She Tagged Her Boyfriend to Show Off, But I Stole Him Instead Chapter 1

Under a trending TikTok video, a woman tagged her boyfriend to watch.

[Everyone move over! My hubby loves this kind of thing, let him watch first!]

I clicked on her profile picture and froze.

She was the girl who bullied me in high school.

I would recognize that face even if it turned to ashes.

I stayed up all night scrolling through all her videos, then clicked on the boyfriend she tagged.

I sent a DM.

[You there?]

* * *

Before seeing Chloe Vance again, I had imagined many times what she must be like now.

I thought bad people would eventually get their karma, that she would be living a miserable, impoverished life.

But she wasn't.

In the videos she posted, today she was at the Cheval Blanc Randheli in the Maldives, a hotel that costs tens of thousands a night; tomorrow she was flying to Iceland to see the Northern Lights; the day after, she was speeding down the West Coast in a sports car at sunset.

Her most recent photo showed her sitting in a black Rolls-Royce, wearing a Chanel suit, smiling brightly at the camera, without a hint of worry on her face.

She looked like she was living an incredibly good life.

But why did she deserve it?

I stared hard at her smiling face on my phone screen. Slowly, that smiling face morphed into her wearing a high school uniform, slapping me while laughing, again and again, until her hand hurt, then switching with the person behind her, laughing as she aimed her phone camera at my swollen, bleeding face:

"Smile, Maya! Weren't you the one who loved acting like a slut the most? Why aren't you smiling now?!"

She yanked my hair hard, her smile growing wider:

"Smile!"

Chloe's malice towards me started when the boy she liked gave me a birthday present.

He gave me a designer bag for my birthday, supposedly brought back from Europe by his mom. It cost over three thousand dollars, and I was so scared I refused to take it. He got mad and threw it at me, saying if I didn't want it, I could just throw it away.

While I was standing there holding the bag, not knowing what to do, Chloe walked in.

She snatched the bag, stared at it for a moment, and suddenly smiled. But that smile looked incredibly twisted, making my blood run cold.

"I asked him for this bag for three months and he wouldn't give it to me. I didn't expect he actually wanted to give it to you."

She looked up at me, her gaze making my hair stand on end:

"Maya, you're pretty capable, aren't you."

After that, Chloe started constantly targeting me.

My biggest fear every day was school letting out, because I never knew when she would bring people to corner me in the bathroom for a beating and humiliation.

During that time, I lived in constant fear every day, plagued by nightmares every night, but I didn't dare tell anyone.

My parents divorced when I was young, both starting new families. Only my grandmother, who had a bad limp, was willing to take me in.

She ran a small deli, waking up early and staying up late to sell food to pay for my schooling.

I was one of the few students at that private school who got in on a full scholarship because of my excellent grades.

I didn't dare tell the teachers, because Chloe threatened me with my grandmother. I also knew that the school would definitely turn a blind eye to Chloe, whose family was powerful and influential.

I could only study harder, hoping to get into a good college early and leave this place.

But in the end, I couldn't even realize that small hope.

The night before the SATs, Chloe locked me in the bathroom again. This time, she had people strip off my clothes and take photos.

I was locked in the bathroom all night and couldn't leave, so I didn't know that my photos had already appeared in various local group chats that night.

I also didn't know that Chloe intentionally had someone go to my grandmother's deli to show her those photos.

My grandmother was worried sick and couldn't wait for me to come home. She limped all the way to the school to find me.

Then, because she was too anxious and didn't look carefully while crossing the street, she was hit and run over by a fatigued truck driver, dying on the spot.

I only found out the news the next morning when the school janitor let me out.

I saw stars, my head spun, and I collapsed on the ground, my mind a complete blank.

When I woke up, I was already in the hospital.

In one day, I lost the chance to take the SATs and change my fate, and the grandmother I depended on for survival.

I remember almost nothing about the aftermath of that day. My body was probably in so much pain that it triggered a self-protection mechanism and sealed away that memory. I only remember the teacher coming to see me then. I heard her telling someone else in the hallway with great pity:

"She had the potential for the Ivy League. What a shame."

Chloe got away scot-free, only being called into the principal's office for a scolding.

Because her dad was a well-known local entrepreneur and a major taxpayer, the principal didn't dare offend him.

I used the remaining money we had to arrange my grandmother's funeral. I didn't have money to retake the year, so I could only find a job at a factory to support myself.

Meanwhile, Chloe was sent to the US for college, starting her fabulous life.

...

I sat on the bed in the dark bedroom, just staring blankly at the pitch-black ceiling.

During the hardest years, I often spaced out like this.

Actually, life got a lot better later on. After I started making money, I got my bachelor's degree through adult education, saved up some money, and opened my own online women's clothing store, acting as my own model. Luckily, I was pretty, caught a trend, and business boomed. Now, I have achieved financial freedom.

I thought I had forgotten the past. I thought I could start a new life.

But the moment I saw Chloe's face, I suddenly realized that I had never let it go.

I hated her. I hated her to death.

I sat there until dawn, my stiff fingers finally clicking on the account she tagged.

It was an account with a minimalist line-drawing avatar, with not a single video posted.

But I quickly found out his identity.

Liam Sterling, Chloe's fiancé.

The Vance family was on the verge of bankruptcy when she was in college, and finally managed to bounce back through an arranged marriage. The Sterling family was the powerful backer the Vance family clung to.

It was also the guarantee that Chloe could live such a luxurious life now.

Chloe didn't recognize me anymore. It was truly ironic. She had personally pushed me into hell, and I saw her smiling face in every nightmare, but she didn't remember me anymore, even tagging Liam in my comments section for him to see.

I tapped the chat icon next to Liam's avatar, thought for a moment, and sent him a DM.

[You there?]