The nails that pierced deep into the palms of the girl drew blood.

 " Let me see him"

The girl who spoke stood trembling in front of a large mansion, her eyes bloodshot. There were tear stains on her cheeks and the way her lips trembled showed there was a threat of more. She was biting her lower lips with so much force but her teeth were a little too blunt to cause any injury. Gaunt and thin, she looked like the softest gust of wind could throw her off board.

Right in front of her was another lady, the person who was watching her spew so much emotions and didn't care at all. Their appearance was heaven and earth apart. Where she was frail and sick looking, her hair lusterless and her cheeks almost caved; her counterpart was healthy and elegant, her hair thick and shiny and her cheeks were soft any rosy.

Anyone looking at them would definitely not believe that Ah Cy, the girl who was broken in and out was once the beauty of the town that had captured every single person's attention.

 Because of the love she had and the deep desire to be loved back, she had given up everything. She lowered herself to be a good housewife, submissive and obedient. She even gave up all her dreams so she could gain the approval of his family. Because of Lu Shen, the man who was supposed to be her husband, she was now a shadow of her former self. She had been so stupid to follow Chang Yang's advice that were vineger layered with honey. She had been so blinded and desperate that she didn't see that the person who she trusted more than herself was only ruining her life. As she stood in front of Chang Yang who obviously had no remorse at all for betraying her best friend, Ah Cy remembered how she had been advised by Chang Yang to seize taking care of herself. She told her that it was too excessive and Lu Shen and his family would think of her as superficial and a gold digger if she bought anything for herself other than the basic necessities. Ah Cy had listened and like a confused sheep, she let herself go. Her dresses became more housewifely, her beauty slowly fading with rough care. She stayed up almost every night to cook for Lu Shen while he was away at work and made sure to wake up before the sun did every other day to prepare breakfast which he barely looked at. He never for once appreciated her or her efforts. Less than a wife and more of a slave she was. All of her efforts earned her nothing but a frosty glance from him.

He didn't acknowledge her as a woman, talk less of as his wife. He found it hard to even look at her sometimes. And all through this, Chang Yang was there reassuring her that she would take care of it. Since they had been friends since high school and Chang Yang was also childhood friends with Lu Shen, Ah Cy had taken her word for it. She believed that Chang Yang was really going to fix it, that she was going to tell Lu Shen of her good points, of how good of a wife she was and slowly make him love her just as she loved him.

Little did she know that Chang Yang's meaning of "taking care of him" was vastly different from hers.

While she slaved everyday like a housekeeper, her supposed best friend was crawling her way into her husband's heart. She still couldn't understand how she had not seen it. How stupid had she been? And now after she had lost everything- her beauty, her happiness, her home and her parent's trust- she was kicked out of the place she had nurtured to be her home and left alone to face the pang of betrayal from her best friend and husband. This was too much for her. She was homeless and broken with no one to turn to and no place to call home. All her dreams she had let go of to pursue one she thought she desperately needed and as usual, she had met with failure.

All she had ever wanted was to know what it felt like to have someone love and care for her. She had lacked that feeling right from the start. Her family never cared about her, she was a mistake to them. She came at the wrong time and as a wrong gender and they made sure to remind her of this every single day. She had jumped into marriage at the slightest opportunity she had thinking it would be better. How wrong she was? It only got worse and this, what she was feeling now was the peak of it all. 

She felt her heart breaking all over again as she thought about everything and more tears fell off her eyes.

 " Let me see him" she cried again.

 " Oh! Poor Ah Cy!" Chang Yang mumbled, her face set in a wicked smirk.

 " Now don't make me feel guilty. You know I hate to see you cry" she said again as her lips curved into a mocking pout.

 " How could you do this to me? I trusted you, you were my best friend. You…"

 " That's enough already" Chang Yang cut in rudely.

 " It's not my fault that you were so stupid to not see it all by yourself. You…you are so naive and dumb. You don't know how to handle someone like Lu Shen, he's too good for you. Plus he was mine from the start so I was simply taking what's mine"

Her words were like a broken glass. They stabbed right through Ah Cy's heart and made her tears flow like a waterfall.

 " Oh! C'mon Ah Cy, you can do better than this. You're stronger than crying for something you know you can never get. I'm still your best friend, you know. I… I was just doing you a favour. You don't belong here, you can never fit in and that's a fact. I was saving you the stress"

 " Chang Yang, how could you be so wicked? Lu Shen is my husband…" once again, her words were swallowed because she was cut off.

 " Was! Lu Shen was your husband. He's mine now" Her smile was gone. Chang Yang had a frown on her face, a deep frown that Ah Cy had never seen before. The look on her face made it seem that she could kill someone just to get what she wants. This wasn't the Chang Yang she knew. This wasn't her best friend.

 " You are just a stupid useless girl. If your family didn't love you, what made you think Lu Shen will? You don't belong anywhere, no one needs you. No one will love you. You're trash Ah Cy, nothing but trash"

Ah Cy felt her words get stuck up in her throat as her tears choked her. The words she just heard kept ringing in her head and the only response to it was the tears that spilled from her eyes.

 " Chang Yang…"

Just then, the door of the main house opened and a handsome man aged not more than 30 appeared from behind the door.

 " What's going on here?" His deep voice was carried by the wind to the two ladies. Ah Cy felt hope in her heart as her eyes fell on Lu Shen. He was looking at her and for that brief moment, he held her eyes and made her feel there was hope after all. 

All of it was dashed away however as he looked away from her and disappeared just the way he appeared. Ah Cy opened her mouth to say something but she felt her strength failing her as she crumbled unto the ground, the tears not seizing from her eyes.

The look on Chang Yang's face didn't make it any better. Her smirk was filled with confidence.

 " See! Even Lu Shen thinks you're trash too" she waited for her words to sink in and then added.

 " Now get out of my building before I have to call the security" and with that, she slammed the gate right in Ah Cy's face and walked away leaving her best friend to face her pain all alone.