On the day of my difficult delivery, my husband abandoned me in the operating room, disgusted by the sight of childbirth. With no one to sign the consent forms, I nearly died on the operating table. After I finally escaped the jaws of death, he vanished entirely for a month. It wasn’t until I brought our newborn son home from the hospital that I found my husband waiting with a table full of my favorite dishes. I comforted myself, thinking that perhaps, as a first-time father, his fear of childbirth was normal. But the very next day, a photo of me, bare-chested and nursing my baby, appeared in a private chat group of the elite. The caption read: [Freshly sourced. House calls available for direct mouth-to-mouth inspection.] … 1 The chat group instantly exploded over that single sentence. And the person who posted the picture was the same husband who had tenderly washed my hair and bathed me just yesterday. “Gentlemen, my wife is a fresh, new mother. Only six slots available. Bidding starts at $70,000.” A payment QR code was immediately dropped into the chat. More and more people joined this online auction. “Is this a scam? Who sells their own wife these days? Playing pretty hard, huh? But I like it.” “This guy is legit. Just bid!” “I bid $70,000. I’ve tasted spicy girls and mature women, but never a new mom. It must be a unique experience.” Listening to these men’s degrading fantasies about me, a fleeting, almost imperceptible flash of guilt crossed my husband’s face. “For those who are skeptical, you can inspect the goods before paying. If it’s fake, I’ll compensate you triple!” Before he even finished speaking, the wealthy men were eagerly throwing money around, fighting to sign up. “$70,000? Get out of here. I bid $170,000. I want to suck ten pounds.” “$400,000. I want all of your wife’s breast milk. Even your kid can’t touch it!” As soon as those words were spoken, a gasp echoed through the speaker. My husband deliberately lowered his voice, but a hint of excitement still bled through. “Rest assured, Mr. Wang. The day after tomorrow, 3 PM, Room 888 at the Starlight Hotel… I guarantee she’ll be drugged beforehand. She’ll be responsive but quiet…” Amidst the collective gasps, I stood outside the study, my face already covered in tears. Liam Sterling’s words, and the filthy remarks of those rich men, were like sharp blades carving my heart to bloody ribbons. Liam and I had an arranged marriage, one that I had eagerly hoped for. He, however, had no feelings for me. Before my pregnancy, he was always merely polite. But after I got pregnant, he suddenly started doting on me, staying home and never leaving my side to take care of me. Under his meticulous care and sweet words, I thought he had finally seen my worth, and I was overjoyed for a long time. Even while heavily pregnant, I personally cooked and did his laundry every day, refusing to let the nanny help. Now it seemed it was all just a grand performance, an act of deep affection just to sell me for a good price. But a question still lingered in my mind. The Sterling family was part of the elite circle. If he just needed a few million, he could have simply asked his family. Why hide his identity and use me to make money? Why grovel so pathetically to these people for an auction? Inside the study, immediately after Liam hung up the call, another one came in. “Liam, did you get the money for my medical bills? I feel so awful, my heart hurts so much.” “Be a good girl, Mia. I’ve raised the money. Once the final payment clears, you can have your surgery.” The girl on the other end let out an infatuated laugh. “I knew you wouldn’t abandon me, Liam. But using Chloe’s… thing to pay for my medical bills… is that really okay? A woman’s purity is her most important asset.” Liam sneered coldly. “Her purity being traded for your medical treatment is her blessing. In a way, she’s accumulating good karma for herself!” “If Chloe finds out, won’t she go to Grandpa and divorce you?” “Impossible. She loves me too much. Once your medical bills are covered, I’ll just buy her a strawberry lollipop, and everything will be fine!” Listening to their flirtatious banter, the last shred of love I had for him vanished completely. I knew who the woman on the phone was. She was Liam’s college junior, Mia. They had been in love for five years. In their sixth year, the Sterling family suddenly declared bankruptcy, and she vanished the very next day. Liam was devastated. It was then that I took the opportunity to bring up the childhood marriage arrangement between our families, successfully marrying Liam. After the wedding, I injected my entire inheritance from my father into the Sterling Group, bringing it back from the brink of death. I originally thought that if I gave enough, he would eventually let me into his heart. But in the end, I still couldn’t compete with a single “It hurts” from his first love. Three years of wholehearted devotion, repaid with both emotional and physical betrayal… I silently retreated to my room, looked at my sleeping son, and dialed Liam’s grandfather’s number: “The day after tomorrow, 3 PM, Room 888 at the Starlight Hotel. That will be proof enough that he never had me in his heart. Grandpa, I have done everything I can for the Sterling family. Please allow me to leave!” I was woken up by my son’s crying. Looking at him, I knew he was hungry. I immediately prepared to lift my shirt to nurse him, but right at that moment, Liam burst in and snatched my son from my arms. The baby hung upside down over Liam’s shoulder. “What are you lifting your shirt for?! Nursing at the drop of a hat—what, are you trying to get off on the kid?” “You really disgust me, Chloe!” Remembering his conversation with those rich men last night, I instantly understood his intention. As expected, for his first love, he didn’t even care whether his own son lived or died. Ignoring Liam’s deliberate insults, I panicked seeing the baby’s face turn purple and hearing his cries grow weaker. I immediately pulled my shirt down and begged Liam to put the baby down. But he completely ignored me. He reached out, stripped off my shirt and pants, and shoved me into the storage room. “You filthy bitch. Since your mind is so dirty, let’s keep your body clean. Think about what you’ve done in here!” Hearing the baby’s cries drift further away and grow fainter, I frantically pounded on the door, begging Liam to let me out. “Even if you don’t want me to breastfeed him, please, Liam, at least give him some formula!” The only response was endless silence and darkness. I slid to the floor in despair, but then flashing lights from the window pierced my eyes. There were people in the building opposite… Only then did I realize that this storage room was completely empty, and it had a floor-to-ceiling window directly facing the balcony next door. Five men on the opposite balcony were snapping photos of me with their cameras. “So this is the nursing mom up for auction, Chloe? Looks like the kid wasn’t lying. You can tell she’s engorged just by looking at her. The taste must be fantastic.” “Hahaha, so what if she’s top-tier? The money we five pooled together only bought us viewing rights. The only one who gets to touch her is the guy who bid $400,000…” Hearing this, everyone looked at the man sitting to the side, but he merely put away his phone, turned, and left the balcony. I stared in disbelief as the camera flashes raked over my body. Every flash felt like a slap, numbing me to the pain, leaving me powerless to fight back. Listening to their filthy remarks, I could only hug myself tightly, curling into a corner, burying my head, and turning my back to the window. When the flashing finally stopped, I heard the front door open. Mia, wearing a sexy, tight corset dress, perfectly “tripped” into Liam’s arms the moment he opened the door. “Liam, this dress is squeezing my chest so tight it hurts! Help me, please!” Looking at the curvaceous Mia, Liam casually tossed our still-crying son onto the dining table. Right in front of the baby, he threw Mia onto the table and started taking her. Listening to the baby’s weak cries and the filthy sounds of those two dogs enjoying themselves… I pounded the door frantically, trying to awaken whatever conscience Liam had left. But the only response I got was Mia’s louder moans and the sound of something heavy hitting the floor. It wasn’t until my hands were bloody and mangled from pounding the door, and my body covered in bruises from throwing myself against it, That Liam finally let me out of the storage room. One look at his eyes, and I instantly understood what that heavy thud had been… I used every ounce of my strength to shove Liam aside and run to the living room. Mia leisurely pulled up her panties, flaunting herself at me. And my child was lying under the dining table in an unnatural position. “I’m so sorry, Chloe. It’s all my fault for making Liam lose control. We forgot the baby was still on the table…” Seeing Mia’s fake, sorrowful expression, I didn’t care that I was still naked. I lunged at her with all my might. Before I even touched a hair on her head, Liam kicked me to the ground. I landed right next to my baby. Looking at his already purple face and stiff body, all my grievances erupted in that moment. “Liam, he is your own biological son! Aren’t you afraid of karma?!” Liam held Mia in his arms with a look of utter indifference and sneered: “Chloe, if Mia hadn’t been misdiagnosed with a heart condition, I never would have let you get pregnant.” “Just now, the doctor told me Mia’s heart condition was a misdiagnosis. If the kid is dead, he’s dead. It’ll be the same when you raise Mia’s child later.” Mia touched her stomach, a smile hidden on her lips, and feigned distress: “Liam, since I’m fine now, can we cancel the auction for Chloe’s breast milk? Even if Mr. Wang has powerful backing, Chloe’s reputation is still very important…” Anyone with a brain could tell she was passively-aggressively urging Liam to hand me over to Mr. Wang as soon as possible. Only that bastard Liam interpreted it as her being gentle, considerate, and kind. Liam’s phone rang, and he answered it like a lapdog. An old, weak voice came through the speaker: “The naked video of your wife is good. I’ve transferred the final payment to your card. Make sure she’s completely bare when you bring her to the room tomorrow.” Because I was quite far away, I didn’t catch the exact details, but from his expression, I knew it had to be about the auction. I picked up my baby, who had long stopped breathing, and stumbled toward the bedroom. “Tomorrow, come with me to the Starlight Hotel. There’s a banquet, and the organizers require a female plus-one for entry!” Hearing this, I refused without thinking, “Mia is a woman. You can take her.” Before I finished, Liam rushed over, snatched the baby from me, and dangled him by his tiny fingers like a plastic bag. “Who the hell do you think you are to refuse me? Mia even put in a good word for you! Don’t push your luck!” Watching my baby’s body sway, my heart felt like it was being sliced open. “Give me back my baby.” A cold sneer curved Liam’s lips. “You want the kid? Then accompany me to the auction tomorrow. Otherwise, I’ll throw him to the wolves in Siberia so there won’t even be bones left, and he won’t be able to reincarnate even if he reaches the underworld!” Looking at his emotionless eyes, I felt desperate and helpless. “Liam, he is your child, and I am your legally wedded wife! Are you truly not afraid of retribution?!” Liam held the baby high in the air. “Chloe, cut the crap. If you don’t agree right now, I’ll tear your child apart piece by piece!” Although Liam appeared to outsiders as a gentle and refined gentleman, only I knew he was a terrifying demon who always kept his word. To ensure my baby remained intact and received a proper burial, I agreed to his terms. The child was already gone, my heart was already dead; there was nothing left for me to fear. Once he confirmed I wouldn’t change my mind, Liam tossed the baby at my feet and left with Mia in his arms. After he left, I quickly cleaned myself up and arranged my baby’s funeral. To preserve the last shred of dignity for the Sterling family, I didn’t publicize his death. I simply hired a monk to perform a small ceremony, hoping that in his next life, he would be born into a normal family and no longer suffer with me. By the time everything was done, it was the next day. When I returned home, a row of colorful, sexy, and revealing evening gowns was lined up in the living room. Liam was sitting on the sofa in an odd position. Mia, with a look of pure enjoyment on her face, was sitting on his lap, subtly grinding against him. I wanted to ignore them and go straight upstairs. But Liam called out, pointing at the rack of dresses and telling me to pick one. Looking at the clothes—all plunging necklines, deep V’s, or slits cut up to the waist—I flatly refused. Liam looked at me with disgust. “You have to wear one. Look at your fat, bloated body. Mia specifically found a designer who specializes in plus-size women’s clothing to custom-make these for you. Don’t be ungrateful!” I looked down at my bloated, protruding stomach and found it incredibly ironic. During my pregnancy, Liam treated me like a treasure. I once thought my love would finally bear fruit. But on the day I gave birth, when he saw my lower body, the disgust and revulsion in his eyes were unmistakable. He sneaked away, leading to me hemorrhaging with no one to sign the surgical consent form. I nearly died on the operating table. Since that day, I suffered from postpartum depression, trapped in constant self-doubt, which led to a hormonal imbalance that caused my body to swell. He was the cause of all this, yet he dared to blame me! I picked a dress that provided slightly more coverage and changed into it, just as they finished their filthy act. When we arrived at the auction, the five men who had been standing on the balcony that day were all present. Liam shot Mia a look. Mia pretended to be very affectionate, hooking her arm through mine and dragging me over to socialize with those scumbags. “Tsk, tsk, tsk. She’s a mother now, and still looks like this. Definitely worth the price.” “Mr. Wang is in for a treat tonight. $400,000 is a steal.” “Hey gorgeous, if you can’t take it, you can always run. Us five brothers will take good care of you.” Listening to their filthy words, Mia offered a few haphazard excuses and dragged me away, terrified I would catch their underlying meaning and discover her and Liam’s insidious plot. But as I turned around, I caught sight of Liam pouring a packet of powder into a glass of red wine, whispering something to a waiter. The waiter looked over with a guilty expression. I quickly turned my back, terrified Liam would realize I saw something. I always thought that even if Liam didn’t love me, he would spare my life out of consideration for my three years of unwavering dedication to the Sterling family. At the very least, he wouldn’t degrade me like this. Mia took the wine glass from Liam and handed it to me. “Don’t be mad, Chloe. Those bosses were just complimenting you. Try this, it’s very expensive!” I instinctively looked at Liam, but he guiltily turned his head away. Looking at the powder settled at the bottom of the glass, I sneered and pushed Mia’s hand away. “I’m afraid of karma if I drink wine offered by a mistress!” Before the words had fully landed, Liam ground his teeth, suppressed his anger, and growled at me. “Chloe, I don’t have time for your tantrums. Drink the wine right now. Isn’t Mia tired holding it?” I feigned nervousness, inching toward the exit, and asked with a naive expression: “Honey, you know I’m allergic to alcohol. Why are you…” Before I could finish, my head started spinning and my vision blurred. But I clearly hadn’t drunk or touched anything! “Looks like the drug in the earrings is working. Liam, hurry up and send her to Mr. Wang. The East City project will definitely be yours.” “You really are a clever little thing, thinking of everything. I don’t know why she suddenly became so cautious, wasting so much time.” Mia leaned weakly against Liam, her venomous, snake-like eyes roaming over me. “Liam, are you sure you want to give Chloe to that seventy-something Mr. Wang? Doesn’t your heart ache?” Liam lifted Mia’s chin and kissed her deeply. “Why would my heart ache for her? She’s just a lapdog. What trouble could she possibly cause?” I collapsed weakly to the floor, trying to grab Liam’s pant leg. “I am your legally wedded wife… you can’t do this to me…” Listening to my feeble pleas, Liam didn’t even look at me: “Tonight is a charity auction. By making a contribution, you’re accumulating good karma for your child. Isn’t this what they call a win-win?” Thinking of my dead son, despair consumed me entirely. Seeing I was no longer struggling, Liam publicly stripped off my gown and underwear. He ordered a waiter to bring a transparent gift box, tied my hands and feet, and put me inside. “Send it to Room 888 on the top floor.” Looking at their numb, indifferent eyes, I knew pleading was useless. Through the transparent packaging, I thought I saw a flash of heartache and guilt in Liam’s eyes. As the scene before me grew increasingly blurry, I viciously bit my own tongue to stay awake. Until Grandpa Sterling sent someone to rescue me. “In the end, it is our Sterling family that has wronged you.” He returned my mother’s keepsake, had me sign the divorce papers, And sent me abroad. Watching the plane take off and Capital City shrink to a tiny dot, I finally dared to let my guard down and fall asleep. Meanwhile, Room 888 was in shambles: “Liam Sterling, where is the item I bought? All I got was a broken box?!” Mr. Wang, half-naked, was smashing things in a furious, red-faced rage. Liam yelled at his bodyguards, “Go find her right now! I want her alive, or I want to see her corpse!” Hearing this, the bodyguards rushed out of the room, but quickly backed in again. Liam looked at the person walking in behind the bodyguards, his jaw dropping in shock. Before he could speak, his grandfather slapped the divorce agreement onto his face: “From now on, Chloe has nothing to do with the Sterling family! You can use Mia to compensate Mr. Wang!” Hearing this, Mia instinctively hid behind Liam, looking at him with utter grievance. She signaled for Liam to speak up and protect her. But to her surprise, Liam ignored her pleading gaze, And instead asked why Chloe would have nothing to do with the Sterling family anymore. Furious, his grandfather raised his cane and struck Liam’s leg. “You have the audacity to ask?! If I hadn’t arrived in time, you would have given your own wife to someone else as a plaything, all for this insidious, gold-digging woman!” Seeing his grandfather’s rage, Liam stubbornly replied: “It’s just nursing! It’s not like Chloe was going to lose a piece of flesh. She wouldn’t have cared.” “Besides, as long as she satisfies Mr. Wang, he’ll give me the East City land outright! She’d normally jump at the chance to do something that helps me so much!” Seeing his grandson spout such shameless words with such self-righteousness, Grandpa Sterling trembled with anger. It was only then that Liam clearly saw what his grandfather had just slapped onto his face. “A divorce agreement?” “How do you have this?!” Liam dropped his cynical attitude, his expression turning serious. Grandpa Sterling sighed deeply and recounted the events following the Sterling family’s bankruptcy. Three years ago, when the Sterling family went bankrupt, I found out and brought my father’s inheritance and the notarized documents to Grandpa Sterling. I told him I could save the Sterling family from ruin, but I had two conditions. The first condition was that I had to become Liam’s wife. Grandpa Sterling, a seasoned businessman, naturally wouldn’t believe in the “love” of a girl in her early twenties. So he confiscated my mother’s keepsake to keep me in check. Later, as the Sterling family returned to its peak, he witnessed everything I did for his grandson. Ultimately, feeling a pang of conscience, he prepared a divorce agreement, pre-signed by Liam, as my ultimate escape route. As for the second condition… I asked Grandpa to hide the real reason Mia left Liam. I was truly afraid that a proud man like him would suffer a complete breakdown if he knew the truth. But I never expected that my well-intentioned concealment would become the sharpest knife to stab me today. Liam had actually offered me to a seventy-year-old man with a nursing fetish, just to amuse Mia. After the story was told, some were shocked, some felt guilty. Looking at my signature on the divorce agreement, Liam collapsed onto the floor. “She couldn’t have signed it. She loves me so much; how could she bear to divorce me?!” “It must be fake. Grandpa, you’re joking with me, right?!” Seeing the man so completely lost, Mia couldn’t suppress her jealousy and pretended to defuse the situation: “Grandpa, don’t blame Liam. Actually, Chloe also wanted to experience nursing again because the baby died. As the old saying goes, it takes two to tango, right?” Smack~ Grandpa stood right up and slapped Mia hard across the face, saying ruthlessly: “It seems to me, this slap sounded pretty loud!” “I’m not my idiot grandson, whose brain has been replaced by hot air. Your little tricks don’t work on me. You know exactly how many schemes you used to auction off Chloe and kill the baby!” Knowing she was in the wrong, Mia ducked back behind Liam and said nothing more. Liam finally realized his grandfather wasn’t joking. He plastered on a fake smile and crawled to his grandfather’s feet. “Grandpa, I won’t sell her. I’ll return the four hundred thousand, and then I’ll go home and find Chloe. I’ll apologize to her. We’ll just tear up this divorce agreement, it doesn’t count…” The man’s nonchalant attitude only made Grandpa angrier. “Liam Sterling, you truly are a piece of work! Let me tell you, I’ve already sent Chloe to her childhood friend. Their families originally had an arranged marriage.” “I hope that boy can bring Chloe true happiness!” Hearing this, Liam stood up agitatedly, his eyes turning red. “Impossible! Chloe is mine, alive or dead. Marrying someone else? In her dreams!” Grandpa sneered coldly. “If she really becomes a ghost, she’d better be a vengeful spirit coming for your life, dragging you and this woman to hell to be deep-fried!” Finally, Grandpa looked at Mia and sighed deeply. “Since you were willing to go this far for this woman, then just marry this disaster. Consider it accumulating good karma!” With that, Grandpa left the room with his bodyguards. Hearing those words, Mia was thrilled. She happily wrapped her arm around Liam’s. “Grandpa finally let us be together! I told you good deeds are rewarded. From now on, my son will officially be a member of the Sterling family!” The man radiated a chilling aura, completely contrasting with Mia’s joy. Looking at Mia’s raised lips, Liam asked coldly: “When my family went bankrupt back then… what is the real reason you left me?” Mia’s smile froze. She hadn’t expected Liam to ask this question now. Her eyes darted around, trying to find a suitable answer. But Liam’s gaze was too sharp, as if it could see right through her soul. “Liam, don’t listen to Grandpa’s nonsense. I had my reasons for leaving you back then.” Mia’s voice carried a slight tremor. Liam sneered coldly. “Reasons? What reason could make you leave me when I needed help the most?” Mia’s face turned pale as she hurriedly tried to cover up her panic. “When your family suddenly faced that crisis, I knew your burden had gotten much heavier. But I also knew you loved me deeply. I couldn’t bear to be a stumbling block for you, so I forced myself to leave, allowing you to focus entirely on your career.” “I was in agony too, but for your sake, I chose to bear it silently. Yet here you are, questioning me.”

