Chapter 2

Tomorrow’s awards ceremony would have Orlando attending as a celebrated philanthropist.

“You know exactly what should and shouldn’t be said.”

Wendy could not bear it anymore. She shouted, “Get lost! If it weren’t for you, they’d never have missed their chance!”

I hung up, but Wendy looked worried. She promised to come back the next day to keep me company.

I looked down at the countless needle marks on my legs and arms.

“Please cover these up with some makeup tomorrow.”

The next day, when I opened the door, I saw Sophia among the visiting delegation.

She wore high heels and carefully picked her way across the uneven pavement of the old apartment block.

She pouted and complained as she clung to Orlando’s arm, “Honey, yesterday wasn’t your fault. Why did you insist on coming here?”

Apparently, Orlando had framed this visit as an apology to me.

I had not expected Sophia to come.

She had hated me to the marrow of her bones.

She believed I had betrayed her and made her sleep with Orlando.

Many times, she showed up barefoot in the middle of the night at what had once been our home. She cried, screamed, and smashed things at the door.

It was not until she saw me walking out hand-in-hand with Wendy that she bit into my arm in a frenzy of despair. She bit it so hard that she left a scar that cut nearly to the bone.

Later, she became Orlando’s most favored lover.

She even egged on Orlando to change the demolition project.

The orphanage where we had grown up together, the streets where we had taken countless walks, and the high school where we had spent our student years had been reduced to rubble.

She would not allow anyone to mention my name.

She never learned from the news that I had been kidnapped a second time by the drug traffickers as an act of revenge.

They had injected highly purified heroin into my body.

The day I left the country undercover for the drug trafficking ring, I knew I might never be coming back.

I wanted to see her one last time.

She agreed at first but left me waiting alone until midnight.

Then, under the cold underground parking garage, she wrapped herself around Orlando like a snake and made up with him on the hood of the car, right in front of me.

The girl who had once been gentle and shy used the most debauched gestures she could to hurt me.

She caught her breath in between and called me.

“Did you finally see it? Are you satisfied now?”

During that undercover operation, I held on to the hatred she felt for me and the bitterness in my heart.

I miraculously survived under the drug lord’s relentless torture.

I even avenged her parents.

When I finally returned with a medal in hand, I thought I could finally explain everything to her.

But the doctor discovered an unidentified toxin in my bloodstream.

Fate really did have a cruel sense of humor.

I pulled myself out of my thoughts. I forced an awkward smile.

I greeted everyone in front of me.

Sophia smiled faintly. My heart skipped a beat before I could stop it.

I had seen that smile countless times in my dreams when I had hovered on the edge of death.

She used to smile sweetly and call me by my nickname.

I once asked her why she always insisted on calling me by my nickname.

She had fidgeted shyly and called me an idiot.

After the television crew finished filming, Sophia’s smile faded from her face. She returned to her usual aloof demeanor.

Orlando casually said to me, “Don’t take it to your heart. She’s always a little aloof around people she doesn’t know well.”

They entered the house. Wendy suppressed her irritation and served them coffee.

Sophia took a single sip before immediately spitting it out.

“Honey, thank goodness I met you. I’m so glad this isn’t the kind of life I ended up living in.”

Wendy naturally caught the mockery beneath her words.

Wendy put the cup on the table with a loud thud. “Aren’t you here to film a charity segment? Do you want to see his medal?”

Sophia looked puzzled. “What medal?”

Wendy was about to say something when I stopped her and dragged her into the room.

I pleaded with her.

“Wendy, just grant me this one wish before I die. Don’t let her find out. Please…”

I stood in front of the full-length mirror as I carefully pulled the collar of my turtleneck shirt higher to hide the wire scars around my neck.

Wendy finally calmed down and continued to cover the festering wounds on my body with thick layers of foundation.

I endured the searing pain and sat on the couch.

In front of the cameras, I flashed a grateful smile and showed my certificate proving my eligibility for government assistance.

“She just remembered wrongly. It’s not a medal. It’s a certificate.”

After the television crew left, Orlando looked pleased that I had not mentioned anything.