The day I was released from prison and immediately trended online, Julian Thorne waited outside the gates until the dead of night.
Ten years ago, Julian’s protg won first prize in a major competition using a model I designed.
That’s when my world shattered: I found out they had a three-year-old child together.
Blair had even named my work after their son, Alex.
I was accused of assault, locked away for a decade, and emerged a ghost of my former self.
I picked up a glint of metal near a dumpster, wiped it clean, and slipped it into my pocket.
Then, a familiar, trembling voice cut through the silence behind me.
“Evie,” the voice said, thick with emotion, “I’ve been looking for you for days. Why didn’t you wait?”
He reached out, grabbing my pale wrist.
“I never married anyone else, Evie. You have to believe me.”
A bitter smile touched my lips as I yanked my hand free.
“Mr. Thorne, you’re joking, right? Their child must be in middle school by now.”
His pupils constricted. His lips trembled.
He was the one who testified against me, the one who sent me to prison all those years ago.
Julian and I were caught on camera.
The headline, ‘Evie Reed Released from Prison, Harassing Julian Thorne,’ immediately shot to the top of trending topics on Ins.
The photo showed Julian’s back, making it seem like I was blocking his path.
Netizens who had been following my release exploded with outrage.
“Seriously, no shame! First thing she does after jail is cling to Mr. Thorne!”
“Terrifying, how did they let this psycho out? @Blair Jensen, protect yourself and your child!”
“Heard she only attacked because her marriage proposal was rejected!”
“Scientists gone wild are even scarier, total psychopath!”
Everyone started tagging Blair Jensen.
So, she posted a selfie from her lab with a caption.
“Don’t worry, everyone, I’m safe and will protect the people who matter most to me.”
This carefully orchestrated interaction earned her another wave of public sympathy.
I closed Ins, and the next second, my phone rang.
No contact name, but that number was etched into my memory.
I hung up without a second thought.
Once, twice…
I dragged the number straight to my blacklist.
Then, a text message popped up.
“I’m sorry, I didn’t know it would be like this. I’ll handle the media.”
I blacklisted that number too, without hesitation.
Just as I put my phone down, it rang again.
I didn’t check the caller ID. I picked up, ready to unleash a stream of curses, when a familiar voice spoke.
“Evie, darling, the best way to clear your name is to live your life well. I don’t want you affected by all that filth online.”
“Our old high school has an intelligent robot model competition coming up, and they need a high-caliber mentor. Are you up for it?”
A warmth spread through my eyes instantly.
He was my high school teacher, and the one who first ignited my passion for physics.
Tears in my eyes, I nodded.
“Mr. Henderson, I’ll be there. Thank you so much.”
His voice on the phone choked up slightly.
“Oh, my dear, I knew you’d rise again.”
After hanging up, my heart refused to settle for a long time.
Indeed, my life had nothing to do with Julian anymore.
Following Mr. Henderson’s instructions, I arrived at the lab right on time.
Only to find two students arguing. I paused at the doorway, wanting to hear their side of things.
“My thermal dynamic coupling model is absolutely fine, my mom told me so! My mom is Blair Jensen, a celebrated researcher with award-winning theories! Who are you to question her?!”
Alex glared, eyes blazing red, at the smaller boy.
“I’m not saying the theory is wrong, but this value is too high, it’ll burn out the circuit…”
“Bullshit!”
Alex suddenly grabbed some materials off the table, ready to hurl them at the other boy.
I rushed forward to stop him but accidentally pushed him, sending him sprawling.
He froze for two seconds.
“Who are you? Why did you push me? I’m calling the cops!”
I stared coldly at the boy who looked so much like Julian, yet in his very core, mirrored Blair Jensen.
“You’re Alex? Your mom is Blair Jensen, so all her theories are automatically correct?”
“Did your mom ever tell you that she stole someone else’s work?”
Facing the name that had stained my entire life…
I couldn’t hold back.
The words were out before I could regret them.
But it was too late. The incident escalated, and soon the police were involved.
That very night, I was trending again.
Everyone said I couldn’t get over Julian, and was now taking revenge on his son.
My temporary address was dug up and publicized.
My door was plastered with hateful graffiti and curses.
There was even a package left, covered in paint and containing razor blades.
My landlord told me to leave immediately.
As I carried my clothes, which had been tossed on the ground, downstairs, I ran into Julian.
“I’m so sorry…”
He nervously rubbed the edge of his coat pocket, a picture of helplessness.
His head slightly bowed, he stole glances at my face.
For a moment, he reminded me of Julian in high school.
I closed my eyes, trying to banish those images.
“Mr. Thorne, I don’t want to see you ever again. I just want a peaceful life. Please, just disappear.”
His eyes reddened, his gaze clouded with unspoken emotions.
“Evie, I just wanted to apologize. It’s okay if you can’t forgive me. We’re still old friends, and I can actually help”
“You want to help me? Just stay far away from me.”
I met his gaze head-on.
“Julian, if I had known that meeting you would bring such utter disaster into my life, I would have never”
He frantically cut me off.
“Evie! Don’t say it… Please, I’ll go.”
