My boyfriend Hudson’s childhood friend is a social media influencer who specializes in "prank" videos. The first time, she deliberately flashed her bikini photos to him while I was sitting right there, secretly recording his reaction. The second time, she let her towel slip in front of the camera during a FaceTime call to see how he'd react. The third time, under the watchful eyes of everyone at a party, she suddenly grabbed him and kissed him on the mouth, laughing it off with a breezy explanation: "Don't be mad, Miranda! It's just a 'Kiss Your Best Friend' challenge for my channel!" This time, it was at our proposal party. She grabbed the microphone, her eyes rimmed with red. "Hudson, I'm pregnant." The entire room fell into a dead silence. Hudson froze. Then, she burst into a loud, mocking laugh. "Gotcha! Just kidding!" But right at that moment, a row of glowing, translucent text floated across my field of vision, like a live chat stream: [Girl, wake up! This time it's actually real!] [The night you two had that massive fight because of the kiss and went cold turkey? He got wasted and slept with her!] I stared blankly at Hudson, who was quietly letting out a sigh of relief. A cold smile touched my lips. "I'm pregnant too," I said softly. "And it's not yours." … 01. The face of Manhattan's golden boy instantly turned a dangerous shade of ash. "Miranda, say that again. I dare you." He grabbed my wrist, a dark, raging storm brewing in his eyes. I looked at him, completely calm. "Just kidding." But Hudson's anger only flared hotter. He gripped my shoulders hard, his voice echoing through the silent room. "Miranda, you think a pregnancy is something to joke about? Are you messing with me?!" I glanced over at Lexi. Then I looked back into Hudson's cold, menacing gaze, a faint smirk playing on my lips. "Why? Lexi can joke about it, but I can't? How many times has she made a fool out of you? Why aren't you angry at her?" My nails bit into my palms. I forced down the crushing ache in my chest. Hudson stiffened. The aggressive fire in his eyes died out instantly. The guests shifted uncomfortably, barely daring to breathe. I took a deep breath, pushed him away, and turned to leave. Behind me, Lexi's loud, scoffing voice carried across the room. "Oh, so this tantrum is directed at me? Is she crazy? I was just trying to add some flavor to their proposal party. Was that really necessary?" She raised her voice, making sure every word reached my ears. I wasn't about to pretend to be deaf. I snatched a bottle of champagne from a passing tray and smashed it violently at Lexi's feet. She shrieked, jumping back. "Miranda, you're insane!" I gave her a polite, empty smile. "I was just trying to make the party more exciting. Was that really necessary?" Infuriated, Lexi grabbed a heavy wine bottle from the table and lunged to throw it at me. As I braced to dodge, Hudson suddenly threw himself in front of me, locking me in a tight embrace. The heavy glass bottle struck the back of his head with a sickening thud. Shattered glass rained down, and blood immediately began to pour down his neck. "Hudson! Oh my God, call 911!" The crowd erupted into chaos, rushing toward him. And I, standing in the middle of the madness, calmly dialed the police. At the precinct, Lexi refused to back down, loudly claiming I had started the fight. But the security footage was clear: I had targeted the floor; she had aimed directly at a human head. Lexi shook with rage. "Miranda! Are you really not going to let this go until I'm locked in a cell?" "Shouldn't you be held accountable for what you do?" I asked quietly. Just then, Hudson walked in. He should have been in the ER. "Officer, I'm the victim here," Hudson said, his voice flat. "I want to drop the charges. We're settling this privately. She doesn't need to be detained." Lexi's eyes welled with tears, and she threw herself into his arms, sobbing dramatically. Hudson's body went rigid as he looked at me, his lips parting as if to explain. I simply smiled, picked up my purse, and walked out into the cool night air. The autumn breeze cleared some of the fog in my head. Hudson caught up with me quickly. "Miranda, wait! Just hear me out!" He grabbed my arm, his tone laced with a familiar, impatient frustration. "It was just a stupid spat. Did you really have to take it this far?" The floating text flickered across my eyes again. [Just got back from reading the future chapters—the countdown starts now.] [She's going to apply for that three-year medical aid program in Southeast Asia, but she'll let him torture her emotionally for another two weeks before actually breaking up!] A bitter laugh escaped my throat. Why wait for a countdown? "Hudson, let's break up." The arrogant, untouchable smirk on his face completely froze. He narrowed his eyes. "Break up? Are you kidding me?" 02. We didn't see each other again until a week later. Hudson blocked my car in the hospital parking garage. His imposing frame hovered over me, his voice raw and laced with irritation as he cornered me against the driver's side door. "Miranda! What the hell are you still mad about?" I had been with Hudson for three years. In the beginning, I knew exactly what this was: a rich heir’s passing amusement, a game he wanted to play. If he hadn't crashed his motorcycle and ended up in my clinic that day, our worlds would never have crossed. He was relentless in his pursuit, and I didn't have the energy to fight him off. I figured I would just wait until he got bored and let the relationship die a natural death. But when did I start falling? When did I become