Theater: NovelMaster | Language: English
Synopsis
The day I found out Julian was cheating on me, his mistress, Mia, dragged me straight into oncoming traffic.
"Look closely, Sera! Let's see who he actually saves!"
When Julian rushed over, his instinct kicked in—he shoved me aside and tackled Mia, rolling with her safely onto the grassy median.
I was pushed directly into the middle of the road.
I watched in frozen horror as an 18-wheeler barreled toward me.
When I woke up, I had lost my left leg and was blinded in my right eye.
The doctor mentioned that due to severe head trauma, I might suffer from amnesia.
Mia flashed Julian a sweet, dazzling smile.
"Then we can finally be together out in the open."
"I mean, she won't even remember anyway."
Seeing her hopeful expression, Julian gave her an indulgent, affectionate nod.
Hearing my weak cough, Julian shoved Mia off his lap in a panic and ran to my bedside.
"Sera, you're finally awake."
He reached out to touch me, but flinched back, as if suddenly remembering something.
He tested the waters cautiously: "Do you... do you know who we are?"
One was my husband.
The other was his mistress.
Touching my blinded eye, something strange took over me, and I shook my head.
If I had to suffer this much hell, they were going to pay the ultimate price.
Julian's breath hitched. He gripped my wrist tightly.
"Sera, you really don't remember me?"
His voice shook with panic, his eyes wide in disbelief.
I looked at him with an innocent, puzzled stare. "Am I supposed to?"
"Of course! I'm your hus—"
Ahem.
Two sharp coughs cut him off. Mia glided over with a bright, fake smile and hooked her arm around his.
"We're your old friends. You were in a terrible car accident, and we brought you to the hospital."
"I'm Mia, and this is my boyfriend."
She gave Julian a playful wink.
Julian shook his head helplessly, his gaze soft with sheer indulgence.
"Yeah. I'm her boyfriend."
"Julian."
On the monitor behind me, my heart rate spiked violently at those words.
I stared at their intertwined hands for a long moment before looking away.
"Why was I in an accident?"
Mia smirked, a venomous glint flashing in her eyes.
"Your husband fell in love with someone else. You couldn't handle it, so you ran into traffic trying to kill yourself."
I stared at her, suppressing the boiling fury clawing at my chest.
When Mia first joined our firm as an intern, her clothes were frayed and her sneakers were falling apart.
Her mother was sick, so she worked two jobs and practically lived under her desk at the office.
I took pity on her. I promoted her to my executive assistant and personally arranged an emergency corporate grant to cover her mother's medical bills.
And how did she repay me? She used her position to sleep with Julian right under my nose.
My kindness had watered a venomous viper.
"Where is my husband now?" I asked.
Mia lifted her chin like a strutting peacock, looking down at me with pure disdain.
"Oh, him? He ran off with his lover."
"He said he was sick of an old, boring woman like you."
She leaned in, pressing her body against Julian, fishing for validation.
"Right, babe?"
After a long pause, Julian gave a slow nod.
Something deep inside my chest shattered into pieces.
Maybe it was because my remaining eye had been open for too long, but a single tear slipped down my left cheek.
Julian reached out out of habit to wipe it away.
Then he froze.
He was Mia's boyfriend now.
He had to keep his distance.
My throat felt parched. I pointed at the water bottle on the nightstand.
"I'm thirsty."
"I'll get it for you."
Julian reached for the bottle immediately, poured a glass, and went to hand it to me—only for Mia to snatch it out of his hand.
Mia tipped her head back, gulped it down, and pouted playfully at him.
"I don't want you pouring water for her."
"Stop fooling around," Julian muttered, but he never poured me another glass.
I struggled to push myself up, but collapsed back onto the mattress after several failed attempts.
I had just lost a leg. I didn't know how to balance my own body anymore.
"Being thirsty for five minutes won't kill you. If you can't sit up, just lie back down," Julian snapped impatiently, pressing the nurse call button on the wall.
When the nurse came in and found out I just needed a sip of water, she shot the two of them a look of pure disgust.
"Unbelievable. With two grown adults standing here, I assumed this room was empty."
Her mocking remark made Julian's face drain of color.
Once the nurse left, Julian said awkwardly, "You don't need to be so dramatic. Your husband is just messing around. He'll come back to you eventually."
"He cheated on me. Why would he ever come back?"
Julian nodded vigorously. "I... I mean, he definitely will. Because he loves you."
Right.
He loved me.
Apparently, loving me didn't stop him from betraying me.
I offered him a faint smile that didn't reach my eye.
My voice came out colder than ice.
"He doesn't need to come back. Honestly, I'd rather he drop dead."
Julian froze, stumbling back two steps, his expression darkening.
"Sera! He just stepped away for a bit! How can you wish death on him?"
The corners of my mouth curled into a bitter sneer.
"I'm not wishing for it."
"I genuinely want him dead."
Seeing the raw, burning hatred in my eye, Julian stood paralyzed.I pointed at my blind eye, then down at my amputated leg.
"Because of him, I turned into this monster."
"Look at me. Pathetic, aren't I?"
The anger that had just flared up in Julian vanished instantly. He dropped to his knees in front of my bed.
He gently cradled my hand between his palms, his eyes brimming with devotion.
"Sera, please don't get upset. No matter what happens to you, I will always take care of you."
These were the same hands that used to hold mine while hiking mountain trails and watching sunsets by the coast.
His hands were warm.
Yet right now, they made my skin crawl.
The mere thought of these hands touching Mia's body triggered a wave of nausea so violent I couldn't stop it.
I threw up pure bile all over his designer jacket.
A flicker of disgust crossed Julian's face before he quickly hid it.
He stood up, stripped off his ruined blazer, and tossed it into the trash can.
"Mia and I are heading out. We'll pick you up when you're discharged."
He wrapped his arm around Mia's waist and walked out without looking back once.
On discharge day, Julian brought a custom, high-end prosthetic leg he had ordered from overseas.
While fitting it onto me, he read the manual over and over, terrified that a clumsy mistake might hurt me.
He was focused, completely absorbed.
I suddenly remembered the day we first met in college; he had that exact same look on his face.
Back then, a chemical experiment went wrong, and boiling liquid spilled over my calf, leaving a massive, horrific burn.
Everyone blamed me for being careless. Only Julian had dropped to his knees, gently cleaning and dressing my wound.
Now, that leg was gone. And so was whatever we had.
Click.
It was finally locked in place.
Julian wiped the sweat from his forehead, visibly exhaling.
A proud smile spread across his lips. "I'll go handle the paperwork. Mia, keep an eye on her."
The moment the door clicked shut behind him, Mia ripped the prosthetic off me.
Fresh out of major surgery, I didn't have the strength to fight her off.
"Sera, I really want to see how you manage to walk on one foot."
When Julian returned, he found the shattered prosthetic dumped in the corner, stepped on and cracked.
He dropped down in a panic to inspect the damage.
"Sera, what are you doing?!"
I hadn't done a single thing, yet his very first instinct was to accuse me.
Mia knelt beside him, helping him gather the broken pieces, looking as innocent and wronged as ever.
"Sera just... she couldn't accept being crippled. She completely lost it and smashed it on the floor."
Julian's brows knit together, his voice booming across the room.
"Sera, what the hell is wrong with you?!"
"Julian, look at my leg! Do you honestly think I have the strength to stomp a titanium prosthetic into pieces? Mia did this—"
He cut me off harshly, his eyes overflowing with disappointment.
"Enough! You don't need to invent pathetic lies just to frame Mia!"
Sitting on the edge of the hospital bed, I froze.
A sharp sting hit my eyes, nearly bringing me to tears.
Julian was never like this before. He used to stand in front of board members and investors when they questioned my tech prototypes:
"Sera never lies."
When I asked him why he trusted me blindly, he simply smiled: "If you say it, I believe it."
And now, he was the one looking at me like I was a deceitful monster.
Julian stopped a passing nurse in the hallway.
He grabbed a basic aluminum crutch and tossed it in front of me.
"Since you hate the prosthetic so much, you can walk out like this."
They walked ahead, their strides brisk and impatient, never once slowing down to check on me.
Within seconds, they turned the corner and disappeared from sight.
I pulled out my phone and dialed my corporate attorney.
"What documentation do we need to report gross corporate embezzlement and fraud to federal investigators?"
"Also, draft an uncontested divorce settlement. Julian Vance is leaving this marriage with absolutely nothing."
Mia loved wealth, didn't she? She wanted to climb the social ladder so desperately.