🌟 Continue the story here 👉🏻 📲 Download the “MotoNovel” app 🔍 search for “391954”, and watch the full series ✨! #MotoNovel

I am the real daughter. On the very first day we were reunited, my biological mother pushed a bank card across the table toward me. “One million dollars a month. You don’t have to genuinely treat me like your mother, but you will act the part in front of outsiders. Do not embarrass me.” I froze for half a second. The next second, I dropped to my knees and hugged her leg tightly, refusing to let go. “Mom! Why are you setting conditions with me?! We are a match made in heaven! Anyone who tries to tear us apart will face divine retribution!” She frowned in distaste. “…Stop talking nonsense.” I immediately changed my tune. “Understood, understood. Keep a low profile. We’ll just call this a family bonding subsidy. I accept.” Twelve million dollars a year. Forget acting like a loving daughter—for that kind of money, if she told me to call the fake daughter “Big Sis,” I’d say it sweeter than anyone else on earth. 1 My knees hurt a little. The marble floor was incredibly hard. But the smile on my face didn’t falter for a second. Eleanor Vance, the biological mother I had just been reunited with, had clearly never seen a display like this before. “Get up,” she said, her tone clipped. “What do you think you look like right now?” I scrambled up from the floor with practiced efficiency. “Yes, Mom. Whatever you say, Mom.” “Let’s get the ugly truth out of the way first.” She sat back into the plush sofa and crossed her legs. “Mia has lived in this house for twenty-two years. Her health is fragile; she has a heart condition and cannot handle stress. To the outside world, you two are twins. She is the older sister, and you are the younger sister. I do not want to see any petty jealousy or dramatic fighting over favoritism.” I took the bank card with both hands and shoved it deep into my pocket. “Rest assured, Mom.” I stood at attention, practically saluting. “As long as the funds clear, Mia is my biological sister. If she wants water, I absolutely will not hand her a Coke. If she wants to walk, I will absolutely not let her use a wheelchair. Oh, wait, no, I mean I will personally carry her on my back.” Just then, a girl appeared at the top of the grand staircase, gripping the railing and looking down at us. This was the fake daughter who had occupied my place for twenty-two years: Mia Vance. Her eyes were red. She looked at me, tears falling before she even spoke a word. “Mom… is this… is this Ms. Miller?” If this were a typical soap opera, this would be the moment I pointed at her nose and called her a thief. But I was built different. This wasn’t my enemy. This was my walking, talking cash cow from another mother. If Eleanor wasn’t trying to protect Mia’s fragile feelings, would she have ever offered me a million-dollar monthly salary? Mia bit her lip, looking utterly pathetic. “Ms. Miller, I am so sorry. I stole your life… If my presence bothers you, I can move out…” Eleanor’s face darkened, and she opened her mouth to intervene. “Sis! What are you talking about?!” I widened my eyes, putting on a look of profound, agonizing heartache. I channeled the exact same level of sincerity I used when hustling portable chargers to old ladies at the train station. “What do you mean ‘stole’?! That’s a terrible word! For twenty-two years, you have suffered immensely in this wealthy household!” Mia looked completely lost. A tear hung precariously on her eyelashes, unsure if it should fall. “…Huh?” I grabbed Mia’s hands tightly, pouring every ounce of fake emotion I possessed into my voice. “Sis, just look at you! You’re so thin! The food in this mansion must be terrible, right? And the rules! The pressure must be suffocating! I heard rich people have to learn piano, painting, equestrianism, and socialize every single day. That sounds exhausting! “I was completely different. I fed pigs and chopped wood in the village. Look at me—I’m strong as an ox and eat like a horse! That kind of grueling, bitter life is only fit for a rough girl like me. Knowing you took my place and endured all this suffering for so many years… as your younger sister, my heart simply bleeds for you!” Mia’s mouth hung open. She stared at me for a long time, completely unable to formulate a response. I struck while the iron was hot, turning back to Eleanor. “Mom, look at this! Sis is treating me like a stranger! From now on, with me here, nobody is going to bully my sister. Sis, you just live your life exactly as you always have. I promise I will keep my mouth shut, I will never cause trouble, and I will absolutely not give you or Dad any reason to worry.” “Alright, that’s enough. Since we’ve cleared the air, let’s eat.” 2 I had barely picked up my chopsticks when a middle-aged man walked into the dining room. This was my biological father, Richard Vance. Well, technically, he married into the family. The Vance family had the money, and he had the looks. Back in the day, it was the classic trope of a poor boy marrying a rich heiress. “So this is the one… who came from the village?” He handed his suit jacket to the maid, unbuttoning his cuffs as he walked toward the table. “Why is she dressed like that? And she has terrible posture.” I looked down at myself. I bought this outfit off a cheap discount app. Sure, it wasn’t high fashion, but it wasn’t like I was exposing anything inappropriate. Richard sat down, completely ignoring me. Instead, he picked up a choice piece of fish and placed it directly into Mia’s bowl. “Mia, eat more. You’ve looked so exhausted these past few days. It breaks my heart.” Mia glanced at me quickly, then said softly, “Thank you, Dad. Dad… my sister just got back. You should give her some too.” What a perfect, pristine white lotus. Even now, she was making sure to draw aggro toward me. Right on cue, Richard slammed his chopsticks onto the table. “Her? She grew up in the country; what hasn’t she eaten? Why would she need me to serve her?” “Since you’re back, you will follow the Vance family rules. Wash off that repulsive, rural stench. Do not embarrass your mother in public. Also, what was your name again? Chloe Miller? How incredibly vulgar.” He waved his hand in disgust. “We’re changing it tomorrow. I’ve already decided. Your new name is Chloe Vance.” The million-dollar monthly salary covered enduring my biological mother’s bad temper. The contract did not say anything about tolerating her husband’s pretentious bullshit. I calmly took a bite of a spare rib, chewing silently, and glanced up at Eleanor. Eleanor acted like she hadn’t heard a thing. Got it. If the boss didn’t intervene, it meant this was considered an extra, out-of-scope service. I put down my chopsticks and wiped my mouth with a napkin. “Dad, I can’t change my name.” Richard’s eyes bulged. “What did you just say? You just walked through the door and you’re already talking back?!” “I’m not talking back.” I put on my most earnest, sincere expression. “The name Chloe Miller might sound a bit common, but it’s the name my adoptive parents gave me. Yes, they treated me terribly. They beat me, yelled at me, and made me feed pigs and farm the land. But they still raised me for twenty-two years. “If I change my name the second I return to my wealthy biological family, what will the public think? They’ll say the Vance family uses their wealth to bully the poor. They’ll say I’m a vain, greedy opportunist who completely abandoned her roots.” I let out a heavy, theatrical sigh. “I mean, I don’t care. If people want to curse my name, let them. But Mom is different! Mom is a prominent entrepreneur! The Vance Corporation relies on its public image. What if the media spins this as ‘Wealthy Family Forces True Daughter to Erase 20 Years of Adoptive Ties’? The stock price would plummet!” I turned to Eleanor, looking exactly like a deeply concerned, devoted daughter. “Mom, am I right? Losing hundreds of millions in market value just for a name… it’s just not worth it.” Richard pointed a shaking finger at me. “You… you’re twisting the facts! What does this have to do with the stock price?!” “How is it not related?” I asked, feigning shock. “The internet loves to hate the rich these days. Dad, do you not go online? Oh, right, you just drink tea and play golf all day. You don’t handle the company’s affairs, so it makes sense you wouldn’t know.” “Enough.” Eleanor finally spoke. “Chloe makes a valid point. A name is just a label; changing it involves too much paperwork anyway. Chloe Miller it is. I think it’s fine. It keeps her grounded.” Mia looked at me with a completely different expression now. I flashed her a massive, toothy grin and popped a piece of cheesy lobster into my mouth. Wow, rich people food was delicious. Some people choked on the bread of charity. But me? I prefer to earn my keep standing tall. After dinner, Eleanor called me into her study. “You are very smart,” she said. “Thank you for the compliment, Mom.” I stood respectfully in front of her desk, my hands clasped together. “Do you know why I brought you back?” “Because blood is thicker than water?” I ventured cautiously. Eleanor scoffed. “Because Mia’s fiancé only recognizes the true Vance bloodline. We need an alliance with the Sterling family. Mia isn’t a biological Vance, so the marriage won’t hold. But Mia’s health is too fragile. She could never survive being married to the Sterling family’s notorious playboy heir. So…” “You will marry him in her place.” Oh ho. I knew there was no such thing as a free lunch. This was the real reason I was here. A high-society alliance. A wealthy heir. A substitute bride. Wasn’t this just another massive business contract? “That’s going to cost extra.” The words slipped out of my mouth instinctively. Eleanor paused for a second, then laughed. “Deal.” She pulled open a drawer and tossed another bank card onto the desk. “This is the advance on your dowry. I’ll add an extra five hundred thousand a month for emotional damages. As long as you lock down the Sterling family, half of the Vance family’s assets will eventually be yours.” “Mom, just sit back and watch. I don’t care if he’s a rich heir or the King of Hell himself, I’ll have him trained and eating out of my hand.” 3 The next day at noon, to celebrate my return, the family hosted a luncheon with several extended relatives from the Vance side. I didn’t hold back. I sat down and prepared to feast. But before my chopsticks could even reach the center of the table, Richard spun the lazy Susan, stopping a plate of premium, double-head abalone directly in front of Mia. “Mia, your health is delicate. You need the nutrients.” The lazy Susan spun again, and what stopped in front of me was a plate of stir-fried bitter greens. Richard cast a sideways glance at me. “Chloe, your stomach is used to cheap, coarse food. Eating rich food too suddenly will give you indigestion. Dad is doing this for your own good. Eat more vegetables. It cleanses the grease.” Mia looked deeply conflicted and said softly, “Dad, is this really appropriate? My sister just got back…” “What’s inappropriate about it?” Richard raised his voice. “A wild boar can’t digest fine grain. Giving it to her is just a waste.” Seeing that I stayed silent, Richard assumed I was intimidated. His ego inflated, and he kept going. He poured himself a glass of red wine and swirled it. “Speaking of which, our Mia really is incredibly lucky. That Sterling marriage arrangement was originally meant for you. Thank goodness your health is fragile. That Julian Sterling… tsk tsk. Everyone in our circle knows what he is. He drinks, he gambles, he sleeps around, and his temper is explosive. I heard he broke a model’s leg just last month.” He took a sip of wine and patted Mia’s hand, looking utterly relieved. “A fiery pit like that is only suitable for a thick-skinned, feral girl to jump into. It’s the perfect match: a trash can for a trash lid. Absolute garbage paired with absolute garbage. A match made in heaven.” Mia’s tears were threatening to spill again. “Dad, please don’t talk about my sister like that…” “Dad is just telling the truth!” Richard was getting more and more animated. “Those rich playboys are nothing but scumbags. If the Vance family didn’t need their business, who would even bother acknowledging him? Only an ignorant country bumpkin like Chloe would treat him like a prize.” I glanced at Eleanor, who was sitting at the head of the table. Understood. When the boss couldn’t conveniently tear someone a new one, the biological daughter had to step up and do the dirty work. I stood up. Richard was mid-rant, spit flying from his mouth. He was startled by my sudden movement. “What are you doing? Are you going to get more rice? You have absolutely no manners…” I flashed him a brilliant, radiant smile. The next second, I gripped the edge of the heavy marble table, anchored my stance, and flipped it with explosive force. The table full of abalone, bird’s nest soup, red wine, and hot broth flew through the air in a very ungraceful parabolic arc before crashing violently onto the floor. The greasy, thick abalone sauce splashed directly onto Richard, instantly ruining his custom-tailored suit. “Ahhhh…!” Mia shrieked and hid in Richard’s arms. Richard was utterly stunned. His finger trembled as he pointed at me. “You… you… you absolute savage! Are you out of your mind?!” I dusted off my hands, my face a mask of righteous indignation. “Dad! You have crossed the line!” I pointed at the mess on the floor, my voice booming even louder than his. “Who is Julian Sterling?! He is my future husband! He is the Vance family’s future, most vital business partner! And here you are, in front of all these people, publicly slandering the heir to the Sterling Group as garbage and a scumbag! What if word gets out?! What if the Sterlings pull their investment?! What if the Vance stock crashes?! What if you destroy all of Mom’s hard work?!” I clutched my chest, looking agonizingly heartbroken. “It doesn’t matter if I, Chloe Miller, suffer a little. Even if you forced me to eat scraps, I would accept it. But you cannot use the future of the Vance family as a joke just to elevate your favorite daughter! You are undermining Mom’s empire! You are cutting off our family’s primary source of wealth!” Richard was suffocating under the weight of the massive accusations I had just hurled at him. “You… you’re talking out of your ass! I’m your father! I can say whatever I want!” “You are my father, but you are also a man who married into the Vance family wealth!” I took a step forward, my aura completely dominating the room. “You eat the food the Vance family provides, yet you smash the bowl we eat from! You are biting the hand that feeds you! As a member of this family, I, Chloe Miller, will absolutely not tolerate such ungrateful, treacherous behavior!” Richard was trembling with sheer rage. He tried to lunge forward to hit me, but slipped on the greasy soup covering the floor and fell hard, landing face-first in the mess like a dog. “Enough.” Eleanor’s voice chimed in right on cue. She placed her napkin on the table, not even glancing at Richard groveling on the floor. She simply looked at me with a cool expression. “Since the mood is ruined, dinner is over. Chloe, Julian Sterling has requested a meeting this afternoon. Go get ready.” I nodded obediently. “Yes, Mom. I’ll go get ready right now. I promise I will dress beautifully, I won’t embarrass our family, and I absolutely will not let that fifty-million-dollar dowry go to waste.” With that, I stepped directly over my groaning biological father and headed upstairs without looking back. Faintly, I heard Eleanor’s icy voice behind me: “Mop the floor. And from now on, anyone who speaks out of turn at the dinner table won’t be eating at all.” 4 My meeting with Julian Sterling took place at an exclusive, dimly lit private club. The legendary, notorious rich heir was sprawled on a leather sofa. He had a cigarette in his left hand, a glass of liquor in his right, and the top three buttons of his shirt undone. He looked incredibly impatient. “Oh, so this is the… village girl the Vance family dug up to replace Mia?” “I heard you used to feed pigs in the country? What, did the Vance family think I’m a pig, so they hired a professional breeder to take care of me?” His posse of wealthy frat boys erupted into obnoxious laughter. I didn’t get mad. I picked up an empty glass from the table and poured myself a drink. “Mr. Sterling, you’re hilarious. Raising pigs is incredibly hard work. You have to wake up before dawn, mix heavy feed, and shovel manure. It requires serious technical skill.” “Taking care of you is infinitely easier. As long as the money clears, if you tell me to go east, I’ll never go west. If you tell me to beat a dog, I’ll never chase a chicken.” Julian froze. He clearly hadn’t expected me to be so brutally straightforward. He sat up straighter. Just as he opened his mouth to speak, the door to the VIP room was shoved open. A woman in a flowing white dress burst into the room. “Julian…” Her voice trembled, her eyes locked entirely on him. “Are you really going to marry this… this country bumpkin?” Julian’s face instantly turned black. I raised an eyebrow. I knew exactly what this was. According to the dossier Eleanor had provided, this was Julian’s legendary “first love,” Lily. Back in the day, she dumped Julian because he was a “useless slacker” and ran off with a college athlete. Now that she heard Julian was entering a massive corporate marriage, she suddenly rushed back to play the role of the devoted, heartbroken lover. Before Julian could say a word, Lily charged right up to me. “Ms. Miller, right? I know you’re only marrying Julian for his money. How much will it take for you to leave him? One million? Two million?” Two million? Who the hell did she think she was talking to? My current net worth was evaluated in the hundreds of millions. “Ms. Lily.” I looked her dead in the eye. “Please mind your phrasing. I am currently Julian Sterling’s fiancée. I am the future Mrs. Sterling, officially recognized by both our families. You storming in here and throwing pennies at my face… don’t you think that’s incredibly disrespectful to my professional integrity?” Lily was stunned. “What professional integrity?!” I took a step forward, physically blocking her line of sight to Julian. “Taking care of Mr. Sterling is my job. My client… excuse me, my fiancé, is currently drinking and in a bad mood. You barge in here crying, screaming, and trying to use pocket change to insult his taste in women. Are you trying to create a hostile work environment, or are you openly questioning Mr. Sterling’s judgment?” Lily’s face went completely pale with rage. “You… how could someone like you possibly be worthy of Julian?! Julian and I have a deep, emotional foundation!” “An emotional foundation?” I scoffed, glancing back at Julian. The idiot was watching me with intense amusement, showing absolutely zero intention of intervening. I turned back, directing my full firepower at Lily. “Ms. Lily, ’emotions’ are too abstract. They don’t retain value. You claim you had such deep emotions, so why did you run away? And now that you’re back, what happened? Did the athlete get bored of you? Do you want to come back and graze on your old pasture? I’m sorry, but this pasture has already been fenced off by me. Whether it’s fresh grass or dead grass, it’s mine, and no one else is touching it!” 5 After my relentless verbal barrage, Lily’s tears finally spilled over. She ignored me, looking past my shoulder directly at Julian, and pulled an old, worn-out watch from her purse. “Julian, this was the very first gift you ever gave me. I’ve kept it all these years… Are you really going to be this heartless? Are you really going to let this feral, country shrew humiliate me?!” In that moment, I saw a flicker of emotion in Julian’s eyes. That was the spark of an old flame trying to reignite! Absolutely unacceptable. If that flame caught fire, my fifty-million-dollar dowry would be burned to ashes. Moving with lightning speed, I snatched the watch right out of her hand. “Oh my! The leather strap is completely worn out and peeling, and Ms. Lily still kept it? You are so incredibly frugal!” I held the watch up to the dim club lighting, clicking my tongue twice. “But with Mr. Sterling’s current net worth, this cheap flea market garbage stopped being worthy of him a long time ago. Since Ms. Lily doesn’t want it anymore, did you bring it here so we could help you throw it away? No problem. I’m used to doing the dirty work; we don’t need to bother Mr. Sterling with this.” With that, I simply opened my fingers. Plop. The watch dropped directly into the ice bucket on the table. “Chloe Miller!” Lily shrieked, lunging forward to claw at my face. I smoothly dodged to the side and allowed gravity to carry me directly into Julian’s lap. “Hubby! Help! The crazy lady is attacking me!” The way I screamed “Hubby” was a masterclass in dramatic, heart-wrenching vulnerability. Julian’s entire body went rigid for a full second. But he didn’t push me away. He raised one hand, easily blocking the hysterical Lily. “Enough.” “Are you done throwing a tantrum? If you’re done, get out.” Lily stared at him in utter disbelief. “You’re protecting her?! You’re actually protecting this shameless, gold-digging whore?!” Julian laughed. He wrapped his arm around my waist and pulled me tighter against his chest. “She’s here for the money. What’s wrong with that?” Julian looked at Lily, his eyes filled with pure mockery. “People who only want money are the cleanest. It’s infinitely better than someone who constantly preaches about ‘true love’ while their heart is full of nothing but selfish, manipulative calculations.” With that, he looked down at me. “Come on, wifey. Let’s go buy you some things.” My eyes practically sparkled with dollar signs. “Yes, Hubby! I want the most expensive things they have!” Lily was still sobbing hysterically behind us, but I didn’t have time to deal with her anymore. Julian and I walked out of the VIP room and got into his limited-edition sports car. I thought he was going to take me to a jewelry store to buy some shiny trinkets. Instead, he drove us straight to the most exclusive luxury mall in the city. “You called me ‘Hubby’ pretty smoothly back there,” he said, steering with one hand, looking at me with a half-smile. “What kind of reward do you want?” I immediately sat up straight and pulled out my phone’s notepad app. “Mr. Sterling, let’s speak frankly. That ‘White Lotus Defense’ operation I just executed was highly hazardous work. It requires hazard pay. But since you’re offering gifts, I won’t hold back.” I pointed at the Hermes boutique ahead. “I want that bag, and that diamond necklace, and…” Julian raised an eyebrow. “Your taste is that tacky?” “Tacky?” I shook my head. “Mr. Sterling, you don’t understand. These items retain their value! They are hard assets! If one day you decide to kick me to the curb, I can liquidate these and live comfortably for the rest of my life. This is what we call risk hedging.” Julian stared at me for a long moment, then suddenly slumped over the steering wheel, laughing so hard he couldn’t stop. “Chloe Miller, you are an absolute piece of work.” He tossed a sleek, black American Express Centurion card into my lap. “Go swipe it. As long as you manage to piss Lily off to the point of a stroke, I’ll buy this entire mall for you.”