I’d forgotten about that past, a past that could never be reclaimed.
It held not only my scars, but his too.
Even after all these years.
We still knew exactly how to twist the knife, how to hit each other where it hurt the most.
When I first met Julian, he wasn’t the hotshot tech entrepreneur he is today.
He was just the quiet kid from the wrong side of the tracks, wearing a faded uniform, bullied by everyone.
One day, a few older teens cornered him in an alley, pelting him with plastic water bottles.
“Isn’t your grandma a trash collector? We’re helping you out, how are you gonna thank us?”
“Filthy garbage brings out filthy kids, you reek!”
A surge of compassion overwhelmed me, and I stepped in front of him.
“His grandma works hard to send him to school, there’s no shame in that.”
“What’s shameful is your parents finding out you’re bullies!”
After that, I started sharing half of my mom’s breakfast with him every day.
I tutored him, oversaw his studies.
We even worked part-time jobs together.
He became my constant shadow, my loyal “knight,” looking out for me.
In our senior year of college, he bought a silver ring with tiny diamond chips, paid for with money from his part-time jobs.
He knelt on one knee in front of me.
“Evie, when I make it big, I’ll get you a diamond ring that’ll make this one look tiny. Will you… will you be with me?”
Smiling, I slid my finger into the ring.
“Okay, Julian. I’ll wait.”
On our wedding day, his family kept making him drink, one after another.
He drank until his steps faltered and his mind grew hazy.
But he still swore an oath to the heavens in front of my parents and relatives.
“I, Julian, will only marry Evie in this life, and love only Evie. May I be struck by lightning and never find peace if I break this”
That day, I stopped his foolish vow with a kiss.
Amidst the cheers and blessings of our families.
I felt like the happiest woman in the world.
He continued to be wonderful for years.
Even when his company was swamped, he never forgot to surprise me.
He even took my parents on trips and helped my relatives’ kids find jobs.
He always did his best to be good to me.
And that’s how he managed to fool everyone.
Blair Jensen was a student I started sponsoring after I began working, someone I personally introduced to him.
In the first few years of Julian’s company, he was incredibly busy, constantly on the go.
Coming home late at night, he always reeked of smoke and alcohol.
“Evie, everyone below me is an absolute idiot…”
I massaged his temples, and Blair came to mind.
She was smart, diligent, with a stubborn refusal to ever give up visible in her eyes.
“Why don’t you let Blair help you? She’s meticulous and trustworthy.”
And just like that, Blair joined his company.
Because I knew her background so well, she gradually took over some highly confidential, yet mundane, tasks.
Julian didn’t have to micromanage her, and sure enough, his workload lessened significantly.
He even found time to join me in the lab.
Watching me tinker with different machine models, he would hold me from behind, his voice full of emotion.
“When I was a kid, I always wished for a superhero to save me, to defeat all the monsters that bullied me.”
“But then, I stopped wishing for it.”
I turned my head to ask him why.
“Because my superhero, you, came into my life in my sophomore year of high school.”
From that day on, in addition to my research, I wanted to create a surprise for him.
I began integrating the concept of ‘protection’ into my model.
As a gift for him.
Later, his career took off.
Blair became a frequent guest at our home.
She often brought documents, sometimes asking me for advice on technical issues.
I never held anything back.
Our relationship grew closer and closer.
She often brought me gifts, and never missed a single one of my birthdays.
“Evie, I wouldn’t be where I am today without you. Mr. Thorne trusts me, and I would never want to let you down.”
My own research was entering its most critical phase.
It was my turn to practically live in the lab.
She often took Julian’s place, bringing me meals to the lab.
I thought she was simply grateful, wanting to repay my kindness.
Until that globally recognized model design competition.
I saw my work, proudly bearing the name ‘Alex.’
And saw Blair Jensen’s name listed as the sole creator in the project description.
I wanted to ask Julian if he knew.
But then I saw a small boy, darting around outside his office.
My beloved, with whom I had spent fourteen years.
He actually had a three-year-old child with another woman.
I stormed into his office.
“Julian, is that child outside yours?”
He merely lifted his eyes.
“Evie, watch your tone and remember where you are.”
“My tone? My identity? I am your legal wife!”
He leaned back into his leather chair.
“Blair gave me a son, Evie. My family name needs an heir. You’ve been unable to have children, so you should understand.”
I stared at him, as if seeing him for the very first time.
He paused, then pushed a prepared document across the desk.
When I saw the words ‘Divorce Agreement’ on it, I ripped it into shreds.
I stared in disbelief at the man I had poured my entire life into supporting.
I refused to sign.
In a rage, I stormed off to my parents’ house.
My mother, furious beyond words, burst into Julian’s office and slapped him across the face in front of everyone.
“You shameless bastard! Without my daughter, you’d still be rolling in the gutter!”
“You ungrateful snake! A total backstabber!”
Julian’s eyes turned cold, menacing.
“Fine,” he snarled. “Let’s see who can’t live without whom.”
That very day, Julian pulled all his investments from my father’s company.
Word spread like wildfire. The next day, competitors deliberately undercut my father, snatching contracts with ridiculously low bids.
