1 In the middle of a crucial video call, my long-silent high school group chat erupted. Someone tagged me repeatedly: "Aria, Lily is getting married today—aren't you coming?" Messages poured in: Lily Evans, our class beauty, was getting married, and seemingly all our old classmates were there. "Sorry, work is too busy. I can’t make it," I replied, sparking instant backlash. "Busy? You never post. Your life must be a mess." "Too embarrassed? Just admit it." Lily herself wrote: "Remember our bet? I said I'd marry a man far more successful than yours." "I don’t remember," I replied truthfully, which only fueled the attacks. "Lily’s husband is a CEO! He arranged over a hundred luxury cars for the wedding!" "Is your husband so bad you're pretending to forget?" "Can’t even afford a gift? Need a GoFundMe?" Amid the insults, Lily tagged me again, pretending kindness: "I wish you could come, Aria. I’d even ask my husband to get you a cleaning job here." She then posted a wedding photo with her new husband. I froze. The man in the photo was my own husband, Ethan Harvey. “Fine,” I typed. “I’ll be there to witness your happy moment.” The moment I sent the message, a text from Ethan came through. “Hey, babe. I’m heading back to my hometown today to see my parents. I made you dinner and left it in the fridge, you just have to heat it up.” “I love you forever, honey.” Ethan had married into my family three years ago, and he’d always taken meticulous care of me. Even when he traveled, he made sure everything I needed was prepared. I used to be touched by these thoughtful little details. Now, they just seemed pathetic. I cut the video conference short. Following the wedding location Lily had posted in the group chat, I drove to her hometown. From a distance, I could see a massive red banner strung across the front of her family’s house. “A WARM WELCOME TO MR. ETHAN HARVEY, CEO OF APEX CORPORATION!” Beneath the banner, Lily stood in a stunning, custom-made white gown, anxiously awaiting her groom. She was surrounded by a crowd of our old high school classmates. “Lily, you kept him a secret for so long! We had no idea your fiancé was the CEO of Apex!” “Seriously, Ethan Harvey is a legendary entrepreneur! You’re amazing for landing such a high-value man!” “Lily, you’re about to be a billionaire’s wife! Don’t forget about us when you’re living the high life!” Even our old high school homeroom teacher was there, fawning over her. “Lily, the first time I saw you, I knew you were destined for greatness. That’s why I never criticized you for your poor grades. I knew you were born for wealth; you didn’t need to rely on academics!” Basking in the flattery, Lily’s smile widened, her eyes filled with smug satisfaction. For years, Ethan had been little more than a kept husband. To give him some experience and a title, I had put him in charge of Apex Corporation, the smallest of my subsidiary companies. I never imagined it would become the source of Lily Evans’s bragging rights. The moment they saw me arrive, the fawning classmates’ faces soured. One of Lily’s little minions noticed the car I was driving and strutted over, sneering. “Aria Sterling, you’re so desperate. Did you really rent a Bentley just to save face at Lily’s wedding?” The others chimed in with their own contemptuous remarks. “No wonder she had the guts to show up. She’s just here to front. Renting that for a day must’ve cost you three months’ salary, right?” “Some people will do anything to look important. No matter how rich you pretend to be, you’ll never be richer than Lily’s husband!” “Seriously, is it that hard to admit someone is more successful than you? Was your pride really worth the cost of a rental?” I remained unfazed by their insults. “This is my car.” As soon as the words left my mouth, Lily strode up to me and slapped me hard across the face. “Your car? This is my husband’s car, you bitch!” she shrieked. “I always suspected he was keeping some slut on the side. I should have known it was you!” “You shameless homewrecker! How dare you drive my husband’s car to my wedding to provoke me, his actual wife?” Her accusation made everyone’s eyes go wide. “Lily, this car belongs to your husband? Are you serious?” Lily’s expression was pure arrogance. “Of course, it is.” She pulled out her phone and showed them a series of photos of her and Ethan. There were intimate selfies of them inside the car, and cozy pictures of them sitting