Chapter 3

The very next day, the money hit my account.

$175,340, down to the last cent.

Staring at the bank notification, tears finally spilled over my eyes.

But before I could even finish crying, my phone rang. It was Martha.

"Valerie, you got your money. Are you happy now? But let me tell you, that money didn't come from us. Chloe paid it! She had to sell her car and borrow money from her parents! Look at you, forcing a young girl who just started her career to sell her car. How do you sleep at night?!"

I wiped my tears, my voice dead calm. "I don't care where the money came from. I only care that the debt is settled."

"You!" Martha gasped in rage. "Julian said he doesn't even know who you are! You chose to take care of him for three years; nobody forced you to! Now take your money and stay the hell away from us!"

"Don't worry," I said. "You won't be seeing me again."

I hung up and immediately blocked her number.

Then, I opened my Instagram account—which had been practically abandoned for three years—and posted a single status:

*“Three years. $205,340. Paid in full today. We are officially even.”*

I attached a screenshot of the bank wire transfer confirmation.

My comment section blew up instantly. Though I rarely posted, the few times I did over the last three years were hospital check-ins or late-night coffee cups. My friends knew I was caring for my boyfriend, but they had no idea about the financial toll.

*“Wait, what? You guys broke up?”*

*“Over 200k? Val, you spent that much on him?!”*

*“Did he wake up? What happened?”*

I didn't reply to anyone. I just shut off my phone.

I thought that would be the end of it.

I was wrong.

A week later, I landed a new job as a senior editor at a digital media company. The interview went incredibly well. Even though I hadn't had a corporate job in three years, my freelance portfolio was stellar.

On my third day of work, my assistant, Emma, crept over to my desk, looking concerned. "Hey, Val... have you seen this?"

She handed me her phone, opened to TikTok.

In the video, Chloe was wearing a pristine white dress, sitting at a piano, looking angelic. The caption read: *“True love is about staying. When he got into a car accident three years ago protecting me, he fell into a coma. I stayed by his side for three years. Today, he finally woke up.”*

The comments were overflowing with praise:

*“This is real love!”*

*“Three years of loyalty? I’m crying!”*

*“She is literally an angel. Wishing them a lifetime of happiness!”*

My fingers trembled as I scrolled down.

The second video featured Julian. He was sitting in a wheelchair, and Chloe was pushing him through a sunny park. He looked up at her with adoring eyes. *"Thank you for never giving up on me, Chloe."*

The third video was a "belated" proposal. Julian was on one knee, Chloe was crying into her hands, surrounded by red balloons and roses.

And then, in the comment section of that video, I saw my own name.

Someone asked: *“Wait, wasn't there another girl taking care of him for three years? Is that true?”*

Chloe had replied: *“You must mean Valerie. She was Julian’s ex. She actually broke up with him a month after the accident. I guess she felt guilty later and came back to help for a short while, but she left soon after. Martha and I were the ones who took care of him for the last three years.”*

The replies below her comment were vicious:

*“The ex sounds clout-chasing and disgusting.”*

*“I heard she scammed them out of over a hundred grand! That’s literally criminal!”*

*“Thank god Julian woke up, otherwise he would’ve been ruined by that leech!”*

I stared at the screen, my blood running cold.

They didn't just want to steal credit. They wanted to drag my name through the mud.

They wanted to paint me as a gold-digging villain just to make their "epic love story" go viral.

Emma looked at me worriedly. "Val... this isn't true, is it? When you took time off before, you said you were taking care of your boyfriend..."

I locked the phone and took a slow, deep breath.

"It's a lie," I said. "I took care of him for three years, spent over 200k, got kicked out, and now they're claiming I abandoned him and scammed them."

Emma's eyes widened. "What are you going to do? This video is trending! It has over half a million likes!"

I smiled.

"Good," I said. "The higher they climb, the harder they fall."

I opened the folder containing the files from my USB drive. I had 387 video logs. Every single one was a hard piece of evidence.

I opened my banking app. Every transfer to the hospital was documented.

I opened my Snapchat and iMessage. My chat history with Martha and Chloe was fully intact.

I even found my flight booking from three years ago—the dream job interview in New York I had canceled. If Julian hadn't crashed the car, I would have been a director at a major agency by now.

I looked out the window at the city skyline.

"Emma, how do we get a video to go viral on TikTok?"

Emma blinked. "Well... we post it with the right hashtags and let the algorithm do its magic. Val, what are you planning?"

"What am I planning?" I opened TikTok, created a new account, and typed in the username: *Valerie_TheRealCaregiver*.

Bio: *“Three years, $205,340, 387 video logs. Accused of being a scammer and abandoning him. Today, I’m bringing the receipts.”*

I uploaded the first video.

In the clip, I was wearing a stained, oversized t-shirt, my hair was greasy, and I was wiping Julian's face with a warm towel. I turned to the camera and smiled tiredly: *"March 15, 2022. Day 58 of Julian's coma. When I moved his fingers today, they twitched. The doctor says it might just be a reflex, but I've been happy all day. Julian, please wake up soon. I miss you so much."*

I set the post to go public at exactly 8:00 AM the next morning.

Right during rush hour.

I shut my laptop and looked at Emma. "Come on, let's go get some coffee. My treat."

"Val, aren't you scared?" she asked. "They have a huge following now..."

"Scared?" I took a sip of my freshly brewed coffee. "Emma, I spent three years taking care of a comatose man. There is absolutely nothing left on this earth that scares me."

I watched the sunset outside, my mind completely at peace.

It wasn’t the calm of surrender. It was the cold patience of a predator watching its prey step right into the trap.

Chloe. Julian. Martha.

You wanted the spotlight?

I’m about to give you a stage.