In an instant, Michelle felt a wave of nausea rise in her throat and wrenched herself out of his grasp.

‘What does this guy take me for—some plaything? Or is this just another one of his shameless ploys?’

The thought made her sick to her core. She had once grown softhearted because of this very man—let her heart falter, let herself lose control. Now, she wanted nothing more than to slap herself awake.

Forcing her emotions back under control, she deliberately widened the distance between them. Her tone carried a new coldness.

“Mr. Stuart, you’re already engaged. Even if you won’t think of me, at the very least, you should consider appearances.”

His expression instantly darkened. After five years by his side, Michelle could read him too well—he was angry.

But so what? He was no longer the boy he once was, and she owed him nothing anymore.

“It’s only because I can sleep better with you nearby. Dr. Burnell, don’t flatter yourself too much.”

She let his barbed words fall without response. Instead, she smoothly shifted the conversation to business.

“Mr. Stuart, we both signed a confidentiality agreement. I can keep my silence, but I expect you to keep your own people under control. Don’t let this turn into an ugly spectacle.”

Stuart’s gaze locked on her, sharp as a nail hammered into wood.

After a long, heavy silence, he finally ground out his reply.

“My people are my responsibility. But Dr. Burnell, you’d better keep that mouth of yours shut. If you don’t, I’ll make sure you regret it.”

At that, Michelle nearly laughed bitterly. ‘Regret? Oh, I’ve been regretting it for years.’

She regretted softening toward him five years ago over a shred of supposed kindness.

She regretted letting herself be swayed a year ago by his false plea to stay.

But in the end, she said nothing. Instead, she turned briskly on her heel and left without a single word of farewell.

Outside the door, Janet was waiting. As Michelle brushed past her, she caught the woman’s hissed words.

“This isn’t over.”

And Janet made good on that threat almost immediately.

Michelle’s projects were all suspended. On Stuart’s side, with Janet constantly present, she no longer had any obligations left to suffer through.

For the first time in a long while, she found herself with nothing to do. Yet the sudden emptiness felt foreign. After some thought, she decided to go home to see her parents.

But the moment she pushed open the door, her mother greeted her with a storm of curses, her father demanded she kneel and apologize without even asking what had happened, and there on the living room couch sat Janet—smug and gloating.

“She seduced my husband. You two really ought to discipline your daughter. Oh, and I heard your son is interning at my company. With a sister like her, I can’t help but wonder if his character will turn out rotten too.”

Her words had barely fallen when Jamie, Michelle’s father, snatched up a broom and swung it at her.

Meanwhile, Ada, her mother, was already holding Janet’s hands, begging not for her daughter’s sake but for her son’s.

“Oh, Ma’am, please don’t be upset. This wretched woman brought it all on herself! We cut ties with her long ago! Our boy is nothing like her. He’s perfect! I swear! You can trust me on that!”

Watching this humiliating display, Michelle could only laugh at the absurdity.

She had always known her parents had a favorite child. She had never expected much from them. But she hadn’t thought they would go this far—for an outsider and for the sake of their precious son.

Seeing her mother abase herself, Michelle suddenly surged to her feet. She strode forward, pulling her mother upright, her voice ringing with fury.

“I did not seduce her husband! Can’t you stop listening to just one side of the story?!”

At that, Janet seemed satisfied with the chaos she had stirred. Rising leisurely, she tossed out one last remark.

“Since she refuses to admit her mistakes, I’ll leave it at that. But whether your son stays or not—that depends on you.”

With that, she swept out, shutting the door behind her.

The sound had hardly faded when Jamie’s hand cracked across Michelle’s cheek, sending her sprawling to the floor.

“No one gives a damn about what affair you’ve made for yourself! Do you even know how much we sacrificed—how many connections, how much money—just to secure your brother’s place in that company?”

Ada, equally furious, yanked her by the arm and spat, “Shameless slut! Go after that woman right now and apologize!”

And so, once again, Michelle was thrown out of her parents’ house—just as she had been at seventeen.

Just like before? The storm raged outside.

After everything crashed down on her, one blow after another, she no longer had the strength to fight back. She simply stood there, motionless and soaked to the bone.

She didn’t know how much time had passed before a figure appeared, walking toward her beneath the shelter of an umbrella.

The scene was hauntingly familiar. So was the man.

At that moment, Stuart’s silhouette overlapped with the memory of the boy she once knew, and all the emotions she had fought to bury broke loose.

