Twisted Love Turns to Ashes

I once thought I had the best partner in the world. But the truth revealed: He’d had my womb surgically removed, and I’d spent three years as his stand-in. So, I disappeared. From Los Angeles to Paris, from a trampled substitute to being cherished in the palm of my new family's hands. But following my disappearance came his tears of regret. He tried to transfer his entire fortune to me, but I sent it right back without a second glance. He said he could never repay what he owed me. I told him our accounts were settled. Pain will always be pain, but enough good things happened afterward to overshadow the bad. 1 Yvonne's POV "Ms. Vance, you don't even have a uterus. How could you have period cramps?" The doctor studied the ultrasound scan with a somber look on his face. I thought I had misheard. "What did you say? I just had a physical last month, and I'm currently trying to conceive. How could I not have a uterus?" The doctor pushed the ultrasound image toward me. "The imaging is very clear. Your uterus is missing." "The old surgical scar on your lower abdomen—its position and length are completely consistent with a hysterectomy incision. It must have been left behind by the removal of your uterus." The doctor's words hit me like a sledgehammer, making my head spin and my ears ring. That scar was clearly from a car accident three years ago. How could it have been left by a hysterectomy? The surgeon back then was personally found by my boyfriend, Harrison Foster. There was no way there could have been a mistake. In a daze, I walked out of the hospital and hailed a cab straight to the club Harrison Foster was at. I needed to find him and get answers face-to-face. I was originally an intern at the Foster Group. Not long after starting, I was carrying a stack of documents when I collided with Harrison Foster, the president of Foster Group, right at the corner of a hallway. Papers scattered all over the floor, and I thought I would be fired on the spot that very day. But Harrison Foster knelt down to help me pick them up, and even asked for my name. From then on, he started pursuing me. Whenever I ran into issues at work, he would guide me step-by-step. When my period cramps were so bad I couldn't get out of bed, he would personally make creamy mushroom soup, bring it to my bedside, and warm his hands to soothe my aching belly. When I had a fever, he would drop everything in the middle of the night to carry me to his car, drive me to the hospital, and watch over my bedside all night. Having lost my parents at a young age, I had almost forgotten what it felt like to be treasured so deeply. So, I quickly fell in love with him. But Harrison's father, Arthur Foster, and his mother, Sharon Foster, didn't approve. They looked down on my humble background and orphaned status, believing I was a poor match for the Foster family. I knew myself that I didn't match Harrison Foster, and I never forced a commitment. Until that car accident three years ago. I was comatose in the ICU for three days, and the first thing I saw when I opened my eyes was Harrison Foster. He was sitting by my bedside, his eyes completely bloodshot, tightly clutching my hand. "Yvonne, I thought I was going to lose you. I don't know how I would survive without you." After the surgery, he never left my side, taking care of me day and night without a wink of sleep. Seeing their son refuse to eat, drink, or sleep for my sake, Arthur and Sharon Foster finally relented. As long as I bore him a child, they would agree to our marriage. Seeing how haggard Harrison Foster had become for me, I thought I had finally found true love. I made up my mind to stay with him till the very end, so I agreed to Arthur and Sharon's conditions. From then on, Harrison Foster and I started actively trying to conceive, sleeping together almost every night. Every month I went for a checkup at the hospital Harrison Foster arranged, and the doctor there always assured me that all my vitals and tests were perfectly normal. But now, a different doctor was telling me that I didn't even have a uterus. What on earth was happening? When I arrived at the club, the VIP room door wasn't shut tightly. Laughter and chatter drifted out through the crack. "Scarlett is coming back tonight! Harrison is finally seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. Come on, let's have a drink!" Harrison's friend, Charles Ward, laughed and shouted. Scarlett Sterling—I had heard them mention this name before. She was Harrison Foster's childhood friend who had gone abroad before Harrison and I even started dating. I had never met her in person. Mason Cole chimed in as well. "Yeah, spending three years with Yvonne, that substitute... Harrison really had a tough time. His love for Scarlett is definitely the real deal!" Someone else agreed, "If the Sterling family hadn't suddenly gone bankrupt, and if Scarlett's father, George Sterling, and mother, Amanda Sterling, hadn't jumped to their deaths, sending the family into ruin, Harrison and Scarlett's kid would probably be in kindergarten by now. Yvonne wouldn't even have a chance." Hearing this, my entire body went cold. Harrison Foster loved Scarlett Sterling? He was using me as Scarlett's substitute? How could that be? He clearly told me he fell in love with me at first sight, that his eyes only saw