For three years, I treated the Crown Prince of Meridia free of charge, all because his face bore a striking resemblance to my late high school first love. When he eventually proposed to me, I turned him down. He chased me outside and cornered me against a wall. His eyes were red as he demanded, "Nina, do you know the consequences of betraying me?" I shot him a cold glare, my words designed to cut deep. "You know what? This pathetic display of yours is absolutely nothing like him."

I was the "broken girl" in that old internet joke. The one with the gambling addict father, the chronically ill mother, and the younger brother still trying to finish school. Then I met Ethan Mills. Back when I was working myself to exhaustion just to keep my family afloat, he stepped in and saved me from a mess at the club where I worked. And just like that, we became tangled in each other's lives for five long years. By our fifth anniversary, his arranged marriage candidate sent me a photo of him celebrating her birthday beside a giant cake. Funny thing was, only minutes earlier, Ethan had been telling me he was stuck at the office working overtime. I stared at the anniversary gift his best friend had delivered for him. Then I looked down at my phone and sent Ethan a message. Kristin: Let's break up.

Before I met Brian Gray, I was insecure and timid. Every time I got bullied at school, he would show up like some perfect hero and save me. I thought he was the light that finally came to save me. Until one day, while his girlfriend was humiliating me, I accidentally heard his voice through her phone. "Baby, take it easy. Don't go too far. I still have to go home and play the good brother." I laughed. I finally realized the truth. The person who ruined my life from the very beginning... was him. Later, when he stood in front of me with red eyes, begging for forgiveness, I treated him the exact same way he once treated me. Without mercy. And little by little... He completely lost his mind.

On the day of my wedding, a stranger appeared at the ceremony. She threw down a stack of doctored photos and screamed that I was the other woman. My fiancé's eyes went cold as he turned and took his first love by the hand. The guests turned on me. Their words landed like blows, and I had nothing to say in my own defense. In my darkest moment, Sebastian Calloway arrived with bodyguards and dropped to one knee, holding out a diamond ring the size of a golf ball and a billion-dollar settlement, and asked me to be his wife. I said yes, convinced I had found salvation. After three years without a child, Sebastian and I traveled to the chapel to pray for a child. There, I overheard his conversation with the abbot. "Dear friend, you come to pray every year, and always for Ms. Hayes. If you love her so deeply, why did you marry another?" "Viv loves him. I'm giving her what she wants." "This woman shares Viv's rare blood type. When the time comes, she can serve as her blood reserve." I had never been a wife. I had only ever been a spare blood bag, and three years of tenderness had been nothing but lies.

After my husband passed away, I moved in with his father. Then one day, I found my missing underwear in his room.