At the class reunion, someone asked the former top student: “Claire, we’re all in our thirties now, and everyone who should be married is married, so why are you still single?” Claire Summers smiled faintly. “I’m still waiting for the person I gave my love letter to when I was eighteen to write me back.” As she spoke, she looked toward Ethan Carter, who was sitting beside me, and her eyes slowly turned red. Ethan froze and murmured, “I never received it…” The truth from back then slowly began to unravel. It turned out Claire’s letter had been delivered to the wrong place. It was that tiny mistake that kept them from being together. The room instantly erupted with teasing. “You and him were seriously the couple I shipped the hardest back then! I was so upset when Lily cut in later.” “Lily totally took advantage of the situation, and you clearly knew Ethan first.” “A love letter just happened to be put in the wrong place? Don’t you think… someone switched it on purpose?” Everyone in the room turned to look at me. Amid the noise, I gently touched the man beside me and asked in a low voice, “Honey, they’re saying I got between you two back then, so what do you think?”
Ethan did not answer me and instead stared at Claire. His eyes were also a little red. The classmates were the ones who lost their composure first, crying out one after another, “Lily, you and Ethan are married?!” Claire also jerked her head up and fixed her gaze on Ethan, disbelief flashing through her eyes. A few classmates laughed awkwardly again. “Why didn’t you tell any of us? We’ve been classmates for so many years, and you two really kept us in the dark!” “Yeah, unless… Ethan didn’t actually want to.” “When Claire went abroad back then, he was heartbroken for a long time, and I heard he almost tried to kill himself.” “Then wasn’t it only natural for Ethan to choose Lily?” “Why are you speaking up for Lily? Everyone knows Claire’s family was too poor back then, and Lily basically took advantage of her when she was down…” … I ignored all those comments and only looked at Ethan, wondering when he would explain things for me. He was the one who pursued me back then, and after we dated for two years, we had been married for three. It was not like every first love who returned from overseas could pick up where things left off. Besides, Ethan and I could be considered childhood sweethearts too, and I was the one who asked him to come with me to this reunion today, or Claire would not even have had the chance to see Ethan. But Ethan, who sat beside me, remained silent, and I turned my face to look at him. Too many emotions churned in his eyes: surprise, heartache, and regret that had been buried for years but had never faded. Yet he still did not explain. The atmosphere gradually cooled. I pressed my lips together and put down my utensils too. Could it be… that he really still could not let go? I had almost forgotten. Back in college, Ethan liked Claire so much that almost the entire school knew. She always wore washed-out shirts, and her lunch was always just a single slice of bread. Ethan found all kinds of ways to bring her meals, books, and contest prize money, and he even secretly stuffed his own allowance into her desk. But Claire never appreciated it. She returned the lunch box to him untouched and looked at him coldly. “Keep your pity to yourself.” “You’re no different from them.” But Ethan still refused to give up. It was not until the end of freshman year that Claire was finally moved, and they slowly became friends. After that, during sophomore year, Claire suddenly disappeared. She left without saying goodbye and gave no explanation, leaving only one note. “I’m starting to hate you, so please forget me.” Ethan chased her all the way to the airport, only to see the plane streak across the sky. He broke down crying on the spot, and when he went home, he fell into depression. It was true that I took advantage of him at his lowest point, pushed open the door he had shut himself behind, and pulled him back from the edge of the rooftop. “If she doesn’t want you, I do, so what do you like about her? Her stubbornness? I can change myself to match.” From that day on, I lived as another Claire Summers. I learned the way Claire spoke, grew my hair long like hers, and even wore the white dresses she liked. And my family’s business barely survived with the Carter family’s support. When the Carter family arranged a marriage alliance later, I had originally planned to step aside tactfully, but he grabbed me and held me tightly. That night, he cried and begged me to love him a little and not abandon him too. “I don’t want to be abandoned again, so please marry me.”