me, and that no one else could ever compare. He had literally postponed a multi-billion-dollar project just to celebrate my birthday. My eyes instinctively drifted toward the man sitting in the center seat. Harrison Foster didn't object to a single word. He sat there in a relaxed posture, legs crossed, steadily holding a glass of wine. Only when someone brought up Scarlett Sterling did his cold, sharp features soften slightly. The conversation in the private room continued. Charles Ward sighed. "Well, there was no other choice. Once Scarlett's family went under, Arthur and Sharon Foster strongly opposed their marriage. They even started targeting Scarlett. Harrison had no choice but to send Scarlett abroad first to get some credentials and lay low." "Thankfully, he ran into Yvonne, that low-born substitute. Over the last few years, Harrison fought tooth and nail against Arthur and Sharon for Yvonne's sake. Yvonne took a lot of heat from Sharon because of that." "If it wasn't for Yvonne, the one Sharon would have been tormenting would have been Scarlett!" The others nodded, feeling a sense of relief. "Well, things are looking up now. I heard Arthur and Sharon recently relented. They said if they had known Harrison would end up with such a low-class woman, they would have agreed to Scarlett marrying in back then—at least Scarlett was born into a respectable family! Harrison's patience over the years wasn't in vain. He's finally getting what he wanted!" I felt as though my heart had been violently sliced open. So that was the truth. Although the Fosters had softened their stance slightly over the past few years, they had still treated me with utter contempt. Sharon Foster would summon me to the Foster mansion every other day just to berate and humiliate me. She would make me kneel in the freezing basement, hurling the nastiest insults to force me to leave. Every single time, Harrison Foster would tell me to just hang in there a little longer, promising that once we had a child and got married, everything would change. Looking at Harrison's hopeful gaze, I swallowed my pride and endured it every single time. It turned out I was merely absorbing the torment meant for the woman he actually loved. It was all to pave a smooth path for Scarlett Sterling to marry into the Foster family! The three years he spent with me, in the eyes of his friends, was actually Harrison Foster bravely enduring humiliation. Charles Ward spoke again. "By the way, Harrison, Yvonne still doesn't know you had her uterus removed, right? Is she still foolishly trying to get pregnant?" Mason Cole let out a cold laugh. "Of course she can't find out. If Yvonne knew, how would Harrison's plan work?" Charles Ward casually took a sip of wine. "If Yvonne found out Harrison staged that car crash to have her uterus removed, do you think she'd go crazy?" My knees buckled, and I stumbled backward two steps. What the doctor said was true. My uterus was really gone, snatched away by Harrison Foster! The car accident three years ago was actually orchestrated by Harrison Foster? All to have my uterus removed? But the Foster family were the ones demanding I bear a child. Harrison Foster was the one who personally begged me to try to get pregnant. He cruelly stripped away my right to be a mother forever, yet he still put on a massive show of taking me to checkups and trying to conceive with me? For Scarlett Sterling, he went as far as to desecrate my body to this extent! No wonder he insisted on going to a specific hospital and seeing a specific doctor for every checkup. He was terrified I would catch on. If I hadn't had stomach pain today and just gone to the nearest hospital, I would still be completely in the dark! Inside the room, someone spoke up, a trace of pity in their voice. "To be fair, Yvonne is pretty innocent in all this. Removing her uterus was a bit harsh, don't you think?" Charles Ward sneered. "What other choice did we have? We couldn't let her actually get pregnant with Harrison's kid. What if Arthur and Sharon really did relent and let her marry in? What would Scarlett do then?" I could barely stand anymore. I stumbled backward a few steps, leaning heavily against the wall to keep myself from collapsing. Harrison Foster, you really are something else! For Scarlett Sterling, you destroyed me completely! Harrison Foster, who had been silent all this time, finally spoke. "Keep your mouths shut, all of you. Yvonne must never find out." Several people immediately chimed in, "Of course, of course." "Scarlett is coming back tonight. Once she's back, Harrison, you'll probably start planning the wedding, right? What do you plan to do with Yvonne?" "Harrison, you've seemed pretty attentive to Yvonne these past few years. Do you really not have any feelings for her at all?" I locked eyes on at Harrison Foster. The man remained silent for a long moment before finally speaking. "Scarlett is the only one I love." "But since Yvonne has been with me, I'll make sure she's well-provided for." "You’re a penniless orphan with no family connections to fall back on. For someone like her, this is already a level of fortune she could only dream of." I had no idea how I got out of that club. The hallways, the elevator, the lobby... everything was spinning. It turned out that the people who sweet-talked me and called me "sister-in-law" to my