Category: English

On the day I was reincarnated, it was the exact day of my adoption at the orphanage. I stood there and watched as Mason dragged his adoptive mother by the hand, pointing frantically toward the girl singing on the swing set, Harah. “Mom! Can we adopt this sister, please?!” In my past life, the adoptive parents had taken me home instead. Mason had resented me for being quiet, for not knowing how to act cute, and for never being as charming as the girl who loved the swings. I organized his study notes, took care of his aging parents, and when the family went bankrupt, I dropped out of school to work and keep the family afloat. His attitude toward me softened, just a tiny bit. But every single time I was in competition with Harah, he still demanded that I step aside. The university recommendation, the scholarship, the overseas training program—every single time. The final time was when the plane went down. As the flames engulfed the cabin, he looked at me and murmured: “If there is a next life… I wish Harah could be my sister.” I heard him. When I opened my eyes again. I was back on Adoption Day. This time, I smiled before Mason could even open his mouth: “Mr. and Mrs. Evans, I think Harah is a much better fit for your family.” Then I turned around and walked straight toward the Miller couple, the people who had adopted Harah in my past life. “I want to go home with you.” 1 Mr. Miller froze for a second. He crouched down to meet me at eye level. His hands were rough, covered in thick calluses, and he held his palm out toward me. “What is your name, little girl?” “…Hazel. Like the tree.” “Hazel,” he repeated. His voice was incredibly gentle, like he was afraid of startling a wild bird. “We want a daughter. Do not worry about being quiet. Our house is very peaceful, and you do not need to perform or entertain anyone to stay with us.” Behind him, Mrs. Miller’s eyes grew slightly red, though she didn’t speak. Instead, she pulled a carefully folded handkerchief from her pocket and pressed it into my hand. “Wipe your hands,” she whispered. “Why are they so cold?” I looked down at my hands. I had been pinching my palms so hard out of anxiety that a row of pale, crescent-shaped indentations marked my skin. A sudden, sharp ache hit the back of my nose. In my twenty-two years with the Evans family in my past life, not a single person had ever asked me why my hands were cold. Laughter drifted over from the swing set. It was Harah. Mason gave me a complicated look but said nothing more. He pulled Mrs. Evans toward the swings, turning back to yell: “Mom! Hurry up! Look how high she is swinging!” Mrs. Evans cast one final glance at me. There was a fleeting flash of regret in her eyes, but it vanished instantly. She turned and walked toward the swing set. Mr. Miller was still crouched in front of me, his hand outstretched. His palm was rough, warm, and waiting quietly. I placed my hand in his. “Okay,” I said. “I will go home with you.” When we walked out of the orphanage gates, the sunlight was so bright it made me squint. Mrs. Miller walked on my left, Mr. Miller on my right. I was wedged in the middle, each of my hands held securely in theirs. I turned my head and looked back one last time. Mason was lifting Harah off the swing, smiling so widely his eyes turned into crescent moons. That was the absolute last time in this life I ever turned around to look at them. 2 The Millers lived in a cramped, two-bedroom apartment tucked away in an old, working-class neighborhood on the east side of the city. The living room held a faded, aggressively patterned fabric sofa. Mrs. Miller dug through the shoe cabinet for a solid minute before pulling out a pair of brand-new, fluffy pink slippers. The tags were still on them. “Bought these ages ago,” she murmured, crouching down to snip the plastic tag. Her ears were flushed. “Just never knew when we would actually get a daughter. They have been sitting there for two years.” Mr. Miller leaned out from the tiny kitchen. “Hazel! I am making fried fish. Do you eat fish?” “I do.” “Great!” He popped back into the kitchen, the loud clang of a spatula hitting a wok echoing through the apartment. I stood in the living room wearing those fuzzy pink slippers, the soles so soft it felt like I was stepping on clouds. That first night, I slept in the spare bedroom. The sheets were freshly changed, smelling deeply of clean cotton baked in the sun. A small nightlight glowed on the nightstand, casting a warm, amber light across the room. Mrs. Miller hovered in the doorway for a long time. She opened her mouth, closed it, and finally just said: “I will leave the door open. Call me if you need anything.” After she left, I buried my face in the pillow. The pillow had been sun-dried too. It was plush, crisp, and radiated an indescribable warmth. For the first time in two lifetimes, I fell asleep in a strange place without curling myself into a tight, defensive ball. Things over at the Evans household, however, were loud. Mr. Miller ran a phone repair stall at the night market. He dealt with every kind of person imaginable, which meant he heard the neighborhood gossip faster than anyone. On the third day, he came home, dropped his toolbox by the door, stripped off his jacket, and turned to Mrs. Miller. “Guess what. The Evans family threw a massive party. Booked seven or eight tables. Said it was a welcome banquet for their new daughter.” Mrs. Miller, who was scooping rice into bowls, paused. “They threw a banquet?” “Yup. Booked a private hall at the Grand Plaza.” Mr. Miller took off his apron, hung it behind the door, and glanced over at me, deliberately lowering his voice. “Word on the street is the son demanded it. Said he wanted to officially and grandly welcome his new sister to the family.” “Do you think we should…” Mrs. Miller trailed off, checking my expression. She didn’t finish the thought, merely placing a bowl of rice in front of me and adding a generous portion of greens to the top. “Hazel, time to eat.” “Okay,” I replied. In my past life, on my third day in the Evans house, Mason locked himself in his room and refused to come out. Mrs. Evans cooked an entire feast, but he wouldn’t even crack the door open. Later, I stood outside his room for thirty minutes holding a plate of food. A piece of paper was shoved out from under the door gap. It read: “Leave me alone.” There was no banquet. There was no Grand Plaza. There was no “grandly welcoming his new sister.” He didn’t even call me “sister” a single time. I had no idea what was going through Mason’s head when he demanded a banquet for Harah. But that was his problem. It had absolutely nothing to do with me. Bits and pieces of the Grand Plaza banquet still trickled down to me. Mrs. Miller ran into the Evans’ housekeeper at the vegetable market. The two stood by a produce stand and chatted. The housekeeper loved to gossip and spilled everything. She said Mason wore a crisp new dress shirt, his hair styled perfectly. He held Harah’s hand the entire night, walking her from table to table to introduce her to the extended family. She said Harah was incredibly sweet, addressing everyone perfectly—”Uncle,” “Auntie,” “Cousin”—making the whole room laugh in delight. She said Mason even tapped his glass with a fork, stood up, and gave a speech. “Thank you all for coming. This is my sister. From now on, anyone who messes with her is messing with me.” The entire hall erupted in applause. Mrs. Miller sighed, quietly snapping the ends off green beans at the kitchen table. Only after the housekeeper had walked away did Mrs. Miller look at me, her voice hesitant. “Hazel… do you regret it? Choosing our family that day?” “Of course not. I cannot thank you enough. Truly.” I meant every word. In my past life, I waited twenty-two years in the Evans house. I waited for him to call me his sister. I waited for him to treat me like actual family. I waited until the plane caught fire and he said, “I wish Harah was my sister.” I had done enough waiting for one lifetime. 3 A few days later, Mrs. Miller came back from the market holding a large bag of premium apples. She explained that the Evans’ housekeeper had forced them onto her and refused to take them back. “She said Mason asked her to pass them along. He said to say… thank you.” Mrs. Miller placed the apples on the table and watched me carefully. I picked one up, rubbed it on my sleeve, and took a bite. It was crisp, sweet, and incredibly juicy. “Then tell him you are welcome.” I said. Mrs. Miller gave me a long look, said nothing, and turned back to the kitchen. I tossed the apple core into the trash and walked out to the balcony to check on the jasmine plant. The leaves looked a bit more lively than a few days ago, and a tiny, pale green bud was sprouting from one of the branches. I had no desire to decode what Mason’s “thank you” meant. Maybe he was thanking me for stepping aside so he could have Harah. Maybe he was thanking me for leaving quietly without making a scene. Or maybe he was thanking me for not exposing his desperate maneuvering on Adoption Day. He chose Harah, and then comfortably accepted my quiet exit. Fine by me. He got the sister he wanted. And whatever debt he felt he owed me, I wasn’t going to collect. On the first day of middle school, I ran into Harah in the hallway. She was wearing a brand-new designer backpack, her hair tied up with a silk bow. She froze when she saw me, then broke into a bright smile. “Hazel! You go to school here too?” “Yeah.” “I am in Class Three! What about you?” “Class Seven.” “What a coincidence!” She beamed. “We are schoolmates now!” I just gave a curt nod and walked away. So, Harah and I attended the same school. She was in Class Three, I was in Class Seven. Every single day after school, I saw Mason waiting at the gates to pick her up. Even from across a crowded hallway, I could feel his gaze burning into the side of my head. I ignored it entirely. A month later, the midterm rankings were posted. I ranked seventh in the entire grade. Harah ranked ninety-third. The massive red bulletin board was plastered right outside the cafeteria, impossible to miss. That afternoon, Mason was standing in the corridor between the classrooms, his hands shoved deep into his jacket pockets. As I walked out, he called my name. His tone was different from before. It was flatter, slower, like he had rehearsed a speech but swallowed half the words at the last second. “Hazel… Miller.” I stopped and looked at him. He rubbed his hands together nervously, shoved them back into his pockets, and shifted his gaze from my face, to the bulletin board, and back again. “My parents brought you up at dinner a few days ago. They heard your grades are excellent.” I said nothing. “They said… back at the orphanage, you were always so well-behaved.” “Yeah.” He paused again. A yellow ginkgo leaf drifted down and landed on his shoulder. He didn’t brush it off. “They said you are doing really well.” “Thank you,” I replied. “Tell your parents I said thanks.” Then I walked away. That night at dinner, Mrs. Miller asked how I did on the midterms. I told her I ranked seventh in the grade. She was so ecstatic she dropped her spatula, ran out of the kitchen, and hugged me tight. The grease from her apron smeared right onto my sleeve. Mr. Miller rushed out of the living room in a panic. “What happened? What happened?!” “Your daughter got seventh! Seventh in the whole grade!” Mr. Miller blinked, then a massive grin split his face. “Well, does that mean we need a celebratory dish?” “Yes! What does Hazel want to eat?” “Fried fish, please.” “Fish again? We just had that two days ago!” “Then I will make extra crispy fried fish!” Mrs. Miller shot me a playful glare, marching back into the kitchen, muttering under her breath, though the oil was already sizzling in the pan. Mr. Miller sat back down on the sofa, picking up his screwdriver to tinker with an old radio, humming a song horribly off-key. I sat at the dining table, looking at my adoptive mother bustling in the kitchen and my adoptive father humming in the living room. I suddenly realized I didn’t care at all about that ginkgo leaf on Mason’s shoulder. 4 The second semester of eighth grade, Mason approached me voluntarily for the second time. I was waiting at the bus stop after school. He spotted me from the shadow of a billboard three meters away. I pretended not to see him. He walked over and stopped beside me, leaving a half-step of distance between us. Close, but not too close. “Hazel.” “Yeah.” “You are in eighth grade now?” “Yeah.” “How were the midterms?” “Fine.” He ran out of things to say. I didn’t offer anything else. The bus arrived. I swiped my card, walked to the back, and took a window seat. As the bus pulled away, I glanced out the window. He was still standing beneath the billboard, his gray silhouette dissolving into the evening dusk. That night, while I was doing homework, my phone buzzed. It was a text from Mason. “Harah bombed her midterms. My dad completely lost it and screamed at her. Could you lend her your study notes so she can copy them?” I stared at the message for a long time. A second text popped up. “Just this once. She will return them the second she is done.” Then a third. “Just consider it a favor.” I put my phone face down on the desk. I finished my math homework. Then my English homework. Then physics. When I was completely done, it was past eleven at night. I picked up the phone and typed a single word: “Sure.” I hit send and turned the phone off. The next day at noon, Harah came to find me. She stood outside Class Seven holding a bubble tea, smiling her trademark sugary smile. “Hazel, thank you so much! I finished copying everything. Here are your notes back!” She handed the notebook over. Stuck to the cover was a sticky note with a crooked, hand-drawn heart. I flipped the notebook open. In the margins of one of the pages, written in tiny, deliberate handwriting, was a sentence. “Your brother told you to let me win, and you did. You are such a good person.” I dog-eared that page and closed the notebook. Harah skipped away, her ponytail bouncing behind her. I stood in the hallway, watching her back. In my past life, she had said almost the exact same thing to me. Right after I gave up the university recommendation, withdrew my scholarship application, and declined the overseas training. She had smiled and said, “Hazel, you are so nice.” Back then, I thought it was a genuine compliment. Now, I finally understood what she really meant. Her translation was: “You handed what was yours over to me, which makes you a pushover. And I am going to keep taking.” A month later, the school announced they were hosting a New Year’s Gala. Each class had to nominate one candidate to host the event, and the faculty would select one boy and one girl from the entire grade. Class Three nominated Harah. She was outgoing, sweet-talking, and loved being on stage. Her homeroom teacher picked her instantly. The homeroom teacher for Class Seven hesitated for days before finally calling my name. I had ranked in the top five on the midterms, and the teacher claimed, “Top students have a stable stage presence.” I didn’t decline. I just nodded. The day the candidate list was posted on the bulletin board, Harah walked past Class Seven and peeked through the window. I was doing homework. Feeling eyes on me, I looked up. She flashed me a sweet smile, spun on her heel, and walked away, her ponytail swishing behind her. After school, Mason was waiting at the gates. As I walked out, he stood up straight. “Hazel.” “Yeah.” “That gala host audition,” he said, his voice tight. “Can you drop out?”

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By the ninety-ninth time a meal made me want to vomit, translucent text suddenly floated across my vision. [The heiress is so pathetic. She wants to throw up every time she eats.] [She still doesn’t know her sense of taste was stolen by the scholarship student, Hazel, using a System.] [All those Michelin star meals she eats? The System transfers them right into Hazel’s mouth.] I dropped my silver fork. My stomach cramped, hollow and burning with acid. Across the dining hall, Hazel sat by the window. Her cracked plastic bowl held stale dinner rolls and cheap canned beans from days ago. She tore off a piece of the dry bread, put it in her mouth, and chewed with a blissful smile. She looked like she was savoring world-class caviar. Another line of text drifted past. [It is not just the taste. All the nutritional value is transferred too. The heiress is going to keep wasting away until she literally starves to death…] I pinched my own hollow, sunken cheek. The sharp sting of pain made me inhale sharply. The floating text was real. Well, if Hazel wanted my sense of taste so desperately, I was going to put my mouth to very good use. 1 My stomach churned with acidic hunger. I rested my head on the mahogany table, staring at Hazel across the room. My mind drifted back to the first time I met her three years ago. It was early September. Hazel stood at the front of the classroom wearing a faded, hand-me-down t-shirt. “Hi, I am Hazel. I come from a really bad neighborhood on the south side. I have to take three different buses and walk two miles just to get to school…” The classroom fell completely silent. Then someone whispered. “Three buses? What time does she even wake up?” Another muttered, looking at her clothes. “They are practically falling apart.” The voices were low but painfully loud in the quiet room. The girl sitting in front of me turned to her desk mate. “She is amazing. Coming from that kind of poverty and still ranking first in the entrance exams.” Hearing those words pull at my heartstrings, I genuinely wanted to help her. The very next day, I went to our homeroom teacher and offered to fully sponsor Hazel’s tuition and living expenses. But Hazel stood up in front of the entire class and flat-out rejected me. “I appreciate Sloane’s charity, but my parents taught me to rely on my own two hands. I refuse to live off someone else’s pity just because I am poor.” “I might not know what a five-star meal tastes like. I do not even know what a proper braised short rib tastes like. But I love my stale bread and cheap beans because I bought them with my own hard-earned money.” She bowed. The class sat in stunned silence for two seconds before erupting into thunderous applause. From that day on, I became the villain. Everyone whispered behind my back. They said the spoiled capitalist heiress tried to humiliate the poor girl with her dirty money. Even my own desk mate moved her things away, sneering at me. “Do not think you can do whatever you want just because you are rich.” That was the day the entire senior class isolated me. And it was the exact same day I lost my sense of taste. Steak tasted like rubber. Fresh greens tasted like bitter ash. Swallowing premium rice felt like chewing sand. I saw countless specialists. They all agreed my tongue was perfectly fine. They diagnosed it as psychosomatic. For three years, I forced down food that tasted like literal dirt. In those three years, my weight plummeted from one hundred and ten pounds to barely eighty. My cheekbones jutted out. My wrists were so thin you could count the bones. Nobody felt sorry for me. Whenever people looked at me, they just muttered the word “Karma.” Looking at the floating text above my head, the horrifying truth finally clicked into place. But I had never done anything to Hazel. Why would she do this to me? [If everything goes according to the plot, Sloane will drop dead in the middle of her final exams. Hazel will score perfectly and get a full ride to Harvard.] [The school board will even recommend that Sloane’s billionaire parents adopt the brilliant, hardworking Hazel to cope with their grief.] I stared at the word “adopt.” My nails dug so hard into my palms they almost drew blood. She had been plotting to steal my entire life from the very beginning. But I could not just confront her. I needed hard evidence. I skipped my afternoon classes, called my driver, and headed straight to the hospital. 2 Our elite academy did all its annual physical exams at this specific private hospital. Conveniently, my family happened to be the hospital’s largest shareholder. It took exactly three minutes for the chief of medicine to hand over my class’s medical records. The director reviewed my charts and sighed. “Miss Sloane, your vitals are dangerously low. Your body is showing signs of severe, prolonged malnutrition. But…” I knew exactly what confused him. I was the daughter of a billionaire. My three daily meals were prepared by private chefs and delivered straight to the academy. How could I possibly be malnourished? He shook his head. “We have run every scan available. We simply cannot find the medical cause.” I did not reply. Instead, I pulled Hazel’s medical file from the stack. Her vitals were absolutely perfect. Under the physical fitness assessment, the doctor had actually written “Excellent.” I pulled up her intake records from freshman year to compare. The difference was staggering. After three years of supposedly eating nothing but stale bread and cheap canned food, she had grown two inches and gained a very healthy thirty pounds. Unless she was tapping into some supernatural force, that was biologically impossible. Armed with the files, I took a sleek black car straight back to the academy. I walked into the classroom and stopped right in front of Hazel’s desk. “Did you do this to me? Did you steal my sense of taste?” The classroom went dead silent. Hazel looked up, her eyes wide and innocent. “What do you mean?” I slammed my hand on her desk. “You stole my taste. Every single thing I eat gets transferred straight into your mouth.” Hazel’s expression faltered for a fraction of a second before her eyes welled up with tears. Her voice trembled. “Sloane… I really do not know what you are talking about. I eat dry bread and cheap beans every single day. I buy them from the discount rack…” The rest of the class immediately stood up to defend her. “Are you psychotic, Sloane? Hazel literally eats scraps. She has it hard enough without you making up crazy conspiracy theories!” “You cannot blame other people just because your own body is failing!” Hazel wiped her eyes, reaching into her worn-out backpack to pull out a crinkled plastic bag. Inside was half a dry roll and some unappetizing pickled vegetables. “Look. I really do not eat anything good…” Her voice trailed off, making her sound like a heavily wronged martyr. “Really?” I let out a cold, sharp laugh and threw both medical reports onto her desk. “Then explain to me how a girl who survives on dry bread and pickles managed to get perfectly healthy, grow taller, and gain thirty pounds?” Hazel froze. She stared at the papers, completely lost for words. Right on cue, a familiar voice rang out from the back of the room. “Sloane, leave her alone! Just because Hazel refused your charity does not mean she cannot accept help from someone else.” Preston walked down the aisle, acting like a knight in shining armor. He placed a carton of premium organic milk gently onto Hazel’s desk. “Here is your daily milk, Hazel.” He looked so incredibly smug, as if Hazel’s perfect health was entirely his doing. Looking at the carton of milk, a wave of disgust washed over me. “Preston, did you forget who you actually grew up with?” The moment those words left my mouth, Hazel frantically shoved the milk carton back toward him. “Sloane, I am so sorry. I should not have accepted Preston’s kindness. I did not mean to make you jealous.” She looked down, her voice trembling. “I promise I will never accept anything from him ever again. Just please stop bullying me.” In one breath, she completely twisted my legitimate accusation into a petty, jealous catfight over a boy. Preston instantly stepped in front of her. “Are you serious right now, Sloane? I literally scoured the city for rare delicacies to help cure your taste loss. Are you seriously going to throw a tantrum over a single carton of plain milk?” My blood boiled. I pointed directly at Hazel. “I cannot taste anything because of her! She has some sort of system. No matter what I eat, the taste and the nutrients get transferred directly to her. She did this to me!” He did not even hesitate. He looked at me like I belonged in an asylum. “Do you even hear yourself right now, Sloane? A scholarship student from the slums used a ‘system’ to magically steal your taste?” “You are absolutely insane.” “You are malnourished because you refuse to eat your food! Stop projecting your eating disorder onto her!” I stared at him. I had looked at that face for over a decade, but right now, all I felt was profound disappointment. 3 I did not wait for Preston after school. I went straight back to my family’s estate alone. Staring at the massive, floor-to-ceiling wine cellar, an overwhelming wave of grief hit me. I popped the cork on a bottle of premium whiskey and poured glass after glass. I cried while I drank. Growing up in a strict, aristocratic household, I was never allowed to touch alcohol. I had absolutely zero alcohol tolerance. But with my taste gone, the whiskey did not burn. It did not sting my throat. I drank it like it was tap water, desperately trying to drown out the suffocating sadness. I drank until I felt physically full. Then my phone lit up with a video call from Preston. The second I answered, he started screaming at me. “Sloane, what the hell did you do to Hazel?!” “Why is she acting like this?!” I stared at the screen. Hazel’s face was flushed bright red. She was slumped over a trash can, violently throwing up. It was the most hilarious thing I had seen all day. “How would I know what is wrong with her?” I asked coldly. “And why is it automatically my fault?” “Who else would sabotage her?!” Preston yelled, his face contorted in anger. “Did you poison her? We were sitting here eating a perfectly normal dinner, and suddenly she started complaining about being dizzy and nauseous. Now she is completely delirious!” Hearing his blind accusations, my rage hit its absolute peak. “When my body started failing, I told you Hazel was behind it, and you called me crazy!” “Now Hazel has a stomachache, and without a single shred of evidence, you immediately accuse me of poisoning her?!” “We grew up together. Does a decade of trust mean absolutely nothing compared to her?” He held Hazel tightly against his chest, glaring at the camera with total disgust. “Hazel is not capable of something like that. You, on the other hand, are a spoiled, vindictive brat. I would not put it past you to try and ruin her.” Hearing those words, the very last trace of affection I held for Preston evaporated into thin air. “Believe whatever you want.” I hung up the phone. I was so furious I reached for another glass, but halfway there, reality crashed into me. I was drinking straight whiskey. Because I had no sense of taste, I was not getting drunk. But the physiological effects of the alcohol were being transferred to Hazel through her precious system! That was why she was dizzy and vomiting. She was experiencing severe alcohol poisoning. This meant that whatever I consumed, good or bad, healthy or toxic, went straight to her. I was a billionaire’s daughter. I was born with a silver spoon in my mouth. The formula I drank as a baby was the most expensive in the world. The water I drank was flown in from private mineral springs in Europe. My sprawling mansion housed a team of elite private chefs. In eighteen years, I had never consumed a single piece of garbage. Even my cold medicine was custom-flavored to taste like candy. That was exactly why Hazel chose to bind her system to me. For three years, she reaped the benefits of my luxurious diet. She never realized her system had a fatal flaw because I never ate anything remotely bad. Tonight was the very first time she suffered the consequences of stealing from my mouth. But it was definitely not going to be the last. A thrill of pure excitement rushed through me. I pulled out her medical report. Right under the allergy section, it was written in bold black ink. Allergic to Mangoes. I opened a premium grocery delivery app and immediately ordered fifty pounds of fresh mangoes. The very next day, fifty pounds of mangoes were delivered straight to the lobby of my private academy dorm. I hauled the massive boxes into my room and ripped them open. Dozens of bright yellow mangoes were neatly packed inside. I picked one up. It was smooth and cold against my palm. I hated mangoes. I had not touched one in three years. I locked my dorm room door and set up my phone on a tripod. I typed out a livestream title. “Eating One Hundred Mangoes Challenge.” I hit the go-live button. The viewer count started trickling in. I peeled the first mango and took a massive bite. I could not taste the sweetness. I could only feel the mushy, fibrous texture mashing against my tongue. I chewed twice and swallowed. Then came the second. Then the third. By the time I finished the tenth mango, the chat was blowing up, praising me for being a competitive eating god. Since the system was transferring the actual fullness and digestion to Hazel, I did not feel bloated at all. Quantity was completely irrelevant to me. Honestly, I was just dying to know what the physical limit was for someone with a severe mango allergy. The answer was fifteen. Right as I swallowed the last bite of the fifteenth mango, someone started violently pounding on my door. “Sloane! Open the damn door! What did you do?!”

