When Love Splits Three Ways
Chapter 1 When the Fire Rose I coughed violently as the thick smoke choked my nose and throat. I found myself trapped in the blazing scene, my consciousness blurring.
The iron door, which was the only escape route in front of me, was slowly closing. I instinctively wanted to rush forward and use my body to brace against the scorching door.
Linden Rothwell and Rosalind Chambers weren’t out yet! I had to hold the door open!
“Rosalind!” Linden’s heart-wrenching roar from nearby jolted my consciousness awake, and I paused mid-motion as I remembered the past.
In my previous life, I had used both hands to hold open the iron door that was about to close, just to give my two friends more time to save themselves.
My hands quickly had their flesh burned away by the high temperature, and the pain was unbearable. Even then, I continued using my body to brace the door because Linden and Rosalind still hadn’t escaped.
My shoulders, my back, and even my chest suffered severe burns from holding the door. I could smell the charred scent of my own body, and the pain made me lose all sensation.
By the time I got to the doctors, they couldn’t bear to look at my injuries. There wasn’t a single patch of intact skin on my body.
When I woke up in the hospital, my first concern was asking about Linden and Rosalind’s condition.
The three of us were the best of friends. When I learned that Linden had escaped alive while Rosalind hadn’t made it out, I fell into deep self-blame.
If I hadn’t collapsed from exhaustion at that moment, maybe Rosalind could have survived. I wanted to cry, but Mom told me I couldn’t.
The burned area on my skin exceeded 90% of my body, and I would need at least five skin graft surgeries. Tears would worsen my injuries, so I didn’t even have the right to cry.
Just then, Linden knelt on one knee and pulled out a ring to propose to me beside my hospital bed. He said, “Rory, you saved my life. Let’s get married!”
The tears I had just managed to hold back nearly flooded out again. Everyone knew how much I loved him, and after eight years, my feelings were finally reciprocated.
Linden’s face was stern, and his lips were pressed tight when he proposed to me. At the time, I thought he was just nervous and couldn’t manage any other expression.
It wasn’t until later, when he pushed me into a burning room right after my labor induction procedure, that I finally understood the truth. His stern expression wasn’t from nerves—it was from hatred.
He hated that my strength had failed me, that I couldn’t hold on long enough, trapping his beloved Rosalind forever behind that door.
He hated my disfigured face and ruined appearance, yet I still held the title of his wife. He couldn’t bring himself to smile at me, but he stayed close, plotting his revenge.
Linden spent ten whole years carrying out this revenge, just to get his so-called justice for the woman he loved most.
As he pushed me into the fire, he roared, “You killed Rosalind! You let her burn alive in that fire! She was someone who was so afraid of pain. Can you even imagine how much she suffered?
“Why should you get to live happily without a care for all these years? You destroyed her life—you don’t deserve happiness!
“Aurora Aldridge, now you can feel what it’s like to be consumed by fire and despair.”
He was so insane and vicious, and all of it was for another woman. We had just lost a child, yet all he wanted was to see me dead.
He knew perfectly well that after the fire, I was terrified of flames. He knew my labor induction procedure had been difficult and that I couldn’t move my lower body afterward. He knew all of this, which made it the perfect opportunity for his revenge.
When the flames consumed my body, I felt no pain at all. This physical agony was nothing compared to the emotional pain Linden had inflicted on me.
The fire burned before my eyes. Standing by the iron door now, I turned back and saw Linden just a few steps away from me.
I could see it in Linden’s eyes. He was expecting me to use my body to brace the door, giving him more time to find Rosalind and escape with her.
But I wasn’t going to make the same sacrifice twice. This time, if he wanted to save her, he’d have to figure it out on his own.
Before the iron door could close, I ran out without looking back.
Chapter 2 Escape I saw the firefighters who had come to rescue us, and my tense nerves finally relaxed. My legs gave out, and I quickly collapsed.
I was saved. And this time, I hadn’t sacrificed myself to save anyone else.
I thought I was the first to catch feelings in our friendship. But clearly, Linden had been smitten with Rosalind for ages.
He would give me trendy gifts that were popular that season, because he knew I’d always give him something more expensive in return. But everything he gave Rosalind was handmade—gifts that cost both time and money.
He would toss me his sweaty basketball clothes to deal with, but he’d always dress up clean and fresh when meeting Rosalind. I thought he was just comfortable around me, but really, he was using me as free labor while treating Rosalind like she was precious.
