My former best friend Chloe's birthday is also the anniversary of my mother's death. The moment I saw Chloe and Arthur Sterling picking out a birthday cake together, I knew. This former best friend, who had already stolen my father, was now going to steal my husband. But I wasn't going to let her win. Determined not to repeat the tragedy of my mother—who was driven to suicide—I ruined Chloe's birthday party. Then, I pulled out the divorce papers I had prepared long ago and moved out of our home that very night. It had been less than seven hours since it happened. In those seven hours: I spent one hour packing, and one hour getting to the high-speed rail station. It took me three hours to reach my grandmother's house. For the final two hours, I successfully convinced my grandmother to let me stay with her. Arthur Sterling? I was done with him. When Arthur realized Mia had blocked him, he was genuinely stunned. In their three years of marriage, Mia, as Mrs. Sterling, had always been the epitome of grace, dignity, and generosity. No matter the occasion, her behavior had always been completely irreproachable. It wasn't until he returned home and saw the divorce papers sitting on the table that he belatedly realized he had made a catastrophic mistake. "It's been years. Chloe has been trying to make peace with you. There's no need to keep things this hostile. Today is her birthday. She offered a toast to you as your elder; you should have accepted it." "When you were younger, you could blame your trauma on your family background. But if you still can't regulate your emotions now, it just shows you haven't matured. With you in this state, how can I possibly have children with you?" Arthur picked up the divorce papers, read through the terms, and set them back down on the table. He didn't think he had done anything wrong. Whether Mia accepted it or not, Chloe had long since transitioned from her best friend to her stepmother. Mia's constant, rigid hostility toward Chloe created intense family friction, making it incredibly difficult for him to navigate social events that required his wife's attendance. Besides, from what he had seen, Chloe wasn't nearly as terrible as Mia claimed. He genuinely believed that instead of desperately clinging to the past, Mia should change her mindset and embrace the future with a smile. But realizing this was the first time Mia had ever been this angry, a flicker of panic took root in his chest. His grip on his phone tightened, and Arthur tried calling Mia again. He was still blocked. From the exact moment I saw Arthur and Chloe standing together in that bakery, carefully selecting a birthday cake, I knew my marriage to Arthur had reached its bitter end. Determined not to suffer my mother's fate, I shattered Chloe's birthday celebration, packed my bags, and walked out of the home Arthur and I shared. It had been less than seven hours since it all went down. In those seven hours: I spent one hour packing, and one hour rushing to the high-speed rail station. Three hours traveling to my grandmother's house. And the final two hours successfully convincing her to let me stay. "Grandma, I told you a long time ago, you have terrible taste in men." "First, you picked a scumbag for my mom, and now you introduced me to a piece of trash. You ruined both of our lives. You have to take responsibility." I smiled as I fed my grandmother a slice of sweet melon. I gently rested my head against her back, just like I did when I was a little girl. Truthfully, before I brought Chloe home with me, my parents had a pretty good relationship. Back then, forget my mother—even I never would have guessed that eighteen-year-old Chloe had her sights set on my forty-five-year-old father. Despite a massive twenty-seven-year age gap, they pursued their twisted romance with reckless abandon. My mother, a fiercely proud and independent woman her entire life, simply could not accept that her husband was divorcing her for her own daughter's classmate. In a moment of absolute, suffocating despair, she jumped from the 18th floor. Terrified that staying with my father would destroy me, my grandmother took me in to live with her. Seeing me remain single for years after entering the workforce, she realized I had developed a profound phobia of men and marriage. Terrified I would end up completely alone after she passed away, she introduced me to Arthur Sterling. She originally thought that since she was close friends with Arthur's grandmother, the connection provided a solid foundation of trust. But even she couldn't have predicted that Arthur—flawless on paper—was fundamentally, pathologically rational. In every relationship, he only weighed the pros and cons, never considering genuine human emotion. So, when he tricked me into attending Chloe's birthday dinner, constantly claiming it was "for my own good," and eventually grabbed my wrist, trying to physically force me to drink the toast Chloe offered... I flipped the table. I completely destroyed Chloe's birthday dinner. And I pointed directly at my