Tiffany, on the other hand, scratched her hand by accident, and Anne acted as if the sky had fallen. She summoned the family doctor at once. The others came running too. They crowded around that tiny cut, so shallow it would have healed if they had arrived any later, and worried over it like she was dying. Tiffany smiled as if the memory amused her. “You’re not me, Harriet. Maybe your wounds will heal before anyone even finds out you were hurt.” Then she left my room. She had not expected Gerald to be the first to notice. “Why didn’t you tell us?” he asked, frowning. “Were you planning to injure yourself and blame Tiffany?” I laughed softly and pulled my sleeve over the wounds. Without Tiffany’s permission, who would dare leave marks on the Alpha’s biological sister? Who would dare touch me? When I was first brought home, Tiffany had slapped me across the face the moment we met. I told my family the truth. They said I was jealous. They said I was scheming. They believed her without hesitation. It happened so many times that I stopped counting. At first, I had still hoped someone would stand beside me. Now I felt nothing. “Gerald, did you need something?” When I offered no explanation, he seemed relieved. He handed me a small plate. “Elton bought cake. This piece is yours.” They were all flavors I used to love. But I could no longer taste the sweetness. My mouth was full of bitterness. I was halfway through the cake when Anne came in with the doctor. Her eyes were wet as she looked at the wounds covering my arm. “Harriet, this must hurt so much.” Her voice broke. “This is my fault. I let you suffer like this. And you didn’t even tell us.” She dressed my wounds herself. After that, she stayed beside my bed for every meal. When Elton found out, he was furious. Every student who had bullied me was punished a hundred times over. I had no strength left to react. “Thank you, Elton.” That was all I said. Elton’s expression dimmed. Anne stood beside him, lost and uncertain. Guilt made them shower me with attention. Anything good was brought to me first. If I coughed twice at night, more than a dozen private doctors appeared the next morning. If I rubbed my eye after seeing Tiffany, they warned her not to come near me and upset me. Even Sean was punished when he came to make trouble for Tiffany’s sake. But my body was getting weaker, and nothing they did stirred much in me. On my birthday, they tried to make me happy. For the first time, they left Tiffany behind and held a birthday banquet for me alone at the most luxurious hotel in New York. At last, Elton lost control. He smashed his wineglass and pointed at me. “How long are you going to keep looking at us like that?” Anne’s restraint snapped too. “Tiffany hasn’t done anything wrong! You’re the one who won’t let it go. You’ve torn this family apart!” “If I had known this was how you’d turn out, I never would have brought you home when you were six. This family only needed Tiffany.”

My hand stopped. For a moment, my chest ached. Strange. I thought I had stopped caring. “Don’t worry,” I said. “Soon you’ll only have Tiffany.” Sean laughed and tossed down his fork. “Tiffany’s alone. I’m going to her.” The air in the room pressed down on me. One by one, they left. I remained at the table, surrounded by untouched dishes and the quiet laughter of the guests. The food went cold. The candles burned low. Wax dripped onto the cake, melting into the cream and leaving a pale trail behind. I sat there all night. By the time someone came to pick me up the next morning, my body was cold and stiff. My limbs felt as if they no longer belonged to me. The car window rolled down. Tiffany smiled at me. “How was it, Harriet? Sitting there alone all night?” I was too tired to answer. I climbed into the car and closed my eyes. When we were almost at the villa, Tiffany opened the door and threw herself out. She rolled across the ground and slammed into the stone steps, making it look as if someone had pushed her. A scream tore from her throat. Everyone waiting outside the villa turned toward us. Sean ran to Tiffany and dropped beside her. “Was it Harriet? Did she push you?” Gerald dragged me out of the car. Before I could speak, Anne slapped me across the face. She was breathing hard. Regret and hatred twisted together in her expression. “I don’t have a daughter like you. You wanted to fake your death and leave us, didn’t you? Then go. Get out right now.” “Get out!” My belongings were thrown after me. Anne ordered the villa gates shut and would not look at me again. Still, that was not enough. Gerald’s expression was grim. He personally took men with him and sent me to the dark prison where werewolf rebels were held. They threw me onto a filthy pile of bloodstained straw. Elton appeared outside the cell. Disgust sharpened his voice. “Tiffany went out of kindness to bring you home, and this is how you repay her? You ungrateful thing.” I looked at him without speaking. My body hurt more with every breath, but I had long since stopped wasting words. His temper rose when I stayed silent. “What happened to all your excuses? Two years ago, every time you hurt Tiffany, you had so much to say. You denied it, argued, blamed everyone else. Why are you quiet now?” “All because of what happened two years ago, you’ve been punishing us and punishing yourself. Why? Can’t we leave it behind and start over?” I went still. My thoughts drifted back. Two years ago, the bracelet Anne had obtained to protect Tiffany went missing. After that, Tiffany became ill. Every few days, she coughed up blood. Elton sent every available hand in the pack to search the territory. Half a month later, they found out a group of rogue wolves had picked it up. The rogues did not want money. They did not want power. They wanted me to serve them for half a month. Because I could not shift, they said I belonged at the bottom of the pack, just like them. Everyone was shocked. At that time, I had only recently been brought home. No one thought my family would agree. But they held my hands and pleaded with me. “Harriet, go for half a month. Once they give the bracelet back, Gerald will take men there, destroy their den, and bring you home.” “They’re watching us. If we don’t do what they say, they’ll destroy the bracelet. What will Tiffany do then? She needs it to live. I’m begging you. Save her.” Anne nearly knelt in front of me. I cried until I passed out. When I opened my eyes again, several rogue wolves were leaning over me, grinning. I screamed. Gerald and Sean had not gone far. They heard me. I saw them stop. Their fists clenched. For a long time, they stood there without moving. Neither of them turned back. That night, I ran and hid until I slipped from a cliff. I thought I was dead, but a tree caught me. When the rogue leader could not find me, he smashed the bracelet in anger. After I woke, I wanted only to get away. So I faked my death and left. But they found me and dragged me home. The day after they heard I had “died,” Tiffany recovered. Looking back, perhaps she had only needed me gone. Once no one was left to compete with her, she was well again. “Tiffany has suffered enough because of you,” Elton said. “This time, we won’t let you off. If you still won’t change, you can stay here forever.” He left. I lowered my head. Because I knew the truth. I did not have forever. The last doctor who examined me had already told me. This time, I really was going to die. They should be satisfied now.

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In the seventh year of our long-distance relationship, I resigned from my post in the dock district and returned to Chicago, moving back into the estate Damian and I had agreed would be our marital home. I entered the password three times. All three times, it was wrong. On the fourth try, the door opened from the inside. The person who opened it was my best friend, Bianca. She was wearing Damian’s shirt, the hem barely covering the tops of her thighs. She smiled at me naturally. “Valentina, you’re back?” “I had a fight with the person I was living with, so I’ve been staying at your fiance’s estate lately.” Hearing her voice, Damian came out of the bathroom. His upper body was bare, and the only thing covering him was a pink towel wrapped loosely around his waist. He said, “Don’t block the doorway.” “The master bedroom is already Bianca’s. You can sleep in the guest room tonight.” His face was full of impatience, but that familiar inner voice sounded again. [We’ve been separated between two cities for so long. Have you fallen for someone else?] [Valentina, hurry up and say this is our home. Tell her she isn’t allowed to stay.] [Make a scene. Let me know you still care about me.] For seven years, he had always been like this. If I replied to a message late, he would ask Bianca to meet him at the dockside bar. If I spent one less night with him, he would let Bianca stay over. In the past, I would question him. I would cry. I would make a scene exactly the way his inner voice wanted me to. But this time, I looked at the pink towel around his waist. Then at the women’s underwear hanging on the balcony. Suddenly, I didn’t want to ask anything anymore. I took a step back, pulled up the handle of my suitcase, and left. I would not live in a three-person estate. … Bianca reached out and grabbed my suitcase. “Valentina, it’s only that you couldn’t open the door. Are you really angry?” “Don’t overthink it. I couldn’t remember the old password, so Damian changed it to my birthday.” Damian gave a soft scoff. “She’s just being dramatic. It’s just a string of numbers. What’s the big deal about changing it?” His expression was disdainful, but his inner voice grew more frantic by the second. [Say something. Say that was the day we got engaged. Say I wasn’t allowed to change it.] [Valentina, why aren’t you reacting at all?] I said nothing. Bianca leaned against the doorframe and yawned. “Aren’t you coming in? We’re going to sleep.” I took out my key and placed it beside the door. “No. You two sleep.” Damian froze for a moment. “If you’re not coming in, then get lost!” He slammed the door shut. I stumbled back a step. My bag fell to the ground, and a stack of old train tickets slid out. The one on top was dated seven years ago. That was the day I had been assigned to the dock district, and Damian had seen me off at the station. The boarding reminder sounded three times before he finally let go of my hand. “Valentina, go. Don’t look back.” He said it lightly. But in that instant, I heard his inner voice for the first time. [Valentina, I can’t bear to let you go.] [But I can’t stop you.] [I love you. You have to wait for me.] My hand froze over my ticket, and tears rushed to my eyes. After we were separated between two cities, I took that five-hour night train again and again. Even when I had to settle cargo-line accounts until dawn, I would still rush back to see him. Until that one time, after staying awake for two nights in a row, I collapsed at the dock office and missed the train to see him. When I woke up in a private clinic, the first thing I did was call him. On the seventh call, he finally picked up. “I’m helping Bianca deal with something at the bar.” His tone was colder than I had ever heard it. “Why are you crying? If you’re too busy, am I not even allowed to go to her?” “Isn’t she your best friend? With her watching me for you, what are you worried about?” That night, Bianca posted three updates. An Italian restaurant, a bar, and the street at three in the morning. Meanwhile, I lay alone in a private clinic, hooked up to fluids all night. My tears fell onto the train ticket. I reached out to wipe them away, but no matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t get it clean. The door opened again. “If you can’t bear to leave, get in here.” When Damian saw my tears, his expression softened a little. “How many days are you back for this time?” I didn’t tell him I had already resigned from my post in the dock district. There was no need. I had given up everything in the dock district just to end this seven-year relationship stretched across two cities. But he and Bianca had already started living together. Bianca came out of the bathroom with a towel. Naturally, she began drying his hair for him. Damian did not dodge. He even lowered his head. His inner voice said he loved me. But he had long since grown used to Bianca’s company. There was no place for me in this home anymore. The stack of train tickets was still scattered on the floor. I did not pick them up. I walked straight toward the elevator. Damian gave a cold laugh. “Valentina Rossi, if you walk out of here today, our engagement is over.” I pressed the elevator button without looking back. His inner voice erupted in panic. [Valentina, don’t go. I only wanted to see you jealous.] [If you turn back, I’ll coax you.] The elevator doors opened, and I stepped inside. [Please, don’t go.] I heard it. But this time, I did not stop. The elevator doors slowly closed, blocking out his face and cutting off his inner voice. Just then, my phone rang. “Valentina Rossi, the seat at the Northern Commission is still being held for you. Have you thought it through?” I wiped away my tears and cleared my throat. “Vincent Romano, I’ll report in tomorrow.”

