Linda sighed and pulled up my personnel file on her computer.

“Your five years in the desert are recorded here as a voluntary posting to support the border region, with successful completion of the mission despite harsh conditions.”

“That’s true.”

“But...” She lowered her voice. “On the final reports for the three projects you led, every first author is listed as Hayley.”

I was stunned.

“How’s that possible? Those were my…”

“You signed off on it.”

Linda opened a document and turned the monitor toward me.

“Look. This agreement was filed five years ago. You signed it and approved shared ownership of the project results.”

The signature was mine.

However, I had no memory of ever signing such a document.

“You were leaving in a hurry back then. A lot of the paperwork was handled by Mr. Hill on your behalf.”

Linda hesitated, as though considering whether to say more.

“Stella, there are some things... Never mind. You should head to your desk.”

My desk was tucked away in a corner beside the printer. Its surface was piled high with random office clutter.

As coworkers passed by, some pretended not to see me. Others offered a brief nod in acknowledgment before moving on.

Only Susan Brooks came over.

“How are you back?”

“The project ended.”

“Then, you...”

She glanced toward Hayley’s office.

“Be careful. She’s the department head now, and Mr. Hill is her husband.”

I set my bag down.

“I know.”

That afternoon, my phone rang.

Dan’s name flashed across the screen.

I ignored it.

He called again and again.

I answered on the fourth call.

“Stella, we need to talk.”

“There’s nothing to talk about.”

“Hayley is pregnant with our second child. The doctor says the pregnancy is unstable, and she needs to avoid stress.”

He sounded exhausted.

“Could you stay away from us for a while?”

A child’s voice echoed from somewhere in the background. “Dad! Mom’s throwing up again!”

“Coming, buddy.”

Dan hurriedly spoke into the phone one last time. “That’s all. I’m asking you as a favor.”

He hung up.

I stared at the dark screen and found myself thinking back to five years ago.

The day the transfer order came through, I called Dan in tears.

He had said, “I’m on my way. Just wait for me.”

When he arrived, he pulled me into his arms and said, “Go. Think of it as an opportunity. When you get back, we’ll get married.”

That day, there had been a faint trace of perfume on him. It was not the cologne he usually wore.

I finally knew why. It was Hayley’s perfume.

I went to the hospital for a full medical examination.

The doctor frowned as he studied the report.

“Ms. Elba, your condition...”

“Just tell me.”

“Endometriosis. Your ovarian function has declined significantly.”

The doctor adjusted his glasses.

“The chances of conceiving naturally are close to zero.”

I gripped the report so tightly that the edge of the paper bit into my palm.

“Is it because of my working conditions?”

“Years of high-intensity work, chronic stress, and the climate in the desert…”

The doctor paused.

“You’re still young. If you start treatment now, there may still be a chance.”

I walked out of the examination room and into a hallway filled with expectant mothers.

They sat with their hands resting on their swollen bellies. Their faces were glowing with quiet happiness.

A husband knelt down and pressed his ear to his wife’s stomach to listen for the baby’s movement.

I edged past them and pushed open the door to the emergency stairwell.

The stairwell was empty.

I crouched down and buried my face in my knees.

I told myself not to cry.

If I cried, it would mean they had won.

Three days later, the company held its annual gala.

I had no intention of going, but Susan said, “You’re a longtime employee. It’ll look bad if you don’t show up.”

I wore a simple black dress and kept to a corner of the ballroom.

The lights were bright, and the music was loud.

When Dan and Hayley arrived together, they immediately became the center of attention.

“Mr. and Mrs. Hill, congratulations!”

“A second baby! That’s wonderful news!”

Hayley thanked everyone with a smile. Her hand never left her stomach.

Dan kept an arm around her waist. Every time he looked down at her, his eyes were full of tenderness.

Someone spotted me and subtly nodded in my direction.

The room fell quiet for a brief moment. Then, the chatter resumed as if nothing had happened.

With one hand resting on her pregnant belly, Hayley made her way toward me.

“Stella, it’s been a long time.”

I held my glass of champagne.

“Congratulations.”

“Thank you.”

She gently rubbed her stomach.

“We consulted a psychic. She said it would be a girl, and Dan was over the moon. He said he hoped our daughter would take after her mother.”

She looked at me and suddenly lowered her voice. “You know, Dan said if he hadn’t sent you away, he probably would’ve stayed torn between us for a long time.”

“What are you trying to say?”

“What I’m saying is...” She smiled sweetly.

“Thank you for stepping aside back then. Without your sacrifice, we wouldn’t have the life we have today.”

My hand was trembling.

A few drops of champagne splashed out and stained my dress.

“Hayley, do you know that when you were pregnant with your first child, I was out there working in freezing temperatures, running a dangerously high fever, and almost died?” I looked her straight in the eyes.

She blinked.

“What about it?”

“I called him seventeen times, and he never answered. It was our anniversary.”

She smiled.

“He was helping me choose a wedding gown.”

I took a deep breath.

Then, she added, “It was a limited-edition Vera Wang gown—the one with the pearl embroidery around the waist.”

I had tried that gown on five years ago.

Back then, Dan had said, “We’ll buy this for our wedding.”

It turned out that when he said “we,” he had never meant me and him.

I set down my glass and turned to leave.

At some point, Dan had appeared behind us.

He looked at me with a mixture of emotions in his eyes.

“Stella—”

“Don’t say my name, it makes me sick.” I cut him off.

I walked out of the ballroom. Rain was falling outside.

I stood beneath the eaves and watched the downpour blur the city into a single grey haze.

Footsteps sounded behind me.

Dan had followed me out.

He held an umbrella in his hand and offered it to me.

“Take it. You’ll catch a cold.”

“Why do you care?”

He fell silent for a moment.

“I know you hate me.”

“I don’t hate you.”

I said, “I just think I wasted five years on someone who wasn’t worth it.”

“Those five years—”

I cut him off. “I worked sixteen-hour days during those five years in the middle of nowhere. My periods stopped for months at a time. My hair was falling out in handfuls. I endured all of it because I kept telling myself that I would finally marry you when I came back.”

The color drained from his face.

“As for you, in those same five years, you got married, had a child, and now, you’re expecting another.” I let out a laugh.

“I’m sorry.”

“What good is your apology?”

I looked straight at him.

“Dan, you’ve made it impossible even to hate you. You’ve made me feel like a fool.”

The rain came down harder.

He opened the umbrella and tried to angle it over me.

I pushed his hand away and stepped into the downpour.

The rain was freezing, and it soaked through my clothes within seconds.

One week later, I received a call from home.

Mom was crying on the phone.

“Stella, your dad’s in the hospital!”

I rushed home immediately. My father, who had struggled with heart disease for years, lay in the hospital bed with a gray, ashen face.

Mom grabbed my hand.

“Someone sent your dad a letter. It said that you... that you were the other woman and that you broke up someone’s family.”

“I did no such thing!”

“There were photos!”

Mom wiped away her tears. “They included text messages between you and Dan. There were even statements from people at your company.”

I snatched the envelope.

The photographs inside were doctored, and the chat logs were fabricated.

However, they were alarmingly convincing.

“Dad, please, let me explain...”

Dad opened his eyes and looked at me for a long moment.

“I believe you,” he said.

Then, he closed his eyes.

A shrill alarm erupted from the heart monitor.

Doctors and nurses rushed into the room.

I was pushed out of the ward.

Outside the door, Dan stood there.

He held a fruit basket in his hands.

“I came to see Mr. Elba,” he said.

A nurse passed by and murmured under her breath, “Mr. Hill is such a good man. He even visits his ex-girlfriend’s father.”

I stared at him before I snapped. I lunged forward and slapped him.

The fruit basket fell to the floor, and fruit rolled everywhere.

“You did this!”

“I don’t know what—”

“You don’t know?”

I grabbed the front of his shirt.

“Those photos. Those messages. Who else could have sent them besides you?”

He grabbed my wrists.

“Stella, calm down!”

“How am I supposed to calm down?!” I screamed at him.

“If anything happens to Dad, I’m going to kill you!”

The ward door opened.

The doctor stepped out and removed his mask.

“I’m sorry. We did everything we could.”

In that moment, my world shattered.

The funeral was held three days later. My mother would not let me through the door.

“Go away,” she said through the closed door. “Your dad wouldn’t want to see you.”

I stood and waited outside from morning until night.

In the afternoon, Dan and Hayley arrived.

They placed a white lily arrangement near the front of the chapel.

The card attached to it read: With deepest sympathy, Dan and Hayley Hill.

Hayley noticed me and spoke softly.

“My condolences.”

I looked at Dan. If looks could kill, he would have dropped dead where he stood.

The color drained from his face.

Hayley tugged gently on his sleeve.

“Come on. We should go.”

Without another word, they turned and walked away.

Mom finally opened the door.

When she looked at me, all I saw in her eyes was hatred.

“Are you happy now? Your dad is dead. Happy now?”

I stepped forward and tried to hug her.

“Mom...”

“Don’t touch me!”

She shoved me away.

“I don’t want a daughter like you!”

I stayed there frozen and unable to move.

A week after my father’s funeral, I received a call from the company.

“Stella, your employment has been terminated.”

The voice from the human resources department was cold and detached.

“The grounds are gross misconduct and breach of professional ethics. During your assignment in the desert, you allegedly engaged in inappropriate relationships with multiple male colleagues.”

I rushed straight to the office and stormed into the human resources office.

“Where is your evidence?”

The human resources director tossed a stack of photographs onto the desk.

They were ordinary job-site photos of me and my coworkers. However, they were overlaid with obscene and defamatory captions.

“This is defamation!”

“Where there is smoke, there is fire.”

The director looked at me as he said, “The company cannot tolerate an employee like you.”

So, I went to see Dan.

His assistant stopped me outside his office.

“Mr. Hill is in a meeting.”

I waited until nightfall.

When he finally stepped out of the conference room, his steps faltered the moment he saw me.

“I know what you’re going to say,” he said.

“It’s the company’s decision. There’s nothing I can do.”

“Dan, you framed me.”

“It wasn’t me.”

He frowned.

“Hayley said—”

“And you just believe whatever she tells you?”

I stepped closer.

“She killed my father. Now, she’s trying to destroy me. Are you going to help her do that too?”

He took a step back.

“Stella, you need to calm down.”

“I’m perfectly calm,” I said.

“I just want to know one thing. Can you really live with yourself?”

He did not answer.

I turned and left. As I reached the ground floor, a crowd suddenly closed in around me.

Seven or eight people stood there holding signs.

“Homewrecker!”

“Witch!”

“Get out of our town!”

Someone threw something at me.

It was a bucket of red paint.

It drenched me from top to bottom.

I stood there motionless as I dripped crimson from head to toe.

Dan’s car emerged from the underground garage and stopped at the curb.

He got out and dispersed those people.

Then, he looked at me and sighed.

“Stella, why can’t you just take the high road? Why does it have to come to this?”

I wiped my face.

The red ran down my fingers in streaks.

“Take the high road?”

I laughed.

“How exactly am I supposed to do that?”

He said nothing. He got back into his car and drove away.

When I got back to my apartment, I found that the locks had been changed.

My luggage had been dumped outside the door.

The landlord poked his head out.

“I packed up your things. You need to leave.”

“Why?”

“Someone filed a complaint against you. People are saying you are the kind of person who brings trouble wherever she goes. It’s bad for the building.”

The landlord waved his hand.

“I’m not renting out to you anymore.”

I crouched down beside my suitcase.

It was the same suitcase I had taken with me to the desert five years ago. It was the same one I had brought back.

Nothing had seemingly changed, yet everything had.

I spent the entire night nursing a cold cup of coffee in an all-night diner.

The city awoke in the morning light.

It was beautiful.

However, I no longer wished to remain here a moment longer.