The Prodigy’s Last Dance of Love

The Prodigy's Last Dance of Love

Julian Reid

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The terminal diagnosis felt like an ending, a quiet period to a long, exhausting sentence. I, Ava, the world' s only true prodigy in data analytics, was dying. My mind-a machine that could map the future with flawless precision-couldn't find a single path that didn't end in a hospital bed. The irony was suffocating. My body was failing because my mind had been running at an impossible overload for centuries. Not just this lifetime, but seven of them, a secret etched physically on my chest. Then the doorbell rang. It was Liam, my ex-fiancé, radiating success as always. But he wasn't alone. Clinging to his arm, my stepsister, Chloe, was unmistakably pregnant. "We came to tell you in person," Liam said, his voice devoid of warmth. "Chloe and I are getting married. Next month." Chloe added with fake sweetness, "We wanted you to be the first to know, sis." He then dropped the bombshell: "I' m buying out your shares. It' s time we made a clean break." He was cutting me out, erasing me from the company I had built. I watched him. He saw my frail form, noted my fading life, and coldly assessed it as his final liberation. He believed my death would untether him, unleashing his supposed genius to unimaginable heights. Little did he know, he was a parasitic fool convinced he was the host. For six hundred years, I had been the silent engine behind his every success, bleeding myself dry in the process. Each lifetime, my illness and early death fueled his ascent, bound by a master-servant contract. He thought my dying was his victory. He was wrong. My death was not a sentence. It was a deadline. And for the first time in centuries, I felt not despair, but a cold, sharp surge of energy. He thought he was closing the book on me. He had just given me permission to write the final, devastating chapter. This time, I was ready to reclaim what was mine.

Introduction

The terminal diagnosis felt like an ending, a quiet period to a long, exhausting sentence.

I, Ava, the world' s only true prodigy in data analytics, was dying.

My mind-a machine that could map the future with flawless precision-couldn't find a single path that didn't end in a hospital bed.

The irony was suffocating.

My body was failing because my mind had been running at an impossible overload for centuries.

Not just this lifetime, but seven of them, a secret etched physically on my chest.

Then the doorbell rang.

It was Liam, my ex-fiancé, radiating success as always.

But he wasn't alone.

Clinging to his arm, my stepsister, Chloe, was unmistakably pregnant.

"We came to tell you in person," Liam said, his voice devoid of warmth. "Chloe and I are getting married. Next month."

Chloe added with fake sweetness, "We wanted you to be the first to know, sis."

He then dropped the bombshell: "I' m buying out your shares. It' s time we made a clean break."

He was cutting me out, erasing me from the company I had built.

I watched him.

He saw my frail form, noted my fading life, and coldly assessed it as his final liberation.

He believed my death would untether him, unleashing his supposed genius to unimaginable heights.

Little did he know, he was a parasitic fool convinced he was the host.

For six hundred years, I had been the silent engine behind his every success, bleeding myself dry in the process.

Each lifetime, my illness and early death fueled his ascent, bound by a master-servant contract.

He thought my dying was his victory.

He was wrong.

My death was not a sentence.

It was a deadline.

And for the first time in centuries, I felt not despair, but a cold, sharp surge of energy.

He thought he was closing the book on me.

He had just given me permission to write the final, devastating chapter.

This time, I was ready to reclaim what was mine.

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Unveiling His Secrets, Finding Her Strength