🌟 Continue the story here 👉🏻 📲 Download the “MotoNovel” app 🔍 search for “391953”, and watch the full series ✨! #MotoNovel

When my brother started dating a wealthy heiress, her older sister ruthlessly tore them apart. The eldest sister, with her nose in the air, called my brother a scheming gold digger. Furious, I created a fake account, determined to give her a taste of what it’s like to want someone you can’t have. We dated online for six months. This supposed “iron lady” was calling me “baby” left and right and begging to meet. With a cold smirk, I blocked her and vanished. I thought our paths would never cross again. But after a series of twists and turns, my brother actually ended up marrying the heiress. At the wedding banquet, hearing that familiar, commanding voice, I didn’t even dare lift my head. Then, I watched my brother and sister-in-law walk over and call that woman… “Auntie.” Auntie?! I was so shocked I dropped my chopsticks. 1 While I bent down to pick up my chopsticks, the tablecloth hid my panicked expression. How could it be the aunt? That voice clearly belonged to the woman I had been online dating for six months—Maya’s older sister, Sarah! Six months ago, my brother and Maya were dating and met the family, but Sarah ruthlessly broke them up. That crazy sister-complex insisted my brother wasn’t good enough for Maya, calling him a scheming gold digger who was only after the family’s money. My brother came home devastated and broke up with Maya. When I found out, I was furious. I couldn’t just let this go. Sarah, you crazy sister-complex. How dare you insult my brother and make him so miserable! Just wait and see how I deal with you. I created a fake account posing as a seller of handcrafted goods, added Sarah’s contact info, and showered her with daily attention and care until she was completely hooked. Sarah seemed like an arrogant, strong-willed businesswoman. At first, she was incredibly hard to approach, but eventually, she fell right into the web I wove, calling me “baby” constantly. Until recently, when she suggested we meet in person. I played the insecurity card, saying I wasn’t good enough for her and didn’t deserve her. Sarah replied that she didn’t care about any of that; she just liked me. What a hypocrite, Sarah! When it comes to yourself, “just liking” someone is enough, but when it’s Maya, you demand a perfect match in social status! If that isn’t a double standard, what is? She was specifically targeting my brother. Infuriated, I mocked her relentlessly, then blocked her and ran. I thought after messing with Sarah and making her suffer, the whole thing would be over. Who knew that after all the drama, Maya and my brother would still end up getting married. I was here at the wedding banquet, sitting at the head table for the groom’s family. Right next to the table for the bride’s family. From the moment I sat down, I didn’t dare lift my head, let alone sneak a glance. I even faked a sore throat from a cold and played mute the whole time. I had sent “Sarah” photos, but they were heavily edited—my face was slimmer, my eyes deeper, my nose bridge higher. As long as I didn’t speak, comparing me to that photoshopped picture my own brother wouldn’t recognize, she definitely wouldn’t figure it out. Trembling with anxiety, I made it to the second half of the reception when the bride and groom came around to toast each table. “Wishing you a hundred years of happiness.” Hearing that familiar, commanding voice, I practically buried my head in my bowl. But my brother and Maya both called her “Auntie”! No, no, no, something must have gone wrong. Maybe I heard it wrong? After she sat down, I sneaked a glance over and only saw her back. She was wearing a custom sapphire-blue tailored suit skirt. Her attire was incredibly luxurious, her posture straight, but a thick aura of low pressure surrounded her. After the newlyweds toasted and left, an older relative at the table teased her. “Your little niece is already married. When do you, as her aunt, plan to tie the knot?” “Don’t bring it up, Second Sister.” A young woman beside her, seemingly a friend, said sympathetically, “Elena had finally opened her heart, but the guy turned out to be a scammer selling crafts. He blocked her and ran. She’s still furious about it…” “Third Lin.” The owner of that voice sounded displeased, seemingly warning her friend to stop. What Elena?! I whipped my head around, cold sweat pouring down my back. This person really wasn’t Sarah. That night was the family dinner with the bride’s family. My brother prepped me by showing me photos of everyone. My internal despair finally reached its peak. I’m screwed. I seduced the wrong person! 2 During our six months of online dating, “Sarah” had sent me countless sexy photos and left countless voice memos. Towards the end, she became incredibly clingy, even wanting to stay on voice calls while we slept. I would recognize that voice even if I turned into a ghost. Seeing the time was right, I had told her I fell for someone else, someone much better than her. I said she was old and probably didn’t understand young people. I said she was fierce, which is why she always had a resting bitch face. I even said her figure obviously looked like it was rigidly built in a gym. And! I even said she had a terrible temper… After feeling thoroughly refreshed from insulting her, I blocked her and ran. The more I thought about it, the paler my face became. I was completely screwed now. Not only did I fail to get revenge, but I also brought massive trouble upon myself and my brother. My brother had told me that the bride’s family, the Sterling family, was a massive, wealthy clan. The patriarch had three children, and his absolute favorite was his youngest daughter, Elena Sterling. She was the current CEO of the Sterling family’s enterprise, “Apex Group,” and held immense power within the entire family. If she found out I was the one who played her, my brother’s life in the Sterling family would definitely become difficult! I paced around anxiously, but I couldn’t tell my brother. I had done this whole thing behind his back. Plus, telling him wouldn’t help anyway; it might even expose the secret. After our parents passed away, my brother and I depended on each other in the orphanage. It wasn’t that there weren’t families who wanted to adopt us separately, but we refused to be parted, so we both stayed. My brother had always been so good to me. Now that he was an engineer and had such a wonderful family, I absolutely couldn’t ruin it for him. I absolutely could not let Elena find out that I was that guy. At the family dinner, I finally saw Elena’s full face. One word: Beautiful. Two words: Stunningly beautiful. I actually played such a beautiful woman, and now I’ve made an enemy out of her. I just hoped she wouldn’t recognize me. I played the role of the quiet, obedient, mute little brother perfectly. Elena’s cold gaze swept over me briefly, then retracted. She didn’t recognize me. I breathed a sigh of relief, sat safely in my seat, and didn’t dare look up again. Since I was the only relative on the groom’s side, Maya’s family was quite attentive to me. Learning that I was still a senior in college, Maya’s mother asked: “Have you found a company for your internship? “How about coming to our Apex Group?” Apex Group? Isn’t that the company where Elena is CEO?! No, no, no! But Maya’s mother was looking at me so brightly, I couldn’t exactly give my brother a warning look. I opened my mouth, almost forgetting my “mute” persona. “That sounds great.” My brother immediately agreed, smiling brightly: “Thank you, Mom.” NO! How is this any different from delivering myself straight to the slaughterhouse?! At the table, Elena, the CEO of Apex, just watched and tacitly agreed. When the dinner ended, I wiped the cold sweat from my forehead, deciding to avoid the Sterling family as much as possible from now on. Before leaving, my brother pulled me aside, looking serious. “You were acting weird today. What’s going on?” I continued playing mute, waving my hands and typing on my phone that I was just sick and didn’t feel well. My brother looked relieved and told me to go back and rest. I finally managed to bluff my way through and got back to the dorm. The problem was, my brother had secured an internship spot for me at Apex. Apex is an industry leader. Having an internship there would undoubtedly be a massive boost to my resume. If it weren’t for the whole Elena situation, I would have gone without hesitation. But what if Elena recognized me… After agonizing over it for days, I finally made up my mind. It was just a three-month internship. Apex is so huge. How could a lowly intern possibly run into the CEO? I just needed to lay low for three months, then vanish without a trace. 3 Having connections made things easy, and I quickly integrated into the company. At first, I was on edge for a few days. But later, exactly as I expected, as a lowly intern, I only had to complete tasks assigned by my mentor. The highest-ranking boss I usually saw was the department manager. Forget the CEO, I didn’t even see the General Manager. I relaxed. However, surviving in an industry leader company was no walk in the park. In just a few days, the workload was staggering. Proposals were constantly rejected, the department head was reprimanded, and the work atmosphere was incredibly tense. While eating in the cafeteria, my lunch buddy gossiped with me in a low voice. “Do you know why things have been so rough lately?” He was an intern who joined in the same batch as me. “Why?” I was genuinely curious. “Because…” My lunch buddy looked around and lowered his voice to a whisper. “The CEO went through a breakup.” My spoon clattered onto my plate. I offered a dry chuckle: “Really?” “I heard it was an online relationship too, and she got scammed.” I looked down and drank my soup, hiding my expression. “Where did you hear that?” “The CEO had her special assistant investigate an account. Word travels fast; everyone knows.” My lunch buddy looked incredibly puzzled: “With her wealth, she could have any man she wants. I can’t believe she’d actually online date. “And getting scammed on top of that? If the guy knew who she was, he’d probably regret it so much his intestines would turn green.” My intestines are already turning green! I blamed my own carelessness when looking for contact info. I didn’t find Sarah, but ended up bothering this absolute titan instead. I asked cautiously: “Did the special assistant mention what the CEO plans to do if she finds the guy?” “Call the police, obviously. That craft-selling guy must have milked a lot of money out of the CEO. With the cumulative amount, he’s probably looking at serious jail time.” Absolute nonsense! When I first approached Elena, my motives were indeed impure. I put on the persona of someone selling crafts and harassed her every day asking if she wanted to buy some. It just so happened a friend’s family made handcrafted items. Who knew she would actually buy them, and insist on paying ten times the price? Aside from that, I returned all the other money she gave me when we broke up. I told her I had found a new girlfriend who was very possessive and wouldn’t let me spend other women’s money. Even though the Sterling family is rich, I was genuinely terrified that Sarah’s cheapskate tendencies would flare up and she’d sue me to get the money back, causing unnecessary trouble. Anyway, as long as my goal of breaking Sarah’s heart was achieved, that was enough. Good thing I had already deleted that account. Elena shouldn’t be able to trace it. As long as I can just survive these three months… “Leo, go deliver this file to the CEO’s office.” I took the file from the senior colleague in my department, wanting to cry without tears. Why is there another hurdle?! Taking the elevator to the top floor, I secretly hyped myself up. It’s just delivering a file, what’s the big deal? Just keep playing mute. Trembling with fear, I reached the top floor, only to find the main office empty. Elena wasn’t there. A secretary in the CEO’s office asked which department I was from. Since she wasn’t there, I didn’t need to play mute. I answered obediently, the secretary made a note, and that was it. After a few times, I felt completely at ease. Once again, I took a file to the top floor. I had just greeted the staff in the secretary’s office when a familiar voice came from the inner office. “Let him in.” Me: “…” My heart leaped into my throat again. Looking like a man marching to his execution, I walked into the office and handed the file across the desk. Elena reached out a slender hand to take it, then lowered her eyes and began flipping through it, staying silent for a long time. As the minutes ticked by, I calmed down slightly. I emboldened myself to look up, only to lock eyes perfectly with Elena’s raised phoenix eyes. I quickly looked back down. After a suffocating silence, Elena finally spoke: “How are things at the company lately?” I had just spoken to the people in the secretary’s office outside; I couldn’t play mute now! I squeezed my vocal cords and replied in a small voice: “Pretty good.” I glanced up at her and added the proper title: “Ms. Sterling.” “Good?” Elena didn’t seem to notice anything amiss, letting out a cold laugh: “Having you deliver files shows they clearly know the relationship between you and me. You call that good?” What relationship? Don’t talk nonsense! I was so panicked I forgot to squeeze my voice. “What relationship do we have…” Before I could finish, seeing her inexplicable expression, I realized she was talking about her connection to my brother. “Hehe.” I caught on. “I didn’t tell them anything…” I finally managed to be a nepotism hire, yet I felt so guilty about it. I wished no one knew. But it turned out they had me deliver the files because they knew I was a connection hire, using me as a meat shield against her anger. Elena frowned slightly, studied me for a long moment, and said: “Call your manager up here.” I felt like I’d been granted amnesty and fled at top speed. I don’t know what Elena said to the manager, but no one ever asked me to deliver files to the top floor again. Another hurdle passed! 4 On the last shift before the holidays, I was mentally planning where to eat that night while waiting for the elevator. With a ding, the elevator arrived. I looked up and ran straight into Elena, wearing a tailored suit skirt. What the…?? Why isn’t she taking the executive elevator? Why is she taking the employee elevator? Elena, inside the elevator, stared at me intently and asked, “Are you not coming in?” I braced myself and stepped inside. The elevator doors slowly closed and continued downward. The person beside me was tall, making the already cramped space feel even smaller. A pleasant, cool fragrance wafted into my nose. It seemed to be her scent. The risqué photos she had sent me in the past were dragged up from the depths of my memory. At first, it was just hands, arms. Later, it was sexy collarbones and waistlines. And even later… Recalling the scenery I saw then, and her question: “Do you like it?” The more I thought about it, the redder my face got. I felt like there wasn’t enough oxygen in this narrow space. Why is this elevator so slow? I looked up at the flashing red numbers. “Leo.” “Huh?” I answered instinctively, turning my head to meet Elena’s probing gaze. She half-narrowed her eyes. “You seem… very afraid of me?” “I…” I tried my best to sound calm: “You are the boss, and my elder… I respect you.” Beside me, Elena said flatly: “Then don’t act like you have a guilty conscience.” “Have we met before?” Hearing this, my back broke out in a sweat, and all my hair practically stood on end. “N-no.” “Oh.” Elena replied faintly, her expression normal, as if it was just a casual question. With a ding, the elevator stopped on a floor, and a crowd of people poured in. Good news: I finally didn’t have to face Elena alone. Bad news: I was pushed into the furthest corner, forced to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with Elena. Heavens above, why must you torture me like this? I once again mentally cursed the person who gave me the wrong contact info a million times. After a grueling, agonizing wait, the elevator finally reached the first floor. “Goodbye, Ms. Sterling.” Once the people in front cleared out, I prepared to slip away. But the moment I took a step, my waist jerked tight—the metal buckle of my belt had somehow hooked onto the decorative chain on the side of her skirt! I was yanked off balance, almost performing a spin move on the spot. “Don’t move.” Elena’s voice rang out. She frowned and bent down to untangle the mess. The distance was so close it made my scalp tingle. The buckle was quickly freed, but because of the sudden jerk earlier, the collar of my shirt was pulled askew, and the top button popped completely off. Right below my collarbone, that red mole was exposed for all the world to see. 5 When I was online dating “Sarah,” aside from using heavily photoshopped pictures, I didn’t try too hard to hide my physical features. First, we often had voice-only or faceless video calls. Second, I figured that since my brother and Maya had broken up, we probably wouldn’t have any interaction in the future, so I was completely reckless. Besides, even if I got caught, I had nothing to fear. The thought of Sarah knowing it was me playing her would be even more satisfying, better revenge for my brother! But I never expected that I played the wrong person, and my brother still married Maya. Heaven really wants me dead! I don’t remember how I walked out of the elevator, nor did I notice what expression Elena had on her face. I only remember that when I snapped back to reality, I had already stumbled my way home in a daze. Elena knew about the red mole near my collarbone. Back then, she even said that when we met, she would kiss that mole until it was even redder. Did she see it? Probably not. If she had seen it, she would have asked right then and there. But what if she really did see it? I lived in fear for several days, only to discover… Absolutely nothing happened! I let out a massive sigh of relief and went back to slacking off at Apex. In the blink of an eye, a month passed, and the weather started getting chilly. After finishing a busy day of work, I received a message from my brother. “Leo, Maya has a hot spring villa and is planning to invite a few friends over for a party. Do you want to come?” A hot spring villa? I eagerly said yes. I thought I was going to have a beautiful weekend, but when I arrived, I saw a figure I never expected. Elena! Like a rabbit seeing a tiger, my hair stood on end. “Um, bro, I actually have something to do, I’m going to head out.” Maya noticed my apprehension towards Elena and comforted me: “Leo, this isn’t the company. My aunt doesn’t eat people. Why are you so scared?” Her voice was quite loud, and I could feel several people looking our way. Maya and my brother had an older woman/younger man relationship. She was an upperclassman at my university. She was always very outgoing, and we were in the same club, so we got along decently. Later, she happened to see my brother coming to campus to drop something off for me, fell in love instantly, and launched a fierce pursuit. As soon as she graduated, she pestered my brother to meet the parents, all the way until they got married. In all the time I’d known her, this was the first time I found Maya so annoying. “Haha.” I let out two awkward laughs and had no choice but to bite the bullet and sit down. My brother whispered an explanation, saying Elena decided to come at the last minute, and he had just found out too. I looked at the person in the corner. She was wearing casual clothes, unlike her usual formal attire, but her posture was still perfectly straight. Every movement exuded a mature, calm aura. Staring at her, I couldn’t help but feel a bit resentful. My happy weekend was going to be spent in constant fear and anxiety because of her presence. And also. Did she even know how to play young people’s party games?! 6 The facts proved that Elena knew exactly how to play. Over several rounds of games, she completely dominated, forcing many people to drink penalty shots. The party lasted late into the night until everyone, arms draped over each other, stumbled back to their rooms to sleep. Maya was just about to help her brother-in-law upstairs when her aunt spoke up. “Go get some rest. I’ll take him to his room.” “Okay.” Maya replied with a slurred voice, swaying as she went back to her room. In the spacious living room, only Elena and the boy curled up asleep on the sofa remained. Leo… She rolled the name over on her tongue a few times. She put aside her work and came here to hang out with a bunch of kids, all for him. To verify if she had seen clearly that day, to see if he was really that guy. The guy who had whispered sweet nothings to her when they were deeply in love, only to later claim he loved someone else, curse her out, and block her. Elena stood up and stood silently beside him for a moment. She closed her eyes, feeling contempt for her own actions. After hesitating for a long time, she reached out and gently pulled aside the fabric at Leo’s collarbone. The moment her gaze locked on, she frowned slightly. There was… Absolutely nothing. It wasn’t him. She must have seen wrong that day. It was hard to say if it was disappointment or something else, but Elena stared at his fluffy head in a daze for a while. In the end, she still leaned down, helped him up, and took him to the guest room. … When I woke up the next day, Elena was nowhere to be seen. Maya said her aunt had official business to handle and had left. Everyone present breathed a huge sigh of relief. Yesterday, Elena had practically crushed everyone at the games. If we had to do it all over again today, there wouldn’t be any fun left. I touched my collarbone, my heart finally settling back into my chest. Thank goodness. When I found out Elena was here yesterday, I took emergency evasive action and borrowed my sister-in-law’s concealer to cover up the mole. Even though I was drunk last night, I wasn’t completely out of it. I was just resting with my eyes closed. Who knew Elena actually intended to test me, and I ended up blind-guessing her move correctly. Now I was completely cleared of suspicion. Even if she later realized our voices were similar, if the mole didn’t match, she still couldn’t be sure, right? I was finally completely relaxed.

