"Mr. Fox, if you need to take your anger out on someone, just beat me to death. Professor Delgado only did this to help me..."

Sabina looked at him with aching tenderness, then turned on me with fury:

"Stephen, how can you be so heartless? Eustace was assaulted. His own family turned their backs on him. They were going to force him to drop out and go back to his village to marry some widow with kids. I was just shielding him from that. Can't you show a little compassion?"

"No!"

My voice trembled with rage:

"If he's pitiful, that's between his parents and the people who hurt him! He could've said no! He could've gone to the police! Why does MY marriage and MY happiness have to be the sacrifice?"

"Or maybe..."

My voice cracked, thick with tears:

"Maybe nothing ever happened to him at all. Maybe you two were just—"

The slap landed before I could finish the sentence.

Sabina stood with her hand still raised, her face twisted with anger:

"Don't you DARE talk about him like that! I already told you, Eustace and I only got married on paper! Why do you insist on assuming the worst about people?"

Our shouting drew neighbors from the floors above and below, crowding the hallway to watch.

Someone called out to Eustace and Sabina:

"Eustace, who is this guy? What's his deal with your wife?"

Eustace stammered, eyes darting:

"He's... he..."

The wounded, suggestive look on his face said everything his mouth didn't.

The neighbors' expressions shifted instantly. Disgust settled over their faces as they turned on me. One of them shoved me hard in the chest:

"They're about to get married and you're still harassing the man's wife? You look decent enough on the outside. Have some shame!"

"Yeah! Someone get a picture of him! Post it online!"

I laughed in disbelief. I grabbed my suitcase and slammed it down in front of them:

"Sabina, why don't you tell them who's REALLY chasing someone else's spouse!"

The suitcase bounced open on impact. Eustace let out a shriek and crouched down.

Sabina looked at his leg, at a red welt no bigger than a fingernail.

Her expression darkened in an instant:

"Stephen! Are you DONE? Eustace and I are legally married! So tell me, who's the one harassing someone else's spouse?"

I stared at her, stunned. A bitter laugh escaped my throat:

"Sabina. This is what you call a fake marriage? You got a marriage certificate and you're still calling it fake?"

She realized her slip the moment the words left her mouth. Guilt flickered across her face before she deflected:

"All this over a stupid bracelet? You came here to assault people over a bracelet?"

"Stephen, I never knew you were this cold. This selfish. This inhuman!"

My eyes went wide as Sabina stormed back into the apartment.

She came out holding the bracelet I treasured more than anything in this world.

And she hurled it at the ground.

"You want your bracelet so badly? Take your piece of junk and GET OUT!"

"No!" I lunged forward, hands outstretched, but I wasn't fast enough.

I watched the bracelet shatter against the floor.

My head snapped up. I looked at Sabina with something she had never seen in my eyes before.

Not love. Not patience. Not forgiveness.

Hatred.

Even through her rage, it shook her. For one brief moment, panic crossed her face.

But the next second, Eustace whimpered through his tears:

"Professor Delgado, my leg really hurts. Do you think it could be fractured?"

Sabina snapped back to attention immediately. She wrapped her arm around him and swept past me toward the stairs.

"Don't worry. I'm taking you to the hospital."

She moved fast, ruthless in her urgency, and slammed straight into me where I crouched on the floor.

I tumbled down the steep staircase and hit the landing hard.

Gasps erupted from the onlookers. My voice came out weak, calling after her.

Sabina never turned around.

Before my eyes closed, the last thing I saw was—

Only Eustace leaned against Sabina's shoulder, flashing me a smug grin.

In that moment, the sound of my heart shattering was as crisp as porcelain breaking against stone.

...

There was a time when Sabina had protected me the same way she now protected Eustace.

Back when those untouchable socialite princesses had cornered me, trying to force me to accept their confessions.

She hadn't hesitated. She'd charged out and planted herself in front of me, her thin frame squared against all of them, telling them to get lost.

She'd grabbed my wrist and pulled me through their circle, breaking us free.

Later, I found out those girls had held a grudge against her for it. They'd made her life miserable.

I tracked her down with red-rimmed eyes to apologize. She wiped her tears, then smiled.

"It's fine. I just couldn't stand watching my prince charming get pushed around like that."

The girl who once called me her prince charming. The girl who worried about me at every turn.

Now she could ignore my pain entirely for the sake of another man.

When exactly had Eustace wedged himself between us?

Maybe it started the day he became Sabina's graduate student.

She'd mention him in conversation, saying he reminded her of her younger self.

But the look in her eyes was pure adoration.

Or maybe it was that night he called Sabina, claiming some rich girl on campus had cornered him and was forcing him to date her.

Sabina, always so composed and rational, had lost her mind. She'd gone after the girl with her fists.

When I went to bail her out, I saw the bruises swelling across her cheek, and for the first time, I tasted bitterness.

She explained it to me:

"Stephen, when I heard what happened to him, I thought of how those girls used to corner you, and I just... snapped."

But...

When I'd been the one trapped in that exact situation, all she'd done was take my hand and walk me away.

...

By the time I woke up, I was already in the hospital.