father's face, demanding to know if he remembered what day it was. 2 Yes. It's a hilariously cruel joke. Chloe's birthday is also the exact anniversary of my mother's death. But besides me, no one remembered. Not even Arthur. He used to hold me close, whispering sweet promises: "From now on, I'll go with you to pay our respects on your mother's anniversary. I won't ever make you face the past alone." Yet, on the actual day of her anniversary, stopped at a literal intersection between the bustling downtown district and the quiet, desolate cemetery, he chose to turn toward the city center. He physically dragged me into the opulent, blindingly bright hotel lobby. Everywhere I looked, I saw massive, glamorous promotional cutouts of Chloe. There were solo shots of her, and photos of her passionately kissing my father. When we entered the private dining room, Chloe was wearing a pale purple strapless gown, her long, heavily styled hair cascading down her back. She sat at the head of the table, radiating the absolute authority of a matriarch. A massive, multi-carat diamond ring sparkled on her pale, bony finger, the glare almost physically hurting my eyes. When my mother was alive, she once told my father that for her fortieth birthday, she wanted a diamond ring. Nothing extravagant. Just something for a few thousand dollars. But on the day of my mother's fortieth birthday, my father didn't even come home. In the end, I used all my saved-up allowance money to buy my mother a diamond ring myself. The ring Chloe was wearing? I actually owned the exact same one. Arthur had given it to me for our wedding anniversary last year. It cost over three million dollars. I desperately didn't want to look, but my eyes were drawn to it anyway. I noticed my father gazing at Chloe with absolute, unfiltered adoration. Seeing a stray hair on her shoulder, he gently picked it off and threw it away. My mother had never, ever experienced that level of meticulous, tender care. I bit down hard on my tongue. My entire body was shaking. "Mia, you're here? I'm so incredibly happy to see you today." Chloe's gaze slowly traveled over Arthur's face before finally landing on me, her expression entirely dismissive. She stood up gracefully, her diamond-encrusted nails glittering under the chandelier, perfectly matching the crystal wine glass in her hand. She swirled the deep red wine in her glass, over and over. Seeing that I was refusing to acknowledge Chloe's gesture, Arthur picked up the wine glass sitting in front of me and drank it for me. But before he could even finish the glass, I beat him to the punch and violently flipped the entire table. Even now, I can still perfectly recall the look Arthur gave me as a table full of exquisite, outrageously expensive food crashed onto the floor in a catastrophic mess. Disappointment, intense displeasure, and pure disgust. 3 The usually dignified and composed Mrs. Sterling had lost her composure. I had humiliated him. Thinking back carefully, since the day I met Arthur, that was the very first time he had ever looked at me like that. When we first started dating, we were just like any normal couple. We climbed mountains together. We watched the sunset. We went camping and stargazing. On our wedding night, he promised me that he would never, ever let me suffer a single grievance in this life. He swore he would never force me to do anything I didn't want to do. He vowed he would absolutely never repeat the horrific mistakes my father made. At that time, Chloe hadn't yet set her sights on him. It wasn't until I started noticing inconsistencies in his behavior and hired an investigator that I learned the truth. It turned out that, starting over a year ago, Chloe had been secretly contacting Arthur under the guise of wanting to "repair her relationship" with me. For an entire year. Arthur hadn't breathed a single syllable of this to me. It wasn't that I hadn't considered making Arthur my safe harbor, of trying to genuinely trust him. But I am profoundly grateful that I always kept a piece of myself guarded. It allowed me to instantly, cleanly sever ties the absolute second a problem arose. Chloe's betrayal and my mother's suicide had permanently burned a complete inability to trust others into my core. Because of this deeply ingrained habit, I spent the last three years constantly preparing for the worst. I never actually expected that my three years of preparation would inevitably be put to use. "Are you absolutely sure about this?" My grandmother sighed softly. She knew I was joking earlier; she knew I had never blamed her. She truly, deeply didn't want to see my marriage to Arthur end like this. "Yes. Better to do it now, before we have kids." After Arthur and I got married, we had genuinely discussed having children. 