I sighed and touched his face. “Ethan, we can still be friends.” “But I love you.” “What about Claire?” He tightened the arm around my waist even more and kissed me. “I hate her, and from now on, I only want Lily.” After that night passed, the Carter family accepted me as their daughter-in-law. People in our circle all said behind my back that I was shameless and manipulative, that the Bennett family had nearly gone bankrupt, and that I had forced myself on Ethan to revive Bennett Group. They were all waiting. They were waiting for me to get divorced and become a joke. But over the past five years, Ethan and I had only grown better and more loving. Until I saw the way he looked at Claire at this moment. My heart suddenly tightened with pain. “How ridiculous, I, Ethan Carter, never pick up trash.” Ethan’s words instantly froze the smile on Claire’s face. Ethan’s words made the private room fall completely silent. He took my hand and laced his fingers with mine. “Let me introduce her.” “This is my wife, Lily Bennett.” “If anyone uses those old stories to disgust her again, don’t blame me for turning on you.” “I married Lily because I love her, and who hasn’t met one or two toxic women when they were young? Don’t open your mouths and throw dirt on my wife for no reason.” His tone shifted, carrying blatant mockery. “As for Ms. Summers, did going abroad leave you with nothing but this? So what if you started a company? Do you even have assets over ten million? Do you even have ten employees under you?” Claire could no longer smile at all. But Ethan took my hand and softened his voice. “Honey, I told you I didn’t want to come, so what was the point of seeing these people?” “You’re not wrong,” I answered softly. “Whoever you scold deserves it.” The entire room fell into silence, and the class reunion was basically over. The classmates who had been gossiping earlier came over to apologize before leaving and wished us happiness. Claire sat in her seat with her head lowered and did not move. But when Ethan stepped out of the private room, he still turned his head back once. Regret and sorrow made that woman look much more haggard in just a few hours. I clearly felt Ethan’s hand tighten around my waist. Then he turned his gaze forward, acted as if nothing had happened, and got into the car with me with a smile. But after we got home, I still felt a little uneasy when I thought about what had happened. I put down my bag, and my voice was hoarse. “Ethan, if you want to get back together with Claire, we can get di—” Before I could finish, he suddenly pushed me down onto the sofa, gripped the side of my neck, and leaned in. His fingers sealed my lips, then moved down along my collarbone, and paired with his cold, restrained face, my breath immediately caught. “What nonsense are you talking about…” He moved close to me, his breath warm. “Can I carry you back to the bedroom? I want you.” After he said that, he kissed me. We tangled all the way to the bedroom. For one moment, I almost forgot all the unpleasantness, and just as the corners of my lips lifted into a smile, Ethan’s phone suddenly rang. I answered it instinctively. Soft breathing came from the other end of the line, and Claire’s voice carried drunkenness and broken sobs. “Ethan… couldn’t you have waited for me a little longer? It’s only been five years…” “You called me toxic, but you don’t know at all… the only person I’ve ever loved is you.” I was silent for a moment before speaking. “Claire, it’s three in the morning.” “My husband just fell asleep from exhaustion, so do you need me to wake him up?” The other side went instantly quiet, then the call was abruptly hung up. My expression turned serious for once, and I frowned tightly as I looked at the sleeping Ethan beside me. His lashes trembled lightly, and his lips pressed into a straight line, as if he was having a nightmare. I lay down, curled into his arms, stopped thinking about it, and closed my eyes wearily. But after sleeping for less than two hours, I woke up. I instinctively reached for the person beside me, only to find the bed empty.
Where had Ethan gone in the middle of the night? For some reason, panic rose in my chest. At that moment, I faintly heard voices outside, and because I was worried a burglar had broken in, I rushed to the door without even putting on shoes and opened a crack. The moment I saw the scene in the living room, I could not describe how I felt. I only felt that the summer air conditioning and the floor under my bare feet were like falling into an ice cellar. Claire sat on the sofa with messy hair and red eyes, as if she had been crying for a long time. Ethan stood in front of her, his expression terrifyingly cold. “Are you done?” he said in a very low voice. “If you’re done, go home.” “I’m sorry, Ethan, I regret it, so can’t you give me one chance?” Ethan coldly pulled his sleeve back and was using Claire’s phone to call someone. “Hurry up and come get your fiancée, and don’t let her come to someone else’s front door drunk in the middle of the night!” Not long after, hurried footsteps came. I opened the door crack a little wider and realized I actually knew this man. It was Sebastian Ford, who also lived in this villa district. He was the only son of the biggest tourist resort developer in New York, and his family background was even more prominent than the Carters’. Looking at his anxious, red-rimmed eyes, I could not help sighing inwardly. How much good karma had Claire built up in her past life? She had been a little poor in her teens, but in college, Ethan paved the way for her and nearly lived and died for her. Now, after going abroad and polishing her résumé a little, she directly made this heir of the Ford family worry over her. People really were different from one another, and I did not go out to create a famous old-love-new-love disaster scene before quietly closing the door. But then a message from my best friend suddenly popped up on my phone. [That bitch Claire got drunk at a bar tonight and cried into the camera while confessing her love to Ethan, and the video has already been posted online!] [I’ve never seen such a disgusting woman, and now that she’s almost thirty and her career isn’t going well, she probably regretted everything after seeing you and Ethan being happy together!] I cut off her outrage and sent her the living room scene I had just filmed. [Claire seems to have a boyfriend, and it’s Sebastian Ford.] [Holy shit! Does that bitch have some kind of poison on her that lowers men’s IQ? Is Sebastian Ford blind or what?] After hearing the sounds outside gradually disappear, I quietly returned to bed. However, early the next morning, I was woken by the sound of arguing outside. I opened the door half-asleep and saw Ethan’s parents sitting on the sofa with ashen faces. They must have seen today’s trending topic. “Get Claire Summers out of New York right now!” Ethan’s father said sternly. “What the hell was that video of her crying in a bar last night? The shareholders are all asking about this!” “She was the one who abandoned you and went abroad back then, Ethan, so don’t be foolish, and now she’s actually using such low tactics to ruin your marriage with Lily!” “If you don’t clean this up properly, don’t blame Carter Group’s official channels for blacklisting her!” After dropping those words, Ethan’s father left. Ethan clenched his fists and turned around with red eyes, only to suddenly see me. “Honey?” A trace of panic flashed through his eyes. “The trending topic has nothing to do with me, and Claire is already engaged to Sebastian Ford, so I don’t know why she keeps pestering me like this.” “I’ll handle this properly.” Ethan had already been gradually taking over Carter Group, and after this incident, he seemed to have truly gone head-to-head with the Ford family. He personally dragged me into several couple endorsements for the company, improved the corporate image, and secretly stole the Ford family’s business to pressure Sebastian into sending Claire away. Until one month later. That day, a group of us had just finished gathering at a private club, and when Ethan and I opened the door of the private room, Claire suddenly stumbled out from the end of the hallway. She wore a white dress, her clothes were disheveled, and there were scratches and blood marks on her face.