I spent the night at an inn. Early the next morning, I was awakened by a call from the estate steward. “Miss Rossi, the suitcases you sent are piled up at the entrance of the estate. People in the neighborhood have already complained. Please deal with them as soon as possible.” When I came back this time, I had not planned to leave again. I had packed up seven years’ worth of belongings and sent them here in advance. Now my things had arrived. But just like me, they no longer had a home. I rushed to the estate through the rain. There was nothing downstairs. Bianca, wearing slippers, was about to head upstairs. “Valentina, why are you only here now?” “Those boxes were blocking the entrance. They were such a nuisance.” She pointed toward the trash area. “Damian said the two of you had already ended your engagement. Your things were all garbage, so I threw them away for you.” My ears rang. I turned and ran toward the trash area. The cardboard boxes were soaked soft. My belongings were scattered all over the ground, mixed into dirty rainwater. I knelt down and finally found my little dog plush. It had swollen from the rain, and one of its eyes had fallen off. It was the first gift Damian had ever given me. During those seven years, whenever he couldn’t come to me, it was the thing that stayed with me. Last year, when I fractured a bone in a car accident, he had originally booked a flight to see me. But Bianca sprained her ankle. On the phone, he had only said hurriedly, “I’ll come see you after she’s better.” I was in so much pain I couldn’t sleep. I could only hold that little dog until dawn. I picked it up and held it to my chest. Then I saw the broken high heel beside it. I had bought those shoes half a year ago. That day, my plan had been deliberately deleted by someone, and I had hidden in the garden downstairs from the dock office, crying until I could barely breathe. Damian’s phone would not connect. It was not until dawn that he finally called me back. “What happened on your side this time?” “Bianca had a fight with the person she was living with. I just brought her back to the estate.” The next day, I went to a shop in the neighborhood and bought those heels. I told myself, Valentina Rossi, stand steady. If no one comes to take you back to the estate, then walk back yourself. For seven years, I traveled between two cities and lived alone. These things had kept me going until today. Now, all of them had been thrown into the trash. “Bianca, what right did you have to throw away my things?” Damian’s voice came from behind me. “Valentina, why are you yelling at her?” He stood in front of Bianca, holding an umbrella over her. “It’s just a few boxes of junk. So what if she threw them away?” Bianca looked at me and burst into tears. “I thought you didn’t want them anymore.” Seeing the mess all over the ground, Damian’s expression darkened further. But his inner voice slammed into me. [Why are there so many boxes?] [Wasn’t Valentina only coming back for a few days?] [That little dog… she still kept it?] His gaze fell on the plush dog in my arms. But the words he spoke were still full of disgust. “Our engagement is over, and you’re still sending your things to my home. If your things aren’t garbage, what are they?” I held the little dog tightly and looked up at him. “Damian, my things are not garbage.” “You are.” Rain blurred my vision. More and more people gathered to watch. A few people from the neighborhood whispered among themselves. “Aren’t those the young couple upstairs?” “They’ve been living together for half a year, right? I often see them grocery shopping together.” Someone looked at me, their voice full of contempt. “Then who is she? An ex-girlfriend here to make trouble?” “Don’t tell me she’s trying to ruin their marriage. Getting kicked out and then digging through trash? How ugly.” My already numb heart twisted in pain again. So they had been living together for half a year. For those six months, they had bought groceries together, returned to the estate together, shared umbrellas together, and appeared to everyone in the neighborhood like a loving couple. And I, who had been openly and honestly in love with him for seven years, had become the mistress making a scene.

Damian’s expression looked awful, but he did not explain. Bianca gently tugged at his sleeve. “Damian, let’s go upstairs.” He was silent for a few seconds. Then he held the umbrella for her and led her through the building entrance. I stood in the rain, watching them walk farther and farther away. His inner voice grew quieter and quieter. [Valentina isn’t a mistress.] [She’s the person I love most.] I stopped listening. The rain grew heavier. I crouched beside the trash cans again. I opened the soaked cardboard boxes, searching for the old pocket watch my grandmother had left me. But after searching every box, I still could not find it. I had been drenched in the rain for too long. My vision suddenly went black. When I woke up again, I was lying in a somewhat unfamiliar guest room. Bianca sat at the bedside, her eyes red from crying. “Valentina, you fainted just now.” “I asked Damian to carry you up.” She tucked the blanket around me. “Don’t take what the people in the neighborhood said to heart. I already explained it to them.” “I told them you weren’t here to interfere with our marriage.” “We’re friends. This time, you wanted to move in and live with me.” “It’s just that the estate belongs to Damian, and he is my fiance now. That’s why there was a misunderstanding.” She spoke with such apparent sincerity, as if she truly were helping me out of an awkward situation. But I remembered our university days. My poverty grant had been stolen by someone else, and Bianca had gone with me to confront the counselor. “I hate bitches who steal other people’s things and then pretend they’re innocent!” Back then, she had been even angrier than I was. But now, when she called Damian her fiance, she wore that same innocent expression. In the past, Bianca had looked down on Damian. Whenever she mentioned him, she would curse him by his full name. But at some point, she began calling him Damian. She began wearing his coat. She began eating with him and traveling with him alone. It wasn’t that I hadn’t noticed she was crossing boundaries. But she was my best friend. And Damian always said I was overthinking. His inner voice had sounded again and again. [Valentina, I only love you.] So again and again, I forced myself to suppress the discomfort in my heart. But now, I no longer wanted to pretend I couldn’t see it. “Bianca, stop acting.” I pushed myself up by the edge of the bed. “Where is my pass?” I had to report to the Northern Commission headquarters today. But the copies of the documents I needed had all been ruined by the rain. I had once treated this place as my home, so I had kept the original important documents here. Bianca froze for a moment. “I don’t know. Why don’t you look for it?” I ignored her, threw back the blanket, and got out of bed. The master bedroom was now her room. Yet several of Damian’s shirts hung in the closet. My clothes had been shoved into the farthest corner, wrinkled beyond recognition. Bianca followed behind me and explained in a small voice. “Sometimes when he drinks too much, he sleeps in my room.” I did not want to know what they had done here. I only wanted to find my pass. But when I opened the bedside drawer, there was no document folder inside. Only three boxes of contraceptives. One box fewer than the last time I had returned to the estate. My hand froze. I forced myself to look away. On the small table beside the bed, there was still an uncleaned food container. Bianca seemed to remember only then and let out a small gasp. “Valentina, is this the pass you’re looking for?” She moved aside the plastic food container. Under it was my graduation pass, its cover already covered in oil. Bianca bit her lip. “I’m sorry. I was eating in the room last night and saw that it was stiff, so I used it to pad the food box.” I snatched it up and opened the cover. The pages were soaked through with red oil. Even the embossed seal gave off a sharp, unpleasant smell. “Valentina, don’t be ungrateful!” Damian strode in and stood in front of Bianca.

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My Alpha husband thought I was boring, so he wanted to take my sister as his lover. I let him.Because my first love was coming to take me away, too. * By my tenth year as Luna of the Ravencroft Pack, I was finally tired of it all. I stopped checking which border cabin Cassian Ravencroft had gone to at night, or whose bed he had ended up in. I stopped wondering whether he loved me at all. Even when the healer brought me a vial of moonvine contraceptive, I drank it without so much as frowning. Cassian returned to the Ravencroft main house after nightfall. He stood beside the bed and called my name in a low voice. “Honey, I didn’t come home these past few days because Sable was hurt.” “She chased a pack of rogues who crossed the territory line to poach in our valley. One of them cut her with a silver blade.” “If I hadn’t gone after her, she would have kept pushing herself.” I lifted the blanket and moved farther into the bed. “It’s fine. Get some sleep. You have elders to meet tomorrow.” Cassian seemed to pause. “You’re really not going to make a scene??” I nodded. Everyone had someone they could never quite forget. As it happened, mine had returned too. … Cassian stood by the bed for a long time without moving. “I’m the Alpha of Ravencroft. I can’t exactly let her get hurt on my territory and do nothing.” At last, I opened my eyes and smiled faintly. “You’ve always been merciful.” My gaze dropped to the smear of red on his cuff. It was Sable’s favorite shade of lipstick. Years ago, when the Ashcroft Pack had to send one of its daughters to marry into Ravencroft, my half sister Sable knelt in front of me. “Lenora, I don’t want to be trapped in the Alpha’s house.” “I still want to ride my motorcycle through the mountain roads. I want to chase rogues. I want to hunt in the northern forests. I want to be myself.” “Will you become the Luna in my place?” I agreed. Later, I became the Luna of the Ravencroft Pack. And she remained free, untamed Sable. But after the bond ceremony, Cassian went to see her almost every night in the private cabin at the edge of the territory. There, they lived like real lovers, wild and free. And I was left inside the heavily guarded Ravencroft main house. Cassian reached out as if to touch me. I turned my face away. His hand froze in midair. After a moment, he took a paper bag from his coat pocket. Inside was a caramel candy shaped like a wolf pup, already a little melted. “I saw it on the way back.” “The medicine is bitter.” “Have something sweet.” I looked at the misshapen candy wolf, unsure what expression I was supposed to make. Once, when I said I liked the sweets sold at the town fair, he told me street food was dirty. “The Luna of Ravencroft shouldn’t be greedy like a little pup.” And now, he had remembered to buy me candy. I didn’t take it. “Thank you, Cassian.” Cassian frowned. “Lenora, I brought this to you myself. Don’t look at me like I’ve wronged you.” “Is this still about Sable?” Of course I had been upset. On the night of our bonding ceremony, Sable sent someone to the estate, saying she was going alone to take down a nest of rogues who had betrayed Ravencroft. Cassian had just taken off his suit jacket. The moment he heard her name, he stood. I asked him, “Does it have to be tonight?” He said, “You know what she’s like. She’s never been afraid of anything.” “If no one stops her, she really will shift and charge into that abandoned warehouse district tonight.” He came back at dawn. There was a shallow scratch on his neck. He said Sable had refused to come back, that she had scratched him by accident while struggling, and that he had spent the entire night calming her down. I cried. I fought. Eventually, I stopped asking. Cassian seemed ready to explain further when a guard’s voice came from outside the door. “Alpha, someone from Miss Ashcroft’s side is here.” “She shook off the patrol team and left word that she was heading to Moon Harbor tonight to settle things with the rogues who crossed the border and stole our prey.” Cassian’s expression changed. I closed my eyes again. “Go.” He didn’t move. I added, “If she really storms into Moon Harbor, you’ll blame me tomorrow for keeping you here.” Cassian’s voice darkened. “Lenora, do you have to turn everything into a jab?” I said nothing. A dull pain tugged low in my abdomen. I frowned and held it back. Even if I told him, he wouldn’t care. In the end, Cassian still left. Before he went, he threw one sentence behind him. “Get some rest. Stop using your health to punish me.” The door closed. Then the window sounded with three soft taps. An old silver ring was pushed through the crack. A tiny wolf-head crest was engraved on the inside of the band. V. In that instant, heat rushed into my eyes and my heart began to pound. Valehart. Beneath the ring was a note. There was only one line on it. “Lenora, if the Ravencroft Pack won’t protect you, I will.” Three years ago, the man I loved most—Ronan Valehart—died in a firefight on the northern smuggling route. They never found his body. The appearance of this ring meant one thing. He was alive. With trembling hands, I tucked the ring beneath my pillow.

