On my way to pick up my child, I came across a post.

“What’s the most thrilling thing you’ve ever done in your life?”

The comments were all over the place.

Some said having an affair, some said streaking.

Everyone was debating wildly.

I scrolled past without much interest.

Until a familiar profile picture caught my eye.

She was saying she had ruined a girl’s life with just one sentence.

“That was my boss’s fiancée, young and beautiful.”

“She was kidnapped the night before the wedding, and my boss asked me to deliver the ransom.”

“I suggested waiting a few days, letting her suffer a bit so she’d learn her lesson.”

“But she was useless; the kidnappers tortured her until she went insane, and she was sent to a mental hospital.”

“This is her third year in the mental hospital.”

“And I finally married my boss.”

The word “finally” carried a smugness sharpened by years of planning.

Like a provocation arriving three years late.

——

The post went viral fast.

Her comment was soon pushed to the top.

Sophia Young posted a photo.

Hands clasped tightly.

Wearing the wedding ring, she designed for herself but never got to wear it.

“I don’t think I did anything wrong.”

“Even if I had a hundred chances, I’d still make the same choice.”

“After all, in this world, only I deserve him.”

“Not some spoiled, crying little girl.”

She recounted the hardships she shared with Lucas Lawrence.

She talked about how they propped up a company on the verge of collapse.

She talked about the nights they fought side by side, relying on each other.

But she never mentioned where Lucas’s startup capital came from.

Ethan hadn’t gotten out of school yet.

While waiting at the red light, more than a dozen comments had already appeared.

Some scolded her for being shameless, saying that harming someone would never end well.

Some said I just had a weak mentality, and it wasn’t her fault.

Even worse, some dug up her identity and found photos that once shocked the entire internet.

Seeing that blurry picture, I froze.

It felt like looking through a tear in time.

I saw myself three years ago, lost and desperate.

Stripped naked and thrown onto the street.

Walking bare into the media’s spotlight.

A brutal contrast to Sophia—glamorous, standing proudly beside Lucas.

Although Lucas later tried everything to suppress the trending topic,

those humiliating moments are still permanently carved into the internet’s memory.

As I sighed, the light turned green.

I sighed again and drove on.

By the time I reached the next intersection, the comments were gone.

But on my phone, there was a message from five minutes ago.

“Sophie, are you alright?” The number was unfamiliar, and there was no signature.

But in this world, only one person calls me Sophie.

That person, and only that one. I paused for a moment, then chose to delete the message.

That concern came far too late.

Three years have passed.

Whether I’m doing well or not is no longer his business.

The car kept moving; I no longer had time to look back.

Only sometimes, when leaves drift down,

would I think of distant memories.

Before I turned eighteen, I had never suffered even once.

I was the treasured daughter of the Carter family.

I had a chauffeur for everything, and a nanny to care for me every day.

Even my arranged fiancé was the handsome and arrogant rising star of Newport’s elite, Lucas.

Back then, everyone said—

“Miss Carter was born lucky, the brightest jewel in the entire Newport social circle.”

Until the night before the wedding, when I was kidnapped.

They demanded an outrageous ransom from my family.

The total reached a staggering 800 million.

But I wasn’t worried at all.

My parents adored me, and Lucas insisted on marrying me.

Even if it meant draining their entire fortune, they would secure my safety.

At first, the kidnappers treated me somewhat politely.

Until the seventh day, when a bucket of cold water hit me awake.

They yanked my hair and kicked me to the ground.

“Didn’t your family say they couldn’t afford the ransom? Then explain this!”

I looked up.

On the TV screen was Lucas’s triumphant face.

He and Sophia were standing side by side, cutting a ribbon.

Behind them flashed a smug headline:

“Congratulations, Mr. Lawrence, on your first milestone! Another 800 million invested in the new project.”

Eight hundred million.

Exactly eight hundred million.

The kidnappers forced me to call Lucas one last time.

The call connected, but it was Sophia’s voice that answered.

“Mr. Lawrence is busy. Is there something you need?”

“Oh, it’s Miss Carter. Mr. Lawrence doesn’t have time.”

“Oh, come on, Mr. Lawrence, stop fooling around. The meeting is starting soon, and you’ve wrinkled your suit—how will you face the reporters…” The call cut off, their flirtatious banter ending abruptly.

Lucas seemed to be making a silent announcement.

Between love and career, he chose career.

