The day before my wedding, my mother caught my fiancé sleeping with my best friend. The shock triggered a massive heart attack, and she desperately needed a heart transplant to survive. Thankfully, I was a match. Without hesitation, I decided to donate my heart to my mother and receive an artificial heart myself. Faced with the astronomical medical bills, I begged my fiancé for help. He coldly told me he was "short on cash" and immediately ran off to the courthouse to marry my best friend, Chloe. Just when I thought I was out of options, Arthur Vance stepped in. He paid off all my medical debts and personally performed the surgeries for both me and my mother. When I woke up, Arthur held my hand and regretfully informed me that my mother's body had rejected the transplant. The surgery failed. She was gone forever. He pulled my sobbing, devastated form into his arms, confessed his love for me, and begged me to let him take care of me for the rest of my life. Seven years into our marriage, I accidentally overheard a conversation between him and his best friend: "So it was you who gave Evelyn's heart to Chloe... and you did it right in front of Evelyn's mother. Man, that's brutal." "I didn't have a choice. Her heart was a perfect match for Chloe." "But you had already found another suitable donor! Chloe just had to wait half a day. Why were you in such a rush?" Arthur sighed. "I couldn't stand seeing Chloe in pain. I wasn't willing to make her wait a single second." ... Separated by only a heavy oak door, Arthur blew out a ring of cigar smoke in his study, his tone dark and complicated. "Since societal rules prevent me from marrying my niece, the least I can do is ensure she lives a long, healthy life." His friend, Ryan, looked troubled. "But Evelyn has a rare blood type. It’s incredibly hard to find a matching heart for her. For the past seven years, she's had to endure coughing up blood, agonizing chest pain, and she can't even have children." "Don't forget, her artificial heart only has a month left before it fails. It needs to be replaced immediately. Are you really going to subject her to the agony of open-heart surgery over and over again for the rest of her life? Evelyn loves you. Just give her heart back. You've already prepped several backup donors for Chloe anyway." Arthur didn't even pause to think before snapping back: "Absolutely not! Having an extra backup donor is an extra layer of insurance for Chloe's health. I will never take chances with her safety." Ryan was getting agitated. "What about Evelyn?! I still remember the look on her mother's face—crying tears of blood, dying with her eyes wide open in pure hatred. Aren't you afraid Evelyn will kill you if she ever finds out the truth?" Arthur went silent for a moment before letting out a self-deprecating laugh. "If she really wants my life, she can have it. I always planned on taking care of her for the rest of her life anyway." "As long as Chloe is happy, I could die with no regrets." My hand, gripping the doorknob, shook uncontrollably, the veins bulging against my pale skin. After recording everything on my phone, I fled back to our bedroom like a ghost before Arthur could catch me, sliding down the wall and collapsing onto the floor. Because my body had never fully accepted the artificial heart, my immune system was compromised. I was constantly weak, frequently coughing up blood, and tortured by sudden, stabbing chest pains. Arthur had told me back then that a heart transplant required a live donor. Since my mother had "passed away," he couldn't put my heart back into my body. I had thought to myself, It's okay. At least my heart will be with Mom forever. No wonder when I begged to see my mother one last time, Arthur forcefully insisted I was too weak to leave the bed and rushed to handle her cremation and funeral arrangements himself. It turned out his so-called "salvation" and "deep love" were nothing but a sacrificial altar designed by a demon! He never performed the surgery on my mother! My mother and I... we were just sacrificial lambs offered up to the woman he truly loved! To ensure I would never suspect a thing, he actually wheeled my mother into the operating room first. He forced her to watch, completely paralyzed and helpless, as her own daughter's heart was carved out and placed into another woman's chest. She died crying tears of blood! Even without a real heart, my chest ached so violently it felt like it was ripping apart. I violently coughed up a mouthful of dark blood onto the carpet. "Evie?!" I didn't know when Arthur had entered the room. Seeing me coughing up blood, he rushed over, scooped me up onto the bed, and gently wiped the blood from my lips, his face etched with absolute heartbreak. "I'm so sorry, Evie. I haven't taken good care of you. Don't worry, I've already sourced the best next-generation artificial heart for you. We'll swap it out in a few days." His eyes were red with guilt—the exact same reaction he had every single time he saw me in pain over the last seven years. I used to think it was because he loved me, and I would force myself to act strong, comforting him and telling him it was okay. Looking back now, I was impossibly stupid. "Arthur, the pain has been unbearable these past few years. Can I please just