On the seventh year of my body being stolen, I finally took it back. "She" had already used my body to get married and become pregnant. I immediately filed for divorce and terminated the pregnancy. The news of the marriage collapsing dominated the trending charts, but I couldn't care less. All I wanted was to find my true love, the man she had left completely broken and covered in scars. 01 "Evie, time to wake up." A man looked at me with eyes full of tenderness. He reached out, trying to brush a stray strand of hair from my forehead. I turned my face away, dodging his touch. Looking at this man—whom I had been forced to watch for seven years—I spoke with a voice as cold as ice: "Let's get a divorce." He seemed to freeze, the expression on his face going completely blank. I didn't care. I stood up, walked over to the window, and reached out my hand to feel the long-lost warmth of the sunlight. For seven years, ever since my car crash, I had watched that woman invade my body. She squeezed my soul into a dark corner and banished me from my own life. Wearing my flesh, she disguised herself as me, basking in the love and pampering of my wealthy family. And worse—she used my actual true love as a stepping stone, a disposable pawn. She ruthlessly exploited him, greedily draining every drop of blood from his body, before laughing in his face and telling him she didn't love him anymore. Her love for him had simply "vanished." I watched, paralyzed and helpless, as my true love spiraled into madness, self-doubt, severe depression, and eventually, attempted to end his own life. When he was lying in the ICU, murmuring my name through bruised lips, his parents begged her to just come see him once. But she said: "I have a new boyfriend now. I can't keep stringing my ex along. My new boyfriend is very sensitive; he'd get jealous." From that moment on, our two families severed all ties. Decades of deep friendship burned to ashes. Faced with my parents' confusion and suspicion, she deliberately poured gasoline on the fire, actively trying to alienate everyone who truly knew me. That way, she wouldn't have to keep up the exhausting act of pretending to be me. She could recklessly be herself. She could recklessly use my face, my reputation, and even my creative work to chase after her celebrity crush. I looked down, surveying my body inch by inch. The calluses on my fingers from years of playing the piano had faded significantly. Instead, there were flashy, neon-colored acrylic nails covered in rhinestones. My pin-straight black hair had been dyed and curled into waves. These were all the parasitic marks she had left on me. Until my eyes dropped to my slightly swollen lower abdomen. A violent wave of nausea washed over me. "She" was pregnant. The initial euphoria of reclaiming my body instantly mutated into absolute disgust. It felt like a bucket of freezing water had been dumped over my head. A thief and a total stranger had used my body to do the most intimate things two people can do, and then planted the vile result of it inside me. I picked up the phone from the nightstand, preparing to leave this house immediately. If I stayed in this room for one more second, I was going to burn the whole place down. Besides, I had something much more important to do. My true love. The boy I grew up with, Noah Brooks. The man who was so broken I didn't even know if he was dead or alive right now. I had to find him. I had to tell him that I loved him. And that the monster who shattered his heart wasn't me. 02 "Evie, you're just joking, right?" Liam Sterling grabbed my arm, forcing a strained smile. I physically peeled his hand off my arm. I looked him dead in the eye and enunciated every single word: "Look closely. I am Chloe Vance." "I am not your 'Evie.' Chloe Vance has never gone by a second name, and she certainly would never let anyone call her Evie." Watching my demeanor, a flash of genuine panic crossed his face. "Evie, my recent schedule was planned exactly the way you wanted. I turned down that movie role so I could stay home and keep you company for the next two months. "And the kissing scene in the last movie was just camera angles! I didn't actually kiss her. "Please stop scaring me. We aren't getting a divorce." Seeing him panic, I tried my best to suppress the raging fury in my chest. I had to remind myself that he was just another victim of her lies. "Liam Sterling. I am Chloe Vance, and the man I love is Noah Brooks. "Not your 'Evie.' The 'Evie' you're talking about is a thief who stole my body while I was in a coma from a car crash seven years ago. Her real name is Evelyn Harper. "Now, I've taken my body back. Your Evie is gone." He lunged forward, trying to pull me into a hug. I shoved him hard, knocking him back. "Is... is this schizophrenia? It's okay, Evie. We can go to a hospital. I will stay by your side through the whole treatment." I shook my head. Clearly, logic wasn't going to work here. "My lawyers will contact you regarding the divorce proceedings." With that, I turned and walked briskly out the door. "Evie!" I unlocked