Unveiling His Secrets, Finding Her Strength

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The plan was simple: surprise my husband, Mark, in our new city after two months apart. Our daughter Lily was buzzing with excitement on the plane, her little legs kicking the seat in front. I imagined his face, the shock turning into a wide grin. But when I opened the door to his temporary apartment with the spare key he' d sent, my world shattered. His "temporary" place looked lived-in, cozy, with two coffee mugs in the sink and a woman' s sweater draped over a chair. Next to a framed photo of Mark and Lily was another-of Mark grinning with a younger woman I didn' t recognize, their arms around each other at a beach sunset. The scent of a perfume that wasn' t mine filled the air. Mark emerged from the bedroom, a towel around his waist, his hair wet. His bright smile was for Lily, before it froze when he saw me. Panic flashed in his eyes, quickly replaced by an overly cheerful "Ava! Lily! What… what are you guys doing here? This is amazing!" He scooped Lily into his arms, avoiding my gaze. He was a good actor, but I wasn't his audience. I had just seen the whole script. I stood frozen, the handle of my luggage digging into my palm. He was a liar. He had called me last night, telling me how much he missed us, how he was working late to build our future. But his texts to "Chloe" revealed a whole other life. Pictures of them cooking in his kitchen, of them on hikes he told me he was too busy to take. He' d spent Lily' s birthday weekend with her at a luxury spa resort, while I thought he was working. He hadn't moved for his job. He moved for her. Then Chloe appeared at the door, letting herself in with a silent beep. Her fingerprint was programmed into his lock. "Hi, Chloe!" Lily chirped, waving. My daughter knew her. Mark' s face turned pasty. "Why?" Chloe asked, shrugging him off, her eyes locked on mine. "I think we should all have dinner together. Get to know each other." The audacity of this woman, inviting me and my child to dinner in my husband' s apartment. It was a power play, a declaration of war. I didn't understand. The man I married was kind, devoted, and honest. The man whose phone I held was a monster, living a double life. How could he do this to us? To Lily? My own mother and his parents sided with him, gaslighting me, telling me I was overreacting, threatening to take Lily. They underestimated me. They thought I was broken. They were wrong.

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The sterile white of the operating room blurred, then sharpened, as Skye Sterling felt the cold clawing its way up her body. The heart monitor flatlined, a steady, high-pitched whine announcing her end. Her uterus had been removed, a desperate attempt to stop the bleeding, but the blood wouldn't clot. It just kept flowing, warm and sticky, pooling beneath her. Through heavy eyes, she saw a trembling nurse holding a phone on speaker. "Mr. Kensington," the nurse's voice cracked, "your wife... she's critical." A pause, then a sweet, poisonous giggle. Seraphina Miller. "Liam is in the shower," Seraphina's voice purred. "Stop calling, Skye. It's pathetic. Faking a medical emergency on our anniversary? Even for you, that's low." Then, Liam's bored voice: "If she dies, call the funeral home. I have a meeting in the morning." Click. The line went dead. A second later, so did Skye. The darkness that followed was absolute, suffocating, a black ocean crushing her lungs. She screamed into the void, a silent, agonizing wail of regret for loving a man who saw her as a nuisance, for dying without ever truly living. Until she died, she didn't understand. Why was her life so tragically wasted? Why did her husband, the man she loved, abandon her so cruelly? The injustice of it all burned hotter than the fever in her body. Then, the air rushed back in. Skye gasped, her body convulsing violently on the mattress. Her eyes flew open, wide and terrified, staring blindly into the darkness. Her trembling hand reached for her phone. May 12th. Five years ago. She was back.

Secret Baby: The Jilted Wife's Final Goodbye

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I sat on the cold tile floor of our Upper East Side penthouse, staring at the two pink lines until my vision blurred. After ten years of loving Julian Sterling and three years of a hollow marriage, I finally had the one thing that could bridge the distance between us. I was pregnant. But Julian didn't come home with flowers for our anniversary. He tossed a thick manila envelope onto the marble coffee table with a heavy thud. Fiona, the woman he'd truly loved for years, was back in New York, and he told me our "business deal" was officially over. "Sign it," He said, his voice flat and devoid of emotion. He looked at me with the cold detachment of a man selling a piece of unwanted furniture. When I hesitated, he told me to add a zero to the alimony if the money wasn't enough. I realized in that moment that if he knew about the baby, he wouldn't love me; he would simply take my child and give it to Fiona to raise. I shoved the pregnancy test into my pocket, signed the papers with a shaking hand, and lied through my teeth. When my morning sickness hit, I slumped to the floor to hide the truth. "It's just cramps," I gasped, watching him recoil as if I were contagious. To make him stay away, I invented a man named Jack-a fake boyfriend who supposedly gave me the kindness Julian never could. Suddenly, the man who wanted me gone became a monster of possessiveness. He threatened to "bury" a man who didn't exist while leaving me humiliated at his family's dinner to rush to Fiona's side. I was so broken that I even ate a cake I was deathly allergic to, then had to refuse life-saving steroids at the hospital because they would harm the fetus. Julian thinks he's stalling the divorce for two months to protect the family's reputation for his father's Jubilee. He thinks he's keeping his "property" on a short leash until the press dies down. He has no idea I'm using those sixty days to build a fortress for my child. By the time he realizes the truth, I'll be gone, and the Sterling heir will be far beyond his reach.

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