Chapter 2
After ending the call, I pondered for a long while. Zoe and I never should have met.
I shouldn’t have thought she was a good person just because she looked like my first love.
Zoe is Zoe, Olivia is Olivia.
A fake is just a fake.
Thinking back to when I first met Zoe, I could only laugh at myself.
I had just graduated then, before being recognized by the Evans family. My father was gravely ill and I was drowning in debt.
The Xu family used a $1 million check to buy me off, so Olivia could study abroad.
$1 million is barely enough for a watch to me now.
But back then, that $1 million not only covered my father’s medical bills, but also cleared all my debts.
I used the remaining $100,000 as startup capital to become a clothing reseller.
Luckily, I quickly earned back $1 million.
After that, I invested in some unpopular internet and AI companies.
Unexpectedly, in just a year, those companies turned a profit and were raking in money.
Zoe was the daughter of a distributor, working part-time in accounting at her family’s company.
When I paid the final installment early, she was surprised:
“Didn’t you say last month you needed to delay payment for your father’s surgery? How can you pay so quickly now? Does that mean you don’t need to keep paying?”
She carefully probed: “My condolences…”
Good news puts people in high spirits. Seeing her face so similar to Olivia’s, I smiled and explained:
“My father’s surgery was very successful. The stocks I invested in also multiplied several times over, so paying the final installment is no problem. Thank you for your concern.”
She put away her prying curiosity and surprise, returning a sweet and innocent smile.
Seeing that smile on a face 90% identical to my first love’s, I couldn’t help falling for her.
Even knowing she wasn’t truly innocent, but calculating and probing, I still fell deeper and deeper in love with her.
When I love someone, I want to give them my best. So I catered to her every whim.
She said she was close with her adopted brother and hoped I would help mentor Leo.
So I introduced Leo to my business connections as my future brother-in-law and even helped him land some big deals.
But she would often go stay overnight at Leo’s apartment to keep him company.
Whenever I expressed the slightest doubt, she would immediately explode:
“You know Leo has that skin condition*! We can’t let anyone find out about it. Only I can help him as his sister. Stop meddling in my family’s private matters.”
A notification popped up - it was the divorce agreement from my new lawyer.
I was about to open it when I saw 999+ notifications on Instagram.
I clicked in and found someone had logged into my account.
After logging back in, I saw Zoe had posted an apology to Leo using my account:
“As a brother-in-law, I shouldn’t have left inappropriate comments on my wife’s brother’s post, insulting their sibling relationship. I was being dirty-minded and narrow-hearted.”
She even attached an animated gif of my face photoshopped onto a pig, repeatedly bowing and saying “I’m not human.”
This was my main account with many followers and clients. My inbox was flooded with people asking what was going on.
Some even asked if I had some kind of threesome fetish.
I was furious, wishing I could strangle Zoe.
Right after the apology post came a call from Leo.
He arrogantly said:
“My sister married a boring guy like you because she thought you were reliable and family-oriented. But now you want a divorce just because you’re jealous of me? Don’t you understand? Marriage isn’t something you can just end on a whim.”
“My sister is already exhausted from keeping me company. Now she has to deal with the mess you made in the comments. You really know how to make trouble for people!”
*Note: “Skin hunger syndrome” is a fictional condition invented for this story, not a real medical diagnosis.