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Six years into my secret crush on my adoptive brother, I slipped a sedative into his drink on the night of his birthday. Ever since our parents died in a car crash, he had micromanaged every single corner of my existence. He controlled what I ate, the clothes I wore, the brand of socks in my drawer, the people I spoke to, and the entire trajectory of my future. If he did not love me, why would he go to such suffocating lengths? Yet every time I tried to confess my feelings, he retreated into dead silence and looked the other way. The drug hit his system fast. His eyes flushed a violent, bloodshot red, and the veins throbbed against his temples. Still, he summoned his remaining strength to shove me away and locked himself inside the bathroom. Through the thick wood, I listened to his ragged, suppressed breathing mixed with the roar of freezing water from the shower head. My fingernails dug hard into the narrow gap of the door frame. “Jason, open the door… please.” My pleading was so quiet it practically scraped against the dust on the floorboards. The only answer I got was the muffled, agonizing groan of a man gritting his teeth to bear the torment. I spent that entire night slumped against the freezing bathroom door, finally understanding the bitter truth. When your heart truly dies, it makes no sound at all. 1 The sharp click of the deadbolt sliding into place felt like a physical blade plunging straight into my eardrum. “Jason!” Refusing to give up, I hammered my palms against the solid wood until my skin burned bright red. “Jason, come out! We need to talk about this!” Only the heavy, ragged sound of his breathing answered me, drowned out by the relentless cascade of running water. Cold water. He was standing under a freezing shower. He would rather stand under bone-chilling ice water than let me touch him. Why? My mind spun in exhausting circles, desperately searching for a logical reason. Had I completely misread every single sign over the years, or was I just hopelessly delusional? I slid down the flat surface of the door until I hit the floor, the biting chill of the ceramic tiles seeping straight through the thin fabric of my skirt. You are pathetic, Winter. You threw every ounce of your self-respect away, and he still refuses to want you. Around four in the morning, the rushing water finally stopped. His voice bled through the heavy wooden door, raw and abrasive, like coarse sandpaper grinding against rusted iron. “Go back to your bedroom.” “No, I won’t.” “Go back right now!” I curled into a tight ball on the living room sofa and waited for the morning sun to spill through the blinds. At some point, exhaustion dragged me under. In my dream, I was standing back at our parents’ funeral. Jason was ten years old when our parents adopted him, long before I was even born. When I turned eight, he left for boarding school on the East Coast and stayed away for seven long years. By the time I turned fifteen, our parents were killed in a sudden pile-up on the interstate. Twenty-four-year-old Jason, already making a prestigious name for himself in academic circles, dropped everything and rushed home to pull my trembling body into his chest. Standing beside the fresh graves, he held me tight and swore an oath. He promised that from that moment forward, he would take our parents’ place and shelter me from the world. He swore he would stay by my side forever, that my happiness was his only mission, and that unless I gave him permission, he would never marry. He promised to stay with me until his dying breath. He was the one who made that promise. And for years, he executed it with terrifying perfection. He gave me everything I could ever ask for, except the one thing I actually wanted. When I woke up, the apartment was empty. A bowl of warm oatmeal sat on the dining table next to a sticky note written in his signature, immaculate script: “Eat breakfast before you head to class.” It was as if the humiliating disaster of last night had been nothing more than a fever dream. I swallowed the oatmeal mechanically, grabbed my bag, and stumbled out of the building in a numb daze. Passing the campus quad at Crestwood University, my foot caught on the raised concrete ledge of a flower bed, sending me sprawling across the dirt. My palms scraped hard against the rough concrete, and dark beads of blood welled up instantly. I hissed at the sharp sting, about to curse my miserable luck, when a glint of dark glass caught my eye inside the bushes. It was a sleek black smartphone. The model looked at least three or four years out of date, but the casing was surprisingly pristine. I debated handing it over to campus security, but before I could pick it up, the screen illuminated the shaded grass. An incoming call. Thinking it might be the frantic owner or a close friend trying to track it down, I hesitated for a split second before pressing answer. A bright, energetic male voice immediately echoed through the speaker. “Oh, thank god! It actually rang!” The guy sounded breathless and deeply relieved. “That is my brand-new phone! I accidentally dropped it yesterday and panicked when I realized it was missing. Could you tell me where you are right now? Just drop me a location and I will sprint right over. Seriously, I will make it worth your while!” I glanced down at my bleeding hand, then checked the time on the phone’s lock screen. I gave him the nearest landmark. “South gate flower bed, Crestwood University.” The line went dead silent for a heartbeat at the mention of Crestwood, followed by a sudden burst of excitement. “Crestwood? No way, I go to Crestwood too! Hang tight, please! Give me twenty minutes tops!” Before I could get another word in, the line disconnected. I crouched on the concrete curb by the flower bed and waited. The morning minutes ticked away mercilessly. The digital clock rolled past eight and slowly crept toward nine. Still, there was no sign of anyone rushing down the sidewalk. Realizing I was about to miss my organic chemistry lecture entirely, I shoved the phone into my tote bag and sprinted toward the science building. By the time I slipped through the heavy lecture hall doors, I was over thirty minutes late. The professor gave me a sharp, disapproving stare from the podium but simply gestured for me to find a seat. When the agonizing class finally wrapped up, the lost phone remained totally silent. I tapped the side power button, only to discover the battery had completely died. I packed my notebook and got ready to head back to the apartment, but a tall guy from my class stepped into the aisle, blocking my exit. “Hey, let’s trade numbers or drop your Insta handle?” 2 He opened his phone, ready to take my digits with an expectant, confident grin. I stared at the glowing screen, froze for a second, and instinctively took a nervous step backward. My throat tightened as familiar restrictions flashed through my mind, and I murmured timidly, “Sorry, I don’t use social media.” Without waiting to see the stunned look on his face, I clutched my strap and hurried toward the exit. As I reached the doorway, his voice carried across the emptying room, dripping with loud sarcasm. “It is 2026! Who on earth doesn’t have an account anywhere? If you want to blow someone off, at least come up with a realistic excuse! Stop acting so superior!” My steps faltered slightly, but I kept my eyes fixed ahead and kept walking. What would be the point of secretly adding anyone? Jason would just find it and delete them anyway. He conducted a thorough, methodical audit of my phone and laptop every single weekend, inspecting my digital life like a federal warden auditing a high-risk inmate. Before college, he had restricted me to a basic flip phone, which made me the ultimate laughingstock among my high school peers. No matter how many times I cried or complained about the isolation, he refused to budge. He insisted it was for my own protection, claiming smart devices would ruin my focus during crucial academic years. In those dark, suffocating years immediately following our parents’ funeral, he had sealed me inside an airtight glass jar. Jason treated me like a fragile porcelain doll on the verge of shattering, and in my grief-stricken state, I clung to him as my sole surviving anchor. By the time the fog of mourning finally lifted, my psychological dependency had solidified. I had fully adapted to a solitary existence where he was my entire universe. Having friends outside our apartment didn’t even feel necessary anymore. When exactly did I become completely alone, without a single person I could confide in? After my morning classes concluded, I walked back to the apartment and immediately plugged the dead phone into a charging cable. Once the screen lit up, I tried to dial the owner back, only to hit a passcode lock screen. I couldn’t get past the four-digit PIN. My only option was to leave the device on the nightstand and wait for him to call again. I tossed my bag onto the desk and stared up at the blank ceiling tiles. A few minutes later, the distinct click of the front door echoing from the hallway told me Jason was home. I hopped off the mattress, my body automatically preparing to run out and greet him the way I always did. Then the humiliating memory of last night crashed over me, and I sank right back onto the edge of the bed. I hadn’t turned on the overhead lamp. I toyed with the idea of pretending I wasn’t home at all, but the bedroom door swung inward before I could hide. “Why are you sitting in the dark?” Bright light from the hallway flooded the dim room. Jason stood in the doorway wearing a tailored light gray dress shirt, looking completely composed, as if the midnight disaster had never happened. “Come eat dinner. I picked up your favorite sweet and sour takeout from the dining hall.” Always like this. A wave of crushing exhaustion washed through my bones. Every single time I tried to tear down the invisible barrier between us, he simply plastered over the wreckage with suffocating kindness the very next morning. The man I was deeply in love with stood right in front of me. I knew in my soul that he felt something profound for me too, yet he dodged the truth with relentless precision. Part of me wished he would just turn cruel and banish me from his life completely, rather than keeping me suspended in this endless, torturous loop of gentle indulgence. Sometimes the urge to scream at him, to grab his shirt and demand to know why he was torturing us both, felt almost impossible to contain. But the words never made it past my throat. I was caught in a miserable contradiction. Half of me prayed he would finally reject me with enough brutality to shatter my obsession, while the other half lived in mortal terror that he might actually walk away for good. We sat at the dining table eating the food he had brought back from campus. Jason taught advanced courses in the humanities department at Crestwood University. Or rather, after accepting a prestigious tenure-track offer from the university, he had gently steered my college applications until I enrolled at the exact same school. “Your art appreciation professor mentioned you walked in late today.” “I checked the security feeds at the front gate and saw you left the building on schedule. Did something happen on your way across campus?” He placed a tender piece of glazed pork into my bowl. The words were phrased like a casual observation, but the underlying interrogation was unmistakably clear. “I found a lost phone by the flower beds and waited around to return it to whoever dropped it.” “Did you give it back?” “Yes.” My hand tightened around my fork for a fraction of a second. I forced my posture to remain relaxed, hiding the sudden surge of panic sparked by the lie, and kept my eyes glued to my plate. He offered a soft, approving smile and dropped the interrogation, shifting smoothly to academic planning. “By the way, there is a major symposium for your department next Thursday. I already registered your name on the attendee list, and I will be accompanying you.” “After the keynote concludes, I will introduce you directly to Professor Vance. Try to make a solid impression so you can secure a research assistant spot in his new laboratory. You are heading into your junior year, and strengthening your academic portfolio now will guarantee your graduate school fellowship.” I gave a vague, noncommittal nod, keeping my mouth shut. I hurried through the rest of my meal in silence, cleared my plate, and retreated to my bedroom. The lost phone on the nightstand had charged past the fifty percent mark. I stretched out across my duvet, scrolling absentmindedly through my desolate contact list, assuming the owner wouldn’t bother reaching out again until the morning. Right as I was drifting into a light doze, the device began to buzz violently against the wood. 3 I hit the green icon, and that same energetic voice filled my ear. “Hey, I ran over to the south gate right after my lab, but you were already gone.” “Yeah,” I replied plainly. “I waited as long as I could, but class was starting, so I had to leave.” He offered a quick apology and asked to confirm if I was actually enrolled at Crestwood. When I said yes, his tone instantly elevated with genuine relief. “Oh, awesome!” “Look, here is the deal. I have a massive, mandatory dress rehearsal tomorrow morning that I cannot miss for anything.” “I literally saved up three months of my part-time tutoring cash to buy this phone, and I am tied up at the performing arts center all day. Could you do me a massive favor and drop it off at the conservatory building tomorrow?” Excuse me? My brow furrowed in immediate irritation. “Why is it my job to play courier for you?” “Can’t you just find a free block in your schedule and swing by my building to grab it yourself?” His pushiness was starting to grate on my nerves, and I found myself regretting my decision not to drop the device with campus security the second I picked it up. He didn’t back down, immediately launching into a charming offensive. “Please, seriously, I am begging you! My name is Cole Shen, acoustic guitar performance major!” “Just bring it over to the practice halls, please. Once I get it back in my hands, I will take you out for the best lunch on campus, my treat.” I had always been terrible at turning down persistent requests. Realizing my Friday course load was light, and knowing the chemistry complex sat just a short walk from the music conservatory, I sighed heavily and agreed to the detour. The second the call ended, two sharp raps sounded on my bedroom door. I scrambled to shove the black smartphone deep beneath my pillows just as the door swung open. Jason walked in carrying a warm mug of milk. “Were you just on the phone with someone?” Admitting the truth was out of the question. I forced my expression into blank innocence and shook my head firmly. “No, you must have heard the television from next door.” Jason stood by the edge of my desk, studying my face with unblinking intensity. After a long, agonizing pause, a faint smile touched his lips, and he extended an open palm toward me. “It has been a few days since our last digital check. Hand your phone over, please.” I let out a controlled, quiet breath and gestured toward the nightstand with my chin. He picked up my smartphone and sat down on the edge of my mattress, beginning his routine inspection while I took slow, deliberate sips from the warm mug. True to form, his audit was meticulously thorough. He scrolled through my text logs, checked my email outbox, inspected my browser history, and even checked the recently deleted folder in my photo gallery. Once he satisfied himself that my digital footprint remained entirely sterile, he set the device back down, took the empty ceramic mug from my hands, gently smoothed my hair, and told me to get a good night’s sleep before stepping out into the hall. Later that night, I tossed and turned beneath my blankets, entirely unable to drift off. Realizing I had looked Jason straight in the eye and lied twice in a single afternoon sent an unexpected, thrilling jolt of defiance racing through my veins. Lying turned out to be remarkably simple. Why had I spent so many years terrified to speak anything less than absolute truth around him? I couldn’t fully explain the shift. All I knew was that once you drop the first lie, you have to build a labyrinth of new ones to keep the walls from caving in. As the semester raced toward finals week, scholarship evaluation periods opened up across the university. My name had sat comfortably at the top of the dean’s list for consecutive years, and this semester was no exception. My academic advisor called me into her office to sign the official grant documentation. While I was scribbling my signature across the bottom line, she leaned back and chatted casually. “So, I hear your brother is seeing the humanities dean’s daughter now?” The tip of my pen caught sharply against the paper, nearly tearing a hole right through the document. “Apparently, the dean set them up during the faculty mixer last weekend, and they hit it off immediately.” “Honestly, you should see them together. They look like a picture-perfect power couple. A couple of professors spotted them walking together across the botanical gardens just yesterday afternoon.” I couldn’t recall walking out of the administration building. My body moved on autopilot until I reached the stairwell of the humanities wing, where a brutal scene played out right in front of my eyes. Jason was descending the staircase side by side with a stunning woman with long, chestnut hair. He tilted his head slightly to catch her words, his lips curving into a genuine, relaxed smile that reached his eyes. It was an expression of effortless equality that he had never once directed at me. My chest felt as if an iron vise had slammed shut around my ribs. Terrified he might look down and spot me standing there, I shrank back into the deep shadow of the concrete pillar as tears spilled over my eyelashes without warning. Right at that exact second, the stolen device in my pocket vibrated against my hip. The screen flashed with the stranger’s number. I wiped my cheeks with the back of my hand, cleared my throat, and answered. “Hello?” “Hey! Did you make it over to the conservatory building yet? I am up on the seventh floor, room 713!” “I am heading over right now.” That interruption dragged me out of my downward emotional spiral just in time. Desperate to hand the device off and escape my own head, I practically sprinted across campus toward the performing arts complex. The conservatory required keycard access at the security turnstiles. Blocked at the glass doors, I flagged down a male student walking out with a cello case, giving him Cole Shen’s name and room number in hopes he could run the phone up to the seventh floor. The moment the name left my mouth, the guy’s casual smile vanished, replaced by sheer shock. “Cole Shen? Are you messing with me right now?” I stared at him, entirely bewildered by his intense reaction. Before I could explain, he stepped closer, his brow furrowed deeply. “Are you sure you have the right name?” “Cole Shen passed away over three years ago.” My boots felt glued to the concrete steps. The warmth drained out of my extremities in an instant. “That is impossible… I literally just spoke to him on—” “He was a absolute legend in our department,” the cellist interrupted, shaking his head with a grim, somber expression. “Incredible talent, top of his class, super popular guy.” “It was a massive tragedy. He was lined up for a direct doctoral fellowship, and then suddenly he was just gone.” “Half the conservatory was in absolute mourning for months.” My fingers clamped around the metal phone casing so tightly my joints locked up. “How did he… die?” 4 “No idea.” The student shrugged helplessly. “The university administration clamped down on the details immediately. Everyone who knew what happened had to sign strict non-disclosure agreements.” “If you really want the backstory, your best bet would be tracking down the guys who lived in his dorm suite back then.” “Good luck finding them, though. None of those three are on campus anymore. One moved to Europe for grad school, one took a tech job out of state, and the third guy went off to teach in some remote mountain village.” He gave me an apologetic nod and walked off down the concrete steps. I stood completely paralyzed outside the glass entrance of the conservatory. The afternoon sun was blazing overhead, yet violent shivers raced up and down my spine. I had no memory of navigating the bus ride back to our apartment. I skipped my afternoon lab entirely. My personal phone sat on the desk surface, buzzing in a continuous, frantic rhythm as Jason’s contact photo illuminated the screen repeatedly. I lay flat on my mattress staring up at the white ceiling tiles, trapped in a recurring loop of Jason smiling at the dean’s daughter on the staircase, feeling completely hollow inside. By the time the deadbolt turned in the front door, darkness had swallowed the living room. Jason hurried inside, letting out an audible sigh of relief the second he saw my boots by the hallway mat. “Why did you skip your afternoon classes?” His voice was soft and careful, using the soothing inflection reserved for calming a frightened child. “Exhausted.” “That is fine. If you are exhausted, you rest.” He walked over to the edge of the sofa, kneeling on the rug to reach out and brush the bangs from my forehead. “I will email your lab instructor and handle the absence—” “Stop micromanaging my existence!” Watching his practiced, condescending gentleness snapped something deep inside my psyche. I swung my arm and slapped his wrist away with jarring force. He froze completely, his comforting smile hardening into disbelief. “What is wrong with you? Why are you speaking to me like this all of a sudden?” “You are the only family I have left in this world, Winter. I stood over our parents’ graves and made a sacred vow that I would protect you—” “I am twenty-one years old!” My voice cracked as I yelled over his monologue. “You are not my father! We do not even share a single drop of blood!” “You are going to build your own career, marry your own wife, and raise your own children! I cannot spend the rest of my life acting as your helpless dependent!” “Why can’t you?!” he shouted back, his voice booming through the small living room. The sheer ferocity of his outburst shocked me into temporary silence. Catching himself, he immediately dropped his gaze, grasping both of my wrists tightly as his voice dropped into an urgent, desperate rasp. “Did someone say something to upset you today?” “Whatever rumors are floating around campus, listen to me. There is nothing romantic going on between me and the dean’s daughter. We were simply discussing departmental funding.” “Winter, I gave you my word. I will never marry anyone. I am going to stay right here with you forever.” “I don’t want your promise anymore.” “What?” Jason stared at me, genuinely bewildered. “I said I don’t want your suffocating promises anymore!” For the first time in my entire life, I felt a desperate, burning need to banish him from my sight completely. The atmosphere in the apartment felt poisonous. I needed fresh air. I needed distance. I needed to escape his orbit! I couldn’t survive another day trapped inside this psychological greenhouse! Realizing that this wasn’t a temporary temper tantrum, the color drained steadily out of Jason’s face until his skin looked like parchment. “You don’t want my promise?” he whispered, his dark eyes turning a terrifying shade of crimson. “Then tell me what you actually want! What are you asking for?” “Do you want me to stop supervising your schedule, or do you want me out of your life entirely? Or…” His voice trembled visibly. “Are you trying to abandon me?” Years of suppressed bitterness detonated all at once. “I want out!” I screamed through hot tears. “I want to be left alone!” Those four words hit him like a physical blow. His eyes flashed blood red as a violent shudder wracked his tall frame. Before I could react, his hands clamped onto my shoulders with terrifying strength, driving my upper back into the sofa cushions as his face lunged downward until our noses were practically touching. His dark pupils dilated wildly, reflecting my terrified, tear-streaked face. His breath burned against my skin, his mouth hovering barely an inch above my lips. Just as his mouth lowered toward mine, he aborted the movement violently, recoiling backward as if he had brushed against red-hot iron. “You are overstressed from your academic workload.” He turned his back to me immediately, his voice hoarse and unstable. “I will submit medical leave paperwork for your classes tomorrow. You are staying inside the apartment to rest.” Without turning around, he grabbed his keys and strode out the front door, slamming it behind him. Once the deadbolt clicked shut, I curled up into a ball on the couch and wept until the decorative pillows were soaked through. A sharp buzz interrupted the silence. The lost phone was vibrating on the coffee table. Same unknown number. “I have been standing outside the rehearsal halls for an hour! Where are you?” Cole’s voice crackled through the speaker, sounding deeply annoyed. Hearing his voice acted as the ultimate trigger for my fractured emotional state. I screamed directly into the microphone. “Do you get a sick thrill out of playing twisted pranks on strangers?!” “I walked all the way to the music conservatory today! People in your own department told me the truth! Cole Shen died in an accident three years ago!” “Using a dead student’s identity to run some elaborate psychological game makes you a complete psychopath! I am throwing this phone in the nearest dumpster! Call this number again and I am contacting the police!” I jabbed the end button with shaking fingers and raised my arm to hurl the device against the hardwood floor. Before the phone left my hand, the screen illuminated again. Once. Twice. Three times. You really want to push my buttons right now? Fine! I needed a target for my rage, and whoever was on the other end had picked the wrong night to test my patience! I swiped the green icon and screamed at the top of my lungs. “Are you completely out of your mind?!” “You—” “Who told you I was dead?!” “What kind of twisted, jealous psycho goes around spreading rumors that I died?!” Before I could launch my next string of insults, he shouted over me with equal fury. “You just want to steal my brand-new phone! Coming up with a morbid lie like that just to keep a piece of electronics makes you a terrible person!” “Me? Terrible?!” I fired back. “You are impersonating a dead kid to mess with my head!” Neither of us backed down an inch. He sounded genuinely outraged, his voice escalating into frustrated disbelief. “I am standing right outside the conservatory practice rooms right this second, entirely alive! Go ahead and call campus security! I will call the real cops on you for theft first!”

