Becoming a concert pianist wasn’t just a career choice; it was the rhythm my heart beat to. But on the night of my most critical performance—the showcase that would have cemented my place in the professional world—chaos erupted. A gang of thugs burst into the concert hall, shattering the sanctity of the music. I was nearing the crescendo, my fingers flying across the ivory, when they stormed the stage. They slammed the heavy Steinway lid down. Then, to make sure the damage was permanent, one of them jumped on top of it, stomping with brutal force. My fingers. My life. Crushed into a pulp of bone and blood. A scream tore from my throat, raw and primal. I tried to pull my hands free, but the weight was immovable. Desperate, through a haze of agony, I locked eyes with my wife, Victoria. She was standing near the VIP exit. I expected her to scream, to run to me, to command the security team to open fire if necessary. Instead, I watched, my vision blurring, as she threw her arms out to block the security guards and my friends who were rushing the stage. I found out later that the thugs weren’t there for me. They were looking for Oliver. They had come to break Oliver’s hands to settle a gambling debt. But my wife, the woman I had vowed to love forever, pointed at me and said: “You can’t touch Oliver’s hands. Take the piano player instead. Do whatever you want with him.” In that moment, something vital inside me flatlined. I decided then and there to divorce her. But she would regret it. She would regret it when she eventually broke her childhood sweetheart’s hands herself, weeping and begging for a forgiveness I no longer had to give. … The piano lid came down like a guillotine. The sound wasn’t musical; it was a dull, sickening thud of wood against bone. I shrieked, a sound I didn’t recognize as my own, frantically trying to yank my hands back. But the thug in the heavy boots leaped onto the polished black surface, stomping rhythmically, driving the lid deeper into my flesh. The nerves in my fingertips screamed, sending shockwaves of nausea through my body. Cold sweat drenched my tuxedo. “Stop! Please, God, stop!” I begged. “I don’t even know who you are! Why are you doing this?” The thug looked down at me from his perch on the Steinway, a sneer twisting his face. “Don’t know us? Oliver sent my brother to prison. I came to return the favor, but your wife stopped me. She said you were the payment. Trading a pair of hands for a pair of hands seems fair, doesn’t it, Maestro?” “No… that’s impossible.” I turned my head, fighting the black spots dancing in my vision. There she was. Victoria. She was directing her personal security detail to form a human shield around Oliver, whispering soothing words to him, stroking his back. My mentor, Madame Laurent, tried to rush the stage with the venue security, but Victoria stepped into their path. “Stand down,” she commanded, her voice icy. “This is a family matter. Do not interfere.” I was shaking, and not just from the pain. This was a nightmare. It had to be. Crack. The sound of my knuckles shattering was louder than the screams of the audience. Blood began to drip from the keyboard, pooling on the stage floor. Panic, cold and absolute, washed over me. I will never play again. Stripped of all dignity, I sobbed, screaming out to the woman I had loved for seven years. “Victoria! For the love of God, we’ve been married for three years! Help me! Please!” She glanced at me. Her eyes were empty, devoid of even a flicker of empathy. “It is precisely because you are my husband that I need you to do this for me,” she called out, her voice carrying over the commotion. “You’re disappointing me, Cameron. It’s just a few broken bones. Oliver has done so much for us; consider this you paying back a debt of gratitude.” Her lips, painted a perfect crimson, looked like a wound. The words that fell from them cut deeper than the crushed bones. I couldn’t tell what hurt more—my hands or my heart. Four years of dating. Three years of marriage. Did she not know who I was? Did she not understand that my hands were my soul? Seven years of devotion disintegrated in seconds. The thug on the piano wasn’t done. He started kicking me in the face, grinding his heel into my scalp, trying to jam the toe of his boot into my mouth to silence my whimpering. My hands were pinned; I was defenseless. And my wife stood ten feet away, blind to my torture, her focus entirely on Oliver, who was clutching his chest, feigning a heart attack. Madame Laurent was screaming now, her face purple with rage. “Victoria West! You are his wife! If you won’t save him, how dare you stop us? Look at him! Look at what they’re doing to Cameron! Do you have no conscience?” Victoria shot a look of pure annoyance at my teacher. “Stop being dramatic. It’s a beatdown, not a murder. And Cameron,” she shouted at me, “stop embarrassing me! Can you stop pretending? I bet you’re enjoying seeing your teacher yell at me, aren’t you? I never should have married such a petty, small-minded man.” I was so weak I could barely whisper. My lips trembled as I tried to form words. “I’m not… pretending. My fingers… they’re crushed.” Victoria couldn’t hear me, or chose not to. She frowned, checking her watch. “Man up, Cameron. It’s a piano lid, not a tank. How could that break your hands? Stop playing the victim. It’s pathetic.” My ten fingers were destroyed. A chaotic mess of flesh and splintered bone. And she called it playing the victim. Madame Laurent looked like she might have a stroke. She pointed a shaking finger at Victoria. “Are you insane? That is a concert grand! It weighs nearly a thousand pounds! The lid alone is heavy enough to crush brick, and you have a two-hundred-pound man jumping on it! If we don’t get him to surgery now, he loses his hands forever!” “He is a prodigy! A once-in-a-generation talent! And you are letting them butcher him!” Victoria paused. For a second, doubt flickered in her eyes. Then Oliver let out a theatrical, hacking cough. “I really envy Cameron,” Oliver wheezed, clutching Victoria’s arm. “Having a teacher who cares so much… Victoria, don’t worry about me. Let them kill me. Cameron is a high-and-mighty artist. His hands are precious gold. We can’t let him suffer for a nobody like me.” The hesitation vanished from Victoria’s face. She rubbed Oliver’s back soothingly, then glared at me and Madame Laurent with renewed disgust. “Get the hell out of here,” she hissed at my teacher. “My husband and I don’t need outsiders meddling.” She turned her cold gaze on me. “What ‘high-and-mighty artist’? He’s a trophy husband I keep around. Helping Oliver is the most useful thing he’s ever done. If his fingers are broken, fine. He can stay home and stop flirting with other women at these recitals.” Every word was a serrated blade, sawing through what was left of my heart. I had spent years deluding myself. I told myself her lingering attachment to Oliver was just nostalgia for their youth. I told myself that I was the one she came home to. I was the one she loved. I realized then, with a clarity that was more painful than the physical trauma, that she had never loved me. Her heart was a shrine to Oliver. I wasn’t her husband. I was a placeholder. A dog she fed and expected to heel. The grief hit me so hard I gagged, coughing up a spray of blood. The thug on the piano laughed, clearly entertained by the domestic drama. He gave one final, jubilant jump. Snap. That was the sound of the tendons finally severing. Something inside me went dark. As consciousness slipped away, the last thing I saw was Oliver whispering something into Victoria’s ear. She threw her head back and laughed—a bright, tinkling sound that belonged at a cocktail party, not a torture scene. I closed my eyes. A single tear tracked through the blood on my face. Victoria West. I wasted my life on you. If I could go back, I would pray I never met you. The darkness swirled into a dream. A long, vivid memory from seven years ago. I was at a university recital. I wasn’t as polished back then; I missed a note in the second movement. But when I stood to bow, shaking with adrenaline, I saw a girl in the front row, covering her mouth, tears streaming down her face. Victoria. I thought she understood the music. I thought she heard the soul I was pouring into the keys. She approached me afterward. We exchanged numbers. We fell into a rhythm. I learned she was trying to launch a tech startup, V&O Dynamics, but was hitting wall after wall. Silicon Valley was a boys’ club, and no one wanted to fund her. So, I called my father. We hadn’t spoken since the day my mother died in a car crash—a day he missed because of a board meeting. I had moved out, cut him off, and changed my name to pursue music without his shadow. Victoria didn’t know my father was Arthur St. James, the CEO of Horizon Capital. She was proud, almost brittle in her independence, so I never told her. I just asked my dad for a favor. He wired twenty million dollars to her company the next day, no questions asked, trying to buy back my affection. Victoria’s company skyrocketed. And in the glow of her success, she proposed to me. I remember standing by the piano in her loft. She held out a ring, her eyes shining. “Cameron, will you play Für Elise for me for the rest of our lives?” I was ecstatic. “Yes. A thousand times yes.” We married. I wanted to help with the business, to be a partner in every sense. But she shut me down. She told me my job was to play. To keep the music alive for her. I loved her even more for that. A wife who protected my dream? It felt like a miracle. Even when she worked eighty-hour weeks, she would make me play Für Elise once a week. She would lie with her head in my lap and weep silently. I thought it was release. I thought it was intimacy. Then Oliver Tate came back. He joined her company as General Counsel. Suddenly, everything shifted. She stopped asking for the piano. She stopped coming home. She took Oliver to galas, introducing him as the brilliant legal mind behind her success, the “co-founder in spirit.” My father sent me videos of them at these parties—whispering in corners, touching arms. He asked me what the hell was going on. I looked at the screen, at the soft, vulnerable expression on her face—a look she never gave me—and I made excuses. She’s just grateful, I told myself. He’s helping the company. So I practiced. I poured my loneliness into the keys. I thought if I reached the pinnacle, if I stood on the biggest stage, she would finally see me again. And she did come. She was there in the audience on the most important night of my life. But she didn’t come to watch me fly. She came to clip my wings. I woke up screaming. The silence of the hospital room swallowed the sound. I was alone. Pathetically, a small part of me had hoped to see Victoria in the chair beside the bed. Right, I thought, a bitter laugh bubbling up. I’m just the dog. I looked down. My arms were encased in heavy plaster casts from fingertips to elbows. They felt foreign. Dead. I buzzed for the nurse and demanded a forensic injury assessment. Then I asked her to call my father. He was in London closing a deal, but he sent his personal assistant and the sharkiest lawyer in the city, Harrison Ford (no relation, though just as dramatic). He promised to fly back immediately. I told him not to come yet. Just the lawyer. Harrison moved fast. Within hours, the police report was filed. He told me, his voice grim but confident, “We’ll bury the thug. Assault with intent to maim. And Oliver Tate? He solicited the violence. His law license is toast. And your wife… obstructing emergency services? She’s an accessory.” “Don’t touch my wife…” I started, out of habit. The door banged open. Victoria stormed in, Oliver trailing behind her like a lost puppy. “Cameron! Are you out of your mind?” She threw her purse onto the chair. “The police just called. You filed charges? Do you have any idea what kind of PR nightmare this is for the company? For Oliver?” She didn’t even look at my casts. Not a glance. I sighed, lifting my heavy, useless arms. I wanted to test her one last time. “Victoria,” I said, my voice cracking. “The doctors say I’ll never play again. I can’t play Für Elise for you anymore.” I admit it. I was weak. I wanted to see if there was a human being left inside the CEO. If she showed one ounce of regret, one spark of horror at what she had cost me… maybe I could forgive. I would give up the piano. I would be the husband she wanted. She rolled her eyes. “It’s just a pair of hands, Cameron. It’s not like you’re dying.” She crossed her arms. “Grow up. You’re a grown man, still obsessed with plinking away on a toy. And because of that stupid piano, you’re going to ruin Oliver’s career? You are vicious.” Oliver stepped forward, gazing at Victoria with wet, adoring eyes. “You remembered,” he whispered. “Our song. You remembered.” “Of course I remember,” Victoria said softy. ” I could never forget.” I froze. Our song. The pieces slammed together in my mind. The weekly requests. The tears in her lap. Für Elise wasn’t about me. It wasn’t our song. I was just the jukebox playing the soundtrack to her memories of him. I was a proxy. A ghost. “Liar,” I whispered. Then louder. “Liars.” Victoria looked annoyed. She smoothed her blazer, trying to cover her guilt with aggression. “Don’t look at me like that. I don’t owe you anything. Look, just because I don’t need you to play anymore doesn’t mean I’m kicking you out. I’ve supported you for years; I don’t mind keeping you on the payroll as a house husband.” “Drop the charges. Right now. And I’ll pretend this tantrum never happened.” I actually laughed. It hurt my ribs. “So I should thank you? Should I get on my knees and praise your generosity after you let them cripple me?” She missed the sarcasm entirely. “You don’t need to thank me. Thank Oliver. He’s the reason the company exists.” “Drop the lawsuit. Then apologize to Oliver for the stress you’ve caused him. Do that, and you can come home.” “Heh.” I gave her a smile that felt like a skull grinning. “I understand. You can go.” “You understand, but you’re not kneeling?” I stared at her, my eyes cold and dead. Sensing the shift in the atmosphere, Oliver stepped in, putting on his ‘nice guy’ mask. He tugged at Victoria’s sleeve. “Let it go, Victoria. Cameron is a big star. He has too much pride to apologize to someone like me.” He was pouring salt in the wound, and he knew it. “Pride?” Victoria scoffed. “What does he have to be proud of? He’s a parasite. A tick I let live on my back.” She turned on me. “Cameron St. James. Kneel. Apologize to Oliver. Or I divorce you. I will strip you of every asset. You will walk out of this marriage with nothing but the clothes on your back.” She looked triumphant. She was sure I would fold. I remembered the last time. She had brought Oliver over for dinner. I spent all day cooking. Oliver took one bite of the asparagus and feigned an allergic reaction—choking, gasping. Victoria destroyed the dining room. She smashed every plate. Then she dragged me to the ER and made me kneel by Oliver’s bed to beg for forgiveness. I saw Oliver smirk that day. A little wink that said, I win. I knelt that day because I loved her. Because I was desperate. But the man who knelt was gone. He died on the piano bench. I met her gaze. “Fine. Divorce. Tomorrow? No. Let’s do it right now.”

