Chapter 1
When Ariana Collins rushed to the hospital after hearing that Luigi Maggiore had crashed his Maserati and was bleeding out, she immediately donated a full liter of blood for him.
His friends urged her to go home and take a break, and she reluctantly agreed. But just as she reached the doorway, anxiety gripped her heart and pulled her back.
Turning around, she witnessed a nurse dumping all five bags of blood–her blood–straight into the garbage bin!
At that moment, thunderous laughter erupted from a nearby room, so loud it could’ve shattered windows.
“Jesus Christ, Ariana Collins fell for our bullshit again!” a voice howled. “What a fucking idiot!”
Ariana froze, staring through the half–open door. Among the crowd, she immediately spotted him.
Luigi was lounging casually against the headboard, scrolling through his iPhone, barely paying attention to his friends. Though his face was partially blocked, she could still make out his chiseled jawline and perfect features-
He didn’t have a single scratch on him!
Ariana blinked hard, convinced her distress was making her hallucinate.
“Fellas, let’s count,” drawled one guy she recognized as Tyler, Luigi’s lacrosse teammate. “How many times have we screwed with her now?”
“The first time,” chimed in Blake, another rich kid from Luigi’s circle, “we told her Luigi lost the Tiffany bracelet he was supposedly getting her. She spent the entire night searching in a blizzard. Even with a 104–degree fever, the dumb bitch wouldn’t quit.”
“Remember the second time?” Derek, Luigi’s roommate, leaned forward eagerly. “We convinced her Luigi was in a coma. She spent all night at St. Patrick’s Cathedral lighting candles and sobbing to some priest. Got holy water and a blessed rosary. Luigi gave the water to my dog and gifted the rosary to Leila Brown the next day!”
“My personal favorite,” smirked Josh, “was when we framed her for plagiarism and nearly got her expelled. The way she begged the academic board–pathetic! Still makes me laugh thinking about it.”
“This blood donation scam makes ninety–six,” Tyler calculated, checking something on his phone. “Just three m pranks, and our revenge tour wraps up. Not bad for four years of entertainment. Worth every minute, right, Lugi?”
Luigi barely looked up from his phone, his voice detached and bored. “Whatever. As long as I can finally ditch her after we hit ninety–nine.”
“It’s what she deserves,” Blake insisted. “Remember how she beat Leila for that dance scholarship? Leila cried for days. Nobody messes with your dream girl and gets away with it.”
“That’s why it’s been so perfect,” Derek added. “Dating her just to systematically destroy her? Pure genius, man. Too bad it’s almost over. We’ll need to find someone else to torture soon.”
I Choco To Reclaim My Own Life
23.4%
Chapter 1
A deafening ringing filled Ariana’s ears, like a bomb had detonated inside her head.
Her chest constricted so violently she thought she might be having a heart attack. She clutched at her sternum, doubling over to gasp for air, her lungs burning as though filled with acid.
The words kept replaying in her mind like a nightmarish loop. Luigi was only dating her for revenge. Four years of what she thought was love–just an elaborate scheme to break her.
He knew exactly how desperately she loved him…
Luigi Maggiore, Boston’s unofficial prince. Student body president with a 4.0 GPA headed to Harvard Law. Heir to the Maggiore real estate empire. With his Mediterranean good looks, he could’ve stepped off a Calvin Klein billboard. “One look at Luigi Maggiore and you’re ruined for all other men“-that’s what everyone said.
And like a moth to flame, she’d fallen just like all the rest.
She had chased him relentlessly for three years, sacrificing every shred of her dignity, while he remained coldly indifferent–until one day, when he miraculously accepted her confession.
She thought her persistence had finally melted his heart. Instead, it had all been a calculated game of destruction.
The truth crushed her: he’d initially rejected her because his heart belonged to someone else.
He only agreed to date her later because she had beaten Leila Brown in that crucial dance competition and made his precious dream girl cry.
For revenge, he pretended to love her, orchestrating ninety–nine humiliations to systematically destroy her soul piece by piece.
Ariana’s tears streamed down uncontrollably, her throat constricting as if invisible hands were choking her.
She stared at the group laughing without restraint, at Luigi’s indifferent face, and suddenly felt hollowed out completely.
She had given him everything–her love, her trust, her very being–only for him to crush it all beneath his Italian leather shoes and toss it away like yesterday’s garbage.
Just then, Josh noticed movement at the door and glanced over.
Ariana spun around and fled.
She walked faster and faster until she was sprinting down the hospital corridors, past startled nurses and visitors. She had no destination–she just needed to escape this place, escape Luigi, escape the smoking ruins of her reality.
When her legs finally gave out in some distant corner of the hospital garden, she collapsed onto a bench as tears flooded from her eyes like a broken dam.
She covered her face with trembling hands, her body convulsing with silent sobs that tore through her like physical pain. Each breath felt like inhaling shards of glass.
23.6%
Chapter 1
God, Ariana, you pathetic, gullible fool.
After what seemed like hours, her phone vibrated in her pocket.
With shaking hands, she answered to hear her mother’s gentle voice.
“Ariana, sweetheart, your father and I are finalizing our arrangements to move to London next week. The Royal Academy of Music is eager for him to start the spring term. Are you absolutely certain you don’t want to join us? They have excellent dance programs there too.”
Her father, a celebrated violin professor at Juilliard, had received this prestigious appointment months ago. They had planned to relocate as a family, but Ariana had delayed and made excuses repeatedly, unable to bear leaving Luigi. She’d even considered staying in Boston permanently, transferring to a local college just to be near him.
Now, the irony of it all cut deeper than any knife could.
“No,” she wiped away her tears with such force it hurt her skin. She took a deep, shuddering breath. Her voice emerged raw but unwavering, “Mom, Dad, I’m coming with you to London.”
Chapter 2
Chapter 2