“Why? Tell me why!” Her voice cracked, trembling with rage and sorrow. “Back then, you were the one who came to me first. You begged me, clung to me, pleaded with me to stay! And now? Stuart, what gives you the right to treat me like this?! How dare you let others humiliate me?!”

By the time her questions ran out, her voice was already shaking.

Stuart said nothing. Instead, he suddenly stepped forward and pulled her into his arms.

But in the very next second, Michelle understood—he hadn’t changed at all. He was still the same Stuart as ever, a guy who thought only of himself.

“This marriage alliance is very important to me.” Stuart’s voice brushed against Michelle’s ear, low and pressing. “You have to understand it. Don’t cause trouble for me at this time. Once I marry her, things between us can still go back to the way they were.”

‘Ha.' Michelle almost laughed aloud. ‘The way we were? Does he mean I should continue being at his beck and call when he needs me, only to be tossed aside once he’s basking in marital bliss?’

Who was truly deluding themselves here? She certainly didn’t recall ever agreeing to be with Stuart in the first place.

“Janet is the Brewsterss’s only daughter. She was raised like a princess, pampered since childhood. Naturally, she’s a little spoiled. Why must you—”

Michelle didn’t let him finish. She stepped out from beneath the umbrella, no longer caring.

Walking aimlessly against the pounding rain, water spread coldly across her face.

Suddenly, a car sped past, splashing up a sheet of dirty water that drenched her completely.

The window rolled down. In the back seat, Janet looked just as smug as ever while Stuart remained indifferent, as if he hadn’t seen a thing.

“Just great,” Janet sneered. “It’s pouring, I’m already pissed, and now some lowlife wants to get hit.”

She gestured to the driver. “Come on, let’s go.”

The tires cut through another puddle, spraying water again. This time, Michelle stepped back quickly, avoiding it.

‘From now on,’ she told herself, ‘I’ll do the same in life—step away, avoid every disgusting entanglement tied to them.’

When she finally returned to her rented apartment, Michelle sat down and began sorting through Stuart’s medical records from the past five years.

As a psychologist, her conscience was clear. Even though her license had been suspended, she wanted to fight for herself. If she could no longer stay with her institution, she could at least open her own clinic.

But she had underestimated Janet’s dirty games.

Just as Michelle finished organizing the files and was about to send them to her, her phone rang first.

“Michelle!” Alfred’s stern voice snapped through the line. “Didn’t you sign a confidentiality agreement with Mr. Stuart? Why has your matter blown up on trending topics?!”

Heart pounding, Michelle hurried to open the link her mentor had sent.

A second later, her phone slipped from her hand and hit the floor.

It was over. Someone had exposed Stuart’s secrets!

And as if that wasn’t enough, the smear campaign painting her as a mistress hadn’t even died down yet. Now, the two scandals had merged, skyrocketing together on the trending list.

The Huggetts and Brewsterss were already magnets for attention, and the online posts were dripping with insinuations.

They endlessly praised Janet and Stuart as a perfect match while painting Michelle as nothing more than a delusional gold-digging mistress. The comments repeatedly emphasized her and Stuart’s doctor–patient relationship, twisting the knife deeper.

The public’s opinion exploded. Insults poured in like a tidal wave.

Within just a few hours, Michelle’s real identity was dug out and plastered online. She was on the verge of complete social ruin!

“Michelle? Dr. Burnell!” her mentor’s anxious voice called again from the other end. Michelle blinked back into focus. “This can’t blow up any further. If it does, the industry association will sanction you! You need to go to Mr. Stuart immediately and have him suppress the trending topic!”

Michelle remained silent for a long time, staring at the neatly organized files in front of her. Suddenly, she let out a bitter laugh.

‘Go to Stuart? From the very beginning, isn’t this entire mess likely orchestrated by him and Janet?’

Michelle had stood by Stuart for five years—she knew him too well. Nothing he didn’t want, nothing he didn’t permit, could ever make it past his watchful eye. Now that the scandal had been trending for hours, how could he possibly be unaware?

But she said none of this. Instead, she softly apologized to her mentor and submitted her resignation on her own.

After hanging up, Michelle ignored the flood of harassing calls and the stream of abusive text messages.

She opened her chat with Stuart and saw the message he had just sent.

[Behave yourself. Wait quietly.]

‘So, he knew. Of course, he knew,’ Michelle sneered inwardly.

Her fingers gripped the phone so tightly they turned pale, her whole body trembling with rage.