face spoke of me with nothing but absolute mockery behind my back. It turned out the love and devotion I thought we shared was nothing but a calculated, manipulative scam. It turned out he had never loved me, nor had he ever planned to spend the rest of his life with me. I was nothing more than a stepping stone to pave the way for Scarlett Sterling. I took a cab straight to the immigration office. The clerk at the counter told me that standard visa processing took two weeks, but an expedited application could be processed in a week. "Expedited." I answered without hesitation. Back at the villa I shared with Harrison Foster, I immediately started packing my things. I packed every single thing he had ever given me into boxes, intending to sell them all. As for my own belongings, I threw out everything except for the absolute essentials. Before I could even finish, a familiar voice sounded from behind me. "Yvonne, why are you suddenly packing?" 2 Yvonne's POV Harrison Foster looked slightly tense. Without looking up, I continued pulling things out of the closet. "Throwing out what needs to be thrown out to make room for the new." Thinking I was just rotating my seasonal wardrobe, Harrison Foster let out a visible sigh of relief. He smiled and walked over, patting my head. "Good idea. Throw them out. I'll take you shopping for new ones in a couple of days." I forced a faint smile but said nothing. Harrison stopped focusing on me and looked down at his phone. A smile tugged at his lips, his expression filled with a relaxed sense of anticipation I had never seen on him before. While scrolling through his phone, he handed me an auction catalog and a black card. "Don't go to the office this afternoon. A friend is coming back to the country tonight, and we're holding a welcome dinner. Go to the auction for me and win Lot 37." I flipped open the catalog, my eyes landing on the designated page. *Tears of the Stars*—a sapphire necklace once belonging to Queen Victoria's private collection. The last time it surfaced at an auction was eight years ago, fetching seventy-six million and sending shockwaves through the entire collecting circle. Since then, the collector had stubbornly refused to part with it. Its sudden release now came with a staggering starting price of fifty million listed in the catalog. I understood immediately. The friend returning tonight was Scarlett Sterling. And this necklace was meant for her. And he wanted me to personally bid on it for his true love. A sharp ache flared in my chest once more. I swallowed hard before speaking. "What spending limit am I working with here?" Harrison Foster didn't even look up. "Spare no expense to secure the lot for me." For Scarlett, he truly spared no expense. I gripped the catalog tightly. In all the years we had been together, the gifts Harrison Foster gave me never exceeded two million. His excuse was that he didn't want Sharon to think I was vain or unworthy of the family's reputation. I had never complained, because I had never been after his money anyway. But now I finally realized those were all just excuses. It was simply because a low-born substitute like me wasn't worth the price tag in his heart. I slipped the catalog into my bag, pausing for a brief second as I reached for the black card. This was a black card tied to the corporate account, not Harrison Foster's personal card. Using this card meant using corporate funds to purchase a personal gift for the president. I quietly pocketed the card and said nothing. That afternoon, at the auction. As *Tears of the Stars* was brought out for the grand finale, the room instantly buzzed with excitement. Buyers raised their bidding paddles one after another. Starting at fifty million, the bids climbed rapidly. Eighty million, one hundred million, one hundred and fifty million. In the end, it was down to a fierce bidding war between myself and a Middle Eastern buyer sitting diagonally across from me. One hundred and sixty million, one hundred and eighty million. They were decisive with their bids, but I was even more ruthless. After all, it wasn't my money. It was Foster Group's. "Two hundred million." I raised my paddle, my voice completely flat. The entire room fell into an uproar. The auctioneer called it three times before striking the gavel. *Tears of the Stars* was sold for two hundred million. The auction house staff came over with the paperwork. After signing, I handed over the black card and added casually, "Register the buyer as Scarlett Sterling." Clutching the briefcase containing the necklace, I went straight to the dinner. When I pushed open the door to the private room, the place was already packed. Harrison Foster sat in the middle of the couch, with a woman pressed close to his side. She bore a striking resemblance to me, looking nearly identical, though her demeanor was far more flamboyant. It was Scarlett Sterling. Harrison was leaning in, talking to Scarlett, a rare softness in his eyes. When I pushed the door open and walked in, he didn't even turn his head. Charles Ward was the first to see me. He deliberately cleared his throat. "Ms. Vance is here." In front of Scarlett, he had stopped calling me "sister-in-law." Mason Cole also stood up, nodding politely yet distantly, "Ms. Vance." Everyone in the room tacitly switched their forms of address. Scarlett Sterling looked