“You are just a friend I grew up with. I only have Priscilla in my heart. Be good and take the medicine. And don't make me do it myself.”

I remember when I was a kid, we watched TV together. The male lead in the show slept with the female lead but didn't want to be responsible. He forced the female lead to take the birth control pill in the same way. Our teacher in the physiology class taught that emergency contraceptive pills were very harmful to a girl's body.

At that time, George said to me with an angry face, “Caroline, you have to protect yourself when you grow up. If there's any scum that forces you to take this stuff, just tell me. I'll beat him to death.”

But he became the one who forced me to take the medicine now. George knew that I was the most afraid of bitterness, but he was bent on thinking that I had drugged him. And no matter how much I explained, he felt that I was the one who was lying to him.

In order to punish me, he forced me to eat an entire pack of medicine, without water. The bitterness of the pills spread in my mouth and even my heart crumpled into a ball of bitterness.

It wasn't until I swallowed the last pill, so bitter that tears flowed out of my eyes. Only then did George slowly put on his clothes and coldly say, “Don't act so pathetic. You brought this on yourself.”

Fate always loves to play tricks on people. Even after taking birth control pills, I still got pregnant. But I did not expect Priscilla to commit suicide because of this sadness.

Before she died, she sent a video to George. Her clothes were messy and she was in tears.

“Caroline did it on purpose. She threw up the birth control pills and got pregnant with your child. You should marry her, but I just wanted to stay by your side.  Even if there is a title for me, I am also willing. Why can't she accept me? She even sent men to ruin me!”

“If that’s the case, I'll just disappear completely to put her mind at ease. George, I love you. Goodbye, wish you guys happiness.”

George searched the whole night but only found her cold body. Also from that day on, he decided I should die with her.

George had the power to investigate, so as long as he carefully interrogated or asked the coroner. He would have realised that Priscilla hadn’t been assaulted at all before she died. And I hadn't done anything like that at all.

But he didn't even ask, didn't check and didn't believe me. He just condemned me. Just as everyone was silent, Rosalie called for her private doctor and looked at Priscilla.

She said in a deep voice, “Didn't you say you're pregnant? Then take another test!”

If another test were done, it would be discovered that Priscilla wasn't pregnant at all. And of the other eleven concubines, George hadn't touched anyone else besides me. My pregnancy would definitely be exposed.

When I thought of my last life, at the moment George fed my family's ashes to the dogs in front of Priscilla's tombstone and slashed open my flesh with a knife. He only watched me bleed out. I couldn't stop myself from trembling.

I instinctively held my belly. The existence of this child must not be known to him. I didn't expect that before I even opened my mouth, Priscilla's eyes turned red. She walked towards me.

She softly said, “Caroline, I know you like George. Grandma also wants you to get married, but I already have his child. Please help us. Don't force grandma to break us anymore.”

With a single sentence, I was turned into a villain who was jealous and egged on the elders. Priscilla made a move to kneel down towards me and George hurriedly held her back, looking at me in disgust.

“You didn't do anything wrong and you're pregnant. Why should you kneel to her? She’s not worth it”

“Caroline, how many times do I have to say it? I just treat you as my childhood friend. I let you live in the Swallowell Family only for the sake of grandma and your family's elders. Can’t you have some dignity and stop clinging to me?”

He looked at Rosalie.

“Grandma, the doctor said that Priscilla already has my child. What's there to test again? Even if you test it eight hundred times again, Caroline could never have my child. What happened that night was her plan to drug me. I always make her take birth control pills. So, even if you test it eight hundred times again, she won't be able to conceive it!”

“I've already decided, I'll hold a wedding with Priscilla in three days from now.  The rest of you, including Caroline, get out of here!”

Mrs. Rosaline was so angry, pounding her cane on the floor. “Caroline is not the kind of person you said at all, that night was me.”

I hurriedly interrupted her and smiled at Priscilla. “Ms. Priscilla, don't joke. You're my second brother's sweetheart and my future second sister-in-law. How could I break you up?”

“Caroline wishes both of you a hundred years of happiness and an early birth.”

George was the second oldest in the Swallowell Family and had an older sister above him. When I was a kid, I always called him my brother. But only from the time I realised what I felt in my heart, I stopped calling him that.

How silly I was at that time, thinking that as long as I didn't call him my brother and didn't become his childhood friend's sister, I could become his woman. Probably hadn't heard me address him like this for a long time, George's eyes flashed with dismay, which was quickly replaced by indifference.

“Count on your self-knowledge. Be respectful to Priscilla in the future.”

He pulled Priscilla away. And the other ten concubines, no matter how reluctant they were, had to pack their bags and leave. Mrs. Rosaline was so angry that she poked the ground with her cane.

“How could that vixen possibly be pregnant? There must be something fishy. Caroline, don't worry, I will definitely find out the truth. George, this bastard, actually forced you to take birth control pills. I have to make him kneel and apologise to you.”

It was only then that I realised that the private doctor had secretly told her long ago that Priscilla had had several abortions and might not be able to have children.

