Hypnotized Love, Awoken Revenge

My wife was one of the top hypnotherapists in the country. When her first love ran over and killed my mother while driving without a license, she hypnotized me just to save him from prison, trying to make me forget the whole thing forever. "Your mother's death had nothing to do with Tristan. She brought it on herself." To celebrate after pulling it off, she took him on a month-long trip around the world. When they returned, what awaited them was a court summons. Completely heartbroken, I demanded a divorce. Instead, she fell to her knees before me like a madwoman, eyes bloodshot, weeping that she was wrong. I knelt on the cold ground, clutching the framed photo of my mother to my chest. Following the funeral director's solemn instructions, I pressed my forehead against the floor over and over again, feeling as if my heart were being snapped in two. Even now, I couldn't believe it. The woman who used to grill steaks and wait for me to come home every single day was now reduced to a small urn of ashes. My mind dragged me back to yesterday—the last time I saw her alive. She had tubes running all through her body. She gripped my hand tightly, her voice weak and trembling. "Sean, don't cry... Mom has to go. You'll be all on your own now. Take good care of yourself, okay? Don't worry about me. Your dad is waiting for me on the other side." I held her freezing hand, my lips shaking so hard I couldn't form words. In the end, all I could do was watch helplessly as the line on the heart monitor went completely flat. Meanwhile, Tristan Vance, the monster who killed her, had long since fled the scene. He had merely glanced through the ICU doors for a second before swaggering away. My mother's final smile played on a loop in my head. I stayed on my knees for a long time, until the sharp buzz of my phone shattered the dead silence. When I answered, Chloe's voice came through the line. "Hey, Sean. Tristan's hungry. He really wants those beef noodles from downtown, but it's out of delivery range. Go pick up two orders and bring them to our hotel!" Before I could even speak, she hung up on me. Chloe was as arrogant as ever. She treated my devotion like an entitlement, utterly convinced I would never dare say no to her. I looked down at the explicit photo Tristan had sent me this morning. Chloe was lying naked in his arms, her collarbone and chest covered in dark hickeys, while Tristan gave the camera a smug, provocative smirk. A bitter laugh escaped my throat, aching so much it burned. Wiping the tears from the corner of my eyes, I gripped the phone tightly. I couldn't understand how Chloe could be so heartless. Worse, I never imagined she would treat my mother's life like dirt, all for the sake of the man who had abandoned her years ago. Yesterday, the moment the accident happened, Chloe received a call from Tristan and rushed to the scene. Yet all she did was comfort the shaken Tristan, arguing with the first responders and desperately trying to prove that the crash wasn't entirely his fault. By the time the police called me and I raced over, the pool of blood beneath my mother was already starting to dry. Her vital signs were barely there. Hysterical, I screamed at Chloe, asking why she hadn't called 911 immediately. But she just shoved my hands away in disgust. "God, can you stop being so annoying? It was just a minor fender bender! What's the big deal? Tristan was terrified! Of course I had to calm him down first!" In our five years of marriage, my mother had treated Chloe like her own daughter. In her heart, Chloe came before even me, her only son. Yet here she was, letting my mother bleed out just to soothe her precious first love's nerves. Later, at the police's insistence, Tristan and Chloe rode in the ambulance to the hospital with my mother. While the doctors fought to save her life, Tristan and Chloe sat lazily on the waiting room bench, playing mobile games together. After a few minutes, Tristan whined that he was hungry. Without even glancing in my direction, Chloe grabbed his hand to leave. I dropped to my knees, practically begging her. "Please, Chloe. Mom always loved you like her own flesh and blood. Can't you just stay here with me?" Unable to shake me off, Chloe raised her hand and slapped me hard across the face. "Are you done lying? Read the room, Sean! Are you seriously jealous of Tristan right now? He already told me he wasn't even going twenty miles an hour. He wouldn't have even hurt a stray dog! What could possibly be wrong with your mother?!" With that, she linked her arm through Tristan's and strutted away. "Just you wait! I swear I'll make sure Tristan rots in prison!" I knelt there numbly, too