He never openly declared his feelings, but every action showed how much he treasured her. In our three-person dynamic, Rosalind effortlessly sat at the top of the food chain. It was ridiculous that it took a near-death experience for me to see the truth.
The firefighters lifted me onto a stretcher, and just as I was about to be loaded into the ambulance, someone grabbed the stretcher.
“Wait!” It was Linden’s sister, Leona Rothwell.
Leona gripped the edge of the stretcher tightly and asked me frantically, “Aurora, where’s Linden? Wasn’t he with you? Why are you the only one who made it out?”
I shook my head without saying a word. My throat was damaged from the smoke, and I couldn’t speak for a moment.
Linden had lost his mother at a young age, and his sister Leona had raised him. As the eldest, Leona had always acted like Linden’s mother, taking care of every detail of his life.
In my previous life, she really didn’t want me marrying into the Rothwell family. Even though my family had wealth beyond the Rothwells’ imagination, Leona thought I was useless because I was disfigured and was unable to have children after the skin grafts.
She had cursed me to die early more than once in private, so Linden could remarry and inherit my family’s fortune. Now, I didn’t want to spare Leona even a glance, so I closed my eyes.
The Rothwells had always struggled financially. After their mother died young and their father became disabled, Leona dropped out of school to support the family and put Linden through his education.
He was their ticket out of poverty—their one shot at a better life. Now, facing the possibility that he might not survive, Leona was falling apart.
When the doctors told her to let go and stop interfering with the rescue, she jumped onto the stretcher and wouldn’t let go of me.
“Everyone, look at this murderer!” she screamed.
“My brother went in with her, but she came out alone! He could be dead for all we know, and this murderer gets to go to the hospital even though she’s barely hurt! It’s not fair!
“Aurora, say something! Why are you the only one who made it out? What did you do to Linden?”
Her screaming drew a crowd, and people started pulling out their phones to film me. This was exactly what Leona wanted.
If something happened to Linden, she’d make sure I suffered too. She had plenty of ways to ruin the rest of my life.
Just as the doctors were about to forcibly remove her, firefighters emerged from the scene carrying another stretcher.
“We need an ambulance! These two are in critical condition!”
Leona spun around and saw Linden, blackened from head to toe. The sight of his mangled, bloody hands broke her heart.
Chapter 3 Online Harassment Linden was an art student who planned to become a professional painter after graduation. Hands were a painter’s most valuable asset. Yet in that fire, he didn’t hesitate to use those irreplaceable hands to grab an iron door that was scorching hot.
He used both hands to push open the door that had already closed, creating an escape route for himself and Rosalind. The cost was severe disability in both hands, and he might never be able to hold a paintbrush again.
Leona was crying hysterically outside the operating room. Linden was undergoing emergency surgery, while Rosalind had inhaled too much smoke and was still unconscious.
As for me? I’d escaped quickly enough that my only injury was a raspy voice.
Leona caught sight of me in the hallway, looking perfectly fine. She rushed over in two quick strides and swung her hand to slap me, but I dodged out of the way.
A passing security guard quickly grabbed her arm. “What are you doing? You can’t attack patients!”
Leona struggled frantically and shouted, “She’s not a patient. She’s a murderer! My brother is an artist, and he wrecked his hands in her art studio!
“Three people were in that studio, and she’s the only one who came out fine. This is murder!
“Aurora, you can’t stand seeing them happy together, can you? They’re supposed to be your best friends, but you had to destroy them just because they wanted to be together!
“You’re so twisted! I know you like Linden, and when you realized you couldn’t have him, you decided to ruin him instead!
“My brother was cursed the day he became friends with you!”
The hospital was bustling with people, and countless phone cameras were pointed at me.
So even Leona knew about Linden and Rosalind’s feelings for each other. Yet in my previous life, she’d been the one dropping hints about Linden’s supposed feelings for me, urging me to make a move.
Security quickly dragged the hysterical Leona away, but the situation had already spiraled out of control online. Someone had spliced together footage of Leona at the fire scene and the hospital, posting it online where it quickly went viral.
In the video, my inability to speak made me look even more guilty while Leona screamed accusations at me. People online did some digging and found out the art studio was mine. They also discovered the complicated dynamics between the three of us.
