Chapter 1

Felix Sterling had a thing for women who reminded him of his first love.

I happened to look about eighty percent like the woman he had lost.

Because of that, he spoiled me rotten and turned me into a spoiled, arrogant woman who got whatever she wanted.

Whenever some foolish woman dared to provoke me, I would track down her home, even at three in the morning, and slap her dozens of times.

Felix never said a harsh word to me.

He simply cleaned up the messes I left behind.

That was until a woman who looked even more like his first love appeared.

Her name was Vivian Hart.

The moment she saw me, she dropped to her knees.

With tears in her eyes, she pleaded, “I heard you’re really good at hitting people. I’m afraid of pain. Please don’t hit me, okay?”

Felix chuckled behind her and pulled her to her feet.

Then he stood in front of me and told her, word for word,

“Starting today, I’ll teach you how to get whatever you want.

“You can keep tabs on people. You can hit other women.”

He glanced casually at me and pointed in my direction.

“Everything she used to do, you can do too.

“You can completely overshadow her.”

He stared into my eyes, as if trying to find some other emotion there.

Instead, I suddenly laughed.

What Felix Sterling didn’t know was that I had a thing for replacements too.

He was the first replacement I had ever chosen.

And just now, I had decided it was time to find the next one.

Chapter 1

After Vivian heard me laugh, she immediately stumbled backward several steps.

She happened to fall right into Felix’s arms.

Her voice trembled.

“I heard that whenever you suddenly laugh, it means you’re about to lose your temper, Yvonne. Felix, I’m scared…”

Felix raised an eyebrow at me, amusement flickering in his eyes.

“Well, Yvonne, you certainly have quite a reputation.”

He lazily sank onto the sofa, pulling Vivian tightly into his arms.

“She’s terrified of you. Move to the west side of town. I’ll come see you when I have time.”

I stared at Felix’s familiar face.

He looked so much like the man I had spent countless nights longing for.

And now, that man was telling me to leave.

I forced a smile and walked toward them.

I reached out, pretending I was about to touch Vivian’s face.

She looked terrified.

Felix suddenly grabbed my wrist, his expression turning cold.

“Yvonne, I used to indulge you and let you do whatever you wanted. Haven’t you realized things have changed?”

His voice was icy.

“I’m not indulging you anymore. Go to the west side.

“Vivian is different from those other women. You don’t get to lay a finger on her.”

I pulled my hand back and let out a soft laugh.

I gently patted Vivian’s pale cheek.

“How could I hurt this face? It’s rare to find someone who looks even more like her than I do.”

I winked at Felix, my tone light.

“Well, I’ll leave you two alone.”

With that, I turned and walked away.

But Felix stood up and grabbed my wrist.

“What game are you playing now? Pretending to be gracious?”

I pulled my wrist free, wearing a flawless smile.

“I genuinely wish you both well. I know better than anyone how hard it is to find a suitable replacement.”

Until today, Felix had been the perfect replacement.

His build, appearance, voice, and even his personality were almost identical to my late husband.

No matter how unreasonable I was or how much trouble I caused, he would indulge me without limits, just like my husband had.

What I was addicted to was simply the feeling of being spoiled.

But now that someone new had appeared, he no longer indulged me.

And that meant he was no longer a suitable replacement.

Felix’s expression darkened.

His voice dropped dangerously low.

“If Vivian loses even a single hair, I’ll hold you responsible.”

For a moment, I froze.

Back when he still protected me, he used to say the same thing to everyone.

“Anyone who wants to hurt Yvonne will have to get through me first.”

Chapter 2

I suppressed the faint ache in my chest and forced a cheerful smile.

“Of course not. I’ll move to the west side right away.”

The west side was where Felix and I had first met.

Our first encounter had been almost comical.

The moment we saw each other, we both froze, staring intently at each other’s faces.

That day, he gave me the villa on the west side of town.

He kept me there like his pampered little songbird.

Lying on the bed in that villa, I booked a flight for two days later.

I had decided to return to Boston and visit my late husband’s grave.

The next moment, the entire villa suddenly lost power.

Darkness swallowed everything.

Ever since my husband died, I had been terrified of the dark.

So terrified that my whole body would shake, and I would struggle to breathe.

Without thinking, I called Felix.

In the darkness, the phone rang again and again.

With every ring, my heart pounded harder.

Finally, someone answered.

I immediately said, “Felix, the power is out. Please get someone to come check it…”

I was frantic, but the voice that came through the phone was Vivian’s.

As if she already knew why I was calling, she spoke softly.

“Felix is taking a shower. Do you know why the power went out?

