On the day Emma Parker and Ethan Carter tied the knot, Lily Henwood got into a car accident.
Two trending topics instantly blew up on TikTok:
【Heiress of Parker Medical weds Stardust Entertainment's successor—fairy tale love IRL!】
【Massive crash on Jianxing Bridge: 5 dead, 3 seriously injured!】
Barely hanging on, Lily dialed Ethan’s number.
"Hello?" His voice was cold as ice on the other end.
"Lily?"
"Why the silence—what, are you playing games again?" he added, growing impatient.
She wanted to speak, but the phone slipped from her blood-streaked fingers.
"Still throwing tantrums?" he mocked. "Save it. Acting out in front of someone who doesn’t love you—that’s just sad."
Still no response from her. He was clearly annoyed now.
"Come on, you’ve always called me ‘brother,’ right? It’s my wedding day. Show up, call Emma ‘sister-in-law,’ maybe I’ll let you move back in."
Click. He hung up.
Move back in?
There was no going back. That place had kicked her out a long time ago.
Just as the call ended, Lily was lifted onto a stretcher by paramedics.
The cold metal gave her chills.
She absolutely hated ambulances.
Her dad had died in one of these, after sacrificing his life to save the Carter siblings.
Ethan once promised he’d protect her forever.
Now? He was busy kissing someone else in a wedding hall filled with roses and applause.
She knew her injuries were bad. Her vision swam as she stared at the ambulance ceiling—until her eyes drifted to the face above her.
It was...Dr. Noah Thompson?
He had saved her once—back when she was thrown out by the Carters and almost got infected by someone’s scheme.
Never thought she’d see him again—especially not like this.
Her thoughts grew fuzzy, eyes heavier and heavier.
Noah’s voice broke through, panicked:
"Lily! Don’t sleep!"
"Come on, hang in there! PLEASE!"
In the ER, doctors were locked in a war against death.
Meanwhile, the wedding continued. Ethan leaned down and kissed his bride.
Then came the long, flat tone—
The heart monitor line went still. Lily’s life ended right there.
But someone refused to give up.
Noah grabbed the defibrillator again and again, soaked in sweat, his hands trembling.
"Dr. Thompson, it’s too late," a colleague said gently, holding his arm. "Let her go peacefully."
The Noah Thompson—usually calm and surgical, a rock in every crisis—was falling apart right in front of their eyes.
Unbelievable.
He cupped her cold hand between his, barely getting the cry out of his throat.
The room fell silent around him.
*
Inside a luxury suite at Green Island Hotel.
"Lily..."
A hand slipped over her waist and slowly moved upward, his breath warm and reeking of alcohol brushing against her neck, making her flinch.
She bolted upright, eyes wide as she looked around in shock.
Wait—she was alive?
And then, that deep, familiar voice whispered right by her ear:
"Lily, I love you."
Ethan Carter?
The second she heard his voice, everything clicked.She came back—right to the day Ethan Carter and Emma Parker were having their engagement party one year ago.
Everything that happened that day... she remembered it like it was burned into her brain.
At the party, she had a glass of red wine from her future sister-in-law, Emma. Not long after, her whole body started acting weird—uncomfortable, hot. She just wanted to rest upstairs for a bit.
But the aftereffects of that damn wine were way stronger than she’d thought. She barely made it into the elevator before her vision spun like crazy. In the end, it took a hotel staff member to help her to a room.
And when she woke up?
She was lying right in Ethan Carter’s arms.
And Ethan? He wasn’t planning on stopping.
Lily Henwood was just about to struggle when Emma Parker barged in with a group of people like she’d been waiting to catch them in the act.
Just like that, Lily got slapped with a label she’d never asked for—"cheap" and "wild."
The Carters laid all the blame on her without hesitation.
William Carter even dragged her over to the Parkers, yelling at her to get on her knees and apologize to Mr. Parker.
She refused. So what did they do?
They beat her senseless with a leather belt until she passed out. And then they actually tried to kick her out of the house like she was trash.
Her foster sister, Chloe Carter, acted all kind and sweet, even got her a job as an assistant to some hotshot actress. But behind the scenes? Chloe had already teamed up with that actress to try and get Lily infected with HIV.
That so-called "accident" that came after... probably wasn’t an accident at all.
The Carter family? Every last one of them wanted her dead.
All those memories swirled through her mind like a storm. And pure rage clawed its way up from her chest, strong enough to crush whatever was in its path. Lily forced herself to fight back the effects of the drug still lingering in her system.
She clenched her fists and stepped in front of Ethan Carter, putting on the softest voice she could manage.
"Big brother, do you recognize me?"
Ethan had drunk quite a bit, but he wasn’t totally out of it.
He looked at the girl in front of him—her makeup was light, her face so tiny it was barely the size of his palm. Those delicate features—he could never mistake them.
He recognized her instantly.
"...Lily," he said softly, with warmth in his voice.
A flush crept up Lily’s cheeks, though her smile was frosty and sharp. "Big brother, were you just confessing to me?"
"You love me, right?"
Ethan tugged at his tie as his eyes locked onto Lily’s face. His voice went low and rasped.
"Lily, I’ve... always loved you."
"Perfect," she said, her voice light.
So perfect.
She turned on her heels, grabbed the hair dryer from the hallway table, and smashed it straight into his head.
Bang. Bang. Bang.
Ethan staggered, dazed, until he couldn’t even stay standing. He hit the wall and slowly slid onto the floor.
Moving fast, Lily wrapped the cord of the hairdryer around his neck, yanked it back tight like she was walking a dog, and dragged him across the floor.
The sudden choking sensation snapped Ethan out of his drunken haze. He clawed at the cord, desperately trying to free himself.
But it was tied too tight. There was no way he could get a grip.
Soon, his struggles started to weaken.
And only then did Lily ease up.
She stepped onto his chest with the heel of her shoe, leaned down, and tapped the hairdryer against his forehead over and over, voice low and dripping with venom:
"Dear big brother, still think you love me?"