on the hood. The interior details and the license plate were crystal clear in the photos. It was identical to the car I was standing next to. A wave of murmurs went through the crowd. “It really is her husband’s car! That means Aria Sterling is the other woman!” Lily’s face was contorted with rage. “No wonder you never post anything online. You’ve been busy being a professional mistress.” The others turned on me, their eyes filled with disgust. “I can’t believe it. Aria always acted so high and mighty, but she’s just a common slut.” “And to think I had a crush on her in high school, the cold, brainy type. I even wrote her a love letter. It makes me sick just thinking about it now.” “It’s always the ones who act so pure and distant. Behind closed doors, they’re probably desperate for it. They see a rich man and just spread their legs.” “And she had the nerve to drive her sugar daddy’s car to his own wife’s wedding! She’s obviously just jealous that Lily is marrying well and came here to ruin everything!” Even our old teacher looked at me with scorn. “Aria Sterling, if you’re ever out in public, do not tell anyone you were my student. I never taught anyone with such depraved morals.” The accusations and condemnations drew a crowd of onlookers, all pointing and whispering. Some even started recording me with their phones, a few spitting in my direction. I took off my jacket—a piece worth over ten thousand dollars—and tossed it into a nearby trash can. Then I faced Lily directly. “I suggest you ask Ethan Harvey very carefully who the mistress is and who the wife is.” Her response was another sharp slap. “Do I need to ask? Can’t you see this is my wedding day with Ethan?” she screamed, then turned her fury on my car. “I hate homewreckers more than anything in this world. All of you deserve to die!” She pulled a key from her purse and viciously carved a single word into the side of my car. WHORE. I glanced at the ugly scar on the paint. “You’re going to realize very soon just how ironic that word is,” I said, my voice ice-cold. My calmness only enraged her further. “You bitch! You steal my man and then you have the nerve to mock me? The thought of a slut like you driving my husband’s car makes me want to vomit!” She snatched a brick from the side of the road and began smashing it against my car. The windows, the headlights, the hood—she attacked every part of it with savage intensity. “Lily’s the future Mrs. CEO of Apex Corporation! We can’t let her be bullied by a low-life mistress like Aria!” someone in the crowd shouted. That was all the encouragement they needed. They all grabbed whatever they could find—rocks, branches, anything—and joined in, smashing my car with frenzied glee. After breaking the windows, they even climbed inside, slashing the leather seats and destroying the interior. In moments, my pristine luxury car was a mangled wreck. I watched the mob, my eyes cold as steel. “I hope you’re all this enthusiastic when it’s time to pay for the damages.” No one paid me any mind. It was as if I wasn’t even there. Just then, Lily’s minion pried open the trunk. “Hey, look! She’s got a bunch of fancy stuff in here!” Lily walked over and pulled out a framed painting, her lip curled in a sneer. “A woman who sells her body for money is trying to be a sophisticated art collector? How pathetic.” I issued a sharp warning. “Be careful. Those things are worth a lot more than the car. Especially that painting.” The items in my trunk were collectibles I had recently acquired at an auction and hadn't had a chance to move to storage. My warning only fueled Lily’s fire. “For a piece of art to be owned by a slut like you is a desecration,” she spat. “Trash like you only deserves trash!” With that, she ripped the canvas to shreds right in front of me. She threw the tattered remains on the ground and stomped on them with her heels. Our old teacher peered at the destroyed painting. “Wait… I think that was a genuine Monet. I heard pieces like that start at fifty million dollars at auction!” Lily was unfazed. “So what if it’s fifty million? It’s all my husband’s money anyway! And his money is my money. What’s wrong with me destroying my own property?” I was speechless. Not only was Ethan a penniless man who had married into my family, but his incompetence at Apex had actually caused the company’s value to drop by nearly half. If he wasn’t my husband, I would have fired him ages ago. Yet, to