Jv Lingxian
14 Published Stories
Jv Lingxian's Books and Stories
Too Late to Love Me Now
Mafia My father, a rising star in a crime family, decided to leave my mother. During the divorce, he asked me to choose who to live with.
For the sake of my future, I chose him, the man who had money and power, over my penniless mother.
My choice broke her heart. "He has money, Mom. You don't. I don't want to be poor anymore," I told her, a lie that felt like swallowing glass. She looked at me with utter betrayal before collapsing in tears.
In my previous life, my love for her became the burden that destroyed her. After we were cast out, she worked herself to the bone to support me, only to die tragically trying to sell a kidney to pay for my medical bills. I followed her into death a week later.
I didn't understand. I had loved her with all my soul, but my love only led to her suffering and death. Why did choosing love mean choosing ruin?
Waking up again, I was fourteen, back at the moment of that devastating choice. This time, my love would not be a burden. It would be a weapon. I would get close to my father, dismantle his empire from the inside, and build my mother a fortress with the rubble. Claimed By The Ruthless Esports Boss
Modern I am the best esports jungler in the league, but I've been hiding a severe wrist injury just to keep my team alive in the semifinals.
Right in the middle of the crucial tie-breaker game, our mid-laner deliberately walked into the enemy team and died without casting a single defensive spell.
He was match-fixing for offshore betting sites, throwing away our entire season for a massive payout.
Because of his betrayal, we had to sub in two terrified rookies, and we were absolutely slaughtered. The stadium crowd booed us out of the arena. The internet exploded with pure vitriol, trending hashtags calling me a washed-up fraud who hid on the bench to save my own stats. The media demanded I retire immediately. My physical therapist gave me a grim ultimatum: my shredded nerves only allow me four hours of playtime a day before my right hand completely locks up.
I destroyed my own body for this team, only to be sold out by a coward and crucified by the very fans I bled for. Why should my legacy end in total disgrace because of someone else's greed?
I refuse to step down. I forced the traitor out, ignored management's safe roster choices, and locked my eyes on the most toxic, universally hated streamer on the platform.
"He's a walking PR nightmare," my coach warned.
I don't care. He is an arrogant, unhinged killer in the game, and I am going to make him mine. From Prison Cell To Billionaire's Target
Billionaires The freezing rain lashed against my face as I clung to the iron gates of the Hendrix estate, begging for a chance to prove I didn't kill my best friend.
I had come here for mercy, but the man I had secretly loved for years had a different plan. He didn't want to hear my truth; he wanted to see me broken.
As the sun rose, the estate manager delivered the final blow. He shoved Emery’s phone into my face, showing a forged text message that framed me for her death, then turned his back as the gates slammed shut.
My own family didn't offer a lifeline, either. When the police came for me, my parents didn't fight for my innocence; they chose to disown me to save their bank accounts from Alfredo’s wrath.
I was thrown into Rikers Island, stripped of my dignity, and subjected to years of calculated, brutal torture paid for by the man who once held my heart.
How could the person I loved turn my life into a private slaughterhouse based on a lie?
After three years of hell, I walked out of those prison gates with nothing but a scarred body and a hollow soul. The woman who loved Alfredo Hendrix died in that cell. Now, I’m back in the city where it all began, and I’m done hiding. The Alpha's Lost Luna: Too Late for Redemption
Werewolf For nine years, I was the "Wolfless Wonder," the shame of the Reyes Pack. I swallowed bitter suppressants every morning to hide my identity as a rare White Wolf, enduring my husband’s coldness just to stay by his side.
But tonight, Alpha Dominick shattered whatever bond we had left. He walked into the Annual Gathering with his mistress, Chastity, clinging to his arm, pregnant and smug.
When Chastity staged a miscarriage and blamed me, Dominick didn't ask for the truth. He dragged me to the hospital.
"She needs blood," he snarled. "O-Negative. Like yours."
He used the Alpha Command to force me onto the table. He watched as they drained me dry to save the woman destroying my life.
"Alpha, her heart rate is dropping!" the doctor warned. "It will kill her!"
Dominick didn't even flinch.
"Keep going," he ordered. "Take what you need until Chastity is safe."
As the machine beeped and darkness took me, the submissive wife died.
I woke up in the morgue holding cell and made a choice. I signed the divorce papers, set the penthouse on fire, and vanished into the night. He thought I burned to death.