stop using the artificial heart?" Haven't you already prepped several backup donors for Chloe? Then can you give my heart back to me? Arthur hesitated for only a second before smiling, stroking my hair gently. "Evie, don't be silly. We don't have a matching donor heart for you yet. If you don't use the artificial one, do you expect me to just watch you die? I'd rather you kill me first." We don't have one? But the heart beating inside Chloe's chest is MINE! My blood turned to ice. I forced a weak smile. "You're right. I'm just being silly." Under the guise of running a bath for him, I emptied an entire bottle of high-concentration sleep essential oils into the tub. When he came to bed, he fell into a deep, unshakable sleep within minutes. Perhaps he was dreaming of the woman he truly desired, because he started mumbling in his sleep: "Chloe... I will always protect you... even if it kills me." Looking at the husband I had loved with all my soul for seven years, tears finally broke through and slid down my cheeks. I picked up my phone and called my best friend, Sarah, a brilliant surgeon who had just returned to the States after years of volunteering in Africa. "Sarah, I need you to do a surgery for me." "Yes, I'm absolutely sure. See you in three days." What is there to fear about death? Living a life worse than death is the true torture. I set my phone down, quietly picked up Arthur's, and slipped into his study. Unsurprisingly, his passcode was Chloe's birthday. I had no idea Arthur kept a secret, secondary Instagram account. He probably forgot to switch back to his main profile. His profile picture was a stylized graphic of two words: Loving Chloe. Such a blunt, simple declaration. I opened his feed. It was flooded with photos of Chloe. Every single caption was a testament to his hidden, obsessive love. "The first day she arrived at the Vance estate, I saw Chloe. Suddenly, I understood what it meant for a heart to beat for someone." "Chloe got married today. I'm going insane with jealousy. I want to carve her open and hide her inside my own body, so she belongs only to me." "I took Evelyn three times today. I knew her body couldn't handle it, but I had no choice. I missed Chloe so much, I could only scream Chloe's name over and over in my head, praying that the woman beneath me would magically turn into her..." Beyond that, there were endless photos of the extravagant jewelry and designer bags he had bought for Chloe. He had even purchased a private, heart-shaped island in the Caribbean under her name. And in all these years, the only thing Arthur had ever given me was this artificial heart that brought me nothing but endless agony and torture. While I was drowning in grief over my mother's death and suffering through agonizing bouts of coughing up blood, Chloe was lounging beautifully on the soft white sands of her private island, soaking up the sun. My hand shook uncontrollably as I gripped the phone. A wave of intense nausea hit my stomach, and I lunged toward the trash can, dry heaving violently. As I braced myself against the bookshelf, I accidentally knocked something loose. A hollowed-out book hit the floor. Inside the fake book was a stack of documents—several "Voluntary Organ Donation" consent forms, alongside a thick stack of wire transfer receipts. Arthur had been sending massive monthly payouts to the families of these potential donors, essentially keeping them on his payroll. There was only one condition: they were forbidden from donating their hearts to anyone else. Whenever Chloe needed one, they had to surrender it immediately. The very last form in the stack was mine. But the designated recipient had been changed from my mother to Chloe Vance. Back then, Arthur had shoved a massive stack of paperwork in front of me, claiming they were just standard hospital release forms. Panicking and desperate to save my mother, I signed everything without reading the fine print. This form must have been slipped in there. And my mother's actual donation form? He probably destroyed it years ago. Arthur Vance, you really went to the ends of the earth for Chloe. After printing out the divorce papers, I sat alone on the living room sofa. My heart was a desolate wasteland. I didn't sleep a wink all night. The next morning, Arthur assumed I was just an early riser and suspected nothing. Perhaps feeling guilty about me coughing up blood last night, he played the devoted husband, personally cooking a perfectly balanced, nutritious breakfast. Seeing that I hadn't touched a bite, he looked at me with tender concern: "Evie, why aren't you eating? Are you feeling down?" "It's nothing. I just miss my mom." He sighed deeply. "Evie, I know. I constantly think about Mom, too. She was such a kind, gentle woman. It's all my fault. I'm useless. I couldn't save her back then. I still remember the way she grabbed my hand right before the end, begging me to make sure we lived a happy life together." If my mother had possessed an ounce of strength to lift her hand, she would have used it to strangle him to death. Watching his sickeningly hypocritical performance, a wave of pure irony washed over me. I was just about to bring up the divorce when Arthur spoke, seemingly casually: "Evie, you've been so depressed lately. Today is Chloe's