All Chapters of Simp No More: Chapter 1 - Chapter 10

The girl in Charles's arms was young.Still a college student, most likely.She had those wide, innocent eyes that blinked at me like she hadn't figured out yet how the world worked. Prettier than the one who'd poured drinks down my throat the night before, or at least a little gentler, I thought absently.But I was wrong.When she took the bag of ice cream from my outstretched hand, she gave a delicate little shiver. Her hand "slipped." The ice cream splattered onto her thighs with all the predictability of a stage cue."Oh no!"She shot up from the sofa like a startled rabbit. The ice cream bucket tipped with her, crashing downward and soaking me in cold."I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to! It's just—it's so cold, and I know you didn't do it on purpose either, I'm totally fine—really."Her eyes, big and glossy, teetered on the edge of tears."Please don't blame her, Charles," she added sweetly. "It's my fault, not hers."By the time she finished talking, there wasn't a word le

I blew gently on the bowl of porridge in front of me, just warmed.For a moment, the rising mist blurred my vision. My eyes, dry and sore, began to sting faintly.Then the silence shattered—my phone, vibrating and screaming like it was possessed. I glanced down and saw a familiar name flashing insistently on the screen.Charles.Without thinking, I answered. Muscle memory. I even put it on speaker."Mindy, where the hell were you last night? I told you to pack up and get the hell out. Are you deaf? You think if you hide, you can just get away with this? I'm telling you right now—either you apologize to Rhyn, or you come clean out your crap this second."His voice pounded through the speaker in sharp, rapid-fire bursts, like a machine gun of blame and frustration.I didn't speak. Not until he was done.Then I said, almost lazily, "I'm coming now."The moment I pushed open the gate of Charles's villa, something flew straight at me.An ashtray.I didn't dodge fast enough. It

I stood there, frozen, staring at Charles in disbelief.He said he liked me?For a moment, I almost laughed.But the years I'd lived through weren't illusions. The pain I'd endured wasn't a dream. If what Charles felt for me counted as love, then being loved by him must be the cruelest punishment this world could offer."What kind of joke are you trying to make, Charles?" I asked. "Someone like you—how could you possibly know what love even means? You're selfish, childish, and weak. At the first sign of hardship, you crawl into your shell like a frightened turtle, unable to face reality."He let out a cold, hollow laugh.Straightening up, he looked at me with twisted calm, like a devil clawed up from the pits of hell."Heh," he said. "So you saw through me all along."There it was again.That refusal to face reality. The one thing that made him nothing like Grayson.And yet, somehow, he got to inherit all the good things.It wasn't fair.Eight summers ago, in an alleyway so

When I opened my eyes again, everything around me was bathed in cold, sterile white.The sharp scent of antiseptic pierced my senses like a silent alarm.Standing beside the bed, hands buried in the pockets of his coat, was Tyler. He looked down at me from above, expression unreadable, like a man observing something faintly inconvenient.When he saw I was awake, his eyebrows lifted slightly."You really like Charles that much?"I parted my lips, trying to find the right words. But when my eyes met his, an odd flicker of guilt rose within me, uninvited.In Kingsford, the Ford family held unquestioned power. And Tyler—he was the eldest grandson, the heir apparent. Years ago, his decision to study medicine had caused a sensation across the city. Every major news outlet, social platform, and magazine had latched onto it. For over a month, his face dominated the headlines, discussed with a mix of reverence and disbelief.That someone like Tyler—brilliant, distant, almost mythic—would

"Come on, come on—food's getting cold. What's so fascinating about two empty flowerpots anyway?"I pushed myself up from the wall, brushed the dust from my palms, and followed her inside.Rhyn took a bite of food, then nodded toward my passport sitting on the edge of the coffee table."You're really going, huh? Not coming back this time?"I gave a quiet nod, sipping my beer without a word. I thought about saying something, but the words didn't seem to exist.She nodded too. "Mindy, we've known each other since we were kids. You've had a rough life, sure—but at least your parents gave you a few years of something like a normal childhood. I didn't even get that. I grew up following my mom around nightclubs, never even knew who my real dad was. If it wasn't for this face of mine, I don't know how I would've survived."She paused, her voice firmer now. "So don't look back. Whatever happens, don't you dare look back. A man like Charles… he's not worth it."I finished the last of my b