When The Villianess Loves

I'm a coward—someone who gets bullied and never fights back, who only swallows the humiliation in silence. That is, until the year I turned twenty. A well-dressed, elegant couple found me and told me I was their long-lost son. Overjoyed, I followed them back to their castle-like home, convinced that I was finally about to live a better life. But on the very first day, the fake heir made it clear—I would never know a moment's peace. I didn't dare say a word. Cowardly as ever, I could only think about ending my life. The first time, I slit my wrists. They saved me. The second time, I tried to jump off a building. My sister dragged me back. The third time, I drank an entire bottle of pesticide—and still didn't die. … My family finally saw through the fake heir's true color. "So it was you, pulling the strings all along!" My sister plead, "Brother dear, I'm begging you—please don't kill yourself."

A curse is cast upon everyone in this village, reducing us to mutes. But once a villager's lover takes three laps around the back mountain and marries said villager successfully, the curse on that villager will be broken. My childhood friend, who's the same age as me, has already gotten married and embraced his life as a regular person. Even my cousin, who's just turned 18 years old, has her curse broken as well. I, on the other hand, am about to turn 30 years old soon, and yet I'm still a mute. Whenever I'm about to get married, all of my ex-fiances, who kept telling me that they'd love me with all their hearts, would do anything just to terminate our engagements right after they came out of the back mountain. In order to proclaim his deep love for me, my tenth fiance, Isaac Jameson, tells me confidently that he'd definitely marry me once he's done with his laps around the mountain. But as soon as his words fall, his expression changes the moment he sets foot into the mountain. To my horror, Isaac picks up an axe from the ground and begins hacking at me with it. "Why are you still alive in this world? Why can't you just die already?" I can only lie on the ground while suffering from intense pain. I have no idea what's in the back mountain and why the same outcome will happen every time. Why is it that the entire village can break their curse so easily, and yet I can never get married despite having gone through it ten times in a row?

At a class reunion, I ended up getting together with my high school crush. However, one evening, as I was scrolling through a social media platform, I was suddenly bombarded with mentions tagging me in a shocking post. The content left me seeing stars. "My girlfriend has a car, a house, a great degree, and she's stunning. Yet, somehow, she's into me! Haha!" "To be honest, she's too exceptional, and it's kind of killing my sense of masculinity. Once I manage to get my hands on her assets, I'll have her give me two kids and then live life on my own terms. She won’t be able to control me then." "You guys can stay jealous. Not like you know her anyway, so what can you even do to me?"

For three years of marriage, she—Camelia Collyn—was merely a wife on paper. Calvin Ashford—her husband—had never touched her, nor had he ever loved her. When the truth was revealed—that she was only a substitute, and that her husband had been saving himself for his first love—she knew the end of this marriage had already been decided. Calvin Ashford intended to divorce her. Of course, it was all for the sake of returning to Samantha Rose (Tata)—his first love who had come back. However, one mistake on the final night changed everything. Camelia left, leaving behind the divorce papers, and strangely, instead of feeling happy about Camelia’s departure, it was quite the opposite. Why was that so?

Serafina Vale didn’t want love anymore, she wanted war and a husband to help her start it. Her ex-fiancé slept with her stepsister and proposed to her on camera, in front of everyone. So yeah—she needed to hit back, fast and publicly. With help from her best friend, Rhea, she was supposed to meet a broke model at a diner. Sweet guy, easy to handle. Just enough to stir drama and ruin the happy couple’s fairytale. But she sat at the wrong table and accidentally proposed to the wrong man. Dorian Everhart was the opposite of harmless. He was cold, unreadable and terrifyingly rich. He absolutely had no business saying yes. But…he did. He married her the same day with no questions asked or rules attached either. She thought she was the one using him. But he didn’t seem to bulge, and now, she’s starting to wonder, who really set this up? Why does her stepsister flinch every time Dorian’s name comes up? and why does he know so much about her family? What the hell does he want from her? And worse….why does a part of her want him to take it?

I'm dying, and so is Sean Quinton. He still has hope, though. I don't. Why? Because once I die, my body will become the first to have passed due to a special infection. It'll be dissected and researched to help cure Sean. So, his daily task becomes urging me to die. Unfortunately for him, I'm unwilling to save him another time, so I die not because of the infection but because of carbon monoxide poisoning. It's enough to destroy the symptoms my body shows and ruin their plans to research my corpse.

“I never wanted you or our daughter.” For five years, I pretended to be in a happy marriage with Andrew Morgan. I left my career to be with this billionaire bachelor to raise a family with him. A family that he never wanted. Of course, I should have known that his heart is still with Eleanor Walsh. Why else would he come chasing after her after she abandoned him for years? I was blind with love, and now my daughter and I are paying the price. “I need you here with me now,” I said. “Our daughter is in danger.” “Eleanor and Lottie need me more!” Andrew snapped. I begged. I cried. None of that mattered to Andrew. Even then, I had hope. I had love. But all of that changed when I found myself alone, with my dead daughter in my arms. “You can spend all your time with Eleanor and Lottie,” I spat at him. “We’re going to be divorced soon!” Andrew caught me by the wrist and stopped me. “You’re not going anywhere. Who said I agreed to the divorce?”

I'm admitted to the hospital for gastritis, but my boyfriend shoots to his feet after receiving a call. "Chelsea has a fever. I'll go check on her; I'll be right back!" He runs off without waiting for me to say anything and doesn't return for the rest of the night. That night, I see a short clip that Chelsea Calloway has shared. "I'm not afraid of any illness with you by my side." I comment, "He is pretty good at caring for others."

She was about to share her wonderful news, but he beat her to it with a revelation of his own: “I think we should get a divorce.” In an instant, her entire world crumbled. “Fine. If that’s what you want, I’ll divorce you.” --- Because she had used her family’s influence to force Parawee into a marriage he never wanted, he had spent three years merely enduring her. But now, Nicha—the woman he had always loved with all his heart—was back. “Let’s get a divorce.” He finally made his move to end it, expecting a clean break and a fresh start. --- Kajarin had been in love with Wee for as long as she could remember. She had begged her family to do whatever it took to make him hers, even though she knew his heart was already occupied. “I have some good news for you.” She had been ready to tell him, but his sudden demand for a divorce changed everything. Now, she had no choice but to bury her secret as deep as it would go. “Let’s head to the district office. I’ll give you the divorce you’ve been waiting for.” She was done. Truly, utterly done with it all. --- While driving his favorite yellow ride, Thamnithi was suddenly flagged down by a woman in a cream mini-dress. She looked like she was running from something, and moved by a sense of kindness, he decided to pick her up. But that one good deed was about to become a moment he would never forget for the rest of his life. “Damn it, Tham! What have you gotten yourself into?!”

During a typhoon alert, Joyce Lane calls me and tells me to pick her up from her company. On the way there, I receive a text from her. "You don't have to pick me up anymore. I'm going to stay over at Fin's place for a few days." I opt not to start anything with her. Instead, I calmly text back, "Okay." In the middle of the night, Finley Jones, Joyce's junior at work, uploads a social media post that's meant for my eyes only. Joyce can be seen huddling against Finley while feeding him some snacks in the photo. The window outside depicts a storm. The caption writes, "It's only befitting for me to tide out the worst weather with the woman I love the most." I leave a like on the photo calmly. Suddenly, Joyce calls me and demands what that like means. I reply coolly, "It means we're breaking up."