They sided with Leona, seeing this nearly insane woman as the victim. Soon, the internet had unanimously decided that I had burned down the studio out of jealous rage when I couldn’t have Linden, intending to kill them both.
My social media accounts across all platforms were dug up, and they scrutinized every word and action from my past. Countless hate messages and curses flooded my private messages, branding me as the one who deserved to die.
My family couldn’t bear to watch anymore and called me. “Rory, why don’t you take a vacation abroad and clear your head?”
Dad’s voice was full of concern.
“No need, Dad.” I laughed softly. “Things are just getting started.”
Chapter 4 Back from the Brink Linden and Rosalind gradually woke up in the hospital.
Linden had dreamed of becoming a painter, but his hands were severely burned with extensive nerve damage. He would never be able to hold a paintbrush again.
Rosalind was beautiful and wanted to break into the entertainment industry, but her throat and lungs were badly damaged. Even after treatment, her voice was rough and unpleasant, so her dreams of stardom were over too.
The moment Linden woke up, he didn’t even care about his own injuries and insisted on seeing Rosalind. This time, when he reached her hospital room, he dropped to his knees and begged her to be with him.
“Rosalind, no one could ever love you more than I do! Please be with me! I’ve already lost my hands, and I can’t lose you too!”
Leona, who had rushed over when she heard the news, burst into the room. She was sobbing as she reached for Rosalind’s hand.
“My brother gave up his hands to save you! If you have any conscience at all, you should say yes!”
Hiding outside the window, I couldn’t help but laugh when I heard this. Leona had always used the same tactics and the same emotional blackmail.
She had said the exact same thing to me in my previous life.
“Linden gave up everything to marry you, so you should give him a child and carry on the Rothwell family line!”
My burn scars actually made pregnancy dangerous for me, but Leona had said, “How will you know unless you try?”
So, I tried. I secretly got pregnant, but it ended with a labor induction procedure. My uterus was removed along with my child, and I still remember the hollow agony of having everything torn out of me.
On the bed, Rosalind frowned disdainfully and pulled away from Leona’s touch. She asked, “What about Aurora? What happened to her?”
The moment she spoke, her harsh, raspy voice shocked them both. Rosalind used to have the voice of an angel. She’d even won the campus singing competition.
Now the fire had ruined that future as well.
Leona immediately said, “That little witch Aurora is perfectly fine! She’s already gone home!”
She held up Linden’s burned hands. “Look at this! My brother’s hands are ruined, your voice is destroyed, but Aurora doesn’t have a scratch on her. She must have started that fire!”
Rosalind was consumed with hatred toward me. She was practically tearing the bedsheets apart and had bitten her lip until it bled.
Meanwhile, Linden crawled on his knees to her bedside, pleading, “Rosalind, please say yes!
“You know how much I love you. I promised you before that I wouldn’t show my feelings in front of Aurora, but this fire showed me her true, ugly nature. I would never be with someone like that!”
I couldn’t help but smile outside the window. Rosalind had been my college roommate, and she was from the middle of nowhere.
She was so nervous and out of place when she started university that I ended up looking out for her. She was actually the one who introduced me to Linden.
They both came from poor families. In my previous life, I valued our friendship so much that I constantly helped them out financially.
I funded Linden’s art education. I paid for private lessons with established painters, bought him his own studio, and even promoted his work to anyone who would listen.
As for Rosalind, when she started posting singing and dancing videos online, I rallied all my friends to like and share them. I even bought fake followers to boost her social media presence.
I should have seen it coming. Why would such an attractive couple go out of their way to befriend someone as ordinary-looking as me? It seemed like they were just after my money after all.
They clearly had feelings for each other, but never dared show it around me.
After a long pause, Rosalind finally spoke. Her voice sounded like gravel.
“Fine, I’ll be with you. But I’m never going to let Aurora get away with this!”
Chapter 5 Going Viral Rosalind was beautiful and talented, and she had over 100 thousand followers on social media. While I was still getting harassed online, she stepped forward and posted a video claiming to be another victim of the fire.
At the same time, she and Linden milked their story for all it was worth, playing up the whole “love could conquer all” couple angle.
“This fire took so much from me, but I found love. If it weren’t for him, I would have burned to death.
“He lost his hands saving me. So, I’ll be his hands for the rest of our lives. We’ll face everything together, no matter what.”
In the video, they were cuddled up together, looking totally in love.