The next morning, Sable came to the Ravencroft estate. The moment she stepped into the main hall, she wrinkled her nose. “Lenora, this place is still so stuffy.” She looked around, then laughed. “If I had to live here for three days, I’d probably forget how to run in wolf form.” I leaned back on the sofa and said nothing. Cassian had come with her. He hadn’t even changed out of his black suit jacket. Clearly, the moment his pack meeting ended, he had personally gone to the gate to receive her. Sable strode over to me. “Oh my God, why do you look so awful?” As soon as she said it, she patted her mouth as if she had only just realized. “Look at me. I’ve spent too much time outside. I’m too blunt.” “You’ve been Luna for so many years, Lenora. All those rules, all those worries—of course your complexion would suffer.” “I took medicine,” I said. “That tends to happen.” Cassian’s face shifted. Sable blinked. “You mean the moonvine contraceptive?” “I was only joking the other day. I said if Lenora had a pup, Cassian would never come out to patrol with me again.” “I didn’t expect him to actually send the healer with it.” Her eyes lowered, and her voice softened. “Lenora, you’re not mad at me, are you?” I shook my head. “What would I be mad about?” She tugged at Cassian’s sleeve. “See? Lenora won’t even talk to me properly now.” “She used to climb walls with me and teach me to ride. If anyone bullied me, she’d be the first one to charge out.” She laughed with open, careless brightness. “After becoming the Luna of Ravencroft, she’s like a different person.” Cassian frowned. “Lenora isn’t well. Stop provoking her.” That was what he said, but his tone softened when he looked at Sable. Sable tilted her face up toward him. “Sometimes I wish you weren’t Ravencroft’s Alpha.” The hall suddenly went quiet. Then she laughed again. “Then I could steal you away to the Silver Coast. Red Canyon. The northern snowfields.” “No elders. No meetings. No pack politics.” Cassian smiled too. “Sable, you’re still as wild as ever.” I lowered my eyes. I used to be an excellent rider too. In wolf form, I could track prey for dozens of miles. I was the one who taught Sable to ride for the first time. I was the one who took her out to learn how to identify traces left behind by rogues. But later, everyone praised her for being bright and free. They only called me dull and boring. I had never liked this estate with its locked gates and high walls either. A sharp cramp suddenly pulled low in my abdomen. The teacup in my hand slipped and shattered on the floor. Only then did Cassian snap back to himself. “Lenora, what’s wrong?” He reached out to support me. I avoided him. “It’s nothing.” His expression darkened. “Who told you to drink it?” I looked up at him. “You sent the healer with it. Was I supposed to refuse?” Cassian froze. Sable hurriedly tugged at him. “Don’t be angry at Lenora. She’s been stuck in the estate too long. Of course she overthinks.” “I’m not like that. When something upsets me, I just shift and fight it out.” Cassian stared at me, his voice hoarse. “Lenora, you could have made a scene.” “When I told you to drink moonvine before, you threw the bottle straight at the wall.” “When I had the healer prescribe calming draughts, you said they were bitter and refused to touch them.” “You were supposed to fight me on it.” I had almost forgotten that I used to be that alive. Cassian gave a cold laugh. “You agreed to become the Luna of Ravencroft.” “You enjoyed the status of the Alpha’s house and the respect of the pack, and now you act as though I’m the one who wronged you.” “A few days ago, Sable and I went to the pup shelter in the southern territory. She saw orphaned pups shivering in the cold and took off her leather jacket on the spot.” “She even said if she had the silverware and jewels in this estate, she would have sold them for food and medicine already.” “And you? You sit here in the estate and complain about your life.” For a second, guilt flashed across Sable’s face. After all, I had paid for the construction of that shelter. I simply had not appeared in person. I only nodded. “Of course.” Cassian abruptly stood. “I don’t want to look at you when you’re like this.” He took Sable and left. The moment the door closed, a violent pain tore through my abdomen. Blood slid down the hem of my skirt. Maeve burst into tears and ran to call the healer. The healer arrived quickly. After examining me, his face went white. “Luna, you’ve lost too much blood. The pup… the pup couldn’t be saved.” I nodded. “I know.” Maeve sobbed, “Should I ask the Alpha to come?” I shook my head. “No need.” Ten years. This was my first pup. And the last thread tying me to the Ravencroft estate. Now it was gone. Good.

On the third day after the miscarriage, Cassian came to the estate. Several attendants followed behind him, carrying trays of jewelry, gowns, and a saddle. I recognized some of them. The black pearl brooch had been pinned on me by the old Luna of Ravencroft herself on the day I married into the pack. The dark red cashmere shawl had been draped over my shoulders by Cassian on my birthday. And the saddle had once belonged to my favorite chestnut horse. Before I married into Ravencroft, I used to ride her along the forest roads near Moonridge for hours. Later, Cassian said the Luna of Ravencroft ought to be dignified and should not always be thinking about leaving the territory alone. Soon after, the stable keys were no longer given to me. Cassian glanced at me. His tone was unusually gentle. “Sable is moving into the estate in a few days. Give these things to her first.” I nodded. “Fine.” “She’s used to being free outside. A lot of things here won’t suit her.” “Fine.” “She likes that horse.” “Fine.” He stared at me for a long time, then suddenly laughed. “And Sable has agreed. She’s willing to officially remain by my side as one of my mates.” I nodded. “Congratulations.” Cassian seemed to be waiting for me to lose my temper. Waiting for me to demand answers. Waiting for me to sweep every tray in front of me onto the floor. But I only said calmly, “Then soon, the entire North will know how important she is to you.” The amusement in his eyes faded. At last, he said only, “Take care of yourself.” After he left, two attendants whispered in the corridor. “Miss Ashcroft really is something. For her, the Alpha doesn’t even care about the old pack rules anymore.” “I heard he’s holding a grand mate celebration for her at the private estate in Moonridge. After that day, who would still dare call her a secret lover?” The other attendant lowered her voice. “Come to think of it, Luna used to love going out too.” “But after the bond ceremony, the Alpha kept saying she didn’t act like the Luna of Ravencroft and wouldn’t let her go anywhere.” She paused. “Now Miss Ashcroft does the same things, and he thinks it’s charming.” I lay with my eyes open, staring at the ceiling. The celebration would be at Moonridge. Not at the Ravencroft estate. That meant that on that day, I would finally have a chance to leave. I called Maeve over. “On the day of the celebration, prepare clothes I can move in.” Maeve’s eyes reddened. “Is Luna finally going to fight for herself?” I nodded. “Yes.” Let them think that. I did not want Cassian to turn back to me. I wanted to vanish from this estate that day. And from Cassian’s world. A maid was rechecking the measurements for my dress when Cassian walked in. He came to my side and suddenly reached out to smooth my sleeve. “This color suits you.” Footsteps sounded outside the door. Sable stood at the entrance. Her gaze swept across the room before settling back on me. She smiled. “The Ravencroft estate really is lovely. Cassian said I can choose my own room.” She laughed lightly. “I don’t really like the other rooms.” “Only Lenora’s feels comfortable enough.” The maid’s expression changed slightly. Sable seemed to realize only then that she had spoken out of turn. She turned to Cassian. “I didn’t mean to take anything from Lenora.” “Forget I said anything. I can sleep in the stables if that makes everyone happier.” Cassian was silent for a moment before looking at me. “Lenora, Sable won’t be staying at the estate often. Why don’t you…” I smiled faintly. “Fine.” “She can have the room.” Both of them froze. I lowered my head and finished straightening my sleeve. “After the celebration, I’ll move out.” I was leaving anyway. This room no longer mattered.

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Chapter 1 At the company dinner, our newly appointed CEO stepped in and took a drink meant for me. My coworkers were stunned. “You know Mr. Vance?” “Back in high school, Mr. Vance was my roommate’s boyfriend.” Sitting at the head of the table, Julian Vance silently cast a glance my way. Halfway through the night, I drew a “Truth” card in our drinking game. “Question: Do you remember the very first thing your crush ever said to you?” “If you don’t answer, you have to drink this entire row of shots.” In my peripheral vision, I could feel Julian watching me. I couldn’t help but think back to my senior year of high school. In my third year of secretly being in love with him, he finally spoke to me for the very first time. “Hello. Regarding your plagiarism of my girlfriend’s work to win that award—I expect you to voluntarily forfeit your placement and issue a public apology to her.” Thinking of this, I looked at the table and asked: “So, I just need to down all ten of these?” 01 My coworker’s eyes went wide. “No way, Chloe.” “Are you still not over that guy? You’d rather down a whole row of shots than even mention him?” Hearing this, Julian lifted his gaze toward us. I gave a small, embarrassed smile. “It’s not that I’m not over him.” “It’s just that I forgot.” The female coworker sitting next to me let out a sound of disbelief. “How could you forget so quickly?” “At Caleb’s birthday party a while back, you got drunk and talked all about it.” “You said your life was a tragedy. You had a crush on him for three years in high school, but the very first time he spoke to you, it was to stand up for his girlfriend against you.” The hand Julian was using to swirl his glass suddenly stopped. Everyone at the table turned to look at me, their faces a mix of shock and gossip. Compared to high school, my pride was no longer so fragile that I needed to save face at all costs. I picked up the second shot glass, keeping my tone light: “Yeah, well, what he said wasn’t very nice. It would be a bit awkward to repeat it now, so it’s better to just skip it.” My coworker realized her mistake and quietly muttered an apology. The others stopped pressing the issue, laughing it off and changing the subject. Since it was just a game to liven up the mood, they let me off the hook after three shots. Even so, when the dinner ended, my head was spinning. The alcohol hit me as I was leaving the private room, and I stumbled slightly. A hand caught my arm from behind. It was Caleb, a guy from my department. “Are you okay?” I shook my head. “I’m fine, thanks.” “Can you make it home alone? Why don’t I give you a ride?” Before I could answer. “Hey, why are you two blocking the door?” someone called out. “Mr. Vance can’t get out.” I took a few steps forward, clearing the doorway. Julian turned sideways and walked past me. “Thank you.” His faint breath brushed the top of my head. I tilted my head slightly. “Don’t mention it, Mr. Vance.” 02 A few of the guys in our department were completely passed out. Caleb looked at me apologetically. “Hayes just shoved three drunk guys into my car. It’s totally packed.” “I don’t think I can take you home anymore…” I smiled. “It’s fine. I can just grab an Uber.” “You go take care of them. See you tomorrow.” Two other female coworkers were waiting by the entrance with me, trying to hail a ride. One of them looked at her phone and gasped in pleasant surprise: “Hayes just texted the group! He said Mr. Vance can give us a ride!” “He’s pulling out of the parking garage now. We can cancel our Ubers.” “Who knew the cold, unapproachable handsome boss was actually such a gentleman?” I hesitated. “I think I’ll still just get my own ride.” “Oh, come on, Chloe! Don’t be stupid—it’s a luxury car!” “Besides, you and Mr. Vance went to high school together. Don’t be such a stranger.” I said softly, “We weren’t exactly close back then, either.” “Get in.” Julian’s voice came from behind me. His tone was completely flat. I was practically half-dragged into the backseat by the girls. Julian dropped me off last. When we arrived at my apartment complex, the tension in my shoulders finally relaxed. “Thank you, Mr. Vance. Have a good night.” Click. The car doors locked. I looked up. In the rearview mirror, my eyes met his. They were as dark and deep as a bottomless pool. “Chloe Bennett. It’s been so long.” “Do you really have nothing to say to me?” I didn’t know what he wanted to hear, so I stayed polite: “It’s been a while, Julian.” “Thank you for covering for me at dinner tonight. You’re very kind to your old classmates.” He gave a faint, almost imperceptible smile. He rolled down his window and pulled out a cigarette. “Do you mind?” I said it was fine. It just reminded me of high school. Julian used to hang around a crowd of rebellious, club-hopping kids who constantly smoked. But he had never touched the stuff himself. Six years later, he carried a trace of coldness and heavy gloom. “Six years ago, why did you transfer schools without any warning?” “I called you countless times. You never answered a single one.” I was a bit surprised. I didn’t know he had tried to contact me for so long. I thought about it, then told the truth in a half-joking tone: “I was afraid you were looking for me to demand that I apologize to Natalie, forfeit my scholarship, and give the award to her.” “Honestly, looking back, apologizing wouldn’t have been a big deal. I really didn’t need to fight you guys so hard on it.” “But I couldn’t return the prize money anyway… because I had already spent it.” By the end of my sentence, I felt a little embarrassed. The man in the driver’s seat remained silent. After a long while, just as I was getting increasingly uncomfortable, he finally spoke: “Natalie and I broke up before graduation.” “And I wasn’t looking for you to demand an apology.” His cigarette was burning down to the filter. He stubbed it out in the car’s ashtray. “Chloe, the truth about the plagiarism incident came out.” “The day after you transferred, Natalie admitted that she was the one who copied you.” Hearing that my name was cleared of an old injustice… I didn’t really feel much. The emotional ripple was maybe slightly bigger than finding out my favorite bagel shop had relocated. I gave a slow nod. “That’s good, then.” Other than that, there was really nothing left to say. 03 I stepped out of Julian’s car. I stopped by the grocery store to pick up some ingredients, planning to make myself some hangover soup when I got home. But the moment I walked through my front door… It felt as if a soaking wet, heavy blanket had been thrown over my shoulders. It dragged me down, draining every ounce of energy from my body. The suffocating grievances I had buried six years ago suddenly surged up, hitting me on a brutal delay. I curled up on the sofa, wrapping a blanket tightly around my head and body. I closed my eyes and told myself: You should be happy, Chloe. 