The truck driver would rather go to jail than pay. My father’s hair turned white overnight, and he collapsed in his hospital bed, exhausted from working late into the night.

I lay awake all night, hating myself for giving my true love to someone I never wanted, and also hating my own naivety.

It took losing my legs to see things clearly.

“Renee, what are you doing standing here in this scorching heat? Get in the car.”

Derek’s thoughtful reminder pulled me out of my memories.

Seeing that hateful face, I wanted to rush over and slap him hard. But one slap wouldn’t be enough.

In this life, I would make them all pay.

“Derek, I can’t go on this trip with you.”

I frowned, pretending to be embarrassed.

“What’s wrong?”

Derek’s face filled with concern.

Of course, I wanted to cut ties with his family as soon as possible. But I couldn’t say that out loud.

“Derek, the betrothal gift is being cut from 200,000 to 100,000. My dad agrees, but my aunt objects.”

“She says our Foster family has never given such a low betrothal gift, and we’ll be the laughingstock of the whole village.”

At the mention of money, Derek’s face darkened noticeably.

“But didn’t we already agree? Besides, the engagement is tomorrow. We can’t come up with that much money now.”

“I never even met your aunt when I visited your house before. Why is she suddenly against it?”

I sneered inwardly.

Yeah, he didn’t know. In my previous life, my aunt was against it. I got engaged under pressure and kept it a secret from her.

“Renee, the 100,000 is all I borrowed from others. Another 100,000 would cost me my life.”

“Everyone in the neighborhood knows about this. If anything goes wrong over the betrothal gift, how can we save our family’s reputation?”

Derek’s mother cried, “Taking out a loan to buy a house in the city is already a huge burden. You’re almost 30—why do you still listen to your family?”

“Her aunt is a bit too controlling,” Derek’s brother muttered quietly in the back seat, thinking I couldn’t hear him.

Derek’s sister-in-law, however, took my hand and offered some advice.

“Renee, it hasn’t been easy for you and Derek to get this far. It would be a shame to break up over what others think.”

“You live your life for yourself, not for others.”

When he preaches great truths, he sounds like an expert.

Yes, you shouldn’t live your life for others to see.

But his brother and sister-in-law took out a loan to buy a used BMW just to impress people. To avoid being laughed at, they act affectionately in public but fight behind my back.

He’s become a joke himself—and yet he comes to preach to me.

I didn’t expose his words, just nodded awkwardly. “Yes, I know what you mean.”

“But my aunt also wants me to live a good life.”

“You know, my mother passed away early, and my father worked away from home. It was my aunt who raised me. I can’t let her down.”

“But I love Derek deeply, and I know your situation. I’ll talk to my aunt when I get home.”

“You guys should go, or your camping tickets will be forfeited.”

I urged them to hurry. After all, if we were any later, we wouldn’t have caught the car accident.

“Well, I’m sure you can convince your aunt.”

Derek pondered for a moment, fastened his seatbelt, and started the car.

He seemed mysteriously confident in my love for him.

As soon as they left, I called a ride-hailing app.

I really needed to go back to my hometown.

After getting in the car and giving my phone number, I was thinking about how to tell my dad when I felt a sudden tap on my shoulder.

“Renee Foster?”

Taking a closer look at the person in front of me, I almost cried out. It was my college classmate, Sienna Young.

We had been part of a small group, but he and Derek had a falling out for unknown reasons and left the group.

He dropped out soon after, and we lost contact.

Seeing we were acquaintances, he opened up and began to talk.

When he mentioned that incident, his face still held a trace of anger.

“That day, we went to a bar. I had my eye on a junior girl, and Derek offered to help me hook up.”

“But he ended up sleeping with her himself that night.”

“I treated him like a good friend, but he treated me like Cousin Eddie from National Lampoon’s Vacation series." How could I not beat him up?”

I remembered that day clearly.

I had gone back to my hometown, and Derek lost contact with me all night.

He said he was playing games and not checking his phone, and eventually went to bed because he was too tired.

At the time, Derek and I were secretly together and didn’t want our counselor to know, so no one else knew.

When I asked him why he got beaten up, he lied and said it was a misunderstanding.

Later, he claimed the junior girl who was looking for him was a suitor. Now it seemed she wasn’t attracted to him but was there to hold him accountable.

I clenched my fists, my nails digging into my skin.

He had always pretended to care, but I never expected him to cheat on me back in college.

“You didn’t know, but we’re getting engaged tomorrow.”

I pulled out my headphones and spoke softly.

“Huh? You two are together?”

Sienna was stunned, but after years in the real world, he didn’t try to hide it.

“That doesn’t matter. I wouldn’t dare call him a bad person to his face.”

“But I don’t get it, Renee. You’re fair-skinned, beautiful, and smart. Why did you end up with him?”

“I don’t think he’s a good person.”

“Are you saying I’m blind?” I asked.

He raised an eyebrow, neither confirming nor denying.

“I think so, too.”

“Huh?”