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I had just come off a grueling fourteen-hour night shift when Harrison’s new girl dropped to her knees right in front of my locker, sobbing as if her heart had been ripped out. “Please, Natalie. Please,” she begged, her voice echoing in the sterile hospital corridor. “Let me keep this baby. Harrison says he’ll only listen to you.” She grabbed at the hem of my scrubs. “I’ll be so good, I swear. I won’t ever try to take your place. I’m only nineteen. I’m terrified of getting an abortion. You’re a doctor, you’re supposed to save lives—please, just accept me.” Right as she hit the peak of her hysterical pleading, Harrison rounded the corner. He looked breathless, frantic. He looked at me, his eyes heavy with performative guilt. “Cheating was my mistake. I own that. So whether this baby stays or goes… I’m leaving the decision entirely in your hands.” In my past life, this exact scene had shattered me. I had been too much of an idealist back then, clinging to the naive belief of a soulmate, of one true love. The betrayal of the man I had slept beside and loved fiercely for five years destroyed me. Back then, I chose a clean break. I walked away, refusing to ever see him again. And that decision taught me the brutal, unforgiving nature of reality. She, the mistress, used her child to claw her way up. She lived a life bathed in luxury and unimaginable wealth. Meanwhile, I worked myself to the bone. I practically lived in the operating room, but even after collapsing from sheer exhaustion, I still hadn’t scraped together enough to pay off my mother’s crushing medical debts. It forced me to agree with the cynical old saying: In the end, love is just a losing game. So, in this life, I looked at Harrison and said, “Get rid of the baby. And our wedding will proceed as planned.” …….. 1 I watched the tension physically drain from his shoulders. He exhaled a sharp breath, shocked by my sheer magnanimity, and even more shocked that I still wanted to marry him. “I’m so glad you could see reason,” he murmured. I offered him a faint, practiced smile. It wasn’t that I had seen reason. I had seen the absolute core of how the world worked. You can survive perfectly fine without love. You cannot survive without money. Harrison took a tentative step toward me, testing the waters. His arm slipped naturally around my waist, pulling me gently against his chest. But beneath the warmth in his eyes, there was a calculating scrutiny. “Will you be the one to do her D&C?” he asked softly. “I wouldn’t trust any other doctor with it.” I didn’t hesitate for a fraction of a second. The corners of my mouth tipped upward. “Of course. Leave her to me.” A flicker of genuine surprise crossed his face. For a second, he looked at me like he didn’t know me at all. “She’s young. She’s scared of the pain,” he added. “Be gentle.” I gave him a look designed to reassure. “We use anesthesia. She won’t feel a thing.” Mia panicked. She began to weep with an earth-shattering despair, her fingers digging into the fabric of my pants. “No! Please, I’m begging you! I’m only nineteen, I can’t do this!” “I’ll sign a contract!” she cried out. “I’ll stay in the shadows forever, I swear! Just please, Natalie, this is my first baby. Please give him a chance to live!” I looked down at the girl trembling on the linoleum floor. I had to hand it to her. In my past life, this girl had been infinitely smarter than me. She leveraged her pregnancy, gave birth to a son, and inherited the entire Prescott family empire. She lived out her days glowing in the spotlight. Harrison and I had a child once, too. But because I suffered from a severe emotional purity complex, because the thought of his betrayal made my skin crawl, I marched into a clinic and aborted my baby without looking back. Two different choices. Her child became a billionaire heir. Mine ended up as medical waste. Love really does make a woman stupid. I forced my voice to tremble, looking up at Harrison with wide, victimized eyes. “I’ve compromised so much already, and she’s still pushing me. Is she trying to stress me out so badly that I lose my own baby?” I deliberately placed a protective hand over my perfectly flat stomach. Harrison froze. For a second, his brain short-circuited. Then, pure, unadulterated joy exploded across his face. He grabbed me by the waist and spun me around right there in the hallway. “I’m going to be a dad? I’m going to be a dad!” Since our very first year together, he had talked endlessly about wanting a family with me. In my previous life, fueled by pride and stubbornness, I had kept the pregnancy a secret. I firmly believed that if I cut out the toxic waste from my life, I would carve out a beautiful future for myself. It turned out to be the most fatal miscalculation of my life. 2 I immediately marched back into the clinic and booked Mia for a termination the very next morning. She cried like the world was ending. To keep her from going completely off the rails, Harrison turned to me and murmured, “Be good, okay? Don’t overthink this. I just need to go calm her down.” As he spoke, he reached out and affectionately patted the top of my head. Like one might soothe a golden retriever. My expression remained entirely neutral. I felt nothing. Harrison left that afternoon and didn’t come home all night. The next morning, just as I was putting on my coat for work, Harrison’s mother, Victoria, appeared at my front door with Mia in tow. Mia had her arm looped tightly through Victoria’s. They stood close, leaning into one another, giving off the distinct impression of a mother and daughter—or a deeply bonded mother-in-law and daughter-in-law. Harrison trailed a few steps behind them. The grim set of his jaw gave it all away. I already knew, with absolute certainty, that today’s surgery was off the table. Right on cue, Victoria stepped forward, taking on the imperious tone of the family matriarch. “Natalie, I’m not going to beat around the bush.” She shot a protective look at the girl beside her, silently communicating to Mia that she was her absolute shield. Then she looked back at me. “Mia is three months along. It’s a boy. The eldest grandson of the Prescott family.” “This child is of paramount importance to our legacy.” “Both you and Mia are Harrison’s women now. If she can be gracious enough to make room for you, you should have the decency to show her the same grace.” Victoria paused, letting the silence stretch before delivering her final blow. “As an older woman, let me give you a piece of advice. In a marriage, a smart woman learns to keep one eye shut. Stop being so petty.” Immediately, Mia dropped to her knees in front of me again, tears spilling perfectly down her cheeks. “You’re a healer, Natalie. Please don’t make me kill my baby. I swear, when he’s born, my son can serve yours. We’ll do anything you want.” She wept with absolutely zero dignity, like a Victorian maid begging for scraps. Harrison and Victoria immediately flanked her, hauling her back to her feet. “Mia, do not kneel to her. Don’t you be afraid. I am backing you. She won’t dare lay a finger on you,” Victoria snapped, shooting me a glacial glare. Harrison looked at me, his voice tight. “She’s practically begging you. Don’t make this harder than it needs to be.” Make it harder for her? I almost laughed out loud. Wasn’t it you, Harrison, who told me the decision was entirely mine? I forced a gentle, glowing smile onto my face and stepped toward Mia. “You poor thing. You must be terrified.” I reached out and warmly enveloped her hands in mine. Mia was so stunned she forgot how to speak. “Harrison left the choice to me,” I lied smoothly. “So I assumed he was the one who didn’t want the baby, and he was just using me to do his dirty work.” “I see now that I was completely mistaken. Bringing a life into this world is a beautiful thing. No one has the right to strip you of your right to be a mother.” Mia stared at me, dumbfounded by my warmth. But Harrison was even more shocked. After his mother and Mia finally left, he lingered behind, staring at me as if I were a puzzle he couldn’t solve. “You’ve changed, Natalie.” “How so?” I asked casually, adjusting my watch. “The old you was territorial. You kept me on such a tight leash. If I even looked at another woman, you’d give me the silent treatment for days.” So he knew. He knew exactly how fiercely I had loved him. He knew my love was so all-consuming it made me jealous and insecure. And yet, knowing all of that, he still got Mia pregnant. And he still brought her straight to my doorstep to break my heart. Reborn into this life, looking at him now, my heart was a flatline. Total, absolute stillness. Because the love was dead, I had infinite emotional bandwidth to be the “bigger person.” I sighed, putting on a face of helpless devotion. “What else am I supposed to do? I love you too much. And now I’m carrying your child, too.” I paused, tilting my head. “If I had thrown a massive tantrum and forced you to cut her off entirely… would you have actually done it?” He didn’t answer the question. Instead, he pulled me into a tight embrace. “You are the most important person in my life. You know that. As for Mia… even if I wanted to cut ties right this second, my mother would never allow it.” “You know how hard it was to get my mom to finally agree to our wedding. Let’s just keep the peace and play along with her for now, okay?” 3 It was an open secret that Victoria Prescott despised me. She had always wanted Harrison to marry the daughter of a prominent CEO from their country club—a girl he’d grown up with. A perfect, blue-blooded match. But five years ago, Victoria suffered an ectopic pregnancy. I was the attending surgeon who saved her life. That was how I met Harrison. It was love at first sight for him, followed by a relentless, sweeping courtship. Because I had literally saved her life, Victoria couldn’t openly forbid the relationship. But she never gave me the time of day, either. Three years ago, when Harrison first proposed to me, she threw a fit and fled to their estate in the south of France for two years just to avoid attending an engagement party. This time, Harrison had drawn a hard line in the sand. He told her that whether she showed up or not, he was putting a ring on my finger. Only then did Victoria finally cave and fly back to the States. “I understand,” I murmured into Harrison’s chest, playing the perfect, accommodating fiancé. “I used to be so narrow-minded. But people grow up, right?” He swallowed every word of my counterfeit devotion. Look at this. This is how men operate. You can pour your raw, bleeding heart out for them and they will throw it away. But play a calculated game, feed their ego, and you’ll hold them in the palm of your hand. Harrison stroked my hair, visibly moved. “I’ll be fair to you, Natalie. I promise, I won’t let you be marginalized.” A cold sneer bubbled up in my throat, but I kept my face utterly serene. Taking advantage of the sentimental mood, I suggested we head to the courthouse and sign the marriage papers legally before the big ceremony. I pitched it as a “peace of mind” thing for me. He agreed without a second thought. But our victory was brief. We signed the papers that morning. By the afternoon, Mia was moving her suitcases into our house. Harrison looked sheepish as he explained. “My mom… she doesn’t feel right having a young, pregnant girl living out on her own, so—” “I completely understand,” I interrupted with a warm smile. He patted my head again, clearly thrilled by my sudden domestic compliance. I took it a step further. I gave Mia the guest bedroom with the best natural light. And then, I gave her Harrison. He spent every single night in her bedroom. He showered her with blatant, unapologetic affection in our shared living space. It didn’t take long for the household staff to read the room. Within days, the maids were treating Mia with far more deference than they treated me. Spoiled by his attention, Mia’s arrogance skyrocketed. One evening, as I walked past her bedroom door, she made sure I was looking before she draped herself over Harrison. “Baby,” she purred, her voice dripping with artificial sweetness. “You sleep with me every single night. It’s starting to feel a little unfair to Natalie. Don’t you think you should go sleep in her bed for once?” Her tone was seductive, but her eyes, locked onto mine, were viciously triumphant. Harrison, completely strung along by her teasing, flipped her onto her back and pinned her against the mattress. “You little manipulator. You don’t mean a word of that.” “Well,” she teased, trailing a hand down his chest. “Who do you actually prefer sleeping with? Me, or her?” “I think my actions speak for themselves,” he mumbled, already burying his face in her neck. She stared at me over his shoulder, wearing the crown of the victorious conqueror, desperate to see me shatter. But my heart remained a stagnant pool of water. My phone buzzed in my pocket. A text from my younger brother: Thanks so much, Nat. I start at Prescott Enterprises on Monday. Another buzz. My sister: Got the management position! Thank you for the hookup, you’re a lifesaver. And finally, a text from my mother: Natalie, honey, why on earth did you wire me two million dollars? That’s so much money. I don’t want your money, keep it for your own future. I smiled down at the screen. A piece of paper from the courthouse didn’t just buy me a luxury lifestyle. It became a rising tide that lifted my entire family. And that was worth infinitely more than the fleeting warmth of a cheating man. 4 My total serenity sometimes rubbed Harrison the wrong way. His ego couldn’t handle the lack of friction. He would corner me in the kitchen, staring intently into my eyes. “I haven’t slept in our bed for days, and you haven’t even texted me about it. Are you giving me the silent treatment, or do you actually not care?” I fed him the script with zero emotion. “It’s the pregnancy hormones. I just really crave quiet right now.” “As long as I know you still love me.” He accepted the excuse, pulling me into a hug. “I just needed to hear it. I get paranoid that you’re drifting.” He even had the audacity to joke about our twisted reality. “Honestly, if the three of us can just find a rhythm, it’s better than anything else.” I offered a hollow laugh. Even on the night before our lavish wedding ceremony, he was summoned to Mia’s bedroom. But less than two hours later, sounds of distress echoed down the hallway. Harrison rushed into my room. “Natalie, you’re an OB-GYN. You’re the expert here. Please, come look at Mia. Something’s wrong.” When I walked in, Victoria was already perched on the edge of Mia’s bed, clasping the girl’s hands. “You’re going to be fine, darling. Just breathe.” Seeing me, Mia put on her best wounded fawn act. “Natalie… thank you for coming.” “Don’t thank her, she’s family,” Victoria said briskly. Harrison urged me forward. “Check her. What’s happening?” I walked over, my face an emotionless mask, and placed my hands on Mia’s abdomen. “Describe the pain.” She bit her lip, looking artificially embarrassed. Victoria picked up the cue, giving her a reassuring nod. “Don’t be shy, dear. Tell the doctor.” Mia twisted her fingers into the silk sheets. “Harrison was just… a little too rough. It hurts down there, and my stomach feels tight. I’m so scared for the baby.” Harrison looked stricken. “It’s my fault.” I finished the exam. I found absolutely nothing wrong. “The baby is fine. But I’d strongly advise against intercourse in this condition.” Mia immediately clutched her stomach. “But I really don’t feel well! What if something happens to him in the middle of the night?” She looked up at me through her eyelashes. “Could you… maybe just sit here and keep an eye on me for a little while?” “That’s a good idea,” Victoria chimed in. “Natalie, you sit by the bed. Keep watch until we’re sure the danger has passed.” I glanced at Harrison. He didn’t object. In fact, he looked at me with soft gratitude. “Thank you for doing this.” They had entirely forgotten that I was pregnant, too. “Sure,” I said, my voice utterly flat. In the dead of night, the house went silent. I sat in a stiff chair beside their bed, watching Mia sleep securely in Harrison’s arms. Before she drifted off, she shot me one last smirk—a look of pure, concentrated venom and victory. I just sat there, breathing evenly. Sometime past 3:00 AM, Harrison stirred. He looked over and saw me sitting straight up, my face completely devoid of jealousy, anger, or sorrow. He couldn’t take the silence anymore. He whispered into the dark. “Seeing me sleep with another woman… it really doesn’t bother you at all?” I smiled faintly. “I’m not bothered. Now go back to sleep. You’ll wake Mia.” His face darkened. My lack of jealousy was starting to wound his pride. But he swallowed his words. His eyes communicated loud and clear: I don’t know who you are anymore. I kept my eyes open until dawn, yawning through the exhaustion, my body heavy with fatigue. When the sun finally rose, I dragged myself to the bridal suite to get into my Vera Wang gown. Today was my wedding day. Harrison was glowing. He brushed a thumb over the dark circles under my eyes. “Once the reception is over, I’m going to hold you, and we’re going to sleep for a week.” I gave him a shallow, compliant nod. The venue was spectacular. Hundreds of A-list guests, champagne flowing, the room buzzing with wealth and privilege. But right as the music swelled and I prepared to make my grand entrance to the altar, a vicious, stabbing pain ripped through my abdomen. As a doctor, I knew the physical sensations of my own body better than anyone. I knew exactly what was happening. I was miscarrying. Panic seized Harrison’s face. He rushed forward to catch me. “Don’t panic. I’m taking you to the hospital right now.” But before he could move, Victoria and Mia blocked his path. “The wedding has already started!” Victoria hissed. “You can’t have the bride and groom vanish into thin air!” “Her health is the priority!” Harrison snapped, his brow furrowed. “I will have my driver take her to the ER,” Victoria countered sharply. “We cannot cancel this event. We have investors in that room. Put Mia in a white dress and walk her down the aisle. The Prescott family will not become the laughingstock of the city!” Harrison froze. I watched the gears turning in his head as he weighed his love for me against his family’s PR disaster. Slowly, he motioned for his security detail to carry me out. He leaned down and pressed a hurried kiss to my sweaty forehead. “I’m so sorry, Nat. I’ll make this up to you. I promise.” Mia leaned in close, pretending to check on me. With her face inches from mine, she whispered so only I could hear: “You lose, Natalie. The title of Mrs. Prescott is mine. I will be his only legitimate wife.” Then she straightened up, acting frantic, yelling at the staff to hurry up and get me to the car. She turned and took Harrison’s arm. The fake bride and the real groom. As Harrison walked her toward the grand double doors, preparing to step onto the stage under the blinding lights, I pushed the medics away. Bleeding, my white gown stained with a horrific, blossoming red, I grabbed a microphone from the soundboard. I held my legal marriage certificate high in the air and pushed my voice to the absolute limit. “I apologize to all the guests!” I gasped into the mic, my voice booming through the ballroom. “But my husband and I have to cancel this wedding… because I am currently miscarrying his child!”