foolish enough to think we actually had a future? I blinked back the sting of tears and took a deep breath. "The night Lexi said she was pregnant... was she really just joking?" Hudson let out a harsh, incredulous laugh, shaking his head. "Are you serious? You've been freezing me out for a week because of that?" "Miranda, I've told you a thousand times! We grew up together. She's like a sister to me. Honestly, I don't even see her as a woman!" The comments flashed rapidly in front of me. [Liar! That time she sent him the bikini pic, he stared at it and saved it to his private folder!] [And she cornered him in the restroom at that club to get him alone. He smirked and asked her when she got so bold, and she literally teased him, asking if he wanted to find out!] [When she dropped her towel on camera, he cornered her in a bathroom later and told her to stop playing those games. His face was pure jealousy, not brotherly concern.] My chest tightened, making it hard to breathe. I looked up at him, meeting his patronizing stare with a cold, mocking look of my own. "Then tell me. The night we had that fight—the night I walked out—where did you go after you got drunk?" The usually unbothered, wealthy heir suddenly looked cornered. He ran a hand through his messy hair, taking a sharp breath before speaking. "Fine. I admit I went to Lexi's place that night." "But I already explained this to you! Making those stupid videos is her job. She does it for views, she didn't mean anything by it! But you had to make a scene, slamming the door and walking out in front of all my friends. Do you have any idea how that made me look?" "I was angry, and I went over there to spite you. But nothing happened between us!" His dark eyes searched mine, filled with an anxious sincerity I had never seen in him before. "Babe, I swear to God, I would never cheat on you." [Well, he's technically not lying. In his mind, he just got blackout drunk and passed out at her place.] [She lied and told him nothing happened, and he actually believed her. He has no idea she's actually pregnant with his kid!] I looked into his eyes. "Why did you drop the charges against her?" He looked at me like I was speaking a foreign language. "She's my friend, Miranda. Was I supposed to let her go to jail?" "If she had hit me with that bottle instead of you, would you still have dropped the charges?" Hudson fell silent for a moment. Then he muttered, "No. If she hurt you, I'd make her pay." I laughed. Perhaps my laughter was too sharp, because his brows furrowed, and he leaned in to kiss me—a hard, punishing kiss. "Fine, I didn't handle the boundaries well. I admit that. But don't you dare think about breaking up." I closed my eyes, too exhausted to fight him. "Let's make a bet." "If you can prove what you just said—that you'd make her pay if she hurt me—I'll take back the breakup." 03. Lexi's account uploaded a new video. "Title: Announcing I'm Pregnant at my Best Friend's Proposal Party to See the Bride's Reaction!" A few normal viewers commented: "This isn't funny. It's incredibly disrespectful." Her army of fans immediately swarmed the comments, hounding the users until they deleted their posts. I shut off my phone, getting ready to leave after my shift. The comments floated up again. [Miranda, run! Someone is waiting to jump you.] [Lexi made a fake account and told her fan club that you beat her up and put her in the hospital.] [Her rabid fans hired some local thugs. They're waiting in the hospital garage right now!] An alarm blared in my head. Instead of taking the elevator, I crept down the fire stairs. Sure enough, there were three shady-looking men loitering near my car. I snapped a quick photo of them and dialed Lexi directly. She seemed surprised to hear from me, but her tone quickly turned smug. "Hudson and I are at a friend's estate for a pool party. You want an invite?" When I arrived, they were in the middle of a loud, drunken game of Truth or Dare. The crowd was chanting for Hudson and Lexi to share a one-minute kiss. Seeing me walk in, Lexi smirked and wrapped her arms around Hudson's neck, leaning in. Hudson immediately pushed her off, looking at me with a mix of panic and eager submission. "Babe, what are you doing here?" He stepped forward to wrap his arms around me, but I stepped right past him and slapped the photo onto the table in front of Lexi. "Your doing?" Lexi glanced at it. A flash of guilt crossed her face, but she quickly masked it with a cold scoff. "Are you out of your mind? What is this trash?" I stared her down. "Lexi, I thought you crossing boundaries and throwing yourself at someone else's boyfriend under the guise of 'pranks' was the lowest you could go." "I didn't realize you literally had no bottom line." "Let me make this clear: I am not a pushover. If you try to use these disgusting, cowardly tactics to hurt me again, I will ruin you." The entire room went dead silent. To Hudson's friends, I had always been the quiet, rational doctor who never lost her temper. When Lexi kissed Hudson in public before, I had simply grabbed my bag and left without a word. They never expected me to humiliate Lexi so fiercely in front of everyone. The atmosphere turned incredibly tense. Hudson tried to soften his voice, reaching out to soothe me. "Babe, there has to be a mistake here..." I let out a bitter laugh, holding up my phone. "A mistake? Did I hire these thugs myself?" "She incited her fans to attack me. If I hadn't noticed them in time and slipped away, what do you think would have happened to me tonight?" My voice shook with raw anger. Hudson sighed, pulling