4 But Arthur always felt I wasn't "positive" or "sunny" enough. He was worried my psychological state wouldn't provide a healthy environment for raising a child. To "fix" me, he signed me up for expensive psychology courses. He even hired a private therapist for me. I told him that, to me, he was infinitely more important than any therapist. He clearly didn't take that seriously. The moment he started secretly contacting Chloe—having dinner with her, grabbing coffee, even going shopping and exchanging gifts—my psychological state was doomed to crash. While packing my bags, I only intended to take my personal belongings. I never expected to find a thick stack of shopping receipts hidden at the very bottom of his closet. From small items like luxury car keychains to massive purchases like high-end watches and jewelry. Under the guise of an 'elder' and a 'younger generation,' a 'stepmother' and a 'son-in-law,' they had been showering each other with attention. Honestly, if Arthur had chosen literally anyone else, I might have considered my grandmother's feelings and maintained a facade of a happy marriage. But he absolutely, categorically should never have chosen Chloe! No one understands exactly what kind of person Chloe is better than I do. Before our friendship imploded, she used to jokingly complain to me: Why is your family so rich? Why do I have to live like a poor person? If I ever get the chance, I'm going to steal everything you have. I'm going to make what's yours, mine. So, she stole my father from my mother. And now, realizing my father is getting old and his earning potential is declining, she wants to steal Arthur from me. "Since you've made up your mind, Grandma supports you. Just... please don't be foolish like your mother was." When my mother died, she acted too impulsively. She left me with virtually no assets. The moment Chloe married my father, she seized absolute control of my family's finances. My living expenses plummeted the instant she became my father's wife. "She just can't stand seeing you live a better life than her! Women like her always get what's coming to them!" My grandmother was fiercely furious on my behalf when it came to Chloe. Remembering my mother's horrific tragedy, she wiped away tears of heartbreak. "I am going to live a better life than her. Better than both of them." 5 Thinking about the preparations I had made over the past three years, I felt a deep sense of confidence. "Mia, I heard you and Arthur had a fight. If it's because I asked Arthur to bring you to my birthday dinner, I apologize. This has absolutely nothing to do with him. I was the one who begged him to help us repair our relationship." "You've ignored me for so many years, and it genuinely breaks my heart." "Legally speaking, you are my daughter now. I truly, deeply want us to go back to how we used to be." Chloe knows exactly how to nauseate me. So, she intentionally chose the most offensive, triggering words possible. I didn't even need to see her face. I knew exactly what kind of smug, triumphant expression Chloe was wearing on the other end of the line. "Are you done? If you're done, I'm hanging up." I had blocked Chloe's number years ago. I only answered this time because she must have used someone else's phone, and I didn't recognize the number. I felt violently physically ill. It seemed that from now on, I couldn't answer unknown numbers either. "Mia, what's done is done. Do you think hiding is going to make it disappear? Whether you accept it or not, you cannot change my current status!" Terrified I would hang up, Chloe instantly dropped the sweet act and hardened her tone. As expected. Now that her status had changed, she no longer spoke to me with that pathetic, subservient tone she used to use—constantly following me around, clinging to me, calling me 'Mia' affectionately. Now, she was addressing me by my full name like an equal! "I have zero desire to change it. If you want to dig through my garbage and take the trash I threw away, I couldn't care less. Go right ahead!" I had cut ties with that scumbag father of mine a long time ago. As for Arthur, she wanted to steal him so badly, right? I'll gift-wrap him for her! "You know?" Chloe didn't realize I already knew about her secret meetings with Arthur over the past year. Her voice instantly turned cold. "Whether I know or not is entirely irrelevant. What matters is whether my father knows!" I let out a cold laugh and ended the call. I remembered that the very first thing I did after walking out of Chloe's birthday dinner was forward that massive compilation of evidence straight to my father's email. I was fully prepared to sit back and watch those two rabid dogs tear each other to pieces. As for Arthur, if he agreed to a clean divorce, we could handle it smoothly. If he refused, I would simply file a lawsuit. And a lawsuit meant I would walk away with significantly more. "Mr. Sterling, why didn't you bring Mrs. Sterling today? It's highly unusual for you to attend an event like this solo." Arthur had barely taken his seat. The people around him, confirming Mia's absence, immediately started teasing him. 6 Everyone in their social circle knew that Arthur and Mia were the ultimate model couple. If an event allowed plus-ones, Mia was absolutely guaranteed to be standing right by Arthur's