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My boyfriend’s childhood sweetheart used my credit card to sponsor impoverished students, cultivating a persona of a beautiful and kind-hearted heiress. Then, the class funds went missing, only to be found in my locker. My boyfriend, looking heartbroken, said, “Blair, turn yourself in. I’ll wait for you.” I tried to explain, but no one believed me; the whole class accused me of theft. In the end, I was wrongfully imprisoned. My parents died in a car accident while trying to clear my name. My boyfriend seized the opportunity to take over my family’s company, but then announced his marriage to his childhood sweetheart. I died in prison, heartbroken. When I opened my eyes, I was back in time, when my childhood sweetheart was paying tuition for impoverished students. … “The university is organizing an endowment drive for the First-Gen Low-Income Student Support Fund. Who would like to pledge?” The moment the professor’s voice drifted through the lecture hall, a violent jolt ripped through my spine. I stared blankly at the podium, listening to the familiar pitch about financial aid, priority registration, and guaranteed fellowship nominations. My chest heaved. I drew in a ragged, desperate breath. I am alive. I am back. A split second later, Mia shot up from her seat in the front row. “Professor, I’d like to pledge seventy-five thousand dollars. I want it to go directly toward the living stipends of our FGLI students.” The words hung in the air, instantly sucking the oxygen out of the room. A collective gasp echoed off the auditorium walls. “Seventy-five grand? Mia, you can’t be serious.” Mia tilted her chin up just a fraction, the fluorescent lights catching the edge of the Van Cleef necklace resting against her collarbone. “It’s only seventy-five thousand. Why would I joke about something like that?” The room erupted. Cheers and applause washed over her. “Oh my god, Mia, you’re literally an angel,” Harper, our mutual roommate, gushed loudly. “You’re so loaded but you keep it so low-key. And when it actually matters, you’re incredibly generous. Unlike some people who parade around campus with massive, tacky designer bags just to show off.” Harper threw a pointed, venomous glare over her shoulder, her eyes locking onto the oversized leather tote slung across the back of my chair. I looked at the bag. I liked it because it was spacious. Back home, our estate manager used this exact model to haul fresh produce from the farmer’s market. Compared to the bespoke, one-of-a-kind pieces sitting in my walk-in closet, this was the most unremarkable, pedestrian bag I owned. A cold, creeping nausea settled in my stomach as the memories of my past life bled into the present. In that life, I had funded Mia’s entire existence under my father’s corporate philanthropic umbrella. I even gave her a supplementary Black Card to cover her “basic needs.” At first, I didn’t care about the few hundred or even a few thousand dollars she swiped here and there. Even on this exact day, when she grandstanded with my money to pledge seventy-five thousand dollars, I had felt a flicker of annoyance, but I’d kept my mouth shut. After all, my family’s foundation donated tens of millions annually. What was seventy-five grand? But that single moment of silence had been my undoing. It cemented Mia’s reputation as the campus’s golden-hearted heiress, while I was branded a vain, stingy poser. The nightmare had culminated in the ‘stolen class fund’ incident. When Mia led a witch hunt straight to my dorm and “found” the missing money in my closet, my boyfriend, Connor, had stood in front of the entire student body, looking at me with unbearable pity. “Turn yourself in, Blair. I’ll wait for you.” I was spat on. Expelled. Sent to prison. The university stripped me of my Vanguard Fellowship and handed it to Mia. And then, the phone call that shattered my soul: my parents, rushing to the precinct with the evidence to clear my name, had been run off the road. I died in that concrete cell. A slow, agonizing rot of the spirit. And in my final days, I watched on a smuggled phone as Connor—having hostilely taken over my family’s empire—proposed to Mia with a fleet of nine hundred synchronized drones lighting up the night sky. The internet crowned them the ultimate power couple. They had built their fairy tale on the blood of my parents. My nails dug into my palms, biting crescent moons into the skin. The phantom metallic taste of blood filled my mouth. At the front of the room, Mia was blushing, waving her hands in a performance of deep humility. “Oh, stop, you guys are exaggerating. I just want to do what I can to help people.” Then, right on cue, Mia shifted her gaze to me. Her eyes dipped to my bag, laced with manufactured concern. “Blair, that bag looks… really familiar. Listen, I know it’s normal for girls to want nice things, but please don’t let vanity ruin your future. You don’t have to pretend.” I didn’t even blink at her. I looked straight past her carefully contoured face to the professor. “Professor,” I said, my voice eerily calm, cutting through the chatter. “I’ll match it. Put me down for seventy-five thousand.” The professor blinked, adjusting his glasses. He looked at me with open skepticism. “Are you absolutely certain, Blair? If you commit to this ledger and fail to produce the funds, you will be disqualified from all academic honors, and your Vanguard Fellowship nomination will be revoked. Think carefully. Do not make impulsive decisions out of pride.” Mia rushed up the aisle, grabbing my arm with frantic, panicked fingers. “Blair, please! If you’re doing this just to compete with me, then I won’t donate. I’ll pull my pledge right now. I can’t watch you destroy your life just because you’re jealous of me. I would never forgive myself!” The moment she threatened to pull her funding, the FGLI students in the room snapped. Desperation is a volatile fuel, and Mia had just struck the match. They turned on me with absolute venom. “Blair, you selfish bitch! You’re going to cost us our stipends just to feed your massive ego?” “Do you have any idea what it took for us to get into this school? We skip meals! We count every single cent! Finally, someone is willing to help us breathe, and you’re going to ruin it because you want to play rich? You are disgusting.” “Get the hell out, Blair! You don’t belong here!” A guy in the row ahead of me, red-faced and shaking with stress, lunged. He grabbed my shoulder and shoved me hard. I stumbled, my hip slamming into the edge of the desk before I hit the floor. The classroom erupted into chaos. The professor shouted threats of suspension, slamming his hands on the podium until the room finally, reluctantly, fell back into a simmering silence. He looked down at me, his expression tight with disapproval. “Blair, wanting to help is admirable, but you must live within your means. For your own good, I am removing your name from the ledger.” I pushed myself off the floor, dusting off my jeans. The ache in my hip was grounding. It was real. “Professor,” I said, my voice dropping to a glacial chill. “It is not your place to dictate my financial decisions.” Mia gasped, her eyes welling with crocodile tears. “Professor, please don’t be hard on her! It’s fine, I just won’t donate. I don’t want to be the cause of all this.” She made it sound exactly like I was holding a gun to her head. It was a masterful, sickening performance. The guy who had shoved me stepped forward again, his fists clenched. “Are you fucking kidding me, Blair? Drop the act. If you have the money, let’s see it.” “Exactly! We don’t even want your dirty money. We don’t need your fake charity.” “I wouldn’t take a dime from you if I were starving. Professor, we refuse her donation!” The professor scowled at me, treating me like a petulant child throwing a tantrum. “Blair, read the room. Stop being so deeply selfish.” A quiet, hollow laugh slipped past my lips. I looked around the room—at the desperate students, the condescending professor, and Mia, who was hiding a triumphant smirk behind her trembling hands. “Alright,” I said smoothly. “I won’t donate. Let the record show, this was your choice.” The tension snapped. The students instantly swarmed Mia, their eyes wide with relief and sycophantic devotion. “Mia, she backed down! Nobody is forcing you now. You’re still going to do the seventy-five grand, right?” Mia shot me one last look—a fleeting, piercing glance of pure mockery—before turning her angelic smile back to the crowd. “Of course I am.” The professor walked down the steps, his tone softening into reverence. “Mia, if you are certain, please sign the pledge form here. The wire transfer needs to clear the university’s account within three business days.” Without a second of hesitation, Mia took the pen and signed her name with a flourish. An hour later, I was walking back to the dorms with a takeout coffee when I saw them. Connor was standing by the courtyard fountain, laughing as he gently tucked a stray strand of hair behind Mia’s ear. He was looking at her the way you look at something precious, something delicate. The moment his eyes shifted and caught me walking toward them, the warmth drained from his face, replaced by a harsh, suffocating coldness. “Blair. I heard what you did in lecture today,” Connor snapped, closing the distance between us. “Throwing a fit, pretending you could drop seventy-five grand just to show up Mia? When did you become so completely obsessed with status?” He paused, taking in my blank, unreadable expression, and forced his tone to soften. He played the role of the disappointed but caring boyfriend flawlessly. “Look, Blair, I’m just looking out for you. My family is comfortable, but seventy-five grand? That’s life-altering money. Were you really going to drain your parents’ retirement accounts just to stroke your own ego? You’re lucky Mia stepped in and saved you from making the biggest mistake of your life. You owe her a massive apology. Actually, she was looking at a Cartier Love bracelet recently. It’s only about five grand. You should buy it for her as a thank you.” I stared at Connor. I really looked at him. This was the man I had loved. The man I had pulled strings for, secretly securing him a highly coveted internship at my father’s firm. The man who had spun me sob stories about his “poor, struggling childhood friend,” begging me to help her out, which was why I’d given Mia the Black Card in the first place. I had loved him, so I loved the things he cared about. Now, standing in the dappled campus sunlight, I realized he was just painfully, terrifyingly mediocre. I let out a dry, incredulous laugh. “Connor. Do you need me to buy you a mirror? Because the audacity is actually blinding. You want me to buy your little untouchable angel a five-thousand-dollar bracelet? Your ego is bigger than your empty skull.” Connor physically recoiled. He blinked, genuinely stunned. In my past life, I had always capitulated. A few thousand dollars was nothing to me, and keeping the peace was everything. Today, I wouldn’t give him the loose change at the bottom of my purse if he were begging on the street. His face flushed a violent, ugly red. “Blair, what the hell is wrong with you?” I widened my eyes, offering him a look of deadpan innocence. “Do you need me to translate it into smaller words?” Mia immediately shrank behind Connor, her voice trembling. “Blair, I know you hate me. I’ll just stay away from you and Connor from now on. Please don’t fight with him because of me.” Connor threw a protective arm out, shielding her. “Stop acting like a paranoid bitch, Blair. I see Mia like a little sister. You drop thousands on a bag without thinking twice, so what’s the big deal about buying her one piece of jewelry? She’s basically going to be your sister-in-law one day.” I held Mia’s gaze for three long seconds. “Her mouth doesn’t spit gold, Connor. She’s not worth five grand. She’s not worth a dime.” Tears instantly spilled over Mia’s lashes. She looked utterly broken. Connor’s jaw clenched so hard a muscle ticked in his cheek. “You are completely out of line. Mia saved you from a seventy-five-thousand-dollar mistake. A gift is the absolute bare minimum. If you can’t even be a decent human being about this, then we’re done. We’re breaking up.” A profound, weightless relief washed over me. I smiled. It was the first genuine smile I’d worn all day. “Perfect. We’re done. Have a nice life.” I didn’t wait for his reaction. I turned on my heel and walked briskly toward the dorms, the faint, furious sounds of Connor shouting after me—warning me not to come crying back to him—fading into the background. The second I locked my dorm room door, I pulled out my phone, opened my banking app, and froze the supplementary American Express Centurion card. Let’s see where you pull seventy-five grand from now, Mia. A week passed. The promised wire transfer never hit the university’s account. The FGLI students and the financial aid office began hunting Mia down. When she finally showed her face in our dorm room, she was a frantic, weeping mess. “I lost my card!” she sobbed to our roommates. “I left it right here on my desk, I swear. I just stepped out for a second, and when I came back, it was gone. And… and Blair was the only one in the room. I didn’t want to say anything because I didn’t want to accuse her, but I have no other way to pay the endowment! Blair, please. Please just tell me where my card is.” I leaned back in my desk chair, casually flipping a page in my textbook. “No idea. Haven’t seen it.” Mia dropped to her knees right beside my chair, burying her face in her hands. “Blair, I’m begging you. If you need money, I can give you cash! Just give me the card back so I don’t ruin the lives of all those students who are depending on me.” The performance was seamless. She had officially branded me a thief. Right on cue, Professor Aris walked into our dorm room, flanked by campus security. He looked at me with deep, exhausted disappointment. “Given the severity of the financial amount involved, we need to conduct a search of this room. Do I have your consent?” Harper and the other roommates eagerly nodded. The campus police began tearing the room apart. It took exactly four minutes. “Found it,” one of the officers announced. He was pointing at the bottom shelf of my open closet. Every head in the room turned. Resting conspicuously on top of a folded cashmere sweater was a heavy, anodized titanium black card. The silence in the room was thick and suffocating. The judgment radiating from the others felt like physical heat. From the hallway, Connor pushed his way into the room. He must have followed the security detail up. He looked at the card, then looked at me, his eyes swimming with tragic, manufactured heartbreak. “Just turn yourself in, Blair,” he whispered, his voice cracking perfectly. “You made a terrible mistake, but I still love you. I’ll wait for you.” I couldn’t help it. A short, sharp bark of laughter tore from my throat. I stood up, walked over to the closet, and picked up the heavy metal card. “This is my card,” I said plainly. Connor’s face twisted in disgust. “Stop lying, Blair. It’s over. That is an Amex Centurion. You expect us to believe a middle-class girl just happens to have a Black Card?” Harper crossed her arms, sneering. “I know for a fact that’s Mia’s. I’ve seen her use it at the dining hall.” I smiled. The corners of my mouth curled up into a terrifyingly serene arc. “Is that so?” Slowly, deliberately, I reached into the pocket of my jeans. I pulled out my wallet, slipped my fingers into the front slot, and withdrew an identical, heavy titanium Black Card. “You must mean this one, then,” I said, holding them both up to the light. “The problem is… they both belong to me.”

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My husband was supposedly an orphan, losing both his parents when he was young. He later married into my wealthy family as a live-in son-in-law. After our marriage, we had a son and a daughter, and my parents enjoyed the bliss of having grandchildren. However, when I rushed home on the day of the Mid-Autumn Festival, I heard my husband teaching our children to call the old family butler something unexpected: “Grandpa.” 1 “Yes! Good girl.” Uncle Miller’s old face broke into a smile as bright as a blooming chrysanthemum. A sheen of tears flashed in his eyes, and his face bore obvious pride. My husband, William, had one arm around each child. After coaxing our little daughter, Lily, to call him that, he turned to our son, Liam: “Liam, call him Grandpa.” Standing outside the window, I watched this scene unfold in the living hall with cold eyes, thoughts swirling in my mind. Since my parents retired, they traveled abroad frequently. They had just flown to the Maldives a few days ago. I had personally gone to Shanghai to negotiate a project, but considering it was the Mid-Autumn Festival—a time for family reunion—I took a red-eye flight back. I wanted to surprise my husband and children, but I never expected William to give me such a shock instead. Uncle Miller had worked for my father for over a decade. Even though he was a senior member of the household staff, it still wasn’t his place to comfortably accept the title of “Grandpa.” He was usually cautious and followed the rules. He shouldn’t have acted so presumptuously. Lily was still in elementary school, so naturally, she did whatever William told her to do. But Liam was already in middle school. He knew perfectly well who the real head of this household was, so he reluctantly refused: “Dad, if Mom hears this, it won’t be good…” Before Liam could finish, William interrupted him, flying into a rage born of humiliation: “Does my word mean nothing in this house anymore? He’s a… an elder who has been with our family for so many years. He watched you grow up with his own eyes. What’s wrong with calling him Grandpa?” Hearing this, Liam stopped resisting and called out timidly in a low voice, “Grandpa.” Compared to Lily’s calling, the ecstatic joy on Uncle Miller’s face could no longer be hidden. He abruptly reached out, wanting to pull Liam into his arms. Liam instinctively dodged his hands, leaving Uncle Miller standing there awkwardly. William suddenly shouted angrily, as if a raw nerve had been poked: “I raised you for nothing! You’re exactly like your mother, looking down your nose at everyone! You even…” The rest of his words were instantly swallowed back down. He looked toward me as if he’d seen a ghost: “W…Wife, why are you back so suddenly?” “If I wasn’t, how would I know you act so high and mighty at home?” A cold smile played on my lips as I slowly walked into the living room. Liam threw himself at me like he’d seen a savior: “Mom! I thought you wouldn’t be back for at least a week.” Lily also leaned into my embrace playfully: “Mommy, did you bring me an Elsa dress?” I took my time comforting my two darlings before looking up at Uncle Miller and William: “I’m gone for one night, and my two children suddenly have a new grandpa?” Uncle Miller looked terrified, then immediately apologized in a dejected tone: “Miss Chloe, I was just too envious of Mr. Sterling having such wonderful grandchildren, which is why I lost my composure. Please don’t blame your husband. He just saw that today is a festival for family reunions, thought about how I’ve been alone my whole life, and felt sorry for me. I promise you, nothing like this will ever happen again!” Seeing Uncle Miller so anxious that tears were about to fall, I couldn’t bear to say much more. I just gave a vague nod and told him to leave for now. However, before he left, he and William quickly exchanged a subtle, knowing look. Seeing this, a faint sense of displeasure arose in my heart. In this house, Uncle Miller had the lowest status, followed by William. And this allied posture of theirs was testing my bottom line. 2 After returning to our room, William, seeing that my face was still grim, put on his usual cheeky, smiling face and leaned in: “Wife, you must be exhausted from this business trip, right? Let me massage your shoulders.” “Your humble servant will also rub your legs.” The soreness in my limbs gradually eased under his perfectly applied pressure. Perhaps because I always had a strong, dominant personality, I was always very susceptible to William’s “shows of weakness.” Even though I knew he was faking it. After all, just this afternoon, he had said things like “my eyes are on the top of my head.” But for a man to be able to fake it for a lifetime and keep me comfortable was a skill in itself. “Don’t make jokes like that again. It crossed the line.” My words effectively concluded today’s incident. The anxiety on William’s face visibly vanished: “I knew my wonderful wife was the most magnanimous.” He playfully massaged me for nearly half an hour before casually grabbing a set of pajamas and heading into the bathroom. For some reason, the look William and Uncle Miller exchanged that afternoon inappropriately popped into my mind. Remembering that he specifically went around to the nightstand to grab his phone before entering the bathroom, I instinctively lightened my footsteps and pressed myself against the bathroom door. “It’s a small matter. Just have him come over and report for duty.” “Everyone in the company knows who calls the shots now. If you ask me, having a woman as a leader just means a bunch of trivial, annoying rules.” William’s tone was incredibly arrogant, something I had never heard before. I didn’t know what the person on the other end said, but it made him chuckle in agreement. I raised my hand and knocked on the bathroom door: “William, who are you talking to?” The noise inside quickly ceased, and William stepped out briskly. He carefully observed my expression before speaking softly: “Wife… it’s like this. You know I lost my parents when I was young and grew up relying on the charity of others in my village. Now everyone back home knows I married a capable wife, and they all praise me for making something of myself. I also wanted to repay the kindness of the people from my hometown. So just now, my Third Uncle called wanting to find a job for his nephew here. It just so happened we have an opening for an errand boy at the company, so I agreed.” Hearing this explanation, my heart instantly skipped a beat. The tone William used on the phone just now was entirely natural. Seeing the small things tells the bigger picture. How many people had he exactly shoved into my company? Ignoring William’s anxious expression, I lay back down on the bed, keeping to myself. Early the next morning, I went straight to the company. My first order of business was to call in Kevin, the HR manager. Kevin looked troubled: “Ms. Sterling… are you saying you want a list of everyone hired by Mr. William?” A cold smile touched the corners of my mouth: “Since when do you have to look at William’s face to do your job?” “Chloe Sterling! It’s not cool to talk like that,” Kevin rolled his eyes at me. I found it a bit funny: “You were the one acting weird first. Calling me ‘Ms. Sterling’ and being all formal.” Kevin suddenly sighed: “Ever since you focused entirely on the company’s business operations, the internal management has become William’s domain. You two are husband and wife, after all. There are many things that are hard for me to say, but I suggest you go take a look at the administration department on the seventh floor.” I didn’t press Kevin any further and headed straight downstairs. As soon as I reached the entrance of the administration department, I saw it was entirely staffed by young women, all wearing extremely short suit skirts. This scene made me frown deeply. Before I could even take two steps inside, I saw the unfamiliar back of a man, his wandering hands sliding back and forth along a girl’s thigh. “You… you…” The girl’s voice was filled with shock and anger, but she couldn’t get any other words out. The man touching her was about forty or fifty. Seeing her constantly trying to dodge, his tone suddenly turned vicious: “So what if I touch you? I’m the one who hired all of you! Do you want to keep your jobs or not?! I pay you such high salaries just for my own pleasure!” Hearing this, the anger in my heart nearly burst out of my throat. Who the hell was this old animal?! Just as I was about to call security, I heard him spouting more nonsense: “You women are only good for spreading your legs for men. Take our famous Ms. Sterling, for example. No matter how capable or badass she is, she spends her days making money for my nephew to spend, and at night, she obediently lies in bed for my nephew to play with!” 3 I instantly laughed out of pure anger and called for several security guards: “Throw him out.” The old animal was surrounded by security guards, still spewing foul language: “Who do you think you are?! Do you know who I am?!” “When did a woman your age sneak into my company?! I only hire fresh, eighteen-year-old girls!” “Don’t touch me, you worthless trash! Where’s William? Get William here! I’m his real uncle!” The head of security glanced at me out of the corner of his eye. Seeing that I had no reaction to these words, he boldly ordered his men to pin him down and drag him out. I rubbed my temples and called Kevin over again: “Tell me, what exactly is going on.” This time, Kevin spoke clearly: “William has been exercising hiring power in the company under your name. He’s stuffed anyone from his hometown who is even remotely related to him in here, regardless of their age or how low their education is. As the HR manager, I have no say. You brought me here to filter candidates for you, but now, the people entering the company are truly a mixed bag.” I was both angry and amused. Since my father retired, I took over the corporate group, and project matters left me no time to focus elsewhere. Although William was a live-in son-in-law, he had the title of “Vice President” after his name. It was somewhat understandable that people in the company deferred to him. “This current state of the company is my fault,” I sighed. Kevin paused for a moment, practically spelling it out for me: “Making money is secondary. You’d better sort out your family affairs first.” I thought of the old man who claimed to be William’s uncle, and a shadow of gloom cast over my heart. After all, William had always told me he “lost his parents young, had no family left, and grew up relying on the charity of the village.” I nodded, got up decisively, and left. I headed straight home, wanting to have a serious talk with William, but I couldn’t find him in the living room or the garden. At this hour… could he not be home? I was just about to call him when I faintly sensed something was wrong. Thinking it over, I realized that Uncle Miller, who usually stayed in the living room, was also nowhere to be seen. Remembering the secret exchange between William and Uncle Miller yesterday, I instinctively walked towards Uncle Miller’s room. Uncle Miller always knew his place. When he first came to our house, he voluntarily chose the room at the very end of the hallway. As if possessed, I actually took off my high heels and approached with the lightest footsteps possible. “Are you an idiot? Don’t you know what kind of person your uncle is? Why would you put him in the company?!” Was that Uncle Miller’s voice? I was a bit surprised. This usually gentle and calm man actually had moments of such explosive anger and impatience? But who was he scolding? Soon, the other, expected voice chimed in. “I didn’t expect him to be this arrogant either, openly starting a harem in the administration department, and getting caught red-handed by Chloe.” It really was William. A glint of coldness flashed in my eyes as I calmly listened to the argument between the two inside. “I’ve been the butler in the Sterling family for over thirty years. I know Chloe’s temperament best. She won’t let this go. I’m worried she’ll follow this trail and investigate…” Before Uncle Miller could finish, William impatiently cut him off: “What are you afraid of? I told her my parents are dead. I didn’t say my uncle was dead too. Besides, she’s a woman after all. As long as she’s a woman, she can never detach her life from her children and family. No matter what, I’m the father of her two children. The Sterling family’s assets will eventually fall into the hands of us father and son.” … He said, “us father and son”? 4 Those three words struck my ears like a thunderbolt, shaking me so hard I nearly lost my footing. I didn’t dare stay there any longer, terrified of making any noise that would put the two inside on guard. As soon as I got back to my car, my first instinct was to call my father. But remembering the double betrayal from the man I shared my bed with and the man by my father’s side, I didn’t dare be careless. My company and my family were already compromised. What if my car had also been tampered with by them long ago? I quickly found a private club in a secluded location. Only when surrounded by reassuring silence did I dial my father’s number: “Dad… why did you hire Uncle Miller to be our family butler all those years ago?” On the way here, I had already noticed the discrepancy in the timeline. After all, Uncle Miller came first; he practically watched me grow up. It was only much later that I met William. My father, a true veteran of the business world, instantly caught the subtext in my words: “Chloe, what happened at home recently?” My father’s steady voice calmed my slightly panicked emotions. I recounted everything that had happened over the past two days in detail. My father was silent for a long time before speaking in a hoarse voice: “If Miller truly is William’s biological father, then what happened today likely stems from a conversation we had a long time ago… “When you were in middle school, Miller probed me about my requirements for a future son-in-law. “He always claimed to be a lone wolf with no family, and he had worked for us for over ten years, so I didn’t think much of it and said I wanted an orphan.” He paused for a good while before his voice came through the phone again: “When your mother gave birth to you, it terrified me, so I got a vasectomy while she was recovering. Our family has a massive business, and you don’t have any siblings to support you. I always worried that when you married, your in-laws would try to bleed you dry. I originally thought about finding a family of equal status, but you didn’t like domineering personalities. I thought it over and over, and felt that finding an orphan to be a live-in son-in-law was the most reliable option. Who knew that later, you actually brought a ‘William’ home… It was quite a coincidence.” As my father finished, he placed heavy emphasis on the word “coincidence,” and I instantly understood what he meant. Once suspicion takes root, details magnify endlessly in your mind. During my dozen or so years of marriage to William, although his interactions with Uncle Miller were few, every single one of them felt off in retrospect. From William’s presence at every single one of Uncle Miller’s birthdays, to the other day when Uncle Miller couldn’t hide his joy upon hearing Liam and Lily call him “Grandpa.” Thinking of this, my face darkened: “Dad, we’ve been set up.” Because I truly believed William was an orphan, I didn’t even think about signing a prenuptial agreement when we married! As a result, even knowing the truth now, I couldn’t immediately tear off all pretense due to the financial implications. And the situation on my father’s end was even more troublesome. Uncle Miller had been with him for over thirty years. This trust led my father to hand over the management of many businesses to him. Taking them back now would be quite tricky. Hearing these difficulties, my father actually let out a hearty laugh: “I’ve lived for decades. This isn’t the first or second time I’ve been set up. The important thing is having the wisdom and patience to break the trap.” My father’s laughter swept away the gloom in my heart. We discussed strategy for a long time before finally hanging up. My first step was to hire a private investigator to go to William’s hometown and gather evidence. You see… the reason I firmly believed William was an orphan, aside from his parents’ death certificates, was that group of relatives in his hometown who supposedly fed him out of charity. Among those people, there had to be flaws.