over, her eyes lingering on my face for a moment before she flashed an elegant, poised smile. "This must be Harrison's girlfriend, right?" She walked over, tilting her head to look me up and down before speaking in a warm tone. "Has anyone ever told you that we look a bit alike?" Harrison Foster's expression tightened instantly, and he opened his mouth to speak. I had already calmly extended my hand. "Really? What a coincidence." Charles Ward quickly rushed over, holding a glass. "Scarlett, you must be jet-lagged. Sit, sit! We're going to celebrate your return properly tonight." Mason Cole also smoothed things over. "All the food has been ordered, and they are all your favorites, Scarlett." I let go of Scarlett's hand and sat in a corner seat furthest from the center. Scarlett Sterling sat back down next to Harrison, pulling out a simply wrapped cupcake. "Harrison, I brought this just for you. Eat it while it's fresh." Harrison's lips curved upward as he immediately reached out to accept it. Catching sight of the crushed peanuts on the cake, I blurted out instinctively: "There's peanut butter in that. You're allergic to peanuts." The private room fell dead silent. Scarlett Sterling looked so guilt-ridden she seemed on the verge of tears. She reached out to take the cake back. "I'm so sorry, Harrison! I didn't know you were allergic to peanuts. Let's just throw it away." Harrison Foster stopped her, shooting a displeased look in my direction. "She has a bad memory. I'm not allergic. I can eat it." Right in front of everyone, he ate the entire cake. Within ten minutes, Harrison's face flushed, red hives rapidly spreading down his neck as his breathing grew labored and shallow. Harrison was rushed to the ER. Sharon Foster rushed to the hospital the moment she heard. "What happened!" Charles Ward and Mason Cole stood in the corner with their heads bowed, neither of them daring to speak first. Just as I opened my mouth, Harrison, lying on the bed, beat me to it, his voice hoarse. "Yvonne bought the pastry and didn't realize there was peanut butter in it. She didn't do it on purpose. Sharon, don't blame her." I whipped my head around to look at him. Charles Ward and Mason Cole spoke up almost simultaneously. "Sharon, Yvonne didn't mean to. Let's just drop it." Instead of cooling down, Sharon's rage only flared. "Drop it? Don't you know how life-threatening Harrison's allergy is? He could have died! You've been with him for three years and you didn't even know this? How dare you still stand here?" I opened my mouth. Sharon didn't even give me a chance to explain. She gestured to the bodyguards waiting outside. "Take her back to the villa." I was hauled out of the room by two bodyguards. Harrison kept his head down, refusing to look at me. I was dragged to the basement of the Foster mansion and forced onto my knees on the freezing stone floor. Sharon Foster stared down at me with pure disgust and rage. "You're an orphan with no one to rely on. Harrison was kind enough to take you in, clothe you, feed you, and let you live in a multi-million-dollar mansion. Do you have no self-awareness about your lowly background?" "You haven't even been able to produce a single child in three years, and now you can't even remember my son's allergens! What right do you have to stay by Harrison's side?" Sharon's anger mounted. She gestured to a nearby servant, "Get the whip! I'm going to teach her a lesson today!" I suddenly looked up. "I'm breaking up with Harrison Foster." Sharon froze. "What did you say?" I looked her dead in the eye, keeping my spine perfectly straight. "I’ll cut all ties with Harrison and vanish from your family’s lives for good." Sharon Foster stared at me scrutinizingly, as if trying to judge whether I was speaking out of anger or if I was serious. I didn't avert my gaze. "But I have one condition." "Give me fifty million." 3 Yvonne Vance POV When Sharon Foster heard the words "break up," most of the anger on her face instantly vanished. "Are you serious?" "Dead serious." Sharon immediately took out her phone to transfer the money, terrified that I would go back on my word. "Fifty million, there you go." The transaction notification chimed instantly. "So when are you leaving?" "Within a week." Sharon nodded in satisfaction. "If you're still here when the time is up, don't blame me for being ruthless." I calmly verified that the money had arrived, then stood up and walked out. Survival requires money, and so does revenge. Fifty million was not a lot. The moment I stepped out of the Foster family villa, I dialed my friend Lydia Taylor's number. "Help me find a capable private investigator." After Lydia heard what I wanted to investigate, her voice cracked with rage. "He staged a car accident to give you a hysterectomy?" "Yes." "Leave it to me! I'll definitely find someone to dig up everything on that bastard Harrison Foster!" After taking care of all this, I returned to the villa. Harrison was not home. I didn't know if he was still at the hospital or if he was with Scarlett Sterling. He hadn't sent me any messages, and I didn't ask. I used to ask. No matter how late it was, as long as Harrison hadn't returned, I would text him and wait for him to let me know he was safe. But starting today, I didn't care anymore. I moved all my pre-packed boxes to the living room and contacted a