I was the stand-in who looked most like my husband's first love. He put me through countless plastic surgeries, both major and minor ones, until I became her exact likeness.

But then, she came back from the dead. All it took was her saying, "I don't like anyone looking like me," and he sent me right back to the operating table once more.

I begged him, telling him that my body couldn't handle it anymore. Alas, he only looked at me with irritation. "Seeing that cheap imitation of her face just disgusts me," he sneered. "No matter how close you come, you'll never be her."

In the end, I died on that operating table. Yet, he went mad, trying desperately to recall what I once looked like.

His First Love Returned from the Dead

The anesthesia had taken hold, and my consciousness was slipping away. I couldn't even speak another word of pleading.

However, my mother, Maria Lane, clung to that last shred of hope. She went down on her knees before Spencer Legrine, bowing and sobbing as she begged, "Spencer, I'm begging you. Please don't do this to her. Bethany is still your wife…

"She has already endured hundreds of plastic surgeries, both major and minor ones. The last time she fainted and was admitted to the hospital, the doctor warned us not to let her undergo any more plastic surgeries in private clinics, or she wouldn't be able to take it. She could die!"

She yelled the last sentence out, her voice hoarse. She kowtowed so hard that blood dripped from it, and she was in agony.

However, Spencer just stood there, merely glancing at his watch, his expression impatient.

He didn't even move until his phone rang, and then his eyes brightened, and all his irritation vanished as he answered gently, "Yunice, what's wrong?"

"Why aren't you here yet?" Yunice Bippy's voice was laced with annoyance. "It's only plastic surgery. Do you really need to stay there for so long? Just sign the papers and hurry over. I'll only wait another half hour."

Her tone, no matter how sharp it was, didn't stir a hint of anger in him.

I couldn't help but wonder, 'If it was me, if I showed even a hint of displeasure, he would walk away without a word and give me the silent treatment for several days.'

Only after I begged and apologized would he spare me a grudging "Don't do it again."

As it turned out, he wasn't cold by nature. He just didn't love me.

After the call ended, he ignored my mother's cries entirely. His mind was solely on Yunice as he eagerly signed the surgery consent form.

She threw herself at him, biting his wrist in a desperate, protective rage.

He shook her off, sending her frail body crashing into the cold wall, where she collapsed and coughed violently. She still managed to gasp out, "You can't do this to Bethany! You'll kill her!"

At her words, a mocking smile twisted his lips. "Mrs. Frodo, you really don't know Bethany at all, do you?

"If I told her to go through with the surgery, she'd do it without question. Even if I ordered her to eat dirt or die, she'd do it with gratitude.

"She's nothing but a dog, following me everywhere I go. I only married her because I thought Yunice was dead and needed someone to pacify my family. Did you two actually take this seriously?"

He turned and left. His retreating figure suddenly looked so unfamiliar. How could this be the man I had loved for over a decade?

His voice drifted back, cool and indifferent. "Once her surgery's done, I'll divorce her right away. Yunice deserves her rightful place."

My mother slid down the cold wall and collapsed on the floor, wailing in despair.

In the operating room, the machines hummed ominously in my ears.

They removed a section of rib that had been grafted into my nose, melted away the unknown filler embedded in my forehead, and shaved down my jawline—one that had already been reshaped countless times…

I felt my soul tearing, slipping in and out of my body.

The pain was so intense, but I no longer had the strength to care. All I could do was stare distantly at Spencer's retreating figure.

A bitter smile tugged at my lips.

'Spencer, a dead woman can't divorce you. Your precious first love is destined to be nothing but a "second wife" now. How laughable.'

The Story of How I Met Him

I was 14 the year I met Spencer.

Back then, I was still the second daughter in the Bippy Family.

I had been abducted and brought to the Bippy Family by human traffickers, only because I looked so much like Yunice. Edward and Melinda Bippy had lost their biological daughter, so they took me in as a replacement.

The first time Spencer saw me, he only frowned, saying, "She looks like Yunice, but she doesn't have Yunice's charm."

He didn't like me. To him, I was a stranger, a stand-in. Yet, I was captivated by him, and the stirrings of first love took hold of my heart.