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“Fiona, you can take your maternity leave, but you absolutely must be present for the project presentation on Monday.” Monday? That would be exactly seven days after my C-section. I lay in the bed at the postpartum care center, my incision still seeping blood. On the other end of the phone was my department manager, David Reynolds. “Don’t worry, just show your face to prove you were involved in the project.” He made it sound so effortless. But I wrote that project—from the very first line of code to the final algorithm iteration. What did he mean by “prove I was involved”? I stayed silent, then heard him add, “Chloe can’t handle it alone. The investors specifically asked to see the core developer.” Chloe? The same Chloe who couldn’t even read a basic code framework? A sudden, sharp laugh escaped me. “Fine. I’ll go.” I hung up and logged into the company intranet. In the project team roster, my name had been quietly shuffled to the very last line. Alright. If they want to play games, let’s play in the big leagues. 01 The nurse at the postpartum center blocked the door, looking at me like I was insane. “Ms. Hayes, you had a C-section a week ago! What if you go out in the wind and your incision tears open?” I pulled on my coat, zipping it all the way up to my chin. “If it tears, they can stitch it back up.” With that, I walked out the door. My husband, Ethan’s, car was parked downstairs. Seeing me come down, he immediately threw open his door and ran over. “Honey, are you really doing this? David is scum, why are you letting him get to you?” I leaned on his arm, walking slowly toward the car door. “If I don’t go, the project becomes Chloe’s.” Ethan frowned. “So what? Worst case, you find a new job—” “Ethan,” I cut him off, “I spent two years on this project. Do you know how many all-nighters I pulled?” He fell silent. I continued, “An eighty-million-dollar valuation. The investors are signing the contract next week. And right now, the name under ‘Project Lead’ is Chloe’s.” Eighty million. The moment those words hung in the air, the car went quiet for a few seconds. Ethan started the engine without another word. I leaned back in my seat, waves of dull, throbbing pain radiating from my incision. My phone buzzed again. It was a text from Chloe. “Fiona! I heard you’re coming today? That’s amazing! I’m so nervous doing this alone, and I don’t really understand some of the investors’ questions…” She attached a pleading, teary-eyed emoji. I didn’t reply. Two years ago, when Chloe first joined the company, she didn’t even know how to install Python. I sat with her, line by line, setting up her environment. I held her hand through the documentation. She called me her mentor and brought me lunch every single day. I actually thought I had trained a good protégé. Until I was seven months pregnant and took half a day off for a checkup. When I returned, my desk had been cleared out. Project documentation, development logs, testing reports—all copied and transferred. That afternoon, David sent a message to the team chat: Due to personnel adjustments, Chloe will temporarily take over as project lead. Temporarily. What a nice, harmless word. I waddled into David’s office with my heavy belly. He smiled warmly and said, “Fiona, just focus on a healthy pregnancy. Chloe has the project handled. When you come back from maternity leave, you’ll still be our core developer.” I believed him. I was an idiot. 02 The company was on the eighteenth floor. When I stepped out of the elevator, the girls at the front desk all stared at me. I could feel their eyes lingering on my lower abdomen. Seven days postpartum, my stomach hadn’t completely shrunk back yet. Even a loose coat couldn’t hide it. “Fiona? What are you doing here?” Lily from the front desk hurried over, lowering her voice. “Aren’t you on maternity leave?” I offered a tight smile. “Meeting.” Her expression shifted, looking like she wanted to say something but held back. I didn’t ask. I walked straight toward the conference room. As I passed Chloe’s cubicle, she was muttering to herself, staring at her screen. When she saw me, she practically jumped out of her chair. “Fiona! You’re here!” 她 hurried over, reaching out to support me. I took a step sideways, avoiding her hand. “I’m fine. I can walk.” Chloe’s hand hung frozen in the air. For a split second, she looked awkward, but quickly recovered her bright smile. “Fiona, you haven’t recovered yet. You just sit during the meeting. You don’t need to say anything; I’ll handle the presentation.” Her tone was so incredibly natural. As if she truly was the project lead. As if I was just a supporting character here to applaud her. I looked at her, suddenly remembering something. “Chloe, did you read the technical documentation the investors sent last week? They have questions about the precision of the recommendation algorithm.” Chloe froze. “Ah… I looked at it, but it was too technical. I didn’t really understand…” “If you didn’t understand it, how do you plan to explain it?” She blinked, her smile sickeningly sweet. “Fiona, that’s why you’re here! You’re the core developer, you understand the technical stuff best.” I nodded and said nothing more. When I walked into the conference room, David was already sitting at the head of the table. Seeing me, he stood up, plastering a fake smile on his face. “Fiona’s here! How are you feeling? Hanging in there?” I gripped the back of a chair and slowly lowered myself down. “I’m managing.” David nodded, glancing at the clock on the wall. “The investors arrive at ten, we have half an hour. Just rest for now. You won’t need to present later; let Chloe do the talking. Just sit there and look supportive.” I looked up at him. “David, I haven’t seen the latest version of the project materials. Could you send me a copy?” He paused, exchanging a quick look with Chloe. “Materials? What materials?” “The version of the project proposal, PowerPoint, and technical documentation the investors will be reviewing.” Silence fell over the conference room for several agonizing seconds. David let out a dry, forced laugh. “Fiona, you just had a baby. Why stress yourself out with all this information? Just focus on resting.” I didn’t back down. “David, I am the core developer. If I can’t even see the presentation materials, how am I supposed to answer the investors’ questions?” His smile stiffened instantly. Chloe chimed in from the side, “Fiona, I made the PowerPoint. It’s mostly based on your previous proposal, I just added some visual effects—” “Send it to me.” My tone was perfectly calm, but leaving absolutely zero room for argument. Chloe glanced at David, who waved his hand dismissively. “Just send it, send it.” Two minutes later, the PowerPoint arrived in my inbox. I opened it and stared at the very first slide. Project Name: SmartSelect Recommendation System Project Lead: Chloe Core Developer: Fiona I scrolled down. The technical architecture diagram. I drew that. The algorithm flowchart. I created that. The model parameter table. I tuned those. Yet, in the bottom corner of every single slide was a tiny, watermark-like signature: Chloe. I skipped to the final slide. The acknowledgment page read: Thank you to all team members for their hard work, with special thanks to Manager David Reynolds for his careful guidance. My name appeared somewhere in the middle of a long list of names. Right behind Chloe’s. I closed my laptop and took a deep, shaky breath. My C-section incision was throbbing violently. 03 The investors arrived right on time. There were two of them, a man and a woman. The man was in his fifties, with graying hair and gold-rimmed glasses. His business card read: Vanguard Capital, Partner, Richard Sterling. The woman was around thirty, with a sharp bob and a black suit. Her card read: Vanguard Capital, Investment Manager, Olivia Vance. David was all smiles, practically fawning as he rushed to shake their hands. “Mr. Sterling, Ms. Vance, thank you for coming all this way!” Richard nodded, his gaze sweeping the room before finally settling on me. “And this is?” David hesitated for a fraction of a second before quickly introducing me. “This is our technical staff, Fiona.” He said “technical staff,” not “core developer.” Richard simply gave a noncommittal “Hmm” and said nothing more. Olivia, however, lingered on me for a moment. Her gaze stayed on my face for a few seconds, her brows furrowing slightly as if she were trying to recall something. But she also remained silent. Once everyone was seated, Chloe stood up and walked over to the projection screen. “Hello everyone, I am Chloe, the project lead for this initiative. I will now present our progress—” Her voice was sugary sweet, and the PowerPoint was undeniably beautiful, using trendy Morandi color palettes. I sat quietly in the corner, listening to her. “Our core algorithm utilizes a hybrid architecture combining collaborative filtering and deep learning. In cold-start scenarios, we enhance precision through user profile completion—” She spoke fluently, rattling off technical jargon one after another. I knew she had copied every single word from my documentation. Because she made a mistake on one specific term. She said “completion,” but my original text used the word “compensation.” The meanings are entirely different in this context. For the cold-start problem in collaborative filtering, we used a profile compensation mechanism, not completion. I kept my mouth shut. I just listened. Chloe presented for fifteen minutes. Richard remained completely expressionless the entire time. When she finished, Richard flipped through the printed materials in front of him and suddenly spoke. “Manager Chloe, what loss function does your recommendation model use?” Chloe froze. “Loss function…” she repeated, her eyes darting around frantically. “It’s the… the function that calculates the error…” Richard waited. Sweat began to bead on Chloe’s forehead. “Specifically… regarding the technical details…” She turned her head and looked at me, her eyes screaming for help. The conference room was so quiet you could hear the low hum of the air conditioning. I didn’t move. I just sat in the corner, exactly as she had instructed, “You don’t need to say anything.” David’s face had already completely changed color. He let out another dry laugh. “Mr. Sterling, the technical details are quite complex. We can organize a detailed document and send it over to you later—” “No need.” Richard cut him off, turning his gaze to me. “Ms. Fiona, you are the technical staff, correct? You answer.” Everyone’s eyes snapped to me. Chloe’s face went white. David looked like he was going to be sick. I slowly stood up, keeping one hand firmly on the back of my chair for support. The pain from my incision was making me break out in a cold sweat, but my posture was rock solid. “Mr. Sterling, our loss function utilizes a BPR loss combined with a second-order regularization term.” I paused for a second before continuing. “BPR stands for Bayesian Personalized Ranking, which is used to address ranking problems in implicit feedback scenarios. Building upon this, we incorporated a negative sampling strategy, adjusting the negative sampling rate from the standard 1:5 ratio to 1:20, significantly improving the model’s coverage of fringe users.” A spark of genuine interest lit up Richard’s eyes. “With a 1:20 negative sampling rate, how do you handle overfitting?” “We implemented a two-layer approach. First, we applied a dropout rate of 0.3 in the embedding layer. Second, we performed time slicing on the training set, using the first six months of data for training and the last two months for validation, effectively preventing data leakage.” Richard nodded slowly, then asked, “Have you conducted live A/B testing? What were the results?” “We have. The click-through rate increased by 23%, and the conversion rate increased by 17%. The testing period ran for two weeks, with a sample size of 500,000.” I spoke at a steady, measured pace, every number crystal clear. This data was burned into my brain. Because I was the one who generated every single bit of it. Richard set the documents down and leaned back in his chair. He looked at Chloe, then looked at me. “David,” he finally spoke, “this Ms. Fiona is your actual core developer, isn’t she?” David’s face flushed a deep, embarrassed red. “Mr. Sterling, Fiona is indeed a core technical team member, but she is currently on maternity leave, so—” “Maternity leave?” Richard interrupted. “Isn’t she sitting right here?” The conference room descended into a deathly, suffocating silence. I watched Chloe lower her head, staring fixedly at the tabletop. Olivia, sitting next to Richard, suddenly spoke up. “Ms. Fiona, forgive me for asking, but how many days postpartum are you?” I replied, “Seven days.” The color drained from Olivia’s face. “C-section or natural birth?” “C-section.” She took a sharp intake of breath and turned to look at Richard. Richard didn’t say a word, but his expression had grown dangerously dark. David, realizing the situation was spiraling out of control, desperately tried to do damage control. “Fiona just has an incredibly strong sense of responsibility. We tried to talk her out of it, but she insisted on coming—” “David,” Richard cut him off sharply. “We invest in projects, but more importantly, we invest in people. Forcing an employee who is seven days postpartum from a major surgery to attend a presentation—is this indicative of your company’s management style?” David opened his mouth but couldn’t force a single word out. I stood there in complete silence. Honestly, my incision was hurting so badly I could barely stand. But I endured it. I wanted them to see this scene unfold with perfect clarity. 04 The meeting ended abruptly and poorly. As Richard was leaving, he gave me a long look, seemingly wanting to say more, but ultimately just offered, “Ms. Fiona, please take care of your health.” As Olivia walked past me, she discreetly slipped a business card into my hand. “If you need anything, please contact me.” I clutched the card and nodded. The moment the investors walked out the door, David’s face twisted into an ugly scowl. He slammed the project folder onto the table. “Fiona! What exactly was the meaning of that stunt you pulled today?” I gripped the back of the chair and slowly sat down. My incision was trembling, and I could feel a damp, warm sensation spreading beneath my clothes—it was likely bleeding. “What do you mean?” “When Richard asked you a question, couldn’t you have shown a little humility? Did you really have to steal the spotlight?” I looked at him, finding the entire situation utterly ridiculous. “David, Richard asked a technical question. Chloe couldn’t answer it. If I didn’t answer it, who was going to?” He choked on his own words. Next to him, Chloe kept her head down, her eyes rimmed with red, playing the part of a deeply wronged victim perfectly. “Fiona… I know I’m not as capable as you, but you didn’t have to humiliate me like that in front of the investors…” Her voice trembled with unshed tears. I stared at her for several long seconds. “Chloe, do you even know what a loss function is?” She froze. “Of course I do, it’s that… the thing that calculates the error—” “You don’t know.” I cut her off sharply. “You have no idea what a loss function is, yet you had the audacity to stand in front of investors and pretend to present the core algorithm. The technical jargon on your PowerPoint—you copied it straight from my documentation, didn’t you?” Chloe’s face drained of color. “I didn’t copy it… I just referenced it…” “Referenced?” I let out a cold laugh, unlocked my phone, and pulled up a screenshot of slide 12 from her presentation, zooming in for her to see. “This technical architecture diagram? I drew it two years ago. The original file is on my hard drive, created on September 17, 2022, at 3:41 PM. Tell me again how you ‘referenced’ it?” Chloe’s lips trembled. “I… I thought… we’re a team, the materials are shared resources…” “Shared?” I put my phone away and spoke, enunciating every single word. “Chloe, right before I went on maternity leave, did you copy every single file from my workstation while I wasn’t looking?” Her face went from pale white to bright red, and back to white again. David finally interjected. “Fiona, drop the passive-aggressive tone. Project materials are company property. As the project lead, Chloe has every right to access them.” Project lead. Those two words again. I turned my gaze to him. “David, I’d love to know, exactly how was this ‘project lead’ designated?” He scoffed. “It was a departmental decision. Do you have a problem with that?” “No problem.” I slowly stood up. “I just wanted to confirm one thing—the core algorithm for this project was written entirely by me. On all the patent application materials, the name under ‘Inventor’ should be mine, correct?” The conference room fell dead silent. David and Chloe exchanged another look. That look lasted for exactly two seconds. Only two seconds, but I saw it all clearly. My heart sank like a stone. “David,” I stared him down, “what is the current status of the patent application?” He let out a dry, awkward laugh. “It’s currently moving through the approval process.” “Who is listed as the inventor?” He didn’t answer. I pressed harder. “David, who is the inventor?” He averted his eyes, looking out the window. “Fiona, your only job right now is to enjoy your maternity leave. We can discuss everything else when you get back.” Suddenly, everything clicked into place. The realization felt like a bucket of ice water had been poured directly over my heart. I didn’t say another word, turned, and walked toward the door. “Fiona!” David yelled after me. “Don’t you dare go spouting nonsense about the project team. Otherwise—” I didn’t even look back. “Otherwise what?” He remained silent. I pushed the door open and walked out. At the far end of the hallway, I leaned against the wall and looked down at my stomach. A small patch of dark red had already soaked through my coat. My incision had torn open.