“He said I’m too afraid of you, so he deliberately shut off the power. He wants you to come beg me and let me see you in such a pathetic state. That way, maybe I won’t be so afraid of you anymore…”

She let out a quiet laugh. There was none of the fear she had shown me earlier.

“Yvonne, why don’t you beg me?

“Beg me, and I’ll turn the power back on.”

Darkness surrounded me.

The memories that had always been unbearable to relive began creeping into my mind, one after another.

Cold sweat covered my body as though an invisible hand was squeezing my throat.

After Felix learned how terrified I was of the dark, he had never let me stay in darkness.

Wherever I was, he always made sure the lights were on.

All because of one accidental power outage, when he had seen me struggling to breathe.

But now, he was the one who had deliberately left me in the dark.

My trembling fingers hung up the phone.

I closed my eyes and decided to endure it on my own.

About ten minutes later, I heard the door open.

Felix appeared before me, looking as though he had rushed over.

He immediately turned on the lights himself, and the entire world brightened again.

When he saw me drenched in cold sweat, my eyes unfocused, a flicker of concern crossed his face.

He instinctively stepped forward and lifted me into his arms.

But his words were cold.

“So you’d rather suffer through it alone than swallow your pride and ask for help?

“Vivian kindly asked me to come check on you, but you threatened her? She said you threatened her over the phone, and now she’s too frightened to sleep.”

My senses slowly returned.

“Whatever she tells you, you believe? Why would I need to threaten her?”

Felix stared at me darkly.

“I really spoiled you too much. Vivian would never lie.”

I let out a mocking laugh.

He stood up and spoke calmly.

“I’ve transferred ownership of the villa to Vivian. You’re only staying there temporarily now.

“She can ask you to leave whenever she wants.”

I looked up at him and remained silent for a long time.

When Felix had given me the villa, he had told me,

“You’ll always be the lady of this house. No matter what happens, it will always belong to you.”

I had believed him.

I had carefully decorated every corner.

I had bought matching slippers and matching clothes for the two of us.

I had filled the house with our photographs.

I had truly made that place my home.

And now he was telling me that it no longer belonged to me.

It belonged to another woman.

The word “temporarily” was crueler than anything else.

Fortunately, I would be leaving soon anyway.

I spoke softly.

“It’s your house. You have every right to decide what to do with it. I have no objection.”

Felix didn’t look as pleased as I expected.

The crease between his brows only deepened.

Chapter 3

“Yvonne, you weren’t like this before.

“You should be making a huge scene, making sure everyone knows about it, not calmly accepting everything like this.”

I forced a faint smile.

“Shouldn’t you be happy that I’m like this?”

He froze for a moment.

Then his phone rang.

Vivian was crying on the other end.

“Felix, I had a nightmare that Yvonne was going to kill me. She even said she would strip me naked and parade me through the streets…”

Felix’s expression softened as he coaxed her gently.

“Don’t be afraid. I’ll come back and stay with you right away. As long as I’m here, no one can hurt you.”

Vivian sobbed.

“I’ve been too afraid to tell you this, but Yvonne hired men to harass me online. She even had them photoshop naked pictures of me. I really can’t take it anymore.

“If Yvonne hates me because she thinks I took you away from her, then please let me leave. I really don’t dare compete with her…”

She sounded so sincere that, in an instant, she painted me as a woman who appeared to be backing down but was secretly vicious.

Felix looked down at me coldly.

“So your calmness was nothing more than a tactic to make me lower my guard.”

His voice fell lightly, but every word pierced my heart.

“I should have known. You were born cruel.”

His gaze was ice-cold.

Every word he said stabbed straight into my heart.

When he loved me, I was spoiled and adorable.

When he stopped loving me, I was apparently born cruel.

I suddenly no longer had the strength to argue with him.

He lowered his voice as he spoke to Vivian.

“Vivian, don’t even think about leaving me.

“From now on, she won’t appear in front of you again.”

He hung up.

Then he took my phone.

“You like this place so much, don’t you? Then stay here. Without my permission, you’re not leaving.”

I immediately stood up and tried to snatch my phone back, but he easily dodged me.

My phone contained every little memory I had of that man.

The voice messages he had left me.

Every single one was precious.

My eyes reddened with panic.

Felix, however, smiled in satisfaction.

He gently patted my head, his voice soft.

“Yvonne, I like seeing you lose control. You look especially like her when you’re like this.”

But now, I didn’t want to resemble his first love at all.

I only wanted my phone back.

“Don’t be afraid. I’ll never abandon you. Once Vivian isn’t so afraid of you anymore, I’ll come back to see you.”

With that, he shut the door and locked it from the outside.

