Chapter 3

3

Back inside, I pulled out an old photo album I had taken from my parents' house.

Looking through it, I realized how few photos I actually had.

My parents never liked me because they wanted a son to carry on the family name.

If it hadn't been for my father's accident that left him unable to have more children, I probably would have been given up for adoption.

When I first met Zack, he was so gentle and attentive, giving me the love and support I had never received at home.

He never liked taking selfies with me, so I used to sneak photos of him.

I had them printed out and kept them in this album like precious treasures.

Now, looking at them made me feel sick to my stomach.

I ripped the photos into pieces and burned them, watching my past feelings turn into ash in the wind.

After cleaning up, I opened the window to let the smoke out.

I laid on the sofa and logged into a burner account to check Chloe's social media.

For three years, she had been posting updates about heart disease research.

She shared everything―material selection, lab experiments, and data―as if it were her own daily life.

In my past life, after I accused her, she pointed the public to her social media.

She claimed she had been working on it for three years and hadn't stolen a thing.

Back then, I had no online presence at all, and I couldn't even get the lab's security footage.

Even my assistant had been bribed to give false testimony against me.

I was defenseless against the wave of public hatred.

Now, I was following the trail she had left behind.

Three years ago, her posts shifted from makeup and fashion to high-level medical research.

But lately, her progress had stopped exactly where I had left off.

Looking at the familiar lab settings and data in her posts, my heart skipped a beat.

I began to wonder if my entire relationship had been a long con.

After all, Chloe was the one who introduced me to Zack.

She told me Zack was her childhood friend and that he had been obsessed with me since seeing me on campus.

Back then, Zack really was the perfect boyfriend―attentive and kind.

Even my friends thought he was a catch.

But as the years went by, he became more and more distant.

I thought the spark had just faded, but in reality, he just didn't want to play the part anymore.

I rubbed my aching temples, feeling like a complete fool for being played for three years.

But the memory of my gruesome death fueled a dark, unstoppable desire for revenge.

The next day, I went back to the lab.

Zack and Chloe were clearly thrilled, treating me better than they had in months.

While I worked, they brought me coffee and snacks, hovering like vultures.

But when they realized I was just scrolling through my phone for days, they started to get twitchy.

Chloe was the first to snap.

"Anna! Why are you just playing on your phone? You haven't updated any of the files on your computer. What have you been doing for two days?"

She stood over me, demanding answers.

I just waved her off.

"Experiments take time. Can't I take a break while I wait for the results?"

"Besides, how do you know my files haven't been updated? Are you spying on me?"

Chloe stumbled over her words, nervously claiming she was just worried about my progress.

When she realized she was caught, her eyes turned red, and she looked like she was about to cry.

I put my headphones on to drown her out.

When Zack walked in, he saw me on my phone while Chloe was in tears.

He rushed to her side without a second thought, looking ready to scream at me.

But when he saw my cold, dead stare, he swallowed his anger and just asked what happened.

Chloe put on her best victim act, telling Zack it was nothing and that she just wanted me to work harder.

She gave me a pathetic look, making me out to be the big, bad bully.

I sighed.

Watching them act was exhausting, so I just closed my laptop and walked out.