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While my colleagues were grinning from ear to ear, holding their generous year-end bonuses, I happily stepped onto the stage. Mia, the CEO’s secretary, held a single scallion tied with a red ribbon and threw it at me with a mocking smirk. “Director Hastings, here is your year-end bonus: one scallion.” A wave of snickers rippled through the audience as malicious glances darted my way. I looked at Mia with a cold face. “What is the meaning of this?” She looked at me arrogantly. “Some people are just like a scallion, so they get a scallion. Is there a problem?” I ignored her. Suppressing my anger, I turned around, pushed open the door to my CEO husband’s office, threw the scallion onto his desk, and demanded an answer. “What do you mean by giving me a scallion for a year-end bonus? Are you intentionally humiliating me?” Ethan laughed dismissively and said, “It’s just a joke. Is it really worth interrogating me over? It’s just a little bonus, why are you being so petty?” “Besides, if you hadn’t embarrassed Mia in front of the client last time, I wouldn’t have played this joke on you to vent her frustration. In the end, it’s your own fault.” So, he humiliated me with a scallion just because last time, Mia acted out in front of our partners and almost ruined the deal, and I reprimanded her, making her lose face. My heart felt a dense, pricking pain, like rows of needles piercing it. Since you care so much about Mia’s pride, I’ll grant your wish. “Since my year-end bonus is only worth a scallion, I resign.” … It turns out that years of marriage couldn’t compare to an outsider who just showed up. I looked at him in disbelief. “So, to vent Mia’s frustration, you used a scallion to humiliate me.” “Ethan, do you have any idea how big of a mistake she made during that negotiation? She publicly embarrassed the client. If I hadn’t reprimanded Mia right in front of Mr. Lee, do you think we would have secured that deal?” “You were the one who told me I had to win that contract no matter what. Don’t you know how much effort I put into it? Mr. Lee is notoriously difficult to deal with. I had to swallow my pride and flatter him just to get him to consider working with us.” “And what did you do? Just to boost Mia’s status, you shoved her into my project without even telling me. I tolerated that. But when she almost ruined the deal, you actually blamed me? Ethan, do you even have a heart?” A flicker of guilt crossed Ethan’s face. Just then, Mia walked in. Hearing my words, she squeezed out a look of grievance. “Mr. Sterling, did I make things difficult for you again?” “If I had known, I would have just let Mr. Lee humiliate me. Even if it was uncomfortable, I should have endured it. Even if I had to kneel and grovel, I should have endured it.” “It’s just that I thought, since our company is now publicly listed and was recognized as a leading enterprise in Seattle this year, if we still have to sell our dignity to please clients, wouldn’t we look weak and invite contempt? That’s why I stood up for myself. I didn’t expect Director Hastings to make such a big deal out of it.” “I’m sorry. I just wanted to protect the dignity of the company and you, Mr. Sterling. I didn’t want people to think our partnerships were won by selling our dignity and groveling.” I sneered internally. Her so-called “difficulty” was just being asked to drink two glasses of wine at the dinner table. I had already drank almost a whole bottle and even took the drinks meant for her. And what did she do? She threw a glass of wine right in Mr. Lee’s face, publicly humiliating him. If I hadn’t humbled myself, apologized, and reprimanded Mia, promising to teach her a lesson to appease him, Mr. Lee would have walked out right then and there. There would have been no partnership. And Ethan knew all of this. He had even promised to give me an explanation. But with just a few twisted words from Mia, his heart instantly biased towards her. His so-called explanation turned out to be teaching me a lesson. Since that was the case, I decided it was time to lay all my cards on the table. Hearing Mia’s words, a look of heartache flashed in Ethan’s eyes, and his gaze towards me grew sharper. “Chloe, Mia did nothing wrong in this matter. She’s right. We are a publicly listed company now; the old ways don’t suit us anymore.” “We need to maintain a certain image. If others knew we had no dignity when doing business, wouldn’t we become the laughingstock of the industry?” Hearing Ethan’s defense, Mia shot me a triumphant look. “That’s right, Director Hastings. Even though you are the Sales Director, I have to say this: next time you negotiate a deal, please stop putting on this ‘bitter suffering’ act in front of Mr. Sterling. I know that now that Mr. Sterling’s net worth is over a hundred million, you feel insecure, but you shouldn’t use such low-class tactics to win his sympathy.” “You always make it seem like getting deals is so hard, deliberately lowering your status, letting the clients make things difficult for you, and then playing the victim.” “This really damages the company’s reputation. Although I understand that a middle-aged woman feeling inferior to her successful husband might feel insecure about living off him, you shouldn’t jeopardize the company’s future.” “Giving you a scallion for your year-end bonus was my suggestion to Mr. Sterling, precisely to make you realize your place and stop thinking you’re so smart.” So, giving me a scallion was Mia’s idea. And regarding those partnerships… Yes, our company was publicly listed, but the market was practically saturated. We hadn’t even established a firm foothold yet. What capital did we have to throw attitudes at our partners? One misstep could send us crashing down, never to recover. But looking at him now, it seemed Ethan had completely forgotten where he came from. With bloodshot eyes, I looked at Ethan in disbelief. “Is that what you think too?” Ethan nodded. “Of course. Mia is right. We are a publicly listed company now; negotiating deals doesn’t require much effort. It was all just a tactic you used to play the victim and make my heart ache.” “Considering our years together, let this scallion serve as a lesson. Next time, you are not allowed to do anything that damages the company’s dignity.” My expression remained flat, but because of our years of history, I still wanted to give Ethan one last chance. “So, you don’t intend to give me the year-end bonus I rightfully earned?” “I’ve told you many times, this bonus is very important to me. It concerns a very important matter. I must have it.” “And you clearly promised you would give it to me.” Ethan’s face stiffened. At this moment, Mia feigned surprise and chimed in, “But the year-end bonus that belonged to you this year has already been used by Mr. Sterling to buy me a car.” With that, Mia pulled a Bugatti car key from her pocket and dangled it triumphantly in front of me. Looking at the Bugatti key in her hand, my emotions erupted again. “This is the year-end bonus you gave her? She hasn’t contributed a single thing to the company this past year and even ruined several key projects. Not firing her was already a mercy, and she gets a Bugatti for a year-end bonus?!” “And you used my bonus to buy it for her.” “Ethan, is this the fairness you’ve always preached?” A flash of anger mixed with embarrassment crossed Ethan’s face, and he quickly defended himself loudly. “Mia is new. I gave her this reward just to motivate her to work hard.” “You’re my wife. You already have everything. Do you really need to care about that little bonus?” “What’s wrong with using your bonus to motivate an employee?” I sneered. “There are so many new employees in the company, but I don’t see you using Bugattis to motivate them. Ethan, do you even believe your own excuse?” Ethan’s face stiffened slightly, then he stubbornly replied, “Now that the company is public, do I still need to care about what others think?” “I also don’t allow my employees to sacrifice their dignity to please clients.” But I clearly remembered the client, Mr. Lee. Ethan had demanded that I secure the partnership no matter how difficult they made it. But when it came to Mia, she couldn’t suffer even the slightest grievance. Since the feelings were gone, arguing further would only humiliate myself. “Since that’s the case, I resign.” “Also, let’s get a divorce.” Ethan looked at me in disbelief, as if he had misheard. “Chloe, did I hear that right?” “You want to resign and divorce over this little thing? What exactly are you trying to do? Do you really care about that little bit of money that much?” I stared at him intently. “It is quite important. So since you won’t give it to me, let’s separate.” I was originally the heir to the wealthiest family in New York, but to be with Ethan, I made a pact with my family. As long as I helped Ethan succeed in his startup and he was willing to share his wealth with me, or if my personal account reached a balance of one hundred million dollars within six years, the family would recognize our marriage. They would accept his status as the Hastings family’s son-in-law. Otherwise, I would have to divorce him, return to the family to accept an arranged marriage, and inherit the family enterprise. But after Ethan’s company went public, he didn’t give me any shares. He said he had to treat all employees equally and couldn’t give me shares just because I was his wife, as it would make people think it was a “mom-and-pop” shop, which would look bad. He said he had to be fair and treat me like an ordinary employee. So I had to rely on my own abilities to reach a deposit of one hundred million dollars. For the past year, I had been desperately socializing, pulling in business from all over, and swallowing my pride, all to fulfill the pact with my family. With this year-end bonus of over thirty million dollars, I would have reached the one-hundred-million-dollar goal. I never expected that Ethan would casually take this money to buy Mia a Bugatti. And all I got was a scallion. Since he treated me like this, I had nothing left to hold onto. Ethan jumped up, looking at me fiercely. “Chloe, so it really is about this little bit of money. Why are you so obsessed with money?” “It seems Mia was right. You’re only with me for the money.” “These past few years, you’ve been stingy and calculating with your salary, and you even asked me for shares before. Fortunately, I was smart enough not to give them to you. It seems I was right.” My heart was pierced once again. So, he knew I wanted shares back then, and he didn’t give them to me not because of some so-called fairness, but because he was guarding against me from the very beginning. My mother had told me back then that Ethan’s intentions were not pure, that he didn’t treat relationships as innocently as I did. I didn’t believe her then. Now it seems, I was indeed a poor judge of character. Seeing me stay silent, Ethan felt even more certain that his assessment was correct. His gaze towards me grew increasingly mocking. “I hit the nail on the head, didn’t I? You have nothing to say for yourself, do you?” Seeing his angry and defensive state, I felt even more that my sacrifices over the years were worthless. “Ethan, from accompanying you when you started the business to desperately pulling in deals for the company now, you just think I’m doing it for money?” “This Mia has only been at the company for a year. You believe whatever she says, and whenever she makes a mistake, you think it’s never her fault.” “While I dedicate myself entirely to the company, you suspect me at every turn. Ethan, I hope you won’t regret this.” Ethan scoffed coldly. “But your constant calculating over money is also a fact. I didn’t falsely accuse you. Now that I won’t give it to you, you’re threatening to resign and divorce. What else is there to say?” “Since you want a divorce, then leave with nothing. I just hope you don’t regret it.” Looking at his heartless and emotionless attitude, my heart went completely cold. “Fine. I will leave with nothing.” With that, I turned and walked away, my back straight. At the office door, my colleagues cast various glances my way—some sympathetic, some gloating, and some indifferent. Mia’s delicate voice came from behind: “Mr. Sterling, with Director Hastings gone, what will happen to the Sales Department?” Ethan sneered. “Will the company stop running without her? It’s the perfect opportunity for someone capable to step up.” My steps didn’t falter, but a faint smirk appeared on my lips. Yes, let’s see if the company keeps running without me. I quickly packed the items on my desk and headed straight to the underground parking garage. Looking at my secondhand Honda, which probably couldn’t even buy a single part of Mia’s car, my heart ached even more. I had thought about changing cars before, but to save money, I kept repairing this one, never bearing to part with it. Looking back now, it was truly a joke. Just then, my phone rang. It was my father. “The six years are up. It’s time to fulfill our agreement.” I let out a breath and raised the corners of my mouth. “I’ve decided to return and inherit the family business.” My father didn’t expect this answer. His tone was somewhat cautious. “Chloe, you mean returning alone to inherit the family? Did something happen between you and Ethan?” “I’m getting a divorce. I misjudged him all these years.” There was a moment of silence on the other end. “I support your decision. But people of the Hastings family don’t suffer grievances in silence.” “I’m coming to bring you home right now.” Hearing this, my nose stung, and tears threatened to fall. “Thank you, Dad.” I hung up, drove home, packed a few personal items, and threw the rest into the trash. Then, I printed out a divorce agreement. Just as I was about to send it to Ethan, the villa door slammed open, and Ethan stormed in. He slapped me across the face. “Chloe, I never expected you to be so malicious as to scratch Mia’s new car out of jealousy.” “So what if I used your year-end bonus? How can you be so petty?” “Mia is still blaming herself, thinking you brought up divorce because of her. And you? You turn around and scratch her car. You’ve gone too far.” “I’ll give you one chance. Buy Mia a new car with your own money, and I’ll forgive you. Otherwise, don’t blame me for being ruthless.” I looked at him in disbelief, not expecting him to actually hit me for Mia’s sake. “I didn’t scratch her car, and I definitely won’t pay to buy her a new one.” Ethan sneered. “Who else could it be? Someone saw you go to the underground parking garage after leaving, and then Mia’s car was scratched. Who else would dare scratch such an expensive car?” “If you do something wrong, you must accept the punishment. You ruined her new car, so you should compensate her with a new one.” I refused again. “I went to the parking garage to get my car. I never even saw her new car, so how could I have scratched it?” “If you don’t believe me, go check the security cameras.” At that moment, Mia walked in looking deeply wronged. “Did Director Hastings say that because she knew the cameras in that section of the underground parking garage are broken for maintenance?” “I know you’re jealous that Mr. Sterling bought me a new car while you’re still driving a secondhand Honda, but if you wanted to drive my new car, you just had to ask. I would have let you drive it. Why did you have to scratch it?” “Do you know those few scratches will cost millions to repair? You knew I didn’t have the money, so you did it on purpose to humiliate me, didn’t you?” Ethan looked heartbroken, and his gaze towards me grew increasingly disgusted. “Chloe, you scratched the car, so whether it’s buying a new one or repairing it, you must pay for it.” Seeing his aggressive demeanor, I confirmed once again that our marriage was truly over. I didn’t answer him. Instead, I handed over my divorce agreement. “This is the divorce agreement. I’m leaving with nothing. Sign it. I’m too tired to waste words on you.” “As for the car, I didn’t scratch it, and I won’t accept the blame. If you insist on making me responsible, then call the police. Let them find the truth.” A flicker of excitement flashed across Mia’s face when she saw the divorce agreement, but upon hearing me mention the police, a hint of guilt mixed with her excitement. So, she had orchestrated the whole thing herself. “You really want a divorce? Chloe, you must realize that without me, you are nothing. Think carefully.” “I’ve thought it through clearly. Sign it.” Ethan snatched the divorce agreement, quickly signed it, and threw it at me. “I’ve signed it. From now on, even if you kneel on the ground and beg, I won’t give you another chance.” “Since you won’t admit to scratching the car, I’ll handle it by calling the police.” He took out his phone to call the police, but his assistant called him instead. “Mr. Sterling, something happened.” “The partners who were supposed to sign contracts today didn’t show up. They’re all demanding to cancel their contracts.” “Furthermore, not only did the bank loan not come through today, but they’re calling in our existing debts early. The company is in complete chaos.” Ethan’s pupils contracted in disbelief. “What nonsense are you spouting? How is that possible?” “Everything was fine when I left the company. In just a few short hours, who has the power to do this? This is clearly trying to drive me to my death.” Assistant Wang’s tone was frantic. “Then, Director Hastings, think carefully. Have you offended anyone recently?” “This attack doesn’t feel like normal business tactics; it feels more like a vendetta. They didn’t leave any room for negotiation.” “Mr. Sterling, you need to think of a solution quickly. The company’s phones are ringing off the hook. The suppliers are calling like they coordinated it, demanding payment. But the bank loan didn’t come through today, and our liquid assets have already been invested in other projects. We have no way out.” Ethan stumbled back a few steps and was caught by Mia. “Mr. Sterling, could this be Chloe’s doing?” “We haven’t offended anyone recently. Besides her holding a grudge, who else would do this?” “She must have colluded with someone in the company to set you up. Don’t worry, we are a publicly listed company. We won’t collapse just because of her petty tricks. She’s just trying to scare you.” Ethan glared at me furiously, his eyes blazing with anger. “Chloe, how could you gamble with the company’s future? Do you know this will cause massive problems for the company?” “If our competitors find out and deliberately spread rumors about us, these fake issues could be blown up into real ones. If the company loses its credibility, who will work with us?” “The company just went public. Doing this will affect our stock price, and if we’re not careful, we risk bankruptcy. How could you do this for your own selfish gain?” “You’ve truly disappointed me. But let me tell you, I’m calling the company right now to revoke your position and blackball you from the entire industry. Let’s see who dares to put on an act with you then.” After saying that, he immediately called Assistant Wang. He started off with an interrogation. “Assistant Wang, did Chloe bribe you to put on an act with me?” “What benefits did she give you to help her like this? You know if you cause losses to the company because of this, I can have you sent to jail.” “I’m telling you right now, I have signed the divorce agreement with Chloe. She leaves with nothing. I am now revoking all of Chloe’s positions in the company and blackballing her from the industry.” “Are you still going to betray me with her? If you don’t tell me the truth, and if anything goes wrong with this partnership, I will hold you fully responsible.” Facing Ethan’s accusations, Assistant Wang was utterly bewildered. “Mr. Sterling, what are you talking about?” “What does this have to do with Director Hastings? Have you misunderstood something?” “A very important person has just arrived at the company. I suggest you come back immediately, or things will really go south.” After hanging up the phone, Ethan glared at me, his eyes full of scrutiny. “Is this really not an act you and Assistant Wang put on to scare me?” I sneered and didn’t answer his question directly. “I never try to scare people.” “I suggest you head back to the company and see for yourself.” An ugly look flashed across his face, and he glared at me viciously. “If I find out the company’s issues have anything to do with you, I won’t let you off.” Watching his retreating back, I raised an eyebrow. “Ethan, enjoy your last days of glory.” If my guess was right, the one taking action should be my father. I just didn’t expect him to move so swiftly, practically paralyzing Ethan’s company in just a few hours. After packing my personal belongings and leaving the villa, a stretch Lincoln stopped in front of me. “Miss, the Master sent me to pick you up first. There will be a grand show in a few days.” I nodded and got in the car. Meanwhile, Ethan rushed back to the company. As soon as he entered, Assistant Wang briefed him on the situation. Then, he led him to the conference room. “This is Mr. Hastings from the Hastings family in New York. He is here today to discuss acquiring our company.” Hearing the word “acquisition,” Ethan’s eyes widened in shock, his face instantly turning pale. “The Hastings family… wants to acquire my company?” He looked at the powerful middle-aged man sitting there, instantly understanding the truth. What happened to the company today had nothing to do with me; it was orchestrated by the Mr. Hastings before him, precisely for this acquisition. But why would the prominent Hastings family of New York set their sights on his unremarkable company? Could it be that he had offended someone in the Hastings family? He quickly adjusted his emotions, his eyes revealing a hint of flattery when he looked at the man. “Mr. Hastings, I built this company through hard work. It’s my lifeblood. I wonder what it is about this company that caught your eye?” “Or perhaps I offended you in some way, causing you to target my small company? If you tell me, I will sincerely apologize.” “I just hope you can give me a chance, considering I’m just a junior who doesn’t know any better.”

