Ficorpio
Chapter 1
Ethan Sterling and I had gone from school uniforms to wedding clothes. Our ceremony was only hours away.
Then, on the eve of our wedding, his car plunged into the river with him inside. No body was ever recovered.
I cried until I collapsed in the Memorial Chapel. When I opened my eyes, countless lines of text were floating in front of me.
[Will someone please tell the heroine of this tragic romance that her man faked his death?]
[Ethan’s kept lover ran away, so he staged the whole thing overnight and chased her abroad. The heroine is crying at his memorial while the other woman is crying in his bed. How disgusting can he get?]
[What a shame. When he comes back pretending to have amnesia, the heroine will happily marry him anyway, then spend the rest of her life suffering…]
Two weeks later, news of my strategic marriage alliance with Adrian Ashford, the most powerful heir in Beijing’s elite circles, swept through Arden City.
The friends who had helped Ethan deceive me rushed to confront me. Caleb Reed’s eyes were red as he demanded, “Ethan’s barely gone, and you’re already in such a hurry to replace him?”
I looked up at him, my voice calm. “He’s dead. You can’t expect me to mourn him for the rest of my life.”
When the first colorful comments drifted across my vision, I thought grief had driven me to hallucinations.
But they didn’t stop. They multiplied until the dense mass of words made it hard to breathe.
[If the heroine goes to the rooftop terrace now, she’ll find out the male lead isn’t dead at all!]
[She hasn’t eaten properly in two days. She can barely stand. How is she supposed to climb all those stairs?]
My legs felt weighted with lead, but I dragged myself toward the rooftop terrace one step at a time.
Only a few stairs remained when a familiar voice floated down on the wind, carrying a note of amusement. It was coming through Caleb’s phone.
“My funeral still isn’t over?”
Caleb’s reply was eager and ingratiating. “Not yet, Ethan.”
“What about Chloe? She hasn’t noticed anything, has she?”
I gripped the stair rail. My knuckles turned white.
Caleb continued, “Of course not. She’s been running around handling everything these past few days. She even cried herself unconscious yesterday. She’s probably still in her room crying right now.”
Ethan’s tone remained casual. “Thanks for taking care of things. Comfort her for me, would you?”
Julian Cross cut in from beside Caleb. “Ethan, are you seriously in love with that young influencer? You faked your death and ran off to London just to chase her, then made the two of us help you stage this entire production.”
The comments had told the truth.
Every drop of blood in my body seemed to freeze. I couldn’t stop trembling.
Chapter 2
I had prayed countless times for Ethan to still be alive. Never once had I imagined the truth would be this vile.
Ethan gave a soft laugh. “Whether I’m in love with her is none of your business. Just make sure Chloe doesn’t find out.”
Caleb pressed him. “Are you still going through with the wedding?”
“Of course. Once I’ve won her back, the wedding will happen exactly as planned. Before I get married, I deserve one chance to do something crazy for love, don’t I?”
Caleb laughed. “Fair enough. Once you’re married, everything revolves around the family. You won’t get another chance like this.”
The three men laughed together in perfect understanding.
Each sound pierced my ears like a needle.
[The heroine finally knows the truth! Go out there and tear that cheating bastard apart!]
[Don’t be reckless! She has no one backing her right now. Confronting him won’t do her any good!]
I didn’t rush out and expose them. Instead, I turned and slipped silently down the stairs.
Back in my room, I dropped beside the toilet and dry-heaved until my stomach twisted in agony.
When I finally raised my head, the woman in the mirror had bloodshot eyes and a deathly pale face. Nothing could hide the exhaustion etched beneath her eyes.
I splashed cold water over my face, then scrubbed away the tear tracks with a towel.
[Oh no. Don’t tell me she’s going to keep putting up with this!]
[I think she’s holding back because she’s planning something big! She loved Ethan so much. Now that she knows the truth, there’s no way she’ll let him off easily!]
[Don’t be naive. In the original story, she was so blinded by love that she forgave him even after learning he’d faked his death!]
When I stepped out of the room, Caleb Reed was waiting by the door. He offered me two tissues, his face arranged in a mask of false concern.
“Chloe, try not to take this too hard. Ethan wouldn’t want to see you like this. Wherever he is now, I’m sure he’s watching over you.”
I lifted my gaze and stared straight into his carefully solemn face.
“Caleb,” I asked softly, “do you think it’s possible Ethan isn’t dead at all?”
Panic flashed across Caleb’s face, gone almost as quickly as it appeared.
“H-how could that be?” he stammered, his voice strained. “They recovered Ethan’s coat and shoes. You saw them yourself.”
A week ago, Ethan Sterling’s car had plunged into the river late at night.
The police believed he had escaped the vehicle, only to be swept away by the violent current.
I had stayed on the riverbank all night. Rescue crews searched for days, but all they found were his clothes.
Overcome with grief, I had collapsed.
Chapter 3
Today was supposed to have been our wedding day.
I had clutched a photograph of us and cried until my head felt ready to split open. Only now did I realize that everything had been part of an elaborate deception Ethan had arranged.
My grief. My devastation.
It had all been one cruel joke.
[What a disgusting bastard! They were each other’s first love, and he threw it away to keep some influencer on the side!]
[I thought this was supposed to be a sweet romance. This is sickening.]
[Chloe is gorgeous and comes from one of Beijing’s most prominent families. If he doesn’t appreciate her, plenty of other men will!]
Strangely, the revulsion and anguish churning inside me eased a little as I read the floating comments.
Caleb was still trying to persuade me. “Chloe, don’t let your imagination run away with you. If Ethan could see you like this, it would break his heart.”
Break his heart?
How ironic.
For the past few days, I had been thanking Caleb for helping arrange Ethan’s funeral.
Now I knew the truth.
He was no different from Ethan.
They were both liars.
Following the clues in the floating comments, I found the Douyin account belonging to Ethan’s kept lover.
The moment I opened it, I froze.
Vivian Hart had appeared right under my nose countless times before.
She was a young influencer signed to Sterling Media Group, and her account was called “Vivian Loves Ethan.”
Her latest video showed a street in London. A man and a woman stood locked in a tight embrace, his arm wrapped around her waist. There was a tiny mole in the curve between his thumb and forefinger, one I knew better than anyone.
The caption read:
“At the age when love was still pure, he left behind the woman his family had chosen for him and traveled more than six thousand miles to find me. The wind that carried my longing finally blew all the way from Arden City to London.”
The comments beneath the video were exploding with envy.
“The kept lover runs away, and the domineering CEO chases after her? I’m obsessed with this story!”
“So you’re the one your wealthy patron really loves. I guess his fiancée was nothing but a pawn.”
“Can I get his contact information? Where do you even find a man this devoted?”
The floating comments erupted.
[What exactly are they obsessing over? She’s the other woman!]
[And she has the nerve to call Chloe his arranged match? In the original storyline, Chloe’s strategic marriage partner was clearly the villainous powerhouse, Adrian Ashford!]
[Do these people have no sense at all? Since when is destroying someone else’s relationship something to be proud of?]