Chapter 2
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Kathy walked unsteadily, holding her coat in her arms.
Inside were all the fabric scraps, hair, and flesh she could gather.
Like a wandering ghost, she murmured softly, “Don’t be scared, baby. I’m here.”
Ding–a a message alert came in.
Her phone had reconnected.
She pulled it out and dialed a long–silent number.
connected quickly. No words, just quiet breathing.
Her numb expression cracked. Voice hoarse, barely audible, she whispered, “Sir, I was wrong.”
A whole week passed.
Kathy barely had time to breathe and hardly slept at all.
She had to find a cemetery to bury Mike and prepare a research project.
Justin had acted recklessly–once deeply in love, now not even pretending. All because she was an orphan, raised in a welfare home.
She had no powerful backing, just his plaything.
Love kept her by his side, feeding his twisted need for control.
What he didn’t know was that she was a prodigy, selected for the NYU youth program at 12, and a disciple of a top national academic master.
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Chapter 2
If not for meeting Justin–if not for falling for his relentless, desperate pursuit–she would’ve become a wife much later in life.
Today, the world’s youngest academician title should’ve been hers.
Kathy’s research focused on AI and biotech.
Her papers had once shaken the international academic community.
She was such a rare national talent. Higher powers concealed her identity for protection.
Even Justin, with all his influence, couldn’t uncover it.
And yet she gave it all up willingly, just to bear his child, cook for him, and live by his side.
There were romantic moments after the wedding.
The legend of the wife–obsessed Mr. Garrett still topped forums everywhere.
But it only lasted two years.
Then, other women appeared by his side.
He played with all kinds of women–curvy, slim, every type–yet coaxed her, “They were just flings. No one surpasses you.”
From testing the waters to tearing away the last veil, Kathy’s love for him was slowly chipped away, shattered.
Until Luciana appeared.
She had the same tragic start in life.
A gambling, abusive father, a frail, sick mother, and herself–a delicate
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girl eyed by her father. Yet she found footing at Justin’s side.
She even had the nerve to step on Kathy and taunt her with a sweet smile,
It wasn’t that she had no one to turn to. She just couldn’t face them.
Back then, to marry Justin, Kathy knelt outside her teacher’s house for three days and nights, waiting for the teacher’s wife to utter one line through the door. That one line severed the bond between teacher and
student.
So when he turned cold and heartless, she swallowed it again and again, forcing herself to cry out every drop of her foolishness.
Mike’s death was the final straw.
The last of her love turned into overwhelming hate.
Step one in her quest for vengeance–she had to gain the power to rise
above him.
On that call, her teacher’s voice was brutally cold.
“You’ve been out too long. If you want back in, prove you’re still worth pulling up.”