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On my twenty-third birthday, I was preparing to confess my feelings to Julian. But he beat me to it, falling in love at first sight with my roommate. I watched them break up and get back together, endlessly entangled. Finally, I gave up completely and started dating someone else. The day I announced my new relationship on Facebook, everyone offered genuine congratulations. Julian never showed up. It wasn’t until the next day that someone brought it up in front of him. “Did you see that post? What do you think of Summer’s new boyfriend?” The man leaned back diagonally on the sofa, glancing at me upon hearing the question. After a long time, he finally spoke slowly, “Oh, he’s average.” 1 As soon as Julian finished speaking, the room fell silent for a moment. Everyone’s eyes turned to me. Some watched from the sidelines, while others looked worried and anxious. In this day and age, everyone loves posting short videos and status updates. Two people standing shoulder to shoulder, smiling and clearly in love—who wouldn’t want to hear others call them a perfect match? But Julian had to be the one to bluntly evaluate him as, “Oh, average.” He was a guy who, despite having a bit of a temper, was usually very polite in his dealings with others. Acting like this now… it was as if he was deliberately trying to embarrass me. Suppressing the anger in my heart, I asked him. “What’s wrong with my boyfriend?” In fact, Evan is very handsome. Even my picky mother couldn’t help but compliment him after meeting him. “Compared to your friend named Julian, he doesn’t fall short at all.” I stared at Julian, my expression showing my displeasure. But he suddenly let out a tired smile. Then he glanced at me, “Just a casual remark, don’t take it to heart.” “Bring him around sometime when you’re free.” With that, he stood up without hesitation and left. He didn’t spare me another half a glance. So, someone tried to comfort me, saying, “Tsk, almost forgot. He just went through a breakup with his girlfriend, so he’s probably feeling really frustrated right now.” “It’s fine. Aren’t they always like this? They’ll be back together in a few days.” Saying this, the person glanced at me. “Don’t you think so, Summer?” I spaced out for a moment. “Yeah, that’s right.” They had been entangled for so long; how could they separate so easily? Over the past few years, I had hoped time and time again, only to be disappointed time and time again. I should have understood this long ago, shouldn’t I? 2 Coming out of the private room, I saw Julian smoking not far away. He rarely did that. Because Mia didn’t like it. He was acting really out of character tonight. I was still angry about what happened earlier, so I didn’t speak to him and walked straight outside. But I hadn’t even taken two steps before someone grabbed my wrist. I turned around and met a pair of cold, indifferent eyes. Even when I first met him, I heard people say that Julian, the famous young master of the Vance family, had been raised as the heir since childhood. He was precious and privileged. The people who wanted to date him could form a line around the block, but he never gave anyone a second look. Later, when Julian and I became close, everyone praised my good luck. For all these years, I was the only female friend by his side. Inevitably, some people made snide remarks: “Who knows if one day she’ll go from friend to girlfriend, flying up to a higher branch and becoming Mrs. Vance?” It wasn’t that I hadn’t dreamed that beautiful dream. But later, when Mia appeared, I realized she was his true destiny. He had remained single for over twenty years, all to wait for her. As for me, I was just lucky enough to be acquainted with him. Under the dim light, he stared at me, his expression somewhat careless. He said. “How did you meet?” I didn’t react immediately, freezing for a moment. He patiently repeated himself. “I mean, how did you meet that guy?” 3 It was a cold, snowy day. Julian instinctively turned his body to block the cold wind blowing from afar for me. I looked at his features and remained silent for a moment. “We met while traveling. I thought he was pretty nice, so we got together.” There is a phrase called “perfect timing.” That probably describes Evan and me. Hearing this, Julian lifted his eyelids. “Traveling? When did you go out to play? How come I didn’t know?” I smiled, “Just last month.” He probably no longer remembered that one night last month, he called me late, saying he and Mia had a fight and she had angrily gone abroad. He said: “You two are the closest, go over and talk to her. In a foreign country, if she insists on staying there, she’ll suffer grievances.” I packed my bags overnight and traveled thousands of miles with him, but shortly after landing, he received news that Mia had already gone somewhere else. Round trip, it was over a dozen hours of travel. I happened to get a high fever and couldn’t accompany him on his frantic journey anymore. He had no choice but to leave me behind and go look for Mia. After he left, I stood by the riverbank, looking at the bright moon on the other side, and suddenly felt exhausted. To stay by his side, I had given up a stable job in my hometown. Even when my father was hospitalized last year, I couldn’t be by his side. Time is ruthless. What had I gained, and what had I lost? No one knew. My thoughts returning, I looked at Julian in front of me and spoke very calmly. “Are you done asking? I have to go.” He froze. After a long time, he finally spoke again. “Lend me your phone for a second. Mia blocked me.” Actually, I really wanted to ask—with so many people in the private room, did you have to ask to borrow mine? But I didn’t say it in the end. After all, all those feelings of joy, sadness, and despair, from beginning to end, were known only to me. In his eyes, I was a perfect friend, completely unrelated to romance. I took out my phone and handed it to him. He took it and walked to the side to make a call. They talked for quite a while. When Julian came back, his expression was no longer as tense as before. His eyes held a smile as he handed the phone back to me. Just then, a message suddenly popped up on the screen. Evan: [I’m returning to Seattle at the end of the month.] In an instant, the smile on Julian’s face vanished. He frowned, his voice flat: “Your relationship seems pretty good.” 4 Since I had decided to let go, I began intentionally distancing myself from Julian’s circle. I muted these people’s posts on social media. And I stopped going to the places they frequented. One day, Julian messaged me. [Your birthday is in a couple of days. Want to come check out the venue?] He was very generous. Every time a friend had a birthday, he would put his all into helping organize it. I wasn’t the first, nor was I the only one. But to this day, I still remember that on my twenty-third birthday, Julian pointed to Mia not far away and asked me, “Is that your friend? Give me her WeChat.” A talented man and a beautiful woman, a perfect match. I guess they should thank me, the matchmaker. Later, I heard someone ask Julian, why did it have to be Mia? At the time, he was texting Mia. Hearing the question, he smiled, raised his eyebrows, and said, “She was wearing a red dress that day. I’ve rarely seen anyone wear that color so well.” But who would remember that I also wore a red dress that day? For many years after that, I never touched clothes in that color again. Thinking of this, I typed. [I’ve been busy lately. No need.] He took a long time to reply. [Busy dating?] I replied, [Yeah.] After sending that message, he didn’t reply again. However, his best friend, Liam, sent me a voice message, saying playfully, “Wow, you’re amazing, Summer. Julian put a lot of effort into planning your birthday party this time. We all stayed up late for several nights helping out, and you just decide not to come. He’s furious, hahaha.” I gave a brief, casual reply. Just then, a red notification popped up on my email. I clicked it. It was an employment offer. I thought about it, feeling a bit happy, and messaged Evan. [Once I finish handing over my current work, I can process my resignation. We can go back to Portland together then.] He replied, [Okay.] This guy looked serious and spoke meticulously. But looking at this one word. I inexplicably smiled. 5 Neither Evan nor I were very talkative people; we only chatted when there was something to say. But I didn’t expect him to return early. He came back specifically to celebrate my birthday with me. In an elegantly decorated western restaurant, he handed me a gift bag. “Sorry, I only found out it was your birthday today after seeing your mom’s post.” After we decided to be together, we quickly met each other’s parents, planning to get engaged once we returned to Portland. Lately, my mom kept telling me: “Evan is a good guy. He often sends me things. You should treat him well.” Halfway through the meal, Evan went out to take a call. After he left, I looked down at my phone. I happened to see a post from Liam. [Someone save me!? Julian is acting crazy today, insisting on a drinking contest with me. I’m about to drink myself to death here, and his face isn’t even red. I can’t survive this.] Liam had a lively personality and often posted things like this, so I wasn’t too surprised when I read those words. I was just a little surprised. That day outside the private room, Julian borrowed my phone to call Mia, and they had clearly reconciled. Acting like this now, did they fall out again? You couldn’t blame me for thinking this way. Julian’s life had been smooth sailing; aside from love, he would absolutely never suffer any hardship elsewhere. Just as I thought this, a phone call came in. It was Liam. We had a pretty good relationship, and I was afraid something had really happened to him, so I answered it immediately. His voice was drunk. “Hey, I’m telling you, Julian is simply not human…” Halfway through, his voice got quieter and quieter until it disappeared. I called his name twice. There was no response. Just as I was about to hang up, someone finally spoke. It was Julian. His voice was cold, a little hoarse. “This guy couldn’t hold his liquor and passed out on the table. It’s nothing serious.” I said: “Oh, as long as everything’s fine.” He was silent for a moment, then asked, “What about you? How was your day? Are you happy?” I was just about to answer when Evan returned from outside and asked who I was talking to. I said. “A friend.” When I looked down again, the call had already been hung up. 6 After hanging up, I felt a little unsettled. Evan pushed the cut steak in front of me, his movements natural and elegant. “What’s wrong? Is there an emergency at work?” He was always like this, emotionally stable and very measured. He would never be like Julian, moody over trivial things, needing to be coaxed and pampered. Looking at Evan’s calm eyes, the annoyance in my heart suddenly dissipated for the most part. “It’s nothing. Just an ordinary friend who drank too much and is acting crazy.” Evan smiled and didn’t ask any more questions, just poured me a glass of warm water. “Drink some water, soothe your throat.” The meal was very pleasant. As we were finishing, Evan pulled a velvet box from his pocket. The pendant was a very translucent jade stone in the shape of a peace buckle. Just looking at it made you feel at ease. He put it on me, his warm fingertips brushing against my neck. “Summer, happy birthday. I wish you peace and safety year after year.” No grand vows, no earth-shattering fanfare. Just this simple, unadorned “peace and safety year after year.” I touched the peace buckle, my eyes feeling a little hot. These past few years by Julian’s side, I had seen too much extravagance and received too many expensive but cold luxury items. But I had never experienced this kind of grounded warmth. It was 10 PM by the time I got home. Evan walked me to the lobby of my apartment building, politely kissed my forehead, and left. I had just turned around to go upstairs when a harsh screeching of brakes came from behind. Followed by rapid footsteps. My wrist was grabbed tightly, with a force that felt like it would crush my bones. I turned my head in pain and met Julian’s bloodshot eyes. He smelled of alcohol and looked a bit disheveled, completely devoid of his usual aloof, aristocratic demeanor. “That guy… is your boyfriend?” His voice was terribly hoarse, as if filled with gravel. I frowned and tried to pull my hand away. “Julian, you’re hurting me. Let go.” Not only did he not let go, but his grip tightened, his eyes locked dead on the necklace around my neck. The peace buckle shone with a gentle glow under the streetlight, but it seemed to sting his eyes. “What’s so great about this broken rock? How much is it worth?” He sneered, his tone full of disdain. “If you like jewelry, I have a bunch. Cartier, Bvlgari, pick whatever you want. How can you wear this cheap junk out in public?” Listening to his cruel words, the anger in my heart “whooshed” right up. How come I never realized he had such a mean mouth before? “Julian, this is a token of my boyfriend’s affection. In my eyes, it’s priceless.” I looked at him coldly. “Also, it’s late. If you’ve had too much to drink, go home and sleep. Don’t come here acting crazy.” Julian froze for a moment, as if he didn’t expect me to speak to him like that. The old Summer was always soft-spoken and completely obedient to him. If he even frowned, I’d be anxious for a long time. But now, the way I looked at him was like looking at an unreasonable stranger. This realization made him even more frustrated. He leaned in abruptly, pinning me against the wall of the lobby. The strong smell of alcohol mixed with tobacco rushed over me, making me instinctively hold my breath. “Summer, are you getting back at me?” He stared into my eyes, asking through gritted teeth. “Because I said he was ‘average’ before? So you deliberately brought him to make me mad? That guy looks like a bookworm. Aside from being decent-looking, how does he compare to me?” I laughed out of extreme anger. “Julian, do you think the whole world revolves around you?” “I’m dating for my own happiness, not to make you mad, and certainly not to get back at you. You aren’t that important to me.” As soon as this sentence came out, the air seemed to solidify. Julian’s pupils contracted sharply, a flash of astonishment on his face, followed by a deeper gloom. “Not that important?” He repeated those words as if he had heard the biggest joke in the world. “Summer, you ran after me for seven years. And now you’re telling me I’m not important?” He let go of my wrist, but suddenly reached out to yank the necklace from my neck. “Since it’s not important, take off this piece of junk! It’s an eyesore!” “Are you crazy?!” I panicked and desperately tried to protect the necklace. During the struggle, the red string snapped. The peace buckle fell to the ground with a “smack,” rolled twice, and split in half. The world instantly went quiet. I looked at the shattered jade on the ground, my heart feeling like it had been viciously stabbed by something. That was the first birthday gift Evan gave me. It represented his blessing of “peace and safety year after year.” And just like that, Julian destroyed it. I slowly crouched down and picked up the two pieces of broken jade, the sharp edges biting into my palm. When I looked up again, I stared at Julian, the last bit of warmth vanishing from my eyes. “Julian, you are truly disgusting.” After saying that, I didn’t spare him another glance, turned around, and went upstairs. Behind me, I heard Julian’s somewhat panicked shout: “Summer…” I slammed the lobby door shut heavily, isolating his voice in the night. 7 The next day, I took time off work to go get the peace buckle fixed. The master craftsman said it could be repaired using the gold-inlaid jade technique, but there would always be a crack. Just like my relationship with Julian—it was completely shattered, and no matter how it was repaired, it could never go back to the way it was. When I returned to the office, I happened to run into Liam joking around with the receptionist. Seeing me, his eyes lit up, and he came over. “Hey, Summer, you’re looking good today. Did Julian go see you last night?” I subtly avoided his touch and said lightly, “Yeah, came and threw a drunken fit.” The smile on Liam’s face froze for a second, then he laughed awkwardly. “Hey, you know how Julian is, right? Tough talker, soft heart. He drank too much last night and kept muttering your name. He actually still cares about you…” “Liam.” I cut him off, my tone calm. “I’ve already submitted my resignation. I’m leaving next month.” Liam’s eyes widened as if he had seen a ghost. “Holy shit? Resigning? Where are you going? Does Julian know?” “Going back to my hometown, or to another city. Haven’t decided yet. As for whether Julian knows, it has nothing to do with me.” I didn’t want to waste any more breath on him, turned around, and went into the office. Not long after, Julian called. I immediately hung up and blocked the number. I also deleted his WeChat. These actions flowed smoothly. After doing them, I felt completely refreshed. Since I had decided to cut ties, I would cut them cleanly. In the afternoon, while I was handing over my work, the receptionist said someone was looking for me. I thought it was Evan and ran out smiling, but it turned out to be Mia. She wore a high-end designer suit, carrying a limited-edition bag, still exuding her usual aloof goddess vibe. Seeing me, she took off her sunglasses, looked me up and down, and a mocking smile touched her lips. “I heard you’re resigning? What, did Julian break your heart so much you’re planning to run away?” I looked at her, my heart completely undisturbed. I used to think she was my romantic rival, an insurmountable mountain between Julian and me. Now it seemed she was just a pitiful person spoiled rotten by Julian. “Ms. Mia, if you don’t have any actual business, I’m going to get back to work.” I didn’t want to engage with her and turned to leave. “Stop right there!” Mia stomped her high heels and blocked my path, her face looking a bit ugly. “Summer, stop pretending. Do you think playing hard to get works on Julian? He did go to see you last night, but when he came back, he told me you were just a plaything he could summon and dismiss at will.” She raised her chin, as if asserting dominance. “He and I are destined to get married. With your status, you’re not even worthy to carry his shoes.” Watching her try to act tough while feeling insecure, I suddenly found it a bit funny. “Mia, are you in such a rush to assert dominance because Julian called my name last night?” Mia’s face turned pale; I had clearly hit the nail on the head. I smiled and continued, “Don’t worry, I have no interest in your Julian. I’ve already thrown that man away. If you like picking up trash, hold on tight, and don’t let him out to disgust people anymore.” “Who are you calling trash?!” Mia raised her hand in a flustered rage, trying to slap me. But her wrist was intercepted mid-air. By a slender, powerful hand. Evan had arrived at some point. He was wearing simple casual clothes, but his presence was overwhelming. He threw Mia’s hand aside, protected me behind him, and his eyes were icy. “Miss, please show some self-respect.” Mia rubbed her wrist and glared at Evan. “And who are you? This is between her and me. It’s none of your business to interfere!” “I am Summer’s fiancé.” Evan’s voice wasn’t loud, but it was firm and resounding. “Her business is my business. If you dare touch her again, I wouldn’t mind having security escort you out.” Mia probably hadn’t seen such a tough man before, and she was stunned for a moment. At this moment, there was a commotion at the lobby entrance. Julian strode in, followed by a breathless Liam. Seeing this scene, Julian’s face instantly darkened. He quickly walked over to Mia’s side but locked his gaze dead on me. “Summer, what is the meaning of this? Blocking my calls, deleting my WeChat, and now ganging up with an outsider to bully Mia?” I peeked out from behind Evan, looking at this man who couldn’t tell right from wrong, feeling only ridiculous. “Julian, which eye did you use to see me bully her? She was the one who came to my company to cause a scene and even tried to hit me. What, are only the privileged allowed to act out, while the rest of us just have to take it?” Julian frowned and looked at Mia. Mia immediately put on a wronged expression and clung to Julian’s arm. “Julian, I just heard Summer was leaving and wanted to come say goodbye. Who knew she would say such awful things and even call you… call you trash.” Julian’s face instantly turned as black as the bottom of a pot. He stared at me, gritting his teeth: “You called me trash?” I fearlessly met his gaze. “Is it not true? Eating from the bowl while eyeing the pot, clearly having a girlfriend but still coming to harass your ‘ex-friend’. Julian, if you aren’t trash, what are you?” “Good, very good.” Julian laughed out of extreme anger, saying the word “good” twice. He pointed at Evan, his eyes sinister. “You’re falling out with me over a man like this? Summer, don’t you regret this!” I clung tightly to Evan’s arm, smiling openly. “The biggest regret of my life was meeting you. As for Evan, he is a thousand, ten thousand times better than you.” It was as if Julian had been viciously slapped across the face; his complexion turned a mix of pale and green. He stared fixedly at my hand holding Evan’s arm, emotions I couldn’t understand churning in his eyes. Like anger, but also like… panic.