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I’m a traditional girl with an amazing figure. When I had a fever, my boyfriend who came to take care of me said he wanted to come in and “feel it.” After I refused him, he sulked for three days. My best friend said sexual intimacy between adults is normal, and that I was being too much of a puritan. So today, when I saw him park his Tesla out the window, I gathered up my courage and put on a three-piece Victoria’s Secret lingerie set. The door opened, and I threw myself at him with my eyes closed. “Honey, you’re back~” My boyfriend reacted quickly, his burning heat making its presence known. I was just about to thrust my hips forward. When a low, hoarse voice—belonging to my best friend’s fiancé—came from above my head. “It’s me. You’ve got the wrong person.” 1 Hearing the voice, I was absolutely stunned. I scrambled out of his embrace in a panic, so embarrassed I didn’t know where to cover up. Large swathes of exposed skin burned with humiliation. I hurriedly grabbed a trench coat off the sofa and draped it over myself. “Mr. Sterling, why are you here?” Alexander looked away. His side profile was handsome, his aura cold and noble. Under the dim light of the sconce, the tips of his ears seemed flushed red. “It’s Valentine’s Day. I came to drop something off for Chloe.” He was indeed holding a beautifully wrapped box. A Patek Philippe watch. So expensive! I couldn’t help but sigh inwardly. But unfortunately, Chloe never wore watches. Chloe and I met in college. She was the queen of her sorority, and my best friend. Even after graduation, we rented apartments right across from each other in Brooklyn. Alexander Sterling was the fiancé she talked about every single day. And the aloof CEO of the Manhattan gaming company I worked for. Thinking of this, I panicked even more. But when I looked down, I saw the obvious bulge between his long legs, wrapped in his bespoke Savile Row suit. The sensation of being pressed against his lower abdomen suddenly came rushing back. My cheeks were burning. Alexander noticed my gaze and turned his back to me, his posture a bit stiff. “I was just dropping by to tell you, when I walked past your desk after work, it looked like your MacBook was unplugged.” “…It’s nothing, I’ll be leaving now.” As soon as the door closed, I let out a massive sigh of relief. Then his words finally registered in my brain. The sky was falling! If my laptop was off, what about the renders?! I quickly pulled out my iPhone to check the remote app. Only to find the rendering was proceeding normally. Did Alexander see it wrong? Whatever, it was a false alarm. At least I could relax now. I couldn’t help but cover my blushing face with my collar, wishing I could slap myself. How was I supposed to face him and Chloe after this? 2 I had just looked up when I realized my door wasn’t completely shut. Through the crack, I saw Chloe open her door for Alexander. She hooked her arm through his, pleasantly surprised, pouting flirtatiously. “Why are you here? Didn’t you say you were busy with work? So you were planning to surprise me!” “Is this a gift for me? Thank you!” Alexander let her pull him, lifting the item in his hand. “Sponsored by a Wall Street brand, I just brought one over since I was on the way.” He was always like this—an absolute, unapologetic workaholic straight man. That’s what Chloe told me. Chloe had known him since they were kids. They were childhood sweethearts from matched Upper East Side old money families. Chloe had chased him for two or three years. But they only got engaged three months ago. Their families had met and dined together at a Michelin-starred restaurant. Although he would have his assistant send gifts and flowers for every major holiday, he didn’t understand romance. He always claimed he was busy with work, repeatedly rejecting Chloe’s invitations for a date. Valentine’s Day was no exception. For him to personally deliver a gift this time… it really was just like Chloe said. Even the coldest ice would eventually melt. Therefore, even though Alexander’s delivery was stiff and he gave her something she didn’t even like, Chloe was still ecstatic. She blinked her bright eyes, blushing as she invited him inside. But after she took the box, he simply pulled his arm away. “No, I have a transnational conference call tonight.” Chloe instantly deflated, biting her lip and stepping closer. “We’re engaged. It’s Valentine’s night, and all you want to do is work?” “You weren’t like this before.” “In college, you didn’t even want to study in Europe because of me. You even coded an animated confession for me.” “But ever since you came back from Harvard Business School, you’ve been so cold.” Her voice was low and thin, her eyes a little red. “You won’t even kiss me now.” Their voices carried clearly through the crack in the door. I clenched my fists, feeling a bit angry on Chloe’s behalf. How could a fiancé be so cold! Alexander remained silent. I couldn’t see his expression, but he just flatly dropped a sentence: “It’s getting late. I’m leaving.” As he stepped into the elevator, he glanced towards my side, scaring me into quickly shutting the door tight. 3 After returning inside, I curled up on the sofa and continued waiting for my boyfriend. But I didn’t expect Chloe to come over first. The first time I saw her, I felt guilty and defensive. My parents divorced early on, and I was dumped in rural Ohio, fostered at my aunt’s house. They treated me well, but the sensitivity of living under someone else’s roof and the emotional lack never faded. In my freshman year, Aunt Mary sent me homemade beef jerky. My roommates thought it looked ugly and mocked me for being a hillbilly from a trailer park. Only Chloe stood up for me. “What, the steaks you eat aren’t raised by farmers? Stop acting so high and mighty.” She smelled the jerky and smiled at me warmly. “Smells great. Give me the ones they don’t want, I want to take them home to eat this weekend!” Chloe defended me like that, and opened her heart to me. Even though I dressed in a very country way, guys surprisingly hit on me quite often. She was afraid I’d get tricked, so she always strictly vetted them for me. Playboys, jerks, scum. Because of her, I avoided a lot of frat boys with bad intentions. Occasionally, when girls suddenly showed me goodwill, she’d tell me to be careful, saying she’d heard them talking trash about me. So for four years of college, we stuck together. One true friendship beats countless fake ones. I was never lonely. The more I thought about it, the more guilty and ashamed I felt. I was so sorry. I had to let today’s incident rot in my stomach and forget it completely! Chloe skipped inside, smiling as she raised the watch on her wrist. “Alexander personally delivered it. Designer, tens of thousands of dollars. Does it look good?” I nodded vigorously. “It looks beautiful.” She curled her lips into a smile. “Alexander and I are childhood sweethearts. No one understands him better than I do. He loves me to death. He acts distant on the outside, but he’s incredibly passionate in private.” “The reason he doesn’t want to live with me is out of respect.” This was Chloe’s usual narrative. She always told me how good Alexander was to her, how much he loved her. I had always believed it before. Maybe Alexander just wasn’t good at expressing his feelings. I hugged her arm and acted cute. “Yes, yes, yes. You two are a perfect match. When you get married, you’ll be Mrs. Sterling. You’ll give me a promotion at the company then, right?” Chloe poked my forehead. “Don’t worry, you’re my best bridesmaid. I won’t do you wrong.” Saying that, her sharp eyes caught the lingerie fabric peeking out from under my trench coat, and the large spread of food on the coffee table. She covered her mouth in surprise. “Oh my, I just made a casual suggestion, and you’re really going all out to keep Carter around.” My face flushed red, and I squeezed my hands awkwardly. 4 Carter Hayes was introduced to me by Chloe. She said he was different from the others, a really great guy. He pursued me passionately, and eventually, I softened. Three months ago, we got together. He was a gentleman, considerate—the model of a perfect boyfriend. Normally speaking, sexual intimacy between adults is perfectly fine. But on our first night, I was working late on a project and caught a fever. I asked him to help me get some medicine and a thermometer. Instead, he only brought back a box of condoms, leaning in to whisper ambiguously in my ear. “I heard that when your body temperature is high, it feels completely different. Should we try?” I pushed him away, gagging, and from then on, I heavily resisted getting intimate with him. Carter apologized with self-blame the next day. I accepted it. Recently, he said that accommodating my emotions was too tiring and he wanted to break up. I panicked. In my life, besides work, there was only him and Chloe. I didn’t want to lose either of them. So when I heard Chloe casually mention the ‘honey trap’ tactic that day, I took it seriously. “It’s really pretty. That kid Carter is so lucky. His girlfriend is a good cook and has great taste in the bedroom.” Chloe’s words interrupted my thoughts. “If you had done this earlier, he’d be clinging to you like glue. He wouldn’t bear to leave you out in the cold.” I pursed my lips shyly. “But my body isn’t that great, and I’m a little chubby.” A meaningful look flashed in Chloe’s eyes. She pushed me in front of the full-length mirror. It reflected me, and the dainty, exquisite her. “So what? Even if your body is average and your looks are ordinary, in the eyes of the person who loves you, you’re the best.” Chloe was always so understanding and comforting like this. “Alright, I won’t disturb your sweet time.” “Carter is a top-tier boyfriend. I’ve known him for years, I know him inside and out. Don’t worry, he loves you to death.” I embarrassedly replied with an “Mm.” 5 When the apartment quieted down, I suddenly remembered something. Carter’s car had pulled into the parking lot ages ago. Why wasn’t he up here yet? I called him. His voice sounded slightly frustrated. “The AC filter in the car is clogged with dust. I’m changing it out. Sorry for the wait, you can start eating first.” “It’s okay, I’ll wait for you.” Hanging up, I checked the dining table for anything missing. It seemed I forgot the contraceptives. I put on my clothes and headed down to the 7-Eleven on the corner. On my way back, to take a shortcut, I braved the dark and walked along the edge of the parking lot. Passing by a Tesla charging station, two figures kissing passionately caught my eye. Just as I was about to bite the bullet and walk past them, the left car door opened. Someone grabbed my wrist and pulled me into the car. My scream was muffled by his hand, blocked in my throat. It was Alexander! He still hadn’t left! He pulled me so suddenly that I fell sideways into his lap. The lighting was dim, making his features look even sharper. My heart was pounding, and I was just about to struggle. But his right hand suddenly gripped the back of my neck, pulling me forcefully toward him. Caught off guard, I put my hands on his chest to steady myself and looked up in a panic. He gently lowered his head, resting his chin on my left shoulder, his tone bewitching. “Don’t move. Look outside.”

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Discovering I was actually the biological daughter of the richest man in the city who had been swapped at birth, I, a twenty-year-old corporate drone with the jaded soul of someone with thirty years of work experience, immediately set off on a journey to reclaim my identity. But every single time, I was thwarted by the fake heiress. The first time, holding my DNA report, I snuck into a charity gala to claim my family, only to be thrown into a storage closet by bodyguards arranged by the fake heiress. The second time, I staked out the company headquarters for three days and nights, but didn’t even catch a glimpse of my billionaire father. I later learned the fake heiress had leaked false information about his schedule. The third time, learning from my mistakes, I contacted the media for an exposé, only to have the fake heiress buy them off beforehand. I fought harder with every setback. Finally, after my 99th failure, taking advantage of her being sick, I orchestrated a minor car accident and successfully reunited with my billionaire parents. The day I was brought back to the mansion, I was brimming with fighting spirit, vowing to drive out this fake heiress who had stolen my identity. Unexpectedly, I heard her inner thoughts. [Damn it, this cold ruined everything! I stopped her 99 times, but they still managed to find her.] [My sister is so soft and cute. This lifetime, I absolutely have to protect her and keep her from being killed by these demons!] … Hearing her inner thoughts, I was stunned for a moment. Demons? Is she talking about my billionaire parents? I immediately scoffed. After ten years as a corporate drone, what kind of monsters and demons hadn’t I seen in the workplace? Mia failed to stop me 99 times, so she’s trying a new trick this time. Too bad for her, trying to confuse me with fake inner thoughts? Not a chance! I’ve been poor for half my life. This time, no one is going to stop me from sitting on a mountain of gold and reaching the pinnacle of success! I pinched my thigh hard to produce tears, bypassed her, and tearfully hugged my billionaire mother’s slender waist. “Wahhh, such a beautiful mother is actually my mother! Am I dreaming?” I was a newcomer, naturally no match for the fake heiress who had been by their side every day. But no one dislikes hearing flattery. Accustomed to high-class compliments, she was clearly moved by my rustic, genuine praise. My mother’s cheeks flushed slightly as she took a bracelet off her wrist and placed it in my hand. “This is a family heirloom. Keep it safe.” I turned to look at my father. “Daddy, you’re so handsome too!” My father took out his wallet and pulled out a black card. “There’s a hundred million in here. If you spend it all, just ask Daddy for more.” With my first pot of gold in hand, my face practically split from smiling so hard. This was a massive fortune! I couldn’t earn a tenth of this working my whole life! But now, all I had to do was act a little spoiled and say a few nice things, and I got it effortlessly. Wearing the bracelet and gripping the black card, I was thrilled, my belief that the inner thoughts were fake growing even stronger. How are these people demons? They are literally the God of Wealth! I looked triumphantly at Mia, my provocation obvious. Mia turned her face away and headed upstairs. As she passed me, her inner voice sounded in my ear again. [My sister looks so cute when she’s obsessed with money! I really want to kiss her!] [It’s just too pitiful. In her last life, right up until she died, she didn’t know the bracelet was fake and the bank card was frozen…] My heart skipped a beat, my hand nervously tightening its grip on the bank card. But I quickly recovered my senses. They are the richest family in the city. How could they deceive me with fakes? She was just jealous! Tomorrow, I’m going to the mall to buy a hundred Hermès bags and change them ten times a day! I’ll make her die of envy! During dinner, I was busy sweet-talking, making the billionaire couple smile from ear to ear. Mia sat across from me, looking gloomy: [My sister smiles so brightly, but whenever I think about how tragically she died, I want to cry.] I couldn’t smile anymore. Seriously, is this fake heiress sick in the head? Does she think I’m a three-year-old who would believe this nonsense? Just as I was about to retaliate, my mother picked up a piece of sashimi and placed it in my bowl. “Bluefin tuna flown in this morning. Eat up.” I feigned being touched. “Thank you, Mom. I’ve never eaten anything this good before.” I picked up the sashimi, but just as it reached my mouth, the slice of fish vanished. Mia was chewing on the sashimi she had snatched from right under my nose, speaking in a passive-aggressive tone: “Sister just came back from that kind of place. Her stomach is probably weak. Eating this might give her diarrhea. Better not eat it.” At the same time, her inner voice was screaming frantically. [Don’t eat it! Sister is allergic to sashimi! In her last life, she ate this and immediately broke out in red hives all over, got a high fever that wouldn’t break, and was rushed to the hospital for a long resuscitation! This demon couple actually…] “Mia!” My father’s face darkened as he scolded her. “Chloe is the true biological daughter of the Sterling family! Why are you targeting her like this?!” Saying this, my father picked up another piece of sashimi. “Eat! A daughter of my Sterling family can eat whatever fine foods she wants!” I blinked at her and, with lightning speed, shoved the sashimi into my mouth. Mia looked shocked, her face turning stark white. The next second, I started itching all over, my throat constricting. I clutched my chest, looking at Mia in disbelief. No way? Are her inner thoughts actually true?! Is she really warning me for my own good? When I woke up again, I was in the hospital. To my surprise, Mia was sitting by my bed, peeling an apple. I peered behind her, and she tugged at the corners of her mouth, her expression three parts coldness and seven parts mockery. “Don’t bother looking. I’m the only one here.” “Ending up in the hospital on your first day home. Mom and Dad think you’re bad luck; they’re avoiding you like the plague!” The apple peel broke. Her face was as calm as water, but her heart was burning with indignation. [Those two pieces of trash! They saw my sister faint and just abandoned her! They don’t deserve to be parents!] I lowered my eyes, pondering the credibility of her inner voice. Because I had only eaten one piece of sashimi all night, my stomach let out a loud rumble. It sounded exceptionally loud in the empty, private hospital room. “Pfft!” Mia laughed. “Hungry?” To be honest, Mia looked beautiful when she smiled. Especially when she was holding up a perfectly peeled, sweet apple. Moreover, she had just used her inner voice to warn me to avoid a disaster, but I didn’t believe her… Could it be that she was truly acting for my own good? Was this billionaire family really arsenic coated in sugar? After brief hesitation, I decided to temporarily accept her olive branch and prepared to take a bite of the apple. But she suddenly snatched it back and took a bite herself, her tone cold. “You really are stupid and naive. I just teased you a little and you believed it.” I felt a surge of irritation and grabbed the phone to call the butler. “I’m hungry! Right now, immediately, go to the most expensive hotel in the city, order a full imperial banquet to go, and bring it to the hospital!” I’m the true heiress of the richest family in the city. You think I care about your one apple? There was a moment of silence on the other end, then a voice as cold as a robot spoke. “Second Miss, the Eldest Miss instructed that since you just had surgery, you cannot eat.” With that, the butler hung up the phone. Thinking back to the fake heiress’s action of denying me food just now… so, it was for my own good? I was just about to tell her to get out when her inner voice chimed in perfectly on cue. [Ahhh, eating with my sister makes me so happy!] [When I was eating the ribs just now, my sister’s eyes got red. It seems she loves this dish. I’ll write that down and have the chef make it when she’s better!] I admit, having been neglected by my parents since childhood, I was severely starved for affection. Even if her inner thoughts were fake, I couldn’t bring myself to yell at her. I could only hide under the covers and sulk. When the time comes, I will definitely vent this frustration! Three