‘Five freaking years. This is what I got in return for dedicating myself to treating him for five years?!’

Disappointment crashed over her like a relentless tide, drowning her until nothing was left but numbness.

She powered off her phone and slowly collapsed onto the floor. She didn’t cry. She was simply… too exhausted.

The next day, Stuart and Janet appeared together in front of the media.

When Michelle first came across the interview online, she intended to scroll past it. But the moment she heard the reporter mention her name, her hand froze, and she forced herself to watch until the very end.

As always, Stuart stood before the flood of cameras with his calm, detached composure.

Beside him, Janet lightly hooked her arm through his, her lips curved in a perfectly measured smile.

Soon, the barrage of questions came crashing down.

“Mr. Stuart, is it true what’s trending online—that you’ve been receiving long-term psychological treatment? And regarding the rumors that your doctor, Michelle Burnell, interfered in your relationship with Miss Janet—can you give us a direct response?”

“Miss Janet, were you aware of Mr. Stuart’s condition? With the wedding fast approaching, how do you feel knowing your fiancé supposedly suffers from serious mental health problems and may even be entangled with his doctor? Will this affect the union between your two families?”

The rest of the questions went unsaid.

In the video, Stuart raised his hand ever so slightly, and the noisy crowd of reporters gradually fell silent.

On the other side of the screen, Michelle’s heart tightened, rising and falling with the tension in the room.

“First of all, I want to make one thing clear,” Stuart said at last, his expression cold, his voice steady as he cut through the silence. “I have never received psychological treatment, nor do I suffer from any kind of mental disorder. The only issue I’ve had in the past was a sleep disturbance caused by overwork, which I sought help for to make adjustments.”

At that point, Michelle already knew exactly what would come next, but she still forced herself to keep watching.

And just as she expected, he neatly severed all ties with her in front of the public, painting himself spotless while portraying her as an unethical doctor who had deliberately schemed to get close to him.

In the end, Janet chimed in with a light, smiling voice, playing her role to perfection. “As the victim in all this, I do feel a little helpless. But with someone like her, I suppose it was bound to happen. Still, please rest assured—our wedding will take place as scheduled.”

By now, Michelle no longer needed anyone to explain. The truth was obvious.

The entire scandal had been carefully staged by the two of them—a calculated negative publicity stunt. In this way, Stuart would never again have to worry about her keeping quiet while Janet secured her position as the rightful fiancée, dazzling in the public eye.

They both gained from it.

The only one who paid the price was Michelle—her reputation and her career all sacrificed to their scheme.

For the first time, a dark, consuming hatred surged up in her chest.

She hated her parents for favoring her brother over their daughter.

She hated Stuart for his betrayal.

She hated Janet for her shamelessness.

But most of all, she hated herself—for softening back then, for mistaking scraps of kindness for sincerity, and for tying herself to this cursed entanglement.

‘Perhaps,’ she thought bitterly, ‘everything I’m suffering now is punishment for once having pitied a man like him.’

In the days that followed, she shut herself away at home, refusing to even turn on her phone.

After all, she had become the target of public scorn. Some people even came to her door to pound on it in hatred.

She was acutely aware that something was wrong with her state of mind. Sleepless nights, restless dreams, loss of appetite, ringing in her ears, heart palpitations—classic psychosomatic symptoms.

She was a psychologist herself, yet she couldn’t treat her own fractured psyche.

Then, one afternoon, a knock echoed from the entryway.

At first, she thought she was imagining it. But a second later, she saw a familiar face appear on the video doorbell.

She opened the door. Standing there was none other than Berenice, Stuart’s mother.

“Dr. Burnell, how have you been lately?” the older woman asked, her tone polite yet edged with mockery. Without waiting for an answer, she continued, “Not very well, I assume. I’ve seen plenty of women like you—scheming to climb your way up. But my son is not someone you can reach so easily.”

Looking at the refined, haughty socialite before her, Michelle couldn’t help but recall how the same woman had once begged her desperately for help five years ago.

As the saying went, birds of a feather flock together.

She and her son were cut from the same cloth—burning bridges, repaying kindness with betrayal.

Michelle no longer had the patience to trade words. Instead, she asked directly what had brought her here.

Berenice let out a soft, elegant laugh. “This is a blank check. You can name the amount…”

Before she could finish, Michelle snatched the check straight from her hand and, with deliberate clarity, completed the sentence for her.

“Name the amount, and in exchange, I disappear from your son’s life, isn’t that right? Very well. I’ll fill it in right now.”