Her Choice, My Freedom

Her Choice, My Freedom

Xi Yue

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The last thing I remembered from that life was the metallic taste of blood. Mark' s fists felt like concrete blocks, crushing my ribs with every blow. Through the haze of pain, I saw Sarah by the warehouse door, holding her son. She watched me die, her beautiful face blank, her eyes cold and empty. She had chosen him, the gangster, the man now beating me to death, over me. After twenty years of trying to save her, sacrificing everything, her betrayal was the final, most painful blow. Then, nothing, until a phone started ringing. I snapped awake in my childhood bedroom not aching, not broken. My old flip phone flashed a familiar name: Sarah' s Mom. I knew this call. This was the night Sarah got into trouble with Mark. The night her parents begged me to use my college savings to bail her out. Last time, I' d said yes, draining my account and giving up my dream school. This time, I took a steadying breath. "No." The line went silent. "What? Alex, what do you mean, no? This is Sarah we' re talking about." "She made her choices. She needs to face the consequences. I' m not getting involved." A weight I didn' t know I was carrying for two decades lifted. "I have my own life to think about. I' m sorry." I hung up, staring at my unbroken hands, the hands of an eighteen-year-old with a future I was taking back.

Introduction

The last thing I remembered from that life was the metallic taste of blood.

Mark' s fists felt like concrete blocks, crushing my ribs with every blow.

Through the haze of pain, I saw Sarah by the warehouse door, holding her son.

She watched me die, her beautiful face blank, her eyes cold and empty.

She had chosen him, the gangster, the man now beating me to death, over me.

After twenty years of trying to save her, sacrificing everything, her betrayal was the final, most painful blow.

Then, nothing, until a phone started ringing.

I snapped awake in my childhood bedroom not aching, not broken.

My old flip phone flashed a familiar name: Sarah' s Mom.

I knew this call. This was the night Sarah got into trouble with Mark.

The night her parents begged me to use my college savings to bail her out.

Last time, I' d said yes, draining my account and giving up my dream school.

This time, I took a steadying breath.

"No."

The line went silent.

"What? Alex, what do you mean, no? This is Sarah we' re talking about."

"She made her choices. She needs to face the consequences. I' m not getting involved."

A weight I didn' t know I was carrying for two decades lifted.

"I have my own life to think about. I' m sorry."

I hung up, staring at my unbroken hands, the hands of an eighteen-year-old with a future I was taking back.

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My Family, My Fortune, Their Lie

My Family, My Fortune, Their Lie

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I had just closed a nine-figure deal, the kind that sets your family up for generations. But when I got home, exhausted and suffering a heart attack, my wife and daughter were too busy recording TikToks and live streams to even notice. As I collapsed, gasping for breath, my wife told me my "negative energy was messing with her aura." I had to dial 911 myself, my family completely oblivious, leaving me to die on the floor. Waking up alone in the hospital, I found not concerned calls, but credit card alerts for lavish shopping sprees. They weren't worried; they were celebrating. Then, at Malibu, I saw my wife with her "life coach" lover as she handed me divorce papers, and my daughter told me he was more of a father than I ever was. My world shattered, I saw the truth: every sacrifice for them had been a lie. I had given my life, my fortune, all of it, to people who only saw me as an ATM. But the real shock came with a sealed envelope: 0.00% paternity. The daughter I had raised for seventeen years wasn't mine. The pain burned away the old me, leaving behind a cold, calculating resolve. I froze their accounts, repossessed their luxuries, and hired a PI to expose the "life coach" as a low-level con artist with massive gambling debts. When they came begging, I showed them the paternity test and his criminal record, then I called 911 on him for kidnapping them-his desperate attempt for ransom money. I set up a small trust for Molly, enough only for community college, sealing off my past. Then, I sold my company, bought a muscle car, and drove cross-country, ready to finally live for myself. I didn't seek revenge; I orchestrated justice.

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