Lily and these old classmates, he was a revered and powerful CEO. With Lily leading the charge, the others eagerly joined in, destroying every last item in my trunk. There’s no point reasoning with a pack of wolves. Since they were lost in their destructive frenzy, I stopped trying to warn them. I quietly pulled out my phone to call the police. Before I could even dial, Lily lunged at me, snatched the phone from my hand, and smashed it on the ground. “Calling the cops? A homewrecker who preys on other women’s husbands has no right!” she sneered. Then her eyes locked onto my neck. “That locket… it looks expensive. I bet my husband bought that for you, too!” In one swift, violent motion, she ripped the necklace from my neck. It happened so fast I didn’t have time to react. My demeanor instantly changed. “Give that back to me,” I demanded, my voice low and dangerous. Seeing my sudden panic, Lily’s smirk widened. “So nervous? This must be worth a pretty penny, huh?” “It’s not valuable,” I said, my voice tight with urgency, “but it’s important to me. Give it back. Now.” I lunged for it. That locket was a protective charm my mother had given her life to get for me. I had been a sickly child, and at four years old, I fell into a coma. The doctors told my parents to prepare for the worst. My mother, unable to accept it, went on a pilgrimage to a great cathedral to pray for me. To show her sincerity, in the scorching forty-degree summer heat, she crawled on her hands and knees from the bottom of the holy mountain to the shrine at its peak. She crawled until her knees were raw and bloody, until her head was bruised and she was nearly unconscious, all to obtain this blessed locket for me. Perhaps heaven was moved by her sacrifice. Miraculously, I woke from my coma. But my mother fell ill from the ordeal and never recovered. Before she died, she placed the locket in my hand and made me promise to always keep it safe. I have treasured it my entire life, never taking it off. It was the last piece of my mother I had left. It was my breaking point. And I would not let anyone destroy it. “The more you want it, the more I want to destroy it!” Lily taunted. Before I could reach her, she threw the locket to the ground with all her might. With a sickening crack, the delicate piece shattered into a dozen fragments, scattering across the pavement. “No!” Seeing the one thing my mother had died for destroyed so carelessly, I felt a pain so sharp it stole the air from my lungs. “You are an animal!” I lost control. I lunged forward and slapped Lily across the face with all my strength. “You fucking bitch, you dare hit me?” she shrieked, clutching her cheek. “Get her! Teach this slut a lesson! Whoever does the best job gets a million dollars!” That was all the incentive the mob needed. They descended on me, kicking and punching. “How dare you hit Lily? She’s the future Mrs. CEO of Apex Corporation! Who the hell do you think you are?” “It was just a stupid necklace! You probably earned it on your back anyway. Just sleep with a few more men, and you can buy another one. What’s the big deal?” “Shameless mistress! First you steal another woman’s husband, and now you attack his wife? You really think you can get away with it?” Even our old teacher snuck in a couple of kicks while I was down. I was beaten to the ground, shaking with rage. “You will all regret this!” I spat through gritted teeth. My threat was met with howls of laughter. “This isn’t high school anymore, Aria! You think being the top student makes you special?” “You’re nothing but trash society left behind! A prostitute threatening us? That’s hilarious!” “A mistress needs to know her place! When you get hit, you stay down!” “You shameless whore! Stealing a classmate’s husband… have you no decency? If I were you, I’d have killed myself by now!” They pinned me to the ground, taunting and humiliating me as the crowd of onlookers continued to spit and jeer. Lily, surrounded by her adoring followers, stepped forward and ground her heel into my face. “Regret? I’ve never regretted a single thing in my life. I can’t wait to see how a pathetic slut like you is going to make me regret anything!” Just as the words left her mouth, a fleet of over a hundred luxury cars screeched to a halt in front of the crowd. The doors opened, and Ethan Harvey, followed by a team of men in sharp suits, stepped out.
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