Chapter 3

One day, I received a call from the doctor saying Nancy had woken up.

Overjoyed, I rushed to the hospital to see her. But a group of people blocked me at the entrance.

I recognized them. They were the bodyguards Jason had once assigned to protect me.

My breathing quickened. Afraid something had happened to Nancy, I tried to force my way inside like a madwoman, but I couldn’t break free.

“The Don said you couldn’t get anything from Sophia, so you went after her agent. We can’t let you in.”

“Sophia is visiting Nancy right now. What are you trying to do? Finish Nancy off? Try anything else, and don’t blame us for getting rough.”

I desperately explained that I was the real Sophia. No one believed me. They shoved me to the ground, “Ugly freak.” “Psycho.”

I immediately got back up and kept trying to get inside. Until I saw Lily walk out, wiping tears from her eyes.

In that instant, a terrible feeling washed over me.

Taking advantage of the bodyguards’momentary distraction, I rushed straight at Lily.

“What are you doing here? I’ve already stopped fighting you! Why can’t you just leave us alone?”

She did not answer me. Instead, she launched into her performance, crying hysterically,“Nancy is dead! I’m so sorry, Nancy! You should have come after me instead! Why did you have to do this to Nancy?”

The world seemed to stop. My mind went completely blank.

Impossible. Nancy couldn’t be dead.

The doctor had said she woke up.

I tried to rush inside to confirm whether it was true, but the bodyguards beat me until I lost consciousness.

The scene before my eyes grew blurrier and blurrier. For a moment, I felt as though I had fallen into a dream.

In that dream, I was still the little girl who had promised Nancy that if I ever achieved my dream of becoming an actress, I would never let her down.

I had failed.

If Nancy had never met me, she never would have died.

When I woke up, I was tied up in a strange place.

No.

Not entirely strange.

I recognized it.

This was the place where Jason had once imprisoned Nancy.

Not long after, Lily walked in with a smile, “Oh, my dear big sister. Awake?”

I immediately struggled against the ropes.

“What did you do to Nancy?”

“Relax,” she said. “I had her family come collect the body. That wretched woman. She was the one who leaked the video of our argument online. Always sticking her nose where it didn’t belong. Good riddance.”

So it had been Nancy.

She had been quietly helping me all along. And this woman, who shared my blood, had been hurting me from the very beginning.

Tears flooded my eyes. I clenched my fists and screamed, wanting to kill her. But Lily did not take me seriously at all.

After I broke down and went completely numb, I stopped struggling. For a moment, I thought it might be better if I died too.

Then Lily suddenly said, “As long as you divorce Jason and leave for good, I’ll let you out.”

Divorce. So that was what mattered to her. My existence was still a threat.

After everything that had happened, she still thought I would cling to Jason and refuse to leave?

“Fine.” After a moment of hesitation, I spoke numbly.

To die here, or to leave this place and avenge Nancy— I chose the latter.

Then I calmly went home.

I bought a plane ticket.

I handled Nancy’s affairs.

And I agreed to divorce Jason.