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Michael’s girlfriend was chronically online. She loved testing out every new TikTok trend she scrolled past, and tonight was no exception. “Michael, you’re a year older than me. Why didn’t you visit me in the hospital the day I was born? Do you even love me at all?” Michael let out a helpless laugh, entirely used to her antics. He played along with the joke, but then his eyes caught his famously stoic, buttoned-up uncle sitting nearby. A mischievous glint crossed Michael’s face. “Uncle Declan, what about you? How would you answer that?” The man, who rarely cracked a smile, swirled the amber liquid in his glass. “I did visit.” He took a slow sip. “Not only did I visit, but I held her when she was just a baby.” As the words left his mouth, his dark, heavy gaze drifted across the room, landing squarely on me. 1 Michael Prescott and I grew up together. For the first twenty years of my life, we were inseparable. It wasn’t just me who thought we were endgame. Our parents, our entire social circle, everyone practically had our wedding invitations drafted in their heads. We were the quintessential high-society match, perfectly suited in background and temperament. When I turned eighteen, my parents officially brought up the idea of a merger between the Astor and Prescott families through marriage. They asked how I felt about it. Honestly, I adored Michael. If our families joined, it would be a beautiful story. But we were still young, so the engagement talks were gently shelved, and we headed off to the same Ivy League university instead. For the next two years, we lingered in that agonizingly sweet gray area. More than friends, not quite lovers. Everyone around us treated it as an inevitability. Swept up in the expectations, I let myself fall a little deeper for him with every passing day. Then came the winter of our sophomore year. Michael found me, his eyes bright with an excitement I had never seen before. “Sharon, I met someone. I think I’m really falling for her!” It wasn’t me. Seeing him so ecstatic was a brutal wake-up call. The last two decades of our lives had never sparked real romantic love in him. The lingering hugs, the intertwined hands, to Michael, they were just the perks of having a best friend. You cannot force a heart to feel something it doesn’t. And I refused to humiliate myself by begging. So, I gathered up my feelings and locked them away. To the absolute shock of our social circle, Michael started dating a girl from a very ordinary, middle-class suburb. She was undeniably pretty, with a spoiled, slightly demanding streak that proved she was her parents’ pampered princess. He paraded her around, introducing her to every single person in our elite bubble. My presence suddenly became a very awkward elephant in the room. Our mutual friends didn’t buy it. They placed bets on when the novelty would wear off, convinced that once Michael got bored of playing tourist in a normal life, he would realize I was the one he belonged with. “Don’t stress it, Sharon,” a friend whispered to me over martinis. “He’s just fascinated by the naive, girl-next-door routine. Give it a few months. He’ll get sick of it.” He didn’t. Michael stayed with her for two solid years. He flashed his new relationship all over town, making sure everyone knew, including my parents and his. My father was furious enough to march over to the Prescott estate and give them a piece of his mind. My mother had to physically block the door. “If they don’t want the match, we walk away gracefully. Why make a scene? Do you honestly think our daughter is going to lack suitors?” “That is not the point!” my father thundered. When the families had first discussed the marriage, Michael wasn’t a child. He knew about it. He had, at the very least, offered silent consent. Even if we hadn’t made it official, we were a hair’s breadth away from an engagement. It was only because my mother thought we were too young that she gave us time to date properly. By flaunting this new girl, he wasn’t just breaking my heart. He was publicly slapping the Astor family in the face. Still, on the surface, Michael and I remained friends. Our families had hundreds of millions tied up in joint ventures. We had to keep up appearances. But friends were all we would ever be. Which brings us to tonight. Michael booked a massive VIP lounge at an exclusive club downtown for his birthday, inviting half the city’s young elite. I was on the guest list. And naturally, so was his girlfriend, Sophie. 2 Once Michael started dating, my texts to him slowed to a trickle. But we had a messy digital footprint. Before Sophie came into the picture, our Instagram comments and late-night chat histories blurred the lines of platonic friendship. Once they were official, Sophie demanded total access to his phone. They fought about it a few times. I only found out when Michael pulled me aside to apologize, sheepishly admitting Sophie had blocked and deleted my number from his contacts. Since I hadn’t reached out to him in weeks anyway, I hadn’t even noticed. Sophie was desperately trying to claw her way into Michael’s inner circle. Old money circles are notoriously cliquey, and someone had definitely whispered in her ear about my history with her boyfriend. I understood her insecurity. So, I took a step back and gave them space. Tonight, I had planned to drop off his birthday gift and ghost. But as I walked through the heavy velvet curtains of the lounge, my eyes snagged on a figure sitting in the corner. I froze. Just then, my phone lit up with a text. After reading it, I quietly found a seat at the edge of the room. “Sharon, you made it!” Michael looked genuinely thrilled. “I heard you’ve been shadowing your dad at the firm. I figured you’d be too busy closing deals.” I smiled smoothly, handing over the sleek wrapped box. “Happy birthday, Michael.” “Sharon!” Sophie’s sugary voice chimed in. “It feels like forever. Are you trying a new mature look? It’s giving… pushing thirty.” Sophie was draped in a custom pink couture gown that cost more than a sports car, her hair curled into playful, bouncy waves. She wasn’t stupid. She knew exactly what she was saying. I looked down at my impeccably tailored, razor-sharp designer suit and let out a soft laugh. “Is it? Good. I am aiming for ruthless corporate executive, after all.” Michael immediately jumped in to keep the peace. “Sharon, you know Sophie. She’s just playing around. Don’t take it to heart.” I didn’t take it to heart. I didn’t let just anyone into my heart anymore. I sat a fair distance from the main action, but the acoustics in the room were crisp. That was when Sophie pulled out the viral internet joke. “Michael, you’re a year older than me. Why didn’t you visit me in the hospital…” The crowd erupted in affectionate laughter. The guys ribbed him. “Yeah, Michael! Why weren’t you rolling up with a baby bottle for your girl?” It was harmless teasing. Sophie was beautiful in an innocent, doe-eyed way, and over the past two years, she had managed to charm a few of the guys in our group. Michael grinned, tossing his arm over the back of the sofa. “I was probably throwing a tantrum and getting grounded by my mom for spitting out my apple juice.” The room dissolved into more laughter. Michael turned his head, spotting his notoriously strict uncle who had surprisingly shown up to the party. Wanting to test the ice, he threw the question his way. “Uncle Declan, what about you? How would you answer that?” Declan Prescott was five years older than Michael and me. He was the unexpected miracle child of the Prescott grandparents, born late in their lives. From the day he drew breath, he was the golden standard. Despite the small age gap, the generational hierarchy was absolute. Factor in Declan’s Ivy League degrees, his ruthless ascension in the corporate world, and his devastatingly cold charisma, and every trust fund kid in our circle was secretly terrified of him. Growing up, I called him Uncle Declan too. Michael was probably hoping to get a dry, pragmatic business answer out of the man. One of Michael’s friends chuckled nervously. “Come on, man, don’t drag Declan into this. The guy runs an empire. When does he have time for romance?” Then, Declan spoke. “I did visit.” The room went dead silent. “Huh?” The man who treated boardrooms like war zones added softly, “Not only did I visit, but I held her when she was just a baby.” No one noticed his eyes. They were locked dead onto me, dark and consuming. “…” The tension broke as the room burst into roaring laughter. “Holy shit, Declan! I didn’t know you had a sense of humor!” No one took him seriously. Except me. Declan didn’t look away. Even though I actively avoided meeting his gaze, the sheer weight of his stare felt reckless and entirely too loud. When the party started winding down, I slipped out and found my car in the underground valet garage. I opened the door and froze. Someone was already in the backseat. My driver looked at me through the rearview mirror, clearly unsure of what to do. From the shadows of the backseat, Declan’s low, gravelly chuckle filled the space. “Mind giving me a lift? I didn’t bring my driver tonight.” I slid in, and the heavy door thudded shut. The man beside me leaned his head back against the leather and murmured, “I seem to have forgotten my address. Miss Astor, care to let me crash at your place?” 3 Declan feigned being completely wasted, letting his head rest heavily against my shoulder. His breath, warm and laced with expensive bourbon, ghosted over the sensitive skin of my neck. It was impossible to ignore. I stared out the tinted window at the blurred city lights, my mind drifting back to two years ago, the night Michael made it Instagram official. I would be lying if I said it didn’t shatter me. Less than a month after telling me he liked someone else, Michael blasted her picture to the world. I was still sitting in my bedroom, trying to figure out how to untangle our families’ massive expectations without causing a corporate war. Worse, Michael paraded her through our friend group immediately. Maybe he just wanted to show her off, but there were plenty of girls in our circle who hated my guts. The petty, thinly veiled insults came pouring in. If I acted like I cared, I was pathetic. If I acted completely unfazed, I was bitter and in denial. That was exactly when Declan returned from London. He had been overseeing a massive real estate acquisition in the UK, a project that wasn’t even finished yet. I was in a place where I didn’t want to look at anyone with the last name Prescott. But Declan bypassed all the social red tape and walked straight into my life. It was winter break. Declan found me and asked, completely out of the blue, if I wanted to go to London with him to clear my head. I stared at him, utterly lost. For most of my childhood, Michael and I were intimidated by him. He was only five years older, but Declan didn’t play in the dirt with us. The genetic lottery had favored him in cruel, unfair ways. He was brilliant to the point of intimidation. As we grew older, he morphed into this untouchable figure, possessing a quiet, lethal authority and striking, sharp-edged good looks. Women practically threw themselves at his feet. I had barely held a real conversation with him. Any interaction we had was strictly by proxy because I was glued to Michael. So, an invitation to London made zero sense. Declan stood in the snow, hands in his cashmere coat pockets. “Do you still love Michael?” I swallowed hard, the silence stretching out between us. “It’s fine if you do. He’s just a man,” Declan said smoothly. “He won’t be the only one you meet in this life.” I couldn’t tell if he was trying to comfort me or mock me. “Michael likes someone else. Would you consider liking someone else?” Declan looked at me, his tone as casual as if he were discussing the weather. “Consider me?” Absolute shock bulldozed right over my heartbreak. The tears that had been swimming in my eyes finally spilled over, but my expression was one of pure, speechless horror. Declan pulled a pristine linen handkerchief from his pocket and gently dabbed the tear from my cheek. “Don’t waste tears on people who aren’t worth it,” he murmured. He paused, a faint smirk playing on his lips. “Though, I suppose you can look at it as detoxing.” “…” I had zero clue Declan Prescott possessed a sense of humor. He dropped his hand. “If your original reason for choosing Michael was to secure the corporate merger between our families, my portfolio is vastly superior to his.” Vastly was the understatement of the century. Declan was the undisputed heir to the Prescott empire. Michael lacked the ambition and the sheer, ruthless intellect his uncle possessed. “If you purely loved Michael for who he is, well, he forfeited his right to your heart when he chose someone else. Stepping in now hardly makes me the villain.” 4 I didn’t go to London because of his romantic pitch. I went because he asked, “Are you planning to take over your family’s firm after graduation? I have negotiations in London. Want to sit in and watch?” Declan’s reputation in the business world was legendary. Like anyone with half a brain, I idolized his work ethic. It was basic ambition. I wanted to see a master at work. So, even knowing he had essentially offered himself up as my new fiancé, I boarded his private jet. For two weeks in London, he kept me by his side. There was absolutely nothing inappropriate between us. He treated me like a protege, guiding me through the brutal realities of corporate takeovers. I watched him dismantle CEOs with a calm, terrifying grace. If we took emotions out of the equation, choosing Declan was a thousand times better than choosing Michael. The ROI was astronomical. “But, Declan, Michael is your nephew.” It was my last night in London. We were sitting in a dimly lit, velvet-lined speakeasy tucked inside our hotel. Soft jazz drifted through the air, the yellow ambient light wrapping around us in a warm, intimate haze. Declan didn’t even blink. Those deep, unreadable eyes held mine over the rim of his scotch glass. “Yes. He played a foolish game. Marry me, become his aunt, and you can boss him around at family dinners for the rest of his life.” “…” Become Michael’s aunt? I had to admit, the level of petty revenge in that statement was deeply appealing. But I had my own life to map out. Michael broke my heart, but I refused to let him dictate my future. “I have one more question.” “You can ask as many as you want,” Declan replied. “And you don’t have to keep a formal distance. Just use my name.” Since I was a toddler, I had lumped him in with the adults. Michael called him uncle, so I did too. But now, as the energy between us shifted into something dark and charged, using his first name felt dangerously taboo. “What exactly…” I hesitated, searching for the words. “How do you view me?” “Are you asking if this is a business acquisition for me, or something else?” he countered. Before I could stutter out a response, he leaned forward. “Sharon, five years is nothing. Besides Michael, you and I grew up together too, didn’t we?” I froze. “When you started kindergarten, you were always running over to our estate. The adults were busy. You and Michael followed me around like ducklings. Do you remember?” His voice was a low rumble. The memories flashed in my mind. Kids always want to play with the older kids. We used to shadow him everywhere. But as he grew up, he was swallowed by boarding schools, university, and eventually the boardroom. The gap widened until he was a god and we were just kids. “When you two graduated high school, my brother and sister-in-law were thrilled. They wanted to lock down the engagement. You two were practically joined at the hip,” Declan said, his tone sharpening. “But Sharon, he walked away. Even if I am technically his elder, pursuing a brilliant, single woman is hardly a crime.” Declan brought me back to the States. For the entire half-month in London, he never crossed a line. That Christmas, Michael and his parents were too embarrassed to attend our family’s holiday gala because of the girlfriend drama. The Prescott family sent Declan in their place. The house was packed with guests. No one noticed when Declan slipped into my bedroom, closed the door behind him, and asked, “Sharon, have you made your decision?” 5 “Declan, did you really come to the hospital the day I was born?” I asked suddenly, pulled back to the present moment in my apartment. His face was buried in the curve of my neck, pressing soft, biting kisses against my skin. He let out a raspy laugh, his hot breath sending shivers down my spine. “Did you think I was joking in front of that crowd?” “Michael was barely two months old. My brother was swamped at the firm, and his wife was recovering. My parents dragged me to the maternity ward to see you,” he murmured against my collarbone. “Though, I was the only one who actually wanted to see you. My parents were just there for the PR.” “As for whether I held you, surely you remember how you used to act?” “…” When Michael and I were at our clingiest phase, I was constantly demanding Declan pick me up and carry me. Relationships mutate with time. At five, I clung to him. At fifteen, I kept a respectful distance. At twenty, I treated him as an elder. And now, hidden away in the dead of night, we were tearing each other’s clothes off. That Christmas in my bedroom, I didn’t give him a verbal yes. But I didn’t push him away either. He took the opening and executed a flawless, relentless pursuit right under everyone’s noses. The moment Michael fell for someone else, his ghost began to fade from my heart. I wasn’t the type of woman to pine over a man who belonged to another girl. And Declan was impossible to resist. He knew exactly when to push and when to give me space. The void in my chest was meticulously filled by someone else. The summer before last, Declan and I made it official. It was about six months into Michael’s new relationship. He planned a group getaway to the Hamptons and actually sent me an invite. I turned it down flat. That sparked a massive rumor mill. Sophie and the rest of our friends whispered that I was too brokenhearted to watch them be in love. The reality? I had zero desire to ditch my brand-new, spectacular boyfriend to play third wheel to my ex-crush. We kept our relationship completely underground. Like any normal couple, we navigated the exhilarating slide from holding hands to breathless kisses, to tangled sheets and late nights. Before tonight, we hadn’t seen each other in over two weeks due to his business trip. I straddled his lap, pulling him into a searing kiss, pouring every ounce of the longing I’d felt into it. Declan’s hands were anything but polite, lighting fires wherever they traced, dragging me down into the intoxicating haze of him. The night was thick and heavy. A vase of fresh pink bellflowers sat on my glass coffee table. A sudden breeze drifted through a cracked window, and the delicate petals trembled, over and over again, in the dark. 6 With graduation looming, my life became a blur of corporate strategy. My father was eager to hand over the reins. He had thrown me into the deep end of the family business the previous year. Between defending my thesis and closing deals, I barely had time to breathe. After a wild, reckless night, my internal alarm woke me at dawn. I opened my eyes, tried to slip out of bed, and was instantly yanked back by a heavy arm wrapping around my waist. “Why are you up so early?” Declan’s voice was thick with sleep and rough like sandpaper. “Come back to sleep.” “I have to go to the office, Mr. Prescott,” I coaxed, running a hand through his messy hair. “I’m spearheading a massive acquisition this week. Behave.” Declan chuckled into the pillows. “Want me to review the contracts for you?” “Absolutely not. Corporate espionage. I don’t care if you’re my boyfriend.” I rejected him with practiced authority. Since we started dating, Declan had secretly tutored me in high-level corporate warfare. But this was the first project my father had completely entrusted to me. I had to win it on my own. Declan propped himself up against the headboard, watching in silence as I showered, flipped on the vanity lights, and applied my makeup. I told him to go back to sleep, but ten minutes later, he was out of bed. By the time I stepped into the kitchen in my stilettos, Declan was plating breakfast. He was incredibly skilled with his hands. In every possible context. Even rushing on a weekday morning, the eggs benedict he set on the marble island looked like it belonged in a Michelin-starred restaurant. Sometimes, I caught myself wondering why a man like Declan chose me. It wasn’t an inferiority complex. It was just statistics. He had the world at his fingertips. Heiresses and supermodels had practically thrown themselves at his feet for years. Declan caught me staring and didn’t miss a beat. “It’s the same reason you were entirely blind to everyone except Michael growing up. I only ever had eyes for you. Then. And now.” “…” He was still holding a petty grudge against his own nephew. The kitchen smelled like fresh coffee and expensive, territorial jealousy. Falling in love with Declan had been the easiest thing in the world. Just like I always believed—love had to go both ways. I gave him a lingering kiss before grabbing my briefcase. “My schedule is clear for the next few days,” Declan murmured against my lips. “I’ll be staying here.” Technically, he had a guest room at my place. He used it once, last year, when I had a fever and he drove through a torrential downpour to take care of me. Slowly, his tailored suits started taking over my closet. His expensive watches ended up on my nightstand. And then one night, I just wanted him next to me. He hadn’t slept in the guest room since. I was slammed at work right now. Forget dinner dates—I was squeezing in university meetings between board calls. The only place we actually saw each other was in my bed. Thankfully, he didn’t complain. By the time I finalized the acquisition, June rolled around, and I officially graduated. My father had zero intention of starting me in the mailroom. I was the heir apparent. He needed me in the shark tank. When the Prescott Matriarch’s birthday gala arrived, I attended with my parents. Despite the awkward tension from two years ago, the Astor and Prescott empires were still deeply entangled. We all operated on the unspoken elite rule: smile, drink the champagne, and pretend the arranged marriage talks had never happened. The ballroom was packed. I followed my parents to the VIP tables to offer our rehearsed, elegant congratulations. When I smiled and said, “Happy Birthday, Grandma Prescott,” the words caught in my throat. I had called her that my entire life. But considering exactly what I did to her youngest son last night, the title felt distinctly blasphemous. Declan materialized out of the crowd. He was wearing a deep burgundy dress shirt. Uncharacteristically, he hadn’t worn a tie, and the top two buttons were undone. He had literally crawled out of my bed that morning. Underneath the expensive silk, his skin was marked with evidence of our night together. Just like mine was. The moment our eyes met, a faint, devastating smirk touched his lips. There was nothing more lethal than a notoriously rigid, cold man showing a sliver of unadulterated sin. 7 In public, we played the role of distant family acquaintances flawlessly. I looked right at him and nodded. “Uncle Declan.” Behind closed doors, I hadn’t called him that in ages. Except, occasionally, when my back was arched against the headboard and he demanded it. Saying it here, in the middle of a glittering ballroom, felt like a filthy inside joke. He offered a curt, utterly professional nod, his face an ice-cold mask. “Sharon.” Fake. The gala was lavish, but knowing the Prescott family as well as I did, it took me exactly three seconds to read the room. The tension at their main table was thick enough to cut with a knife. I pulled out my phone under the table and texted Declan. What’s the drama? He texted back immediately. Michael tried to bring his girl. Got ripped to shreds. The translation: Michael wanted to officially introduce Sophie to the family. His parents already despised her, and realizing he was serious about marrying her sent them into a tailspin. So, Sophie was banned from the gala. Michael’s parents looked at me with open regret. They offered polite, socially perfect small talk, and I parried it with equal grace. Declan hovered nearby, pretending to casually listen. “Declan, you aren’t getting any younger,” the Matriarch suddenly announced, turning her attention to her youngest son. “With all these brilliant girls in the city, has no one caught your eye?” It was a loaded statement. Half the debutantes in the room had been vetted by her as potential daughters-in-law. Declan, who usually shut down these conversations with brutal efficiency, actually smiled. “Mom, I have a girlfriend.” “Are you serious?” Michael, walking by with a glass of champagne, stopped dead in his tracks. His eyes lit up with gossip. “Uncle Declan, I have an aunt? Who is she? Do I know her?” “…” I shot Declan a covert, withering glare. Ignoring his parents, his older brother, and his sister-in-law, Declan stared directly at his nephew. “Focus on fixing your own mess first.” Michael shut his mouth. “Well, if you’re serious about her, bring the girl around,” Declan’s older brother—Michael’s dad—chimed in. Michael looked ready to scream. His dad had just banished his girlfriend from the premises but was practically rolling out the red carpet for Declan’s mystery woman. “She’s here tonight,” Declan said smoothly. The entire Prescott family gasped. Heads immediately swiveled, eyes darting across the ballroom, aggressively scanning the crowd for suspects. My heart slammed against my ribs. I had no idea what game he was playing. “Declan, which one is she?” his sister-in-law pressed. Given the exclusive guest list, whoever Declan was dating had to be a high-society heiress. The family’s tone instantly shifted to pure excitement. “She’s young. We aren’t in a rush to marry. Let’s give it a couple of years,” Declan deflected smoothly. “…” “Uncle Declan, don’t tell me you’re dating someone younger than me?” Michael joked. Declan went completely silent. ? “Wait, actually younger than me?” Michael looked horrified. Declan’s father finally cleared his throat, looking deeply concerned. “Declan, this girl… she is of legal age, correct?” “Obviously,” Declan shot his father a look of pure disgust. “What kind of monster do you think I am?” Within an hour, the rumor that Declan Prescott had a secret girlfriend tore through the ballroom. Thanks to Michael’s loud mouth, everyone had the clues: She’s in the room, and she’s younger than Michael. The gossip mill went into overdrive. Not a single person guessed it was me. 8 Michael even cornered me by the champagne tower to spill the tea. “Sharon, have you noticed my uncle talking to any girls tonight?” I stared at him blankly, then shook my head. “I hardly know your uncle.” “Fair point,” Michael accepted the lie instantly. “You see him like, twice a year. Makes sense you wouldn’t know.” He swirled his drink, looking miserable. “I’m booking a trip to Europe for the summer to get away from my parents. I’m taking Sophie. Do you want to come? I feel like we haven’t gone on a trip together since high school.” I looked at him like he had lost his mind, fighting to keep my polite smile in place. “No thanks. Work is swamped.” “Are you sure? Sophie specifically asked me to invite you.” “?” Both of you are actually insane. “Pass,” I said coldly. I didn’t have time to be a pawn in whatever insecure power play his girlfriend was running. When I got home that night, Declan was already there. He was standing on my balcony, the warm summer night air rustling his burgundy shirt. He held a crystal tumbler of scotch, watching me walk into the living room. It was a ridiculously cinematic sight. “What’s this?” I asked, crossing my arms and leaning against the glass door, amused. “I left the gala after you. How did you beat me here?” Declan didn’t miss a beat. “I paid my driver double to run the red lights.” He closed the distance between us, carrying the faint, intoxicating scent of oakwood and expensive alcohol. “You were staring at me all night. Do you like me in red?” So he had noticed. “Is it a crime to look?” He laughed, a low, rumbling sound. “I wore it specifically for you to look.” I leaned in and took a sip of the scotch right from his glass. “You’re raiding my liquor cabinet again.” Declan threw back the rest of the amber liquid, setting the glass on a side table. “Come by my penthouse tomorrow. Pick out whatever bottles you want. Take the whole cellar.” The city breeze tangled with the taste of alcohol as he pulled me in. The kiss was slow, deep, and intoxicating. Beneath the burgundy silk, the scratches I left on his back the night before were still fresh. He backed me against the wall, murmuring against my jaw, “What were you and Michael whispering about for so long?” “Why are you so obsessed with him?” I huffed, annoyed. “Are you trying to pick a fight?” In the two years we’d been together, we argued like any normal couple. But Declan was the kind of man who refused to sleep in a different bed, even when he was furious. The fights never lasted until morning. “My brother and sister-in-law are still mourning the fact that you aren’t their daughter-in-law,” he growled playfully. “Am I not allowed to be a little territorial?” “Go pick a fight with them, then.” I pushed lightly at his chest. Instead of letting go, Declan hooked his hands under my thighs and lifted me effortlessly. Instinctively, I wrapped my legs around his waist, my vision blurring for a second as the world spun. “I’m not fighting them. They lost their chance at a daughter-in-law,” he kissed the corner of my mouth, his eyes glinting. “But a sister-in-law is still on the table.” I bit down lightly on his lower lip. “I never agreed to marry you.” Declan wasn’t phased. He lowered his head, pressing open-mouthed kisses down my neck, doing exactly what he did best until I was entirely at his mercy. Then, he looked up, his eyes dark and voice hoarse. “Then what am I supposed to do, Sharon? I’m hitting thirty soon. No one else will have me. Are you going to abandon your Uncle Declan?” Hearing him call himself Uncle Declan in that tone was like a cursed spell. It was a poisoned apple, dripping with pure, unadulterated sin. The man was a menace.

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1 Locked in a psychiatric hospital for four years after my husband diagnosed me, I returned home to changed locks. I buzzed for ten minutes before a strange woman answered, wearing my silk robe and diamond necklace. She smirked, calling Victor. “Babe, a crazy woman’s here.” Victor approached, eyeing me like a stray dog. “Out? I’ll have the driver take you to a motel.” I ignored him, searching for my daughter. Four-year-old Lucy read in the living room. At my call, she flinched, hiding behind the woman. “Mommy, she’s scary,” she whispered. Victor stepped between us, voice hardening. “Don’t frighten her. Lawyers tomorrow.” Numb, I walked into freezing rain. A nearby billboard flashed a movie trailer. The poster showed me, hair wild, strapped to a bed, screaming. The film, Madwoman, had grossed millions with rave reviews. The director’s credit revealed Victor’s name. Shaking, I dialed a number saved for four years. It rang twice. “You finally called,” a voice said. … “Dominic.” The name tasted like ash and blood as it forced its way past my lips. The line went dead silent for a fraction of a second. Then came the sharp screech of a chair dragging across a floor, followed by hushed whispers in the background. “Kathy?” His voice was deep, thick with sudden tension, traveling across thousands of miles of ocean to strike my eardrums. “It’s me.” I stared blankly at the massive billboard of Madwoman. The woman on the screen looked like a raving lunatic, and Victor’s name underneath felt like a rusted nail driven straight into my skull. “Are you out?” Dominic’s voice wavered, carrying a trace of a tremor. “Yes.” I closed my eyes, letting the freezing rain wash over my face. “Wait for me,” he said, his tone instantly shifting to cold authority. “Three days. I’ll tie up my business here in London and catch the first flight back.” “Okay.” I hung up, and the screen went black. Through the downpour, a black Maybach beeped its horn. It was our driver, Frank. Four years ago, he had treated me with absolute deference. Now, he didn’t even bother to roll his window down all the way, leaving only a tiny crack. “Ma’am, Mr. Creston ordered me to pick you up. He booked a room for you at the budget motel on the south side of town.” A cheap motel. I looked down at my bare ankles, purple from the biting cold, and let out a dry, hollow laugh. I, Kathy Barrett, had brought a massive family fortune into my marriage with Victor. He had used my inheritance to build his entire empire, only to throw me into an asylum for four long years. And now, on my first night of freedom, he expected me to sleep in a fifty-dollar-a-night motel. “No need.” I turned my back on the Maybach and stepped into the rain, hailing a passing taxi. “Take me to the Crestview estate.” Frank kept honking behind me, but I didn’t look back. Thirty minutes later, I stood outside the iron gates of what used to be my home. The main digital lock had been reprogrammed, but I knew that inside the ventilation shaft near the garage lay a physical spare key. It was a failsafe I had hidden during the renovation because I was notoriously forgetful. The lock turned with a heavy click. The heavy wooden door swung open. The living room was dark, save for the flickering orange glow of the fireplace. Sienna’s sweet, high-pitched laughter floated over the back of the sofa. “Victor, is that crazy bitch really gone? What if she comes back with a knife to slit my throat?” Victor’s deep, smooth voice followed, laced with lazy arrogance. “She wouldn’t dare. After all the electroshock therapy she endured at Havenwood, her spine is completely broken.” “But Lucy looked so frightened. I should take her to a child psychologist tomorrow. What if she inherited that crazy woman’s genes?” “Thank you, Sienna. Honestly, I don’t know what I would have done without you raising Lucy as your own these past four years.” I stood in the shadows of the foyer, looking at the high heels and men’s leather belts discarded carelessly on the floor. My stomach turned. Four years ago, Victor had knelt in the pouring rain, begging me to save his failing company. Eight months pregnant, I sold the last piece of land my mother had left me to clear his debts. In return, he bribed a team of doctors, pumped me full of hallucinogens, and had me dragged into an unmarked van. “If you’re so terrified of my genes, why are you still living in my house?” I stepped out of the shadows, my voice echoing through the vaulted ceiling. The two on the sofa bolted upright. Sienna frantically pulled up the slipping silk robe, which happened to be mine. Victor’s face instantly darkened. He grabbed a throw blanket and tossed it over Sienna’s bare legs. “Kathy! Who the hell let you in?” He marched toward me, his eyes filled with the viciousness he would reserve for an armed intruder. “This is my house,” I said, staring him down. “My name is on the deed. Why shouldn’t I be here?” Sienna shrunk behind Victor, her eyes red, trembling like a frightened rabbit. “Kathy, please don’t start acting up. Victor did this for your own good. You just got discharged, and you need a quiet place to heal…” “Shut up.” I reached out and grabbed a porcelain vase resting on the foyer cabinet. It was a rare piece Victor had bid three hundred thousand dollars on at an auction, presenting it to me as a birthday gift. A loud crash echoed through the room. The vase shattered into a million pieces right at Victor’s feet. Shards flew, slicing through the fabric of his trousers. “Who gave you permission to speak to me?” Sienna shrieked, wrapping her arms tightly around Victor’s waist. “Victor! She’s trying to kill us! She’s having another episode!” The door to the second-floor bedroom suddenly opened. Lucy, wearing a pink nightgown, rubbed her eyes and stepped onto the landing. Seeing the chaos below, she burst into tears. “Mommy! I’m scared!” Hearing her call out “Mommy” shattered whatever resolve I had left. “Lucy, come to Mommy.” I dropped the remaining shards and moved toward the stairs. But Lucy stumbled down the steps, bypassing my outstretched arms entirely, and threw herself into Sienna’s embrace. “Mama Sienna, the bad lady is breaking things again! She’s crazy! Get her out of here!” I froze. My hands hovered in the air, my fingertips trembling uncontrollably. Mama Sienna. The bad lady. Crazy. Sienna pulled Lucy close, stroking her back with maternal tenderness. “It’s okay, sweetie. Mama Sienna is here. No one’s going to hurt you.” Victor turned back to me, the disgust in his eyes practically overflowing. “Kathy, have you had enough? Is this your idea of motherly love? You come back and immediately start terrorizing our child!” “I’m terrorizing her?” I pointed at Sienna, my voice cracking with hysteria. “You brainwashed my daughter to love this woman, you stole my home, and you made a fortune selling videos of my torture! Are you even human, Victor?” I lunged forward, desperate to pry Lucy from Sienna’s arms. “Give me my daughter!” The moment my fingers brushed Lucy’s arm, Victor grabbed my wrist and twisted it with brutal force. A sickening crack echoed, followed by a blinding wave of agony. I gasped, and Victor threw me hard onto the hardwood floor. I landed amid the broken porcelain. Shards sliced deep into my palms and knees, and blood immediately began to seep through my thin hospital uniform. “Daddy is beating the bad guy! Kill the crazy lady!” Lucy cheered, clapping her hands from the safety of Sienna’s arms. My tears mingled with the blood pooling beneath me. Victor looked down at me, pulling a tissue from his pocket to wipe his hands, as if he had touched something vile. “Frank, get in here.” The front door pushed open, and the driver entered with two burly security guards. “Sir.” Victor pointed at my bleeding form on the floor. “Throw this lunatic out. If she ever sets foot on this property again, break her legs and ship her straight back to Havenwood.” 2 The storm raged on. I was dumped like a sack of trash onto the wet asphalt outside the gated community. My wrist hung at a sickening, twisted angle. Blood from my knees mingled with the rain, creating a crimson stream on the pavement. “You should face reality, ma’am.” Frank stood over me, holding a black umbrella, his eyes filled with cold pity. “Mr. Creston is worth billions now, and Ms. Sienna is pregnant with their second child. A certified lunatic like you stands no chance against them.” Their second child. Those words hit me like a physical blow. They were having another child. I lay in the puddle, watching the Maybach’s taillights disappear into the dark. The pain was overwhelming, and my vision began to blur. During my four years at Havenwood, they had injected me with heavy doses of chlorpromazine every week just to make me look like a real psycho. The drugs had wrecked my nervous system, leaving me barely able to stand. I lay in the rain all night. At dawn, a street sweeper found me. The kind woman helped me to a nearby bus shelter and called an ambulance. In the emergency room, the doctor reset my dislocated wrist and picked the porcelain shards out of my knees. “Where is your family? How did you end up like this?” the doctor asked, frowning. “They’re dead,” I whispered, staring at the sterile white ceiling. After my wounds were bandaged, I checked my bank account. I still had the emergency fund Dominic had forced me to take four years ago. I checked into a quiet, low-key hotel, changed into clean clothes, and bought a baseball cap and a face mask. Today was the parent-child sports day at St. Mary’s Prep, the prestigious academy Lucy attended. For four years, the memory of my daughter’s face was the only thing that kept me sane in that hellhole. I couldn’t leave her with those monsters. Outside St. Mary’s, luxury cars lined the streets. I blended into the crowd of parents, peering through the iron gates. I spotted Victor and Sienna instantly. They were wearing matching custom designer outfits, and Sienna was smiling brightly, holding Lucy’s hand. A group of wealthy mothers surrounded Sienna, showering her with compliments. “Sienna, you look absolutely radiant! This baby must be a boy.” “And Lucy is so well-behaved. You’ve done a wonderful job raising her, unlike her previous…” “Shh, keep it down. I heard that woman was eating filth in Havenwood. How disgusting.” Sienna giggled, patting Lucy’s head. “Please, don’t say that. Kathy is a tragic soul. But for Lucy’s sake, Victor and I had to make the hard choice.” I stood behind a tree, my nails digging deep into my palms. Sienna was living in my house, sleeping in my bed, raising my daughter, and basking in the glory built on my suffering. The events began. The first was the three-legged race. Victor stepped aside to take a call. Sienna pulled Lucy to the starting line and knelt to tie the ribbon around their ankles. Thinking no one was watching, Sienna suddenly pinched the inside of Lucy’s thigh with brutal force. “Ow!” Lucy cried out, tears instantly welling in her eyes. “Stop crying! Hold it in!” Sienna’s sweet expression vanished, replaced by a snarling whisper. “If it weren’t for playing the perfect mother in front of your father, do you think I’d touch a useless brat like you? Run fast. If we lose, you’re sleeping in the dark closet tonight!” Lucy trembled, biting her lip to keep from crying out. Something inside me snapped. To hell with waiting. To hell with being cautious. I shoved through the crowd, kicked open the side gate, and charged onto the field. “Sienna, I will kill you!” I tackled her to the ground, grabbing a handful of her hair, and began raining slaps down on her face. Slap! Slap! Slap! Her lip split, blood smearing her face. “You dare hurt my daughter! You wretched snake!” The teachers and parents were too stunned to react. “Help! The crazy woman is killing me! Victor, save me!” Sienna screamed, trying to protect her stomach. “Kathy! Stop!” Victor’s roar echoed across the field. Before I could strike again, a powerful grip yanked me back by my collar and slammed me onto the track. My head hit the ground hard, and black spots danced across my eyes. Victor rushed to Sienna, checking her frantically. “Sienna, are you okay? The baby?” Sienna clung to him, weeping. “Victor, I’m so scared. She wanted to kill me and our baby…” Victor turned to me, his eyes bloodshot with rage. “Kathy, you psychotic bitch! How dare you lay a hand on her!” I struggled to sit up, pointing a trembling finger at Lucy. “Ask her! Ask your precious wife what she did to Lucy! She pinched her! She abuses her when you aren’t looking!” Victor frowned, looking at Lucy. Lucy shrank back, her hand covering her thigh. Sienna immediately pulled Lucy into her arms. “Lucy, sweetheart, Mama Sienna was just tying your shoes, right? Tell Daddy, did Mama Sienna hurt you?” Lucy looked at Sienna’s threatening glare, then at me, covered in dirt and blood. She burst into tears. “No! Mama Sienna didn’t hurt me! It’s the bad lady! She’s crazy, she beat Mama Sienna! Daddy, make her go away!” My heart stopped. It felt as though someone had ripped it from my chest and crushed it underfoot. “Lucy… I’m your mommy…” Victor kicked my hand away. “You heard her. Even a child knows you’re insane.” He pulled out his phone and dialed. “Yes, police? We have an emergency at St. Mary’s Prep. A mentally unstable woman just assaulted a pregnant woman. Yes, she was recently discharged from Havenwood. She’s highly violent. Send officers immediately.” He hung up and looked down at me with a cruel smirk. “I gave you a chance, Kathy. Since you love being crazy so much, you can rot in Havenwood for the rest of your life.” 3 Siren wails sliced through the schoolyard air. Two uniformed officers pushed through the crowd. “Who reported the incident?” Victor stepped forward, his face a mask of weary distress. “Officer, I did. This is my ex-wife. She suffers from severe schizophrenia and was recently released from Havenwood. She just assaulted my pregnant fiancée and almost harmed our child.” Sienna whimpered, leaning heavily on Victor. “My stomach hurts so much… She kept kicking me…” The other parents chimed in. “Yes, we saw it! She attacked like a rabid dog! Lock her up before she hurts our kids!” The officer turned to me. I struggled to my feet, my dislocated wrist throbbing with fresh agony. I pulled a crumpled, blood-stained paper from my pocket. “I am not sick. This is my discharge paper from Havenwood. I attacked her because she was abusing my daughter! Check the school’s security cameras!” The officer took the paper. Victor stepped close and whispered a few words. The officer’s expression shifted to one of deference. “Mr. Creston, we’ll handle this according to protocol.” He turned back to me, his tone icy. “We need to verify the authenticity of this document. Right now, you’re being detained for assault and disturbing the peace. Come with us.” He clicked a pair of handcuffs around my functional wrist. “I didn’t do anything wrong!” I screamed, but the other officer shoved me toward the police cruiser. “Save it. Even crazy people have to face the law.” As the doors slammed shut, I looked through the tinted glass. Victor was kissing Sienna’s forehead, and Sienna peeked over his shoulder, flashing me a triumphant, mocking smile. Her lips formed the words: You lose. In the interrogation room, there were no windows, just a blinding overhead light. It triggered memories of the isolation rooms at Havenwood, and panic gripped me. “Name.” “Kathy Barrett.” “Why did you assault Sienna?” “I told you, she was abusing my daughter! Did you check the cameras?” The detective flipped a page. “We checked. It was a blind spot. Nothing was recorded. Meanwhile, the victim’s medical report shows a concussion and soft tissue damage. Mr. Creston’s lawyer is prepared to file charges of felony assault. If you don’t sign this settlement agreement and promise to stay away from them forever, they will prosecute. Given your psychiatric history, you’ll likely be committed to a high-security asylum indefinitely.” Indefinitely. The word crushed me. I looked at the photos of Sienna’s bruised face and laughed until tears ran down my cheeks. Of course. Victor was practically untouchable in Riverford now. Erasing a security tape was child’s play for him. I spent forty-eight hours in a holding cell. No food, only cold tap water. My untreated wrist swelled to twice its size. Just when I thought they were going to cart me off to a state asylum, the heavy steel door opened. A lawyer in an expensive suit walked in. “Ms. Barrett, Mr. Creston has decided to drop the charges. You’re free to go.” I was stunned. Victor, showing mercy? When I stepped outside the station, a black Rolls-Royce was idling at the curb. The window rolled down to reveal Victor smoking a cigar. “Get in.” I hesitated, wary. “Don’t worry, I’m not taking you back to the asylum,” he said, flicking the ash. “But if you don’t get in, I guarantee you will never see your father alive again.” My blood ran cold. “My father? You told me he died in the ICU four years ago!” “If you want the truth, get in.” I gritted my teeth and got in. The car smelled of Sienna’s perfume. We drove to a private hospital’s VIP wing. Victor led me to a sterile room. Through the glass, I saw a frail, skeletal man hooked up to a ventilator. My father. Once a prominent real estate mogul, now reduced to a living corpse. “He’s alive?” Tears spilled over. “You lied to me!” “If you knew he was alive, you wouldn’t have lost all hope and stayed quiet in Havenwood for four years,” Victor said coldly. “I’ve spent hundreds of thousands keeping him alive on experimental drugs. But the family company’s remaining shares are now in Sienna’s name. Except for the last five percent of original shares. Sign them over to me, or I pull his plug today.” 4 I gripped the pen so hard my knuckles turned white. “Victor, you stripped my father of everything he built. Must you steal his very last breath?” I grabbed his lapels, wanting to tear him apart. He merely adjusted his cuffs with supreme arrogance. “Kathy, remember who holds the cards here. Sienna’s baby is coming, and I need these shares to finalize the restructuring of the company as a gift to my new wife.” He grabbed my jaw, his grip agonizingly tight. “Sign, and the old man breathes a little longer. Refuse, and I stop his medication right now.” The heart monitor’s steady beeps sounded like a countdown. Looking at my dying father, I sobbed. For four years, he had kept me in the dark, and now he wanted me to humiliate myself for his mistress. “I’ll sign.” But as I reached for the paper, Victor pulled it away. “Not so fast. Sienna is hosting a yacht party tonight to celebrate the success of Madwoman and her birthday. She’s been having nightmares since you showed up. Look at yourself. Go there, kneel, and beg for her forgiveness. If she’s happy, I’ll take the shares. If not, no deal.” The humiliation was overwhelming. “You want me to kneel to her?” “Is the great Kathy Barrett too proud?” he mocked, reaching for his phone. “Then let’s see how long your father survives.” “Fine! I’ll do it!” Two hours later, dressed in a cheap, revealing slip dress provided by Victor’s men, I was forced onto the deck of The Empress, a luxury yacht anchored in international waters. The thumping bass and bright lights of the party hit me instantly. The city’s elite were all there. On the massive screens, scenes from Madwoman played on a loop. It was me, screaming, strapped to an asylum bed, being electrocuted until I soiled myself. My real, living nightmare, turned into public entertainment. “Look who’s here!” someone jeered. Every eye turned to me. Sienna, wearing a white haute couture gown and my anniversary necklace, stepped forward on Victor’s arm. “Kathy, you made it! I bought that dress from a thrift store for ten dollars. It fits you perfectly!” Laughter erupted around us. “Is that the crazy ex-wife? She looks pathetic.” Victor stared at me coldly. “Well? Kneel and apologize to Sienna.” I clenched my fists and walked toward her. As I began to bend my knees, Sienna took a step back. She was holding a pink stuffed rabbit, Lucy’s favorite comfort toy. “Oops, my hand slipped,” Sienna squealed as the toy plummeted into the dark, freezing ocean. “Oh dear, Lucy can’t sleep without that. You love her so much, Kathy. Go get it. Do that, and Victor will pay for your father’s medical bills.” The November sea was freezing. Jumping in was suicide. “Sienna, don’t push me!” I snarled. Victor stepped between us. “Take it or leave it, Kathy.” The crowd chanted, “Jump! Jump!” I looked at the black water, then thought of my father and my daughter. I had no choice. I climbed over the railing. “Remember what you look like right now, Kathy. Like a dog begging for a bone,” Victor sneered. Splash! I plunged into the icy water. The cold stole my breath instantly. I swam frantically until my fingers snagged the soggy toy. But as I swam back and reached for the yacht’s ladder, a high heel slammed down onto my fingers. Sienna looked down at me, her face twisted in malice. “Die, you crazy bitch. Once you’re gone, everything is mine.” She kicked my hand. I lost my grip and slipped back into the dark depths. Cold water filled my lungs, and my consciousness began to fade. Just as darkness claimed me, a deafening roar shook the air. Searchlights illuminated the sea like daylight. A black military helicopter hovered overhead, and heavy speedboats surrounded the yacht. A tall, imposing figure descended from the chopper, his black trench coat whipping in the wind. Without a second thought, he dove into the freezing water. A powerful arm wrapped around my waist, pulling me back to the surface.

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My boyfriend was drowning in depression. Between his prescription meds and private specialists, his treatment was costing thousands of dollars a month. To keep him afloat, I practically lived on caffeine, taking on endless freelance art commissions and delivering food day and night. My friends begged me to slow down, constantly warning me that I was going to work myself into an early grave. Then came the afternoon I accepted a high-end delivery heading to an exclusive, gated neighborhood. I stood at the entrance of a massive, sprawling estate, politely holding out a three-thousand-dollar luxury sushi order with both hands. But when I looked up, my heart stopped. Standing right there in the grand doorway, looking back at me in absolute shock, was my boyfriend. The exact same man who was supposed to be in a critical therapy session at that very moment. 1 “Aren’t you supposed to be at the clinic, Stephen?” I stared at the sprawling, ultra-modern mansion. The cardboard box of high-end sushi in my hands felt like ice, my fingers aching from how hard I gripped it. Even though the summer heat was pushing a brutal hundred degrees, I shivered as if I had been dropped into an arctic winter. A place like this was something I had only ever seen in movies. “Audrey, I’m sorry. Let me explain. Dr. Lewis had an emergency this afternoon…” “I just came over to hang out with a friend.” Caught red-handed, Stephen lost his usual composure. He reached out, frantically grabbing my sleeve. It was his signature move whenever he apologized, a gesture that had worked a thousand times before. But today, the magic was gone. I coldly slapped his hand away. The designer shirt he wore bore a logo I couldn’t even name, but the irony was loud and clear. It fit him perfectly, highlighting the wealthy heir he actually was, far better than the cheap, faded hoodies he wore around me. I looked down, opening the Silveridge Hospital portal on my phone to check Dr. Lewis’s schedule. When I saw that the psychiatrist still had plenty of open slots for the day, I didn’t even have the energy to call out his lie. Taking a deep, shuddering breath, I forced my voice to stay level and cold. “Is this fun for you, Stephen?” “Playing the tragic, broke boy who couldn’t even afford a five-dollar coffee… when in reality, you’re a trust-fund prince who spends three thousand dollars on a single lunch?” My lips trembled. I stared at him, barely realizing that my eyes were already swimming with tears. “You really… you treated me like a complete idiot.” “Three thousand dollars. Do you have any idea how many deliveries that is? That is six hundred deliveries. That’s two months of sleepless nights for me.” The ultimate joke was my lock screen. The last text I had sent him, barely thirty minutes ago, was still open. I had told him I was going to make his favorite potato soup tonight to celebrate, because the customer in the wealthy gated community had been incredibly generous, leaving a fifteen-dollar tip. I never could have guessed that the generous tipper was my own boyfriend. 2 Stephen used to hold me close in the middle of the night, whispering that I was the only person in the world whose love he never doubted. He said even his own parents didn’t love him as purely as I did. Back then, those whispered sweet nothings made me feel like the luckiest girl alive, happy to have found something real in a world full of superficiality. But looking back, it was just pathetic. Of course nobody else would be stupid enough to ride a bicycle through a blinding heatwave for a measly two-dollar high-temperature bonus, desperately trying to scrape together enough cash for his monthly therapy bills. “I haven’t slept more than five hours a night in months. Every single day, I prayed for you to get better.” “You knew all of this, didn’t you?” My voice cracked, thick with tears. The calm, apologetic mask on Stephen’s face began to fracture. His eyes reddened, and he gave a slow, painful nod. In that cramped, moldy studio apartment we shared, where we had to walk thirty minutes just to reach the nearest subway station, he had watched me struggle. He watched me pinch pennies, skipping meals to save a dollar. He watched me drown in exhaustion, working myself to the bone to pay for his imaginary treatment, all while he watched from above like a god playing a simulation. “I’ll transfer some money to your account,” he muttered, looking down. “As compensation.” “I really am sorry, Audrey.” He stood there, head bowed, a mix of guilt and helplessness in his eyes. Realizing there was no lie left to save him, he gave up. My fingers stiffened around the crumpled receipt in my pocket. It was nearly a foot long, detailing the rarest, most expensive cuts of wagyu and sashimi. I rolled it into a tight ball and threw it at his face with every ounce of strength I had left. Stephen didn’t flinch. His expression was a heavy, suffocating mix of sorrow and regret. The cool draft from the air-conditioned mansion drifted out into the summer air. Under the loud hum of the cicadas, light footsteps approached the grand entrance. Then, a girl’s whiny, pampered voice cut through the silence. “Stephen? Where’s the food? I’m literally starving in here!” 3 The silence between Stephen and me shattered. His expression tightened. We both turned toward the door just as a young girl in a silk slip dress walked out. Stephen panicked, stepping in front of her to block her path. “Why did you come out? Go back inside. I’ll be right in, babe.” But the girl had no intention of going back. She sidestepped him, her gaze landing on me. Her eyes, beautiful but sharp, carried a chillingly familiar look of condescension. “Who is this?” she asked. Neither of us answered. Seeing our silence, a slow, malicious smile spread across her lips. She casually wrapped her arm around Stephen’s, pulling her low-cut pastel slip dress slightly lower, exposing the faint red marks on her collarbone and the soft curves beneath the silk. She leaned her entire weight against him, completely relaxed. Stephen’s anxious gaze darted to me, terrified of my reaction. I turned my head away, closing my eyes. My sweat-soaked hair clung to my cheeks, and a sharp, throbbing headache pulsed behind my temples. I didn’t need to be a genius to know exactly what had happened in that house. I had thought I was just the unlucky victim of a rich boy’s poverty simulation. But it turned out I was also the entertainment in a wealthy couple’s twisted love story. It was sickening. I didn’t want to waste another second here. I turned around to grab my delivery bag, ready to leave. But the girl called out to me, her voice dripping with amusement. “Wait. Are you that charity-case girlfriend Stephen’s been playing with off-campus?” “I didn’t recognize you in that delivery uniform. You’re Audrey from the literature department, aren’t you?” 4 I stopped and turned back to look at her. After a long, agonizing thirty seconds, the pieces clicked. Sienna. She was a senior, a wealthy, popular girl who was always surrounded by a crowd of sycophants. But we had history. The year before, she had used her family’s influence to steal my financial aid scholarship and give it to one of her friends. Because of that, I had never bowed down to her like everyone else did. Seeing the dark, silent anger in my eyes, Sienna tightened her grip on Stephen’s arm. She let out a delighted, high-pitched giggle. “Stephen, I can’t believe you actually did it. Last year, I casually complained to you about how much I hated this self-righteous girl in my department.” “You asked a few questions, and then you actually went out and broke her. I have to hand it to you, babe. This is brilliant.” Sienna looked up at me, her eyes gleaming with malice. “You managed to turn the department’s star student into a literal dog, running around at your beck and call.” I slowly clenched my fists. The cold air from the doorway washed over my sweaty skin, but it brought no relief. To people like them, the dreams, the sweat, the tears, and the very lives of ordinary people were just weeds on the side of the road. Not only did they ignore us, but they also took pleasure in stepping on us and spitting on our misery. Sienna leaned in and kissed Stephen’s cheek, treating me like the punchline of a joke, her eyes flashing with pure triumph. Then, as if remembering something even more delicious, her expression turned manic. “Audrey, sweetie, let me guess. Did Stephen tell you he had severe depression?” My brow furrowed, but I couldn’t deny it. Sienna burst into a fit of laughter, clutching her stomach. But the words that tumbled from her mouth next made my entire world shatter. “That’s because I told him your little brother took his own life because of depression.” “We knew that if Stephen pretended to be depressed, you’d fall for it hook, line, and sinker.” “And look at you. You actually did.” 5 The air went entirely still, the heavy silence broken only by the deafening buzz of the cicadas. My mind snapped. All logic and restraint evaporated. I bit my lower lip until it bled, ripped off my heavy delivery helmet, and swung it with everything I had straight at Stephen’s face. If I let this slide, I might as well give up on living. My chest heaved violently as I screamed at him. “Depression, right? Playing poor, right? You like using my dead brother as a joke?” “You absolute piece of trash! No wonder your parents don’t love you! No wonder your father beats your mother right in front of you! Why didn’t he just beat you to death instead?” “I’ll do him a favor and kill you myself today!” During our year together, whether it was a game to him or a real connection to me, we had shared our deepest vulnerabilities. I knew his darkest secret: the cold neglect of his parents, the abuse he had witnessed, and the hollow ache of never knowing what a real family felt like. And now, those secrets became the weapons I used to rip him apart. Before either of them could react, I swung the helmet again, heavy plastic slamming into his face over and over. I was hyperventilating, my head spinning from weeks of sleep deprivation and pure, unadulterated rage. The second Sienna mentioned my brother, Felix, the fragile wall of sanity I had built shattered into dust. He was the one person in this world no one was allowed to touch. Stephen didn’t even try to defend himself. He just stood there, taking the blows, until Sienna finally screamed and tried to pull me off him. He stumbled back, his hands covered in the blood pouring from his nose and mouth. “Are you okay, Stephen? I’m calling the police!” Sienna cried, her voice shaking with panic. “This crazy bitch is out of her mind! I’ll have my dad destroy her…” Stephen grabbed her wrist, shaking his head weakly. “No. Don’t.” “I… I owe her this.” He wiped the blood from his lip, smoothed back his messy hair, and stepped back toward me. He reached into his pocket, pulled out a sleek gold credit card, and held it out to me. “The PIN is your birthday. I know there’s no fixing this, but… just take it. I’m sorry.” I let out a cold, hollow laugh, staring at him with nothing but pure hatred. “Go die.” I snatched the card from his fingers, turned on my heel, and walked away. 6 There was over a hundred thousand dollars on the card. I called my delivery manager, demanded my final paycheck, and quit on the spot. My tiny, cheap studio apartment felt smaller than ever, easily taken in with a single glance. I had moved out of the dorms with Stephen because he claimed his physical symptoms of depression were getting worse, and he needed me by his side every day. I hadn’t been entirely defenseless when he first entered my life, but seeing him suffer from the exact same illness that had taken my brother made my heart soft. It made me foolish. In my desperation to save him, the lines between my love for him and my crippling guilt over my brother had blurred. I had thrown myself into saving Stephen as if it could somehow rewrite the past and cure my nightmares. I spent hours packing. We had accumulated a lot of things over the year, but looking at the matching mugs, the couple’s watches, and the cheap souvenirs we bought, they only felt like acid in my eyes. I threw them all into the trash. I lay down on the mattress, listening to the loud, rattling hum of the old air conditioner. Free from the endless cycle of delivery shifts, I finally fell into a deep, heavy sleep. In my dreams, I was back in that bathroom. Felix lay in the bathtub, completely pale, surrounded by water stained dark red. He looked like a fragile porcelain doll, cold and silent. An empty pill bottle lay near his limp fingers. His long eyelashes were closed, looking exactly the way they did when he used to doze off while waiting for me to finish studying. Only this time, he would never wake up. He would never open his eyes and ask me when we were going to bed. On his phone, he had deleted every single message and chat history, leaving only a final text to me: “I’m sorry, sis,” along with a bank transfer of five hundred dollars. Everything he had to his name. He had left during the peak of spring, a brilliant boy taken in his prime. And I had been trapped in that spring ever since. 7 The rustling of a plastic trash bag by the door woke me up. A figure in a black shirt was crouching by my garbage can, frantically digging through the trash. “Who’s there?” The figure froze, then slowly turned around. It was Stephen. He was wearing a black face mask, with several white bandages taped over his face where I had hit him. I rubbed my aching temples, realizing I had forgotten he still had a spare key. He had pulled out all the matching rings, cups, and mementos I had thrown away, neatly lining them up on the floor. “What do you think you’re doing?” I asked, my voice flat. Stephen looked down, hiding his eyes. “I just came to pack up some of my things.” “They’re just cheap trash, Stephen. I didn’t think a billionaire would care.” I sat up on the bed, scanning the room to see if I had left anything important. Once I was done packing, I was planning to move back into the dorms and cancel the lease on this apartment. Stephen held the cheap silver matching ring in his palm, his thumb gently rubbing the band. His voice sounded hollow and distant. “I know you don’t believe me, Audrey. But I really did love you. You were the only person in the world I trusted.” “Nobody has ever loved me the way you did. I didn’t want to lose you.” I let out a soft, mocking chuckle, the scene at the mansion flashing through my mind like a cruel joke. “Love? Is that what you call it? Was it love when you had me deliver a three-thousand-dollar meal to the house where you had just slept with another girl? Should I thank you for the tip?” “Sienna is a mistake! I can explain! Nothing happened between us. I only agreed to date her in the past because she wouldn’t stop asking.” “I wanted to break up with her a long time ago. I finally realized that the only person I truly love is…” “It doesn’t matter anymore,” I cut him off, my voice ice-cold. The bathroom faucet dripped loudly into the plastic bucket below. The plumbing had been leaking for months, and to save on the water bill, I had kept a bucket there to catch the drops. Every penny had mattered to me, and to hear him talk about love now was simply insulting. The moment his lie was exposed, a chasm opened between us, one that no amount of explanations could ever bridge. “Stephen, when you used my dead brother to get close to me, did you ever consider that karma would find you?” “What do you mean?” I didn’t answer. I simply stood up, walked to the door, and opened it, signaling for him to leave. He saw the finality in my eyes, his face falling as he gathered the cheap trinkets into his bag and stood up. “Stop pretending to be depressed,” I said as he reached the door. “Because every time someone like you uses it as a game, the stigma gets worse, and the people who are actually suffering are left in the dark.” People like Felix. Stephen stood silent for a long moment, then slowly nodded. Before he stepped out, he pulled a bag of groceries from behind his back, containing pork ribs and lotus root. He had seen the message I sent him about making his favorite soup. “Can you make me the soup one last time?” “No. Your family’s chef can make it much better.” “I only like yours.” He looked at me, his eyes rimmed with red. “Audrey, why won’t you give me one more chance?” His voice cracked, thick with tears. I never expected the arrogant heir of Silveridge’s wealthiest family to look so pathetic, begging for my forgiveness. The simulation was over, yet he was still playing the part. I met his gaze with absolute silence. He knew it was over. The hand he had reached out to grab mine slowly fell to his side. At the doorway, he looked back at me, his eyes swimming with unshed tears. “Do you still love me?” “No.” “Could you ever love me again?” “Never.” 8 After Stephen left, I spent the rest of the night packing the remaining boxes. I was scheduled to move back to the campus dorms next week. Around three in the morning, I sat on the sofa, exhausted. My eyes fell on a small, locked metal box in the corner of the closet. My brother’s things. Felix and I were twins. Our parents had divorced when we were young, and both had quickly started new families. We were treated like a costly mistake of their youth, an inconvenience they both wanted to forget. So, from middle school onward, Felix and I survived on the bare minimum child support they sent, keeping each other alive. My heart ached at the memory. I reached into my bag and pulled out a small jewelry box. It was the last birthday gift Felix had given me, a delicate silver necklace with a star pendant. He had been smiling so brightly when he placed it around my neck. “I saved up to buy this for you, Audrey. Do you like it? It looks so beautiful on you, better than on the model!” “I know it’s not expensive, but I’m going to work hard. One day, I’ll buy you the most beautiful gems in the world.” I had smiled, poking the single dimple on his cheek. “I believe you, Felix. I’ll be waiting.” As I held the jewelry box, I felt something rattling beneath the velvet padding. I pulled it back and found a small key hidden inside. Felix hadn’t given me this key when he first gave me the necklace. He must have slipped it in later. I took the key, walked over to the locked box in the closet, and turned the lock. It clicked open. Inside, there were only four things. A canvas painting of withered sunflowers, a vinyl record from his favorite indie band, a black notebook, and a small slip of paper with a username and password written on it. I picked up the black notebook, resting it on my lap. I turned the pages. The early entries were just ordinary things, complaining about exams or mentioning a girl who had tried to hand him a love letter. It made sense. Felix had always been handsome, with soft features and a quiet, mysterious charm that drew people in. But because we had grown up abandoned, he had always been deeply sensitive and guarded, which was why he kept a journal. When he started college at Silveridge University, his incredible vocals quickly made him the lead singer of the campus band, and he was always surrounded by fans. My heart ached as I read through his memories, but my fingers froze on a page halfway through. Sienna’s name had appeared in the journal. And as I turned the pages, her name appeared more and more frequently.

