Princess Without Pack by Mark Twain 1
New Year’s Eve. Five hours on a train to surprise my boyfriend.
Guess what?
The man was playing Truth or Dare with his secretary grinding on him.
Jade lost. He jumped in.
“I’ll trade one of Stella’s secrets instead. Same as always.”
Then he dropped it loud to a room full of men.
“She got violated. Years ago.”
The world went silent in my head.
His friends went feral.
“Holy sh!t, that’s wild!”
“Wait, don’t violate victims usually act all prude? Stella’s out here posting butt pics every day.”
“Bet she was asking for it. Ashton said she wears s1utty lingerie.”
“If she acted more like Jade, nothing would’ve happened.”
His secretary—the one he’s been screwing for a year—played innocent.
“Maybe Stella just likes feeling pretty?”
“Jade, you’re too sweet. Not everyone’s like you, honey. Some girls are wild behind closed doors.”
“What do you think, Ash?”
Ashton sipped his drink. Said nothing to defend me.
Just let them call me a s1ut who deserved to be assaulted.
My hand stopped shaking.
I left. Sent one text: “We’re done.”
Ashton had introduced me to these guys before.
Back then they surrounded me the same way, calling me “sis-in-law”.
Now they were tearing me apart with rumors and dirty guesses.
“Alright, that’s enough.”
Ashton frowned. Like he actually felt bad.
Even with my heart already shattered, I felt this stupid flicker of hope.
Maybe he’d shut them down. Tell them I wasn’t like that.
Then he crushed it.
“She’s still my girlfriend. If this gets out, I look like an idi0t. Drop it.”
Oh.
Not defending me. Just protecting his reputation.
“You’re seriously gonna marry her after all that?”
Jade leaned into him, swaying his arm with a pout.
“What about me? I’m not gonna be a side chick.”
“If you don’t give me an answer soon, we’re done.”
“No way!”
Ashton panicked, visibly.
His fingers clenched tight.
He’d never looked that desperate for me.
“Why would I settle for damaged goods like her.”
“Only reason I haven’t dumped her yet is because my parents keep nagging me to take care of her.”
As he spoke, his face hardened, disgust written all over it.
I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. My hand dropped to my side.
He hated me this much.
Then why didn’t he just say so?
Were all those years—his tenderness, his patience—just an act?
“After New Year’s I’ll go home and end it.”
Ashton turned and kissed Jade, voice all sweet.
“Then I’ll introduce you to my parents.”
The room erupted in cheers. Glasses were raised everywhere.
“Congrats to the future Mr. and Mrs. Reed!”
Inside it was all noise and celebration.
I felt like I was freezing to death.
I don’t know how long I stood there.
When I finally came to my vision was blurred.
My fingers were numb. I typed out each word slowly.
“Let’s break up.”
A message notification chimed inside.
Ashton picked it up and sent a voice message.
“Hey Mom and Dad. Got this international deal I’m closing tonight. Can’t make it home.”
“Yeah, I’ll let you know when I book my flight back.”
He put the phone down. That was it.
I waited.
Then it hit me.
I wasn’t pinned, and he’d muted me.
We were long-distance, miles apart.
Sometimes he wouldn’t reply to me until the next day.
I always told myself he was just swamped with work.
Turns out he just didn’t want to deal with me.
Tears hit my screen one by one.
I called him anyway.
This time Ashton glanced at his phone.
Then he muted it and tossed it back onto the table.
Like it didn’t exist. He pulled out a deck of cards and started dealing.
“Who’s that?”
“Stella. Calls me nonstop. It’s annoying.”
Someone frowned. “Why not just hang up?”
Ashton kept shuffling, didn’t even pause.
“If I hang up she’ll spam me with texts. I’ll let it ring out. Tell her later I was too busy to notice.”
“Hahaha, Ash you’ve got her trained.”
I couldn’t listen anymore.
I staggered away.
New Year’s Eve. The streets were packed.
Couples everywhere, loud and cheerful.
I dragged my suitcase through the crowd, completely out of place.
A young couple walked past carrying grocery bags. A long scarf wrapped around both of them.
The girl looked worried.
“It’s just us tonight. Think we can pull off a New Year’s dinner?”
The guy ruffled her hair.
“We’ll order takeout if it flops. Long as we’re together, it doesn’t matter what we eat.”
Before coming here, that’s what I’d imagined too.
I couldn’t understand it.
Why was Ashton being so heartless.
We were fine. We were so good.
I’m twenty-eight this year.
And we’ve known each other for twenty-eight years.