He didn't know I escaped.
Months later, he tracked a ghost to a vineyard in London. But he didn't find the broken girl he sacrificed.
He found the White Wolf, glowing with silver magic, standing beside a new mate who actually cherished me.
Dominick fell to his knees, tears streaming down his face. "Annis, come home. I command you."
I looked down at him and smiled.
"Your voice doesn't work on me anymore, Alpha. You killed the part of me that listened." Humiliated Heiress: A Quest For Justice
Modern I was ambushed in my guardian's Hamptons estate by his son's fiancée, Kaitlyn. Accusing me of being a homewrecker, she and her friends began live-streaming my public humiliation. They beat me, destroyed my father's priceless business legacy, and forced me to my knees to beg for forgiveness on camera.
They shattered the last photo of my parents and then, after I groveled, crushed my mother's locket under their heels anyway.
My world was a blur of pain and confusion. Julien was like a brother to me. Harvey, his father, was my legal guardian. The accusation made no sense.
Just as they were about to strip me naked for their audience, Harvey arrived, his face a mask of thunder.
But the real shock came later, when a terrified Kaitlyn confessed the truth.
The attack wasn't about jealousy.
It was a calculated act of revenge for a decades-old family feud, and Harvey's own son, Julien, was the secret mastermind who had set me up to be destroyed. The Sister He Scorned, Now Adored
Modern For sixteen years, my step-brother Holden Wolf was my entire world. Every design I sketched, every dream I harbored, was a secret love letter to him.
Then he got engaged to a perfect social media influencer. When I finally showed him my heart in a portfolio of my life's work, he ripped it to shreds in a fit of rage.
"This is sick, Chelsea! I'm your brother!"
The humiliation didn't stop. He drunkenly forced himself on me while whispering his fiancée's name, only to blame me the next morning. "What were you doing in my bed? Your behavior is inappropriate."
My own mother called, not to comfort me, but to accuse me of trying to seduce him and ruin his perfect life.
After a lifetime of devotion, I was just a problem to be managed, a body to be mistaken in the dark. His love wasn't protection; it was a cage.
So I dyed my hair platinum blonde, accepted my estranged uncle's offer to study design in New York, and vanished without a word. This time, I was saving myself. The Price of His "Parting Gift"
Romance The Aspen snow fell, mirroring the blanket of happiness cocooning Ava Reed as she drove to Ethan Hayes' s mansion, a drone – her heartfelt anniversary gift – beside her.
Three years of love, whispered promises, and shared dreams were shattered when she overheard Ethan tell his friends she was just a "fun accessory," a "fling" he was ready to discard with a paltry directing gig as a "parting gift."
The laughter that followed was ugly, turning her world to ice. She burst in, confronted him, and threw his cruel words back, walking out on the man who had reduced their love to a transaction. But the humiliation didn' t end there. He gave her personal gift to Seraphina Vance, his "real" fiancée, who then flaunted it and the film role Ava was meant to have.
How could the man she loved be so indifferent, so actively cruel? How could her devotion be twisted into a casual deception? The public smear campaign that followed, orchestrated by Ethan and Seraphina, painted her as a desperate, unstable ex, ruining her career. She was adrift, lost, her entire identity systematically dismantled.
Just as she reached her breaking point, a mysterious invitation arrived, leading her to a shocking truth that would not only reclaim her name and fortune but force Ethan to confront the devastating consequences of his betrayal. A Telepath's Accidental Heroism
Modern The forest' s quiet shattered as a bleeding FBI agent burst through my cabin door, collapsing at my feet. My perfectly normal afternoon nap was over, replaced by the immediate, terrifying certainty that trouble had found our isolated home.
Ben Carter, handsome even as he bled out, was shot, his partner dead, and he was tangled in a massive counterfeiting ring leading straight to Senator Thompson. My stomach dropped – this was the kind of mess my sheriff dad always warned against. But then, as he gasped for help, a deeper dread set in: he heard my unspeakable thoughts. He heard everything I knew about him, about Thompson, about the danger.
My father arrived, intervening with Thompson's thugs, but not before he too picked up on my mental broadcasts, his face paling as he realized the depth of the conspiracy I'd unwittingly revealed. Our quiet life was over, replaced by federal agents, corrupt senators, and a constant, terrifying loss of privacy over my own mind.
