He saved me, and that rich boy made him pay for it.
I cried so hard I couldn't speak, sick with guilt and the ache of watching him hurt for my sake.
But he only wiped my tears away, gentle as anything. "I'm here. I won't let anyone hurt you."
And now, for another woman, he had become the one who hurt me most.
I should have seen the change in him long ago.
When Jade Jennings first came back, he used to tell me the things she'd shared about his older brother.
Little by little, every other word out of his mouth was about her.
Someone said she loved roses, so he bought nine hundred and ninety-nine of them and scattered them all over the house.
He'd forgotten I was allergic to pollen.
He drove me to the hospital with his brow furrowed, scolding me the whole way. "Why didn't you say you were allergic? What a buzzkill. Jade was finally happy."
There was a time he carried a face mask for me everywhere we went, a time a single sneeze from me set him on edge.
Then there was the day a man stopped Jade on the street to ask for her number.
She only frowned, and Clive Sanchez, always so steady and even-tempered, lost his mind. He pinned the man to the ground and beat him until his face was a ruin of blood.
Afterward he ordered the hospital not to treat him, and the man was crippled for life.
I told him he'd gone too far. He just looked at me, disappointed.
"I was only thinking of how you used to be. Back then I beat that bastard for you too. So why is it, the second it's Jade, you don't understand me anymore?"
I didn't understand.
Back then he hit someone to buy us the chance to run.
This time, it was simply because Jade had lost her temper.
The memories churned and tangled. I shook my head, pushed myself up off the ground in front of all those staring eyes, and walked away alone.
I don't know how long I'd been walking when a few men cut me off.
"Well, if it isn't Millicent Maddox, the famous little homewrecker."
"Hear you hired men to ruin some innocent girl when you were barely grown. A slut like you ought to get a taste of her own medicine."
The words had barely landed before the thugs lunged and dragged me into an alley.
They tore at my clothes and twisted my injured hand so hard I bit down and tasted blood.
I screamed for help, but the passersby heard it was a homewrecker getting what she deserved, and watched with cold eyes.
Only one person couldn't stomach it. "Beating up a mistress doesn't mean you get to assault her in the street. Let her go, now!"
I clutched at it like a drowning woman grabbing a reed. "Please, save me! Please!"
One of the thugs shouted, "You know who she is? She's Millicent Maddox! You're really going to protect trash like this?"
The man's face changed. "The murderer Mr. Sanchez just exposed? Quick, haul her to the police station!"
Something roared blank in my head. The thugs froze too, and their grip loosened.
I fumbled my phone out and found the source of it all soon enough.
It was a video Clive had posted.
"The rumors online about me sleeping with my widowed sister-in-law are all Millicent Maddox's slander."
"Back in high school, she wanted me, so she hired street thugs to torment my first love until the girl dropped out. She had me fooled. I only learned the truth two months ago, and I broke things off with her immediately."
"Considering how young she was at the time, I wanted to cover for her. I never imagined she'd refuse to repent, that she'd spread lies about my first love and my brother. That's the only reason I'm forced to tell the truth now."
At the end of the video, he held up two marriage certificates.
"If it weren't for Millicent Maddox, my first love and I would have been married long ago. Everything's back on track now. I hope you'll all wish us well."
Beneath the video, one comment had been voted to the top.
【Heard your brother's death had something to do with Millicent Maddox. True or not?】
Clive replied: 【I've already gone to the police. I trust the truth will come out.】
That reply blew the comment section wide open.
【He went to the police, so he must have proof!】
【Killed his brother and then smeared his name too. Pure evil. Why couldn't it have been this slut who died?】
【Don't just curse her here. I found the witch's number and address. Let's all go pay her our regards together!】
