: Trial by Internet
When I found Julian Rhodes, he was slumped over in the study, completely still.
I thought he had fallen asleep. I stepped barefoot onto the soft carpet and went over to ask if he wanted to sleep in bed.
He was always a light sleeper, but this time, he didn't react.
I gave him a little push, and he slumped to the side, falling onto the black and white carpet. The corner of his temple was cut by the edge of the desk, and blood was trickling out.
I panicked, let out a scream, and dialed 911.
The doctor said he had taken a large dose of sleeping pills, but luckily, we brought him in just in time. He would need to have his stomach pumped.
Before leaving, I had grabbed one of Julian Rhodes's jackets that was hanging by the door.
The one he wore most often. The one he never let me wash.
For some reason, I felt the pocket. Inside was a heavy locket.
It was a heart-shaped locket, an old-fashioned design.
It wasn't made of any expensive material. The plating was even wearing off at the edges, revealing the base metal, as if its owner had rubbed it countless times.
I was still staring at it blankly when I accidentally pressed a button on the side.
CLICK.
The heart slowly opened. Inside was a photo of Julian Rhodes in a Northwood High uniform, standing behind a young girl. She was looking at the camera, cheekily flashing a peace sign. His eyes were gentle as he looked down at her.
Julian Rhodes and I are both thirty years old.
I've known him for ten years. The first time I saw him in college, our department's Campus Belle was handing him a love letter.
He was never short of admirers, and I was just one of them.
But those other blossoms were far too vibrant, making me seem dull in comparison.
Julian Rhodes was famous at school for his self-restraint. He had an air of "walking through a field of flowers without a single petal touching him."
That's why I didn't think much of it when the news about Stella Lyra broke. Over the past ten years, there had been too many women with one-sided crushes. And sponsoring someone's dance career for years? Impossible. Julian Rhodes couldn't be bothered to meddle in other people's affairs.
But... now, inside the jacket he called "his most prized possession," lay a sealed-away heart. And in it was a young girl, smiling brilliantly.
It wasn't me.
A cramp seized me, a pain that shot from my stomach to my heart. I leaned against the wall, forcing myself to sit down, inch by inch.
I took out my phone and snapped a picture before tossing the locket back into his jacket pocket and taking the jacket off.
I wiped the tears from my face and pretended nothing had happened.
Everyone has a past.
As long as Julian Rhodes woke up, I could still see him as my husband. He would still be the father of my child.
'That's what I thought.'
But I had forgotten about the tracking skills of reporters and the keen senses of netizens.
Photos of Julian Rhodes being rushed to the hospital and of me standing stunned in the hospital holding the locket were posted online.
Sharp-eyed netizens recognized the heart-shaped locket. It was a matching item to Stella Lyra's heart-shaped earrings.
The internet exploded.
That night, no one cared about me, shivering in the cold wind, dazed from being branded the other woman when I was the official wife. A dense crowd of reporters blocked the hospital entrance, desperate to dig up what they called "the truth."
"Why would Julian Rhodes suddenly commit suicide? Isn't he supposed to be the calmest, youngest airline captain? He probably couldn't handle Stella Lyra's death, right?"
"Yeah, what man could stand having a woman that beautiful and seductive die for him! Tsk tsk tsk..."
I was shaking all over. My voice trembled as I replied, "He just took the wrong medicine."
"When he wakes up, he'll clear everything up."
But the netizens clearly didn't believe me, and the story quickly shot up the Trending Topics.
I didn't understand. Even if Stella Lyra and Julian Rhodes really had something in the past, that was over. I was Julian Rhodes's present. Was I supposed to be dragged through hell just because of Stella Lyra's one-sided sacrifice?
Through their relentless digging, netizens finally discovered that the benefactor of the impoverished Stella Lyra was none other than Julian Rhodes.
They even dug up the bank account number, leaving no room for denial.
I was forced to follow along as netizens dished the dirt on my own life.
For every single one of Stella Lyra's performances, big or small, a flower basket from Julian Rhodes was delivered.
In public, they never crossed any lines.
But Julian Rhodes's locket and Stella Lyra's earrings were a matching set.
Even a baseball cap, a jacket—small items belonging to Julian Rhodes would occasionally pop up in Stella Lyra's airport photos.
These subtle little "candies" made the netizens even more frantic.
So sweet. So sweet it made my teeth ache.
They were convinced that Julian Rhodes and Stella Lyra had carried on a passionate, secret love affair, like a cicada lying dormant underground for years.
And now, their love had finally been revealed to the world—through a double suicide.
Netizens celebrated their unwavering devotion, calling them a match made in heaven, childhood sweethearts, a modern-day "Romeo and Juliet." They cursed me out, calling me a capitalist, a corporate puppet, an emotionless machine.
The netizens' abuse was endless. They quickly found my X account, and even my phone number was leaked.
Before I could even make a sound, a young girl on the other end of the line was cursing at me furiously, "Lovers are meant to be together! The one who should be dead is you!"
I turned off my phone, called the police, and kept vigil at Julian Rhodes's bedside, waiting for him to open his eyes.
I desperately needed an answer from him.
But I didn't get an answer. What I got was a leak from a doctor at the hospital.
It was Stella Lyra's medical records and a photo.
Gynecology. Abortion. The date on the record was crystal clear: one month ago.
