I quietly studied each item in the pile.

There was the hand-sculpted clay figure—crafted by Gerry himself at a luxury clay studio he’d taken me to for my birthday. It had been his surprise gift to me that year.

There was the silver-threaded, butterfly-tailed wedding gown—a showpiece from an elite overseas auction. Gerry had paid an exorbitant price for it. When it was airlifted home, I had never seen him smile so genuinely.

“You’ll look stunning in this dress at our wedding,” he’d said.

There were also the bright red double happiness characters we had cut out together… the balloons we tied with laughter… the matching bedding dolls we picked out with such care.

Once, these items had been precious memories. Now, they were tossed aside like garbage.

My heart sank—slowly, steadily—until it felt like it had hit rock bottom.

Before I could say a word, Niana appeared on the screen. She leaned playfully against Gerry, her voice light and teasing.

“So Gerry wasn’t lying. Sister Luna’s taste really is… unique. Who still uses these bright red decorations at weddings these days? They’re so outdated. The only thing remotely salvageable is that dress, but even that butterfly tail ruins it.”

Gerry chuckled and gently pinched her cheek, his eyes full of warmth.

“I’ll take you to the next auction. Whatever you like, just bid on it.”

“Yay! Gerry is the best!”

I bit down the rising ache in my chest and took a steadying breath. I couldn’t bear to watch them flirt a second longer.

“I don’t want any of those things,” I said flatly. “Do whatever you want with them.”

Then I added, my voice sharper than I’d ever used with him before.

“Also, Gerry, she’s two years older than me—same age as you. And she calls me ‘sister.’ Don’t you think that’s a little off?”

It was the first time I’d ever confronted him so directly. For a moment, he looked completely stunned.

But Niana reacted first, bursting into tears.

“I-I didn’t mean anything by it. I’m sorry… Sister Luna, I just wanted to get closer to you…”

I cut her off coldly.

“There’s no need for that. Now or in the future, there will never be any relationship between us.”

Her sobs grew louder, her delicate shoulders trembling.

Gerry pulled her into his arms, soothing her with soft pats on the back and gently wiping her tears away.

Then he turned back to the screen and glared at me.

“Niana did nothing wrong. You’re the one out of line, Luna. What’s gotten into you today? You’ve never been this difficult before.”

He narrowed his eyes.

“What do you mean you don’t want to be close to her? Niana’s child is supposed to recognize you as their godmother. She’s trying to be kind and you’re mocking her? That’s just arrogant.”

I gave a bitter smile.

He only ever saw me as someone who never made things difficult for others. He never once considered how many times others had made things difficult for me.

“Gerry, her child doesn’t need me as a godmother and she doesn’t need to be close to me. As for our wedding—there’s no need to reschedule it.”

The room fell deathly silent. On the other end, the comforting murmurs stopped abruptly.

Gerry’s face darkened. He stared at the screen and said one word—three times, each colder than the last.

“Good. Good. Good.”

Then the call cut off.

Moments later, a video notification popped up on my phone.

Hands trembling, I opened it.

My wedding dress—the once pure white, intricately embroidered gown—was engulfed in flames.

Gerry’s voice followed, his tone frigid.

“You really thought you were going to be Mrs. Stall, didn’t you? You forgot your place.”

“Luna, you’re just an orphan the Stall Family took in out of charity. What right do you have to speak to me like that?”

“If my mother and the other elders hadn’t schemed to drive Niana away, do you think you would’ve ever climbed your way up to become the future Mrs. Stall?”

“You only had to wait another ten months. Ten months and the title would’ve been yours. But you just had to ruin it all.”

“This wedding dress is your lesson,” Gerry said coldly. “Once you calm down and truly accept Niana, then we can talk about holding the ceremony.”

I ended the video and collapsed onto the sofa, staring blankly at the ceiling.

The cold wind brushed past, drying the tears that clung stubbornly to the corners of my eyes.

For a moment, it felt like I was back in that freezing tunnel beneath the bridge—alone, abandoned, numb.

Gerry was right.

I was just an orphan picked up by Madam Stall.

To be more precise… she pulled me from a river.

I was ten. After enduring unspeakable abuse at the hands of the orphanage director, I’d run away, only to wander the streets—hungry, lost, shivering. People shoved me aside, hurled insults, looked at me like I was nothing. One night, desperate and hollow, I nearly ended it all.

But then… Madam Stall appeared. She brought me home, fed me, gave me a bed. She made sure I’d never have to beg for food again.

From then on, I lived like a ghost in the Stall household. I was tolerated, never embraced. Anyone could walk all over me—but not Gerry.

He was the only one who ever smiled at me.

When I was punished and denied dinner, he’d sneak out and buy me spicy crayfish. When I couldn’t afford school supplies, he’d split his allowance and hand me a full set of beautiful stationery—one he had chosen himself.

For my fifteenth birthday, he skipped his tutoring session and took me to a handmade clay studio. He used his entire year’s allowance to mold a figurine just for me.

Something that would never fade. Never crack. Never break.

“Our Luna,” he said that day, smiling at me with those eyes I could never forget, “when you grow up, if you could wear a wedding dress as beautiful as this one and marry me… that would be wonderful.”

Even now, I still remember the wild rhythm of my heart.

“I... I want that too,” I whispered.

My voice was soft—too soft. I don’t think he ever heard it.

A few months later, Madam Stall flew into an unexpected rage. Gerry was abruptly pulled from school and confined to the Stall Family’s ancestral hall for a month of reflection.