04 I can’t clearly remember when it all started. I only remember the most humiliating day of my life. Natalie cornered me again, trying to force me to admit that I had plagiarized her work to win the creative writing scholarship. It was noon, right after the bell rang. I didn’t want to deal with her, so I tried to walk around her. Right outside our classroom was the staircase. Natalie chased after me, grabbing my arm and arguing. I tried to shake her off. In the scuffle, we both tumbled down the stairs. It wasn’t a steep flight, but it hurt enough that I couldn’t get up for a long time. Someone ran to the AP Physics class and got Julian. He glanced at me, then walked straight past me and knelt beside Natalie. “Are you okay?” “Did you hit your head?” Liam, our Student Council President, heard the commotion and ran out. “What are you guys doing?” “Did it really have to go this far?” Natalie glared at me. “If Chloe hadn’t stolen my work, I wouldn’t have made a scene.” Liam frowned. “Honestly, I don’t believe she’s the type to plagiarize.” “There has to be a misunderstanding here.” “I suggest you two sit down and actually talk.” “There’s no misunderstanding!” A suddenly shrill voice rang out from the crowd. It was Natalie’s best friend, Maya. The three of us shared a dorm room at our boarding school. She had always hated me, so it was no surprise she was taking Natalie’s side. But I didn’t know if it was just my imagination… Maya looked panicked, her eyes darting everywhere. “Chloe definitely copied Natalie.” “Because… because she’s always been in love with Natalie’s boyfriend, Julian!” “She wrote it in her diary! She’s had a crush on him for three years.” “She copied Natalie because she was jealous and wanted to ruin things for her.” She emphasized: “There is absolutely, positively no misunderstanding!” It was passing period, so a huge crowd of students had gathered on the stairs to watch. Hearing Maya’s words, a wave of whispers and gasps erupted from the crowd. The stares fixed on me felt like needles piercing my skin. I clenched my fists, terrified to look up at Julian, who was mere feet away. A look of sheer disgust washed over Natalie’s face. “So you were scheming after my boyfriend this whole time.” “What else do you have to say for yourself now?” I pushed against the floor and slowly stood up, my uniform covered in dust. “I told you, I didn’t copy you.” “If you have an issue, take it up with the scholarship committee.” Julian had paused briefly when Maya shouted out my secret. Aside from that, he had no reaction. He looked down at Natalie and asked quietly, “Can you stand?” Natalie pouted, her eyes tearing up. “No, I think I sprained my ankle…” He didn’t say another word. He just picked her up in his arms and carried her toward the nurse’s office. Someone in the crowd jeered. “Hey, Julian! A girl likes you and you’re not even gonna say anything?” Julian walked past me without even a sideways glance, his voice icy flat. “What is there to say?” “If you think being liked by someone like her is a good thing, then I hope your next girlfriend is exactly like her.” 05 My knees were badly scraped up. Liam helped me to an urgent care clinic off-campus to get bandaged up. “I believe you didn’t plagiarize.” “But Natalie didn’t look like she was lying either.” “There’s got to be a mix-up. I’ll help you look into it.” I froze for a couple of seconds. “Thank you…” More than uncovering the truth, I just wanted this whole nightmare to end so I could get my life back. But Natalie was far more extreme than I thought. On Saturday, I was working my shift at an off-campus diner. She brought a whole group of people to harass me. In their booth, Julian sat right next to her. He didn’t look like he knew what she was planning beforehand. He turned his head, giving Natalie a silent, questioning look. Natalie looped her arm through his. “Just watch the show.” Nate, Natalie’s cousin. He was the most notorious delinquent at our school. He pointed at a plate of food, smiling maliciously. “Excuse me, waitress, this dish looks pretty unhygienic.” As he spoke, another guy stood up and blocked the booth’s exit. I looked carefully at the plate Nate was pointing at. “It looks fine to me.” Nate reached out, plucked a strand of hair from my shoulder, and dropped it right into the food in front of everyone. “Well, there’s a problem now, isn’t there?” I scanned the room, suppressing my rising panic. “What do you want?” “I want you to give me a kiss.” He tapped his lips. Julian’s gaze flicked over to me, unreadable. They had numbers on their side. If I fought back, it would end worse for me than I could imagine. I forced myself to sound compliant. “I can have the kitchen remake this for you.” Nate smirked. “I’m full now.” “If you don’t agree, I’ll just come to this diner every single weekend to see you.” The air went dead silent. Nate waited patiently for my choice. Like he was absolutely certain I would cave. After a long time, I walked over to the guy blocking the door and said: “Move.” Nate called out from behind me, “If you walk out that door, I’m telling your manager you dropped your hair in my food.” “Maybe he forgives you once or twice, but what if I keep coming back?” I turned to look at him. “I’m going to tell my manager I quit.” My eyes shifted to Natalie, sitting right behind him. “Are you satisfied now?” 06 I quit my diner job. I didn’t want to go back to the dorm early and see Natalie and Maya. I wandered around town for hours, only returning to school after dark. Right outside my dorm building, I ran into Julian. He had probably just walked Natalie back. I lowered my eyes and tried to walk past him. “Chloe.” He called out, stopping me. “So, even after what happened today, you still refuse to admit it?” I stared hard at him. “I didn’t plagiarize.” “And I certainly didn’t copy Natalie just to get your attention, like Maya claimed.” Julian looked away. “I never said you did.” I brushed past him. Julian’s voice carried over again. “Nate’s crew has their eyes on you now.” “They’re not people you want to mess with.” “If you’re going to stay stubborn about this, I suggest you prepare yourself for what they’re going to do.” 07 Just as Julian warned, Nate began targeting me. They would stomp in puddles as my bus drove by, splashing me with dirty water. They threw basketballs directly at my ankles in the gym. Things like this became a daily occurrence. But they were incredibly calculated. They kept the harassment just below the threshold of something I could report. If I went to a teacher, I’d just look dramatic. During lunch break, I hid near the campus lake to call my grandma. The second I heard her voice, I started crying. “Nana, can I come home this weekend?” “I miss you. I’m really unhappy here.” My grandmother stayed silent for a moment. “The bus ticket costs sixty dollars, Chloe. You should save that money for food.” “It’s normal to have disagreements with classmates. You need to learn how to handle it yourself.” “Besides, I’m going to your Aunt Sarah’s house on Saturday…” I instantly stopped talking. The lump in my throat hardened. I couldn’t cry anymore. Nana was going to Aunt Sarah’s to see my male cousin. I knew she favored boys. It was the reason my other aunt ran away from home and cut contact for twenty years. But after my dad died and my mom abandoned me when I was three, Nana was the only one who didn’t throw me away. No matter how broke we were, she fought to keep me in school. I could never, ever be angry at her. I hung up the phone, wiped my tears, and heard a rustling sound from the benches nearby. I walked over to check, but no one was there. A few minutes later, two guys walked by, scanning the area. “Where’s Julian?” “Didn’t he say he was waiting for us here?” “Let’s check the courtyard.” I didn’t think much of it. Once I calmed down, I went back to class. 08 Natalie said the mere sight of me made her sick. So she moved out of the dorm and rented an apartment off-campus. After she left, Maya came to apologize to me. “Reading your diary and exposing your crush on Julian was wrong.” “But what I’m about to say is for your own good.” “Just take the fall for the plagiarism.” I finally looked up at her. She had heavy dark circles under her eyes. It looked like she hadn’t slept in days. “Natalie is extreme.” “Since she’s decided you copied her, she will torture you until you admit it.” “She might even blow this up to the school board. You won’t be able to handle the consequences.” Maya was acting incredibly weird. Normally, given how much she hated me, she’d be adding fuel to the fire, egging Natalie on to do worse things to me. She would never be this kind. “I didn’t do it. Why should I confess to it?” Maya looked frantic. She opened her mouth to say something, but the dorm door swung open. It was Natalie. “What are you two talking about?” “Come on, Maya. I’m taking you to lunch.” Maya swallowed whatever she was about to say and hurried out after her. 09 It was my turn to clean the classroom on Wednesday. I left the academic building later than everyone else. As I walked out, I bumped into Julian, Natalie, and one of Julian’s friends. They were walking ahead of me and didn’t notice me. Natalie shook Julian’s arm. “You don’t understand, Julian. Now, whenever Chloe even reads a book in front of me, it feels like a provocation.” Julian’s friend shot her a deeply complicated look. “Don’t you think you’re being a little… much?” Natalie ignored him, a sudden idea lighting up her face. “Julian! I heard your family’s corporate lawyer is amazing.” “Can you have him draft a cease-and-desist letter for me? I want to sue Chloe for plagiarism.” “I mean… I won’t actually sue her. I just want to scare her.” “Better yet, let’s mail a copy to her grandmother! That should force her to admit it.” My breath hitched. I almost sprinted forward to scream at her. Julian looked down, his expression unreadable. After a moment, he said quietly, “Mr. Hayes is out of town on a business trip.” “And don’t go finding a lawyer on your own. Without concrete proof, no lawyer will take the case.” Julian reassuringly squeezed Natalie’s fingers. “I’ll talk to Chloe again.” Natalie sounded a bit disappointed. “Okay, I’ll listen to you…” After she walked away, Julian’s friend finally spoke: “Didn’t I just see Mr. Hayes at your house yesterday dropping off documents for your dad?” “When did he leave town? Today?” After a long pause, Julian gave a noncommittal, “Yeah.” 10 I remembered Julian saying he was going to talk to me. So every time I saw him at school, my nerves completely locked up. But he just looked away like I was a stranger. He showed absolutely no intention of speaking to me. I breathed a sigh of relief. After school, Nate came to our classroom to wait for Natalie. He reached out and deliberately shoved every single book off my desk. Then, just like always, he grinned and offered a fake apology. “Oops. My bad. Slipped.” Julian had also come to pick up Natalie. He saw the whole thing. I squatted down to pick up my books, used to it by now. But Liam couldn’t stand it. “You knocked someone’s books over and you can’t even help pick them up?” Nate stepped up to him, getting in his face. “Say that again. I dare you.” Julian stood leaning lazily against the doorframe, his arms crossed. He spoke in a cold, flat tone. “Nate.” “You really want to start a fight in someone else’s classroom?” Kids from wealthy, powerful families always carried more weight at school. As arrogant as Nate was, he still had to give Julian face. He smirked, taking a few steps back. Natalie chimed in, “Let it go. He’s the class president, anyway.” After they left, Liam helped me pack up my bag. “From now on, whenever you have cleaning duty, I’ll wait for you and walk you back to your dorm.” “If they actually lay a hand on you, come tell me. We’ll go to the police and blow this wide open. I refuse to believe there’s no way to stop them.” I looked at him and thanked him sincerely. He was the only person who, from the very beginning, firmly believed I hadn’t plagiarized. During a time when I had grown so numb I couldn’t even feel sad anymore, Liam was like a breath of fresh air, brushing the heavy ash off my shoulders. He gave me a tiny sliver of space to breathe. 