“She lost a shoe running away. Wonder if it hurt walking barefoot on that gravel road.”

“I saw Diana working a KTV shift last time. Made her drink a whole bottle.”

“Turns out she's allergic to alcohol. Her face swelled up like a balloon and they had to pump her stomach. Hilarious.”

Photo after photo of me at my most pathetic.

Humiliation after humiliation, exposed and recorded.

Strung together, they were my three years of exhaustion and shame.

My eyes ached from staring at the screen too long.

I turned away, trying to untangle the web of connections.

After Marlin's cancer diagnosis, he'd been depressed every day.

I hadn't wanted to add to his burden.

So I carried everything alone, in silence.

When I got off work late, or when the injuries were too bad to hide,

I'd downplay things so he wouldn't worry, giving him just enough of the truth.

Every time, he'd look at me with reddened eyes and say,

“Diana, you've worked so hard.”

I'd joke that I was just having a run of bad luck.

Work wasn't going well. Doors kept closing in my face.

He'd laugh softly and pull me into his arms.

“That's because you met me and used up all your good luck.”

“When I get better, I'll give it all back to you—double.”

When he said those things, Marlin's expression was so impossibly gentle.

Gentle enough that I couldn't help imagining our future together, over and over again.

How could I have known, back then?

The man I loved, the one who shared my bed, was the source of every misfortune.

My heart was pounding.

Old wounds, layered over years, throbbed beneath my skin.

I curled into myself the way I used to as a child, making myself as small as I could.

I held it in, and held it in again.

The tears came anyway.

I was useless.

Couldn't save Grandma Evelyn. Couldn't hold on to the man I loved.

Someone like me.

It was like I was born without the ability to have happiness.

After I cried myself out, I felt a little lighter.

I was also a little hungry.

I went to the kitchen and boiled myself a bowl of instant noodles.

When I opened the fridge, Marlin's carefully packed lunch box was still sitting inside.

The carrot diced into tiny, meticulous pieces.

Every shrimp peeled and lined up in a neat row.

Before, these small gestures had always moved me.

I'd taken them as proof that he loved me.

Now, looking back.

These habits must have come from his time with Christina.

Christina didn't like carrots. Didn't like getting her hands dirty peeling shrimp.

When she was little, her father had always done it for her.

Must be nice, being the bad guy's daughter.

Loved by someone your whole life.

I threw the lunch box in the trash.

Then, hardening my heart, I cracked two eggs into my bowl.

Before, I'd thought of Marlin as a sick man. Every good thing went to him first, to keep his strength up.

Not anymore.

A full bowl of noodles warmed me from the inside.

I was about to call the wedding company to confirm the arrangements

when the hospital called.

“Ms. Henson—your grandmother killed herself at the hospital!”

The words hit like a bolt of lightning splitting open a clear sky.

I didn't stop to think. I grabbed a cab and rushed to the hospital.

Grandma Evelyn's bed was empty.

The young nurse who'd been looking after her stood there, guilt written across her face, holding out a letter.

“I'm so sorry, Ms. Henson.”

“She found out somehow that your boyfriend has cancer.”

“She didn't want you to carry that kind of burden, so she chose to end her life……”

My hands were shaking as I opened the envelope.

Crooked, unsteady handwriting, every line telling me to live well with Marlin.

Inside the envelope, there was also a stack of loose bills.

Three thousand, six hundred and eighty-one yuan.

God knows where that stubborn little old woman had scraped it together.

Marlin Gilbert's spur-of-the-moment prank.

And it cost my grandmother her life.

The nurse saw me sobbing and came over, eyes red herself.

“Miss Henson, please don't grieve too hard.”

“Your grandmother was a good woman.”

“Before she passed, she asked us to tell you not to observe mourning for her. She wanted you to marry soon and build a family.”

“She said she'd lived long enough to be grateful, and in life or death, her only wish was for you to be happy.”

Those few sentences cut like a knife dragged across skin.

I looked at the empty hospital bed.

Two lines of tears slid down my face again.

Could I really still be happy?

Someone like me—could I really still be happy?

I didn't know the answer.

All I knew was who had caused this.

And that they would not walk free.

My tears hadn't even dried

when my phone buzzed with a string of messages.

“Sis, are you really that desperate to get married?”

“The wedding company's confirmation texts are coming to my phone.”

“Christina blew up at me over this. Get over here and sort it out with her—now!”

I didn't reply.

Ten minutes later, another message came through.

“The wedding company says you put a lot of effort into this ceremony.”

“Do you……really like me that much?”

“If that's the case, I suppose I can do you the favor of showing up and fulfilling your grandmother's last wish.”

Grandma Evelyn would never have wanted me to marry a man like him.

She told me once, while she was still alive.

She wanted to stay by my side forever. She didn't want to lie alone in some desolate patch of nowhere.

After she died, she wanted her ashes buried near the old house.

So that house—I had to take it back.

I blocked Marlin Gilbert's number.

Then I kept right on preparing for the wedding.

And I sent invitations to the entire Pruitt family—including my father.

Christina was livid when she received hers.

She called me specifically to scream at me.

“Diana, are you completely shameless?”

“Marlin never liked you. You can throw yourself at him all you want—it won't change a thing.”

“Don't forget I still have those photos of you.”

“Keep this up, and I promise I'll give you a wedding you'll never forget!”

Christina's phone was full of humiliating photos of me from years past.

Back then, those photos were a blade held to my throat.

Now, they would become the evidence that convicted her.

The wedding went ahead as planned.

Marlin Gilbert and Christina Pruitt showed up right on cue.

The two of them found my dressing room early, before the ceremony.

Through the closed door, Marlin's voice was full of affected exasperation.

“Diana, I know you really like me.”

“But someone of your status simply isn't qualified to marry me.”

“Just go apologize to Christina properly, and I'll figure out some way to explain things to your grandmother.”

“No need.”

The door swung open.

I stood there in my wedding dress, facing Marlin in silence.

I caught a flash of stunned admiration in his eyes.

And behind him, something far deeper in Christina's—jealousy, raw and undisguised.

Bullying me had become second nature to her.

Today, she didn't even care about the guests down the hall. She lunged straight at me and grabbed for my hair.

“You little slut, seducing Marlin right in front of me?”

“If I don't claw that pretty face open today, my name isn't Pruitt!”

I smiled.

Bright as daylight.

“You know what, Christina? You're absolutely right.”

“You're right—you really don't carry the Pruitt name.”

The lights behind me came on.

A man in a groom's suit walked toward me, smiling.

“Diana, that thing you needed,I found it for you.”

Marlin and Christina both turned around, suspicion sharpening their faces.

The moment they recognized who it was, the suspicion collapsed into raw fear, and neither of them moved.