Chapter 1

I caught my fiancé in bed with my sister on our wedding day, but my parents call me crazy and send me to a mental hospital.

Twenty years ago, I found my groom cheating. The woman was my sister and bridesmaid, Sarah.

But both families joined forces and locked me in a mental hospital.

They said, "She's crazy! Making up lies about her fiancé and her own sister!"

In that place, I was electrocuted. They forced pills down my throat. They tied me up and beat me.

I lived like that for twenty years.

Twenty years later, I finally got out.

My hair turned completely white. My teeth fell out.

I looked ancient. Like a seventy-year-old woman.

I hid in a nursing home in a small county, working as a caregiver.

I thought I'd never see them again.

Until one day, my ex-fiancé showed up. He brought a girl with him. His daughter with my sister.

They came to visit his mother.

When he saw me, he froze.

His eyes turned red. He said, "Evelyn?! You're alive? I've been searching for you for so long…"

I kept my head down, mopping the floor. I didn't say a word. I didn't want to deal with him.

The doctor just told me I was sick. Alzheimer's. Late stage.

I had three months left. Three months where I could still remember.

After three months, I'd forget everything.

All the hatred. Gone.

Those twenty years they stole from me. Gone.

Before that, I’ll make every single one of them PAY!

***

My hands shook as I held the towel.

Hot water splashed out, burning my hand. I didn't feel the pain.

Head Caregiver Margo snatched the towel from me. She threw it into the basin hard. Water splashed all over my face.

Her voice was sharp and cruel. "Eva, you're slow as hell!"

"Can't even do this right. What good are you?"

I kept my head down. Said nothing.

"Hurry up! Next one!"

I picked up the towel mechanically and moved to the next bed.

That's when I heard noise at the door.

A man in a tailored suit walked in. He held the hand of a girl in a princess dress.

The man was handsome and tall. The girl was pretty and cute.

They didn't belong here. This place reeked of disinfectant and old people.

I shrank back instinctively, trying to hide.

But he still saw me.

He froze. He stared at me for ten seconds.

Then his eyes turned red. His voice choked up as he called my name.

"Evelyn? Is it really you?"

My blood turned to ice.

I recognized that voice. Marcus.

The man who sent me to hell twenty years ago.

I lowered my head, scrubbing the floor hard. My voice came out raspy and ugly.

"You've got the wrong person. My name is Eva."

He rushed over and grabbed my wrist. Hard. It hurt down to the bone.

"Evelyn, I know it's you. Don't hide from me!"

I struggled instinctively. The mop clattered to the floor.

The little girl beside him screamed.

"Daddy, that old lady is so dirty! She touched me!"

Marcus let go of me like I'd burned him.

He turned to comfort his daughter. His voice dripped with tenderness.

"Good girl, Nina. You're not dirty. Daddy will take you to wash your hands."

Margo rushed over like the wind.

She didn't even look at me. She bowed and scraped to Marcus.

"Mr. Astor, please don't be angry. This old woman doesn't know any better."

Then she turned around and slapped me across the face.

SMACK. My cheek swelled immediately.

"How dare you serve guests like this? Three days' pay docked!"

Marcus frowned and stopped Li from hitting me again.

"Forget it. Don't hit her."

He looked at me. There was guilt in his eyes.

"Evelyn, I know it's you. We'll talk later."

I didn't respond. I bent down, picked up the mop, and limped toward the storage room.

Behind me, his persistent voice followed. "I'll come see you every day until you're willing to talk to me."

I closed the storage room door, shutting out his voice.

I leaned against the cold wall, shaking all over.

That night, I pulled out a broken tin box from under my bed. Inside was a single piece of paper.

My diagnosis.

The flashlight beam hit the paper. Those words stabbed my eyes.

Alzheimer's disease. Late stage.

The doctor said I had three months left to remember.

After three months, I'd forget everything.

Forget those twenty years of electroshock, forced medication, and beatings.

Forget their ugly faces.

Forget the blood debt they owed me.

With trembling hands, I wrote the first line on the back of the diagnosis.

"Make them all pay!"

The next morning, Marcus came back.

This time, he wasn't alone. He brought my biological parents.

And my "sister," Sarah.

Marcus held her waist intimately, smiling tenderly at her.

I hid behind the storage room door, hands and feet freezing. But I heard my mother's shrill voice clearly.

"This is the nursing home? My crazy daughter is really here?"