me toward him. "Miranda, calm down. You weren't actually hurt. And a photo doesn't prove anything. For all we know, someone is trying to set her up..." The last thread of my patience snapped. I shoved him away with all my strength, screaming, "Do you remember promising me that if she ever hurt me, you'd make her pay?!" "So what, I have to be kidnapped, beaten, or assaulted before you'll believe me?!" "Hudson! I don't care if you believe me or not! You can let her trample all over our three years together, you can let her run wild in our lives, and you can believe her lies blindly!" "But you do not have the right to stop me from protecting myself!" I was shaking violently, completely pushed to the brink. Hudson had never seen me like this. Lexi bit her lip, looking at Hudson with a face full of tragic victimhood. "Hudson, we've known each other for twenty years. Are you really going to let your ex-girlfriend stand here and humiliate me like this?" She suddenly grabbed a wine bottle, smashed it on the table, and held a jagged edge to her wrist. Hudson panicked. He shoved me aside, rushing to wrestle the broken glass from her hand. "Are you insane?!" She collapsed into his arms, sobbing hysterically. "Let me go! You're a jerk, Hudson! I hate you!" I watched the spectacle. With a cold, mocking laugh, I turned to walk away. Terrified, Hudson broke away from her and lunged to grab my wrist. "Miranda, wait!" "Get lost!" I swung around and slapped him hard across the face. "Don't you ever come near me again." As I slammed the door behind me, I heard Hudson's furious roar from inside the house. "Miranda, if I ever chase after you again, I'm a goddamn dog!" 04. Our ugly breakup became the talk of our social circles. A few days later, my hospital colleagues invited me out for a karaoke night to cheer me up. As I walked past a VIP lounge down the hall, I heard my name. "Who does Miranda think she is, slapping Hudson like that?" "Hudson's a billionaire heir. He was just playing around with some middle-class doctor, and she actually thought she was special." "Well, she got nothing out of it. Not a single cent of a parting gift." I ignored them and walked into the restroom. But as soon as I turned on the faucet, the lights suddenly went out. Everything went black. When I regained consciousness, I was lying on the couch in the very lounge I had just passed. My body was completely heavy, and I couldn't even summon the strength to make a sound. The men standing over me were Hudson's friends. One of them leaned over, studying my face, a sleazy grin spreading across his lips. "Are we sure about what Lexi said? This doctor is hot as hell, but if Hudson actually cares, he'll destroy us." Another guy snorted. "Lexi said she's just trash Hudson threw away. Don't believe me? Watch." He pulled out his phone, dialed Hudson's number, and put it on speaker. Hudson's impatient voice came through the line. "What?" The background on his end was loud, filled with music and laughter. He was at a club. "Hey, man, we're over at the Blue Night Lounge tonight. Guess who we ran into?" "Your ex, Miranda!" There was a pause on the other end. Then, Hudson's cold, detached voice responded. "So? What's that got to do with me?" The guys exchanged thrilled glances. "Well, she insisted on coming into our room to have a few drinks with us. We couldn't even stop her." "Just wanted to check in with you first. We wouldn't dare touch your ex without your green light." I fought with everything I had to scream, but my lips were entirely numb. My throat felt closed shut; not a single gasp of air could escape. Then, Hudson's sneering, indifferent voice echoed through the speaker. "Do whatever you want. What she does is none of my business." "I've already moved on." The line went dead. The guy holding the phone smirked. "See? Hudson's got a new girl. She's nothing to him now." He grabbed my hair, forcing my head back onto the leather cushions. A cold shiver ran down my spine, and hot tears spilled over my temples. One of the other guys hesitated. "Hey, maybe we shouldn't actually do anything. We all know Hudson's temper. He almost proposed to her. Let's not cross the line." In the end, they didn't touch me sexually. Instead, they brutally tore open my shirt, exposing my shoulders. One of them slapped my face hard to force me to look at the lens, while the other snapped photos and videos. I heard the shutter clicks. I heard the blood rushing in my ears, a roaring, desperate sound of pure helplessness and fury. They dumped me out of a car onto the empty street in the dead of night. It was past 3:00 AM. My coworkers probably assumed I had left early because I wasn't feeling well. My phone was full of missed calls. I sat on the cold curb. Suddenly, brilliant fireworks erupted in the night sky over the city harbor. In the midst of the glittering light, I buried my face in my hands and sobbed uncontrollably. Glowing text began to drift across my vision again. [That absolute trash of a male lead is literally putting on a massive firework display for Lexi right now to announce they're together. I'm sick to my stomach!] [Lexi is already planning her next 'prank' video. She's going to use a fake number to pretend to be Hudson, begging Miranda to get back together, just to publicly humiliate her when she agrees.] [If Miranda actually takes him back after this, she deserves what she gets.] I stared blankly at the comments floating in the dark. The fog in my mind cleared, replaced by a cold, sharp resolve. You love pranks, Lexi? Fine. Let's play.
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