11 I found a new part-time job at a bakery a bit further from campus. I knew Liam liked cookies. Sunday night, after I made a batch, I specifically asked my manager to bake them for me on Monday. During Monday lunch break, I went to the bakery to pick up the tin of cookies. On my way back, cutting across the athletic field, I saw Nate and two of his friends messing around, throwing water balloons at each other. The thin plastic would burst on impact, soaking whoever it hit. Nate saw me. Before I could dodge, he threw a water balloon right at my arm. It was summer, and the school uniform blouses were thin. Once wet, the fabric clung to my skin, turning completely transparent over my arm. Nate sighed in exaggerated disappointment. “Missed. If I aimed a little higher, we could’ve seen what color bra you’re wearing today.” The guy next to him laughed. “No worries, let me try!” Another water balloon slammed into me. “Damn! Still missed.” I couldn’t take it anymore. I set the cookie tin down on the grass. I ran to the landscaping hose nearby, turned the spigot on full blast, and sprayed them directly in their faces. “You like playing with water?” “Let me help you.” “Holy shit! Are you psychotic?” “Stop spraying! I can’t fucking see!” Seeing them look like drowned rats, I dropped the hose, grabbed the cookie tin, and ran for my life. Nate and his friends chased after me. “You dead bitch! You better run faster!” “If I catch you, I’m going to kill you.” The academic building was still far away. I knew I couldn’t outrun them before they caught me. I sprinted as fast as I could. Just as I rounded a corner, a hand reached out, grabbed me, and yanked me into a dark room. It was Julian. Out of reflex, I took a defensive step back. He let out a short scoff, seeing right through me. “Did you think I was with them?” Outside, Nate’s voice echoed in the hallway. “Where did she go?” “She can’t run that fast. Keep looking.” I exhaled sharply. “Thank you.” Julian did a quick sweep of my drenched clothes. “Wait here for a bit.” “If you don’t go out, they won’t find you.” This was the school’s security/AV room. You couldn’t get in without a key. Nate would never suspect I was hiding in here. A minute later, Julian came back and tossed a jacket into my arms. “I borrowed it from a girl in my class.” “Remember to return it tomorrow.” With that, he pulled out a chair in front of the monitor screens and sat down. When I was hosing down Nate and his friends, I had gotten completely soaked myself. I didn’t reject the jacket. Just as I was about to thank him again… My stomach growled violently. I hadn’t had time to eat lunch because I went to get the cookies. Julian turned his head, glancing at the cookie tin. “If you’re hungry, why aren’t you eating those?” “These are for Liam.” He unscrewed a bottle of water and took a sip. “You guys are pretty close.” I lowered my eyes. “He’s the one person who believes I didn’t cheat.” Julian silently curled his lip in a smirk. He left the room again. When he returned, he placed a sandwich and a carton of milk on the desk next to me. I refused. “It’s fine. I was just about to leave.” “Suit yourself.” Julian casually warned, “I just checked the hall. They’re still hanging around outside.” Lunch break wasn’t over for another thirty minutes. They would probably leave soon. I still didn’t touch the sandwich or the milk. A while later, my stomach growled again. I pressed a hand against my aching stomach. Julian didn’t turn around, but he laughed. “Ungrateful.” When the warning bell for the first afternoon class rang, I thanked Julian and left. He didn’t respond. 12 On Saturday, I asked my bakery manager for the weekend off so I could go home. Nana had been admitted to the hospital. The doctor said she had a malignant tumor in her head. It needed to be surgically removed. The surgery would cost around $20,000. My Uncle Mark had the money, but he refused to pay. “Chloe, your grandma is in her seventies…” “To put it bluntly, she doesn’t have many years left anyway.” “Twenty grand! That’s your cousin’s college fund.” I stared at him, my face completely blank. He looked down, avoiding my gaze, but held his ground. Compared to this, Natalie’s bullying felt completely insignificant. On Monday afternoon, during the last period before the bell, our AP Literature teacher used my scholarship-winning essay as an example on the projector. Natalie loudly interrupted her. “If you insist on using a plagiarized essay as an example for this class, then I’m sorry, Mrs. Davis, but I can’t sit here and listen.” The teacher remained completely calm. “Then you are welcome to leave.” “I have read both essays. The outlines and core themes are about 60% identical.” “But I questioned Chloe. She could explain her entire thought process, the inspiration, and the structural choices flawlessly. You, on the other hand, couldn’t even articulate the basic thematic foundation of the piece.” “I have no idea how you can sit there and confidently claim she copied you.” For a split second, Natalie actually looked panicked. She turned to look at Maya. But Maya just kept her head buried in her desk, her body completely rigid, terrified to make eye contact. Humiliated in front of the entire class, Natalie stormed out of the room. After school, as I walked out of the building. Not too far away, Natalie was leaning against Julian’s chest, crying. “She is so disgusting! It was clearly my essay, and the teacher still took her side!” “I can’t take this anymore!” “She’s driving me insane. I have to make her pay!” Julian gently stroked the back of her head. “Don’t cry. I’ll figure something out.” As he spoke, he looked up, and his eyes locked onto mine. I turned and walked toward the dorms. Just as I was about to reach the building, Julian caught up to me. “We need to talk.” “There is nothing to talk about. I’ve said it a million times. I didn’t cheat, and I won’t confess to something I didn’t do.” He grabbed my wrist. “Why don’t you just name your price?” I stared at him in disbelief and tried to shove his hand away. “Stop assuming everyone is as obsessed with money as you are.” “Let me go.” Julian tightened his grip, his lips pressed in a thin line, and pulled me closer. “If you were actually that morally superior, you wouldn’t have plagiarized in the first place, would you?” “Why is it impossible that Natalie copied me? What gives you the right to be so sure?” “Throwing the blame back is pathetic.” Julian said, “I know her. If she had actually stolen your work, she wouldn’t be this genuinely upset.” I finally broke down and cried, screaming at him: “But I didn’t do it either!” Julian’s grip on my wrist loosened slightly. The boy pressed his lips together, his voice dropping low. “Arguing about this is pointless.” “Let’s talk about something practical.” “How much more money do you need for your grandmother’s surgery?” My crying abruptly stopped. I looked up. Julian was standing against the sunlight, the backlight blurring his silhouette into something entirely surreal. For a second, I felt like this entire world was an illusion. But the reality was, I had been framed. And my tragedy was real. 13 It was long past dismissal time. The school courtyard was completely empty except for the two of us. Julian said he could cover my grandmother’s surgery costs. I sat across from him, nodding in dull comprehension. “Consider it a loan.” “Besides confessing to the plagiarism, is there anything else I need to do?” Twenty thousand dollars wasn’t a small amount. In the face of saving my grandmother’s life, my pride and dignity were completely worthless. “You don’t need to pay it back.” Julian’s Adam’s apple bobbed. After a long pause, he said quietly: “Given Natalie’s personality, she’ll probably make you apologize in front of the whole school.” My expression didn’t change. I nodded to show I understood. It didn’t matter. Even if I had to get on my knees in front of everyone, I would do it. Not long ago, I was just fighting back against Julian for trying to buy me off. Half an hour later, I was easily accepting his money. I simply hadn’t realized how large the sum would be. Julian said: “I’ll also warn Nate. I’ll make sure he stops bothering you.” “No need.” “Liam already went to the dean. They got suspended.” Julian scoffed, a trace of mockery bleeding into his tone. “You really trust him, don’t you?” “People might start thinking he’s the one you have a crush on.” “Do you really think a suspension is going to keep guys like that in line for more than a few days?” He dropped a cold, clinical evaluation: “You’re being naive.” I had zero energy for small talk. “Tomorrow, I’ll publicly confess to plagiarism and apologize to Natalie. After that, we’re done, right?” He kept his eyes downcast and let out a soft “Yeah.” His voice sounded incredibly hoarse. “Okay. I’m going now.” 14 I suppose it was the single stroke of luck in my otherwise miserable life. In the end, I never confessed to the plagiarism. Early the next morning, right before homeroom, I got a call from the hospital. They said someone was transferring my grandmother to another facility. When I rushed over, I saw a sharp-looking woman in a tailored blazer. She was filling out the transfer paperwork. When I saw the name she signed on the forms, my suspicions were confirmed. She was Nana’s youngest daughter—the one who hadn’t come home in twenty years. I walked up and looked up at her. “Aunt Sarah.” She paused, looking down at me. “Are you willing to transfer schools and move to Seattle with me?” “She’ll need someone to look after her post-surgery, and I’m too busy. I might not always be around.” In my pocket, my phone buzzed rapidly with several text notifications. I opened it. The class group chat was exploding. [Holy shit, what are all those reporters doing at the front gate?] [Natalie brought them. She posted online last night saying Chloe plagiarized her to win the scholarship and implied the committee was covering for Chloe. She tagged the local news and the school board… the post went viral. The reporters are here to interview Natalie.] [Oh shit, why did I send this in the class chat?] The message was quickly deleted. I also received a text from an unknown number. “Where are you?” It was almost certainly Julian. I blocked his number, left all my group chats, and deleted my social media accounts. I looked up at my aunt and smiled. “I’m willing to transfer.”

🌟 Continue the story here 👉🏻 📲 Download the “MotoNovel” app 🔍 search for “522252”, and watch the full series ✨! #MotoNovel

The summer I turned eighteen, Liam took my virginity. I endured the pain, secretly thrilled the whole night, thinking my six-year crush had finally blossomed into true love. That was, until the next day, when I overheard his friends teasing him. “Not bad, man. The good girl let you pop her cherry.” I felt a flush of embarrassment and was just about to quietly slip away when I heard Liam’s nonchalant reply. “I want to go after Chloe, but I was afraid she’d think I was too inexperienced. “I just used Maya to practice my technique.” I didn’t say a word. Right before the college decision deadline, I silently logged into the portal and changed my commitment from Boston to Miami. 1 Liam’s words struck me like a bolt of lightning from a clear sky. My mind went completely blank. Despite the sweltering summer heat, my entire body turned ice cold. The conversation in the empty classroom continued. The guys seemed to pause in shock before speaking again. “Damn, Liam. Only you would use the sweet girl next door for target practice.” “Doesn’t that basically make her your, what, placeholder?” Liam laughed dismissively. “Don’t talk nonsense. It’s not like she lost out on the deal.” Someone immediately chimed in. “True, true. Maya’s a bit too skinny anyway. Compared to Chloe, her body is…” Liam threw a textbook at the guy, cutting him off. “It was a spur-of-the-moment thing. The vibe was right, and honestly, she looked like she wanted it so bad…” The guys exchanged knowing looks and kept joking. “Who knew the quiet girl was so thirsty?” “Tsk, tsk. Our boy Liam is just too charming. Free meat delivered to your mouth, might as well take a bite.” “Maya’s been trailing after you for years. She finally got what she wanted. She’s probably been dreaming of jumping you.” The laughter in the room grew deafening. I bit my lower lip so hard I tasted blood, my hands balled into tight fists. It took everything in me just to keep from collapsing outside that door. Footsteps approached from the end of the hall. I snapped out of my daze and fled the scene in a panic, locking myself in a bathroom stall. 