Chapter 4

"I'm warning you, stay away from Charles, or you'll regret it," Vivian said. Her threat was pathetic and amateur.

In my past life, she didn't just threaten me. She used her own daughter as a weapon and murdered mine.

Andrea, my baby girl, was lying broken in a pool of blood.

When they rushed Andrea to the hospital, the doctors said her chances were slim, but she had a shot at survival. She needed Charles to perform the surgery.

Andrea got lucky in the fall. Bedsheets hanging from a seventh-floor balcony broke her descent and gave her that tiny chance.

Charles, the man I'd personally sent abroad for advanced medical training, the surgeon I'd shaped with my own hands, ignored every call from the hospital and from me.

Andrea died.

So they all deserved to die.

I was perfectly calm in that moment, but my hands moved on their own.

When I came back to myself, I had Vivian by the hair, and I'd slapped her face over and over, at least a dozen times.

My unhinged expression terrified her, and she kept wailing, but I couldn't hear a thing. I just hit harder.

Charles arrived to find Vivian on her knees, her face swollen like a balloon.

And me, fingers tangled in my own hair, screaming and shrieking like a madwoman, yanking at my scalp. Anyone could see I'd lost it.

Charles pulled me into his arms and tried to soothe me.

I kicked him and beat my fists against his chest.

Gianna had followed Charles over, and when she saw my manic state, she couldn't resist a snide comment. "Is she actually insane? Maybe we should put her in a psychiatric facility before she attacks someone else at home."

Charles shot her a look that could kill.

Gianna dropped her head and shut her mouth.

I didn't know how long it took, but eventually I came back to myself.

My brain started working again, and my body was under my control.

I shoved Charles away hard and said, "Keep your bitch on a leash. She's been pushing my buttons on purpose, trying to make me lose it. I've got issues, and one of these days I might just stab her."

Vivian stood there grinding her teeth. "When did I provoke you? You hit me first—"

I said, "Vivian, if you don't want to die, stay the hell away from me."

That was my warning to her.

But she took it as a threat, like I was trying to scare her off so I could have Charles to myself.

So she decided to get revenge.

A few days later, an edited video and audio recording went viral online.

In the video, I looked like a rabid woman beating up some poor, helpless girl.

The audio clip said, "You dumped Charles when he was poor and did everything you could to break up with him, but now that he's successful, you're shamelessly throwing yourself at him. Don't you think that's disgusting?"

The post was flooded with paid trolls stirring things up.

[Is this woman on drugs or something? She's acting insane.]

[Wait, which one's the mistress and which one's the girlfriend? I'm so confused.]

[The one getting hit is the girlfriend. The one doing the hitting dumped her boyfriend years ago because he was poor, but now that he's rich, she's crawling back. The girlfriend's just defending what's hers.]

[Oh, wow. That woman's really shameless.]

With the trolls leading the charge, all my personal information got leaked online.

Overnight, I became the villain everyone loved to hate.