I had been with Victor for ten years.

This was the first time he offered to celebrate my birthday.

Excited, I reserved a picturesque lodge overlooking the Mount Hkakabo Razi for a private getaway.

I also had good news to share with him.

Halfway up the winding road, his phone rang.

Leila.

Victor's first love.

The daughter of a notorious gang leader, she was the one he had protected, cherished, and lost when their worlds collided with violence.

And now, she was back.

Victor stiffened the moment he heard her voice, his hand tightening on the wheel.

I held my breath, the pregnancy report trembling in my bag.

"Victor. I can't do this alone. Please, I need you."

His grip on the wheel grew ironclad.

I waited.

He didn't hang up. He didn't slow down.

"Victor, I."

"Ariya!"

Victor slammed the brakes, the car lurching to a violent stop.

"Get out," he said, his voice cold and clipped.

"Victor, you promised we'd spend today together," I whispered, trying to steady my trembling hands.

"Get out!" he barked.

I stepped out, the crumpled pregnancy report slipping from my hand as his car sped off, leaving me alone on the mountainside.

Victor's car vanished into the distance, leaving me stranded in suffocating darkness.

The night wrapped around me like a noose, cold and merciless.

He knew I feared the dark.

He just never cared.

I fumbled for my phone, my fingers trembling as I tried to call for help.

Then came the voice.

"Out here all alone, pretty girl?"

I turned to run.

A hand shot out of the shadows, grabbing my hair and yanking me back so hard I hit the ground.

"You're not going anywhere."

I screamed.

His laugh was low and mocking, like he enjoyed the sound of my fear.

I kicked, thrashed, clawed at his arms, but he was too strong.

He dragged me deeper into the woods, gravel biting into my skin as I fought to break free.

"Keep screaming. No one's coming," he snarled, slamming me into a tree.

My vision blurred. My phone slipped from my grasp. Desperate, I snatched it up and dialed Victor.

Once.

Twice.

The line was busy.

No answer.

Then. he hung up.

The man's fist collided with my stomach, knocking the air from my lungs.

He threw me to the ground like a rag doll, laughing as I struggled to breathe.

"You look better on your knees."

Tears streamed down my face as I crawled, trying to put distance between us.

"Run all you want," he taunted, picking up a jagged rock.

"Makes it more fun for me."

I stumbled forward, tripping over roots, my legs giving out as he loomed closer.

The rock struck my head, sending a searing pain down my temple.

Blood dripped into my eyes, but I kept moving, adrenaline the only thing keeping me upright.

I found a hollow tree and crawled inside, shaking as I typed a message to Victor.

"Help me."

But my finger froze over the send button.

Leila's post appeared on my screen.

"In my darkest moment, you always come to me. Thank you, Victor, for being there."

Victor had hung up on me-for her.

Ten years of devotion turned to ash in an instant.

"Victor, let's end this."

"Fine."

One word.

One word that broke me.

"Found you," the man growled, his cruel grin shining in the moonlight.

He reached into his jacket, pulling out a knife.

"Let's make this last."

In my sophomore year of college, I drop out to take care of Carter. That was when my mom finally ripped off her façade for good.

"For a man, you'll ruin your life?! How did I end up with such a hopeless, brainless daughter?!"

"How can a woman who drove her own husband to his grave ever understand love?"

I knew I shouldn't have said it, but the rage consumed me, and I wanted to wound her, deeper and deeper.

"So you've finally said it..."

"I gave you everything I could, loved you like no one else could! Now leave! I never want to see you again!"

Yet every year, like clockwork, I sent her money.

On holidays, when other daughters were honoring their parents, I still kept the tradition for her.

But we became nothing more than ghosts to each other-too familiar to be strangers, yet too distant to be family.

At night, the woman who once swore she had no daughter traveled countless miles, her steps as heavy as the regret she carried.

The years of bitterness and denial had not been kind to her-sharp, cold, and haughty once, she was now a shadow of her former self.

She entered the room with a poised facade, trying to mask the tremors of age that betrayed her once proud stature. But when her eyes fell on the body lying still, the air in the room seemed to crack.

A smile-a strange, twisted thing-curled at her lips.

"She... she can't be my daughter!" she hissed, voice trembling, not with sorrow, but with disbelief.

She took a step back, her heels clicking louder now, almost frantic. "My daughter could never die like this. "

"Carter promised me! He promised he would protect her!"

But when the results of the test were handed to her-silent, damning-her hands shook violently.

"No! This-this can't be! My daughter is alive! You're lying to me!"

Her voice, now cracked under the weight of her fury.

"This isn't her! This isn't my daughter!"

Her hair tie had fallen off, and her hair tumbled wildly.

