Chapter 3

With that, he glanced at me with disgust, put his arm around Lily, and turned away.

I covered my face, watching their backs, and finally crouched down and cried out loud.

When I'd cried enough, I wiped away the tears and blood, braced my knees, and stood up.

I walked for three hours before reaching a bus stop.

Just as I sat down, my phone buzzed.

A bank message popped up:

[Deposit received: $800,000 USD]

My finger traced across those numbers. Ice cold, bone-piercing.

Mom's treatment fund was complete.

I leaned against the bus window, watching the neon lights fly backward outside.

Memories from ten years ago surged up.

Back then, I was a piano prodigy at the music conservatory.

My professor said these hands of mine belonged in concert halls.

Until Archer appeared.

He was an underclassman one year behind me, the most popular guy at school.

Wild, flashy, eyes like a wolf when he looked at people.

He said he'd fallen for me at first sight. Pursued me for half a year.

The night of the graduation party, he said he had a surprise for me and got me blackout drunk.

But when I woke up, explicit photos of me with a group of married men had spread across the entire internet.

I became a homewrecker everyone wanted to condemn.

I went to find him like a madwoman. He just leaned against his motorcycle, smiling cruelly:

"Getting close to you was never about liking you."

"Your mom seduced my dad back then and drove my mom to jump into the sea and commit suicide."

"The debt she owes, you're paying back."

I didn't believe it. I shook my head desperately.

When my mom came looking, she slapped Archer across the face.

He backhanded and shoved my mom to the ground. "Weren't you the one who loved being a mistress? I just helped your daughter carry on the family tradition."

My mom had a stroke on the spot from rage. After they resuscitated her, her mental capacity was permanently frozen at age five.

And I was expelled from school, spurned by everyone.

With nowhere to turn, I entered Red Hall. I'd been there ten years.

Now I finally had eight hundred thousand.

Mom could be saved.

But what about me?

What about the truth that had been buried?

Had my mom... really done those things?

The bus announcement pulled me back from my thoughts.

I put away my phone and got off.

Just as I reached the entrance to the old apartment complex where I rented, neighbor Mrs. Liu rushed out in a panic:

"Sienna! Something terrible! Your mom's missing!"

My head buzzed. Blood rushed to the top of my skull.

"I just wanted to bring your mom some pastries. The door was open and no one was inside!"

"I searched the whole area and couldn't find her. What do we do?"

I couldn't hear the rest.

I shook off Mrs. Liu and rushed upstairs like a madwoman.

The door to my home stood wide open. Mom wasn't there.

"Mom—!"

My hoarse shout echoed through the empty hallway.

I rushed downstairs, sprinting wildly through the night streets.

"Mom! Where are you?!"

Cold wind howled. The streets were empty.

Fear wrapped around my heart like vines.

What if she got lost? What if she fell? What if... she got hit by a car?

What if she ran into bad people?

No, that won't happen—

I rushed through an intersection without checking the light.

The piercing sound of brakes tore through the night sky.

My legs gave out. I collapsed to the ground.

My knees screamed with pain.

A car door was violently thrown open. A tall figure charged out, wrapped in fury.

"Do you have a death wish?! Walking without looking—"

The scolding stopped abruptly.

I raised my tear-filled eyes and saw who it was.

Archer.

Seeing it was me, surprise flashed in his eyes.

"Sienna?"

Hearing his voice, ten years of grievances and terror broke through the dam.

I sat on the cold ground, sobbing uncontrollably.

Archer's expression was complex, then quickly replaced by mockery.

He sneered:

"What? Not enough money selling your body, so now you've moved on to insurance fraud? How much do you want? Just say it."

As he spoke, he reached out to pull me up.

Just then, a figure suddenly rushed out, forcefully pushing Archer away and spreading her arms in front of me, shouting with vacant urgency:

"Don't bully Sienna! Don't bully Sienna! Bastard! Go away! Don't touch my Sienna!"

It was Mom.

Archer was pushed back a step. When he saw who was blocking me, his entire body froze.