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After watching my A-list actor husband star in a steamy, R-rated thriller with a rising starlet, I accepted an invitation to join a divorce reality show. My best friend patted my shoulder with a loud laugh. “Doing PR for your husband’s new movie again? You’re going all out for this!” Everyone thought this was just playful banter between the entertainment industry’s ten-year model couple. They all tried their hardest to play matchmaker and “help” us reconcile on the show. The man who was notoriously quiet and never understood romance clumsily but earnestly prepared surprises for me on camera. Yet, no matter how hard he tried to please me, at the end of every episode, I selected the “Still Want a Divorce” option. Even the audience couldn’t stand it anymore, flooding the internet with comments saying I didn’t deserve him. It wasn’t until the season finale, seeing my unwavering insistence on divorce, that his eyes turned red. He dropped to his knees right in front of me. “Chloe, I have never done a single thing to betray you. Why won’t you give me one more chance?” I smiled. “Alright. I’ll give you three chances.” “Three questions. If you can answer just one of them correctly, I will drop the divorce.” Everyone let out a collective sigh of relief, including Ethan himself. After all, when it came to knowing me, if Ethan ranked second, no one would dare claim first. But after I asked the very first question, everyone was dumbfounded. 1. “In the third year of our marriage, my cravings suddenly changed.” “That year, what was my absolute favorite fruit?” Hearing the question, the tense audience in the studio immediately relaxed. Ethan looked like a massive weight had been lifted off his shoulders. He even shot me a confident smile. “Chloe, this is way too easy. Want to swap it for a harder one?” I shook my head and wrote my answer on a card, handing it to the host. “Just answer the question.” Ethan’s pen flew across his whiteboard. In less than two seconds, he was done. When he flipped his board around to reveal the word “Apples,” a wave of relief washed over the crowd. In the observer’s booth, Olivia Hayes—this year’s hot favorite for Best Actress—laughed and teased, “It looks like Chloe is just throwing a little tantrum with Ethan. She might choose ‘divorce’ every episode, but her heart is clearly still tied to him.” “You two are really making us and the audience part of your little roleplay, aren’t you?” I ignored her passive-aggressive teasing. I simply looked at a brimmingly confident Ethan. “Are you sure that’s your answer?” Ethan’s lips curled up. He leaned back in his chair, all his previous tension completely gone. “Chloe, back then, there were times we could barely afford to eat. But you would rather skip buying groceries just to buy apples. If it wasn’t because you loved them, why else would you do it?” “We even got into a huge fight over it.” “Besides, when it comes to anything regarding you, I couldn’t forget it even if I tried.” When those deeply affectionate, captivating eyes locked onto me, the studio erupted into deafening cheers. I stared at the face I had once loved so desperately. Without saying a word, I slowly turned to the host. The host, who had been swooning over our “romance,” smiled sheepishly. She quickly pulled out my answer card, fully intending to announce Ethan’s victory. But as her eyes scanned the card, she froze. A flash of pure shock crossed her eyes. “Mr. Vance, you…” “You got it wrong.” 2. In an instant, the studio went so quiet you could hear a pin drop. The confident smile on Ethan’s face stiffened. But having weathered countless PR storms, he quickly regained his composure. “Chloe, you aren’t doing this on purpose, are you?” “I remember photos of you buying apples went viral back then. Your fans even nicknamed you the ‘Apple Beauty’.” “Not to mention, you were slicing apples at home every single day. The whole house smelled like apples. How could I possibly remember it wrong?” In the audience, Ethan’s super-fans began to defend him. “Exactly! During an interview back then, you even said you were super interested in fruit farming and wanted to plant your own apple trees! If that isn’t loving apples, what is?!” “Chloe, you’ve already made things so difficult for Ethan in the previous episodes. Could you stop pushing your luck?” I ignored their aggressive questioning and calmly asked, “Ethan, do you remember what happened that year?” Ethan let out a cold chuckle. “Of course I do.” “I offended some powerful people and was practically blacklisted by the entire film industry. If you hadn’t stayed by my side and encouraged me, I probably never would have gotten the chance to make my comeback.” “That’s why I can’t figure it out. We survived those brutal days together, so why do you want to walk away from me now?” His eyes grew dark, carrying a profound, indescribable sorrow. The cameras and fans frantically snapped photos of his “vulnerability.” I remained ice-cold. “Yes. Because of some drama, you offended an A-list director and couldn’t get a single role for over half a year.” “Until a low-budget, indie arthouse film approached you. They wanted you to play a mute orchard farmer who falls in love with a city girl, only to be abandoned by her.” “Honestly, you can barely even find that movie online anymore. But that specific role is what laid the groundwork for your massive comeback.” “It was because that niche indie film got critical acclaim that you were able to return to the big screen and book the blockbuster that made you the massive star you are today. Do you remember all of that?” My voice grew quieter as I spoke. The grief I tried so hard to mask began to bleed through my words. Yet Ethan still looked entirely confused. “What does that have to do with your question?” I looked up at this man—the man who claimed to know everything about me, yet had completely erased the reality of our past. I let out a bitter laugh. “Did you forget that when that role was offered to you… you didn’t want it?” “You didn’t want to stoop so low as to play a rural farmer. You wanted to reject the script outright.” “I was the one who forced you to take it. I was the one who went out every day to buy apples and saplings. I spent hours in our backyard researching how to plant them, studying the differences between apple varieties, and writing notebooks full of research.” “Those notes became the foundation of your character research. I was the one enduring the blistering sun and pouring rain. But in the end, you were the one who got all the fame and glory!” Years of deep-seated resentment made me want to scream, but my rational mind forced the agony down. Ignoring my grief, Ethan maintained his eerie calm. “Okay, so? What was your favorite fruit?” I looked up at him. I was so used to him casually brushing past my pain. I said flatly, “Green tangerines.” Hearing that answer, Ethan suddenly laughed. Even Olivia, sitting in the observer’s booth, couldn’t help but interject. “Chloe, it’s a known fact that you hate sour things.” “Look, even if you feel like you sacrificed a lot for Ethan back then and want some payback now, there’s no need to tell a self-contradictory lie, is there?” The entire studio’s gaze bore into me, but I didn’t feel an ounce of pressure. I just said calmly, “You’re right. So what exactly do you think caused my cravings to change so drastically?” I looked at Ethan and caught a fleeting, subtle flash of guilt in his eyes. I smiled. I stopped looking at him and shifted my gaze to Olivia, who had been gunning for me all night. “Because back then, I was already pregnant.” 3. Under the shocked gasps of the entire studio, Ethan lost his composure. He clearly hadn’t expected me to reveal this. His voice was laced with panic and shock. “Chloe, you never told me…” “Second question.” I coldly cut off his interrogation. “What is my favorite movie?” This question was a trap. Over the years, whenever I was asked this in public interviews, my answer was always different. But they all shared one common trait: my answer was always “Ethan’s next movie.” When he first made his comeback, it didn’t make much of a splash. It was me who willingly burned my own public goodwill, constantly bringing him up in my interviews, using every glowing adjective in the dictionary to hype up his movies just to get the public curious about him again. Later, a paparazzi happened to catch a video of him visiting me on set. Despite coming from an elite family and looking flawlessly glamorous, when I tossed my half-eaten lunch box at him, he ate my leftovers without a hint of disgust. After that video leaked, Ethan was instantly crowned the entertainment industry’s “Ultimate Good Husband.” Suddenly, offers for “perfect husband” roles came flooding in, many from top-tier directors. But he politely declined them all, citing one single reason: I would get jealous. So, in the public eye, I became the obsessed, insanely jealous wife, while he was the brilliant talent whose career was being held back by his overwhelming love for me. Thinking of the past, I gave a self-deprecating laugh. I looked quietly at Ethan, waiting for his answer. “Roman Holiday.” Ethan looked incredibly confident. “Chloe, I know I’m right about this one. I read your diary.” “You wrote that you and I were like the main characters in Roman Holiday, just in reverse.” “You also wrote that it was your favorite movie, but it had your least favorite ending.” “Actually, I’ve always wanted to tell you: we will never be separated like the characters in that movie. I’ve been using my actions to prove that status and background are illusions. Our love can overcome anything.” “So why… why won’t you just give me a chance?” He suddenly buried his face in his hands. This man, who never showed weakness to the public, now looked so fragile that even his hair seemed to weep. But I just watched him and said slowly, “You’re right. That was my favorite movie.” Ethan’s head snapped up, the sorrow in his eyes instantly replaced by overwhelming joy. “But that was in the past.” “My favorite movie now is Breaking the Cocoon.” Hearing those words, the shock in Ethan’s eyes was instantly swallowed by deep, undeniable guilt. In a fraction of a second, every single pair of eyes in the studio darted straight toward Olivia Hayes in the observer’s booth. Because everyone knew that Breaking the Cocoon was marketed as a movie based on the real-life love story between me and Ethan. Yet the male and female leads were played by Ethan… and Olivia. 4. “Chloe, what is that supposed to mean?” Olivia shot up from her seat, looking flustered and defensive. “Ethan and I were just professional co-stars. You two are having marital issues; there’s no need to drag me into the mud!” “Besides, you were the one who dropped out of the role citing ‘health reasons.’ The production team had no choice but to beg me to step in at the last minute to save the project.” “I’ve already faced enough controversy over this movie. If you’re still this insanely jealous, I suggest you lock your husband in the house and never let him leave. Otherwise, he’s going to have to interact with women when he steps outside. Wouldn’t that just kill you?” The audience began whispering aggressively. Even the live stream chat was overwhelmingly on Olivia’s side. “Is Chloe crazy? She’s throwing shade at an actress who literally just did her job?” “Ethan is so unlucky. He actually fell in love with a woman whose jealousy knows no bounds. The fact that he hasn’t divorced her yet proves how much he loves her.” “Why do the good guys always end up with the worst women? I loved their chemistry in Breaking the Cocoon. Too bad Ethan got married so young. Sigh.” “Just divorce her already! It’s exhausting to watch. What kind of man could possibly satisfy a toxic drama queen like Chloe?” While the audience murmured and Olivia fumed—almost storming off the set if the producers hadn’t stopped her—Ethan maintained his facade. He looked like a man utterly exhausted by my antics, yet still desperately trying to hold onto his gentle patience. “Chloe, whatever is going on between us, let’s not drag innocent people into it, okay?” “I don’t want a divorce. But I am so, so tired. I’ve given you full access to my phone. I itemize every single expense just so you can interrogate me about it.” “If I’ve done all of that and you still refuse to believe I’m innocent, I don’t know how else to defend myself.” I didn’t even bother engaging with his lies. “You got the second question wrong.” “Now, for the final question.” “Host! I request a recess!” Olivia angrily interrupted me. I didn’t shut my mouth like she wanted; instead, I kept my eyes locked directly onto Ethan. “What is the most unforgettable anniversary gift you ever gave me?” After getting the green light from the director, the host walked over with a forced smile to physically intervene. “Chloe, we’re pausing the recording for a break. Let’s save the last question for the second half.” “You must be exhausted. Why don’t you take this time to rest…” “It was the fireworks display I prepared for you last year,” Ethan answered rapidly. “Yes. And no,” I immediately replied. Ethan laughed, a sound born of pure frustration. “Stop torturing me. Tell me, how is it ‘no’?” A tragic, chilling smile crept onto my lips. The tears I had been fighting back finally breached my defenses, streaming down my face. “Ethan, do you really not know?” I suddenly reached up and unzipped my elegant evening gown, letting the fabric drop. The second my bare skin was exposed to the studio lights, a collective, horrified gasp echoed through the room. 5. Seeing that everyone had gotten a crystal-clear look, I immediately pulled my dress back up. Without another word, I headed straight for the dressing room. I knew my goal had been achieved. Once this episode aired, there was absolutely no way Ethan could refuse my demand for a divorce. But just as I turned to leave, Ethan grabbed my arm. He hugged me fiercely from behind, crying, his voice trembling like a child who had just lost his favorite toy. “No, Chloe, you never told me about this.” “I thought you were just mad at me back then, which is why you ignored me for months. I didn’t know you…” If this were a few years ago, hearing this kind of pathetic, remorseful confession would have moved me to instant forgiveness. But today, I simply peeled his hands off me and said calmly, “Enough, Ethan.” “Your acting is incredible. But I am no longer your leading lady. You don’t need to put on a performance for me.” “I’ll see you at the lawyer’s office in a week to finalize the papers. If you refuse to sign, I will gladly explain the answers to those last two questions to the entire world.” “You wouldn’t want to see your precious career burn to the ground, would you?” Feeling his grip loosen, I walked away without looking back and entered my private dressing room. I had barely sat down when the door was shoved open. I thought it was Ethan, coming to grovel and beg. But when I turned around, I saw Olivia Hayes—the face that had made me sick to my stomach so many times I had fantasized about taking us both down together. Seeing me sitting there, calm and collected, she sneered. Her sharp red acrylic nails dug into the palms of her hands. I thought she was going to hurl threats or passive-aggressive insults at me. But the very first thing she said, her voice tight with suppressed rage, was: “Name your price.” 6. For a second, I was stunned. Seeing my silence, she scoffed, walked over, and unapologetically dropped onto the sofa, staring at me with lazy arrogance. “Chloe, drop the act. You retired from acting years ago. You suddenly causing a huge scene, demanding a divorce, and going on a reality show… it’s all for money, isn’t it?” “I’ve already done my research. After your mom died, your family’s financial situation was a disaster. I heard your grandmother and younger sister are bedridden with a severe illness. Their medical bills run into the millions.” “Back in the day, you emptied your entire savings to fund Ethan’s comeback. But once he got famous, he kept an iron grip on the finances. So while you look glamorous to the public, you’re actually completely broke.” “Since you only came on this show to extort money to pay for your family, let’s make a deal. I’ll give you eight million dollars, after taxes. The only condition is that you withdraw from this show immediately. Deal?” Staring at Olivia’s brazen, entitled face, I smiled faintly. “Why not add a clause that requires me to divorce Ethan?” “After all, you only came back to the States for him, didn’t you?” Olivia’s face darkened. She laughed coldly. “So what if I did?” “He and I were engaged originally! We dated for years! If his family hadn’t gone bankrupt back then, causing my snob of a father to force us apart, I never would have lost him.” “If we’re talking about who came first, you are the homewrecker.” “I admit, after I came back and we shot that movie, we did have a physical relationship for a while. But so what?” “I never badmouthed you to him. I never pressured him to divorce you. Our fling was strictly contained to the filming period. We were just ‘set spouses’. I didn’t actually destroy your marriage.” “But look at you. Instead of trying to improve your own career, you act like a bitter, nagging housewife, obsessing over these trivial things. Don’t you find it pathetic?” Olivia was getting more and more worked up. She only stopped when Ethan, who had walked in unnoticed, let out a low growl: “Shut up!” Seeing Ethan’s face looking like murder, she scoffed, turned on her heel, and stormed out. The door slammed shut. I looked at the man standing just a few feet away—a man I had once loved with everything I had—and smiled calmly. “You heard her. She offered eight million to buy me out. What about you, Mr. A-List?” “I’ll give you a discount. Five million, plus the signed divorce papers, and I won’t leak a single word.” “You make more than that on a single commercial. Why be so stingy?” Ethan pinched the bridge of his nose, looking displeased. “Chloe, I told you. As long as you drop the divorce, I will transfer every single asset I own into your name.” “I didn’t want to use dirty tactics. You forced my hand, over and over again!” I watched him quietly. I didn’t even have the energy to laugh anymore. Married for ten years. My husband had just won Best Actor at an international film festival, pulling in tens of millions in endorsements. Yet, aside from a few hundred dollars of grocery money in my pocket, I had absolutely zero savings. Who would believe that? But it was the absolute, unvarnished truth. After a long, silent standoff, Ethan sighed and pulled me into his arms. “The recording for the show ends today. I promise you, none of the footage from today will ever see the light of day.” “Your body… I’ll find the best doctors in the world to fix it. As long as you stop bringing up divorce, I will cover your grandmother and sister’s medical bills in full.” “Chloe, believe me. Even if I did things in the past that hurt you, even if I played around… it meant nothing. It was never my intention to hurt you.” “From now on, I will love you and spoil you a thousand times more. I will never let you suffer another grievance.” “Stop making a scene, okay?” I didn’t struggle. I just stood there, letting his final sentence echo in my mind. Stop making a scene. It seemed that after every massive blowout, he would use those exact words as the final verdict. As if every tragedy in our marriage was just a solo tantrum thrown by me. Starting with my “outburst,” and ending with my “apology.” But this time, I truly refused to play along. No matter how moving his performance was, I remained as cold and unyielding as a stone. “Ethan. From the very beginning to this exact moment, I only have one demand.” “Divorce.”

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The sky fell. One second, I was at a victory party, soaking in the compliments of my peers. The next second, I woke up in an unfamiliar restroom, a searing pain tearing through my lower abdomen. Splash— A gush of warm liquid rushed out from between my legs. My legs gave out, and I barely managed to stay standing by gripping the sink. Meeting the eyes in the mirror, my entire body went rigid! The woman who had her uterus removed due to an ectopic pregnancy… I had become her! 1 “No… how is this possible?” “Maya? Are you okay?” A woman forcefully pushed the door open from the outside: “The doctor said you can’t get agitated! Your stitches will burst!” She reached out to support me, but I instinctively blocked her: “Prosperity, democracy, civility, harmony…” My temples throbbed wildly. “Blood! Why is there so much blood!” The woman cried out in alarm, catching my swaying body. My vision began to shake and darken; the voices in my ears faded in and out. I was half-carried, half-dragged back to the bed, my pant legs freezing cold against my skin. “Lie down quickly, Maya, you need to pull yourself together. Don’t scare Mom!” Collapsed on the bed, I kept replaying the scenes from before. As the plaintiff’s lawyer, I attended a victory party after winning the second-instance trial. On the way back, I was in a car accident. But how could I wake up in the body of the defendant? “Where’s my phone?” The woman hurriedly pulled a phone from her pocket and handed it to me. But when I lit up the screen, I realized I had no idea what the passcode was. Just then, the phone rang. It was Liam. My client. “Listen here, return that engagement money right now! I’m telling you, I need that money urgently, and I won’t accept any excuses!” A buzzing filled my ears: “Liam?” “What?” “Where are you?” The person on the other end paused for a second before reacting: “Heh, wanted to see me make a fool of myself? Sorry to disappoint.” When he spoke again, his tone carried undisguised smugness: “Not only am I perfectly fine, but Attorney Vance is fine too.” Attorney Vance. My heart plummeted. “Where is he?” “Sitting right next to me. Just a mild concussion.” A sudden, sharp thought flashed through my mind: “Stay away from him!” “What?” He clearly didn’t care: “Stop putting on an act for me. Let me tell you, this is karma! Even God couldn’t stand you. Giving you an ectopic pregnancy—your life is ruined!” It felt like something exploded in my brain. “Shut up.” “Ah—!” Almost simultaneously, a scream came through the receiver. It was Liam! I threw off the covers and tried to get out of bed, but a tearing, heavy pain instantly shot through my abdomen. “Maya! What are you doing?!” The woman next to me grabbed my arm tightly: “You just had surgery, you can’t move around!” “I need to see Liam.” “What?” The woman’s eyes went wide: “Are you crazy? He did this to you, and you still want to go near him?” I grabbed a coat and draped it over my shoulders, my legs trembling uncontrollably: “If I don’t go right now, someone is going to die!” That woman is occupying my body right now. It’s the perfect time for her to get revenge. And this idiot chose this exact moment to bring up the ectopic pregnancy. He really had a death wish! I rushed to the door, the cold wind hitting me, making me shiver violently. Looking down, I saw a large patch of dark red on my pants; I hadn’t even had time to change. Every passerby gave me strange looks. I rushed to the side of the road to hail a cab, but every car that approached noticeably hesitated before speeding away. No car would stop. “Maya!” The woman was about to catch up to me. I grabbed a shared bike off the street, hopped on, and pedaled furiously toward the hospital. As long as she hasn’t crippled him, I’ll find a way to get her out… My phone rang again. My heart tightened. Trembling, I pulled it out and answered. Heavy panting came from the other end. It was my own voice: “Maya?” I tried to keep my voice steady: “Don’t do anything stupid! Intentional assault carries a minimum of three years.” “Heh…” 2 A low chuckle came through the receiver: “I already have nothing left. Do you think I’m afraid of going to jail?” My heart hammered in my chest. I lowered my voice: “Do you want to… truly take him down?” The other end fell dead silent. “What did you say?” I seized every second, pedaling furiously: “Even though we lost the second instance, I have a way to make him pay a hundred times over for everything he’s done.” The person on the other end didn’t answer. Through the receiver, I could faintly hear the chaotic sounds of scuffling and shouting. A few seconds later, that familiar voice finally spoke: “Come bail me out at the police station.” “Fuck!” The tires screeched against the pavement. I quickly turned around and rushed toward the police station. But the moment I turned around, my entire body suddenly froze— The bike seat, the side of my leg, the pedals… dripping dark red trailed all the way. All the pedestrians stopped and stared at me in shock. At the hem of my pants, blood was still dripping onto the ground, drop by drop. A girl nearby, looking pale, nervously offered me a sanitary pad: “Miss… you, you should take care of that first. Where are you going… let me take you.” I shook my head, my vision already starting to go dark. I absolutely could not let myself get a criminal record for assaulting my client. “Miss!” The girl stepped forward and caught my swaying body: “You’re bleeding so much, you’re going to pass out on the way!” “To… to the police station… hurry…” Before I could finish, darkness swallowed everything. In my hazy state, it felt like I was falling into a long nightmare. Hands rummaged through my abdomen, digging and pulling, before raising a mass of bloody flesh and dangling it in front of my eyes: “Look, this is your uterus. Now, you’re worthless.” “No—!” I woke up with a start, cold sweat soaking my back. The IV drip swayed before my eyes. The girl was keeping watch beside me. I grabbed her wrist: “Where am I?” “In the hospital. Don’t be afraid.” She quickly comforted me: “You lost too much blood and passed out. The doctor said you’d be in danger if you didn’t get a transfusion.” I shot a look at the clock on the wall— It was over. Three hours had already passed. I threw off the covers, reaching to pull out the IV needle, only to find I had been changed into a clean hospital gown. The girl pressed my hand down firmly, her eyes red: “Miss, no matter what happened, nothing is more important than your life! Losing a uterus doesn’t matter, but if your body gives out, then you truly lose everything.” I opened my mouth, my throat tight. This feeling… is it guilt? I slowly leaned back against the pillow and set the IV drip to its maximum speed. It was too late. Once the news of the intentional assault spread, my career would be completely over. By the time I arrived at the police station, it was completely dark. On the bench in the mediation room, I saw “myself.” Sitting quietly, head bowed. Hearing footsteps, “he” looked up. The moment our eyes met, tears rolled down my face without warning. I looked away and handed my ID to the police officer. “Where is Liam?” The officer opened the report: “Liam has been assessed as having minor injuries. He has explicitly demanded compensation; otherwise, he will not rule out pressing criminal charges.” I nodded, walked over to Maya, pulled the phone from her pocket, and texted my fiancée: “Sienna, it’s me. I ran into a bit of trouble here and I’m at the police station. I need you to come bail me out.” Immediately after, a message popped up: “Arthur, we’re over. The way you handled this case showed me your true character. I can’t fathom whether I’d end up like another Maya in the future. Don’t contact me again.” 