At four years old, on our first day of kindergarten, he grabbed my hand.
“Stella, when we play house, you’re the only one I want as my wife.”
At twelve, clueless about love, he’d rush over to me every recess, ignoring all the teasing around him.
At fifteen, puberty hit hard. Acne everywhere, bottom of the class, parents disappointed, confidence shattered.
“Stella what if I’m a total failure?”
I held his hand, told him the secret I’d buried deep.
“I wanted to die back then.”
“But I got through it. And it wasn’t the end of the world. You’ll get through this too.”
The shock and pain in his eyes, the way he broke down and cried while holding me—I still remember it clearly.
On my eighteenth birthday, just after midnight, he confessed.
“Stella I’m gonna treat you right forever.”
Later we both got into New York for college.
He was in NYU. I was in Columbia.
He made the trip every single week just to see me.
After graduation we were still solid. He stayed in New York to start his company. I went home to find work.
This year, our families had already started planning our wedding.
I quit my job before New Year’s.
I was gonna move to New York after the holidays. We’d finally be together for good.
Now it was all gone.
Ashton had someone else he wanted to bring home to his parents.
He was disgusted by me.
Took the worst wound I ever told him and turned it into a party joke.
Night fell, and the streets slowly emptied out.
I checked into a random hotel nearby.
Just got settled when my phone lit up.
Mom.
“Sweetie have you guys eaten yet? We’ve got so much food here!”
Photo attached. New Year’s dinner spread.
All my relatives gathered around the table, everyone smiling.
Cold air blew through the hotel window. I shivered.
I swallowed the lump in my throat, trying to sound normal.
“Food’s almost ready. About to eat now. Don’t worry about us.”
I couldn’t tell them the truth—didn’t want to ruin their New Year’s.
Then, without thinking, I opened Ashton’s chat.
Empty as always.
Midnight. Fireworks outside.
Too loud to sleep.
I t0rtured myself scrolling through Ashton’s IG looking for proof he’d been cheating.
He’d hidden her well, covered his tracks perfectly.
Finally I found her username in a work group chat screenshot.
Jade Winter.
Distinctive name.
I searched it across every platform.
Among all the duplicates, I spotted her instantly.
Profile picture looked familiar. It was the matching half of Ashton’s couple avatar.
When he changed his avatar back then, I’d happily searched for the matching one and switched mine too.
He looked annoyed.
Said he’d just picked a random image and didn’t want to broadcast our relationship like that.
In the end, he half-forced me to change it back.
Jade’s account had barely any followers.
But hundreds of posts.
All documenting her relationship with Ashton.
It started last May.
“Poor boss working late for a month, living on takeout. Brought him homemade chicken soup for lunch today. He literally cried. Wonder what kind of girlfriend he has.”
That was when Ashton’s dad broke his leg.
So he could focus on work, everyone kept it from him.
I took a month off and spent every day at the hospital helping his dad.
My boss took me off the promotion list after that.
“Boss canceled so many projects just to take me on this work trip. Being the favorite really feels amazing.”
That day was our ten-year anniversary.
And my birthday.
I’d pulled an all-nighter to finish a project, squeezed out three days off just to see him.
He told me he had some urgent business trip he couldn’t reschedule.
“Boss bought me a bag! The charm that came with it is ug1y though. I’ll let him keep that part.”
I froze and looked at my phone case.
Same exact charm—a ‘make-up’ birthday gift he’d given me later.
I’d treasured it, even put a protective film over it.
It took me two hours to scroll through her entire account.
My heart went ice cold.
None of the photos showed Ashton’s face.
But I recognized everything else—the clothes—the couple ring on his finger matching mine.
Ashton had been cheating for a long time.
Fireworks exploded in the distance.
I snapped out of it, ripped the charm off my phone, and tossed it into the garbage.
Ding.
Jade posted again.
This time, it was an audio clip.
In it, she asked in a fake-sweet voice.
“Ash who do you love more? Me or your girlfriend?”
“Hm?”
Ashton sounded drowsy, voice soft and affectionate.
“You. I love you most. She doesn’t even compare.”
“Babe… wanna fu//ck again?”
The sound of heavy breathing said the rest.
I shut off my phone and rushed to the bathroom, dry heaving.
I looked up at the mirror.
At some point, my face was covered in tears.
I immediately booked a 7 AM train ticket home.
I just wanted to leave.
As fast as possible.
Leave New York.
Leave Ashton Reed.
I don’t remember getting home.
When I came to it was already six days into the New Year.
Mom and Dad saw I was off, but didn’t ask.
