Chapter 3
Suddenly, a notification popped up on her phone. It was a friend request.
When Lily saw Sophie's profile picture, with a radiant smile and carefully made-up face, it felt like a thousand needles pricked her heart, sending a wave of pain through her.
As if compelled by some unseen force, she accepted the request.
Sophie didn't send her any message, but Lily, almost like she was torturing herself, opened up Sophie's social feed.
The latest post showed a delicate wrist wearing an intricately designed bracelet, set with a massive diamond that sparkled brilliantly under the lights.
The caption read: [I happened to say I liked it, and Jason gifted me a bracelet worth millions. He really went all out.]
The diamond's glare was so intense it stung Lily's eyes, and her heart throbbed painfully in her chest.
Sophie was a spoiled rich girl, while Lily was a slum orphan struggling just to survive. The gap between them was unbridgeable.
But that was no excuse for Lily to be tricked, humiliated, mocked, and looked down upon. She gave Jason everything she had, only to be taken for granted and cruelly played with.
After spending the whole morning working and riding an emotional rollercoaster, Lily was dead tired.
She didn't want to cry anymore. Her tears had already dried up. All she wanted was to crawl into her rickety old bed and sleep for a while to escape from all this suffocating mess.
She drifted into a drowsy sleep, and when she groggily opened her eyes, she felt those familiar, big hands sliding under her shirt, his touch hot against her skin, finding her softness without hesitation.
Jason's face was right there, inches away, his breath hot on her neck. His eyes burned with that familiar desire, and his voice was low and tempting.
"Honey, I want you," he murmured.
There were countless times when Lily would surrender to Jason's possessive, almost domineering allure.
On that creaky old bed, they tangled together desperately, as if only through their bodies could they prove they existed, drawing strength from each other to survive their poverty.
Jason was crazy when it came to sex, and he knew exactly how to make Lily feel good.
Sometimes they'd go at it all night—on the bed, on the floor, even bent over the battered table. The floor would be scattered with used condoms.
Lily always believed that, in their poverty, all they had was each other and the fierce love between them.
But now, she realized that pathetic love was nothing but an illusion.
Lily snapped awake, her mind suddenly clear. She pulled Jason's hand out from under her shirt, her voice hoarse from sleep and heartbreak. "I'm tired. Not tonight."
Jason was burning with desire and wasn't about to let Lily go that easily.
He leaned in again, whipped out a sparkling bracelet from his pocket, and slipped it onto her delicate wrist, his voice full of coaxing temptation. "Come on, trust your man—you'll feel better soon. Look, I bought this for you. Do you like it?"
Lily recognized the bracelet instantly. It was the one she'd seen at Five Below downstairs, made of cheap plastic and studded with low-quality fake gems, looking cheap under the dim light.
And then she remembered the diamond necklace Sophie had shown off in her social feed.
A wave of humiliation and nausea surged up inside her. So in his eyes, a girl from the slums like her only deserved something this cheap.
He was showering his shining star, Sophie, with jewelry worth millions, while tossing Lily, the fool he played with, some junk.
The moment Jason's hand reached for her waistband again, all the anger, humiliation, and despair Lily had been bottling up exploded.
She frantically grabbed his hand, using every ounce of strength to shove him away, tears pouring down her face as she cried out in utter despair. "I don't want it. Get out. Don't touch me!"