Chapter 2

"Shiven, I had a nightmare."

I picked up my phone and sent a message to Shiven Smith.

After hitting send, I stared at the "sleeping" man on my screen.

No reaction. His breathing rate didn't change even slightly.

A minute later, the post's author updated:

[That stupid woman just texted saying she had a nightmare.]

[LMAO, her boyfriend is plowing me right now, no time to care about her.]

[But on the video, he's definitely sleeping soundly.]

[After all, it's a looped recording.]

I looked at the video again and noticed something off.

Every fifteen minutes, the curtain in the lower left corner of the frame would blow up slightly.

The arc and time interval were perfectly identical—this was a looped video.

I rolled over, deliberately making a lot of noise, and coughed twice.

The video remained quiet and still.

Only that pre-recorded breathing sound echoed in the room.

The blogger updated again:

[She just rolled over so loudly, scared the hell out of me. Good thing the video didn't give it away.]

I clicked on the blogger's profile. It was full of lovey-dovey posts spanning half a year.

Six months ago, Shiven said he had to attend a closed training program.

In reality, he'd taken her to a beach resort.

In the photos, he wore swim trunks, back to the camera, with the blogger's hand resting on his shoulder.

Those swim trunks were ones I'd bought him.

There was another photo where the blogger wore black lace lingerie, taking a mirror selfie.

The caption read:

[He gave it to me. Says he loves the sound of this fabric being torn.]

That day was my birthday. He'd given me a set of pure cotton pajamas, saying he was worried I'd catch cold.

I looked down at the cotton pajamas I was wearing and felt only mockery.

So in his eyes, I only deserved to be wrapped in these prim and proper fabrics.

I saved all the blogger's posts, photos, and videos.

Even though my hands were shaking badly, my phone gallery filled with hundreds of screenshots, each one piercing my heart.

On the video, "Shiven Smith" continued sleeping peacefully, playing the role of the devoted boyfriend.

I took a screenshot of the screen.

The image showed his fake sleeping face, with a timestamp showing 3 AM in the corner.

I kept my eyes open until dawn broke.