Chapter 2

Father Michael, in his kindness, allowed me to stay in the dorm until the new volunteer started.

I began to pack my luggage.

Two blocks from the dorm was the dark alley where my fate had been rewritten five years ago.

It all started with how Julian and I met. We'd met at a bar, kindred spirits. I carried my guitar, accompanying him as we chased our dreams in New York.

He played keyboard and composed, I played guitar and wrote lyrics.

After countless rejected resumes and failed songwriting competitions, we spent a year painstakingly perfecting a masterpiece.

We showed it to a producer we knew, who said it had a high chance of becoming a massive hit.

Julian promised me that no matter the song's reception, he would marry me as soon as it dropped.

That night, I was returning to our studio with the final revised lyrics. Passing through the dark alley, I suddenly heard a faint cry for help. I immediately recognized Chloe's unique way of expressing herself—Julian's sister, who had autism.

I grabbed an iron rod from the alley entrance and charged in.

"Let her go! Or I'll call the police!"

Chloe's clothes were disheveled, and she looked at me with pleading eyes.

"Well, isn't this convenient? One for each of us."

There were two burly men. Outnumbered and outmatched, I could only shield Chloe behind me. As they grinned menacingly and lunged at me, I frantically swung the weapon in my hand.

Suddenly, a scream ripped through the air as one of the men slipped.

The iron rod pierced his chest, and blood gushed out.

Seeing that someone was killed, the surviving assailant fled the scene. Chloe collapsed from exhaustion.

Her mother received an automatic alert message from Chloe's phone and arrived even before the police.

She knelt before me.

"Cassie, I know you're a good girl."

"Chloe has autism. Her life is already difficult enough. If her reputation is stained, her life will be ruined forever."

"I'll take her away. When the police arrive, please don't mention her presence."

Julian and Chloe had lost their father at a young age and were raised by their mother. Mrs. Davies was right; Chloe was emotionally unstable due to her autism and unsuitable to testify in court.

I didn't think much of it then, believing I was simply intervening to help, and that the man had just accidentally slipped.

But I never imagined that the man I'd accidentally killed was Blake, a notorious playboy from a powerful family in the city.

On my very first day in prison, a fellow inmate pierced my eardrums, leaving me deaf.

When I woke up in the infirmary, a guard handed me a phone. It showed 326 missed calls from Julian. And a stack of messages. One voice message was from Mrs. Davies.

"Cassie, I'm so sorry. I can't let Chloe testify. That family is too powerful for us to cross. I hope you can forgive me."

"As for Julian, I made up a lie to deceive him."

"If Julian knew the truth, with his temper, he'd blow things out of proportion. I hope you can willingly break up with him."

"If you want compensation, I'll sell everything we own to give it to you… I just want my two children to live safe and happy lives."

I touched my bandaged ears.

The doctor said my hearing was severely damaged, with only 5% left. I would have to live with a cochlear implant for the rest of my life. The beautiful sounds of this world would be forever lost to me.

How could I, like this, continue to chase musical dreams with Julian?

So, I asked a guard to help me send a message.

I used the most decisive method to become a betrayer, to vanish completely from Julian's life.

From then on, I served my sentence peacefully until my release. I heard Julian left New York not long after. He returned five years later.

He became the owner of a record label, and I was an ex-con scorned by everyone.

I just never expected to see him again at a production company after leaving the sanctuary. I'd finally found a company willing to accept my lyrics, so I went to apply with my resume.

I waited in the reception room for a long time when the door suddenly opened. A familiar face—it was Marcus, our old bandmate who'd chased dreams with us in New York.

"Well, if it isn't the infamous plagiarist, Cassie! This lyric sheet of yours—you didn't scam it from some gullible fool, did you?"

"Julian, you're here. Take a look for me, will you?"