He was about to say more when a sudden buzzing sound came through my headphones.

Then I heard the voice of Derek’s brother.

“Derek, why is your partner talking about the betrothal gift the day before the engagement? What’s the point?”

I hadn’t expected them to be talking about me.

I turned up the volume on my headphones.

Derek’s car CD player had a monitoring device.

I hadn’t installed it—he did when he first bought the car.

He was afraid I’d cheat on him during business trips.

Later, he seemed to forget about it.

I found these headphones while cleaning the house before the engagement.

In my previous life, I was too busy preparing for the engagement to question him.

It wasn’t until after my amputation, when I was heartbroken and clung to this one item, that a fellow patient told me it was a bug-in headset.

At that moment, I felt like a complete joke.

“If you ask me, she might have gone to visit her ex under the pretense of going home.”

“No, brother, why bring that up all of a sudden?”

“What are you talking about?”

Denver Tate’s hoarse voice spoke with conviction.

“Don’t you know? Many people, before getting engaged, secretly see their exes to make love, to avoid regrets.”

“She comes back saying she’s talked with her family. We take advantage of it, and she enjoys the thrill. Who loses out? Silly brother.”

“No way. I’ve watched her for years. She hasn’t had much contact with the opposite sex.”

“Silly brother, things happen when people are most vulnerable. You haven’t dared touch her for years. If she’s been with someone else before the engagement... it would be a shame for you to have such a life...”

No wonder Derek always accompanied me or picked me up at every party.

I thought he cared, but it turns out he was spying on me.

“No way.”

Derek’s cold interruption shocked me.

But his next words made my blood boil.

“Even if I feel sorry, what’s there to be afraid of?”

“She keeps saying she’s a virgin. I’ll force her into bed tonight anyway.”

“By then, whether she’s a virgin or not, or whether the betrothal gift is enough, she won’t have a say.”

“If it really doesn’t work out, I’ll just dump her for cheating.”

“Dump her? Son, you two are getting engaged tomorrow. Are you kidding? Where else will you find someone as good as her after you dump her?”

“Oh, Mom, can I really dump her? I’ll just fake it.”

“She’ll definitely beg me with tears, and I’ll reluctantly accept. Maybe I can even reduce the betrothal gift. More importantly…”

“From now on, she’ll be half a head shorter than me.”

I hate Derek.

I hate him for choosing me over my family.

I hate him for being so treacherous.

Before, I always thought he was just bowing to reality.

Now I see he’s truly terrible and deeply malicious.

In my previous life, I was truly blind.

“Son, you’re clever for getting the enrollment done right.”

“Tsk, to be honest, if it weren’t for her good job—meaning you’d have less work—I wouldn’t even want to accept the 100,000 dollars betrothal gift.”

In my previous life, they listened to me about everything—from the betrothal gift to the wedding plans.

I thought they were a good family.

It turns out they only saw my bright future and were afraid I’d run away.

This scheme even reached her grandmother’s house.

But I sneered.

You want me to sleep with you after dinner?

I don’t care.

That depends on whether you can survive until nightfall.

Perhaps the speaker was too loud, because Sienna, sitting in the driver’s seat, heard everything.

His face flushed with anger as he cursed,

“Fuck! This family is so shameless!”

“No, sister, they’re already like this… and you still want to get married?”

“Don’t worry about it now. Their car is just ahead. Follow them.”

Sienna urged me to call them, give them a good scolding, cancel the wedding, and never have anything to do with each other again.

I didn’t understand why I felt so calm, but I insisted on following them.

I wasn’t going to question or argue.

I just wanted to see them suffer with my own eyes.

Sienna was a skilled driver.

He passed several cars in a row and quickly caught up to Derek’s Volkswagen.

Then he followed slowly behind.

“When we get there, get out of the car and give him a big slap.”

He made a slapping gesture.

I shushed him, telling him not to follow too closely.

“With my driving skills, I won’t lose him. Don’t worry.”

Despite saying this, he still kept a respectful distance.

I had to protect myself, or at least avoid getting splattered with blood from a car accident.

Sienna hummed along to the music, oblivious.

The surrounding cars drove calmly in orderly lanes.

Everything seemed normal.

But only I knew that silence always comes before a storm.

The scene of the accident was ahead.

In my previous life, a crash happened at the fork in the road just ahead.

A mix of fear and anticipation tightened in my chest.

Now, the time, the place, and the people were all exactly the same.

I watched as Derek’s car entered the fork.

But the truck didn’t arrive on time as it had before.

Just as I was lost in thought, I completely failed to notice the truck speeding past behind me at lightning speed. It was moving so fast, its front end tilted slightly as it cut across the road ahead of me...

“Holy crap...” Sienna shouted, gripping the steering wheel tightly.

A sudden blast of horns erupted, threatening to shatter my eardrums.

Everything was exactly like in my previous life.

But this time, I didn’t expect the truck to slam on its brakes.

Its massive front end barreled toward our car...