drained to even cry, staring blankly as they walked away hand in hand and vanished from sight. Anyone with a working brain could have seen the crumpled hood of the car and known how catastrophic the impact was. Chloe only said those things because she chose to blind herself, desperate to shield Tristan. They had barely stepped out of the hospital when the ICU doors swung open. The doctor delivered the news: they couldn't save her, and I needed to prepare for her funeral.A sudden vibration from my phone pulled me back from my spiraling thoughts. Chloe had sent another voice note. "Sean Miller, are you dead or just deaf? It's been half an hour and you still haven't brought the noodles. You're completely useless." I let out a cold laugh and replied, "If you're in such a rush, why don't you get them yourselves? Or are you two too busy cheating on that hotel bed to step out?" Chloe blew up instantly. "Cut the sarcastic bullshit! Tristan was terrified yesterday, so of course I need to take care of him! He's only like this because you scared him with your threats to press charges. Why do you have to push him into a corner? It was just a scratch! He just needs a few days of rest, okay?!" The rage inside me finally erupted. "Fine. Come meet me at this address. You show up, and I promise I won't press charges." Sneering, I sent her the location of the funeral home. I wanted her to see with her own eyes just how fatal her idea of a "scratch" really was. Desperate to save Tristan, Chloe arrived in barely thirty minutes. She stormed into the hall, her high heels clicking aggressively, only to freeze when she saw me draped in mourning black, standing right beside my mother's funeral portrait. Her face drained of all color. She stared at me in sheer panic. "No... How is that possible? How could she be dead? It was just a scratch..." My lips tightened into a thin line as I pulled the death certificate from my coat and shoved it into her hands. "I don't joke around with my mother's life. The moment you walked out yesterday, the doctors pronounced her dead." "Tristan lied to you. He wasn't going twenty. He was going over seventy." Chloe stumbled, collapsing onto the floor, constantly repeating that it was impossible. After all, over the years, everyone knew how well my mother had treated her. This time, Chloe didn't roll her eyes or complain. She stayed by my side, going through the entire memorial service with me. No matter how many times Tristan called her phone, she didn't answer. That night, she broke her usual routine. Instead of going her own way, she asked me to take her home. We didn't say a single word during the drive. After a day like that, my entire body felt paralyzed with exhaustion. Once I showered and laid down, Chloe—who had been sleeping in a separate bedroom for ages—crawled into my bed and wrapped her arms around my waist from behind. A tiny spark of warmth flared in my chest, easing some of the suffocating grief from earlier. "Sean, there's something I need to talk to you about." I turned around to face her, only to see her looking conflicted. "What is it? Just say it. We've been married for years." Chloe looked up at me, hesitating before she spoke. "Could you drop the charges against Tristan? Your mom is already gone. Why drag Tristan down with her? Besides, he knows he was wrong." I froze, then bolted upright. "What did you just say?" Chloe's face tightened with impatience. "Why are you getting so worked up? Your mom was getting old anyway. It wouldn't have been unusual for her to pass away soon. But Tristan is only in his twenties! Why can't you be a little considerate of him?" I shook with rage, struggling to keep myself from screaming. "So everything you did today was just an act to make me forgive him? You're delusional. My mother was murdered, and I will get her justice!" With that, I turned my back on her. Furious, she stormed out of bed and into the living room. In a fit of rage, she grabbed my mother's framed portrait and hurled it onto the floor, the glass shattering into a thousand pieces. I dropped to my knees, picking up the shards one by one, ignoring the jagged glass cutting into my palms. "Chloe, let's get a divorce." Chloe let out a scoff. She nudged my chin up with the tip of her shoe, her tone dripping with mockery. "Sean, you're nothing more than a stray dog to me. Just because you've hung around for a few years, you think you're somebody? I only married you out of pity. Who gave you the right to ask for a divorce?" "Let me remind you: a dog does what its master says. Otherwise, you get dumped on the street." With a hard kick to my shoulder, she sent me sprawling. I kept my head down against the pain, while she turned