They just kept trying to joking, distracting me.
That morning Mom asked carefully.
“The Reeds invited you for dinner. Do you want to go?”
I glanced at my phone.
Ashton had finally replied yesterday.
Two messages.
One deleted.
The newest one just said: “Okay.”
I agreed to go anyway.
Some things needed to be faced head-on.
There was a crowd outside the Reed house.
Their eyes were strange when they saw me—some pitying, some just curious.
My heart tightened. I walked in and saw Ashton kneeling in the middle of the living room.
Standing awkwardly beside him was Jade.
He must’ve brought her home the second he saw my breakup text.
Mrs. Reed’s face was bright red, slamming the table.
“You ungrateful brat! How could you do this to Stella!”
Ashton looked rough, but his expression stayed defiant.
“I’ll explain it to her. I don’t love her anymore. Jade’s my girlfriend now.”
It felt like someone was squeezing my heart.
Hearing him say it out loud still hurt like he11.
Mrs. Reed was almost laughing in anger.
“Then tell me what’s so special about her that you’d throw away ten years with Stella.”
Ashton’s face lit up with happiness and pride.
“She cooks for me. Smooths out my always-wrinkled shirts.”
“Even when the company hits a crisis, she stays up all night with me, working through it.”
“Stella just hid back home ignoring me. Couldn’t even bring me a hot meal.”
“So why would I stay with her!”
He sounded so righteous, so convinced.
Like he was trying to convince his parents. Or maybe himself.
Someone in the crowd muttered.
“Guess the Morrison girl wasn’t cutting it. Relationships are about being there for each other right?”
I stopped, a bitter knot rising in my throat.
Hilarious.
Nobody knew I’d planned to stay in New York too.
Better opportunities. Better career prospects. My dream jobs were all here.
But Ashton wanted to start his business, and his parents were worried.
They were older and wanted him close after marriage.
So I gave up my plans for his dreams, took some boring job and stayed home to take care of his parents.
During those brutal startup years I gave him every paycheck.
When his parents got sick I handled everything.
And now he was saying he preferred another girl’s company.
Fingers dug into my palms without me realizing.
Mrs. Reed rushed over when she saw me.
“I’m so sorry Stella. Ashton’s just confused right now. Let me talk to him—”
Ashton jumped up.
“Stella YOU broke up with ME. Tell my parents! Tell them Jade’s not a homewrecker!”
Mr. Reed had enough, kicked him to the floor.
“You piece of sh!t!”
“Kick that mistress out. Apologize to Stella, or get out of this house!”
Ashton curled on the floor, unable to move.
Jade shrieked and ran over to help him up.
She lifted her head, eyes stubborn.
“Mr. and Mrs. Reed, people are free to love who they want. Ashton doesn’t have feelings for Stella anymore.”
Then she glanced at me.
My stomach dropped.
Next second she raised her voice.
“You can’t force your son to waste his life taking care of Stella, just because she was abused as a child!.”
“That’s not fair!”
The words hit me like thunder.
Gasps rippled through the crowd.
Everyone’s eyes on me, pointing, murmuring.
My mind went blank.
The thing I’d feared my whole life just happened.
Terror and rage flooded through me.
I lost control, rushed her, shoved her down, yanked her hair.
A powerful hand grabbed my arm and slammed me away.
I slammed into the corner of a table. Pain blacked out my vision.
Ashton pulled Jade into his arms, eyes blazing with fury.
“Stella are you insane!”
I screamed back hoarse.
“You didn’t see she did that on purpose?! She WANTED everyone to know!”
“So what!”
Ashton cut me off furious.
“She’s telling the truth!”
The whispers around me got louder.
“Oh my god it’s real. That poor girl.”
“Still she shouldn’t have hidden it. That’s tricking someone into being with damaged goods.”
The words—pity and scorn—pricked at my back like needles.
I swallowed hard, tears bu//rning.
“I told you that secret so you could announce it to everyone?”
Ashton looked at me without an ounce of the care he used to have.
“You told me yourself. If you didn’t care, why should I keep it secret.”
“And why did it even happen to you anyway.”
“Takes two to tango. Maybe if you didn’t dress so s1utty all the time—”
SMACK.
Ashton’s head whipped to the side. Red handprint on his cheek.
Mrs. Reed hit him with everything she had, eyes full of disappointment.
“You monster!”
“You know Stella went through all that because of YOU!”
Join Our WhatsApp Channel For Fast Update Or More Novels: 
Join Our WhatsApp Channel For Fast Update Or More Novels: