She Taught Him How To Love: He Used It To Destroy Me Chapter 07

She Taught Him How To Love: He Used It To Destroy Me Chapter 07

Reward.

Seven years of feelings.

The house my mom sold.

The Thumbprint she left behind right before she died.

In his words, it was all just a prize-one he’d only give out if I behaved.

Ethan reached out.

“Ivy, just calm down.”

I held up my hand.

“Don’t touch me.”

His foot stopped mid-step.

I looked at my mom’s phone.

“She pressed that Thumbprint because you promised to marry me.

Ethan’s lips parted.

This time, nothing came out.

At 6 a.m., Vanessa’s studio released a statement:

[Recent controversy was caused by former content planner Ivy Clarke, who voluntarily provided

family privacy to manipulate public opinion.]

Below it, they attached the last four digits of my ID and a so-called authorization contract.

My company sent an official Termination notice.

Multiple brands issued a joint Cease-and-Desist Letter to the verified account holder.

The maximum claim was two hundred eighty thousand dollars.

My mom’s body was still in the morgue.

But I’d already been painted as the mastermind who used her critical condition for profit.

Only about a dozen people came to the funeral.

People were still standing outside the funeral home, phones out, asking how much I’d made.

After the doors closed, my mom’s portrait sat quietly among white chrysanthemums.

The photo was taken five years ago.

It was the first time she’d ever gotten her hair permed. She kept asking me if she looked older.

I told her she didn’t look a day over forty.

She was so happy she secretly made three copies.

One for the house.

One for me.

And one she tucked into the red fabric she’d been using to sew my Wedding Dress.

The dress was never finished.

Only one sleeve had been stitched.

The needle was still threaded.

Beside it lay a blue ledger.

The first page read:

[Borrowed two hundred eighty thousand dollars for Ethan’s studio.]

Then a list of dates.

[March 12 – Ethan said next month.]

[April 20 – Ivy’s birthday’s coming up. Won’t ask.]

[June 7 – Ethan bought a blood pressure monitor. Said he’d pay by end of year.]

The last page, written in light strokes:

[If a man truly loved Ivy, why does he need someone else to tell him how?]

Three days after my mom passed, I went downstairs to get breakfast.

The cashier asked like always:

“Two coffees?”

I nodded.

I walked all the way to the hospital before I remembered she wasn’t there anymore.

I sat in the hallway with both drinks until they went completely cold.

The lawyer handling my case was Cora Mills.

My mom used to alter her suits for her.

Cora went through the documents.

“The account is registered under your name,” she said, “but the login devices and revenue accounts don’t belong to you.”

“Find the actual operator, and we can clear your name.”

I dug up the early scripts from an old email account.

Vanessa had released only one line from the public screenshot:

[Healthy relationships need appropriate space.]

But the full original version continued:

[Space doesn’t mean disappearing.)

[And it definitely shouldn’t turn the Silent Treatment into a test for your partner.]

They cut the last two sentences and used the half that was left-like a knife made just for me.

Inside my mom’s ledger, I also found an old invoice from a production company.

The owner, Julian Yates, didn’t want to see me at first.

Until Cora told him that Vanessa had already pinned all the secretly recorded footage on his crew.

The next afternoon, he brought me a partial recording.On a whiteboard, someone had written:

[MC-01 – Marriage, Mother, Financial Pressure.]

Vanessa circled “Mother” in red.

“For the final episode, we have to hit the thing she cares about most.’

Off-camera, Ethan’s voice came through.

“Her mom’s vascular condition is real,” he said.

“We wait until she actually ends up in the hospital.”

The recording cut off there.

I sent different clips to each of them.

To Vanessa, I sent the part where Ethan said the account and the company should both belong to him.

To Ethan, I sent the part where Vanessa said they should let the verified account holder take the fall

first-then see if the executor follows orders.