23:59. I suppressed the anger of being woken up by my phone and pushed open the gold-plated door of the private room. "Sorry to disturb you, everyone. I'm here to pick up my significant other." The next second, the countdown to the New Year in the room stopped abruptly. Dozens of eyes from the room full of social elites were all fixed on me. And the man sitting in the center, in a sharp suit and with cold features, was slowly rubbing his wine glass. "...Chloe Miller?" Someone broke the dead silence first. "Today is the New Year's Eve gathering for Ivy League alumni, not a shelter for community college dropouts." Laughter exploded. "Isn't this the heroine of the 'Only-Chloe-ism' incident back then? Just to make her smile, the top student Ethan changed all 'materialism' to 'Chloe-ism' on his philosophy paper and almost gave the professor a heart attack." "I heard you schemed your way into your stepbrother's bed and forced him to marry you. Otherwise, why would he marry a failure like you? Now his sister-in-law is a Cambridge PhD, that's what you call a perfect match. How dare you show up?" The gazes from the table pierced me like needles. They would never know. Ethan used to be the last in the school. He fought his way to the top just for me. But the past is no longer important. I met everyone's gaze, without the wretchedness they expected, and said calmly with a slight smile: "I'm not here to spend New Year's Eve with you elites. I'm here to pick up my husband." Ethan finally looked up, his eyes dark: "Chloe, we divorced three years ago." I curled my lips slightly, putting on a standard business smile. "I know." "So, I didn't say I came to pick you up, Mr. Sterling." 1 "How shameless. Still trying to take advantage of Ethan even after the divorce." A few suppressed snickers rang out in the private room. Jason lit a cigarette and looked at me lazily. "First time I've seen someone rush to be a mistress." Jason was the best friend of Ethan and me in high school. And the person who treated me second best in this world. But when I was divorcing Ethan, he stood by Ethan without hesitation. Because the girl he liked was the third party in our marriage. And he had been helping Ethan hide their relationship. Only me, kept in the dark like a fool from beginning to end. "Jason, stop it." Ethan pursed his lips and scolded coldly. Jason was unconvinced, extinguished his cigarette, and looked impatient. "What's wrong with saying a few words? An idiot like Chloe can't compare to an intellectual like Sophia at all." "Only you would fall for a dummy like her and be dragged down for years for nothing." Ethan looked at me and said deeply, "Chloe isn't stupid." Chloe isn't stupid. Coming from the mouth of a genius like Ethan. It actually sounds a bit comical. But 16-year-old Chloe Miller believed it. The year I graduated from middle school, my mom and Ethan's dad formed a new family. Ethan and I were the same age and went to the same ordinary high school. We were in the same class. He was last, and my grades were in the middle. Ethan hated me, so he never talked to me. I often saw Ethan fighting and getting punished. Then my mom would come to school to be scolded, bowing and scraping while being insulted. One night I went out for water and saw my mom sitting on the sofa wiping tears in the middle of the night. "Chloe, how can Ethan accept me?" I didn't know. I only knew that after that day. The originally plain relationship between Ethan and me became tense. I put wasabi in his drink, poured dirty water into his backpack, and put laxatives in his lunch box. Ethan threatened, "What other tricks do you have? Chloe Miller, I'm telling you, if you don't kill me, I'll kill your mom!" We confronted each other like this for half a year. I thought I would hate Ethan for the rest of my life. But in the end, he became the only person in this world who still loved me. 2 The conflict between Ethan and me ended after an incident of domestic violence. Ethan's dad beat my mom until she was hospitalized. When my mom was put on the ambulance, his dad was still shouting insults. "I chased you for a year or two, but besides being pretty, you're useless, good for nothing." My mom was nearly forty. She was spoiled by my dad in the first half of her life, so naturally she couldn't do anything. When he heard this back then, Ethan's indifferent expression collapsed instantly. He looked at me in shock, muttering. "It wasn't your mom who seduced my dad..." Ethan hated my mom. He always thought my mom actively intervened in his parents' marriage, causing his mom to leave. It didn't matter anymore, because after that day. I didn't have a mom anymore either. When I went to the hospital to see her holding her favorite white frangipani, I found out she ran away. She didn't take anything. She didn't take me either. Chloe Miller had no home. I didn't know where to go. While wandering on the street in the middle of the night, Ethan found me. His eyes were red, and he looked angry. I was afraid he would hit me, so I shrank into a ball. In my fear, his warm embrace wrapped around me. For the first time, I heard him speak so gently. "Chloe, come home with me." "From now on, I'll be your whole world." I took the hand he extended and held it tight. So, starting from the age of sixteen. In Chloe Miller's world, there was only Ethan. 3 After my mom left, Ethan's dad's temper became even more violent. Afraid I would get hurt, Ethan moved out with me. Our life continued, just different from before. I was no longer mischievous, and Ethan's brows softened. Ethan spent more and more time reading and studying. I couldn't help but ask him. "You used to dislike reading and attending class." He looked at me seriously, finally pinched my cheek helplessly, and said gently, "Chloe, I want to give you a better life." I looked at the tips of his red ears and nodded heavily. Chloe Miller would never drag Ethan down either. So I studied even harder. But when Ethan went from last in the grade to first. I still hovered in the middle. Ethan tutored me at home until midnight. I shook my head looking at the calculus problems. He said: "Chloe, you're so dumb." "But, I just like you being dumb, it's terribly cute." Sleepiness hit, and the pen in my hand slipped. I was still muttering. "Ethan, can you walk slower? I can't catch up with you." Ethan said. I never have to chase him. He will wait for me forever. He didn't do it. Later, he hated my dumb look the most. It annoyed him. 4 "Not dumb? You tried so hard to tutor her back then, but in the end she only got into a lousy state college, right?" Jason played with his lighter, continuing the conversation. I looked around and didn't see my husband, Luke Walker. Luke was indeed alumni with Ethan, but in a different college. They shouldn't be gathering together either. I thought he might have sent me the wrong address. I didn't bother to dwell on the past anymore. "Excuse me." I dropped this sentence and left. I sent a message to Luke, but he didn't reply, and his phone was unanswered. I planned to go home first. Before I opened the car door, a hand grabbed my wrist first. "Sister, forgive me, okay?" Ethan lowered his eyes, an emotion I couldn't understand in them. Sister, this title. Used to make me blush, and once became the perfect title to flirt with a straitlaced person like Ethan. But later, this "brother and sister" thing also doomed me. "Ethan, are you addicted to acting?" I shook off his hand and said expressionlessly, "I don't have a brother." When the atmosphere was stagnant, a scoff broke the embarrassment. "Chloe Miller, didn't expect to see you here." Sophia walked over in high heels, as arrogant and domineering as ever. In the past, I would have been scared by her aura. I would also envy, admire, and involuntarily feel a bit inferior. But now, after that unbearable past had been tormented in my heart repeatedly, what remained had returned to calm. "Chloe, why don't you come home with me and Ethan? Your mom misses you too." I myself didn't expect that three years later, I could say it so calmly. "I don't have a mom." My brother, my mom. All chose her, Sophia. I, too, didn't want them long ago. Sophia grabbed my wrist, inadvertently revealing the jade bracelet on her wrist. This was the heirloom Ethan's mom left him. I wore this bracelet for ten years. And my relationship with Ethan only lasted ten years.
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