No matter how hard I pushed or pounded on it, it wouldn’t open.

I sank to the floor.

All the strength drained out of me.

The villa fell completely silent.

Someone came in briefly to deliver my meals before leaving again.

It wasn’t until evening that Vivian pushed open the door.

When our eyes met, the corners of her lips curled upward.

She seemed pleased by the state I was in.

“What are you doing here? Tell Felix to let me out.”

She was holding my phone.

I immediately got to my feet, my voice sharp.

“How did you get my phone? Give it back!”

She raised the phone high above her head.

“Looks like this phone is really important to you. You don’t have anything shameful on it, do you?”

She looked at me and spoke casually.

“What do you think will happen if I smash it? Will Felix blame me? He gave me the phone to keep for you. I was actually planning to return it so you could escape…”

Before I could react, she tightened her grip and slammed the phone against the floor.

I froze for a full three seconds.

I stared at the shattered phone, completely stunned.

All the things that had helped me survive one lonely night after another had been destroyed by her in an instant.

I looked at Vivian.

Only then did she seem to realize what she had done.

Fear began to flicker across her face.

Chapter 4

I walked toward her, one step at a time.

“Don’t you always pretend to be so afraid that I’ll hit you? Then I’ll let you experience what it’s really like to be beaten by me.”

Before my late husband died, I had learned some self-defense from him.

Beating someone as delicate as Vivian was hardly a challenge.

The moment I grabbed her hair, she started screaming.

“Why did you have to provoke me? I’ve put up with you for long enough.”

After several loud slaps, Felix suddenly shoved the door open, his face dark with anger.

Vivian threw herself into his arms, tears streaming down her face.

I dusted off my hands and met his gaze without fear.

He had cleaned up my messes countless times before.

But I didn’t need him anymore.

Felix glanced at the shattered phone on the floor, immediately understanding what had happened.

His voice was cold.

“You care that much about that lousy phone? So what if it’s broken? Am I so broke that I can’t afford to buy you another one?”

He lowered his eyes toward Vivian and gently brushed her hair aside, his expression filled with concern.

Her eyes were red from crying.

“I only broke her phone by accident. I was actually going to let her go, but she suddenly attacked me…”

Felix frowned slightly.

Then, almost instinctively, he asked, “Weren’t you so afraid of her? Why did you suddenly come here looking for her?”

Vivian said nothing.

She simply looked at him with tear-filled eyes.

He stared at her face for a long time.

As though he were looking at someone else through her.

After a while, he spoke quietly.

“As long as I’m looking into those eyes, I’ll never be able to stand seeing you suffer.”

He turned toward me.

“Apologize. Or I’ll let Vivian pay you back in kind.”

There wasn’t a trace of warmth in his eyes.

It was simply because she resembled his first love a little more than I did.

As long as he looked at her face, he could forgive her without limits.

He used to stand in front of me like this too.

No matter what I did, he would merely smile and quietly clean up the mess for me.

I lifted my head and said each word clearly.

“Why should I apologize? The fact that I didn’t beat her to death means I already showed her mercy. Do you even know how important the things on my phone were—”

I abruptly stopped myself.

I didn’t want to tear open my past and lay it bare in front of them.

Felix frowned slightly.

Vivian spoke at just the right moment.

“Felix, please don’t be angry over this. I don’t want anything. I only want you to stop seeing her from now on, okay? Consider it compensation for what happened.”

She looked understanding and considerate, as though she didn’t want to put Felix in a difficult position.

Yet Felix took her words to heart.

He seemed to think it was a reasonable punishment.

He looked at me with a faint, mocking smile.

“Vivian is right. Not coming to see you will be the greatest punishment I can give you.”

With his arm around Vivian, he walked out without looking back.

He seemed certain that I would go crazy just for the chance to see him again.

But he was wrong.

How could I obediently stay here and wait for his charity?

I carefully picked up the phone from the floor.

The screen was completely shattered.

It wouldn’t even turn on, but I still gently put it away and placed it in my bag.

I took nothing else.

The only thing I carried with me was that phone, which was barely more than a piece of junk now.

Felix was far too confident.

He hadn’t locked the door.

Because he was certain I wouldn’t leave.

When I walked out through the gates of the villa, I felt unbelievably light.

Facing the security camera above the entrance, I spoke calmly.

“Felix, you really do look a lot like my late husband. Too bad you just got dumped by me.”

Without hesitation, I walked away.

I made it to the airport, boarded my flight, and removed my SIM card.

Everything happened smoothly.

Leaving Felix was easier than I ever could have imagined.

I closed my eyes and quietly waited to land.