Between me and Sophia, he chose Sophia.

I stood frozen, unable to accept it.

I didn’t notice the kidnappers’ expressions changing.

On the eighth day, the ransom still hadn’t arrived.

The kidnappers broke my fingers as a warning.

Lucas didn’t respond, didn’t yield.

On the ninth day, the ransom still hadn’t come.

They recorded my humiliation, threatening to destroy my reputation.

Lucas didn’t reply, only issuing a company statement that afternoon:

“The Lawrence Corporation will never bow to evil forces.”

On the tenth day, my parents announced they were cutting off the investment and relocating overseas.

I became completely abandoned, stripped of the last shred of value.

The kidnappers were furious.

Their rage drove them to torture and degrade me with everything they had.

At that time, both they and I still clung to faint hope—

That someone would come to save me.

But no one did.

While I was held captive, Lucas and Sophia grew ever closer.

News reports poured in.

The two attended countless events together, hosting grand celebrations.

They mingled and basked in the spotlight, thriving.

Every finance channel was buzzing.

Lucas’s investment was a huge success, and he was poised to become one of the richest men in Newport’s elite.

Ahead of him was a dazzling future.

Behind me, however, was a group of cruel demons.

They took out every bit of their anger and resentment on me.

Whips, daggers, branding irons, steel needles—

They made me beg for death.

On the fifteenth day, I finally found a chance to escape.

I can no longer remember the obstacles and terrors along the way.

I only remember running and running.

Running until my legs went numb, until my wounds tore open again, until I was down to my last breath.

Just as I was about to collapse, about to despair, about to give up,

a melody guided me.

I no longer cared that I was naked.

I didn’t care about dignity or shame; all I wanted was to survive.

But when I arrived at the scene, I saw Lucas taking Sophia to the countryside for charity work.

The setup was grand; reporters filled the place.

How ironic.

He had money for investments and charity, but none to rescue his fiancée.

He had time for receptions and interviews, but none to save his fiancée.

He basked in praise and applause, while I endured humiliation and torture in the hands of a monster.

I stood there, naked and stunned, like a misplaced clown.

I let everyone take in my dripping wounds.

In that moment, every spotlight fell on me.

Lucas’s face immediately darkened.

He didn’t ask if I was in pain, didn’t care what I had gone through.

He only said one sentence:

“Wendy Carter, what are you doing?”

Making a scene? Making a scene?

So all the pain and torture I suffered,

in his eyes, it was just a pointless tantrum to seek attention.

So my blood and wounds

were less important to him than dust on the ground.

I rushed to him, crying, asking why he hadn’t saved me.

“Why, why?”

“I’m your fiancée, your childhood sweetheart, your lifelong partner…”

“I’m pregnant…”

Before I could finish, Lucas cut me off without mercy.

He pushed my hand away in front of everyone.

He looked at me with a heavy, complicated expression.

“Sophie, why can’t you learn your lesson!”

“I had Sophia start negotiations as soon as we got the news. Once this phase passes, the money will be transferred.”

“You would’ve been fine anyway, so why put on this act?”

How could anyone risk their dignity and life just to act?!

I stood there frozen, staring in disbelief at the man I had loved since I was young.

But even after my tears ran dry, Lucas’s expression didn’t change.

He only vaguely blamed me for disrupting his charity event.

Eventually, I was wrapped in a blanket and taken away.

Sophia pretended to care.

She deliberately loosened her scarf, revealing hickeys on her neck.

“Aren’t you curious why your parents didn’t save you?”

“Isn’t it strange that Lucas suddenly changed so much?”

“Because… you’re not the Carter family’s daughter at all!”

She told me her parents were nearly driven insane with worry the day they received the ransom letter.

They said they would spare no cost, even bankruptcy, to save me.

But Lucas stopped them.

He showed them a paternity test.

He said I was just a fake—switched at birth by the nanny.

The real Miss Carter had already died from the nanny’s abuse.

Those words made her parents stop trying to rescue her.

The Carter family’s cherished daughter—

turned out to be a fraud.

Years of raising me made it impossible for them to let me go entirely.

But their hatred for their daughter’s death left them unsure how to face me.

After a long hesitation…

They left me an 800‑million‑dollar dowry and entrusted me to Lucas.

They were actually kinder than I deserved.

They just never expected Lucas to be so ruthless.

He took that 800 million—her dowry, the money meant to save my life.