Let's see if she still worships him when he doesn't have a penny to his name.By the time I dragged myself to the hospital entrance, Mia was leaning on Julian's shoulder, giggling behind her manicured hand.
"Julian, I told you she was faking it. Look, she walks just fine without that expensive prosthetic."
"A bet's a bet. Hand over the card."
Julian glanced at his Rolex, his brow furrowing deeply.
He placed my black Centurion card right into Mia's open palm.
"Sera, you really haven't changed. Still so dramatic."
The cold wind outside cut right through my clothes.
Back when I first suspected his infidelity, my anxiety had spiraled out of control.
Whenever he worked late, I pretended to have stomach cramps just to beg him to come home.
Whenever he went on business trips, I lied about having panic attacks so he would stay.
I loved him too much, so I resorted to sick games just to keep him near.
The only difference this time was that my amnesia was a lie designed to get away from him forever.
I spoke rasply, "I want to go to my own place."
Mia sneered at me. "You were abandoned. You don't have a home anymore."
Julian shot Mia a stern, warning glare.
Mia pouted, but shut her mouth obediently.
"You're staying with us for now," Julian told me. "I promised your husband I'd look after you."
Julian pulled his Porsche up to the curb.
"Get in."
I reached for the front passenger door, but Mia cut right in front of me and slipped inside.
My eyes fell on the dashboard sticker that once read Princess Sera's Seat.
It had already been replaced with Mia's Throne.
Catching my gaze, Julian looked guilty for a split second.
He cleared his throat awkwardly.
"Sera, sit in the back."
Then, he added defensively, "Mia gets jealous easily. Just bear with it."
I said nothing. I opened the rear door, ready to climb in, when a soft "meow" stopped me dead in my tracks.
I froze entirely.
There was a pet carrier on the back seat holding a long-haired Persian cat.
I was severely allergic to cat dander.
Julian knew that better than anyone. I didn't know if he genuinely forgot or just didn't care.
Mia had been my assistant; she knew it too.
"On the way here, I took Zhizhi to the pet spa for a grooming session," Mia said with a smug curl of her lips. "You don't mind, do you?"
"I mind. A lot."
I slammed the car door shut, leaned on my crutches, and turned to walk away.
Julian caught up in seconds, grabbing my wrist firmly.
"What is your problem now?!"
"Being near a cat makes my entire body break out in hives."
Realization flashed across Julian's face, but he quickly puffed out his chest, completely unbothered.
"It's just an allergy. It's not going to kill you."
He snatched my crutch, grabbed my arm with brute force, and shoved me into the back seat.
"Julian, let go of me!"
"It's rush hour. You won't get an Uber out here, and the doctor explicitly said you can't stand for too long."
His tone softened into that familiar coaxing cadence.
"Be a good girl."
Before I could fight back, my nose tickled and I sneezed violently.
In that brief second, he threw the car into drive and hit the gas.
The entire ride, I pressed myself as far into the opposite corner as humanly possible.
Thankfully, the drive was short. The moment we parked in the underground garage, I practically kicked the door open and bolted.
My bare arms were already covered in angry red hives.
Seeing them, Julian looked alarmed. He pushed up my sleeve, revealing the inflamed, bumpy rash spreading across my skin.
"I'll run to the pharmacy and get some antihistamines."
Mia grabbed his arm, holding him back.
She pulled a tiny bottle of anti-itch bug spray from her purse.
"This works wonders on bug bites and rashes. Why waste time going to a pharmacy?"
Julian frowned, shaking her off. "Sera has a severe allergy! She needs actual medication!"
"I am not gambling with her life!"
Tears welled up in Mia's eyes immediately, her voice breaking into a sob.
"B-but... how do you know it won't work if you don't even try?"
Julian hesitated. Under the onslaught of Mia's crocodile tears, his resolve crumbled. He slowly took the bug spray from her hand.
He held it out to me.
"Sera... why not give it a shot?"The moment those words left his mouth, I went numb.
I smacked his hand away.
The little bottle hit the concrete floor and shattered into pieces.
"Julian, get me proper allergy medicine, or I'm checking into a hotel right now."
Julian's expression turned glacial. After an agonizing silence, he ground out through his teeth:
"Fine. I'll get it."
Once I took the antihistamines, my breathing eased, and the hives slowly began to fade.
I looked around the penthouse I had lived in for five years.
The scent of fresh flowers was gone. The white roses I loved keeping in the vase had withered into brown dust.