and walked away with a cold laugh. The front door slammed shut. I wiped away my tears, carefully cradling my mother's picture and brushing off the dust. This time, I was completely, utterly done with Chloe.Over the next week, I had my childhood friend Daniel fly in from out of town to help me compile evidence to charge Tristan with vehicular manslaughter. Perhaps out of spite, Chloe blocked me across all social media platforms. Fortunately, I couldn't have cared less. Tristan, on the other hand, constantly "slipped up" and sent me snippets of their romantic life and spicy photos. I just treated him like a clown on my screen and never bothered to block him. However, their love nest seemed to have moved from the hotel to her lab. I wasn't surprised. Chloe had always been the country's leading hypnotherapist. Before Tristan returned from abroad, she practically lived in that lab developing new projects. It was only after his return that she started making exceptions. I let out a bitter chuckle. Their little romance didn't phase me anymore; the warm, loving heart I once had had been sealed in concrete by Chloe, hardened and completely dead. Now, all I wanted was to focus on myself, pursue the lawsuit, and purge those toxic, disgusting people from my life. What I didn't expect was that just days after Tristan's last boastful message, Chloe showed up at our house. Holding a box of white pills, she looked down at me with furrowed brows. "What? Something wrong?" I asked coldly, a hollow smile on my face. "Don't tell me you're here to poison me because I won't drop the charges." Chloe looked down at me, wearing a look of complete confidence. "There's no need for that. I don't want to murder you. I just want to give Tristan another chance." My throat burned, tears threatening to spill over. "And how do you plan to do that?" Chloe smiled smugly. "This is the latest hypnotic sedative my team developed. Once you take these pills, you'll completely forget that your mother was ever hit by a car. If you don't blame him, Tristan will be off the hook." I didn't try to dodge. I knew that once Chloe set her mind to something, she would use every dirty trick in the book to make it happen. All I could feel was my heart shattering into tiny, irrecoverable pieces. To think Chloe would go this far for Tristan. Just before she shoved the pills toward my mouth, I looked at her with a bitter smile. "Chloe, you know I grew up in a single-parent home. Tristan killed my mother. All I want is justice. You're doing this to me... Aren't you afraid I'll hate you forever?" Chloe paused for a split second, but still forced the pills past my lips. "I'll do whatever it takes for Tristan. No one compares to him." "I know your mom was good to me, but her time was up. Tristan's life is just getting started. You can't be this cruel to him!" Hearing those words, any desire to fight back completely vanished. I closed my eyes, letting tears slide down my cheeks and drip onto the back of her hand. She didn't care. She just leaned into my ear, whispering the same words over and over: "Your mother brought her death upon herself. It had nothing to do with Tristan. It was an accident. You just have to accept your bad luck." "Your mother brought her death upon herself. It had nothing to do with Tristan. It was an accident. You just have to accept your bad luck..." In a haze of dizziness, my limbs grew limp, and my eyes shut tight. Only after making sure I was completely under did Chloe scoff and walk away. Half an hour later, I bolted upright, coughing up the crushed remnants of the pills along with a mouthful of blood. To keep myself from falling under her hypnotic trance, I hadn't swallowed the pills at all. I had bit my tongue so hard it bled just to stay conscious. Even with the metallic taste of blood filling my mouth, I hadn't dared let my guard down. I reached for my phone to call Daniel, only to see Tristan's latest post on Ins. It was a picture of two first-class tickets to Northern Europe alongside a receipt for a luxury tour package costing thirty thousand dollars. Attached was a photo of him and Chloe holding hands in the airport lounge. "Look who has the most generous sugar mommy ever! Just because I was feeling down, she booked us a whole month in Europe~" I stared down at the blood-stained floor, suddenly feeling utterly pathetic. In Chloe's heart, I was so worthless that she couldn't even spare five minutes to monitor my reaction to the drug. Five years of being her loyal, devoted pet had completely broken me. This time, I was done. I picked up the phone again and dialed Daniel. "I've made up my mind. I'm not accepting any settlement from Tristan. Take him straight to court."