Emily Carter once threw herself in front of a car to save me, shattering her leg, and yet in her most critical moment, I abandoned her.

When she later limped to find me, she witnessed me falling in love with someone else.

She clutched my hand, demanding to know why I treated her that way.

I splashed wine into her face. “Because you’re crippled! You have no money, no ability—did you think I’d let you drag me down forever?”

Emily collapsed to the ground in tears. With her heart already dead inside, she accepted treatment, recovered, and then began to build her own business.

Five years later, through ruthless means and cunning strategy, Emily rose to become the richest entrepreneur in America.

The very first thing she did after her success was to seek revenge. She wanted me to repay the money I owed her—tens of thousands—at her engagement party, just to humiliate me.

But the one who came to repay her wasn’t me. It was my mother—because I had already been dead for five years.

“Emily, the auspicious hour is here. We should start the ceremony,” Brandon Reed said, holding Emily in his arms with tender joy.

“Wait a moment. I must sever the past before I can peacefully become your bride.”

“If that bastard Ethan Brooks doesn’t return the money, I’ll burn down his family home. I mean what I say.”

As her words fell, an old, shabby figure caught her eye, utterly out of place among the elite guests.

People recoiled from her, covering their noses and glaring at her like she was a beggar.

“What are the security guards doing, letting a filthy vagrant in here?”

“God, the stench! Get her out of here!”

Several guards rushed over to seize my mother, but she quickly held up the invitation.

“Let me go! I was invited by Emily Carter.”

“Ha! What a joke. You think Ms. Carter would invite trash like you? Who do you think you are?”

“Never seen such shameless arrogance before!”

“Stop standing around—drag her out and toss her back in the gutter.”

“Yes, ma’am!” The guards struck my mother several times and kicked her to the ground.

Furious, I rushed forward, trying to fight them off. But everything I did was useless—my soul was transparent. I had been dead for five years.

“Stop!”

Emily, clad in a luxurious custom-designed gown, walked over with graceful steps. She looked down at my kneeling mother and splashed red wine onto her face.

“Why is it you? Where is he? I wanted Ethan Brooks to come pay me back. What’s wrong—was he too scared to face me, so he sent you instead?”

She sneered. “He never imagined that I, Emily Carter, would become the wealthiest woman alive. Do you regret it now?”

My mother’s reddened eyes brimmed with grief and helplessness. She shook her head with sobs.

“Ethan… he can’t come. He’ll never come again.”

Breaking free, she pulled a red plastic bag from her pocket and took out two stacks of bills.

“I’m here to repay you on Ethan’s behalf. This is twenty thousand—count it.”

Emily snatched the money and smacked it against my mother’s head.

“Pathetic. Only twenty thousand? Do you think I’m a fool?”

“Five years ago it was twenty thousand. Now it’s five hundred thousand.”

“What? How could it increase so much?”

“That’s interest!”

“But I don’t have that kind of money. Even this twenty thousand I earned by working as a janitor and collecting bottles.”

“Emily, please don’t do this.”

“Sorry. I’m a businesswoman—I only care about profit.”

She straightened her back, scanning the room as if searching for someone.

I knew she was looking for me. I let out a bitter laugh.

“Ethan Brooks, come out here and repay every cent you owe me. You abandoned me when I was crippled, then threw yourself into the arms of wealthy older women. Don’t tell me you don’t have money to pay me back.”

The crowd fell silent. No one dared provoke the fury of the billionaire queen.

Minutes passed, but I didn’t appear. Her anger blazed higher.

“Fine. If you won’t come out, I’ll take your mother instead.”

Emily kicked my mother to the ground, then pressed her sharp heel into her hand, grinding hard.

My mother cried out in agony, tears streaming down her face. I frantically tried to push Emily away.

Stop it! Her heart is weak—you’ll kill her!

But no one could hear me. My voice was swallowed in despair.

“Well? Will he come out and pay me back?”

My mother stared at Emily in disbelief, her face filled with sorrow.

“My son Ethan is dead. He can’t come.”

Emily, furious, stomped harder, drawing blood from my mother’s hand.