She had also lost one of her high heels.

Limping, she staggered out of the police station, her eyes vacant and lost as she gazed at the dazzling neon lights of the strange city.

Suddenly, a thought crossed her mind. She dug through her handbag and pulled out a crumpled piece of paper.

It had a phone number written on it, but after all these years, the handwriting had faded.

She pulled out her phone, dialing repeatedly, trying and failing to get through.

Frustrated, she dialed the wrong number over and over, until the person on the other end snapped.

Half an hour later, she finally managed to dial the right number.

"Carter, it's Aunt Sara."

It took Carter a moment to remember who "Aunt Sara" was.

"I broke up with Ariya."

"I also gave her ten million as a breakup fee."

"If you're not happy with that, you can contact my lawyer."

"Aunt, that's not what I mean, Ariya... she."

The call ended abruptly.

When I was with Carter, his family was drowning in debt, and then Liela broke up with him.

Two heavy blows, and that month, Carter was in the ICU twice.

My mother never approved of me being with Carter, especially since I would have to drop out of school to care for him. Later, Carter built a mafia gang, slowly rising to power, and became ruthless.

My mother had cursed us with the cruelest words.

She didn't give up.

She sent Carter another text, only to discover that he had blocked her.

Then, she received a message:My fiancee Leila has depression. I don't want her to overthink.

No guilt, no apology, just stating the fact and asking my mother to stop bothering him.

I don't know why my mother kept digging for her own misery.

Maybe she wanted to tell Carter I was dead.

Maybe she just wanted to understand what had really happened between Carter and me.

My mother stood frozen, holding her phone, letting the cold autumn wind turn her lips purple.

Passersby glanced at her strangely, as if they were looking at a madwoman.

"Mom, let's go back."

No matter how many times I whispered in her ear, she couldn't hear me.

For the first time, I regretted not having settled things with her while I was still alive.

Suddenly, she rushed out again, grabbing a passerby.

"Excuse me, Shadow Group?"

She asked over and over, searched every corner, until a kind-hearted stranger, moved by her plight, helped her hail a cab.

It seemed like my mother had just remembered that taxis existed.

"Aunt, are you looking for someone?"

My mother's expression had become dazed.

"I'm looking for my son-in-law, he's the head of a mafia gang shadow."

The kind stranger's face twitched, looking like they regretted helping my mother hail a cab.

The Shadow Gang had risen to power, establishing the infamous Shadow Group, and by the time my mom reached the building's imposing gates, it was already 1 a.m.

My mother sat alone on the cold steps, her back hunched, her bare feet pressing against the unforgiving pavement.

Her hair was tangled, wild, and her eyes-hollow, lifeless-stared into nothingness. The security guards on patrol cast wary glances in her direction, but none dared to approach.

Though the Shadow Gang ruled with an iron fist, they had a strange, unspoken rule: they never turned away the lost, the broken, the elders.

When he had fallen, I could still remember those long, frostbitten nights-nights like this one-where we clung to each other.

As the first light of dawn broke, military trucks rumbled down the road.

More gang cars followed, their headlights cutting through the darkness.

My mother, her anxiety mounting, began pacing frantically, her eyes darting to each passing vehicle, as if hoping for a glimpse of him.

Then, from the shadows, "Old woman, get out of the way, or I'll throw you in a brothel..."

She froze.

"I need to see Carter!" she shouted "When is he coming? Tell him-I need to speak to him! It's urgent!"

The guards sneered at her, the disgust clear on their faces.

One of them laughed cruelly, but the head guard, a man hardened by years of dealing with the worst of the worst, only shook his head and made a call.

Moments later, Carter's men appeared, their tattoos glowing under the streetlights like warnings.

One of them, a giant of a man, led my mother to a secluded room just outside the gates.

"I'm waiting for Carter!" she screamed.

The tattooed man sighed. "Lady, your daughter broke up with Carter a long time ago. He's about to marry Leila. What the hell are you doing here? If you want money, say it. But don't you dare think for a second you're getting anything else. And if it weren't for your daughter, you'd be buried in the gutter by now. So, move on."

My mother stood her ground. "No! I don't want money! I just need to see Carter!"

Without warning, a sleek luxury car barreled down the road. My mother, frantic, dashed toward it.

But the car didn't stop.

It didn't even slow down.

My mother was thrown to the ground with a sickening thud, her body skidding across the pavement, her limbs twisting and contorting as she tumbled down the stairs.

"Mom!"

My world shattered in an instant.

"Mom, please! We're not looking for Carter anymore!"

"Mom, please wake up!" I begged.

"Mom, don't leave me! You can't be hurt! You can't..."

This was the first time in my life I had screamed her name so many times.But she can't hear me.