How could I possibly live like this? My ability, usually just a nuisance, had now put us all in mortal danger, linking us irrevocably to a corrupt politician who wanted Ben dead. This wasn't some fantasy hero journey; it was an exhausting, terrifying invasion of my every private thought, broadcasting them to everyone around me.
Yet, as Thompson' s people sped away and Ben lay bleeding on our rug, a terrifying question formed in my mind: if my thoughts were this loud, could they also be my weapon? The Melody of Lies
Romance My hand, the one that made my living as a guitarist, was on fire.
A viral TMZ video showed my wife, Chloe, pressed against the ridiculously popular Caleb Hayes, the pop-country star she managed.
They looked close. Too close. My world ended that night when Caleb' s fans threw acid at me because of the supposed affair, scarring my face and destroying my hand.
Chloe tossed her keys, reeking of expensive perfume and his cheap cologne.
"It was a publicity stunt, Ryan."
Then she asked me, the man whose career she' d just ruined, to write a love song for Caleb.
About them.
I did it, pouring all my heartbreak into every note, only to walk into her office and find her in the arms of our label head, Marcus Vance, a man known for his predatory reputation.
He mocked me, calling himself her "patron."
My wife, the woman I loved, had cheated on me, scorned me, ruined me.
Then came the car crash.
The hospital.
The miscarriage.
And Marcus Vance, standing over Chloe's bed, claiming their child.
I was just the irrelevant husband, mocked by the world.
But Chloe' s strained accusation- "What about the evidence on my office computer?"-was no accusation at all.
It was a message.
My wife, the woman who seemed to revel in my pain, was sending me a clue.
Why would she do that?
Why would the woman who claimed my musical talent was worthless risk everything to hint at secret evidence?
What did I not know about Chloe' s life, about her true motives, about this monstrous man Marcus Vance, that would lead her to such a desperate, cryptic plea?
I drove like a madman to her office, my heart pounding with a desperate, new kind of hope.
I had to know the truth.
I had to find what she was hiding.
And I knew, deep down, that finding it would change everything. Betrayed By Her Beloved
Modern Ten years. That' s how long I' d spent in Ironwood, a frozen hell disguised as a "rehabilitation" facility, stripped bare.
Finally, I was home, a woman I barely recognized, clinging to Marcus and Leo' s hollow promises of normalcy.
I just wanted peace, to be safe. The recycled air inside felt foreign after the clean Alaskan crispness.
But peace was a cruel illusion.
I overheard them talking, my husband and my son, their voices low and urgent.
"She took the fall," Marcus confessed, "It was convenient."
My blood ran cold.
The "Aegis data breach" that stole a decade of my life was no accident of negligence, but a calculated frame-up by my own family to protect Vivian.
Their "sympathy" was a meticulously constructed performance.
My husband, the man who comforted me, was having an affair with my adoptive sister, Vivian, who now held my former title.
She paraded in front of me wearing the gown Marcus had commissioned for my anniversary.
My son, Leo, defended her, then burned my cherished journals for him, making space for "Aunt Viv's" things.
This house was not a home, but a gilded cage built on lies.
My own father lauded Vivian as a family "asset," subtly shaming me.
The trust that had flickered within me was extinguished, replaced by a cold, burning fury.
They had conveniently buried me for ten years in a brutal Alaskan prison, then expected me to play along.
My heart hammered with an overwhelming sense of injustice and betrayal.
They thought I was still broken.
They were wrong.
Amidst the ashes of my old life, my mother's cryptic words from years ago echoed: "The Seraphina Protocol. My escape hatch."
A meticulous archivist, a planner, was reawakening.
The gala would be their stage, yes.
But soon, it would be mine. From Invisible Wife to Unattainable Woman
Romance For a decade, I lived a shadow life as Ava Miller, executive assistant and secret wife to tech CEO Ethan Cole.
My days were for him, my nights for suppressed art dreams harbored in secret.
I was his indispensable, yet invisible, fixture—a doormat, friends called me—all for a forgotten childhood kindness.
But my carefully constructed world shattered when his public girlfriend, Tiffany, brazenly presented my most private keepsakes—my treasured journals, secret sketches, and beloved wooden box—on Ethan's desk.
Instead of defending me, Ethan laughed.