days later, I was discharged from the hospital. The Sterling parents still hadn’t shown up, but I didn’t care. As long as the money was there, talk of love was just empty words. I was enrolled in an elite private school, in the same class as Mia. As soon as I entered the classroom, the class representative enthusiastically invited me to sit next to him. “The new student just joined us! Sit with me, and if there’s anything you don’t understand, you can ask me anytime.” I was just about to set my bag down and take a seat. Mia tapped on the class representative’s desk. “My sister just came back from the countryside and doesn’t know the rules. My parents told me to keep a close eye on her.” Before I could speak, she threatened me with a cold face. “If you choose to sit here, I’ll tell Mom and Dad you’re getting involved in an early romance.” “They won’t care about the truth, but your allowance will be gone.” While she was speaking, her inner voice was screaming in my ear. [The class representative is a pervert! On the surface, he’s a top student, but secretly he loves to torment pure, innocent girls!] [In the last life, he lured my sister to his house under the guise of tutoring and tied her up in the basement…] A chill ran down my spine. I quickly grabbed my bag and sat in the empty seat next to Mia. “Hehe, I’m a bit shy around strangers.” During equestrian class, I used my recent surgery as an excuse to sneak back to the classroom and rifle through the class representative’s desk. On the newest page of his notebook, a sentence was clearly written. [A new little grey rabbit arrived today. Wonder what she feels like to play with? Such a pity she was ruined by that wicked Mia…] Footsteps sounded outside the door. My heart pounded frantically. I quickly returned the desk to its original state. It was Mia returning. She poured herself a glass of water, her inner voice leaping with joy. [My sister must have seen it, right? My efforts to get the password to his notebook weren’t wasted.] The sashimi allergy—even I wasn’t entirely clear about it, yet Mia knew. As my mortal enemy, she should have gladly sent me into the class representative’s wolf den, yet she found a way to shield me. Could it be that the rebirth thing was real, and she was using her inner voice to warn me? The scales in my heart began to tip. Over the next few days, Mia deliberately chased away the etiquette teacher my parents hired for me. I later discovered that the etiquette teacher was the class representative’s aunt. After that, under her “warnings,” I avoided numerous embarrassments and mistakes. After a few tests, my feelings shifted from doubt to a gradual belief in Mia’s inner thoughts. At dinner that evening, my father, who had been on a business trip for two months, finally appeared. “Tomorrow is the recognition banquet. I will announce to all the elites in the city that you are the biological daughter of the Sterling family.” “Prepare yourself well. Do not embarrass me!” As soon as he finished, Mia’s inner voice sounded resentful and furious. [It’s finally here! This recognition banquet is the main culprit that led to my sister’s tragic death in the last life!] I leaned closer to Mia, wanting to hear more information, but she didn’t say anything else. I silently pondered the inner thoughts I had heard. The recognition banquet was specifically hosted for me by the billionaire couple. After they announced my identity, they led me to toast the VIP guests. Sitting in the seat of honor at the main table was a regular feature in economic magazines. My parents were very respectful toward him. “Our Sterling family owes our success today to you, Uncle Wang!” “Chloe, since you’re home now, make sure to offer a proper toast to your Uncle Wang!” I took the half-glass of wine my parents handed me and exchanged a few pleasantries. Suddenly, Mia grabbed my hand, her inner voice frantic. [My sister absolutely cannot drink that! Mom and Dad drugged the wine!] [The family business has plummeted; only the glittering facade remains. To gain this Uncle Wang’s support, Mom and Dad are actually willing to drug my sister and offer her as a bargaining chip to this Uncle Wang!] [And this Uncle Wang… he looks like a perfect gentleman on the outside, but behind closed doors… his methods are twisted. Countless young girls have been destroyed by his hands!] My hand trembled, and I clutched my stomach. “Mom, Dad, my stomach hurts…” My parents looked impatient. “Uncle Wang is a benefactor to the Sterling family. Finish this toast, and then you can go rest!” I pressed my lips together and didn’t speak, my hand remaining still. Uncle Wang chuckled amiably. “I’m just an ordinary man; I hardly deserve to be called a benefactor.” “It’s fine. Don’t force the child.” My parents’ expressions grew even uglier. Right at that moment, Mia took the wine glass from my hand, a bright smile on her face. “Uncle Wang, I’ve always heard my parents talk about you.” “It’s an honor to finally meet you today. I must offer you a proper toast! Thank you for your support of our Sterling family all these years!” She deliberately lowered her glass, clinked it lightly against his, and downed it in one gulp. “I’ve finished mine! Please, drink at your own pace, Uncle Wang!” Her bold demeanor made Uncle Wang laugh heartily. “Excellent! Old Sterling, you’ve truly raised a wonderful daughter!” Only then did my parents’ faces relax into smiles. “Mia has always been generous and sensible. We never have to worry about her!” “Who knows which lucky boy will get her in the future? We can’t bear the thought of letting her go!” The guests chimed in with agreement. “Miss Sterling is beautiful, smart, and has high emotional intelligence. Isn’t she the standard-bearer for a wealthy family’s daughter-in-law?” While praising Mia, they didn’t forget to belittle me. “The one from the countryside just can’t compare to the one raised by their side. Look at the contrast; the difference is night and day!” Gossip among the wealthy has always been a topic of conversation. I was being pointed at and judged by these strangers. Meanwhile, Mia was happily chatting with the supposed “demon,” Uncle Wang. My parents watched her, their faces beaming with smiles, obviously extremely satisfied. But doubts sprouted in my mind. Didn’t Mia say the wine was drugged? If she snatched the wine to protect me, why was she completely unharmed after drinking it? And looking at the outcome, she was the one who benefited. My firm belief began to waver again. Her inner thoughts were clearly a trick to numb my senses, to suppress me, the true heiress, and seize my billionaire parents’ fortune! I was so stupid to have believed her nonsense! Carrying these doubts, the recognition banquet quickly came to an end. As the guests dispersed, my parents’ faces instantly turned cold. They issued me an ultimatum. “We’ve arranged an arranged marriage for you with the heir of the Vance family.” Mia’s inner voice chimed in perfectly on cue. [No! My sister absolutely cannot agree!] [The Vance family heir is a manipulative, psychopathic madman! Once you anger him, you won’t even know how you died!] Manipulative. Psychopathic. Die. Mia’s explosive inner thoughts gave me goosebumps all over. Seeing my hesitation, my parents lost their patience. “If you don’t want the marriage, that’s fine too. We’ll send you back to the countryside, and you can do whatever you want!” I had finally clawed my way out of a life of poverty; I absolutely refused to go back! But the consequences Mia described were even more terrifying! I bit my fingernails in anxiety, trying to carefully discern whether what she was saying was true or false. My head was practically splitting with pain. But Mia’s inner voice continued to haunt my ears: [Absolutely not! In the last life, it was only after the arranged marriage that my sister entered true hell!] [My sister cannot jump into that fire pit! Refuse quickly, or you’ll die!] The two voices constantly warred in my ears, and I broke out in a cold sweat from the pain. My parents also looked deeply pained, but the more they acted like that, the more frantic Mia’s inner voice became. A flash of anxiety inadvertently crossed her face, and my vision began to blur. Who should I believe? I thought of everything that had happened since I returned to the Sterling family. I looked at this fake heiress who shared no blood with me, who opposed me on the surface but constantly considered my well-being in secret. I gritted my teeth and decided to trust her one more time. I refused the arranged marriage my parents set up. Mia visibly relaxed. [Thank God! My sister can finally escape the tragic fate of her past life!] My parents sighed. “Fine. If you’re not willing, we won’t force you!” They handed Mia a card. “Since that’s the case, Mia, starting tomorrow, you are the fiancée of the Vance family heir!” “Go to the auction and see if there’s anything you like. Buy it!” “The Vance family has a massive empire. Your dowry cannot be shabby!” I was burning with anxiety. Mia was always looking out for me. I couldn’t let her jump into the fire pit because of me! But just as I was desperately trying to think of a reason to help her get out of the marriage, Mia surprisingly agreed without a second word! She unequivocally grabbed my hand. “Let’s go. Take a walk with me.” “Sis… Sister.”

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At my wedding reception, the counterfeit heiress leaned in close under the guise of offering a toast and gave me a provoking smile. “Happy wedding. I’ve slept with your husband, and he’s pretty good.” Furious, I slapped her right across the face. The next second, Liam publicly slapped me six times. “Chloe never fights or grabs for anything; she’s let you have everything, yet you still can’t tolerate her!” “I’d rather marry a dog than a woman as unpresentable as you!” With his order, I was locked in the basement and thrown into a pit filled with venomous snakes to reflect on my actions. After being tortured for seven days, my three biological brothers came to settle the score with me. My eldest brother, the CEO, kicked and broke my leg. “Chloe cried all night. I’ve taken the liberty of transferring all the assets under your name entirely to her.” My second brother, an A-list actor, twisted and broke my arm. “From now on, only Chloe’s name will be on the family trust. As for you, don’t ever think about being recognized as a member of this family.” My third brother, a renowned surgeon, was even more ruthless, driving a scalpel straight into my abdomen. “Chloe has had kidney disease since she was a child. To compensate her, you must donate one of your healthy kidneys!” Before I could even utter a word of defense, my internal organs were carved out alive. Amidst the crushing agony, the system’s cold, mechanical voice chimed in. [Congratulations, Host! You have completed all the abuse plotlines for the cannon fodder female supporting character!] [Just wait for this physical body to die, and you can return to your original world to enjoy the $1.5 billion prize money!] …… Hearing this, my wailing abruptly stopped. The despair and pain in my heart morphed into the relief of impending liberation. My eldest and second brothers had already left with my kidney. In the filthy basement, it was just me and my third brother, Caleb. Blood continued to gurgle from the incision. Caleb frowned in displeasure as he stitched me up. “If you had just cooperated and donated the kidney earlier, I wouldn’t have had to perform surgery directly under such primitive conditions.” “Making me go through all this trouble, what a nuisance.” Just last week, while handling some paperwork, Chloe got a paper cut so small it was barely visible. Caleb acted as if the sky was falling, calling in the top medical team to help him apply emergency bandages and checking on her healing progress every three hours. But now, facing me—who just had an entire kidney ripped out—he complained about the trouble of doing even the most basic suturing. Shutterstock Perhaps noticing my lack of response, he leaned down, patted my face, and injected me with antibiotics. “Stop pretending. I know you’re perfectly healthy. This minor injury is nothing.” “Aren’t you just trying to act pitiful to make me feel guilty so you can steal my affection from Chloe? You’re too dark and narrow-minded. Since you’ve entered the Sterling family, put away those petty schemes!” In the past, facing such misunderstandings from my closest relatives, I would have defended myself with red eyes, crying that I wasn’t that kind of person. But now, I only felt numb tranquility. I closed my eyes and said hoarsely, “You should go too. I can wait here to die alone.” For me, the fastest way to find peace right now was to die immediately. But to Caleb’s ears, those words clearly meant something else. “Emma, what do you mean? You’re deliberately saying depressing things to disgust me, aren’t you!” He purposefully yanked the suture thread hard. The fragile, bloody edges of the wound tightened instantly, and dirty blood gushed out, bringing agonizing pain no normal person could bear. Seeing me gasp in pain, my forehead slick with cold sweat, a flash of reluctance crossed his eyes, and he softened his tone. “You are my biological sister, connected by blood. You can’t even imagine how much money and effort the three of us spent over the years to find you. How could we just let you die?” “When it comes down to it, if you weren’t so narrow-minded, refusing to tolerate Chloe and even hitting her, how would you be suffering like this?” While complaining, he gave my wound an injection of anesthesia. “As long as you promise that when you go back, you won’t make things difficult for Chloe anymore and properly apologize to her.” “I can take you back to the hospital, let you receive the best treatment, and you won’t have to suffer here anymore.” Listening to his patronizing tone, I felt even more chilled and mocked. Although I was a transmigrator, I had crossed over into Emma Sterling’s body in this world since she was six years old. Three years ago, after I had suffered countless hardships, the three Sterling brothers found me in tears, claiming I was their long-lost biological sister, and brought me back to the Sterling family. But upon returning, I discovered the Sterling family already had a daughter—Chloe, whom they had adopted back then. The moment I saw her, I recognized her. Years ago at the orphanage, she was the one who locked me in a dark closet and took my place to be adopted by the Sterlings. For twenty years, Chloe enjoyed all the care and love from the Sterling family in my place, while I bore all the suffering meant for her. Yet, all she had to do was furrow her brows in feigned grievance, and my three biological brothers would unconditionally take her side, accusing me of being narrow-minded. Even my fiancé, Liam, who was betrothed to me from birth, only had smiles for her and treated me with cold disdain. I was tired of this entanglement and pain, and didn’t want to waste any more energy arguing. I simply raised my hand and forcefully ripped open the newly stitched incision. When blood and intestines spilled out together, Caleb was so shocked his voice cracked. “Emma, you’re crazy! You’ll die!” Looking at the tears born of his panic, I just twitched the corners of my mouth. “Death? That would be wonderful.” “Living even one more second makes me… feel sick!” After saying that, I could no longer control my drooping eyelids. Then my head lolled to the side, and I passed out. I don’t know how long passed before I woke up from the darkness. I thought I had returned to my original world, but when I opened my eyes, I saw the familiar face of my eldest brother, Arthur. “You’re finally awake.” He had dark circles under his eyes, looking sleep-deprived, but his tone was full of impatience. “You’re a grown adult, why are you so impulsive?” “Making a life-or-death fuss over a trivial matter, where is the dignity of a Sterling…” Thinking about having to deal with this completely rotten world, a wave of exhaustion washed over me. I didn’t even have the interest to offer a single word of defense, so I stared blankly and interrupted him. “You’re right, I’m an embarrassment, unworthy of being human.” “So, let me die.” Arthur’s face changed drastically, and he instinctively raised his hand to slap me. But when he saw my deathly pale, bloodless face, that slap ultimately didn’t land. “Emma! I warn you, stop talking nonsense!” His voice trembled, the impatience in his eyes fading a bit, hiding a trace of panic even he hadn’t noticed. “I paid such a huge price to pull you out of the basement, not for you to talk crazy here!” I twitched my lips, revealing a completely cold smile. Paid a price? More likely he was afraid that if I died, there would be no one left to act as Chloe’s spare organ bank, no one to let her play the aggrieved innocent victim to her heart’s content. Just as I was thinking this, the hospital room door was pushed open, and my third brother, Caleb, walked in carrying medication. Seeing I was awake, a fleeting look of joy crossed his eyes, but when he spoke, his tone was still aggressive. “Since you’re awake, drink your medicine. Don’t force me to pour it down your throat!” He handed the medicine cup to me. The liquid was pitch black and emitted a bitter smell. I turned my head away, closed my eyes, and refused: “No need, it’s a waste of medicine.” “You!” Caleb was shaking with anger, but he didn’t force the medicine down my throat like he usually would. Instead, he placed the cup on the nightstand and reached out to check my wound. When his fingertips touched the bandages, his movements were unusually gentle. For the first time, there was a bit of the tender consideration he usually reserved for Chloe. “Just as I thought, using the best medicine makes the recovery much faster…” He rewrapped the bandages and glared at me fiercely. “You better behave. If the wound bursts open again, I won’t stitch you up a second time!” Though his words were harsh, I clearly saw the bloodshot lines in his eyes and the subtle trembling of his fingertips. Presumably, he had pulled his fair share of all-nighters watching over me these past few days. If it were the past, I definitely would have been moved by this sliver of gentleness, hugging him and crying about my grievances. But now, I only found it ironic. I shook off his hand, violently threw off the blanket, and prepared to tear the incision open again. Right now, living even one more second was torture. As long as I could die faster, I didn’t care how. “You’re crazy!” Arthur grabbed my arm, gripping so hard he almost crushed my bones, but instantly loosened his grip when I groaned in pain. He roared at me, his voice thick with tears: “Emma, what exactly do you want?” “To die.” My tone was calm, as if discussing an insignificant, trivial matter. “Letting me die is good for everyone.” “You guys won’t be put in a difficult position anymore, and Chloe can peacefully be the Sterling family heiress.” “So, please have some mercy and let me die quickly.” Those words seemed to hit Arthur’s sore spot. With red eyes, he raised his hand and slapped me, but it was lighter than any time he had hit me before, feeling more like him venting his frustration at my failure to meet his expectations. “I forbid it! You are the biological daughter of the Sterling family. Who dares let you die?” Caleb panicked too. He stepped forward, pressed my shoulders, and pushed me back onto the bed, his tone carrying a rare plea. “Emma, stop making a fuss.” “I know it hurts, but if you recover properly, from now on… from now on I’ll dote on you more, okay?” Looking at the pleading in his eyes, I just found it absurd. Where was he before? When he was cutting out my kidney alive, when he was making a mountain out of a molehill for Chloe’s tiny