Later, the Bippy Family found their biological daughter and cast me out.

Left to fend for myself at a young age, I spent almost a year begging on the streets that I was so thin I looked like a child under ten. Finally, one day, I met my mother.

She wiped the grime off my face as she looked at me with pity written across her face. "Poor girl, you must be starving."

The bread she handed me was the best thing I had ever tasted.

From then on, I lived with her in a cramped rental room and ate instant noodles soaked in cold water. Though she barely had a penny to her name, she worked herself to the bone to make sure I could go to school.

It turned out that Yunice, Spencer, and I ended up in the same class. They were adored by all—high above the rest, while I was seen as dirt. I was shunned and isolated by everyone.

Spencer, however, would sometimes toss me the milk he didn't like to drink, saying, "Look at how scrawny you are. Drink up and put some weight on."

And so, I kept my love for him alive for many more years.

Later, Yunice fell in love. She was willing to give up everything she had for the man, but it led to a tragic end.

That summer, she brought her brief, dazzling life to a close by the sea, leaving behind only a jade bracelet for Spencer.

After her death, she became everyone's perfect memory.

For the next six months, Spencer drifted between drunkenness and sobriety, unable to escape his grief.

I ran into him one night while working at an internet café. In his drunken haze, he mistook me for Yunice.

After a fleeting night of passion, I woke to find him bare-chested by the window, smoking a cigarette. I shifted slightly, and he turned, gazing at me with a distant look, as if seeing another person through me.

"You really do look like her," he said softly. "Will you marry me?"

My heart skipped a beat, and I felt my cheeks flush with heat. Nervously, I met his eyes, ignoring the part where he called me a "stand-in."

All I knew was that this man, who had filled every corner of my youth and whom I had loved for so long, was proposing to me.

Like a commoner finally graced by the gods, I became Yunice's shadow completely.

The jade bracelet she left behind became a leash that was worn on my wrist.

To perfect the illusion, Spencer put me through countless plastic surgeries until I became her exact likeness.

I thought my face was enough to keep him next to me forever, but then she came back one day, and my dream shattered.

…

The cause of my death was complicated.

During surgery, I had severe bleeding and a vascular embolism, which led to facial nerve necrosis.

I ended up just like Spencer's discarded dog, a broken body shrouded in a white cloth. My miserable life was brought to a swift and unceremonious end just like that.

Maria lay on top of me, crying until she lost consciousness multiple times.

The greatest regret of my life was disappointing her. She wasn't even my biological mother, yet she treated me as her own.

I had promised to give her a better life, but my foolish heart left her with nothing but shattered hopes.

She handled my burial affairs in silence.

My body, which was so ravaged and deformed that it no longer resembled a human form, was ultimately buried and reduced to dust.

Finally, Spencer remembered me. Amid the thick smoke of candles, he called Maria.

His tone held an irritated edge. "Why isn't Bethany answering her phone? Tell her to bring the jade bracelet over tonight. It's precious to Yunice. After all these years, she has already gotten more than enough wear from it," he added.

Maria put the phone on speaker and couldn't help but let out a bitter laugh. "Mr. Legrine, have you forgotten? Last year, Bethany told you that the bracelet is stuck on her arm because she has grown. It caused her great discomfort, but she couldn't take it off. To remove it would mean breaking it."

"Impossible." Spencer's tone turned cold. "The jade bracelet must not be damaged. If she can't remove it, cut the flesh. That should create a little space!"

The wind stirred Maria's graying hair. She stared at the phone screen, a bitter laugh breaking from her throat.

"Fine. I'll take it off and bring it to you tonight."

"Oh, and bring the documents," he added. "We'll finalize the divorce paperwork tomorrow."

They Humiliated My Mother

When Maria arrived at the villa, Yunice was throwing a party.

The villa I had carefully designed and decorated was now covered in chaotic splashes of paint. The outer wall of my room had the word "Wretch" smeared across it in red paint.

As soon as Maria stepped inside, a bucket of filthy water was dumped over her head.

Pinching her nose in mock disgust, Yunice sneered from a distance, "Well, look who's here! Isn't this the mother of that wretch? With the same filthy blood running through her veins, she's bound to be just as vile!"