She got Linden to join her in making recovery content. Despite their injuries, they came across as strong and optimistic. People couldn’t get enough of the beautiful couple, and their follower count shot up by another 100 thousand overnight.
Rosalind’s sudden fame caught the media’s attention. Reporters even showed up at the hospital with cameras, eager to interview her.
When asked about the trauma from the fire, Rosalind looked melancholy and was on the verge of tears.
“The fire terrifies me, but my friend’s betrayal hurts even more. There was another friend of ours in the studio that day, but I won’t mention her name here.
“When the fire started, she was closest to the exit, but she just ran out by herself without looking back. If she had just helped hold that door open for a moment, maybe Linden’s hands wouldn’t have been destroyed. And I… I wouldn’t have lost my voice…”
At this point, she turned to look at her boyfriend beside her, and tears streamed down her face. This beautiful moment went viral online. Well, how could anyone not feel sorry for such a fragile yet strong young woman?
She didn’t mention my name, but it didn’t take long for people to figure out who she was talking about and dig up all my personal details. While netizens praised their unbreakable love and amazing resilience, they also turned their anger on me.
“Rosalind and her boyfriend are true love goals! But their friend is a monster!”
“I know who that person is! It’s Aurora Aldridge, their college classmate. Remember that video of Linden’s sister confronting her? That went viral too!”
“This woman is disgusting! She should be arrested and thrown in jail!”
“If I had a friend like that, I’d make her life hell!”
“Why is this awful person completely fine? Why didn’t she just die?”
…
Rosalind and Linden got everything—love, attention, and even sponsorship deals that made them money.
Meanwhile, the online harassment against me started spilling into real life. People tracked down my home address and workplace, delivered funeral wreaths to my door, and created fake obituaries with my picture.
My father was an entrepreneur, and this whole mess caused his company’s stock price to tank. Even so, he never blamed me.
“Rory, why don’t you go abroad for a while? Let Dad handle the rest,” he said.
Dad had even gone gray overnight, but he never asked me what really happened or held it against me. He always had my back, no matter what.
In my previous life, Dad had opposed my marriage to Linden, and I was so angry about it that I didn’t speak to him for years. He never forced the issue, just quietly sent me money and took care of me my whole life. Without him, I probably would have died even sooner.
Looking back now, I was such an idiot. I couldn’t even tell who really cared about me.
Nevertheless, I still didn’t want to leave the country. There was something I needed to figure out first.
“Dad, have the investigators released their findings on the fire yet?”
“Not yet.”
“Then let’s wait a bit longer. I can always leave after the report comes out.”
Chapter 6 The Real Arsonist I needed to know what really caused the fire that ruined my life.
In my previous life, Linden never told me what started the fire. He just said it was an accident and blamed the studio I bought for having inadequate fire safety equipment. But I remembered that the studio had always passed its fire safety inspections.
Linden even told my family not to mention the fire around me. He said I had severe trauma responses and couldn’t handle hearing anything related to fire, so they never told me the details.
The day of the fire, all three of us were in the studio. I was in the back room, photographing Linden’s paintings with my camera. I wanted to send them to an art collector to see if he could help boost Linden’s reputation.
After graduation, Linden had gained some recognition in art circles thanks to my financial backing. But his talent was mediocre at best, and his technique wasn’t particularly impressive. It was purely my money that had propped him up.
Back then, Linden said he had another painting to finish and went to the lounge, telling me not to disturb him. I simply listened and left him alone.
At first, I didn’t even know Rosalind was in the studio too. When I noticed the fire starting, I knocked on every single room door, but Linden didn’t respond. I thought he had already left the studio, so I ran toward the exit.
That was when Linden came out of his lounge, shouting Rosalind’s name. Only then did I realize she was still inside.
I had plenty of time to escape by myself, but once I learned Rosalind was trapped, I had chosen to hold the door open with my own body. I had been afraid that the rusty old iron door would be impossible to reopen once it closed, so I used myself to buy them time to escape.
Eventually, I had collapsed from exhaustion, and every inch of my skin got burned.
The fire department’s report came out quickly. The cause was that a candle in one of the studio rooms had ignited flammable materials, causing the blaze.
But why would there be candles in the studio?
The studio was full of wooden frames and flammable canvases and papers. I would never bring candles in there, and neither would Linden.
Rosalind then posted a video saying it was an accident caused by someone’s scented candle that ruined her life. Online users felt sorry for her and decided I was the villain who lit the candle.