scratch, why didn’t he think about doting on me more? I closed my eyes, no longer looking at them, letting Caleb tuck me back in, letting him bring the medicine cup to my lips, but I absolutely refused to open my mouth. During the standoff, my second brother, Julian, pushed the door open, followed by a pale-faced Liam. Seeing me, Julian’s eyes reddened, and he quickly walked to the bedside. “Emma, it’s good that you’re awake. You scared me to death.” When I was first recognized by the Sterling family, Julian was the one who treated me best among all my relatives. He didn’t just take me traveling around; he also told me how much the family had missed and searched for me over the years, often gazing at me for a long time when he spoke emotionally. But later, after Chloe wiped away tears and complained about me to him a few times, he changed his tune, accusing me of being a two-faced hypocrite who betrayed the family’s sincere love for me. Seeing him again, I only felt more annoyed, avoiding his hand that tried to touch my face. Julian’s hand froze in mid-air, and he withdrew it with a bitter expression. Seeing this, Liam stepped forward and took the initiative to take the medicine cup from Caleb. “Let me feed her. Maybe she’ll listen to me.” It wasn’t surprising he was so confident. After all, over the past few years, anyone with eyes could see how endlessly tolerant and accommodating I was toward this fiancé, loving him to my very core. Just as he was walking toward me, the hospital room door opened again. “Emma, I came to see you.” Chloe, dressed in a hospital gown, walked in looking incredibly weak. Arthur immediately stood up to support her: “Chloe, you just underwent kidney transplant surgery and your body is still weak, why did you come over?” Chloe shook her head, her gaze landing on me, full of fake guilt. “It’s all my fault. If I hadn’t failed to stop Emma that day, things wouldn’t have escalated to this point.” “I feel so uneasy, I had to come and apologize to her.” Saying that, she took the cup from Liam’s hands and sat on the edge of my bed herself. “Emma, stop being angry with yourself. Drink your medicine and recover well. Everyone has been worried sick about you.” “I know you still blame me, but I really didn’t want to fight you for anything. Everything in the Sterling family was supposed to be yours anyway…” These words seemed like a concession, but every sentence insinuated that I was narrow-minded, clinging to the past, and deliberately risking my own body out of spite. Before her spoon could touch my lips, I raised my hand and slapped the medicine cup away. With a crash, the porcelain cup shattered on the floor. The scalding liquid splashed all over Chloe, especially her wrists and the front of her gown, immediately turning red. Chloe cried out, her eyes instantly reddening, her voice thick with tears. “Emma… how could you do that? I just wanted to feed you your medicine…” She bit her lip, looking utterly wronged. Tears welled up in her eyes, making anyone’s heart ache for her. “Emma! You’re crazy!” Arthur flew into a rage, pulling Chloe behind him and glaring at me viciously. “Chloe kindly came to see you and feed you your medicine, and this is how you treat her?” Caleb immediately stepped forward to check Chloe’s burn, his tone full of anxiety. “How is it? Is the burn bad? Get a doctor, quickly!” Julian also frowned tightly, his eyes full of disappointment. “Emma, you’ve gone too far! Chloe took the initiative to apologize, when are you going to stop making a scene?” Liam also walked quickly to Chloe’s side, taking out a tissue to wipe her down, his tone carrying blame. “Emma, can you stop being so unreasonable? Chloe meant well. Even if you don’t appreciate it, you shouldn’t resort to violence and hurt people.” Several people surrounded Chloe, asking about her well-being, completely ignoring me—the person who had just had a kidney carved out and whose wound was still throbbing with pain. Chloe leaned against Arthur’s chest, stealing a glance at me. A flash of triumph crossed her eyes, though her mouth was still putting on an act of pleading for mercy: “I’m fine, don’t yell at Emma, she was just in a bad mood…” In the past, this “innocent white lotus” act would have made me tremble with anger. But now, I just found it laughably absurd. Such a clumsy trick would have been seen through instantly by anyone else, yet these four exceptional men, standing at the pinnacle of their respective fields, willingly let Chloe string them along. Or perhaps, it’s a case of one willing to hit and the other willing to suffer, and I was just a prop in their game. “If your heart aches for this animal, please take your heartache outside. Don’t pollute my hospital room.” Hearing my cold voice, the men trembled with anger. “Emma, it seems you haven’t reflected enough!” Caleb looked at me with a face full of disappointment and said sternly, “From this moment on, I’m stopping all your painkillers!” “Whenever you figure things out, whenever you’re willing to apologize to Chloe, that’s when I’ll resume your medication.” Arthur chimed in: “Exactly! Let you have a good taste of pain and see if you dare to be this willful again!” Julian sighed, his eyes full of helplessness, but he didn’t object. Liam stood to the side, nodding in silence, clearly agreeing with the decision. I closed my eyes, offering no rebuttal, nor any anger. So what if the painkillers were stopped? The pain from the wound was nothing compared to the twenty years of grievances and torture I had suffered. On the contrary, the pain would keep me more awake as I waited for death to arrive. Seeing my impervious attitude, Caleb immediately took action and disconnected my PCA (patient-controlled analgesia) pump. The moment the overwhelming pain hit, my dearest family and fiancé anxiously surrounded Chloe and walked out. Until the door slammed shut with a “bang,” no one looked back. Enduring the blood seeping from the corners of my mouth, I pulled out a shard of the broken porcelain bowl I had hidden under my pillow just moments ago, and without hesitation, slashed it across my throat. As I collapsed again, I could feel the strength draining from my body bit by bit. The pain from my wounds gradually faded away, and my heartbeat grew slower and slower… The moment darkness descended, I even let out a laugh. This suffocating, painful life could finally end. ……

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On New Year’s Eve, my CEO husband’s secretary stopped my plainly dressed father-in-law at the door. “You old country dog, do you think you can just walk in anywhere? “Mr. Sterling is hosting a New Year’s banquet here today. “Just because your daughter married well doesn’t mean you can come here and freeload!” She smashed the farm-fresh eggs my father-in-law had brought, the thick, yellow yolks splattering all over his face. Then, she forced him to his knees. “Lick up all this mess on the floor! If you leave even a single trace, I’ll make you pay!” Afterward, she smugly recorded a video and sent it to me. “Chloe, hurry up and come collect your dog of a father. “If you’re late and he gets snatched by a dog catcher, I won’t be held responsible!” 1 When I received the insulting video from Mia, my hands shook with rage. I immediately called her. “Mia, apologize to my father right now, or you won’t be able to handle the consequences!” “Tsk, tsk, what consequences couldn’t I handle? It’s just insulting an old dog.” Mia’s voice remained as smug and arrogant as ever. “Let me tell you, I already called Mr. Sterling. He gave his tacit approval.” “Tacit approval? Impossible. I’m telling you, that is Ethan’s father!” “Ha!” Mia acted as if she had just heard the funniest joke in the world. “Do you really think that just because you married Mr. Sterling, you’ve suddenly become a phoenix? “Let me tell you, your father is your father. Does he think he can just use the title of father-in-law to act like he’s Mr. Sterling’s dad? In his dreams!” With that, she raised her voice. “Security, no need to wait anymore. Throw this old dog out!” “Did you hear that, Mrs. Sterling? I’ve already had your father, that old dog, thrown out. “If you want to find him, go look in the dumpster outside!” Mia let out a venomous laugh and hung up. Worried about my father-in-law and ignoring my anger for the moment, I immediately called Ethan. “Ethan, Dad was at the hotel entrance and got kicked out by your wonderful secretary. Go down and get him right now. Don’t let him suffer any more humiliation!” “Chloe, Mia told me about this. “Today is the company’s New Year’s banquet. I invited family and friends. It really isn’t appropriate for your dad to come.” “What do you mean by that?” Hearing his words, I felt like a bucket of ice water had been poured over my head. For today’s New Year’s banquet, he had invited all his relatives, friends, and even company executives and close clients. Yet, my father was excluded. I originally thought he just forgot. It turned out that in his heart, my father wasn’t even considered family. To think that when he was starting his business, my father sold his house to support him. And this was the repayment he got. My heart instantly turned completely cold. “So, you really did approve of Mia’s behavior?” So he and Mia both thought that was my father? And that meant they could insult him freely? “Alright, I told you I know about it. “You invited your dad to the banquet without asking, so it’s a good thing Mia taught him a lesson. “It’ll stop you from inviting outsiders inappropriately in the future!” Outsiders?! I laughed out of sheer anger and yelled, “Ethan, let me repeat this one more time: that is your father! You’d better go get him right now!” “Enough. We don’t need to discuss this anymore. Freshen yourself up and get over here quickly. Don’t say I didn’t give you face by not even inviting my own wife on New Year’s Eve!” With that, Ethan hung up the phone. I laughed in fury. If you don’t even care about your own father, why should I be the one rushing? 2 Although I was incredibly furious at Ethan’s behavior. After sitting quietly for a moment, I calmed down. Over the years, my father-in-law had been good to me. Every time he came to the city, he would bring farm-fresh eggs and local specialties from the countryside to visit us. I couldn’t just ignore him completely just because Ethan was a bastard. So, I ultimately couldn’t harden my heart. Within half an hour, I arrived at the hotel. I walked quickly to the entrance, scanning the area anxiously. In front of the hotel’s magnificent revolving doors, the immaculate marble floor reflected the cold light. It had already been cleaned spotless. “Oh, Mrs. Sterling, you got here so fast.” Mia, dressed in a Chanel suit with flawless makeup, saw me rushing over and a mocking smile touched her lips. “Too bad, you’re still too late.” “Where is my dad? Where exactly did you take him?!” Ignoring the stares from the people around us, I demanded harshly. “Your dad? Oh, you mean that old dog?” Mia let out an exaggerated sigh, covering her mouth with a light chuckle. “Didn’t I tell you to look in the dumpster? What, you didn’t find him? “Then he probably got taken away by the garbage truck. After all, he is garbage. Who pays attention to that?” A few guests trying to flatter her joined in the mockery: “I heard earlier that some country bumpkin was trying to force his way into this five-star hotel. So it was Mrs. Sterling’s father.” “Secretary Mia is so capable. Garbage belongs where garbage goes. Loitering at the entrance really ruins the vibe of our hotel.” Mia took a step closer, the venom in her voice almost overflowing: “By the way, Mrs. Sterling, you didn’t see how hard your dad worked, crawling on the ground, licking up that puddle of egg yolk. “Tsk, tsk, he really put his back into it. He licked the floor absolutely clean. “Mrs. Sterling, with skills like that, it’s a real shame your dad isn’t working as a janitor.” Even a stranger shouldn’t be humiliated like this, let alone my father-in-law. The blood in my body seemed to rush straight to my head. I stared at her intensely, enunciating every word: “Mia, listen to me clearly. That wasn’t my father. That was Ethan Sterling’s father. The biological father of your boss, Mr. Sterling!” “Chloe, are you out of your mind from anger? Trying to pass him off as Mr. Sterling’s father?” Mia laughed uproariously, then looked at me with disdain. “Don’t think that just because I call you Mrs. Sterling, you really are Mrs. Sterling. Mr. Sterling said he’s going to divorce you sooner or later! “And you dare to insult Mr. Sterling’s father here? Who doesn’t know that Mr. Sterling is the most filial son? “If Mr. Sterling hears you say that, believe me, you won’t even get a bite of this New Year’s Eve dinner!” Just as she finished speaking, the esteemed Mr. Sterling descended the spiral staircase. He looked at me with a frown. “Chloe, it’s New Year’s Eve. What kind of scene are you causing now?” “So what if I didn’t let your dad in to eat? Later, you can just pack up some leftovers for him, and that’ll be that.” “Exactly. He’s a country bumpkin with mud on his legs. Would he even know how to appreciate the food at a five-star hotel?” Mia walked over to Ethan and, right in front of me, intimately hooked her arm through his. “Mr. Sterling, just now this woman insulted you, insisting that old man was your father. “You’re so young and successful; your father must be elegant and refined. How could he possibly be that country old man carrying a broken basket with muddy shoes?” Ethan’s frown deepened. “Chloe, considering our past relationship, I’ll forgive you this once. If you spout nonsense again, don’t blame me for being unpolite.” Looking at him, I was both angry and amused. Had he completely forgotten his roots? Though he had achieved success and fame over the years, his father hadn’t gotten used to city life and had always stayed in the countryside. Perhaps the mockery in my eyes was too obvious, because Ethan sneered coldly. “You don’t need to look at me like that. I already sent my assistant to the train station to pick up my dad. And I specifically told him to take my dad to buy some decent clothes and dress him up nicely. “Calculating the time, they should be here any minute.” “Ethan, I strongly suggest you call the old man and ask.” I spoke, pulling my phone from my pocket. “Otherwise, take a look at who the old man in this video is.” “Enough! I’m warning you, stop cursing my dad. And I have no interest in whatever is on your phone!” Ethan impatiently cut me off, pulled out his own phone, and called my father-in-law, only to find the phone was turned off. He frowned and called his assistant. The assistant picked up, saying he was still waiting at the train station. “Hear that? My assistant is still waiting for my dad at the train station. It’s impossible for him to be here!” Ethan said, putting his arm around Mia, preparing to head upstairs. Just then, a security guard hurried in from the entrance. “Secretary Mia…” 3 “Secretary Mia, we followed your orders and snatched the old man’s phone. He chased after us desperately, and while crossing the street, he got hit by a car.” “What?” The security guard’s voice wasn’t loud, but it terrified Mia. “The old man was thrown pretty far. It looks like he might not make it. We were afraid of being held liable, so we didn’t dare get close.” “Not… not make it?” Mia’s face turned deathly pale. She clutched Ethan’s arm tightly, looking up at him, her voice trembling. “Mr. Sterling, this has nothing to do with me. I just… I just told the guards to chase him away and get rid of his phone. He ran out into the street himself!” Ethan’s face also darkened. He first shot a cold glare at the security guard, then looked at Mia, comforting her warmly: “Mia, I know this has nothing to do with you. Don’t be afraid. “This happened, firstly, because the security guards mishandled it, and secondly, because he didn’t watch where he was going. It was an accident. It’s not like you were driving the car.” He paused, his gaze turning to me. “Chloe, you heard it too. This was an accident. It’s the New Year; don’t cry and cause a scene here, ruining the banquet’s atmosphere.” “Don’t worry. I will take full responsibility for this. Once he’s taken to the hospital, no matter the outcome, I’ll cover the medical expenses… or the funeral costs.” “As for Mia, it was an unintentional mistake. Look at her, she’s shaking so much.” He tightened his grip on Mia and ordered me in a tone that brokered no refusal, “Later, if your dad really doesn’t make it, you, as a family member, will sign a letter of forgiveness.” I simply couldn’t believe my ears. Was this still my husband? The gentle, considerate Ethan who always respected his elders? I knew he had cheated; I knew he had a mistress. But since when did he become so morally blind? Even if the person who got hit wasn’t my father, he shouldn’t be so cold-blooded, treating a person’s life and death so lightly. A surge of anger shot straight to my brain. I wiped the tears from my cheeks and laughed in fury. I wanted to see just how deranged he had become. “Ethan, what if I refuse? What if I insist on holding her accountable?” I asked coldly. “Chloe, I advise you to be smart and not bring trouble upon yourself. You should know that the company’s legal team isn’t just for show,” Ethan said coldly. “Ethan, it turns out your brain really is broken. I’ve been with you for fifteen years, and I had no idea when you turned into such a psycho!” I reprimanded him angrily. “Let me tell you, the person she humiliated, the person who was hit by a car, is your biological father! The biological father who endured countless hardships to raise you and put you through school! “A letter of forgiveness? Hah! The one who should be writing a letter of forgiveness is you, you unfilial son! “The one who should be begging for forgiveness is Mia, this venomous woman!” “How dare you!” “I think you’re the one who’s crazy! Cursing your own father-in-law on New Year’s Eve, and you dare insult me?!” Ethan, publicly contradicted by me, lost his temper. He let go of Mia, stepped forward, raised his hand, and swung it toward my face. I couldn’t dodge in time. The slap was about to land. At that critical moment— “Stop!” An old, yet furious roar, filled with overwhelming rage, exploded like thunder from outside the hotel’s revolving doors. Everyone turned their heads in shock. The revolving door was pushed open forcefully. A figure, supported by an unfamiliar middle-aged man, limped but walked firmly inside. It was my father-in-law, Arthur Sterling! The dried egg stains on his head were still there. A bandage was stuck to his temple, oozing blood. His clothes were covered in dust, and the knees of his pants were torn. He looked absolutely miserable. One hand tightly gripped a crushed bamboo basket. The other hand was supported by the middle-aged man beside him, who looked guilty and nervous. This was likely the driver who hit him. My father-in-law’s face was ashen, his lips trembling, his eyes locked dead on Ethan and Mia beside him. Ethan froze completely, his raised hand suspended in mid-air, his eyes filled with shock and panic. Mia, on the other hand, let out a sigh of relief. She pointed at my father-in-law and said angrily, “So you didn’t get killed by the car, old man. You scared me to death.” She then looked at Ethan reproachfully. “Mr. Sterling, this is the old man who barged into our hotel dressed like a slob. Look at him, he actually has the nerve to come back.” She regained her usual arrogance and smugness. “Old man, you don’t think your soon-to-be-divorced daughter can help you get justice, do you?” “Shut your mouth!” Ethan raised his hand and suddenly slapped Mia to the ground. He then looked at Arthur Sterling. “Dad!”

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