2 The tears of heartbreak and humiliation finally broke through. Liam’s words echoed in my mind, over and over, syllable by syllable. They completely obliterated whatever self-esteem I had left. If I hadn’t heard it with my own ears, I wouldn’t have believed that the boy who held me so tenderly and passionately last night was the exact same person. It turns out you can do the most intimate things with someone without loving them at all. Even in the most passionate, breathless moments, people can still lie. The “happy ending” I foolishly believed in was just a sick joke for him and his friends. The harder I cried, the more it hurt. I didn’t even dare to make a sound. My body just shook uncontrollably. A long time passed. My phone buzzed with a text notification. It was Liam. [Take an Uber home yourself. The senior class is having a party tonight, it’s not convenient to bring you.] I didn’t reply. He sent another one. [Don’t forget to go buy a Plan B pill. I don’t have time today. Make sure you take it, be a good girl.] I stared at those two texts for a long time. From dusk until dawn yesterday, Liam had tossed and turned with me. When we were both exhausted, right before he pulled me into his arms to sleep, he whispered it twice. “I didn’t have protection for our first time. I’ll make sure to buy you the pill tomorrow.” He even lectured me about how girls need to protect themselves, that I had to take the morning-after pill or it would hurt my body. At the time, I thought he was being so responsible. I thought I had finally found my happiness. But now… In a split second, I sobered up. I dug my nails into my palms, forcing the tears to stop. I wiped my face, straightened my clothes, and walked out of the bathroom. I was too embarrassed to go to a pharmacy in person, so I ordered the pill on a delivery app. When the driver left it at my door, I waited a long time before I dared to sneak out and grab it. Swallowing the pill through my tears, I felt like all my strength had been drained. I just sat blankly on my bedroom rug. Ever since Liam’s family moved in next door ten years ago, I had been his little shadow. I had never imagined what a world without him looked like. I was too scared to. But from now on, it was just going to be me. Outside the floor-to-ceiling windows, the streetlights flickered on, then gradually went out. I don’t know how much time passed before my best friend, Harper, FaceTimed me. “Maya, why didn’t you come to the party with Liam tonight? “Chloe from the liberal arts track is here. With you gone, she’s practically throwing herself at him. They’re being so gross right now.” Harper flipped the camera. 3 In a dim corner of the VIP room, Liam and the school’s “IT girl,” Chloe, were sitting pressed against each other. Chloe was wearing a crop top and a tight denim skirt that accentuated her tiny waist and long legs. The two of them had clearly isolated themselves from the rest of the group. They were whispering so closely they were practically rubbing cheeks. Even though the screen, the thick, palpable tension between them was suffocating. My chest tightened uncontrollably. He said this afternoon he wanted to go after her. Looks like he already caught her tonight. During a game of Truth or Dare, Chloe pulled a card demanding she lie on the floor while a guy did pushups over her. Unsurprisingly, Liam volunteered immediately. The crowd went wild. Blushing, Chloe lay down obediently on the sofa. Liam hovered above her, easily knocking out dozens of pushups. He was very restrained the whole time, trying his best not to let his body touch hers. Until the very last one. I don’t know if his arms gave out, or if he did it on purpose. He collapsed, his entire body pressing directly on top of Chloe’s. The screams and cheers around them nearly blew the roof off. Both of their faces turned crimson. Amidst the chaotic chanting, Liam simply lowered his head and kissed her. They made out like nobody else was in the room. It lasted for three whole minutes before they reluctantly pulled apart. For those agonizing three minutes, I stared blankly at the screen, forgetting how to breathe. My heart felt like it was being ripped open. I wanted to cry, but I had cried so much that afternoon without drinking any water. I physically had no tears left. “Tsk, tsk. Did you see that, Maya? There was literally a string of saliva when they pulled apart. He’s obsessed.” Harper sighed and flipped the camera, walking out of the noisy room. She found a quiet corner in the hall and looked at me seriously. “Don’t be mad at me, Maya. I knew if I didn’t make you watch it with your own eyes, you’d never give up on him.” My throat was parched. The words I forced out sounded rusty. “Yeah. I’m not mad at you.” I was mad at myself for being an idiot for so many years. I thought just because I was the only one allowed to stay by his side, that spot belonged to me. “I just can’t stand him,” Harper vented. “He knows you’ve been in love with him forever. Why play the innocent boy and string you along, watching you fall deeper and deeper? “You saw it yourself. I really hope you think this through. Don’t let him waste your next four years of college too…” “I won’t, Harper.” I cut her off, stating it calmly. “I’m not giving myself another chance to be a fool. “Harper, I’ve decided. I’m going to Miami with you. “But you have to promise to keep it a secret for now.” 4 To make sure I couldn’t hesitate, I opened my laptop right while she watched. Without a second thought, just moments before the portal closed for good, I changed my commitment to that famous university in Miami. Harper, naturally, was screaming with joy. She had been begging me to go to the same school as her for months. But when we first started high school, Liam and I had made a pact. We were going to work hard and head to Boston together—his dream city. That was where his top-choice aerospace engineering program was. Even though I hated the freezing northern winters and had zero interest in STEM schools, I made it my ultimate goal for three years. Growing up as neighbors, both our parents were thrilled at the prospect of us attending college in the same city. Everyone, including me, thought that once we became adults, it was only natural that we’d become a couple. But now, I had zero reasons to go to Boston. Or rather, after today, if I kept clinging to Liam like I used to, I would absolutely despise myself. I just wanted to hide as far away as possible. Anywhere was fine, as long as Liam wasn’t there. He was going to the East Coast. So I was going south. 5 Before bed, I filled the bathtub to the brim, wanting to scrub myself entirely clean. But when I took off my clothes, the purple and red bruises on my skin were glaringly obvious. The memories of last night rushed back uncontrollably. The scorching heat of his skin when we held each other tight, the burning breath against my ear when he lost control—the residual warmth still seemed to haunt the room. I shook my head violently, trying to shake off the absurdity. I grabbed the roughest exfoliating sponge I owned and scrubbed my skin over and over again, only stopping when my entire body was raw and red. It was a clumsy attempt to erase the most humiliating memory of my life. The result was that it hurt so much I tossed and turned all night. Liam, as expected, didn’t send a single message. He broke the streak of saying goodnight to each other every single day for the past six years. It was for the best. This day was bound to come anyway. The withdrawal process starts tonight. I finally fell into a hazy sleep near dawn. The next morning, I was still dead asleep when I felt someone press a soft kiss against my forehead. 6 I jolted awake. When I opened my eyes, I saw a familiar jawline and Adam’s apple. The scent hovering over me was Liam’s favorite cedarwood cologne, mixed with a faint, unfamiliar trace of lemon perfume. I almost forgot—Liam always knew my front door code. Seeing me wake up, Liam moved down, chuckling as he tried to kiss my lips. I panicked and jerked my head away. I shoved him back and scrambled to the other side of the bed. Liam paused, teasing me. “Still shy? Hmm?” I didn’t answer. I just pulled the blanket up over my head. Liam started scolding me while trying to pull the blanket down. “Maya, you’ve got some nerve. You didn’t even say goodnight yesterday, and you turned your phone off. “And now you’re hiding from me?” He moved fast, sliding right into my bed. Before I could react, he had wrapped his arms completely around me. “Be good. How many times have I told you, you can’t skip breakfast. “I went on a run this morning and picked up those artisan breakfast sandwiches from that place downtown. I waited in line forever. “Do you want to get up and eat now, or do you want to… be eaten first?” His breath was right against my skin, his hands wandering over me. Snapping out of my grogginess, I fought him off like my life depended on it. But I’m barely 5’3″. I was absolutely no match for a guy who was 6’2″. I honestly couldn’t understand what was going through his head. He had Chloe now. Why was he still messing with me? After struggling until I was gasping for air, I hadn’t broken free. Instead, he hugged me tighter. “What’s your deal today? “Are you mad? Just because I didn’t take you to the party last night?” I didn’t say a word. He buried his face in the crook of my neck and laughed. “Let me guess. Your bestie gave you the play-by-play? “It was just a game. Is it really worth being jealous over? “Why are you still like this? Anytime I get even slightly close to another girl, you throw a silent tantrum.” I was so furious I couldn’t even form a sentence. Remembering a move from a self-defense class, I jerked my knee up and aimed right for his groin. As he groaned in pain, I scrambled off the bed. “Maya!” Liam gritted his teeth, his face flushing red. I quickly threw a hoodie over my pajamas and hurried out to the living room. I didn’t want to be in the same room as him, especially not my bedroom. A moment later, Liam walked out, looking both angry and exasperated. After a long pause, as if he suddenly remembered, he asked casually: “By the way, you took that pill yesterday, right? “Don’t cause a disaster. I wouldn’t be able to face your parents.” He walked over to the dining table, picked up a cup of iced coffee, and held it out to me. “Listen to me. Eat something before you stay mad. You know your stomach is bad.” I didn’t speak, and I didn’t take it. Liam held his hand in the air for a long time until he finally lost his patience. “What is this really about? “Maya, throwing a fit is fine, but there needs to be a reason and a limit, right?” I replied coldly: “I’m just a practice dummy. I don’t deserve a limit.” Liam flared up. He slammed the iced coffee down on the glass coffee table. He hit it so hard the plastic cup cracked, and the coffee instantly soaked into my expensive wool rug. “What is that supposed to mean? “Who do you think you are, Maya? “We slept together once—consensually—and suddenly you think you own me? Do you have any idea how suffocating that is?” His tone was more vicious than it had ever been. Instantly, my tears fell like rain. There was no build-up. The humiliation and grievances from yesterday flooded my chest all over again. Liam didn’t seem to expect me to cry so hard. He suddenly looked entirely out of his depth. He apologized, frustrated. “I’m sorry. I drank too much last night, I was just speaking without thinking.” He crouched down next to me and reached out to wipe my tears, but I dodged his hand again. He froze, his hand suspended in mid-air. Just as he was about to try coaxing me again, his phone chimed. He glanced at it, his expression shifting drastically, and immediately stood up to leave. “I have an emergency. Cool off for a bit. “You’re going to college soon. You can’t keep acting like a child. Nobody is going to tolerate that.” 7 Less than half an hour after he left, Harper sent me a screenshot. It was Chloe’s Snapchat story. [SunnyDays: Said I was hungry, and a love-filled breakfast magically appeared. Feels like my crush and I are totally mutually obsessed~] The picture showed the exact same artisan breakfast sandwiches Liam had brought to my dining table. I didn’t reply. I silently wiped my tears, crouched down, and carefully tried to clean the coffee Liam had spilled. I scrubbed for a long time, only to realize the stain had seeped deep into the base of the wool. It wasn’t coming out. In a fit of anger, I rolled up the entire rug and threw it in the trash. Whatever. Liam and his parents had hauled this rug all the way back from a trip to Nepal, spending a whole afternoon picking it out just to gift it to me. While I was at it, I gathered everything Liam had ever left at my house, plus every single gift he had ever given me. I even went through and threw out every printed photo of us together. It took me all day, but I packed it all up in garbage bags and dumped it. He probably didn’t want this garbage anyway. After Liam left that day, I didn’t hear a peep from him for days. Things were probably going swimmingly with the IT girl. Or maybe he was just waiting for me to cave. Every time we had a cold war in the past, I was always the one to cave first. Without fail. But this time, I didn’t reach out. And there was no need to ever reach out again. I blocked his number and social media, changed the passcode to my front door, and deleted all my online profiles. Once I finished, I called my parents, who were out of town on business. I told them I wanted to go to London to visit my aunt for the summer. My plan was to stay there until the summer ended, fly back, and immediately head down to Miami with Harper for orientation. Besides Harper, no one else knew I had switched my college commitment to Florida. This itinerary would perfectly avoid any chance of running into Liam. My mom teased me on the phone. “Ooh, are you and Liam going on a romantic getaway?” I made an excuse to deny it. I didn’t want to explain. I just told her I wanted to spend time with my aunt and grandma. I begged my dad to book the earliest flight possible, planning to pack my bags and fly out that very night. On my way out, unluckily, I ran into Liam’s mom right outside our gates. She grabbed me enthusiastically. “Maya, why are you out here alone? Didn’t Liam come to pick you up? “He said he was taking you snowboarding in Switzerland. Have a great time! I totally support it.” I was a little confused. During the stressful AP exam season, I had mentioned to Liam that I wanted to go snowboarding in the Alps. But given how things were now, it obviously made zero sense for us to travel together. I didn’t have time to process it, though. I gave her a polite, hurried response and left. What I didn’t expect was to run into Liam at the airport.