birthday, and she just flew back into town. The family is hosting a huge banquet at the main estate. Why don't we go? The lively atmosphere might cheer you up." "I know you've avoided seeing her because of what happened with your mom, but it's been years. Chloe didn't mean for any of that to happen... She's family, after all. She's always been incredibly sensitive, and if we don't show up, I'm afraid she'll be heartbroken..." So this was his true motive. He wasted all that breath just to manipulate me into going so he could see the woman he loved. I cut him off: "Whatever you want." Arthur smiled brightly: "I knew my Evie was the most understanding." The moment we walked into the grand estate, I saw Chloe dressed like absolute royalty, clinging to her grandmother's arm and acting like a spoiled child. The old matriarch laughed indulgently, feeding Chloe slices of fresh fruit from a silver platter. She was the center of the universe here. Chloe spotted me instantly. Her tone turned sharp and sarcastic: "Grandma~ you're feeding me too much, I'm going to get fat! Oh, look, Aunt Evelyn is here. Why don't you give her the leftovers? After all, she doesn't have a mother to feed her." My mother-in-law turned to look at me. Her eyes scanned my simple, inexpensive clothes, her face twisting into a sneer of absolute disgust. "Who let this sickly ghost in here? Are you trying to infect us with your poverty and bad luck?" "The Vance family is a prestigious medical dynasty. You dress like a homeless beggar every day; you're an absolute embarrassment to my son. You've been married into this family for seven years, and not only are you a barren hen, but you have no brains either! Didn't your dead mother teach you any manners before she kicked the bucket?!" Arthur wasn't the biological brother of Chloe's father; he was the son brought in by the patriarch's second wife. Fearing her son wouldn't be respected, my mother-in-law had always wanted Arthur to marry a woman from a powerful family to boost his status. But after Chloe's father died in a car crash, Arthur proved his worth. He became the universally praised "Golden Scalpel" of the medical world, won the patriarch's approval, and was handed control of the entire family empire. Only then did my mother-in-law hold her nose and allow Arthur to marry me. But because my health issues prevented me from getting pregnant, her hatred for me only grew deeper. In the past, Arthur would have at least offered a few words in my defense. But today, his eyes were entirely glued to Chloe, filled with an uncontrollable, burning longing. Chloe skipped over to him, intimately wrapping her arms around his bicep, pouting playfully: "Uncle Arthur! Did you bring a present for Chloe?" Arthur affectionately pinched her cheek: "Of course I did." A team of attendants rolled in twenty-eight custom-made, haute couture gowns, each meticulously paired with a matching set of obscenely expensive diamond jewelry. Twenty-eight. For Chloe's twenty-eighth birthday. She shrieked with joy and planted a massive kiss on Arthur's cheek: "Wow! Uncle Arthur loves me the most! These jewelry sets are all limited editions! You spent way too much... what if some people get jealous?" Only then did Arthur seem to remember I was standing right next to him. My cheap, worn-out clothes looked painfully pathetic standing amidst the sea of glittering diamonds and silk. In all these years, Arthur had never once remembered my birthday, let alone bought me a single piece of jewelry or a nice dress. He looked slightly embarrassed. He reached for my hand, trying to explain: "Evie, don't overthink it. I'm Chloe's uncle, I'm just..." Chloe suddenly clutched her chest, furrowing her perfectly manicured brows: "Uncle Arthur... my chest feels a bit tight... I don't know if my heart condition is acting up again..." Arthur instantly dropped my hand, spun around, and pulled her into a tight embrace, his face etched with sheer panic: "Why is your chest tight?! Does it hurt?! No, this is bad, I need to examine you immediately!" Without another word, in front of the entire extended family, he scooped Chloe up into his arms in a bridal carry and sprinted up the sweeping staircase without looking back. The guests turned their mocking, pitying gazes toward me. "No wonder Arthur would rather buy a mountain of couture for Chloe than buy Evelyn a single dress. A woman with such low-class origins isn't fit to be a Vance, let alone wear luxury goods." "If Arthur wasn't bound by the optics of his uncle-niece relationship with Chloe, why would he ever settle for a gutter rat like her? I bet she used her mother's death to blackmail Arthur into marrying her. Shameless bitch, stepping on her own mother's corpse to marry into money." The whispers grew louder. My mother-in-law, feeling she was losing face, barked at me: "You embarrassing disgrace, what are you still standing here for?! Get your ass upstairs! Haven't you humiliated our family enough today?!" "My son performing surgery on your dead mother was a blessing she didn't deserve. If she was too weak to survive it, how is that my son's fault? The fact that you aren't on your knees thanking him, and instead tried to extort him... you'll get what's coming to you!" My hands balled into tight fists inside my