3 “Fuck!” I stared at the screen, finding it unbelievable. It was just an ordinary lawsuit. How did it become a reflection of my character and her future? “Sienna, don’t be like this. Come get me out first, and I’ll explain everything in person.” But the message I sent vanished into the void. I paced back and forth anxiously. The movement made my wound ache, and cold sweat beaded on my forehead again. A woman’s body is such a hassle, getting dizzy and lightheaded so easily. Without a guarantor, the process couldn’t proceed. Was I really going to spend the night in a holding cell? Out of options, I walked to a deserted corner outside the police station and used Maya’s phone to call Liam. He answered after just one ring. The undisguised smugness in his voice came through the receiver: “If you want to talk about money, save your breath. The court has already ruled, and there’s nothing you can say to change that.” “Liam,” I cut him off: “Come over here and sign the settlement agreement to release Arthur. He’s willing to give you $100,000 privately, off the books.” “What?” The person on the other end was clearly taken aback: “Arthur? What’s your relationship with him? Today he lunged at me like a mad dog, constantly shouting about your innocence… Did you buy him off with your body a long time ago?” I pressed hard against my throbbing temples: “Shut your filthy mouth.” “If you want the money, come sign right now. The offer expires.” Without giving him a chance to speak again, I hung up. The night wind was freezing, making me shiver all over. But I knew with Liam’s greedy nature, he would definitely come. Walking back to the mediation area, I looked around and slowly sat down on a bench near the corner. Unconsciously, I inched a little closer to Maya. She seemed to notice and looked up at me: “How do you plan to turn this around?” I let out a deep sigh: “This battle was fought wrong from the very beginning. Fighting it within the framework of marriage law is essentially admitting that you are a defective product. The judge only looks at your residual value.” “Then… what should have been done?” She looked at me, confused. “The right path is to sue for personal injury compensation. You permanently lost an organ due to a pregnancy-related illness. In legal terms, this is an irreversible impairment of bodily integrity. This isn’t an engagement money dispute; it’s a personal injury claim.” “The first step should be to apply for a forensic medical assessment. The loss of a uterus or fallopian tubes constitutes at least a level-seven disability, perhaps higher. This isn’t just a rating; it’s the legal classification of the injury you suffered.” “And then what?” “Then, we file a lawsuit based on disputes over the right to life, body, and health. In the compensation claim, besides medical expenses, lost wages, and disability compensation, the most important part is compensation for mental distress.” I looked at her: “What we can claim on this new battlefield will far exceed that ridiculous engagement money. What was lost before was just an argument over property; what we need to win back now is your human dignity.” Her eyes slowly widened as she looked at me in disbelief. But I didn’t dare hold her gaze. Because I wasn’t really helping her. I was helping— Myself. 4 Just before dawn, Liam finally arrived. When I woke up on the bench, I found my own overcoat draped over me. Under the supervision of the police officer, the two signed the settlement agreement. “Arthur” was released on the spot. Liam stopped in front of me, grabbing my collar: “The engagement money! Return it to me right now!” I looked at the man behind me: “Give it to him.” After receiving the money, Liam’s gaze shifted back and forth between the two of us. He spat hard on the ground: “Ptui! You filthy couple. And the gold jewelry! Give it to me right now too.” “I don’t have the jewelry on me. I’ll give it to you in a few days.” Liam sneered: “Cut the bullshit! Give me the cash equivalent!” “What’s going on here?! Are you trying to start a fight in a police station?!” Just then, the duty officer walked over briskly. Liam immediately let go, instantly putting on a fawning expression. “Officer, we just finished dealing with everything.” Then he glared at me viciously: “If you don’t return the gold within three days, I’ll apply for mandatory enforcement.” With that, he strutted away. Watching his arrogant retreating back, I instinctively clenched my fists. The next second, a dull ache shot through my abdomen. The man noticed something was wrong and stepped forward to support me: “Do you want to go to the hospital? You look terrible.” “No.” I forced the words out: “To the forensic medical assessment center. Right now.” She was visibly taken aback: “You… don’t you need to rest for a bit?” “No need.” “While the blood is still fresh, the wound is new, and the physiological responses to pain and blood loss are at their peak—this is the most direct evidence to show the medical examiner.” While hailing a cab, I gave rapid instructions: “When you fill out the authorization form later, the assessment items must be written in two lines. Line one: Loss of uterus and fallopian tubes resulting in bodily organ defect. Line two: Permanent loss of related reproductive functions.” She frowned: “Is there a difference?” “A world of difference.” The taxi arrived, and I pulled the door open, painfully climbing in: “If you just write ‘organ loss’, they might just stamp a level-seven rating on it according to the standards. But by adding ‘permanent loss of function’, they’ll factor in all the sequelae.” The figures of people in front of me began to blur. I pinched my thigh hard to stay awake. “When we get to the hospital, go to the psychology department first for an evaluation. Tell them I have severe insomnia, suicidal thoughts, a physiological aversion to the opposite sex, and am completely unable to work. That way, the chances of getting a diagnosis of severe depression or PTSD are highest.” “I want everyone to understand that what was removed wasn’t just a piece of flesh, but a woman’s entire future.” She was silent for a long time. Then, tears rolled down her face without warning. I wanted to reach out and do something, but my fingertips stopped just as I lifted them. I didn’t have the right. Her current predicament was entirely my doing. “Arthur,” she suddenly spoke: “Do you regret it?” My breath caught. Yes. I regretted it a long time ago. “…Fortunately,” “Heaven gave me a chance to make amends.” A bizarre car accident caused top lawyer Arthur Vance—who had used the “useless uterus” argument as a weapon to win his case—to swap souls with Maya, the victim whose uterus he had personally destroyed. Forced to live in each other’s bodies, the two form an alliance of revenge amidst extreme displacement and pain. Using top-tier legal intellect, they launch a comprehensive reckoning—legal, social, and personal—against the abuser, ultimately achieving the ultimate judgment on self and justice in the process. 5 After getting out of the car, she carried me securely in her arms. How should I describe it? It was very strange. Carrying myself. Next, Maya moved into my house and took care of me meticulously. It allowed me to see another side of her. Gentle, considerate. And quite a good cook. Even standing amidst the ruins of her life, she could still manage everything perfectly. I take back what I said before. Losing a uterus does not mean a life is ruined. An excellent woman will not let a setback obscure her brilliance. In two weeks, we finally got the forensic assessment certificate. Due to the removal of the uterus and bilateral fallopian tubes, the reproductive function is completely lost, constituting a level-nine disability. Furthermore, the endocrine environment has been fundamentally destroyed, requiring long-term replacement therapy, accompanied by severe post-traumatic stress disorder. Excellent! This battle was basically half-won. I began the next phase of operations. Using the identity of his ex-girlfriend, I sent Liam a legal notice: Submitting the assessment results and the compensation claim together, giving him fifteen days to negotiate, demanding $800,000 in compensation. Maya looked at me, confused: “What if Liam simply ignores it?” “Then we apply for a medical malpractice assessment.” “At the time, aside from removing your uterus, was there really no other option?” “If they say there was, but didn’t adequately inform you, then the hospital should share the liability with Liam.” “If they say there wasn’t, that this was the only chance for survival, yet Liam used this disaster to commit secondary social murder against you—degrading your personhood, plundering your assets, and even negating your value…” “That… is ironclad proof of his character assassination against you.” 6 As expected, Liam scoffed at the legal notice I sent. He even sent me a middle finger emoji in the chat window. “Fucking $800,000? Look at yourself, what part of you is worth $800,000?! Let me tell you, you’re not getting a dime. Hurry up and send the gold back!” My rationality crumbled instantly. I grabbed the phone: “Sienna, handle this case for Maya. Name your price.” A few seconds later, the screen lit up. “?” “Arthur, is your brain damaged from the crash? You represented Liam to take down Maya, and now you want me to represent Maya to take down Liam? What kind of twisted game are you playing?” I took a deep breath and typed, word by word: “I was too narrow-minded before. I thought she only lost an organ. Now I realize she lost her entire future. The assessment report says level-nine disability and severe depression. She doesn’t deserve this kind of ending, so I want to correct this mistake.” The ‘typing’ indicator lasted for a long time. “Send me the address.” Half an hour later, Sienna pushed open the door to Starbucks. She looked around and saw that I was the only one there. “I’ve read the assessment report. Level-nine disability, severe depression with PTSD. So what is your claim?” “Dispute over the right to life and health, claiming continuous personal injury by Liam, and seeking compensation for mental distress.” Sienna’s fingers paused over her keyboard for a moment. “Ms. Maya, your approach to this claim is very professional.” “Prolonged illness makes one a doctor.” I scratched my neck awkwardly. “Is that so? What is your relationship with Arthur now?” The air was quiet for a few seconds. “No relationship. Maybe he just… feels guilty.” “Guilty?” Sienna let out an extremely faint smile: “I’ve known him for seven years. The word ‘guilt’ is not in his dictionary.” With that, she put away her tablet and pulled an authorization agreement from her briefcase: “Using this as the entry point gives us a very high chance of winning.” “Secondly, all my female friends have only cared about one question lately: when will justice finally arrive?” “Tell Arthur that the best thing he can do right now is disappear completely. Because every time he shows his face, he reminds everyone that he played a part in putting you where you are today.” I picked up the pen, my fingertips trembling uncontrollably. I never thought that such a small case would lead me to lose everything. Losing respect, losing love. “Do you still hate him now?” My hand paused, and the pen fell onto the table. “I don’t know.” I heard my own voice: “Right now, I just want to get back what’s mine, and then move forward.” Sienna put away the agreement. When she reached the door, she looked back at me. That look made me inexplicably guilty. “What do we do next?” The person behind me slowly stepped forward. I looked out the window; Sienna’s car had already driven away. “We go prepare for the next step.” “What step?” “Securing the evidence of his character assassination.”

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Arthur’s little secretary broke my favorite teacup. Furious, I punished her by making her act as my maid for the day. In retaliation, she turned around and climbed into Arthur’s bed, sending me photos to show off. “Mrs. Sterling, what makes you think you’re guaranteed to be the lady of the Sterling house forever?” “I’m younger and prettier than you. Who gets the last laugh is still up in the air.” I slapped her so hard she ended up in the hospital with tinnitus. Three days later, Arthur punished me by forcing me to kneel and apologize to his little secretary. Looking at the hickeys on his neck, I rewarded him with a slap too. Arthur touched the red mark on his face and chuckled. “Mrs. Sterling.” “It seems you have plenty of energy. How about I cut off your allowance? Let’s see how you throw your little princess tantrums then.” He exiled me to the suburbs for six whole months. Six months later, Arthur finally remembered me. He arrived at the villa door, acting like he was bestowing a great favor, and asked if I had learned my lesson. Carrying a designer bag, I had just stepped out of my boyfriend’s luxury car. I met Arthur’s shocked, slightly red eyes. My boyfriend laughed. “Mr. Sterling, if you won’t take care of your wife, she’ll just find someone else who will.” 1 Oliver thoughtfully opened the car door for me. “Chloe, remember to get a good night’s sleep tonight. I’ll pick you up tomorrow to go to the art exhibition.” I nodded, keeping my eyes straight ahead as I walked toward the villa. “Chloe!” Arthur’s exasperated voice rang out. With bloodshot eyes, he stepped forward and grabbed my wrist. “How can you be so cheap?” “I told you to reflect on your actions in the suburbs for six months, and this is how you reflect?” His eyes seemed to shoot fire as he looked back and forth between me and Oliver. “I was wondering why you didn’t send me a single message these past six months.” “Turns out you found another man to keep you a long time ago.” “Two-timing me. Are you that cheap?” I wasn’t angry; I just let out a soft sneer. “And what about you, Mr. Sterling?” “When we remarried, didn’t you promise to cut ties completely with Mia?” “Yet you’re still stringing her along, two-timing me.” “What right do you have to insult me?” We were just the pot calling the kettle black. We were exactly the same. Arthur was choked, unable to speak. But men never reflect on their own actions. Even when they’re in the wrong, they just look for another angle to attack you. For instance, he insulted my lowly background. “Back then, you couldn’t even afford to go to school. You couldn’t even scrape together $100 for monthly living expenses.” “Chloe, don’t forget, if I hadn’t funded your college education, if I hadn’t married you and given you resources and status, how could you possibly be where you are today?” His furious tone made him sound like a rabid dog. But I just looked at him flatly. “Even without you, relying on myself, I would still be exactly where I am today.” To me, men were just a stepping stone. That man could be Arthur, or it could be someone else. It made no difference. This was a truth I only understood after divorcing and remarrying him. The first divorce happened because Arthur cheated. Just like a cliché plot from a trashy CEO romance novel. He fell in love with his young, pretty secretary, Mia. At a cocktail party, the two of them ended up rolling around together, clothes disheveled. And just like every other woman in that situation, I threw a crazy fit, grabbing anything I could find and throwing it at them. Arthur, however, silently shielded Mia. He stared at me like I was insane. “Chloe, are you done throwing your tantrum?” “Look at yourself right now. You look like a shrew. Aren’t you embarrassed?” With red, swollen eyes, I screamed hoarsely. “Arthur, I’ve been with you since I was 18! Now that you have everything, you cheat on me. Have you no shame?!” Arthur sneered lightly and grabbed my wrist. “If you had any shame, you wouldn’t have given yourself to me when you were 18.” That single sentence completely shattered all the love I had for him. This man, whom I had loved so deeply I felt drunk on it… For the first time, he made me feel alienated, made me feel it wasn’t worth it. I couldn’t tolerate a single grain of sand in my eye, so I demanded a divorce. Arthur agreed very readily. After signing the divorce papers, he mockingly said to me, light as a feather: “Chloe, if you can’t survive out there, come find me. I might just give you a chance to remarry me.” Three months after the divorce. I searched all over Seattle for a job, but no one would hire me. In that moment, I finally understood Arthur’s words. I understood what he meant by “if you can’t survive.” At the same time, the projects Arthur was handling couldn’t proceed without me. Taking what we both needed, we remarried. At the time, I specifically warned Arthur. “Tell your little secretary to get lost. Keep her out of my sight.” “Otherwise, don’t blame me for being ruthless.” But she intentionally provoked me. If she wasn’t spilling water on my documents, she was breaking my teacup. I was just keeping things professional, punishing her according to office rules. But Arthur got angry. He punished me by exiling me to the suburbs to reflect for six months, and I obeyed. But now, why is Arthur the one getting so exasperated? I let out a cold laugh. “If there’s nothing else, please step aside, Mr. Sterling.” “I’ve been on dates all day. I’m very tired and need to go inside and rest.” Arthur gripped my wrist tightly. “Weren’t you so obsessed with me?” “Didn’t you use to check up on me every few days? Why don’t you care anymore?” He frowned, completely baffled. “Chloe, how did you turn into this?” 2 I paused. Was I the one who changed first? I turned my head to look at Arthur. “Mr. Sterling, is your memory failing you?” “You were the one who said that after we remarried, if you cheated even once, the marriage was automatically annulled.” “It was you who continued messing around with Mia after we remarried, and I generously chose not to make a fuss about it.” How dare you push your luck? And what’s this about checking up on you? That felt as distant as a past life. I had long since felt it was beneath me to do something like that. I looked at Arthur flatly, then shook off his hand. I even flicked imaginary dust off my sleeve where he had touched me. Seeing my actions, Arthur’s face instantly darkened. Oliver chuckled, proactively stepping between us. “Mr. Sterling, it seems Chloe doesn’t really want to see you. You should go back.” Arthur clenched his fists and glared at him. “This is between husband and wife. What right do you have to interrupt?” “Chloe.” Arthur frowned. “I came today to bring you back. My relationship with Mia isn’t rekindled.” “She’s only acting as my secretary temporarily. I’ll have her transferred in a few months.” “I told you this when we remarried.” “What happened before was a mistake. Mrs. Sterling, there will only ever be you.” I froze for a moment, looking down, wanting to laugh. “Mr. Sterling, you don’t need to explain this to me.” After all, before we remarried… Arthur was the one who disdained explaining things the most. If he slept with someone, he slept with them. He didn’t need excuses or reasons. Even when I caught him in the act, he was so self-righteous, saying casually: “Mrs. Sterling, you’re late.” “If you had come a little earlier, you might have caught a live show.” Because of his dismissive attitude, Mia never took me seriously. She intentionally broke my cups, ruined my clothes, and even secretly sold my designer bags for cheap. Relying on Arthur’s indulgence. She knew she wouldn’t be punished. So her behavior escalated day by day. Right now, looking into Arthur’s incredibly sincere eyes, I almost couldn’t resist throwing the provocative photo Mia sent me right in his face. And telling him coldly: “She already sent me pictures of you two in bed. What else is there to deny?” But I didn’t. I didn’t throw the photo. And I didn’t say the words to shut him down. I was too lazy to bother. I sighed, “Arthur, go back. I’m living a very happy life right now.” “Even though I haven’t seen you for six months, the upside is that my boyfriend is pretty great.” “Oh, right, how did you describe that little secretary of yours before?” I smiled mockingly. “A life assistant by day, a bed assistant by night.” “This boyfriend of mine is also very competent.” With every word I spoke, Arthur’s face turned a shade greener. Watching me hook my arm through Oliver’s, walking into the villa together like a perfect couple… “Chloe, you’re doing this on purpose!” The veins on the back of his hand bulged. He grabbed a rock from the ground and hurled it at Oliver. Oliver couldn’t dodge in time. The rock hit him squarely on the head, bright red blood streaming through his fingers. In that instant, my expression changed. “Oliver!” I frantically supported him and pulled out my phone to call an ambulance. “Hold on, I’m taking you to the hospital right now.” I didn’t spare Arthur a single glance. Arthur, however, let out a desolate, cold laugh. “Chloe, stop acting.” “You love me so much, how could you possibly fall in love with another man?” “Even if you put on a great performance,” “I’ll never believe it.” 3 My movements froze as countless fragmented memories drilled into my brain. The reason Arthur was so certain I wouldn’t fall for another man… Was because there was a precedent. I remembered back when Arthur first cheated on me and betrayed me. To make me make a mistake, He hired men to seduce me into cheating. He threw check after check in the faces of those male models. “Whoever can make Chloe fall for him,” “Gets this $1,000,000 check.” Those male models fought over it like madmen. They approached me like crazy. They even reported my every move, every single detail, back to Arthur. However, I was completely unaware of all this. I thought those men were “prey” I had carefully selected myself. But without exception, every single one was sent by Arthur. They used every trick in the book to seduce me. Every time the relationship was about to progress to the next step, I found myself unable to continue. “I’m sorry, I just can’t do this.” I grabbed my bag and fled in panic. I could only hastily break up with them. And every time I returned home… I was greeted by Arthur’s cold sarcasm. “Mrs. Sterling, did your recent little boyfriend fail to please you?” “Seems he wasn’t dedicated enough. Tsk, tsk, he zoned out while kissing you, and he wasn’t forceful enough either.” “Want me to find you a different one?” In that moment, I felt like a bucket of ice water had been poured over me. I felt subjected to absolute humiliation. “You’re stalking me?” Arthur laughed, completely unbothered. “Not stalking. Those little boyfriends were sent by me to serve you in the first place.” “The facts prove, Mrs. Sterling, that you really do love me.” “You love me so much that—” “You won’t even let any strange man near you.” I completely broke down, frantically demanding to know why Arthur would do such a thing. But he just watched me go crazy with absolute calm, even gently stroking my hair. “Mia is my little princess. She can’t leave me right now, and I don’t want to cut ties with her.” “Mrs. Sterling.” “Why don’t we just maintain an open marriage? Wouldn’t that be nice?” “You can keep up appearances in public and continue being Mrs. Sterling.” “And I can love whoever I want.” “For this, I was even generous enough to personally select little boyfriends for you. I’ve done everything I could, haven’t I?” Hearing those words back then, I thought it was completely absurd. But now. I could casually throw those exact words back at him. But when it was his turn to hear them… Why did Arthur get red eyes and become so furious? He even ran up to me to play the role of the deeply devoted husband. My thoughts returning to the present, I watched the blood pooling on Oliver’s head and my gaze turned cold. “Arthur, please get out of the way.” “You injured my boyfriend. Right now, I need to focus on treating him. I’ll settle the score with you later.” It was too late to wait for an ambulance. I helped Oliver into the car and buckled his seatbelt. “Oliver, hang in there a little longer.” “I’m taking you to the hospital.” With that, I got into the driver’s seat with practiced ease, turned the steering wheel, and the car’s engine roared to life. The mocking smile froze on Arthur’s face. He stared at me in shock. “Chloe, you… when did you learn how to drive?” I ignored him. For the past six months, he only cared about traveling the world with his little secretary. He had no idea how I was living my life. He had never truly understood me. I slammed on the gas, and the car sped away. “Chloe, if you dare drive away with that man today, we are completely finished!” But his voice was drowned out by the rising dust. Blown away by the wind. Impossible to hear. 4 The bleeding on Oliver’s head was stopped. The doctor required him to stay in the hospital for three days for observation, so I sat by his bed to keep him company. Even while asleep, Oliver called my name. “Chloe, don’t hurt Chloe.” My heart softened, and I held his hand. For the past six months, Oliver had been pursuing me. But I was a hard-hearted woman. I only ever held his hand, delaying any further progress. Even if I didn’t say it, Oliver understood. He would always look at me gently and say, “Chloe, I know the time isn’t right yet.” “I’m willing to wait.” “I will wait until the day you willingly accept me.” He brought me back this time, and we unexpectedly ran into Arthur at the villa entrance. I blurted it out, using him as a shield by calling him my boyfriend. Seeing Arthur so furious did give me a slight sense of satisfaction. But I also felt bad for using Oliver. I went back to grab some change of clothes for him, and picked up a couple of outfits for myself while I was at the villa. But as soon as I opened the door, something felt wrong. Someone was inside. Looking up, I met Arthur’s gaze from the sofa. “Finally decided to come back?” Arthur sneered, “That little boyfriend of yours isn’t hurt that badly. He’s not worth you looking so forlorn.” I froze in place. “None of your business.” I turned to go to my room, but Arthur grabbed my wrist and pinned me against the wall. “How far have you progressed with that man?” “Did you do it?” He stared at me coldly, his eyes like he was assessing prey. I suddenly laughed. “So what if we did? So what if we didn’t?” “Mr. Sterling, this isn’t something you should be worrying about.” “Didn’t you say it’s nice to maintain an open marriage like this?” I intentionally leaned close to his ear, smiling provocatively. “He… his body is much better than yours. He’s better than you in every way.” Arthur’s face instantly darkened. “Liar.” He suddenly went crazy, viciously pinning me into the corner. “Mrs. Sterling, we haven’t seen each other for six months, but your mouth is still as stubborn as ever.” “Are you acting this jealous because Mia sent you another message?” “After being lonely for six months, I think you must have missed me a lot.” He leaned in to kiss me. But I turned my face away, shoved him hard, and slapped him with a backhand. “Arthur, control your actions.” “Don’t act like a rabid dog in heat.” It was truly laughable. I was already disgusted by his touch because his body was dirty. Yet he thought I was acting out of jealousy. Arthur’s face was knocked to the side by the slap. He held his cheek, refusing to look up at me. Perhaps his male ego had taken a beating. He coldly scrutinized me for a long time. He dropped the line, “Chloe, you’ll regret this,” And stormed off. Soon, my phone started buzzing continuously. Without even looking, I knew it was provocative photos and messages from Mia. Arthur got mad and went looking for his little secretary again. Over the past six months, every time they hooked up… Mia would send messages to provoke me, like she was reporting back to me. I was sick of looking at them. I didn’t even open them; I just deleted them and drove to the hospital. When I arrived at the room, Oliver was already awake. He only smiled when he saw me. “Chloe, you’re finally back. I’ve been looking for you.” “Oliver,” I took a deep breath, “I’ve made up my mind. I accept your pursuit. I will be your girlfriend.” Oliver looked at me, surprised, seeming somewhat shocked. After a long time, his eyes filled with heartache again. “Chloe, I hope you’re not sad.” Oliver cupped my face, his eyes so gentle they seemed to sparkle. “It doesn’t matter to me if we have a title or not.” “As long as I can see you, I’m perfectly content.” I smiled and shook my head. “But this time, I want a divorce.” I didn’t want to waste any more time with Arthur. Before we remarried, I was the one pretending to be strong. I thought that as long as I held on long enough, Arthur would eventually change his mind. Even though Arthur had shown sincerity. Saying he would absolutely never bring Mia in front of me again. And that he would never have any ambiguous relationship with her again. But I knew that if the boy cried wolf too many times, no one would believe him. I didn’t believe that a man who loved sneaking around with his secretary… Could truly cut ties completely and become loyal. What’s more, the messages and ambiguous photos Mia had sent countless times over the past six months explained everything. Countless times, I felt a nausea like swallowing a dead fly stuck in my throat. As long as I stayed in this marriage… I would have to keep feeling that nausea. But now, I wanted to let Arthur go, and let myself go too. So, the day before Oliver was discharged… I proactively asked to meet Arthur at a coffee shop. He was at Disneyland with Mia. Upon receiving the message, he immediately ditched the little secretary to come meet me. But he put on a haughty act. “Mrs. Sterling, I knew you couldn’t keep up the act anymore.” He lifted his chin, revealing an expected smile. “Speak up. What are your terms this time?” “As long as you ask, I’ll give you a way out…” Looking at the faint lipstick mark still visible on the collar of his white dress shirt… “Arthur.” I said calmly, “Let’s get a divorce.”