the phone and quickly scrolled through the contacts. There was absolutely no trace of my actual family or friends. The contact list was entirely made up of people "Evelyn" had met over the past seven years. My fingers trembled as I manually typed in the phone number that was permanently burned into my memory. Listening to the dial tone ring over the speaker, my heart pounded violently against my ribs. Please. Please answer. "We're sorry, the number you have dialed is out of service..." I called it over and over again. It was disconnected. So, I dialed my older brother's number instead. "Hello." "It's me, Connor." Hearing Connor Vance's voice, my entire body shuddered. After being trapped inside my own head for seven years, I finally had a real, tangible connection with my family again. "Oh, if it isn't the great Princess Vance. Why are you calling me? Just checking to see if I've died of a heart attack yet so you can inherit the estate? "Or did you catch your A-list movie star husband cheating, and he kicked you out? "If that's the case, let me know. I need to go buy some fireworks to celebrate." Hearing his biting sarcasm actually made me smile. He sounded energetic and loud, which meant he was doing well. "Connor, it's me. It's Chloe. "It's too complicated to explain over the phone. I'm coming to your office right now." "Don't bother. Even if you show up, I'm not seeing you—" Before he could finish his sentence, I hung up. It was just going to be more cynical trash talk anyway. I hailed a cab and headed straight for the corporate district. Looking out the window at the towering skyscrapers and the manicured green spaces lining the avenues... Compared to seven years ago, the city had developed at a terrifying speed. The wheels of time had ruthlessly rolled forward. Leaving me alone to face this entirely unrecognizable, completely upended world. 03 "Ms. Vance, Mr. Vance is currently in a meeting with a client. It's really not a good time for him to see you." Ms. Hayes, his secretary, looked at me with profound discomfort, desperately trying to get me to leave. I had been sitting in the waiting area for half an hour. My patience was completely gone. When I stood up, a flicker of relief crossed Ms. Hayes's face, but it quickly morphed into frantic pleading as I walked past her. "Ms. Vance, please! He really is with a client! Please don't make this difficult for me!" I kept walking straight toward Connor's office doors, patting her on the shoulder to comfort her. "Don't worry. It's fine. If he gets mad, I'll take full responsibility. I really do have an absolute emergency." "If he fires you over this, come find me. I'll pay you double your salary and employ you for the rest of your life." Ms. Hayes didn't believe a single word I said. She looked at me like I was handing her Monopoly money. "Connor." I shoved the heavy oak doors open. There was no client. The massive office was entirely empty except for him. Unless he was having a business meeting with a ghost. I gently pushed Ms. Hayes back out into the hallway and shut the doors. It was just me and him. I hadn't seen him in so long. That thief hadn't visited my childhood home or seen my family in three or four years. The brother sitting in front of me had clearly lost the reckless, youthful energy of his twenties. He looked mature, seasoned, and commanding. Especially his hairline—it was noticeably receding. I suppose that was the standard price of being a highly successful CEO. "What, you learned a new trick? "Spit it out. How are you planning to manipulate me this time?" Connor looked me up and down, a sneer of pure contempt curling the corner of his mouth. "How is Noah? Where is he? I need to see him." "You actually have the nerve to ask to see him? Haven't you destroyed him enough?! I swear to God, I have no idea how the Vance family produced a sociopath like you." Connor's emotions instantly flared, the veins on his neck pulsing with rage. "Connor, I have something incredibly important to tell you. You might think I'm clinically insane, but every word I say is the truth. "Seven years ago, when I got into that car crash, my body was stolen by a girl named Evelyn Harper. She wore my face and did all those horrific things. "From the second I woke up from that coma, that person was not me. Every word she spoke, every action she took—none of it was me." Connor's furious expression cracked slightly. He walked over to me and pressed the back of his hand against my forehead. "You don't have a fever. Why are you spewing this psychotic sci-fi garbage?" "You don't have to believe me right now, but every single word is true. Just watch me. Watch the way I speak and act from today onward, and compare it to the girl from the past seven years. Tell me we aren't two completely different people." I knew this was an impossibly hard truth to swallow. But it was reality. The only way I could prove it was through my actions. Seeing my desperate, deeply sincere expression, Connor hesitated. After all, we had lived together for 23 years. He knew exactly what his real little sister was like