Nathan liked to paint Wendy's nude body. Every night, she would take off her clothes and become a work of art under his brush, then making love with him passionately until late into the night.

Until that night, he got drunk and said in front of everyone, "Do you know why I only paint her body, but never her face?"

He let out a light scoff. "Because her body is almost identical to Kyle's, but that face... not even a little resemblance. So what I'm obsessed with is only the body that reminds me of Kyle."

The people around kept jeering, saying, “Nathan, after all these years, you still can’t forget Kyle? Since you don’t like Wendy, how about letting us take a look at her nude painting too? Let us feast our eyes a bit!”

Wendy stood outside the door, biting her lip hard. She was afraid she might start crying and also afraid she wouldn’t be able to stop herself from bursting in to confront him.

Nathan froze for a moment, then pretended to be nonchalant and said, “Didn’t I say her body is almost identical to Kyle’s? Looking at hers is the same as looking at Kyle’s. Who would dare?”

Sensing the shift, the crowd tactfully changed the topic. Nathan’s sharp gaze suddenly turned toward the door, meeting Wendy’s eyes dead on.

He instinctively stood up and personally opened the private room door. He then pulled Wendy inside and gently asked, “Honey, when did you get here? Why didn’t you let me come pick you up?”

The people around instantly fell silent. When they looked at Wendy, their eyes were filled with mockery, amusement and a hint of pity.

Wendy's heart ached with every beat. The man before her had always treated her with the utmost tenderness. How could anyone have guessed that she was merely a stand-in for another woman’s body?

No wonder. No wonder that after they first got together, he had looked at her body with such surprise and ever since then, he insisted on painting her nude every night.

She did her best to calm herself down and forced a faint smile. “I just got here. I was worried you might be drunk, so I came to take you home.”

Nathan’s lips curled into a wicked smile as he buried his head against her neck, his breath warm as he said, “Honey, did you miss me? Let’s go home now. I’ll paint one last nude of you, just one more and then no more after that.”

Wendy felt like her heart was bleeding. She didn’t ask why it would be the last because she already knew that Kyle was coming back soon. He would no longer need a body double to fill the void of his loneliness.

That night, Wendy allowed Nathan to slowly undress her as he prepared to paint her one last time. She thought, ‘Let this final time be my repayment for the kindness he once showed me by taking me in.’

But unexpectedly, a phone call interrupted this last ritual.

——

When Nathan saw the caller ID, his hands trembled as he answered. Kyle’s voice came through clearly. “Nathan, I’m back. I want to see you. Can you come to me now?”

He nodded dazedly, then stumbled out in a panic, not even sparing a glance at the naked woman behind him.

Wrapped in a deep, overwhelming sense of humiliation, Wendy sat there like the half-finished nude portrait: pathetic, pitiful and discarded.

She closed her eyes, then silently dialed the number of the emotional auction house.

“Sir, I’d like to auction off my feelings for Nathan.”

There was a pause of surprise on the other end. “Are you sure? Once the auction is complete, your love for Mr. Chase will be completely erased. Even if he were to die before your eyes, you wouldn’t feel a thing.”

“I’m sure. The sooner, the better.”

Wendy tilted her head back, a single tear slipping silently from the corner of her eye.

The auction house would grant her one wish after the transaction was complete.

And so, she made her choice. She would leave Nathan without a trace of love.

No one knew how much time had passed when Nathan, still carrying the lingering scent of perfume, lay down on the bed and naturally wrapped his arm around Wendy’s waist.

He thought she had already fallen asleep, only to find their eyes meeting in the darkness.

A flicker of panic flashed across Nathan’s eyes, but he was the first to speak. “Honey, someone important came back tonight and asked me to a gathering, so I had to leave in a hurry…”

Uncharacteristically, Wendy didn’t pout or act spoiled. She simply nodded lightly and said in a soft voice, “When someone important invites you, of course you should go to them right away.”

She turned over, facing away from Nathan and closed her eyes.

A strange sense of unease crept over him. Something about Wendy’s reaction didn’t feel right, but he didn’t dwell on it, simply assuming she was sulking. Before long, he drifted into a deep sleep.

However, Wendy lay wide awake the entire night, staring at the anonymous video message on her phone. In the photo, Nathan and Kyle were kissing passionately in a three-minute challenge.

Early the next morning, Nathan put on his favorite suit, styling his hair meticulously in front of the mirror. His face was full of smiles as if he were about to see the girl he loved most.

He glanced at Wendy, picked out an outfit for her and announced, “Honey, my friend Kyle wants to meet you. It’s her birthday today and she specifically asked me to bring you along.”

Without waiting for her reply, he took her hand and pulled her toward the car, clearly in a hurry and impatient.

The moment Wendy laid eyes on Kyle, her entire body stiffened.

Both of them were dressed in strapless evening gowns, had a red mole on their necks, identical in size and placement.

Kyle’s gaze landed precisely on that mole, her smile tinged with mockery. “What a coincidence. Your mole is exactly like mine. Our skin tone, even our bone structure, are nearly identical too!”

The onlookers clearly understood what was going on. The air was thick with schadenfreude, the kind of crowd that delighted in watching drama unfold.

Nathan stared at Kyle deeply and blurted out, “How could she ever compare to you?”

The room fell into a momentary silence.

Wendy’s face flushed crimson. Her head dropped in shame.