Suddenly, sympathy for her reached its peak while the attacks on me came down like a blizzard. Rosalind claimed her voice might still be salvageable, but the surgery would cost hundreds of thousands of dollars.
She started selling products online, and everyone supported her. People even bought things and told her not to ship them, as they just wanted to donate money to her.
Every video she posted had people voluntarily promoting it for her. These organic numbers were way better than any fake engagement I’d ever bought her.
Some mysterious benefactor even contacted top specialists around the world to treat her for free. She was the most pitiful victim, and I was the despicable arsonist.
That day, Rosalind couldn’t contain her smugness and sent me a message.
“Aurora, who would have thought you’d fall this low? You had your moment in the first half of your life, but from now on, I’ll be the one stepping on your face. If you apologize and beg me for mercy right now, maybe I’ll throw you a lifeline.”
I didn’t respond. It finally dawned on me that she’d been harboring resentment toward me this whole time. She was happy to take my money, but felt bitter about me at the same time.
Since she couldn’t get much money from me as a female friend, she introduced Linden to me instead. She knew me well, so she knew exactly what kind of man I’d fall for.
She coached Linden on exactly what to say and do, making sure I’d be smitten with him the moment I laid eyes on him.
Sure, Linden liked her, but he also liked money. I was a hopeless romantic, so even though Linden never agreed to be with me, I was still willing to spend money on him.
I poured my heart out for Rosalind too, thinking we had this amazing friendship between the three of us.
But to them, I was just a stupid walking ATM.
Chapter 7 Loving So Intensely Rosalind was riding high now, and Linden was living it up. They’d teamed up to watch me crash and burn.
But everyone had forgotten about one thing—I was the one who loved Linden most.
Because I loved him, I bought him that studio, paid for his exhibitions out of my own pocket, and spent countless dollars promoting his art through every connection I had.
I loved Linden so intensely that even when I wasn’t with him, I wanted to watch what he was doing secretly. So, I gradually installed hidden cameras everywhere throughout that studio.
I was afraid of missing a single moment of Linden’s life. So I paid top dollar to have the camera feeds automatically saved to cloud storage in real time.
Even though the fire destroyed everything, I could still access the footage. I logged into the cloud storage, entering Linden’s birthday as the password.
I pulled up the surveillance from the day of the fire and went through it room by room. Everything looked normal until Rosalind appeared.
I watched them walk together and go into a room. That was when I knew I’d found my arsonist.
…
When the cyberbullying reached its peak, I made a move nobody saw coming.
I registered an account under my real name and posted my first video demanding that Rosalind and Linden publicly apologize to me. I also announced that I’d hired a lawyer and was planning to sue them both.
This made the attacks on me even worse. I gained a lot of followers, but they were all there to tear me apart, launching direct personal attacks on me.
They thought I was completely shameless, that I was just a supposed arsonist demanding an apology from her victims.
Rosalind and Linden immediately posted response videos. It was the same tactics as always, vague hints and sob stories that sent everyone into a rage.
That was when I posted my second video.
This time I smiled at the camera and said, “Rosalind, Linden, you’re my dearest friends. But I have plenty of evidence about this situation, so I hope you’ll think carefully before you act.”
When I mentioned having evidence, Rosalind and Linden went quiet. They were probably trying to figure out whether I actually had proof, and if so, what kind.
But the users they’d riled up didn’t care about any of that. They kept attacking me from every angle, screaming, “If you have evidence, then show it! Stop wasting everyone’s time!”
I wasn’t wasting time. I was waiting to see how Linden and Rosalind would react.
Linden called me privately, trying to get information out of me. But I kept my guard up and didn’t reveal anything.
By the end of the call, he was furious that he couldn’t get what he wanted.
“Just keep pretending, Aurora! The studio’s been burned to ash, so what evidence could you possibly have? You’re just trying to scare us, and I’m not falling for it!”
He hung up on me, and I smiled.
Sure enough, not long after, Rosalind posted another video. They were convinced I had no evidence, so they went all out, demanding that I apologize and pay them a hefty sum for emotional damages.
I left a comment under that video with just three words—”See you tomorrow.”
Those simple three words became a ticking time bomb that kept them up all night. Netizens were waiting too, waiting for whatever “tomorrow” would bring.
The next morning at 9:00 am, my scheduled video went live on social media.
