Chapter 2

"Then how do you want me to show my sincerity? I'll agree to anything, all right?"

The corner of my mouth curved.

The fish had taken the hook.

I turned my head back.

Jack was looking at me with eyes full of pity, grievance, and humility.

In the past, seeing him like this would have softened me, and I'd have wanted to pluck the moon from the sky to give to him.

But I knew that what he wanted now was to save the bully who'd helped him grind my dignity into the dirt.

I couldn't feel a flicker of anything but disgust.

I stepped closer and said softly, "I only need you to do three things to prove you love me, and I won't marry the other man."

Jack nodded over and over, thrilled. "No problem, whatever you say, I'll do it."

I smiled and counted them off on my fingers one by one. "One, slap Vivian across the face twice in public. Two, burn your marriage certificate. Three, transfer the house into my name."

"That simple."

Jack was dumbstruck.

He'd probably assumed the three things I'd ask for would be some childish little routine: take me to a movie, buy me another bouquet, say "I love you."

But he didn't know.

I was no longer the naive, ignorant girl I'd once been.

His lips trembled as he asked, "You know I'm married?"

I shrugged and feigned a jealous edge. "Yeah, heard a classmate mention it. What, you weren't planning to make me your mistress before you'd even divorced, were you?"

He rushed to deny it. "How could I?"

I smiled. "Then a request this simple shouldn't be beyond you, should it?"

He was silent for a long while, then reached out, held my hand, and said earnestly, "For you, I can do anything. I don't want to lose you again."

He looked so devoted.

So devoted I almost believed the man who'd helped Vivian bully me back then was someone else entirely.

I followed Jack back to their house. Vivian had been laughing happily, but the moment she saw me her face went cold, and she demanded of Jack—

"What did you bring her here for?"

Every word dripped with her loathing of me, and yet she still needed my heart to keep herself alive. Disgusting.

I copied the way she used to taunt me, smiling sweet and smug. "Didn't Jack tell you? He's divorcing you."

Vivian had clearly known Jack's plan all along.

But she still put on an act of ignorance. "Don't talk nonsense. We're perfectly happy. Someone like you doesn't get to wreck that."

I stepped back, ceding the floor to Jack, and called all the neighbors over.

I said loudly, "Everyone, this is the woman who years ago tricked me into donating my marrow and then turned around and stole my boyfriend."

"Now he's said it himself, that he wants to settle the score for me, that he'll prove in front of all of you that his remorse is real. I'd ask you all to bear witness."

Backed into that corner, Jack went livid in an instant, his hands shaking.

He walked forward unsteadily and, in front of dozens of eyes, brought his palm down hard across Vivian's face.

Vivian was stunned, clutching her cheek, her eyes going red in an instant.

"Are you insane? You dared to hit me? You hit me for that bitch?"

She wouldn't let it go and lunged at him, clawing.

Jack gritted his teeth and swung again, and Vivian collapsed straight to the floor.

The two slaps delivered, he let out a breath like a weight had lifted.

But I calmly turned around, dug out their marriage certificate, pulled a lighter from my pocket, and tossed it into his hands.

I reminded him, "Aren't you forgetting something?"

Jack hesitated a few seconds, then set the marriage certificate on fire with the lighter.

Everyone froze. Only I was smiling.

Smiling so much that even Jack assumed I loved him so deeply, was so desperate for revenge on Vivian, that it made me this happy.

He had no idea I was smiling because the two of them were finished.