side. "Next time." Arthur's expression was noticeably dark. He couldn't stop thinking about how Mia had been gone for over a week. And during that entire week, no matter how he tried to contact her, her only response was always the exact same sentence: "Have you signed the divorce papers yet?" It was infuriating. Normally, with Mia by his side, he could gather crucial business intel through her casual conversations with the other executives' wives. Now, without Mia's strategic assists, something felt fundamentally wrong. It felt like... his information wasn't complete. He felt unanchored. Even though, before they got married, he used to secure massive contracts entirely on his own. Had Mia really changed his workflow this drastically in just three short years? "Arthur, I am so incredibly sorry. I know I shouldn't be bothering you at this hour. But I genuinely have nowhere else to go." When Arthur returned home from the networking event, Chloe was crouched outside his door, wearing a flowing white fringed dress. Hearing the elevator ping, she looked up, her expression a masterclass in pathetic vulnerability. Her eyes were a complex mix of shame, embarrassment, and profound victimization. "What happened?" Arthur glanced at Chloe briefly before unlocking the door with his fingerprint and stepping inside. "Mia took some videos of us meeting over the past year, edited them completely out of context, and sent them to her dad. He misunderstood the situation between us and threw me out of the house." Chloe's eyes darted around, taking in Arthur and Mia's marital home. Even though she had seen her fair share of opulence living with Arthur's father, all of that suddenly felt cheap and insignificant compared to the breathtaking, floor-to-ceiling display of rare collectibles lining Arthur's walls. She expertly masked the flash of raw greed in her eyes, letting her long hair fall forward to hide her expression. She played the role of the helpless, fragile victim to absolute perfection. "She's throwing a tantrum because she's angry at me. Please don't blame her. I'll explain everything to her clearly, and then I'll have her come here and apologize to you and her father." Even now, Arthur genuinely refused to believe that Mia's demand for a divorce was real. He was absolutely certain she was just throwing a fit. She was waiting for him to go and coax her. "I think she's much angrier at me. You just got dragged into the crossfire. From the day I met Mia, I've always known that once she sets her mind to something, she never changes it." 7 "I was too greedy. I never should have asked you to help me." After saying that, Chloe raised a hand to her forehead, swaying dramatically as if she were about to faint. "What's wrong? Do you need me to take you to the hospital?" Arthur frowned. Looking at Chloe's pale lips and obvious distress, he hesitated for a moment before finally reaching out to support her. "I haven't eaten anything all day. It's probably low blood sugar. Can I please just crash here for one night? I'll go back tomorrow after I figure out exactly how to explain everything." This "crashing for the night" tactic was the exact same move Chloe had used years ago to sleep with my father in the middle of the night, right under my and my mother's noses. She was planning to run the exact same play. My father had indeed gotten into a massive fight with her. But after she vehemently, desperately denied everything, he had actually apologized to her. She was the one who insisted on leaving; my father couldn't stop her. "Do whatever you want." Seeing that Chloe genuinely looked unwell, her lips entirely devoid of color... And remembering that she was technically Mia's family... he let go of her, turned around, and went to his own room. Having achieved half her objective, Chloe listened to the sound of Arthur's door closing. She pulled out her phone and snapped a selfie. Then, she sent it to me. I had blocked her number. But today, specifically to contact me, she had bought a brand new SIM card. That night, she left her bedroom door unlocked, waiting for Arthur to walk in for the entire night. But she was deeply disappointed. Arthur didn't barge into her room like my father had. Chloe realized that even though she had spent a year laying the groundwork, and had confirmed that Arthur wasn't repulsed by her... if she wanted to escalate their relationship, she needed to manufacture a different kind of opportunity. I was at the supermarket with my grandmother when I received Chloe's photo. "Just a solo shot? You don't have any photos of the two of you? Nothing a little more explicit?" I typed out a completely emotionless reply and hit send. "Your heart must be bleeding right now, isn't it? Still pretending you don't care? Mia, the look of absolute agony in your eyes when you flipped that table at my party was much more convincing!" Terrified that a text message would leave a digital trail I could use against her, Chloe immediately called me. "Done acting? This is your true face. You've been putting on that