cheap sleeves. I let out a weak, hollow laugh. She's right. Meeting Arthur Vance was the greatest curse of my life. Remembering the divorce papers securely tucked in my purse, I didn't say a word. I turned and walked upstairs to find him. But as I stepped onto the second-floor landing, I saw them on the balcony. Arthur and Chloe, locked in a tight embrace. Chloe was leaning back against the marble railing, her arms wrapped around Arthur's neck. "Arthur... listen closely. Is Chloe's heart still beating too fast?" "Chloe, we can't do this..." Arthur tried to make his voice sound disciplined, but the visible tension in his tailored suit pants betrayed him completely. Chloe aggressively pressed her lips against his, whispering seductively: "Are you saying you don't want Chloe? I know I'm the only one in your heart, and you are the only one in mine. Even if you married someone else because you were scared of what people would say, your body still belongs to me. Let's just lose control this once..." Arthur finally snapped. He grabbed the back of Chloe's head, pulling her into a desperate, passionate, bruising kiss. The sound of fabric ripping was immediately followed by breathy, obscene moans. Listening to Arthur whisper sickeningly sweet, filthy promises to her, tears blurred my vision. I clamped my hand over my mouth and ran out of the mansion. I didn't know how long I sat on the curb outside the estate gates before a bowl of scalding hot instant ramen was violently splashed across my chest. The boiling water shocked me back to reality. Chloe, having changed into fresh clothes, stood over me, holding a bottle of expensive whiskey. "Evelyn, did you like the sounds we were making up there? Your pathetic, retreating back looked exactly like a stray dog." So she had seen me. "I heard your body is rejecting the artificial heart. Coughing up blood and dealing with chest pain every day must be absolute torture, right? You can't even enjoy the rough, passionate love of a real man. But I'm different. Arthur can use the most aggressive positions on me, and I can take it perfectly. Even though you're a piece of trash, I have to admit, your heart works phenomenally well. I felt amazing up there just now." "You actually thought marrying my uncle would steal my spotlight? Keep dreaming. He only has me in his heart. You were nothing more than a temporary incubator for my spare parts." "Oh, by the way... that day wasn't the first time your mom caught me sleeping with your fiancé. That old bitch actually dared to call me a slut. So, I specifically orchestrated it. I had her tied up and forced her to watch me fuck your fiancé right in front of her face. It triggered her heart attack. When you offered to donate your heart to her, I just faked a little chest pain, and Uncle Arthur was so heartbroken he refused to wait a single second. He ripped your heart out and gave it to me." "Ah, right. You were unconscious under anesthesia, so you missed your mom's reaction. She stretched her arm out so far, her eyes bulging out of her skull like she was going to pop! She wanted to strangle us so badly! But what a shame... all she could do was watch helplessly as she was literally angered to death~ Serves her right. She insulted me, so I took her life!" My eyes widened in sheer, absolute horror. I never, in my darkest nightmares, could have imagined that this was the true cause of my mother's death. My entire body shook violently. How could these monsters murder my mother and still act like they were completely justified?! I raised my hand high into the air to strike her, but Chloe was faster. She dumped the rest of the whiskey over her own head and let out a blood-curdling scream. The next second, I was shoved violently to the ground. Arthur wrapped Chloe securely in his arms and whipped his head around, roaring at me: "Evelyn! What the hell are you doing?!" Chloe cried pitifully against his chest: "Uncle Arthur! I just saw that Aunt Evelyn didn't eat anything at the banquet, so I brought her some food and a drink! But she started screaming that I murdered her mother! She knocked the food out of my hands and poured alcohol all over me! If you had come a second later, she would have killed me!" "I made that ramen myself! I know it's not fancy, but it was the thought that counted! The boiling water even burned my hands..." Arthur's face instantly turned murderous. "Evelyn! Your mother dying of a heart attack was her own fault for having a weak constitution and sticking her nose into the affairs of young people! Before a wedding, it is completely normal for someone to have a change of heart! Chloe felt bad that you were hungry, and if you didn't appreciate it, fine! But how dare you blame her for your own mother's death?!" I stared at him in utter disbelief, listening to the sociopathic, twisted logic spewing from his mouth. "Arthur Vance. Tell me to my face. How exactly did my mother die? Did you actually give my heart to her?" Arthur frowned deeply. "Of course I did! Didn't I already tell you? Your mother experienced severe acute rejection post-op! Heart transplants carry massive risks, how do you not even possess basic common sense?! Stop betraying Chloe's kindness and apologize to her right now!"
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