The company’s cash flow dried up, and our partners abandoned us one by one.
He even fired our relatives’ children from his company and blacklisted them across the entire industry.
Even though those elders were the very people who had once helped him.
When he was just starting his company and had no seed money, it was my family who pooled together every last penny for him.
But with a flick of his wrist, he was ready to destroy all our lives.
My father, consumed by anger, suffered a heart attack and was hospitalized.
Julian ultimately acquired the company for a ridiculously low price.
My mother couldn’t bear the shock and fell ill, never recovering.
Julian reappeared, tossing the agreement onto the table in front of me.
“Sign it. You walk away with nothing, but you’ll save your parents.”
Looking at my father, still in the ICU, I shakily signed my name.
As I left that home, clutching the last few things I owned, Blair was waiting at the door.
“Evie, this is how it should be. If you’d just given up your place sooner, your parents wouldn’t have ended up like this, would they?”
She smirked, a triumphant gleam in her eyes.
All the anger and humiliation erupted in that moment. I grabbed a kitchen knife and pointed it at her.
“Get out of my house! Get out!”
Instead of backing away, she suddenly grabbed my hand, forcing the knife’s tip sharply into her own abdomen.
Julian arrived just in time, pulling her away.
Under Julian’s manipulation, all the evidence turned against me.
No lawyer dared to take my case.
He himself took the witness stand.
“I personally witnessed Evie, driven by jealousy, attack Blair with a knife. She has a volatile personality and had threatened Blair multiple times before.”
My parents, still in the hospital, heard the news and, despite their fragile health, desperately tried to fight for me.
But his heart was set on destroying me.
On the day of my final sentencing, my father coughed up a mouthful of blood on the courthouse steps.
He couldn’t be saved.
Not long after, my mother also passed away.
I was sentenced to the maximum ten years for aggravated assault.
Yet now, I watched him gather the media, holding a press conference.
He released the lab’s surveillance footage.
Desperately trying to clear my name.
“Evie did not target the child. I will pursue legal action against all online misinformation. Regardless of the truth of what happened that year, I owe her, and I will not allow anyone to slander her.”
I don’t know how long passed.
A single tear splattered onto the darkened screen of my phone.
The screen reflected my own mocking face.
When Blair found me, I was sitting outside a small noodle shop in a rundown part of town, eating a cheap bowl of plain pasta.
She pulled up in a sports car, dressed in designer clothes, utterly out of place.
“Evie, what are you doing eating in a place like this?”
She placed her designer bag on the grimy table, glanced disdainfully at the faded, unidentifiable stool, and remained standing.
“Here’s a million dollars. Take it, leave this city, and never show your face to Julian again.”
I lowered my head and continued eating my noodles, ignoring her.
She didn’t seem annoyed. Leaning slightly forward, she lowered her voice.
“Didn’t ten years in prison teach you anything?”
“Look at yourself, so unkempt. What part of you could ever be worthy of him now?”
I put down my fork, lifting my eyes to her heavily made-up face.
I noticed the dark circles under her eyes, clumsily concealed by makeup.
Her blush couldn’t hide her pale complexion.
She hadn’t been doing well lately.
“Blair Jensen, why are you in such a rush? What are you so afraid of?”
Her face flickered.
“Afraid of you? Evie, look at yourself! Do you really think I’d be scared or jealous of some washed-up, bitter woman who spent ten years in prison?”
“Then what’s with the money? In your mind, is Julian, the successful, famous man he is now, only worth a million dollars?”
Blair seemed to realize her slip. She clutched her bag tighter, forced a smile, and raised her voice.
“You’re mistaken. I just knew you’d be struggling after your release and wanted to help! But since you brought it up, if a million isn’t enough, how much will it take for you to leave us alone?”
Her fake concern made me sick to my stomach.
I stood up to leave, but she grabbed my jacket by the waist.
“Evie, Julian and I have a child who’s already a teenager! Are you still refusing to let go? Do you insist on being a homewrecker?”
I yanked hard at my jacket, but she held on tight, refusing to let go.
In the struggle, my jacket was torn off, revealing a section of my forearm, marred by a hideous, twisted burn scar.
She stared at me, stunned. I quickly snatched my jacket back, accidentally sweeping her bag off the table.
Her phone slid out, and I saw it then: she’d clipped a camera onto it.
She was livestreaming.
“OMG! She has so many scars!”
“Must be from getting beaten in prison, serves her right!”
“Looks terrifying, not like beatings. Maybe she’s self-harming? No wonder she’s so obsessive!”
“Poor Blair, look what she’s been driven to!”
The livestream comments were instantly flooded with malicious speculation.
I shut off the livestream, not wanting so many strangers peering into my life.
The moment the livestream ended, Blair’s expression completely changed.
Replaced by pure hatred.
“Evie! How dare you show your face here again? You’re a murderer! You tried to kill me ten years ago, and ten years later, you almost killed my son!”
“And now you’re stalking my husband, harassing him, trying to destroy my family! If your parents knew how utterly despicable you are, they’d turn over in their graves!”
Her chest heaved violently, flecks of spit landing on my face.
“Why are you staring at me like that? Am I wrong?”
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