better than anyone on earth. When "I" woke up and acted like a different person, they probably assumed the traumatic brain injury had drastically altered my personality. No one in their right mind would ever assume a literal body-snatching had occurred. That was exactly why, even after "Evelyn" went nuclear and cut ties with the family, my parents and brother still secretly protected her from the shadows. Because I was their blood. I was the daughter they had cherished for 23 years, the little sister Connor had spoiled his entire life. The most hilarious part? Evelyn genuinely believed that all her success was due to her own "hard work" and "magnetic personality." And Liam Sterling, the A-list actor she chased down and married, was just her ultimate trophy. "So what? What did you actually come here for today?" His eyes were still suspicious. He probably still thought this was just another one of my pathological lies. I was a bit disappointed, but I told myself to be patient. It would take time. "I want to see Noah. I can't reach him. "I need your help." Hearing that, Connor's expression turned to ice. "You're pregnant with another man's baby, and you want to go see your first love?" His gaze dropped to my stomach. I grabbed Connor's wrist and started dragging him toward the door. "What the hell are you doing?! Let go of me!" I looked at him, my voice completely unwavering. "I'm getting an abortion." With another man's child in my womb, I had absolutely no right to go see Noah. "Are you joking?" Connor tried to wrench his arm away, entirely refusing to believe I would actually do it. That girl, Evelyn, was a rabid, borderline-psychotic superfan of Liam Sterling. Her entire brain revolved around him. Based on the unhinged things she had done in the past, no one would ever believe she would willingly abort Liam's child. But I wasn't her. And this child was not something I ever wanted. This pregnancy was the biological proof of my violation. From the exact second I reclaimed my body, I knew this child was not going to survive. "You've completely lost your mind," Connor said, looking at me in absolute, horrified shock. "I am not crazy. I am perfectly lucid." I stood in the doorway, gripping Connor's arm like a vice. "Connor. If something goes wrong during the surgery, please tell Mom, Dad, and Noah exactly what I just told you. "Tell them I love them." Without another word, I pulled the heavy glass doors open and walked resolutely out of the office. I was going to surgically excise every single brand that parasite had left on me, and I was going to rebuild myself from the ground up. 04 Even as we sat on the cold benches in the hospital waiting room, Connor still couldn't process it. "Chloe, are you seriously going through with this? "This is your own flesh and blood. "Did you cheat on him? Is that why you're doing this? To destroy the evidence? "Tell me the truth." Connor had just listened to the doctor explain the surgical procedure and the post-op care, and his brain was basically short-circuiting. I looked up at my older brother, who was currently pacing around like an ant on a hot skillet, and couldn't help but try to comfort him. "This is Evelyn Harper and Liam Sterling's child. It is not Chloe Vance's child. "Once I recover from the surgery, I am going to see Noah. "Connor, please... can you just tell me how Noah is doing?" Just saying his name felt like thousands of needles stabbing directly into my heart. I had to watch him shatter into a million pieces. I had to watch the gentle, radiant smile on his face rot into a bone-deep, agonizing despair. We were supposed to be engaged. We had promised each other we were going to get married the following spring. And then the car crash happened, and everything was brutally, violently severed. Two childhood sweethearts. One trapped in the dark while her body was hijacked; the other slowly withering away into nothingness. Connor sat down next to me and let out a heavy, tragic sigh. My heart leaped into my throat, suspended over a terrifying abyss. "He's not doing well. A few months ago, he... sigh. If they hadn't found him in time, he'd be dead. "You know his psychological state was already incredibly fragile from the kidnapping when he was a kid. What happened between you two recently just completely pushed him over the edge." Noah was terrified of pain. He hated it. If he actually tried to end his life, the emotional agony he was suffering must have been absolutely unbearable. When we were kids, he was kidnapped and went missing for weeks. I kept asking the adults, Where is Noah? Where did he go? No one answered me. They just looked down and sighed. Until the day he finally came back. He looked like a hollow, empty wooden puppet. His eyes were entirely dead. His leg was in a thick cast, his arms were wrapped in heavy gauze, and he was wearing a rigid neck brace. I stood next to his bed, too terrified to even touch him. Mrs. Brooks picked me up, fighting back tears. "Noah, look. Chloe is here. Your best friend came to see you." Noah didn't react at all. During his captivity, he