“Hah! He’s perfectly fine—he just doesn’t want to pay me back. You’re lying, aren’t you?”

“You two disgust me.”

The guests began to mutter curses.

“That man was a coward, abandoning Ms. Carter when she lost her leg. He’s worse than an animal.”

“Look at his mother, shielding him even now. Disgusting.”

“Don’t pity her—if anything, Ms. Carter isn’t being harsh enough.”

Emily kept her gaze on the door, disappointment flashing across her face when I didn’t arrive. She had the money picked up and forced into my mother’s mouth, bill after bill.

“Ethan, are you watching? If you don’t want her dead, you’d better come out.”

“If you don’t return the money by tomorrow afternoon, prepare to collect her body.”

My mother coughed blood, staining her clothes red. On the ground, barely alive, I sobbed and begged Emily to stop.

I never betrayed you. If you hate me, unleash it on my soul, not her!

But my hoarse cries never reached her.

Mom, get up, please! Don’t sleep! I’m sorry—it’s all my fault.

Curled on the ground, my mother’s eyes closed faintly, her breath barely there.

“My… son… Ethan… he wasn’t unfaithful to you.”

I fell to my knees, reaching to hold her, but Emily had her dragged away and locked up.

She wanted to use my mother’s life to force me to appear. Patience was never her strength.

“Ladies and gentlemen, the engagement party is canceled. I’ll choose another date.”

Emily left those words behind. Brandon Reed, face heavy with disappointment, caught her hand.

“Emily, don’t go. I know you still can’t let him go—you call his name every night in your sleep.”

“You’re wrong,” she sneered. “When I call his name, it’s because I want to kill him in my dreams.”

“Then why cancel the engagement party?”

“I told you—my knot of hate hasn’t been undone. I’ll never let it go.”

“Don’t worry. I won’t make you wait long.”

In the crowd, whispers spread.

“Feels like Ms. Carter isn’t really here to get engaged—she just wanted to use it as an excuse to force her ex to appear.”

“You think so too?”

“Of course. That bastard deserved death. No sympathy for his mother either.”

“Sigh, whether god or devil, no one escapes love. Same for us mortals.”

My soul followed the path where they carried my unconscious mother. Emily immediately called for her family doctor to resuscitate her.

“She can’t die yet—I haven’t forced him to come out. Save her.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

Emily stood outside, lighting a cigarette, sadness leaking through her eyes before it hardened into bottomless hatred.

“Ethan Brooks, you’re truly cruel—even to your own mother. That’s why you kicked me away like trash when I was hurt.”

She glared out at the city lights. “I don’t believe you’ll keep hiding. Just wait—I’ll be harsher than you. When I find you, I’ll break your leg. Let’s see how you like it.”

I stood behind her, sighing at her unyielding back.

Was this lingering affection—or a cursed bond reigniting?

I remembered five years ago, when she had nearly died saving me from being hit by a car. Even before her wounds had healed, she came to me, but I slammed the door in her face.

She had cried outside, begging me not to leave her, promising she wouldn’t drag me down.

I hired a woman to stage an act with me, taunting her: “You’re crippled, what courage do you have to say you won’t be a burden?”

She clung to my leg, refusing to leave, until I kicked her away and she fainted.

My chest clenched painfully as I watched her carried into the ambulance. That was the last time I saw her alive. I only wanted her to survive, even if she hated me.

But now, not finding me, she turned her hatred onto my mother.

The next day, she brought my mother—fresh from resuscitation—to my home.

The house was bare, without anything of value.

Emily sneered. “Wasn’t he kept by some rich woman? Why do you live like this?”

My mother stayed silent, staring at my photo on the wall.

Emily snatched it down, smashing the glass, then tore the picture apart.

“No! That’s my last memory of Ethan. Please, don’t!”

“Don’t call me your daughter-in-law. Do you think your family deserves me?”

At that moment, a furious voice thundered through the door.

“Emily Carter, stop this right now!”

Emily froze, a flicker of joy flashing before it vanished. It wasn’t me.

It was my best friend, Daniel Ross, rushing in to lift my mother from the floor.