fake act for so many years, if you didn't finally show your true, disgusting colors, I almost would have forgotten what you really looked like!" I listened to Chloe's cold sneer through the speaker. Ever since she married my father, she had constantly put on the airs of a devoted stepmother. Every word out of her mouth was dripping with hypocritical concern and fake affection. I was sick to death of it. "Haven't you always desperately wanted me to divorce your father? Congratulations, your wish is about to come true. I demanded a divorce from him last night. Barring any surprises, in a month, your father will be all yours! I will never fight you for him again!" Chloe's obsession with marrying my father, despite the intense public scrutiny, wasn't just for the luxurious lifestyle the Harrison family provided. It was also because she was intensely jealous of the paternal love my father used to show me. Her own father had abused and beaten her since childhood. She had never experienced a father's love in her entire life. So, she sacrificed her youth and beauty to buy the years of devotion my father offered her. 8 What others saw as a pathetic, degrading trade, she saw as the ultimate victory. "Are you sure he's actually willing to divorce you? What if he refuses?" I knew exactly what this was. Chloe wanted to kick my father to the curb and hook up with Arthur. After all, Arthur was young, handsome, insanely wealthy, and powerful. Unlike my father, who was aging, gaining weight, and had seen his assets shrink significantly in recent years due to the economic downturn. Comparing the two, Arthur won flawlessly. But just because Chloe wanted a divorce didn't mean my father wanted one. My father had already divorced his wife of many years for Chloe, entirely alienating his only daughter in the process. If he divorced Chloe now, he would become the ultimate, pathetic laughingstock! "You don't need to worry about that. I have my ways. Besides, your father acts like a trained dog around me. If I tell him to go left, he wouldn't dare go right!" Chloe possessed an incredible sense of superiority when it came to my father. This superiority gave her the delusion that her charm was absolutely limitless. Just like years ago. No matter how incredibly kind I was to her, in her eyes, I only valued her for her beauty. She believed I only wanted to be friends with her to draw more attention to myself, to make myself look more noble and arrogant. People project their own toxic nature onto others; they assume everyone thinks exactly the way they do. "Unlike your mother, who was with him for over a decade and couldn't control him in the slightest!" "Honestly, it's a good thing your mother died. Otherwise, seeing how obedient your father is to me, she probably would have died of a rage-induced stroke anyway!" "Chloe, karma is real! You murdered my mother, and now you have the absolute audacity to insult her memory?! Aren't you terrified of divine retribution?!" Hearing her shamelessly drag my mother's name through the mud, my grip on my phone tightened until my knuckles turned white. I told myself: Wait just a little longer! Karma is coming, and it's coming fast! Terrified that I was recording the call, and realizing she had said things that completely destroyed her carefully crafted persona, Chloe abruptly hung up. She was incredibly arrogant when she called me, but she hung up looking like a panicked rat. After that. Certain that Arthur was never going to sign the divorce papers voluntarily, I didn't even bother informing him. I went straight to the courthouse and filed a formal lawsuit for divorce. The first attempt at a lawsuit usually doesn't end in a granted divorce. Knowing full well I wouldn't get the immediate result I wanted, I filed anyway to intentionally manufacture a massive media scandal. Arthur's tech company was scheduled to go public next year. The longer this dragged out, and the closer we got to his IPO, the less he could afford a messy divorce. And exactly as I predicted. When his lawyers received the official notice from the court, Arthur couldn't handle the pressure. He showed up at my grandmother's house in the middle of the night. "It seems you weren't avoiding me because you didn't know where I was. You just didn't want to come see me face-to-face." It was the dead of night when Arthur finally tracked me down. I was wearing the same pink pajamas I used to wear before I got married. My long, dark hair cascaded loosely down my back. I yawned, stepping aside to let him in. "Mia, you have taken this entirely too far!" Arthur was still wearing his tailored work suit. He stared directly at me, instantly grabbing my wrist, his brow furrowed in absolute, exhausted irritation. "I gave you plenty of time. You were the one who refused to cooperate. Since you refuse to agree to an amicable divorce, my only option is to sue." I knew exactly how physically strong Arthur was, so I didn't bother struggling against his grip. I didn't struggle at all.
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