"Pathetic," he sneered, then fed every piece, every memory, into his industrial shredder.
The whirring sound didn't just chew paper and wood; it devoured my soul.
I stood frozen, watching my life become confetti.
That single act of cruel indifference, the 99th and final blow, ripped away the blind devotion I'd held for a lifetime.
How could the boy who once protected me as a child become this monster who so carelessly destroyed my most sacred memories?
The agonizing pain of feeling utterly worthless was a sudden, chilling clarity.
As the shredded fragments fluttered, a singular, cold resolve settled in me.
The debt was paid, the sacrifice complete.
My resignation was filed, my lawyer called for immediate divorce, and a one-way ticket for my dream fellowship booked.
He thought he annihilated me.
He only set me free.
But what happens when the man who destroyed your life finally learns the devastating truth about who you really are, and the profound, life-saving secret you've held for decades? She Walked Away: A Billionaire's Loss
Romance Ava Chen and Ethan Hayes were New York City's infamous power couple.
Their marriage a glossy battlefield of icy glares and public humiliations.
Beneath the gilded façade, it was a cold war, fought relentlessly.
But the bitterness had deep roots, stretching back to their wedding day when Ethan never appeared.
Instead, he launched a hostile takeover of her family's empire, leading to her father's arrest.
Ava's supposed best friend, Chloe, sealed their fate by maliciously editing a video, making Ethan believe Ava only married him for power.
Ava, heartbroken and defiant, lied and confirmed his fears.
Years of public mockery and private torment followed.
Ava's health crumbled, culminating in a terminal cancer diagnosis.
When she sought peace, Ethan cruelly dismissed her, moving Chloe into their penthouse and openly flaunting their affair.
Chloe's insidious manipulations went further, faking a pregnancy and framing Ava for a "miscarriage," cementing Ethan's hatred and forcing Ava into a devastating divorce.
Shattered by the betrayal of both her husband and her lifelong friend, facing death, Ava felt an unbearable injustice.
The depths of Chloe's malice, including the truth about the doctored video and her true love for Ethan, left Ava broken and desperate for oblivion.
With nothing left, Ava made a radical choice: an experimental neuro-therapy to erase every agonizing memory of her past, determined to find a quiet peace and disappear from a life that had only brought her pain. His Bet, Her Heist: A Calculated Romance
Young Adult I was Northwood Academy's charity case, my worn backpack and second-hand uniform screaming my poverty louder than any whisper.
Living miles from this privileged world, with my disabled dad and our crushing bills, escaping was my only thought. But Jessica Thorne, the queen bee, made sure I never forgot my place.
It started with the "First Annual Northwood Philanthropy Prize."
My name was called, not for an award, but for public humiliation.
They presented me with a massive cardboard check: "$0.00 – For Being Our Charity Case."
Laughter swelled, burning my face, but I kept my expression neutral.
Then, I overheard them: "The Sterling Bet." The school' s elite rich boys, led by golden boy Ethan Vanderbilt, schemed to fake a relationship with me, build me up, then publicly shatter my reputation right before the SATs, ensuring my future was ruined.
My blood ran cold.
This wasn't merely mockery; it was calculated sabotage, a crueler kind of war. Jessica's venomous glare confirmed she endorsed it, her bizarre comment about me being a "cheap knock-off" adding a chilling, unsettling layer to their game. Were they truly this bored and cruel?
But they underestimated the girl with nothing to lose. They wanted to play? Fine. I would play too. With an icy resolve hardening my heart, I smiled, accepting Ethan's offer of "help." My goal was no longer just survival. It was a calculated heist, and their resources would be my vault. I would win. You might like
Rejected by the Son, I Chose the Don
Rabbit On my wedding day, my father sold me to the Chicago Outfit to pay his debts. I was supposed to marry Alex Moreno, the heir to the city's most powerful crime family. But he couldn't even be bothered to show up.
As I stood alone at the altar, humiliated, my best friend delivered the final blow. Alex hadn't just stood me up; he had run off to California with his mistress.
The whispers in the cathedral turned me into a joke. I was damaged goods, the rejected bride. His family knew the whole time and let me take the public fall, offering me his cousins as pathetic replacements-a brute who hated me or a coward who couldn't protect me.
The humiliation burned away my fear, leaving only cold rage. My life was already over, so I decided to set the whole game on fire myself. The marriage pact only said a Carlson had to marry a Moreno; it never said which one.