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“What’s one plus one?” My older brother suddenly asked me from the back seat as we sped down the highway. I hesitated. “It’s…” Before I could finish, my mother exploded in rage, turning around and slapping me hard across the face. “I have a master’s degree from an Ivy League! Your father has a PhD!” “Your brother is a math prodigy! And you hesitate to answer what one plus one is?! You are completely useless!” My cheek burned like fire, but the terror in my heart hurt worse. I cried and shook my head. “Mommy, please don’t be mad. I’m not useless! My brother told me…” But my mother refused to listen. The car slammed to a halt on the shoulder, and she shoved me out the door. “You’re a defective mutant! You don’t deserve to sit in the same car as us! Get out and walk back!” I ran after the car, crying and begging, but my parents drove away with my brother. Suddenly, a massive truck roared toward me. I felt my body become incredibly light. I floated all the way to my parents’ car and told them: “Mommy, Daddy, I’m not useless. My teacher called me a little artist. She said everyone is good at different things!” 1 “A child’s stride is usually between 1 and 1.5 feet.” “I did the math. It’s exactly 3,000 steps from here to the next rest stop.” “This is your punishment. I’m doing this to push your limits, so a slow child like you can finally fit into this family.” After my mother said that, she turned around and got back into the car without a second thought. I chased after her, panicking. “Mommy, please don’t leave me!” The window rolled down just enough for her to toss out a small, boxy camera. “This is a body cam. It’s recording. Don’t you dare try to cheat and stop counting.” “Stay safe and only walk on the emergency shoulder.” With her final instructions delivered, the window rolled up, sealing me outside. I watched helplessly as the car sped away. The taillights grew dimmer and dimmer until they completely vanished into the dark night. “Mommy, it’s so cold.” The weather lady on the radio said it was 14 degrees Fahrenheit today. But Mommy forgot to give me my coat. I dejectedly held up the little camera, looking into the lens. “Mommy, I’m not useless.” “I’m the best drawer in my whole class. My teacher said everyone is good at different things.” But the camera didn’t talk back. I sniffled, trying my hardest not to cry, and started counting. “1… 2… 3…” But it was so freezing. Every breath I breathed out looked like ice. I counted slower and slower, and my steps got smaller and smaller. By the time I reached 1,000, my legs felt like two heavy boulders. I tripped over something in the dark and fell hard to the ground. A sharp, piercing pain shot through my knee. My whole body hurt. I cried into the camera lens, apologizing: “Mommy, I’m sorry. Lily hurts so much. I just need to rest for ten numbers.” In our house, we played number games all the time. If you won, you got a prize. If you lost, you got a punishment. My brother always won the prizes. I always lost. So Mommy would punish me for ten numbers. Ten smacks on the hand, or ten smacks on the bottom. I used to think ten numbers took forever. But right now, they went by so, so fast. When the ten numbers were up, I struggled to stand back up. I dragged my legs, moving inch by inch. The blood from my knee soaked through my pants, and every step was agonizing. I gritted my teeth. I just had to take 1,970 more steps, and then I could go to Grandma’s house. Grandma and Grandpa were waiting for us to eat our New Year’s dinner. But my body was getting colder and colder. Huge white flowers started blooming in my vision. I cried to the camera: “Mommy, I don’t think I can walk anymore.” Mommy didn’t answer. Suddenly, blinding, piercing lights approached from behind me. Without realizing it, I had stumbled into the middle of the highway. When I woke up, I realized my body had become incredibly light. 2 Since I was so light, I caught up to my parents’ car really fast. They were taking a break at the rest stop. The table was covered in delicious food. Mommy was gently trying to get my brother to drink some hot water. “It’s freezing outside, Leo. You have to drink something warm.” My brother took a reluctant sip. I swallowed hard. I really, really wanted a sip of hot water too. “Mommy, I want some too.” I begged timidly, but Mommy didn’t react at all. She fed my brother water and peeled fruit for him. It was like she couldn’t even see me. I choked back my sadness. Suddenly, my dad checked his watch and frowned. “We’ve been at this rest stop for an hour. Why isn’t Lily here yet? Do you think something happened?” My heart leapt. Daddy finally remembered me! “Daddy, I saw a really big truck, and I was too tired to run, and the truck…” I tried to shout it as loud as I could. But Mommy just sounded annoyed. “Arthur, it’s only a mile and a half. It’s not that far.” “If it were Leo, he would have run here ages ago.” “She’s been lazy and manipulative since she was born. This is exactly the kind of physical discipline she needs!” My brother nodded in agreement. He wasn’t just a math genius; he was super athletic too. “She’s already dumb. If she doesn’t exercise, she’s gonna be a sickly burden to us later,” he sneered. My brother made fun of me all the time. That math question in the car was just a trap to laugh at me. Usually, I just grinned at him like an idiot and didn’t get mad. He was my big brother, after all. But this time, I was actually angry. I yelled at him, “No I’m not! You’re a big meanie!” If it wasn’t for him, I wouldn’t have been kicked out of the car in the dark. My dad hesitated. He looked out the window at the thick fog, but then his brow relaxed. “A mile and a half takes an adult about 20 to 35 minutes to walk. Factoring in the environmental conditions, it makes sense that a kid would take a bit longer.” Hearing my dad say that made my chest feel tight. I was always getting sick. I got winded just walking a few blocks on a normal day, let alone taking 3,000 steps in freezing temperatures without a coat. But they seemed to forget all of that. They decided to keep waiting. They waited for another whole hour. Even my brother got impatient. He threw a tantrum, demanding that my dad start driving. Just then, a couple walked into the rest stop. Their conversation interrupted my brother’s whining. “We specifically left at 4 AM to avoid traffic, and we still got stuck.” “That accident back there was horrific. They said the person’s brains were completely crushed. And it was just a little kid…” Hearing that, my dad flinched violently. My mom looked slightly panicked. She quickly pulled out her phone. Seeing the little dot on the GPS map still moving, she let out a massive sigh of relief. Then, her panic morphed into fury. “That camera I bought her doesn’t just record, it has a built-in GPS.” “Look! She’s moving way too fast to be walking. She definitely put on a pathetic act and hitched a ride with a stranger! She is so disobedient!” “We’re not waiting for her anymore. We’re leaving right now. If she’s so smart, she can have whoever she scammed drive her all the way to her grandparents’ house!” Hearing this, I panicked. “Mommy, no!” “I didn’t! That’s an ambulance! I didn’t hitch a ride!” But Mommy couldn’t hear me. She zipped my brother’s coat up tight and dragged my dad back to their car. I cried as I floated after them. The sound of ambulance sirens seemed to be getting closer and closer, but my dad floored the gas pedal and took the exit ramp off the highway. The car quickly arrived at my grandparents’ house. I happily tried to jump into my grandparents’ arms, but I phased right through them. 3 I loved New Year’s more than anything. I always got to see Grandma and Grandpa. But right now, I was so, so sad. My tears wouldn’t stop falling. Grandma rushed to the back seat and helped my brother out. Then she peered back into the car. “Where’s Lily? Why isn’t Lily in the car?” “Grandma, I’m right here!” I sobbed, tugging at her sleeve. My mom answered irritably, “She hitched a ride with someone else.” “Anyway, it’s freezing out here. Leo was in the car forever, he’s cold and starving. Shouldn’t you be worrying about your grandson?” My mom’s words instantly shut Grandma up. She glanced at my dad. Seeing him nod in agreement, she sighed and stopped asking questions. “Okay, okay. I made sweet rice balls! Let me go boil them for you.” Bowls of steaming hot sweet rice balls were brought to the table. The delicious smell filled the room. My dad, my mom, and my brother ate happily. I held my stomach, wanting to cry but having no tears left. Walking for an hour in the cold had made me so tired and hungry. And Grandma’s handmade rice balls were my absolute favorite. “Lily loves sweet rice balls the most. I saved a special batch just for her. I’ll boil them as soon as she gets here.” Grandma smiled, standing up and looking out the window again and again. I sniffled. I couldn’t hold it in anymore and burst into tears. After everyone finished eating and Grandma cleared the table, she still didn’t see me. She couldn’t help but ask my parents again. “Why isn’t Lily here yet? Who did she catch a ride with? Why didn’t you guys just drive together?” The living room went dead silent. My dad hesitated. “She should be here soon. Real soon.” His hesitant answer only made my grandparents more confused. “If she caught a ride with someone, just call them and ask! She’s been gone so long, how can you two not be worried at all?” My dad pushed his glasses up his nose, looking at my mom. My mom opened her phone, clearly annoyed. My grandparents stretched their necks to look, and I floated over to look too. She frowned. Seeing that the little camera’s GPS tracker was very close to the house, she said: “Relax. She’ll be here in five minutes.” My grandparents wanted to see the screen, but my mom immediately locked her phone. “Since we’re all here, I need to have a serious talk with you two.” “Lily is starting first grade soon. You can’t keep spoiling her. It’s going to ruin her future.” My mom’s tone was incredibly strict. I hid behind Grandma, terrified. Mommy only loved smart kids. She was always so soft and gentle with my brother. But I was too dumb. Mommy was always mad at me. Once, I got a 59 on a math test, and she slapped me so hard my face stung for hours. “Are you even my biological child?! How can you be so stupid?!” “You messed up basic addition and subtraction?! What is inside that head of yours?!” To make me better at math, she created crazy study schedules for me. I had to study advanced math, stuff my brother learned. If I didn’t understand it, she hit my palms with a ruler. Grandma couldn’t stand seeing me hurt and always tried to defend me. She tried again now. She whispered, “Eleanor, I don’t think you should push a child this hard. Lily is still so young…” Before she could finish, my mom aggressively cut her off. “Mom, do you have any idea that Lily hesitates when asked what one plus one is?!” “When Leo was her age, he was already doing third-grade algebra!” Grandma went pale and fell silent. In the corner, my brother snickered quietly. I rushed forward frantically to explain. “Mommy, I didn’t hesitate because I didn’t know! It was Leo!” “Leo told me that one plus one doesn’t equal two!” Even though I didn’t understand why, when he asked me the question again in the car, I hesitated because I was confused. But my mom couldn’t hear my explanation. “Look at this. Isn’t this Lily’s coat?” 4 My dad and grandpa had gone to get the luggage from the trunk. They found my coat. Grandpa held it up, looking completely confused. “I thought you said Lily caught a ride with someone? Why is her winter coat in your car?” My dad frowned, looking utterly bewildered. “Eleanor, when you made Lily get out of the car, you didn’t give her her coat?!” My mom panicked, her eyes darting around the room evasively. “I… I forgot.” “And Lily is old enough to know better! She didn’t even grab her own coat.” Hearing my mom blame me, I curled up into a ball, feeling incredibly wronged. Mommy forced me out of the car. She didn’t give me a chance to grab anything. The biting, agonizing cold seemed to hit me all over again. Even though the heater was blasting in the living room, my ghostly body couldn’t stop shivering. “What?!” “You kicked Lily out of the car on the highway?!” Grandpa’s voice skyrocketed as he demanded answers. Grandma clutched her chest. “Are you insane?! It’s 14 degrees outside! You left a six-year-old child alone on the highway?! How could you do such a monstrous thing?!” “If… if something happened to her…” My mom aggressively cut Grandma off. “Nothing happened to her! I told her to walk on the emergency shoulder. She’s perfectly safe!” To reassure Grandma, she pulled out her phone again. “Look, Lily’s GPS tracker is still moving. She’s fine.” But my grandparents didn’t believe her. They demanded to drive out to the highway to find me. I cried and shook my head, sobbing in heartbreak. “Grandpa, Grandma, Mommy, Daddy… Lily is already here. Please don’t fight…” Suddenly, my brother ran into the room. He looked like he had discovered a hidden treasure. “Mommy, look what I found in her bag!” I looked at the piece of paper in his hands, terrified, and tried to snatch it away. But my mom grabbed it first. She looked at it like it was the ultimate proof of her righteousness. She pointed the paper at my grandparents and yelled: “What is this?! You two are such great grandparents! Spoiling her and letting her rot!” “Thank god I raised Leo myself. Look at how brilliant he is! Ranked number one, perfect scores in math, every private middle school is fighting to recruit him!” “And Lily? She’s completely useless! A failure that you two spoiled into garbage!” Her words stabbed into my heart, one by one. The paper was a drawing I made of our family. My brother and I were holding hands, and our parents were holding ours. We all had massive smiles on our faces. I titled it: A Happy Family. “What kind of future is drawing going to give her?! I want both my kids to get into Ivy League schools! That’s the only way they’ll succeed in life!” With that, she grabbed my drawing and moved to rip it in half. I threw myself at her, begging. “No! Mommy, please don’t!” “I’ll be good! I’ll study really hard! I promise I’ll never draw again!” A second later, my mom ruthlessly tore the drawing into tiny, jagged pieces. Her face was twisted in anger as she screamed at my grandparents: “Do you have any idea how brutally competitive society is right now?! A college degree means nothing anymore! If you keep babying her, how is she going to survive when she grows up?!” My grandparents’ faces drained of color. They looked to my dad for help. My dad pushed his glasses up his nose. “I agree. Lily needs to focus on her studies, not waste her limited energy on useless hobbies.” My dad’s words completely broke me. Tears streaming down my face, I slowly floated higher into the air. Mommy, Daddy, I’m sorry I’m not a good kid. Please don’t be mad. Leo will make you proud… The doorbell suddenly rang. My mom walked over to answer it, muttering: “It’s definitely Lily. I told her to walk 3,000 steps, I bet she didn’t even walk one!” But standing outside were two police officers. They were holding a crushed, bloodstained little camera and a photograph of a car wreck. “Excuse me, what is your relationship to the child holding this camera in this photograph?”

