Synopsis
Avery was badly bullied all through high school. It left him feeling broken and full of self-doubt.
Years later, he’s slowly putting his life back together. But just as things start to get better, his father becomes seriously ill and needs a life-saving surgery.
Avery’s stepmother says there’s only one way to pay for it: an arranged marriage. At first, she planned to marry off her own daughter to a rich man from a powerful family. But when they find out the man is in a coma after a car accident, she changes her mind. She refuses to let her daughter marry someone who may never wake up. Instead, she forces Avery into it—tricking him, threatening him, and reminding him that this is the only way to save his father’s life.
Avery agrees, even though it breaks his heart. He goes through with the wedding without even seeing the groom’s face.
On the night of the wedding, in his new home, Avery notices something strange. The man lying unconscious looks oddly familiar. He finds some old photos in the house….
The man he just married is Ethan—his high school bully. The same person who made him feel worthless for years.
Old memories flood back, and Avery wants nothing more than to walk away. He calls his stepmother, ready to leave. But she gives him an awful choice: either divorce Ethan and let his father die, or stay married, save his father’s life, and gain wealth and power.
With no way out, Avery stays.
As time goes on, he watches Ethan’s quiet, sleeping face. And something feels off. The Ethan lying there doesn’t look like the cruel person Avery remembers. He wonders—was there more to Ethan than he ever knew?
He tells himself it doesn’t matter. Ethan got what he deserved. But one night, Avery trips and falls on top of him… and at that exact moment, Ethan wakes up.
After two years in a coma, Ethan opens his eyes—and finds out he’s married. To the same boy he used to bully.
Now Avery doesn’t know what to feel. The past still hurts, but he starts to see a different side of Ethan.
They were enemies. Strangers thrown together by fate.
But maybe… just maybe, they’re meant to be something more.

Oooh fuck. You see where my gossip got me. If only I had listened to that little voice in my head that told me to go back to the dining room and mind my business. If only I had just sat down, shoved that disgusting food into my mouth, and pretended everything was fine. But no. I had to poke my nose where it didn't belong.


I dragged my palm down my face and groaned. "Why me? Why is it always me?"


The hallway stretched ahead of me like it was never going to end, long and strange, twisting in ways I swore weren't there before. This house was too big, too confusing. Like a giant trap designed to swallow me whole.


"How am I even going to find my way back to the dining room?" I muttered to myself, regret eating me alive.


Chapter 22 - LET THE GAMES BEGINS