secondhand luxury goods dealer to pick them up. After counting everything, the dealer paid me promptly. Looking at the string of numbers on my phone, some of the suffocating weight in my heart lifted slightly. Lydia sent over the private investigator's contact info. I sent a message to the private investigator: [Dig up everything about Scarlett Sterling's time abroad over the past few years as well. I'll double your fee.] The next day, I went to the office as usual. The project in my hands still had a bit of wrapping up to do. Just as I stepped into the office area, I heard several employees gossiping around the pantry. "Yesterday Mr. Foster personally brought Ms. Sterling to the office. He was holding doors and pouring water for her the whole time. Have you ever seen Mr. Foster treat anyone like that?" "Ms. Sterling has such an elegant aura. She and Mr. Foster look so good together." "I heard they grew up together, and she only returned after getting her MBA abroad." During my years at the company, Harrison never allowed me to make our relationship public. His excuse was that gossip spreads fast in a crowded office, and he was afraid that colleagues' talk would affect me. I had risen from an intern to the Associate Director of the Marketing Department on my own merit, landing several core projects along the way. No one in the company knew about my relationship with Harrison. Someone saw me and sidled over. "Yvonne, I heard you helped bid on that two-hundred-million-dollar necklace at the auction the day before yesterday? Was it a gift from Mr. Foster to Ms. Sterling? Don't you think they're a perfect match?" I took a sip of water, my expression unchanged. "They do look quite compatible." The moment the words left my mouth, a cold, sharp male voice cut in. "Gossiping during work hours?" Harrison's face was dark. Everyone instantly fell silent. The employees lowered their heads and immediately dispersed. Harrison swept a glance over me, said nothing, and turned to leave. At 10:00 AM, a general management meeting was held. Harrison sat at the head of the conference table, with Scarlett Sterling on his right. "Ms. Scarlett Sterling, an MBA graduate from Bocconi University, officially joins the Foster Group today as our Marketing Director." A minor commotion rippled through the conference room. Marketing Director was supposed to be my upcoming promotion. Without looking at me, Harrison continued. "The bidding and cooperation project with the Oceanus Group will be handed over to Director Sterling starting today. Yvonne Vance will serve as Director Sterling's Project Assistant to help complete the transition." The conference room went dead silent. From the project's initiation until now, all the preliminary research, proposals, and client relations had been built by me alone. With the bidding just around the corner, to suddenly change leaders made everyone turn their eyes to me. I kept my head down, staring at the notebook in front of me, hiding my expression. After the meeting adjourned, I went back to my desk to pack up. I was no longer the Associate Director; I needed to move to an assistant's desk. Sadie Cross, an employee I had mentored for two years, rushed over and lowered her voice. "Yvonne, this is way too much! The Oceanus project is clearly yours, and you wrote the entire proposal. On what grounds does she just show up out of nowhere and—" I shook my head, signaling her to drop it. Whispers from the neighboring cubicles drifted over. "I knew Yvonne and Mr. Foster had something going on. Otherwise, how could an intern become an Associate Director in just three years?" "Now that his real love is back, of course she, the substitute, has to step aside." "I used to think she was so capable. Turns out she just slept her way to the top?" Furious, Sadie turned to confront them, but I grabbed her arm to stop her. Without even glancing at them, I organized my documents and calmly retorted, "Before worrying about other people, you might want to check your performance rankings from last quarter. You're both on the bottom list." Their faces stiffened, and their voices instantly died down. Sadie gave them a harsh glare. Harrison's assistant, Gary, came over with a message. "Yvonne, Mr. Foster wants to see you in the CEO's office." I knocked and entered. Harrison approached me the moment he saw me. His expression was much gentler now, a complete contrast to his demeanor in the conference room. "Yvonne, Sharon didn't make things difficult for you yesterday, did she?" Looking at his concerned expression, I felt nothing but irony. "Whether she did or not, isn't it all thanks to you?" An awkward look flashed across Harrison's face. "Scarlett had good intentions; she didn't know I was allergic to peanuts. We can't really blame her for that." I sneered inwardly. Scarlett was the love of his life. Among the three of us, he knew better than anyone who the real outsider was. Harrison ruffled my hair and explained further. "Scarlett just arrived, so she needs a prestigious title to command respect. The director title is only temporary. Once you finish the Oceanus project, I'll transfer you to the Strategic Development Department as a manager. I won't mistreat you, alright?" I lowered my eyes. "Don't bother. I plan to resign." Harrison's brow furrowed. "Stop throwing a fit." He reached out and pulled me into his embrace. My entire body went rigid. In the past, Harrison had never touched me at the company. Even when we were the only two in the elevator, he would keep his distance, saying it would look bad if people saw us. I pushed against his chest, using his own excuse to reject him. "Gossip spreads fast. Let's not let anyone see." Harrison's frown deepened, and just as he was about to retort— "Harrison?" The office door was pushed straight open, and Scarlett stood in the doorway. Reflexively, Harrison let go and shoved me away in a panic. I stumbled back a couple of steps, my lower back slamming violently against the sharp corner of the office desk. A sharp pain shot up my spine, and cold sweat instantly drenched my back. Harrison had already turned his back on me, walking toward Scarlett. "Scarlett, what is it?" Scarlett put on a troubled look and handed him some documents. "The bidding base price calculation data for Project Department Two over the past three years is too messy. There are a lot of special deductions that I don't understand. We need them for the meeting with our partners tomorrow, so we must sort out the details tonight." Harrison immediately turned to me. "Yvonne, work overtime today and compile all the data Director Sterling needs." I held onto the edge of the desk to straighten up, my back still throbbing with waves of sharp pain. I had no desire to work overtime just to hand my hard work over to Scarlett, and I was about to refuse. Harrison saw right through my thoughts. "If you won't do it, I'll have your subordinates do it. If Sadie and her team can't even handle this, the Marketing Department has no need for freeloaders." Right now was a critical window for several of my subordinates' performance reviews and promotions. Harrison was threatening me. I took a deep breath, suppressing the pain. "I'll do it." 4 Yvonne Vance POV Leaving the CEO's office, I returned to my desk to work overtime. One by one, my colleagues left for the day, until I was the only person left in the office. I checked the progress; I would likely have to pull an all-nighter. I brewed a cup of coffee and stood by the floor-to-ceiling window, sipping it. It was raining outside. At the main entrance of the building, Harrison stood with Scarlett under an umbrella. The umbrella was tilted almost entirely over Scarlett. Harrison's side was completely soaked, while Scarlett's clothes hadn't caught a single drop of rain. The two of them talked and laughed as they got into the car. I didn't have a driver's license back then, so I had to take taxis to and from work. On rainy days when cabs were hard to get, I had asked Harrison if he could give me a ride. He said there were too many people at the company entrance and he was afraid that being seen would be bad for me. At the time, I thought he was just cold by nature and kept a strict boundary between public and private life. But when it came to Scarlett, he wasn't afraid of anything. "It would look bad if people saw us"? He simply felt that I, Yvonne Vance, wasn't worth the trouble. A love like this wasn't worth another ounce of my effort. I downed the rest of my coffee in one gulp and turned back to my desk. The sky outside the window shifted from black to deep blue, then from deep blue to a pale grey. After pulling an all-nighter, I finally sent the compiled data to Scarlett's email. Having not slept all night, my head was heavy and my temples throbbed painfully. I wanted to request some time off to go home and sleep, but a meeting notification popped up on my phone. 9:30 AM: General Management Meeting. I rubbed my sore eyes, closed my laptop, and headed to the conference room. Scarlett stood in front of the projector, confidently flipping through her PPT. When she reached the slide for the bid price, the screen clearly displayed a quote of 1.87 billion. My entire body went rigid. The quote I submitted was 187 million. Now, there was an extra zero. The bidding results were already out. The Foster Group's quote was absurdly ten times higher than its competitors', leading to an immediate disqualification. Just like that, the bidding project with the Oceanus Group was lost. The conference room was dead silent. Scarlett's face paled, and she immediately turned to me. "Yvonne, I submitted it based on your version." I looked straight at Harrison. "I submitted a quote of 187 million. The sending records and original files are in my mailbox, and we can pull them up for verification at any time." Scarlett's eyes turned red instantly. "Are you implying that I altered the data, Yvonne? And that I'm trying to frame you?" Before I could even respond, the main screen in the conference room suddenly switched displays. The screen was filled with photos. Every single one was an intimate photo of Scarlett and Harrison. Each photo had a red "X" drawn over it. Captions like "Homewrecker," "Using casting couch rules to join the company," and "Shameless" were slapped across them. Scarlett's face went completely white. She covered her mouth and burst into tears. Harrison stood up abruptly. "Turn it off!" The IT staff scrambled in a panic to pull the signal cables. Harrison glared at me, his gaze freezing. "Screwing up the bidding data, shifting the blame to your director, and using the company's meeting system to humiliate and take revenge on a colleague. Yvonne, instead