“I'll cover the medical bills, but from now on, you need to behave.”

That day, tears streaming down my face, I agreed to Derek's terms. I became his dirty little secret. His mistress.

Until today, when he and Agnes were getting married, and he specifically requested that I be a bridesmaid.

Eighteen-year-old Caroline Simmons had arrived here without warning.

The moment every last memory settled into place, the despair and agony seared so deep that my whole body shook without my permission.

Two years of obedience.

No wonder Derek had looked at me like that when I brought up the past.

When he saw me crouching on the floor, crying in silence, he softened just enough to lean down and blow gently on the red mark on my forehead.

His voice was tender. “Caroline, why can't you just be good? You always have to push me until I lose my temper.”

I said nothing.

He pried my fingers open one by one and pressed several sheets of paper into my palm.

“On the wedding day, you'll read what's written here. A public apology. You'll clear Agnes's name and admit that you were the other woman.”

“Don't worry. Once it's done, I'll reinstate the medical payments immediately.”

Tears soaked the pages. I finally broke, screaming at Derek until my voice cracked.

“Are you even human? Derek! When you were ten, you nearly got kidnapped! My mother took three stab wounds shielding you!”

“After that, you swore you'd treat her like your own mother!”

“How dare you use her as leverage against me now!”

My chest seized. I screamed until there was nothing left in me.

But the only answer I got was the sight of two figures walking away together, leaning into each other.

I stayed in the empty living room, listening to the sounds drifting down from upstairs. Intimate. Unmistakable.

It felt like an invisible fist had closed around my heart and was squeezing until I could barely breathe.

Before long, my phone erupted. When I picked up, it was the hospital.

“Ms. Simmons, your mother's condition has worsened. We need to switch treatment plans and start her on more advanced imported medications……”

I hung up and took a cab straight to the hospital, running the whole way in.

The second I saw my mother, the tears fell on their own.

Just this morning, I'd been so full of hope, daydreaming about my future.

Derek and I had grown up together, after all. Childhood sweethearts. A perfect match.

After my father passed, my mother had encouraged the relationship every chance she got, wanting me to have someone to rely on.

But now my mother lay in front of me, frail and pale, and everything had changed.

A suffocating wave of pain crashed over me. I stayed at the hospital through the night and into the next day.

On the morning of the wedding, Derek sent people to drag me out.

They held me down and forced me into a bridesmaid dress that didn't even fit.

The moment I arrived at the venue, countless cameras and flashbulbs swiveled toward me.

Someone shoved me forward. The oversized dress was ripped apart in an instant, and I stumbled out in front of everyone, half-exposed.

I clutched the fabric to my chest and stared at Agnes standing in the crowd, her face lit with a triumphant smile.

The next second, I grabbed a fistful of my skirt, snatched the champagne glass off a passing waiter's tray, and hurled it at her.

“Ah——”

A shriek cut through the room. Agnes teetered, about to hit the ground.

But Derek shoved me hard, and I crashed into the champagne tower instead.

Glass shattered everywhere, champagne pooling across the floor. Cuts opened up all over my body, large and small.

Blood soaked through the carpet and the hem of my dress in seconds.

In the instant I hit the ground, I saw the scar on Derek's wrist. Three inches long.

He'd gotten it when I was sixteen. A group of thugs had cornered me outside school for money, and Derek grabbed a bottle and fought them off. One of them slashed his wrist open.

His wrist had been drenched in blood, but he'd still used his other hand to cover my eyes, telling me not to look.

Through the pain, he'd held me steady and said：“Protecting you is instinct. Don't blame yourself.”

But now, that same hand had shoved me to the edge.

Someone brought me upstairs to the second floor and patched up my wounds.

Derek appeared again. When he saw the blood-soaked bandages on my body, he stopped in his tracks.

“Caroline, why can you never learn to behave?”

He sighed and pulled up the hospital surveillance footage on his phone.

“You've seen your mother's condition. If she doesn't get her medication soon, she might not make it.”

“Stop making a scene. Once you clear this up, I'll give you a second ceremony. Okay?”

On the screen, my mother was writhing and seizing in her hospital bed. A tear slipped down my cheek before I could stop it.

A long silence passed.

I gave in. I snatched the speech from Derek's hand like it was a lifeline.

Under the spotlight, I read each word off the script without inflection, a puppet with its strings cut.

The press cameras crowded so close they nearly touched my face. A microphone struck my nose hard enough to sting.

Pain shot through the bridge of my nose, and tears spilled out before I could control them.

A reporter's voice cut through, sharp and needling. “Ms. Simmons, you admit to inserting yourself into your own best friend's marriage, and you still had the nerve to attend the wedding? Does your mother know she raised her daughter to turn out like this?”

“Or is it true what they say? Like mother, like daughter?”

I froze. The color drained from my face. I looked into the camera, helpless.

Derek was the one who finally stepped in.

“My wife and I have already forgiven Ms. Simmons for everything she's done. We'd ask the public to stop speculating about the nature of our relationship going forward.”

“That's all for this interview. Please just report what you've heard.”

I hid beneath Derek's suit jacket as he led me out of the venue.

Report what you've heard. The words echoed in my skull, and all I tasted was irony.

Once we were outside, I shoved him away.

Agnes came after us, lifting the hem of her wedding gown. “Derek, our ceremony isn't finished yet.”

That one sentence was all it took. His hand slid off my shoulder.

“Don't worry. I've already transferred the medical bills to your account. Once I've handled everything here, I'll give you the wedding you've always wanted by the end of the year.”

He slipped a ring onto my left hand before he walked away.

I watched him leave.

I got into a cab, pulled the ring off my finger, and tossed it into the bushes along the curb.

But the moment I reached the hospital, doctors and nurses were rushing down the corridor toward my mother's room, panic written across every face.

My heart dropped. My fists clenched so tight the nails bit into my palms.

Dread flooded through me, and I half-stumbled, half-ran toward her room.

By the time I got there, she had only one breath left.

The television mounted on the wall was livestreaming Derek's wedding.

A single tear rolled from my mother's clouded eyes. Her hand trembled as she reached for me.

I threw myself to her bedside. Her voice came in broken fragments：

“Sweetheart……Mama's going now. I won't be a burden anymore. You……just live well.”

Her thin arm went limp. Something inside me shattered, and I screamed until my throat tore raw.

“Mom——”

A nurse nearby looked away, unable to bear it. “She'd just come out of surgery. Her vitals had stabilized.”

“But after seeing that wedding livestream, something happened. Her emotions spiked and her heart just stopped.”

I lunged for the nearest piece of equipment and hurled it at the television still playing the broadcast.

The screen cracked. Static hissed through the room, and I collapsed, sobbing so hard I couldn't breathe.

I don't know how long I cried. By the time I had nothing left, Derek had arrived with Agnes.

Tears streamed prettily down Agnes's face. “I never imagined your mother couldn't handle even this much. I just wanted to share a little wedding joy with her. I thought maybe it would cheer her up and help her recover……”

Staring at Agnes and that sickening fake sympathy on her face, I lunged forward and slapped her twice.

The next second, Derek seized my wrist, his grip crushing bone, his expression turning dark.

“Enough. Your mother ran out of luck on her own. From now on, I'll take care of you in her place.”

“Caroline, knock it off.”

I clenched my fists. I had no tears left to cry.

I looked at Derek's twisted face, then at the taunting smile curling Agnes's lips.

I turned, ran to the window of the seventeenth-floor ward, and threw myself out.

If all of this was just a nightmare, then I'd use death to end it.

Wind screamed past my ears as I closed my eyes.

The last thing I saw was Derek leaning over the windowsill, his face white with terror.