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 Lucien—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 Lucien 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 Lucien’s quiet, sleeping face. And something feels off. The Lucien lying there doesn’t look like the cruel person Avery remembers. He wonders—was there more to Lucien than he ever knew?
He tells himself it doesn’t matter. Lucien got what he deserved. But one night, Avery trips and falls on top of him… and at that exact moment, Lucien wakes up.
After two years in a coma, Lucien 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 Lucien.
They were enemies. Strangers thrown together by fate.
But maybe… just maybe, they’re meant to be something more.

Chapter 142- Shared Misery, Or Something Like It


The words tumbled out of my mouth before I could reel them back in. 


My voice was still rough but inside, my heart was a war drum, pounding out a rhythm of hope and dread.


I watched him closely—every flicker in his eyes, every twitch of his lips—as if his reaction could rewrite the last decade of my life.


His face did that thing it always does when he's cornered: eyes widening like saucers, mouth parting in a silent gasp, cheeks blooming with that infuriatingly adorable flush.


He looked shocked, vulnerable, like I'd just pulled the rug out from under him.


But after that touch in the car—his fingers on my lips, soft and tentative, like he was exploring something forbidden—I had to know.


I needed him to say it, to bridge this chasm I'd dug between us with my own stupid hands.


But Avery being Avery, he didn't make it easy.


Chapter 142 - Shared Misery, Or Something Like It