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1 I was famous in the corporate world for being the gentle, approachable executive. I always had a warm smile for everyone. I was especially kind to our newest intern, Finn. When he messed up a report, I took the fall for him. When he caught a bad fever, I personally cooked a hot meal and delivered it to his rundown apartment. He would blush and call me Victoria, his eyes completely unable to hide his youthful infatuation and deep gratitude. I shielded him from office politics, fast-tracked his promotion, and even brought takeout directly to his desk when he worked late nights. He thought he had met a fairy godmother in the ruthless corporate jungle. He had no idea that I was the one who paid his roommate to move out. He did not know I made the phone call that revoked his mother’s hospital bed. And he certainly did not know I was the invisible hand that forced his girlfriend of three years to leave him. When he was completely backed into a corner, crying and begging me for a loan, I gently wiped the tears from his face and slid a lifestyle contract across my desk. Sign it, and everything I have is yours. Refuse? You will be sleeping on the streets tomorrow. … “Ms. Sinclair, the new intern is here.” I put down my fountain pen. A young man stood outside the glass door of my office. His cheap white button-down shirt was frayed at the collar, and the right cuff was missing a button. The HR director pushed the door open, and he followed her inside. “Good morning, Ms. Sinclair. My name is Finn.” Twenty-two years old, fresh out of college, and so dangerously thin that his shirt hung off his frame. He flashed a quick smile at me, then immediately pulled it back, probably afraid he looked too foolish. I had seen that exact smile three months ago. It was one in the morning on Interstate 95, and my Mercedes had blown a tire. A rusted Chevy van pulled over onto the shoulder. Finn jumped out, jogged over to my window, and handed me a bottle of water. “Are you alright? Do you need some help?” He helped my driver change the tire. He got a streak of black grease across his knuckles, wiped it off on his jeans, flashed me that exact same smile, and drove away. I memorized the license plate of that Chevy. Three days later, a comprehensive background check was sitting on my desk. Finn Gallagher. Graduated from a no-name state college. His father passed away when he was young, and his mother was chronically ill in their rural hometown. He survived on academic scholarships and grueling minimum-wage gigs. I ordered HR to fish his resume out of the rejection pile and slot him directly into my project team. During his interview, he was so nervous he could barely string a sentence together. His technical answers were full of holes. The HR director later pulled me aside. “Victoria, are you sure we want to hire this kid?” I offered a soft smile. “He looks grounded. Let’s give him a shot.” Surviving in this firm had absolutely nothing to do with being grounded. By his first week, he predictably made a massive mistake. Marcus, the project manager, slammed a stack of financial reports onto Finn’s desk. The sharp crack echoed, making the entire sales floor turn around. “Finn, these data metrics are completely wrong! Are you just here to collect a paycheck?” Finn stood up, his hands visibly shaking. “I am so sorry, Marcus. I will redo it right now.” “Redo it? The client needs this tomorrow morning!” Marcus’s voice echoed louder, and Finn dropped his head lower and lower, staring at his shoes. I stepped out of my office and picked up the scattered papers, flipping through the first two pages. “Marcus, I adjusted the data metrics at the last minute and forgot to CC Finn on the email. This one is on me.” Marcus opened his mouth but swallowed his words, not daring to argue with an executive director. Finn stood frozen. His ears were burning red, and his lips parted several times before he found his voice. “Ms. Sinclair, it was actually my fault.” “Call me Victoria.” I placed the report gently back onto his desk. “Fix the numbers and email it to me. Take your time.” At midnight, my inbox pinged with the revised file. He had left meticulous notes in the margins and even reformatted the headers twice to ensure it was perfect. The truth was, he really had made the mistake. Marcus was entirely justified in yelling at him. I shielded him because I wanted him to owe me a favor. Favors are a dangerous currency. The more you owe, the harder it is to pay back. And when you finally realize you cannot afford the debt, you have no choice but to pay with yourself. Finn was a fast learner. In less than two months, he was independently handling client requests. Marcus never praised him out loud, but he began piling more and more critical tasks onto Finn’s plate. I intentionally encouraged Marcus to bury him in paperwork. It was not to groom his talent. An exhausted person’s social circle shrinks drastically. He was too tired to attend after-work drinks. He could not keep up with office gossip. While other interns scrolled through social media during their lunch breaks, he was desperately typing up proposals. Out of the hundreds of people in that building, I was the only person he actually talked to. One night, we were the only two left in the office. I placed a warm takeout container on his desk. “Victoria, you are still here?” “Just finished a conference call. I picked this up for you on the way in.” He took the container with both hands, opening it as if it were a fragile artifact. He practically inhaled the food, his cheeks puffing out as he ate. He hesitated when he reached the last piece of glazed short rib at the bottom of the bowl, but ultimately picked it up with his fork. “Victoria, this is incredible. Thank you.” He had no idea I had spent hours researching the exact culinary profile of his rural hometown to find that specific flavor. When the autumn chill hit the city, Finn got caught in a torrential downpour and developed a severe fever. He called in sick but did not tell a single soul. I only knew because I checked the attendance logs. At four in the afternoon, I arrived at his building carrying a thermal thermos. It was a decaying tenement building in a sketchy part of town. The hallway lights were completely shattered. When he opened the door, his face was terrifyingly pale, slick with cold sweat. “Victoria? What are you doing here?” “Marcus mentioned you didn’t show up. You weren’t answering your phone.” He panicked, frantically trying to tidy up the cramped studio. The tiny space barely fit a futon and a folding table, with textbooks and cheap clothes piled everywhere. There was a small potted ivy on the windowsill, and right next to it sat a pair of fuzzy pink women’s slippers. He followed my gaze and his feverish flush deepened. “My… my girlfriend. She had to go to work today.” “I know.” I unscrewed the thermos, letting the rich scent of hot chicken soup fill the stale air. He rummaged through his desk drawers looking for medicine, only managing to find a blister pack of ibuprofen that had expired six months ago. I did not say a word. I walked back down six flights of stairs, bought a thermometer and fresh medication from the corner pharmacy, and climbed all the way back up. By the time I returned, he had finished half the soup. “Victoria.” He said my name very softly. His voice was completely wrecked. “You are too good to me.” I pulled the thin blanket up to his chest and pressed the back of my hand against his burning forehead. “Just go to sleep.” He closed his eyes, his breathing growing shallow and even. I sat on the edge of his futon, my eyes drifting toward a beautiful charcoal sketch taped to the wall next to the ivy plant. It was a portrait of him. The strokes were careful and full of life. She really did love him. After Finn recovered, he became incredibly attentive to me. He would pour my coffee before morning meetings. He carried my luggage during business trips. When he noticed the bottled water in my car was running low, he restocked it without being asked. The office rumor mill started churning. “Does Finn have a thing for Victoria?” “Give it a rest. The kid has a girlfriend. Stop making things up.” Finn overheard them. He rushed into my office and spent an entire afternoon stammering through an apology. “Victoria, I swear I don’t mean it like that.” The more he tried to explain, the redder his face became. I interrupted him with a gentle smile. “People will talk no matter what we do. I don’t care about the gossip.” But he cared. For the next week, he intentionally kept his distance. He stopped dropping by my office, and he went back to calling me Ms. Sinclair. I did not panic. A week later, Marcus tore into him over a minor client complaint. I stayed in my office and let it happen. Finn stood alone in the breakroom for ten minutes. When he finally walked out, he flashed a strained smile and told his coworkers he was fine. At nine o’clock that night, he finished his shift and walked past my office. My door was wide open. He stood in the hallway for a very long time. “Victoria, that proposal Marcus was yelling about. Could you take a look at it for me?” I waved him inside. After we fixed the formatting, he stood up to leave, keeping his head bowed. “Victoria, I am really sorry for avoiding you lately.” “Are you hungry? A new late-night diner just opened down the street.” The October wind was biting. We sat on plastic stools outside the food truck, eating hot bowls of ramen. He talked about growing up on a farm, chasing stray dogs through the mud. He talked about how loud his mother used to laugh. He talked about eating three massive bowls of chili because he was so nervous the night before his SATs. He rambled for twenty minutes before suddenly looking embarrassed. “I don’t know why I’m telling you all this. You must think I’m so boring.” “I don’t find you boring at all.” He stared at me for a few seconds, his face flushing, then quickly lowered his head and shoved a massive bite of noodles into his mouth. On the walk back, he stayed on the side of the sidewalk closest to the traffic. Out of nowhere, he blurted out a question. “Victoria, do you… have a boyfriend?” “Why? Are you trying to set me up with someone?” “No, I just…” Under the amber glow of the streetlights, his ears were practically glowing red. I knew he was falling for me. He was a boy who grew up with nothing, navigating a freezing, unforgiving city, and he had stumbled into a woman who was gentle, beautiful, wealthy, and cared for his every need. But I could not let him confess his feelings just yet. He had to lose absolutely everything first. In early November, Finn’s roommate suddenly moved out. When he told me about it, he looked completely lost. “The landlord doubled the rent out of nowhere. My roommate couldn’t afford it, so he packed up and left.” He stared at the calculator app on his phone. His rent spiked from twelve hundred to twenty-four hundred dollars. Factor in his mother’s monthly medical bills and basic groceries, and he literally did not have the margins to breathe in this city. “Victoria, do you happen to know anyone renting out a cheap room?” “Let me ask around for you.” I had my assistant systematically track down every affordable apartment listing in his district. We signed holding deposits and locked them all down, artificially inflating the prices to a bracket he could never reach. Three days later, I looked at him with sympathetic eyes. “The housing market is a nightmare right now. Do you think you can just tough it out for another month or two?” He offered a bitter, exhausted smile and nodded. He did not ask to borrow money. He worked his corporate job during the day and took night shifts stocking shelves at a convenience store. He got off work at 1 AM and woke up at 6 AM. He was surviving on less than five hours of sleep a night. On the security cameras, I watched him doze off at his desk more and more frequently. The dark circles under his eyes deepened into a bruised purple. Finally, he fell asleep in the middle of a client meeting. Marcus marched into my office right after. “Victoria, Finn is completely dropping the ball. His performance is a liability right now.” “Transfer him to my direct supervision.” I took him under my wing. I slashed his workload in half, but mandated that he report to my office for one-on-one reviews every single day. “Victoria, you are always saving my life,” he whispered, his voice raspy from exhaustion. “Just focus on doing good work.” That same week, I paid a local kid to leave a dead rat in the hallway of his apartment building. I had already bribed the property management company to ignore the maintenance calls. Sophie shrieked in terror, running all the way down six flights of stairs, nearly breaking her ankle in the process. Finn apologized to her over the phone. “Just bear with it a little longer, Soph. I will move us out as soon as I save up enough.” Before he could save a dime, the landlord came knocking. He claimed the building was undergoing emergency renovations and ordered them to vacate by the end of the month. Finn spent an entire Sunday calling real estate agents. Every single lead was a dead end. My assistant had already sanitized the neighborhood of anything he could afford. That night, he stayed at the office very late. He hovered outside my door, agonizing over his pride, before finally knocking. “Victoria. Is there any way I could get an advance? Or a loan? I swear I will pay you back on my next paycheck.” I opened my desk drawer, pulled out a thick envelope I had prepared days ago, and pushed it across the mahogany wood. Five thousand dollars in crisp cash. “You don’t need to pay it back.” He gripped the envelope, his fingertips trembling violently. When he turned to leave, he bowed so deeply his back was almost parallel to the floor. It was only five thousand dollars. He had no idea how much money I had burned just to monopolize the rental market in his zip code. December hit, and his mother was hospitalized. Her chronic kidney condition flared up. The doctors in his rural town claimed they lacked the equipment to treat her, demanding she be transferred to a major hospital in the city. Finn took three days of unpaid leave to arrange the transfer. When he returned to the office, he looked like a walking skeleton. “The city hospital said they can secure a bed, but they need a fifty-thousand dollar deposit upfront.” His entire life savings amounted to less than eight thousand dollars. He did not know I was the reason she was transferred to that specific hospital. The Chief of Surgery, Dr. Harrison, had partnered with my firm on a lucrative medical device contract for three years. I made a single phone call. “Secure a bed for her in your ward.” “Ms. Sinclair, her condition is actually manageable at the local level. A transfer might be excessive.” “I said secure the bed.” Finn spent an entire day bouncing between banks, managing to scrape together an extra eight thousand in high-interest personal loans. Sophie sold her expensive drawing tablet and all her premium art supplies, handing him three thousand dollars. He called every single person in his contact list. Some ignored his calls. Some apologized and said times were tight. One old college buddy transferred him five hundred bucks, adding a text that read, This is literally all I have man, I’m sorry. Thirty-seven phone calls. He raised four thousand dollars. He was still short thirty-five thousand. That night, my phone rang. His voice was completely shattered. “Victoria.” “Yes?” “My mom’s surgery deposit…” The rest of the sentence splintered in his throat. I could hear him gasping for air, desperately trying to swallow his sobs so I wouldn’t hear him cry. “Send me your location. I am on my way.” When I walked into the glaring fluorescent lights of the hospital lobby, he was slumped in a plastic waiting chair, crushing a crumpled admission slip in his fist. He stood up, his lips moving frantically, but absolutely no sound came out. I grabbed his wrist, pulled him to the billing counter, and swiped my black card. “Let’s get her scheduled for the operation first. We can worry about the money later.” The lobby was bustling with nurses and patients. He stood in front of the glass partition, biting his lower lip so hard it looked like it was going to bleed. “Thank you, Victoria.” His mother never needed to be in this hospital to begin with. She could have been treated in their hometown for less than ten grand. I was the one who instructed the doctors to exaggerate her prognosis and push for the expensive transfer. And he certainly did not know that the bed could be revoked at any given second. It would only take one phone call from me. The surgery was a success, and his mother began a steady recovery. Every evening after work, he would call her to check on her progress. The crushing weight on his shoulders seemed to lighten, and his voice regained a hint of its old warmth. I did not give him much time to breathe. In mid-December, Sophie lost her job. She did not quit voluntarily. She worked as a graphic designer for a mid-sized marketing firm. The owner just happened to be a former business partner of mine. I paid someone to embed a highly incriminating email in her work inbox. It was sent from a direct competitor, thanking her for leaking confidential design mockups. Her creative director conveniently discovered the email during a routine audit. Sophie tried desperately to explain herself, but the evidence was fabricated perfectly. In the end, she was given the option to “resign” to avoid legal action. That was only phase one. Phase two was fracturing the trust between her and Finn. I instructed a beautiful temp from our marketing department to add Finn on social media. Her messages were strictly about work, but I had my team splice the screenshots together in a way that made the conversation look undeniably flirtatious. Sophie found the messages while scrolling through his phone. She confronted him immediately. “She is just a coworker asking about an ad campaign. You are overthinking this,” Finn explained. Sophie backed down. The next day, a candid photo of Finn and me on a business trip mysteriously found its way to Sophie’s inbox. In the photo, I was wearing a sleek trench coat, walking purposefully ahead, while he trailed closely behind me, carrying my leather briefcase like a devoted shadow. My assistant chose the camera angle perfectly. We looked incredibly intimate. Sophie held on for one more week. On Christmas Eve, she opened his closet and found a brand new cashmere scarf. It retailed for eight hundred dollars. Tucked inside the luxurious box was a handwritten note. It’s getting cold. Make sure to stay warm. It was a “holiday bonus” I had handed out to my entire project team. But Sophie didn’t know that. All she saw was an obscenely expensive gift she could never afford to buy him, given by a mysterious older woman named Victoria. They had an explosive screaming match that night. At 1 AM, my phone buzzed. It was Finn. “Victoria, Sophie broke up with me.” “Why?” “She said I’ve changed.” The line went dead silent for a long time. “Victoria, have I really become a bad person?” I leaned back against my plush headboard, keeping my voice soft and nurturing. “You haven’t changed. She just doesn’t understand the pressure you are under.” He didn’t say another word, but I could hear his muffled crying through the speaker. Three years of history, wiped clean. He genuinely believed he was the toxic one in the relationship. He had no idea that every single job application Sophie submitted after getting fired was instantly met with an anonymous, defamatory tip from my assistant. She had zero income, her boyfriend was spending all his waking hours with a glamorous female executive, and the rent was due. Nobody could survive that kind of pressure. The day Sophie packed her bags and moved out, Finn sent me a text. Victoria, I’m okay. Just a little stressed out today. He added a smiley face emoji at the end. Of course you are okay. Because outside of me, you literally have nowhere else to go. Right after New Year’s Day, three separate disasters crushed Finn on the exact same afternoon. The landlord issued a final eviction notice. He had to be out by the end of the week. Dr. Harrison called him directly. His mother required a secondary, specialized procedure to prevent organ rejection. The deposit was thirty thousand dollars. And finally, the credit cards he had maxed out to pay his previous rent went into severe default. The bank officially froze his checking account. He locked himself inside a bathroom stall at the office for half an hour. When he finally came out, he splashed water on his face, forced a smile, and told his cubicle mates he ate a bad burrito. At three in the afternoon, he knocked on my door. The door was already open. He stood on the threshold, trapped in a purgatory of hesitation. He couldn’t step forward, but he had nowhere to retreat. I beckoned him inside. “Come in.” He closed the heavy wooden door, glued to the spot. His lips trembled violently, opening and closing over and over, but his vocal cords completely failed him. And then, he collapsed. The twenty-two-year-old boy sank to his knees on my Persian rug, burying his face into his hands, his shoulders convulsing with violent, silent sobs. I stood up, walked around my desk, and knelt on the floor right in front of him. I pulled a tissue from my pocket and gently wiped the wet streaks from his cheeks. “What’s wrong? Tell Victoria everything.” Stuttering and gasping for air, he laid out his entire nightmare. Every single piece of it was orchestrated by me. I dried the last tear from his chin. “Finn, if there was a way to permanently fix every single one of these problems right now, would you take it?” He snapped his head up. “What kind of way?” I reached into my desk drawer and pulled out a manila folder. Twelve pages of dense legal jargon, drafted and refined by my corporate lawyers over the last two weeks. An exclusive companionship agreement. He stared at the bold letters on the cover page. His entire body turned to stone. “Sign this, and I will cover your mother’s surgery in full. I will put you in a luxury apartment. I will wipe your debt clean.” “A companionship agreement?” “Yes.” “Victoria, you’re joking…” “When have I ever joked with you about your life?” He scrambled backward, his hands hitting the carpet. “I thought you were…” “You thought what? You thought I was a saint?” I leaned casually against the edge of my mahogany desk, staring down at him. “Finn, I paid your landlord to double the rent so your roommate would leave.” His jaw dropped. “I arranged the transfer with Dr. Harrison. Your mother never actually needed to leave your hometown.” The blood drained from his face, leaving him looking like a ghost. “I had my contacts get Sophie fired. The text messages, the photo, the cashmere scarf. Every single detail was executed by my hand.” His back slammed hard against the closed wooden door. “Everything I did, I did to make sure you ended up right here.” I offered him my warmest, gentlest smile. “Sign the paper, and everything I own is at your disposal. But if you refuse…” I picked up my cell phone and tapped the screen playfully. “Your mother’s surgery gets cancelled tomorrow morning. You will be sleeping on the streets tonight. And your credit score will be ruined for the next seven years.” He pressed his spine against the door, shaking like a leaf in a hurricane. “I will give you exactly one hour to think about it.” I sat back down in my leather executive chair and started reviewing a marketing brief. He stood frozen in the corner of my office for exactly forty-three minutes. Then, he slowly walked over to my desk and picked up the expensive fountain pen. His hand was shaking so violently that the final stroke of his signature dragged into a jagged, broken line across the paper. I picked up the contract, blew gently on the wet ink, and locked it inside my wall safe. “Good boy.” I reached out and ran my fingers affectionately through his soft hair. He didn’t pull away.

🌟 Continue the story here 👉🏻 📲 Download the “MotoNovel” app 🔍 search for “513561”, and watch the full series ✨! #MotoNovel

The intern from the finance department thought our high-profile client was too ugly, so she slashed my $75,000 client hospitality budget down to fifty bucks. “Real business relies on capability, not drinking and sleeping with pigs,” Chloe said, her smile sweet and innocent. “Oh, I forgot. Manager Sera, you got parachuted into this position at such a young age. You must have slept with quite a few men to get here.” After our $30 million deal went up in flames, she immediately went online and blasted me on social media. [Exposing the corrupt female executive sent from HQ! A $30 million deal was ruined because she insisted on selling her body to please a client!] Too bad for her, I suffer from extreme workplace paranoia. Keeping voice recordings and a paper trail for everything is my second nature. Watching Chloe’s self-righteous, tearful accusations online, I felt nothing but amusement. It was true that I was parachuted in from headquarters. But I wasn’t here to play corporate games—I was the Senior Compliance Investigator sent to audit this entire branch!

“Manager Sera, I cannot approve this $75,000 entertainment expense.” Chloe, our finance intern, gently slid the reimbursement form back to me. Her voice was soft, but her tone was rock hard. I frowned, not understanding her problem. “This is the pre-approved budget for our onboarding project with Grandview Group. The contract is worth thirty million dollars. Pre-meeting hospitality is standard procedure.” “But,” Chloe looked up, her eyes filled with undisguised disgust, “I saw Mr. Harrison from Grandview yesterday. He is hideous. Fat, greasy, and looks like a wild boar. For our company to spend this much money hosting someone like him—isn’t that basically selling our bodies and dignity for profit?” I was temporarily speechless. Since when did multi-million dollar corporate mergers depend on the client’s looks? Around us, the other accountants stopped typing. The office fell dead silent. I looked at her. She was wearing a high ponytail, round-rimmed glasses, and carried the face of a pure, justice-seeking intern. “I believe business should be won through capability, not by sucking up to pigs over dinners,” she said. She picked up a black pen and crossed out the numbers on my form with smooth, practiced strokes. “Seventy-five thousand is too much. Fifty dollars is plenty. Let’s buy a few packs of bottled water. That’s more than enough hospitality for him.” The black pen dragged across the paper. “$75,000” was aggressively crossed out. Next to it, she wrote a bold, mocking “$50.” Then, she gracefully signed her name: *Chloe, Finance Intern.* “Chloe,” I kept my voice as calm as possible, “do you actually realize what you are doing?” “Of course I do,” she smiled, handing the paper back to me. “According to company policy, even interns have auditing rights. I find this expense unreasonable, so I have the right to adjust it.” I took the fifty-dollar request form, completely dumbfounded. As I turned to leave the finance department, I caught her whispering to the girl next to her: “Look at her. You just know she slept her way to the top. It’s disgusting. Wearing that designer skirt and heavy makeup—does she look like she’s here to actually work? No wonder HQ parachuted her straight into a manager position!” My steps paused, but I didn’t turn around. It was true that I was parachuted in. But I was a Senior Compliance Investigator from the Corporate Integrity Division! Not only do I have workplace paranoia, but I also believe in eye-for-an-eye. I have been cautious my entire life. My father used to be a mid-level manager at a state-backed firm. When he was forty, a subordinate framed him for taking kickbacks. The man forged receipts and edited voice recordings. My father had no way to prove his innocence. The investigation dragged on for six agonizing months. Although he was eventually cleared, his career was ruined, and his spirit was completely broken. During those six months, I watched my mother cry herself to sleep every night. I watched our relatives and friends abandon us. I watched my father’s hair turn white overnight. From that moment on, I learned a hard truth: rumors can kill, but hard evidence keeps you safe. I majored in corporate law and joined HQ’s Compliance Department right after graduation. In seven years, I climbed from a basic assistant to a Senior Investigator. I’ve handled dozens of internal investigations. I have seen too many people get framed by envious colleagues and end up in orange jumpsuits just because of one careless mistake. So, I developed a habit: leave a paper trail for everything, and back up every single file. Every conversation I have is legally recorded within compliance boundaries. Every email is archived chronologically. Every time I meet a client, I log my itinerary and purpose in the internal system beforehand. My phone holds three encrypted cloud drives, and my journals record every detail of my work over the years. My colleagues mock me for having “workplace paranoia.” I just smile. They have never seen how fast a person can fall from grace. I have. My father was the perfect example. So, from the very first day I landed in this coastal branch for this undercover audit, I started recording. The voice recorder in my pocket was always on. A tiny pin-camera was attached to my blazer, capturing everything. I would never give anyone the chance to ruin me.

I went to the Chief Financial Officer’s office, but the CFO wasn’t there. A colleague whispered to me, “Chloe said your expense was highly suspicious. She took the CFO directly to the General Manager’s office to report you.” I turned on my heel and walked straight to the GM’s office. The door was slightly ajar. Chloe’s whiny, victimized voice drifted out: “Mr. Sterling, I didn’t mean to go over your head, but I really couldn’t watch this happen. “That new manager, Sera, demanded seventy-five thousand dollars for a client dinner the moment she arrived. She claims it’s for Mr. Harrison from Grandview. But I’ve seen him at the expo last month—he was staring at the booth models like a total creep. Sera is so beautiful. If we approve this money and rumors start spreading, it will ruin our company’s reputation…” Mr. Sterling hesitated. “But Grandview is our long-term partner. Client entertainment is standard…” “We can partner with them in healthier ways!” Chloe’s voice rose. “Like sending them some eco-friendly company merchandise, or having a Zoom meeting. Why does it have to involve fancy dinners and drinks? I believe our corporate culture should be clean. We shouldn’t tolerate this toxic drinking culture.” “And…” she lowered her voice, “I heard Sera doesn’t even hold a real title back at HQ. She’s probably just some executive’s spoiled princess sent here to collect achievements. We don’t need to play along with her dirty games.” After Chloe left, I walked into the GM’s office. “Mr. Sterling, the dinner tonight is already booked. Grandview’s team has confirmed their attendance. If we cancel this…” I paused, “the thirty-million-dollar deal will be dead.” Mr. Sterling was silent for a few seconds. Finally, he sighed. “Fine. I will personally override the block and sign the budget.” I nodded and took the newly signed form. As I walked out, I heard him mumble, “Kids these days…” I immediately got to work—confirming the menu, the wine, the seating chart, and the gifts. Most of the $75,000 budget went to the venue and high-end catering. A portion of it was reserved for customized gifts for the Grandview executive team: samples of our brand-new smart office equipment. By 3:00 PM, everything was set. By 4:00 PM, Mr. Harrison’s assistant called to confirm the final details. By 5:00 PM, I changed into my backup dark-gray business suit and touched up my makeup. By 6:00 PM, I arrived at the hotel banquet hall. By 6:30 PM, the Grandview team was supposed to arrive. But the hall was empty, save for our own staff. At 6:45 PM, I called Mr. Harrison’s number. It went straight to voicemail. At 7:00 PM, Mr. Sterling walked in, his face absolutely livid. “I just got off the phone with Mr. Harrison. He’s not coming.” “Why?” Mr. Sterling glared at me. “He said he heard our company thinks he has ‘moral issues’ and isn’t fit to sit at a dinner table. He also said he’s apparently too ugly to breathe the same air as our beautiful female manager.” I gripped my phone tightly. “Who leaked that?” “Who do you think?” Mr. Sterling rubbed his temples. “Chloe didn’t just come to me this afternoon. She posted a massive call-to-action in the company-wide Snapchat group. She urged all female employees to ‘reject toxic workplace dinner culture’ by refusing to eat with clients. Someone screenshotted it and sent it to Grandview. Now it’s reached Mr. Harrison.” I opened Snapchat. Sure enough, there were several deleted messages in the main company group. But the screenshots had already gone viral. Right next to Chloe’s cute profile picture was a block of text: *“Girls, if we don’t respect ourselves, who will? Starting today, say NO to any dinners or drinks under the guise of work! If a client refuses to partner with us just because we won’t eat with them, then we don’t need their dirty money anyway!”* Below her post, several female colleagues had left heart emojis. Someone even tagged me in the comments: *“Agreed! Manager Sera should lead by example!”* I honestly felt like these people had mush for brains. This was a thirty-million-dollar corporate contract, not a thirty-dollar Uber Eats order.

That night, I stood at the hotel entrance for a long time. The dinner was cancelled, but the booking deposit was non-refundable. The hotel policy stated that last-minute cancellations incurred a 100% penalty. Thirty-five thousand dollars, gone down the drain. More importantly, Grandview formally blacklisted us. I didn’t get back to my apartment until nearly 10:00 PM. I opened my laptop and began filling out my daily compliance log for HQ. I uploaded the timeline, the location, the recorded audio files, and the videos into the secure folder. Once done, I backed up everything. I kept every recording, starting from Chloe calling the client a pig to the gossiping in the hallways. Then, I opened our encrypted messenger and sent a brief report to the Director of Compliance at HQ: *“An intern has overstepped her authority to interfere with a major commercial contract, leveraging gender politics to create internal hostility, resulting in massive financial loss. I am compiling the full chain of evidence. Recommend continuing observation according to the original plan. Do not intervene yet.”* A few minutes later, the Director replied: *“Received. Stay safe. Document everything.”* I shut my laptop and walked to the window. What was Chloe’s actual angle? Was she really just a naive intern with an overactive sense of justice? I highly doubted it. I shook my head, refusing to overthink. But my “workplace paranoia” was screaming at me: this was far from over. The next morning, the atmosphere in the office was suffocating. Mr. Sterling sat at the head of the conference table, his face dark. The department heads stared at their folders in silence. “A thirty-million-dollar deal, gone in one night,” Mr. Sterling finally spoke. His voice wasn’t loud, but each word hit like a brick. “Who is going to give me an explanation?” Every eye in the room immediately shot to me. Just as I was about to speak, the conference room door was pushed open. Chloe walked in. She was wearing a simple cream-colored linen dress today. Her hair flowed loosely over her shoulders, her face was completely makeup-free, and her eyes were puffy and red as if she had been crying all night. “Mr. Sterling, managers,” her voice was soft, trembling slightly. “I’m so sorry. I… I came to apologize.” She walked to the front of the table and bowed deeply. “Everything that happened yesterday was my fault. I shouldn’t have changed the budget form, and I shouldn’t have posted those things in the group chat… But I swear I had no bad intentions. I just felt that business shouldn’t rely on expensive dinners…” She looked up, a perfect tear spilling down her cheek. “My family raised me to be honest and clean. My mother is a high school teacher. She always told me that girls must maintain their dignity in the workplace and never take shortcuts… When I saw Manager Sera request such a massive entertainment budget the moment she got here, I was scared. I didn’t want our company to become one of those toxic places run on alcohol and favors…” She sobbed softly, her voice shaky but perfectly audible to everyone. “I know I was wrong. I shouldn’t have judged the client, and I shouldn’t have gone over Manager Sera’s head… But I really did it for the good of the company… Manager Sera, can you ever forgive me?” Once again, the spotlight was on me. A few young female department heads were already looking at her with deep sympathy. Someone whispered, “Chloe meant well. She just went about it the wrong way…” I pulled out my phone and pulled up the screenshots. “You stated in the group chat, and I quote: ‘If a client refuses to partner with us just because we won’t eat with them, then we don’t need their dirty money anyway.’ May I ask, what was the business basis for that statement? Did you perform a risk assessment? Did you calculate the potential financial damage? Did you consult the sales department before making that call?” Chloe froze, unable to utter a single word. She just stood there, crying silently. Mr. Sterling rubbed his temples. “Alright, that’s enough. What’s done is done. Our priority right now is to figure out how to salvage our relationship with Grandview.” Chloe covered her face and ran out of the room. The moment the door slammed shut, I heard her whisper under her breath, “What a pretentious bitch…” When I left the office, my phone buzzed. A notification from the company’s anonymous internal forum popped up. I tapped it. It was a freshly posted thread, the title pinned in bold: *[Exposing the corrupt female executive from HQ! A $30 million deal was ruined because she insisted on sleeping with a client!]*

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The year my parents died in a tragic plane crash, I became the last surviving daughter of the Miller family. The man I used to call my guardian, Christian Pierce, took me into his estate. For ten years, he spoiled me into the most pampered, untouchable princess of New York high society. Whatever I wanted, I got. Until the night of my eighteenth birthday. Drunk and foolish, I stole a kiss from him while he slept, and I took his obsidian cufflinks—the ones he never parted with. The next morning, he walked into my bedroom and caught me putting a silver chain through the cufflink, keeping it close to my bare skin. Rage, dark and tempestuous, flared in his eyes. That very day, he shredded my college acceptance letter and shipped me off to Ridgeview Academy. On my first day, the headmaster whipped me ten times. He called it my welcoming ceremony. On the second day, because I refused to clean the toilets with my bare hands, they subjected me to an hour of electroshock therapy until I lost control of my bladder. From the third day onward, the instructors came to our rooms every night, forcing us to drink their “special milk.”

Three years later, he finally came to pick me up. I sat in the backseat of the car. Christian’s expression was as cold as ever. Hailey sat in the passenger seat, wearing a beige cashmere coat, her curled hair styled to perfection. I looked down at my own faded, dusty jacket. The cuffs were frayed and threadbare. “What are you staring at?” Christian’s voice cut through the silence. Hailey turned and smiled at me. “Chloe, you’re back. You’ve gotten so thin.” “All those inappropriate thoughts of yours,” Christian said, his eyes meeting mine in the rearview mirror. He paused. “Have they been thoroughly beaten out of you?” The first lesson Ridgeview Academy taught me was that when it hurts, you endure it. If you endure it long enough, you stop feeling it altogether. “Yes, they are gone,” I whispered. I saw his jawline tighten for a fraction of a second before it relaxed. Hailey leaned back in her seat. “I told you, Christian. Ridgeview works wonders. Look how obedient Chloe is now.” *Obedient.* The instructors at Ridgeview loved that word too. They would pinch my chin, forcing my face up, and ask, *Are you going to be obedient now?* I would scream, *Yes, yes, I’ll be good!* They would laugh, saying it wasn’t enough, before forcing more of their “medicine” down my throat. The car pulled into the Pierce estate. The roses in the garden were still there, but they were withered, their stems drooping lifelessly. Mrs. Gable, the housekeeper, was waiting at the door. “Oh, Miss Chloe…” Her lips trembled. I simply nodded at her. I stood in the hallway for a moment, hearing footsteps behind me. “Oh, I forgot to tell you,” Hailey walked over, her voice dripping with sweet apology. “Christian said your old room had the best natural light, so he let me convert it into my walk-in closet. Your things… I had Mrs. Gable move them to the guest room. You don’t mind, right?” I turned around. “I don’t mind.” Christian stood at the top of the stairs, watching us. He didn’t say a word. At dinner, the table was piled with exquisite dishes. Christian was peeling shrimp, meticulously placing them one by one into Hailey’s bowl. “That’s enough, Christian. I can’t eat all of this,” Hailey giggled, her voice soft and airy. “Eat more,” he murmured. When I was a child, I once ran a fever of 103 degrees. I was delirious. Christian held me in his arms, not closing his eyes for a single second all night. When I cried because the medicine was too bitter, he would coax me, saying, *Be a good girl, Chloe. Drink it, and I’ll buy you all the candy you want.* I had sobbed, clinging to his neck, *I don’t want candy. I only want you to stay with me forever.* He had smiled and whispered, *Okay, I’ll stay with you for the rest of my life.* “Chloe, try this,” Hailey said, placing a piece of fish into my bowl. My fork paused for a second. Then, I picked it up and shoved it into my mouth. Even when the boiling heat blistered my tongue, I didn’t stop chewing. “Eat slower,” Christian frowned, staring intently at my bowl. “Poor thing. The food at Ridgeview must have been dreadful,” Hailey added, putting a piece of chicken onto my plate. “Eat up. You need to gain some weight.” I chewed and swallowed mechanically, like a robot performing a task. Christian set his fork down. “There’s no need to eat like you’re starving.” After dinner, I went back to my room, opened my phone, and booked a one-way ticket to a small town in the south—a place I had never heard of. Christian stood at my doorway, holding a glass of warm milk. “Drink this,” he commanded. The instructors at Ridgeview also loved delivering “milk” at night. Once you drank it, you fell asleep. And when you woke up, your body would be covered in new wounds. Sometimes needle marks, sometimes dark purple bruises, along with a swollen lip and bleeding thighs. My knees went weak. Out of pure instinct, I dropped to the floor, my forehead pressing flat against the cold hardwood. “I’m sorry! I’ll never do it again! Please don’t make me drink it… please, I beg you, don’t make me drink it…” The room was deathly quiet, so quiet that I could hear my own frantic heartbeat. Christian stood frozen, still holding the glass. The icy mask on his face cracked for a split second, revealing something raw, before freezing over again. “You…” His throat bobbed. “Get up.” He took a step forward. I screamed and scrambled backward until my spine slammed against the bedpost. He set the glass on the nightstand. The milk sloshed over the rim, spilling onto the dark wood.

My hands instinctively reached for his belt, ready to unbuckle it to please him. At Ridgeview, if you were a second too slow, another man would join in. “Chloe Miller!” Christian’s voice vibrated with suppressed fury. “Have you no shame? Three years, and this is the trashy, cheap filth you learned?” “No… I didn’t…” My voice came out cracked and hollow. “No?” He bent down, grabbing my chin, forcing my face up. “Then what the hell are you doing right now? Huh?” My lips trembled so violently I couldn’t form words. I stared at the buttons of his pajama shirt, not daring to look into his eyes. “Let me tell you something,” he leaned in, his cold breath brushing against my skin, sending shivers of terror down my spine. “Even if you stripped naked and lay on this bed right now, I wouldn’t even spare you a glance!” He turned on his heel and slammed the door. Within seconds, I heard the door to the master bedroom next door open. First came Hailey’s sleepy, whimpering voice. “Christian? What’s wrong…” Then came his muffled, strained response. Soon, the mattress began to creak, the sound growing louder and more rhythmic. Hailey’s moans pierced through the thin walls, rising higher and higher. I covered my ears, curling into a ball. No, this was wrong. At Ridgeview, those men never made noise. There were only heavy grunts, the clinking of belt buckles, and then they left when they were done. I crawled on my hands and knees into the furthest corner of the room, pressing my forehead against the freezing wall. “Chloe will be good…” “Chloe doesn’t love Christian anymore…” “Never again… never again…” I chanted the words like a mantra until my forehead went numb, until the noises next door finally stopped. I fell asleep on the floor just as dawn was breaking. Mrs. Gable came in with a basin of water. When she saw me huddled in the corner, her eyes welled with tears. “Miss Chloe! Oh my god, your head…” She rushed over to help me up. I flinched away from her hand. “I’m fine.” The girl in the mirror was ghostly pale, the dark bruise on my forehead glaringly obvious. I pulled my bangs down to cover it. When I went downstairs for breakfast, Christian and Hailey were already seated. Hailey looked radiant, wearing a silk nightgown, a prominent red mark blooming on the side of her neck. “Chloe,” Christian spoke suddenly, his eyes still fixed on the morning paper. “What happened to your head?” My spoon paused. I kept eating. “I tripped.” “Tripped?” He lowered the paper, glaring at me. “How do you trip and get a bruise like that?” Hailey placed a peeled egg onto his plate and said softly, “Oh, she probably just bumped into a door frame. Chloe is still adjusting to being back.” Christian ignored her, keeping his gaze locked on me. “I asked you a question. Are you playing games again—” “I’m full,” I said, pushing my bowl away and standing up. I had barely touched the oatmeal, but my stomach felt like it was filled with lead. Three days. Just three more days, and I would be gone. “Stop right there,” Christian’s voice dropped, dangerous and low. “Did I say you could leave?” Hailey quickly intervened. “Christian, don’t be so harsh. We’re going bridal gown shopping today. Why don’t we bring Chloe along? She can help me choose.” My fingernails dug into my palms. “I’m not going.” Christian slammed the newspaper onto the table with a loud *thud*. “Did my words yesterday go through one ear and out the other? I told you to get along with Hailey!” I lowered my head, my stomach twisting in pain. “Okay.” The bridal boutique was blindingly bright. At Ridgeview, we lived in endless darkness. Hailey twirled in front of the mirror. “Christian, do you like it?” Christian sat on the plush sofa, his legs crossed, nodding slightly. “It looks good.” He used to bring me to places like this. He used to tell me, *Our Chloe will look like a little angel in a white gown.* Later, I had clung to him, asking, *Will you buy me the most beautiful wedding dress in the world when I grow up?* He had ruffled my hair, laughing, *I’ll buy you an entire room full of them.* “Chloe,” Hailey called out, holding a sleek mermaid-style dress. “What do you think of this one?” I looked up. “It’s nice.” “Why don’t you try one on?” She smiled, her eyes crinkling. “I mean, even though you… well, every girl deserves to wear a wedding dress at least once.” She walked over, leaning close to my ear, her voice dropping to a vicious whisper.

