Love's Bitter Truth

Love's Bitter Truth

Yue Manshuang

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For ten years, I was the picture of a devoted husband, building a life with Chloe in our comfortable Bellevue home. My life felt stable, successful, exactly what her image-conscious parents approved of for their daughter. Then came the news: Leo, Chloe' s tumultuous musician ex, had died. A drug overdose, labeled suicide. Days later, my wife, my Chloe, drove her car straight off the Deception Pass Bridge. Grief-stricken, clearing out her laptop, I stumbled upon a password-protected blog. "Leo1998." Inside, ten years of her raw thoughts: "I married Ethan today... They just gave me a life sentence with his shadow." Another entry: "I had to bite the inside of my cheek to keep from screaming... I felt so disgusted afterward I scrubbed my skin raw." My heart, already broken, shattered into a million pieces. The woman I adored had spent a decade despising my every touch, every act of love, pretending I was another man. My entire existence was a lie. The words burned through me: disgust, resentment, pity. My world collapsed beneath the weight of her betrayal. How could my decade of unwavering dedication, my honest love, have been nothing more than a painful charade for her? The sheer, pointless waste of it all. Then, darkness. But instead of an ending, I jolted awake to the smell of stale coffee, in my old college dorm. My phone buzzed: a text from Chloe. The date: September 15, 2014. Ten years in the past. The day of our first official date. This time, I knew the cost of playing her fool. This time, I would write my own story.

Introduction

For ten years, I was the picture of a devoted husband, building a life with Chloe in our comfortable Bellevue home.

My life felt stable, successful, exactly what her image-conscious parents approved of for their daughter.

Then came the news: Leo, Chloe' s tumultuous musician ex, had died.

A drug overdose, labeled suicide.

Days later, my wife, my Chloe, drove her car straight off the Deception Pass Bridge.

Grief-stricken, clearing out her laptop, I stumbled upon a password-protected blog.

"Leo1998."

Inside, ten years of her raw thoughts: "I married Ethan today... They just gave me a life sentence with his shadow."

Another entry: "I had to bite the inside of my cheek to keep from screaming... I felt so disgusted afterward I scrubbed my skin raw."

My heart, already broken, shattered into a million pieces.

The woman I adored had spent a decade despising my every touch, every act of love, pretending I was another man.

My entire existence was a lie.

The words burned through me: disgust, resentment, pity.

My world collapsed beneath the weight of her betrayal.

How could my decade of unwavering dedication, my honest love, have been nothing more than a painful charade for her?

The sheer, pointless waste of it all.

Then, darkness.

But instead of an ending, I jolted awake to the smell of stale coffee, in my old college dorm.

My phone buzzed: a text from Chloe.

The date: September 15, 2014.

Ten years in the past.

The day of our first official date.

This time, I knew the cost of playing her fool.

This time, I would write my own story.

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When Love Poisons Your Dream

When Love Poisons Your Dream

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Tomorrow was the grand opening of my dream restaurant, "Aura," a place I'd poured my life and soul into. As I stood there, taking it all in with my girlfriend and business partner, Sarah, a man from the Department of Health showed up for a "surprise inspection" based on an "anonymous tip." My blood ran cold when he walked directly to the walk-in, pulling out rancid meat and a dead rat from a container I' d never seen. Within an hour, my restaurant was padlocked, and the next morning, my face was plastered across every news site, branding me a "Chef's Dream Restaurant a Health Hazard." My 15 years of relentless work were instantly ruined. I stumbled home, desperate for Sarah' s comfort, only to find her on the phone, her back to me, whispering, "It went perfectly, Mark. Better than we could have hoped." My culinary rival, Mark Davies. My heart stopped as she continued, "He completely fell apart. He looked like a kicked puppy." Then the chilling revelation: "The money is safe. I moved the last of it this morning. He never even checked the accounts. He trusted me completely." She had embezzled everything, justifying it as a "mercy killing" for my career. The betrayal was a physical blow. The world tilted, and I fell, hitting my head, the last thing I saw Sarah' s cold annoyance. I woke up in a hospital, two days later, to news that my license was permanently revoked. My life, my name, my future – all gone. They thought I was weak, finished. They had killed Ethan Miller, the chef. But a ghost could do things a living man couldn' t. A plan, desperate and insane, began to form. I reached for the phone, dialing a number I hadn' t called in years. "Chef Dubois," I whispered. "It's Ethan. I need your help. I need to disappear."