of wasting your energy on these underhanded tactics, you should think about how to actually do your job!" With a single sentence, he pinned all the blame entirely on me. Harrison swept Scarlett up in his arms and strode out of the conference room. The gazes of everyone in the room fell upon me—some with pity, others with schadenfreude. I remained seated, unmoved, as my fingernails dug deep into my palms. I was not going to take the fall for this. Neither the data error nor the photos on the screen had anything to do with me. I stood up and went straight to the CEO's office. "It wasn't me." Harrison had just finished comforting Scarlett in the lounge. Hearing my words, his face remained devoid of any warmth. "Other than you, who else has a motive?" "I don't even know Scarlett, nor did I know about these photos of you two. Why would I have a motive? Unless... is there actually something going on between you two?" Harrison cut me off coldly. "Scarlett is my childhood friend, and our relationship is completely innocent. She holds an MBA from Bocconi and is fully capable of being the director. There's no shame in losing to her, but using such disgusting methods to slander her makes me sick." The blood rushed to my head. Harrison looked at me, disappointment written all over his face. "You don't need to come back. HR will send your termination notice tomorrow." I shot back immediately. "Perfect. I didn't want this job anyway." I turned and walked away without looking back. Back at my desk, I began packing up my personal belongings. Three men in security uniforms walked over. The leader reached out and snatched my bag directly. "Ms. Vance, the company suspects you of leaking trade secrets to competitors during your employment. According to company policy, your personal belongings must be inspected before you leave." Before I could react, he flipped my bag upside down. My wallet, lipstick, tissues, keys, and loose receipts clattered all over the floor. My phone was snatched away by another guard. My colleagues stopped their work to stare and whisper. I knelt down to gather my things. "Now that the inspection is done, can I go?" "Wait." Scarlett stopped me, her face a mask of official business. "We've checked the bag, but we haven't done a body search yet. After all, trade secrets are involved. If you've hidden something on your person, the company can't afford the loss." Sadie couldn't stand it any longer and blocked her path, standing in front of me. "Director Sterling, the company has never had a policy for body searches. Isn't this inappropriate?" Scarlett cast a cold glance at her. "This project involves billions of dollars in cooperation. If something goes wrong, who's taking responsibility? Can you afford to?" Sadie was left speechless. Two security guards stepped forward, pulled Sadie aside, and grabbed me by the arms on both sides. I struggled with all my might, but how could a single woman hold off two grown men? My coat was ripped open, the collar torn apart, exposing my underwear. The office became so quiet you could hear a pin drop. A cold, deep voice echoed from the end of the corridor. "What are you doing?" Harrison stood there. Everyone stopped in their tracks. Scarlett quickly walked up to him, looking completely unbothered. "Harrison, I'm doing this for the company's security. Surely you're not getting soft-hearted because of her?" Harrison's gaze fell on my disheveled state. A flash of heartache flickered in his eyes, but it vanished instantly. He looked away. "I'm not." He draped his arm around Scarlett's shoulders and turned to leave. Sadie immediately took off her coat and draped it over me. "Yvonne, they've gone way too far." I pulled the coat tight around myself without saying a word, picked up my bag, and headed for the elevator. Sadie followed me all the way to the building's main entrance. I turned to look at her. "Go back. Don't pick fights with Scarlett Sterling. If she turns out to be a terrible boss, find yourself another path as soon as possible." Sadie nodded, her eyes rimmed with red. The rain outside was heavier than the night before. I wrapped Sadie's coat tightly around myself, standing under the awning to hail a cab. A black Maybach pulled up in front of me, and the driver, Wayne, rolled down the window. "Ms. Vance, Mr. Foster asked me to drive you back." I glanced at the torrential rain and decided not to make life harder for myself. I opened the door and got in. When the car stopped in front of the villa, it was still pouring. I rushed to the door in the rain and entered the lock passcode. The voice prompt chimed: "Incorrect passcode." 