With nothing left to lose, I looked past the pathetic boys they offered.
I chose the one man they never expected.
I chose his father, the Don himself.
My Husband's Brother Owns My Secret
Rabbit My marriage to Joshua Caldwell was a prison sentence. I was a Hartman trophy, sold to the powerful family who had destroyed mine.
Then I discovered he was cheating. His mistress was pregnant with the child he denied me, and he was stealing my secret song lyrics to build her career. When I confronted him, he called me a spineless liability and threatened to destroy what was left of my family.
To make matters worse, a one-night stand with a stranger turned out to be with my husband's brother, Anthony Caldwell-the Don of the city. He knew all of Joshua's secrets and used them to trap me in a twisted game, seeing me as nothing more than an asset.
They both thought I was a broken doll they could control.
I wrote a song for his mistress, a beautiful execution with a single, impossible note I knew would destroy her voice.
She sang it, and now her career is over.
Now the Don has summoned me to Chicago, not knowing the woman he thinks is his asset is the one who just burned his brother's world to the ground. Betrayed, I Married the Feared Cripple
Hu Minxue Three days after my fiancé publicly dumped me for my stepsister, the Supreme Don issued a command that silenced the entire estate.
I wasn't being cast aside. I was being sold to Damien Russo.
The "Broken Don." A crippled, scarred monster rumored to have murdered his last two wives.
My adoptive mother, Elena, didn't cry for me. She smirked.
To her, I was finally being disposed of.
She was so confident I was walking to my death that she decided to loot my corpse before I even left.
She forged documents to steal my entire inheritance—my biological mother’s trust fund—to pay for my stepsister’s lavish wedding to my ex.
"She won't need money where she's going," my stepsister laughed, wearing a dress bought with my stolen funds.
They thought they were sending a lamb to the slaughter.
They thought I was too weak, too stupid, and too afraid of the monster to fight back.
But they made a fatal mistake.
With my aunt’s help, I didn't just find the proof of their embezzlement; I found a weapon.
I’m not running from the monster. I’m going to marry him.
And when I hand him the evidence that the Herrera family stole from his bride, he won't be my executioner.
He will be my vengeance. His Vow Broke, Her Empire Woke
Hei Baidong I was the perfect Mafia wife, my dowry the foundation of my husband's ambition. I paid for his Yale degree, his tailored suits, and the very mansion he called his own. My reward? He paraded his mistress into my bedroom and declared her his second wife, expecting me to silently finance their affair.
They thought they had broken a merchant's daughter. They forgot I was raised by wolves.
Armed with a blood chit—a life debt owed to my family by the most feared man in Chicago—I walked into the lion's den. I went to Damien 'The Wraith' Falcone, the Dark Don who rules the Outfit with an iron fist, to demand a simple annulment.
But the King of Chicago isn't interested in simple transactions. He saw the steel beneath my silk, the vendetta burning in my eyes. He granted me my freedom, but at a price: my allegiance. Now, I'm a pawn in his lethal game of thrones, caught between a treacherous husband I swore to destroy and a ruthless Don who looks at me with a terrifying, possessive hunger.
In a city built on loyalty and betrayal, I'm about to teach them all that a queen's wrath is the deadliest weapon of all. Too Late, Mr. Capo: Your Wife Is Gone
Mo Yufei "Happy Anniversary," my husband said, sliding the separation agreement across the mahogany desk.
It was the eighteenth time in five years I had signed these papers.
Matteo De Luca, the most ruthless Capo in New York, checked his Rolex with cold impatience.
"Sign it, Sera. Bianca is on the ledge again. She needs to see we're over, or she jumps."
Bianca. The ward. The broken bird. The woman whose fragile psyche dictated every moment of my marriage.
I signed my name, and he left me alone on our anniversary to save her. Again.
But saving her wasn't enough.
When Bianca pushed me down a flight of marble stairs in a fit of jealous rage, shattering my spine and leaving me paralyzed, I thought Matteo would finally choose me.
I was wrong.
I woke up in the hospital to find him holding her hand, not mine.
"The security footage has been wiped," he told me, his voice void of emotion. "We cannot have a scandal. You fell, Sera. That is the story."
He erased the truth. He erased my pain.
He protected the woman who crippled me over his own wife.
