The shipwreck hurled me, Lydia Johnson, onto a lonely island. In the end, I survived like a castaway. It wasn’t until the eighteenth time the massive brown bear tore apart the shelter I had rebuilt with my own hands that something inside me finally snapped. At that moment, three years of bottled loneliness and despair erupted all at once. In a rage, I howled and rammed my stone spear into the bear's belly. That was when I found that the beast was actually screaming in a human voice. I froze on the spot. The dialogue I had overheard last time I nearly died burst into my mind. “You feel sorry for her? She had it coming. She took Miss Juliet Johnson’s identity for twenty-six years. Of course President Owen had to stand up for the woman he truly loves.” “Her parents? Mr. and Mrs. Johnson already erased her from the household registry. The Johnson family has only one daughter now—Juliet.” “Her brother? He cut ties with her long ago. He’d rather she vanished without a trace.” The truth hit me with brutal clarity. There was no supernatural bear. Only a carefully staged deception—one meant to leave me wishing I were dead. *** When I was about to catch up to the “bear,” something pricked the back of my neck, sharp, like a needle. Darkness swallowed me instantly. Torrential rain beat me awake. When I opened my eyes, everything seemed to have reset to its primitive state. The storm beat down mercilessly, washing away what little body heat I had left. My limbs felt heavy, as if filled with lead. By the time I dragged myself back to the cave, fever had already set in. There were 1,096 tally marks carved into the rock wall—one for each day I had survived here. Three years. A bitter smile tugged at my lips. The fire inside me guttered out. I curled into myself, my body turning cold and rigid like a stone slowly losing its warmth. Then she appeared again. The girl. A hallucination born of my fractured mind. Every time my body reached its limit, she would show up. “Lydia, don’t die,” she urged. “I just saw your parents come looking for you. Go outside—go see.” I said nothing. I knew exactly what she was doing. Trying to lure me back into the rain. Trying to trick me toward another dead end. I had fallen for it too many times. She kept her distance, her tone growing impatient. "Fine. Your brother Andy Johnson came, but you must kneel and bow before he'll show himself." My fingers twitched. Then I shut my eyes. After three years, my knees wore armor-like calluses. "Your husband, Dunn Owen, brought the mango cupcakes you loved. He was here to bring you home!" The more frantic she grew, the calmer I became. Anyone force-fed ten mango cakes would loathe them forever. "You won't even move! You're so ungrateful! No wonder they discarded you!" Her shriek was a bayonet in my heart. My breath caught in my throat, a sour ache spreading through every limb. I could hold on no longer; my hands went limp and let go. I collapsed to the ground. As darkness swallowed me again, the girl rushed close, speaking to someone I could not see. "Looks like she's dying... Mm... Mm." But the instant those warm hands touched me, I opened my eyes and knocked her out. It was all fake. Even the hallucination was counterfeit. She was not the self who consoled me. She was one more link in the trap. She lay senseless, while I plucked the earpiece from her ear. "Flora, is she dead? Wake her up!" "Miss Juliet Johnson has landed. If she misses the show, we lose the bonus." "Let's steer her to the west stream this time. Dozens of piranhas are waiting!" I staggered unsteadily to my feet. The rain had stopped, but in the next second, the blood in my veins froze. "Today is Juliet's birthday. Add a few electric eels to the stream!" It was Dunn, the man who had sworn at our wedding to protect me forever, now ordering my death to amuse my sister. I advanced towards the stream, kneeling at every step. Juliet gave a soft choke. "Dunnie... Though Lydia bullied me, today is also her birthday. Let's leave, please." Dunn's voice was icy. "It's because it's her birthday that she needs to remember this lesson. What she owes you?she'll pay every last bit." My knees hit the sharp stones, leaving a trail of blood behind me, yet I felt no pain. For three years, each kowtow had been a prayer. That was my wish for them to find me. Hmph. How ridiculous. Recalling that earlier near-death moment, I began to feign. A blissful smile spread across my face. Half awake, half dreaming. The stream became my lost dining room; my family waved me to the table. I stepped in without hesitation. Piranhas tore fiercely into the flesh of my legs; electric eels left me completely paralyzed. I sank fully into the water. Through the haze, I heard a voice from hell. "Revive her. I haven't finished watching this show yet." That was exactly what I had waited for!