“Honestly, I’ve always wondered… just how shameless do you have to be to fall in love with your own guardian? Hmm? Chloe, care to tell me?” My body went entirely rigid, the blood freezing in my veins. She knew. How did she know? Watching the color drain from my face, Hailey’s smile grew sweeter. “Frightened? Did you think your filthy little secret was hard to guess?” She patted my arm, raising her voice for Christian to hear. “Go on, try it on! Let Christian and me have a look.” Christian glanced over, his brow furrowed, clearly annoyed that I was wasting time. Right then, Hailey gasped. “Ah!” In one sudden movement, her body flew backward! She clutched her stomach, her face twisting in agony as tears streamed down her cheeks. “Ah… my stomach… it hurts so much…” Christian bolted upright, rushing over in three long strides. Hailey looked up at him with tear-filled eyes, her trembling finger pointing directly at me, her breath shallow. “Christian… don’t… don’t blame Chloe… she probably… she probably didn’t mean to push me…” I was dragged down and locked in the basement. The door was kicked open with a loud bang. Christian stood in the doorway, his long shadow stretching across the damp floor. “Chloe Miller!” his voice was cold enough to kill. I scrambled to my knees. At Ridgeview, you had to kneel when being questioned. “Look at what you’ve done!” He stormed in, grabbing my chin in a iron grip. “Hailey lost the baby! How dare you!” I looked into his bloodshot eyes. “I didn’t push her.” Hailey’s soft sobbing echoed from the top of the stairs. “Christian… forget it. Chloe is still young, she didn’t mean it… It’s my fault. I wasn’t blessed enough to keep our baby…” Christian’s chest heaved as he glared down at me. “You were the only one near her! And you still dare to lie?” I stopped talking. At Ridgeview, if the instructor said you were guilty, you were guilty. Arguing only brought worse punishment. “Fine. You won’t confess.” He let go of me, turning to grab a leather crop hanging on the wall. “I’ll make you confess!” *Crack!* The lash struck my back like searing-hot iron. I bit my lip, refusing to make a sound. “Speak! Why did you do it?” *Crack!* “Are you still harbor those disgusting feelings for me? Huh?” The whip fell again and again. My shirt grew damp, the fabric clinging to the fresh, warm blood oozing from my skin. I remembered when I was a child learning the piano, and a broken string cut my finger. Christian had held my hand, his face filled with panic. *Don’t cry, Chloe. Let me blow on it, and the pain will go away. I promise you, I will never let anyone hurt you again.* The whipping stopped. Christian was panting. He grabbed my arm and dragged me up. “Speak! Are you mute?” I looked up at him, sweat and blood stinging my eyes. In his fury, he ripped the back of my shirt open. My bare back was exposed to the light—revealing a horrific tapestry of old and new wounds. Scars upon scars, deep and shallow, jagged lines and round burn marks. “What… what is this?” His voice cracked, his hand starting to tremble. Hailey crept down the stairs, catching a glimpse, and gasped, covering her mouth. “Oh my god! Chloe, your back… where did all those scars come from?” She turned to Christian, her voice trembling with crocodile tears. “Christian… could this be… a sympathy play? Did she do this to herself to make us feel guilty?” Christian’s hand froze mid-air. He looked at me, his eyes a chaotic storm of confusion and suspicion. “A sympathy play?” he whispered, as if asking himself. Finally, he let go of my arm, taking a step back. “Chloe, you are… utterly hopeless.” “No food. You stay in this room until you’ve reflected on what you’ve done!” I collapsed onto the floor, my raw back scraping against the rough ground. The pain was blinding. But it was fine. I had survived far worse than this. I could get through this. Just two more days, and I would be free.

The door opened, and Hailey walked in carrying a bowl of soup. “Chloe, eat something,” she said, sitting on the edge of the mattress, stirring the soup. “I begged Christian to forgive you. This matter is over. Tonight is the Pierce Family Gala, and you are coming with us.” She leaned in close, whispering, “Don’t ruin this for yourself. If you don’t show up, Christian will only be more convinced you’re guilty.” She paused, a smirk playing on her lips. “Or are you just afraid to see us announce our engagement?” I looked at her. Her face was soft and gentle, but her eyes were venomous. I had to go. My flight was tomorrow morning. If I could just survive tonight, I would be free forever. The gala was dazzling, the chandelier lights making my head spin. Hailey clung to Christian’s arm, greeting guests and basking in their congratulations. “Is that Chloe Miller? How did she end up looking like a ghost?” “I heard she had some… inappropriate thoughts and was sent away by Mr. Pierce for three years.” “My, look how generous Hailey is, still bringing her out.” While Christian was surrounded by investors, Hailey walked over to me. “Chloe,” she said, her voice loud enough for the nearby guests to hear. “Christian asked me to return this to you.” It was the heirloom emerald brooch—the piece traditionally passed down to the matriarch of the Pierce family. When I was a little girl, I had begged Christian for it. Unable to say no to me, he had given it to me, saying I could keep it safe for him. Christian looked over from across the room, his eyes dark and unreadable. I walked straight to him and handed the box back. “Here. I wish you and Hailey a lifetime of happiness.” Christian snatched the box, his lips parting as if he wanted to say something, but a sudden scream cut him off. Fire! The curtains in the corner had caught fire, and the flames were spreading rapidly. The panicked crowd surged forward, shoving me aside. Through the smoke, I saw a little boy huddled in the corner, crying in terror. Without thinking, I ran toward him. “Chloe!” Someone grabbed my arm—it was Christian. With his other arm, he scooped up the child and dragged me toward the exit. A piece of the burning ceiling collapsed, grazing his arm. He groaned in pain but didn’t let go of me. We finally burst out into the freezing night air. I collapsed onto the grass, coughing violently, feeling as though my lungs were turning to ash. Christian set the child down and immediately reached for me to check for injuries. His sleeve was scorched, and blood was dripping from his arm. “Are you—” he began. “Christian!” Hailey threw herself into his arms, sobbing hysterically. “Are you alright? You scared me to death!” Suddenly, she pointed a shaking finger at me. “It was her! I saw her! She started the fire! She wanted to burn us all to death!” Everyone turned to stare at me. Christian froze. Hailey wailed, “She just returned that brooch to you as a farewell! She knew she couldn’t have you, so she wanted to destroy you!” I shook my head, trying to speak, but my throat was so scorched by the smoke that no sound came out. Christian looked down at my hands. Clutching in my trembling palm was a lighter—the one Hailey had shoved into my hand during the chaos. “Chloe Miller,” his voice was barely a whisper, filled with crushing disappointment and disgust. “You really are… utterly hopeless.” Hailey clung to him, weeping. “Christian, she almost ruined our engagement… I’m so scared…” Christian wrapped his arms tightly around her. When he looked back at me, the last shred of warmth in his eyes had vanished. He turned to his security guards, his voice flat. “Take her away. Hand her over to Hailey to deal with.” Hailey buried her face in his chest, but as she did, she cast a glance back at me, a vicious, triumphant smile flashing across her face. The guards grabbed me. I didn’t struggle. I knew then that I wouldn’t be boarding my flight tomorrow. I watched Christian’s retreating back and remembered a night from my childhood when he had sat me on his shoulders to watch the New Year’s fireworks. When the loud bangs started, he had covered my ears and whispered, *My little girl will never have to face danger as long as I’m alive.* But now, he had personally thrown me into the abyss. Hailey walked over, kneeling in front of me. “Tonight, Chloe, we’re going to have some real fun.”

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As a senior partner at a top Manhattan law firm, I’ve handled countless messy divorces. I’ve seen bitter exes having catfights, and trashy husbands hiding assets in offshore accounts. But I never expected that one day, this cheap soap opera would dump its garbage right on my head. And it was iced, too. Absolutely chilling. A sobbing, fragile-looking girl was blocking the entrance of my law firm. She wore a simple, faded white sundress that made her pale face look incredibly pathetic and helpless. Her belly was slightly swollen. She looked about four or five months pregnant. “Serena, please, I beg you. Let him go. This baby needs a father.” It was the morning rush hour. The lobby was packed with gossiping colleagues and clients, all staring and whispering. The receptionist tried to stop her, but the girl’s dramatic wailing kept everyone frozen in place. “I know I’m in the wrong! But I love him, and he loves me! Please, just sign the papers!” I stood at the top of the marble steps, my heart completely numb. Honestly, I wanted to laugh. I see this kind of drama at least eight times a month. “Miss,” I said, walking down the steps. My high heels clicked sharply against the marble floor. “If you want to pull a scam, at least do your homework. I’m… a widow.”

The murmurs around us died down instantly. Everyone in the firm knew that Serena, the ice queen partner, had lost her husband three years ago. It was a tragedy no one dared to bring up. But the girl didn’t back down. She quickly reached into her designer bag, pulled out a stack of photos, and threw them at my feet. The pictures scattered across the floor. I looked down, and my pupils dilated instantly. The photos showed a man and a woman in very intimate poses. I knew that man’s face all too well. Julian. My husband, who had been dead for three years. In the photos, his skin was darker than I remembered, and there were more wrinkles around his eyes. But that smirk, and the way he held her—I would recognize him even if he were burned to ashes. What the girl said next made my blood run cold. “He has a birthmark on his lower back. It’s shaped like a ragged line. It turns a dark crimson when he gets flushed, right?” My hand trembled, almost spilling my iced Americano. The stares from the crowd felt like needles piercing my skin. “Wait, Serena’s husband… isn’t dead?” “Faking his death? Insurance fraud? Or…” Whispers flooded my ears. I took a deep breath, pushed up my gold-rimmed glasses, and forced down the raging storm in my chest. I bent over and picked up one of the photos. I dug my fingernail hard into Julian’s face in the photo, almost tearing the paper. Then, I looked up and gave her a chilling smile. “Are you sure this baby is my husband’s?” The girl puffed out her chest, looking stubborn. “Julian told me that as soon as you sign the divorce papers, he’ll marry me!” “Julian?” I repeated the name slowly. “Julian Miller?” “Yes! Julian Miller!” I nodded, took out my phone, and dialed a number right in front of everyone. “911? I’d like to report a disturbance.” “There is a woman harassing people at my office entrance, and I suspect she’s trying to extort me.” “Yes, she claims she’s pregnant with the child of my husband, who died three years ago. I suspect she’s either a grave robber or an escaped mental patient.” I hung up and looked at the girl, whose face had gone completely pale. “Since you say he’s the father, that works out perfectly,” I said calmly. “My husband’s cremains are in the columbarium Uptown. Do you want to go there now for a DNA test, or should I hire someone to exhume his body to confront you?” The girl took two steps back in terror. But the look in her eyes wasn’t guilt. Instead, it was… pity? “Serena, stop lying to yourself. Julian is alive.” “He said if you agree to sign the divorce agreement, he’ll meet you.” She showed me an address on her phone. At that moment, I felt like all the blood in my body was rushing backward. Alive? Then what was that funeral where I cried my eyes out? What was my three years of mourning? I didn’t even realize how I got into the elevator. Security was holding the girl back outside, and she was still screaming. I pressed the button for the basement level. It was a shortcut to the quiet coffee shop next door. I am a lawyer. I rely on evidence and logic. The dead do not rise. Unless… he never died in the first place. Three years ago, Julian went on a business trip to upstate New York. He was reportedly caught in a massive landslide, and his car went over a cliff. The police only found a crushed car, fire damage, and some unidentifiable remains. DNA testing was difficult back then, but his personal belongings and the license plate all matched. I received a box of cremains and a massive life insurance payout. Five million dollars. At that time, I had just been made partner. I was incredibly busy, and his death was a devastating blow. I even took a six-month leave of absence. And now, she was telling me he was alive? The elevator doors opened with a ding. The coffee shop was tucked in a quiet corner, dimly lit. I saw that familiar back immediately. He was sitting by the window, wearing a dusty gray jacket. His hair was longer than before, messy and unstyled. He held a cigarette, looking down at his phone. The way he smoked, the slight slouch in his shoulders… My heart felt like it was being squeezed by a giant fist. It hurt so bad I could barely breathe. I softened my steps and walked over, inch by inch. As I got closer, his silhouette became clearer. When I stood right behind him, I smelled that cheap, harsh tobacco. I used to tell him to buy better cigarettes, but he always said he preferred this throat-burning stuff. “Julian.” I called out. He slowly turned his head. Our eyes met. It was indeed Julian. But he was darker and thinner than three years ago. The gentle, warm smile in his eyes was gone, replaced by a sneaky, greasy look. Seeing me, he showed no joy, no guilt. He just frowned and crushed his cigarette butt into his half-finished black coffee. “You’re here?” His tone was as casual as if he were asking me what we should have for dinner. *SLAP!* I raised my hand and slapped him with everything I had. The crisp sound echoed through the quiet coffee shop. Julian’s head snapped to the side, and a trickle of blood appeared at the corner of his mouth. He was stunned for a second, then his face turned red with anger. He stood up abruptly. “Serena! Are you out of your mind?!” “Am I out of my mind?” I laughed coldly, though tears were desperately welling up in my eyes. “Julian, you’ve been dead for three years. I spent three years grieving you, and I took care of your parents. I even buried your father last year!” “And now you show up alive?” “If you were alive, why didn’t you come back? Why did you send a pregnant girl to make a scene at my law firm?” “Are you trying to ruin my reputation, or are you trying to kill me?” Julian rubbed his cheek, his eyes darkening. “Serena, I didn’t come back because I was in deep debt. I didn’t want the loan sharks to come after you.” “I’m back now because Chloe is pregnant. I need to marry her and give my child a proper name.” “Let’s make this easy. Sign the divorce papers, and… you need to return that five-million-dollar insurance payout to me.” “I exchanged my life for that money. Now that I’m alive, that money belongs to me.” I was so angry I laughed out loud. So that was it. It wasn’t a miracle. It was a scam. He faked his death to escape his debts and steal insurance money. Now that the heat was off, or maybe because he had spent all his cash, he wanted to come back and claim the payout. And he wanted to bring his mistress and his bastard child to step on my face to climb back up. Looking at the man in front of me, I felt a terrifying wave of disgust. This was the man I loved for seven years? This was the “late husband” I wept for during lonely nights? “Julian,” I wiped the tear from the corner of my eye, my gaze turning completely cold. “Did you forget what I do for a living?” “I’m a lawyer.” “Faking your death for insurance is major grand larceny and insurance fraud. With five million dollars, you’re looking at ten years minimum.” “You’re also committing bigamy, which is another crime.” “And now, you’re extorting me. That’s blackmail.” “You want that five million? Sure.” I took a step forward, staring straight into his eyes. “Go get it in federal prison.” Julian’s expression changed. He clearly didn’t expect me to be this ruthless. Suddenly, his attitude flipped. He fell to his knees with a thud, grabbing my legs. “Baby! Serena! I was wrong! I had no choice!” “I spent all my money on gambling debts! If I didn’t pay them, they were going to kill me!” “Chloe… Chloe is innocent. Please don’t sue me, I beg you!” The other customers in the coffee shop were all staring. The man who had been so arrogant a second ago was now begging like a stray dog. I looked down at him. The very last drop of affection I had for him evaporated completely.

I kicked Julian away, ignoring his pathetic groveling, and walked out of the coffee shop. When I got back to the office lobby, Chloe was still sitting there. Seeing me, her eyes lit up, but my icy glare froze her in her seat. “Serena…” “Shut up.” I walked straight into my private office and slammed the door shut, locking out the world. My hands were shaking. Not from fear. From pure, unadulterated rage. And disgust. I sat in my leather chair, forcing myself to take deep breaths. Julian was back. This meant my peaceful life was over. Faking death for insurance—once this came out, I would be dragged into the investigation. Even though I knew nothing about it at the time, as the beneficiary, the insurance company would definitely come after me. More importantly, the five million dollars. Julian said he spent his money on gambling debts? That didn’t make sense. The five million was still sitting in my high-yield investment account. I hadn’t touched a single cent because it felt like blood money. So where did he get the money to pay his gambling debts? And where did he get the money to support a pregnant mistress? Suddenly, my phone buzzed. It was Eleanor, Julian’s mother. Over the past three years, even though I resented Julian for leaving me, I had done everything to take care of his parents. I sent them monthly allowance checks, took care of them when they were sick, and handled all the arrangements for his father’s funeral last year. I picked up the call, keeping my voice steady. “Hi, Eleanor.” “Serena!” Eleanor’s voice was incredibly excited, almost shaking. “You need to come home right now! Come to the house! Something wonderful has happened!” “What is it?” “Julian! Julian is back!” Eleanor started sobbing hysterically on the other end. “My boy! He’s not dead! He’s alive! And he brought back a grandson for me! She’s still pregnant, but I had a psychic check—it’s a boy! Our family name will live on!” My knuckles turned white as I gripped the phone. So, they were in on it together. Julian had just finished his little act with me at the coffee shop, and then he immediately went to his mother so she could pressure me. And from what Eleanor was saying… “Eleanor, do you know who that woman is?” “Oh, who cares who she is! As long as she can give our family a boy, she’s a saint!” Eleanor’s tone was incredibly self-righteous. “Serena, don’t blame me for being blunt. You were married to Julian for five years, and your womb was completely dry. Now Julian survived a miracle and brought back an heir. God has answered my prayers!” “Just come over and sign the divorce papers. We can’t keep that poor girl waiting.” My heart felt like it was dropped into ice water and then smashed with a hammer. Three years of devotion. Three years of playing the perfect daughter-in-law. It was worth absolutely nothing compared to an unborn grandson. And a trashy, scammer son. I let out a soft chuckle into the phone. “Sure, Eleanor.” “I’ll be right over.” “I’d love to settle the score with Julian.” I hung up, opened my laptop, and pulled up the digital copy of the life insurance policy. Beneficiary: Serena Miller. Insured: Julian Miller. Death certificate, cremation records, official registration—everything was complete. Eleanor had handed me all these documents himself three years ago. She said she couldn’t bear to look at them and asked me to handle the paperwork. Looking back now, it was full of loopholes. If Julian was alive, whose body was in that coffin? If Julian was alive, where had he been hiding for three years? And Eleanor’s reaction just now was way too fast. I closed my laptop, grabbed a voice recorder from my desk drawer, and slid it into my purse. Then, I texted my assistant on WhatsApp: “Run a check on Julian Miller’s bank accounts for the last three years. Do the same for his mother, Eleanor Miller. Focus on any large cash transfers.” “Also, contact the legal department at the insurance company. Tell them I have major lead on a fraud case.”

I pushed open the door to the Miller family home, and the smell of a home-cooked feast hit me. In the living room, Eleanor was holding Chloe’s hand, pampering her like a princess. The coffee table was covered in expensive fruits, snacks, and a bowl of fresh bird’s nest soup. Julian was sitting on the sofa with his legs crossed, smoking a cigarette, looking incredibly relaxed. As soon as I walked in, the room fell dead silent. Chloe instinctively shrunk back behind Eleanor, looking like a frightened little lamb. Eleanor immediately stood in front of her like a mother hen protecting her chick, glaring at me. “Serena, today is a day of celebration. Don’t bring your gloomy attitude in here. You should be happy!” I didn’t even take off my high heels. I walked straight into the living room, my heels clicking loudly. “A day of celebration?” I looked around the room, my eyes finally locking onto Julian. “Indeed. A dead man coming back to life—it’s a medical miracle. We should call the news.” Julian blew out a ring of smoke, looking at me with disdain. “Serena, drop the attitude. Mom told me everything. You barely took care of them anyway; you were too busy making money. But now I’m back.” “I drafted the divorce agreement. Take a look.” He pulled a sheet of paper from under the coffee table and threw it on the glass surface. I picked it up and almost laughed. The agreement read: 1. Both parties agree to a mutual divorce. 2. All marital assets, including the house, cars, and savings, go to the husband. 3. The wife must return the $5,000,000 life insurance payout to the husband. 4. The wife leaves with nothing. “Julian, do you have shit for brains?” I ripped the agreement into shreds and threw the pieces right into his face. “You want me to leave with nothing? And return the money?” “I bought this house. I bought the cars. Even the jacket you’re wearing right now was bought with my money!” “What right do you have to negotiate with me?” Eleanor suddenly rushed forward, pointing her finger at my nose. “Serena, you barren woman! You couldn’t even give him a child! Now that Julian has an heir, why are you still clinging on?” “That five million is Julian’s life money! It belongs to him! You kept it for three years, and I didn’t even charge you interest. Are you trying to steal it?” Chloe chimed in from the side, her voice sweet but venomous. “Serena, money is just temporary. Julian said that if you let him go, we’ll treat you like our own sister.” *Sister?* Looking at these three, I felt a deep sense of absurdity. This wasn’t a family. It was a den of thieves. I took a deep breath, fighting the urge to flip the table. “Fine,” I said, suddenly softening my voice. “Since you put it that way, I’m not an unreasonable person.” “Divorce is fine. The money… we can negotiate.” “But Julian, you owe me an explanation.” I looked at Julian, my eyes showing a mix of curiosity and hurt. “Where have you been for three years? Why did you lie to me about your death?” “If you tell me the truth, I’ll sign.” Julian clearly didn’t expect me to give in so easily. He exchanged a look with Eleanor. “Serena, I knew you still loved me.” Julian stood up, trying to grab my hand, but I subtly stepped back. “The truth is, the car accident was real. But I survived and was saved by an old herbalist in the deep mountains.” “But I hit my head and got amnesia. I lived in the mountains for three years, and I only regained my memory recently.” “Chloe is the herbalist’s granddaughter. She took care of me for three years.” *Amnesia?* *An old herbalist?* Did he really think he was in a cheap soap opera? I sneered inside, but kept a touched expression on my face. “I see… you must have suffered so much.” “Since she saved your life, Chloe definitely deserves to be in this family.” I turned to look at Chloe, my eyes lingering on her stomach for a moment. “But just to be safe, and to make sure this baby is legally recognized as a Miller…” “Let’s do a paternity test.” “As soon as the DNA proves the baby is yours, Julian, I will sign the paper and leave with nothing.” Julian and Chloe’s faces turned pale at the same time. Eleanor jumped up instantly. “Why do we need a test?! I know my son’s bloodline when I see it! You just don’t want to give us the money!”

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