She Taught Him How To Love: He Used It To Destroy Me Chapter 02

She Taught Him How To Love: He Used It To Destroy Me Chapter 02

I didn’t take it.

Ethan’s voice dropped.

“I’m willing to pay,” he said.

“But you can’t use your family’s illness to cross my Boundaries.”

Seven years together, and Boundaries was the word he used most.

I couldn’t check his phone.

Couldn’t ask where he’d been with Vanessa.

Couldn’t mind them talking late at night.

But Vanessa could read our texts.

Could reply to my messages for him.

Could decide when he should hold me and when he should give me the Silent Treatment.

The payment alert from the Jewelry Store popped up on my phone.

I looked down and paid the deposit.

Ethan stood in the rain, his face going cold.

“If you don’t record it today,” he said, “don’t say I never gave you a chance.”

By the time I paid the deposit and got back to the ICU entrance, it was 1 a.m.

My phone kept buzzing with clips from Vanessa’s Live Stream.

She sat in front of the camera, a bracelet on her wrist.

“Thank you to an old friend who wishes to remain anonymous,” she said.

“When they heard my followers hit ten million, they insisted on giving me a surprise.”

The camera panned over the price tag on the jewelry box.

Nineteen thousand eight hundred.

The post went up seventeen minutes after I’d begged Ethan for help.

It wasn’t that Ethan didn’t have the twenty thousand.

It was just that saving my mom wasn’t worth it.

The next day, my company called me in for a Suspension.

“We got hundreds of complaints last night,” HR said.

“Management doesn’t want clients seeing you.”

I’d barely left the building when GoFundMe sent a notification—my fundraising page had been frozen due to mass reporting.

The sixteen thousand already raised was temporarily unavailable.

Then the hospital called.

Someone had pretended to be a family member, asking if my mom was a paid actress.

Someone else demanded a Live Stream to verify her condition.

The nurse’s station was harassed for half an hour and had to unplug the outside line.

When I got back to the ward, a Funeral Wreath was sitting in the hallway.

The white ribbon read, in red letters:

[Catfish mother and daughter—may they reunite soon.]

I picked up the wreath and carried it out.

The bamboo frame cut into my palm—blood dripped through my fingers.

Ethan stepped out of the elevator just then.

He saw my hand and immediately pulled out a Band-Aid.

“Why are you still so careless?” he asked.

“Give me your hand.”

I didn’t move.

He grabbed my wrist and put it on for me, smooth and practiced.

He knew I hated onions.

Knew I was scared of thunder.

But when my mom was lying in the ICU, he had to ask Vanessa first whether he could give me twenty thousand.

His phone buzzed in his hand.

Vanessa’s message lit up the screen:

[Comfort her just enough, then pull back.]

[Don’t let her think the more noise she makes, the more attention she gets.]

Ethan pressed the Band-Aid down and let go immediately.

I ripped it off and threw it in the trash with the wreath.

“Even your concern for me,” I said, “has to be scheduled by her?”

His face hardened.

“Don’t be passive-aggressive,” he said.

“Vanessa spends her time analyzing your personality to help us.”

I looked at him.

“The Wedding is off,” I said.

“From now on, she can guide your love life however she wants.”

Ethan froze for two seconds, then laughed.

“Threatening to break up again?” he said.

“Vanessa said last night that once you realized crying wouldn’t work, your next move would be to leave.”

“Ivy, every reaction you have is right in her playbook.”

He handed me a bag with my charger and a change of clothes.

“You’ll be staying overnight these next few days,” he said.

I pushed the bag back.

“I need to go back for my ID,” I said.

Ethan blocked me.

“I’ll have my assistant bring it,” he said.

I looked up at him.

“Or do I need to ask Vanessa for permission to go home, too?”