5 Yvonne Vance POV I had no choice but to ring the doorbell. No one answered. Harrison preferred quiet, so no live-in housekeepers stayed at the house; only cleaning staff came on a schedule. I rang it a few more times, but still, there was no response. I only had a bit of change on me. My phone had been confiscated at the office, and my ID was inside the house, leaving me unable to even check into a hotel. The rain fell harder and harder. The coat was already soaked through, clinging to my body and dripping water. I leaned against the porch pillar, shivering violently from the cold. I don't know how much time passed before a pair of headlights cut through the curtain of rain. A black Rolls-Royce pulled into the driveway, and Harrison walked over holding an umbrella. Seeing me huddled by the door, his handsome brow furrowed. "It's pouring. Why didn't you go inside?" "The passcode was changed. I can't get in." Harrison paused, realization dawning on him. "Scarlett was shaken up today, so I had her come to the house to rest. She couldn't remember the original passcode, so I let her set her own. I forgot to tell you." He entered the new passcode and pushed the door open. I followed him into the living room. Scarlett was curled up on the sofa with a face mask on, holding the remote to flip through channels. Seeing Harrison and me walking in one after the other, she immediately stood up. Gazing at my soaking-wet, disheveled state, she wore a look of deep concern. "Ms. Vance, why are you so drenched?" I didn't bother with pleasantries and asked her directly: "I rang the doorbell. Since you were home, why didn't you open the door?" Scarlett looked flustered. "Did you ring the doorbell? I didn't hear it. I wasn't feeling very well after I came back, so I went upstairs to lie down for a bit. Why didn't you ring it a few more times?" Harrison quickly wrapped an arm around Scarlett's shoulders to comfort her. "Scarlett didn't do it on purpose, so don't make a big deal out of it. Yvonne, go change your clothes first." Scarlett quickly went to the dining room, poured a cup of hot water, and handed it to me. "Drink some water to warm up. As for what happened during the day, we were all doing it for the good of the company. Ms. Vance won't blame me, right?" I was indeed freezing, so I reached out to take it. Before my fingers could even touch the cup, it tilted, and the scalding water poured all over me. A patch of red quickly flared up on my forearm. I gasped in pain. Scarlett instantly looked aggrieved and angry. "Ms. Vance, even if we had a conflict at work during the day, you didn't have to set me up like this! I kindly brought you water, and you turn around and accuse me of scalding you?" Before I could say a single word, the blame had already been pinned on me. Harrison looked at me, his tone impatient. "I told you, stop playing these petty mind games." He turned and shielded Scarlett as they went upstairs. I was left alone in the living room. I found some burn ointment and applied it to my forearm. The skin was bright red, and blisters were already starting to form in some places. After applying the medicine, I returned to my bedroom. Having been in the rain for so long, my whole body felt freezing and heavy. I took a quick shower and got into bed. I didn't know how long I had slept when someone pushed open the bedroom door. I opened my eyes sleepily to see Harrison standing by the bed. He placed a new phone on the nightstand, holding a bowl of corn chowder in his hand. "You went to sleep without eating dinner?" I stared blankly at the bowl of corn chowder. Did he make corn chowder specifically for me? My heart trembled slightly. I was indeed hungry, so I sat up, took the bowl, and took a sip. Harrison sat down on the edge of the bed, his tone softening a bit. "Scarlett was terrified by the photos you leaked today. She was crying and shaking, and she still hasn't recovered." "I let her stay here at the house, which can be considered making amends to her on your behalf. You need to know your place in the future and stop doing things like this." I suddenly couldn't swallow the corn chowder in my mouth. I set the bowl down and looked up directly at Harrison. "I wasn't the one who posted those photos. Go investigate it yourself." Harrison looked at me with scrutiny. My gaze was serious, without any evasion. For a brief second, he wavered. He picked up his phone, preparing to make a call. Just then, his phone rang right on cue. Scarlett's name was flashing on the screen. Harrison immediately threw what just happened to the back of his mind and answered it gently. "Harrison, is the corn chowder ready?" Scarlett's voice was soft and sweet, sounding like she was acting cute. "Yes, it's ready. I'll be right over." Harrison hung up the phone and gave me instructions as he walked out. "Take your time drinking it. I'm heading out first." The bedroom door clicked shut. I looked at the bowl of corn chowder. The more I looked at it, the more of an eyesore it became. It turned out the corn chowder wasn't made for me. The bowl given to me was just a leftover gesture. I didn't drink any more of it, letting the corn chowder grow completely cold. Faint chatter and laughter drifted from Scarlett's room next door. Harrison stayed with Scarlett the entire night and never returned. In the middle of the night, I developed a fever. I curled up in the blankets in a daze, drifting in and out of consciousness. After dawn, the bedroom door was violently kicked open. Two bodyguards walked in. Each grabbed one of my arms and dragged me straight out of bed. Burning with fever, my whole body was weak and limp. I could barely find my footing as the two of them dragged me all the way down the stairs to the first floor. My knees banged against the steps, but with my fever, even the pain felt unreal. Scarlett sat right in the center of the sofa, her legs crossed, casually enjoying my disheveled and weak state. "Harrison went out. He's not home." She slowly walked over to me, looking down at me from above. "Yvonne, it's time we settled our scores."