What Is a Moon Without a Star?

As Fiona shambled out of the bathroom, her pale face made her look just like was terribly sick.

She then heard a loud humming and was surprised to see that Mark had left his backup phone.

Picking it up from the couch, she swiped it and was left staring at a passcode panel.

She didn't hesitate and typed Sue's birthday, which surprisingly unlocked the phone.

There were over ninety-nine notifications coming from a chat group, and Fiona recognized each of the thirtyish members in it—they were all elites whom her father had sponsored, labeled by everyone else as her sponsored suitors.

Swiping through it, she found out that Mark had rushed out because someone was molesting Sue at the hotel where she worked part-time.

Someone had a photo and even uploaded it to the work chat group by mistake.

Still, Fiona kept swiping upward when she noticed a certain sticker made from her own face with distorted facial features to make her look monstrous.

And the sender was Noris, who was always hovering around Mark.

[Guys, don't you think it was Fiona?]

[No way! She doesn't even know that Mark had used her father's position to get Sue a job.]

[Actually, you never know. Y'all know how obsessed she is with Mark. Who knows, she might have people watching and found out about Sue. I mean, who else would hate Sue so much and want to humiliate her? Doesn't Fiona see that it's going too far for a fellow woman?]

[The way I see it, it definitely was Fiona! Both she and her father are so full of themselves just because they're rich. What, do they think the world is theirs? How deluded are they, grooming us to be her suitors? Bleh, dream on! Not even a mongrel would want her!]

[Hahaha…]

As Fiona kept reading, shaking with rage as she stood, she discovered that the sponsored suitors had made many other stickers out of her or her father's faces.

When they were younger, they were all going to starve to death, if not die from illness—survival was questionable for them without her father's sponsorship.

And yet, here they were, mocking and slandering her without evidence, as if she was not a woman just like Sue.

Never could she have expected Mark to throw all caution to the wind for Sue's sake, even having the balls to keep Sue right under her nose.

Just thinking about his name left her feeling like she was being repeatedly stabbed with a blunt knife—it didn't kill, but each stab left her with utter agony!

That was when her father called her—he was busy with a project abroad and couldn't make it home.

As Fiona quietly wiped the tears away from her eyes, she vowed to herself that it was the last time she would cry over Mark.

"What's wrong? Who hurt you?" her father's familiar voice asked over the phone.

Just hearing his voice left Fiona firmly biting her own lip, as she seemed to see the way her father bled from head to toe—a well-dressed man reduced to a bloody pulp because of Mark's torture.

Still, there was no hiding her pain from her father despite her silence, and she took a breath to calm down before speaking. "It's fine, Dad… the wedding will go on as scheduled, but I'll be marrying Yves Warren instead of Mark."

"What? Yves?!" Norman exclaimed in shock on the other end. "I thought he left his family to volunteer as a Doctor Without Borders. Why would you suddenly want to marry him?"

"Just trust me on this," Fiona replied, looking downward at Mark's phone screen where more insulting messages were popping up. "I know what I'm doing… Also, I'll start work at the headquarters."

Though Norman had no idea what Fiona was planning, he had always loved his only daughter.

Otherwise, he wouldn't have spent a king's ransom grooming Mark, giving the latter special treatment and privileges he didn't afford the other sponsored suitors.

And it was all because Fiona liked Mark.

Still, Norman didn't dwell on it and sighed. "Just do whatever you want. Even if it's the wrong call, I'll see through it to the end with you!"

Fiona's vision was clouded with tears even as she took another deep breath, sniffling as she said, "Yeah."

As she hung up, another message popped up in the chat group—this time from Mark.

[If it really was her, I'll make her suffer!]