The Ashes of Seventeen Years

Everyone in our elite circle knew I had taken in a depressed, autistic physics prodigy when he was a boy.

I built a research lab for him, paved his path to becoming the darling of the tech startup scene, and poured limitless wealth and devotion into him.

Until I overheard him mocking me to his friends in the shadows:

"She’s thirty years old, yet she still acts like a twenty-something girl, whining for attention. Isn't that pathetic?"

That very night, I burned down our dream villa, turning the entire garden of his beloved camellias into ash.