His Cruel Test, My Broken Heart

The hospital air was cold, the envelope in my trembling hands heavy with the thirty thousand dollars – every penny my mother and I had scraped together to save her. But the bed was empty. The nurse' s soft words, "She' s gone," shattered my world. Then came the note, her shaky handwriting revealing a truth more devastating than death: She' d endured unbearable pain, not for a cure, but to save money for Jake, for my freedom. Clutching her ashes, I arrived at Jake' s office, the "good man who' d just lost his way." Then I heard it-voices from the conference room: my creditor, Chloe Adams, and Jake' s cold, analytical voice. "You can' t have a gold digger for a wife," Chloe purred. And Jake' s reply, chilling me to the bone: "Next, I need to know if she' s truly devoted to me... If she still loves me and not my money, then I' ll marry her." My mother died for a lie. His "struggle," our sacrifices, our love – it was all a cruel, elaborate test. A game. He was the CEO of Miller Corp, a billionaire, and I was just a lab rat in his sick experiment. I walked out, leaving him, his lies, and the ruins of my life behind. I will never look back.