Laughter filled the room. Maria fell to her knees in humiliation, her bloodshot eyes fixed on Yunice.

"Bethany only has her 'beauty' because she underwent plastic surgeries to look like me. If she actually looked like you, it would be laughable. She'd be a total disgrace."

"A wretch will always be a wretch. All she knows how to do is imitate me, seduce my man, and steal my family."

Yunice's face was full of smugness, her expression dripping with contempt.

Maria trembled with rage, her bloodshot eyes locked on Yunice. She almost lunged at Yunice, hands ready to grab her throat.

However, Spencer appeared.

He carefully wiped a speck of paint off Yunice's hand. "You need to be more careful."

"Seeing her mother just makes my blood boil," Yunice muttered. "Where's my stuff? I want that woman to kneel and hand it back to me."

Spencer looked behind Maria.

Not seeing me, he frowned. "Where's Bethany? Didn't you hear what Yunice said? Call her and tell her to come over here right now."

His tone was commanding and arrogant. He glanced at Maria as if she were a servant.

Maria stared at him before a bleak smile crept onto her face. "Bethany is dead."

…

Silence filled the room.

Even Spencer frowned, his gaze hardening. "What do you mean, dead?"

He took a step forward, crouching down with a flicker of hesitation in his expression.

For a moment, I thought maybe he cared, and that he would at least feel sorry after finding out I was dead.

However, as my spirit lingered near him, Yunice's mocking laughter broke the silence. "Dead? Dead! Hahaha…"

She covered her mouth, laughing wildly. "What a joke! You think she'd actually kill herself? She finally snagged the title of Mrs. Legrine and got to enjoy a lifetime of glory and wealth. No way she'd give that up! I bet she's just making this up to avoid a divorce."

"Exactly. She wouldn't be dead." Yunice's younger brother, Jeremy Bippy, added, "Just this morning, we got a birthday gift from her for our dad, which was a golden figurine."

His face twisted in disdain. "She might look like my sister, but she thinks she's part of our family now? Even her gifts reek of poverty. My dad thought it was bad luck and threw it right in the trash immediately."

I trembled and froze in place.

During those years living with the Bippy Family, I had addressed Yunice's parents as "Mom" and "Dad" because I genuinely treated them as my own.

However, they had never truly accepted me. After Yunice died, Melinda came looking for me, longing for someone who reminded her of her lost daughter. I rebuilt my connection with them, but when Yunice "returned" from the dead, their warmth turned to indifference.

Yet every year, I sent birthday gifts to them in the name of repaying them for those few years they took care of me. I never thought those gifts would become a burden to them.

Maria looked down, gripping the jade bracelet so tightly her knuckles turned white. She repeated in a hoarse voice, "She really is dead. Believe what you want."

Spencer stood up, letting out a contemptuous snort. His cold gaze showed a hint of impatience. "She'll do anything to avoid divorce, huh? She really has no dignity at all, does she?"

He rubbed his temples, sarcasm filling his gaze. "If I agreed not to divorce her on the condition that she had to kneel and bark like a dog, she'd probably do it, right?"

"Spencer—" Maria looked up in disbelief. "How can you say that?"

Yunice's eyes gleamed with excitement. "Why don't we play a little game?"

She kicked Maria square in the chest, sending her tumbling back. "You're always talking about how much you love that tart, aren't you? I'll let her continue being my substitute and won't need her to divorce Spencer, but you'll have to kneel and bark like a dog for her. How about it?"

Cheers erupted from the crowd, their faces twisted in cruel anticipation. They huddled around and waited eagerly to hear Maria give in.

Maria clenched her hands so tightly that blood began to drip, staining the ground red.

"What are you waiting for? Bark!" Spencer ground his heel into her hand and crushed it with force.

At last, she raised her head, looking at this crowd of monsters.

The woman who had always sought peace and never raised a hand in anger suddenly broke Yunice's jade bracelet.

Taking one of the jagged pieces, she slashed it across Yunice's face.

A scream tore from Yunice's lips.

Maria, like a wild beast, pushed to her limit and lunged at her again, aiming the shard at her eyes.

"I'll kill you!" she screamed, her bloodshot eyes blazing with fury.