Chloe offered Sera a sympathetic look before answering. "I was just a bit worried."

"I saw Sera's social media and knew you were both out here by the desert springs, so I decided to track you down."

With that, she turned her gaze toward Sera.

"Sera, you still remember me, right? I'm Charles's colleague. I even attended your wedding."

"It's such a shame. You're still so young, yet you've been diagnosed with cancer, and of all things, uterine cancer. I remember Charles always lived a very disciplined life. He doesn't smoke or drink, and he works out every day. I really can't understand how you could end up with this kind of illness."

As a woman herself, how could Sera not catch the subtle malice laced in Chloe's words?

She fired back immediately, "Of course I remember you. You're Charles's ex-girlfriend."

"My mother-in-law mentioned you plenty of times. Back then, you thought Charles's family background was too ordinary, so you dumped him to marry the son of the medical center's director. How is that working out for you? Is living on someone else's dime exhausting? Playing the trophy wife must be hard work."

Chloe's face turned pale in an instant, though she desperately forced herself to maintain a tight smile.

"That's all in the past. We've both moved on. Charles even came to my wedding."

"You two weren't even together when I got married. When we go back, I'll introduce you to my husband. He has a vast network. Since Charles and I are friends, just let me know if you ever need anything. I'll definitely help if I can."

As Chloe uttered those last words, the smug gloating in her voice was entirely impossible to hide.

Fearing that Sera might say something even more humiliating, she quickly added, "I saw the photos you posted online, and they are beautiful. Could you take a picture of me? I want to send it to my husband."

Sera put her camera away, raising an eyebrow with an icy expression.

"I'm sorry, but my camera only captures beautiful things. It doesn't shoot trash or garbage."

Leaving those words hanging, she completely ignored Chloe's distorted face, turned on her heel, and walked away toward the nearby desert campsite.

Upon reaching the camp, Sera dropped her backpack and began setting up the grill.

Just as she placed the meat onto the rack, a pair of distinct, well-proportioned hands reached over to take the skewers from her.

Sera looked up, meeting Charles's dark eyes.

"Your health is poor. Go rest on the side, I'll handle this."

Chloe stepped forward as well, picking up the seasoning box from the table. "I'll help too."

Thick-skinned people always managed to live remarkably well.

Sera could only marvel at their shamelessness. She sat alone at the dining table, watching Charles expertly flip the skewers over the grill while Chloe happily played his assistant.

The two of them chatted and laughed, completely at ease.

Ten minutes later, Chloe brought over a plate of grilled meat and handed it to Sera with a sweet smile.

"After all these years, Charles's grilling is still as amazing as ever. Sera, you're truly lucky. Back in college, whenever I lost my appetite, Charles actually went out of his way to get a culinary certification just so he could cook different dishes for me every single day."

"Anyone who has tasted his food says that if he weren't a surgeon, he could easily run a successful restaurant."

Sera didn't reach for the plate Chloe was holding. Instead, she spoke in a thoroughly flat voice.

"I have never eaten a single meal cooked by Charles."

The moment the words left her mouth, a suffocating silence fell over the camp.

Charles walked over to Sera's side and poured her a glass of water. "My schedule has always been packed, so I never had the time. If you want to eat it from now on, I will cook for you."

Hearing this, Chloe immediately chimed in.

"That's right, Charles. Your wife is ill now, so you really should take better care of her."

"You used to tell me all the time that if we got married, no matter how busy or exhausted you were, you would always look after me and cook all three meals for me yourself."

"How can you neglect your own wife just because you're busy? Since you married Sera, you need to be responsible for her."

Listening to Chloe's constant, passive-aggressive bragging, Sera finally snapped. She pulled out her phone and started recording a video right in Chloe's face.

"Chloe, if you don't mind, would you please repeat exactly what you just said?"

"I want the entire internet, your current husband, your colleagues, and your friends to see this and hear this clearly."

"I want them to know just how deeply in love you and my husband used to be."

Chloe's face instantly drained of all color, and she instinctively threw her hands up to shield her face.

Without even trying to understand the situation, Charles immediately jumped in to defend Chloe. "Sera, what are you doing? Chloe was just being kind enough to bring you food. Why are you filming her with your phone?"

"Put the phone down."

Staring at the display before her, Sera didn't even feel sad anymore. She only felt a profound, crushing disappointment in the version of herself that had once chosen this man to be her husband.

She picked up the nearest dining platter and hurled it straight at Charles.

"Charles! If you haven't completely cleared your heart for someone else, you shouldn't have dragged another person into your mess!"

"Do you honestly think I'm blind? You still love her, don't you?"

"Since you love each other so much, go get a divorce and be together! Why did you have to ruin an innocent person's life?!"

"Your department is located in building seven, but do you think I didn't know that you took a detour to building three every single day just to catch a glimpse of Chloe?"

Chloe froze in utter shock.

Charles stared at her, completely incredulous.

Sera paid no attention to their bewildered expressions. She stood up and violently kicked over the dining table and the charcoal grill.

"Who wants to eat your filthy food! It makes me sick just looking at it!"

"I tried to ignore you, but you two just had to crawl over here, acting completely relentless. Chloe, does playing the homewrecker and trying to compete with a dying woman make you feel proud? Aren't you terrified that after I die, I'll come back to haunt you?"

With those words, she grabbed the remaining ingredients and chunks of raw charcoal, throwing them relentlessly at Charles and Chloe.

Pale with terror, Chloe hid behind Charles, screaming at Sera, "Sera, have you lost your mind? What do you think you're doing!"

"Yes, I am out of my mind!"

Sera shrieked at the top of her lungs, "I'm already dying! I can do whatever the hell I want!"

"Chloe, boasting about how wonderful Charles was to you in front of me is far too boring. Let me help you broadcast it to the world. Let's make sure everyone sees just how deeply devoted you two are."

"So devoted that even though you're both married to other people, you still can't stop pinning for each other."

The chaotic scene quickly drew the attention of surrounding tourists.

As the onlookers pieced together what was happening, judgment and disgust quickly filled their eyes as they stared at Charles and Chloe.

Sera didn't give them another look and walked straight back to the resort alone.

Lying on her bed to rest, she recalled everything that had transpired that afternoon and suddenly burst out laughing.

For the first time in her five years of marriage, she felt truly happy, thoroughly vindicated.

She finally didn't have to endure or compromise anymore; she could finally just be herself.

What Sera didn't know was that her outburst in the desert had been caught on camera by a passerby and uploaded to the internet.

Within minutes, the short video skyrocketed to the number one trending spot on social media.

The entire internet was raging on her behalf.

"Oh my god, the legal wife is literally dying, and the mistress and the husband are teaming up to bully her!"

"The wife is so tragic, you can literally hear her heartbreak in her screams."

"That disgusting couple deserves to rot in hell!"

……

Some relatives quickly recognized the people in the video as Sera, Charles, and Chloe.

Before dawn broke, Sera was awoken by a barrage of message notifications on her phone.

She opened her messaging app to find her husband's family group chat flooded with texts from her in-laws.

Her mother-in-law wrote: "They say family scandals shouldn't be aired in public, but my daughter-in-law has truly taught me a lesson this time."

Her father-in-law chimed in: "Forget it, she's emotionally unstable. Sorry to let all our relatives see such a joke."