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The end of the world didn’t arrive with a bang, but with a sound much more intimate. Every night, there is a scratching at the door. Those who open it simply vanish. No one can explain how this catastrophe began, nor does anyone know if there will ever be a morning where it ends. 1 It is exactly midnight, and the thing outside is getting louder. I’ve constructed a fortress on my bed using a weighted blanket and a duvet—a psychological barrier, if nothing else. I check my phone. Twelve percent battery. In a night without electricity, that glowing bar is the closest thing I have to a companion. Iris: You really don’t want to know what it is? A notification slides onto my screen. It’s from my girlfriend. Well, “girlfriend” is a loose term. It started a week ago. The scratching woke the world up. Everyone who opened their doors to investigate disappeared into the dark. The government collapsed within days; the grid went down; cities became isolated islands. We were left with the “Self-Rescue” protocol. Every night, I hear weeping. Every night, someone’s resolve breaks, they open the door, and they are gone. The scratching continues until 5:00 AM. Then, as if a switch is flipped, humanity falls into a collective, comatose sleep. We wake up with the night’s terror wiped from our memories. The world functions: traffic flows, baristas pour coffee, the stock market ticks. But at 11:00 PM, the memories crash back in. The terror returns. The missing people are remembered. And at midnight, the scratching begins again. Our reality has been cleaved in two: The Day: violently normal. Humans and machines obeying the algorithm of life as if the horror never happened. The Night: a silent void, filled only with the sound of claws on wood and the agonizing choice of whether to turn the handle. It took three nights for the survivor groups to figure it out. The announcement went out in the “Last Stand” group chat: “Residents, do not listen to the voices. Do not open the door. Repeat: DO NOT OPEN THE DOOR.” Those who leave never come back. Walk out, vanish. So, we stay in. I met Iris in a sub-group called “Apocalypse Survival Guide.” It was full of twenty-somethings, pragmatic science majors, and burned-out cynics. Our admin was a Ph.D. candidate in Nuclear Physics at MIT who rarely spoke, except to talk someone off a ledge. I was explaining to a frantic user why this wasn’t an elaborate prank or “performance art.” Iris chimed in. We clicked. Iris: We don’t know when we’ll die. We should probably date. I’ve never had a boyfriend before. Maybe it was the crushing nihilism of the chat room, but I hesitated for a second, then agreed. Iris: I bet a lot of girls like you, right? I gave a vague, non-committal answer. I’ve never dated anyone, but I didn’t want to be the guy who died a virgin andalone during the apocalypse. User_A: Is it aliens? Or did Cthulhu finally wake up? User_B: We’re screwed. Might as well end it now. At least I can choose how I go. User_C: Why? Can’t we fight back? User_B: …If it’s cosmic horror, fighting is useless. It always ends in tragedy. Iris: What are they talking about? She DM’d me. Me: Just a literary trope. Basically, the idea that the entity is so powerful that human resistance is futile. Iris: But in stories, isn’t there always a hero? Someone who suffers and sacrifices but eventually leads civilization to a rebirth? Me: Umm… usually. But cosmic horror is different. Or, look at it this way: If a hero leads humanity to a rebirth, is the civilization that rises from the ashes still human? Iris: Wow. That’s deep. My roommate, a guy who changes girlfriends like he changes socks, once told me: “When a girl says ‘That’s deep,’ she means ‘I have no idea what you just said, but I like you.’” Me: Did you buy the supplies? I changed the subject. I’d told her to stock up on first-aid kits, lithium batteries, bleach—the works. Iris: Of course! I always listen to my boyfriend. She sent a photo of a cramped storage closet overflowing with gear. See? I can barely close the door. Iris: So… you really aren’t curious about what’s outside? Me: Curious? Yes. But I’m terrified of dying. The most honest answer I could give. 2 The thing is, I don’t just hear scratching anymore. “Holden. Get out here. If you don’t come out, you’re going to die.” I’ve heard this voice every day for two years. It belongs to the guy who sleeps in the bunk above me. My best friend, the charismatic heartbreaker, Davis. Davis, usually I’d kill to hear you ramble about nothing. But for three nights straight, the moment the scratching starts, he’s out there at 12:00 AM sharp, repeating the same mantra. Come out. Or die. But tonight feels different. The scratching is softer, more frantic. And out of the corner of my eye, I swear I see something dart past the window. “Holden! Get out here! Before it’s too late!” Too late? What happens then? I don’t know what Davis is right now. Dead? Alive? Something in between? Do all the people who vanish end up as voices on the other side of the door? My door is an old solid wood slab with a heavy deadbolt. No peephole. No chain. To see him, I have to open it. My window faces east. I inch toward it, peeling back the curtain a fraction of an inch. Moonlight spills in—thin and pale—but the world outside is an impenetrable blur. My phone screen lights up, startling me so bad I nearly drop it. Iris. Iris: Holden… sobbing emoji …my best friend got taken. I know this happens every night, but reading her grief makes it real. Iris: Why didn’t she listen? Why did she go out? You go out, you die. Why did she do it?! “Holden, come out! Seriously, man, you’re running out of time!” Davis is screaming now. I feel a sudden spike of irritation. I don’t know how to comfort a crying girl over text, and Davis yelling in the hallway is ruining my focus. “You keep saying the same thing over and over! What are you? If you’re really Davis, tell me how the hell I’m supposed to comfort a girl!” The scratching stops instantly. Silence. Shit. Did I just say a trigger word? I crawl out of my blanket fortress, phone forgotten, and creep toward the door. Total silence. It’s as quiet as the grave. Iris: Holden? Are you there? My battery is red. I wish I could call you. I’m about to type back when a voice speaks from the hallway. Not screaming. Just talking. “Holden. You’re behind the door, right? Listen to me.” “When you comfort a girl, listen first. She might not want a solution; she just needs to vent. Then… give her a hug. Or send a hugging bear sticker. Or the rabbit patting the bear’s head.” What kind of psychological horror movie is this? It’s 1:30 AM. My maybe-dead-maybe-demon best friend is giving me dating advice through a locked door? Iris: Holden?! She’s desperate for a response. Me: I’m here. I pause, scroll through my sticker pack, and send the cartoon rabbit patting the bear’s head. “Holden. It’s me, Davis. I’m not dead. But if you don’t come out, I will be.” “How do I prove it’s really you?” I steady my breathing. I’m exhausted. The nights are draining the life out of me. “Remember my ex? The Music major? The one with the violin?” Everyone knew Davis dated the Music department’s golden girl. That’s public knowledge. “She came to our dorm to dump me at the start of the semester. She accused me of cheating. I denied it. You even vouched for me.” True. But also, not a secret. “I did cheat.” His voice is clear. Steady. That arrogance I know so well. You son of a bitch. “Holden, you snore. You talk in your sleep. You mumbled about…” Ding-ding-ding-ding. An incoming voice call. Iris. I thought she had no battery? “Holden!” “Holden!” They speak at the exact same time. The name I’ve carried for twenty-one years suddenly sounds alien. “Who is that?!” “Who is that?!” 3:00 AM. Separated by one door and one screen. Outside, the voice of my best friend. On the phone, the voice of the girl I’ve loved for three days. Iris sounds soft, terrified, bewildered. The silence stretches from the phone, fills the room, and bleeds through the door. A minute later, she hangs up. Dead battery? Or fear? Me: Iris? No reply. “Davis?” I whisper. Silence from the hallway. Then, the scratching begins again. Soft at first, then louder, joining a chorus of scratching sounds coming from the apartment next door, and the one below. Just like every other night. 3 At 5:00 AM, the world resets. But something has changed: I remember last night. I passed out from exhaustion and didn’t wake up until 9:00 AM. I bolt upright, heart hammering. Sunlight filters through the blinds, mocking me. Holy shit. The terror of the night hits me in a wave. I remember everything. I scramble to the window and rip the curtains open. The aggressive sunshine gives me a momentary hit of courage. Then I freeze. Along the edges of the window frame, there are gouges. Deep scratches, like a wild animal—or a person with very sharp tools—tried to get in. Bang! Bang! Bang! I scream. I haven’t even reached the door when my phone buzzes. “Holden! Open up!” It’s Brody, a guy from my calc class. I live off-campus in a studio because of my insomnia, but he crashes here sometimes. I open the door. He pushes past me. “Dude, where have you been? You promised to help with the club fair today!” Right. The Robotics Club meet-and-greet. I promised to be the face of the operation. “If you don’t show, the president is gonna eat us alive. You know the freshmen are only coming to see you.” He looks fresh. Rested. Like he gamed until midnight, slept like a baby, and woke up ready to seize the day. Am I the only one? “How was your night?” I ask, testing the waters. He looks at me weird. “Fine? Won ten ranked matches in a row.” “Did… did the power go out for you?” “Maybe? I slept through it if it did.” “You didn’t hear anything? Like… scratching?” “Scratching? Like a cat? Or…” He raises an eyebrow, grinning lewdly. “Or did you have a guest over?” “I just didn’t sleep well,” I say, deadpan. “Right, right. Hey, maybe you’ll find a girlfriend among the fresh meat today.” I ignore him. “Did you see Davis today?” “Davis? He’s in Boston for the competition, remember? Man, you really are out of it. You drove him to the airport.” Bullshit. I know he went to the competition. But how do I tell Brody that Davis spent the entire night clawing at my door? I follow him to the campus center, my mind racing. I need to check on Iris. Previous days, I’d wake up and the horror would be gone. Erased. Daytime: Normal. Nighttime: Hell. This is the first time the two worlds are bleeding together. I find a corner in the club room and pull out my phone. Nothing. The “Survival Guide” group is gone. Iris’s chat history is gone. I search my contacts. Fifty-seven friends. Three groups. They don’t exist. Around me, students are laughing, setting up banners, eating donuts. They look so happy. For the first time, their happiness makes my blood run cold. I hide behind a curtain in the corner, grab a notepad and a pen. When my mind is chaos, I write.

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My girlfriend is an heiress—old money, ivory tower, the kind of wealth that feels like a physical barrier. We were together for seven years, and in all that time, she never bought me a single gift. When she finally accepted my proposal, she made me return the diamond ring I’d spent three years saving for, calling it “tacky.” Then, standing outside the courthouse to get our license, she backed out, claiming the thirty-dollar filing fee was a “waste of money” and we should just forget it. Then she turned around and married her childhood sweetheart, the boy-next-door from her exclusive gated community. She threw an engagement gala that took over the Waldorf Astoria, a display of decadence that lit up the entire city skyline. My sister, Annie, had just undergone a heart transplant. The stress of the news—the betrayal—sent her into a fatal rejection episode. I knelt at my girlfriend’s feet, begging her to give me back the seven years of salary I’d deposited into her account for “safekeeping.” I needed it for Annie’s ICU bills. She looked at me like I was a stranger. Clinging to her new husband’s arm, she told the guards she didn’t do “charity work for obsessed fans” and had me thrown out into the snow. I watched Annie die on New Year’s Eve, the sound of her final breath drowned out by the celebratory fireworks echoing over the Chicago River. I handled her funeral alone. Then, I accepted a lead developer role at a tech giant in Houston—an olive branch I’d ignored for years out of loyalty to a woman who never loved me. When I went back to our apartment to grab my passport, she was there, fresh from visiting her in-laws, looking radiant. She thought I was playing a game of emotional chicken. For the first time in seven years, she was “generous.” “Stop acting,” she said, her voice airy and dismissive. “Your sister is fine. Tell you what—I’ll throw you a pity wedding later this year. Let the girl have her moment of vanity. I know you people love to feel important.” She didn’t know that from the moment Annie’s heart stopped beating, I had already decided I was done with her forever. 1 I had just reached for my passport when a slender, manicured hand snatched it away. “What are you looking for so intently? You didn’t even notice I was home.” Serena had just walked in. The tip of her nose was flushed from the Chicago wind, her designer coat still dusted with light snow. When she realized it was my passport, her playful smirk vanished, replaced by a sharp, impatient knit of her brows. “A passport? Really, Nathan? Are you trying to stage an international exit now? I already told you, Derek’s family was breathing down his neck. The marriage license was just to get them off his back. We’ll get a quiet annulment in a few months. It’s a business move.” I didn’t look at her. I reached out and pulled the passport back with a cold, steady hand. She flexed her freezing fingers, looking surprised. Usually, the moment she walked through the door, I’d be there with a warm towel, a hot tea, and a barrage of questions about whether she was cold. Today, I was ice. She stepped in close, standing on her tiptoes to drape her arms over my shoulders. The smell of expensive perfume and the freezing outdoors hit me as she forced me to meet her eyes. “Nathan, you’re being so dramatic. Do you have any idea how many people from the Board were at that gala? If word got back to my mother that I was seeing someone like you, we’d both be ruined. I did this for us.” I let out a jagged, self-deprecating laugh. To her, I wasn’t a partner. I was a toy she was embarrassed to show her friends. I pried her hands off me. She lunged back in, her cold fingers grazing the deep bruise on my cheekbone. She giggled, though there was no warmth in it. “Ouch. Those security guards were a bit rough, weren’t they? They ruined my handsome guy’s face. Don’t worry, I’ll dock their pay.” This was her routine. Whenever I was truly hurting, she’d use this toxic blend of playfulness and “protection” to make me forgive her. It wouldn’t work this time. Seven days ago, at her engagement party, the guards had beaten me in the alley behind the hotel on her orders. “A gutter rat trying to eat caviar,” they’d sneered. “Mr. Vanderbilt and Miss Montgomery are a match made in heaven. You’re nothing.” Passersby had pointed and laughed, filming the “beggar” crying for money from a socialite. My dignity had been stripped bare in the street. Seeing that I still wasn’t cracking, Serena pulled out her final card. She produced a small, pink velvet hair clip with a bow and shook it in front of me. “For Annie. And stop using her surgery to lie to me and get my attention. It’s beneath you.” Annie. My only living relative. She’d been born with a congenital heart defect. She had just finished her transplant surgery, and her only wish was to see me and Serena officially married. Instead, she saw the news of Serena’s marriage to Derek Vanderbilt on a hospital TV and collapsed. The doctors told me we needed another ten thousand dollars for emergency stabilization and post-op care. I spent New Year’s Eve calling every contact I had, begging for a loan. I was blocked, mocked, or told I was “bad luck.” While the city cheered for the new year, thirteen-year-old Annie slipped away. Now, I was truly alone. Thinking of her pale face made my heart feel like it was being crushed by a vice. I didn’t take the clip. “Serena,” I said, my voice sounding like gravel. “We’re—” Through. The word was on the tip of my tongue, but she cut me off. “Fine, fine. I get it. You’re probably short on cash after the holidays.” She tapped her phone and sent me a notification. A two-hundred-dollar transfer. “Consider that for Annie’s ‘supplements.’ No need to write me an IOU for this one.” It was pathetic. She was so terrified I was a gold-digger that she insisted on “managing” my salary, giving me a meager allowance after “approving” my expenses. Every time she gave me a dime of my own money, she made me sign a promissory note. After seven years, I was technically “in debt” to her for thousands. I used to think she was just “fiscally responsible” because of her upbringing. I’d indulged her, thinking it was a quirk of the wealthy. But her frugality only applied to me. She had no problem buying Derek a limited-edition Ferrari or a multi-million dollar condo in Aspen. It made the front page of the tabloids every time. Where the money goes, the love follows. I hit ‘decline’ on the transfer and sent it back immediately. “I don’t need it. Not anymore.” Serena finally looked at me, her expression shifting from annoyance to a strange, frustrated pity. “Not enough? Fine. I’ll give you the wedding. We’ll do a ceremony. It’ll give your sister something to brag about to the nurses. You two really are cut from the same cloth…” Vain. That was the word she always used. I’d spent seven years being told that wanting a normal life—gifts, dates, a public acknowledgement of our love—was “low-class vanity” and a “grasp at her fortune.” “There’s no need for a wedding,” I said. “We aren’t a couple.” Serena’s face hardened. The mask of the playful girlfriend dropped, revealing the cold heiress underneath. Just then, there was a knock at the door. Serena shot me a warning look and went to open it. The next second, her voice turned into a melodic, high-pitched chirp. “What are you doing here?” I looked over. Derek was standing in the doorway, wearing a designer parka that perfectly matched Serena’s. He reached out with practiced intimacy and ruffled her hair. “Hey, princess. The guys are at the club and they want to see their ‘new sister-in-law.’ Come spend the day with me.” His eyes drifted past her to me, a calculated, taunting smirk on his lips. “Nathan. You don’t mind, right? You seemed pretty cool with everything at the gala.” As he spoke, he laced his fingers with Serena’s, purposefully flashing their matching platinum wedding bands. Serena’s eyes sparkled as she looked at him. “He doesn’t mind,” she said quickly. “Of course I’ll go. I owe you one for the public spectacle anyway.” She grabbed her handbag, ready to vanish. After two steps, she seemed to remember I existed. She let go of Derek’s hand, walked over, and kissed the corner of my mouth. “Don’t worry,” she whispered. “This is the last time. After today, I’m all yours.” But Serena, there is no “after today” for us. I wiped my mouth with the back of my hand as I watched them disappear down the hall, their laughter echoing in the elevator. I turned back to the desk and picked up the resignation letter I’d already printed. 2 It was the first Monday after New Year’s. The office was buzzing with the usual post-holiday gossip. As I walked in, my colleagues huddled in small groups, their snickers following me like a bad smell. “Can you believe Nathan actually showed up? The guy has no shame. Kneeling in the snow at the gala, begging Miss Montgomery for money? Pathetic.” “He’s been acting like he owns the place just because he’s been her lapdog for seven years. My dog begs for treats with more dignity. He’s finished.” I walked past the vitriol, my face a mask of indifference, and entered the HR office. The HR director, a woman who had always looked at me like I was a smudge on her shoe, didn’t even look up. “The application is in. Once Serena signs off, you can clear your desk. Just so you know, given the ‘incident’ at the gala, there will be no severance.” I nodded. “I understand.” I turned and walked out without a second thought. The sun was setting early, casting long, bruised shadows over the city. The streets were filled with couples and families, clinging to the last bit of holiday magic. And then there was me. A crushing wave of loneliness hit me. My only family was gone. My career of seven years was over. My lover was a ghost. I walked the familiar path between the office and the apartment—a route I’d taken thousands of times. Memories began to bleed through the cracks of my composure. I was sixteen when my parents died in that wreck. The “charitable” relatives swooped in like vultures, picking the estate clean and leaving me with nothing but a month-old baby sister. Years later, six-year-old Annie met Serena at a hospital fundraiser where Serena was volunteering for the cameras. Annie took to her instantly, calling her “big sister.” That was how we started. I was just a college student then, working three jobs to keep Annie fed and her meds paid for. Serena stepped in. She’d watch Annie, send me updates, and hold me when I broke down over the mounting medical bills. Back then, she told me she’d never leave. She told me she loved me more than her own life. She used to hold my hand in public, even when I was wearing thrift-store clothes, and tell everyone, “This is my boyfriend. Isn’t he perfect?” But slowly, the poison of her mother’s voice took over. She started looking at me with suspicion. She began to fear I was after the Montgomery estate. She demanded I hand over my paychecks so she could “protect” her assets from being “commingled.” Her control became absolute. If I asked for five dollars for a pack of cigarettes, she’d interrogate me for an hour. Then, three months ago, Derek returned from London. She bought him a Bentley that same day. She spent fifty thousand dollars on a digital billboard in Times Square that read: Welcome Home, Derek. That was the first night she didn’t come home. When I finally found her, she was drunk, clinging to Derek’s arm, slurring about how he had “put a toy ring on her finger when they were five” and promised to marry her. I was cold to the bone. When she sobered up, we had a screaming match. I asked her who she really wanted. She told me I was overthinking, that I was “insecure,” and that if it weren’t for Derek’s family, I’d never have even had the chance to breathe the same air as her. Then Derek posted a status saying he was “ready to settle down.” Serena came to me that night and asked me to marry her. I was a fool. I was so happy, so relieved that she had “chosen” me, that I got down on one knee. What a joke. I realized I’d walked blocks past my destination. Up ahead, a familiar noise drifted from a high-end lounge. “Go on, Serena! A dare is a dare! Derek is waiting!” I saw her through the glass. She was surrounded by their elite social circle. She closed her eyes and shouted at the top of her lungs: “I, Serena Montgomery, have only ever loved Derek Vanderbilt!” She said it three times, her voice growing louder and more certain with each repetition, drawing stares from everyone on the sidewalk. Then, blushing like a schoolgirl, she buried her face in Derek’s chest. Derek wrapped his arms around her, smug and triumphant. The crowd began to chant: “Kiss! Kiss! Kiss!” Serena hesitated for a heartbeat. Derek tried to play it off. “Easy, guys, she’s shy—” Before he could finish, Serena grabbed his tie and pulled him down into a kiss. It was deep, desperate, and hauntingly sincere. When they pulled apart, she didn’t close her eyes. She stared at him as if trying to memorize his soul, her face glowing with a happiness I hadn’t seen in half a decade. “I… I tripped,” she muttered, her ears turning red, trying to regain her composure. Then, hurriedly: “It’s late. I have to get home. My mom will be expecting us for dinner.” Love is the hand that wants to touch but pulls back out of fear. Watching her with him, I realized she was never afraid of me. She just didn’t care enough to be. We were barely twenty feet apart. The winter wind tore through my coat, grinding what was left of my heart into dust. Serena turned to leave, head down against the cold, and walked straight into me. She looked up, and her pupils shrunk in shock. 3 “I’m… I’m sorry… I…” I cut her off. “It’s fine.” I turned away and pulled out my phone to call an Uber. Behind me, I heard the whispers of her friends. “Is that him? Serena, isn’t that the guy who was begging for money at your party? The stalker?” “Check your purse, Serena. He probably swiped your wallet when he bumped into you.” Serena said nothing. She let the slander hang in the air, her silence a confession. When I got back to the apartment, I went to pay for the ride. A notification popped up from my travel app: Your standby flight from Chicago to Houston is confirmed. Departure tomorrow, 3:00 PM. Please check in. I screenshotted the confirmation and sent it to the HR director at the tech firm in Texas. Within seconds, he replied: Nathan, we’ve been waiting for you. See you tomorrow! A small weight lifted from my chest. I grabbed my pre-packed suitcase and headed for the door. I couldn’t spend another second in this museum of failed expectations. I ran into Serena in the foyer. She frowned, slamming the door shut behind her. “Where do you think you’re going?” Derek followed her in, his voice dripping with faux-concern. “Nathan, man, don’t overreact. Serena was just playing along for the sake of the family’s reputation. Don’t start a fight and walk out over a game…” I didn’t even look at him. “Serena, we’re done. I’m leaving.” Serena looked like she was about to yell at me for being “jealous” again, but the finality in my voice made her flinch. “Leaving? Because of one kiss during a game? Nathan, don’t you want the wedding anymore?” She actually thought a “pity wedding” was still a threat she could use. In the past, I would have dropped to my knees and begged for her to stay. Now, I just smiled. “Serena, there is no ‘us.’ Why would there be a wedding?” “No ‘us’?” Her face flushed a deep, angry red. “That’s not what you said when you proposed a month ago! You said you’d protect me forever. You bought me a ring!” She started digging through her Birkin, looking for the ring as if to throw it in my face. “Don’t bother,” I said quietly. “You took that ring to a pawn shop and sold it for twelve hundred dollars. You used the money to buy Derek a silk tie for your first date.” In seven years, every gift I’d ever scraped money together to buy her—jewelry, watches, books—had ended up on eBay or at a consignment shop. She told me they were “too cheap to wear in her circles” and that I shouldn’t be “sensitive” because she was “hers.” I used to think her pragmatism was cute. Now, it was just grotesque. She didn’t hate the gifts; she just didn’t value the man who gave them.

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