“Ethan, save me! Please save me…” This scene felt so familiar. It made me feel as if I had returned to five years ago, and I had to admit that Claire in college was like a wild crabapple blooming in barren soil, stubborn and proud. That was why Ethan had fallen for her. She gritted her teeth and used all her strength to grab Ethan’s sleeve, but after seeing me, her entire body stiffened before she hurriedly lowered her head, let go, and stepped back. “Ms. Bennett, I didn’t mean to, and I’ll leave New York right away and never again…” A tear fell from the corner of her eye, and she clenched her fists and closed her eyes. “I’ll never appear in front of Ethan again.” Then she turned and limped toward the door. Looking at her back, as if she were the only person left alone in the world, I was stunned. Mainly, I never expected that Claire would one day become scheming enough to stage a scene like this and frame me. Her acting was so convincing that it was as if I had really sent people to teach her a lesson and warn her to stay away from my husband. On the surface, she was asking Ethan for help, but in reality, she was shaping me into a sinister, vicious woman. But she was now Sebastian Ford’s fiancée, and the Bennett family could not afford to offend the Ford family at all. I forced out a mocking smile and turned to observe Ethan’s reaction. His face was expressionless, making it impossible for me to see what he was thinking. “I heard Carter Group blacklisted her, and her company is about to go bankrupt, so she’s been begging people everywhere lately.” Ethan took my hand and smiled coldly. “What does that have to do with me?” After we got in the car, I tested him again. “Then Ethan, about what just happened… do you also think I did it?” But he held me in his arms. “I believe it wasn’t you.” I nodded. After all, the Ford family was someone neither Carter Group nor Bennett Group could afford to offend, and I was not that stupid. And Ethan had witnessed me barely making it step by step from the edge of bankruptcy to where I was today, so he should understand better than I did how much I cherished the present. However, the next day, four hundred million dollars was suddenly transferred out of my account! Bennett Group was about to go public, and that four hundred million almost determined whether Bennett Group lived or died! I called Ethan, but no one answered, so in my panic, I drove straight to his company to find him. When I pushed open the office door, I saw Claire sitting there with tears streaming down her face, and the wounds on her face had just been bandaged. Ethan sat beside her and lifted his head to meet my gaze. “Four hundred million dollars was suddenly transferred out of my account, and was it you…” Although I already had a guess in my heart, I wanted to hear Ethan admit it himself. “I took it.” “Why?” Coldness seeped through Ethan’s eyes. “Claire’s company owed four hundred million, so I helped her pay it back.” Even Claire raised her head in shock, pulled out her phone, and immediately checked her company’s repayment records. The assistants beside them exchanged looks. I looked at Ethan in confusion. But I saw him tighten his grip on Claire’s hand beside him and protect her behind him like a guardian. “Lily Bennett, this is what you owe her!” After saying that, he threw a stack of documents hard onto the coffee table, and photos scattered across the floor with a rustle. The first photo showed Claire at the club, being pinned to the floor with someone’s foot on her face, her white dress covered in filthy cigarette ash, her clothes disheveled, and her eyes unfocused. The second photo showed her being yanked by her long hair, her chin forced open, as if she was being fed some kind of drug. The third photo showed extreme terror all over her face, and her neckline had been roughly torn open, exposing her collarbone and the edge of her underwear. Among the opened documents were two fingerprinted confessions, where two thugs admitted in black and white that they had been instructed by me to “teach Claire Summers a little lesson…” He actually believed such a cheap frame-up.
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