Two months later, he wheeled me into a gala, playing the doting husband while I sat in the chair that was my prison.
He didn't know I had a burner phone hidden in my velvet dress.
He didn't know that tonight, the obedient wife was going to die on the pavement, and a ghost would rise in her place.
I looked at him one last time and dropped the phone in his lap.
"I hope she's worth it." The Discarded Wife Is A Mafia Queen
Shore Tour I am the wife of Dante Moretti, a powerful Mafia Underboss. But in secret, I am "Spettro," the phantom architect who built his entire encrypted bootlegging empire.
On my birthday, I came home to find him gifting our five-year-old daughter the exact plush toy he had violently slapped out of my hands months ago. Only this time, he was giving it to his mistress, Adriana, to present as her own.
"Auntie Adriana is a million times better than Mommy."
My daughter's innocent words pierced my heart, while Dante coldly dismissed my presence, treating me like an unwelcome stranger interrupting their perfect family. He mocked my mothering, allowed his mistress to sever my desperate phone calls with my child, and weaponized his power to break our daughter's spirit just to spite me. He sneered that my only purpose was to stay quiet, absolutely certain I would crawl back the second my allowance ran dry.
He thought I was just a weak, submissive wife who had lost everything. He didn't realize that the empire he arrogantly ruled was entirely built on my stolen brilliance.
I left my diamond ring on the table, violently slashed our ancient blood oath in half, and walked out of his gilded cage forever.
Sitting in a cold warehouse, I placed my hands on my telegraph machine and initiated the Ghost Protocol to permanently paralyze his entire criminal network.
The era of playing the dutiful wife was over. I am Donna Falcone, and the vendetta has just begun. Married To The Comatose Mafia King
Benjamen Ernst I stood before the altar of the grand gothic cathedral, about to marry Julian Moretti, the grieving adopted son stepping up for the comatose Don.
To the hundreds of mafia men behind us, it was a dutiful wedding. But I knew the horrifying truth.
Julian and his pregnant mistress, Clara, had orchestrated a brutal plot to steal my dowry and secure his place as the next Don.
In my past life, I was completely blind to their betrayal. Julian trapped me in our apartment and set it ablaze.
I could still feel the blistering heat of the fire. I could still hear my mother’s agonizing screams and my little brother Antonio’s desperate coughing as the smoke filled our lungs.
My entire family was burned alive just so Julian could swap the brides and put his whore in my place.
I died in pure agony, filled with hatred and despair, wondering why I had trusted a monster.
God hadn't saved me from those flames. The Devil had.
And he sent me back to this exact moment at the altar.
"Do you, Isabella Rossi, take Julian Moretti to be your lawfully wedded husband?" the priest asked.
Julian reached for my hand with a sickeningly gentle smile.
I didn't give it to him. I tore back my lace veil and turned to face the crowd.
"You are mistaken, Father," I said, my voice like ice. "The man I am bound to marry is your Don. Damien Moretti." Contract With The Devil: Love In Shackles
Dorine Koestler I watched my husband sign the papers that would end our marriage while he was busy texting the woman he actually loved.
He didn't even glance at the header. He just scribbled the sharp, jagged signature that had signed death warrants for half of New York, tossed the file onto the passenger seat, and tapped his screen again.
"Done," he said, his voice devoid of emotion.
That was Dante Moretti. The Underboss. A man who could smell a lie from a mile away but couldn't see that his wife had just handed him an annulment decree disguised beneath a stack of mundane logistics reports.
For three years, I scrubbed his blood out of his shirts. I saved his family's alliance when his ex, Sofia, ran off with a civilian.
In return, he treated me like furniture.
He left me in the rain to save Sofia from a broken nail. He left me alone on my birthday to drink champagne on a yacht with her. He even handed me a glass of whiskey—her favorite drink—forgetting that I despised the taste.
I was merely a placeholder. A ghost in my own home.
So, I stopped waiting. I burned our wedding portrait in the fireplace, left my platinum ring in the ashes, and boarded a one-way flight to San Francisco.
I thought I was finally free. I thought I had escaped the cage.
But I underestimated Dante.
When he finally opened that file weeks later and realized he had signed away his wife without looking, the Reaper didn't accept defeat.
He burned down the world to find me, obsessed with reclaiming the woman he had already thrown away.