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Chapter 1 Ever since I caught Carter cheating, his first order of business every time he walked through the door was to be shoved against the entryway wall. I’d undo his belt and aggressively spray his crotch with high-concentration rubbing alcohol. Knowing he was in the wrong, Carter would endure it. His eyes red, he’d gently cooperate, softly coaxing me to calm down and stop making a scene. But today, he was two hours late. The second I smelled the foreign perfume on him, I lost it, tearing frantically at his belt. “You were half an hour late last time and you slept with some woman!” “Today you’re two hours late! Tell me! Did you sleep with four of them?!” After apologizing to me for the twenty-ninth time and being shoved away yet again, he finally snapped. Holding up the back of his hand—bruised and purple from an IV drip—he screamed at me. “Enough! I’ve been running a high fever, I practically died, and you didn’t even ask if I was okay! Are you ever going to stop acting like a psycho?” “So I got drunk and slept with someone once! Do you think you’re so pure?!” “No wonder you were dragged into an alley and violated when you were sixteen! Chloe, you’re a paranoid, hysterical lunatic, and you deserve exactly what happened to you!” The plastic spray bottle shattered at my feet. The sharp, burning smell of alcohol choked the air, leaving me completely speechless. Looking at the pure disgust in his eyes, I suddenly felt profoundly exhausted. Fine. This relationship was rotting from the inside out anyway. I was done. … The entryway fell dead silent. The front door wasn’t fully closed. Two of Carter’s buddies, who had helped him home, were frozen on the porch, looking incredibly awkward as they tried to smooth things over. “Chloe, look, Carter is burning up. He’s delirious. He didn’t mean to snap at you like that.” “Besides, you douse the guy in rubbing alcohol every single day… who could handle that? Cut him some slack.” “Yeah, and about that time he got drunk… he broke it off with her a long time ago.” Just the mention of it made my stomach violently churn. When I was sixteen, my stepbrother and his delinquent friends dragged me into a pitch-black alley behind a liquor store. Right as my clothes were being torn off, eighteen-year-old Carter showed up. With red, furious eyes, he grabbed a brick and fought them off. He took off his varsity jacket and wrapped it tightly around my violently shaking body. He held me and cried harder than I did. He said, Chloe, don’t be scared. Anyone who touches you, I’ll kill them. Because of that nightmare, I was terrified of intimacy after we got married. Being touched made my whole body shake. Back then, Carter would just hold me, over and over, gently kissing my forehead. “Don’t be scared, Chloe. It’s okay. I’ll wait as long as it takes.” I always thought he was the salvation that pulled me out of hell. Until six months ago. His chronic gastritis flared up, so I drove to his fire and rescue base late at night to drop off his medication. Instead, I walked in to find him pinning the station’s new trauma counselor against the sofa, kissing her frantically. He was burying his face in her neck, panting heavily. The aggressive, unrestrained passion in his movements was something he had never shown me. The woman’s black lace bra was draped casually over his uniform—the uniform that symbolized honor and rescue. When I caught them red-handed, he fell to his knees, his eyes bloodshot, swearing that he was just drunk and thought she was me. Twelve years. I thought he was the light that pulled me out of the darkness. I never realized the man who pulled me out of the abyss would be the one to push me into an even deeper one. As the memories snapped back, Carter seemed to sober up slightly. He took a step forward, reaching for my hand. “Chloe, I’m sorry. I was so mad I was just talking nonsense. I really have a fever, my head is killing me…” He approached me softly, his face full of remorse. I took a step back, avoiding his hand entirely. “Go rest.” Carter’s hand froze mid-air. His brows furrowed in anxiety, and he tried to step closer. “Chloe, please, let me explain…” “I’m tired.” I cut him off, turned around, walked into the guest bedroom, and locked the door. Through the heavy wood, I heard his two friends helping him into the master bedroom. They whispered to him, telling him that since I didn’t scream or make a scene, it meant I was letting it go. Letting it go? I leaned against the door and slowly slid down to the floor. I wasn’t letting it go. I just didn’t want to read this torn, shredded book anymore. Chapter 2 Early the next morning, while Carter was still passed out, I grabbed a thermal soup container and left the apartment. Even though our marriage was in ruins, I still drove to the city hospital. My mother-in-law had been hospitalized for severe renal failure for over six months. I was the one who stayed up night after night, taking care of her while wearing the same clothes for days. I figured this would be my final act of familial duty. A way to put a period at the end of a twelve-year sentence. When I pushed open the door to the ward, my mother-in-law was holding the hand of another patient’s family member, bragging about me. “I’ve only survived this long because of Chloe. She’s a hundred times more devoted than a biological daughter.” Seeing me, her face lit up with a massive smile, and she immediately told me to sit and rest. I poured the fish broth I had simmered all night and handed the bowl to her. “Mom, drink this while it’s hot. Carter had a fever last night, I need to head back soon to check on him.” She was sipping the broth when her phone, propped up on the overbed table, began to ring. It was a FaceTime call. The name Vanessa flashed across the screen. Her hands were greasy from the soup, so she gestured to the phone with her chin. “Chloe, hit accept for me. It’s probably Carter’s cousin.” I didn’t think much of it and swiped the green button. The moment the familiar young face appeared on the screen, my entire body stiffened. It was Vanessa. The woman Carter had been desperately tangled up with when he was “drunk” six months ago. In the video, she was holding a little boy who looked about three years old. The boy smiled sweetly at the camera and yelled, “Grandma! Look at the toy car Daddy bought me!” Vanessa looked playfully annoyed, complaining to the screen. “Mom, Carter drank too much and had a fever last night, so I let him sleep in. Did that crazy woman throw another fit and torture him for coming home late?” The air in the hospital room died instantly. My mother-in-law’s hand violently shook. The scalding fish broth spilled all over her blankets. “Ch—Chloe! Let me explain!” Ignoring the burn, she lunged forward, desperately trying to snatch the phone away. I took a step back, staring fixedly at the little boy on the screen. He looked exactly like Carter. I felt so cold I started to shake. “Cousin? This is the cousin you told me about?” Caught red-handed, my mother-in-law let out a heavy sigh. She dropped the act entirely. She grabbed my hand, putting on a face of earnest, pained helplessness. “Chloe, don’t blame Carter for hiding this. For four years, Vanessa has compromised and suffered without ever demanding a title.” Four years? A loud ringing exploded in my ears. My internal organs twisted so violently I couldn’t breathe. So this woman’s existence… wasn’t a drunken mistake from six months ago? My mother-in-law patted my hand gently, lowering her voice to coax me. “I watched you grow up. I love you like my own. But you have to think about Carter. Because of your… trauma, you won’t let him touch you for weeks at a time. He’s a healthy, red-blooded man.” “You can’t expect him to live like a monk his whole life just because of your little issue, right?” “Vanessa already agreed. The boy will call you ‘Auntie.’ You’ll still be the official Mrs. Hayes.” “Nothing changes. Vanessa will never bother you. Isn’t that a good compromise?” … My legs gave out, and I collapsed into the chair behind me. Whatever my mother-in-law said after that, I didn’t hear a single word. My brain was being violently ripped apart by memories on one side and this sickening reality on the other. Four years. Whenever Carter went out of state on rescue missions, he would stay on the phone with me all night. He said he knew I felt unsafe and was scared of the dark, and that hearing his breathing would help me sleep. Once, he was in a disaster zone and almost died. He risked his life to find a backup battery just so he could stay on the line with me. I thought that was the ultimate, profound love. Turns out, it was just a performance. During all those all-night calls to comfort me… was Vanessa lying right next to him? Was that child sleeping right there beside him? He was lying in bed with another woman and his secret child, while soothing me—the clueless idiot—over the phone. A massive wave of absurdity washed over me. I stood up, completely ignoring my mother-in-law, and stumbled out of the hospital room. If their picture-perfect family didn’t have room for my name, then I’d gladly hand over the title of “wife.” Chapter 3 The next day, I took PTO and packed my bags at the apartment. There wasn’t much. A few changes of clothes and my important documents were enough. The doorbell suddenly rang. I thought it was the courier delivering the divorce papers I requested. I opened the door—and froze. Standing in the hallway was Vanessa. She was wearing a pristine white cashmere coat, holding the hand of the little boy from the video. My grip on the door handle tightened so hard my knuckles turned white. “Chloe, aren’t you going to invite me in?” She looked at my ghostly pale face, a smug, undisguised look of triumph in her eyes. “We couldn’t talk properly on the video call, so I brought Leo over to see you.” She deliberately pushed the boy forward, the gesture dripping with arrogance. “Leo is starting preschool soon. Carter feels terrible that he doesn’t have a complete family.” “He said Leo is the eldest grandson of the Hayes family, and he wants me to officially move in with him.” Looking at the child who was a carbon copy of Carter, my stomach violently churned. “Get out!” My eyes red, I pointed toward the elevator and screamed. “Take your bastard child and get the hell out of my house!” I shoved the door, trying to slam it shut so I wouldn’t have to look at them for another second. But Vanessa suddenly shot her hand out, wedging it in the doorframe. She leaned close to my ear, lowering her voice into a vicious sneer. “Chloe, stop acting so high and mighty. Did you really think Carter actually loved you?” “He told me himself. Every time he has to lie in the same bed as you, he has to take sleeping pills just to stomach the disgust.” “The second he touches you, all he can picture is those thugs riding you in that alley.” She stared directly into my eyes, taking a step forward. “He also said you were so dirty, he had to use me to vent his frustration. Because only a clean body like mine could actually turn him on.” The final string keeping my sanity intact snapped in that exact second. The nightmare I endured when I was sixteen. I spent twelve years trying to heal from it. And he used it as pillow talk to entertain his mistress! “You have no right to talk about that—!” I screamed hysterically, raised my hand, and used absolutely every ounce of strength in my body. I slapped Vanessa across the face as hard as I physically could. Smack! The sound echoed loudly in the hallway. The force sent Vanessa stumbling backward. Her forehead slammed violently against the sharp edge of the entryway shoe cabinet. Blood instantly began pouring down her face. The little boy burst into terrified wailing. Vanessa clutched her bleeding forehead, scrambling backward on her hands and knees. “You crazy bitch! You’re a psycho! Just wait, you’re going to pay for this!” She scooped up the crying child and practically fell into the elevator. Drained of all energy, I slid down the doorframe and collapsed onto the floor. I closed my eyes, the cold from the hardwood seeping into my skin. Once my mind finally settled, I pulled a piece of paper from under the coffee table. It was an ultrasound printout I had been hiding for six months. I ripped it into tiny shreds. What was supposed to be a beautiful surprise for Carter now felt like a brutal slap to my own face, burning with humiliation. Half an hour later, the courier arrived with the legal documents. I signed them and placed the divorce agreement dead center on the coffee table. Outside, a torrential downpour began, thunder shaking the windows. I grabbed my suitcase, ready to leave. Right at that moment—BANG. The front door was violently kicked open from the outside. Before I could even react, Carter charged in, the veins bulging on his forehead, and grabbed me fiercely by the throat. “Chloe! What the hell did you do with Leo?!” Chapter 4 He was choking me so hard I couldn’t breathe. I frantically hit his arms. “Cough… what Leo…” Carter violently threw me aside and kicked the coffee table over. “Vanessa told me everything! You attacked her like a lunatic this afternoon!” “She took the kid to the pharmacy to get her head bandaged, turned around, and Leo was gone!” “Who else would kidnap a three-year-old child but you?!” I coughed violently, staring in disbelief at the enraged man in front of me. “I haven’t even left the apartment! Are you insane?!” “You’re the insane one!” Carter’s eyes were bloodshot. He pointed his finger directly in my face and roared. “You’ve spent the last six months dousing me in rubbing alcohol every day! You’re completely unhinged! And now you’re targeting an innocent child!” “Call whatever thugs you hired right now and bring him back!” I gritted my teeth and backed away. “I told you, I haven’t seen him! If you can’t handle it, then sign the divorce papers!” I turned to grab the agreement from the floor. “You aren’t going anywhere until you tell me where my son is!” Carter suddenly grabbed the back collar of my shirt. Riiiiip. The immense force completely tore my shirt dress down the back. Buttons scattered across the floor. My bare skin was instantly exposed to the cold air. Before I could even process what was happening, he clamped his hand around my wrist and dragged me violently toward the bathroom like a criminal. “Carter, what are you doing?! Let go of me!” I screamed in pure terror. The hands of those men in the alley when I was sixteen, and Carter’s hands right now—they completely merged into one horrifying reality. “If you don’t hand over my kid, I’m going to make sure you wake up today!” He kicked the bathroom door open and brutally hurled me into the cold, hard bathtub. Whoosh— He turned on the showerhead, blasting freezing cold water directly into my face and over my body. “Cough… cough… help…” I choked on the water, thrashing wildly, trying to crawl out of the tub. Carter ripped off his leather belt, yanked both my hands behind my back, and viciously strapped them to the metal safety bar of the tub. I twisted my body frantically, shivering uncontrollably in the freezing water. Carter turned around and pulled the massive jug of high-concentration rubbing alcohol out from under the sink. He unscrewed the cap and dumped the burning, toxic liquid directly over my head. “You love torturing people with alcohol, don’t you?! Tell me! Where is the kid?!” The overpowering, chemical stench of the alcohol instantly stripped the oxygen from my lungs. My eyes burned in absolute agony. But Carter didn’t care. He grabbed the back of my head and shoved my face hard into the freezing, alcohol-tainted water pooling at the bottom of the tub. I choked, only managing to let out a few muffled, garbled sounds. My stomach seized in a violent, agonizing spasm. “It hurts…” Before the words fully left my mouth, a sharp, excruciating pain—like a knife twisting in my gut—ripped through my lower abdomen. A second later, a stream of warm liquid ran down my inner thighs. The warmth mixed with the freezing water in the tub, instantly blooming into a shocking, horrifying pool of bright red. I stared blankly at the blood swirling in the water. I stopped struggling entirely. Right then, his phone—which he had tossed onto the sink counter—began to ring. Seeing the Caller ID, he paused for a second before answering. The voice of a police officer came through the speaker, sounding thoroughly annoyed. “Mr. Hayes? Your child isn’t missing!” “The little boy wandered off and climbed the play structure on the top floor of the mall. When we found him, he was happily eating ice cream.” “You parents didn’t watch your own kid, and you immediately call it a premeditated kidnapping and murder? Do you know how much police manpower you just wasted?” In an instant, the only sound left in the bathroom was the hissing of the showerhead. Clatter. The phone and the jug of alcohol dropped simultaneously from Carter’s hands, slamming onto the tile floor. He whipped his head around, and his face instantly turned a ghastly, horrifying white.

