Chapter 3

Vivian's POV

Early the next morning I was dragged downstairs.

Lorelei sat at the piano with sheet music in her hands.

It was the only duet piece she and I had performed together, and also my award-winning debut composition.

"Vivian, I can never quite get the rhythm right on this piece."

Lorelei looked sincere as she handed me the sheet music in front of Adrian.

"Could you practice it with me? Just to help me find the feeling."

She smiled innocently, as if the shrew who tore up the sheet music and trampled it underfoot last night wasn't her.

I looked at those black and white piano keys. Before I could speak, a small figure suddenly rushed out from the side.

"No!"

Miranda jumped down from her chair and knocked the sheet music from my hands.

She pointed at my hands wrapped in old bandages, her features scrunched up.

"Her hands are dirty and smelly! They'll get Lorelei's piano dirty!"

Adrian sat on the sofa drinking coffee without even looking up, tacitly approving his daughter's humiliation.

Lorelei covered her mouth and glanced at me:

"How can Miranda say such things? Her hands may be injured, but it's just from trying to survive."

I bent down to pick up the sheet music and slowly unwrapped the blackened bandage on my hands.

When those deformed and twisted hands were fully exposed to the air, Lorelei dramatically gasped.

Miranda screamed and hid in Adrian's arms.

"My hands are already ruined."

I held up those hands, my voice hoarse.

"I can't play."

Five years ago, when Marcus used an iron hammer to break them one by one, Lorelei stood watching nearby, smiling even sweeter than now.

Now she was playing the frightened innocent.

"Oh my god..."

Tears immediately welled up in Lorelei's eyes, her face full of guilt.

"I'm sorry, I've been so busy these past two years that I forgot your hands were already..."

She trailed off meaningfully, as if mentioning some unspeakable scandal.

Adrian finally put down his coffee cup.

He hugged the frightened Lorelei tenderly, then looked at me with instantly frozen eyes.

"Deliberately showing off your scars for whose benefit?"

Adrian sneered.

"Vivian, selling sympathy won't work anymore."

"You ruined your own hands back then with your depraved behavior, and now you have the nerve to bring them out to frighten Miranda and Lorelei?"

I slowly lowered my hands, hiding the trembling in my sleeves.

In their eyes, these hands were destroyed in brawls and fights.

How perfect.

You personally broke my wings, and now you blame me for not being able to fly and ruining your fun.

Adrian stood up with his arm around Lorelei.

"Don't stand there being an eyesore."

Only I remained in the dining room.

My return wasn't welcome at all, but it wasn't even my idea to come back-they were the ones who brought me here.

The world of the living had no room for me. I might as well prepare a proper resting place for after death.

I touched the small cloth pouch hidden close to my body.

Inside was the spare change I'd saved over these two years, all wrinkled small bills.

This was the money I'd saved for my sea burial.