Betrayed by Trust: A Love Story

Betrayed by Trust: A Love Story

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5.0

It was my birthday, and my stepsister, Tiffany Stone, stood before me, a sickeningly sweet smile on her face. In her hands, she held my mother' s cherished vintage record, the last thing I had left of her. Then, with a sharp, deliberate motion, she shattered it on the marble floor, stomping on our mother' s smiling face. That night, they came for me-a black van, no license plates. They dragged me from my bed to an abandoned warehouse, smashing my hands and feet with a cold metal pipe. Then came the gasoline, poured over me as I screamed. My therapist, Dr. Ethan Sterling, the only person I trusted, had given me a distress beacon, but as I reached for it, I heard his voice over a walkie-talkie: "Keep her alive, but don' t actually kill her." My blood ran cold, hope replaced by an abyss of despair. I woke up in the hospital, and Ethan sat by my bedside, a mask of concern. But before I could speak, my father stormed in, slapping me and accusing me of faking my kidnapping for attention. Tiffany, my stepmother, and my half-brother joined in, a united front of accusation. Ethan then forced me to my knees, instructing me to apologize. My heart shattered. Back home, I overheard Ethan and Tiffany, him comforting her for being "shaken" by "what happened." I found out my mother's irreplaceable necklace was up for auction. At the auction, I tried to buy it back, but Ethan outbid me, then publicly proposed to Tiffany, who promptly shattered the necklace and then shoved me down a grand staircase. I lay there, bleeding, as Ethan turned his back to comfort Tiffany. I knew they would never see me, never believe me. Why did he betray me? What did I do to deserve this endless torment from the people who were supposed to protect me? How could the man who promised to save me be the one orchestrating my downfall? My world didn' t just collapse. It ceased to exist. On the night of Tiffany' s fashion show, after being further humiliated by my family, I disowned them all, including Ethan, and, drawing a dagger, plunged it into my own chest, staging my death.

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The sterile white of the operating room blurred, then sharpened, as Skye Sterling felt the cold clawing its way up her body. The heart monitor flatlined, a steady, high-pitched whine announcing her end. Her uterus had been removed, a desperate attempt to stop the bleeding, but the blood wouldn't clot. It just kept flowing, warm and sticky, pooling beneath her. Through heavy eyes, she saw a trembling nurse holding a phone on speaker. "Mr. Kensington," the nurse's voice cracked, "your wife... she's critical." A pause, then a sweet, poisonous giggle. Seraphina Miller. "Liam is in the shower," Seraphina's voice purred. "Stop calling, Skye. It's pathetic. Faking a medical emergency on our anniversary? Even for you, that's low." Then, Liam's bored voice: "If she dies, call the funeral home. I have a meeting in the morning." Click. The line went dead. A second later, so did Skye. The darkness that followed was absolute, suffocating, a black ocean crushing her lungs. She screamed into the void, a silent, agonizing wail of regret for loving a man who saw her as a nuisance, for dying without ever truly living. Until she died, she didn't understand. Why was her life so tragically wasted? Why did her husband, the man she loved, abandon her so cruelly? The injustice of it all burned hotter than the fever in her body. Then, the air rushed back in. Skye gasped, her body convulsing violently on the mattress. Her eyes flew open, wide and terrified, staring blindly into the darkness. Her trembling hand reached for her phone. May 12th. Five years ago. She was back.

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