And our framed wedding portrait had been swapped out for a massive, lavish photo of Julian and Mia.
Mia walked out of the master bedroom wearing silk pajamas, pointing casually toward the guest room.
"That's your room. The walls are kind of thin, so if you hear anything weird in the middle of the night, try to ignore it."
I looked her up and down.
"Those pajamas..."
"What about them?"
"Nothing. They look great on you."
Of course they did—I bought them myself. I just hadn't realized that while Mia threw away every single trace of me, from my toiletries to my slippers, she kept my designer sleepwear.
I guessed she really wanted to rub it in.
The next morning, Mia deliberately wore a low-cut camisole, flaunting fresh hickeys all over her neck.
I ignored her, scrolling through tech industry news on my phone.
The breakthrough AI software I had spent three grueling months developing had just been publicly announced.
The lead inventor credit was listed as: Mia Sutton.
My knuckles turned white as I gripped the phone.
I walked straight up to Julian, who was getting ready to head out.
"I'm coming to the office with you."
My voice was soft, almost fragile.
Julian paused, a flicker of delight crossing his eyes.
"Okay."
I knew Julian's company inside and out. Years ago, all it took was one plea from him—Help me, Sera—and I abandoned my own path to build his startup from scratch.
To secure our first round of funding, I drank myself into a bleeding ulcer at corporate dinners, flew across dozens of cities, and pulled endless all-nighters.
Now that the company was on the verge of going public, the founding architect had been kicked out of the door.
When I stepped into the lobby on crutches, a white gauze patch over my right eye, the entire floor went dead silent.
Dozens of employees turned to stare, their whispers sharp and cruel.
"Wait, I thought she was Mr. Vance's wife. Turns out she was just a homewrecking side piece?"
"Mr. Vance only kept her around out of pity."
"Karma really is real. Homewreckers deserve to lose an eye and a leg."
Frowning, I hobbled over to the woman whispering the loudest.
"What did you just say?"
Without a word, she turned her phone screen toward me. It was a video Mia had just blasted into the company-wide Slack channel.
It was footage from that night.
Except the camera angle made it look like I was the aggressor, violently screaming and dragging Mia into traffic.
The next frame showed me getting struck by the truck and thrown across the asphalt.
Pinned beneath the video was a caption written by Mia:
I wasn't going to say anything, but an ex-wife should really know how to stay dead.
Fractured memories violently rushed back into my head—blinding headlights, blood pooling on the asphalt, the sickening snap of bone, shards of glass piercing through the darkness of my vision.
My body began to shake violently. The phantom agony and suffocating terror from that night swept over me like a tidal wave.
Julian stepped in just in time to catch my trembling shoulder.
His expression twisted with rage as he glared around the room.
"Everyone, delete that video right this second!"
Mia pushed her way through the gathered crowd, biting her lower lip with tears brimming in her eyes.
"Julian, we took care of her for weeks! We've done more than enough!"
"Besides..."
She gently placed a hand over her flat stomach, her face softening.
"I'm pregnant."
Julian's anger evaporated in an instant. Pure, unadulterated joy lit up his eyes.
He let go of me immediately, pulling Mia's delicate frame into a tight hug.
"Alright. I'll make her leave."
I froze, the air knocked completely out of my lungs.
Mia was pregnant?
I had spent years begging for a baby. But every single time, Julian brushed it off:
"Sera, the company is in a critical expansion phase. We need your brain on the tech side. You can't take maternity leave right now."
He always told me to wait. Wait until after the IPO.
I never imagined that while I waited for an IPO, Mia was carrying his child.
Right then, the lobby doors were kicked open.
A team of federal investigators in dark suits marched into the building, flashing badges and holding body cams.
"Federal Securities and Fraud Division. We have a warrant regarding illegal financial transactions. Everyone step away from your workstations."
The room fell into an icy, suffocating silence.
Julian's face darkened, his gaze sweeping menacingly across his staff.
"Who filed this report?"
Every single employee dropped their head, too terrified to breathe.
A crisp, calm voice broke the silence.
I reached up and pulled the gauze patch off my right eye. It was completely clear, bright, and unharmed.
"I did."
Julian's pupils shrank to pinpricks.
Seeing the chilling indifference in my gaze, reality finally hit him like a freight train.
"You... you never lost your memory?"
Chapters (4)
Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Watch & Promotions
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