The Chubby Bride's Glow Up

Ashley staggered from the hotel and stepped into the heavy rain.

Without an umbrella, she was drenched within seconds by the freezing downpour. She hardly noticed the cold because her mother was all she could think about.

"Mom, please hold on... I got the money. I can save you now!"

Ashley raced to the hospital room of her mother, Julia Miller, and slammed into the door, but it refused to open.

The lock had been secured from inside.

"Mom? Can you hear me?" Panic seized Ashley as she desperately fought with the doorknob.

One glance through the small window in the door destroyed everything she knew.

Her stepmother, Vera, and her stepsister, Chloe Spencer, were beside the hospital bed.

Vera calmly straightened the bottom of her fitted dress. Chloe stood next to her and recorded the scene on her phone. She shook with delighted laughter while Julia convulsed on the bed.

Both of them laughed as Julia fought for every breath. They watched her die with cruel smiles on their faces.

"Unlock this door! Vera, you fucking monster! Let me in!"

Ashley rammed her shoulder against the door repeatedly and paid no attention to the pain spreading through it.

After several failed attempts, the lock finally broke with a loud crack, and the door flew open.

She rushed toward the bed, but no sound came from her throat.

Julia was no longer breathing.

Her wide eyes stared at the ceiling. Even in death, they held a fierce unwillingness to surrender.

"Mom... Please, Mom!"

The sight of her mother's lifeless body filled Ashley with unbearable hatred.

"Vera Spencer!" Grief and fury drove Ashley toward her stepmother. "You promised to pay for my mom's treatment if I took those documents to David! You tricked me! You murdered her, and I'll kill you!"

Two bodyguards tackled Ashley before she could lay a hand on Vera.

"Get off me! You animals! You're all murderers!"

The sound of a slap rang through the room.

Vera had slapped Ashley across the face. Then she pressed the narrow heel of her stiletto into Ashley's hand and ground it down.

Splintering pain tore through Ashley's arm and forced a scream from her.

Vera grabbed Ashley by the hair and yanked her head back. "You're just like your mother. Both of you are so stupid."

"Look at her, Mom. Does she look anything like a lady from the Spencer family?" Chloe raised her phone and took a picture of Ashley's humiliation. "She's a fat pig who weighs over two hundred pounds, and she's begging on the floor. If I posted this, who'd believe she was a Spencer?"

"She weighs over two hundred pounds. Indeed, she's like a pig now," Vera sneered. "I suppose all that medication worked exactly as planned."

Ashley stiffened as shock widened her eyes. "What medication are you talking about? What did you give me?"

Her weight had risen without explanation for three years, despite every diet and workout she'd tried.

She'd taken only the antidepressants prescribed by Richard Bennett, their personal doctor.

"Richard was working with you?"

"You finally figured it out." Chloe bent down and patted Ashley's cheek with an evil grin. "Richard is my mother's half-brother, which makes him my uncle. Those pills weren't medicine. He gave you a banned hormone in high doses. You and your mother thought he was saving you. How pathetic."

The truth struck Ashley so hard that pain seemed to tear through her chest.

"Here's something else you should know. Your mom died because she heard the truth." Chloe bent closer to Ashley and whispered cruelly into her ear, "Once she knew what happened to her precious daughter, the heartbreak was so bad that she could barely breathe."

"I'll kill you!" Ashley fought with all her strength, but the bodyguards kept her pinned. Her forehead struck the cold tile floor with a sickening thud.

Vera kicked Ashley aside with disgust. "Come on, Chloe. She can stay here and cry over her dead mother. Someone this pathetic could never threaten us."

"Mom, the old hag is finally dead, and Dad won't even admit this fat pig is his daughter. Everything the Spencers own belongs to us now..."

Their satisfied voices gradually disappeared down the hallway, leaving Ashley sprawled on the floor. She stayed beside her mother's cooling body.

A young nurse eventually stepped forward. Her hands trembled as she gave Ashley a letter and a bank card. "Your mother left these with me. She wanted you to have them if she didn't make it."

Ashley unfolded the letter with shaking hands, but her tears soon made the words difficult to read.

"My dearest Ashley, please forgive me for lying to you. I still had some money saved, but I couldn't spend it on treatment that had no chance of working. Use it to leave Aresding and create a better life for yourself. No matter what happens, I'll always love you."

"Mom!" Ashley wrapped her arms around her mother's body and wept until every breath became painful.

Vera, Chloe, and Richard would pay. So would Michael Spencer, her own father, who'd allowed his ex-wife and daughter to suffer.

She swore that each of them would repay their debt with blood.

From that day forward, Ashley Spencer no longer existed.

Ashley Miller took her place.

She adopted her mother's surname and vanished into the countryside. Martha Cooper had worked as a servant for years and had helped Ashley before, so she offered her shelter. Once there, Ashley began the painful work of changing herself.

Desperate to lose the weight caused by the hormones, she pushed her body far beyond its limits.

During her worst attempt, Ashley survived on water alone for an entire week and starved herself until she collapsed.

Martha cried and begged her to stop. Yet every time Ashley shut her eyes, she saw her mother's lifeless gaze again.

One year passed.

Ashley barely recognized the woman reflected in the mirror.

She stood five foot five and weighed roughly one hundred sixteen pounds. Her figure had become naturally balanced.

Every trace of swelling had disappeared from her face. Beneath it were the same beautiful features that had once made Julia famous throughout Aresding.

Her deep-set eyes and high-bridged nose gave her a cool beauty, while her long, slightly upturned eyes added an alluring edge.

Her phone screen suddenly lit up with a message from Martha. "Chloe has a blind date with Connor Wallace today. He's from the wealthiest family in Aresding. They're meeting in the Wisteria Room at Epoch Restaurant. I'll hold her up, but the rest is up to you, Ashley!"

Ashley typed a brief response. "I've got this."

Everyone in Aresding knew Connor held more power than anyone else.

Ashley refused to let Chloe get her hands on him.

She slipped into a bold red dress and headed for Epoch Restaurant.

...

Inside Wisteria Room at Epoch Restaurant, irritation showed on Connor's face as he rested against the leather sofa. His family had already forced him to meet eight women that day, which made the next woman the ninth.

Only his grandmother's critical illness had convinced him to come.

These businesslike arrangements disgusted him. The fake women who participated in them bothered him even more.

Still, his mind often returned to one woman from a year ago.

Darkness had hidden her face on the night they spent together.

He'd spent the past year searching for her, but every attempt had failed.

"Mr. Wallace, your date has arrived," his secretary said softly.

The private room's door opened.

Bright red immediately caught Connor's attention and made him go still.

Ashley appeared before him in a red dress. Her lips parted slightly, and the quiet beauty in her eyes caught him off guard.

Connor couldn't stop staring as his breath caught.

Why did she seem so familiar?