Realizing his words had been too blunt, Nathan quickly tried to smooth things over. “Today’s Kyle’s birthday. She’s the star of the night. I didn’t mean to compare the two of you.”

Kyle let out a light laugh, then casually took Wendy’s hand and led her to the wine table. She handed her a glass and said with a smile, “Wendy, thank you for taking care of Nathan all these years. You know, I probably know him best. When he drinks, he gets clingy and won’t even drink hangover soup unless it’s fed to him. When his stomach hurts, he loves curling up in my arms and acting all spoiled…”

As if suddenly realizing something, she added with feigned innocence, “Oh, Wendy, Nathan and I are just like brother and sister. We’ve always been close like that. You don’t mind, do you?”

Listening to Kyle’s reminiscing, Nathan’s eyes actually reddened with emotion. At that moment, he was gazing at her with unfiltered affection.

Wendy’s heart ached with a dull bitterness. She let out a faint, pained smile and replied, “Anyone who didn’t know better would think you two were the real couple.”

As soon as Wendy finished speaking, Kyle’s tears began to fall like broken pearls, streaming down her cheeks. She choked up, “Wendy, are you mad at me? I must’ve crossed a line... it’s all my fault for making everyone upset.”

Nathan’s expression darkened. He turned to comfort her, “Kyle, there’s no need to explain anything between us. It’s your birthday today. No one should be upsetting you.”

Then, for the first time, he looked at Wendy with an impatient frown and said coldly, “Wendy, aren’t you going to apologize to Kyle? If I’d known you’d be this petty, I wouldn’t have brought you.”

Without giving her a chance to speak, he shoved the glass of red wine into her hand, forcing her to toast Kyle as a gesture of apology.

But he had forgotten that Wendy was severely allergic to alcohol.

“Wendy, just drink this glass and we’ll let the earlier misunderstanding go. It’s Kyle’s birthday today, her happiness is the most important,” Nathan said.

Wendy looked at him deeply, unable to stop herself from saying, “I’m allergic to alcohol. If I drink, it’ll cause serious problems…”

Before she could finish, Kyle’s eyes once again welled with tears and Nathan cut her off impatiently, “It’s just a small glass of wine, what could possibly go wrong? Stop being so dramatic, will you? Worst case, I’ll have someone take you to the hospital afterward.”

Wendy didn’t want to argue anymore. What was the point? Everyone was waiting for her to drink it, as if not drinking would make her a criminal.

She shut her eyes tightly and downed the wine in one go.

Only then did Nathan finally smile in satisfaction, reaching out to pat her head gently, as if offering comfort.

Everyone carried on as if nothing had happened, the atmosphere at the party growing lively once more. Nathan's eyes remained fixed on Kyle, full of affection and longing.

He didn’t notice that Wendy’s entire body had turned red, her face starting to swell and she was beginning to show signs of suffocation.

She rushed to the restroom, trying to clear her head with cold water. When she turned around, she found Kyle leaning against the doorway, waiting for her.

Kyle sneered, “You saw the kissing video I sent you last night, didn’t you? Do you know how much Nathan loves me? He even said he’d die for me. And you? You’re just a stand-in and a body double at best. Know your place and back off willingly.”

She kept on taunting, but Wendy could no longer hear her clearly. An uncontrollable sense of suffocation tightened around her throat.

Kyle noticed what was happening and smirked smugly. “Hahaha, you're swelling up like a pig’s head! What do you think? If I lock you in here, how long will it take for Nathan to even notice you’re gone?”

Like a demon, she stepped forward and shoved Wendy hard into the restroom, slamming the door shut and locking it tight.

Wendy was engulfed in unbearable pain so that she didn't even have the strength to bang on the door. She could only lean weakly against it, struggling to breathe.

Meanwhile, in the hall, Nathan was being encouraged by the crowd to play a mouth-to-mouth passing game with Kyle, who had just returned from the restroom.

The atmosphere between the two was charged with flirtation. Although they could’ve easily passed the item to each other, they deliberately drew it out to mimic a kiss. Their gazes lingered on each other with unmistakable intimacy.

Nathan seemed to be fully immersed in the gentle allure that was Kyle. But before long, he began to grow distracted.

His heart pounded uneasily in his chest, as if something was slipping away without a sound and no matter how hard he tried, he just couldn’t grasp it.

He suddenly looked up, scanning the surroundings before abruptly asking, “Where’s Wendy? Where did she run off to on her own?”

The people around teased him, “Nathan, Kyle is standing right in front of you, why are you still thinking about that stand-in?”

Kyle caught sight of the worry on Nathan’s face and a flicker of resentment flashed across her features. She replied breezily, “She might’ve gotten upset earlier and gone home on her own. She’s a grown woman, what could possibly happen? Let’s keep playing.”

Not wanting to dampen Kyle’s mood, Nathan did his best to keep her entertained and happy.

By the end of the night, both of them were drunk. Kyle twisted in his arms like a snake and he instinctively wrapped an arm around her waist.

But as he held her, something felt off. For some reason, the moment his hand touched Kyle’s waist, a vivid image of Wendy came to mind, how she would lie in his arms each night, how her waist fit perfectly in his embrace.

An unsettling unease grew within him.

Abruptly, he pushed Kyle away and strode quickly toward the restroom.

He had been keeping an eye on Wendy out of the corner of his eye all along, so he vaguely remembered. After she entered the restroom, she never came back out.