The doctor told me with visible concern that it was a good thing I'd been brought in quickly. I'd hit the back of my head in the fall. There was bleeding in my brain. A little longer, and I might never have woken up.

I thanked him quietly, had my wounds treated, and left.

The moment I reached the ground floor of my building, several people with ugly expressions surrounded me.

"You're that scumbag from the internet, aren't you?"

"Looks decent enough on the outside, but rotten to the core. Heard you got jealous because a student was better than you, so you hired thugs to rough up a kid. Absolutely disgusting! You nearly ruined his entire life!"

They rushed me. Fists and feet came from every direction.

"You like hiring people to mess with others? Today we'll give you a taste of your own medicine! Strip him and dump him on the street so he knows what humiliation feels like!"

I screamed in desperation, stumbling backward, but they tore my clothes apart and left bruises twisted across my skin.

It wasn't until the building's security guard arrived and called the police that they scattered.

I knelt on the ground, trembling uncontrollably.

The guard stood over me, looking down with contempt.

"You had it coming. Who told you to be cruel enough to bully an innocent kid?"

My head snapped up, my voice shaking.

"What did you just say?"

The guard scoffed and walked away.

My head exploded with a deafening ring.

I scrambled for my phone and started scrolling.

Sure enough, I found a public statement Sabina had posted.

"I'm sorry to take up everyone's attention with this, but regarding the accusations that I coerced a male student, it was all a misunderstanding. My ex, Stephen Fox, hired thugs to attack my student out of jealousy, destroying his reputation so badly that his family is forcing him to drop out and go back to his hometown to marry a widow!"

"I took the blame and stepped forward to shield my ex because I was too soft-hearted, trying to protect both him and my student. But I never expected his attitude to be so vile. Not only did he refuse to show remorse, he escalated things further. So I've decided to reveal the truth."

"And I will take responsibility for my student. I will marry him and care for him for the rest of his life!"

Eustace left a comment beneath her post:

"With you by my side, I'm not afraid of anything."

Blood rushed to my head. My entire body felt like it had been struck by a sledgehammer.

Below that exchange, the comments section was flooded with congratulations and well-wishes, interspersed with horrifying abuse directed at me.

My photos had been photoshopped into degrading images. People were threatening to dox my home address and "teach me a lesson."

My phone was drowning in a torrent of filth and curses.

I tried to explain, over and over. I hadn't done any of it. Sabina was lying.

No one believed me.

"Your own girlfriend came out and exposed you! You obviously did it!"

"You got any proof you're innocent? No? Then drop dead, you piece of trash!"

With trembling hands, I forwarded Sabina's post to her directly.

"Why would you slander me like this?"

Sabina replied almost instantly:

"Didn't I tell you yesterday to smooth things over with the university administrators for me? You walked out without a care in the world. I've already been held accountable, and this was the only way I could think of to clear things up."

"Besides, everyone was mocking Eustace, calling him a disgrace. He cried so hard yesterday he nearly passed out. This protects his reputation too."

"What about me?! I deserve to be dragged through the mud?"

"Stephen, it's just a few nasty comments from strangers online. Just don't look at them. Give it some time and people will forget. It'll blow over."

"Oh, and the wedding starts in an hour. Eustace's and mine. Hurry up and come be the best man. Apologize to Eustace in front of everyone. If we're going to put on a show, we need to commit to it."

Then, in a tone that was neither gentle nor harsh, she added:

"Be good. If you keep throwing tantrums, I can't guarantee I'll still marry you in three years like we planned. Remember, your mother is gone. I'm the only family you have left in this world."

I shook with rage.

Once, she had stood at my mother's bedside, held my hand, and sworn she would be my last family, that she would take care of me for the rest of my life.

And now this was how she treated me.

Tears were already falling when my phone buzzed with a new message.

"Mr. Fox, there's something I'm not sure I should tell you."

"I have surveillance footage from the day of the incident with Eustace Simmons. I think you need to see what actually happened that day."

I watched the video as it loaded onto my phone, and my body went rigid.

The graduation ceremony, one month ago.

Eustace, who was supposed to be onstage for the tassel-turning, had vanished. So had Sabina.

As the lab's sponsor, I joined several others from the university to search backstage.

We ran straight into Sabina, rushing out with an unconscious Eustace in her arms.

We followed them to the hospital. The doctor gave us a strange look and said, "Young people chasing thrills still need to be careful about safety."

That was how we found out. Eustace had been with someone in a storage room full of high-powered stage lights, looking for a thrill. They'd gotten locked inside and baked under the heat for a full three hours, leaving him severely dehydrated.

The university erupted. The administration immediately ordered Eustace's expulsion.

When Eustace came to, he sobbed and screamed that someone had knocked him out and dragged him in there to hurt him. That his attacker had already fled.

The university pulled the surveillance footage, but the recordings had been deleted.

When they pressed him for details, he refused to say a word. He threw himself into hysterics, threatening to jump off the building.

Sabina also stepped in, threatening to pull her research funding unless the university dropped the investigation and buried the whole thing.

I didn't understand. Time and again, I tried to get justice for Eustace.