Chapter 4

It was the first time in my life I ever had a total meltdown.

Everyone was on the same page as Owen back then. They thought I was head over heels for Victor, like I couldn't survive without him.

They were sure I was acting crazy, making a scene for no reason.

They figured I just wanted to make Victor come back and go through with the wedding we never had.

Deep down, I knew I just didn't love him anymore. I hated him.

I vented about all the ways Victor had betrayed me, and accused Layla of hurting me.

I spent a ton of money hiring reporters, hoping they'd blow everything up.

I wanted to destroy him and Layla.

But in the end, the Brooks family crushed all my accusations in record time. Not even a whisper made it to Victor, who was still abroad.

The first time I made a huge scene, all I wanted was to fight for justice for myself.

I wanted everyone who mocked and blamed me, regardless of what was right or wrong, to finally see they were the ones messing up.

But in the end, I was the only one who got burned.

I drowned my sorrows in alcohol, only for my mom to set me up and send me into someone else's bed.

She told me to give up and accept my fate, to let Victor and Layla be together.

After that, I took her to court and had her locked up for a year.

I blew up at my dad's company, causing chaos that nearly brought his whole career crashing down.

And in the end, I destroyed my good name.

The Brooks family deliberately let the rumors spread unchecked.

They claimed that Victor, who used to be so gentle and well-mannered, had suddenly called off the wedding because I'd had an affair.

They even spread that I was already pregnant, and couldn't get rid of the baby for medical reasons.

The trauma I suffered was twisted into ironclad "proof" that I betrayed Victor.

No one ever believed me.

Victor was the golden boy. Nobody thought he'd ever bail on our engagement.

So when the Brooks family dropped a hint that I was the one to blame, everyone bought it without a second thought.

I raised hell, fought, and argued. I even went all the way overseas, running around like a lunatic just to track down Victor.

I wanted to lose it on him, scream in his face, and tell him how revolting he was.

If he was still hung up on Layla, then why did he ever agree to get engaged to me?

How was I ever in the wrong? What did I ever do to him?

Why did he have to leave me stranded backstage in my wedding dress, and just vanish overseas right in the middle of our wedding?

I frantically searched for him. But I had lost my phone, and had no way to reach him.

No one would give his contact information to me.

Once I was abroad, the world suddenly felt impossibly big.

There was no sign of Victor and Layla.

He had abandoned me, and in the end, I was the one everyone pointed fingers at, the one whose name got dragged through the mud.

I kept freaking out, making scenes after scenes.

In the end, all that drama left me with clinical depression. I even lost my internship at preschool.

After I had Connor, I cut my wrists with a blade, threw myself off a building, and even walked straight into traffic, trying to end it all.

Somehow, I survived all that.

Then it hit me that no one gave a damn about me.

The only one who ever bothered to pay my hospital bills was Owen, the guy who I spent that nightmarish night with.

I suddenly understood that death was just another letdown, nothing special at all.

I stopped hurting myself.

I started using the excuse of checking on Connor just to get inside Owen's place.

Once I was in, I plunged the blade straight into Owen's chest.

I dropped the sleeping pills I'd bought for myself into the warm water he drank every morning.

Owen got hauled off in an ambulance because of the wound.

He collapsed at the office, and they had to shut down an important meeting because of it.

I got off on it, felt a twisted, messed-up kind of pleasure.

Strangely enough, my depression actually started to lift.

Then Connor grew up, started grabbing my finger, struggling to call me "Mommy."

Sunlight streamed in through the window, and I suddenly realized another year had begun, and spring was here once more.

I suddenly remembered back when I was a teenager, I was always that quiet girl sitting in the back of the classroom, reading and keeping to herself.

I wasn't popular, but I worked so hard. I didn't deserve to end up like this.

I went back to job hunting.

I'd been making a scene for half a year, and my reputation was in the gutter.

I couldn't land anything decent. After trying everywhere, the only place that would hire me was a pet funeral home.

Most people thought dealing with dead pets was creepy, and the pay wasn't anything to write home about.

Still, I stayed, telling myself I'd move on if something better ever came along.

Next thing I knew, four years had gone by.

I got certified as a pet mortician, and I never left the field.

Looking back, it all just blurred together like some strange dream.

Now, it felt like I'd faded right back into being that quiet girl again.

Truth was, the moment I saw Victor again, for a split second, I was tempted to do something crazy.

I wanted to grab the barbecue right off the table and dump it all over his head.

But then, through the window, I spotted Connor waving at me, all excited as the leaves floated down around him.

That was when I realized I was starting to get attached to my life now.

I knew I was no match for the Brooks family, and definitely not for Victor.

Connor stayed glued to my side for the next few days.

Whenever he was with me, he was so well-behaved it was almost unreal.