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Chapter 1 I was the second-to-last person to know my wife was sleeping with my best friend. Our mutual friends were taking bets on whether I’d divorce her. “No way Ethan divorces her,” one scoffed. “He can’t afford to lose Chloe; she makes too much money!” “Honestly, Ethan is just too pathetic,” another chimed in. “Otherwise, why would Chloe even look elsewhere?” “Chloe, say something. Is your husband throwing a fit about a divorce?” My supposed best friend leaned in and kissed the corner of Chloe’s mouth. “I bet Ethan won’t divorce her. His mom still needs Chloe’s money for her medical bills. He wouldn’t dare.” Chloe raised an eyebrow and immediately straddled Ethan’s lap, kissing him passionately. I was standing right outside the door, my hands clenched into tight fists. It suddenly dawned on me: they had deliberately invited me here. They wanted to see my reaction. But if it was just Chloe’s money I was after, I had a thousand ways to get it. Since she had always thought of me that way, I decided to give her exactly what she wanted. I pulled out my phone and dialed my buddy’s wife. “Mark is drunk at the Onyx Lounge. You should come pick him up.” Mark’s wife, Sarah, wasn’t exactly stable. She had been institutionalized before for an assault charge stemming from a sudden, violent outburst. “Who is he drinking with?” Sarah’s voice through the phone was ice-cold. I replied without missing a beat: “Just some friends. He looks pretty hammered. You’d better get here quick.” Sarah agreed and said she was on her way. I hung up and turned to leave. Mark had once proudly boasted to me: “Don’t let her size fool you. Sarah is tiny, but she’s got crazy explosive power. She once thought someone was bullying me and went straight for them. “Since then, she carries a knife everywhere, just in case someone tries to mess with me again.” I had barely reached the entrance of the bar when my phone rang. It was Chloe. Her tone was casual, lazy. “You’re here, right?” I opened my mouth, but no words came out. She continued, “The bartender said you were watching from outside. Did you hear everything?” Her voice was soft, yet to me, it was unimaginably cruel. I let out a soft “Mm.” Chloe laughed. “You really are a pathetic coward.” True. Everyone knew I was a coward. Back in high school, I was just the guy following Chloe around. She was the queen bee, and I was her loyal shadow. “No way, he doesn’t even have the guts to walk in? “Playing deaf and blind is so boring.” The people around them were cheering, their laughter loud and unrestrained. Then, Mark grabbed the phone, his voice dripping with sarcasm: “If we knew you were this terrified of losing her, we wouldn’t have tried so hard to hide it from you. “But honestly, sneaking around behind your back was a thrill. “I took your wife for a spin for you, and man, she is incredible! Thanks for sharing.” “Keep going, Mark, and he might start crying.” “Chloe, aren’t you going to comfort him?” Another voice chimed in right after Mark finished. This time, Chloe spoke up, her tone uncharacteristically serious: “Don’t be so harsh. He’s a guy, he needs some pride. “But Ethan isn’t like you, Mark. He’s much easier to handle. Leave him alone.” With that, she took the phone back, her voice clear. “Where are you? The bathroom? I’ll come find you. Does your mom need another payment for her treatments?” I looked down the hallway and saw her pause, phone in hand. She hung up as soon as she saw me. Her expression was one of deep satisfaction, bordering on a twisted kind of enjoyment. She walked up to me and ran a hand over my stomach. “He’s not like you. You’re my official husband, why are you throwing a tantrum? “Alright, alright, I won’t divorce you.” Her tone was condescending, like she was offering charity to a beloved pet. But then, Mark stumbled out of the room, holding his head. He made a beeline for Chloe, wrapping his arms around her and resting his chin on her shoulder. He looked up at me with a provocative smirk. “Chloe, my head is killing me. They were pouring drinks down my throat. “Take me home. Since Ethan already knows, there’s no point in hiding it. “He won’t mind, right?” As he said those last two words, he looked right at me, a slight smirk playing on his lips, not a trace of drunkenness in his eyes. Just then, Sarah texted me asking for the exact location of the bar. I sent her the pin drop. After sending the message, I stared at Chloe. “What if I do mind?” Chloe looked torn, trying to push him away, but Mark didn’t budge. “We’ve done it so many times already. You think you can just shake me off now?” He laughed, then looked at me again. “Didn’t you say it yourself? Ethan only knows a few moves, he can’t satisfy you at all.” He was talking to Chloe, but his eyes were locked on mine. Chloe looked at me nervously. “It was just a joke. I was just playing around with him.” My nails dug into my palms. I let out a light “Oh.” “Then I’ll help you take him home.” “What did you just say?” Mark asked in disbelief. I looked up, meeting their gaze with unwavering determination. “Didn’t you say you have a headache? My wife and I will take you home.” Saying that, I stubbornly grabbed his arm, forcing him to lean on me. Chloe stared at me in surprise, then seemed amused by my actions. She leaned in and rubbed against my arm. “Oh, so you can get jealous? A little attitude is cute.” Her words and actions were intimate, as if nothing had happened. It disgusted me. But I didn’t show it. In high school, a bully cornered me in the bathroom and cut up my clothes. I looked just like this. It was Chloe who got her older brother to teach the bully a lesson. Afterward, she frowned at me for a long time: “You need to have some spine.” The bully never returned to school, and Chloe thought it was her doing. She never knew it was because his father, a local politician, was indicted and he was too scared of retaliation to show his face. And the evidence that brought his father down? I submitted it. I loved the way Chloe cared about me, pouting angrily, like a mother hen protecting her chick. Because of that, I never told her the truth. If she enjoyed it, so what if I played the submissive role? She was my wife. But I never expected my submission to be trampled on so mercilessly. “But I booked a hotel room. Who said I wanted to go home?” Mark’s voice suddenly cut in. He blinked, his eyes full of triumph. He looked at Chloe. “Don’t you want to go? But bringing Ethan along might be awkward.” Chloe looked back and forth between us. Before she could speak, I interjected: “Chloe, come home with me.” I stared at her, softening my tone. Right in front of me, Mark slid his hand down Chloe’s back, staring at her intently. “I even brought that outfit you wanted me to wear to the hotel. Miss out tonight, and I won’t wear it again.” Chloe’s pupils dilated, her interest clearly piqued. “Ethan, you head home first.” She finally said it to me. I stared at her in disbelief. “Are you sure?” She nodded, then frowned. “Be good. Unless you want a divorce.” I took a deep breath, the pain radiating through my chest. Mark let out a scoff. “Or maybe you want to stay and watch? Nah, that would be too brutal for you.” I stayed silent. He suddenly leaned in and whispered in my ear: “Do you know when our first time was? “It was when you were hospitalized after your car crash. We did it in your bed. “Ethan, if you know what’s good for you, you’ll divorce her.” My whole body trembled. I got into that accident driving in a massive storm to buy her favorite pastries, resulting in a rear-end collision. Turns out, she sent me out on an errand just so she could sleep with another man. And this man, who constantly claimed to be my best friend. I stared at Mark: “Why would you do this?” “Chloe comes from a good family and makes bank. She’s gorgeous. Women like her are rare. “Someone was going to steal her from you eventually. Better me than some stranger. “I’ve been wanting to ditch my wife anyway.” I checked the time. Sarah should be here in about ten minutes. “Will she let you go? Didn’t you say she’s a bit unstable, that she almost killed someone before? Aren’t you afraid?” At the mention of Sarah, Mark’s tone cooled. “Her? She’ll do whatever I want with a snap of my fingers. “Worse comes to worst, I’ll trick her into a divorce. She’s as gullible as you.” He acted as if Sarah was completely inconsequential. But I remembered accidentally stumbling upon Sarah’s social media. It was filled with photos of her slaughtering fish, chickens, even pigs. I couldn’t help but remind him: “What if she catches you cheating?” A flash of fear crossed Mark’s eyes, but it quickly faded. “She’ll never find out. She’s probably out delivering food right now. “I’ve got her trained like a dog. You wouldn’t understand.” I sneered internally and glanced at my phone discreetly. It was Sarah. [I’m almost there.] Suddenly, I didn’t want to let them off so easily. I wanted to see a mad dog bite. So, I looked at Chloe with pathetic puppy eyes. “I’ll wait for you in the hotel lobby. When you’re done, we can go home together, okay?” I played the pathetic husband perfectly. Chloe looked surprised. “Why are you so… is it really just me for you?” Mark quickly added, “Ethan, how can you be so degraded?! Are you addicted to being cuckolded? “Even now, you’re still clinging on. What are you even getting out of this?” I remained unfazed, looking at him like he was the one who didn’t understand. “If it wasn’t for Chloe in college, I wouldn’t have known what to do. “She paid for all my expenses for four years, and she’s been supporting me ever since. “You don’t understand. I can’t live without her.” Chloe’s background was indeed solid, and she was good at business. By the time she was twenty, she had tens of thousands in assets. By the time she was in college, she was making millions. But my net worth was actually no less than hers. However, she loved the idea of taking care of me, and I enjoyed playing along. So, I kept it a secret. Saying this now, I hoped to stir a sliver of affection in her. If she left with me today, I could still walk away with a peaceful divorce. Mark was speechless, his face dark with anger. Chloe shot him an annoyed look. “Don’t talk about him like that.” She added, “I told you, keep Ethan out of our arrangement. “I’m not going to divorce him. Or are you planning something else?” Mark’s expression shifted, and he quickly adopted a fawning tone: “I didn’t mean it like that. I was just worried he’d ruin the mood.” “I won’t!” I shook my head adamantly. Chloe looked exasperated. “This is the last time. After this, we’re living a normal life together, okay?” I frowned but replied, “Okay. I trust you.” Chloe paused. “Silly boy. What would you do without me?” Without her, I’d inherit everything she owned, just as she planned. We got into Chloe’s car. Sarah’s message came through again. [I’m here. Which room are you guys in?] I looked up. A flash of yellow rushed into the lounge, only to be stopped by security. Sarah looked frantic and furious, like a woman possessed. I quickly replied: [Sorry about this. Mark was too drunk, so I took him to a hotel to sober up. You can just meet us there.] After sending it, I turned to Chloe: “Do you guys really have to do this? Chloe, I’m giving you one last chance. Let’s keep some dignity.” Mark scoffed. “If you can’t handle the heat, stay out of the kitchen. I thought you were cool with this.” Chloe’s face darkened. “I said this is the last time. Besides, can you even survive without me?” I let out a soft “Mm.” “Fine. I won’t make a scene.” Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a text from Sarah: [Thanks. I’ll be there in twenty minutes.] Chloe drove fast. We arrived at the hotel in fifteen minutes. “We’re here. Want to come up and check it out? You can even try on the outfit. “But then again, I’m afraid you…” Mark taunted me again, his eyes sweeping over me dismissively. I ignored him and looked at Chloe. “I’ll wait in the lobby. “But I know the manager here. Can I come up to the front desk with you to check in?” Chloe looked moved for a moment. “You really are a pushover!” I offered a bitter smile. “I just love you too much.” Chloe sighed. “Let’s go.” Mark tried to interject, but Chloe shot him a glare. “He’s my husband. I have to respect him in public.” Mark’s face flushed with anger, but he could only watch as Chloe and I checked in. I walked them to the elevators. The moment they stepped in, Mark eagerly wrapped his arms around her. I turned away, pasting a look of heartbreak on my face. Once the elevator stopped at the 7th floor, I went back to the front desk. “Could I get another keycard? “My wife just went up, and I need a card to use the elevator.” The receptionist handed me a spare. Just then, Sarah burst through the doors, out of breath. Our eyes met. I chuckled. “You made it? Good timing, I just got a spare key.” I sighed heavily. “Mark just went up with my wife. Let’s go.” Sarah’s face visibly drained of color.

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