At this, the netizens grew even more outraged. They believed I had forced Stella Lyra to have an abortion, that I had stolen her love, that I had driven a living, breathing person to her death, and that I had caused a dancing superstar to fall from the sky in an instant.
I hid in the hospital room, too scared to go out. I turned off my phone and the TV. I didn't see anyone except for the Housekeeper who came from home to bring me meals.
I just waited for Julian Rhodes to open his eyes.
3
Julian Rhodes woke up after three days in a coma.
He just looked at me with his deep-set eyes, giving my hand a gentle squeeze. "This must have been hard for you, Aurora," he said, his voice laced with false sympathy.
"I'm tired. You should go home and get some rest too." His words were polite yet distant, as if he'd merely had a stomachache from taking the wrong medicine.
He dammed up all my questions, giving me no chance to speak. Or perhaps, he never intended to answer me at all, eager to simply send me away.
The hospital room was dark and silent that night. A woman's sixth sense urged me to go check on Julian Rhodes.
Through the frosted glass, the sight of two entangled figures slammed into my vision.
The scene was a dagger, brutally tearing open the reality I had long ignored, exposing a bloody wound for me to see.
Julian Rhodes had a woman who looked as fragile as a white blossom pinned against the wall. One hand gripped her chin, preventing her from turning away as he kissed her repeatedly, his lips pressing down on hers with domineering force.
His other hand cradled the back of her head, protecting her from the cold wall. How thoughtful.
They were locked in a desperate kiss. Pushed back by Julian Rhodes until she had nowhere else to retreat, the woman finally recoiled into his arms and burst into tears.
"Julian Rhodes, don't force me."
"We can't fight this..."
The woman's voice, broken by sobs, was a study in affectation—utterly grating to the ears.
It was the famous dancer who had been all over the Trending Topics a few days ago, the one who had caused such a stir. It was the woman my husband cherished, the one whose name, Stella Lyra, was like a charm he wore around his neck day and night.
So she wasn't dead after all.
The pain in Julian Rhodes's eyes was palpable. He cupped Stella Lyra's face, peppering it with soft kisses.
"Why did you lie to me...?"
"Why didn't you tell me about our child?"
"Stella, do you want me to die?"
Stella Lyra's lips trembled like the wings of a butterfly caught in a storm. "Julian Rhodes..."
Julian Rhodes seemed displeased, their bodies pressed together as if they were one. "What did you just call me?"
"Brother Julian... Mrs. Rhodes... she said that only by leaving you could you marry without any lingering attachments." The woman's voice was aggrieved yet accommodating, feigning understanding.
"Only then would The Rhodes Group have a future. I didn't want to drag you down."
Julian Rhodes brushed her disheveled hair from her face, patiently consoling her. "Not anymore, Stella. I won't let anything happen to you ever again."
Stella Lyra seemed to sense something. Her eyes widened as she looked up at him, her body trembling. "What are you going to do...?"
Julian Rhodes's voice was both loving and desperate. "Wait for me. There's no way I'm marrying that crazy woman."
"I can only ever be yours. My wife... don't ever leave me again."
That same night, I ended up in the emergency room with severe abdominal pain.
In a daze, the words "that crazy woman" echoed in my ears. I clutched my stomach, curling into a ball.
The doctor stood by my bed, frowning as he looked at my chart.
"You're pregnant. Didn't you know?"
I laughed. It was a loud, ugly laugh that brought tears to my eyes.
'How could I not have known? My period was over a month late. How could I possibly not have known?'
The doctor glanced at me and shook his head.
"Take a deep breath... The baby isn't doing well. Have you been bleeding?"
I nodded. Yes.
Two months before our engagement, Julian Rhodes came home drunk. He'd pushed me against the wall in the entryway and started kissing me before he'd even taken off his shoes. As he kissed me, he murmured deliriously:
"Wife, don't leave me..."
That was the first time Julian Rhodes had ever lost control like that. The first time he had ever called me his wife.
The first time he had ever cried. My heart had ached for him.
Afterward, I held his head in my arms, stroking his dark hair and whispering, "I won't leave you."
And that one night was when this child was conceived.
I had planned to tell him the happy news as a surprise on his birthday next month.
Now, it seemed, that was just wishful thinking on my part.
'How laughable. His wife?'
'All along, the wife he loved most was Stella Lyra.'
'No wonder he never called me that again after that night.'
'No wonder he'd looked at me with such a complicated expression the next morning, as if he wanted to say something but couldn't.'
'I'd thought it was tenderness. Looking back now, it was probably disgust.'
'To think a woman would take advantage of him while he was drunk.'
I fumbled for my phone and pressed it to my ear. Cold tears stained the screen, making the cursor jump erratically.
As if possessed, I called the contact labeled "husband."
Three times. A full three times, I was met with a cold, robotic female voice.
The doctor squeezed cold ultrasound gel onto my stomach. He stared at the small screen, his brow furrowing deeper.
"Sigh... If you keep crying like this... do you even want this baby?"
"You're already in your eighth week, but there's no fetal pole and heartbeat yet. Development isn't progressing well..."
"There isn't much point in trying to save the pregnancy. You should make a decision soon. The longer you wait, the harder it will be on your body."
I pushed myself up, wiped away my tears, and took one last look at the tiny dot on the screen.
"I don't want it."
"Doctor, please schedule the procedure for me. The sooner, the better."
