At Anastasia's birthday party, Sheldon's friends surrounded me, pushing a specially mixed cocktail in front of me. "Ariel, Sheldon says he loves watching you drink. He says it gives you a certain allure."

Sheldon looked away, pretending not to see.

The moment the alcohol touched my lips, a bitter taste filled my mouth, and a wave of nausea washed over me.

But Anastasia held me down, forcing another glass to my lips. "Ariel, it's my birthday. Don't be such a buzzkill. Don't tell me you're disgusted by me!"

A sharp cramp tore through my lower abdomen, the pain so intense it stole my breath.

Sheldon's friends were jeering from the sidelines, treating me like a spectacle.

After a few drinks, I rushed to the restroom and threw up violently. A wave of triumphant laughter erupted from the private room; their prank had worked.

"Stomach still upset?" Sheldon handed me a glass of warm water with mint leaves, a little trick he’d taught me for settling an upset stomach when we first met.

I couldn't respond to his hollow affection, because the pain in my abdomen felt like a thousand needles stabbing me from the inside.

I looked down. A shocking trail of red snaked down my inner thigh.

I gripped Sheldon's arm, my voice a desperate plea. "Take me to the hospital..."

But Anastasia blocked the doorway, a smirk on her face. "It's just an irregular period. It happens to girls all the time. Sheldon, don't overreact."

"Get out of the way!" Sheldon roared.

It was the first time he had ever defied Anastasia for my sake.

When I woke up, I heard Anastasia's petulant voice complaining to Sheldon's friends outside the examination room. "Did you add too much? We were just supposed to embarrass her, not actually hurt her."

Nate, however, just chuckled. "Getting rid of a little problem is a good thing, isn't it? Sheldon should be thanking me."

"Yeah, it's been three years. If she'd had a kid, Sheldon would have been stuck with her for good."

Sheldon was silent for a long time before he finally spoke. "Humiliate her, fine. But none of you were to lay a hand on her."

Anastasia was stunned for a moment, then her voice filled with rage. "Who was it that said, 'I want to knock that bookworm off her high horse' to get back at her for me?"

"Publicly humiliating her for my birthday—wasn't that your idea? Sheldon, have you fallen in love with her?"

Sheldon recoiled as if the very idea was poison. "How could that be possible? Of course, it's you I love."

The room outside immediately filled with laughter and cheerful voices again.

They celebrated the end of the ninety-eighth humiliation and started planning the ninety-ninth.

I touched my flat stomach, a dull ache still lingering there.

My baby and I were just another part of their game, a birthday surprise for Anastasia.

I wiped away my tears and, with trembling fingers, canceled the abortion appointment. There was no need. The baby's own father had already signed its death warrant.

My fingers were hovering over my dad's contact number when the door creaked open. Sheldon. I snapped my eyes shut, my breathing instantly shallow as I feigned sleep.

I heard his hoarse voice, thick with guilt. "Ariel, I'm so sorry..."

The reason for his apology was obvious.

After I recovered and was discharged, Sheldon told me that Nate, the others, and Anastasia wanted to apologize. They had arranged for us to go to a new VR game experience event together, to help me "clear my head" over the loss of my child.

I knew this was almost certainly another humiliation, but the thought of my lost baby twisted my heart into a knot of grief.

After this, I would be leaving for Berlin. I would treat it as a final farewell.

On the way there, they all crowded around Anastasia, laughing and fawning over her, completely ignoring me.

When we passed a souvenir shop, Sheldon bought a custom USB drive shaped like a game controller. He insisted we engrave a blessing for our child on it together.

Anastasia stood by, smiling gently. "Ariel, you're such a good mother."

I ignored her hypocrisy.

Inside the VR experience center, I was suspended on a platform mid-air, immersed in the virtual world, when I suddenly felt the safety buckle behind me come loose. Someone had unfastened it.