It was not that Rosalie didn't tell George, but he didn't believe it at all. He still thought that I was the one who egged her on and threw dirty water on Priscilla.

Seeing her defend me, I was moved. I held her hand.

“Grandma, what happened that night was originally a mistake. Can't you see? George only has Priscilla in his heart. Whether she can have children or not doesn’t matter. Forced love never lasts. Let it go.”

“After so many years, I'm really tired. My parents arranged a childhood engagement for me before I was born. In three days, I’ll go abroad to get married, Grandma. Please, let me go.”

I wasn't surprised in the slightest that George would favour Priscilla. Back then, Priscilla rejected George's proposal and went abroad to study because Rosalie had set me up with George.

George drank for three days. When he sobered up, he was a changed man. He grabbed my chin, his eyes cold.

“Caroline, don't you like me? Then show me your sincerity.”

George brought me back to the Swallowell Family. I thought he was finally willing to try and accept me, but I later realised that he was angry that Priscilla left him behind because of me. He actually wanted to get back at me.

The former Drexel family's daughter had degraded herself and fallen into his concubines, but she wasn't the only one. In order to humiliate me, George brought back ten more women to the house, each of them looking a bit similar to Priscilla.

He wanted me to serve them like a servant, calling them ‘sister’ and allowing them to call me by my nickname. He also let them boss me around and then laughed.

“Caroline, your love is as cheap as you are as a person. I am George Swallowell, I don't want lowly women.”

He posted a photo of them kissing together on his social media, as if he was a playboy who lingered in the flowers, but I knew that he was doing it to piss off Priscilla.

George never actually touched any of those women, of course, including me. It wasn’t until Priscilla went back to Liechtenstein, begging to get back together, that he coldly told her she could be his twelfth concubine. Unable to bear the humiliation, Priscilla was so aggrieved that she fell straight to tears and hid in her room to cry.

George pretended to be indifferent, but he couldn’t help himself. He pushed open her door, held her in his arms and tried to comfort her with kisses.

That night, as if to vent his anger for Priscilla, he made me kneel and change their bedsheets seven times. Priscilla's body is covered in kiss marks. It was a testament to all the longing George had suppressed.

Rosalie was silent for a long time before she finally sighed in regret. “Since you've already made your decision, I will respect your choice. It's that bastard George’s loss, not yours.”

“When your grandmother was alive, she asked me to customise a wedding dress for you at the bridal shop in the south of the city. It was designed by her own hands before she died. Don’t forget to pick it up, Caroline. No matter who you marry, I only hope you will be happy.”

I nodded gratefully. In this life, I would stay far away from George and pursue my own happiness.

***

Early the next morning, after booking my flight, I went to pick up my wedding dress. I didn't expect to see George and Priscilla there before I arrived at the bridal shop. The clerk was holding a beautifully styled wedding dress and looking at them with difficulty.

“I'm sorry, Mrs. Rosaline specifically explained that this wedding dress is reserved for Miss Caroline. I really can't sell it to anyone else.”

Priscilla was wearing a super short dress. And when she saw me coming, she looked at George with red eyes.

“Forget it, George. Let’s not take what belongs to someone else. I don’t want Caroline to be upset with me again. I’m just a little sad that I can’t wear the most beautiful wedding dress to marry you.”

George was immediately heartbroken and rushed towards me. “Caroline, it's not like I'm going to marry you anyway. So, it's useless for you to ask for a wedding dress, just let it go to Priscilla.”

“This is what my grandmother designed for me during her lifetime. Why should I let her have it? If you don't marry me, naturally, someone else will.”

George’s face darkened as he sneered, “You've been pestering me like a leech for ten years. You can't even live without me. You think you'll really marry someone else? This wedding dress was clearly prepared by my grandmother for her future granddaughter-in-law. Only Priscilla is qualified to wear it. I advise you not to be ungrateful.”

“As long as you give the wedding dress to Priscilla, I can allow you to still stay in the Swallowell Family and see me every day. But you'd better settle down and stop being delusional!”

I was too lazy to care about him and went forward to take away the wedding dress, but I didn't expect Priscilla to refuse to let go. As we tugged at it, her strong perfume hit my nose. Suddenly, I felt nauseous- morning sickness struck without warning and I couldn’t help but throw up on her leg.

Priscilla immediately burst into tears. “Caroline, I just want to help you get your wedding dress. How could you do this to me, make me look so bad on purpose?”

George glared at me with a gloomy face. “Lick it clean for Priscilla.”

 I stared at him in disbelief. “What did you say?”

“You humiliated Priscilla on purpose, isn't that because you're dissatisfied that I'm going to marry her? Caroline, your disgusting tactics are really endless. Clean it up for her or you won't be able to leave this shop today!”

Seeing that I didn't move, he had the bodyguard kick at my knees, forcing me to kneel in front of Priscilla. He pressed my head close to Priscilla's legs.

As I struggled, Priscilla gently helped me up and scolded, “Come on, George. Don’t be so harsh. You're scaring Caroline.”

“Caroline, George just cares too much about me. Don't blame him. I don't blame you for what happened just now. Why don't you accompany me to the restroom to clean up?”