After Mark’s comeback, his social calendar filled rapidly—and he began taking me everywhere with him.
He would dress me up like a doll, take my hand, and introduce me to each new face. “This is Sharon,” he’d say. “My love.”
People would look surprised, then quickly offer smiles and compliments. Pretty, they called me. Adorable.
I knew what they were really thinking.
For a long time now, strange colored words had drifted now and then before my eyes.
【A fool like her—worthy of Mark?】
【Just playing pitiful… scheming underneath.】
【Poor Mark, stuck with such dead weight.】
These words hovered like ghosts only I could see.
They showed me people’s true thoughts.
I couldn’t grasp complicated sentences, but I felt the malice seeping from them.
Scared, I’d shrink deeper into Mark’s side.
He would hold me tighter, sweep the room with an icy glare, and the words would vanish. “Don’t be afraid, Sharon,” he always murmured. “I’m here.”
I believed him.
Until Andrea appeared.
It happened at a charity gala.
Andrea wore white, her long hair flowing, smiling with a gentle grace as she walked straight toward us.
“Mark,” she said, her voice lovely. “Long time no see.”
I felt Mark stiffen beside me the moment she spoke.
He looked at her with a complicated expression—nostalgia, resentment, and something else I couldn’t name.
“Why are you back?” His voice was cold.
Andrea smiled, her gaze settling on me. “To see you. And to meet… this young lady.”
Above her head, words floated into view.
【So this is the fool? Pretty, but empty. How could Mark want this?】
【Doesn’t matter. Soon, he’ll be back with me.】
A sense of danger prickled over me. Instinctively, I tightened my grip on Mark’s sleeve.
Noticing my unease, he pulled me into his arms and said to Andrea, “We’re over. Stay out of my life.”
Then he turned and led me away.
Glancing back, I saw Andrea’s smile vanish—replaced by pure venom.
I thought that was the end.
But Andrea clung to us like a stubborn shadow, appearing more and more in our lives.
She “ran into” us while shopping. Visited our home as Mark’s old friend. Gave me beautiful gift after gift.
She was so nice to me—so nice that everyone thought her kind and generous.
Only I could see the vicious words above her head.
【Fools are so easy. A few trinkets and she thinks I’m a saint.】
【Just watch, Mark. I’ll show you—the one you cherish is just a mimicking monster. She doesn’t understand love at all.】
Little by little, she began leaving hints in front of Mark.
“Mark, your Sharon is adorable. She copies everything you do—you drink coffee, she drinks coffee; you frown, she frowns. I suppose that’s how she shows affection?”
“Look, she barely glanced at the doll I gave her. She only cares about what comes from you. Like a kitten that knows only its owner.”
At first, Mark would just frown and tell her not to talk nonsense.
But slowly, I noticed a new look in his eyes when he watched me—a hint of scrutiny, of doubt.
He started asking me out of nowhere, “Sharon, do you love me?”
I’d nod hard. “Love. Sharon loves Mark.”
“How?”
I didn’t know how to answer. I could only hug him clumsily and kiss his cheek.
He would hug me back, but in his deep eyes lingered a weariness—a disappointment I couldn’t understand.
The subtitles above my head grew stranger, too.
【The male lead is doubting now. Does a fool truly understand love, or is it just dependency and imitation?】
【Here it comes—the heartbreak arc begins.】
I couldn’t decipher these words, but I could feel something shifting quietly, irrevocably.
Mark seemed to be drifting further and further away.