Worried, I went to visit him—only to learn he had brought Niana home behind everyone’s back.

“She’s the only bright spot in my boring life,” he told me, almost dreamily. “I miss her so much. It’s my fault. I was too impatient. Has Mother said when I’ll be let out?”

The pang in my chest was sharp—blinding. My mind reeled. The joy I’d once felt was gone in an instant.

I knelt beside him on the prayer mat, head bowed, suddenly too afraid to tell him the truth—that Madam Stall and the elders had already decided to groom me to be his future wife.

“He’s only seventeen, yet he was willing to risk breaking ties with his family for a girl his age,” Madam Stall had said. “He needs to learn a lesson.”

In Gerry’s eyes, Madam Stall was tyrannical and the elders were outdated and controlling. He resented their grip on his life, longed for independence.

And I? I was the tool they’d chosen. They didn’t need both of us under control—just one.

If they could secure me as the future Mrs. Stall, they believed Gerry wouldn’t dare cut ties completely once he inherited the family business.

Soon after, Niana was quietly sent away to study in another city. As expected, Gerry was released from the ancestral hall not long after.

But half a year later, he found out about the family’s plans—about me.

That day, he came to me in a fury.

And he slapped me.

Hard.

From that moment on, he hated me.

I couldn’t sleep that night. I tossed and turned, heart hollow, ears ringing from the sting of that slap.

The next morning, a call woke me.

Just one sentence.

“Come to the old mansion.”

I knew then—Madam Stall must have discovered Niana’s pregnancy.

I didn’t hesitate. I packed my things and took a taxi straight to the Stall Family’s ancestral home.

When I arrived, Madam Stall had already vented her fury.

The moment she saw me, her teacup came flying across the room.

It shattered at my feet.

“You’re useless girl!” she shouted. “After all these years and you still can’t hold onto a man’s heart? What good are you to the Stall Family?”

The rim of the porcelain cup grazed my forehead, slicing the skin and drawing a thin trail of blood.

I bowed my head instinctively, murmuring an apology.

Across from me, Gerry sat on the plush, expensive sofa with Niana nestled in his arms—completely unmoved.

He was no longer the powerless boy of years past. Now, he was Mr. Stall—the one the entire Stall Family obeyed. Even Madam Stall and the elders had learned to tread carefully around him.

Eventually, Madam Stall tired of shouting. She sat down with a huff and picked up her tea again, taking a sip before casting him a glance.

“What do you plan to do now?”

“Let her give birth to the child,” Gerry said, his voice calm and firm—leaving no room for argument.

Madam Stall’s eyes narrowed. She turned her gaze to Niana.

“And what about you?”

Niana bit her lower lip, tears streaking her face. “Isn’t it true love? Back then... I already lost one child.”

A flicker of guilt flashed across Gerry’s face. He reached back, shielding Niana with his arm. When he looked at me again, his eyes were filled with hostility.

“If it hadn’t been for her,” he spat, “your grandson would already be calling you Grandma.”

I knelt there on the icy marble floor and in that moment, I felt cold down to my bones.

After we broke up, life in the Stall household became even more unbearable. I tried, again and again, to explain everything to Gerry—but he wouldn’t listen.

Then came the turning point.

On the night he turned twenty, Niana came back.

She called me, her voice trembling, saying Gerry had been in an accident. She gave me an address. Without thinking, I rushed there.

When I arrived, clothes were strewn outside the small forest near the address.

***

The next day, Gerry was punished once more—ordered to kneel in the ancestral hall. But this time, there was one major difference: Niana was pregnant.

Madam Stall demanded she terminate the pregnancy, but Gerry refused. The conflict exploded within the ancestral hall.

On the day of the scheduled surgery, I sneaked Gerry out of confinement—but it was too late.

After that, Niana left the country, devastated. And Gerry? He found me, smashed my phone and left me with a single sentence.

“You should be grateful you helped me escape. Otherwise, you’d be the one suffering today.”

Oddly enough, after that, he started speaking to me again.

I stared blankly at him now, realization dawning.

So all this time… he blamed me for that night. For being the reason Niana lost the baby.

But he never knew—I wasn’t alone that night.

Someone had followed me.

After that, Gerry spiraled. One woman after another. Parties, affairs, indulgence. Until one day, just before his wedding, Niana appeared again—this time at his bachelor party.

“This child… I’m keeping it. It has nothing to do with Niana. Mom, please, stop trying to tear us apart.”

For the first time in years, Gerry softened. Just that one word—“Mom”—was enough to melt even Madam Stall’s hardened heart.

She sighed and shook her head. “The seven before you, who tried to steal what little affection was left… none were as stubborn as you. But now that she’s pregnant again, you…”

She trailed off.

“Madam!”

The maid stepped forward with a steaming bowl of dark, bitter-smelling medicine.

Madam Stall didn’t even look at me as she spoke.

“Make a choice. If you still want to be Mrs. Stall, drink this. You’ll never have children. If not…”

But she didn’t get to finish.

Gerry spoke first.

“Luna,” he said coldly. “Drink it.”

I froze. My hands trembled. I looked up at him, disbelief clouding my eyes.

“Why?”

His gaze was like ice. “I’ve already told you—after Niana gives birth, she’ll recognize you as the child’s godmother. You won’t need to go through the pain of childbirth.”

He paused, then added with quiet calculation, “And this way, our children won’t fight for affection or inheritance in the future. You’ve always been the obedient one, haven’t you? The sensible one. So do what’s right. Drink it.”