They carried me to a fully-equipped medical room. Shocked, the doctors and nurses tending to me didn't have the heart to see my broken body. "Not one patch of unbroken skin... Mr. Owen must hate her to the bone." "He wouldn't even let us use anesthesia. Quick, start the transfusion!" But before the blood could reach my veins, Dunn burst in, cradling Juliet. Ignoring my mangled, blood-soaked form, he roughly shoved me off the bed onto the floor. "Juliet's having a hypoglycemic episode. Give her blood now!" Dunn said, frantic. The doctor hesitated. "We only have one unit of plasma left, and Miss Johnson is severely anemic..." Dunn didn't hesitate. "If Lydia hadn't kept Juliet from eating all those years, do you think Juliet would have hypoglycemia?" "Besides, this woman is tough. Her life is hard to take. Three years have passed, and she's still alive." Yet Juliet looked panic-stricken. "Dunnie, I can't take anything more from Lydia. When she wakes, she'll hate me..." He spoke gently, each word a rusty saw across my heart, "Juliet, remember, everything Lydia ever possessed, the Johnson heiress title, her parents' love, even Andy's love and mine, did any of it ever truly belong to her?" "We are merely returning things to their rightful owner." The sentence felt like a verdict. It was I who had stolen Juliet's identity and lived the life of a pampered heiress for twenty-six years. Then, at the happiest moment of my life, it all came to a screeching halt. At the wedding, Dunn was kneeling to place the ring on my finger. Amid the blessings of all our guests, Juliet barged in. She wore a dress washed until it was pale, her voice trembling with careful restraint, yet it carried to every corner of the room. "Miss Johnson, can you give back the life you stole from me?" In that instant, my world was utterly overturned. Dunn was my last lifeline, and I clung to him tightly. We had sex desperately in bed, and he promised over and over, "Lydia, as childhood sweethearts, we've been in love for ten years. No matter who you are, I'll never abandon you.' But he broke that promise. Our parents held the grandest recognition ceremony for Juliet, and Andy showered her with hundreds of gifts. It was only right. They owed her that, after all. So I didn't let the jeers and mockery get to me. I still had Dunn. But there were things I didn't know. Dunn had repeatedly spent time with Juliet, making up for the childhood she'd missed. He'd even given her our memories. When I found out, he said impatiently, "Lydia, I'm helping you make it up to her." Therefore, he missed the anniversary of our first date. And later, our wedding anniversary. On our birthday, I spent months learning to cook, prepared a feast, and bought Juliet twenty-seven birthday gifts. But they all kept it from me and took Juliet to Europe instead, renting a castle to celebrate her birthday. Now I'd say, "You don't need to hide it from me. I could have just been an audience member down below, clapping for you guys." But back then, I made a scene. And I dumped all my resentment on Dunn. His eyes filled with disappointment. "If you hadn't targeted Juliet, why would we have needed to keep it from you?" I widened my eyes, explaining over and over, "I wasn't targeting her. I even spent five months designing a dress for her!" But Dunn produced a recording and laughed at me. "You're smart. Surveillance is erased, and the people you arranged are flawless." "But Juliet, true to being Mom and Dad's biological daughter, secretly recorded every time she met you." I screamed hysterically, "I didn't! That's AI-generated!" He scoffed. "Tell me, does a girl who grew up in deep mountains even understand this kind of tech?" "I'm the one who taught her to use her smartphone and made her first social media post." I was utterly desperate. Pain crushed my chest. My body seized, and blood spilled from my mouth. There was a voice roaring inside my mind. "So, Dunn, you used these technologies I don't understand to build a prison on an island for me, to deceive and punish me?"
Dunn was taken aback and asked instinctively, "Why did Lydia vomit blood?" The doctor hesitated and stammered, "She has been suffering from malnutrition for a long time and endured so many injuries..." He seemed incredulous. "Didn't I instruct you to deliver food regularly?" Dunn's voice changed instantly, filled with anger. "Save her!" "If she dies, all of you will pay with your lives!" Juliet timidly spoke up, "Lydia must have been deliberately starving herself during that period, which damaged her stomach." I remembered. At that time, I was like someone bewitched. Juliet, nurtured by money and love, transformed from a beautiful swan into a noble phoenix. She drew all of Dunn's attention and affection. Meanwhile, I went mad with dieting, working out, and undergoing cosmetic procedures. I even went to clubs to learn flirting techniques. Finally, I put on those humiliating clothes, trampling on my once proud self. Yet all I got from Dunn was a glance of disgust. "Disgusting." Though he lay in bed, he turned his back to me. I felt as if I had fallen into an icy abyss, staying awake until dawn. It seemed that Dunn remembered this incident and believed what Juliet had said. He hoarsely instructed, "Treat her stomach for the next couple of days." Then I vomited blood again. The doctor finally realized something was wrong. He pried open my eyelids and said, "Mr. Owen... She... She seems to have lost the will to live..." Suddenly, there was a commotion around me. My soul felt like it was about to dissipate. But I was not willing to give up. So when I was transported back to Eldermere and taken to the operating room, my spirit regained control of my body. Without looking back, I held my breath and ran without hesitation. From the trash bin to the sewer, I suddenly felt the urge to visit my home in Sunscorch. But the moment I emerged from the sewer, my brother Andy, who had been with me for over twenty years, appeared in front of me. He crushed my hand with his foot, his gaze cold and indifferent. "You've been hiding for three years. Why show up today? Couldn't you just stay in the sewer like a rat?" "Is it because Juliet ruined your wedding that you want to ruin hers today?" Before I could explain anything, he ordered his men to gag me and tie me up, dragging me to a basement. He then thoughtfully turned on the television for me. The screen was broadcasting a live stream of a once-in-a-century aerial wedding. Juliet, in a pure white wedding dress, was with Dunn in a hot air balloon. He promised her, "In this world, you're my only love." Under the bright blue sky, the diamond ring sparkled, and the couple shared a lingering kiss. At the same moment, thousands of pink balloons rose into the air, turning the scene into a fairy tale. I thought I wouldn't feel heartbroken anymore. But the pain in my heart at this moment overshadowed all the injuries on my body. Andy laughed at me mercilessly. "Look at yourself now. You never belonged to our world." He stared at my right hand and ordered the bodyguard, "This is the hand that poisoned Juliet, right? Break her hand." The next second, I screamed in agony, the intense pain making me black out and fall to the ground. In my dazed consciousness, I remembered what he said. After Dunn refused to share a bed with me, I discovered I was pregnant. Overjoyed, I hired three caregivers to look after me. Everyone's relationship with me improved because of the baby. Juliet even sent over a meal she had prepared for me. I treasured it and ate every bit, but then my stomach started to cramp. Lying on the hospital bed, I had the vomit tested for toxins. I showed them the report, but they all thought I was framing her again. Juliet cried pitifully, "Lydia, how could you be so cruel, using an innocent life to accuse me?" They forced me to admit my jealousy, to confess my schemes. They made me apologize to Juliet and pressured me to divorce Dunn. In grief, I refused it all. Everyone left without mercy, never looking back. They were all filled with resentment towards me.
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