had endured unimaginable trauma. He had been brutally beaten and locked in a pitch-black room for days on end. Psychiatrists cycled through the Brooks' house like a revolving door. I practically moved into the Brooks' mansion. I slept in his room. As a little girl, I didn't understand why Noah wouldn't say a single word, or why he refused to eat. I didn't understand why he was absolutely terrified of the dark, refusing to sleep unless all the lights were on, or why he was paralyzed with fear whenever he saw a stranger. But I knew I had to protect him. He was my best friend. As the seasons changed, the physical wounds on his body slowly healed. But his psychological dependency on me grew exponentially. He would only play with me. He would only speak to me. No one thought it was weird. To everyone else, as long as he was eating and sleeping normally, that was a miracle in itself. We were always going to be together anyway, so it didn't matter. Mrs. Brooks even joked with me once: "Chloe, when you grow up, do you want to take Noah as your husband?" I hugged the little boy sitting next to me and grinned brightly. "Yes! Thank you, Mrs. Brooks!" A faint, shy blush actually spread across Noah's pale cheeks. He fundamentally believed that I was his lifelong anchor. But ironically... it was that exact, all-consuming devotion that ultimately destroyed him and shoved him into an even more terrifying abyss. Tears streamed relentlessly down my face. Connor patted me gently on the back. "If you're actually serious about turning your life around this time, you better treat him right. "My biggest fear is that you'll just get bored again and vanish. If you do that... Noah genuinely won't survive it this time. "Over the past few years, Mr. Brooks has practically cried himself blind. The entire Brooks family is only holding together because Oliver is running the company." I choked on a sob. "I won't. I swear to God, even if I die, I will die by Noah's side." "Chloe Vance." A nurse called my name from the doorway. "Connor, if anything goes wrong in there, you have to tell Mom, Dad, and Noah." I gripped his hand tightly. I was terrified. I knew this surgery was routine, but I was terrified of a freak accident where I died, and no one would ever know the monster wasn't actually me. The real Chloe Vance loved them. She loved them so incredibly much. "I'll be right out here waiting for you. You'll be fine. Nothing is going to go wrong." The harsh surgical lights blinded me as I was put under. The vile, parasitic brand left on my body was finally being surgically excised. When I woke up, the sharp, sterile scent of bleach filled my nose. "My baby is awake." "Oh, look! Our little Chloe is awake!" It was Mom. My Mom's beautiful, familiar voice. "Does anything hurt? Are you uncomfortable anywhere?" My mom hovered over my bed, terrified I was in pain. "Waaaaah!" I threw my arms around my mom's neck and burst into ugly, torrential sobs. "Mom, it hurt so much. I felt so awful. "I was locked in this pitch-black box for years. I was so terrified I was never going to see you again." The second I saw my mother, the agonizing, suffocating injustice I had bottled up for seven years broke through the dam. For thousands of days and nights, I sat in the dark and cried for my dad, my mom, and Noah. And for Connor, too. My mom watched that thief brutally cut ties with our family, crying until she collapsed into my dad's arms. Meanwhile, Evelyn Harper secretly laughed at them, calling them idiots for not realizing she wasn't their real daughter. But she was also terrified of being exposed. So she threw away the homemade meals my mom brought, criticized the jewelry and clothes my mom bought her, and picked fights over every single expression of my mother's love. In the end, she drained a massive chunk of our family's assets, packed up the luxury jewelry my mom bought me, and ran off straight into Liam Sterling's arms. She hit my family like a Category 5 hurricane, leaving us completely shattered. To her, my family was just "toxic baggage" she needed to dump. "Shh, don't cry. It's over now. "Mom's here. Mom's here. Mom knows my baby went through so much pain. Mom knows my real daughter would never, ever do those things. "But you can't cry right now. Your body is still incredibly weak. "You just got out of surgery. You need to rest and heal." My mom gently stroked my hair while my dad carefully wiped my tears away with a tissue. Connor, who had stepped out to take a phone call, walked back into the room holding a container of hot soup. "Eat up. The doctor said you need a liquid diet full of nutrients right now. "Everything you told me, I already told Mom and Dad. "Mom said you're telling the truth, so I'm going to believe you for now." He still looked a little awkward and hesitant, clearly still struggling to wrap his head around the sci-fi reality of the situation. It didn't matter. I was Chloe Vance. My mom, my dad, and Connor would all realize it soon enough, and they would love me exactly like they used to.
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